XXXXXXXXXXX
Siryn, along with Jamie Madrox, Sam Guthrie, and Tabitha Smith, three other older students walked through the sub-complex of the mansion because they had seen the jet from the window when they were sitting in the student jet landed and the ramp opened up. The four of them watched as Logan and Ororo came down first, then gathered around them.
"You're back," Siryn sighed. "We've been worried."
"Whoa, what's with you guys?" Logan looked around at them all, confused.
"Where have you been? It's been two days."
Logan and Ororo then glanced at each other, suddenly realizing that they hadn't bothered to get in touch with the rest of them back home during their time on the island.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," Ororo said. "We completely forgot to radio back tell you all where we were."
"So what happened? Why'd you guys rush out of here?" Sam asked.
"We've got a surprise for you," Ororo smiled.
After she said that, Scott and Jean walked hand in hand off the jet and came to stop in front of the group. Siryn, Sam, and Jamie all looked like they were staring at a ghost. They had known that Jean had died months ago, saving the X-Men at Alkali Lake.
"Ms. Grey," Sam breathed.
"You're alive," Jamie finished.
"I am." Jean smiled "Well, technically, I was never dead."
Tabitha however was confused.
"Who are you?"
Jean looked at the girl with short blonde hair, wearing a pink shirt and blue-jean shorts. She extended a hand to her.
"My name is Jean Grey. I was, or I am a teacher here. You must be new."
Tabitha shook Jean's hand.
"I am. My name is Tabitha Smith, or Boom-Boom."
Logan cocked his head.
"Boom-Boom?"
Tabitha glanced at him.
"What?"
"Okay...would you like to try again?" His voice was now somewhat humorous.
She narrowed her eyes, playfully.
"Boomer. Is that better?"
"Not much."
Jean laughed a little. Logan seemed to have much more patience with the kids then she remembered.
"It's nice to meet you. I look forward to catching up with everyone. I know I must have missed a lot. Life here is never quiet."
"You can say that again," Sam muttered.
It was then did Jamie stare at Scott's face and realized he wasn't wearing glasses or a visor.
"Professor Summers, your eyes!" Siryn yelled. "Your eyes are fixed!"
Jamie and Sam then realized it too.
"Whoa. How did that happen?"
Scott smiled as he looked at Jean.
"We'll tell you everything, tonight." He answered. "I promise."
The kids nodded before finally heading off. All except for Siryn who went up to Logan with the map given to her by Rogue.
"Dr. McCoy took the rest of the team to go talk with some mutant group."
"They left you here all by yourselves?" Logan asked while raising an eyebrow.
"He said it was urgent. And that he needed help."
Logan took that map and looked at Ororo. She now seemed concerned.
"Should we go after them?" She asked him.
"Yeah...I guess. Let's take the bike."
As Logan and Ororo headed to the garage, Jean had noticed the Professor hadn't come down so she walked back up the ramp. Xavier was still in his passenger seat and was rubbing his temples as Jean come over towards him.
"Professor? Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, it's just...my telepathy. I feel like it's being blocked." Xavier then took a deep breath.
"I'm not doing it."
"I'm aware. Could you...could you help me to my room?"
"Of course I will."
Jean pulled his wheelchair closer and unbuckled the Professor's seatbelt. She the elder mutant in his chair and proceeded to help him down the ramp.
"Thank you, Jean."
Outside the mansion, the metal gates opened up and Logan took off on the motorcycle with Ororo riding in back with her arms wrapped around his waist. The drove at a good speed and once they were a good distance away, two figures walked up.
Sinister and Gambit now stood in front of the gates.
"What's in here?" Gambit asked.
Sinister smiled.
"The answer."
XXXXXXXXXXX
After Jean helped the Professor up to his room, she headed in the backward of the mansion. Jean walked through the garden that Ororo kept until she finally reached a memorial tree. Down on the ground in front of it was a plaque. Printed on it were the words;
'In loving memory of Jean Elaine Grey. Friend. Lover. Fighter.'
She telekinetically lifted the plaque up into the air until it was at eye-level. She continued to stare at it, focusing her power until the plaque changed into a solid diamond. Jean gasped as she reached out and took it into her hands.
"Oh my."
Jean sent it floating back into the air. She turned the diamond into a plaque again, then turned it into a thick piece of gold.
As she continued to explore her powers outside, in the foyer of the mansion, an eleven year old Native American girl, Danielle Moonstar was laying on her stomach with paper and crayons around her as she drew pictures. Suddenly, a large figure began to pass by her. Danielle looked up and stared blankly as Sinister smiled down at her before bringing his index finger to his lips, signaling for her to remain quiet. She did so and watched Sinister begin to climb the staircase.
