Chapter 9- Compints of a Lancer

  Citadel – 3rd Floor Kitchen- 2008- 10- 22 (Early Morning)

  Eric Lensheer- (Magneto)

  The mutant leader was surprised to smell a fresh pot of coffee when he opened the door to the preparation area off of the Great Hall. They had received a partial payment from Fury for the prisoner exchange, but they still technically hadn't been rewarded for healing their agents. However, many of the mutants were ecstatic when they found both a coffee maker and packets of ground coffee and fresh coffee beans in their advanced payment.

  Knowing the only early risers among the tower's residents were Exodus and the mage, and neither drank coffee Erik wondered who brewed the pot. He was further surprised to see the Citadel's blonde Servant Shanna sitting in the thinner style of white shirt and pants that Nath'aniel had developed for sleepwear for his guests.

  “Long night?” Erik asked her as he fetched a mug for himself. She took a sip of her own mug instead of answering. He fixed a mug of his own, adding only a partial spoonful of sugar to it. As he moved to the other empty table in this back room he muttered. “I will take that as a yes.”

  “So do you prefer Shanna or Lancer this morning?” He asked her trying to start up a conversation.

  The woman’s only answer was. “I am not like Elizabeth.”

  He nodded at that rejection for a conversation, so he sat down at his table, and took a sip of his own coffee. After a deep sigh, he waited for the caffeine to hit him and then asked the ceiling. "Where is Nath'aniel?"

  “The young master is asleep in his quarters.”

  Erik widened his eyes at that response, and fully paused taking his second sip when the other occupant added. “He was up most of the night fucking.”

  He scooted his chair around a bit to face her and asked. “Pardon?”

  “It’s bad enough when he is bedding that giant of yours, then I only feel it from his side of things, and that I can kind of ignore what’s coming through the bond. But after he was done with her he switched over to banging my sister Servant too, and then I feel it from both of them and that I can’t just block out.” Shanna expined angrily, instead of repeating herself.

  He watched her sigh as he took his second sip.

  "I take it breakfast is deyed then," Erik muttered as he lowered his mug back to the table in front of him.

  “Breakfast was already deyed. You are being joined by the Ancient One in two hours for tea, and something called crumpets.”

  "Right, I forgot that was today." The mutant leader admitted as he reached for his coffee.

  Shanna pushed her own mug away from her, before she said. "Well if he is asleep then I might get a wink or two." She stood up from her table before she vanished in a puff of yellow sparkles.

  "The perks of being a Servant," Erik muttered before taking an actual half mouthful of the now much cooler coffee. He could ignore his hunger and waited, he could ignore a lot of things, but boredom was not one of them. So instead he asked the Citadel. “Do you have access to the results of my scans with Nath’aniel before dinner st night?”

  “I do.”

  “Did he have any results for me?” he asked her.

  "He did, would you like to hear them already, I know you like to theory craft sometimes. Also, I will of course inform him if you want them now."

  “Biology is not one of my expertise. Of course with that ship outside and that man’s notes, that might change.” Erik muttered to himself before answering. "No, I don't need to theory craft with him on this, if I have any questions I will ask him ter. Let me hear the results."

  "The young master spent two hours over your results before heading towards the Archive. He concludes that [Subject: High Evolutionary]'s gas will not cause Tribesmen of the Land to evolve as intended. It did however remove some genetic wear and tear on your body. He estimates that you will most likely live an extra thirty years longer, than his original estimation of two-seventy to a current estimate of three hundred instead."

  “So a gaseous form of the fountain of youth, interesting.” The mutant leader muttered before taking another drink from his mug.

  "Nath'aniel strongly discouraged the use of this gas on your kind, as it would most likely result in undesirable mutations."

  “I am assumingly things not like our X gene, did he give any examples?” Erik asked her as he lowered his mug again.

  “Unstable growths, visional color distortions, unable to detect smells or taste, and the mistranstions of pleasure and pain. Were some of the possible outcomes, he thought the gas would give its users.”

  Erik sighed when he heard the list and muttered. “So cancer and manufactured sociopaths or psychopaths, sounds like this gas is a non-radioactive repcement for some of the worst things humanity has encountered.’

  "Perhaps there is a way that we could awaken those with dormant X genes." He muttered near the end and rubbed his chin in thought.

  The feeling of metal shifting told him of the doors opening warned him he wouldn’t be alone for much longer. He looked up and saw an unlikely pair. Mystique and Exodus walked towards him. However, the shape-shifter did stop for a mug of coffee before completing the walk to him.

