Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, except for those I invent. I invented a character named Marie. I realize that is the real name of Rogue, but I will always refer to Rogue/Marie as Rogue, and Marie/Marie as Marie. No infringement is intended.
For details on Marie and her friend Jean-Pierre, please read "An American Ka-Boom! in Paris." chapter one through eight.
D.C. is also a character I invented. For details, see "D.C. and the CN Tower." chapters one through five.
D.C. had expected a big fight to get out. He had expected a hard time trying to keep the plasma supplied with energy. To tell the truth he had expected himself to run out of energy, and then the army would dispose of him. But what he hadn't expected was the door opening by itself.
He had immediately stopped the plasma. It had no purpose now. Then he regretted doing that when a volley of gunfire suddenly burst from the huge door.
Hundreds and hundreds of soldiers were gathered in another large room. They all had machine guns which were blasting away. D.C. created more plasma, but this time is was just enough to cover himself. Any bullets that came toward him were vaporized. D.C. then turned his attention to getting through the soldiers. But the question was answered for him.
Suddenly all the soldiers just collapsed. One moment they were awake and alert then in the next moment sleeping like logs. D.C. Professor X in his electric wheelchair. He gestured to D.C. who's plasma shield dissipated. He ran to the door, which resembled the door to an airplane hanger, stepped carefully over the sleeping soldiers, then walked up to Professor X who was sitting in a similar doorway.
"Hiya. What's up?"
"No time. Come on."
D.C. followed Professor X through yet another large room. This time it had a regular door tucked away in one corner. It opened and D.C. saw Cyclops look in.
"Hurry up! It's a mess out here!"
D.C. wondered what was happening. When he got to the door and looked out into the hallway, he stopped and did a double take.
It was total chaos. D.C. could hear several explosions in the distance. Pieces of paper and metal were scattered on the floor, and people, dozens of people, were running up and down. They were all trying to find the way out. D.C. could see rows and rows of open metallic doors stretching in both directions.
D.C. saw a door saying "STAIRS" across the hall from him. He moved toward it, but he got distracted.
Suddenly a pink blur zoomed past, creating a sonic boom. It also caused a vacuum, which sucked paper and metal along. It looked remarkably like a comet with a tail. The vacuum was strong enough to throw people off their feet.
"I'll be right back."
With that D.C. disappeared into the row on lights on the ceiling.
Going through an electrical system was always a nice experience. It was like flying through a tunnel filled with little blue lights, and it made D.C. feel great. He didn't have time to enjoy it this time though. He had to time this very carefully. He got ahead of the speeding blur. Then, 100 feet in front of it, he created a network of tightly intertwined light beams.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a brick wall stood blocking the hallway. The blur slowed. A shrill shrieking was heard and sour-smelling smoke came of the blur. The blur itself was sharpening, revealing itself to be a girl. Her rubber sneakers were pressed hard against the concrete floor. Smoke was pouring from them as the girl struggled to stop herself.
Finally she squealed to a stop barely two inches from the wall. She leaned over a little, panting slightly, and her head went through the wall.
She leapt back in surprise. Then she stood forward again. She put her hand against the wall and it fell through. She cocked her head. Then she walked through it. When she came out the other side, she looked behind her in wonder.
Meanwhile above her, D.C. watched from one of the lights. The girl was about ten or eleven, brown hair, hazel eyes. She was tall for her age, but other then that she was a perfectly normal girl, except for her ability to run that fast.
Suddenly the lights went out. D.C. could hear the dull roar of an explosion above him. It shook the passageway strong enough that little pebbles of concrete fell from the ceiling. Time to go.
First he relit the lights. Then he dropped down from the electrical system on the other side of the phony brick wall. He caused the hologram to disappear, and the girl jumped back again.
"Who are you? What do you want?" she demanded with a thick New Jersey accent.
"Relax, I came to help you."
"Why do I need help from some guy like you?"
"Because I know this guy. He' a mutant like you. He's got this school where mutants can go when they are out of luck."
"I don't need help. I'm getting along just fine."
"If you're getting along so fine, why were you panicking?"
"Hey! I've been through a lot! You don't know what it's like to be by yourself at my age. You just don't understand."
