"Where's Colossus?" Kitty said.
"I don't know." Mystique was trying to open the Danger Room.
She finally remembered the right code, and it opened.
"I have to find him," Kitty said. "There's too many of them!"
She ran away.
"Kitty!" the kids called.
"Hush," Mystique said. "Get in..."
This idea was mad, and she knew it.
She ran to the control room and started looking through programs.
The only hope here was that if she used the mind illusion that Xavier had created, it might mask the presence of actual people in the room from Psylocke for a while, at least.
But Mystique knew enough about telepathy to know that it wouldn't work if Psylocke knew what she was looking for, so Mystique herself wouldn't be able to hide in there; Psylocke could pick out her mental signature easily.
But the kids might be able to blend in, if she did this right.
She selected a program that wouldn't be too dangerous and turned some dials that would cause the program itself to emit signs of being afraid. It was a sensitivity training course, meant to focus on rescuing people, not just fighting monsters.
[Makes sense, though I haven't seen it in the show.]
It would imitate the signs of fear...so it might work.
The danger was on the lowest setting, and Leech and the other kids should
be able to handle it.
Mystique also reached for the phone and, with her free hand, dialed the number for the Blackbird. The others could also patch in to the communicators and would automatically do so if no one answered it. A handy little thing Hank has implemented for extra precautions.
Mystique only knew that because she'd heard him explain it to Colossus at another time.
No one answered the phone, but she heard the line crackle.
"Hello?" she said, in a low voice.
A moment later Cyclops, who no doubt was outside anyway, answered, "Who is this? Is that Mystique? How did you get on this line?"
"Not important," Mystique said. "Listen, someone is attacking the house. Psylocke is here, and there's more with her. I have seconds probably before they find this room. The kids are in the Danger Room. "
"Why would you put them in there?" Scott cried. "They aren't ready for that!"
"Get back here now!" Mystique lost her temper. "Is this really important now? We're all going to get slaughtered like sheep if you don't get here!"
"How do I know you're telling the truth?" Scott asked. "I--"
The line went dead.
Mystique realized slowly that someone had probably cut the phone lines.
She slammed the phone into the receiver, with a ferocity that it didn't deserve, and ran out of the room and up the hall.
She didn't know if there was anywhere else she could hide, or what good it would do, but to stay put was insanity.
It was a possibility she could lead Psylocke away from the kids if she was her real target, and, after all, her best chance of living through this was if someone was around to tell the story.
She realized, though, that if Kitty was back, the other teens were. What had they done to Proteus? He could have taken half an army with his power if he was able. Had they found a way to neutralize him? Magneto would never kill him--he was too big a prize.
She heard something slam. Someone was breaking through the door of the basement.
She ran into the Rec Room.
She found Kitty and Colossus there.
Colossus must have been planning something, but Kitty had him now and was trying to tell him to run.
"What is this about?" Colossus asked.
"Get us out of here," Mystique hissed at Kitty. "Distance is the only thing we have against them."
Kitty bit her lip and grabbed both their arms and went through the wall.
Now they were in the pool room.
"I can't go upward..." Kitty said. "I barely did that alone, and I'm not sure how I did it. It was like swimming through mud..."
"Get us to stairs, Little Shadow," Colossus said. "Colossus do rest."
"Are you mad? They'll drop us at once," Mystique said.
"What about the other kids?" Kitty said.
"Their only hope is us leading these crackpots away from them," Mystique said. "They can't fight."
"Leech can fight, a little," Kitty said. "He can drain people's powers."
Mystique frowned. "He can?"
There was just the slightest chance...
"Go get him," she told Kitty. "Just him. Do it quietly, go through the empty rooms, bring him back here. Or if we have to run, find us. Don't let them see you. It's just possible you might not be able to be attacked telepathically while you're phasing, so use it."
"But..." Kitty sputtered.
"You can do it," Colossus told her. "Colossus know you can."
"I..." Kitty faltered. "Okay, I'll try."
She ran through the walls.
"If she gets him, and they don't kill us first, there is just one thing we might be able to do to get out of this," Mystique said to Colossus. "If Leech can stop Psylocke's power for a brief time, we could give the others the slip, just possibly."
"You have experience in this area?" Colossus asked her.
"I've worked for teams of mutants for decades," Mystique said. "And I know Magneto's team."
"Good enough for Colossus. He follow your lead, then," Colossus said. "What do you need me to do?"
