X-Men

by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

  “Is somebody there?” Senator Kelly’s voice came weakly from behind her.

  She quickly moved over to his bed and smiled down at him, trying to reassure. He was completly covered in viscous fluid, and apparently he could hardly see her. As he moved, water seemed to run from his skin and onto the bed in rivulets.

  “Is somebody there?” Kelly asked again.

  She picked up his wet, slick hand. “Right here, Senator.”

  “Are you one of them?” he asked.

  “Who is ‘them’?” she asked.

  “I guess I don’t know anymore,” he said, and then he actually smiled. Water ran from his face and around his eyes. He didn’t even seem to notice.

  “I guess it doesn’t matter,” he added. “Please don’t leave.”

  “All right,” Storm said, giving his hand a very gentle squeeze.

  “I just don’t want to be alone.”

  “I understand,” Storm said. “Very much, actually.”

  The silence seemed to stretch endlessly, and for a moment Storm thought he had dozed off again.

  Then he blinked and focused a little bit, and looked directly at her. “Do you hate normal people?” he asked.

  “Sometimes,” she said, being honest with him.

  “Why?”

  She paused for a moment, then decided to give him the straight answer. He deserved that much at least. “I suppose I’m afraid of them.”

  Kelly laughed, then coughed uncontrollably. She calmed him as best she could.

  After a moment he looked up at her again. “Well, I think you’ve got one less person to be afraid of.”

  With that he closed his eyes, and his hand tightened around hers. His breathing became shallower and shallower as his hand seemed to be getting smaller and smaller.

  So much water was running off of him now that it was dripping in streams onto the floor around the table. The senator was literally melting.

  He coughed again, then seemed to settle into the table. His hand continued to shrink in hers, melting away.

  She wanted to let go, to go wash, but she stayed. She had promised him she wouldn’t leave him alone. She didn’t like the man or his beliefs, but no one deserved to die alone.

  As she watched, he just got smaller and smaller.

  Finally he didn’t take another breath.

  She was just about to put his hand down when it melted completely, slipping through her fingers.

  Logan was getting more and more fed up. It seemed that all they did was talk in circles, and talking wasn’t going to get Rogue back. Only action was going to accomplish anything.

  “So,” Jean said, glancing at Logan, clearly sensing his impatience, “if Magneto wanted to turn a group of people into mutants, where would he do it?”

  The question was met with silence. Logan had no idea. Neither, it seemed, did any of them. The target could be any city.

  “I’ll use Cerebro to try to find Rogue,” Xavier said, breaking the silence. “That might help us figure out where they are heading. Cyclops, would you and Storm ready the jet?”

  Logan pushed himself away from where he’d been leaning against the wall.

  Finally some action.

  “Jean,” Xavier said, “find Logan a uniform.”

  “No,” Cyclops said. “He’s not coming.”

  Logan turned. His temper flared. “You little—”

  “I’m sorry, Professor,” Cyclops said, ignoring Logan. “It’s not going to happen. He’ll endanger the mission and my team.”

  “Hey,” Logan countered, “I wasn’t the one who gave the train station a new sunroof. So you can take your mission and stick it. I’ll do this on my own.”

  “Stop acting like children!” Xavier said firmly, looking first at Cyclops, then at Logan. “Both of you! People’s lives are at stake. Rogue’s life is at stake!”

  Logan couldn’t even decide how to respond to that.

  At that instant the door opened and Storm came in, looking shaken. More shaken than Logan had yet seen her look. She was wiping her hands on a towel, over and over.

  “Senator Kelly’s dead,” Storm said. “He melted. It was not a pleasant thing to watch.”

  She wiped her hands again.

  Silence filled the room again like a thick cloud, holding everything still. Finally Xavier nodded, and moved his chair out from behind his desk and toward the door.

  With a quick glance at Cyclops, then Logan, he said, “Settle this.”

  Then he wheeled himself out of the room.

  Professor Xavier wheeled himself into position on the extension ramp leading to Cerebro and let the heavy steel door close behind him. He was angry at both Cyclops and Logan for continuing their petty bickering. And he was worried. Deeply. The images from Senator Kelly kept flashing through his mind. There was no doubt that Magneto thought his device worked, and that he was going to use it on a large number of people, forcing Rogue to act as his stand-in.

  The question was where? And when?

  Xavier keyed in the commands for Cerebro to track Rogue’s brain waves, then wheeled himself into position and put the helmet on his head. They didn’t have much time, that he was sure of. He had to find her and find her fast.

  As Cerebro started up, he focused on Rogue.

  Almost instantly he knew something was wrong.

  Horribly wrong.

  Sharp pain stabbed through his head, spinning him around and around inside, twisting his thinking, assaulting his mind like a bad nightmare.

  He screamed out in pain.

  Fighting against losing conciousness, he hit the emergency shut-off switch. Jean had insisted that it be installed on the arm of his chair.

  The shut-off switch also triggered alarms and opened the door.

  He knew, with a tiny part of what was left of his consciousness, that those things were happening.

  But the rest of him was overwhelmed by the pain.

