21
Rogue sat staring out of the jet window. The X-Men had left her alone with her thoughts. Rogue wasn't even sure what her thoughts were. She had agreed to go and help Joseph out because it was the right thing to do. Not because she liked him. He'd pushed her too far that night at the ball. To the point where, well… She didn't really know if she liked him or not.
She couldn't get passed the fact that Joseph looked like he was a prisoner. Maybe, he hadn't betrayed them to the M.R.D. but whoever he had got the collar off was pissed at him and wanted him to pay for helping her.
But then, was she just an experiment to them?
But then, Joseph said he loved her. Was all that a lie? Did she love him back? She certainly wasn't thrilled to be seeing him again. Or was she? She wanted answers, she knew that. But… things were just so messed up within her head and she was becoming edgy the longer the flight took.
Rogue could hear Scott saying something in his mic to the Professor.
"Are we almost-" Rogue went to ask, but, as she did, the jet seemed to just shut off and stop working.
Storm and Scott tried to control the jet as best as they could. Tried to bring it back up into the air.
"Hold on!" Scott shouted out as everyone rocked in their seats, "We're gonna crash."
"Oh man!" Kurt cried out.
Rogue saw out of the corner of her eye Jean reach her hands out, trying to stabilise the jet. It didn't seem to be working. Storm had took her hands off the controls too, but the weather wasn't changing.
"I can't control it. I can't control the weather!" Storm struggled to get out through her efforts.
Scott manoeuvred the jet as best as he could, but they did end up crashing. The jet hit a few trees as it came to slid against the ground and almost off the edge of a cliff.
Everyone was screaming and holding on for dear life. When the jet finally stopped and tilted back onto it's belly, everyone began to move out of it. Everyone was definitely very shaken by what had just happened. They were all looking at the jet which was smoking from somewhere.
"What the heck happened?" Scott questioned out loud.
"I have no idea," Storm said. "But whatever happened, it was not normal." She said.
"You mean, you think someone shut off the jet while we were still in the air?" Jean asked.
"Looks like it." Scott said, folding his arms as he stared at the smoking jet. "Everything was working up until we reached the island. There must be something here that interfered with the jet's controls."
"Whoa, guys, like, you're gonna wanna see this." Kitty said, drawing everyone's attention to the edge of the cliff.
Everyone moved to glance over what Kitty was seeing and they were somewhat amazed. Before them, they saw dinosaurs. They were surrounded by a tropical paradise. Trees and plants unlike any they'd ever seen back in Bayville. There was no technology or even any proof of existence that humans were here. It was as if they had stepped back in time to the age of the dinosaurs.
"Whoa," a lot of the X-Men mouthed.
"Dinosaurs!? Oh man, not again!" Kurt said, clutching at his head.
Wolverine began to sniff the air as he heard something coming.
"We've got company," he said, while extending his claws. Suddenly, Logan cried out and was near on his knee.
"Logan, what's wrong?" Jean asked, reaching out to him. She stopped and gasped as she saw the blood dripping from Logan's claws.
"That hurt." Logan winced.
"Our powers," Storm said, looking down at her hands. "They don't appear to be working here." She said as she reached her hands up towards the sky.
All the X-Men then tried to do something. Kurt tried teleporting, but he remained where he was stood. Kitty tried putting her hand through a leaf, but just ended up pushing it aside. Scott looked away, over the cliff before taking off his eyes.
"Scott, your eyes." Jean said, gasping at his brown eyes.
"Whatever 'cause the jet to stop working, it's also affecting our mutations." He said.
"Over there!" the X-Men heard from behind them. All of the X-Men turned to see two range rovers pull up and a few men jump out of them.
"Looks like we got company," Rogue said, reaching for her gloved hand. Then, it came to her as well. If everybody else's powers were off, then hers must have been too. She wouldn't be able to rely on her powers for this fight.
"Get them!" the man with pink hair yelled.
Two be muscular men ran from the rovers at the X-Men. Scott shouted something out, but the X-Men had already took action and made a break for it. The big, furry man seemed to go after Logan. Logan turned on the ape man, bringing out his second set of claws in pain. This pain ended up getting Logan tackled to the ground.
