AN: Thanks for the reviews!
Max woke up groggily to find herself in a dimly lit room with her mouth gagged and her hands and feet bound together in a chair. On the side of her, Kurt was in the same predicament and was unconscious with some weird collar around his neck. She groaned as she felt pain surge throughout her body as she moved slightly. Whoever and whatever had overwhelmed her had no qualms about being brutally violent with her. She could feel a stinging cut above her right eye and judging from the swelling she felt in her bottom lip, she knew she had been roughed up pretty bad. Her skull felt like it was on fire, and it took everything in her not to cry out in pain.
She blinked back tears as she felt a wave of nausea wash over smell in the room was rank and overwhelming. It was a familiar smell that she had smelled on more then one occasion in Gotham City. The smell was of death. She suddenly got this horrible sinking feeling in her gut. She was going to die. She had no idea as to where she was, and no one knew where she was and she was powerless to escape. She choked back a sob as tears poured down her face. She wish she would have listened to Terry for once. He had always warned her that one day she was going to get in over her head and he wouldn't be able to get to her in time to protect her. This was that day, and now she was going to learn what the grave consequences were for blindly trying to be a heroine.
"Get it together girl. This is not the time or place to be feeling sorry for yourself. You got yourself into this mess, and now it's time to get yourself out of it," she scolded herself silently.
Her self motivation did the trick as her tears quickly faded and the fear she had felt moments earlier was replaced by a determination to stay alive. She tugged against the ropes that held her arms in place, but they had been tied securely and she didn't see a way out of her binds without help. She moved her feet to try to wiggle out of her ankle restraints when her bare foot touched something large, wet and stiff laying on the floor. The smell of whatever it was smelled foul and was rotting and nearly caused her to vomit. It took her a second to realize that there was a dead body in the room and whoever it was had been dead for awhile. Inhaling sharply she closed her eyes and tried to focus on staying not only calm, but conscious. The pain in her head was getting worse and she wasn't sure how much longer she would be able to hold on.
Suddenly the door to the room opened causing the dark room to be bathed in a bright light, briefly halting her attempt to escape. Two figures walked across the threshold, and Max recognized one as being Anna and the other one was the creepy looking blue creature from the beach. The creature placed Anna in a chair next to Max's and tied her up as well. Again, Max was puzzled at the collar that the girl was wearing around her neck that resembled Kurt's.
"Why is she here? She ain't like us. Let her go," Anna snapped once she had caught a glance of Maxine.
"Rogue listen to me. Taking her was not apart of the mission. We had no other choice but to take the girl because she intervened when we came to get your brother," Mystique explained gently.
"Mission? What mission? What the hell is going on here, Mystique?" Anna demanded.
Mystique smiled patiently.
"The x men are fighting a losing war! They don't care about you. They only want to exploit you. Charles is manipulating you and your brother! He knows that it's a mere fool's dream to ever believe that humans and mutants could ever co exist. Eric is wise enough to see that the only way for our kind to keep evolving and become superior is to declare war on the humans and not stop until they are all eliminated," she explained.
Max felt fear creep her spine as she listened to the blue woman speak. Who were these people? Why were they talking about mutants and what exactly were they planning to do to kill off the human race? None of this was making any sense to her.
"Let us go. Kurt and Ah don't want nothin' to do with you, Creed or that psycho of a boss you work for, Magneto," she hissed evenly.
"I cannot do that, darling. Besides, you are much safer here. After we execute our plan, we will no longer have to worry about the interference of the xmen and our kind will be able to finally embrace our true nature without having to hide from prosecution of bigots and hate groups," she said firmly.
Anna burst into tears and lowered her head defeated.
"Mystique, please. Ah have never asked you for nothin' before. Ah am beggin you not to do this. Do not kill mah friends. Do not kill innocent people,"she pleaded tearfully.
The blue creature smiled tenderly and reached out and gently touched Anna's cheek affectionately.
"Daughter, you have no idea of how many times I have yearned to touch you. It would not be possible if it wasn't for this collar. It suppresses your abilities. You are special girl and with your abilities you will no longer just be a goddess among mortal men. You will be with those of your equal. I am only doing what I think is best for us. You may not see it now, but what we are doing is ensuring a peaceful future for the next generation,"she murmured gently.
Suddenly the conversation was interrupted by an elderly man with gray hair and cold steelly eyes abruptly walking into the room. Mystique quickly pulled her hand away from the girl as if she had just been caught doing something wrong.
"It is time, Mystique. Call Creed and have him meet me us at our point of attack. Once we obliterate this country we will move to our next target...America. The eve of the mutant revolution is upon us. It is time to take our place as superiors to the pathetic human race," he smiled darkly.
