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The Politics of Mutancy
Chapter Three - Culmination

Kurt Wagner had impeccable timing.

He'd teleported the very upset Senator Hull and wife away from their bedroom just in time, leaving them safely with Professor Xavier. He wasted no time in teleporting back to the bedroom, and was greeted with the sight of Jean unconscious on the floor and Scott being pummeled by a vanishing form. Not good, he decided, and 'ported to Scott's side the same instant the assailant rematerialized.

"Hello!" Kurt said cheerfully.

"Who..?" the girl managed to get out, her clear blue eyes blinking in surprise. Kurt wrapped his arms around her and bamfed.

Leaving Scott on the vibrating floor, curled in anticipation of a blow. When none came, he cautiously pulled himself to his feet, realizing that he was not in fact alone. The mystery Acolyte was still standing there, watching him.

"I don't want to hurt you," Scott said, wondering all the while why the other boy didn't attack. "So I suggest you either surrender yourself to our custody, or get out of here. The authorities are on their way by now."

*You're with Xavier?*

Between the Professor and Jean, Scott was used to telepathic speech, so the sensation of having someone's 'voice' bounce around in his head like a ping-pong-ball was not that disconcerting. The lazily spiraling energy field pouring from the other boy's body, however, was. The boy's shattered face was perfectly illuminated and Scott could see a multitude of recently healed scars reaching up over pale flesh.

"Yes."

*Which one are you?*

"Cyclops."

*Chamber.*

This is getting a little surreal, Scott thought to himself. I'm having a polite conversation with one of the enemy while the ground tries to shake itself apart under our feet.

His thoughts were interrupted by another's. *You're wasting your time.*

"You think?"

*Yes. Magneto's dead-set on 'preserving the species.'* His tone was vaguely sarcastic. *It's us or them, you know.*

"I don't believe that, and I don't think you do either."

*You don't know me.*

"No."

The floor lurched alarmingly, nearly knocking Scott off of his feet again. A disturbing hollow echo rattled through his mind as the other boy shrugged his shoulders - a sigh, Scott realized.

*I'll see you later,* Chamber told him as he strode from the room. There was absolutely no threat in the words. Scott stared after the glowing figure for a moment before remembering his duty and going to Jean's side.

She was starting to show signs of consciousness. Great timing, Jean, Scott thought with a tight grin. "Jean?"

"Scott?"

"Can you walk?"

"Mmm. Help me up and we'll see. Ow, what HIT me?"

"I think it was the Professor's girl."

Jean rubbed the back of her head and scowled. "She should learn to play a little nicer," she muttered. Scott smiled, and the floor lurched again.

"Crap. Avalanche. We'd better get out of here before he shakes the whole place apart."

* * *

"Dear brother," Wanda cooed as she advanced across the trembling ground towards her twin. "I think we need to have a little heart-to-heart…"

Pietro made a little whimpering noise in the back of his throat. Beneath him the ground was undulating like an agitated snake, and no matter how hard he tried he could not move his feet.

"Wanda, Lance… please, I can explain…!"

Wanda, calm in the middle of the earthquake, smiled. It was a beautiful smile, one worthy of Da Vinci. "No more words," she whispered sweetly.

She raised her hands suddenly, screeching in incoherent rage. Pietro was lifted from the ground and flung against the side of the house at high velocity. He grunted as he struck the wall. It took a moment for the fact that he wasn't sliding down the wall to permeate the haze of pain clouding his mind. He opened his eyes, which had shut involuntarily when he'd impacted, and saw Wanda standing beside Lance, grinning like a kid at a birthday party. Lance winked at him before his eyes rolled back in his head and his limbs started shaking. A portion of Senator Hull's picturesque lawn unfurled like a carpet as the ground beneath it shuddered upwards, turning into a wave of rock and dirt that was sent careening straight at the side of the house. Pietro had time to squawk and shut his eyes again before the earth-tsunami plowed into him.

Rocks cut his flesh and dirt packed his nostrils shut. He couldn't breathe.

Then: noise and heat - an explosion. Air. Pietro gasped, blinking stinging dirt from his eyes. A warm hand grabbed him and hauled him roughly upright.

"Run, mon ami," the Cajun instructed. "Gambit take care of dis one here."

Pietro paused for a second. His sister was stretched facedown on the ground, blood trickling down the back of her neck. Lance was still standing, his shocked expression being quickly replaced by one of vehement fury. He let out a yell and the ground started uprooting itself again.

Pietro took the hint. He ran.

Gambit grinned and flipped casually away from the fault-line headed his way. Sneaking up on the Scarlet Witch had been easy for a former thief of his caliber, and his current opposition seemed to be about as sharp as a butter-knife. Simplicity itself. He flicked a card as he dodged, and the resulting explosion knocked Lance off his feet. He was about to snake forward and whip his bo-staff across the other boy's face when an angry female voice arrested his attention.

"Ya'll just BACK OFF!"

Gambit turned, smiling. He remembered this one… it was the skunk-headed X-Man. Rogue.

"Bonjour, cherie," he said as he evaded a potential blow to the head.

"Whatevah," Rogue snarled, and renewed her attack.

Eldritch light flooded the lawn, shifting and moving like a live thing. Which, Gambit supposed, it was.

*We're leaving. Now.*

Psionic flames raged across the ground, snaking towards X-men and Brotherhood members alike. Gambit touched a card to his lips, and flicked it at the goth-girl before bolting to Colossus' side. Both the card and the ice encasing the Russian exploded almost simultaneously.

The inferno expanded, providing a cover for the fleeing Acolytes. The broken figure in the center had a strangely euphoric look about it, a quality that was reminiscent of Renaissance paintings depicting martyred saints.

A beautiful monster, Rogue thought to herself. At that second Kurt appeared at her side in a cloud of smoke.

"He can't stop!" Kurt said urgently. "Rogue, ve have to take him down! Now!"

The light was painful in its intensity.

Rogue acted without thinking. She ran forward, ripping her gloves from her hands as she did so. Cyclops and Jean had just reached the front door as she did so and Scott lunged forward, shouting, "Rogue! NO!"

But she did not reach for Chamber; instead she veered, dropped to her knees and grabbed the pale skin of the Scarlet Witch's neck.

Spiraling destruction surged forward and was caught in an electric blue web and nullified. Rogue was screaming. The crackling energy pouring from her body enveloped her opponent -

(there was a scream, only it was not heard but felt)

- and suddenly he slumped forward, the flickering glow of his body snuffed out like a candle.

A shriek rent the air, and the boy blinked out of existence. Rogue, hysterical, turned to her teammates with no recognition in her eyes, and then she too pitched forward, thudding to the ground.

The only sound was the advancing sirens.

* * *