March
X-Men #71
By:
Tim Schaeffer
They are mutants-homo sapien superior, gifted with abilities that set them apart from normal humans. Gathered by Professor Charles Xavier, they fight for a peaceful coexistence between humans and mutants.
The front lawn. A lightning bolt tears through the air, striking Dr. Cecilia Reyes. However, the bolt seems is deflected around Reyes by her mutant powers; the ability to generate a bioelectric force field which protects her from all injury. Reyes reels to the ground in slight pain, a byproduct of her force field. The producer of the lightning bolt, Storm, Ororo Monroe, stands about 15 feet from Reyes, as Beast, Hank McCoy, sits on the front steps, typing on a computer.
Beast types quickly on the laptop, and looks up at Reyes. "Excellent, Doc. You're force field is able to withstand electrical activity."
Reyes looks angrily at Beast; "And what exactly would you have done if my force field hadn't protected me?"
Hank smiles slightly, "Called the funeral home?"
Storm walks up to Reyes, and puts her hand on her shoulder. "There is no need to worry, Doctor. Henry knows what he is doing."
Next to a tree, stands Maggott, one of the three newest X-Men. His unique ability, which is, in actuality, not an ability, is two control two slugs which can eat just about anything. Maggott stands in the shade, grinning at Cecilia. Eeny and Meany, his slugs, sit on his shoulders, watching as well. " 'Ey, gels, s'a good show, eh?" The slugs squeal somewhat, and crawl off of Maggott's shoulders to his stomach. "That time, eh? Fine then, gels." Maggott turns, and kneels down behind the trees where no one can see him. He grunts some, and there is a squishing noise. The slugs disappear, and Maggott stands, turning back to the others. "Dang gels, always gotta be a prob'."
* * *
Xavier's still.
The basement. Marrow sits at the wall, with a bone shaft in her hand. She scribbles a message onto the wall. The door to the basement creaks open, showering the dark room in light. Marrow pays no attention; she knows who the visitor is. "Hello, hayseed."
Samuel Guthrie, Cannonball, walks down the steps, finally stopping at the bottom. He looks Marrow over, and then says, "Thought ah'd pay you a visit, Marrow."
"Aw, ain't that nice. So, has the windsurfer given you any trouble for talkin' to me yet?"
"Well, yeah, she did. But ah don't care. Ah can tell that you've changed."
"Is that so?" Marrow stops scratching, and looks at Sam. "How can you tell?"
"Ah jus' can. There's no askin' how 'bout it. Ah just know."
"Well, that's nice. Too bad no one else feels the same way, especially Storm and Wolverine."
"Wolverine?"
"Yep. Runt paid me a visit, tellin' me about how I should be careful to stay down here in the basement. And to stay away from you, especially."
Cannonball sighs, and walks back up the steps. The door closes, and Marrow goes back to writing.
As Sam walks from the basement, Wolverine watches, smoking a cigar. "Damned kid just doesn't learn."
* * *
Elsewhere totally.
A group of people sit at a round table. The head, Sebastion Shaw, looks around at the group. Shaw stands, and throws a letter into the center of the table. He looks at the note, and says, "we've been called upon . . . by our White King." The people around Shaw gasp somewhat, and mumble things between themselves. At the table, starting from Shaw's left: Selene, a spellcaster and external, Trevor Fitzroy, a time traveling criminal from the future, Madelyne Pryor, whose history is rather long, and we'll just say that she is a psionic recreation of the clone of Jean Grey. Behind Shaw stands Tessa, his aide and a telepath. Behind Fitzroy stands Bantam, a small man given the task of watching over Fitzroy's portals.
Shaw looks around at the four other members of the Inner Circle, and begins to speak. "The current situation is a . . . dangerous one. The White King is going to return soon, and he wants us on his side, God knows why."
Madelyne looks at Shaw, and says: "I thought that he was last seen with the X-Men, and was an amnesiac? Why would he send us this letter?"
Shaw shrugs. "He is apparently playing the X-Men. That's why we need to get him here to us, to find out exactly why he is faking his amnesia."
The other four nod, and stand up. Shaw sighs, and reads the note once more. "Magneto. Exactly why have you decided to partake in your role as White King once more?"
* * *
Xavier's.
Night time. Almost every X-Man is at the school, sleeping their worries away. There's a sudden rustling in the bushes surrounding the school. Another rustling in another area. Normally, no intruder would be able to make it this far onto the grounds. However, the recent, total loss of technology has caused the X-Men to be at a bit of a loss when it comes to security.
Three figures head to the door, and swiftly pop the lock, granting them full access to the building. One of them walks in, his gun drawn and waiting for any sudden movement. He nods to another one, who quickly runs in, and stops at the bottom of the stairway, his gun pointed upward. The third one enters, runs up the steps, and stops at the landing. The other two follow, and walk to the very top of the staircase. The one on the landing speaks into a communicator: "No sign of any trouble yet. It seems that Ms. Pryor's telepathic screening is working just fine."
A voice comes from the communicator: "Excellent. Continue on towards the target."
The third one runs to the top of the stairs. The three move down the hallway, and eventually stop at a door. One of them turns the handle, and walks in. He looks down at the person sleeping in the bed, and pulls a device from his pocket. He bends down, and places the device on the head of the sleeping person: Joseph. It hums, and Joseph throws his eyes open, but is unable to move or to speak. The figure smiles, and motions to the others to help him. They carry Joseph off, but don't notice the pair of glowing eyes watching them from the shadows as they walked out.
* * *
Morning at Xavier's.
