Chapter 28

Phillip woke to screaming; it took him a moment to realize that it was neither him screaming nor that the screams he was hearing was being heard by his ears. After he was able to distinguish what he was hearing was mental screams, he was able to decipher who it was doing the screaming; Jean Grey. This confused him, but that was added to the list of things confusing Phillip.

His eyes were open but he could see nothing. He was neither sitting nor standing, but he was strapped down and could not move; his arms were stretched out away from his body, his legs felt splayed apart and his head was in some sort of harness that prevented movement of his neck and skull. That wasn't the worst of it. While he couldn't feel his penis, what happened to his penis? He could feel his anus and the intruder sticking up there. He felt the panic swell over his body and he did nothing to stop it.

His body convulsed as fear gripped him and he felt his bladder relax but he did not feel any liquid or moisture between his legs. What had happened to his penis?

"Patient is awake, all scans indicate accelerated functions." The voice was female and yet mechanical while vaguely familiar.

Phillip did not hear what the response to the first voice was, but when he did hear the voice through his panic; the voice was cold, distant and after hearing the voice left Phillip shivering through his panic attack, the voice was evil. "I am not done with Ms. Grey; incapacitate him until I am ready."

"Yes, Master."

Phillip continued with his convulsions, incoherent to the fact that he was a mutant and had mutant abilities that might of allowed him to escape as his mind went back to sleep.

More screaming woke him later; with his eyes still bound by darkness he had no clue as how much time had passed. Phillip still couldn't feel his penis and he had a sudden thought that he no longer had a penis but before that thought could send him into another panic attack, he remembered the quacky doctor who had repaired the damage done to him. Done to him by Sally. Where the fuck was Sally in all of this?

Phillip's fear abated as he concentrated on delving into his memories to find out what had happen. What occurred to put him in such a predicament? Sally. Sally and he were about to make love. He was just about to enter Sally with his small penis when Sally's Slide Field flickered and he felt a searing pain and blood was everywhere. Before he passed out, he was sure he passed out but not sure if it was from the pain or the blood loss; he saw Sally. Poor, pitiful Sally covered in his blood; the look of shock and disbelief overwhelmed her senses as she continued to scream and scream about what she had done.

Phillip could remember waking up in a strange hospital and seeing his father's face looking down at him before passing out again. At first he thought it was a dream but when he woke the next day, there his father was, sleeping in the chair next to his bed in some unknown hospital; no, not hospital, the St. Thomas Clinic of Procedures. And that quack of a doctor who reminded Phillip of Dr. Nick Rivera was disappointed in the fact that he was only able to elongate Phillip's penis to five inches. For some reason the doctor thought that when he repaired the damage done, that he should have been able to double Phillip's original length. The doctor was quite despondent at that failure and because of how he was sure that Phillip's penis would look. Twisted and scarred, the glands uneven and discolored, but he was confident the penis would work fine and it WAS two inches longer.

The Professor showed up while Phillip was in the hospital in a way only the Professor could; not in flesh and blood but in mental form, while his body was still in Washington DC the Professor visited Phillip's mind directly. Phillip's first question to his Headmaster was about Sally. Jean had flown the three of them to St. Thomas in the Lockheed personnel carrier and while she visited him twice a day, she was spending the rest of her time with Sally whose psyche couldn't handle the trauma of what she had done to Phillip and had retreated inward. Currently she was in the next room, in waking catatonic state resisting all telepathic attempts by Jean and the Professor to respond.

The Professor's prognosis of Sally's self induced retreat was good though; he felt she just needed time to recover from her mental injuries, just as Phillip needed time to recover from his physical ones.

Phillip's father had to return back to his job in Virginia after staying with Phillip for five days and through a second surgery that Phillip's quack of a doctor insisted was needed for a healthy recovery but arraignments had been made for his dad to pickup Phillip the following week when Phillip was cleared to leave the clinic and they were going to spend a couple of weeks together back in Virginia.

