AnnouncementSorry this is so te, i scheduled it, but for some reason it didn't post.Chapter 7- Settling with Newmen

  Preserve – Newmen Compound, Medical Lab – 3rd day of the month ofNiffle of the 6983 GR (Early Afternoon)

  Nath’aniel-

  It was only him and Shanna in the b, when he realized what the Citadel meant by a 'rge' magnetic anomaly. He had to shield his eyes, when the field's edges started to near the ground level, and it still would be a couple of minutes before Erik would be nding the craft.

  So he sighed, and went back to work. Trying to use the readings he got from treating the feline woman, and the notes that they had found left behind in the b proper. Mystique also suggested that this High Evolutionary could have hidden a key or had memorized a portion of the material just to dey those who found his work.

  However, the mage was still of the mind, that the man had something in him that was linking the missing components and chemicals together. So the blue-skinned mother wasn't completely wrong, he had memorized the information. Only that it was his body that had done the work for him, and not his mind, most people would study or learn.

  Then as he thought he was on to something, one of the communications stones spoke at him.

  “Gypsy to Nath’aniel.” It said.

  He smirked at the sound of his disciple’s voice, and then he reached over to activate his end and said. “Go ahead.”

  Once he released it, she continued to speak. “Exodus and I have been aiding Magneto in bringing the rge ship in. We should be there shortly… Nath, you should check him over when you can. He seems different after fighting the beast-men’s leader, Magneto admits to being exposed to a gas of some sort.’

  “Also, once we saw the compound he admitted something… A shuttle unched from the ship before he could capture it. Father thinks the senior leadership got away.”

  ‘And she has been doing so good keeping it professional too.' The mage thought, before pressing the stone to reply. “That might actually be beneficial to us. I will see you three when I expin it, once you nd. See you soon, Nath’aniel out.”

  The mage then scoped up the stones and added them to a pouch on his belt. Then he gathered up the papers and folded up the notes, before adding them to his robes inside breast pocket. As he did he felt Shanna's spirit jump and dematerialize.

  Once outside of the b, Nath'aniel could see that Magneto wasn't arrogant enough to try and nd the ship on top of the compound's upper levels, as he saw the tip of it outside of the walls of this pce.

  So he walked towards the nding site. As he neared the walls two things happened, first Nightcrawler teleported beside the mage with his mother in hand, before falling back, to let his mother and the mage talk. Additionally, Nath'aniel began writing the magic runes in the air to make the air into a series of steps out of hardened air.

  "I want to be there when we settle this." The blue-skinned woman stated.

  “You and Magneto have been the most vocal about needing to get rid of these creatures, even given our limited understanding of them. So why should I allow you to corrupt my leanings?” He asked her as he walked up the steps to the top of the wall.

  The mother and son followed him up the steps, as she pleaded her case. "Of everyone here, I have the most life experience, you and Exodus may be older than me, but I haven't spent the majority of my life trapped in an alien device. And with that life experience, I know just how damming the crime that they have committed is. I know you won't just kill them, but I want to stress to you that you don't let them off light either."

  The mage paused at the top of the wall. As he created another set of steps to let them down he said to her. “Oh, we Magi know how damning their actions are, even during the Great Rebellion the tribes of the Earth did their best to prevent themselves from resorting to such behavior. And even those that did resort to it, while their service and contributions were recognized, but they in the end were still exiled after the war.”

  “What Great Rebellion?” The boy asked him.

  Nath'aniel had to adjust the steps, and put a turn in them. Otherwise, he would have ended the steps inside of the nded ship. So as he fixed them he muttered. "It's part of the World History final. You will be learning about it in a month or two."

  “First genes I have never heard of before, and now a world event I can only guess at. What are you teaching my kids?” Mystique asked him, as she did she crossed her arms over her ample chest, as the descended the steps.

  He didn't have any proof, but he had the feeling that she had used her powers to increase their size since st they had spoken together. Not willing to be distracted by such things, he immediately answered her. "I presented the curriculum that I and the Citadel would be using, before you agreed to us taking over their educations. You had no questions then, in fact, I recall you being quite pleased to them receiving a magi education."

  The mother looked off to the side, as she grumbled. “That was when I thought you would be teaching them magic as well.”

