GENETIC ECLIPSE

Part VIII: Dark Truths

By Yannick Lamarre

Author’s Note: This story is continued from Apocalypse #9.

The man was silent as he made his way inside the complex which currently held Apocalypse and his followers. Even as his weapons smashed through the ventilation duck and he jumped onto the floor, no sound was heard. He stuck to the shadows as slowly he started on his way towards his target… if she was still alive. And she had better, for her captor’s sake. Because if he learned that Kitty Pryde was no longer among the living, he would make single-handedly sure that Apocalypse paid the price for his crime… the ultimate price…

Kitty was getting weaker, her mind reeling from the torture, her body lacking both food and drink. Her time spent conscious was dramatically diminishing, and when she was actually aware, she painfully knew that her time was running out. Her mind was fast, but not fast enough to avoid death by starvation or torture. And now was one of those times when she was able to think. There had not actually been any torture sessions in the past few hours, and Kitty wondered what it could mean, when the lights suddenly flared to life, hurting her eyes.

“Well, kitten, it was fun while it lasted,” she heard a gruffy voice say.

‘Tusk,’ she realized darkly.

And he wasn’t alone.

“It’s really payback time for you now,” someone else said.

‘Trial’, her mind whispered to her again.

“Let’s just get this over with, so we can go back topside,” a female voice said.

“Dani…” Kitty whispered quietly.

Fast images of Dani Moonstar, back when the two girls had been friends in the New Mutants, flashed through her mind, and Kitty could almost feel the tears in her eyes. Almost. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes again, looking challengingly at her captors, the Dark Riders. Their master, Apocalypse, wasn’t with them, thankfully enough.

“So, this is the end, huh?” Kitty asked them, and she was surprised to hear that somehow her voice still contained some strength.

Maybe her body still did, too.

“Yep, the master doesn’t need YOU anymore,” Trial said, pushing on a few buttons on the controls near Kitty.

Kitty inwardly decided that she probably looked worse than she felt right now, since they were actually loosening her restraints, letting her fall to the floor. They probably figured she was too weak to be much of a menace. She fell to the ground with a loud thud, her body immediately hurting in too many places to count. Or maybe she was as bad as she looked. She remained on the floor, unmoving, until the three of them were surrounding her. Dani was standing a bit farther away from the others, but was still looking at her.

“Well, Kitty, I’m sorry you couldn’t see the truth I’ve been shown,” she said, a trace of regret in her voice. “Do it quickly, Trial. She’s suffered enough.”

With that, she walked out, leaving the two boys with the battered Kitty.

“Goodbye,” Tusk said, rising his powerful foot above her head.

“Good riddance,” Trial completed, a dark grin on his face.

He was taking this revenge thing a bit far, Kitty decided, realizing instantly that this was pretty stupid for a last thought. Tusk’s foot came down…

…Smashing right through Kitty’s head into the floor below, into which Kitty suddenly seemed to be sinking into.

“Aw, crap!” Tusk exclaimed, taking his foot out of the floor. “I thought you said her powers wouldn’t kick back right away! That she was too weak to concentrate!”

“That’s what the readings said!” Trial said, checking out the readouts. “Ever since we figured out that her mutation had somehow reversed and that she had to concentrate again to phase, we had to reconfigure the restraints!”

“Well, in the meantime, she’s loose! We’ll have to explain this to Dani… and the boss…” Tusk said, a frown appearing on his forehead.

“Not if we find her before he figures out she’s gone. She’ll be heading topside, for the exit. Let’s warn Dani and get her,” Trial ordered to Tusk, who seemed to hesitate before following Trial.

Who had made him boss anyway?

Kitty had been almost as surprised as Tusk had been that she wasn’t dead. For some reason she hadn’t had to concentrate at all for her powers to work. What in the world was happening with her powers? With her body?

“Something’s seriously wrong with me, and it’s saved my life,” she said out loud.

Kitty shook her head, taking in her surroundings. She was in a storage room of some kind. She knew, because Dani had said ‘topside’, that the complex was probably underground. Which meant the exit was somewhere above. Kitty moved through a few walls, putting some distance between her and the room she’d phased into, in case they came down here looking for her. She stopped to take a look at herself. She was shaking a little, her legs unsteady and weak, and had a few nasty torture wounds, but she felt well enough to know she was probably on an adrenaline rush, and that she should use it wisely. Her first impulse was to head straight up and escape.

“But what if I don’t make it? I’ve learned some important things down here I could pass on…” she thought out loud, pacing around the room.

A communication device could be somewhere in the complex. The question was, could she find it in time? Or maybe… maybe there was a main computer core somewhere in here that she could use to learn the specifics of Apocalypse’s plans… and even pass them on to the rest of the X-Men. Or the Avengers. Or anyone listening. Such a computer would be hidden deep in the base, so it couldn’t be easily found. Away from the exit. Away from freedom. Kitty took a deep breath and cleared her mind. It was time to remember what her responsabilities as an X-Man… as a super-hero… meant. Determined, Kitty started her search of the floor she was in… and of the floors below.

Melissa Heartridge sat on her wheelchair in the living room of the apartment she now shared with Kitty, looking out the window onto New York city. Her parents had called, asking to talk with Kitty, angry at her for not supporting Melissa while she was stuck in this damn wheelchair. Heck, even Melissa was angry at Kitty. The grand reopening of Sam’s Electronics was in a few days, and Kitty had not even showed up once to help. She’d been gone for two days now, without any calls, or notes, or anything. All of Kitty’s stuff was still in her room… she’d checked. So where in the world was she?

