The Matthias Chronicles
Vol. 1 Story 6: Free-Fallout
By Wraith and Shockwave

Emma Frost was in a panic. She awoke at 5:30 am for her early morning training session with Jamal, as she did every weekday. She was especially anxious to talk to him today, and find out how he was feeling about the Sara situation. However at 5:45, after getting washed and dressed, she arrived at Jamal's room to find it completely devoid of life. She later found Angelo asleep on the couch in the rec room; but Jamal was still AWOL. Emma tried to use a small range psi-scan to try to locate Jamal, but came up with nothing. On the brink of breaking down, Emma ran to the nearest VOICEa box. VOICE took verbal commands to locate any mutant on Xavier's database that were currently in either in Institute For Higher Learning, or The School For Gifted Youngsters; and traced their brain patterns to their location.

"VOICE, locate all absent roster at Gifted School."

The electronic voice replied, "Brown, Jamal designate: 'Wraith'; Kain, Sara designate: 'Ranger'; St. Croix, Monet designate: 'M'; Storm, Christopher designate: 'Shockwave'; Thomas, Everett designate: 'Synch'. Previous five individuals were all classified as 'absent' by this unit."

Sara was still missing, but now Jamal, Monet, Chris, and Everett were also missing and psi-blocked. Emma ran into Sean's room, tears in her eyes.

"I don't believe it Sean! Not again! I've failed…twice. First my Hellions, now these children…"

At first Sean had no idea what Emma meant; then she explained about the missing students. Sean stared into Emma's crystal blue eyes, still moist with tears, and found it hard to believe she once posed a threat to the entire universe, as she did when she was involved in the Dark Phoenix's rise to power. "Look here lass, ye dinne fail. Just because ye can't locate the children now doesn't mean we can't locate them from last night!"

Emma's composure and ice-cold demeanor returned. "Sean, what on earth are you babbling about?" She tried to sound calm and flippant as usual, but the excitement in her voice after hearing the children might be found, betrayed her true feelings.

"Remember the long argu--**ahem**-- discussion that ye and Charles had about the children's safety verses their privacy? Ye insisted that closed-circuit cameras be installed in every inch of the school; but Charles said that the ones on the exterior were enough. Well the compromise was that--"

"We set up cameras outside of every dorm room! My God Sean, you're a genius!" Throwing her carefully molded façade to the wind Emma leaped into her fellow headmaster's arms and kissed his cheek.

"Praise me later Emma, after we look over those tapes!"

***********************

Jamal Brown's mind was a blur. He didn't know where he was, what he was doing, or how he got where he was. All he knew was, he was hearing two different voices penetrating the pea-soup fog that surrounded his brain.

"Dammit Jamal. Stop hesitating and slice the slut!"

"Jamal! Don’t listen to Legionnaire! I know this isn't you; he's done something to you! You're not a killer!"

"Oh that's where you're wrong little one! All of my boys have an ingrained killer instinct. They simply choose to suppress it. Chris' pre set mental barriers were a little harder to diffuse, since he had no real emotional interest in your plight. At least, not enough to abandon the years of practice spent keeping his fury in check. Jamal, however, was desperate to get you back; therefore his subconscious barriers were dissolved. Possibly permanently. God I love being meeEEEEEEAAAAARRRRGGGGHHH!!!!!" Legionnaire looked behind him and saw Jamal retracting the claws that were Wolverine's trademark. The scream was more from shock then pain. Lord knows it had been somewhere in the range of 600 years since he actually felt pain. As his hands ran across his back to assess the damage Jamal caused. He realized just how much damage was done, when he felt his lungs fill up with air as he breathed…with his bare hands. "Well **cough** son, it looks like the bitch was right after all. Too bad, I guess I'll use Chris after all."

"I don’t think so. When I shishkabobbed your back, your hold on Monet and Everett was broken. So I'm taking my sister, my girlfriend, Chris, and Everett and we're all leaving. Besides, if you plan on living past the half-hour you might wanna get some medical attention for that little 'gash'".

"What, this thing?" Legionnaire's hand that was holding his lungs began to glow green. Not a neon, or electric type of green, but rather a green similar to dew-kissed spring grass. As he pulled his arm out of his back his flesh, bone, and internal organs began to regenerate. Though he saw the individual tendons and bone fragments connect and bond, Jamal couldn't believe what he was seeing. And yet, somehow in the back of his head he just knew that Legionnaire wouldn't be felled that easily.

Legionnaire continued, "My son, you've proven that you DO have the killer instinct! Despite the fact that neither of you did exactly what I wanted you to do today; you have proven, none-the-less, that you two will be beneficial to me in the future. I'll keep in touch!" With that Legionnaire snapped his fingers and the floating palace disappeared, and the teens began plummeting towards the green earth below.

