Chapter Text
Cyclops ran through a hallway in a dark room. As he ran, he took a quick glance behind him to make sure he wasn’t being followed. Seeing that he wasn’t, or at least appeared to not be, he turned his head back towards the direction he was running. He slowed to a walk once he reached a circular room and continued to the center of said room.
Suddenly a laser blast came from his right. He heard it coming and jumped to his left. The blast landed right where he had been standing. A mechanical gun had emerged from the wall and was starting to shoot again. Cyclops rolled away and launched an optic blast that destroyed the gun. In response, part of the wall slid open and dozens of round ball-like drones came out. Another, larger panel opened on a different section of the wall and humanoid robots began emerging.
The leader of the X-Men quickly went into action, launching his optic blast and quickly destroyed half a dozen humanoid robots. He saw one of the ball shaped drones try to circle behind him and quickly fired an optic blast to destroy it. After closing his visor, he saw laser blasts coming towards him. He jumped and managed to avoid all the shots, although one of them narrowly missed hitting his leg. Cyclops blasted some of the drones that fired on him, but two humanoid robots joined the fray, launching their own lasers at him. While the X-leader did notice this, he also knew he wouldn’t be able to jump away in time.
Thankfully, a magenta colored wall appeared in front of him that took the blast. Cyclops blasted the two drones with one sweep of his optic blasts. “Thanks, Jean.”
“No problem, Slim.” Jean replied affectionately. She descended by his side and put up a telekinetic shield over the two of them, blocking a few of the incoming lasers.
A blue form leapt over them and knocked down a few robots in domino fashion. Beast then flipped numerous times, avoiding many lasers blasts before flipping next to two robots. He grabbed their robotic heads and slammed them into each other. Two drones flew above him and were about to fire on him, but Hank felt something grab his armpits and then he was up in the air, away from the danger. “Much obliged, Angel.”
“No problem,” Came the winged man’s concentrated reply.
Cyclops blasted the two drones that had tried to attack Beast. Meanwhile, Angel dropped Beast on top of a humanoid robot. Hank turned his attention to the downed robot’s partner that was now in front of him, but he saw a set of claws emerge through its chest. The robot sparked before falling, revealing Wolverine standing over it.
Wolverine charged and started slashing at different robots. He took down a good half dozen, but one of the aerial ones that managed to get by Cyclops’s and Jean’s attacks got in position and blasted Wolverine several feet and into a wall.
Suddenly a loud, wild scream could be heard. The X-Men covered their ears to lessen the noise, and most of the robots were destroyed from the intensity of the scream. Cyclops quickly moved to finish off the few that weren’t.
Banshee landed next to Wolverine. “Need a hand?” The screaming mutant asked with his characteristic smile, offering a hand to his fallen teammate.
Wolverine glared at Banshee, ignored the hand, and rose without any aid.
“Or not,” Banshee dropped his offered hand.
“Well done X-Men,” A voice said from the Control Room above them.
“Thanks Professor,” Cyclops replied.
The scene changed to a smaller, round room. With the deactivation of the Danger Room itself, the large window above and in front of Cyclops and Jean that offered a glimpse into the control room was now visible. Professor Charles Xavier sat in his wheelchair on the other side of the window, surrounded by several panels, levers and controls. “I’m pleased with your recent performances. You are all continuing to show improvement in working as a team. I think after today’s workout, you have all earned the rest of the day off.”
“All right,” Warren Worthington remarked, pumping his fist in joy.
“Good, cause I got a bike I need to work on.” Logan walked off, not wanting to waste any time lingering.
The rest X-Men exited from the Danger room and went to their rooms to change out of their X-Uniforms and into regular clothing.
“I’m going to head down to my lab, call if you need me.” Hank called out as he, like Logan, took his leave from the rest of the team.
The other four X-Men headed for the closest elevator to take them from the Subbasement to the mansion floor. As they entered the elevator, Warren turned to them. “Hey, how about we head down to Coffee-A-Go-Go?”
