As Madara was busy with his dance party, a small team entered the hidden facility under the base. Ezekiel used the security system and called most of the soldiers from the facility to help deal with the threat attacking the base. Which left it currently manned with a skeleton crew.
The team was Steve, Bucky, Logan and Kaecilius. Ezekiel was back at their base acting as over watch for the whole mission and controlling the enemies computer systems. As they walked through the hallways of the facility, Ezekiel would point them towards each target. Time passed quickly and it didn’t take long for them to clear out most of the remaining soldiers.
The only issue they ran into was when they arrived in the X-23 cloning section. The base commander realized something was going with the security systems and decided to use the clones as a delaying tactic. Him and a handful of people were hunkered down in that part of the base as they waited for reinforcements. They had injected the clones with something and then tossed them into the hallway outside before they barricaded the door shut.
Whatever they gave the clones caused all of them to collapse on the ground except for the youngest. The youngest clone was hunched over the others as she shook each of them, calling each one by their name. But none of them seemed to be responding to the girl at all. As Steve moved closer with his group the girl looked up with tears running down her face.
It took her a moment before she jumped in front of the other girls and a single metal claw slid out of her hands as she choked out in a pain filled voice, "If you try to hurt my sisters I'll kill you."
Logan's claws popped out on instinct but he didn't move as Steve put his hands up and said, "We aren't going to hurt you or your sister's, we actually came here to help you."
The girl lowered her arms the tiniest bit as she asked, "Why should I trust you? You might be like everyone else."
Steve smiled gently as he said, "How about we start small, let us help your sister's."
The girl stiffened and cast a quick glance behind her before she said, "I'm not stupid, you just want to take them hostage."
Logan stepped forward, his claws already retracted as he said, "Then you can have me as your hostage while my friends check over your sister's."
The girl quickly glanced at her sisters once again before she nodded once and moved slightly forward. Logan slowly moved forward and once he was halfway to the girl she said, "Lock your fingers together and place your hands behind your head. Then get on your knees by the wall."
After Logan finished the girl moved quickly and stood behind him, one claw on his throat the other over his temple. She looked at the other men and said, "You try anything funny and he dies. Then I'll kill you."
Steve nodded as Bucky and Kaecilius slowly walked with him towards the three girls on the floor. Steve crouched down as he started to examine them, the girl watched him like a hawk the entire time. Steve shook his head as he said, "They're alive, but I have no idea what's wrong with them."
Ezekiel's voice came through the intercom speakers above them as he said, "I've already informed Tsunade, she will join you shortly."
The girl jerked slightly and cut into Logan's neck a tiny bit as Ezekiel spoke. Before she narrowed her eyes and her voice took on a hard edge as she asked, "You work for them?"
As the girl looked at Steve, she slowly pressed her claw into Logan's neck. An instant later another person appeared next to Steve already bent over one of her sisters. The girl pressed her claw deeper into Logan’s neck out of reflex. Logan held back from defending himself as he gritted his teeth and quietly waited.
Ezekiel's voice spoke out over the speaker again as he said, "Words don't mean much, but we’re not part of this facility, I've just taken over their systems. Now if you would kindly remove your claw from Logan's neck, I am sure it would make us all feel better."
The girl kept her eyes on the new person who arrived and slowly removed her claw from Logan's neck before Ezekiel said, "Thank you. Now my friend is going to check on your sisters, so don't be alarmed when you see some green mist come out of her hand."
After he finished the woman placed a hand above one of her sisters as a green mist came out of her plan. The woman slowly moved her hand above the girl for about half a minute before she checked the other two girls. She glanced up at the girl holding Logan hostage as she said, "Something is killing them. Did anything happen to them recently?"
The girl tensed up then glared at the door that was bared shut behind the group. Her eyes started to tear up again as she looked back at Tsunade and said, "They gave us something before they pushed us out the door. After a minute my sisters collapsed."
"I'll need to move your sister's someplace if I have any hope of treating them."