Monet looked over at Everett, who was still unconscious, and grabbed him. "Jamal grab Chris! He's still out of it too!"

"Chris?!? What about Sara!?!"

A small chipmunk glided wind currents (and the force of gravity) into Jamal's pocket. "Don't worry about me, as long as I'm in your pocket I'll survive the fall if you do. Chris can't, get him quick!"

Jamal flew over to Chris and grabbed him. Was Legionnaire telling the truth, was Chris really his brother? Moreover, was Legionnaire their father? Jamal had an ulterior motive for slicing Legionnaire, when they got back to school he'd have Dr. McCoy analyze the blood on the claws. However, finding out if his family tree was as convoluted as it seemed now was the least of his problems. He had no real training with his psionic powers and he had no idea if his power alone would be enough to contact Emma. He didn't dare fly back with Everett and Chris in the shape they were in. Their best bet was to find a place to rest and gather their bearings. They were all in deep shit, and he led them into it head first.

***********************

Sean and Emma gathered the remaining students into the meeting room. It was time to see just how well they functioned as a team on a recon mission. Sean's mind was somewhere else, though Emma didn't notice earlier, he was more afraid than he'd ever been in his life. Not for himself, but for the children. As Emma finished the briefing, she looked over the faces of the other students. Their facial expressions ranged from shock to dread; Paige looked especially upset. She was just with Chris a few days ago, and now he was gone. The worst part was that no one had any leads, because the cameras didn't have microphones installed (a slight oversight).

Jubilee spoke-up, while trying to keep her true, forbidden feelings about Chris under wraps. "Well I guess we're back to square one aren't we?"

Emma was getting ready to say something when a psionic howl of raw, uncontrollable power ripped through her mind in broken fragments: <<EMMA!!!…HELP!!!…PHILADELPHIA!!!….INJURED!!!!….HURRY!!!!>> Emma barked orders to everyone in the meeting room. "Quickly! Everyone mobilize; head to the hanger now!"

***********************

Everett's synch-aura faded as he lay down again. "Was that enough Jamal?"

'I hope so. Combining my small amount of psychic power and Monet's hyper-powered abilities with your synch-aura made a psi-yell so loud that Emma couldn't help but hear it. But we've never tried anything like that before so who knows?"

Monet reached over to massage her boyfriend's bald, bruised head. "You did fine Ev," she said as she kissed him gently. "We'll be OK."

Jamal looked across the impromptu campsite at his girlfriend, Sara. She was in a bind. She first used her healing ability under battle conditions, just five minutes ago, on Everett. And now she had to do it again to Chris. She wasn't sure how she did it to Everett, and she damned sure didn't know how to repeat the feat on Chris. Jamal walked over to Sara and put his arm around her shoulder. "It'll be O.K. Sara. I know you can do it."

"Healing him isn't the problem. Well, at least not the biggest problem. If I heal him, then his shoulder won't ever get back into place."

"Shit, I forgot I dislocated it when Legionnaire controlled me."

"Look, it wasn't you're fault," she whispered as she kissed Jamal's cheek. "By the way, what made you cut him?"

"If you really wanna know, it was you." Jamal grabbed Chris' shoulder and arm, pushed them together and relocated them. "He's all yours babe."

Sara closed her eyes and held Chris in her arms and concentrated. "C'mon Sara, just relax, and breathe, just like Ms. Frost taught you," Sara spoke to herself to give herself a bit of a pep talk. "Don't anticipate it, just direct it when it happens." As Sara's furrowed brow became slightly moist from newly formed beads of sweat; a slight blue hue covered both her and Chris. Eventually, Chris came out of his wounded stupor.

"Wha…what happened? Last thing I remember is Jamal grabbing my shoulder when I was going after that Legionnaire guy."

As Sara began to explain what happened, she was cut off mid sentence by a loud roar originating from above their heads. The Ravenb descended over the Delaware River where Legionnaire's palace once was, and where the runaways were currently camped out on the bank.

***********************

"So let me get this straight lad. Ye thought Ms. Frost and myself were a wee bit too daft to organize a search party to save the lass; so ye take it upon yureself to shanghai three of yure friends and go after her. Meanwhile half o' ye almost dinne make it back alive--stop me if I'm wrong so far," Jamal was completely silent. "Good! Now after all o' that, ye actually expect me to allow ye to return to my school!?!"

"Mr. Cassidy…"

"SHUT YURE MOUTH MONET!!!!! This is between me and yure brother! As a matter of fact all o ye GET OUT OF MY OFFICE!!!" As Sean wiped the sweat from his red face, Chris, Everett, and Monet left the office. Sean turned around to face Jamal again.

"Look, Mr. Cassidy I know I fu--messed up. And I learned my lesson. But I was so upset that my emotions clouded my judgment. It won't happen again."

"Sure'n it won't lad. I'm sorry but the guidelines are clear. I must suspend ye."