Going Dark
Posted on Fri Jan 5th, 2024 @ 9:48pm by Elias Buckley & Charles Xavier & Iris Walker & Shinobi Shaw
3,297 words; about a 16 minute read
Mission:
Episode 3: X-Tra Ecclesiam
Location: Chattaquattau County, NY
Timeline: August 22nd, 1990
The chartered twin-engine helicopter had daylight still on their side. Professor Xavier sat at the front of the cabin near the door so that his transfer back to his chair would be easier to perform on landing. The larger aircraft actually meant there was a cabin to speak of rather than just an extended cockpit. Even so, it was a tight squeeze for the four passengers and the flight crew of two, a pilot and copilot.
By air, it had only been a couple hours getting there from Winchester County. When they exited the helicopter onto the tarmac, it wasn't a moment too soon. The waiting SUV would take another hour or so through the back highways to the Professor's final destination. At some point before they reached the compound, however, the three students would strike out on their own path to get where they needed to be.
"Everybody still good?" the Professor asked as they moved cross the tarmac. "This might be our only rest stop."
"I'm good," said Jace. "I peed before we left the mansion. Besides, if there's some woods when we get out, I can find a tree." He expected that wasn't what the Professor was talking about and decided to answer the more expectant way. "But, yeah, good to go over here. Ready to steal some incriminating evidence."
Xavier grimaced at that but said nothing. ~Boys will be boys...~
Iris could not keep herself from grinning at the joke. “I’m good,” she replied.
Two hours... Elias had been a little fidgety after the first 15 minutes, but he'd sunk into the mixtapes via Walkman headphones and tried not to think about how quickly he could have already come and gone on this recon mission. Teamwork, he reminded himself, was useful to. And if he'd got pinched while running solo, or not spent some time with the team, hell success or failure, having some friends wasn't the end of the world, right? Even if it felt oddly uncomfortable.
"Doing okay," Elias said, pushing one headphone off his ear in order to look interested, and giving Professor X a thumbs up. White lies didn't hurt.
----
The waiting SUV had a motorized wheelchair ramp that lowered on the passenger side, allowing Xavier to enter the vehicle without getting up. Whoever the driver was, he paid no mind to the fact Xavier had three teenagers with him or that they looked more prepared for a day in the woods than at boarding school. If Xavier had blinded the chauffer from processing the sight of the others, he didn't fess up to it.
After about half an hour of driving, the small airfield and surrounding civilization disappeared as the landscape was swallowed up into trees. The chauffer pulled to the side of the road without a visible order from Charles.
"You three may exit here," the Professor said. "Teleport or otherwise discreetly make your way to the compound. It's still several miles up the road, but as the crow flies it's considerably shorter. Don't take any risks until it's clear that I have their undivided attention."
He was gone and back after the first five words were spoken and before the Professor finished speaking the third sentence. Elias blinked back into the vehicle and nodded. "No risks, got it." Though simply being there was a great enough one in itself.
Iris was a good runner, but it would still take her little legs at least two hours to get there if she went that way. “I’ve hidden one other person before,” she suggested. “Maybe if I concentrate extra hard, I can hide two. If you want to teleport us nearer, Elias, I can hide us- at least until we can find cover.”
"I've phased one person before," said Jace. "But that's it. So I can get only one of you through a wall or fence at a time."
Elias spoke last, but he'd prepped a lot in his short trip. "Quick recon from outta sight says we have a perimeter fence inside the treeline, then a wide open killing ground space about 160 feet all around the central buildings. Watchtower too. So they have full visibilty if we're in that space." He smiled at Iris. "I can port us anywhere you want, but if we need to be in that space, you're gonna have to hide us one at a time."
"Well there you have it," said Jace.
“I guess we have a plan, then,” replied Iris. “Let’s move.”
With zero suggestion from the other two as to specifics, Elias made the call himself. He ported Jace first, placing Flux where he needed to be and then vanishing with nothing but a covertly supportive tap on the other teen's shoulder. Next, Iris, who Elias left in a safe spot outside the open ground so that he could avoid attention falling on himself. Likewise, a nod and a tap of a moral-support palm atop her head signalled his silent departure.
Time to get on with his own mission....
The sight of their teamwork evoked from the Professor a wan smile. If this risky gambit was going to work, they would need every bit. "Godspeed," he said to them before the SUV peeled away.
The compound had a perimeter fence topped with razor-wire. A lone swing-bar gate blocked the only access road. Reinforced in concrete, it could block anything short of an 18-wheeler logging truck or a tank. Rolling down the window, the Professor spoke loudly enough for the callbox to pick him up.
"Charles Xavier here to see William Stryker."
A moment of silence passed before a squawk came back through the callbox. "Piss off!"
Well, that was hardly pious but it was also straight to the point. It was now or never. Charles took a breath and committed himself to this course of action. "Tell the Reverend that I am here to discuss his late son. We can do that in private or over your radio network. The choice is his."
After another delayed moment, the swing bar opened toward the highway. The SUV proceeded up the gravel road toward the fortified compound. While technically surrounded by trees, a full clearing had been cut of at least fifty meters in each direction that would make traditional sneaking impossible. A central watchtower sat in the middle of the compound with a steeple overhead. Aside from that, the security appeared to consist of CCTV cameras and strolling guards who stood to attention with the incoming visitor.
