A very Merry X-Mas!
Hello! Breaking the fourth wall here to apologize deeply for the very, very long wait I have kept you all in! As much as I wish this could be my day job, and that I could be actually writing for this as a real show, ala the fabulous "Gotham", in real life I am an author, and I have been very busy with my third novel, and needed to take some time to work on it. If you enjoy my work here, please DO check out my novels, "Altered" and "Shattered" in The Academy Series, available on Amazon or Barnes and Noble (my name is Aubrey Coletti, it won't let me show my website) . I truly appreciate each and every fan of this story, and I want you to know I have been thinking of all of you! In that vein, here is the finale to this season of "Mutant High!"
Season Two, Episode Fourteen: Horizons, Part 2
Cell Block 321, 2000 ft. Below Surface, Genosha
The elevator dinged open, and the blood-spattered white-haired mutant emerged into a sea of screaming, rioting mutants. Ororo's eyes turned white in defense as she watched the furious, rabid mob smash their glass cages, rip wires from the walls, and drag pleading, crying human guards across the floors. The mayhem and violence were so shocking even the seasoned warrior and former queen needed to take a moment to collect herself. She stood attempting deep breathing, not resisting the mutants who forced their way around her into the elevator as they desperately tried to reach the surface.
Ororo saw two young mutants, one with skin that appeared to naturally resemble third-degree burns, the other with yellow flecks all along his arms, drag a female Genoshan scientist by her hair to the ground. While the yellow-flecked one held her down, the burned one started to rip her clothing off, laughing at her pleas and screams. Ororo sprang instantly into action, raising her arms and summoning up all the air in the extensive halls. "Enough!" she bellowed. Her voice was magnified by the wind as she shoved the air at both young men, hurling them away from the woman. They skidded across the floors and slammed into other mutants, who stumbled over them in their haste to either get away from the violence, or engage in it. Ororo walked over to the still gasping woman and pulled her to her feet. The woman, young, blonde, and shivering, started to mumble what sounded like a thank you, before catching sight of Ororo's still white eyes. With a painful screech, the woman broke away from Ororo and made a run for the elevator.
"Professor! Ororo!"
Ororo heard her name called and turned to see John and Bobby running towards her, dodging the fleeing and fighting mutants around them. Scott was not far behind.
"Boys!" Ororo abandoned any professional, teacherly distance when they came into range, grabbing both adolescents to her and hugging them tightly. Bobby clung to her hard, while John squeezed her and then pulled away, looking wary and shy. "I— I was . . . here," John muttered by way of explanation.
"I'm so sorry, John," Ororo said as softly as she could while still being heard over the cacophony around them. Scott drew level with them, his face hard. "Have you seen the others?" he asked immediately. Ororo shook her head.
"Professor Logan, Sid, and Piotr are here. They found Kitty," Bobby said quickly. "We saw them on the monitors, but we don't know where they are."
"Have you seen Remy, or Rogue, or Jubilee?" Ororo asked, raising her voice as a great crash came from down the halls.
"No, and this place goes on for miles," Scott said. "And down below there's—" Scott stopped himself, looking away. Ororo scanned the mayhem of the halls around them. "I think we need to get to the surface," she decided. "Down here it's just a free-for all. Everyone who's not participating is trying to get out and up."
"Yeah, there's a lot of participation going on," John said dryly, looking around at the devastation caused by the angry, rampaging, recently freed prisoners.
"This is only going to get worse unless we stop it," Ororo said darkly, thinking of the blonde woman.
"If we can stop it," Bobby said grimly.
"Let's get to the surface," Scott ordered. "I can't breathe down here."
Ground Floor, Lion's Paw Resort, Genosha
The elevator opened. Remy and Rogue stumbled out along with ten other tightly packed mutants, who shoved and pushed over each other in an effort to run into the sunlight. The elegant hotel was in ruin; glass windows smashed, lion statues toppled, a sickening trail of blood dirtying the marble floor. Rogue pulled as close to Remy as she dared as they stepped out, trying to identify anyone they knew in the melee. One handsome Filipino mutant appeared to have gathered a following, and was monitoring the only other entrance, a stairway to the lower floors. Mutants who stumbled through it were helped up. Scared human scientists or workers who had the misfortune to find their way out were greeted by a gang of very angry former prisoners.
"Remy, look!" Rogue pointed over at the gang. "Jubilee!"
The littlest X-Men turned at the sound of her name. When she spotted her friends she ran, dodging and leaping over cowering or fleeing mutants, to meet Rogue and Remy in the center of the hotel floor. Rogue almost hugged Jubilee when they reached her, just managing to hold herself back. Remy grasped the Chinese-American mutant's shoulder. "You okay, petite?"
"Yeah. I mean, no. I mean—" Jubilee looked over her shoulder at Park and his gang. "It's bad. It's revenge central up here. I don't think I can stop them."
"You'd hurt yourself tryin' all alone," Rogue soothed. "We gotta find the others."
"What if they can't get to the surface?" Jubilee worried. "We're all—"
A shout of fury called their attention again to Park and his boys. Remy took a step back as Essex shoved his way past Park's boys, throwing one of them off with a shove of almost supernatural strength. Alex followed close behind him, leaping over the all-mutant barrier after his prey. Park headed Essex off with a low kick to his ankles, causing him to stumble and fall. His boys recovered as well, blocking Alex's access as Park slammed both elbows into Essex's back to drop the scientist. He moaned, half-conscious still. Park grabbed his wrists and pulled him up to his knees.
"Park!" Jubilee ran over to her new friend. Rogue followed close behind; Remy hanging slightly back. Park looked up, his smile victorious. "We got one of the big ones, kid," he said triumphantly. "I saw him take away mutants who never came back."
