First Strike part VI of VI: The Response

The dawn was near. The morning grew closer with each minute, with each second. But the birds did not sing, the fading night did not assure comfort. The night was almost over, and they all knew their time was about to end.

"I am scared," said Alison Blaire, hugging herself.

"You are scared? YOU are scared?" said Jennifer Stavros, tears falling from her eyes. "My beautiful Angelo is pale, almost dead, he can barely breathe and YOU are scared?" she said with clear anger, gently caressing her boyfriend's hair.

"Jennifer, please. We are all scared," said Professor Hairsaw, touching her bleeding shoulder.

"It's cold in here," said Caliban, looking around the dark empty room in which they had been unceremoniously thrown. "Caliban doesn't like the cold."

"I agree with you Cal," said the girl known only as Catseye, her purple eyes scanning the hard stone floor.

"Is… is Professor Cassidy al right? He hasn't said a word since we were thrown here," said Alison Blaire, trying to shift the attention from her.

Sean Cassidy nodded slightly, smiling, pressing his hand against his wound. He had felt so good. For the briefest of seconds he felt alive again, he felt everything was right in the world once more. He hadn't felt that way since he had lost his mutant sonic powers due to excessive strain of his vocal cords. It was all gone now, in less than a second he had been defeated and humiliated, but still he tried to reassure the children, to smile and pretend everything was alright, while in his heart, he felt there was a small tingle of hope bursting to come out.

---------------------------------

"Let's just get inside and destroy them all," said Storm moving slightly forward.

"Although I share your resolution and determination, my resident deity, I must ask for caution. We are not aware of everything they possess in their arsenal, and we have seen that angelic mutant is far deadlier than any weapon conceived by man," said Beast, placing a hand on her arm. A cold look from Storm was all Beast needed to remove his hand.

"Then we bring the building down. It's child's play for a Goddess to change the pressure of the building and make it collapse," said Ororo with anger.

"With all your friends still inside? I think not mon ami," said Remy LeBeau, smiling.

"Who are you? Why are you with us? Are you a spy of the birds?" asked Jean while looking at him.

Remy did not answer, he merely smiled at the redheaded girl and she exclaimed in surprise. "You're the singer! Oh I know now who you are. Is that tall guy with the red glasses coming to help us too?"

"No chere, my friends and I… we parted ways," he said with sadness in his voice.

"Very nice but now it not the time for reminiscing. Piotr is hurt back home and we're here talking about a boy band," said Northstar, arriving and crossing his arms.

"What did you find Jean-Paul?" asked Kitty, her tail moving in anticipation and her eyes shining brightly in the night's last minutes.

"There is an easy way inside the building through the back door, it's like they are inviting us inside. The front door of the church is heavily guarded though," he said, pointing at the building across the street.

"I believe we should do a frontal assault, we enter full force, render everyone unconscious and free our friends, it is the best option," said Storm. "Especially if they are waiting for us."

"Our numbers are small, we might just add to the list of kidnapped students," said Beast, clearly disagreeing.

"Do you have a better solution to our present situation, Beast?" asked Ororo crossing her arms.

"I do," said Wanda, opening her eyes at last. She sat with her legs crossed in mid-air, surrounded by her red-pink energy, and her voice was final and strong, in a tone no one had hear her speak before.

---------------------------------

"Charles you cannot do this," said Amelia Voght, moving forward as the door closed behind her. Her voice echoed in the circular empty Cerebro room.

"Amelia not now," said Charles Xavier, as Forge gently lowered him on the chair in front of Cerebro's controls. "Leave the room, both of you, it will be easier for me to establish a bond with Jean and the others that way."

"Charles please, you were seriously injured using your powers, we need to see the extent of the damage," pleaded Amelia, moving forward.