“Sounds good to me,” Jean replied.
Scott had been hoping to get some time alone with Jean, but since that didn’t appear to be an option he went with the next best option. “I’m in.”
“Great,” Warren said. “Sean, what about you?”
“I don’t think so.” Sean replied.
“Come with us, Sean.” Jean urged. Sean was a little older than the other X-Men- not that much, but probably just out of their general range. Due to that fact, Jean sometimes worried he might isolate himself, so she always tried to make sure he was included and that he accompanied the others at least sometimes. Sean was a part of this team, part of this family, and Jean was going to make sure he knew that. That he knew he wasn’t an outsider among outsiders.
“Yeah,” Warren agreed. “It’ll be a good chance for the four of us to spend some time together outside the Mansion.”
“Well... okay, ye twisted my arm, I'll come along too.” Sean conceded.
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Lorna Dane walked through the city by herself. She had once dyed her green hair brown so that it wouldn’t stand out and make people think she was a Mutant. Mutants weren’t exactly popular in the minds of most people. She’d eventually stopped and decided she could pass it off as having her hair dyed green instead. Currently, she was on her way back to her apartment. She waited for the signal to start crossing and when it came, she started walking to the other side.
As she was doing so, in a car just a few feet away from her, a blue-skinned mutant female observed Lorna. Then she turned to one of her companions. “Destiny, is that her?” She doubted there were many other green-haired women in the neighborhood, but had no intention of making the mistake of going after the wrong person.
“Yes, Mystique, she’s the one.” The one called Destiny replied.
Mystique watched her cross. She turned to the driver. “Pyro, follow her.”
Pyro drove the car in the same direction that Lorna was going. They kept tailing her until Mystique saw an area that they could briefly park in. “Pull up here,” She told Pyro.
“Sure thing, darlin’” Pyro responded pulling up.
Mystique transformed into a young woman with dark brown hair. “Keep trailing her in the car, I’ll follow on foot.” She opened the door, exited from the car, and started following Lorna Dane. The car started pursing her again as well, but it kept further back this time so as not to attract even more attention.
Lorna, oblivious to all of this, kept on heading home. She came to another stop at a cross walk and pushed the button on the pole. “Ms. Dane,” She heard someone call out.
Lorna looked behind her and saw a young woman with dark black hair walking towards her. “Hello? Do I know you?” She asked with a frown, trying to remember if she’d met the woman before.
“No, but I know you.” The stranger replied.
“Who are you?” Lorna asked.
“I’m a friend. I know who you are, and what it is you can do.”
“What I can do?” Lorna played dumb and appeared confused. In reality, she had a good idea what this person meant. She only hoped she was wrong.
“Child, it’s all right.” The woman attempted to assure her. “There isn’t anything wrong with being a mutant, I’m one as well. I just want to help you. Come with me.” She put out her hand.
Lorna didn’t know why, her words seemed great, but there was something about this woman she just didn’t trust. Maybe it was how she called her ‘child’, or her posture, or perhaps the look in her eyes, she didn’t know. And quite frankly, she didn’t really care either. She’d learned to trust her instincts. “No thanks, I’m getting along just fine.” She replied.
“I can help you learn to control your powers.”
“I’m managing on my own.” She glanced behind her. Damn it, she hated this light, why did it always take forever to cross this particular street?
The woman glared at her. Lorna was starting to believe that she wasn’t going to take no for an answer. As the woman took another step closer to her, Lorna started running to the left, even though it took her away from the road home.
The dark haired woman followed her. “Come back here!”
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Charles Xavier suddenly felt a disturbance; an alert from Cerebro. “Something is wrong,” he went into the room Cerebro was kept. He put the Cerebro helmet over his head and attempted to pinpoint the source of the disturbance he felt. After some quick searching, he found it.
He saw a young woman, a mutant, running away from another mutant. He also saw a car following these two. He was able to identify the driver. “Pyro,” He whispered. Xavier took off Cerebro and started towards the hanger bay. "Hank, Logan, suit up and meet me at the Blackbird, now!"
