Jamie just stood there, unsure of how to react. Some part of him knew that this was coming, but had refused to believe it until it actually happened.

The judge arched an eyebrow at the jury spokesman.

"Recommendation noted. But your job is merely to pronounce the verdict. Please keep that in mind for any, er… future cases in which you may be part of the jury, sir."

Turning back to Jamie, the judge took hold of his gavel, raising it in the air. "Now, as per the jury's verdict, Jamie Madrox, I find you guilty and sentence—"

"NO, that's not ENOUGH!" the jury spokesman interrupted. He hadn't sat down, and his face was red, he eyes practically bulging out of his head. "You can't just sit there and sentence him like… like some HUMAN criminal! We need to make an EXAMPLE of him, before this behavior spreads!"

"That is ENOUGH out of you!" the judge said, banging his gavel and quickly growing flustered. "You have done your job, now SIT down!"

A bit of murmuring started to come from the trial's audience about the audacity of the juror. Ororo raised an eyebrow.

Wait a minute…

"I'll do MY job correctly when you do YOURS!" the juror spat, starting to step out of the jury box.

"Sir, get back in your seat now!" one of the guards nearby said, putting a hand on his baton as he stepped towards the juror.

"Hey, back off!" said another juror angrily, standing up to fend off the guard. "You don't have the right—"

"I have the RIGHT to shut your trap UP!" the guard growled, taking out his baton and, before anyone else could stop him, hitting the protesting juror hard upside the head.

Many in the courtroom audience immediately stood up at this—some yelling out a protest, others gasping, a few getting ready to leave before things got any hairier—but a strong gust of wind suddenly coming in through the open windows caught everybody's attention.

Especially once it began circling around the white-haired African-American next to the defendant, who had her arms outstretched, apparently guiding the wind around the courtroom as it blew papers around everywhere.

"Alright, that's enough of this!" Ororo said loudly. "We've all been had!"

"Ms. Monroe, it was made very clear before this trial that no Mutant powers were to be used!" the judge yelled nervously, banging his gavel. "Now, I'm not sure why you're messing up the organization of the documents in this courtroom, but you need to desist, and immediately!"

Ororo looked out of the corner of her eyes to see most of the remaining guards reaching for their guns.

"No, LOOK!" Ororo said, keeping the wind coming but calming it down enough where people could hear the jury again.

"What….what's going on?" the jury spokesman said, a bewildered look on his face. "How did I get so….out of control? Judge, please, forgive me—I'm not sure what came over—"

"Oh my god!" the guard who had gotten out his baton yelled, picking up the juror he had struck. "What did I do? What did I do? I've never lost my cool like that, never! I think I hurt this poor woman! Please, we need to get her some medical attention, quickly!"

"Let me check on her," Hank said, quickly making his way over to the shocked guard.

"What in the blazes is going on here?" the judge said, bewildered.

"This has all been a game!" Ororo said, keeping the wind going at a steady pace. "Professor Xavier and I met a Mutant a few days ago… a Mutant who could control others' emotions!"

"Wait… what?" Jamie asked. "Is that Mutant here?"

"No," Ororo said, glancing through the audience. "I definitely would have recognized her coming in. But her powers work through pheromones, so she can't be far."

"Your honor, this whole charade is ridiculous," Mayor Kelly said exasperatingly, getting up out of his chair from the prosecutor's table. "Now that the verdict's been reached, these Mutants are trying… trying to make us all believe this was all just fixed? Please! No Mutant 'bogeyman' is here, the entire courthouse was cordoned off hours ago—"

"Rahne, come here," Ororo called, gesturing towards the teenager.

Rahne got out of her seat amongst the other X-Men that had been allowed to attend the trial and quickly made her way up to her instructor. "What… what do ya need me for?"

"Can you sniff her out?" Ororo said softly.

"Uh… well, I'll need you t' stop making all the wind for a second," Rahne said gingerly, glancing around at the confused guards, half of who were standing flabbergasted, the other half with their weapons nervously trained on the Mutants. "It kinda… mixes a lot of the scents."

"Alright, but be quick," Ororo said, gesturing with her hands as the wind slowly died down. "They work faster than you'd think."

Rahne nodded, transforming into a wolf in front of the crowd, drawing a few gasps from the audience as well training the guards' weapons on her.