It looked like the other balled, muscular man went to corner off Kitty and Kurt. Both jumped to the side as he clasped his hands together and brought them down to the ground to hit one of them. As they both moved, only the ground was destroyed underneath his hand. The bald man's attention ended up falling on Kitty who was edging closer towards the cliff, almost falling.
"Kitty!" Kurt cried out as he jumped on the bald man's back and went to cover his eyes. The balled man struggled and stomped away. He ended up getting a grip on Kurt though and through him into Kitty who was trying to make a run for the forest. The two of them were down, but none of the other X-Men could do anything.
Jean and Storm had been scooped up into large, stretchy, purple hands and were being held up off the ground. They were hitting and fighting against the hands but to no avail.
Scott wanted to do something to help, but he found himself holding his ears and falling to his knees as the pink haired man screamed at him. He was in pain.
Rogue was distracted by Scott's cry, that she never saw the woman with white hair sneak up behind her. Rogue was brought to her own knees as she suddenly felt extremely dizzy and sick.
Logan had managed to tackle the ape man off him. They'd ended up in a fist fight. Over the ape man's shoulders, he saw the bald man lift up Kitty and Kurt's unconscious forms. He watched how Storm and Jean struggled against the purple man's grasp, but were completely trapped. He watched how Rogue and Scott had their hand's forced behind their backs and were handcuffed. He knew his team had lost and were being took prisoner. Logan wondered what he should do. If he should get caught and stick with his team. Or…
"This ain't over." Logan said to the ape man before jumping off the edge of the cliff and down into the waterfall.
"Curses! We can't let any of them escape!" the pink haired man said as he approached the ape man. Rogue and Scott had been pushed into a cage on the back of one rover. The white haired woman was currently placing hand cuffs on Jean and Storm while the purple man held them and the bald man was placing hand cuffs on both Kitty and Kurt before they all got shoved into the cages.
"Who the hell are you people?" Scott called out from the cage.
"And what have ya done to Joseph!" Rogue out afterwards.
"He won't get far. That is, if he even survived." The ape man said to the pink haired man. The ape man moved towards the edge of a cliff were vines of sort were hanging out of it and he began to climb down it.
Kitty and Kurt were put in cages first, followed by Jean and Storm.
"Who are you people?" Jean asked as the cage door shut and locked behind them.
The X-Men received no answers though as the mutants who attacked them got back into the rovers and began to drive them to wherever it is they were being taken to.
"I guess these are the people who have Joseph trapped." Rogue said.
Scott was silent. Rogue didn't like that. Especially the look that crossed his face.
"Scott?" Rogue questioned.
"I don't know Rogue. The jet stopping, our powers going, us being attacked. It all feels like a well executed plan to me." He said, staring forwards at the cage that held Jean.
"Wait, you don't think…" Rogue said, trailing off as she stared at him.
"Oh come on sweetheart," said the pink haired man in the passenger's seat. "Don't tell me you really haven't figured it out yet. Or are you just too blind sighted 'cause your all lovey dovey with that walking magnet of yours?" he laughed, earning a chuckle from the balled haired man as well.
Rogue was taken back by this. Had Joseph betrayed them again? And she had been the fool to trust him again. The fool who'd led the X-Men into danger. Rogue glanced away as she felt her heart hurt once again. Why didn't she listen to her gut the first time? Why didn't she listen to the other X-Men when they told her they thought this was a trap? Now, who knew what was going to happen to them.
Xxxxx
Gambit hadn't slept well so had gotten to driving earlier than expected. He felt anxious as he approached the large gates in front of the mansion. He tapped in his code to open the gates which, surprisingly, still worked. He drove up to the front of the mansion and left his bike there, just encase.
"Hey Remy, how's it going?" a few teenage girls asked his as they made their way out of the mansion to go shopping it seemed.
They were acting as if they didn't know he had took off. Didn't they?
Gambit just continued into the mansion, looking around. He was nervous. Very nervous. About coming back. About whether the X-Men would take him back. About if she would take him back?
She'd seemed willing to before but… Gambit sighed as he continued into the mansion. His first thoughts were to go and see Rogue, but he thought it might be good to put his rucksack down first. Only, he didn't even know if he had a room anymore.
Gambit went to knock on the Professor's office. Getting no response and seeing the lights flicker, he headed towards cerebro. He peeked his head in to see the Professor sat before cerebro and Hank besides him.
