X-Men! The voice of Professor Charles Xavier echoed through the mind of every human being in the X-Mansion. Suit up and gather in the hangar!
Everyone stopped what they were doing and ran back to their rooms; Nightcrawler, who was, for once, actually busy with something concerning academics - his social studies homework, jumped up from his seat at his desk in his room, and began looking through his wardrobe for his costume. Upon finding it, Nightcrawler laid it on his bed, almost as if it were an unconscious human being, and he disappeared, ears, fur, pointy tail and everything else except his clothes, in a puff of black smoke. A split second later, black smoke began billowing from the inside of Nightcrawler's costume, and the cloud of dark smoke cleared away to reveal Nightcrawler, who had teleported into his costume. In another puff of black smoke, Nightcrawler disappeared, as he appeared again, a few seconds later, in the hangar.
On the brown roof of the X-Mansion, Storm sat in the lotus position, her hands placed on her knees, her eyes closed as her snow white hair flew serenely in the gentle wind that was around the entire mansion. After hearing the Professor's voice ring through her head, Storm stood up, and jumped off the roof, and a few metres before she came into painful contact with the ground, a massive wind caught her, and blew her up above the roof, and brought her to her balcony, which was connected to her room. Storm gracefully landed on the balcony floor, and walked into her room and started looking through her organised and neat wardrobe for her uniform.
Storm, together with all the other students and staff of the renowned Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, ran towards the hangar, all dressed in their costumes, in which they performed their heroic exploits in protection of a world that hated people of their kind - mutants. Some, like Jean Grey, flew, while others, like Cyclops, her boyfriend and fellow student, ran alongside.
Everyone gathered in the hangar; a large hall where the X-Jet was stored. Everyone stood around Professor X, and listened as he spoke. "X-Men," he said, "Pyro is creating hell on Earth in Salem Center, in a small hamlet. Because of the time constraints, we will not be using the Blackbird." Turning to face Psylocke with a trusting look in his eyes, the Professor said, "Psylocke, can you manage bringing the entire team over?"
Psylocke looked at the sheer amount of people in the room, and it did not require a mind-reader to know that she could not manage. "Do you think you can do it with Magnify's help?" Professor X asked. Magnify extended his hand to Psylocke, with a reassuring smile on his face that, beside providing the feeling of assurance, also said "I know you can do it". Psylocke, returning the smile with a small upwards curve in her lips, held on to his hand.
"I will telepathically project the image of where you're bound into your mind, Psylocke," the Professor said. "Are you ready?" Psylocke nodded at him, and after a moment's concentration of the Professor's side, a building, possibly a school, consumed by raging fire, flashed in Psylocke's mind, followed by the words "Salem Center Elementary School" written on a concrete block which stood erect in front of a brick red building, confirming the former thought.
"Everyone," Psylocke announced loudly, "Walk into the Blackbird's shadow!" Everyone, excluding Professor X, did so, and within a second, the shadow turned as black as the colour wheel would permit, and the impenetrable darkness swallowed the X-Men up, leaving behind absolutely nothing a second later, when the darkness faded away leaving only the original shadow.
Far away, from the part where the shadow of a flaming Salem Center Elementary School connected itself to the building itself, sprang the X-Men, and a rather exhausted Psylocke. Even with Magnify's assistance, it was still very draining for her to teleport the entire X-Men from one place to another.
"Alright," Cyclops shouted over the loud crackling of the inferno that was the school. "Iceman and Candle, you'll be the main people here. Combine your powers with Magnify's to put out all the fires. Shadowcat and Nightcrawler, scout the place for any people who're trapped. Everyone else, try your best to help." "Yessir!" Nightcrawler said, and he disappeared in a puff of black smoke, as Shadowcat took in a long breath and sunk into the ground. Iceman turned into a living, moving statue of ice and ran through the fire unharmed, as Candle ran after him, the flames that surrounded her being repelled by her powers.
Iceman reached the centre of the inferno before Candle did. However, he was melting; actually, his second skin made of ice was. "Can you put the flames out?" Candle asked. A whitish-blue wave of energy flowed from Iceman's body and put out the flames within ten metres of his body, covering everything with white frost, including Candle, who melted it off with a flickering fireball that she later put out.
Suddenly, a jet of fire shot out from nowhere at Iceman, who had his icy second skin completely melted away as beads of perspiration formed on his flushed face. "Isn't this nice?" Pyro's voice echoed throughout the place. "Two victims delivering themselves to me!"
