Scott Summers: Murderer?

Summary: When Scott is accused of a grisly murder, it falls on the X-Men to prove his innocence. But first they must answer one important question. Is he even innocent at all?

Disclaimer: You know the drill. I own nothing.

A/N: Hey folks. This is my 2nd fanfic. I hope you enjoy it! Its set during Season 1, but time will pass eventually. New Mutants fans, keep reading! Your favorites will appear later on. This fic is a bit of a mystery so good luck figuring it out! I will not be giving any hints outside of what is found in the text itself, so don't ask. This is based loosely on Bruce Wayne: Murderer?, a recent run in the Batman comics. I won't be following that storyline exactly though so if you've read the comics you will still find many surprises here. Just don't complain when something seems familiar. If you like my story, tell your friends! I want as many people to read this as possible. Finally, please review if you would be so kind. That's all the pay I get for all this work so please, please review. I will love you if you do. lol.

So that's it. Enjoy Scott Summers: Murderer?

------------------------------

Two tests down and one more to go and then school would be over for the day. Just how teachers managed to all plan their tests for the same day was something that Scott Summers would never understand. As he walked down the bright hallway to his next test, business law, Scott heard his name called by a familiar voice from behind him. He turned and grinned at his friend as Kurt caught up with him.

"Hey Kurt, what's up?"

"Not much," said the boy in his strong German accent. "Juzt on my vay to English. Did you hear about vhat happened to Mr. Gompers?"

Mr. Gompers was the man who taught Kurt and Evan's chemistry class. Scott knew that he wasn't exactly a popular teacher.

"No, what happened?" asked Scott as they both turned and started walking down the hallway together.

"Hiz uncle died," said Kurt, "apparently his very rich uncle! Mr. Gompers is inheriting a vortune vrom him and retiring after the semester!"

"Wow! Lucky for him. So who's gonna teach your class after Christmas break then?" asked Scott.

"Don't know. Mr. Gompers zaid they've already hired zomeone but he couldn't remember ze name."

"Well, maybe he'll be better than Gompers was. I had him last year and it's impossible to stay awake in that class!"

"No kidding!" said Kurt with a large grin. "Vell, zis is my class. See ya later!" Kurt waved at Scott with a huge grin and turned into the classroom.

Scott waved back and then continued walking. He didn't have to go far before he had made it to his business law class. He stopped at the door and sighed before going in. All they studied in this class was what constitutes a felony or a misdemeanor and what the punishments are for all the laws. It had sounded interesting when he signed up, but after a couple months Scott was already tired of it. He tried not to use the old cliché often, but he really had no idea when he would use all this stuff! Finally he lifted his chin up and stepped into the classroom. His teacher handed him the test immediately and pointed him to his desk. He glanced at the clock. Just one hour left and then he could go home.

*****

The next morning, the X-Men groaned as they climbed the stairs into the regular part of the mansion. They had just finished a grueling Danger Room session that had left them exhausted. Unfortunately, things weren't about to get better. School would start in one hour which meant there would be a mad rush to the bathrooms and everyone would then rush to school and barely make it in time.

Scott showered and got dressed quickly, then headed downstairs for a quick breakfast. Jean was already at the table when he got there. He fixed a quick waffle and sat down next to the redhead.

"Hey, crazy session this morning, huh?"

Jean didn't respond to him. He looked at her closer now and realized that something was clearly bothering her.

"Hey, you okay?"

She looked up as if she hadn't even known Scott was there.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm fine."

"You don't look fine."

Jean sighed as she dropped her fork and looked up at Scott. "If I tell you something, can you promise me that you won't tell the Professor or anyone else?"

Scott immediately forgot about breakfast. Something serious was going on. "Jean, you can trust me. You should know that by now."

She gently bit her lower lip. He could tell she was nervous.

"I won't tell a soul. I promise."

She finally opened her mouth, but Evan barged through the door just as she started to talk. They both glared at him, but the young mutant failed to understand that he wasn't wanted in the room.

"'Sup! What's for breakfast today?"

Scott and Jean exchanged a quick glance at each other. Then Scott turned to look up at Evan, who was pouring himself a glass of milk.

"Hey Evan, we were kinda talking about something important. You mind?"

Evan took a sip as he walked to the table and sat down directly across from the pair.

"No way, man. You two go ahead. You won't bother me."

Scott and Jean both watched him sit down obliviously, shock registering on both their faces. Soon, Kitty and Rogue entered the room as well and it was clear that the moment had passed.

