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….
"Damn it!" catching the falling body at the last moment, Ororo cursed.
The thought even flashed through her mind that she wouldn't mind Loki's help right now, even if the latter aroused her apprehension with his… eccentric behavior, as well as his views and words.
But the semi-mad mutant who considered himself a Norse God wasn't here, so she had to drag the surprisingly heavy body alone.
"Storm, what… Senator Kelly?" Jean exclaimed, seeing the man on the mutant's back, but Wolverine and Cyclops rushed to her aid and quickly relieved her of the burden, dragging him to the nearest armchair.
"Doctor…" the politician wheezed, sweeping the room with a cloudy gaze, "I need help…" and immediately passed out again.
"To the infirmary, quickly!" Xavier commanded sharply, driving out from behind his desk.
Five minutes later, everyone was in the medical bay, and Jean was bustling around the cot, connecting sensors to the senator's body to track pulse and temperature.
It turned out that the only clothes the man had on were a sports jacket and pants, with nothing underneath, and clearly visible gills had appeared on his back.
Finally, when the equipment was connected and the doctor had taken blood samples for analysis, Kelly regained consciousness again and looked around frantically.
"Calm down, Senator," the head of the X-Men drove closer to him. "You are safe. I am Professor Charles Xavier. Tell us, what happened to you?"
"I…" the lying man was still breathing heavily, "was afraid that if I went to a hospital… they… would…" large drops of sweat stood out on the man's forehead and bare chest.
"Treat you like a mutant?" the telepath helped his interlocutor find the words. Kelly's eyes froze, fixed on the professor's face, and his expression reflected pain and despair. "We are not as you imagine," Xavier said in a quiet but clear voice a few seconds later. "Not all of us."
"Tell that to the one who did this," swallowing hard, the patient wheezed in response with difficulty.
Charles looked away and sighed. Kelly breathed heavily and raggedly, looking at those around him as if through a cloudy veil.
The others were silent. But the pause didn't last long, and turning his chair, the professor silently circled the cot to face it again at the headboard.
"Senator, try to relax," the telepath's hands rose to the guest's head and froze opposite the temple areas, not touching the skin. "I will not harm you…" Xavier informed soothingly, closing his eyes and concentrating.
A minute later, the telepath finished his task and straightened in his chair, leaving the unconscious Kelly on the cot.
"So, what did you learn, Professor?" Loki's illusion addressed the elderly mutant.
"Magneto has created a device capable of turning ordinary humans into mutants," the estate owner informed, raising his eyes to his students.
"Erik himself is its core, and activating the machine seems to weaken him. I saw this mechanism emitting a field visible to normal vision… perhaps some new type of radioactive radiation with a particle-wave structure, like light."
"This field causes a mutation in the organism, but not a natural one, and proceeding very quickly. The senator was kidnapped yesterday morning, and by nightfall he was already able to escape by squeezing through the bars of a cell."
"And how does it affect mutants?" Cyclops asked with lively interest.
"I believe not at all," the professor shook his head.
"How curious…" Loki drawled, running his palm over the senator's forearm, and as he moved, veins were brightly outlined under the skin. "I can't say for sure without the Soul Forge, but it seems to me our guest's organism is dying."
"From what?" Storm asked, pursing her lips.
"Cells are breaking down," the brunet answered. "But it's not necrosis, they are…" the God of Magic's green eyes narrowed and darted around, as if looking past the person on the couch.
"Very similar to decomposition with the release of water. His body is no longer so much human as it is the body of a… jellyfish."
"So why does he need Rogue?" raising his voice, Logan inquired grimly.
"Obviously, to work as a battery for this machine," Loki answered without pause, still looking into space and examining Kelly in an incomprehensible way.
"He'll touch her, thereby giving her the ability to use his powers for a while, and then shove her into the device. Or shove her in first, secure her so she can't twitch, and then touch her. And I seem to recall hearing something on the news about a gathering of a bunch of big Earth shots in one place…" the guy added with a distinctly discernible hint in his voice.
"UN Assembly…" Xavier drawled, understanding everything immediately.
"But now he won't succeed?" Wolverine raised his eyebrows with a questioning look.
"Yes," Charles nodded decisively and looked at Loki. "How are things with Magneto?"
"Um… Descending," the "illusion" replied distractedly, removing its hand from the senator. "Give me a map, and I'll poke a finger at where."
"Scott…"
"The plane is ready, we can load up right now, Professor."
"Good," the telepath nodded shortly and wheeled his chair toward the ramp to the hangar, "we need to finish with all this quickly and try to help the senator."
….
Loki again.
Exploring Magneto's memories gave plenty of food for thought.
It's worth starting with the fact that, strictly speaking, he wasn't… essentially, a terrorist.
That is, yes, in the past (and in the present time) he carried out combat operations, and he had quite a few premeditated murders on his account.
But firstly, most of his victims were directly related to Nazi camps, and secondly, there was no direct terror in his actions; on the contrary, he put a lot of effort into covering his tracks and hiding the very fact of the violence committed.
In fact, the action he conceived involving turning all participants of the UN summit into mutants was the first one that could be called a terrorist act, and even then, according to his plan, deaths were supposed to be kept to an absolute minimum.
Otherwise, Erik Lehnsherr was a law-abiding, respectable citizen heading a private charitable foundation dedicated to helping victims of military actions, headquartered in San Francisco.
….
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