"He's mine!" Alex screamed, trying to fight his way through Park's crew. "I need him!"
"Get in line," Park growled. Remy looked desperately around the group, anywhere but into Essex's eyes.
"If he hurt that many people he should face justice, not this," Rogue argued. "You can't just — just judge people randomly. We don't know what they did."
"You really think anyone not a mutant down there is innocent?" said one of Park's boys, a mutant with facial scars and a spiky mohawk.
"We won't know if you kill them all!" Rogue snapped. Jubilee nodded vigorously. "Besides," Jubilee added. "If we just kill them the world won't ever know what happened here! We need everyone to know about Genosha and what they did. They have to be able to testify!"
Park seemed to consider Jubilee's words. "Alright," he said. "This one we take with us."
"Good," Jubilee said in relief, Rogue nodding as well. Remy looked down, his jaw hard. Despite his attempts, Essex caught his eye. The dark scientist grinned through the cut on his lip, and winked.
Lion's Paw Resort Beach, Genosha
Logan, Kitty, and Sid stumbled after Piotr through the hole he had smashed into the hotel wall. They emerged, wincing, into the burning African sunlight. Logan growled as the mutants who had collected around them streamed up out of the darkness and past them onto the sand. "Where the hell are we?"
"Out," Sid said, breathing a sigh of relief. "Out of that hell hole. Thank God." Kitty leaned against Sid in exhaustion.
"Perhaps not just yet," Piotr warned, pointing at the sky. The other mutants looked up, as did the rest of the people milling around on the beach. Above them a gigantic, damaged jet plane lowered itself slowly to the beach below. The people balanced atop it gradually became clearer as it descended.
"Great," Logan grumbled. "Just what we needed. They got Mags, and couldn't manage to get rid of him."
"Brothers and sisters!" Magneto bellowed, his voice carrying to the stunned mutants ranged all over the beach. "I present to you your tormentors. They tried to cage us. They tried to destroy us. And they tried to run. But they could not escape the long reach of our justice." Mutants scattered as the plane, creaking and groaning, hit the ground, kicking up piles of sand. "So," Magneto said, his grim smile visible to the surrounding crowds. "Shall we show them what the iron hand of justice feels like?"
TITLE SEQUENCE:
TITLE SONG: "Evolutionary" Composed By Emilie Autumn
Cast:
Wolverine: Hugh Jackman
Storm: Halle Berry
Professor Xavier: Patrick Stewart
Jean Grey: Famke Janssen
Cyclops: James Marsden
Beast: Kelsey Grammar
Rogue: Anna Paquin
Gambit: Taylor Kitsch
Iceman: Shawn Ashmore
Kitty Pryde: Ellen Page
Piotr Rasputin: Enver Gjokaj
Jubilee: Julia Ling
Guest Starring Xander Berkely
Aaron Stanford
Chris Pine
and
Ian McKellen
With Terrance Zdunich as Sinister
Written by Craig Silverstein
Directed by Danny Cannon
Ground Floor, Lion's Paw Resort, Genosha
The elevator arrived at the ground floor. Scott, Ororo, John, and Bobby got into fighting stances as the door opened. It revealed a mostly empty hallway, the few stragglers remaining fighting to escape through a side door. Bobby narrowed his eyes and then shot off after them. "Rogue!" he yelled. "Jubilee, Remy!"
Rogue and Jubilee turned. Park and his gang, already half out the door, continued down the stairs to the beach. John jogged after Bobby, Scott and Ororo bringing up the rear. Bobby pulled Jubilee into a tight hug as soon as he reached her. "We didn't know if we'd ever find you guys," he said as Jubilee clutched him back just as hard.
"We were tryin' to find y'all, but it's mad down there," Rogue said, hanging back as Bobby clapped Remy's hand with his. "We— John!" Rogue said in shock, her voice fading into a stunned whisper.
Jubilee and Remy turned as John shrugged, his face a mask of bravado that didn't conceal his nervousness. "Funny us ending up here, isn't it, Mississippi?"
"Who's this, hmm?" Remy demanded, his accent thickening. He didn't bother hiding his glare at the newcomer.
"Pyro," John stated. "IceMan's counterpart. I used to ride with the X-Men before I left for—"
"Magneto," Ororo interrupted, looking out through the glass. "What the hell is he doing?"
The others turned to look through the glass at the scene playing out on the beach. On top of the jet taking up half of the beach, the small but visible figure of Magneto was addressing the crowds.
"So I guess he got out—" Bobby began, when John pushed past him and ran out the door. "Hey, John! John!"
Ororo groaned as Bobby ran out after his friend, and was quickly followed by Rogue, Jubilee, and Remy. "I forgot what a problem that boy is," Ororo groused as they followed their charges down the stairs and into the crowds.
The sea of mutants had taken over the beach. The X-Men had to fight to get to a vantage point where they could view the proceedings on the jet. Luckily, Magneto's voice carried easily over the crowds.
"So you deny your crimes, even here, confronted by the many you have wronged?" Magneto boomed, playing more to the angry mutants than to the cowering Hodge.
"I'll deny or admit to crimes when I am tried in a court of law," Hodge insisted, raising his voice as high as he could, despite the boos that greeted him. "This isn't a court, this is a travesty. You're showing the world that this is all they can expect of you."
"The world, Mr. Hodge?" Magneto questioned. "Do you not see all the nations of the Earth spread out before you? Brought here by you?"
"All I see is a bunch of animals who can't be bothered with the law, conducting a lynching," Hodge bellowed. The mutants below him roared in fury, and Magneto didn't hide his own grin.
"He's a hypocritical bastard, but he's not entirely wrong," Scott noted. "We have to stop this. If they kill him here then we'll never be able to show the world his crimes."
