"So, what is it supposed to mean exactly?" Kitty asked while watching Anna try to straighten out the creases of the flyer. Light blue sticky-tack was still suck to two of the corners from where Anna had ripped the flyer off the wall, and another series of shallow cuts had fromed from the precise place she'd wrapped her fist around the white printer paper.
"Is that you on the front?" Kurt leaned over the dining room table. He squinted his eyes as if peering through fog. "I can sorta make out your hair… everything else kinda looks like static."
"That's what you notice?" Evan pushed past Kurt and slammed his hand next to the word at the bottom. "X-MAN", he let the word linger in the air like the fallout of an explosion. "I thought we were supposed to be anonymous! How did they already figure out its us?"
"I was wondering about that." Anna spun the worn paper in her direction and took in every detail of the image for a fifth or sixth time. "I don't think it's in reference to the X-Men, I think it might be in reference," she pointed to the arms she had crossed over her chest, "to that."
"That X you made to the cameras?" Kitty paused and cocked her head to one side. "Why… did you do that?"
"I'm… not really sure -"
"Oh, you found one of those?" Jean strode through the archway and into the dining room.
"You knew about this?" Every muscle in Evan's neck flexed as he spoke, "And you didn't tell us?"
"I didn't have time to. I've been too busy taking them down along with the rest of the student council and faculty." Jean rested her bag on the table and zipped it open. "What's your favorite color? I got one printed in blue, green… the white on black looks tasteful."
Anna picked a green flyer from the stack Jean dropped on the table. A little bit of tape was still stuck to one corner of the thick cardstock. The image of her wasn't anymore clearer, but it looked more official than the one she found. "Why have you been taking them down?"
"Was ordered by Prinsaple Darkholme. She didn't want any flyers that had to do with the incident. Especially anything to do with the 'X-MAN'. She said it was distracting the students."
Kitty picked up a pink flyer and flipped it around, "I guess that makes sense…"
"Still, for every one that I took down, two seemed to pop up in its place." Jean leaned on the table and crossed her arms. "Looks like Xavier might have some competition to be the face of mutantkind, Ann."
"Don't look at me!" Anna's rigid fingers pressed against her own chest. "I didn't ask for… this."
"Um…" Kitty's fingertips touched her lower lip. "This one has some nasty words on it."
"Let me see," Jean said, taking the flyer from Kitty and examining it with cool eyes. "Oh yeah, had some of this too. It's the other reason we needed to take them down."
Anna's brow furrowed. "What does it say exactly?"
Jean sighed and shook her head, "Nothing important." She began to crumple the paper when Evan snatched it out of her hand.
He straightened it out and held it in the light. "Mutant fucks should have been shot." He read, "What's the difference between the X-Man and the giant guy? Both are clearly in on it." He twisted the paper. "Who was the real threat? Freaks… Wish I could have been there to shoot them myself… My dad is a cop; he would have known who to shoot if he were there…" Evan crumpled up the paper. "Fucking assholes, they would have all died if it wasn't for us!" Evan slammed the paper into the table and pinned it in place with a spinny thorn.
Jean looked at the impaled flyer without even a hair out of place to acknowledge the disturbance. "And that's why we took those down."
Anna looked from the spiny torn and felt her gaze shift to her brother. Kurt was both staring at the thorn, and something beyond that Anna could never hope to see. His face was a shade lighter, like some familiar ghost had just walked through him.
"Children!" Ororo glided in through the connecting door to the kitchen. She was in her uniform, her temples slick with sweat. "Children," She said again, but this time it sounded like the rest of her had caught up with her rushing form. "Is everything okay? I heard yelling from downstairs -" She paused when she was the flyer stuck in the table. "What's that?"
"The student's replies." Jean pulled the thorn out of the paper and passed the flyer to Ororo.
Her eyes scanned over the poster. "X-MAN…" She at first asked and seemingly in the same breath answered. She turned over the page and saw the lengthy handwritten notes. She took in a sharp inhale, and air pressure in the room seemed to get just the slightest bit heavier. "These are frightened little boys and girls, don't take their words to heart, children." Ororo didn't slam the paper into the table, but pressed it down with enough force to bruise its windpipe should it have been a living thing.