  “Tribesmen of the Land require a basic education before one can be taken as a Disciple. To bypass this, brings both shame to Master and Disciple… and besides, of four kids, Wolfsbane included, going through these lessons. Only one of them has a spark developed enough to attempt the learning the mystic arts.” The mage expined as he finished the second set of stairs.

  “Spark?” Mystique asked him, stopping his descent.

  Nath’aniel looked over his shoulder so that he could see her before answering. “Just like the body has many organs, the soul has several parts as well. The Spark is the component that allows us to influence and shape the mystic energies of the universe.”

  Stunned the mother stared at him, after a moment her son stopped as well and waited for his mother’s brain to reboot. Meanwhile the mage continued to walked down the stairs to the gathering of mutants at the base of the craft. Through his bond, the mage could feel that Shanna was shadowing him, while Betsy was circling the ship in her spirit form. He suspected that she was looking for the Newmen's creator inside.

  Despite how long it took him to return, Magneto was still catching his breath when the mage joined them. Just as he was about to ask the mutant leader a question, a puff of smoke announced that mother and son took the quick way down.

  This gave the mage enough pause to let Magneto lead the conversation. He apologized before anyone else could speak. "Sorry Nath'aniel, there was a hidden shuttle. I tried to grab it, but it was hard enough to…"

  The mage interrupted him by walking into the man’s personal space. Nath’aniel quickly cast an Appraisal spell on the man. Exodus questioned his actions. “What are you doing?”

  “His crow’s feet are gone.” The mage stated while reading the read out in front of him.

  The image showed much of the normal readings that the mutant had, but there was something else too. Nath’aniel was a touch proud when his disciple asked. “He is under the effects of a mutagen?” She was showing off, as she read the magi characters in what made up the image. But one should be allowed to show off a little, after putting in the work.

  "The gas," Magneto muttered, before expining. “Their leader released a green gas when he reduced his size. I thought it was just to hide his escape.”

  “It should surprise no one. That the High Evolutionary was also experimenting on himself. I think that gas you were exposed to was his Evolution Formu." Nath'aniel theorized, but then he noticed that the mutagen wasn't the only thing affecting the man's body.

  "I thought you said that formu could be deadly for us mutants," Exodus asked, worry clear on his face.

  “The formu used to make the Enhanced, yes, those can be very deadly to your kind.” Nath’aniel agreed, and then he stated his conclusion from what he was seeing before him in the image. “However, this one is more subtle, it shouldn’t reach deep enough to affect your Mosul gene, and while your body seems to be fighting it, I still want you to come see me sometime tomorrow for a full checkup. And no alcohol for the next couple of days, just to be on the safe side.”

  As he was looking over the older tribesman, the sound of metal detaching made everyone look toward the reason they were out there. A ramp started to lower, but because of the bent state of the metal it didn't get but a couple of inches from the side of the craft before becoming stuck.

  The mage could see the mutant leader reached out and willed his powers to warp and bend the metal, allowing the metal ramp to continue to lower. Nath'aniel noted that the amount of magnetic energy he could just whip up had increased, as the waves of energy he was emitting was thicker than before.

  ‘He must have reached the magenta sphere, and absorbed the energy at that level.’ Nath’aniel thought as they watched the ramp lower to the ground.

  They saw a pair of Newmen at the ramp's opening with their arms raised in surrender. Both were quite rge, so rge in fact that the two of them couldn't leave the double door exit at the same time. 'Although they are not quite as tall as Basilisk.' Nath’aniel noted to himself.

  The first one to leave the ship was a female. Not because of her clothes, as she wore very embossed and hand-carved gold and steel armor that was both pretty and functional, thus her curves were hidden by the suit. No, it was her face that Nath'aniel could tell the beast-woman was a she, as she cked the snout so many Newmen had. Instead, she had a rather attractive heart-shaped face, with stiff bck hair hanging over the back of her armor.

  The other beast-man that followed was just as rge, but not in muscle but in hide-covered fat. He was clearly of elephant stock, from the very long nose and tusk stumps sticking out of his partially open mouth. Unlike the other 'leaders' of the Newmen he wore an Olympian style robe.

  As they walked down, the mage wrote and cast the Echoing Words spell, he pushed it passed its journeyman level towards expert, so that everyone inside the ship would hear his words. He learned the spell as more and more factions came for Entreatment Day. It was getting to the point that he was worried that it might be too much for everyone who came to hear him.

