01. Prologue

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

That question gained a slanted eye look from the person it was directed towards…a look that said just one thing. ‘Shut up or I will fry your behind off.’

“Ororo….” the ruby red visor and black leather garbed Scott started again, his voice carrying a genuine concern.
“Cyclops.” The fact that she used his codename, by itself, enough to put Scott on the defensive. “Are you insinuating that I am not fit to serve on the team?” The Weather Goddess was in full flow and firing on all cylinders.

“No….yes, its not like that,” Cyclops was at a loss for words. Had it been anyone else or even any other time for that matter, he could and would have argued, but given the mission, facing off against Magneto and his latest effort at world domination, the could not only use but severely required whatever man (or woman) power they could get their hands on. “But, under the situation….Wolverine,” he turned to the only other person left standing in the X-Men’s underground conference room. Shrouded in the shadows, his ever present cigar…an unlit one this time, clenched between his teeth, Logan seemed too silent for Scott’s liking….not that he liked him talking, not that he did it anyway. Somehow, he hoped this time would be different…but nothing.

“Don’t try and get him into this, this is between you and me,” Ororo cut in even before Logan could respond, her rising anger barely contained under her calm exterior. “Besides we have already had this discussion. Haven’t we….Logan.”
“There wasn’t any discussion,” Logan scowled, not at Ororo or even Scott but at what Ororo was going to do.

“You agree with her?” Cyclops asked incredulously.

“Of course I don’t, shithead,” Logan’s reply was equally blunt.

“He didn’t have any choice. The decision was mine to make.” Ororo spoke up again, eliciting a snort from the feral Canadian.

----

Before anyone could say anything else, a shock of yellow, purple and pink announced the entrance of the firecracker Jubilee. Event though she was still on probationary X-Men status and thus not allotted a uniform, and not allowed to go on missions, Jubilee was always up there with the confidence and the supportive chatter. Today was a special case and she and Kitty, the two probationers on the team were accompanying the others, but only in a passive status. They were to remain back in the Blackbird and provide triage to anyone injured, including the dozen or so mutants that the X-Men were on their way to rescue. Their information stated that Magneto had constructed a device that would allow him to speed-up and switch on the mutation of the still ‘human’ children. He had recently recruited a new member to the Brotherhood, a Cheyenne Indian who went by the name Forge and who with the genius of his mind could construct right about anything.

“Hey guys…” Jubilee prattled off in her usual enthusiastic manner, not noticing the tense situation she had chanced upon. “Lets get goinnnnngggg! So, lets get that hairy butt of your into action Wolvie….” She commented just for Wolverine’s benefit. Since the time he first came to the mansion, Wolverine had gained a fan following of sorts, not only with Rogue but also with her roommates, Jubilee and Kitty, and with Kitty’s boyfriend, Piotr too. The other junior X-Men, namely, Rogue’s own beau, Bobby Drake a.k.a. Iceman, and Alex Summers, Scott’s younger brother, leaned more towards the ‘Scooter Academy of Tight Assedness,’ as Jubilee had termed it, while they belonged to the ‘Wolvie School for Gifted Ass Kicking.’ Then there were the neutrals like Lorna Dane, a.k.a. Polaris, a.k.a. Miss. Buckethead (courtesy of Jubilee), who were the independents, or as Kitty called them, followers of the middle path….trying to get the best of both worlds.

----

For a moment it seemed as if no had heard what the young Asian-American had just said. Finally heaving a sigh of defeat, Cyclops started towards the door.

“Come on Jubilee, you can prep the jet,” he called out to the youngest member of the X-Team. At sixteen years and eight and a half months, Jubilee was more six months younger than the seventeen and a half years old Kitty, and a year than the almost eighteen Rogue….not that it mattered to her. With her, it was a case of seventeen going on seventy, especially in terms of the gossip she could spread around and be involved in.

“Ok, that’s more like it,” Jubilee’s excitement fell through at Scott’s next words.

“Think of it as a test.”

Nevertheless, with a parting look at the duo remaining in the room, she surmised their need for some time alone and quietly moved away along the path that Scott had taken a few seconds ago.

---

“Ororo…” Logan started, his voice carrying an uncharacteristic and rare softness, one that he only reserved for her.

“Logan, we have already been over this. I know I....” she stopped at the ‘puppy-wolf’ look on her usually stoic Canadian’s face. “What?” She sighed in exasperation.

“Just be careful, okay,” was all the lecture she got, as moving to her side, Logan guided her the door.

“Thanks,” that garnered him an appreciative smile. “You too.”

“An’ stay right next to me…..”

“Logan!”

------

A couple of hours later,

Mortimer Toynbee a.k.a. Toad’s, limp form flew thru the air. Propelled by the force of Cyclops’s optical blast, her literally levitated and rammed into the side of the warehouse that the X-Men had tracked the Brotherhood to. Once he had ensured that the Toad was out for good, Cyclops turned around just in time to see Cyclops leap onto a reprogrammed Sentinel Mark II, one of many that Forge and Magneto had commandeered from their human creators. One powerful organo-metallic punch later, the robot had lost its head….literally. However, no soon did that one, a second one stepped up to take its place, charging and firing its gun before Colossus to make a move on him.

Meanwhile, inside the warehouse, Storm, having blown half the roof off, and Wolverine were facing off against Sabertooth and some red-black eyed punk (Wolverine’s description) who kept charging metal, pieces of debris, whatever he could get his hands on and chucking them at the airborne Ororo. Although she was fighting him, even Ororo would admit to the acrobatic finesse with which the Gambit, as he called himself, moved. Until now, she had only seen such grace and limber in one other such person...the Incredible Nightcrawler, Kurt Wagner. The fact alone that he had been able to dodge ever single one of the lightening bolts she sent his way, impressed the Windrider.

----

Occupied with fending off and taking down the sweet talking Cajun charmer, while dodging his charges, Ororo did not notice how one of the sentinels, hovering a couple of hundred feet and battling Jean, had by chance lined up with her…..just as she missed on the charging and subsequent firing of the hand-cum-energy cannon of the metallic construct.

“Storm!” Logan’s yell drew her attention, her eyes turning just in time to see the Wolverine leap up along the crates placed around her and launch himself towards her. His larger body shielding hers and his weight forcing them down, the duo rapidly moved towards the ground.

If only they had been faster.

---

Everyone fighting stopped short as a bone-chilling cry, a combination of Storm’s shrill scream of Logan’s name and Wolverine’s own animalistic roar, tore through the air.

“Scott,” Jean’s own cry rang out almost in conjunction with her teammates. Just as she dealt with the sentinel in question, a massive burst of emotions assaulted her telepathic link with Storm and Wolverine. Such great was the force that, letting out her own cry, the flame haired Phoenix hurtled towards the earth, only escaping a rather painful landing at the ice slide that appeared out of thin air, its gentle slope guiding her to safety.

“JEAN!” Another blast and Scott ran to his wife’s side.

Reaching her, he blanched at the blood flowing out of Jean’s nose and ears.

“Jean,” he called out again, cradling her to lift her up in his arms.

Barely conscious from the emotional feedback she had just received, Jean hung on long enough to moan out six words.

“They’re gone Scott…they’re both gone.”





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