X-Men: Black Fire

By Paradox

BOOK I


Three


The symbols on the computer screen would mean nothing to someone off the street. Yet to Cole, the represented centuries of magick rites and incantations. He read through them at light speed, having memorized them hundreds of time before. He did not truly need to look at them, but it was a pleasant way to pass the time and keep himself up to date.

Looking at the small clock at the bottom of the screen, Cole stretched and lit a cigarette before switching the computer off and moving into the small living room of the apartment. He switched on the television just as there was the sound of a knock at his door. Cole smiled and turned the television off, standing up. “Who is it?” he asked, even though he had already guessed.

“Tony’s pizza.”

Cole froze. He had not ordered a pizza. Slowly, he reached around behind his back, saying, “I didn’t order a pizza.”

Suddenly, the door to the apartment crashed in. Three men in military uniforms with assault rifles rushed into the room. Cole yanked the pistol from the back of his waistband and opened fire. One of the men went down with a smoking hole in his chest about the size of an apple. The other two quickly fired off bursts that sent Cole diving for cover. As bullets ricocheted off the wooden coffee table and punched into the couch, Cole clenched his fist tightly, whispering a few arcane words. Instantly, his hand began to crackle with energy. He dove out from behind the couch and hurled the energy at one of the men in fatigues. The man screamed in pain a moment before his body exploded and turned into a red stain on the wall.

The remaining attacker pulled the trigger on his assault rifle and sprayed the room with bullets. Cole tried to dodge out of the way, but he had no room to maneuver. Three bullets struck him in the shoulder, thigh, and abdomen. He hissed in anger more than pain and yanked the second pistol from the coffee table. Leaping into the air, he leveled both guns and opened fire. The air crackled with the ionized energy blasts from the guns. The man in fatigues had no time to scream before his body vaporized.

Cole dropped to the ground and fell to a knee, gripping at the wound in his abdomen. He was losing a lot of blood, fast. With visible effort, he staggered over to the bedroom and took a red bag from the night stand. Opening it, he sprinkled a black powder over the wound and then took out a lighter from his pants pocket. Gritting his teeth, he lit the powder, which flashed up as soon as the flames touched it. Cole hissed with pain as the wound cauterized, and ripped what remained of his shirt off, tearing it into bandage strips. He wrapped one strip around his thigh and the other around his shoulder. Taking another small bag, he gently sprinkled a fine powder over each wound, letting it soak up the blood. Sighing, he pulled on his coat and walked back into the other room to examine the bodies. More than likely, the police had been called and he would only have a few minutes before he needed to run.

Cole stopped in his tracks when he reached the living room and saw Cyclops, Storm, and Kitty staring at the bodies. They looked up at him with equally shock expressions. “I was late paying my, uh, water bill.” Cole explained lamely.

Cyclops knelt next to one of the bodies and check for a pulse. “I think we’d better get out of here before I get some more guests.” Cole said as he grabbed a black duffel bag.

“Why don’t you tell us what happened now?” Storm said, blocking his way out of the door.

Cole sighed and shook his head. “Look, I’ll explain everything to all of you once we’re back at the mansion. Right now, you’d better move before a bunch of cops get here.”

Kitty put a hand on Storm’s shoulder. “He’s right Ororo, we need to ask our questions in private. I can already hear the sirens, and their getting close fast.”

Storm nodded and walked out the front door to the apartment, followed by Cyclops. Kitty looked over at Cole and saw the bloody bandages peeking out from beneath his coat. “Are you all right?” she said, moving to examine the wounds.

Cole gently took hold of her wrist to keep her from touching him. “I’m fine, we can worry about these scratches once we’re clear of this place.”

Kitty nodded and headed out. Cole took one more glance around the room. Kneeling down, he ripped the assault vest from one of the dead men and threw it in his duffel bag. Then, he stepped into the hallway, closing the door behind him.

