Chapter 12
"Where's Scott?"
Beast came out of his lab when he heard Jean. He looked to the empty bed, the IV leaking life-saving fluid all over the linens. The heart machine had been turned off and the wires hung limp from the safety railing. The sheets tangled about the monitor.
Eyes widened in worry, "I don't know. He was still asleep from the surgery when I last checked on him 45 minutes ago."
"He wasn't in the corridor, I was just there." Jean closed her eyes and concentrated, 'Scott. Scott. Talk to me. Where are you?'
"I'm not getting anything Beast! How could you lose him, he was so sick?" she shrieked then quickly looked down, "I'm sorry, Hank. That was totally uncalled for. I don't know…"
McCoy put his huge arm around the distraught woman for a moment, "There is no need to apologize. What's more important is to search for him. We'll be lucky if all he does is pop a few stitches."
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Rogue landed about a mile away from her destination. She didn't want to give herself away if she didn't need to. Since it was a town she was infiltrating, she changed to civilian clothes and walked straight in as if she belonged.
Although people were about, it was a quiet place. She got looks from several of the locals who knew she was an outsider. Ducking into the local pub, she sat down at a table. Several men eyed her. "Hey, boys. How're y'all doin'?"
"Hmmm, a Yank."
"Hey, Ah ain't no Yankee. Ah'm a Southern gal, through and through."
"But you're still from the States. That makes you a Yank down under." There was no emotion in his statement. It was just a flat fact.
"Well Sugar, us Southern gals don't like being called that."
"Suit yourself. What are you doing here?" The question although not asked defensively nor conversationally, had a hint of interrogation behind it.
"Well, Ah'm a writer. And Ah'm doing a piece on mutants. Ah just heard there were a bunch of 'em around here…"
"No mutants here."
"Really? Why Ah'll heard there was a whole mess of 'em here."
"Well, well, well! Look what the cat dragged it."
Rogue turned to see who just entered, "Ruckus. Ah should've recognized the stench as soon as y'all entered."
"You're awfully far from home, Sweetcheeks. What're you doing here?" He looked around and continued, "Where are your X-Men buddies? They hiding in ambush?"
"Like you?" She snorted.
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"OH NO!" shrieked Jubilee.
Storm pulled back on the yoke at the same time pushing on the throttle. The plane vaulted up towards the heavens.
The seconds turned to hours, at least for Jubilee as the plane climbed, until finally Ororo spoke, "Is everyone ok?"
The white faced girl simply nodded.
After answering 'yes', Charles asked, "How bad is it Storm?"
"I think we took several hits, but all the instruments are showing normal function. She's handling fine. I believe we found our assailants."
"Did you take a reading on the location?"
"Yes. However I am going to land closer to the wreck of Cyclop's plane then we can take the land vehicle back here. I am not sure where the safe zone would start, so we will have a bit of a ride."
Charles looked over at the silent girl, "Are you ok, Jubilee?"
She looked to her Professor, once again her fingers embedded in the armrest, "I can't believe it happened again." Her eyes started to glisten.
"Jubilee, everything will be alright. We'll go to where the shots were fired and get to the bottom of this."
She cracked a weak smile, "I think I need help prying my hands off the chair."
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Scott awoke in a brain fog. He squinted from the brightness of the room. Barely a whisper departed his lips as he called out for a drink. The high temperature consuming his body left him dehydrated and in need of water. Seeing no one around, and his brain fried from the fever, he threw the sheets off his bed, hitting the monitor, subsequently turning off the alarm. Yanking off the wires and IVs, he sat up and rolled out of bed. He winced as he put weight on the casted leg, but ignored the pain. He was driven. Driven by the need to find water and cool down the furnace in his body.
Cyclops staggered to the door leading out to the corridor. Almost as if on autopilot, he exited the sick room and turned right. He made another immediate right and hobbled down the short corridor that led to the outside.
The light footsteps entering the hallway he'd just left never reached his ears, as he had one goal in mind; to find water.
The raw winter air bit into his skin, and he reveled in its cooling comfort. He didn't notice the hard, leaf-covered ground under his bare feet. He just knew he was starting to feel better with the heat dissipating from his body. Needing to attack his thirst, he headed down hill away from the mansion to the lake. 'Water. There'll be plenty of water to quench my thirst down there,' he thought.
The sheen of sweat covering his body evaporated in the cold, dry air as he trudged down the hill. He looked through bleary eyes, 'There's the lake'. A misstep on his bad foot caused him to fall against a tree, and he leaned on it for support to catch his breath. He didn't feel any pain at the moment, just the driving thirst. He stared at the lake ahead of him and confusion entered his muddled brain. 'Why is the lake a dull white? It should be a deep dark blue?' After catching his breath, he pushed off from the tree still heading towards the water. The cool, crisp, water.
He stumbled his last step and fell onto the ice. 'Ice? What's ice doing here? Where's the water? There's water under here. I know it'. But he just stared at it, confused at how to get to it. He crawled out hoping to find the end to the ice so that he could get to the liquid refreshment. Several yards from shore he stopped. Still on hands and knees he realized that all he had to do was look at the ice and it would melt. He concentrated. It worked before. He knew he had done something like that before. Then it came to him. The idea dawned like the sun rising on a cloudy winter day, dull and distant. Just remove the glasses, that's all he had to do.
With his eyewear raised up, he focused his power on one spot, as much as one could focus in his state. He didn't lower his specs until he had a hole in the ice large enough to dive into. Swaying on his knees, he just blinked, the water not registering at first.
'Water!' He lay on his belly and started to drink. He pushed himself out further so that the upper half of his body was partly submerged in the frigid pool. After several sips, he laid his head on the ice and his mind slipped into a darkness deeper than the bottom of the lake.