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Scott, Jean, Warren and Sean were sitting at Coffee-A-Go-Go talking with one another. “So Sean, what did you think of the film I lent you?” Warren asked.
“Oh, Total Recall?” Sean asked, taking a sip of his coffee. “Eh, it was fine.”
“Fine, that’s it?” Warren asked.
Sean thought for a moment before nodding. “Yeah.”
“Come on, between the action and the premise, this was a wonderful movie.” Warren argued.
“I’m sorry, Warren, I didn’t see a point to that level of violence. I’m not against violent violent movies per se, Schindler’s List is an amazing movie, but I want there to be a point to it. And in me personal opinion, the movie didn’t have that.”
“And Warren, while I will grant you that the premise was interesting, the execution was awful.” Jean shook her head in disagreement. “And look, I love action, but like Sean, I need more than mindless action and gore, so that failure is a huge minus. If they had succeeded, or if there was some character development, that would change everything, but there wasn’t. I’m not given any reason to be invested in this guy, and the failure to execute the premise well negates it having a broader point, so it seems like the movie is just about the violence. Plus, it has Schwartzenager, which hurts it by default. And finally, the women in the film are incidental characters at best.”
“The execution of the premise was great.” Warren argued. “Schwartezenager isn't ideal, but not insurmountable-”
“Evidence suggests otherwise.” Jean interrupted between a sip of her coffee.
“The last point is certainly fair, I’ve long since been educated on how films so often fail their women characters, although, I thought this one was better than others of that genre.” Warren continued.
“Damning with faint praise.” Jean scoffed.
“Yes…” Warren hesitated. “But since this genre is aimed pretty squarely at men-” He held up a hand. “However unfair that is, that’s how they approach it, it could be progress.”
“We watched a different movie; I didn’t see any incremental progress.” Jean replied. “Scott, what do you think?”
“Well, Jean’s criticisms of its portrayal of women are spot on. I didn’t see it as any better or worse than their low bar, although I may not be the best judge of that. As for the rest of the movie…” Scott let out an indifferent shrug. “I’m not too worked up about the other aspects. The premise seemed interesting but was tossed aside for the action, which is what I expected.”
“But this action movie veered into science fiction territory, especially with the premise! Where’s your scifi pride!?” Jean threw her hands up in the air. She appreciated Scott’s backing on the movie’s treatment of women, but she was puzzled by his indifference towards the rest of the movie.
Scott sipped his tea. “My scifi pride wasn’t expecting much from a movie where the scifi aspect was clearly marketed as an add-on to an action movie. You want to talk Babylon 5 or one of the Star Treks, I’ll have something to say to reflect my pride in science fiction.”
Jean sighed and smiled. Her partner was consistent. Scott wasn’t super into movies, and only really had strong opinions about the ones he was. The others, he didn’t get too worked up about. Whereas Jean loved movies. So while the poor depictions of women were very important to her, she didn’t give the movie a pass on its other flaws either and got worked up about them too.
“You’re right about Schwartzenager though.” Scott offered after a moment.
Jean laughed and put an arm around her love, resting her head on his shoulder.
“Well, if we’re talking about TV shows, you’ve all seen Twin Peaks, right?” Warren asked.
Jean groaned.
“Really?” Warren asked. “You complain about my affection for mindless action movies, and this is how you react to Twin Peaks?”
Jean removed her head from Scott’s shoulder and sat up straight. “It’s a show too caught up with twists and turns. Plus, while David Lynch’s visuals are beautiful, he is too focused on that and less on storytelling and character building.”
“Scott? Sean?” Warren asked.
“Didn’t watch.” Scott answered. “Wasn’t interested.”
“I don’t know,” Sean began. “I was interested initially in the murder mystery aspect, but I didn’t think it was anything special, it-”
Sean was interrupted by a telepathic summon from Professor X. "X-Men, you’re needed, the Brotherhood is chasing a young mutant woman."
