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Title: Zero X part 9
Pairing: 1x2 and 3x4 (occasional hints)
Warnings: AU, X-men cross over. This fic is unbeta'd.
Rating: PG (for now at least)
A/N: I've mixed and matched parts from different X-men universes (there are so many, I can never keep them straight anyway), sorry if this offends anyone. only basic knowledge of the X-men is needed to understand the story.
Previous parts: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8
The science in part of this section is mostly impossible but rooted in actual Biological techniques (with a good dose of fiction). The relevence etc will be explained later, hopefully without boring or confusing people too much. If there are any words or phrases that you don't understand please ask and I'll slip an explanation into the text.
It had been relatively easy to get into the base communication and intelligence centres. Confidence and the tiniest hint of persuasion and he had been accepted as a computer technician. Trowa slid the disk Heero provided into the central computer, before attaching the simple wireless adaptor into the USB port. An acknowledgement message from Zero flashed across the screen, a brief smile flickered across Trowa's face and he removed the disk and the wireless adaptor he pocketed them for the time being to use again on the flight computers. Inside the centre's computer system, the Zero/cerebro AI unit spread out into unused segments of the network memory, devouring and replacing code as they moved, gradually absorbing the base AI. Not even a flicker of an alarm or the smallest glitch was produced to alert the system administrators.
In his Quarters Trowa flicked on his radio "Arms reporting, situation normal, phase 1 complete, will continue with phase 2 in the morning."
"Wing to Arms, complete your mission tonight."
"Acknowledged, is my cover compromised?" It was rare for Heero to change orders in the middle of a mission,
"Negative. Your backup is required here. Sand has left on an unscheduled mission."
"Confirmed." Trowa frowned as he put away the radio, if Heero had any further information he would have shared it. Trowa could tell as much by what wasn't said as what was, the others didn't know where Quatre was going, but they thought that they would need Trowa's help. Trowa could guess what Quatre was doing as well as any of the others, there really was only one place Quatre would have gone alone.
Turning his attention back to the mission, he made his way to the hangars. The guards on duty were happy enough to let the 'flight mechanic' have access and soon the Zero system had control of the transport's in-flight computers. Leaving without alerting anyone was going to be trickier, he easily persuaded the guards to forget his presence knowing that Zero would delete the surveillance footage. The base was on a small private island and stealing one of the transports or even a helicopter would raise an alarm eventually when it was missed, fortunately there was a ferry that ran every 12 hours to and from the mainland dropping supplies and relief staff. Despite his desire to return to the mansion as swiftly as possible Trowa waited patiently for the evening ferry, slipping on as one of the rotating guards. Disappearing into the darkness as soon as he reached dry land he sent out a signal to the others to pick him up.
***********
If Xavier could walk he would be pacing as it was he was doing the telepathic equivalent, sending his senses out and reining them back in almost unconsciously. Of his five newest charges only three remained and he wasn't even certain whether he ought to be searching for the other two or not. Trowa Barton's disappearance had apparently been planned and agreed between his friends, Xavier had little doubt that what he was doing was dangerous but from the little information he had sending a team of X-men out, even if he could locate the boy would probably only put him in more danger. He was even less sure of what to make of Quatre Winner's absence, he still couldn't read anything from any of the three boys and he wasn't sure if they were worried or not, but they had been surprised to find him gone.
Charles was not used to being kept in the dark, and he was not used to being unable to find people. He went to find his remaining guests finding two out of three in the lobby, Heero was sitting working on his laptop with Duo leaning against the wall beside him. The boys remained a blank empty space to his senses and he studied their faces as they turned to acknowledge him. Heero returned his attention quickly to the incomprehensible series of numbers, letters and symbols running across his laptop screen in four different colours.
Duo grinned knowingly at Charles rolling his eyes "Don't mind him, he's a bit preoccupied. Was there something you needed Professor?"
“When will Trowa be back?” He asked
“He’ll let us know,” Duo lent over Heero draping an arm around his shoulders and looked at the screen, which now showed only three colours of text “‘Ro? Any idea when Tro’ll be done?”
“He’s done, and leaving now. He’ll call when he’s clear. We’ll need to borrow your jet again.” Heero looked up at Duo and then over to Charles, closing the lid of his laptop firmly.
“What exactly was he doing?” Charles asked “If you want our help, we really need to know what you’re doing.”
Heero looked at him eyes narrowing “We’re taking over our attackers computer systems.”
For Heero revealing even that was a show of trust, but there were still too many questions “Who are they? And why are they after you? My people risked their lives for you, the children in our care were kidnapped. I need to know what I am protecting you from.”
