He felt the dull pulse of a new mutant, occasionally it would jump the power surge would increase and drop. He'd followed it for a while now, intrigued by how the power had not effected the user. But last night Professor Xavier had received a terrible surge from that mutant, almost knocking him back out of his chair. Something had changed and the mutant had lost control, but then it had subdued, the wild uncontrollable release of power now contained, but he still worried. He now sat with his dearest companions and fellow mutants. Jean, Scott, Logan, Ororo and Hank sat around the table, awaiting Xavier to speak – however one still had yet to arrive.
"I don't see why we have to wait for the Cajun" Logan grumbled, folding his arms and leaning back in the chair, Ororo raised an eyebrow at the gruff man and shook her head,
"Logan you must not be so impatient" The weather goddess scolded softly, 'although he is taking his time' she thought inwardly. Jean smiled to her and winked. It was then that the door softly slid open, the tall and charming Remy Le'beau entering the room,
"Remy neva' was good at keepin' time" He smirked while lazily sitting down with the rest of the group,
"We've noticed" Wolverine growled as the Cajun joined them, giving him a mean look,
"Aw, harsh mon ami'" The Cajun responded, putting a hand to his chest in mock hurt. Scott looked to the doctor, ignoring the two men,
"Professor, you said you had something to discuss, since we're all here now would you mind filling us in?" Xavier nodded, his hands forming into a peak to rest his chin on as the group waited for him to begin,
"Very well, thank you all for coming – I gathered you all here because of a new signal I've been watching over the past weeks" Jean raised her eyebrows,
"A new mutant?" She questioned, "It has been very quiet lately, I was beginning to think that we had discovered them all" She smiled to herself, of course the suggestion of the end of new mutants was unrealistic to say the least it had somehow felt that way. Their main concentration had been on the mutants that they now schooled as well as Magneto who so far had been a rather powerful thorn in their side. He had already manipulated Pyro to join him and appeared that he was treating him much like his son. Along with the other powerful mutants in his guild he was becoming more of a threat each day. Jean wandered away from her ponderous thoughts and looked back to the Professor,
Xavier began to speak "I was unsure to begin with myself at the appearance. Sometimes Cerebro can pick up on certain frequencies that appear much like the signals of a growing power but then they cut off. Often the reason behind this is because the lingering power has not been keyed into or it simply does not have enough energy to grow. But this one has peaked my interest" The Professor thought back on the previous night and the pain that had come from that power "Whomever possesses this power was able to control it, consciously or not but I think for a very long time, until last night" The feeling of curiosity rose as the Professor paused, "Something caused the individual to lose control and whatever power had been contained spilled out. I still have a lock on the power but for now it is at an almost comatose state"
"So what is so amazing about it?" Wolverine interrupted, he could really do with a smoke, he thought. Scott clenched his jaw with a silenced retort towards the impatient feral, no doubt Jean mentally hushing him, The Professor continued calmly,
"Usually when power is unearthed the feelings I receive from the individual are mainly fear or amazement... sometimes hatred and detachment. From this individual there was only a sense of freedom" His eyes wandered somewhere else, "Although what I saw of this release of power and its link with this emotion is what worries me. Sometimes, when a power is released, the person may... sadly injure or sometimes kill those around them" Remy shifted in his seat, uncomfortable of the link to his own past,
"Although a fledgling mutant, this individual has killed purposefully and with intent of returning the pain they inflicted" Eyes widened around the table, "If Magneto finds this mutant then he will certainly use that killing instinct to his advantage"
"You think he may have already located them" Scott questioned, an unnerving feeling in the pit of his stomach,
"That I'm unsure of, he has been quiet... something I'm relieved by but also worried by as well" Xavier's eyebrows knotted, Magneto relished the power within newly fledged mutants. Powers with the desire of killing from the start even more so, there was less need to manipulate. "Jean, Gambit and Wolverine, I want you to go and find this individual, bring them back here as quick as you can" The three mutants nodded, Scott slightly on edge at the two other mutants accompanying his wife, Jean squeezed Scott's hand sensing his unease.
