X-Men #78
Phantoms of the Past
By K.B. Retzlaff
The frozen waste lands of Canada. Two silhouettes struggle through the deep billowing Canadian snow, holding on to dear life by clutching each other closely. They were not lovers, merely survivors, survivors of a trial. Tried for a crime they could not help but commit. They were dreamers. Their thoughts eschewed from the norms of paradise by two outsiders. Outsiders who saved their lives.* (See X-Men #44- CykeBuff Kari)
The icy winds from the North whipped brutally against their faces, leaving red, swollen reminders of it's presence. They are cold...They begin to feel the frostbite begin to eat at their blistered toes. If she did not send for help, the savageness of the snowstorm would swallow them whole.
They were once part of a family.
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Families come in many variations. As Scott Summers watches his wife, friends, and teammates board the small private plane in the hangar, he realizes how blessed his life truly is.
Although their family is by far not what one would consider normal, he realizes that he and his wife have never shared a greater bond with one as great as the one they share with this family. They are the X-Men. A family consisting of people from all over the globe, brought together by a common bond and the ideas of one man. They have been through many happy times. More often than not, though, heart aches and catastrophes have plagued their existence. These *trials* have sometimes shattered the being of their existence in two, leaving their lives broken, tattered, and utterly hopeless. Through these times, Scott Summers has come to realize that the only thing that has held their existence together all these years, was each other.
Today, though, they are off to find a lost member of their flock. A black sheep of sorts who had consorted to dealing with a certain sinister being and had nearly shattered the bonds of trust within them.* (See The Trial of Gambit --Not-so-good at remembering numbers, Kari)As Dr. Cecilia Reyes knows, a family offers unconditional love, but she as she watches Dr. Henry McCoy, the first member of this expedition to board the jet to Antarctica, she can't help but wonder that if Remy Lebeau had committed such crimes of treason against this family, why are they bothering to bring him back?
"I'll miss you sweet heart." Scott Summers said softly as his wife Jean, leaned into his already puckered lips, dropping her luggage to the floor.
"I'll miss you too, Scott." Jean said as she lovingly placed wrapped her arms around his neck and placed a quick kiss upon his cheek. "And take care of the mansion while we're gone." She smiled as she leaned over to pick up her luggage, and then turned to Cecilia. "Don't let these guys run you over."
Cecilia nodded stiffly. "It must be nice to have someone like that." She mused as she looked away sadly. Bitterness began to fill her gut as she watched the couple separate. "I've lost my chances of becoming a doctor...I've lost any social life I've had...Why don't I lose getting a chance to be happy too?!"
She watched as Bobby Drake, better known to the world as Iceman, flung open the door with a bang, and vaulted himself over the railing of the stairs down to the floor. "Hey Hank, wait up! I've got something I want to give you before ya go."
"Looks like Jean grabbed the last decent guy." She sighed and then cynically grinned at Bobby. "And left the rest of us with the dipsticks."
"Hey Hank, you forgot your glasses!" Bobby pulled the frames out of his pocket. "You won't be able to find *anything* out there without these babies." Bobby flashed a boyish smile as he handed the frames to the Beast, who was standing on the ramp.
"Muchos gracias, Bobby m'lad." Hang gave him a toothy smile as he set his glasses atop his nose. "Now I can enjoy the view with perfect clarity."
Bobby's smirk grew as Jean boarded the ramp, causing Hank to leap off it and out of her way. "You better not enjoy the view too much, Hank. You've got a girl friend, remember?" Scott said with a slight smile as he watched Jean enter the plane from below.
Hank gasped in mock exasperation. "What? You would think that I? Dr. Henry McCoy, world renown scientist and prominent member of society, would hint at such a thing? Not to mention, make such a bad pun?"
"Ah wouldn't put it past ya,Hank." Rogue grinned as she clasped her hand on his furry shoulder from the ramp above, and then entered the jet trying her best to hide the pain she felt inside from the betrayal of the man she loved.
"Nor would I." Orroro Munroe laughed softly to herself as she too boarded the jet, baggage in hand.
Hank's shoulders slumped as he removed his glasses with a mighty hand. "Bobby, m'boy, I think Scott would appreciate me saying this, but 'we get no respect.'" Hank finished off the quote with a classical Three Stooges laugh as he agilely leaped back atop the railing of the ramp. " I give you all a fond farewell." Hank leaped into the door jet, causing the jet to bounce on it struts.
"Hank, watch it, will ya?!" Rogue's annoyed tone echoed out of the small private jet.
"A thousand pardons, m'lady." A blue hand jutted out of the door, proving both Scott and Bobby correct in guessing that their friend would bow. Hank pulled the door to as the engine began to turn.
"Ag, the okie'd get some respect if he deserved it." Maggott sighed as he watched the twin slugs climb in a circular motion up his arm. "Right, gels?"
Dr. Reyes merely shook her head as the plane began to slowly roll away. "There goes 90 percent of the sanity in this place." She sighed as she turned to look at the guys. "I guess it's just us now." She said stiffly. "No funny business either, Drake...Maggott...Got that?"
"Yes'm." Bobby said defeatedly, although Scott knew that wouldn't deter Bobby from his usual pranks.
A murmur from Maggott was all Cecilia got in response as the group began to disburse in their own separate directions. As much as he was already beginning to miss Jean, Scott couldn't help but smile as he watched Bobby march to the gym and Maggott and Cecilia arguing as they tramped up the stairs.
They were arguing like they were a family. Just one big happy family.
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"He fakes to the left. He fakes to right. He drives...HE SCORES!" He shouts as he retreats from the basket, with both fists raised high into the air in celebration.
He cups his hands over his mouth as he coasts to a stop, and begins to mimic the imaginary chanting crowd. "Bobby! Bobby! Bobby!"
If you asked Bobby Drake what role he played in this large family, he would probably tell you the annoyance. His youthful joking manner deters most from questioning the comment further, but only a telepath and a few close friends could tell how serious Bobby Drake truly was.
An original member of this family, Bobby had staked his claim as the class clown. The slacker. The jokester. Hiding from the pain. But as he grew older, things began to change. The role of the class clown didn't seem so important anymore... No one was laughing anymore...
The role of a dependable person was needed, and he wasn't it. He wasn't the focal point of humor any longer, but a pestering annoyance that seemed scar their team.
After several years of loathing and self pity of who he could not be, he began to try to find the Bobby Drake that had gotten lost in all those years of self denial. All of those jokes that were mask of insecurity, he began to unveil. He questioned why he was...What good he was...Why was he here? And most importantly...Why he wasn't the man his father had always wanted him to be?