"Stop this, now!" the judge said, banging his gavel again. "This is your last warning! There are to be no Mutant powers—"

Rahne sniffed twice, then pointed her nose up towards a medium-sized ceiling vent positioned about halfway between the judge and jury.

"You're sure?" Jamie said quietly. "You're focusing on the pheromones, right?"

Rahne rolled her eyes once and barked.

To the surprise of many there, a muffled curse came from somewhere above the vent, followed by sounds of movement.

"Guards, get someone up there!" the judge said, quickly getting up out of his seat at the noise. "Figure out what's going on!"

"Alright, everyone in the crowd, out now, all of you!" one of the guards next to the courtroom's exit door yelled as Ororo began to send gusts of wind soaring through the room again.

All of those in the audience, as well as those in the jury, began to leave in a panic, those near the vent in question practically tripping over each other in the process. Ushered on by the guards, the media personnel that had been recording the trial reluctantly began packing up their equipment as well. Beast helped carry the injured juror out along with the guard who her struck her earlier.

The other X-Men that were present, however, only stood up. They didn't make a move for the door.

"Don't worry, I've got her," Kurt said as soon as most of the people had evacuated the room.

"Kurt, no wait, don't-!" Ororo began to protest, but Kurt had already teleported out of sight.

Laurie Collins had been as still as she possibly could, but after Storm's wind died down and there was a bark obviously directed at the vent below her, she knew the charade was over.

Cursing, she quickly scrambled together the pillow and snack food she had brought with her, internally making a note to start pumping out a different sort of pheromone, and began quickly crawling back through the air conditioning shaft, no longer paying any attention to how much noise she was making.

Cursing further as she struggled to pull back one of her coat sleeves with her teeth since her arms were both carrying her belongings, she finally managed to do so after a few tries and hit her comlink's video screen with her nose.

"Blink! Blink, this is Wallflower! I need evac, ASAP!"

It was a few precious seconds before Blink responded. Below Laurie could vaguely hear a bunch of people leaving the room.

*This is Blink. Screwed it up, did you?*

"I'm kind of in a situation here right now, Blink! Berate me later!"

*Fine. Where are you?*

"In the air conditioning duct directly above the courtoom. Making my way left, towards the exit."

*Oh. Well, that's bad.*

"…Why?"

*Honey, I may be able to teleport anywhere around the world, but it comes at a price. You're in a small, enclosed space—a space I've never been. I can't teleport in there with you- my powers don't work that way, they're not quite that exact. I might materialize in the middle of the vent walls, or perhaps below you in the courtroom. Get out into the open and then I can get you.*

"Well, that's gonna be kinda difficult—they know where I am and it's still going to take me at least a minute to get outside."

Blink sighed through the communicator. *Fine. I'll send—*

Blink's communiqué was interrupted by a brief burst of static as a cloud suddenly materialized in front of Wallflower, revealing Nightcrawler.

"The jig's up," Nightcrawler said, taking a hold of Wallflower's hand before she could react. "Time to show everyone down there just who's… fixing the…."

Nightcrawler just continued to crouch there in the vault, looking at Laurie, a dumb smile slowly forming on his lips.

"Wow, you're kinda… pretty…."

Good thing I already switched to strong attraction pheromones, Laurie thought, smirking. His libido should be in control for now.

"Oh, aren't you sweet," Laurie said, batting her eyes, the dull yellow color of which slightly illuminated the otherwise dark vent. "Could you… do a favor for me? I'd really appreciate it."

"Uh… of course," Nightcrawler replied softly, his face still having the same dumb lovestruck look on it. "Whatever you need."

"Get me out of here, would you?"

As soon as Kurt disappeared, Ororo knew he wasn't coming back.

Professor, she thought, massaging her temples. Professor, I know you're within psychic range. Can you hear me?

A strong thought almost immediately surfaced in Ororo's mind. I hear you, Ororo. How goes the trial?

Badly, Ororo thought. We've been sabotaged. Is there any way you can get on Cerebro?

As you know, there's guards here in the Mansion with me, Ororo, and I'm forbidden from using it during the trial.

Please, try to convince them. The Mutant that we met the other day? She's been manipulating the trial all along using her pheromone powers. We just discovered her in the vents.

