Stepping out of ‘his’ room, Mystique-Forge headed down the corridor. One of the advantages of having Forge’s room was that, unlike the others, his and Ororo’s rooms weren’t in the main living area. Ororo, given her claustrophobia and her natural inclination towards nature and open places chose to live in the mansion loft. The huge expanse of relatively empty space had been modified to give her a large single bedroom suite and a somewhat miniaturized version of her greenhouse. For the same reason, a sky window had also been retconned into the mansion roof.
While Ororo’s choice arose from her need to be near nature, Forge’s choice of a room away from the general mansion crowd, came from his need for a large working space for his inventions and his near paranoid need for secrecy.
Both of these worked in Mystique’s favor as having taken of one of them, the other she had left for the grand finale.
A complete detailed ‘path’ drawn up, she headed towards her first target, Jean Grey and Scott Summers.
----
Her telepathic disruptor in place, she smirked as the door to the couple’s room opened up with just a flick of her wrist.
‘Idiots. Should lock their doors. Don’t know when someone might want to break into it.’
Scott on the right, Jean on the left, both facing each other, with Scott lolling off on his stomach with Jean lying on the side, presented no challenge for the shape shifter.
Click! The near inaudible sound of an inch thick hemisphere being flicked open wasn’t enough for disturbing the slumber of either Scott or the telepathic/telekinetic Jean. Mystique knew who she had to take care of first, Jean. That was because, in case Scott woke up, he would have to reach for his glasses and or visor lying on the side table. That would give her the precious seconds she would need to incapacitate him. However, if it were the other war around and Jean was the one detecting the intruder, she could directly throw out a telekinetic shield around and Scott and warn their gimpy Professor.
Thuck! That took care of the redhead.
“Ummmhnnn….” Scott’s groan was stifled half way as with a second ‘Thuck!’ a similar device was placed in the middle of his forehead too. The device, consisting of a synaptic disruptor would keep on giving minute discharges to keep the victims ‘asleep’ and out of her way. If that wasn’t enough by itself, there was a second and more dangerous part of it. Filled in that one inch by two inch construct was enough explosive to blow away the forehead and eyes of the person it was fixed on. The resulting force would also be enough to effectively crack open his/her skull, taking off roughly the same about of bone and quite a bit of brain matter too.
---
It took all but couple of minutes for Mystique-Forge to get to the next room, that of her son, Kurt Wagner. Compared to the couple’s obviously larger room, Kurt’s room was much more simplistically set up. Except for the prominent altar on the dresser, the only other major piece of furniture apart from the usual closet and mirror was the study table and chair.
Click! Thuck!
And he was done too.
“Sorry son,” Mystique took the time to gently caress his hair. “But a mother’s got to do what a mother’s got to do….and mother knows best.”
---
Progressing from room to room, Mystique not only incapacitated the occupants, but also closed and locked the doors behind her. In case any one did happen to chance upon her handiwork, the locked doors would give them doubt or at least delay their subsequent discovery.
Rogue, Gambit, Iceman, Kitty and Piotr, all of them received the same treatment as the others. Even Xavier was taken down pretty easily, even with him almost waking up.
Even though she was in a position to kill any and everyone of them, Mystique did not avail of the opportunity. After all, she had a deal with Sinister. He gets the X-Men and her daughter and Ororo. Even Kurt was among the group going to Sinister. All Mystique was concerned with was getting her Rogue, her mama’s girl…and more importantly, her weapon back. The others or their powers were of no concern to her. She could always get Rogue to absorb them later.
The stage for the main event set, the garb of Forge lost its usefulness, as with nary a flutter, the six feet plus tall Forge, dropped a few inches, changed his sex, hair, skin and eye color to become Jean.
----
Fifteen minutes had passed since leaving Forge’s room, when with a ping the elevator door opened up on the infirmary level. As far as Mystique knew, only the blue furred Henry and that weather bitch Ororo were the only ones left.
Click!
The device meant for Henry grasped in her right hand, Mystique-Jean stepped to and past the infirmary door.
