Okiday, I here's my entry. I just want to give credit where its due. I was going to enter another one, but I'm no good with fight scenes.
Ntcrwler and PhoenixRisen helped out alot with this one by giving me advice. So, yar here it is an extended Infirmary Scene:
Infirmary scene:
Ororo walks towards the bed in the middle of the medical bay. The sole light in the room illuminates the body of the woman in the bed.
Ororo slowly comes up to the body in quiet reverence.
Ororo: Jean. [Holds her hand] What were you thinking? How could you leave us like that? Why didn’t you let us save you? We were supposed to be a team. [raises her voice] A. TEAM. We were in it together. Why couldn’t you have faith in us? [Still being very angry with her] We’ve always had faith in you? I have always believed in you, sister, [She has tears in her eyes and hugs Jean’s upper torso] no matter how much I hated you.
She walks around the table to brush hair out of her face. Ororo sees the tangle mess that it is and finds a brush to begins to brush it. When she hits a snag, Jean’s eyes shoot open, and grab Ororo’s wrist.
Jean opens her eyes, blinks a few times. She sees a near frozen Ororo with her wrist in her hand. She lets go immediately.
Jean: Rory?
Ororo: Jean! [comes up and traces her cheek] It’s alright, hun. Everything is alright. Your going to be just fine.
Ororo rushes her friend and gives her a deep and genuine hug. Jean closes her eyes leans into the embrace, and hugs her back. They pull apart and Jean looks at Ororo with wonder and bewilderment.
Jean: What happened?
Ororo turns away from Jean. She hugs herself, and looks towards the ceiling with eyes brimming with tears. The muted sounds of heavy rain can be heard even in the subasement. When she composes herself, the rain stops, and she turns around with a worried expression to face Jean.
At this point Jean has sat up. Ororo sits next to her. Both women sit in silence for a few seconds letting their feet dangle over the edge of the bed.
Ororo: I...What do you remember, J?
Jean looks at Ororo at first with a blank stare, very slowly her expression changes from empty to that of unbridled fear.
Ororo: We found you at Alkali, and brought you back here. You’ve been here, unconscious, for two days.
Jean: I remember looking back at the jet. A mountain of water! So much. It was everywhere, coming in so fast. It caved in on me.
Ororo laces her hand through Jean’s. Jean closes her eyes and picks up on flashes of thought that Ororo is projecting. Images of an explosion and fire fly by, screaming voices dust and people panicking are everywhere. In the middle of the dust and scurrying people is a dilapidated sky rise. The point of view zooms in underneath the rubble, dust, scorched beams, broken glass ,and broken bent steal to a whimpering voice. In the dark with a single ray of light that just flicked away is a six year old Ororo Monroe. She is holding a black woman’s hand. The rest of the body is shrouded in darkness and a puddle of blood is coming out of the shadows. Roughly four or five feet away is the body of a impaled black man. His bloody impaled body is also shrouded in darkness except for his head. His face is stuck in pure raging agony. His eyes are open in horror there’s blood coming from his nose and mouth. Hanging around his neck is a broken professional photographer’s camera. It is a glaring reminder that no warning came for the sudden distraction. The little girl looks at her father and burst out in tears; she automatically wraps herself in a fetal position with her mother’s hand. The entire rubble structure begins to shake and buckle. Ororo looks up in time to see it begin to cave in...
Jean sees all of these images, and knows what Ororo sees. Her friend and sister has been there. She knows also what its like to be alone. To have those who have always been around suddenly gone, and both know the pang of having the world cave in.
This also angered Jean. Ororo also had something terrible happen to her, and far earlier as well. She was left to wonder alone, and yet, she had her complete mutation at her disposal since she was six. She got hers when she was twelve, and still struggled with them. Ororo alone could thrive by herself. Jean always lagged behind and constantly needed help. She needed the professor for guidance, she needed Scott for love, and she needed Logan for her feminine pride.
