William Bourne:

I stand here in this cell my abductors have placed me in pacing back and forth along the cold titanium floors. The metal bars seem to be of an even stronger substance then the roof and floor of my cell as not even my super dense musculature has allowed me to put a dent in them, more or less bend one.

Thus far I still believe that these people murdered my god father, and are problably the same people who killed my parents those many years ago, but for now, I had no solid proof. The two men who spoke to me through the bars from the opposite side of the mutant energy dampening shield both wore black business suits and ties, with a white wire leading up to their ear where it connected to a communications piece.

One was an asian gentelman. Japanese to be precise, with his hair cut very short and business like slicked back with an almost inhuman perfection to lay flat to his scalp. To his right, with his arms crossed on his chest, was the Russian-American head agent of the remaining three HMRD operatives whom had raided his home.

Their forth partner, had been shot, after he revealed that he himself was a double agent, apparently for the world's oldest cartel, the Illuminati. This had brought up some new questions, which the two agents in the room, Larry Tenku, and Daniel Papovich intended to inquire from the young man standing before them.

With dark brown hair parted down the middle and combed to either side of his face giving it a youthful frame, but not making him look childish by any standards, Papovich was the first to break the silence. "First, Mr. Bourne, let me establish our apologies for the death of your God Father and assure you that the HMRD are doing everything we can to locate the people responsible."

This caused my eye brows to peak up at either side of my face, my own blonde hair had grown unkempt in the last week since my capture, and my face was unshaven. I looked like a rough neck, with my blonde hair hanging wildly long banged in front of my face, shading my icey blue eyes as they filled with a murderous gleam, I had no respect for these men, these murderers.

Lifting my face so that they could see the dark smile I'd grown to posses over my last few days of planning my vengeance for my parents and God Father, I started to laugh. Momentarily I felt as though I had the power, until My attempts at creating a lance of energy in the air through Papavich's midsection failed. "DAMN YOU! YOU MONSTERS! I'LL KILL YOU! JUST LET ME OUT OF THIS CELL, AND I'LL KILL YOU!"

Tenku was the one who spoke now, as the energy lance that should have been imbedded in his chest hadn't appeared either, his bold attitude evident as he walked only two inches from the gate of my cell. Looking down at me over the edge of his black lensed sunglasses, the tan skinned man looked at his watch, and then back to me, sighing vehemently.

"William, you seem like a good kid. So let me get the point across here and why not listen this time?" Tenku asked, giving more of an order then in inquisition. I decided I'd go along with it for now, as I heard from the far corner of their half of the room that the door had opened. The lock clicked back in to place, and the red haired female commanding agent of the Soldier-X program walked toward the other two, taking a seat behind Papavich.

"Soldier-X is a government operation that trains young mutants like yourself to properly control your powers, and uses said young mutants as operatives to fight against world terror. We are not murderers or some crime syndicate who go around killing businessmen and their families, but, we're willing to help you find the ones who did," Tenku said, as I only half listened really, until the word help was mentioned.

I looked up, my eyes leveling with Agent Tenku's before passing over Papavich and the other agent Captain Madeline respectfully. Then returning my gaze to Tenku, I spoke, calmer this time, seriously contemplating his words, if he were lieing would he really have offered me help locating my parents' killers?

Galatea:

I rapped on the door of Lance's bedroom in an attempt to gain his attention, rather sure that he was in his personal quarters. The team had just finished our first real training session, and while the agents and Ms. Pryor were working with William Bourne, the attractive British young man who had beaten the entire team to a pulp about a week ago, Maddy had given us some time off.

I was planning on using one of the fake Identification Cards that they had in the storage facility to get myself in to a few bars, and didn't want to go alone And while he might not have been the closest to my age of the other mutants gathered here, none of the human personnel were to be found past dark, all living lower in the base, in levels we as operatives were not yet permitted.

So I had been stuck with Mr. Wilkins, or the team's leader, Vector. For some reason I'd been rather sure that vector would not approve of me going to a bar while under age. And thus, here I was, tapping upon the door of the only other cute male with in 200 yards of my room who didn't think I was a murderer, or wasn't a direct superior officer of all the team's mutant operatives.

