Chapter 2
We spent the next three months in a constant cycle of preparing for an attack and constant training. We trained in groups and we trained solo. We always had at least two people on guard at all times.
In the end, none of it mattered. FOH showed up in the middle of the night and overwhelmed us. I don't even know how many battleships attacked the mansion, and they had some sort of paralyzing weapon. I woke in the middle of the night, heard the commotion, and quickly changed into my Iceman form. I flung open the door to my room and looked down the dark hallway. People were barking orders, uniformed troops had somehow already overran the mansion, and shots of some sort of weapon I'd never heard before rang out. I shot out one blast of ice at the invaders before I felt a force overtake me. My senses were all paralyzed and I fell forward, to the floor. I felt hands put a collar around my neck and then I lost consciousness.
When I woke up, I could tell that some time had passed-at least a few hours but probably more. Parts of my body felt numb but my head and brain were intact. I wasn't in any serious pain but my eyesight was dimmed and very gradually returning. I knew I was laying on my back on a hard surface. My hands and feet were not restrained; there were no chains or any sorts of fetters on me. I was no longer in my Iceman form either, somehow I had reverted to my normal self even though I had been Iceman when I was attacked and I'm supposed to be the only one who can change myself from one form to another.
"Oh…what happened?" I heard a familiar voice groan. Jean Grey! I could tell she was near but my eyesight was not returning as fast as my mental capacities were. I was too weak still to sit up.
"Looks like Bobby's coming to," I heard Wolverine say in a low voice. This was good. At least two people I knew were in this dark room with me. (Later I realized the room wasn't dark at all; my eyes were still not working right.)
I tried to speak to reply to Wolverine but a moan was all I managed. It took a long time (I have no idea if it were minutes, hours, or what) before I was fully awake and conscious. During the time I was coming `round, I heard voices of my teammates talking.
"I think Shadowcat was killed," I heard the Professor say.
"They wiped out the Morlocks," Cyclops said. "They didn't even try to take them alive."
"Our garage was on fire and I saw Nightcrawler toss himself from mansion's rooftop onto flaming garage," Colossus said.
I didn't want to be hearing this. I didn't want to hear what they were saying, I wanted to be unconscious again. I wanted to be back at the mansion having a deep discussion with Hank, laughing with Jubilee, playing poker with the group, or getting defeated in the danger room. Maybe this was all a bad dream. But the hard floor was cold and uncomfortable against my back, I was thirsty and had to pee. It was real.
"I wonder when our captors will show themselves," a voice said. Hank! It was Hank!
I tried to speak again, this time with more success. "Hank?" I mustered.
"Bobby," he answered. "Give it time. The effects of their paralyzing weapon are taking a while for people to recover from. Your eyesight will return. Don't rush things," he advised. It amazed me that he sounded so calm.
I finally managed to sit up. "I feel better. My eyes are starting to focus but I can't see clearly yet." I looked around the room. Sitting on the floor were the Professor, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Rogue, Gambit, Hank and Colossus. Jubilee lay down on her back, still unconscious. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw her chest rythmically rise and fall with her breathing. Wolverine was pacing back and forth.
Each of us had a collar around our necks.
I traced the outline of the heavy, metallic surface. Tentatively, I tugged at it.
"Don't waste your energy, kid," Wolverine said, looking at me. His hands were bloody. "We tried. These collars can't be pulled off."
"I take it they neutralize our powers," I said.
"Yes," Storm said quietly. "It would appear these are the same collars used on Genosha Island. We thought they had all been destroyed. We've been trying for hours to remove them. It seems impossible." I heard shock and a touch of despair in her voice. I think we all were stunned that we'd been so easily overwhelmed.
I looked around. The room we were in was fairly large but we were all crammed into an area that was less than half the space in the room. It was just big enough for all of us to sit or lay down, with only a few feet of space left for Wolverine to pace around. As if he read my mind, he said, "A forcefield."
Wolverine touched an invisible line that divided the room in half, and the electric hum of a forcefield prevented his fingers from going any further. I didn't need to ask whether the team had tried to break through it. Rogue was rubbing her bloody fists which I'd later found out she had used to attempt to pound through the forcefield. Her efforts were to no avail.
The room was bare other than the 11 of us X-men in it. No furniture or anything. Except for the steady hum of the force field, there were no other noises. I glanced off to the side, on my right. There was a small door. "A bathroom," Storm said when she saw me looking in that direction.
I stumbled towards it since I needed to go. A toilet, sink and shower.
I came out and rejoined the group. Still weak, I sat back down on the floor, next to Jubilee. My young friend was starting to stir. I knew the answer to the question but I had to ask. "Is there any water?"
Cyclops shook his head. "No. No sign of our captors either.."
"We think we're on a starship," the Professor supplied. The metallic walls did have that look. "We all saw starships outside when we were captured."