  “We surrender, please if you need to kill someone to sate your rage take it out on us and spare the st of our people.” The female stated as she neared the end of the ramp. The mage could see some knights standing at the ready at the entrance, but they were also holding their position. The two leaders stopped walking, when Betsy exited her spirit jump near him. His Assassin shook her head at him.

  ‘Likely a defensive force.’ He thought about the men at the entrance, before speaking. “We are not here to conquer, but to punish. Your people, you newmen, have vioted the w of these nds, we not only have proof of this, but have proof that you have done so multiple times!” He didn’t shout or raise his voice, but he could see that the men at the entrance had also reacted to his words.

  “Who are you to judge us?” the rge woman snapped.

  “The one’s holding the guillotine above your heads.” Magneto snapped back. That they both paled at his statement meant they somehow knew what that was, despite the mage not.

  "And our crime?" the beast woman again was the one to speak. She probably hoped to be able to have some form of defense.

  But both of the Newmen before him became defted when Nath'aniel answered them. “Cannibalism.”

  Finally, the robe-wearing beast-men justified his presence by expining. "Well, you see a good percentage of our people are still carnivores, and haven't been adjusted too…"

  “Those primitives aren’t people!” The female interrupted her companion.

  Nath'aniel stared the taller woman in the eye as he corrected her. "Yes, they are, however they are under the effects of a toxin native to the region, which you appear to be immune to. One that makes communication difficult, tempers shorter and focus reduced. I.e. simple-minded. Mind you that excuse doesn't work when you take into account the Cat people that live to north of you, as they too are immune."

  “So that’s what that is in the soil.” Male beast-men muttered.

  Then the female snapped again. “How else are we supposed to get enough to feed our people?”

  "And you didn't think to try herding?" The mage suggests to them an alternative.

  “Try what? Herding what’s that?” the elephant man asked.

  “The act of gathering and breeding animals, with the end goal of converting them into sustenance. Also known as ranching.” Nath'aniel expined so even the others inside would hear him. Again the Newmen became defted at his suggestion, telling him that they hadn't even thought of it. Then he added another. "Or here's a crazy idea, try trading with those that already do… No, instead you captured and ate them."

  Despite being bigger and stronger than the gathered tribesmen and him, the Newmen in front of them seemed to cower in shame.

  “We couldn’t converse with the primitives, I mean others.” Elephant man muttered softly.

  The mage was stunned for a moment, before compining. “You gave up from a simple nguage barrier? And you call them the primitives.”

  Beaten both from the battle and his words, the female asked. “And what will be our punishment, death?”

  "No, and the losses you've already suffered will be taken into account as well. But this is not something to be discussed with low or even middle-level leadership. Where is your leader, where is the High Evolutionary?" Nath'aniel gave them the good news, before asking the whereabouts of their creator. Although he already had an inkling where the cause for all of this was.

  “Gone.” The female admitted. “He and all of our senior leadership fled with the scout ship. We are all that is left of our command structure.”

  “A soldier and a researcher?” he asked them. They nodded that was indeed their roles, before he again scolded them. “That is unacceptable. You cannot have a ruling body of just the two of you when you people have a third faction among it underrepresented. Your first duty will be to select someone from your working css to join the two of you… Additionally in four days will be Entreatment day, you two, and your third leader will be expected to attend.”

  “Entreatment Day?” the female newman asked.

  The mage answered the woman's question as it was expected. "It is a regur event for me and my people. Where the various leaders or their advisors gather at my home, during it, they make ask for aid and information from me. You make ask for one or the other, not both.'

  "As for your punishment, we will start by confiscating your ship, since your leader stole it in the first pce. Your personal effects may be gathered but anything else, any tools machines, or tech on it will have to remain. And our mind reader will know if you try to sneak something past us."

  “But we have ongoing experiments in there.” the male beast-man compined.

  Nath'aniel got in the elephant man's personal space and poked him in the trunk before snapped back. "Then you should have thought about that before you started eating people shouldn't you have."

  “Or been strong enough to stop us.” Magneto also offered.

  The rge Newman backed away from both of them and fell when he tripped on the ramp.

  The mage looked up at the female and stated. “You have an hour to gather your things.”