Disclaimer: I don't own X-men Evolution or anything involved with it, I'm by not means making any profit from this, if I was the writing would pry be better.
Prologue: An Alliance Broken
Apocolypse was gone, beaten, which brought on several reaction including sighs of relief, quite mutterings of anger from those that had been knocked unconscious, hugs between loved ones, hugs betweens victorious students and their recently freed instructors, and the prompt disappearance of Magneto and Sabertooh, leaving the three Acolytes behind and on their own.
Once landed and outside the Institute the invitations to join the institute (and of course by proxy the X-Men) were promptly offered by Xavier to the Acolytes. At the prospect of joining the team Piotr seemed to be in deep thought, Remy appeared as if he wished to head off his own way and do whatever he did. But John was the only one quick with his answer, after looking over the X-Men he looked at Xavier and yelled, "Oih ain't evah! EVAH! Nevah evah evah, on the name of Lucy, joinin' up with a group loike yours!" Xavier, perhaps in a lack of judgment brought on by his recent ordeal, nodded, assuming he answered for the other two as well.
"I see. Well I hope that one day you will change your mind. If that day ever comes then the door is always open for you." With that he wheeled himself off to join the X-Men.
The X-Men and the Brotherhood stood separated by a mere few feet. Lance exchanged death glares with both Scott and Logan while Wanda took the rest of the X-Men in the impromptu staring contest. But upon Xavier's emergence into the X-Men ranks Scott quickly moved to ask him, "Are you sure you're alright, Professor?" for the billionth time. To which Pietro seemingly appeared out of thin air kneeling next to Xavier, mocking Scott, "Are you alright Professor? Can I fluff your pillow Professor? Get-a-room!!" And with that he disappeared again, rejoining the Brotherhood ranks.
Scott was quickly on his feet and glaring at the 'hood. "And to think the Professor was going to invite you to join us.."
Lance was quick to turn to face Scott full on, a tremor shivering through the surrounding grounds as he glared at him. "What makes you think we'd ever join you, shades!? 'Cause we fought Apocolypse together!? HAH! That was a one-time thing! Won't ever happen again!" And to emphasize his point he stomped his foot, causing a stronger tremor to shake the ground as the foot made contact with earth.
"Yeah!" it was Fred now, stepping forward just slightly, cracking his knuckles, "We spit at the very thought don't Todd?" Smirking the Toad was quick to hop up to hang off of Freddy's shoulder, smirking sinisterly. "Yeah, that's right yo!" With that he hauled his head back as one would when preparing a loogee, but it was only for a second, he the quickly threw his head forward, spewing thick green slime all over the boots of Cyclops to which the walking laser cannon attempted to move away from the slime only to find himself glued to the ground. Todd nearly cackled, "New concoction! Ya like!?" He half-laughed half-cackled as Scott struggled but gasped as Cyclops blasted himself free of the slime, glaring up just in time to see Todd disappearing behind the Blob.
Before Scott could do a thing, before he could say a word in reaction, he fell back as an invisible fist of a seemingly invisible man came in contact with his jaw. "Don't-you-dare-blast-Todd-you-one-eyed-bastard!" Pietro yelled rapidly and with his words the ground began to shake violently. Avalanche could bee seen, his arms outstretched and his eyes rolled back into his head as he concentrated on the seismic forces below him. Toad took up a crouched battle stance that would allow him to leap with all the strength his legs could muster at any moment while Fred just stood next to him. Wanda's hands grew the blue that they were all so familiar with. And Pietro was standing still, back with the rest of the Brotherhood now, his eyes darting back and forth rapidly between the various X-Men, trying to decide which he wanted to torment.
As Scott scrambled back to his feet he let loose a shot but Fred managed to get in the line of fire, allowing it to bounce off in a new, more harmless, direction. "Logan! Get the Professor and the recruits back!" Logan let out annoyed growl as he would have liked nothing better then to teach them a lesson but did as requested while the others prepared for battle.
So there they were. The X-Man A Team, minus one Wolverine, against the entire five Brotherhood, and the three Acolytes off to the sideline, watching. Todd was more or less playing a game of extreme tag with Kurt and Kitty, he'd managed to land a few attacks against the Nightcrawler but Kitty remained unharmed as she kept phasing through the attacks. Quicksilver was terrorizing Rogue, not actually harming her but running in circles around her, letting the tailwind blow her about a bit, then stop every now and then to mock her or let her get just close enough for her to try and hit him before quickly darting away again. Freddy was taking on X-23, who had recently taken up Evan's empty position on the team. Lance was taking on a slightly haggard looking Scott. And Wanda was being teamed up on by the team of Storm and Jean, but was managing to hold her own (and then some).