As I knocked and no answer came I simply turned from the California native's door and walked a bit farther down the hall, until I reached an open door where I found a girl sitting upon her desk with a wide grin plastered on her face. As I walked in and looked closer I saw why Mari was so happy, she was making fifteen different objects levitate and swing around in mid air, her telekinesis causing the events.

Smiling toward me she caused the items to slowly lower themselves to her bed. None of them were awfully heavy or large, but still, it was a grand feat for the girl who had only recently begun exploring her telekinetic gifts.

With a returned smile in greeting I instantly had a brilliant idea. "Want to sneak in to some bars down on South Beach, and see how much trouble we can get in?" I asked, which almost instantly brought a troubled look to Maria Villanueva's face.

Enigma answered me first with a question, which some what fit her field operations code name, and that caused me to smile all the more. "Are you sure we should be using the program's equipment for self gain? Those I.D.'s are supposed to be for espionage use."

Maria spoke up, causing me to laugh aloud when she finally finished. "Like they're going to have us spying on anyone anytime soon, I mean really, we've been here what, a week?" I asked, which caused the other girl to look blank momentarily.

"Well, I guess you're right on that point," she said, and before she could continue I had her by the wrist and was pulling her along behind me running down the hall way. I almost knocked over a small robot that came up to about my waist height that had a large golden dome like head with a red visual sensor, it had a lightning bolt like design on it as well and seemed to be cleaning the floor with vacuums in its feet.

I could have sworn that as it stood up the robot spoke, but it might just have been my adrenaline pumping because I knew I was doing something bad. "Aye, Aye, Aye." I could have sworn that I'd heard, but that was for a different story all together.

"Glad you changed your mind," I said to Maria, who seemed dumbfounded as we reached the underwater passage way to the main land, hopping in to the Navigator that was used for public transport for the operatives when we were given time off, I pulled Maria in next to me. With in moments I had the car out of park and we were roaring up the strip of underwater road, the titanium high pressure resiliency tubing around us protecting us from the crushing force of the ocean waters.

Mari looked at me with both of her hands clasped to her lap, her eyes spitting daggers for a few moments until she finally began to smile again. Apparently she had accepted the fact that she wasn't going to get out of this situation by being angry with me, and so she might as well enjoy it.

I cranked up the stereo as loud as it would go and slid a pair of pink lensed silver oakleys over my eyes, matching my light pink key hole blouse and khaki capris parachute pants to a tee. With a smirk to my co-pilot I hit the gas, and we were tearing up asphalt at twice the speeds we had been traveling, looking over my eyes to see that no one had followed us, I began to gyrate to the music in the driver's seat.

"Get Low, Get Low, Get Low..."

Whisper:

I lay in bed contemplating what the last few weeks of my life really amounted up to, and I found only one thing, complete and total horror. First I'd been forced to leave my family, either by going to jail, or joining the Soldier-X operation, I'd chosen the latter of course, only being a teenager, I don't exactly want to live in a cell for my whole life.

Then, I was forced to, on my first day on the job, see a murder scene that had bodily fluids and blood sprayed everywhere, I mean, I held my composure, but I wasn't trained for things like that. I sort of felt for William Bourne, not only because I wasn't in to great of physical shape after our fight, but because I understood that it did look like Soldier-X had done in his God Father, and he had no reason to believe otherwise.

I continue to lay there nursing my soar back from the frog stomping that myself and the other Soldier-X operatives were handed by a very angry William Bourne, who believes we murdered his God Father, as I mentioned. The thing is, the guy seems to be going mad down there in the cell they've stuck him in and I'm not sure if this is right, after all, as far as he knew he was defending his home from attack, now they've got him caged up.

Contemplating if our opinions in this organization as the field op's even mattered, I was drawing a blank. Myself, and the team leader Vector have both attempted to push for a meeting with William. We both believed that if he was speaking to his piers, other mutants, who had been recruited by the organization, and were closer to his age then Maddy and the agents, that he might listen.

But we'd been shot down. They'd actually told us to our faces that our suggestions were childish and not thought through enough before hand. Yes, we understood that William had beaten our entire team to a pulp a week ago, but then he'd had the use of his powers, now he was stuck behind bars with out them.

