Even as the next day dawned, the X-Men could tell that something was out of the ordinary, something was wrong. Scott and the others hadn't returned from the school last night, and hadn't made any of their scheduled contacts either. Every attempt to get in touch with them had failed. It was as if they had just disappeared.
Contacting the school had also proved fruitless. Where was Pyro? And where was Melody? She was supposed to be taking part in the conference this morning, and there had been no sign of her. What was going on?
As long as they didn't know what was going on, the other X-Men had decided the best option was to continue with protecting the conference. When they had a chance they would somebody to the school to investigate, but right now they simply couldn't spare anyone. Even as it was they were stretched desperately thin. It had meant putting more responsibility than they were happy with on very young shoulders.
To her amazement, Gemini had found herself placed in charge of the team guarding the rear entrance to the conference building. She had no real leadership experience, but the X-Men saw her as the best choice out of the four: Chronos was too inexperienced; Vertigo too unmotivated; and Atlas too easily distracted. With her sister involved in the conference, Gemini also had personal reasons to want to ensure the speakers' safety.
Things were different now that they knew there was a mutant assassin hunting the speakers. For all they knew, there could be more than one. This was no longer a training exercise or a simple introductory mission. This was real, and as tense as it could get. There was no margin for error whatsoever.
For Gemini, Atlas and Vertigo it wasn't unusual to be involved in life-or-death situations, but as teenagers enrolled in the Brotherhood their focus had usually been on the death of other people rather than trying to protect the lives of other people. That was a whole lot harder. But then, the reward was a whole lot greater as well. Gemini was trying to stay positive and look on the bright side of things.
She was still asking herself the same question over and over: do I really want this? First I was their enemy. Then we became their allies. Then we became their students. Now they're asking us to join them. At first it was just an invitation to come along the mission and help out a bit, and see how we felt. Now we're being asked to play as big a part as anyone.
She glanced at the guys and wondered if they were thinking the same thing. Atlas was peering intently at two small trees growing in a small patch of garden near the building. Vertigo was slouched against the side of the building, his arms folded, his eyes narrowed as he gazed at the crowd of humans fifty or so yards away, behind the police cordon.
Chronos caught Gemini's eye as she looked at him, and he said nervously, "This is – this is for real, right?"
"Looks that way," she said neutrally.
"My first time doing it for real," he said sheepishly, as if he was apologising for his nervousness.
Gemini didn't want to talk to him, but she remembered she was supposed to be in charge, so she tried to encourage him, "Don't worry. You'll do fine."
"Yeah. Hey – hey, you don't think this is all part of the training, do you?"
"Huh?"
"What if all this is part of an exercise? All of it – the conference, the speakers, the mutants? What if the X-Men are just testing us? You know, to see how well we do?"
Vertigo snorted, "Don't be stupid. Humans have died. The X-Men wouldn't let that happen just for a training exercise. They'd let us die before the humans."
"Now you're being stupid!" snapped Gemini. "They do actually care about us, you know! Even if you don't agree with what they say, they have given us somewhere to live for the past three years."
"Yeah, right. Only so they can brainwash us into becoming like them!"
"Did you ever think they might actually be right? Protecting people and trying to agree with them is better than just killing them."
"Humans aren't people! And how do you 'agree' with 'people' who try to kill you the moment you're born?"
"That's what the humans say about us, you know," said Atlas, who appeared to have brought his attention back to the present.
"Exactly," said Gemini. "People on both sides have made mistakes and done terrible things."
"Yeah, and they'll keep on doing it," Vertigo retorted. "There isn't going to be peace. Eventually one side will survive. We just have to make sure it's us."
Chronos looked disheartened. Atlas shrugged – he wasn't a great conversationalist. Gemini was running out of patience with Vertigo. He always had to be right! He always had to have the last word! He could never admit to being wrong about anything!
Fortunately, a distraction suddenly appeared in the form of a delivery truck that was approaching their position.
"Let's check it out," said Gemini.
Atlas and Chronos followed her towards it. After a moment, so did Vertigo. As much as he didn't care about the mission, he was bored and wanted something to do – maybe there would be another stash of porn on one of the delivery trucks.
It was the movement away from the building that saved the four teens' lives. Had they remained where they were, they would certainly have been vaporised in the huge eruption of glass and concrete that suddenly exploded from the rear of the conference building. The shockwave threw the four of them to the ground.
Within five seconds their whole world had changed. Suddenly the entire rear section of the building was a flaming, smoking mass of debris and fallen masonry; the crowds of onlookers and protesters were screaming and pushing against each other; fallen bodies were scattered around, some moving, some unmoving. What seemed like a million other sounds were going on at the time as well: among them the police barking instructions; emergency vehicles blaring their sirens; and endless camera flashes from those of the media who were at a safe distance.
