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xp_logsHaving recovered from the effects of the virus, the group makes their next move - contacting Director Malcolm Colcord with Department H.
Omega Red had escaped with Kyle Gibney’s mother. That was an undeniable fact underlining what they’d failed to achieve at the lab, and it seemed to create a bubble of pressure that trapped them inside. Casualties were one thing; as X-Men and for most, former soldiers, they understood that rarely did an engagement take place without cost. But when family was involved, the rules went right out the window. Only the damage endured by the Thetagen virus was keeping the young man from trying something rash, aware that every minute meant Arkady was a little further away.
Dr. Horatio Huxley was focused on treating himself when Kane approached him. He’d known the man since his first day in the Gamma Flight program; balding and bespectacled, a cross between a country doctor stereotype and the absent minded professor. There was something more now; something darker underneath.
“OK, Doc. What haven’t you been telling us? About Arkady and WEAPONX.”
“Inspector, this is going way above your pay-“
“Cut the shit, Doc. Gibney says you admitted working for WEAPONX. That’s news to Logan and I. You were important enough to get targeted by that madman. Why?”
Huxley sighed. “Garrison, I can’t tell you. It’s not me being difficult. It’s national security at the highest level. Look, call the Director. If he approves it, I’ll tell you what I know.” He held out his cellphone to the Mountie.
Garrison took the phone and paused. “You know this has to involve the rest of them, Doc. How bad is this going to be?”
“Bad, but it’s not in the way you may think.” Huxley shook his head. “It was a very different time, Garrison. Different threats, different arguments, and the wrong people in charge. Listen before you make any judgments. That’s all I ask.”
Kane nodded before motioning the others over. As they came, he attached the phone into the battered laptop and dialed Malcolm Colcord’s number. Huxley had admitted to already bringing the Director up to speed, so the call wasn’t likely to be a surprise. Nothing ever seemed to be a surprise to the icy Director. His face appeared on the monitor, and he gave them a severe look.
“Inspector Kane. Doctor Huxley said he thought you’d want to speak with me. I don’t suppose there’s a chance of keeping this private?”
“None sir. Sorry sir.”
“Very well. Extraordinary situations, I suppose. Good afternoon, Logan. I’m afraid I haven’t formally met the rest of you.”
Looking worse for wear, Wade offered the man on the computer a small salute. "Wade Wilson."
Kyle's response was ragged disbelief. His -mother- was missing and they wanted him to make nice? "Gibney. Kyle. Hard to make it private when I'm the one whose mom is missing."
“David North,” the German man said shortly, his voice suddenly free of his native accent. He placed a hand on Kyle’s shoulder, briefly squeezing it. “Perhaps we can skip the pleasantries and get to the meat of the issues at hand?”
"I wasn't aware there was anything pleasant about this situation. Horatio, how are you faring?"
"Nothing I won't heal from, Director, but I'd rather not repeat it given the chance. They have some questions about WEAPONX, sir. I'm finding it hard not to give them answers."
"Understandable." Colcord sighed. "Very well. It will not sit well with the Minister, but I'm inclined to agree. The information might provide some answers. What is it that you wish to know?"
"The guy in the lab. The one Logan and I took out," Wade said, tilting his head toward his friend. "You know he was there?"
"Guy in the lab? Huxley?"
"The test subject from the Thetagen mutagen was still alive, sir. We had no idea."
"That long... incredible. I'm afraid I know little about this facility. It came at the end of our involvement with the project."
"End?"
"WEAPONX was originally a joint Canadian-American research project from the 80s."
"Stryker was workin' for you then? How'd he go off the reservation without anyone knowin' about it?"
"The only person Bill Stryker ever worked for was the Oval Office, and I think even that he did reluctantly. Originally, the program was designed to consider mutations from the standpoint of a new operational factor. It was still the Cold War, after all. The Russians had their own mutants, and the rumours were that they had reopened their studies into ESP and psionics from the sixties with them in mind. We needed to know what we might possibly face, and how it could be countered." Colcord said, settling back. "For whatever reason, Canada has had a higher than average incidence of mutation in our citizens, which we knew would one day need to be addressed somehow."
