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X-men: Evolution of the Heart
Chapter 32: Day of Reckoning

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"Please, contact us sometime if you wish to see the institute," said Ororo as she handed the Drake family a business card for the Xavier institute.

"Yeah sure, whatever lady. Just get the hell off my property," said Mr. Drake in an irritated tone.

Ororo then left along with Scott, Jean, and Evan who had come with her on a recruiting mission. They were trying to convince the parents of young Bobby Drake that he was a mutant and not sick...But they didn't believe them. In fact, they hadn't heard the word freak spoken so many times since they were on the streets. It was a bitter disappointment as Ororo looked back up at the bedroom window of young Bobby and saw the scared and saddened look on his face. His parents didn't understand and neither did he.

Over the past few weeks since the whole Phoenix incident, the Professor had been scouring new mutant readings across the country for potential new students. Cerebro had been going off on a regular basis now as the rate of mutant growth was accelerating. At any rate he knew that it would be all the more difficult to keep mutants under wraps.

"Man, we've seriously got to work on a sales pitch Auntie O," said Evan as they returned to the newly acquired X-van. "At this rate we'll never get any new recruits."

"We must have patience Evan. Right now mutants are just too hard for anybody to accept fully. Only time will tell," assured Ororo as she started up the X-van.

"But still...They didn't have to be so rude back there," commented Scott as they drove off.

"Yeah and they didn't have to project their thoughts so loudly," said Jean who heard their mental yelling for the whole time she was there.

"How bad were they?" asked Scott wearily.

"You don't wanna know," said Jean as she rested her head from all the terrible thoughts that the scared parents of Bobby Drake had projected to her.

Scott helped her relax by gently holding her hand as the van started moving. Jean's control over her powers had never been stronger since her encounter with the Phoenix. However, she still heard other peoples' thoughts when they projected them loud enough. The Drakes were only the latest in a series of failed recruiting attempts. Every outcome had been the same thus far. None of the parents of the kids wanted to believe that their children were 'freaks.' In their minds they said much worse.

"Hey you know what we should do?" said Evan who had been equally frustrated with these disastrous recruiting attempts, "We should make a theme song for the X-men?"

"A theme song?" said Scott, unsure if he was joking or not.

"Yeah man! You're a musician, you write great songs! You could write a sales pitch for the institute to get more students."

Scott, Jean, and Ororo couldn't help but laugh at Evan's idea, even though it wasn't too far fetched.

"Me write a theme song? I don't know man...But hey, it could work," said Scott.

"I think it would definitely draw in some fresh faces. That and it would be better than dealing with jerks like the Drakes," added Evan.

"They're not jerks Evan...Not completely," said Ororo, "They're just worried about their son and what's happening to him. They want the best for him and we need to be there if we're to help them fully understand."

"Speaking of which, how do you think the Professor is fairing with those rich people, the Worthingtons?" asked Jean knowing the Professor went on a recruiting mission of his own.

"Probably had the same outcome as we did," said Evan pessimistically.

Ororo just shook her head at her nephew's attitude.

"You never know Evan."

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"Thanks for your time Mr. and Mrs. Worthington. If you do change your mind, however, please contact me," said Professor Xavier as he handed them a small card.

Mrs. Worthington simply looked at the Professor coldly, wanting him to leave. However Mr. Worthington had been a bit more understanding and took the card.

"We'll call you if something comes up Professor Xavier," said Mr. Worthington, "Our butler Jonathan will escort you out."

"That's okay, I can wheel myself out," assured the Professor.

"Please, I insist," said the butler as he forcibly wheeled him out before Charles could react.

Xavier had come along only with Hank on this mission since Storm was off visiting the Drakes and Logan was investigating a strange sighting in New York City. Not wanting to upset the Worthingtons any more with his appearance, Hank opted to wait in the car.

As the butler got closer to the exit, he suddenly stopped for reasons unknown.

"Is something wrong?" asked Xavier.

