Be Aggressive (Part Four)

Once inside, it became abundantly clear that some of the corridors of the ship would be too cramped for us to roll six-deep.

"Alright, buddy system!" I ordered, "Pair up in case we get separated. Let's clear this place out."

Eddie wasted no time pairing up with his metal girlfriend, "Ooh! Mercury!" He darted over to her as quickly as he could.

Okay? I had originally figured that Cessily would team with Julian, given they had been an actual team. Then again, Eddie had been working with Cessily quite a bit during our team training. Also, it still worked for the rest of us. Whether I teamed with Julian or with Hisako, that was still a really effective pair.

What I hadn't expected was for Megan to slide over to me. I was pretty sure I gawked at her for a moment when she did. I didn't say anything though. In the field, she wasn't my ex, she was my teammate. Again, if we couldn't work together because of our drama, we didn't need to be X-Men. At least, that was how I felt.

With ad hoc duos set up, we set out wandering the ship. What we saw wasn't very impressive. Not to me or to anyone else.

"Man, this is weird," Julian remarked, "I figured a spaceship would look... I dunno, sleek? Futuristic?"

"What? You mean being on an honest-to-goodness spaceship ain't doing it for you, chief?" Eddie remarked.

"Not really," Julian admitted with a shrug, "The lower levels of the mansion look more high-tech than this."

The part of the ship we were in looked more like it had been stripped down to bare-bones. Only what was needed to keep that part of the ship intact remained. In fact, if I didn't know better, it seemed like some areas had been cut away or stripped specifically - like they were salvaging their own ship for parts. Having seen what Breakworldians and S.W.O.R.D. used for interstellar vessels meant for combat, the ship we were on didn't look like the kind of ship you sent to invade a planet.

We continued exploring until we came across observation glass. When we took a look inside, we caught sight of Jay strapped to a vertical table, tubes hooked up to his veins pumping him with that green substance from before. In the same room, was the huge container that had Quire in it.

I couldn't punch my way through. After nearly breaking my hand trying, I backed off and pointed at the barrier, "Hellion, tear that shit off."

Julian chuckled and fired up his telekinesis to do as requested, "Don't gotta tell me twice."

As he started to find a leverage point to start pulling from, a large screen came to life behind us. A bald man in a lab coat appeared on the screen. He seemed like a normal egghead, scientist type, but there was something I couldn't put my finger on that seemed... inhuman about him. And not like us.

"Are you Dr. Roekel?" I ventured to guess.

"Dr. Van Roekel, yes," The man on the screen corrected, "And who are you?" He asked as he observed us and got a better look at our uniforms, "Hm. The X-Men, I presume. And what business do you have with a man of science?"

Eddie jerked his thumb back in the direction where Julian was still working on trying to get us to Jay and Quire, "You've got something that belongs to us! Err... two somethings!"

The man let out a condescending hum, "I wasn't aware that the X-Men claimed ownership over Mister Guthrie."

"We don't. I just want to punch him in his face," I snarked, "Quire though? Yeah, we're gonna need him back. What do you even want with them anyway?"

Dr. Van Roekel smiled calmly as he explained himself, "This planet is full of promising subjects. The versatility of your genes make the people here ideal for testing. Humanity was such a wonderful template to work with, but imagine the potential I found when you mutants started coming to the forefront."

Hisako spoke up, "Potential for what? All we've seen so far is a bunch of weird, violent crap."

Dr. Van Roekel continued speaking, "I've been evaluating the most suitable subjects, equipping the best with technological innovation of my creation. This planet will be where my army is built."

Okay, weird scientist planning on building some kind of army. Rarely a good thing.

Julian's eyes glowed green with the intensity of his telekinesis, "Not if we bring this whole ship down first," It really did feel like he was starting to tear the whole ship apart.

Despite the very real possibility of Julian's threat, Van Roekel didn't seem very concerned, "Oh, by all means, please, do so. This vessel would be no great loss. In fact, allow me to do it for you."

After a moment, a large explosion rocked another portion of the ship. We almost lost our balance as the whole thing lurched and began to fall from the sky, "What the hell!?" Eddie shouted, "Don't you need them?"

"I do. Thank you for reminding me," Dr. Van Roekel said, "Oh, Icarus. I believe you have received enough care for now. Would you mind taking the other subject with you? I believe it's time you meet your new cohorts."

The tubes pumping green into Jay's system retracted, and his eyes opened. He tore himself free of the bonds keeping him in place and marched over to Quire's container where he lifted it and easily carried it out of the room.

As he turned away from us, I noticed a device on his neck, similar to the one I saw from Brigade's corpse in Dr. McCoy's lab.

All I remember next was a scramble as we all ran for the nearest way out we could find. When we finally reached daylight, we all leapt for it, despite the fact that we had a drop of thousands of feet down into the ocean below awaiting us.

Fortunately, we had a guy with us who could catch us all with his mind, and he did so. Though, I'm pretty sure he let me fall longer than everybody else there, either because everyone else he caught was a girl, or because he wanted to see if I'd scream.

I did not. Not this time, at least.

I took a quick headcount and realized that we were missing one; my boy, in fact, "Wait, where's Eddie? Eddie!" The second time I yelled, I did so directly into the comm. I had on.

Eddie quickly responded to keep me from blowing out everyone's eardrums any further, "Ow! Hey, chill out! I'm following Jay."

Chill out? Was he kidding? Unfortunately for him and everyone else, I yelled again, "You went by yourself!?"

"No! I've got Cessily with me."

In fact, Cessily wasn't with us, something that also irked Julian when he realized it, "Fucking hell..." I muttered to the others before "Fine. Hang back and stay out of sight. Maybe he's going somewhere important," One could only hope, at least, "We'll be right behind you. Hellion has to carry the rest of us."

"Well, tell him to hurry it up. I don't know how strong that green stuff is supposed to make him, but Jay is hauling ass back to shore. If he wasn't carrying Quire, I'm not sure how fast he'd be."

Julian was offended by the implication of Eddie's statement, "There's no way Jay is faster than me."

Finding an opportunity to poke at someone who wasn't me for once, Hisako took full advantage, "Carrying all of us though? You sure you've got the brain power to handle it?"

"Ha-ha-ha," Julian mocked in return as he started flying in the direction of the mainland, "Just you watch, Armor. And can't Pixie, I dunno, teleport us there or something?"

Megan fluttered her wings, irritated at Julian questioning her usefulness, "I need to know where I'm going first. Just telling me to go somewhere over yonder isn't very helpful if you want to go any farther than where my eye can see."

Hey, she teleported us onto the side of the goddamn moving spaceship. She had filled the usefulness quota for this mission as far as I was concerned. Anything more would be considered above and beyond in my book.