"It's no use! I have been searching for hours but I just can't find them." the Professor said.
"They must be somewhere Charles. No one can simply just vanish. Perhaps they entered another dimension, like Kurt?" Hank said.
"I'm not sure. I cannot even reach Jean." The Professor said.
Gambit raised his eyebrow at this. It seemed like the Professor and the X-Men had run into a problem. He wondered what.
"Dis be a bad time?" Gambit asked, drawing their attention.
"Gambit. Your back?" the Professor said.
"Seems so. Dat is, if you ain't rented mon room out yet." He said.
"It is great that you are back Gambit, but I'm afraid we have more pressing matters at hand." The Professor said.
"What be de problem?" Gambit asked, folded his arms as he glanced passed the Professor at the map that floated in the air behind him. That map looked familiar.
"We received a distress call late last night from Joseph." Hank said.
"Pardone moi?" Gambit said, snapping out of his fixation on the map.
"Indeed," the Professor said, turning back to cerebro.
"What he want?" Gambit asked.
"He was trapped somewhere. He sent us these co-ordinates before the video was cut off," the Professor said, motioning to the numbers in front of him. Gambit peered over the man's shoulder, reading the co-ordinates. What he read made his whole body go cold. It couldn't be? He thought.
"I sent the X-Men in to try and help Joseph escape wherever he was. But we have just completely lost signal with all of them." The Professor said.
Gambit eyed the Professor then. The Professor and Beast both noticed how shaken up Gambit had come to appear. Gambit just felt as if a monster had crawled up him and was stabbing him everywhere.
"Gambit?" The Professor questioned.
Gambit had to try and convince himself that he was not there. No, the X-Men were. Rogue might have been. Thinking of her, he started to come to somewhat.
"You didn't get anything from de X-Men 'fore they just vanished?" Gambit asked, not knowing completely what else to say. A part of his already knew where they were. Another part of him was in denial. Didn't want to admit it. Acknowledge it. Make that hell real.
"Yes, I was talking with Scott over the radio. He mentioned that he saw an island a head. It looked to be filled with wildlife and he thought he saw the head of a dinosaur at one point."
Gambit moved his hand over his face. It was real. It was the place he dreaded. The place that haunted his nightmares. And the X-Men were there. Rogue was…
"Rogue?" Gambit questioned.
"She disappeared with the other X-Men as they approached the island." The Professor said.
Gambit's body began to move before his mind seemed to caught up. He was scared. He didn't want to go back there yet. He wasn't ready. He was willing to leave the X-Men there until he was ready to face that island. To face that mad man. He wasn't ready. He would be captured and have to endure that same hell again if he did and there was no way he was doing that.
But, his body was already moving. Rogue was there. Rogue was there and she was in danger. In trouble. She was going to go through the same things he went through, only, maybe worse. She was going to suffer the same fact he had and she wouldn't be able to escape it like he had. He didn't want that. He never wanted to put Rogue in harms way. That was one of the reasons he left. He wanted to protect her from that island. From him. He'd been so stupid thinking him leaving would protect her. His tante had been right. Why didn't he come back sooner? Why didn't he stop her? He couldn't just leave her. The rest of the X-Men, yes, but that girl… That girl had made him feel alive again. Made him feel safe. He cared for her and… well, apparently, his body already knew what his head was slow to realise.
Although he was scared, terrified and wanted to avoid going back to his own personal hell as much as possible, he would return there in order to save that woman.
Gambit turned on his heel and was sprinting off faster than the Professor could acknowledge.
"Gambit, where are you going?" the Professor asked.
"De X-Men be in trouble. One hellofva mess. I'm gonna go after 'em. They gonna need moi-" he said, not fully understanding the words coing from his mouth either.
"Wait, then you know of this island? Where is it? What is it?" Hank began to ask.
"No time beast. I'm takin' a jet. I'll answer your questions over de radio." Gambit said as he ran off to the hanger and hotwired a jet before taking off into the sky.
Xxxxx
By the time the X-Men had been brought to the castle that stood in the middle of the jungle, all were feeling their heads hurt.
"Man, what hit me?" Kurt asked as he came too.
"Yeah, my head, like, totally hurts." Kitty said.
Jean and Storm were by their sides, helping them up. It seemed they were in pain too, but she'd been able to slowly get used to it rather than just waking up with a headache.
