00085. Planning a coup.
00085. Planning a coup.
Sunday, August, 1st, 1999
Theo’s clone Ezekiel was seated in the main base's meeting room with a handful of people currently on their council. Ezekiel called a meeting to figure out a plan for taking over the island nation of Genosha. Magneto, Xavier, Fury, Peggy, Tao, Agatha and Steve were seated at the table next to him.
Ezekiel pulled up some images which he displayed on the wall in front of everyone as he said, "This is , a small island off the coast of Africa. I promised Magneto that he could have this country and we are going to help him turn it into a safe haven for mutants."
Peggy glanced at Fury for a moment before she looked back at Ezekiel and said, "You can't just promise someone a country and why wasn't this brought up to the whole council earlier?"
Ezekiel shrugged as he said, "Because it was a personal promise from me. I did tell Fury about it and he agreed with me that an island was reasonable."
Everyone turned to look towards Fury who shook his head as he said, "I only agreed with him because I didn't want Magneto to have Mars."
Everyone glanced back at Ezekiel who shrugged as Peggy said, "You can't just offer people stuff you don't own and you can't just take over a country."
"Why not? Your homeland used to do it all the time."
Peggy frowned as she said, "That was a long time ago and things were different then. Plus with the UN around, they will try to stop you as soon as you make a move."
Ezekiel smiled as he said, "That's why we will take over the country in a single day."
"That'd be impossible with the resources we currently have. Plus what about the people who currently live there? They won't agree to someone else taking over."
Ezekiel typed on his computer for a few moments before some videos popped up on the wall. It showed people dressed in prison uniforms with collars around their necks, these people worked as slaves for some well dressed people. As the video played Ezekiel said, "This is video from the real Genosha. What they don't show to the handful of foreign dignitaries that visit each year."
"Before you go thinking they might be criminals and that is how they reform people. It's not, anyone not born into the handful of ruling families are treated as slaves. Any newborns are stripped from the parents and sent to education camps." The videos changed to prison-like schools where kids were chained up and taught how to behave and act.
Steve was the first to speak as he asked, "How soon can we attack?"
Ezekiel typed on his computer again pulling up a few things. He then looked at the group as he said, "Some UN officials will be visiting in a few weeks. I want to plan the attack right after they leave."
Xavier's brow furrowed as he asked, "Even counting people with powers, trying to take over a country with our group might be a little hard."
Ezekiel looked back at the screen as some new information popped up and showed a highly detailed map of the whole island. Certain things were highlighted as he said, "We only need to worry about these key areas. It's where most of the manpower is stationed."
Another building came up with giant towers and dishes pointed out from it. Ezekiel motioned to it as he said, "That is the first goal and the priority target. It's the command center for the collars and from what I can tell is how they keep everyone in line. If someone acts out or is disobedient the collar will either harm them, or outright kill them.
Fury studied the info before as he said, "It looks like we have to deal with over ten thousand soldiers and the ruling class. Even then, that might be a little hard with our current resources."
Ezekiel nodded as he said, "Even with our powered members, it will be hard to accomplish without help. Luckily Tao and Agatha agreed to help for a small price."
Ezekiel pulled up the map of the island and highlighted a new area as he looked at Magneto and said, "Apparently this area is steeped in magical energy. They want to find out why and then build a sanctum for teaching mystic arts on top of it."
Magneto glanced at Xavier for a few moments as they shared a mental conversation, before he looked at Tao as he said, "We see no reason to deny your request. But we would also like to request if it's possible to train a few of our people in the mystic arts? Just the ability to make portals is extremely useful."
Tao nodded as she said, "I don't see a reason we can’t. But keep in mind, we only take students who are truly interested in the mystic arts."
Xavier and Magneto both nodded in understanding before Ezekiel said, "Alright with that out of the way, we need to do scouting of the island."
Ezekiel glanced at Steve as he said, "Steve, I want you to get together with Kaecilius. Make at least four teams and scout all of the buildings I marked from the mirror dimension. They are running a closed network, so you'll also need to use my USB drives on any computers or servers you find."
