Abandonment
October 18, 2003
Darkstorm Anon, DarkstormAnon@hotmail.com
Apocalypse's Prison:
Sabertooth kicks Wolverine, Wolverine is chained to a wall. The chains themselves seem more woven then forged, melding into the wall.
"Wake up sleepy head," hisses Sabertooth, "we're going to have tons of fun together. I can't kill you now, that just wouldn't be sporting, but torture is always a nice alternative. Oh, and guess what I've got."
Sabertooth forces metal claws out of his hands, claws similar to Wolverine, except Sabertooth has four of them. He has little control over them. They jump out at once, his face twists with excruciating pain. He lets out a moan.
"How original," Wolverine spits in Sabertooth's face.
"For that," Sabertooth threatens, "I'll be extra hard on your pet skunk over there."
The scene pans over to Rogue, similarly chained up. Wolverine yells in pain as the torture commences.
The Mansion, Jean's Room:
Jean sees herself in her mind, she is surrounded by flames, she is struggling to escape, she has a hard time breathing.
Jean awakens. Scott is shaking her. She is out of breath. "Jean, are you all right?"
Jean looks around.
"Jean, its our turn to take care of the others, but if your not feeling well."
"No, no, I'll meet you right there." She reaches over to her lamp beside her bed. Flames fly from her engulfing the lamp. Scott jumps back.
"I'll get the light, we can get somebody to cover for us," as he turns the light on, they notice a scotched outline of the Phoenix around her bed.
Sunrise that day:
Kitty, Piotr, Amara, Todd, and a few of the others, not seriously hurt are taking care of the wounded. Kitty drops a thermometer; both her and Piotr reach down for it. Piotr accidentally knocks backward. He helps her up, but she giggles and as she does so she phases through his hand and falls on her butt again. They both laugh as Piotr picks her up this time.
Todd tries not to let the other brotherhood members knows he cares, so when Fred wakes up he stops nursing. Fred, and Todd interpose on John(Pyro) waching telvision and all three begin to play video games.
Apocalypse's Dungeon:
Mesmero and Sabertooth go up toward the energy door of the dungeon. Lucid, the Morlock that can see through walls, opens the door for Mesmero and Sabertooth come in. Torpid, The Morlock that can paralyze people at the touch walks away from a frozen Professor Xavier and goes out the door. Mesmero looks into Rogue's eyes, then he goes to Wolverine, focusing his power on them, bending their minds, but not breaking them. He bends down before the frozen Xavier and mutter, you certainly do good work don't you. We'll see about that. He looks over to Sabertooth, "Too bad that he put it in you too."
Sabertooth kicks the stiff Xavier, "What's the problem, just hypnotize him and get him to undo it."
Mesmero walks off, ignoring Sabertooth's comment.
Professor McCoy's Laboratory:
Kurt is helping Professor McCoy; both are wearing goggles. Hank looks up from his microscope.
"While Spyke's poison is killing everyone else, Wolverine's healing factor built up immunity, and he left enough blood around to develop this little jewel. Apparently the poison is a variant off of a bacterium carried by the rare octopus, the Hapalochlaena lunulata, off the northern coast of Australia. The toxin is fatal, and one of the most deadly known to man, before with no cure, the only question is, is why did Apocalypse dilute it?" Hank holds up a vial. We should have enough for everyone. They walk out of the room, with a cart of medical supplies. They pass Gambit standing outside Cerebro. He is leaning against the wall, with his staff leaning beside him, shuffling a deck of cards.
Kurt stops to talk.
"Why's magneto in there?"
"Dunno, guess he got some business that need to be done."
"I thought only telepaths could use it."
Gambit shrugs.
Outside:
Scott and Jean are sitting at the gazebo. Jean is talking, "Sometimes I feel so alive, but afraid. Also, its like I have something inside me, I don't know what. I feel so contrasted, so confused. I'm so afraid, but it feels so good." She pauses, "Lately, I've been feeling like the stars are calling me." She points at the sun at the sun, then closes one eye, holding her finger in front of it.
Scott ponders, "I don't know what your going through right now, but, I think you need to follow your inst…, if you feel like you need to figure things out…, we've all been going through a lot. Do what you need to."
She's transfixed looking at the sun and her finger. She hugs Scott, "Thank you."
She levitates out the gazebo toward the sunrise. Manifesting itself, the Phoenix sprouts fiery wings, swallowing its avatar as she rockets toward the sun.
Inside:
Stepping out of Cerebro, a
wearied Magneto with a look of purpose on his face sets off. Gambit gets up, following Magneto.
He passes through the main hall with the injured students. Beast is teaching Amara how to administer shots, obviously injecting the antidote.
Piotr says to Kitty, "I must go, I have no choice but to follow that hate filled man."
Pyro and Fred are sleeping on the couch, and Toad is sleeping in front of it. Each one with a game controller. Todd is drooling on his controller.
Colossus and Gambit follow Magneto outside. Magneto struts toward the wreckage from the previous night. Magneto forges armor lining his helmet and bolstering his body armor. Magneto creates a silver chariot oh his, one sphere.
The group behind him steps up to go but Magneto knocks them back. "This is my fight. You inferior beings have no place."
