Leigh's Fanfiction Archive Stormkeeper's Fanfiction Freedom Chapter 12
Freedom
By Stormkeeper
Chapter 12
"That's such a beautiful ring, Rogue," Panda said. Panda and Rogue sat on bridge duty together on board Freedom. Panda had wanted to be given more responsibilities and more training as an X-man. She had pretty much mastered the role of medical assistant, and Hank had been training her to do even more in sick bay. She had also recently been trained on the workings of the essential ship functions, and was taking her turn on bridge duty. Bridge duty on this mission was somewhat less stressful for the team than it had been on the previous one. As far as anyone could tell, FOH was once again oblivious to their presence.
"Why thank you, sugar," Rogue said, smiling. The diamond ring that Gambit had given her sparkled on Rogue's finger.
"You know, I….I hope you don't mind me asking this. But may I ask where Gambit got it from?" The question had long since puzzled Panda. She didn't see any way Gambit could simply have stopped at a jewelry store on earth.
But Rogue just smiled sweetly. "There are some things, sugar, that I figure I'm better off not knowin'. I don't know how my husband got this." Rogue really liked saying the words `my husband.' "So I never asked him. But Remy has his ways. He used to be a thief, you know."
"Ah," Panda said, nodding. `Darn it!' she thought. She was pretty certain that if she came straight out and asked, Gambit would not tell her either. "Hey, Rogue," she began again, "do you know, if a woman proposes to a man, is it traditional for her to give him a ring too?" Panda truly had no idea about this.
"I don't know. I'd reckon….well, I think maybe not. `Cause back on earth you'd see men with wedding bands but you'd never see men with diamonds like I have. And the wedding bands are exchanged at the ceremony, not during the proposal. So I say no. But I guess I don't know any women who do the proposing, so who knows what the tradition is?" Rogue then stopped her speculation and turned to look at Panda. "Are you thinking of proposing to Beast?"
A smile spread across Panda's face and she nodded. "Now keep this quiet, Rogue. But yes, I'm considering it. You see, I've had to initiate everything else. I think if it had been up to him, we'd still be holding hands and that's it." She shrugged. "I don't see any reason for not getting moving on the marriage thing. We know we'll always be together. We were talking the other day of how we feel like we're soulmates. And he says he never before dreamed he'd have a soulmate the way Cyclops does and how happy I make him. Besides, he's not getting any younger. His thirties are going to be behind him in a few years, and he says he wants to have kids. I'm assuming he'll want to be young enough to enjoy them. So anyway, I've been seriously thinking about popping the question because I think he'll drag his feet."
Rogue squeezed Panda's arm. "Good for you, girl. I say go for it!"
"Thanks, Rogue. I just need to work up the courage and think of the right setting. I'd rather not do it on board this starship, but I don't want to wait till we get back to An'zhina either."
"If it's makin' you nervous, you know you don't need to make a big production out of it. Can't you just ask him one night whether he ever thinks about gettin' married?"
"I've been thinking of that too. Because I think I'd feel really funny getting down on one knee in front of him and saying, `My darling would you marry me?'"
"You got it. It don't need to be anything that formal." Even as Rogue agreed with the words she'd spoken, she simultaneously felt glad that Gambit had proposed in such a classy manner.
Panda settled back into her seat and turned her attention over to her monitor. Rogue, however, wasn't fully ready to drop the topic. "So I take it everything's going real well with Hank?" she asked Panda. She knew the answer was obvious but she really wanted to hear more about their relationship.
"Uh-huh. It's really good. I'm happier than I ever been."
"Do you and him ever have any rough spots? If you don't mind my askin'," she hastily added.
"Oh, we have a few, I suppose. I wish he'd spend fewer hours in the lab and more time with me. But his work is so important that I understand," Panda replied.
"And he's so amazingly brilliant too. His mind is capable of doing so much. I don't know what we'd ever do without him."
"We wouldn't be going on this mission. Unless someone else here has the ability to strengthen the cloak. What amazes me is that he's brilliant in so many different areas. If he were on earth, I have no doubt he could rack up as many PhDs and other initials after his name as he felt like." Panda paused. She decided to go ahead and confide in Rogue. She wanted to strengthen her friendship with both Rogue and Storm, and thought that opening up would be one way to do that. "The only thing that causes us a bit of trouble is sex," she admitted. "It's great, but I want it way more often than he does."
"Really?"