“Melissa?” a gruff, almost animal voice suddenly said.

Melissa looked around, an edge of panic creeping into her.

“Who’s there?” she asked out loud.

“Kitty’s in trouble,” the voice said.

Melissa’s eyes narrowed as she turned her wheelchair towards Kitty’s room. The voice was coming from under the door.

“Who are you?” she asked again, searching for a weapon in the living room.

She had time to grab the lamp waiting on the small table in the middle of the living room before the voice replied.

“Get help for Kitty,” the voice went on, ignoring Meli’s questions entirely.

“How?” Melissa went on, slowly wheeling her way closer to the door.

“Xavier Institute,” the voice answered.

Melissa grabbed the door’s handle and pushed the door open, brandishing the lamp, still connected to the wall through an extension cord, and faced… nothing. The door was normal. No voices, no weird spirits, no aliens, or strange monsters. Melissa waited a few minutes, inspecting the room as best as her wheelchair allowed her, finding nothing. She frowned, then finally wheeled back into the living room.

“I’m going crazy…” she finally decided, shaking her head.

And yet… the Xavier Institute…

Lockheed looked from outside Kitty’s window as Melissa returned to the living room, closing the door behind her. He sighed, shaking his head in despair. Kitty didn’t know he could talk a little. He thought it wouldn’t be the same for her if she learned he could talk. It was the best he could do without coming into direct contact with Melissa. If this didn’t work, he’d head straight back to Chicago and try to contact Kitty’s friends there. It wouldn’t be this hard if only Kitty allowed him to show himself to her friends. And time was running out. The longer Kitty was missing, the worse the danger she was in became.

Kitty cautiously sat down in the seat facing the small computer console in what looked to her like Apocalypse’s main computer core.

“I can’t believe it was this easy to find,” she whispered in the silence surrounding her.

It was eerie, the way such an immense room filled with so many computers could remain so silent. The computer activated on its own the moment she had sit, and showed her a menu of the various files in the computer. It requested a password. Kitty smiled as she started hitting on various keys. Looked like she’d just found a challenge worthy of her mettle.

Trial’s head suddenly snapped up and he rose from his position outside the base.

“What is it?” Dani asked him.

Usually such a reaction meant someone had tripped one of his many alarms in the complex. And that would mean they’d found their prey.

“The computer systems have been broken into,” he answered, still interpreting the data his processors were giving him.

“What level?” she asked as Tusk joined the two of them.

“Core,” he said, looking straight into his leader’s eyes.

“Looks like we were fooled again…” Dani said grimly.

She had just about enough of this. Kitty had been her friend, but she knew Apocalypse would not tolerate such incompetence much longer. This time, she’d do the job herself.

“Let’s go!” she ordered the others.

Kitty gasped in surprise and horror as she read the information the computer was being forced to give to her. Apocalypse’s plans in its entirety. In all of its horror.

“I have to do something,” she realized, hitting a few other keys.

It was quite an elaborate plan, and if it worked, it would bring about the end of humanity as she knew it. Somehow Apocalypse had developped and tested a new version of the Legacy Virus which would affect only humans. A deadly new version, judging by the test results. He was planning to release that virus during a convention meeting in Washington D.C., infecting diplomatic leaders from all around the world. These leaders would then return home and infect their home country, making the virus worldwide in a record amount of time. And that was only phase one. He then plans to use the Inhumans’ Terrigen Mist in a bogus antidote that would be distributed worldwide, which would then evolve the entirety of Earth’s population into what Apocalypse considered the next step in humanity.

“The results of such a thing are completely random,” Kitty realized in horror. “He could be about to create a race a genetic monsters. I have to warn someone.”

Kitty quickly searched through the computer’s core systems for a way to directly send data from this console to another computer system. After a few more tense moments, she finally found what she was looking for. She quickly copied the data into a separate file and sent it to the Xavier Institute’s private systems and to Warren’s estate in Chicago. She kept watch while the computer sent the information away, bit by bit, until finally it was done. She sighed in relief and rose from the chair.

“Now to get out of here,” she said, taking a step away from the computer.

That’s about as far as she got as a powerful energy ray went straight into her back, sending her painfully to the ground.

“No. Not now…” she moaned, trying to rise again before a powerful kick from Tusk sent her rolling across the floor and into a wall.

She fell back on the metallic floor, barely conscious anymore. She was barely aware when Dani walked up to her, a bow now in her hands, its arrow pointed straight at her heart.

“Now we end this…”

“Couldn’t have said it better, darling!” a new voice said as a shadow fell from the ceiling and kicked Dani away from Kitty, sending the arrow flying wild into the darkness surrounding the huge room.

“You!” Dani said, surprised.

Wolverine stepped out of the shadows, a dark smile on his face. From the back of each of his hands three bone claws extended themselves as he stepped towards the Dark Riders.

*SCHLUNKT!*

“We end this right now!”

Read Cable #9, Genetic Eclipse: Gambit #1, Wolverine #14, X-Men #13, Uncanny X-Men #16, & Apocalypse #10 for parts 9-14 of Genetic Eclipse!