Disclaimer: Here you have it, the next part of my first X-Men fic. I'm so excited. This chapter has quite a few hints at pairings. There is mention of the Scott/Jean/Logan love triangle, small hints at Storm/Nightcrawler and brief thoughts on Bobby/Rogue.
Oh year, Kurt has a German accent, I know but I can't write German accents so apart from his 'Ja', the words are just written. Just add accent as you read him, 'Kay?
I don't own X-Men: The Movie or any of the characters (*cries*) They belong to someone... who's not me. All I own is Spark.
Incendiarism.
Part 4:- Interlude in Darkness.
When they heard the glass braking somewhere in the building, the X-Men had all split up. They didn't know that that was what they had done. Each thought at least one other was with them. It came a shock to find that they were alone.
The Professor headed straight for Cerebro, knowing the way in the dark as easy as if the corridors were bathed in warm, bright sunlight. While on the outside his face looked as calm as it always did, inside he was deeply troubled. John was radiating pain and anger. There was something else he could feel from John's mind, something alien but whenever he tried to focus on the feeling and John's mind, the alien something slipped from his grasp, as elusive as a dream.
He had failed John. He knew from the moment the scared 13 year old and found his way to the school wall before falling to the dirt that he would be a spacial case. The boy had been too weak to get any further and probably would have lain there for most of the day if he hadn't managed to send a fire into the grounds, alerting Professor X, that there was someone out there.
(Incidentally the fire had landed on Bobby, setting his hair on fire. At that time he didn't have full control over his powers and in an attempt to put it out had accidentally froze his hair so it was rock solid.)
It had been Jean who had found him. She had headed straight for the place the fire had come from on Xavier's orders. John lay on his back, his leg at a un-natural angle, his breathing shallow. There had been bruises on him. When John had been healed he refused to talk about his condition he had been found in. The memories had been locked away in that little pocket of his mind and foolishly Xavier hadn't tried to find out after the initial refusal.
How could be have been so blind?
~~~
Bobby inched his way along the wall, feeling the air in front of him to make sure there was nothing in his way. After a short time he came to the end of the wall. There was now two ways he could go. The question was should he head right or left?
Bobby had read somewhere that in mazes you should always keep your hand on the wall and turn left at every chance you had. He knew this wasn't the same thing but at least it was a system. As he slowly moved along the corridor he let his mind wander. His thoughts turned - as they had so often during the past few hours - to John Allardyce, his one time best friend.
He wondered, as he usually did in the recent hours how well he knew John, really. John had never talked about his home life, never talked about anything that had happened to him before joining the X-Men. Bobby had already been at the school when John had been found, badly injured. Bobby has simply assumed that his friend had run away from home and got into some sort of fight, being the hot headed guy he was. He never asked John about that day or any other day.
It was an unspoken rule at the mansion that if a mutant didn't talk about there home life then you didn't ask.
The real question was did he trust John? After everything that had happened to both of them, could there friendship be mended or not?
Ahead of him he could just make out a shadow. He paused, holding his breath as he strained his eyes, trying to make out the person in front of him. For a few tense seconds he wasn't even sure that there was a person there or if it was only his eyes playing tricks on him.
Then the shadow moved. Where before, it had been crouched as if it was hiding from something, now it was standing tall. Bobby lunged forward, sending ice towards the person. He didn't send enough to freeze them or even to discomfort them really. It was just enough to make them turn around, so that Bobby could see which member of the brotherhood it was.
Also he didn't want to freeze someone on his own side. The shadow gave a yelp, a yelp that Bobby would know anywhere...
"Rogue?" he said in surprise. It was indeed the female mutant.
"Bobby? Where is everyone?" she asked, idly rubbing at her right black glove. Bobby shrugged his shoulders, a clear indication that he had no idea. Rogue smiled seductively up to him.
"Now that we'll alone..." she whispered, wiggling her hips and gazing into his eyes. "Why don't we have some... fun." Bobby swallowed heavily.