Xavier was laying in bed on top of the covers as he stared up at the ceiling when the door was suddenly pushed open. Sinister now stood in the doorway. Upon seeing him, Xavier quickly sat up and stared at the mutant in shock.
"You seem surprised," Sinister smirked. "You didn't sense my presence did you?"
"Who are you?"
"My name is Sinister. Mister Sinister."
Xavier closed his eyes and focused his telepathy, but as hard as he tried he found that he could not enter the other mutant's mind. The diamond on Sinister's forehead was glowing as he began to walk closer.
"It will be easier if you don't resist. And...less dangerous."
Xavier gasped as he finally gave up. He now appeared exhausted from his attempt as he now breathed heavily.
"What do you want?"
"Only two things. Where are Scott Summers and Jean Grey?"
Narrowing his eyes, Xavier responded;
"You leave them alone."
Sinister laughed.
"Don't move."
Sinister grabbed Xavier by the collar before pulling him up off the bed and slamming him down into his wheelchair that sat next to the bed. He then grabs the handles and began wheeling him out of his room and into the hallway.
"Where are you taking me?"
"To the one true enemy of Professor Charles Xavier." Sinister stopped in front of the staircase. "Stairs."
He then shoved the wheelchair with all his might and Xavier went crashing down the staircase. His body tumbled down every step until Xavier landed on the ground, striking his head which knocked him out. Unfortunately, Scott had been in the sub-complex when a clanging noise in the hangar got his attention. Gambit was leaning up against the jet, metal staff in hand as he banged it on the ground. As Scott approached him Gambit stopped and began to twirl the staff with his fingers.
"Step right up, follow da spinning staff," Gambit smirked. "Take your best shot, if ya dare."
Scott stopped him front of him.
"What are you doing in here?"
Gambit shrugged.
"Everyone's gotta be somewhere."
Scott wasn't on the defensive. He had been gone for months, maybe this guy was new here. But before Scott could question quickly charging up his staff, swinging it at Cyclops' head who ducked and sent an optic blast at him. Gambit leaped out of the way and came flying back at him, clipping Cyclops' ankle with his staff. Cyclops fell to the ground but when Gambit came over him, he sent a foot up to Gambit's stomach, knocking him backwards.
Gambit pulled out a few playing cards and charged them up, throwing them down at his opponent. Cyclops began rolling out of the way as the cards hit the ground and exploded one by one. He then rolled to his stomach and began firing more optic blasts from his eyes. Gambit dodged them with ease at the patterns he shot them in but was then hit in the shoulder which knocked him to the ground.
"That's it!"
A now frustrated Gambit pulled the rest of the deck out of the pocket, charged them all up and sent them at Cyclops at the same time. It blasted Cyclops hard in the chest and threw him backwards, knocking him violently against the wall. Cyclops didn't move once he hit the ground and Gambit figured he was out. Gambit then turned his attention to the X-Jet. He put his hand on one of the wings, charged it up, then took his hand away causing the jet to explode.
The explosion rocked the rest of the mansion as Sinister walked down the stairs until he was standing over the Professor's crumbled body. He then turned his head to the left to see that Jean was now in the hallway, staring at the scene before her in horror.
"What did you do?"
Sinister smiled when he saw her.
"Jean Grey."
Sinister then telekinetically threw her backwards and she was slammed against the wall. Jean pushed herself off and came at Sinister. They both circled each other with their arms extended in front of them, trying to gain the edge in a battle of telekinesis. They tried pushing each other back but they found that neither one could really get the advantage.
"You've grown so much stronger over the years. I knew I was right."
He then pushed forward with more strength and Jean slowly began to go down to her knees.
"But still no match for me."
Jean then snapped her head up to look at him, her eyes burning orange now. Sinister now seemed surprised as Jean began to push herself back up. Jean extended her hands and Sinister's feet began to slide backwards a little-
Gambit appeared from behind her and wrapped a mutant-inhibitor collar around her neck. Jean gasped when she was suddenly de-powered. Sinister then came at her, grabbing her head. After a moment of concentration, Jean fainted and collapsed in his arms.
"Did you find Scott?" Sinister asked.
Gambit motioned with his head behind him and Sinister smiled when he saw Cyclops on the floor, knocked out with an inhibitor collar around his neck as well.
"Very good, son. Let's go, we have what we need."
XXXXXXXXXXX
Several police cars and ambulances surrounded the giant hole in the street on Madison Avenue. Warren had been taken away to a hospital, he may never be the same due to the damage to his wings. Hank watched as Pitor was on a stretcher, being loaded into another ambulance. His organic steel had saved Pitor from certain death but he was not without injury. Several of his steel plates had been welded together and his left cheek was an indistinguishable blob of metal. And Jubilee...
