DANGEROUS GAMES

Prologue

By Dino Pollard

A zipper closed the leather bodybag with the SHIELD logo on it. The two agents lifted it up and placed it on a stretcher. They then headed towards the elevator. Logan stood and watched them, holding a cigar between his fingers. Nick Fury stood by his side.

“So that was the mastermind behind the Brotherhood…” said Fury.

“Guess so,” replied Logan. “What’s the story, Nick?”

“Mystique’s obviously out of the picture,” replied Fury. “We’ve already apprehended the rest of the Brotherhood. Toad and Marrow are gonna be hospitalized for some time. You guys really did a number on those two.”

“With Marrow, I did what had t’ be done,” said Logan. “It’s how I always work, you know that.”

“Yeah, I know,” said Fury. “What about the two you brought back with you?”

“Nightcrawler an’ Rogue,” replied Logan. “Mystique’s rugrats. They switched sides at th’ end of the battle. Without ’em, we probably wouldn’t have been able t’ take out the Brotherhood as fast as we did.”

The two men looked over towards Xavier, who still sat motionless in his wheelchair. Jean stood behind him and pushed the wheelchair out of the room. He offered no reply, and looked at no one. Jean gave Logan a look of sympathy. With Xavier the wreck he was, that meant he was in charge of the operation.

“How’s Munroe?” asked Logan. He leaned closer to Fury when he spoke and lowered his voice.

“Coma,” replied Fury with the same level of volume. “Apparently, Rogue’s got the ability to absorb the powers of others. The downside is that when she absorbs a person, they fall into a coma.”

“Is it permanent?”

“We’re not sure.”

“Shit…” muttered Logan.

“Should I take ’em with me?”

Logan sucked on the cigar, then released the smoke from the side of his mouth. He looked towards them, then looked back at Fury.

“No…” he replied. “Not yet, anyway. We’re gonna keep them around.”

“You sure that’s wise?” asked Fury.

“I’m not sure of anything at this point,” replied Logan. “But until we find out what their deal is, it’s best t’ keep them in a place where I can have my eye on ’em.”

“Gyrich’s gonna twist it around to make it seem like you’re endorsing the Brotherhood.”

“Yeah, well Gyrich’s full of shit. I know it. You know it. Cooper knows it. Hell, even the President knows it.”

“Don’t be too sure of yourself,” said Fury. “The President may have approved of this project, and he may have supported it, but that was before 9/11. He’s not big on terrorists at all, and if you’ve got two of them working for you, he’ll probably start to lean towards Gyrich’s side. And you know what happens if Gyrich gets his way.”

“New York will become Sentinel City,” said Logan. “I know, you don’t have to remind me.”

“You still wanna keep those two around?”

“For now.”

“Talk about weird…”

The nineteen year old girl stretched out and pushed away from her computer. She heard the sound of the door opening and stood up to see who it was.

“You’re still on that thing?” asked her roommate. “I really don’t understand why you’re so obsessed with that thing.”

“Probably the same reason you’re obsessed with aviation?” asked the girl. “I just like talking to people online, Maddy.”

“I’m guessing you missed the memo, but this is college,” replied Maddy. “There are people all over the place, why not go out and talk to them? Y’know, socialize, go to parties, have fun. This is supposed to be the best time of your life, but Kitty Pryde would rather waste it in her dorm.”

“Sorry, but drunken orgies isn’t exactly my idea of a good time,” said Kitty.

“I’ve never been in an orgy!” exclaimed Maddy with shock.

“Yeah, like I haven’t heard the rumors.”

Kitty turned back to the computer and went to check her e-mail. Maddy sat down on her bed and took off her shoes. She turned on the stereo and laid down with a magazine. After a few moments, she looked up again at Kitty.

“What rumors?”

“Is he gonna be okay?”

“Of course he is.”

“How do you know, John?”

“C’mon Ali, this is the Prof we’re talking about,” replied John. “You know he’ll pull through. Hell, look at what he did to Magneto. This is cake compared to that.”

“But he didn’t kill Magneto…” said Ali.

“He did what he had to do in the situation,” said John. “We gotta trust him on that.”

