Morlock Tunnels
London, England

“This has nothing to do. You just signed your death warrant, pal.”

Those were the first and last words the Marauder called Blockbuster said to Hank McCoy, known as the Beast. The moment he finished them, his massive fist slammed into Beast. The force of the impact sent the Beast flying into the sewer wall behind him. Beast recovered fairly quickly. He saw Blockbuster approaching and he placed his palms flat on the wall by his head. Using the wall as leverage, he pushed forward and slammed his feet into Blockbuster’s chest. Although not as strong as Blockbuster, Beast could hold his own, and the blow caused the Marauder to stagger somewhat.

The Beast bounded in the air and brought his knees close to his chest, wrapping his arms around them. In this cannonball position, he slammed into Blockbuster again and the force knocked him to the ground. Beast landed on the ground effortlessly, but before he had a chance to admire his handiwork, he felt a huge gust of wind. What followed were shurikens and spikes made from bone that tore at his flesh courtesy of Riptide.

“You think we’re gonna let you off that easily, punk?” asked Riptide.

Beast lifted his hands to cover his face as he tried his best to dodge the shurikens and spikes. They were everywhere, though. Blood flowed freely from his wounds, and he could find no opening for him to strike back at Riptide. Instead, he chose to try and seek cover from the assault, but found none.

“Ease up, Riptide,” said Harpoon. “You might kill him.”

“And the problem would be…?” asked Riptide.

“If you kill him, then that means I don’t get to have any fun,” replied Harpoon with a smirk. He pulled two of his javelins from the quiver he wore on his back and approached the Beast, who now lay on the ground, bleeding. The Beast brought himself to his feet, unprepared to give in so easily. He moved to swing at Harpoon, but the massive fist of Blockbuster grabbed his hand.

“Now that’s not nice,” said Blockbuster. He squeezed and the Beast cringed as he felt the bones in his hand break. He kept silent, he didn’t want to give the Marauders the satisfaction of hearing him scream. Blockbuster released his hand and slammed his fist into the Beast’s chest. Hank cried out this time as he felt his ribs crack.

“Hold him up, Blockbuster,” said Harpoon.

Blockbuster nodded and grabbed Beast’s wrists with one hand and his legs with the other. He slammed the X-Man hard against the sewer wall. Harpoon twirled the two javelins in his hand as he approached the Beast. A twisted grin came across Harpoon’s features and all Beast could think about was at least Artie got away.

Then, the blood-curdling screams of an X-Man echoed throughout the Morlock tunnels.

MUTANT MASSACRE

Part III: The Fallen

By Dino Pollard

Wolverine was the first to enter the Morlock Tunnels. He glanced around and he signaled for the others to follow him. Cyclops and Phoenix were next, followed by Thunderbird, Dazzler, and taking up the rear of the group were Shadowcat, Nightcrawler, and Colossus.

“This should be it,” said Dazzler. “It’s been awhile since we’ve been down here, but I’m pretty sure this is where we left the Morlock Tunnels when Hank and I were last down here.”

“This place stinks,” said Wolverine.

“No shit, it’s a sewer,” said Thunderbird.

“Not that,” said Wolverine. “It stinks of death. I can smell the blood. People died down here.”

“I can feel it, too,” said Phoenix.

“Talk to me, Jeannie,” said Wolverine. “What’ve we got here?”

Jean Grey closes her eyes and reaches out with her mind. With the might of the Phoenix at her disposal, her psychic powers have increased by a large degree over the past several months. Slowly, little by little, she is learning how to master them. But after her confrontation with Magneto — pushing past his psychic shields and trapping his mind in a permanent fantasy world of his own creation — she has been weakened.

“I can feel him…” she said. “I can’t get a solid lock on him, though. He’s still alive, I know that much — but I’m not sure for how long.”

“Then we find him the old fashioned way,” said Wolverine.

“What about the Morlocks?” asked Dazzler.

“I can sense a few lingering consciousnesses, but not much,” replied Phoenix.

“Where?” asked Dazzler.

“Come with me,” replied Phoenix, taking the lead. The X-Men followed her through the tunnels. All the while, the entire group found themselves looking over their shoulders. Thoughts constantly drifted back to their missing teammate. Jean Grey could feel the concern they all shared, for she shared it as well. However, she pushed it to the back of her mind, attempted to ignore it for now.

“This is starting to look familiar now,” said Dazzler. “I recognize where we are.”

The Phoenix stopped suddenly. Her eyes were wide, and she turned to face her teammates.

“Ali… are you sure you want to see this?” she asked.

“I’m in no mood to be coddled, Jean,” replied Dazzler. “Now keep going.”

Phoenix nodded and moved closer. She pushed aside what remained of the door to the Morlocks’ sanctum. Phoenix walked in and instantly turned her head away and shut her eyes tightly. She bit her lip as she felt tears welling up. Dazzler was next in, and she saw the handiwork of the Marauders. Morlocks lay scattered around, their bodies sat in pools of their own, dried blood. Dazzler fell to her knees and looked at the bodies of the people she was supposed to lead.

“No…” she muttered. “No, this is my fault…”

“No it’s not,” said Thunderbird. He moved down beside her and placed his hands on her shoulders. “You couldn’t have known about this.”

“I was their leader… I should’ve stayed with them,” said Dazzler.

“Yes… you should have…”

“This one’s still alive,” said Nightcrawler. He moved over to the one Morlock who was still alive… but barely. The other X-Men followed suit and Dazzler moved towards her.

“Who is she?” asked Cyclops.

“Callisto, she was the leader of the Morlocks,” replied Dazzler. “Callisto… what happened?”

