X-Men: Black Fire

By Paradox

BOOK I


One

The sun shone down on the peaceful setting of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. To the unknown eye, it would appear to be a school built around a mansion, as the brass plaque on the brick posts at the head of the driveway stated. Yet, to those who dwelt there, it was more than just a school. It was a training facility for those who were set apart from the rest of humanity by the strange and wondrous powers they held at their command.

Although most of the residents of the mansion would have loved nothing more than to bask in the sun, they instead found themselves deep within the bowels of the complex, fighting holographic and robotic enemies.

The large, city block large metal room was known as the Danger Room. It was a facility that was used to train and hone the powers of the superhuman students of the institute. The students were more widely known as the heroic team the X-Men. Time and again, they had put their lives on the line to save humanity from countless dangers. Very rarely did they have time to stop and smell the roses, so to speak.

This was one of those times that the team’s leader, Cyclops, wished he had. Instead. He was dodging laser blasts and returning his own via his mutant power to fire red blasts of pure energy from his eyes. Unchecked, he could not control this power other than shutting his eye, but he had found various ways to be able to harness his power and control it with deadly precision. One of those ways was a visor made of ruby quartz that covered his eyes, such as the one he currently wore.

Spinning, he unleashed another blast from the visor that neatly cut the approaching robot in two. Although his opponents were far from challenging, the goal of the exercise was to try and better narrow the band of his optic blasts so they were more like a surgical laser scalpel rather than blunt blasts of energy. So far, he had been rather successful in his attempts.

An explosion from behind him drew his attention, making him spin around, ready to attack. He held back when he saw the tall man in a brown duster leaning against the metal wall of the Danger Room, a cigarette in his mouth and a playing card crackling with kinetic energy in his hand.

“You really ought t’ be more careful wit what you be doin’ Cyke.”

Cyclops glared at the man, although he knew that the look would not be visible behind the visor. “And you should let me know that you’re behind me, Gambit, or I might have pulverized you with a blast.”

Gambit smiled his characteristic crooked smile and hurled the crackling card at Cyclops. The team leader stood still, frozen with shock, as the card flew passed his ear. There was the sound of an explosion behind him and Cyclops turned to see a robot laying on the ground in pieces. If Gambit had waited a second longer to hurl the card, he would have been hamburger.

“An to tink dat I could’ve jus’ let dat mean ol’ ‘bot just pound away at you.” Gambit said with a smile, then turned and went to attack his own opponent.

Cyclops sighed and looked to see how the rest of his team was doing. They all seemed to have things well in hand, but that was to be expected. The program they were using was a relatively low one and the threat level was practically zero.

“Don’t let the Cajun get to ya Cyke.” A gravely voice said off to the side. Cyclops turned to see a small man in a black and yellow costume tearing away at five robots at the same time with three bone claws that extended out of the back of the knuckles of each hand. Although it was taking him a long time to dispatch the robots, Cyclops could tell the man was just playing with them.

“Thanks for the advice Wolverine.” he said.

Wolverine smiled and drove a clawed fist through the head of one of the robots. “No prob’.”

“Uh, guys, could I get a little help over here?”

Wolverine spun around to get a glance at who was speaking, even though he already knew who it was. “Hang on a sec kitten, I’ll be right with ya.”

Kitty Pryde, otherwise known as Shadowcat, smiled sweetly at him even as she struggled against the metal tentacles that held her in their grasp. Using her power to phase her body through matter, she slipped through the tentacles and dropped to the ground. Yet, as she solidified to try and attack them, the metal appendages simply wrapped her up again. “This is getting annoying.” she grumbled.

“Try solidifying yourself in them Kitty.” Cyclops advised.

Kitty looked over at him with wide eyes. “Are you nuts Scott, that’ll probably cut my arm off at the same time!”

Wolverine chuckled. “Well, at least it’ll get the job done.”

Gambit shook his head as he used his mutant power to take the potential energy of an object, such as his trademark playing cards, and turn it into explosive kinetic energy. He hurled three such energized cards at the tentacles. “And here we t’ought you liked d’ p’tite kitten.” The cards blasted three of the tentacles to pieces, leaving three left. Two of them wrapped around Kitty’s waist and ankles, while the third one snaked around her throat. Her eyes went wide as the appendage tightened painfully.

