Storm hurried out of the mansion and into the sky.
Gambit watched warily. Whenever Storm was in a hurry, it usually meant
trouble. Beast followed a moment later and stood, watching Storm
disappear into the blue sky.
"Trouble, mon amie?" Gambit asked.
"Of course." Beast sighed. "We seem to have ... misplaced ... Star."
"'Misplaced'."
"Mmm."
"De others okay?"
"Apparently. Jean reports the Professor, Wolverine and Jubilee are returning."
"Why Wolverine not lookin' for de petite?"
"Star seems to have chosen a vertical egress."
"She went up?"
"Yes."
"Another one." Gambit muttered under his breath.
"It does seem to be a mode of transportation favored
by the females of the Xavier household." Beast looked skyward once
more, then turned and went back inside, leaving Gambit alone on the porch once more.
Star was growing cold and it was becoming harder to
breath. She was running out of time. By successfully closing her mind
to the many voices below, she had also cut off the flow of power which
had sustained her. She had to find a haven. Now. She allowed herself
to fall to a level where she could breath more easily, then she began
to search for the Xavier mansion. The X-Men had helped her before,
perhaps they could help her now.
Far below, Storm and Rogue searched, neither
believing an out of control child could rise so high. Storm used her
power to search for a heat source in the clouds. She found a trace,
which she and Rogue tried to follow, but it was too faint, fading too
quickly in the brisk winds.
At last Star sensed the familiar resonance of the
place she had begun to consider home in the last few weeks. With her
powers rapidly failing her, she plummeted groundward.
"Jean, can you find her?" Scott asked gently.
"No. I can't sense her at all." She opened her eyes
and looked up at Cyclops. "Either she has completely closed off her
mind, or..." she paused.
"Or what, Jean?"
"Or the child is dead, Scott."
"Dear Lord."
Star could feel the world fading around her. With
the last of the energy garnered from the unwitting population of the
city below her, she redirected her fall toward home. Too late. Her
world went dark. And she fell.
Rogue and Storm searched the heavens for their
missing charge, moving outward on opposite arms of a spiral, with the
city at its center. Rogue caught a flicker of movement and paused in
her flight. It was Star. She was falling. And she was too far
away!
"Storm!" she cried, pointing. Storm whirled at
Rogue's cry. She saw Star and called upon the powers of the winds. But
it was too far even for her powers. The two X-Men watched helplessly
while the girl fell, both rushing to aid her, but knowing their
assistance would arrive too late.
Jean gasped. The house rang with a terrific crash.
"What?" Cyclops leaped to his feet at the sound.
"Scott, its Star! I felt her, but she was too close. I couldn't stop her fall!"
Gambit was still on the porch when Star slammed into
the roof of the mansion. An instant later she fell to the roof of the
porch. Her limp and battered body rolled off the roof and fell, almost
leisurely, to drop into the well manicured flowers almost at Gambit's
feet. He stared at her for a moment, then leaped over the railing to
land at her side. He knelt beside her and gently brushed aside her
hair. He felt the throb of her pulse in her throat. It was slow and
weak. He had never touched a living being as cold as this girl. Her
skin was blue. He took his shirt off and carefully placed it over her.
The scorched fragments of her own clothing offered her no protection.
Beast and Cyclops burst from the house, followed closely by Jean.
"Here!" he called. "She hurt bad, mes amies." Beast
gently checked her for spinal injuries before turning her to her back,
exposing her shattered left arm.
"Let's get her inside," he said. "I can see what
else she has broken more easily in the dispensary." Gambit started to
lift her, but Beast stopped him.
"Jean, can you immobilize her?" Jean nodded. Gambit
carefully picked her up while Jean prevented her broken arm from
moving. Cyclops held the door open as Gambit climbed the stairs,
followed by Jean and Beast. Star's head rested on Gambit's bare
shoulder, her cheek against his skin.
"Hey, Beast. She warmin' back up."
Storm and Rogue swooped to a landing on the porch,
hurrying to follow the others. Jean stumbled, then fell to her knees.
Scott reached to help her, then fell himself. Gambit half turned, then
his knees buckled. He twisted, trying not to fall on the broken body
he carried, unaware that she was the cause of his sudden weakness.
Beast collapsed, then Storm and Rogue slumped. In moments, Xavier's
School for Gifted Youngsters was silent.
Star opened her eyes. She was confused, disoriented.
Her last memory had been of falling, now she was lying on a tiled
floor, the warmth of another person next to her. She tried to lift
herself, but her left arm wasn't working and when she bumped the tile
with it pain flooded through her. She drew her knees up to her chest
and knelt on the floor, her forehead resting on the cool tile, her
injured arm across her chest. She fought against passing out. In a few
moments, she felt she could try to sit up again. She pushed herself up
with her good arm, keeping the other cradled against her body. She
looked around and realized that she was surrounded by the bodies of the X-Men.