"Beyond this, did anything happen to you? Did anyone make any connection?"
Glances were shared around the room along with a handful of shaking heads… except for Kurt, who continued to stare into the table's surface. Anna's eyes lingered on him, trying to pull him toward her mentally in any way she knew how. Either she was having no effect on him, or he simply didn't want to be pulled away from the faraway place he'd gone to.
Jean glanced at her phone, "Has anyone seen Scott?" When no one immediately confirmed, she called him. "Hey!" She said after the third or fourth ring. "Yeah, we're all home and hadn't seen you… You're where? What?"
Ororo stepped closer toward Jean. All that could be heard was mumbles through the tinny speaker.
"Wait, Scott… Hang on, I'm putting you on speaker."
"…Speaker? Who's with you?" Said little Scott on the phone. Anna wasn't sure if she had been more happy to hear his voice.
"Everyone," Jean said flatly, "we're home where you should be. Now, you want to tell us where you are?"
"At the… the scene of the fight." Scott's formerly sure voice seemed to waver a little under Jean's grilling.
"And why are you there?"
"I wanted to see what was happening with it. What clean up was like, and what they did with the Juggernaut."
The Juggernaut… that was something Anna hadn't even thought about. There was a guy who almost caved her skull in not 72 hours ago, and she hardly had given the man a second thought.
"Scott, listen to me." Ororo got next to the phone. "Come home, now. There is no reason to be there."
"It's crazy," He kept going as if he didn't hear her. He very well might not have, since there was some audible interference with the wind. "Seeing these buildings caved in like this… I mean, people are still going about their business as usual, just around ruins."
"Scott!" Ororo shouted into the phone.
"Did you find anything out about Juggernaught?" Evan shouted even louder than his aunt.
Still no direct answer from Scott. "Some places are quarantined, maybe for clean up… I'm not sure. There are a few police cruisers and some white vans."
Ororo pressed her watch and brought it close to her lips. "Logan."
There was a wrestling over Ororo's speaker, followed eventually by a voice, "Logan here."
"I need you to get downtown to where to fight was right now and get Scott. He's wandering around down there."
"He's what?" There was some more shuffling. "Yeah, I can be down there in a few minutes." A beat later, Anna heard the roar of a motorcycle start outside. She looked out the window just in time to see Logan speed out the front gate.
"Scott… SCOTT!" Jean shouted.
"What?" He finally paused his rambling.
"Stop wandering around over there and come home now!"
"We need to know what's going on, besides I look like anyone else. There are still people shopping and walking around."
"We don't know what they do, Scott. They might have some idea what we look like. You're putting yourself in unnecessary danger!"
"Alright," He replied after a pause. "I'm headed back to the car."
Anna felt a weight rise off her shoulders.
"I'll be home in just a -"
"Hey!" Shouted an unrecognized voice. "Hey, kid! Slow down a second."
"Oh, was I not supposed to be here, officer?" There was the slightest tremor of fear in Scott's voice, but otherwise he sounded casual. "Sorry! I just saw the news about this crazy fight, and I had to see the place, you know?" His voice sounded more distant now, like the phone had traveled away from his mouth.
"Who are you talking to, son?"
"My friend! I was going to FaceTime him the carnage!" Full-on stupid frat bro was coming to the surface now. Maybe it was an easy step for him, considering how dumb he'd been to go there, still Anna had to respect the hustle. "Actually, would you mind if I took a selfie with you and sent it to him with that broken building in the background?"
"Is that your car over there?"
"That one parked behind the pickup? Yeah, pretty sweet, right?"
"Do you go to school around here, son?"
"Do I go to school around here? Yeah, I go to Bayville! I played running back on the team last season." A lie.
Jean palmed her face, and Anna felt Kitty staring at her. Kitty's hand was clasped around her throat, and she mouthed, "What's a 'running back'?"
Anna only shrugged as they had to continue being tortured by what was happening on the phone. She gripped the back of a chair and held on for dear life.
