XMen: The AntiBlitz

by Kabeiroi

While on a mission to arrest a dangerous mutant, Blitz is attacked by a weird alien-lookin' thingy. Its bite causes a grotesque and very stupid clone to split itself from Blitz's body. In time, the idiot clone develops powers as strong as Blitz's own!

AUTHOR'S NOTES: The X-Men (Professor Xavier, Wolverine, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Iceman, Shadowcat, Gambit, Shadowcat, Husk, Chamber, Beast, Emma Frost, Storm, Phoenix, Archangel, Rogue), Juggernaut, Stacy X, Sentinels, Nurse Annie, and the Hulk © Stan Lee & Marvel Comics. All game consoles mentioned belong to their respective companies.

Tigress/Nikku Sita Cheng, Siberia, Nyx/Dara Gibson, Kurt Jr., Mike Gibson, G.E.I.S.T., Swishenspit, Blitz/James Gibson, the Anti-Blitz, Professor Frodrik Krumbiegel, Buckboard, Matches, Burr, Scooter, Spectre/Vivian Naizen, Cronk © Chiyome 2009.

Also a tribute Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness.

X-Men

THE ANTI-BLITZ

(Yet another present for my little brother. Happy 13th birthday James!)

By Chiyome

"Cronk crush! CRONK PISSED!!!!!"

Disturbed, Blitz paused the video game and turned to the massive lump of black fur beside him. "This seems oddly familiar …"

Scooter, the six foot tall, three hundred pound, all black Alban Woodland Mastiff, blinked, staring back at Blitz quizzically.

Blitz shrugged, turning back to the TV screen and pointing to the yellow hued ogre smashing his way through what looked like Hoboken. "Well, c'mon, look at this … the dude turns into this huge yellow thing whenever he gets mad, he rips apart everything … And he always seems to be wearing purple pants that apparently grow with him … you think the Hulk could sue for copyright violation?"

Scooter blinked again.

Frowning, Blitz leaned forward, peering around Scooter's trunk-like neck to the pink creature snuggled up on Scooter's back. "Whaddya think, Burr?"

Burr, the naked guinea pig, lazily opened one eye and yawned, rolling over and turning his back to Blitz.

Triumphant, Blitz turned back to Scooter. "Ha! See? Burr agrees with me!"

Scooter blinked.

Twenty-three year old James Gibson, a.k.a the electrifying Blitz, turned back to his wide screen TV, mounted proudly above a cabinet overflowing with every game console imaginable; Atari, Nintendo, Super Nintendo, N64, Gamecube, Gameboy, PS1, PS2, PSP, Dreamcast, Sega Genesis, Sega, Xbox, and a bunch of ones he had completely forgotten about. Games for every system were stacked floor to ceiling in six columns. His private room in the mansion at Westchester, New York was strewn with DVDs, videos, CDs, eight tracks, cassettes, iPods, cell phones, guns and steering wheels to hook up to the game systems, a personal computer and three different laptops to play games on, a stereo system that took up all of his walk-in closet (so now all of his clothes were on the floor, as usual), disco balls, lava lamps, arcade games and pinball machines, two vending machines, and honestly, God knows what else. The floor, the walls, the ceiling were all criss-crossed with wires. Game books and manuals were shoved under his bed, along with every piece of equipment that he had accidentally fried with his lightning powers and needed to replace.

Blitz had finished his schooling three years ago and was now an established member of the X-Men, a group of mutants led by Professor Charles Xavier, the same man who founded an institute for teenage mutants. Blitz had arrived at the Institute about seven years ago, not long after his mutant powers of electricity had surfaced. His older sister, Dara, already an X-Man codenamed "Nyx" for her nighttime enhanced powers, had returned to Cambridge to take him to the school. She had explained to him that without proper training Blitz could seriously hurt somebody. (That wasn't why Blitz really went though; he wanted to take a joyride in those way sick jets. And eventually he did, only to realize that those way sick jets made the inexperienced pilot way sick.)

Blitz's first year at the school bordered on horrifying … well, every year at any school always bordered on horrifying, but before, Blitz was never at risk of lighting somebody up like a human halogen lamp. Between stumbling over his own feet every time he saw Storm, zapping Gambit and Wolverine every couple of hours, and waging covert prank wars on Stacy X and the Juggernaut, Blitz wasn't sure he had what it took to be an X-Man. He wasn't sure it would ever be safe for him to be around people ever again.

Then, on what was supposed to be a routine trip to the mall, Blitz and his friends were attacked by a guy called Thunderthighs … no, oops, no, it was The Thunderer; Blitz just called him things like "Thunderthighs" and "Thunderbutt" to cheese him off.

The Thunderer had been hired to kill Nyx and bring her body back to the man who had kidnapped and experimented on her over a decade ago: Mr. Sinister. Hearing that, James attacked with every lightning bolt he had, causing the incredulous The Thunderer to mistake him for Blitz, the god of lightning. The name stuck. It was better than "The Human Lightning Rod", as some of the kids began to call him.

In the past few years, Blitz had also begun to amass a small menagerie; it started with Scooter, who was essentially a massive Great Dane … and he was still a puppy. Scooter was a gift to Blitz from one of Nyx's inter dimensional friends. He had accepted the little puppy eagerly … only to discover that the little puppy became one #$% huge puppy in a few months.

Scooter was a good dog though. Blitz had tried to train him, but after getting dragged around by Scooter's leash nine or ten times around the mansion, Blitz left the training to Wolverine. After only one week, Scooter came back happy and obedient … except he always barreled through the mansion to greet Blitz when he came home from a mission. Iceman once screamed in terror and dove out of the way as the three hundred pound canine came pounding down the hall, lunging and pinning a horrified Blitz beneath his hubcap sized paws.

Blitz was secretly suspicious that Wolverine had taught Scooter to do that. He always saw the fearsome clawed mutant doubled over in pain, trying desperately to stifle his laughter as Blitz was being simultaneously crushed and slobbered upon.

Then, a few months ago, Blitz returned from another foray into Manhattan, proudly heaving a huge steel cage through the back door. Alarmed, Nyx had walked over, her eyebrows arched at the sheet covered cage. "I'm afraid to ask …"

"Vi-ola!" With a flourish, Blitz tore away the sheet, revealing a wrinkled little … thing, staring back up at them nervously.

Nyx's jaw had dropped open. "Blitz … what the hell is that?!"

"It's a naked guinea pig!" Blitz replied gleefully, peering into the cage. "I saw him at the pet store--I thought he was an armadillo at first, but the lady said he was a guinea pig. I couldn't resist! "

"Yeah, you could have." Still, Nyx smiled, kneeling down to get a better look. "Aw, hi there …. What are you going to call him, Blitz?"

Blitz shrugged. "I dunno … at first I was thinking 'Dr. No' …"

Nyx winced. "He looks cold, the poor thing."

"He should be," Blitz said, looking back into the cage. "He's totally nekkid …"

Shivering, the guinea pig sat back on his haunches, rubbing his paws up and down his arms. "Brrrrrrrrrrr …." it shuddered.

Hearing that, Blitz's eyes lit up. "That's it!"

Nyx glanced up. "What's it?"

"That! Brr! He said, 'Brr!' I'm gonna call him Burr!"

That was Burr's name from then on. On one of their trips back to Cambridge, Massachusetts to visit their family, Nyx and Blitz bought a bunch of Ken doll sweaters to keep poor Burr warm.

Prof. X somewhat grudgingly agreed to allow Burr to stay (he seemed a little creeped out by the bald cavy. You would've thought the two would have found a kindred spirit, being folically impaired and all). Nyx's husband, Nightcrawler, and Wolverine didn't know quite what to make of the guinea pig. Once, Blitz forgot to latch the cage completely, and Burr decided to take a walk. An hour later an ear-piercing shriek tore through the mansion and Juggernaut ran screaming from the game room; he and Wolverine had been playing pool when one of the balls suddenly popped out of the pocket. Going to inspect, Juggernaut came face to face with a confused Burr, who had huddled up in the pocket for a nap. Apparently being afraid of mice and things like that, Juggernaut bolted, tearing the door off of its hinges in his desperation to escape. Blitz ran into the save Burr, finding Wolverine basically curled up on the floor, laughing his adamantium-plated skull off.

And, sometime in the next two months or so, Blitz was getting a kitten. He had to. He just had to, it was so damn cute.

Blitz had been visiting Wolverine and his wife, the tiger mutant and rumored demigoddess Nikku Sita Cheng, better known to most as "Tigress". She had a very successful veterinary practice in the city (it helped that she could talk to cats), and kept a small clinic on the side of her house to personally treat worrisome cases. Tigress had taken in a stray mother cat and helped her deliver her babies. As soon as Blitz heard, he came bounding into the office to look. He almost instantly picked out a teeny teeny red and white kitten, and, noticing that the kitten's fur was the same color as the match Wolverine struck to light that noxious cigar, Blitz named the kitten "Matches".

Tigress okayed the adoption, a little worried that Scooter might mistake Matches for a chew toy, or that Matches might mistake helpless little Burr for an easy lunch. Blitz had shrugged it off; Scooter wouldn't harm a fly … Although he did obliterate Prof. X's rose arbors in an attempt to kill a hornet that was buzzing too close to Tigress and Wolverine's baby. Professor X was reeeeeeeally unhappy about that.

Blitz resumed his game playing, struggling to not take it too seriously; he had a bad habit of frying his controllers when he got too obsessed with the game, especially when he was sucking at it, hardcore. He did get pretty into it, however, and almost missed the hammer-like pounding at his bedroom door.

Scooter didn't miss it though, and he eagerly shot to his feet, causing poor Burr to go flying into mountain of old laundry and Nintendo magazines.

His tail spinning like a propeller, Scooter barked, a deep "Hurrr-RUFF!" that rattled everything in Blitz's room. Blitz had just enough time to stab the 'pause' button before lunging for his wildly tottering game stacks. "Not again!!!"

The knock resounded instantly on his door again. "Can I come in?"

