TEMPTATION

By Ryan Krupienski

Jean looked out toward the sun, already low in the sky below the trees. Even though it was still a warm, late summer day, the days were already starting to get noticeably shorter, and soon the chill of fall would be in the air. She vowed to herself that the arrival of the new season was going to bring another change in her life. It was time to put what mattered most in her life first – her family. But first, there were some hurdles she’d have to cross.

“Jean, are you all right?” the young man asked. She was so lost in her own thoughts, she hadn’t even noticed that Chris had stepped out onto the terrace with her.

Jean sighed pensively. “I’m…I’m fine. I guess…I don’t know. It’s just…well, I’m worried about Scott.”

Chris started to say something, but then thought better of it. “That’s no surprise, is it?” She looked down to the floor, ashamed at herself for being so obvious, frustrated that she was letting the burden show. She didn’t want her friends to feel like they had to coddle her through this.

Despite himself, he asked, “You want to talk about it?” It wasn’t that he didn’t care about Jean, or her problems. He just…wasn’t sure it was any of his business. It didn’t take a telepath to tell that Scott had been distant, ever since he’d come out of the coma.

She spoke, the words coming from her heart. In truth, they were more for her own benefit than for Chris’, but it didn’t matter, because he was there to listen. “Sometimes, Scott has a hard time dealing with stress. He…he withdraws into his own world, his own focus, and pushes people away, I can’t even remember the last time he played with Rachel,” she sighed deeply, shaking her head.

“A lot happened while he was out,” Chris quickly said, trying to keep Jean from dwelling on it too much. He dared not reiterate the events of the past few months, for fear of pushing Jean over the edge.

“Yeah,” she nodded. “But you know,” she gestured to herself, “if there’s anyone who should be able to be there for him, it’s me. I’m his wife, for God’s sake!”

“You said it yourself, maybe that’s just not his style.”

Jean shook her head. “It doesn’t have to be that way. I know it doesn’t!” She paused, then continued, a bit more composed. “A long time ago, Scott and I almost lost our son Nathan to a man named Apocalypse. He infected Nathan with a virus. It turned out the only way to save him was to send him away. It was tough on both of us – but we managed to get through it. Together. By being there for each other. It’s the only way. Damn it, he knows that,” she finished softly, now sounding more determined than depressed.

“Sometimes a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do?” he shrugged, and they both smiled. Chris consolingly put his arm around her. “You know, I don’t have any idea what’s wrong with Scott. We could guess and worry about it. But you’ve gotta think about yourself, too – you can’t keep giving and getting nothing in return. There’s friends here, who you can count on. We all care about you, and we’ll be with you until things straighten themselves out.”

Jean smiled warmly, a trace of the sadness gone from her emerald-green eyes. “Thanks, Chris. I really appreciate that.” She gently put her arms around him and pulled him to her, hugging him tightly.

The hug came so unexpectedly that he didn’t know what to do. Was it a gesture of friendship – or romance? Before he could stop himself, his instinct took over. He barely realized his own hands gliding ever so slowly down her back…

Jean pulled away, maybe a bit too suddenly, just as Dani emerged onto the terrace with little Rachel. “I don’t think she wants to play with me anymore,” Dani said, preoccupied with the baby and feigning a frown. “Guess it’s mommy’s turn!” Rachel cried a little more softly as Dani handed her to Jean.

Thankfully, Chris told himself, both of them were too distracted to notice the deep blush that had come over him. ‘Dumb, dumb, dumb!’ he mentally scolded himself. ‘What’s the matter with you?’

Sweat poured from Scott’s brow. If he worked out hard before, it was even more important since the accident. He’d wanted to push himself – it was too easy to get lethargic after an accident. “No way I’m letting that happen,” he told himself, blasting away at the generic droids presenting a variety of threats.

One thing he wished he’d worked at a little harder was the relationship he shared with his wife, Jean. For as much energy as he’d put into getting back in shape after the coma, he’d done that much less to try to get their relationship back on track. The surprises he’d returned to hadn’t helped much. He’d traded one Summers for another – the loss of his newborn son he thought was alive was replaced by the arrival of a brother he’d thought dead. It was great to have Alex back – but this certainly didn’t do much to ease the pain from his other loss. Curse Xavier! Because of him, now he’d had to live through that pain not once, but twice.

