Smile Bright Offices, The Fifty-third Floor.

Mark Rogers looked away from his wrist watch and bit his bottom lip. He had been holding his former coworkers hostage for nearly two and a half hours now. It was only an hour ago a grayish beast by the name of McCoy offered to assist Mark in his attempt to appeal to his government.

It was time. He had stalled long enough, and it obviously wasn't going anywhere. Sitting up from the cleared office floor caught the attention of the hostages huddled together. Not far from him, the Dark Beast he referred to as McCoy seemed almost careless as he juggled three pieces of explosives between his clawed hands and feet.

"It's been long enough," Mark said as he looked to his former coworkers, drawing a cell phone from the pockets of his dress pants. "Sorry you guys, but either they tell me their decision... or that's the end of things."

McCoy looked Mark's way and smiled inwardly, tossing the explosives into the air and catching them with his feet before he set them aside.

"Here here, Mark!" the Dark Beast sung as he strode over to him hunched over on his knuckles, grinning a toothy grin. "I was beginning to think you didn't know what to do once you got the control you were looking for."

"Yeah, well... I do now," Mark confessed as he began to dial a number into the cell phone, turning away from McCoy's face as the call went through.

{{ This is Officer Hunt. }}

"It's Rogers," Mark stated as he walked away from the peering yellow eyes of McCoy, as well as those of his coworkers turned hostages. He was trying his best to remain nonchalant. "Has Congress reached their decision?"

"They're in recess right now," Cyclops spoke into the headset, giving his teammate Beast a look. He nodded in response, and gave a clawed thumbs up. "Now listen Mark, they're going to need some more time to make their decision..."

{{ I've seen enough movies to know what that means, Officer Hunt. }}

"This isn't the movies," Cyclops stepped away from the Blackbird's console, looking to a newscast monitor. "A known mutant terrorist attacked Police officers outside of your office. Congress wants to know if you're working with them or not."

{{ Of course not! I've said it before, I just want my family's lives put back together. But that can't ever happen, so I'm gunning for second best. }}

"We understand, but please be reasonable..." Cyclops watched the newscast of an ambulance taking Bobby Drake and Jean Grey away, narrowing his eyes. "There's already been enough injuries outside, we don't need any inside."

{{ I'm sorry, Officer Hunt. But the US Congress needs to make up their mind, and fast. }}

"I have two negotiators outside of your floor, who are unarmed," Cyclops explained. Beast strode up behind him quietly. Before Rogers could object, Cyclops continued. "Let them see that the hostages are okay, and that there's no one else on the floor with you. Believe me, it'll make a world of difference for your situation. We're on your side, here."

{{ ...Fine. But if they try anything funny -- }}

"They won't," Cyclops cut off Rogers before he could finish his sentence with confidence in his words. "If we wanted to do anything, we would have already."

{{ I'll be waiting. }}

The line went dead, turning into static. Cyclops set the headset down on the Blackbird's computer console and turned back to face his furred companion.

"Nice work, omniscient leader," Beast dipped his head to the side with a playful tone, congratulating the leader of X-Men Alpha.

Mark turned away from the window, and shoved the cell phone back into his pocket. McCoy and the huddled mass of hostages watched on intently, a wicked smile of anticipation across McCoy's face.

"They're sending some people in to make sure the hostages aren't hurt," He finally announced. McCoy rose a hand to his chin, thinking over this. "They won't try anything. Not unless they want to see this place get blown sky high."

"Just in case, Mark..." McCoy nodded his head, and bounded off towards the elevator doors. His cheery voice was beginning to unsettle Mark's nerves even further. "I'll take my cue to remain in the shadows. Mum's the wooord."

Moments later...

The sun was starting to break through the dark clouds. Rogers almost felt like stepping outside to make sure the rain and the dark clouds were really gone, when the wooden doors to the floor swung up. He kept his thumb near the trigger connected to the explosives close to the door as he turned around.

