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- PHOENIX
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- CYCLOPS
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- STORM
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- COLOSSUS
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- JUBILEE
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- PROTEUS
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- MYSTIQUE
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- EMMA FROST
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- FUSION
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- NOCTURNE
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- FEVER PITCH
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- RANCOR
WHEEL OF FORTUNE
By Ryan Krupienski
Underground
“DON’T STOP SHOOTING! KILL IT! KILL IT!”
The frantic cries of the soldier echo throughout the dark, dank tunnels as sweat pours down his face and he squeezes the trigger of his firearm over and over again. His words are barely audible over the endless barrage of gunfire and the inhuman sounds generated by the hulking beast towering high above him and his squad. Three of his men already lay dead, and the rest are sure to follow. Michael Kundera knows this is the end, but even so, he refuses to go down as anything less than as a fighter.
The beast, whose dark green scales are barely visible in the dim light, but whose burning eyes of fire more than make up for it, snarls as it grabs two soldiers, one in each of its large, clawed hands. The soldiers squirm in the creature’s grasp, screaming in terror as they realize it’s all over for them. And as the remaining guards continue to fire their weapons, the bullets causing nothing more than irritation, the two captured men suddenly go silent as they begin to feel their bodies being pulled apart, one layer at a time.
The guards cease their fire, overcome with fear as they witness the fate of their two companions. First, things like their hair and their eyes melt away, burned by an invisible fire; then the truly horrifying begins. Their skin seems to expand a little and become more elastic and maleable, but just as quickly it is sucked away, vacuumed into the beast through its own skin. The same happens to the subsequent layers of their anatomy, with every muscle, blood cell, nerve ending, fat tissue, and internal organ being consumed, all absorbed into the creature through its now-bubbling scales. All that is left at the end of the process are the soldiers’ uniforms, and their skeletons.
The bones drop to the ground, and the beast stretches its arms and lets out a sigh, as if it’s just been refreshed. It gazes around with its burning eyes at the remaining men, four in total, and wastes no time in finishing them off. It hacks and slashes away at them, tearing limbs from their bodies and tossing them all about the tunnel. Kundera is the only soldier to escape the execution, and a wave of shock hits him as he realizes that perhaps he was spared on purpose.
The tunnels go completely silent after the last of the men is finished off. The beast stands completely still now, simply glaring at Kundera, who is frozen in terror. It takes a few steps toward the human, not taking its eyes off of him, but not coming at him as if to attack, either.
“You know,” the creature says in a low, almost human voice, “I used to be like you.”
Shock registers on Kundera’s face as he hears the creature speak; he didn’t know it could do that. “You… t-talk!” he barely manages to say.
“Of course I do,” the beast responds. “I was a man, once, too.” It smiles, revealing a large set of sharp but somewhat dirty teeth.
“Why d-d-did you k-kill them?” Kundera stutters as he slowly backs away. “We could have t-talked it out!”
“Do you take me for some kind of fool?” the creature asks. “I know you were ordered to kill me. And I also know… you were just doing your job.”
Kundera swallows back a gargantuan lump in his throat, completely unsure of what happens next. Maybe he can cut a deal with it?
Almost without warning, all of the soldier’s false hopes are cut to shreds, and so is he. The beast tears into Kundera, decapitating him and piercing his abdomen all the way through. The last soldier falls limply to the ground, with his head rolling a few feet away down the tunnel.
The creature moves past the slaughtered bodies of the guards and slowly makes its way down the tunnel, unsure of where the passageway will lead. “Now, it’s time,” it says, as if still speaking to Kundera, “for Rancor to do his…”
Inside GeneTech
His initial shock has passed, but he doesn’t move a muscle; he’s not sure what to do. He’s not sure what to think, what to believe. He doesn’t know her, why she’s here, what’s going on… for all he knows, she could be in league with Emma Frost. Even with all his questions and his doubts, though, the young man codenamed Proteus can’t help but feel a connection with the woman standing before him.
Her name is Mystique. He’s never heard of her, and he has no reason to trust her, but he’s intrigued. He feels stupid, really… it’s only because she, too, is a shape-shifter. Maybe it’s because she’s like him; she knows what it’s like to be able to be anyone, yet to sometimes struggle to hold onto your own identity. She’s clearly mature, and he can tell that she has quite some experience with her powers. He hasn’t spoken a word to the woman since she revealed her true form, and he’s honestly not sure what to even say.
