Title: Pushing Up Daisies
Author: Viral
Background: The US Air Force shot down Shi'ar Empress Lilandra's spacecraft because it was recognized as a hostile aircraft. Lilandra was pronounced dead as well as the imperial guard members who were present with her. The law of her land demands that a war be waged against the nation until annihilation for such unjust actions.
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What is this? I can feel the turmoil boiling in the atmosphere – making its way towards us. There is an unsightly anger – a deadly wrath that is about to be waged. Who is the target? Why is this occurring? Ororo found herself asking these questions in her sleep, tossing in turning in the darkness of the spacious attic at the Xavier's Institute. She awakened with sweat on her brow, dripping as she had just come from under the soft, floating bubbles in a sudsy bathtub. Her blue eyes came into focused and she glanced around the room. Everything seemed normal enough. Her hanging plants were a black silhouette, swinging with the gently breeze coming through the open windows, covered by the darkness of the night. She turned to her alarm clock, which was blinking 12:01. "The power must have went out," she said, dismissing the bad feelings she had been having for a mere electrical disturbance
She stood up from her bed and lightly walked across the floor and exited the room. She walked across the carpeted hallway of the second floor, watching her step in the dim lighting. Her heart was still beating fast and sweat was still pouring out of her forehead, no matter how much she tried to calm herself. There it is! she told herself. I feel it again. Something is hanging in the atmosphere – disrupting the pattern. She turned around with ferocity and glanced out the large window at the other end of the hall. When she saw nothing at the window she put a hand up to her heart and exhaled loudly. Turning to go back in the other direction, her body hit a fake plant standing on a hallway display table and she reached out to quickly stop it from wobbling.
Get control of yourself, she commanded herself. No maelstroms tonight, Ororo. There is no need to wake everyone in the house. She took her feet off the floor with a gentle breeze and quickly made her way to the kitchen. She was met with mumbling voices and a bright light when she entered the door.
"Couldn't sleep either, Ororo?" Scott asked when he noticed her enter the door. She landed on her feet and walked gently across the cold floor to the refrigerator.
"I doubt it was for the same reason," Ororo answered while she took a bottle of cold water from a shelf in the fridge.
"A little underdressed, aren't we?" Sage asked, her usual sarcastic tone embedded in her voice.
Ororo looked down at her clothing. She was dressed in an off-white, silk nightgown. The strings at the top of the gown were slightly loose, showing the top of her chest. Her feet were bare and her hair was in a long ponytail that extended to the middle of her spine. "No, not that I have noticed," Ororo replied and sat down on a stool at a counter away from Scott and Sage, who were at the kitchen table.
"What's wrong, Ororo?" Scott asked. "You seem a bit out of it?"
"There are some irregular things going on in the atmosphere that I can not seem to put my finger on," she said. "But I am sure it will pass away soon." She paused as the two looked at each other, raising their eyebrows. "Is there something I should know?"
"Scott couldn't sleep because of the whole burying of Lilandra today," Sage said. "It reminded him of losing Jean and things didn't sit to well. I was downstairs working with Hank when the power went out and then something popped onto the War Room security screens about an atmospheric disturbance. He's still down there trying to figure out what it is exactly."
"I told her not to worry," Scott interjected. "It's probably just some Shi'ar coming to pay respects to Lilandra and to take her home."
"When have you ever known the Shi'ar to just come to visit?" Sage asked. She watched Ororo stand up and walk over to the kitchen window, as if looking for something. Everything outside the window was pitch black except for the lights shining in the swimming pool. "Do you see something?"
"I see nothing," Ororo said, as a lump began to build up in her throat. "And I feel nothing. Sage… read my mind."
Sage looked at Ororo questionably for a mere second and then followed orders. "What? So you made your mind go blank," Sage shrugged. "What are you trying to prove?"
"Scott, look towards the door and take off your shades," Ororo said, her palms becoming sweatier.
"Wait Ororo!" Scott frowned. "What is going on?"
"Just do it!" Ororo yelled, becoming more frustrated as time passed.
Scott hesitantly did as she requested, worried that his eyes might spew out a optic blast that would tear the mansion apart – but nothing happened.
Sage gasped, "Our powers have been negated! I was just using them a moment ago!"
Ororo ran over to the intercom next to the kitchen entrance and pounded her fist on it. An ear-piercing alarm sounded through the mansion. Ororo's frantic voice yelled into the device, "Code 8 emergency! We are under attack by the Shi'ar! Get out of the mansion!" Her warning, however, was too late.
The walls and ceilings came tumbling down around Ororo before she even noticed what was happening. She closed her blue eyes and yelped for help, becoming helpless as her childhood memories began to resurface.