Cyclops, Scott Summers, and Phoenix, Jean Grey Summers, sit alone at the kitchen table, conversing. Scott sits slumped over some, a result of his injuries at the hands of Bastion. Dr. Cecilia Reyes walks in, dressed in a set of blue pajamas. She looks at the two of them, and walks over to the coffee pot. After pouring herself a cup of coffee with two sugars, she sits down at the table.
Jean smiles at Cecilia, and asks her: "So, Cecilia, how are you enjoying your stay here?"
Cecilia sips her coffee, and responds: "Well, about as well as I can, considering that I was fired from the hospital."
Scott looks at Cecilia, and remarks: "I heard about that, and I'm sorry. If we had been able to warn you beforehand, we would have. I'm just glad that Bobby managed to get to you in time."
"So am I, but it's really annoying that Bastion, someone I had never even met, nor done anything to, would so highly want me dead. It's because of people like him that I never said that I was a mutant. It was better that people not know, and that I not admit it."
"Cecilia, " Jean takes her hand, " we've all had to make choices as to what was best for us. I'm sorry that the choice you made about joining was forced upon you. And if it could be any other way, it would be."
Reyes cracks a small smile, but in her mind, she still has doubts about this whole thing.
Next, Cannonball walks into the room nonchalantly. He walks to the refrigerator, and takes out an apple. Taking a bite from it, Sam walks over to the table, and sits down. Jean looks at him, and says, "So, Sam, how are you today?"
Sam holds his finger up, and swallows the piece of apple he had in his mouth. He puts his hand down, and looks at Jean. "Well, ma'am, ah'm doin' pretty good today. Ah have some . . . things on mah mind that need takin care of. But other than that, ah'm good."
Jean smiles. "Well, that's nice, Sam."
Sam looks at Scott. "So, Mr. Summers. How're ya holdin up?"
Scott leans forward some, and prepare to talk, when suddenly, the window right above them shatters, and a pink blur comes flying at them. It lands on the table, bounces, and falls to the floor. The four people in the kitchen back off some, and are shocked when they see what the blur was. Marrow stands up, bloody bones in hand. Her clothes are torn, and her body itself is scratched up and bloody. On her face is a look of pure joy.
Sam runs over to her, and grabs her by the wrist. "Marrow! What in the sam hell are you doin', girl?"
Marrow smiles, and points to the window. Right outside stands Wolverine, claws popped and bloody. He jumps in through the window, and lands on the table. He stares at Marrow, with a look of pure rage in his eyes. Wolverine crouches down, and jumps at Marrow. However, as he's in mid-air, a beam of red light flies at him, striking him in the chest, and knocking him to the ground.
Cyclops places his ruby quartz glasses back on, and slowly stands up. "What in the world is going on here?"
Wolverine stands up, his chest smoking and his uniform ripped. "Marrow and I were just having a little . . . discussion. Don't see how it's any of your business, one eye."
Cyclops stares at Wolverine and says: "As leader of this group, you bet damned well it's my business. Now what exactly happened here?"
Wolverine retracts his claws, and points to Marrow. "I found the kid walkin' comin' back from somewhere. When I asked her where, she didn't answer. So, I made the questions a little more . . . difficult." Wolverine smiles at Marrow, who's holding her side in pain.
Cannonball goes to talk, but stops when he sees Wolverine staring at him. He throws a chair out of his way, and storms from the kitchen. Scott sighs, and looks at Wolverine. "Listen, Logan. Everyone is allowed to leave the grounds if they want to."
Wolverine spins around to Cyclops, and leans close to him. "I'd agree with you normally, bub. Except for the fact that when the kid came back, she was covered in blood. I think that's somethin' that's deservin' of an answer."
Scott looks at Marrow, and says: "I'll admit that I don't know you as well as I know most of the others, but you've decided to stay as an X-Man, and so I trust you. So, I expect to find out why you returned here bloody and injured."
Marrow slams a bloody bone shaft into the table. Attached to it is a piece of clothing, one which seems to be like those worn in the 18th century. "Bet there's something you people don't know, or are too blind to realize, " Marrow says smiling. "Matter of fact, you probably wouldn't realize it until a few weeks from now."
Cecilia looks at Marrow, dumbfounded. "Realize what, exactly?"
Marrow smiles. "That your pretty pretty Joseph was kidnapped last night." She turns around, and begins to walk away.
"Wait! " Scott yells. "Joseph was kidnapped? That's impossible. One of us would have detected it. Jean would have sensed it telepathically. Logan would have smelled it."
Marrow shrugs. "I know what I saw. I don't know who they were, but I know where they went. In fact, I went there as well. But I was discovered. Heh. No challenge there."
Scott rubs his chin. "That explains where the blood comes from. Do you remember where they all went?"
Marrow smiles. "Ever hear of 'The Hellfire Club'?"
Wolverine looks at Scott: "Shoulda figured one o' our enemies or another would have some hand in this. Figures that it was Shaw and the Hellfire club, since Joe still holds the title o' White King. But the question still is: why now?"
"We'll answer that later, Logan. Right now, we just have to worry about getting Joseph back.Who knows what they're doing to him right now." Scott slowly walks over towards the doorway. As he's walking, he sends a message to Jean via their telepathic rapport. -*- Jean, contact anyone else who's currently in the mansion. Tell them to get ready to go out.-*-
Jean nods, and puts her hands to her temples. Telepathic energy swirls around her, as she sends a message to everyone else who is currently in the mansion: Maggott, Beast, Cannonball, and Storm. -*-Ororo, Hank, Sam, Maggott; get ready to go. Joseph's been kidnapped by the Hellfire Club, and we're going to get him back.-*-
To Be Continued in X-Men #72
Next issue: "The White King Calleth."
In UXM 352: The search for Xavier begins, and the FOH returns.
