THREE WORDS

Part I: All’s Fair

By Chris Munn

“Leave me the hell alone!” Angelo Espinosa yelled angrily while backing himself into a corner. The last few days had been a roller coaster of emotions for the young, Hispanic mutant, but it was to be expected from one who had discovered that death was imminent. He was a mutant named Skin, born with approximately six feet more epidermis than the normal person, and was a student at Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters. He had arrived at the school long ago, in hopes of learning how to control his freakish abilities. Now, to his ultimate surprise, he had learned that he was the latest victim of the Legacy Virus… a disease that assaulted a mutant’s body and eventually forced their own powers to burn their immune system.

“Angelo, you’ve got to calm down!” was the reply to Skin’s earlier exclamation. The girl’s name was Paige Guthrie, another mutant and fellow student at the school. She had been given the appropriate name of Husk because of her ability to shed her skin and reveal a new, more powerful body underneath. Until recently, the blonde Kentuckian had been in a romantic involvement of sorts with Angelo. She had been the one to break off the relationship, and it was directly after that he was diagnosed with the Virus.

“How many times do I have to tell you?” Angelo roared in anger. “I don’t want to talk about it! I’m sick, but it’s not because of the virus. I’m sick of everyone at this damn school feeling sorry for me, especially you.”

“Angelo,” Paige responded, “Ah know you’re upset, but we’re here for you.” She reached her hand out for his, hoping to settle him down.

“It’s because of YOU that this is happening!” he stated as he slapped her hand away from him. “Mutantkind in general, I wish I had never came to this place!”

Tears began to swell in Paige’s eyes, hurt by the words of one of her best friends. “Listen here,” she said fiercely while jabbing her finger into Angelo’s chest, “do NOT use me as a scapegoat for all your anger!” She finally let the tears go, unable to hold them back any longer. She turned away from him and ran, eventually making her way outside.

Eventually, she ran out of breath and energy. Collapsing underneath a large tree, she realized that she had made her way into the forest that surrounded the Academy. “Maybe it’s better out here,” she thought as she curled up into a ball and cried to herself.

Angelo sat down at the kitchen table, disgusted at himself. Who was he to treat Paige in such a way? She was one of his best friends, why had he reacted like that toward her?

{Maybe because yer scared,} a voice sounded off in his head. He looked up to see Jonothon Starsmore at the opening of the kitchen, his eyes locked in the cold stare that was his trademark. {Maybe it’s because the gel is tryin’ to help yer sorry arse and you don’t want t’accept the charity.} Jonothon was a mutant as well, one whose psionic abilities had blown a gaping hole in his chest and lower face upon their emergence. His only way of speech was telepathy, meaning that around Chamber… no one had a secret.

“Look, I don’t think I need a pep talk from a living ghoul, amigo,” Angelo stated.

{Until recently, Ange, I felt what yer feeling. Seeing Gayle in Europe changed my perspective on a few things, and I see now that wallowing in self-pity is what made me a monster – not my looks.}

Angelo waved Jonothon away, too concerned with his own thoughts to pay the Brit any attention. Jonothon turned to leave but stopped at the door. {We used t’be mates, Angelo,} he stated coldly, {but now I understand where our friendship failed. Now you know what it’s like t’be me.}

Jonothon walked outside, following the path that Paige had taken out of the house. He could hear her disparate thought patterns coming from the forest, so he decided to trudge onward to find her.

Emma Frost sat in her office in silent contemplation, attempting to enter the astral plane in an effort to find an answer to the nagging sensation she had been experiencing the past several weeks. It had started soon after Gaia’s death, an uneasy feeling that something wasn’t right within the school. This was coupled with a little piece of knowledge that Emma had withheld from everyone…her telepathic powers were weakening, and she had no idea why.

She slumped farther down in her chair, the effort of entering the astral plane taking its toll on her. Something else was bothering her as well, although she hated to admit to herself that it troubled her. According to Jubilee, Blink, and Synch’s account of their recent battle with the New Hellions, it was brought to Emma’s attention that the assault was ordered by a woman calling herself the ‘White Queen’.

‘How dare someone usurp my identity,’ she thought to herself. Whoever this woman was, she had attempted to murder Emma’s little sister, Cordelia. The students had prevented that from happening, and had forced the name of their employer from the Hellions. Emma put her head on her desk, exhausted from the mental strain of her endeavor.

“Hello, Emma,” a female voice spoke telepathically. Emma’s head shot up, her jaw dropping when she realized that the mystery of the new White Queen was now solved… because Emma was looking right at her.

Alexander Roberts paced back and forth in his room, replaying the events of the past few months in his head. An outsider amongst outsiders, he had believed himself to finally be at home at the Academy. The recent trip to Europe and the subsequent battle with Mr. Sinister, however, had introduced him to a different scenario than he had wanted. His radiation powers were killing him, and if left unchecked could flare out of control and kill others as well. This, however, was the only thing keeping the Legacy Virus from killing him instead. So either way he went, the mutant known as Nuclear was a dead man.

“Alex?” a female voice asked as the door to his room opened. Monet St. Croix, Alex’s girlfriend and Generation X powerhouse, entered with a worried expression on her face. “Why have you kept yourself away from me? Ever since we got back from Europe you’ve kept yourself secluded away.”

“Maybe I’m scared of what will happen if I stay around you for too long,” he responded softly, “I don’t want my friends to die of radiation poison, after all.”

“Don’t say that,” Monet replied coldly. She wanted to reassure him that everything was fine, but she knew all too well that he was right. Sinister’s tinkering hadn’t helped Alex a bit, despite the madman’s vow to cure him. She put her hand on his shoulder, hoping to offer a bit of comfort.