Conversation was minimal. I think we were fighting off utter despair. I had learned that those who woke up before me had tried everything, using all their force to pull at their own (or teammates' collars), hurling themselves at the forcefield, even pounding the walls to feel for ways out. There was nothing.
Minutes after Jubilee had fully regained consciousness and was able to sit up, the door to our room slid aside. My stomach churned as several uniformed FOH members entered the room. They were on the other side of the forcefield as us, so we could not touch them. I loathed the site of their neo-Nazi uniforms.
"You stinking-" Wolverine began, and again hurled himself at the forcefield. Rogue yelled out an obscenity at the FOH members and did the same. The captors simply laughed as they watched Wolverine and Rogue exhaust themselves attacking the forcefield.
When Rogue and Wolverine accepted that they only thing they were accomplishing was covering their own bodies with bruises, they ceased. The FOH men continued to laugh as one would at an amusing play. Cyclops spoke up, "You are going to regret capturing the X-men! Let us go - now!"
This caused the FOH men to laugh even more. I studied them. They all were white men from a range of ages-I'd say twenties to one guy with white hair. The guy in the middle appeared to be in his early 30's and had blond hair and a mustache. He finally spoke. "You foolish mutants. You disgusting, perverted mutants! Such ridiculous words from you." He paused. "You are the only surviving mutants. We've rid the world of sick, filthy vermin like you. If you want, we'd be glad to toss in the corpses of the muties we killed during the battle."
There was silence. What do you say to that?
"Nothing to say, eh?" the man taunted. He turned to one of the others. "Give them the water. We have to keep the dogs alive, for now."
One man held a bucket of water with a dipper. The forcefield had something like an airlock that FOH controlled. The bucket of water was placed in the airlock when the opening that faced FOH slid aside. That opening then closed, and the door on our side slide aside. This was a pretty ingenious device. It ensured that they could send things through to us but we could not get out.
"What are you going to do with us?" the Professor asked. I knew the X-men had been captured many times before and had been through a lot. But his voice, normally so sure and brave, nearly shook.
"You don't want to know, old gimp."
My ears perked up and some of my teammates reflected my shocked look. You do not call Professor X a "gimp." This was a sacrilege! If only I'd have known what was to follow.
"Let's just say," the FOH leader said, "that we are taking you somewhere we can dispose of you properly. Thanks to our handy starship, we found a wonderful planet where we've been dumping our trash. It's where we took your Canadian friends and your old friend who called himself `Magneto.' We found a planet in another galaxy that has a particularly fitting…disposal system. That is where we will exterminate you." He paused. "So I hope you will enjoy your journey. It takes a little while to get there, but this is a good starship and it's worth it. During the journey, you will….provide amusement to my troops."
I remember Wolverine speaking a few words of bravado, hurling insults and obscenities at them.
The FOH leader simply laughed again. "I leave you for now. It's considered nighttime on board our ship now, though you wouldn't know it since your room will constantly be lit and monitored by our cameras. But I suggest you try and sleep tonight. You will need all the rest you can get." He placed a lot of emphasis on his last sentence.
He and his cronies left the room.
I looked around at the ten other faces in the room. Is this it? Are we really the only surviving mutants in the world? Then I knew of course not; it was like a parallel with gay people. You could kidnap the leaders of the gay rights movement and even everyone who belonged to a gay rights group but still there would be people being born every day who were going to grow up to be gay and others who were gay but were hiding. But what kind of world would they live in?
We tried to sleep, fighting off hunger. All of us were physically exhausted probably due to the effects of whatever they used to stun us. No one much felt like talking.
I noticed that Rogue and Gambit were taking advantage of the fact that her powers were ineffective. They were cuddled up together, kissing. Ungloved hands were stroking each other's faces and hands…if there hadn't been other people in the room, I think they would have gone for it. It was evident how in love they were.
Cyclops and Jean were similarly cuddled together, though Jean cried softly off and on. He lovingly stroked her head and neck as she cried onto his shoulder. Cyclops took advantage of the fact that his powers were gone to remove his visor, and Jean looked lovingly into his eyes as if she were trying to memorize what they looked like. I stole glances at the couple, feeling happy for them but having a longing that some day I would find that kind of love.
I took off my shirt and tried to use it for a flimsy pillow, but the floor was rock hard and my stomach cried out for food. As I tossed and turned, trying to find a comfortable position, I wondered what the FOH guy had meant when he said that we would provide "amusement" to the troops during our trip. An old episode of Star Trek popped into my head. The crew of the Enterprise had been kidnapped and forced to battle each other as if they were ancient Gladiators. Maybe FOH had something like that in mind.
