Chapter 03

A Touch of Sorrow

"Kitty! Call the professor and tell him that Pyro's in town! Call for backup!" Jean shouted as the rest hid behind several parked cars along the curb. Pyro shot another blast of flames towards the sky as it changes into a giant fiery bat that swooped down upon the terrified people. Though not wanting to ruin her favorite dress and the distance back to the mansion will take too much time to run and change into her combat uniform, Jean prepared herself as she stretches out both hands towards the fire hydrant near Pyro. Her eyebrows furrowed and her temples begin to throb, sending her psychokinetic powers over the caps that covered the valve as it begins to loosen with an ear-piercing screech.

"Jean! Just try to take him out! I'll try to distract him!" The girl with long brown hair and tanned skin shouted from across as she ran towards the master of fire. At each step her body begins to glow in a fiery blast with the fury of a volcanic eruption, hence her name Magma, and floated off to the sky.

Professor Xavier's sights were locked towards the chessboard, his chin resting between his thumb and index finger as he gathered every ounce of his logic and skill in trying to beat his opponent. Though he was now sixteen moves in the game and somehow holding his own, he realized that his opponent has deliberately sacrificed his kingside bishop in order to expose his queenside rook, now in danger of being taken by the opponent's queen. A possible checkmate was inevitable now that his opponent's rook towards his king has taken his bishop. Looking at his opponent in front of him, the furry blue face of Hank McCoy still kept a placid expression as he stares at the board. To Hank, his only disadvantage would be finding a way to shield his mind from one of Professor Xavier's mind probes. But the two men knew better and kept the game as honest and as challenging.

Just when Professor Xavier finally decided to sacrifice his kingside knight in order to save the rook, the usual glow of the incandescent lamps was now being overpowered by the red strobes that flooded his office and the claxons blared throughout the mansion. Hank and Professor Xavier bolted from their game and headed down in the middle of the hallway. They stopped in front of the only undecorated side of the oak paneling along the corridor. Charles then reached his hand towards the right column and pressed his thumb against it, where strangely enough it appears to be discolored like an eyesore. The small part of the surface where his thumb was placed slowly glowed with a neon green light and the hydraulic mechanism begins to hum to life behind the wall. The undecorated wall slid upwards in a few moments, revealing an elevator car behind it as Charles and Hank entered.

The descent into the lower levels of the mansion took only less than ten seconds as the two waited. Professor Xavier could only picture what was happening beyond the walls of the institute. A chime inside the car interrupted his thoughts, as the doors parted open. It was a much different corridor almost similar to any secret government installations and painted in a kind of pale yellow. Hank pushed Professor Xavier's wheelchair and broke into a run through the long corridor lined with fluorescent lights under both sides of the ceiling. After ten doors to the right from the elevator they turned left facing the automatic metal doors as it parted sideways.

Inside the room was full of state-of-the-art communications and radar devices, computers, and a large LCD monitor overlooking everything. A flashing red button caught the attention of the two men and Hank immediately sprang off his feet and landed in front of the control panel. Pressing the button, the ten speakers mounted on all sides of the walls immediately filled the room with the distant sound of screaming and panic and the voice from Kitty Pryde clearly took over.

"Professor!" Kitty shouted. "We need some help over here! Pyro's back in town and it looks like he's gonna burn part of Manhattan if you don't send some backup right away!"

"Calm down, Kitty." The professor spoke over the microphone. "Exactly where are you?"

"Were at a disco named Equinox just right of The Carlyle Hotel! Hurry!"

"Okay, Kitty. Try to distract Pyro as much as you can. Somehow I doubt that he's alone in his little bonfire. I'll be sending Wolverine, Storm, Beast and Cyclops so try to avoid a confrontation unless necessary."

But the reply never arrived as the room was suddenly filled with static. The professor tried to hail Kitty several times, but the scratchy static was his only answer and a hollow sensation begins to form in Charles's chest.

Kitty's hands were slightly numb from the tiny shock wave of an explosion in the palm of her hands, but otherwise intact as she stared at what's left of her communicator now lying in a dozen smoldering pieces. Looking up towards the light post just above her, she gasped and her eyes widened when she saw a man hanging on top of the lamppost. His medium brown trench coat fluttered through the air and in his left hand is a single playing card that glowed with an eerie energy. Even under his wavy brown hair, Kitty recognized the man as Gambit.

"Tut, tut, tut." Gambit waved his left index finger at Kitty as if she were a child along with the energized card tucked between his thumb and the rest of his fingers. His voice sounded with a distinctive French accent. "I don't zink you want to do zat, cherie. All we want is someone inside that club and vaire out of here."

"What are you planning to do?" Rogue roared and fixed her eyes towards Gambit with a piercing stare as she helped Kitty up on her feet.