You heard the Professor,” Scott said, taking out his wallet and leaving some money to pay for their drinks. “Let’s suit up.”
"We’ll meet you there."
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Lorna continued running to try to get away from this woman, but she wasn’t having any luck shaking off her pursuer. The stranger was still after her, and starting to gain ground too. When she first started running she had been around some people, but nobody stopped to help her out, obviously not realizing what was happening, probably assuming she was running late or trying to catch a cab. Now, nobody was around. She finally had to come to a stop, doubling over to try and catch her breath for a second.
“Nowhere to run now, Ms. Dane.”
Lorna turned to face this woman. “I told you I’m not interested in your offer.”
“You don’t even know the full details of my offer.”
“I don’t care.” Lorna replied. She felt a surge of hope as a car come their way. Maybe they could help her. But once they got out of the car, she realized that wasn’t the case.
“Well, well,” An occupant with an Australian accent said. “What have we got here?”
Lorna took in these new arrivals. The one who spoke was wearing some sort of orange suit, with two flamethrowers, another was in some silver armor, and the other was dressed in blue. “Who are you people, and why do you want me?”
“We’re mutants, child, just like you.” The dark-haired woman replied while suddenly transforming into a blue-skinned woman with red hair.
“I can see that.” Lorna replied. “Why do you want me? And stop calling me child!”
“Of course, my apologies, Ms. Dane. My name is Mystique, and we are the Brotherhood of Mutants. What we want is for you to become our newest member.”
“I’ve already told you I’m not interested.”
“Aren’t you tired of being oppressed by humans, hiding who you are for fear of your life?”
“And what’s your solution?” Lorna shot back.
“We take our rightful places as the inheritors of this world.” Mystique answered.
“Sorry, that’s a little too much for me.” Lorna realized these people weren’t going to take no for an answer, and knew that the only way to escape was to use her powers.
“She’s going to launch a magnetic blast.” The one dressed in blue said.
Lorna did just that, but the Brotherhood was able to successfully dodge her attack. “How did you know what I was going to do?” Lorna asked, shocked.
“I can see the future.”
“Do you really think you can beat us, when you can’t even fully control your powers?” Mystique laughed.
All Lorna really knew how to do at this point was to launch fairly weak magnetic blasts and grab onto some metallic objects, but she didn’t have a choice. “I guess we’ll find out,” She got a determined look on her face; quickly raised her hands and fired magnetic energy from them.
The Brotherhood dispersed again, dodging her magnetic blasts. Destiny fired an arrow at her with her crossbow, but Lorna manipulated the metal tip, stopping the arrow. “If you can see the future, you should have known that wouldn’t work.”
“But it distracted you.” Destiny grinned.
Lorna turned to see fireballs coming towards her. She tried to get out of the way, but one of the fireballs collided into her back. Mystique didn’t give Lorna time to recover and hit her with a series of punches and kicks, knocking her back a few feet. Lorna got back up to her feet as quickly as she could, wincing in pain as she did so. Pyro laughed. “You a glutton for punishment? Give up.”
“I don’t think so.” Lorna replied. She aimed a magnetic blast at Destiny. Mystique and Pyro moved to stop her, but Destiny suddenly called out. “Wait, don’t!”
Lorna turned her aim towards Mystique and Pyro and blasted them with a magnetic blast. “Now how about you back off.”
“Not a smart move, girl.” Avalanche put his hands forward and suddenly the ground shook hard enough to knock Lorna back onto the ground.
“You can’t win.” Mystique said, getting back to her feet and standing next to Avalanche.
Suddenly a ruby beam came between Mystique and Lorna. “Maybe she can’t, Mystique, but we can.” Said a new voice.
Lorna turned and saw a mutant in a blue and yellow uniform with a visor, one in a green uniform with blond hair, a winged mutant in a red costume, and one with red hair and a blue and tan costume.
“The X-Men!” Mystique hissed. “Get them!” She yelled to the Brotherhood.