"For now, nothing, but if she pulls this off, can you handle their muscle?" Mystique said. "The others...only Kitty might be able to avoid them."
"Colossus think he can," Colossus said.
They had to hope that was true.
* * *
Kitty had no time to think as she ran through walls, or she'd have panicked too much to do it.
If her training hadn't made her a little better at this, she'd never have done it. She still got stuck in a wall briefly and almost panicked, but then she managed to get back out, and she didn't give herself time to think, she just ran.
The danger room wasn't too far away, thankfully, and she phased in there and dodged the robots. They were barely moving, the settings were so low.
The kids were still freaking out.
"Hey," Kitty grabbed Leech. "We need help. This isn't real--this is just a sim, but we have a real job for you."
"But others--" Leech said.
"They'll be fine. This isn't even on a high setting," Kitty said. "Come on, no time. The others could die if we don't try."
She dragged Leech out and ran back.
They passed some people combing the hallways.
One of them spotted them.
"There!" they said.
Kitty yelped and ran into a different wall.
She almost rammed Leech into it but held on just long enough.
"Your power is strong..." Leech gasped.
"Almost there..." Kitty was gasping too. "Just a few more walls..."
She ran again.
She thought she'd cry when they did find Mystique and Colossus still hiding it the pool room.
"They're coming!" Kitty gasped.
Mystique had come up with a plan that she was sure was bad, but she didn't have a better one.
"All right," she said. "When they find us, I'm going to try to get Psylocke distracted for a few minutes. Kitty will have to make sure the rest of you aren't caught, and then, Leech, drain Psylocke's power. Anyone else you can also. Then, Kitty, run and we might survive. That's a big might, but if we don't try this, they'll catch us as soon as we step foot outside this house."
Kitty drew some deep breaths. "I...don't know if I can do this."
Colossus put a hand on her shoulder. "Is all right. You can."
They heard people coming.
"Leech not sure about this," Leech said.
"Makes two of us, kid, but if you don't have a better idea, then we're stuck," Mystique said.
Leech swallowed.
Luckily or unluckily, Psylocke was one of the people who ran into the room a moment later.
But they had Warren with them.
"Is he ever not going to fall for her tricks?" Mystique swore under her breath.
"There you are." Psylocke looked at them. "Hello, Mystique, how's your head?"
"Oh, it was fine until I saw you," Mystique shot back. "How's your camp?"
"Doing fine, actually." Psylocke frowned at her. "Now, all of you surrender, or we can end Angel right here."
"Uh oh..." Colossus murmured.
Mystique laughed.
"You think I care about Angel?" she scoffed. "He's tried to kill me. Go ahead."
"Mystique!" Kitty gasped.
Psylocke smiled unpleasantly.
"I was hoping you'd say that." She drew her sword. "I wanted to teach you a lesson personally. That's what you want, isn't it? To settle this ourselves."
"You're the mind reader." Mystique was glad right about then that Psylocke couldn't read minds well enough to know their actual thoughts, just their feelings. Otherwise she'd have known Mystique only wanted her to get close so that they could drop her.
"Watch her," one the of the other Mutates said. "She's tricky."
"She's a shape-shifter, she's completely useless against me," Psylocke said. "But if she wants to try to fight with her forms, I don't mind this being a little more interesting."
"You got me fired." Mystique glared at her.
"I did the mutant world a favor," Psylocke said. "By showing them how worthless you are as an agent. A giant waste of potential, when you have no loyalty. People might use you, Mystique, but no one thinks of you as more than vermin, do they? Must be a lonely existence, but I guess you like that."
Despite this being a trick, Mystique didn't like being told this anyway.
"I guess someone who messes with people's heads would think that," she said. "But no one trusts a telepath either."
"At least I picked a side," Psylocke said.
"Yes, the losing side." Mystique hoped that would get her angry enough to forget to use her empathic powers.
It did.
Psylocke jumped at her and grabbed her with the lash.
Kitty somehow had skirted around the group without anyone noticing, and she appeared next to the person who had Warren and grabbed Warren and yanked him out of their grasp.
Colossus charged them without warning.
Psylocke, surprised, turned to see what had happened.
Leech bravely lunged forward and grabbed her arm, draining some of her power.
He seemed able to do this without adding life force to it like Rogue did...but that was fine.
Psylocke's lash vanished from sight, and Mystique pulled away from her. Then she turned and kicked her, sending her flying into the pool.
Psylocke swam up and gasped.