"You got a plan?" Ororo questioned. "Because if we don't act now—"
"Then you have nothing to say in your defense?" Magneto questioned. Hodge looked up and over at the faces of the mutants glaring at him with murder in their eyes. He sneered, rising with difficulty to his feet. "You want me to say I regret my work. That I feel pity, or sympathy for you. That if I could take it all back, I would, because your lives have worth and meaning. Well, keep your hate. You're all trash, deformed monsters. You make me sick. You've infected our world. I don't regret all this for an instant."
The mutants screamed, howled, hollered. Magneto gave an exaggerated sigh. "And so you pronounce your sentence upon yourself," he stated. "Mingle with the infected."
With more force than would be expected for a man of his years, Magneto put his foot on Hodge's back and kicked the man off the jet. Hodge toppled to the sand below, his finely tailored suit ripping as he landed. For a moment there was almost silence. He pushed himself to his knees with his elbows, and looked around him. Then the mob descended.
They moved en mass, a swarm of mutants of every color and stripe, onto the screaming and pleading Hodge. They piled on, so that it was impossible to see what was being done to him. But his high, begging wails, the sounds of ripping and the spurts of blood shooting into the air, were illustrative enough. Ororo grabbed Bobby and Jubilee with either arm in horror. Scott seethed, unable to find a way to stop the slaughter. It continued until Hodge's screams weakened, and then faded into silence.
"My brothers, my sisters," Magneto continued, seeming to gain strength from the rising violence of the mob. "We've dealt with one crime against mutant-kind. Some may call into question our right to judge our oppressors. But I say, the only fair court is a court of our peers. Here we can make our own justice!"
The crowds roared in approval. Magneto raised his arms to accept their praises. "He's going to milk this for all it's worth, no matter how many people he kills," Jubilee said in disgust.
"It's not like Hodge was innocent," John argued, folding his arms nonchalantly. "None of these people are. You think the guy they're taking to the stage now was nice and cuddly to all his mutant lab rats?" He nodded at the jet, where Park and his gang were hoisting up a struggling Essex.
"Essex!" Scott swore. He pushed into the crowd, elbowing others aside as he moved closer to the jet.
"Scott—" Ororo started to protest, and then rolled her eyes and gave up. She followed him along with Bobby, Rogue, Jubilee, and John. Remy reluctantly slunk along behind them, moving with his thief's skill through the crowd.
"Do you know this man?" Magneto questioned dramatically, as his cronies dragged Essex into view on the roof of the jet. The crowd roared back, a cacophony of screamed crimes one over the other. Magneto held up his hand and the crowd quieted — he commanded the rise and fall of voices with the ease of a stage magician in his element. "One at a time. I assure you he will pay for all of his sins."
"He killed my brother!" screamed one voice, shrill and feminine. "He tortured him for hours! I saw—"
"He's the other guys' right hand man. He's one the one who stripped our powers!" yelled someone else. More people started to speak over each other. Magneto tried to raise his hands for silence, when one voice rose loud above the others.
"He killed my entire family! Forty mutants at once! He massacred them! All of them!" The voice was young and female and thin but the entire beach of bloodthirsty mutants fell silent at the claim.
"Come forward, please," Magneto said. The X-Men watched as a space was made for the accusing mutant in the crowd.
"I can't see her," Jubilee whispered loudly. "She must be shorter than me."
"Come up, my sister," Magneto said grandly. "Speak to us." Two of the mutants at his side pulled the tiny mutant up. She turned to face the crowds, small and fragile-looking in her pale, tattered pink dress, her violet eyes wide.
"Wait," Rogue said. "Don't we know her? Remy— Remy?" She looked around for her boyfriend, but couldn't locate the Cajun.
"Come, please," Magneto said with the deceptive gentleness his voice could hold. "Tell us about this massacre of mutants."
COMMERCIAL BREAK
Lion's Paw Resort Beach, Genosha
"I can't see a damn thing," Logan growled, straining to look over the heads of the much taller mutants in front of him. "Who're they murdering now?"
"I do not like this crowd," Piotr said, his accent thickening in fear. "These people are angry and unstable. They are ready to kill, and I do not think they will wait patiently for Magneto to drag every member of this island's group out to kill them."
"We should find our people and get out, before this place becomes a bloodbath," Sid advised, his hand wrapped tightly around Kitty's waist. The tiny wall-walking mutant grimaced in pain and let her head rest on his shoulder. Logan sniffed the air.
"They're close," he determined. "C'mon. Let's find the rest and get the hell off this goddamn island."
The violet-eyed mutant girl opened her mouth to speak, but, as if tired by her screaming accusation, couldn't raise her voice to reach the masses. She motioned for Magneto to come closer. He bent down and listened to her whisper. Then he nodded, and straightened up to address the boiling, restless crowds.
"Our sister here does not give her name," Magneto said, his voice pitched low to carry over the beach. "She once had a family, she says, who lived underground, because they feared the hatred and recriminations of the humans on the surface."
"Of course he'd figure out a way to tell the story," Scott said scathingly. "Anything she tells him he's going to filter through his anti-human message."
Magneto had finished listening again to the tiny mutant girl's whispers, and he stood to speak. "She says they remained underground, safe, hidden. Hiding in the dark and the tunnels. Then one day, a betrayer arrived. Her family began disappearing, one by one. Taken for the foul experiments of the man before you."
The crowd booed and hissed. Bobby rolled his eyes. "I have no problem believing he did it," Bobby muttered. "But Bolts is milking this." Rogue was gently pushing at the mutants around her, trying to locate Remy.
