This time, timeslipping felt worse. The dragging sensation was
intense. The perpetual whizzing motions were enough to make any stomach
queasy. It felt like being dragged through a vortex. All the X-Men held on
to Timeslip for dear life, and several times had the sensation that they were
losing their grip. It was not pleasant at all. When they materialized in
the X-mansions living room, only the most stoic remained standing. Gambit,
Wolverine, Cyclops, and Rogue stood. Phoenix, who had been previously injured,
was lying on the floor. Meltdown and Cannonball were on their knees. Timeslip
looked on the verge of collapse. Cyclops walked over to Phoenix, wobbling
slightly. "She needs to go to the infirmary," he said. Cannonball regained
his feet. "Ah'll take Mrs. Summers to the infirmary, sir." Cyclops nodded.
"Perhaps Timeslip should go with you, she looks bad, and she still needs to
make a trip back." "Mes amis," began Gambit, but Timeslip cut him off. "I'm
fine," she said fiercely. "Besides, you may not realize this, but those people
traveled to somewhere near the mansion. They'd want to eliminate the X-Men
and the High Lord before they go about their plans." "Dat's what Remy try
to say. De alarm ain't sounding, but dey be on de grounds acording to the
security sistems monitor."
"Ah think they're outside," said Rogue as they heard the sound of
a lightning bolt striking ground. "Let's try to get the jump on them," said
Cyclops as they dashed towards the door. Timeslip took a moment to catch her
breath, before she chased after them.
Outside chaos reigned. The five Exec's were doing battle with
Storm, Iceman, Angel, Psylocke, and Beast. Iceman was already unconscious.
Angle fluttered around without being able to do much damage. Beast dodged
laser blasts that came closer every time. Psylocke was fighting the only
female Exec, and Storm was trying to use the winds and her lightning bolts
to keep the others at bay. The Exec's each had different powers. One seemed
to have some sort of crackling energy shield around his body. Another formed
weapons out of thin air. The third and youngest looking seemed to have
hypnotic powers that he was employing against Psylocke. The fourth just stood
their like some arrogant leader. The female member didn't visibly show any
powers, but from the way she fought her talent could maybe lie in enhanced
strenght and reflexes. Wolverine inmediently went for the smug one standing
off to the side. Cyclops blasted the one who was throwing his weapons at
Storm. Gambit and Rogue went after the shielded one. Meltdown tried distracting
the hypnotic one.
Each Exec seemed to have weapons concealed all over their bodies
that they used to fire energy blasts or otherwise ocupy their opponents.
The smug leader type drank a serum and suddenlt there were two of him. It
looked as if both had the ability to manipulate objects and living things
around them. Grass and a sprinkler head wrapped themselves around Wolverine's
ankles. "Soon you'll learn why I Mickleyn am the leader of the Exec's." "An
you'll learn why I'm called the best at what he does," growled Wolverine as
he cut himself free.
Meltdown had gotten in over her head, and ended up hypnotized,
while Psylocke was too busy fending of the female and her pointed lance.
"You are a cute little girl, but when you mess with me you fall like the
rest," he said mockingly. He then made Meltdown toss a bomb over to Cyclops
who had taken out the air weapon Exec. The explosion knocked Cyclops down
and his head hit the floor hard, leaving him unconscious. "He'll have a
headache when he wakes up," giggled the hypnotizer foolishly. "But you won't
be waking up at all," said Timeslip as she got behind him and punched him
with her clawed glove in the chest. The young Exec made a chocking sound.
Timeslip felt the beginings of a hypnotic spell in the back of her head. She
tried to pull her claw free, but it was stuck. Before Meltdown let loose a
time bomb that probably would have been fatal, Timeslip chopped him in the
neck as hard as she could. He fell down dead. "Forgot that you guys are so
hard to kill," she muttured. Meltdown fell dizzyly to the floor. "You better
get inside," Timeslip said before going off.
"You know chere, we could be takin on more than we can handle with
dis one," said Gambit. He and Rogue had been hitting the shielded mutant with
all they could, but his shield seemed to absorb the force of their attacks.
On the up side, at least he could use his shield for something offensive.
The downside was that he seemed to have plenty of weapons he could fire through
his shield at them. Rogue's uniform was already a little singed, and she
looked annoyed. Storm attempted to use her winds to help Psylocke in her
fight, but nature wasn't always precise enough to affect only one person. She
and Archangel, who had taken Cyclops and Meltdown inside the mansion, were
now trying to assist Wolverine in the battle against the now triplet leaders.
The smug Exec and his quick clones seemed to have a small ability in
manipulating weather factors as well as other things. Storm was showing one
of them what real weather control was. Archangel was quickly in a bind. His
metal wings seemed to be susceptible to the manipulation, so he was fighting
with himself as much as with anyone else.
Timeslip was breathing heavily. The hypno-kid was tougher than she
had hoped and she was already exhausted. She looked around at the scene. She
had hoped that the Exec's wouldn't be using the new instant clone serum. It
wasn't fully tested yet and had some seriously bogus effects from what she
had seen before. Unfortunately that wasn't evident in this battle. Timeslip
did a quick review of what she knew about the Exec's. The all carried the
latest techno toys, and weren't vulnerable to psi powers. If she remembered
correctly, the each carried something that would neutralize the other members
in case they tried to betray Clustic. That was what Gambit and Rogue would
need to get rid of the energy shield. She viewed the field. She muttured a
curse. The body of the dead Exec was gone. They had genes manipulated to
desintigrate them upon death. The air weapon Exec was coming to. She dashed
in his direction.
