The Return (Part One)
Two weeks passed since the dance disaster. The newscast reports blamed the damage caused by terrorists who wanted to capture some mutants. The terrorists had blown up the school using a bomb, so the report went. Everyone else in Bayville knew differently. The real facts, although kept out of the media were quickly dispersed due to word of mouth. Although the Institute's secret was supposedly safe, the entire town now knew what was going on in their community.
Needless to say there were several people that were not too happy about this. Soon Xavier had to take precautions while even getting the mail. There had been several death threats, one or two pipe bombs and a variety of dead animals sent to the front door.
There were however some that responded positively to the news. A few parents called to say they were supportive and seeing as how people could possibly exploit or harm the children, were quite understanding about them keeping secret for so long. One church even called to offer any support it could.
Unfortunately these people were in the minority. The majority of the town was very nervous. Knowing that the government was involved in a cover up of some sort made them even more nervous. Already there were several semi-secret meetings in homes all over Bayville, with people talking about organizing into a group to protect humans from mutants.
It was becoming more and more harrowing for the students to venture outside the mansion. At first it was simply stares and people moving away. Then it became insults as well as some people who wanted to fight them outright. An incident in the park where several people throwing bottles and other items nearly escalated out of hand when Tabitha wanted to use an energy bomb. A quick and hasty retreat by Scott was the only thing that prevented bloodshed.
Xavier then decided that for now all students were confined to the Institute until further notice. A decision many were not happy with, especially now with the early school vacation.
"Man this stinks!" Evan kicked the wall. "The park had some primo skating grounds. Boy school is going to be such fun when we go back."
"If we're allowed back," Rogue sighed.
"But they can't kick us out because we're mutants!" Kitty said. "Can they?"
"Yeah isn't that unconstitutional or something?" Bobby asked.
"I don't know," Scott sighed. He honestly didn't.
"Well if we do go back I'll certainly have a lot more free time," Jean groaned as she walked in. "Taryn just called. They made her the one to tell me that I am no longer on the track team, part of the yearbook and every other extra curricular activity I was in."
"That's a bummer," Rogue said. "I mean, I know how much you loved that stuff Jean. I'm sorry."
"Yeah well," Jean sighed. "To be honest in a way it's kind of a relief. I don't have to worry about being the 'perfect student' anymore. I can hang out with people who are my real friends. You know what's really funny about all this? After all the attempts by Zanya to get Taryn to hate me, we're better friends than ever."
"Well at least some good came out of all this," Kitty sighed. "Her parents are cool with this?"
"Her parents were huge civil rights activists when they were kids," Jean smirked. "Now they have a new cause, civil rights for mutants."
"Yeah Paul's folks are okay with it too," Scott said.
"That's nice," Kitty scoffed. "I mean considering his father was one of the people who exposed us in the first place."
"That wasn't the Joe's fault!" Rogue snapped. "They were just protecting us! If you want to blame somebody, blame your boyfriend for turning the school to rubble in front of everybody!"
"I don't want to hear about Lance anymore!" Kitty shouted and stormed out of the room.
"Good going Rogue," Bobby rolled his eyes.
"Well you can't say we didn't warn her," Evan pointed out. "Those Brotherhood chumps left us with their mess!"
"Yeah and we got blamed for their actions," Scott groaned as he lay back on the couch. "Ever since then we've lost most of our friends, as well as our freedom! You can't even go out to grab a burger anymore without somebody wanting to hassle us!"
"I don't even watch TV anymore," Bobby sighed. "All that's on nowadays are how mutants are a danger to everyone. Did you know there are people organizing in groups against us now? There's this one guy on TV saying how we should all be locked up and stuff. Calls his group the 'Friends of Humanity.' Or something."
"HEY EVERYBODY!" Jamie ran into the room. "COME QUICK! PETER'S AWAKE!"
At this news everybody got up and ran to the infirmary. Soon the entire mansion was aware of the news and went to visit Peter. "Hello," Peter responded, a bit dazed. "So many faces glad to see me. This I did not expect."
"Man I thought you would have been out forever," Remy grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze. "Good to have you back."
"Back?" Peter asked. "How long was I unconscious?"