"Running back, huh?" The cop paused. "Eh, that was the position I used to play back in the day. You wouldn't think it, looking at me now, though."
"What, why not? You look great!"
"I've put on a few pounds and got a bad ankle now…"
"No, no, seriously, you look great. It's all about just getting back in shape, right? No one can go from 0 to 60, you know? You've got to work your way up to it."
Jean's eyes darted between the others. She mouthed "What the fuck is happening?"
Kitty responded, "Scott is getting his rizz on."
"So I've got bad knees, right?" Scott started, "So I got to warm up before I work out. It's all about the warm-up, man, never start cold."
"Right," The cop answered."
"Here, I can show you." There is the sound of twisting gravel as, presumably, Scott starts doing squats. More glances were shared around the room. "And like that," Scott said a little out of breath, "I'm getting the blood flowing and getting my muscles ready, right?" Mercifully, there was the sound of a motorcycle in the distance.
"And, you said you got bad ankles, right?"
"I did."
"Okay, so try this." More twisting gravel
"Alright, I gotchya…" the cop paused, "Hey that does feel pretty good…"
"Hey, mind if I ask you a question?" Scott asks. Jean's eyes immediately scrunch shut, and she holds onto the phone with such a tight grip that her arm shudders. "What happened to the big guy that was here?"
"What, the giant? Why are you asking?"
"Just curious."
"People have been all sorts of curious about weirdos that came around destroying the place. The big guy hasn't come up much…"
"Well," Anna could hear Scott getting knocked off balance in the conversation and attempting to recover the high ground, "okay, well what are people saying about the, um, 'weridos'?"
"That there was a few of em and they all had weird abilities. All different shapes and sizes…" There was a break in the conversation, and the officer's voice got closer. "You know, now that I think about it… one of em was kind of tall like you. Had some crazy laser eyes or something…
"Is that right? That's pretty crazy."
"Yeah… it sure is."
Anna's grip tightened on the chair.
"Who did you say you were on the phone with?"
"A friend."
"What's your friend's name?"
"I'm not sure that is relevant -"
"I asked you a question, son."
"John."
"John, huh?"
There was a shifting sound and then the officer's voice got exceptionally clear. "John? You still on the phone there, John?"
Everyone in the room looked at one another.
"I got your friend here, John. I'm afraid I'm going to have to take him down to the station, understand, John?"
Ororo's brows furrowed, and her eyes dug deeper into the phone's screen. Not a breath could be heard in the room.
"Say, why don't you take those sunglasses off for me, kid?"
"NO!" Anna heard hearself shout and when she leaned forward she found she had snapped the back off the chair she was holding onto like it was a twig off a tree. "Scott!"
"The cop hung up the phone," Jean reported, and let her arm that had been holding the phone fall to the table.
Ororo tapped her watch. "Logan, come in." There was no response. "Logan!" She shouted louder than Anna had ever heard to woman shout.
A silence fell over the room where not a breath could be felt or heard. Finally, Ororo's watch chimed.
"Lord, woman, you don't need to shout. I got the little idiot." A collective sign passed across all that were gathered. "See the watch, dohdoh? Now tell everyone how much of an idot you are."
"Sorry, guys…" Mercifully, it was indeed Scott's voice that came over the little speaker.
"No, I told you to tell them how much of an idiot you are. So, go ahead."
"I'm… a big fat idiot…"
"That's right, you are. Now get in your stupid car and go home before I kick your ass hard enough you won't need a car to get there!"
Scott came back home like a hero from war. Everyone enveloped him in a great hug that was followed by a thorough round of scolding.
"How foolish can you be, Scott?" The group could hear Ororo's voice through the closed library door. They could hear fragments of what Scott replied with, but every word Ororo said was seemingly enough to shake the ground of the building. "Going back to the scene of where it happened? Oh no, you'll let me finish, young man! You went back when authorities are actively, ACTIVELY, looking for those involved?"
