Chapter 1 - Marked For Death

Attention:  Generation X and their villains, as wellas any other mutant mentioned in this story, is property of Marvel Comics. The character Richard Cale is named after family relations.  Any otherreference to anything copyrighted is a chance happening.
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Hunted
Marked For Death
               Gayle Edgerton sat in her wheelchair in her England home.  Not toolong ago, she had traveled to America, all for the purpose of killing theman that put her in the wheelchair.  No, not a man, a mutant whoseabilities crippled her long ago.  She still bore the scars of thepack she had made so she could obtain revenge.  The mutant that gaveher that change had doublecrossed her, but the whole experience had givenher a chance to make peace.  She looked at the photo on her mantleand asked the same question she asked every time she looked at it. "Jono, how are you doing right now?  I can never make up for whatI almost did to you, and for helping that Emplate being."
              She was surprised when a voice spoke behind her.  "That's all theproof I need."  She spun around in her wheelchair, and faced the being. He stood there with a gun in his hand.
              She eyed the strange man with fear, silently activating an alarm she hadin case of emergencies.  She then said, "Who are you?"  She hearda loud shot and looked down.  He had shot her.  Where the bullethit her, she realized that if she didn't get help soon, she would die. She looked at the man and just said "Why?"
              The man just looked at her and said, "To prevent more."  His wordsdidn't make to much sense, but it had something to do with Emplate, thebeing that 'recruited' her to help get Jono and his friends.  Sheleaned forward, to act as if she would strike out at him, but she plannedto play dead, hopefully not to become dead.

              He stood over the body that collapsed out of the wheelchair.  He deemedhimself the Hunter, for he felt it was his task to stop them.  Hehad been pulled into the fold once.  Years ago, he was part of thatevil being's group.  When he broke free, he vowwed to stop the evilthis being had passed on.  He pulled out a list.  As he lookedat it, he marked off the name.  "If you hadn't have sold your soul,Ms. Edgerton, you would have never met me."
              He heard a siren approaching.  She was clever.  He phased outof existance.  A curse he obtain in mutancy.  The hunger kepthim linked to that evil.  He knew this woman wasn't a mutant, buthe felt that only those who were like him were targets, food sources. Once he removed all of them, he could end his suffering.  He had longago decided only to strike those far away from Emplate.  This womanwas the next name on his list.  He walked up to the rooftop and lookedagain at the list.  During his time with Emplate, he remembered thename that was next of his list.  He looked at her name.  "Ahyes, the reluctant enforcer.  I know you have escaped, now I mustend your cursed exitstance."  He reached at his arm and felt the scarsfrom that time. "Yvette Gyorgi, your time has come."
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              Yvette Cassidy awoke screaming.  She sat straight up in her bed. She was scared by this dream.  She was with several people, mutantslike herself, in a field, dead.  At the top of the pile was Emplate. He, too, was dead.  She didn't want to die, not like that.  Shewanted to live a long life, with her love, Richard Cale.  When hecame into her life, she had fully recovered from her experience with Emplate. She got out of bed and walked over to her closet.  She opened thedoor and saw the restraints she had wore when she was Emplate's reluctantmeal.  She kept them as a reminder of her time with Emplate, but shealso kept them so that Sean and Emma could get costumes that her skin wouldnot ruin when she tensed up.  At current time, she was gaining onPaige for most costumes used.  She reached in and grabbed a dressand looked at the time.  It was four hours until dawn, and she wasscared about what this nightmare would mean.  She opened her drawerand grab some other items and left her room.
              Nightmares like those scared her, and when she was that scared, she feltsafe with only one person.  She left the girl's dorm and made herway to the guy's dorm.  It was a little cold, but she had gotten useto it, due to her living in the grotto until Rich came to the school. As she approached the guy's dorm, she found the one room with a light on. As she approached the window, she saw why the light was on.  Richwas sitting at his desk, with his headset on.  He was writing in hisjournal.  She put her hand near the little signal device he placedon the window sill. She looked in the window as she began signalling. Sean and Emma didn't know about this, but she knew that they wouldn't beconcerned until something happened.  As she continued to use signal,she wondered if she would have to use the secret entrance machanism theycame up with. For a minute or two, Rich hadn't responded.  She startedto worry, and noticed that she was minding the cold.  She looked intothe window and softly said, "Please, Rich, hurry up and open the windowand let me in."  She smiled when he finally looked her way.

