Ch. 29 - Disappearances
The glasses and a charred yellow jacket gave it away in
an instant who had died. The team stood
around looking at what remained of Jubilee.
That seemed a bit cold hearted to think that the mass of blood, flesh
and clothing just a little while before was their former teammate Jubilation
Lee. Wolverine kneeled down and gripped
what remained of her trademark yellow coat.
Slash had a look of horror on his face.
He had made her stay here, and now she was dead. His eyes filled with tears. Slash truly believed her death was his
fault. He slowly dropped to his knees,
and began to weep bitterly. Shadowcat
came over to console him, but he just ignored her. Beast quickly ran off to check the rest of the mansion and check
the main computers to identify who the intruders had been. Wolverine, still gripping the remains of
Jubilee's coat, came over and with tears in his own eyes sank to his knees next
to Slash. Wolverine's gloved hand came
up to Slash's chin, and he brought Slash's gaze up to his expressionless face.
"This isn't your fault Squid. You did the right thing by leaving her
behind. Just hope Chuck's
OK." Beast's voice quickly came on
the intercom.
"X-MEN!
Report to the Ready Room IMMEDIATELY!" Even though they were
exhausted from their space mission, they all ran off to the War Room, except
Shadowcat, Wolverine and Slash.
Wolverine got up and slowly headed off to join the others, still
gripping Jubilee's coat. Slash looked
up into the eyes of his wife.
"Why'd she have to die? Why was I so stubborn not to let her come?" Shadowcat kissed him on the forehead, and
then answered him.
"The mark of a good leader is making a decision that
best benefits the team. You left her
behind for a valid reason. Besides, we
have to find the professor." She helped
him slowly up, and put his arm around her shoulders to support him. They walked together to join the others.
When they arrived at the Ready Room, they saw everyone
else, but no Xavier. They were all
huddled around one of the view screens.
Must be watching the security camera images. Slash now stood on his own weight, but kept his arm around his
wife.
"What seems to be the trouble?" They looked as a Jubilee opened the door
revealing a package deliveryman. As the
man came in the door to deliver the package, the he changed to a blue skinned
woman.
"Mystique!"
Hissed Nightcrawler. "I
vonder vat my mother is up to now?"
The doors now were broken off their hinges as a huge blonde haired man
and a red suited figure. Wolverine's
claws instantly shot out of his hand, and his fists clenched. The words he spoke came out like pure
hatred.
"Sabertooth.
Now he's done it for the last time…" Iceman piped up.
"His partner in crime must be Pyro. I could cool his fiery act." They continued to watch as Jubilee began to
blast the three mutants. They all
skillfully avoided her. Pyro let off a
burst of flame, catching Jubilee on fire.
She began flailing her arms in the air, and Sabertooth picked her up to
prevent her from putting the fire out.
He then ripped her apart and flung her to the ground. She was dead before she hit the floor. The fire on her body was put out, but her
glasses and jacket continued to burn until they slowly died out on their
own. There was no one on the screen as
the blood spilled across the floor. The
faint at heart turned away from what they had seen on the screen. The rage was building on Wolverine's face as
they saw Mystique leading Pyro and Sabertooth out; there was a man lying across
Sabertooth's shoulder. It was Xavier. They walked out, then Pyro walked back in
and flamed the camera. The footage
quickly ended, followed by everyone glancing at each other.
"I don't know 'bout the rest of ya, but I'm gonna go
get Chucky." Slash grabbed him by
the arm.
"Look Logan, we don't even know where the hell to
start." Wolverine shook him off.
"The nose knows." He fumed as he walked out.
Slash was about to go after him, but Jean stopped him.
"Jubilee was like a daughter to him. He needs to get his anger out." Slash looked at her, then turned back to the
group.
"Alright everyone.
We know who we are dealing with.
Mystique, Pyro, Sabertooth…and?"
"Possibly the Freedom Force." Chimed Archangel.
"Who?"
"Freedom Force.
Mystique got her team, formerly the Brotherhood of Mutants, to work for
the U.S. Government in exchange for immunity from prosecution. But the government wouldn't send the Freedom
Force in to take out a man with such prestige as Xavier." Archangel looked around at everyone else.
"Gambit tink someone may have hired Freedom
Force. Unless Mystique up to
sometin."
"Well, were getting nothing accomplished by sitting
around wondering who did what. We need
to find them, hit them hard, and get Xavier out of there." He looked at Jean. "Can you run Cerebro?"
She bit her lip.
"I am not as skilled as Xavier at running
Cerebro. However, I will make an
attempt to see if I can locate him. I
don't know whether this will work or not."
"You've got to try Jean. We have to find him.
Iceman, check and see if you can find any old military bases that have
been sold to the private sector. The
government may have transfered an old base over to Freedom Force to use as
their own base. The rest of you, get a
shower, some rest and grub. I want all
of you to be in top fighting condition for this rescue. They've spilled blood and abducted
Xavier. It's payback time."
The room quickly and quietly emptied. Jean went to work with Cerebro. She seemed fine at first then her facial
expressions showed her in serious pain, getting worse by the moment. Slash flew over to the main controls of
Cerebro and pressed the emergency shut down button. Cerebro settled down and the helmet that had come down on Jean's
head quickly withdrew up to the ceiling.
"Are you alright?
Did you get anything from Cerebro?" She appeared dazed and stunned.
Then she looked over at Iceman and Slash.
"Yes. I'm
fine. I found nothing on the
professor. I got no clear images of
exactly what or where he is. The images
I saw were confused and jumbled."
"Don't worry bout it Jean. We'll get him back. Any
luck Iceman?"
"Sorry chief.
A shower sounds good right about now." Slash nodded.
"Yeah. Take
until morning. I'll keep working on it
long into the night, then you'll relieve me." Iceman and Jean left.
Slash went to work searching through computer database after
database. Around 11 or so that evening,
Shadowcat entered the Ready Room. She found Slash busy on the computer,
although much slower than he was earlier.
She began to run her hands through his hair.
"Come on honey.
Go to bed, you need your rest."
He quietly turned around in the chair, and playfully captured her. His eyes met hers and he kissed her.
"Sorry Kate.
We have to find Xavier. I'm the
only one who is use to working on limited sleep. Part of my SEAL training.
I can work great on two hours of power napping, and I can stay awake for
a seventy two hours. Now, you go to
bed. I'll be up, possibly
later." He kissed her again, and
she phased through his arms.
"Goodnight my love."
"Goodnight Kate." He enjoyed the break, and went back to work.
The next morning, Iceman found Slash asleep at the
computer console. Chuckling, Iceman
came down to Slash's ear.
"Wakey wakey!"
Suddenly, Iceman found a pair of hand gripped around his neck, with no
way of escape.
"Don't you ever, EVER sneak up on a Navy SEAL like
that. Even in sleep their first
reaction is to fight." He released
Bobby, and then got up. "Sorry
Bobby, but don't do that to a SEAL."
Iceman cocked his head from side to side to see if Slash had done any
permament damage. Seeing none, he too
quickly sat down.
The team continued their normal routines in the Danger
Room, but none of them seemed to be in it.
Meanwhile, Iceman seemed to have stumbled upon a name. He immediately called Slash in.
"Yeah man, I think I may have something here."
"Really, how do you know?"
"Recently a Mr. B. Byron Biggs purchased from the U.
S. Government, the rights and titles to an old Army fort."
"So?"
"So? Mr.
Biggs is one of Mystique's created aliases." Slash's eyes perked up.
"Where?"
Iceman pointed to Biggs' name, and fingered across the screen...
To all you Jubilee fans, if
you didn't like that, leave a bad review.
Keep reading.