"Children Amelia. Children I took from their homes, children I offered safe heaven to, children who are now in danger. Are you asking me to allow them to be hurt? To stop trying? Even if this kills me, I will attempt it, now out," he replied, donning Cerebro's helmet. "Forge prepare the Blackbird, have it ready to deploy as soon as I warn you."

"Yes Charles, whatever you say," said the mutant inventor. As he began to walk outside he gently placed a hand on Amelia's shoulder. Professor Xavier's wife looked at him for a second, and as tears began forming in her eyes she allowed Forge to lead her outside the room, the door closing behind them with a loud metallic sound. And as they reached the corridor, Amelia began to cry, and Forge gently hugged her, trying to comfort her.

"Jean?" asked Charles Xavier, his mind expanding, trying to find his students.

---------------------------------

"Mr. X?" said Jean out loud, lifting her head slightly.

"Not now Jean… remain silent," said Ororo, standing atop the only building next to the Church of Humanity.

"But Mr. X is talking to me in my head," Jean said, lowering her head.

"Good, that means he is aware of what is transpiring. Tell him that I will bring down this house of false worship. There is only one Goddess and I am she," said Storm, clearly angry, closing her arms and watching the cross atop the cupola, which crowned the building.

Not far from there, near the back door to the building, which was closed with several locks but without a sign of any guard, Wanda Lensherr slowly moved her arms, drawing signs in the air with her hands. As she did, the locks and chains began to rust and turned to dust, gently falling to the ground.

"Are you sure this is the best way?" asked Kitty, perched in the fire escape stairs, crouching like a cat, her eyes shining in the darkness.

"Yes, it is a simple plan that should work for everyone's benefit," said Wanda, gently placing her hand in the door.

"Wanda… when… when this is over… can you help me with this?" asked Kitty, looking at her furry paws.

"Of course, we will try to find a way to turn you back into a little girl," smiled Wanda.

Kitty did not reply, but a tear fell from her eye.

Wanda concentrated, closing her eyes, and slowly pink-red energy flowed from her hand, stretching itself, covering the door, and expanding all around the building. Wanda felt the pressure in her head, she was stretching her powers to the maximum, but she had to maintain control.

"I hope this weird plan she concocted will work," said Jean Paul, crossing his arms, floating closely to Kitty, his eyes fixed on Wanda.

---------------------------------

"Father we should eliminate those demon-spawns immediately," said Warren Worthington III, walking side by side with Reverend William Stryker, through the main aisle of the church.

"My child, those mutants' friends will undoubtedly come to their peers' rescue, when they do, we will have our twelve dead mutants, it is a number that sends a signal, a powerful number connected to our Lord," said Stryker, lifting his arms towards the gigantic cross in the altar. "And besides, Douglas here hasn't finished hacking into our country's TV networks yet, hasn't he?" added Stryker as he moved towards the side, where a young blonde teenager pressed his keyboard furiously, without stopping.

"It will be ready in a few more minutes, Reverend, I am almost there," he said without removing his eyes from the monitor.

"And the lord shall reward thee young Douglas," said Stryker smiling.

And that's when it happened. The building began to shake, while red-pink light filled the building from the outside, covering every window and giving an eerie look to the church.

"This is the work of those demons… the lights of hell," whispered Stryker. "Warren be ready for anything," he added, his eyes fixed on the main window, atop the closed front door of the church. It was as if he knew what was about to happen. The front door of the building exploded, and two mutants stood there.

"You have something of ours mon ami," said Remy Lebeau, a glowing card in his hand.

Beast merely growled menacingly, standing over the unconscious bodies of a couple of soldiers.

"Come and find it then, mutant," said Stryker with a strange smile on his face.

---------------------------------

"So? What does the eerie red light thing do?" asked Jean Paul looking at the inside of the building through a window. A second after he asked, one of the two back doors opened and several armed men ran with fear in their eyes, screaming.

"The demons have taken over! All hope is lost!" one of them shouted, as they ran down the alley, without even looking at the trio of mutants.