"We bankrolled a weaponization program? Jesus..."
"Don't confuse what it became with what it was, Inspector Kane. When the program started, we had volunteer subjects, full oversight and a range of programs that had nothing to do with creating super soldiers. Much of that early research formed the basis of our Gamma and Beta FLIGHT training programs. However, as the project went on, it became clear that Stryker was deliberately hiding aspects of the research from us. It was Doctor Huxley who discovered that they were developing combat ready forces through the program, and not always voluntarily. We confronted Stryker and when he insisted it wasn't true, we dissolved the partnership. The Joint Chiefs confirmed that the program had been terminated, but as we know, Stryker simply found a way to move it all off the books. The Thetagen project was the last piece of research we worked on, well over two decades ago."
Kyle slumped a little. "Holy shit, how long was that poor dude down there? I mean, the 80's? They told me my mom worked with... could they even do that? They, I dunno, wiped her memories or something before she had me, but I wasn't even born until 90..."
"I'm afraid I have no answers for that, Mister Gibney. It would never have happened to any of our Canadian staff. But Stryker was... driven. The lengths he was willing to go don't surprise me, to look back on it now."
Logan snorted. "Yeah, bit of an understatement there. What about the attack on Alpha FLIGHT? Despite the pretty thorough clean up, a set of my WEAPONX dog tags were found there. Seems a bit too coincidental."
"That I can't help with, Logan. You were never associated with the program as far as our records are concerned. Where ever 'Wolverine' came from, it was one of Stryker's secrets from us as well." Colcord frowned. "I still find it difficult to understand why members of the WEAPONX program would attack Alpha FLIGHT. Any connection would be decades old, and certainly long before any of their more secret research was done. In fact, the useful elements we developed from the program are easily accessible through Gamma FLIGHT. I still believe the dogtags are a diversion; there to make us think there's a connection between what happened and Alpha FLIGHT, to obscure the real goal of the people involved."
"What about - Omega Red? I mean, I thought he was Russian? Or .. one of the ex-USSR countries anyway." Kyle asked. "I mean, is this some freaky grudge? Did Weapon X work with Russia? Why did that dude even know anything about this?"
"Doctor Huxley?"
"Omega Red has been looking for a solution to his body's attempts to reject the carbonadium coils embedded into his arms. The man working with him, Dr. Abraham Cornelius, was once involved in the WEAPONX project, although after our time. His theory was that the thetagen metagen research could be twinned with a modified healing factor to stabilize the body's reaction to the coils. Obviously, he'd seen my work and located me. It was the wrong time to take a fishing trip."
"We have to assume that Cornelius' knowledge of the program puts other elements in jeopardy.I have no doubt that's where they stumbled across the connection between Gibney and the X-Men."
"I'm afraid it's my fault." Huxley sat down heavily. "I was just driving up to the cottage for the weekend, listening to some awful science show on the CBC. I stopped for gas and when I came out of the store, the attendant had been ripped in half and Arkady was waiting for me. He.. persuaded me to talk. I'm not proud of that." He rubbed his eyes. "I told them everything that they needed to find that poor Gibney woman and later, this base. Enough for them to make a plan."
"Doc, what else did you tell them? What's next?"
"They need genetic samples of a strong enough healing factor to absorb the thetagen virus. But they need a properly separated series of strains tailored for that purpose. That's why it wasn't as simple as say attacking Logan for a pint of blood. I could only think of one place for it. The Tiber Complex."
"Good lord..."
"Fuck," Wade muttered, taking a step away from the others, the table, the conversation. "So does anybody have an actual bead on the psycho Russian with the tentacle arms and Cornelius or are we just hoping if we track them down to this complex they'll still be there so we can shoot them in their faces? Also, nobody ever actually answered Kyle's question about whether or not the Canadians and the US were in bed with the Russians for all this genetic hanky panky you guys had going on. And it's really fucking convenient, isn't it, that there's three of us with awesome healing factors who they can shoot at if they need samples and the complex doesn't have what they want."