The X-Men and dark young man moved outside and quietly slipped inside the awaiting car. Cyclops slid behind the wheel while Storm got in n the passenger side. Kitty and Cole slid into the rear of the car where Cole slumped in the seat almost as soon as he got in. Kitty pulled his coat aside and saw the two bloody wounds in his shoulder and thigh, and the cauterized wound in abdomen. “My god.” she whispered. “Storm, we have to get him medical attention, fast.”

Storm looked back and saw the wounds, gasping quietly. “Agreed. Scott hurry to the mansion, Cole’s losing blood.”

“It ain’t that bad.” Cole grumbled as he pulled a small black box with a single red button from his coat. “At least not as bad as them.” he said, nodding in the direction of his apartment. “Kitty, tell me something.”

“What’s that Cole?”

“How far do you think we are from my apartment?”

The question struck Kitty as rather mundane at the time. She looked back and did a quick calculation in her head. “I’d say about four hundred meters.”

“Any cops or civilians around it?”

Kitty shook her head.

“Good.” Cole pushed the red button.

In the next second, the top of Cole’s apartment building turned into a erupting fireball. The windows shattered out and the walls visibly cracked, even from their distance of view. Scott hit the brakes, pulling the car over to the side and bringing it to a skidding stop. “Just what the hell was that?” he demanded.

Cole smiled. “C4 in just the right proportions and exactly the right locations.”

“You have killed everyone in that building!” Storm admonished

Cole shook his head. “Not possible, I owned the building and didn’t rent it to anyone. Trust me guys, I make it a habit of effectively covering my tracks and not hurting anyone. Now if you don’t mind,” he continued, his voice getting fainter, “I’d like to go to a hospital before I die of blood loss.” He looked over at Kitty, his vision blurring suddenly. “Damn, I think I’m going to black out; This is...so...embarrassing.”

He was just able to get the last word out of his mouth before he passed out and fell into Kitty’s waiting arms.



* * * *



A moan escaped from Cole’s lips as he came awake. He opened his eyes and immediately slammed them shut as the fluorescent lights stabbed at his eyes. Slowly, he reopened them, letting his vision adjust to the brightness. When he was able to see clearly, he looked over to his right to see Kitty curled up on a chair next to the bed. Cole marveled at the peaceful expression on her face as she slept. Wincing, he sat up, looking over his bullet wounds. To his surprise, they were nearly healed. Even with his herbal potions, he shouldn’t have healed this fast, unless he had been unconscious for longer than he had thought. Noticing his clothes on the counter at the foot of the bed, Cole swung his legs over the side of the biobed, dully noticing that they were bare and he only wore a hospital gown. Staggering over to the counter, he gathered up his clothes and began pulling them on. When he pulled on the jeans, his abdomen wound flared up hot, causing him to utter a growl of pain.

Kitty’s eyes fluttered open at the sound and she stared at Cole. “What are you doing?” she asked quietly.

Cole spun and looked at her, his hand instinctively reaching for a gun that was not there. “I’m getting some clothes on.”

Kitty pulled back the blanket that had been wrapped around her and stood up, brushing back a lock of hair. “You should be in bed, those wounds aren’t healed yet.”

Cole shrugged on his shirt and grabbed his coat. “I’ve been hit with worse.” He looked around, “Where are my guns?”

“Hank has them, he wanted to see what made them tick.”

Cole’s eyes went wide. “He’s doing what?”

“Finding out how they work.”

Cole growled a curse and ran from the room, pulling on his coat as he did. Kitty started after him, phasing through walls to try and get ahead of the fleeing young man. Yet, even as she passed through a wall that should have brought her directly in front of him, Cole was already down the hall, moving faster than anyone she had ever seen. She pushed the intercom button on the wall. “Hank, it’s Kitty.”

“Yes Kitty, what may I do for you?” came Beast’s voice.

“Cole’s awake.”

“Ah, excellent, I will come see to him immediately.”

Kitty smiled wryly. “No need, he’s on his way down to see you now.”