"A long time," Hank told him. "A few months actually."
"Boy did you miss all the action," Evan told him. He and the others told him what had happened while he was in a coma.
"I don't believe it," Was all Peter could say.
"Believe it," Scott sighed.
"Yeah it's a total drag," Tabitha pouted. "I can't even go to the mall anymore to let off steam! I feel like a total prisoner here!"
"I think we should all let Peter rest now," Hank said.
"Why not allow Peter some time to recover," Xavier said gently. They left the infirmary.
"Well at least we have some good news today," Bobby said. He then noticed Xavier making a motion with his head, as if he heard something the others didn't. "What's up Professor?"
"It appears we have a visitor," Xavier told them.
"Who's at the door?" Kurt ported there and opened it.
"Hey dude," Forge smiled as he stood there. "Got room for one more?"
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It had been two weeks since the incident. Two weeks since Lance had made the biggest screw up of his life. Two weeks of intense training and self-blame. Every moment of everyday he thought about Kitty and what a mess he made. When he wasn't recovering from Magneto's training sessions that is.
"Ugh," He groaned as he wobbled into the common room. "Man I am sore everywhere. Magneto's really pushing us to the limit."
"Except for Wanda," John snickered. "Daddy's little girl."
"I think it's more because he knows if she's pushed too far she'll snap," Lance said. "And I don't blame him. Remember when she took out an entire wall when we first got here?"
"Yeah it took him, Sabertooth, Mystique and two other guys to sedate her," Pietro groaned. "Since then he's got that Agatha lady back to train her alone."
"I wonder why Magneto won't let us work or even talk to those new people he brought in?" Fred wondered aloud.
"Who knows," Lance groaned. "But by the look of them something tells me we aren't missing much. Not exactly the most sociable types I've met."
"Listen up," Mystique came in, still wearing a bandage around her wrist after her 'talk' with Magneto weeks ago. "We have a mission. How would you like to get back at the Joes for what they did to us?"
They all sat up with interest. "Something tells me this is gonna be good," John said.
"We've just learned that the Joes have at least one mutant of their own on one of their bases," She smiled. "Time to do some recruiting boys."
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"So you're going to stay here for a while?" Kurt asked while Forge was working.
"Yeah my folks thought it would be a good idea if I hang around here a while until things cooled down," Forge said as he worked on Cerebro with Xavier. "Besides, I didn't feel like being cooped up in the house all day. And at least here I can work on some stuff without worrying about blowing up the occasional hole in the wall."
"Any luck trying to detect that mutant on the Joe base?" Scott asked as he walked in. Kitty and Jamie followed him."
"No," Xavier sighed. "The scanners they have are still blocking Cerebro."
"Not for much longer," Forge was working on something. "Thanks to this amp I rigged up Cerebro will have twice as much power. That ought to work. I think."
"Well there's only one way to find out," Xavier started up the machine.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Kurt asked. "I mean we are talking about sneaking into a military base."
"We gotta do something!" Kitty said. "Besides I'm going crazy being cooped up around here all day!"
"Welcome to my world," Jamie said. "Now you guys know how I felt when all of you went to school all day and I had to stay here!"
Logan came in. "Any luck, Chuck?"
"I think we may have something," Xavier said. Cerebro created a map online.
"Well the mutant is here," Xavier looked at the map. "The coordinates say he's now in Florida. At Fort Flagston."
"That's a Joe base all right," Logan nodded. "Must have moved him there so they could hide him or something."
"Can't Cerebro find out who he is or what is powers are?" Scott asked.
"Not yet," Forge told him. "Still needs a bit of a boost."
"So what do we do?" Kitty asked. "Do we just like go and get him?"
"It could be tricky," Logan said.
"I agree" Xavier nodded. "Get all the students assembled in the main room."
Twenty minutes later, everyone was suited up and ready. "You all know what the mission is," Xavier told them. "I've chosen this team. We need to start combining both the Newer Students as well as the main team. Cyclops you will lead. Your team will be Shadowcat, Gambit, Rogue, Spyke, Iceman, Wolfsbane, Jubilee and Nightcrawler."
"All right!" Bobby cheered. "Finally some action!"