"What...what did you do?" she demanded.
"I guess you forgot to check the kid's power." Mystique couldn't resist gloating just a little. "What a rookie mistake. Amateur."
"You--" Psylocke cursed at her, swimming for the edge.
Mystique kicked her back into the water easily.
"Not sure without your mutation you can really match me," she said, shifting into a much stronger looking form.
Colossus knocked the other Mutates into the wall.
"These ones are not so tough," he said.
Kitty phased through one who was chasing her, and he ran into the wall instead.
"Whoa..." she said. "I did it!"
"Look out," Colossus said, as another Mutate tried to snag her.
Kitty somehow ducked in time. Colossus picked up a chair and threw it at them.
"Fools." Psylocke spat water out. "There's more of us. You can't whip all of us."
Leech touched one of the other ones and drained some of their power also.
Then he used his telekinesis to knock aside a third as they were trying to get up.
"Leech cannot do this too many more times," he said, wearily.
"It's okay. You did enough," Mystique said. "Kitty, now!"
"Wait," Psylocke cried. "We have your disgusting, little human friend. What's her name? Trinity? If you run, we have no reason not to kill her."
They froze.
"But maybe you don't care about humans," Psylocke said. "Like us. Come, Mystique, I know you. You don't really care about anyone. Maybe we can make a deal here. You let us trash this place and kill a few people, maybe, and take the ones who'd be useful, and you can come with us."
There was a horrid pause.
"It's your one chance to prove you haven't gone soft," Psylocke said.
"Mystique..." Kitty said nervously. "You wouldn't."
Mystique looked around.
The Mutates who were still conscious were watching, ready to do as Psylocke told them.
"All right," Mystique said. "I will allow it. All of you run, now, find the rest of the kids, in the Danger Room."
The Mutates got up.
"Nyet!" Colossus said.
"No!" Kitty cried.
"Oh, no, you don't," Psylocke cried. "Both of you stay put, or Trinity gets it--I mean it."
They stood still, not sure what to do.
The other Mutates rushed out of the room. "Here, kiddies..." they called.
Mystique walked over to Psylocke and held out her hand to pull her out of the water.
"That was a close one," she said. "I really thought you weren't going to offer to let me redeem myself to the end."
"Magneto is nothing if not fair to other mutants," Psylocke said.
Mystique pulled her out of the water.
"I don't understand," Colossus said
"It's simple," Mystique said, as Psylocke turned to them.
Mystique suddenly kicked her feet out from under her and then slammed her into the ground.
Psylocke let out a gasp, but was too winded to scream.
Mystique got her in an arm lock before the woman could do anything and then choked her out.
Psylocke lost consciousness.
"No powers, no problem," Mystique said disdainfully.
"What...? But..." Kitty said.
Mystique shifted into Psylocke.
"I have to appreciate how stupid she is," she said. "Like I'd ever think she was really going to help me get back into Magneto's group. She's gone out of her way to screw me over; she's not going to help me now. But maybe I can help myself."
"You're not really going to give those kids to Magneto?" Kitty said. "And me?"
"Of course not. Do you think I want him to have more people who can come here and kill us in our sleep?" Mystique scoffed. "And I'm not stupid enough to go back to that camp. Not after this. But she's going to be a problem. Tie her up. Leech, how long will she have her power gone?"
"Usually Leech can drain them for a few hours," Leech said.
"Not enough time if the others don't hurry, but it might be enough to get us out of this," Mystique said. "Hide her somewhere and let's hope all of them are as stupid as they look."
"You had us going for a second," Colossus said.
Mystique shrugged. "And Morph says I can't act."
She didn't say that, for a moment, she had considered doing what Psylocke said. Only the fact that she figured Psylocke was not serious had made her think better of it...
That, and just killing kids was not really something she did, and she didn't want to watch it either. So there was that...but if she could fake her way out of this situation, she'd still be shocked.
[I bet I had some people going for a second with that, too. It would have been in character...but I guess maybe she's not quite dumb enough to think Psylocke was serious after all the stuff she pulled. Thank goodness, right?]
* * *
"So Mystique told you Psylocke was there?" Morph said.
Scott had gathered half of the group at least, including Shine.
"I have to go on soon," Shine said. "If I don't.... But this is more important."
"I bet they attacked now just to stop ya," Logan said, growling. "And Storm."
"But we have to help," Storm said.
