Hi, everyone and thanks for the reviews from the last chapter. As always I do not own either Smallville or The X-men and I never will. And now on with the story.
New York
Professor Xavier was reading in his study, it was getting late and he hadn't yet gotten a phone call from Oromo. He usually got one at the end of the day as a recap of what was going on. It was a way for his mind to be at ease for once from worrying about the mutants, especially Clark, and Bobby. He always took it personally when something went wrong with a mission, and this time was no different. He sighed and put the book down, he was becoming a bit impatient, but this mission was a dangerous one, and no one could know what was going to happen next. Staring out the window he could see only the trees and the darkness that had surrounded the school. It had become especially quiet ever since the X-Men had left; the school wasn't the same anymore with out them. Staring into the void of the darkness he was barely aware of the fact of running down the hallway coming towards his study.
"Professor Xavier?" Rogue came running into the office, jolting the Professor back to the present.
"Yes what is it Rogue?" The professor asked turning around in his chair. He had 'shut down' his telepathic abilities for a while so he could relax, but now he knew that he should have had them up from the concern in Rogue's voice.
"Professor I really think you should see this." Rogue announced and turned on the small TV that the Professor had in his office. On CNN was a breaking news story from Smallville, a reporter was just coming live from the hospital. 'This could not be good', Charles Xavier thought to himself.
"I'm here live in Smallville, where we are being told by Police Officials that a mutant is here on the loose and is attacking citizens. Now all we know so far is that the mutant is a 5'6" male, 17 years old, he is considered a danger to society. As of last notice we have confirmed two separate attacks. The first was on a vice principal at the local high school, a Mr. Edward Kane, and two students at the high school, Pete Ross and Bobby Drake. Now we have unconfirmed reports that one of the boys might possibly be another mutant." The reporter paused for a moment letting that sink into the public. "The second attack was on another local high school boy named Clark Kent. He was brought in by a group of people, which unconfirmed reports are telling us are another group of mutants. This is all unconfirmed, but if it is true then we might have some very dangerous people on our hands in the heartland of America." The reporter finished, the news coverage then went back to the main studios, where they began to discuss and dissect the story and the reports that were coming in.
"Oh no." Professor Xavier exclaimed after hearing the reports. So this explained why Ororo had not contacted him this evening. The professor just sat stunned at the reports. This did not last long because he knew that something would have to be done. He wheeled himself over to the phone and started to dial Ororo's cell phone number. The ringing seemed to last forever.
Smallville
Ororo sat beside Bobby's bedside in a very uncomfortable chair. Hospitals must not want visitors to get too comfortable. She started to wonder why hospitals even allowed visitors if they only had limited visiting hours when she realized that someone was tapping her and she could hear a phone ringing somewhere. It was then that she realized that Scott was tapping on her shoulder to get her to notice that her own phone was the one that was ringing.
"Hello," she said picking up her cell phone from her pocked and standing up immediately when she heard the voice on the other line. They had realized that they would have to call the Kent's soon, but they had both forgotten entirely for a few minutes that they were on a mission, and had to report into Professor Xavier. Ororo could have hit herself for being so forgetful, usually she wasn't, but she was close to Bobby and hadn't wanted to leave his side.
"Ororo, I've just heard about what happened, how are Bobby and Clark doing?" Professor Xavier asked her. Now Ororo was confused, how had he known already?
"Bobby's not doing so well, Clark is fine on the outside, but he hasn't woken up yet." Ororo answered the question and then asked one of her own, "Professor how did you know?" Ororo asked him.
"It's all over the news, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN...everything." Professor Xavier allowed the news to sink in to Ororo.
"We knew that there were reporters here, we had to sneak in just to get Clark medical help." Ororo told him, she then knew there was a question she had to ask that, they she knew would be difficult for any one to answer. "Professor, do you want us to continue on with our mission?" Silence filled the line, Ororo could hear him breathing, and she knew that the Professor didn't know himself. Too much was going on; too many people had been hurt already. They didn't know what his weakness was, or even if he had one. They were supposed to find that out before they did anything. Things had just been accelerated too far already. They just weren't prepared, and yet the Professor knew that now, Scott, Logan and herself would want to fight him more then ever.
"I'm not sure....he has to be stopped, he could be going after more people now, but we've already gone down two people by him. We can't afford to lose anymore." Professor Xavier said what Ororo never could have.