"Oh, yeah. Me, I'd be glad to have it every day. I think he's content with once or twice a week. So we're always trying to find a happy medium."
"I ain't surprised that you're havin' this problem. We mutant women are total horn dogs."
"Are we?" Panda asked, brightening at Rogue's words. "So it's not just me?"
"Nope, not at all. Storm and Jean---and sometimes Jubilee too---and me used to discuss this with each other all the time. We all want sex every day. I think this is true of other mutant women too. Now me, I'm lucky. Remy has the same sex drive I do." Rogue tilted her head up and grinned. "We once both joked that we'd be happy to be at it all day long."
The scientist inside Panda gave way momentarily. She had wanted to speculate as to whether this could be nature's way of urging mutant women to pass on their genes. But instead, she responded to Rogue by saying, "You **are** lucky. Wow. For Hank and I, it's wonderful when we do it…it's just that I wish so much he'd want it more often. But I never want to pressure him or hurt his feelings either. I know he feels tired from all my demands. Sometimes I get the idea that he doesn't even want to come back to our room until after I've fallen asleep since he doesn't want me to ask him." Panda sighed. "But in the grand scheme of things, this isn't so bad, I tell myself. And I do know for sure that I want to marry him."
"I think you're right, sugar. It ain't a problem that you can't find a way to deal with." Rogue shook her head, caught up in memories. "I oughtta tell you about the times that Storm and I used to go to certain…uh, toy stores." She smiled, remembering. "We even talked Jean into coming with us a few times. She was hilarious. And man, was Jubilee excited when we first asked her if she wanted to come along."
"I know, I know, there's always that. But it's just not the same."
With that, the door to the bridge slid aside and the Professor and Angel entered. Rogue had to stifle a giggle at the thought that had the Professor possessed, say, Wolverine's hearing, he would have been privy to their conversation about taking young Jubilee to a sex toy shop years ago.
"Is it time already?" Panda asked.
It was. Charles and Warren were taking over their bridge duty shift. Rogue and Panda got up to leave, and then walked down the hall together.
"I wonder if they're combinin' bridge duty with a therapy session," Rogue remarked. Angel's depression had been starting to get severe – to the point where he knew he could use some help, and he had been working with the Professor.
We were about half way through our journey to earth. By this point, we were fairly certain that our revised cloaking device had to be working. If FOH could detect us, they would never have allowed us to get this far and would have sent ships after us.
"Got somethin' on the monitor," Wolverine said. He and I were on bridge duty.
I punched a few buttons and looked at my screen. "Looks like an uncloaked FOH ship." As per our standard procedure, I put the ship on yellow alert. The Professor and Beast joined us on the bridge.
"It ain't headin' towards us," Wolverine said as my fingers worked the keyboard.
"Very interesting," the Professor said, looking at the console.
As far as we could tell, it was an FOH starship and it was on the same course we were on---towards earth. Its shields were down and it was uncloaked. It was traveling at a speed slower than ours.
"Perhaps this is further confirmation that they are unable to detect us," Hank said.
"I would like to find out for sure," the Professor said. "If we continue on this course, we will soon be within telepathic range, I believe."
So we sat on the bridge and continued to follow the vessel. The gap between the two ships narrowed by the minute. We kept Freedom on yellow alert. Since they apparently couldn't detect us, we weren't in an emergency situation but we all needed to be on guard.
"This is very odd," the Professor breathed. "I sense no one. Nothing."
"What?" I asked.
He shook his head. "There are no lifeforms on board that FOH ship."
The four of us exchanged questioning looks with each other. I pressed a few more buttons on my computer to run a scan. After several more minutes passed, I said, "My readings are confirming what you're saying. Looks like no life forms at all on board that ship."
"I wanna know what the hell an FOH ship is doing on a course for earth with no one on it," Wolverine said.
"Yeah," I added. "Like how did it get out here? I mean….it hasn't been their practice to send un-manned starships. They're not into exploring, and if they were they'd launch a probe instead of sending a ghost ship."
"Perhaps we might investigate," Hank said.
"It could be a trap," Wolverine said.
"It is conceivable that it is an ambush of some sort….but unlikely given that no one is aboard the starship," Hank said. "Professor, I assume you would sense whether another telepath were blocking your powers?"
The Professor answered in the affirmative just as Storm and Rogue joined us on the bridge. The Professor then asked me to try to tap into the other ships' records, and I did so as everyone else debated and discussed what to do. Freedom continued to move closer and closer to this vacant ship. I had tuned out their discussion, engrossed in my work. After a while, I was successful in accessing the other ship's logs.
