THE LONE WOLF AND THE GODDESS - PART SEVEN
By Davide Briganti
DISCLAIMER: All the X-Men depicted in this story are copyright of the
Marvel guys, and are used without their permission. No profits are made by
posting this story, which is written only for entertainment purposes.
Sid "Renegade" Mayer is a copyright of me, so if you wanna use it, please ask
me first.
* * *
"Uh-oh. Bad news, bunch....seems the grizzly's in the cave, and fully awake!",
Sid shouted while avoiding a brightly-coloured plasma blast fired by the
Sentinel that inhabited the now open hangar.
"Cut the humor and go fer it, loser!", Wolverine replied as he rushed forward,
followed by Bishop: the robot couldn't withstand the combined force of their
savage blows and fell to the ground, silenced.
"Let's go, ladies and gents!", Cyclops yelled while running towards an open
steel door, "we've still got to face the man behind all this!"
The small invading group frantically ran down a seeming endless labyrinth of
corridors and small rooms, fighting their way through wave after wave of both
human and mechanical guards. And then, an imposing figure made its appearance
at the farthest end of the great room in which Sid and the X-Men entered just
a moment before. Jean's eyes widened in surprise while Wolverine's narrowed as
he uttered a deep, rageful growl.
"Bolivar Trask! I...I can't believe it!", Cyclops finally said after a long
period of silence.
"Yes", the cyborg replied while showing his metal clenched fist, "Bolivar
Trask....the man whose broken body you left in the ruins of that complex, not
even caring if he was dead or alive! But alive I am....and ready to make you
all pay!"
"Stop yer whining, lad!", Wolverine interrupted, "It's all yer fault if ya're
trapped in that cyborg frame. You builded that Mastermold guy, not us!"
"Silence! How can creatures such as you comprehend the greatness of my sche-
mes? I know the truth.....perfectly! You preferred to left me buried under
that mountain, to assure that no one would contest your supremacy over the
humans! But you will not succeed! I've been working for all this time, secre-
tly reactivating the Sentinels project with the F.O.H. fundings, building bet-
ter servants.....all for just one purpose: to put you through all the pain
that I suffered after that day!!"
"Is he a total nuts, or I've lived alone for too much time to comprehend the
subtleties of today's interpersonal relations?", Sid murmured at Jean's ear.
"It seems that being confined in a machine for this long had a deleterious ef-
fect on his mind!", was the telepath's response.
"Well, in that case....". Sid made three steps forward, arms crossed and a mo-
cking smile on his lips. "Now, clean the filth from you ears, pig, because I
will say it only once: if you surrender now, there's a little chance that I'll
leave you unharmed. Of course, you always have the choice to resolve it the
hard way, but my friends and I are tired of smashing your useless thugs, and
I personally am not inclined to go gentle with the likes of you. What d'you
say?"
With a savage scream, the cyborg quickly drawed his gun and yelled: "Defence,
maximum priority! Tasers! Lethal weapons!". In the blink of an eye, the room
turned in a raging inferno of bullets and lasers flying in all directions.
"By Magnus, we must stop this madness!", Bishop screamed as a laser burned his
flesh, leaving a red scar on his forearm. Quickly aiming both his plasma rifle
and his fist at the man on the other side of the room, he unleashed a tremen-
dous amount of energy. Due to the confusion, most blast were wildly off target,
but one luckily caught Trask in his cybernetic shoulder: the force of the im-
pact hurled him on the floor, and a puff of yellow-gray smoke darted out from
the broken limb.
The defensive system ceased its mad attacks as suddenly as it begun: Scott
turned to face Bishop and smiled. "Congratulations! You did the right thing-
He HAD the weapons control in his own body!"
Bishop smiled in return, and shrugged: "It seemed the most logical place, to
me."
Both Wolverine and Sid ran down the hall, towards their enemy: "It's payback
time, creep!", the young martial artist roared as energy crackled around his
forearms.
Bolivar Trask jumped up, an insane spark in his eyes. "No! No! You'll never,
NEVER defeat me again! We'll have some more fun in later time, I promise!".
And with that, he darted right through a steel wall, firing in all directions
to protect his escape.
Both the Canadian mutant and the Californian wanderer dived for cover as pla-
sma globes begun to flicker towards them: when they raised their heads again,
the cyborg was gone.
"Hey! Where did that filthbag go?", Sid yelled.
"Actually, it seems he phased through that wall right in front of you", Bishop
replied calmly.