"Not all of us do," Scott said. "The way I figure it, they can't have sent too many people there, when hardly anyone was home. The only real threat to them is Proteus, they could make short work of the others if they caught them off guard. If they have not killed them yet, then we could get the drop on them. Jean and I can go. We can subdue Psylocke that way. And--"
"And me," Logan said.
"No, Logan," Scott said. "Even this could be a distraction. The real attack might still be here. And it might be bigger. So I want you and Flash to stay here. And Storm. You should go on like you did. Don't let them think anyway is wrong. They won't know it if we leave--we've been out here most of the night. Maybe they won't attack if they think the other didn't."
"Wow," Shine said. "Scott, that's actually some first rate thinking. I'm impressed."
Scott was rather stunned at her praise, but he ignored it. "Morph, you come with us. Someone has to get the kids out of there while we're distracting them. I think you could manage that. Hank, maybe you too."
"Of course. I hope they don't touch my lab," Hank said.
"And us?" Rogue asked.
"You stay here, just in case," Scott said. "Gambit too. It could get bad."
"Shine, you think he's right?" Wally asked.
"Unfortunately, I think he's exactly right," Shine said. "And I never thought I'd say those words. But this feels like a two-pronged attack. I think if we all left, the Mutates who are here--and there are some, I saw them--would attack these humans who will be defenseless. But...I have an idea." She knit her brows. "We were going to talk about the harsh reality of how people treat mutants even now; that is what Mike is talking about right now. I had some stories. But there's one thing, Scott: Raven."
"What about her?" Scott said.
Morph suddenly swore. "Psylocke finds her there, she's dead."
"The others they could just use as bait," Shine said. "But Psylocke hates Mystique, that's obvious. She'll kill her, probably, if she finds her there. Promise me you will fight for her as much as the others, Scott. Remember, she's a desperate woman, and she may try to trick her way out of it, but you can't blame her. Severe retribution will await her if they capture her. Magneto is not a forgiving man."
"To think he'd do such a thing," Xavier said, "while we were away. I can't believe this."
"I can," Wally said.
"Storm," Shine said, "you go up first instead of me. I want to watch the crowd for a bit. It won't matter so much if we go out of order."
"I suppose, but if I can even remember what I was going to say with this going on..." Storm said.
"It's all right," Shine said. "Kurt, go up in the rafters. Watch in case anyone wants to snipe at us."
"I vill," Kurt said. "Please, make sure my mother is all right." He poofed away.
"Go now." Shine opened a doorway. "I would go with you, if it wasn't just exactly what I think they want me to do. I'm trusting you, Scott, Jean. Please, do not let them get the drop on you."
"We are professionals," Scott said. "Let's go."
[And to think this is the best teamwork they've displayed yet. I guess wonders never cease.]
* * *
Mystique's plan would probably have worked, if not for one factor she didn't know about.
Kitty had not seen Sabretooth when she'd run inside--he'd been in the darkness too much--and so she could not have warned her about him.
The kids were brought out, and Mystique, as Psylocke, told the Mutates to just lock them up in the garage, where they could be loaded into a plane more easily.
The hanger was also hidden in tons of rock and would be hard to destroy if the whole house was attacked, which was a possibility.
Leech remained though. He and Kitty and Colossus all pretended to be subdued.
Then Mystique had all the Mutates go back upstairs into the house.
Trinity was being held here, tied to a chair by the other Mutates.
"Well, did you finish them off?" they said.
"Mostly," Mystique lied. "They heard the human girl was here."
"Guys..." Trinity said, weakly, "I'm sorry..."
Jubilee was being held too.
"We're taking these three?" the Mutates asked.
"They're powerful," Mystique said. "So yes."
"Ah, they don't look like much." Sabretooth suddenly lumbered in the doorway.
Mystique almost choked.
Kitty turned white. "Oh...no...you...but..."
"Yeah, they busted me out," Sabretooth said. "But being in the slammer gave me plenty of time to think about how much I want to get my revenge on the little wimps who got me caught in the first place. Including you."
He suddenly looked up at Mystique. "Mystique."
The Mutates suddenly turned to Mystique, in anger.
"Mystique?" they cried.
"Get the girl," Mystique hissed at Kitty.
Then she laughed. "Sabretooth is a fool. I'm not Mystique. You all saw me fall into the pool. Don't I look wet to you?"
She had managed to turn herself into somehow looking wet in the last second, and she hoped they were too stupid to have noticed she hadn't before.
