PAST TENSE

Part III: Without A Trace

By Ryan Krupienski

Berlin, Germany; Six Months Ago

People fled in every direction as a blur of purple flew through the air, crashing into several of the tall glass panels that surrounded the lobby of the Crowne Plaza Hotel. The glass shattered and the ground shook violently as yet another alarm was triggered, joining a chorus of nearly a dozen others that had begun not even fifteen minutes ago. The aforementioned purple blur – a large, brutish man whose skin shimmered with a violet opalescence – sat up and rubbed his bald head, looking upward just as his attacker stepped inside the hotel and engulfed him in his equally massive shadow.

“Are you still not convinced that I can hurt you?” the attacker said, the words rolling off his tongue in a thick Russian accent. The organic steel that composed his skin shone brilliantly under the hotel lobby’s halogen lights, and the glare might almost have been enough to temporarily blind the purple man if his X-factor gene hadn’t given him, among many things, the ability to adjust his vision to extremes of bright and darkness.

The steel-skinned man crossed his arms as he continued to glare down at his enemy, his facial expression showing clearly that mercy was not on the agenda. The purple man jumped to his feet, and the X-Man known as Colossus shifted into a battle stance, ready for whatever the terrorist – generally called an ‘evil mutant’ back in the good old days – had to throw at him.

“That didn’t hurt, it tickled,” the purple man growled as he advanced on Colossus, clenching his fists as tight as he could. His hands began to glow with a faint energy that matched the color of his skin, and the mutant otherwise known as Lusus wasted no time in throwing the next punch.

Managing to duck down in time and dodge the first strike, Colossus was not so lucky the second time around as Lusus moved with lightning-fast speed and cracked his other fist across the side of the X-Man’s head. Colossus grunted as he worked to maintain his footing but was suddenly shocked back into composure as Lusus let out an inhuman howl. Colossus lunged at the slightly larger man and forced him back, pressing with all his might.

“Russkie, get down!” came a commanding female voice from behind, and after taking a split second to try and look behind him, Colossus heeded the warning and dove to the side. In the blink of an eye, an object barely recognizable as a person whizzed through the air and made contact with Lusus, taking the behemoth to the ground – at least for the moment.

“That did the trick,” Domino said as she came to a stop next to Colossus. “Didn’t mean to steal your thunder, but the quicker we can get these idiots tied up, the better.”

“You’re stronger than you look,” Colossus commented, looking at the medium-built man lying unconscious near Lusus whom Domino apparently tossed through the air.

“What can I say? I eat my Wheaties…”

The two X-Men’s conversation was cut short as a loud explosion rocked the streets outside the hotel, and they immediately turned their attention back to the fight that was still raging on. Domino and Colossus rushed outside and instantly caught sight of the crater measuring a hundred feet or so in diameter that had just been imbedded in the ground between the remaining terrorists and the rest of the X-Men.

“We’re goin’ t’have some very unhappy Germans to contend with after this is all over,” Banshee quipped as Domino and Colossus regrouped with their teammates.

“These two are proving especially difficult – the girl in particular,” Kwannon said, not taking her eyes off the young latina woman whose veins appeared to be pumping liquid magma. “We can’t get close enough. We need a plan.”

“Drake, can’t you freeze the hot chick or something?” Domino asked, not turning her head to look at Iceman.

“Negative,” Iceman responded. “The lava she’s controlling is way too hot, I can’t even make a dent. I tried to get close but she keeps melting everything I throw at her.”

“Well we better do something fast, or they’re going to set that bomb off,” Domino said, letting out a sigh. As the team’s present field leader started mapping out quickie strategies in her head, she and the other X-Men watched as rock and molten lava flowed upward from the ground and encompassed the latina woman and her cohort, a lanky caucasian man with spiked black hair. The lava shaped itself into a web-like dome reaching thirty feet into the air and just as long in diameter.

“Aye, this keeps gettin’ better an’ better,” Banshee said, shaking his head. “I think a constricted sonic blast might be the only way to go, lads an’ lassies… it’ll cause much less damage than what they have in store.”

“Hold on,” Domino said, whipping one of her hands into the air to halt her teammate. She reached to her sides and unholstered two black metal guns, raising them into the air. “Just follow my lead…”

Inside

The lean, muscular form of Cyclops moved intently through the darkened warehouse, three others following close behind. Jubilee, Proteus, and Cameron could all hear the commotion outside and wondered how their teammates were doing, but knew that they had a job to do just the same. Most of those who were part of this supposed Brotherhood cell were presumably outside, in the process of being beat down, but Cyclops knew full well there would be a surprise or two waiting for him and his three companions indoors.

“This really sucks we don’t have a telepath so we can chat silently,” Jubilee whispered, directing her comment more towards her leader than anyone else.

“Tough luck for us. Now shhh,” Cyclops told her, also in whispers, as the quartet continued their slow crawl through the darkness. They were inside a large, open space that was filled with old crates and broken-down machines, and Cyclops was leading them towards a set of doors that would take them deeper into the sanctum. Cerebro had detected a computer that was linked to a larger – and highly encrypted – network, and that was what the X-Men had to locate.

The group reached the rusted double doors and Cyclops halted them for a moment, noticing the faint sliver of light that was visible through the space between the doors. He gently pushed the doors open just enough for a pencil-thin optic blast to squeeze through and quietly short-circuit all of the series of lights lining the ceiling of the narrow hallway. He wasted no time in then walking through the doors completely, and his team followed suit.