It wasn't until he began spending some time alone, here in the gym, that he found out exactly who he was.
Sure, he was still the prankster everyone made him to be...But it wasn't because everyone expected it of him. It was because that's who he truly was. That's who the X-Men truly needed him to be.
"Who's da' man?" He said aloud, laughing as he took another shot. Part of him felt ridiculous ... fearing that someone would walk in on him at any moment. But then again, part of him didn't care. He was having fun. This was who he truly was. His fear of not being good enough was finally passing and he finally gained the self confidence to accept that people would actually accept him for whoever he truly was.
He took the ball back to the free throw line and shot another jump shot. The sound of the net's swish was a victory banter playing his song. His song. Not the slacker's. Not the class clown's. Not the prankster's.
His song.
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Canada.
The song of death danced a dirge before their very eyes. The man had kept them sheltered from death's icy grip as long as he could, but he knew she could tell by strain in his eyes that he couldn't keep this up much longer. They had to pause every few moments to catch their breaths from the breathless realms that had protected them thus far. Their lungs ached, their feet and hands were numb...It was time for life to take it's course. He welcomed death with open arms.
She however, would not let him give up. She was a lot more resilient than he had ever given her credit for. He was weak. He could admit that. He had always been weak, or so Exodus had said. He collapsed on one knee in total exhaustion.
"No! Get up! You have to get up!" She tugged on his arm urgently, desperately trying to keep him moving, for the alternative was unthinkable. She was too weak to teleport...and almost too weak to walk.
"Nein, Madchen! I cannot go any further." He cried to her.
"Come on!" She cried as she continued to pull, causing his other knee to collapse out from under him as well. "You can't--Ugh--Give up--now."
Her own knees suddenly began to wobble and gave out from beneath her own weight. She had to extend both of her palms to keep from falling face first into the snow that seemed to stretch on for eternity. In a last ditch attempt to preserve their lives, Scanner sent her astral presence across the continent with a single destination in mind. As she collapsed from exhaustion into the new fallen snow, the words "help...us...Whitehorse..." filtered from her lips. "Mr. Summers..."
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In the living room of Charles Xavier's School for the Gifted it seems as though Scott Summers hasn't slept like this in years.
Scars, both physically and metaphorically, have kept him awake most nights since their founder and surrogate father, Charles Xavier, had abandoned them to his darker side. Now, as the oldest member of this oddly forged family, Scott Summers has found himself in the position of a second surrogate father.
The scars on his chest prove that it hasn't been easy. A remembrance from the man called Bastion who planted a nano-tech bomb inside of his chest. Close to his heart, ironically, the bomb's intent was to separate Charles Xavier's close knit family. Although the bomb itself had been defused, the impact of the event itself sent each and every member of the team sprawling, leaving Scott to be binding force of the team. *(See Operation Zero Tolerance--Still not so good at remembering numbers, Kari)
He rolled over again in his sleep muttering to himself as he neared the edge of the couch, the sports page still folded over his face to block out the light from the overhead lamp.
There had been many sleepless nights in which he constantly tossed and turned, wondering if he would live up to the example his own surrogate father had set for him.
"Mr. Summers..." A weak voice whispered.
His eyes widened in complete shock as he fell off the edge of the couch onto the floor with a loud thud. The newspaper gracefully floated to the floor a few feet away as he looked up in complete bewilderment.
Scanner astral self appeared beside the couch. He rubbed his now sore arm as he glanced up from the floor at the translucent figure before him."S-Scanner?" He asked as he now clearly saw the ex-Acolyte's body before him.
"Mr....Summers....we can't go much...farther...We need-- We need help We're...Cold...lost--"
"Where are you?!" Scott demanded as he leapt to his feet, knowing by the urgency in her voice that this was no trick. He had saved her life once in Australia and knew the girl well enough to know that she, like many other Acolytes, had chosen Magneto's way because they had not been given an alternative.*(X-Men #44)
Her astral body began to fade as her physical body began to grow weaker. " North ...White horse...Canada..." She managed to say before her astral body completely disappeared into the air.
Scott raced out of the room and roughly jerked the mike on the intercom system off of it's handle and began to bark orders into it as he always had. "I want all available X-Men to be dressed and in the hangar ASAP."
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Competition abounds even in the best of families.
"YES! Who's da' man, huh?!" Bobby Drake as he treated from hoop once more, dribbling the basketball back down the court until he spotted one of the team's newest recruits standing in the doorway in an old tank top and basketball shorts.
"Ag,maat. If you're da' man, I'd hate to see the boys." Maggott smiled as he let eany and meany slither off his long, slender arms onto the floor. He rested his fists atop his waist as he stood there challengingly.
Bobby picked up the basketball and let it rest on his hip."And you think you can do better?" He raised a questioning brow, with a taunting smile. He quickly tossed the ball to Maggott.
"Better'n anything you could do,mat." Maggott grinned wickedly as darted down the court, towards the basket until the PA system began to echo throughout the gym.
"I want all available X-Men to be dressed and int the hangar ASAP."
"Ag, bloody dote couldn'ta picked a worser time." Maggott muttered as he threw up the shot and watched it bounce off the back board and off the rim.
"Just look at as delaying your inevitable beating, Japeth." Bobby grinned and patted him on the back as the two of them exited the room to head for their respective rooms.
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As Dr. Cecilia Reyes was in shock. She couldn't believe the words she was hearing? Help two of Magneto's Acolytes? Two of the people that help spurn humanity's hateful view toward the mutant populace? She was bound by the Hippocratic oath. She knew that, but what amazed her is that after all Magneto and his followers had done to the X-Men in their seven year history, they were still flying over the barren snow-covered wastelands of Canada to help what could have been their greatest enemy. Flying into a trap no less. She had heard of unconditional love, and in the mutant populace that was sometimes a must, but after all she had heard about Magneto, about his followers, and their destruction even before she became of member of this extended family, the X-Men still found it in their hearts to forgive them.
Maybe that's why they're in such poor shape now. She mused, but not cynically. She found herself more in a state of awe. One of which seemed to be occurring more and more as she spent more time with these people. What was happening to her?
She found Bobby hunched over in the one of the seats in a small parka, taking it all in so nonchalantly that it almost unnerved her to see both him and Maggott take this so calmly. She could feel the butter flies churning in her own stomach as she sat next to Cyclops in the cockpit of the jet, studying over a map of the area as he silently piloted.
