PRELUDE TO ASCENSION - 9/?
By Various


Halfway House - San Francisco

The blind mutant Destiny rests on a cot amongst dozens of fellow street
people. Suddenly she passes out.

Astral Plane

The Gamemaster hovers over the astral form of Destiny.

Destiny: "Won't you ever leave me in peace? Haven't I done enough for
you? "

Gamesmaster: "You know the answer better than I. And it was you that
sought me out. Sought an ally to save all mutants from the holocaust."

Destiny: "I didn't seek you. But then I knew I was doomed to fail, just as
you are doomed to fail. Accept it."

Gamesmaster: "No. Your temporal vision has enabled me to defeat the High
Lord Magneto and his future lackeys, the Hellfire Club."

Destiny: "And Magneto was replaced by Apocalypse. One mad master replaced
by another."

Gamesmaster: "And we were well under way to defeating him, but something
has changed. What is it?"

Destiny: "I can't help you. The stream of time has become a torrent that
is senseless to me."

Gamesmaster: "Tell me who the meddler is. What do they want?"

Destiny: "I don't know. Current realities are not prophecy. You can touch
all minds in the world, you would know your adversary better than I."

Gamesmaster: "There are minds closed to me, as yours is partially
protected. But you, you can see the end of things, you can see my foe
revealed."

Destiny: "I can't."

Gamesmaster: "You will." Destiny's astral form is stretched and twisted
and pummeled by waves of telekinetic energy. She moans in agony. 

Destiny: "The..the god... The God of Mischief. That is all that I see. He
becomes the High Lord in place of Apocalypse."

Gamesmaster: "God of Mischief?" The Gamesmaster searches the minds of the
world, "Ah, the Viking God Loki."

Destiny: "I see more... He will destroy you. He already has."

Gamesmaster: "Rest. I will need you again."

Destiny is thrown back into her body, shaking, muttering out loud and to
herself about cataclysms. The homeless all around her ignore her. They 
already know that she is mad.

Israel

The Blue Team of the X-men are on board the Blackbird which has lost all
power from the EM backlash of Magneto stopping a nuclear warhead. Its hull
screams as the air buffets it at speeds well beyond the sound barrier.
Its alien metal reddens as its protective shielding no longer cools it.

Rogue: Opens the door, bracing it against the wind's onslaught. She's
sure the plane is going too fast to safely escape, but escape they must.
Cyclops is helping Professor X with his chair, and Colossus, Gambit, and
Wolverine are strapping on chutes. Gambit is the first one to the door,
staff in hand, and Rogue throws him out, and clear of the ship. The
Professor suggests trying to slow the plane, or at least help some of the
more fragile X-men as they leap, lest the speed harm them. Rogue obeys 
and bails out as Gambit's chute opens.

The Blackbird lurches, shakes, and slows as if a powerful airbrake
engaged. The G-Force slams Cyclops into his seat, crushing him.
Protective padding braces Charles within his wheelchair as his face
distorts from the G-force. Colossus armors up, gets up and tries to
assess what to do next. The plane arcs, flying on its own, all systems
and instruments still dead. It slows further and levels off to a landing
approach that it can glide down from on its own. Professor X
telepathically orders Colossus to manually release the landing gear,
which he does. The Blackbird screeches to a sparking stop on an unpaved
road in the desert. Another lurch, and the Blackbird stops.

Professor X: Massages his temple and mutters, "Magneto is here."

Golan Desert

(Unconscious from containing the nuclear blast of Byzantium.)

Magneto: His consciouness seeps into his throbbing skull like a dog left
out in the rain. His ears are ringing, loudly. Loud enough that he can
not hear anything else. Bleary eyed, he tries to sit up but his blood
pounds down on his temple, and his body rebels against movement. He lies
there in the pit for an amount of time that he can't fathom. Eventually
the dizzy aching receeds, and he can rise, but his ears are still 
damaged. His body aches from dozens of purple splotches and blood is dried
on his nose, lips and ears. He's alone in 1/4mile crater that is about 100
ft deep. 