"Rogue," Scott asked as he turned to her, "the collar Joseph put on you, didn't you say you received a headache from it?"
Rogue was sat down and almost curled up as she turned to face Scott who was on his knees.
"Yeah. This pain, in our heads, it's kinda like it. Only, weaker. Maybe the whole island's covered with a mutant neglecter force field or something? Maybe that's why our powers don't seem to be working." Rogue said.
"Maybe. But how did they use theirs?" Scott said, glancing at the men in the car.
Rogue watched them too. The collars that were around their necks looked very similar to the bracelet Joseph had got her to shut off her mutation.
"Scott, I think it's those bands around their necks. Joseph gave me a bracelet that looked just like that which switched ma powers off. Maybe theirs turns their powers on?" Rogue said.
"Seems more than likely. Rogue," Scott said, feeling down that he had to be the one to address this with her, "whatever we're about to face in there, you need to know that, well, Joseph's probably going to be there and that he most likely-"
"I know Scott." Rogue said almost too silently. "I already know. But, we don't know nuthin' till we-"
As Rogue started to try and defend Joseph. Tried to share some lie that had come up in her head about how Joseph might have been blackmailed into doing that video, the vehicles stopped and their cages were opened.
The X-Men were grabbed and shoved roughly out of their cages.
"Get movin'!" They were commanded.
The balled man grabbed Rogue first and threw her out of the cage so she landed on her side. The bald man reached down for her, grabbing her roughly by her arm and shoving her forwards.
"Hey!" Scott said as he moved to be in front of Rogue as she was thrown forwards. If he hadn't have stepped in the way then Rogue would have fallen flat on her face. "Watch it!"
"Shut up pretty boy and just move it!" the bald man said as he began roughly shoving both Scott and Rogue. Scott let Rogue go before him before he started to oblige.
They were all lead up some stairs and ended up coming out into a large room. On the far side, it looked like there were medical and scientific tools set up alongside a massive computer. Along the walls that lead to that mad scientist's lad were metal cages. In one of them already, the X-Men noticed Magneto was there. His body was pinned against the wall by rope of some kind and he seemed out of it. His top was off and he just seemed so weak.
"What have they done to him?" Jean questioned.
"You best worry about yourself first, sweetheart." The pink haired man said as he took Jean roughly by the arm and shoved her into one of the cages.
Rogue and Scott watched as Kurt, Kitty and Storm were all put into cages too. Rogue's attention became distracted as she heard the pink haired man address the man dressed in black and purple typing at the computer.
"Sinister, we picked up you package and they're a feisty bunch." The pink haired man said, proud and joyfully.
"Excellent work." Sinister said, turning around and showing his face to everyone there.
A gasp got caught in Rogue's throat. Before her was a man with pale white skin, whiter than hers. Sharp teeth and his eyes… They looked just like Gambit's only…evil.
"Move it already!" the ballad man said, grabbing Rogue by the arm and lift her up off the floor.
Rogue cried out. Her hands were still cuffed so the way he held her while her hands were bound hurt.
"Leave her alone!" Scott said, going to attack the ballad man.
"Shut it!" the ballad man said as he kicked Scott to the other side of the room. He landed in an empty cage where the stretchy purple man shut and locked his cage.
Rogue still hung in the air. She'd begun to kick, trying to free herself from the harsh grip. She managed to get a kick to the face in which only seemed to piss the bald man off more than hurt him. The bald man grabbed the leg Rogue had used to kick him and began twisting it in an unnatural way that made Rogue cry out.
"That's not very nice! Maybe I should teach you a lesson before-" the bald man was interrupted from finishing his sentence as a metal rob shot passed him. This rode was like a knife and sliced down the arm that had been bending Rogue's leg. The bald man dropped Rogue's leg.
Rogue was taken back by what had just happened. She was starting to feel a little hope, until that metal rode shot at her stomach and sent her flying into a cage and shut and locked behind her on it's own.
Rogue began to sit up, holding her pained body as she looked around for the person responsible for the metal rod. Her eyes enlarged as she saw Joseph stepping into the room, wearing a face more pissed than the last time she had saw him. Her jaw dropped as Joseph walked towards the bald man.