We just wanted to talk to this guy, this tortured soul who was unfortunately mislead to believe we were the enemy before he ever had a chance to hear us out. Now it was him against us in a set of endless mind games that the agents were playing with him in his cell. I was hoping that Madeline would handle things properly with William when she spoke to him, as she had agreed to do so this evening.

I personally didn't know what it was like to have your parents ripped away from you by murder. But I had lost friends to a Sentinel attack, and if the Soldier-X operatives had come with a group of Sentinels for security, I'm not sure I would have responded differently then William.

He was well within his rights as a human being to do what he did, and my mind set was becoming more and more contemplative on breaking him out of his cell. Tenku and Papavich couldn't watch me all day, twenty four hours, and if the situation didn't fix it self soon then I just might make myself and Bourne fugitives from the law.

I stood from my bed, my light brown hair, which grew to just about my shoulders was pleated and hung loosely in a part around my face, my dark blue eyes shaded over by the veil of locks. My semi muscular build was covered by a navy blue pair of jeans and a white t-shirt that read C.S.I. "Can't Stand Idiots," across the front, and the baby blue lensed navy shades I had clipped to my collar were in place just for the touch of style.

Hearing a rap at my door I walked toward it, before pausing, deciding whether or not to be bothered right now as I was trying to rest. Deciding to go ahead and open it I was met with no one there, apparently having taken to long to reach the door.

As I stepped out in to the hall, I saw who had been knocking, as the French girl who had joined the team on that same fateful day I did, Kelly Lestraude stood at the door to Mari's bedroom. Watching the two talk moments later I saw them rushing down the hall, a mischievous smile having crossed Lestraude's face.

Chasing after the two I thought better of calling after them, and decided to follow and see what was up, taking my mind off the situation with William as best I could.

Melisel Black:

I sat at the bar with my arms crossed above an ample chest, leaning forward a bit to rest my head on my hands, boredom having ensued for the last week since the events in front of Bourne's home. My deep green eyes played scandalously over the crowd of guys for a victim, until I caught the image of the two young ladies walking in through the front door.

Now if this wasn't my lucky day? I pondered to myself as the two female members of Soldier-X approached the bar, quickly gaining a following of drooling college boys as their skimpily clad bodies cut across the floor. The bartender was quick to begin his flirting with the French girl, Kelly I believe her name was, as the Phillipina, a girl after my own heart as a fellow Asian, was getting attention from four rather unsavory looking blokes.

I walked slowly toward that side of the bar my hips swaying beneath the cloth of green leather riding jumper, noticing the look of annoyance that was starting to grow on Maria Villanueva's face. For a moment I could have sworn her eyes flashed a deep violet when I heard one of the comments that a young black man made in her direction after she'd rebuffed his attempt to put his arm around her shoulder.

"Come on you little Philip slut you know you want the big brown monster," he said, causing uproariously laughter from three of the other men. He was very physically imposing and as he approached her she began cowering, through for what reason it was lost on me.

Then I remembered her dossier, and that she had almost been raped once a few years ago in Manila, but that had ended with her putting the men in a coma. Maybe it was fear of her powers killing this time as they'd obviously grown stronger, been Maria was backing up toward the bar and being prodded with fingers as I stood, arms crossed on my chest, my hands actually resting on the handles of my pistols below my black leather trench.

"Apologize," I ordered, as I looked at the black man's back, his four or five friends having made an arch around the two girls, as Kelly too now seemed a bit annoyed, but not in the least amount of fear. When the large muscular bald man with the flat nose turned toward me snorting with laughter he smirked, and looking me over and checking out the piercing at my navel where the clear Kevlar section of my riding jumper was, custom made for me by the Illuminati's armory.

"Hey look, its Biker Bitch Barbie to the rescue," the man's closest friend, a Latin gentleman with a black bandana tied in to a head band on his brow, and his hair shaved almost completely away called out. The black man placed a hand outward upon my cheek, and smiled, offering up his own quip. "Down worry whore, you'll get yours too."