The girl frowned, tears still falling down her face as she said, "Fix them here."
Tsunade shook her head as she said, "I can't, we don't have the proper equipment and I'll need help."
Ezekiel's voice cut on over the speakers again as he said, "How about we let you keep Logan as a hostage, while we try to help your sister's? You can even join them, but you’ll have to stand back and let my friends work. Does that sound acceptable to you?"
The girl nodded her head after a few moments, so Kaecilius spun his arm to make a portal. As the portal opened the girls eyes widened some before a few people stepped out of the portal. They quickly lifted up each of the girls and took them through the portal to set them on hospital gurneys.
As they finished, Tsunade stepped through the portal to join them and once on the other side she said, "Hurry up, we don't want to waste any time."
The girl slowly let Logan stand and was able to keep her claw on his neck as they moved. Once they went through the portal, Kaecilius collapsed it and Ezekiel said in their ear pieces, "I know what they used on the girls, but you’ll still need to collect a sample of it if we want to help them. So try not to destroy the place."
Within the next ten minutes Steve and his team were able to clear out the last group of resistance in the facility. Once finished Ezekiel pointed them to the serum they injected into the girls.
It was supposed to make them go berserk, but instead it was attacking their bodies. The youngest girl wasn't having an issue because she was the only one that inherited a healing factor. As for why she didn’t go berserk? Ezekiel had no idea.
As Tsunade and the others worked on a way to help the girls, everyone else was focused on cleaning up the rest of the island. After a few more hours, the only people alive on the island were the slaves and Ezekiel's team mates that worked on the rescue operation. Ezekiel himself was currently busy as he worked on disarming the slave collars.
They didn't make it easy for him either, every single collar was unique and had to be disabled manually. But that wasn't even the hard part, once they had someone free of the collar. They still needed to deprogram them and let a Yamanaka help with their mind therapy. The last issue and the worst was the success rate. So far out of about two hundred people processed only five still had their minds intact.
The brainwashing techniques that were used pretty much destroyed a person's mind and turned them into a mindless drone. So far the five people they were able to cure were younger and had just been through the brainwashing process not long ago. Which made Ezekiel change his focus and was targeting younger slaves specifically for now.
The next two months passed by quickly as everyone from Ezekiel's group worked on saving as many people as possible. Which also made a few things change about how the island was going to be used.
While the country was originally meant for meta-humans to have a place to call their own. A place where they could live in peace without fear, to be able to walk around normally and not hide who or what they are.
Magneto decided that once they went public and declared they were a new nation, he would allow anyone immigration into the country. Meta-humans were to be given priority, compared to normal humans though. And Ezekiel agreed to use his resources to do background checks and psychological evaluations on each person who applied.
Its immigration policy would be a lot more strict than any other country in the world, well besides Wakanda who didn't allow people in. But Magneto wanted to make sure that people who moved there had good intentions and wouldn't discriminate against people with visible powers or to be more accurate, people with deformities.
vvvvvv
Ezekiel was seated in the main meeting room with most of the council members going over plans for the new country. His team had finally released all of the slaves two weeks ago and they were discussing what to do with the people who didn't make it.
Steve's voice was raised slightly as he said, "There has to be something we can do for them. We can't just kill all those people."
Xavier shook his head as he said, "Ezekiel and I have both tried everything we can. They have nothing in their minds to bring them back. We even brought in Tao and Agatha to help, but nothing worked."
Ezekiel nodded as he said, "Plus we don't have the ability to take care of them in their current state."
"Then let's figure out a way to take care of them."
Ezekiel shook his head as he said, "No, we won't waste anymore resources on this. We've spent the last three weeks on this and we double checked all of them. They are in worse shape than a comatose patient.”
Steve frowned and was about to speak again, when Peggy reached over to hold his hand. Steve glanced towards her and she shook her head as she said, “I know how you feel Steve, but Ezekiel and the others are right. They’ve done everything they can for those people, but they aren’t coming back.”
“But it’s almost a hundred thousand people. Can’t we try something?”