“Who is it?” Beast’s baritone voice sounded from the lab, a barely audible Beethoven symphony accompanying it. Working late nights, Henry McCoy had developed to ‘bad’ habits. One, listening to classic music to help him stay calm, refreshed and alert; and two, eating Twinkies. Such was his passion for the latter, that going against his own rule of no food products in the infirmary or the adjoining lab, Henry had collected quite a substantial stash of his poison.
“Its me Hank,” the smooth voice of Jean took care of that as Mystique-Jean followed the music to her next victim. Smirking at the silent figure of Wolverine visible through the glass partition, she firmed her grip, took a deep breath and pushed open the double-hinged doors separating the outer lab from the infirmary. She would have to move fast or else the big ape would smell her out.
“How can I help you Jean?” Henry offered without turning his head to face her. “I thought you had retired for the night. Did Scott…..” *sniff * “…Jean?” *sniff* “You are not….”
Thuck!
THUD
“Sorry monkey,” Mystique smirked as Jean fell away and the form of Beast took her place. “But you talk too much.”
Stepping to the communication relay, Mystique-Beast checked the time on her watch. 2:33 AM. ‘Twenty seven minutes more.’
Accessing the intercom, she rolled the dice to set the next and final part of her plan into play.
“Ororo, this is Henry. Please come down to the infirmary. I believe I have some good news for you.”
----
Even as the message was sent and its recipient hurried towards the elevators, another quite younger figure was making the rounds, about to start for the same destination.
Her guardian retired for the night, Jubilation Lee slipped out of her room, about to make a late night run to check on her Wolvie.
‘Now, where was it?’ Her young face twisted in a frown as she tried to recall the way to the nearest elevator, which given her unfamiliarity with the mansion, was still not completely known to her.
“Shit!” Walking around the level, she cursed on finding herself back in front of her and Heather’s room. ‘Better use the stairs,’ she consoled herself. ‘Take the stairs to the first floor, and then take the elevator from there.’
That plan in mind, the Chinese-American started on the route that was known to her.
What she did not know was how dearly this delay was going to cost her.
----
“Ah, Ororo,” the shape changed Mystique smiled at the Nubian beauty, plastering an excited look on her face. “Just the person I was waiting for.”
Taking her friend’s behavior as a good sign, Ororo walked to where ‘he’ was standing, near Wolverine’s bed. Drawn up on its own, her hand raised to trace the whiskered jaw of her unconscious lover. Seeing him like this, as if at death’s door, made Ororo want to join him…to die herself. However, the fact that Henry finally seemed to have made a breakthrough with his simulations brought hope to her heart.
“How is he Henry?” She asked without looking up from Wolverine’s two-day-old stubbled face. Had she looked up, she would have seen Mystique draw out a remote like gadget…however, at the same time, had she not being paying attention to the way Logan’s arms seemed to straighten out, his hand coming inline with his forearm in the tell take sign of his claws about to be released.
“Logan….” Ororo gasped, stepping back just in time to avoid having her hand pierced through, maybe even sliced off completely. “Henry, what is…?” Finally breaking her gaze, she was stunned to see not the blue form of her friend Beast, but that of the shapeshifting Mystique. “Goddess…What are you doing here?”
“I am here to get my daughter back bitch,” yellow eyes glared at her. “And take care of you once and for all….and I have just the tool I need.”
“What do you mean?” Even though there wasn’t enough weather for her to manipulate, Ororo took a couple of steps back, her eyes flashing white, as she adopted a fighting stance. She knew about the deceit Mystique was capable of….just as she knew she could take whatever she threw at her. She had been able to in the past. So why would this time be any different?
“Up, boy.”
“Logan?”
GRRRRR…
-----
“Hey Beassss…..”
SKRAKA-BOOM!!
“Shit,” Jubilee stopped mid-step, her eyes bugging out of their socket at the sight before her.
“Hey! What are you doing to him?” She demanded, as yet another lightening strike tore through the walls, causing her to slam her hands against her ears. “Stop it dammit. You are hurting him.”
Startled at the new entrant, Mystique quickly recovered and taking advantage of the fact that the girl hadn’t seen her, shifted back into Beast’s form.