Gemini lifted her head from the ground. Still in shock, she looked blankly at the chaos and terror going on in all directions around her. A few feet away, a woman was trapped under a fallen piece of the building's construction, screaming in pain and frantically calling for help. Gemini struggled to her feet and hurried over. Lying beside the stricken woman was a placard that read NO MUTANTS MEANS PEACE.
"Are you OK?" Gemini asked her hurriedly.
Screaming with pain, the woman managed to gasp, "I – I think my leg's broken!"
"OK, take it easy, I'll get this off you!"
But the block of concrete pinning the woman's legs was heavier than it looked. Gemini gritted her teeth and gasped as she summoned her twin to her side. The woman's screams stopped as her eyes widened and her face twisted with disgust and revulsion, "You're a freak! Get away from me!"
"Relax! I'm trying to help you!"
But the woman only screamed louder, "Help! Help! Get this freak away from me!"
Angrily, Gemini grabbed the concrete block and lifted, but the weight was still too much even for both of her. She glanced around. Vertigo was standing nearby.
"Hey!" she called. "A little help!"
But he was looking at the woman's fallen placard. Beside it was a crudely made life-size stuffed doll with X's for eyes and bullet-holes painted into its forehead. On its chest were scrawled the words: BULLETS ARE TOO GOOD FOR MUTANT SCUM.
"Why do you want to help that sub-creature?" he spat.
"Because maybe then she'll see there's more to us than what she thinks!" Gemini snapped impatiently. "Help me lift this off her!"
He laughed, "Forget it."
"Vertigo!"
He ignored her, wandering off in the other direction. Gemini was about to go after him, but the woman's screams of pain had started again, and suddenly Atlas and Chronos appeared on either side of her. Together the four of them gripped the concrete and lifted it off the woman, throwing it to one side.
Struggling desperately, the woman began dragging herself across the ground away from them. Her right leg definitely wasn't working and she was clearly in a lot of pain.
"Look, you shouldn't be moving!" Gemini told her. "Just stay here and we'll get an ambulance! Please, we really are trying to help you!"
"Freak! Get away from me! Go and die!"
Atlas shook his head at Gemini, "Forget it."
"But – "
"I said forget it. Come on, there are other people we can help."
Casting one last glance at the injured woman, and receiving a murderous hateful glare in response, Gemini re-absorbed her twin and moved away sadly. She could see human paramedics hurrying towards the woman. For a moment she could understand the way Vertigo felt. What was the point? What was the point of trying to help people if it didn't make the slightest bit of difference? They'd just saved that woman's life!
She forced the thoughts out of her mind. She had to focus. There were other people whose lives might be in danger too. She brightened – maybe they would be more receptive. Atlas was already hurrying forward towards a pile of rubble. Screams and vague signs of movement could tell her there was at least one person trapped underneath.
"Heck, there must be a ton of that stuff," Chronos panicked, "How can we lift all that?"
"Like this," Atlas said.
With a flick of his wrist, the concrete and rocks suddenly leapt from the ground, freeing the three men and one woman trapped underneath. Depositing the debris safely on the ground, he turned to Gemini and grinned, "Who says men can't multi-task?"
"Yes, very good," she smiled. "All right, what's next?"
Chronos shrugged, "Don't ask me, you're in charge!"
She glanced around. Paramedics were now seeing to the four people who'd been stuck under the rubble. The woman they'd helped earlier was nowhere to be seen. There were numerous others injured, and some bodies still lay unmoving. Were they dead? What should she and the guys do next? Where was Vertigo?
The shock was beginning to wear off now and she started to think more clearly. What on earth was going on? Why had there been an explosion? Had it been an accident? Had someone caused it deliberately? She reached for her communicator. Maybe the X-Men knew what was going on.
It was at that moment the second explosive struck. Atlas was standing directly beneath the section of concrete wall that suddenly disintegrated into a shower of debris and jagged rock.
"ATLAS!" Gemini shrieked.
He had only a split second to react, raising both of his hands to stop the cascade of stone and brick in mid-air above him.
"I – I can't hold this for long," he gasped.
There were still injured people close by, and two or three humans who'd thrown themselves to the ground, shielding their heads from the rocks that Atlas had prevented from falling on top of them. Gemini grabbed them, "It's all right! Quick, help me get these injured people out of here!"
One of them spat at her and yelled, "Get your hands off me, freak!" but the other two quickly started helping to pull the injured bodies away from the building. Gemini summoned her twin and the two of them pulled away a particularly heavy man, who was covered in blood but appeared to be in no immediate danger of dying. Two more paramedics appeared at her side, "We got him! Thanks for your help!"