"Then, one night, the betrayer struck in force," Magneto was narrating now, holding his audience spellbound, "and enacted his sinister plan. With the help of his accomplice, he stormed the tunnels where these mutants were hiding, in fear for their lives. Well they should. He butchered them with unrelenting savagery. Bodies cracked and broken. Children ripped from the arms of their mothers, mothers cut open to see what was inside that made them so different from normal people. Our friend here sat crouched with blood splattered over her while the man you see before you laughed, pleased that he had enough specimens for his experiments."
The crowd grumbled and a few members screamed, "String him up!" Ororo shivered in disgust. "He could be making all of this up," she declared.
Magneto raised his hand for silence. "The man you see before you is accused of many crimes," he stated. "Not only of this horrible massacre, but of prolonged torture, of experimentation on us as if we were rats. We will—"
The tiny violet-eyed mutant interrupted Magneto's speech with an eldritch scream. His face momentarily showed irritation at being interrupted, before he looked to where she was hysterically pointing. "Him! Him!" she shrieked. "Red-eyed! Diable! Diable!"
Magneto recovered quickly, gesturing for the men around him to grab the object of the tiny female mutant's rage. Park and several others descended. There were the sounds of a scuffle, and then a blast of red-purple energy. The X-Men watched, stunned, as a struggling Remy was pulled up onto the jet.
"No!" Rogue gasped as Park and his cronies forced the still resisting Remy to face the crowd. "Is this the betrayer who exposed your people to the massacre?" Magneto demanded. The violet-eyed girl's face was twisted with hatred as she pointed at Remy. "Him," she said audibly. Remy seemed to be trying to talk to the little girl. She covered her ears and knelt down, shaking her head against his words.
"This is worse than we could have imagined," Magneto shouted. "A mutant betraying other mutants. This is the worst kind of degradation." Park and his boys held Remy by his arms and forced him to look back to the crowd. The mass started to reach fever pitch, and something was thrown at Remy, slashing him across his face.
"We have to stop this!" Rogue demanded hysterically. "Now!"
"I agree," Scott said. Narrowing his eyes, he aimed and fired an optic blast right into Magneto's chest. The old mutant fell back from the force of it, his face the picture of shock, as if unable to comprehend anyone striking him down in a moment of triumph.
The crowd was unnaturally still for a long moment. Then the violet-eyed girl screamed. Like the releasing of a dam, the powder keg of mutant rage exploded. Angry mutants streamed towards the stage, fighting to climb up the jet. Taking advantage of Park's confusion, Remy bent his knees and executed a backflip, knocking the Filipino mutant back and freeing himself. He landed on his feet, but was immediately assailed by four furious mutants from the crowd who had managed to climb up the jet.
"They're gonna kill him!" Rogue screamed. She plunged forward into the crowd, fighting against a gigantic tide of angry mutants. "Rogue!" Bobby screamed. "Wait!"
"Oh, this is enough," Ororo stated, her eyes going white. She raised her arms and the winds rose with them. She twirled her hands, and then shoved them forward. The gale force winds slammed the mutants in their way aside, leaving a clear path to the jet. Rogue sped off at the downed plane, Bobby, Jubilee and John right behind. Reaching the broken wing, Rogue slammed one arm down on it, making a dent as she used it to propel herself up. Landing with a powerful thud, Rogue grabbed one of the mutants attacking Remy with her right hand. She pulled, throwing the man twice her size over her shoulder. She elbowed a tall female mutant in tattered black clothes in the chin, and the woman spat blood as she stumbled. A blast of red-purple energy forced two hulking mutants back, and for a moment Rogue had a glimpse of Remy's bleeding terrified face. She started to run towards him, and was tackled by one of Park's cronies. Park himself was dragging a tearful, screaming human woman in a stained Lion's Paw Resort apron up onto the jet. The woman was clinging desperately to a small girl with her eyes, who looked around her in terror.
"Park!" Jubilee yelled, scrambling up onto the jet. "Park, stop!" Bobby grabbed her hand and hauled her up after him, then turned to ice down one of Magneto's men.
Park turned, his face a mask of disgust and rage. "Little sister," he shouted, jerking the arm of the woman to throw her to her knees. "It's retribution time."
"No!" Jubilee shrieked over the near deafening sounds of the screams and blows of the fight all around them. Ororo and Scott had climbed onto the jet, and were fighting hand-to-hand with Magneto's men, as the old survivor himself fought to rise. "Park, that's a mother and a child!" Jubilee hollered.
"Yes!" Park crowed. He grabbed the tiny, chubby wrist of the little girl in his left hand, and yanked her away from her mother, who moaned in desperation. "A perfect little human family. Meanwhile, my family is all dead because of them!"
"Not the girl!" Jubilee argued, dodging a falling mutant teenager that Ororo had knocked out with a deft kick. Jubilee ran closer to Park, who tightened his grip on mother and child. "She's just a kid!"
"So were we!" Park yelled back, blood streaming down his anguished, hateful face, his veins fit to burst. He pointed to the violet-eyed mutant girl, who was huddled down in the middle of the chaos, hands over her ears. "She said children were taken, killed. Mutant children. So now a human child needs to die. A life for a life."
"That's not justice! Children are innocent," Jubilee screamed, pleading, as she made her way through the melee towards the furious Filipino.
"No one's innocent!" he screamed, and kicked away the crying woman with his left foot. He grabbed both of the little girl's arms, ignoring her tears and screams of pain. "If we let them live they'll grow up to be just like their parents," Park said, snarling. "Murderers. Monsters." He grabbed the little girl's neck, and squeezed both of his hands. A ripple of heat went through the air, and Jubilee saw the girl's face turn red as she gasped for breath.
