"Horizon," he introduced himself.  "As for the gas and water, let us hope the utility companies have carried out proper emergency protocols.  Personally, I would rather not have a run-in with any 'authorities'.  They keep trying to get me to 'register'.  I don't know what they mean, but it feels sinister.  I just want to protect sentient life.  Are you with the Omega League?"  Horizon's question may seem a little blunt, but he was a little disappointed that Mantis Boy had simply shrugged off his question; maybe Mantis Boy had no idea who the Omega League were.  Horizon hoped Bootstrap wasn't as clueless.

[hr]
"Then you have nothing to protect," Ark replies to NightClaw, "The people are unharmed, and the rest...merely memories of extinction.  These bones, knick-knacks, and artifacts, should be meaningless to one who protects the living.  I am with Zeta Squad for my goal: to prevent an extinction."  Ark was unsure how much he could trust this NightClaw, but preferred to parley rather than fight, and hoped his cryptic talk would be enough to dissuade the dark hero from stopping his theft of the museum.  Ark silently cursed himself for not noticing NightClaw sooner; with his telemetry experts trying to figure out the vault door, his ability to technologically sense hidden things in his surroundings was greatly weakened.

[hr]
"Cattle-prod tonfas," Eileen mused, "I like it, it's simple enough in concept that I could have it ready by tomorrow.  Anything else will have to wait, I'm afraid, but I'll keep them in mind.  But jetpacks are a pretty good idea, though hopefully, Harth will be having us helicopter in.  If so, I'll put in a request to have whatever air vehicles loaded with a defoliant like agent orange or something.  Maybe napalm too, while we're at it."  Dr. Fang wasn't pulling her punches on this one, thinking of Vietnam War tactics.  "Oh, I have been preparing something, sonic charges.  They're like little stun grenades.  You see, mutants are, for the most part, just like humans, they have human brains, human organs, you know.  Their ears, skulls and abdominal cavities are just like ours...or...mine at least, your skull's a little...anyways, these sonic charges release a sound whose wavelength matches the average thickness of the human skull.  It causes vertigo and...extreme discomfort.  It can also be tweaked to resonate at the wavelength that matches the size of the abdominal cavity which should induce nausea, internal bleeding, and maybe even impotence.  It should be a useful 'catch-all' when it comes to dealing with mutants, but just to be safe, I'm going to need you and Explosion to wear special helmets to avoid being affected."  Eileen runs back into the lab and comes out with what looks like a motorcycle helmet.  Turning it upside down, she shows Chi-Tah that it has specialized ear covers that look like headphones with earplugs in them, as well as special mouthguard.

"The charges will rattle your teeth," she explains, "Oh, but I need to make a special helmet for you because of your cat-head."  Eileen pulls out a 3D scanner from a random pocket on her lab coat and begins scanning Chi-Tah's head like a barcode without his permission.