Post by Dan Ballard on Aug 8, 2006 12:37:56 GMT -5
What should have been a quiet evening for Mr. Thaddeus Douglas turned into something completely different. After coming to the Vibe, a bar just outside of South Carolina, all he wanted to do was drink the day away. That was all before he met her. As he sat at the front of the bar, he glanced over by the door and there she was: a beautiful girl with long blonde hair, piercing blue eyes, and a figure that called for attention. She wore a dark red dress that had a slit at the hip. What he was most enticed to was her lips. They were shaded with a red lipstick, darker then her dress. The woman was radiant, and he couldn’t help but be attracted to her. As he went over and introduced himself, it seemed like magic between them.
The two talked for hours and hours. Every little joke he said, she laughed and every word he spoke she listened. She was the woman of his dreams. Then it was time for her to leave.
He pleaded with her to stay for a couple more hours, but she said she lived far away. He offered her to stay at his place, which she accepted.
Back at Thaddeus’ house the two were caught up in passion. Not only was she gorgeous, but she was fiery. He loved everything about her at that moment, and he felt like he would never change his mind.
“Thaddy,” she began.
“Yes?”
“Can you tell me something?”
“What is it?” she got close to his ear. Her breath felt heavenly on his neck and he wished she stayed there forever.
“Tell me,” she started, “Where are the children?” the question took him aback.
“Excuse me?” suddenly his evening went sour. She pushed him onto the bed and took out a pair of handcuffs.
“I don’t like where this is going.”
”Too bad.” She said with a smile on her face. She grabbed his one hand and cuffed it to one of the end posts, then the same to the other. He had tried getting away but she was very powerful.
“Where are the kids?” she asked again.
“I’m telling you, I have no kids!” her fist went across his mouth. He spit out his blood as she wiped it off her hand.
“I’m talking about the kids you sold at that ‘business meeting’ one week back.” His eyes grew wide at the thought of it. How could she have known about this?
“I-I,” she hit him again.
“You will tell me, or I’ll pry it from you myself!” the man shuttered at the thought of how she would get the information.
“Don Paletoes wanted them for some kind of soldier ring he’s cookin’ up in his basement. He’s tested them to see if some chemical will kill humans.”
“Thank you. Now, you’re of no use to me.” His eyes grew wide as she hit him one last time, this one knocking him out. She walked over to the window of his room and stared out of it, watching the farmlands sit in the dark. She went through her purse and pulled out an earpiece and placed it on her ear. She tuned it to the correct frequency and began to speak.
“Rachel,” she said, her voice changing to a southern accent, “I got the info recorded. Next time we got a mission like this, ya’ll be the one to trick the creeps.”
{{Please,}} said the voice in the earpiece, {{I doubt it was that bad.}}
“Easy for you to say,” she began, “You didn’t haveta kiss ‘im”
{{All right, I just telepathically sent Dom your coordinates. I’ll have him pick you up when he’s done in Prague. Do you have anything else to do while you wait?}}
“Well,” she said, glancing at some jewels he had on his dresser.
{{No stealing}}
“Oh, fine. Outlaw out.”
Xavier Academy
“Welcome back,” greeted a voice, as the ladder from an X-Jet was being released. Out of it came the X-Men, Outlaw and Avalanche. Different times call for different X-Men apparently.
“Anything happen while we were away,” questioned the southern Inez Temple, known as the X-Man and mercenary Outlaw.
“Well, Shola’s on his way back and Kurt has just been practicing combat lessons with Diamond and the kids, so no.”
Rachel Grey stood at the control panels of the X-Jet hangers. Rapidly she typed in the necessary codes that took the X-Jet away to it’s proper place, so the X-Men didn’t have to bother with it. Just one of the few things that were upgraded for the team of mutants.
Avalanche, called mostly by his real name of Dominic Petros, lifted his hands to his head and lifted the helmet that rested there off.
“Phew,” he began, “I swear when I sweat under this new helmet, I get a rash or something on my neck!”
“Thank you, Dom. I’m sure we all would love to hear about your rashes,” said Rachel. While the others laughed at the joke (presuming it was a joke), Rachel kept her normal, stoic face the entire time. This had certainly been a long year.
As the three X-Men walked out of the hanger, they bypassed five students rushing over for their first ‘fieldtrip’ in an X-Jet with Pete Wisdom. Rachel nodded at him, which he returned to her. Dom got uncomfortable by the awkward silence and decided he was going to stop it.
“So…uh…anyone here from the others?” Rachel stopped walking and turned to face her teammate.