"I'm not entirely certain of what you will face, I have not witnessed the specifics of this power only the emotions it has wrought. But Wolverine and Gambit I want you to be ready if things get dangerous for Jean – but remember, only subdue the individual, I don't want anyone seriously harmed"
"Do not worry Professor we not fail" Remy grinned, before standing up, "Not wit' the lovely chere keepin' us company" he winked at Jean and she smiled back,
"Watch it Gumbo" Wolverine gripped his collar, before pushing him back none to gently,
"You not know how to take a joke mon ami?" Remy frowned, smoothing out his coat lapels. Wolverine grumbled some obscenity before exiting through the doors
"I'll go start the jet up" he shot a glare at the Cajun "Come'on your helpin'" he growled, not giving Remy time to protest he made his way down the corridor, Remy looked at the group,
"Guess Remy'd bedda go help" he muttered sarcastically before running from the room to catch up with the older man. Hank, who had been quiet for the majority of the meeting, turned to the professor.
"You think it wise for Logan and Remy to be on the same mission together?" he questioned, the professor nodded and smiled to the blue doctor. Hank trusted the professors judgement and quieted once again, he would have to prepare for the new mutants arrival.
"I feel that with time they will bond... in some fashion. Whats more Remy hasn't been on many missions since his arrival, he does well when he does attend, But Jean keep an eye on them" He smiled to the red head, reassured just by her very aura of energy and his long time friendship that she would do just that.
"Babysitter again" Ororo chuckled,
"Oh the fun" Jean giggled before kissing Scott on the forehead, "Do not worry love" she stroked his hair "As much as those boys tease they know not to do anything more" Scott smiled, albeit slightly forced,
"Don't forget to contact with information upon your arrival. If anything gets out of hand I will have the others on standby" He handed Jean a disk, she took it holding it to her chest "Jean your headed to Slane in Ireland, that disk contains co-ordinates to the nearest air field and other information regarding your destination. I'm sure that the closer you get to this mutant the easier her brain waves will be detected. The jet should get you there within the next couple of hours" Jean nodded to the professor before exiting the room. Ororo watched her friend dissapear from their sight,
"Do you really think this new mutant could be as dangerous as you predict?" She pulled on a tendril of hair,
"They have lost control, I do not know if they have regained it or it has become too much that they have simply shut down so to speak. New mutants are the most unpredictable" Ororo nodded, somewhat satisfied with the professors response but her concern still remained. They would just have to see what would become of this mutant once the others returned.
Remy sat in the cockpit of the team's jet, his chin rested lazily on the palm of his hand as he waited for Jean and the minor checks that Wolverine was still completing. His attention span had wavered for a while as he'd helped Wolverine with the first few checks but then he'd grown bored... bikes were much more his thing. Wolverine had waved him off; for once he was more interested in his work than chewing him out and had let Remy continue into the jet.
His ruby eyes stared out of the window, at nothing in particular, his mind more in focus with his thoughts to care what was going on around him. The professor had unwittingly brought back memories of his time with his foster family and the disturbing end to it all. Although he had killed after that, albeit by his past masters doing he had never killed with a want of killing. It had always been his 'job' and that was how he had kept it. He would kill to save others and up until now that had been his only reasoning. When he joined the X-men the role of a killer stopped and he became almost a crusader like the rest of them – although he still desired to be somewhat apart.
But this new mutant had killed with a desire much like his previous master. He shuddered at the thought. How old was this fledgling? They must have been older than some of the students here to have the mentality capable of wishing death – there was a gaping space between thinking about killing somebody and actually doing it. He flipped a card between his fingers, it somehow calmed him.
Steps echoing on metal made him put the card away and begin to look like he was doing something as he saw Wolverine enter the jet, followed shortly by Jean.
"We're off to Ireland" she chirped, sitting down in the central cockpit and automatically taking control. The jet was her baby really.
"Ireland? Dat in Europe non?" Remy raised an eyebrow, Jean nodded,
"Its winter to, so be prepared for a chilly welcome" She smiled and inserted the disk Xavier had given her into the jets computer. A large map flicked onto the screen in front of her, showing the co-ordinates and automatically inputting them.
"Remy don' do cold" the Cajun grimaced emphasising his dislike with a sneer. Wolverine remained quiet, the cold was something he neither disliked nor liked. A great deal of his life had been spent in the snowy mountains and forests of Canada – so it was more he was trained to that climate,
"The Professor given us any more info on this kid?" Logan questioned, Jean turned and shook her head, he smirked, "Guess we're in for a surprise then".
Jean did a few final checks before setting the jet into motion. The ground it was positioned upon began to turn, the nose of the plane gradually coming to face the opposite wall. The wall then began to rise, revealing a dark tunnel with light at the end and small dotted lights in the corners of the walls.
"Brace yourself" the jet began to speed into the tunnel, the pitch black vehicle almost disappeared in the darkness. Suddenly the Jet flew into the white light; Remy shielded his sensitive eyes from the quick change. Whiteness soon revealed a clouded sky with greenery below them. The mansion and its grounds gradually became smaller as they continued their way out of America.
