Chapter 14: enjoy your flight

Click. Click. Tap. Tap. Jamie's hands are a blur on the keyboard, though you wouldn't know it to look at them. He feeds line after line of code onto the screen in front of him. Sending classified information through secure networks he technically had no real access to was always hard work. He's lucky he found this computer. He overestimated his skill as a hacker. Or did he underestimate it? He set out to destroy Muir's systems, and that he did. He did it so well in fact that he'd locked himself out of most of the computers too. But none of that mattered now. Now all that mattered was Legacy.

He glances at the time. Why? He has no idea how much time he really has. All he knows is that the X-Men are good. They'd find him soon enough. It's one thing to underestimate yourself, but quite another to underestimate your enemy, especially when they're the X-Men. He wants to blame his lack of time on his unexpected detour with Rahne but it only brings tears to his eyes and tears are of no use to HYDRA.

With one eye at the door and both ears constantly listening, he wishes there was some way to secure himself, not that a padlock or anything is any match for adamantium claws or a concentrated dose of lightening. He hears a noise. A rustling. Was that them? Were they here? Calm down Jamie. It's probably just a squirrel at the window. Just a squirrel? Idiot, isn't that just what they'd want you to think? Squirrel Girl, maybe. It doesn't matter either way. All that matters is that HYDRA gets the information they need. All that matters is that Legacy goes public.

More rustling. Shadows. No! He's not done. He can't be stopped now, after everything he's gone through. After everything that's happened.

He's not done.

Not yet.

ooooo

DKAAM!

Wolverine kicks open the door to Moira's lab. He sniffs around. The scent of coffee is strong. It inhibits his senses. On first inspection, the room looks empty. The few chairs and furniture strewn about mix with the files fallen on the floor. It's eerie the way the computers are on and they all wait for instruction from someone, but there's no one around to give them any.

Wolverine doesn't know much about computers or he would've noticed the information on the Legacy Virus on the screen to the right of him. That was what they told him James had been infected with. What he died from. Jamie was here. At sometime at least.

The other X-Men file in frantically searching for Moira or Jamie or anyone. By the time Wolverine hears the moan amidst the frenzied search, Beast has already found her. She's tied up to a chair and pushed hastily into a closet. There's an open wound on her forehead and it trickles blood down the side of her face slowly. She makes a noise again as she comes to with the help of Beast and his infinite medical knowledge.

"Moira?"

She can only say one thing. She can only think one thing. "It was Jamie."

"We know about Jamie. Where is he Moira? Is he here?"

"He's, he…"

ooooo

Jamie punches in the last few keys. "File transfer complete," the computer voice tells him. Just like Xavier to waste his money on useless crap like that. And just in time too, because he hears another crash. Like they're getting closer. But it doesn't matter. He's done.

ooooo

It's Prodigy that first notices the ripples in the coffee reminiscent of the T-rex scene in Jurassic Park as the ground starts to shake and they here a rumbling that comes from outside. After living in California Bobby can only picture an earthquake. But he knows better. A few of the others run off to see what's happening. There, in the distance, it's the X-Jet. Their X-Jet. And it's taking off.

ooooo

Jamie sits at the controls with a smile. With the influx of students at the Institute during his high school years, he didn't get that many lessons from the pilot seat. But look who's flying now. That's right Professor. The Professor and Scott and everyone else, he's in control.

He's surprised at how slow the X-Men are. They knew how advanced the computer on the X-Jet was and that Jamie had at least partial access to it. Was there any other logical place to go? It's funny to him that in a way the Professor was right. The X-Men would always be there for him when he needed them. And now he had their wings to prove it.

He was finally off for the bigger and better things that await.

ooooo

The X-Men simply watch. There's not much they can do from here. They have no fliers and no energy manipulators. No leaders that have lasers for eyes or new recruits that can throw fire. How the hell did that happen?

Prodigy and Beast run back inside the lab. Maybe they can override Jamie's commands and get into the system. Or somehow send a message out to Xavier about their hijacked transport so he can disable it from there. It doesn't really matter though because so far, Jamie has been a pretty smart kid. He was going to drop it off somewhere as soon as he got the chance and then he was gone. White, male, 18-25, connections with HYDRA. They would never find him.

