‘ ’ indicates thought
“ ” indicates spoken words
“There has been attack on the mansion.”
It was around three in the morning when the SR-77 ‘Blackbird’ or as it was more commonly known as, the X-Jet taxied into its subterranean hanger located under the basketball court on the Xavier mansion’s grounds.
Within moments, all the eight x-men rushed into the office of their mentor and x-men founder, Professor Charles Xavier.
“Professor,” Scott was the first one to speak. However, he stopped short at the sight of the man sitting with Xavier.
“Come in Scott, everyone,” Xavier signaled them to enter as he turned to his guest. “I would like you to meet someone.”
----
The group entered and gathered around the table, spreading out so that they would be able to face both men.
“This is General Nicolas Fury,” he introduced politely, almost smirking at the surprised expression on the faces of the younger team members, who although had heard about the mysterious Fury had not seem him face to face.
“Hmm, you have more members than the last time,” Fury mused as he took in each team member.
“General, I know about your office keeping an eye on us,” Xavier’s admission surprised the X-Men even further, but did not seem to faze Fury at all.
“Comes with the territory Professor,” Fury answered just as easily. “Need to keep a track of possible hostiles.”
“Hostiles?” Angel stepped forward instantly. “We are the good guys here.”
“Warren,” Xavier started but was cut off by Fury.
“Mr. Worthington, I didn’t deny the fact that the X-Men are trying to help mutants,” he stated in a matter of fact manner, his *working* eye boring right into the blonde haired Angel. “But we need to keep track none the less. You do not know when someone will turn on you. Your Professor can attest to that….from his personal experience.”
“If by *someone*, you are implying Eric Lehnsherr, Magneto, then I have to sadly admit that I agree with you,” Xavier nodded. “But that is not always the case.”
“One case is one too many,” Fury pointed a finger towards the window. “Or at least it should be. It avoids instances such as this.”
----
“What do you mean?” Jean narrowed her eyes at their ‘guest’.
“Jean,” Scott’s voice drew her attention to the window where he was standing staring at something outside. “Come here.”
“What is it Scott?” she asked as she joined him, her mouth falling open at sight before her. “How….” She started, her words falling away in disbelief.
From their position, they could see two things. One, the mansion gate and front doors had been destroyed….they had been cut right off from the bricked wall. Two, the garage shutters had been cut in a similar way, the only difference being that they weren’t completely cut off as was the case with the Gate and the door. Instead they were cut into…with a word carved into the metal sheeting.
“Who did this?” Scott turned to the two older men, his eyes sparkling red with contained anger. He looked like he wanted to blast the culprit away.
“We don’t know,” Xavier shook his head. “That is why I requested the General’s assistance. He has kindly agreed to do so.”
“Before I give you any information,” Fury was all business now, his earlier laid-back attitude gone. “I would like to stress that you heed the warning.”
“What warning?” Bobby asked in confusion as he once again looked at the garage. “It just says Stop, but from what? Stop leaving our home? Stop driving the cars? Stop having doors?”
“Iceman,” Xavier silenced him. Placing his elbows on his arm rests; he formed a triangle as he brought his hands together, his fingertips almost touching his chin. “It seems that this was done as a warning for us to desist from our current mission.”
“Current mission?” Kitty asked in a confused manner. She was the newest member of the team. “But we met the two singers. They couldn’t be the ones who attacked the mansion. They were there, in New Orleans, at the concert.”
“I think, by the current mission, the General meant our search for Wolverine,” Storm surmised correctly.
“Very perceptive Ms. Monroe,” Fury responded, *not* as a complement as he turned his attention back to the Professor. “I think I advised you against this, didn’t I? I clearly remember suggesting that you restrain from any activities to try to find him.”
“Yes, that you did,” Xavier nodded his head.
“I also remember saying that you won’t be able to find him if he doesn’t want to be found. And on an outside chance that you are able to find him, it won’t be beneficial for the wellbeing and lives of you and your students.”
“Yes General,” Xavier answered tightly, his friendly, accepting attitude losing out to the shock at being *attacked* in his own home and the concern and fear he had for his students’ lives.