“H-hey, this isn’t supposed to hurt.” She reached up and tried to pry the tentacle away, by the metal would not give. “Guys, I think something’s wrong here.”

“Phase through it Kitty.” Cyclops called, momentarily delayed by a squad of robots.

Kitty continued to struggle, trying to pry loose the arm that was cutting off her oxygen. “I can’t, can’t concentrate, can’t breathe.” Her breaths began to come out in small wheezes, growing fainter by the moment.

Wolverine saw what was happening and his eyes narrowed dangerously. “Dammit, there’s a problem with the safeties!” He raked his claws through the three remaining robots and spun, rushing at the tentacles. “Hang on punkin, I’m coming!”

Cyclops blew apart another robot with his blasts and looked over at Gambit, who was pulling out more cards from his coat. “Remy, take out the tentacles on her waist and legs.”

Gambit smiled and hurled two energized cards. “Remy already be ahead of you mon ami.” The kinetically charged cards blew into the base of the tentacles, blowing them to atoms. The appendages dropped limply to the ground, effectively freeing Kitty’s waist and legs. This, however, caused another problem. With the tentacles no longer holding her up, Kitty was only staying aloft by the one metal appendage wrapped around her throat. The affect was like a suicide victim hanging from a noose. Kitty’s eyes went wide as her chest heaved in an attempt to catch anything that resembled oxygen. Then, her body went limp, her fingers falling from the metal around her throat to rest at her sides, lifeless.

“Kitty!”

Wolverine’s cry of rage and despair seemed more like a roar of an enraged animal than common speech. He launched himself into the air and severed the tentacle in one swipe. Kitty fell to the ground in a heap, the piece of metal around her throat falling limply away. Wolverine dropped down beside her, his hand gripping her shoulder. “Kitty, Kitty wake up! Come on punkin, don’t do this to me.”

Her eyelids fluttered and then fully opened, her brown eyes looking at Wolverine almost sleepily. A faint smile touched her lips. “I wouldn’t do that Logan,” she said weakly, “Who would keep you in check?”

Wolverine smiled and picked her up in his arms, rushing from the Danger Room. He cast a look at Gambit that actually made the cocky Cajun shrink back. Running through the hallways, he burst into the medlab, where the hulking, blue-furred form of the Beast was working on the computer. He looked up at his guests, his eyes widening at the scene before him. “What happened?” he asked as he bounced over to the med table that Wolverine laid Kitty on.

“Damn safeties in the Danger Room screwed up,” Wolverine growled, “Almost choked Kitty to death.”

Kitty shook her head and started to sit up. “No, I’m fine, just a little dizzy.”

Beast gently pushed her back down with one furry hand. “Now, Ms. Pryde, let your doctor take a look at you.” Kitty smirked at him as he took medical scanner from his oversized lab coat.

“How do I know that thing won’t give me cancer in the future anyway?” she quipped.

“It probably will,” Beast said in a humorous mater-of-fact manner, “But it is right now that we are concerned about.” He ran the scanner over her face and chest, nodding at the readings. “Well, you seem to be okay. There’s no damage to your lungs or trachea.”

Kitty nodded and sat up, looking pointedly at Wolverine. “I told you so.”

He shrugged. “So I wanted to make sure, so sure me.”

“Why, I wouldn’t get anything out of it.”

The three of them laughed and Kitty swung her legs over the side of the bed, taking the dark blue mask of her costume from her face. “I’d better check the Danger Room’s computers.”

Before Wolverine or Beast could protest, klaxon alarms rang out. As though it were routine, Beast jumped over to a control panel on the wall and activated it, bringing up a schematic of the mansions landscape. “It appears we have an intruder.” he said, “Right at the edge of the forest.”

Kitty jumped from the bed and ran over to the control panel. “That’s not possible, the warning sensors should have picked them up just as they entered the forest.”

Beast shrugged and pointed at the red blip on the screen that was positioned at the edge of the grounds. “Apparently, our guest has found a way to slip by them undetected.”

Kitty shook her head. “No way, I just upgraded those things myself.” She immediately looked over at Wolverine and pointed at him. “Don’t you say a thing Logan.” she threatened.

Wolverine lit a cigar and put his hands up in defeat, a smirk on his face. “Hey, I wasn’t going to say anything.”