  The knight waited for their team’s infiltrator to start things.

  "We need to talk about the future of the Brotherhood." The blue-skinned woman said once she was seated. Then she took a sip off of her mug.

  “About?” Erik asked them.

  "After yesterday's dispy, it is clear that the Brotherhood is stronger than it was before." Exodus pointed out.

  "Well some of them did get some experience while you were away." the mutant leader muttered before taking another mouthful of coffee, as he lowered it he noticed that he had drained it already and frowned.

  "Sorry, I was not fast enough on my task to aid you in dealing with those Nazis…" Exodus said, but near the end, he trailed off, like he was about to call Erik something but stopped himself.

  Mystique then started a rant. “We didn’t just win yesterday. We trounced an army of, basically Enhanced combatants. Deadpool was using his Desert Eagles, those are fifty caliber rounds he was using, and while it tore through the knights' and squires' armor, it didn't outright kill or put down those soldiers. Only my rifle was putting down those beast-men."

  "With its exotic rounds, that Nath'aniel gave us," Erik muttered softly.

  She continued despite his minor interruption. “Then Quicksilver, Ka-zar, and my son have weapons that cut through their armor like it was nothing, think what they could do to the forces used by those in the rest of the world. How many weapons are made of metal like those beast-men's armor?"

  “Weapons made with anti-metal that Nath’aniel provided.” He added again.

  Mystique's face twitched at this interruption, but still, she continued. "Rogue and Murmur dealt with over a dozen of their forces alone. Murmur's powers alone were strong enough to capture the mind of one of their knights."

  “She was able to do that because of the glove that was Nath’aniel’s gift to her, for joining the Brotherhood," Erik said pinly, before spinning his empty mug around. While she was still adamant, the mutant leader noted that Exodus had taken a couple of steps to distance him from the shape-shifter.

  “What is your problem?” She snapped at him.

  “What is yours?” Erik snapped back at her, although he didn’t let her answer as he added. “You disregard our host like he is just another human, when he is not. There are what? Seven, different races living in this tower alone.” He held up his hand before citing them all.

  “Mages, Servants, Mutants…” he paused before continuing. “We can’t say human because the only one here is a Servant, but we have two Leapers. Over twenty-five Shell-born, as much, if not more Pterons, and a Fire Elemental!”

  Mystique sighed and looked at her coffee but did not drink it, before asking. “Your point?”

  “I think his point is, it's no longer us versus them," Exodus said from his distance from the table.

  "Erik. The young master is awake and is asking for you to join him and his disciple in the Mystical Studies room on the fourth floor."

  The mutant leader leaned back from the woman he had been subtly scolding to look towards the ceiling. "Thank you Citadel, inform him that I will be there in a moment."

  "You don't even see it do you Erik? He's leading us around like his pawns." The blue woman muttered as he stood up.

  The mutant leader thought for a moment before responding. “He asked, he didn’t order… Mystique get your gear together, I have a job for you.” When she sat up straighter he moved to pce his hand on her shoulder. “That was an example of an order. His was a request, I could have just as easily told him we were busy or it was too dangerous and it would have been over.”

  Erik took the time to walk over and pick up Shanna's coffee mug, before he brought them both to the prep sink. Then he moved to the room's exit. At it, he added. "Tonight we are expected to sit with him for our deal. Mystique, tonight is your turn.” She moved to compin, but he wasn’t having any of it. “Even Deadpool and Copycat have taken a turn, tonight it is yours. Be there.”

  Once outside in the hallway, he moved towards the closest re-locator. Before he got there Exodus joined him, the man floating above the floor.

  Before Erik pressed the rune to open the door his second-in-command said. "I am sorry, but her words influenced me."

  The mutant leader pressed the rune, and as the doors opened he said. “She’s our spy, if her words couldn’t influence us, we wouldn’t trust her to do her job out there. She’s just sore that Cable is out there.’

  "But she is right, yesterday was a sign that things are going well for us. We beat an army of Enhanced, but between you and me, do you think our enemies will only have just one?"

  "No, they will have more." The knight admitted but then asked. "To settle her we need to find Cable, how do we do so?”

  Erik stepped into the small room, before admitting “I don’t know. We don’t have a Cerebro, and we don’t have something that Nath’aniel could use as a sample to scry for him.”

  “Deadpool gave me a pistol. He said it was part of a down payment from the man.” Exodus began to say, but the leader was already shaking his head.

  "Blood or something energy-based. But send it to my room. I will take a look at it." Erik said before the doors closed on him. Then he realized that other than the fourth floor he didn't know where the Mystical Studies room was. Just as he was about to ask the ceiling where he should press, the room shifted and a mild purple light fshed under the room's door.