Jean placed her hand on Scott's shoulder for a quick second. "Forget it. It's no big deal."

"We'll talk later," said Scott as he returned to his breakfast. Jean didn't respond.

Once it was time for everyone to get to school, Scott, Kurt, and Evan all piled into Scott's car while Kitty and Rogue rode with Jean. Scott sped his red convertible out of the garage while Kurt and Evan carried on a conversation about Mr. Gompers and who his replacement might be. Scott let their voices drown out. He was focused on what was bothering Jean. He was also still remembering the feel of her hand on his shoulder. A smile parted his lips as he drifted off to his fantasy world where Duncan Matthews didn't exist and nothing stood between he and Jean. He liked her. That was obvious to everyone in the mansion. And he was always catching subtle hints that she liked him as well, but Duncan was always standing between them. It was as if she liked him, but was afraid of what Duncan would think if she ever admitted it. As long as Duncan was in the equation, nothing Scott could do would ever draw her closer to him.

"Whoa! Watch ze road!" yelled Kurt, ripping Scott out of the daydream.

Scott's eyes refocused immediately on the road, which he had to swerve to get back onto after drifting to the edge of the shoulder. Once they were safely between the yellow lines again, the three boys took a deep breath.

"What's up with you, man?" asked Evan.

"Sorry. I guess I wasn't paying attention."

"Jah, vell don't let it happen again!" said Kurt in feigned horror.

"I won't," said Scott assuredly with a smile.

The three boys glanced around at each other and laughed. For some reason that they would never understand, anything that didn't kill them always seemed funny afterwards.

Jean, Rogue, and Kitty beat them to the school by mere seconds. Scott pulled into the parking spot next to Jean and the X-Men all climbed out of their respective rides to walk to the building together. Scott grabbed Jean and held her back a little ways so that they could walk away from the others.

"Hey, what was it you wanted to tell me earlier?" he asked.

Jean started toying with the shoulder strap of her backpack as she began walking towards the school.

"Oh, it was nothing."

"C'mon Jean. I know you better than that," said Scott with a small

grin. "What's bugging you?"

She stopped walking and let out a short sigh as she glanced over her shoulder. No one was around them.

"Something happened yesterday afternoon when I was with Duncan."

Scott winced slightly. He hated it when Jean talked about Duncan. But then again, this was a story involving Duncan that she was worried about. Maybe this could be a good story, at least from his view.

"What was it?"

"I'll tell you later." She turned to walk towards the school. Scott reached out and put his hand on her shoulder. She turned back around to face him again.

"Tell me now."

She glanced around one more time. The other X-Men were nearly inside and no other cars could be seen pulling into the parking lot. They were completely alone.

"We were in his car and driving to the mall," she began. "He was goofing off, as usual. Y'know, running stop signs and speeding just to impress me. I told him to slow down but he just told me to loosen up and have fun. Anyway, he eventually hit a wet spot on the road and lost control. We started sliding towards another car. He slammed on the brakes, but it didn't help. Without thinking about it, I used my powers to stop us. I lifted our car over the other one and brought us down again on the other side. Well needless to say, he noticed. There was nothing I could say that would explain it, so I just didn't say anything when he asked me what happened."

"Sounds like you're lucky Dunc's too stupid to figure it out on his own," joked Scott. He understood the seriousness of the situation, but he wanted to keep the mood light. He had found that always helped when having very serious conversations. Jean glared at him. It was that glare she gave him whenever he talked about Duncan like so. He used to hate that glare. Now, though, he had learned to just shrug it off. Duncan deserved it anyway.

"That's the problem," said Jean. "He did figure it out!"

Scott's jaw dropped. He hadn't been expecting that at all. "What?!"

"We just sat there for a while to catch our breaths and then he asked me what happened. I said I didn't know, then he asked if I was a mutant! He said he'd heard about mutants from his parents. I told him I wasn't, but then he asked me to explain what had just happened. What could I say, Scott? I mean, there was nothing I could tell him that would make sense and he had already put two and two together. So I admitted that I was a mutant."

"You…why would you tell him that?!" asked Scott in shock.

"Well, it was the truth," said Jean coldly.

Scott collected himself. She wasn't looking for someone who would freak out about this. He took a breath and calmed his thoughts.

"So what'd he say after that?"