"The other ship is called the Fitzpatrick," I said. It apparently was named after a former US President, one who had been financially backed by FOH and who had basically functioned as their puppet. I'd been so far removed from earth happenings that I couldn't remember whether he was still the President or not but he was when we left. (Not that it much mattered; FOH controlled everything, including election results.) "Says here the Fitzpatrick was to have a crew compliment of 175 and were on a standard patrolling mission." I scrolled through the logs. "Nothing out of the ordinary here. The logs abruptly end…..just a few days ago."
"We need to be very cautious now and not allow our curiosity to get the better of us," Storm said. "I agree with Logan that this could perhaps be a trap set by FOH….or perhaps some tragedy of an alien nature fell upon the crew of this ship. If that is the case, it is best for us to avoid contact."
Hank stroked some of the fur on his face. I could tell he was in think-mode, absolutely itching to get the story on the Fitzpatrick. "What if we were to send a probe into the Fitzpatrick? Their shields are down. As our computers are linked, we could use a remote hook up to open an airlock on the other vessel and force it to accept the probe."
We tossed that idea around. Eventually everyone agreed that the risks of doing so were minimal. So we got to work.
The probe we sent had a video hook-up so we got to watch as it entered the Fitzpatrick. By this point, most of the others on board Freedom were clustered in engineering and watching the proceedings via the screen in there. I remained on the bridge watching our viewscreen with the Professor, Storm, Wolverine, Hank and Rogue. The probe easily entered an open airlock on the Fitzpatrick.
"No sign of any forcible entry," Storm observed as the probe made its way down a hall.
"My scan of the other ship confirms that," I said. "No weapons were discharged from the Fitzpatrick and it shows no sign of having been under attack. No damage to the ship."
The probe continued to float down one of the halls on board the FOH ship. I looked at the viewscreen. I was curious but not really concerned. I looked at the other faces on the bridge, battle-veterans all. They looked interested but not at all concerned. I was gazing at Rogue when I saw her gasp. "Oh dear," Storm breathed.
My head whipped around back towards the screen. Before us was an image of a man hanging from the ceiling. The man---or the corpse, I should say--- wore an FOH uniform. His body was bloody and dismembered. An arm was torn off. The expression on his face was one of horror. I had to turn my head away; I didn't want to see the details.
The probe continued on down the hall, oblivious to the macabre scene in front of it. As it traversed the ghost ship, it encountered corpse after corpse. Each one had been mangled and tortured. Walls and floors were awash with blood….and sometimes with body parts. Over the intercom, I heard someone in engineering retch. I wasn't ashamed to keep turning my head away. It was like a train wreck---you didn't want to watch at all, but in some ways you couldn't keep from looking. So I kept turning my head back towards the monitor though I didn't want to.
A lot of the men had had their clothes stripped off of them, or were at least stripped from the waist down. I wondered about that as the camera moved from cadaver to cadaver and I watched through my fingers. Finally the probe passed close enough by one man so that you could see what had happened to him. He had been raped.
As the camera showed us more and more corpses, we saw that this had happened to more and more of them. Objects had been stuck up their rears. Big objects. My stomach churning, I watched as the camera panned closely behind one man. The thing inside of him looked eerily like….like a human bone. Only a very large one.
By the time the probe arrived at the Fitzpatrick's bridge, I was feeling light-headed and ready to vomit. And then we saw that a message had been left on the bridge. It read as follows: `THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU FUCK WITH MUTANTS.'
The others on the bridge began talking calmly. They realized that this had been the work of Psylocke and Marrow. Most of the objects stuck inside the men were bones that Marrow had broken off her own body. She and Psylocke had apparently undertaken quite an orgy of killing and torturing. Their cloaked shuttle had allowed them to sneak up to the ship, Psylocke's powers must have immobilized enough of the men. Our probe found that several of the men had been doused with paralyzing nerve gas---something the shuttle was capable of replicating and obviously something that would have immobilized the FOH crew as Marrow and Psylocke killed them.
I know that long, drawn-out discussions followed. I didn't really participate in any of them. I think I tried to take part in the first one, but I excused myself after a while. I know that the others debated and discussed the best, most moral course of action to follow.
