X-Men: Night of the Living Brain Dead
Ben Church
All Characters are the property of Marvel Comics. Except Hotshot,
he's mine.
Chapter 1
The subways filled quickly as more and more people headed to
work. Alex and Guido were slowly becoming aware of the stares they
were getting.
"This's starting to get ugly boss." Guido warned.
"You don't think they're going to turn violent do you?" Alex
asked.
"No but when your as big as I am, you need all the room you
can get."
High above, the local traffic copter hovered over the city.
Inside, Trish Tilby was in a bad mood.
"I can't believe I've been reduced to this." she complained.
"It's just a slow news day Trish." answered the pilot. "Don t
take it personally."
Then Trish saw something that cheered her up very quickly.
"It won t be for long." she said, brightening. "Check that out!"
The pilot and the cameraman looked where she was pointing. Up
ahead stood the Washington Monument, but what had caught the famous
reporter's eye was what was on top of it. It was a man, dressed all in
purple, and his face was hidden by a visored mask. He was standing
perfectly still on the point of the monument. Suddenly he leaned
forward sharply.
"He's gonna jump!" Trish yelled in shock. "Quick, turn on the
camera!" As the camera man complied she prepared to address the
public.
"This is Trish Tilby reporting live from above the city,
bringing you this exclusive report. Are you getting this Tommy?"
Tommy turned the camera to tape the scene unfolding.
The mysterious man flew from the top of the monument and dived
into the ground. In a huge explosion of dirt, and cement a subway
train emerged from the ground, carried by the mystery man. Trish
stared in horror as the man flew swiftly away with his unusual cargo.
She gripped her microphone tightly, unable to believe what had just
happened.
Trish yelled at the pilot to follow him, but he easily out
distanced them.
Alex grabbed a seat as the train seemed to tip over.
"Guido! What the hell's happening?"
"Dunno boss, I'll take a look see."
Somehow managing to get through the crowd of panicking
passengers, Guido looked out the window.
"What do you see?" Alex shouted over the screaming passengers.
"Some guy with really weird pajamas is stealing the Train!
You want I should get us out of here?"
Finally managing to get to a window, Alex joined his friend
and teammate. "No. We're too high up, we'd never make it."
"So what should we do? Ask him to drop us off at
headquarters?"
"For now we wait Guido. And try to calm these people down."
Val Cooper looked numbly at the television screen, as the
broadcast ended, then turned off the TV For a moment she sat with her
head in her hands. This was the third such event in a month. The
first had been a plane, the second a bus. And now, a train. Until
now, X-Factor had been to busy with other assignments, but now the time
had come to stop this.
"We've got to do something about this." she said to herself.
She thought for a minute, then picked up the phone.
Lorna was just getting out of the shower when the phone rang.
"Hello?....Val hi....no Alex left early today with Guido. Why
don't you try calling headquarters?....He's not there yet?....Oh my god
another one?!....Yes I'll go right now.... okay bye."
Lorna hung up the phone slowly, numbly. Alex had said that he
was going to take the subway to headquarters. But he hadn't arrived
yet, and a subway train had been stolen. What if Alex had been on
board that train?
"No." she thought, shaking her head. "I can't allow myself to
think about that. I've got to get hold of the rest of X-Factor. And I
can best do that as Polaris."
In minutes she had put on her uniform. Leaving a message for
Rahne, she went off to find Jamie, Forge and Random.
Jubilee woke in a strange room. After a moment of panic, she
remembered where she was. As she sat up in bed she surveyed the room
she shared with Illyanna and Xi'an.
They were visiting Rahne Sinclair, an old friend of Illyanna
and Xi'an's. Even though they'd only met a few times, Jubilee and Rahne
were good friends as well. Jubilee got up from the bed and glanced at
the clock. It was nine a.m. and she was ready to start the day. She
had an unusual amount of energy for so early in the morning. Usually
she was dead until eleven. Being careful not to wake her friends,
Jubilee got dressed and went off to the kitchen to get breakfast.
Instead she found a worried Rahne at the table.
"Hey, what's up?" she asked.
"Trouble." Rahne answered.
"I appreciate your offer girls, but no." Polaris said.
Jubilee stared in surprised indignation at the faces in the
main room of X-Factor's base.
"Why not?" she asked challengingly.
"Because," answered Polaris, "Even though you're all
experienced, if any thing happened to you I'd have to explain it to the
rest of the X-Men and that's not something I'd relish."
"Look," said Jubilee, "There's a not a single one of the X-Men
who would blame you for anything stupid that we might do." she stopped
for a moment, thinking about what she'd just said. "That didn't come
out right.
