They had been flying for some time now, and they were given the okay to take off their seatbelts. [Y/N] was busy talking to Kurt for most of the flight, getting to know him some more. He found out that he was the person who attacked the president, but he didn't particularly want to. He asked about Kurt's scars and found out they were angelic symbols passed down by Archangel Gabriel to mankind, one scar for every sin. While [Y/N] wasn't particularly the religious type, he respected people's beliefs.
"How far are we?" He heard Logan ask, looking over to see him beside Jean's chair, his forearm resting beside the headrest.
"We're actually coming up on the mansion now," Jean answered, short and simple. The jet's dashboard started to make beeping sounds, which interested [Y/N] to come over and see what it was up to.
"I've got two signals approaching," Storm told them, and on the radar, they could see two little triangles coming up to the blue circle, which was them. "Coming in fast."
Then a voice came through the comms. "Unidentified aircraft, you are ordered to descend to twenty thousand feet. Return with our escort to Hanscom Air Force Base. You have ten seconds to comply." The female voice finally stopped, not giving them a lot of time to decide.
"Wow, somebody's angry," Storm remarked, a little exasperated by the rudeness. Logan had answered back with 'I wonder why', looking back at John.
Then, the pilot started speaking again. "We are coming up alongside you to escort you to Hanscom Air Force Base. Lower your altitude now." To their sides, they could see the two jets on either side of them, with one of the pilots aggressively pointing down to them to signal them to lower their altitude. "Repeat—lower your altitude to twenty thousand feet. This is your last warning." It was [Y/N]'s cue to go back to his seat, swiftly buckling himself back into it as he knew they were not surrendering.
"They're falling back," Storm sighed, and then the jet started to aggressively beep. "They're marking us," She explained, explaining the reason for the aggressive beeping. [Y/N] wonders if he's ever going to be taught how to fly the jet—maybe one day. "They're going to fire! Hang on!"
With that, Logan also swiftly got back to his seat, falling into the wall beside his seat as Storm sped up the jet. The soft clicks of everyone securing their seatbelt filled the jet along with the sounds of the jet itself, all the system warnings, and stuff that [Y/N] doesn't understand.
"I got to shake them," Storm warned before spinning the jet to the side, turning them upside down at one point. Now [Y/N] was starting to feel a little travel sick.
"Please don't do that again." John spoke for all of their thoughts, Logan verbally agreeing with him, then asking if we had any weapons, to which he got no response. However, with how dark the sky suddenly got, [Y/N] could assume Storm was using her mutation.
The dark clouds started to come down out of the sky, creating tornado-like spirals that would try to throw the other jets off. They were persistently weaving through them, though. Soon, one jet was thrown off course, and then the second jet. When the jets were dealt with, the skies cleared up, and Storm stopped using her mutation.
Jean asked if everyone was okay, to which Logan said no. [Y/N] missed the stable ground of the earth already. All of a sudden, the computer started rapidly beeping again, signaling something was coming at them. Two explosives were hot on their tail.
"Oh my god, there's two of them," Storm informed everyone, trying her best to shake them off. Given how quiet Jean was and how she looked, [Y/N] assumed she was using her mutation to try to stop them. An explosion told them she had succeeded. "There's one more," Storm told her, watching as it got closer to them on the radar. "Jean?" She called as it got dangerously close.
Then Jean gasped, muttering 'oh god'. Then the rocket hit right into the back of their jet, blowing a hole in the back of it. Rogue, who hadn't gotten her seatbelt on, was sucked out through the opening. Bobby's shouting came after her screams. There was a short 'poof' sound, then another, and suddenly Kurt appeared in the jet, holding Rogue as they fell back against the dashboard.
They were spiraling out of the air, descending at a rapid pace as Storm tried to get anything in the system back online. Electric sparks were soon accompanied by groaning metal. Looking back, the hole in their jet repaired itself, and their descent to the ground was slowing.
"Jean?" Storm called, thinking it was her, but it wasn't.
Then the jet came to a halt midair, and in the clearing of the forest, staring up at them with a hand outstretched, holding them midair, were Erik Lehnsherr and Mystique.
They had decided to camp there tonight, seeing how their jet was fucked and it'd take a while to get it back up and running. The adults were busy talking around the fire, not allowing the children in on the conversation.
[Y/N] was sitting with Kurt, watching the older mutants at the fire, trying so hard to listen from a distance, but the crickets were unbearably loud that night. Then Rogue came over from where she was in the tent, crouching down on the other side of Kurt.
She was quiet for a moment before thanking Kurt for saving her. "Bitte schön." He answered in German, meaning 'you're welcome', or along that line.
"Can you hear what they're saying?" She asked both of them, receiving a head shake from [Y/N], saying no.
"I could take a closer look," Kurt suggested.
"I wanna come!" [Y/N] whisper-shouted, excited to eavesdrop. It was his favorite pastime. Kurt put his hand on [Y/N]'s shoulder, teleporting them to a branch far above where the campfire was.
"His name is Colonel William Stryker, and he invaded your mansion for one purpose. He wanted Cerebro. Or enough of it to build one of his own." Erik informed the three of them. He was sitting down on a fallen log while everyone else was standing up; it must have been an old man thing.
