GO WEST

Chapter 4: "Fire on High"

Downtown San Diego was in utter chaos by the time the mutants arrived on the scene. Police were trying desperately to keep a clear perimeter around the blazing skyscraper, redirecting traffic and holding back huge crowds of onlookers and press. The Imperial Bank Building was not the tallest skyscraper in the city, but it was high enough that most of downtown could see the glow of the flames, if not the building itself, burning like a great black torch against the night sky. Firefighters did everything they could to combat the huge gouts of flame erupting from the shattered glass exterior of the upper stories, and they were able, if just barely, to keep flaming debris from setting any neighboring buildings alight. For all their efforts, though, the flames crept upward, and every few minutes, another section of windows would explode outward from the intense heat, showering the fire engines, ambulances and police cars with shards of blackened, smoking glass.

It was getting to the point that police helicopters were finding it nearly impossible to even get near the site; the updrafts of hot air were growing increasingly severe, and anyone approaching from the air ran the risk of being blown into the sheer walls of the neighboring skyscrapers.

So it was that when Warlock made his approach in his jet-form, carrying his teammates within his own structure, he was violently tossed off-course, and only his own accelerated calculations and countermeasures prevented them from becoming a fiery impact mark on a nearby wall. The mutants aboard were tossed around, but unharmed.

"So much for the direct approach," Doug said. "Warlock, park us up on top of the AT&T, and let's plan this out."

"Dear Lord in heaven," Rahne whispered, looking out of Warlock's 'cockpit' windows as he alighted on a neighboring tower. "'Tis e'en worse than it looked."

"From this perspective, yeah," Dani nodded, looking over her shoulder. Her face was hard, and her mouth was set in a thin line.

"Dani," Roberto asked, "do you... sense... anything?"

"Any death, you mean?" she replied, her voice taut. "Yeah, it's there, but it's... distant. Looming. People are in danger, and death's waiting for them."

"Then let's get in there and save 'em!" Ric shouted, slamming his fist into his open palm, restlessly.

"Hold on, Ric," Doug snapped. "We go in there prepared, or we don't go in, comprende? Warlock, scan the building and see what you can see. And get me hooked in to police frequencies and any TV stations that're showing this."

"Affirmative," Warlock replied. "Processing."

A console formed itself in the cockpit, and multiple screens came to life, showing the scene from the perspectives of several different cameras. A babble of newscasters' voices and police and fire channels erupted around them, as Warlock tuned in to every frequency with news about the fire. It was complete nonsense to most of them, but Doug listened intently, apparently gathering every word. His eyes were open and unblinking, and his expression was likewise frozen. It was only then that his teammates realized that he'd placed both hands inside the console, interfacing with Warlock to take in every piece of data that the technoid received.

"Tighten reception on the police frequencies, 'Lock," Doug said then, not looking away from the fire.

"Processing."

"Okay," Doug nodded, exhaling slowly, as one series of voices came into greater clarity. "We've got firefighters moving up from inside the building, trying to put it out from the base, or at least to keep the building from collapsing. Police have made several airlifts from the roof, and they're not going to be doing any more. They think they've got just about everyone."

"They're wrong," Dani replied, shaking her head.

"That's as may be," Doug went on, "but they can't risk landing up there anymore."

"Who's in the building at this hour, anyway?" Roberto asked.

Doug was silent for a while, processing more of the voices. "One of the TV stations is saying that there was an office party up on 23. There was also a bunch of people working late at one of the big law firms up on the top floors. They think they've accounted for everyone."

"And they think wrong," Dani insisted. "Doug, there are people alive in there!"

"I believe you, Dani," said Doug, his tone calm in spite of the situation. His interface seemed to leave him somewhat detached from the rest of the world.

"So what do we do?" Ric asked, impatiently.

"We go in," Dani replied, matter-of-factly. "These outfits are fireproof, and we've got full hoods to guard our faces."

"It'll take more than that, Dani," Doug interrupted. "Warlock, can you whip up some kind of gas masks for us, to filter out the smoke?"

"Affirmative."

"He can do that?" Roberto asked, surprised.

"One o' his new talents," Rahne explained. "Douglas, if we're t'be splittin' up at all, we should have headsets, like we did when I was with X-Factor, so we c'n keep in contact."

"Good idea. Warlock, can you cover that, too?"

"Affirmative. Already processing."

"Great. Let's get geared up and get ready to... oh, shit..."

"What's up, Doug?" Ric asked him.

"Police just took a head-count. One of their guys didn't make it back from his rescue run. His partners last saw him on 21. 20's pretty much a torch by now, so he's running outta time."

"Then so are we," Dani insisted again. "Let's go!"

Doug pulled his hands free from the Warlock-console, breaking his connection. Shaking his head a few times to clear it, he turned to his friends. His team, he realized, with a mix of satisfaction and dread. "'Lock, take us in and land us right on the center of the roof. We're going in in three groups. Ric and Bobby take 23, me and 'Lock will take 22, and Rahne and Dani take 21. We'll need your senses to track down our missing cop, Rahney. You okay with that?"

She nodded nervously. "Aye... I'll be ready."

Dani took Rahne's hand and gave her a little smile. "I'll look out for you, kiddo."

Ric and Bobby high-fived. "Let's kick ass," Ric said.

"Take us in, Warlock," Doug breathed, his voice tight.

"Affirmative. Self suggests that selfriends hold on tightly."

With those words, several "Oh, shit" bars grew from the cabin's interior, and once the other five had taken hold, Warlock soundlessly launched them from their vantage point, took them high over the inferno, and dropped straight down, the searing updrafts buffeting them as they descended.

"'Express elevator to Hell,'" Ric quoted, "'going down!'" Rahne gave him a sharp glare, though, and he shut up.

Stopping on the proverbial dime atop the roof of the building, Warlock began to disassemble himself around his teammates, while at the same time separating small bits of himself, and forming a set of five breathing masks and communicators. "We have arrived, selfriends."

"Okay, hoods up, people," Doug ordered, pulling his own hood over his head and attaching it to the neck of his skinsuit. He adjusted the one-way lenses that covered his eyes, then bent to pick up the mask that Warlock had left at his feet. He strapped this on as well, tightening it around the back of his head and taking a breath. It seemed to be working -- the air he inhaled was cool and pure. Warlock had outdone himself on sheer cleverness this time around. "Can the rest of you hear me okay?"

By this time, only Rahne had managed to get her mask on all the way. "I hear ye, Douglas," she replied, her voice sounding through a tiny speaker in the vicinity of his ears. "It seems t'be workin'."

Roberto's voice joined in next. "Not bad. For a non-hero group, you guys sure know how to go about it."

"Are you kidding?" Danielle added, fiddling with her own mask to get it into place. "We're making this whole thing up as we go along."

