Notes:Four people are under Apocalypse` control but there is another villian
sneaking around. He strikes when two are seperated from the group. And
several new mutants join the team but they`re not as stable as the rest of
the team.
Darkness Falls
Part One: New Recruits
Monaco-ville, Monaco.....
Monet twirled a flower between her fingers. Several feet away a girl
with curly hair stood, looking at the sky. Monet ignored her. Everything
suddenly got dark. Monet looked up. The sky had filled with birds. Then they
came at Monet. She jumped and started running. Just when she thought they
were about to catch up with her she got a sudden burst of speed. She was
running faster than she had ever been before. Things were tossed around by
wind created by her as she ran. Then she felt her feet lift from the ground.
She panicked, but momentum kept her going. She crashed through a wall. And
somehow she came out without a scratch on her.
* * *
Althone, Ireland....
The small fox cub that Theresa considered her pet came up to her and
licked her fingers. She was outside her uncle`s house with her boyfriend,
Steve. "It`s only for a few weeks. I promise," she told him. "Yeah, sure you
find out that your father is alive and you`re only gonna be gone a few
weeks," he said. "Steve, come on. Uncle Tom, raised me. My real dad was never
there for me. True, it`s because he thought I was dead but still... I
wouldn`t stay there. I`d always come back," she assured him. She stood up and
started to go back inside. He came up behind her, and grabbed her around the
waist, like he had done so many times before. She screamed and started
laughing. The window on the door shattered at the sound of her scream.
* * *
Los Angeles, California....
Torres sat up in bed. Fifty bucks was on the edge of the client`s dresser
with her name on it. He was still asleep on the other side of the bed. She
grabbed the money and started to the door. At the exact moment her hand
touched the doorknob, he woke up. "Where do you think you`re going," he asked
her. She froze at the sound of his voice. "If I stay longer, it means you`re
gonna have to pay more," she told him. He was out of the bed and next to her
in a second. He put his hand around her throat and lifted her a few inches
from the ground. "Who said anything about paying you," he said. He unzipped
her pants with his free hand. This was what she did for a living, so why was
it scaring her so much now? Suddenly she felt electrical pulses running
through her body. Then it jumped from her to him. Both fell to the floor. She
touched her throat where he had been choking her and gasped to catch her
breath. The smell of burnt flesh drifted to her. She looked at him and heard
him sizzling. She screamed. She ran out of the room. She kept running until
she ran out of breath and collapsed on the sidewalk.
She came to and found herself laying on someone else`s couch. She was
covered by a wierd feeling gray blanket and a huge slug the size of small dog
was at her feet. She shrieked. It looked at her like she was crazy. A guy
came in the room. He was bald except for one strand of white hair. "Relax,
girl. She likes you," he said. "I don`t care I want it away from me," she
said, ready to kick it away. "I wasn`t talking to you," he said glaring at
Torres. The blanket moved. It slid off of her. Then she realized it was
attached to someone else. Another guy with gray skin that seemed to be way
too loose on him stood up by the side of the couch. "Oh my god, I`m in hell,"
Torres said. She buried her face in her hands hoping this would disapear.
"No, you`re a mutant, like us," one of them said. "I am not like you. I don`t
keep giant bugs as pets and I don`t have skin hangs off my body like a pair
of baggy pants," she retorted. "Face it girl, you`re just as disgusting as we
are. I mean, we don`t sell our body for fifty bucks or kill people because
they wanted to get a little rough with us." "That wasn`t my fault. I didn`t
know that that was gonna happen to him and besides you don`t know me. You
don`t know why I had to take what ever job I could get," she said. "True, but
you don`t know us either. It sucks when people jump to conclusions don`t it?"
"Yeah," she said, softly.
* * *
St. Louis, Missouri....
The X-men were taking a break from each other because of the constant
fighting and Scott had made his way back here. He had been staying in a hotel
at night. A group of kids behind him in a basketball court, some of them were
playing but the others were sitting and listening to loud rap music. 0ne of
them started complaining that his eyes were burning. Scott had a wierd sense
of dejavu. He turned around and looked at the guy. In that moment, blasts of
red energy exploded from the guy`s eyes.
* * *
Fort Washington, Long Island, New York....
