Thunderbird || X-Men

Chapter 26 ~ Stopping Raven (Again)

"You all right?" Logan asked Charles.

"Getting there." Charles responded, rubbing his thigh. We sat on the plane silently, for the most part, saying something to each other ever so often.

"Whatever happens today, I need you to promise me something." Logan began again. "You've looked into my mind and seen a lot of bad... but you've seen the good, too. The X-Men. Promise me you'll find us. Use your power, bring us together." Charles glanced between Logan and me.

"Guide us. Lead us. Storm. Scott. Jean. Remember those names. There are so many of us. We will need you, Professor."

"I'll do my best." Charles told him.

"Your best is enough. Trust me." Logan looked over to me afterward.

"You got heart, kid." He told me with a soft smile. "I don't know you that well but I hope, in the future, I get to meet you again."

"I thought you said I don't make it?" I added, remembering when this strange man first showed up at our door.

"If we do this right today, that could change. You just gotta be brave."

"We all do." I looked between Logan and Charles, hoping that things would be different this time. I hoped that I could control my fear, and for the first time in over a decade, I felt that it was easier. I had always believed that, without Erik, I couldn't be brave. But now, with my family by my side, things were different. Maybe now, maybe today, I can be everything Logan thought I was. Everything Charles knew I could be. Everything Erik told me I was all those years.

~

Charles, Logan, Hank and I entered the crowd as patriotic music played loudly in our ears. Charles held is temple, I assumed, to look for Raven. I didn't realize how hard finding her would be.

"I haven't found her yet, but she has to be here." We all turned towards the stage. There stood the President. Around him were chairs and in them were government officials. At the end, I saw Trask. Behind them, was a tall curtain decorated in red white and blue. I could already tell that behind those curtains were the Sentinels. Then the President began to speak.

"My fellow Americans," he began in a proud, booming voice. "Today we face the gravest threat in our history, mutants. We have prepared for this threat." Charles was gazing around the crowd, focusing solely on finding Raven. As the time ticked by with no sign of her, I started to fidget. What if she wasn't here? What if I was wrong? What if...

Minutes started to feel like hours. Logan must've noticed my worrying.

"Hey, calm down." He told me, placing a firm but comforting hand on my shoulder. "You gotta be brave, remember? You gotta be brave." He cooed. As much as I felt like a nervous toddler on the first day of school, his words did help a little.

"In the immortal words of Robert Oppenheimer... 'Behold. The world will never be the same again." I heard the President finish. The curtains behind him were pulled, revealing a few tall robots. Oohs and ahhs echoed through the crowd, and many stood up to applaud in awe of this machinery.

"Raven?" Charles muttered under his breath. He reached his arm up to get our attention. "I have her." He pointed.

"Secret Serviceman. Left of the stage."

"Got it." I told him with fake confidence. Hank, Logan and I got up from our seats to grab her. I looked up, noticing that the Sentinels were flying. I saw that Trask looked confused as to why, as he spoke to a military officer beside him, who I recognized from Paris. I immediately knew this was Erik's doing.

Loud cheering came from the audience, as they believed this was a show. They didn't think anything of it. Once we started approaching Raven, we were stopped by an officer.

"I'm sorry, but you cannot pass this point." He stated plainly. Already, our plan wasn't going the way we had hoped. I could hear the robots cock their machine guns faintly.

"Get down!" I shouted, just as the Sentinels started to rapid fire on the crowd.

Quickly, everyone began to panic. People were running away, screaming, trying to get to as far as they could from the scene unfolding before them. The President and other officials that were on stage with him grouped together and ran off.

I sprinted to Charles, who seemed to have lost Raven again. I glanced around the crowd for her, but with no luck or time and chaos surrounding us both, I started to wheel Charles as fast as I could to safety.

"Erik!" He shouted to the sky. I looked above us to see something I never thought I'd ever see in my life. An entire stadium floated through the air, and at the center was a small dot. It was safe to assume it was Erik himself.

"You knew about this?!" Charles suddenly asked me, annoyance in his voice. He must've read my mind.

"I didn't know he'd lift a fucking stadium!!" I squeaked. As the stadium drifted overhead, pieces of metal and plastic seats fell from the bottom. Erik had to have ripped the whole thing from the ground violently to get it up in the air in the first place. Logan and Hank weren't in sight, and cars were exploding in every corner.

I felt the ground beneath me shake as the stadium crashed down around the white house, flattening most of the cars and trees around it. One of the wheels on Charles's wheelchair hit a bump, and both he and his chair fell over. I ran to help him up, but as I was about to, a piece of metal fell on him, trapping him under it. Thankfully, he didn't seem to be injured. Most of the people had got away, and the stadium was filled with an eerie silence. I crawled my way through the metal to Charles, trying to help him out from under it.

"It's too heavy, Kayla. Don't worry, I'm alright. You need to go help Logan and Hank. We cannot let Raven kill Trask!" He told me, pushing me away from helping him. I nodded in compliance, crawling my way through the hunk of metal once more. When I emerged, I was met with Erik's icy gaze, now cold, hard and forceful. He stood in the center of where the crowd once stood excitedly. We both froze in place at the sight of one another, already knowing where this would lead.