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Amorous Tread

Chapter 5




Wolverine crashed head first into the concrete floor, a heavy pour of cerise sanguine fluid flowing freely from his skull. He howled in pain as the metallic figure that threw him came closer.


It had been three weeks since Logan and Ororo’s night out and since then, little by little, the two were becoming closer. But now, the X-Men were sent off on a mission and Logan wished for nothing more than to be in a cozy bar with Ro at this moment. Wolverine turned around and growled fiercely at the metallic giant but it just scanned and identified him as a “Mutant”.


“Come on, ya giant trashcan! Is that all ya got?!?” Wolverine hollered. The metallic giant raised its hands at Wolverine as laser beams started to fire. Wolverine started dodging them skillfully while trying to near the machine. Snikt! The sound of Wolverine’s claws rang out as he began to use them to climb up the towering sentinel.


“Halt, mutant! Stand down and prepare for your elimination!” the sentinel announced, as it tried to swing Wolverine off. Another sentinel approached and started to fire at Wolverine.


“Wolverine!” Storm cried out as she flew near the second sentinel. She landed on top of its head and began to electrocute its circuits. It started to collapse to the ground as several other giant sentinels began to fly near.


The other X-Men began to attack immediately as one by one the sentinels landed on the streets of New York.


“Storm! Heads up! More sentinels are coming!” Cyclops yelled out as he released an optic blast at one of them that tried to approach him.


Gambit was occupying himself by blowing up several metal limbs, while Nightcrawler kept teleporting to get innocent people out of the way. Wolverine had since been finished destroying the sentinel he had been fighting, and now he was slicing down another.


“Goodness! I thought we destroyed the last of the sentinels!” Jean said in distress, while levitating debris and hurtling them at as many sentinels as she could.


“There’s no time to think about that now Jean. Just concentrate on destroying them,” Cyclops said. He saw Wolverine clawing apart the skull of a sentinel as Storm reached inside with her hands and started to short-circuit the fuses. Suddenly, an idea hit him. “Storm!” Cyclops called out, “ I have an idea! I need you to try and conjure up some tornados! Carry the sentinels over the Hudson River!” Cyclops ordered.


“I am on it!” Storm responded as she started to fly high in the air. She levitated for a while to gather up her concentration. Then slowly, but surely, the winds started to pick up, and soon enough individual tornados started to surround each sentinel.


The powerful winds were too strong and things from cars to people were getting blown. So Jean jumped in and set telekinetic shields around the area of Storm and the sentinels, so that, not too much damage would be made to the area. There was no way Jean could completely conceal the torrential winds.


“Stop, mutant!” the sentinels ordered all in unison. But Storm was already wrapping them in the vortexes of her tornados and carrying them off to the Hudson River.


“Come on! We’ll meet Storm in the Blackbird,” Cyclops announced.



* * *


It was becoming increasingly hard for Storm to keep control of the sentinels. Her head was throbbing and it was not because of the strain of her powers. This pain felt different, it was dull in the back of her head. Concentrate. Never mind the pain, Ororo thought to herself.


She finally reached the river and was about to drop the sentinels in, when suddenly the throbbing pain in her head was no longer a throbbing, but a full on attack. “AHHGGGHHH!!!” Storm screamed out in agony. Her concentration broke and the sentinels fell into the river. The Blackbird neared the Hudson as Storm started to lose control.


“What’s wrong with Ro?!” Logan asked alarmed by the scene of Storm surrounded by out-of-control winds.


“I don’t know. I’ll scan her mind,” Jean said.


Ororo’s overall mind setting looked like a garden, an Eden of sorts. Flowers from Orchids to Hibiscus grew wild all over. Doves and humming birds flew freely through the trees. And you could hear the hush flowing of water from a near by river. Jean timidly walked on through the garden gazing at its beauty. Suddenly Ororo’s figure showed up in the distance and Jean started to run near her. Ororo’s back was faced to her.


“Ororo?” Jean asked.


Ororo turned around, a solemn look on her face. She wore a long white eastern skirt and white middle cut top. She looked at Jean as if she didn’t know her.


“Ororo, what’s wrong?” Jean said as she moved closer but then quickly halted as a dark hooded figure gloomed out of the trees, and moved eerily toward Ororo to snake it’s arm around her waist. Jean couldn’t see the face of the figure. Then the figure raised its other hand at Jean and a sudden force pushed at her.


Jean yelped as she got shut out of Ororo’s mind. “Something’s blocking me out of Storm’s mind. It’s like she has no control over herself,” Jean explained.


“We have to get her to da mansion, no?” Remy asked.


“We have to make sure the sentinels are destroyed first! I need Storm to make an electric shock in the water. I need to get through to her!” Cyclops stated. “Storm, this is Cyclops. Listen to me, you need to send a shock through the water in order to destroy all the sentinels. Storm, do you copy?” Cyclops asked through the communication piece. All he got in turn was static.