"NO!" Jubilee clenched her fists and heat curled around them, crackling blue and red in the air. She ran at Park, who let go of the little girl in time to throw his hands up and catch Jubilee's fists. His eyes widened in shock as he felt the building force of her plasma power. "They're humans," he tried to argue with Jubilee, his voice harsh. "They'll never accept us. If we let them live they'll become oppressors! Killers!"
"And if I let you do this," Jubilee forced out between gritted teeth. "So will you."
Park snarled, lifting his foot to kick her, just as she let the energy in her hands release. Park was blasted backwards in a rain of red and blue plasmodia, his expression of hate turning to shock as he was propelled off the jet. Jubilee turned away from the crack of the fireworks, unwilling to hear his scream.
"Rogue!" Bobby yelled, as he iced up his fist and slammed it into one of the seething mutants trying to climb onto the jet. "Jubilee! Professor! We're gonna get swarmed!" All around them mutants piled one on top of the other trying to get onto the jet. Some were clearly looking to join in the fight, but others had looks of terror on their faces. The mob of mutants had erupted and turned on each other. The beach had become a killing field, with a stampede of people trying to flee the madness finding themselves crushed and trampled. Sunlight glinted off of steel, and Bobby squinted and made out a man of metal near the edge of the beach. "Piotr!" he shouted. "Guys! The others are—" Bobby's sentence was cut off as the jet started to shake and creak. He whirled around to see Magneto attempting to rise, and the plane rising with him.
"Rogue! Jubilee! Bobby!" Scott screamed, as the mutant he had been fighting toppled off the plane and to the sand below, where he was instantly swarmed by the sea of mutants. "Everybody, jump! Now!"
The jet rose higher, veering right, out over the ocean. Jubilee grabbed the terrified human girl. "Mama!" she screamed. Jubilee turned to see the human woman sliding off the plane's wing. "No!" she screamed along with the child, as the woman fell over, plummeting to the water below.
"Everyone, I said abandon ship! Now!" Ororo screamed, slamming another kick into one of the men protecting Magneto. Magneto was firmly anchored to the metal jet. He grimaced and made it rise higher. "Jubilee, jump!" Ororo ordered.
Jubilee looked down at the terrified girl in her arms and pulled her in closer. "Hold your breath when I say," she yelled over the rising wind. The girl just whimpered as Jubilee steeled herself. "Oh God," she whispered. "Here we go." She faced the wing of the plane, gripped the girl tightly, and ran. She could still hear sounds of fighting behind her as she sped to the edge of the wing. She had only a moment to look down at the blue expanse below, before she was in the air and falling.
Bobby saw Jubilee go over the side out of the corner of his eye. To his right he saw John rushing to Magneto's side, holding onto the old man's shoulder. In front of him he could see Rogue kick out the legs out from a mutant trying to hold Remy down. The Cajun scrambled to his feet as Rogue tried to stay on hers as the jet swayed. "Guys, we need to jump!" Bobby yelled. "C'mon!"
Remy looked wildly around the plane, his face scratched and bleeding, his clothes ripped. He saw the tiny violet-eyed mutant huddling in the center of the plane, whimpering. He ran at her, skidding and stumbling. She looked up in terror as he deftly swung his left arm around her waist and lifted her up onto his side. "Chere!" he yelled back at Rogue. "Alle!" Rogue nodded, and then ran over to Bobby, who was perched at the edge of the plane wing. "Where's Jubilee?" Rogue screamed over the howling wind.
"She already jumped!" Bobby responded. Remy moved to leap and Bobby threw out his hand to stop him. "Don't! The fall could kill you!"
"We gotta get down 'fore it gets any higher!" Remy argued.
"I know!" Bobby set his jaw and threw out his hands. A sheet of ice erupted from them, arching down towards the water. "Now, quick!" he screamed. "Before it breaks! Rogue, go!"
Rogue knelt down and put her feet on the ice slide. Another jerk of the plane propelled her down it, screaming. Remy followed, skidding down sideways, the girl over his shoulder clinging to him as they fell almost vertically towards the ocean. Bobby started to step out towards his creation when another, sharper turn of the plane broke it. He watched in shock as his ice slide crumbled, leaving him no way off the jet.
"Bobby!" he heard Ororo yell behind him. "Jump!" He felt a shove and toppled off the edge, unable to hold in a scream. For a few awful seconds he was in free fall. Then he felt a rising, powerful wind turn him to the left, buoying him up. But he was still falling fast, descending rapidly. The water came closer and closer. He almost forgot to gasp before he slammed into the cold ocean. He was swallowed up by the sea, still going down.
COMMERCIAL BREAK
Lion's Paw Resort Beach, Genosha
Kitty screamed when she saw Bobby plummet to the ocean floor, a ragged, pained sound that died in a cough of agony. Sid tightened his hold on her, as they moved with Piotr and Logan to the water's edge.
"Can you swim, Tin Man?" Logan shouted, as he ran splashing into the water.
"I will," Piotr promised, de-steeling and plunging into the blue waters. Logan growled and dove in after him. The two bulky mutants swam hard for their friends.
Above them Ororo swooped through the clear blue African sky. She dove down like a water bird to the ocean and grabbing hold of Scott's arms before he was dragged down to the depths. Straining and gritting her teeth, she pulled him up, raising the winds to pull them both into the air. With difficulty she held onto him as the winds swung her back to the beach. "Scott—" she tried to warn. "We're gonna lan—" They hit the branches of the palm tree, hard. Tangled in the fronds, Ororo had just enough time to recover and summon up winds before she and her fellow X-Man hit the sand.
Dazed, head splitting and ears ringing, Ororo spat out sand. "Prof . . . essor . . . Prof—essor!" She raised her head, the words coming slowly into her ears. It took another long moment for her to make out Sid and Kitty. They fumbled over to her, falling to their knees at her side. "Professor, are you okay?" Sid asked. Kitty looked pale and sick, and appeared to be swallowing.
