Voices' Warnings: Runaways
"Are you coming or not?" Jubilee was on her knees, looking at the seemingly unreal image of her house falling in on itself, blurred by her tears. Every instinct was telling her rush to her death in the hopes that she could somehow rescue them from the inferno. Every attempt to stand failed, and not because she lacked the strength, or the constitution. Her body simply wasn't following orders. "You can choose to come with me or not, but you're not going into that building." She suddenly hated the stranger that kept calling out to her for the past few minutes.
"That's not just a building," she screamed at him. "That's my house!"
"And it's burning down," he shouted back. The sirens she'd been hearing finally manifested themselves as lights at the end of the road. Two police cruisers whipped around the corner, followed by a fire truck, looking dangerously close to tipping over as it made the turn. Upon stopping, they immediately sprang into action. The police were quickly setting up borders, but Jubilee suddenly noticed that nobody had come out of their houses. There were no silhouettes staring out windows at the spectacle. The emergency workers completely ignored Jubilee and the man leaning up against his car. "You have nothing here! And since you took so long in deciding, those cameras in the squad cars have seen you." It didn't matter to Jubilee. She hadn't done anything. He pushed off the passenger side and stalked slowly toward her. "Your body killed you parents. Your body set your house on fire. You are a mutant. That is all that's going to matter to them," he nodded toward the police officers. "And the police and military aren't nearly as fast as some Special Interest groups that would just love to kill a mutant suspected of murder." He was aggravated by the young girl's somewhat arrogant thoughts on the matter. "I am making a guarantee: you will not make it out there for a day… not without me."
She stared at him for a moment, then made her decision. He did nothing to stop her fist from colliding with his jaw, but something told her he could have. Without another word, she took off down the street.
Richard lifted his watch, and pressed two of the small buttons along the side. Dropping his hands back down to his sides, he sighed. He hated teens in distress. They were too hard to predict, no matter how familiar their mental patterns were. The girl was nice person, though, and when he next saw her, she'd feel sorry for hitting him. It wasn't much of a hit, but the symbol on her ring would be on his jaw for a few days. He traced his finger over where the ring had made contact; no blood. Not much of a hit at all.
Sighing again, his eyes dropped to Dr. Hendrich, still lying far too close to the fire. It took Richard a second to decide whether or not to let to the workers see him, and ultimately decided he'd like to have another talk with the good doctor at some point.
"Hey! What the hell," one of the firemen shouted. "How long has this guy been here?!" The emergency workers quickly scrambled to get him into an ambulance. The vehicle tore off, narrowly missing Richard's newly acquired car. Finding nothing left to do, Richard drove off, careful not to lose the signal he came for.
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Jubilee hadn't been training nearly enough on her own. She barely made it into the city before she had to stop to take a rest. She took a few steps into an alley and leaned against the wall. She slid down, tucking her knees up to her chest. The thought of what the wall was doing to her shirt crossed her mind, but that led her to think of the rest of her clothes, in her house, with her parents. A short sob escaped her throat. She immediately pursed her lips. This was not the place. She had to find a place to stay. All of her money was in her purse… on top of her dresser, if either still existed. Again she stifled a cry. She had to think logically.
There were family friends that would readily take her in, but they were either back in the neighborhood or too far to walk to in one night. Plus, those would be the first place she would be looked for, and she didn't want anyone to get hurt because of her, not anyone else. Unfortunately, she didn't have anyone to be responsible for or to, except herself. All she had to do was survive, regardless the cost. She briefly wondered why she'd turned down the offer to go with that man who had offered his help. It might have been the complete lack of sympathy, or the fact that the only thing that had taken her mind off of her parents since the fire was the sight of him burning a man's eyes out with a flaming stick. She thought briefly of the other man, and winced as his face flashed across her mind, still ordering her to kill her parents. The order was powerful enough to make her believe that her parents were still alive, but she only had hatred for them. She quickly shook the image away. Suddenly, she didn't feel so negative toward the man that had burned that bastard's eyes out.