Doug wanted to smile at her, but through their hoods, neither of them would be able to tell. Dani herself looked fairly ridiculous with the full hood on, with the amount of hair that she had to stuff up into it, but better that than to risk setting herself alight. "Everyone set up? Ric, you ready yet?"

"Check," Ric nodded, having finally adjusted his mask to his satisfaction. "Let's get movin'!"

"Warlock, you're with me. I need a schematic-scan of the top three floors."

"Self is on the job, frienDoug," Warlock replied, wrapping his remaining technorganic structure around Doug and configuring himself into a battlesuit. He brought a display visor down in front of his partner's eyes, and the two made a partial neural link, so that Doug could access Warlock's incoming data as quickly as possible. Before his altered sight, vector graphics of the building's structure were drawn, showing the layout of hallways, doors, staircases, and elevators. With a series of mental commands, he superimposed five blips on the three-dimensional display, indicating their own positions by scanning for their comm-units. From this, he could keep track of their positions at all times.

"Beautiful," Doug thought, and was surprised to hear his own voice transmitted through the comlink. Warlock informed him mentally that their neural link allowed directed thoughts to be sent out as spoken words. With their expanded and shared consciousness, they could effectively carry on conversations with all four of the others at the same time. It was like an electrical form of telepathy. Danielle hadn't been exaggerating. This was all new to him, and he was, in fact, making most of it up as he went. It occurred to him that maybe a training session now and again wouldn't be so bad.

"Stairwell's this way," he transmitted then, pointing toward the edge of the roof. "Let's roll."

The five raced across the roof, through the still-open door that led to the stairwell, and pelted down the first flight of steps. "Okay, here's twenty-three," Doug transmitted as they reached the first landing. "Rictor, Sunspot, this one's yours. Check out every room, and make sure the place is clear. We'll be in contact the whole time."

"Got it, Cypher," Roberto replied. He and Ric threw open the door that led from the stairwell and headed in. Not wasting any time, the remaining mutants continued their spiral descent. Hot, smoky wind was blowing up from below, but Warlock's gas-masks kept the supply of clean air going. At the twenty-second floor landing, Doug stopped to look at the others.

"Here's my stop. Wolfsbane, when you get below, I need you and Mirage to search out the floor. Don't shift into wolf-form unless you're well clear of any fires. These skinsuits can't help you when you wolf out."

"I'm aware of that, Cypher," she shot back, in a sort of nervous sarcasm.

"Keep in touch with me. If you find our missing cop, let me know first thing, okay?"

"We're on it," Dani nodded. She flashed him the thumbs-up, then she and Rahne continued their descent, leaving him and Warlock to check the twenty-second.

Considering that they might need a clear exit later, Doug used their combined strength to just rip off the stairwell door, and they headed into the smoky hallway beyond.

Emergency lights were on, probably because the main power from below would have been cut off by now from the fire. There was more than enough light to see, especially with Warlock's mechanical senses, and they were able to search out the first few rooms (law offices, apparently), with ease. There were no people to be found in any of them.

Something occurred to Doug, then, and he looked up. In each room, and in the hallways, there were emergency sprinklers, but none of them were working. That made as little sense as the rest of it.

"Wait a second," he said to himself and Warlock. "If we've still got emergency lights, then there must be a localized power source. If there is, then why aren't the sprinklers running?"

"Unsure," Warlock replied.

"Well, if we can get 'em running, it might help stop this thing before it gets any higher up! Scan for the nearest power source!"

Warlock processed this, and brought up a red blip elsewhere on their floor. "Emergency power source located."

"Let's get over there!"
 
 

One floor down, Dani and Rahne were having a difficult time conducting their search. Sections of the floor had already collapsed, leaving gaping holes that led straight down into the blazing twentieth floor. They put Rahne in mind of the pits of Hell.

"Cypher, we're on twenty-one," Dani said into her transmitter. "It's pretty bad down here. We're gonna have to make this quick before the floor gives out on us."

"Understood, Mirage," Doug replied. "Can either one of you sense anything?"

Dani looked to Rahne, who nodded, then made a shift to one of her middle wolf-forms, her costume vanishing into a tiny collar around her neck. She took off her Warlock-mask to test the air for scents, but immediately began to cough, and she put it back on quickly. "The air's fouled w'smoke, Cypher," she reported between coughs. "I canna smell anythin'... the air isna' breathable!"

"Are you sure someone's alive down there?" Doug asked.

Dani nodded to Rahne. "I'm sure of it. There's death in the air, waiting for someone."

"Well, can you... follow it, or something?"

"I'll try," she replied. Trying to shut out the panic in her own thoughts, she concentrated on the lingering presence of impending death. It was her "gift" as a chosen Valkyrie to sense when death would come, and there were times when she cursed this so-called gift with all her heart. But now, it might just help her to save a life.

"This way," she said to Rahne, heading off down the corridor.
 
 

By this time, Doug and Warlock had found the emergency power systems, tucked away in a maintenance "closet" close to the elevator shafts. They quickly found the emergency controls for the lighting, the elevators, and most importantly, the fire alarms and sprinkler systems.

"Okay, 'Lock, let's get hooked in and see what we've got here."

Doug placed his hand to the controls, and Warlock extended "feelers" to interface with the system. Almost immediately, he pulled them back. "Unable to access. Systems non-functional."

"What?!" Doug checked out the findings for himself. "Holy smoke... They're not just off-line, they're demolished! Someone sabotaged the system!"

"Likely conclusion is that this fire is no accident."

"You can say that again, 'Lock. Shit! Can we fix it?"

"System severely damaged. Repairs will take time."

"Which we don't have," Doug sighed, tensely. "Okay... Warlock, I'll go search out the rest of the floor. You stay here and fix the system."

"Alarm/Objection, friendCypher. Self is logical choice for search, as self is highly resistant to any potential dangers. Selfriend should remain here to fix systems and coordinate actions of other selfriends."

Doug was about to object, but what Warlock said made perfect sense. As much as he had developed his fighting skills, he was still highly vulnerable on his own, and it made more sense for him to lead from behind the scenes, as it were. He could do much more for the team from here.

"Okay, you're right. Get a move on, though -- we're strapped for time as it is."

Warlock separated himself from Doug, leaving behind only Doug's mask, communicator, and display visor, as well as enough of his own structure for Doug to keep himself merged, and to give him something to work with in fixing the system. "Self will return with all speed, friendbossCypher," Warlock nodded, assuming his human shape and emulating the team uniform.

"Be careful out there."

"Self-preservation is a prime concern," Warlock transmitted, and then he was off.

Doug turned his attention to the fire control system, then, placing his hand to the controls and merging his technoid "shell" with it, using the living circuitry to forge a link between his mind and the structure of the system itself. His senses shifted, and he projected himself "into" the structure, feeling around for the damaged hardware. The individual circuits were seen now as crystalline paths, most of which had been shattered by the unknown saboteur. It was up to him to fix it.

