M Ch 66: Mastermind's Plan (Patreon)

Erik acknowledged that Emma was in the clear and then left her mind. He also decided to ask for her to take care of Shilpa later.

But before getting Emma out of her sleeping pod, he stored [Ressurected] Wanda and Wasp back to [Beelzebuth's Stomach].

Since she seemed like a rather righteous person, he didn't want any misunderstanding to occur.

Then he tinkered a bit with the sleeping pod which prompted the glass enclosing her to open up. After a few moments, Emma opened her eyes and he helped her sit up. She thanked him for saving her.

"I am going to leave then. Take care of other captivated mutants." As he turned to leave, Emma grabbed his hand.

"Wait... I'm feeling extremely weak and I am unable to use my powers right now." She spoke hesitantly, "But, I can feel that whatever they injected in my body to block my powers is slowly wearing off. So, if you could stay for a while..."

Erik thought for a moment, "Sure."

As they waited for Emma to recover, they talked about unimportant things. He told her that he was here on a tour and that he was taking care of a mutant girl himself till he found somewhere she could be safe.

Emma was a bit surprised when he told her that he was not a mutant and yet he was taking care of a mutant even if it was temporary. Her impression of him improved a bit.

And once she felt okay enough to walk, they went to free the other captives.

It seems like the Japanese girl Emma came to teach was also in captivity here and the teacher-student duo hugged each other after finally reuniting.

The Japanese girl's name was Hisako Ichiki and she was kidnapped a week ago.

As Erik looked at the girls hugging each other, he got a message from [Ressurected] Strange as well.

"Emma, what was your previous boss's name again," Erik asked as he read the info on his wrist terminal.

Emma who was talking with her Hisako turned towards him, "It's Mastermind,"

Erik sighed, "Don't tell me his powers are illusions."

A small frown appeared on the blonde's face, "... Yes."

Erik exhaled a sharp breath and decided to tell her the stuff her previous boss was cooking here.

"He truly is the Mastermind behind everything weird on here in Tohoku, including the U-Men." Erik snorted.

Erik said, however, he didn't tell her the complete truth...

Emma said with determination. "I suppose you're right. With the kidnapped mutants here, I don't think that he's planning something good. We need to stop him."

'She has truly redeemed herself in this timeline.' Erik mused. 'Look at her X-Men-like behavior...'

"No need to worry about him, Ms. Frost. It's my problem right now, I'll meet you in a while." As he said that, a portal opened with glowing sparky edges and after Erik entered it, the portal closed and vanished.

As Emma got busy with helping the survivors, about 10 minutes later, the same portal opened again. And Erik urged her to come inside.

As Emma witnessed the sight beyond the portal, she couldn't help but be impressed.

Mastermind along with all the rest of the members of the Inner Circle was just lying flat on the ground as if they were dead, however, the glowing ropes that restrained them told her that they should be alive.

"You're quite powerful, I never thought I'd ever see my "former coworkers" in this state," Emma said, she couldn't hide her smile.

"Is that Loki's Sceptre?" She asked as Erik took it out from [Beelzebuth's Stomach].

"You know about this?" Erik asked as he brought its tip to Mastermind's chest.

"Of course, I know about it. Mastermind and I have wasted months to find it after we heard that S.H.I.E.L.D. took it in its possession. He hoped that with this he would be able to make my mind control ability permanent." Emma sighed, not really caring if her former boss was going to be mind-controlled.

"And you don't have to erase my memories of seeing this later, I'll keep it a secret."

"That's appreciated," Erik replied.

This was a rather risky card he was showing her and Emma knew that as well. She was smart, she knew the reasons he was showing this to her. He wanted her on his side... But sadly for him, she wouldn't be joining any sides, she would just be a teacher for the remainder of her life.

After successfully mind-controlling Mastermind, Erik asked him to tell what his plan was in detail...

So, it began when a female Japanese Scientist named Yui Sasaki found out that her son was a mutant too.

Yui locked her son and spent years trying to remove the side effects of his disease - Mutant powers.

However, to conduct further research she needed mutant tissue. So, she hired U-Men who were infamous for believing in human supremacy and wanted to eradicate mutants by making cyborgs through the mutant's own tissues.

However, the serum that Yui Sasaki finally made... instead of removing the mutant powers increased it to an uncontrollable level, turning her own son into a monster and finally killing the boy from the overload of his own powers.

These U-Men were also working for Mastermind who made U-Men think that he was a human too.

When Mastermind got to know about that drug he put an illusion in Yui's mind to make her believe that her son was alive and continue her research. He wanted her to create a perfected mutant power-enhancer drug.

He didn't care how many mutants he needed to sacrifice for that.

Emma stayed silent while the mind-controlled Mastermind narrated his plans.

This was one of the main reasons why she quit Inner Circle. Mastermind had no regard for other mutants, he just wanted all power to himself.

"I want nothing to do with this man, do whatever you want with him." Emma turned, "And please drop me to Hisako with that portal."

Erik nodded, ordering Wong to open Emma a portal.

Once Emma left, he turned his attention back to the members of Inner Circle.

This Mastermind was under Erik's control even before Emma arrived. And what he told Emma was a story made up of half-truths and half-lies, on Erik's command.

The mutant boy of that female Japanese Scientist was no ordinary mutant. He was an Omega-Class Reality Warper.

Mastermind came here knowing that... to obtain that power for himself. But he found that the kid was still not strong enough to bend reality in such a way that he could transfer his powers to another person.

Among many ways to boost a mutant's power in a short time was to make the mutant feel intense emotions or stimuli... Mastermind spent months breaking the boy's mind, and he needed a few more days to make the boy obedient to only him. Once he was done he would torment him till he transferred the powers to him.

'But before he could succeed, I arrived, huh...'

Erik thought that Mastermind had lived for long enough and as per what he said, the mutant boy was broken beyond saving, so he decided that he would end the boy's suffering as well. 

He thought that they would be better off joining his [Ressurected] army than continue living.

Was what he was planning evil? 

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