The butler just looked down at him with a sinister smile on his face.

"Yes...But not for long."

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"What could possibly be taking him so long?" said Beast to himself as his eyes drifted back towards the clock radio in the car once again.

Just then, he saw the Professor wheel himself out up to the side of the car and Hank breathed a sigh of relief.

"How'd it go Charles?" asked Hank as he activated the mechanism to lift the Professor and his wheelchair up in to the car.

"As expected," responded Xavier.

"That good huh?" said Beast with a faint laugh.

"Yes...But don't worry old friend. I'm sure things will change for the better soon..."

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Through the dark and dirty sewers of New York City, Logan ran. He was in hot pursuit of his old rival Sabertooth. Apparently Cerebro was right again in tracking another mutant and the Professor had suspected that he might have ties to Magneto. The Brotherhood had been all too quiet for months now and it was vital to know how their plans.

Logan sniffed the air, trying to filter out the foul sewers in search of his arch foe. Then, he finally got it and turned down the corner of a narrow tunnel. But when he got there, he saw Sabertooth just standing there with a sinister look in his cat-like face.

"Enough games Sabertooth! I want some answers!" growled the Wolverine as he unsheathed his claws and prepared for battle.

"And you'll get them...Soon enough," smirked Sabertooth in a deep voice.

Suddenly, the metal in the room began to shake violently and metal grids blocking sewer tunnels were yanked out of the concrete by some unseen force. With a loud growl Logan began to slash through the metal as it attacked him. While he was preoccupied with this, Sabertooth disappeared back in to the shadows of the New York City sewers and watched what happened next. As Logan fought off the pieces of metal that seemed to have a mind of their own, several strange looking grenades fell at his feet. Then, the metal stopped attacking him and fell harmlessly to the floor and before Logan could react, a loud explosion erupted from the grenades and a powerful knockout gas filled the air. He fought hard to resist it, but he soon felt his world around him fade to black.

No sooner had Logan fallen unconscious did nearly a dozen heavily armed men in strange military-like uniforms storm the area and secure Wolverine.

"We got em boss! The freak is out for the count," said one of the lead men in to a communicator.

"Excellent," said a sinister voice from the other side, "Bring him back to HQ. He will make a perfect test subject for our little experiment..."

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Back at the Institute, the Professor stood by as Jean tried to use her powers to locate Logan after he went missing from New York. Jean had been learning how to use Cerebro for weeks now, but she still struggled to find what they were searching for.

"I...Can't find anything Professor. Not Logan, not Sabertooth...Nothing. It's as if they just disappeared," said Jean as she removed the helmet.

Xavier let out a frustrated sigh as yet another attempt had failed.

"We have to keep searching! Without Sabertooth we'll never find Magneto!"

"What about Logan?" asked Jean as she put the helmet down.

"Something tells me that when we find Magneto...We'll find Logan as well," replied the Professor.

"Are you sure?" asked Jean as she was about to leave.

"I'm certain we will," said the Professor as he ran through Cerebro's readings once more.

Jean the stepped out of the massive steel chamber and went to meet Scott who was upstairs in the library doing homework.

"Any luck?" asked Scott as put his books down.

"Nope...None," sighed Jean as she sat on the couch and rested her tired head against his shoulder. "We couldn't find a trace of Logan or Sabertooth."

"Sounds like it's gotten the Professor really upset," added Scott.

"Yeah...It has. I've never seen him so angry before. The stress must really be hard on him," said Jean as she let out a tired yawn.

"Yeah...It must," said Scott as he leaned back against the couch with Jean and tried to put their worries to rest for the time being.

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Back at the Brotherhood house, the five mutant members lazily lofted about the rapidly decaying house. Mystique had disappeared after the events concerning Asteroid M and so had Magneto. They were left with no supervision and no source of income...A bad mixture for a bunch of rag-tag mutant teenagers.

