Scott Summers sat in the corner of his darkened room with his back against the wall and his knees pulled up to his chest. He leaned his head against the wall to his side and he tried to hold back the sob that threatened to break from his chest. He closed his eyes but all he saw was the destroyed building and the bodies of the children laying broken on the ground.
They had been tricked. Information had come in that The Brotherhood of Mutants were using an abandoned orphanage as a headquarters. Cyclops had lead the X-Men into the building, trusting the information. That had been mistake number one. Mistake number two had been splitting up the team. They had gone through the building and it quickly became clear that the building wasn’t an abandoned orphanage. The orphanage had still been in use. He had called for a retreat when he had seen the children but they had been ambushed. The attackers had been members of a private army raised to fight the Mutant Menace. The X-Men had tried to fight their way out, but split up as they were, they were quickly overwhelmed. Storm and Bobby had both been killed by the militants, the rest of the team captured. They had, had to fight hard and furious to escape and in the process they had destroyed part of the building. It was then that they discovered that the building hadn’t been abandoned.
The news channels were already blaming the mutant menace for the destruction and politicians were demanding passage of the Mutant Registration Act. Scott knew it was only a matter of time before the Army would come to pound down the gates of the mansion.
He glanced over at the bedside table and the white envelope that lay on it. The paper in the envelope ordered the rest of the team to scatter and go underground. He knew that Logan would make sure that the team was safe, and he didn’t have to worry about Jean. She had filed for divorce and had severed the link between them three months ago, and already had a new lover.
He looked down at the object in his hand. He knew this was the only way. He was the leader of the X-Men and if he was found the authorities would not look hard for the others. He also could no longer deal with the weight on his shoulders, but soon he wouldn’t have to. He raised the object to his head.
******
Logan looked around at the shocked faces that filled the den. He knew that they were all trying to deal with what had happened. He looked over at Remy and Remy looked back. The two of them were dealing with the effects of the day the best. They had seen this sort of thing before.
He got up and walked to where Remy leaned against the wall. “Where’s Scott?” he asked quietly.
“Don’ know. Ain’t seen ‘im. What we gonna do? We can’t stay here.”
“I don’t-“ he was cut off by the sound of a gunshot coming from upstairs. Logan and Remy took off running. Logan reached Scott’s bedroom first. He opened the door and saw red painting the white wall. He heard the sound of the rest of the team coming down the hall. He looked at Remy and quickly closed the door.
Remy grabbed Jean as she tried to run past him. “You don’t wanna see, Jean. You don’t wanna see.”
THE END