"O-Okay..." he stuttered. Rogue smiled at him, grasping his hand and leading him towards a deserted classroom.
"What's that?" Bobby gasped, pointing at a shadow behind Rogue. He let got of her hand in shock. The youngster spun round, her eyes scanning the darkness. Bobby reached to the left of him and slowly picked up the vase that was standing on a little table. He lifted it high in the air, then brought it down on Rogue's head as she turned back to him.
The mutant swayed slightly, her expression one of bewilderment. She took a shaky step towards him, the confused expression changing to one of anger. Bobby sent shards of ice at her, again and again. Rogue swung out an arm and knocked them away from her. She jumped forward, sending Bobby flying to the ground. Rogue pinned the young mutant down before changing color and appearance, becoming Mystique again.
"How did you know?"
"Rogue and I split up." Bobby spat. "That's how I knew you weren't really her." his answer seemed to amuse the blue skinned woman. She leaned forward and whispered in his ear.
"We would have had some fun before I had to knock you out. You would have been able to touch her skin. Are you still glad you found me out?" Iceman simply glared at her and continued to struggle. The smirk on Mystique's face faded to be replaced by a frown.
"Fine. Have it you way." she looked at him. "I guess your girlfriend wants a real m-" Mystique stopped, her eyes widening. Slowly she fell forward onto Bobby. Rogue stood over then both, a gold candlestick from the Professors room in her hands.
"It was Rogue with the candlestick in the hall." Bobby joked, trying to make light of the situation. Rouge gave the still body of Mystique a long hard look.
"At last, I thought she was never going to shut up." Rogue said, dropping the candlestick. "Bobby are you okay?" Iceman sat up with a groan, pushing the dead weight of Mystique off him.
"I'm fine, let's tie her up before she wakes up." Together they managed to drag the limp body into a room, feeling the way by there hands. They were forced to just lock her in the room. Bobby and Rogue weren't stupid enough to seriously think that the door would hold her but it might buy them time.
"We have to find John and Spark." Rogue suddenly said. Bobby looked over to where her face must have been, though in the darkness it was impossible to see her features.
"I just have this feeling that something bad is happening." Rogue added. Bobby nodded before remembering that she couldn't see in the dark.
"I know..."
~~~
Wolverine had been having a good dream. Jean was in it. Not that it was odd for Wolverine to have a dream about Jean - he had dreams about her nearly every night. What made this dream so special was that instead of seeing Jean's final moments played over and over again, he was dreaming about him and Jean together, happy. Scott had gone, the war against mutants was over and he and Jean were living a normal life. Jean had just moved in to kiss him when the first blast struck the building.
Magneto had the worst timing in the world. Wolverine jumped out his bed and moved out into the corridor, all too aware of the similarly between this and what had happened before - with Stryker.
"Wolverine?" a voice echoed fearfully out of the darkness. Wolverine sniffed the air, until he was satisfied it was indeed who it sounded like.
"Storm? What's going on?"
"Magneto. He's attacking for some reason. Then we lost John and Spark, then the lights, then each other-"
"Whoa, whoa, slow down. John? As in that punk Pyro? And who's this Spark?"
"Okay, quick version. John's good now, Spark is his friend." Storm said. Wolverine considered this then deiced to simply accept it until there was time to get a fuller version. The Wolverine lead the way, Storm close behind him.
"We have to find Kurt!" hissed Storm. Wolverine smiled at her, though he knew that she couldn't see.
"Only Kurt?" he asked. He could almost see the woman blush and hear her heart rate speed up. Wolverine was glad that she had found someone, after didn't something deserve to go right in this blasted mansion? There was the whole Bobby/Rogue brake up and of course there was the Jean saga. So it was nice that Storm and Kurt were in love. The only question of course was if they both knew it yet.
"Of course not only Kurt! We have to find everyone, including John and Spark, they may be able to tell us why Magneto is attacking." Wolverine continued to smile, a bittersweet smile as he and Storm set off down the corridor.