Heero shook his head “It is still safer you don’t know Professor, for all of us.”
Duo chimed in quickly “Look we know you want to know what is happening, but we can’t risk it. Just…” He looked over at Heero in a rare show of indecision “you really don’t want these people to get us under their control, particularly ‘Ro or Quat’. You’ve seen Weapon X, put it this way, they’re the foot soldiers.”
*********
Hacking had never been something Quatre was expert in, the presence of Heero on his team had made any attempts by anyone else a little redundant, but he had persuaded Heero to show him a few tricks to use in emergencies. He had legitimate access to the Winner foundation computers to help him, both under his and Iria's identity, and after a few dead-ends he had managed to access files relating to the Zero project. There was really nothing else the 'genetics functionality study' could be, no where was the military or human experimentation mentioned but he recognised references to each team member in the reported results.
Quatre found his teeth clenching as he read the abstracts of the scientific reports provided, certain sentences leaping off the screen at him, there was no way the company directors was unaware of the realities of 'the project'.
target gene expression induced using the chemical analogue 0X92-7... early onset of desired phenotypic traits..... 200 embryos innoculated in initial trial.... Series XA.... 27% spontaneous abortion, 65% infant fatality, 6% exhibited non desirable traits, viable subjects retained for further testing and development..... Genetic splicing of X genes variants to allow secondary and tertiary Xgene phenotype... mental inbalance, subject terminated..... fatality during training exercise... Detection and categorisation of unexpressed Xgene in native population.... Capture and containment of native subjects..... series XB..... subject retraining and modification..... pre-adolescence gene induction 82% fatality..... Examination of naturally occuring early onset Xgene phenotype... series XC.... non-biological augmentation... behavioural control.... Xgene inhibitor units...modification of mature subjects..... control of mental instability by memory modification.... adamantium... genosha island.... 200% increase in physical strength..... development of artificial intelligence.....pattern prediction abilities... 300% increase in subject's speed..... increased healing capabilities.... pain tolerance threshold...metabolic irregularities
Iria lent over Quatre reading off the screen "I don't understand this, what does it all mean?"
"It's talking about mutant children." Quatre bit off angrily "They are creating and kidnapping mutants and experimenting on them, and this company is funding them. You know most mutants don’t develop abilities until adolescence. They used chemical mimics of biological molecules to trigger the mutation in young children or even before birth."
"Who? Why? What are we going to do?" Iria asked
"We? You are still willing to help? It might be dangerous and it could lead anywhere." Quatre looked up at her seriously, reading her intent and smiling at the determination "Thank you."
Quatre pulled himself away from the scientific details he was far from expert with and copied the files quickly onto a flash drive, to allow him to destroy the selected files.
"Now we find who is behind this and stop them." He turned his attention to the financial details and lists of project directors that he was truly interested in. His list of people whose lives he wanted to make miserable, and whose fortunes were about to take a change for the worst.
********
Ororo Monroe followed Wufei Chang back to the X jet swallowing her amusement at the way Kitty Pryde watched them from the other end of the corridor, clearly trying to think of a reason to ask to be included on their trip. "I don't need an escort," Wufei snapped as Ororo pulled up alongside him
"You are one of our students now, we are responsible for your safety. We can not let you fly off in our jet on your own." Ororo smiled as he huffed impatiently "Besides it's always best to have someone to watch your back."
"I definitely do not need a woman to watch my back."
Ororo laughed "If I can put up with having a child watch my back then you can have a woman watch yours."
Wufei stopped and scowled "If you get in my way, I will leave you behind. I do not have time to waste on weaklings."
"You have a lot to learn about women child if you believe they are weak." Ororo swept ahead of him and into the jet.
Wufei was silent for the entire trip out, after entering the coordinates into the jets navigational computer he simply sat back and crossed his arms waiting for them to arrive. He let Storm pilot but from the way his eyes flicked over the readings she had no doubt that he was perfectly capable of piloting himself and ready for any emergency that might arise. If possible the trip back with Trowa Barton was if possible even quieter, the boys had nodded in acknowledgment when Trowa first appeared and then to all appearances completely ignored each other. It was eerie and Ororo was relieved when they finally touched down in the mansion where Duo was waiting.
"Tro', 'Fei we got a call from Quat' he's on his way back. We're going to be busy." Duo grinned happily at the other two boys.
- crossovers,
- fic,
- gundam wing,
- pilots,
- series,
- wip,
- x-men,
- zero x