May 1998 CELEBRATING 1 YEAR OF VISION COMICS

"The After Effects"

Plotter: Tom   Writter: Cloud   Editor: Tom      

EPILOGUE    

It was early morning, still an hour before the sun came up.  The mansion was still burning hours after the battle had ended.  A strange, eerie silence surrounded it.  But somewhere in the rumble, bricks fell inward and a hand appeared, clawing its way out.  It was followed by a tall body which rose from under the various pieces of wall and roof to stand still above the rumble for a few seconds.  It examined its surroundings, then nodded and, after a few seconds, walked away into the night. ****

    The plane was flying over Westchester at an amazing speed.  People everywhere looked up to see it pass by, heading straight for the Xavier Institute.  Inside the plane were the exhausted members of Team Alpha, and the members of Gen. X who had been captured...  Cyclops, Beast, Wolverine, Angel, Psylocke, Banshee, Chamber, Skin, White Queen, Husk and Synch.  Cyclops was flying the plane.  Banshee stood behind him, keeping a close eye on his students.  The White Queen was sitting just beside him.  Angel and Psylocke were sitting in front of each other, making obvious effort not to look at each other, while Beast tended to Wolverine's injuries a few meters away.  Chamber, Skin, Husk and Synch all waited patiently for the landing.  They were all tired from the fighting, but since none of them knew just what awaited them at the mansion, they were prepared to do some more fighting if need be.  They mostly were silent on the way home, and so everyone was started when Cyclops warned them.

"We're almost there, people!  Get ready!"

Everyone braced themselves.  Banshee turned around to look at what was coming.  Angel and Beast joined them at the front of the plane, and they all looked out.  The mansion was coming into view...  Or rather it didn't.

"The mansion...", Cyclops began.

"It's gone... again...", Angel said.

"Is there anyone still alive?", Banshee asked.

The three of them tried to look for some sign of life.  There were none.

"Let's land.  Everyone, get ready!", Cyclops shouted at the others behind him.

The plane landed on the mansion grounds.  For a few seconds everyone waited.

"All right,", Cyclops said, giving orders,"let's go!  Stay in a group.  Our main objective is to get to the underground  complex, then and get Logan to the medical lab."

Everyone got out of the plane and, staying close to each other, moved towards the door to the underground.  Rumbles of the mansion laid everywhere.

"So much for the so-called "security" of this place...", the White Queen said, ironically.

"We still got rid of 'em, chere!", Gambit said, coming from the underground door.

Jean followed him out, looking somber.  Scott ran to her side.

"Are you okay?  What happened?"

"The professor is...", Jean started to say. ****

Elizabeth came out, followed by Sam and Jubilee. All of them looked positively tired and worried about something... or someone. Jubilee ran to Everett, Jono, Paige, Sean and Emma, who were waiting together beside the plane.

"Hey, guys!  You're all right!", Jubilee said as she hugged Everett.

Elizabeth followed her, and what followed was a massive hug session.  This was one of the worst things Gen.X has had to go through since their formation.  They had been separated, and everyone had worried for each other.  So everyone being all right was one big relief.  After a few minutes of this though, Jubilee started to look around, suddenly worried about something.

"Hey, umm... Where's Wolvie?"

Silence fell upon the group, as, almost on cue, Hank came down from the plane, holding in his arms a semi-conscious Logan.  Jubilee let go of the others and ran to his side, terrified at seeing him like this.

"NO!  What happened to him?  Beast, what...?"

"I have to get him to the Medical Lab as fast as I can, Jubilee.", he said as he leapt over the young girl to head for the entrance.

He stopped beside Scott and Jean, and the three of them returned downstairs in quite an hurry.

"What in the world is going on?", she asked as she turned to face her teamates, who all looked downward. ****

    The medical lab was darkened.  Cyclops was kneeling beside a medical bed on which laid a man whose dream had shaped his life.  And had changed Cyclops's life forever.  The man's name was Charles Francis Xavier.  The door to the medical laboratory opened, and Jean Grey, a.k.a Phoenix, entered.

"Scott?"

"How is Logan, Jean?", he asked her.

"Hank says he'll be fine.  His healing factor has been overloaded, but once it returns to normal, he'll be fine.  But he has been confined to the infirmary for a while...  How are YOU, Scott?"

"I don't know, Jean.  The Professor is...  in a comma, we've lost all of the mansion, and we don't even know what to do now.  I find myself wondering if the dream is...  still alive..."

Jean approached her husband and bent down to hug him.  The two stayed silent in each other's arms for a few minutes.

"You know that as long as there are dreamers, the dreams live...", Jean said.

Scott stayed silent. ****

    Emma Frost, also known as the White Queen, sat somewhere underneath the remains of the mansion, alone.  Her gaze layed unmoving on the wall before her, but her mind was far away.

