Zero Hour I
Chapter 1
by
Nina
Disclaimer: All references to characters belonging to the X-Men Universe are © and TM the Marvel Comics Group, 20th Century Fox and all related entities.All rights reserved.
Author's Note: My first "X-Book"!This is really just my own personal experiment, so I may not go further than a few chapters if it's not well received.Although this is a predominately Logan/Ro fic, several X-Folk make guest appearances. Sorry if I took them a little out of character or if they suck - I'm better with one-on-one scenes than group scenes.Anyway, complain to my muse if you don't like it. She insisted on this little piece before I went on to other things. . .
PS: I'm rating the whole series R because some later scenes are quite graphic in violence, language, and sexual content.
PPS: Continuity-shmantinuity. I wanted to use these characters, so I used 'em. :-P
It wasn't really a slaughter. . . not by much, anyway. The boys, full of self-righteous pity, said that because the girls were a player short, they couldn't possibly play a fair game. Well, the girls insisted on the baseball game then, and said they'd whip their butts despite the fact they were short a player, and despite the fact that they were playing by the "No Powers" Rule. The boys snickered and told them that as "gentlemen" they couldn't in good conscience let them play short-handed. They argued an hour, until Remy settled it. He said he'd play deep left on both teams because he wasn't really partial to the game anyway.
"'Sides," he said, "on a beautiful summer day like dis, who'd wanna get all sweaty runnin' 'round playin' baseball?"
He hadn't been paying attention to the game since the fourth inning and opted to lie back in the lush grass to take some naps. The boys grumbled at this, but it hadn't mattered - they had yet to hit the ball past third base. But now the girls were down by three, and Ororo Munroe knew she had to do something to save the good name of her fellow teammates.
Logan smacked his fist into the leather glove and adjusted his catcher's stance. "C'mon, Drake, throw that ol' fastball special right here."
Ororo hid her smirk beneath her cap. Logan played the part of catcher well and looked surprisingly handsome (and vulnerable) in his position behind the plate. "What makes you think his pitch will make it past me?"
Logan ignored her. "You won't have any trouble strikin' her out, Drake. She hits like a girl."
"Don't I know it."
Ororo gripped her bat tighter and raised an eyebrow. "I am a girl, Logan. Or are your enhanced senses on the blink, again?"
He grumbled softly."Honey, the day I misread you bein' a girl is the day Sabertooth dances on stage as a prima ballerina."
Ororo was about to laugh when a sudden WHOOOOSH took her by surprise and knocked her to the ground. She slapped the dirt. "You deliberately kept me talking so I would miss Robert's pitch!"
Logan's eyes twinkled. He reached down and helped her to her feet. "Ain't my fault you can't keep yer eye on the ball, is it?"
"Don't let him distract you, Storm," Jean called.She had inched her way between first and second, ready to steal at a moment's notice, but her husband (and current first basemen) was watching her hips sway seductively in front of him. "He just wants to see us lose. It's a macho guy thing."
Scott Summers grinned wickedly at his wife. "Careful, or Bobby might just beam you with a pitch."
"Shouldn't I be more worried about you beaming me?"
"C'mon, you're short a man. Give it up, you can't win."
"We're short a woman, smart aleck. Which will make our victory all the sweeter."
"Uh, huh. Suuuuure."
They giggled at each other and Ororo felt a pang of jealously.But she shrugged it off, deferring to their playful state, and concentrated on the game. I will pretend the ball is my love life, she thought, and steadied her arm to whack the stuffing out of Bobby's fastball.
"C'mon, 'Ro! Hit it to Jersey!" Rogue chomped her bubblegum while balancing precariously on third base. "We'll show those boys who's boss."
"You and what army, chere?" Remy chimed from the ground. He tipped his baseball cap over his eyes, blocking the majority of the sun, and folded his arms on his stomach.
"Us an' nobody, swamp rat! An' what d'you care? You ain't even payin' attention!"
"Sez you."
