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 character(s) aside from the creator's original concepts and/or ideas.
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Marrow growled as she threw a sharpened bone from her skin towards Storm's defensive position. Storm didn't move an inch, for Marrow posed little threat to her. The sharpened bone was simply knocked off course by a gust of wind and fell on the ground. Marrow growled again before running towards Storm with two more sharpened bones in her hands, ready to slice the caramel skin of the weather-controlling mutant.
Storm, once again, stood without motion, as a harsh gust of wind knocked Marrow backwards into a wall and pinned her there, paralyzing the angry Morlock. "I would rather not have to get violent with you Marrow," Storm said, her blue eyes now completely white and sparkling with lightning.
"Either you get rid of me now, or you watch your back for the rest of your pathetic life!" Marrow snarled, trying to bite at Storm.
Storm ignored Marrow's threats, "I will ask you again, Marrow: how were you able to attack my mind?"
"You live at an 'institute for gifted youngsters' and get you know nothing!" Marrow yelled, still pinned down by the wind. "If I have no psychic powers how would I attack your mind? How could I subdue and convince Omega Red to attack you?"
"Then who is it?!" Storm yelled, now floating in the air, threatening Marrow to confess with lightning dancing on her fingernails.
"It doesn't matter who it is, because once he's got you, you're his forever!" Marrow cackled. "And because he knows Omega Red and I hate you for who you are, who better to employ to take you down?"
"Do not speak to me in mysteries, child!" Storm yelled, her body entirely engulfed with electrical energy.
"Figure it out!" Marrow yelled as she directed a protruding bone at Storm's hovering figure and the projectile went straight for Storm's chest.
Storm, reacting quickly, released a lightning bolt that dissolved the bone and crashed into Marrow's body, sending the mutants into spasms. The pure heat of the electricity sent the Morlocks who were watching, running away as their skin became singed with the hot air. Static raised the ends of Storm's hair as the lightning bolt continued to crush Marrow's body against the wall and thunder accompanied her wrath.
She could no longer control herself. She was remembering all the mental battles and struggles she had been through for the past few days. If Marrow thought it was okay to torture her as much, then she would endure the same treatment.
"Storm, stop!" Callisto yelled, turning around long enough to endure the heat. "You're killing her!"
Storm stopped the lightning and thunder within the tunnels and landed on the ground. "I have not killed her," Storm said, walking to Marrow with anger spelled out across her face. "Marrow has not even felt a single percentage of what my power can do. She will live, but she will think twice before ever attempting an attack against me again. Now Callisto, I want answers! You will tell me what I need to know or you will get worse treatment than Marrow!"
Callisto's eyes squinted in defiance as her heart raced with fear. She looked at Storm's bloody stomach-region before looking back up to her angry, white eyes.
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"I've called in Synch and Siryn from the Generation X school," Jean said from the passenger side of the battle-armored jeep that drove a team of five X-Men into New York. Driving the jeep was Cyclops, and in the back seat were Rogue, Gambit, and Wolverine.
"You really t'ink we'll need the kiddies help to beat down a couple Morlocks?" Gambit sneered, wondering why everyone was so uptight.
"This ain't no picnic Cajun," Rogue yelled in her southern accent. "Storm could really be in trouble. You done seen what she did to me in the Danger Room. If they mess with her mind again, all of New York's gonna feel what she got to offer."
"More importantly, we need to get to the bottom of this," Cyclops interjected. "We don't need someone as dangerous as Storm losing her mind."
"But she has already lost!" Jean said, although the voice from her mouth was not her own. Instead of a soprano sound coming from her vocal chords, a bass sound came from her mouth like it would from a grown man's.
"What?" the other four X-Men gasped at the sudden remark and the odd sound in Jean's voice. The green-eyed mutant, using her telekinesis, sent the jeep tumbling over. It crashed into the base of a skyscraper before flying vertically into the air. Sliding in the backseat and hitting their heads against the windows, Rogue, Gambit, and Wolverine yelled, telling Jean to stop.
"Jean, what are you doing?" Scott yelled, constricted by seat belt and telekinetic force. Finally, the jeep had flown through all 80 floors of the skyscraper and was now hanging in the air over a busy intersection. Slowly the car continued to gain altitude.
"Enough!" Rogue yelled as she removed a glove and her cold hand drained Jean of her abilities and put the mutant to sleep. As soon as Rogue made contact the jeep began to fall from the sky, quickly picking up speed.