As the group advanced, Cameron took note of how delicately Cyclops was treading through the compound. He of course was used to this sort of thing – being a spy and all, he’d been on more missions requiring high levels of stealth than he could remember – but he’d never taken Cyclops or any of the other X-Men for being so… quiet. Cyclops and Jubilee alone could probably level the place in an instant. He understood Cyclops’ reasoning, though; whoever was inside guarding the database would probably destroy it in a split-second if they were aware that there were X-Men inside. And for all the team knew, the Brotherhood, or whoever they were, were already on to them anyway. They wouldn’t miss this chance for lack of trying, though.

The X-Men remained silent but picked up the pace as they turned a corner into the next hallway, which was littered with smashed-in doors. At the other end was a stairwell that would lead them underground, according to the blueprints they’d managed to construct through Cerebro, and if all went according to plan, that’s where they’d find what they came for.

Proteus suddenly took the lead, per the game plan, and with each new step his baseline form disappeared more and more until he was covered from head to toe in pitch black. He’d sneak in first, hopefully undetected, and get a headstart on securing the information they needed. He was nervous, having such a task at hand, but he was up to it; he had actually found lately that he thrived for this sort of adventure.

Proteus slinked quickly and quietly down the narrow staircase, disappearing from his teammates’ view in an instant. Cyclops followed, taking careful steps to ensure complete silence. The ruckus that was still faintly audible from the outside was giving them some leeway, but they had no way of knowing what kind of powers the mutants below possessed; tt definitely wouldn’t help matters if one of their targets had enhanced senses.

Reaching the end of the staircase and moving through the open doorway before it, Proteus continued to move undetected through the darkness. He was close, and if memory served him correctly one of the doors up ahead would lead into a large, open area. He hoped for little to no light; making himself look like a walking shadow was simple enough, but he hadn’t quite mastered the full camouflaging aspect of his powers.

Unbeknownst to Proteus, his as-yet-unseen foes were very much aware of his presence, and decided at that moment to put a damper on his progress. A thick, titanium coil slithered toward the young man, and before he was fully aware what was happening, it crawled up Proteus’ body and wrapped itself around his neck. The X-Man was lifted mere inches off the ground and he could barely let out a cry for help as he was pulled through a set of doors into a spacious area that reminded him a lot of the Z’Noxx Chamber, albeit with a much lower ceiling.

As his body shifted back to its baseline form, Proteus caught sight of his captor – a yellow-skinned woman who was built like an amazon with six snake-like tendrils coming out of her lower back. She was probably one of the most digusting mutants he’d ever seen, and as he was pulled closer to her, all he could think of was how horrible she smelled. She was a bad guy, but that didn’t mean she had to smell like a rotting corpse.

“The computers are wiped clean, so whatever you came here looking for is gone,” said another woman, a fair-skinned caucasian with snow-white hair. Proteus took her for the ringleader, she just seemed to fit the profile. As he studied her, a third individual stepped forward, a man this time. He appeared to be in his late twenties, had long black hair, and was most certainly of Asian descent. Like the amazonian monster, he said nothing, instead piercing Proteus with a cold stare.

“So, the rest of your friends can come out now, since…”

The white-haired woman was cut short as a foot-wide wave of crimson red energy came blasting through the doors and struck her square in the face, sending her flying backwards through the air. Her two charges immediately readied themselves for a fight, as Cyclops, Jubilee, and Cameron entered the room.

“Let him go,” was all Cyclops said as he moved his hand up to the side of his visor.

The beast-woman snarled, and kept Proteus in her grasp as her other five tendrils flailed wildly at the X-Men. Cameron dived out of the way and fired bullet after bullet at the woman, only to find that she seemed impervious to such attacks. Cyclops and Jubilee also dodged the tendrils and struck at the woman with a mix of optics blasts and multi-colored explosions, most of which missed their target. She was fast, and eerily reminded them both of the deceased Omega Red. Just uglier.

Suddenly, Cameron and Cyclops seemed to succumb to some unseen force, and Jubilee immediately figured the black-haired man to be a telepath. She could feel him trying to attack her as well, but it wouldn’t work; her natural defenses against psionic attacks would see to that. For the moment, it was all up to her.

Jubilee dashed at the man, all the while avoiding tendril after tendril, performing cartwheels and back flips to gracefully dodge captivity. She unleashed several blinding lights all around her, giving her an opening to catch the Asian man off-guard and knock him unconscious with a swift elbow to the back of his neck. Just as she turned her attention to the final of their opponents, a tendril wrapped around her and began cutting off her air supply.

“Shit…” is all Jubilee could manage to let out.

“You okay…?” Cameron barely had time to ask his question as he and Cyclops were split apart by a tendril that darted out between them. They each lunged in different directions and while Cameron resumed his futile attempts to gun down the woman, Cyclops opened fire of his own as he sent off a series of tiny optic blasts that resembled glowing red bullets.

The woman was still immune to the bullets from Cameron’s weapon, and she easily deflected Cyclops’ attacks right back at him. It was at that point that Cyclops realized he’d have to get real creative… and fast.

Outside

Iceman moved like lightning through the air above and around the two mutants encased in the dome of lava, and though he knew it was a useless attempt, as directed he was barraging them with a maelstrom of ice shards. The shards evaporated before coming within six feet of the dome, but he knew it was nothing more than a distraction. He also knew that, while the young man and woman were technically on his side, he had to help defeat them in order to keep his act up, and that certainly wouldn’t be a problem. He’d never liked the two brats anyway.

While the Iceman continued his attacks, the rest of the X-Men charged forward, each one of them glaring at the terrorists. They each had a role to play, and while it wasn’t guaranteed to work, it was the best Domino could devise in such a short amount of time. There wasn’t even any ‘time’, really; there was a bomb somewhere, and they had to stop it from detonating.