Another homecoming. Bobby sat down on his bed and started reading his
Fray comic books. He had just gotten to the part where she discovered that
Harth was a vampire when he heard a noise down the hallway. He left his room
to see what it was. As he got closer to his sister`s room it sounded more
like a light bulb humming only louder. He went in and saw that she was
glowing. She was on her side with her back to him, probably sleeping.
* * *
Bayville, New York....
Cerebor buzzed with the sudden manifestation of several mutants. Logan
was in the X-jet readying it for take off. Storm helped the Professor on
board.
I-n-salah....
Storm approached the girl out side her home while the other two were
inside with her family. "Hello, what`s you`re name," she asked, softly.
"Monet Yvette Clarisse Maria Therese St. Croix," she told Storm. "Really, all
of that? Do you go by a shorter name?" "Uh-huh, some people call me M," she
said.
"All I know is that I started running real fast after alot of birds tried
to attack me and then I got scared about something," M said once aboard the
X-jet.
Althone....
"What are you talking about? I don`t have any powers," Theresa said to
the woman who kept trying to get a confession out of her. The little wolf cub
had found his way inside and bit Theresa on the foot. She screamed.
Everything glass in the room shattered immediatly. "Okay, so maybe I do," she
said.
Los Angeles....
Torres stared at her new roomates. She now knew that their names were
Japeth and Angelo. Suddenly they stood up as if someone had just wandered
into the hangout. A woman with white hair stood in the entrance. "Well,
you`ve found each other. That makes it easier," she said. She started closer
to them. "Now, would you rather stay in a mansion or keep living here in this
place," she asked them.
Japeth leaned closer to them. "I don`t know about this," he said. "It`s a
little too late for that. We already agreed to work for them," Angelo said.
"Right, whatever," Japeth said, sounding annoyed.
St. Louis....
Scott knew right away what was going on when a thick fog appeared out of
nowhere. He stuck around and watched as Storm appeared and approached the kid
with powers like his. Except by that time the powers had seemed to disapear.
As Storm walked closer a sudden heavy gust of wind picked up. She kept her
cool and managed to calm him down. The wind disapeared just like Scott`s
powers had before. The X-jet took off with the kid on it a few minutes later.
* * *
Krnov, Czech Republic...
The scene was like hell had been unleashed on earth. Smoke poured from
still smoldering buildings. And people lay dead in the streets. Some had been
set on fire, others had been swooped up and dropped from a great height,
others had been impaled with bones, while still more had had there eyes
pecked out by swarms of birds.
Atop one of the few buildings intact, four shadowy figures stood looking
down on the death and destruction they had brought.
* * *
Everyone had returned to the Institute but despite the time apart the
tension hadn`t been lessened between them. The newest recruits were a little
worried about this but then the report of the attack on Krnov came and they
all started worrying about that instead.
Aurora rested her chin on her hand, sighing. She had become some what of
an honorary member of the team due to the fact that she was too young to go
into battle. This pissed her off to no end. Bobby came up next to her.
"What`s wrong," he asked. "I want to go in the danger room," she said. "You
can`t," he told her. "Why not," she said. "Because you`re nine and everyone
thinks that you`re too young to be put in any danger even if it`s just a
sim," he said. She started pouting. Bobby rolled his eyes.
Alarms started going on all throughout the school. It started getting
dark all of a sudden. Hordes of birds started swarming around the Institute.
One of the windows was broken and the birds came inside. Fire filled the
room. Within a few minutes the school was completly up in flames. Storm
summoned her powers and made it rain inside the school then something hit her
in the head. She hit the floor unconcious, but for a second she felt herself
being moved before she completly blacked out.
Carol searched for signs of life in the Institute. After the sudden
attack she had managed to get most of them out of the Institute and into the
yard. But there were more deeper inside the building and she had to get to
them before the Institute was completly destroyed. She found a girl with with
strawberry blonde hair unconcious in one of the room and proceeded to pull
her out with the others.
Logan came to. He saw one of the Morlocks that had supposedly died in the
Savage Land drag X-men from the remains of the Institute. The school
exploded. Iceman and two of the newest recruits weren`t among the one`s in
the yard. The girl turned to go back. But Logan got up and grabbed her arm,
stopping her. "How many are still in there," she asked him. "Three," he
said. She snatched her arm away and flew back in before she could stop her.
Aurora touched the wall of ice blocking her and Bobby from the raging
fire. Someone suddenly, appeared on the outside. They pulled something out of
their arm and started trying to break through the wall. Aurora screamed.