“Why would we do that?” her face at that moment scared Dominic, of course he would never tell her that.
“I don’t know. Maybe we made amends?”
“I would never make amends with…her!” Rachel marched off in anger, leaving her team members where they had been standing. Not wanting to be left, they followed her, as Dominic added more to their conversation.
“C’mon, Rachel. A tiny misunderstanding is hardly something to annex people we worked with from our lives!”
“In case you forgot, that traitor I once called a co-leader killed a man!”
“Yeah, a man who tortured her. That’s hardly fair to judge the whole lot of them for.”
“This discussion is over,” Rachel said, continuing her walk. For the rest of the journey, everyone remained silent. When Rachel got into one of these moods, you did not want to mess with her. Finally, the three X-Men had reached their destination, a place where they spent a lot of time at: the Danger Room. Punching in the correct code, Rachel had opened the door the second she pressed ‘Enter’ on the control panel. After the three had entered, the door closed suddenly so as not to allow intruders of any kind in. Rachel walked over to the main controls and looked down to see the sight below.
Nightcrawler, the X-Men’s resident teleporter, had just parlayed a move that destroyed three robotic simulates with his twin swords. Behind him, former Alpha Flight and current X-Men member, Diamond Lil, or simply Diamond now, had just bulldozed through a group of them. Watching their every move was a class of young adults. Sofia Mantega, the leader of the group, stood by her team’s side as they all watched the two X-Men they were looked after demolish their enemies.
Sofia missed the good old days, when she was apart of the New Mutants squad. Everything seemed so simple then. Now, she led a group that really had no common ground to start relationships on. Bling was the closest one she had to a real friend on the squad, but even that was based on they didn’t erupted into a fight on the sight of one another. She especially missed her former mentor, Dani Moonstar. She was promoted to a X-Men team after the squads were broken down and lead by a full team of X-Men instead of one individual. In her honest opinion, Rachel Grey scared her now.
As Nightcrawler and Diamond finished off the last of the robots, they faced towards their students and began to tell them how teamwork was their greatest asset. Onyxx rolled his four, beady, red eyes at the X-Men, while Kid Rhino, a new student at the school stared towards the horn in the middle of his face. Bling and Wind Dancer (Sophia’s codename) listened carefully at their instructors. Match, he just sat there, playing with his fiery hands as Wolfclub watched. Rachel pressed the button for the Danger Room intercom down and began to speak.
{{That’ll be all for today, Kurt and Lil. You kids are dismissed.}}
The kids loved the news and headed straight for the exit. Kurt grabbed a hold on Lil and the two were gone in a cloud of purple smoke, only to reappear suddenly in the Danger Rooms control center.
“Guten tag, mien freunds,” said the German Nightcrawler, “What is going on that our lesson was cut short?”
“Nothing,” Rachel began, “I just needed to talk with you privately.” As the other members of the team fellowshipped with one another, Rachel had walked up to Kurt and grasped his arm. In another cloud, they were on the balcony of their room.
The sun was now going down, as Rachel looked onward seeing the various colors of the sky. The mixed hues of red and blue and yellow reminded her of the promise that Kurt had made her.
“What is it that you wanted to speak of, darling,” questioned Kurt. Rachel linked arms with him and rested her head on his shoulders.
“I’ve been thinking of what you said more and more,” she said, her eyes twinkling at both the thought of it and the beautiful sky.
“What made you think of that?”
“It’s just…I want to get away from here, sometimes. It’s to…painful. When you said-” and she was cut off with the sound of her com-link. Kurt rolled his eyes as yet another moment with his girlfriend was ruined thanks to her incessant need to lead the team.
“Mhm. Yeah. Yeah.” She ended the conversation by hanging up. An aura of yellow surrounded her body as well as the Phoenix insignia around her eye. Kurt slowly looked up as she ascended.
“What is going on?”
”Nothing, sweetie. Duty calls.” As she flew off into the sky, Kurt watched her fly off into the horizon.
“Yes,” he began, “Duty calls…”
X-Jet Hanger
At the controls yet again, Rachel opened up the doors to allow one of the X-Men’s stealth jets to land safely in their garage. After a perfect landing, the exit ladder opened up, and inside it left Shola Inkosi, now the X-Man known as Psyche.
“Now,” Rachel began, “What’s this important thing that you had to show me?”
“Here,” Shola began, going into the bag that rested on his shoulders. Finally getting what he wanted, he took it out, revealing a skull.
