Disclaimer: Only Claire and Dim are mine.
Chapter 6
Claire woke suddenly from her sleep by a sound in
the distance. It was quite, but not
quite enough for safety. She sat up,
pushing Scott's arm off of her waist and walked slowly towards the direction of
the sound. If it was those damn guards
again they were gonna be sorry.
She was tired, hungry, and she had a hole the size
of a baseball in her chest. It was safe
to say that her temperament had taken a serious nose-dive. Jubilee woke up as Claire walked away from
the trio still sleeping, the lack of warmth rousing her.
"Claire?" she whispered hoarsely after her. "What
are you doin?"
"Stay there," she whispered back over her shoulder,
"I think I heard something I'll be right back.
"Hmph. Fine," Jubilee mumbled. "You wanna go get
your ass blown away, no skin off of my back." She rolled back into Scott's shoulder, snuggling against him. She closed her eyes and waited for sleep to
over take her.
And waited.
And waited.
With a groan she sat up and slapped Scott in the
chest. "Damn conscience," she
muttered. "Wake up. Claire heard something."
"Wha?" A
groggy reply was all she got.
"You heard me, get yer ass up."
Claire crept through the trees, she could see the group
of men combing the forest, and she had a feeling that it wasn't for Easter
eggs. God, when had she gotten so
soft? Since when did she care what
happened to any of the X-men of their precious little friends. She ground her teeth together with irritation,
cause no matter how much she tried to deny it she did care. With a deep breath she did the only thing
she could think of at that moment.
She jumped out screaming and waving her arms like a
madman. "Whoo-hoo! You looking for
something?" When they turned at her she
took off running, intending to bring them around the campsite and away from the
rest of the group. Then she would think of a way to dispose of the problem.
She ran swiftly through the trees, allowing her
night vision to see what was ahead, as she dodged through the thick foliage,
while making sure to be slow enough as to not loose her pursuers. She heard the shots ringing out behind her,
and felt a few of them whiz past her. Damn, they were better shots than she had hoped. Suddenly she saw something on her
right. As she turned towards it she saw
a familiar blue light emanating from the tree line. Her mouth grew into a grim line as she headed for it. That little pigmy had a lot of answering to
do.
At the camp the tree of them were gathering their
coats when they heard shots ring out a little ways from their campsite. They all looked up at each other, as if to
see what the others were going to do.
"Don't suppose that was friendly fire?" Jubilee
questioned.
"Doubtful," Scott answered.
". . . "
"Well, what do you want to do?" He asked Jubilee.
"Why are you asking me? Your the fearless leader. I'm just the smart ass kid who gets in the way."
'Trust Dim, Scott no be fearless."
"Thanks."
"Oh, for gods sakes, come on." She motioned as she
took off at a slow jog. "If they're firing chances are Claire is in front of
them. We can sneak up behind them and
take'em out!" She called over her shoulder.
Dim and Scott simply shrugged and took off after
her.
The three ran into a clearing and were greeted by the sight of Claire holding Gateway in the air with one arm, and using one of the guards as a shield against the others.
"You better back off ass-wipe, or yer gonna end up
like yer friend here!" She yelled at the guards who were pointing their weapons
at her.
"You heard her!" Jubilee jumped towards them releasing a series of paffs, "Bugger off!" The paffs hit two of the guards causing their shirts to start on fire. Scott took care of the third with an optic blast.
"Oh, you do remember that! Good!" Jubilee smiles at him. She turned back towards Claire who had flung
the dead guard against one of the nearby trees and was now focusing her
attentions on Gateway.
"Claire?"
"What?" She snarled.
"Normally I wouldn't be against anyone giving
Gateway his just desserts for taking people and dumping them places they didn't
want to be, but maybe you should post-pon the ass whoopin until he takes us
home."
"You gonna take us home you little rat?" Claire growled at Gateway, who simply smiled
serenely in return. Claire dropped him
unceremoniously on the ground and turned to Dim and Scott.
"You gonna come with us?"
"Of course! Scott has to come, we just found him!" Jubilee exclaimed.
"I think you forget that he doesn't remember you
Sparky, he doesn't have to do anything."
"Come with you, and give up all this?" Scott
gestured towards the cold empty woods.
"Dim?"
"Dim will go were Marquee and Scott go. They family now."
"Marquee?" Jubilee asked.
"Don't ask." Claire replied. Jubilee simply shrugged. "Ok, well lets go then."
Gateway picked up his tool and started swinging it
above his head and the portal slowly opened. Claire motioned for Jubilee to go first.
As she walked through she found herself on the front
lawn of the mansion. She turned around
and saw Dim coming through and the forest behind him. Movement on the corner of the portal caught her eye and she saw
one of the guards staggering to his feet and aiming his rifle at the group.
"Look out!" She pointed.
In the forest Claire whipped around and saw the man
aiming his gun at them. Without
thinking she turned and ran towards Scott, intending to push him out of the
way.
Jubilee watched as Claire moved towards Scott, but
she jerked as the shot went off and fell into him. He wrapped his arms around her as they fell, their momentum
carrying them through the portal and onto the lawn. She scrambled towards them, stones and grass digging into her
knees, as the portal closed behind them, leaving them alone on the front lawn.
Scott rolled Claire off of him and laid her prone
body on the ground. Jubilee dropped on
her knees next to her and felt for wounds on her chest. She felt wet warmth and pulled her hands
back. They were covered with blood.
"HELP!" She screamed towards the house. "We have a man down! HELP US!" She could only watch as Scott leaned over Claire and felt for a
pulse. She didn't breath as he looked
up, a resigned look in his eyes and leaned back.
"What are you doing? Help her!" She pointed at Claire.
"Jubilee, I can't. . ."
"NO! If you
won't help her then I will! She didn't
give up on me, and I'm not gonna give up on her!" She pushed Scott out of the way and focused all of her attention
on the woman on the ground. She felt
the world melt away as she tried to recall everything she had learned.
Air, she needs to get air into her. She reached forward and pushed air into Claire's
lungs, and then started to push on her chest. She needed to get her heart moving. She was vaguely aware of what was going on around her. She heard people run up to them, she heard
shouting and confusion.
"What is going on?"
"Get the lab ready! NOW!"
"This can't be."
"Oh, my god."
"Scott?"
". . . "
"HELP HER!" Jubilee yelled, "She's dying! Don't just stand there do something!"
END
Once again the story line continues, there are a few
free standing pieces and some more series. I'll get them up when I can or you
can look on my website http://www.angelfire.com/mi3/index.html