"That. It's a powerful illusion, I knew at least some of them would be swayed by it," said Wanda with a smile, releasing the still closed door. "And now the girls take care of them," added Wanda, looking up.

The skies roared in response as at least a dozen soldiers ran towards the streets, lightning fell in front of them, stopping their stride. Immediately several rocks fell on top of their heads, making them scream in panic and hit themselves. In a matter of seconds all men were down, unconscious and defeated, and slowly Ororo and Jean descended.

"That might have been too much," said Ororo looking sideways at Jean.

"I got carried away," smiled Jean, straightening the bedpan over her head.

"If you insist on protecting your head Jean, we need to get you a proper helmet," added Storm as they walked towards the rest.

"I think I'd like that," smiled Jean. "This one is a terrible fit."

"Northstar… let's show them what we can do," said Storm smiling as Wanda moved towards her.

"With pleasure," said Jean Paul Beaubier, closing his hands together. Concentrating he gathered a powerful beam of light and directed it towards the door, which exploded instantly.

"Let's get our friends," said Ororo, walking towards the building as the rest followed."

---------------------------------

Remy Lebeau's eyes were fixed on Warren Worthington, who had already unsheathed his sword and he moved one step inside the building.

"I advice precaution my newly acquired teammate, my heightened sense of intelligence warns me there might be more to this building than it seems," said Beast, placing a hand before Remy.

"Mon ami, I know how to take care of myself, but I appreciate the sentiment," smiled Remy.

"I… what do I do?" asked Doug Ramsey, clearly scared, standing from his computer.

"Keep working child, the Lord demands your job to be finished," said Stryker calmly, looking at the mutants before him.

"Father should I just kill them?" asked Warren.

"Not yet," smiled the Reverend.

Remy Lebeau gently moved Beast's hand from his chest and walked inside the building, gripping the card in his hand with more strength. Slowly Beast followed him inside.

"That's right spawns of Satan, come and rescue your so-called friends," said Stryker. An explosion rocked the building, and Doug screamed. "Your friends are arriving from the other side… I never expected the sons of the demon to know the tactics of war," said Stryker almost reminiscing.

As Remy and Beast moved forward they heard the sound of guns charging, and they turned to see at least two-dozen soldiers entering the building behind them through the destroyed front door. But two seconds later, Storm and the rest of the team appeared, walking forward from a narrow hallway, behind Stryker.

"We've got a Mexican stand-off now, don't we?" asked Remy, lifting his arm slowly. And that's when he realized his card wasn't glowing anymore.

"Take them," said Stryker simply, with a smile, and the soldiers began to shoot at the mutants with their plasma guns from all sides.

---------------------------------

"Bobby! Oy! Where are you?" asked Sam Guthrie, screaming at the top of his lungs, searching for his best friend.

"Here… now shh," replied Bobby's voice from the study on the first floor.

"Hey, I've been looking for you… you're watching TV?" asked Sam, entering the room.

"Shh," said Bobby, raising the volume of the TV.

"… this just came in," said the reporter reading a small paper that an anonymous hand had given him, "it seems the building of the Church of Humanity's is under attack by terrorists, as its front doors exploded suddenly, there seems to be smoke rising from the back of the building as well and a weird red light emerging from the entirety of the building, there is no clue as to what is happening yet, but we will keep you informed. We remind the audience that the Church of Humanity is the headquarters of a new religion that claims the sons of Satan walks among us in the guise of this so-called mutants, beings with uncanny abilities of varied sort…"

"There's no time for that Bobby," said Sam, throwing a bundle of clothes at his friend.

"Hey! What's this…" said Bobby, trying to figure out what was thrown at him.

"Put it on, the Prof says there's not much time," said Sam.

---------------------------------

"We're through Reverend, whenever you tell me all I have to do is press this little button," said the thirteen-year-old hacker, smiling towards his shepherd.