Some felt we should not tamper with the Fitzpatrick---let it continue on towards earth just as we found it, with the message that Marrow and Psylocke had written. Others wanted to blow up the Fitzpatrick, as they felt that allowing it to return to earth would foster more hatred against mutants---if it were even possible for us to be a more despised group. The counter-argument followed that humans on earth already detest and fear us, and that FOH has been doctoring up footage against us for years now so what would this matter? It was pointed out that it was difficult to imagine life for mutants on earth getting any worse regardless of what we did with the Fitzpatrick. The argument was also made that the least we could do was allow the ship to return to earth----for the sake of the families of the dead FOH soldiers. A few argued that we could really use another starship, and we ought to take possession of the Fitzpatrick, have it cleaned out and used on our missions.
At last the others reached a decision. They decided to allow the Fitzpatrick to return to earth, but with two changes. One, they reduced the speed of the other ship so it would not reach earth's space until well after we would. They also removed the message left by Psylocke and Marrow. Obviously FOH would figure out that mutants were responsible for this anyway, and there was much debate over taking that message down (as there had been debate over everything), but that is what was decided. The others also decided to take some of the Fitzpatrick's supplies. It seemed that Marrow and Psylocke already stripped the ship of any excess dilithium and I'm sure also availed themselves of the ship's weaponry and such. We also sent a probe in to raid the supplies and deliver extra weapons, food, and such. We took one of their shuttles to replace the one Marrow and Psylocke stole as well.
The final outcome of all the debating pleased no one, of course. Some situations don't have happy endings.
Back on An'zhina, Jean and Scott were startled by banging on their door. It was in the evening, and they had been enjoying some quiet time, having put both their children down for the night. They had each been relaxing on their sofa, reading.
Scott gasped when he heard the knocking. Jean startled too, until she took an instant mental reading of what was behind the door. "It's okay," she breathed. "Come in, Jubilee," she said, pressing a button to use the com-link that could be heard in the hallway.
"I hope I'm not disturbing you," Jubilee said, as she bounded into the room. "But I'm so excited that I have to tell someone! Lisman and I kissed!!"
Scott chuckled, happy to realize that the responsible adult Jubilee before him still had some of the charming traits of the 15 year old he fondly remembered. Her eyes shone brightly as she sat down on the sofa to give Scott and Jean the details. Scott really warmed to her---not that he ever didn't care for her as a niece. Somehow, though, they had grown closer in the past few years, perhaps because their daughters were such good friends.
"Well, tell us everything," Jean said, glad to put her book aside and hear of Jubilee and Lisman's date. Lisman was one of the mutants who had been rescued from the FOH camp in Beijing. In his late twenties, he had been extremely withdrawn and sullen, rarely even leaving his room. He had also been hampered by the fact that he didn't speak English. In the past few months, however, he had started to come out of his shell. Yunfei provided tutoring in English for those who wanted it, and Lisman had learned swifly. He had also taken part in some of the sessions led by Scott. Not long after the X-men left for their mission, Jubilee had started pursuing him.
"I'm so happy!" Jubilee enthused. "I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight. I tell ya, I'd been starting to think I'd **never** be kissed!"
Jean faced Jubilee and held the younger woman's hands in her own. "That is **so** wonderful! I am very happy for you."
"Me too," Scott said, smiling. "A first kiss is a beautiful thing." He remembered back to the first time he and Jean kissed. Jean turned her head to look at him and shared his smile. Scott thought that perhaps someday he would tell Jubilee that story, some time when she was not so preoccupied.
After talking for a while longer, Jubilee got up and said, "Well, I know it's way late for you guys and I should get going. I think I'm gonna hit the gym or something cause I'm serious about not being able to sleep! I just wish Wolvie and Bobby and the others were here to hear about this too!"
After Jubilee left, Jean smiled and said to Scott, "I also wish they could hear about this and see her so happy."
"Lisman's probably one of the few guys Wolverine wouldn't mind dating Jubilee," Scott remarked, wryly.
"I think so. I sense such goodness from him. I don't think he'd hurt a fly."
Scott smiled and shook his head, "I was tempted to say something like `Our little girl is growing up', but…."
"But she's probably 22 years old now and has a baby that she's been doing a good job raising herself," Jean finished for him. "She's already grown up."
"How time flies."
"Yes. Can you believe, Scott, that it's probably been 20 years since you and I met at the Xavier Institute?"
Scott moved closer to Jean and pulled his arms around her.
