Burning Towers
Paige stood in the living room of the flat, tracing her fingers over a map that had been hastily tacked to the wall. “Concussion is going to take out the power lines along the road. There’s a transformer on the pole here.”
Seated on the couch before her were Jubilee and Everett, with Simon and Patrick perched on the chairs that flanked them.
Jubilee wrinkled her nose. “Concussion is Patrick, right? Weren’t you called something else when you were in Gen X?”
“Rumble,” Patrick confirmed with a grin.
“What about the other kid? No, wait,” she defended herself against Paige’s glare, “I know you told me and I’m trying to remember, but I’ve had a lot to think about, okay?”
“Nuance.” Rahne entered from the apartment’s small hallway.
Everett held his hand out to her. “How’s Angelo?”
She took it and settled onto the couch beside him. “He’s…resting comfortably. He should wake sometime soon.”
“Good…good.”
Paige cleared her throat. “Right. Now, when the power gets cut, the back up generators should go on. According to the building plans they won’t be able to fully power the building, just the obvious security areas. That should be enough for Nuance, Jubilee and Synch to get in unnoticed.” She grabbed a roll of blueprints at her feet and began to flatten them out on the coffee table. Pointing at one exterior she looked up at Everett. “You guys are going in here on the third floor. Ev, Ah want you within distance of Jubes or Simon at all times. Ah want you three, Jubes, Ev, and Simon, to slip in using the shadows and go get Bobby. The room he’s in appears to only have a single point of entry, but most of the guards we saw were centered in this area. Patrick will join me and Rahne here on the ground floor and we’ll break in over here at the rear of the building. The room doesn’t appear to be used much. Patrick and Ah will secure the first floor so that Rahne can get to the computers and to distract from your activities. We’ll try to meet you on the third floor but your priority is to find Iceman and to get him out of there as soon as you can. Everyone has a ‘port key, right? You’re going to have to ‘port out on you own if you run into problems because Rahne won’t be able to help you out there. ”
Heads bobbed up and down.
“You’re also to have a bodyscanner on you at all times as well. From all appearances this is primarily a medical facility, Simon and Ah didn’t see too many shades or guards while we were in there the other night. That doesn’t mean that we can just waltz in there and expect to walk out with Bobby unopposed. Ah want full communication at all times. If you’re in trouble, Ah want t’ know. Ifn you’ve found Bobby and are ‘porting out, Ah want t’ know. ” Paige surveyed the group, her gaze settling on the amused grin on Jubilee’s face. “What?”
“Nothin’. I was just thinkin’ about how much you sounded like someone else right now.” Jubilee’s grin widened.
“Oh.” Paige scowled as she realized what Jubilee was insinuating. “We’re leaving at midnight. Y’all have an hour to get ready.”
The lights in the building flashed off and the grounds went dark.
“I guess that’s our cue, huh?” Ev muttered under his breath. He’d been upset when Paige had put him on the rescue team, having figured he’d do better on the defensive. But Paige pointed out that Simon could only melt one other person into the shadows with him at a time- a problem should he need to aid anyone else, particularly if that extra body happened to be Bobby’s. Also, with Jubilee in his team he had the best of both worlds, offensive and defensive traits to draw from. He understood her reasoning and accepted it, but-
He looked over at Jubilee. The young woman was bouncing lightly on her toes. He shook his head, concerned. He supposed that to Simon, Jubes probably looked anxious to get her old friend to safety. That was true for the most part, but seeing the distant look in her eyes, Everett knew better. She was waiting to find Wolverine. Bobby was only the first step to bringing Logan home. He nudged her side gently. “Ready?”
Jubilee started and her eyes focused. “Yeah.”
Nuance grabbed Jubilee’s hand and slid into the shadows, Synch behind them. The emergency lights blinked on in the building and flickered dimly through the windows.
Across the field Synch could dimly make out the Meta’s darkly armored form waiting for their okay before charging the building.
“Meta?” Jubilee called softly, “We’re below our target.”
//We’re on our way.//
There was something about the sound of a wall exploding that just couldn’t be ignored, Meta mused to herself as she surveyed the oncoming grey and black clad guards through a haze of dust and mortar.
Glancing at Concussion and Wolfsbane, she grinned and stepped forward. Meta ripped off her hand, revealing an angry, blade-shaped laser and thrust it through the chest of a guard who took a moment too long aiming his gun at her. Beside her Concussion fired off a blast that sent bodies flying back against the wall. The sounds of bones shattering filtered though their howls of pain.