"I can't imagine the Americans and Russians agreeing to a joint project, and they certainly did not work with us. Obviously, Cornelius has taken his knowledge of the project and auctioned it off, which most be how he became involved with Arkady in the first place." Colcord said. "Also, I don't think you heard Dr. Huxley correctly. They need tailored separated strains. In order for them to make use of any of you, they'd need a steady supply of samples, an expensive facility, and months to work with. It could be an elaborate trap, but logically, they're going to the Tiber Complex because it is the only place that may have what they need for the taking."
"What is this place we're looking at, Director? I've never heard of it."
"You won't have. It was mothballed years ago. It was a research area for feral mutations. Far enough away from populated areas in challenging terrain to allow for a proper study of their abilities, but close enough to rail for supply purposes. Several subjects were psychologically damaged when we discovered them, and never truly responded to treatment. As such, when we shuttered the project, we maintained the hold on the area to give them an area to roam in which they wouldn't endanger others."
"We abandoned people?"
"They aren't people as we know it any longer, Inspector. Even Joseph Twoyoungman wasn't able to draw them out of their feral mindset." the answer seemed to mollify Kane. He trusted Twoyoungman completely, and knew he'd never abandon anyone who could be saved.
About half the science talk went over Kyle's head, the rest just barely sunk in. Tiber. Tiber. He knew that name. Something from one of Farouk's history classes, the Tiber river was in Italy. "So, you've got some big complex out, where, in Italy, where you dropped a bunch of people like me and Logan after you turned them into animals, and that's where Omega Red is taking my mom. Fucking great."
"Goddamn Russians," Wade muttered. Frowning, he looked toward the phone on the table. "Hey, and what about that crazy Rikki chick? The Russians took her and gave her a cybernetic arm and she almost blew me up. I'm really starting to not like the Russians. Again. Are we gonna get dropped in the middle of Europe to deal with this? Cause hi, international relations nightmare here, guys. Invading Italy's probably not the best idea ever but I wouldn't mind swinging through the motherland to blow up the Kremlin or something."
“The Tiber Complex is not in Italy. It is in Canada, in one of the mountain areas in the Rockies,” North said quietly. “It seems likely that the Russians funded Cornelius’ research, which is how Arkady got involved in the first place. So as interesting as blowing up the Kremlin would be, that will not be necessary if we are sure that there is where Arkady and Mrs. Gibney are headed. How badly is the psychopath deteriorating?”
"You saw his mental state." Huxley replied. "The carbonadium isn't just being rejected. It's actually poisoning him. With a way to synthetize the metal to his genetic imprint, he'll need to remove those coils very soon to survive. To be honest, it might already be too late."
“To be honest, that does not sadden me. That man, very much like the entirety of WEAPONX, is like a cockroach that refuses to die.” North glanced from his companions to the face on the screen. “I suppose our next step has been made apparent. Do you have any more information, Director?”
The questions Logan had didn’t seem to have any answers that Colcord could provide since they focused more on WeaponX and whatever the hell he’d lost to Stryker and his experiments. “Why is it that we always gotta do clean up around here? Is there seriously no one else out there that can’t stumble upon this shit and deal with it before we have to get involved?”
"Karma. Director, can you get us to this complex ahead of him?"
"No. I hate to do this, Inspector, but we can't provide any kind of actual support. The Tiber Complex was shutdown under the terms of our agreement with USAMRIID. Supporting an incursion inside, especially with X-Men, would be impossible to do through normal channels. The best I can do is make sure no one is nearby to notice your presence."
"I'm going to be operating illegally? In Canada?"
"Bizarre, but there's no other way. The Pentagon would never give us permission to re-open it."
Kane sighed. "Understood."
Kyle's hands made aborted gestures, as though he wanted to scrub at his face, and then his mouth set in a tight frown. "How do we get there? How fast can you get us there? What kind of shit are we going to deal with? More underground labs and crazy guys locked up for ten years?"
"I can provide a vehicle at the border. While you head there, it gives me time to see what we have on file. I can't do more than that."
"Understood, sir." Kane didn't like it, but it was obvious that Department H couldn't expose themselves further. "I'll coordinate with local and state police, see if we can't stop them before they reach the location. Otherwise, we'll need to catch up with them ourselves."