The sentinels were already weakened by the intake of water in their circuits, but were far from being stopped. Each sentinel began to raise their mechanical arms up at Storm to release squid-like tentacles. Before Storm knew what was happening, she was being pulled down into the Hudson River with all the sentinels.


She tried to struggle, tried to concentrate her powers, but her mind wasn’t cooperating. All she could feel was the agonizing pain. Before she knew it, she was under the depths of the Hudson with the sentinels still squeezing the life out of her. Her lungs burned, and her body began to go limb. Then suddenly an unpleasantly familiar male voice started to talk to Storm in her head.


~Ororo, will you give up so easily? You are so much stronger than this! Release your power, goddess! RELEASE IT! ~ The voice screamed out in her head.


Storm’s eyes snapped open, glowing with the pure electric white glaze. Her body coursed with raw electric energy as she delivered an electric shock wave through out the surrounding water. The sentinels immediately shut down and released their hold on Storm as she burst out of the water.


“Look, there she is!” Kurt yelled out, as Storm was visible to the Blackbird again.


As soon as Storm emerged from the water, she felt all the strength in her course for a few seconds and then rapidly leave her. As a result, Storm started to free-fall back into the river.


“Ororo!” Logan screamed out. He shoved Cyclops out the way and pressed the button to open the back door of the jet.


“Wolverine! What are you doing?!” Cyclops yelled, but Logan had already begun to run to the back door. And soon he was diving into the Hudson.


“Logan, no!” Jean cried out.


Logan, with his adamantium skeleton, was already deep under the Hudson. He began to search for Ororo and spotted her being pulled down further by a sinking sentinel. She was directly underneath its torso and she wasn’t moving. Logan quickly swam underneath the sentinel and laced his arm around Ororo’s waist then used his other arm to push off the sentinel and quickly swim out from underneath it. It was a hassle but he succeeded.


Logan pressed his lips to Ororo’s and began to give her air. I hope you like this as much as I do, Darlin, Logan thought, but she still wasn’t responding. Logan started to kick for the surface, while trying to dodge the rest of sentinels that were sinking. They nearly got hit by a mechanical leg and pulled down by another sentinel but Logan managed to reach the surface as he gasped heavily for air.


A sudden “bamf” of air appeared, as Logan and Ororo were retrieved by Kurt. Soon enough, they were back in the jet with Ororo in Logan’s arms.


“Jean, do something! She’s not breathing!” Logan yelled franticly.


Jean quickly ran over to them and instructed for Ororo to be brought to the narrow medic bed that was held at the side back end of the jet. Jean checked Ororo’s pulse and then quickly began to do CPR. Jean breathed into her and pushed on to her chest, but Ororo still wasn’t reacting. Jean continued to do so as Logan and the others looked on.


“Jean, c’mon! Why isn’t she starting to breathe?!” Logan shouted.


“Calm yourself, Logan! Jean is trying!” Scott yelled.


Remy didn’t bother intervening he saw an argument coming on. He was already worried enough about Ororo that he couldn’t say anything even if he wanted to. “Stormy,” Remy whispered.


“Can it, One-Eye! ‘Cause if it was Jean on that bed you’d be saying something different!” Logan yelled back.


“Both of you stop your arguing!” Kurt said. Remy might not have been the one to intervene but Kurt would. “Ve could lose Ororo! Don’t you see that?”


With that, both Scott and Logan shut up. Through all this Jean hadn’t paid any attention to everyone’s arguing. She put all her attentions on Ororo but still no luck. But that didn’t stop Jean from continuing.


“C’mon, Roro, breathe.” Logan commanded softly as he looked at Ororo’s lifeless face. “Don’t give up so easily. You’re stronger than this,” Logan whispered softly.


Suddenly, the sound of coughing noises from Ororo filled the air, as if Logan’s soft words reached out to her. Jean backed away surprised, but happy, and everyone else sighed in relief as Logan quickly reached Ororo’s side.


“Mon Dieu. Don’ ever scare us like dat again, Stormy,” Remy said, with much relief.


Ororo was breathing heavily as she looked up at Logan. “Logan,” Ororo said hoarsely.


Logan stared at her intently and nodded in response. Even drenched and battered, Ororo still looked flawless. A tired smile came across Ororo’s lips. But, then suddenly, Ororo began to get into a fit of coughing again. Droplets of blood were spewing from her mouth.


“Oh God! Internal bleeding! Scott, get us home now!” Jean yelled.


Cyclops immediately started to fly back towards the mansion with the searing noise of the jet following behind.



* * *



“Two cracked ribs,” Hank began, “the cause of the internal bleeding. Also some minor scratches, but other than that she’s in stable condition. She’ll be just fine,” Hank announced with confidence.


“Thank you, Hank. It is a relief to know that Ororo will be alright. For a moment I thought we were going to lose her,” The Professor said.


“Don’t worry, Charles. Ororo’s a strong woman, she’ll heal in no time,” Hank said.


“That she is, Hank. That she is…” The Professor said softly as he looked at Ororo’s sleeping form.


