Ms. MacTaggart had to admit that the access to future and alien technology from the Special Exec's orbiting, cloaked craft really helped. Once they showed her how to use the equipment they imported, she was conducting analyses in depths she never had reached before. But when she asked if they could lend her the machines on a more permanent basis, or at least show her the specs, they said, "No. Your culture isn't ready for this yet."
And when she protested that it could save lives, they responded that there was only one life they were concerned with saving right then. That was Legion's.
So, with a sigh of disgust, Moira got back to work.
Thankfully, Wardog and company agreed to help out around the island while they sought a cure for Legion. Legion himself could transport bodies from his past, so, between him, Jamie, Wardog, Cobweb, Fascination, and Zeitgeist, they had no lack of manpower on Muir Island.
One of Jamie's selves tried to strike up a conversation with Legion while they were both tending Moira's small herd of sheep. He was shearing one of them, which he called Roberta Royette, while Legion held her. "Can you tell me how you do that thing? Teleporting your bodies through time, that is? I think it's really neat myself."
Legion looked at him, and appeared to be making great effort to speak. Jamie held up his hands, palms outward. "That's okay. If it hurts you to talk, I understand, and you don't have to."
"Mini. Tesseract. Generated. With. My. Mind. That. Is. How. It. Is. Done," said Legion, at last.
"Uh. Okay," said Jamie, who knew as much now as before he'd asked the question. "How'd you get your power?"
"Born. With. It. Also. Took. Training. From. Cobweb."
"Born with it?" Jamie paused, then continued using the clippers on Roberta. "That must mean you're a mutant, like me."
"In. A. Sense. We. Do. Not. Have. Those. Distinctions."
"What distinctions do you have?"
"Powered. Non-powered. Free. Servant. Those. Are. Only. Distinctions."
"Okay," said Jamie, and bent to the task. "Can I ask another question?"
"May. Be. Asked. Cannot. Guarantee. Answer."
He looked Legion straight in the eye. "How did it feel to die?"
Legion gave him a stare back. Jamie bit his lip. "Look. If I'm being rude, I apologize. You don't have to answer. I mean, like, at all. I don't know how it would feel if I saw one of my me's killed. I only..."
"I. Do. Not. Know. How. It. Will. Feel. I. Will. Know. When. It. Happens. In. Five. Days."
Jamie paused. "Legion. I'm sorry. I'm very, very sorry this is happening to you."
"You. Have. Agreed. To. Help. This. Is. All. That. Need. Concern. You."
The Earthman reached out to touch Legion's hand. Legion drew back, startled. Jamie crouched before the sheep, his hand still outstretched.
"Legion. This isn't a threatening gesture. It's kind of, well, what we do on Earth. When we want to, like, be friends or something."
"You. Touch?"
"Yeah. And sometimes, we shake hands."
"Then. We. Shall." Legion freed one of his hands from the sheep's leg and shook it in the air.
Jamie laughed. "No. No, Legion. It's like this. We grasp each other's hand and give it a shake. Okay?"
"This. Okay. Means. Affirmative?"
"Yes. Yeah, it does. So, give me your hand."
Legion gingerly stuck his hand out, the fingers splayed. Jamie took it, pushing Legion's fingers together, and then gently but firmly pumped it, twice. "Now. You've done your first handshake."
"And. This. Signifies. Affection?"
"This signifies trust, Legion. This signifies a friend."
"You. Wish. To. Be. A. Friend?"
"Why not? We're both in the same line of work. Body-batching and super-heroing. And I'm helping you. Why shouldn't we be friends?"
Jamie wouldn't have believed the little alien could smile, before then. And if he hadn't spent enough time around Legion to be familiar with him, he might not have recognized it as a smile. But he did.
"It. Is. Good," said Legion.
"You bet it's good," said Jamie. "Now, let's get Miss Roberta fixed up here, and then we can go eat."
As he was speaking, another Jamie-self approached them. "Hey, man," said the other-Jamie. "Mainbrain hasn't talked to you yet?"
"No," said the Jamie shearing the sheep. "What about?"
"They're running duplication tests on one of us. Once you're done, you can remerge and watch. Thought you might like to know."
"Thanks," said Jamie. "But if the mainbrain doesn't tell me, it must not be important. I'm going to finish this and then me and Legion are gonna break for lunch."
"Okay, man," said Jamie 8. "Just thought you'd want to know." He shimmered a second, then vanished as he remerged with another self.
"Thank. You. For. Your. Consideration," said Legion as he moved a bit to hold Roberta in place.
"Hey, don't mention it," said Jamie, cutting off another strip of wool from the sheep's ribcage. "Us multiple men gotta stick together. Body to body, belly to belly, well, I don't give a damn 'cause I done that already."
"Done. What?"
"Never mind," said Jamie.