Ezekiel let out a sigh before he said, “My clones and part of our personnel are being run ragged and we still can’t even take care of all of them properly. I haven’t even started working on the infrastructure or housing yet because we have so many bodies to watch over right now.”
“I agree with Ezekiel, we need to euthanize them and move on. It’s morbid and I don’t like it, but it will let their souls move on and rest.” Tao said as she glanced around at the other council members.
“Let’s just vote on it, all in favor?” Fury raised his hand as he finished speaking.
The vote passed with only Steve and Jarvis voting against it. Once that was finished, they moved onto other issues that needed to be addressed on the island. Mainly food, housing, city planning and a bunch of other boring issues. It took a few hours but they had a solid plan in place once they were finished and they finally came to the last issue.
Ezekiel typed on his computer and pulled up the last issue on their list they needed to discuss for the day. The four clones they rescued from the facility. While they figured out what the girls were given and were able to neutralize it. The girls were still dying and everything they’ve done is just prolonging their life, not fixing the underlying issue.
As everyone looked over the information Ezekiel pulled up for them, Hank asked, “Couldn’t we transfer them into a new clone body? That is what you are trying to do with your clones, correct?”
Ezekiel nodded as he said, “Ya but it’s still in the testing phase and none of them have been stable yet. Plus we would need to make a clone specifically for each girl and they are already a clone of a clone.”
Ezekiel pulled up some more info before he said, “ The fact they made four semi viable clones out of hundreds of attempts just proves how hard it will be to make them a new body and we don’t have the time to wait. They will be dead within a week.”
Agatha glanced at Tao before she said, “This might be in bad taste, but what if we took three of the people who we’re going to euthanize and use their bodies for the girls?”
Everyone glanced at Steve for a moment, but when he didn’t respond to what Agatha just said, Tao nodded her head as she said, “It might work, but I will need to see them first and test a few things though.”
“Let’s end the meeting here then, if no one has anything else to add?” Ezekiel said as he looked around the room.
As Madara was busy with his dance party, a small team entered the hidden facility under the base. Ezekiel used the security system and called most of the soldiers from the facility to help deal with the threat attacking the base. Which left it currently manned with a skeleton crew.
The team was Steve, Bucky, Logan and Kaecilius. Ezekiel was back at their base acting as over watch for the whole mission and controlling the enemies computer systems. As they walked through the hallways of the facility, Ezekiel would point them towards each target. Time passed quickly and it didn’t take long for them to clear out most of the remaining soldiers.
The only issue they ran into was when they arrived in the X-23 cloning section. The base commander realized something was going with the security systems and decided to use the clones as a delaying tactic. Him and a handful of people were hunkered down in that part of the base as they waited for reinforcements. They had injected the clones with something and then tossed them into the hallway outside before they barricaded the door shut.
Whatever they gave the clones caused all of them to collapse on the ground except for the youngest. The youngest clone was hunched over the others as she shook each of them, calling each one by their name. But none of them seemed to be responding to the girl at all. As Steve moved closer with his group the girl looked up with tears running down her face.
It took her a moment before she jumped in front of the other girls and a single metal claw slid out of her hands as she choked out in a pain filled voice, "If you try to hurt my sisters I'll kill you."
Logan's claws popped out on instinct but he didn't move as Steve put his hands up and said, "We aren't going to hurt you or your sister's, we actually came here to help you."
The girl lowered her arms the tiniest bit as she asked, "Why should I trust you? You might be like everyone else."
Steve smiled gently as he said, "How about we start small, let us help your sister's."
The girl stiffened and cast a quick glance behind her before she said, "I'm not stupid, you just want to take them hostage."
Logan stepped forward, his claws already retracted as he said, "Then you can have me as your hostage while my friends check over your sister's."
The girl quickly glanced at her sisters once again before she nodded once and moved slightly forward. Logan slowly moved forward and once he was halfway to the girl she said, "Lock your fingers together and place your hands behind your head. Then get on your knees by the wall."
