Inferno

Chapter 2: Adjusting

By

The Uncanny R-Man

Disclaimer- I don't own anything, all familiar characters belong to Marvel.

Shout Outs-

GothikStrawberry- Yup, Rachel is the mysterious naked redhead.

Agent-G- Heh, gotta love crazy naked redheads, huh? Oh yeah, you can bet that Scott and Jean will be freaked when Rachel tells them about her reality.

Xavier's-

Kurt, Bobby, Rogue and Kitty waiting outside the med bay while Hank, Jean and the Professor saw to their mysterious guest.

'Man, I hope we get to fight more people like that.' Bobby said.

'Vhat, naked?' Kurt replied.

'Oh yeah…' Bobby sighed as he began to get a faraway look in his eye.

'You guys are like, totally perverted!' Kitty winced.

'Don't worry about them, Kit.' Rogue replied. 'They're only bein' guys.'

'You're seriously saying that you two aren't even the teensiest bit curious why this crazy, naked chick was smashing up downtown Bayville?' Bobby asked.

'Well yeah, but we're not like, perving on her.' Kitty replied.

'As opposed to vhat you do vhen Colossus is working out, eh Katzchen?' Kurt teased.

'Two words, Fuzzy.' Kitty replied. 'Amanda and shower…'

'Vjat, ve didn't get off on it.' Kurt said, his eyes darting about nervously. 'Honest…'

'Just lahke ah said, a buncha perverts.' Rogue sighed.

Inside the Med Bay-

Jean watch concernedly as Hank and Xavier poured over their medical notes.

'Hmm, fascinating…' Hank said as he stroked his chin. 'For some reason I have not been able to find this young woman's DNA on the national database.'

'I'm having trouble sensing her thoughts too.' Xavier added. 'It's almost as if something scrambled her thoughts.'

'If only we knew what…' Hank said thoughtfully. 'I guess that we shall have to wait and see until she wakes up.'

'I'll stay here and keep an eye on her if you want.' Jean said. 'I'll keep trying to find out where she's from with my telepathy if you want.'

'As long as you're sure, Jean.' Xavier replied. 'We don't want you to over-exert yourself.'

'I'll be fine, honest.' Jean nodded.

With that, Hank and Xavier left the room, leaving Jean alone with the mysterious stranger.

In all truth, the main reason that Jean wanted to stay with the woman was because her last words before blacking out were 'Mommie.' Surely she was mistaken, the stranger looked no older than what Jean did.

'Well it looks like we're here for the duration.' Jean sighed as she prepared for another telepathic scan. Jean was just about to place her hand on the woman's temple when the woman's eyes shot open and she bolted upright.

'It's alright, we're not going to hurt you.' Jean said as she sent the woman calming thoughts.

The woman visibly calmed down a little and looked at Jean.

'Oh thank God, I made it!' She gasped. 'I thought that I'd messed it up.'

'Messed what up?' Jean asked.

'My journey back to two-thousand-and-four.' The woman replied.

'Sorry, I still haven't got any idea what you're talking about.' Jean said.

'I'm from the future.' The mysterious redhead explained. 'I was sent here to avert a string of events that will lead to death for all mutants.'

Her curiosity piqued, Jean listened intently as the mystery woman explained her story.

'It all began when the Brotherhood assassinated Senator Kelly. After that, fear of mutants was at an all-time high. Then the Mutant Registration Act was passed, in which all known mutants had to put their names down, along with their powers and life story. The Sentinel Project was restarted to enforce this law.'

Jean's expression changed from one of curiosity to horror as the mystery woman carried on with her story.

'I was born a few years after this. My parents were Jean and Scott Summers…'

'Wait, you mean that I'm really your mother?' Jean asked. All this information was a little too much for her to understand, the Brotherhood assassinating a senator, Sentinels, being a mother when she's barely nineteen…

'Yes, you are my mother.' The mystery woman replied. 'My name's Rachel Grey. I also inherited my mother's powers of telepathy and telekinesis, along with something called the Phoenix Force.'

Jean rubbed the bridge of her nose.

'I-I think I'd better go tell Scott…'

Later-

Scott had now joined Jean and Rachel in the med bay.

'H-how can you be our daughter?' Scott asked. 'We're barely nineteen.'

'She's form the future, Scott.' Jean replied. 'Technically she hasn't been born yet.'

'Well at least we know that we make it in the end.' Scott said.

'That's another thing…' Rachel said, her face falling somewhat. 'Back in my time, you were two of the first people to die under the Sentinels' regime.'

Both Jean and Scott's faces fell at that.

'Colossus, Storm, Wolverine, Kate Pryde, Franklin Richards, Magneto and I were amongst the only survivors.' Rachel explained.

'Wait a second.' Scott said. 'Magneto's on your side?'

'Yes.' Rachel replied. 'We were all kept in concentration camps together and made a break for it all together.'

'And how do we stop this form happening?' Jean asked. 'Kelly hasn't even been elected senator yet.'

'It looks like my initial calculations were wrong.' Rachel replied. 'I must have over-shot my destination and arrived too early.'

'We'd better tell the Professor about all of this.' Scott said. 'The Brotherhood aren't killers but we might as well keep an eye on them.'

Later that night-

Once Scott and Jean had talked to the Professor about Rachel's story, it was decided that it would be wise to keep a close eye on them, even if assassination wasn't in their résumé, yet.

Rachel had been given a clean bill of health, but Hank was curious about the Phoenix Force that Rachel had been mentioned. He had tried to pry further but Rachel was somewhat reluctant to reveal the full extent of her powers. It was decided however, that she would have to room with someone, that someone was Kitty. Rogue was pretty pleased about that actually, she finally had the room to herself.

'So Peter and I are like, together where you come form, right?' Kitty asked as she walked beside Rachel along one of the mansion's many corridors.

'Yeah.' Rachel replied. 'You guys're married.'

'Married?' Kitty gasped as her face turned bright red. 'Wow, that's just… wow. Jean said that you mentioned a Franklin Richards guy, I don't suppose that you like, meant Mr Fantastic and the Invisible Woman's son, did you?'

'That's Franklin all right.' Rachel replied. 'We're together too. But there's not much time for romance when you're running for your life form an army of killer robots.'

'I can imagine.' Kitty nodded.

'Trust me, you can't.' Rachel replied. 'My world is like Hell on Earth, and I'm not exaggerating.'

Kitty blinked a few times in amazement, unsure how to continue.

'It was nice of Mom… Jean, to lend me these clothes.' Rachel said. 'But I can't survive on hand-me-downs all the time, perhaps you'd like to show me to the mall?'

'Sure.' Kitty replied, smiling slightly. 'I'm always ready for a trip to the mall.'

Outside-

Unknown to the X-Men inside the mansion, they were being watched by a shadowed figure hiding in the forest around the mansion's perimeter.

'I traced a great power here form the city.' The figure thought out loud. 'That power now resides in this mansion. I must feed upon this mysterious power, but now is not the time. If being immortal has taught me anything, Selene knows when the time is right to feed…'

With her monologue done, Selene disappeared back into the shadows of the forest.

TBC…

Next: Hunger

Kitty takes Rachel to the mall for a shopping trip. Unfortunately, Selene chooses this moment to attack. Will the immortal sorceress be able to feed on the mysterious telepath? Will the X-Men be able to save her before Selene sucks the life out of her?