“Yeah right.” Kitty grumbled as she headed off.

Wolverine looked over at Beast, the smirk turning into a grin. “Kid sure does hate being shown up, huh Hank?”

Beast chuckled. “Indeed Logan, I think you may be rubbing off on our tender kitten.”

Wolverine’s grin turned feral as he started out of the medlab. “Just tryin’ to leave my mark on the world Hank. Come on, Kitty might need a hand.”

Beast nodded and flung his coat over a chair before heading after Wolverine. On his way out the door, he grabbed a comlink and activated it. “Storm, this is Beast, did you monitor the intruder alert.”

“Yes Hank,” the regal voice said from the other end of the link, “I’m heading outside now. Do you have any readings on the intruder?”

“No, dear lady, I’m afraid I have not yet been able to get to Cerebro to determine the nature of our guest.”

“Why don’t you head over to the control room and do just that while I get a bird’s eye view.”

“Consider it done. Also, Shadowcat and Wolverine as heading out as well.”

“Wolverine I understand, but why is Kitty going to check it out?”

Beast chuckled. “It appears our kitten is suffering from wounded pride.”

There was a pause, then, “Oh yes, she was the one to upgrade the system.”

“Storm!”

Beast laughed at Kitty’s voice floating down the corridor and bounced off to the control room.

* * * *

The woods whispered in his ears, guiding him through the forest. He felt his body almost meld with the foliage around him, easily slipping passed the security sensors spread out through the forest. As he passed each device, a growl escaped his lips. How could someone defile The Mother like this? The answer would not immediately be forthcoming, he knew. As he came to the clearing of the forest, his eyes settled on the vast, landscape of the mansion. A smile crept over his lips as he stepped from the edge of the forest. After traveling hundreds of miles, he had finally reached his goal.

The, he felt it before he saw it. Looking up, he saw a dark-skinned woman swoop down from the sky, like a hawk attacking a field mouse. Her white mane of hair fluttered it the wind like a live entity. Upon her silver uniform, he saw a distinctive red circle with a black X in the middle of it. That was the symbol he had been looking for. Raising his hand, he hailed a silent greeting to the goddess-like woman that approached him.

He was not prepared for the sudden upswing of wind that took him off his feet, throwing him to the ground. Immediately, his combative instincts took over and he rolled to the side, disappearing into the brush. As the woman landed, he crouched amongst the green foliage, ever muscle in his body taut with readiness. Patiently, he waited for her to approach his location.


Storm looked around, trying to find the stranger in the black leather coat. He had appeared out of nowhere and saw her coming from a good distance. When he had raised his hand at her, she instinctively reacted to the ensuing attack, throwing him to the ground with a quick down draft of wind. Almost faster than she though possible, he had rolled to the side and disappeared into the woods. Although hopeful that he was adequately dissuaded from trying to reenter the premises, Storm somehow knew that he was still around, waiting for her.

Using the wind currents to bear her aloft, she scanned the area with her eyes, unable to determine whether or not he was still there. The sounds of people drew her attention to the front door of the mansion. She watched as Kitty, Wolverine, and Beast came running out, Kitty in the lead. Despite the tense situation, Storm smiled at the expression on the young woman’s face. She was very upset that someone could get passed her security systems. “He’s somewhere in the forest.” she called down.

Kitty stopped and looked up at her. “Just one guy?” Storm nodded. “How did he get passed you?”

Storm shrugged. “He is much faster than he looks.”

“Did he try to attack you?” Wolverine asked, the lust for combat apparent in his voice.

“No Logan. In fact, I think I frightened him more than anything.”

Kitty started forward when Wolverine caught her arm. “Hold on Kitty, we don’t know who it is we’re dealing with. This guy might be armed.”

Kitty shrugged off his arm. “Logan, I appreciate the concern, but I intend to find out just what kind of guy can bypass Shi’ar technology. Besides, I can phase through anything he can throw at me.”

Beast came up beside them. “Kitty, although I do understand you concern, Wolverine is indeed the logical choice for this recon.”

Kitty glared at him. “How do you figure that Hank?”

“He has done this sort of thing for many years and his senses make him the perfect bloodhound, as you know.”

Kitty huffed and put her hands on her hips. “Well, I can just phase through everything until I find the guy, and then call you guys.”