Jean-Paul was such an affectionate and loving partner. I mused how lucky I was to have him as we made love in my quarters one evening. We slowly kissed and caressed each other for a long time, making the malaise I'd been feeling evaporate as he ran his fingers down my chest. I felt languorous and very well loved. He lay on his back, and me on my side facing him. I reached back down towards his lips for another kiss, content to keep my lips against his for a very long time.
We eventually progressed from softly touching each other to working towards fulfillment. Jean-Paul and I rubbed against each other and pumped each other's, and our own, cocks. At one point, I mounted him and rubbed my hardness against his abdomen.
Afterwards, we lay together. I felt so content. I silently hoped he wouldn't get up to leave for a while. Sometimes he left right away. Often I could coax him to stay a little while, though he'd always end up donning a robe and going back to his own room. But that evening, he seemed to be feeling as mellow as I was. I became entranced with one of his arms, and let my fingers keep exploring it.
"You like that arm, amour?" he asked.
"It is a work of art," I said, feeling all the hard muscles and looking at the definition. The arm I was stroking was his real arm, not the replacement given by the Endarians. The two arms were practically identical though. "No painter or sculptor could have created something more perfect." My fingers traveled upwards and touched one of his ears. "Beautiful," I said. I gently tapped the point that his ear made on the top. "Are you and Jeanne-Marie elves?" I asked with a smile.
He returned my smile. "Perhaps she and I are descended from the fairy-folk of legend," he said, his voice sounding dreamy. He'd always had an interest in the fantasy realm and such, and I knew that his speculation was partly serious. Then a darkness came over his face and he sighed. "My poor sister. She is so sad."
"You are sad too," I stated. I knew it was the truth. Jeanne-Marie was heartbroken, and so was Jean-Paul. Sometimes when he and I spent time together, I felt that sadness lift but never permanently.
"I have to be. My sister is about to give up her only child, and he seems not to care one bit that he'll probably never see her again. Jeanne-Marie has already lost too much. I fear she will turn into a hard shell of a person."
I nodded. "With your love and your help, I think there is hope for her."
"Perhaps. But sometimes I think I am helpless to make her feel any better and that makes me feel miserable."
"Well," I began, cautiously, "you **are** helpless in some ways. I mean, you can't enter your sister's brain and force her to feel better." I paused. "All you can do is let her know you care about her and you're there for her."
Jean-Paul was quiet for a few moments. "You sound so much like your therapist," he said, switching to a light, bantering tone.
"You never even met her!" I responded, jokingly.
"Yeah, but there are times you sound like one. That is okay, mon coeur. I know there is wisdom in your words. What you say is true. But it just doesn't make me feel any better, you know?"
"Yeah," I said, running a hand down, along one of his shoulders. "I wish I could do something."
"You are a great comfort to me."
I glowed at his words and enjoyed them for a while. I then heard Jean-Paul shift a bit and was worried he was getting up to leave, but instead he was changing the direction of his thoughts. "So what do you think is the case with Psylocke and Marrow? Do you think they are lovers, like us?"
"I doubt it. Psylocke really seems to like dick."
"Jeanne-Marie used to as well, but she does not anymore. Not after what happened to her."
"Yeah, but you remember all the men Psylocke went to bed with on An'zhina," I reminded him.
"That is true," Jean-Paul admitted.
"I think that she and Marrow are on a mission together to inflict as much pain on FOH soldiers as they can. I think they're united in that way, but I don't think they're lovers," I said.
Jean-Paul was silent for a moment. He then asked, "Do you think there's a double standard, Bobby?"
"What do you mean?"
"I'm talking about the way the others reacted when they saw the crew of the Fitzpatrick. I mean, it was gory and disgusting. And everyone had a visceral reaction to the fact that the men had been….raped. Yet how is it any worse than what the FOH did to my sister and to Jubilee and all the other women we love?" He paused and then continued, "I mean, yes, the crew of the Fitzpatrick was killed too….but FOH surely was going to kill the X-men as well, and they did succeed in killing most of Alpha Flight. Torture is torture."
I thought about his words for a bit. The past few days, I had really been trying to wipe away the memory of the massacre. "I don't think anyone necessarily compared it to what all our women went through, or were saying it was any worse than that," I said slowly. But there was something….some way that it **had** seemed worse. "Maybe what made it so hard to swallow was that **our** people were the ones doing the torturing. I mean, Psylocke had been an X-man for a while. Marrow hadn't been a team member for a long time, but she was mostly one of us and she seemed to be like abiding by our rules. Then for the two of them to duck out and do this. Maybe it shocked everyone to see two X-men do this."