What was the one thing she didn’t need. She looked at Ororo with black eyes that resembled an abyss. No, she didn’t need Ororo at all.
After all she was nothing more than a marionette, a tool, for Xavier’s dream. No one would really miss her.
Ororo was still looking down at her feet.
Jean squints her eyes and rubs her temples. Trying to get into Ororo’s mind was not an easy task for any sort of telepath. Ororo’s body was like a lightning rod. It was constantly drawing in energy from all around. Her psyche was the same. It was covered in a sort of static electricity. A psychic trying to get in her mind would have a better time sticking a wet fork in a socket.
Ororo: Jean...are you...are you trying to get in my mind?
Jean laced her hand in Ororo’s, and squeezes hard. Really hard.
Ororo winced in pain.
Ororo:. What are you doing? [pauses] Ouch Jean, that hurts.
Jean: [laughs at her own antics in a slightly sadistic way] Do you want to know something? I’ve always envied your natural defenses. Tell me Rory, did Xavier ever block you. Hold you back. Make it so you couldn’t choose what you did with your own power. It must have been really nice not to him walking around in your head. [Italics are said with disdain.]
Ororo: Jean, your still hurting me. What are you talking about?
Jean eyes glow black. In response to Ororo’s fear, the temperature in the room spikes a few degrees. There’s a fine mist of humid fog that appears.
Jean: It’s not a rhetorical question.
Ororo: Jean. Please.
There was another terrifying squeeze.
Ororo answers with tears in her eyes: NO! Alright? No, he didn’t hold me back! Please just stop.
Jean leans in and whispers in a deadly soft voice: Teacher’s pet. Teacher’s pet.
Ororo: Jean, what’s wrong. Just tell me, what is it you want?
Jean: Freedom! [The sound of the word came from a deep and empty place.]
Jean lets go of a shocked Ororo. She slams her against the wall. Ororo takes no time and whitens her eyes to prepare for a fight that she knew deep down would be inevitable. When she allows her self to see the electric patterns that inhibit all things, she was shocked at what she saw in Jean.
Jean’s basic components, all the things that make a human being, seemed to be endless. Universal. Limitless.
Before Ororo could wrap herself around this concept she felt the wall behind her slip away and then engulf her. Before the panic set in she takes one final look at Jean and sees something truly out of this world. Jean was surrounded by a wisp of gold and red fire. It was strange because there was no heat. Ororo remembered studying Christianity and Judaism. There was a story about a holy bush. A sign sent from God that was fire but gave the prophet who touched it no burns. As she continued to be surround by the all consuming darkness, she saw the flames spread but burn nothing, and out of Jean’s shoulders sprang flaming wings. The wings of a bird made from a near holy power.
Ororo: [Whispers] No, please. Jean, stop. [Outloud] What have you become!
Ororo was thrown to the back of the small space. She felt around on the ground frantically for something to hold to, anything to give her the strength to fight the mind numbing phobia of enclosed spaces. She begins to search blindly on her hands and knees while shaking violently from sheer fear of her situation. After a few terrifying minutes, she finds nothing and gives up. Ororo sat down in the far corner, pulled her knees up to her chest and held her shaking body in this position for what seemed like forever. Tears run down her face as a natural response for the paralyzing fear. The seconds and the minutes that passed meant nothing.
Outside, the weather begins to respond to Ororo in equally terrible ways. Funnels around the Westchester area begin to form, heavy rain is swirled around by winds strong enough to take down dense tree limbs. Thunder and lightning scatter throughout the skyline. The sun had long ago disappeared in dark ominous thick clouds.
Ororo lifts up her head to reveal wild frightened eyes.
Ororo: [in a scared child like voice] Mommy [may be in Swahili, Arabic, or French], where are they? You promised they would find us. Please mommy. Mommy? What’s that smell? Why is it coming from Daddy?
