Chapter 13: the Attack

Scott Summer's was infuriated. He was leading his Gold Team on a Rescue Mission, scant miles from the X-men's mansion. At the controls of their Lockheed short range air-car, Scott as Cyclops, leader of the X-men, directed the deployment of his team as he brought the air-car in for a landing.

"Angel, aerial recon; Colossus, first on the ground; hard if you see a target, soft if not; Polaris drop Havok, then cover him; Alex slag anything and everything; Kitty, take the back door in; Jean, with me, scanning; I want to know who and what we are facing."

None of his team members spoke in turn; instead they did what he trained them to do, trusting in his skill as leader. Colossus was the first on the scene. Dropping heavily from just over one hundred feet, after seeing no movement did a flip in mid-air like a seasoned high diver and landed on both feet, his organic steel muscles absorbing the impact so he landed without breaking the pavement in the alley between the hardware store and barbershop, facing into the alleyway next to a slumped over body. Angel, flying above with his acute eyes scanned near and far, seeing nothing out of the ordinary.

Gold Team differed greatly from Bishop's more versatile Blue Team; the amount of raw power wielded by the mutants of Gold Team was borderline staggering. Cyclops's Optic Blast and the skill which he could control it meshed well with the raw power his younger brother Alex as Havok could generate with his Plasma Blasts. Coupled with Phoenix's complete command of her strong telekinesis and telepathy, Polaris's magnetic control ability and the X-men's resident strong man; Colossus in his nigh invulnerable organic metal form showed that Gold Team was not without heavy hitters. Angel's winged flight and keen vision and Shadowcat's phasing represented more intangible assets to the Team.

Polaris dropped Havok at the backend of the alleyway, where it opened up into an area that the hardware proprietor used to store empty pallets and collapsed boxes. Neither saw any movement in the open area as Havok landed lightly, thanks to Polaris magnetic powers, facing Colossus. Scant seconds later, Shadowcat walked out the back wall of the hardware store.

"Owner servicing three customers, all over the age of sixty," Kitty quipped as she phased into the back wall of the barbershop.

"Report people," Cyclops said as Phoenix telekinetically lowered the two of them from the roof of the hardware store where he had landed the Lockheed air-car.

Colossus simply said, "Nyet" while Polaris and Havok tended to the fallen mutant slumped on the wet pavement, next to the barbershop. "Both stores appear normal, nothing out of the ordinary", Kitty said next. Looking up from the mutant she was checking out Polaris added, "He is stunned, but alive. His biometrics is all out of whack, if I had to guess, I'd say he was shocked."

"Ok, Havoc, front alleyway, facing the street, Peter, back of the alleyway. Jean?"

Cyclop's lover had immediately moved to join her two teammates tending the fallen mutant to give what assistance she could. 'Angel reports seeing nothing out of the ordinary and there is no sign of Rogue'. Grimly nodding, Scott responded with the telepathic link he shared with his lover, 'Ok, what is the status of the student?'

"Phillip has been tasered what looks like three or four times, his heart rate is all over the place, as is his breathing and brain impulses. It looks like he is settling down, though it will be a bit before he is truly cognizant."

"Jean, Polaris, Angel and Kitty, give this place a sweep, find Rogue." Even as Cyclops gave the order, he knew they were facing someone who was not only able to take down Rogue, but left no trace of doing such an arduous task. With Rogue, one would at least expect a collapsed building or three.

Minutes passed, finally Lorna Dane, daughter of Magneto opened her eyes, looked at Cyclops and shook her head in the negative. Phoenix was next and she simply said, "Sorry Scott" and looked back to the still unconscious Phillip. Not waiting for the two X-men who were physically searching, Scott called out mentally, knowing they were being observed from afar.

'PROFESSOR.'

'I am here Scott and like Jean, I cannot sense Ann Marie or the attackers.'

Scott was desperate now, 'Sir, request permission for Jean to probe the boy to see what his mind saw. Time is of the essence.' Cyclops knew he was requesting something that Jean, while capable of doing, was uncomfortable with. She did not like to invade the privacy of another mind without being invited first.

'Very well, Jean, please probe the boy, let me know if you need any assistance.'

Phoenix had mentally heard everything and wasn't happy with her lover, taking the time to give him an evil look, which Cyclops correctly interpreted as 'he would get his later' and gave her a nod of his visored head in reply.