Before Gambit could spill the beans, a loud popping sound appeared from behind that force the startled Gambit to turn his head. His eyes widened when he finds the outstretched arms of Nightcrawler, immediately wrapping it around Gambit's body before the two vanished. Gambit and Kurt teleported back on solid ground a fraction of a second later and was about to square off after Rogue joined in. A loud scream shot out from where Pyro was standing that caught everyone's attention as everyone turned their sights towards the club.

A high-pitched sound echoed through the cavernous underground hangar as Storm and Professor Xavier were already in the cockpit, priming the turbines of the X-Jet as the rotating platform slowly turned a hundred eighty degrees to face the solid steel doors. Cyclops, Wolverine, and Beast arrived at the steps of the jet and boarded. As Cyclops, Beast, and soon followed by Storm took their seats behind the cockpit and tightened their seatbelts, Wolverine took over the pilot's seat beside Professor Xavier and pushed down the throttle. The high-pitched shrill of the two powerful turbines reverberated all throughout the hangar and the jet slowly begins to move forward. The professor pressed the red button in front of the instrument panel, activating the steel doors to part open. A thick curtain of water was now the only thing blocking the way to the outside. The jet hovered fifteen feet off the ground and the afterburners kicked in, propelling the X-Jet through the thick curtain of water and towards the sky. There was no time for protocol as everyone sat in silence, knowing that Jean and the others are in extreme danger.

Jean and Magma sat on the ground after taking the brunt from Pyro and his flames when Jean's plan to extinguish his flame attacks with the fire hydrant failed. They were the closest ones to hear the scream break out inside the club. The onlookers have been long gone by now though only a handful was brave enough to watch from a safe distance.

As the two stared, their eyes widened and their jaw drops to see the third member on Pyro's team, the Iron Man of Russia known as Colossus who probably sneaked in the disco way before they arrived. But something was wrong as they saw Colossus taking steps backwards as if trying to walk away from something as he clutched his right shoulder. Pyro also notice and approached the towering strongman of the team as he kept his fiery arms towards Jean and Magma, and after trying to snap Colossus out of his shellshock he shoved him aside.

"What's wrong with ya?" Pyro yelled. "Yer supposed to grab the kid!" But Colossus could only stared fixedly towards the club doors.

Pyro peered through the doors of the disco as well, wondering what could have made Colossus freeze up like that until the same look of fear was also beginning to warp his face. Slowly the two backs away from the doors until the sound of broken glass crushing under the weight of someone's feet followed. Jean and Magma watched intently, wondering what sort of thing that could make two of the most dangerous mutants cowering with fear.

The answer finally showed itself when a towering humanoid-shaped figure wearing black tattered clothes emerged from the doors as Jean and Magma watched with their jaws hanging open. The mysterious being also has the same type of silvery metallic armor like Colossus yet something else stood out aside from the glimmer his body reflects off from the spotlights. His hands began to glow with an iridescent yellow light and as he opened his palms, two flickers of flame floated on top of it. The fiery pillars grew taller and wider after each step towards Colossus and Pyro. With one swift motion he stretched his open palms towards them and the flames shot out in a deadly spiral much faster and powerful than Pyro's own flames as it transforms into a giant skull. The two mutants caught the full force of the flames, sending them flying across the street and smashing against the concrete walls of a building. It left two hollowed-out cracks that almost took the shape of Colossus and Pyro before falling back to the ground and rendered unconscious.

Witnessing the attack, Gambit decided to call it quits before anything else should go wrong. He knew that the target would likely put up some resistance, yet it was nothing like the one it did to Pyro and Colossus. Rogue and Nightcrawler were still standing in his way as he tries to approach his fallen comrades.

"Sorry, my friends, but I could say that our mission here is accomplished." Gambit said before he pulled out a half deck of cards from his pocket and infused them with explosive energy. He threw three cards near Kurt and Rogue's feet, causing chunks of the asphalt to explode as Kurt managed to teleport Rogue and himself away to safety. Doing the same to the other members of the X-Men as he ran towards his fallen comrades, Gambit immediately scoops up Pyro over his shoulders and dashed away, leaving Colossus lying on the ground. It was a heartless thing to do to abandon one of their own as Jean and Magma approached Colossus when his body slowly begins to levitate. The silvery metallic body rose even higher until everyone saw the familiar crimson body armor, helmet and the cape of one of the most powerful mutants alive today. Magneto kept his helmet towards them as if looking at the X-Men before flying away with Colossus's body trailing behind.

"I think it's over. Or maybe not." Jean muttered to Magma after realizing that there is something else left that was standing in front of the two women. Kurt and Rogue and the rest of their friends joined in after brushing off some of the dust on their clothes.

"What the heck is that?" Rogue pointed towards the strange mutant.