"Man Toad would you turn that damn thing down! I can hear it from my room!" yelled Wanda from the base of the staircase.

"Hey sorry my crimson cutie, but I can't help it if these walls are paper thin," replied Todd as he flipped mindlessly through the channels on the old, beat up TV.

"Just turn the fucking thing down!" grunted Pietro, who didn't want to see his sister go off on another hexing rampage that would end up making the house more condemned than it already was.

Lance just sat there silently, but noticeably irked. He had been the grumpiest over the past few months since his bad breakup with Kitty. Now he hated going out and seeing her so happy and lovey-dovey with Kurt. On top of all this the rest of the Brotherhood teased him to no end about the incident that he desperately wanted to forget. They sat in their traditional grumpy state of minds, when suddenly the door was kicked open by a familiar presence.

"Guess whose back!" said Mystique as she stormed in to her crumbling house.

"What the?" said Lance as he got up with the others and approached the shape shifter after her long time absence, "Where the hell have you been?!"

"That doesn't concern you at this moment Mr. Alvers. Now everybody gather round and listen up! We have some new plans to go over. I've been watching lately and I can see that some of you may still be itching for a little payback against the X-men."

Mystiques gaze drifted towards Lance, whom she knew would want revenge the most over the X-men after what had happened with him and Kitty.

"We're listening..." said Lance, who quickly grew eager to know more.

"Does this mean dear old dad is back?" added Pietro as he too grew more intrigued.

"All you need to know is that the X-men's days will be numbered when all this is over...And you all had best be ready for everything that is to come!" replied Mystique with a sinister grin.

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Evan grunted as he exited the danger room with his uniform covered in paintball stains. He met up with Kitty who, despite her phasing powers, was equally hit with the new training programs that the Professor had them running through for the last hour.

"Man I'll never get these stains off my uniform," said Evan as he went over to the observation area with Kitty.

"Speak for yourself...At least you lasted longer than I did," said Kitty who was equally irked by this new danger room simulation.

Back up in the main computer room the Professor watched his student run through the difficult simulation that he had programmed recently. Ororo was there too as she wearily looked down at the four remaining teens on the course.

"We're trapped!" said Rogue in a frustrated tone as she narrowly dodged another barrage of paintballs from a flying turret.

"Not for long!" said Scott as he blasted one of the turrets that had been closing fast, "Jean, can you keep the shields up?"

"I'm...Trying," grunted Jean as more paintballs came from all directions, "Too...Many of them!"

"I'll get us out!" said Kurt as he grabbed his friends and ported them to another section of the simulation, however this soon turned out to be a mistake.

When they appeared, they were in an area with little cover from other marauding paintball guns and scrambled to avoid them. Just then, they noticed a lone figure standing on a rock formation in the distance.

"There he is!" yelled Rogue as she immediately identified it as their target Magneto.

"I'm on it!" said Scott as he sent a powerful optic blast to the figure.

However, their actions backfired as the target disappeared in a wavy light.

"Vhat? A hologram?!" said Kurt who seemed just as surprised as the rest of the remaining group.

Then, three flying turrets arose from where the fake target had been and sent a barrage of paintballs towards the four mutant teens. This time they could not be avoided and the simulation came to an abrupt end.

"I want to see you all in the control room immediately!" said the Professor angrily over the intercom.

The rest of the team let out a collective sigh as they made their way up to the main control room, anticipating the harsh lecture they would probably receive. Professor Xavier had been unusually upset lately since Logan's disappearance. In addition, signs that Magneto was back and planning something big were beginning to surface. This was quite a disturbing revelation knowing what Magneto and Mystique did last time with Asteroid M. Now they could only imagine the kind of treachery he was planning now that he was back.

"What gives Professor? You've never driven us this hard!" said Scott upon entering the main control room with the others.

"You need to be prepared! We can't afford any slip-ups with Magneto out there! We don't want a repeat of what happened last time!" stated the Professor with a strong sense of urgency in his voice.