‘We’re shutting you the fuck DOWN!” She waded into the seething mass, slicing limbs as she went. She sent the blade ripping across the chest of a young guard who went down in a sheet of blood. On the other side of the room, Wolfsbane was helping Concussion pick off a smaller group of guards. She clawed the eyes of one unfortunate and threw him into a growing pile. Then apparently deciding that Concussion could deal with the rest of the guards, she dashed down a side corridor.
Concussion had worked his way to the outside doors and stood holding a struggling guard by the neck when Meta noticed the first Shade seethe into the room, neutragun glinting coldly at its side. Slamming her elbow into the ribs of the body behind her, she yelled across to the other man “Concussion! Behind you!”
The young man dropped the guard and sent a shockwave that collapsed the ceiling on the shade.
Wolfsbane flew down the empty hallway and quickly ducked into the small computer lab. A man was huddled over a computer typing frantically.
“What the fuck? I told you-” The white coated man whirled around with the apparent intent of verbally assaulting the intruder but stopped dead. “Who are you? You can’t come in here! I’m going to-“
Wolfsbane cold-cocked him and the man slumped to the floor. She advanced on the computer console. "And what have we here, you wee bastard.."
Nuance slid into the small room on the fifth floor, Jubilee and Synch behind him. As predicted, the floor was deserted, the guards having been attracted to the commotion downstairs. Quickly making their way through the shadows and went out into the stairwell. A dim, red emergency light flashed, giving it a sinister, surreal quality. Silently they slid up the stairs, Jubilee noting the floor numbers on the walls as they passed. They had reached the eighth floor when the door on the landing above them swung open and a pair of men in lab coats entered.
“..going to the control booth to set the alarm and get out. Fucking cavalry better fucking show up quickly. I’ve been with the Landrax project too fucking long for it to go up in smoke. Don’t even have fucking time to get the fucking subject out…” The older man shook his head as he began to hurry down the stairs. Synch stepped out of the shadows and caught the man by the throat. His partner was stunned momentarily and began to turn to run, only to find Jubilee and Nuance behind him, sparks crackling dangerously off the young woman’s fingers.
Minutes later Synch knelt over one of the men in what appeared to be some sort of examination room, binding his hands with a roll of Kevlar-reinforced fracture tape. Nuance and Jubilee had finished wrapping their captive and was preparing to slide him out of the building. Synch hefted the squirming man over his shoulder and walked over to the window. “We’ll be right back, Jubilee. We’re just going to take them down a few floors and drop them.”
She nodded absently. “Uh-huh.”
The four men melded into the shadows and disappeared. Jubilee waited a moment before turning and running back out into the hallway and onto the landing.
“This is Jubilee. I’m continuing on while Synch and Nuance take care of our small problem.”
The transmitter crackled as she bounced up the steps and swung the door open for the twelfth floor. // *hsssssskt* -don’t like you alone. // Meta’s voice filtered through faintly.
“They’re right behind me. The place is deserted.” Jubilee dashed down the darkened hallway. 12-K. 12-L. 12-M. The numbers on the doors flew past her as she ran to her destination 12-W. 12-P. 12-Q. The bodyscanner in Jubilee’s pocket began to vibrate and she instinctually flattened herself against a wall.
What the hell? She thought aggravatedly. What now? The wing was supposed to be deserted. A quiet slurring sound whispered through the air. It seemed to get closer and then stopped abruptly. Silence.
A blast of ice cracked into the wall beside Jubilee’s head. Ducking, she glanced down the hall to spot her attacker.
Bobby?
A shade grinned at her from the end of the hall and raised an ice encrusted fist to send out another spray.
Not Bobby. Shit.
Jubilee ducked into a doorway. She quickly peered out at her attacker. He slithered towards her, seemingly unconcerned with any danger she might present. He let out a careless wave of ice, coating the floor and ceiling. Jubilee pressed herself back against the door. The floor was silent except for the slurring noise made by the hybrid shade’s movement. Feeling a cold drop of liquid hit the back of her neck, Jubilee rubbed her palm over it and looked up. There, over her head a large, lethal-looking icicle was forming. She grinned and carefully broke off the icicle, juggling it neatly between her hands while she waited for her assailant to come into view.