Time had lost meaning now, she didn't know how long she'd been here but it had seemed like time had seemed to stop. She gazed up her eyes heavy from little sleep, butterflies and moths still fluttered around but every now and then one of them would drop and splinter into tiny glass shards. The walls were covered in red vines that oozed dark liquids and pulsed with her heartbeat. She could feel people around her, those that had passed on but she had their emotions within her – the emotions that passed through them with their very last breath.
The voices had stopped long ago and now were just a dull whisper every now and then, but still she couldn't move – her hands wrapped within the vines that she kept alive. Earlier on she had heard people outside, not in her head, she was still in her home and the door had been open but people were too scared to venture in. Apparently somebody else had been killed, had she done that? They had been scared and it had torn right through her. It was a policeman, she thought, after that no one had ventured in.
She closed her eyes, tired again, how had this happened? That man, who was he? It didn't matter anymore – she thought.
"This is what happens when you keep things bottled in..." she chuckled softly before falling back into her own dreams.
Remy stared out the window, for many hours all he had seen were cloud and sea – the weather was quite calm so no excitement could be made out of it. His gaze wandered over to his two teammates. Jean was fixed on the controls and their way ahead, occasionally glancing to a weather system to check for ever changing storms. Wolverine looked equally bored, staring out his own box window,
"Ey Logan, You eva' been to England?" Remy questioned, trying to fill the silence with some form of substance, the feral turned his head to face the Cajun,
"Yeah – long time ago" he replied, 'where haven't I been?' he thought cynically. "Old history though"
"Stuff you don' wanna bring up?" Remy replied with the obvious, watching Logan's frown deepen, he changed the subject, "Dis Ireland place to?"
"Um... yeah" the older man gave up on spying out of his window,
"It be diff'rent to America non?" The Cajun smiled, genuinely interested which was unusual for him – even he would admit to it. But not very often would he be sent out of America, especially as far afield as England. He'd never really travelled, the financial stability of a thief was as about as strong as a single thread to say the least and so travel had never really come into the equation when trying to stay alive.
"Kinda different. It's smaller for one so everything's more compact I guess. Buildings are different and you got the weather which is nothin' but rain most of the time if I remember"
"I can deal with de rain, cold is another madder'" There was silence again; Gambit got the idea that his teammate wasn't really in the mood for talking. He took his cards out his pocket and began flipping them, then gracefully filing them from hand to hand. More hours passed with little conversation and he was going to go to the length of making card castles before Jean spoke up,
"We're about half an hour away guys" Remy looked out the window and realised it was dark, the night sky had long ago enveloped them and below the illuminations of Irelands cities beckoned them to land.
"Merde..." Remy whispered under his breath, sights like this still stole his attention. Wolverines sensitive ears picked up the Cajun's curse and looked to him, he grinned slightly at the childlike appearance the younger man portrayed. The jet began is descent, circling the targeted co-ordinates as it lowered. Although not on an airfield there was a large valley below them which provided adequate camouflage and insulation for the noise. The craft landed with a jolt that had Gambit and Wolverine gripping the sides of the cabin, Jean still hadn't quite perfected landing.
The door to the passenger cabin opened in an arch, landing to the ground as stairs for the team to descend. Logan reached new soil first, sniffing the air and taking in his surroundings, it was almost pitch black from the lack of nearby street lamps and it appeared that only the stars provided illumination for them. Remy and Jean joined him shortly, Remy grumbling to himself about the below zero temperatures while Jean quickly contacted the professor to announce their arrival.
Remy looked about the darkness they'd landed in. His eyes were naturally sensitive, the ruby of his eyes acting almost like a night vision camera – in the distance he spied more fields separated by stone walls and wild bushes and further on the faint glow of a village. He looked to Wolverine,
"You see it mon ami?" Logan nodded in response,
"What you see must be Slane" Jean informed them, walking up and in-between the two men, "come on then! A brisk walk should keep us warm to" she smiled, walking ahead of the two men.
"Chere you be to perky for Remy sometimes" Remy rubbed the back of his covered biceps, his heavy duster coat still doing nothing in terms of conserving heat.
"Come'on Cajun" Wolverine grumbled to him, catching up to Jean who walked surprisingly faster than he had first thought – the dark seemed to do anything but deter her. Remy was to cold in truth to reply with an insult or quip – instead he grumbled to himself while following the other two x-men "Dis bedda be worth it".