"Mystique, no! Don't do this," Anna screamed after the woman frantically.
The door slammed closed leaving the two girls and Kurt alone in the room once more.
After a long moment of silence, Anna spoke again.
"Thank you for tryin' to save my brother. Ah am sorry that you got dragged into all this," she said, her southern lace voice filled wth regret.
Max smiled weakly.
"We have to get out of here and warn the authorities," the pink haired girl said struggling against her binds once more.
Anna shook her head sadly.
"It ain't gonna do any good. Those three are capable of reeking terror that not even the local authorities can fight against," she said dully.
Max frowned.
"We still have to try. We can't just sit back and let those psycho's hurt and kill innocent people. I have my friends out there! I have...," she broke off flushing as she realized she was about to say Terry's name.
He had kissed her and they haven't even had time to talk about what the kiss meant. She didn't want to die before she knew how he truly felt about her, and she didn't want to die before she was able to tell him how she truly felt about him. It comforted her somewhat to know that once he realized that she was missing, he would do everything in his power to find her. However she wasn't the type of girl to wait around to be rescued.
"You are right. We can at least try," Anna said firmly after observing her unconscious brother for a long moment.
The two girls exchanged a smile before they began to try to free themselves from the rope that imprisoned them. Anna was the first to get free and after untying the rope from around her feet, she rushed over to Max and began to work on her binds. Acting quickly, the southern girl lifted a thick blade of glass off the floor before she began cutting through the rope. As Max waited to be free, she began to contemplate her next move. They would have to grab Kurt and escape as quickly as possible before whoever had abducted them came back to hurt them or worse. On top of that, she heard that there was an attack going to be carried out against the people of Cancun and she had to warn Terry. Knowing that he was in danger made her resolve to escape more stronger.
She had to survive long enough to warn him. She just had to...
**********************************
"Sir, I just need to know if you have seen these two girls. They were abducted earlier this evening during a social event and any information that you may have will be very helpful to us."
Jean watched hopefully as the restaurant owner took a moment to observe the pictures of the students she was holding in her hands. Gambits team had just spent the past hour in the city searching for the missing students with no luck.
The man looked over the rim of his thick black glasses and shook his head with a smirk.
"Lo siento. The chica's are very bonita as you are, senorita. Are you sure they aren't out and about experiencing the magic of Mexico with some charming Don Juan? " he asked winking.
Jean fought hard to keep her temper in check but the truth was she was quickly becoming highly annoyed with this man along with all the other business patrons she had been questioning all evening about the abductions. So far the responses had ranged from some snarky remarks about the physical appearance of the two teen girls to just plain nonchalance. It amazed her how completely complacent people were when it came to the abductions.
"Do you know anything or not?" Jubilee managed to ask between her clenched teeth as she took the the photo's from Jean and pushed the picture further in the native Mexiacan's face.
His face darkened with anger.
"Listen gringos, I don't know anything about those broads missing and if you ask me I don't think you should be wasting your time searching for them. Every year American girls come down to good ol' Mexico for a good time and either get shit faced drunk and wind up dead or falsely cry rape against the good men of this country. Now you better get out of here or I will call el policia," he said his voice dripping with venom.
"You listen here, jerk," Jubilee started angrily.
Remy quickly intervened.
"Sorry t' have bothered you, mon ami," he apologized before ushering his team out of the back alley of the restaurant.
Jubilation Lee grumbled an obscenity at the man, glaring at him witheringly before stalking off across the street.
"Punta," he yelled after her with malice.
Angry she turned around and threw a handful of colorful fireworks in his direction causing the over sized dumpster to explode drenching him in the rank garbage.
"Jubilee," Remy chidded, his southern voice laced with a mixture of amusement and disapproval.
"Sorry," she mumbled.
Jubilee knew that the display was nothing less then juvenile and immature, but she couldn't help herself.
Jean, however, was not amused at all.
"Jubilee, that was completely uncalled for. We are held to a higher standard and by sinking to that level, you not only reflect badly on yourself, but you reflect badly on this team. I get that you are just a junior member, but little stunts like that will guarantee that you will spend more time suspended from the team then active," she said coolly.
Bobby quickly intervened.
"Don't you think that you are being a little harsh, Jean? I mean it wasn't like the jerk didn't deserve it," he protested.
Jean narrowed her eyes at the Iceman annoyed.
"It doesn't matter, Drake. Our friends and fellow team mates are missing and we should be focused on trying to find them instead of getting even with a civilian," she argued.
Gambit opened his mouth to interject, but Jubilee cut him off.