Ororo looks down at her empty hand and sees her mother’s slimy decomposing hand. She doesn’t know that she is no longer under the rubble with her dead parents for eight days. Ororo buries her head back down.
~X~
Logan heads down into the sub-basement and into the med lab. Once he gets to the door, he stops and sniffs. He tilts his head to the side. It is quiet obvious that something just isn’t right.
He approaches the table where Jean lies with long soft strides.
Logan: Jean?
Jeans blinks herself awake.
Jean: Logan...what are you doing here? What am I doing here? [She sits up and hugs herself as if she’s cold.]
Logan walks up to stand directly in front of her. He puts his arms around her and pulls her into his embrace.
She returns it. This makes Logan freeze and pull back.
Logan: [takes her by the shoulders gently] Listen Red, you really put us through the wringer. We didn’t know what happen to you. Do you have any idea what that was like for me?
Jean gives him a sly but innocent look.
Jean: Tell me about Logan. Tell me everything. [She opens her knees wide enough to fit him in between them. She takes her left leg and slowly slides it up his leg to wrap around his waist. She places her hands on his shoulders to pull herself closer to him so that she can whisper in his ear.] I knew that Xavier lied to you about the base so he could get you to stay.
Logan’s body stiffens at her statement. Begins to pull away but she tightens her grip on his shoulders to near painful levels. He feels her other leg making the same trip as its twin.
With more strength than should have been possible for her she flips then both back on the table so that she is looking up at him with come hither eyes.
Logan looks off to the side with a question written on his face of how they got in this position so quickly.
Jean: [laughs briefly] We got this way because you came to see me. Isn’t this what you wanted?
She leans in for a soft chase kiss to prove her point, then gracefully pulls back.
Logan hesitates, and furrows his brows. There was something important he was going to ask her. Jean’s legs squeeze his waist harder, and even though her hands were around his neck he felt her telekinesis undo his belt buckle.
With caution to the wind, Logan leans in and kisses her hard. She returns the kiss with bruising pressure and rips at his wife beater.
The sound of the tearing thread makes Logan pull up from Jean’s neck. He sniffs at the air again and makes the same face as before. This time he recognizes the odd smell emanating from the room. Fear. Pure unadulterated paralyzing fear. Logan looks down at Jean and frowns at her smug look.
Logan sits up and untangles Jean’s legs. She makes another attempt to wrap her arms around him and he stops her. He gets of the table and stands very stiff an arms length away. Logan is obviously very bothered. Every time he inhales his agitation grows because of the intense fear smell swirling around in the room.
Logan: Jean, what’s going on.
Jean: Well I would think that would be kind of obvious.
Logan runs his hands through his hair and blows out air in frustration.
Logan: Please Jeannie. You don’t have to hide anything from me. [He suddenly remembers what he was going to ask her earlier. He digs into his back pocket and brings out Scott’s ruby glasses.]
Jean just stares at them with awe.
Logan: Alright Jean, I’m going to ask you again. What happened at the Lake? Where is Scott? We found his bike at the Alkali. We need to find him, and you were the last person to see him...[He lets his thought go unfinished.]
Jean keeps her eyes intently on the sunglasses in Logan’s outstretched hand. She lets out a heart wrenching wail that becomes a whimper. She begins to emit a sense of fear and dread. She looks at Logan with watery eyes and begins to cry.
Jean: Scott... [closes her eyes at the onslaught of random images of the incident] I don’t know. He was there, and he felt so warm. I...I saw his eyes. [She looks up at Logan with a brilliant child like smile. He flinches at this. Her face grows worried again.] One minute he was there, and the next... I can’t remember. [Her expression suddenly changes to angry. She uses her telekinesis to snatch the glasses from Logan and cuddles them close to her breast. She runs her hands all around them with wonder right before she glares at them. She then uses her telekinesis again to hurl them on the steel wall behind Logan. The glasses land on the floor broken in two with cracks in the lenses.] NO!!! Dammit, no! [She blinks rapidly and looks at Logan with pleading eyes.] Help me...