“Think that’s a safe thing to do?” Alex asked painfully.

She slowly removed her hand and backed away from him, disappointed that he was unwilling to let her in. She cursed Sinister for bringing this upon them, but praised him at the same time. If it hadn’t been for his interference, Alex would never have discovered the reasoning behind his illness. She turned and left, leaving her boyfriend alone once again.

“Gotcha!” were the only words echoed over the thunderous sounds of the Danger Room training session, hurled forward by a young girl named Clarice Ferguson, also known as Blink. Blessed with a variation on the classic mutant ability of teleportation, Clarice was able to displace matter through space within a nanosecond of time, giving her an edge over any opponent she faced.

Said opponent in the Danger Room went by the name of Jubilation Lee, the youngest of the Academy’s students. Able to create plasma ‘fireworks’ of pure energy, she had the potential to become an alpha-level mutant. Unfortunately, it was lack of control that kept Jubilee from reaching her full potential, and it was sessions in the Danger Room that were slowly putting her on the track to fulfilling her genetic destiny.

“I’ll show you what you’ve got,” Jubilee replied as she threw several sparklers at Clarice’s head, causing her to be momentarily blinded. The pink haired girl fell to the floor with a ‘thud’, but not before she released an energy shaft that brought Jubilee toppling down atop her.

“I think that’s enough for now,” a male voice stated as the room reverted back to its blank walls, the holographic session ended. Everett Thomas, Jubilee’s best friend and yet another member of Generation X, went by the name of Synch… appropriately so due to his ability to tune his body to any mutant in the vicinity and copy their powers.

“Aww,” Jubilee moaned, “ruining our fun!” She stood and brushed off her red and black uniform and made her way to the door, leaving Clarice and Everett alone in the massive room.

“Jubilee has quite the crush on you, you know?” Clarice said unexpectedly.

Everett’s head shot up in attention, as a red-ish blush came over his face, “Jubes and I are just friends,” he replied, “that’s all.” He then followed Jubilee’s path out of the room, lost in thought about Blink’s statement.

Clarice shrugged to herself and smiled, “Guess that means she’s single.”

The ring dangled from Sean Cassidy’s finger as he chastised himself for being a coward. He had the love of his life, geneticist Moira MacTaggert, in the perfect environment to pop the question he’d long wanted to ask. But, something had kept him from doing it, a nagging voice in the back of his thoughts that made him fear the rejection that he knew wouldn’t happen.

“Sean?” Moira asked as she entered his study. He quickly slid the ring into his sleeve, hoping she hadn’t spotted it. By the conventional look on her face, he knew she hadn’t.

“Yes?” he replied.

“I just want to assure you that I’m going to find a cure for this bloody disease that’s stricken Angelo,” she stated, hoping to alleviate the fears of losing yet another student. The death of Gaia still sat fresh in his heart, and both of them were determined to make sure it didn’t happen again. Unfortunately, Moira too had contracted the Legacy Virus, and was the only known human to date that had contracted it.

As Sean watched Moira speak, he tossed the simple words in his head. Will you marry me… such a simple phrase, yet he couldn’t bring himself to say it. She smiled as she walked out of his office, and Sean braced himself for a confrontation with his demons that he knew needed to happen.

“You look surprised to see me,” the White Queen stated with a sly grin as she faced Emma. The headmistress couldn’t believe what she was seeing, realizing then the reason behind everything that had happened in the past months. The White Queen’s identity hadn’t been discovered for an amazing reason… she was Emma.

Staring back her, like a mirror’s reflection, was her own face. The Queen was dressed in the old Hellfire Club outfit that Emma had discarded years ago, and wore a smile of pure malice.

“What the hell is going on?” Emma muttered, still reeling from the shock of the revelation.

“I don’t have to spell it out for you, do I?” the Queen asked. “I’m the person you buried when you came here… all the bottled up emotions that made you the uncaring stone that troubled the X-Men for years. All it took was the death of another student, the young Gaia, to set me loose once again.”

“That’s impossible,” Emma said.

“Oh, it’s very possible,” the Queen replied, “especially for a telepath of your caliber. All those bottled emotions came spilling out, but instead of manifesting them yourself you created me.”

“But I’m not that powerful,” Emma replied in an attempt to explain away the circumstances.

“Well, I’m sure you’ve noticed your powers waning recently. I’m the cause, obviously you can’t make every person I’ve been in contact with believe I’m real and retain full strength,” she said with a wink.

“What the hell do you want?” Emma finally asked.

“Time to go bye-bye,” the Queen replied.

Paige had no idea how long she had sat under the tree, sobbing to herself. Time had flown away, leaving her alone with her own confused thoughts and hurt feelings. How could Angelo be so cruel to her? She knew that he must be angry, who wouldn’t upon discovery of such a lethal disease. She should have expected it, especially after the break up she had instigated a few days earlier. It still hurt, though.

{Gel?} a voice chimed in her head, {You out here?}

“Go away Jono!” she yelled, knowing that he must be close.

{Can’t do that, gel,} Chamber’s telepathic voice rang out. Paige looked up and saw him come through the trees to where she was sitting. Her jaw dropped when the light hit his face, shock setting in immediately.

“What’s wrong? You look like you just saw a spook,” Jono said… smiling the largest grin imaginable.

NEXT ISSUE: Chamber’s startling transformation… Angelo’s illness… Sean’s proposal plans for Moira… could these all be a result of the White Queen’s assault on the school? Find out next issue, as Emma’s situation takes a decidedly wicked turn for the worse.