"That he couldn't date mutants. That he was embarrassed that he had ever been with me in the first place. Then he stopped and smiled at me. I didn't know what was going on, but then he said that it might be useful. He said he'd tell the whole school about me if I didn't do whatever he wanted."

"What?! He can't do that! It's extortion!" said Scott, who was getting angrier by the minute. Blackmail was not something to be taken lightly in Scott's eyes, especially when directed at Jean.

"I tried to say that wouldn't work, but then he told me he'd not only tell the school about me, but he'd hurt me! I said no again and he tried to hit me! The only reason he missed was because I used my powers to deflect it."

If Scott had been angry before, he was furious now. "He tried to hit you?"

"In the face," said Jean, pointing to her eye. "Scott, I'm scared. I don't know what he's capable of. I mean, he had this scary look in his eyes when he dropped me off at the mansion afterwards. I don't know what to do."

Scott picked up her hand and stepped closer to her as she batted a tear from one eye. It strolled down her cheek without a clear direction, then finally fell to his shirt.

"Don't worry. It's gonna be okay. Why don't you go home and talk to the Professor about this."

She let her hand rest in his while they talked. The touch was comforting for her. "I can't tell the Professor! He'll be angry that I let Duncan find out! He's always taught us to be so careful and then I go and make such a stupid mistake. He'll…"

"He'll understand, Jean. Just go talk to him."

She sighed. Scott was right. "Maybe this afternoon," she said softly.

"Good. Now come on. We better get inside," said Scott. He wanted to talk to her and comfort her. But they had to get to class. They'd have to talk later.

She nodded and they started walking towards the school again. The others were already inside and Scott and Jean just barely had enough time to make it to first period.

*****

After lunch, Scott stopped by his locker to grab a couple books for the afternoon. Jean was already standing by her open locker, which was located just across the hall from his. Scott could see her standing there. It looked like she was talking to someone, but the crowd of students blocked the person. Whoever she was talking to, Jean looked upset. Scott finally made it to his locker and opened it. He reached inside for his math book, but turned around when he heard Jean's voice suddenly get louder.

"I said leave me alone, Duncan!"

Scott's head turned and saw that Jean was indeed talking to Duncan. She was clearly upset by his presence, but Scott decided not to interfere. Instead, he just watched over his shoulder and listened intently to their conversation.

"I don't think you're in any position to be making demands, or have you forgotten about yesterday?" said Duncan just loud enough that Scott could make out his words. The sentence made Scott's blood boil.

"Look Duncan, you need to leave me alone. If you can't accept me, that's your problem. But there's no reason to make this into a big deal."

"You lied to me, Jean. That's a big deal in my book."

"I had to! I couldn't just go around telling people!"

"No, you couldn't. Because if you did, they'd see you for what you are, a freak! Now you got one last chance to do this or things are gonna get ugly," he said, slowly raising his hand menacingly.

Jean cringed slightly. "I'm not gonna use my power to alter people's minds so you can get the Conference MVP Award for the season!" she whispered furiously.

"Wrong answer," said Duncan. His hand swung towards her face with an open palm.

Jean was just about to deflect the slap telekinetically when a fist slammed into the side of Duncan's head and knocked him to the ground. Jean screamed out of surprise and watched Duncan fall. When she looked back up, Scott was standing in front of her.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," said a confused Jean. "I'm fine."

Duncan was back on his feet now, his face red and his fists clenched.

"You want some of this, Summers?"

Scott turned to him and tightened his own fists.

"Hitting girls, Dunc? At least pick on someone who's on your own level. I hear they're dissecting frogs in the biology classes today. Go try there."

Duncan yelled as he charged at Scott and swung one fist at him. Little did he know that Scott trained for fights twice as intense as this one at least once a day. Scott was able to quickly dodge Duncan's attack and counter with his own, an elbow on Duncan's back that knocked him to the ground.

Unfortunately, Scott failed to calculate the fact that Duncan spent every afternoon taking hits in football practice. He was used to being knocked around and the fall hurt nothing but his pride. Duncan grabbed Scott's leg and pulled it out from under him, bringing Scott to the ground as well.

Soon, the two boys were at it furiously as they both stayed on the ground. Fists flew back and forth as each one tried to return to his feet as if the first to accomplish this task would win the fight. Each time one had nearly stood back up, the other would knock him back to the ground and it would start again.

Eventually, the basketball coach came running from the cafeteria and, with the help of one of the school's football players who didn't want their starting QB to be suspended, broke up the fight. The two were immediately escorted to Principal Darkholme's office.