Because the room was small, it was impossible to not overhear people's conversations. I generally don't sleep well and could not sleep that night, even though I lay there for what seemed like hours on end. The X-men who lay physically closest to me were Rogue and Gambit. I really, really tried not to but I couldn't help but to hear most of their whispered conversation.
"C'mon, Remy….This is our chance…we're going to die soon."
"But Rogue, amor….they'll hear everything….No, the bathroom is not big enough. Gambit refuses to allow your first time-our first time-in dere."
"You can't let me die without ever having….what does it matter if they hear everything…..we're all going to die, so who cares?…Who cares that it's a bathroom! If you love me, you'll…."
They continued arguing like this for quite some time, their voices rising a tad above a whisper at times. I suspect I wasn't the only one who couldn't help but to hear. I could tell that both were really getting angry and at some point Rogue got up and moved away from Gambit so that she no longer lay next to him. When I woke up (I think I did doze off for a little bit though it sure wasn't a restful sleep), Rogue and Gambit were not next to each other.
In what must've been the morning, the guards brought us food. We dined on water, stale bread, and meat that was stringy and partly green. This was pretty much what all our meals would be like. Still, it was food and we were all hungry. We also took turns showering. Those things helped lift our spirits, and Cyclops was even speaking encouraging words to the team. "We've been through worse, together," he said. "We'll find a way out of this." The Professor must have also felt some of this and said, "Yes, we will get out of here. Everything is going to be ok."
Not long after they had finished those words, several FOH guards entered the room including the blond, mustached guy who appeared to be the leader. "Good morning, mutant freaks!" he said with extra cheerfulness. He did look excited about something, as did his men.
Wolverine and Rogue hadn't lost their spunk and returned the leader's greetings with several choice words. As he always seemed to do when we protested , the leader laughed again. Then he focussed on Jean.
"You," he said, pointing directly at Jean. "Come here." He gestured towards the airlock
"Why should I?" Jean replied, defiantly.
In silent response, the leader reached for a small device he held in his hand. It looked akin to a remote control. He pressed a few buttons and Jean screamed an agonizing wail as she clutched her neck and doubled over. "Jean!" Cyclops screamed and tried to hold her, but Jean was out of control, thrashing her arms and screaming.
Finally the leader ceased what he was doing to Jean. She fell into Cyke's arms, panting and traumatized. "These collars are wonderful devices," the leader said. "I have the ability to assault each and every of your nerve endings with unbearable pain. The setting I used for you was one of the milder ones." He paused to let his words sink in. Each of us were rubbing our collars and exchanging terrified glances.
"So I repeat," the leader said to Jean. "Come here."
Jean looked at him. "Fuck you!" she said. She stayed where she was.
The leader simply smiled in response and reached for the device. Jean seemed to be preparing herself for more when Cyclops suddenly screamed and fell to the floor. Apparently he decided to torture Cyclops instead. It was evident that the man was in incredible agony.
"Stop it!" Jean yelled at the leader as she sank to her knees next to her suffering husband. The leader gestured for Jean to step into the airlock. She took another look at Cyke, writhing and screaming on the floor, before she stepped through the airlock. Once the soldiers had her, they handcuffed her and lead her out of the room. The leader stopped torturing Cyclops.
I don't remember the details from this point on, but one by one he called Jubilee, then Storm and finally Rogue. A similar scenario unfolded for each woman: they were tortured by the device but eventually succumbed rather than watch one of their teammates suffer. Each of them eventually stepped through the airlock, were handcuffed and lead away. I felt a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach as I noticed he called only the women.
The FOH soldiers all turned to leave the room. They had what they came for. Colossus spoke out. "What are you going to do with them?"
"Why," the leader said, turning back to face us, "we have over 200 men on this ship and none of them has had a woman for months. We're going to show your women what a * real* man is like in bed."
"You can't do this!" Cyclops said, sounding terrified and disgusted. "This is an outrage!" Wolverine leapt up and resumed his useless pounding on the forcefield, screaming and making threats to the FOH-ers.
"Watch us," the leader said simply before he left.
"I'LL KILL THEM!" Wolverine screamed and he once again bloodied his hands by attempting the break the forcefield. "I'LL RIP THEIR FUCKING HEARTS OUT!" He continued in this vein for quite some time. Gambit sat down and looked as if he was going to be sick, his face pale. Cyclops repeated, "This is an outrage," and looked as sick and shocked as Gambit.
The Professor closed his eyes and took a deep breath. I noticed his hands trembling. I felt physically ill myself.
Later that day, Jean Grey was praying. She wasn't a terribly religious woman but that day she needed to hold on to something. She needed something to get her mind off the assault that was taking place on her body. Trying to block out the pain and the stench of the man who was on top of her, she pried her eyes shut and silently repeated the words.