"Oh, Dara! Yeah, come on in--NAAAGH!!" Unable to support the towers, Blitz dove the floor with a scream, flinging his arms up over his wild hair as thousands of black and green plastic cases rained down upon him. "AVALANCHE!!!!"

Cautiously, the door cracked open, and Blitz's sister, the X-Man Nyx, warily poked her head through the crack. She wrinkled her nose at the shifting pile of video games. "You need some help?"

"No, no! Don't bother!" Blitz shouted, his voice muffled by the cases as he frantically clawed his way out. "Agh, Scooter can help me!"

Hearing his name, the gynormous dog woofed an agreement and padded over, practically shaking the building as he walked. Panting eagerly, Scooter plunged into the mound, carefully but quickly digging through the video game rubble, poking his nose through, and earning a zap from Blitz's hair for his efforts. Startled, Scooter shook himself out, ducking his head to rub his nose with his paw and whimpering faintly.

Blitz could hear Nyx laughing. "Poor Scooter!"

"Scooter! For crying out loud, get me outta here!" Blitz screeched, one exposed hand waving wildly. "My legs are pinned!"

Barking, Scooter plowed through the games, his big fangs gently hooking into the back of Blitz's shirt and carefully extracting Blitz from the video game tomb. Startled, Blitz hung there for a moment, legs and arms tucked up against his body like a frightened kitten.

Scooter unceremoniously dumped Blitz back on top of the pile of games. Blitz squawked in pain and dismay (ever sat on the corner of a X-box cover?), then howled in disgust as Scooter reached over and gave Blitz's head one great big slobber.

"Aaagh, drool hound!" Blitz pushed Scooter away, only to slide a few more feet down the game mountain. Behind him he heard Burr chortling, and above him Scooter panted happily.

Nyx was sagged against the doorjamb, laughing her head off. "God, James! I could have helped you!"

Blitz cringed (and not because his hair was pointing 95 degrees west by dog drool). "Don't laugh too hard! You'll go into labor!"

That only made Nyx laugh harder, one hand planted against the side of her bulging belly while the other clung to the doorjamb, desperately trying to keep her upright.

Nyx was eight and a half months pregnant with her first baby. She and Kurt Wagner, the blue furred teleporting Nightcrawler, had married five years ago, and now felt that the time was right (and safe) enough to start a family.

Nightcrawler was ecstatic; he kept showing everybody who walked by sonograms of his son (they think it was a boy; it was hard to tell for certain because it was wrapped up in a pair of wings and a long tail), and had been stockpiling cigars almost as soon as he found out. He catered to Nyx's every need, needs that had become strenuous; Nyx had been having a rough time of her pregnancy. She was sick a lot, and it hurt when the baby had to move.

Blitz helped out whatever way he could. He got her any books she needed, brought her whatever food she was craving (fried calamari with scrambled eggs and Swedish fish had been the weirdest, so far … and Nyx didn't even like Swedish fish), and often went with her when she needed a check-up. He felt more protective of her than ever. In fact, as soon as she told him that he was going to be an uncle, Blitz immediately ordered her to temporarily retire from the X-Men. Nyx had stared at him for several long minutes. "You do realize that I outrank you, right?"

It didn't matter; Nyx did temporarily retire, remaining at the Institute to teach other mutants how to do things like fly and, because of her abilities as an empath, she was now studying to become a psychologist.

That, and Blitz worried; he remembered when, almost two years ago, they had to evacuate the X-Mansion and flee to different bases around the world. Then, Tigress was hugely pregnant with her daughter, and Wolverine was nervous wreck. Blitz remembered watching in horror as Sentinels attacked their base, collapsing the roof down on Wolverine, Phoenix, and Tigress, who went into labor from exhaustion and fear. Tigress and her baby, a little white furred and blue-eyed tiger cub called Siberia, nearly died that day. Blitz remembered tearing frantically at the collapsed walls, trying to save his friends.

He didn't want Nyx to go through something like that.

When she recovered enough, Nyx slowly eased herself back onto her feet, grinning and wiping away tears. "You crack me up."

"I was being serious!"

Nyx shrugged, still chuckling. "You think sneezing will put me into labor."

Embarrassed, Blitz huffily stood up. "It's been known to happen …."

"You've been like this ever since you heard about that woman who went into labor after the Superbowl …"

Annoyed, Blitz jabbed a finger at her. "I see how you get when the Patriots are winning!"

Nyx smiled, shaking her head. "That's not what I came here to talk to you about."

Frowning, Blitz poked a tentative finger at his annihilated hair. "Ew. Can it wait? I want to wash my hair--"

"We've found Spectre."

No sooner did the words leave her mouth than Blitz was showered, shaved, and in his uniform and halfway out the door. "Where?! When?! Dammit, woman, I need details!"

"Jeez!" Nyx's hand shot out, catching Blitz by the scruff of the neck and hauling him back into his room. Damn near gave him whiplash, too. "You're this desperate for a date?"

From behind his human fly sunglasses, Blitz's eyes bugged out at his sister. "Dara … this is SPECTRE we're talking about!"

"We still don't know whose side she's on."

"I'll find out--right after appetizers at the Gilded Truffle. Hey, do you think she's a Merlot or Cabernet woman?"

"What?"

"Maybe she likes Italian …"

"James." There was a warning in his sister's voice.

Blitz cringed, peeking uncertainly over the rims of his glasses at Nyx's hard face. "Er … yeah?"

Frowning, Nyx crossed her arms of her chest. She used to put her fists on her hips, but now she couldn't reach with that huge tummy. "It's not a good idea for you to be so interested in this woman."

"But--"

"She's dangerous! She's already been linked to a dozen assassinations--"

"She was flirting with me!"

"Flirting! Yeah, but that was all! Flirting! She was messing with you, James!"

Blitz wanted to sink away into his jacket. "Okay, fine. So why bother telling me?"

Nyx sighed, squeezing her eyes shut and pinching the bridge of her nose. "Because Professor Xavier's been tracking Spectre, waiting for her to make a move before deciding if we'll go after her, and because he knows that you're the only X-Man she'll approach."

Blitz's eyes lit up. "Because she thinks I'm cool?"

"Maybe because she thinks you're gullible." Turning her back on him, Nyx gestured up the hall. "Come on; the Professor wanted to talk to you."

**************************************************************************************

Blitz unbuckled his seat belt, somehow inadvertently causing a small blue spark to fly from his right pinky and land on the console of the Blackbird. He cringed, quickly waving it out before turning to his team.

"Ready guys?" he asked, looking at each in turn; Iceman, Chamber, Gambit, Husk, and Shadowcat. Blitz, having been put in charge of the first two Spectre-related missions (both of which ended embarrassingly), was put in charge again, this time to detain Spectre. He had called on his usual team mates (Husk, Chamber and Shadowcat) and asked for / was forced to take along some senior X-Men (Iceman and Gambit) for support … and to make sure Blitz didn't screw up like the last few times.

"Oui, homme," Gambit said, pausing to light another cigarette. He gestured to himself and Iceman. "We here for back-up."

Husk nodded, sweeping back her blond hair into a bun at the nape of her neck. "We'll circle around while you talk to her. We'll grab her if she tries to bolt."

"All right." Blitz readjusted his jacket, waiting impatiently for the Blackbird to settle. "Everybody watch each other's backs, okay? We've seen how Spectre moves …"

Iceman smirked. "I'm sure you've noticed."

"Hey!"

Well, Iceman actually wasn't wrong; Blitz was pretty sure he was in love with--or at least obsessed with--the mysterious Japanese-American woman codenamed Spectre. Blitz had been infatuated with her ever since they met at a summit on mutant poverty in Washington D.C. Blitz's own brother, Mike Gibson, was a speaker there and had introduced the two; Vivian Naizen of Kyoto, Japan, the daughter of a former U.S. soldier stationed there and a woman reputedly linked to ninja clans in the province.

Vivian Naizen had once been a rising star in the martial arts scene until it was discovered that she was mutant, and all of her talent had come into question. People accused her of using her ability to phase, glide, and cast illusions to cheat at karate competitions. Blitz and his brother were both certain it was a load of crap, but the accusation had destroyed Vivian's career. She had retreated to her family's estate in the mountains, emerging only to attend functions such as this.

That was the first time Blitz met her, lovely and slightly shy, nervously picking at her impeccable white gown as Blitz stammered his way through the conversation, feeling like a dope.

The second time he met her was three nights later. Blitz had been walking towards his hotel room when he received a telepathic message from Prof. X (Blitz hated when Prof. X did that). Prof. X shouted (which was quite painful inside of Blitz's head) that a pro-mutant rights senator was being attacked in his suite one floor above Blitz.

Not stopping to question the professor, Blitz burst through the stairwell door, flinging a hand out and launching a ball of electricity at the floor. As it hissed and sputtered, growing increasingly larger, Blitz leaped on top of the ball, yowling as it exploded under his feet and propelled him straight up and onto the next landing (he never got quite used to that, but it was sooooo cooooool). Barreling through the floor entrance, Blitz raced down the hall, his trench coat flowing out behind him like a cape. He skidded to a halt before a door that the professor guided him to, then lifted one booted foot and kicked the door down.

He was too late; his eyes immediately found the body of the senator, lying on the floor of his trashed suite, the dead man's face frozen in horror.

Crouched beside the dead senator, dressed in what Wolverine would identify as shinobi--the clothing of a ninja--and holding a bloody dagger in her hand, was Vivian Naizen, Spectre.

Spectre's eyes widened when she saw Blitz standing in the doorway, his own eyes bugging out and his jaw swinging in the wind. Alarmed, she looked at the dagger in her hand, then sprang to her feet, dropping the bloodstained weapon. "J-James … this isn't what it looks like!"

"Vivian, what did you do?" Blitz cried, his hands flying to the sides of his head. "You killed Senator Kurson!"