Oh, dear… poor Jamie…

Kurt went after her before I could say otherwise, and now I'm sure he's under her spell. She's going to be leaving the premises very soon, and we're going to NEED Cerebro to track her. Convince the guards with you somehow- have them call someone a guard here or something to confirm it. And try to keep in contact with all of us that are here.

I—I'll do my best, Ororo. Xavier out.

"What's going on?" Bobby said as he and the other X-Men at the trial came up to Ororo, Jamie, Christoph, and Piotr. "Kurt's gonna be back any second with her… right?"

"If she's ready, her pheromone powers work too quickly, I'm afraid," Ororo said, shaking her head sadly. "All of you, I need to head out, search the grounds. Find her, but do NOT get close to her."

"You got it," Rogue nodded.

Rahne, meanwhile, barked and jumped out one of the court's partially-open windows onto the grounds beyond.

"Wait wait wait, hold on just a moment here!" Mayor Kelly protested. "It's already been agreed upon that none of the X-Men present can leave the courthouse—or use their powers—until the trial is over!"

"These are hardly expected circumstances," Christoph retorted.

"I agree with them," the judge said to Kelly. "Those rules are suspended—albeit temporarily—until this whole mess can be sorted out."

"Thank you," Ororo nodded. Turning back to the other X-Men, she said, "Now, all of you, go!"

Nightcrawler teleported both Wallflower and himself just behind the courthouse, safe from the protesting crowds out near the front and still close enough that people on the somewhat distant road wouldn't notice them.

"Thank you, you've been a great deal of help to me," Laurie said in a sickeningly sweet tone to Kurt. "How can I ever repay you?"

"Oh, I can, uh… think of one way…" Kurt said, smirking. Laurie was sure that if it wasn't for the blue fur, the other Mutant's face would be flushed right now.

"Oh, right," Laurie smiled, right before giving Kurt a strong chop to the side of his head and knocking him out.

"Blink, I'm outside," Laurie spoke into her communicator, running out into the open behind the courthouse. "Back side of the building."

Instead of a response, three Mutants abruptly teleported a few yards to the right of Laurie in a flash of light.

"What are Santo and, um… one of the Five doing here?" Laurie asked Blink.

"It's Phoebe," sighed the blonde quintuplet that had traveled with Blink and Rockslide.

"You may want to save the stupid questions for later and turn around," Rockslide grumbled as he plunged a massive fist into the ground.

Laurie turned around to see a Mutant made out of ice, a wolf, and a short girl on fire sprinting towards them as they rounded a corner of the building.

"Wait, how did they find me so quickly?" Laurie exclaimed.

"You weren't psychically shielded, so any psychics that were paying attention likely led them here." Phoebe said. "I'm here, and now you're shielded again."

"Now, all of you, take care of them, quickly," she continued. "I can wipe a few minds by myself, but not everyone here."

"They're too far away for me to do anything!" Wallflower said.

Rockslide grunted as the ground underneath Magma began to give way, sending the surprised Mutant into a newly-opened pit.

"Wallflower, is it any wonder why you have your codename? Your problem is easily solved," Blink said, teleporting out of the way as Iceman sent a blast of extreme cold at her.

A split second later, she teleported a few feet above Iceman, falling towards him. Before he could even react, the purple-skinned Mutant teleported away again, but only after touching the ice coat on top of his skin, which vanished along with her.

She soon reappeared back where she had originally been, quickly pushing the ice shell of Bobby's off of her, where it cracked into pieces on the ground.

"Yikes, that's cold," Blink shivered, rubbing her hands together.

As Iceman collapsed to the ground, succumbing to a sudden heat stroke without his ice coating, Wolfsbane, who had been ignored by the others for just long enough, managed to lunge at Laurie. Wallflower had prepped some fear pheromones that she had sent in the wolf's direction, but to her surprise, they didn't seem to have any effect.

Unable to get out of the way in time, Wallflower shrieked in pain as Wolfsbane chomped into her leg, growling.

"Why aren't they working on her?" Wallflower cried, panicking as she tried desperately to shake Wolfsbane off her leg.

"Oh, for the love of—" Rockslide harrumphed, taking his hand out of the ground and smacking Wolfsbane off of Wallflower, sending the wolf yelping as she flew about a dozen feet away, landing on her back. "She's NOT HUMAN in that form, Laurie. So of COURSE you're not going to affect her."

"Quick, Blink, get us out of here before any others come!" Wallflower exclaimed, clutching her bleeding leg.