Ezekiel then glanced around the room as he asked, "Anyone have anything else that you want to add?"
When he didn't receive a reply, Ezekiel said, "Alright, we'll meet back up tomorrow after the scouting is finished and plan the invasion."
As everyone left the room, Ezekiel turned his attention back to his computer. He had been planning the aftermath of them taking over a country and had been gathering supplies for the past few months. He had already ordered enough material to build a few thousand houses. Now he was working on supplies to feed people for a few months. While they could use the resources from the island, he just wanted to be prepared for any issues that might come up.
The following day the group gathered to go over the scouting data and information collected from their target's computer systems. The information they gathered was distressing and made everyone want to push forward with the invasion right away. The things those people were doing to everyone else was monstrous and even Ezekiel wanted to push the attack deadline ahead.
The biggest issue for the push was what they found hidden on the island. Underneath the island was a secret facility that was doing human and meta-human experimentation. They were part of the Weapon-x program and worked with the leaders of the country, to use most of the population for their experiments.
Mostly they were focused on some type of mind control and conditioning program. But they also had a small cloning project setup for trying to make another X-23, which seemed to be working as they had four living clones. But only the youngest of the clones seemed to be somewhat healthy, the other three were in bad shape from protecting the youngest girl. Just another reason the group wanted to push forward with the invasion plans.
But the fact that this new facility wasn't on any records they found at the first facility they raided, or the fact that the reanimated Stryker, Rice and Sutter never knew about this place, was concerning. Ezekiel scanned over all the data he received and couldn’t find any information on who was funding the place or who was really in charge. There were a few people leading the different projects and one man in charge of all the soldiers. But Ezekiel couldn’t find a single person who was above everyone else at the facility itself. The only info he found was this place was slightly older then the first facility they raided.
Ezekiel let out a sigh and focused on something he could do. As Fury and the others were discussing the best plan of attack and who should be grouped together. Ezekiel worked on changing the UN officials trip to the island and having it rescheduled to a later date. It wasn't that hard and within ten minutes it was done. He then focused on removing all satellite coverage above the area, besides the ones he controlled. Within a few hours they had a complete plan of attack ready, including a bunch of contingency plans.
They scheduled the attack to commence in two days after they finished all of their preparations. The meeting soon finished up and before anyone stood up or the room cleared out. Fury pulled out a folder and set it on the table as he said, "I found , I wanna bring him into our group."
Ezekiel reached over and picked up the folder to go over it. When he finished he slid it back to Fury as he said, "Isn't it too soon?"
Fury shook his head as he said, “I wanna bring him in before Shield finds out about him.”
The others in the group were curious and Steve was the first to ask, “Who’s Clint?”
Ezekiel typed on his computer to pull up some videos of a young man with a bow. He was in a circus tent performing in front of a large crowd and he fired five arrows quickly all hitting almost dead center of the target. Another video played which showed him shooting arrows at a woman as she was strapped to a target. She was slowly spinning and he was shooting two or three arrows at a time. Then some more info pulled up on the screen which showed he was currently twenty years old. Fury frowned a little as he asked, “You already found him?”
Ezekiel nodded as he said, “About a year ago. I was planning to invite him sooner or later, but I figured I would let him enjoy his marriage a bit first.”
Peggy was still reading the info on the screen as she asked, “He’s only good at archery, why do you want to recruit him?”
Ezekiel glanced over to Peggy as he said, “He tends to be an important hero most of the time, even if he is just a normal human.”
Fury nodded as he said, “Which is why I want to bring him in now. He could be a big help in taking down Hydra.”
Ezekiel glanced around the room as he asked, “I know it’s not the full group, but does anyone have any objections?”
When no one disagreed, Ezekiel turned to look at Fury as he said, “You need to recruit him yourself, but I have a feeling he might turn you down if you don’t find a way to bring his wife.”