For a moment, he shifted back to his schematic of the building, to check the progress of his teammates. Rictor and Sunspot had split up on the top floor, and seemed to be making good time. "Cypher to Rictor and Sunspot. What's your status?"

"Rictor here. The place looks pretty dead. Looks like everyone got out already."

"I think Rictor's right," Sunspot added. "I found where they were holding that party you were talking about, but it's all deserted. We're nearly through up here."

"Okay," Doug replied. "Finish your sweep up there, and I'll flag you down again in a second. Mirage, Wolfsbane, what's up downstairs?"

Rahne was the first to respond. "We've not found him yet, Cypher. Mirage is tryin' t' track him down."

"Good. Keep with it. And be careful down there."

"Aye, Cypher."

Doug shifted back into the emergency controls, looking for a way to bypass the sabotage. He sent out "feelers" of his own, then, checking out the electrical paths through the elevator and lighting systems, hoping to find a way to restructure and reroute the power flow rather than having to rebuild the complex series of connections disrupted in the fire system. He noticed that the six main elevators and freight elevator had all been taken offline by the fire, so maybe he could "pirate" some of these systems to make the necessary connections.

Then, he noticed something that gave him a feeling of sudden dread. Two of the six elevators were read as being somewhere in the lower floors, and out of use. Three others had no reading at all, as though the fire had melted the cables and caused them to plunge into the basement. The sixth, though, was stuck in between the top two stories, where it had been taken offline as the emergency override systems had kicked in.

He didn't like the look of that at all. "Rictor, Sunspot, come in!"

"Right here, Cypher," Rictor reported.

"We're finished on top," Sunspot added. "What's up?"

"We've got an elevator stuck just below your floor," Doug told them. "You'd better check and see if there's anyone aboard."

"Who'd be stupid enough to get in an elevator when the building's on fire?" Ric wondered aloud.

"They might have been inside when the bomb went off downstairs."

"Bomb?" Sunspot exclaimed. "What makes you think it was a bomb, Cypher?"

"Because someone smashed the controls for the automatic sprinkler systems down here. This was planned, guys. Just check it, okay? I've kind of got my hands full down here."

"Alright, we're on it," Sunspot replied. "Meet me at the elevators, Rictor."

"On my way, Spotty."
 
 

Below, Dani's search had led her and Rahne to a corner office. The door was hanging partly open, and they found bullet-holes in the doorknob. "Uh, this looks kind of serious, Cypher," Dani transmitted. "Looks like we had gunfire down here."

"Great," Doug replied. "Wolfsbane, don't even think about shifting at this point. Remember, these suits can stop bullets."

"We'll bloody well keep that in mind, Cypher," Rahne growled. Her voice now had a nearly hysterical edge to it, and this worried Dani. For just a moment, she concentrated her power on reading Rahne's fears, and found that being here, in the middle of this fire, was Rahne's most mortal terror. In scanning for her greatest fear, Dani found that they were living it.

"Kiddo, you wanna head back upstairs?" Dani asked, suddenly afraid that her friend might snap at any moment.

"We'll see this out together, Mirage," Rahne replied in a tight voice. She then kicked the door the rest of the way open, and vaulted into the room.

This proved to be a mistake, as most of the floor of this office had collapsed down into the story below. Rahne landed on a pile of wrecked furniture and fallen pieces of ceiling, right on the edge of a yawning pit. She quickly tried to recover her balance, but it was too late. She toppled over the edge with a shriek of terror, her arms flailing out, trying to catch hold of anything. She managed to grab what had apparently once been a desktop, but this merely tipped it over, sending it and another pile of debris toppling after her.

"Wolfsbane!!" Dani screamed, lunging into the room to try to catch her. She was too late, though, and could only watch as Rahne dropped. As she threw herself to the edge of the hole, though, something gave an ominous creak, and there was another collapse, both of the floor and the ceiling. Dani was able to roll away before she fell, too, but she was nearly buried in the process.

Dani threw hunks of ceiling and furniture off of herself, and got to her feet, throwing aside the rubble as cautiously as her frenzied state would allow. "Wolfsbane!" she shouted into her transmitter. "Answer me!!"
 
 

"Which elevator is it, Cypher?" Roberto asked, as he and Ric came into the 23rd floor lobby. There were three sets of elevator doors to each side, all closed.

"It's the one in the middle of the side that Rictor's standing on," Doug replied. "You see it?"

Both Ric and Roberto approached the middle set of doors. "This one?" Ric asked.

"If I'm reading your position correctly, that's the one. Quick as you can, guys."

"Want me to quake it open?" Ric asked Roberto.

Sunspot shook his head. "No, it might knock something loose. Let me get it." He concentrated, and a nimbus of crackling black energy surrounded him. He forced his hands into the crack between the two doors, and with superhuman strength, forced them apart.

"Save it, man," Ric cautioned him. "We ain't got no sun to recharge you here."

"I'll be fine," Sunspot replied, his voice distorted by his energy aura.

Ric looked down into the shaft, and saw the roof of the elevator several feet below him. "I'm goin' down. Stay up here and get ready to pull me back up again, okay?"

"Be careful, Rictor," Roberto warned him.

"No problemo, amigo," Ric grinned. He then leaned into the shaft, caught hold of the main cable that held the elevator in place, and began to shinny down. The cable was hot to the touch, and there was warm air coming up the shaft. He tried not to think about the fire below him.

"Careful, Rictor," Sunspot repeated from above him.

Ric set his feet down gently on the roof of the elevator. It seemed to support his weight just fine, so he let go of the cable and crouched down next to the hatchway atop the car. After fiddling with it for a second, he was able to pry it open and look inside. A cloud of smoke rose up from within, but it quickly cleared, and he took a look.

"Holy shit!" he cried out.

"Ric, what is it?!" Roberto shouted back.

"Sunspot, Cypher, there's about four or five people in here!" Ric exclaimed, quickly dropping down into the car.

"Are they alive?" came Doug's voice over the headsets.

Once inside, Ric was able to get a better look at the situation. The emergency lighting didn't reveal much through the smoke, but there was enough illumination to get a head count. "Four people; three guys and a lady. Ah... this one's got a pulse. So's this one... and this one..." He found the last one's pulse as well, and allowed himself a sigh of relief. "They're all still alive. None of 'em are conscious, though. Ain't no way I'm gonna be able to carry 'em all out. Spotty, you're gonna have to pull us outta here!"

"I can't do it from here," Sunspot replied. "I've got no leverage."

"Try to climb up the cables," Doug suggested. "All the mechanics for the pulleys should be up there.

"Right," Roberto nodded. He reached out, grabbed hold of the cable, and began to hoist himself up the shaft, climbing it like a rope in gym class. A very warm and slightly oily rope, granted, but he managed.