"Oih!" The slightly distraught aussie yelled out as Jean telekinetically bound Wanda's arms to her sides while levitating her into the air as Ororo readied a small bolt of lightening intended to render the Scarlet Witch unconscious, "That ain't fair!" And with that final holler he let loose a large fiery bird from his flamethrowers that soared through the air, attacking Jean. Jean was forced to throw up her telekinetic shield to prevent the flames from reaching her, freeing a severely pissed Wanda who blasted Storm with a quick hex bolt, causing the winds to no longer support her and cause her to crash down to the ground in a heap with a thickening thud, Wanda herself falling to land on her back.
With one hand he indicated what he wish to have done by the bird as it continued it's assault on Jean, Pyro's free hand lowering his orange tinted goggles down over his eyes.
Though she constantly rose back up to her feet and she had the speed advantage Freddy's sheer size and power was proving too much for Laura to take on, not that he could truly hurt her but he was easily knocking her around. X-23 was knocked back significantly harder then he had so far and as he moved slowly toward her only to be beaten in the jaw by a savage haymaker punch. Laura looked up from her spot on the ground, as she got up to a crouch he saw a fully armored Colossus standing over her, glaring at Fred.
Gambit stood, now leaning against a tree, a cigarette pressed between his lips as he watched the battle with slight bemusement. Both John and Piotr had joined the battle but each on opposite sides. Blob and Colossus were both standing their ground as the traded blows. X-23 had abandoned that conflict to charge John, effectively cutting off his onslaught against Jean but his only replaced with Wanda's own.
At one point Pyro let loose a massive blast of fire, knocking the mini wolverine into a tree. Over at the other end of the battlefield Avalanche sent up a series of stone spikes shooting up from the ground. Scott managed to dodge the first several but paused to let loose a blast. The blast managed to get past the chaos of the battlefield as only skill, good training, and stubbornness that could only matched by a select few, in combination could cause. The blast released from Scott's visor quickly made contact with non other than the pyromaniac himself, sending him to the ground so quickly didn't even have time to scream before hitting the cold grass with a sickening thud. Leaving the Scarlet Witch all on her own against the wild X-23 and the tired, though obviously pissed, Jean Grey. Unfortunately though Wanda was so blinded by her anger brought on by Jean's constant dodging that she had yet to notice her would-be ally was out for the count.
Before Scott could so much as give a smile of victory at knocking out the aussie however Avalanche was on top of him, charging at him as he rode atop of a wave of earth. But instead of burying him Lanced launched himself off, as he dropped down the twenty-foot height he drew back his fist. With his fist hauled back Lance threw it forward, getting Scott square in the temple, force the fault line incarnate had put into the punch coupled with the momentum of the fall sent Scott down along with Lance who had landed in a half assed roll as his focus had been more on hitting Scott with all he could than it was his landing.
Both teens lay on the ground a moment, Cyclops making sure that his visor was still on straight, Lance slightly rubbing the knee he'd landed on slightly as he glared at the ol' one eye.
Toad ha caught Kurt off guard with some of his new sticky slime, allowing him to take advantage of the fur ball's surprise and land a few un-aimed kicks, one landing in the shoulder and the other in the chest, before Kurt teleported out of the slime. But after this Nightcrawler seemed to be upping his game, 'porting all about and attacking with various kicks and punches, which Todd found difficult to avoid thus only managed to dodge about a third of them.
Kitty and run off to try and help Rogue but was thrown back by Quicksilver's tailwind. In an instant the now unconscious Shadowcat was laying before Logan, the disembodied voice of the speed demon rattling off, "Not-for-her. Not-for-you. For-Lance." He was then back running circles around Rogue again before the small vortex his running had created around her could even begin to dissipate.
Blob and Colossus were still going at it. Freddy looked a little worse for the wear too, sporting a split lip and a slight black eye. But his fists, those had taken the most damage as both giants counting beating on each other. His knuckles were all bleeding and broken open so badly that the very bones ached and ached more with every strike against the metallic flesh. But he still stood his ground, not giving an inch.
Scott and Lance were now at each other's throats as they grappled at each other, rolling about on the ground. Every now and then one of them would tear their hand away to send a punch at the other or deliver a knee to his opponent.
