New Threat

[Nightcat]

(Liz, forgetting her head for a moment, leaps at Joseph and hugs him.)

Liz: Kevin! You are a genius!

(She releases him and looks down shyly. She walks up to Magneto and looks him dead in the eye.)

Liz: I have heard much about you Magneto. Your goal ist for total mutant supremacy und you vill stop at nozing to get es. However, you have come to us asking for und offering help. But are you trust vorthy? Und are you villing to trust us?

(She continues to stare into Magneto's eyes, but she tells ECKS her thoughs via a mental message.)

Liz: I can see no lies vithin him. I zink zat ve should join vith him for ze time being. Kevin did give us a lot of extra time vith ze information delete. I zink ve have nozing to lose.

[ECKS]

(ECKS uses the open link with Nightcat to send a message back.)

ECKS: You're right. I don't think we have a choice and from what I can see he seems to be truthful so far. But there's still more he's not tellin' us just yet. And that was a good move by Binary, it should buy us plenty of time to decide the next course.

(He turns back to Magneto.)

ECKS: "So Smith is behind this. Damn. Shoulda killed that weasel when I had the chance. And I gotta go with Kitty here, what makes him so sure he can control us?"

. . .

[Magneto]

(Magneto stands there as if the answer to that question should have been obvious.)

Magneto: "Still so much to learn. Have you forgotten that Smith was yet another of Styker's lackey's? While working for Stryker, Smith was the man who invented the serum he used to control mutants. And if you remember, his potion even worked on me for a time. Only now, after some more testing it seems he may have perfected it. The effects last far longer than his previous attempt. Most mutants take weeks to recover from the effects of this new serum. And with that kind of control, over that period of time, who knows what evil you could be used for."

Magneto: "In fact, this Smith is beginning to make Stryker seem like nothing more than a boy scout. But that is just the tip of the sword. The scale of his operation is much larger than just the capture and control of mutants. He is searching for the one thing that can erradicate us all. He believes his serum to be powerful enough to control any living mutant, and he plans to test that theory by awakening the first mutant."

Magneto: "For years it was thought to be only legend, but his team found the location of the first mutant, though they yet to fully uncover it. A mutant so powerful that if raised, will bring chaos to everything. Legend tells his name as En Sabah Nur. But these days, he goes by another name, a truly fitting name. Apocalypse."

. . .

[ECKS]

(ECKS struggles to remember the name, a memory from his past flashes through his mind. He vaguely remembers hearing the name before, but the memory seems to be locked away and he can't get to it.)

ECKS: "I remember that name. I don't know why or how, but I know I remember it."

(He looks up at Magneto.)

ECKS: "I'm just guessin' here, but you know why I remember it don't you?"

(He waits for an answer.)

[Magneto]

(His gaze turns to Ana, who has been sitting in slience the entire time. She too has a puzzled look on her face, much like the look on ECKS' face.)

Magneto: "And you my dear, do you remember anything?"

. . .

[Starr]

(She tries to remember, but like ECKS, the memory seems to be bhind some kind of psychic barrier that even she can't seem to break. Only flashes appear to her, but each one separately makes no sense.)

Ana: "Yes. I'm having some kind of flashbacks, too. Just at the mention of that name. But I can't seem to make sense out of any of them, they're just broken images flashing out of sequence over and over."

(She tries harder to fix the pieces but fails. She turns to Magneto and her face becomes far more serious.)

Ana: "And you know why, don't you? You know what this is don't you? You know... because you're having the same flashes. Now I suppose you're going to explain all this?"

ECKS: "Wait, you're both havin' flashbacks like me? What do you wanna bet that if we mentioned the name to Wolverine he'd be sufferin' the same flashbacks? He just doesn't know it yet because noone has mentioned that name to him."

(Everyone turns to Magneto in search of some answer.)

[Shadowcat]

(Kitty knew that Magneto knew more than he was letting on to. It seems confusing to her that both Ana and ECKS were both occuring flashbacks about the name Apocalypse. She agreed that if Magneto too was experiencing the same thing, then so would Wolverine. She turns to Magneto to search for some answers.)

Shadowcat: Well, how exactly did Smith come across this mutant Apocalypse in the first place if he was just a part of legend? I mean, mutants have become more populated today, but if Apocalypse was the very first mutant, then that could date back to hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago. How is it possible for him to stay alive all these years?

[Magneto]

(Deciding to answer Kitty's question first he turns to her.)

Magneto: "Thousands of years is accurate. About five thousand years to be more to the point. And he is an immortal, or sorts. According to the legends, his immortality relies on Celestial technology, or for you young people, alien technology. He holds their Ressurection Chamber to strengthen and revive himself and his powers. This technology can also be used for altering mutants, making them into his slaves. He used this chamber to alter a man named Nathaniel Essex in the 19th century, you have come to call this man Mister Sinister."