The floor was silent as Cannonball and Dazzler stepped cautiously into the door, both examining the room with the corners of their eyes. Their leather X-Men uniforms were subtle enough for Mark to believe they might actually be special operations negotiators. Though to work in the advertising business you have to be clever enough to manipulate others, Mark Rogers a trusting and confident enough man.

"Mark Rogers," Cannonball greeted with a hint of his southern accent, nodding to him. It only deluded Rogers more that he was simple and normal enough man. The Dark Beast hidden in the shadows near the elevator shaft however, knew better.

"I know you," Rogers choked, laughter echoing in his throat. He grinned as he began striding towards the two. "You're Alison Blaire."

"I... uhm... yeah, heh..." Dazzler couldn't help but feel flattered that someone had recognized her after so long, but mostly she wasn't sure how to respond since it may throw her cover. "You know who I am?"

"Yeah, you disappeared a long time ago after that whole mutant scandal thing..." Rogers reminisced, nearly holding back a smirk and a laugh. Though he was holding his floor hostage, his former coworkers knew how social and innocent he could be. "This is what happened to you? You work for the government now?"

"Can't keep a super star out of work," Dazzler went along with it. Maybe it was in a better sense of appealing to the man being dubbed a terrorist.

"I can't believe this," Rogers laughed almost sickly, a feeling of being misguided creeping up on him. He remained alert as he continued. "Why would they send you?"

"It's my job as a mutant taskforce officer," Dazzler lied through her teeth. "The US Government thought it would be a show of good faith to send one of their mutant operatives."

"We're not here t'hurt ya," Cannonball followed her lead, though feeling uncomfortable doing so. "We just wanna make sure everyone here is okay. This law... it bites, but we also want you to take a look at what your doin'."

"I know exactly what I'm doing..." Mark Rogers sighed lightly, closing his eyes as he remained silent for a moment as he thought. He had imagined everyone was against his family, and mutant kind alike... even his own government. "It's exactly like I told the news reporters though. Everything me and my wife worked for...It was all lost. Lost because of fear and because of prejudices. There were more protesters against mutant rights, then there were for them."

McCoy hung his head low in the shadows in a mock shame that was meant to only entertain himself. Rogers was babbling. The man felt so guilty that he wouldn't shut up about getting his point around. He didn't want to risk looking like a bad guy.

He didn't want to hurt anybody, not if he didn't have to. Here two mutant agents were though, or so he believed. Right before his eyes. One a former singer who was cast aside because of her mutant abilities to show off light. Mark had read it in a tabloid that he liked to follow because of the recent mutant politics in years.

"My stars and garters," McCoy mocked this time's counter part as he flung himself from the shadows. Cannonball's eyes immediately narrowed as he turned on the heel of his foot, only for a set of flying gray paws to slam deep into his gut.

"Oof!" Cannonball shouted as the pain ached through out his torso, causing his ribs to become inflamed with pain. His body bounced past Dazzler's still standing form, and crashed into the ground.

Rogers leapt back and rose his gun as McCoy went on the offensive, not sure what to do. Before Dazzler could move to go on the defensive, the Dark Beast's large form arm crashed into her body.

"You're just sooo busy sounding like a broken record, you didn't even realize they were trying to hose you, did you Tommy?" McCoy taunted as he slammed his open palmed hand into the back of Dazzler's head, forcing it into the floor and a gasp from her lungs.

"Wh...what are you talking about?!" Rogers stammered out in anger and betrayal, though he wasn't sure who he was feeling it for. He watched as McCoy took grasp onto Dazzler's injured body, and launched it over against Cannonball's with ease.

The advertising floor turned hostages watched on in despair as the Dark Beast finished his assault on the two "negotiators," squinting in their own building fear and anticipation as each blow and word began to explode.

"They're both mutants, yes, but they're here to STOP you and to KILL, you," The Dark Beast tried to explain as if Rogers with a child, the malicious sneer across his animalistic face almost looking like a grin with the tone of his voice. "Here, lemme borrow this for just one second..."

Before Rogers could object to any of what McCoy was saying to him, the furry beast took hold of the smaller man's hand and slipped his clawed finger against the trigger of his automatic. A rain of bullets let loose from the uzi, specifically aimed towards a stray explosive McCoy had been juggling earlier.