“A skull.” She took it into her hands and cradled it. It felt warm and blood was still on it.
“It’s fresh,” she questioned, receiving a nod from Shola. “Read the back,” he said.
She flipped it over to see a message chiseled into the bone.
It read:
“WATCH YOURSELVES, X-MEN”
The two talked for hours and hours. Every little joke he said, she laughed and every word he spoke she listened. She was the woman of his dreams. Then it was time for her to leave.
He pleaded with her to stay for a couple more hours, but she said she lived far away. He offered her to stay at his place, which she accepted.
--
Back at Thaddeus’ house the two were caught up in passion. Not only was she gorgeous, but she was fiery. He loved everything about her at that moment, and he felt like he would never change his mind.
“Thaddy,” she began.
“Yes?”
“Can you tell me something?”
“What is it?” she got close to his ear. Her breath felt heavenly on his neck and he wished she stayed there forever.
“Tell me,” she started, “Where are the children?” the question took him aback.
“Excuse me?” suddenly his evening went sour. She pushed him onto the bed and took out a pair of handcuffs.
“I don’t like where this is going.”
”Too bad.” She said with a smile on her face. She grabbed his one hand and cuffed it to one of the end posts, then the same to the other. He had tried getting away but she was very powerful.
“Where are the kids?” she asked again.
“I’m telling you, I have no kids!” her fist went across his mouth. He spit out his blood as she wiped it off her hand.
“I’m talking about the kids you sold at that ‘business meeting’ one week back.” His eyes grew wide at the thought of it. How could she have known about this?
“I-I,” she hit him again.
“You will tell me, or I’ll pry it from you myself!” the man shuttered at the thought of how she would get the information.
“Don Paletoes wanted them for some kind of soldier ring he’s cookin’ up in his basement. He’s tested them to see if some chemical will kill humans.”
“Thank you. Now, you’re of no use to me.” His eyes grew wide as she hit him one last time, this one knocking him out. She walked over to the window of his room and stared out of it, watching the farmlands sit in the dark. She went through her purse and pulled out an earpiece and placed it on her ear. She tuned it to the correct frequency and began to speak.
“Rachel,” she said, her voice changing to a southern accent, “I got the info recorded. Next time we got a mission like this, ya’ll be the one to trick the creeps.”
{{Please,}} said the voice in the earpiece, {{I doubt it was that bad.}}
“Easy for you to say,” she began, “You didn’t haveta kiss ‘im”
{{All right, I just telepathically sent Dom your coordinates. I’ll have him pick you up when he’s done in Prague. Do you have anything else to do while you wait?}}
“Well,” she said, glancing at some jewels he had on his dresser.
{{No stealing}}
“Oh, fine. Outlaw out.”
--
UNCANNY X-MEN
“One Year’s Time”
By Dan Ballard
--
UNCANNY X-MEN
“One Year’s Time”
By Dan Ballard
--
Xavier Academy
“Welcome back,” greeted a voice, as the ladder from an X-Jet was being released. Out of it came the X-Men, Outlaw and Avalanche. Different times call for different X-Men apparently.
“Anything happen while we were away,” questioned the southern Inez Temple, known as the X-Man and mercenary Outlaw.
“Well, Shola’s on his way back and Kurt has just been practicing combat lessons with Diamond and the kids, so no.”
Rachel Grey stood at the control panels of the X-Jet hangers. Rapidly she typed in the necessary codes that took the X-Jet away to it’s proper place, so the X-Men didn’t have to bother with it. Just one of the few things that were upgraded for the team of mutants.
Avalanche, called mostly by his real name of Dominic Petros, lifted his hands to his head and lifted the helmet that rested there off.
“Phew,” he began, “I swear when I sweat under this new helmet, I get a rash or something on my neck!”
“Thank you, Dom. I’m sure we all would love to hear about your rashes,” said Rachel. While the others laughed at the joke (presuming it was a joke), Rachel kept her normal, stoic face the entire time. This had certainly been a long year.
As the three X-Men walked out of the hanger, they bypassed five students rushing over for their first ‘fieldtrip’ in an X-Jet with Pete Wisdom. Rachel nodded at him, which he returned to her. Dom got uncomfortable by the awkward silence and decided he was going to stop it.
“So…uh…anyone here from the others?” Rachel stopped walking and turned to face her teammate.
“Why would we do that?” her face at that moment scared Dominic, of course he would never tell her that.
“I don’t know. Maybe we made amends?”
“I would never make amends with…her!” Rachel marched off in anger, leaving her team members where they had been standing. Not wanting to be left, they followed her, as Dominic added more to their conversation.
