Part seven: The Hands On Approach

     Jean Grey floated through the blackness.  She couldn't
breath, but that didn't seem to matter here.  She knew that hours
had passed, but all she could hear was the beating of her heart. 
Her voice was silenced.  Nothing but darkness around her, nothing
at all.
     Once or twice, she believed that she'd felt another
presence, but she could never be certain of it.  It was like a
shadow of telepathy, something that she couldn't properly
identify, too far away for her to know it.
     She bided her time.  Tai had been unwilling, or unable, to
destroy her.  Unless this itself was death, but that didn't seem
right.  
     Hugging herself tightly, Phoenix waited for her moment.

     "Emma!" Kitty called out.  "We've received an urgent message
from Shinobi!" 
     "What is it?" Frost called as she and Firestar walked into
the compound.
     "Sentinels," Dazzler said grimly.  "Selene used her magic to
figure them out.  They've kidnapped Sebastian, Marcus, Amanda,
Jean, and Elisabeth!"
     "Kidnapped?" Frost demanded.  "Not killed?"
     "Not according to Shinobi," Night Thrasher told her. 
"They're headed for Kampuchea."
     "Why Kampuchea?" Frost was shocked.
     "A new sentinel base, perhaps?" Tai suggested.  Emma wasn't
in the mood for Tai and her easy answers right now.  Tai's
emotions, Emma noticed, shot up when she did not seem to accept
the answer.
     "Who all has he contacted?"
     "Shinobi was terrified," Kitty told her.  "He wants us to
send the Hellions to help.  He's talked to Selene, and then
contacted us."
     "We don't know the territory," Frost mused.  This was too
bizarre.  She would have known if there had been a Sentinel
anywhere near the school, and even if Jean had been ambushed on
her way back to New York, she could have dealt with Sentinels
without much trouble.  No, something else was going on.
     "I want to speak to Selene myself," Emma said, heading
towards the communications room.  "And I want to speak to Tarot. 
She'll be able to inform us if our companions are even still
alive.  I won't risk my students for the sake of memories."
     Tai followed the White Queen, with Firestar and Night
Thrasher close behind her.  Dazzler and Black Bishop came along
too.  The Hellions were still in the combat room, and the
Hellfire Soldiers watched the grim procession with fear.  They
knew when frost was angry, and usually that meant that one or
more of them would have their brains fried before the end of the
day.  This was one of those times.
     "Why isn't this console working?" Emma demanded as she
punched in the code for the British Chapterhouse.  The screen
before her was blank, and it was apparently going to stay that
way.
     "Because I have disabled it," Tai's voice grated.
     "What?"  Everyone turned, but Tai was gone, replaced only by
a greenish cloud that smelled like Mint.
     "AIYIEEEE!" Dazzler screamed as the old woman pushed her
through the glass into the training room.  Jetstream launched
himself into the air, catching her.  He landed with the Red Rook
safely.  Dazzler was cut, but otherwise unharmed.
     Emma lashed out at Tai with a mind blast, but it did little
good.  Tai slashed her across the face, hurling her to the floor.
     "Tai, stop!" Dwayne called plaintively, but Tai merely
laughed.  She hurled him to the ground as easily as she had done
the women.  Kitty and Angelica were forced out of the room,
although neither knew what moved them.  The door shut behind
them.
     "HELLIONS!" Tai announced, "a new day is dawning!  The Age
of the Dragon's Breadth is upon us!  What shall be your place in
the new order?  The Hellfire Club has won, purged itself of the
weaklings, and now we shall conquer the globe.  Who stands with
me?"
     "I Do!" Beef shouted.  "After the way you took out that
bitch, I'll do whatever you want!"
     "Ya ain't goin' without me!" Bloodstrike countered.  "I'm
in."
     "I shall no longer be the white queen's pawn!" Cried Empath,
Magma standing close to him, her eyes glazed over by his
telepathic control.
     "Give me the chance to get Firestar, and I'll do whatever
you want," Roulette promised.
     "Bad woman hurt friends," Catseye hissed, assuming her
feline form.  "Catseye not let her go."
     "Traitor!" Dazzler screamed at Tai.
     "Silence, teacher," Firewall told Dazzler, "Or I'll burn out
your tongue.  This is the moment that we've dreamed of!  The
Hellfire Club shall be victorious! Can't you see that?"
     "Tai stop!" Dwayne pleaded.
     "Do not presume to order me, child," she sneered.  "I had
believed that you could participate in the Pact, but I was wrong.
     Tai quickly assessed those who stood with her with a psi
scan.  Midnight's Fire, Smiling Tiger Empath, Beef, Bloodstrike,
Firewall, Magma, and Roulette.  Against her were Dazzler,
Catseye, Jetstream, Jubilee, Silhouette and Bevatron.
     "Let us depart, my chosen ones," Tai laughed.  "Give your
former comrades a lesson in knowing their true leaders, and we
shall travel to the lair of the Dragon!"