"Hello?" she called into the alley, deciding she'd been still a little too long. Hearing no answer, she sparked up her hand, illuminating the dark alley. Several cats feasting out of a trash can lunged away from the new light source, knocking over the old metal can. Jubilee quickly tried to steady it, not wanting to attract any more attention.
She wondered how many people had heard about what had happened at her house. It had only been about thirty minutes. It wouldn't be long before they found out that three people lived in that house, and start searching for her. The recordings from those surveillance cameras couldn't have been checked too often. Just in case, though, she had to get somewhere safe, private. Xavier. The thought raced through her mind, quickly followed by what felt like fire at her temples, and another flash of that horrible face. Suddenly, the very thought of contacting Charles for help make her feel like vomiting.
"Great," she spoke to herself. She fought back her rising stomach after seriously considering calling Charles. The nausea was quickly followed by a dizziness that threatened to take her off of her feet. She couldn't imagine was actually calling Charles would do to her. Whoever that tall freak was, he had been thorough. He couldn't stop Charles from coming to find her, though. He would manage to quickly find out what happened and that she was missing, and come find her. He'd probably be able to fix whatever that guy did to her. How she'd react to actually seeing him was yet to be seen. All Jubilee could hope was that it didn't kill her.
"Focus," she told herself. She had to think straight. Having her thoughts bound about the hypothetical wasn't helping her. She had to find any form of shelter, and then food. It was fairly obvious that she was only going to meet resistance, it just mattered when. She wasn't going to stumble upon any unexpected help.
"Ow," shouted a female voice. Jubilee stumbled forward, catching herself before her face dunked into something that didn't smell like water. She pushed herself standing and looked down on another girl about her same age. "How cliché," Jubilee said to herself.
The other girl seemed to shift her concentration to Jubilee from her bleeding hand, which Jubilee assumed she stepped on. "What are you doing here," she said in a thick Asian accent.
"What are you doing here? You're obviously not from around here."
"I asked you first," she shot back, sounding a bit nervous.
"It's none of your business," Jubilee said, mostly because she had no inclination to talk about the night's earlier events.
"Then why should I tell you," she spat back.
Jubilee sighed, "Never mind, I was just passing through anyway."
"Good."
Before Jubilee completed her first step, she had to place her foot back where it came from. A blinding spot light had been placed over both of the girls.
"Well, what a coincidence. Two runaways, described as sixteen-year-old Asian girls disappear on opposite side of the city, and meet up in the middle, and we happen to be here."
"Just when I thought I wouldn't have to do any more paperwork tonight."
The spotlights disappeared, and the girls needed a moment to readjust to the normal light-level. Neither needed to see much to know it was police officers who had pinned them down; they both had pictures that apparently had their pictures on them. Jubilee thought briefly about running away, but that would lead to a necessity of attacking the two officers, and she didn't need that on top of anything they thought she might have done. She would have to sneak away from them later.
"Look what you did," she other girl snipped at her.
"What I did," Jubilee asked incredulously.
"They drove by three times and didn't see me until you came."
"It's not my fault you didn't keep your hand out of the way of traffic."
"You should look where you're going."
"It's pitch black!"
"You call this pitch black," she waved her arms around. Jubilee suddenly remembered the police officers, and how she and the other girl must have looked, arguing with each other in hurried voices.
"Put your hands behind your backs, ladies." Jubilee slowly lowered her hands behind her back and put her wrists close together. The other girl seemed to be having an inward battle, as if she was just considering running away. As the officer approached, though, she snapped her hands behind her back. Both girls were read their rights and placed in the back of the cruiser. Jubilee got pushed into the passenger side. She managed to push her arms underneath her legs and in front of her to make her drive a bit more comfortable. The officer in the driver seat noticed this, but decided that she wasn't going to be too much of a danger.
Jubilee was actually entertained for the first couple minutes of the drive by watching the girl next to her trying to do what Jubilee had done with her hands. At one point, she was completely upside-down.
