Chapter 37- Captured

  Unknown – a dimly lit room - Oct 24, 2008 (Unknown Time)

  James ‘Logan’ Howlett- (Wolverine)

  He could smell that he wasn't alone, so the veteran kept his eyes closed as he tried to figure out where he was. He could feel that he was in a bed, but not under the covers, he could also feel his toes could move freely so they had taken off his boots at some point.

  Somewhere to his left was a man, who he was Wolverine didn’t know. But he knew this man was an outdoorsman same as him, if his scent told him anything about him. Also, the man wasn't alone, as the veteran could smell a heavily coated feline odor. There were other scents too, but they were faint, echoes of who had been in the room.

  He felt it was odd that the only familiar scent was Storm’s, and none of the other X-men’s or any of the other members of the Brotherhood.

  “Lights dim.” The unknown man said. Then the illumination increased slightly in the room, a ceiling mp by the looks of it.

  Wolverine could now see the man, a blonde twenty-something-year-old, dressed in only boots and leather running shorts. He could smell the cold metal concealed behind the man's back. While the mutant looked around the room for the cat that he could still smell, but couldn’t locate, as the young man spoke.

  "You're good, not only did you wake up well before what Nath'aniel thought you would, but you also kept me from realizing it right away." The young man said to him.

  Still unsure of the breed of cat he was smelling, Wolverine spoke to buy himself some time to locate it. “Not that well, you still noticed.”

  “I didn’t the Citadel did. I am Ka-zar by the way. They told me you use the name Wolverine, although that Storm woman called you something else.” The other man told him.

  Wolverine frowned as he tried to figure out what this ‘Citadel’ was, but his face smirked as he thought. ‘Ah, she still cares.’ Then he asked. “Where are the others, and how did you knock me and the others out all at once?”

  This Ka-zar smiled and waved his hands as he spoke. "Look your junior members started the fight, so after a while Nath'aniel decided enough was enough and ended it, he cast a sleep spell on all of you still fighting. Except for your leader, and she surrendered soon after. As for where they are, they are here, probably in rooms like this I would think. They asked me to watch you in case you woke up in a rage. They said you are known for doing that."

  "And you're going to stop me if I do?" The veteran asked surprised.

  Ka-zar's smile widened as he asked. "Have you heard of Anti-metal? The mage calls it Latherium."

  Wolverine growled before he answered. “Nope.”

  Then the other man pulled a one of his concealed weapons. A short one-edged knife made of an odd metal. Most wouldn't notice it, but whenever it caught the light, the metal seemed to reflect a bck-and-white rainbow to the veteran's eyes.

  Ka-zar waved the little knife as he spoke. "You see, this metal isn't sharp, but it cuts through other metals like they're not even there. I once cut through an assault rifle like it was wood… they say you have metal cws and bones, and that you heal fast. But can you repce the metal in you if I melt it?'

  “You may not be our prisoners, but you all are certainly our captives.” The man added after a moment.

  “You a mutant too?” Wolverine asked him. When Ka-zar nodded and added. "Is finding rare metals your power or something?"

  Instead of answering the other man put his knife away, and then he pulled out a barbed round thing from a pouch attached to his shorts. Wolverine then noticed the man also had a sling, hanging from the other side of his belt, as the man closed his fist around the barbed projectile.

  When Wolverine could smell the man's blood, a throw pillow that he had been ignoring also moved. A kitten the size of a full-sized dog stretched and looked up at the other mutant. Ka-zar reached down and pets the rge cat’s head, before opening and revealing his bleeding palm to the veteran.

  As he said, “Nope, I am immortal.” The revealed injury, his hand was a torn bloody mess for a moment, and then his eyes and the wound fshed a brilliant mix of colors. Most wouldn’t notice it, but Wolverine did, it looked to him like it was as if the cosmos itself fixed the other man.

  ‘Damn, and people say my healing is overpowered.’ The veteran thought, as he stared at the man as he offered the blood on his palm for the oversized cat to lick off. When the cat tried to steal a finger, Ka-zar bonked the cat in the nose in warning.

  “What happens to us now?” Wolverine asked ready to rush for the door.

  The half-dressed man took a deep breath before saying. "Well if you're ready I can take you to your team leader. She is in a conference with Magneto and Exodus, not far from here. After that, I don't know. I am kind of new to this…"

  “What, you didn’t know that you were a mutant?” the veteran asked, while he climbed out of bed.

  Ka-zar shrugged before saying. “Well that too, but I was more referring to being a member in a secret group kind of thing.” The little tiger cub growled up at Wolverine as he got near to it.

