Disclaimer: I don't own the Gargoyles; again they're the property of Disney. X-Men are the property of Marvel.
Wormhole 262, part 4
Two days later
Storm and Nightcrawler had arrived in the morning, just after eight. They had been on sentry duty at the mansion, so they had only heard about the battle that had taken place. Rogue and Remy were now on sentry duty. Although the main idea was to protect the mansion, the other was to keep the Professor company. It really wasn't like the mansion couldn't look after itself, it was just better to have someone there to watch over the computer systems. The mansion had almost fried Bobby a couple of years ago when he was trying to sneak in after curfew. Of course he was caught, and had to clean pots and pans after every meal for the students for a week.
He saw Kurt and Ororo step out of the castle, apparently waiting for the awakening of the protectors of the night. They were lucky that they had not been here a couple of nights ago. Kurt, he knew, would have been disgusted. Part of it, he thought, probably had something to do with his priesthood. He would never kill a man in self-defense, much less in cold blood. They were also lucky that the mess had been cleaned up so easily. The Quarrymen had taken their wounded with them, and the fairy-man, Owen or Puck, or whatever his name was, had just moved his fingers a little and everything was gone in a flash.
Logan was thinking about all of this as he was standing next to Hank, smoking a cigar and watching the sun go down. A little ways off, he saw that detective waiting, too. She was wearing the same red, leather coat and black clothes she was wearing the night before. He wondered to himself if she actually washed her clothes. As the wind shifted, he caught her smell. It seemed as if she had thrown up recently, but he didn't smell sickness on her. He caught something else in her smell as the wind blew a little harder. There was something else, something he knew, but couldn't put his finger on. He hadn't smelled it in a long time, but he knew he knew it. It was almost as if she was-
He was interrupted by the sudden sound of cracking stone, as the gargoyle clan awoke from their daily slumber. With a final, seemingly victorious roar, their lavender leader, Goliath, awoke, and walked over to Elisa, giving her a good-morning kiss. Looking up, he saw a noble looking woman, with long, pure white hair, and cinnamon-colored skin. Next to her, was standing another blue-furred man. This one, though, was much smaller than the first, with three fingers on each hand and only two toes on each foot.
"You are the others, are you not," he asked. "The other X-Men?"
"Ja," the man answered, coming towards him with an outstretched arm. Goliath noticed that the man could pose as a demon quite easily. His eyes were yellow, and didn't seem to have any pupils. He also had a long tail that ended in a point. But according to the others, the man was a priest, and had been the one to preside over the wedding of Logan and Jean.
"I am called Nightcrawler, but you may call me Kurt," the blue-furred priest said.
"And I am Ororo, but many know me as Storm," the woman said, a little surprised when the large gargoyle gave her a kiss on the hand.
While this was happening, Logan had been strolling up to Elisa, putting his cigar out on the way. Nearly on top of her, he sniffed the air. Yep, I'm right, he thought. But, that could wait until later. He had more pressing matters with the detective right now.
"We need ta talk, Darlin'," he said, finally reaching her. "Them robberies ya were tellin' us 'bout last night, when there's another, I want ya ta take me there. I think I know who yer lookin' fer."
"I can't take a civilian to a crime scene. And besides, why don't you just tell me who it is I'm looking for," she asked, glaring at the man.
"I wanna make sure I'm right Darlin'. An' if I'm right, it ain't robbers yer lookin' fer," he said, returning her glare.
"If it's not robbers I'm looking for, then who is it that is killing all the guards? You?"
"Somethin' like that. They're real mean bastards. I don't think ya'd like ta be messin' with them. Besides, I know yer li'l' secret."
"Yeah, what's that?"
He got as close as he could to her, so that nobody else would hear him, and whispered in her ear, "Yer pregnant."
She was surprised. She had been thinking it was a possibility, but wasn't quite sure. She'd been feeling sick every once in a while, but she wasn't coming down with everything. Could he be lying? She didn't think so; he was honest and he seemed to be the type that would tell you exactly what he thought of you. But the last time she had been with Goliath, he used a condom. But, she thought, condoms didn't always work. Now that someone was telling her, it seemed to be the only true possibility.
"Okay, I'll take you, but don't tell anyone, at least not yet," she pleaded. "Wait, how do you know?"
"Yer hormones, Darlin'. They're a ragin' outta control. An' I can smell hormones, remember," he asked. It seemed to take her a moment to remember what he was talking about. Finally, a look of realization came across her face.
"Besides, if ya don't trust me, you can always have Hank look at ya," he said.
"I'll think about that," she said, turning to go after Goliath.
Logan didn't have to wait long for the next robbery. Later that night, another bank's money was stolen. Under the cover of darkness, they had been able to approach the bank unnoticed, kill the unsuspecting guards, and disable the security cameras in a matter of minutes. It took them just a little longer to open the vault and escape. Now, twenty minutes after the alarm had initially sounded, Detective Elisa Maza was standing over one of the dead men's bodies. As opposed to the rest of the bodies, several of them appearing to be mauled, his had no blood whatsoever.