Jean was too engrossed to even try to answer as she kept her eyes fixed towards the mutant. As soon as the smoke cleared, the unknown mutant begins to transform right in front of their very eyes. The metallic body begins to fold away in place and the flames were snuffed out from his hands. Everyone watched as the figure slowly returns to the shape of someone they just met recently.

It was Derek Vane, the fashion designer.

Something else was replacing the previous transformation the moment they identified the strange being. His skin begins to grow fur like Kurt's and the lower part of his body from the waist down glowed with the same power as Magma.

"It's not Derek Vane!" Rogue shouted from behind. "It must be Mystique!"

Jean shook her head briskly. "It can't be! I don't think Mystique has the ability to copy any of our powers!"

Pulling the gloves off her hands, Rogue ignored the explanation and lunged herself towards the being that might be Derek Vane or Mystique while everyone shouted out her name and calling her back. Rogue's hands managed to touch a sizeable area of its skin from behind and steeling herself for the familiar absorption of powers. Everyone watched, expecting the mysterious mutant to collapse to the ground when Rogue froze and her grip begins to loosen that left her almost dangling over his shoulders. A strange rush of emotions rushed all over her body, and without realizing it tears began falling off her cheeks. The mutant shocked everyone by teleporting into thin air and instantly appearing only a few feet away from Rogue and the others. Whatever this mutant is, he must have absorbed the combined powers of every mutant he just fought off and probably theirs, too, if they decide to confront him.

The familiar sound of turbines caught everyone's attention as they all looked up towards the sky. A large black jet swoops down just above the city skyline and hovered a few feet from the ground as the doors opened. Storm was the first to emerge and after conjuring a wind tunnel that carried Cyclops inside it, then it was Beast and Wolverine's turn to jump out.

"What happened?" Wolverine shouted as he extended his adamantium claws.

"I think that thing is Mystique." Kurt pointed towards the mutant standing silently at the full roster of the X-Men. His body continues to change where the previous furry and fiery complexion is added with a mixture of the rest of their friends' individual powers.

Professor Xavier watched behind the monitors of the X-Jet nearly dumbstruck, never believing on what he was witnessing. Pressing the button on the communicator fitted inside his headset, the professor called out to Wolverine.

"Try to approach him slowly. I don't want anything to startle him."

"Easy for you to say, Charles." Wolverine answered gruffly.

Before anyone could approach him, the being slowly raised his hands towards Wolverine. A familiar humming sound of psychokinetic powers lifted Wolverine off his feet and sent him hovering ten feet in the air and his body froze rigid. Cyclops took the opportunity for a counterattack as he pressed the button at the left side of his visors. The single thin strip of ruby quartz lens slid up and a bright red laser shot out from his eyes. The mutant remained where he stood at the incoming Optic Blast. Just when Cyclops was about to savor the victory of bringing down the mutant, it stunned everyone by phasing through the laser. Cyclops unleashed a couple more shots that hit nothing but air when the mutant's eyes also begins to glow with a familiar red energy. This time, the magnitude and power of his version of Cyclops's Optic Blast rips through the asphalt road, leaving behind a fissure nearly ten feet deep with a twelve-foot gap as everyone managed to jump for cover. The laser also destroyed a large pipe that gives New York electricity as three blocks of the city plunged into darkness. The professor thought frantically to find a way to subdue their mysterious adversary when the mutant begins to howl with an eerie tone. Everyone watched as the mutant staggers and swayed on his feet, clutching his head with pain unimaginable and begins to revert back to his original state as Derek Vane before collapsing to the ground. Wolverine was released from the powerful psychokinetic force that held him in place and plopped down on the ground. He ordered everyone to stay where they are as he approached Derek with his nose hovering just above his shoulders.

"It's not Mystique." Wolverine concluded.

The professor thumbed the left side of his temples as he sinks deeply into his mind. What sort of mutant power does Derek Vane possesses that could imitate the powers of the rest of his students and somehow increasing the strength almost ten times? Is there a possibility that he might be a new threat, or a civilian who might be provoked enough to unleash his powers? As he continue to ponder at one question with another, the darkened streets begins to fill with the sound of hundreds of New York's finest as the professor ordered everyone back into the X-Jet. Only Scott, Jean, Kitty, Rogue and Kurt remained to take the X-Van as the rest of their friends boarded the jet using the retractable ladder. Within minutes the streets were flooded and lit with hundreds of patrol cars, leaving enough time for the others to be dozens of yards from the now disaster area.

Author's Notes:

I can do this all day if I didn't have to go to work in the morning. Sigh. Well it's just minor re-editing anyway and all that.

For now, I would like to thank two of the only people who reviewed my story when I dumped the entire contents in FFnet over a year ago.

sassygirl58701: Thanks for reading!

DemonRogue: Well, keep on reading and don't spare any asses hehehehe!

See you soon!