RESURRECTION X

Chapter 1

Logan never knew real emotional loss as badly as he'd experienced it since joining the X-Men.

First, there was the death of Jean Grey. He'd thought that hurt had been the absolute worst.

He was wrong.

With the death of Professor Charles Frances Xavier, at Jean Grey's hands, that hurt only deepened. Had Wolverine not stepped up to the proverbial plate and killed her himself, the entire world might've teetered on extinction.

As Logan stood on the sprawling lawn of Professor Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, now presided over by Ororo Munroe a.k.a. Storm, thick smoke swirled about his head from the cigar held tightly between his teeth.

Even through that haze of cigar smoke, Logan found it far too easy to read the names on the smaller cenotaphs for the X-Men buried on the grounds of the magnificent mansion/school built by Professor X.

Piotr Nikolaievitch Rasputin…Colossus.

Peter to his friends. The kid was green, but he learned fast and, in the end, was one of the bravest X-Men I'd ever seen.

Kurt Wagner…Nightcrawler.

The German X-Man. Of all of us, Nightcrawler, you were probably the most religious. The most faithful. And maybe even more hopeful for the future than Professor X himself.

As tears welled up in his narrowed-to-slits eyes, Logan told himself they were due to the acrid sting of cigar smoke and nothing more.

Wolverine continued to stare at the remaining cenotaphs without much unwelcome emotion, because these X-Men had only briefly belonged to the group of heroic mutants and, as such, Logan never really got to know any of them, hence the hurt was a helluva lot less.

Samuel Guthrie…Cannonball.

Rahne Sinclair…Wolfsbane.

Danielle Moonstar…Psyche.

Xi'an Coy Manh…Karma.

Roberto da Costa…Sunspot.

Tabitha Smith…Boom Boom.

Benjamin Russell…Shatterstar.

James Proudstar…Warpath.

Remy LaBeau…Gambit.

Then came the names that, like Colossus and Nightcrawler, tugged at Logan's heart and soul because he knew them all too well.

Dr. Henry "Hank" McCoy…Beast.

Beastie, even though we didn't exactly get along, you were one helluva old X-Man…just like me. I'll miss ya, ya blue-furred brute.

Katherine "Kitty" Pryde…Shadowcat.

In the short time I knew ya, kid, you really made me love you like a little sister. I just know, somehow, if ya'd lived…we would've become great friends. You had a lot to learn…and nowhere near enough time to learn it.

Anna Marie…Rogue.

Rogue…Anna Marie, all I can say is… if there is an "afterlife" out there, I hope yer finally at peace. Finally able to touch someone…even though, ironically, ya "touched" everyone around ya every single day that ya lived. I'll always miss ya, darlin'.

"There you are," Storm's said from close behind as she approached riding the winds like the elemental mutant she was. "I've been looking for you, Logan."

"Well, sweetheart, ya found me," said Logan while making certain that tears no longer dominated his eyes. "What's up? Somebody stub a toe?"

"Look, Logan," Ororo said as the winds she controlled allowed her to touch down as majestically as an eagle, "I know how you feel about them. About what happened. I feel the same way. But, no matter how much you torture yourself…no matter how much I torture myself…there was simply nothing we could've done to prevent this. One thing's for sure, though: they died as X-Men."

"Yeah, so you and Scott and Warren keep tellin' me," said Wolverine after flipping away the nearly-gone cigar. "But none of ya are as geared toward sniffin' out the enemy like me, 'ro. I should've known those bastards were comin' long before they got within strikin' range."

"Logan…"

"What'd ya want with me, anyway? I ain't got no classes today."

Finally remembering the reason for seeking out their resident warrior, Storm said, "We have some new mutants…new candidates for the X-Men. And, Goddess knows…"

Ororo Munroe didn't need to finish that statement, as both looked over the line of cenotaphs marking the graves of the dead who'd been under her command and, so Logan believed, under Wolverine's protection.

"No matter who they are or what they can do," said Wolverine as he stalked off, "they ain't never gonna replace the real X-Men."

Ororo Munroe took her seat behind Professor X's old desk, even as Logan stood to one side with arms folded in pure Alpha-male fashion. Eyes narrowed. Senses heightened.

"As you may or may not know," said Ororo by way of introduction, "I am code-named Storm and Logan is better known as Wolverine. And, as you also may or may not know, about a week ago the group known as the X-Men fought off a group of militant mutants calling themselves The House of M…formed by followers of Magneto and Mystique, after both lost their mutant abilities. Save for myself, Wolverine, Cyclops, or Scott Summers as many of you know him, and Angel, Warren Worthington III…whose personal fortune, by the way, is what has kept this school alive …there are no more X-Men. Which is where, hopefully, you come in."

The small gathering of mutants who, in Storm's opinion, were mature enough, emotionally as well as their ability to use and control their mutant abilities, to truly be X-Men material.

Storm opened the hardcopy files before her in order to read aloud their real names, their mutant abilities, and, lastly, anoint each with a power-specific X-Man codename.

