Chapter 23- Pn A Part 2

  New York City– Outside the Smith’s Brownstone- 2008- 10- 22 (Afternoon)

  Eric Lensheer- (Magneto)

  Erik pressed the buzzer for the doorbell. Instead of an annoying buzz, they heard a jingle from the te fifties or early sixties. Then he looked back at the others. ‘Exodus’ was still shadowing him, and was only behind him from the top step, while Nath’aniel was crouched and petting the ‘dog’ that was with them.

  Even in the shadow of the buildings, the mage’s eyes stood out, so he asked. “Can’t you do to your eyes what you did to your robes?”

  "No, there is too much mystical energy in them," Nath'aniel expined, while he continued to pet Wolfsbane.

  For a moment Erik wondered if petting her like that counted as sexual harassment. Then he pressed the buzzer again, and this time he heard someone inside shout out. "Coming, I am coming, hold on a second." True to his word an older man in a button-up shirt and scks opened the door and swore. "Shoot, Erik… you're not here to kidnap me again are you?"

  The mutant leader blinked at the man for a second, before remembering that he had in fact kidnapped him to get his wife's attention back during the first Brotherhood. So he shook his head and said. "No, Trevor. That was what, back in ninety-four? I am a changed man. But, I do know that Peggy is home and I would like to talk to her. So would you be so kind and to let us in?"

  The homeowner clearly didn’t want to at first, but sighed and said. “Ah, why the hell not, come on in.” Trevor then stepped back and let them enter, but then asked. “Would you wipe your boots or shoes?” Erik did, ‘Exodus’ didn’t, the mage waited, saw the wolf do it, and followed her example. At seeing Wolfsbane enter the home, he added. “Umm, I am allergic to dogs.”

  Nath'aniel tilted his head at that, and the others saw him cast his 'appraisal' spell on the homeowner. Only Trevor jumped when the hologram of himself appeared in front of him. Erik raised his eyebrow, at the trio of grey sections in the otherwise blue image. ‘A repced shoulder, knee, and a pacemaker, you’re not taking very good care of yourself are you buddy?’ Erik thought, already knowing that the man had metal inside of the man.

  “Huh, so you are.” the mage muttered, before casting an unfamiliar spell. A green leaf followed by a yellow wave. Nath’aniel actually spped the runes onto the scared man, making Trevor jump back in fear, before saying. “That will protect you for a day or so.”

  Then the mage followed ‘Exodus’ and Wolfsbane inside, all the while looking around at everything around him like a tourist. Erik stayed and watched the terrified man.

  “What did he do to me?” the homeowner asked. As he did Psylocke materialized beside him and closed the door for the scared man.

  “Cast a protection spell on you. Dog hair will drift away from you for a day or so.” She bnkly told the man, then pointed deeper into the home.

  Trevor blinked twice at her sudden appearance but finally walked deeper into his own home.

  'Exodus' stood by the back door with his arms crossed across his chest. Meanwhile, Wolfsbane had transformed into her 'normal' form and was sitting on the couch; she was watching what the mage was doing as he stared at a currently inactive television.

  “What is this thing?” The mage asked.

  “You’ve never seen a TV before?" Trevor asked him. Nath'aniel shook his head that he hadn't.

  "It's used to rey information and entertain the masses," Erik expined the device's use.

  The mage actually flinched when Wolfsbane turned the thing on before also changing the channel with the remote, which was on the couch beside her. Then he just watched the image, the teen unmuted the TV and they could hear the weather forecast for a second before she changed the channel again. This time it showed them what looked like a western movie, and the sound of the men shooting made everyone else flinch.

  "Mute that please," Erik asked the girl, which she did. As he felt the bullets slowly inch their way down the stairs he warned the woman. "You may be using a pstic gun, Peggy, but you still have metal castings in the magazine don't you?"

  She came down the stairs, and around the corner enough to get a bead on him. “I do, but I never really trusted you like Steve and the others did, now did I Erik?”

  "You know we can take that away from you don't you?" The mutant leader told her before reaching up and taking off his hat.

  "No, you can't, as you've said, it's made from pstic." The gun-wielding woman argued.

  "Not me, She-Devil," Erik told her.