Kwannon fired off blasts of condensed energy from the blade of her lance, Colossus hurled large chunks of asphalt through the air, Domino fired off round after round from her guns, and Banshee flew swiftly through the air on small sonic waves that also served to slightly disorient the young man and woman. The girl was powerful, there was no doubt about that, but she clearly lacked the control and discipline to keep going indefinitely; the X-Men couldn’t outright take her down, but they could certainly wear her down.

The bullets, ice shards, and asphalt chunks all continued to melt away, though dodging Kwannon’s blasts was a bit of a challenge and Banshee’s attacks were impossible to avoid. The young hispanic woman could feel her hold starting to wane, and she grimaced as she looked at scrawny blond-haired man next to her.

“I didn’t sign up for this, Blitz! You and Etyana lied!” she exclaimed.

Blitz just scoffed at her remark and told her, “We promised nothing, you daft bitch! And for chrissakes, Torch, CONCENTRATE!”

Blitz’s order came too little too late as Torch suddenly succumbed to the barrage of attacks, predominantly Banshee and Kwannon’s. Iceman wasted in no time in freezing Torch in a block of ice as the young woman fell unconscious and the dome of molten lava disppeared. He followed up with another series of ice shards, most of which hit their intended target this time. Blitz cried out in pain as the shards penetrated his back.

“STOP WHERE THE FUCK YOU ARE! BLOODY FUCK… YOU STUPID X-WHORES… I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU ALL!” Blitz shouted at the top of his lungs as the various X-Men surrounded him. He was panting heavily and he was on his knees, slowly attempting to get to his feet. He looked around at each of the X-Men and felt more and more rage brewing inside of him. He knew this was it for him, but he wouldn’t be going alone.

“Tell us where the bomb is, and maybe we can work out some kind of deal for you,” Domino said calmly, still gripping her guns in her hands.

“The bomb? You want to know where the bomb is?” Blitz started to chuckle, and soon that chuckle manifested into a manical laugh that truly made it seem like he had lost his mind.

“No one else needs to get hurt, lad! Just be smart – stop this insanity!” Banshee pleaded.

Blitz moved a hand to the back of his neck, resting it on the right pressure point. It amused him that they truly had no idea and probably hadn’t even considered the possibility. “You want to know where the bomb is?”

“Well that’s what we said, you twit…” Iceman mumbled from his stance above ground, resting on a platform of ice.

“Well here it is! It’s me! I AM THE FUCKING BOMB!” Blitz declared, and his tongue shot out of his mouth several times as he started laughing wildly again. “I just gotta press my ‘button’ here and everything in a mile radius goes up in smoke! It’s been a blast, see you in…”

Just as Blitz was about to ‘trigger’ himself, a bullet came flying through the air and tore through his shoulder, and the shock rendered him immediately unconscious. The X-Men turned to see Cameron coming towards them, with Cyclops and Jubilee close behind, helping Proteus walk.

“Well that couldn’t have been anymore clichéd,” Domino quipped, easily masking the fact that her heart was racing a thousand times a second. “Just in the nick of time.”

“No one does crap like that better than us,” Jubilee chimed in.

“Is that all of them, then?” Colossus asked as he moved towards Cyclops and Jubilee to take Proteus into his arms.

“If you guys are all done out here, then yes. Their base of operations is cleaned out. Literally,” Cyclops said, letting out a frustrated sigh. “They knew we were coming. Planned for it, I’d say.”

“Aye, seemed too convenient in a way. I’m assuming the systems are wiped?”

Cameron nodded. “Yeah, nothing. Bastards.”

“Back home, then?” Kwannon said, and the idea was met with approval by every member of the team.

“We’ve got to deal with the authorities and then get these morons rounded up. Then we’ll figure out what our next move is,” Cyclops told his team. “Honestly, though, I don’t think what happened here today matters much in the long run. I have a feeling that the trail’s going to be cold for quite a while…”

The Xavier Institute; Four Months Ago

Henry McCoy sat at one of the many computers that lined the perimeter of his laboratory, which was equipped with everything from holographic projectors to incubators to examination tables and more. He truly had everything he needed for any task at hand; testing new serums, dissecting a body (not his favorite thing to do but alas a necessity at times), examining a piece of technology, and so on. Currently he was working on something he’d been doing on a pretty consistent basis over the past several months – upgrading Cerebro.

Everything and anything that was a part of the mansion’s computer network could be directly accessed by the doctor, as he was most certainly the technological genius, among other things. Cerebro and all of its files, the mansion’s defense systems, the Danger Room, the Blackbird, even the estates power grid were all directly connected to Henry’s laboratory. Jean had made the suggestion to upgrade his quarters, citing facts no one could deny – Henry was always working on improvements to just about every system and machine that was a part of the mansion, so why not make it a bit easier on him?

For all his genius, though, there were plenty of times when he was stumped. The hardest had been when his wife, Cecilia, had cancer, and nothing at his disposal could do anything to help her. Of course the scars from her mascetomy were easily healed, but not even the wonders of Shi’ar medicine had discovered how to cure any of the various forms of cancer. He sometimes wondered if the aliens were holding out on certain things.

Now was another one of those time was he stumped. He’d been tasked with upgrading Cerebro… again… and he really had not a clue as to where to go next. He’d already enhanced its tracking capabilities considerably by enabling it to track both humans and mutants in a variety of ways; brain engrams, DNA sequence, X-factor gene, bio-signature. Mystique and her Brotherhood obviously had ways of shielding themselves in every way Cerebro would try and track them; her time in X-Factor truly must have proven fruitful, as she certainly had access to whatever technological wonders Forge had conjured up. Alas, Henry had contacted his former teammate and even the onetime shaman couldn’t help.