Hearing that, Spectre's eyes narrowed and then … and then, Blitz wasn't really sure what happened next. He saw Spectre coming at him, running at full tilt and leaping into the air. Blitz had reeled back in horror, one hand sweeping out and firing a bolt of amber colored electricity at the woman--only to see her fade away, and have the lightning bolt blast a huge back crater in the ceiling.

When the police, FBI, U.S. Marshals, CIA, reporters, and the X-Men arrived to analyze the scene and take statement after freakin' statement from Blitz, Prof. X concluded that Spectre had sent an illusion of herself attacking Blitz while she escaped. "A spectre, if you will," Prof. X explained, smirking at little at his own joke.

There had been several more sightings of Spectre since then, all connected to various assassinations of high-ranking officials, especially those who were pro-mutant. There was no real evidence to link Spectre to the killings except that she had been at least present at the time of death. It was hard for Prof. X to keep a lock on her (he only had thirty million other mutants to look after), so he was never able to catch her in the act of killing. Still, he put Blitz in charge of Spectre's capture.

The Blackbird touched down silently in the empty lot behind the Museum of Antiquities. Blitz was fairly hopping up and down on the hatch, trying to make it open faster. He tumbled out into the cold London air, squawking in surprise but quickly leaping to his feet, smoothing out his hopelessly wild hair and struggling to keep his composure. Behind him he heard several snickers and groans, but Blitz had learned long ago to ignore it.

Gesturing for Chamber, Shadowcat and Husk to fan out, Blitz drew in a deep breath, choked on it, then marched to the rear loading docks of the museum. Scrambling up over the crates, Blitz reached out with one hand, aiming his index finger and melting the locks of the storage bay doors with a bright blast of white lightning. Coolly blowing smoke away from his finger, Blitz smirked, then heaved the door open--nearly screaming in terror as he went up along with it!

Infuriated, Blitz squeezed his eyes shut and mouthed a curse, furiously working the edge of his coat free from the accordion-like metal slats and dropping to the ground.

After a minute of colliding into big wooden crates and tripping over sarcophagi, Blitz finally wandered out into the center of the museum. Standing in the middle of a giant Roman mosaic of men hunting a huge boar, Blitz looked ahead of him, slightly to the left, just as the professor instructed him. Yep, the Prof. was right; there was a night watchman, slumped against a stone pillar, out cold.

Blitz hurried over to the fallen man, checking for a pulse in the guard's throat. Finding one, Blitz sighed and patted the unconscious man on the shoulder. "Ah, too bad pal; at least you got clocked by somebody pretty."

Rising to his feet, Blitz crept through the museum, following the directions Professor Xavier had downloaded into his brain. He rounded a few more rat-maze-like corners before finally coming upon the African exhibit, filled with giant stuffed elephants, zebras and lions. He winced at the sight of the dead animals. Tigress would have a fit if she ever saw those lions …

Even as he thought that, something shifted in the middle of the pride of crouched lions. Blitz had to clap both of his hands over his mouth to keep from screaming in terror. He hit the floor, hands still firmly glued against his face. He watched with widening eyes as the silent, misty form of Spectre coalesced in the center of the room.

Blitz's heart began to pump from fear and from sheer glee. He bit down on a knuckle, nearly yelping in pain.

Spectre carefully picked her way out of the lions, stooping to peer under a table displaying antique African daggers. In one hand she held that razor sharp knife out in front of her, the same kind that Blitz had seen her holding above the dead Senator Kurson. In the other hand she was holding a large … bucket … thingy …

Surprised, Blitz squinted through the shadows. Was that a terrarium? Yeah, Spectre was carrying some kind of big, plastic terrarium.

Maybe she lost her gecko?

Lost her gecko … in a London museum … holding a big ol' knife …. Well, yeah, Blitz figured that made sense.

Spectre continued to scan the floor and displays, never making a sound. As she creeped up to a pair of mounted gazelles, she froze, staring at the dead deer. She stood there for so long that Blitz sat up on his knees, straining to see what it was that she was staring at.

"Errrruuuuuaaaaaaahhhhhh …."

Blitz's already insane hair stood bolt right up on his head at the eerie sound. Worse yet … it sounded like it was coming from behind him!

Blitz spun around, his eyes immediately picking out the shifty, oily black shadow dangling from an elephant's tusk behind him. As he watched, the shadow reared up, snake-like, and bared three rows of stiletto-like teeth.

The snake-thing coiled itself up like a spring, launching itself straight at Blitz. Blitz squawked in horror, reaching up to swat the thing away--only to have it clamp down on his left shoulder!

"AAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!" Blitz's shriek rattled everything in the exhibit. He threw himself to the floor, screaming in pain and terror, desperately trying to catch the snake-thing's flailing tail.

"GET IT OFFA ME!!!" Blitz howled, rolling wildly across the floor and smashing his way through a rack of wooden masks and spears. "GET IT OFFA ME!!! GET IT OFFA ME!!! GET IT OFFA ME!!!"

He was doing the Curly floor spin by the time Spectre was finally able to catch up to him. She dropped the terrarium and lunged, raising the dagger high above her head. "Hold still!"

Blitz began to beat the snake-thing over the head with a gold plate he found as he dove through a glass exhibit case. He then tried to stab it with a fork, but every time the snake-thing moved its tail, he only wound up stabbing himself.

Spectre grabbed the snake-thing's slimy tail and yanked it back, causing a painful yelp to emit from both the snake-thing and Blitz. The snake-thing refused to release Blitz's arm, even when Spectre planted a boot against Blitz's chest and pulled. Hissing something in Japanese, Spectre raised the dagger again and brought it down across the snake-thing's body, slicing it in half.

The snake-thing squealed in pain and promptly released it's vice grip on Blitz's shoulder. Its two halves fell to the ground, flopping around in pain and spattering a disgusting thick yellow crud everywhere. Outraged, Blitz sprang to his feet and jumped up and down on the dying creature, screaming, "Die! Die! DIE!!!"

Exhaling heavily, Spectre turned to Blitz, pushing the hair out of her pretty eyes. "Are you okay, James?"

"I think so." Wincing, Blitz peered down at the bloody wound on his shoulder. "It got me pretty good."

They stood there in silence for a moment, looking from Blitz's wound to the halved thing on the floor.

The silence became intense, and from far off, Blitz could hear doors slamming, and thundering footsteps growing closer. Knowing that his friends would soon come bursting through the exhibit hall's doors, alerted by his howls of terror, Blitz swallowed hard, turning to smile sheepishly at Spectre. "Uh, Spectre?"

Spectre turned to face him, her mesmerizing eyes narrowing suspiciously over the edge of her black silk mask. She could hear the others approaching too. "Yes …?"

"You're under arrest."

No sooner did Blitz speak those words than the doors at either end of the hall flew open, spilling Gambit, Iceman, Husk, Chamber, and Shadowcat into the cavernous room. Spectre spared one moment to shoot Blitz a venomous glare before springing into the air, the light around her body warping.

'She's gonna trick us again!' Blitz thought, recognizing the way Spectre's form began to blur. Forgetting about his bloodied arm, Blitz raced for her, shouting commands over his teammates' startled cries.

The illusion of Spectre materialized fully above Blitz. The doppelganger dropped out of the air, its fist cocked back to land what would have been a crushing strike to the top of his head.

For once, Blitz wasn't going to fall for it.

With a growl of pain and effort, Blitz leapt up onto the edge of an annihilated display and lunged, passing through Spectre's illusion as though it were no more than a cloud of fog. Blitz could hardly see through the illusion, and he groped blindly, startling himself when his fingers clamped down on Spectre's ankle.

"Bakayaro!" Spectre screamed as they crashed to the debris-strewn floor. Blitz hardly had time to catch his breath before Spectre slammed the heel of her free foot across Blitz's face, slicing open his cheek and jarring loose several teeth. "Let me go! Bastard--!"

"Damn!" Blitz's eyes watered from the pain and he swore again, his hand giving a spasm and dropping Spectre's tabi clad foot. He clawed after her, each sweep of his hand just narrowly missing her. "Guys, a little help--!"

Gambit reached her first, skidding across the slick marble floor and snagging the shoulder of Spectre's shinobi. She snarled in rage and drove an elbow back, slamming it neatly in Gambit's solar plexus, causing him to double over in pain. Chamber was there to take his place, and howled something inarticulate as Spectre buckled his knee beneath him and sent him crashing to the ground.

"Stop it, Spectre!" Husk shouted, racing forward. She had transformed all of her skin into solid metal, causing Spectre to jerk back in disbelief.

"You don't understand!" Spectre roared as she sprang out of Husk's grasp. Landing on her hands, Spectre flipped herself up right, the light shifting abnormally around her body again. "I tried to send word to you all, but it was too late! You can't stop me now!"

"Spectre, don't you dare--!" Blitz cried, scrambling to his feet. She was going to cast another illusion again, and Blitz wasn't sure if any of them would be able to see past it this time.

The air around them became shockingly colder, and Blitz squeaked in fright as he skidded across a sheet of ice, colliding with Husk and nearly bowling her over. He slid a couple of feet across the floor on his back, kicking with his feet wildly to propel himself closer to Spectre. "Get her, Iceman!"

As he calmly stepped into the exhibit hall, Iceman smirked, trying his best to pretend to be bored. He held one hand out, sweeping a column of ice towards Spectre and freezing first her feet, then her legs in place. "Done and done. Now we'll be home in time for American Choppers."

Spectre couldn't wrench her legs free, and by the time she attempted to fly away, it was too late; Iceman had her encased in a block of ice that reached all the way to her elbows.

"You idiots!" she screamed as she struggled in the confines of the ice block. "Do you have any idea of what you've done?!"

Blitz continued to glide on past the shrieking Spectre, coming to a gentle halt at Shadowcat's feet. He glanced up at her relieved, smirking face. "Shadowcat, if anybody understands phasing, it's you; can she get out?"

Shadowcat considered that, then glanced up at Spectre. The woman had given up struggling, now too occupied fighting off the frigid chill.

