More Than the X Can See

Chapter 19

At nine, Logan finished setting up Nathan’s laptop to receive the video images from the Institute. The laptop and video camera were pointed towards the other side of the kitchen table. When the Institute contacted them, the camera gave them an image of Nathan in the middle with Logan on the right and Angel on the left. The breakfast dishes had been cleared away and Logan had made sure they all had paper and a pen to take down notes.

A man of apparently mixed African-American descent appeared on the screen, a large black ‘M’ was tattooed over his right eye, his shoulder length black hair was combed back from his face and a trim black goatee delineated his chin. He chest and arms were covered in a dull black, form fitting armor with a two inch stylized golden ‘X’ within a circle on his right shoulder clearly visible.

“Cable?” the man asked in a deep baritone.

“We can hear you, Bishop,” Nathan replied.

“Good,” Bishop said and looked down to enter commands into a keyboard that was below the camera range.

Warren Worthington, III appeared in a small square that appeared in the top left hand corner of the laptop screen. His blond hair, pale complexion and the tips of his white folded wings contrasted with a dark background and the shoulders of the navy blue business suit he wore.

“Archangel?” Bishop asked.

“I can see them,” Warren replied.

“Cable?” Bishop asked.

Nathan nodded and replied, “We can hear and see Archangel.”

Bishop nodded back and typed more commands into the keyboard.

The view on the laptop changed from the straightforward view of Bishop’s head and shoulders to an angled overhead view of a large conference room. It was the same conference room where Logan had placed Angel on a cot in the corner, but the centeble ble had changed from a flat top to a three dimensional replica of the San Francisco Bay and environs. The edges of the table sloped down into computer screens and flat keyboards. Bishop sat in a chair to the right of the head of the table. He looked up towards the camera, “Now?”

“We can see the conference room,” Nathan replied. “Hello, Professor. Cyclops. Jean. Storm. Northstar. Iceman. Nightcrawler. Jubilee. Beast. Sage.” He paused in the roll call around the table and raised an eyebrow, “Juggernaut.”

Angel realized he must have named everyone for her sake. She recognized everyone except for Sage, Juggernaut and Bishop, the last three, clockwise around the table. She wondered at Cable’s pause before he said Juggernaut’s name.

“Juggernaut is here at my request,” Charles informed Nathan before he could ask why a known criminal was sitting in on a mission teleconference. “He has provided some very useful information in regards to the equipment Cyclops’ team recovered from the second Werewolf hideout Halo located. He is also willing to join any team that I decide to send west. It is still not well known that he has been aiding our cause recently and we may use him as an undercover agent.”

“I don’t trust him,” Logan growled.

“Then I won’t be sending him to join your team,” Charles countered. “S. H. I. E. L. D. has provided me with information that San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco will be attacked in a concerted effort by multiple parties.”

Logan bared his teeth as he exhaled in a slow hiss. Angel frowned uncomprehendingly and Nathan nodded grimly, he’d expected more than what he’d been able to find out, but he hadexpeexpected multiple attacks in multiple cities.

“We have received written documentation from Bridge, the head of Mutant Affairs at S. H. I. E. L. D., formally requesting X Corporation Agents to aid them in the field. S. H. I. E. L. D. has created a taskforce to deal with these possible attacks and, with the permission of the United States Government, will be integrating several organizations and individuals under their authority including our X-men, members of the Avengers, a few independent paranormals and limited local government forces. They will be conducting a meeting aboard one of their helicarriers at 1900 tonight. Once the leaders of our three teams have been designated, they will contact them with the exact coordinates. I suspect it will be over the Pacific …”

Angeokedoked at Logan and whispered, “Is a helicarrier some sort of helicopter?”

“Helicopter the size of an aircraft carrier,” Logan whispered back without turning his head from the laptop screen.

She looked from Logan to Nathan and whispered, “I don’t have to go, do I? I’m not an agent and Ibe bbe busy scanning the Worthington buildings … right?”

Charles stopped in mid sentence, “Halo, do you have something to say?”

Angel looked at the laptop, wondering if someone had entered the conference room back at the Institute that she couldn’t see. She didn’t know who ‘Halo’ was.