As she glanced up out of the corner of her eye, she could tell his mind was elsewhere. Of all the X-Men, she probably trusted him, his wife, and the sister the most.
"Hey Scott, isn't Scanner supposed to be in prison with the rest of the Acolytes?" Bobby asked as he folded his hands and placed them behind his head. *(Just read X-Men #44! Sheesh!-Kari)
"Prison?" She jumped with a start. "This girl we're going after is supposed to be in prison?!"
Scott gave her a sideways glance.
"Ag, there's nothin' wrong wit' being in prison if you're a good person, gel." Maggot shrugged from the back. "What's gettin' me is that is colder 'an the Doc's personality, an' we got nothin' t'show for it." Maggott shuttered. "Growin' up in Africa has it's down side..."He muttered as he pulled his parka closer around him.
" I don't know what happened." Scott said absently as he kept his eyes straight ahead, focused on piloting the small jet. "It's plausible that a sympathizer could have freed them or they never even got to prison to begin with."
Bobby nodded as he looked out at the window at the billowing snow. "Even if we do find'em, Scotty, are you sure they're going to be alive?"
Scott didn't answer him. He didn't think an answer needed to be said. His focus began to drift once more as he snow bludgeoned through the thickening snow. His minds drifts as does the snow on the front windshield as he's lost in memories of not too long ago...
A sheep leading a pack of wolves to water.
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He overheard the 4 Acolytes talking after he had just found water for them. Avalon had just fallen from space onto the Australian Outback...they were lost...hungry...and on the verge of losing hope.
"JERKS! That man risked his life for us! When are you going to let on him?!"
"Funny/Odd Cargill--That you're so quick to defend Summers/Cyclops--Who is one of our greatest enemies."
"Get a half brain between you! Avalon is gone! Magneto's a vegetable and Exodus is probably DEAD! If the Acolytes no longer exist then why should Summers be our enemy? Unuscione said accusingly as he continued to walk on.
Cargill responded in his defense. "All that stands between our living and dying out here...is his courage and leadership!"
"You two do what you want but *we're* sticking with him."
He smirked, knowing that they had enough confidence in him to put their lives in his hands. Magneto had never done such a thing for them, he knew. He was a living example for them.
--Later--
"She's EXHUASTED! You're pushing her too hard, Summers!"
He gritted his teeth and took a deep breath as fought off losing his temper to the impatient Acolyte. Scanner had collapsed after going on a scouting mission to find the X-Men's old base. "I'm pushing her as far as she needs to go to get the job done. Believe me, I would never make anyone go beyond their limits." He had about had it. "Would you prefer to just give up?"
They walked in silence until the sun set. He remembered carrying her the whole way to their resting place. He remembered trying to reach Jean, knowing she had escaped with Amelia Vought earlier, but his tries were to no avail. He wondered if they made it...if they were still alive. Without their psychic report, he felt empty...alone...and utterly helpless against the elements. So as usual, he hid it. He built walls around it. Letting no one in.
"Uhm...Mr. Summers--Thanks for carrying me. I feel a lot better now....--And you'll think we'll be okay?"
He remembers giving her a sideways glance as he looks up from his calculations, not knowing to tell her the truth or to lie. He looked at her youthful face and smiled. " I know we will be, Scanner. I promise." *(Taken from You guessed it! X-Men #44!)
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"I promise."
Dr. Reyes glanced up from the map looked glanced over at him oddly. "Promise what?" She asked.
"Oh." Scott said, shaking the cobwebs out of his mind. "Nothing. I was just... thinking...that's all." Scott looked down and cleared his throat, slightly embarrassed that he was caught off-guard.
Reyes merely shrugged and looked out the window and Scott continued piloting.
"Look! There they are!!" Bobby shouted as he pointed out the window.
"You're just imagining things, Drake." Cecilia sighed as she glanced back over her seat at him. "No one man could have made it this far."
"Uh Doc, try tellin' them'at." Maggot said as he too looked out the window, making Bobby scoot to the side so he could get a closer look."And they don't look too good, either."
Reyes shook her head, knowing full well that no one could have traveled this far on foot. If the billowing snow hadn't gotten to them, the temperature would have. As she bent back down to look at the map sprawled across her lap, she caught a glimpse of a black dot polluting the pure white with a stain of humanity. "Oh my gosh! They really are there!" Cecilia jumped from her seat and leaned against the window.
"There's not another landing strip for another hundred miles." Scott said flatly as he pulled the plane in a turn, circling the two people in a wide loop as to not lose them in the blinding snow fall.
"We can't just leave them out there!" Cecilia exclaimed as she turned to Scott, her face pleading like a doctor, trying to bargain a life from death.
"Don't look like we have'ta worry 'bout them movin'." Maggott added as Bobby stripped himself of his parka.
"How low can you get us,Scott?" Bobby asked as he stood, icing up inside the tiny cabin. He quickly threw open the jet's side door causing both Cecilia and Maggott to wince at the bitter coldness outside.
"About 250 feet from the ground." Scott shouted over the roar of the plane and the whistling wind. "The problem won't be getting you down as much as it will be getting you up!!"
Bobby nodded as he leapt out of the plane, quickly creating an ice slide underneath him to slow his decent. Maggott rushed to the door watching Bobby gain momentum as he continued to slide. "Dolt's got more guts than I ever gave'em credit for. You sure he's gonna be alright?" Maggott asked, his hair being tossed in the frigid air.
"Get away from the door!!" Scott shouted. "Bobby knows what he's doing."
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"Here's goes nothing!" Bobby Drake shouted as he continued to slide down the curved ice slide until his feet hit firmly on the packed snow beneath his feet. He watched as the plane roared over head, blowing snow everywhere. He took a few moments to assess his situation before finally spotting a black lumpy mass upon the new fallen snow.
"Hey!!"Drake shouted toward them as he began to run, throwing up snow behind him as began to form an iceslide. "Can you hear me?!" He shouted desperately.
No answer.
Bobby slid beside them. "Oh man...come on..." He pulled Neophyte's limp body off of Scanner's. He iced down for a moment and shivered as he took their pulses. "Good. Both're still alive. Now to get them back aboard that plane." Bobby said as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully, watching the plane circle back.
He quickly iced up and formed an icestretcher underneath the two limp bodies. He jogged behind it and then began to slide forward with the stretcher supported by a small pillar on the slide. As the plane circled behind him, he began to rise and pick up speed. "Come on, Bobby. You can do this. You can make this work."
Out of the corner of his eye, he could say Maggott and Cecilia leaning out of the plane's cargo door in anticipation to catch the first body.