"Just a minute," Blink said, "There's one thing we need to do first. It's the reason why I didn't just teleport us all away in the first place. Phoebe?"

"It will just take a moment," Phoebe said, closing her eyes.

All three of the X-Men were recovering—Bobby was re-coating himself in ice, Magma had turned back into her normal form and was climbing out of the pit, and Wolfsbane was slowly starting to get back up—but they immediately froze in place. After a couple of seconds, Phoebe opened her eyes, their glow briefly brightening for a moment. At the exact same time, all of the X-Men's eyes flashed, and they fell limp, Wolfsbane converting back to human form soon after she did so.

"It's done," Phoebe said, as she, Wallflower, and Rockslide all touched Blink.

A split second later, all four were gone in a flash of light.

"Rahne? Hey, Rahne, you awake?"

Rahne suddenly opened her eyes and sat up, breathing heavily, her eyes darting everywhere.

She looked around, quickly calming down as she realized that she was in the Institute's medbay, back in her human form. Jamie—the person who had just asked her the question—stood in front of her, having taken a quick step back reflexively at her abrupt movement. Ororo, Xavier, and Hank stood behind Jamie, while Bobby and Amara were on the beds next to her, both of them awake. All three of them had various monitoring instruments hooked up to their arms.

"What….what's going on?" Rahne asked. "Why am I here? Shouldn't I be… shouldn't we all be at the courthouse? And… ow… why does my jaw hurt so much?"

Reaching up to her mouth, she felt a welt on one side of her jawbone. It wasn't broken, but it felt out of alignment.

"Hrrm," Hank said, shaking his head. "So you don't remember either, then?"

"Remember what?" Rahne asked, clutching her jaw.

"Okay, well, uh—first things first," Jamie said. "Good news? The trial's been postponed until tomorrow because of all the… tampering, and everything. Bad news? I have to do it all over again."

"The trial's… over?" Rahne asked, flabbergasted. "But… it was just a few seconds ago that I was running after—"

"Yeah, I felt like no time had passed at all when I woke up a few minutes ago, too," Bobby said. "But… well, look at us, Rahne. Something DID happen to us. You've got some bruises and obviously some jaw pain, Amara's got a few bumps too, and I've got a couple of burns under this ice skin I'm wearing."

"But… how?" Rahne asked.

"You remember zeroing in on Laurie Collins, after I pinpointed her location with Cerebro and sent a message giving her exact location, correct?" Xavier asked.

"Yeah, after she had somehow affected Kurt… wait, where IS Kurt?" Rahne said, interrupting herself.

"He's fine, he's fine," Ororo said. "He just got a slight knock on the head, he recovered from it a few hours ago, he's elsewhere in the Mansion. But he doesn't have the same… well, memory lapse… that you three do. Even though he was knocked unconscious too, he was aware that some time had passed when he had woken up—and how he had gotten his injury."

"So… what happened?" Rahne said.

"Well, therein lies the problem," Xavier said. "Soon after I alerted you three as to Laurie's location, her signature disappeared from Cerebro. I couldn't find her anymore. And then by the time the others had gotten out there, they had found you three—unconscious- as you are now, with your injuries. There was a collapsed pit of ground we found Amara in, and a smaller hole in the ground some distance away from all three of you, but other than that, nothing."

"So we were in a fight, then," Rahne said. "But then how come—?"

"All three of you are exhibiting the classic symptoms of a mind wipe," Xavier interrupted, tapping his steepled fingers together thoughtfully.

"So Laurie has mental powers, too?" Rahne asked.

"No," Xavier said, shaking his head. "I ran a more thorough search on her via Cerebro, after the trial. Someone matching her physical description went missing a few weeks ago in Berkeley, California. Cerebro registered a Mutant signature briefly in Berkeley at around that time, until, like many others, it disappeared less than four hours later. I would gather she's one of the many 'missing Mutants' we've been hearing so much about lately, but this time whomever 'captured' her sent her back. On a mission."

"So Magneto, then," Bobby said. "I mean, we all figured out a while back he's the one behind all the Mutant disappearances, right?"

"Well, it's a likely hypothesis," Xavier said. "However, we still have no absolute proof that Magneto is kidnapping or harboring Mutants. Hence the public's distrust of us increasing even more lately."

