Title: Stormy Forecast
Author: Viral
Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men. This is fan fiction: a fan's version of expression in which he/she wishes to portray a character(s) aside from or in addition to the creator's original concepts and/or ideas.
Author's Note(s): Thanks for the reviews. If there are any misspellings you find in quotations when Remy speaks they are most likely done on purpose. Those misspellings are an attempt to exhibit his accent through the text.
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"I shall await your call," Ororo said as she hugged Miguel. The taxi driver honked the car horn again as he waited for Miguel. Thick clouds darkened the sky and the ground covered in fog. The morning had begun with a warning for extreme weather over the northeastern United States. Instead of disrupting the weather patterns, Ororo figured she would let it ride out on its own.
After Miguel walked away Ororo's blue eyes watched until the cab drove out of the exterior entrance of the Institute and the iron gates closed. "It is truly a terrible morning. I pray you make it home safely," Ororo said to herself, looking up to the dark clouds, which threatened a downpour at any given moment.
"It's not that bad of a morning," Jean Grey noted as she joined Ororo on the porch of the Institute. Her green eyes studied Ororo for a moment before continuing, "Sister, are you alright? For the last couple of days you've been walking around with a shade of melancholy."
"You are correct in assuming that I am not alright," Ororo said, running her fingers through the fine strands of her silvery-white hair. "However, I shall be fine. I just have a few problems that I need to work through."
"Is there anything I could do to help you?" Jean asked.
"I will work through this," Ororo said, reassuring Jean that she would be all right. At least Jean wasn't as prideful or as forceful with her concern as Remy was. Jean and Ororo shared an embrace before separating. "Jean, can you do me a favor?"
"Sure," Jean replied, thinking perhaps she had gotten Ororo to open up to her.
"Tell the Professor I shall be going out for a little while and will most likely miss today's scheduled training session."
"No problem," Jean said, looking to Ororo with questions running through her mind. "But where are you going?"
"Just… out," Ororo said before raising her arms in the air and accelerating into flight on the high winds.
Jean, after being knocked back a bit by the winds, watched Ororo's figure disappear into the dark clouds. "Hmm…" Jean said, wondering out loud before being interrupted by Xavier's mental projection.
"I am worried about Storm," he said to Jean. "Assemble a small team of X-Men and locate her. I fear she is acting on strange impulses."
"But Professor, it isn't like Ororo to get into trouble," Jean noted, questioning Xavier's theory.
"There may be someone else involved in Ororo's decision making, which would explain why neither you or I can probe her mind," Xavier said before his mental image disappeared.
"Maybe he's right…" Jean said as she reentered the Institute.
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Ororo breathed heavily as she entered the secluded and abandoned darkness of the Morlock Tunnels. This network of tunnels, built under New York City, had been constructed as a possible refuge for citizens to flee to if the city had come under attacks during World War II and especially after the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Now it was abandoned as a home to rodents and to a group of deformed mutants who called themselves the Morlocks.
In a battle to save the life of a former X-Man, Ororo defeated the Morlock's leader Callisto by stabbing her in the chest. Ororo saved Angel's life and was given all power and responsibility as ruler of the Morlock people. Before Gambit joined the X-Men he had become involved with Sinister and had lead the Marauders into the Morlock Tunnels and all were presumed dead except Marrow, the one he saved. It would later be revealed that more than she survived, but this genocide against the Morlocks was fully blamed on Ororo for not being there to protect them.
Ororo had her reasons for not being there. Her claustrophobia overwhelmed her and even being in the dark, enclosed tunnels now was a pressure for her. She hovered over the damp, murky concrete floors of the tunnels until she felt a deep kick on her spine. She fell out of the air and onto the floor, her shoulder bruised in the process.
"What business do you have in the Morlock Tunnels?" a voice came from the shadows, followed by several cryptic whispers that echoed throughout.
Ororo immediately enshrouded her body in lightning and the entire area lit up with light, "You had better not try such an attack again."