“What’s gonna happen now?” asked Ali. “Are they gonna replace him or something?”

“Why would they do that?” asked John.

“I dunno… I just have that feeling…”

“Hey look,” said John. “The Prof’s a government agent. If they fired government agents every time they killed a terrorist… well, let’s just say there wouldn’t be many government agents. Hell, they’ll probably give him a medal for this.”

“I dunno… I just don’t like the idea of killing…”

“Have you?”

“Have I what?”

“Have you ever killed someone?”

“Well… no…” said Ali. “I mean, I didn’t do anything when Sabretooth killed an M-Squad agent who was after me, but that’s not the same thing, is it?”

“No, it’s not.”

“What about you?”

“What about me?”

“I remember what happened the night we found you… how did it feel?”

Thunderbird lowered his head. Silence filled the air. Ali just watched him for a few moments with concern and sympathy. She placed a hand on his shoulder.

“John…?”

“………….”

“John?”

“You still wanna wrangle?”

“Dude, you are fucking nuts!!”

“Damn straight!!”

“John, are you okay?”

“Hey Smith.”

“What is it, Michaels?”

“This kid’s dead.”

“He’s dead?! I-I didn’t mean to kill him… it was an accident… he just provoked me and…”

“…it was an accident…”

“How did it happen? We never really talked about it or anything.”

“I didn’t mean to…” said John. “I didn’t know my own strength… Hell, back then, I never worried about consequences of my powers. All I cared about was winnin’ trophies. I… I got careless… and I killed some kid who was just like me because of it… All because I had to be a big shot. I could’ve easily taken him down without killing him, but no… just had to showboat…”

The door near them opened up, and Jean stepped into the hallway. John took this moment to stop talking about his past and addressed Jean.

“Is he okay?” he asked.

“He will be…” replied Jean. “It just… shook him up…”

“What’s the deal with him and that Mystique woman anyway?” asked Ali.

“I really don’t know…” replied Jean. “He wouldn’t talk to me. I tried to get something out of him, but he wouldn’t open up.”

“Just great…” muttered John. “How’s O?”

“Still in a coma,” replied Jean.

“And the person who put her there is walking around the mansion?” asked Ali.

“Rogue had no intention of harming her, she was just doing what she thought she was supposed to do,” replied Jean. “She didn’t know any better.”

“That doesn’t make it right,” said John. “The bitch should be in prison with the rest of the Brotherhood.”

“Right now, Rogue’s just… confused,” said Jean. “She needs some time to herself. And Logan feels that the best way to do that is to keep her under our watch. Plus, she has Storm’s powers at her command right now.”

“What about the little demon guy?” asked Ali.

“Kurt’s going to be staying with us for awhile I think,” replied Jean. “He never believed in the Brotherhood’s philosophy. He always felt like his mother forced it on him. He always felt like an outsider among them.”

“Like he’s not gonna feel like an outsider here…” muttered John.

“This th’ right choice, Kurt?” asked Rogue.

“I think so,” replied Nightcrawler. “You don’t like it here, Marie?”

“No…” said Rogue. “Not really.”

“At least here you have nice quarters as opposed to the burned out tenement,” noted Kurt.

“Yeah, I know…” said Rogue. “But still… it just doesn’t feel right… y’know? I mean, Mom used t’ tell us horror stories about how the government would use and abuse mutants when we were little, remember?”

“True…” said Kurt. “But they were just stories. Propaganda to turn us towards her cause.”

“Whaddaya mean?”

“The woman used us.”

“She did not! We volunteered!”

“Did we?” asked Kurt. “Or maybe she was just so good at manipulating people that we just thought we volunteered.”

“I… that’s not true!”

“Think about it, Marie,” said Kurt. “Think about everything we’ve been through together. It makes perfect sense.”

I… I dunno…”

She looked down at the ground. Kurt rested a single, bare-skinned hand on her chin and lifted it up to look in her eyes.

“This is right, you know it is,” he said. “This is where we belong.”