Meanwhile, Jean, Kurt, Kitty, Rogue, and Evan all stood around in shock. They had seen Scott attack enemies in the Danger Room in hand-to-hand combat before and they'd seen him fight the Brotherhood many times, but none of them could remember seeing Scott in such a furious rage ever before.

"What was that all about?" asked Kitty, turning to face Jean.

Jean hesitated for a moment, her face obviously flustered. "You know how those two hate each other. Things just got more heated than usual." It was a lie and she knew it, but Jean was still afraid to tell anyone the truth.

*****

The Principal's office was dark and uninviting. On one side of the large oak desk sat Ms. Darkholme, the unforgiving principal of BHS and, as Scott was fully aware, one of the X-Men's greatest enemies, Mystique. On the other side of the desk sat Scott and Duncan, who were both intimidated by their surroundings, though neither would ever admit it.

"Would one of you like to tell me what you were doing out there?" asked Darkholme angrily.

Scott decided it'd be best if he spoke up first. Maybe he could take control of the situation.

"I overheard him talking to his girlfriend, Ms. Darkholme. It sounded like he was threatening her and then I saw him raise his hand like he was about to slap her. I couldn't let him do that so I punched him before he had the chance."

"You don't know what you heard, Summers!" exclaimed Duncan. "Ms. Darkholme, I was just raising my hand over my head to stretch when he came out of nowhere and attacked me!"

"Don't try to lie, Duncan! You were…"

"Stop it!" yelled Darkholme. "One at a time. We'll start with you, Mr. Summers. Tell me what happened."

Duncan huffed as sat back into his chair and glanced over at Scott angrily.

Scott looked into Ms. Darkholme's eyes. The yellow pupils were there, but you wouldn't notice them if you weren't looking for them. He mentally shook the thought from his head and averted his gaze.

"Jean had already told me this morning that she was afraid Duncan might do something to her sometime soon. Apparently they had a…a fight recently and she was scared. So when I saw Duncan raise his hand, I knew what he was doing and I couldn't just let him hit her like that. I had to do something!"

"So you attacked him?"

"Well, yeah. It seemed like the only choice I had."

Ms. Darkholme nodded. This would have been a good sign with anyone else, but Scott knew nothing good could come from her.

"Well then, what's your story, Mr. Matthews?"

Duncan sat forward as he started into his version of the events. "Jean and I got into a fight yesterday, that's true. But I never threatened her then and I didn't threaten her now. We were just talking about the argument we'd had the day before. I started raising my hand to stretch. I had a test this morning and my arm was cramping up. Then, all of a sudden, this guy comes out of nowhere and hits me! Maybe it wasn't the best choice, but I got back up and hit him back. Then it all escalated."

Darkholme nodded again. Scott glanced at Duncan out of the corner of his eye. He was lying and Scott knew it.

"Mr. Matthews, fighting on school grounds, even in self-defense, is against the rules. However, since you didn't start the fight, I'm only giving you Saturday detention."

Duncan nodded. "Yes ma'am." He'd been to detention plenty of times. He could handle it once more.

"As for you," said Darkholme, turning to Scott, "you seem to be the instigator here. I see no reason for you to have started this fight. I'm giving you a three-day suspension, effective immediately. Furthermore, if there are any outbursts from you after you return, I'll expel you! Do you understand me?"

Scott's jaw dropped in shock. "Ms. Darkholme, that's not fair!"

"Fair or not, the judgment is made, Mr. Summers. I'll call your guardian immediately and have him come get you. You can wait in the lobby. Mr. Matthews, you may go to class now and I don't want you to get in any more trouble. Now both of you get out of my office."

"Yes ma'am," said Duncan with a smile as he stood and left the room.

Scott stood silently and followed him out. As they exited the door to the office, Duncan turned around to face Scott with a smile.

"Way to go, Shades! Enjoy your suspension! Oh, and try not to get yourself expelled." Duncan was clearly enjoying this turn of events. Then he leaned in close to Scott and began to speak in a near whisper. "And don't worry about Jean. I'll take real good care of her until you get back."

Scott grabbed his arm roughly and turned Duncan so that they were looking eye-to-eye, or as best as they could with Scott's glasses.

"I'll be watching you, Dunc. I know what happened with you and Jean, and I'm very protective of my friends. Hurt her and you'll regret it." He spat the words out at Duncan with venom, leaving no doubt that he would protect Jean at all costs.

