Chapter 2: Mission Briefing
By: PittsBurghFuzz
After Xavier made the X-Men aware of the meeting, his team got into their uniforms, and went to the meeting room. In the meeting room, were Cyclops, Storm, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Wolverine, Beast, Shadow Cat, and Jean Grey, awaiting the professor's orders.
"What's up professor?" Cyclops asked with enthusiasm.
"Teacher's pet." Shadow Cat whispered to Nightcrawler, and both laughed.
"Kurt! Kate!" Storm said loudly.
"Sorry." Nightcrawler said.
"Alright then Xavier, what the hell's goin' on?" Wolverine asked, in an annoyed tone.
"Well, Logan, I would be happy to explain." Xavier said to Logan. "Now, I believe you are all aware of what happened last night in Paris, right?"
"Yeah, with that murder?" Jean asked.
Xavier nodded. "Yes. Interestingly enough, Cerebro detected a most interesting mutant."
"Do you mean that-" Beast asked.
"Yes Hank, the murderer was the same mutant I have found." Xavier told Beast.
"So are we going to take him back here for justice?" Shadow Cat asked.
"No. Don't forget, he's in France, not America." Xavier reminded Shadow Cat.
"Okay then, what do you want us to do?" Storm asked.
"Well Storm, I wanted to see if we could recruit this mutant for the team."
Rogue was in the corner of the room, leaning on the wall. "What powers does he have?" she asked.
"Good question Rogue, and that is why I want a few of you to go to the Garnier and investigate." Xavier told the team. "Storm, you are going to lead the team, and as for the rest..." Xavier was thinking of which team members to assign on this mysterious mission. "Alright then, as for your subordinates, I want Rogue, Kate, Jean, and Cyclops to go on the mission."
The five members of the team went to the Blackbird and buckled their seat belts. It took not very long to get to Paris, and they landed on top of a building, with the ship's cloaking device on, along with the hover mode set, so the building wouldn't collapse. The students and Storm put on regular clothing and exited the Blackbird.
"Alright then, everyone ready?" Storm asked.
They all nodded.
"Good, now the professor has bought us tickets to see an opera, so we can get into the Garnier easier."
"So what show are we seeing?" Cyclops asked.
"Scott, we are seeing Faust." Storm told him.
"What?" Shadow Cat asked.
Storm shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know what it is, but that really doesn't matter right now, we have to get dinner now. Who's hungry?"
All of the students nodded.
"Alright then, let's get down here. Kate? Can you get us down?"
"Sure." Shadow Cat held on to everybody, and they went through the ceiling and got into an abandoned building.
"Is this building supposed to be abandoned?" Rogue asked.
Storm nodded. "Yes, which is why we landed here, so that Kate's powers are not as easily seen. Now if I am correct, there is a door leading to an alleyway-Ah-hah!" Storm pointed to a door. The five of them exited the building, and entered a dark alleyway. After the alleyway, they saw the busy streets of Paris, and its beautiful buildings and architecture.
"Paris, isn't it beautiful Scott?" Jean asked.
"Indeed." Cyclops said to Jean. They shared a kiss.
Rogue saw this and her eyes were teary. None of them saw, her but she thought it was obvious that she was upset. Rogue was remembering when Gambit was killed by the Brotherhood several months ago. Since then, she tried a relationship with Bobby(Iceman) but that fell apart. Rogue was convinced that love would never cross her again. They had dinner at some place called Pierre's. The food was fairly good, but very expensive. At 6:30, the five mutants went to the Garnier early to look around. They could not believe how beautiful the building was. The staircase was nothing less than marvelous, and the statues on top of the building were spectacular. Rogue had seen the 1925 version of "The Phantom of the Opera", and she could just picture Lon Chaney with his Red Death costume, blazing red, and swearing vengeance against Raoul de Chagny. They went into the auditorium and saw the mighty chandelier. It looked so huge, that one would be afraid if it were to come crashing down. Jean was taking pictures in the building, for memory purposes as well as to pretend she was taking pictures for a news paper. Even with murder in Garnier, the show was still going to play that night.
"Is that Box Five?" Shadow Cat asked.
"Yes, they have it closed off for investigation purposes." Cyclops told her.
The team did not have a complicated plan. Storm and Shadow Cat were going to stay in their seats, waiting for Rogue, Jean, and Cyclops to perform their half of the job, which was to find the mutant. At 7:45, the show was fifteen minutes away from starting. Kate and Storm were sitting by the orchestra, while Jean and Scott sat in a box together. Rogue was in the standing area. She liked that idea because she was away from the rest of the group. She thought that Scott and Jean shouldn't be here, or at least one of the two should have been home. Rogue couldn't stand their constant smooching. At 8:15, Rogue and Shadow Cat exited the theater area, and went back to the main lobby. They heard laughing.
"Who was that?" Kate asked.
"I don't know, but I bet we're gonna kind out." Rogue replied.
The maniacal laughter continued. It sounded like that of a man in his forties or fifties. Then, the unexpected happened.
"She's singing to bring down the chandelier!" the voice called out.
Rogue and Kate went back to the theater area and saw the mighty chandelier shaking. The huge chandelier finally crashed down onto the audience, undoubtedly killing at least one person. People were rushing out of the theater, and Kate took hold of Rogue, and the moving masses of humans, phased through them like ghosts. Rogue and Kate then went to the old Prima Donna's room, to hide from the people. Scott and Jean met them there.
"Did you see the chandelier?" Jean asked.
"Yeah! Do you think the mutant did it?" Kate asked.
"Maybe, let's find an entrance to the cellars and find out." Scott suggested. All of the team but Rogue ran out of the room. Rogue found something very peculiar. There seemed to be a lever on the mirror in front of her. She slid the lever, and the mirror slid to the side, revealing an entrance. Rogue did not know what it was, but she tried it anyway. The mirror closed behind her. Rogue walked forward, until she got to a staircase three minutes later. The staircase seemed to last forever, but in all honesty, it really didn't.
