The sounds of sirens waved against the broken buildings and wormed its way between dark alleyways. All other sounds seemed muted in the thick fog that covered the wounded city. The Big Apple, which city line which had been known for its tall and proud skyscrapers, was just a semblance of what it once was. The few buildings that dared to reach above the fog had jagged broken tops, a few was burning, polluting the sky with black smoke. The cold feeble drops of rain that fell from the dark sky could not put out the fires. Except for the sirens, and the flickering lights from streetlamps, you would think this a dead and deserted city. No one dared to venture out from their safe hiding places in the sewers, basements or broken down shops. It would be considered suicide to venture out in the open when martial law was enforced. If you could not convince the hulking sentinels or the police that you were a law abiding human you were lucky to be executed on spot. The sentinels were frightening things by themselves. Some of them reached as far as a building so you could hardly make out its head. But the smallest of them was still as tall as two men. They were robots. Almost sentient beings, even if the larger models had men that controlled them from inside. The smaller ones had been upgraded with artificial intelligence and were allowed to roam the city by their own design and take decision as any man. But most frightening was the police.
Before the war, The police was someone most people trusted and believed were there to protect and serve. Not any more. These..things..were they even human? They looked human enough but possessed powers stolen from mutants and other super humans they captured and then disposed of. Whatever process gave them these powers, it changed something else inside them. The men and women that become the new Police no longer recognized their family. A woman had killed her newborn daughter because the babe had the x-gene, and had killed her husband without hesitation when he tried to stop her. Afterwards she showed no remorse…no feelings at all. And that is what the police have become. Very efficient and swift with even less feelings than the robots that follows them.
Now at this night, there seem to be more activity going on. There was only one reason for this. The police were on a hunt. Hover crafts sped thru the alleyways, illuminating the filth and debris collected there. Too often the sharp lights showed corpses of dogs or cats in various decay, or living scrawny animals scurrying away as fast as they could. A rag tag group of seven dirty children’s faces watched in frozen terror at the lights that revealed their hiding place among cardboard boxes. A woman, as dirty as the children just stared emptily as two men jumped down from the vehicle with weapons pulled. Behind them, the sounds of incoming sentinels could be heard. The smallest child, about four years old began crying. No one tried to comfort her. One of the armored policemen held out a scanning device that buzzed softly.
“X-gene negative”he said in a monotone voice. The other man did not lower the weapon.
“Have you seen this female?” The same man now took out a holo-disc, pressing on a button the 3D image of a young woman sprang up in the air. She had flowing white hair, dark complexion and blue eyes that turned milk white as her face contorted in fury. There was no response from the group. The little girl’s cries did not stop.
The policeman shut down the image and put the disc back into his belt. Then turning at an incoming sentinel he gave the order.
“Take them in. X-gene negative. They do no cooperate and might have knowledge of the rogue mutant.”
The little girl screamed as more sentinels advanced on them and her cries were answered with the moans and sobs of the other children. The woman did not utter a sound. She had seen too many horrors already to care about anything anymore. She did not fight as the sentinels raised tranquilizers and shot them one after one.
Far above them, on a broken roof of a former magnificent office building, the young woman pictured on the holographic image watched with tears in her eyes as the woman and the children were carried away. She cursed her cowardice, wanting to intervene, to unleash the full extent on her powers to help them. But doing so, would only endanger them. The soulless bastards would only believe that the woman knew her, and covered for her, and the punishment would be death. And using her powers in the open, she might get away, but they were many and more would come as the unregistered use of powers would pinpoint her location. Still, knowing that if she acted and tried to help the woman and kids would make matters worse, she couldn’t help the feeling of self loathing and guilt. She had been raised better than this, and she closed her eyes, thinking of her father. Foster father more. He had strongly opposed against her leaving their safe country for America. Wakanda was one of the few countries that mutants could live without fear of prosecution, and their king, Black Panther, her foster father offered amnesty to any mutant. Not many made it to Wakanda. The soulless as they called the police, was too efficient with hunting down the rogues, before they reached the safe haven. That was the reason she volunteered to come here, to find and help other rogues. So far she had no luck. Charles had helped her memorize the list of mutants he was sure hadn’t been captured. It was a safe list, burnt in her mind, like a child’s rhyme that wouldn’t make sense to anyone should they read her mind. To distract herself, she cycled through the list in her mind while slowly and silently, moved from the building:
In the wild the Wolf prowls
Seeking the Bird of Fire
Guarded by the One Eyed watcher
Unchained the Beast rages
Destruction follows Shifter
While Sentinel keeps vigil
The Untouchables tears
Are caught by Gambler
Stalker in the dark
Seeks Ghost’s comfort
A Shell of warding still
Shatters in Frozen embrace
The police and sentinels were retreating, so it was time for her to move on. Not being able to use her powers was a hindrance. But her foster father had learnt her well to manage and fight without her powers. Her hand to hand combat was almost on par with his, and he was the best at that. Her gloved hands held a firm grip on the rope as she climbed down the building. The distance down to the ground didn’t bother her, and now her mind was calm again, thinking of the mission. Why had Panther been so reluctant in letting her go? He knew how much she wanted to help her fellow mutants, she joined the resistant he had been part of creating. They were fighting with all means to make the world as it once was. No sentinels, no soulless or concentration camps for unregistered super powered. A part of her understood Panther. He loved her and didn’t want her to risk her life or freedom. Even with Charles and Magnus assurances that she was capable for this mission it had taken him long time to budge. She had been here a week now, been close to capture but had managed to dodge her pursuers. Moving often and with no apparent destination for her travels, made it harder for the sentinels to pin point her location. Charles had let them know that the police had access to Cerebro, a device he had used in the earlier days to find mutants. But as he knew the machine, he could with Forge’s help create blockers that would hide her as long as she didn’t use her powers. She had a few blockers with her to give to those rogues she managed to find. She just needed a bit more time to find them. One of them. What she had found out about the soulless and the way they were created and controlled was valuable. Even if she didn’t find the rogues, they still have knowledge about the police base. The security looked impossible to break, but everything, everyone had a weakness as Panther used to say. They just needed to find that weakness and break it. Because without the controller, the current system would crumble to nothing.
“Unregistered Mutant, you are ordered to surrender”
She froze instantly. The voice came from below, and she was halfway down the building. How the hell had they managed to sneak up on her? Fuck! She had let her concentration slip!
“Surrender? That would make it easy for you eh? Sorry can’t do” She had nothing to loose, and it felt so damn good to finally let go of her tight control. A milky layer covered her blue eyes, and she let go of the rope while calling up a strong wind to carry her. Looking down at the handful of the soulless and a smaller sentinel, she called lightning, that sparkled and sneaked around her fists. Dark clouds had already gathered and the scent of lightning storm filled the air. All this happened so fast that they didn’t have a chance to react until the first bolt of lightning stuck the ground, knocking back the soulless. She avoided the sentinels fire, dancing with the winds, as if she was on stage, directing bolts of lightning and aiming strong winds to scatter her pursuers. But the dance ended as suddenly as it had begun. While a strong arctic air was battering against the sentinel, she felt herself loose control of her powers. It didn’t come gradually, no the effect was immediate, like the sting after a slap. The air rushed around her as the winds no longer supported her and she fell. Closed her eyes as the ground rapidly rose to meet her.