Duncan pulled his arm from Scott's grip and stormed away. Scott watched him go as he shut the door to Ms. Darkholme's office.

*****

When the rest of the X-Men got home that afternoon, Scott was busy cleaning the Blackbird's hangar. The fight was all the school had talked about for the rest of the day. Rumors had spread quickly and all the X-Men but Jean were looking forward to hearing what was really going on. Unfortunately for them, Scott wasn't allowed to talk to anyone until his work was done. But Xavier had gone to talk to Darkholme face to face and with none of the other adults in town, Jean decided she needed to talk to Scott. She headed downstairs and found him mopping the hangar floor.

"Scott?" she said as she entered the room.

Scott's head stuck out from around the Blackbird. He smiled halfheartedly as he stepped around the jet to talk to Jean.

"Hey."

"Hi. I'm sorry about today," she said.

Scott looked up at her and put his mop in the bucket. "Yeah, well maybe the Professor can get Mystique to relent."

Jean nodded as she walked closer to him. "Scott, this is all my fault."

Scott stood there for a moment. In a way, it was her fault. But one look at her proved to him that he couldn't blame her. After all, it had been his idea to fight Duncan like that, not hers.

"Don't worry about it. I'll be all right. Besides, it's just three days."

"I appreciate what you were doing. I'm not so sure that was the right way to handle it, but I appreciate the thought behind it anyway."

"He was going to hurt you, Jean. I couldn't just stand back and watch it happen."

"I could've stopped him," she said rather defensively.

"You sure were waiting long enough to do it," said Scott.

"Well I was just about to when you leveled him out of nowhere."

Scott smiled. He had enjoyed that first punch quite a bit. Then he remembered Duncan's taunts after the meeting with Ms. Darkholme and the smile faded.

"Be careful around him, Jean. I think he's looking to hurt you."

Jean's gaze immediately fell to the floor as she grabbed her left wrist in her right hand. "I know," she said meekly.

Scott watched her curiously. "Jean, are you okay?"

Her gaze remained fixed on the floor. "Yeah. I'll be fine."

He reached out and pulled her left hand up. When it rose to their chest level, her sleeve fell low enough that Scott could see small bruises just beginning to form around her wrist. He looked up at her eyes immediately.

"Did Duncan do this?"

She nodded and quietly added, "He grabbed me in the hall after he got out of Darkholme's office."

Scott surveyed the bruises. "Quite a grip."

Jean pulled her hand down quickly. "Yeah, it is."

Scott turned around with his fists clenched at his sides. "I could kill him for this. I can't just let him hurt you whenever he wants!"

Jean put her right hand on Scott's shoulder. "Calm down, Scott. I'll talk to the Professor as soon as he gets back and we'll sort everything out. It'll be okay. I'll be okay."

Scott kept his back to her as anger rushed through him. "You're right. Everything's gonna be fine."

*****

Jean had a long talk with the Professor when he returned. He had been unable to convince Mystique to relent on Scott's punishment, but three days away from school wasn't bad. After all, he could have been expelled!

After the conversation with Jean was over, the Professor asked her to watch the mansion for the night. He had already made plans to have dinner with an old friend who would be returning to Bayville soon after Christmas. This friend was in town for one day only to finalize the deal on his new house. Jean agreed and within two hours the Professor had left.

Scott refused to talk to anyone after his earlier conversation with Jean. Even Kurt, who had always been his best friend at the mansion, couldn't get him to open up. So the X-Men just decided to let him brood for the night while they enjoyed their adult free evening. They ordered pizza and had just finished eating when an alarm began going off in the basement. Jean and Kurt teleported down to see what was going on. When they got to the security room, they discovered that the alarm was not the mansion's security system, but was connected to the school's! A large screen showed the surveillance pictures from the cameras set up around Bayville High. Kurt and Jean watched the screen as it clicked from one camera to the next in three-second intervals. Finally, one camera showed a group of kids standing outside the main entrance to the building and trying to get inside. They gasped when they realized that the students were the Brotherhood!

It didn't take long for the X-Men to get in uniform and load into the van to go to the school and stop the Brotherhood from tearing the place down. Scott was in his room and on his computer when Jean came in and told him what was going on.

"Scott, the Brotherhood is vandalizing the school. We're going to stop them."

Scott looked up at her and frowned. "Have fun."

She was taken aback by his answer. "Aren't you coming?"