"Jean I need you to help me with Cerebro," Xavier said. "The rest of you will be held in reserve, just in case. And Logan I know you are familiar with the Joes but I'd like you to sit this one out as well."
"Don't trust me Chuck?" Logan raised an eyebrow.
"Well you are the one that went behind our backs," Scott snapped.
"That's not why I want him to stay behind!" Xavier said. "Logan was only doing what he thought was right at the time. As out of hand things got, the Joes did save our lives."
"Then why am I being left behind?" Logan asked.
"Well I need your help in training the other students on the Joe's tactics," Xavier said. "Plus from here you can relay plans to the students in the field. And if there is a problem, you're our ace in the hole."
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With the Blackbird's speed they were there in only a few hours. They parked the jet at a safe distance and hid it in the woods nearby. They went around the back and used Kurt and Kitty to get them past the electric fence without setting off any alarms.
"Okay spread out and be careful," Scott said to his team. "The mutant could be any place so be on the alert. Try not to get into fights with the soldiers here."
They split into two groups. Kitty, Rogue, Remy, Bobby and Jubilee went in one and the rest went with Scott.
"This is so cool," Bobby smiled. "On a top secret army base to rescue a mutant!"
"If the mutant wants to be rescued," Rogue said. "I dunno, I mean the Joes don't seem to be the type to keep a mutant against his will or something."
"Are you kidding?" Jubilee asked. "They're the army for crying out loud! Of course they'd do something like that!"
"You don't know that!" Kitty snapped. "Don't judge people you don't know because of their association with some group."
"Says the girl who used to date a member of the Brotherhood," Bobby snapped.
"Yeah well I used to be a member of the Brotherhood," Rogue got in his face. "Got a problem with that?"
"Excuse me," Remy said as a loud explosion was heard in the distance. "But I think we got trouble!"
"Is it the others?" Bobby asked as Remy used a pair of binoculars to scout out the situation.
"Not exactly," Remy gulped. "It's the Scarlet Witch! Looks like we ain't the only ones interested in the mutant!"
"That means the Brotherhood is around here somewhere," Rogue groaned.
"Oh boy, something tells me that we don't have to worry about the Joes at least," Remy said. "They got their hands full with the Scarlet witch."
Suddenly something dove out of the shadows and knocked out Remy from behind. It was a man completely covered in black from head to toe. "Maybe not," Bobby grumbled.
"Okay pal who are you?" Bobby said. "Are you a mutant or what?"
The man said nothing. "I think that's one of the Joes," Rogue said. "Calls himself Snake Eyes."
"Humph!" Bobby snapped. "I'm not scared of him!"
"Yeah he just got lucky with Remy!" Jubilee said. "We still out number him four to one! Tell us where the mutant is right now or sparks are gonna fly!" She started making sparks with her hands.
"Wait a minute!" Kitty said. Too late Jubilee shot out her sparks at the ninja. Snake Eyes easily dodged it.
"You're iced pal!" Bobby shot out ice beams at him. Snake Eyes dodged around and jumped upon some boxes. Just as Bobby iced them Snake Eyes jumped. With a flying kick he knocked the boxes over on top of Bobby. "Ow…"
"I'll get you out!" Jubilee ran to help him but slipped on a patch of ice and fell. "Whoa!"
"Oh brother," Rogue grumbled.
"When I get my hands on you…" Jubilee started to try and get up.
Snake Eyes watched her, amused. Suddenly he dodged a spike shot out at him.
"Need a hand?" Evan called as he and Rahnee ran up. "This must be the jerk that threw that gas at us!"
"The others got knocked out by some kind of gas!" Rahnee snapped. "Sneak hid in the shadows and threw it at us!"
"He got Gambit and Iceman too!" Kitty told them.
"That's it!" Evan threw some more spikes. "One ninja shish kabob coming up!"
Which was easier said than done. Snake Eyes easily dodged the spikes. In fact he caught one of them with his own hand. "Okay how did he do that?" Evan snapped.
"Spike look out!" Kitty called. Too late. Snake Eyes took out some throwing stars and pinned Spike to a wall. "Oh man not again!"
