Maybe in another dimension von ellenchain ================================================================================ Kapitel 2: Iaret Industries --------------------------- The next day, Erik waited in the main hall for the others and found himself a little bit more nervous than necessary. It was the forthcoming unknown that made him feel uneasy. And looking at the kids in those uniforms made him even more tense. “Ready?”, Beast asked as he passed Erik and went straight to the black jet. Mystique took a few things with her that looked like first aid packages and followed her friend. The young students looked all a little bit pale, but got in the jet as well. Erik was the last to follow. His dark coat flew dramatically behind him as he entered the aircraft. The helmet a little bit heavier than usual on to his head. They all went into a crushing silence, after Beast started the engine and flew high above the school right to the island. It was a few minutes after the start that the grey-haired boy found his voice and talked to Erik. “You know… I’m glad you’re here”, he said a little bit nervous. “And I’m sure the Professor is glad as well.” Erik just nodded and tried to ignore the start of an uneasy conversation. But the boy just continued talking. “Back in Cairo I really thought you wanted to destroy us. After you’ve lost… well, your family and such.” “Peter”, came Mystiques voice from one of the frontal seats. “Now is not the time.” “For what?”, Erik found himself suddenly curious. “You brought him with you back in Cairo, Mystique.” He looked back to the young man. “And I have a feeling you want to tell me something. It’s Peter, yes?” “Ah, yeah”, he nodded and wiggled in his seat. “Raven is right, maybe now is not the time. Uh, or is it Mystique? What do you want to be called?”, he changed the subject rather smart. “I don’t care”, the blue skinned woman grumbled and looked out of a tiny window. “There was a time when you cared a lot”, Erik reminded her of the last years, where she came with him to find herself and became the great Mystique instead of Charles little girl named Raven. But instead of her raising voice, he just heard her sighting and then ignoring him. The other kids stayed silent and even Peter didn’t say anything anymore. The whole situation in the jet became even more unbearable, so Erik hoped they would arrive soon, so he can leave this sticky atmosphere. After what felt like an eternity, they saw the island. Beast gripped the controller and almost crushed the black plastic out of sheer nervousness. “We’re almost there. I will try to land on the roof as agreed. We need to move quickly then. They probably have already seen us.” As Erik looked out of the window, he saw people storming out of the big complex. “Pretty sure they have seen the big black aircraft.” The building was bigger than he had expected. On the maps it looked big, sure, but this? This was almost a whole city. How are they supposed to find Charles in there? Right before the aircraft could land on the roof top, they got shot. Of course, they got shot, Erik thought to himself as he watched tensely smoke enter the plane. “Out, out!”, shouted Mystique, while she tried to help the others to get out of their safety belts. Everything went loud and high noises were hurting Erik’s brain. Then the airplane crashed. It took him a couple of seconds to recognize where he was. Fire, smoke, Mystiques shouts. Then blue fur grabbed him and pulled him over the ground until they reached the outside of the jet. The thing had crashed into one of the many complexes of the facility and had destroyed most of it. A few dead people were lying next to him. “Are you hurt?”, Beast asked in a raspy voice and flicked his fingers in front of his still adjusting eyes. “Stop that”, Erik grumbled and smacked the blue claws away. “Where are we? And what happened?” “We got hit by a… I guess missile.” “Ah sure… made of plastic or what?” “Obviously. Or did you wanted us to get shot?” Beast got up and rolled his eyes almost into his head. “They will be here any minute, you better – “ And then the kids screamed as new smoke arose from the destroyed halls of the building. They were probably at the second floor. Third? Maybe the first floor? Erik was still trying to get up – his legs felt wobbly and his eyes hurt whenever he looked into the blinding that was white everywhere. The halls, the lights, the floor, the walls – everything was clinically white. Only the broken pieces of the jet and some wall fragments had a different, darker colour. The smoke spread quickly around the long halls. Erik tried to run, but his legs didn’t move the way he wanted. Loud sirens chimed through the building and made clear that the whole lab city was aware of their presence. The screams of the kids went quieter until no one was heard anymore. Erik limped as fast as he could, but to no avail. The smoke reached him and in the moment he breathed the chemicals in, he knew that it was over. When Erik opened his eyes again, he felt terrible. His lids were swollen, his head hurt and his hands and legs were immobile. Only when he looked around for the first time, he