"But you told me that Wolverine, Gambit and Rogue killed the FOH soldiers on board this ship once you X-men got control of it. I cannot imagine that the method they used for killing the soldiers was lethal injection. I'm sure they tortured them for a bit too."
I shook my head. The romantic, comfortable mood was now gone and the malaise had returned. "Yeah, I'm sure you're right," I finally said. "I honestly haven't thought of it much in the last few years. And I don't hold it against the three of them or really think they did anything too wrong. Those soldiers were going to kill all of us. And they tortured the women horribly. I think Rogue, Gambit and Wolverine just went berserk because it was so soon after…what FOH had done to us. None of the wounds have healed."
"Obviously Psylocke and Marrow's wounds have not healed either, eh?" Jean-Paul asked.
"Yes," I said, nodding. "Maybe that is partly why it was so gruesome to see what they had done."
Jean-Paul was silent for a bit. "Well, I think since we can't use our sensors to pick up the cloaked shuttle, the Professor should consider using his powers to track them down and stop them from doing anymore."
"I think he's thought of doing that," I said. I knew it had been discussed at a meeting but I either hadn't been there or hadn't been paying close attention. "He needs to rest though. He really looks taxed from using his powers so much. Besides, Marrow and Psylocke might be too far out of range. We have no guarantee that they're going to earth. Maybe they'll be like pirates and attack FOH ships, kill the crew and steal the dilithium." They had stolen most of the dilithium from the Fitzpatrick, having left just about enough for it to get back to earth.
I then shook my head. "This topic really depresses me."
"Unfortunately, there is a lot to be depressed about," Jean-Paul said. "Well, let us try to think of some happy thoughts. We have each other, no? I am so glad for you in my life, Bobby."
"And I, you." We reached over and kissed once more. "Oh!" I said. "If you want to talk of a happier topic….er-well, of a lighter topic, anyway. Guess what Rogue and Gambit told me this morning?"
I went on to describe it for Jean-Paul. I'd been working out with the newly-weds. Somehow---and I don't remember quite how---we got on the subject of Queen Marina. I remember bringing up how bewildered I still was at the change in attitude Marina exhibited towards the X-men. Rogue and Gambit had exchanged a look. I said something like, "Okay, what are you hiding?" Eventually Rogue revealed to me what she had found out at the last meeting of all the X-men leaders. I was pretty stunned to hear about Marina's request of Scott. I told Jean-Paul all this. And I then added what Rogue and Gambit had asked of me----to please not tell anyone.
"Perhaps it is not 100% surprising," he commented. "I mean, considering her request for sperm…."
"Yeah, I know. But I could see Scotty-boy totally flustered," I said, smiling.
"Me too," Jean-Paul said, though he didn't return my light-hearted tone. Poor guy. He was depressed. With that, a yawn escaped from his mouth. He always put his hand over his mouth when he yawned. I noticed little details like that. He never belched out loud either, though some of our colleagues did. He didn't even do it when he and I were alone. "It is late, amour. I must get back to my room now."
"You could stay here," I urged, looking intently at him and wishing he would for once decide to do this.
He looked at me and smiled. "You know that I like my own bed," he said simply. He then gave me a quick kiss before exiting the room in a flash.
The X-men continued to proceed towards earth, unobstructed. A few more weeks passed and no FOH vessels crossed paths with them. As they moved closer to their home planet, they were able to detect uncloaked FOH ships, but none of those ships changed course to intercept or reacted at all to their presence. During their last mission, the X-men had experienced the powers of some telepath blocking the Professor's ability. Charles sensed no such interference this time.
The X-men readied themselves for liberating the next FOH camp. They again selected a Mutant Containment Center at random and prepared for their mission.
The FOH soldier named Mark was called into the office of the commander one afternoon. Commander Blaine, who was in charge of the Mutant Containment Center to which Mark was assigned, sat at his desk and looked at Mark.
Mark forced himself to keep his face a blank slate and not give away any of his fear. Had he somehow been found out? Mark had not done anything to violate FOH policies….but he wanted to. He still had the idea of taking the "Mutie's First Time" rape video to the media, though he had not done so because he didn't know any sympathizers who had positions of power in the media. But maybe that mutant telepath who was working for FOH had sensed that Mark's thoughts were traitorous and had turned him in.