"Give it a rest, Jean. You don't have to act like you are Ms. Perfect, and last time I checked you weren't the captain of this team. Gambit is," she snapped.
Remy stepped between the two girls quickly before things had the chance to escalate.
Easy, padnats. Remy gets dat we are all tense and want to find Kurt, Anna and Max, but we can't effectively do that when we are at each other throats. Jubilee, Jean is right," he started.
"Great, you are taking her side!" Jubilee cried angrily.
"Jubes, wait," Gambit tried.
Jubilee ran off, ignoring the calls of her teammates to come back.
Once she had gotten tired of running, Jubilee took a moment to rest on a box of ragged wooden crates seething. Popping her gum loudly she began to sulk. Who did Jean Gray think she was? Just because she was one of the more powerful mutants on the team and one of the smartest students didn't give the redhead telepath the right to talk down to her like she was some dumb inexperienced child. Despite Jean's harsh lecture, Jubilee was confident that she had what it took to become a valuable member of the team and it wasn't just because of her abilities. At a very young age she had been forced to learn to be tough and brave. She was a fighter, and even Logan said that she was tougher then most of the others when it came to holding her own in a battle. She was so lost in thought she didn't notice the shadowed figure creeping up behind her.
"Well isn't it my lucky night," a cold voice growled.
Jubilee leaped up abruptly causing the crates to tumble down around her loudly. Whirling around, her blood ran cold as the moonlight bounced across the all too familiar silhouette of one of the xmen's oldest nemesis. Sabertooth. He was starring at her in a way that reminded her of how a hungry cat would stare at its prey before pouncing. He could smell her fear and he grinned, rolling his wet pink tongue across his sharp canine white teeth. Somewhere she could hear several dogs in the neighbor hood barking in frenzy.
"Ain't you gonna call your little friends for backup? I welcome the challange to take down the xmen one by one," he said stalking towards her with a dangerous gleam in his large sable tinted eyes.
Jubilee swallowed deeply as she slowly backed away from him. She suddenly wished that Logan was here to protect her. He was the only person who wasn't afraid to face the ruthless killer.
"Where are they? Where are Kurt and Rogue?"Jubilee asked cautiously feeling her powers dancing dangerously at her fingertips. She was prepared to go on the offense just in case Saber tooth felt the need to get violent and with the psychotic mutant, violence was always an guarantee.
Victor smiled amused. It was very apparent that he found her to be harmless.
"I aint gonna tell you where I'm keeping the broads, but since I'm feeling generous, I'll do you one better. I insist on taking you to join them personally," he purred maliciously.
Jubilee smirked as she folded her arms across her chest. Creed's threat had shaken her but she forced herself to keep up a brave front. If he picked up on how frightened she really was, she knew that she would be dead meat.
"How stupid do I look? If I go with you you are going to kill me or worse," she accused discreetly trying to buy her some time.
The burly man smiled coldly.
"Cute. I really expected you to run like most of the others, or beg for yer life, but here you are runnin yer mouth. You must be really brave or really dumb." His smug remark caused Jubilee's skin to crawl and she clenched her fist in anger.
One thing that she hated more then anything was to be called dumb.
"Who are you calling dumb, fur ball?" she snapped, her almond shape eyes narrowing at her enemy in contempt.
Jubilee hated backing down from a fight, but she clearly remembered the words of her teacher and mentor Charles. There was a time to take a stand and fight and there was a time to back down. She had face too much in her life to ever quit at the first sign of trouble, but she wasn't naive enough to think she could take on Creed alone. Starring at her adversary she knew she was far too weak to have a remote chance at defending herself but if there was one thing she was proud of being, it was a fighter.
The best defense to have is the element of surprise.
Those were Logan's words. She smirked and planted her feet. Creed's head turned at the sound of a noise at the back of the alley and Jubilee saw her window of opportunity. Without warning she cried out throwing her gloved hands in front of her releasing a full blast of colorful plasma into his face causing the him to shriek in pain stumbling back away from her. Acting quickly Jubilee bolted out of the alley and onto the empty street that was fairly quiet. She knew that the others were somewhere nearby and would find could her, but it still made her uneasy not being able to physically see her teammates.
"Jubes, keep it together. Don't freak out," she mentally reminded herself before bolting across the street as fast as her legs could carry her. The heels of her boots pounded against the hard concrete mingled with the sound of heart racing, mingled in her ears.