“Well are you just going to stand there and gawk all day, or are you going to say something?” Mystique asks him. “What’s your name, kid?”
He always answers that question with ‘Peter’. This situation is different, though, and calls for a different answer.
“Proteus,” he replies, faster than expected. He manages to keep his voice even and calm as he speaks, drawing from a confidence he wasn’t previously aware of.
“Hmph,” Mystique says, visibly just a tad impressed. “I like the name. You look a little young to be doing this kind of thing, though.”
“Who are you? What are you doing here?” Proteus says, trying to intimidate the woman but failing miserably.
Mystique rolls her eyes. “Listen, kid, I don’t think you know what you’ve gotten yourself into… what those damn X-Men have gotten you into. If I were you, I’d get out of here ASAP. Go back to Xavier’s. Be a good little boy and stay out of the grown-ups’ sandbox, alright?”
Proteus starts to feel anger swell up inside him as Mystique speaks in her condescending tone. His previous interest in her has now shifted to irritation. “I’m not a ‘kid’. And listen, I’m not leaving until I get some answers… and neither are you!”
“Oh please,” Mystique retorts. She walks right at Proteus, stopping just short of touching him. “I’m giving you an out. I’m being nice, which doesn’t happen very often. I suggest you take advantage of that. Go rally your X-friends, and get the hell out of here. I’m not in the mood, boy.”
“Bite me,” is the best comeback Proteus can muster.
Mystique lets out a startled laugh. “You really are as young as you look,” she says. “And don’t try and fool me, I can tell you’d prefer a man’s touch.”
Surprise registers on Proteus’ face at Mystique’s last comment, as the woman backs away and turns her attention to her jumpsuit, evening out a few wrinkles on the sleeves. She then unholsters her gun for a minute and releases the cartridge, checking how many rounds she has left. Satisfied, she puts the gun back together and cocks it, then lets it fall to her side, gripped in her left hand. She looks back at the young man facing her, who’s not taken his eyes off her for even a second.
“Look,” Proteus says, a bit more polite but more intent, “can you tell me what’s going on here? Can… can you help me?”
Mystique eyes the young man curiously. “Help you, hmm?” she says. “Well, why are you even here in the first place?”
“Emma Frost,” Proteus responds. “We’re trying to bring her in. She might have murdered some of her students.”
Mystique cocks an eyebrow, intrigued by the information. “Really?” she asks. “Well, that’s just dandy… but honestly, I don’t give a damn.”
“Then why are you here?” Proteus asks her.
“If the X-Men really only came here looking for Emma Frost… my goodness,” Mystique says, evidently amused. “You people just have no idea.”
Proteus furrows his brow in confusion. “About what?” he asks. “She bought some company called GeneTech and is probably running some bad experiments… we know that. What else is there?”
Mystique narrows her eyes and gives the young man a cold, hard stare. “What else is there?” Mystique mimics his question rhetorically. “There is no ‘GeneTech’. Frost doesn’t own this place, she just rented it out to get a specific job done. My dear little X-Man, this complex, and everyone in it… it all belongs to Weapon X.”
Outside
Storm soars through the winter air, flying high above her teammates engaged in battle on the ground below. Following close behind her are Jetstream, purple-pink energy swirling madly around his body, and Feverpitch, leaving a trail of flame behind her as she flies. The ivory-haired X-Man still can’t believe her eyes, seeing the Hellions alive and well, but she’s never been one to stand around and gawk when there’s ass to be kicked. She finds herself thankful that there isn’t a different team in place of the Hellions, such as the Marauders; these ones should be relatively easy to deal with.
“You can’t run forever!” Feverpitch yells out as she launches a couple fireballs in Storm’s direction. Storm easily maneuvers around them, then suddenly stops in mid-air and turns around to face her opponent.
“Who said anything about running?” Storm’s arms raise from her sides as the harsh winds become even more rampant, and a single crack of thunder bellows in the background. Feverpitch holds her arms up in front of her to shield herself from the strong winds, but it’s no use, and the young woman gasps in shock as the flames emanating from her body die out, and she’s sent plummeting to the earth below. As she hits the ground with a barely audible ‘thump’, she is thankful that there’s a couple feet of snow to cushion her landing.