"No, please, no," she moaned. "Not again. Not my
friends." She could still feel them in her mind. She had not killed
them. Not yet.
She had to get away from them. She could feel them
weakening more and more the longer she stayed close to them. Her
awareness of Gambit ... flickered. He was dying. She had been closest
to him and had drained him more heavily than the others. She knew she
couldn't get far enough away to break the connection in time to save
him. Desperately, she tried to reverse the energy flow. She placed her
hand on his bare chest and willed the life energy she had stolen back
into him. His presence in her mind steadied, then brightened. The
others continued to grow dimmer. Gambit groaned. Then he opened his
eyes and looked up at her.
"Mon petite, what you do?" he asked weakly, his hand
seeking hers. She snatched her hand away. Moving on her knees and her
good hand, she crawled toward the door. Gambit turned over with a
painful effort. Star had reached the door. She pulled herself to her
feet, using the sturdy door frame for support.
"Chere, wait," he called to her, pushing himself to
his knees. She looked back at him, tears in her eyes, then pushed
herself away from the door frame, staggering across the porch until
she reached the stair rail, where she clung for a moment. Gambit
gained his feet behind her, but when he tried to follow he stumbled
over Cyclops' outstretched arm and went down heavily. He got to his
knees again, but was unable to go any further. He could only watch as
she stumbled down the stairs to the lawn, then walked, weaving
drunkenly, across the manicured grass to the woods surrounding the
mansion. In only a few steps, she had disappeared into the gloom under
the trees. He sank back on his heels, staring after her for a moment.
Then he turned to his companions. He crawled from one to another and
determined that each was alive, though none of them showed any sign of
rousing. He returned to Rogue's side and leaned his back against the still open door.
"Chere," he said to her unresponsive form. "If
anybody pick now to attack, we be sittin' ducks."
Star stumbled deeper into the woods. She was cold
and pulled tight the shirt Gambit had wrapped around her. Her arm hurt
almost unbearably, but she was aware of other injuries. She didn't
know how she had been hurt, but, as Wolverine would have said, she'd
done a good job of it. In addition to the broken arm, she thought her
ribs were probably broken, her knee had swollen to the point that it
wouldn't bend and would barely support her weight. There was also a
large bruise spreading on her abdomen. She knew she couldn't go much
further, but she didn't know if she was far enough to put the X-Men
out of danger. So she kept going, hobbling from one tree to the next,
leaning more heavily on each. She leaned against one tree for several
minutes before trying to go on. When she pushed away from the tree,
her legs crumpled beneath her and she fell, landing on her broken arm.
White hot pain flowed through her for an instant before being replaced by a merciful
darkness.
"All right, Wolvie," Jubilee said as she pulled the
van into the drive to the mansion. "We're here, you can ungrit your teeth."
"I don't think so." He answered, looking toward the house.
"Huh?"
"What is it, Wolverine?" The Professor asked from the rear of the van.
"Don't know, but I c'n see Gambit sittin' in the
door and I think, yeah, Rogue's lying on the floor behind him. Lot o' blood, too."
"I do not sense any hostile thought patterns,"
Xavier told him. He opened the door of the van before Jubilee had
brought the vehicle to a stop. "You two stay here." He closed the van
door quietly then bounded up the steps, his claws extended. He
crouched next to Gambit, who lifted his head at Wolverine's approach.
"Glad to see you, mon amie. Don' t'ink I could stand off a kitten right now."
"What gives?"
"Don' know. We bringin' de petite inside, an'
ever't'ing go dark. If dis a new weapon, nobody followin' up."
"You found Star?"
"She find us." Someone groaned and Gambit turned his
head. "Dey all alive, mon amie. You best go find de girl. She broke up real bad."
"Where?" Gambit pointed toward the trees. "'Bout
half hour ago." Wolverine retracted his claws and turned back to the
van. He opened the side door and leaned in.
"Star's been here. I don't smell nobody else."
"The others?"
"Gambit says they're all alive. I gotta find the
kid. The Cajun says she's hurt."
"Wolverine, that might not be wise. She is obviously
unable to control her powers and, as you have seen, she can be a danger even to you."
"Yeah, well, I ain't never been known for wise
decisions." He turned to Jubilee, listening wide eyed from the front seat.
"Darlin', you an' the Prof get inside an' see what
ya can do for them. I'll be right back." He moved around the van and
quickly crossed the yard, looking for the exact place Star had entered
the woods. It wasn't hard to find, she'd left a blood trail a blind
mancould have followed. He followed her trail for nearly fifteen
minutes. He didn't know how anyone could still be alive after losing
that much blood, much less keep moving. His nostrils flared as he
caught a familiar scent. Gambit? He stepped around yet another tree,
this one smeared more heavily with blood than the last, and saw Star.