He could hear the roar of the engine closing in on him from behind, and looked behind him to find Maggott and Reyes gaining on him fast. This was going to take split second thinking. The wing sailed over his head, and then he pushed the first body off of the slide at the same moment Maggott and Cecilia grabbed Neophyte's limp arms.
"Pull!!" He heard Cecilia scream as she and Maggott struggled to get the man inside.
"Okay, one more." Bobby said to himself, more determined than ever. At moment, a strong gust of wind tossed the plane into the slide, causing it crumble with both Scanner and Iceman still dependent on it.
Bobby watched as both he and Scanner began to tumble towards the ground. "NO!" He shouted as he formed an iceslide underneath her. The slide slowed the momentum of her fall, but it gave Bobby even less time to consider his own plans of eluding death.
10 yards from the ground, Bobby formed an iceslide of his own, causing him to skid to the ground with great momentum.
"Ouch. Sheesh, I'd give that landing a 10." He said he rubbed the back of his head nervously. He quickly jumped back up to his feet, waving to the plane, and created another stretcher similar to the first. The plane approached from behind once more.
"Drake, are you all right?!" Cecilia shouted over the roar of the winds.
"Yeah, I'm fine!" Bobby shouted from in front of them as the wing passed over his head. "Now take her!"
As the two awaiting mutants began to pull her up, a gust of wind rocked the plane once more, causing Cecilia to lose her grip. She gasped in shock, trying to panic as Scanner's limp body dangled from Maggott's thin arms.
"Argh...can't...keep this up....for long." Maggot strained he continued to barely hang on to the unconscious body that was flapping in the high winds. Cecilia reached down and grabbed Scanner's uniform, relieving some of the pressure off Maggot.
"Get her up here!" Scott shouted from the cockpit as Bobby struggled to keep up.
"We're trying!!!" Cecilia screamed back. "On three, Maggott."She took a deep breath." 1...2...3 PULL!!"
With both mutants pulling at all their strength, Scanner's limp body flew up into the jet and on top of both Cecilia and Maggott.
"Good work you two." Scott said as he glanced back at the others. "Now help Bobby in." He turned back around and focused on piloting once more.
Bobby increased his speed the door grew closer. The jumped violently as he continued his approach. As he neared the opening, he leapt into the plane. With nothing attached to him, Bobby Drake was in freefall for what seemed like eternity until he was caught by the waiting arms of Cecilia and Maggott.
"Whew." Bobby sighed for moment before smirking. "Aw, Cecilia, I didn't know you cared." He smiled exhaustedly as he tried to stand.
"I don't, Drake." She muttered as she dropped him and began to look over the two bodies carefully. "We've got some minor frostbite back here in the toes and fingers." She said sharply. "The man is going into shock from hypothermia." She shouted. "Get me a blanket, now!!" She looked directly at Maggott.
"Aye, Aye. Wouldn't nothin' t'happen to that stogie." Maggott muttered as he tossed Cecillia a fleece blanket from a storage compartment.
"Let's get these people home, ASAP." She shouted. "If we hurry, we can still save their limbs."
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Back at Xavier's...
They're tired, they're hungry, and they've so many questions left unanswered. How did they end up in Canada? Why wasn't Scanner in prison? So many questions dangled in the air, but none dangled so precariously as the question of their survival. The X-Men stood, waiting for Reyes's report. A heavy silence coupled with the heaviness of their own bodies, made for a listless, yet eerily quiet setting.
"I never want to go through that again." Bobby sighed exhaustedly as he slumped against the door to the medic. Bobby, after all had done the most tedious work of all. He deserved the right to be exhausted, and Scott knew that. Still, he couldn't allow himself the pleasure.
"Neither do I..."Scott voice trailed off as his eyes settled on the still bodies of Neophyte and Scanner, the words 'I promise' still running through his mind. He knows that his promise didn't carry this far, but something he couldn't quite place told him that both Scanner and Neophyte needed to be with the X-Men for what ever reason. He chuckled to himself realizing that he was sounding more and more like Charles everyday. It was as if his ghost haunted his body.
His face darkened a little. Charles was still missing as was half of their team on various missions across the globe. He hated shocking people with new team members while they were away. Logan, no doubt, would have problems with the two Acolytes staying in their home after what Magneto had done to him previously.*(I'm having problems coming up with whitty one-liners so just read Fatal Attractions.-Kari) Maggott also appears to have some connection with Magneto. There is a question as to how he will react as well.
He wished Jean would contact him soon. He had a lot of things to share with her and Ororro as well. The fate of the two invalids not only rested on his shoulders, but on those around him as well. In the end, it would be Scanner and Neophyte's decisions to stay or leave. Scott could only persuade them to join their cause and talk the others into allowing their stay. This was team. A family. Although he would have the final say in the matter, each person made up a piece of that decision. It would be something they would all have to live with.
Dr. Reyes muttered as she studied their charts, while walking out of the sterile medic.
"Are they going to be all right, Doc?" Bobby asked as he pushed himself away from the door he was leaning upon for support.
"They're stable..." She said exhaustedly."The man might lose a finger. The girl appears to be fine, but one thing confuses me." She said as her brow lowered. She raised her pen to lips as she looked to Scott. "No one should have been able to survive that long out there without some kind of protection. Not unless you were a mutant like Ice-boy here." She said pointing the pen in Bobby's direction.
"Well, Neophyte's...phasing abilities may have had something to do with it..." Scott said absently as he stared into the room.
"In English?" She asked as she readjusted her glasses, beginning to notice that Cyclops wasn't totally with it.
"He means he can be like a ghost and walk through solid objects." Bobby smiled, knowing he had got the better of her by knowing something she didn't.
"So...."Dr. Reyes began, still holding a questioning look upon her face. " If he could make them...'phased'...then why didn't they stay that way?"
Scott sighed. "When someone is phased, they only have the amount of oxygen they have in them at the time that they phased." Scott looked down at the floor and then to end of the hallway. "I'm going to see if I can contact Jean." He said as he abruptly pushed himself out of the door frame and retreated down the hall. The words "I promise" haunting him as he walked away. Why did he feel so guilty? Why did he feel like he let them down?
"That was odd..."Cecilia said as she watched Scott solemnly walk down the hall.
Bobby just looked at Cecilia and shrugged. "I don't know about you, but I think I'm going to go catch a hundred winks. Catch ya later, Doc." Bobby waves as he took off in the same direction Scott had.
"Yeah, see you later, Drake." She waved dismissively as he returned to her patients and sighed exhaustedly. "This has been one tough day."