Before Storm can make a move against the other one pursuing her, however, Jetstream becomes a blur of energy as he zips past the woman in nearly every direction. Storm turns herself every which way, trying to get a lock on her enemy, but it’s no use; he’s just too fast. She instead lifts herself higher into the sky, and starts gliding through the air on the currents yet again. Maybe this way, she can tire Jetstream out, and then deal with him.
Down below, various types and colors of energy whiz through the air, but most are not hitting their intended targets. Phoenix is farthest from the complex and from the other X-Men, and is warding off the electric blasts of Bevatron with her telekinetic shields. She’s not exactly at her best right now; her telepathy is dampened thanks to the GeneTech facility’s safeguards, and she’s finding that the strength of her telekinesis has been seriously diminished as well. It’s almost as if there’s something inside her mind, telling her to hold back… no, forcing her to hold back. If she can only get past that, she can take all of the Hellions down herself in a manner of seconds, no problem.
Bevatron’s balled-up fists fire off more bio-electric energy, and the blast hits Phoenix’s shield with an almost devastating force. It nearly causes her to stumble back a bit, but in the end it doesn’t do much, and instead the red-haired X-Man advances forward, hoping she can get close enough to encase the Hellion in a telekinetic bubble of sorts. She’s frusterated more than she’s ever been, her powers being so incredibly weak right now, but she’s trained her whole life not just in utilizing her powers to their fullest, but also in how to defend herself should a situation just like this one arise.
“Bevatron,” Phoenix says as she advances slowly. The young man simply fires off another blast of energy in response. “What’s going on here? What has Emma done?”
The brown-haired man has no words for his enemy, and suddenly another blast of energy fills the immediate area with a white light, temporarily causing Phoenix to be blinded. When the energy clears, she looks around for a sign of Bevatron; she can find none.
Closer to the complex, a large, organic steel fist pounds into a large, brutish face. Colossus does not let up on his attack, and delivers another blow to Beef with his other fist. Maybe if the Hellion’s skin was something tougher than flesh, he’d stand a chance, but so far none of his punches have hurt the steel-skinned X-Man in the least. Beef stumbles backwards from Colossus’ assault, and moves his hand to his face to touch his bleeding lips.
“If you’d rather talk, tovarisch, we can end this now,” Colossus says. Beef simply scowls and balls his fists up tighter than before, and Colossus can’t help but grin a little. “Perhaps not.”
The two men dash at each other, arms flexed and extended back, ready to swing forward at a moment’s notice. Colossus throws a punch at Beef, but in a surprisingly agile move, the Hellion ducks down and avoids it. He then picks the X-Man up, grabbing tightly onto one of his legs and his underarm area, and tosses him far off, over the heads of his unsuspecting teammates. Instead of turning his attention to Cyclops or Jubilee, Beef charges past them, intending to finish the job he’s started.
“Oh great,” Jubilee mumbles as she turns her attention back to the purple-furred feline mere feet away from her. She knows the X-Men outpower and outskill the Hellions in every way, but it seems this fight is more difficult than any of them expected. Jubilee jumps a little as Catseye snarls at her, then cusps her hands together in front of her and cracks her knuckles. She narrows her eyes behind her purple, rimless sunglasses, looking at the Hellion with a mixture of anger and pity.
“Hello, kitty,” Jubilee says as neon-colored energy builds up around her hands. She presses her hands out in front of her, and the energy blasts all around Catseye, blinding her for the moment. Jubilee darts forward and wastes no time in delivering a roundhouse kick right into the side of Catseye’s head. “BYE, kitty.”
Catseye falls to the ground, but it’s less than a minute later that she jumps back to her feet, and sets her sights once more on Jubilee. Jubilee backs away, trying to decipher Catseye’s next move, and decides to try and distract her opponent. “You know, I think I know what your problem is,” Jubilee says as Catseye advances towards her. “You’re just pissed because you’re one of many ‘Wolverine with tits’ wannabes out there. I mean, hello! That is so nineties, okay?”
