The Darker Side #1 -- Krakoa retold
Written by:  Charles Babineau (ah038@freenet.carleton.ca)

Warning : Okay, there's like no graphic nudity, bad language or anything
sexual, but it does contain violence, maybe a tad more than the regular
comics, although it's really not THAT bad, I really don't see anything that
could offend anyone, but it does get a tad twisted at the end.  Just thought
I'd warn ya.

** X-writer is a fan-fic based group.  ALL the characters here belong to
marvel and no, we don't have their permission, nor do they care, I'm sure.
Anyways, this X-writers thingie is not sponsored by any organisations,
mu**s, individuals or whatever. We're a non-profit group, mainly just
looking for feedback on our work so we may improve or whatever.  (As if you
ever read throughthe disclaimer anyways). **

Well, here goes the story.  I want feedback and BE HONEST!

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  Ororo's eyes furiously scanned through the words, 2 delicate hands gently
stretching on the letter, evening out it's firm creases.  Although her eyes
were on the words, her mind was elsewhere. She still found it difficult to
deal with this mission, it was no doubt one of the hardest missions she
had everembarked on, not only because of it's suspicious nature, but
it dealt with a part of her past that had been buried so long ago, yet the
fact remained that she was still risking the lives of 3 of her friends as well
as her own.

  She reread the list of the 7 names, "Kurt Wagner, Piotr Rasputin, Ororo
Munroe, Sean Cassidy, Johnny Proudstar, Yashida Shiro and Logan".  The list
of the names was frightening, their secret identity was just that, a
secret, yet here was the list of a specific batch of X-men, with their
civilian names.  Could someone know their true identity?  This would make
their family and friends obvious targets, and she sure as hell didn't
want that.  There was also the issue that Johnny Proudstar had died many
many years ago, could he not know?

Her gaze suddenly lifted, following the dark gloved hand that was snatching
the paper away.  "Storm, you've already read the letter like 100 times,
it's gettin' old.  The letter's obvious, they want us 7 X-men to show up at
this here place today, more specifically, they want the original members
of the second batch of X-men, it's the only logical thing to why they would
want us 7, especially with the name Johnny Proudstar in there it couldn't be
more obvious, but 4 out of 7 ain't so bad... if you ask me, I still
 think we're stupid for commin' here, as if we have nothing better to
do...", Logan absently commented in his low untamed voice, watching the
letter drop comfortably on Ororo's arm rest next to her seat. 

  "Logan's right Fraullein". the blue demon next to her agreed, "So
Colossus, Sunfire or Proudstar didn't show, Proudstar's dead, Colossus
ran away somewhere with Callisto, and Sunfire isn't returning our calls,
in other words, he just doesn't care.  I mean what does he want with us
anyways?  It is rather silly to fly all this way...."

  "Enough!  The letter was quite clear that it meant business and that he
is willing to go great lengths to do this and that there were to be
consequences if we did not follow..." the goddess interrupted, stopping
abruptly for Kurt's protest..

  "This could easily be a bluff..."

  "But we X-men have a duty, and this could be important.  I have forced
neither of you to come." She suddenly paused, snatchingthe letter from the
arm rest and allowing the present conversation to completely slip out of
her mind and smiled at the pilot, " Thank you Hank, I think we are close
enough now, we will keep in touch with the help of the combadges and keep
you briefed of our progress.  Thank you for joining us, having someone
watch over us will be most beneficial, I can not help but be a little
concerned about this mission."

  Beast returned a big bright blinding smile, "We are most honoured of
assisting you m'lady, aren't we Bishop?" the big blue furry creature
grinned trying to somewhat ease the mood. His fur seemed a tad longer, a
bit less groomed than Ororo remembered from the first time she saw him, yet
he was no doubt the same, perhaps the one that had changed the less since
she last saw him, ignoring the fact that he was quite human at birth.
Although she would never agree to it, she was glad Beast came to this
mission, he never seemed to let anything let him down, a trait she admired,
perhaps even envied.

  She nodded to the Beast, neither slipping a smile nor a frown. She snuck
behind Nightcrawler and delicately slipped her two hands around his waist
and soon enough they were gone.  Sean Cassidy followed her lead and slipped
his arms under Logan's and flew out of the jet, and within seconds, the
Beast and Bishop remained alone.  Way beyond hearing range, a slow laughter
formed as a lone life form rejoiced, for soon, revenge would be his.