              Rich had his earphones on.  He was listening to some one of the variousPure Moods CD's he had while he was writing in his journal.  He spentyears keeping this journal, and he had starting writing in it again. He had been writing for about an hour, when he heard the clicking of thesignal he and Yvette had rigged.  He turned his head toward the windowand saw her out there.  He didn't know how long she was out there,but he figured that she must have had a nightmare.  He closed hisjournal and ran to the window.  He opened it and reached out to helpher in.  "Yvette, what's wrong?"
              She smiled as he helped her in.  "I had a terrible nightmare. It was horrible."  He then realized that she was scared.  Whenhe finally got her in the window, she said, "Thank you.  I was startingto feel cold out there."
              He then noticed that she was in her night attire.  He had never seenher like that, ever. He held her close and asked, "My love, why didn'tyou put a little more on?"
              She put her arms around him and kissed him.  {Because, I didn't thinkI'd be outside so long.  Also, I thought you wouldn't mind.} She gave him a smile.  Over all the time they had been dating, hehad found that she had a sneaky wild side.  It was one of those littlefacts he loved about her.  However, back when they started dating,they swore not to go all the way.  Rich had been raised on that belief,and he believed it.
              However, her sneaky wild side usual brought out his sneaky wild side. He returned the kiss and said, {I think you might be right.  So whatdid you have a nightmare about.}  He noticed that she shook. He held her close and whispered in her ear.  "It's alright, my love,I keep you safe."  He noticed that she started to calm down. He had been afraid that when she would tense up, she shed her outfit. He then psionically said, {Tell me when your ready to talk about it. Maybeyou might want to get some rest.}
              She looked into his eyes and said, {Hold me, please.}  He held heras he walked her over to his bed.  As they climbed in, she turnedto face him and kissed him.  {Thank you, my love.}
              He smiled and returned the kiss.  {Sleep well, my love.}  Heheld her close, since she asked, but also since he deep down wanted to. This was a bit different from most times they held each other, mainly becauseof the situation.
              He was almost surprised when she kissed him and said, {At least I havesomething to hold onto for safety and comfort.}  He felt her holdhim tighter to her.
              He returned the kiss and said, {Love, I'll keep you safe.}  He continuedthe kiss as she started to kiss in return.  In fact, he felt thatthey would enter dreamland kissing.
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              It was just as day broke at the Xavier School.  Other times that hewould be here, he would be here with his master.  However this timewas different, and DOA knew that.  The one being that worried Emplatemore than any of Generation X had just took a shot at Gayle Edgerton. Emplate still had a small grip of control on her, but that meant that Penancewould be next.  Emplate still had a link to the rouge of the group,but he had no control.  DOA then remembered that if Generation X foundhim here, that he probably would not be welcomed, even though he was comingwith a warning.  All he been instructed to do was deliver the recordedmessage to Penance.  He walked by the girls dorm.  As he passedthe windows, he placed a little window like object by it.  It allowedhim to observe what happened in each room.  The first occupied roomhe found was obviously Jubilee's.  As he looked in, he found the girlwas asleep. He continued to the next window, and the next until he foundthe next room that had one of the Gen X-er's in it.  Just from theitems he saw, he could tell it was Penance's room, but she wasn't in there. He just muttered quietly, "Where are you, Yvette?"  Then it hit him,she must be with Richard Cale.