"But that doesn't make any sense. Stryker would need the professor to operate it." Jean answered, which practically answered her own question. The professor is missing, and suddenly Stryker wants his own Cerebro?
"Which, I think, is the only reason my old friend is still alive." Erik answered, getting a worried 'oh my god' from Storm, yet confused looks from Logan.
"What are you all so afraid of?" They all knew something that Logan didn't and that [Y/N] also didn't know.
"While Cerebro is working, Charles's mind is connected to every living person on the planet. If he were forced to concentrate hard enough on a particular group—let's say mutants, for example—he could kill us all." The tone in Erik's voice shifted to slight anger as he pointed out that Charles could kill the entire mutant race—a horrifying thought at that.
"Wait a minute. How would Stryker even know where to find Cerebro in the first place?" Storm raised a good question. The school was never suspected to be anything but a school, so why would Stryker launch an attack on a school, unless...
"Because I told him." Erik sighed, sounding not too happy with that. "I helped Charles build it, remember? Mr. Stryker has powerful methods of persuasion... even against a mutant as strong as Charles." [Y/N] was still hung up on the fact that Charles could kill an entire race if he pleased. He would hate to imagine Charles as an enemy.
Jean sighed. "So, who is this Stryker, anyway?" She asked, obviously not having met him before.
"He's a military scientist. He's spent his whole life trying to solve the mutant problem. If you want a more intimate perspective, why don't you ask Wolverine? Or better yet, that little vampire?" Erik nodded back to the tent where the younger mutants should have been, referring to [Y/N]. Seeing Logan's confusion, he continued. "You don't remember, do you? William Stryker, the only other man I know who can manipulate Adamantium. The metal on your bones. It carries his signature." Erik clearly knew something, but he was dancing around it, trying to provoke the memories out of Logan, who shook his head.
"But the professor..." Logan went to defend his honor, but Erik cut him off.
"The professor trusted you were smart enough to discover this on your own; same with that boy. He gives you both more credit than I do." It seemed it was simply in Erik's nature to be an asshole and throw out insults whenever he could.
Storm changed the topic. "Why do you need us?"
"Mystique has discovered plans for a base that Stryker's been operating out of for decades. We know that's where he's building the second Cerebro, but we don't know where this base is. And I believe one of you might." It didn't take being a telepath to know who Erik was referring to, he's been going on non-stop about Logan all night. [Y/N] might think he's a fan at this point, or, well, that's what [Y/N] assumed he was on about.
"The professor already tried," Logan answered.
"Once again, you think it's all about you." Erik had a smug smile as he continued to insult Logan. Then he looked up, prompting everyone else to look up at the two eavesdroppers. [Y/N] wondered how long he knew they were up there...
"Oh... hello!" Kurt awkwardly answered, hanging upside by his tail from the branch while [Y/N] was sitting on it, his feet dangling down.
They had to come down. [Y/N] had held onto Kurt's tail, and he teleported them down safely. Logan had given [Y/N] that disapproving dad look, and [Y/N] tried to mimic the look back at him.
Kurt, rather guiltily, was sitting by the fire with Jean, the rest of them standing behind Jean. "I didn't mean to snoop." He apologized to her, thinking he was in trouble.
"Just try and relax." Jean gave him a small nod, to which he nodded in return. Like the professor, Jean brought her hands up to either side of his face, holding them a few centimeters away as she peered into his memory. Dimly lit hallways, a metal dentist-like chair, a hole in the ceiling almost like a cell, a sign saying 'Alkali Lake, Industrial Complex, Department of Energy', and other unreadable things from how old it was. Memories of the lake, Kurt speaking and screaming in German, x-ray scans, needles, and a man's silhouette.
Kurt pulled his head back with a gasp, breathing heavily. "I'm sorry." She apologized to Kurt, pulling her hands away. She took a deep breath. "Strker's at Alkali Lake," She claimed.
"That's where the professor sent me. There's nothing left." Logan denied her claim.
"There's nothing left on the surface, Logan. The base is underground." While Jean had been doing all of this, [Y/N] couldn't help but notice the stare he was getting from Mystique. He tried not to return the stare, a little intimidated by her. He was curious about why she was staring so hard; did he have something in his hair? On his face? Was she planning how to murder him without anyone noticing?
Later on, he and Kurt decided to test their luck, cautiously stepping closer to Mystique until they were within speaking distance. "Excuse me?" Kurt called to get her attention. She glanced over at them before returning her gaze back to where she was originally looking. "They say you can imitate anybody—even their voice." Kurt nervously glanced down, [Y/N] hiding behind him, holding onto Kurt's tail as if ready for an escape.
"Even their voice," Mystique confirmed, mimicking Kurt's voice flawlessly with seemingly no effort. It made [Y/N] giddy, almost jumping around on the spot.
Kurt stepped closer, causing [Y/N] to have to step closer. "Then why not stay in disguise all the time?" Kurt curiously asked. "You know? Look like everyone else." The three of them were the only mutants here with physical alterations due to their mutation; Kurt and Mystique had it worse than [Y/N], however.
"Because we shouldn't have to," Mystique answered back, speaking in her own voice. She gave [Y/N] one glance at his glasses, which shielded his eyes from anyone's prying gaze, before she turned and left.