“I think it’s best now that I tell the others that she’ll be alright,” Hank said.


“Yes, they must be worried,” The Professor, said.


Hank walked out of the med lab to inform the others of Ororo’s condition while leaving The Professor alone with Ororo in the room. Charles neared his wheel chair closer to the bed Ororo rested in. He looked at her intently and an ache started in his heart.


Whenever the X-men went off on a mission, if Charles could, he would always keep track of their minds on Cerebro. So he definitely felt the pain that Ororo was experiencing when she was trying to handle the sentinels. And he also heard the voice that talked to Ororo in her head. When he heard whom that voice was he felt his heart leap out of his chest.


Tears started to prick his eyes as he continued to stare at Ororo, but he wouldn’t let them fall. He was frightened… actually frightened that that man would come and take Ororo away. Use her like he did when she was younger before he came and stopped him. He was afraid that he wouldn’t be strong enough this time around to protect Ororo from that man. Charles knew that the mind of that person was nearly as strong as his own. Maybe now, after some time, he was stronger than Charles remembered.


“Professor,” Charles heard Scott call out as he and the others walked in. “We just heard that Ororo will be fine.”


“Yes, Scott. She will be,” Charles answered.


Jean walked quickly over to the bed and looked down at Ororo then placed a kiss on Ororo’s forehead.


“Jean nearly had a heart attack when Ororo’s internal bleeding began,” Scott joked lightly.


“Oh, shut up, Scott. Ro’s like my sister. I just couldn’t do certain things without her,” Jean said.


“Like drag her to go shopping with ya, chere,” Remy inquired.


Jean flashed him an annoyed look. “Among other things,” Jean said.


“Professor, what do we do now about the sentinels? The first time, we thought we destroyed them all and now they come back out of the blue,” Scott said.


“Yes, this appearance by the sentinels was very unexpected. I’ll have to figure out where they came from this time,” Charles said.


“Vhat about Ororo? Vhat happened to her to lose control like she did?” Kurt asked.


Everyone looked at the professor and waited for a response. Even Logan, who was still near the doorway, waited patiently for an answer.


“I am not sure. I’ll have to talk to Ororo when she wakes up. I’m sure she has just been stressed and it took a toll on her powers. No need to worry. If anything, I’ll be sure to notify you all,” Charles answered. He wasn’t ready to inform his X-Men that someone was tampering with their co-leader’s mind.


“Alright then… it’s probably best that we leave Ororo to rest and get some ourselves. Hank, I’ll be back here in the morning to check up on her,” Jean said as she and Scott began to leave.


“Very well, Jean,” Hank answered. “It’s best for me to go to bed now as well. I want to check on Ororo’s progress first thing when I get up. Goodnight, Charles,” Hank said.


“Good night, Hank,” Charles said in return.


Remy slowly walked up to Ororo’s bedside. “Sleep tight, Stormy,” Remy whispered as he left two gentle kisses on her forehead and cheek then left the room.


Kurt then solemnly lowered his head to say his own personal prayer softly in German, “Herr, in Himmel. Ich bete zu lhnen, dass Ororo gut bald wird. Ihr Wohl bedeutet dieser Mannschaft viel. Wir brauchen ihren spiritually und physisch. Machen Sie so bitte ihren Brunnen. Im Namen von Ihrem Sohn Jesus Christus. Amen.” With that, Kurt slightly raised Ororo’s hand and bent down to kiss it lightly then left soon after.


Logan was still near the doorway as he stared at The Professor. He walked up to the bed and brought a chair up at the side of it. Both of them said nothing to each other, only looking upon Ororo. Then Logan spoke.


“What’s really wrong with Ro, Chuck? What’s really going on in her head? If there’s one thing I’ve learned about Ro is that she has the most control over her powers and she makes sure of it. And I don’t believe a little stress can make Ro go haywire like she did. So what’s really going on?” Logan asked as calm as ever, with a slight edged undertone.


Logan must sense my unease, Charles thought. “As I have said before, I am not sure. You’ll find out if anything is wrong with Ororo all in due time.”


Logan didn’t respond which Charles assumed meant that Logan accepted his answer for now. He watched as Logan fingered Ororo’s hair.


“I have vaguely noticed that you and Ororo have been growing close in a short time,” Charles said to Logan.


There was still no response from Logan, he just continued to keep his attention on Ororo. Charles continued, “I can understand why you are so worried about her.”


Logan finally turned around and narrowed his eyes at Charles. “Ya trying ta get sumthin’ outta me, Chuck?” Logan asked suspiciously.


“Of course not, Logan. I wouldn’t dream of it,” and with, that Charles left the room leaving Logan alone with Ororo’s silently sleeping form.


Do people just love walking out on me like that, Logan thought annoyed.


AN: Here is the prayer Kurt recited in German, translated in English: “Lord, in Heaven. I pray to you, that Ororo gets well soon. Her well-being means much to this team. We need her spiritually and physically. So please make her well. In the name of your son Christ Jesus. Amen.”





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