“Maybe… maybe your right…” said Rogue. “Maybe I’m just bein’ paranoid or something…”

“I don’t think there’s any maybes about it,” said Kurt. “I’m going to go explore a bit more, will you be okay out here on your own?”

“Yeah…” she replied. Kurt smiled and vanished in a flash of light. Rogue admired the flowers in Xavier’s garden, and almost considered summoning a small rain shower to water them.

She didn’t notice the figure hiding in the shadows, who sneaked past the garden and around her. She felt a sudden shift in the wind, and turned. No one was there.

But from the shadows, a pair of red eyes glowed before vanishing once more.

He sees nothing.

He can hear muffled whispers in Japanese all around him, but that’s as far as it goes. He hears the sound of a door opening, and suddenly, he was shoved to the floor. Again, more Japanese. His hands were bound behind his back by rope, and the blindfold which obstructed his vision was beginning to become a nuisance. He heard what he presumed to be an order in Japanese, and then the blindfold was gone.

He looked up to see a tall, Japanese man standing before him. The man was dressed in a fine suit. His hands rested in front of him, folded together.

“Good evening, Mr. Jones,” he stated.

“Mr. Yashida I presume,” said Jones.

“I see that my reputation preceeds me,” said Yashida. “But please, no need to be so formal. You may call me Shingen. Remove the binds. There’s no need for them here.”

The enforcer Jones had met with untied the rope and offered him a seat in the chair before Shingen. Shingen gave the enforcer a questioning look, and the enforcer shook his head. Shingen smiled. Jones assumed Shingen must have been wondering if he was carrying any weapons. Suddenly, he wished he hadn’t allowed the enforcer to take his gun away. He had a very bad feeling about this situation.

“Now then, Mr. Jones, shall we get down to business?”

“I’m looking to expand my markets,” replied Jones. “Think you might be able to help me with that?”

“It all depends on what you’re marketing.”

“Whatever you want, I can get.”

“That’s very reassuring, Mr. Jones.”

“What do you want, Shingen?” asked Jones. “Whores? Coke? Smack? Guns?”

“You know what I have recently discovered, Mr. Jones?” asked Shingen.

“What’s that?”

“A certain government organization has been keeping tabs on the Clan Yashida.”

“What’s that gotta do with anything?”

“Have you ever heard of an organization known as SHIELD, Mr. Jones?”

“…not that I know of.”

“They have been after me for quite some time now,” said Shingen. “Frankly, it is starting to become a nuisance.”

“What do you want me to do about it?”

“Are you sure you’ve never heard of them?”

“Positive,” replied Jones.

“I see…” said Shingen. He looked up at his enforcer. “Habuku.”

“What?”

“Huh?” asked Jones. “What did you–URK!”

He offered no other words as the life flowed from his body. The enforcer pulled the dagger from Jones’s back and wiped it off on a handkerchief. Shingen pushed Jones away with his foot and looked down into the black man’s face.

“I don’t like set-ups, Mr. Jones.”

“There’s something I’ve never liked about hospitals…” said Monet.

“Really?” asked Hank. “Why?”

“Because…” replied Monet. “I spent pretty much my entire childhood going in and out of them.”

“You’re joking,” said Hank. “…aren’t you?”

“No,” said Monet.

“What happened?” asked Hank.

“I was born three months premature,” replied Monet. “I had many… ailments when I was younger. Once my x-gene manifested, I began to lose those ailments.”

“Oh…”

“Still… those weren’t happy days.”

“Well, don’t worry,” said Hank as he draped his arm over Monet’s shoulders. “This isn’t really the same thing as a hospital. And we won’t be here long, I just thought it’d be a good idea to check in on O. You don’t have to…”

“No, I want to.”

Hank nodded and opened the door to the infirmary. If his jaw weren’t attached to his head, it would have struck the ground once he saw the room. Monet’s reaction was very much the same, and a hand was brought up to her mouth in shock.

“What happened?” asked Monet. “Where is she?”

Hank leapt over the bed and searched around. Nothing, not one sign of her. But she was in a coma, where could she have gone? Was she kidnapped? But how? How could someone get into the mansion and then get out without anyone noticing?

Then he noticed the open window.

“She’s… gone…”