Darkness Falls (May 1997)

Storm landed the jet in a small clearing in Washington Square Park. Already the mass of darkness had expanded from Soho to beyond Broadway. The darkness wasn’t natural, and anyone caught in it were completely blinded and deafened. It did move a little with the wind but there was a viscousness to it. It felt somewhat thick and wispy to the touch. Incognito was up on the top penthouse floor of the apartment building. He held a drink of some of the best Irish whiskey he had ever tasted in his life. He looked down at all the people who stumbled around haplessly. There was even someone in their car trying to drive out. “Ooo, ouch, that’s gotta hurt,” He said as the man ran over an older couple. “Fools,” He growled then finished his drink. “So much work to do, so little time,” He said as he used a shadow to allow him to reach into the wall safe. He pulled his hand out and a small, black, felt bag of diamonds was in his hand. And then several Rolex watches. And then a large, clean stack of cash. Incognito was a partner in one of the largest security companies in the world. He knew where to go and what to take but most of this was just a diversion. It took time to build up the darkness and his intended target was the New York home of Tony and Isabella Stark. They had something in their possession that Victor Von Doom wanted.

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“It’s difficult to even get a reading through it,” Jean said as she held her temple. “I can feel people inside of it but I can’t read their thoughts, not clearly anyway. This...stuff is stopping me,” she said in alarm. Logan looked at her. “Well, something’s causing it,” He said. “I”d suggest we see if we can even be effective in there,” Scott said. “If I can not see, I can not teleport,” Kurt said. “The people in there are probably terrified,” Storm said. “But Scott’s right. If we can’t see then we won’t be much good in there. I can try to blow it away?” She suggested. “Yeah, Storm, lets try that,” Scott said,.

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Tony looked out of the window at the large, growing mass of Darkness. “Isabella...I think we have a problem!” Tony said in alarm. He and Isabella were supposed to go look at some art but the large, cloud of darkness had an ominous look about it. A reporter was on the news. He was standing just outside of it but he had no idea what was causing it.

Last year Isabella and Tony had moved to a Penthouse apartment in Battery Park in order to be closer to Stark Tower, which was currently under construction. Though the idea for the Tower had been Tony's idea, Isabella had come up with the genius idea to power it using a larger version of the arc reactor Tony had in his chest. The Tower would be off the grid and using a sustainable, clean energy source. The Tower was due to be completed later this year and every time Isabella walked through it with Tony she was astounded by it. It was going to be completely state of the art. It would also allow Iron Man and Sapphire remain inside New York City.

The crime fighting duo had made quite the name for themselves in the past two years. Isabella had gotten the hang of her suit and together they had already taken down several villainous criminals. Isabella continued to help run Stark Industries and act as Tony's assistant. Most nights they dined out because of various events they were invited to, but on nights when they stayed in she would cook for them. Despite the fact that they had been married for two years now, their nights were still filled with passion and love. The fact that they were completely in love was still quite evident to everyone around them.

Isabella had been dressing to go to an art gallery opening when she suddenly heard Tony. She rushed out and stood beside him. She looked out the window and her eyes widened at what she saw.

"I think we're going to need to skip the art gallery opening," she said before rushing to go get into her suit.

"Nope, I can't see a damn thing in there," Wolverine said. "But I can smell and there's blood, people, violence and fear," He said. Storm's efforts to blow away the darkness were not effective and if she used any more power they were afraid she'd injury people inside. "Then, what do we do?" Colossus asked just as Tony and Isabella landed in the empty street near them. Tony exposed his face mask to them.

"Well, small world. Is there a costume party happening somewhere?" Tony asked. "Tony...Stark?" Colossus said. "What do we do about this darkness?" Wolverine asked. "Well, obviously whomever is creating it is at the center. Isabella, if we map it out using our targeting scanners we should get an idea where the epicenter is," Tony said. " We'll need to circle the dark mass and stay on opposite sides to map it," He said.

Isabella retracted her face mask as well as she and Tony landed in the street near the X-Men. Isabella was aware of who they were, but they had never worked with them before. Isabella listened to what Tony suggested and she nodded. "I'll go right," she said and then retracted her face mask and took off into the air. She flew towards the right of the dark mass while Tony went left. She activated her targeting scanners and began to map the mass as they encircled it.

"The epicenter appears to be in the penthouse apartment of that building."