“You got it Mystique.” Pyro replied. He launched a large flame at the X-Men’s location.
“Scatter,” Cyclops ordered. He and Jean dove to the left, while Banshee and Angel flew to the right. “Jean, we’ll take care of the brotherhood, get her out of here.” Cyclops ordered pointing at Lorna.
“You got it.” Jean said.
“I don’t think so,” Mystique said. She moved to intercept Jean, but Cyclops knocked her off course with an optic blast.
Jean ran up to Lorna and offered her hand. “Come on, I’m a friend, I want to help you.”
Lorna hesitated.
“Please, I just want to help you.” Jean said.
Lorna wasn’t sure what to do. She didn’t know this woman at all, but what was her alternative? These people did seem to be better than this Mystique person. She also didn’t have much choice. More than all that though, there was something she trusted about this red-head. Lorna took her hand and let this woman help her out. “I’m Lorna” She said.
“Jean. Now let’s move.”
The two started to run when Avalanche got in their way. “Where are you going?” The ground started to shake again.
Jean grabbed Lorna and they dove to the left just before the ground they were on split open. Jean launched a telekinetic bolt at Avalanche that knocked him back.
Back on their feet, they started to run again.
Destiny was now in their path, holding a crossbow. “Intercepting is easy when you know the route.”
Suddenly a loud scream knocked Destiny to the floor. “I’ve got yer back, Red.”
“Thanks Banshee,” Jean said, grabbing Lorna by the hand again and taking her away.
“Pyro, we need to stop them.” Mystique said.
“Sure thing, luv.” Pyro remarked. He put his arms up to launch a fireball at Jean and Lorna when suddenly he felt something plow into his back that knocked him down.
“I don’t think so,” Angel replied.
Mystique drew a gun and prepared to shoot the red headed telepath, but just as she got a clear shot she had to dive to avoid Cyclops’s eye-beam. Mystique turned her gun on him and started firing. “You X-Men don’t know anything about that girl.”
Cyclops rolled to dodge her shots. “We know she doesn’t want any part of your Brotherhood.” Mystique kept firing and Cyclops rolled multiple times to dodge them. When he popped up on his knee he let loose an optic blast. Mystique was able to sidestep out of the way from the blast. Before Cyclops could let out a follow up optic blast, somebody hit him on the back with a blunt object.
“You should watch your back, Cyclops.” Destiny gloated. Suddenly in her mind she saw a vision, Banshee launching his sonic scream at her. She dived to the left, and just as she did she heard the scream. Thanks to her early dive she managed to avoid the full force of the attack.
“Not bad.” Banshee congratulated, grudgingly impressed.
“My ability to see the future allows me to know what you will do before you even do it.” Destiny told him. “So I’ll be able to dodge your every attack- Mystique, look out!”
Mystique was about to finish off Cyclops when she heard Destiny’s warning. She whirled around behind her, and saw Angel charging at her in midair. She tried to avoid him, but she wasn’t fast enough and Angel knocked her away from Cyclops.
“Well, I’d say Angel has yer little friend under control, Destiny.” Banshee said. He unleashed another sonic scream, but widened the area this time. It wouldn’t be as strong, but the strength would be spread out more evenly, so he’d at least hit Destiny with a decent amount of strength.
Destiny was unable to avoid it and was knocked back by the sonic scream. Banshee was about to walk towards her when he heard something behind him. He whirled around and put his arms up in a blocking position. It was a good thing too, because he was able to block Avalanche’s punch, though the armor made his arms hurt more.
Still, Avalanche hadn’t been expecting Banshee to block his attack, and Banshee was determined to take advantage of that. Being a competent hand to hand fighter, Banshee started hitting Avalanche with a series of punches. Avalanche was knocked back by the first few blows (mainly the first one, which was to the jaw), but he soon recovered and started blocking Banshee’s blows.
Avalanche then retaliated with punches of his own, but Banshee was able to dodge each of them. Avalanche, growing frustrated, changed his tactics and kicked Banshee.