"But I thought we won last time even despite that," reasoned Rogue as she picked off globs of paint that had collected on her uniform.

"You were lucky last time...Don't expect that same luck next time because I'm sure Magneto won't allow it. I know him and he won't make the same mistakes twice," retorted the Professor. "Now, let's try the simulation again. This time, no mistakes!"

The rest of the students didn't argue as they prepared to make their way back to the Danger Room for what promised to be an even harder simulation than before. But before they could leave, Beast came in through the elevator with urgent news.

"Charles, we've found something!" exclaimed Hank.

"Did ya find Logan?" asked Rogue, who had also been quite worried by Logan's disappearance.

"Not exactly, but I did detect an unusually high amount of magnetic interference located near the harbors in New York City."

"That has to be Magneto...Prep the X-jet. We'd better go down there and investigate," ordered the Professor.

"Wait...Shouldn't we look in to this a bit more before going? You said it yourself, Magneto's very cunning when it comes to stealth. How do we know this isn't just a trap?" reasoned Ororo who didn't like the sound of this new finding one bit.

"We don't have time Storm! If we don't act now then we may never find him!" said the Professor as he wheeled himself off to the hanger with Hank's help. "We must go now!"

While the X-jet was being prepped, the rest of the team went to change in to their spare uniforms since the ones they were wearing were completely stained with paintballs. However, anxiety over this new threat by Magneto ran high among the six teens.

"Man, vhat's gotten in to the Professor?" said Kurt as he looked back towards where he had been, "I've never seen him like this."

"That's putting it mildly," replied Kitty, "I guess when it involves Magneto anything goes."

"Yeah...But still," said Scott, who seemed lost in thought.

"What is it Scott?" asked Jean who could sense Scott's anxiety through their mind link.

Scott didn't respond at first, he was still thinking. However, there wasn't a lot of time left to think...Not with Magneto on the loose.

"Nothing...I just have a bad feeling about this whole thing."

"What do you mean man?" asked Evan curiously.

Scott then thought back to some of the things the Professor said and could only speculate any further conclusions.

"Call it a hunch."

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In a deserted area near the New York City docks in the shadows of the tall buildings of the city skyline, a cluster of metallic spheres descended from the sky and gently set themselves down upon the hard ground. As they opened three familiar figures stepped out poised for battle. Lance "Avalanche" Alvers, Todd "Toad" Tolensky, and Freddy "Blob" Dukes were all there, however they had more help this time.

Out of one sphere stepped the wild animal-like mutant Sabertooth. He let out a single roar as he escaped from his confinement, ready for battle. From another sphere, a strangely dressed man with red hair and a large metallic apparatus on his back stepped out in a blaze of fire. He was the Australian pyromaniac named St. John Allerdyce, AKA Pyro. From another metallic sphere a large muscular man with short black hair stepped out. Suddenly, his skin reverted from flesh to a solid metallic metal. He was the Russian born mutant Piotr Rasputin, AKA Collosus. Last but not least out of these newcomers was tall, brown-haired mutant with black and red eyes. He was casually shuffling a flaming deck of playing cards and wielded a large, white bow. He was the ragin' Cajun himself Remy LeBeau, AKA Gambit.

All seemed poised for battle as they stood by and waited for their enemies to arrive. Confidence among them ran high, for they already knew Magneto's plan...And they were ready to watch it unfold before their very eyes. As for Magneto himself, he stood at the top of a building overseeing the battleground in the distance. At his sides were his two children, Wanda and Pietro.

"How much longer before they get here?" asked Wanda as she stared intently at the harbor.

"Do not concern yourself with that Wanda. So far everything has been going exactly as planned," said Magneto ominously.

Pietro looked all too content with what he knew was bound to happen. He couldn't wipe that snide grin off his face as the thought of finally getting revenge on the X-men hung heavy in his mind.

"This is gonna be a day those X-geeks will never forget!" laughed the speedster as they awaited their arrival.