Phantoms of the Past
By K.B. Retzlaff
The frozen waste lands of Canada. Two silhouettes struggle through the deep billowing Canadian snow, holding on to dear life by clutching each other closely. They were not lovers, merely survivors, survivors of a trial. Tried for a crime they could not help but commit. They were dreamers. Their thoughts eschewed from the norms of paradise by two outsiders. Outsiders who saved their lives.* (See X-Men #44- CykeBuff Kari)
The icy winds from the North whipped brutally against their faces, leaving red, swollen reminders of it's presence. They are cold...They begin to feel the frostbite begin to eat at their blistered toes. If she did not send for help, the savageness of the snowstorm would swallow them whole.
They were once part of a family.
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Families come in many variations. As Scott Summers watches his wife, friends, and teammates board the small private plane in the hangar, he realizes how blessed his life truly is.
Although their family is by far not what one would consider normal, he realizes that he and his wife have never shared a greater bond with one as great as the one they share with this family. They are the X-Men. A family consisting of people from all over the globe, brought together by a common bond and the ideas of one man. They have been through many happy times. More often than not, though, heart aches and catastrophes have plagued their existence. These *trials* have sometimes shattered the being of their existence in two, leaving their lives broken, tattered, and utterly hopeless. Through these times, Scott Summers has come to realize that the only thing that has held their existence together all these years, was each other.
Today, though, they are off to find a lost member of their flock. A black sheep of sorts who had consorted to dealing with a certain sinister being and had nearly shattered the bonds of trust within them.* (See The Trial of Gambit --Not-so-good at remembering numbers, Kari)As Dr. Cecilia Reyes knows, a family offers unconditional love, but she as she watches Dr. Henry McCoy, the first member of this expedition to board the jet to Antarctica, she can't help but wonder that if Remy Lebeau had committed such crimes of treason against this family, why are they bothering to bring him back?
"I'll miss you sweet heart." Scott Summers said softly as his wife Jean, leaned into his already puckered lips, dropping her luggage to the floor.
"I'll miss you too, Scott." Jean said as she lovingly placed wrapped her arms around his neck and placed a quick kiss upon his cheek. "And take care of the mansion while we're gone." She smiled as she leaned over to pick up her luggage, and then turned to Cecilia. "Don't let these guys run you over."
Cecilia nodded stiffly. "It must be nice to have someone like that." She mused as she looked away sadly. Bitterness began to fill her gut as she watched the couple separate. "I've lost my chances of becoming a doctor...I've lost any social life I've had...Why don't I lose getting a chance to be happy too?!"
She watched as Bobby Drake, better known to the world as Iceman, flung open the door with a bang, and vaulted himself over the railing of the stairs down to the floor. "Hey Hank, wait up! I've got something I want to give you before ya go."
"Looks like Jean grabbed the last decent guy." She sighed and then cynically grinned at Bobby. "And left the rest of us with the dipsticks."
"Hey Hank, you forgot your glasses!" Bobby pulled the frames out of his pocket. "You won't be able to find *anything* out there without these babies." Bobby flashed a boyish smile as he handed the frames to the Beast, who was standing on the ramp.
"Muchos gracias, Bobby m'lad." Hang gave him a toothy smile as he set his glasses atop his nose. "Now I can enjoy the view with perfect clarity."
Bobby's smirk grew as Jean boarded the ramp, causing Hank to leap off it and out of her way. "You better not enjoy the view too much, Hank. You've got a girl friend, remember?" Scott said with a slight smile as he watched Jean enter the plane from below.
Hank gasped in mock exasperation. "What? You would think that I? Dr. Henry McCoy, world renown scientist and prominent member of society, would hint at such a thing? Not to mention, make such a bad pun?"
"Ah wouldn't put it past ya,Hank." Rogue grinned as she clasped her hand on his furry shoulder from the ramp above, and then entered the jet trying her best to hide the pain she felt inside from the betrayal of the man she loved.
"Nor would I." Orroro Munroe laughed softly to herself as she too boarded the jet, baggage in hand.
Hank's shoulders slumped as he removed his glasses with a mighty hand. "Bobby, m'boy, I think Scott would appreciate me saying this, but 'we get no respect.'" Hank finished off the quote with a classical Three Stooges laugh as he agilely leaped back atop the railing of the ramp. " I give you all a fond farewell." Hank leaped into the door jet, causing the jet to bounce on it struts.
"Hank, watch it, will ya?!" Rogue's annoyed tone echoed out of the small private jet.
"A thousand pardons, m'lady." A blue hand jutted out of the door, proving both Scott and Bobby correct in guessing that their friend would bow. Hank pulled the door to as the engine began to turn.
"Ag, the okie'd get some respect if he deserved it." Maggott sighed as he watched the twin slugs climb in a circular motion up his arm. "Right, gels?"
Dr. Reyes merely shook her head as the plane began to slowly roll away. "There goes 90 percent of the sanity in this place." She sighed as she turned to look at the guys. "I guess it's just us now." She said stiffly. "No funny business either, Drake...Maggott...Got that?"
"Yes'm." Bobby said defeatedly, although Scott knew that wouldn't deter Bobby from his usual pranks.
A murmur from Maggott was all Cecilia got in response as the group began to disburse in their own separate directions. As much as he was already beginning to miss Jean, Scott couldn't help but smile as he watched Bobby march to the gym and Maggott and Cecilia arguing as they tramped up the stairs.
They were arguing like they were a family. Just one big happy family.
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"He fakes to the left. He fakes to right. He drives...HE SCORES!" He shouts as he retreats from the basket, with both fists raised high into the air in celebration.
He cups his hands over his mouth as he coasts to a stop, and begins to mimic the imaginary chanting crowd. "Bobby! Bobby! Bobby!"
If you asked Bobby Drake what role he played in this large family, he would probably tell you the annoyance. His youthful joking manner deters most from questioning the comment further, but only a telepath and a few close friends could tell how serious Bobby Drake truly was.
An original member of this family, Bobby had staked his claim as the class clown. The slacker. The jokester. Hiding from the pain. But as he grew older, things began to change. The role of the class clown didn't seem so important anymore... No one was laughing anymore...
The role of a dependable person was needed, and he wasn't it. He wasn't the focal point of humor any longer, but a pestering annoyance that seemed scar their team.
After several years of loathing and self pity of who he could not be, he began to try to find the Bobby Drake that had gotten lost in all those years of self denial. All of those jokes that were mask of insecurity, he began to unveil. He questioned why he was...What good he was...Why was he here? And most importantly...Why he wasn't the man his father had always wanted him to be?