Rachael. Phillip realized who was responsible for him being in his current predicament; no, not Rachael; clones of Rachael, Sinister's Hounds. Phillip had heard a crash in the room next to his room and thinking something was wrong with Sally or maybe Sally was awake, Phillip slowly and in much pain moved to the door that their rooms shared. When he opened the door, before he could speak, he saw Jean Grey crumpled on the ground and two Rachael's standing over her. He remembered nothing more.

Strapped in his unseen harness, Phillip swallowed; they were in Sinister's clutches!

The Lockheed personnel carrier flew quickly and under the radar. At its controls was a very nervous Xstacy, "Guys, are ya' sure we doin' the wraght thang?" In her nervousness, Stacy couldn't contain her natural Kentucky twang.

Two of the three passengers shook their head in confidence. Teresa, the Leader of the Year Three's was not so sure, though she understood why they disobeyed one of the major tenets of the Xavier School for Gifted Children; they stole the Lockheed and were flying to rescue two of their own who were being held by one of the most enigmatic and powerful villains of the X-Men. Students were not allowed to voluntarily put themselves in harms way and they weren't just inviting danger, they were messing with a dark hearted villain whose actions even gave the X-Men cause to pause.

Ten days had passed since they were told of Phoenix, Skids and Field's kidnapping. Ten days of anguish as they recounted over and over again what Rogue was put through in the seven days that she was held by Sinister.

Then Marvel Girl made a break through; she had been scanning the surrounding islands and detected one of Sinister's Hounds, Cass, returning from a mission. Rachael followed Cass mentally towards her lair and suddenly Rachael knew exactly where they were keeping Jean, Phillip and Sally! But only she as a Hound could get them past Sinister's defenses.

After talking about her findings with Teresa, Rachael broached the idea to Xstacy and Magick who agreed readily to help rescue their missing classmates. Rachael argued and Illyana agreed that Bishop was too 'by the book' and he would not let Rachael be a part of the rescue operation a fact that Rachael was adamant would lead to the X-Men's failure and subsequent capture.

Again Magick agreed and insisted that if Marvel Girl could get them into Sinister's lair then she could get them out.

Teresa leaned forward and touched Stacy on the shoulder, comforting her, "Yes, this is the best option. Rachael can get us in and Illyana can get us out. You and I are just support and to help drag our comrades out of there."

No one expected to find the missing locked away in cages but rather strapped to some sort of tortuous device. Those expectations weren't far from the truth.

They landed the Lockheed on the far side of the island and hiked through the woods to the hidden entrance; twice Rachael was able to shut down the automated security points. No guards were stationed outside the entrance and the Year Three's simply walked into Sinister's lair once Rachael's thumb print opened the heavy steel door. Inside none of the personnel they encountered addressed them thanks to Rachael allowing her Hound facial tattoos to be displayed.

Rachael was able to lead them directly to the main laboratory that held the three missing mutants in separate containment devices. The room was far from empty though; standing tall and menacingly in the middle of the laboratory was Sinister. Turning to face the new comers he addressed his former Hound, "Ahh Race, glad to see that you have completed your mission, go see the Kennel Master to reclaim your collar."

Teresa turned to look at her lover, confused about what Sinister had just said. Before her eyes could reach those of Rachael, she saw Magick go flying forward.

"ILLYANA!" Both Siryn and Xstacy screamed as their classmate was slammed into the outside wall container that held Field inside it, the hardened glass and riveted steel walls of the container did not dent inward from the loud clang as Magick's metal form struck it. Two more clones of Rachael stepped from behind Sinister and continued the assault on Magick's held form.

Teresa turned to her lover, "Rachael, what..." only to feel a force, a TK blow slam against her and send her flying; stunning her as she crashed into another of the containers, the impact knocking her out. She had been reaching out to her lover through the mental link that they shared but that avenue had been shut off to her, by Rachael!

Sinister laughed mirthlessly and not quite manically as he strode towards Xstacy. Xavier's had trained Stacy well and she tried to distract both of the Rachael clones by racking their bodies with massive orgasms so that Magick would be free to attack, but Rachael stopped her with a TK enhanced hand squeezing the back of Stacy's neck, the pain from the grip broke Stacy's concentration to use her mutant ability.