Catseye leaps forward, intending to pounce on Jubilee, her claws and teeth completely bared, but the young Chinese woman snaps her fingers and another blinding neon-colored light show ensues. However, when the brightness clears, Jubilee can see no sign of Catseye. She looks over at Cyclops, who’s standing not too far away from her, using his optic blasts to shoot down an endless barrage of pitch-black energy disks being tossed at him by Roulette. A larger optic blast hits the blonde-haired Hellion square in the chest, and she falls to the ground in an instant.
Cyclops turns to Jubilee, and unleashes yet another optic blast, which zips right over her head. At the same time he yells to her, “Jubilee, get down!”
Jubilee does as she’s told and hears an inhuman cry as the blast connects with its intended target. Jubilee turns around and sees Catseye lying on the ground, unconscious.
“Sorry, she was closing in fast,” Cyclops explains as he approaches Jubilee. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah, just dandy, but what about everyone else?” The two look around in the snowy haze and attempt to locate their other teammates.
“No ‘buts’ about it,” Cyclops tells her. “You look for Piotr, I’ll find Jean… it’s time to end this.”
Central Lab
Emma Frost stands in the center of the large laboratory, admiring her flawless nails, as her White Queens stand huddled around her. Doctors Perevko and Roy, having finished closing down the conditioning chambers and opening up a video feed of the outside of the complex, swiftly approach Emma, who pays them no attention at first, instead leaving her girls to devour to the human doctors with their glowing eyes.
“Miss Frost,” Doctor Perevko says with a bit of hesitation, “I really don’t think…”
“I don’t pay you for your opinion, Doctor,” Emma says cooly, not looking up from her nails. “I pay you to do the work I tell you to do. And you have. So now, technically…” She pauses, and looks up at the man, giving him a frightening gaze. “Technically, I have no more use for you.”
“Oh, but… Miss Frost… we don’t have to resort to anything of… that nature… do we?” A few beads of sweat start to form at the top of Doctor Perevko’s forehead. “There is… there’s still work to be done!”
“Like what?” Emma inquires. “The samples worked, didn’t they? Now all they need is mental conditioning. And that happens to be my area of expertise.”
“Miss Frost, honestly,” Doctor Roy cuts in, “Doctor Perevko and I are in complete agreement that you shouldn’t have sent them out like that so soon after their reanimation… they’ve barely had a chance to…”
Emma looks at Doctor Roy, then at Doctor Perevko, and lets out a bored sigh. Both doctors suddenly fall to the ground, their eyes rolling back into their heads as a final gasp escapes their mouths. “Silence, at last.”
“Miss Frost!” Emma turns to her left to see a small group of guards walking towards her. “I’m afraid we have to evacuate the building, Miss Frost. The creature that got loose in the underground containment chambers decimated the whole team we sent to subdue it. It’s on its way up here, we believe.”
Instead of showing any sign of fear whatsoever, Emma sharply puts her hands on her hips and rolls her eyes. “Oh for the love of God!” she yells. “Can’t you morons doanything right? What, do I have to go down there myself and stop this thing?”
“That wouldn’t be recommended, ma’am,” the guard says. As soon as the final word escapes his mouth, he drops to the ground, just as Doctors Perevko and Roy had a minute ago. Emma looks at the remaining guards, giving each one a cold, hard stare.
“Do not call me ma’am. Is that understood?” The guards nod in understanding. “Good. Well then, why are you all here and not down below trying to kill the monster?”
“It’s no use, nothing in our arsenal is any good. The only way is to evacuate.” One of the guards steps up to Emma, and the others surround her and the girls. “We’ll escort you to the helicopter bay. The sooner we get going, the better.”
Emma turns to the room’s main computer console and looks at the monitor, watching her Hellions battle the X-Men outside in the bitter cold. She smiles briefly, seeing that her students aren’t doing all that bad, but almost hopes that they fail, if only so she can have a piece of the X-Men herself. She turns back to the guard, and says to him, “Alright, you take my girls to the helicopter. I’ll be along shortly.”
“Miss Frost, I can’t leave you here…”
“Oh yes you can, and you will. I’m not leaving until the X-Men are dealt with.” Emma looks down at her girls, and wraps her arms around them. “Now, you all go with the guards, alright my dears?”