Suddenly, all the light on the room turned a dark red, and a female voice
echoed through the air: "Warning: self-destruction sequence initiated. 5 minu-
tes to detonation from now. All personnel must immediately reach the emergen-
cy exits and get to the secure area."
"We must leave this place at once!", Cyclops yelled as he motioned the rest of
the team through the door from which they came.
"The classic villain-du-jour last resort.....boo-riing!!", Sid replied, faking
a six-year-old child's voice, and ran forward to act as a scout.
It took a short time for them to reach safety within the Blackbird: as the jet
again soared the skies, a huge orange-red fireball blasted away the whole vil-
lage, leaving nothing but ashes inside its radius.
Sid looked at the scene with an unusually serious-minded expression, and si-
ghed. "I think we'll hear from him again.", he finally said.
Logan approached him. "True enemies never die....and you'd better learn this
lesson fast, Ren'. Trask wasn't the type who lets grass grow under his feet
when we first met him, and he's become a lot more nasty."
"One more enemy means nothing to me. I had a lot of enemies. I'll have a lot
more. Doesn't matter at all."
Cyclops turned to Bishop, and smiled. "Mission fully accomplished. Let's go
home."
EPILOGUE
Charles Xavier, the most powerful telepath on the face of the planet, careful-
ly studied the young man in front of him. Scanning his mind and his memories,
he found a lot of astonishing and interesting things......some of them causing
his spine to shiver with cold. How could a single man withstand such inner fu-
ry without becoming a brainless killing beast? Sure, he had plenty of disci-
pline in his life and an iron will, but still he lacked in control, and the
tale of the battle against the F.O.H. thugs told him by Storm fully confirmed
his theory.
"We are in your debt", he finally said, "for without your help, one of my stu-
dents would have surely died."
Sid shrugged. "You owe me nothing, sir. I had my motivations, and besides any-
one not having a heart of pure stone would act like I did."
"Still, I feel compelled to repay you for all the help you gave us. Scott told
me that your house was destroyed. Am I right?"
Sid's head lowered, as visions of all he had in this reality being consumed in
flames returned to haunt his thoughts. "Yes. Sad, but no one can change the
past: I'll simply move to another city. Hey, it's life, and I'm used to wander
from one place to another. What else can I do?"
"But, if you leave, I'm sure that Ororo will be far more than disappointed. By
reading your mind, it seemed quite clear to me that there is something between
you two. I don't think she deserves the pain of being abandoned."
"Mind your own business, man! My feelings for her are MY concern, not YOURS!",
Sid almost yelled as his eyes blazed with renewed rage.
"Of course, that's none of my business.", Xavier replied calmly, "I'm only of-
fering to rebuild your house in any place you see fit, and to live here in the
mansion until it is ready."
The young man's eyes widened in stupor. "Really?", he asked with trembling
voice.
The man in the wheelchair nodded seriously. "Of course. And while you're here,
you'll be welcome to use all our facilities to learn to further control your
powers. What do you say?"
Sid took a deep breath, looking the Professor in the eyes. A thousand ques-
tions were bouncing at the edge of his mind, and after a few seconds of silen-
ce, he decided to ask the most important: "Thank you. I accept, but tell me:
why do you do this for me? I mean, allowing me to use your stuff, giving me
a place to live and all that sort of things...I'm not a mutant!"
Xavier smiled. "Well, it's true that the X-Men were born to give mutants a
place to live and learn to use their powers for good. But, as I told you befo-
re, we are in your debt. You risked your life to save Ororo, and lost nearly
everything you had; you fought beside Scott, Jean, Bishop and Logan a battle
that wasn't yours, save for vengeance. Even if you're not a mutant, I'll sure-
ly be glad to have you fight by our side, and call us friends."
Sid smiled and extended his hand. "Thanks again, Professor. I won't forget
your kindness."
The professor gave him a firm handshake, returning the smile. "Go, now. Gambit
will show you your room, and all the school."
A rather tall, slim man with red-brown hair and red eyes stepped into the li-
ving room, pulling out a gloved hand from his trenchcoat. "Welcome in de happy
mutant family, mon ami. Come, let me show you de place.", he said.
"Thanks. How's 'Ro?"
"Stormy's fine. Hank thinks she'll be up and around 'n no more than three wee-
ks. You'll be seein' her after we complete our little tour."
Sid looked out of the window, and a wry smile appeared on his mouth: it was a
beautiful, sunny day, and the countryside was full of life. A strange, alien
feeling of calmness and joy filled his soul, together with the complete aware-
ness that all was ending as it should be: happily.
It was time to fight again.
** THE END **
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