"Would you sit still back there," the officer in the passenger seat called. The girl, entertainingly enough, managed to right herself again, he hands still pinned behind her back.
"Are you a contortionist, or something," she asked a smirking Jubilee.
"Gymnast," Jubilee answered.
It wasn't long before the girl had again begun to squirm in her seat. Her eyes were darting around. She had the same look that she had when she was cuffed. It wasn't long before she seemed to make a decision, though. Her eyes were glued to the back of the passenger officer's head. It was shortly thereafter that Officer Grooman apparently decided he'd been in the car a little too long. He opened his door and jumped out.
"What are you doing," the driver screamed at his partner, but was unable to stop the jump. Once Grooman was gone, the girl's eyes locked onto the driver's head. He slammed on the gas and they were soon careening down a luckily barren road.
"Uh," Jubilee had pinned herself against the door in an instinct to get as far away from her as possible. She soon found her bearings. "I assume your doing this, but… do you know where you're going."
"Mm, no."
"Well… turn into that parking garage up ahead. And slow down," she added with urgency. Either the girl didn't have complete control or she didn't know how to drive, because the driving officer had a hard time figuring out how to put his foot to the brake. When he found it, he hit is way too hard and they were soon going about fifteen miles per hour. They reached the entrance of the parking lot a whole minute later, despite the short distance to it. "Go up to a level without any people in it."
They were getting enough attention just being a police car with two captives and a door that was hanging open going through a parking garage with just a few people on each level. They found the fifth level completely abandoned. Without bothering to pull into an actual parking space, the girl had the car stopped. The officer clumsily got out and opened the other girl's door. He then got back into the car and sat motionless, while the girl got away.
"Hey," Jubilee called out. She shuffled her way out of the driver-side door. "Fine," Jubilee said. Her right index finger glowed with a multi-colored ball. She lowered it down to the cuff surrounding her left wrist. It made small explosion and the metal split, allowing Jubilee to remove the cuffs. The other girl turned just in time to see her remove the right portion of her bindings. This brought the stranger running to her.
"Take mine off," she said impatiently, apparently thinking Jubilee hadn't gotten the meaning of the other girl shuffling backwards in front of her.
"Why? You were just going to leave me in that car, if you were a bit smarter."
"But, I am the reason you're here."
"Exactly."
"No, here, instead of down at the police station."
"Yeah, now we're fugitives instead of runaways!"
The girl gave Jubilee an impatient look. "Look, we both need a place to hide. What are you going to do? Blow stuff up until you get one?"
Jubilee took a moment to process this. "Fine." She separated the girl from her handcuffs.
"Ow," she said again after the second half came off.
"So, where are we going to hide?"
"This is connected to a hotel."
"There are security cameras in that hotel. How are we going to break in?"
"We won't have to." The girl walked off toward the elevator in the far wall.
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Soon enough, much to Jubilee's surprise, the girl had secured them a room. They didn't pay or put their names in, or anything like that, so that cut off any attempt at room service. All of the running had made Jubilee a little hungry and extremely thirsty.
"I can get a cart brought in here," the girl said, "if one walks by."
"Not much of a chance at eleven thirty." The girl sat by the door anyway, looking out the peep-hole every time a noise was made. "What's your name," Jubilee asked, once the television had lost its distraction appeal.
She, for the first time, turned away from the door. "Shan," quickly said. "What's yours?"
"Jubilation, but everyone calls me Jubilee." Shan just nodded and turned back to the door. Jubilee sighed. "So, how did you end up in L.A.?"
Shan looked at the carpet, and after a brief silence, finally started to explain. "My family and I were moving here. The boat we were on was attacked. When we landed, I got scared, and used my powers to run away."
"Why did you get scared?"
"My… my father was killed in the attack. I didn't find out until we landed. That was just four hours ago."
"Oh," was all Jubilee could say.
"What about you?"
Now Jubilee cursed herself for being impatient for a response from Shan. It took her a minute stifle her emotions down so she could talk. "Someone killed my parents," she half-lied, "then set my house on fire. I knew they'd think I did it," she sparked up her hand as evidence, "so I just took off."
