A/N: I do realise it's been over 2 years since I last updated this fic, but I'm still pretty excited about its potential so I'm going to try and get it finished.
Anyway, on with the action:
"Help? Is anyone there? Can anyone hear me?"
The panic evident in the young female voice made Rogue's heart suddenly jump. Something was wrong. She didn't recognise the voice. Grabbing her communicator, Rogue quickly responded, "Hello? I read you! Who is that?"
"It's me – um – I don't know what my name is – I'm the one people are calling Amnesia! Please, you need to help me !"
"OK! Are you still at the school? What's wrong?"
"I dunno! Something happened – might be still happening! There was some sort of explosion! Part of the school is on fire! I don't know what to do! Where are you?"
"An explosion? OK, don't worry – we'll be right there!"
She put down her communicator and ran to find Scott and Storm. A quarter of an hour later Scott, Logan and Storm were in the jet, heading for the school at full speed. None of them knew what to expect when they arrived there. All they knew was that things were taking far too many unexpected turns for their liking. The incident with the female assassin – who had without doubt to be a mutant – had unsettled everyone. Somehow, in some way, they could sense the rules of the game had suddenly, irreversibly changed. Or perhaps even the game itself had changed.
On the way Storm attempted to re-establish contact with the school, but with no response. The anticipation, the terror of not knowing, was weighing heavily on all of them. They had expected attack. They had expected enemies to try and oppose them. But they'd expected the attacks to be directed at the conference speakers, not at their own school. Something didn't add up. Something didn't make sense. It was as if they'd suddenly been dealt a handful of jokers.
The moment they arrived at the school they could instantly see something was wrong. The front entrance was lying in ruins and black coils of smoke were protruding from shattered windows on the upper floor west wing.
"What the hell…" Logan breathed.
"Still can't make contact," said Storm, removing the communicator headset from her ears.
"I'll set down just over here," Scott told them.
Logan was the first out of the jet, approaching the school at a run. Something was badly wrong; he didn't need his animal senses to tell him that. His claws out, his ears twitching for the slightest hint of danger, he plunged through the wrecked front door. Scott and Storm were close behind him, and the three of them paused inside the ruined hallway.
"Damn..." Logan growled.
"Hello?" Storm called. "Anyone here?"
There was no response. Logan headed further into the building.
"Logan, wait – " Scott began.
"Find out what went on here," the older man snapped brusquely. "I'll look for survivors."
"All right," said Storm. "Pyro should be here, and Amnesia – she's the one who called us. And Melody and her little girl should be here too!"
Logan nodded, "If they're here, I'll find them."
He ran for the stairs. Scott and Storm headed straight for the elevator and down to the underground level. As soon as they emerged from the lift –
"Oh, I'm so glad you're here!" Amnesia cried, running towards them. "I don't know what's happening! I was so scared!"
"Hey, it's all right," Storm tried to calm her. "Don't worry, you're gonna be fine. What happened?"
Scott left her to talk to the girl as he ran to the security centre.
"I don't know!" Amnesia wailed. "All I heard was this really loud explosion, and I headed straight down here! I figured it'd be safer! I don't know what happened after that!"
"All right, all right, try and relax. We're here now. Everything's gonna be OK. Just sit down for a bit and relax, OK?"
Amnesia nodded, and sank down to her knees, her body trembling and breathing hard, "I – I'm sorry, I'm just so frightened! With my memory gone I just don't know what to do!"
"Don't panic, you did the right thing," said Storm. "This is where you should come in an emergency. Look, I'm gonna leave you for just a second, OK? I'll be right back."
"Sure. I'll be all right."
Storm gave her what she hoped was a reassuring smile and hurried to find Scott. He was in the security room.
"She doesn't know what happened," she told him. "At least she's safe. Have you found anything?"
"I'm not sure," he said, tapping away at a keyboard. "Whatever happened seems to have done damage to the security system. A lot of the cameras are out. Some of them might still be running. I'm trying to piece together what might have happened."
"What do you have so far?"
"Not a lot. Whoever did this knew enough about the security field to be able to approach without being seen. After the explosion, most of the internal systems went offline. I've just managed to isolate one camera that's still running."
"Where?"
"Upstairs somewhere. Let's see if we can get any playback of what happened."
He hit a couple of keys, and both of them watched what began to unfold on the screen in front of them. For a few seconds there was just an empty corridor, then suddenly two figures appeared.
"That's Melody, and her little kid – Athena," said Scott. "What are they running from?"