For a moment, Beast and Wolverine looked at each other , then smiled. “All right punkin,” Wolverine said, pulling back his mask, “Go for it. You call us over if you get into trouble.”

Kitty nodded and ran off into the woods, phasing through the trees.


He silently watched as the girl melted through the trees like a ghost. Instinctively, he wanted to just stand up and open his arms to the beautiful young girl that floated before him. Yet, the combative side kept him crouched in the bush, watching silently as she moved throughout the forest, passing through everything without a care. She was looking for him, he knew this. With her method of searching, she would find him soon. It was only a matter of time.

“No time to act stupid,” he muttered to himself, “Just have to do it right the first time.” Quietly, he drew out a high tech pistol and looked at the damage level on the side of it. Stun, should be enough to end this. I don’t wan to hurt her after all. After making sure the gun was fully charged, he slipped through the forest, his footfalls not making a sound. He pressed his back against a tree ten meters from where the girl stood. Her back was to him and she was looking around, her eyes narrowed in concentration. Breathing once, twice, he spun around the tree and leveled the gun at the back of the girl’s lovely head.

Before he could even think about pulling the trigger, something lifted him up into the air and threw him out of the forest, a good thirty meters. Landing hard on the grass, his fingers lost their grip on the pistol and it skittered away. Rolling up into a crouch, he scanned the people before him. Two of them were standing on the lawn, one a big, blue furred creature and the other a short man in a yellow and black costume with a cigar in his mouth. In the sky, he saw the black woman with the mane of white hair hovering only a few meters up from them. All three of these he had seen before while he was hiding in the forest. One more was now added to their ranks.

A woman with flaming red hair dropped lightly to the ground. She looked at him with hard eyes. “Just what do you think you were doing?”

“Defending myself.” he growled.

A second later, Kitty’s voice rang out from the woods. “Jean, I could have handled it, you didn’t need to jump in.”

The young man turned to see Kitty walk out of the woods, a disappointed look on her face. “Kitty, he was about to shoot you.” Phoenix said, raising an eyebrow for emphasis.

“I could have phased out.”

“I do not believe you could Kitty,” Beast said as he picked up the gun, “This is an energy-style weapon and would have struck you solidly even if you had phased in time.”

Wolverine’s eyes narrowed and he stalked towards the young man. “So, you think that you were going to shoot someone in the back, huh?” Sknit! The claws on Wolverine’s right hand extended out. “No one takes cheap pot shots at my friends.”

The young man reached into his coat faster than anyone could see and pulled out another gun identical to the one Beast held. He aimed it at Wolverine. “Fine, then I’ll take one head-on.” A twisted smile crossed his lips. “Oh, and it’s not on stun either. I know your capabilities Logan, so this baby’ss set a little higher.”

That made Wolverine pause. “How the hell do you know about me kid?” he growled.

“Doesn’t really matter, because it’s apparent I came to the wrong place. Bye now.”

In the blink of an eye, Storm unleashed a whirlwind upon the young man, engulfing him in the spiraling vortex. She manipulated the winds so they would bear him aloft and tear the weapon from his hand. Yet, when she looked to the spot where he should have been, there was only blank air.

“Storm,” Wolverine called, “Cut the wind off, you’ll kill the poor boy by tearing him apart soon.”

Storm nodded and disbanded the windstorm. To her amazement, the young man stood exactly where he had been before she had formed the tornado, weapon and all. He looked up at Storm and shook his head, his eyes narrowed.

He was not happy.

“You apparently can control the elements,” he said quietly, “For one to have such strong control over the forces of nature, I respect and commend you on your accomplishment. There is only one thing you should know when manipulating the forces around us. Do you know what that is?”

Storm shook her head, her eyes narrowed with tension. “No, what?”

Suddenly, the wind picked up, about twice the strength of Storm’s tornado. The white-haired mutant had to strenuously call upon her command of the elements to stay aloft. When she looked down, the wind seemed to circle around the young man, as though creating some form of barrier between him and them. A gust of wind lashed out and tore the gun from Beast’s hand, sending it spinning through the air and slapping grip-first into the young man’s awaiting hand. He lowered both guns to his side, but did not put them away. Slowly, a smile crept across his lips as he saw the X-Men struggling to maintain their positions. Phoenix threw up a telekinetic shield that kept the swirling debris from injuring any of them. Kitty phased her molecules so any flying objects would pass right through her. Storm tried desperately to bring the winds under control, but for the first time in her life, the elements refused to obey her commands. She looked down at the young man to see him smiling up at her.