It was him. He was really here. And he looked alright. That was sort of a relief, knowing that he was alright. But, she was slightly confused. Her mind was screaming to her that Joseph was here now and had his powers. Everything was going to be ok. He was going to save her, to save them.
"What's the big idea?" the bald man demanded to know of Joseph as he approached the bald man.
"The only one to touch her will be Sinister. You have no place putting your unruly hands on her." Joseph said, his voice calm, but sounding dangerous.
"Ha!" the bald man scoffed, "you're soft! You're protecting that bit-"
Before the bald man could finish his sentence, the metal rode that had been wrapped around Rogue's mid had flown up into the air and at the bald man, wrapping around his neck, strangling him.
Rogue gasped and watched in horror as the man she knew as Joseph lifted the bald, muscular man up into the air as he struggled against the metal wrapped around his neck and tried to break free. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Joseph, he… he looked so vicious. His eyes were so harsh. Harsh than she had ever seen them before. The Joseph she knew, he would never do something so cruel. Something that would, intentionally, harm another. He was a good man. This wasn't him. Joseph wouldn't do something like this. Look so…so vengeful.
"That's enough!" Sinister's voice boomed. "Put him down."
Joseph did as Sinister commanded, but not in the way anyone expected. Rather than just removing the metal from around the bald man's neck and letting him drop to the floor, Joseph heaved the bald man through the air and out of a window. The metal did come loose, but the bald man screamed out as he fell down, off the hill that the castle was on. All the X-Men gasped and watched in horror at what Joseph did.
Joseph turned his head and looked straight into Rogue's cage, right at her. Rogue felt her very core shake as those angry, vengeful eyes that had just strangled and then thrown a man out of a window became fixated on her.
For Rogue, it was like looking into a monster's eyes. His calming, white orbs were now a storm of rage and emotion that terrified her and consumed her. The man that looked down on her, that saw through her, saw her as some insignificant being that had just insulted him petrified her.
"Was that really necessary?" Sinister asked, seemingly unaffected by Joseph's actions. The man just stood there, eyebrow raised and his arms folded over his chest like he was watching a child throw a tantrum.
Joseph eyed Sinister, that vengefulness still in his eyes, but not directed at Sinister. He said nothing, simply, walked to be besides the man.
Rogue just couldn't believe what she had witnessed.
Sinister made his way down towards the X-Men, eyeing them up as he took them in.
"My apologises for your rude introduction to my world. I'm sure you all must have a lot of questions of which the answers you seek will become clearer to you in time." He said.
"We don't plan on staying here. Now tell us, who the hell are you and what do you want with us?" Scott demanded to know.
Sinister's eyes fell on Scott, a devious smirk on his face.
"My name is Nathanial Essex. But most know me by the name of Sinister." He said, walking right up to Scott's cage were the two stared off. " I am a genetic mutant scientist and as I have already stated, my plans for you will become clear in due course." Sinister's attention then turned to the pink haired man who had gone to typing at the computer. "How long before the preparations are compete?" he demanded to know.
"They're not ready yet. It look's like they're going to need-" the pink haired man began to say, but was cut off by a rather loud alarm going off.
Sinister made his way up to the computer, his back now turned to all of the X-Men.
Rogue's eyes went back to lingering on Joseph, or, the man who she had once recognised as Joseph. The man who stood there, besides this creepy man, Sinister, now, she had no idea who he was.
As if knowing she was looking, Joseph turned his head to meet Rogue's eyes. His piercing stare all the same. It stopped Rogue from breathing. She felt so cold and small under that gaze. Joseph, the man she once knew, who looked at her now, scared her.
"What is it?" Sinister demanded to know.
"A jet. Entering from the north, north eat." The pink haired man said.
"Go. Investigate it and hurry back with whoever you find as soon as you can." Sinister said.
Most of Sinister's men began to leave without question, but the pink haired man said, "Should I stay here with you? Just encase they get out of line?"
"No, go and find the intruder. And bring back the Wolverine while you're there." Sinister said.
The pink haired man seemed to glance between Sinister and Joseph and back again.
"Are you sure you can trust him?" he asked.
This got the pink haired man a glare from Joseph. Sinister only had a smirk on his face.
"He will not disobey me. Now go." He commanded.
The pink haired man nodded his head and left, just as Sinister commanded, while he took over the computers.