Chapter 18
Epilogue

The Acolyte base was in its usual state: complete and utter chaos...

As Jennie made her way up the driveway, she stopped and noticed that smoke was spewing from every window.

"Great," she muttered to herself as she started walking again, "Pyro's at it again." She spotted Colossus on the porch swing. "Hey, Iron Giant," she smirked, "too afraid to go inside?"

"Gambit has been trapped in his room for the past hour," he muttered, not looking up from his drawing. "And by the way, we may need to make a trip to Couches 'R Us."

Jennie sat next to him on the porch swing. "Damn..." she muttered below her breath. She paused and thought for a moment. "Did you just get one of those funny déjà vu feelings?"

Colossus raised an eyebrow and continued shading his landscape.

Suddenly, a loud explosion and a burst of flame rocked the house, throwing Jennie and Colossus to the ground. Jennie quickly extracted her leg from under Colossus and raced to the front door. She threw it open and stood in the doorway, staring at the carnage.

The couch wasn't even a couch anymore... The Lay-Z-Boy was a shell of its former self; meaning no more heated back massages. The coffee table was a charred pile of ash with a few porcelain coasters sticking out of it and the TV... well, she wasn't even going to think about it...

Sitting between the decimated couch and the pile of ash that used to be the coffee table, were Pyro and Firestorm who were covered with black soot.

Jennie's gaze hardened on Pyro and she whined, "Pyro..."

"I swear, Jennie, I didn' do it!!" he yelled, holding his hands up in mock defense.

"No," Firestorm said, raising her arms in victory. "IT WAS ME!!!"

* * *

'Mystique and the Brotherhood are at the Bayville Mall,' the Professor's psyche echoed through the heads of the X-Men. 'Everyone to the Blackbird.'

Shadowcat, Nightcrawler, Rogue, and Spyke joined Wolverine and Storm at the base of the jet.

"Ready ta kick some Brotherhood tail?" Wolverine half-snarled, half-laughed to Kitty.

"Like, yeah!"

Cyclops raced up to everyone as they boarded the Blackbird. "Okay, we all ready to go?"

Everyone nodded.

Scott was about to board the jet when he looked around, confused. "Where's Jean?"

Rogue snickered. "Ah don't think she'll be goin' on any missions for a good while..."

* * *

On the other side of the mansion, Jean was in one of the main bathrooms... on her hands and knees, scrubbing the floor.

"If she just wouldn't have shown up here, none of this would've happened..." she grumbled to herself.

Suddenly, there was a loud SNAP! And Jean pulled her hand back from the scrub brush. "Goddammit I hate her!!! I BROKE A NAIL!!!"

~~~~~~~~~~~The End~~~~~~~~~~~