  The look of confusion was very sweet to him, as she wondered who he was referring to, she tried to spin around, but then the suddenly materialized amazon woman reached over and pulled the gun, and the woman holding it into the air like it was nothing.

  Peggy for her worth dove her knee into the blonde woman’s gut, but to no effect, beyond making her growl. Yet when She-Devil reached for one of her machetes, she was stopped by a single word.

  "Hold!" The mage ordered, still looking at the strange box of lights and motion. "We are their guests in their home, act the part if you will. If not then you can get out."

  If Erik didn’t know any better, he thought he saw She-Devil shiver at the second part. ‘Did she get turned on by him scolding her? It can’t be.’ He wondered, but left it for now, saying. "Nath'aniel is right, we are not here to threaten or fight, we're here to talk and maybe make a deal… so let everyone take a breath, and calm down.”

  Peggy was lowered, so she could stand on her own power, and the older woman released her grip on the gun. She-Devil then released the gun's ammo caught it and then un-chambered the loaded round, she muttered "I hate guns." before vanishing into a cloud of yellow sparkles.

  As the pistol fell atop a step, it took Erik a moment, before he wondered. ‘Where was her spear?’

  “She didn’t choose to materialize it.” Psylocke telepathically told him. They shared a look and she added. “That thesis is already teaching us a few tricks.”

  “So you’re Nath’aniel, the mage I take it?” Peggy asked said mage.

  Erik noted that she left the gun where it fell. Then as he felt the metal in a phone become charged, he reached out with a magnetic field and pulled Trevor's phone out of his hand into his own.

  As the mutant leader wagged his finger at the man, Nath’aniel turned to face the housewife. “Indeed I am, Nath’aniel, son of Path’aniel." As he introduced himself he bowed slightly towards both Peggy and her husband. "I am sorry my Servant acted so rashly in your home, but you did draw a weapon."

  “Fury told you about him?” Erik asked the married couple. Trevor just went to his probably personal recliner and sat down, while his wife shook her head.

  "Actually, it was the Ancient One that mentioned him to me." The former director of SHIELD admitted when the mutant leader gave her a confused look, she added. "We have tea twice a year, and this st time we met, she was quite pleased to share that your people hadn't gone extinct."

  “I am pleased that we haven’t also.” The mage agreed.

  For a time the only sound in the room was the remote that Wolfsbane was channel surfing with, as the tension lowered. Then Peggy asked. “Alright, Erik, what is it you want to talk with me about?”

  "I was hoping I could convince you to share some information about Steve with me," Erik admitted. When he did everyone gnced at Trevor who made an audible sigh.

  "Of course, you know. Who told you, Dum Dum?" The housewife's tone said that she was upset that they did.

  Erik was surprised but hid it, when Nath'aniel lied, saying. "It was Commander Barton actually." Peggy was clearly surprised by that when she looked at the mage, so he added. "I have been asked to be the mender for his health, a 'friends and family' pn I think he called it. As such he and I have been in contact on and off for a while now trying to arrange a meeting that fits both of our timetables."

  Peggy looked over their faces, before nodding while muttering. “He was there when Steve tried to break out of SHIELD headquarters, and may have been low enough on the list that he wasn’t told about the gag order.”

  ‘Why the deception?’ Erik wondered loudly.

  Psylocke picked up on his thoughts and expined. "She is under orders to report any leaks, if she doesn't the Army may ignore Steve's desires and keep her out of his reach. And apparently, your friend Dum Dum has done some other stuff that has upset the Army, like picking a fight with an overwatch team assigned to a SHIELD base."

  While they had their psychic conversation, Nath'aniel expined that he was only here to aid Erik in examining the Captain, so now Peggy was looking back towards him as she said. "There is absolutely no way that the detail is letting you within shouting distance of Steve, not with the warrants and bounties on your head.”

  "And that is why we are here, hoping to get some information from you," Erik said before mentioning the adjacent room and its long dining table. Peggy and he moved to the table and sat down, once seated he offered his pn to the former spy. "With your aid, we can find a nice window, a couple of hours in his day. we move in and swap out Steve for our shape-shifter Mystique, she can give him a message and a location for us to meet up, and once there we do what I want done, and get him back to his apparent without his detail ever finding out."

  "And what is it you want done?" The former director was back in the diver seat of her mind.