Not having any leads didn’t exactly help matters either. It’d been almost two hole months since the incident in Germany and there was no sign of the Brotherhood anywhere. Focusing on a specific area might help, or at least Henry hoped, and he especially wished to this day that his teammates had been able to recover something, anything, from the cell’s computer system. He didn’t have much to go on, which under most circumstances wasn’t an issue, but this time he was being driven positively mad.

“Stars and garters… why me…?” Henry said with a prominent sigh, looking dejected as his brutish fingers tapped away at the keyboard. He was going to try one more configuration, and then call it quits for the day; he still had about sixteen papers to read and grade, and he could hardly neglect his duties as not only a teacher but headmaster as well.

Henry began to hum softly as the doors to his lab slid open and the computer acknowledged the arrival of the individual coming in. “Welcome, Cameron,” said the robotic female voice as the doors slid shut behind the young man.

“Ah, Mister Dalin, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Henry asked, not looking away from his monitor as Cameron slowly approached.

“Oh, uh… am I interrupting anything? Sorry… I can come back,” Cameron said, the slightest hint of trepidation apparent in his voice. He had always found Henry a bit intimidating, even after getting to know him better since coming to the mansion. He would never say anything, but he still found the Beast’s physical form to be somewhat unsettling.

“Nothing at all. In fact, I was just about to give up,” Henry informed him, pressing a few final keys before swiveling in his seat to face Cameron. “For today, that is.”

“Cerebro?” Cameron said, and Henry nodded. “I don’t understand… how could anyone shield themselves from alien technology? Isn’t this supposed to be the most high-tech stuff you can get?”

“Supposed to be, but whatever resources our dear lady Darkholme is employing, they’re enough to trick Cerebro into thinking she’s not there… wherever ‘there’ may be,” Henry told him as he rose from his seat. “Quite frankly, it’s enough to make my blood boil.”

“Yeah… I can imagine. I don’t know how she does it…” Cameron averted his eyes for a moment, not wanting to look directly into Henry’s for too long; it’d become a habit of sorts. There weren’t any telepaths around, but even so he was afraid that prolonged eye contact with any of his teammates would alert them that something was up, and when their suspicions were aroused enough, they’d discover the truth.

Cameron had betrayed them.

For the past several weeks, the Central Intelligence Agency had been receiving, slowly but surely, every file contained within the X-Men’s databases. Everything from Cerebro files to estate blueprints to weapons schematics to the Xavier Protocols… everything was being secretly transmitted to the CIA thanks to a tiny adapter Cameron had been given to attach to the main server. He was simply following orders, of course, though it felt like a betrayal. He had been at the mansion under false pretenses from the start, but in the time he’d been among them, he’d come to truly care about the X-Men and think of them as his friends. However, friends wouldn’t do to each other what he’d done to them.

“Cameron?” Henry asked, shaking the young man from his thoughts.

Cam wondered how long his mind had been adrift for, and he smiled apologetically. “Sorry. I’m a little tired… some of these kids are a real handful.”

“Oh, I would declare that statement an understatement, my friend,” Henry quipped, making his way to a different computer at the other side of the room. “What can I do for you, though?”

Before Cameron opened his mouth, he thought of how badly he wanted to tell the truth, but he knew it would only make a bad situation worse. He would find a way to turn things around eventually, but for now, he had to keep his secret. “Well,” Cameron began, an unsure look crossing his face, “this is kind of… awkward. I feel bad for doing this to you, but…”

Henry raised an eyebrow at the young man, his curiosity piqued. “What’s going on?”

“I… I can’t be a teacher anymore. Those kids I mentioned, the ones that are a handful… it’s not some of them, it’s all of them. It doesn’t feel right. I’m not cut out for this,” Cameron said, slightly shrugging his shoulders. “I’m sorry.”

“Cameron, I strongly disagree with this assessment that you’re unfit to be an instructor… quite the contrary, I think the children have much they can learn from you. Why so discouraged?” Henry asked, taking leave from his computer terminal.

“Honest, Doctor McCoy? I don’t think they take me seriously.” Cameron let out a small sigh before continuing, “I’m human. I know, we’re all human, whatever… but I’m not a mutant. I’m not like everyone else here. The students all know that, and… I can just tell, when I’m up there talking to them, they don’t really listen. All they see is some dumb human trying to…”

“First of all, call me Henry, or Hank if you prefer,” Henry interjected, silencing the younger man. “Secondly, while many of the students haven’t had the best experiences in dealing with baseline humans, they are hardly the Brotherhood of Mutants. I honestly think that we’re all still trying to prove ourselves as teachers… none of us has been doing this terribly long, you know.”

Cameron nodded, understanding Henry’s point of view. The man certainly had a way of putting things in perspective, and while it had made Cameron feel somewhat more confident, he it hadn’t completely quelled his notion to leave the teaching to the mutant instructors.

“Thanks,” Cameron said. “But really, I think it’s better I stick to the whole ‘X-Men’ side of things. I just think there’s some places I don’t belong.”

Henry sighed, disappointed, but determined to get his point across. As he removed his glasses and took a step back from Cameron, he said, “Let me tell you something about belonging.” Just then, Henry’s form began to change; his blue fur seemed to sink into his skin, which was changing into a light tan color. The cat-like features of his face began to shift into something decidedly more human, and his blue mane became shorter and turned black. Within a minute the Beast was no more, and Henry McCoy stood there looking like an ordinary human being.

