X-Men: Night of the Living Brain Dead
                               by
                           Ben Church bchurch@su.edu
	All main characters are the property of Marvel Comics except 
Hotshot.
                            Chapter 10
	Xavier sat in despair.  The X-men had been defeated and most 
them had been captured.  He'd tried to summon help but X-Force, and 
Excaliber were both on missions.  He was reluctant to go to any other 
hero teams for help.  It was foolish pride he knew but...  He decided 
it was time to forget his pride.  Anyone that could and would do the 
things that these people had done was not going to stop at just 
defeating the X-men.  He turned on the communications array and called 
Avengers mansion but couldn't get through.  Then he tried calling the 
Baxter building but again he had no luck.  Someone was jamming his 
communications equipment. As he turned away from it, the lights went 
out.  Someone had cut the power!
    
         Selene watched as her army of vampires methodically cut the 
power to all the systems in Xavier's house.  Then she turned to the 
woman beside her.  "They have finished." she said to Jean. "Capture 
him."  
         Jean Grey headed toward the mansion.  Unlike Selene's other 
victims, Jean did not resemble a year old corpse.  Mutants were 
stronger than humans and the process did not destroy their bodies, only 
their minds.  Making Jean perfect for this mission. None of her human 
victims could get anywhere near a normal person unless they could run 
faster than their intended victim.  One does not stand still when a 
dead body approaches them.  No, only Jean was suitable for this 
mission.
         "For once Arcade was right," she thought, "With the X-men 
defeated and the survivors scattered, the mansion is ripe for the 
picking."
    
         Professor Charles Xavier was one of the finest intellectual 
minds in the world.  To put it simply, he was not stupid.  He knew that 
 with the X-men gone he was a prime target for whoever was behind all 
this.  He headed for the hanger-bay, the Blackbird was gone but there 
were several mini-jets ready to go.  He heard a sound behind him as he 
prepared to leave.  He turned his head cautiously even as he found the 
canopy control.  To his astonishment, Jean Grey stood in the doorway of  
the hanger.
         "Jean!  How did you escape?" he asked.  
         Receiving no answer, he quickly deduced that something was 
wrong.  He scanned her mind and was shocked by what he found. Her mind 
was completely empty, wiped clean by a force unknown.  Jean approached 
him with her arms out stretched, obviously intent on capturing him.  He 
reached inside a compartment in the cockpit and  pulled a low powered 
energy pistol.  He set the setting for stun, and let her get closer.
         When she was within arms reach of him he aimed the pistol and 
fired, Jean's body collapsed into his arms.  He pulled her into the jet 
and strapped her in.  He fired up the jet's engines and took off.   Xavier 
set a course for Muir Island and sat back. He felt strangely 
relieved, at last he was doing something and not sitting around feeling 
useless.
    
To be continued...