"That's right, sez me, an - "
"Look alive, Rogue," Betsy said calmly. "Bobby's thrown a pitch."
WHOOOOSH.
"Shhhhwing, ana miss!" Bobby teased.
"Steee-RIKE TWO!"
"Logan," Ororo muttered, "must you be so loud with your calls?"
"Gotta be, darlin'. Drake can't hear 'em over his own laughter."
"Man, Stormy," Bobby howled. "You shoulda seen your swing. Helloooo. . . Broad side of a barn? You've gotta work your way up to that!"
She narrowed her eyes, choked up on the bat, and unconsciously took on a battle stance. A distant rumble shook the playing field and Bobby's laughter stopped cold.
"If I have said it once, I have said it a hundred times, Robert. Do. Not. Call. Me. That."
Remy, still on his back, chuckled. His laughter echoed across the field. "Now you made 'er mad, homme. You in f'r one rough ride."
"Yeah, well her name's gonna be mud after this pitch."
"We shall see, Robert."
Drake watched for Logan's signals and shook his head at two of them. The older man growled and stabbed the ground with one finger, but Bobby waved it off.
"Aw, fer cryin' - "
"Problems with your pitcher, Logan?"
"Nothin' I can't handle." He stabbed the ground a final time and Bobby nodded. "You ain't seen nuthin' yet, sweetheart."
"And, old friend, neither have you."
Drake hauled back and let fly his fastest pitch. Storm checked the ball, stepped into the plate and felt the ball connect with her bat's sweet spot. The boys watched, horrified, as the ball screamed over their heads into deep left.
As Storm dropped her bat and ran, Wolverine grunted. "Sure you didn't use your powers for that one, Missy?"
She smiled and kept running.
"Way to go, Storm!" Rogue cheered, sliding into home.
"You go, girl!" Jean rounded second base with Ororo closing on her heels. "We'll tie this one up."
"Hustle up, Remy! Man, you got lead in your butt, or what?"
Remy watched the ball sail over his head and muttered a nasty curse while scrambling from his knees. "I' gettin' too old for dis," he growled, reaching for the ball. But as his fingers caressed the laces, something foreign tickled the back of his mind. His body froze. The air suddenly thickened, clinging to him like a summer on the bayou, and his lungs ached with the heaviness. He jerked up, alarmed, wondering if anyone else felt it.
"What the hell you doin,' man?" Warren shouted. "Throw the damn - "
Storm had stopped in her tracks. Jean also slowed, when she saw her friend freeze. "Ororo, why did you stop? What is it?"
Wolverine was already on his feet and peering into the atmosphere. "Incoming," he muttered, tearing off his catcher's mask. His claws slid from his knuckles.
Storm jogged over to Remy.He didn't notice her presence, and his face looked as nervous as she felt, inside.
"I can't sense anything," Jean said. She held her head and concentrated, but nothing came. "Bets, you feel anything strange?"
Psylocke narrowed her eyes. "Not yet. But. . . Jean - "
A dark oval bore into the atmosphere, swirling and swelling until it was half the size of the sun. While the X-Men watched, tendrils of black lightning snaked from the circle and rent the sky, tearing at it like a wild grizzly bear.A freight train buzz vibrated through their bodies as the air on the field crackled and popped, and came alive with a hurricane's intensity. The atmosphere circled them like a wild tornado and leapt from the playing field and into the growing sphere.
"Storm, is this your doing? Can you control that wind?" Cyclops was trying his best to shout over the noise, but Storm still had to read his lips to make out what he said. She shook her head as her hair whipped around her.
"The power is not a natural force. I have no ability to - "
A sudden sub-sonic crackling held their attention. One by one the dark tendrils thinned and created sharp wires of darkness. The wires zigzagged into the bigger black circle and began individually plugging into the mass. When the last black tendril stabbed the center of the circle, the sky lit up like the Fourth of July.
"What the f - " Wolverine shielded his eyes, as they all did. The intensity blinded them.