Omega Red had escaped with Kyle Gibney’s mother. That was an undeniable fact underlining what they’d failed to achieve at the lab, and it seemed to create a bubble of pressure that trapped them inside. Casualties were one thing; as X-Men and for most, former soldiers, they understood that rarely did an engagement take place without cost. But when family was involved, the rules went right out the window. Only the damage endured by the Thetagen virus was keeping the young man from trying something rash, aware that every minute meant Arkady was a little further away.
Dr. Horatio Huxley was focused on treating himself when Kane approached him. He’d known the man since his first day in the Gamma Flight program; balding and bespectacled, a cross between a country doctor stereotype and the absent minded professor. There was something more now; something darker underneath.
“OK, Doc. What haven’t you been telling us? About Arkady and WEAPONX.”
“Inspector, this is going way above your pay-“
“Cut the shit, Doc. Gibney says you admitted working for WEAPONX. That’s news to Logan and I. You were important enough to get targeted by that madman. Why?”
Huxley sighed. “Garrison, I can’t tell you. It’s not me being difficult. It’s national security at the highest level. Look, call the Director. If he approves it, I’ll tell you what I know.” He held out his cellphone to the Mountie.
Garrison took the phone and paused. “You know this has to involve the rest of them, Doc. How bad is this going to be?”
“Bad, but it’s not in the way you may think.” Huxley shook his head. “It was a very different time, Garrison. Different threats, different arguments, and the wrong people in charge. Listen before you make any judgments. That’s all I ask.”
Kane nodded before motioning the others over. As they came, he attached the phone into the battered laptop and dialed Malcolm Colcord’s number. Huxley had admitted to already bringing the Director up to speed, so the call wasn’t likely to be a surprise. Nothing ever seemed to be a surprise to the icy Director. His face appeared on the monitor, and he gave them a severe look.
“Inspector Kane. Doctor Huxley said he thought you’d want to speak with me. I don’t suppose there’s a chance of keeping this private?”
“None sir. Sorry sir.”
“Very well. Extraordinary situations, I suppose. Good afternoon, Logan. I’m afraid I haven’t formally met the rest of you.”
Looking worse for wear, Wade offered the man on the computer a small salute. "Wade Wilson."
Kyle's response was ragged disbelief. His -mother- was missing and they wanted him to make nice? "Gibney. Kyle. Hard to make it private when I'm the one whose mom is missing."
“David North,” the German man said shortly, his voice suddenly free of his native accent. He placed a hand on Kyle’s shoulder, briefly squeezing it. “Perhaps we can skip the pleasantries and get to the meat of the issues at hand?”
"I wasn't aware there was anything pleasant about this situation. Horatio, how are you faring?"
"Nothing I won't heal from, Director, but I'd rather not repeat it given the chance. They have some questions about WEAPONX, sir. I'm finding it hard not to give them answers."
"Understandable." Colcord sighed. "Very well. It will not sit well with the Minister, but I'm inclined to agree. The information might provide some answers. What is it that you wish to know?"
"The guy in the lab. The one Logan and I took out," Wade said, tilting his head toward his friend. "You know he was there?"
"Guy in the lab? Huxley?"
"The test subject from the Thetagen mutagen was still alive, sir. We had no idea."
"That long... incredible. I'm afraid I know little about this facility. It came at the end of our involvement with the project."
"End?"
"WEAPONX was originally a joint Canadian-American research project from the 80s."
"Stryker was workin' for you then? How'd he go off the reservation without anyone knowin' about it?"
"The only person Bill Stryker ever worked for was the Oval Office, and I think even that he did reluctantly. Originally, the program was designed to consider mutations from the standpoint of a new operational factor. It was still the Cold War, after all. The Russians had their own mutants, and the rumours were that they had reopened their studies into ESP and psionics from the sixties with them in mind. We needed to know what we might possibly face, and how it could be countered." Colcord said, settling back. "For whatever reason, Canada has had a higher than average incidence of mutation in our citizens, which we knew would one day need to be addressed somehow."
"We bankrolled a weaponization program? Jesus..."