Magneto takes a deep breath and tries a brief, *very* minor power test,
taking a small shred of scrap metal from the demolished ruins that used
to be the place he was staying and floating it around. He is suprised to
find that it is easy, perhaps easier than it ever has been. He gathers
what strength he has left and lifts himself out of the crater, landing
immediately at the top and collapsing in the shade of some scrubby trees.
For a short while, he does little but rest in the nearest covered, faintly
safe place; he passes the time -- and works himself into a nervous and
frustrated wreck -- studying the crater and the ruins of his sanctuary,
murmuring complex physics to himself (which of course he can't hear) in an
attempt to calculate where a blast that laid the wreckage in this pattern
might have thrown Renegade.
  The physics confound him for a bit, until he realized that the
explosion spun him slightly. He guesses that he dumped Renegade into the
middle of the Syrian army (although 1000 troops is more a strike force). 

Assessing the damge for a final time, Magneto concludes the blast that
destroyed his base was not the same as the nuke blast. He in fact
contained 99.5% of the nuke blast, but the strain made him blast his own
power outward. He blew up the bunker. 

Studying the Syrians, he witnesses the Blackbird's flaming dive as its
cloaking device cuts out.

Magneto picks himself up slowly, wincing, and as soon as he's standing 
handles all other motion by levitation, as his power is working a lot
better than his body is at the moment. Staying very low -- only a few
inches above the ground, walking height -- he drops behind the far edge
of the hill in which the crater has been blown, toward the Syrian border;
then rises behind cover of another hill to look for Renegade. 

Renegade is a blur as cloaking costume blends in with the costumes of the 
Syrian soldiers. She is busy playing pinball, bouncing herself off of
soldiers in a ricochet motion, bowling them down with terrifying ease,
and forcing them into harming each other with "Friendly Fire". Then he
yanks her into the air, and her costume renders all but her head
invisible which floats ghoulishly over to you. This REALLY spooks the
troops. Subtlety, he muses dryly, is probably pointless by now. A tank
points in his direction, and he turns it inside out, dumping out the
driver and gunner.

The two land in the copse of trees, obscured by dust clouds remaining from
the blast. Remembering the Blackbird, it takes a half-second's thought to
realize that avoiding a confrontation now is almost certainly impossible,
whether it crashes or not -- somehow, he does not trust the X-Men to die
conveniently on impact.

In barely more time than that, he pulls the plane up, jerking its
occupants around with painful but not damaging force as the trajectory is
abruptly  changed.

Renegade: Obviously screaming in delight and concern, but strangely
silent to your ringing ears. She hugs, slightly shaking, then sees you
are landing the Blackbird and gets back. She asks you what is that plane,
but doesn't realize you can't hear. She asks again.

Magneto: Barely notices being either hugged or talked to, concentrates on
bringing the plane down in some kind of reasonable fashion. He pays just
enough attention to Renegade to see that she's all right, gathers that
she's saying *something* to him, and frowns momentarily, not answering.
When he can afford to take his attention from the plane, now on the
ground, and kicking up a vast amount of dust as it skids to a stop, he
fiddles with the electromagnetic field in the close vicinity of his ears. 
 He half-smiles at Renegade in dry apology for the neglect, murmuring "I
would appear to be unable to do six impossible things in one moment."
Then he watches the plane, and the hovering Rogue; tense, cautious, still
in the shadows but not hiding. 

Renegade: Realises something is wrong, "Why are you shouting Magnus?
Someone will hear you. Who's in the plane? It's somebody you know isn't
it?" She covers her eyes to the desert sun. "Somebody flying, and a
chute, mutants? Four figures emerging from the plane, @#$#%$! That's
Wolverine! It's the X-Men! Now what?"