Magneto: "His powers have no limits, and he lives under the belief that only the strong shall survive. He has been sleeping through the ages in his Chamber and now it seems Smith wants to awaken him in some attempt to get him to wipe the earth of all mutants. But Smith won't be able to control him, Apocalypse will kill everything, mutant or human. It won't matter to him. That's where the Wolverine and we come in."

(Magneto looks over at ECKS.)

Magneto: "When the two of you worked for Weapon X, Smith deemed you worthy of holding a piece of the secret to awaken Apocalypse. You both are great survivors, and like Wolverine carry the ability to heal yourself to your own degree. He knew you would survive long enough for him to find the Chamber and then he would seek you out and retrieve his secret. I, too, hold a piece of the puzzle. And he needs all four of us, we each hold one part of the whole and only with the four of us can he reveal the enitre process. Of course, he plan was to keep the four of us controlled until he could find the Chamber but the X-Men helped you and I escape, and you broke out your friend not too long ago. By the way, ECKS, there way another way, it seems he also had the information stored in a file at the second Weapon X base, but you saw to the destruction of that base, also destroying the file."

Magneto: "So in short, this is in a way, your fault. You damned us all by destroying that base and leaving Smith alive."

. . .

[ECKS]

(ECKS just stands in silence, not sure what to say to Magneto's claim that this is happening because of him. Ana steps up to answer the claim.)

Ana: "You can't blame him, he was only trying to save me from that awful place. He did the right thing, I don't care what you say. He just..."

ECKS: "No. He's right. Smith told me that I'd be sorry if I left him alive. I should have listened... I shoulda finished him when I had the chance. I had the chance to stop all of this before it even began and I couldn't do it. Now thousands... maybe millions of innocent people will pay for my mistake."

. . .

[Nightcat]

(Liz steps up to Chris to look him in the eye.)

Liz: Chris! Ve have all made mistakes. Es ist vhat makes us human. But ve have no idea if zose mistakes vill make a difference. I can tell zat zis Opperation: Decommissioning has a lot more to es zan controlung mutants. I do not know vhat yet, but I can feel es.

Liz: Und no matter vhat, ve are a team ECKS! A team! Ve vill get zrough zis. Ve have faced dangers before und ve have come out standing. A little vorse for vear, but still standing. Und standing vith out heads held high.

[Magneto]

. . .

Magneto: "Make no mistake, his goal may be to capture the four of us to be used as a way to awaken Apocalypse, but if given the chance, he will surely capture everyone in this room. He already has several of my Brotherhood as members of his army. I don't know how but he seems to know a lot about all of us, our powers included. And if I know him, he'll find a way to use all our powers to help him reach his goal. The part that he doesn't know I've discovered, is that the final step in awakening Apocalypse requires a mutant sacrifice. It's not specific about who by name, but it states that this mutant has something referred to as 'the gift of sight.'"

Magneto: "By 'gift of sight,' I can only imagine that the mutant in question has visions of some sort but I personally don't know of any mutants with that particular gift. There may even be more than one, all I know for sure is that he needs that mutant or the process cannot be taken to fruition. Which means he'll stop at nothing to find them."

. . .

[Mindcontrol]

(thinks of what Magneto said a mutant with "the gift of sight" starts to realize a mutant in this room is very alike to what Magneto described.)

(looks at Christina and gives a small quite sign then listens back to the briefing)

[Oracle]

(Christina's face immediately turns pale in shock and fright. "Gift of sight"... Magneto meant her. She takes deep breaths to try to calm herself but it doesn't help. As much as Christina hated her powers before, she hated them even more. She stares at her fingerless-gloved covered hands and then balls them into a fist. She wished she had just decided to give up her powers in the first place. Everyone else figured it was her that Magneto was talking about, but he didn't know. She doesn't want to show she's afraid so she steps forward to Magneto.)

Christina: It's me. I have the "gift of sight."

[Nightcat]

(At Magneto's words, Liz had turned her head to Christina. But then she realized something.)

Liz: Vait vone moment. Ve only know zat Smith needs a mutant that has zis "Gift of Sight". How do ve know if Christina ist ze right vone. Zere are mutants all over ze vorld. Zere could be hundreds zat have visions of some kind. Let us not jump to conclusions vithout more research.

[Gambit]

*gambit gets done with just listening and decides to talk*
Gambit: wait...what makes smith think that he'll be able to control good ol' Apocalypse...if he is the strongest mutant then he wont even be able to get near em and if dose remy dont think that the strongest mutant will be controled and he'll just kill all of mutants and humans