Our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil Our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil Our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil Our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread -
Jean's prayer was interrupted when her current rapist slapped her face. "Open your eyes, mutant bitch!" She obeyed immediately; the consequences of not doing so were too unbearable. She could tell from the way the man was moving that he was getting ready to ejaculate. "Tell me you want me to fuck you," he demanded. He placed his hands around her neck, above her collar, and squeezed lightly as if to show her that he could strangle her.
Jean did as she was forced to. What did it matter; it was only words. Minutes after the soldier rolled off her, his place was taken by another. She shut her eyes and began praying again, trying to prepare her body to endure.
My teammates paced our cell, looking liked caged animals. Hank sat next to me but we had nothing to say, either to each other or the others.
Professor X looked as baffled as angry. "I can't believe this," he said numerous times that day. "We've all been kidnapped before. Female X-men have been kidnapped before. But even a lowlife like Sinister wouldn't do something like this."
After some time had passed (I had no idea how long, my sense of the passage of time was gone), we were served more food but no one ate. The blond FOH leader returned to check on us.
"How are we doing today, filthy disgusting mutants?" he asked.
No one replied.
"You don't look so good. Is something troubling you?" the leader asked us. I noticed Wolverine was sniffing and I wondered if he still had his enhanced sense of smell. I also noticed the FOH leader's pants were unzipped. After a few sniffs, Wolverine got an insane look in his eyes.
Hank spoke up, the first time he had addressed our captors. "Listen, I thought you were repulsed by mutants. I thought you regard us as lower than garbage. If you think that is true, then why are you assaulting mutant women? Surely they are not good enough for your troops."
The leader laughed his annoying laugh again. "Listen, you stupid ape, as long as a bitch has a hole and a heartbeat, I don't care if she's a mutant or not. My troops will fuck her anyway."
Gambit had utter hatred in his eyes. "You are no real man if you need to force a woman."
The FOH leader smiled. "I'll tell your girlfriend that next time I'm forcing her to suck my dick," he said, looking at Gambit "By the way, the two of you really * should* have done it last night since you are both going to die. But my men really enjoy fucking a virgin so I thank you for preserving her. We had an auction to see who would have the first grab at your feisty one and who'd be the first with the slanty-eyed virgin."
I think the guys realized at that point that it was pointless to say anything more to this man. Each time we spoke, he told us of another abomination.
"I really wanted to come by to thank you for sharing them with us," the leader continued. "My troops are really going to enjoy the next five days. What a shame we'll need to dispose of your sluts along with you. We'll return them to you when we're done though."
None of us said anything.
"Well, I'm back to availing myself of your women. I haven't yet fucked the slanty-eyed one or the bitch with the white hair. Do you have any recommendations on which one I should have next?"
He waited a few minutes as if expecting a reply. Then he added, "I think I might do the white-haired one. The Asian bitch was doing too much screaming and crying." Then he left.
We spent the rest of the day doing more things we knew were futile. Hank and Wolverine tried to combine their force and pull off Cyclops's collar. We took the plastic knives we were given to eat with and tried to cut away our collars. We tried feeling the ceiling to see if there were any vents by having Hank hoist me up. Wolverine and Colossus tried to rip off the toilet in the hopes it would open up a hold in the bathroom floor. We tried ripping away the floor around the shower's drain with our bare hands.
After all our failed escape attempts, I sat in the corner and cried unabashedly. I couldn't stand the image of Jubilee-or any of the women-treated in this manner. I cried and cried like a baby, with Hank allowing me to do so on his shoulder. When I looked up I noticed I wasn't the only one.
The assaults continued for hours on end, hours which spilled into days. The women were given brief periods of time to rest and have a glass of water. The soldiers had them shower periodically since they were so covered with other soldiers' semen.
Rogue had done what she could to resist. The first man who raped her, she assailed with every cuss word she knew. He seemed to enjoy her feistiness but eventually -as all her rapists would - used her collar to force her to be quiet. When she was first told to fellate a soldier, he warned her that if she bit down on him, he would remove a tooth from her mouth. She bit him anyway. Two soldiers held her down while they extracted two of her teeth. She screamed with the most intense agony she had ever experienced.
"Rogue, would you stop resisting!" Storm barked at her. Their beds were a few feet away from each other's. "What good is it doing you?"
Rogue glanced over in Storm's direction, disgusted to see her teammate and role model beaten into submission. Storm had learned that Jean's tactic was best-go along with what they wanted, say and do what they wanted if you cared to avoid a beating or having any of your body parts ripped off. Blood dripped from Rogue's mouth and the pain kept her from being able to see straight.
The next two soldiers who were waiting in line for Rogue approached her. "We're going to break you in good, bitch," they told her. "You're going to beg for me to fuck you."