Phillip woke when something slammed into a wall next to where he was restrained and the comments being made didn't make any sense to him at first. "Well done, Race" or "put the metal girl in the remaining containment" and "restrain the other two with the inhibitor collars, but no one is to touch the sexual girl" Phillip couldn't understand; or could he? Race was Rachael's Hound name. Metal girl could easily be Magick. Who was the sexual girl? The other two?

Phillip's heart sank when he finally realized that Sinister was talking about the rest of the Year Three's. He had previously heard Sinister reveal how he could improve the Slide Shield he had been examining; Sally's Slide Shield. It just made sense that if both Jean Grey and he was his captive that Sally would be as well since she was at the Clinic with them.

So Teresa, Rachael, Illyana and Stacy had tried to rescue them. Only something happened and Sinister was back to calling Rachael, Race. Why? What had happened? Phillip pondered everything for a long time until sleep took him.

"Sir, there is an abnormal storm brewing a hundred miles to the west."

"Abnormal how, Sister?"

Phillip didn't sleep as much as he drifted in and out of conscious, like Sally and Jean he too had been experimented on by Sinister but he seemed to wake every time he heard Sinister's evil voice. He too, like Jean had screamed at some of the attention he received from Sinister's wicked tests. While Sinister seemed content to testing his and Sally's mutant abilities and how he could modify or utilize what he learned; it was surreal to Phillip to feel a telepath take control of his mutant ability over and over again while he was helpless. With Jean, to Phillip's blind vision, Sinister seemed to take pleasure in simply stimulating Phoenix, in both pleasure and pain.

The Rachael-like autonomous voice continued, "The forecast for the last three days has been clear skies with the temperature in the high nineties. That forecast was to continue for two more days before the tropical storm off the coast of Africa moved closer."

Sinister understood the implications, "Do we know if Storm is still on the indigenous island or any activity to the west of us?"

"The last update from the Hound on the X-Men Island gave no notice of movement on or off the Island. I will send a telepathic inquiry seeking confirmation."

"Acceptable. Now, is the next test on this girls arm ready? I am very curious about the sword inscription there. The runes carved are too intricate and not something that should occur biologically. Obviously someone has tampered with this mutant and I want to know how and why."

Another Rachael like voice, this one less of an autonomous one, "The patient is fighting the sedation both chemically and mentally. It is taking most of my concentration keeping her under."

Phillip had heard at least three, if not four voices that sounded like Rachael's. Somewhere he remembered speculation that there were five other clones of Rachael. Five?

"That is interesting. If she wakes, will the restraints hold her?" Phillip noticed that Sinister never changed the volume to his voice. He never got excited.

"Yes Master, her records indicate that she has Class 5 strength and this harness was qualified to hold a Class 25."

"Good. Still I want her sedated through this test. What is the status of SummersGrey37?"

"Final processing is done; it will be ninety seven minutes until delivery. Master, I would be remiss to point out this model does not have the cortex inhibitor, is not sterile and will maintain full memory upon delivery."

Sinister soothed his aide, "Worry not, Sister. SummersGrey37 is perfect as she is."

Phillip faded in and out while Magick was examined; once when the Rachael clone's droning voice woke him he wondered why she hadn't changed back to her natural human appearance like her brother did when he was unconscious.

"Master!" The slight excitement in the Rachael clone's voice was enough to wake Phillip.

"Yes, Sister." Phillip wasn't sure but he thought Sinister called all of the Rachael clones 'Sister'.

"Per protocol, thirty minutes has passed from when we were expecting to hear an update from the Hound stationed on the X-Men Island; he has not reported in and the storm to our west has done the improbable and is currently moving towards us."

Sinister seemingly ignored the first comment about an overdue Hound, "Did the Storm just turned towards us?"

"Yes Master, it had been traveling at a north easterly direction for the last forty minutes, it turned towards us less than ten minutes ago."

"I see; one can only assume that Storm is not on the island. I want..." Phillip couldn't hear anything from that point as a loud explosion drowned out all other noises as it shook him painfully in his harness. A loud claxon replaced the louder explosion as it died away until that claxon was muted.