"Nah, she's too cold to concentrate now." Grabbing Blitz by the scruff of the neck, Shadowcat hauled him up onto his feet (only to have him promptly skid out on the ice again), then walked over to the ice block, where Husk stood waiting.

"Get ready to catch her," Shadowcat said as she phased herself into the block of ice. Putting a tight grip on Spectre's shoulders, Shadowcat carefully extracted the woman from the column of ice. Spectre was shivering too badly at this point to put up any kind of a fight, and, with an acidic look on her face, allowed herself to be transferred to Husk's secure grip.

Clawing his way to the ice-free floor, Blitz hopped to his feet and quickly smoothed out his bloodied clothes. Pretending not to be as nervous as he felt, he marched up to the shuddering Spectre and said, "Vivian Naizen, a.k.a Spectre, you are placed under arrest … are you free some time after your parole hearing, say, eightish?"

The look of hypothermia upon Spectre's face was replaced with one of seething hatred. With a strangled roar, she lashed one muscular leg out, slamming her foot full speed into Blitz's crotch!

Husk screamed in horror and jerked Spectre away, but she was too late. Shadowcat gasp in fright, Iceman clapped both hands over his mouth, Chamber jumped, and Gambit whispered hoarsely, "Mon Dieu!" and rapidly crossed himself.

All the wind was knocked out of Blitz's lungs, and all he could do was allow himself to sink to his knees, squeaking in an oddly high voice, "I can talk in cartoon voices!"

**************************************************************************************

THREE DAYS LATER:

Blitz felt ecstatic. Not only was he able to stand upright now, but Xavier had exonerated Spectre; free of all charges!

It didn't make any sense (about Spectre, that is), and Xavier had been tight-lipped about the details. What little he did tell Blitz and the other X-Men was that Spectre was not at all responsible for the assassinations. She was actually from a super-hero, super-secret security group called G.E.I.S.T., made up of super humans or mutants with reputedly "ghost-like" powers (some of her teammates were called Soul, Spirit, Ghost, Wraith, Shadow, Shade, and so on), and had been trying to track down the ones responsible for the killings.

She had been closing in on her targets when Blitz arrested her.

Xavier apologized profusely and offered assistance in any way possible. Spectre accepted the apology and turned down the help.

And she still seemed pretty steamed at Blitz.

No matter! She'd come around, Blitz was sure … although when he told Nightcrawler that, the fuzzy mutant rolled his eyes heavenward and walked back into the Mansion.

Xavier and Beast were still talking with Spectre in the base, Wolverine and Nightcrawler were out doing their own thing, and Nyx was asleep, leaving Blitz to his own devices. He went outside to play Frisbees with Scooter (not "Frisbee" but "FrisbeeS", with a capital "S"; Scooter ate half the discs he caught), trying to ignore the growing pain in his left shoulder, where the snake-thingy had bitten him. That, and he was still really wired from having stayed up two and a half days in a row to get all of his reports completed on time. He had to chug a crate full of Mountain Dew in order to do it. When Nyx finally found him, he was shaking like a maraca, and he screamed in glee, "I CAN SEE THROUGH TIME AND SPAAAAAAACCCCCEEEEE!!!!"

Blitz winced and massaged his shoulder. It was strange; Beast had checked him out as soon as he had gotten back to the Institute, but said that the wound didn't look serious. Beast still offered to keep an eye on it though. Maybe Blitz should take him up on that …

"James? James, can you give me a hand?"

At that pretty, lilting voice, Blitz spun around, a big stupid smirk on his face. He may not have been as in love with Storm as he had been years ago, but Blitz still had a huge crush on her.

Storm was in her car, a weird European model that Professor X had purchased a couple of months previous. She was scowling and pounding the steering wheel with the palm of her hand as the car's engine choked and whined. "Miserable automobile!"

"What's up?" Blitz called as he jogged to the car, Scooter happily thundering past him at an easy trot.

Storm's frown disappeared as he reached her. She smiled with relief. "Oh, James, I'm in a terrible dilemma …"

Frowning, Blitz surveyed the car. "Yeah, I don't like these foreign cars too much either …"

Storm threw her head back and laughed, which was puzzling, because Blitz didn't remember saying anything funny.

"No, no," she said, her eyes sparkling. "Ah, James, you always make me laugh."

Confused, Blitz smiled sheepishly and spread his hands. "How can I help?"

Remembering her situation, Storm sighed heavily and pointed to the hood of her car. "I think the battery is dead."

"Not a problem!" Jogging around to the front of the car, Blitz bent down to open the hood--then yelped in agony as it sprang up and smacked him in the nose.

Storm gasped in horror. "Are you all right? I had to open the hood from inside--!"

"I'm awight," Blitz answered, pinching his aching nose between his thumb and forefinger. Grumbling, Blitz extended his left hand and gave the car battery a good zap.

The car's triumphant roar was swallowed up by Blitz excruciating scream. In terror, he sprang away from the car, grabbing his left shoulder, the breath knocked out of him as he felt something inside rip to shreds.

"By the Bright Lady!" Storm cried, leaping out of her car. She rushed to him as Blitz pitched headlong to the ground, doubled-over in pain. "Blitz? Blitz!!"

"Mother of God!" Blitz cried, jerking away in agony as a whimpering Scooter snuffled at his shoulder. "Storm, get Beast! I need help!"

**********

Beast's eyes narrowed as he peered through the magnifying glass. "That doesn't look good …"

"I could have told you that!" Blitz cried, afraid to move lest another dagger of pain should cut through him again.

Storm had rushed into the Mansion and found a startled Iceman hanging out in the kitchen. She hauled him outside, and the two of them carried Blitz down into the infirmary. Storm raced off to find Beast while Iceman struggled to lock up the unhappy Scooter and wake up Nyx to tell her that something was wrong with her brother.

Blitz really didn't like that. He didn't want to upset his sister when she was so close to having her baby. Nyx was adamant about being with him though, and she and Iceman stayed in the infirmary, hovering nearby while Beast conducted tests.

Swallowing a cry of pain, Blitz turned his head as little as he dared. "Nyx, you don't have to be down here …"

"I want to know what's going on!" Nyx interjected, circling around the examination table to face Blitz. She didn't look too good; in her human form, she was very pale, and sweat beaded on her temples. She held his shirt in one hand, the other held against her belly, as if to calm the baby inside. "I called Kurt, and he called Wolvie and Nik. They'll be here in a few minutes."

"They're not gonna bring Siberia?" Blitz asked, nearly begging. "I don't want her to be upset. She hates seeing blood--"

"Which is funny," Iceman interrupted from his seat behind Blitz, "because she kills every bird and chipmunk she can find."

Nyx rolled her eyes and Blitz chose to ignore the comment.

Beast pushed the magnifying glass aside and sighed heavily. "I don't like this one bit. I'm going to have to take a biopsy. Nyx, if you'd take a seat, please?"

Nyx, looking very tired, only nodded. She turned away, leaning heavily on the exam table as she struggled to walk.

"Iceman!" Blitz barked, and the frigid mutant quickly leapt to his feet, grabbing one of Beast's office chairs and wheeling it over to Nyx. Once she was properly seated and secure, Iceman very carefully wheeled her to a spot behind Blitz, where they could see everything Beast was doing.

Blitz shivered as he felt Beast apply a cold, numbing antiseptic, then regretted it, wishing the anesthetic worked faster. The bite mark on his left shoulder had turned into a massive lump of scar tissue, growing at an unnatural rate. It was excruciating, and was spreading across Blitz's back, turning the skin into a road atlas of raised, discolored veins and damaged skin.

Beast sighed again as he spread a cloth around the lump. "I wish you had been able to pick up the creature after you killed it …"

"Okay, next time I'm attacked by the alien serpent version of Jaws, I'll be sure to bag him up all nice for you," Blitz grumbled.

Beast shrugged. "I'm just saying it would have helped me discover what caused this unnatural growth …"

Blitz's eyes bugged at the sight of the scalpel Beast held in his blue furry hand. "Hey, what are you doing with that?!"

"I need to take a sample for some tests!" Beast said mildly. He still kept a tight grip on Blitz's arm, however. "It won't hurt, I've numbed the area."

Gulping, Blitz squeezed his eyes shut. "Make it quick …!"

Beast chuckled as he gingerly made the first incision. "As a great philosopher once said, my dear boy, 'Patience--'"

Beast never managed to finish his sentence. Blitz jumped in fright as he heard both Beast and Nyx scream in horror, followed by Iceman's choking voice croaking out, "Is that an eye growing out of his back?!"

"WHAT?!?" Even as he spoke, Blitz could feel something moving on his back. His stomach heaved as he sprang off of the table, racing for one of the wall-length mirrors in the infirmary.

"Blitz, w-wait--!" Beast cried, but Blitz couldn't hear him. He just had to know if what Iceman said was true.

Spinning around, Blitz put his back to the mirror and craned his neck back as far as he could.

A shriek caught in his throat as he found himself staring back at a very human eye ogling out from his shoulder!

The eye was yellowed, spinning around sickeningly as it took in its surroundings. Blitz opened his mouth and tried to speak, whether to cry out in denial or just scream in terror, he didn't know. But as he stood there in the frightened silence of the exam room, he saw a new lump rapidly grow on his back, beside the misplaced eye. As that hideous blister cracked open, a third bump appeared between the two, then a strange, jagged line below that …

"Oh … oh my God …" Ready to be sick, Blitz wheeled around to look at the mirror properly, searching to see if it was some kind of sick trick. He saw the reflections of his sister and friends as they recoiled and cried out in fear.

"Oh my God!" Blitz spun around helplessly, feeling pain ripping through the left side of his body. "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS THING?!?!"

"Blitz, stop!" Beast roared, racing forward, reaching for Blitz's flailing arms. "You'll hurt yourself!"

"Get it off of me!" Blitz screamed as the pain intensified tenfold. He panicked, unable to think clearly through the suffocating pain. He felt a hand close in around his bicep and in terror, sent a shock of lightning through Beast, picking the massive mutant off of his clawed feet and slamming him into a row of glass plated cabinets.