~~~
Cyclops at least had an excuse for getting separated from the rest of the X-Men. He had needed to get a new visor to fight Magneto after the last one had been mangled beyond repair. He was now armed and dangerous, ready to do battle when the need arose. He was always like that now. What reasons were there for him to be any different? Why should he allow himself to be soft? Someday, someday he knew that he would have to let go of Jean and move on.
Just not yet.
Scott found himself near the room where Kurt lived. He moved forward, his hands reaching out, feeling for rough wood under his hands. Instead they came into contact with cool skin. Skin that Scott could sworn wasn't there a moment ago.
"Nightcrawler?"
"Ja? What is going on?" Kurt asked in a stage whisper. In a few short sentences Scott filled the German in on the situation. The blue mutant grasped his rosary when he heard how John and the other mutant had been experimented on.
"It explains a lot." Kurt said brightly. Scott frowned but refrained from saying anything. Instead he began to move ever so slowly in the direction he knew Cerebro was. If he knew the Professor at all, then that was where he would be. Kurt shrugged his shoulders and began to follow Scott, not knowing what else to do.
~~~
In the end it was Bobby and Rogue who came across Spark. She was completely out cold, slumped over a flower pot. Bobby began to try and wake up her, while Rogue looked inside the nearby rooms for John.
"Guhhh..." mumbled Spark, batting feebly at Bobby's hand that was trying to rouse her. She opened her eyes slowly and groaned.
"Uhg... Did anyone get the number plate of the bus that just ran me down?" she muttered, holding her head with her hands. Rogue came out of the room she had been looking in, a bit of white fabric in her hands.
On closer inspection the fabric turned out to be the sling that had been on John's left arm. Rogue held it up by the edge and the sling spread out, reveling a number burnt onto the white.
"1612? What does that mean?" Bobby asked, totally mystified.
"It means we'll in a lot of trouble." Spark answered...
TBC...
Thanks for taking the time to read this part. Please, please leave a review and tell me what you think of this!
Until next time;
~Sethoz
Oh year, Kurt has a German accent, I know but I can't write German accents so apart from his 'Ja', the words are just written. Just add accent as you read him, 'Kay?
I don't own X-Men: The Movie or any of the characters (*cries*) They belong to someone... who's not me. All I own is Spark.
Incendiarism.
Part 4:- Interlude in Darkness.
When they heard the glass braking somewhere in the building, the X-Men had all split up. They didn't know that that was what they had done. Each thought at least one other was with them. It came a shock to find that they were alone.
The Professor headed straight for Cerebro, knowing the way in the dark as easy as if the corridors were bathed in warm, bright sunlight. While on the outside his face looked as calm as it always did, inside he was deeply troubled. John was radiating pain and anger. There was something else he could feel from John's mind, something alien but whenever he tried to focus on the feeling and John's mind, the alien something slipped from his grasp, as elusive as a dream.
He had failed John. He knew from the moment the scared 13 year old and found his way to the school wall before falling to the dirt that he would be a spacial case. The boy had been too weak to get any further and probably would have lain there for most of the day if he hadn't managed to send a fire into the grounds, alerting Professor X, that there was someone out there.
(Incidentally the fire had landed on Bobby, setting his hair on fire. At that time he didn't have full control over his powers and in an attempt to put it out had accidentally froze his hair so it was rock solid.)
It had been Jean who had found him. She had headed straight for the place the fire had come from on Xavier's orders. John lay on his back, his leg at a un-natural angle, his breathing shallow. There had been bruises on him. When John had been healed he refused to talk about his condition he had been found in. The memories had been locked away in that little pocket of his mind and foolishly Xavier hadn't tried to find out after the initial refusal.
How could be have been so blind?
~~~
Bobby inched his way along the wall, feeling the air in front of him to make sure there was nothing in his way. After a short time he came to the end of the wall. There was now two ways he could go. The question was should he head right or left?