But Bobby ignores all this. He ignores his gawking teammates. He ignores the last resort clicking away of their newest team member. He ignores the fact that he is never going to make it up there. Jamie was not getting away. Bobby couldn't let him get away.

WHOOSH!

The jet comes quickly towards them and passes deliberately low over their heads. Bobby creates an ice slide and chases after it. Nobody tries to stop him. Or maybe they do and he just doesn't notice. The plane gets smaller and smaller but Bobby keeps going. Higher. Higher. And eventually he feels himself get weaker. The air is thinner up here. Harder to breathe. His ice seems to get thinner too. He can feel the cracks before they come almost like the ice, his only lifeline, is screaming out for him to save it instead. The jet is just too high. He's not going to make it up there. The cracks spread. He can't make it. No. It sounds like glass crashing below him. It can only mean one thing. His slide finally shattered. He falls.

And falls.

And falls.

Suddenly he feels a quick burst of wind as something flies quickly by him. Superman? No. Better. It's Beak!

Beak flies clumsily towards Bobby. He's falling so far and so fast Bobby worries that it doesn't matter anyways. Just then Beak's legs swing around Bobby's chest tightly and he jerks up suddenly as Beak struggles to keep the two in the air. Bobby holds on for dear life in a backwards piggyback where he is fully dependent on the teen on his back. He finally has a chance to look at the ground far below. Beak just saved his life.

"Barnell Bohusk," he screams above the sound of the air moving swiftly past their ears, "I think I might just have to marry you."

They fall closer and closer to the ground despite Beak's best attempts at slowing them down. After all, Beak was never known for his flying ability and Bobby was never considered a lightweight.

"And if you can keep us from splattering onto the forest floor," his savior screams down genuinely scared but showing no trace of it, "I might just have to say yes."

Bobby looks at the quickly approaching forest floor. Shit. They were still going to die weren't they? He points one hand down unwilling to release his entire grip from Barnell. There's a tingle in his fingers that wasn't there previously. That's never a good sign. He tries again as Barnell fights a losing battle against gravity. There's only frostiness on his fingers, like a cold morning dew.

Again.

"Bobby! I'm losing it!"

And again.

Suddenly the two of them drop as Beak really does lose his glide and flaps his arms furiously to catch the air again. Now or never, Bobby thrusts both hands down and from the fleshy sun created from his joined palms and fingers comes the prettiest thing either boy had ever seen. Ice. Perhaps this is why they call him the Iceman.

The massive ice slide coats the freshly green leaves of the treetops creating almost a bowl for them to land in. And they do land. Clumsily and at great speed. They tumble closer towards the ground Bobby creating the slide the best he can as they fall. Bruised and battered along the way, eventually they both land in the dirt and the leaves when the slide runs out. They both lay there grasping at any breath they can find, muddy cuts and friction burns dotting their skin. Bobby on his back, he raises his head searching for Beak to make sure he's not injured. Beak holds one of his arms tightly (another break perhaps?) and chuckles. Who couldn't help but be a little giddy after such a glorious and fruitful fight against the grim reaper?

"Dude," he laughs, "I know I said it, but I really don't want to marry you."

This triggers only slightly in Bobby's mind almost mechanically. He looks up at the sky, the jet all those feet above them, shrinking away into nothingness. He lets out a quick sigh as he collapses back onto the ground. And then he sees something. Like little birds or something. He squints, "Hey, Barney? Is that?"

"Yup." Beak smiles proudly. "The girls."

ooooo

The special class tag team their way with the X-Jet. The twins in their super-powered 34-year-old body lead the attack at the front as they fight the advances of the oncoming jet. Yes, they're just that amazing. Buff, no doubt carried up there by the twins, stands on the wing as she tries to punch her way in. But Jamie doesn't notice. He's too busy trying to direct the plane with the twins on his nose pretending to be Superman and the Blackbird a missile. After several tries the persistent drumbeats of Buff's fist end with a crash as she finally manages to punch her hand into the main cabin. It sounds of a million aluminum cans being crushed at once as the once bulletproof armor tears away from its metal frame. Jamie turns around startled to see her bare hand. It won't take long before they make their way completely inside and when they do he wonders what kind of sound his jaw will make when it comes in contact with that muscled fist.

