[Reviews - 27]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Microsoft Word Chapter or Story |
Printer Chapter or Story |
ePub eBook Chapter or Story |

Has been viewed 1499 times

- Text Size +




02. Past Participant

Summary: The story carries on forward and the X-Men get their mission…and their objective.

“Ororo….Ororo?!”

A hand in front of her face shading from the light, it took a few seconds for the hail to get through the haze in her mind. When she finally get her bearing, and thanks to the overhead lights being dimmed, she raised her head towards the man standing next to her. Dressed impeccably in a black suit, with his long black hair slicked back, was – Forge.

“Ororo,” he called again still not sure whether he was getting through to her. Concern was written clearly over his handsome face. “Are you alright?”

Her throat dry and constricted from her mental ordeal, the Nubian beauty limited her response to a slow nod of the head.

“Here, drink this?” The smooth familiar voice from the other side of the bed drew her to her, as a hand reached behind to caress her back, the other holding a Styrofoam cup up for her. “It’ll help.”

Jean Grey had seen enough of her friend’s nightmares to know how they ran. And even though she didn’t know how to solve them she did knew what to do to alleviate her condition…as much as was externally possible. As for her thoughts, Ororo’s need for privacy bordered on the obsessively closed, not that Jean would betray her trust by forcing herself into the weather manipulating mutant’s mind. Even if they hadn’t been friends, for a telepath to do such was akin to rape…even worse than that.

Ororo raised one shaky hand to grasp the glass and hold it to her lips, the ‘room temperature’ water flowing down her throat, relaxing it. “Thank you,” she croaked, rubbing her neck column.

“You’re welcome,” the redhead responded with a smile. A couple of minutes’ silence and she asked, “You ready to go?”

Nodding her head, Ororo started to turn to get off the bed, not caring much how black and purple dress bunched up together.

“Don’t you think it is a bit early to let her leave?” Forge interrupted her, his question oozing disbelieving sarcasm.

Jean started to say something but was cut off by Ororo. “It’s alright Forge. I am used to it…and so is Jean.” Her own tone by now had gone back to its usual even and somewhat detached self, her visage once again donning the emotionless mask that was her ‘public’ face.

Not caring or waiting for a reply or another question, she didn’t even attempt a ‘goodnight’, slowly walking away to the door, not noticing how Jean tried to hold Forge back.

“At least let me walk you to your room” the Cheyenne, freeing his arm from the doctor’s hand, caught up with her.
“NO!” The answer was blunt, to the extent to brick to the face. It brooked no argument. “No…” the second time around she repeated it slowly, almost as if apologetic for her outburst. “I need some time alone. Goodnight.” It was offered as an almost afterthought.

Just as the infirmary door slid open, the still slightly fatigued looking Ororo stopped and turned to Forge. “Sorry for wrecking your evening.”

“Never mind,” Forge returned with a smile, easily shrugging off her apology. “You can make it up to me, by agreeing to go out again next Friday,” he offered.

If he wanted an answer he got none as instead of saying another word, Ororo exited the room.

It was as if she hadn’t even heard him speak.

---

As soon as the door shut, Forge, his smile gone, turned to Jean. “Who is Logan?” His question more than a subtle undercurrent of anger. Who was this man whose name she called out? What was his relationship with her? What had he done to her? Where is he?

All those questions, and all Jean gave to him was a simple, “I don’t know. None of us does. Only she does.”

“Not even the professor?” Now he was really interested, the interest surpassing the anger. How come no one in the mansion did not know who this Logan was? Hadn’t they tried? Surely the Professor with all his telepathic power… He had thought that this Logan would be an ex-teammate or ex-boyfriend. “Not even Remy?”

“I am not sure about the professor,” she answered thoughtfully. “But Remy, about him I am pretty sure that even he doesn’t know who Logan is. We think that he must have been from her past…even before she met Remy and came to the institute.”

“Before that! But that would mean she was a teenager when this happened? When she met this Logan.” He name was spat out with blatant dislike.


A relative newcomer, Forge had joined the X-Men a few months back and unlike the others he was here on a temporary basis. At least that was what his contract said, which was another thing that set him apart from the other X-Men, which going into specifics, he was not. He was here to get the Cerebro, Mansion’s Security and the Danger Room upgraded.

