X Men: Redemption
Issue 4
Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters
Westchester, New York
10:21 a.m.
Jon's chest rose and fell with relaxed breaths. He was stretched out in the small bed, Britnie's frame curled up under the large man's out-stretched arm. Arriving from the fight in Colorado, Britnie had been placed in the Med Lab, two of her ribs bruised. Jon hadn't gone to bed. He waited in the Lab, then, once she was clear, he climbed next to her as careful as he could. Brushing her air from her eyes, she never woke up. He was out in seconds.
The fluorescence lights of the lab were bright as she awoke, the soft pain in her side gradually building as her senses rejoined her mind. Britnie had been unconscious since the collision. Moving her head from side to side, Jon's large body was lying next to her, one of his legs hanging off the edge. His arm was arched over her, his head running parallel. Britnie smirked, knowing he was going to have a neck ache. She slid herself over, making room in the hospital bed for the six-two sleeping bear. A small bit of pain electrified her side, but she ignored it.
Britnie leaned over and whispered into Jon's ear. "Scoot this way, Silly."
"Yup."
He never opened his eyes, sliding over and keeping the same position. She kissed his cheek and leaned her head into his chest, tucking her numerous brunette curls to the side.
Xavier's Office
11:03 a.m.
"This is the largest damage done to an American City since the 9/11 attacks. The President and his Cabinet are in overdrive while the Pentagon is still searching for a culprit to the buildings' destruction. Everyone is in agreement. Since the attacks happened during the evening hours, the casualties were minimal, however unacceptable. The President is set to address the nation at noon."
The reporters voice continued behind looping video of the Republic Plaza and Qwest Tower mysteriously crumbling upon themselves in Downtown Denver. Xavier looked at the television, shaking his head.
"It was James." He stayed glued to the flat screen, in his office.
Scott, Warren and Ororo sat on the couch and arm chair, watching the news. Scott spoke up.
"Professor, about what we talked about. Do you think we should tell the rest of the X Men… one in particular?"
Xavier looked at Scott, then back to the television. "That time is approaching fast."
"Why would Robert James do this? To what end?" Warren frowned, concentration furrowing his brow.
"Perhaps a test. Surely a mutation used to that magnitude would leave a signature." Ororo turned from answering Warren to the Professor.
"Indeed." Xavier lowered the volume of the television and faced his friends.
"Was it…" Scott held out a hand, the answer to the question already in his hand.
Charles nodded. "Yes. I am trying to find out why she would do something like this."
Student Kitchen
12:56 p.m.
Karinn sat, a bowl of soup almost empty in front of her. Val sat across the large dining table.
"You said she is doing well, though?" Karinn looked to the dark-red head.
Val nodded. "Everything was A-okay when I left this afternoon. Jon stayed with her all night."
The blonde Karinn smiled, looking down to her bowl, moving her spoon around the floating rice and carrots in the beef stock. "He's a really good guy. His whole bad-ass attitude is fake, I think."
Val giggled. "To a point, yeah." She had just finished tearing and eating a frozen pizza. "You remember, in the cafeteria that night, when Jon and Britnie were all cowards about how they felt? Everyone knew. What a bunch of derps"
A pathetic, but agreeable snicker fell out of Karinn's mouth. "Yeah…" It faded, like she hadn't even meant to say it.
"What is it, Karinn?" Val picked up on her tone.
"Nothing."
She rinsed her bowl, waved, and left the kitchen.
Skies above the School
1: 23 p.m.
The wind wrapped around him like a tunnel of warm cotton, the sun giving the air an odd warmth this time of year. Clouds twirled around his frame as he cut through the center of large banks, his mutation creating a small vacuum of wind behind his stretched body. Drake's face stared forward, pupils evolved to fly with wind blowing in them. He didn't even have to blink. Up here in the sky, he felt close to her. It was where he went to think and reflect.
After his medical release, protocol after a skirmish, he jumped into some basketball shorts and a muscle tee, walking outside and erupted skyward into the warmth of the noon sun. It was high sixties in New York and he stayed in the direct sunlight, feeling warmer as he "blended." The black of his skin absorbed the sun better than the light peach of his normal pigment. For almost an hour and a half, Drake mixed clouds around in the sky.