-M-
Inside the boxlike chamber that the Special Exec had transported from their ship, one of Jamie's selves had duplicated and remerged, duplicated and remerged, duplicated and remerged time and again. A couple of other Jamies, Cobweb, Fascination, and Zeitgeist had stood outside to watch the process. Moira MacTaggart and Wardog were watching the analyses on a monitor machine which Wardog had likewise brought from the craft.
She was glad Wardog was around to interpret the readings, because the tech was a quantum leap from that with which she was familiar.
"Are we done yet?" complained the Jamie-in-the-box. "I'm getting tired of this."
Moira looked at Wardog. "What do you think?"
The hairy man shook his head. "Even with this, we're not getting enough information. We know what he does, maybe a little of how, but we've no way of learning how to duplicate it yet."
The Scotswoman tapped her pen on a red reading line. "From what ye've told me, this measures Jamie's energy output. It obviously increases when he's drawin' power ta dupe himself. Canna we tap inta that power source with your instruments?"
"Some things are beyond even our knowledge, I'm afraid," said Wardog. "From what I can tell, your lad is tapping into something hypothetically called Hilbert space. That's a repository of energy even we don't understand, with very little bleed-off into our own dimension. Basically, Jamie's brain is sapping enough of that to create a matrix-form for a duplicate self, converting that energy to a matter-form, and then reconverting it to energy, reabsorbing it, and shunting the excess back into Hilbert. Quite impressive, actually."
"Nice to finally get some compliments around here," said one of the Jamies, wryly.
"Don't get used to it," cracked Zeitgeist.
"Well, with the theory before us, there must be a way ta put it inta practice," insisted Moira. "Question is, of course, will we have time ta do it before Legion's deadline." She looked at Cobweb. "Might help if you could come up with one of your prophecies about the outcome."
The alien precog was unperturbed. "I see hope. But I also see danger. In reverse order. That is all."
"Doesn't she ever give you something you can use?" asked the box-Jamie.
"She gives us a hell of a lot we can use," answered Wardog. "It's all in how you use it. As for detailed predictions, such as what planet do you pick to win the Cosmic Destruction Lottery, she's not much use at that. But even the vagaries are of help, if you know how to interpret them."
"So how da you interpret the one she just gave you?", said Moira.
Wardog looked thoughtful. "Probably that we may get a good outcome from this, but that we'll be in for a spot of roughness beforehand. How we react to that trouble, whether we get through it or not, will determine whether or not we get to the hopeful part."
"Then we may save Legion after all."
"We just might," confirmed Wardog. "But there are many possible futures."
Zeitgeist said, "I have a proposition."
Mainbrain Jamie gave him a cautious look. "Long as it doesn't involve cutting one of me up."
"Not quite," said the man in black. "I want to try stepping inside you before you duplicate."
"What!"
Zeitgeist explained. "I can have the ship attune its sensors to the material of my suit. I will be immaterial within you, and when you duplicate and remerge yourself, we may get readings better than we have obtained so far with the conventional methods. I believe it is worth a try."
"Och, you'll freeze the poor boy dead," said Moira.
"Not if I don't wish to," responded Zeitgeist. "True, there'll be some discomfort. But I can turn my power low enough so as not to damage him."
"Not too much, anyway," said Wardog.
"I am so reassured," said the Jamie in the box.
"Likewise," said Moira.
"I have no intention of harming you," said Zeitgeist. "You'd be of little use to us, especially to Legion, if I did so." He waited.
"S'up ta you, Jamie," said Moira. "If I was in that box, I'd be verra careful of committing."
Jamie in the box looked at Mainbrain Jamie. "What do you think, pard?"
"I say, go for it," said Mainbrain. "I won't have to deal with it till we remerge, anyway."
"If I'm still there to remerge."
"Yeah."
Box-Jamie sighed. "All right. Let's get it over with. Feel like I'm a kid again in a doctor's office waiting for a freaking vaccine needle."
Fascination, as almost always, was silent. But she gave Jamie Madrox in the box a surprisingly empathic look.
Zeitgeist glided up to the box. Jamie, idly, thought the man moved like Fred Astaire. "Just relax, now," said the alien, and, an instant later, walked right into Jamie's body.
It felt as though all of his corpus had been merged with ice.
Moira looked on with horror. "Jamie. Can ya stand it? If'n ya can't, tell me right now."
"Feel...like...an all-over...snow-cone," Jamie gritted. Mainbrain Jamie stepped forward and regarded his brother-self with concern. Box-Jamie said, "Ready...for...action?"
Wardog nodded. "Go ahead, lad. Get it over with."
Jamie duplicated himself. The other-Jamie stood beside him in the box. There was a piercing scream.
"What the hell was that?" asked Jamie.
"Remerge!" snapped Wardog. "Now!"
Jamie Madrox did so, retracting the other-Jamie within himself. A second later, Zeitgeist tumbled out of him, hitting the floor face-first and panting.
Mainbrain Jamie tried to reach for him, found his hand passing through the man's shoulder and encountering nothing but numbing cold, and withdrew it.