Cannonball caught McCoy's actions at the corner of his eye, and wrapped his arms around Dazzler. Blast field activated, he launched the two of them across the tattered office floor as a bullet struck the explosive device and set it off. Rogers looked away and attempted to pull himself from the Dark Beast's hold as the explosion ripped through part of the office floor, but to no avail.

"ARE YOU A MANIAC?!" Rogers cursed as he strained against McCoy's powerful arms. The final bullets rained through the fire not building, and the Dark Beast shoved Rogers's arm away. The detonation device in his other hand broke from his grasp, bouncing against the floor towards the entrance.

"If you cannot do the job right, Mr. Rogers, then someone else will..." McCoy's words were no longer up beat and cocky, but more firm and unsettling. Cannonball and Dazzler were stirring on the other side of the office from their trip.

Scott Summers slammed his fist into the monitoring console, the loud bang echoing throughout the stealth jet. This mission wasn't going to be jeopardized... it was too important. Images and sounds began to flash through his mind almost painfully, forcing Cyclops to turn away from the console and move towards the cockpit.

As he strode across the Blackbird's narrow and metallic spacing, he could see the various protest signs led by familles who were survived by those dead in the Smile Bright Offices. The increase of attacks on innocent mutants across the nation. New laws in contradiction to civil rights being passed out of fear...

Jean Grey groaned as she sat her chin down before the x-ray machine. Its technician smiled sympathetically in her direction with a shrug, before turning around and walking into the control room of the x-ray machine. Keeping her face straight, Phoenix closed her eyes gently and allowed the technician to do his job.

Faintly, she felt something. The feeling snuck into her mind without any notice. Everything the husband she had distanced herself from in the past months was seeing. Their rapport was supposed to be broken.* Phoenix could barely pick the images up, but she knew to him they were reoccurring.

(* Check out theTeam X: Redemption collected edition for more info—Dino )

"Scott..." Was all she could say. She knew what he was going to do.

Hank McCoy was already putting himself back into the pilot's seat of the Blackbird. There had to be something he could do, but he just wasn't sure. Even for a genius mind such as his, these situations he was put in as an X-Man were always the most difficult kind. Beast looked to Cyclops as he moved on deck.

"This ends now," Cyclops stated as he moved to the controls of the Blackbird, sliding into the co-pilot's seat. Before Beast could offer a response, the Blackbird was already descending. "One way or the other."

Ororo Munroe stood behind the police barricades before the Smile Bright offices, watching the transpiring events with the rest of New York around her. Low murmurs among the by standing crowd didn't even catch her attention.

Having taken a few days off after returning from her private mission in space,* Storm was unaware of the X-Men's current mission until she returned to the mansion. No one was around, and Cyclops left no instructions for a returning team member to participate in the mission.

(* Check out issues #4-6—Dino )

Missing out almost made her feel selfish for taking an amount of time to collect herself, but she wasn't there to torture herself. A portion of the crowd suddenly gasped, and Storm watched as police forces and by standers alike turned to the skies. Her own attention soon followed...

Bobby Drake watched as the various patients, nurses, and doctors crossed around the emergency room. Upon arrival, Jean had regained consciousness from the chunk of ice that exploded against her head, and she had been taken to have her head x-rayed as a precaution after being inspected.

Sighing, Iceman fell back into a chair in the waiting room and sunk his chin into his upright fist. Catching the television suspended above him at the corner of his eye, he soon turned full to the newscast. A military aircraft -- no, the Blackbird -- was high above the New York streets and hovering in place before Smile Bright Offices.

Dazzler held a hand up to Cannonball's cheek and another to his ribs as he leaned against the desk. They both were battered almost to the point of complete exhaustion, though Cannonball had taken the worst of it.

"What a way for my first mission back as an X-Man to go..." she muttered as she examined his body for any major wounds. Cannonball took in a deep gulp, and sighed, ignoring the pain across his chest cavity.