              His thoughts were cut off when fireworks hit near his feet.  He turnedto see Jubilee leaning out her window.  "I don't know what your upto, but Emplate won't succeed."  He ran away from the building. Hefigured that they would start by checking Yvette's room.  It mightwork to his advantage.  He quickly ran for the guys dorm to find Yvetteand Richard.  When he reached the dorm.  He used the same methodthat he used before.  He found them in the first occupied room. He was surprised when he saw them in the room.  However, he had atask to perform.  He had to deliver the message.  He tried toopen the window, but he couldn't.  He didn't want to look like hewas attacking, but he had to get the message through.  He knew thathis master hoped that Yvette would come back to him when she saw the message. He also knew that if Yvette did come back to the master, Richard Cale wouldn'tbe too far behind.  He struggled some more trying to open the window,but couldn't.  He finally decided to do the one thing he could do.

              Jubilee had swore she had heard something outside her window, and whenshe looked out, she had been right, in the worse way.  She saw D.O.A.,Emplate's little minion lurking at Penny's window.  She was scaredthat Emplate was in there.  She had shots some of her fireworks overat him and he ran off.  Now she had a bad feeling that Emplate wasalready in there, and if not, he might be on his way over to Rich's room.She quickly left her room and ran to Penny's room.  As she ran, Monetcame from her room and said, "Jubilee, what is with all the racket? Someof us want to get some sleep?"
              Jubilee just continued to run to the door of her surogate sister's roomand said, "Your brother might be here.  I just saw DOA at Penny'swindow."  Soon Monet was at her side.
              Monet looked at her and said, "I called Emma and Sean.  I hope theytry to see if Richard is safe."  Jubilee agreed with that as she knockedfiercely on Penny's door.  There was no time for patience.  Shequickly started to tackle the door, in an effort to break it down.
              As she tried, she looked at Monet and said, "Can you help me out here? This isn't a time for you to space out.  Emplate might be abductingboth Penny and Rich."  Soon enough, Monet was tackling the door withher.
              As they continued, Paige and Daria had entered the halls.  Paige justsaid,"What are you two up too?"  It was at that point when the doorfinally gave.  Jubilee was almost shocked when she saw the room wasempty.  She was scared that Emplate had taken Penny.
              Monet just said, "Jubilee saw DOA outside, and thought Emplate was in here. I think he wasn't, cause Yvette isn't her."
              Daria looked in and said, "Yvette isn't here, and that's a good thing?"
              Jubilee then realize what Monet had noticed.  "She's right. There was no struggle. Besides, I don't think the place would be this niceif Emplate was in here.  Penny would have put up a fight."
              She then heard the voice of Emma Frost say, "Then where is she?"
              Jubilee had an idea on the answer when they all heard glass breaking somewhereon campus.  She had an idea where it was.  All she said, "Theonly place she'd be safe, and when we get there, I think we will find thesource of that sound."  With that they all left the girl's dorm.

              Yvette was startled when Rich left her in the dream world.  All night,in their dreams, they were kissing.  With the mental link they heldwhen together, they could do this when ever they were asleep.  Yvetteopened her eyes and noticed Rich was now crouched on the floor, lookingat something.  She then saw the broken window.  As he lookedover the floor, she looked at the window at said, "Who would do such athing?"  She started to be afraid.  It could mean many things. Worst of all things, it could mean that Emplate was in the room, just waitingto grab the both of them.
              He looked at her, for he knew what she was thinking.  He just saidin a reassuring voice, "I don't think it's him, love.  He would justattack, and Soundwave wouldn't have let us move." She shuddered when hesaid that.  Not to long ago, the mutant Rich helped put behind barsescaped, and almost killed them.  He then said, "Besides, I don'tthink it was vandals.  This thing they threw is like a communicationsitem."
              She sat up in the bed and said, "Who would throw that the window, and why?" It was a puzzle.  Who would send something for communicating withthem, and was it for them.
              She watched as Rich studied it for a bit.  He then said, "It for playbackof a message."
              She looked at him curiously and said, "Playback.  You mean someonedelivered a message by throwing it through your window."
              He then said, "Which means someone got the wrong room, or the right room. Right now, there is only one way we can find out."  She watched ashe examined it again, and soon found what appeared to be buttons. He quietly said, "I think this one is play."  As he pushed the button,a holographic image formed, one that frightened her.  It was Emplate. Her natural fears started to take over and before the image had a chanceto speak, it disappeared.  Rich looked at her concern and said, "Yvette,calm down."