"Oh, yeah, that's right," they said. "Maybe the water is throwing you off, Sabretooth."
"She doesn't smell like water," Sabretooth said. "She's lying. That's fake water."
"How could I make fake water?" Mystique hoped this stupid argument would buy them time.
Kitty wasn't stupid, she had to give her that. She'd started inching toward Trinity.
Colossus suddenly reached out and punched the person next to Trinity.
Kitty grabbed her and pulled her out of the chair and the ropes.
Trinity screamed because she didn't know what happened.
"They're escaping!" Sabretooth ran at them.
Colossus turned into steel and blocked him, catching him like it was nothing.
Sabretooth pushed him back, but Colossus dug his feet in.
They must have been at least evenly matched--possibly Colossus was stronger, in fact.
"Whoa..." Kitty was impressed.
Then she ran for it.
The Mutates chased after her, but she ran toward the hall and out into the yard.
"We have to get Kevin!" Trinity gasped, once she was solid. "They said they'd take him to a ship."
"The only place they could land a ship around here is the other side of the wall," Kitty said. "On the road, or we'd have heard it. Hang on, I'm gonna have to run through a lot of stuff..."
She panted. Then she started running.
They reached the street.
There was a ship parked? Grounded? Farther down the road.
Only one Mutate was guarding it.
"Hey," he called quietly at them. "What are you doing out here?"
"Selling girl scout cookies," Kitty replied derisively.
He ran at them, pulling out some kind of sword.
"Just stand still," Kitty said.
He ran up to them, and Kitty turned them transparent for a second. He ran through them, and then she turned solid.
He stuck his sword into a tree. "What the--?"
Trinity picked up a rock and threw it, hitting him in the back. He fell over, yelping in pain.
"Nice shot," Kitty said. She ran toward the plane.
Kevin was in the back, still out cold. Kitty grabbed him and pushed him out and to the ground. She landed hard.
"Ouch... Ah, he's too heavy."
Trinity pulled the sword out of the tree. It was really heavy.
"Stay down..." she said shakily, pointing at the man.
He looked up.
"You won't have the nerve," he smiled, reaching for the sword.
Trinity lurched back. "Stay back!"
"Kevin, wake up." Kitty shook him. "How bad could they drug you? Come on."
Kevin moaned.
"We need your help!" Kitty smacked him hard.
Kevin blinked at her. "Stop it!"
The ground rumbled under him.
Trinity yelled and stumbled back farther. The other guy lurched forward and drove his hand into the blade of his own sword.
"Ah..." he cried, grabbing it.
Trinity, acting on blind reflex, used the flat of it to hit him hard.
He fell over again.
"Kevin." Kitty pulled his head up to make him look.
Kevin groaned, but the ground reached up and grabbed the man and half buried him, then it hardened.
Kevin slumped back over.
"I think the drug doesn't affect him as strongly," Kitty said. "Thankfully, I think he just saved our butts. Are you okay?"
Trinity dropped the sword.
"I...don't know..." she said. "I just...and..."
"Hey, relax, he did that to himself," Kitty said. "Anyway, he'll live. It's just his hand. What, you afraid of blood?"
"I don't know..." Trinity slumped to the ground. "It just happened so fast..."
"Trinity, we don't have time," Kitty said. "We have to get help! Help me carry Kevin away from here, at least, or they'll take him with them."
Trinity somehow stumbled up and came, and they both pulled Kevin up and dragged him back through the wall and into the woods.
Kitty was sweating and breathing hard.
"You can't keep this up," Trinity said.
Kitty leaned on a tree. "I don't...know if anyone is coming to save us," she said. "Mystique called in help...but...we're not sure if they bought it. I'm just thinking--we left her and Colossus and Warren in there..."
"But there's so many," Trinity said. "There's even more outside. I saw when we ran out of the house."
"I know..." Kitty said. "But...they risked their lives for us...and we're miles from any help. They'll catch us before we ever get there...I think... Maybe it's better to just go down fighting."
Trinity shivered. "But I don't have a mutation."
"And they cut the phone line..." Kitty mused. "But the radio phone in the intelligence room doesn't use the phone line. Maybe if I snuck you in there..."
"But I don't know..." Trinity faltered.
"It's our only chance. If we get a hold of them, they'd believe us, even if they didn't believe Mystique," Kitty said. "Shine could portal them here."
"Shine could what?" Trinity said. "Does Shine have powers?"
"Didn't she send you here?" Kitty asked.