Cameron was shocked, and of course questions began racing through his mind. Why did Henry apparently hide this from everyone? How long had he been able to do this? Why didn’t he always stay in this form?

“This is how I used to look years and years ago, when I first came to this school… of course my hands and feet have always been a bit capacious, but otherwise I looked ‘normal’. I looked like you, or Peter, or Sean, or Jubilee. I ‘fit in’.”

“What happened?” Of course Cameron knew the general backstory from what he’d read in the Cerebro files, but certainly there was more to the story.

“An experiment gone wrong, one I performed on myself in fact. And right after it happened, I was absolutely devastated. I was suicidal. I hated what I’d become,” Henry revealed. He hadn’t discussed this topic for quite some time, and it had been over a decade since he was first transformed, but all the details were still fresh in his mind; he supposed they always would be.

“Obviously, I’ve come a long, long way from those feelings… I am comfortable with who and what I am. I’m a man who happens to look different from most everyone else.”

Puzzled, Cameron asked, “If you can transform, though… I mean, why not stay how you are right now? No offense, but…”

“But I would just be another mutant who looks human, another ‘pretty’ face. I envy not those who don’t have a physical mutation, I am happy for them though; they are who they are, as I am who I am,” Henry answered. “We will always be fighting for acceptance in this world, but the first step is to accept ourselves.”

“Oh, I do, but…”

“I know, Cameron, and I am getting more to my point. To more definitively answer your question, though, I simply can’t maintain this form for long. When I ‘evolved’ into my cat-like form, I found I could also change back into this baseline form, but only for a short time. A couple hours at a time, at the most.”

“Why didn’t you tell anybody? I mean, it’s not a big deal, and it’s not anything bad.”

“I simply choose to keep it between myself and Cecilia. I felt no need to disclose it to anyone else, until now. To prove a point.”

“Which is?”

As Henry began to shift back into his familiar blue-furred self, he said, “That we must lead by example. I have accepted myself as I am, therefore I can pass that lesson on to the dozens of students at this school that have some sort of physical mutation. Likewise, you can lead by example in adhering to your teaching duties and demonstrating that, human or mutant, we can work together and learn from each other regardless.”

Cameron couldn’t help but smile, and really understood for the first time why Henry was so highly regarded and respected by the rest of the X-Men. It wasn’t just all about his vast education and knowledge in the sciences, it was also because he seemed to understand life in general.

“Thank you… Hank,” Cameron said, holding out his hand to the headmaster. “You’re right, and you really made things clear for me.”

Henry shook Cameron’s hand and smiled as well. “Anytime, my boy. Sometimes, we feel lost, we become unsure of our place in the world… just know there is always someone there to remind you of it. I can be that individual if ever you need to talk again.”

“I won’t forget a single word you said,” Cameron said jokingly, though at the same time he was sincere. Turning his attention to Henry’s workstation, he commented, “So, yeah… Cerebro.”

Henry shook his head dismissively. “I doubt anything will come to fruition anytime soon. I am positively perplexed, I tell you.” Henry struck a few keys that sent his terminal into a powersave mode, and the brutish man once again faced Cameron. “I’ve been working closely with my old friend Forge, and even he seems to have reached a dead end. I wish we had more heads to put together, more technologists to bounce ideas off of…”

“Hey, you know Tony Stark and that guy from Wakanda… and wasn’t Cable all high-tech too?”

“Absolutely, and I have utilized every resource available, you can be assured. Alas…” Henry paused for a moment, a smile creeping on his face. “I don’t know if you ever met her, but we once had a young woman living here who was quite the computer expert. A pure delight. She was at Logan’s funeral… her name is Kitty.”

Kitty Pryde, formerly Shadowcat of the X-Men. Cameron knew her as Katherine Pryde, special agent for the United States government as part of the CIA. He knew the rest of the X-Men would be shocked and some even appalled if they knew. Cam barely knew her but didn’t exactly understand it himself; from the way most of the X-Men talked about her, she was as close as close could be to most of them. He had been wondering these past couple of months what had prompted her to apparently set herself up against her former teammates.

“I think I saw her there. She’s got long brown hair, real pretty?” Cameron asked, and Henry affirmed the statement with a nod.

“I do miss her. Perhaps I should give her a call…” Henry said, more to himself than Cameron. “Anyway, I was going to search for my dubious doppleganger who I’ve learned has reared his ugly head once more, but my wife is expecting me for dinner, and then of course there are the rest of the midterm papers.”

“Your what? Somebody cloned you?” Cameron asked, surprised.

“Actually, no… this man is very much me, albeit a different me. He hails from an alternate world where a tyrant named Apocalypse more or less ruled the planet. He and a few others somehow made their way here to our world… Nate Grey, the young man we took into custody last year, comes from the same place.”

Cameron just stared at Hank, flabbergasted. He thought he’d heard every last wild story…

“Oh my, I do apologize. People do tend to get a bit… excited… whenever the topic of alternate realities comes up,” Henry said with a slight chuckle. It was always amusing explaining these sorts of things to the uninitiated; he remembered when he started telling Cecilia the stories, her jaw was literally on the floor for weeks.

“Okay, you can’t hold out on me,” Cameron said, almost pleading to know more. “Just give me the short version for now, at least.”

“Ha! Short version,” Henry laughed as he started on his way towards the lab’s exit. He motioned for Cameron to do the same and the younger man quickly followed suit. “Come along, I’ll tell you on the way. It all started with a boy named David Haller…”

Elsewhere

Scott Summers couldn’t help but smile as the baby girl with the reddish-brown hair slowly waddled towards him, making her best effort to stay balanced and reach the arms he was holding out to her. Rachel had been getting better and better at walking on her own, and Scott knew it would only be a matter of time before she took off and ran one day. He knew the best – and worst – was yet to come, but the one thing he was certain of was that his daughter gave his life the utmost fulfillment.

