The Pros and Cons of Telepathy
A muffled boom; Silence. The door creaked open, and a moderately built man stuck his head around it. Martin L. Smith, now stepping right through the threshold, was about to make the biggest heist in his life.
In theory.
"Tabby, come on," he hissed. "We're not there yet."
The blonde teenager sullenly followed her father into the room. "You know, when I said 'the bank,' it was supposed to be a joke. You weren't supposed to actually rob it."
"Shut up and open this next door already," Martin replied, turning the handle just in case – as it happened, the door was unlocked, and pushed open a fraction. "Alright, there's security cameras in the next room, so you need to take 'em out," he said, facing his daughter.
Tabitha prepared an explosive too large for one hand, and Martin turned back to the door. It was open all the way. "Shi–"
The man was kicked in the chest by another figure, which had descended from the other side of the door frame, catching him on the upside of an arcing swing. Martin flew backwards and hit the wall. The figure somersaulted off the frame and landed neatly in front of Tabitha. The girl squealed and her bomb shrivelled into nothing.
"He lied to you," the figure said, indiscriminate in the dark shroud. The tones of its feminine voice described a British accent. "Turn him in, it's for the best."
"Who are–" Tabitha began. "Oh."
The figure had vanished. Boom-Boom looked back at her father, slumped against the far wall – he clearly wasn't waking up any time soon.
Sirens sounded outside, and Tabitha made a decision.
Taryn looked apprehensively at the students crowded together in the auditorium. In the middle of her view was Jean Grey, the girl who she thought should have been up there instead – alright, so she hadn't been at the semi-final, so what? He contributions earlier in the Soccer season should have made her the "Most Valuable Player" anyway. Besides, she'd lost a friend during a field trip; Just how shallow could her team mates be?
Jean, on the other hand, was happy for her friend. From what she'd heard, the midfielder had made a great contribution to the last game they'd played, delivering the ball to field forward accurately every time.
"I, uh…" Taryn began. 'I wish it was Jean up here.'
The telepath shook her head. That was weird.
'How long is this going to last?'
Jean turned to glare at the person behind her who had said – no, thought that. But she wasn't probing, why would that happen?
'When is this going to be over?'
'I wish she'd just get on with already, I want to go.'
Jean tried to discretely clamp her hands over her ears as the rush of thoughts assaulted her. Not only was this ineffective in stopping the cogitations, but proved impossible to pull off as well. Soon the thoughts all coalesced into one: 'What is her problem?'
She ran from the room.
Taryn watched with confusion as her friend, so normally calm and collected, fled awkwardly through the crowd, Scott following her. "I want to thank everyone on the team who helped me get here..."
Outside, Jean made it as far as the steps before she couldn't go any further, she almost collapsed onto a stair and sat there, knees hugged to her chest, the barrage of thoughts increasing in intensity even out here.
One particular one made it clear through, and even cleared the rest. "Are you okay, Jean?" asked Scott, sitting next to her.
"Scott, I–"
"Careful there," said a voice behind them. The two mutants turned to see one the teachers, Dr. McCoy, looking down at them in a not unfriendly fashion. "That looked pretty serious back there."
"Uh, Jean's just been having some problems with her head recently..." Scott started, trailing off as he realised how stupid it sounded.
"Mm-hmm. I better call Xavier, he'll send someone to pick you up, I'm sure," Hank said. "You should get back inside, Scott."
"No, really, I'm fine," Jean protested as the teens stood up.
"Hmm? Well you don't look it. Come on, I'll sign you out for the day. We don't need our best athlete out of action for the track and field try-outs tomorrow, do we?"
Reluctantly Jean gave in. "I guess you're right...."
"Will you be okay?" asked Scott.
"Yes, I'll be fine," Jean said, "Now go on before you miss the rest of Taryn's speech."
Jean was still feeling too hazy as they walked to the front of the school to notice that they hadn't been anywhere near the phones. She was, however, mildly surprised to see Logan lean against the X-Van when they reached the car park.
"How did you get here so fast?" she asked.
"What are you talking about?" said Wolverine. He nodded to the teacher. "Hank."
"Logan," Hank replied. "Didn't know you were back. It's been a while, we'll have to catch up."
"Guess we've both been busy, eh?" Logan said before shifting his gaze back to Jean. "Come on, Red. Let's go." He paused after opening his door, and looked back at the teacher. "You know what you have to do if you want to 'catch up,' Hank. Think on it."
"Finally, drinks are ready," said Rogue, placing the tray on the table as she sat down.