Fortunately for Mark, his fears were unfounded. "I have a special mission for you," the commander began. "We have discovered a whole family of muties and mutie lovers living just 40 miles from this containment center. And they have a connection to the X-men." The commander paused for effect. Any mention of the X-men was sobering to an FOH member. "We believe that Jean Grey's family contains more mutants and is hiding some of them." He didn't need to explain who Jean Grey was; the X-men were all notorious among FOH. "Our intelligence indicates that her parents are harboring at least three muties, including Grey's own nephew and niece. As you know, Congress just passed an amendment to the Mutant Containment Act, making it illegal to harbor unregistered muties. So we can do whatever we want, within reason. I want you to lead the mission to the Grey's house. Take however many Sentinels you need and capture the muties. And bring everyone you find in for questioning, including the parents. They have some explaining to do."
"Yes, Sir!"
I was very nervous. I tried to recall how many months it had been since we'd gotten this far….how long it had been since we stood, poised above a "Mutant Containment Center." Freedom was within earth's atmosphere, moving on impulse power towards the camp we had picked at random. It was quite ironic----the camp was located in the northern part of New York state. Not too far from our old mansion.
We stood in the transporter room----Storm, Wolverine, Gambit, Rogue, Hank, Colossus, Angel, Nightcrawler, Shaman, Jeanne-Marie, Jean-Paul, and myself. The Professor prepared to beam us down. We each had gas masks on as the Professor was prepared to dump large quantities of the Euphoria Vapor on the camp. Once the mission was completed, the Professor told us that he was going to attempt to enter the mind of the FOH President/CEO/General and plant some seeds of doubt.
As the ship moved closer and closer to the camp, I tried to chase away my fears. Last time we'd gotten this far, I had been captured. That couldn't happen this time. It wouldn't. At least I tried to reassure myself that way.
And then we were off. We got the signal that the cloak was dropped. Storm, Rogue, Angel, Jean-Paul and Jeanne-Marie flew out an airlock towards the camp. Nightcrawler teleported and the rest of us were beamed down as the Euphoria Vapor was dropped on the camp.
Two FOH soldiers stood inside the watch tower. The tower was virtually useless now, installed inside the camp out of tradition more than anything. FOH's sensor array had the ability to detect any intrusions. Besides, FOH had many mutant traitors living at this camp, including one very powerful telepath. Surely if any disturbances were coming their way, those alternate means would have picked up on it before any enemies came into visual range. So the two guards up top the tower weren't being exceptionally diligent. One played a hand-held video game, the other read a magazine.
Out of the corner of his eye, one guard saw….something. Something flying in their direction. And then a starship was uncloaking before their very eyes! White, puffy clouds of some gaseous substance poured down from the ship.
One guard signaled an alert. Both men put their gas masks on, but the substance seemed to be oozing right through their protective gear. They soon both keeled over----in laugher and happiness. As the two lay down laughing, they both felt amazing pleasure overtake their systems. Their weapons fell to the floor. Why had they ever wanted to fight in the first place?
Still, the alarm had been sounded and the traitor mutants were scrambling to fight back the intruders.
On board Freedom, Professor X and Panda sat on the bridge. Panda watched all the controls, her heart ready to leap out of her chest. This was torture. `I'm crazy to have ever wanted to be an X-man,' she told herself. The man she loved more than anything on the face of the earth was down there, his life in jeopardy if the mission failed. But she had to be ready. Panda's fingers hovered over the controls. As soon as she received signals from Storm and others, she locked into mutants and began beaming them to the infirmary.
The Professor scanned the area for General Smith, the man who was FOH's current General, President, and CEO. Charles remained as focussed as possible but he kept smacking his head against brick walls. Not only could he not locate Smith, but another brilliant mind was out there, thwarting him at every turn. Like two chess players, the other telepath was blocking and countering his every move.
It had all started so well. The Euphoria Vapor was working and mutants were being beamed to Freedom rapidly. The camp was a large one and we were told that Panda was experiencing difficulty locking onto everyone. I was sliding around on my ice slide, checking out the different barracks and ensuring everyone had been beamed up. I slid through one barrack and saw it was bereft of mutants; apparently they had all been whisked away to Freedom. I slid into another barrack and saw Angel flying about. He gave some coordinates to Panda and she beamed up the few mutants who were left in there. We encountered a few FOH guards who were composed enough to still want to fight us and fire on us. As soon as I saw one who looked sober enough, I shot out streams of ice and encased him. Angel and I hurried on to the rest of the camp.