Hank shook his head as tears came to his eyes. He was overwhelmed with guilt.
Logan who was driving on the motorcycle to the location on the map saw the scene up ahead and pulled the bike on the side. He and Ororo got off the motorcycle and ran towards Hank.
"Hank!"
The blue mutant looked over when he heard Logan's voice and saw that Ororo was with him.
"Hank, what happened?" Ororo then asked.
"We were attacked, Hank explained in a hollow voice. "Pitor and Warren have been taken to the hospital. And Jubilee...she's dead."
Ororo gasped.
"What?"
"What the hell was she doing with you!" Logan yelled, enraged. "She wasn't trained!"
"This wasn't supposed to happen!"
"What about Bobby?" Ororo asked. "Kitty?"
"And Rogue?" Logan added.
"Bobby wasn't with us," Hank answered. "Rogue and Kitty...I don't know. They're missing."
Logan yelled out in rage as he then punched Hank, knocking him to the ground. Ororo quickly grabbed Logan and tried to stop him from going after Hank. She yelled that it wasn't his fault and did her best to reason and calm him. Cops got in between all of them, however it was Ororo that kept Logan from releasing his claws and losing it completely. One of the cops helped Hank up as Logan finally managed to keep himself in check.
A officer then approached the three of them and spoke;
"We found two survivors. Everyone else down there is dead."
Caliban and Marrow stood together behind the officer, both had haunted looks in their eyes. Ororo approached them.
"You should come with us." Ororo then looked at Hank then at Logan. "Let's get back to the mansion and figure things out."
Logan and Hank helped lift the motorcycle into the trunk of the hummer before they pilled into it along with Ororo who rode in back with Marrow and Caliban. As they drove it back to the mansion as fast as they could, the stratojet that Sinister piloted landed in Battery Park and began picking up The Marauders who had been waiting for them. As they filled in, Sinister noticed that one member of his group was missing.
"Where is Riptide? Who is she?"
Sinister looked to Rogue as Pyro placed her limp body gently down in a seat, strapping her in.
"Riptide is dead. This is Rogue, she's a friend of mine," Pyro explained. "I thought that she could be useful to us."
"What's her power?"
"She steals the life force of anyone she touches. She can take other mutants power."
"Hmm." Sinister then looked from Rogue to Havok. "Maybe I'll have use for her."
The jet took off into the air as they all settled in. Pyro took off his mask as he looked around. He then looked behind him at the very end of the jet where the body of Cyclops was laying prone on the. And right next to him...was Jean Grey. He continued to stare at them in bewilderment for a moment before turning back around. Sinister was staring at him and from the look on his face Pyro could tell he had been reading his thoughts again.
"Who told you could take your mask off?"
Pyro raised his chin defiantly but Sinister held his stare with lifeless red eyes. Finally, Pyro did as he was told and pulled his mask back on his face.
XXXXXXXXXXX
The door of the walk-in-freezer opened and Bobby slowly stepped out of it. He raised his hands up in front of him and stared at living ice that covered his entire body. He then squeezed his eyes shut and began focusing.
"Come on...come on." His hands began to shake as he concentrated as hard as he could. "Come on, come on..."
Then, starting at the fingertips flesh slowly but surely began to re-appear back on his hands. It went down to his wrists and finally spread to his chest and shoulders. The ice at his feet began to disappear as well, flesh began to appear on his knees, than his upper legs, his waist. Then finally, the ice disappeared from his face, the last spot being his eyes.
Bobby slowly opened them and looked over at the window staring at his reflection. His normal face, his normal appearance was back. Fortunately, Hank had been right. He could change back and forth, he wasn't going to be stuck for the rest of his life looking like a living ice sculpture.
Bobby let out a huge breath of relief before turning and running from the kitchen, looking for the others. Only to his shock, in the foyer, the Professor was laying motionless on the ground, his wheelchair was in a heap, a few feet away from the fallen man. Bobby gently placed a hand on his back and shook him.
"Professor...Professor!"
Xavier groaned and seemed to stir just as the front doors opened and Logan, Ororo, and Hank came in with Caliban and Marrow behind them.
"What happened here?" Logan demanded when he saw the scene before them all.
"I don't know," Bobby answered. "I think he fell down the stairs."
Danielle came over to the group and spoke in a soft voice;
"It was the devil-man."
"Who?" Ororo asked, confused.
Danielle showed them the picture she drew. It was of a monster with red eyes.