  'This is where it gets hard, I can't reveal my theory and can't reveal this supposed 'Great Truth' either.' So the mutant leader cleared his throat before answering. "I want to make sure he is safe and healthy. He both rescued me from that damn concentration camp and saved my ass a time or two during the war, I owe him. Nath'aniel can cast a spell that will access his health and state.'

  “You can’t tell me you’re not worried too. How often do they bring him in for tests, and for how long? How many months have they been sticking needles into him, or rge instruments to get deeper samples? He may be strong and Enhanced, but even he has his limits.”

  Peggy sighed before admitting. "For the past five months, once every three days, four to six hours a day."

  That information silenced him, and allowed Psylocke to add. "And don't think that you won't get nothing out of this. Nath’aniel’s investigation may actually aid your people’s efforts to unlock the formu that was used on the Captain.”

  Hearing that bit from the peanut gallery caused Peggy to shift in her seat to better look at the telepath, after a moment the former director asked. “What do you mean by that?”

  ‘Tread carefully Psylocke.’ Erik sternly thought.

  The telepath paused, but still answered in the end. "Back when SHIELD sent a team towards where we now live, three members of the team were injured, one of them was Dum Dum, with simple bruising and cuts, but he still got healed by Nathy. It took him less than a minute to separate the serum from the wounded man's DNA, and he was able to determine what it was improving to the man's body."

  Erik mouthed the word ‘Nathy’.

  While the mage added from the other room. “Dum Dum’s primary enchantment was actually durability and longevity, his strength was only marginally improved by the activating agent.”

  “What neither of your wives got pet names?” Psylocke telepathically asked him. That question made the mutant leader shake his head, as he didn’t want to share personal memories of his about his past lovers. “Such the gentleman.”

  When Erik turned back to watch Peggy she was rubbing the edge of her index finger atop her lips. That wasn't what told him she was thinking over their offer, it was her unfocused eyes that did that, whenever she was thinking about the Captain her eyes would gze over a bit.

  After a moment she sighed, and made a demand. “Say I agree, I want both myself and the head researcher in the room when he does whatever procedure he is going to do. You give even a touch of what you just learned from Dum Dum’s serum and I can keep her quiet.”

  The mutant leader was about to agree when the mage vetoed. "No."

  That refusal caused him to stand up and walk to the edge of the dining room to look at the other man. He was a little surprised when he heard Peggy join him. The mage was still watching the rapidly changing channels on the TV, but still, he didn't need prompting to expin.

  “Commander Barton called it Doctor/Patient Confidentiality, that you tribesmen needed to give such a concept a name still surprises me a little. Regardless, the only person allowed to be in the room when I work on the Captain, should be the Captain and anyone that I may need to assist me, and seeing as how for this procedure I require no one, then that shall be who else will be in the room with me.” Nath’aniel said.

  “How about a compromise?” Erik suggested the first idea that came to his mind. "We agree to her terms, but you stress and expin to them that in the end, it is Steven's decision who is, or isn't, in the room or not before you begin. And if he does want his privacy, then you share with them your results on the formu and only the formu."

  The mage looked over at him at the mention of a compromise. The two men, the mutant and the mage, shared a look. Erik felt like he was back at the lunch he shared with the mage and Psylocke the morning after they first awoken him again.

  The mutant leader was further surprised when Peggy agreed, saying. "Technically Steven has already waved away his right to privacy with Doctor Ross, but I can agree to this compromise, I do want her there though, in case something goes wrong."

  ‘She must really also be worried about what they are doing to him in those tests.' Erik thought. But he also knew that everything revolved around whether or not the mage agreed.

  Instead of agreeing, Nath'aniel asked. "Wolfsbane, would you go back three channels and wait?" The teen frowned but did as she was asked before the mage further asked. "Are those not the same uniforms the elites from the Nazi base wore?"

  Psylocke dematerialized and rematerialized standing beside the mage watching the TV. Then Erik and Peggy joined them. They heard Trevor state. "That's the local news, this is happening here in New York."

  There was smoke blocking much of the view of the camera when Erik looked at the screen, but once it cleared he growled. "Hydra, why are they attacking a cemetery?"

  "Oh no, Steve was going to slip away from his detail today, he told me he pnned to visit Howard's grave," Peggy announced.