Nathan sighed and looked at Angel.

“We haven’t told her yet,” Logan told the people on the laptop. He turned to Angel, “Angel, the Professor raised your status to Agent with the X Corporation so you could join us on this mission. He gave YOU the agent designation, HALO.”

“Halo? Why?” she asked turning from Logan to the laptop screen.

“I couldn’t very well call you Angel,” the Professor explained, “Archangel was originally known as Angel and, in combat situations, his name is usually shortened to Angel. You were effectively reborn through regeneration from Archangel’s blood and although he no longer wears his old uniform it had a halo motif on the chest. In reflection, I considered it to be a most appropriate symbol and decided that it would be your agent designation. Your reflective shield is a strong circle of protection for those within and your scanning radius allows you, among other things, to detect danger or those who need protection. Both abilities are circular in nature. Your kinetic force, which you call a ‘push’ or a ‘shove’, is more like a powerful blow, a ‘smiting’ blow in fact, to keep with the religious theme.”

“That sounds alright, but wouldn’t the name Halo suggest that I’m … ‘Holy’. I mean I try to be good … but I’m most definitely not a Saint.”

“You’re as much of a Saint,” Warren spoke up, “as I am a member of the Holy Host. Just like Logan is named Wolverine, Bobby, Iceman, and Hank, Beast. Everyone who’s important knows it’s just a designation, something to help describe your abilities.”

“Oh, okay,” she assented and then turned back to Nathan, “what’s your agent name?”

“Cable,” he replied.

“Oh, I thought that was your name.”

“No, my given name is Nathan.”

“You don’t have any cables that extend from your body. Why are you called—?”

“It’s a long story,” Nathan waved off her question, “I’ll explain it to you later. And, no, you will not be attending the S. H. I. E. L. D. meeting.”

“Oh, thank God,” she sighed in relief.

“We’ll discuss what you’ll be doing later. We’ve more important things to talk about,” he said sternly, turning back to the laptop screen. “I’ll need to talk to Beast after the meeting. Wolverine discovered another side affect Halo received from the explosion.”

“My studies have determined Lycanthrope cells in her DNA. Has she developed symptoms?” Beast asked.

“Could be related.”

“Will it interfere with your mission?” Scott asked. Secretly, he was hoping it would and they’d have to send Angel back to the Institute. He didn’t believe she should be on this mission with her recent injuries and now the complication of the possibility she could become a werewolf.

“Doubt it,” Logan replied, “she’s just gone inta heat.”

Beast began to type into the keyboard in front of him, his clawed fingers moving swiftly, yet carefully from long practice.

“What? What’s going on?” Warren asked with a confused look on his face. He hadn’t heard about the possibility of Angel turning into a werewolf.

“Halo has been infected with the werewolf mutagen,” Beast explained. “I suspect the biological contamination occurred during and possibly after the explosion in the sewers. The prodigious infusion of regenerative blood into her system may have incorporated the introduced somatic cells of the lycanthropes into her DNA,” On the computer screen in front of him, he examined Angel’s medical record, which he had transcribed into the computer database. “Wolverine is correct. Following her normal cycle, as a feral, she has reached estrus.” He began typing into the keyboard again, “Interesting. What are her symptoms?” He looked up at the large screen that showed the three in San Francisco.

“Oh, please, not in front of everybody,” Angel moaned and covered her eyes with her hand, which did little to hide the fact that her face had turned bright red. She wished she could just sink through the floor.

“You can talk about it when you have a smaller audience,” Nathan halted their discussion before it could start, looking pointedly at Angel before returning his gaz the the laptop screen. “I’ve decided it would be best to work with S. H. I. E. L. D., I’ll take leadership of any agents you deem necessary to send to San Francisco. I don’t feel we need any, but if there are any volunteers I’ll take them into consideration.”

“We have several team leaders here,” Charles replied, two two positions left.”

“Their intelligence leads them to believe either the naval base or shipyards are in danger in San Diego,” Scott said. “I’d like to head up that team.”