"I know Professor, but if there is a way we can do it, then I think we should at least give it a try. We can't let them go through with their plan." Ororo said her voice rising from its once soft tone so that she didn't disturb the Ross's, but now she could see they were paying attention to her conversation with Professor Xavier.
"It's the X-Men's decision, but come up with a plan first and nothing like Logan would come up with. You know what I mean something along the lines of just going in and attacking without a plan." Professor Xavier told her, his voice shaky knowing that they would listen to him
"I understand Professor. We'll call you back when we come up with a plan, and hopefully it won't take too long to come up with." Ororo said and hung up the phone after hearing Professor Xavier agreeing to the plan. She turned around and faced the group; Pete and Scott were looking at her wondering what the plan was now for the X-Men, even though Pete wasn't a mutant. The rest of the Ross's were just wondering what the heck was going on, and who Professor Xavier was. The questions would have to wait when the door burst open and Chloe came in looking very victorious, with a couple of nurses following her with Clark's rollaway bed coming into the room. A very bewildered Logan followed them, just looking dazed that a teenager could do what he couldn't.
"What did I tell you, I am a miracle worker?" Chloe said coming into the room she then realized that the mood of the room had changed drastically. "What?? What happened in here?" She asked, but was met with just silence.
"That was our boss, the attacks are all over the news, and we are trying to figure out what to do next." Ororo told Chloe, but also the whole room.
"What did he say?" Scott asked her.
"Just that it was our decision, he doesn't want to risk any more lives, but he also knows that Cory could be out there right now still attacking people and we are the only ones who have any possibility of stopping him." Ororo said addressing the mutants. "First, Logan I want you to go call the Kent's, then you will meet them in the back so we can sneak them up here without the press bothering them." Logan did what he was told and an hour later the Martha and Jonathan Kent were at the hospital. The Ross's were happy to see the Kent's and after making sure that Pete was fine for the moment they older Kent's moved to Clark's bedside. The mutants and the Kent's were both concerned, something had to be seriously wrong Clark just didn't go down like this.
In the corner by Bobby's bed the X-Men were huddled in the very uncomfortable hospital chairs discussing the plan. As expected Logan had come through and said they should just launch a surprise attack, this was quickly defeated by both Ororo and Scott. Saying no at exactly the same time had the effect of making Logan be quiet on that idea for a while.
Chloe was caught in the middle; she didn't want to interrupt any of the families. The Kent's, the Ross's, or even the protectiveness of the X-Men over Bobby's bed. So Chloe just kept to herself for while until she was needed, she couldn't go home. She did the only thing she could do; she went to the window looking out to the rest of the hospital wing. The pace was a quickened one, it looked like Vice Principal Kane was a picky patient and was having the nurse's going around all over for him doing what ever he wanted. Every once in a while she could see a nurse glancing over to the combined room, wondering what was going on in there, and who the strange people were. Were they really mutants? If so how did they get in there? Or at least that's what Chloe imagined they were thinking to themselves, she could see it in their eyes. It was at that moment when she was scanning the activity that she saw more commotion over by the elevator. Coming out was Lex Luthor...and Lana Lang. What was Lana doing with Lex? Chloe asked herself, and what were they doing here??? Her mind was racing; perhaps they had both been at the Talon when they had heard the news.
"Uh...guys..." no one had come to attention in the room. "Excuse me everyone, but Lex Luthor is coming this way now." That got their attention; however no one had any time to react because at that very moment Lex and Lana entered the room.
Elsewhere in Smallville
Cory climbed down the fire escape ladder outside of his window that had been a plus for no one to see him, especially Magneto and Mystique. His escape would be perfect and he would take the meteor rock bomb with him. Now people would have to deal with him directly. He would be no mere mutant anymore. Cory considered laughing at the mere fact that his escape would be so easy, but then thought twice considering someone might hear him. He couldn't entirely escape the town tonight, he might be caught, no he would go to the forest clearing, and he had food, water, blankets and tools to build a shelter...that is he had a tent. Heading out toward the forest clearing that he had used to build the bomb, he heaved a heavy sigh. He would have to wait, but it would be well worth the wait to see the destruction that he would cause. With that final thought Cory began to walk.
Ok that's it, most was written in one day. My Muse is back!!! Yippee. I finally put Lex into the story and Lana made another appearance: Note to the readers I know a few of you wanted to see Lex in the story, this was not planned, and it just seemed to fit at the right moment so I wrote it down. Sorry for the long wait...I just don't know how my time intervals are going to be anymore...I'm trying though.