              She started to calm down.  She realized she must have tensed up. She looked at him and said, "I'm sorry love, I didn't mean to ..." She looked at the bed covers and that, but they were all intact. She sighed in relief and then she heard the faint sound of fabric tearing. She lifted the covers and looked at her current attire.  That littlefright was ripping her night shirt. Everything else was intact, but hernight shirt was coming apart at the seams.  She looked at Rich, whowas placing a bathrobe around his pajama's, and said, "Could you hand me...."
              He handed her her clothing as he said, "One step ahead of you, my love. I'll step outside.  You get dressed, then I'll get dressed while youwait out in the hall.  Once were ready, we need to show this messageto Sean and Emma.  Emplate's up to something, and I don't think he'shere.  Now stay calm."  She watched as he picked up the deviceand left the room.
              That was one of the things she liked about Rich.  He was a gentleman. The most they ever did was kiss.  In their dreams, they kissed differently,longer and intimately, but never did they take advantage of each other. As she got out of bed, she watched as the night shirt she had worn, fellto the floor in shreds.  She sighed.  "I've lost more night shirtslike that to those nightmares."  One time, she had joined the othergirls for a slumber party.  She had a nightmare that night as well,and felt embarassed.  She started to get dressed and looked at thepicture Rich had on his nightstand.  It was of the two at the localmall.  They had it taken in one of those photo booths.  Whenshe finished getting dressed, she went over to the door.  Just asshe was about to knock, she heard voices on the other side.  The othersmust have heard the glass break.  She then started to worry. Even though both she and Rich had done nothing wrong, the others mightthink differently.

              Rich stood outside his door waiting for Yvette to get dressed, when hesaw some the other guys running over to him.  Everett was the firstto ask the question, "Rich, what was that noise."  He didn't knowhow everyone would react if he mentioned that Yvette came to his room lastnight.  Although they did nothing improper, he was never sure howthe others would react to situations like this.
              Rich just stood against his door and said, "I think something cracked thewindow.  I'd like to talk to Sean and Emma about it."
              He was caught off guard when he heard Sean saw, "Does it have anythingto do with the fact that D.O.A was spotted near the girls dorm." He looked at Yvette's adopted father and swallowed.  He wasn't sure how Sean would take the situation.
              Rich composed himself and said, "Would explain this."  He held upthe communicator device that was thrown threw his window.
              It was Darrett who looked at him suspeciously.  "Is there a reasonthat you would be receiving a message from Emplate."  He didn't likethe tone of what Darrett was implying.  He knew that Darrett didn'ttrust neither him nor Yvette.
              Rich just said, "If Emplate wanted to talk to me, he would have kidnappedme, Darrett." Darrett just looked at him, and Rich could tell that theboy had trouble accepting the fact that he and Yvette were on the sideof the good guys.
              It appeared to be more difficult a situation to explain as all the girlscame walking into the dorm.  He watched as Sean turned and said, “IsYvette alright?”  Rich didn’t know if Sean wanted to here the answeror not.
              Emma just said, “Jubilee has an idea where Yvette is, since Yvette isn’tin her room, and Emplate wasn’t there.”  He felt at that moment thatall eyes were on him, which was true.
              Sean just walked over to him and said, “Alright lad, where is Yvette?” He could tell that Sean had a stern look in his eyes.  He couldn’tblame Sean, after all, Yvette was a second daughter to Sean.
              Rich didn’t want to look in Sean’s eyes, but he forced himself to, andsaid nervously, “She had a nightmare last night, and spent the night withme.”  He felt like he was about to get a severe assault of vocal attacks.
              He felt Sean put his hands on his shoulders as the Irishman looked in hiseyes and said, “Ye didn’t do anything.  I could tell by the way yeanswered the question.  Scared, but ye told us what happened.” He almost collapse in relief, when Sean said, “Now can you shed any lighton her nightmare or why DOA was here.”
              He quietly said, “Not the nightmare, but I think DOA was here to delivera message to Yvette, the way you mentioned that DOA was spotted at thegirls dorm.”