"This is what they call coffee?!" exclaimed Mystique, carefully placing her cup down with refined disgust. She wore the guise of Risty Wilde, which blended well with the table's other occupants.
"I believe this is miss Frost's idea of a joke," replied the third conversant, a slender Asian girl, sporting purple hair drawn into a low bun held in place by a slightly translucent and somehow alive-looking pink clip. "I do apologise. I think she's becoming complacent with you."
"I know she is," said Rogue. "Incidentally, she is, in fact, listening."
"Oh. Board meeting not going well?"
Rogue's eyes flashed blue. "Oh it's going incredibly well, miss Braddock, just would you believe it's the most boring thing–"
There was an odd moment while the southerner appeared to be fighting to interrupt herself.
"Did I give you permission to do that?! No, I didn't."
"People are staring, dear," said Betsy.
"So, your name was... Psylocke, was it?" asked Mystique. "And you're a friend of Emma Frost's?"
"I prefer the term 'associate,'" replied the telepath. "I'm looking after her business interests in Westchester for the time being."
"And you're greeting us because?"
"No particular reason. Professional courtesy I guess." Psylocke sighed. "One of the... interests I've been watching is your 'X-Men' friends. I feel I should say I haven't seen anything unusual in any of them, no odd behaviour or anything, so I'm not sure what you're worried about there. Of course with Xavier around I can't do any... deep searching, shall I say. We're not all so proficient at hiding from his machine."
"It's a tricky one, I'll admit," said Rogue. "If you want some help there, you just ask. One thing...."
The southerner tapped Psylocke briefly on the cheek.
"Hey, that stung!" she complained, rubbing her face.
"Hmm, yes, interesting," Rogue said thoughtfully, tugging her glove back on. "Although, I wonder how you happened to end up like this?"
Betsy looked at her through narrowed eyes. "It's a long story."
"Another time, then." The southerner looked thoughtful for a moment. "I wasn't aware that Xavier had new students. This 'Boom-boom' sounds almost entertaining – in the same manner as a train wreck would be."
"You know, it rather spoils the concept of a meeting, you doing that," said Psylocke. "I was going to tell you about all of that."
"Yes? Well we're a little pressed for time at the moment," replied Risty, standing up. "It has been nice meeting you," she continued in a cheerful, sardonic tone, before standing and heading for the exit.
As Rogue stood, rather less precipitously, she stroked the other girl's chin with her hand, drawing her face up. "It really has been nice," she said. "You're a very interesting person. Keep in touch."
"Oh, do come on," said her mother from the door.
Rogue smiled hugely and waved to the telepath before running after Risty.
Psylocke watched them go with a bemused expression, then looked back down at her drink. "Strange people," she said to herself.
"Mmm, I agree," said the waitress behind her.
Psylocke turned around quickly, and there was Tabitha Smith, grinning at her. "You were that shadowy ninja thing the other night, weren't you...?"
Outside, Rogue glared at her mother as they stepped into a completely inconspicuous blue sedan. "Did you have to be so rude?"
"You heard Destiny, we have a world to save, and we are running short on time."
"World? A couple of do-gooders who'll get in the way," retorted the girl as she started the engine and pulled off. "If this 'Phoenix' thing gets loose, it'll be mutants out on top."
"Much as I would like to agree with you dear, not even Irene could see the social ramifications of the sort of destruction she'd cause. Besides, have you no concern for your brother?"
"Oh, he'd be fine. Once he stopped trying to save the day for all Smurfs and butterflies, of course."
Jean was feeling a little off colour at the track & field try-outs. Though she wouldn't admit it to anyone, the previous day's events had taken a great toll on her. For the first time in a long while, she was feeling physically drained, and not up to the task of – what was she doing again? Right, throwing javelins. That was more of a shock, she thought, picking up one of the spears, that she couldn't even concentrate on what she was doing. So much effort she'd spent on getting past that.
Suddenly, she could her the thoughts of everyone nearby, if you were talking in a purely world view sense. The thoughts of the entire population of Bayville, and a little beyond, came crashing into her head at once, and she became confused so quickly that she lost all sense of self, let alone the capacity to work out where, or who she was. The girl collapsed to the ground, clasping her hands over her ears as if it would have any effect.
She began to reach out for anything she could touch, to try and make the barrage of thoughts fade away. Her confusion prevented her from remembering she had a physical body, so instead things started to move by telekinesis. The javelin rose up into the air, spun around directly to point at the nearest source of the problem, a group of girls about to start running the 200m race, and they were only saved from being skewered when Dr. McCoy, still coaching physical education, dived on the spears.