Outside the Blackbird

Rogue: Watches the Blackbird suddenly slow, jerk, and begin a more proper
landing. She assumes that they've fixed the ship. She looks over to
Gambit and finds him spiraling, his chute tangled. She flies over to
help. "Ah can see that parachuting at Mach 2 isn't your forte,
dahlin'...looks like Ah have to save the day once again."  She grins at
Gambit playfully, knowing that this really irks him, before getting 
serious again. "Ah think Magneto might be here...," She adds tentatively,
knowing that they haven't discussed Magneto before.

Gambit: "How do you know, chere?" he asks, catching his breath, calming
his pulse.

Rogue: She isn't sure but says, "Ah...Ah guess I feel his presence or
something like that." 

Gambit: Frowns. 

Blackbird 

Colossus: Had armored up when the plane was in turbulence, but as they
land and Xavier announces that Magneto is here, he de-armors.

Cyclops: (To the Professor) "Are you sure it's him?"

Xavier: Nods seriously. "Stranger still, his ability to shield himself
from my mind has faded. I can sense the general shape of his thoughts and
fears. He knows we are here, he's hurt, afraid, cornered, but he's never
so dangerous as when he feels threatened."

Cyclops: Rechecks the Blackbird. "All of the software is erased, and most
of the integrated circuitry is fused. She's a hull - no more." 

Wolverine: "Mags may have brought us down, but we're still in a tin can
that he can crush when he wants. I'm outta here."

Xavier: "He's right Scott. We need to get out into the open to better
assess the situation. I'm reaching out my thoughts to Rogue and
Gambit...they are both alright. I'm linking our thoughts together so that
we can know what the other knows."

Suddenly each of their perceptions is skewed as each X-Man gains
Wolverine's sense of smell, and the aerial view of Rogue's eyes."

Cyclops: "Everyone out." He helps Xavier into his manual wheelchair, and
helps him out of the Blackbird. The more sophisticated hoverchair stays
behind, having suffered the same fate as the Blackbird.

Golan Desert

Rogue: (out loud to Gambit) "Dahlin', if they need us, they can summon
us. She heads towards Magneto on her own, carrying Gambit, She intends to
go and aid Magneto. 

Gambit: "You O.K. with this, chere?" Gambit asks. 

Rogue: "Yeah, sugah...of course. Ah am," but she can feel her pulse
getting even quicker, thinking about confronting Magneto. "If he doesn't
react well to us, I don't know how things will go. Back in the Savage
Land, Magneto left before we could really get anything sorted out between
us."

Magneto: Only the lines of tension in the way Magneto holds his
shoulders, and the eyes that always keep moving, keeping mental lines
honed from the plane to each of the people surrounding it, reveal any
degree of edginess. Pitching his voice very carefully, ("watching" the
resonances the sound makes on his metal-fabric clothing to judge volume
precisely) he answers Renegade, "Now I find out what they want of me. If
it were my death -- at least if that were their first choice -- Xavier
would not be with them."

Rogue: She sees Magneto rise. "You see any trouble comin' our way, Ah
expect you can take care of 'em with those little cards of yours
Remy...after all, I gotta do all the work, flying you around and all." 
She tries to laugh, but she's scared and it sounds forced.

Cyclops: (Via the telepathic link) "I want you all to form up on me." He
fires a minor flare beam from his visors to reorient the others through
the dust cloud stirred by the landing and remaining from Byzantium's
blast. "I'll want Rogue on point, followed by Gambit, Myself, Xavier, then
Wolverine and Colossus, since they are the most vulnerable to Magneto."

Wolverine: Refuses Cyclops' plan outright.

Colossus: "Cyclops, as I assess this, it is us vs. the army, Magneto does
not seem hostile to me." Armors up. "I have a few ideas to deal with
them. I could throw parts of the plane, that is easy enough. If the
tanks attack us in some formation I can tunnel underground, moving sand
is child's play to me, and appear in the general direction of the
formation and try to attack from behind, throwing tanks and the like. I
will always, of course, follow your lead."