They were both understandably silent for quite a while after that. It wasn't until midnight struck that Shan jolted enough to knock over the chair she was sitting in. "Someone's just gone by, with food." Jubilee heard the cart pass. Once it had passed by, Shan opened the door a crack. The cart stopped, and then made sounds Jubilee could only assume meant the cart was turning around. The door was opened wider to alloy the cart in. Jubilee took guidance of the cart from the zombie-like woman, and looked over the food as Shan followed her slave out into the hall.
"Where are you going," she asked.
"I'm making sure she gets on the elevator before she wonders what happened to her." Without waiting for a response, Shan took off down the hall. She didn't quite remember where the elevator was. While she could see what her victim saw, it was too blurry and confusing unless she had her eyes closed and was sitting or lying down. Shan pushed the down arrow herself, and waited with her subject until the bell dinged and the doors slid open. Much to her surprise, there was somebody else on. He stood in the back corner, staring blankly at the far wall, a strange smirk on his face. Shan stood behind the room service woman, suddenly nervous, as though she'd been caught.
"Getting on," the man asked, turning to the younger girl.
"No," she finally said, shaking her head, and finally had the woman in front of her get on the elevator. Shan walked away awkwardly, and checked to make sure she wasn't being followed after she heard the doors close.
Reentering the room, Shan saw that Jubilee had uncovered a meal that was obviously meant for a vacationing family: two lobsters and a pizza. Jubilee was almost scared at the ferocity with which Shan dug into the food. She managed to down every bit of edible material on one of the lobsters and half of the pizza within five minutes.
"Hungry?"
"I haven't eaten since before I left home."
"Oh," Jubilee uttered, suddenly feeling very guilty for having taken even one bite of her lobster. Shan was understandably too absorbed in the food to notice Jubilee's discomfort. It wasn't until she reached for the last slice of Pizza did Shan realize that there was another. She held up the piece questionably. "Take it," Jubilee said.
"We can't stay here too long. It won't take them long to find out that we stayed in the hotel that cop woke up near. We should sleep a couple of hours before we take off, though." Shan agreed, and Jubilee set the alarm clock in between the two beds for three o'clock.
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Charles apprehensively went closer to the fire that was still raging. Nearby, a police officer was giving a statement to a reporter. "We are currently unaware of the cause of the fire."
"Is it true that a young mutant lived here and has not yet been found?"
"The entire house has not yet been searched and the recovered bodies have not been identified. Now, if you will please escort yourselves back behind the tape, we have work to do." It was then that the officer noticed Charles, and walked over to him. "You must be Mr. Xavier."
"Yes, please call me Charles."
"You got here in a hurry."
"One of my students may or may not be in that inferno. I felt the need for urgency."
"Of course." The officer sighed, "I have to ask you about her powers. It's fairly common knowledge what your students…"
"Jubilation's abilities are well under her own control. She could not have started this by accident, and she wouldn't start it on purpose." The officer looked unconvinced, but did not have a chance to respond. Two men in uniform were jogging up to him.
"Sir, a couple of the guys from the fire department say that this place was rigged to burn: a spark could have set off the whole house. There are materials spread throughout every room to make sure the fire spread within a minute. Now, that's all in most of the house, but the living room and kitchen are filled with chemical containers, making sure that this fire burns long and hot. Given the way that the materials are laid out, the boys say that this was either done in a hurry or by amateurs, but amateurs don't typically have access to those materials."
"Are you saying this was a hit?"
"A potential one, sir. There's a remote detonator in there, but it was never hit. This started accidentally."
"All right, go see if they find anything else." The officer hurried back towards the mostly collapsed house. "What do you have?"
"About thirty minutes ago, Officers Grooman and Penchel arrested two girls, one they identified as the girl missing from this scene, and the other was the girl that skirted the Coast Guard earlier. They were found arguing with each other in an alley."
"So, we have the Lee girl in custody?"
