thanks to the support generated by Recall’s radio program, we’re going to help crank up the national organization again!” Jubilee whooped. “You’ll be like, neighbors or something. We can come visit you guys on weekends.”
Monet stepped a little closer to Chill. “You have my phone number, don’t you?”
Chill just laughed as Espeth slipped in under his arm. “He’s spoken for,” said Espeth.
“I have your number,” said Pound, helpfully.
“I have your number too,” said Monet, her tone chilly. Pound shrugged, and looked down as one of the cyberhounds rubbed against his legs. “I hope I don’t have a problem finding an apartment that takes pets.”
Angelo snickered.
“We’ll make it over to visit when we can,” said Chill, “but we could be kind of busy, what with M.O.N.S.T.E.R. and—” He grinned a goofy grin. “Espeth proposed.”
Angelo slapped his head. “What?”
Paige giggled. “You don’t waste any time, girl!”
“Life is short,” said Espeth. “After these past couple weeks, I figure anything can happen at any time. Better make up your mind what you’re doing with your life.”
Jono raised an eyebrow. “What about the Genogoths?” “I’m on leave from the Inner Circle. Officially I’m on deep cover assignment, like Smokey.” She reached up and tousled Chill’s ice-white hair. “I get to keep him out of trouble.”
He grinned back at her. “Who’s going to keep you out of trouble?”
Jubilee cringed. “I have the feeling these two are already way down the road to barf-city.”
Everybody laughed.
Then Black stepped into the room, and a sudden silence fell. “If you’ve made your farewells, I’d like to talk to the Xavier students alone, please. Rides to the airport are waiting for the rest of you in any case.”
A few more hugs, waves, and platitudes, and the Muske-teers-plus-Espeth were gone.
Black turned to them. If he was bothered by the frosty reception, he didn’t show it. “I know that you aren’t happy with me, or my methods.”
“You basically shot a man in the back,” said Paige. “We don’t do that.”
He nodded appreciatively. “We will simply have to agree to disagree on certain points. I did what I thought necessary to protect the secrets of the Genogoths, and, in turn, of the mutants that we strive to protect.”
“Well,” said Jono, “we still don’t agree. Your secrets have cost too much blood, far as we can see.”
“If it’s any consolation, we searched the wreck of Sharpe’s ’copter. There was no body, but we did find the remains of a highly sophisticated automatic pilot ”
“It’s the thought that counts,” quipped Jubilee.
Black continued. “Sharpe may have tricked us. He could be out there still, perhaps still carrying his secrets with him. Doubtless his employers will want nothing to do with him, but there may be others willing to sponsor a dangerous man like him.” He raised an eyebrow. “We’ll be looking for him, of course, but I’d watch your backs in the future.”
Angelo shrugged. “We’re mutants. He can get in the line with the rest of our enemies.”
Black took a deep breath. “The Genogoths are a hundred years old,” he said, “perhaps it is time for us to change. I am willing to start that change with you. I am trusting you, Xavier’s charges, with our secrets. If you don’t betray that trust then, perhaps, further reform is possible. I know you don’t feel that you owe me anything at this point, but I ask you to do it for Espeth, Smokey, the others, and the mutants like Catfish who depend on us.”
Jono stepped forward. “We don’t like you, Black, just so that’s bloody clear. But yeah, we’ll sit on your blasted secrets till the end of time, if that’s what it takes to change your ways.” Black nodded. “Then I’ll be going. I don’t think we’ll meet again. The Genogoths will need to go to ground for some time after this spectacle. Arrangements have been made to bus you to the airport, then home. Your itinerary is at the front desk.”
Black stopped in the doorway. “Espeth,” he said. “ Watch out for her. She’s all I have left.”
Then he was gone, and with him, the last vestige of the Genogoths.
Paige shook her head. “I will never understand that man.” Angelo looked up at the boar’s head on the wall. “Back to reality,” he said, “if you can call this reality.”
The satellite phone rang, and everyone jumped about a foot. Paige answered it with a cheery hello. Then her face went white. She put her hand over the mouthpiece. “It’s Emma! They’re at JFK in New York, changing planes. They finished early, and they’ll be home in a few hours!”
“Oh, man,” said Angelo, “we are so dead.”
Emma Frost hung up the pay phone, a puzzled expression on hep face. She walked across the terminal to the gate where Sean, Artie, and Leech waited for her. Thanks to a holographic image inducer, the two kids looked like, well, two kids, of the ordinary non-mutant variety. They were happily arm wrestling with Sean, one on each arm.
He looked up as she approached. “The kiddles doin’ okay?” “I suppose,” she said. “It’s strange, they were very curious whether we’d seen Gateway recently. Now why ever would they be so anxious to see him?”
Generation X - Genogoths Page 23