Chapter 11
Wolverine entered Eightball, the bar and pool hall where many anti-mutant humans hung out. He was going in with the plan of playing a mutant-hater himself. He only hoped that no Friends of Humanity would recognize him. If he's discovered, he would just have to slice the confession out of them. Something he would much prefer anyway.
Walking over to an empty table, he rolled a cue ball the length of the table. It bounced off one bumpered edge, then a second, angled to the 8 ball, hit it and sank it. He slapped a century on the pool table and said, "Anyone interested in Cowboy?"
A scraggly fellow, leaning against the bar looked at the money Logan through on the table, "A hundred bucks? You a shark or sumthin'?"
"Nah, I'm just not into the penny-ante stuff."
He stood there waiting. No one wanted to take him up on his offer.
"I heard this was a pretty good place t' pick up a challenging game. But I guess I heard wrong."
"Don't get your fur up, I'll take you on. Rack 'em up."
The first ball cracked like the sound of a gunshot, followed quickly by the dull thud of another one sinking into a pocket. Wolverine started competitively at first, he didn't want to make anyone suspicious, but as the game progressed, he started losing on purpose. "You're piling up quite a score there, Bubb. Sure these ain't magic balls? This table ain't rigged is it?"
The bartender looked up, "Hey, this here's my joint and none of them tables is fixed. You're just a bad pool player, chum."
Looking at his opponent, he made his move, "You ain't one of them stinkin' mutants are ya? Movin' them balls by just thinkin' it?"
The man swung his stick at Logan, "You callin' me a mu'ant?"
Ducking easily, "Only if it fits."
"I'll show you if it fits or not," and he took another shot at Wolverine.
Keeping his blades sheathed, holding to his non-mutant persona, Logan took to the fight like a trained pitbull. Chairs splintering, tables collapsing, the two brawlers tore the place apart.
The bartender flew over the top of the bar, with bat in hand and went after the two men, "You're wreckin' the joint! You're gonna pay for all the damage you're doing."
The other man screamed, "He called me a stinkin' mu'ant."
The bartender broke them apart, "Well, just tell 'im who ya are, Bart."
"Yeah, well, I guess he's alright. I belong to Friends Of Humanity!"
Logan lightened up, "Yeah? Why dintcha say so in the first place?"
He put his arm around Burt, "Get rid of any good mu'ants lately?"
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Unmoved from her spot beside Cyclops, Jean could have grown roots. Twice more his heart gave out and he needed to be shocked back to life. The first time, she was alone with him and panicked trying to perform the CPR, handle the shock paddles and get the epinephrine. But, one electrical jolt was all he needed, no drugs.
'Scott, please live. Fight this infection. Fight for me.' After speaking to him through her mind, she wrung her shaky hands, forcing the trembling to stop.
The last time his heart ceased, several people were present, including Jubilee who just cried. Once again he came back, and Hank was there to help. Jean sat fixed, holding Scott's fevered hot hand near her lips.
Although Jubilee hadn't said anything to her, Jean felt that something had happened during their 2 days out in the desert. While it was nothing that she would distrust her husband, she could feel emotions stirring inside the girl. But she wasn't going to address that at the moment. There were more important things to worry about. Like just trying to keep him alive.
Charles looked to Jubilee, "Storm is on her way in. She will pilot us out to New Mexico. I want you ready to leave as soon as she arrives."
She wanted to protest but realized the futility of it. All she was good for here was crying. And she knew she could help find the answer that everyone was asking, "Who did this?"
As she followed Xavier out of the room, she looked back. Suppose he dies while she's gone. She won't be able to tell him how she feels. At the least, she needs to say 'good-bye.' She looked at the woman holding his hand and a pang of jealousy beat for a second in her chest. She quickly smothered it though knowing the psychic powers of Jean.
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"We are over Arizona now, Professor. I will intercept their exact last known location in about 3 minutes. At that point I will turn around and fly into New Mexico on what was their scheduled flight path. Jubilee, I will need your help in determining when things started to occur. Do you remember when you took control?"