"No. While taking them back to the station, Grooman blacked out. He woke up fifteen minutes later lying in a gutter. Penchel blacked out a little bit after that; woke up in a hotel parking garage: the girls were gone."
"What about the hotel?"
"Nothing unusual there: no break-ins, at least. We have a couple of guys searching the boiler room and basements, and they have the concierges calling every room making sure they haven't taken anyone in."
"Anything else?"
"Not right now."
"Keep your eyes open. I assume that answered most of your questions," he said to Charles.
"Yes, thank you." He handed the officer a card. "Please give me a call if she's found."
"Sure. You'll probably be called in to answer a few questions when she's caught, anyway."
"That shouldn't be a problem." Charles was escorted back behind the tape. He immediately approached Logan. "I can feel someone here that has less than admirable intentions for Jubilee and the other girl she has met up with."
"What kind of intentions?"
"He had a recurring stream of… indirect hatred for Jubilee."
"Could he be the guy that started the fire?"
"No. His hatred is because of her being a mutant. He didn't react too well when he saw me here, either. I believe that he is working for the man that sent that…Sentinel after you." Wolverine growled at that mention. "What did you find out?"
"I couldn't get too close to look very well, and the fire wiped out most of the scents, but there was definitely someone else here, maybe a couple of people. There's a pair of footprints leading from the backyard to the front. The emergency guys have stomped all over the place since then. Jubilee ran off that way," he pointed down the street, "and there's another set of footprints that isn't from a fireman or police officer, but it could have been a neighbor. Got pretty close to the fire, though: right up against the building."
"Very well. I want you to track down Jubilee. I believe that it's more than just the police that is after her now. I will have Scott contact you if he finds her first." Wolverine huffed at the suggestion.
"She has a pretty good head start, and that trip in the police car I heard about could make it a bit harder."
"Can you find her?"
"Of course I can, I'm just saying it probably won't be before sunrise."
"Logan, whoever that man over there represents is particularly well-funded. If we do not find Jubilee first, she may be the next lab-rat in a sentinel test."
Wolverine didn't bother to answer before taking off down the street. Shortly thereafter, Charles had an unpleasant notion. "Logan," Charles mentally called out, "I'm going to Europe. Call me if I'm needed."
"Are we going somewhere," Hank asked once Charles had returned to the hidden blackbird.
"I'm going to need to ask you stay here, and call the team to this location. I'm afraid that there are several forces acting against Jubilee."
"But why, Charles?" Hank asked as he was getting off the plane.
"Because she was a student of mine. I will return to Bayville as soon as possible."
"Of course, Charles." Hank took a step off of the plane, but stopped. "Should I ask Sean to accompany the field team? If Mr. Prenson was involved in this, as you believe, he may respond to a friendly face."
"Yes, of course, if he so chooses."
"I will see you soon, Charles."
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The background noise of Jubilee's dream followed her into the waking world. The quick pounding filled the room. In the adjacent bed, Shan shot out from under her covers as Jubilee just had.
"I told you not to turn off the alarm!"
"You fell back to sleep before I did."
"No I didn't."
"Your snores beg to differ."
Shan prepared to say something on return, but the door had just been broken down in the main room of the suite. Jubilee was the first to act. She opted to blast out the glass of the sliding door instead of opening it. Out side of every room was a deck, protruding about four feet from the outside wall. They were on the fourth floor, meaning they would have to drop down to lower decks before jumping to the ground.
"What are we going to do from here? We can't run very well with broken ankles." Jubilee just sighed before putting her legs over the rails of the deck. "What are you doing," Shan asked. The look on her face showed that she knew full well what Jubilee was about to attempt. Jubilee leapt off the side of the deck, and grabbed the bottom slab of the adjacent deck. She swung forward and let go, doing half of a back flip before landing her feet square on a third floor deck. She turned around to see Shan looking at her with a dropped jaw.
"Come on," Jubilee called."
"I can't do that!"
"Just jump out to me, and I'll catch your hands, and swing you down to that deck," she said, pointing to the one two floors down from where Shan was standing.