"Oh, but I do. Let me guess. Your friends see you running that fast, figure out that you're a mutant and tell their parents. Parents get all scared because you might run over their kids. Your parents get hate mail and stuff, and one way or another, you're out. You wonder the streets, begging and stealing food. Sure, you're getting along fine. That guy I mentioned feeds and clothes mutant kids and gives them a home. If you would rather sleep on the street, and spend time among people who hate and fear you instead of with people just like you, that's fine with me. See ya around."
With that, D.C. turned and walked away. He didn't turn around, but he could just feel the wheels turning in her head. After about ten seconds he could hear her running footsteps.
"Hey, wait up."
"OK kid. I'm going up into the ceiling, ok? I want you to follow the blinking lights. When they start glowing yellow, slow down. When you see one of them go red, stop. See you there."
"Wait! What do you mean, 'go up into the ceiling?'"
D.C. didn't answer. He simply jumped up into the electrical system. He started in the direction of Professor X, causing the lights behind him to blink. She started to follow them, and D.C. noticed a few people he hadn't noticed run to catch up. He slowed down for them, figuring he might as well lead to Professor X as well.
Pretty soon he had a whole bunch of people following his blinking lights. They were a whole assortment of people representing every race. There were a few odd looking people in the crowd filling the hallway, but if that's what evolution's going to give you, you might as well take it.
He sent his mind's eye ahead. When he saw he was approaching Professor X and Cyclops, he made the lights glow yellow. Finally he was right above them, and the light right above them turned red.
He dropped down, greeted them, and turned just in time to see the girl stop in front of them.
"Professor, this is the girl I was telling you about. I'd introduce you, but I don't believe I know your name."
"Sheila."
Sheila. Cool name.
"Sheila this is Professor Xavier, headmaster of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. In other words, Xavier's School for Outcast Mutants."
"Hello Sheila. I'm pleased to meet you."
"I'm been told by him that you can help me."
"Well, I try to help kids like you."
"I'd hate to interrupt this conversation, but we have company."
Cyclops' comment caused all of them to turn around. The crowd of mutants that had followed D.C.'s blinking lights had arrived. A man stepped forward.
"Hey man, do you know how to get out of here?"
"I do." answered Professor X. "I'd lead you there, but I came to lead everyone on this floor out. Are there other people on this floor?"
"Thousands. I don't know how we can find them all."
"Leave it to me."
When D.C. had explored the army's computers system's with his mind's eye, he had discovered an intercom system that ran through the whole complex. He spotted a speaker a few feet from where they were standing. He walked over to it. He ripped off the grate covering and tapped into it using his power. When he spoke, his voice echoed and reechoed. It seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere.
"Attention. Attention please. All cell doors have been opened, and complex security has been overwhelmed. The army thought they could hold us, and they were wrong." Cheering could be heard coming from down the hall. "The only thing that remains to be done is to get the hell out of here. To get to the main stairs please follow the yellow lights above you. Now, a big crowd will be gathering here, so I will ask beforehand, please don't push! We have a lot of little kids here that are scared out of their wits. If you see a child that has no idea where to go, please point out the lights or lead the child yourself. That is all. Yellow lights will be starting…now."
In his imagination, D.C. could see lights start blinking yellow. Looking like those Christmas lights that flash in sequence they would start off toward the stairs. He imagined thousands of people following.
This was an easy thing to do because right now D.C. was supplying the electricity. Something had happened to the main generator, so D.C. had taken over its work. The announcement had been broadcasted on all the floors, so D.C. had to do this on every level. The stairs were going to be very crowded very soon.
D.C. could see people coming this way already.
After about three hours everybody on that floor was there. And what a crowd it was!
It consisted of about 4,000 people stretching away in both directions. The age difference ranged from a four-year-old boy to a 97-year-old great-grandmother. Every race was here, but here and there were people with oddly colored skin or eyes. Everywhere else they had probably been stoned or beaten up, but here they were among friends for the first time in their lives. Here a certain kinship was felt, almost like the crowd was saying to one another, "I'm a mutant, you're a mutant, therefore we're family."
There was almost no shoving. People were calming down little kids who were very scared. Others were talking to each other, and even a few friends were reunited who had never known that one or the other had been a mutant.
The ascent to the surface was slow, given that people from higher floors were also climbing up. Luckily this crowd was on the bottom floor, so there was no competition coming from below.