“Then can either you or anyone of your X-Men tell me, why wasn’t that taken seriously,” the General fired off.
At getting no reply from any of the younger or older X-Men, he surged forward.
“You should consider yourselves lucky Professor Xavier….” he deliberately used the Professor’s last name, emphasizing his own position as head of S.H.I.E.L.D., the super-super-super spy agency. “…that you are alive right now. You should also thank your stars that it wasn’t Wolverine who was here; otherwise we would have to spend weeks matching your body parts.”
“General, if you are trying to intimidate me or my X-Men, it is not working,” Xavier responded icily.
“Isn’t it,” Fury arched a brow and looked up at the younger members.
“Sure is,” Bobby muttered under his breath, almost icing up from the nervousness.
“Same-same here,” Kitty nodded her head.
“And anyway, I am not trying to ‘scare’ your children, Professor,” Fury sighed in annoyance. “I am trying to save your lives. This is not even the proverbial tip of the iceberg when it comes to Wolverine….and that too when he wasn’t even here.”
“He WASN’T here,” Scott burst out in shocked surprise. “Then who….”
“This was someone much younger, someone who is almost equally skilled, equally powered, equally dangerous…equally lethal, with a whole lot more anger and pardon the pun, a whole lot more fury than Wolverine…under normal conditions. Although, I must say, it is almost comical that he sent her. Its like he wanted her to have fun.”
-----
“HER?” This time it was Jean’s turn to blurt out.
“Yes, her,” Fury answered evenly, almost enjoying himself now. “Let me tell you another thing, the only reason anyone who was in the mansion at that time including Professor here, is alive, is because of Wolverine. He did not want anyone dead…yet. He just wanted to warn you, and I must say, from the letter and the sign on the garage door, it should be pretty clear to you, who you are dealing with.”
“Letter?” Scott turned to Xavier. “What letter Professor?”
“This letter Scott,” Xavier lifted the single sheet and handed it to the X-Men leader, who read it out aloud for everyone.
“That’s it?” Angel, Jean and Kitty asked in unison.
“Yes,” Xavier nodded. “I found it here when I came to contact the General.”
“Here? In your OFFICE?”
“Yes Scott,” Xavier answered gravely. “And the perplexing thing was that, I was unable to detect any suspicious presence in and around the mansion…..in a radius of twenty miles.”
-----
“How do you know, it wasn’t Wolverine?” Ororo put up her first question of the meeting.
“Because, the slash marks make only two grooves and the spacing is totally different,” Fury let them know that much.
“What does that mean?” she pressed on further.
“If it had been Wolverine, there would have been three….at least somewhere and they would have been a different spacing between each slash.”
----
“How did you trip to New Orleans go?” the General turned the questioning on its head and directed it towards Scott. “Find anything useful about him there?”
“Scott?” Xavier’s tone told him that he could talk frankly and openly.
“Nothing useful Professor,” Cyclops shook his head. “In fact the person, whom you sent us to question, seemed to know everything about us.”
“And about Wolverine?”
It was then that Jean stepped forward to present her findings.
“He knows Wolverine; that much I am sure of.” Cyclops answered and gave Xavier an abridged version of the events of the previous day. The narration was more for the benefit of the General than for Xavier, who had already been contacted and updated by Jean.
“Hmmm, interesting,” Xavier mused in thought, thinking about ‘inviting’ the mysterious Mr. Lebeau to the mansion. “Interesting and unnerving.”
Sensing his line of thought, Fury decided to let another of card show on the table.
“Don’t worry Professor. You will get your chance too. I have asked Mr. Lebeau to be brought in for questioning. Although I have my doubts you will get anything out of him…..not verbally at least.”
“Are you suggesting that I enter his mind and read his thoughts General,” Xavier asked guardedly. “I don’t appreciate using my powers that way.”
“No Professor, I am not. Neither will you get a chance to do so. He is now under SHIELD custody, the X-Men have no jurisdiction, not that they had any earlier,” this time Fury did chuckle. “You can only observe the interrogation proceedings, while our telepath conducts the probing.”