"No," she shot back resolutely. Her resolve didn't last long once the door to their room was kicked in. Shan quickly vaulted over the railing and leaped at Jubilee. Shan latched on to the other girl's wrists with enough force to cause Jubilee's bones to grind together.
Shan landed less than gracefully on the desired platform. Jubilee managed to land beside her just as their pursuers emerged from their room. The two girls made sure they were completely covered from the soldiers' view. "Who are they," Shan whispered, "they don't look like the police from last night?"
"I'm not sure, but they're not the police. They don't even look like the army." Jubilee knew it was most likely a team from an anti-mutant organization. The police had already been through the hotel, and they didn't have any way to detect mutants: very few people did.
"Check all of the rooms in this area all the way down to the ground floor, and a few levels above. They might have jumped or climbed."
"Yes, sir."
There was a long silence after the two girls heard that conversation. "We need to get out of here," Jubilee said.
"There might be someone still up there, waiting for us to run."
"We'll stick close to walls. Let's get to that alley by the parking garage." Shan eventually agreed to the plan, and they began their slow endeavor around the outside of the hotel, as what seemed to be everybody driving a car looked at them questioningly.
"Okay, so where do we go now," Shan asked once they got to the alley.
"Uh… we need to get to a phone. I need to get the Professor so he can get us out of here."
"How soon would he be able to get here?"
"In an emergency: really soon."
"We need a place with a lot of people," Shan said after some thought.
"That would also have a phone in it." Jubilee knew a mall or any large store would suffice, but she wasn't sure if there were any nearby.
"There was a that place across the street last night," Shan said, "from the parking garage. That…that…" Jubilee hadn't seen the foreigner stumble over a word before, "club," she spat out triumphantly.
"Yeah, well, it's a night club. It probably won't be open for another ten hours."
"Where else can," the sentence was cut short. The alley was perfectly quiet except for their voices, which allowed them to hear the soft footsteps once the started to approach. Someone was trying to sneak up on them. Without thought, they sprinted off in the opposite direction. Whoever was sneaking took three heavy steps and rounded a corner into the alley.
"Kid, wait!" a voice familiar to Jubilee shouted.
"Wolverine!" Jubilee skidded to a stop and turned around, Shan quickly did the same. She sprinted toward him and wrapped her arms tightly around his middle. Logan, however, seemed to be otherwise concerned. After looking at the end of the alley for a couple of seconds, he turned back to the girls. "The rest of the team is gonna be landing about ten blocks away. Are you two up for more running?"
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"Where'd you go last night?"
"How do you always know when Ah go out?"
"I have my ways. Why do you keep going out?"
"Ah don't know."
"Well, where do you go?"
"Ah don't know. . . Ah just wonder around."
"Well, if you don't go anywhere, why do you go out?"
"Ah guess. . . just to do somethin' ah'm not supposed to."
The memory of Richard laughed. "So, you just go rogue."
"Ah don't know what that means."
He just laughed again. "My rogue."
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"Rogue! Wake up. How can you fall asleep at a time like this?" Kitty elbowed her
Two eyes faded out of Rogue's sight as she blinked heavily against sleep. The sound of the jet engines slowly poured its way back into her ears. "Ah don't know. Ah've been really tired lately."
"Are ye sure ye should be comin?" Sean asked the Rogue. He was wary of the teenagers. He had to keep reminding himself that they all had experience in these kinds of matters. He couldn't help but see his daughter in all of them, though; mainly because she was in the back of the jet talking with Jean, constantly in his sight. There was no way he was going to leave her back at the mansion with the other children not old or experienced enough to go on the mission, no matter how many defenses the mansion had.
"Okay," Scott called from the pilot's seat, "we're coming up on the mall. We're gong to have to do a low-level drop near the entrance. Kurt's going to land on the roof and join us. Everyone get ready to jump."
