How long to you think that it will take Jean to figure out where we are and show up?" Magneto was of mixed feelings regarding Jean Grey. He had been there when Charles had comforted the family that wanted their daughter stifled. She had been a mutant of extreme ability, but she was far too aware of that power, difficult to control and likely to become a liability at some point. Avalon would be able to match her and keep her contained but so much of his plans already relied on the young mutant. "We must plan for the Homo Sapiens next move and cannot wait around for any one mutant."
Harry tilted his head slightly and hummed as Jean Gray's presence licked along his senses. "She is not too far from here now, it appears as if she stole a motorcycle from the mansion. She was at least intelligent enough to remove the tracker, so we won't have that to worry about. There is something that we must do now though."
"Oh, and what would that be?"
"I am picking up on the transport of several fairly useful mutants by the military. Apparently, they are all guilty of using their powers to break the law. One is capable of making countless, fully independent copies of himself, another is the mutant equivalent of a wreaking ball and there is one that is capable of great speed." Harry sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, all of this power usage and dealing with other people was beginning to give him a permanent headache. "The transports are armed with the new 'Cure' so it would likely be best if I went in first with Gambit and Wolverine as backup. I can disable the weaponry, Gambit has enough empathetic control to manipulate the captives and Wolverine is immune to the 'Cure'."
"Why is the feral immune and what exactly is this 'Cure' supposed to do?" Mystique was both interested and repulsed by the idea of a cure, it wasn't a disease, but it would be nice to be able to look in the mirror and see her own face looking back at her. It had been so long that she really didn't know what she would look like as a human.
"The 'Cure' is based off of the DNA of a mutant capable of disabling the mutations of other mutants. Within a certain distance of him is a zone that no regular mutant can cross without becoming powerless. The liquid that they have manufactured works in much the same way from the inside. Logan's body possesses multiple mutations, while the liquid attempted to change his feral mutation, the healing factor would push the 'Cure' out of his body through sweat, tears, blood or regurgitation. Any mutant with multiple mutations would likely only lose one mutation or would be weaken other than those that are both telekinetic and telepathic as those are linked. The major problem with the 'Cure' from the humans' viewpoint will be the fact that it is as temporary as the mutation of the mutant that they got it off of. The more powerful the mutant the sooner the effects would be overcome. I can estimate that the average mutant would likely be put under for more than a year but one of Magneto's power level would begin to see it wear off in a month."
"So, the only way for this 'Cure' to be what the humans want is for it to be regularly supplied to the populace." Magneto could think of several ways for this to go wrong, putting the 'Cure' into the drinking water was one way he would think to distribute it that would be hard to counteract.
"Exactly. This however would be costly and likely to fail as the mutants' bodies would eventually build up a tolerance to the serum and it is unlikely that they would be able to synthesize the serum without the original mutant nor would they be able to make enough of it to properly distribute it in such a fashion with their current resources."
(M)
"So, what be the plan, mon petit?" Gambit was leaning against a tree watching the highway that Harry had picked as the route of the prison transport that they would be liberating shortly. He was looking forward to it, sticking around the warehouse was getting a little boring.
Harry looked back at his two stalkers, which was a term very suited for the two of them, and then back at the fairly abandoned looking highway. "I will be able to disable their weaponry telekinetically, the two of you will liberate the captives and disable the guards themselves. They will be wearing protective helmets to block telepathy, so I will not be able to neutralize them that way."
Wolverine stretched and popped his head to the side as the first transport pulled into view in the distance. "Good, its been too long since the last time I got to take out my aggressions on a meat bag. The Professor always popped into my head when I tried to get in bar fights or cage fights, killjoy."
Harry casually walked out of the woods and flicked his hand negligently at the two transports, causing all of the tires to blow while preventing them from flipping at the same time. The guards were seemingly ready as they poured out of both vehicles, ready to fire the 'Cure' from military grade rifles. Harry almost felt like rolling his eyes, he needed to stay away from Gambit and Wolverine for at least a couple days obviously, and pulled the weapons out of their hands as both Gambit and Wolverine broke from the tree line.
Wolverine made no attempt to work toward the back of the transports and instead went directly for the line of guards. He refrained from using his claws, he didn't want this to be over that quick, and instead stuck with hand to hand combat. Of course, having a metal coated skeleton made the clear advantage his anyway but he still had fun. When he tired of fighting a guard he just yanked their helmet off and Harry put them to sleep, teamwork.