There was a brief pause. “He’s out of bed already? My word, it has only been twenty-four hours.”

“Yeah, and he’s not happy about you tinkering with his guns.”

“Oh, I see. Well, I’ve had a little difficulty finding a way to dismantle them anyhow, but I think I might have found a way.”

Kitty glanced at the electronic map of the mansion and saw that the blip representing Cole was thirty yards from Beast. “Oh no.” she said, and phased through the floor directly into Beast’s laboratory. The blue-furred scientist looked up at her in surprise. “Kitty, couldn’t you use the door?”

“No, and I doubt Cole will either.”

As if on cue, the metal door to the laboratory blew in with an audible explosion. Cole came charging in, his eyes widening at the sight of Beast about to dismantle on of the high tech guns on a steel table. “Don’t touch those, or you’re dead!” he cried.

Kitty jumped in front of Beast, ready to defend her friend. “No way am I going to let you hurt McCoy, Raven.” Cole narrowed his eyes slightly and sprang into the air, flipping over Kitty before the mutant could react. He dropped down on the other side of the metal table and snatched up the gun, quickly looking over it.

“Aw crap!” he muttered, and quickly began fidgeting with the gun. Beast took a step forward to see what the young man was doing. “Get back.” Cole said calmly without looking up from the gun. “If I can’t disarm this thing we’ll all be dead in thirty seconds.”

Kitty ran around Beast, looking at what Cole was doing. “My god,” she said quietly, “That thing has an anti-tamper device on it that’ll blow the whole mansion up.”

Cole pulled the slide back and allowed it to snap back forward. There was a soft beeping sound and Cole sighed in relief. “Well, it won’t blow anything up now. I was able to cancel the self-destruct.” He looked over at Beast. “In the future, don’t try to take these things apart to see what makes them tick.”

Beast put up his hands. “Point taken.”

Suddenly, Cole hissed in pain and fell to a knee, the gun falling from his grasp. Kitty dropped to her knees beside him and saw that his wounds had ripped open and begun bleeding again. “Hank, we need to get him back upstairs.”

Beast nodded and picked up him, cradling Cole like a baby. The two rushed off to the medlab to try and help their strange new companion.


“What is your opinion Scott?”

Cyclops looked over at Charles and sighed. “Well, he’s a little rough around the edges, and I’m not so sure that he’ll be able to work with a team.”

Charles nodded. “And you Ororo?”

Storm looked into the fire that blazed in the hearth. “He is a highly intelligent young man, and very resourceful. Yet, he is also very ruthless.”

“So am I,” Wolverine said with a smile, “That didn’t stop you from letting me in.”

“Very true,” Charles said, “Wolverine, you have been invaluable to us. The question that is on my mind, though, is just what place does he have with us?”

The group of mutants muttered amongst themselves and finally looked up at the man whom they all called friend, mentor, and father. “Professor,” Storm said, “Why don’t we all talk with him and find out everything we can about him. Have you been able to pick up any surface thoughts?”

Charles shook his head. “No, nothing. Have you Jean?”

Phoenix shook her head. “No, it’s as though his mind has a steel wall around it. I don’t know if I’d be able to break through it if I wanted to.”

“So we just have to trust what he says?” Wolverine said, not too happy about the idea. “From what Scotty an ‘Ro tell me, this kid’s got all kinds of people after him. I’m not sure that we can trust what he says.”

“Everyone’s got dere secrets, mon ami. Why should dis boy be any diff’rnt.”

Wolverine looked over at Gambit, who was absently shuffling cards. “Because it could get us killed, gumbo.”

“I only kill people who piss me off Logan.” The mutants spun to see Cole leaning against the door frame of the study, a lit cigarette in his hand. “Lucky for you, I like you guys.”

Kitty then appeared beside Cole, apparently out of breath. “Sorry Professor, but I couldn’t stop him. He insisted on seeing you.”

Charles held up a hand. “It’s all right Kitty, we were just about to go see him.”