realised that he wasn’t dead but in a little cell that was as white as everything he saw until now. Everything was made out of plastic and glass, as if they knew he would come to rescue Charles. Why else would an organization build only with non-metal materials? His helmet was gone and he was alone. Just a tiny white room with a white floor he was sitting on. His legs and arms were tied up in tight cuffs. He couldn’t move an inch. And before Erik felt the memories starting to come back when he was in prison – with all that white and glass and plastic – a door opened and a slim woman entered the room. Her long black hair was in strong contrast to the rest of the facility. “Welcome to Iaret Industries, Magneto”, she said in a calm voice. Behind her were two large men, probably security. They held those plastic guns Beast was talking about. “You’re here because you were negligent. I hoped for more… resistance.” Erik blinked a few times to adjust his eyes that still felt very swollen. The smoke or gas was presumably not the best treatment you could give your body. Shortly he wondered what happened to the others, but found himself to not care at all about them. Most importantly was: “Where’s Charles?” “Straight to the point as always, I see”, the woman mused and gave him a dry smile. “You will see him soon. When we’re in the final phase, you can watch our most significant research result. But now we need your powers for the machine. Would you be so kind?” And with that, the two big men came into Erik’s cell and grabbed him. He tried to fight back, but in the end the cuffs were still too tight and the men too strong. They put something in his left ear which felt like a little headphone but was immediately starting to feel unpleasant. He heard a faint whisper in his head. A familiar voice. A mental nudge. “Please, this way”, the scientist said and stepped aside, so Erik could go outside. The two large men opened the cuffs and put them to the ground. They didn’t touch him, grabbed him or tried anything to hinder him from running. Slowly, Erik felt his legs work and how he got up. Like a puppet he moved towards the door, where the woman was waiting. Panic made his way through his mind, when he realised that he was no longer in control over his own body. “Don’t worry. We’re only manipulating your endocrine system. Your mind is safe”, she assured him into false safety as she led him through a white corridor. “It’s amazing what we learned from your little friend, Magneto. Because you know”, Erik was walking beside her like they were old friends talking about the good old days, “to control someone’s mind is everything. There is no use, if you can bend metal or shoot lasers out of your body, when someone is mentally directing you. A word or an idea – and your whole world changes.” They entered another part of the lab city, where a lot of people were working on different researches. Some of them had animals in their grasp. Others humans. Or maybe even mutants. They all looked like they were about to die any minute. Pale, with dark circles under the eyes and way too thin. But the scientist just continued talking as if they were passing a beautiful park. “We found that to be very fascinating and went to study this ability. But without a proper test subject we couldn’t investigate any further. We found other telepaths, but they were all too weak. Their powers were not strong enough for more research. We tried different things – revival, comas, clones – but none of them survived the tests long enough.” Erik felt his blood boil. Those scientists were all the same. They took mutant lives and played with them like they were disposable toys. To do what? Take their powers and turn them against themselves. To smother them. To kill them. He wanted to say something, argue with her – or just end her – but all he did was walking next to her like a marionette. The familiar whisper in his left ear a constant sound in his brain. The woman reached for a mechanical door that opened as soon as she put her hand on a display. In the next room was a big table. And a lot of surgical tools made of glass. Erik felt his heartbeat go faster. “After all this time we finally found out about Charles Francis Xavier. The events of Cairo put a spotlight on him. After all – he was in our heads. All around the world.” The big guys led Erik over to the table and waited for him to lay down. And though everything in him wanted to resist, he did exactly what was wanted of him. He laid down. The table was cold and uncomfortable. White plastic made his skin crawl. What he would have done for anything made out of metal. “Charles Xavier was the perfect match. So we got him. And until now he is the most significant being, I’ve ever worked on.” She smiled again and Erik wanted to puke. He knew it. They were using Charles. Hurt him. Maybe even tortured him. How could his friends wait three weeks? How dared they to wait that long? For a moment she just stared him down while she stood next to the table. The big guys left the room and other people joined them. Other scientists, Erik assumed, as they began to put electrodes on him. Metal. Finally. And