"Why should I protect that place? I don't care if they tear the building to the ground!"

Jean huffed. "Are you sure?"

"Positive. Go without me."

Jean slammed the door without arguing with him. Frankly, she was too angry with him to argue. When she got back, then she'd let him know how childish he was being! Just because he'd been suspended didn't give him the right to act like this!

Scott stood by his window and watched the X-van drive down the driveway and through the gates. Once they were gone, he grabbed his keys and walked down to his car.

*****

A normal fight with the Brotherhood lasted no more than thirty minutes. That was usually enough time to soundly beat them and send them running away. But tonight, the boys just refused to back down. When they finally gave in and left the school, the fight had dragged on for an hour and a half! The X-Men were astounded at the Brotherhood's resilience, but they were too exhausted to wonder what tonight's difference had been. Frankly, it didn't matter to them. The important thing was that they had won and now they could go home and go to sleep.

But things were far from calm and peaceful when they returned to the mansion. They knew something was wrong as soon as Jean turned the corner that led to the mansion. They could just barely see flashing lights through the trees. They decided to take the hidden road that would lead the van into the underground basement. Here they changed into normal clothes, returned to the van, and drove back to the front gates. Finally, they approached the mansion as if for the first time. What they saw both shocked and confused all of them.

Police cars were everywhere. There were at least seven cars there and each still had its flashing lights on. Cops roamed the grounds with flashlights as if they were looking for something. The X-Men pulled up to the front of the house, where they were stopped by two policemen and told to get out of the van. They did so and began walking toward the policemen to find out what was going on.

But as she began walking, Jean was distracted by something to her left. She did a double take, completely shocked by what was taking place over her shoulder. Scott was in handcuffs and being led to one of the police cars!

Jean yelled his name as she began running towards him. His eyes stayed on the ground and he was loaded into the police car just as Jean got to him. She didn't have time to ask him what was going on as the door was shut and the car drove away before Scott even looked up at her.

The other X-Men had all followed Jean. Now they stood in a small group as the policemen who originally stopped them came up to them to ask a few questions.

"Hey! Do you kids live here?"

Most of the X-Men turned to face the voice behind them. Jean's gaze was still fixed on the car carrying Scott as it disappeared around the trees. Kurt looked around and decided to speak up for the group.

"Jah. Ve're ztudents at ze Inztitute."

"This place is some sort of school then?"

"Jah."

"Where're your instructors?"

"Two are out of town. Ze owner is having dinner with a vriend."

"Can you contact them?"

"Jah," said Kurt, trying to remember the Professor's cell phone number.

"Then do it. There's a problem."

"Vhat's going on?"

"There's been a murder."

The kids all took one collective gasp. A murder?! Who? How? Suddenly, a look of combined horror and recognition swept over Jean's face, but Rogue stepped forward and asked the question on Jean's mind before she could.

"Ya don't think Scott did it, do ya?" she asked as if the whole idea was completely preposterous.

"I'm sorry," said the cop. "I'll have to speak to your teacher about that. Now if one of you would please call him, I'd appreciate it."

Kurt nodded and asked Kitty to hand him her phone. She agreed and laid it in his hand hesitantly, her eyes still looking at the mansion and the cops pouring in and out the front door. Kurt dialed the Professor and turned away from the group so he could talk. The Professor answered quickly as Evan turned to ask the officer a question.

"Who got killed?" he asked.

The officer looked up at him as he tried to remember the name.

"Some teenager. I think the name was Duncan Matthews."

Every kid's head zipped around to the officer when they heard that. Kurt slowly gathered himself and returned to his conversation with the Professor to explain what was happening. Jean looked back towards the front gates again. Slowly, a wave of dread washed over her face. She silently turned and ran into the mansion. The policemen began chasing after her, yelling for her to come back. The other X-Men followed quickly, except for Kurt who was still trying to explain things to Xavier.

Jean got inside and followed the trail of cops to the kitchen, where she saw a sight she would never forget. On the floor beside the dining table was a boy with blonde hair, lying facedown on the floor in blue jeans and a red letter jacket. A pool of blood was seeping from underneath the boy's chest. In the middle of his back were four small holes, surrounded by blood.

The rest of the X-Men nearly ran over Jean as they hurried into the room. The two policemen came up behind all of them finally and told them they couldn't be in here. They were rushed from the scene quickly, but they had seen enough. Duncan Matthews' dead body was currently lying in their kitchen!