Sean walked to the back of the jet, grabbing hold of his daughter's hand, and bringing her back up front. "Listen. If you see anybody you don't know coming toward this jet, you push this button right here," he led her finger to the emergency take-off button . "Do ye understand?"
"Uh-huh," Theresa answered, wanting to get back to her fun.
"Be careful."
"Uh-huh," she automatically answered over her shoulder. Banshee got into the back of the line just as the side door of the jet opened.
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"Come on!" The girls had been their own detriment to escape, only because they couldn't run as fast or as long as Wolverine. "The jet's landing." Based on Logan's uniform and speed, everyone in the mall was spreading apart to let them pass. The few dozen men with guns chasing them didn't hurt, either.
Directly in front of the three runners was a Radio Shack, meaning they'd have to choose between going left, into the food court, or right, into a Sears. A couple of gunshots from the Sears made Logan dash left. The three were quickly cut of from that avenue as well. About fifteen well-armed men surrounded them from the left and right, while the soldiers that had been chasing them beforehand completed the semi-circle.
"You're all out of places to go, mutants," said the leader of the soldiers chasing them. Logan pushed Jubilee and Shan behind him.
"We're going to have to surround them," Cyclops said, looking at the dire situation. "Quick, before they shoot." His teammates quickly snuck around in order to completely surround the soldiers that outnumbered them three to one. He only hoped that the reason those particular people hated mutants was because they thought mutants were dangerous, which means they wouldn't want to fight any great number of them.
"Listen, bub, you have no idea what kind of revenge you're going to get if you kill us."
"I don't think you realize by just how much we outnumber you: all of you." A red beam streaked across the food court and struck the hand of the soldier in charge.
"Not as much as you think." The rest of the X-Men emerged from their hiding spots, surrounding the soldiers.
"You," the soldier said in disgust. He quickly picked his gun back up before Scott's second beam hit the spot where the gun would have been. "We're not the disorganized group of idiots you take us for." Scott had noticed too late that all of the patrons of the mall had just stopped when the X-Men had emerged. Scott looked down on the little old lady that was pointing a pistol at his head. All of his teammates were in the same situation, each one of them had several guns all pointed straight at them. "Do you honestly think that we went through all of this trouble just for those two girls?" He paused, looking into Scott's hard but defeated face. "On three, soldiers. One. . . T-" the lead officer stopped.
"What the hell is she doing," asked one of the under-cover soldiers. Rogue was pinned behind several soldiers, just like the rest, but she was desperately trying for a grip on the wall. Her breathing was panicked and her eyes were clenched shut. Her spasms caused her foot to rise and fall, causing the whole building to shake.
"Rogue!" Scott called out, and he attempted to get closer to her, but he was held in place.
"No!" Rogue shrieked to nobody in particular.
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"Rogue," Irene sturdily grabbed Rogue by the shoulder. "You shouldn't be here."
"What are they gonna do to Richard," Rogue yelled, fighting her foster mother.
"This doesn't concern us."
"He's near," boomed a voice that Rogue didn't recognize. "Leave!"
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"Just shoot her!" shouted the head soldier. One of the men in uniform raised his gun level with Rogue's head. He immediately fell to the ground, completely limp.
"What did she do to him?" shouted a panicked soldier. He had his eyes transfixed on his floored friend. Anger flooded his face and he too leveled his weapon to Rogue's eyes. He fell like the one before him. Only one soldier remained for each X-Man after the majority shifted to pointing their guns straight at Rogue. The tightly knit semicircle of soldiers closed in on the writhing girl.
Suddenly, Rogue stopped, and her head snapped to the right, directly at Richard, who was standing just inside an entrance. Richard locked eyes with Rogue, who slowly fell to the ground, asleep. He began walking toward the crowd of soldiers, forcing them to part from his path. Eventually he reached a spot just a few yards from Logan, who was still guarding the two girls.