After Logan finished the girl moved quickly and stood behind him, one claw on his throat the other over his temple. She looked at the other men and said, "You try anything funny and he dies. Then I'll kill you."
Steve nodded as Bucky and Kaecilius slowly walked with him towards the three girls on the floor. Steve crouched down as he started to examine them, the girl watched him like a hawk the entire time. Steve shook his head as he said, "They're alive, but I have no idea what's wrong with them."
Ezekiel's voice came through the intercom speakers above them as he said, "I've already informed Tsunade, she will join you shortly."
The girl jerked slightly and cut into Logan's neck a tiny bit as Ezekiel spoke. Before she narrowed her eyes and her voice took on a hard edge as she asked, "You work for them?"
As the girl looked at Steve, she slowly pressed her claw into Logan's neck. An instant later another person appeared next to Steve already bent over one of her sisters. The girl pressed her claw deeper into Logan’s neck out of reflex. Logan held back from defending himself as he gritted his teeth and quietly waited.
Ezekiel's voice spoke out over the speaker again as he said, "Words don't mean much, but we’re not part of this facility, I've just taken over their systems. Now if you would kindly remove your claw from Logan's neck, I am sure it would make us all feel better."
The girl kept her eyes on the new person who arrived and slowly removed her claw from Logan's neck before Ezekiel said, "Thank you. Now my friend is going to check on your sisters, so don't be alarmed when you see some green mist come out of her hand."
After he finished the woman placed a hand above one of her sisters as a green mist came out of her plan. The woman slowly moved her hand above the girl for about half a minute before she checked the other two girls. She glanced up at the girl holding Logan hostage as she said, "Something is killing them. Did anything happen to them recently?"
The girl tensed up then glared at the door that was bared shut behind the group. Her eyes started to tear up again as she looked back at Tsunade and said, "They gave us something before they pushed us out the door. After a minute my sisters collapsed."
"I'll need to move your sister's someplace if I have any hope of treating them."
The girl frowned, tears still falling down her face as she said, "Fix them here."
Tsunade shook her head as she said, "I can't, we don't have the proper equipment and I'll need help."
Ezekiel's voice cut on over the speakers again as he said, "How about we let you keep Logan as a hostage, while we try to help your sister's? You can even join them, but you’ll have to stand back and let my friends work. Does that sound acceptable to you?"
The girl nodded her head after a few moments, so Kaecilius spun his arm to make a portal. As the portal opened the girls eyes widened some before a few people stepped out of the portal. They quickly lifted up each of the girls and took them through the portal to set them on hospital gurneys.
As they finished, Tsunade stepped through the portal to join them and once on the other side she said, "Hurry up, we don't want to waste any time."
The girl slowly let Logan stand and was able to keep her claw on his neck as they moved. Once they went through the portal, Kaecilius collapsed it and Ezekiel said in their ear pieces, "I know what they used on the girls, but you’ll still need to collect a sample of it if we want to help them. So try not to destroy the place."
Within the next ten minutes Steve and his team were able to clear out the last group of resistance in the facility. Once finished Ezekiel pointed them to the serum they injected into the girls.
It was supposed to make them go berserk, but instead it was attacking their bodies. The youngest girl wasn't having an issue because she was the only one that inherited a healing factor. As for why she didn’t go berserk? Ezekiel had no idea.
As Tsunade and the others worked on a way to help the girls, everyone else was focused on cleaning up the rest of the island. After a few more hours, the only people alive on the island were the slaves and Ezekiel's team mates that worked on the rescue operation. Ezekiel himself was currently busy as he worked on disarming the slave collars.
They didn't make it easy for him either, every single collar was unique and had to be disabled manually. But that wasn't even the hard part, once they had someone free of the collar. They still needed to deprogram them and let a Yamanaka help with their mind therapy. The last issue and the worst was the success rate. So far out of about two hundred people processed only five still had their minds intact.
