Chapter 4

Psylocke asked Caliban for Emma Frost's location. Caliban was annoyed that Psylocke refused to answer any of his questions.

He said, "I won't do that until I get some answers. What happened to you? Where are you going?"

Psylocke then walked up to him, conjured up her psionic blade, and pointed it at his chest.

She said, "You brought me here for your own safety, but you did help me when I needed it the most. That's the only reason I'm letting you live. Your ability is going to put all mutants in danger in the future. Now, tell me where she is."

"She's near California," Caliban said.

Psylocke didn't waste any more time and left.

Meanwhile, Shanks and Raven were discussing their plan to infiltrate the research facility. Kayla joined them after a while, and Emma came home an hour later.

It was already dark outside, and Emma suggested, "We should leave now. There will be less security at night."

Everyone agreed and they left for the research facility right away. Since they were all mutants, they didn't need to prepare anything. On their way there, they talked about their plan.

Shanks said, "I should be able to knock out most of the people in the facility if it's small. A few might survive because I'm not strong enough yet. This way, we can get out of the research facility without much trouble."

Emma added, "I can handle the rest if the facility is big or you miss some of them."

Raven said, "It's really convenient for us to have your powers. Before, I had to plan a lot, learn about the place I was infiltrating, and study the behavior of some important people there to disguise as. Now with your help, all we have to do is make sure we get in and out as quickly as possible before they wake up."

While Shanks, Emma, Raven, and Kayla were on their way to the Trask research facility, Psylocke had arrived in New York.

She then headed towards The Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters in Westchester, New York. When she reached the gates of the school, she tried to open them, but they opened by themselves.

Psylocke knocked on the door of the huge school. After a few seconds, a man with glasses opened the door.

Psylocke said, "I'm here to meet Charles Xavier. Take me to him."

The man behind the door replied, "He's not here. You should leave."

He then tried to close the door, but Psylocke made a psionic blade and pointed it at him.

She said, "I don't have time for games. I can sense him in this mansion. Take me to him before it's too late."

The man with glasses slowly opened the door and let her in. Psylocke walked into the mansion and looked around. The house was dirty, with dust and cobwebs everywhere.

The man with glasses said, "Calm down. Charles is here, but he's not in a state to think properly."

Psylocke said, "I won't repeat myself again. I need to meet the professor."

Before the man with glasses could reply, a man with long hair came walking down the stairs.

He said to Psylocke, "What do you want?"

Psylocke recognized him because Charles Xavier was famous even in the future. She deactivated her psionic blade and looked at him.

Psylocke said, "I know this might be hard to believe, but I'm from the future and I need your help."

The man with glasses, who was Hank McCoy, the Beast, was shocked to hear that and he seemed to have a hard time believing it. Meanwhile, Charles seemed convinced.

He looked at Hank and said, "Hank, we're mutants and we can do things that were once impossible. I don't think time travel should be a surprise. What we should focus on is whether we can trust her or not."

"I'll let you read my mind if you want," Psylocke said.

"He can't use his powers now," Hank said.

Psylocke asked, "Does it have anything to do with him being able to walk?"

Hank nodded and Psylocke then read the minds of Charles and Hank. After she learned what happened in the school, she hated that she had come all the way here just for a drug addict.

She used a psychic attack that caused both Hank and Charles immense pain. They both fell to the ground and cried in pain.

Psylocke said, "The mutant race is about to go extinct. The last of my friends had to sacrifice their lives to send me here and your future self asked me to find you, so I thought you would be of some help. This is nothing but a waste of time. He might already be in trouble."

Psylocke then stopped her attack and was about to leave when Charles called her to stop her.

He said, "I might look like this, but I can still help you. Tell me what happened."

*Back to Shanks*

Since it was a two-day trip, they took multiple breaks at motels to make sure they were at their best at all times.

After two days, they stopped at a motel, since the research facility they needed to raid was only two hours away. They decided to rest and prepare before heading there.

Shanks said, "It's 8 pm now. We'll rest until 1 am and then leave. I think five hours should be enough rest to get rid of the fatigue."

They then had their dinner and Shanks was standing outside the motel, looking at the stars.

Emma walked to him and asked, "Shanks, what do you want to do once you achieve your goal?"

"I assume you learned about it from Raven's and Kayla's minds. I don't have much in mind. I just want to do things I want, have a harem, and explore the world. What about you? Do you have a retirement plan?" Shanks asked in the end.

"I haven't thought that far yet," Emma replied.

Shanks then continued to stare at the night sky, which had clear stars due to less pollution.

Emma looked at Shanks and asked, "Do you have something on your mind?"

"I don't know. I have this weird feeling that is telling me that something is wrong. Not the things I know might happen, but something that is right in front of my eyes that I am ignoring. Something important that I shouldn't ignore," Shanks replied.

"I think you're thinking too much. If it was something right in front of your eyes, even if you missed it, either Raven or I would have noticed it," Emma said and left.