Magneto: He moves out of the shadows into clear view, nodding to Renegade
first to stay back. He has repaired his clothes from the blast, running
metal shreds together seamlessly, but the assortment of cuts and bruises
he's sustained are impossible to conceal. He appears not to notice the
injuries. Nodding coldly to Wolverine, he does not deign to notice the
claws.

Glancing up (the "glance" is social; he is not taking his eyes off the
entire scene), he sketches a silent greeting to Rogue, something between
a deep nod and a slight bow. Quietly (again, volume measured by
vibration), turning to Xavier (and ignoring Cyclops completely), he
allows himself a faintly inquiring glance -- the first sign yet that his
face isn't steel. He says only, "Well, Charles?" as though picking up a
conversation begun years ago, with no need for summarization.

Xavier: (to the X-men Telepathically) "Your concern for the Syrians seems
unfounded Colossus, without their super soldier, they are already making
plans to break rank and disburse. If they do not, we risk being in the
cross fire of the long range weapons of the Israelis as well." (Out Loud)
"Magnus. We continually meet in strange wars surrounded by enemies bent on
mutual destruction. I see this as the culmination of your twisted view on
the world of might making right. Byzantium could have been one of your
Brotherhood of Evil mutants, fool hardy, self righteous and bent on
slaying any in the way of his aims. This madness must stop. Surely by now
you must see the wisdom of my dream by now? Use this new life as a second
chance. We must learn to live together, all of us, in peace." From his
chair he offers his hand.

Renegade: Her costume blends with the desert sand, making all but her
face invisible. She whispers to Magneto, knowing his mutant power is
boosting his hearing. "Don't do it Mags, you don't have any protection
from his mind. You start acting the slightest bit funny, and they're going
down, all of them." Her voice has the edge of a veteran that doesn't
threat or brag, but does what they say, without mercy. 

X-Men Mansion - Foyer

*Ding - Dong* *Ding - Dong* *Ding - Dong*

Banshee: "Sit dear Moira, I'll be seein' to this." Opens front Door.
"Xavier's School for the- Kitty!"

Shadowcat: Disheveled, nervous, "Sean? What are you-"

Banshee: "Patchin' up a wee bit o' me past. The X-Folk be mostly about,
but take yuirself in and sit a bit. Moira and I we're bein' at tea."

Shadowcat: Enters and sits. "I just got word about Ilyanna and I came as
soon as I could, is she alright?"

Dr. Mctaggert: "Ach, she's without her powers and that's put the foul
plague at rest. But she's not well, perhaps traumatized a bit."

Shadowcat: "Can I see her?"

Dr. Mctaggert: "Of course. This house bein' more yuirs than mine, make
yuirself at home. She's up in her room restin' if'n yuir want to look in."

Shadowcat: "Thanks. I will. And could you spare a wee bit of that tea."

Banshee: "Regular old bloke she is now. Me I went fer a cheeseburger the
moment I hit the colonies."

Shadowcat: "England has a few painful memories right about now, I'd
rather we not bring it up."

Banshee: "Sure lass, but if ye don't mind me sayin' so, if yer tired of
Excaliber, Ah've got an offer."

Shadowcat: Eyes him warily, then makes her way to Ilyanna's room.

Beast: (enters from the elevator that leads to the genetic lab) "It seems
that my need for a break is not alone. So this is wher've you've gotten
to, Doctor."

Moira: "Ach, ah'm sorry Henry. I lost track of the time."

Banshee: Getting up from the couch. "Well a day old friend! Been awhile."

Beast: "Sean." Offers a hand, "On better circumstances, I'd be more
gracious, but welcome." *cough*

They sit and talk, Moira and Henry catching Sean up on details of recent 
events, and Sean begins talking about his plans for Generation X, a new
team of New Mutants.