Rachel cooed and looked absently at her father as her small, bare feet pitter-pattered across the hardwood floors. Scott repeated encouraging words to her, telling her she was almost there, she could make it. Rachel began to giggle, and suddenly began to walk faster until she was running, and seconds later she’d made it into her father’s arms safe and sound.

Scott picked the girl up, resting her bottom on one arm and placing his free hand on her back, and immediately assailed her with a barrage of kisses on her plump little cheeks. “Good girl!” he told her, beaming proudly. “Good job, Rachel… I knew you could do it!”

Rachel’s only response was a big smile and a gurgle, and as Scott made his way over near her crib to fetch a pair of shoes for her, the door to his bedroom slowly creaked open. The tall, slender form of Anna Hong entered, happy to see the man and girl she’d come to think of as a sort of family in recent times.

“Next thing you know, she’ll be levitating through the air,” Anna joked, and Scott cracked a small grin at the comment. Considering who Rachel’s mother was, he wouldn’t be surprised.

“She just might,” Scott concurred as he fit the tiny yellow shoes over his daughter’s feet. “Or maybe she’ll be lucky and end up having no mutant powers at all.”

“You don’t all of a sudden despise being a mutant, do you?” Anna questioned. She knew Scott had long felt burdened by his optic blasts until he was finally able to control them, but as far as she knew, he was proud of what he was.

“Of course not. But no one can deny that our powers make life more complicated. Life is already challenging enough as it is. But who knows… by the time she’s of age, maybe being a mutant won’t be such a big deal.” Scott picked his daughter back up from her changing station and turned towards Anna, who Rachel was evidently happy to see.

“Hello sweetheart,” Anna said as she approached the girl. “You look so pretty today in your little dress!”

“Which she’s already almost too big for. She just got this outfit a month ago… pretty soon you’ll need a whole new wardrobe, huh?” Scott said, kissing his daughter on the side of her head.

“Another shopping trip? I think it’ll be fun,” Anna said, letting Rachel wrap her tiny hand around one of her fingers.

“All done with classes for today?” Scott asked.

Anna nodded and replied, “Yes, and thank goodness. This job was hard enough before, but with all the new students coming in…”

“I know, it’s daunting. I think the student body’s literally doubled in the past three months…”

“With many more too come, I’m sure. Pretty soon we’ll have Angela designing yet another new wing for the mansion,” Anna quipped, and Scott just grunted.

“This place is definitely not the same as it used to be. But I can’t complain.”

“Yes, things could definitely be worse.”

“Or better,” Scott retorted with the slighest hint of playfulness. “But again, I can’t complain.”

“I suppose you’re referring to Jean…”

“More to the fact that Rachel could actually have a mother,” Scott said bluntly. “But I digress.”

“You know you can talk to me, whenever, about anything. I’ll be there for you as you’ve been for me.”

“I know… I know, and thank you. I’m very well aware that everyone thinks that I’m just shutting myself down when it comes to Jean, but…” Scott hesitated for a moment, looking for the right words. He wanted to express what he was feeling, but in simple terms. He didn’t feel like talking in-depth about his marriage – or lack thereof – but perhaps a little bit would help?

“My big issue is with Rachel. Jean’s her mother… or at least she’s supposed to be. I’ve been doing just fine raising her on my own, but Jean just took off and left… she basically abandoned her child. And quite frankly her reason for it really stunk,” Scott finally said, shaking his head.

“I won’t claim to know Jean nearly as well as you, or understand why she left. In fact, I don’t understand at all. I never would have left my son. He was my whole world. Perhaps Jean truly has a good reason, though,” Anna suggested. She knew it just sounded like clichéd feel-better lines to Scott, but it was better than nothing. Right now he just needed to vent, and she would let him.

“She barely even sees her, though… she’s almost non-existent to her. Rachel should have her father and mother. Jean’s not dead… she has no excuse.” Scott paused and let out a sigh. He could feel anger welling up inside of him, and at that moment he decided it would be best to drop the subject. He didn’t want Rachel getting upset because of him.

“I’m sorry I don’t have any answers,” was all Anna could think to say, and she gave him a sympathetic look.

“Maybe one day they’ll come,” Scott said, signaling the end of the topic with a shrug of his shoulders. “Anyway, what’s going on? Did you need me for anything?”

“Oh, no,” Anna told him, turning her attention back to Rachel. “I just came to say hello, and see how this darling little girl is doing.”

Scott’s face garnered a smile as he too fixed his eyes on the baby girl. “Just fine, though…” Suddenly, his smile faded as he felt a small explosion of gas in Rachel’s pants. “…Wonderful.”

“Oh, someone needs a change,” Anna said with a laugh, and she took Rachel from Scott. “Allow me.”

“No, I insist… it’s my favorite thing to do,” Scott deadpanned.

Anna set the child down on the changing station and began to undress her. “Just wait until potty training… it’s much worse when they mess their clothes.”

Scott scoffed at the thought but had to laugh to himself; he never thought there would be anything he’d have to do that would make him wish for a showdown with the Juggernaut or Magneto instead.

“You know, I have to admit, I’m excited about something,” Anna said, a wide smile taking over her face. She couldn’t help it anymore; she was ecstatic and wanted to share the news.

His curiosity piqued, Scott asked, “What’s the word?”