But that didn’t stop him for going after the resident weather goddess whom he had been pursuing since day one.

All his efforts to get her to notice him and to get close to her seemed in vain…until recently. Finally, after many tries, he had had some success, Ororo agreed to go out for a dinner with him…just the two of them.

He had been ecstatic over his achievement – for about five minutes. Then Jean had walked into the kitchen and burst his bubble.

“You are not the first man…or woman who’s walked this path,” her voice had carried a friendly advice. “Over the years, various X-men and Non X-men have tried to do the same.”
“And?” He had asked in spite himself.
“With those who weren’t turned away directly…things never progressed beyond a dinner, at maximum two.”

Witnessing what he just had, he guessed whoever this Logan person was, he was the cause of all this. He was the one that had turned Ororo away from intimate relationships.

Thinking that thought, Forge did the only thing he could….he frowned.

---

Elsewhere (Five levels above),

She was standing, naked and free as the day she was born, in the balcony of her attic-apartment, looking as if at any moment she would launch herself over the edge, her body rushing down towards the hard grassy surface of the mansion grounds over a hundred feet below. Well, that is how it would appear to anyone who did not know who she was….of how she commanded the elements, making them bend and conform to her will.

However, a simple glimpse at the ominous clouds swirling high above in the night sky would be enough to tell that at this very moment she was here as the Mistress but as a child…a daughter, one who wanted nothing else than to lose herself in her mother’s embrace. For that would be the only place where she would be able to get some semblance of peace.

Reaching her room, she had very nearly torn her dress off, feeling the soft silky fabric suffocate her. Her pearl earrings and necklace, her watch, her single bracelet on her right hand were discarded just as quickly. Her nightgown was left hanging in the closet, with only the robe being pulled off to trial on the floor behind her. The soft cloth of the usually provided smooth caresses to her full toned body, but tonight even that was too much of a prison…that very thought only serving to add to the turmoil in her mind.

‘Goddess!’ She entreated, thinking back to the nightmare she had just had. It was nothing new. She had experienced the same nightmare, hundreds of times over the past seven years and as much as drained her, there was a sort of sick familiarity about it, one that provided its own peace to her suffering soul.

--

What troubled her wasn’t the nightmares but the recent bump in their intensity and frequency. Usually they occurred only a couple of times a year, coming around on what she had termed as her ‘special days’. However over the few months, not only did one appear out of schedule, it had occurred again a second time, just within the span of a week, then again, and again, and….until they had become an almost weekly feature growing even more frequent and realistic over this last week or so.

It was as if her subconscious was trying to tell her something, trying to tell that He was looking for her, calling out to her.

‘Hmph. Stupid adolescent fantasies, her logical side condescended. ‘He’s probably forgotten that you are alive….that you even existed in the first place.’
‘No, he wouldn’t.’ Hope held on. ‘He said he’ll find me. He promised.’

‘Promised!’ Her logic laughed at that. ‘Which planet do you live on Ororo Monroe. Seven years. That’s how long it has been. Stop living in the past and start living in the present, in the now.’

‘What do you mean?’
‘What I mean is look around yourself. What I mean is look at how you are letting life pass you by, standing alone by the sideline clutching at a past that matters so little that it might have as well have not existed in the first place. What I mean is Storm, is get up and smell the men!’

Finally catching onto what the opposition had clearly spelled out, the love that had once swelled proud within her cringed at the implication. ‘No!’
‘No? Why no?’ There was no letting up. ‘Why NO! Just look at the number of potential suitors that have been and still are after you. Look at Forge. Stop living in the past and just look at him. If you look at him, or for that matter anyone else, you will see that there are others who can give you all that you want.’ Her practical side suggested.

‘Forge?’ she thought. ‘No! No he cannot. No one can…no one but him.’
‘HIM?’ her logic scoffed. ‘Okay, lets say he finds you or you find him. Even after all this time it does happen. Who is to say that you will have the same feelings towards him that you did all those years ago. You are no longer the scrawny, dripping wet, over your head in trouble thief he rescued from the mob. You are Ororo Monroe, Storm. You are co-leader of the X-men and a respected member of society. You really think that you and someone like him will ever work? Just once think, not just feel but actually open your mind and allow it to think. You have one don’t you, a mind? You have that. So why not use it. You will come to know yourself that you need to move on and leave the ghosts of the past where they belong, in the past dead.’