Meanwhile, down in the car, Ric stripped off his headgear and held the breathing mask up to one of the unconscious occupants, letting him take a breath of decent air. He passed it around, allowing each one to breathe for a moment, then he held it back to his own face and took a deep breath of his own. "Cypher, the air in here's no good. Too much smoke. Doesn't feel like there's any oxygen. I'm gonna pass the mask around."

"Good idea," Doug answered. "Make sure you get enough to breathe yourself, though. We can't have you passing out."

"I'll be fine, man," Ric replied. He then took another deep breath, held it in, and began to apply the mask to the other four.

Above him, Roberto finally made it up to the top of the shaft. He pulled himself up onto one of the steel girders that held the pulleys and motors in place, then shifted into his Sunspot form, allowing his mutant strength to gather around him and within him. Straddling the girder, he reached down, grabbed the cable he'd been climbing, and began to pull, heaving the elevator car, and its five passengers, up the shaft. It was tricky to keep his own balance as he pulled, but he wrapped his legs around the girder and managed to stay in place. After a few strenuous tugs, he'd pulled it up to the doors that he'd ripped open before. "Rictor!" he shouted down the shaft. "Get the inner doors open and get outta there!"

In the car, Rictor sprang to his feet and tried to force the doors, as Roberto had done. Strong as he was, though, he could not match his friend's solar-powered mutant strength. "I can't get 'em open!" he shouted back.

"There should be some kind of latch near the top of the doors," Doug transmitted then. "If you flip it, it'll unlock the doors."

"Better do something," Sunspot grunted. "I can't hold onto this thing much longer!"

"Right," Ric nodded. There wasn't time to look for any latches. Instead, he brought his arms up before him and channeled a rumbling shockwave at the doors, blowing them off the runners and into the lobby of the top floor. The entire car made an ominous creaking noise, then, so he quickly got out, and dragged out the four unconscious passengers. Once he had them in the clear, he transmitted again. "You can let go now, Spotty, we're all out."

Roberto released the cable, and the elevator dropped back down. As it reached the end of the slack, though, the cable snapped off at the roof of the car, and it plummeted straight down. From his vantage, Roberto had an excellent view as it plunged through the burning lower stories, and then fell out of sight. "Whoops," he said.

"Get down from there, Sunspot," Doug ordered. "I want you and Rictor to get those folks to the roof."

"We're on it," Roberto replied, grabbing hold of the cable and working his way back down to where Rictor was waiting for him.
 
 

Three floors below, Rahne found, much to her surprise, that she was not burning. She opened her eyes slowly, then began to painstakingly extract herself from the rubble. Scanning the room, she saw that she was in another office, parts of which were on fire, but there was room to move.

Dani's voice was ringing in her ears, as was Douglas's. "Wolfsbane, respond! Are you alright?"

"Aye," she grunted, pulling herself free and taking a better look around. Warm air was blowing past her, from the broken and burning door of the office to the shattered plate-glass windows that formed the two outer walls. She felt like she'd landed in a convection oven. "A little shaken, but I'm fine."

"Hold on, sweetie, I'll get you outta there," Dani said, her voice ragged with fear.

Above the sounds of Dani's voice and the crackling flames, though, Rahne was hearing another, fainter sound. It sounded like labored breathing. "Cypher, Mirage, there's someone down here," she whispered.

"Where?" Doug asked. "Can you see anyone?"

"Let me take a look," Rahne answered. Still on her hands and knees, she pulled herself across the room, toward the sound of the breathing. The floor was extremely warm beneath her, and she guessed that the fire was burning quite well below. She crawled slowly, wary of collapse each time the floor creaked beneath her. She had no desire to test just how fireproof her skinsuit was.

At last, underneath a large oaken desk that had belonged to some nameless attorney until now, she found the source of the breathing. She immediately guessed him to be their missing policeman, both by the black uniform and the sidearm still clutched in one hand. He looked as though he'd crawled here to take shelter from the smoke, and then passed out.

"Mirage, Cypher, it's him! I've found him!"

"How is he?" Is he still alive?" Doug asked her.

"Aye, he's still breathin'." She patted his cheeks, trying to get a response. "Sir, c'n ye hear me?"

The man's eyelids fluttered open, then widened as he focused on the black-and-yellow clad young woman kneeling over him. He began to cough uncontrollably, and went on coughing until Rahne gave him a few good slaps on the back, helping him to clear his throat. "Who... who are you?" he asked.

"Tha's nae important now, sir. Are ye alright? How'd ye get here?"

She helped him sit up. "I was chasing... someone who'd helped set this thing off. Chased him into an office, but the floor went out under us, and we fell down here."

Rahne looked around them, panicked. "Is he still here? Did ye catch him?"

"He jumped," the man replied, waving absently at the broken windows. "He didn't want me to catch him, so he... jumped."

Rahne made a face, then helped him out from under the desk. "Can ye stand?"

"I'll try. Who are you?"

"Jus' yuir typical heroes in action, sir," she said, pulling the both of them to their feet. Looking up at the ceiling, she saw Dani at the edge of the hole, extending one hand down into the pit. "Grab my hand, I'll pull you out!" she called.

Rahne and the officer made their way cautiously across the creaking floor. The continued collapse of the upper story had apparently weakened the structure as much as the fire below. Finally, they made it over to Dani.

"Mirage, Wolfsbane," came Doug's voice over the headsets again, "I'm sending Warlock down to give you a hand ASAP. Don't panic!"

"Much obliged, Cypher," Rahne replied, her words still as caustic as before. "I'll give ye a leg up, sir," she then told the officer.

"You sure?" he asked her. Then, chivalry seemed to win out. "No, you first."

Rahne gave him a look from beneath her hood, then shifted into her transitional wolf-form. "Sorry, laddie, but we're the mutant heroes here." She grabbed him around the waist, and with the strength of her animal form, lifted him up to the ceiling, where he caught hold of Dani's outstretched hand. Dani pulled him up the rest of the way with similar ease.

"Thanks, ladies," the cop said to Dani. His eyes were wide, but filled with respect.

"Save it," Dani replied, waving off his thanks. "Hold onto my legs."

She began to lower herself head-first into the pit, holding her arm out to Rahne. The officer did as he was told and grabbed hold of her legs to keep her from falling in. The floor beneath them was creaking under their combined weight, though, and adding a third body would probably be a bad idea at this point. "I don't think it's gonna hold!" he warned Dani.

"It'd better!" Dani shot back. "C'mon, Wolfie, grab my hand!"

From below, Rahne jumped up and caught hold of Mirage's outstretched hand. As Dani began to pull her up, though, the floor gave a loud creak, and made another partial collapse, this time right underneath Danielle. The cop managed to hold onto her, but he didn't have the strength to pull her back up. For a long, painful moment, he could only hold on, and keep the two from falling any further.

Then, from behind him, two more arms stretched onto the scene, grabbing hold of the two ladies and pulling them back up. The officer looked up to see a third costumed figure, roughly humanoid in shape, but with several additional appendages holding onto the doorframe behind them to keep him steady. "Floor exceeding weakened structural integrity," the shape said to him. "Get clear."