Beyond a broken ego, they shared a meal prepared by their world-famous chef, Logan. It was, what else, but a festival of meat with some leafy alternatives for the non-animal inclined. The conversation was weighted initially toward the battle and its fallout, but somehow found organic routes to more lighthearted topics as well. Anna was surprised to find herself laughing by the time Logan's homemade pie had come around. Even Evan had cracked a smile. All were in relatively good spirits by the time clean clean-up was over, except for Kurt. He had made an attempt to join the group in conversation, but didn't seem able to fully commit somehow.
Anna and Kitty returned to their room, and while Kitty finished up brushing her hair out at her vanity, Anna watched the snow fall out the window from her bedside. She eventually spotted a figure patrolling already trotted tracks in the shallow snow, and she soon realized it was Logan.
A few minutes later, the lights were off, and Anna closed her eyes in the comfort of her own bed. Sleep wasn't something that immediately followed. All she could think about was that day, and being in that weirdo's mind. Flashes of things that came across her mind's eye that were getting harder and harder to distinguish if they were her's her not. There were images of fields of green grass and a feeling of a lingering hot summer day on her cheeks, mixing with the sound of buzzing fluorescent lighting and the feeling of a hospital bed supporting her weight.
The watch on her wrist suddenly buzzed so hard it felt like an electric shock. Her eyes snapped wide as a the room around her was bathed in a flashing white light and an ajoing klaxion alarm.
"What the -" She could feel a shudder in the wall near her pillow, then great iron mesh began slowly stretching across her bedroom windows. "Kitty?" Anna, tangled in her sheets, struggled to get out of bed.
Anna could barely hear the shout of her name above the now multiple alarms. "Anna!" A pair of hands appeared in front of her and freed her from her sheets. "Ann, you okay?"
"I will be once this fucking thing shuts up!"
Anna could finally make out Kitty's face in the light of her watch as she brought it to her face. "Intruder alert?" She read out loud.
A voice came over the little speakers of their watches with large amounts of screeching feedback. "Children, this is Ororo. Stay in your rooms and away from the windows! I repeat, stay in your rooms!"
What sounded like clanging pans and scraping metal came from the lawn outside. When the girls looked toward the window, they saw brief flashes of red and white. The pair rush the window and glance though the slits in the metal mesh. Down below, they spotted a man wearing a strange head-to-toe uniform. He stood still as turrets, similar to the ones they'd seen in the Danger Room, popped out of the ground and fired weapons at the man. Despite the hail of gunfire and lasers, nothing seemed to make the man back away, let alone hurt him.
"What the hell?" Anna looked over at Kitty and saw she had her phone out and was recording it.
A loud crash shook the ground they sat on, and when Anna looked out again, she saw that the man had ripped one of the turrets out by the base and threw it into the mansion wall below them. Smoke and filled the air and obscured their view. Soon it began leaking in through the window.
"We need to go!" Anna grabbed Kitty by the arm, who was still trying to somehow get an angle on the man despite her struggling to breathe. "Come on! We can look at the fucker plenty after we kick his ass!"
"But," Kitty coughed hard enough it was a miracle a lung didn't fall out, "Ororo said -"
"Yeah, well, that was before that jackass started blowing holes in the side of our house." Anna struggled with the doorknob. When it didn't turn like it normally did, she instead kicked it open and drug Kitty outside. The hallway beyond had a few pictures knocked off the walls but was otherwise untouched. "Kitty," Anna let go of her and sat her down on the floor. "You okay?"
"Yeah I'm -" Another cough, but this one was far less sever, "I'm fine." Using the wall as support, she stood and began walking toward the foyer.
"Where are you going?" Anna asked after her.
"You said you wanted to kick this guy's butt right?"
In the foyer everyone had gather in their pajamas, including Ororo. Calls of protest were competing to be loudest over pointed guestures at the front door.
"He's destroying the mansion!" Scott shouted at the front of the pack. His visor was on and glowing ruby red. "Why aren't you letting us stop him?"