Sinister's voice stayed at his constant level, "Have you found out what they attacked us with?"

"No Master, the main power plant is down and Warden's R-22 and R-23 just went off line, Warden's R-20 and R-21 is not responsive and thought to have been destroyed with the main power plant."

"Very well, I..." A smaller explosion painfully rocked Phillip followed by the claxons briefly.

The Rachael clone's voice raised to met the new noise, "Auxiliary power just went off line; all base operations are shutting down..."

"How?" Sinister's voice was ever the monotone.

"Master, Warden R-19 had a sighting of Colossus! Master Warden R-19 just went offline."

The clone raised her voice higher to be heard over the bustling activity in the room, "Master, the containment cells will lose power in thirty seconds, they are going into auto shutdown mode!"

"Release the knockout gas in each of the containments, I want everyone sleeping."

"Affirmitive Master. Gas release. Gas failure on cells two and four."

"Two and four? No matter, Phoenix and Magick were the two that needed to be further incapacitated. Has Warden's R-18 and R-17 stopped Colossus yet?"

"Negative Master, both just went offline."

"That quick? They were configured specifically for a threat like Colossus, someone must be accompanying him, find out who!"

"Master, additional intruders in the facility. We have confirmed Colossus in the southern sector. Havok and Polaris in the north sector and Wolverine just appeared in the G-20 hallway."

"G-20? There is no entrance near G-20 ... scan for Nightcrawler. Where are my Hounds? What are my current resources?"

"Scanning. There are currently seventeen squads in the facility with Pack One, Three and Four guarding the main entrance with Sister Two. Pack Two is in the northern sector with Runners Twenty, Twenty one and Sister Four. Runners Thirty through Thirty Nine is moving out into G-20. Currently eighty-nine percent of the Wardens are active and responsive. Correction eight-three; Wardens M-4 and M-5 just went offline at the main entrance."

"Colossus is probably not by him..." A sudden pain in numerous places on Phillip's body took his attention away as he felt the tubes in his arms, ass and mouth violently pull out, followed by a blinding light as the metal hood that had been blocking his vision retracted and he squeezed his eyes shut as his sight fought against the emergency light flooding his containment cell. Jerking his hands to his face to protect himself Phillip suddenly found himself falling out the X-shaped inverted harness that had been holding him.

When his senses cleared, Phillip found that he was naked and blood was dripping from his arms where the intravenous feeds had just been attached. He also found that he was very weak and could hardly lift his head. Just how long had he been in that chair? What had Sinister done to him?

Sinister! With concentrated effort that left him light headed, he lifted his head saw the villain, flanked by three Rachael clones. The clones were bald and wore white jumpsuits with a different number on each jumpsuit and the corresponding number was also tattooed on their left cheek. The clone with the autonomous voice was number One.

Phillip's containment cell was about ten feet across with eight heavy glass windows supported by riveted heavy steel girders. Outside his glass cell he saw three other containment cells, two of which were full of a heavy green smoke. He couldn't see who was inside the fourth one because they too had fallen out of their chair like harness.

The rest of the room, which seemed massive to Phillip; was spottily lit by emergency lights; massive banks of computers were on one wall but the largest object in the room was on the far wall; it appeared to Phillip in the dim light to be a massive machine with large tubes, piping, control boards and waldoes; inside one of the tubes Phillip thought he saw a body of some sort.

"Master, Nightcrawler and Shadowcat have been sighted and they are with Wolverine and Colossus respectively."

"Just as I thought, prepare for evacuation, this facility is compromised. All forces are ordered to engage, they will not be enough to stop the X-Men but they should slow the X-Men down so we can escape. The forces I have here are no match for the X-Men, but with the information I have gleamed from studying Skids and Field, I think I will be able to make improvements so that future Warden's will not be so vulnerable."

Sister Five had her own ideas, "Master, please allow my Sisters and I to engage the X-Men. You have gifted us in such wonderful ways. I am confident that we will be able to stop them for you Master!"

"No my child, that is not your duty for today. Warbird?" Sinister spoke but before he could hear the answer he sought, the Sisters present screamed.