                                 *  *  *

  The life form watched as Ororo landed gracefully, leaving Kurt a few
steps behind.  The 4 quickly gathered, and without a word, they seemed to
have communicated with each other, each proceeding to surveying the scene
before them for anything that could give way to the suspense.  Wolverine's
eye's soon widened as he sniffed the air around him and muttered one simple
word "Krakoa"

  Krakoa was disappointed yet at the same time, he was a bit amused, could
his secret have slipped so soon?  Perhaps, but had other surprises
comming.  But was he in fact the same Krakoa....?  He'd have to make sure
they never find out.

  Ororo froze, her eyes as wide as Logan's "By the Goddess!! Are you certain
!?"

  "The island?!? That was almost 30 years ago, no?  It's dead, we killed
it... It has to be something different" Kurt protested.

  Ororo was a bit surprised, but she couldn't say the thought never crossed
her mind, for it did many time.  This was a very powerful opponent, but it
had died so easily, perhaps to easily, but in her mind, he was dead, which
brought the same question to all the X-men, how was that possible?

  "It's different alright, but there's a connection, I can sense it, smell
it, but mostly, I can hear it.. the whisperin'..... There's no doubt in my
mind, everything is makin' sense now..."

  The silence came alive at the sound of Logan's finishing word, all motion
ceased, leaving nothing but a cool quiet breeze as the conversation sunk
in.  It was a tad chilly, just cold enough to make you a bit uncomfortable,
but obviously not cold enough tom ake Ororo want to change it.

  The land itself was of astonishing beauty, carrying the most exotic
flowers and plants, although very few animals could be found.  Running
water and mountains seemed to be an ongoing theme, the waters current
making next to no sound, blending into the silence within minutes

  Logan suddenly perked up "There's some types of .. humans." He announced,
his eyes roaming through the area like a savage beast.

  Ororo blinked without betraying her calmness, examining the temple that
quietly awaited behind her, a temple that was clearly not there when they
had arrived.  "At this point, nothing surprises me.  This bares a
remarkable resemblance to the temple we had first encountered." She
paused, remembering their first encounter.  There were all incredibly young
at the time, not necessarily physically, but in spirit.  Since then, they
had all grown to know their allies as well as the people they were
risking their lives for, yet they knew nothing more of their first opponent
than the first time they had fought him, which happened to be the very force
that brought them together.

  The Professor had warned them that the mutant in question was powerful, a
mutant that had easily kidnapped the entire X-men team, leaving only
Cyclops free.  The mutant in question had no idea that his action was going
to form a team of allies capable of defeating the darkest forces, but it
did.  The life form naively used his hostages to suck the life out of them,
feeding on them, eagerly awaiting the return of Cyclops, luckily with
new mutants.  He didn't mind letting go of Cyclops, for he knew he would
return.. with reinfircements.


  Ororo snapped out of her dream state immediately frowning as Banshee
repeatedly tapped on his combadge with no result.  The remaining X-people
received the same fate.

  "Something's jamming the communication" Kurt muttered under clenched
teeth.  Ororo frowned taking a few steps deeper in the entrance of the
temple, her frown quickly dissipating for a look of pure terror.  Within a
blink of an eye, the entrance disappeared, a large stone wall decorated
with nifty little engraved designs slammed into it's place with a loud thud.

  Logan swore, crashing into the wall, but resulting to nothing but a sore
shoulder.  "Damn!!  We just lost Ororo!  Whatever this thing is, it means
business." Logan turned to his allies, suddenly becoming more anxious.
"Sean!!!"

  Kurt lowered his head after he twisted it in all angles to find the
suddenly missing Banshee, "He was just here but now he's gone!"


  Logan nodded, his hands steadily moving on the temple's smooth surface.
"This ain't funny no more..." Logan began as a laughter slowly began to
surface, a deep sinister laugh growing more and more present.  "What the!?"
Logan furiously pulled attempting to unlodge his hands from the wall that
pulled him deeper and deeper inside while the voice just laughed.  Kurt
attempted to run to his aid, interrupted by a soft sensation rapidly
growing tighter around his ankle.  Kurt kicked the fern with his foot,
furiously smashing it, but by the time he had removed it, 7 more ferns
had taken it's place, immobilising completely his feet and lower legs.  The
laughter grew as loud as an average person, only it seemed to be coming
from everywhere; an eerie twisted laughter that could mean nothing but
trouble.

                          *  *  *

  Ororo glared at the 6 flawless stone surface entrapping her. "Release me
at once" she demanded sternly but without reply. She doubted her voice
could have even been heard judging by the loud unbending laughter.  The
barrier above and below were lowering, she was almost sure of it, although
the 4 smooth stable walls at all of her sides made it difficult to see.

