PART III—DIVIDE AND CONQUER

By Shadow Dancer & Simon Magus

Marvelmen@hotmail.com

[Disclaimer: Batman is a ă of DC Comics Generation X and other recognizable Marvel characters are the property of Marvel Comics. Renegade X and all others are a ă of my associate and myself.]

**Denotes Telepathic speech ~~ Denotes Machine speech <<>>Denotes Thoughts ^^ Denotes Language translations

KRAKABOOM!!!!!!…

…As the dust clears craters and burning wood can be seen everywhere. Jubilee sits down on a stump and begins to sharpen one of her knives as Wolverine crawls out of the hole, the last remains of the tree he had been in a moment ago.

"Yawn! Are you having fun playin in that hole Wolvie?" Jubilee says as she puts her knife away. The metal slides back into the scabbard of her leather wrap with a near silent clink. Wolverine begins to circle her gauging the distance and pounces only to be slammed to the ground by Shadow Dancer.

"Not very agile is he?"

"I’ll show you agile, bub." Wolverine says as he leaps over Shadow Dancer’s head and attempts to backhand him only to pass through him and into another hole. Jubilee just sits there laughing as dust rises from the hole.

"Mr. Logan, I am only solid when I need to be." As he says this a hand snakes up his leg and pulls him into the hole.

"Ya better work on yer concentration kid."

IN THE REC. ROOM—

The tv blared in the silence of the rec. room. As Johny sat watching Johnny Bravo dance across the screen a buzzing at the back of his mind made him focus inward.

<<Uh oh!>>

**Hey Jubes! We have an uninvited guest.**

**Deal with it okay. I’ve got my hands full.**

Johny jumped up from his seat and shifted to the parlor. Nothing was out of place but there was the after tang of brimstone.

"Hello Nightcrawler. Ya know you’ve gotta be the stinkiest teleporter I’ve eva come across."

"Uh. . .thanks mien freund. Where are Scott and the others?"

"They’re waiting for you in the Danger Room. Why don’t you go there now?

BAMPF!!!

Nightcrawler disappears leaving the stench of brimstone. Johny shifts to the control room to activate the security fields.

"Computer engage Danger Room teleportation protocol Alpha Zeta Three."

~~PROTOCOL AZ3 ENITIATED. ENGAGING DANGER ROOM TELEPORTATION LOCK IN.~~

IN THE LAB—

Beast removes the panel on the side of the diagnostic bed and begins to scan the power cells attached to the Shi’ar components. Beast stops his scan and removes several long metallic cards. Krissy hops to look within the over sized bed.

"What’s wrong with the contraption Dr. McCoy? I didn’t break it did I." Krissy jokes as she picks up one of the components to get a better look at the script along the side. As she looks at the long cube like circuits her eyes go blank and it seems like forever before she takes another breath.

"It appears as though you have a fascination with technology that rivals my own." Krissy doesn’t reply barely breathing for several minutes as if in a trance. "Ms. Thompson…Are you okay?"

^^I’m fine Dr. McCoy. Sorry I zoned out on you. I was just…"

Krissy stops talking as she notices the shocked look on Beast’s face. ^^What’s wrong?^^ Krissy askes in Shi’ar.

^^Allow me to start at the beginning. The components that I recently removed from the diagnostic bed were of an alien origin specifically a civilization known as the Shi’ar. It appears that through your tactile contact with the circuitry you have acquired the ability to speak the Shi’ar language.^^

^^NO WAY! Uh Dr. McCoy…how do I stop talking like this?^^

^^The shock of flash learning the language should subside soon as your mind adjusts to the knowledge. It appears that we are through here so if you’ll come with me we will begin our tour of the Xavier estate.^^

^^There are so many cool things here.^^ She says as she motions around the Med Lab ^^What other forms of equipment did you get from the Shi’ar? Are the computers also of Shi’ar origin?^^ Beast notices her grin believing he has found someone to listen to him lecture on one of his favorite subjects Shi’ar Tech.

<<YES!>> The sentiment is echoed through the nearly undetectable mind link Krissy shares with Johny and Jubilee. <<It looks like the doctor bought it. Phase III.>>

OUTBACK---

"Hey Wolvie if you and Shadow Dancer are through playing in the hole we can get back to business."

"Alright darlin." Wolverine turns towards Jubes to see Shadow Dancer bleed out of the darkness behind her. He narrows his eyes focusing on his protégé with pride and a lot of caution. The blades begin to whiz towards him as he blocks, slaps and batters the blades away from him. "Come on darlin you can do better than that. Looks like yer all outta knives."

"It looks that way." Jubes smiles. Shadow Dancer backs up and bleeds into the shadows. Jubes smile broadens as she blows Wolverine a kiss and hurls, what Wolverine could only describe later as a large glowing spear made of raw plasma, an object which detonates as it hits the ground in front of Wolverine successfully knocking him out.

**Shock! Wolvie has been tucked in for now. Are the kids playin nice?**

**They don’t seem to like my danger room program.**

**How’s Krissy holdin up?**

**Great. Beast is giving her a tour now. They should be at Cerebro real soon. Why don’t you, Wolverine and Jamar come join me.**

**Beam me up Scotty** Their forms begin to ripple as the three shift to the rec. room. Jubes places Wolverine on the sofa and pops open a can of Jolt. As they sit there Johny places an Anime into the DVD player.