Banshee: "You know, it's not like me to be askin' fer aid, but my heart'd
be glad if'n you be willin' to help me get started. You've been in more
teams then I've been in vaults."

Beast: "And I have seen many a villain blossom into a hero, and at times
back again. If you are finished with your days of aquisitioning, then I'd
be glad to assist."

Banshee: "You wound me lad." The door bell rings.

South America - Brazil

(The 21st Century Sam Guthrie looks down at the carnage he's done to the 
guerilla fighters hiding in an old Mayan city.)

Cannonball: Flies up and out of reach of their gunfire. He grumbles about
war, forgetting that people fought and died before the cataclysm. "Ah'm
clueless. Ah'm best when ah know what Ah'm doin' and where ah'm goin'.
Dani was always the inspired one. Haven't thought of her in years. Ah
might as well check on the mansion. AL, is that a problem?"

AL: -- No change in Probability. Action normally occurred. --

Cannonball: "So history says I went home huh? Not sure if that's good or
bad considerin' how things turned out. Maybe I should be see'n X-Force
instead. Cable'd understand 'bout time trippin'. No I remember what Cable
did." Cannonball flies north to the mansion, lands. "It looks the same. Ah
know it's been destroyed a few times, but it always looks the same." Sam
stops by a tree. The initials SG & DM are carved up on a high branch.
"Ah'm glad she never saw that. Well here goes nothin'." Rockets to the
front door. Knocks. No one answers. Rings the bell.

Voice: A muffled voice from beyond the door, "Now who is it?"

The door opens. A vaguely familiar face opens it, but not very familiar.
He is a middle aged man with red curly hair and is smoking a pipe. His
ethnicity is very Irish.

Banshee: "Can I be helpin' ye son? This be Xavier's School for the
Gifted."

CannonBall: (To Banshee)  "Ah...umm...I'm a relative of a former student
at this school..."

Banshee: "Well enough, whom shall I be sayin arrived?"

Cannonball: Although Sam is managing conversation, his mind is reeling.
(To himself) "Who is this guy? Ah definitely don't remember him...have ah
inadvertently changed time somehow? And what the hell do ah do if ah
have?" (To Banshee) "I'm Sam Guthrie's cousin...and ah know he's not
currently with the school, but ah'd still like to take a look around, if
ah could."

Banshee: Not showing the slightest hint of suspicion, but then he was a
secret agent, trained at duplicity. "Not bein' the best time for a tour
I'm thinking, but yuir welcome all the same." Behind his back he makes a
gesture to Moira who motions Beast out of view.

Cannonball: (To himself) "And maybe," he thinks, "ah can find someone ah
*do* remember to tell me what the hell is going on."

Banshee: Lets in the tall gangly man, taking note of his bearing and
demeanor. "Names Sean Cassidy, not the singer mind ye, but Ah've got
quite a voice of me own..." He leads Sam into the common room, introduces
"Professor McTaggert - she teaches science here" and briefly recounts
Sam's story to her.

Moira: A glimmer of recognition crosses her face.

Antarctica

Warlock and Doug Ramsey are in the form of a plane scouring the Antarctic 
circle.

Doug: *Your right Lock, he's gone. The trail of magnetic disturbance is
faint, but it's there. My Cipher ability seems to be enhancing your
ability to Cipher data, because the trail is extremely faint, he
obviously covered his tracks.*

Warlock: --GreatestofSelffriends I am afraid. Yourworld has become no
better than selfmagusworld.--

Doug: *I know, we've got to do as we've always done and make our way and
hope it turns out. I think we should follow the trail south.*

Warlock: --AfirmativeAgreeingAcceptence. WARNING!WARNINIG!DANGER!
Selfsensors indicate dimensional appeture to LIMBO!!
SelfmaybefreindMaybeenemyMajik/IlyannaPerson making apparition!--

Majik: A hole opens in the sky, and Majik, in nearly full eldritch/demonic
armor, looks about, and doesn't see Warlock. "Damn. I thought I had a
hold on that counter spell. Back to scratch at the mansion."