It is a very nice day he thought, talking in his head as though a telepath was listening. He looked down at his hands, his body spiraling, making the sun born on earth and the earth in the heavens.
Between his hands.
That is where she would be when they would fly.
You would like flying today. His eyes delayed as he blinked.
Cerebro Chamber
2:01 p.m.
Charles rolled up to the silver pedestal. The previous two times he had used this, he had sent his teams into harm's way. Right now, he was here for a different reason. Not intel. He had gathered plenty of that. With the destruction of the towers, Charles Xavier was now in the need to confirm one fact.
"Initiate."
His voice echoed in the orb of mirrors. The amplification helmet was secured with a strap to his head. Closing his eyes, the world dropped further and further away. Suddenly, a new world of swirling lights and deep darkness twisted this way and that. The Void was everywhere. Under his feet, Xavier stood with a floor of glass, glittering with every color imaginable. The Astral Plain.
Globules of cloud moved with erratic motion, passing through his body, then pausing. Charles reached out with his mind, assembling and organizing his own bunches of cloud before him in three different bunches.
In the first, he opened a viewing portal to his team leaders, waiting outside of the Cerebro Chamber. The middle cloud, he left blank. The third, he gazed into like a child at a magic-eye picture. In rippled, flashed with red, then gold.
Nothing.
"I didn't think it that easy... well…" Charles rubbed his head, smoothing hair if there was some left from his mutation. "One more time."
White cloud rippled before Xavier, his eyes focused on the floating mass of air. It expanded, then collapsed on itself. Shaping into some kind of doughnut, the visible air accelerated in its motion, creating a circle of spiraling force. It froze, then solidified into a visible surface, its exterior like water.
Outside of the Astral Plain, Charles clenched his eyes, sweat beads collecting and striping down his forehead. His brow was contorted, yet stoic in the presence of the soft tickling from the perspiration.
As Charles Xavier stood, staring at the surface of the third cloud formation, lightning bolts flashed around him, lighting up the glass and cloudy sky inside the Plain. Then he saw her, finally tracking down her psychic signature.
The cloud exploded with seismic force, spider-cracks splitting the floor. Charles remained still, motionless in his study as she moved around. At first, all he saw was her dark hair and eyes, looking and moving as she continued her actions. Since the attacks on Colorado, she was visible. Whatever form of cloaking she had used was pointless. She looked unaware to Charles presence. He kept it that way.
"What are you doing?" The cloud was red and glowing as its subject of viewing was potent with psychic radiation. "What is he doing with you?"
Charles focused, trying to establish a surrounding for her working frame. Nothing again. His eyes focused on her, the entirety of her body visible, yet silhouetted. Shocking the Professor, she was seized, terror in her eyes. Anything other than her was soaked in Void, but Xavier could make out the shapes. She was strapped to a table. She was screaming, yelling. His heart sank, despair making him holler in silent rage.
Motivation grabbed him, his mind concentrating on focusing on her backdrop. The Psychic Cloaking Device she wore made it nearly impossible to solidify a lock on her location, so Charles was forced to draw clues from yet another impossible source to give shape to.
Then she began to cry. To weep.
The connection to her strong, Charles felt tears streaming from his face.
With black eyeliner smearing and melted, she finally noticed his presence, locking eyes with him from the cloud-viewer.
"Help!"
She cried.
The cloud erupted, the shockwave sending Xavier to his back, cracking the floor further. Wiping tears from his eyes, his real body mirroring his action, Charles turned to the first cloud.
"Assemble in the Briefing Room. All Teams. Right now." His voice was soft and concentrated, as only Charles Xavier could do.
He saw Scott and Ororo nod, them and Warren turning and disappearing from the viewer. It too, dissipated.
Then, he looked to the middle viewer, it's abstract but visible cloud spiraling. It stopped, solidifying and flattening like the third, the surface like water. Xavier focused all his Psychic energy, knowing this was the hardest of the tasks. He needed to find Robert James's next attack. Sweat beaded. Stress made the veins in his head large, rising to the surface of his skull.
James appeared in the middle viewer, his face smirking. He was a talking head, eyes bearing down on the Professor.
"Charles Xavier. What can I do for you?"
Xavier glared. "Robert, you have committed a dreadful trespass to my family."