"Right," he nodded in reply, making his way past the... whatever it was, and into the hallway. In another few moments, it had pulled the other two up from below, and all three joined him in the hall for a mutual deep breath.

"Thanks for the assist, Warlock," Mirage panted.

"No problem," Warlock nodded, forming another gas mask from his own structure and passing it to the officer. "Suggested course is to abandon current level before further collapse."

"Everything okay down there?" Doug transmitted from above.

"Aye, we're fine," Rahne replied.

"Can you sense anything more, Mirage?"

Dani shook her head. "No. We've done all we can here. Let's do like the man said and get outta here."

"Search of above floor negative as well, Cypher," Warlock added.

"Get our friend to the roof," Doug went on. "I've got the sprinklers fixed on the top eight floors. That might give the firefighters below us a better chance. After I get 'em going, I'll meet y'all up there and we'll airlift the hell outta here."

"We're on our way, boss," Dani grinned. She then stood up and reached to help their rescuee to his feet. "You'd better come with us, Officer..."

"Clarke," he replied, between deep breaths. "Tim Clarke, San Diego Police."
 
 

From his place in the maintenance "closet," Doug watched his display until the three moving dots that were Dani, Rahne and Warlock made it up to the roof, and joined the two blips that were Roberto and Ric. Only then did he allow himself to exhale.

They'd done it. With no small amount of personal risk and effort, but they'd done it nonetheless. He'd been able to fix the damage, and help both of the two-man teams with their individual crises. Faced with a challenge unlike anything they'd ever trained for at Xavier's, they'd pulled through, unscathed.

Well, not quite yet. There remained one last detail before their evacuation. Re-interfacing with the emergency controls and re-checking his new connections, he started shunting power to activate the sprinklers. Immediately, he heard them come on all over his floor. Water was being pumped to the top eight floors, in an effort to keep things under control. Some of the pipes below were no doubt already damaged by the inferno, but even so, this would be a big help to the firefighters.

"Cypher, we're all waiting for you up here," Danielle transmitted. "You gonna be all day about this, or what?"

"I'm on my way," he grinned.

McAudry House, 11:02 pm

"Ric, Doug, hurry up!" Dani called from the as-yet-nameless room where they'd been before the fire had interrupted their unpacking. "They're about to show it!"

"Just a sec!" Doug called, as he and Ric hurried awkwardly down the hall and into the room, each carrying a six-pack of soda and a bag of chips from the kitchen.

"Munchies comin' right up," Ric grinned, tossing the chips to Rahne, then throwing a drink to each one of them. "We missed anything yet?"

"News just now came on," Dani explained. "Turn it up, 'Lock."

Warlock hit the volume control on the remote, just as the anchorwoman began to speak. Behind her was a picture of the burning skyscraper, with the word "FIRE!" written beneath. "The fire that has been raging in the Imperial Bank building in downtown San Diego is finally under control. Firefighters have been able to contain the blaze, which at one point threatened to engulf the entire building. Damage is already estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, but the casualties are miraculously minimal. Jon Lawrence has more on this, downtown."

The picture cut to a video clip of the inferno, overlaid by the voice of another broadcaster. "It was a night of rescue, danger and heroism tonight, as local police and firefighters struggled to contain what is already being called one of the worst fires in the history of downtown San Diego. Throughout the night, police helicopters have been airlifting survivors trapped in the upper stories by the blaze, carrying them from the roof to safety. The last of these rescues, however, came well after police had made their final sweep, as SDPD Sergeant Tim Clarke explains."

The six mutants gave a ragged cheer as the scene changed again, to a taped interview with Clarke, which had apparently taken place shortly after the rescue. "I thought I was a goner. Basically, I just found a desk to hide under and hope that the fire'd miss me somehow. I must'a passed out, 'cause next thing I knew, there was this girl in some kind'a hero costume waking me up and helping me stand." Dani reached over and ruffled Rahne's hair as Clarke went on. "She and this other lady pulled me out, along with some guy who could stretch himself like that guy from the Fantastic Four. They took me up to the roof, and I found out there were three more of 'em, and that they'd saved four other folks trapped in an elevator. They all had X's on their costumes, so I guess it must'a been the X-Men." Here, he grinned, unabashed. "I don't know what they were doin' in town, but I'm glad they showed up."

The scene changed again, to show the four people from the elevators, on gurneys, being loaded onto a helicopter by paramedics. "The four other survivors were taken to UCSD Medical Center by Life Flight," the newsman went on, "where they remain in critical condition. As for the timely arrival of the X-Men, local authorities have mixed reactions. While some are concerned at having mutant heroes showing up in a city with almost no history of metahuman activity, others are pleased at the efforts of these mutant renegades."

Again, the picture cut to the interview with Clarke. "All I can say is that if they hadn't been around, me and those other four probably would have ended up dead, and this fire might have ended up going another few hours before anyone could've put a lid on it. Like I said before, I'm just glad they were in town."

"As to the cause of the fire, firefighters have determined that an explosive device had been detonated on the eighteenth floor. No one has, as yet, claimed responsibility for the bombing, and the only suspect remains under guard at an undisclosed location, where he is in critical condition after making a desperate leap from the twentieth floor to the roof of a nearby parking structure, at least a hundred feet below. For now, San Diego must wait for the outcome of this mystery, and be thankful for the intervention of both local heroes, and heroes of another kind. Jon Lawrence, KSDL News, downtown."

"Oh, that's great," Ric laughed, as Warlock turned down the sound. "We go in there, we risk our asses, we save five people, and who gets the credit? The X-Men."

"Don't worry about it Ric," Dani grinned, reaching over to cuff him on the shoulder. "We don't need any credit. That's not the point, remember?"

"You know," Doug added, trying to contain his own laughter, "I think this worked out pretty well. Far as I'm concerned, the X-Men could use all the good publicity they can get these days. Let 'em have it."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Ric chuckled, "but it just seems weird that we did the work and those jerks are gettin' the glory."

"Well, as far as anyone here's concerned, it was the X-Men," Roberto pointed out. "It's not as though you've established yourselves. You didn't even give that sergeant a team name, Doug!"

"That's because we don't have one!" Doug insisted. "It's not like we're gonna be doing this for a living, is it?"

"Well, we'll still be acting when we need to, like tonight, right?" Dani asked.

"Aye," Rahne agreed. "We should help the city when we can, shouldn't we?"

"That's right," Roberto nodded, his smile widening. "It's a few hours later now, Doug. Do you have an answer for me yet? Do you still think the world needs hero teams?"

"Okay, okay, so you're right," Doug relented. "At least, you're mostly right. Maybe the world does need heroes to do things like... like we just did. Things only we might be capable of. That's fine. If the X-Men actually did things like that, instead of fighting the villain du jour, I think I'd have been a lot happier at Xavier's. But I'm still damned a dozen times over if I'm going to devote my life to going out to wage war with the rest of the world. We've still got a job to do out here, folks."