"They look terrified," Storm said in a concerned voice. "But why?"
They watched as Melody grabbed the child and began running for her life. The cause of her flight suddenly became evident. Four men were in hot pursuit, and gaining on her.
"Wait! Freeze it!" said Storm.
Scott paused the video, "Who are those guys?"
Logan had headed straight for the still-smoking remains of the upper west wing. If anyone was in need of rescue, that was the first place to look for them. He sniffed the air as he went, trying to pick up scents, but the smell of the smoke was overpowering – he couldn't identify any other smells underneath it. When he reached the blackened upper corridor, he stopped.
"Is anyone here?" he yelled. "Does anyone need help?"
There was no sound. At the other end of the corridor was a pile of black ash on the floor. He hurried towards it – perhaps there were some clues to what had started the fire in the first place. Reaching the small pile, he kneeled down and poked at the ashes. They were still warm, but not painfully so.
Wait – there was something there. There was something partially buried inside the small ash pile. Touching it carefully in case it might fall apart, Logan picked it up and held it in front of him, not sure what it was. Then it hit him. It was the blackened, burnt remains of a child's teddy bear.
"All right, continue – let's see what happened," said Storm.
Scott hit the controls to restart the video playback. They watched with mounting horror as the four invaders gained on the fleeing mother and child. As Pyro appeared at the end of the corridor, Storm felt relief wash over her. She was completely unprepared for what happened next. The flame from Pyro's lighter suddenly shot across the corridor towards the defenceless mother and child. At that moment the screen went black.
"What?" Storm cried. "Don't stop it now!"
"I didn't!" said Scott. "The camera stopped running at that point!"
"Play it back! Play it back again! There must be some mistake! Pyro wouldn't – "
Scott played the scene back again. At the very moment Pyro's fireball engulfed the two terrified figures on the floor, the video feed suddenly ended.
"But – but that's impossible – " Storm said in a horrified voice. "There's no way that he – I mean, those are Alexandra's – there has to be some other – "
Her communicator buzzed.
"Storm," she said.
"It's Logan. The first floor corridor is completely burnt out. Any idea what happened?"
"I, uh, we – we aren't sure yet. Any survivors?"
"None that I can see. But I did find something. It might be nothing, but I have this horrible feeling..."
"Can you come to us? There's something you need to see."
"On my way."
While they waited for him to get back, Scott tried to see if he could get anything more out of the security system. Storm, desperate to find out what was going on, went back to comfort Amnesia. It wasn't long before they heard the elevator descending, and Logan stepped through the doors.
"What did you find?" said Storm.
A grim look on his face, Logan held up the charred remains of the toy bear.
"Oh my – " she whispered, her hands covering her mouth in horror. "No..."
"What is it?" Logan demanded.
Wordlessly, she pointed him to the security room, and waited for the inevitable explosion of rage that would come.
"I knew it!" she eventually heard Logan roar. "I knew we should never have trusted that bastard! I knew he couldn't be left alone with a human without trying to kill her! Why the hell didn't any of you listen to me?"
Storm turned as Scott and Logan both emerged from the security centre.
"It looks like one of the cars is missing too," said Scott.
"So he's a thief as well as a murderer," Logan spat. "Well, I don't care what either of you have in mind – I am going after that child-killing son of a bitch right now!"
"Logan – "
"Get of my way! Cyclops, move!"
"Logan, wait!" Storm cried.
For a moment the two men grappled with each other, but Logan was far stronger and he flung Scott aside, running towards the door that led to the garage. The other two hurried after him, but were only in time to hear the roar of the motorcycle engine as Logan sped off into the night.
"Damn it!" Scott snapped.
Amnesia had suddenly appeared at their side, "Hey! Where'd he go?"
"Off on a short fuse," Scott growled in frustration. "As usual."
"Good – then I can finally do what I came here to do."
"Huh?"
Before Scott could react, the girl placed both hands on his head and something like an electric shock sent him reeling backwards, falling unconscious to the floor.
"What?" Storm whirled in surprise.
She too had no time to do anything as Amnesia grabbed both sides of her head. For a second Storm felt the strangest sensation of being drained, and then she too hit the floor unconscious.
Gasping slightly from the exertion of what she had just done, Amnesia tapped the side of her temple, activating the sub-dermal communicator she'd had surgically implanted before coming here, "Boss? Amnesia. Cyclops and Storm are out of the game."
"Excellent. Return to base immediately. I do believe checkmate is imminent."