Scott still in the gazebo shifts his gaze from the sun to Magneto.
Magneto's silver ferry rockets him off.
Storm is upset; thunderclouds form overhead, "He knows where Xavier is."
Scott walks up, "Why is everyone doing that today?"
Space:
The Phoenix comes to gas giant, she takes the ring around the planet, pulls it around herself, and directs it into the planet, a series of explosions rocks the planet. She herself then descends into the planet, it inflates and combuts, launching a shock wave. The phoenix rockets out of it.
"I can create," Jean realizes, "The stars, they call me."
REWORK Jean soars toward two suns orbiting each other, a red and a blue one. She flips down in between them. The scene is from underneath her as she begins to suck the gas from both stars into her hands, as a new one forms around her. She emerges from the cacophony and she pulls with her planets, still warm from the furnace. The phoenix puts the planets in their orbits, their place. Red ones, brown ones, exploding with molten lava, she cools one down to expose its blue tint, green ones, purple ones, big ones, small ones. All put in their respective place.
Apocalypse's Place (a mountainous stone cold cavern with an eerie light at the top):
Juggernaut stands before Apocalypse's throne, in front of a bunch of mutants, red ones, brown ones, onces covered in sores, one with a bluish tint, big ones, small ones. All put in Apocalypse's hierarchy. Juggernaut was not happy with his place.
"I am the most powerful among you all, but you neglect me, you give this twerp here," Juggernaut points toward Spyke, "boosted powers, but I get squat, I could crush you all!!!"
Addressing Apocalypse directly, "Give me my powers, or I will tear this place down around you!!! You hear me???"
Omega Red pulls rank. "You, you cannot even handle the x-men, little children. Us comrades, we all done something to deserve these powers; you are nothing but a whiney brat, the fruit of capitalism, you do not deserve even what you have."
"Oh yeah Boris? Tell that to my fists" Juggernaut lunges at Omega Red.
Red attempts to wrap his tentacle around Juggernaut, Juggernaut smashes his tentacle and cleanly breaks it. Juggernaut then takes his own tentacle and throws it into the crowd, a mutant stops it as the rest dodge out of the way.
Juggernaut jumps and lands on top of Omega Red, the ground crumples up underneath Juggernauts mass, launching Omega Red up in front of him, Juggernaut catches Red between his massive paws.
Pestilence leans back against the wall. He points his hand, and shoots spikes at the latches on the back of Jug's helmet, unlatching them. Juggernaut drops Red, turns around, addressing the more pressing concern, and tries to resnap the latches, but since they are behind him, they are hard for him to reach. Spyke launches two more short ones at the latches on the front, popping them. Juggernaut is going for Spyke at ramming speed. Spyke secures a spike above his head in the wall. He swings up, and flips over Juggernaut as Jug plows into the rock. Jug turns around. Spyke shoots a spike in Juggernaut's helmet. Juggernaut breaks it half off, leaving the other half still in the helmet.
"Ha twerp, your puny splinters cant hurt me. Spyke jumps up, apparently going for Jug head on. Jug reaches up high, but at that instant Pestilence dodges down, pulling on the spike, using it as a fulcrum to launch jug's helmet into the sky.
"Noo," Juggernaut roars as Spyke slides between his feet. Spyke gets up and brushes the dirt off. Juggernaut plunges toward him. Spike shoots himself over Juggernauts head. Spike flips off Jug's back, then shoots a spike between Jug's feet as Jug turns, knocking him off balance, sending him crashing to the ground.
"Don't call me a twerp, weakling" Spyke impales Juggernaut verbally. "Oh yeah, Red, now you can go for Juggie's head."
"My name is 'Omega Red'; you call me War!" Omega Red shouts as he begins to suck the life out of Jug through a tentacle.
Apocalypse stands up. He uses a burst to push back Omega Red. A white light, streaming from Apocalypse himself, overcomes juggernaut. The light subsides. Juggernaut looks at his arms, he looks at his feet; he seems to lift off, inches above the ground.
"I, I can fly," a revived Juggernaut exclaims.
"Why," Omega Red questions to himself, "that feeble one has done nothing."
Rogue is led in chains. The child captured earlier, Polaris, is the one dragging her by the magnetic powers Apocalypse had boosted. Rogue screams with defiance, but it is no use.
Mesmero seizes control of Juggernaut; he falls into an instant trance.
Polaris forces Rogue's hand against Juggernaut's face. She yells in defiance.
It gets longer. She sees his past, his life, its now her life. She feels that deep hatred for her brother, Xavier. She feels the raw power of a human juggernaut surging through her, her feet lift from the ground. It is starting to hurt, the pain, the searing. She screams for it to stop; it does no good.
Mesmero is focusing all he can on Rogue. Spyke looks at his hand, covered in green goo. Other mutants begin to look around as Mesmero's mind is focused on Rogue. A murmur begins amongst the once collard mutants.
Juggernaut, or now Cain Marco, falls to the ground, stripped of his powers, maybe even his mind. Rogue stands there, panting.
The iron fist of Mesmero returns to the rest of the mutants.
Rogue rips off her chains. They fall to the ground.