Jean tried to stand, and staggered into the shot put field. Immediately the heavy balls started flying around, and structural damage to the bleachers was only prevented by the fast actions of Scott, who shot them into safer directions with optic blasts. Even so, he missed one which sailed right into Duncan Matthews's back as he was slinking off the the showers, having been dismissed for pushing Summers. The footballer sagged to the ground, losing consciousness from the pain.
Not noticing this, Scott ran up to Jean as she collapsed again, catching her as she fell. "Jean, what's wrong?" he asked concernedly.
Somehow this centred Jean enough to remember herself. "Scott?" she said. "I can't stop it. I can't...."
Now Jean, too, fell unconscious.
"Get her to Xavier," said McCoy, walking up behind them with the unconscious Matthews held easily in his expansive arms. "God knows no-one else will know what to make of this. I'll sort Matthews. Go!"
Despite his stunned silence, Scott didn't protest, and scooped Jean up to take her to his car. He muttered to himself all the way back to the mansion, trying to work Dr. McCoy out.
Pietro wandered down the stairs groggily as the knocking grew louder, and more insistent. "I'm coming, I'm coming," he protested.
The door flew in off its hinges before he got there, and he just dodged out of its way in time. "Great, now we don't have a door," he said, before looking up to see a gloved fist coming straight for his face. He didn't manage to dodge that in time, however, and collapsed to the floor as the blood started to pour out of his nose.
"Now that was satisfyin'," said Rogue, looking up the stairs to her new audience. "Where is she?"
Lance and Todd simply stared, until Rogue stepped over the stricken door and marched up the stairs towards them.
"We thought you were dead, yo," said Tolanski at he backed away from her.
"Rogue?" piped up a feminine voice behind the boys. "Rogue!" Kitty exclaimed again, diving through the stunned pair. "How can you–? What hap–? But you–!"
Then the excited girl made the mistake of tackling her friend to the ground in a hug, which might not have been so bad if she'd left it at that or even only pecked Rogue on the cheek. She groaned vaguely as she fell asleep, her lips falling from the other girl's.
Rogue pushed Kitty's head to one side before carefully standing up, hooking the peppy teen's arm around her shoulders as she did so.
"It's like a dream–" said Kitty hazily, waking vaguely.
"If you say so, sugah," said Rogue, and looked up at the boys. "So, while we're all dreaming, want to save the world?"
"What from?" asked Lance.
Rogue smirked. "The X-Men."
They arrived at the mansion gate to find the grounds in full lock-down mode. Kitty was fully awake now, if still in a state of disbelief. "What's happening?" she asked.
"Someone's gone haywire inside," replied Rogue, turning to face her peers. "You know as well as ah do that the mansion's defence system is supposed to work both ways."
Behind her, the roof of the medical wing exploded.
"Also that it might not always work." She turned to face the vortex of chaos that had appeared above the mansion. "Looks like the handiwork of one Miss Jean Grey," the southerner continued, before placing her palm on the reader for the gate.
"Identity confirmed," came the metallic reply. "Access denied; Authorisation has been revoked for user 'Rogue.'"
"Figures. Kitty?"
Kitty stepped up to the system and placed her palm on the reader.
"Identity confirmed. Welcome 'Katherine Pryde.' Please enter override code."
"Override code?" said the girl. "I don't know any override codes!"
Rogue tried a few on the keypad – each one was declined. "Looks like they've changed 'em," she said. "Fry it."
"That won't open the gate," protested Kitty, but upon seeing the look the Mississippian gave her, waved her hand through the security interface anyway, and it failed with an electric sizzle. The gates remained firmly shut.
"Shame that Blob's not here," said Rogue. "Lance, tear the gate down."
Avalanche smacked the ground with his fist, rippling the ground almost up to the front doors of the mansion. The gates landed in a heap on the ground. "Why'd you disable them first?"
"The noise the alarm makes annoys me," replied Rogue as they picked their way through the twisted metal and stone rubble.
"I still can't believe I'm doing this, yo," said Todd, clearing the debris in one easy leap. "Why am I doing this again?"
"You don't want me to pummel you."
"Oh. Right."
"Keep an eye out for automated turrets," said the girl as they walked up to the gate. "They pop up from the most unexpected–" she ducked as razor-edged discs flew over her head "– places."
Lance punched into the air in the direction the discs had come from, disintegrating the machine that had launched them. "I thought I'd taken all of them out," he muttered.
In front of them, the ornate fountain in the centre of the driveway disengaged from its footing and rose out of the ground, exposing a triplet of laser cannons built into a rotating mechanism.
