Author: Viral
Author's Notes: In response to the reviews: I understand the concern about Ororo's apparel – however, I tried to keep in mind that the Brotherhood is not well funded like the X-Men and Storm decided to join the team's venture on very short notice. So with all that in mind her clothes are basically civilian. Sadly I'm artistically challenge and am unable, at this time, to provide you with a picture of the outfit.
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Rogue studied Storm with her green eyes, looking the Windrider up and down. She immediately took note of the high-heeled black boots that extended under blue, hip-hugging pants that resembled jeans but was clearly designed as some type of armor. Continuing upward was a white shirt, sleeves extended only to the elbows. Cleavage showed only slightly as the shirt made a "V" down from the shoulders. Her white hair was now clipped into a loose bun with strands hanging on the side of her face and some on the back of her neck.
"So not only did you betray us," Rogue said with a sharp tongue. "But you abandoned everything that would remind you of us?"
"Rogue, you must understand," Storm reasoned, her blue eyes showing no signs of emotion or thought because they were completely white as gentle breezes continued to sustain her body in the air. "The Friend's of Humanity were becoming more and more uncontrollable and we... the X-Men weren't doing anything about it. But Magneto was. My intent was never to betray or abandon."
"Oh yeah, someone who hasn't abandoned her friends is gonna try and kill them by knocking them out of the sky," Rogue said sarcastically, frowning as she did so.
"It was all apart of the plan," she said, still trying to persuade her friend to accept the choice she made. "There was never any intent you harm any of you –- Wanda and I worked together to insure none of you would be fatally injured by the attack."
"It doesn't matter Storm!" Rogue yelled. Her green eyes welled up with tears, "You were one of the few people Ah trusted. We were close friends... Ah told you my secrets and you told me yours. When there was no one else in that mansion that could understand where Ah was coming from, you was there for me." She sniffed and wiped her tears with a gloved hand. "We were like family, Ororo."
"We are still family," Storm sighed, opening her arms to her troubled friend.
Below their conversation Wanda and Jean were just getting into fighting mode. Jean's green eyes looked coldly at Wanda as she sent a jab towards her. Wanda grabbed Jean's wrist as the jab came forward and pulled the X-Woman closer to her. A quick ninja-type chop hit Jean in the ribcage, which was countered with a kick from Jean. Wanda fell on the muddy ground, her red outfit becoming brown and damp in the process. However, this was not time for fashion sense. She quickly responded by wrapping her two feet around Jean's ankle and the red head quickly joined Wanda in the mud. Without much else to do they were quickly back on their feet, eyes peeled on each other as they walked in circles, one waiting for the other to bust a move.
"You're not half bad," Wanda joked, looking the muddy Jean Grey up and down as she balled up her fist.
"Enough with the pleasantries," Jean said softly before getting back into action. She quickly jumped into the air and performed a roundhouse kick, which made an impact on the Scarlet Witch's torso, knocking her off balance but not sending her to the ground. Wanda held her side before looking angrily to Jean. Wanda tried for a high kick, but Jean blocked it, so she tried for a punch. Jean grabbed her arm and held it firmly. Another punch. Jean grabbed her other wrist.
Wanda struggled to get out of the amateur hold before she saw Jean lift her head up towards the sky with widened eyes, "Rogue... NO!"
Up in the air Rogue and Storm joined for an embrace, Storm oblivious to the fact that Rogue had been executing modes of trickery during the entire conversation. There was more than one way to skin a cat. An ungloved gently touched Storm's neck as the two friends hugged and Storm suddenly lost her strength.
"Rogue," she said, gentleness overcoming her voice. "Why?"
But Rogue couldn't answer if she wanted to. She had done the unthinkable... she had absorbed the very essence of nature and as Storm's silent body began to fall from the sky Rogue's body rose higher and higher as a downpour of rain began to fall. Flooding was imminent.
"My word!" Jean said, letting go of Wanda's wrists. "We'll have to finish this another day sister."
"Agreed," Wanda said looking up to the sky and the very first signs of a tornado forming. "Oh no."
"I'll get Ororo down here safely," Jean said, floating in the air as she spoke. "You get Scott and find somewhere safe!" She was now yelling over the sound of wind and thunder.
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Xavier's wheelchair hovered through the massively destroyed hallways of the White House. He passed fallen security guards, trying his best to control his humanitarian personality and ignore their painful moans. He looked down at his watch. It stopped; it was completely magnetized. That meant Magneto was near.
Xavier gasped as he felt a sudden rumble in the building and heard the crashing and shattering of glass behind him as a picture fell off the wall. He could faintly hear horrendous thunder coming from outside and hoped for the safety of his team. His hands balled into a tight fist and he clenched his jaw. There was far too much to think about and far too much tension for an old man to handle on his own.
He continued moving through the hall, finding no standing security and no type of resistance. It seemed that Magneto was definitely on a mission and left no margin for error. Xavier knew he was in the right place when he reached an open hole in the wall where large doors were once standing. Inside he felt the compelling force of a magnetic field and could hear Magneto speaking in his deep, vibrating voice.
"Charles, I'm glad you could make it," Magneto said all of a sudden. Xavier's wheelchair reluctantly floated into the room where several Congressional leaders were sitting and fearfully watching Magneto's every move and listening to his every word. "Ladies, gentlemen, I would like you to meet Professor Charles Xavier."
