Dearest Readers,
This is a second installment to my series. The prequel to this installment is titled: Daft Existence. Here is a quick summary for those of you who have either forgotten what has happened within Daft Existence or who have not read it….
Storm is the leader of the X-Men and my Daft Existence story begins with Cerebro detecting a new mutant, Rogue (who is not yet part of the X-Men). Storm leads a team to recruit her. There are some difficulties along the way but in the end, Gambit is able to persuade her to check out Xavier's mansion. She is quickly recruited as part of the X-Men team and is trained for combat. There are romantic exchanges between Rogue and Gambit, which entail that a relationship beyond friendship is beginning to form.
Cyclops is second in command and he does not like this. He is jealous of Storm for being Xavier's number one choice and also jealous of her friendship with Jean, who is his love interest but she does not yet know of his feelings. He is continually torn between trying to prove himself as a good leader within the X-Men as well as coming to terms with telling Jean of his love for her.
Magneto visits Charles Xavier at the mansion but since the X-Men do not know what he looks like outside of his costume, no one recognized him as a threat. Cyclops, while guiding him to Charles' office, felt like he recognized him but brushed the feeling aside. The audience finds out that when Charles and Eric Magnus Lehnsherr were younger, they were romantically involved with each other. But their differing views strained their relationship.
Beast and Jean work in the labs for Charles Xavier, studying the genes of mutants in hopes to find a common strand. Jean works long hours due to teaching at Xavier's school for gifted students in the day and volunteering in the labs at night. She tries to balance this alongside her secret relationship with Ororo that no one, aside from Charles Xavier, knows about. They have several romantic exchanges in private. Jean knows that Scott Summers has very deep feelings for her and she pities him because he does not know her current relationship standing.
Xavier detects another mutant, Kitty Pryde, who is captured by a mutant government agency and taken hostage at a government facility. Coincidently, Sabertooth is captured by the same agency and placed in the same facility. Magneto and Xavier discusses this in private and since Xavier is blinded by his love for Magneto, he agrees to use the X-Men as a decoy so that he can lead the brotherhood and take back Sabertooth. The agreement is that Magneto is to leave Kitty Pryde for the X-Men to collect and take to Xavier's gifted school of mutants.
Xavier summons the X-Men and assemble a team, led by Storm, featuring all the X-Men except for Jean Grey, who is to be left behind. When the X-Men arrive, they are ambushed by several sentinels and military personel. Though they do not know this, the reason they were so prepared is because the brotherhood has already made their way through the base. Colossus, Wolverine, and Cyclops enter the building to go look for Kitty while Storm leads the rest of the X-Men in the battle against the Sentinels outside. Storm is knocked unconscious by a blast and she falls to the ground, hard.
Meanwhile, Jean is back at the Mansion and she envisions Ororo falling. She also envisions how Xavier had set up the agreement with Magneto and she quickly leaves as Xavier calls after her to remain.
Kitty Pryde, having no idea what is going on, becomes very scared as an unknown man barges in to her cell. We quickly discover that it is Magneto. He carries her and as the Brotherhood begins to leave, along with the rescued Sabertooth, they encounter Colossus, Wolverine, and Cyclops. The three X-men quickly become overwhelmed since they are outnumbered and Kitty is able to escape.
The minute she is outside, Rogue is able to touch her and drain her energy and Kitty is knocked unconscious. Nightcrawler teleports her to the Blackbird which resides one mile away from the base. Beast lead the X-Men in fighting the Sentinels and as soon as the Sentinels ease up, they go inside to find Colossus, Wolverine, and Cyclops only to find them beaten and worn down. They help carry them out of the building and it is to Beast's surprise that an aircraft is landing right outside of the main building. Beast quickly realizes it is Jean, as she runs towards them.
It is bizarre that the Sentinels have backed off and that all around them, there is no military officer, in fact there is no one.
And here we begin Daft Phoenix:
"Jean!" Beast called out. A great wave of relief filled him at the sight of her. Her timing was perfect.
