Chapter 20- Stepping into New York

  Citadel 4th floor– Portal Room- 2008- 10- 22 (Noon)

  Eric Lensheer- (Magneto)

  He was expining the pn to Psylocke for the second time, she had already agreed that it could work and gave she the green light to the mage. Yet he wanted to make sure they went over it again. Anything to make things flow the best they could, given the risks they were taking. When he heard the doors open and the other members of the mission joined them.

  They were talking about possible ways to make the change of Steve and the shape-shifter when he looked away and noticed what the others were wearing. Nightcrawler was in his costume and was armed, since there was little hiding his mutant state with the tail and blue fur. That didn't bother him, it was the other three.

  Wolfsbane was wearing her now-completed costume. She didn't have it for the battle with the High Evolutionary, because Nath'aniel hadn't finished enchanting it. Now that he had, it would adjust to her changing size and shape, save for her full wolf form.

  The costume in question was a purple and bck onesie with matching boots, simir to his daughter's, but hers also came with a metal colr and shoulder pads. The colr also covers her back and spine. Parts of it were hollow so when she converts to her full dog-from her costume could be stored inside.

  Both of those two he understood. The boy couldn’t hide that he was a mutant, and Wolfsbane’s role was to hide and scout in her wolf form. However, the other two girls made him ask. "What do you think you are wearing, this is a stealth mission?"

  Rogue was doing her best Daisy Duke impression, plus that aviator's jacket she seemed to like. While Murmur was doing her best to cospy as Jessica Rabbit, with the dress she was wearing. With it exposing her arms, her right leg, and much of her upper chest, and almost of her back.

  “I told ya that dress was too much," Rogue told the darker-skinned girl.

  “Both of you are not wearing enough, it is te into October, and Autumn has already hit New York. Both of you are exposing too much skin given the weather and time of the year. You will stand out too much in either of those outfits." Erik snapped at the two teens.

  “You sound like papa de le television (a dad from TV)." The teen in a dress snapped back. Just before the other girl pointed at Shanna, who was standing off in the corner of the room.

  The other Servant was wearing what she usually did, her yellow jaguar skin bikini. As a matter of fact, Erik wasn't sure that he had seen either Servant really change their wardrobe since being bonded. Yet even the spear-wielding wild woman had a justification when she countered with. "I hate New York City. The less of it I see the better. So I will be a spirit the entire time we're there, unless a fight breaks out… or we go to Central Park." Then the blonde woman went back to testing the edge of her spearhead.

  “Cheater.” Rogue snapped at the defiant woman.

  Then the doors to the room opened again and in walked Nath’aniel. The mage was still dressed in one of his usual exotic robes of his. When Erik face palmed and rubbed his eyes, the mage asked. “What?”

  Psylocke started chuckling before she expined. "Magneto was compining that two of the kid's outfits would make them stand out too much, and then you come walk in dressed in your usual attire."

  Nath’aniel then looked at his apparel before asking. “What is wrong with my clothes?”

  “Nothing, they actually fit your personality. It’s New Yorkers that have a problem.” Shanna added from her peanut gallery.

  The mutant leader sighed, and then tried to diplomatically expin. “Our mission is one of stealth. Our goal is to blend in with the crowds, and not stand out too much. Too pretty or too odd of outfits that we are wearing, and the crowds, or even worse the cops, will notice us. Then the success chances of our mission will plummet.”

  The mage rubbed his chin as Erik expined, and just after the mutant was done expining. Nath'aniel waved his hand. As he did he also created a fsh of light over himself. When the fsh passed, the mage's clothes had transformed into a raincoat and a suit.

  However, it wasn't only him that had been changed. Both Wolfsbane and Nightcrawler had as well. Wolfsbane was now dressed in a purple sweater, bck jeans, and hiking boots. But with the boy it wasn't just his outfit that changed, his body changed as well. He now looked like a young Japanese teenage boy, with normal hands and feet, both his tail and fur were gone as well.

  “Better?” The mage asked them.

  This broke everyone out from their stuns. Erik looked over at Psylocke and asked. "Did you not expin the pn to him?" Shanna started ughing when she heard that, while the telepath rubbed her eyes for an answer. The mutant leader then told the mage. "Nightcrawler and Wolfsbane were fine. Since the pn was for them to hide in the shadows or in her animal form. It's the other girls' clothes that were the original problem."