"Maza? Are you bringing civilians to crime scenes, now?" Looking up, Elisa saw her superior, Captain Chavez. She seemed to be a little peeved at seeing a gruff-looking man and a white-haired woman studying the body of a guard close to the one she was looking at. Other than a slight glance up, neither of them were paying attention to the Captain.
"We ain't civilians, lady," the man said, standing up. Chavez saw that he seemed to be extremely well muscled, despite the fact that he was only about 5'3" or 5'4".
The woman came over, and holding out her hand, said, "I am Detective Ororo Monroe and this is Detective Logan Black, Detroit PD. We are old friends of Elisa's and were visiting for a while. When she mentioned that she was searching for killers with the same MO as an old case of ours, we took it upon ourselves to assist her."
"Okay, tell me, what do you know about these guys?"
"There are four or five of them, all of them having specific abilities. There's Cain Marko, Raven Darkholme, Victor Creed, Sr., and Magnus Lehrsser, the mastermind of it all. We believe there are one or two others with them, but we have yet to identify them. Marko is the only one of them that has been convicted of robbery. He is also a demolition expert, he is probably the one that has been breaking the vaults open. Creed is a cold-blooded serial-killer and Darkholme is a master of disguises. More than likely, she was the one casing the bank."
"Hey, 'Ro, I know who one o' th' others is," Logan said. He'd been studying the body Elisa had been looking at earlier. "It's Omega Red. There's prob'ly another body 'round here jus' like this one."
"How do you know that," Elisa asked, looking rather skeptical.
"He always kills with a form of deadly gas. He's extremely dangerous, just like all the rest, and is wanted in Russia for crimes against the state. I would advise you not to let your officers arrest them. Rather, Detective Black and I, along with some of our colleagues, will arrest them. We are the only ones with the training to subdue them."
"I don't know if I can let you do that," Captain Chavez said. "I'll have to talk to the Feds." Turning to one of the agents, she said, "Agent Smith, I need to talk to your superior." The man turned and went to get Agent James Nowdik, the agent in command of the investigation into the bank robberies.
Several minutes later, an emaciated man came sauntering up to where they were standing. "Yeah, what do you want," the man asked, his voice echoing his own egocentrism. Logan, just looking at the man, didn't like him.
"These detectives," the Captain said, pointing to Logan and Storm, "want the collar on the perpetrators."
"I don't think so," Nordike said. "They can't get them. We can handle them."
"But, sir, I don't think," Elisa began.
"Exactly, you don't think. I've made my decision and that's final," Nowdik said and walked away.
Logan was slowly making his way to the room that he and Jean were sharing in the castle. He was trying to figure out what Magneto and his entourage were up to. Why did they want Jubilee, he thought to himself. There must be a reason. They wouldn't go through all this trouble for nothing. He was so lost in his thoughts that he nearly bumped into Hank, going the other way.
"Logan, we need to talk," the blue-furred doctor said, turning around, suddenly remembering something.
"'Bout what?" Logan, honey, why don't you come to bed?
I'll be
there in a moment, Red. Let me finish
talkin' ta Hank, Darlin'.
Okay, but hurry to bed. As the last part of Jean's thoughts flashed through his head, Logan saw an image of her lying on the bed, her red hair covering her naked breasts.
"Logan, I'm sure you know that we cannot take Jubilee back to the mansion for it being possible for her to have an, um, accident." The doctor was referring to the fact that it was highly dangerous to transport someone to another dimension with an open wound. Jubilee had been lucky she hadn't been killed when she came through. He'd told them, after they had arrived, that when they were testing the mechanisms for teleportation, there had been a very bad accident when a man had a cut on his foot on a piece of broken glass from a dish. He had bandaged it up, but didn't tell anyone about it; he didn't think it was important. When he and the other subjects went through, they were all okay, except for him. When his body landed, it was, for the most part, inside out.
"Yeah, I know. What about it," he asked, his voice getting anxious as he thought about his now nude wife.
"Even with your blood that we've been giving her, it will take at least two weeks for her wounds to totally heal. Because of this, I propose that we have our Christmas here in the castle instead of the mansion. You know that Jubilee's been very excited about spending the holiday with us, and it would be unfair to her to spoil it just because Creed and his compatriots decided to try to blight the holiday."
"Okay, Hank, we'll bring th' presents o'er tomorrow," Logan said. ""Night, Hank." As he finished speaking, he hurried down the corridor to his room, opened the door, and slammed it shut.
I wonder what that was about, Hank thought to himself, heading to his own bedroom.
One week later
As Hank watched, it began to snow again. It was now one in the morning on Christmas Day, and he, Remy, Logan, and Bobby were now playing football with several of the gargoyles. How it had started, he had no idea, but he was having a good time, despite the fact it was so cold. Although it had begun somewhat organized, it was now total chaos, mostly because Bobby kept on insisting to use his powers in the game. He was now trying to keep the ball away from Brooklyn and Broadway, but kept on getting cut off. Now, Jubilee was trying to get across the courtyard, apparently to talk to Logan. Bobby, now getting desperate, almost ran straight into her.