She was distracted by Charles taking a call before she answered, "Huh? Oh, I'm not sure. I know we were in the air for a while because the autopilot was on. That's when I thought about flying. If a dumb ol' machine could keep it straight and leveled, why couldn't I?"
She looked out the window at the scenery, "I think it's still too mountainous here. When I took her down, it was more like the desert that we crashed in. Here I see a few mesas and plateaus."
"That's good, Jube. Where you actually ended up didn't have either of those."
Charles got off the communicator, "That was Hank. They removed the bullet from Scott."
Jubilee looked surprised, "I didn't know they were operating."
"He stabilized?" Storm asked.
"No, not where they would have liked, but his potassium leveled off and his heartrate became constant. His fever is still very high, but they decided this was a window of opportunity, albeit small. He survived the surgery. But according to Beast, that's pretty much all he did. Survive."
Sounding perkier than she felt, Jubilee said, "Well, that's a little good news, right?"
"We could only hope, Jubilee. Storm, how are we doing?"
"We are almost at the crash site. Jubilee, are you paying attention? When did you take control and drop altitude?" Storm said sounding a little miffed.
"I don't know Storm. From up here it's too hard to see landmarks."
Xavier could sense the tension rising and spoke up, "I think we are too close to the crash site, overshooting the location of the attack. Let's turn around and start over. We don't need to know exactly where Jubilee dropped down. We can establish the lower altitude much earlier. Then maybe she'll be able to see landmarks as she saw them and not from higher up."
Jubilee was uncomfortable in the silence as Storm flew back and started over. She didn't know if the Weather Witch was just quiet or if there was an undercurrent of anger. Did Storm believe that she was the ultimate cause of the crash? Did anyone else?
Her mind started to drift, thinking of where else she could go if indeed all the X-Men blamed her. She knew she couldn't stay at the mansion. Staring out the window, she almost missed a familiar landmark, "THERE! Storm, that butte. I remember seeing that. I was still going straight, but soon after I started a large circle to the left. Scott wanted it large and even."
"Say when, and I will start."
"Ummm. Let's start now. Too sharp. Still too sharp."
Charles suggested, "Would putting Jubilee at the controls help?"
"No way! I don't want to take the controls. Suppose it happens…"
She was interrupted by the now too familiar sound of bullets hitting the plane.
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Rogue floated over the island where she last knew Sinister to inhabit. Although it was a while ago and she knew he and his cronies had left, she hoped to find some sign of where they may have gone to. She drifted high, just close enough to see if there was any movement below and hoping that no one would look up and spot her. After 15 minutes of no movement at all, she descended softly, landing in front of the cave entrance. It was as she remembered it last. Demolished, blackened, abandoned.
Although she was sure no one was around, she still walked stealthily. She noticed the shackles still attached to the wall where her some of her companions were locked. The cage, although heavily damaged was still there. A fond memory actually came to her, when believing it to be a final moment in their lives, Gambit showed how much he really cared. Her heart sank at the reminder that she could never have a real relationship with the Cajun or anyone else for that matter.
She shook her head, and headed for a part of the cave she had not been to before. It was in there that she hoped to find some sort of evidence of their new location. Her senses were on full alert. Every imaginary sound, she heard. Every imaginary vision, she saw. This cave was a torture chamber which had almost eliminated the X-Men from this world. She shook off the waking nightmare and continued through the elaborate maze, checking out living areas, openings large enough to be called rooms.
She had been going through each cavern, corner by hidden corner for over an hour and was just about to give up when her eyes fell upon a refractive stone with a deep forest green vein running through it. It would have meant nothing to the average person. Even the average mutant. But she recognized it. It was something that didn't belong in this region. With evidence in hand, she ran from the cave and onto the new location.
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Jean entered the sick room and her eyes fell onto an empty bed. She called out to anyone who might have heard her, "Where's Scott!"