“Help child,” she adopted on the generic hail. “Go get Professor Xavier,” she/he called out. “Ororo seems to bee losing control. Even I cannot get through to her. She is forcefully trying to draw out the implants.”
“Like hell she is,” Jubilee reacted, but not quite in the way that Mystique had hoped. “Hey you, stop it,” she stomped up to where Ororo was trying her level best to keep away from the seemingly berserk Wolverine. Tears were flowing down her cheeks as having to strike him not once, but twice with her electricity. While in his sentience, one strike would be enough to bring his metal laden body down, at least for a few minutes, this time not even the two strikes were able to do it. That was because, even though his body was responding, most of Wolverine’s brain was still switched off…asleep.
“Jubilee, hel….” Ororo did not take her eyes off Wolverine, who was slowing but surely starting to move against the mediocre winds she was able to call upon in the closed off infirmary.
“Let HIM GO.” Whatever words Ororo might have spoken were lost as Jubilee closed her eyes and let go her most powerful *PAFF*, her plasma burst she could manage, effectively blinding both the women for a few seconds. She was repenting her earlier decision to trust this witch. She was supposed to love Wolvie, not hurt him like this. “Let him GO,” she cried out again, as she let go of her second and final shot, falling to the ground as the energy drained off her.
----
The girl’s proximity and the resulting exposure knocked Ororo off as she lost control of her winds and hit the ground with a loud thud, a cry of pain escaping her lips. She was still recovering when Mystique, who had jumped out of the way before Jubilee’s second shot, got up and handled her remote. The remote, just like the implants in Wolverine’s body was a joint result of Sinister’s technology and Forge’s mind. With it, she could control whosoever the base controllers were implanted in. Although meant for Sinister’s use only, she had been able to finagle a controller out of her ‘ex-lover’, thanks to some rather useful bedtime services she provided for him.
“Hmm, what is this?” She mused as she returned to her natural form. “This is something good. I did not know this.”
“What?” Ororo demanded, her tone defiant to mask the pain her lower extremities. Hitting the ground seemed to have sprained, maybe even broken her left foot. That coupled with the effects of the now near unconscious Jubilee’s shots had effectively left her unable to move.
“You, you love him. Don’t you?”
Narrowing her eyes at Mystique’s question and internally cursing at not being able to reach Jean or Xavier, Ororo gritted out her answer. “What does it matter to you?”
Getting her answer, Mystique threw her head back and laughed out aloud. “What does it matter to me? What does it matter to me? I tell you what it matters to me. It matters because just as you hurt me by taking my daughter from me, just as you made me feel the pain of loss, so am I going to do with you.”
Fearing for Logan’s wellbeing, Ororo spared a glance at her immobile Wolverine, turning her eyes away at the blank, dead look in his eyes. “I won’t let you hurt him.”
“Oh, but I am not going to hurt him,” Mystique shook her head, her finger lifting to her remote. “I am going you, or should I say, I am going to make HIM hurt you….and even this snot nosed girl who made things easier for us. And in case you are wondering where the rest of your teammates are, they are all indisposed at the moment.”
Regaining enough energy, Jubilee was able to catch the end of that conversation.
“Ah, you are up to,” she scowled at the sweet saccharine voice that Mystique put forth.
“Screw you,” spat the youngster. Turning to look at Ororo, she mouthed a ‘sorry’ to her. Trying to use her powers again, she found that she was all paffed out.
---
“So, lets move things along, shall we?” Ten minutes to three. “Which of you wants to die first?” Asked Mystique, and without even waiting for an answer, carried out. It was as if, she had finally flipped out, her actions becoming highly erratic in nature. “How about we let your friend here decide?” She gestured towards Wolverine, taking a couple of steps to get out the way. “Kill them,” she sent the appropriate signal.
Lost in his own mind, Wolverine responded to the command.
“Logan!”
“Wolvie…!” Jubilee clenched her eyes as she Logan stepped up and lifted his fisted hand towards her. “Wolvie….No….Wol….”
“NOOOOOOOO….”
SLASH!!
THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!
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