"Isabella, see if one of your drones can get closer to the center," Tony asked. When Isabella fired one it did go in but it appeared to have some trouble moving, as if the blackness had mass. It still moved though until it appeared to be stopped by something. Likely a wall. She did get a distorted image from it but it didn't look like that was going to help them much.

Jean Grey tried to focus on Tony's and Isabella's minds. She got a good look at what they were seeing and she passed those images to the others. Most importantly Nightcrawler.

"There's a man there, at the center. Or close to it," Tony said. "It's a good bet he's the cause. But what is he doing? Why is he doing this?" he asked.

"One way to find out," Wolverine said. "Kurt, can you grab him?" Scott asked. "Tony's vision began to penetrate the outer walls of the building and mapped out the inside walls. Jean Grey took those images and gave them to everyone else.

"I can try," Kurt said.

In an instant Kurt was gone with a loud, 'Banf' and then he returned with another 'Banf' and he had a man in his grasp. The man fell into Colossus and the large man put a hand out to keep him upright. Tony and Isabella came down to the street.

"Uh, hello?" The man said as he looked at everyone. He was an average sized man. Somewhat handsome with short, brown hair and blue eyes. He was in a dark suit with a black turtleneck. Jean Grey looked at him but frowned.

"I...I can't read him at all," she said. The man quirked a small grin. "So you're the x-men...and you, Tony Stark? Isabella Stark...It's good to meet you all," The man said. "Look bub, there's alot of hurt people in there...if you're responsible," Wolverine began in a threatening tone.

Isabella lowered herself gracefully back down onto the street. She was fascinated by Kurt and his ability to teleport. Obviously, though, he couldn't teleport into places he couldn't see. She wanted to ask him questions, but she focused on the man he had brought back with him. She retracted her face mask to get a better look at him. He appeared to be just an average man, but there was something about him that made Isabella uneasy.

"Let's start with your name," Isabella said directly to him. "Who are you?"

The man just smiled. "I'm Evan...and may I ask your names?" He asked politely. He was calm. As cool as an ice cube which was irritating Wolverine. Also, the mass of shadow was shifting toward them. He had a definite English accent. Kurt handed the small black bag to Storm. Storm opened the bag and pulled out one of the wads of cash.

"So..you're just a thief?" She asked in disbelief.

"Well, yes and no. I'm more into procuring information but sometimes I'm hired to retrieve objects of interest," Evan said. He kept looking at Isabella in a way that Tony did not like.

"We should just take him in yes?" Colossus suggested as he set wrist binders on him. Evan just looked up at the large man. His smile never faded.

Isabella's feeling of unease started to grow as the man who identified himself as Evan looked at her. She stepped up towards Tony and lowered her voice so only he could hear her.

"I don't trust this guy...at all. I have this strange feeling in my gut that this is all some kind of distraction. For what purpose though...." Then suddenly a thought came to her and she lowered her voice even further. "You don't think he could be after whatever that thing is that Dr. Strange gave us to look after, do you?"

What was odd was that The mist of shadow seemed to shift but it was also becoming less profound. And then there was this man. He began to look paler than he had just a moment ago. Just as Jean Grey narrowed her eyes at him Tony heard Jarvis in his headset. Isabella did as well but it was all garbled as if their headset had difficulty receiving. Either that or Jarvis had difficulty sending.

Wolverine seemed to tilt his head and he narrowed his eyes too. And then, with a quick movement his left claw was out and he slashed at the man in the back. There was no blood. Just a black haziness that oozed out. As it did the man's features began to shift as if he were made of rubber.

"He's not real. No wonder I couldn't read him. It's some kind of construct," Jean said. The mist had really begun to thin out but Tony looked over his shoulder at where their home was. In the distance a dark mist began to form. "Isabella I think you're right," He said as his mask clamped back down and he took off like a rocket.

After Isabella took off after him Storm lifted into the air. The others just took hold of Kurt.

Evan didn't know where Tony might keep something like the thing he was looking for but he had a good map of how his power distribution was laid out. There had been upgrades to it since the Starks had moved in. He found their office and moved up to the bookcase. A large power distribution panel was back here, somewhere and he knew better than to look in the lab.

"if he gets his hands on that...its going to be very bad," Tony said to Isabella. "See if your ultra-violet light emitter has any effect on this shadow!" Tony snapped and not in a very respectful way.