Mesmero returns to his quarters as the rest of the mutants go about their business. Rogue follows Mesmero.
The Institute:
Eyes open, slowly, only to see the slime ball Todd staring strait down. He flies against the floor, off of Wanda's cot. Her eyes close back up.
"Yo sweetums? Aint u gonna thank the one who nursed u back to heath." She doesn't hear him, she drifts in and out of conciousness.
Lance sees Kitty and Piotr, the ground shakes somewhat, then subsides. Kitty runs over to him. Lance closes his eyes again.
Ororo calls to Hank, "Some of them are coming around."
The Danger Room:
Cyclops is sitting in the danger room, thinking about what has happened, he fiddles with the controls, flipping the course to "Logan's Run". He looks over at another monitor; Gambit is messing with Cerebro's computer outside.
Gambit flips around a card in his hand, the other one typing on the console. The card in his hand is the queen of hearts. He pulls out another card, charges it, and inserts it into the floppy drive.
Gambit goes off silently.
The dungeon:
Moisture drips from the ceiling, hitting Wolverine's leg. He looks around; Xavier is still frozen, other mutants, mostly psychics are in the same state as he. Wolverine is the only non-psychic mutant in there. Obviously that is where they keep the uncooperative prisoners. Torpid comes to check on them at regular intervals, touching all but Wolverine, leaving him up to Sabertooth. Wolverine smells the air. He growls, "Fear."
He hears the faint sound of snoozing, hoping it is the guard mutant Lucid that can see through walls, sometimes Calysto comes and they change shifts.
Wolverine unsheathes his claws. He starts scratching at the wall behind him. He tugs. Crack!!! A huge chunk of rock breaks from the wall. Wolverine quickly slices himself free. He cuts through the door, the sleeping morlock awakens, and lets out a cry for help. Wolverine swings the chunk of rock still fettered to his hand and knocks the morlock out.
Mesmero steps out, Sabertooth and Rogue are behind him. "Ahh, I was coming down to see you anyway."
Mesmero focuses on Logan. Logan falls to the ground in pain. An image of Xavier blocks Mesmero's path, but then shatters.
Rogue begins to look around. She looks at professor Xavier, she is obviously conflicted about her feelings toward Xavier. Her face twits with anger, then she tries to suppress it.
Then an image of the doctor that gave Wolverine his bones appears. Mesmero stops. Rogue returns to her controlled state. She looks at Xavier, "I'll be coming for you."
Mesmero comments, "He has two blocks, he is not worth my time. His powers have little concern for me."
Sabertooth explains, "Yeah, that was the Weapon X project."
Mesmero ignores him and walks off with Rogue. "We will get another guinea pig."
The Mansion:
Cyclops and some of the team walk toward Cerebro, now we're going to find out where he's going. They walk in, to find Cerebro nothing like they remember it. Cerebro is like an inverted porcupine, metal stalagmites, tites, and everything in between pointing toward the center. Hank summises, "He must have been honing his powers while looking for them, that's the only explanation."
As they gather in the main hall, the door creeks open. Rogue steps in, wet from the rain formed earlier. Storm exclaims, "Rogue you've escaped!"
"Not quite," Rogue repeats.
They're all stunned. Nightcrawler gets it, "I'll take her…" Nighty yells.
.
Cyclops acts, he blasts her with his optic beam. She moves through it, "You think that fancy visor of yours can stop me?"
She lifts off, the team is even more confused. Storm hits her with lightning but Rogue is unfazed. Iceman freezes her in a cube. She brakes the ice off with a simple flex. Cyclops blasts her again. Her gloves are torn off. She jumps out of the beam and flies in circles around it. She hits Cyclops with her palm squarely on his forehead. He collapses on the ground. Rogue picks him up by the scruff of his neck. Nightcrawler bamfs on top of Rogue she brushes him off. "I only have need one now…" she pauses, hisses, "brother." She crashes through the wall in a superman pose, one arm ahead of her, the other carrying Cyclops behind her.
It happens so quickly; everyone is stunned.
Apocalypse's Lair, at the cold cave entrance:
In front of the cave, cars, tanks, boats crash, dirt and snow blast up in the air, creating a war zone before any battle has begun. Magneto's orb descends into the center of the destruction area. Magneto is surrounded by ammunition. He floats out, yells, "Apocalypse, I have come for you."
The Institute, the Main Hall:
Some of the students wake up. Bobby is talking to Professor McCoy, "I've managed to format only the bad sectors of the hard drive the log was on. They're in the Himalayas."
Professor McCoy frowns, "Problem is we're down two adults, minus one deputy leader, and a few of our most powerful team members, especially Jean, and some of the Acolytes wandered off." He ponders a moment more, "We have no choice to act."
A bar in the East:
Rogue is playing pool, alone. She brings memories of Wolverine: tortured, alone. A strange figure steps in from out of the cold. His trench coat flips around his boots. Some natives look stare, "You suppose he's another one of those freaks?"
Gambit saunters up to Rogue, whispers in her air, "Fancy running into you here, chere." She jumps around and grabs him by the throat.
She puts him down, smiles, "Fancy running into you here."