She had failed them.  When they had needed her the most, she had failed them.  Just like she had failed the Hellions, she had failed the next generation of X-men.  She had been there, but still hadn't been able to save them from Bastion's sentinels.  They had come, had captured them, and there was nothing she could do.  She was useless.  She sighed and rose from her meditating spot.

^Now I have to make sure it doesn't happen again...  But I somehow doubt I can...^ ****

    Somewhere else, at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, in Massachussets.

"Are you sure you are ready, Mondo?", said the man in the forest.

Mondo nodded.

"Good then, return to your peers.  I shall warn you when I'm ready."

Again Mondo nodded and headed back to the school. ****

    The Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, in Westchester County.  Elizabeth walked among the remains of the once so grandiose mansion.  She had seen it only once in its normal state, on their supper on Christmas Eve.  Now nothing remained.  It felt pretty much like her "normal" life lately.  Nothing remained.  She sighed as she nearly fell trying to get over a piece of debris.

" 'tis not as bad as it seems, chere.", said a voice behind her.

She turned to face Gambit.  He was sitting on a destroyed piece of wall.  He seemed pretty calm, in contrast to her.  She felt like a nervous wreck.  She had just been through the scariest thing ever to happen to her since her mutant powers first showed up, and she could have very well been the one to have fallen in a comma instead of the Professor.

"How so, mister Cajun?", she asked.

Gambit smiled at her with his usual puzzling and disconcerting smile.

"We could be dead, chere.", he said.

Elizabeth shivered at the thought.

"I guess you're right."

"Of course he's right!", a new voice said, coming from behind her.

Sean was coming out of the underground complex, alone.  Probably out for a walk too, like her and Gambit were doing.

"'tis pure luck that we be all alive, lass.  We could very well all have died during this mess..."

"That's not very encouraging...", Elizabeth began.

"No, chere, it's not, but it's life.  And that's how it is.  We all hav t' die one day, no matter what we do.  So you have to learn to live the present, and prepare for the future..."

Gambit's face obviously clouded.

"...and let go of the past.", he said as he suddenly walked away.

Elizabeth looked at Sean, who raised his shoulders in ignorance. ****

    Jono and Angelo were waiting in the hall leading to Hank McCoy's lab.  During their trip here from the OZT base, Jono had mentioned the after effects that Onslaught had caused on him, and tests were apparently in order.  He felt fine now, and didn't really see the point, but the good blue furry doctor had insisted.

*Hey, mate, something troubling you?*, Jono finally asked.

Angelo seemed pretty depressed, and has seemed so for the last month or so.  Angelo turned to face his friend.

"Not really, amigo.  It's just that I realized there's something going on back home which I really should get around to dealing with.", Angelo said, returning his stare to the window.

*Anything ye might want to talk about?*

Angelo looked back at Jono, as if he was examining him for the first time, then again he returned his gaze outside.

"No... Not really."

Jono sighed.  Every member of this team seemed to have some past they weren't proud of, some secrets they didn't want the others to know...  Even him...  The door to the lab opened, and Beast's head came out.

"Jono, I'm ready for you now.", he said.

Jono sighed again and rose, ready to face whatever tests the doctor had prepared for him.  Angelo raised too, following Jono inside.  Whatever their past had been, they were a team now, and they stood by each other.  This was a pleasant reminder that he now had someone to rely on.  Now if only Angelo could see that.  They entered the laboratory.  Hank indicated a small platform where he asked Jono to stand on.

"This shouldn't hurt.", he said, matter of factly.

Jono nodded.  Not that he was afraid it was going to hurt, but there...

He suddenly screamed as his powers suddenly flared from out of his hole in his chest, and he fell to the floor, his legs giving up to the pain.  He felt as though he was going to explode.

"MADRE DIOS!  Jonothon!  Dr. McCoy, do something!", Angelo screamed at Hank as he kneeled beside his friend, who was agonizing in pain.

Hank moved fast.  He stopped everything and immediately went to Jono's side.

"What's happening to him, McCoy? What have you done?", Angelo said, clearly upset about the whole thing.

"I advise you to calm down, Mr. Espinosa.  Screaming at me is unecessary.  I don't understand what happened.  I had barely activated the machine for a second.  I believe something very bad is happening to Mr. Starmore here, and I would advise you go get Banshee NOW!"

Hank looked in a very bad mood, so Angelo got up and ran, in search of Sean.  He wasn't going to like this. Not going to like this at all. ****     In another part of the medlab.

Jubilee stared at the unconscious form of a broken man, laying there on a medical bed, unmoving, silent, badly hurt and bandaged from head to toe.  This wasn't fair.  He was supposed to be the best there is at what he does.  It wasn't fair to him, to her, and to the X-men either.  This just didn't happen to him.