Isabella's eyes widened when she realized that the man before her was just some kind of construct. That meant that she was right, that this had all just been a distraction. She followed Tony's gaze over towards their home where a dark mist had begun to form. She quickly activated her face mask and took off into the air after Tony and flew towards their home. Dr. Strange had not gone into detail about what he had given them to look after, but it was in a sealed box that they had then hidden in their home. All they knew was that it was extremely power and even more dangerous.

Isabella ignored Tony's tone of voice. They were both stressed right then and she knew better than to call him out on it. She activated her ultra-violet light emitter and focused it on the dark shadow that was surrounding their home.

To her surprise the shadows seemed to shift away from the violet light. When she concentrated the light beam it acted almost like a spear and her beam punched through the shadows though only where she aimed it. Evan grunted and winced as he began to feel his shadows being destroyed. He looked up to the ceiling as if he could see them and his look darkened.

Suddenly Isabella was grabbed as if the shadow had formed into a large fist and forearm. She was grabbed and then thrown into an adjacent building...hard. "Isabella!" Tony yelled. Kurt exhaled as he and all of his comrades suddenly teleported to the driveway of the house. Storm was there as well and her eyes had gone stark white as she began to summon a strong wind and rain to beat down the mist and push it away. "Who needs ta see anyway!" Logan said as he crashed through a first floor window. "I can sense him now...he's there!" Jean said and Scott shot his kinetic beam where she pointed.

Evan was forced to dodge out of the way or be hit with some kind of large, red beam. He felt, through the shadows, that someone had come into the house. He also felt Jean's mind scanning his.

Isabella noticed that the shadows seemed to react and shift away from the ultra-violet light. She was able to concentrate the beam and it punched through the shadows of where it was aimed. She was about to tell Tony to fly through the hole she had created, but she was suddenly grabbed by the shadow itself! She struggled to get away, but before she could she was thrown into the adjacent building...hard. Her head struck the back of her helmet and she was knocked unconscious. She suddenly began to fall down towards the ground.

Jean Gray managed to snatch Isabella out of the air just as Tony growled and sent a barrage of ordinance into the center of the shadow cloud. He had had enough of this guy and he was done playing Mr. Nice guy.

Wolverine couldn't see anything but he certainly felt the explosions. He also had nearly an entire floor land on him and then all went black.

Scott, Storm and Colossus recovered the shadow man named Evan. Wolverine was recovered but he had been seriously injured and his body was taking its time to heal. isabella though had to go to the hospital for a severe concussion.

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As Wolverine lay in the infirmary bed Jean Gray checked his vitals once more. His brain had sustained a lot of damage and it did not appear to heal as fast as the other, more mundane wounds. Logan had said alot to her recently. He had confessed how much he loved her and how hard it was to work with her, knowing how she felt for him and her refusing to leave Scott. He couldn't understand that but Storm had said it had to do with stability. Scott was a stable man that loved Jean and Jean just felt she needed that more than the raw passion that existed between herself and Logan. He opened his eyes and looked up at her.

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Tony was once again at Isabella's bedside. He had been working on an Inertial dampening system inside their suits that might help with this kind of injury in the future. Now though, he had heard what the doctors had said and though Isabella was going to be alright, her brain would not react well to more such injuries. Like radiation, the body could only take so much and there was alot yet that they didn't know about the human brain. Tony was leaned back against her bedside. His head had lulled back onto the bed and the top of his head touched her wrist. He snored but it was a soft rasp as he napped beside her.

Jean had always been conflicted about her feelings where Logan was concerned. From the moment he had come into her life she had felt a raw passion for him that she didn't feel for Scott. However, she didn't love Logan like she loved Scott, did she? To be honest, she wasn't certain. Perhaps on some level she did truly love Logan, but their personalities were just too different. Her relationship with Scott was stable and she felt there was a future there. That didn't make things any easier though. Seeing Logan everyday at the mansion was difficult for them both and she hated knowing that she was hurting Logan. He was her friend and she didn't want to hurt him.

She was sitting at this bedside waiting for him to recover when his eyes slowly opened and he looked up at her. She got him a glass of water and handed it to him. "You had me worried there for a little while," she said with a little smile.

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After several hours, Isabella slowly began to awaken. She shifted and groaned. Her head throbbed and her body ached. She blinked against the harsh, fluorescent lights above her and her stomach began to feel sick from how much her head hurt. Her memory about what had happened was fuzzy. She felt someone shift next to her and saw Tony look up at her.

