CHAPTER THREE

Tyron was walking to the kitchen to grab a snack when Paris approached him and the look on her face told him that something was not right.

"Paris?" Tyron asked, "What's wrong?"

"Prestigue is back." Paris replied using the leader's new code name. No one was quite sure where she got the name or even who gave it to her but they all knew that it referred to the massive amount of power and her leadership position.

"I'm assuming her mood is……" Tyron asked letting his sentence tail off for he knew that if anyone called Roxie by her codename, she was not in the best of moods.

"….Not good, I'm afraid."

"She tell you she was back?"

"No." Paris replied, "I sensed her arrival."

"She's not blocking you?" Tyron asked. He thought this was strange because typically, Roxie always had mental blocks up blocking everyone from Paris to the Phoenix for she hated it when people probed her mind for no good reason. Hence why she stayed out of everyone's heads unless need be.

"No, but her anger is so strong that I felt it when she entered the lower levels." Paris said, "Understand that she will have to be dealt with but in the proper way, Tyron." Paris said, hinting to a secret that Tyron had told no one.

"All right." Tyron said, "Thank you."

Paris began to walk away.

"Oh and Paris," Tyron said, "Next time you wanna know who I like, just ask me and stay out of my head."

Paris blushed for she was embraced that she had been caught. She apologized to Tyron and said, "You should tell her how you feel."

"She knows." Tyron said, "She is a telepath after all."

Paris smiled and said gently, "Just because she's a telepath doesn't mean anything when she doesn't look into the minds of those around her. Go find her okay?"

"All right. Thank you Paris." Tyron said and when he got to the lower levels, he felt the tension in the air. 'This can't be good.' Tyron Thought to himself as he found himself at the danger room, as the X-men once called it, and when he entered he found Rox practicing against real danger just as her father before her had done.

Tyron did his best to avoid getting hit by the floor knives and the pendolims for he did not have a healing factor like Roxie but thankfully when Rox saw Tyron, she switched the danger room to holograms of Sabertooth and Wolverine.

Tyron knew since neither one were alive, these holograms were as close to the real thing as Rox was going to get. Unless of course they came across a clone of either but that wouldn't happen. "How did it go with Luke?" Tyron finally managed to ask even though he all ready knew by Rox's attitude.

"How do you think it went?" Rox asked as she jumped on top of Sabertooth and stabbed him in the head with the set of bone claws that were in her right hand once he fell to the ground, she jumped from her worst enemy to her greatest ally and began to fight with everything she had. It seemed that Rox had programmed Wolverine to make every move the real one would have made in order to beat her. Tyron knew Rox wouldn't have had it any other way.

"That had huh?" Tyron finally asked and then a moment later asked, "You wanna talk about it?"

"What is there to talk about?" Rox asked, "Luke's as pigheaded as ever, what else is there to it?"

"Disable Wolverine mach one." Tyron said and the hologram of Wolverine and Sabertooth faded away.

"What the hell was that for?" Rox asked crossing her arms. Tyron knew he had angered her but he also knew that wouldn't hurt him. She had learned how to keep her anger in check to the point where she wouldn't lose control every time she was angered but there was still that chance, as there always had been with the Wolverine, of slipping into a beserker type rage.

"What happened with Luke?"

"Nothing." Rox said as she began to walk past Tyron and headed to the door but Tyron caught her arm gently.

"Tyron, if you know what's good for you let me go."

"Not until you tell me what happened!"

"Why do you care what the hell happened, Tyron?" Rox yelled not because she was angry with Tyron cause she wasn't but because she was pissed at the whole situation and at Luke. She knew her question seemed stupid for she was a telepath and knew that Tyron cared for her as Eric had before him but did she truly like him the same way as she had Eric or was she simply being drawn to him because she was lonely? She didn't know and knew there was no way to find out any time soon.

"Why do I care?" Tyron said repeating Rox's question, "Because I want what is best for you and what is best is not holding everything in all the time."

"Tyron, I can take care of myself."

"I know that but sometimes…." Tyron said, "…Sometimes you need others around you so that you don't feel lonely all the time or slip into something that you can't get out of."

He wasn't talking about Luke anymore and she knew it. He was talking about Eric. He was implying that he liked her and would be there for her where Eric could not. This whole conversation was making her head spin and her heart ache. She missed Eric so much. She had tried to stay in contact with him telepathically but lately, he's managed to hide from her somehow. She would try again later once her mind was clear and she could actually concentrate on what she wanted to do but for now she had to deal with how Luke had treated her and because she didn't want to hurt Tyron, she knew she would have to tell him.

"Tyron, what makes you think that something happened between me and Luke?"

"Because you don't come down here when you're happy, Rox. The only times you come down here, alone, are when your pissed or miss your father or both. Now what did Luke say to get you so upset?"

There was a silence for a moment as Roxie tried to fight back tears but decided to allow them to flow. Tyron took the woman he cared for so deeply into his arms and allowed her to cry. No words were said for nothing needed to be said. All she needed was someone to hold her until she could speak once more.

Finally she looked at Tyron's beautiful brown eyes and said, "Luke hates me."

"I'm sure he……"

"No Tyron. You didn't see his face. You didn't hear the anger in his voice when he yelled at me."

"He yelled at you?" Tyron asked. Sure, he had heard Luke yell at people before but never Rox. No one ever yelled at Rox just as no one had dared to yell at the Wolverine, unless of course your name was Roxie Oyama.

"He blames me for Orchard's death. I tried to tell him, convince him that he was wrong but he wouldn't listen. He never listened!"

"Why do you care so much, Rox?" Tyron asked simply.

"Because Luke was my brother."

"I thought you were an only child."

"I am. He was my brother but not by blood. Everything that we had gone through together had made us siblings as had Eric and I……" Roxie let her sentence trail off for she knew that Tyron knew what she was going to say but before anymore words could be said Paris telepathically contacted the two mutants.

Rox, Tyron. Paris said, Come to the living room immediately.

What's going on? Rox asked as she and Tyron ran to the elevator.

Its best if you come look. Paris replied and with that, neither Rox nor Tyron knew what to expect. It could be anything from a fight among morlock and Pheolvrom to a fight between the team members or even something that has caught their attention on the television. The pair hoped that Paris had simply seen something on the television that needed the team's attention and wasn't sure how to explain it. Once they arrived at the living room, Rox and Tyron saw Di, Paris, Phoenix, Ty and a few others all ready gathered around the television.

"Paris," Roxie said taking charge of the situation, "What's going on?"

"There are three techno things in New York City."

"Techno things?" Tyron asked Paris "Is that the technical term for them?"

"No." Paris said, "But I don't know what else to call them. Watch."

Rox and Tyron turned their attention to the television where a reporter was speaking as the camera focused on the techno beings.

This is the scene on Wall Street today. These people are covered with wires and chips. It seems that these people have been taken over by the devices that we so dearly cherish and cannot live without. Is this to be everyone's fate?

The television was turned off and Phoenix said, "What the reported left out is that those beings are trying to merge with people and so far they're done so with five other people."

"How do you know this?" Tyron asked.

"I am telepathically in contact, secretly of course, with the people on Wall street. Several of their minds are locked to me."

"So they are mentally resistant." Ty concluded.

"It would seem so." Phoenix replied.

"Rox," Di asked, "What do we do?"

"Lock an' Load people." Roxie said walking out of the living room, "We've got work to do."