Leave ghosts of the past in the past. Could she do that? Did she even want to?

Those were her last thoughts as she fell asleep, right there in her balcony.

---

Next morning,

“Tired?” It was a rhetorical question, and she knew it. But it was at least a start, an opening, one that Jean used to open the lines of conversation with her best-friend and teammate.

“Didn’t sleep well last night,” Ororo answered as an explanation, accepting the tea Jean was offering. For herself, the redhead has prepared a economy sized mug of hot scalding jet black no sugar Ethiopian coffee. One look and it would be clear whose coffee it was, for there wasn’t a single soul in the mansion brave enough to gamble their life with that concoction. Heavens, just one whiff and it was enough to get a day long caffeine-high. How did she drink that stuff?

“Oh,” well that expected. “Want to do a quick stop over at the infirmary? We have the time.” She gestured towards clock. Forty-five minutes till classes began.
“No, I…” Ororo stopped at seeing Scott and Forge walk in through the door, their clothes a clear giveaway at where they had come from, the ‘new’ danger room Forge and Henry had co-designed and built. Lately, Scott had been using quite a lot of time there, using a ‘Just ironing the kinks out,’ excuse to explain his addiction. The Danger Room, a pride and joy of the X-Men had really grown up with this latest upgrades. It was that good.

“Morning hon,” Jean greeted, leaning back in her chair flat against Scott who came to stand behind her. “Looks like you boys enjoyed yourselves in the danger room,” she hinted at Scott’s performance records, which were the best of all the X-Men. And even though he never preened on that fact or rub it directly in the noses of his teammates, it was clear that just like any other man Scott prided himself at his physical prowess. Instead of blaring it out aloud, he packaged it nicely in what he called ‘Team Building Exercises’.

Thankfully neither Jean or Ororo fell for his trap, both women having many times other to do to better utilize their time. They left the whole pissing contest to the testosterone factories.


“Oh Yeah.” Scott snapped his fingers. “Just guess who broke the level ten record again?” He grinned, pointing both thumbs towards himself.

“Umm, let me guess…” said his telepathic girlfriend. “Could it be Bobby? Or maybe its Piotr? Oh I got it, its Gambit.” She burst into giggles at the shocked look on Scott’s face.

“Jeeeeaaannn!”

“Sorry dear, just playing with you,” she gave in. “Who else but my boyfriend could beat his own record?” she ended, getting a kiss from Scott.
“Damn straight.”

“You know,” she wasn’t going to let him get off that easy. “You should be thankful that Ororo here doesn’t partake in this little competition of yours. She’d whip you easy.”

“Oh, hey Ororo,” Scott looked up, easily side stepping the attack on his manhood. “How did your night go?” Was his first question. “Sorry you guys sorry weren’t able to finish your date?” his second, one he asked while winking at Forge, who sat occupying the chair opposite to Jean.

Ever since he first showed up, Scott had got off with Forge and hence knew all about his efforts at pursuing the unattainable Ororo. She had never dated in her all her five and half years with the X-men. Forge seemed genuinely interested in her and Scott wished him the best of luck. What he hadn’t told him was about the unspoken unknown competitor that was Logan. That little fact was taken care of today as during their entire time in the Danger Room, Forge talked about nothing else but Ororo and who the hell this Logan was.

“My night was just fine, thank you,” emotion drained away with each word out of Ororo’s lips. “And it a dinner, not a date,” she ended tightly. “Now if you excuse me, I have my classes to prepare for.”

With that she set down the still warm tea, pushed her chair back and walked out of the room, ignoring the ‘Scott, you idiot,’ look that Jean sent her boyfriend’s way.

“Scott!” She hissed. “You should know better than to joke with her at time like this,” she frowned, clearly sensing the raw emotions rolling off her friend. It was nothing new after a nightmare. What was new was that some of the projections had their handsome Red Indian teammate in them. And that was new.

Was is possible that Ororo was finally falling for someone? for Forge?

That thought and whatever it was that Scott was going to say got trounced by the telepathic summon that sounded within them.

‘All X-Men. Please assemble in my office.’