"Don't even bother to hide yourself, Pyro," Candle said as she flung her hands at a silhouette in the fiery inferno, and all the flame and fire in the auditorium, which was the centre of the school, was directed to the silhouette, which was Pyro, a redheaded Australian pyrokinetic, who gathered the flame into a massive fireball that hovered threateningly on top of him.
"Apparently you're not just any victims," Pyro said as he carelessly flicked his hand, making tongues of flame dance across the ground, only to be put out by Candle. "You're victims who think mutants and humans can live together. Well, I'm here to give Edward Kelly a message. If he continues to preach against mutants, other of his projects will burn to the ground as well." With that, he threw the fireball at Candle, who stopped it and turned it into a stream of fire, and guided it out of the window, where it, unexpectedly, landed on the football field. Pyro laughed maniacally when he saw the roaring fire in the field.
While Pyro and Candle danced with fire, the rest of the X-Men were busy putting out the massive fires all over the school; Storm flew over the school grounds, creating rain wherever she went, the Scarlet Witch shot blue bolts from her hands which put out the flames that it touched, Jean was telekinetically smothering the flames around her.
"There're no trapped people in here," Nightcrawler said to Cyclops, after appearing in front of him, startling him. Shadowcat suddenly shot up from the ground Nightcrawler was standing on, and said, "I couldn't find anybody. Where's Nightcrawler?", adding to Cyclops' shock. "You're standing in him," Cyclops said, and Shadowcat stepped out of Nightcrawler's body. "Tell Cannonball to help Candle and Iceman take Pyro down," and Shadowcat ran into a nearby wall in search of Cannonball.
Back in the auditorium, Candle and Pyro were hurling fireballs at each other, as they deflected the other's missiles and assaulted each other with their fireballs, waiting for the other to give up. Iceman was helping Candle by firing ice beams at impending fireballs.
Suddenly, the wall that stood behind Candle was knocked down, and everyone raised their hands in defence as the dust clouds subsided, revealing Cannonball, and the school's power system, which he had flew through on his way to find Pyro.
"Cannonball?" Iceman said in amazement and shock as he stared wide-eyed at the blonde-haired teenage boy who had just broke through a concrete wall. "Yes, it's me," Cannonball said as he descended onto the ground. "Cyclops told me to- watch out!" he shouted as he held onto Candle and Iceman and flew upwards, breaking through the ceiling. Pyro had hurled a gigantic fireball at Candle, and now that she wasn't there to "break the fireball's fall", the fireball flew into the school's power system, and the whole school exploded in flames because of that stray fireball.
Suddenly, the explosion, the massive explosion that covered the entire school and threatened to destroy everything else as well, expanded no further, as it became contained in a telekinetic force field. All the X-Men were safely outside of the force field; Cannonball was still floating in the air, holding on to Iceman and Candle, and Jean was standing at the top of the force field which looked like a massive, circular distortion in the air, her hands facing downwards as if she were pushing downwards, her face contorted into a face of pain and pressure.
Suddenly, the force field quivered; an outward dent appeared in it. "JEAN!" Cyclops shouted at the top of his voice. "I know you can do it! Don't lose control!" A dent appeared below Jean, as she pressed downwards in an attempt to contain the explosion. Her telekinetic pushing made the force field flatten outwards, making it seem like a massive red blood cell. "I CAN'T DO IT!" Jean shouted, as she continued a losing battle against the titanic force. A fiery orange birdlike shape, the sign of the Phoenix, surrounded Jean's tired body, as the force field was covered in the same orange glow. However, even with the emergence of the firebird, Jean was still on the losing end. She screamed as the force field got larger as the contained energy fought to escape.
Suddenly, Jean leapt into the air and spread her hands sideways, and inhaled relaxedly, as though she was taking her last breath before she gave up. Suddenly, the look on her face turned from relaxation to a look of seriousness, and she flew upwards before diving into the force field.
"JEAN!" Cyclops shouted in anguish, for he thought she had commited suicide. He collapsed onto the floor in a heap, overwhelmed by the sadness that one felt when his better half left him.
Suddenly, the energy in the force field disappeared. More accurately, absorbed, by an unknown force that was feeding off it. The explosion was consumed by something that stood in its very centre. Suddenly, out of the small fire that remained, flew a magnificent firebird composed of light and fire, inside of which was Jean, who flew into the night sky as she declared, with a voice that came from nowhere yet everywhere,
"I'm fire made flesh! I am power incarnate! Now and forever, I am PHOENIX!"