  “We are too belle (beautiful)” Murmur argued.

  Then the other troublemaker tried the middle ground, by ciming that they were. "You mean we're too eye-catching."

  But it was Wolfsbane that called them out, saying. “I think you mean to say, dressed like sluts.”

  “What is a slut?” the mage asked, unfamiliar with the word. But no one answered him as everyone was touched by the boy teen’s voice.

  “I am… normal? But I feel no different.” The teleporter asks while staring at his hands in surprise.

  “That’s because it’s just a gmer, a projected illusion. You are still the same underneath." Nath'aniel expined what he did, before casting another one. Their scouts returned to their normal appearances, bringing sorrow to Nightcrawler's face.

  Then the two troublemakers fsh as their outfits change. Rogue was now in a brown sweatshirt and jogging pants. While Murmur's red dress was now a red business suit. Even the mage's own disguise changed, from the raincoat and suit into a bck sweatshirt of his own and oddly a pair of bellbottom bck jeans.

  “How well and long will these st?” Erik asked the mage after nodding at the two girls' appearance.

  Nath’aniel’s answer actually surprised him, when he said. “The illusion will st for days, so long as they don’t actually touch someone. Like my power cells, the spell will reach out and try to connect when it encounters another circuit, but since I didn’t put enough power for more than our persons. Anything longer than a couple seconds of contact will break the gmer.”

  “Do I have time to get my helmet?” He muttered in wonder.

  Then the doors to the room opened, and in walked their st party member for the mission. Mystique had a weird smile on her face for the couple of seconds that she stayed in her personal form, before changing into Exodus, but not in his usual costume, but rather the shape-shifter looked like him in a bck business suit.

  She looked over her two adopted daughters and commented, her own voice still coming out of her throat. “Calm and mundane, but with a touch of professionalism and casualness, a good choice of disguises girls. Good work.”

  No one had the heart to burst the infiltrator’s pride and reveal that Nath’aniel was the one that both generated and picked out their clothes. Erik then cleared his throat before asking. “Are we ready then?”

  The mage stopped everyone with his answer. "Not quite." Then after a moment, the doors opened again, and they were joined by Chura, holding a power cell. As she moved to stand beside the mage, he expined. "To reach where you wish us to go, it will require a boost in power for the portal generator. So someone was needed to be here to remove the cell once we were through."

  Then he and the fire elemental walked over to the rge sea shell. In the shell, there was a space for not one, but up to three cells and Nath'aniel showed to spirit how to insert and remove the cell a couple of times, and even made her do it for him once, before he nodded and ordered the ceiling. "Citadel, when you are ready."

  It took a couple of minutes for the thing to power up and then another before the actual portal opened, and when it did they saw the city on the other side. It was hard to tell at first, but the portal must be high up on something, because the angle was wrong to those who knew the sight of the skyscrapers and other buildings next to each other.

  “We aren’t going to fall once we are through are we?” Psylocke asked as she approached the opening. It was the Citadel herself that answered.

  "You will not. I have opened the other end atop one of the tall buildings."

  “Why there?” Erik asked the building.

  “I have no current emitters in the city, so I have no current readings. And you asked me to open it in a pce that wouldn’t be seen.”

  The mutant leader shrugged in agreement, before walking through. The sudden cold wind and loss of feeling of the now familiar metals of the Citadel to the feeling of the everyday steel and copper of modern buildings was a touch jarring to him. Still, he soldiered on, and walked to the edge of the roof, as he did he looked around to try and discern where in the City they were.

  "So this is the Big Apple?" He heard Nightcrawler ask as he too crossed over.

  When Erik turned around he saw the boy gazing out over the city ndscape. Then watched the other teens walk through the blue-ringed hole in the air, even Rogue and Murmur stared around like tourists. Meanwhile, when Wolfsbane walked over and crossed her arms, and looked around she just muttered. "Oh, this is Manhattan."

  “A native to the city I take it?” He asked the feral girl.