"What happened?"

Logan just looked at Jean and said nothing, for a moment. Why did he find her so absolutely beautiful? Why did his heart rate pick up when she just looked at him? Why did her smile make him melt like this? He wondered. "I love you so much Jean...its killing me from the inside out," Logan said. "You're in my dreams, in my thoughts, in my heart. You're the only thing I want and the only thing I can't have," he said in a rasp as he looked at her. He wanted to feel her lips on his...and right now, damnit! He shifted his hand to take hold of hers that was close enough for him to get a hold of. he laced his fingers in with hers.

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"Well, you were thrown into a building," Tony said plainly as he yawned. "The doctor said you have a severe concussion but there won't be any permanent brain damage," Tony said. "Though they cant say the same for me. I all but lost my wits when you went down. I...I broke our house," Tony said with a wince.

Jean said nothing as Logan spoke. She just let him speak. However, the more he spoke the more her heart felt like it was being torn apart. She felt Logan pick up her hand and lace his fingers through hers. She just sat there for a moment before she pulled her hand back away from him and then stood up. There were tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry Logan. I hate doing this to you, but I'm with Scott and I'm not going to leave him. I do care about you, but there can never be anything more than friendship between us."

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Isabella tried to sit up, but her whole body ached in response and she just gave up and laid there. She looked over at Tony when he said he "broke" their house. "What exactly do you mean 'you broke our house'?"

Jean's words burned into his heart. Into his very soul. His mouth worked but none of the words he wanted to say to her would come out. He could tell she was upset. She truly didn't like letting him down like this. But he needed her, didn't she understand that? "Jean...I...we...there is something there Jean, I know there is. And I know you're with Scott, don't you think I don't know that? But he can't love you like I can. You know he can't," Logan said. "If I could rip out my heart and give it to you, I would. I would try because you asked for it," Logan said trying to keep his emotions together. "Ya think Scott loves you like that? I don't," He said. He knew this was cruel but he couldn't stop himself. He felt her trying to draw away from him and he wasn't ready to just let her go.

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"Well, that Desk...the one we got in Italy? Well...its in the kitchen now...or was it the gold bathroom," Tony said as if he were less concerned about the house and more concerned about which bathroom had the upstairs office furniture in it right then.

Jean just shook her head and backed away from Logan as a few tears slipped down her cheeks. She looked away from him and pulled herself together outwardly, even though she was cracking on the inside. She wiped away the tears from her face and then looked at him. "I think either you need to leave the mansion, or Scott and I need to. You're making this too hard on me Logan."

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Isabella felt her headache worsen and she pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes. "Please tell me you at least stopped him from getting that case."

Logan sat up but before he could press her further she had hurried out of the room. He had made his play and she rejected him. He would not make another. In fact, he wanted to be away from the mansion. And from his torturous dreams of her. He needed to leave...

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"Well...I know he didn't get it but...I've not been able to find it. I spoke to Phil Coulson yesterday. He asked me if I needed help," He said. "SHIELD had investigated the damage and took a few samples for testing...or so they said," Tony told her. "But it's all going to work out babe...ok? You just relax. I've got a crew cleaning it all up and seeing what it will take to fix," He said. There was little he could do. He had tried to call Strange but the man never picked up. It was gone and he hadn't found it yet. He lightly rubbed Isabella's hand.

Isabella sighed at what Tony said. At least that man hadn't gotten it, but them not knowing where it was seemed just as bad. She began to wonder if SHIELD hadn't come in and taken it. She wished she knew exactly what it was and what it did. She glanced around her. She hated being in a hospital bed, but there was little she could do about that.

"I guess we can go back to the coastal estate for now."

Tony just looked at her. He would not be in California while they were building his...'their' tower. She knew him better than that but he did make inquiries about a penthouse apartment until their house was repaired.

"You let me worry about that ok? You just get better," he said as he half stood and shifted to give her a light kiss. "You take care of me so much, maybe its time you're taken care of for a change," Tony said but she knew how long that would last. Likely a New York minute if she knew him at all. "I love you Isabella, I was so worried when you didn't wake up right away. But then you did," he said as he kissed her again. "Go ahead, get some more sleep, I'm not going anywhere," He assured her.