              Jubilee, who he noticed was about to say something, said, “I hate to interuptbut, how bad did the nightmare scare her.”  He had a feeling at whatshe was getting at.  She then said, “Last time she had a nightmarethat we knew of was when us gals had a sleep over.  She wasn’t tothrilled when she discovered she had a nightmare, more embarassed really.”
              He felt everyones eyes on him, mostly Sean’s as a worried father. He then said, “The message caused that, however, I left her so she couldget dressed.”
              He heard Emma speak in his mind.  [You mean you saw part of the message.] He nodded and Emma continued, [You left after you realized what happenedso she could get dressed in private.]  He nodded again.  Shewalked forward and said allowed, “I think Sean has nothing to worry aboutwith Yvette.  Now I suggest we all get dressed and meet to find outwhat Emplate wanted.  When everyone left, she turned to face him withSean and said, “Can we talk with you two for a moment.”  He had alittle concern about what the questions were going to be, but he led theminto the room.

              Emma entered the room with Sean after the other kids had left.  Therewas one thing she was wondering about when Jubilee said that Yvette mightbe in Rich’s room, and that was how she got in.  Yvette was sittingon the bed as they entered.  She looked worried as she said, “Hello,Ms. Frost.  Morning ‘Father’.”  It was obvious to Emma that Yvettewas worried about how it appeared to them.
              Emma decided to comfort the girl.  “It’s alright Yvette.  Weknow why you were here so you can calm down.”  She noticed that itappeared like relief passed over the girl.
              Sean then said, “We were wondering how ye got in here.  There wasa bit of concern when ye weren’t in yur room.”
              Emma noticed that the look on Yvette’s face told her that she didn’t wantto answer, but she did so anyhow.  “Rich and I have set up a systemat our windows.  If either is awake, we trigger a signal.  Ifnot, we open the windows.  We set it up just in case of this.”
              Emma noticed the look on Sean’s face.  He was a bit worried, thenhe said, “I understand.  Ye just feel comfortable and safer with Rich,so ye set up this system.  I have to admit it’s clever.  I takeit only ye two know how to work it.”  She watched as both Rich andYvette nodded.  She figured that whatever this system was, they hidthe controls well enough to keep it a secret that not even D.O.A couldfind the way to open the window.
              Emma looked at Sean and said, “I think I’ll talk with Yvette a bit. Do you think you could wait for Rich.”  She watched as Sean noddedand she lead Yvette out of the room.  As they headed out of the dorm,she looked at Yvette and said, “Do you have nightmare’s like this often?”
              She noticed the girl almost started to tense up.  She started to calmdown as she said, “No, not like this.  It seemed real.  Why doyou ask?”
              Emma didn’t want to say it, but she had too.  “Yvette.  Jubileetold us about what happened at the slumber party.  What happened thatyou were embarassed?”  She notice that the girl didn’t want to say,but she had to know.
              The girl looked away as she said, “It was very embarassing, since, well....” Emma could tell the girl was struggling for her words, until she said,“You know how when I’m all tensed up, I look smaller than I actually am.”
              Emma looked at the girl and said, “I don’t see how...” And then she noticedwhat Yvette was saying.  “I see.  It made you feel uneasy.” Yvette nodded.  Emma put a hand on the girls shoulder and said, “Itcould have been a bit of jealousy, or even shock.  Remember, at times,we still see you as Penance.  Any change could be viewed as a verydifferent change.
              She noticed as Yvette looked forward and said, “It wouldn’t be so bad ifwhen I got scared, I didn’t run the odds of shredding my clothes. I mean, since you and ‘father’ worked at getting most of my clothes lacedwith the restraints fabric, it helps, but at night, I don’t want any reminderof that.”
              Emma just took Yvette’s hand and said, “When you learn to control yourabilities, you won’t need those reminders, ever.  It’s just a precautionfor now, and as you can tell, it’s needed in the long run.”
              Yvette nodded, and then said, “I guess it could be worse.”
              Emma nodded in agreement and said, “Hopefully, it won’t be worse.” She had doubts in her mind about that, mainly because of the contents ofthat message was still unknown.
 

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