Surrender

AN: Damn it! They removed Jean's cover pic. It was so nice.

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[Safehouse] [Aron's POV]

I'm not 100% sure that they are tracking me, or maybe I'm being paranoid. Still, I get this weird feeling whenever I am outside like I'm being watched. If they are really tracking me, I need to know how. I was careful enough to avoid cameras and all those surveillance systems. Not to mention I always kept my face covered in ice whenever I was outside doing the usual vigilante stuff. And no mutant detector could detect me. It's almost like someone is giving them information about my location or they have a telepathic mutant with them who can track me.

Sigh! Of course, my face... All they had to do was track me by my face. There are thousands of cameras around the world and a good hacker can easily use facial recognition to find my location. Then the fact that I'm a clone... They have obviously injected some nanites into my blood or maybe a hidden tracker in my body that can track my location, in case I escaped from their control.

Fuck!

I need to get this paranoia out of the way and the only way to do that is to see it myself. I mean, I turned my body temperature below zero degrees or used flames to raise my body temperature beyond any human could endure, not to mention all these mutations I use... So, if there are indeed nanites that are capable of surviving in my body even after all that, then it is bad news.

I'll simply burn off everything that's not alive within my body with the Phoenix Force.

I closed my eyes, focusing inward. The Phoenix Force stirred inside me, ready to burn away anything foreign. If there were trackers or nanites in my body, they wouldn't stand a chance. I raised my body temperature, letting the flames surge through my veins, burning hotter and hotter with every second. It wasn't pleasant. I mean, I was frying myself inside out. But thanks to Logan's healing factor, my body could take it.

As the heat spread through my body, I could feel them. The tiny specks, almost like grains of sand deep in my skin and blood. Nanites. Stryker's doing, no doubt. They were squirming, struggling as the flames burned hotter. I gritted my teeth and pushed the heat higher until I heard a faint crackling sound as the nanites started frying one by one.

Pop. Another burst of heat, and I knew they were done for. The Phoenix Force had burned them to ash, clearing my system of any trackers they'd planted in me. A part of me wanted to relax, but I couldn't. If they had gone to these lengths to track me, it meant someone was watching closely. And whoever that was—they weren't done with me. This safe house isn't safe anymore. They must have noticed that their precious trackers stopped functioning. They'd send their dogs after me again.

I wanted to kill them all... But... Why kill when they can all surrender?

Well, it's time to show them who they are messing with.

Six labs—six underground facilities spread across New York. Each of them was filled with staff, data, and no doubt more horrors of Stryker's sick experiments. I had to hit them all, but not blindly. This needed precision. If I was going to end this, I needed to do it smart, take them down without letting anyone slip through the cracks.

First, I pulled up the map I'd taken from Stryker's mind—the exact locations of the labs. They were heavily secured, but that wouldn't matter. I had a plan.

I cracked my knuckles and stood, feeling the power of the Phoenix Force swirl within me. I wasn't just going to destroy these labs—I was going to expose everything. Every twisted experiment, every inhumane act, every person involved. Stryker thought he was clever, hiding behind government protection and underground facilities. But he didn't count on someone like me.

The Shield, X-Men, the new X-Force, The Fantastic Four, and although the Avengers haven't been officially formed, there is Tony Stark, Ironman... None of them ever do anything about these fucked up situations. So, someone has to do what they can't or won't.

The first lab was buried deep beneath an old, abandoned warehouse in Brooklyn. The kind of place no one would look twice at. I arrived unnoticed, phasing through the walls and slipping into the underground facility. Super speed, phasing, and mind control were all it took.

The security was tight—biometric scanners, armed guards, surveillance cameras. But none of that mattered. I reached out with my psychic power, searching for the staff inside. There were about forty people here, some of them scientists, others guards. With a simple mental push, I took control of them all. They didn't even realize as I implanted my commands.

"Record everything," I told them, my voice echoing through their minds. "I want every piece of data, every experiment logged and documented. Then, hand it over to me."

The staff moved in unison, collecting files, hard drives, and test results. They recorded the entire facility's operations, detailing every twisted experiment they had been conducting. My telepathy made them work efficiently, their hands moving as if controlled by an unseen puppeteer.

It took hours, but I didn't stop. I couldn't afford to miss anything. When everything was gathered, I took the data and left, phasing out of the lab just as easily as I'd entered.

The second lab was hidden under a corporate office in Manhattan. Same routine. I phased in, took control of the staff, and had them compile everything. It was tedious work, but it was necessary. Each lab I hit brought more horrifying information—experiments on mutants, genetic splicing, weaponizing mutations. Stryker had been building an army, a force of mutants he could control, and the people funding him were deeply embedded in the government.

By the third lab, I felt the weight of it all. The sheer scale of what Stryker had done was staggering, but I pushed forward. This was bigger than me. Just like all the other labs, I repeated the same thing over and over again.

The last lab was the most secure, buried deep beneath the city's outskirts. I almost smiled as I slipped past the guards. For all their tech, none of them saw me coming. By the time I reached the heart of the facility, I had every person inside under my control.

I made them record everything. Every experiment, every bit of research. Stryker's legacy, his entire operation, was now in my hands.

With all the data in hand, I moved quickly. I found a local PC café, one of those dingy places with flickering screens and slow internet speeds. Perfect. I uploaded everything online—the videos, the files, the research. It went viral in minutes. News channels, social media, forums—they all lit up with the information.

Stryker's crimes were out in the open now. The government, and the people who had been protecting him, were all exposed. The public was in an uproar. There was no covering this up, not anymore.

For the finishing touch, I mailed a copy of everything to Yuri Watanabe. She'd know what to do with it.

As for the staff in the labs? I made sure they turned themselves in, each and every one of them. I sent a single mental command: "Surrender." And they obeyed. All of them walked straight to the nearest police station and confessed everything. I really could have just shut down their mind, but they will get my usual three chances to turn their life around. 

The news exploded. The media couldn't get enough of it. Stryker's name was ruined. The government officials who had backed him must have been sweating bullets right about now. And probably cursing me.

Good.

With their names exposed and over a hundred people spilling the secrets, plus the added records and transactions... It's over for those bastards.

After the expose, the world had seen the darkest side of Stryker's work. The horrifying experiments, the twisted research, the hundreds of mutants who had been used as little more than lab rats. It was sickening, but it was also reality. And now, those mutants... those who survived... They were under the care of Professor Charles Xavier.

As for info on my identity, I went through the research data but didn't find anything about me. Sigh! I hoped to get a clue at least, oh well... I saved hundreds of lives, so I should be happy.

At the present, I don't need to hide anymore. And my decision might start a war. But it was darn good to see those government bastards running around and that many people surrendering... It might get recorded in the history.

[Professor X's School for Gifted Youngsters]

I used my super speed to go into the Professor's office. He was just sitting there, staring out of his window. As I stopped the speed. He glanced at me with a smile.

"Welcome back, Aron," he said. "You did a very good thing."

"Yeah, it wasn't easy," I said as I sat on the nearby chair.

"You find anything about yourself?" he asked, turning his wheelchair to face me.

"No, nothing."

"Hmm..." He rubbed his chin, thoughtful. "Ever heard of Hellfire Club?"

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