"Yes, but it's a bit more troubling than that," Hank added, stepping in. "Given the level of secrecy in this, Magneto must have more assets at his disposal than even we thought. I mean, let's look at this—whenever a Mutant emerges, they disappear from Cerebro's scanners within hours, no matter where they are in the world. Up until now they've never reappeared. And now this… 'Laurie Collins', or whoever she really is… shows up suddenly here, in Bayville, with a fabricated record that's at least solid enough to stand up to an initial biographical data query from Cerebro. She knew exactly where to stay in the Bayville Courthouse that would allow her pheromones to affect us easily without revealing herself—I would argue too easily, given that the guard, some members of the jury, and the judge started to get overly emotional very quickly. And then when discovered, she quickly makes her way out, disappearing. There was apparently a battle, but neither of you remember it."

"Magneto's got his bases covered, it looks like," Bobby whistled.

"However many Mutants he has, it seems he has at least one to deal with almost any kind of circumstance," Hank continued. "Besides Laurie and the Acolytes we already knew about, he must have either have a long-range teleporter or several shorter-range teleporters like Kurt scattered throughout the globe. He has someone who can implant false information in government database computers, whether it's by some sort of technical-interface Mutant power like Danielle's, an agent working for the government, or simply via good old-fashioned hacking. He has Mutants able to take all three of you out quickly enough that they were all gone before the rest of us even got outside the Courthouse. He also has at least one Mutant who's one heck of a telepath—not only did this person wipe your minds, and quickly, they were able to put mental resistance shields in every other Mutant that they brought with them."

"I detected no other Mutant signatures at the Courthouse, and I was using Cerebro very shortly after Storm contacted me mentally about the situation," Xavier explained. "Even Laurie's signature appeared to vanish shortly after she appeared outside the grounds with Kurt."

"Well, wait, what about Mastermind?" Jamie asked. "Mastermind has mental powers, right?"

"True, but not like this," Xavier replied. "Mastermind's specialty is with creating psychic illusions. He could never keep his Mutant signature from Cerebro's detection, and given his power level it would take focused concentration for a least a few minutes for him to wipe someone's mind. No, whoever this was was a far more powerful telepath than Mastermind."

"That's… really scary," Rahne said, bringing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around her legs in a nervous gesture as she began to rock back-and-forth slightly in her bed.

"So basically no matter what we do, no matter how many precautions we take, they can still do whatever they want?" Bobby exclaimed. "We REALLY need to increase the Mansion's defenses. Big time."

Xavier shook his head. "No, if they were going to attack us, they would have done so already. I knew Magnus for quite some time before we became enemies, and that isn't his modus operandi."

"His what?" Jamie mumbled.

"His way of doing things," Hank explained. "I agree with Charles, Magneto's more about making grand statements, trying to get other Mutants to see his point of view. Attacking us outright might actually turn more Mutants against him."

"So… the whole reason he wanted to manipulate the trial was to 'prove' humans would turn against us, no matter what?" Jamie asked.

"Most likely, though the discovery of Laurie will dull the impact of that," Xavier said. "Hopefully it will turn other Mutants against him. However, more worrying is that I fear Mutant public opinion may have already turned against us. Magneto's been abducting Mutants for months by now, and yet we've not heard from ONE disgruntled former Acolyte, not one lone Mutant who's come to our door with information on where Magneto is and what exactly he's up to."

"Well, as unpleasant as it may seem… could he just be killin' any Mutants he abducts who don't agree with him?" Rahne asked.

"It's technically possible, but I doubt it," Xavier replied. "I don't think killing any disagreeable subordinates would play well with as large a portion of the Mutant population as we hypothesize he has."

"So… how many do 'we' think he has?" Jamie questioned.

"Well…" Hank said, "It's a bit difficult to tell. We can't assume that every Mutant that's disappeared was in fact abducted by Magneto—as opposed to suicide, violence, etcetera—plus it's more difficult for us to access databases from other countries, and if someone is relatively isolated that would mean—"

"Hank, please," Xavier said, "I understand the point you're making, but I don't think it helps the situation to obfuscate the result."

"Very well," Hank sighed. "We're guessing… somewhere between one hundred and one hundred seventy-five, thereabouts."

