If Yesterday Was Tomorrow [ X-Men ]

Chapter Seven

When they appeared in the living room in a cloud of red smoke, Angel jumped to her feet.

"Victor!" she exclaimed, running to him. She grabbed his arms. "Are you okay?"

The young man smiled nicely and nodded. He found her a bit too worried, but her reaction was reasonable. After all, he had collapsed after memories had attacked him. He uncomfortably shook her off him.

"Finally back," simply noted Erik with a neutral tone stung with underlying sarcasm.

He was playing chess with Raven, who appeared bored out of her mind, but intrigued to see the remaining members of the Hellfire Club arrive. She had taken her human form. Victor was a bit surprised. Why did she always stay between two appearances? She was already very pretty when being blue.

"Well, that's that," answered curtly Emma, graciously flipping her blond hair back.

"You are not going to explain anything that just happened?" asked Erik doubtfully.

"We came back. Is that not enough?" answered Azazel. Victor nodded in approval. Angel frowned.

"Sure," answered Erik. He moved a pawn on the chessboard. "Your move, my dear."

"Are you okay?" asked Mystique to Victor instead of continuing the chess game. The young man nodded. She seemed pleased by his answer.

"So, what are we going to do next?" asked Emma as she crossed her arms. Down to business as usual, thought Victor.

Erik sent a look at Raven before abandoning the chess game to direct his attention towards his teammates. Mystique sure looked glad not to have to continue the board game.

"There was a scientist in the X-Men, the one called Beast, or Hank, if you prefer," started to explain Erik. "He wasn't always blue and large. He'd developed a serum to cure his mutation, but it backfired. It instead developed his mutation and transformed him into the beast you fought in Cuba."

"We think that, if we can get the formulas and produce serum," continued Raven, "it could work on humans as well. We could create an artificial mutation."

"How is that going to help us in any way?" asked Emma doubtfully. Victor was wondering the same.

"If the leaders of this world were mutants, perhaps they'd treat us more kindly," answered Erik with a touch of hardness. "The next dozens of years or so is going to be the age of mutantkind: if the governors of this world start a war with us, then we shall answer. But would they ever try to fight us if they are like us?"

Emma didn't nod, but acknowledged his conclusions. Azazel seemed more or less convinced but was too tired to actually argue with anyone. Victor found that Erik's thinking made sense.

"We will need to act fast," continued Erik. "We know where Hank's lab is: it's at Charles' mansion. We can break in and steal the documents we need. However, I do not believe that any of us are scientists of the genetic domain."

Victor shook his head. He'd been studying in sciences a few years back, but he'd never gotten even close to creating genetic-impacting formulas.

"We are then going to need a professional who we can convince to do our bidding. Then, we need to know when the leaders of this world or at least of a few countries will be in the next few months or so in order to know where to find them when the serum will be developed."

Victor was greatly impressed. Erik had thought about it a lot more than he'd have expected.

"We should make three teams," proposed Angel with a small smile. "One to go to the mansion, one to find a scientist, and one for the schedules and all."