"Don't confuse what it became with what it was, Inspector Kane. When the program started, we had volunteer subjects, full oversight and a range of programs that had nothing to do with creating super soldiers. Much of that early research formed the basis of our Gamma and Beta FLIGHT training programs. However, as the project went on, it became clear that Stryker was deliberately hiding aspects of the research from us. It was Doctor Huxley who discovered that they were developing combat ready forces through the program, and not always voluntarily. We confronted Stryker and when he insisted it wasn't true, we dissolved the partnership. The Joint Chiefs confirmed that the program had been terminated, but as we know, Stryker simply found a way to move it all off the books. The Thetagen project was the last piece of research we worked on, well over two decades ago."
Kyle slumped a little. "Holy shit, how long was that poor dude down there? I mean, the 80's? They told me my mom worked with... could they even do that? They, I dunno, wiped her memories or something before she had me, but I wasn't even born until 90..."
"I'm afraid I have no answers for that, Mister Gibney. It would never have happened to any of our Canadian staff. But Stryker was... driven. The lengths he was willing to go don't surprise me, to look back on it now."
Logan snorted. "Yeah, bit of an understatement there. What about the attack on Alpha FLIGHT? Despite the pretty thorough clean up, a set of my WEAPONX dog tags were found there. Seems a bit too coincidental."
"That I can't help with, Logan. You were never associated with the program as far as our records are concerned. Where ever 'Wolverine' came from, it was one of Stryker's secrets from us as well." Colcord frowned. "I still find it difficult to understand why members of the WEAPONX program would attack Alpha FLIGHT. Any connection would be decades old, and certainly long before any of their more secret research was done. In fact, the useful elements we developed from the program are easily accessible through Gamma FLIGHT. I still believe the dogtags are a diversion; there to make us think there's a connection between what happened and Alpha FLIGHT, to obscure the real goal of the people involved."
"What about - Omega Red? I mean, I thought he was Russian? Or .. one of the ex-USSR countries anyway." Kyle asked. "I mean, is this some freaky grudge? Did Weapon X work with Russia? Why did that dude even know anything about this?"
"Doctor Huxley?"
"Omega Red has been looking for a solution to his body's attempts to reject the carbonadium coils embedded into his arms. The man working with him, Dr. Abraham Cornelius, was once involved in the WEAPONX project, although after our time. His theory was that the thetagen metagen research could be twinned with a modified healing factor to stabilize the body's reaction to the coils. Obviously, he'd seen my work and located me. It was the wrong time to take a fishing trip."
"We have to assume that Cornelius' knowledge of the program puts other elements in jeopardy.I have no doubt that's where they stumbled across the connection between Gibney and the X-Men."
"I'm afraid it's my fault." Huxley sat down heavily. "I was just driving up to the cottage for the weekend, listening to some awful science show on the CBC. I stopped for gas and when I came out of the store, the attendant had been ripped in half and Arkady was waiting for me. He.. persuaded me to talk. I'm not proud of that." He rubbed his eyes. "I told them everything that they needed to find that poor Gibney woman and later, this base. Enough for them to make a plan."
"Doc, what else did you tell them? What's next?"
"They need genetic samples of a strong enough healing factor to absorb the thetagen virus. But they need a properly separated series of strains tailored for that purpose. That's why it wasn't as simple as say attacking Logan for a pint of blood. I could only think of one place for it. The Tiber Complex."
"Good lord..."
"Fuck," Wade muttered, taking a step away from the others, the table, the conversation. "So does anybody have an actual bead on the psycho Russian with the tentacle arms and Cornelius or are we just hoping if we track them down to this complex they'll still be there so we can shoot them in their faces? Also, nobody ever actually answered Kyle's question about whether or not the Canadians and the US were in bed with the Russians for all this genetic hanky panky you guys had going on. And it's really fucking convenient, isn't it, that there's three of us with awesome healing factors who they can shoot at if they need samples and the complex doesn't have what they want."