"James, no!" Nyx shrieked. Iceman grabbed Nyx by the arms and with every once of strength he had, lifted her up and ran to the opposite end of the room, flinging his cold body over hers to shield her from errant lightning bolts and explosions of plaster and glass. When Nyx tried to sit up to see what was happening, Iceman only shoved her back to the floor, bellowing over the explosions, "Blitz is on the fritz!!"

Whatever was growing in Blitz's back was fighting to get out. Blitz was so swamped with pain that he didn't even realize that he had blown the door to the infirmary off of its hinges, and was running as fast as he could down the metal-plated hallway. Sirens were blaring above him, caught in mid wail as uncontrollable blasts of electricity blew them out of the walls.

Blitz wasn't sure how he finally got outside. His electricity powers must have fried all of the circuits in the doors, opening them all up when they should have been locking down. He tore across the dew-soaked lawn, running blindly into the deep night, screaming, "This place is cuuuuuuurrrrrsssseeeeeddddd!!!!"

As he crashed his way through the woods, he thought he heard voices shouting from far away. He couldn't focus, he was so dizzy, he was burning up, the world was going dark--

Blitz had passed out for only a moment, but it felt like hours. He opened his eyes slowly, groggy, wondering why was he laying out in the woods, his clothing in shreds, covered in blood and--ew, was that slime?

Blitz never had a chance to sit up. As he lied there, taking this all in, a face suddenly popped into view above him. It was a face unlike he had ever seen, and yet terrifyingly familiar.

A slimy, grayish green-skinned, gangly, grotesque, bulbous eyed, black-haired, wide-mouthed, drooling version of Blitz stared down at him, cocking its head this way and that, curiously. It blinked, then spoke only once.

"Dub!" it barked, and, in horror, Blitz fainted dead away.

***********

"Dubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdub …!"

It was ultimately the strange sound that woke Blitz up again. He warily opened his eyes, hissing in pain as bright white neon lights shone down on him. A hazy black form hovered above him, and Blitz tried to screech in terror, but his throat was dry and raw, and all he could manage was a rasp.

The shadowy form suddenly melded together, and Blitz realized with extreme relief that he was looking up into his sister's frightened face.

"Are you okay, Jamie?" Nyx asked, her voice shaking. Blitz gave a start at that; Nyx had stopped calling him "Jamie" years ago.

Unable to find his voice at first, Blitz could only nod. He cleared his throat roughly, watching worriedly as Nyx wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, swaying slightly on her feet.

Startled, Blitz propped himself unsteadily on an elbow. "Did … did you throw up?"

Nyx nodded weakly, closing her eyes and taking in a deep, ragged breath. "It was the smell. I couldn't help it."

"Smell?"

Grimacing, Nyx gestured weakly at the tattered remains of Blitz's jeans. "That stuff that was all over you, it smelled so bad."

"What stuff? What happened?"

"Y-you don't remember?"

Blitz shook his head, completely confused.

Nyx set her jaw, then turned and pointed to the opposite end of the room.

Blitz finally realized that he was back in the infirmary, in an undamaged room. He sat bolt right up when he saw Beast, Iceman, Wolverine and Nightcrawler all wrestling a spidery-limbed, gray skinned … uh … thing onto a gurney.

It was the same creature that Blitz had seen when he woke up out in the woods. Each X-Man had a different arm or leg, and was doing his best to pin the wildly flailing creature down. Beast was snapping secure metal cuffs around each limb, and, in frustration, the thing hammered the back of its head, rapid-fire, against the table, all in time with his howling, "Dubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdubdub dubdubdubdubdubdub!!!"

Disgusted, Wolverine sprang back and hurriedly wiped his hands off on the front of his shirt. "Slimy little bastard!"

Horrified, Blitz screamed and leapt into the air, latching himself securely on an overhanging light. "What the hell is that thing?!"

Startled, Nightcrawler turned to look at his brother-in-law … then did a double take when he realized that Blitz was hanging from the ceiling. "We … we were hoping you could tell us, mein freund."

Iceman, looking sick, backed away from the chanting creature. "The little skeeze tried to run off into the woods … we saw him sitting next to you when we found you. You'd passed out."

"Yeah, we were just pullin' up when we saw ya bolt into the woods," Wolverine added, barely managing to stifle a growl.

Nyx had to grasp the armrest of Blitz's vacated chair for support. "The Professor's on his way down now."

Seeing how weak she looked, Nightcrawler immediately sprang to Nyx's side, delicately taking her by the hand and leading her to a nearby stool. Nervous, Blitz relinquished his hold on the light fixture and dropped to the ground. "I--I didn't hurt anybody, did I? Dara, are you okay?"

Smiling faintly, Nyx nodded, leaning against Nightcrawler for comfort. "Bobby shielded me from the lightning …"

"What about me?" Beast snorted, busy trying to place a thermometer in the ballistic creature's mouth. "I was the one who got thrown into a wall …. My stars and garters, would you hold still?! Trust me, you wouldn't like me to put this in the other way …."

Blitz shrugged sheepishly, but before he could apologize, the doors to the infirmary slid open, and Professor Charles Xavier limped in as quickly as he could, a metamorphed Tigress hot on his heels.

Xavier spared a brief glance at the spazzing thing on the exam table before turning to Blitz. "James, are you all right? I would have been down here sooner …"

"I think I'm okay," Blitz answered, glancing down at himself. "Jeans are trashed, though."

Tigress' ears pricked forward as she turned to face the creature, who had now stopped banging his head against the table and was looking at all of them with a bemused expression. "What happened? What is that thing?"

"It … it came out of me …" Slowly, bits of memory came back to Blitz, and, horrified, he slowly sank back into his chair. "It started to grow …"

A deep frown creased Xavier's face. "Spectre warned me about this," he said, leaning heavily on his cane as he examined the thing (now quite fascinated by a fly buzzing around his greasy head).

At that, Blitz's head snapped up. "What? Spectre knew?"

Xavier nodded, cautiously approaching the babbling creature. "For the past year, Spectre has been tracking down a scientist calling himself Frodrik Krumbiegel--"

"Whoa, wait." Blitz shook his head, clapping on one side to make sure there was nothing lodged in his ear. "Did--did you say that the guy's name is 'Krumbiegel? Frodrik Krumbiegel?'"

"Yes." Xavier apparently didn't see the humor in that. "Professor Krumbiegel created the snake creature that attacked you, Blitz. He has allegedly sent dozens of those things after high-ranking officials all over the world--the people we thought Spectre had killed.

"Spectre managed to stop the murders and destroy several of the creatures. She believes that the one that attacked you was the last Krumbiegel had created--"

"DUB DUB!" the thing barked, sending a jolt through everyone in the room.

Blitz scowled at the creature, but Professor X continued, sighing heavily, "She asked me not to tell any of you unless it was necessary; her original organization, G.E.I.S.T., was virtually wiped out, due in part to Krumbiegel's creatures.

"Spectre was the only survivor, and she said that as one of her teammates laid dying, she saw a new being growing from his own body. Spectre was forced to kill her friend in order to end his suffering, and therefore not giving the … for a lack of a better term, his 'clone' a chance to emerge." With a look of concern and disgust, Xavier gestured to the creature behind him. "Spectre described the clone as looking rather like this."

"Mein Gott," Nightcrawler gasped, and, in horror, Nyx turned her face away, burying it in his shoulder.

His face stricken, Wolverine turned to Blitz. "Dude, give me the word, I'll take care of it …"

Blitz could only sit there, his mouth hanging open, staring at the table where his … his clone laid strapped down, trying desperately to eat the fly that had now settled on his nose. If he had been able to speak, Blitz wasn't sure he knew what to say.

"No, Wolverine," Xavier said quickly. "We need to know how this creature was formed, whether this was a deliberate plan by Krumbiegel, or if this is related to Blitz's mutation."

"Spectre doesn't know?" Iceman asked.

Xavier shook his head. "That was the first and only time she observed any such event."

"So what are you going to do?"

"I'll scan his mind," Xavier answered simply, already walking towards the clone creature. "I'll see what I can find, any clues or hints as to his biology, or purpose."

"Dub dub dub dub dubdubdub dub du--" The creature stopped short, craning his head up to watch Xavier approach. One caterpillar-like eyebrow arched suspiciously, and the clone seemed to shrink, as if fearful of Xavier, trying to stay as far from him as possible.

Drawing in a breath, Xavier lifted and hand reached out … only to bite back a curse and draw away. "Sorry," he said to the baffled group around him. "It's just that he's so … disgusting."

Setting his jaw, Xavier gingerly laid a palm atop the clone's forehead, and closed his eyes. The clone stared at Xavier quizzically, then grimaced and snorted, "Errr dub dub!"

After what seemed like forever. Xavier opened his eyes and pulled his hand away, unable to suppress a shudder. Beast was at the ready, quickly passing a towel to the professor.

As Xavier stood there wiping his hands, Blitz couldn't take the silence anymore and leapt to his feet. "Well? What?"

At a loss, Xavier shrugged. "He's not human."

"No shit," Wolverine snorted, earning a reproachful look and a jab in the side from Tigress.

"Not entirely human, at least," Xavier continued, motioning for Beast to take notes. "His cell structure is similar to Blitz's, but there is alien DNA bonded to it."

Blitz blinked. "Okay, so, what kind of DNA is it?"

Now it was Xavier's turn to blink. "Exactly what I said it was; alien."

"ALIEN?!" Blitz screeched, causing the thing to launch into another series of "dubs". "You mean to tell me that thing that bit me was the same thing that went after Sigourney Weaver when the movies were actually worth watching?!"

Xavier narrowed his eyes. "Not quite the same thing, Blitz …"

Beast looked up from his clipboard. "Can you tell what species of alien it is, Professor?"

Xavier shook his head. "No, not with complete certainty. We'll have to run comparisons against what we have stored in the computers."

"Is Spectre certain she got every one of those things?" Tigress asked, casting a worried glance over at Blitz, who was now huddled on the floor, rocking back and forth. "We have to find out where they're coming from."