Gemini still felt a little sad. She was risking her life to help these people, and that was the closest she'd gotten to any gratitude so far.
At the moment of the second explosion, Chronos had been standing a few yards further away from the building. He'd noticed two small girls standing on their own and crying loudly, without any adults appearing to be in charge of them. He'd been moving over towards them to check that they were OK, to ask if they needed help, when suddenly the second explosion had struck. Momentarily stunned by the blast, he could only watch in horror as an enormous metal pillar, torn free from the rest of the structure by the force of the explosion, came spinning through the air and smashed directly into the two screaming children, crushing them to death.
"No!" Chronos howled.
If only he could have done something! If only he'd got to them sooner! If only he'd had more time! Wait a minute, he thought to himself, more time? What am I talking about? I'm the one person on earth that doesn't apply to! Clenching his fists and closing his eyes, he summoned an enormous effort and called on his power.
He felt time around him slow. The people rushing around frantically were suddenly slowing to a snail's pace. The sounds of screaming and sirens became lower in pitch. Even the wind that had suddenly picked up was slowing.
Then time stopped. There was no sound at all. The absence of it was the most terrifying aspect of freezing time – it was something Chronos had never, ever become accustomed to, and he wasn't sure if he ever would. For a moment or two he glanced around at the motionless, silent figures around him. Atlas was frozen in place, struggling to hold a mass of rocks and debris in mid-air above him. Gemini was pulling the last of the injured humans out from underneath. Vertigo was nowhere to be seen.
But stopping time wasn't enough to achieve anything. The two little girls were still lying dead, crushed beyond recognition beneath the metal pillar. Stopping time wasn't going to bring them back to life. There was only one thing Chronos could do, and it was something he wasn't usually brave enough to even try. It was dangerous and he didn't know if he could properly control it. He'd done it before maybe three or four times, but only for a few seconds. But he had to do it. He took a deep breath, braced himself for the supreme effort it would take, and pushed his power as far as it would go.
Slowly, almost imperceptibly, time began to rewind.
Elated with his success, Chronos at first didn't even notice the bewildering sensation of sounds and events beginning to play backwards. With his eyes shut he couldn't see anything, but he could hear the screams and the sirens in reverse, and he just hoped he could keep this up for long enough. When the pain and the stress on his mind and body became too much to bear, he gasped and his power dropped. Opening his eyes, he just prayed it had been enough.
It was at that moment the second explosive struck. Atlas was standing directly beneath the section of concrete wall that suddenly disintegrated into a shower of debris and jagged rock.
"ATLAS!" Gemini shrieked.
He had only a split second to react, raising both of his hands to stop the cascade of stone and brick in mid-air above him.
"I – I can't hold this for long," he gasped.
There were still injured people close by, and two or three humans who'd thrown themselves to the ground, shielding their heads from the rocks that Atlas had prevented from falling on top of them. Gemini grabbed them, "It's all right! Quick, help me get these injured people out of here!"
One of them spat at her and yelled, "Get your hands off me, freak!" but the other two quickly started helping to pull the injured bodies away from the building. Gemini summoned her twin and the two of them pulled away a particularly heavy man, who was covered in blood but appeared to be in no immediate danger of dying. Two more paramedics appeared at her side, "We got him! Thanks for your help!"
Gemini still felt a little sad. She was risking her life to help these people, and that was the closest she'd gotten to any gratitude so far.
Standing a few yards away, Chronos already knew what was coming. Sprinting as fast as his exhausted body would allow, he covered the ground between himself and the two crying little girls. Both of them looked around as they heard him approach, and both froze to the spot with fear, huddling together for protection.
"Move!" he yelled, running towards them. "Get out of the way!"
Too frightened to know what was happening, they stayed rooted to the spot. In the corner of his eye, Chronos could see the metal pillar spinning through the air towards them. Without thinking, acting purely on instinct, he threw himself towards the two children, shoving them as hard as he could out of the pillar's trajectory. Both of them screamed as they went flying through the air, landing a few yards away.
Chronos landed on his hands and knees directly in the path of the metal pillar. He knew he wasn't fast enough to avoid it. He hadn't any strength left to freeze time. He knew he had no chance of surviving the impact. At least I died a hero, he told himself.
But then a thin, wiry arm grabbed him around the neck and yanked him out of the way at the last possible second. The metal pillar smashed into the ground where the two little girls had been standing just seconds ago, and skidded across the floor, eventually colliding with a police car and coming to a halt without harming anyone.
"Thanks!" was all Chronos could gasp to his rescuer.
Vertigo grinned, "Hey, what are friends for?"