{Yes, mommy,} the girls reply in a unified telepathic voice. {You won’t be long, will you?}
“Not at all,” Emma says in a sickeningly maternal voice. “Now move along, I want you all to be safe. And Nocturne will go with…”
Emma stops and looks around the room, but finds no sign of the white-haired young man. “Where is he? Blast it.” She lets out another sigh. “Alright, take them now, please.”
The girls begin walking single-file towards the room’s exit, with guards following them on their sides. The head guard stays behind to ask Emma one last question. “What about the intruders inside the complex?”
“Do you know where they are?” Emma asks.
“No, but we believe there’s at least two of them. Shape-shifters,” the guard tells her.
“Lovely,” Emma says. She waves her hand at the man, as if to shoo him off. “You just go, worry about protecting my girls. All these meddlesome pests… I’ll handle them.”
Elsewhere in the complex
Mystique peaks through a small crack in the door, surveying the hallway on the other side for any sign of guards. Oddly enough, no alarms have been sounded, but after what happened in the central lab, the whole complex must be on some sort of alert. Seeing no sign of opposition nearby, Mystique closes the door back up and turns to Proteus, who looks like he’s about to ask her a whole new slew of questions.
“Well, kid, it’s all clear for the moment. I’ll get you out if you want… we can shift back into guards and make our way to one of the tunnels.” Mystique crosses her arms, waiting for an answer.
“Wait, wait… what’s Weapon X?” Proteus asks her, completely disregarding what she’s just said.
“For crying out loud! I am not here to fucking fill in the blanks for some rookie mutant do-gooder!” Mystique says, yelling softly at the young man. “I’m done playing twenty questions. You’re…”
Before Mystique can finish speaking, a small shadow appears on the floor near her, and it slowly begins to expand. After a few moments, a young man, covered from head to toe in what can be best described as liquid darkness, rises from the opening, which closes up beneath his feet. The shadows melt off of Nocturne’s body, and he turns to look at Mystique with a grin on his face.
“I told you that you didn’t need to come in and ‘extract’ me, Raven,” Nocturne says. “I’m fine.”
“Where’s Frost?” Mystique asks.
“Back in the main lab where I left her, and none the wiser,” Nocturne says. “She didn’t even notice when I slipped away.”
“And you copied the files we need?” The white-haired young man nods, and Mystique smiles at him. “That’s my boy.”
“Wait, you were in the…” Proteus looks at Nocturne, then at Mystique. “Was he spying for you?”
“Master of the obvious…”
“Who’s this?” Nocturne asks, contributing a glance at Proteus. “Looks like one of those ‘X-Men’ you were telling me about.”
“Not one that I’ve ever met,” Mystique responds. “Just some wet behind the ears little boy, trying to roll with the big timers.”
“Hey!” Proteus says in protest. “I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on here, sorry if I’m not in the know like everyone else apparently is!”
“You do know there are more X-Men outside, right?” Nocturne asks Mystique. “They’re fighting Frost’s ‘Hellions’.”
Mystique scoffs at the remark. “Hellions my ass.” She looks at Proteus, studying him as if he’s something that doesn’t quite work right, but could be fine after some tuning up. “You know what… I’ve got an idea.”
“What?” Proteus asks her. “And what’s going on, are the others okay?”
“Oh they’ll be fine, it’s only the Hellions. Bunch of weaklings,” Mystique says, muttering the latter part under her breath. “Anyway, my idea… come with us. Leave the X-Men behind.”
“What? Are you serious?”
“Yes I’m serious!” Mystique retorts. “And you’ll be a lot better off, you know why? Because this place, Weapon X… they’re worse than they’ve ever been, and they’re spreading all over the world like a disease. And you know what your X-Men friends are going to do about it when they discover all of the program’s dirty little secrets? Absolutely nothing!”
“That’s not true…” Proteus starts to protest.
“It is true. The X-Men are so reactive, it makes my blood curdle,” Mystique insists. “Not to mention they tip-toe around everything just to cater to their precious human race. But you… you’re still young, you’re new to all of this. You haven’t been completely drawn into their delusion yet.”
“Our way’s better,” Nocturne says. With a sly grin, he adds, “I promise.”
“So, what do you say?” Mystique asks the X-Man. “This will be a one-time offer… will you join the Brotherhood?”