"Hey, watch it, bub," she yelled, getting out of the way.
Before he could apologize, he was tackled by Brooklyn. "Got it," he exclaimed, as Bobby got up, and started chasing him, the race now going in the opposite direction.
"Hey, Wolvie, me an' Jean wantcha ta open our presents, now," she said, pulling him along, barely dodging Broadway and Bobby trying to get Brooklyn.
As they got to where Jean was, Logan noticed that there were five or six packages. All of them were apparently for him. "Wovie, open mine first," Jubilee said, handing him one of the packages. He opened it slowly, apprehensive over the reason that she was so agitated about getting him to open hers first. Taking off the wrapper, he noticed that there were two boxes, the first, he surmised, being a wallet, and the second being the boots he wanted. Opening the first box, he was surprised at its contents.
"What the," he asked, looking up at Jubilee with a questioning look. Seeing his face, Jubilee fell over laughing so hard she nearly wet her pants. Jean, curious as to what was the matter, peeked inside the box, only to start laughing equally hard. Inside, was a black, leather thong with the head of a teddy bear plastered on the front.
"That," she explained, "was to throw ya off. Yer real present's in th' other box."
Peering at the contents of the next box, he sighed with relief. It was the pair of work boots he wanted. Jean, handing him her present, was still trying to stifle her laughs. Looking in the box she gave him, Logan saw the only other thing he had wanted: the coat he had wanted. Curious as to what the other boxes were, he asked who they were from.
"These," Jean explained, "are from both of us." She gave the rest of the boxes to Logan.
As he got it opened, he saw that it was an ornamental sword with spaces for a long-sword, a katana, and a dagger. Confused, he began unwrapping the other boxes. Inside, were exquisite examples of the blades he was expecting. Each had a sheath made of toughened leather, with a covering of black silk laced with ribbons of gold. The handles were also made of leather, but had gold ribbons hammered in. Each had a different gem set into the butt, one a sapphire and the others being a ruby and an emerald. The blades, themselves, he noted, were acid-etched with Japanese characters.
"The long-sword," Jean began, "has your name on one side, and Wolverine on the other. The katana has 'Jeannie' and 'Little Darling', and the dagger, according to Hank, has the symbol for wolverine from a Native American tribe in the northwest. I don't remember what tribe, but I guess they used to worship them."
"Thank ya," he said, hugging Jubilee and kissing Jean. Pulling away from his wife, he appeared incredulous. Before she had time to resact, he came up to her, and whispered, "We're gonna have a kid." She smiled, seemingly saying yes.
"That reminds me," he said, as he reached inside his pocket and pulled out some papers. Handing it to Jubilee, he said, "Read it, darlin'. It's from both o' us."
As Jubilee read the first paper, she began smiling ear to ear. Reading it again, she asked, "Are you guys serious?"
"Of course we are," Jean said.
Jubilee went to hug her. Looking into the woman's eyes, she said, "Thanks . . . Mom."
Another part of the city
Magnus sat at the head of the table. Around him sat the most elite criminals he had ever known, all of them working under him. To his right, sat Sabertooth and Omega Red, both famed and vicious killers. To his left, sat the human Juggernaut, the infamous strongman, and next to him, Jim Wilkes, the newly formed Cybernaut, much stronger than the one he was modeled after. At the other end of the table, sat Mystique, the shape shifter and the only woman of the bunch.
Clearing his throat, Magneto began, "It is time. You all know what to do, so I will not give you anymore instructions." As he finished, the men and women gathered around the table dispersed to do their evil work.
The next
night
The Professor was talking with the old gargoyle, Hudson, as they both watched the T.V. Remy saw that they had really hit it off, and now seemed to be like old friends from grade school. He hadn't seen the old telepath so happy in a long time. Coming up to stand behind the Professor and to see the news, he heard them talking about when they were kids and how you had to walk so far to do something.
Finally, the news came on, and he saw an attractive, young, blonde woman sitting behind a desk. "It has been all over the news today. Last night, around two, according to authorities, several homes of New York's elite were burglarized. In all the cases, the owners at home were killed, and in at least one case, several were raped. It is believed that the perpetrators were well organized in their plans. Mayor Lehrsser had this to say."
"Lehrsser," the Professor asked, suddenly worried.
"Aye. 'Bout a month ago, th' mayor's mansion blew up. They sti' don't know who it was."
As Remy watched, the image of the woman was replaced with that of a man standing behind a podium with a mic. Behind him was some building with incredible Doric columns. But it was not the background that caught the reformed thief's attention. It was the man. He had blue eyes and long, white hair the hung to his shoulders. He was wearing a business suit, and it was clear that he was very well built. Standing behind the podium was Eric Lehrsser. Magnus. Magneto. The mayor of New York.
"Ah, merde."