After running several blocks she stopped hiding behind a car trying to catch her breath. Turning the dial on his wrist watch communicator she flipped on the open wave frequency. She had to get in touch with her other teammates if she was to have a chance of staying alive. She nearly jumped out of her skin as a dog inside of the car she was hiding behind jumped against the window barking viciously trying to get at her. She groaned disgusted as saliva came spraying from the canines mouth through the crack in the window landing on her face. Using her gloved hand she wiped it away and glared at the animal which appeared to be a pure breed black and brown Doberman. Peering through the window she caught a glimpse at the name on the collar.
"Come on Killer. My life depends on you keeping quiet. I promise I wont hurt you. I love dogs," she coaxed softly pressing her hand against the window and starring into the mean looking beast's eyes pleadingly.
The dog stared back at her suspiciously at the strange girl saying his name, but his barks had died down to a low warning growl that said he would be watching her every move.
"Thanks pooch," she whispered relieved before ducking down once more focusing on her transmission.
"Jubilee to Gambit. Come in!" she rasped keeping a watchful eye out for her pursuer. Besides the occasional car flying by over head the streets were eerily quiet which rattled her nerves even more. She knew staying calm and level headed would keep her alive but it was kind of hard when she realized she was playing hide and seek with a very pissed off overgrown cat who had every intentions of killing her, or worse.
When she got static and no response she began to get hysterical.
"Jubilee to Gambit! Where are you guys? I can seriously use back up," she growled frantically into the mike.
After a few seconds went by Iceman's concerned voice came across the broken frequency. Never in her life had Jubilee been so happy to hear the his voice. Usually she found him annoying and an complete clown but her feelings for him were momentarily put aside.
"Jubilee, this is Iceman. What's your location?" he asked faintly.
Jubilee groaned. Count on Bobby to ask about the unknown.
"I don't know, Drake. It's not like I exactly keep a map of Cancun in my pocket. I'm about several blocks South where I left you guys. Hold on..." Her head switched from side from side and she smiled when she caught glance of a building marked Cancun's Ritz Hotel a few yards away. Hastily she relayed her location across the mike. Suddenly a different voice came over the transmitter.
"Jubes, dis is Gambit. What's goin' on? Are y' alright, gal? " Gambit's inquired concerned.
She trembled. What kind of question was that? Would she be sounding scared shitless if everything was alright?
"No, I'm not okay. Sabertooth is chasing me....I think he's going to kill...."
She never got to finish her sentence as Sabertooth suddenly appeared and tore the communicator from her wrist and threw it aside. Jubilee could hear Gambit yelling her name over the com link even as she tried to focus on escaping Sabertooth's clutches once more. She turned to run and screamed out in pain as he reached out and entangled his fingers in her short black hair yanking her back violently.
"Yer gonna pay for what you did bitch, and I'm going to make it hurt hell," he smiled sadistically before releasing her hair, and grabbing her around the neck roughly.
She gasped frantically as he lifted her higher in the air by her throat. She kicked her legs desperately and clawed at his arm trying to get free, but his grip on her was firm. Her vision was starting to becoming to become blurred and Gambit's voice shouting over the com link began to sound more distant. Just when she thought she was about to lose consciousness, he suddenly dropped her and let out a shriek of rage and of pain. For a second she laid there on the cold payment struggling to breathe. Mustering all of the strength and energy she possessed, she slowly began to crawl away from him on her hands and knees coughing violently as she struggled to get air back into her lungs. Looking up, she saw what had made her enemy scream in pain and frowned confused. Stuck in one of his hands, was a red and black piece of metal in the shape of what look to be a bat.
What the hell....
"What's the matter? Kitty got a thorn in it's paw?"
The young Asian girl held her breath bated as she watched a mysterious figure walk out from the shadows of the alley and stopped underneath the dim streetlight. Jubilee stared at her mysterious savior wide eyed. He was wearing a cowl that had poiny ears and was cloaked in black leather from head to toe. His eyes were all white and narrowed into tiny slits and his fist were clenched tightly at his side. Her heat began to race rapidly in her chest. It suddenly had struck her of who he was...
Sabertooth snarled as he yanked the protruding metal out of his shoulder and tossed it aside. Judging form the way he was practically foaming from the mouth with rage, Jubilee had a bad feeling that Sabertooth had just went from being maliciously playful to downright murderous.
"I'll make you a deal. Tell me where you are keeping the students and I might let you keep eight of your nine lives," the man suggested condescendingly.
Jubilee eyes drifted back to Sabertooth and saw that he was practically shaking with rage.
"Who the hell are you?" Victor Creed hissed agitated as his wound slowly began to heal.
The man smiled darkly, apparently not the least bit intimidated.
"All you really need to know is that I just became your worse nightmare, but in the meantime...you can call me Batman."