Bobby had read somewhere that in mazes you should always keep your hand on the wall and turn left at every chance you had. He knew this wasn't the same thing but at least it was a system. As he slowly moved along the corridor he let his mind wander. His thoughts turned - as they had so often during the past few hours - to John Allardyce, his one time best friend.
He wondered, as he usually did in the recent hours how well he knew John, really. John had never talked about his home life, never talked about anything that had happened to him before joining the X-Men. Bobby had already been at the school when John had been found, badly injured. Bobby has simply assumed that his friend had run away from home and got into some sort of fight, being the hot headed guy he was. He never asked John about that day or any other day.
It was an unspoken rule at the mansion that if a mutant didn't talk about there home life then you didn't ask.
The real question was did he trust John? After everything that had happened to both of them, could there friendship be mended or not?
Ahead of him he could just make out a shadow. He paused, holding his breath as he strained his eyes, trying to make out the person in front of him. For a few tense seconds he wasn't even sure that there was a person there or if it was only his eyes playing tricks on him.
Then the shadow moved. Where before, it had been crouched as if it was hiding from something, now it was standing tall. Bobby lunged forward, sending ice towards the person. He didn't send enough to freeze them or even to discomfort them really. It was just enough to make them turn around, so that Bobby could see which member of the brotherhood it was.
Also he didn't want to freeze someone on his own side. The shadow gave a yelp, a yelp that Bobby would know anywhere...
"Rogue?" he said in surprise. It was indeed the female mutant.
"Bobby? Where is everyone?" she asked, idly rubbing at her right black glove. Bobby shrugged his shoulders, a clear indication that he had no idea. Rogue smiled seductively up to him.
"Now that we'll alone..." she whispered, wiggling her hips and gazing into his eyes. "Why don't we have some... fun." Bobby swallowed heavily.
"O-Okay..." he stuttered. Rogue smiled at him, grasping his hand and leading him towards a deserted classroom.
"What's that?" Bobby gasped, pointing at a shadow behind Rogue. He let got of her hand in shock. The youngster spun round, her eyes scanning the darkness. Bobby reached to the left of him and slowly picked up the vase that was standing on a little table. He lifted it high in the air, then brought it down on Rogue's head as she turned back to him.
The mutant swayed slightly, her expression one of bewilderment. She took a shaky step towards him, the confused expression changing to one of anger. Bobby sent shards of ice at her, again and again. Rogue swung out an arm and knocked them away from her. She jumped forward, sending Bobby flying to the ground. Rogue pinned the young mutant down before changing color and appearance, becoming Mystique again.
"How did you know?"
"Rogue and I split up." Bobby spat. "That's how I knew you weren't really her." his answer seemed to amuse the blue skinned woman. She leaned forward and whispered in his ear.
"We would have had some fun before I had to knock you out. You would have been able to touch her skin. Are you still glad you found me out?" Iceman simply glared at her and continued to struggle. The smirk on Mystique's face faded to be replaced by a frown.
"Fine. Have it you way." she looked at him. "I guess your girlfriend wants a real m-" Mystique stopped, her eyes widening. Slowly she fell forward onto Bobby. Rogue stood over then both, a gold candlestick from the Professors room in her hands.
"It was Rogue with the candlestick in the hall." Bobby joked, trying to make light of the situation. Rouge gave the still body of Mystique a long hard look.
"At last, I thought she was never going to shut up." Rogue said, dropping the candlestick. "Bobby are you okay?" Iceman sat up with a groan, pushing the dead weight of Mystique off him.
"I'm fine, let's tie her up before she wakes up." Together they managed to drag the limp body into a room, feeling the way by there hands. They were forced to just lock her in the room. Bobby and Rogue weren't stupid enough to seriously think that the door would hold her but it might buy them time.
"We have to find John and Spark." Rogue suddenly said. Bobby looked over to where her face must have been, though in the darkness it was impossible to see her features.