Outside
Colossus, a bit disoriented, rises up from the snow and shakes his head, then looks ahead and sees Beef, angrier than ever, charging right at him. Preparing himself for a counter-attack, the unexpected happens when a barrage of neon-colored energy slams into the Hellion. Beef stumbles to his side and nearly loses his footing, as Colossus catches sight of Jubilee running towards him.
“Thank you,” Colossus says appreciatively as his younger teammate steps up beside him. “Where’s everyone else?”
“Cyke went to look for Jean, and Storm’s… well… I don’t know,” Jubilee admits. “Two of these guys are down, so we’re doin’ fine. We just have to get inside!”
“We will, but first,” Colossus says as he steps away from Jubilee and begins walking towards Beef, “we have to take care of these idiots.”
Colossus stops a mere couple of inches from Beef, and grabs the young man by the collar of his pink and purple uniform. He then rams his steel fist in Beef’s face, and the Hellion lets out a soft sigh as his world fades to black. Satisfied that he’s unconscious, Colossus lets Beef drop to the ground as Jubilee walks up next to him.
“Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about,” Jubilee says somewhat sarcastically. Noticing a small shadow on the ground nearby, becoming bigger and bigger by the second, she looks up and sees Storm hurtling downward towards her and Colossus. “Holy shit!”
On instinct, Colossus reaches for his teammate, and easily catches Storm safely in his arms just as his steel skin reverts back to flesh. Storm moans as she holds a hand up to her pounding head, and looks at Colossus with a gracious look on her face. “Thank you, Piotr,” she says.
Before Colossus can respond, a streak of purple and pink begins to zip all around the three X-Men, throwing them completely off-balance. It continues for what seems like several minutes until, suddenly, a huge shockwave rocks the very ground beneath them all. The streak stops abruptly, and Jetstream falls to the ground, while the Hellion called Bevatron appears out of nowhere and slams into the compound’s outer walls. The facility itself is rocked by the shockwave, its walls crumbling slightly as a result of the impact.
“Okay, what the hell just happened?” Jubilee asks in a huff as she dusts some snow off of herself and hops to her feet.
“Look straight ahead, I think that’s the answer,” Storm responds as she and Colossus also get to their feet. The three X-Men watch as Phoenix levitates in the air towards them, with Cyclops right by her side. The husband and wife lower to the ground near their teammates, Phoenix wearing a look of relief.
“My powers were weakening, but for some reason my telekinesis suddenly exploded,” Phoenix explains. “I think that shockwave damaged the inside of the compound as well, I’m already starting to feel my telepathy coming back, very slowly but surely.”
“Are you two all right?” Storm asks them as she walks over to Phoenix.
“Fine, Ororo,” Phoenix assures her. “Just a bit out of it.”
“Looks like all the Hellions are taken care of,” Cyclops informs his team. “How about the rest of you, are you all right?”
“A little sore from Jetstream’s attack, but I can walk,” Storm says.
Colossus transforms his skin back into super-strong organic steel as he says, “Just fine, Cyclops.”
Phoenix suddenly becomes frantic as she looks around and notices that there’s only four of them. “Where’d she go?”
“Dammit,” Cyclops says. “I knew something like this was going to happen.”
“Jubilee’s gone?” Storm half-asks.
“We’d better get in there, fast,” Phoenix says as she begins walking towards the tunnel entrance, motioning for the others to do the same. “My telepathy’s hindered right now, but I can sense Emma in there… and Jubilee is going after her.”
Underground
The green-scaled creature approaches the large, metal door, and studies it curiously for a moment. He’s not wondering what the door is made of… it’s probably a strong substance such as titanium. No, what he’s wondering is why exactly anyone would think such a flimsy door would stop him from getting out of this place.
Rancor digs his sharp claws into the door, and balls his hands up into fists, causing the metal to bend and tear. He groans a little as he pulls on the door, unhinging it and separating it from the electrical wiring that controls its functions. Mere seconds later, the thick sheet of metal comes out from the doorway completely, and Rancor turns around and tosses it into the dark tunnel behind him.
“Ah,” Rancor says, taking a breath of the air on the ground level of the compound that seems to be a bit fresher than that underground.