"Here, let me help." She gestured towards Colossus and used her Telekinesis to hover his body out of their grasps.
"Where is Ororo," Jean asked in between concentrating her thoughts on hovering Colossus out of the building and scanning the region with her Telepathic communications.
Ro, where are you?
Jean had nothing. No thought from Ororo's mind, nothing. No one had answered her question and she was growing very impatient. She needed to know where Ororo was. After envisioning her fall, she expected the worst. She just wanted to know if she was okay.
"Ororo," Jean spoke louder, "Where is She??" This wasn't a time to test Jean's patience. She continued to scan the region telepathically for Ororo or where she was.
"She was hit by a Sentinel," Rogue chimed up. They were out of the base and they could see the Blackbird several yards away.
"She's in de blackbird, Cher." Gambit added.
As they made their way in to the Blackbird, an eerie feeling fell over Jean. She couldn't pin point it but she began walking slower than the rest, as they began all climbing in to the Blackbird. She stopped right outside the Blackbird and looked up to the forest. There were no Sentinels in sight. None. She continued to look around the base, why were there no military officers? There was no Military Personnel. Not one soul around.
And then it came to her faster than lightning.
Why didn't she see it before. Oh God.
"HURRY!! WE NEED TO LEAVE!!!…OH GOD" Jean yelled and she heard an explosion in the distance. She should have seen this coming. She should have known. She should have been prepared. She was too damn occupied with finding Ororo that she missed the readings. She missed the signs. She missed the telepathic signals.
They were going to die because of her. This was a trap.
She ran towards the explosion.
"JEAN! WHERE ARE YOU GOING!" Beast called but she telekinetically closed the Blackbird door and braced for impact. She had to hold back the contents of the explosion, or else they would die. Or else she would die. This was all a trap, how didn't she fucking see it before.
She envisioned the Blackbird controls and started its engine. She maneuvered the controls to autopilot and set its destination for the mansion. She could hear the confused thoughts of the X-Men onboard. She could hear Beast questioning her motives towards setting the Blackbird to autopilot. She could hear them all except her love that lay unconscious. Tears streamed down Jean's eyes as she faced her reality.
And then the wave came. She wasn't strong enough to hold it. It was leaking through. She looked back and watched the Blackbird begin to take off. Damn that engine for being so slow at such a desperate time. She concentrated all her might on holding it until they've left but the particles were leaking through.
And then she felt it. It burned through the entire of her. She screamed aloud in pain as the gamma rays weaved through her cells. Visions of Military personnel testing the Gamma Rays on Mutants and research filled her head as she could no loner control the telepathic thoughts coming in to her mind. The gamma rays were breaking down her DNA. She was dying….
Tears streamed down her face like hot lashes as the last ounce of effort to hold off the wave vanished. The last vision she saw was the Blackbird flying away out of sight and the wave of Gamma rays consumed her whole.
Ororo…
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Ororo woke up to find her head pounding. A Migraine couldn't begin to describe the pain in her mind. She was surprised to see Xavier at her bedside, with such a grave look on his face. She couldn't recall much of the events of the day and was sure that the mission must have been a failure.
"Did we not rescue the girl?" She asked anyways.
"We did," Xavier's voice was hoarse. She didn't recognize it. Something was very wrong.
"Ororo…." He began.
Terror filled her. "Where's Jean?" She was too weak to get up but she didn't care. She tried to maneuver out of bed but fell, hitting the floor hard and she looked up at Xavier. Tears streaming down, she didn't want to know because she already knew by his expression.
"I'm so sorry," Xavier whispered as he transcended visions of the incident, which he had collected from the other X-men in to her mind.
The X-Men throughout the mansion heard a cry like nothing they have heard on Earth. The sound sent shivers down their spine and momentarily stopped their hearts.
Sudden Thunder erupted outside and winds so fierce that the whole mansion shook from the power of it. Never in their entire lives had they seen the clouds turn so black nor the rain so harsh and the winds so strong. The deep sounds of the thunder struck terror into their hearts.
Nigthcrawler wept in deep condolences.