The screaming mutant hadn’t anticipated the kick and was knocked back and onto the floor. Avalanche took a step forward, but Banshee rolled away and got to his knee before unleashing his sonic scream. Avalanche was knocked back a few feet and onto the ground. He covered his ears, trying to block out the high frequency sound Banshee was directing at him. Unable to do so, he removed one hand from his ears and pounded it onto the ground. That shook the ground and was enough to knock Banshee down.
Avalanche pressed his advantage. He quickly got up, ran over to Banshee, grabbed him, and then threw him right into a tree. “Not so tough when you can’t scream, are you.” Avalanche laughed. But no sooner had the words left Avalanche’s mouth, was he hit from behind and knocked to the ground.
“Back off.” Cyclops said.
Mystique saw Cyclops focused on Avalanche and was about to come after him, when she saw Angel coming towards her. “Not this time, flyboy.” She said. She turned her gun on him and fired.
The high-flying Angel quickly veered off course, flying higher into the air. Mystique kept her gun on him as he was doing so and continued shooting. Angel turned back to Mystique and started flying towards her. Mystique continued shooting, and Angel strafed left, right, down, and up, but kept up his course towards her. Finally, as he closed in, Mystique dived out of the way.
“You missed!” She exclaimed.
“Did I?” Angel asked with a grin
Suddenly Mystique felt someone grab her, swing her around, and throw her. She hit the ground on her stomach. She stayed like that for a second, but quickly got up. “Who the-” but she stopped in mid-sentence as soon as she saw the Beast standing where she had been.
“That,” Wolverine said. “Would be us.” Snikt, his claws were unsheathed now.
“Ha, the cavalry has arrived!” Angel whooped. “Not so tough now, are you?”
The Beast grabbed Wolverine and hopped out of the way, just as an arrow hit the ground where they had been standing. Destiny was back in the fight. Cyclops and Banshee were fighting Avalanche, so this left the three of them to deal with Mystique and Destiny.
“I’ll deal with Destiny,” Wolverine said. “Beast, you and Angel deal with Mystique.”
“Your wish,” The Beast replied. “Is my command.”
Wolverine charged at Destiny. She shot another arrow at him and hit Wolverine right in the stomach. He growled and took it out. “That’s not gonna be enough.” The X-Man swung his claws at Destiny, who easily dodged them. He stabbed at her, but she was easily sidestepping and backing away. “Seeing the future will only help you so much, Destiny.” He growled.
“We’ll see.” She replied. Wolverine lunged forward, but Destiny hit the ground and Wolverine collided with nothing but air. He landed in a crouched position, and quickly got back on his feet. He whirled around to face Destiny again, snarling at her. Suddenly he felt fireballs hit him in the back. “Argh,”
He glanced behind him and saw Pyro standing a good amount of feet away from him. “Pyro, forgot all about you.”
“Your mistake, mate.” Pyro replied. He raised his arms to launch more fireballs, but was suddenly sent back into a tree.
“I’ll deal with him, Wolverine.” Jean Grey said. “You focus on Destiny.”
“You got it, red.” Wolverine replied with a grin.
“All right darlin’” Pyro said getting back to his feet. “You’ve had it.” He launched his fire at her like a flamethrower. Jean put up a telekinetic shield to block the attack. The fire was strong, and would eventually break through, but Jean had no intention of letting this go on that long. She launched a telekinetic bolt which knocked the fire mutant back.
Jean then took to the air. After Pyro gathered himself he looked up and laughed. “That won’t save you.”
Jean telekinetically grabbed hold of a trashcan behind Pyro and pulled it towards him. The can hit Pyro in the back.
“Hey,” Pyro called out.
Jean followed up the trash can attack by telekinetically grabbing Pyro and throwing him up into a tree. One of the branches cut one of his flamethrowers off. “My flamethrower!” He exclaimed. “You ruined one of my flamethrowers.”