  So Wolverine just growled right back at it. That startled the cat and it got up and hid behind the other mutant’s legs, then he asked him. “Where are my boots?”

  Ka-zar pointed to a dark room and told him. "In the bathroom, didn't want to track in the mud. So we washed them for you." The other man watched as Wolverine moved to get his footwear. The small room lit up on its own when he stepped into it. Sure enough, his boots were sitting on a drying rack over a sink. When he looked at the tank-less toilet, it surprised him that he didn't smell any stink from it.

  "Just to warn you, there will be a couple of machine guards that will be following you around," Ka-zar told him, as Wolverine sat to put on his boots. The X-man gave the other mutant a side-long gre. "They are there for your protection as well to watch you. On this floor and others, there are automated defenses, if they detect you without a guard, well they will activate and attack you, so please don't try and ditch them."

  ‘Robot, traps, and turrets, you really outdid yourself Mags.’ Wolverine thought as he got up after putting on his boots. “Well let’s go.” He told the other man.

  Just like the man had warned him, a pair of robots was waiting for them outside of the little apartment. One was tall and skinny and held a heavy-bded spear, while the other was a blocky knight, who had a great sword strapped to his back.

  Wolverine followed Ka-zar and his oversized tiger cub, and the robots followed him. They passed half a dozen doors simir to the one that he left after he woke, till they came to a door-less archway. He could see Exodus floating on the far side of the table, as well as Magneto and Storm seated, drinking tea and talking, yet he could not make out any of their words. This caused him to frown. The robots following them took up stations on either side of the arch as he and Ka-zar neared.

  And while he could not hear them, he could smell them, and the berry-fvored tea that they were drinking. Yet as soon as he stepped through the archway, their words hit him.

  “So you’re saying that this is bigger than just being in America?” Strom asked them to crify something.

  Exodus nodded before stating. "The parts for these trackers were made in three different countries, and the casing from a fourth."

  "There is the chance that there is a parent or allied organization that ties them all together, but we have been distracted by other things, and given Destiny's recent death, I didn't trust letting Mystique out on her own, well until recently," Magneto expined.

  "I knew that she was getting on the older side, I am sorry to hear that she passed," Strom stated right away.

  Then the leader of the Brotherhood muttered. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t age that took her.”

  "She was murdered," Exodus admitted.

  “How? Her powers allowed her to see the future.” Wolverine asked as he neared them and the table.

  Ka-zar nodded at his fellow members of the Brotherhood, Magneto returned the greeting, while the floating man did not. Then the younger man turned around and left the way he came.

  Instead, Exodus answered his question. "Our working theory is that she saw a worse future, if she pressed the battle. Like the deaths of the kids that she raised." The light bender then rubbed his chin and admitted. "But then again, the man who killed her was a telepath. So he could have also done something like what Charles does and shut her down, or even maybe just blocked her visions, so she didn't see it coming."

  “This Cable a mutant?” the veteran asked before pulling out a chair and sitting down. Once seated, he pulled back his mask, before reaching for an untouched gss of water.

  “He is, and a cyborg. But there is more to it than that. The weapons he used… well to be completely honest, were too advanced.” Exodus stated.

  That made Wolverine and Storm share a look, before she asked him. “What do you mean by that?”

  The light bender seemed dead serious when he stated. “The man’s primary weapon was an energy weapon of some kind. It reminded me of the projectiles that Sunfire could generate and project. And Cable cimed that it was at its lowest setting, and yet the rifle could bst apart any shield or weapon constructs that I could create at the time.’

  “Then there was his cyborg arm. It was far more streamlined and mobile than anything I have seen promoted by any of the tech giants. The closet thing I have seen is Iron Man’s armor, but that is a suit around a man, not a repcement limb.”

  "Then there is this," Magneto added, before using his powers to move a box to sit in front of the veteran.

  The box’s lid opened on its own, and Wolverine could see an unfamiliar handgun inside of the box. He muttered, "Looks like a forty-five," before reaching into the box. The gun leaped up to meet his hand. Wolverine gave the brotherhood leader a gre.

  "That wasn't me." The white-haired man stated after receiving the look.

  Then the veteran pulled the gun away from his one hand with his other. Even doing that was difficult, as it didn't want to sit still in his hand. Still, he looked over the firearm, before asking. "What's with the extra vents alongside the barrel?"

  "They're not vents. They're magnetic field generators." Magneto corrected and then expined. "What is in your hand is a gauss weapon. It uses both gunpowder and magnetic fields to speed up the projectile."

  “A prototype?” Storm asked. As Wolverine tried to get the weapon out of his hands and back into the box.