"That's it!" Rahnee changed into her wolf form while Rogue and Kitty helped Jubilee up. She charged at Snake Eyes. Suddenly a gray wolf leapt out and blocked Rahnee's path. At first they both growled but then Rahnee backed away whimpering. She returned to her human form. "What happened?" Kitty asked her. "What did that wolf say something? Is that the mutant?"
"Trust me," Rahnee gulped. "That's a real wolf! And there's no way that I can beat it! I wouldn't last two minutes in a fight with a fighter like that!"
"This is not looking good," Jubilee said as the four girls found themselves backed into a corner.
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"Come on," Forge kept fiddling with the controls. "Just a little more…There! Got it! That should break through the scanners!"
"Identity confirmed," Cerebro intoned. "Registering mutant from Archive file."
"Archive file?" Jean asked. "But who…?" They looked at the screen. "I don't believe this!"
"Well," Logan folded his arms. "This explains a few things."
"Jean, Logan prepare the chopper," Xavier said. "I think we should pay a visit to Fort Flagston ourselves."
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"That's it!" Jubilee sent off sparks at Snake Eyes. "Let the fireworks fly."
Snake Eyes jumped over them and did a flip, ending up behind her. He used Evan's spike to rap her on the head and knock her out.
"Hey!" Evan struggled to free himself from the wall. "No fair!" He managed to get his arm free and was about to shoot off some spikes at him when the wolf lunged at him. It didn't bite him, but by the way it growled as it pinned Evan, it didn't need to."
"Nice doggy," Evan gulped.
"So what do we do now?" Rogue asked.
"Maybe you can like drain his power?" Kitty suggested.
"How?" Rogue snapped. "That guy's more covered up than I am!"
"Leave that to me!" Rahnee shapeshifted again into wolf form and lunged at Snake Eyes. Snake Eyes dodged several times but finally Rahnee was able to tear off a part of his sleeve. Snake Eyes quickly knocked her out.
"Okay buddy," Rogue snapped. "It's time for light's out!" Holding onto Kitty they charged at Snake Eyes. Using Kitty's abilities to phase Snake Eyes could not touch them. Kitty managed to time it just right so that Rogue could grab the exposed arm. Snake eyes went down.
"What a rush," Rogue moaned. "Well at least I know now why the guy didn't say anything. He can't. He lost his voice in an accident."
"Oh great," Kitty said. "Did you find anything about the mutant?"
"Wait a second," Rogue shook her head. "Yeah…I got it…it's…"
"Behind you!" Spike shouted.
Rouge and Kitty were knocked out. The last thing Rogue could hear was Mystique's laugher.
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The first thing that came to Scott's mind was that he couldn't move. He sat up or rather tried to. He was tied up. He looked around. He had been placed next to Evan who was pinned to the wall. "Ninja got you too?" Scott asked.
"Yeah," Evan told him. "But Rogue and K-Girl got him. But then guess who showed up to ruin the party."
Mystique stood there gloating. "Well well," She smiled. "Looks like we got more on this trip than we bargained for."
"Mystique," Scott snarled. "I should have known you'd show your slimy face around here!"
"While the Scarlet Witch is keeping the Joes busy," Mystique smiled. "That just leaves you X-Men. What's left of you." She looked at Snake Eye's unconscious form. "I have to admit, this one is impressive, for a mere human."
"He had help," Pietro looked around. "There's another guy hiding around here somewhere." He and Fred were dragging in the other X-Men. Pietro found some rope and tied them up. "I think he's the one who threw those gas bombs." Soon all the X-Men were tied up. Only Rogue had regained consciousness. The wolf was trapped in a cage of fire.
"Got this puppy out of the way," John snickered.
"Now that leaves all the loose ends tied up," Mystique smirked. "All that remains is…" Suddenly something ran by in the shadows quickly. "I see."
"You think that's him?" Pietro asked.
"We'll find out. Let me handle this. I know you're out here," Mystique spoke as she went into the shadows. "We merely wish to talk to you. We want to help you. To save you from these….YOU?"
Before anyone could blink Mystique was thrown back into the light. A figure leapt from the shadows clothed in black. Everyone looked in shock as the figure stood up straight and glared at them.
"Hiya buds," Todd snarled. "I'm ba-ack."