She lay on her right side, her arm extended over her head, trying to
pull herself along, pushing weakly with one leg. She had Gambit's shirt around her.
"Star," he said, straightening up from a crouch. She turned her head to look at him,
"Stay away from me," she said, frantically clutching
a tree root and pulling herself away from him.
"Star, I ain't gonna hurt ya, darlin'."
"But I might hurt you. Please stay away."
"Can't do that, kid. You're hurt bad an' I gotta get
ya back where we can take care of ya."
"No! I can't go back. I hurt them all. Nearly killed
Gambit," she stopped trying to pull away from him. "Too many people.
Too many voices. Couldn't shut 'em out."
"You didn't kill anybody, darlin'. Gambit was the
only one awake when we got here. Didn't look like he was about ta die ta me."
"No, I ... I gave him some back." Wolverine moved closer.
"You couldn't stop takin', but you could give ta Gambit?"
"I...I guess."
"You couldn't block 'em out 'cause there was too many of 'em, right?"
"Yes."
"It's just you an' me out here, darlin'. Let me see what I c'n do for ya." He moved up
beside her, she watched him with wide, frightened eyes.
"Doin' okay?"
"I think so." He quickly checked her for injuries.
He found the pressure point high on her left arm, above the protruding bone.
"You've lost a lot o' blood from that arm, darlin'.
We gotta get the bleedin' stopped first." The bleeding, which had
slowed to a sluggish trickle, stopped. He cut a strip from the bottom
of the shirt he wore, and tied it around her arm. He released the
pressure point, but the bleeding did not start again.
"The arm's obvious, babe. Where else ya hurt?"
"My ribs," she answered quietly. "And my stomach
hurts." He gently probed her ribs with his fingertips.
"Yep, they're broken, but it don' sound like you've
punctured a lung. Hafta be careful when we move ya, though." He
examined the large bruise on her abdomen and shook his head.
"You're bleedin' inside, darlin'. I gotta get you back ta the house."
"No!"
"Tell ya what, I'll take ya back slow 'n easy. When
ya start to feel the pressure o' the others, tell me an' we'll stop
for a bit." He bent and carefully lifted her, she put her arm around his neck.
"Ready?" She nodded, her broken arm across her body.
He carried her to the edge of the lawn before she
felt herself being overwhelmed. He stopped and shouted,
"Jubilee!"
"Wolvie!" Jubilee's voice answered him from inside
the huge house. "You find her?" Jubilee burst through the door.
"Stay back, darlin'." Jubilee slowed, but didn't stop,
"What's wrong?"
"Just do what yer told, girl." She stopped. "You
doin' okay, Star?" Star nodded weakly and he turned his attention back to Jubilee.
"Is everybody up an' about?"
"Yeah."
"Well, get 'em ta go to the back part o' the house,
as far from the med lab as possible, ya got that?"
"I got it. She okay?"
"So far, now git." Jubilee got. She came back about two minutes later.
"Okay, Wolvie. Everybody 'cept me and the Professor's out of the way."
"Thanks, darlin'." He carried Star across the lawn
and into the house. Xavier met them at the door.
"Star, if you will let me, I can help you block out the others' minds."
"Try" she answered. Xavier concentrated for a moment, then said,
"Go ahead, Wolverine. Jubilee, would you ask Henry
to join us in the med lab, please? And tell the others the situation is under control."
"Sure," she dashed off down the hall.
Wolverine carefully lowered Star to the gurney Beast had quickly prepared. She smiled up at
him, as if he were the one in need of reassurance. Perhaps he was. He'd seen grown men die of
injuries less severe.
"Just hang on, kid. Hank here is our resident
miracle worker." She raised her right hand and Wolverine took it in
his. She looked at their joined hands for a moment, and a frown
flickered across her face.
"Wolverine," her voice was barely audible.
"Yeah, kid?"
"I lost my bracelet."
"Got it right here," he told her, reaching into his shirt pocket. "Catch is busted," he said,
showing it to her, "but I'll get it fixed, no problem."
"Thank you."
Dr. Henry McCoy was appalled by the extent of the
injuries revealed by the scan he had run while Wolverine talked to
Star. In addition to her arm, which was broken in at least seven
different places, she had broken ribs, just as Wolverine had told him;
an apparently ruptured spleen, which was going to have to be the
priority if they were going to prevent death due to hemorrhage; she
had torn the ligaments in her right knee; and she had a concussion.
She seemed to be holding on to awareness by sheer will.
[ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 ]
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