And as angry as that made him…*zzark!*…it didn’t diminish the obsessive anger he felt toward exacting revenge on that bastard, Omega Red. It was because of him that all this had happened.

“You seem a little distracted, Summers.”

“Red! You sonofa-!” Cyclops was shocked to see the hologram of Arkady – but not stunned enough to quickly dodge the Red’s cables rapidly approaching, and fire an optic blast, full power in return. “Rrrrrrgggghh!” he growled, keeping the beam on full strength, until he collapsed in exhaustion. The hologram had long since vaporized. The Danger Room master programming registered the collapse, and consequently stopped the training session.

*Clap* *Clap* *Clap*

Cyclops turned angrily to see who’d been monitoring his otherwise private training session. “Marrow,” he whispered to himself before closing his eyes. He did not have the patience or energy to deal with her right now.

“Bravo, Summers. Bravo. It’s about time.”

“Marrow, can’t you read? When the sign says, ‘Do not disturb, training session in progress’, what the hell do you think that means?”

Sarah ignored him. “If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I’d never believe it, myself.”

Cyclops gave up. “Believe what Marrow? I don’t have time for your games.”

“That you’d have the guts to actually take out Omega Red. Too bad that wasn’t the real Omega Red. Maybe then we’d be getting somewhere,” she replied, rolling her eyes derisively.

The stresses of the past several weeks weighed hard on Scott, and Marrow knew just what buttons to push. Without the need of his ruby-quartz visor, he could now see in full-spectrum color – yet for the moment, he was back to seeing red. He growled instinctively, jumped to his feet and grabbed her by the neck. Her eyes widened in surprise and, as she struggled for air, she grasped and clawed at his hands. Despite her efforts, his grip remained bone-crushingly tight.

“Now you listen, and listen good,” he told her in a dangerously low voice. “My beef with Omega Red is my business! You got that? You got that?!”

Marrow made an attempt to nod her understanding. “Good! Because the next time you bring it up, I’m going to add you to the list of people I’m going to hunt down!” He slowly released the vice-like grip he had on her neck, and suddenly Marrow coughed and gasped for breath. He didn’t seem to notice, nor care. Maybe that sniveling little brat would leave him alone for a change.

He paused to pick up the hand towel he’d brought with him, and took a moment to wipe the sweat still beading on his face. No sooner had he removed the towel than Marrow was there, in his face. “Happy hunting,” she grinned. “Good luck!” Later, he’d remember her throwing her arms around him and kissing him. At the time it just seemed…unbelievable. So unbelievable that he tried to put it out of his mind as he left the room. The grin on Marrow’s face indicated that she wouldn’t be putting it out of her mind anytime soon, however.

She warmly planted a kiss on the soft blue fur of Henry’s cheek. “I’m pleased that the afternoon’s repast provided you with optimum enjoyment, my dear,” he said warmly.

Cecilia just grinned. She couldn’t help but grin – she’d dated Hank long enough to understand him via context, at least, and that was good enough for her. The Reader’s Compendium ‘Power Vocabulary Builders’ hadn’t hurt, either.

“Looks like the lovebirds are back,” Alison called to the foyer from the couch in the den. This was met by nothing more than a giggle from Cecilia as they strolled their way into the room. Both of them were grinning like two kids that had gotten into the cookie jar. It didn’t take a genius to tell that both of them were probably as happy as they’d ever been.

“Warren!” Henry exclaimed as he bounded his way effortlessly over the sofa and into the living room. “How nice to see you! What precipitates this unexpected sojourn?”

“I, ah, I figured I ought to check up and see how Dani was doing, and see Alison off,” Warren told them.

Henry’s smile turned into a slight frown as he glanced back to Alison. “You and your little one are not departing for greener pastures and bigger gigs just yet, are you, my dear?”

“Not quite yet, Henry. I think Rebecca and I are going to head out in the morning. My new agent isn’t going to let me loaf around forever, y’know! We’re all packed up, but I figured we could go out for icecream and maybe share a few memories before hitting the sack.”

Cecilia gave a mock groan. “More food? My God, Henry, how’m I supposed to keep my figure if you’re feeding me all the time?”

“More training sessions?” he offered, and they all laughed and groaned, together.

The half-masked, yet still attractive Asian woman was taking a break from the others for a few moments. She couldn’t help but wonder if the invitation to take up residence in the mansion had some sort of ulterior motive to it.