Rogue opened her excruciatingly pained mouth and began another litany of obscenities, telling them how she was going to stuff their dicks down their throat and kill them as soon as she got her powers back. They responded by putting gauze over her mouth and raping her in every imaginable manner. The two soldiers were eventually told to ease up on her
The FOH leader approached Rogue, turned her over on her belly, and raped her again. Afterwards he flipped her over and talked to her. The gauze was still over her mouth. "You are a wild little bitch, aren't you? I see maiming and beating you does no good. Let me put it this way, then. We know you have a boyfriend back there, that long-haired man with the strange eyes. You will either start cooperating with our men….or we'll take your boyfriend and remove each and every one of his teeth, cut off his fingers and toes and chop his dick off. Got it?"
Rogue nodded. The leader ripped the tape off her lips. From that point on, Rogue was obedient.
I think a day or two passed. The only way we really knew to track time was by the stubble growing on our faces. Periodically food and water were brought to us.
The FOH leader-and other of their men - visited us at intervals. The taunted us with their updates which we were forced to listen to. "Your girlfriends are really fantastic. Thank you again for lending them to us…..I fucked that redheaded slut three times yesterday myself …. One of your women told me that we are better in bed than any of you mutant-freak men were. Well, at least I * made* her say that."
At one point, two soldiers entered our room and put something very small through the airlock. "Look at it," they demanded. Colossus was sitting closest to the airlock and I think curiosity got the best of him. He reached in and pulled out a napkin, which had two small white objects wrapped in it. He eyed them with a confused look on his face.
"They're teeth," one soldier explained. "We had to knock them out of that ferocious one, you know- the bitch with the Southern accent. She wouldn't go along with us. Finally we threatened to pull out all * your* teeth, loverboy," he looked at Gambit, "and now she is obedient. We tamed her. We can make her say or do anything."
Gambit's skin went pale and he looked ill. The other guys all flinched too. This was so repulsive.
Cyclops sat hunched in a corner. He hadn't eaten anything at all since Jean was taken. Once I saw Wolverine sit next to him and bring him a plate of food. "C'mon, Cyke," he said low. "It's not going to do Jean any good if you don't eat." He coaxed Cyclops into choking down a few bites, but Cyke soon threw them up. "I can't live like this. I am going to go crazy thinking of Jeanie in such pain," Cyke told Wolverine. "Keep it together, old pal," the Canadian encouraged. "You gotta be there for her when we get outta this."
Wolverine may have been trying to comfort Cyclops, but wasn't himself doing well either. He was without his healing ability and all the insane things he did to try to escape -banging on the forcefield, attempting to uproot the toilet- had taken their toll physically. His hands were torn and bloody. And he looked angrier than I had ever seen him, and that's a lot for someone who normally isn't in the greatest of moods. He varied from pacing around, to doing more useless things to try to escape, to picking fights with Gambit.
Gambit was equally angry and the two of them even made up an excuse to have a fist fight. Professor X told them to stop, using a tone of voice I'd never heard from him. When Gambit wasn't fighting Wolverine, he took out his deck of cards and got most of us to play. We needed to get our minds off what was happening and actually played for hours on end. Cyclops yelled at us for "playing card games at a time like this" but we ignored him.
Hank spoke a few times, talking about how historically rape has been used as a means to control and dominate women, as well as a means in war for one side to demoralize the other. He was trying to help, I know, but Gambit yelled, "Shut the fuck up," as he threw the water jug at Hank. The jug hit the floor with a loud clank.
Professor X looked utterly defeated. I think he was shocked this was happening. Not only the violence that was occurring against the women, but the fact that we were going to meet our end in such an inglorious way with all of us fighting each other.
I saw grown men cry, which I never thought I'd see
A few times the guys tried to engage the guards or the FOH leader in conversation. They were subtly trying to ascertain how FOH had overwhelmed us so completely, what their weapons and power sources were, etc. Unfortunately they were on to us any time we went down that line of questioning, and they always turned it around into another chance to tell us how much they enjoyed "fucking your bitches."
I was raped once too. This was more than 10 years ago, during my first incarnation with the X-men. I took a weekend off and hung out at a gay bar. I had no idea what was expected of me, so I went home with a big, burly guy who I found attractive. When we got to his place, I changed my mind but he forced me anyway. Aside from the physical pain, emotionally I felt dirty, drained and violated. It was so bad that I blocked out the memory for years until I told Dr. Winters, and she is the only person I've ever told. But that was only being raped once by one man. I couldn't imagine what Storm, Jean, Rogue and Jubilee were going through.
"Don't let the sluts talk you into removing their collars!" a guard barked at the men who were standing in line. "That white-haired bitch has been trying to get her men to take her collar off, promising them they'll enjoy it more that way. Don't listen to her."
As soon as the leader stepped away, one of the soldiers standing in line turned towards another. The two men hung out together quite a bit. "I hate doing this," the first one whispered.