"It`s Marrow," Bobby said, in disbelief. Unless it was Spyke but then why
would Spyke be trying to attack them. Bobby backed up and made the wall
thicker. Despite that Marrow still seemed to be getting through. "We`re gonna
die," Aurora sobbed. "We have to get out," he said trying to rationalize.
There was a window that was inside the protected area, fortunately. Bobby
smashed it. There was a twenty foot drop outside. "Great," Aurora said. "We
have to...," Bobby was cut off when Marrow suddenly stopped. A second later
someone else was there and they were melting the ice somehow and doing it
very quickly. He grabbed Aurora and jumped out the window. Ice rose from the
ground catching them. They slid to the ground. "What now," she asked. He
looked at the woods behind the school. "We hide, in their until someone we
know finds us," he said.
Carol coughed violently from the smoke filling her lungs. Her foot hit
something. She looked down and saw one of the kids. She leaned down and felt
for a pulse. There was nothing. She sighed and started to look for someone
else. Her eyes were stinging from the heat and smoke.
Everyone started coming around at. Logan made sure they were okay. Carol
appeared, carrying Synch. She laid him down in the grass. "He`s gone. But I
couldn`t find the others.You`re not going to believe who attacked. Marrow,
Arcangel, Johnny Storm and Tempest. I don`t know why they would do this.
Especially since they all died," she told him.
* * *
En Sabah Nur watched as the four horsemen appeared before him."They knew
somehow. One of them attacked us. But we did kill one of them," the one that
was on fire said. "Go back and attack again. This time finish what you start.
And don`t let them surprise you again," he told them.
* * *
Rogue lay on her side in the grass. Her leg was broken. Third degree
burns were on her hands. The blonde girl that had pulled them out came up
next to her and put Rogue`s arm around her shoulder. "Try to stand and then
lean on me. We can`t stay here. I have a nagging feeling that they`re coming
back," she said. Rogue forced herself to stand.
Logan scanned the darkness behind the school. He smelled something that
was obviously trying to hide in the woods. His eyes narrowed. He heard
something that sounded like a person breathing through a respirator.
* * *
Jordan raised her hands to the sky. Wind began to swirl around her and
lightning sparked from her hands. The wind got hot and the lightning grew in
intensity. She suddenly became aware of someone running around her extremely
fast. The burning wind disapated. Jordan`s eyes flashed with anger. Lightning
started striking the ground. Whoever was running started laughing at her
which only made her even more pissed off. Warren showed up just then and
grabbed the little speed demon. It was a young girl with dark skin and spiky
hair. He flew her up into the air and then he started flying back to the
ground gaining momentum by the second. He slamed her into a car so hard it
left a dent in the hood.
Monet retaliated immediatly. She was somehow unharmed by what had just
happened. She tapped into the telepathic powers the Professor told her she
had and took mental control over Warren and made him turn on Jordan. She
looked back at the others who all seemed to be hurt. She didn`t have a
scratch on her. Jordan was unconcious at this point. Monet released Warren,
thinking she could take him easily. But he didn`t attack. "What`s going on,"
he mumbled. "You and you`re friends attacked us, that`s what," she hissed.
"No, I...," he stopped when he saw what was going on. "What you do to me," he
asked her. "Nothing, you attacked me," she said. "No, to make me stop," he
said. "Oh." Monet made a telepathic link with the Professor. He stopped
Marrow and Johnny Storm. Monet looked back where Jordan was but she was gone.
* * *
Sarah sat down beside Scott. "Whatever I did to you guys, I`m sorry," she
said. "One of us is dead and two are still missing," he told her. "Damn," she
mumbled. "It`s funny. I have this wierd memory. In fact it`s the only memory
I have of the last few weeks. You and I were together and alone. And there
were strawberries," she said. His eyes went wide. "I don`t even like
strawberries," she finished, shaking her head. She walked away, not noticing
the expression on his face.
"I have a question," Jean said to the Professor. "Yes?" "Bobby and Aurora
weren`t found anywhere in the Institute or anywhere around it, so where are
they," she asked.
* * *
The room was completly black except for a dim light. Bobby and Aurora lay
unconcious on the floor. They were laying on their stomachs and they`re
shirts had been shredded. On the top of both their shoulders was a perfect
circle of tiny puncture wounds.
The End.