  She nodded then softly whispered. “But I had to move away after Nine-Elven, when my parents passed away.”

  That woke up the other teenagers from their random gazing around.

  ‘Exodus’ came through behind them, and then Nath’aniel and the two Servants squeezed together to get through the opening at the same time. True to her word, Shanna disappeared into a puff of yellow sparkles as soon as she was through.

  The mage did take the time to gaze on the horizon for a moment, before looking back through the still open portal and saying into it. "We are clear." Erik noticed the fire elemental wave goodbye before the opening just snapped in on itself.

  Then Nath'aniel went back to trying to take in the city. While he did Erik tried to figure out the best way to get to Peggy Charter's house. Assuming she hadn't moved in the thirteen years since he was there st.

  "How many Tribesmen live here?" The mage asked before Erik gave out his next set of orders.

  “Something like eight million.” The shape-shifter answered, this time with Exodus’ voice.

  The mage follow up his first question with another. “This is the city that Gwynevere mentioned isn’t it?”

  "It is," Erik admitted.

  "So eight million lives lost, should the worse that she saw comes to pass," Nath'aniel muttered softly.

  "Weren't you the one that didn't trust prophesies?" Psylocke asked him before she rubbed his back.

  “What she used was not a prophesy, but a tool of limitless power.” The mage corrected the telepath.

  Erik saw worry on her face, why he wasn't sure, but then he wasn't the mind reader. Then he and Mystique shared a look. She tapped her lips twice, telling him that she wanted to talk to him in private when they got a moment.

  "Right, I need two teams. One will come with me to Mrs. Charter's house." The mutant leader announced. Then he reached into a pocket in his coat and pulled out a letter before adding. "The other will head to a bar I have chosen, and give this letter to the bar owner. He is an older Jewish man that I think will lend us his pce of business for Nath'aniel to conduct the test on the Captain, once we get him."

  “Why is he a mutant?” Psylocke asked him.

  Erik thought to the night that he sought out Dugan at said bar, and the drink the man shared with him, before expining. "No, but he made a promise to his father to share a drink with men who fought in World War Two, and the Captain most certainly fits that requirement. But be mindful, he has other family that is not to be trusted, so make we need to be sure that who we send can get this letter into his hands and his hands only… who goes where?"

  Rogue eventually raised her hand and said. "Me and my siblings can get your letter delivered, unless you need us for the kidnapping portion.”

  The mutant leader nodded, before agreeing. "If all goes as pnned, Wolfsbane can lead the man to us, but that doesn't mean we may not need you… that only leaves you, Nath. What do you want to do till we need you?”

  The mage shook his head as if he hadn't really been paying attention, but still answered. "I will go with you for now. You may need me to convince this Charter woman to aid us." Then after a moment, Nath'aniel asked. "How are we getting there, flying?"

  Erik shook his head, before saying. "As much as we could, we would cast our shadows on the people below, and again we are trying not to stand out. It is our best chance of success to try to blend in and do things slowly… So we go down through the building, get a cab, or other means of getting to our destinations, and do our best to try and blend in."

  Nath’aniel hummed in agreement, and Psylocke vanished in a puff of purple sparkles. The sound of a metal door slowly swinging open, made everyone turn and look. A young boy, probably not very far into his teens, had opened the roof access door. In his mouth was an unlit cigarette.

  Everyone shared a look with the boy, before the young man asked the mage a question. “Your eyes are super cool, are those contacts or something?”

  “They are not, they are my eyes.” The mage answered.

  “Oh, are you two mutants?” The boy immediately asked Nath and the disguised Mystique, and then he looked over all of them, and stared at Nightcrawler and Wolfsbane’s odd clothes and appearance before asking. "You all are mutants aren't you?"

  Erik reached out with his powers for the metal lighter that he felt in the boy's pocket pulled it free and flew it toward his hand, once close enough he held it, before asking. "Are you supposed to be up here smoking young man?"

  The boy pulled his cigarette from his mouth and asked. “You don’t tell, I don’t tell?”

  “Fair enough young man.” Erik agreed, he floated the light back to the teen, before opening and triggering the lighter and holding it in the air for him to ignite his smoke. Once lit he closed the cap and returned it to him via a magnetic field.