  "Nope," Exodus said ftly.

  “That was one of two given to Deadpool, as his reward for fighting Exodus and Mystique’s family.” The Brotherhood leader expined.

  “I hate that guy he never shuts up… Alright, I’ll bite, what does it all mean?” He asked them, and then offered the gun back to Magneto when he couldn’t get the gun out of his hands.

  The Brotherhood leader waved his hand and the weapon floated out of Wolverine's hand and drifted back into the box. The lid closed on its own, or rather because of the other man's powers. Then Magneto stated. "Well if aliens, magic, and gods are real, and given his justification for what he did, was that she would weaken us at some point in the future. He is either afflicted like the regenerator was, is just straight up crazy, or he is a time traveler."

  The veteran crossed his arms and compined. “Great. Like we don’t have enough whack jobs in the world. Can we get back to these trackers and why we came here in the first pce?”

  "Well the bottom line is this, they know where they came from, but since the factories that made the parts are all from outside of the US, they doubt our allies in the FBI will have much more success if we hand it over," Storm told him.

  “So we came here for nothing. What a waste of time.” The veteran compined again.

  However, after a moment Exodus' next statement caused his leader some worry when he said. “Maybe not.” Although Wolverine doubted anyone else could tell that the man was either worried or surprised.

  “What do you mean?” the veteran asked quickly before the master of magnetism could shut the man down.

  The former knight expined. "Here in the Savage Lands, we have encountered several non-human breeds of life. One of the beastmen tribes, the Stone Singers, has been requesting for Nath'aniel to visit their main settlement, and in particur their 'Oracle', for a few months now."

  Magneto let out a breath after hearing the other man's words and said. "That's what you were referring to. It's possible, that this Oracle of theirs knew that I and some soldiers would do battle with a pair of Tyrannosaurus. She also somehow knew that we would wipe out a faction down here in the Savage Lands."

  ‘What is he hiding? And what is he was worried about his man saying the wrong thing?’ Wolverine wondered but didn’t say anything.

  "She also knew about the Sun People's attempt at awakening their captive Fire Giant and the return of the 'gods' or more nominally the coming of Frey and his crew," Exodus added.

  “How?” Storm asked surprised.

  "We don't know," Magneto admitted.

  “The Stone Singers are made up of gorgons, an all-female race of snake women. It’s possible that they have mutants among them too, from all their breeding with us humans.” Exodus guessed.

  “They’re what?” Wolverine asked surprised.

  "Medusas, mias, and any kind of snake woman you can think of." A young voice said from the entrance of this room.

  “Son, I take it from your presence that they are waking?” The Brotherhood leader greeted the newcomer. Wolverine knew who it was before he spoke. He could smell the burnt footwear long before he spoke.

  “They are.” Quicksilver answered, and then asked.” Are we finally going to Earth Eternal?”

  "Apparently my son has grown a fondness for non-human women," Magneto admitted.

  “I will correct that, I learned a strong lesson from Lord Frey, I say yes to all women.” The speedster stated.

  Wolverine shook his head at that comment before he looked Storm in the eye and asked. "What do you think?"

  Instead of answering him, she asked Magneto. "Why haven't you gone already?"

  The older mutant sighed before admitting. “Well for one they haven’t pressed. And it would take most of a day to get to their capital. It’s inside of the mountain range on the eastern edge of the Savage Lands. And while I could nd the Grey-Wing with my powers, rocket fuel is a premium resource for us right now. And honestly, I don’t want this pce that unprotected.”

  The two X-men shared a look again, before Storm asked. “How do you want to do this?”

  "First, we will need to get Nath'aniel's approval," Exodus stated.

  "The young master has agreed to going, assuming this Bckbird is as fast as you make it out to be."

  "Who the heck is that?" Wolverine asks surprised, as the voice sounds both natural and ethereal at the same time. Worse yet, he couldn't pin down an exact source for it.

  Magneto answered. “The Citadel has a living conciseness running it… It helps me sleep at night, just thinking of it as a sort of magic AI.”

  Then Exodus cut them to the quick when he asked. "What about their junior members? They were the ones on a hair trigger and were the ones to start the fight in the first pce."

  Storm looked towards Wolverine, and he was about to say he would take care of it, when the building spoke to them again.

  “[Temporary Guest: Captain America] has offered to, ‘run them through the ringer’.”

  "I don't know if it sits comfortably with me that the next batch of X-men are getting trained by an actual war hero." Magneto compined before the building crified.

  “The offer was for both the junior members of both the X-men and the Brotherhood.”

  “That sounds like, ah, a great pn, um, Citadel.” Storm agreed.