To his surprise, there are no guards to be found anywhere, but he felt some kind of violent shaking a few minutes ago, so he’s assuming the base might be under attack. Strange, though, that no alarms have been sounded. Or maybe he’s way off the mark and this is some sort of elaborate trap they’re setting for him?
No matter. No matter if the complex is under attack or not, no matter who tries to stop him, or even who he just comes across… they’re all going to die. In some ways he hates what he’s become, what’s been done to him, but his only option now is to follow his instincts. There certainly must be an abundance of healthy human – and maybe even some mutant – flesh in the area, he can almost smell it.
And he’s very, very hungry.
Central Lab
Emma stands alone in the central lab, having sent her girls off to safety and ordered the rest of the guards out. She knows that her Hellions have been defeated, and that it will only be a matter of time before the X-Men come for her. She’s not worried in the least, though; she’s more than ready for them. She especially can’t wait to see the looks on their faces when she finally takes them down, once and for all.
“EMMA!”
The young woman’s voice startles Emma just a little, and the tall blonde turns around to the lab’s doorway to see one of her former students standing there. Jubilee narrows her eyes and balls her fists as she takes a few small steps toward her one-time teacher.
“Ah, little Jubilation,” Emma says coyly, “what an unpleasant surprise.”
“Why, Emma?” Jubilee demands as she continues to move forward. “Why did you do all this?”
“Take another step and I’ll fry your pathetic excuse for a brain,” Emma warns her. “Come to think of it, I’m going to do that anyway.”
“Too bad, you musta forgotten about my psionic exoskeleton,” Jubilee says, a semblance of a grin showing on her face. “You only got past it the last time because I was traumatized… not this time, though.”
“I suppose you’re just raging mad, then?” Emma responds. “Wolverine must be so proud.”
Jubilee can feel a slight tugging inside her head, and instantly knows that Emma must be trying to pry into her mind. Emma probably always knew about her blocks long before she herself did, but just never had a way around them until a moment when Jubilee was completely vulnerable. This exoskeleton has only become stronger in recent times, as Jubilee’s been training with Phoenix to enhance it. To Emma’s disdain, there’s no way to really get through it.
“Too bad, so sad!” Jubilee yells as she suddenly jumps at Emma and topples the two of them to the ground. Both women struggle with each other, Emma trying to get Jubilee off of her and Jubilee trying to pin Emma down. Jubilee slaps the side of Emma’s face and she flinches, giving Jubilee the opening needed to wrap her hand around the older woman’s neck. “Not so tough now, eh Frosty?”
“Get off of me, you wretch!” Emma orders her, but all Jubilee does is tighten her grip and slam Emma’s head against the cold, metal floor. Even though Emma is taller and weighs a bit more than Jubilee, the young X-Man is angry, and it’s fueling her physical strength more than enough to hold down the White Queen.
“Where are they?” Jubilee asks.
Emma grimaces as she continues to struggle, but to no avail. “Who?”
“What do you mean ‘who’?!” Jubilee yells. “Everett, Paige, Clarice, Jono, Monet… where the hell are they?!”
Emma goes limp for a moment as she lets out a manical laugh. “Oh, them! Oh dear… I’m afraid they’re all dead, Jubilee.”
She could be lying. Emma could just be saying that, to upset Jubilee even more. Maybe they’re here somewhere, somewhere in this complex? She brought back the Hellions… why not Generation X? A million thoughts race through Jubilee’s mind at once, but one sticks out more than any of the others: Emma Frost betrayed her and her friends in the worst of ways, and she hates her for it. She hates Emma more than she ever thought she could hate anyone.
Tears well up in the X-Man’s eyes as she looks at Emma, who looks back at her indignantly. “Well do you know what that means?” Jubilee says as she begins to charge her hands with plasma energy. “That means you’re dead too, you bitch.”
NEXT ISSUE: The grand finale! The X-Men finally confront Emma Frost, but it may be short-lived as Rancor rises from the catacombs! What is the origin of the beast, and will the X-Men be able to defeat it? What really happened to Generation X? And what disturbing information will one X-Man uncover about the new Weapon X program? All questions will finally be answered, but many more will arise after the shocking final scene!
Well I won’t make this too long, just come back for the final issue for more on Weapon X and Mystique and all. It’ll be fun. See ya!
~Ryan
06/04/03
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