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Logan felt his head spinning and his vision blur as he slowly regained consciousness. His memory was a little fuzzy, but he knew enough to realize that he was not in a very friendly place. He was being secured on a heavy metal table with tough metallic shackles on all four of his limbs. He let out an angry growl as he tried to break them, but to no avail. There were numerous men and women around him wearing strange uniforms. They all had high powered weapons aimed right at him, but that didn't seem register in the Wolverine's mind. Then, a new presence entered the room and made his way towards the side of the bound mutant.

"So you're the one they call Wolverine," said the man with a snide expression.

"What's it to ya bub?" grunted Logan as he felt an immediate distaste for this new presence.

"Name's Trask freak! And congratulations...You are to be the first test subject of a little experiment that we've been working on."

"Not interested asshole!" responded Logan as he struggled with the chains again.

"You don't have a choice mutant! I know all about you and your kind! Mutants are the poison in the human gene pool. They corrupt and endanger the rest of the human race with their so-called 'talents.' Well we, the Friends of Humanity, are the agents of purity against this horrible threat to civilization," said Trask as he looked down upon the bound mutant with disgust.

"Great...Fanatics," grunted Logan.

"SHUT UP MUTANT!" yelled Trask as he threatened to punch him, but one of his men held him back. "Like it or not, you will be the first...But not the last to witness the new soldiers for humanity. Your days are numbered and so are the rest of all the freaks out there who threaten society!"

"Yer fucking crazy Trask!" said Logan as he tried once again to break the chains, but to no avail.

"Say what you will 'Wolverine.' The Friends of Humanity will not stand by ideally and let the human race be wiped out by freaks like you! Now, let's see how such a prominent mutant such as yourself stands up to the best of what humanity has to offer..."

Trask then signaled everybody to exit the room with him as he made his way up to the main control deck. As soon as the last soldier was gone, the chains were remotely unlocked. With an animal-like roar, Logan unsheathed his claws and attempted to cut through the thick steel door. However, it proved to be too heavily reinforced to cut through.

Up in the control room, a vast array of computer terminals came to life as a group of scientists wearing the same uniforms as the soldiers prepared their 'test.'

"Activate it...Begin sentinel test number one," said Trask as he looked back down at the trapped Logan.

As Logan pulled his claws out again, two ominous red lights came from the other side of the room. However, they were more than just lights...They were eyes. Then, a strange rumble could be felt throughout the room that resembled that of footsteps. Logan remained unafraid as he prepared himself for battle. As the source of the shaking came in to the light, Logan finally got a good look at what he was up against.

He was in the shadow of a massive robot humanoid. Its movements were fairly quick for it's massive size. It was as big as a small building and had numerous weapons hidden within. As its gaze locked itself on Wolverine, it's sensors kicked in.

"Mutant target identified...Objective: Destroy."

With it's powerful mechanical arm it tried to crush Logan with a powerful punch to the ground. He was able to avoid it, but it left a gaping hole in the concrete floor hinting at the machines awesome strength. Logan tried to jump on to the arm while it was buried within the ground and cut in to the wires beneath it with his claws, but the sentinel had strong armor and he couldn't cut through it before he was flung off to the side by the powerful machine.

"Weapon system: Activate."

Before Logan could attack again, two ominous looking cannons arose out of the arms of the massive robot and aimed them directly at him.

"Oh shit," said Logan as he saw the size of these cannons.

Then, in a powerful burst of laser light, the cannons fired. Logan struggled to avoid them as the room lit up with light from the blasts. The concrete in the floor was torn to shreds along with any other object that got in the way. Finally, there was nowhere left to hide as most objects in the room were reduced to twisted rubble. Dust filled the air as Logan disappeared from sight from the soldiers and scientists watching this spectacle unfold.

Then, as the dust cleared, the sentinel robot identified the unconscious body of Wolverine on the hard, concrete floor.

"Target immobilized. Objective: Destroy."

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