Wolverine was hampered by the objects reaching up to grab him
and slow his movements. The fact that his opponent was constantly producing
more of himself by drinking some vile liquid was annoying as well. "Ain't
you man enough to take me on alone?" he growled. "Only a fool would waste any
advantage in battle. What good does honor do you if you end up dead?" he
challenged back. Wolverine grinned. An oponent without scrupples. It would
be an interesting battle.
Cannonball blasted out of the mansion and quickly surveyed the
scene. Timeslip seemed to be in trouble. She was moving slower and her
opponents air weapons were getting her. He blasted in her direction and
delivered a 55mph punch that shattered the man's jaw. He grunted and fell to
the floor. Timeslip leapt on him and quickly cut his throat with her claw.
She then quickly searched his pockets. She touched a green seringe and gasped,
but pulled out a small green pistol. She tossed it to Cannonball. "That will
go through the Exec's crackling energy shield. Shoot to kill Samuel. These
guys can not make a life here in the past." Even as she told him this, the
dead man's body fell apart in front of her. The appearance was gruesome, but
she didn't even flinch. As ordered Cannonball flew off to the one with the
shield and mentally thanked Cable for teaching the members of X-Force to shoot,
no matter what their powers. Gambit and Rogue saw him and distracted the
guy with the shield so that Cannonball could get the shot off.
"You little bitch," came a harsh female voice behind Timeslip.
Timeslip turned only to recieve a kick in the gut, that was meant to break
her spine, from the female Exec. She doubled over in pain. "You killed
them!" "If you didn't talk so much maybe you could have avenged them,"
wheezed Timeslip. Timeslip glanced over at where Psylocke was on the ground
and let out a relieved breath when she saw that in her haste to get at the
one who killed her friends, the Exec hadn't killed her opponent. Timeslip
kicked the female in the knees as hard as she could. Even though she was
wearing heavy boots, the Exec didn't even flinch. 'Damn' she thought as
the female pulled a seringe out of her coat. She tried to dodge the following
charge, but in her exhaustion she tripped over her own feet and fell. The
needle went into the left part of her abdomen as she landed. Then Gambit and
Rogue were there to take on the Exec. Cannonball went over to see if she was
alright as Rogue decked the Exec.
Timeslip knew it was over. She had heard of this poison. Her
blood vessels would burst and she's die a painful death within minutes. She'd
cry if she hadn't known how futile tears were. Someone was raising her head.
She looked into the blue eyes of this time period's Samuel Guthrie. "I'm
dead within a few minutes," she said sadly. She appeared fine at the moment
so a confused look briefly lit his face. "She poisoned me. I'm so stupid!"
she laughed sarcasticaly. Her fingernails were turning black. Red blotches
started to appear on her arms. "At least I died in battle. In victory."
Cannonball had no idea what to say to her. She knew him, but she was a
stranger to him. "Before I go I want to confess something to you High Lord,"
she said. Red marks were appearing on her face. She was hemorraging, her
brain already dying without enough blood. She couldn't remeber that this was
not the man she knew. "I've always loved you," she said sadly. "I never
even got to kiss you, but I still loved you with all my heart. You saw me as
a child and now I can never show you that I am a woman. Please hold me, Sam.
You don't return my feelings but I know you care enough for that. I'm so
sorry I caused you pain. With my remarks and actions. I was trying to help
you always. I lived for you," she whispered those last words. She coughed,
and blood covered the front of his uniform. "Please burn my body. Fling my
ashes into the winds so I can always be with you," she gasped out those words
before her breathing stopped.
Samuel Guthrie felt a lump in his throat. "We'll give the
kid a good burial," said Wolverine putting a hand on Cannonball's shoulder.
Everyone was standing around him and the girl who had lead them to a strange
adventure in the future. Sam had learned so much about himself...
They burnt her in the back of the mansion. "A warriors
funeral, non?" said Gambit. "The honor of a decent burial is what some
warriors live for," said Wolverine. He still wondered about the kid. She
reminded him of Jubilee, his former protege. He would have liked fighting
by her side. as if echoing his thought's Jean said: "We knew so little
about her..." she sounded kind of sad. "We know the important things. She's
a person like us. She'll fight for good no matter what the price to herslef,"
said Cyclops. "Yes, it is good to know that we will leave something good
for those in the future. Makes everything worth fighting for," said Storm
solemly. After the fire burnt out Storm summoned the winds and spread the
ashes around the world. "A good spirit to watch over us," she said. Jean
smiled.
In the future, about three centuries from when the X-Men fought
their battles, the High Lord sat alone. He was on his ship after having blown
up the enemy facility. The crew was busy getting them back to where the team
was supposed to meet up with them. He was alone and clutched something in
his hand. His face was stony and gave no hint of his inner turmoil. He had
sent her to her death. He had known it would happen, but couldn't prevent it
no matter how he tried. He fingered a leather glove with three adimantium
bear claws attached at the knuckles. It was her glove. He had kept it before
they burned her body. She had died thinking the her love for him was
unreciprocated. After his wife Tabitha had died... and then his son...
He had never wanted to love again. He finally meet Timeslip again when she
was a child. He raised her and a few other mutants he came accross. It
felt wrong, but he had loved her. He couldn't tell her because he knew this
day would come. He figured if he never spoke the words it wouldn't hurt so
much. He was wrong... A solitary tear trickled down the face of the man who
had once thought he would never cry again.