"You have done well Douglas, the Lord will reward you," said Stryker, smiling. He walked towards the altar, where the prisoners had been set on separate crosses, crucified and placed on a semicircle.

"Spawns of the devil, mine will be the last words you will ever hear," said Stryker, focusing his eyes on those who were still conscious.

"Release us or I will bring my wrath upon you and your false God," said Storm, struggling in her bonds.

There was a burst of laughter from the tenths of soldiers who sat before them, watching as if it was a spectacle.

"And how will you, when the devices I have placed upon this Church inhibit mutants as yourself from using your powers?" smiled Stryker.

"I am not a mutant!" shouted Storm in vain, as tears formed in her eyes.

Stryker smiled, moving towards Sean Cassidy and grabbing his chin. "Your eyes demon spawn show your anger towards us, but you dare not speak… why is that? Why is it you refuse to voice your anger? Is it your wounds?" said Stryker, touching the massive wound that Warren had inflicted upon him during their fight. Though he was in great pain, Sean Cassidy did not scream, biting his own teeth.

"Leave him!" shouted Professor Hairsaw, her cross had been set opposite her fellow teacher, on the other end of the horrid semi-circle of crucified mutants.

Stryker smiled. "Death will come to all of you mutants, monsters like these cannot exist. It is the will of our Lord, this monstrosities will die," he said, looking at Kitty Pryde's cat form, who had her face looking down, tears falling without stopping from her eyes.

"The Lord will it and I shall follow his word! The War on Mutantkind has barely begun! This are the first to fall, and the first victory goes to the side of light!" said Stryker, standing in the middle of the altar and lifting his hands, followed by a thunderous roar from his men, who lifted their guns and screamed in joy.

Warren Worthington III remained standing closely, his wings folded neatly around him, covering him. His eyes moved slowly towards the blonde mutant girl who cried heavily. He remembered the files he had studied before the attack. Her name was Alison Blaire. He couldn't understand why his eyes kept moving towards her. She was a spawn of Satan. She was evil. And still she was beautiful. For seconds he looked, while the Reverend spoke of the evil of mutantkind, and his words reminded him that the devil did his best to lure and seduce the good god-fearing people to his side, and he stopped looking at her.

"And so, with their deaths, it begins, start the broadcast Douglas, we must let the world know this twelve mutants are the first to fall," said the Reverend, calming his crowd.

And exactly one millisecond before Douglas Ramsey could touch the button to start the transmission, the cupola of the church imploded upon itself, and the roof seemed to fly away with ease. And everyone's eyes turned to see a young green-haired woman flying in the sky above them.

"The Prof thought you might need some help," said Lorna Lensherr, glowing with magnetic energy about her. A second later a gigantic black craft appeared, and several flying mutants appeared around it. A hatch opened on the Blackbird, and Forge appeared on it, pressing a button on a hand-held device. An electromagnetic pulse erupted from it, rendering every piece of machinery inside the church useless.

"Destroy them!" said Stryker, looking at his men, who began to shoot towards the destroyed ceiling.

"Avoid their blasts!" said Polaris, closing her hands and trying to lift every metal inside. "Cannonball take the hits! They cannot harm you! Iceman, try to freeze their guns! Darkstar, cloud their eyes! Scanner destroy their computers for good with your electro-magnetic form!" she shouted while avoiding the blasts.

A cloud of smoke appeared in the middle of the altar, and from it erupted several other mutants and Amelia Voght fell to her knees, clearly exhausted.

"Quicksilver get their guns! Proudstar, Blob protect the prisoners! Toad, Cargill get them down from those crosses, the rest just hit every one of these fanatics!" screamed Professor Sage, lifting a rifle and shooting plasma blasts towards the soldiers inside the church.

The Reverend William Stryker could not believe his eyes. The entire student body of Xavier's obscene school was there, attacking them, decimating his men. He didn't know what to do. He heard Warren's voice behind him, asking for advice, but he couldn't reply, his eyes were fixed on the destruction, on the explosions, on his men running from the fight, and he realized, his dream was dead. He panicked, turned around, and began to run away.