Xavier nodded. "Spectre wasn't completely positive, but she was fairly confident. As to where they come from--" He shrugged. "--Spectre has narrowed it down to several locations."

"I'll begin tests," Beast volunteered, already immersed in his notes.

Watching the thing chew at the collar of his hospital gown, Wolverine shuddered in disgust. "What are we gonna do with that thing meanwhile?"

"We'll care for him as long as needed," Xavier replied, already headed back for the door. "Judging by the DNA structure and brain formation, I believe he is capable of evolving into a more sentient being."

Wolverine gave another full body shudder as Nightcrawler groaned. "You mean we're going to have to baby sit the Anti-Blitz now?"

"Anti-Blitz?" Cringing, Blitz looked up at his grotesque clone. The thing was happily babbling to himself, watching fascinated, as he wiggled his toes.

Swallowing hard, Blitz slowly stood up. "Huh … Anti-Blitz it is, then."

As the doors swished open, Xavier turned to face his X-Men, a hard look in his eyes. "What ever you do," he said, "do not let him leave the mansion. If that means caging him or keeping him on a leash, do it."

******************************************

That exactly what Blitz did.

The Anti-Blitz did start to evolve soon afterwards, learning rudimentary English. He whimpered and whined when he was kept in the infirmary, and Blitz was grudgingly obligated to take him for walks around the Mansion.

Using on of Scooter's collars and leashes, Blitz let Anti-Blitz (or AB, for short) roam around the Mansion … although Anti-Blitz didn't so much roam as crab-walked everywhere, still chanting, "Dub! Dub dub dub!"

Eventually, AB wiggled his way through the collar and leash, so Blitz put a figure-eight harness on and used one of those leashes that unwinds and snaps to stop it suddenly. That didn't last too long either (he chewed through it), and Anti-Blitz soon had rule over the Mansion.

After catching AB exploding hardboiled eggs in the microwave and screaming things like, "Egg in da hole!" or "Eggrenades!", Blitz thought that maybe his messed up clone would like to meet some animals.

Anti-Blitz took very quickly to Scooter and Burr, but both animals seemed alarmed, to say the least. Even little Matches, when Blitz finally brought him home, refused to come out of his cat-carrier so long as AB was around.

Anti-Blitz was constantly in Scooter's face, pushing the big canine too far and causing an all out knock-down-drag-out that shook the entire Institute, causing some students to think there was an earthquake.

Burr, meanwhile, had taken to hiding all of his food. Blitz taught AB how to fill Burr's food dish with pellets. One day, Anti-Blitz dragged the bag over to the cage and dropped a pellet in hungry Burr's dish. "One for you … ALL FOR ME!!!"

"Huh?!" Burr cried, squeaking in horror as AB proceeded to dump the entire contents of the bag into his gaping mouth. Burr was shaking the bars of his cage and screaming, "Chutter! CHUTTER!!!" (which Blitz guessed in guinea pig-Latin meant something like, "You #&^%$*%%$!!!"), when Blitz finally found them.

Another time, Blitz was playing laser-pointer tag with Matches … and suddenly AB came barreling in, smashing through coffee tables, lamps, ottomans, whatever was in his way to catch the tiny point of light. Blitz almost got angry, until he saw the beauty of this new discovery. He then took both the pointer and Anti-Blitz to Stacy X's room, and had a grand old time driving AB nuts with the laser while at the same time trashing the little scaly witch's stuff. Her room was completely annihilated by the time they were finished.

All in all, the X-Men found Anti-Blitz to be pretty harmless. Annoying, but harmless. When he was calm, he generally stayed out of everybody's way, choosing to lurk around Blitz instead.

Then AB and baby Siberia met for the first time.

Wanting to hang out with Nyx, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Tigress, and their baby girl, Blitz locked AB up in a sturdy dog kennel. He and his friends went out, not thinking once about the muttering alien clone thing they left behind.

The night grew late for little Siberia, and the group returned to the mansion, intending to let the baby sleep while the rest of them hung out.

Blitz reached the back door first, with Tigress right behind him, a yawning Siberia in her arms. Laughing, Blitz unlocked the door and stepped inside, switching on the light.

"HISSSSSSSS!!!"

"What the hell?!" Blitz yelped, springing back and nearly slamming into Tigress. "How did he get out of the kennel?"

Crouched in the corner of the kitchen was Anti-Blitz, squinting and snarling at the sudden onslaught of light. Rubbing his eyes furiously, he edged out of the light like a feral animal.

Startled, Siberia sat up right in her mother's arms, her blue eyes wide, as if in horror. She sat stiff, not moving an inch as the curious Anti-Blitz crawled up to her.

Recoiling in disgust, Tigress took a step back, and, at her elbow, Wolverine growled a warning. "Back off, slime ball."

Anti-Blitz paused at Tigress' feet, sitting up on his haunches to get a good look at the baby. "Dub dub?"

Siberia went ballistic. Blitz squawked in terror as Siberia shrieked, turning into a ball of bristling fur and fangs, wildly raking her claws at AB, who yowled and fled in fright.

"Siberia!" Tigress cried, unable to keep her grip on the baby. Siberia fought against her mother and screamed at the top of her lungs, ear-piercingly loud. It was like she was trying to break free of Tigress' hold to attack AB.

"I got 'er!" With a frightened look that only a father could have, Wolverine swooped in and snatched up Siberia, trying his best to shush the baby as her screams faded into snarls.

In his panic to escape, AB scrambled frantically up a wall and smashed his way into a ventilation shaft. Blitz realized too late where Anti-Blitz was going and lunged for the clone, only to smash into the wall. When he caught his breath, Blitz hefted himself up to peer into the blackened shaft. "How can he fit in there?"

Sighing heavily, Nightcrawler paused long enough to help remove Nyx's coat before saying, "I'll go to the control room and see if I can find him," and teleporting away in a fog of indigo smoke.

Tigress brought Siberia and Nyx back to her house on the mansion grounds while Blitz, Nightcrawler, and Wolverine tried to track down AB before Cyclops found out and had a stroke, and before Siberia wriggled free and charged after Anti-Blitz.

While Blitz went off to search all of Anti-Blitz's usual haunts, Wolverine waited in one of the living rooms until he got word from Nightcrawler. Settling down on one of the ottomans, Wolverine opened a newspaper that had been discarded nearby and began to page through, not finding anything too interesting …

Rumble.

Arching an eyebrow, Wolverine glanced up, listening intently. He thought he heard some sort of muffled rattle …. Shrugging it off, Wolverine returned to the book reviews, but kept his ears open. He didn't have to wait long.

Rumble, rumble … rumble rumble WHACK! rumble ….

Sighing heavily, Wolverine folded up his newspaper and craned his head back, listening closely to the noise, sniffing the air. Yep, the Anti-Blitz's scent was growing stronger, and the metallic rattling was coming closer.

Pinpointing where he was, Wolverine stood, popped a claw and reached up, smoothly slicing out a circular section of the ceiling, and taking a step back.

"WAAH!" Screaming as he fell, Anti-Blitz smashed through the ceiling, crashing to the floor in a cloud of plaster and dust. He lay there, dazed, his askewed eyes rolling around in his head like loose marbles.

"BAMF!" With a thunderous implosion, the blue sulfurous cloud dropped Nightcrawler beside Wolverine. Seeing the confused AB at his feet, Nightcrawler jerked back in surprise. "Whoa … looks like you found him."

Shrugging with one shoulder, Wolverine looked up at the ruined ceiling. "Chuck probably won't mind that so much, but if Cyke sees it …"

Shaking himself off, AB sprang to his hands and feet, gibbering. He shot Wolverine a dirty look, backing away warily as Nightcrawler and Wolverine closed in on him.

"All right, AB," Nightcrawler said wearily. "It's too late to be playing this game--Hey!"

Spinning around, Anti-Blitz sprang for the door, skidding across the slick hardwood floor and disappearing into the darkened hallway.

"Not again!" Nightcrawler cried as Wolverine charged after the clone, shouting, "Blitz! He's headed your way!"

"I got him!" Rushing down a flight of stairs, Blitz scanned the black hallway, knowing that he'd never be able to find AB this way. Vaulting down the last few steps, Blitz lifted a hand and fired a low volt of electricity at the chandelier hanging over the foyer, sparking every bulb to life and bathing the entire hallway in brilliant white light. There he spotted Anti-Blitz hiding behind an umbrella stand, a look of terror on his malformed face.

"No! Not da liiiight!" Clapping his spidery hands over his eyes in agony, Anti-Blitz raced for the nearest doorway, only to miss it by a foot. He smashed into a wall, denting the plaster, and bounced off, thudding to the floor. He was knocked out cold.

Seeing that, Wolverine cringed. "Damn."

After gathering up Anti-Blitz and locking him in a more secure cage down in the labs (Blitz discovered that AB had bent the wires of his kennel and squirmed his way out), Nightcrawler and Wolverine went back to Wolverine's house, where Nyx, Tigress, and Siberia were waiting. Blitz, suddenly very tired, opted to head back to his room, telling his friends he'd see them in the morning.

Trudging back up the flight of stairs, Blitz saw one of the guest room doors open at the top of one landing. He glanced up, his eyes widening in shock as Spectre poked her head out.

"Blitz," she whispered, "is everything okay? I heard the clone got loose."

"Y-yeah, we caught him. We put him down in the labs." Baffled, Blitz realized with a start that he was walking towards her. "Spectre, you haven't said anything to me in almost two weeks. Are you okay? Why are you avoiding me?"

Frowning, Spectre's eyes dropped to the floor. "I was angry at you for a long time for assuming I killed those people. I can understand why," she interrupted as Blitz opened his mouth to protest, "but it hurt me. And then you were constantly pursuing me, complicating my mission … there was never a time to explain what was going on."

Sighing heavily, Spectre gestured vaguely to the floors below them. "And then, I was so close to finding Krumbiegel when you arrested me. I was furious."