"Be quiet," the second man said. "You want the guys to think you're queer?"
"Hell no. But I can't stand this. The women hate what we're doing."
The second soldier sighed. "No they don't. They're all a bunch of sluts. They like it."
"C'mon, Jeff. How can they all be sluts? Two of them were virgins when this thing started. And I know they can't stand what we're doing to them. That redhead who I had yesterday had her eyes closed, her teeth gritted….she was in a lot of pain, any idiot could tell."
"Would you shut up? Are you some sort of mutant lover? They deserve what they're getting. Just pretend you're punishing those mutants who destroyed the Sears Tower last year when 300 people were killed, or any of the fucking muties who destroy public property and kill innocent people."
"I doubt that teenager in there was involved in any of that." The man had raped Jubilee earlier on in the day. There was no doubt in his mind that the girl was in agony. He'd walked away feeling sick to his stomach and hoping to come up with plausible excuses for refusing to take part any longer. But there were no acceptable excuses. Whenever a soldier wasn't on his duty shift at his station, he was expected to be in the women's room availing himself of the prisoners.
"I don't want to hear any more from you, Mike. Mutant women are whores, they deserve what they're getting and they like it."
That was the end of the conversation. The first soldier noticed their place had shifted and they were getting closer to the front. He prayed that when it was his turn, he would be able to get it up.
Meanwhile, Jean worried about Jubilee. Whenever Jean was forced to break out of the mental trances her disciplined mind kept putting itself in, she listened for what was going on around her. All the women were kept on beds in one large room. During the periods of time Jean wasn't praying or trying to shut her mind off, it took her a while to realize what she * wasn't* hearing. Then it dawned on her. Jubilee had ceased her screaming and crying. The young woman had done it incessantly for a long time, but now she was silent which worried Jean. `Maybe she's come to accept it and is calm now,' Jean told herself. `But what if-'
Her line of thought was cut off as a soldier approached her to tell her that her break was over. Jean obediently walked back to her bed and once again tried to detach her mind from what was happening to her body.
I guessed that about four days had now gone by. Just my estimation based on facial hair. The FOH leader appeared with the men who brought us our food, which was unusual.
"How are we today?" he asked. No one even looked at him.
"Well, what can I update you on now? I think your females are getting a bit tired. I myself am a bit tired since I've had each one of them too many times to count now. Maybe the sluts will even welcome death at this point, which is fortunate because this ship has just about 62 hours to go before we get to our destination. My men will certainly miss them. In fact, we're debating whether or not to keep them-maybe we'll only kill you guys. We don't want to leave any filthy mutants alive but you can't get away with doing this to any other women nowadays. I haven't decided yet."
He turned to leave but stopped himself. "Oh, I almost forgot. I brought you something to read."
He placed a stack of magazines in the airlock and left the room. For a while none of us made any movement towards them till curiosity got the best of Hank. He picked them up and brought them back to where we sat. The Professor seemed interested so he handed him one, and handed another to me. The other guys hadn't really even looked up so he didn't offer them magazines.
The magazines were the FOH newsletter.
Just seeing their logo made my stomach churn, but again boredom and curiosity won out. I paged through the vile publication. After looking at it, I had no idea how FOH had so many members. The magazine was openly misogynistic and homophobic, and there was loads of thinly veiled racism in it too. Hank, the Professor, and I whispered about it and we determined that this was a publication for only hard-core FOH leadership, because FOH had another, tamer publication which was sold on newsstands and had millions of subscribers.
None of the others had taken notice of the magazines (Gambit and Colossus were sleeping, Cyclops was out of it, and Wolverine brooded in a corner, not looking up). Needless to say, the newsletter was filled with a lot of disgusting essays inciting violence against mutants and stories about beating and torturing mutants. Hank and I exchanged a glance when we reached the porn section of the magazine. It featured lots of images of women being bound, gagged, and raped. It was really repulsive.
Eventually each of the other guys did get their hands on a magazine. All I can say is that it didn't help things.
More time passed, and the FOH leader appeared before us again, looking disgusted. "We're going to be returning one of your females to you!" he announced. Our ears perked up with surprise and I gasped. In these few days (which felt like years), I had almost started feeling like we would never see them again. "She's no use for my troops anymore. She's gone crazy and we don't want her anymore."
My blood chilled and I had to force myself to breathe normally.
As if to torture us more, the leader left and didn't return for….a long amount of time (I have no idea how long it was really.) None of us moved or said anything but I saw looks of fear and hope on my teammates' faces. After what felt like hours, two guards opened the door and literally threw Jubilee through the airlock.
Jubilee. Except it wasn't Jubilee anymore. She was naked, and covered with scratches, bruises, blood and even some burn marks.
