Mayhem At The Mall
"All the islands in the ocean… all the heavens in the motion…lemme show you the world in my eyes!" sang Jubilation Lee rather shrilly, as she walked arm in arm with her two best friends into the mall. It was a beautiful, sunny summer's day, and the place was brimming with cliques of teenagers, families complete with sticky ice-cream slurping toddlers, couples inhabiting a world of their own as they drifted about with joined hands. Snatches of laughter and music was the background to this blissful day and everything felt right with the world.
"Jubes. Shut. Up." Said Dazzler with gritted teeth, though truthfully she really was amused, but with the obligatory self- consciousness of an eighteen-year-old with a reputation to keep up she outwardly berated her friend.
"Yeah… just think of the dogs at least… with the notes that your voice is hitting… he he," sniggered Rogue, trying to make a witty joke but failing, though thankfully in the comfortable company of her closest companions.
"Awww," said Jubilee, playfully shoving both of them with her elbows. "I'm just in a good mood, dudes. It's great weather, loads of cute and hopefully single guys about, we're loaded and surrounded by clothes, music, candy… what's there not to be happy about?"
"Yeah well," said Rogue, "On second thoughts… I would rather have my eardrums pierced by your voice than by some loser jumping out in a black mask yelling "DIE, MUTANTS, DIE!"
People around them overheard Rogue's raised voice and started to nervously move away from the trio, some pulling their kids away who had begun to stare owlishly.
"What's the matter with both of you? You're not Dave Gahan or The Mutant Liberation Front. Get it through your heads," pleaded Dazzler.
Jubilee laughed. "Fine, fine. You get embarrassed too easily, Ally." She let out a contented sigh. "Well dudes, the mall's our oyster, so to speak. Where do we go from here?"
Rogue wanted gloves, Dazzler wanted to check out the new Alanis album. "I'm up for anything," Jubilee said. "By the way, what time do we have to meet Storm and Jean?"
"I think at around 5.00 pm in front of Gap," said Rogue. "Well. Unless there's like an attack or something, in which case we hit the Active Com to Storm and get into butt kicking mode. Though I seriously hope it won't come to that. The weather's so gorgeous all the freaky mutant bad guys should really be having a day off or something too."
"Yeah, you think old Jugs is out carousing with a beautiful blonde chick or something?" sniggered Jubilee. "Showing her the top 100 ways to smash through walls and knock down heavy buildings! Fat chance. Oh well. What will happen, will happen. That's always been my motto. Now let's go get those gloves."
The three friends went continued on their way, chattering, laughing and talking, happy for once to be innocent teenagers enjoying the world, instead of young superheroes trying to save it.
Three other, older woman were currently in the same mall, sitting around outside a café, chatting and drinking latte's. Although they acted perfectly ordinary and kept themselves to themselves, they stood out from the crowd; simply due to their colourful hair- a bob of pure white, long, brilliant red-gold tresses, and thick, purplish black locks. All the men throwing covetous looks towards the little round table would have been crushed to learn that the topic being discussed over those latte's were the three women's partners.
"Well, I wasn't really going to try drag Logan all the way here to the mall; would have started a pointless argument and anyway, he hates this place with a passion," the white haired one was saying.
"I guess… but for heaven's sake, Ororo, you got that guy practically eating out of your hand. Which is not an easy feat. How d'you do it?"
"Sex," smirked Storm, sipping her drink, her dark eyes swirling with amusement.
"Ah," smiled Jean good humouredly. "To tame the Wolverine… but let's not go there," she added hastily, watching the face of the dark- haired woman opposite her crumple with disgust.
"Thank you," said the latter demurely.
Storm chuckled. "Betsy, you are probably the only woman in the mansion who has never dreamt of… ahem… taming the Wolverine."
"Oh, I have, just not in the way you're thinking of," was the curt response. "Many's the time I've dreamt of dragging that guy to the Danger Room and giving him a swift kick in the- ''
"But don't you find," interrupted Storm, "that he can be… just a little bit, well, charming, at times?"
"Yeah, as charming as finding a Band-Aid in your Burrito," said Betsy. "Honestly, how do you two find that wolfman attractive? He swaggers and struts around the mansion like he owns it, sticking those foul cigars in his mouth, and when he's not busy stealing every vehicle that Scott owns and ripping his shirt off on front of the pool, driving those poor teenage girls positively lovesick, he just hangs around irritating the hell out of me."
"He really has a sensitive side, though," said Jean thoughtfully. "He is very animalistic, but that's just his nature. Logan's actually one of the kindest people I've ever known. A few of those poor lovesick teenagers are in fact very close to him, and he to them… take Rogue and Jubilee for instance. Why, I'm pretty sure that they go to him for advice and comfort more than to us."
"And don't you find that scary?" asked Betsy. "Logan's word just revolves around beer, sex, and other foul testosterone-driven activities. He has a bad influence on everyone. Even the cat."
"Hey, now, lay off a bit. That's the man I'm sleeping with you're ripping apart," said Storm, grinning. She was too used to Betsy's strong aversion to Logan to mind her complaints much. "What about you and Warren, anyway? Is he any closer to popping the question?"
"Oh, God, I really have no bloody idea," said Betsy, "I mean, we're great and everything, I love the guy to bits, and hopefully he feels the same way, but whenever we get round to talking about- oh my!- the future, he changes the subject, or well, we end up in bed."
"Nice," laughed Jean, then she sighed. "It seems so long ago, the day that Scott proposed. Yet here we both are still, with our 11th anniversary next month, with the most beautiful 8 year old girl the world has ever seen to show for it."