"Get behind me!" shouted Rogue.
Quickly the other three did so, and the southerner turned her skin to diamond as the cannon fired directly at her. The refracted beams were directed straight back at the base of the cannon, shearing the entire construction off at the base. The statue toppled over, crushing Scott's car.
The four mutants walked up to the shuttered doors of the mansion. The thick steel which now protected the normally glass-fronted atrium showed no signs of having any kind of door.
On the other side of the steel, the X-Men were trying to devise a plan to try and calm Jean Grey, and bring her back under her own control. For the last few minutes they'd been silent, having come to a stalemate in the discussion.
It was Scott who broke the silence. "Professor, we have to try something," he said, standing up. "I can't just sit by. I'm going to try and talk to her," he continued, before starting to walk towards the door again.
He couldn't hope to leave before Logan stopped him, however. "Look, bub," the feral said, standing in his way, "we've lost enough people already trying to do stupid things. Don't be the next one."
Xavier seemed contemplative for a moment, then looked up. "It seems we have visitors," he said. "Some of the brotherhood are outside."
Storm touched an invisible switch on the bottom of one of the large picture frames, and the portrait turned into a CCTV feed. Avalanche, Toad, and Shadowcat were visible on the front steps.
"Well, I might be able to get through, but why should we help them?" asked Kitty, and there was a moments pause. "They left you for dead! Didn't even go back to look."
"By rights Ah should've been dead, Kit." Rogue wandered into the picture in front of the group. "An' if I was, there'd be nothing to find."
There were various gasps and statements of astonishment from the assembled X-Men.
"Besides which," the southerner continued, "this isn't about just the X-Men. Whatever's happenin' in there isn't being contained, and I don't like anyone's chances of stopping it if we don't help."
At this point, Kurt ported outside. Shortly afterwards, he and the four arrivals were back inside.
"Uh, hi," said Rogue. This was met with dumbfounded stares from all but Wolverine and Xavier. The girl brushed a lock of white hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear. "Thought you'd be glad to see me?"
"Nice timing, Stripes," said Logan.
Rogue counted the persons inside the foyer theatrically. "I see there's been some new arrivals," she said, and turned to the professor. "Where's Jean?"
Xavier returned her look with a steely gaze. "She's in the medical wing," he said simply.
"Red's the one twisting everything about," supplied Logan. "Got too much power running around inside or something. Any ideas?"
"If the problem's too much power," said Rogue, "maybe she needs some drained off."
‹No way,› said Emma. ‹You can't let another telepath in here. Think about it. It'd ruin everything.›
'Yeah, I'd rather just kill the bitch,' thought Rogue. 'Especially after what happened with you. But that's gonna cause more problems than it solves. Besides which, she's a naïve child. Don't think you can handle that?'
"She needs something focus on," said Charles, the expression on his face not changing.
"Huh, that'd be right. She never did take the crystal thing seriously."
"As I said before," said Scott. "Let her focus on me. If Rogue can drain some of the power off...."
"And that would make you so happy, wouldn't it, golden boy?" Rogue's eyes flashed electric blue for a moment. "If you were the most important thing in her world." The southerner couldn't help but smirk as Logan growled imperceptibly to the rest of them.
"Hey," said Scott, sounding wounded. "I just don't want her to–"
"It might just work," said Rogue. Internally she continued 'Someone's got a crush on Scott Summers.'
‹Oh, you're so very clever,› replied Emma sarcastically.
"We're running out of options, Charles," said Logan.
"Very well," replied the professor. "Storm, stay here with the younger students."
When they reached the medical wing they found that the operating theatre and surrounding rooms were a maelstrom of morphing detritus, and Jean floating in the centre with an eerie glow.
"Her telekinesis seems to be rearranging matter on a molecular level," observed Charles. "I fear we haven't much time."
"Clocks running, let's move!" barked Scott, and the X-Men ran forward into the room.
After about 30 seconds of being forced back, they stopped.
"Got a better plan than shooting single bits of stuff as you run forwards?" asked Rogue, who had stayed back with Kitty and the Brotherhood boys. "Maybe you should try taking your visor off for once."
"That'll hurt Jean!" the Alaskan complained. "I couldn't!"
"Yeah, right," replied Rogue. "Gotta do what Ah have to," she continued, and elbowed Scott in the gut before grabbing on to his face.
"Was that necessary?" asked Logan, cocking an eyebrow as the boy collapsed.
Rogue didn't respond, but let a loose a giant concussive blast that obliterated most of the flying objects. Not needing any prompting, Wolverine charged in immediately afterwards and leapt into the air to tackle Jean.