"I'm . . . fine," Ororo replied, forcing herself to sit up. "Scott . . ." She looked over to where he lay, facedown. Sid crawled over to his teacher and touched two fingers to his neck. "His pulse is okay. He's alive."
"Turn him over," Ororo ordered. "Gently!"
Sid rolled Scott over, keeping his neck and back aligned. Ororo watched Scott's chest rise and fall clearly, and let out a sigh of relief. "Kitty," she asked, turning to her student. "Are you okay?"
Kitty swallowed again, looking anything but okay, but nodded. "I'll make it. The others — Bobby, Rogue . . ."
"Look!" Sid said, pointing to the edge of the beach. Their friends were struggling to make it out of the ocean. Jubilee was the first to put her feet on land. In her arms was the gasping, crying little girl. The child was screaming and reaching towards Piotr, who carried her unconscious mother over his shoulder as he pushed forcefully to shore. Logan swam behind him, almost in the shallows, dragging a gasping, conscious Rogue, and an unconscious Bobby. Remy passed by him, the little violet-eyed mutant clinging to his neck.
"Go!" Ororo ordered Sid, coughing. "He— help them!" Sid nodded, and ran to help Piotr, who was working to keep the woman's head above water. Logan finally made it to the muddy shoreline. Rogue found her shaky feet and pulled away, tugging her shirt over her skin to keep him safe. The burly Canadian set Bobby down on the beach and immediately started CPR. Remy navigated around them as he carried the little girl to shore. Once on solid ground she struggled out of his arms, jumping down and turning to face him with a shocked expression on her tight little face. "You . . . kept me alive."
"Ain' the first time I done that," Remy asserted. "I brought you outta the darkness last time."
"Last time you brought the darkness on us," the little mutant shot back. Rogue and Sid looked over now. Bobby started to cough up water, and Logan pulled him upright and hit him on the back to keep it coming out.
"You and the sinister one," the violet-eyed child continued, "killed all of my family. Pretended to be friends. Lied. Lied and we died. You killed us all."
"I didn't lay a hand on none a' you!" Remy shouted. "I didn't know what he was gon' do, him, I just—" Remy stopped up short, looking around at his friends. Ororo, Kitty, and Sid were staring at him in stunned silence. Bobby was still coughing, more quietly now, into Logan's shoulder. Piotr was laying down the woman on the sand; her daughter was struggling out of Jubilee's arms.
"Is she lyin'?" Rogue's voice was ragged. Remy closed his eyes and didn't turn to look at her. "I didn't kill one of 'dem underground mutants. Le petite, her don' remember righ'. I dragged her outta that hell."
"But you were there!" Rogue said, her declaration coming out like a desperate question. "You were down there when it happened. You . . . you were working with that man." When Remy stayed silent, Rogue kicked her way out of the mud. She marched over to him, pivoting around to face him. He looked down, refusing to meet her eyes. "That's why you ran when they brought him up," Rogue said, filling in the silence. "Were — were you just gonna leave us? Run off when we found out?" When he didn't respond, Rogue shook with anger. "Answer me, boy!"
"What I did before I met you don' concern you, chere," Remy mumbled, still looking at the sand. "Let it go."
Rogue's eyes widened in fury. Jubilee gasped loudly as with a resounding smack, Rogue slapped Remy across the face. The force of it knocked him backwards, the touch of her bare skin making him shudder as he tried to sit up in the sand. "The hell! You gon' kill me den, chere?" he snapped when he had recovered. His voice was angry, but his red-black eyes showed his hurt.
"Why not?" Rogue hollered back, furious. Bobby made to get up and move towards her. Logan held him firmly down. "I probably should!" Rogue yelled. "Otherwise what's gon' stop you from sellin' us all out, like you did her people?" Rogue pointed righteously at the violet-eyed mutant, whose pinched face now bore a dark little smile. "Huh? Why wouldn't you—"
"I would never do that to you!" Remy exploded, getting to his feet now and coming in closer to Rogue. Ororo tried to get up, her legs shaky, reaching out in a feeble plea for the fight to stop. The two lovers paid attention to no one but each other. "I would never do nuthin' to hurt you!"
"Why not?" Rogue yelled, her voice strained and pitched high with anger and pain. "Why? Why should any of us believe you? Why should I believe you?"
"Shut up, shut up, listen—" Remy tried to interrupt her tirade, but Rogue shook her head, her wet hair spraying all around them. "No! Why?" she screamed. "Why would you work with him? Why would you help him kill innocent people?"
"I didn't know he was gonna kill 'em!" Remy yelled desperately, eyes darting around at the other silent, staring X-Men. "I needed his help. He tol' me to lead him 'dere — thought he was gon' offer to help 'em, to work wi' 'em like he did me, help 'em with dey powers. I never thought he'd kill 'em an' take the children!" Remy swallowed, looking pale, young, caught. "I— I only had time to get her out."
"Yes. Her," Rogue snapped, pointing at the little mutant girl. "Her that we met in the tunnel. Her who you told me you never who you pretended you didn't recognize. You lied to me! You lied to all of us."
"How could I tell you?" Remy argued, his voice hoarse and sore, holding out his hands in a plea. "How could I?"
"How could you not?" Rogue responded. "How could you lie to us? What, you didn't want us to know that for the right price you'd sell us all out to a mass murderer?"
"I would never do dat to you!" Remy swore, moving closer. His voice lowered even more, his red-black eyes locked on Rogue's green-hazel ones. "Dere's no price they could pay me to sell you out."