Blitz winced at the memory. "I remember."

Spectre shrugged. "Then … oh, it's ridiculous … but it was just other things that were happening. Stacy X was harassing me, and your sister--among other people--had a hard time trusting me …"

"Dara's not always like that," Blitz said hurriedly. "It's been difficult lately, and …"

Spectre shrugged again. "I know … I just hate being treated like a suspect all the time. At the Nagano Olympics, word was just getting out that I was a mutant, and everyone was looking at me like I was a thief. I know most of the judges gave me terrible score because they thought I was cheating.

"I hate that feeling; being scrutinized, suspected … it ruined my career, my life. Even when I went to train, my senseis were suspicious for a long time. Even at first, in G.E.I.S.T., everyone's initial reaction to meeting me was to be on their guard … and when I finally felt accepted, they all died." Spectre sighed, leaning heavily against the doorframe. "I'm sorry Blitz."

"What? No, don't be. I understand."

A small smile played at Spectre's lips. "Thanks, Blitz." She straightened, turned to step back into her room, but hesitated. She glanced back at Blitz. "You know, you're one of the only people who didn't seem uncomfortable to be around me when we first met."

Surprised, Blitz smiled sheepishly. "Uncomfortable? No … in awe, maybe."

Spectre grinned at that. "Thanks, James," she said softly, and quietly closed the door.

**************************************************************************************

The following morning, Blitz was called into Xavier's office for a brief meeting. Stepping inside, he was elated to see Spectre standing nearby, perusing through the books on the shelves as she waited. A human Tigress sat in one of the high-backed chairs before Xavier and his desk, and bitty Siberia was sitting on the blotter on Xavier's desk, gnawing on a paperweight and giggling as Xavier playfully tried to grab her twitching tail.

"Hi guys," Blitz said as he stepped in, grinning as Siberia smiled and held her arms out to him. "Hi baby!"

"Hi, Uncle!" Siberia chirped, squealing happily as Blitz swept her up in his arms. Laughing, he planted a kiss on her fuzzy little nose, surprised to notice that Spectre was watching them.

Settling in the vacant chair beside Tigress, Blitz plunked Siberia down on his lap. "What's going on, Professor?"

"We were talking about Siberia's reaction to Anti-Blitz last night," Xavier replied, quickly moving his nameplate out of Siberia's straining grasp. "Nikku told me she's never seen Siberia react that way to anyone before."

Tigress shook her head. "No, never. And that's the first time she ever saw AB."

"Yeah, we all thought that he might scare her," Blitz agreed, grimacing as Siberia tried to poke him in the nostril. "I've never seen her so freaked."

"She wasn't really terrified of him," Tigress continued, smoothing down Siberia's snow-white hair. "Scared, but Nyx said she felt that Siberia was really angry too."

"Yeah, she tried to attack AB!" Blitz said, allowing Siberia to slide down his legs and toddle over to Spectre, who was now standing by Xavier.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Xavier sighed heavily. "I believe Siberia detected that Anti-Blitz was about to begin a third round of evolution. I felt him changing late this morning, and Hank reported that--"

"AWWWOOOOO!!!"

Frightened, everyone yelped in fright. Recognizing the excruciated howl, Blitz sprang to his feet and raced to the door, bursting out into the hallway just in time to see a huge black form tearing towards him, a trail of smoke wafting behind it.

"Scooter!" Blitz cried, horrified as his dog practically threw himself at Blitz's feet, yelping and howling. Scooter rolled wildly around on the carpets, crying in pain as he tried desperately to smother out the flames on his backside.

"Scooter, what happened?!" Blitz tried to grab his dog to slap the flames out, but Scooter howled at his touch and darted away, wailing.

"Look out!" Bursting out of Xavier's office carrying the pitcher of water he always kept on his desk, Tigress lunged for Scooter, flinging the water out, soaking Scooter, the carpets, the curtains, and killing the fire on Scooter's butt.

It took a minute to calm Scooter down long enough for Tigress to examine the smoldering fur. Blitz held Scooter's head in his arms, shushing and petting him as Tigress gingerly probed the blistered skin.

After a painfully long moment, Tigress' eyes narrowed. "Blitz … these look like electric burns."

"What?" Seeing the all too familiar pattern of burns, Blitz cried out in horror. "Poor Scooter! What happened?"

Scooter could only whimper and tremble.

At the doorway of the office, Xavier emerged, followed by Spectre, holding the wide-eyed Siberia. Seeing Scooter lying on the floor, Siberia choked on a wail. "Doggie …?"

"Scooter's got a boo-boo, honey," Tigress said, glancing worriedly to Blitz. They both knew how much Siberia and Scooter loved each other. "It's okay, Mommy's gonna fix it."

"Scooter okay?" Siberia asked, her voice trembling.

Spectre gently hushed Siberia. "It's okay, your mommy is going to make him better." Lifting her head, Spectre looked at Blitz. "How'd he get hurt?"

"I don't know." Kissing Scooter between his pointy ears, Blitz stood up. "He should have been in my room. I'd better go check there."

Xavier frowned. "Something doesn't feel right. Go on, Blitz, and hurry!"

Not needing to be told twice, Blitz broke into a run, weaving through the twists and turns of the corridors until he found his room. He jolted in disbelief, seeing the door wide open, and a thickening gray smoke pouring out, igniting fire alarms.

"Holy crap!" Bursting into his room, Blitz choked on the acrid smoke and blinked rapidly in the deluge from the water sprinklers overhead. "Matches! Burr! Are you okay? Where are you?!"

A petrified squeak replied, and Blitz rushed blindly through the smoke, crashing into Burr's cage, rattling both the terrified guinea pig inside, and the frightened Matches who was crouching on top. Quickly scooping both animals up, Blitz bolted, nearly slamming into Cyclops as he rushed in, brandishing a fire extinguisher.

"Stand back!" Cyclops shouted, pulling the pin on the canister. He tipped the canister upside down and aimed the nozzle at the center of the fire. Between the sprinkler system and the fire extinguisher, the flames were soon put out.

Blitz staggered into the hall, coughing hard, clutching Matches and Burr to his chest. He sank against the wall, peering down at his two pets as they huddled against his chest. "You guys okay?"

Frightened, all Burr and Matches could do was nod.

Soon a swarm of X-Men appeared at Blitz's room as he and Cyclops surveyed the damage. Blitz was lucky; apparently only his mattress had caught fire, scorching part of a wall but not touching anything else. Blitz sent Burr and Matches along with Scooter to be checked up; he had no idea how long they had been breathing the smoke.

Spectre, picking her way around clumps of foam and piles of video games, arched an eyebrow at the burnt mattress. "What happened?"

Blitz frowned and shook his head. "Dunno. I want to say it looks like lightning …." Feeling eyes on him, Blitz looked up at the waiting faces of his teammates. "It wasn't me! I wasn't in here! Besides, I haven't done anything like that in years!"

"Are you sure?" demanded Shadowcat. "The microwave exploded a little while ago."

"What?"

Iceman nodded, then shrugged. "The phones keep ringing by themselves too. I even unplugged mine, and it still keeps going!"

From her spot in the doorway, Emma Frost sighed scornfully. "Everything's been going haywire this morning … are you certain you have adequate control of your powers, James?"

Blitz wanted to snap something back, but, knowing that Cyclops was standing right there, Blitz gritted his teeth and seethed; Emma Frost was trying her best to elbow Stacy X out of her position as Blitz's Most Hated Person in the X-Mansion If Not the World. He had never liked Emma Frost to begin with, but ever since Nyx discovered that Emma and Cyclops were having an affair while he was still married to Jean Grey, Nyx and Blitz had lost all trust and respect for him. Tensions between Nyx, Cyclops and Emma had gotten so bad that Nyx wouldn't even sit at the same table with them, let alone go on a mission. Blitz was glad his sister wasn't there while Cyke and Emma surveyed his room.

'Blitz!'

"Yargh!" Leaping several feet in the air, Blitz came down with a vicious curse. "Jeez, Professor, I wish you would give me some kind of warning!"

'I need you down in the labs! Immediately!'

Stunned by the professor's tone, Blitz didn't even bother to reply. Vaulting the ruins of his bed, he headed for the door. "The professor needs me. I don't know when I'll be back up here--"

"What is it?" Spectre asked, sprinting after him. "Do you need help?"

Finding the elevator, Blitz sighed raggedly as he stepped in. "I don't know what's going on. This whole place is insane!" Seeing her pause at the elevator, Blitz held the door open and beckoned for her to enter. "Come on, I could use the company."

***************

"He's WHAT?!"

Wincing at the volume of Blitz's howl, Xavier had to take a rapid step back. "Lower your voice, Blitz!"

"No!" Horrified and infuriated, Blitz spun around and jabbed a finger at the cell where Anti-Blitz was held. "Are you trying to tell me that AB has electric powers?"

"They're limited …"

"AND he used it to escape his cage?"

"Ye--"

"AND STARTED SETTING FIRES ALL OVER THE MANSION?! I've got a PYROMANIAC for a clone?!"

In his cage, Anti-Blitz snickered. He had indeed evolved again, and was now able to stand upright, walk normally and speak properly (somewhat. He still barked out, "Dub!" on occasion).

Lightning crackled around Blitz's hands as he advanced menacingly on the cell. "You tried to hurt Scooter!"

AB smirked, pleased. "Didn't try … I succeeded."

"You bastard!" Blitz roared, raising a fist that sparked and screamed with electricity. "How could you do that to an animal? Don't you realize you could have killed them all?"

"Mmm … roast naked guinea pig …"

Blitz would have launched himself at the cage if two strong arms hadn't wrapped around his torso and hauled him back. Blitz kicked and screamed in rage as Spectre dragged him a safe distance away from the cackling Anti-Blitz. "Don't do it, Blitz!"

"He tried to kill my animals!" Blitz bellowed, nearly free of Spectre's grip. Seeing that she was in need of assistance, Beast helpfully reached over and caught Blitz by the scruff of the neck. "He burned Scooter! If he goes anywhere near my pets again--ow! Hank, lemme go!"

