My Rogue Pt 11: The Not-So-Friendly Reunion

In the background a comm. link crackles. "Sir! You have a caller!" Trask groans and rubs his eyes, and looks at the clock. 0214 hours. About 0100 hours worth of sleep. "RRR!" Trask smacks blindly at the link, and hits it on the third try. "WHAT? WHO

EVER IT IS HAD BETTER HAVE A GOOD EXCUSE!" "Aw, did we wake the nice Dr. Trask from his beauty sleep?" Trask sits up straight now, all signs of fatigue forgotten. "What's going on?" Steve's voice looses its mocking tone and takes on a

graver one. "My sis just popped in. It's time." Adrenaline shoots through Trasks body. "Are you sure? The militia groups may be disbanded, but there's the general public to think about." "I'm sure. Just get the Guardians over to the site. I'm sending profiles

now." Sure enough, the holo-display at Trask's bedside flickers and thumbnails of the mutants pop up. "OK. But, you're sure this is right? I mean I've had my doubts about Pietro and Creed, but R-?" "I'm sure," snaps Steve. "I wish there was another way." Xavier wheels himself around the room anxiously. Kurt's tail is twitching, and Bezerker is amusing himself by creating a small lightning bridge from one finger to another. Finally, Logan breaks the silence. "So, what are we supposed to do?" he asks. "Trask

and you seem to have this under control." Steve glances up at him, and Logan shivers. Steve has fully become his alter ego, Death. At least mentally. Outwardly, he is still Steve, but his eyes are dead and cold. The warmth and promise of mischief that usually

brightened a room was replaced by a cold and calculating look. "Bait." Death said simply. Everyone's eyebrows rose. Steve's voice had taken on a rough deep quality, similar to a cross between Magneto and Sabretooth, with a growl that promised nothing

by death and destruction to those who were foolish enough to cross his path. "Magnus wont make his move unless you're there." Amara jumped down off of Bobby's lap fuming, and came within a foot of Death. "What is secretive that you can't tell us?

What's going to happen?" Rogue's hand had been moving onto Death's shoulder this entire time, and now held it firmly. Death just looked up at her. "The Guardian Sentinels are cyborgs. After our part is done, they will take the Witch (Scarlet), to a.(evil

chuckle) family reunion. They wont harm any mutants at all if they can help it." He glanced at Xavier and smiled. "You should be proud Chuck." He pulled a copy of Xavier's thesis out of his jacket. "Their rules are based on this. They are known as the

Xavier Security Enforcers. Their mission is to keep the peace between mutants and humans." Rogue swallowed and finished his thought. "The reason they'll exist officially is because." She glanced around the room as if to gather strength. She gulped and gave

a nervous laugh. "Well, let's just say that the Prof. won't be needin' those pain killers so often." Realization hit Evan first. "Because we wont be in hiding." Everyone shared a terrified glance around the room.



Xavier stared hard at Steve. "Are you sure?" Steve nodded. He had double- checked the mind probes of the planet, and it was confirmed. In this dimension, the humans would

accept mutant kind in at most a month. Kitty sighed. "Well, let's get suited up." (Skip Mystique posing as Xavier setting the self-destruct, and the travel to the site.) At the site, the teams (Brotherhood and X-Men), scouted the area for any signs of the

mutants that once road in the silver pods. Kurt did a rapid-fire teleport from one to the next, with no results. "Nothing here." Over with Jean and Rogue, the same luck was being had. Only Death, still keeping the appearance of Steve, seemed unperturbed.