"Why, 'cause we're all worth so much more than those mutants were?" Rogue said scathingly.
"Yes," Remy said openly, his voice barely a whisper now. He was inches from Rogue, but took a few steps closer. She balled her hands into fists and straightened up, rigid in her anger. "Yes, you are," he said again, the fight as gone from his face and voice as it was hard in Rogue's. "You are, 'cause—"
"Because you know me?" Rogue headed off bitterly. "Because you—"
"Because I love you." Remy said the words like they hurt, the vocal chords in his throat tightening, his devil's eyes taking in Rogue like she were the only water in the desert. "I love you, chere. Mon Dieu, I tried not to, me, but I jus' can'. I love you, Ann Marie."
Rogue shivered at the words, her rebuttal dying on her lips even as she opened them. She took in his his beautiful, sun-darkened face, his wet long hair clinging to his forehead, his red-and-black eyes watching her so closely, as if afraid and desperate for what she would say. She started to raise her hand for him, when she heard the tiniest whimper from the little violet-eyed mutant. She turned to glance down at the frail, huddled child, who stared up at her with eyes far too traumatized and hard for a girl her age. "And what about the people you don' love?" Rogue said softly, watching the little underground mutant watch her silently "What about them? What about the girl she was, could have been, before all this?" She finally turned back to Remy, whose chest was heaving in pain. "Everything with you is a gamble, Remy," Rogue said in a tone drained of emotion. "There's no truth. No trust." She shook her head. "No future."
Remy stared at her in horror and hope, as if waiting for her to say something else, to take her words back. When she shook her head again, he backed away. He slowly pivoted, taking in the silently judging faces of his new family; from Jubilee's shocked, open mouthed expression, to Ororo's saddened, hurt look of ultimate disappointment. He rounded back on Rogue, back to her disgusted, icy, hard eyes. Closing his own in pain, he looked for a moment as if he would break down in tears. Then, with a movement too fast for anyone to catch it, he swept up a handful of sand, charged it, and thrust it down before him. It caused a great, red-purple blast that made everyone around cover their eyes and jump back. It threw Rogue onto her back in the sand. When her vision cleared, she looked around for Remy. Only at the last moment did she catch sight of him disappearing into the tree line of the tropical island.
"Remy!" Ororo shouted, the first to recover. "Remy— we have to go after him."
"We got bigger problems, 'Ro," Logan growled darkly, helping Bobby to stand. "Look."
The X-Men turned to look where the burly Canadian had indicated. Remy's blast had brought on them the attention of the mad, screaming mob. Like a swarm of locusts, it began to regroup and refocus — and then started to run towards them.
"Oh God," Jubilee gasped, as the little human girl clung to her and whimpered. "They're gonna tear us to pieces."
"Battle stations, everyone," Logan demanded, while supporting the still weak Bobby. Ororo stood on shaky feet, supported by Sid. Piotr still knelt by the unconscious human woman. Scott lay prostrate in the sand, and Rogue stared, silent and catatonic, at the spot where Remy had disappeared into the jungle.
"I don't think we're enough of an army, Professor," Kitty said flatly. "We can't turn back this tide." The mob drew closer, screaming and howling, many dripping blood that stained the sand. Kitty closed her eyes, but their shrieks of inhuman rage grew louder still. Then another sound rose up, drowning out the screams with its distinctive whirring.
"The hell—" Logan turned to look behind them. "That's our goddamn plane!"
The Blackbird soared over the palm trees, flying low. The X-Men and the mob both stopped to look up as it swooped down, landing ungracefully on the only expanse of beach left to it. Logan shaded his hand and stared at the window into the pilot's seat, where a man who looked remarkably like Scott sat. He caught Logan's eye, and then gestured for him to come forward. The door lowered open in the back. Logan reacted quickly. "Everyone, get in!"
Logan dragged Bobby over to the plane, as Piotr gently picked up the still unconscious woman and carried her inside. Jubilee ran with the little human girl after them, as Ororo rose to her feet. "Sid — get Scott," she ordered, as she supported Kitty and stumbled towards the plane. Sid tried to lift his teacher, who groaned. Logan came sprinting back out to help, just as the mob sprang back into action, no longer stunned by the plane. "They're comin' for us," Logan growled. He knelt down beside Scott's head and carefully fit his hands under the other teacher's shoulders. "Get his legs," he ordered Sid, who complied. Together they lifted the now groaning teacher and carried him carefully across the sand, up the plank, and into the plane. They set him down between Jubilee and Bobby. "We gotta strap him in, and take off, and—"
"Wait, Rogue," Ororo interrupted, looking around. "Where's Rogue?" The X-Men that were conscious looked around the plane. Rogue was nowhere to be seen.
"We gotta take off!" came the cry from the pilot's seat. Ororo pivoted to look at him, and her eyes widened in shock. "Alex?"
"Wait," Logan insisted. "I'll get her."
"That mob's gettin' close," Alex insisted. He began flicking switches, setting a flight plan.
"I said wait!" Logan growled. He barreled out of the plane, running back into the oppressive, mid-day heat. The mob was now only feet from the Blackbird. He quickly spotted Rogue, still staring into the jungle. She didn't move even as he ran over to her. The sounds of the mob grew deafening. "Rogue," he yelled at her, once he was at her side. "Kid, we gotta go."
Rogue ignored both him and the mob, staring at the jungle. "He ain't comin' back, Marie," Logan stated. Rogue blinked, and turned to look at him, her eyes dazed and wet with tears. Logan carefully placed a hand on her covered arm. "C'mon." He tugged her, and she finally moved with him. He coaxed her to a run. They managed to reach the plank and get into the Blackbird just as the mob swarmed the plane.