“Send me the bill.” Jean replied launching another telekinetic bolt at Pyro. Pyro was ready this time, however, and jumped off the tree. He landed on his knees and used his remaining flamethrower to hurl fireballs at her.
Jean put up another shield, but also flew down to avoid some of the fireballs. She launched another telekinetic blast at Pyro that he sidestepped away from, while continuing to launch fireballs at her. She telekinetically grabbed a twig that was behind Pyro and used it to cut his remaining flamethrower. “Hey,” Pyro yelled. “No fair,”
Jean responded with a mental blast, knocking him to the ground.
Jean turned her attention to Wolverine and Destiny. Wolverine wasn’t able to get a hand on her, because Destiny was able to see when and where he could attack. But if another person entered the fray, it might be easier for him to handle. She launched a metal blast at where Destiny stood. "Wolverine, help’s on the way."
Destiny saw this coming and dived away from it. This gave Wolverine his opening. He moved to where she was diving and with one slash destroyed her crossbow. Before she could back away he grabbed her with his hands. “Not this time, darlin’” He told her. He looked over at Cyclops and Banshee, battling Avalanche. Avalanche’s power was forcing Cyclops to move, but Banshee had taken to the air and was launching his sonic scream at Avalanche. This made Avalanche lose his concentration and stop attacking Cyclops. Summers joined in with an optic blast and the force of that and Banshee’s sonic scream brought Avalanche down.
Seeing that they didn’t need help, he glanced towards Beast and Angel. Mystique was managing to hold her own and Wolverine decided to jump in. He grabbed Destiny with both arms and threw her at Mystique.
Mystique saw her lover coming towards her and rolled to get away. But as she started to get back to her feet, Angel grabbed her and took her to the air. “And where are you going?” He asked. Mystique raised her gun, but Angel dropped her onto the ground. The fall shook her and left a bruise or two, but not much else.
Beast hopped towards her and knocked her back into a tree. Angel grabbed Beast and took him to the air. “This isn’t exactly a fastball special, but it should work fine.” He said, and was able, with some effort to toss Beast towards Mystique’s position. Mystique saw him coming and managed to get off two shots, both of which hit Beast, but the blue X-Man was able to kick her blaster away from her. He shrugged off the pain of her shots and backhanded her away with his arm.
“Mystique,” Destiny called. “We can’t win this battle.”
Mystique grudgingly nodded. “Brotherhood, we must retreat.”
“You’re not going anywhere.” Cyclops declared.
Mystique laughed. “Try and stop us, if you can.” Mystique tossed out a flash grenade which created a bright aura of light. “Argh” The X-Men started to cover their eyes from the blinding light. By the time the light had gone and the effects of it had worn off, the Brotherhood was already gone.
“Nice escape,” Cyclops said grimly.
Wolverine angrily sheathed his claws and spat on the ground in disgust.
“At least they didn’t get Lorna,” Jean said.
Cyclops nodded. That was true. “Where is she?”
“She’s in the Blackbird with the Professor.” Jean replied.
“All right then, let’s go home.” Cyclops said.
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The X-Men joined up with Xavier and Lorna in the Blackbird and set a course for the Xavier Institute.
“So, you run a school?” Lorna asked.
“Yes,” Xavier replied. “I teach my students to control their mutant powers and offer them a safe haven. I also use it as the base for the X-Men. We protect mutants from humans who mean them harm, and protect humans from mutants who abuse their power, all while working to achieve my dream of peaceful coexistence between humans and mutants.”
“That sounds like a worthy goal.” Lorna complimented.
“I believe so.” Xavier replied, although that was putting it mildly. It was his life’s work. And the only future he believed would be worth living in. “Some mutants, such as the Brotherhood of Mutants, the ones that tried to kidnap you, believe instead that mutants should rule over humans.”
“I gathered that much from what Mystique told me.” Lorna said. “She wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
“No, I imagine she wouldn’t.” Xavier nodded.