"Excuse me," he said to Logan, who threw his hands down and stepped to the side. "Well, Ms. Lee. I believe I told you that you would not live for more than a day without my help. It has been," he hit a button on his watch, "ten hours, forty-seven minutes, and nineteen seconds. And that's not counting the food I had sent to you last night. Well, this is where you've gotten," he waved his hand around, pointing out the soldiers. His attention shifted once his eyes landed on the lead soldier. "Hank. . . honestly. I didn't kill your family. You've really got to give up this crusade. It's not good for your health, and I don't mean that as a threat. That heart's going to catch up with you some day." Hank looked as though he would have like to respond, but he couldn't. "And look at all of these people you've got working for you. I don't know if you've done background checks, but these people are murderers," over a dozen soldiers fell flaccidly to the ground, "and rapists," another two dozen. Richard turned to survey the remaining soldiers. "I don't like any of them, really." All of the soldiers were anticipating imminent death. Nothing happened. "But who am I to judge?"
"You're a murderer!" shouted Hank. "It doesn't matter if you did anything to my family or not. All of the men and women I've seen you kill. All of the others you pushed to insanity. You deserve to die."
Richard leaned in to whisper in Hank's ear. Once he'd finished saying whatever he'd said, Hank fell backward, though still fully awake. Richard just sneered at his shocked eyes. It wasn't long after their leader fell that the rest of the soldiers scattered, leaving the X-Men alone with Richard, though the dead bodies and their unconscious leader remained.
"What are you doing here?" Scott called to Richard, who was examining the fallen bodies around him. His attention skipped over Scott and fell back on Rogue, who he slowly approached. The X-Men tried to stop him, but found they were unwilling to do so.
Rogue had again begun to breathe heavily. It looked as though she was going to have a seizure. The closer that Richard came, however, the slower that the breathing became. The breaths came more deliberately, with more control, through bared teeth. When Richard drew close enough, Rogue's head again snapped to look at him. Richard took another step toward her, triggering a response. In a flash, Rogue had removed her glove, spun around behind him and cupped her hand on his cheek. Nearly five seconds passed before Richard moved his hand to cover hers. Rogue fell to the floor screaming. Richard disappeared shortly afterward.
Speechless X-Men were left in his wake. Rogue had stopped doing anything at all, but still had a pulse. "Is that the Richard you remember?" Scott asked Sean.
"Aye. He gained my trust by killing some of these bastards seven months ago."
"You condone this?"
"A lot o' the ones ya see lying on the ground right now were coming after Theresa. I'm not going to feel any pity for someone who would kill a little girl, especially my daughter."
To soon for Scott to give a response, every bit of glass in the mall shattered, and a piercing scream ripped through the ears of anyone close enough to hear it, which was anyone within several miles. The extended syllable portrayed just one message. Theresa was in trouble.
Her father was, of course, the first one to rush to her aid. "Bobby, grab Rouge!" Scott ordered, since everyone was quickly forgetting her in order to get to the roof as fast as possible.
The roof held a rather expected scene, at least for Scott. Theresa was sitting peacefully on the entrance ramp of the X-Jet, while the soldiers that Richard had let go were lying dead; without a mark on them.
"Theresa!" Banshee ran to his daughter, ignoring the bodies he had to pass over to get there. "I told you if there was any trouble to push the button."
"They snuck up on me. Then Richard told me to wait right here until you came back, because all of the bad guys were gone."
"He was up here?" Scott asked. Theresa nodded her head. "Where'd he go?" She shrugged her shoulders.
"We gotta go kid," Wolverine said, his head turned toward a highway. The sirens were quickly heard by the rest of the team.
"He's right. Let's get out of here." He looked around, "Where are Bobby and Rogue?"
"I'm coming." Bobby was carrying Rogue, riding an ice ramp over to the Blackbird.
The team piled into the jet. After making sure Rouge's sleeping form was sufficiently strapped in, they took off. No one spoke. Despite the situation, Cyclops knew that not everyone would be so quiet at a time like this, especially the perfectly still Theresa. They weren't behaving like themselves. One sound from Richard was all he needed, and all he waited for. Soon enough, Richard took an optic blast to the temple, and was lying unconscious in the back of the jet.