  And then the blackness arrived. Creeping, thick blackness, like none he had ever experienced before, slowly filling his awareness.

  He wanted to get away from it, but it was inside his head.

  He jerked as one more massive jolt of pain shot through his mind. Like a distant object, he could see the light coming in the now-open door. But the light wasn’t enough to hold back the darkness.

  He pitched forward, out of his chair, out of the helmet.

  And the blackness had completely taken him before he hit the floor.

  Chapter Nineteen

  X-Men Mansion

  Cyclops stood over Professor Xavier’s body, watching his friend and mentor breathe shallowly. At least he was still breathing. His wheelchair sat next to the bed. Electrodes were taped to his temples and forehead. The monitors showed erratic brain wave activity. Even Cyclops could tell that much.

  “What can we do now?” Storm asked.

  Jean stood on the other side of the table, and Logan was leaning against the wall behind her. Jean shook her head. “We just have to wait.”

  Logan looked up. It was clear that Logan was upset, almost as much as the rest of them.

  “I think we should get some rest,” Jean said. “We’re not going to be making very good decisions this tired. We’ll take turns watching over the professor.”

  “And we’re going to need to take care of the students,” Storm said. “I’ll do that.”

  “Rest,” Jean said.

  Storm nodded as she headed for the door.

  Logan pushed himself away from the wall and moved over to stand by the professor. Then, as he passed by Cyclops, he put a hand on Cyclops’ shoulder. “I’m sorry, Scott.”

  All Cyclops could do was nod his thanks.

  After Storm and Logan had both left, Jean looked at him. “Go rest, then come back and relieve me later in the morning.”

  “Are you going to be all right here?” Cyclops asked. “You haven’t had any rest, either.”

  Jean looked at the professor. “I’ll be fine for four or five hours. I
’ll wake you if there’s any change.”

  Cyclops kissed her, then headed for the door. Rest didn’t seem like it was going to be possible.

  And over the next four hours it didn’t come easy. But he did manage some sleep, and after a shower and some food he returned to the lab to give Jean a much-needed break. He actually felt better.

  After she had left, he moved over and stood above the professor. “You can still hear me, can’t you?” he asked.

  Of course the professor didn’t move. But over the last few hours the monitor had shown some slight stabilizing of his brain waves. Jean had said that that was a good sign.

  “I just want to thank you for taking me in,” Cyclops said. “Actually, taking us all in.”

  He stepped back, walked around the table, then continued. “You’ve taught me everything in my life that is worth knowing. And I want you to know that I’ll take care of them.”

  With that he moved back over to a chair near the monitor and sat down. There was nothing more to say.

  And for the moment, nothing more to do.

  After what seemed like an instant nap, but had actually been three hours, Jean showered and returned to the medical lab. Storm and Logan were both there, sitting quietly, waiting. She did a quick check of the professor’s vital signs and reported that not only were his brain waves slowly stabilizing, but his vital signs were getting stronger. It was going to take some time, and he wasn’t out of the woods yet, but at least he was going in the right direction.

  “So what do we do now to save Rogue?” Logan asked. “If it’s not too late already.”

  Jean glanced at the professor. “Well, Cyclops is scanning all news and online reports as we speak, looking for any unusual activity that might give us a clue that something is happening somewhere.”

  Logan nodded, clearly as satisfied as he could be.

  “If one of you would stay with the professor, shift off, and let me know if there are any changes, it would be really helpful.”

  “You got it,” Logan said.

  “Gladly,” Storm said.

  “I’ll be in back. I have another idea,” Jean said.

  She had no idea if she could even fix whatever was wrong with Cerebro. But over the last year she and the professor had worked on the machine a great deal, and she felt she knew it—knew how it worked, and why it worked. If anyone besides the professor could fix it, she could.

  It turned out that the main brain had been punctured and broken. Someone had clearly sabotaged it. The questions as to why and how someone could do this would have to wait until later. First she needed to fix it.

  Every hour she checked on the professor, then went back to work. Luckily, whoever had sabotaged Cerebro had not known quite what they were doing. The most vital sections had been missed.

  Carefully, she replaced wires, tubing, and optic fibers, checking and rechecking every connection to make sure it was not only secure, but correct.

  Suddenly, as she connected what seemed to be one of the last optic fibers, Cerebro’s brain began to light back up.

  Two more optic fibers connected, and the brain’s light was as bright as always.

  She climbed up out of the harness, moved to the main control board, and ran diagnostic check after diagnostic check. Two hours later, after a few tweaks and one more replaced fiber, everything read completely green.

  Cerebro was back and ready, as soon as the professor was well enough to use it.

  She started toward the door to tell the others, then realized the full implications of the thoughts that had just run through her mind. It was going to be some time before the professor would be well enough, strong enough, to use Cerebro again. And by that time, Magneto would most certainly have carried out what he was planning.

  And Rogue would, from the professor’s account of what had happened to Kelly, be only one of the dead. One of hundreds, thousands, perhaps more.

