Chapter 162 – Beginning

[2009 – October]

[Somewhere near the Canadian Border]

Standing atop a cliff, I gazed at the snow-capped mountains in the distance that were illuminated by the light reflecting off the surface of the moon, the comparatively small celestial object hanging low in the dark sky.

"This is the place?", I asked as I turned to Emma, the beautiful blonde clad in a tight-fitting black suit, as well as a dark combat jacket. Contrary to the comics, she naturally didn't fight while wearing barely a piece of fabric.

She might be near-indestructible in her Organic Diamond Form but I knew that Emma preferred not to use it as once she transformed, her psychic powers were inaccessible to her, and they were without a doubt her greatest weapons.

Nodding with a frown, she replied: "This is the rough location where the psychic cry originated from."

Her answer had me frown similarly as our surroundings were nothing but untouched nature, except for the faint traces that were left behind by some hunters in the forest behind us.

Still, I didn't doubt Emma's capabilities, nor did I expect bright-glowing neon signs that would lead us directly to her daughter. So if this was really the origin of the telepathic cry, then it was only logical that wherever the girl was held, it wasn't a place that was easily discovered.

Kneeling down, I touched the rough stone beneath my feet, feeling its cold bite on my palm as I closed my eyes.

Focusing for a moment, I stopped suppressing my senses through Body Supremacy, unleashing the full potential of my physical perception that had been enhanced beyond any natural limit thanks to the endless Darkforce that flowed through the energy arrays in each and every cell of mine.

Taking a deep breath, I could smell the thousands of living organisms in the forest behind me and the austere mountains in front of me, my ears picking up the sounds of a small bird flapping its wings miles away.

White light escaped through the gap between my eyelids, as my sight ignored all distance and obstacles while inspecting our surroundings.

Through the palm of my hand, I could perceive even the faintest movements in my vicinity through the vibrations traveling through the rocky ground.

Spreading my senses, nothing escaped my notice in a radius of dozens of miles in every direction. Not even the happenings beneath the surface.

My eyes flew suddenly open in a flash as I set my sight on a distant mountain, white flames burning inside them.

"I found them.", I stated calmly as I rose to my feet again, "There is a huge underground base beneath that mountain. I can see several hidden entrances and more than a dozen tunnels, some extending over ten miles in different directions. And I can see a lot of armed personnel."

"Military?", Emma inquired in a low voice.

I nodded as I answered: "Probably."

"This makes things difficult.", she stated quietly, her frown deepening as she clenched her fists.

Despite the complex emotions raging in her heart, Emma was still clear-headed enough to understand that attacking a secret military base was not something to be done lightly.

I understood this too, but I was indifferent to what kind of consequences our actions may bring.

I knew humanity's greed and malevolence well, and so I didn't come here to just save Emma's daughter but also to send a message, to let them know that there existed lines that could not be crossed. And harming my family was one such line.

It was a lesson that they needed to be taught as their hubris invited disaster.

So I was going to do exactly that, with blood and ash I would teach them.

Instead of answering Emma, I just raised my right arm and reached through the Darkforce Dimension, grabbing one of the strongest presences that I had sensed inside the base and dragging the genetically modified human in front of me.

…

Having just returned to the base after finishing a mission, Kimura leisurely walked through the corridors toward her quarters while enjoying the look of fear and trepidation in the eyes of those normal soldiers that passed by her.

Being feared like this gave her a rush, or to be more precise, the sense of power that welled up inside her heart when she noticed other people's fear was what gave her a rush.

She had once been the one to be scared and afraid, so Kimura knew weakness, and she hated it, was disgusted by it. Being weak was a sin, being weak made one worthless.

She enjoyed the power that she had over others exactly because it reminded her that she was no longer weak and worthless.

Looking at her watch, Kimura saw that 5 am wasn't far off. Knowing that she had to meet the Director at 8 am sharp, she decided to just forget about sleep and take a trip down to the test subject area, maybe find herself some 'entertainment' for a few hours.

There were always those that didn't quite understand their situation, and there was hardly anything that she enjoyed more than helping those rebellious ones understand reality.

A cruel grin slowly took shape on her lips as she turned towards the nearby elevators. Though the next moment, Kimura didn't even manage to react to the hand that suddenly gripped the lower part of her face and pulled her off her feet.

She hardly managed to blink before she found herself kneeling in front of a dark-haired young man with eyes that resembled pits of abyss-like darkness.

Her shock was pushed aside though as she immediately tried to change the molecular structure of the lower part of her face and free herself from her attacker's grip, already thinking about how she could subdue him while inflicting the most pain without accidentally killing him.

The next moment though, her shock returned, and with it came a wave of terrible fear as her powers didn't respond to her at all. Alarmed, Kimura tried to free herself the old-fashioned way by leveraging herself against the grip of her attacker but it proved useless.

The young man didn't move an inch, his flesh harder than granite as he stared down at her apathetically.

Her panic threatened to turn into full-on hysteria as she moved to claw and kick at everything that was within her reach but before she could even attempt her first strike, agonizing pain shot through her shoulders and hips, a seemingly invisible force shattering her joints.

Kimura couldn't quite remember when she had last felt such horrible pain, seeing as her enhancements made her durable enough to even withstand attacks from adamantium weaponry.

Unable to even scream in pain as the young man's grip on her jaw hadn't lessened one bit, her mental defenses were already on the verge of collapsing as her attacker said something that made her nearly lose control of her bladder as mind-breaking fear surged through every fiber of her being.

"She is one of the strongest in the base, so she must know something. Take her memories and do it fast. There is no need to worry about damaging her mind, she will not live either way."

Finally, noticing the other person present, Kimura saw emotionless blue eyes staring down at her from a face that could only be described as flawless, a face that she recognized.

Emma Frost. One of the strongest telepaths on Earth and the genetic origin of the Facility's most secretive experiment.

As such, Kimura could easily guess the reason for her appearance.

She wanted to shout and scream, beg and plead for mercy, but to her despair the young man just emotionlessly clenched his fist and shattered her jaw, turning the lower half of her face into a mangled mess just as a sharp pain ripped open her mind.