THE LONE WOLF AND THE GODDESS

                              By Davide Briganti

DISCLAIMER: All the X-Men depicted in this story are copyright of the
Marvel guys, and are used without their permission. No profits are made by 
posting this story, which is written only for entertainment purposes.
Sid "Renegade" Mayer is a copyright of me, so if you wanna use it, please ask
me first.
And now, onward with the action!

                                  *  *  *

Jean Grey looked worriedly at Storm as she entered the briefing room together
with Professor X. *I am still not sure this is the best strategy to adopt,
Charles*, she said telepathically.
*Maybe you're right, Jean, but we have little choice. Consider this: we cannot
send a whole team to scout an area that's a stronghold of the F.O.H.. If we
do, the eventuality that our cover blows up rises dramatically. So, we must
confide in the abilities of only one person to do the job, and I think Ororo
has proven to be the most suitable X-Man for this assignment.*
Jean's expression darkened as the door slid shut, and after a few moments, she
turned to join her husband Scott outside the mansion.
Scott Summers, the X-Man known as Cyclops, was sitting under a tree, quietly
carving a piece of wood with a knife. As he saw his wife walking towards him,
he knew immediately that something was wrong: "What's wrong, honey?", he said
wrapping his arm around her shoulders.
"I'm worried about Ororo. Charles is going to send her right into the belly
of the monster!"
Scott smiled, trying to comfort her. "Come on, Jean....it looks like you don't
trust the Professor anymore! I'm totally sure he knows what he's doing."
Jean sighed. "You're right.....but I have such bad feelings about this assign-
ment!"
"Don't worry, she'll be back: our Windrider isn't the one who lets a bunch of
Sentinels and fanatics defeat her!"
"Wish I could be as sure as you, darling...". With that, Jean rested her head
on her husband's shoulder, staring thoughtfully at the roof of the mansion.

Storm darted full-speed across the sun-bathed sky, smiling at the feel of the
breeze and at the joyous awareness of complete freedom. "It's so peaceful
there, in the middle of the open skies, far above from the people ad truly
close to the Goddess.", she said to herself; but the sight of a small rural
village appearing from behind a massive hill put a sudden end to her digres-
sions, forcing her to concentrate once more on her mission's goals.
Professor Xavier had recently brought to its end an investigation on strange 
activities regarding the sightings of giant human-like robots soaring over 
the hills surrounding the village over which Storm was now flying.....robots
that dangerously resembled the hateful creations of one amongst the old ene-
mies of the X-Men, Bolivar Trask: the Sentinels.
Landing at a convenient distance, she changed her standard costume into a more
"normal" chemise-and-skirt, courtesy of the Image Inductor, and walked right
into the village.
"Well, where do I start now?", she thought scanning the few, old building that
made up the "core" of the village life: a grocery, a hardware shop, and a bar
that resembled closely a third-class saloon of a western movie.
After a short while, she decided to pay the bar a visit: after all, it was
there that the majority of the village people met everyday to spend their
free time.
As she stepped in the smoke-filled room, almost all the male occupants turned
their heads, and a chorus of whistles quickly arose: intentionally ignoring
them, Storm sat down at one of the table, patiently waiting for a waiter to
show up.
"Care for a bit of company, lady?". A deep, harsh voice resounded behind her
back.
"Thanks but no.", she replied, but as she turned to face the stranger she
found herself staring at the cold steel of a .44 Magnum barrel. A giant of
a man, almost entirely wrapped in a worn, old orange trenchcoat, was holding
the gun, looking straight to her face with his piercing coal-black eyes.
"Wrong answer", he continued, "Now you come with me and my friends won't
hurt ya.....yet!". He laughed heartily at his own joke.
At the sound of these word, a rather numerous group of men and women stood up
from the tables and begun surrounding Storm, showing various rudimental 
weapons and the occasional firearms.
"Who are you?", she said coldly to the man.
"F.O.H., at your service", he replied with a smile that was an almost perfect
replica of a wolf grin, reaching into one of his pocket to come out with a
pair of police handcuffs. "Shall we go?"
"Where will you take me?"
"Now, you ask too many question for the situation in which you are!". The man
gestured to two of the men standing in the room, and they quickly moved to
grab Storm's arms. "She's cute, however, for a mutie....", said one of the
thugs to his companion, who nodded in agreement. "Yep. Maybe Mr. Trask could
leave us...have fun for a while before we execute her!". All the men in the
room laughed, and some begun adding obscene comments which provoked even more 
laughter.
Sensing a momentary weakness in her opponents' defences, Storm reacted imme-
diately: with a graceful and fluid movement she sent one of the two men crash-
ing head-first on a nearby table, and silenced the second with a powerful kick
in the stomach. A loud explosion resounded in the room, and Storm's left
shoulder was crossed by a searing, intense pain that almost knocked her un-
conscious. All went white for a moment, then the returning of her vision to
normalcy was accompanied by a warm feeling on her left side: she turned back
to face her assailants, and saw the man in orange smiling, white-grey smoke
puffing out of the gun barrel. Her vision began to fade again, and she fought
with all her remaining strength to stay awake: concentrating, she summoned a
gust of wind strong enough to knock all the bar's occupants off their feet and
then jumped across the nearest window, taking flight almost immediately.
The enraged scream of the crowd was covered wy the roar of the winds, as
Storm began to gain altitude while trying to reach for her comlink with her 
undamaged arm. "Scott? Can you hear me?", she queried but received only a loud 
buzzing sound in response.
"Scott? Is there anyone there? Please, answer me!", she tried once more, but
the situation didn't change a bit.
"It must have broken down in my escaping", she said mournfully to herself, "I 
hope Charles can sense my thoughts at this moment!".
Suddenly, a huge shadow obscured sunlight, hovering menacingly over the mutant
woman; an inhuman, metallic voice resounded all over the countryside: "Mutant
subject tracked and in weapons range. Beginning permanent elimination of mu-
tant threat."
Storm raised her head to face the mechanical monstrosity: "So, Charles was
right. There WERE Sentinels in this area!", she thought while attempting an
evasive maneuver. But the massive loss of blood had taken its toll on her 
body: the great android anticipated easily her slow and clumsy movement and
fired a volley of mace-like missiles from its chest that caught her in the 
wounded shoulder.
Pain overwhelmed the Windrider's mind, and all quickly drowned into a cold
blackness..........
END OF PART ONE

Please, E-mail me at renegade@ipsnet.it and let me know what you think about
this story. Part 2 is coming soon.....