"One hundred is the low end?" Bobby said in disbelief. "Well then… then what the heck are we even doing this for? If that many Mutants follow Magneto now compared to how many X-Men we've got—it doesn't matter how well-trained we are, there isn't even gonna be a smear of us on the wall left whenever they're through!"

"I'm hoping events will persuade enough of them to abandon Magneto, making his ideals a bit of a 'flavor of the month' among Mutantkind because of the situation now with registration fairly imminent," Xavier said. "That said… we're definitely going to need to be at our highest readiness level come Registration Day."

"You think they'll launch an all-out attack on Bayville or something?" Amara asked.

"I don't know, none of us do. Therein lies the problem, and we've got to do something about it—and soon." Xavier responded.

"Well, I think the good news to come from this is that with that many people on his side, someone's got to slip up," Beast said. "I mean, we very nearly caught this 'Laurie Collins' person, and even the lack of evidence this time has led us to conclusions we would have been unsure of otherwise. It's only a matter of time before we get some real, concrete evidence of where Magneto and his band of Acolytes are and how they've been keeping themselves a secret from the world."

"Well, let's hope that it happens before Magneto makes whatever move he's undoubtedly going to," Amara said.

"I feel kinda weird saying this, but I wish S.H.I.E.L.D. was still around," Bobby said. "At least they could've helped us figure all this out."

"They're still around, they're just currently hiding to escape blame for the whole Nimrod thing," Beast reminded her. "Whenever they decide to reveal themselves to us again- well, that's the question. Though given S.H.I.E.L.D.'s history, I expect they'll show up again when they know they've successfully dodged the Nimrod blame bullet, almost regardless of the state the world is in."

"Regardless, we can't just hope that they'll show up," Xavier responded. "We're going to have to take the initiative. Somehow, we're going to have to find a way to locate Magneto's base of operation, and quickly."

Wallflower is here to see you, Magneto.

It was so refreshing, these past couple of weeks, being able to walk around without having to wear that uncomfortable helmet. Here on the new Genosha, the type of metal they had built into the very walls of the ever-increasing number of buildings was of the same type that he had made his helmet from, essentially protecting all of them from long-range mind control or manipulation. But most importantly, it kept their Mutant signatures hidden from the world—and, more importantly, Cerebro.

Still, with their Cerebro Mark II—run by the Five-in-One—they ran into the problem of how to get messages sent quickly to his Acolytes. One of his newer recruits, who had been an engineer in his "earlier life" and went by the name Prodigy now, suggested running a small feed from Cerebro Mark II into every building on Genosha—an implementation that was proving to be very useful.

Magnus would have to make sure Prodigy received one of the better buildings for his home when all of this construction was said and done.

Very well, Magneto thought back. Send her in. And thank you, Celeste.

Opening the metal doors to his chamber with a flick of his wrist, Magneto slowly walked over to look out the window on the right side of his room, gazing out at the burgeoning community below his miniature skyscraper of a home as he heard Wallflower's unsteady footsteps coming towards him on the metal floor.

Interesting gait, judging by the sound. She appeared to have a limp.

"I take it you were injured," Magneto stated flatly, not bothering to turn his gaze towards Wallflower as he addressed her. If there's one thing he had learned over the years of commanding his own team, it was that not looking them in the eye while you talked to them tended to give off a stronger sense of disapproval then even the most intense gaze of hatred- as if they were barely even worth your time.

Which was true in her case, quite frankly. Mastermind tended to handle most of the reprimands, but this was a… special case which unfortunately required his personal attention.

"Yes," Wallflower said nervously from her position… roughly in the center of his chambers, judging by her voice. "One of those X-Men—the one who could turn into a wolf—managed to bite me before I could react. My pheromones apparently didn't have any effect on her because of her form, unfortunately."

"Yes. Unfortunately," Magneto said.

Wallflower stood silent for a moment, apparently expecting a longer response, but after an awkward pause she continued. "I-I think the problem was that my pheromones were a bit too strong towards the end. I got overconfident and botched it. I thought I kept my cover pretty well intact even when Xavier found my temporary apartment there—I even fed him a bunch of crud about not wanting to choose sides, but I… I'm sorry."

"Wallflower, if you must understand one thing, understand this," Magneto said, finally looking her in the eye, albeit with feigned disinterest. "We are Mutants. Homo Superior. We have evolved past the need for apologies when it is clear that the Mutant in question's intentions are pure."