the devices that were brought to him had tiny pieces of copper in them to carry electricity. “Charles Xavier’s abilities were dangerous, Magneto. You did a good job with that helmet of yours. We knew that telepathy is something very strong and as a psychiatrist I know what a mind can do and what not. And protecting your own brain isn’t something normal people can do. Unfortunately, we – and that includes you as well – are those normal people, so we figured that we need a device to protect us. That’s when you and your little accessory came in handy. We analyzed it and were amazed how it was made. Probably not by you, I assume, but by someone else. It was amazing. Though it took us some time to reproduce the effect on other things.” Erik was all but in the mood to answer. What he heard was horrible. And he wanted the nightmare to end. His heart raced and pumped adrenaline through him. His mind and body were fighting each other and he was reminded of his terrible past at Auschwitz, where Shaw had made him watch his mother die only because he wasn’t able to control his powers. And right now, he wasn’t able to control anything. The lack of it made him panic. After all electrodes were placed, the young woman leaned over him. “With this”, she pointed at her little device at her ear that looked a bit like what Erik wore, “no telepath can reach our minds. Not even Charles Xavier. Because with his power we were able to improve our technology.” Erik’s eyes hurt. The light above him was too bright. The white of the walls were blinding him. And those words made him forget how to breathe. Suddenly electricity went through his body. He felt it prickling under his skin. “To be honest, we had our difficulties with him. He could have taken down every one of us, if he wasn’t in such a bad shape. We were just lucky, I’d say.” There was that smile again, but this time it was distant. As if she was thinking about something in the far distant of her mind. “I always wondered why he never used his power to his full potential. Only with our help he reached a level that was enough to pass the tests. There was so much strength in him he had never used.” Her eyes went cold again in a second. “But it doesn’t matter, does it, Magneto? You probably wondered about the same all those years ago and I presume you still don’t have an answer.” The electrical blows became stronger and Erik gasped in pain. His muscles began to itch. His whole body was on fire. But he wasn’t able to scream or shout. Only his breathing went quicker. “Oh, don’t worry. We won’t kill you. We just want to analyze your ability and therefore we must take your powers. It’s like – hm”, and then she was thinking like a child with a finger on her chin, “Imagine you’re a battery. A battery with a lot of power in it. And we are the machine that takes this power to function. But you’re not just a battery – you’re a rechargeable battery! Your body will recharge you after every time, so we can use you every now and then.” Suddenly it hit Erik like Charles’ fist back at the Pentagon: Their little devices only function with the power of other mutants? Is that the reason why they had so many people in here that looked like they were dying? Because they were actually passing from all those draining tests? “You’re like batteries for us, Magneto. Mutants have a special ability that allows them to use their body differently than humans do. And we take advantage of that. Because”, and her eyes began to shine, “imagine what it will be like, when no one needs to worry about a free will anymore? There will be peace and order. Regulations that everyone follows. No more ugly questions. No more rebellions. No more war.” She was insane. More insane than he was – and that was something. “With the help of your little friends we will achieve that goal in only a few days. We knew you would come for Charles Xavier one day, but you also brought more mutants with you. Strong, powerful mutants. They will give us a huge advance.” Oh god, it was his fault again, wasn’t it? Death followed him like a disease you can’t cure. “When our system is finished with all the processes, we can go to the next step. Charles Xavier will help us to reach all people in the world – like he once did in Cairo. But he won’t just speak to them, he will take control over them. He will tell them what to do and what not. And like that we can control aggression and other human flaws. Aren’t that great news?” No, Erik wanted to shout, those are the thoughts of an ill mind. He learned that in Cairo after he realised that he betrayed his true friends. The woman’s eyes were still on him, as if she waited for an actual answer. But after a few seconds she just walked away from the table and from Erik’s field of view. The sound of the door was heard and after that scientist gathered around the cold table. More electricity went through his body and everything burned. His skin was probably smoking because he smelled burned flesh. After a few moments in which he wondered if the others were under the same treatment and if they were still alive, he passed out. Hosted by Animexx e.V. (http://www.animexx.de)