Charles nodded in acceptance, he rarely refused Scott his choice of leadership, “That leaves Los Angeles. S. H. I. E. L. D. had information on the naval bases in San Diego and the skyscrapers in San Francisco, but very little on Los Angeles. Theynk tnk there are several, possibly unrelated, targets including media and power supply. This could mean they plan on blacking out all of the Los Angeles area and bombing various television and radio stations. Creating panic and riots seems to be the main goal.” Charles glanced from Ororo to Kurt to Jubilee. “It might be best if we sent several teams to Los Angeles.”

“The economic situation in California should also be considered,” Hank said. “California has suffered a great financial crisis in the past few years. This has been reflected in the budgets of every city. Many have had to retire more experienced professionals and postpone the hiring of new law enforcement officers and emergency services staff. Politically, there is already talk of impeachment of their current governor. California is ill prepared to deal with terrorist attacks.”

“Once it was brought to his attention, the Secretary of Homeland Security requested S. H. I. E. L. D.’s cooperation,” Charles replied, “and S. H. I. E. L. D. has solicited the paranormal community to assist in this time of crisis. Our teams will therefore report to S. H. I. E. L. D. and not any of the forces of the United States government.”

“I remember,” Angel spoke up, removing her hand from her face, a small frown creasing her forehead, “there used to be paranormal teams here in California and then they all moved away and I never understood why.”

“Too much publicity,” Warren responded, answering her quon. on. “California prides itself on being the media capital of America, if not the world. It became more of a hindrance than a help when we couldn’t step out of the buildings without getting our pictures taken. The helicopters flying overhead got pretty tiresome, too. Some paranormals achieved superstar status and it went to their heads.” Warren’s image was too small for Angel to make out who exactly he was looking at, but he seemed to be trying to make a point to someone. “We couldn’t do anything covert because the media was crawling all over us. Wolverine began to rack up an impressive list of assault charges from paparazzi when they started following him. Xavier sent him out of the country until the lawyers could deal with the plethora of lawsuits.”

“Some o’ the bastards still followed me even then,” Logan growled. Then an evil smiled appeared on his face and he leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms in front of his chest, “but I took care o’ them in Macao.”

“Yes and the X Corporation paid some hefty fines to lift their warrant for your arrest,” Bishop warned him, “The United States has an extradition treaty with Macao.”

“How was I to know one o’ the assholes stashed his film up his—?”

“We seem to be getting sidetracked,” Jean broke into the conversation.

“Yes,” Charles agreed. “Halo, your information on a secondary location for the werewolves proved fruitful. It seems they were using a hidden storage facility as a new base of operations. Several crates of explosives, munitions and the laptop you identified earlier have been recovered. We are also in the process of interrogating the werewolves that we were successful in detaining.”

“How many?” Logan asked.

“Four. We were unable to apprehend the two remaining leaders. The Pack seems to have a suicide policy.”

“I’ve heard of The Pack,” Logan said, his eyes narrowing. “One of those biker gangs that’s become a wannabe paramilitary survivalist group. Last I heard, they’d holed up in the Montana backwoods.”

“From what information I’ve already obtained,” Charles told him, tapping the side of his head, “that was their cover. They’re an international mercenary organization. I’ve already determined that the werewolves are one of their elite forces and have had combat training from Victor Creed.”

“Shit! That explains a few things,” Logan growled, remembering the beating he’d taken when he’d tried to take on the werewolves for the first time at the Lobo Technologies building.

“He was also instrumental in creating the team that staffed the Lobo Technologies building, although I don’t have any evidence that he is still working with The Pack at present. We do know that they began infiltrating Lobo Tech approximately three years ago and have been in place and running surveillance on the Institute and key staff members for over a year. It was quite an extensive network of motion detectors, camera’s and satellite relays. They were under orders to remain sub rosa, concealing their activities and avoiding any of the telepathic agents at all costs. I’ve sent out some of the newer recruits to begin dismantling their remaining surveillance equipment in the surrounding area and the White Queen is interrogating the werewolves as we speak.”

“Three years?” Warren asked in dismay, “They’ve been planning this for three years?”