     Silhouette ached all over.  She had still been wearing her
inhibitor when the brawl broke out, and without the use of her
shadow powers, her brother had beaten her savagely.  Beside her
lay Dazzler, groaning, but unable to do much else.  Beef had
taken out two years of frustrations in one punch, and she was
lucky to still have her head attached.  
     "Is anybody else alive?" Sil heard Jubilee asked to no one
in particular.  
     "I'm here," Silhouette called to her.  The training facility
was wrecked, huge pieces of metal twisted and burned by Ming's
heat powers.  The former Hellions hadn't been lethal, but they
had driven home the point that they weren't going to tolerate
"weaklings" or "sentimentalists" in their ranks.
     "Oh man, Bloodstrike gave me one Hell of a right hook."
     "You're lucky that you slowed his hand with your fireworks,"
Sil told her.  
     "I always knew that Roulette was a bitch," Jetstream said,
trying to rise, "but I never knew just how much of a bitch she
was."
     "Tiger man hurt Catseye," the female feline growled, licking
a large gash on her arm.
     "Where are Firestar and Black Bishop?" Bevatron stood up,
wobbling slightly.
     "We're here," Kitty called down from the control booth.  The
Hellions couldn't see them.  Jetstream launched himself upwards,
and found Night Thrasher, Kitty and Angelica wrapped up in some
kind of pink metal.  Kitty and Firestar wore the inhibitor
collars around their throats.  The white Queen was encased in a
similar substance, with a collar around her neck.
     Sailing into the booth, he removed Black Bishop's collar. 
She clicked into her intangible mode, pulling the other two out
of their pink prison.
     "Is everyone alright?" Black Bishop asked as she removed
Angelica's collar.  She then used her phasing power to pull Emma
out.
     "Aches and pains" Silhouette said.  "Except for Dazzler,
she's still out."
     "She should be fine," Emma said, gazing on her unconscious
assistant.  "Someone help Silhouette out of her collar."
     Bevatron clicked on the release mechanism, and the collar
opened.  The black woman rubbed her neck, and then stood in
Bevatron's shadow, her body melting into the darkness.  She
reappeared in the control booth, looking very strange.
     "What is?" Sil felt herself being pulled back into the
shadow she had stepped from.  She resisted, but the force was too
strong.  "EMMA HELP!"
     Silhouette vanished, and reappeared in Catseye's shadow. 
Bursts of flame accompanied her return, and Sil was screaming
even as the fire engulfed her.
     Dwayne screamed out for someone to help her, but the rest
were too shocked to move.  Silhouette kept on shrieking, but she
couldn't resist the fire.  It ran up her body, into her hair,
from her mouth and eyes.
     "Its not hot," Emma whispered, "Its psychic!"
     That did little to calm silhouette, who continued to writhe,
rising off the floor, floating suspended, burning and screaming
in the very center of the room.
     Gradually, a second shape began to superimpose itself over
the girl.  A being of pure light, total fire existing with her. 
The energy continued to pour out of her.  The woman of light
pulled apart from the woman of darkness, one limb at a time. 
First, there were two arms where there could only have been one. 
Then the other arm appeared.  Sil Danced with the fire, like a
perverted version of a Hindu goddess.  Then the whole upper torso
of the light woman broke free.  The Fire began to take shape
around them, like a huge bird clawing at the air, trying to break
free from the earth.
     "PHOENIX!" Emma shouted, realizing what was happening.  It
took only a few moments for Jean to completely pull away from the
other woman, and both of them fell sharply to the floor, the
harmless flames still burning on both their bodies.
     Kitty grabbed Emma's hand and phased them down into the
room.  The White Queen ran to Jean, reaching out with her mind. 
Jean was unharmed, as was Silhouette, but both were badly shaken.
     <What happened> Emma sent the thought to Phoenix.  
     <I don't know> came the reply.  <It was horrible.  Tai
locked me away from the world, I was cut off completely, I
couldn't do anything, until Silhouette came through.  I saw the
light, I followed her, and came out the way she does.>
     <Tai did it to you?>
     <Yes.>
     "You were right," Emma told her.  "You were very right and I
am sorry.  My mistake may have cost us the lives of our friends,
and our students."
     "What's happened?" Jean asked.  Emma told her of Tai's
betrayal, and the subversion of her students.  She did not know
how they had left, but they were gone.
     "They wanted you to go to Kampuchea?" Jean asked.  Frost
nodded.
     "I don't know what to think," Jean said.  
     "I saw the message from Shinobi," Kitty told the telepath. 
"And I think that he's in on this too."
     "Then we had better find out who's still on our side,"
Firestar told them.  "And I don't think that we're going to find
them in New York anymore."
     "London then," Emma said, "and Warpath and Tarot are in
France.  Magneto is with the New Mutants.  I don't want them
dragged into this, but Magneto is our White King, and we need his
help."
     "Tai's the one who's going to need help," Firestar
announced.  "When I get my hands on that witch, I'll make certain
that she can't even move, let alone hurt anyone ever again."
     "Patience, Angelica," Emma told her.  "The others aren't
acting under their own power.  Tai has some kind of hold on them. 
We must be careful not to harm the other Hellions when we fight
her.  That's why we need assistance."
     "Then let's get to London and get some!" Night Thrasher said
grimly.

Daniel Thomas

"...But I do not enjoy the killing...I AM NOT VIOLENT!! And I will put an
arrow through the brains of
anyone who says I am!!!"-Artemis (Artemis Requiem #4-DC)