"We've faced greater threats," Jean said with upturned, open palms, pleading. "I understand you want to protect us, but -"
"ENOUGH." The ground trembled and the chandelier above shook from the supernatural boom of Ororo's voice. "You will stay and you WILL listen to me, children." She brought her watch to her lips. "Why is he still here, Logan?"
The distance the clattering outside made it difficult to hear exactly what the man said. "Tough… not a man."
The was a pause. The leaking bright white from the spotlights through the slits of the iron mesh shutters highlighted spots of Ororo's crisp white robe. "We've discussed what to do in such a case."
"I've… trying to… thick armor…"
"We will exhaust all our conventional resources, including escaping, understood?"
Whatever Logan said, it couldn't be heard over Evan shouting, "I got it!" as he threw open the front door and bolted outside.
"Evan, no!" Ororo shouted as the group, including Anna and Kitty, ran after him.
The world beyond was a heap of twisted metal and gouged wet earth. Smoke and steam filled the air as a single surviving spotlight illuminated the hazy remains of their home's front lawn. Snapping of live electrical cables popped out of one of the many foxholes that were presumably turrets once hidden just below the surface. Just beyond the light's range was pair of glowing yellow eyes. They didn't move and they didn't blink, they just stared at the group.
"Children!" Ororo got between them and the stranger. "Get inside, now!"
There was a loud hiss followed by a metallic clang. Beyond Ororo's shoulder, Anna could see a long, thick chrome cylinder attached to a foot appear in the light. A golfball's worth of dents and burns covered its surface, but not quite enough to totally remove the cylinder's shine.
Anna could feel Kitty tense next to her as well as her attempt to swallow down another coughing fit. The group to her left took a collective step back. All that was, except for Evan.
A loud pop followed another hiss, and the rest of the "man" appeared. But this figure was no man that Anna had ever seen. Like the cylinder, which turned out to be a densely plated leg, the man-shaped figure was fully metallic and was at one point chrome. Also like the leg, the figure was covered in burns, dents, and scratches and was equally as well armored. Following its step forward, it settled for standing and staring at the group with beady yellow eyes.
"Like tearing up lawns, do you?" Anna could see Evan flex his hand.
"Damn it, Evan!" Ororo grabbed him hard by the shoulder and threw him back into the group. "For once, just listen to me!" She looked at the figure, then back at the group. "Do not do what you are thinking, children. That is an order! You must trust me on this!"
The loudest bang Anna had ever heard in her life popped in the distance and the figure was momentarly thrown to the left. Anna looked in the direction of the sound and spotted Logan laying atop the roof with a massive rifle.
"Like that, chrome dome?" He racked another bolt and fired a second shot, followed by a third. "That's right you god damned homewrecker, I got what you want, right here!"
The figure had taken a couple of paces to their left and was missing a piece of face armor. Underneath the broken portion of the face plate was what appeared to me to be a metallic-looking skull complete with teeth and an eye socket. It very stiffly turned and raised its head in Logan's direction, and then raised its hand as if telling him to stop. The palm opened, and a hail of bullets poured out like water. Anna heard a single shout from the rooftop before complete silence.
"Logan!" Anna screamed loud enough she flealt her ears pop. Ororo grabbed her and forced her behind her.
"Inside! Now! I will deal with this!"
"We won't leave you out here alone, Ororo!" Kurt shouted.
"This isn't up for debate!" She turned and pushed the group toward the door.
Anna's blood froze when she looked back at the figure and saw it adjust its aim from the roof… to them. All she knew to do was close her eyes.
What sounded like a plane crash happened before them. The screech of twisting metal and popping welded segments bounced off the walls and surroundings. The scraping and snapping were so loud that Anna had to cover her ears. When next she opened her eyes, she saw the figure bent in half with its face planted into the mud. As fast as before, it happened again, but this time its left shoulder was twisted toward its back in an unnatural fashion, followed by its right. Finally, the thing was split in half at the waist, where its legs hung limply in the air a moment before being thrown across the lawn like a rag doll.
Everyone looked at Jean, who looked just as baffled. "Th-That wasn't me."