“Never screw with my element!”

He placed the guns in his coat and raised both of his hands to the sky, crossing them at the wrists. With a sharp movement, he clenched his fists and thrust both arms to the ground. Instantly, Storm was hurled to the grass, the wind knocked out of her. The same happened to the other X-Men, who were pushed to the ground by winds so fierce that they could do nothing but lay on their stomachs as the gales pushed down on their backs.

Then, as suddenly as they had started, the winds stopped, and all was quiet. Phoenix looked over at the other four and saw then slowly recovering. Wolverine was already on his feet, checking Storm to see if she was okay. She had taken it the worst when she had been flung down from the sky. The impact seemed to have rattled her, but there was no real damage. Turning her head, she looked over at the young man-

And found herself staring down the angry glowing barrel of a gun. Just behind it was the young man, his face deadly serious. “I didn’t want it to be like this,” he said quietly, “I came here for your help. I though you were supposed to be the good guys, but I guess the newspapers are right about you.”

“Who are you?” Phoenix demanded.

“Cole Raven.” he said, backing away so he could level the other gun at the group of four beyond Phoenix. “I’m here to talk with someone by the name of Charles Xavier.”

“Why the hell would we be inclined to let you do that after yer little stunt, kid?” Wolverine growled.

Cole shrugged. “In all reality, you shouldn’t. The fact is, though, that I could find him all on my own if I really wanted to, and there wouldn’t be a damn thing you guys could do to stop me.”

Wolverine brought his claws up. “You wanna make a bet on that, punk?”

Cole actually lowered his guns and glared at Wolverine, hard. The small group of X-Men felt the ground beneath them begin to tremble, growing stronger by the second. “You want to go round two with me, old man? I know all about you Logan, and I know you’re not an idiot.”

For a moment, Wolverine hesitated. “Just who the hell are you kid, and how do you know so much about us?”

Cole sighed and the ground ceased to tremble. “I’ll gladly tell all of you the story, if you’ll just back off and let me talk to Xavier, that’s all I want.” He looked around at the skeptical faces. “Do you want a show of truce? Fine,” He put the guns back within his coat, “How’s that for a start.”

“Even without those fine pieces of technology,” Beast said, his Webster’s Dictionary vocabulary returning to him, “How can we be reassured that by some whim you do not utilize your remarkable control over the elements to wreck havoc on our peaceful abode?”

Cole looked over to Kitty, who was on one knee next to Beast. “Is he always like this?” She nodded, her face still a mask of distrust. Cole sighed and bowed his head. “Okay, what would make you happy?”

“You, unconscious.”

Cole cast Wolverine a sideways glare.

“In truth,” Storm said, slowly approaching, “The very fact that you have not killed us when you had the opportunity shows that you may indeed have good intentions.”

“Who says he could’ve killed us?” Wolverine grumbled.

“Even you can’t live with no skin on those bones short stuff.” Cole said.

The short mutant grumbled something that the others knew they were glad they didn’t hear and headed into the mansion. Cole walked over to Storm and cocked his head to the side. “Are you okay, any bones broken?”

The comment actually made her step back. “You were the one that attacked. Did you not know what the extent of your damage would be?”

Cole shrugged. “I didn’t know if you were able to whip up a current to slow your fall or not.” He looked at her arm and saw that her uniform was torn at the shoulder, a nasty cut in its place. “That looks pretty bad.”

Storm looked at the wound, as though the first time noticing it. “It does not hurt.”

The young man nodded. “Yeah, but I’ll bet it’s about two seconds from getting infected.” He reached for the small black felt bag on his belt. “If you’ll permit me?”

Storm nodded cautiously and allowed him to rub some of the brownish powder on the wound. There was a cool sensation and then nothing. Cole cinched the bag back up and tied it back on his belt. “That should keep it from getting infected and heal it up quicker.”

“What was that substance?” Beast said, bounding over.

Cole smiled and pulled up the collar on his coat before starting for the mansion. “Family secret.”