Time passed and it was already 1 am. They headed out towards the research facility to find out what the people behind Kayla had planned for Shanks.

Shanks, Emma, and Raven arrived at their destination and Emma stopped the car in a place they couldn't see.

Shanks said, "Here's the plan. I need to get to the center of the facility to cover the whole facility. Emma will help me get to the center of the facility. Meanwhile, Raven will sneak into the control room and monitor everything so that our plan works. Although I don't know the structure of the facility, I'm pretty sure they have one to monitor the whole facility. As for Kayla, you're on the lookout. You have to inform us if they have called for backup. We'll communicate through the transceivers the guys at the gate have."

All three of them were okay with the plan. Shanks felt weird when he saw the research facility. Shanks didn't have an exceptional IQ. He couldn't figure out things just by looking at them like the detectives of movies and shows.

Shanks suggested, "I feel that something is fishy. Move carefully."

All of them nodded and Shanks thought, 'This is obviously a trap, but what are they trying to achieve by giving me mutants? Anyway, I'm pretty sure that they won't capture me again, because it's only been 40 days since I was released. I'll use the time I have to train properly and prepare for whatever they throw at me. I might even have to start training the six powers of the navy.'

They then headed out to carry out their plan. Meanwhile, Psylocke was done explaining about her future to both Charles and Hank.

Hank said, "So, this person named Shanks has the power to nullify mutant abilities and is strong enough to go against a small army, and he was captured by the government. Also, the government used Raven's DNA to make some robots called Sentinels. They then used Shanks and these Sentinels to wipe out most of the mutants. You and a few others managed to survive and one mutant sent your consciousness back into the past to prevent this future. You want us to help you rescue this person Shanks before Mystique goes to save him and gets captured."

Psylocke nodded. Charles asked, "Where is Shanks now?"

"If I remember correctly, he is still in California, or he is raiding the research facility where he will get caught." Psylocke replied.

Hank asked, "If he is as strong as you say he is, how did he get caught?"

"He didn't tell me much about that. As I said before, he was dead when I came here. The only way to change the future is to free Shanks. He is the one hunting down the mutants for the government before the Sentinels were developed. If we manage to free him from the government now, the future will definitely change." Psylocke said.

Back to Shanks again, they had successfully carried out their plan. Emma helped them get inside the facility and they got to the center of the facility without trouble.

When Shanks reached the center, he used his conqueror's haki and took care of many people in the facility. As expected before, there were still a few people who were conscious after the conqueror's haki.

Shanks said to Emma, "Now it's your turn. There are exactly 15 left and they are close by. We can then get out of this fake research facility."

Emma asked, "What do you mean by a fake research facility?"

"Can't you see the facility? The track marks on the floor, unusual patches of dust in many places, all indicate that this place was set up recently. I think they built this just for me." Shanks said.

Shanks then sensed that the 15 people who weren't knocked out sped up towards them.

Shanks turned to Emma and said, "Emma, quick. They are closing in on us."

Seeing Emma motionless and with a guilty look, Shanks realized what he hadn't noticed until now.

'This bitch. Argh! I should have noticed it before. The day I met her, she asked me why I was still roaming with Kayla. I should have noticed it before itself that she couldn't possibly know that I found out about Kayla. She just tested me and I fell right into her trap. They wanted to dispose of Kayla either way, so if I didn't know about Kayla and learned it from Emma, I might have attacked her out of anger. Since I found out about her before I got too close to her, I didn't confront her immediately. Depending on whether I knew about Kayla or not, they changed their plan accordingly.' Shanks thought.

Emma stood silently and the 15 people, who weren't knocked out, came to the corridor they were in. When he saw them, he noticed that all 15 of them were mutants and all of them had some weird metal collars.

Shanks was preparing to fight the mutants when suddenly, through a speaker in the corridor, a voice said, "Please stand down, Mr. Shanks. I know that you are strong, but your best friend and savior Raven is with us. If you move, not only will we kill her, we will also detonate the bombs inside you.

I know that if you concentrate hard enough, you can knock out these mutants too, but remember that they each have the trigger to set off your bombs. So, please cooperate."

Shanks shouted towards the speaker, "I don't know who you are, but if you want me to cooperate, I need to know that Raven is safe. Bring her here now."

The voice from the speaker said, "You are not in a situation to negotiate with us, Shanks. Just cooperate with us and follow the mutants. If you insist on not cooperating, it will be difficult for you to live."

Shanks didn't reply and just stood there without moving, even when one mutant with weird teeth asked him to follow.

Seeing that he wasn't moving, the voice from the speaker said, "Seeing how you fell for Emma's trap, I thought you were dumb. You clearly know how to negotiate. As you wish, we will bring her to the corridor, but know that she will be accompanied by men who also have the trigger to your bombs. So, don't have any ideas to try and save her."

(A/N: I have been very busy lately, so I couldn't publish the chapter until now. I don't know how long this work will last, but I will release a chapter as soon as I finish writing it. Even if I decide to drop it for some reason, I will let you know.)