"SISTER TWO! Master, Sister Two is no more. She is no longer part of us!"

"How? Something is not right. They are moving through my defenses as if they weren't there. What is the status of the Psi-Shield? Send the Hounds out; Xavier has to be on the island somewhere; that is the only thing that can explain how they X-Men are systematically dismantling my defenses. And where is Warbird?"

A new, huskier voice responded, "I am here Master."

"Good, your job is to defend me and the Sisters. Then join us after we have ensconced safely away."

"As you command Master."

"Master the Psi-Shield is up and appears functional but at only eighty one percent."

"Why 'appears' and why only eighty one percent?"

"Seventy nine percent now Master, apparently the X-Men are destroying anything of significance as they move towards us, especially Storm as she controls the storm above us and rains down lightning strike after lightning strike short circuiting anything metal they strike. I say appears because I keep getting ghost echoes that I should not; the system reads green but I find the ghost echoes troubling."

Sinister agreed, "And rightly you should. The Psi-Shield has been compromised. This convinces me that Xavier is indeed on the island and under the shield. It matters not how, obviously, they were able to land their Blackbird undetected. Send all sensor scans of the last 24 hours to base Omega 3 for compiling to see if they can find a trace of the X-Men's stealth craft landing."

The tropical storm commanded by Storm was hammering Sinister's island; her weakness as a person is that Ororo Monroe is very claustrophobic, except for the main laboratory which was three levels high; the rest of Sinister's facility was very narrow and tight. So she was constrained to causing as much chaos from the skies as she could, something Sinister's defenses were learning first hand was powerful indeed.

The attack on Sinister's island base was actually four-fold. Colossus, backed by Shadowcat, was dropped from two miles up directly into the facilities underground power generator in the southern part of the island. At maximum velocity his metal form was able to penetrate through the protective earth covering and there was a spectacular explosion which nary scratched the metal formed mutant; from there the two of them were to move towards the main section of the base in the middle of the island.

In the northern part of the Island, Polaris attacked while carrying Havok. Between the two of them they were able to slag the auxiliary power plant and anything else that may have been useful to Sinister in the defense of the island, such as the psi-field projectors.

A still injuried Nightcrawler, with guidance from Professor X, did indeed teleport Wolverine into corridor G-20 at the back of the facility. G-20 was the corridor that housed the barracks of the facility; Wolverine showed no restraint in making sure that Sinister's reinforcements were not able to support their master. Nightcrawler, after suffering through the strain of teleporting Wolverine almost two miles into the base was unable to assist further and found a quiet, dark corner to hole up in.

The actual rescue team was the one lead by Cyclops that entered through the main entrance consisting of a fully healed, though greatly diminished and incredibly angry Rogue, Pyslocke, Angel, and Bishop. Bishop's primary duty was to guard the ace in the X-Men's pocket, a fully recovered White Queen, looking like she was twenty years old and showing not a single scar from her previous ordeal. Professor X was indeed present on the island, secured in the Blackbird and guarded by the Year One's. Between the Professor's and the White Queen's superior telepathic minds they were able to circumvent Sinister's Psi-Shield and coordinate the actions of the X-Men. Their presence also ensured that telepathically the X-Men held the high ground against Sinister's Sisters of SummersGrey, the Rachael clones who possessed a fair amount of telepathy, and those Hounds who had minor telepathic skills.

Sinister had declared war on the X-Men and the X-Men were returning it in kind.

"Sister One, tell Sister's Zero and Four to join us. Has Wolverine decimated the Packs in G-20 yet?"

"Almost Master. Sister is coming, Sister is..." Sister One's voice grew pale, "Sister Four is dead, Master."

"So, Xavier is offering no quarter. Very well, activate Wardens A-1 and A-2."

"Sir, Wardens A-1 and A-2 are active." Phillip heard the rumbling noise behind him and twisted his head weakly to see two robotic guardians pedestals rise up from the floor; the robots upper torso were humanoid shaped but in lieu of arms two cannons of differing sizes were mounted. The armored head of the Wardens looked similar to Darth Vader but were scarier looking with thin spikes protruding everywhere.