A new man, this one slightly smaller, gently lowered from the sky with a great purple cape flowing behind him. His stunning scarlet red body suit trimmed with royal purple was soon sullied by the mud his boots came to rest on as he made landfall.
"Is anyone hurt?" Rolled a cool voice from the man's lips. It was a voice Anna vaugly remembered.
"Eric," Ororo said with a slight jump in her voice.
"You know who I am, Storm. My name is Magneto. I shed Eric a long time ago."
"Logan," Anna pushed her way past Ororo and looked at the grated cheese portion of the roof where Logan once lay. "Logan!"
"He will be fine." The man, Magneto, said with the slimest regard.
"How would you know?"
"Easy, the man can't be killed."
Anna's blood went from fridged to boiling. She didn't care if this guy had saved them, she was getting ready to rip off that stupid helmet shove it up his flat ass with how casual he was being about a man's life. She just about did it, too, when he smiled at her.
"Miss Marie. You put on quite the show the other day. The city should give you a medal."
Anna spat at his feet.
Ororo straightened her back and attempted to regain her sense of decorum. "How did you know it would be here?"
"I knew from the moment you all intervened with the Juggernaut rampage."
"Which you orchestrated, right?" Anna hissed. Ororo gave her a pointed look.
Magneto gave her another little smile. "No… that wasn't me. Actually, I'd love to get a hold of whoever did let that did let him loose, if it wasn't sheer ignorance on the part of his captors."
Evan pushed his way to the front. "We could have taken care of that thing, you know."
"I know you could have, but it was wise of you not to."
"And why's that?"
Magneto pointed a rigid finger at Kitty, who was busy taking pictures of the fallen machine.
"A cell phone?" Evan spat
"Young man, we live in a day and age where everything is recorded. Why, perchance, do you think that thing was sent here?" Evan only looked back at him with unblinking eyes. "Could it be because your handler, Charles Xavier, recently went public about mutants, and you just so happen to be a group of young individuals he fosters who could presumably be around the age of those involved in the rampage?"
Evan flexed his jaw, looking at the heap. "It was a test to see if we were."
"Now you're catching on."
"Thank you for your aid, Magneto." Ororo raised her voice just enough to draw the attention of further conversation. "You did us a great service, and we are thankful. We have obvious glaring issues in our security that will swiftly be resolved. I must get these young ones to bed swiftly, as it is still a school night after all."
Kitty took a break from her photo shoot. "Really?"
Ororo gathered her students like scattered chicklets and coaxed them inside.
"You know this isn't over, Storm." Anna heard him call to her as she shut them inside, leaving her outside with Magneto. She and the rest of the students peeked through the barred windows. "This is only the beginning."
Ororo got closer to the man. "Don't you think I know that?" She said in a hushed voice. "Don't you think it keeps me awake at night?"
"Xavier has abandoned you and the children, and at this time of all times, you need support."
"He didn't abandon us. There is a greater mission."
"Yes, there is, and it's over there in a pile of rubbish. That mission will persist until the humans see us eradicated."
Ororo crossed her arms over her chest. The breeze made the bald trees sway and the hem of her robe gently flap against her bare legs. "This is just fear." She said after a while. "Fear can be tamed."
"Fear also kills."
"Thank you for your aid tonight, Magneto. You saved our lives, and I will be eternally thankful." She rested a hand on his shoulder. "I am tired and I must tend to my wards. I wish you a good night."
"Storm…"
"Hey, bub." Anna had to pivot to see what could only be described as the upright corpse of Logan. His jacket was shredded, and a formerly white shirt was saturated in blood, what was left of his shirt that was. Over his shoulder, he carried his massive rifle, and in his mouth bobbed a fat cigar. "The lady told you to take a hike." His voice sounded strangely constricted, like someone had stepped on his throat. Then Anna had a foolish realization that it could be because his throat wasn't done reconstructing.
"Yes, of course." Another little smile. "Always a pleasure, Wolverine."
As if to just confirm Anna's theory, she saw Logan puff a smoke ring through a hole in his throat. "Yup."
Magneto rose as silently as he'd arrived, a disappeared into the night's sky.