---

Not ten minutes later,

Rushing last into the Professor’s office, the spiky haired teenager stopped short at the sight greeting her, or more like the people staring back at her. There was quite a gathering with Scott, Jean, Ororo and Gambit, making up the permanent seniors and Forge and Beast the temps. While Forge was on contract, Beast a.k.a. Dr. Henry Philip McCoy was here (in the institute) as a guest faculty. Once a student of the Professor himself, he had long since moved on, first to mutant research and lately to politics. But even now, after all these years, he made it a point to at least try and spare three months a year for his old school, believing that it was upto people like him to not only fight for mutant rights but also to guide the coming generations.

As for the others, the junior X-Men, Bobby, John, Kitty and Colossus stood side by side, the empty space between Kitty and John practically shouting out to her.

Even before anyone could say anything, her excuse was out, and in true Jubilation ‘Jubilee’ Lee fashion, it was so out there that it bordered on the scandalous.

“Sorry. Had to pee real bad.”

“Ah Ms. Lee,” Charles Xavier, the bald-headed older man, the one sitting on the other side of the expensive table, greeted her with a smile. “Please come in.”

Waiting for her to take her place, he busied himself with separating pages from the file lying open before him. Once every one was settled, he picked up from he had left off. “Thank you all for coming. I know it is still early for some of you,” he added looking towards the resident party animal, Gambit.

“Gambit here mon ami,” the thick drawl clearly told that even though he was here and awake, the Louisiana native was here under duress. After all, who woke up at seven thirty in the morning, and that too after just hitting the bed on the plus side of five.

“Well, lets get started,” said Xavier pressing a button. Immediately a three dimensional holographic map was formed before the gathered X-men, large enough for the teens to see it clearly without having to lean in forward.

“Where is this?” As always it was Scott who came up with the first question.

“What is this?” Forge asked pointing to a building on the map. The building looked simple enough, except for the vast ‘uncharted’ underground construction under it.

“That my X-men, is a mutant testing facility,” informed Xavier eliciting gasps from more than few of the gathered. “It is also your target.”
“Testing Facility?” Kitty piped up.
“It is a torture lab,” Ororo elaborated, her tone oddly tight and somewhat bitter.
“Yes,” Xavier nodded, agreeing to that simple and less than subtle explanation. “I am afraid that’s one way of putting it”

“How do you know that?” Forge turned to Ororo, only to have her look away, a blunt disregarding of his question.

“Your mission, is the decommissioning of this lab,” Xavier informed them about what they were to do, ending finally with their main mission objective, “and the rescue of one mutant.”

“Just one?” Scott started.

“Yes, just one,” Xavier concurred. “You will have to be extremely careful on this mission. This whole setup you see before your eyes is just to keep him contained.”

“All this for just one mutant” said Bobby, his eyes widening with wonder. “He must be a kick ass one.”

Although he gave a small nod at the boy’s remark, Xavier’s smile did not reach his eyes. “Yes. This mutant is possibly the most dangerous one you have ever faced or will face for that matter.”
“Even more than Bucket-head?” Jubilee quipped up with using one of the many nicknames she had for the X-men’s greatest and oldest mutant foe.

“In closed quarters – YES,” Xavier acceded. “According to my information, this is not the first place that he’s being held. He is moved frequently spending no more than a year at any one establishment. He is regarded to be responsible for the destruction of three such labs and almost two hundred lives, though the classified official records put that a much higher undetermined number.”

“Fuc…freakin’,” Bobby quickly swallowed his expletive outburst. “Two hundred?”

“So I once again stress on exercising extreme caution.” It was clear that Xavier was worried, and with good reason. Even though all the killings and destruction had been while trying to break free, he couldn’t help but worry about sending his team, his children into the veritable belly of the beast.

“Any more questions?”

“Just one Professor,” spoke the blue furred Beast. “The gentleman’s name? What should we address him as once we do find him?”

“His name I do not know but he goes by the codename – Wolverine.”

Note: Well, in keeping with the movie setting, I have made quite a few changes in the team, and even though Gambit is still there, Beast’s status has been changed to reflect his movieverse status. Also, unlike in ‘Dreams’ which was comicverse, the Jubilee here is very much a student at the school, as also a (junior) member of the team.

Also built on Ororo’s internal conflict (generalizing it) and her dynamic with her teammates.

Things change even more in the coming chapters….Please Review!!





You must login () to review.