X-men Evolution Fan Fiction / X-Men Fan Fiction ❯ BurnOut ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

Chapter 1

 

 

 

A winged man fell to Earth. Jean's locus shifted. What was she doing? She felt Xavier's presence. He was trying to connect to her using Cerebro. She couldn't understand what he was transmitting. A name? A man? A man with wings like an angel. Warren, Angel, falling, fast! She turned and sensed his position, miles below her, hurtling Earthward. She flew, faster than she had ever thought possible, down towards Warren. She reached out and caught him with her mind. His lungs were close to collapse. She opened his mouth and compressed his chest. He took in a breath.

 

 

Warren, it's Jean. I have you. Breathe.

 

 

Warren's eyes focused on a resplendent Jean Grey. Her arms were outstretched, but she held him with her thoughts. He felt his entire body, his weight, suspended. Her energy touched his every part. She began to descend, towing him to terra firma. Her fiery halo dimmed before his closing eyes as the Angel's awareness faded.

 

 

Jean Grey delicately laid Warren on a gurney next to a bewildered Logan. Dr. Moira MacTaggert and a couple members of her medical staff rushed over with a portable respirator. Jean drifted down and reached out her hand to gently stroke Warren's forehead. Her boots were merely a meter from the ground.

 

 

Scott raced towards her, his heart beating fast. Struggling against his heavy eyelids, Charles Xavier saw Grey's eyes start to glow anew. In an instant the brilliance she radiated became blinding and she shot skyward once more. Charles, fusing with Cerebro, used every scrap of life he had left in him to propel a psychic bolt at Jean's consciousness. She dropped out of the sky. Logan scurried and barely managed to catch her.

 

 

“Jeannie!” he clutched her to his chest.

 

 

Scott, a half-step behind Wolverine, bent down and took Jean from Logan's arms. She was strangely light. He knew she was thin - a hundred and ten pounds at five feet six inches - but as he learned when they were trying to contain the massive protector of the Spider Stone in London, 110lbs falling from twenty-five feet above was a lot to catch on the fly. Now it felt as if she weighed less than ten pounds and was getting lighter, like she was going to rise out of his grasp. Locks of her hair floated around her face and Scott felt electric currents rushing up his arms.

 

 

Moira MacTaggert had been contacted before the teams set out to stop Apocalypse. She and a group of trusted medical assistants had flown in from Muir Island and quickly transformed the Institute into a mutant infirmary. Inspecting the wounded arrivals she found, as she had feared, many serious injures, but luckily, no fatalities. And her greatest hopes had been fulfilled, Jean and her team had returned with the Professor alive. Moira examined Charles briefly and found him utterly exhausted but overall in stable condition.

 

 

Moira was adjusting Warren's oxygen mask when Charles launched the psychic assault on Jean. Moira saw Charles' head fall onto his chest as he slumped down in his chair. She ran up to him shouting his name and then shook his shoulders. Xavier was non-responsive. Moira feared his heart had stopped. With mounting despair causing tears to erupt from her eyes, Moira started pounding on Charles' sternum. Then she heard his voice inside her head.

 

 

Moira, I'm all right. Help Jean.

 

 

Charles' chest heaved up as he took a labored breath. Moira took his pulse and found it weak but steady. She directed an assistant to wheel the Professor into the Institute and closely monitor his heart rate. Then Moira approached Scott Summers who was tightly holding onto a fallen Jean Grey.

 

 

“Scott, how's Jean?” she asked.

 

 

“I don't know, Moira.” Scott answered. He briefly loosened his grip on Jean's unconscious body and she began floating upwards.

 

 

“Oh my…” MacTaggert's eyes widened.

 

 

Moira ordered her staff to bundle Jean onto a gurney and bind her down with heavy canvas straps. They then wheeled her up the ramp into the Institute. Scott trailed slightly behind, dragging his practically expired body along as quickly as he could.