"First up: David Alleyne. Mutant ability: to absorb and mimic the knowledge, personal as well as skilled, of any person or persons nearby. Care to show what you mean, David?"

David Alleyne, by way of proving himself, leveled his dark eyes, first, at Ororo Munroe a.k.a. Storm…

Speaking in the exact same tone containing the actual emotion and, also, the same facial affectations as the mutant mistress of the elements, David said, "My mother was N'Dare, Kenyan princess…my father was David Munroe. Both were murdered before my eyes when we were in Egypt and I…I was buried under tons of rubble! As a result, I…I can't stand…to be…in tight spaces. I may command the winds…summon the rain…manipulate the lightning…but grief and fear…are always close at hand…oh, Goddess!"

Literally overcome by such absorbed memories and emotions, David Alleyne quickly shifted his mutant power from Ororo Munroe, now on the verge of tears, to the poker-faced Logan in order to take what was needed from that X-man's turbulent thoughts.

Needless to say, Wolverine wasn't happy with such a psionic intrusion.

"My name is…," David said in the snarling voice instantly recognizable as belonging to the X-Man known as Wolverine, "… James Howlett, but I…I go by…Logan. A name chosen…because of a poor boy called…'Dog' Logan…who, while I was a boy…in 19th Century Alberta, Canada…"

"That's enough, smart guy!" said Wolverine as a Snikt! sound signaled the release of razor-sharp adamantium claws from the back of one hand.

"S-sorry," stammered handsome young black mutant, not yet practiced enough to rein in his mutant ability when necessary.

"Not bad," said Storm with a nod, then added,. "David Alleyne…your X-Man codename is: Prodigy. Next we have…"

Even as Storm fumbled with the files laid out before her, the next mutant spoke up in a voice thick with an Irish accent, "Sean Cassidy's me name, darlin'."

While Storm stifled an amused smirk, Wolverine snarled, "A little discipline there, Sean! What's your mutant ability, bub?"

A smug look quickly appeared on a face framed by red hair, muttonchops, and bushy eyebrows, Sean Cassidy opened his mouth to unleash the smallest example of his mutant ability...

"Okay, okay!" shouted a grimacing Storm, while lifting a single hand in surrender even as nearby glass objects shattered. "Enough, Sean! Enough!"

"Damn!" said Wolverine, as his enhanced hearing caused him to screw his face into a feral mask. "Let's make his codename Loudmouth, 'ro."

"No…," Storm said while thinking on the subject, "I think…Banshee should suffice."

Even as the Banshee puffed out his chest in pride, Storm proceeded, "All right…Alison Blaire. It says here that you convert sound into light energy of various intensity. Can you elaborate on that?"

Pulling a speaker-equipped MP3 player from her purse, Alison proceeded to demonstrate via a lively disco-type selection, which Wolverine definitely didn't enjoy. Of course, it was still an improvement over Banshee's super-shriek.

Having gotten to her feet, Alison Blaire commenced dancing in such a way that allowed the beautiful mutant to literally transform the fast-beat music into solidified light shapes.

"Dazzler," said Storm while writing such upon the young woman's file.

Wolverine harrumphed, "Could've used ya when Banshee opened that mouth o' his."

"'preciate the nod, lad," said Banshee with a nod and a wink that caused a groan to issue forth from Wolverine as well as the rolling of his squinting eyes.

"And, finally," said Storm, looking over the final file, "Wanda…"

"Maximoff," quickly said the lovely lady with a voice that was sexy, and smooth. "If it's all right, Storm, I would like to pick my own code-name…Scarlet Witch."

Storm and Wolverine shot puzzled looks at one another, then Storm asked, "And what is it you do, uh, Scarlet Witch? It's not in your file."

Suddenly, a sardonic gleam shimmered in Scarlet Witch's eyes, followed by a devilish smirk as she stood, with arms and hands in an obviously practiced pose, in order to allow crimson energies of unknown mutant power levels to crackle about all of them in a manner that raised the hackles on the back of Wolverine's neck.

"I don't like this, 'ro," snarled Wolverine, as he allowed the adamantium claws from both hands to extend with a double Snikt!

"I know what you mean," said Storm as she now stood, even as Cyclops came bursting into Professor X's former office.

"We've got trouble, guys!" he said with enough tension to immediately make even the newer X-Men leap to their feet. "Look outside!"

Scarlet Witch still smirked over what her mutant power was doing, while the rest stared out the bay window overlooking the backyard area and those stately cenotaphs.

"Christ on a cracker!" said Wolverine with a snarl as they approached.

"Magneto and Mystique?" said Storm, even as her beautiful dark eyes became white with the rise of her own mutant powers. "But they lost their powers."

"If these are the new members," said Cyclops to his two fellow established X-Men, while tossing a thumb in the direction of the newbies, "I suggest they get ready for their first major battle."

"Let's rock, bub!"

END OF CHAPTER 1