“Possibly longer,” Charles replied. “Their motivation is a mystery. It was only recently that they were ordered to make themselves known. The list of their crimes is actually quite diverse and extensive and many fall under the recent federal terrorism legislation that has been enacted. I informed S. H. I. E. L. D. of their activities and Bridge believes, as I do, that there is a small chance that the Lobo Tech incidents may be related to what is going on in San Francisco so he has given us full discretion in the interrogations as long as we adhere to the United Nations Pact on Psychic Probes.”

“Did you tell them about Halo’s scanning ability?” Nathan asked.

Charles shook his head, “No. I thought it best to leave her abilities undisclosed for the moment.”

“I’d like her scanning ability classified as ‘on a need to know basis’,” Nathan informed him. “It could be our ace in the hole here and I don’t trust S. H. I. E. L. D. or the local government to keep it quiet. I don’t want her to become a target. Disclosing her other abilities and background should keep them satisfied as to why she’s with us.”

Charles nodded and said, “Agreed.” He looked around the table and the others also nodded in assent except Cain who just shrugged and said, “Whatever.”

“I would like to see the White Queen’s report when she’s finished with the werewolves,” Warren said, starting the dialogue back up.

“I’ll have it sent to all of you,” Charles replied, “Any questions you have should be directed to her. We anticipate further interrogations to extrapolate on her initial report. As for the laptop that was recovered, the werewolf leader tried to destroy it, but Sage and Forge were able to salvage a considerable amount of data. The preliminary information they’ve decoded has revealed their day-to-day operations, a few of their contacts and some of their arms dealers. Juggernaut confirmed and identified some of the arms dealers for us. S. H. I. E. L. D. has already agreed to send a team to join us in apprehending them. Any pertinent information will be sent to you once all the files have been decoded.”

“When do you plan to move on the arms dealers?” Nathan asked.

“Afterwards,” Scott replied. “It would take up to many of our resources to find them and apprehend them now with the crisis looming over our heads.”

Nathan nodded, “I’d like to be in on it.”

“So noted,” Scott replied with a nod before he turned his attention to Warren. “What information have you gathered so far?”

“Someone notified the local media of my arrival last night,” Warren said in anoyenoyed voice. “I’ve already dodged two of the local stations media vans that were camped out front of the offices and the phone has been ringing off the hook requesting interviews and offering invitations to social events. I haven’t accepted anything as of yet, but I probably should within the next day or two.

“It was easy enough to retrieve the blue prints on all the buildings and the records of any changes or upgrades. The personnel files have been filtered in regards he she specifications that we discussed and the results are more than I expected. It’ll take a while to wade through them and really pick out the suspects. What I’m truly concerned about is the fact that so much of these buildings are vacant, approximately ten to fifteen percent of each building has been vacant for over six months or more. I’ve already made a call to my real estate people to find out why.”

Nathan and Loganhanghanged looks.

“Add your real estate company to the list of suspects,” Logan said.

“I already have,” Warren replied.

“It looks like Cable’s team is in place and have everything planned out for the next twelve hours,” Charles said. “If you don’t mind Cable, I’ll talk to S. H. I. E. L. D. about any undercover operatives they have that might be of use to your unit. I’ll contact you if I receive a positive response.”

“They probably already have teams set up and ready to dispatch to each of the hot spots,” Nathan said leaning forward in his chair. “Tell them to send their uniforms down to L. A. I want to keep this as quiet as possible so I won’t accept anything less than their covert and black ops people. My teay bey be the only one with the opportunity to trace this up the ladder to find out who’s giving orders and I’ll use everything at my command to dig out those sons of bitches.”

“We may have the opportunity to follow a trail in San Diego,” Scott said.

Both Logan and Nathan snorted.

“You’re dealing with the military, Cyke,” Logan drawled, “a bunch o’ bored uniforms stuck at a friendly border. With all the drugs and boozin’ goin’ on you think they can keep a secret?”

“I won’t say that the security is the tightest,” Scott said stiffly, “but we may get far enough up the chain of command to make some connections.”

“Or scapegoats,” Nathan commented.

“I’m going to call this meeting to an end,” Charles said before Nathan could deride his father any more than he already had. “We all have work to do. Beast, if you will remain with me, we need discuss Halo’s newest development with Cable’s team.”