"I thought that was one of the X-men. That was her?" Trinity said.
"Yeah," Kitty said. "Duh.... Oh...maybe that was classified." She bit her lip. "It doesn't matter. We'd be lucky to survive this at all. Ah, I hate being a mutant!"
"No time for that," Trinity said suddenly. "Kitty, if this is our only shot, we have to run. We're not too far down the road. We might make it if we go through these trees; I did it once before. Follow me. But if we see anyone, you have to do that thing you did."
"Okay," Kitty said.
They ran through the trees.
But all the Mutates were gathered around the front of the house, and no one saw them. It was too dark, and they were focused on the commotion inside.
The girls heard crashing.
"I hope that's Colossus," Kitty said in a small voice. "Not...someone else."
They raced to the side of the house and phased into it again.
* * *
Mystique and Colossus thought they might get the upper hand once the two girls were gone. But two things went wrong:
One was that the adult Morlocks, who'd been hiding in the caves like cowards, as was their habit, found the younger kids and let them out, assuming they were locked in there by the bad guys. And the kids, not understanding Mystique's plan, didn't know any better themselves.
Then they all tried to run for it and ran instead into some of the Mutates, who happily collected them and brought them to the front.
The other thing that went wrong was Psylocke was found by one of the others who was looking through the basement for valuables and gadgets that might fetch a price, and they got her awake.
Then they both rushed upstairs.
All this interrupted the fight that was, otherwise, not going so badly for Colossus, and Mystique got some hits in also.
But there were too many enemies now.
"Look what we found," Psylocke said, walking in, still soaked and looking mad as a cat about it. "All the little sewer scum were hiding out."
Mystique and Colossus paused.
"You just come quietly?" Colossus asked them.
The Morlocks looked uneasy.
"We don't want to get involved in a fight between the X-men and the Brotherhood," they said.
"That's right," Psylocke said. "All of you just go wait outside, and maybe we'll leave you alone. But if you lift one finger to help these two, we'll make an example of you too."
"You talk a big game," Mystique said. "But you still can't use your power, can you?"
Leech looked nervous.
"I don't need to," Psylocke said. "I'll get it back soon enough--they all know what happens then. Magneto is in charge, not me. And you'll have h--- to pay later if you cross him. All of you know it."
No one argued.
"We will still fight," Colossus said, pinning Sabretooth down for the moment.
"And that's where you're wrong, Tin Man," Psylocke said. "I anticipated you might be a bit more trouble than the others."
She glared at one of the Mutates. "Why didn't you call in the others?"
"You said only to do that if you gave the signal," they said.
"I was unconscious, you dolt!" Psylocke said. "Do I have to do everything myself?"
She opened the front door. "Hey, you all can come in now."
Colossus tried to make a break for it, but Sabretooth reached up and tripped him.
"Getting my second wind," he said, rubbing his jaw.
"G'day, Mystique," an Australian voice said.
Mystique looked up.
Pyro and Avalanche were in the doorway.
"What are you two doing here?" She frowned.
"Word got out that you're not a reliable boss anymore," Pyro said. "Magneto comes along and offers us a new job. We're out of luck, so we take it. Funny that one of our first assignments is taking care of you though, love."
Mystique frowned.
"No honor among thieves, right?" Psylocke said to her flatly. "But they aren't really here for you. Get the metal head."
Colossus was already tired, as could be imagined, but he would have probably been able to take Pyro just fine.
Avalanche, however, was a bit more of a problem. He could vibrate the ground and anything else and that wasn't great for a mutation that turned you into metal.
Colossus was thrown off his feet.
Sabretooth then pulled him up and tossed him out the door.
"Throw him into one of the lakes or something," Psylocke said. "He's not going to join the group. I could tell that much already."
"What about Mystique?" said a different Mutate. "Should we capture her?"
Psylocke shot Mystique a sidelong glance. "No, I think she's made her decision. Sabretooth, kill her. Or whatever. Someone, stay behind to make sure she doesn't get away. The rest of you, follow me. We have to round up that girl--Magneto wants her especially. They can't have gotten far. And pick out any of the other kids who might be useful. The one they call Leech has an interesting power."
She frowned. "Though I owe him a good lashing for what he did to me."
Mystique only had time to wonder how this had unraveled so fast and how stupid the Morlocks could be, when Sabretooth grabbed her by the arm and slammed her into the wall hard enough to knock any less resilient person out cold.