“Saved you a trip then, huh?” Cole walked into the room and then stopped to grunt and put a hand to his shoulder wound. Kitty was instantly by his side, ready to support him.

“Are you sure you are all right young man?” Charles asked with a raised eyebrow.

Cole nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be fine tomorrow.” He dropped down into one of the chairs by the fire, glancing once at the flames and then back at the team. “So, ask your questions.”

For a couple of moments, everyone was silent, debating on what they should say.

“All right,” Wolverine started, “You said you know me. How?”

Cole smiled. “About five years ago, a government agency called Black Fire recruited me into its ranks. Granted, this wasn’t by choice. It was join them or get a bullet in the brain. Considering I was only sixteen and I didn’t feel like dying yet, I said yes. They trained me in every form of combat known to man. We had guys from the Army, Navy, and Marines, each of them teaching us their special fighting tactics from the Special Forces of the Army to the Navy SEALS.” He paused to take a drag from the cigarette. “My team was made up of basically young kids like me, all mutants. I was the exception because they thought my powers were mutagenic, not magickal. They outfitted us with weapons and equipment so top secret that no one knows about it with the exception of the agency. This was big time Area 51 type stuff, space-aged technology that would eliminate the need for ammunition in weapons. My guns are from their weapons racks. They don’t need bullets, only sunlight for an hour to recharge the energy clips. The agency sent us out on black ops missions to assassinate high level diplomats of opposing countries, steal information about enemy and terrorist activities and weapons, and other lovely jobs.” He looked over at Wolverine. “We were given very detailed intelligence on other covert organizations, like the Weapon X program that put the adamantium in your bones and claws, that’s how I knew about you.” Wolverine glared at Cole, but said nothing. “My group was the Black Dragon team, and we were the best. Not once did we fail a mission, not once did one of my team die.

“Then, we got this job to go into Baghdad to try and take out a supposed nuclear missile sight that was targeting the U.S. We went in and got through their security easy, too easy. As cliché as that sounds, it was true. As soon as we entered what was supposed to be the missile sight, we discovered it to be nothing more than a room full of explosives. I had just turned to my team to tell them to get the hell out when the whole place blew bigger than Pearl Harbor.” Cole sighed and took a deep drag from the cigarette. “I don’t know how, but I survived.”

“Just how much explosive was in there?” Beast asked.

Cole looked over at him. “I don’t know, about two thousand pounds of C4 at a guess.”

Everyone’s mouth in the room fell open in blatant shock. “Even I couldn’t survive that!” Wolverine said.

Cole smiled. “Yeah, I know.”

“You mean to say that your magick is so strong that you were able to activate a shield that protected you from two thousand pounds of the world’s most powerful explosive?”

Cole looked over at Jean pointedly. “Ms. Grey, I did not consciously activate the shield. As far as how strong I can make one, I’ve only been able to deflect a blast about the size of a hand grenade, but that’s it.”

“So what are you saying Cole?” asked Charles.

“What I am saying, is that someone else with really powerful magick is out there, and I think they have joined forces with Black fire in trying to bring me in.” He paused so he could looked at Cyclops, Storm, and Kitty. “Those dead guys in my apartment were from Fire. There is no way they could have found me by simple intelligence gathering, I covered myself too well. They have other magick on their side, and it’s a hell of a lot tougher than mine. That’s why I’ve come to ask for your help, and a place in your ranks.”

“Did you lose half your mind in that explosion kid,” Wolverine yelled, jumping to his feet, “You expect us to make you an X-Man just so you can have protection from some government agency that’s hunting you down?”

Cole nodded, his face completely serious. “That is exactly what I am asking.” He looked over at Charles. “Professor, I know that you require much training and study before allowing one of your students to become a member of the team. I am willing to do what it takes to accomplish this.”

Charles sighed and looked over into the fire. “Why do you desire to become one of the X-Men? What is it about us that attracts you so?”