"I just have this feeling that something bad is happening." Rogue added. Bobby nodded before remembering that she couldn't see in the dark.
"I know..."
~~~
Wolverine had been having a good dream. Jean was in it. Not that it was odd for Wolverine to have a dream about Jean - he had dreams about her nearly every night. What made this dream so special was that instead of seeing Jean's final moments played over and over again, he was dreaming about him and Jean together, happy. Scott had gone, the war against mutants was over and he and Jean were living a normal life. Jean had just moved in to kiss him when the first blast struck the building.
Magneto had the worst timing in the world. Wolverine jumped out his bed and moved out into the corridor, all too aware of the similarly between this and what had happened before - with Stryker.
"Wolverine?" a voice echoed fearfully out of the darkness. Wolverine sniffed the air, until he was satisfied it was indeed who it sounded like.
"Storm? What's going on?"
"Magneto. He's attacking for some reason. Then we lost John and Spark, then the lights, then each other-"
"Whoa, whoa, slow down. John? As in that punk Pyro? And who's this Spark?"
"Okay, quick version. John's good now, Spark is his friend." Storm said. Wolverine considered this then deiced to simply accept it until there was time to get a fuller version. The Wolverine lead the way, Storm close behind him.
"We have to find Kurt!" hissed Storm. Wolverine smiled at her, though he knew that she couldn't see.
"Only Kurt?" he asked. He could almost see the woman blush and hear her heart rate speed up. Wolverine was glad that she had found someone, after didn't something deserve to go right in this blasted mansion? There was the whole Bobby/Rogue brake up and of course there was the Jean saga. So it was nice that Storm and Kurt were in love. The only question of course was if they both knew it yet.
"Of course not only Kurt! We have to find everyone, including John and Spark, they may be able to tell us why Magneto is attacking." Wolverine continued to smile, a bittersweet smile as he and Storm set off down the corridor.
~~~
Cyclops at least had an excuse for getting separated from the rest of the X-Men. He had needed to get a new visor to fight Magneto after the last one had been mangled beyond repair. He was now armed and dangerous, ready to do battle when the need arose. He was always like that now. What reasons were there for him to be any different? Why should he allow himself to be soft? Someday, someday he knew that he would have to let go of Jean and move on.
Just not yet.
Scott found himself near the room where Kurt lived. He moved forward, his hands reaching out, feeling for rough wood under his hands. Instead they came into contact with cool skin. Skin that Scott could sworn wasn't there a moment ago.
"Nightcrawler?"
"Ja? What is going on?" Kurt asked in a stage whisper. In a few short sentences Scott filled the German in on the situation. The blue mutant grasped his rosary when he heard how John and the other mutant had been experimented on.
"It explains a lot." Kurt said brightly. Scott frowned but refrained from saying anything. Instead he began to move ever so slowly in the direction he knew Cerebro was. If he knew the Professor at all, then that was where he would be. Kurt shrugged his shoulders and began to follow Scott, not knowing what else to do.
~~~
In the end it was Bobby and Rogue who came across Spark. She was completely out cold, slumped over a flower pot. Bobby began to try and wake up her, while Rogue looked inside the nearby rooms for John.
"Guhhh..." mumbled Spark, batting feebly at Bobby's hand that was trying to rouse her. She opened her eyes slowly and groaned.
"Uhg... Did anyone get the number plate of the bus that just ran me down?" she muttered, holding her head with her hands. Rogue came out of the room she had been looking in, a bit of white fabric in her hands.
On closer inspection the fabric turned out to be the sling that had been on John's left arm. Rogue held it up by the edge and the sling spread out, reveling a number burnt onto the white.
"1612? What does that mean?" Bobby asked, totally mystified.
"It means we'll in a lot of trouble." Spark answered...
TBC...
Thanks for taking the time to read this part. Please, please leave a review and tell me what you think of this!
Until next time;
~Sethoz