"True, there is that," Dani nodded. "But I guess there's no harm in a little heroism when necessary."

"You've got a point," Doug admitted. "Alright, so maybe we are sorta kinda maybe a hero team after all."

"Well, someone's got t'do it," Rahne shrugged.

"Of course, now you'll need a name," said Roberto. "What're you going to call yourselves?"

"Oh, gawd," Doug groaned, sarcastically. "Not a team name..."

"Given present locale, and origin among X-Men," Warlock suggested, "perhaps selfriends should be called 'X-Men West.'"

"Yeah," Ric agreed, "or maybe 'West Coast X-Men.'"

"Oh, that's classic," Dani snorted. "'Like, we're the West Coast X-Men, dudes!'"

"That's it!" shouted Ric, pointing at her. "We'll be the 'X-Dudes!'"

Everyone laughed, and Rahne gave him a playful bop on the chest. "I b'lieve Dani an' I would resent that, Ric," she grinned.

"Well, you could try X-West," Roberto went on. "That's shorter, and more to the point."

"I've got one," Doug said, then.

When he didn't continue, everyone looked at him. "And that's..?" Dani prompted him.

"How about... 'The New Mutants?'"

There was silence, and then, with a collective groan, the others proceeded to throw things at him. "Never again," Dani laughed. "Besides, I don't feel all that 'new' anymore."

"I always hated that name," Roberto added. "It just enforced the whole thought that we were second-rate X-Men, or Johnny-come-latelies."

"Well, at least it doesn't have an 'X' in it," Doug shrugged. "I know we've got 'em on the damned costumes, but I am so sick of the letter 'X.' If we have a team name, I don't want to see any bloody 'X' in it. We've already got X-Men Gold, X-Men Blue, X-Factor, X-Force, Excalibur... It's getting pretty ridiculous, if you ask me."

"I'm actually with Doug on this one," Dani nodded. "If we go around using an 'X' in our name, we're opening the door for all of the X-Men's enemies to come and make our lives hell. It's going to be hard enough keeping a low profile out here without manufacturing any more publicity than we already got tonight. We should have more of a concept name, like... here we go... how about 'Go West?'"

Ric gave her a puzzled look. "Ain't that the name of some British band?"

"Yeah, but last I heard they broke up," Dani grinned. "What're they gonna do, sue us?"

"That's not bad, actually," Roberto nodded.

"Self agrees," Warlock put in. "Name fitting of current situation."

"I like it," Doug added. "I like it a lot. It's not so much a name as an event. It's something we did."

"Well, we can give it some thought," said Dani. "With luck, we won't need to worry about using a team name for a while yet." She paused for a moment to take a deep breath through her nose and make a face. "All I can say for sure right now is that I absolutely reek of smoke, and I'm going to grab a shower, then try to get some sleep."

"Shit, that's right," Doug said, quietly. "We need to be there for orientation at eight." He then turned to Roberto. "We're going to be out for most of the day. Do you want to come with us? You're welcome to hang around the house if you'd prefer."

"I have a few... things I'd like to get done tomorrow," Roberto replied, "but I'd be grateful if you'd leave me a key."

"Hey, no problem," Doug waved. "Remind me to teach you the codes for the alarms and the gate, too."

"What, you mean this is it?" Ric asked the group. "Our first real action, and you're all gonna go to bed?"

"We can party once registration's over, Ric," said Dani. "'Til then, we've got work to do."

Roberto gave the group a wide grin. "My friends, I do believe you've all become... respectable on me."

"Disappointed?" Rahne laughed at him.

"Not at all, menina. At least now I'm in good company."

In spite of her earlier words, Danielle was not able to sleep. She sat up in her new bed for a while, trying to get the feel of it, and trying to adjust to the new surroundings. Even with a few familiar posters on the walls, along with her bow, mounted over two crossed swords (her Valkyrie weapons), it would be a long time before she could call this place home, and be comfortable with it.

First off, she hated being this far away from Brightwind, as necessary as it was. At the aerie, he'd never been further away than the stables, and there had been more than a few nights she'd spent there, away from her sisters. Being separated from him by this forty-mile gap was unnerving. She promised herself again that she'd be out to see him every weekend, or as many evenings as time and studies allowed.

Reading wasn't going to put her to sleep at this rate. She kicked off her covers, wrapped her robe around herself, and continued to unpack, as quietly as she was able.

After a while, there was a small tap at her door, and it creaked open an inch. "Dani, are ye awake?" Rahne called, softly.

"Yeah. C'mon in, kiddo."

Rahne slipped into the room, and quietly closed the door behind her. She was wearing her favorite floor-length green robe, which put Dani in mind of an old Scottish grandmother. "I couldna' sleep. 'Tis been a full day f'r us."

"That it has, sweetie. What's on your mind?"

"Oh... nothin', really," Rahne replied, looking down at her feet. "Jus' couldna' sleep..."

Dani nodded slowly. "You okay, Rahney?"

"Couldna' be better," Rahne lied, smiling as brightly as she could.

"C'mon," Dani said, sitting down on the bed and patting the spot next to her. "Sit down."

Rahne nodded, and sat down, but still could not find herself to look up at Dani, much less speak.

"What happened in there, Rahne?" Dani asked, quietly. "I've never... felt you so scared in my life, even in our worst battles. I thought you'd snap. What's wrong?"

"I..." Rahne began, but quickly trailed off. "I hate fire," she went on, quickly. "I hate it. It scares me. Worse than anythin' else in the whole world, I'm scared o' fire. I e'en jump sometimes when Ric strikes a match t' light a cigarette."

"Why?" Dani asked. "I don't remember you ever being this afraid of anything."

"D'ye remember the time," Rahne told her, "that I'd left the school f'r the holidays, and w's spendin' the time at Muir Isle, with Lady Moira?"

Dani nodded. "Yeah. I remember coming back from my vacation only to find you weren't there anymore. I didn't know if you were coming back, considering all that had happened."

"Aye, I'd considered stayin'. But then, somethin' happened. One day, in Lady Moira's lab, there was an accident, and one o' those big machines I ne'er knew the purpose of collapsed, and near fell on her. I tried t'push her out o' the way, but I wasnae fast enough."

"You've told me this story," Dani nodded. "Legion was there with you, in the lab, and when he saw you were in danger, he caught the machine with his telekinesis." It was difficult to forget Legion -- Professor Xavier's illegitimate son, with powers of telepathy, telekinesis, and pyrokinesis, each controlled by a separate personality.

"Aye, but that set his puir mind at war with itself, usin' his powers like that, and one o' his... other personalities... took control."

"Jack Wayne," Dani nodded. She remembered this aspect of Legion's shattered personality all too well. "That was when I sensed you were in danger, and roused the team to come out, save you, and stop him."