"Ororo!" Sage yelled, but was quickly consumed with her own problems. Heat, smoke, and heavy debris were the only things her senses could pick up. The flames charred her bare arms. As the debris continued to build up on her back, she found herself losing a source for fresh air. The dark smoke was bringing tears to her eyes and heaviness in her chest.
"Logan!" Scott yelled, marching over the debris and seeing Logan's tattered body wandering around the glowing fires. "Did anybody get out in time?" Logan attempted to answer but he was quickly losing strength. His adamantium bones could be seen protruding through his skin and reflecting the flames. "Logan!" Scott yelled, watching as the one man who he thought would never die fell limply onto the burning wood that had once lined most of the mansion.
Scott's bare eyes became enveloped with tears, blurring his visions as he hopelessly move his way through the debris, trying to find somebody who was still alive. His naked hands were becoming marked with bruises and blood as he sifted through bricks, wood, and glass. "Please! Somebody!" Fear and loneliness were etched across his face in the heavy darkness as he imagined life without his family. It had already becoming miserable without Jean.
His hand finally hit something soft and he quickly began to clear out that spot. "Ororo!" he shouted, pulling her body through the hole he had dug. She was alive, her eyes open, and a minimal amount of injuries on her body, but she was disoriented. She stared blankly up at the sky as Scott picked up her body and placed her on the grass, away from the flames. He fell on his back in fatigue.
A limping body approached them, groaning with pain with each additional step. "Hank, Charles, and Bishop are dead," Sage said, impassively. Her dark blue eyes seemed lifeless, betraying the emotional turmoil that was eating at her heart.
"The cowards didn't even warn us of an attack!" Scott said, sitting up and digging his fingers into the ground. "Where are you!?" he exclaimed, his voice echoing into the forest that lined the perimeter of the estate. "Oh mighty Shi'ar! Too scared to face us?" Tears ran freely down his face.
"Lights," Ororo whispered. Her eyes were pasted to the sky. There were no stars shining through the dark clouds, so she knew she could not be mistaken.
"My God… they're coming," Sage said, moving closer to Ororo and Scott. A neon purple light began to shine in the shape of a square at the bottom and in the middle of the shadow-covered spacecraft. Ororo and Scott stood up with Sage and the three began to back away from the mountain of burnt building materials that had been their home for years.
The purple light fell down from the spacecraft like a waterfall and showered over the geometrical piece of land that used to be the mansion, and in a few silent seconds there was nothing left. There was no debris, no sign of bodies – nothing but an oversized whole in the ground.
Ororo turned away from the scene, tears falling down her golden brown skin. All hope for their lives is lost, she told herself. Her heart began to pace faster.
"Make sure there are no left over bodies," a grave voice said over loud speakers. "Dead or alive, I want every organism in the vicinity to be completely annihilated!" Immediately following these words a scout of Shi'ar troops was dispatched from a fleet of ships hovering near the main craft.
"We have to get out of here," Scott said, regaining his masculine composure, no evidence of his recent breakdown. "Let's hustle!" Ororo and Sage began to move at the sound of his voice and he followed behind them, moving quickly towards the forest line.
Just as the reached the darkness of the forest, Gladiator landed in front of them, his chest poked out and a demanding look drawn out on his purple-pigmented face. "I'm sorry, X-Men," he said. "But under the order of the Shi'ar Counsel, I cannot allow you to live." His eyes began glowing red.
"So you are going to kill us when we have no way of protecting ourselves?" Ororo asked, trying to prolong her lifespan, hoping for a miracle. "Where is the honor in that, Gladiator?"
"It's not my duty to seek honor," he said. "My only duty is to do the will of my ruler."
"You'll fail," Sage said, no longer backing away from him. She began walking towards him. "Think about it. Every time the Shi'ar has been in a tussle with us, we've survived. If you think for a moment that getting rid of us will insure your duty to your ruler then you're sadly mistaken. History repeats itself! Kill us now and there will be someone else to take our place. It's inevitable!" She was up to his face, her eyes looking directly into his and her breath blowing across his lips. She grabbed the belt that went around his waste and pulled him even closer to her, placing her lips on his chin. A second later, Gladiator was sprawled out on the floor.
"What just happened?" Scott asked, scratching the back of his head.
"The belt was what allowed him to use his powers," she said succinctly. "When I touched it I was able to use my telepathy and attack his mind." She ran into the dark forest with Ororo and Scott behind her.
"Where will we go?" Scott asked, panting as he ran through the forest at top speed, but careful not to run into branches and tree trunks.
"Australia," Storm answered. "We cannot stop the Shi'ar alone."
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Closing notes: This is a story for those of you who enjoy action and adventure. I have a lot of things in store for this story and some unexpected Marvel characters – some which I have never used before. I don't plan on this being a long, drawn out story, but I hope you have found enjoyment in this first chapter.