"Rogue, do something!" Cyclops yelled as he watched a clear view of the cars below them in the windshield. In a matter of seconds they would hit and all be singed and killed by the impact.
Rogue, reacting instinctively, began to use telekinetic force to push upward against the descending jeep, slowing the freefall, but also putting the ride on fire like a falling meteorite.
"What is this? A roller coaster sauna?" Wolverine said, never retiring his sarcastic remarks as sweat drenched his body and uniform. The jeep hit the ground, knocking a few cars backwards, but luckily injuring no one. The X-Men sat, breathing hard, and sweating in the burning jeep. Just then Logan's ears puckered up and he began to hear the spread of fire towards the gasoline. "Everybody, get out! This ride's gonna blow!"
The X-Men scrambled out of the jeep, Scott dragging Jean with him as they charged from the jeep. A bystander helped Cyclops carry Jean from the burning jeep just before it blew up.
On the other side of the wreckage, fire engulfed the intersection and caused many people to hide their faces and duck for cover, but Wolverine kept his eyes open. Noting someone moving into one of the Morlock Tunnel entrances, he nudged Gambit's shoulder, "I think I found our mystery-psychic. Let's go!"
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Back on Cyclops' side of the broiled intersection, Rogue picked up Jean's fallen body. "The swamp rat and the wolf went into the tunnels after somebody," Rogue said, also picking up Scott with her super strength. "We can worry about the jeep later." Rogue took Jean, Scott, and herself into flight as they made their way into the entrance of the tunnels. The first thing they heard was Logan's voice before turning a corner to see everything as it unfolded.
"Miguel?" Logan growled as his claws popped under the dim lights of the Morlock Tunnels. "You got two seconds to explain what yer doin' her bub."
"Remy told you he couldn't be trusted!" Gambit barked as he charged a card with biokinetic energy. "He's the one attack Storm's mind! He's no human – he's a mutant!"
"How can you be so sure?" Cyclops said as he was set down by Rogue and walked between the three men.
"How else did he know how to come down here, Cyke?" Wolverine growled, "Use your brain, bub!"
"You think I actually ever left the mansion?" Miguel interrupted, explaining why he was here. "Ororo was so fragile the night before. I couldn't just leave her without knowing she was going to be all right. Then when I saw her suddenly fly away from Jean, I followed behind her on my Logan's motorcycle."
"You did what?" Logan growled, but was subdued by Cyclops' commanding hand.
"More importantly, Ah know he ain't the bad guy here," Rogue said as she hovered next to them all. "When Ah absorbed Jean's powers Ah got a piece of her mind and Miguel wasn't in there."
"Then who is it, Rogue?" Cyclops asked, getting tired of the mystery.
"For all we know, it could be the psychic talkin' through Rogue right now!" Wolverine noted as he pointed his fingers and claws towards Rogue.
"How do you expect to ever find the true villain if you cannot trust each other?" Storm asked as she hovered a few feet away from her friend. Behind her was a tunnel full of still water, ready to gush out like an overflowing dam. Her eyes were completely white and a wicked smile lied across her mouth. "Don't worry about not trusting each other, because now you know exactly where your enemy is at."
"Ororo?" Miguel said as he looked up to Storm, shivering.
"Yes, Miguel, I am your enemy," Storm said, laughing, a characteristic that is not a common trait of the Windrider. "But instead of calling me Ororo, you may call me Shadow King. After all, just because this is Storm's body doesn't mean she controls it anymore."
Rogue's eyes widened at the tunnel full of water bustling behind Storm's hovering body, "Storm, no!"
"Storm no longer responds," the Shadow King laughed from within Storm's body. "The Shadow King is in charge!" A barrier of wind surrounded Storm's hovering body, protecting her from the water as it began to charge throughout the tunnel.
"Uh oh," Logan said as the tunnel ahead of them became filled with water and the sadistic laughter of the Shadow King. "RUN!"
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"It's a dead end!" Cyclops yelled as he tried to bust through the wall with an optic blast, but to no avail. "Rogue, can you stop the water telekinetically?"
"Ah've been trying all this time! It's too much!" Rogue shouted over the thunder of water. "Gambit!" she yelled as her green eyes widened at the sight of Gambit being engulfed by the water. The rest of them were next.