The air grew colder and Jubilee flattened herself against the door. The soft noises stopped and the hallway became silent. A moment passed. A clinking noise at the other end of the hall broke the silence and suddenly her vision became obscured as the shade dropped down in front of her from the ceiling.
“Dumbass,” Jubilee spat as the shoved the icicle through it’s eye socket. The body twitched before falling to the floor. She stared at it a moment, shivering before she shoved it aside and continued down the hall. She careened to a stop in front of 12-W. The door was slightly ajar. Peering inside, the room looked devoid of any human inhabitants. Quickly she moved to the opposite side of the door and began to inch it open. The small office was deserted.
“Meta, I’m in,” she called through transmitter. “It looks like they left in a hurry,” she continued, entering the room and using her hand to send a chair spinning. “Coffee cups, papers, these were not…very… neat…” Her voice trailed off.
//Jubilee? What are you seeing?//
The young woman’s voice trembled. “Oh my God…” She stepped forward and placed her hand on the glass. Before her was a room encased in metal and ice. Some twenty feet from floor to ceiling, it looked as if a blizzard had hit. Light blinked beneath sheets of ice on the walls. Immense frozen stalactites hung from the ceiling, some nearly touching the ground. Scanning it frantically, she searched for her friend. There, in the corner of the room where the ice seemed to be the most dense, she could make out the outline of a man, lying still.
”I think I see him. I’m gonna get him outta there..”
//Think?// The transmission crackled a bit as Meta’s voice came on. //That’s not good enough Jubes. Ah don’t want you going in there alone, either. Wait for back up. Synch and Nuance are on their way.//
“No.”
//Jub-//
Jubilee pulled her transmitter out of her ear. Quickly she ran her nails over it and knocked the battery loose. “Now how the hell do this things work,” she muttered, leaning over the control panel, “And how do I get in there?”
“Christ. Wolfsbane!” Meta yelled into her transmitter, “What’s going on?”
//Almost done. Had to convince a few stubborn ones, but I’ve got just a few more files.//
“Be as fast as ya can. Jubilee got ahead of us and is gonna need backup.” She swung her gun toward another shade and fired at it. “I’ve got shades crawling out of the woodwork down here!”
//*Kszzzzzzkt* -my way back to the foyer.//
Jubilee’s eyes roamed over the neatly labeled buttons. “Nice of them,” she murmured as she futilely looked for the button that said, “release prisoner”.
‘Pentyocthylene Drip.’
‘Heat Restraints.’
‘Oxygen.’
‘Hydroclorathydrine Gas.’
‘Cell.’
‘H2O Fill.’
Wait. Cell?
Jubilee tapped the small blue button and obligingly the door to Bobby’s cell hissed and disengaged its locks. She ran over to the door and began to frantically turn the wheel on the door, inching it open. She slipped inside and it slid shut behind her. The cold air surrounded her as she picked her way across the floor. It was a slick mass of ice, often coming up in jagged points and angles. She caught her leg on one of the sharp edges. A thin line of blood began to trickle down her leg as she made her way over to the still figure.
“Oh, Jesus, Bobby.” Bobby lay in his frozen form, strapped to a flat metal slab that was completely iced over. She gently touched a hand to his cold cheek. “C’mon Bobber, we gotta get you outta here. Tell me you can hear me in there.”
Not expecting a response, Jubilee was shocked to find herself being propelled upward, smashing through the hanging icicles, coming to an abrupt stop against a hard, freezing wall. She tried to move, but she was held in place by a case of ice. Across the room, she could see Iceman begin to liquefy and slide under the door “Bobby?” She tried to call between chattering teeth, “Bobby! Don’t leave me here! It’s Jubilee.”
The figure turned and began to reform. “Like hell you are. Jubilee’s dead.”
Fuck. Jubilee’s eyes widened. She’d forgotten about that. “No I’m not! Let me down. I can explain, but we haven’t got any time right now.” She watched as he came closer to her and came up to her nose. Her arms were beginning to go numb as she slowly started to generate sparks underneath the ice. The heat scorched her fingertips as she tried to be subtle. C’mon Bobby…
“Please, I can explain,” He mocked. “Fuck you. That’s not anything Jubilee would say. I’ll admit…”He trailed off and ran a strand of her hair through his fingers, breaking it when it froze. “I always thought Jubilee would grow up to be this pretty.” He shook his head as if to clear it. “I haven’t been in here that long that you can get me to believe those fucking lies. Sorry babe.” He turned and once again liquefied to go under the door.