"Aye. B'fore you arrived, though, Jack took control of puir Legion's other powers, and... he set the lab on fire. And then he left, laughing, while Lady Moira and I were trapped under the wreckage. I cannae be sure how long I... struggled there, tryin' t' get free, as the fire burned around us, but it seemed like eternity -- as though I'd been judged and sent t' Hell."

She was beginning to cry, remembering this, and Dani put both arms around her. "I wish we'd been faster..." she whispered.

"Puir Lady Moira passed out first, and after that, all I remember was bein' afraid, and not wantin' t' die. I dinnae know if I fainted from the fear or from the smoke, but next I knew, you were there, wakin' me up and pullin' me free, and I wasnae even singed."

"I wonder if that's how that cop felt when you found him?" Dani said, thoughtfully. "But sweetie, why didn't you tell us you were so afraid? Doug wouldn't have sent you down there knowing that. And even if he did, I'd have beaten his ass ten ways to Sunday and made him reconsider."

Rahne made an effort to wipe her eyes. "I... didnae want t' let ye down."

For a while, Dani stared at her, but then she gave her friend a huge hug. "Rahney, Rahney, Rahney... You haven't changed; you're just as brave and stupid as you've always been. Kiddo, you don't have to try to impress us. Next time you've got well-founded fears like that, you let us know, okay?"

"Are ye sure? I... I dinnae want t'be a liability to the team."

"Rahne, I want you to listen carefully. You are not a liability to anyone. You're living here with four people who love you very much, and we're going to take care of each other. Period. There's no need to check your phobias at the door. If something's troubling you, or scaring you, I want you to tell me. I'm good at fears, remember? I'm around them all the time."

"Thank ye, Dani," Rahne whispered, holding her tightly and burying her face in the older girl's shoulder.

They sat together for a long time, and Rahne eventually stopped shaking. After a while, Dani realized that she'd fallen asleep. It was as though letting out her fears had drained her of all energy as well. Dani knew how it felt. She'd had more than her share of physically and emotionally draining days in the last three years.

She carried Rahne back down the hall, and around the corner to the master bedroom, then put her to bed. After pulling the covers back over her, she knelt to kiss her friend on the forehead, then stood to go.

For a while, looking down at the peacefully sleeping Rahne, she found herself wondering if she'd ever see Mist, or her other Valkyrie sisters again. Then, she forced that thought aside and left the room, quietly closing the door behind her.

McAudry Ranch, later that night

Kellen dreamed.

It was hard to tell, really. He was outside the house, sitting up on one of the fences that surrounded the pastures. The cold of night felt real enough, and the stars were shining clearly and brilliantly in the cloudless sky. The whole scene had a sense of clarity that seemed wrong, somehow, for a dream, but still, he knew it had to be a dream.

Then he saw Pegasus, sailing across the sky with all the grace and majesty of the myth that it was. It eclipsed the stars with its beautiful white wings, flying ever closer, until it landed close by. Kellen jumped down from the fence, ran up to it, and put his arms around its neck, burying his face in its mane. He cried openly, but this time, the tears were of nothing but happiness.

Pegasus spoke to him, then, in a deep voice. "Come," it said. "Let us fly."

Nodding wordlessly, Kellen climbed up onto its back, and they leapt into the sky together, until the ranch, the forest, and then all the land, was a distant blur beneath them. They rode higher than the clouds, higher than the moon, and out among the stars, still shining brilliantly around him.

"Too old to dream, Kellen McAudry?" Pegasus said, then. "I think not."

McAudry House, La Jolla CA
Wednesday, 25 August 1993 3:19 pm

The transition to academia through the process of orientation was almost enough to make the five wish they'd stayed and joined the X-Men after all.

It wasn't so much stress as boredom, when it came right down to it. Before the University would let them register, they wanted to make sure that every new student knew exactly what they were doing, including giving them a series of general lectures, talks with the staff within the different majors, and 'peer group' meetings, intended to break the ice with the newcomers. In all, most considered it a colossal waste of time, but it was a sadly necessary waste of time.

Doug and Danielle were actually able to leave a little early. The two of them each had enough college credit from their time at Xavier's to be considered transfer students, so they were excused from the afternoon's events, which were intended for first-time freshmen. This, of course, did nothing for Rahne, Ric and Warlock, but Rahne was determined to endure, Warlock was fascinated by the whole situation, and Ric wasn't about to let the others see him crack under the sheer weight of his boredom.

The house was within walking distance of the school, so Dani and Doug headed back on foot, walking through the rows of eucalyptus trees bordering the campus and studying their pre-add/drop schedules.

"Not a lot open," Dani grimaced, checking it over again. "I hope we can crash a few classes, or it's gonna take us ten years to get out of this place with a degree."

"From what I hear, it's pretty easy to crash," Doug replied. "I'm just worried about convincing my advisor to let me take more than nineteen units."

"Huh. Just show him your transcripts from Xavier's. How many units at a time were you pulling straight A's on before you died?"

"Thirty."

"How many have you got here so far?"

"Sixteen. Going to need a little work, methinks."

"You're a masochist."

"Dani," Doug said, looking her in the eye, "I'm good. Really good. My power's perfectly suited for being a student. It helps with a lot more than languages, you know. I've got a pretty high retention rate."

"Total recall?"

"Close. Enough so that I never need to take notes, anyway."

"You make me ill, Doug."

"Likewise, oh partial-telepath-who-can-probably-lift-half-a-ton."

She laughed. "You got me there."

They covered the remaining distance discussing their majors. Dani was looking forward to keeping her Anthropology professors on their toes with her own perspective on Native American studies, and Doug was wondering how many Linguistics classes he'd be able to skip through aptitude testing.

When they got back to the house, Doug punched in the code on the front gate, and it opened, allowing them to walk down the driveway to the front of the house. It was there that they discovered that Roberto had been Up To Something while they'd been at school.

The Volkswagen bug was sitting out in the curving cobblestone driveway next to Bobby's Rolls, rather than in the garage where it should have been. Not only that, but it had been cleaned, and upon closer inspection, Doug found that a new engine and transmission had been installed.

"He didn't..." Doug said, looking over the rest of the bug carefully. Through the windows, he saw that there were even new seat covers.

"Ah, Doug... he did a lot more than that," said Dani, her voice suddenly very quiet. "C'mere."

Doug followed here to the open garage doors and looked inside, his eyes going wide.

The sandy-yellow BMW, which had still been in pieces when they'd left the house that morning, had been reassembled, cleaned, and even waxed. It positively shone. This incongruity was nothing, however, compared to the showcase-new grey pickup truck and dark blue minivan parked in the garage with it.

Dani looked at Doug. Doug looked at Dani.

"Oh, my," Dani said at length.

The front doors of the house opened, then, and Roberto peeked out, looking somewhat sheepish. "I -ah- didn't think you'd be home so soon," he said.