"I can't imagine the Americans and Russians agreeing to a joint project, and they certainly did not work with us. Obviously, Cornelius has taken his knowledge of the project and auctioned it off, which most be how he became involved with Arkady in the first place." Colcord said. "Also, I don't think you heard Dr. Huxley correctly. They need tailored separated strains. In order for them to make use of any of you, they'd need a steady supply of samples, an expensive facility, and months to work with. It could be an elaborate trap, but logically, they're going to the Tiber Complex because it is the only place that may have what they need for the taking."
"What is this place we're looking at, Director? I've never heard of it."
"You won't have. It was mothballed years ago. It was a research area for feral mutations. Far enough away from populated areas in challenging terrain to allow for a proper study of their abilities, but close enough to rail for supply purposes. Several subjects were psychologically damaged when we discovered them, and never truly responded to treatment. As such, when we shuttered the project, we maintained the hold on the area to give them an area to roam in which they wouldn't endanger others."
"We abandoned people?"
"They aren't people as we know it any longer, Inspector. Even Joseph Twoyoungman wasn't able to draw them out of their feral mindset." the answer seemed to mollify Kane. He trusted Twoyoungman completely, and knew he'd never abandon anyone who could be saved.
About half the science talk went over Kyle's head, the rest just barely sunk in. Tiber. Tiber. He knew that name. Something from one of Farouk's history classes, the Tiber river was in Italy. "So, you've got some big complex out, where, in Italy, where you dropped a bunch of people like me and Logan after you turned them into animals, and that's where Omega Red is taking my mom. Fucking great."
"Goddamn Russians," Wade muttered. Frowning, he looked toward the phone on the table. "Hey, and what about that crazy Rikki chick? The Russians took her and gave her a cybernetic arm and she almost blew me up. I'm really starting to not like the Russians. Again. Are we gonna get dropped in the middle of Europe to deal with this? Cause hi, international relations nightmare here, guys. Invading Italy's probably not the best idea ever but I wouldn't mind swinging through the motherland to blow up the Kremlin or something."
“The Tiber Complex is not in Italy. It is in Canada, in one of the mountain areas in the Rockies,” North said quietly. “It seems likely that the Russians funded Cornelius’ research, which is how Arkady got involved in the first place. So as interesting as blowing up the Kremlin would be, that will not be necessary if we are sure that there is where Arkady and Mrs. Gibney are headed. How badly is the psychopath deteriorating?”
"You saw his mental state." Huxley replied. "The carbonadium isn't just being rejected. It's actually poisoning him. With a way to synthetize the metal to his genetic imprint, he'll need to remove those coils very soon to survive. To be honest, it might already be too late."
“To be honest, that does not sadden me. That man, very much like the entirety of WEAPONX, is like a cockroach that refuses to die.” North glanced from his companions to the face on the screen. “I suppose our next step has been made apparent. Do you have any more information, Director?”
The questions Logan had didn’t seem to have any answers that Colcord could provide since they focused more on WeaponX and whatever the hell he’d lost to Stryker and his experiments. “Why is it that we always gotta do clean up around here? Is there seriously no one else out there that can’t stumble upon this shit and deal with it before we have to get involved?”
"Karma. Director, can you get us to this complex ahead of him?"
"No. I hate to do this, Inspector, but we can't provide any kind of actual support. The Tiber Complex was shutdown under the terms of our agreement with USAMRIID. Supporting an incursion inside, especially with X-Men, would be impossible to do through normal channels. The best I can do is make sure no one is nearby to notice your presence."
"I'm going to be operating illegally? In Canada?"
"Bizarre, but there's no other way. The Pentagon would never give us permission to re-open it."
Kane sighed. "Understood."
Kyle's hands made aborted gestures, as though he wanted to scrub at his face, and then his mouth set in a tight frown. "How do we get there? How fast can you get us there? What kind of shit are we going to deal with? More underground labs and crazy guys locked up for ten years?"
"I can provide a vehicle at the border. While you head there, it gives me time to see what we have on file. I can't do more than that."
"Understood, sir." Kane didn't like it, but it was obvious that Department H couldn't expose themselves further. "I'll coordinate with local and state police, see if we can't stop them before they reach the location. Otherwise, we'll need to catch up with them ourselves."
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