And then suddenly, I saw **them** out of the corner of my eye. More traitor mutants, just like we'd run into outside of Beijing. A few I didn't recognize. But I did see Pyro and "Gorgeous Jorge", and a few others I knew of but hadn't seen in Beijing….such as Toad and Avalanche..
And the Euphoria Vapor didn't seem to be affecting them.
Pyro attacked me, and he and I battled each other. Fire versus ice. I was holding my own very well and about to overwhelm him, but Colossus came by. He got behind Pyro and pummeled him a few times. I wouldn't ever want to be on the receiving end of Peter's steel fists. Pyro collapsed to the ground.
But then suddenly, Gorgeous Jorge was behind Colossus. I opened my mouth to shout out a warning to the big guy, but in the flash of a second, Jorge had used his stretchy arms to place an inhibitor collar around Peter! Jorge was going to get me next.
Rogue instantly swooped over me, picked me up, and flew away with me. She did it just in the nick of time. I looked down and saw if she'd been a second or two later, Jorge probably would have been successful in getting a collar around me. As Rogue flew with me in her grasp, we heard Storm's voice over the communicator. "We have all the prisoners. Prepare---"
Storm was cut off by a much more menacing voice.
The Professor stared at the main viewscreen on board Freedom. An image was forcing its way through; Freedom was being coerced to accept a transmission. The Professor ceased attempting to reach the mind of Smith and now tried to reach whoever was running the transmission. He failed. The same telepath continued to block his every move. Simultaneously, three FOH starships were rushing towards Freedom, weapons blazing.
Panda gasped. The image on the screen showed several FOH guards surrounding Beast and Colossus. Both X-men had collars around their necks. Gorgeous Jorge had gotten to both of them. And FOH soldiers had guns pointed at the heads of them.
"X-men, cease all your hostile activities and surrender immediately," the stern voice said. "We give you 20 seconds. If you do not surrender in 20 seconds, we will kill one of our new prisoners. Beast or Colossus."
Voices rang out on the X-men's communicators. "Could this be some sort of trick? Maybe those aren't Beast and Colossus."
"No, I saw them get captured myself!"
"It's them! If it ain't, they'd have checked in by now."
"And I don't see them anywhere."
"We gotta quit yabberin' and do somethin'!"
The Professor could not even get through the blocking of the other telepath to ascertain whether the captives on this screen were indeed Beast and Colossus. However, his gut told him that they were, as did the messages he'd heard bouncing around the X-men's communicators. Charles then resumed his attempt to breach the minds of the FOH who held the two X-men prisoners. He had to get around the other telepath.
Meanwhile Panda attempted to fend off the FOH ships that were demolishing Freedom's shields. She did a commendable job, but one starship was no match for three. Several well-aimed phaser blasts damaged Freedom's engine core.
The deep FOH voice rang out again. "Ten seconds, X-men until we start the executions."
Panda continued to frantically work the controls on the bridge. Her dexterous hands flying, she fought the FOH ships as she tried to locate the X-men and beam them back aboard. She could not get a lock on Hank or Colossus. What was FOH using to block their transporters? The X-men had succeeded in beaming aboard 285 mutants but now were unable to get a fix on their own people. Panda forced herself to concentrate and keep her hands steady. She fought back her fear. `Oh my god what if something happens to Hank?…' she tried to cut off that line of thought and focus on trying to lock onto them.
Panda braced herself as the ship rocked again. Another hit. The Professor was entranced in his work, trying to get a fix on the minds of the FOH men who held Hank and Colossus captive. No one else on board Freedom had been trained on combat duty. Another array of photons shook Freedom.
Panda then saw the transmission on board the bridge flicker and instantly disappear. Above the din of the battle with the other starships, she heard chaos coming from the X-men's communicators. Glancing at the Professor, she saw that he was deep in concentration, apparently attempting to enter FOH minds. Panda then heard some whispered orders, sounds of scuffle, phasers. More chaos. `Thank goodness,' Panda thought. `Storm and the others have thought of a way to free-------'
The transmission from FOH re-appeared on the viewscreen. "Your time is up and the pathetic attempt you made to rescue your fellow muties failed," an FOH commander said. "We're carrying out our threat."
With that, the commander nodded to a solider. The solder pulled the trigger on his pistol and shot Colossus point blank in the head.
It was pandemonium after that. I felt the blood draining and began to feel dizzy. Dimly I heard the FOH guy say that if we did not surrender in 10 seconds, he would kill Hank as well.
We surrendered.
Colossus was dead.
I fainted.
Chapter 11
Chapter 13