“It’s about Bobby and Jubilee,” Anna revealed. “You’re never going to believe it…”

New York City; The Juniper Suite

Jubilation Lee was nervous. She and her boyfriend, Bobby Drake, were out for a night on the town… dinner and a movie, nothing extravagant, though the restaurant they were at was more on the fancy side. She’d worn a simple black dress accented with silver and a matching shawl, and Bobby was dressed in black pants and pin-striped gray shirt, with the top button undone, naturally. Jubilee knew he’d gotten more than used to wearing ties during his accounting days, but he definitely preferred to be comfortable.

She was nervous, though, because not only did she have something to tell Bobby, but she had a sense that he had something to tell her, too. Though she always put her best face forward, always tried her best to put a smile on for the world, she couldn’t help but feel that what he had to say wasn’t anything good. Yes, their relationship had been going fine… they’d barely had any fights, and Bobby had snapped out of the ‘crab ass’ phase, as Jubilee put it, he’d been in for a short while.

Bobby Drake, on the other hand, wasn’t nervous at all. He was excited, in fact… excited to pull off his most brilliant scheme yet. He figured the real Bobby Drake might be shaking in his boots, but John Allerdyce couldn’t possibly be intimidated by something like this, but he sure did his best to let some nerves show. He’d slipped up more than once while trying to keep the X-Men convinced that the Iceman was alive and well… he’d improved drastically, but tonight would be the ultimate push in that direction.

“Ah, another for you?” the couple’s server asked as he stopped at the table, noticing the empty bottle of wine.

“Please,” Bobby confirmed, and the server simply nodded and went on his way, taking the empty bottle with him. Bobby turned his attention to his girlfriend, whose eyes were darting in all directions around the room. “Jubilee?”

Jubilee perked up a little and turned her attention to Bobby, who just smiled at her. “Yeah? Uh, you ready for desert?”

“In a minute. There’s something I have to tell you first…” Before Bobby could continue, the server returned with a fresh bottle of wine.

“Here you are, sir,” the server announced as he removed the cork and proceeded to pour Bobby and Jubilee each a glass. “Will there be anything else for you tonight or shall I bring the check?”

“Ah, give us about… ten minutes,” Bobby said, giving the server a knowing look, and the older man immediately scuttled off. Bobby turned his attention back to Jubilee and smiled.

Jubilee smiled back, trying her best to calm down. Being positive was her best bet, but with stroke after stroke of bad luck over the past six months, she was sometimes afraid to be optimistic.

“Jubes, hey,” Bobby said, clearing his throat and taking a deep breath. “You know how much I love you, right?”

Jubilee nodded. “Yeah… yeah, I… I love you too…”

“Well that’s good to know.” Bobby winked at her as he covertly reached into his pants pocket and removed a small, velvet box. He held it out of sight as he continued, “Look, I know we’ve only been together for, what, a year? We’ve known each other a lot longer than that, though, and the past few months especially… they’ve really got me thinking about myself, about us, about our future…”

Jubilee’s heart skipped a beat; was what she thought was about to happen really about to happen?

“Jubilation Lee, you are the most amazing woman I have ever known, and I know I want to spend the rest of my life with you,” Bobby continued as he rose from his seat and came over to kneel before Jubilee. He brought the small box into view and opened it to reveal a large princess-cut diamond in a platinum setting. “Will you marry me?”

Jubilee was captivated by shock and awe as her eyes fell on the rock; she couldn’t believe it. So much for thinking Bobby was going to break up with her, though who knew if her little announcement might still scare him away.

“Oh Bobby…” was all Jubilee could muster at the moment, though she knew she had one more word to speak unless she wanted to keep her beau hanging. “Yes!”

Bobby smiled and moved in for a kiss, which Jubilee graciously gave to him. Tears began to well up in her eyes as he slipped the ring on her finger; she still couldn’t believe it. She felt like she was in some sort of fairy tale.

“Oh my God…” Jubilee moaned as she again looked at the ring, watching it sparkle under the restaurant’s halogen lights. “It’s… huge…”

“Just the way you like it,” Bobby joked, and Jubilee gave him a bitchy but amused look. “So did I do good or what?”

“You did very good. The lady is pleased,” Jubilee told him, her smile wider than ever. It began to fade away, though, as she realized that she had to share her own news. She couldn’t delay any longer… it had to be tonight. It had to be now.

“Bobby,” Jubilee said, an earnest expression on her face, “I think I’m pregnant.”

Location Undisclosed

She walked through the empty, lifeless hallway of her latest abode, her seventh in the past two months. It was becoming very tiresome, hopping from hideout to another. She had safehouses all over the world, except none of them really felt that safe anymore. She could still sense the creature who had attacked her lingering nearby… it hadn’t directly assaulted her again – yet – but she was doing her best to stay one step ahead. Emma Frost had been a survivor all her life, and she wasn’t about to quit now.

Emma reached the entrance to her destination and opened the oak doors to reveal a small but lavish young girl’s room. All the best there was in upholstery, linens, craftsmanship, and the like; nothing was too good or too expensive for Sophia. Emma had long ago seen to it that her daughter was kept in the lap of luxury at all times.

“There you are, my darling,” Emma said as she entered the room, greeted by a meek smile from Sophia. “Are you hungry? Supper is almost ready.”

“I suppose,” the young blonde girl responded. She was doing her best to please her mother, but she couldn’t hide very well the fact that she wasn’t happy. She still didn’t understand why they’d moved so much recently.

Emma swallowed back a lump in her throat as she prepared herself to say what she’d come to say. When she first considered the idea, she laughed at herself; send her daughter away? As if anyone could protect her the way Emma could. As time went on, and the threat continued to loom, though… Emma realized she had to do something, even if it did seem a bit drastic.