"Th-thank you, sir," Wallflower said, bowing slightly. "I mean, I got out of there as quickly as possible… and Blink, Rockslide, and Phoebe really did a great job in helping me when I needed them. I think… I think we're really starting to work together well, here."

"I agree," Magneto said, smiling slightly. "In just a few short weeks, we've managed to not only increase our ranks exponentially, but we have at least two dozen buildings up, with more being constructed every day. You see how much better-functioning, how much better, a society composed solely of Mutants is? It would have taken humans months, if not years, to do all this. But each of us, using our powers for the benefit of the community, have been able to accomplish this… and so much more, as the world shall see soon enough."

"Right, absolutely," Wallflower said, her tone finally starting to sound more relaxed. "So, um… should I leave now?"

"Actually, I've got a particularly special job for you," Magneto said, Blink teleporting in behind him as he finished the sentence. "Blink here will show you where you'll be working."

"Oh, um… okay…" Wallflower said as Blink, her expression unreadable, walked over and took a hold of her hand. "Where to?"

"Five thousand feet above… oh, let's say the North Pole," Blink said sweetly.

"W-wh-?" was all Wallflower managed to stammer before they both vanished.

Magneto sighed, pinching his sinuses as he turned back to look out the window.

Five-in-One, please remove the memory of Wallflower's existence from everyone on Genosha, including myself. And make sure to do the same to Blink, too, when she returns.

As you wish.

Magneto hated the thought of anyone tampering with his own mind, even those he had come to trust as much as the Five-in-One. However, it was rather difficult, getting rid of the incompetents without anyone else knowing. Especially when you were a Mutant nation with psychics among the general populace. One accidental mind read, and your secret was exposed. Granted, simply wearing his helmet would negate that problem, but it was widespread knowledge what that helmet was for. Walking around wearing it all the time would imply that he had something to hide, and distrust was not something he wanted to be building at this critical juncture. To create a successful society, he needed to clean out the riff-raff, even among Mutants, and if the Genoshan public knew he had been killing off those who had failed him, they might revolt.

He idly wondered how many he had let Blink teleport away to their death. Only the Five-in-One knew at this point…

…Wait, whom had he been thinking about?

In retrospect, the final outcome of Jamie's trial had seemed inevitable after it was discovered to have been manipulated the first time around.

The second trial was held with an entirely different jury, with the prosecution and the defense making the same general arguments as they had the first time—but this time, Jamie and all the other defendants were able to hold their own. Jamie, as expected, had still been a little nervous—the lie detector had gone off briefly once or twice near the beginning—but as the trial wore on and Jamie became more comfortable with stating his case, most of the jury seemed to become more sympathetic to their cause. In the end, the decision had taken a few hours, but the jury eventually gave a 'not guilty' verdict, and Jamie Madrox was cleared of all charges.

Rogue figured that Laurie Collins' interference had been the only thing that had led to this outcome. Magneto had shot himself in the foot, for once. Two days ago, she had never privately even entertained the notion that Jamie would come out of that courthouse a free teen. Some in the X-Mansion agreed with her, some just thought she was being too pessimistic, and things were finally starting to turn around despite all the background meddling by Magneto. No, really.

Rogue shook her head, trying to clear those thoughts out of her mind. There was plenty of time to think about the future later. Right now, everyone at the Mansion was having a party in celebration of Jamie's freedom, and of course, Jamie was the happiest of all. It was so heart-warming to see the poor kid smiling and care-free for the first time in months—though truthfully so much had happened these last few months, it seemed like another lifetime when Jamie was a short little happy dork of a kid. Having his parents here, finally able to see him after the trial, definitely was helping his mood, too.

Heck, even X-23 seemed a bit happy tonight—so at the very least, she should be able to manage thinking positive at least for a few hours…

"Hey…Rogue, is it?" Jamie's father gasped back from his position in the middle of the gathering room, where he—along with his son, Amara, and Kurt—had been until just recently waving back and forth, playing one of the many Wii party games the system had available. "I need to- to take a breather. Getting a bit too old for this stuff. You want to take my spot?"

"Uh—sure, that'd be—" Rogue began, but was interrupted as her cell phone began to vibrate in her pocket. Holding up a finger, she looked up who was calling her. Her eyes opened up briefly in surprise.