“C’mon, Rachel. A tiny misunderstanding is hardly something to annex people we worked with from our lives!”
“In case you forgot, that traitor I once called a co-leader killed a man!”
“Yeah, a man who tortured her. That’s hardly fair to judge the whole lot of them for.”
“This discussion is over,” Rachel said, continuing her walk. For the rest of the journey, everyone remained silent. When Rachel got into one of these moods, you did not want to mess with her. Finally, the three X-Men had reached their destination, a place where they spent a lot of time at: the Danger Room. Punching in the correct code, Rachel had opened the door the second she pressed ‘Enter’ on the control panel. After the three had entered, the door closed suddenly so as not to allow intruders of any kind in. Rachel walked over to the main controls and looked down to see the sight below.
Nightcrawler, the X-Men’s resident teleporter, had just parlayed a move that destroyed three robotic simulates with his twin swords. Behind him, former Alpha Flight and current X-Men member, Diamond Lil, or simply Diamond now, had just bulldozed through a group of them. Watching their every move was a class of young adults. Sofia Mantega, the leader of the group, stood by her team’s side as they all watched the two X-Men they were looked after demolish their enemies.
Sofia missed the good old days, when she was apart of the New Mutants squad. Everything seemed so simple then. Now, she led a group that really had no common ground to start relationships on. Bling was the closest one she had to a real friend on the squad, but even that was based on they didn’t erupted into a fight on the sight of one another. She especially missed her former mentor, Dani Moonstar. She was promoted to a X-Men team after the squads were broken down and lead by a full team of X-Men instead of one individual. In her honest opinion, Rachel Grey scared her now.
As Nightcrawler and Diamond finished off the last of the robots, they faced towards their students and began to tell them how teamwork was their greatest asset. Onyxx rolled his four, beady, red eyes at the X-Men, while Kid Rhino, a new student at the school stared towards the horn in the middle of his face. Bling and Wind Dancer (Sophia’s codename) listened carefully at their instructors. Match, he just sat there, playing with his fiery hands as Wolfclub watched. Rachel pressed the button for the Danger Room intercom down and began to speak.
{{That’ll be all for today, Kurt and Lil. You kids are dismissed.}}
The kids loved the news and headed straight for the exit. Kurt grabbed a hold on Lil and the two were gone in a cloud of purple smoke, only to reappear suddenly in the Danger Rooms control center.
“Guten tag, mien freunds,” said the German Nightcrawler, “What is going on that our lesson was cut short?”
“Nothing,” Rachel began, “I just needed to talk with you privately.” As the other members of the team fellowshipped with one another, Rachel had walked up to Kurt and grasped his arm. In another cloud, they were on the balcony of their room.
The sun was now going down, as Rachel looked onward seeing the various colors of the sky. The mixed hues of red and blue and yellow reminded her of the promise that Kurt had made her.
“What is it that you wanted to speak of, darling,” questioned Kurt. Rachel linked arms with him and rested her head on his shoulders.
“I’ve been thinking of what you said more and more,” she said, her eyes twinkling at both the thought of it and the beautiful sky.
“What made you think of that?”
“It’s just…I want to get away from here, sometimes. It’s to…painful. When you said-” and she was cut off with the sound of her com-link. Kurt rolled his eyes as yet another moment with his girlfriend was ruined thanks to her incessant need to lead the team.
“Mhm. Yeah. Yeah.” She ended the conversation by hanging up. An aura of yellow surrounded her body as well as the Phoenix insignia around her eye. Kurt slowly looked up as she ascended.
“What is going on?”
”Nothing, sweetie. Duty calls.” As she flew off into the sky, Kurt watched her fly off into the horizon.
“Yes,” he began, “Duty calls…”
X-Jet Hanger
At the controls yet again, Rachel opened up the doors to allow one of the X-Men’s stealth jets to land safely in their garage. After a perfect landing, the exit ladder opened up, and inside it left Shola Inkosi, now the X-Man known as Psyche.
“Now,” Rachel began, “What’s this important thing that you had to show me?”
“Here,” Shola began, going into the bag that rested on his shoulders. Finally getting what he wanted, he took it out, revealing a skull.
“A skull.” She took it into her hands and cradled it. It felt warm and blood was still on it.
“It’s fresh,” she questioned, receiving a nod from Shola. “Read the back,” he said.
She flipped it over to see a message chiseled into the bone.
It read:
“WATCH YOURSELVES, X-MEN”