A bolt of lightning fell from the opened ceiling, impacting directly on Storm's cross, and when the dust settled the cross was no more and she was free, and her eyes crackled with fury. "Stryker," she said simply, looking through the devastation for her enemy and she saw him run away and flew behind him.

"You will all die here," said Warren Worthington III, lifting his sword towards the recently freed Sean Cassidy and the toad-like mutant helping him.

At first it was a mere whisper. "Not today," said Sean Cassidy smiling, "not EVERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR" he screamed, and a sonic blast erupted from his throat, his mutant power given form. Somehow his powers were restored. He didn't know how, he didn't know why, but he kept pouring his soul into the attack, shouting with all his strength towards the angelic being before him, sending him crashing towards a wall.

---------------------------------

"Stryker!" said Storm, firing a bolt of lightning towards the reverend, making him stumble and fall. "Your madness ends here, you humiliated a Goddess. You will die for it," she said, as thunder broke with strength all over the battered church.

"No Ororo, there is a better way," said Charles Xavier, moving towards them from the opposite side. Ororo saw he was sitting in a floating wheelchair, and strangely calm.

"He crucified me, he severely hurt some of us, he will never stop hunting us," said Ororo with anger, lightning flashing in her eyes.

"Oh yes, he will stop," said Professor Xavier, his eyes flashing suddenly. His telepathic powers were loose, and his mind touched his enemy's and for a few seconds their eyes were linked, and Ororo could almost feel the psychic energy between them. And when it was over Stryker's eyes were blank, and he did not move anymore, all he could do was drool.

"What… what did you do?" asked Ororo.

"I took his mind. I erased it. He is a tabula rasa, a blank state. He will never hurt us again," said Xavier, as a small trickle of blood flowed from his nose.

---------------------------------

"He needs help!" said Roulette as Caliban and the strange-looking Simon Mellencamp helped her boyfriend down from his cross.

"That's why they brought me for, move aside," said Cecilia Reyes, creating a force field around her, which repelled the stray plasma bolts of their enemies, as she began to examine the youngster.

"Press our attack! We're winning!" said Sage, moving forward, leading the mutants against the Church of Humanity's followers, whose numbers kept dwindling as some of them just ran away.

"You ok?" asked Quicksilver releasing Northstar.

"I will be," replied Jean Paul, trying not to look at Pietro.

"It would behoove us to start evacuation," said Beast, looking towards Amelia Voght as she began to stand up again. "There are too many of us and I can hear the sirens, the police must be outside, it would not be in the best interest of mutantkind to be found in a scene of destruction," he added.

Slowly Warren Worthington III rose from the ground. His ears ringed, his chest hurt, the force of Cassidy's sonic attack had been immeasurable. It wasn't easy for him to focus, the battle was ending, he knew, and he knew his side had lost. He would not allow it. He lifted his blue-tinted sword for the last time, and he threw it towards the nearest mutant, his aim true and strong.

No one saw it coming. No one felt it ripple through the air. No one could prevent it.

"Professor Voght, are you in a plausible condition to teleport the non-flying companions back into the Black—" and Henry Phillip McCoy could not utter another word, as Worthington's sword skewered him from behind, rearing itself in the middle of his chest, piercing his heart. And slowly he fell forward, and everything turned to black.

"Nooooooooooo the bird… the bird killed him," said Jean, gasping, breathing heavily. She screamed, releasing her telekinetic power towards all sides, hurling several students all around.

"Murderer!" screamed Storm, releasing a bolt of lightning towards Worthington, who was starting to fly away, hitting his face.

The angelic being screamed in pain. He could almost smell the burned flesh on his face, but he didn't let the pain stop him, he kept flying upwards, avoiding the flying mutants all around him, loosing himself in the dark skies, cursing the mutants as he did.