He said, before turning his back to me, and looking on Maria again. Wrong move, I thought, bringing my left leg in to a quick hammering blow to his spine with a knee, both of my hands grabbing on to one of his shoulders to wrench his arms back to increase the pressure. I had only just begun this with Kelly had become her alter ego Galatea, laughing semi sadistically as her skin became stone, a fist slamming into the chest of one of the other four men, sending him flying.

Things seemed to be going fine, when two of the others Grabbed Maria, and one held a gun out that he had concealed beneath his shirt, placing it to her temple as the other held her still. She tried her best to wriggle free but the man was having none of it, as his comrade cocked the gun.

Suddenly the doors of the bar went flying from the hinges and in came a body floating from the ground, its eyes glowing an electric blue, as its hands extended, tossing the thug's gun aside. With a bellowing order over the crowd the body descended to the ground and the other men all took stance to strike out at the light brown haired man standing there. "Get out... NOW!"

Maria and Kelly didn't argue for very long, as two of the others had pulled guns, and the third had retrieved his from behind the bar. When the bar tender had made an attempt to stop him, a pistol whip had sent him careening on to the floor, and now it was only myself, and Lance Wilkins. One of the two potentially strongest members of the Soldier-X organization, against five armed men, unfair, for them.

Madeline:

I stood up and gestured for Tenku and Papavich to leave, and after a momentary chat between the two they decided that it couldn't hurt, and now it was just me and William standing there, face, to face. He was a handsome young man last I'd seen him, but after the last week in this cell he looked like a convicted criminal, a perpetrator of some horrid crime, behind molded bars.

His eyes burned in to me like daggers as he listened to the words I spoke to him and he seemed to be half way between belief, and leaping forward in an attempt to wrench his bars away and snap my neck. I knew based upon what he had done to Lance, Vector and the others last week that he was more then capable of taking me down if he got loose and I didn't stop him fast enough mentally, and so I was quite thankful for the bars.

Looking in to his eyes I smiled and began to speak, not able to fog his mind as I had that week ago do to the power dampening field in the room, I simply had to rely on serenity this time around. "William, we want to help you find your uncle's killers, and you have my word that it wasn't my organization who did this to you."

I hoped he believed me as for the longest few moments he didn't respond or even lift his eyes to me, but then he did, raising his face so that I could see those intense icy blue orbs staring back at me past the polls. "I don't know who did this to my God Father or why, but if you let me out and I find out it was you, you'd better be prepared for the consequences," he said with a promising nod at the end, and I responded with my own nod, looking to the door, I walked off, it would be necessary to speak to Director H about this situation first hand, and so I would go to the communications room immediately.

"Goodbye William, and please, be patient just a few minutes longer," I requested, as I made my way out of the room, followed by the snap hiss of the pressurizing lock in the barracks behind me. Soon I was making my way back toward the communications room adjacent to the War Room, and my eyes were wandering about the hall way. My mind was elsewhere lost in thought as I pondered what may have happened, and just what the possible connection between William's parents and God Father, and the Illuminati may have been.

For now I would have to continue my research in to the Illuminati, and contact Director-H regarding William's release. As my feet fell on the metallic floor with each step I could sense the thoughts of all those present in the halls other then William in his anti-mutant power shielded cell. However, three other minds were absent to my scans as well, and my eyes suddenly went wide.

"Tenku, Papavich, retrieve Vector and Malik, and send them with Harris to the city, they're needed," I said, as my mind came in to contact with the screaming distress beacon that had been thrown up by Enigma from the main land.

Something was amiss, and it seemed that it stemmed from Ms. Lestraude's choice to use HMRD equipment for personal use, she and I and the Director would have to speak about that, but for now the girl's and Lance's safety was more important. Though I was very sure that Lance could handle this situation himself, I didn't want to take any chances.

Next Issue: With Lance, Maria, and Kelly in a volatile situation, being assisted by the Illuminati's top assassin Melisel Black, will everyone return to Xavier's Island in one piece? Or will things turn for the worse when Director-H comes to the Island in search of some answers from William Bourne, regarding his father's studies in Nanotechnology, and his family's involvement with the Illuminati. Find out next issue... Frank.