"—Maybe in a while, Mister Madrox," Rogue said, getting up quickly and making her way out of the room. "I need to take this. Hey, let Piotr get in on the action. He's actually better at this kinda stuff than you'd think."

As soon as she was out of sight of the others, Rogue practically sprinted up to her room.

Closing the door shut quietly, Rogue gingerly sat down on the side of her bed and answered the phone.

"Why are you calling here? It's late, you know I'm at the Mansion, and you're gonna get me in trouble. I know you've helped us in the past, but if the Prof knew I even had your number listed on my phone—"

*Listen, cherie, this ain't exactly a casual house call… though I did hear the good news. Congratulations.*

"I'd pass that onto Jamie, but I'm pretty sure he wouldn't like the fact that I'm talking to you anymore than the Prof."

*Well, I think pretty soon y'all are gonna have to get over that. Y'see, I'm calling because, believe it or not, I have a proposition for you.*

"…I'm listening."

"I have to admit, at first I wasn't too keen on trusting you. I mean, some mysterious albino Mutant just meets me while I'm running one of my many missions around the world and has an interest in me. You already know about Genosha and everything, and I have no idea how."

"Let's just say my superior has quite an interest in this fledgling country you're such an integral part of."

"And your superior is…?"

"A Mutant, don't worry. And one who has the same philosophy as you, that we are Homo Superior, we should rule, etcetera, etcetera. But he's also somebody who, like you, is increasingly skeptical that Magneto is the one to do all the ruling."

"Well… I dunno. I put on a great act when I'm with him, I must say, but my doubts are rising. I haven't known him for too long, but he's taking on too many responsibilities—I mean, he's forming plots within plots within plots."

"Exactly. And look where that's getting you."

"You're right. I'm killing Mutants at his whim, and I don't even know how many! I just know I've done it a lot, because it feels… routine, somehow. I mean, I just teleported here after, er, 'disposing' of Wallflower. Yeah, she was a bit dumb, but I don't know if she deserved to die for it… she's still one of us, after all. And I know as soon as I go back I'm going to forget about her completely."

"Well… then I think it's time for you to decide if you want to trust me, now, before we go any further with this… relationship."

Blink stood there for a moment, mulling it over. "You have to realize trust doesn't come to me easily. If you knew who I was when you first met me, then obviously you know my past."

"I realize that…. Here, let me show you the benefits before you decide."

Gesturing with his hand, a small, diamond-shaped object with pulsing light blue veins suddenly pulled free of the Mutant's forehead, breaking into two smaller chunks before hanging there, suspended in midair between the two of them.

"…What the heck is that?"

"Technology. Very advanced. It's the kind of stuff my superior dabbles in. Anyways, if you allow one of these to merge with you, it will protect you from the routine mindwipes Magneto apparently subjects you to—in fact, it will protect your mind from any psychic intrusion, period, and eliminate your Mutant signature from any instrument designed to locate it. You won't have any sort of collar around your neck should Magneto ever be curious as to where you are."

"What, and this thing isn't some sort of high-tech collar?"

"Oh, no no no, far from it. After all, it's been in my head for days now, and I've grown to quite like it. Why? Because it expands your powers. Granted, it will only do so if we decide you've proven trustworthy enough—which you will have to do as events unfold—but if you do what we ask, we'll unlock it and you'll be able to do things you've merely dreamed of. As powerful as you are right now, it'll seem like child's play once you've unlocked your full potential with this little beauty."

"And there's no negatives to it."

"None at all—otherwise why would I have one in my head, as well? …So, do we have a deal?"

"…What the heck," Blink shrugged. "I'm already being subjected to mindwipes often, and killing a bunch of Mutants I don't really want to. Fine, I'll give it a try. A try."

"Good choice," Sinister smiled, gesturing as the two hovering diamonds pointed themselves towards the two Mutants and slowly floating towards their skulls, eventually merging with them, any visual evidence of their existence disappearing.

"Wow," Blink said, her wince disappearing as the melding finished. "That didn't hurt at all… or even tingle."

"There, you see? Nothing to worry about," Sinister said. "Now, I believe you have somewhere to be."

"Right," Blink said. "I'll report to you soon, as promised. And next time I want to meet whoever this boss of yours is."

"I'll be sure to let him know. Ta-ta," Sinister replied back, waving happily as Blink teleported away in a flash of light.

The End
 

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