  She moved out into the hallway and glanced toward the medical lab. Cyclops and Storm were both leaning against a wall, just outside the lab, waiting. Logan must be inside.

  She had to give it a try. There were far too many lives on the line for her to wait.

  She turned to the control board as Cyclops looked up and saw her. He started toward her just as she punched the button to close the door.

  The last thing she heard from him, as the door locked shut behind her, was, “Jean! No!”

  She moved over to the position on the ramp where the professor normally sat and knelt to put her head at the same height. Then she fit Cerebro’s helmet over her head and punched in the code on the control panel to search for Rogue’s brain waves. She also set the power levels lower than the professor normally used. She had nowhere near the ability he had. Frying her own brain wasn’t what she had in mind here.

  Faintly through the massive door she could hear Cyclops pounding. She just hoped he didn’t do anything stupid like trying to blast through that door. He might be able to do it.

  She punched the start switch and then kept her head still as the ramp extended and the walls of the massive round room began to spin.

  Suddenly the machine seemed to reach inside her head and grab her brain, clamping down on it like a fist, squeezing harder and harder as the walls around her vanished and her vision floated up and out of the mansion.

  She heard herself scream at the pain as the ground sped by under her, until finally she was there, hovering above the tied and gagged Rogue. And instantly, she knew where Magneto was taking her.

  The minute that realization was fixed in her mind, Cerebro let her go.

  The ramp retracted, the walls slowed and stopped, and the door clicked open to reveal the worried faces of Cyclops, Storm, and Logan. As they came running in, she tried to stand and pitched forward into Cyclops’ arms.

  “Jean?” Cyclops said, holding her tight. “What have you done?”

  She managed to open her eyes and smile up at him with what seemed like her strongest smile, but she wasn’t even sure if she’d have the energy to move her lips. Then she managed to choke out, “I’ve found out where they’re going.”

  Then she closed her eyes again. It was just too much work to keep them open.

  Chapter Twenty

  Liberty Island—New York City

  The entire harbor around Ellis and Liberty Islands crawled with security as the leaders of every major nation gathered for the opening ceremonies of the international peace conference to be held on Ellis Island.

  The night was lit with spotlights, and the water was dotted with police boats. Underwater sensors guarded the islands, and three different security satellites provided constant surveillance of the entire area. The U.S. Secret Service and the FBI were responsible for all the world leaders’ security, working with each government’s security agency. As far as they were all concerned, not even a fly could get near these leaders without them knowing about it.

  Liberty Island ground security had been given over to almost fifty of New York’s finest, patrolling on a constant basis. Both the FBI and the Secret Service had command posts set up on the side of Liberty Island that faced Ellis Island, where the opening ceremonies would take place.

  The line of limos jammed the one road to Ellis Island like a traffic jam at rush hour. The backup, of course, was exacerbated by the intense security check each car had to go through just to get to the island.

  On the dock side of Liberty Island, away from Ellis Island, a New York cop named Mike walked a set path. He was in his thirties, and was pretty much disgusted at the night duty he’d been forced to pull because of all the big shots in limos. He would much rather have been home watching a game on television, or sitting at Henry’s tavern, downing a few beers. Instead he walked a very short, very monotonous beat of less than a hundred paces on Liberty Island.

  Mike was so focused on his cold hands that he didn’t see the mutant on the stone ledge above him, didn’t hear Toad jump, didn’t even know what hit him when Toad crushed him flat, killin
g him instantly.

  Another cop named Stan, on the next beat over, thought he might have heard a crunch at the time Mike’s bones were being smashed, but he couldn’t see anything.

  Two minutes later, Stan met the same fate.

  In the water just beyond the dock, a New York City police boat slowly moved toward the Liberty Island dock. The pilot was a man in his forties, standing behind the open wheel, taking the boat carefully in.

  On the dock another cop named Hank waved.

  The pilot waved back.

  Then Hank waved again, this time with his entire body, his mouth open in a silent scream of shock as Sabretooth ran him through, then picked him up. A moment later Sabretooth tossed Hank’s body over the side of the dock and moved back into the shadows, to take care of any other police who might come near the dock at any point in the near future.

  On the boat the pilot started to shift, changing quickly into Mystique. At her feet the original pilot lay dead, his open eyes staring up at her. On the back deck of the boat, under a heavy tarp, rested the machine that would shortly change the world forever.

  The boat bumped gently into the dock, and Mystique moved to quickly tie it off. Then she turned and said, “Clear.”

  Magneto came up from below, followed a safe distance behind by Rogue. She was wrapped in a tight-fitting jacket, her hands tied together, a metal collar around her neck so Magneto could control her completely.

  He stepped up on the deck and took a deep breath of the cold bay air, then looked up at the Statue of Liberty towering above them. “Isn’t it magnificent?”

  “I’ve seen it,” Rogue said.

  Magneto took off his helmet and held it under his arm, then looked back up at the statue. “I first saw her in 1949. America was going to be the land of tolerance. Of peace.”

  Sabretooth jumped down onto the deck and helped Mystique uncover the machine.

  “Are you going to kill me?” Rogue asked.