“Your telepath?” Jean asked suspiciously.
“Yes Ms. Grey,” Fury turned to the students. “One whom you all know and whom I find acceptable and skilled enough to get the job done…without any harm to Mr. Lebeau.”
“Isn’t that right, Psylocke?”
-------
Elsewhere,
“Grr,” The ringing and vibrations from the phone roused the sleeping man from his sleep. “Fuck.”
Grabbing the infuriating gadget from the side-table, he almost threw it against the wall before bringing it to his ear. “Yeah.”
“Gambit has been captured,” the words stunned him awake in an instant. “His distress beacon activated fifteen minutes ago. He is airborne, heading towards the Atlantic,” the mysterious voice supplied all the relevant information.
“New York?” Wolverine asked as he rubbed the remnants of sleep and fatigue off his face. “The X-Men?”
“I cannot confirm that hypothesis my friend,” the cultured but serious voice answered from the other end. “I do not think that Professor Xavier would resort to kidnapping.”
“Yeah? I guess that makes one of us,” Wolverine answered as he looked to the second bed in the room. “I’ll get on the road. Should be in New York within ten hours, eight, if yer new modifications work.”
“That they will; I am sure of that. I will monitor your progress and collect data on the performance of the new tweaks.”
“Yeah, well, thanks for the heads up,” Logan replied gruffly. “Listen. Don’t tell the kid anything about this. Don’t want her to get worried uselessly.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t,” the other person responded. “And Logan….”
“Yeah”
“Happy hunting.”
“Now yer pulling my chain.”
Ending the call, he silently started gathering his belongings. Fifteen minutes later, he had stowed his and his travel buddy’s luggage in his camper, checked the room and cleaned it thoroughly, cleared his account at the main desk and returned to his room, the motel manager following close at his heels.
Growling at the middle-aged man to remain outside, he entered the room, only to return a minute later, his still asleep partner, nestled in his arms.
“Ummm….wolvie?” came the sleepy female voice from the blanketed form.
“Yeah darlin’, its me,” Logan replied almost softly. “Nothin’ to worry about. Sleep.”
“’k,” and the bundle was silent once again.
“She yers?” the manager grinned toothily.
“Hn,” was the all the answer he got.
“I got two of my own,” he supplied as he locked the door and checked it once and then a second time.
“She sure likes yellow huh.”
----
“Psylocke?” Everyone, including Xavier was surprised at the revelation.
“You work for SHIELD?” Jean asked with confusion, a bit of anger, somewhat awe and a whole lot of surprise.
“Wow,” Kitty had to close Bobby’s mouth, which had fallen open, the excitement causing him to fully ice-over.
“Elizabeth?” Xavier turned his chair towards the purple haired telepath.
“I don’t work for SHIELD,” she clarified instantly. “Well, not full time anyway. Its a temporary thing….more of a hobby.”
“A hobby?” Scott and Ororo asked at the same time, one with shocked surprise, the other with a curious one.
“Yeah. It kind of runs in our family.”
“In the family?” Scott crossed his arms at his chest, automatically going into leader mode.
“Yes luv,” Betsy winked at him and started to tell her teammates about herself and about her father and twin brother’s involvement in STRIKE, the European version of SHIELD.
Once she finished her story, she was bombarded with a whole slew of questions.
“Your brother is Captain Britain?” Bobby.
“You are an international model?” Kitty asked in awe.
“Why did you come here then?” Scott. “Why not stay back in Britain?”
“An international model?” Bobby, with eyes zoning in on her, uh…you know.
“How many times have you worked for them?” Angel.
“An international MODEL.” Bobby repeated, with a whole lot of drooling and eyes bulging out of their sockets.
“How strong are your powers?” Jean.
“An inter….”
“SHUT UP BOBBY,” Scott.
“But guys…”
“Robert,” Ororo.
“Yes mam,” Bobby, with sullen, pouting face.
----
“I am sorry to interrupt, but I have news for you. Both good and bad,” Fury cut in. While the X-Men had been talking he had been in contact with his subordinates who were bringing in Gambit. He had also received a phone call from an undisclosed number, which his people had been able to track to Canada, somewhere in the proximity of Toronto.
