The Uncanny New X-Men

Chapter 1: Cry of the Deathbird- Part 1

By

The Uncanny R-Man

Disclaimer- I don't own anything, all familiar characters belong to Marvel.

Notes- This takes place after Chapter 28 of The Uncanny New Mutants, so check that out for details of Jean Grey's return.

Genosha-

Professor Charles Xavier was worried; he had lost contact with Freakshow, Wicked and the rest of his team. Magneto and Callisto had gone out to find them but he had lost telepathic contact with them too. That was why he was wheeling along the streets of Genosha on his own. However, Xavier had to be careful as whatever took down his team and the Master of Magnetism wouldn't be a pushover.

Xavier tried to scan further but was shocked that something was blocking his powers. Something else that shocked him was the smell of fresh blood. So he wheeled over to investigate.

'No!' Xavier gasped as he saw the carnage before him. Freakshow, Wicked, Karima and Shola were all dead, somebody, or something, had torn them to shreds. Magneto and Callisto were nowhere to be seen however. That didn't calm Xavier down one bit, as he couldn't pinpoint their positions with his telepathy either.

Xavier stooped as he heard an evil chuckled form above his head.

'So the cue-ball decides to show up.' The voice taunted. 'You're too late Baldie, they're all dead!'

'You monster!' Xavier hissed. 'Why did you do this?'

'You don't need a reason for gratuitous violence.' The voice snickered. 'I think it's quite artful actually, what with all the arcs of blood splattered over the walls and all.'

'You're mad!' Xavier yelled.

'And you're dead!' The voice replied. 'Dad!'

The Xavier Institute-

Unaware of the slaughter over in Genosha, the inhabitants of the Xavier Institute For Higher Learning were sleeping peacefully.

Kitty Pryde was snuggled up close to her boyfriend, Piotr Rasputin while Lockheed the Dragon was snoozing away from his be din Kitty's panty drawer. Kitty had all but given up on trying to train Lockheed into sleeping in a basket but the dragon was just too damned stubborn.

Emma Frost and Hank McCoy were also snuggled up together in bed. Emma had her head laid on Hank's shoulder while her hand was clutching a handful of his fur.

Jean was asleep too. Even though she and Scott had slowly started to mend their marriage, they had both decided that it was best if they slept in separate rooms until they felt they had made enough progress to share a bed.

Logan was the only one up, he was running an early-morning Danger Room session all on his own. Usually, Logan would be acting snarky towards Scott after Jean's return, but he was involved with Ororo now and had better things to do than lust after Jean.

Logan finished his session and headed for a shower. That was when his attention was caught by a message coming through the emergency line. Logan hurried up to the Danger Room control room and tapped his access code into the computer. A grainy picture appeared on the screen, it was Neal Sharra, calling from X-Corporation in Mumbai.

'Neal, you okay?' Logan asked frantically. 'What's goin' on?'

Logan could hardly hear Neal's response, as the screen was full of static.

'Logan, thank God. You have to send help, she's slaughtering everybody! She already took down Feral and Warpath!'

'Who are yer talkin' about?' Logan asked.

Neal's image turned around as if something had entered the room with him.

'God no, please… No! AAAARRGHHH!'

'NEAL!' Logan yelled.

But it was too late, the screen exploded into static.

'So much fer a quiet day in.' Logan muttered.

The War Room-

Logan was suited up and was stood at the head of the table in the War Room as the rest of the Astonishing X-Men listened to him give them the low-down on their latest mission.

'This distress call just came in earlier this mornin'.' Logan explained. 'Somethin' wiped out everybody in the Mumbai branch of the X-Corporation.'

'God, do we know who?' Kitty asked.

'I dunno yet, Kit.' Logan replied. 'But she musta been pretty tough ter take down Warpath an' the others single-handedly.'

'She?' Piotr asked. 'What makes you think this person is a woman?'

'Cuz Neal told me before he got shredded.' Logan replied. 'We're gonna need heavy-hitter sin on this, you in on it, Jeannie?'

'No better time than the present.' Jean replied. 'I was planning on painting my nails but I'm up for a trip to Mumbai.'

'Are Neal, Feral and Warpath the only ones that have been killed?' Hank asked. 'Is there any news from Sunfire and Thornn?'

'Not a thing.' Logan replied. 'I hate ter say it but I'm assumin' they're dead.'

'That's one rather big assumption, Logan.' Emma said. 'I knew that you tended to be pessimistic but…'

'Oh shut up Emma!' Jean groaned. 'Why do you always have to pick holes in everything?'

'Is it wrong if I have a little faith in my fellow mutants?' Emma replied, leaning over to look Jean in the eye. 'And Jean dear, I wouldn't bother finishing that sentence, such language belies a limited vocabulary.'

'To think I gave up college for this.' Kitty sighed.

The skies above Mumbai, later-

Emma and Jean had managed to stop sniping at each other for a moment and were sitting in peace, allowing Logan to pilot the Blackbird in peace.

Scott was usually in command of this team but seeing as Logan was the one that had found out about the crisis, Scott had let him take command with a minimum of fuss.

'Still no word.' Scott said as he looked up from the communications array. 'There's nothing, not even static, the communication lines have just gone blank.'

'Jean, Emma, can you get sense any life signs?' Logan asked.

'No, it's almost as if somebody is jamming our powers.' Emma replied.

'Then whoever wiped everybody out is most probably still there.' Kitty said.

'Not to be the bringer of bad news…' Hank said. 'But this is most undoubtedly a trap.'

'The idea had occurred.' Logan replied.

'So we are just going to walk straight in to this trap?' Piotr asked. 'Ah, there is nothing like a suicide mission to make you feel glad that you have been brought back from the dead.'

'Y'know Petey, I never took you fer a pessimist.' Logan said. 'That's my job, you're the happy-go-lucky invincible guy.'

'I was merely being realistic.' Piotr replied.

The remains of X-Corporation Mumbai-

Logan and the others cautiously entered the ruined X-Corporation building. Whoever had wiped everybody out had been very thorough; the whole building had been torched.

Emma stopped as she began to sense something.

'Wait, I can sense somebody nearby! The telepathic signal is weak…'

'Then we better get to 'em before it's too late.' Logan replied. 'Any idea where they are?'

'Several yards in that direction.' Jean replied. 'I can sense it too.'

'Now that yer mention it, I can smell somebody too.' Logan nodded. 'C'mon, let's go!'

The rest of the team followed as Logan led them to search for any survivors.

'In here…' Emma said as she indicated a doorway blocked with rubble and debris. Scott blasted it away with an optic beam.

'Is anybody alive in here?' He yelled.

'Over here…' A weak voice replied.

Scott charged in with the others hot on his heels.

'Sunfire! Are you alright?'

'My legs are trapped under a large iron beam, how do you think I feel?' Sunfire winced.

Piotr stepped up and pulled the beam off Sunfire's legs.

'Can you walk, my friend?'

'Just about…' Sunfire replied as he held on to the Russian mutant for support. 'We have to get to Thornn, she's in here somewhere…'

'But first we need to get those legs looked at.' Hank replied as he steppe dup with a medi-pack.

'No, you don't understand!' Starfire said as he swatted Hank's arm away. 'She said Thornn would be the first to die!'

'Who do you mean?' Jean asked.

'Deathbird!' Sunfire replied. 'I don't know how, but she's alive!'

TBC…

Next: Cry of the Deathbird- Part 2

The Astonishing X-Men face off against Deathbird. An easy fight you say? It would be if Deathbird didn't have allies on her side. Who are those allies? You'll just have to wait and see.