Dukes shot him a look. "You could be helping ya' know." Steve ignored him and pretended to be as clueless as the rest of them. Just then, a glowing card dropped out of the sky. Jean and the others looked at it, and when it was about eye level, Death reached

out, grabbed it grabbed it and added some more juice to it. "Shoul've stayed in the bayou Cajun." He muttered. He eyed the metal pillar in the center of the site. "I'm calling you out LeBeau!" and with a roar drawn from the fury of betrayal, he hurled the now 5x as

powerful card at the pillar. KA-BOOM! The explosion that shook the site hurled the mutants hiding in the pillar into the air. Gambit shook his head, trying to get the birds to stop flying around. "LeBeau?" he said

in amasement. "De last time someone call Gambit that was a year ago!" Realization dawned, and not for the first time, Gambit questioned the wisdom in joining Magneto. Steve wasted no time in jumping into the fray. He immediately split into four, and each

of them went to their respective mutant. The first went to Pyro. Pyro groaned and got up slowly. He gave himself a once over, and satisfied that his tanks hadn't been punctured, got up. What he saw wasn't what he was expecting. In front of

him stood a teen dressed in black. Pyro nearly fell to the floor laughing. "What are you supposed to be?" he asked in between laughs. "The poster child for anger management?" After wiping the tears from his face, he shoved the barrel toward the kid. (This is gonna

be easy!) He made the fire form into that of a giant hand, and made as if to crush him, but he just smiled. Death smiled at Pyro and yelled at him "Fire huh? Let's compare mastery over that

particular element!" Pyro growled and threw the hand down, only to have Death simply wave it into two pieces. While Pyro gaped at what had been done, the fire twisted and became twin Hell Hounds. Death gave him a big smile, and then sent the dogs to tear

him apart. "OH, S***!" THAT got Pyro unfrozen. He started running as fast as he could. Pyro managed to leap over some barrels, and got over the fence, and away from the site.

"Huh, huh, huh, man, huh, huh," he managed between breaths. "Who was that guy? As a matter of fact, whose lame idea was this anyway?" At that point, a pair of Guardians grabbed him, but an inhibitor collar on him, and tranqed him. "The last thing Pyro heard

was the Asian* say "One down, three to go." Sabretooth was having a similar time. His opponent was nice enough to give him enough respite to finish coughing up blood from the internal bleeding, and rest a bit from the

shattered ribs. "Tsk tsk Creed." Death mocked. "You need to work on your manners. 1) Vomit blood out of battle." With that, Creed was hurled out of the site by an energy bolt from Death's hand.

Durphy and Williams were waiting for the next mutant to come out when he didn't just come out; he fell on their car, already unconscious. Durphy grimaced. "Least we don't have to use a tranq." Williams just shrugged and went to collar Creed. Colossus was having a tough time too. But not in the way you would think. He was

being beaten by his conscience. "What about Illyana? What do you think Magnus would do with her? Last time I checked, she was still a human." Colossus swallowed hard and looked at his friend, Death. He could not dispute the words he was saying, for they were all true. But Death wasn't finished yet. He glared at Colossus and went on. "What about

your mutation? The same one that manifested when you had to stop a tractor? What happened to the guy who saved people from others like that? Now look at you! You've become that tractor, running over and killing everything your master Magnus tells you to." Death slammed a fist into his ribs, driving the air from him. "WHUF!" Colossus

de-armored, and Piotr sat on the ground with his head in his hands. Steve, not Death, sat next to him while he sobbed. Steve looked misty eyed himself, and handed Piotr a tissue. "The thing is Tin-Man," he started. "She'll forgive you. She's your sister; she'll always forgive you. The important thing, is can you live with this yourself?"

Gambit was having a less difficult time, but still hard nonetheless. His Death glared at him. "Where's your ring!? The one that your wife, Bella Donna gave you on your wedding!?" Gambit pulled it out. He had hung it on a chain around his neck so it wouldn't get damaged. Death sneered. "She's no mutant, and you know that. We both know that she got her powers mystically! What would Magnus do with her? Huh!?

HUH!?" Gambit pocketed his cards, and stumbled over to fall on the ground. Steve catches him. He looks at Remy sadly. "I remember your wedding. Hell, it was only a year ago! Sorta young don't ya' think?" Remy gave a half-hearted grin. Steve continued. "She'll forgive you, she's done so for worse." Remy grimaced at that.

"Come on Cajun." Steve said smiling. Let's meet the X people. Mean while, Trask's people were handing over the convicts to the law.

svsteve@adelphia.net I know the end was abrupt, but the revelation of mutant kind will happen in the next one! Also, what about the mansion? Tune in next time!