Logan watched all of this, rubbing where his claws were hidden beneath the skin between his knuckles, wanting nothing more than to geo help the kids but he stay with the younger mutants, knowing that after facing Apocolypse they were too exhausted to put up much of a fight on their own if the Brotherhood decided to turn on them.
Wanda sent yet another hex at Jean but it was easily avoided, causing the Scarlet Witch to scream in rage before letting loose an all out barrage of hex bolts. Laura was close, so close in fact that as she lifted her leg and kicked out in one quick fluid motion she was sure she would catch the witch easily. But as her foot sped forward it was caught on something just an inch away from the back of Wanda's skull. The center of her boot sole was pressed firmly against the tip of a long metal pole, the other end planted firmly against the ground, a single right hand covered in a ratty black fingerless glove held firmly near the center. Her eyes traveled up the brown leather covered arm to meet those red eyes. Just as Laura had been about to take out what was quite possibly the greatest threat the Brotherhood had to offer (in her opinion) her path was barred and by non other then Remy himself. He held up a single glowing card, pressed firmly between his fore and middle finger.
"Dat ain't very nice o' ya bu' ol' Gambit's feelin' charitable dis evenin'. Fo' ya, chere." Remy reached out his hand as he said this and X watched the cared intently as if mesmerized by it but with a flick of the wrist the card flew the short distance to her. With that Luara snapped out of it and dived to the ground with a scream, distracting Jean long enough for a hex bolt to catch her off guard, collide wither gut, causing her to lose control of her telekinetic flight, sending her jerking about back and forth, up and down until finally she came crashing to the ground. But before Wanda could even appreciate the victory or turn to face another X-man she was shoved to the ground and something thrown over her.
An explosion sounded not ten feet way instantly a she was covered but once it was over she quickly shoved the object off of her to find a trench coat thrown over her, looking about angrily took in the sight of an very angry X-23 slashing and lunging at a jacketless Gambit who parried every slash with his Bo-Staff and nimbly dodged every lunge with the footwork that only a member of the Thieves Guild could count on, all the while wearing the same cocky smirk.
Suddenly a familiar blue glow struck the girl and Laura fainted as the probabilities worked against her. Wanda then marched toward Remy a scowl, his jacket clutched tightly in one hand, her other glowing blue.
"Aw, why t'ank ya chere." But a hex bolt quickly zoomed past his ear in response.
"I didn't need your help!" She screamed and sent another at him, this time forcing him to lean to his left to avoid it.
Straitening up Remy spun the staff between his fingers, it simultaneously retracting to it's smaller self and while keeping it pinned to his palm with his thumb he raised hands in a didn't mean any harm fashion, "Sorry chere I-"
"Stop calling that!" She interrupted.
"I jus' couldn' let a fine belle like y'self get hurt like dat." Lowering his hand he took a step closer to her.
The Scarlet Witch glanced down at the little space between them but tried to force herself to not let her angry scowl falter into a look of uncomfortableness and quickly glared up into his eyes. Her only actual response to his words being a quick slug to his jaw.
After the initial bodily response of his head turning slightly he looked her I the eyes again and smirked, "Aw, I t'ink ya like ol' Gambit."
She glared at him and sent another punch at his jaw, but this time however he had swiftly brought up his hand and caught her fist in his palm, "Afte' all, ya been hexin' everehone else, eh chere? Not deh single love tap among them poor hommes." He smirked again and let go of her fist and with a fluid motion took his jacket from her hand, placed something else in it at the same time, and ran off into the trees and toward one of the walls.
It was until then that Wanda heard Pietro yelling for her. Looking up she saw Todd hopping in the direction of Lance's jeep as if he were being chased by a pack of hungry wolves. Fred lumbered behind him, the still unconscious pyromaniac thrown over his shoulder. Lance was standing about half way to the jeep from where he was before, sending tremor after tremor through the ground in his attempt to buy the others time to get there. Pietro, realizing he had gotten Wanda's attention, had taken up aiding Lance in distracting the X-geeks as he darted about among them. With that the Scarlet Witch was off. As she pulled herself into the back the passenger seat of the jeep Lance was already there, starting up the vehicle.
Lance threw the jeep in reverse and floored the pedal; with a turn of the wheel he had whipped around, thrown it into the drive, and floored it again heading head first for the gate. Lance glared at the closed gate and the ground rumbled a diagonal pillar of stone and rock thrust up avalanching the door doorway to freedom open and they sped on threw, Pietro suddenly appearing sitting next to Todd at that moment.