Once inside the compound, Xavier could feel a dampening effect on his psychic ability. A lesser telepath may have been completely muffled, but he could punch through it in order to track his students in their progress. They were just breaching the perimeter themselves. Good. He privately wished them luck.
The outermost uppermost point of the watchtower served as good point to initially recon the compound and from there Elias created his mental map. As he ported from one location to another, careful to avoid line of sight from CCTV, he made some interesting and alarming (if not entirely unexpected) discoveries. Weapons tech. Basic military grade small arms - Hammer Tech stuff - optics, rifles, launchers and a ton of relevant ammo, grenades and rockets. Not just enough for a decent sized military coup though, as he discovered in the next stash.
Stark gear this time, real top of the line looking stuff (from his point of view anyways) and fancy as fuck. It was in bits though, raw and broken up as if someone had been raking through the big bins outside a factory... and... Oh! Yeah, made sense. Kinda. Stealing parts on the quiet maybe? Looking to build something new from the scrag ends of easy to find high-end tech. Either way, Stryker wasn't just after conversation, he had some cool shit here and he was figuring out what to do with it. He took plenty of photos, using up the limited capacity of his camera.
Jace's assigned zone was the basement storage. It was not something that he enjoyed as it would mean a more difficult escape once infiltrated. But the chances were that there wouldn't be as much security. After all, no one would be able to make it through the fence, the killing field, the complex's security and the armed guards. Who would worry about the basement storage. Still, there were some guards at checkpoints that he had to get by. So Jace used the walls, halls, and attached rooms to walk through.
One of the rooms he passed through looked like some sort of document storage. Boxes stacked upon boxes with labels that read anything from 'Sustainable Food Receipts' to 'Arms and Ammunition Receipts.' He shook his head back and forth...talk about a paper trail. But there was no way he'd be able haul enough boxes out to make a dent. Instead, he opened one of each of the previous boxes, grabbed a fistful of receipts and shoved them into his pant's pockets. Paper wouldn't trigger any kind of alarm he had to pass through.
The next room he peaked his face into had a desktop computer with a monitor in screensaver mode. Once he saw that, he looked around the room for security cameras before entering. One of his warehouse break-ins had taught him that the hard way. Still not fully convinced there was none (because he couldn't see into the dark corners of the room), Jace did a visual inspection around the desk from the light of the screen saver. What caught his eye was a couple of framed pictures that looked like old para-military buddies standing in front of some armored vehicle. If he'd been sure there were no cameras, those pictures would be good as gone. Somebody should be able to trace something or someone from them.
Iris didn’t even bother trying to hide from anybody. If wouldn’t have made any difference if she had, anyway. She did keep a lookout for cameras, though she saw none. It seemed like Stryker had concentrated all of his defenses on the outside, perhaps thinking nobody could possibly get passed them.
Joke’s on them.
She didn’t find a lot- a couple of filing cabinets with nothing interesting in them. She was about to give it up as a bad cop when she spotted a lone white door at the end of a hallway. She walked over to it and peered through the window.
Inside was a state-of-the-art lab, complete with some pretty high tech equipment and even a couple of computers. She had no idea what it was for, but her eyes were immediately distracted by the sight of a man inside the lab. As she spotted him, her mind flashed back to a picture she had seen of the missing X-men. There had been many pictures, though most had been fairly unremarkable. But this one- this one was unforgettable.
Because, you see, apart from having slightly too large hands and feet, he was covered in blue fur.
Iris wished she had a camera.
She was about to attempt to think very hard at the professor and hope he heard when the large man turned and glared at the door. Oh no. Had he seen her? But no time to think of that now. He was barreling towards the door. In the split second before she ducked out of sight, she recognized one of those collars like- like… oh, what’s his name had on. The control collars.
She ducked to the side just as the door burst open and the blue furry dude barrel through it. She tensed, expecting him to turn on her, but he merely continued down the hallway. Without thinking, she laid chase, running as fast as her little legs could carry her.
The SUV had rolled a stop outside the watchtower which was surrounded by a fleur-de-coeur pattern of secure tents and pre-fab modular buildings. While Xavier was offloading himself in the automated ramp and telling the driver to keep the engine running, the flaps of the nearest tent parted to reveal Stryker.
It was a surreal sight. The Reverend was flanked by armed riflemen who wore the same white tunic he did, though they wore combat pants in lieu of his own robes. Gone was the tweed business suit from the debate in Boston. Here, in his sanctuary, Stryker presented himself as the high priest of hatred that he truly was.
"Xavier!" he called out. "I don't know how you learned of this place but you made a mistake coming here."
Despite the raging hostility of all but three minds in the encampment, Xavier proceeded toward Stryker with unshaken aplomb.
"The mistake I made was believing that you could be reasoned with," Xavier said coolly. "You broke faith in our debate in order to have me assassinated on live television. There is no use denying it, Reverend. I can prove it. I can and I will."
