Chapter 10

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Storm sat at her desk shuffling papers around, pretending to work. No one was watching her so she didn't know why she even bothered. Maybe she was trying to prove something to herself. That she was the right choice for Vice Director of the school. That she was doing her best. That she cared at all.

But it was difficult to care about school business when the world around her was going nuts. Thankfully Kurt had been found and rescued, so she didn't have that stress weighing her down anymore. And Marie and Gambit had also come back. No, not Marie anymore—Rogue. Storm wished the girl would just pick a name and stick to it. She had just gotten used to calling her Marie, after all.

Even though her friend and the others were back, there was still plenty to worry about. Magneto, restored to his powers. Would that man never go away? Giving up entirely on doing school work, Storm stood up from her desk and walked to the windows, crossing her arms as she looked out on the empty school grounds. She hated the summer vacations. She missed the children. They always needed something, always coming to her with problems to solve, as she was much more accessible than the Professor. She liked being needed. Many of them were in awe of her, too, and she liked being a role model.

"Brooding, Storm?" She turned at the Professor's voice and smiled at him as he wheeled his chair into her office.

"I hope not," she answered as she sat down across from him on her couch. "I prefer to think of it as thinking deeply, not brooding."

"It's too quiet without the students here, isn't it?"

"Have you been reading my mind?" He laughed gently, and she felt her face soften into a smile. Maybe she had been brooding; this man could always pull her out of herself.

"I didn't need to. You always stand by that window when classes are out of session. I sometimes think you're trying to stare the children back into existence."

"You miss them too, don't try to hide it," she teased.

"I do. But I'm glad they're not here now. Magneto has been planning his attacks for a long time, and I don't look forward to what he has in store for us. We're going to need all the X-Men out in the field for this one."

"You'll have us. We'll be ready, and we won't be alone. Hank is coming to the city the day after tomorrow, and he said he's bringing friends, too. By the weekend we'll have a strong force gathered to meet whatever Magneto throws at us."

"That's good. I only wish we—"

"Professor X!" Scott burst into the office sounding panicked. The Professor whirled around and Storm jumped up.

"What is it, Scott?"

"Magneto! He started the attack early! He's kidnapped the mayor already, and downtown Manhattan is practically in flames. Gambit was down there at a bar and got jumped, but Jean sensed he was in trouble and pulled him out. He told us there was a group of City Council members that they attacked; he tried to save them and one got away, but they got about five others. Jean says that police stations across the borough are being seized, and all the bridges and tunnels to Manhattan have been completely blocked."

"And City Hall?"

"Taken. Council wasn't in session, but Magneto's people have set it up as their headquarters. They're keeping at least some of the captives there, although Jean says the Mayor is somewhere else. She doesn't know where yet; Magneto is using plenty of anti-psionic technology to block her."

"Storm, reach Hank and let him know what's happening. Scott, sound the alarm and get everyone to the jet. We can split up from there. Storm, join us as soon as you've gotten through." Storm and Scott didn't even respond; as Professor X and Scott left the room Storm went straight to her desk and pressed the button to open a hidden wall console. She pulled up the high security phone lines and called Hank. Then she ran to the jet, where Professor Xavier was waiting and Gambit, Logan and Rogue were getting dressed.

"Where's Jean and Scott?" Storm demanded as she pulled on her own suit.

"Jean is doing what she can from here, and needs all her attention right now. But they'll join us shortly," the Professor explained. "Storm, Kurt, you and I are heading towards a school building in Washington Heights that's been seized by Magneto's people. Jean found out that they are holding many of the councilmembers there, but they've also kept at least 100 students as hostages with them. The three of us will handle that situation best. Logan, Rogue, Gambit, you will continue to City Hall with Jean and Scott to take on Magneto directly. We will try to catch up as soon as possible.

"Storm, I think we're ready. Take us to the city."

"Roger that, Professor." She plugged into the jet's controls and guided them through takeoff. She wondered why they weren't waiting for Jean and Scott, but she didn't question Xavier's commands during battle.

They were halfway across the Bronx when Jean and Scott suddenly appeared in the back of the jet, out of nowhere. Gambit cried out in alarm and Storm looked back to see what had happened. She widened her eyes but said nothing. Jean looked distracted; she was clearly still working some kind of telekinetic mojo from afar. Scott guided her into a seat and strapped her in, while she paid him barely any mind.

"Since when can they do that?" Gambit demanded.

"Jean is fighting bad guys from 50 miles away and you're surprised she can teleport?" Kurt asked mildly.

"They might give a person some warning next time," Rogue mumbled. "We've got a mutant back here who practically sparks with explosive energy 24/7. Maybe you should think twice about surprising him in a jet." Storm saw Gambit cast a chummy grin at Rogue but she ignored him. So those two still hadn't made up, then.

"Take it down a notch, kids, and let's focus on the mission," Storm ordered before turning back to watch the skies. "We're almost to the school. Everyone know their job?"

"Yes, Professor Storm," Logan and Gambit said at exactly the same time. Storm rolled her eyes.