"Oh, it is our fearless leader," one mutant said sarcastically as the mutants began to mumble in disinterest while others gawked in curiosity as to why Storm had come to visit them.
"Leech control powers now!" a little green mutant said as he ran Ororo's side in excitement. He appreciated her, not yet being influenced by the foul words of the older Morlocks who had grown to despise her.
"That is quite an accomplishment child," Ororo said as she lifted Leech in her arms, after stopping the lightning that once surrounded her body. "Is Callisto here?"
"Yes, Leech show you!" he said as he jumped out of her arms, grabbed her finger, and began running to where Callisto was.
"Thank you, Leech," Ororo smiled as she approached Callisto and Leech disappeared into the darkness of the tunnels.
"Why are you here, Windrider?" Callisto asked with spite, "Are you here for your annual Christmas charity? Is it that time of year already?"
"I do not know why I am here any more than you do," Ororo answered with authority.
"You should not have come, they will get you for sure now!" Callisto warns as her body begins to tremble. "Why couldn't you just stay put at your mansion? You've put yourself in danger X-Woman!"
"What are you babbling about, Callisto?" Ororo asks, confused.
"I've got you right where I want you, Windrider!" a woman said as she came from under the shadows and her face was finally revealed.
"It was you!" Storm yelled in shock as Marrow's deformed body came into view under the dim lights of the tunnels. "How? Why?"
"I've always hated you!" she yelled. "I said it before, and I'll say it again: As leader of the Morlocks, you let me down… let all of us down! Look at what your weakness created. You held my life in your hands, bright lady, and you destroyed it!"
"I do not care what your hatred for me stands upon! How were you able to attack my mind?" Ororo asked, confused.
"You don't need to worry about that, Weather Witch!" Marrow yelled with eyes filled with fury before bones began to poke out of her skin.
"Marrow! Calm yourself!" Callisto commanded, "Storm is your leader and you're still required to respect her as much as you respect me!"
"Callisto, stand down," Ororo said as she held out her hand to silence Callisto's instructions. "If Marrow wishes to learn another lesson in daring to challenge me, then I am more than willing to teach her!"
Marrow screamed as she jumped into the air and pulled out her protruding bones in the process. She came out of the air attempting to swipe Ororo across the face with the sharp bones in each of her hands, but Ororo quickly grabbed Marrow's wrists and subdued the mutant by twisting her arms around her back. Ororo spoke lightly in Marrow's ears with an odd amount of spite, "You had better be ready for what you have put yourself into."
"I'm ready," Marrow answered with equal spite as a sharp bone shot out of her back and pierced Ororo's stomach. The Windrider stumbled backwards, releasing Marrow, as she put her caramel hands to her stomach. Pulling the bone out of her abdomen, Ororo's hands became doused with a pool of blood. Meeting Marrow's smiling face with her angry blue eyes, Ororo snarled and continued to hold her bleeding abdominal.
"But are you ready, Ororo?" Marrow laughed as more bones began to protrude from her skin and once again she ran towards Ororo in a ruthless offensive attack.
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"Who are you?" Xavier said as his mind probed the Institute. He had been stressing his mind, trying to find out who was attacking Ororo's mind. He could hear the mental whispering that was going on, he could recognize the threats on Ororo's life being echoed throughout the mental realm, not as deep as the astral plane, but close enough.
"Xavier, you are stepping into forbidden territory," a voice spoke through telepathic means before a powerful psychic bolt disrupted Xavier's brain and the leader fell out of his wheelchair with spasms. "Now to get rid of Jean Grey. I won't need any psychic interference when I'm ready for the Beautiful Windrider," the voice said before silence filled the mental realm.
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"Miguel?" Logan growled as his claws popped under the dim lights of the Morlock Tunnels. "You got two seconds to explain what yer doin here, bub."
"Remy told you he couldn't be trusted!" Gambit barked as he charged a card with biokinetic energy. "He's the one attacking Stormy's mind! He's no human – he's a mutant!"