"I guess not," Doug nodded, looking from him to the garage. "Bobby, I may regret asking this, but whose cars are those? And how did the others get fixed?"

"Well," Roberto shrugged, his face warring between being embarrassed and pleased with himself, "they're yours. I registered the truck under Erica Blackeagle, and the minivan under Aaron McAudry. The first year of insurance is paid for on both of them. As for the bug and the BMW, I had some mechanics make a house call."

"Bobby," Doug said, summing up his feelings in that one word.

"I figured you'd need something all five of you could tool around in, and I thought Dani might want a nice truck for her weekend trips to the ranch. And there was no point in leaving the other two to rust."

"Bobby," Dani repeated.

He held both hands up. "There's more," he said. "Come with me, I'll show you the rest."

Without waiting for an answer, he led them back into the house. Lacking an alternate course of action, Doug and Dani followed.

The central courtyard at the hub of the wheel-shaped main corridor was their next stop. For starters, the formerly cracked and broken black surface in the swimming pool and jacuzzi was now smooth and whole. Along with this, both a Nautilus machine and a free-weight bench had been brought in, placed on opposite ends of the pool. "I had the pool re-surfaced," Roberto explained. "You'll be able to fill it by tomorrow morning. You'd be surprised how quickly they were able to get it finished. I also couldn't help but notice that this place had no weights whatsoever, and after all of our workouts together, I couldn't bear the thought of you all not keeping in shape." He gave them a smile to go with these melodramatic words.

"I can't believe you did all this," Doug said, softly.

"I can't believe you did all this in a few hours," Dani added.

"Don't say that yet," Roberto replied. "Come into the dining room."

They followed him out of the courtyard and around to the kitchen, still trying to get a word in. He picked up a stack of manila envelopes from the dining table, and passed one to Doug, and another to Danielle. "There's one for each of you," he smiled.

"What are they?" Doug asked.

Dani opened her envelope, and pulled out a checkbook. "Ohhh-kay," she said, "Looks like you have had a busy few hours."

"I set up six accounts," Roberto explained. "One for each of you, with two thousand dollars starting balance, and another thousand at the beginning of each month." He handed Doug another envelope, then. "The last one's got a higher balance. It's for team stuff, like bills, food, gas, and all that. You two had better be in charge of that one." He smiled again. "I don't want Ric to go out and buy a Ferrari or something. But at any rate, each account also has a Visa card and ATM card attached, and you should be getting those in the mail soon, along with your printed checks."

"Bobby, you can't do this," Doug said, weakly.

"I can, my friends, and I already have."

"But... why?"

"Douglas," Roberto said, crossing his arms and smiling, "a simple 'thank you' will suffice."

"Well, yes, thank you," Doug managed to reply, "but... Bobby, why?"

"You said that if I wanted to support your team, I should find another way."

"But..."

"But nothing." Roberto leaned against the dining table and regarded his friends. "I'd like nothing more than to be able to stay here with you, and go to school with you, and be a team again, just like old times. Sadly, that's just not possible anymore. I have responsibilities to my father's corporation, and they need me. Just to give you an idea, I called my assistant this morning for an update. I've been gone less than two days, and already, things are in total chaos; I'm going to have to leave tomorrow morning."

"That's terrible," Dani grimaced. "Will you ever get any time off?"

"I don't know, to be honest," Roberto sighed. "That's the nature of this business. There have been times I've considered liquidating all of the assets I inherited and retiring, but I don't know if that's what I want to do yet."

"Retire at eighteen?" Doug commented. "We'd be envious."

Roberto shook his head. "No, you wouldn't. You have your own plans to put into effect now. I envy you for that. So, since I can't help you by being here with you, and since I can't be part of the team in body, I want to help you in a way that I'm able. You're going to have enough to worry with simply trying to get your degrees and credentials. You shouldn't have to worry about the material things, or where your next tuition payment's coming from, or how you're going to get the bills paid. Let me do this for you."

"Bobby, are you sure you can afford this?" Dani asked, skeptically.

"I'm certain," he nodded. "I've been thinking about this... or at least, about the bank accounts, since I first heard you were settling down out here, and I've been through it all with my accountants. It's covered."

"I'm... not sure what to say," Doug said, after a pause.

"Just say 'thank you' and accept it," Roberto replied, softly. Then, his face broke into the familiar smug grin they remembered so well. "Of course, it wouldn't hurt to remind me of what a wonderful fellow I am..."

Dani grinned and jabbed him on the shoulder, then turned the gesture into a hug. "You're a pain in the ass, is what you are," she laughed. "We love ya anyway, though, ya bum."

"Thanks, man," Doug nodded, clasping Roberto's hand. "Geez, I'm still just having trouble believing all of this. You've just made our lives a hell of a lot easier, you know that?"

"That was my intent," Roberto smiled. "And you're quite welcome. Just promise me that you'll go through with your plans. Don't quit, like Sam or Professor X did. Or like I did, for that matter. I'd like to be there to help you break ground on that school of yours."

"We'll be there, Bobby."

Dani nodded and grinned. "Provided we can get any classes out here, that is."

"I'm sure you will," Roberto laughed.

"Hey," Doug suggested, "seeing as you've got until tomorrow morning, let's go pick up Rahne, Ric and 'Lock in a couple of hours and have a night on the town. We'll show you as much of the city as we can in one night."

Roberto burst out laughing again. "After last night, I think you've all shown me a good enough time, thank you."
 
 

Next: "That Kind of Man"

Go West #4: "Fire on High"
by Jeremy Bottroff, 4 October 1993

This story (c) 1993, 1999 Jeremy Bottroff

"Fire on High" and "Hold on Tight" performed by Electric Light Orchestra, (c) 1999 Sony Music Entertainment Inc, from the album BURNING BRIGHT

"Cinderella Man" performed by Rush, lyrics by Neil Peart, music by Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee, (c) 1977, 1999 CORE Music Publishing, ASCAP, from the album A FAREWELL TO KINGS

Brightwind, Roberto DaCosta (Sunspot), Sam Guthrie (Cannonball), Daniel Haller (Legion), Moira MacTaggert, Danielle Moonstar (Mirage), Douglas Ramsey (Cypher), Rictor, Rahne Sinclair (Wolfsbane), Warlock, Jack Wayne, Charles Xavier, Muir Isle, Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, Excalibur, Fantastic Four, New Mutants, X-Factor, X-Force, X-Men (c) 1999 Marvel Entertainment Group

Sgt. Tim Clarke, Jon Lawrence, Kellen McAudry created by and (c) 1999 Jeremy Bottroff

The AT&T Building, the Imperial Bank Building, Life Flight, the University of California at San Diego and the UCSD Medical Center are real places and entities in beautiful San Diego and vicinity.

In case anyone's wondering, Ric's "Express elevator to Hell" quote was from the movie ALIENS, one of the most quotable movies ever made.