It wasn't until he began spending some time alone, here in the gym, that he found out exactly who he was.
Sure, he was still the prankster everyone made him to be...But it wasn't because everyone expected it of him. It was because that's who he truly was. That's who the X-Men truly needed him to be.
"Who's da' man?" He said aloud, laughing as he took another shot. Part of him felt ridiculous ... fearing that someone would walk in on him at any moment. But then again, part of him didn't care. He was having fun. This was who he truly was. His fear of not being good enough was finally passing and he finally gained the self confidence to accept that people would actually accept him for whoever he truly was.
He took the ball back to the free throw line and shot another jump shot. The sound of the net's swish was a victory banter playing his song. His song. Not the slacker's. Not the class clown's. Not the prankster's.
His song.
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Canada.
The song of death danced a dirge before their very eyes. The man had kept them sheltered from death's icy grip as long as he could, but he knew she could tell by strain in his eyes that he couldn't keep this up much longer. They had to pause every few moments to catch their breaths from the breathless realms that had protected them thus far. Their lungs ached, their feet and hands were numb...It was time for life to take it's course. He welcomed death with open arms.
She however, would not let him give up. She was a lot more resilient than he had ever given her credit for. He was weak. He could admit that. He had always been weak, or so Exodus had said. He collapsed on one knee in total exhaustion.
"No! Get up! You have to get up!" She tugged on his arm urgently, desperately trying to keep him moving, for the alternative was unthinkable. She was too weak to teleport...and almost too weak to walk.
"Nein, Madchen! I cannot go any further." He cried to her.
"Come on!" She cried as she continued to pull, causing his other knee to collapse out from under him as well. "You can't--Ugh--Give up--now."
Her own knees suddenly began to wobble and gave out from beneath her own weight. She had to extend both of her palms to keep from falling face first into the snow that seemed to stretch on for eternity. In a last ditch attempt to preserve their lives, Scanner sent her astral presence across the continent with a single destination in mind. As she collapsed from exhaustion into the new fallen snow, the words "help...us...Whitehorse..." filtered from her lips. "Mr. Summers..."
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In the living room of Charles Xavier's School for the Gifted it seems as though Scott Summers hasn't slept like this in years.
Scars, both physically and metaphorically, have kept him awake most nights since their founder and surrogate father, Charles Xavier, had abandoned them to his darker side. Now, as the oldest member of this oddly forged family, Scott Summers has found himself in the position of a second surrogate father.
The scars on his chest prove that it hasn't been easy. A remembrance from the man called Bastion who planted a nano-tech bomb inside of his chest. Close to his heart, ironically, the bomb's intent was to separate Charles Xavier's close knit family. Although the bomb itself had been defused, the impact of the event itself sent each and every member of the team sprawling, leaving Scott to be binding force of the team. *(See Operation Zero Tolerance--Still not so good at remembering numbers, Kari)
He rolled over again in his sleep muttering to himself as he neared the edge of the couch, the sports page still folded over his face to block out the light from the overhead lamp.
There had been many sleepless nights in which he constantly tossed and turned, wondering if he would live up to the example his own surrogate father had set for him.
"Mr. Summers..." A weak voice whispered.
His eyes widened in complete shock as he fell off the edge of the couch onto the floor with a loud thud. The newspaper gracefully floated to the floor a few feet away as he looked up in complete bewilderment.
Scanner astral self appeared beside the couch. He rubbed his now sore arm as he glanced up from the floor at the translucent figure before him."S-Scanner?" He asked as he now clearly saw the ex-Acolyte's body before him.
"Mr....Summers....we can't go much...farther...We need-- We need help We're...Cold...lost--"
"Where are you?!" Scott demanded as he leapt to his feet, knowing by the urgency in her voice that this was no trick. He had saved her life once in Australia and knew the girl well enough to know that she, like many other Acolytes, had chosen Magneto's way because they had not been given an alternative.*(X-Men #44)
Her astral body began to fade as her physical body began to grow weaker. " North ...White horse...Canada..." She managed to say before her astral body completely disappeared into the air.
Scott raced out of the room and roughly jerked the mike on the intercom system off of it's handle and began to bark orders into it as he always had. "I want all available X-Men to be dressed and in the hangar ASAP."
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Competition abounds even in the best of families.
"YES! Who's da' man, huh?!" Bobby Drake as he treated from hoop once more, dribbling the basketball back down the court until he spotted one of the team's newest recruits standing in the doorway in an old tank top and basketball shorts.
"Ag,maat. If you're da' man, I'd hate to see the boys." Maggott smiled as he let eany and meany slither off his long, slender arms onto the floor. He rested his fists atop his waist as he stood there challengingly.
Bobby picked up the basketball and let it rest on his hip."And you think you can do better?" He raised a questioning brow, with a taunting smile. He quickly tossed the ball to Maggott.
"Better'n anything you could do,mat." Maggott grinned wickedly as darted down the court, towards the basket until the PA system began to echo throughout the gym.
"I want all available X-Men to be dressed and int the hangar ASAP."
"Ag, bloody dote couldn'ta picked a worser time." Maggott muttered as he threw up the shot and watched it bounce off the back board and off the rim.
"Just look at as delaying your inevitable beating, Japeth." Bobby grinned and patted him on the back as the two of them exited the room to head for their respective rooms.
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As Dr. Cecilia Reyes was in shock. She couldn't believe the words she was hearing? Help two of Magneto's Acolytes? Two of the people that help spurn humanity's hateful view toward the mutant populace? She was bound by the Hippocratic oath. She knew that, but what amazed her is that after all Magneto and his followers had done to the X-Men in their seven year history, they were still flying over the barren snow-covered wastelands of Canada to help what could have been their greatest enemy. Flying into a trap no less. She had heard of unconditional love, and in the mutant populace that was sometimes a must, but after all she had heard about Magneto, about his followers, and their destruction even before she became of member of this extended family, the X-Men still found it in their hearts to forgive them.
Maybe that's why they're in such poor shape now. She mused, but not cynically. She found herself more in a state of awe. One of which seemed to be occurring more and more as she spent more time with these people. What was happening to her?
She found Bobby hunched over in the one of the seats in a small parka, taking it all in so nonchalantly that it almost unnerved her to see both him and Maggott take this so calmly. She could feel the butter flies churning in her own stomach as she sat next to Cyclops in the cockpit of the jet, studying over a map of the area as he silently piloted.