Logan walks towards her to give her comfort when he suddenly stops, and his ears twitch. He could hear Jean’s accelerated heart beat and smell her change of pheromones, but then he could still smell the original fear sent, and this time he heard the other rapid heartbeat. He took another whiff, then glared at Jean.
Jean: [still sniffling] What is it? What’s wrong?
Logan: I smell lemon grass and sandalwood. Where’s Ororo, and why is she terrified?
Jean breaks eye contact and begins to shift uncomfortably. She lowers her head and hugs herself tight.
Jean:[shrugs] I dunno.
Logan: Dammit Jean. Tell me something. You were the last to see Scott and you won’t say anything. Ororo is near by and she’s terrified and I think you had something to do with it. [shakes her by her shoulders] This isn’t the you that I know Jean.
Jean finally looks at him again with dark black eyes and an expression that is a blaze.
Jean: You know NOTHING! If it can’t get stabbed by you than you just don’t know what to do with it, do you? [She throws him with her power against the steel door. He dents the door five feet above the floor, and falls down with a sickening crack. He stays on the floor out cold. Jean leaves an eerie silent lab and takes her time to head upstairs to the mansion. After a few minutes of silence Xavier rolls in as Logan begins to wake up.
As the doors open, Xavier rolls in with a stern look on his face.
Xavier: Logan! I thought I could have sworn I said no...Oh no... Logan!
Xavier rolls up to him and places his hand on his wrist pulse. He then takes his head and rubs his temple. Xavier uses telepathy to shout Logan’s name to rouse him. Logan mummers something as he slowly wakes up.
Logan: wsuhgn sefjknf sekf fsnv....
Xavier: Get up! Where is she?
Logan: Where’s Jean?
Xavier: What did you do? I told you to keep your mouth shut and not upset her. What did you say to her?
Logan: All I asked was where were Scott and...[Logan inhales and has a quizzical look on his face. Xavier looks at him with an understanding expression.]
Xavier: Oh Jean...what have you done? [Looks away and is startled]
Logan: What’s wrong?
Xavier: Open up the closet, NOW!
Logan doesn’t understand Xavier’s urgency but heads to the closet, and the smells of fear and lemon grass nearing knock him off his feet. He looks at the closet door carefully and notices that there’s no opening.
Logan: What the hell? [ He bumps it, slashes it, then kicks it down.]
The door slides of the wall to reveal the huddled up Ororo shivering hard from the fright.
Logan: Ro? Ro...common we gotta go and get- -
Xavier: She’s severely claustrophobic. Jean...[sighs] she knew this. [shakes his head] Why would she do that? [turns around to roll out] I need to find Jean. Make sure that Ororo gets some sleep.
Logan is cradling a whimpering Ororo. He looks down at her and brushes her short crop of hair out of her face. At his touch, she stirs and opens wide scared eyes.
Ororo wraps her arms around Logan and digs her hands in his shirt.
Ororo: I didn’t think any one would come for me. It took so long before, and it smelled so bad.
Logan rubs the small of her back.
Ororo: Logan? Oh goddess... Jean!
Logan: Easy darlin’. You aren’t ready to hit the skies just yet. Sit. [Ororo looks at him then softly sits down next to him. There is an awkward pause between them.] I didn’t know you were a claustrophobic.
Ororo turns her head very slowly in an angry way to glare at him.
Ororo: Well of course not. You never bothered to stay around long enough to get to know me or any one else for that matter.
Logan: I...Look Ro’- -
Ororo: Save it, Logan. One thing that you can learn right now is that no one stops me from doing what I want to do, and right now I want to find Jean and bring her back.
Logan: Aren’t you really angry?
Ororo: I’m angry at a lot of things, but I don’t have a choice but to live with it, now do I? Go get the professor, and meet me at the Benz. We are going to get Jean.
~End Scene~