  Her mind became more and more cluttered, the laughter had quickly became
unbearable, and the entrapment was pure torture. She never had been very
good in cluttered area, she was claustrophobic.  Many said it was a state
of mind, some lameparanoia or cry for attention, but it went way beyond
that.  She tried to suppress it, but she knew she couldn't.  Her mind
kept flashing back, yet she was too tense to concentrate and her thoughts
slipped out as quickly as they came in. 

  She clenched her fists as a soft breeze flowed below her, just
strong enough to keep her stable, having stopped moving to accomodate
her lowering chamber.  She gently bit her lower lip, her soft blue
eyes gleaming with fierceness while her hair swungwildly into the maturing
wind.  A hurling cyclone wrapped itself around her as the millions strands
of wind raced obediently around her, steadily chipping away the rock at
every angle

  Drops of water gathered down the wind funnel, as it finally swirled under
Storm, creating a similar effect of a running blender.  Her hair was now
drenched as soft drops of moisture clung onto her dark african skin.  The
wind died slowly as an exhausted Storm slumped onto her knees in the shaky
mixture of water, mud and rocks below her.

  She looked about the long clearing around her, then finally gazed
straight up and smiled for far far above her, within a hole measuring about
her size, she could see the sky.  The laughter seemed to have died, and
Ororo could do none else but be proud.

  But her pride quickly sunk as the voice returned with a soft chuckling.
"Very nice, your performance was most impressive, but now it's our turn!"
The ground began shaking wildly as a massive amount of rocks bombarded on
the poor woman, shoving her limp body into the mud.  The sinister laugh
returned and was confident that the woman had learned her lesson, but it
was far from over. He moved on to victim #2

                           *  *  *

  Logan slammed into the rock surface below him, his arms shaking, his face
lightly draped with blood.  He instinctly leaped to his feet, rapidly
gathering all the information he could from this place.  Krakoa smiled, at
least on the inside he was smiling.  He slowly transformed Logan's chamber
into a long, narrow, antique looking stairway.

  He was none more than a child when they had first encountered him, still
learning the ropes.  He had been feeding off the very people that lived
within him for a few years already. He gave them refuge, food, guidance,
and in return, the people gave him their loyalty.  They thought of him as
their God, and in many ways he was.  He watched over them like any other
god, he cared for them but more importantly he loved them.  He regarded
them as his children, but how could he take care of them when he was but a
child himself?  He was starving, he already had fed too much off his
people, he needed a new source of nourishment, a few strong mutant could of
done it, but instead, they destroyed him.

  He lifted each step of the stairway one by one rapidly, crashing into the
ceiling, making it's way down to Logan.  He would pay for what he had done
to him, they would all pay, everyone of them, but starting with the first
7.  He already knew on have died, he had been lucky, he would go off
easily.  He would get even with them for all of his children that had
died.  The hallway narrowed and Logan ran

                             *  *  *

  He gently fed some more off SunFire, his body covered with plant-like
needles that Krakoa used straws if you will, patiently sucking out the life
of him.  He was already close to death, but he could still feed off of him
much more.  He focused his attention on Kurt again, the ferns had grown
rapidly, covering most of the location.

Kurt looked left then right, and within seconds reappearing a little
further with a large *BAMF*.  He looked left, than right, the fern were
growing to fast, he could see almost nothing before him.  Krakoa focused
all his energy on the creature, of all of them, he knew what it was like to
be different, to be feared, but instead, he betrayed him, he was no better
than all the rest, but now was his time to get even.  A small clearing near
Kurt slowly formed as Banshee's unconscious body rose dramatically from
theground, out of Kurt's reach, all stuck with the green plant-like
needles.  Kurt screamed but that's about all he could do, for nowit was
Krakoa turn to play.

  The insane life form decided to let Kurt suffer a bit, and returned his
attention to the running mutant.  Logan eventually passed the stairway, the
hurling rocks, the dropping spikes, but the floor continued to rapidly crash
in the ceiling behind him, almost racing at him.  The path divided into 2,
Logan blindly leaping to the right.  The chase went on for about 5 minutes,
until Logan finally stopped square.

  "This chase has gone on long enough, Go ahead and give it your best
shot." He waited, the life form could've easily killed him, he was sure of
it, but it didn't, so it probably never would, and Logan wanted answers.
But Krakoa took the invitation personally and Logan's crippled body was found
crushed between 2 stoned walls.