Reverend Stryker's scowl twisted by hatred broken into sinister laughter. It was joined by the quieter chuckles of the Purifiers around them. "Deny it? Charles Xavier, I boast in it! I know that you are the founder and financier of the X-Men. I know that your original team is tossed to the wind, save whatever mongrels you managed to bring home. I know your army consists of children who are full of the devil. The righteous will overcome you, for the wealth of the wicked is laid up for the righteous!"
While his words were borderline nonsensical, Xavier could discern his meaning. He was talking about an anti-mutant pogrom. What was presently most alarming, however, was that Stryker's mind was closed to him. That shouldn't be possible, not since... Magneto.
"Right about now, you are discovering that your sorcerous ways have no effect on me." Stryker glowered with haughty arrogance. "Before I smite your ruin, Charles Xavier, I will bring you salvation through destruction."
Xavier couldn't read the man's mind, so he had no choice but to goad him into revealing what he may. "What madness is this?"
"The foolishness of God is greater than the wisdom of men!" Stryker retorted. "'And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword!'" After a sordid chuckle, Stryker said, "You will surrender to me. It will go easier for everyone."
This was getting nowhere. From what Xavier could tell, his three students were making solid headway. That was good because the conflict front and center was coming to a head.
"Never," Xavier said. Whatever violent scheme you have in mind will not succeed. Not if I have anything to say about it." While that diatribe was scarce on details, one madman's plot was much like another's. And while Stryker's mind was closed to Xavier, those near him were not. Yes, their minds were shielded more than the average person's, but they weren't an obstruction to the strongest telepath on Earth. "And I think you will find me rather persuasive, William Stryker.
The two men who immediately flanked Stryker turned toward him with their weapons raised. Their optics lit up his face with twin red dots. Another three Purifiers turned about and secured the vicinity as well.
"Tell me what you are plotting," Xavier demanded. "Tell me now."
Stryker looked utterly unperturbed. "Oh, Xavier. Would that you have surrendered. Now you have forced my hand."
At that very moment, Henry McCoy, also known as Beast, burst through the door, baring his teeth and looking as mad as a hatter as he glared wild-eyed at the those assembled. Then, slowly, ever so slowly, he produced a pistol from a pocket of the lab coat he wore and raised it to his own head.
"Henry McCoy," said Stryker. "You will pull the trigger if Charles Xavier does not put this collar on within the next five seconds." He tossed a control collar to Charles where it landed in his lap. "That's one."
For his part, Charles Xavier looked at the blue Beast before him. A collar was plainly around his neck, as plain as the pistol he held to his own temple. His thumb pulled back the hammer as another second ticked by. There was no cognizance in that facial expression.
The collar was blocking Xavier's telepathy along with whatever made the encampment itself difficult to scan. Had this been a trap? There wasn't any opportunity to think. Time was up. And Xavier wasn't going to watch one of his oldest students be murdered right in front of him.
"I'll do it."
Professor Xavier slid the control collar around the back of his neck. Before he closed it into place, he sent out a burst to his three students.
~Flee, my X-Men. I am compromised. Flee while you can. Get the others. Save us all~
Iris- who had arrived unnoticed moments after the large blue man- had spent most of the past 5 years practicing not reacting to what she saw, but this one nearly got her. A choking sound escaped her throat, but luckily, there was enough noise in the room that nobody heard. Quickly, she took two steps backwards before turning and running through the halls. She had to get help.
Jace jumped as soon as he heard the telepathic message from the Professor and fell backwards. Compromised?! Save us?! Run?! Run. The most powerful telepath he’d ever known. Run. So that was exactly what he’d do. The cameras and alarms weren’t a concern anymore. Jace phased into the room, broke the frames, and shoved the photos into his back pockets. He took a quick look at the desktop computer and phased his hand into the tower. He grabbed the hard drive and removed it. With it gripped tightly in his hand, his plan now was to run.
Jace phased and took off at a sprint. He knew he couldn’t hold the decrease in density long enough to get all the way. But maybe his luck would hold out and he’d run into Elias on the outside. He ran through walls, rooms, up stairs, through hallways, weapons fire and even guards all while trying get to an outer wall. He was getting tired as he ran into a room flooded with natural light. Windows. He gave it all he had and headed to the outside, right into the kill box. Shit.
Iris was right on his heals. She grabbed his arm and concentrated hard on keeping them both hidden. “Keep quiet,” she whispered. “I can’t hide us from cameras, but nobody actually here can see us.”
If it hadn't been for his recently acquired sensitivity to Hoodwink's frequency, Fable might not have found them, but there were also only so many locations outside the camera's combined range and he'd memorised them all. The two sneaky-sneaks were stationary for long enough for him to find them, Iris needing to focus, Jace almost out of other options.
"Taxi!" He said on a soft breath of an exhale as he grabbed hold of a hand belonging to each teen.
And then they were back at the Mansion.
"Be right back." Elias stated, enigmatically. He handed his disposable camera to Jace, and vanished again.
Two voices were enough to tell the tale of whatever exactly had gone down around the Professor for X to call for an immediate exodus. But intel in the early stages of a new crisis was also keenly important and Fable intended to gather more...
TBC
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