"Dragon Ball Z is like da bomb" Jubes says as she snaps off a few Paffs rousing Wolverine a little.

COMMAND OPS---

Beast and Krissy are still touring the underground facilities. Beast had recently stopped speaking Shi’ar after it occurred to him that Krissy’s mind could take the strain of him switching back to English. As they entered Command Ops the twinkle in his eyes was mirrored in Krissy’s, even though he couldn’t tell through the shades she wore, as she glanced at the equipment around the room.

"…And this is Cerebro. It can detect the mutagenic bio-signature of almost ever mutant on the planet. It aids us in locating young mutants that need help and hot spots of mutant activity. If you attend school with Jubilation and Johny you will be trained to use a Cerebro unit."

^^Dr. McCoy would it be alright if I took a look at the equipment.^^
"Go right ahead. It will be a great learning experience for you." A blinking light to his right catches his eye. "My word…I will be back in a moment. It seems the Danger Room has acquired a mind of it’s own."
Beast runs out of the room leaving Krissy to marvel at the equipment in front of her. Many emotions fill her mind as she sends a message down the link telling Johny to get his butt back to the Danger Room. With that done she can begin doing her part. Krissy’s hands fly over the console as she absorbs data and opens system backdoors. She continues searching for information on the recent computer break ins, project schematics, enemy/threat info, copying and locking out files that deal with the known chronovariant mutants of what Jubilee kept referring to as this time period.
The lift doors open and Beast leaps out heading toward the Danger Room. He enters the unlocking sequence on the keypad.
 
~~ ACCESS DENIED. TRAINING SIMULATION IN PROGRESS. ~~
 
<<I guess the only other alternative is to head for the control room.>>
Johny shifts into the control room. <<Great Beast’s not here but he’s on his way.>> With a glance at the security camera image he sees Beast head for the control room entrance. Johny pops the disc out of the recorder and replaces it sliding his hand across the console mentally exploding key components. Two minutes later Beast comes bounding into the room.
 
"Dr. McCoy am I glad to see you. It seems that the computer has froze up or something because the simulation won’t stop. I would’ve come to get you but it didn’t seem as though the X-Men were in any immediate danger. The safety protocols are still in place."
 
"The appropriate course of action would be to find the source of our dilemma." Beast says as the removes the consoles maintenance cover to see wisps of smoke rise from the insides and a few flames. Johny quickly grabs an extinguisher and foams down the flames and a very startled and slightly singed Beast.

"Are you okay Dr. McCoy?"

"I'm fine Johny. Although it appears that with the teleportation negation systems online we will have to manually open the Danger Room doors. If you will give me a hand I believe we can remedy this particular problem in the fullness of time."

Back in Command Ops another line of binary code explodes across the screen and vanishes with lightning speed. Krissy rubs her temples once again. The tension lines fade from her forhead as she splits her attention enough to send a stray thought to Jubilee.

<<Jubes, how's everything going?>>

**Beast and Johny are pulling the X-Men outta the Danger Room as we speak. Are you done yet?**

<<Yes. The last file is loaded. I hope they let me rest before the meeting and greeting part of this trip. I've got a major headache.>>

**I'll be down to get you in a few moments and I'll bring the aspirin.**

A short time later.

~~ PROGRAM COMPLETED. ~~

<<All done.>> The screen goes blank as she swivels in her chair to see Jubilee enter the door.

FOUR HOURS LATER--

After the uh....short nap Krissy had, Jubilee dragged her into the dinning room where the other X-Men were waiting. Everyone had gathered around the table to hear what Beast had to say about the newest member in their ranks. Beast seemed pretty excited and that isn't always a good thing.

"So wat package did the "mutant" gods give Krissy besides that stunning blue apparel she's adorned awready." As Johny spoke Krissy's eyes flashed beneath her shades as she flushed a purple hue.

"Ms. Thompson is a fifth generation mutant." Beast pauses as he lets the implications of what he's saying sinks in. "She has already exhibited one of her abilities earlier. Will you please demonstrate Ms. Thompson."

^^Sure thing Dr. McCoy but please call me Krissy.^^ The gasp from the group tells Beast that the demonstration was a success.

"Thank you Krissy. Krissy learned the Shi'ar language through her tactile touch with some components earlier. It seems to be a form of Techno-psychometry."

"Eh Hank if yer gonna coin a new term shouldn't you tell us what it means."

"Uh right....to continue she can interact with machines on a psionic level through touch maybe even visually. She is a pyrokinetic, has a hyper mechanic ability, can absorb energy and has visual senses that could probably put Wolverine to shame." At that statement Wolverine snickers grinding his teeth a bit. "It seems that she was born to be an engineer. Her eyes are acute enough to pick up the entire spectrum range. That is the reason for the shades without them she's blind. Until she can learn to control the input and strain placed upon her by the flood of information I suggest she continues to wear them.

clm@nbnet.nb.ca
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