                          *  *  *

  He resumed to his final targets.  He gently injected nourishment in
Sean's frail body, anxiously awaiting his awakening, for he would let no
one go out unpunished, NO ONE! Sean's eyes opened dramatically slower than
expected, his drowsy arms slowly rocking back and forth, trying to break
free of the ferns who had his arms and legs tied and his mouth slammed
shut, shivering as a strange cold sensation wrapped around his body, but
before long, had been totally covered in stone.  Already, he could not
breathe and within minutes, he would die. A well deserved torture he
supposed, for he still had others to torture later on, especially Cyclops,
but his torture would start withthe loss of 6 of his friends.

  He waited for the 7th to arrived while Kurt nervously evaluated the
situation.  There was no going around this, this was his last
chance for escape.  He took in a deep breathe and teleported
blindly where he thought was a clearing.  Krakoa gazed in horror.  What was
the demon trying to pull?  He looked about for Kurt, within seconds finding
him falling from the sky.  He had captured them easily, he was superior,
but then how could this of happen, this was not going according to plan. 
The ferns all dropped dead, his attention focused entirely on Kurt.  He
needed a new approach versus the teleporter, the question was what could
be the most effective way to dispose of him.  The teleporter struck again,
bamfing to the Banshee statue.  How could he have let him reach Banshee,
he couldn't concentrate, couldn't think.  His entire judgement was clouded. 
He had to think of something and fast.

  The island lifted quickly as what almost seemed life a giant tidal wave
hovered above the 2 mutants at amazing speed, either smashing or drowning
them at any minute.

  "I hope you like surfing" Kurt spoke, almost cocky, he seemed as
determined as Krakoa to win this.  He bamfed off most of the stone surface
around the poor lad, the rest of his restraints being now but a few morsels of
dust.  Kurt teleported them both onto the wave,his voice climbing 2 octaves
in a loud scream.

  Banshee blinked, Kurt was covered in mud from the waist down but it was
no reason to freak out such as he was, he seemed scared like.... Suddenly,
he realised the horror as he saw the blood emerge from the mud's surface,
Kurt had literally teleported into the mud, some mud being inside of Kurt's
system. Banshee gave out a loud mourning cry fleeing straight up.

                          *  *  *

  "Something's weakening it", Hank exclaimed, madly pushing at millions of
buttons on some machinery from the Blackbird.  He was aware of most of the
situation, having figured out his opponent. Even though he had never met
him, he had indeed read about the new teams first mission.  "Banshee's
attack" Hank screamed, "It must be it." Soon enough the 2 rushed to make a
louder version of Sean's sonic blast, it was their only hope.

  The island winced in pain, the sound clawing at his soul, yet he could
now think clear again, for now it was only one on one, he versus the flying
screamer.  The muddy surface elongated into a large sling as a hurling blob
of mud burst into Banshee at astonishing, sending him plummeting down
like a dead bird.  Unfortunately, the 7th had not come, 2 of them dying MUCH
quicker than they had deserved, but he couldn't think about that, he'd have
plenty of time to ponder his small failures, for all in all, he had won. He
was victorious, or was he?

  The loud Banshee scream returned, now 100 times louder, being amplified
from the Blackbird jet hovering far enough from Krakoa's reach.  He
screamed as his turn, yet he couldn't even hear his own voice through the
loud sonic attack.  His soul was already shattered, his dream crushed, all
these years ofpreparing for jusyice only to be killed unjustly once more. 
Krakoa closed it's mind as it unwillingly accepted defeat.  The island
crumbled,

  The dream shattered, freeing everyone from their respective nightmares.
They had all been there, they had all dreamed the dream, from Logan to
Ororo to Beast, Banshee, Bishop, SunFire, Nightcrawler and especially
Krakoa, their consciousness hadsome how all entered the dream, why would
they be dragged intothis dream was a question that might never be answered.

  But the dream did give way to reality, many dragging the horrible
nightmare into their thoughts, others with but partial recollections of the
dream, while some had totally forgotten, but the dream had indeed happened,
for far far, way beyond hearing range, a slow laughter formed as a lone
life form rejoiced, for this had been merely a practice run, but soon,
revenge would be his.


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Oh wow, that was fun, huh?  You can see more of the X-people in their
respective title and stuff but don't miss next month, whe nwe say yet
another final good bye to Jason Wyngard with special guest star Jean Grey.
Don't miss it.  and don't forget, i wantyo ur people's opinion on this, be
brutally honest!
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