"Rachel is an angel," agreed Storm, "everyone loves her. The kids are simply crazy about her and the Professor adores her. He's so happy to finally be a godfather."
"I know," said Jean with a warm smile, "and-''
She suddenly stopped speaking and froze, her head cocked as though listening to something.
Betsy and Storm were instantly on the alert.
"Jean? What is it?"
Screams and shouts then began to build gradually, coming from the lower floors of the mall. The customers in the café shifted uneasily and the chattering died down a little.
"Oh great, we all know what this means," muttered Betsy. If the world is not going to allow me to enjoy at least one latte a week, then I am going to stop saving it at least once a week…"
Jean got up quickly, the other two following suit. "Let's go,'' she said, "we got a situation."
Trying to ignore everyone's curious stares, they raced out of the café (lattes already paid for, they were too used to these situations for a la carte) and down the elevator, pushing their way past people and down the lower floor, where they were met with total and utter confusion.
People were running this way and that, children crying and girls screaming hysterically; everyone was casting their shopping away wildly in order to run faster. Policemen were milling about helplessly, trying to calm everyone down but failing completely, for they were just as scared.
"Storm! Jean! Betsy!"
They looked round to see Jubilee, Rogue and Dazzler running towards them, looking very panicked.
"Girls! What the hell is going on?" cried Betsy.
"There's a crazy guy on the loose- he's got the biggest gun I've ever seen, and he's chasing this little girl!" panted Jubilee. She had a bruised eye and a cut lip. "We tried stopping him- I gave him one of my biggest paffs- but he got away- he knocked me back with this…blast thing… I think he's a mutant!"
Jean shook her head, confused. "None of this is really making any sense," she said. "After one little girl, you said? Why is everyone running all over the place- OOOMPH!"
Before she could continue, however, she was knocked forward onto the floor by something small and heavy landing on the small of her back. The people around her yelled with fright, and the scrawny little girl who had just knocked Jean flat on her face scrambled to her feet, and squeaked angrily, "Watch where you're going, lady!"
She glared at everyone, particularly Jubilee. "What did you attack him for? You got him awful mad! He wants to kill me!"
"We were only trying to help!" said Jubilee indignantly, as she helped Jean to her feet. "Anyway, where is he now?"
Her question was soon answered as more shouts and screams were heard from a distance. They turned to see a crowd of people run past them in a rush, followed by the man who was presumably the little girl's attacker. He was indeed carrying some sort of weapon that looked much like a gun, though like none they had ever seen before. As he drew nearer they could see his face more clearly; it was wearing an expression that the X-Men knew well- the look of a killer.
"Freeze him, Jean!" cried Storm, but as Jean lifted her hand the man ducked and rolled, lifting his gun and shooting a deadly looking laser beam at the girl who screamed, leaped sideways and landed on Jubilee. Both fell to the floor, his their heads and lost consciousness.
"Jubilee!" yelled Dazzler in fright. She lifted her hands and with a triumphant yell she managed to blind the attacker with one of her powerful light blasts. "Got 'im!" she shouted, as he shrieked in agony and grabbed his eyes , dropping his weapon as he did do, which Storm rescued immediately. She buckled a little under its weight; it was extremely heavy to carry.
Now what?" said Jean, but before anyone could reply the man, still lumbering about blindly, put out one clenched fist and aimed it towards Jean's direction. Bright, narrow beams of energy escaped from between his fingers and singed the top of Jean's head, instead hitting a shop window, which shattered with a loud crash. Bits of glass flew everywhere, and strangely enough disintegrated into nothing.
"That's it," said Rogue, a shaky note in her voice, and before anybody could stop her she leapt forward and placed her hands on the man's hands, which were still covering his damaged eyes. He gave a yelp of pain and tried to shake her off, but he was already weakened by previous injuries and did not manage. She grit her teeth as his life force flowed into hers, yet held on with fierce determination.
She started and winced as what she hated most began to happen; his memories started to flash across her mind and now she knew hat he was part of her, forever. But these memories were like nothing she had ever before been subjected to; images of people crying, screaming, shouting; war torn streets, grey and ruined; sounds of bullets and hideous machines, destroying, tearing, killing... and then a voice, and a terrible face... but the face was beautiful too, and so was the voice that belonged to it...
She felt someone pull her away and the man collapsed, twitching and shuddering before rolling into his side, unconscious. She shivered and shook, and she heard Jean say quietly, "Relax, relax. It's over now. You did what you had to do. I'm proud of you. Well done." Dazzler came over to Rogue, a sorrowful expression on her face, and put her arms around her friend carefully. She knew how much Rogue hated and avoided using her powers during combat.
"Relax," repeated Jean, and turned to Storm, who was examining the scene before her: three unconscious people on the floor, one apparently extremely hostile. This section of the mall was now completely deserted; people had been more than happy to leave the X-Men deal with the crazed lunatic by themselves.
"I think we'd better get back to the mansion straight away," said Storm, "We'll take the girl with us and even the weirdo. I'm sure the Professor would like to investigate." I know I'd like to, she said to herself. She looked down at the gun (for want of a better word) in her hands. It was long, thick and metallic, covered with countless complicated looking buttons and switches. There was no trigger or anything that looked remotely like a safety catch, so she felt slightly nervous holding it with her bare hands.
Rogue remained silent whilst the others conferred and discussed. She couldn't get the images out of her head... looking at the stranger now sprawled on the floor, she felt an extreme sense of apprehension beginning to uncoil within her. Whoever he was, he had definitely not come here with good intentions.