"Merde!" Gambit hissed. He covered his eyes with his hands as the light burned him. He was about to start swearing again, when an ominous thunderclap wiped out the light show and brought silence across the field. The X-Men blinked back the bright dots flashing in their retinas as their summer world returned.
"What was that--?"
"I dunno, but - "
Jean cried out. "Oh, dear God - A girl. . . Screaming. She's falling!"
"What? Where?" Cyclops ran to his wife as she pointed into the air. No one else could see it.
"I - I can feel her. She's about fifty miles away and three miles straight up," Jean said quickly. "North northeast, and picking up momentum. I don't think she can fly. She's falling too fast."
"Can you manipulate the wind from here, Storm?"
"I can, Cyclops, but I cannot see the girl. If I make any mistakes, I could kill her."
"Jean, can you help?"
She shook her head. "Her thoughts are scattered. She's going into shock, and I can't get a fix on her."
"Rogue--!" Storm called.
"Ah'm on it," Rogue said. She took to the air and flew her fastest to catch up to the girl.
"At that height, and speed, can Rogue adjust her trajectory enough to cushion the fall?"
Warren glanced at Storm, who was frowning. All of the fliers knew that if, after matching the girl's speed, Rogue couldn't turn her body enough to soften the blow, that the girl would die from the sudden impact of being caught. Rogue could get to her the fastest, but she also needed to somehow slow the girl's rate of descent.
"Yes, Warren, if we reach her in time."
She leapt into the air and pushed herself to her top speed. Rogue was already out of range.
<Jean,> Storm thought. <Can you follow any of Rogue's thoughts?>
<No, Storm. She's not clearing her mind enough for me. I keep getting psychic echoes.>
Storm grit her teeth and pushed herself even faster.
<Rogue will reach her in time. I will not. We must keep the girl alert and awake so you can show me where she is. If Rogue cannot slow her down, then I will have to help.>
Jean paused. <That's not exactly a wise move. She could go deeper into shock.>
<True. But we can help her overcome the shock. We cannot help her if she dies.>
<All right, Storm. . . But I may need the Professor's help.>
<Do what you must, Jean. A woman's life is at stake.>
<Understood.>
Storm swallowed. She had to gamble on this move, and they didn't have any time for a backup plan.
<Storm.>
<Yes, Professor.>
<Jean has alerted me to the problem. The girl is awake, and I'm attempting to calm her down, but it isn't an easy task. Her body is shutting down. I suggest that you hurry.>
Storm nodded. She sighed a breath of relief when an image hovered in her mind. She psychically saw both the girl, and Rogue, through the Professor's eyes, and Rogue had matched her speed with the falling woman. Unfortunately, Rogue hadn't caught the woman. Storm knew then that the X-Man didn't feel she could safely change her trajectory without harming the girl.
<I see them, Jean.>
<Yes. . . The girl's falling at maximum velocity right now, and approximately - >
Storm bit her lip, waiting for Jean and the Professor to finish their conversation.
<Sorry. She's seven point three miles from you at - mark - and you have two and a half seconds before. . . well.>
<Thank you.>
Concentrating, Storm did a quick mental calculation and summoned a gust of wind. She didn't see the girl's trajectory change in her psychic vision, but Rogue saw the subtle shift.The girl slowed as the strong wind pushed her sideways to allow time for Rogue to catch her. Storm cursed as they both faltered. It wasn't enough. She risked a greater wind gust, and the woman jerked quickly, like a marionette yanked on an invisible string. As painful as the jolt probably was, it was enough to allow Rogue to scoop underneath and catch the plummeting girl.
<Thank God,> Jean thought. <How is she?>
Storm paused in the air, waiting until Rogue streamed past her in real time. But as the X-Man cradled the unconscious girl to her chest, she shook her head. Storm's jaw stiffened.
<Jean, please tell Dr. McCoy to prepare for the worst-case scenario.>
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