A tired and ravished Beast and Havok nearly collapsed at the front doors of Xavier's mansion. They were scooped up and brought to the underground conference room within the mansion.
When the two X-Men awoke they found themselves seated in a room of a few other choice individuals, two of which were shrouded in shadow.
In the room with Beast in Havok were none other than Angel, Iceman, Nightcrawler, Cable, and Hope Summers along with two shadowed individuals.
"What's going on? The last thing I recall is a battle with the Brotherhood, followed by Alex and myself being abandoned in the Sahara Desert by a bird like creature." Hank McCoy rubbed his tired head.
"A lot of bad things have been occurring. X-Men have been disappearing. Mutants have been rounded up and shipped off to Hellfire academies. Politicians have been lining their pockets with Shaw's bribe money. But the worst of it has to be the revelation that both Charles Xavier and Magneto are dead." Nathan Summers answered Beast starkly.
"Oh my Star's and Garters, who is responsible?" Beast asked.
"The who doesn't matter as much as the they. They being the Hellfire Club. Those cats seem to be making major plays..." Cable continued.
"Let us not forget the traitor who caused the deaths of Charles and Magneto," One of the shadowed figures interjected.
"I'm sorry, who are you." Alex asked.
"My apologies, me and my associate should make ourselves known." Mr. Fantastic and Iron Man stepped out of the shadows. "Tony and I with a few others were recently...visited by the new Black Queen of the Hellfire Club. She threaten multiple members of our families as well as boasted about killing both Xavier and Magneto along with defeating the X-Men. That person is Rogue..." A slight lustful sigh escaped Reed Richard's lips as he said her name.
It went unnoticed as the other mutants gasped at the revelation.
"What the Hell?" Iceman was first to...break the ice.
"As far as we know she's telling the truth." Iron Man interjected.
"So, what do we do now? Our leader's dead. Most of our teammates are missing. Shaw's taken control of most everything. He even has the sentinel project in his pocket." Hope Summers pointed out the obvious.
Cable slammed his fist down, "Its simple. We form a plan of action. Find out what the club's done to our friends, why Rogue betrayed us, and strike back while the time is right."
The other X-Men agreed with him.
"We'll be happy to lean a hand any way we can." Iron Man extended to them.
"Thanks Stark, but I think this is more of a mutant problem." Cable retorted.
***
"I believe we will soon solve the mutant problem." Sebastian Shaw toasted.
The Black King sat in a dinning hall surrounded by inner circle members.
A feast had been prepared in honor of the Club's latest victories with some of the pawns acting as waitresses passing platters and refilling wine glasses.
Sitting with him was the Black Queen, Rogue, who was getting her wine refilled.
Next to her was the White Queen, Emma Frost, who was watching Jenni serve them and occasionally giving dirty glances towards another club member.
That member being the Black Bishop, Sinister, who ignored Frost and enjoyed the steak dinner.
The White King, Sabertooth, ate like an animal.
The White Bishop, Mystique, ate with proper etiquette and manners.
The Black Knight, Empath, just ate, trying his best to ignore the White Knight, Deadpool.
"A congratulations is in order to our newest members for getting their jobs done and proving their loyalty to the Club." Shaw continued to cheer. The other members saluted and sipped their wine.
"Although, there is still much to discuss about the remaining X-Men." Mystique sipped her wine, thinking of her son who Shaw had promised to her.
"As well as any enemies that may be on the horizon." Sinister liked to remind the club of Apocalypse's potential return.
"Let's not forget some potential Avengers back lash. We did recently just fuck with the twins. Last I checked they were at least some what important to the Star Spangled Hero..." Deadpool half joked.
The White Knight had a point. The Club needed to think about potential Avengers back lash to their secret world domination plans.
The current Avengers members were Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, She-Hulk, Captain Marvel, Luke Cage, and Spider-Man.
And that was only the publicly known Avengers roster, there was also SHIELD's black ops unit in the former of the Secret Avengers roster: Black Widow, Hawkeye, Falcon, Spider Woman, Wasp, Dr. Strange, and the X-Men's Beast.
"Never mind that. Business can be discussed after dessert. Girls." Shaw clapped for the waitresses to travel with dessert. He wanted to lead into business discussion later to propose the idea of allowing the lovely Lauren Vallens to become the new Black Rook of the Hellfire Club. But he didn't want to get into the inevitable fight over what is owed and what is lost. Especial with the way Emma was looking at Sinister and Rouge.
Unknown to the others the two Queens were sharing a mind link.
"These fools think they can out do us. Undermine our authority. Shaw's taken away some prizes from me, changed some of your decisions behind your back. Does that seem right to you, Emma?" Rogue asked in the mind link.
Emma answered, "No, no it does not. I find it rude that Sebastian would gift Sinister my Scott and the vile Jean to that monster without even consulting me."
"We ought to take some of that power back. Show Shaw who's really in charge." Rogue smiled at Emma.
"Of course, darling. I'll take what's mine, you take what's yours and the world will become ours." Emma shared her smile with the Black Queen.
"Maybe this is why Shaw always created a rivalry between the two queens." Rouge pondered.
"Because together the Black and White Queen can become unstoppable." Emma laughed.
Shaw relaxed believing that everything was fine between his two queens. He didn't know how right he was.
Mon Oct 12 22:46:06 2015
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