Fascination stepped up, put her hands just outside Zeitgeist's shoulders and, without contacting him directly, pulled him up to a standing position. He was conscious but looked haggard. Jamie resolved to ask her how she did that trick sometime.
"You okay, fella?" asked Mainbrain Jamie.
"I'm fine," gasped Zeitgeist. "And if you believe that, I want to sell you 40 percent of this universe."
"What of you, Jamie?" asked Moira of the boy in the box. "How ya feel yourself?"
"Better," admitted Jamie. "Now that he's not inside of me. Is there anything we can do for him?"
"Zeitgeist will recover," said Cobweb, flatly.
Wardog offered his hand to Zeitgeist, again without touching him. He managed to support the immaterial man, and walked him around a bit on the laboratory floor. As he did so, he explained. "Zeitgeist didn't quite duplicate with you, I'm afraid. His immaterial form was separated between the two lads. If you hadn't remerged when you did...well..."
"A pulled-apart snow-cone," finished Jamie.
"Essentially, yes."
"What about the readings?"
Moira looked at the monitor screen of the Executive's machine. "Apparently we took in a lot more data. So yer sacrifice was hardly in vain, boyo. But we won't do that again, ta be sure. I want ya in my office for an examination after we're done, and I don't want you to remerge before I do."
Mainbrain Jamie looked edgy. Box-Jamie figured he wasn't looking forward to assimilating the thoughts and feelings about this encounter. But, what the hell, there was no avoiding it.
Fascination and Cobweb went over to the monitor, flanking Moira, and studied the readings. "Can ya tell anything that I can't?", she asked.
Fascination only shrugged. Cobweb said, "Much hope. But no more than that."
"Och, thank ya. Dunno what us poor mortals would do without the Oracle of Delphi. Ya may as well crawl out of there, Jamie, don't think we can do any more damage today."
Box-Jamie emerged, and looked at his body-brother. "We're going to have to do it. So we may as well do it now."
Mainbrain Jamie nodded. He concentrated for a second, and the other-Jamie vanished.
A second after that, the original Jamie dropped to his knees and cried out. "My God. How could you have let me do this thing?"
Moira was at his side in a moment, laying hands on him and helping him up. "Jamie. Jamie, talk ta me. How bad is it?"
"Bad," said Jamie. "This is a set of input I could do without."
Zeitgeist and Wardog were before them. "For what it is worth, I apologize for your pain," said Zeitgeist. "But I don't think it was as great as my own."
"Oh, please," said Moira. "Come on, Jamie, I'm gonna put ya to bed."
She guided the multiplying mutant towards the door of the chamber and almost got there before she heard a noise behind her like no other she had heard before. A slight pop and crackle, then something like a weight hitting the floor. A couple of the Special Exec cried out in surprise.
Moira whirled.
There were three intruders in the room, and they didn't look friendly.
One of them was a huge, hulking green gargoyle in shorts, and he looked as though he could tear down the entire installation and everyone in it without breaking a sweat.
Another was a sinister-looking, black-haired, bearded man with upraised arms, his hands glowing with an unholy energy. His costume was a greenish body suit, and he looked to be the man in charge, if only by appearing to be the most evil.
The third was a woman of surpassing beauty, blonde and dressed in an elaborate, body-fitting suit and a green tiara. She exuded supreme confidence, contempt, and power. She wasn't making any hostile moves, but didn't appear to need to do so.
"Intruders," said Wardog. "Hit them."
"How about we hit you?" asked the green gargoyle, and met Wardog with a punch that sent him slamming against the back wall.
Zeitgeist, discounting his pain, hurled himself forward at the green man and almost got his hands within the brute's great chest. But the bearded man pointed a hand at him, gesturing with first and fourth fingers, and a bolt of power leaped forth and slammed Zeitgeist to the floor, pinning him there.
Fasincation reached for the trio, intending to use her mind-disrupt power. But the blonde woman gave her a smile of disdain, raised her hand, and did something to make her freeze in stasis. "Hardly a challenge," she smirked.
"We never really expected one, my dear," said the bearded man. A second later, Cobweb fell, victim of another powerbolt. He turned to Jamie and Moira. "Either of you care to carry on the conflict?"
Jamie, stunned, shook his head no. Moira said nothing.
"That's good," the man said. "Permit me to introduce myself and my colleagues. My name is Baron Karl Amadeus Mordo. My large, green associate goes by the name of the Abomination. The beauteous lady to my right is known as the Enchantress. Collectively we're known as Mordo and his Ministers of Menace. We're on a power level several quanta above your own, so any thought of resistance should properly be suppressed."
Moira finally found her voice. "Why are you here?" she asked.
"We've heard you're housing a quite interesting specimen here," said Mordo. "Actually, we'd like to make him our fourth member. He could be of great use, we feel, against the Defenders. Now, you can give him up willingly, which would be by far the wiser choice. Or you can take your little defiant stand, and we can kill you down to the last man. None of us would mind doing it, either.
"Your decision, ladies and gentlemen. Right now."
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