James laughed. It was the sick, twisted, genuine laugh of a monster. "Family? What kind of family abandons and buries one of their own?"
"I am not here to play games." Xavier knew Robert James, had delved into the man's psyche, and really knew him. He exploited the Technopath's weakness. "If you consider yourself a gentleman like me, tell me. What are you planning?"
Another disgusting laugh. "Charles. Even if I wanted to play your games, I simply do not have the time." The eyebrows on his face slanted, mocking concern for his plot.
"Robert, I will not ask again. When you choose to deceive me and my family, no soul can prepare you for what will happen." Xavier clenched both of his Astral fists.
James shook his head, all signs of humor vanished. "Hollow threats. You and that other telepath's ignorance has caused this. I know her mutation. I know her better than you. I am her family!"
Xavier walked to the talking head, inches from the cloud-viewer. "Why was she weeping, James?"
"None of your concern, Charles." His sadistic grin reappeared. "Does it annoy you, seeing me treat her the way you treat your precious X Men? I am simply open about it."
Charles yelled, fury making the veins appear again. "Enough of this!"
Robert James chuckled, deep and boisterous. "Good bye, Charles. I hope to see you again real soon."
Before his head vanished, Charles saw what he had been after the entire exchange.
Briefing Room
2:33 p.m.
Val, Kurt and Rogue were the first ones to assemble, joining Warren, Scott and Ororo. They made small talk as Peter, Kitty, Jubilee and Logan walked in. Karinn and Bobby sauntered in, Karinn giggling her flirtatious snicker at something he said.
Scott spoke up. "Until Jon, Britnie and Drake get here, let's split into our groups."
Logan rolled his eyes.
On one wall, Scott, Rogue, Kurt, Jubilee and Val stood, Team Alpha all present. Across from the door, the Computer-Table in the center of the room, along the back wall Ororo, Peter, and Kitty waited for Drake and Britnie. To the right, Warren motioned for Karinn and Bobby to move. He only glanced at Logan.
"Alright, Pretty Boy." Wolverine moved from next to the door. "We're not in the field so don't think you can boss me around." His bestial voice was always a jarring event.
The door slid open, Jon and Britnie walked in holding hands. They paused looking at the groups. Jon nodded, walking toward Team Gamma but gently pulling Britnie with him.
"Jon!" Ororo, Kurt and Rogue smiled at Britnie's protest. Scott sighed, folding his arms.
He expelled air as a laugh, letting her go and standing next to Bobby and Karinn. Britnie hurried over to Ororo, Peter and Kitty.
"How are you feeling?" Peter smiled at Britnie.
She nodded. "Very good, thanks to you I hear."
Peter grinned. "We are семьи." Britnie cocked an eyebrow, Peter nodding his head. "A family."
She hopped up and kissed his cheek, then stood next to him and Kitty.
Bobby laughed. "You gonna take that from Tin Man, Matchstick?"
Jon laughed, slugging Bobby in the arm.
Scott looked around, his ruby shades void of direction. "Where is Drake?"
"I could not find him." Ororo looked at him, stepping toward the Table. "I told the professor and he contacted him about the meeting."
Scott nodded.
The massive door screeched, springing to life then sliding away as Professor Xavier rolled into the room. "Hello everyone. I have much to say and little time."
Fourteen heads nodded.
Lower Level Halls
2:39 p.m.
Drake flew, not setting his foot down as he turned in the polished floor of the halls between the various rooms under the Mansion. The Briefing Room door was open. He blew in, landing only when he flew over to Team Beta.
Everyone was silent, gazing at him.
"I know. Sorry I'm late. I was upwards of one-k in the air so forgive my tardiness." Drake changed his tone sarcastic.
No one moved. It was like he became to the first male gorgon, finding out too late as he turned the entire room to stone.
"Everyone okay?"
He glanced around. Next to him, Kitty and Britnie were in tears. Across the room, Val, Jubilee and Karinn were also wiping red-stained eyes.
"What the hell is going on, Professor?" Drake moved his head, his eyes catching up and locking gazes with Xavier.
Charles rolled over to Drake, stopping in front of him. "I told everyone some very good news."
"They're crying?" Drake shrugged.
The Professor stared. "Drake, Loren is alive."