The brainwashing techniques that were used pretty much destroyed a person's mind and turned them into a mindless drone. So far the five people they were able to cure were younger and had just been through the brainwashing process not long ago. Which made Ezekiel change his focus and was targeting younger slaves specifically for now.
The next two months passed by quickly as everyone from Ezekiel's group worked on saving as many people as possible. Which also made a few things change about how the island was going to be used.
While the country was originally meant for meta-humans to have a place to call their own. A place where they could live in peace without fear, to be able to walk around normally and not hide who or what they are.
Magneto decided that once they went public and declared they were a new nation, he would allow anyone immigration into the country. Meta-humans were to be given priority, compared to normal humans though. And Ezekiel agreed to use his resources to do background checks and psychological evaluations on each person who applied.
Its immigration policy would be a lot more strict than any other country in the world, well besides Wakanda who didn't allow people in. But Magneto wanted to make sure that people who moved there had good intentions and wouldn't discriminate against people with visible powers or to be more accurate, people with deformities.
vvvvvv
Ezekiel was seated in the main meeting room with most of the council members going over plans for the new country. His team had finally released all of the slaves two weeks ago and they were discussing what to do with the people who didn't make it.
Steve's voice was raised slightly as he said, "There has to be something we can do for them. We can't just kill all those people."
Xavier shook his head as he said, "Ezekiel and I have both tried everything we can. They have nothing in their minds to bring them back. We even brought in Tao and Agatha to help, but nothing worked."
Ezekiel nodded as he said, "Plus we don't have the ability to take care of them in their current state."
"Then let's figure out a way to take care of them."
Ezekiel shook his head as he said, "No, we won't waste anymore resources on this. We've spent the last three weeks on this and we double checked all of them. They are in worse shape than a comatose patient.”
Steve frowned and was about to speak again, when Peggy reached over to hold his hand. Steve glanced towards her and she shook her head as she said, “I know how you feel Steve, but Ezekiel and the others are right. They’ve done everything they can for those people, but they aren’t coming back.”
“But it’s almost a hundred thousand people. Can’t we try something?”
Ezekiel let out a sigh before he said, “My clones and part of our personnel are being run ragged and we still can’t even take care of all of them properly. I haven’t even started working on the infrastructure or housing yet because we have so many bodies to watch over right now.”
“I agree with Ezekiel, we need to euthanize them and move on. It’s morbid and I don’t like it, but it will let their souls move on and rest.” Tao said as she glanced around at the other council members.
“Let’s just vote on it, all in favor?” Fury raised his hand as he finished speaking.
The vote passed with only Steve and Jarvis voting against it. Once that was finished, they moved onto other issues that needed to be addressed on the island. Mainly food, housing, city planning and a bunch of other boring issues. It took a few hours but they had a solid plan in place once they were finished and they finally came to the last issue.
Ezekiel typed on his computer and pulled up the last issue on their list they needed to discuss for the day. The four clones they rescued from the facility. While they figured out what the girls were given and were able to neutralize it. The girls were still dying and everything they’ve done is just prolonging their life, not fixing the underlying issue.
As everyone looked over the information Ezekiel pulled up for them, Hank asked, “Couldn’t we transfer them into a new clone body? That is what you are trying to do with your clones, correct?”
Ezekiel nodded as he said, “Ya but it’s still in the testing phase and none of them have been stable yet. Plus we would need to make a clone specifically for each girl and they are already a clone of a clone.”
Ezekiel pulled up some more info before he said, “ The fact they made four semi viable clones out of hundreds of attempts just proves how hard it will be to make them a new body and we don’t have the time to wait. They will be dead within a week.”
Agatha glanced at Tao before she said, “This might be in bad taste, but what if we took three of the people who we’re going to euthanize and use their bodies for the girls?”
Everyone glanced at Steve for a moment, but when he didn’t respond to what Agatha just said, Tao nodded her head as she said, “It might work, but I will need to see them first and test a few things though.”
“Let’s end the meeting here then, if no one has anything else to add?” Ezekiel said as he looked around the room.