"Mark!" Cannonball looked over his shoulder and shouted, seeing Mark Rogers and the Dark Beast standing together at the window. "McCoy's a madman, don't listen to 'im! He's just tryin' to mess with your head!"

Mark looked towards their direction, not sure what to feel since they were both okay from the explosion and rain of gunfire caused by McCoy. Looking back to McCoy, he rose his sleeve across his forehead.

"Don't listen to them, Mark," McCoy pleaded as he looked down to Rogers, his eyes... almost begging. "If you do, then they'll have gotten to you, and then it'll never stop. It'll -- MARK, LOOK OUT!"

"A sniper?!" Dazzler exclaimed.

Before Rogers could look over his shoulder, McCoy scooped him up and bounded across the floor. The sound of glass shattering pierced Rogers' ears as McCoy carried him through the air and behind a cubicle's desk to safety.

"Ow! MothersonuvaMaryvirginfu-- " McCoy muttered to himself for a moment before thinking, before releasing Rogers weakly and collapsing beside him. Blood trickled out from a darkened wound on McCoy's back.

"McCoy!" Mark shouted as he leaned over his fallen "comrade," looking to the bloody wound for himself. "You... Your back!"

"Unh..." McCoy groaned weakly, rolling his eyes into the back of his head as he looked up to Rogers from the floor. Beginning to heave heavily, he spoke. "Avenge me... make those poor... bastards... see the light..." The Dark Beast gasped, before closing his eyes and sprawling out limply across the floor.

Gasping from the sudden adrenaline rush, Rogers swallowed hard to keep himself calm. Looking around the glass covered floor, he saw the hostages huddled together near the explosives. He heard one of the women sobbing... then he saw the detonator. Rogers looked back down to the limp form of the Dark Beast, and then to detonator and ran.

Diving, Rogers took the detonator into his grasp and then rolled. As he rose up to his feet, he looked down to the detonator for a moment... hesitating. The choppers suddenly roared around the building once again, scanning the floor. But there was something else. It hadn't been there before. A sleek, dark navy colored jet was hovering near the shattered windows.

The X-Man known as Cyclops ripped open the Blackbird jet's hatch, the metallic door sliding into a locking position on the side of the stealth jet. Rogers' eyes looked on in a dumbfounded sense of curiosity. Through his strong features, and ruby quartz visor he stared down Mark Rogers. Wind billowed past him, whistling in the high sky.

"...Huh?" The Dark Beast, McCoy, opened one eye to see what was going on. Dazzler and Cannonball both in unison turned their attention towards their team's mode of transport. The hostages could only watch on as the events unfolded.

Suddenly, Mark Rogers' life flashed before his eyes. A large beam of red energy soared through the shattered glass at high speeds, and crashed into Rogers' chest. The impact propelled him backwards, the detonator falling from his grasp as the optic blast carried him through the wooden doors leading out to the broken stairwell.

His visor closing shut, Cyclops stared across the floor. The Blackbird began to ascend back to the heavens from the fifty-third floor as Cyclops watched, before he reached for the large sliding hatch door and shut it into place.

"Scott..." Cannonball gasped, watching on in shock.

"How could he...?"

"That was.... beautiful..." McCoy commented under his breath with a slowly growing grin, before seeing at the corner of his eye Cannonball and Dazzler moving out from the desk. He pressed his head back against the tattered office floor, and closed his eyes again.

Having beat the two X-Men to the punch, a number of the hostages led by John and Bill walked out cautiously from their designated spots to see the fate of their former coworker. The Dark Beast remained dormant on the floor as they crossed over his body. As the group reached the two ripped open wooden doors, they saw Mark Rogers' broken body sitting up against the stairwell's wall.

A woman in the group gasped and turned away. The optic blast nearly tore apart his chest, blood from the dried up wounds sinking down his tattered, white office shirt. His head hung to the side, eye lids closed heavily over his eyes. Dazzler and Cannonball had no words over the sudden shock. It was over...

NEXT ISSUE: Is the world finally ready to accept mutants...?