“Sophia,” Emma said, walking over and taking a seat on the bed next to her daughter, “you look upset. Is something the matter?”

“I thought you could read my mind?” Sophia replied sharply, but Emma did not react one way or the other. The girl had gone through a growth spurt recently and with that came the hormones of a teenager. She would be a handful… they would be a handful.

“Would all of you like to come out and have a talk?” Emma asked, and Sophia looked at the woman with tired eyes which suddenly began to glow a bright blue. In an instant, four other forms that looked indentical to Sophia began to hover in the air above her, and they soon solidified and settlied down near the bed.

“We want to know what’s going on, mother,” one of the girls said.

“Why are we moving so much?” another asked.

“Are we running from someone?” was the question from the third.

“Please don’t lie to us!” the last one insisted.

Emma sighed and decided that they deserved to know the truth… or at least part of it. She didn’t want them to become suspicious of her, but she didn’t want to frighten them, either.

“Alright girls… here’s the deal. There’s someone who’s… after me. I don’t know who, and I don’t know why. But I have everything under control, so there’s no need to be afraid,” Emma told them. She could sense that they weren’t quite buying it, but she was going to press on nonetheless.

“Who’s after you?”

“What do they want?”

“Do they want to kill you?”

“Where will we go next?”

Emma raised a hand to silence her girls, stopping the next rapid succession of questions before they even started. “You have nothing to worry about, my dears, absolutelynothing. However, I want to talk to you about some… alternative… living arrangements. I’m thinking you might be just a tad bit safer – and perhaps happier – if you found a place you could stay on a more permanent basis, somewhere you could really be happy. Somewhere you could be around other children your own age.”

{WHAT?!} the girls cried out telepathically, their young voices echoing through Emma’s head. {You want to leave us?!}

“I want no such thing!” Emma told them, tempted to scold the girls for even thinking such a thing. “It’s just that… mommy can take care of her little problem more easily if she knows you girls are safe and sound and staying in one place. That’s all.”

The girls did not respond, instead Sophia looked Emma in the eye and asked, “Where do you want us to go?”

Emma couldn’t believe the words she was about to speak, but she’d be lying if she said there was any place safer. She knew, for right now at least, it was her daughter’s only viable option.

“If you agree to it, there’s a place I think you girls would quite enjoy staying at,” Emma began. “There are hundreds of other children there – mutants, just like you. It’s called the Xavier Institute…”

The Present

Jubilee sat on the bench in her small holding cell, staring intently at the engagement ring that was resting on her finger. She of course was worried about the Brotherhood and what they had planned, about her teammates, about what might happen next… but most prominently, she was worried about her fiancé. She couldn’t help but wonder what fate had befallen him… try as she might to stay optimistic, it wasn’t working as well she wanted it to.

In the cell next to Jubilee was her cousin, Kwannon. She didn’t know why, but for some reason Sabretooth had opted not to so much as scratch her, instead he simply knocked her out. In some ways she was relieved, as she knew she possibly would be dead right now if Sabretooth had truly let loose on her. She hated being in this cell, though, not knowing how her teammates were doing; she wondered if Cameron and Piotr had even survived the injuries Creed inflicted on them.

“Jubilee,” Kwannon called out, at first getting no response. “Are you awake?”

“Yeah,” was all the younger woman said.

Bobby. Bobby Drake and his witty comments, cute nose, beautiful eyes, practical jokes, gentle touch, sandy brown hair, stinky feet… she loved everything about him, even things she would normally hate, and wanted nothing more than for him to be with her at that moment. Little did she know she was about to get her wish.

“JUBILEE!” came a man’s voice as the door to the dark room burst open. Jubilee and Kwannon both leapt to their feet as the Iceman entered the room, and Jubilee felt a wave of relief wash over her as her eyes fell on the man she loved.

“How did you escape?” Kwannon asked eagerly, happier than ever to see her teammate.

“I… I…” Iceman seemed to hesitate for a moment as a despondant look crossed his face. He approached Jubilee’s cell and looked her square in the eye. “Jubes… they… theykilled me.”

Jubilee looked at the man, confused, but didn’t have any time to think as she noticed her cousin’s body slowly becoming encased in a thin layer of frost, with her eyes frozen in Jubilee’s direction. “What the…? Bobby…?” Jubilee began to say.

“Bobby Drake is dead, pipsqueak,” Iceman said as Jubilee felt a chill beginning to spread through her own body. She panicked as a menacing grin crawled onto the man’s face; this wasn’t her boyfriend, that much was certain.

“You’re really a hot little piece of ass, you know that?” the imposter cackled as he shattered the bars of her holding cell and moved in on her. “So why don’t you let me show you what a real man can do…”

NEXT ISSUE: Past Tense Part 4! Explosive developments in the past ahead as a former X-Man returns, one quits the team, and the mansion gains two new residents that will definitely be shaking things up! All this plus more on Kitty Pryde, while in the present, the Brotherhood get closer to carrying out their master plan!

Author’s Notes

Well, we’re half of the way through this arc… and I JUST MADE it with getting this issue done for a May release! How’s that for procrastination?

As you can see there have been some crazy developments for Jubilee in particular this issue, and she won’t be leaving this conflict unchanged. There are even bigger things in store for her a bit farther down the road 🙂 And if you were wondering how exactly Emma’s girls made it to the mansion after reading Giant-Sized New Mutants, well, you now have your answer.

Not much else to say except that I’m aiming for the next two issues to be out in June and the big finale to come in July. There are many more surprises in store… ’nuff said 🙂

As usual, I love feedback, so please send it in if you are so inclined!

~Ryan
05/31/05