Chapter 1: Mission Failed
*This was it. Finally a mission without none of the original Xmen, time for us to take a stand.* Rogue's thoughts as she, alongside Bobby "Iceman", Kitty "Shadowcat", and Bryce "Slater" slowly approached the building they had been scoping for the past 3 hours. Nothing moved, inside or out. Rogue glanced at Bobby who had been watching her. He nodded and they split into two teams herself and Bryce taking the west side, Bobby and Kitty the east. Rogue felt a little gnawing on her heart as she thought about completing their first real mission away from her boyfriend's side, but the thought was dismissed as Kitty's face filled her head. They'd been hanging out a lot lately…Rogue had no one to blame but herself and her mutation. Who could be a 19 boy with a girlfriend he couldn't touch? Bobby had options…she didn't. Suddenly Bryce grabbed her arm hard and pulled her down to the ground with him. Lost in thought, she'd almost walked in front of the window. She felt a heavy blush began to rise and Bryce's stone gray eyes on her. "Something on your mind?" his voice was deep. He was a good 3 years older than the rest of them but fell into their group more than he did the Xmen. "Sorta-" she began but he cut her off. "Thoughts about Bobby and Kitty can affect your mind later. Now, I need you to have a clear head. Understand?" she lowered her eyes and nodded, then felt a warm hand on her chin as he lifted her head. "Good, we have company." As if on cue, lights blazed from the window as well as raised voices.
"How could you let her get away?" ….there was a pause. "Well, which way was she headed?"…there was a small female voice that sounded in the silence that followed the bellowing of the man on the phone. Rogue took a deep breath and peeked her head up to the window. They were lucky, they got the bedroom. There was a small woman in the bed rubbing the sleep from her eyes and a large man who's face was red from screaming in the phone was pacing the length of the room. Rogue sat back down and breathed deep again. "What are we doing here?" Bryce whispered but kept his eyes on the scene in front of him. "Some papers. The Professor is following these scientists…he thinks they are mutating mutants…" Rogue felt a chill go up her spin. The voices were lowered now. Rogue took another breath and peeked back in through the window. The man was now furiously packing; his wife (assumed) was sittin in the bed with a confused look across her features as her husband explained his reasoning for packing up in the middle of the night. Behind them there was a rustle in the bushes. Both mutants turned simultaneously and took their stances for danger. They heard his angry cursing before they saw his face and rolled their eyes. "You're late." Rogue whispered furiously. John St. Allerdyce "Pyro" only shrugged and shook his wild hair out of his eyes. "You're also not in uniform," Bryce observed. John only laughed and crouched next to them shrugging in his leather jacket. "Ain't miss nothing, and those uniforms are lame. I got my own style." Rogue rolled her eyes, "Yea a biker boy reject's style..." she sniffed a couple times, "Have you been drinking?" John ignored that question (more like accusation) and nodded towards the window. "Like I said. Ain't miss much. People are sleep." Bryce's eyebrows lowered and they looked back towards the window. It was dark inside. "Something's wrong…" Rogue whispered. "Yea tell me about it. Time to phone in." Bryce tapped his ear. "Ice, tell Cat to let us in. We're coming around to the door now." There was a pause, "Yea, the arsonist is tipsy but he's present."
They met Bobby by the door. "Kitty should be getting it for us in a sec, where were you?" he aimed his question to his now attentive best friend. John shrugged, "Out for a couple drinks mom, what's it to you? I still made it didn't i?" before Bobby could answer, anger registering on his face, the door silently opened. From the dim street lights, they could see her face was drawn strange. "What's wrong," Bobby whispered, temporarily forgetting about John. Kitty just stepped away from the door into the shadows. As soon as they entered the house the smell hit them. Bryce took a sharp intake of breath and silently crossed the house to the room they had been watching. Even John tensed up as he pushed the door open, and flicked on the light. "Oh my…" Rogue felt everything she'd eaten today come up at the ghastly scene in front of her. The woman lay in the bed amidst a sea of blood… the man lay halfway in his suitcase half on the floor. And the window was open. "How did this happen.." Kitty breathed. Rogue forgot about her. She turned to comfort the younger girl to see that she had already taken refuge in Bobby's arms. Rogue bit down anger and walked over to the window as Bryce inspected the bodies. "Their throats were ripped out. Some sort of animal." John finally stepped into the room over to where Rogue was standing by the window. Rogue shook her head, "Not an animal unless they have human hands to open this window." Bobby looked up from Kitty's hair at once. "Ok. Plans changed. Search the house, fast, find the papers and we report back to the Professor everyone got it?" "Uh Commander," John's voice sounded from outside. During Bobby's speech, he'd climbed through. He held some strips of ripped paper through the window. "Looks like our mission has failed." He said as Rogue handed them to Bobby. Bobby stepped away from Kitty. "I…I don't understand." From outside John heard sirens in the distance. "I understand. A mutant did this. There are tracks leading into the forest, they couldn't have gotten far. We could still-" "No." Bobby cut him off. "No. We report this back to the Professor." There was silence. Then John poked his head in the window again. "You report to the Professor. I was late for this mission anyway, I'll start my own." "John! Wait!" they heard his laughter as he disappeared into the night.