As she glanced up out of the corner of her eye, she could tell his mind was elsewhere. Of all the X-Men, she probably trusted him, his wife, and the sister the most.
"Hey Scott, isn't Scanner supposed to be in prison with the rest of the Acolytes?" Bobby asked as he folded his hands and placed them behind his head. *(Just read X-Men #44! Sheesh!-Kari)
"Prison?" She jumped with a start. "This girl we're going after is supposed to be in prison?!"
Scott gave her a sideways glance.
"Ag, there's nothin' wrong wit' being in prison if you're a good person, gel." Maggot shrugged from the back. "What's gettin' me is that is colder 'an the Doc's personality, an' we got nothin' t'show for it." Maggott shuttered. "Growin' up in Africa has it's down side..."He muttered as he pulled his parka closer around him.
" I don't know what happened." Scott said absently as he kept his eyes straight ahead, focused on piloting the small jet. "It's plausible that a sympathizer could have freed them or they never even got to prison to begin with."
Bobby nodded as he looked out at the window at the billowing snow. "Even if we do find'em, Scotty, are you sure they're going to be alive?"
Scott didn't answer him. He didn't think an answer needed to be said. His focus began to drift once more as he snow bludgeoned through the thickening snow. His minds drifts as does the snow on the front windshield as he's lost in memories of not too long ago...
A sheep leading a pack of wolves to water.
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He overheard the 4 Acolytes talking after he had just found water for them. Avalon had just fallen from space onto the Australian Outback...they were lost...hungry...and on the verge of losing hope.
"JERKS! That man risked his life for us! When are you going to let on him?!"
"Funny/Odd Cargill--That you're so quick to defend Summers/Cyclops--Who is one of our greatest enemies."
"Get a half brain between you! Avalon is gone! Magneto's a vegetable and Exodus is probably DEAD! If the Acolytes no longer exist then why should Summers be our enemy? Unuscione said accusingly as he continued to walk on.
Cargill responded in his defense. "All that stands between our living and dying out here...is his courage and leadership!"
"You two do what you want but *we're* sticking with him."
He smirked, knowing that they had enough confidence in him to put their lives in his hands. Magneto had never done such a thing for them, he knew. He was a living example for them.
--Later--
"She's EXHUASTED! You're pushing her too hard, Summers!"
He gritted his teeth and took a deep breath as fought off losing his temper to the impatient Acolyte. Scanner had collapsed after going on a scouting mission to find the X-Men's old base. "I'm pushing her as far as she needs to go to get the job done. Believe me, I would never make anyone go beyond their limits." He had about had it. "Would you prefer to just give up?"
They walked in silence until the sun set. He remembered carrying her the whole way to their resting place. He remembered trying to reach Jean, knowing she had escaped with Amelia Vought earlier, but his tries were to no avail. He wondered if they made it...if they were still alive. Without their psychic report, he felt empty...alone...and utterly helpless against the elements. So as usual, he hid it. He built walls around it. Letting no one in.
"Uhm...Mr. Summers--Thanks for carrying me. I feel a lot better now....--And you'll think we'll be okay?"
He remembers giving her a sideways glance as he looks up from his calculations, not knowing to tell her the truth or to lie. He looked at her youthful face and smiled. " I know we will be, Scanner. I promise." *(Taken from You guessed it! X-Men #44!)
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"I promise."
Dr. Reyes glanced up from the map looked glanced over at him oddly. "Promise what?" She asked.
"Oh." Scott said, shaking the cobwebs out of his mind. "Nothing. I was just... thinking...that's all." Scott looked down and cleared his throat, slightly embarrassed that he was caught off-guard.
Reyes merely shrugged and looked out the window and Scott continued piloting.
"Look! There they are!!" Bobby shouted as he pointed out the window.
"You're just imagining things, Drake." Cecilia sighed as she glanced back over her seat at him. "No one man could have made it this far."
"Uh Doc, try tellin' them'at." Maggot said as he too looked out the window, making Bobby scoot to the side so he could get a closer look."And they don't look too good, either."
Reyes shook her head, knowing full well that no one could have traveled this far on foot. If the billowing snow hadn't gotten to them, the temperature would have. As she bent back down to look at the map sprawled across her lap, she caught a glimpse of a black dot polluting the pure white with a stain of humanity. "Oh my gosh! They really are there!" Cecilia jumped from her seat and leaned against the window.
"There's not another landing strip for another hundred miles." Scott said flatly as he pulled the plane in a turn, circling the two people in a wide loop as to not lose them in the blinding snow fall.
"We can't just leave them out there!" Cecilia exclaimed as she turned to Scott, her face pleading like a doctor, trying to bargain a life from death.
"Don't look like we have'ta worry 'bout them movin'." Maggott added as Bobby stripped himself of his parka.
"How low can you get us,Scott?" Bobby asked as he stood, icing up inside the tiny cabin. He quickly threw open the jet's side door causing both Cecilia and Maggott to wince at the bitter coldness outside.
"About 250 feet from the ground." Scott shouted over the roar of the plane and the whistling wind. "The problem won't be getting you down as much as it will be getting you up!!"
Bobby nodded as he leapt out of the plane, quickly creating an ice slide underneath him to slow his decent. Maggott rushed to the door watching Bobby gain momentum as he continued to slide. "Dolt's got more guts than I ever gave'em credit for. You sure he's gonna be alright?" Maggott asked, his hair being tossed in the frigid air.
"Get away from the door!!" Scott shouted. "Bobby knows what he's doing."
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"Here's goes nothing!" Bobby Drake shouted as he continued to slide down the curved ice slide until his feet hit firmly on the packed snow beneath his feet. He watched as the plane roared over head, blowing snow everywhere. He took a few moments to assess his situation before finally spotting a black lumpy mass upon the new fallen snow.
"Hey!!"Drake shouted toward them as he began to run, throwing up snow behind him as began to form an iceslide. "Can you hear me?!" He shouted desperately.
No answer.
Bobby slid beside them. "Oh man...come on..." He pulled Neophyte's limp body off of Scanner's. He iced down for a moment and shivered as he took their pulses. "Good. Both're still alive. Now to get them back aboard that plane." Bobby said as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully, watching the plane circle back.
He quickly iced up and formed an icestretcher underneath the two limp bodies. He jogged behind it and then began to slide forward with the stretcher supported by a small pillar on the slide. As the plane circled behind him, he began to rise and pick up speed. "Come on, Bobby. You can do this. You can make this work."
Out of the corner of his eye, he could say Maggott and Cecilia leaning out of the plane's cargo door in anticipation to catch the first body.