Cole stood up, gently pushing Kitty away when she moved to stop him from moving. “Professor, one of the things we needed to study on Black Dragon was the X-Men. We never knew when we would run into you on one of our missions. I know what it is you do for the planet and for parts of the universe. All that Black Dragon every did was to take out politicians and dictators that threatened just the United States. I’m tired of worrying only about just America when I know about all of these mutants who try to take over the world, time and again. Pretty soon, if my team hadn’t been killed, we would have become invalid because there would be no America to defend. I want to be a part the greater good that you try and accomplish every day we breathe.”

For several long moments, no one said a word, all taking in what the young assassin was saying. Finally, Charles turned to face Cole. “You indeed present a good case. It is obviously well thought out and researched.”

Cole narrowed his eyes. “This is the part were you tell me you don’t think I would be cut out for the X-Men, right?”

Charles shook his head. “Mr. Raven, we fight against people much more dangerous than dictators and human terrorists. Several of ours  have died fighting with us.”

Cole clenched his fists, his teeth clenched together. “If you don’t think that I can take on the bad guys you do, then listen to this: You ever hear of a guy by the name of Ramrod?”

No one spoke, for no one knew who Cole referred to. “Don’t tell me none of you have heard of him.”

“I know him.”

The X-Men looked over at Wolverine’s soft statement. The short man was looking very serious as he eyed Cole. “I went up against him when I was with Canadian Special Forces. Guy nearly killed me. I was able to get in a couple of good shots before getting away with my life.” He looked over at the X-Men’s shocked expressions. “This was before Weapon X, okay.”

Cole nodded. “Yeah, I know.” He dropped back down into the chair, taking a drag from the cigarette. “He resurfaced about a year ago. Black Dragon was called in to take him out before he made a strike on the government. I killed him without a shot fired.”

Wolverine bolted from his leaning position against the wall and grabbed Cole by the collar of his coat. “Bull,” he growled, “Ramrod was one of the toughest SOB’s I’ve ever gone up against. No way a punk kid like you took him out hand to hand.”

Cole shot up from his chair, looking Wolverine dead in the eye. His hands began to crackle with black energy. “Are you saying I’m lying?”

“I want proof.” the mutant growled.

A smile crept onto Cole’s lips. “Look down genius, the tell my I’m lying.”

Wolverine shifted his gaze to where Cole directed, and his eyes went wide. He slowly let go of Cole and backed away. “The kid’s for real.” he said quietly.

“How do you know?” Cyclops asked.

“He’s for real!” Wolverine snarled at him. The team leader put his hands up in a sign of defeat.

“Does this do anything to my chances of joining the team?”

Charles looked around the room, his eyebrow raised in a silent query.

Wolverine pulled out a cigar. “Kid’s got my vote.”

“He does indeed have fine technological skills. I would welcome his input.” Beast said.

“His skills would be a fine addition to the team.” Storm agreed.

“Considerin’ what I been tol’ ‘bout his pe’tite skirmish wit Stormy, I give him a t’umbs up.” Gambit threw Storm a wicked grin, which she returned with a glare.

Cyclops nodded. “He certainly was able to handle himself against those agents that attacked him in his apartment, and he has a good knack for contingency plans.”

Kitty looked over at Cole silently. “Kitty,” asked Charles, “What is your opinion?”

“I’d like him on the team.” she said quietly, as though afraid to admit it.

Charles nodded. “Very well, we will begin your training as soon as you are well and see how you do.”

Cole smiled and stood up. “Then we’ll start tomorrow.” He ripped the bandages off, revealing totally healed skin.

Beast’s eyes went up in shock. “How are you completely rejuvenated? Those bullet wounds should have taken weeks to heal, especially the wound that you cauterized.”

Cole chuckled and pulled out a cigarette. He opened his palm and a small ball of flame leapt from the hearth and landed in his hand, flickering almost happily. Cole lit the cigarette and looked at Beast, a wicked grin on his face.

“It’s a kind of magick.” 


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