"I'll go after him," said Storm, flying up, but Xavier stopped her with a gentle nudge in her mind.

"No, we need your power to leave this place undetected," he said, as he saw the last soldiers fall or run away.

---------------------------------

"What the hell is going on inside that place?" said Terry Bushwacker, emerging from his police car.

"Don't know, orders are to just wait until the weird lights stop and to keep the crowd from getting closer," replied another cop, looking as several robed individuals fled from the building.

Suddenly a pea-soup fog erupted from nowhere, covering the entire Church of Humanity, and the skies went even darker.

"Nasty weather… where are we, London? What the hell is going on in that place?"

"Muties… trust me, they didn't like what Stryker was saying, so they went for him. His words are true you know, mutants walk among us," said Cameron Hodge, straightening his police badge as he spoke with his fellow cops. Unaware that as he spoke a cloaked jet rose from the church, flying at its topmost speed towards the north, closely followed by several flying beings, heavily disguised by the fog.

---------------------------------

Epilogue 1:

"Pointless, it was all pointless," said Nathaniel Essex, clearly upset, looking outside the Hellfire Club's window, his eyes fixed on the fading fog, on the remains of the Church of Humanity across the street.

"I wouldn't call it pointless, we did learn a lot about our enemies," said Emma Frost, moving her head backwards as Sebastian Shaw rubbed her feet.

"What did we learn?" he asked, lifting his eyes towards his lover.

"Xavier erased Stryker's mind. I never expected he would such a thing. In one single act we turned a pacifist mutant who tried all his life to not use his powers into a cripple who abuses defenseless humans with his powers. It is intriguing what he might do next," she said, smiling, sipping from her goblet of wine.

"But it costs us a very bright mind, I wanted McCoy as a student," said Essex, clearly angered, crossing his arms before him.

"Get over it, there are more gifted minds out there, now we have to monitor Xavier more closely," said Emma, grabbing Shaw's tie and bringing him closer to her. "Anyone have any ideas what he'll do next?" she asked, before plunging her lips on Sebastian Shaw's.

"He'll come to me," said the Black Queen, lifting her head slowly. She rose from her seat, in front of the fireplace, turning around to see the other members of the Inner Circle. "Some of his students are wounded, he will bring them to me, to my island. And there I can see what he has turned into, and what will that transformation mean for us."

"Are you certain Moira? Xavier has plenty of resources in his own school," said Essex, looking skeptically.

"His astral form was disrupted. He needs the advice of a mutant expert. And I am world's foremost mutant expert, or my name isn't Moira MacTaggert," said the Black Queen with a smile, lifting her goblet of wine. "And soon, Xavier's resources will be ours, and our little army will be the strongest on Earth, and we will crush it with Hellfire!" she said gloating, and her peers could do nothing but smile.

---------------------------------

Epilogue 2:

Warren Worthington III crash-landed on a riverbank. He didn't know where he was, he didn't care, all he cared about was the pain. He crawled towards the river, smelling its putrid smell. His body ached, but his face burned. He plunged his face in the water, trying to ease the pain. He remained as long as he could like that, and when the water calmed itself he looked his reflection. A terrible burnt scar now flaunted itself on the left side of his face. He screamed in anger and pain, spreading his wings.

"Poor poor Warren, he put his faith on the wrong Church," said a female voice behind him.

"Who dares? Who… who knows my name?" he said, turning around violently.

"I am your new shepherd little Warren, you are one of us," said the black haired woman. Suddenly a set of black wings erupted from her back, as she smiled. "We are more alike than you think," she said, extending her hand. "Come with me Warren, and I will give your life a new purpose, and all the answers Stryker kept from you," she said.

"Who are you?" asked Warren, looking at her hand.

"Call me Lilandra," she said simply, smiling at him.

Even though he doubted, even though he didn't know her, he slowly moved, and grabbed her hand, unknowing his life would never be the same afterwards.