We rushed over to her, calling her name. Gambit lent his jacket and Wolverine his pants so she could be covered up. Colossus offered his jacket to use as a pillow so her head could be propped up. Hank and I knelt on either side of her.
"Jubilee? Jubilee?" Hank softly called her name.
Her name now was so ironic. Jubilee's face was a blank stare. She didn't blink, her eyes didn't focus on anything and she didn't react to any of us. She just lay limp on the floor. For a while I feared that she was dead but I saw her chest rise and fall, though very slowly.
"Some water, please," Hank directed. Gambit brought the water jug and dipper over. Hank dribbled a bit of water on Jubilee's lips, but she didn't react to that.
"Let's sit her up. She needs to drink," Hank said. We did so, and the dipper was pressed to her lips. Jubilee drank mechanically and without looking up, dribbling copious amounts of the water down her chin.
"This is a good sign," Hank said in his doctor's voice. "Her motor skills are still working. I think it's too early to call it brainlock." He glanced at the bathroom. "I'd like to attend to her wounds. Bobby, if you'll assist me."
He carried her into the bathroom, and I helped as Hank did what he could to wash out the injuries on her battered body. A lot of her bleeding was coming from between her legs, and even when Hank examined that area, Jubilee still did not react in any way. We didn't have much to work with in the bathroom except for cold water. We had no soap or towels and no clean clothes to use as bandages. When we did all we could, we dressed her again in Gambit's jacket and Wolverine's pants and carried her back into the main room.
"Well?" the Professor asked.
"She has a number of wounds, some of which are still bleeding. I can't do much else with what we have here. I need doctor's equipment and clean bandages." No use in saying anything more. We knew our captors wouldn't provide that.
"What can we do for her mental state?" Cyclops asked.
"Well, I'm no psychologist," Hank answered. "All I can recommend is that we take turns holding her hand and talking to her."
Having something like this to do seemed to recharge a lot of the guys. Even Cyclops ate a bit of his food and spent several hours comforting Jubilee. We all did. Her condition didn't change at all though. Still the same eerie staring at nothing, not reacting to anything we did.
"You really should control your women better," the leader said when he stopped in for a visit. "What on earth did she think she was doing, sleeping with so many men. No wonder she's lost her mind. Oh well, what does it matter? You're all going to be dead in less than 30 hours anyway."
Not long after his last visit, the FOH leader returned to us with three guards. This was a bit unusual; he seemed to be visiting us at regular intervals and rarely stopped by twice in a short period of time. He looked livid.
"Just when I thought you low down, sick mutants couldn't get any worse!" he said in a low, angry voice. "Just when I thought you were the filthiest, most hideous group of people on the planet, I find out you're even worse."
We were used to his taunting, his coming in here and telling us horrific things about how his troops were treating the women. We now had gotten to the point where none of us looked up at him and we try to block out his words. I could tell that frustrated him, so he yelled at us to look at him. When we didn't comply, he used the powers of the collars to torture us into looking up. Once again, we were defeated and we had no choice.
"I've been reading your personnel files," he told us, still sounding furious but speaking very slowly. "And I've learned that one of you is a disgusting, perverted faggot." He said the last word with a particular amount of hatred. "We don't much like your type here. In fact, I think you disgusting queers are the lowest group of people in the world, even lower than mutants. Faggots are the sickest, filthiest pile of shit on earth. And to be both a mutant and a sick queer-I've never seen anything more vile in my life."
I suppose at this point I should have been both mortified and terrified. But honestly, I was so emotionally and physically ill from everything in the past few days that I wasn't even quaking in my boots the way I should have been. I remember wondering how he would have known that I was gay, and then remembering if he read my file from the X-mansion, it would have to have something about me leaving the team seven years ago to go into therapy. I would imagine it was logical that the reason I sought therapy would be in there too.
I did, however, feel a jolt of fear when he looked at me. "Come here," he said.
Well, what else could I do? I could not –physically or mentally—endure any more torture from the collar. There wasn't any point in resisting.
I stood up and walked over towards the airlock. I stepped through. One guard immediately punched me in the stomach, and he must've had brass knuckles on or something because I doubled over in pain. I fell to the ground, coughing and sputtering. The guards laughed and took a few more hits at me before handcuffing my hands behind my back.
"My troops are going to have a lot of fun with you during the last hours of our journey," the leader told me. "What a shame that we're near the end of our trip. We could have had much more time to play with you." He might've said something else but I was having a real hard time listening, the pain was so intense. I could only hope that we were, indeed, near the end of the trip and my torture would be short.
They made me crawl out of the room, saying I wasn't allowed to walk. This was a difficult task, given that I was still in intense pain from the blow to my stomach and my hands were cuffed behind my back. I hobbled the best I could out of the room, the troops laughing.