"Alright, we're here. Let's get busy." She landed the jet gently on the roof of the school building and shut down, then moved to help the Professor into his chair and off the plane. "Scott, she's all yours," she jerked her head to the cockpit and then wheeled Xavier down the ramp. "Kurt, Professor, you both ready?" They nodded. "Then I'll go knock on the door."

Storm went into herself, drawing out her power. Her vision changed as the world around her became a tapestry of wild weather patterns, and she summoned a wind to lower the three of them to the gravely ground in front of the school's main entrance.

Shots rang out and whizzed by them; Storm saw that four armed guards were stationed there and were intently aiming at her team. Thinking quickly, she created a fog in front of them and manipulated the light particles, making them effectively invisible. The bullets kept coming, but now they were much wider.

Lightning flashed in the sky and Storm shot a bolt into the front doors, blowing them to pieces.

"That will do, thank you, Storm," Xavier said to her telepathically. She let the weather calm down but kept them invisible so he could do his work. A second later, the four guards were on the ground, unconscious. The Professor had put them all to sleep.

"Now, Professor?" Kurt asked.

"Wait for it…." Sure enough, a wave of armed mutants came rushing out of the building and took cover. Storm saw that various more had taken up sentinel posts from beside multiple windows. They were settling in for a long battle. Just as expected. "Go ahead, Kurt." While the two sides sized each other up, Kurt teleported into the school to run a quick reconnaissance. He returned about a minute later.

"The children are all in the cafeteria, on the ground floor directly on the other side of this school. There are at least ten guards there with guns trained directly on the students. There are also ten government hostages in the basement, at the northwest corner of the building. They are all tied up with anti-psionic ropes and are also under heavy guard."

"Very well. Kurt, I need you to bring me into the cafeteria. Storm, can you take care of the situation out here?"

"With pleasure." She waited for Kurt to teleport himself and Xavier into the school before she began in earnest. Then she made herself visible, hoping to act as a distraction. It worked; immediately the mutants began shooting at her, so she spun like a tornado into the air and drew powerful winds around her, which she then blasted past the front of the school. Guards went flying. She didn't want to mess around with more lightning and risk starting a fire, so she decided to go small, instead.

Air in a person's lungs was a little trickier to manipulate than air currents in the sky, but she could do it. First she called up a heavy fog to blind the sentries, and then she found them one by one and attacked. She flew over to the windows and began yanking them out, dropping them to the ground below one by one before suffocating them into unconsciousness.

That worked until she encountered a mutant who didn't fall. When she grabbed his gun and pulled him out of the window, he just hung in the air and gave her a cheeky grin, his long, greasy yellow hair hanging over his pale face like a dirty rag. Then he gave her a punch in the face so fierce she soared back at least twenty feet in the air. It was on, now.

Storm raced back in to take him on, drawing on all of her powers and martial arts to fight him and the dozen or so other mutants who jumped into the fray when they landed on the ground. She didn't think, didn't plan, just responded and attacked the way she'd been taught, the way her body behaved instinctively, now. She wasn't just fighting for her life; she knew that the busier she kept these guys out here, the longer Kurt and Xavier would have inside to rescue the children and the adult hostages.

She tore through the enemy like a whirlwind, throwing and kicking and blowing and choking as they fell around her. She didn't know how long she fought – she could have gone on forever – but suddenly Kurt was there, flashing in and out of the fog and taking Magneto's men on with her. The two of them together were unstoppable, and soon there was no one left to fight.

"Where are the children?" Storm asked, panting, when the last of the villains had fallen. Kurt walked over to her.

"In the yard, with Professor Xavier. The representatives are there, too. Come." He wrapped his arms around her waist and teleported them to the back yard of the school. The children were huddled together there in large groups, with the Professor and the councilmembers keeping watch. Many of them were crying, but they were all silent and relatively calm.

"Do we have a ride yet, Professor?" Storm asked him. He looked up at her with a small smile, and nodded.

"It should be here any – ah, there we go." A public bus turned the corner and rolled to a stop right outside the school. "Let's get the children onboard." Storm walked forward purposefully and began herding the children towards the bus. She nodded at the driver, who, being under the Professor's control, gave her a rather dazed nod in return.

"All aboard, kids," Storm ushered them on.

Once they had gotten the children to a safe place and the council members agreed to make sure they all got home, it was time to join the other X-Men. They requisitioned a car and Storm flew them downtown. The streets were deserted; the city a disaster area. Fires had sprouted up sporadically, and they looked on in shock and anger as the city fell to pieces under Magneto's attack. Bands of mutants were looting and celebrating at Lincoln Center, Times Square, Herald Square, and various other less-prominent side streets that they flew over.

"So much damage in so short a time," Kurt said in an awed voice.

"We're going to put a stop to this," Storm replied, wanting to take his hand but focusing on their flight. "We've got to take care of Magneto for good, you know that, right, Professor?" Xavier did not respond. He would always have a soft spot for Magneto, as they had once been friends. But it was clear to Storm that Magneto would never stop until he was dead.

They reached City Hall, and it was a war zone.