Even though she was vaguely familiar with the X-Men, she’d never really known them in any classic sense. It was only since her time in the mansion that she’d gotten to know some of the understandably wary team members. Still, things had improved over the last few weeks. Generally, they weren’t exactly on friendly terms with her, but at least they weren’t attacking her like Psylocke did.

She was so lost in her own thoughts that she almost bumped into Adam, another newcomer to the mansion. Adam’s connections to the ‘X’ were a little less tenuous than her own, given that he was the half-brother of both Scott and Alex Summers. Still, oftentimes he felt like an outsider, especially given Scott’s less-than-warm welcome. It was almost as though Scott resented him, for some reason. He knew that wasn’t true, they’d explained to him that Scott was obsessed and under a tremendous amount of stress. It didn’t help much. So, of all people, Kwannon had decided to take it upon herself to help make him feel a little more at home.

“Hey Kwannon, thanks again for taking my mind off of everything. That movie was great!”

“Think nothing of it. I enjoyed it too. Any excuse to watch Back To The Future is a good one, and I couldn’t think of a better way to introduce you to the nineteen-eighties.”

“Yeah, and the fifties, and everything in between!” They both laughed. “Hey, have you seen Alex? I was supposed to meet up with him for lunch.”

“No, I’m afraid I haven’t, Adam. It sounds like you’re having a better time connecting with Alex, though?”

“If you mean better than with Scott, yeah, I’d say so. I mean, Alex isn’t throwing me against walls or anything.” He smiled, which suprised himself a bit. “I think Alex is still trying to get used to a new world, too.”

“I suppose, in that respect, we three have something in common,” Kwannon nodded. Adam grinned, then set about to finding Alex, leaving her alone in the hallway once again.

She found herself looking at all the pictures of the X-Men over the years. There were many people she didn’t recognize off-hand. An athletic-looking blue-furred grinning devil who was much smaller than Beast. An enormous man made of steel that appeared to be as passionate as he was strong. A young girl with a little dragon-like creature who apparently could phase through walls. And there were others, she recognized or at least had heard about. The southern belle with the long white streak through her red hair. Havok – whom, she thought suddenly, bore more than a passing resemblance to Adam – standing there next to an adobe in the desert holding hands with an emerald-haired young woman.

She’d come to the end of the gallery when she happened upon a picture of Beast, standing there with an ice-clad man that could only be Bobby, and a young Chinese girl whose face was partly covered by the pink bubblegum bubble she was blowing. Her fingers were making a ‘victory’ sign. One thing Kwannon noticed was that, despite their troubles, they all appeared to be so happy, so vibrant…and…

Kwannon jumped back to the picture, taking a closer look at it. “Jubilee?” she whispered aloud.

Jacqueline stuffed her fingers in her ears, trying to drown out the muffled sounds of the couple getting it on in the next room. “Wonderful. Another night, another fucking sleazy hourly-rate motel,” Jacqueline said, peering out the window. “We’ll be lucky if some gang doesn’t bust in here and kill us all,” she mumbled.

Erica pulled her away from the window. “I know you think this is some kind of joke, but this is for your own safety.”

Jacqueline rolled her eyes. “Spare me. I’ve heard it all before. Prime Sentinels, New York, Xavier, blah blah blah.”

“Look,” Cameron, who was laying on the far bed, pointed to Jacqueline, “we could’ve just left you for dead! I’m really sorry you’re missing homecoming, but life is tough, y’know? In case you hadn’t noticed, this isn’t exactly a mutant-hugging world we live in right now, and we’re trying like hell to save your spoiled ass.” Cameron bit his tongue and folded his arms, before he said something he might regret later.

Amazingly enough, except for a slight sneer, she didn’t say anything in reply. Thankfully, because the other three weren’t sure how much more they could take of the brat. “Only another eight hundred and fifty miles to go,” Erica said to herself, as she prepared to take the first watch while the others turned out the lights and got some rest.

It hadn’t been five minutes when Erica yelled, “We have company! Everyone up! Peter, Jacqueline, get between the beds!”

No sooner had Cameron leapt out of bed then the door exploded into a cloud of billowing smoke and splintering wood. Jacqueline screamed, and Peter yelped as they dove for cover. The window quickly met the same fate, shattering under the force of a second blast from the trio of Prime Sentinels standing outside. Through the darkness, they could hear screams from the motel’s other occupants, and the sound of automobile tires peeling out outside. Someone had evidently decided to get the hell out of there while the getting was good.