“Yes General?” Xavier and the others turned their attention to him.
“Mr. Lebeau will be arriving with the hour.”
“I hope that is the bad news,” Bobby whispered to a silent Sam.
“No young man,” Fury’s smirk unnerved him. “That was the good news.”
“That’s what I feared.”
“Then what is the bad news?” Ororo asked the question on everyone’s lips.
“Someone else is also on his way,” Fury’s smirk grew even wider…. almost becoming a smile…..a scary smile. “And he should be here within the next twelve hours.”
“Who?” Scott asked seriously.
“Wolverine.”
“O shit,” that was Bobby’s succinct and given the situation, completely apt response.
------
“Professor, what do you want us to do?” Scott went into action almost instantly. He wanted the X-Men to be ready to face any hostility from the ‘visiting’ mutant.
Xavier had in the meantime opened his laptop and was in the process of starting it up.
“We should make arrangements for the safety of the students. Move them into the danger room and have few of the older students be in charge and ready for evacuation incase of any emergency.”
“Professor…” Fury started coolly, but stopped, as it did not seem that the X-Men were paying much attention. ‘Anyway, its not my place to tell them that they are going paranoid uselessly.’
“We can….” Xavier pointed to the computer screen, which had the schematic of the security system on display.
----
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,” the sound shocked all of them into silence. Not only because of its unknown nature, but also from where it was coming….Xavier’s personal computer.
“I would like you to please sit back and enjoy the soothing sounds of Vivaldi, a personal favorite of mine,” the mystery voice informed them. “And to allow you to appreciate this piece of musical genius, I have taken the liberty to make sure you are not distracted until your guests arrive.”
With that, the whole room….the whole school was plunged into pitch-black darkness, only the wheel-chair motor and battery powered laptop working. Even the backup generators had somehow been shut off.
“What is happening,” Kitty squeaked, almost phasing through the floor. “Why did the lights go off?”
As the X-Men looked on, a message appeared on the blue screen,
(Signed) Big Blue
“This is good,” Fury chuckled as the ball lightening generated by Storm temporarily dispelled the darkness, allowing Jean to get the emergency flashlights from the first aid box, inside a wall closet.
“He is really enjoying himself. He is playing with you guys.”
-----
“I know that voice,” Xavier exclaimed as the realization dawned on him.
“I know that voice.”
Note: In case, you missed the references
Nick Fury (General): Taken mostly from the Ultimateverse as that is the one I have read about the most. Will have a couple of drops from the Evolution-verse Fury too, although he isn’t a general in that one. Haven’t decided where to base him, the flying fortress they have in the Uncannyverse or Triskelion. (Age: Early to Mid fifties)
Also, incase someone wasn’t able to guess the intruder, it was Wolverine’s clone, X23
X23: Taken from the X-Men Evolution cartoon series and her appearances in the Uncanny X-Men comic series. None from her own comic series…at least not yet. (Age: teenager…14 to 16)
As for his ‘partner’, the one and only….
Jubilee: Well, as there is no Jubilee to take from the movies, Evolution cartoon series or Ultimate X-Men comics, I have had to take from whatever I have been able to gather from the Uncanny X-Men and Wolverine comics and use that….along with my own imagination. I enjoy writing her. (Age: Pre to Early teens….11 to 13)
And the mystery voice and ‘Big Blue’ is….
Beast: Dr. Henry ‘Hank’ McCoy. My inspiration for this character was the version portrayed in the Evolution Cartoon series, except that in this, he didn’t teach in a high school as in the cartoon series, but was a full-fledged research scientist. His story will come out later. Didn’t take anything from the Ultimate-Beast, because as far as I am concerned, it sucks. (Age: Late twenties to early thirties…..29 to 32)
Next, Wolverine and the X-Men….do they finally meet? Hint, things are going to get green….in a big way.
Don’t worry, RoLo will come up soon. Its just that this is a full X-Men fic…..series, so am building it up accordingly. Will have quite a few RoLo chapters…soon.
Please, don’t forget to review!!