The Professor frowned, never taking a moment's peek at the rest of the room, "Magnus, what-– why are you doing this?"
"Two nights ago a branch of the Friend's of Humanity slaughtered hundreds of mutants and were not charged with any crime at all," Magnus explained, becoming enraged as he recounted the events. "Why? Because mutants are not considered human by the law – therefore murdering us is like disposing of trash. The X-Men, your faulty group that hopes of a silly co-existence between humans and mutants, have done nothing but sit around. There is no more time for passive stratagems, Charles. It is time to be proactive. That is why I am here."
"But the measures at which you are being proactive are illegal," Charles explained. "Don't you understand that by coming here violently you are counterattacking your own goals?"
"We've been through this before," Magneto yelled. "Homosapiens fear mutants because they do not understand who we are. They will not listen to us because they lack that understanding... and we will never be heard unless we make them listen!"
"They've heard what you have to say!" the Professor said at the top of his lungs. "Now it's time to let them decide!"
"They've heard me but my point has not been made!" Magneto yelled back. He angrily lifted his hand in the air and sent the Professor, in his wheelchair, flying towards one of the walls in the room. The Professor yelled as the chair impacted and his head jolted backwards and forward.
"Hey, leave the Professor alone!" a Senator from Illinois shouted before the entire room began to shake and rumble. These two distractions took Magneto's mind off Xavier and the bald Professor fell on the floor, handicapped and in pain. It was at this instance, as well, that a ray of red light passed through the air and punctured through Magneto's cape and armor. The attack laser put Magneto's majestic cape to flames and made the master of magnetism fall to the floor in pain as a gentle flow of blood leaked from his back. Before he could stand or even realize what had happened another red light zipped through the tense, dim room and into Magneto's shoulder. Another punctured his leg, and another easily burned his calf.
"Ah!" he yelled in pain, sending out a harsh wave of radioactive fields before throwing his cape to the floor. He looked around the room and saw one of the Senators with a high-tech laser weapon in his hand, pointing it at Magneto. Although on the floor and dealing with the feeling of hot, stingy, flames at four different places in his skin he lifted his hand towards the man with the intent to kill him. Another shot from the laser was aimed directly for Magneto's forehead. This time it did not burn through, but it knocked the protective headgear from Magneto's white hair.
However, there was going to be no more attacks by this laser gun. With his arm outstretched Magneto lifted the man into the air and began to tear his body apart from the inside out. Anger overwhelmed his red face as he gasped for air and maintained the attack.
Suddenly a sharp pain marched through his mind, daring him to say or do anything else. His arm fell and he dropped his head on the floor, mentally begging his nerves for mercy. The pain was overwhelming and the burns in his skin became more apparent now than before. "Charles, why are you doing this to me?" Magneto asked, weakily, knowing that Xavier was responsible for the sharp headache and the incoming onslaught that was ready to incapacitate his mind.
"You gave me no choice, old friend," the Professor said, getting ready to send the final mental blow into Magneto's mind.
Then, without warning, a wave of water rushed into the building, freeing everyone from Magneto's magnetic field and now releasing taking him or her outside.
The flooding waters were high and showed no signs of receding – almost completely covering the White House by now. The water was dark, muddy, and murky with cars sitting at the bottom and dead bodies moving along with the current.
"Can't you do something to reverse all of this stuff?" Jean yelled over the sound of thunder. She sat under a huge tree on the cliff where Magneto, Wanda, and Ororo had been originally scouting. That water's almost reaching up here."
"It's too wide scale," Wanda explained. "And I can't even reach Rogue. She's too high up."
"Great! Just what we needed!" Jean complained. "Someone who controls the weather and has no idea what she's doing! She's going to kill us and then kill herself and not even know what she's doing!"
"Not... if I, ugh," Storm said, slowly awakening from the sleep that Rogue had put her in. She felt weaker than she did before she had gone into the odd rest. "Can help it."
"Ororo?" Wanda said, behind down at her side as she lay dry under the huge tree. "You're tired, friend. There's nothing you can do."
"Where," she said, trying to utter her words as clearly as possible. "Is Erik?"
"He and Charles were in the White House," Jean said, placing a hand on Ororo's forehead and then holding her hand. "But now the entire building is completely covered in water. There out there somewhere." When Jean looked away from the cliff once more the entire historic district of Washington DC looked like the dirty Hudson River she had become accustomed to in New York. Just wide -- and nothing but water and debris.
"We must find them," Storm said, trying to raise her head from the ground. "If there are enough ionic compounds in that water," she began and then paused, moaning from her body aches that resulted from the awkward sleep. "A single lightning bolt will fry everything in that water. And Rogue does not know what she's doing."
"I found them!" Jean yelled suddenly. "The Professor has Magneto and has been trying to telepathically reach me all this time!"
"Hurry!" Wanda said. "Maybe the Professor can help us shut Rogue down!"
Jean flew off the cliff, telekinetically supporting herself under the torrential rain. Meanwhile, Storm painstakingly tried to stand up, trying her best to shake off the sleep. "I must stop her," she said. A gentle breeze began to flow under her body, slowly lifting her in the air. She dropped back to the ground.
"Rest, Ororo," Wanda said, wrapping an arm around the weakened Windrider. "We will figure out what to do." Hope slightly mustered inside of Ororo's chest despite the horrendous lightning strikes that threatened to touch down in the water with a moment's notice.