"Oh, Wolvie!  I should have stayed with the X-men!  I could've done something!  I could have protected you!  I could've found some way of preventing this!  I should never have listened to the Prof.  when he asked me to leave!  I could have helped!"

"Somehow I doubt that.", came a voice behind her.

She turned around to face the person who had spoken.

"I don't need lectures from you, Worthington.", Jubilee icily replied.

Warren Worthington III didn't reply.  He started approaching Jubilee.

"Shouldn't you be with your team?", he asked, casually.

"I told them to leave me alone.", she said, looking away from Warren to return her gaze on Logan.

Silence fell upon the room for a few minutes, until Warren spoke again.

"It's hard, isn't it?"

Jubilee stayed still.

"What is?", she asked.

"Seeing him like this.  I've never really liked the man, but I always figured we would never end up seeing him like this.  It was a failsafe, in a way.  If Wolverine was still up, we had a chance.  He is, after all..."

The two finished the sentence together.

"...the best there is at what he does."

Jubilee turned to face Warren.  He could see her eyes were wet with tears, but she was holding them back.  Warren sighed and sat down on a nearby bench.  Jubilee sat down beside him.  Warren looked at her.

"Jubilee, do you remember what you told me the day you left this place?"

Jubilee nodded, not saying anything.

"You told me it was okay to show I cared for others.  And if it's okay for me, it's okay for you."

Jubilee looked at him, and finally she let her tears roll.  Warren hugged her.  This was the best he could do right now.  It wouldn't help her in her decision to stay or not, but it was still better than total isolation.

^I hope this goes for the best...^ ****     "So, uhm, how are ya holding up?", Samuel asked his younger sister, as they sat in the X-men's ready room, having no where else to go.

Paige looked up at him from a little notebook she had been writing in, and put her pencil down.

"Well, the least I can say is that being an X-men must really be hard if it's anything worse then being in the Gen. X class."

"That bad, huh?"

Paige nodded.

"We've barely made ONE complete week of class without being interrupted by all kinds of dweebs with sinister plots to destroy mankind or crush all mutants to bits."

Sam smiled at his sister.

"You're lucky, we here barely go a day."

Paige smiled, and rose to hug her brother.

"Did I ever tell you how proud I am you made it to the X-men?", she told him.

"Naah, you never did.", Sam said.

"Well, I am now."

"Thank you.", he said, "I want you to be careful, Paige.  If anything was to ever happen to you..."

"Same to you, Sam, same to you..."

The two hugged each other, both feeling this moment would probably made both of their parents proud. ****     Night was slowly falling when Banshee and the kids went to the plane that would bring them home.  Goodbyes were kept short, and soon everyone was aboard, save for Jubilee and Emma.

"Jono, you sure you're all right, amigo?", Angelo asked to his friend who was resting on the bed which, only 10 hours earlier, had held a wounded Logan.

"Yah, I am.  Don't worry.  Whatever it was, Dr. McCoy said it was only temporary."

Angelo nodded.

"You think Jubilee will come?", Jono asked.

"Of course!", Everett said, walking in, sounding a bit more concerned than he should, "She's one of us!"

Angelo and Jono looked at each other, a frown crossing between their eyes, the two knowing fully well that it was highly improbable. ****     "Jubilee, we're leaving now.", Emma announced to the teenage girl, who was sitting on a bench near Wolverine's bed.

"I can't leave him.", she said.

"Yes you can.", said a weak voice from behind her.

Jubilee turned around.  Logan looked at her, eyes looking very severe.

"Wolvie, you're...", she began.

"Listen to me, Jubilee.  You know as well as I do I can take care of myself, and you also know your place is among these other kids."

Jubilee, who was halfway to hugging him, stopped and stood straight.

"But..."

Tears were forming in her eyes again.  Emma was looking at the scene with a distant interest.  She had other things on her mind.

"No buts, Jubilee."

She nodded, and started walking away.

"Take care of yourself, kid."

Jubilee nodded, then, not able to resist, came back running and hugged Logan, who put his arm around her.

"You too, Wolvie.  I don't want to have to come here and see you in here again."

Logan smiled and nodded.

"Don't worry.  You won't."

Jubilee nodded, and slowly let go of him, heading for the door.

"Hey, visit sometime, okay?"

Logan again nodded.  Jubilee joined Emma, and the two of them headed out. ****     The plane flew away a few minutes after that, with all of Generation X on board.  Each of them now felt tired and emotionally and physically wasted after such an experience.  Now it was a time to rest, with the firm belief in each of their heart that tomorrow would be a better day. End

HAS IT BEEN 1 YEAR ? Yeah. A year ago first issue of X-Men Gold and Blue came out on X-Zone. Not many of you remember this I suppose but it's true. I would just like to thank everyone who helped me to go through with this, I won't mention your names you all know who you are. I couldn't have done it without you. Here's hoping for many more years to come.