Sister One's voice raised another octave, "Master, Warden B-3 just went offline; they are outside the main doors to the laboratory!"

Before Sinister had a chance to respond, Phillip heard a familiar <SARK> as Cyclops made his own entrance via his Optic Blasts.

"We are leaving now, Warbird, stall them; Sisters, with me." As Sinister started to move towards the door that just opened between the two Wardens's the Warbird-Rachael clone flew at Cyclops and the X-Men entering from behind him. At that moment another pack of Runners, essentially human drone slaves armed with conventional weapons arrived from the opposite end of the corridor that the X-Men were entering from and opened fire.

Only Rogue had entered the main laboratory behind Cyclops; the White Queen, decked out in all white camo fatigues including knee pads and elbow pads was content to stay in the hall way out of sight from the battle brewing inside, but Bishop changed her mind when he saw the drones and dragged her into the main room. She could have stopped the drones mentally but knew she was needed for the bigger fight. Psylocke and Angel understood this as well and rushed towards the drones. Both were nicked by bullets, Psylocke was able to dodge the worst of the incoming fire.

Angel was not. Like Storm, he was at an extreme disadvantage inside the hallways of Sinister's secret base and yet Angel was not deterred in joining the fray. With the width of the hall shorter by far than his full wingspan, Angel was not able to get full thrust from his wings and so his leap towards the drones fell short, before he could leap at them a second time his body and wings were riddled by bullets and he fell to the ground. Psylocke screamed her impending attack but she was not able to reach the drones before Angel received numerous more bursts of automatic fire at his prone form.

Warbird knew she was a threat to be reckoned with and that she would succeed in delaying these X-Men, she could do no less for her Master who bequeathed her with the powers of both Rogue and Ms. Marvel. Her speed would allow her to avoid most of the damage from Cyclops' optic blasts and Bishops' plasma blasts. Once she was on top of the X-Men, she would absorb Bishop's power and skills while dispersing the rest. She would linger to ensure her Master had time to enact his withdrawal, and then she would fly after him.

She was wrong on all accounts. She did not take into consideration on one X-Man; the White Queen.

When Rogue permanently absorbed Carol Danvers' powers and memories, those secondary and separate set of memories mentally made Rogue hard to mentally read or attack; Warbird had no such mental protection and suddenly found herself no longer in control of her body. Her attack aborted, she landed uncontrollably in front of the X-Men. Staggering to her knees as she fought the White Queen's control of her body, Bishop stepped in front of her and after pressing the barrel of his plasma rifle to her unprotected neck, he pulled the trigger.

Since his main role in the rescue attempt was to protect the White Queen, he had been holding back his energies until they were needed. At point blank range, his full power plasma burst penetrated Warbird's armor like skin at the weak neck area; the blast did not stop until it exited the back of her neck and ricocheted off of the number three container cell.

Warbird's headless body crumpled to the ground; dead.

Colossus turned the corner and his metal frame flew against the opposing wall; when the smoke cleared he saw two more Wardens' were in front of him, blocking his path. As soon as he made a move to stand upright they fired their heavy cannons again destroying the steel wall and a fair amount of the earth behind him, but not him. Sighing a soundless sigh, he kept his arm raised to protect his unblinking eyes from the incoming explosions and waited.

Three seconds was all it took for Shadowcat to phase through the corridor wall behind the Wardens and reaching into the back of their spiked helmets she terminated them by a combination of the massive amounts of static electricity she naturally built up phasing and her partial un-phasing of her fingernails inside the metal helmet that housed the human brain of the Wardens.

The first time Shadowcat phased through a Warden to disrupt its electronics, she was sickened to realize that there was a human brain inside the cybernetic defenders. Colossus confirmed this when he dismantled the Wardens cyborg partner and ripped its head off only to see the remnants of a spinal cord dangling from the armored helmet he had in his hand.

Kitty spoke before Peter Rasputin could become despondent for taking life, something that he felt strongly against doing, even though in his metal form he had the strength to crush any simple human.