  When the doors to the room opened he was greeted by a floating green crystal.

  “This way.”

  It muttered before floating off towards the right.

  It wasn't a long walk, with two hallway intersections, a left turn at a third, and the first door on the right. The doors opened for him as soon as he neared them, no need to press anything. Once open he saw a room with three workstations. Each had a table and a trio of what looked like bckboards. Under each bckboard were three sets of half cabinets.

  At the furthest station was his daughter, Wanda. She still had bck hair with red tips, but instead of the costume he made for her, she was wearing the robes that were reserved for mages' disciples.

  Beside her was a cart without wheels and a pair of worker constructs. The constructs stood at the ready. While the cart was filled to the brim with, of all things, rolled-up bamboo scrolls, both the top section and the middle part.

  As he entered the room, Wanda lifted one of the scrolls and moved it toward the nearby desk before unrolling it.

  He walked half of the distance before asking her. “Any idea of why we were called here?”

  She didn’t look away from the scroll as she answered him. “Master was here with the cart when I arrived. When I asked, he told me he wanted to wait till both of us were here before he answered… He will be back shortly just went to get some water for us.”

  ‘Master.’ He thought, but didn't say anything, as he continued to walk to her.

  He waited a bit, and was just about to ask her what it was she was reading, when the doors opened. The mage entered alone, but it was difficult to know, with possibly two invisible intangible Servants shadowing him. He had a tray he held with both hands, on it was a water-filled pitcher and a half dozen empty gsses. Erik also noted that the mage had a rolled-up scroll in the crook of his right arm.

  “Oh, good, you’re both here.” The mage muttered around the same distance around when he had asked his daughter a question.

  Before Nath'aniel could expin anything, Erik approached him and called him out. “Up half the night with two women? After a battle, I know you look young but everyone has their limits. Last I knew, you didn't have a healing factor."

  The mage chuckled, before admitting. “We were celebrating.”

  Erik didn’t have time to ask about what, as Wanda asked the mage. “Is this the Servant Thesis?”

  Nath’aniel smiled before admitting. “Yes, yes it is.” He lifted the tray, and one of the mannequin constructs moved to aid him.

  "And like I predicted, I cannot read that." Erik pointed out reminding him of his guess that he wouldn't be able to read or understand the answer to what Nath'aniel had done to his team's recruiter.

  The mage agreed. “While I agree your Magi reading skills are wanting. You can read this.” Nath’aniel moved to the foot of the table that Wanda was using to read a bamboo scroll, and unrolled the scroll he still possessed.

  The mutant leader joined him and looked at what was written atop the rge page. "A Diagram?" he guessed after a moment of looking it over. Then he spent another moment reading the measurements and material noted, and he further guessed. “One of your bio-beds?”

  "Correct. You did say you wanted to try your hand again on some of our devices." The mage confirmed. He then pointed at some components that had little notations near the middle. "This I will need to build from scratch, but the rest of the bed I am hoping to leave to you."

  Erik crossed his arms before asking. “What is different from this bed when compared to the ones you already have?”

  Nath'aniel didn't wait and answered him. "The standard bio-bed scans the body, using simir techniques to our Appraisal spells. If we install these new components, and they do as the thesis's third addendum suggested they do, this will scan a person's soul or a Servant's Heroic Spirit.'

  “It will tell us what abilities a Servant has from their bond and from their css. While non-Servants, who are scanned using the bed will be told what csses they qualify for.”

  “Css?” He asked the mage.

  However, it was his daughter who answered him. “It seems that the Mages needed to make sure that the power they were going to be giving out wasn’t being wasted, so the potential Servants needed to pass certain criteria and qualify for a css. It says here that, this css also worked as a kind of framework or guide in how the mage would empower the subject’

  “It looks like the base seven were based off of their military constructs.” As Wanda read more and more of the scroll in front of her she took up more and more of the table.

  Erik then looked over at his mage friend. Nath'aniel had rolled up the sleeves of his robes revealing the eight tattoos on his forearms. As the mage held up his bare forearms the mutant leader recited the css of soldiers that he had encountered while living in the Citadel.

  "Saber, Archer, Lancer, Berserker, Rider, Assassin, and Caster… but you have an eighth." He said looking at the tattoos on the mage's arm.

  Nath'aniel nodded and admitted. "They added more csses in the second and fourth addendums. As far as I can tell there are now thirty-six different csses."

  Hearing that made the mutant leader whistle in surpise.