The southerner grabbed Shadowcat's hand. "Sorry, Kit," she said, and turned to Nightcrawler. "Get me in there!"
Kurt grabbed his sister and they 'ported in just as Logan was thrown back violently. Kurt was caught in a second wave, but his sister had been ready for this and phased, avoiding the redhead's fury as Nightcrawler teleported away again. She reached forward, and felt the pressure building up – Jean was adapting to the change and would be able to touch her soon.
Emma struck out with a psychic blast, suppressing Jean's power briefly. ‹Go!› she urged.
Rogue rushed forward and pressed her fingers against Jean's forehead. The rush of power was so intoxicating that she wanted to pull away, but using the telekinetic power she forced herself to stay there, succeeding despite another psychic explosion from the other girl.
Jean, however, was proving to be very powerful indeed, and it was not only her telekinesis that was out of control. Around the two girls, the landscape became fuzzy, until soon everything was black, just the two of them floating in a ghostly light.
There was another explosion of energy, and the two of them flew backwards and landed on some sort of surface that was indistinguishable from the rest of the mindscape.
"For someone in so much turmoil this is an awfully blank mindscape," a familiar voice said behind Rogue.
"What are you doing here?" hissed the southerner.
"You and I both know you can't handle this by yourself," replied Emma, helping the girl to her feet. "Besides, it's not exactly like I'm here by choice."
"Look again," said another voice. Rogue turned to see Xavier standing near where Jean was still lying, her hands clasped over her ears and her eyes tightly shut. "It is not blank, merely so filled that one thing is indecipherable from another." He looked down at his student. "I can't reach her."
"I'm gonna hate myself for this," said Rogue, "but something's gotta give." The southerner walked to where Jean was and knelt down.
"I shouldn't have to tell you what a monumentally bad idea this is," said Emma.
Rogue picked up Jean's hand in her own.
On the physical plane, the two of them were on the ground again, and though the storm still raged there was little debris in it. Scott was also lying still not far away.
He stirred slightly "Jean! It's Scott. Please, listen to my voice! Focus on it!"
"Scott?! Where are you?" replied Jean. Neither had opened their eyes, and both were echoed by Rogue's lips.
"Jean?!" said the Alaskan excitedly.
"Help me, Scott!"
"I will Jean, just focus on me."
Rogue floated into the air.
"I... I can't. I'm losing you..." said Jean
"No! Don't tell me what you can't do," Scott replied. "I know you better than anyone ever has, or ever will Come on, you can do this."
Jean sat up slowly. "Scott?"
The Alaskan woke sharply. "Je–"
A massive explosion of light filled the surroundings, centring on Rogue. It faded into her body, and when everyone's vision was restored, they saw Scott and Jean sitting up, fully conscious and facing each other, and the operating theatre in immaculate condition around them. Rogue was lying comatose on the table, her skin transformed to diamond and a dull glow covering her body.
Xavier approached her carefully.
"What's wrong with her, Chuck?" asked Logan.
"Looks like Rogue has overextended herself," replied the professor.
"Looks to me like she arrived in the nick of time to save all your butts," said Lance. "That's kinda funny."
"Indeed, it does seem she arrived prepared for that too." Xavier turned to face the assembled mutants. "Do any of you know this woman?" he asked, and projected a mental image of Frost into each of their minds.
They all shook their heads; Kitty biting her bottom lip while she did so.
"I did see her though; with Rogue," said Jean. "She seemed to know something about what was happening."
"Yes. I think she's a telepath, but I don't know what she has to do with Rogue."
"Well, she helped, didn't she?" asked Kitty.
Logan snorted. "She helped this time. That doesn't automatically make her a good guy."
"Indeed," agreed Charles, and looked back to Rogue. "And I fear it may be some time before we can get any answers."
Notes:
Nine Months. Ouch. Sorry for the delay. I got caught up in a lot of other stuff, and for most of that time this was stuck with only the first bit with Tabby in there. I'll try not to leave you on this cliff-hanger for so long (I know, I know, empty promises and all that).
Don't read too much into Psylocke turning up. I'm not sure what to do with her as yet.
Thanks Murasaki Tsukimaru, Darkness-Lightness, Dark Inu Fan, Kyuubi-Titan, tfobmv18, Undefined Soul, XxBlood-Red-AnglexX, blackrider11, RogueNya, and Cosmic-lover for reviewing chapter 11, everyone who's reviewed any chapter before, and of course all you people who are still reading this shit.
Next time: Our southern belle has returned, but what are the X-Men to make of this?