"Alright, we're on! Up, up, up!" Logan yelled, as some of the angry mutants tried to board. Alex pushed the jet into the air, knocking most of them off. "Raise the damn plank!" Logan hollered. One mutant still hung on, a shirtless, heavily muscled woman with sickeningly yellow skin. He tried to climb up after them. Logan ran up and kicked her hard in the chest. She fell just as the plank pulled up all the way. The Blackbird rose into the air, leaving the angry masses to gather in the now empty space. Ororo half-crawled, half-walked over to the cockpit to sit in the other pilot's seat. She looked down through the windows at the savagery below. "They're gonna tear each other apart," she whispered, watching as the mutants became smaller and smaller as they gained height. "There won't be a human on the island left alive."
"Good thing that we're not on the island," said Alex. Ororo looked over the man she hadn't seen in years. He was pale, and his hands shook. "Good riddance to the whole damn place."
Ororo looked from Alex to his brother, lying on the Blackbird's floor. She gazed over at the rest of her team, battered, bruised, and short one X-Man. "No," she whispered. "No good can come of this."
Pa Pa Power by Dead Men's Bones Plays Over The Ending Scenes
Rec Room, Xavier Institute, New York
"The scenes of carnage you see are taking place on the formerly widely-advertised 'mutant friendly' island of Genosha. They are being fed to us via journalists posed on helicopters and low-flying jets," announced the voice-over on the TV screen in the Rec Room. The young X-Men were gathered on the couch to watch the horrors unfolding in real time.
"No one can get any closer footage, since the massacre of the crew of an investigative journalist team that landed there two days ago," the report continued. "If you look in the far left corner of our cameras' vantage point, you can see the remains of that helicopter. There, the world was shocked to watch a peaceful film and journalistic crew pulled out and brutally murdered. Reports are hard to come by, so it's difficult to know what started the carnage. We have received some unconfirmed reports that far from being the paradise advertised, Genosha was actually the center of a global mutant slavery ring, with links to terrorist sub-groups and autocratic regimes around the world. What is evident, is that humans and mutants are being killed in scenes of violence unprecedented in recent years. The only messages we have been able to solidly receive are the large writings scrawled on top of the Lion's Paw Resort, claiming the island as "Mutant Land." Commentators such as Senator Whitney Graham have proposed new legislation—"
"Great," Bobby said scathingly, leaning back against the couch, wincing as his sunburned skin rubbed against the material of his shirt. "So now because of these bastards and their slaughter orgy, all the world governments are gonna crack down harder on mutants."
"And this means they'll be less likely to believe the truth about the experimentation and slavery, even if we do tell it," Jubilee said grimly, her normally perky hair flat and unbrushed, her face devoid of makeup. "They'll just say they made it up to justify all the killing."
"I don't understand it," Kitty said softly, staring at the TV as they flashed pictures of the massacred film crew for the thousandth time that week. "How can people do this?"
"A mob isn't people, Kitty," said the soft British voice to her right. The Professor wheeled up to the seated mutants. "It is rather the very worst kind of mad beast. One person may be halted in such violence by their conscience. But together, collectively, they are freed by consensus to be cruel, steady in the assurance that if others are behaving so, it is not wrong."
"But they had this done to them," Sid argued, from his seat on the floor. "How can they turn around and do it to others?"
"Because this is their time," Bobby said darkly. "Their chance to be on top. They're gonna do everything they can to even the scales."
"But this doesn't even anything," Kitty said, her voice shaking. "This is just murder, plain and simple. How can they not feel guilty for it?" She shivered, and Piotr placed one of his thick arms gently around her shoulders.
"Guilt is a deeply unpleasant state," Professor Xavier explained, calmly and sadly. "Most of us would prefer to avoid it. If we can bury it down by justifying our actions as things we had no choice in doing then we may, for a time, free ourselves of it." He looked past the clustered young X-Men to the lone Rogue, who sat off by herself, staring blankly into space. "But, like a chronic disease that waits for the right conditions, it will nevertheless spring back into life given the chance."
3000 ft Underground, Panic Room Bunker, Genosha
In the dark, dank underground room, Essex moved with hand-rubbing glee towards the large lamp that was the only source of light. "This is only temporary," Essex promised soothingly as he walked around the table. A female figure lay on it, her head and torso covered with a dark cloth. Essex adjusted the IV that fed into her right arm. "Just until things die down. Once we're ready to move, we can make our way out through the tunnels to the edge of the island. There, we'll have a boat waiting from some friends to take us away."
"Friends." Remy stepped out of the shadows to stare darkly at the thick, pale scientist who puttered around the prone body. "'Tink I'm done wi' friends, me, comprenez? We ain' friends. Business partners, at most."
"Yes, yes, of course," Essex said, waving his hand dismissively and smiling at the stone-faced mutant teen. "Oh, Remy. Didn't I come through for you before? Are not your powers under control now? When you stand by me, I do not betray you. And the friends I mention are not the small-minded fools that Hodge and his ilk were. No, no. These friends have a much more . . . expansive outlook on the nature of our changing world. By aligning with them, we place ourselves on the right side of a history soon to change in a way it has not for thousands of years."
Remy frowned, stepping closer to the body on the slab, his red-and-black eyes narrowed into slits. "Don' care 'bout history, homme. Jus' wan' to get off this island and disappear."
"Oh, but you will want to to be a part of this, my young friend," Essex said excitedly, leaning close to the body. "We are standing on the edge of a precipice. Behind us, the standards of the past. Before us, the promise of the future." He knelt down at the side of the covered figure. Her arm hung down over the side. He gently touched the tips of her fingers. They reacted, jerking back, a small, subtle, sign of life. Essex grinned in triumph. "A most brave new world."
END CREDITS