"You're saying the person who came in here looked like this?"
The little girl nodded as Xavier finally began to come around.
"Professor, can you hear me? Are you alright?" Hank asked.
"Scott...Jean. He came for them," Xavier muttered, loud enough for them to hear.
"Wait...Jean?" Hank looked around at the others, his expression etched in shock.
"Yes, Jean," Logan snapped out of frustration. "We don't have time for you to be surprised right now, we'll explain later."
Logan, Hank, Ororo, and Bobby then proceeded to search the whole school, going from room to room but couldn't find Jean or Scott anywhere. The group finally gathered in the study where the Professor was back in his wheelchair, Caliban and Marrow sitting together on one of the couches.
"Scott's going to be mad," Bobby said while shaking his head. "That jet was his baby."
"You're going to have to use Cerebro to find them," Logan said to the Professor.
"Cerebro hasn't worked since Stryker took cruicial parts for his own," Xavier responded.
"You never had it fixed?"
"After what I almost did at Alkali Lake, I vowed to never use Cerebro again."
"So what the hell are we going to do?"
Ororo looked to Caliban. She then remembered him from the church during the 'Mutants Against the Cure' meeting, several months ago.
"You. You can locate mutants, right? That's your power."
"That's correct," Caliban confirmed.
"So you can find them."
"It's not that easy. To track someone directly I need to know who it is. The more detail the better."
"Scott Summers. Code-name Cyclops," Ororo began to describe. "He can fire optic beams from his eyes. Six foot two, brown hair-"
"He's a dick," Logan cut in.
"Logan," Ororo admonished.
"Well he is."
"Now is hardly the time."
Caliban shut his eyes and began to concentrate harder.
"I'm picking him up. Who was the woman?"
"Jean Grey. Powers of telepathy and telekinesis."
"They're both in the same place."
"Where!" Logan shouted.
"Fort Lauderdale. They're being kept in some kind of laboratory."
"We need to know the labs exact location," Hank told him.
Caliban nodded.
"I can give you everything. The street, the address, everything."
"Good."
"So, how the hell are we going to get there without a jet?" Logan asked while looking around at them all.
Hank smiled a little.
"I think I have a way."
The X-Men then quickly changed into uniform before taking off in the hummer. Beast drove them as fast as he could to the Liberty Landing Marina. Once he pulled up, he and the other three X-Men got out and walked along the docks.
"He's a little something we at the department of mutant affairs has been working on, I call it 'Hydra X." Beast then pressed a button on a watch that was strapped on his wrist. A vessel then emerged from the under the water. It was a smooth, silver, miniature submarine.
He smiled at them all as Wolverine gave him a look.
"This will take us hours to get there."
"Not so. It has what's called 'supercavitation'. Our journey time should be less than an hour."
Wolverine didn't look convinced as the doors to the submarine opened an he, along with Storm and Iceman stepped into it. Beast closed the doors before taking a seat in front of the controls. The vessel submerged in the water. Beast pressed a button and the vessel was enveloped inside of an air bubble to avoid problems caused by water drag.
"Let's see what she can really do."
He grabbed the lever, sending it forward and Hydra-X shot through the water at the speed of a rocket-powered torpedo
XXXXXXXXXX
Back at the mansion, Marrow and Caliban remained in the study with the Professor.
"Where's Spyke?" Marrow asked in a quiet voice.
"Who's Spyke?" The Professor asked, looking to Caliban.
"Her cousin," the albino mutant reluctantly answered. "He didn't make it."
Marrow then buried her face in Caliban's chest and began to sob. Xavier frowned as he reached out to the young girl.
"I'm sorry, Marrow. But you'll be safe here, I promise."
As she continued to cry, suddenly a voice from outside the room yelled out;
"Professor! Professor!"
Xavier's brows furrowed as he heard a frantic voice from out in the hallway. He wheeled himself out to see that standing there was Kitty Pryde, and her body was ghost-like.
"Oh my goodness," Xavier gasped.
"Professor...I can't unphase!" Kitty cried out.
Xavier wheeled over to her. He reached out to her and his hand passed through as if she wasn't really standing there.
"Concentrate, child."
"I'm concentrating as hard as I can but nothing is happening! Can't you help me!?"
Xavier's face winced at the pleading in Kitty's voice. There was nothing he could do, but then he suddenly remembered Jean on Muir Island. How she had healed Scott's eyes, Ororo's wound, Kevin's mental illness...
"Be calm, Kitty. Jean can help you."
"Jean?"
Kitty then looked down at her right hand. It had suddenly faded away into nothingness. She was going to fade away into nothingness...