He could hear the roar of the engine closing in on him from behind, and looked behind him to find Maggott and Reyes gaining on him fast. This was going to take split second thinking. The wing sailed over his head, and then he pushed the first body off of the slide at the same moment Maggott and Cecilia grabbed Neophyte's limp arms.
"Pull!!" He heard Cecilia scream as she and Maggott struggled to get the man inside.
"Okay, one more." Bobby said to himself, more determined than ever. At moment, a strong gust of wind tossed the plane into the slide, causing it crumble with both Scanner and Iceman still dependent on it.
Bobby watched as both he and Scanner began to tumble towards the ground. "NO!" He shouted as he formed an iceslide underneath her. The slide slowed the momentum of her fall, but it gave Bobby even less time to consider his own plans of eluding death.
10 yards from the ground, Bobby formed an iceslide of his own, causing him to skid to the ground with great momentum.
"Ouch. Sheesh, I'd give that landing a 10." He said he rubbed the back of his head nervously. He quickly jumped back up to his feet, waving to the plane, and created another stretcher similar to the first. The plane approached from behind once more.
"Drake, are you all right?!" Cecilia shouted over the roar of the winds.
"Yeah, I'm fine!" Bobby shouted from in front of them as the wing passed over his head. "Now take her!"
As the two awaiting mutants began to pull her up, a gust of wind rocked the plane once more, causing Cecilia to lose her grip. She gasped in shock, trying to panic as Scanner's limp body dangled from Maggott's thin arms.
"Argh...can't...keep this up....for long." Maggot strained he continued to barely hang on to the unconscious body that was flapping in the high winds. Cecilia reached down and grabbed Scanner's uniform, relieving some of the pressure off Maggot.
"Get her up here!" Scott shouted from the cockpit as Bobby struggled to keep up.
"We're trying!!!" Cecilia screamed back. "On three, Maggott."She took a deep breath." 1...2...3 PULL!!"
With both mutants pulling at all their strength, Scanner's limp body flew up into the jet and on top of both Cecilia and Maggott.
"Good work you two." Scott said as he glanced back at the others. "Now help Bobby in." He turned back around and focused on piloting once more.
Bobby increased his speed the door grew closer. The jumped violently as he continued his approach. As he neared the opening, he leapt into the plane. With nothing attached to him, Bobby Drake was in freefall for what seemed like eternity until he was caught by the waiting arms of Cecilia and Maggott.
"Whew." Bobby sighed for moment before smirking. "Aw, Cecilia, I didn't know you cared." He smiled exhaustedly as he tried to stand.
"I don't, Drake." She muttered as she dropped him and began to look over the two bodies carefully. "We've got some minor frostbite back here in the toes and fingers." She said sharply. "The man is going into shock from hypothermia." She shouted. "Get me a blanket, now!!" She looked directly at Maggott.
"Aye, Aye. Wouldn't nothin' t'happen to that stogie." Maggott muttered as he tossed Cecillia a fleece blanket from a storage compartment.
"Let's get these people home, ASAP." She shouted. "If we hurry, we can still save their limbs."
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Back at Xavier's...
They're tired, they're hungry, and they've so many questions left unanswered. How did they end up in Canada? Why wasn't Scanner in prison? So many questions dangled in the air, but none dangled so precariously as the question of their survival. The X-Men stood, waiting for Reyes's report. A heavy silence coupled with the heaviness of their own bodies, made for a listless, yet eerily quiet setting.
"I never want to go through that again." Bobby sighed exhaustedly as he slumped against the door to the medic. Bobby, after all had done the most tedious work of all. He deserved the right to be exhausted, and Scott knew that. Still, he couldn't allow himself the pleasure.
"Neither do I..."Scott voice trailed off as his eyes settled on the still bodies of Neophyte and Scanner, the words 'I promise' still running through his mind. He knows that his promise didn't carry this far, but something he couldn't quite place told him that both Scanner and Neophyte needed to be with the X-Men for what ever reason. He chuckled to himself realizing that he was sounding more and more like Charles everyday. It was as if his ghost haunted his body.
His face darkened a little. Charles was still missing as was half of their team on various missions across the globe. He hated shocking people with new team members while they were away. Logan, no doubt, would have problems with the two Acolytes staying in their home after what Magneto had done to him previously.*(I'm having problems coming up with whitty one-liners so just read Fatal Attractions.-Kari) Maggott also appears to have some connection with Magneto. There is a question as to how he will react as well.
He wished Jean would contact him soon. He had a lot of things to share with her and Ororro as well. The fate of the two invalids not only rested on his shoulders, but on those around him as well. In the end, it would be Scanner and Neophyte's decisions to stay or leave. Scott could only persuade them to join their cause and talk the others into allowing their stay. This was team. A family. Although he would have the final say in the matter, each person made up a piece of that decision. It would be something they would all have to live with.
Dr. Reyes muttered as she studied their charts, while walking out of the sterile medic.
"Are they going to be all right, Doc?" Bobby asked as he pushed himself away from the door he was leaning upon for support.
"They're stable..." She said exhaustedly."The man might lose a finger. The girl appears to be fine, but one thing confuses me." She said as her brow lowered. She raised her pen to lips as she looked to Scott. "No one should have been able to survive that long out there without some kind of protection. Not unless you were a mutant like Ice-boy here." She said pointing the pen in Bobby's direction.
"Well, Neophyte's...phasing abilities may have had something to do with it..." Scott said absently as he stared into the room.
"In English?" She asked as she readjusted her glasses, beginning to notice that Cyclops wasn't totally with it.
"He means he can be like a ghost and walk through solid objects." Bobby smiled, knowing he had got the better of her by knowing something she didn't.
"So...."Dr. Reyes began, still holding a questioning look upon her face. " If he could make them...'phased'...then why didn't they stay that way?"
Scott sighed. "When someone is phased, they only have the amount of oxygen they have in them at the time that they phased." Scott looked down at the floor and then to end of the hallway. "I'm going to see if I can contact Jean." He said as he abruptly pushed himself out of the door frame and retreated down the hall. The words "I promise" haunting him as he walked away. Why did he feel so guilty? Why did he feel like he let them down?
"That was odd..."Cecilia said as she watched Scott solemnly walk down the hall.
Bobby just looked at Cecilia and shrugged. "I don't know about you, but I think I'm going to go catch a hundred winks. Catch ya later, Doc." Bobby waves as he took off in the same direction Scott had.
"Yeah, see you later, Drake." She waved dismissively as he returned to her patients and sighed exhaustedly. "This has been one tough day."