D.C. was standing beside the door that led to the stairs. He was making sure that there was no violence or panic or something like that, but that was highly unlikely. So he just talked to passing people. Calming some down, making conversation with others. Once he had taken a little girl from a rather bewildered woman who had been trying to stop her crying for the longest time.
First D.C. had conjured up a handkerchief. He had dried her tears and asked her what was wrong. She said between sobs that she missed her mommy and daddy, and that this was the first time she had been separated from her stuffed kitty Cathy.
He coaxed out the information on how the stuffed animal looked, and took some energy and turned into a stuffed kitten. When the girl saw it she reached out for it and hugged it tightly.
D.C. saw an amazing amount of little children in the crowd. He had been told that mutant powers usually came out during puberty. But some of these kids were no older then six, so it must be coming out earlier and earlier.
He was rather worried about this. It was bad enough when powers were revealed in teenagers. But if it happened at such a young age…D.C. could remember his days on the road. He had been twelve when it happened. Life on the streets was extremely hard, and he shuddered when he thought of that same weight placed on the shoulders of an even younger kid. Then an even more horrible thought past through his mind. What if mutant powers started coming out during infancy?
Finally the end of the crowd was in sight. It had now been maybe nine, ten hours since D.C. had been freed. Many people were looking very sleeping, and a lot of people had sleeping children in their arms. When the last person, a middle aged Asian man, was through the door and going up the stairs, D.C. scanned the floor. When he was satisfied that this floor was completely evacuated, he followed the crowd through the door.
When he closed the door, he let all the lights go out on that floor. Keeping the lights on was getting tiring, and D.C. welcomed the slight surge of energy he felt when the lights blacked out on that floor.
The stairs. The stairs were very wide, enough to accommodate fifteen people marching side by side. It was a spiral staircase, winding up so tightly nobody could see around the bend. It was made on concrete, just like everything else in the prison. Steps were echoing loudly as people wearily climbed up.
The line was moving as slowly as ever. Nobody could stop and rest because it was constantly moving. People were looking sleepier and sleepier.
Meanwhile, up in the main security room, Gambit was exploring the army's mutant database. Every mutant in the complex had a file describing their powers, appearance, and mental situation. Gambit was trying to figure out how to delete the files. But it seemed as if the army had safeguarded against it. There were no delete buttons on any of the keyboards, nor were there any delete things on the menus on the computers.
That Professor guy was helping. After releasing everyone he had stumbled on his file. Gambit figured he could be of some use. He found him and explained about the files. The Professor went to find some colleagues of his then he returned to help Gambit.
Gambit had found several monitors showing every square inch of the complex. He was monitoring the movement of the crowd to make sure there were no problems. He could get any view he wanted just by clicking on its icon on one of the computers.
But on the main computer, there was one icon that caught his attention. It said "OUTSIDE VIEW" under it, and Gambit clicked on it out of sheer curiosity. What he saw made him do a double take.
"Um, Professor? Would you come look at this?"
Suddenly, the line stopped. People called ahead to find out what the holdup was. Suddenly the intercom boomed, "Will David Casrey please come to the front of the line? I repeat, will David Casrey please come to the front of the line?"
"Excuse, I'm David Casrey. Oops, sorry, yes, I'm David Casrey…"
D.C. pressed himself to the wall trying to get up. About thirty minutes later and without too many injuries, he got to the top story. He had climbed up forty stories. He had gone up seven stories before they called his name. There was another doorway at the top of the stairs. He squeezed through, and with a hundred more bumps he got to a door, which the line led through. However, when he passed by a rather obscure door, it opened and Storm looked out.
"D.C., there you are. Come in here."
He walked in. He stopped. He was in a room filled with computers, consoles, and at the moment, about fifty mutants. They were standing in the middle of the room, looking at a TV screen. Professor X was in front, and when he saw D.C., he gravely waved him over.
"This TV shows the view of a TV screen right outside the entrance."
D.C. glanced at it, and his jaw dropped.
On the image was a building, an old building. Through the window however was a view of some high tech gadgets. D.C. recognized it as the main control room. And gathered around it was a great big problem.
Soldiers. A whole bunch of them, backed up by laser cannon equipped tanks, artillery, and low flying jet planes with missiles. As D.C. watched, on of the jets fired a missile, which flew past the camera and crashed somewhere out of the camera's view. At the same time, D.C. felt the ground quake and more dust was shaken from the ceiling.
Great. The army has arranged a going away party.