“If it wasn’t for your X-Men, they would have succeeded too.” Lorna said. “But how did you know I was in trouble, or where to find me?”
“I was able to use a device known as Cerebro to pinpoint your location, it detected that you were in trouble.” Xavier replied. “So I summoned the X-Men, and thankfully Cyclops, Jean, Angel and Banshee were close by.”
“I see,” Lorna replied. “So, what happens now?”
“Well, Ms. Dane,” Xavier replied. “That entirely depends on you. If you wish, we can take you back to your home, or, if you would like, you could come and stay at my school.”
“You mean, join the X-Men?” Lorna asked.
“Yes,” Xavier replied. “Of course if you just wanted to learn to control your powers, that would be all right as well.”
Lorna thought about that. “It would be nice to learn how to control my powers. And your goal is a noble one that I’d feel proud to be a part of. Okay… Okay, I’d like to join you, Professor.”
“Excellent,” Xavier said.
“Welcome to the X-Men, Lorna.” Jean said.
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Meanwhile, in a private residence in Manhattan…
“What do you mean you couldn’t recruit her!?” The holographic figure exclaimed in anger.
“The X-Men interfered and we weren’t able to defeat them.” Mystique explained.
“I don’t need to remind you of Lorna’s particular interest to me.”
“No, Magneto, you don’t.” Mystique replied.
“I didn’t see you volunteering to go and help us get her.” Pyro told him.
The holographic projection of Magneto turned to glare at Pyro. “I was recruiting on your behalf, remember?” He deeply regretted the fact that he had been forced to entrust Lorna’s retrieval to Mystique and her team, but by the time he’d learned of her he was already out of the country. He hadn’t wanted to wait until his return, because he had been afraid that Xavier would find her first.
“Speaking of which,” Mystique interrupted before Pyro decided to mouth off again in an attempt to cover up the fact that Magneto terrified him. “How’s that going?”
“I have succeeded; he’ll be on a plane and should arrive in the city tomorrow.” Magneto replied. “He goes by Toad, for, well, rather obvious reasons. His power is superhuman agility and other toad like characteristics.”
“No way.” Pyro replied.
“Now, what can we do about getting Lorna back?” Magneto asked, ignoring Pyro’s statement of disbelief.
“I don’t think there’s anything we can do.” Mystique answered honestly. “My impression is that she will find the X-Men’s offer enticing.” While she wasn’t thrilled about the X-Men getting another member, it seemed to her to be unavoidable.
“I see,” Magneto’s response was terse, even for him. “Well then I will have to make it back as soon as possible. I have every intention of getting her back!” The holographic figure disappeared as soon as he finished speaking the last word.
-------------------------
“Your room will be right here, next to Jean’s.” Professor Xavier told Lorna. “And you will need to pick a codename, but we can worry about that later.”
“All right, thank you for everything, Professor.” Lorna smiled gratefully.
“You’re quite welcome, Lorna.” Xavier assured her. “We’ll let you get settled in.”
Lorna nodded, and Professor Xavier, Scott and Jean walked out of the room, leaving their newest recruit alone.
“I think she’ll make a fine addition.” Jean said.
“I do as well.” Professor Xavier replied. “Scott, what do you think?”
“I agree, it’s just…”
“What is it, Scott?” Jean asked.
“Something Mystique said during the battle.” Scott answered.
Xavier leaned forward with great interest. “What did she say?”
“She said we didn’t know anything about Lorna,” Scott reported. “But it’s the way she said it… like… like she knew something we don’t.”
“I don’t sense any deception from Lorna.” Jean said. She hadn’t read her mind, and she wouldn’t do so without the other woman’s permission, but she didn’t get the impression Lorna was lying to them.
“Neither do I.” Xavier agreed with Jean.
“I don’t think it has anything to do with deception.” Scott clarified. “I just have a feeling that I can’t shake.”
“Well,” Xavier replied. “I suppose only time will tell.”
Scott nodded.
None of the X-Men could imagine just how true those words would one day prove to be.