I was forced to crawl in this manner for what seemed like an eternity, though we were really only walking down a long hallway. The guards and the leader escorted me into a small room. 'So I'm going to die here, now.' I thought. What a disappointment; what a way to go. Since re-joining the X-men, I had been inspired. If I was going to die, I wanted be able to say that I did something great in my life. Guess that wouldn't be happening now.
Just as we entered that room, the leader's communicator went off. "Sir, we need you in the engine room. Please come down here at once," the voice over the communicator said.
"Is something wrong?" the leader asked brusquely.
"No need for alarm, Sir but there's a small problem that we need your help to take care of."
The leader turned to the guards. "Do what you want to restrain him, but do not begin the fun without me." He turned and left the room.
The guards spent a long time haranguing me, tossing out every insulting word for "gay man" I'd ever heard and a few that were new to me. I just sat there, on the floor since I couldn't get up. They seemed to really enjoy hurling insults at me, and it took them a long time to move on to what they were going to do to me.
"Well," the shorter guard said to the taller one. "Let's get him ready. The guys are going to have fun with this. Stand up, sweetheart!" he commanded. This was a difficult task, as my stomach was in deep pain from the punches, and my knees, back and chest ached from the crawling down the hallway I had just been forced to do.
As I struggled, the taller guard said, "Where's the leash? That's what we're supposed to put on him, right?"
"It's in that cabinet on the right with the dog collar, the whips and the blindfold."
Oh great. Normally I would've thought of some joke to make at this point but I couldn't.
Once I made it to my feet, they backed me against a wall and the shorter guard held the dog collar. "We're supposed to put this on him. Or do we put this on and the thing that goes around his neck for the leash?"
"I think we do both. But wait a sec….don't we have to remove that collar that he's already got around his neck?" the taller guard asked.
"We have to. Otherwise we can't fit the leash and the dog collar on there."
I didn't quite believe what was happening. It took a second or two for it to register, but they pressed a few buttons on the remote control devise and my collar snapped off. I was free of my collar.
I had not a spilt second to waste. I turned myself into Iceman faster than they could blink, and my handcuffs snapped off like a thin layer of ice. Before the shocked guards could react, I froze them inside blocks of ice. I then grabbed their weapons and ran down the hall back to my teammates.
I encountered a few guards as I ran, but before they could react, I shot out a stream of ice. They and their weapons were also frozen inside huge ice blocks. I reached the door to the room my teammates were in. Maybe FOH wasn't so bright. The door was marked "PRISONERS."
Obviously, the door was locked. I turned it into a sheet of ice which I then easily kicked through. As Iceman, I felt invincible. And all the training I had done in the Danger Room was paying off.
I shall always treasure the looks on my teammates' faces when they saw me, but that day I had no time to savor it. I cannot even describe how they looked so I let you imagine. Then I simply did the same thing to the forcefield that I had done to the door. The guys jumped up and rushed towards me.
I reached Wolverine first and turned his collar into ice. He snapped it off. Wolverine and I then used claws and ice respectively to remove all of our teammates' collars.
By then, guards knew something was up but it was too late. We were far too powerful now that we had our powers back.
The details on what all happened next are a bit blurry for me. An alarm went off. We easily defeated the troops we encountered as we ran into the hallway. The Professor used his mind control to turn them away from fighting, but the rest of us fought more violently than ever. I saw Wolverine literally rip several of the guys to shreds. His claws were soon red with blood. Cyclops blasted them with his lasers as I suspect the setting he was using might not have been 'stun.' Gambit also blew up any guards he saw, indiscriminately. Beast carried Jubilee over his shoulder during the fight, using a hand weapon from the fallen guards with his free hand. Colossus carried the Professor until we found his wheelchair abandoned in a hallway.
"I know where the women are," the Professor said, obviously using his telepathic powers. "Follow me!"
He led us, and we successfully fought any and all troops we encountered. Whatever device they used to stun us at the mansion, they could not be allowed to use it again here!
We found Rogue, Storm and Jean in a large room with four beds. They were all naked, but soon as their collars were off they fought just as wildly and violently as the men. Rogue, not caring one bit that she was unclothed, demolished any guards she saw. She seemed to be seeking out a few specific ones and did some particularly gruesome things to them-but as far as I was concerned, those FOH scum had it coming. Storm was as out of control as Rogue, her emotions raging as she struck lightening at the soldiers, killing several. Only Jean held back from this sort of attacking.
I know that the Professor at one point yelled-and at another point telepathically told us-not to kill. It was shocking, though not surprising, that his order was disobeyed by several of the X-men. I suspected this would be discussed later.
In the confusion, panic, and adrenaline-rush of the battle, I really lose track of the details at this point. We took over the bridge, having killed, immobilized, or imprisoned all the others on this ship. We were free of the "Friends of Humanity."
TO BE CONTINUED