“Goddamn it, Bobby Drake,” she hissed, “You’re going to regret this. I’m not dead! It was an accident. You know how we used to kid around about Jean always dying on us? Well I had my turn! And I didn’t die! It was a fucking accident, a fucking mistake!”
Bobby didn’t respond. He slid under the door as if he didn’t hear her.
“BOBBY!” Jubilee dropped her head as her scream echoed through the room. “I can’t believe he fucking did that. I can’t believe he just left me..” she whispered. “Well, fuck him.”
A loud blast of pyrotechnics took out the wall that Jubilee had been frozen to, leaving her curled on the floor, shivering.
“Does anyone know where Jubilee is? I can’t get Jubilee!”
//Shit! We don’t have time for this, people! She cut me off five minutes ago. Where are you?//
//Christ, did you hear that? That sounded like an explosion!//
“11-W. There’s nothing here.”
//You’re on the wrong goddamn floor. Get Nuance and go up to 12-Holy Fucking-//
“What! What!”
//Just fucking go!//
A splintering crash was the only signal that heralded Iceman’s descent to the main level. Meta stood poised to thrust her laser into one of the few remaining shades when he suddenly iced over and shattered. She whipped around in time to see Iceman aiming a spray of ice at her and dived underneath a table. “Oh, Christ.” He flew by her on an ice slide, freezing any moving body he saw while on his way to the gaping hole in the wall that Meta and Concussion had made earlier. A shade fell from the stairs and splintered on the hard floor below. Meta scrambled to her feet as she saw Concussion step out from behind a door and aim for the column of ice. Iceman must have noticed the movement out of the corner of his eye because he turned and began to freeze the blood in the young man’s veins. Concussion fell to the floor, gasping and shivering. Wolfsbane dived off of her perch over the stairwell and knocked Iceman off his slide. He hit the ground with a sickening thud and began to revert back to his human form.
“Watch him,” yelled Meta, “Don’t get too close.”
Wolfsbane glared at her and slowly turned Bobby’s prone form over. A large lump was beginning to swell on his temple and the rest of his body was beginning to bruise badly. “Bobby, are ye alright?”
“Rahne..?” His eyelids drooped as he fell unconscious. The werewoman took his wrist and examined it for his pulse. Finding it, she began to check his other vitals.
“Are ya sure he’s down, Wolfsbane?” Meta towered over the fallen man, her right fist glowing menacingly.
“Yes.” She lifted his arm and gently touched the numerous track marks at his elbow and wrist and crossed herself. “Oh, Lord.”
Meta shoved her left hand through her hair. “Alright. Take Concussion and Iceman and ‘port them out of here, the rest of us will be-”
“Meta!” Synch and Nuance emerged from the shadows, Jubilee leaning heavily on Synch’s arm.
Wolfsbane gasped. “Jubilee?”
“I’m fine…just really fuckin’ cold…” Jubilee shuddered as if to emphasis her point. She was coated in debris and was limping badly.
Synch’s face was tight and devoid of emotion. “We found her on the floor of the lab. She was covered in ice.”
“I’m fine..”
“The hell you are. I’m ‘porting her out now.”
Behind them Nuance shifted. He looked as if he was barely standing himself and kept shifting his feet. “Her hands are like blocks of ice,” he murmured.
Meta nodded. “Fine. Get going.”
Concussion began tapping in coordinates on the teleport key on his wrist and a large portal. Jubilee and Synch stepped through followed by Wolfsbane and Nuance, supporting Bobby between them. Concussion paused looked back before going through. “Are you coming?”
Meta shrugged. “In a moment.” The portal closed, leaving her behind. Quickly she ran through the now eerily quiet building to the lab where Bobby had been, passing the dead hybrid that Jubilee had killed. Quickly grabbing any papers that lay scattered about, she laid a small incendiary device on the floor and quickly activated her port key and slipped through.
Moments later the building was in flames.
Scott Summers sat in a chair in the corner of their suite, sleeping soundly. Jean had chuckled as she turned off the television, the scene was one that had been replayed often in this room over the years. She glanced over at him now as she stood by the window looking out, unable to sleep. Something had happened. She knew it. There was presence in her mind that she hadn’t felt for years, niggling at her. If she could only remember..