Gambit made for the back of the first transport and charge a king of hearts before blowing the doors open from a great enough distance that he could avoid the first shot from the guards inside before Harry snatched their weapons and he was left with a short altercation before turning to the captive inside. The man looked like a brick wall with just about as much intelligence, likely to be Juggernaut. "You would be the Juggernaut this rogue has heard about, yes? Ran through a bank vault?"
The man grinned from where he was strapped in so hard he couldn't even nod. "Yeah, I can go through anything with a little bit of speed behind me. Who are you?"
"This humble rogue is Gambit, here to spring you and your fellows on behalf of the Brotherhood of Mutants. We be taking a stroll and thought you might like to take a walk." Gambit gave a jaunty wave as he charged the locks and watched as they blew off and into the opposite wall. "Avalon be the one you need to be thanking though. He be the green-eyed angel waiting outside, you should pay your respects." Gambit smirked and made his way out of the first transport, looked sideways at where the Wolverine was making taking on a dozen guards look like child's play, and whistled as he made his way to the second. It was a good day for a jailbreak.
(M)
"It appears as if Magneto had decided to add to his ranks." Hank McCoy was feeling his age for the first time in some time. "A transport carrying three mutants of considerable ability was hijacked on a deserted part of the highway. None of the guards were killed but they all got acquainted with Wolverine except for the ones inside the transports that reported a mutant with cards that glowed and a staff. They also reported that their weapons were all taken directly out of their hands by a mutant with green eyes."
"So, Logan, Harry and the mutant that they rescued from Alkaline Lake are all working for Magneto officially now." Xavier was more worried than he wanted to admit with the news. Logan and the unidentified mutant were bad enough given the interest the government had already shown in both of them, but Harry was the most powerful mutant that he had ever met. "What is the government's response to this?"
Hank sighed and sat heavily as he pulled off his glasses. "The government is running on fear. Every guard on that transport was ready for Magneto. Each one had a gun made of plastic on them and they were ready for telepaths with helmets that prevent invasion, but Harry went around all of it and the other two made their highly trained force look like new recruits. All three of them have been put in the same category as Magneto and they now have their own files. Wolverine is being classed as a credible military threat, the unknown mutant is named Gambit and apparently has a very thick file of theft and gambling charges already and Harry has been named Avalon and is largely unknown as of right now."
Scott ran his hands through his hair and pulled the file that Hank had brought along to him. "Avalon?"
Hank flipped through the papers and pulled out one with a picture of Harry watching as Wolverine made his way through the guards. "Apparently the only times that the guards heard Harry mentioned during the attack was by the mutant, Gambit, and he called him Avalon. With what the guards were able to pick up, he was the leader of the group and the others were following orders. Avalon is listed as a telepath and telekinetic of unknown power level. They are pressing me for more information."
"There isn't much that we could give them about Harry. The only powers that I have seen him utilize are those they know about, but his power levels are unknown. I know that he can hide himself and others from me, even using Cerebro, but other than that I have little knowledge of him." Xavier pulled the picture of the young man closer and analyzed the way the young man held himself. "He was very controlled, all of his emotions were guarded, likely due to the fear of losing control of his powers." Both Hank and Scott gave their full attention to the professor. "Telepaths and telekinetic individuals of high power levels have to maintain complete control of their emotions, I had to work for almost a decade to maintain a level of calm in all situations. Emotions heavily affect the mind and can spiral out of control if the mutant doesn't regain control immediately. A burst of anger could result in broken windows, shattered concrete, or even the death of the person responsible in the blink of an eye. It was the reason that I decided to lock a good portion of Jean's powers away, she was such an emotional child that felt no remorse at the damage her abilities caused. Harry will approach every situation analytically, he cannot be reasoned with emotionally. If the government wants to neutralize him as a threat, they would have to prove that they are not a threat to him and others like him. As long as Harry perceives that they are harmful, he will side with Magneto."
"So, Harry is not a fanatic or strictly against normal humans, but he considers them a threat to himself and acts accordingly." Hank could already hear the fighting between the politicians and the generals. "It isn't likely that anyone in the government could disprove that right now. They are all operating on fear. Magneto is gathering a following that will only grow after this victory and they can't find his base. More and more mutants are protesting the 'Cure' and the company has given out no information on what it does or how its going to be used. It doesn't help that the guards were carrying weapons using ammo filled with it or that that information was made public by several news stations before the military put out a gag order. Anti-government propaganda is being put up everywhere and not just by mutants."