Closing her eyes, Jean concentrated on the slightly spasming student at her knees. She placed both of her hands on each side of his face and dampened his erratic brainwaves, to better allow her success in her probe. Scott in the mean time was growing impatient, fearful that the longer it took, the farther away Rogue and the attackers would be.

Scott was not telepathic but shared a permanent mental link with his lover, Jean. Even so, mental abilities confounded him, at times it seemed his lover and the Professor were magicians with how they could pull the answer out of someone's skull, willingly or not. Yet, when needing the answer was preeminent he would always be told that telepathy and the like was not an exact science and it would take that much longer for the answer to be delved. This apparently was one of those times.

Minutes passed. Slowly. Peter changed back to his natural human form, watching the back end of the alley. Lorna, having done all that she could for Phillip joined Alex standing intimately in the shadow of the entrance of the alley, watching the passersby's and conversing quietly. Soon Warren returned from his recon flight and lazily circled five hundred above, having seen nothing. By the time Kitty returned from her ground level recon and taking her place next to Peter, Jean started speaking with a rigid monotone voice, her mind obviously elsewhere.

"I have sorted through his memories; Phillip was indeed tasered four times. He had a good time with Ann Marie, they talked about Ann Marie's issues with Remy and as his training instructor, and Phillip confided in her his fears about being a mutant and being at the school."

Scott knew that he had to be patient with his team's telepath; often probing a mind ended up in jumbled thoughts, but he was pretty sure through his link with Jean that she was starting as close to the beginning of Phillip and Ann Marie's outing to the ice cream parlor in Westchester as she could decipher.

"Ann Marie explained how her second persona inside her caused her complications when she was stressed or tired. Phillip thought she was cute and wondered how he could help her."

Suddenly, Jean jerked as she relived Phillip being tasered as Ann Marie and he walked past the opening to this alleyway, "Phillip heard what was being said even though his mind couldn't decipher the sounds because his mind thought they were jumbled, but it was his mind that was jumbled. Thankfully, Phillip kept his eyes open after the initial shocking. He immediately started to collapse but his attackers were expecting that. They caught him and dragged him into the alley. Ann Marie only took one step before pivoting to see what was wrong with Phillip, when she saw his attackers she told them to put Phillip down and moved into the alleyway. Phillip's attackers said nothing as they held him up from behind and to the side. A gravelly voice addressed Ann Marie as she moved to stop Phillip's attackers; that voice made her pause and then a red light was shined on Ann Marie's face. Ann Marie's face went slack, her body went slack. The voice told Ann Marie thank you for stopping to join him and that she had something that was actually his."

Cyclops stood quietly, listening to Phoenix, absorbing everything she said; picturing it in his mind while a dread feeling built in the bottom of his stomach. He didn't know why but he had a feeling of who Rogue's kidnapper was, but it just didn't make sense.

Phoenix continued in her dull voice. "Rogue limply walked past Phillip and Phillip's attackers let him drop to the ground. I see two, no three sets of legs walk away to follow Rogue, who has walked up to the light. It is a man I think. Hard to decipher; Phillip's head is looking at them upside down. The light is coming ... the light is coming from the man's face the man is ... yes, the man is Sinister."

'Sinister!' Cyclops seethed internally, it was him but why? It didn't make sense at all. What would Rogue have that Sinister would think was his, Cyclops asked himself while Phoenix droned on?

"Sinister told Rogue she was going to come with him and Rogue nodded her head yes. Sinister looked at Phillip. Wait, is it Sinister? Something doesn't look right. No, it is Sinister, just not Sinister ... Sinister tells the three boys, yes, they are just high school boys, two of them have on Westchester High Letter Jackets. Sinister tells them that they shouldn't underestimate mutants and that they should make sure Phillip is down for the count. As they walked towards Phillip, Rogue and Sinister took off into the air, she flew them away. The boys are getting close. Phillip is actually trying to get up; he wonders why his field won't come on. All three boys look at Phillip and then they ... AGH!"

Jean jerked away from Phillip, took three quick breathes and then looked up at Cyclops, speaking in her normal voice with a bit of a rasp to it, "They shocked him one more time each. That is all I can get from him."