The first Sentinel forced his way into the room through the remains of the door. If it hadn’t been for the smoke, there’d have been very little cover. As it was, though, Cameron was able to grab the ancient television that was sitting on the rickety stand and hurl it at the intruder before it had a chance to get its bearing. This seemed to stun it long enough to give Cameron the chance to rush the machine. The muscles in his arms burned as he fought to keep the Sentinel from advancing any further. “Rrrrggghhh! No…you…don’t you sonuva…”

Peter poked his head up from between the beds just long enough to catch a glimpse of the struggle between Cameron and the first sentinel. He also noticed that Erica was loading what appeared to be some kind of weapon, but that was all he saw as Jacqueline yanked him back down into their makeshift trench. “Dumbass, you wanna get killed? We gotta get outta here!”

“Cam looks like he needs help,” Peter said flatly.

“Cameron? Who cares about him? I’m getting the hell outta here!” Jacqueline said, suddenly forgetting her own advice and jumping up from their hideout. The third Prime Sentinel, which had been standing there quietly monitoring the situation, suddenly spring to life as its targets came into view. “Commencing target acquisition mode,” it told no one in particular.

“Aww, sh-!” Before she could get very far, Peter leapt to get her out of the range of fire. He managed to tackle her to the ground, but not before the third Sentinel fired a volley of bright red energy bolts. Most of the shots went a little too high, but the Sentinel managed to get a lucky shot in and sent a searing pain through Peter’s right arm. He collapsed to the ground next to Jacqueline, moaning, holding his arms, and on the verge of unconsciousness.

Erica and Cameron had been aware of the hit that Peter took and this only served to fuel their determination. With a snarl, Erica fired a pair of grenades into the second Sentinel, blowing it to pieces in a bright fiery flash. Cameron summoned his strength and managed to get one arm around the Sentinel’s neck. He twitched a couple times before finally using what he had left to quickly snap the Sentinel’s neck, thereby cutting off the central processor from the rest of the machine’s functionality.

“Peter? Are you okay…oh my God!” Jacqueline exclaimed as she finally noticed the second degree burns and blood on Peter’s injured arm. If she hadn’t realized that she was a target before, she did now.

“You bastards! Leave us ALONE!” It was only an instant before the air molecules in the room began to exert an exponentially increasing force on all the surfaces – pushing from inside out. Rather than blowing the room apart, the holes left by the blasts from the Sentinels gave the air an escape valve, which forced its way through at tremendous speed. Erica lost her footing and stumbled, followed almost immediately by Cameron, who landed right next to the Sentinel he’d just disabled.

“She’s activated her power,” Erica screamed over the wind. “She can’t control it!”

The wind continued to roar, and the building began to creak ominously. It wasn’t going to take too much more before what was left of the compromised structure was reduced to a pile of rubble. “We’ve gotta get out of here!” Cameron called back. He struggled to his knees, and crawled over to where Peter and Jacqueline were laying. Peter was face down, prone on the floor. Jacqueline was hunched over, eyes shut tight, oblivious to the world. Cameron tried to roust them, and neither of them was moving.

The remaining Sentinel, which had been doing an impressive job of maintaining its footing despite the blast that Jacqueline was throwing at it, finally gave way in a spectacular loss of balance. Had the situation not been so dire, they probably would’ve found it amusing, as the Prime Sentinel waved its huge mechanical arms around to remain upright. Eventually a gust of wind body-slammed into it, tossing it backward and slamming it into a Honda parked outside another room. It was only then that the wind began to subside enough for them to think once again.

In one quick move, Cameron grabbed Peter, and Erica grabbed Jacqueline. They whisked them off, out to the car. It was no surprise that, in the wake of the Sentinels’ attack, there were more than a few wide-eyed guests standing out side. All the lights of the occupied rooms were on, as onlookers who had earlier been hiding were now brave enough to peer forth from windows.

They tossed the kids into the back, and Erica jumped behind the driver’s side. No sooner had Cameron slammed his door than they peeled out and sped off into the night, praying that everyone was too distracted by the wrecked Prime Sentinels laying outside to notice those damn troublemaking ‘muties’.

NEXT ISSUE: Two X-Men hit the road, while two others get into trouble with Prime Sentinels in Times Square! In two weeks, it’s the prequel to the war with the Friends Of Humanity, guest-starring a former member of Generation X!