“They came… they killed them… killed them all… You should have been here, you were our leader, but you failed us. You should have… you bear responsibility, you must… must aveng–”

With those final words, Callisto fell silent as the life left her body. Dazzler felt the tears coming, but she forced them back. She stood from Callisto’s body and faced the rest of the X-Men.

“Ali, I’m so–”

“Don’t bother, Phoenix,” said Dazzler. She faced Wolverine. “They were my people. You know what we have to do, don’t you?”

“I gotcha,” said Wolverine. “We’ll find the bastards who did this, kiddo. They’ll pay, I promise you.”

“Damn right they will,” said Dazzler. She turned away from Wolverine and continued deeper into the Morlocks’ sanctum. “I’ll make sure of it.”

“The faint impressions are growing stronger,” said Phoenix. “We have to keep going, there may be more survivors.”

She followed Dazzler and the other X-Men moved in as well behind them. What they found, however, was only more bodies. Dazzler tried not to look at them, instead attempting to keep her composure. She had no time to grieve, the only thing on her mind now was guilt. Guilt and vengeance.

“Through here,” said Phoenix as she stepped past Dazzler. Wolverine and Cyclops followed her in and they saw the bodies of several Morlocks — Caliban, Berzerker, Ape, Feral, Annalee, Tarbaby, Cybelle, Blow-Hard, and Annalee’s children. Shadowcat gasped when she saw their small bodies.

“Kids…” she said. “They were just kids…”

“It’s a terrible thing,” said Wolverine. “Sad to say I’m used to this.”

“How could you ever possibly get used to seeing something like this?” asked Shadowcat.

“You just do,” replied Wolverine. In the corner, he heard faint breathing and moved towards it. What he found was a distorted creature made entirely out of brain matter. He opened his eyes and looked weakly at Wolverine.

“His name’s Ever,” said Dazzler. “He’s the resident telepath.”

“Maybe he can tell us what happened,” said Wolverine.

“I can…” Ever’s psychic voice rang out in the minds of all of them. “Marauders… they kill and Morlocks… die…”

“Who are these Marauders?” asked Cyclops.

“Mutants… like us… paid to hunt down their own kind by men… men of power…”

“Mutants did this…” said Colossus, his teeth gritted in rage. “How could they kill their own kind… for money?”

“Humans have been doin’ it for centuries, big guy,” said Wolverine. “Don’t surprise me one bit.”

A sniffing sound came and little Artie entered the sanctum. Shadowcat instantly rushed over to him and lifted him up. She covered his eyes with her hand to prevent him from seeing — but she was too late.

“That’s Artie,” said Dazzler.

“Can he tell us if he’s found any survivors?” asked Wolverine.

“He can’t tell you anything, he’s mute,” replied Dazzler.

“He knows where Hank is,” said Phoenix. “I’m picking it up from his mind.”

Artie nodded his head. An image appeared in front of the X-Men, projected from Artie’s memory. They saw as three of the Marauders — Blockbuster, Harpoon, and Riptide — closed in on him. They were stopped by the intervention of the Beast, who told Artie to run. Artie stayed for a bit, and the X-Men watched as Beast tried to fight off the three Marauders on his own, but succumbing to fear, Artie ran off.

“He feels like a coward because he ran,” said Phoenix, detecting Artie’s feelings.

“He’s not,” said Dazzler. She approached Artie and wiped the tears from his eyes. “You did the right thing, Artie.”

“Because of Artie, I now know where Hank is,” said Phoenix. “We have to get to him while he’s still alive.”

In his memories, the Beast could still hear the taunts of the three Marauders as they ganged up on him. He was forced to sit there and take it as they pummeled him and cut at his body. The pain is still with him. They told him to beg for a clean death, to simply end it all, but he refused. He gave them no quarter, just as they gave him none. He sat there, he allowed them to do their worst. In his mind, he knew Logan would be proud.

If the Beast were conscious, he would know that Logan was standing before him right now. As were the rest of his teammates. The X-Men looked at him in shock and horror. Henry McCoy — the Beast — was pinned to the wall, spread eagle. A harpoon in each hand and each foot, pinning him there.

“Bastards…” muttered Cyclops.

“Get him down from there,” said Wolverine. Colossus removed each of the harpoons from the Beast’s body, and Thunderbird held onto the body of his teammate, carefully laying him on the ground. Wolverine looked down at the Beast and shook his head. He turned to face the rest of the X-Men.

“They’re not gettin’ away with this,” said Wolverine. “Jean, I need you to use your powers to try and stop Hank’s bleeding.”

“Already doing it,” said Phoenix.

“Good girl,” said Wolverine. “Cyke, you and Jeannie are with me. We’re takin’ Hank an’ this Artie kid up top. I got a friend who lives in London. She’s a doctor.”

“Will she treat mutants?” asked Cyclops.

“That’s not an issue with her,” replied Wolverine. “The rest of you — keep searchin’ for survivors. Don’t go up against these Marauders just yet, though — yer just on a recon mission for now, got it? We don’t know enough about ’em yet.”

“Understood,” said Colossus.

“Good,” said Wolverine. “An’ Dazzler…”

For the first time, he noticed that Dazzler had been missing from the rest of the group. He punched the wall frustration and exhaled deeply through his nose.

“Go after her, Proudstar,” said Wolverine. “Make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid.”

“What if we do find the Marauders?” asked Nightcrawler.

“If you do, try an’ contain one of ’em for interrogation,” replied Wolverine. “Ever said they were paid assassins, so I wanna know who did the paying.”

“And the rest of them?” asked Colossus.

“Leave ’em to me,” replied Wolverine.