And he knows he probably deserves it. Probably? He does deserve it.

The pressure from the constantly changing altitude is intense and soon Jaime feels as he did when he was sick and high on cough medicine. Like his head would just float away from his body if not attached by that tether of a neck. Out of desperation he thinks of his trusty sidekick. The metal one at his waist that holds five bullets still. It's dotted with Moira's blood and Rahne's death. In a quick fleeting moment he considers using it to shoot at his friends just to save himself. These innocents. He's already done much worse. But he can't. And it doesn't matter much anyway because it takes everything he has just to steer the plane, and of course bulletproof means both sides. The Professor and Logan never trained him on the jet's external weapons. Had they known somehow what would happen?

The blackbird's high-pitched screaming that started with Buff's Herculean punch starts to fade. Or is it only in his mind? The ship's controls are as chaotic as the rest of the situation. It doesn't understand why it tries to go forward but keeps moving down, closer and closer to the ground. Like how Jaime's stomach can't seem to sync up with the rest of him. And then there's a spark on the keyboard. Jamie pulls his hands back instinctively. The screens fade, the lights flicker off. It's almost as if something is shorting out the electronics. And then there's the sound of bugs (or sand almost?) hitting the windshield, but they're too high up.

Yes, too high up for regular sand but not for Dust! Man's high-tech helpers are no match for the Earth's simplest building blocks. She must have jammed the system in her powerful form. Clever thinking, Sooraya. No wonder Xavier wanted to keep you for himself.

And finally Jamie hears the worst sound of all. Silence. The girls have stopped. The alarms have stopped.

The engines have stopped.

Where had it gone? His exhilaration. His lust for life. His… cockiness? All he feels now is that fear. Fear of the imminent. That fear of death. Though he promised himself as James that he never would again.

ooooo

Gordon holds Illyana's hand as they both stare into the sky watching their friends fight for what could be their lives. Gordon turns his head. He hears something. He lets go and Illyana doesn't notice. He runs through the wilds of the forest. A few rustles here and there as he makes his way clumsily through the trees.

She hears this. "Gordon?" She calls as she goes after him. "Where are you going?"

Gordon hears his name but he doesn't respond. Those aren't the calls he's interested in.

He's a fast little thing. And small. He disappears easily, but that's not the intention. "Gordon? Gordon?" And then she sees him. He just stands there. Staring. Illyana comes up behind him. She stops suddenly as she sees it no more than ten yards away. The mass on the floor. She places her hands on his shoulders and pulls the boy into her, holds him close. They both know what this is, but they refuse to believe it.

Illyana can only stare but Gordon advances cautiously. "What are you doing?" she asks.

Gordon turns to her. "She's calling me," he says. "She's so sad." He reaches for the jacket and Illyana moves closer to stop him, but she can't. She doesn't want to get any closer to it. Gordon puts his hand on the jacket. He recognizes it. That dark green with the six yellowish circles around the front zipper. It's Jamie's. He pulls it away slowly.

"It's… just a dog?" she asks confused though much more relieved.

"No." He puts a comforting hand on the red-brown fur just above the eye. "It's Rahne."

ooooo

Buff manages to pull a chunk of the wall away in the split second before the plane goes into complete free fall but it doesn't matter. It's still too small and way too late. She jumps away before the falling plane can take her down with it and the twins rush to catch her. Dust sandstorms her own way down.

Nicole and Claudette debate each other with the speed of their single mind. They might not be able to squeeze into that little hole and it's true, they're not sure if they can make it out before the plane crashes but they also know they can't answer any of these questions until they try. And they would too, if they didn't have Arlee hanging from their grasp. They can't work fast or be agile enough with her added weight and she would never survive the fall from that distance. The choice not to go after him fills them with guilt though it was never really a choice at all. They just keep thinking about how Jamie still has a chance inside the plane. It is an X-Men jet after all, built with the needs of the X-Men in mind. And the greatest need of all that planned to one day see combat the way the X-Men did is survival.

They watch and they hope. And they pray. Until the very last second. Until they hear the…

CRASH!