One week earlier
"Part of me just wants this Sinister prick to show up and we get to actually fight him instead of obsessively training and doing perimeter sweeps," Bobby complained. "X-Men don't sit around, wringing our hands because we're scared. We take action."
Remy glanced at him as they walked next to each other. "Before that action starts, the anticipation feels like the worst. But for now, be grateful you're still in the Before part and everyone's still here and whole," Remy replied.
Bobby nodded, sighing. He knew that being a junior X-Man meant he wouldn't get a front seat to the action all the time, but he thought he'd be able to do more since becoming part of the official team. He wanted to prove himself, to show he could help protect everyone and be considered almost-equal to the senior team. But if those moments came at the cost of his friends' safety or their lives, he knew he could wait a little longer.
Remy and Bobby were walking around the south side of the mansion, looking for any weaknesses in their security as well as keeping a lookout for anything suspicious when Kurt teleported in front of them.
"Hey you guys, Scott said you guys need to come inside and see this." Kurt reached out and teleported them all inside the mansion.
Most of the X-Men were in the rec room, watching the wall-sized flat screen tv. "... as we hear that yet another governor has been hospitalized for mysterious symptoms. This is now the fifth governor in three days. Government officials are not yet ready to speculate on the cause of this illness-"
"Why did you call us inside for this?" Bobby asked Scott.
"You see the bottom of the screen, how there's coordinates scrolling along? Kitty has been cross checking them. One coordinate is for Chicago, one's for Bavaria, one's for Hawaii, one's for Caldecott County, another one is for New Orleans," Scott explained.
"Is there any way this miraculously isn't about us?" Remy asked.
"Each of us knows someone in those places or is from there. There's no way that's a coincidence," Jean added.
"So he's communicating with us? Saying what?" Bobby asked.
"My theory is he's challenging us. Letting us know he's everywhere we are yet still out of our reach," Beast hypothesized.
The next day, there were reports about banks' digital accounts being wiped clean, leaving them with nothing except the paper money in their vaults. Tens of thousands of people lost their life savings overnight.
The following day all the traffic lights in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and Houston stopped working simultaneously, with every light changing to green before drivers realized what had happened. Ninety people lost their lives and many more were injured from the collisions while the cities erupted in chaos.
Governors continued to get sick. The last of the remaining forty-five had been admitted to the hospital that day as well. Doctors were reportedly stymied because few of the governors had the same symptoms as any of the others.
"What do we do now?" Kitty asked once the entire team sat in the War Room to discuss the news.
"We keep waiting," Xavier said. "I have never seen attacks like these. From afar they appear random but to the knowing eye… I believe Mister Sinister is trying to back us into a corner. He knows we cannot sit idly while chaos reigns and people are killed. Yet there are no warnings of where he will strike next until it is too late."
On the fourth day, schools were bombed. A nationwide emergency was called into effect, with all schools forced to close, with no exceptions. However, this time there was a new aspect to the assaults: eye witness accounts blamed an X-Man for each attack, with other witnesses coming forward, able to corroborate the same bogus story. The X-Men were once again public enemy number one.
Rogue and Remy sat up that night, sitting shoulder to shoulder on the couch in the rec room. "It's just a matter of time before the public comes for us," Rogue said.
"I can't believe they haven't pounded down our doors yet like the mob from Beauty and the Beast." Remy replied. (So he had been binging Disney movies to get through this shit, so what? He had quit smoking for Rogue and he needed something to distract him. Sue him.) "You worried 'bout them coming?"
Rogue shook her head. "No. I'm worried about one asshole and one asshole only. Sinister isn't ever gonna stop. He knows we have to give in soon."
"I think you're right, Chere. I know how this man works. He waits and he plans and he's got endless patience. Fuck, part of me feels like I never should have run away from him that night."
"Sug," Rogue sat up and looked into Remy's eyes. "You were desperate. You did the right thing by running away, even though it doesn't look like it. Your actions are not his reasons. If it wasn't you, it would be some other poor mutant."
Remy reluctantly nodded. He knew that in his rational mind. This week just didn't leave much room for rationality.
The final straw came two days later. At one pm, there were reports that thousands of people had dropped dead at the same time without any warning. The X-Men knew they were out of time.
Thirty minutes later, every single television screen in America started broadcasting the same message. It was Essex, dressed in all black, with dark glasses hiding his eyes as he spoke directly to the camera. "My fellow Americans, the time has come. I promise an end to this week's deeply tragic events on one condition: The X-Men surrender themselves to me. They must come to Times Square by no later than 3 pm today. For every minute they are late, another thousand people will die." He paused, savoring the moment.
"One more caveat, before I go. I shall not hesitate to blow up all of Manhattan if any of the following members of your mighty team are missing: Charles Xavier, Wolverine, Storm, Beast, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Shadowcat, Nightcrawler, Gambit, and Rogue. And if anyone else tries to come along or stop us, I will shoot everyone on sight, then blow up all five boroughs. Time is ticking."
The televisions switched to their local emergency broadcasts, with newscasters begging the X-Men to surrender to Essex.
Xavier turned off the television and spoke to his X-Men. "For the safety of the American public, we must follow his orders, even though we know full well we are walking into his trap. I deeply regret," he said, looking at the mutants mentioned in Essex's threat, "that each of you must accompany me on this mission. Now, we must protect every mutant in this institute who was not named by Sinister. Wolverine, Storm, please gather up the remaining mutants and impress upon them that if ever there was a time to follow our instructions to the letter and not to improvise, now is that time. The rest of you, suit up. We will go into this trap as ready as we can possibly be. This is what you all have been training for."