Limbo

Majik kicks over a scrying pool.

Majik: "Damn. Damn! DAMN!"

Generic Demon: (runs up with three thugs) "We got work boss?"

Majik: "No. We're not Damning anybody, unless I can figure out who put the
spell on Warlock. It's too good. This is on the Sorcerer Supreme Level or
on a God Level."

G Demon: "Boss someone coming up top."

Majik: Looks through the window to her room where her shared body with
Ilyanna is jumping on the bed. The bedroom door opens, and Kitty enters.

Kitty: (In russian) "Since when did you become such a little hellraiser?
No jumping on the bed." Her tone isn't scolding, it's amused, and she
offers up a hug for her.

Ilyanna: Bounces up and into Kitty's arms. "BAMF!" She giggles. "Wanna
see a magic trick?"

Majik: "NO! Ilyanna, no tricks!"

Ilyanna: "Oh, sorry. I told myself, no more tricks."

Kitty: "You're such a silly bear." (To herself) "She's just growing out
of her sweet phase into the lovable devil we know, that's all." (To
Ilyanna) "Shall we go downstairs? I don't think you're ready for bed."

Ilyanna: "Goody!"

Common Room

Cannonball is introduced to Moira Mctaggert by Banshee.

Cannonball: Sam is inwardly worried that Moira has caught on already, but
this does not show on his face. "Pleased ta make your acquaintance,
ma'am." He takes in his surroundings, musing to himself "Much as ah
remember it...but somethin' just ain't right...". Sam turns back to
Banshee. "You said now wasn't a good time, sir?" Kitty comes down the
stairs carrying Ilyanna, and as Sam looks up he starts to sway slightly.

Beast: (Comes out from hiding as Sam talks) Offers to shake hands, "Sam
Guthrie, while I live and breathe what happened to-"

Cannonball: But as the response comes, Sam suddenly becomes aware that
the problem isn't with his surroundings - it's with him. His vision grays
out and is briefly aware of an impact with the floor, then nothing. 

----------------------------

"Prelude To Ascension" - Part 9 - 9 Pages (Holy Bursting Bandwidth
Batman!) (This is a serial work of fan fiction. It is based on the
adventures of the X-Men and diverges from the comic continuity after
Unlimited X-Men #1. Continuity may also differ in other respects. This
story in its original form is an e-mail RPG started on Usenet .racx, and
these Story Posts are combined from the actual moves of the players, with
minor editing, plus my added filler. Co-plotting and most of the dialogue
should be credited to the appropriate players listed at the end. Sorry,
no more players will be accepted.)

Previous Chapters available by E-MAIL request to Dan Adams at 
dadams@hpbs3339.boi.hp.com 

-GM/Author Scott Bachmann/di800@cleveland.freenet.edu

The Players 
DougLock:   Jennifer.L.Lehoczky@williams.edu (Toby Elliott)
Magneto:    rivk@midway.uchicago.edu         (Naomi Gayle Rivkis) 
Colossus:   dn961@cleveland.Freenet.Edu      (Matthew S. Mccarthy) 
Rogue:      jav41196@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu        (Jennifer Vodvarka) 
Gambit:     V534YYNN@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu    (Matt Dempster) 
Majik:      glaw@Jade.Tufts.EDU              (Gabe)
Wolverine:  musgse@meaddata.com              (Steve Musgrave)
Cannonball: tnieboer@nyx.cs.du.edu           (Toby Nieboer)
Cyclops:    CHL701S@vma.smsu.edu             (Christopher Lenger)
J.Pierce:   uplink@cwis.unomaha.edu          (John)
Beast:      dh340@cleveland.Freenet.Edu      (Joshua H. Gage)