"Any way, there's not a single argument that you can think of
that I don't have an answer for, and frankly I don't think you can
afford to say no.
"You've already lost two of your more experienced members to
whatever is going on. I think that we can more than make up for that
loss."
"I can assure you that we've thought this out Ms. Dane." said
Xi'an.
"Not to mention the fact that there's no use trying to argue
with Jubilee." added Illyanna.
"All right then." Forge cut in, mostly to shut them up.
"Jubilee, Karma, Majik, you're in."
"Forge..." started Polaris.
"I'm in charge of this team Polaris, and we need all the help
we can get. Besides, we don t have time to argue." His tone said that
the discussion was closed. Without giving Polaris a chance to open it
again, he started the briefing.
"We've obtained an approximate trajectory of the subway train.
A man flying through the air carrying a train attracts a lot of
attention. The trail ends here." he pointed to a spot on the map,
somewhat north of Rhode Island.
"I've tapped into the satellite systems and have located the
missing plane and bus." He pointed to two more points on the map.
"Karma, Jubilee, Multiple Man, Random, and Polaris will
investigate the plane and the metro, which are close together. The
rest of us will check the bus. I've contacted Quicksilver to help us."
No sooner had he spoken, when there was a great rush of air,
and there among them stood Quicksilver.
"What took you so long?" asked Multiple Man.
"I had to visit my father," he said, not getting the joke. "He
hasn't been feeling well lately."
In the X-Men's latest encounter with Magneto and his
followers, he almost fatally injured Wolverine. Professor Xavier had
already determined that this should be the last time they faced
Magneto. The attack on Wolverine reinforced his determination and he
wiped Magneto's mind clean. He had since attempted to restore his old
friend s mind, but there were still many problems.
"The strain of reintegrating his mind is beginning to tell on
him huh?"
"Yes, and thank you for your concern."
"Much as I hate to break up this soap opera scene," said
Random. "But can we get going?"
Jubilee had never had much time to appreciate nature in her life,
so she really didn't understand Paige's obsession. But now, in the
mountains, she could see where people might be impressed.
"Not bad," she said. "Maybe when this is over I should actually go
with Paige on one of her hikes."
"Yeah it's beautiful." Random said without much enthusiasm. "Now
where is this stinkin' plane?"
At that moment, they broke through the treeline where the plane had
been abandoned.
"Well," Multiple Man quipped. "Guess we found the plane." The
abandoned 747 rose up before them, looking no worse for wear.
"Okay so now what?" Karma asked. "Doesn't look like there's anybody
home."
"Well we might as well check inside." Random said. Suddenly, a
faint rustling was heard in the bushes. "Wait do you hear something?"
Karma stepped on a twig, snapping it, startling Jubilee.
"Nice try Random. But I'm a bit too old for that routine."
said Jubilee.
"No wait, I hear it too. Do you Polaris?" asked Multiple Man.
"Yes," the rustling became louder. "Karma, do you sense
anybody?"
"No." Karma said.
The look of derision on Jubilee's face was gone, now replaced
by one of sheer terror. "N-normally that w-would make me feel better,
b-but it doesn't seem to help now, look."
They looked in the direction that Jubilee was pointing. The
entire clearing was surrounded by what looked like skeletons with skin.
As they closed in, Jubilee thought "There's no way this is happening."
Then the things attacked.
"I can't raise them." said Forge.
"What could have happened?" Majik asked.
"Their radio could be down, or they ran into trouble."
"Perhaps I should investigate." Quicksilver suggested.
"No," Forge said, "They can take care of themselves. We have
to continue our mission."
A rustle in the bushes, heralded Wolfsbane's return from her
scouting mission. Changing back into her human form she said "I've
found the bus but there's no sign of the passengers. There was no
scent at all."
"That's exactly what we found at the train." Forge said.
"Now what do we do?" asked Wolfsbane.
"Let's take a look at that bus. Maybe there's something my
scanner can pick up." They walked a mile and came to the site where
the bus had been abandoned. It lay on it's side in a clearing.
Wolfsbane entered it in her wolf form. Forge followed with a scanning
device. Majik entered the clearing cautiously and drew the Soul Sword.
"Rahne, I'm picking up a faint electronic signal. Do you
smell anything at all?" Wolfsbane shook her head. "It's coming from
over here." Forge moved to the driver's seat. "I found it. It's some
sort of bomb but it's not an explosive." Then his scanner picked up
something else. "It's still armed!" Before he could warn anyone, the
entire clearing was flooded with a burst of knockout gas. Everyone in
the clearing was unconscious within three seconds. Quicksilver ran
from the clearing, but it was too late. He staggered two feet before
the gas finally took hold.
To be continued...
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