“Jean?” Scott looked up at her, blinking, bleary-eyed.
“Late.” She glanced at the clock. “Three twenty.”
Scott stood and stretched. “Damn.” He looked down at the chair and grinned ruefully. “Been a while since I’ve done that. The damned thing’s treacherous.” He started over to his wife. “Jean, Honey? Is everything all right?” Scott rubbed his hand against her back.
“I- I don’t know…It’s like something woke up in the back of my mind…if that makes any sense at all,” she whispered.
“Good...Bad…?”
“I’m not sure. It’s not bad so much as wrong.” She leaned back against him. “I’m going to stay up a while longer. Try to figure this out.” She tilted her head and planted a soft kiss on the underside of his jaw. “Okay?”
Scott wrapped his arms around her waist. “I think I’ll stay with you, if you don’t mind.”
She snuggled in closer. “’Kay.”
Moonlight forced its way in between the blinds, stealing over the couple in bed. Everett had his arms tightly wrapped around Jubilee as she lay there, face buried in his shoulder, shaking. Not crying, just…shaking. She hadn’t stopped since they’d gotten back. She’d waited until Rahne had announced that she thought she’d stabilized Drake and wrapped her hands before retiring.
“..’m fine. Y’ don’t need to hold me so tight,” her muffled voice filtered up to his ears.
“And give you a chance to take off and leave me in this big bed by myself? I don’t think so.” Everett dropped a kiss on the top of her head. “Did you know I have nightmares about getting lost in these things? I keep crawling around under the covers looking for a way out of them, but I never find one.” Jubilee snickered quietly against his chest. “So I figure, hey, better two be lost than one, right? Right?”
“Right,” Jubilee conceded quietly. She looked up at him. “Ev?”
“Yeah?” he responded.
Jubilee’s face crumbled. “He didn’t believe me…” she sobbed, and the hot tears began to fall.
“Shh…” Ev reached up with one hand and began to gently stroke her hair. “I know, baby, I know.”
Paige snuck into Angelo’s room and sank into a chair beside the bed. He lay sleeping in the small bed, awkwardly curled on his side so that his feet wouldn’t hang over the edge. Her eyes roamed over his body. He looked better than he had the night before, although that really wasn’t saying all that much. His head was swathed in bandages, making his grey skin even more pronounced against the stark white.
“You left.” It was a statement, not a question. Angelo rolled over onto his back, wincing, and looked at her.
“Careful…”
He dismissed it with a wave of his hand. “ Where do you go?”
Paige grinned caustically. “We broke into a government facility an’ blew the place up.”
“What?!”
“All right, so maybe we didn’t blow it up. We did get Bobby Drake out of it though and it won’t be usable for quite dome time.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah.” Paige nodded and cocked her head. “How are ya feeling’?”
“Like God himself came down and pounded on me.” Angelo gave her a lopsided grin.
“Oh, Jesus, Ange.” Paige ducked her head.
The amusement fled from Angelo’s face. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to throw you for a loop like that, Country Mouse.”
“Yeah, Ah’m..” Paige quickly wiped her face on her sleeve and straightened up. “Ya gotta be tired. Ah should let you sleep.”
“No, I’m..” Angelo began, but she slipped out of the room, the door clicked firmly shut. “..fine. Damn.”
“How long have they been here?”
Pete looked around the medlab for his ashtray. It was just cheap plastic thing, but was better than nothing. “Not long. They showed up this afternoon.”
“I don’t want her here.”
“Kitty, we can’t just throw them out onto th’ damn street!”
Kitty’s voice began to rise hysterically. “Yes we can! I don’t want her here! You have to make them leave, you have to make them go! They can’t stay here!”
Pete’s jaw dropped at the unexpected behavior. “Now Kit, calm down. We’ll sort this out in the morning...”
Kitty began to shake her head back and forth violently. “NO! She’s a telepath!” She shrieked. “She’ll find out!”
“Kit..” Pete grabbed her by her shoulders and pulled her close.
“She’ll find out what I’ve done,” she began to shake, “And then they’ll all know…”
“Know what?” Pete’s mind whirled. What in the hell had Kitty done that she was afraid of them finding out?
She looked up at him, tears glimmering in her eyes as she rasped, “What I did to the kids.”
-fin-
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