"In due time," Beast said mildly, easily lifting Blitz up and hooking the back of his shirt on a coat hook on the wall. "Just … just hang out there for a minute, and let the Professor finish."

Biting back a snarl, Blitz irritably folded his arms over his chest and dangled there. "Okay, okay. How'd he get out, Professor?"

"According to the security tapes," Xavier answered, pointing with his cane to one of the cameras lurking in the corners. "He melted the lock and slipped past Beast. I believe I was just about to tell you earlier, before you found Scooter."

"So he can get out whenever he wants?" asked Blitz, trying to ignore AB's gleeful cackling.

Xavier shook his bald head. "As long as he is supervised, we should be able to stop him from escape. Also, he is capable of only very short bursts of electric energy, unlike you."

"Oh, life is good … but not for me!" Snarling, Blitz struggled against the coat hook. "So now what? Is he done evolving?"

Uncertain, Xavier glanced at Beast, who in turned shrugged.

"I think he will," Beast answered, glancing at the cage where Anti-Blitz sat watching them, a mean grin on his ugly face. "I have no idea how many more times he'll change, or what will happen, but I have a feeling that he may start another phase soon."

"Then what?" Blitz demanded, swinging slightly. "What'll we do with him?"

Xavier grimaced, his eyes dropping to the floor. "I have reservations against ending a life--"

"Oh, come on!" Blitz roared, kicking his legs in fury and causing his shirt to tear slightly. "What is that thing anyways?! How can we possibly take care of it? It's not like Anti-Blitz can go out and get himself a job or anything!"

Spectre's eyes narrowed at his tone. "Blitz!" she hissed warningly.

Xavier exhaled heavily and held up a hand. "I understand your frustrations, Blitz. We will handle it, but in the mean time, the other reason for speaking to both you and Spectre is that we have eliminated two possibilities for Krumbiegel's laboratory, and we have received word that he is on the move."

"He is?" Spectre stood up, her eyes wide, not noticing as Blitz's shirt ripped away and he fell screaming to the floor. "Word from whom? Where is he going?"

"We received information from S.H.I.E.L.D.," Xavier replied, not noticing Blitz's plummet either. "Apparently, Krumbiegel is in or about to enter the United States, most likely via the Canadian border. S.H.I.E.L.D. has stationed agents at all border crossings, airports and docks to apprehend him."

A flush colored Spectre's pretty face and she cursed in Japanese. "They won't find him that way. I don't know how Krumbiegel does it, but he always slips past the authorities. He'll get past S.H.I.E.L.D., I'm sure of it."

Accepting Beast's outstretched paw, Blitz growled as he stood, straightening out his overstretched, ripped shirt. "I can't take this anymore. I'm sorry, Professor, but I need to take a break; my brain's overloaded. I want to go see my pets."

Nodding in understanding, Prof. X quickly stepped aside, gesturing to the door. "By all means, Blitz. But, you understand, we need to discuss this further, and come to a decision regarding Anti-Blitz."

"Fine." Sighing heavily, Blitz glanced at Spectre. "Wanna come?"

Seeing her hesitate, Xavier nudged Spectre along. "Go on; by the time you return I should have new information on Krumbiegel."

"All right."

Spectre fell in step alongside Blitz, both mutants trying their best not to look at Anti-Blitz as he paced restlessly in his cage.

Reaching the sliding doors, Blitz stepped aside to let Spectre pass--then howled in pain as something blisteringly hot stung him in the butt.

Clapping his hands to his backside, Blitz spun around, his face contorted in fury. Anti-Blitz didn't seemed at all worried; he was rolling back and forth on the floor of his cell, laughing hysterically as brownish-green electricity crackled around his index finger.

"Zap!" AB sniggered.

"Why you little--!" Blitz choked, taking one step towards the cage. Spectre quickly darted forward and caught Blitz by the hand, pulling him back. "No, Blitz, he's goading you!"

Knowing that she was right (and not really caring), Blitz swallowed a growl and turned away, storming out of the laboratory and glaring heavenward. "That's a good one, God!"

It wasn't until they had reached his car in the garage did Blitz realize Spectre was still holding his hand.

**************************************************************************************

"Ah, home sweet hell."

"Oh, Blitz, it's not that bad."

"I'm serious!" Blitz said as he maneuvered the sports car along the winding driveway. "I hate going back to the Mansion because I know that bag of crap is sitting there, waiting for me!"

Blitz really wasn't as angry as he had been earlier; Scooter was fine. Tigress had to shave the fur off of Scooter's butt, but the damage to his skin wasn't so extensive that she needed to cut away the tissue. She put an ointment on and lightly taped the burns in gauze. Wolverine went out and stole one of those big traffic barrels, turning it into one of those big plastic collars to put over Scooter's head. None of the other collars would fit him.

Burr and Matches were fine, but Tigress wanted to keep them overnight incase they had complications from breathing too much smoke. Burr felt well enough to cackle at Scooter's shaved butt, and Scooter was too humiliated to do much more than sulk in a corner.

The animals didn't want Blitz to go, but Tigress and Wolverine promised to take special care of them. By the time Blitz and Spectre left, Siberia was sitting propped up against Scooter, the pair watching "Sesame Street".

Now Blitz and Spectre were following the long road from Tigress and Wolverine's house on the other side of the Mansion grounds, Blitz dreading seeing Anti-Blitz again, Spectre impatient to learn more about Krumbiegel.

At last, Blitz pulled up in front of the Mansion, muttering under his breath, "That thing is going to drive me insane--"

CRASH!

"Oh!" Spectre cried, leaping in her seat in fright. Gasping in horror, Blitz threw the car into reverse, slamming down on the gas pedal and tearing backwards as a piece of a three sectional couch rocketed out of a window and onto the driveway!

"Oh, what the hell is going on now?" Blitz cried, parking the car a safe distance away. He and Spectre sprang out of the car, leaving it idling behind them as they sprinted up the front steps and barreled through the front door.

Throwing the door open, Blitz froze, his jaw dropping open in disbelief. The entire front foyer was trashed; windows were broken, furniture obliterated, lights hanging askew, scorch marks everywhere … and in the center of the foyer was a handful of X-Men …

"They're killing each other!" Spectre cried, rushing forward as Cyclops, actually frothing at the mouth, tried to strangle the life out of Archangel. Nearby, a pair of students were slugging each other, with Gambit standing in the middle, taking the brunt of it as he struggled to separate the two. At his right, beast was roaring like … well, a beast, really … as he lifted tables, benches, anything he could get his hands on and launched them at Storm, who was hovering above the foyer, using gusts of wind to catch the air-borne pieces of furniture and throw them back at Beast.

As Blitz watched helplessly as his friends tried to murder each other, he became increasingly aware of a gleeful cackling, punctuated every few seconds with a loud, "DUB!"

"No …" Tearing the sunglasses off of his face, Blitz scanned the foyer, and finally spotted the Anti-Blitz, standing at the landing junction of the staircase, where two separate flights of stairs swept off to the left and right. The clone was grinning sadistically, pleased with the insanity below him.

Blitz didn't know how, but he was sure that AB had done something to make the X-Men go caveman on each other. With a snarl, Blitz lashed one hand out, firing a volley of blue lightning bolts at Anti-Blitz, who was sitting there like he was King of the Mountain.

"Holy facking sheet--! YIPE!" Seeing Blitz too late, Anti-Blitz had no way of dodging the volley of lightning. He caught the attack full in the chest, screaming in pain as he was lifted off of his feet and slammed into the floor.

Hissing in fury, AB sat up, shaking himself off. Shooting Blitz a malicious glare, Anti-Blitz extended his own hand … and a few brown-green sparks fizzled from his fingertips.

AB stared at his hand in disbelief. "Dub? Oh, what a gyp!" Outraged, AB turned to Blitz and narrowed his oily eyes, his forehead furrowing.

Grinding his teeth, Blitz started to run for the stairs, streaks of electricity racing up and down his arms, crackling in the air. He was going to turn Anti-Blitz into a smoldering pile of greasy ash--!

Seeing Blitz running for him, AB blinked, then growled and squinted his eyes tighter, as though concentrating as hard as he could.

"Asshole!" Blitz roared as he slammed an electrified fist into Anti-Blitz's jaw, rocketing the screeching clone across the landing. "What have you done? What is your damage?!"

Using the railing to pull himself to his feet, AB scornfully spat a clot of blood on Blitz's boots. "Me? What is it with you? Dub …. Why are you resisting my brainpowers? Dub, dub!"

"Would you stop saying that word?!" Blitz lunged for AB, snarling as the squawking clone scrambled out of Blitz's aim, narrowly avoiding a white stroke of lightning that blasted a crater into the carpeted right stairs.

"DUB!" Coiling back, Anti-Blitz darted around Blitz, vaulting up onto the railing beside them. AB landed nimbly on the rail, hissing like a giant cobra. He pivoted, snapping one foot out, summoning a small burst of electricity as he kicked.

Anti-Blitz's foot caught Blitz high in the chest, the combination of speed and that shock of unearthly electricity launching Blitz into the air, yowling, and bouncing him off a wall.

Blitz slammed back down on the stairway, tumbling down a few steps. Pain shrieked through him, tearing the breath from his lungs; Blitz could absorb any kind of electricity thrown at him, but when Anti-Blitz had shocked him … it hurt. Blitz couldn't understand it, but the electricity hurt.

As Blitz lied there, fighting to open his lungs and suck in air, there was an explosion of purplish smoke at the top of the left staircase. Nightcrawler burst through, his lantern-like eyes narrowed and his fangs bared in rage. Beside him, clutching his cane in one hand like a club, was Professor Xavier, angrier than Blitz had ever seen.

Anti-Blitz yelped in fright at the explosion, spinning around on top of the railing. Spotting Xavier at the top of the stairs, AB snarled, then turned to Nightcrawler, furrowing his oily brow.

Nightcrawler blinked, raising an eyebrow at Anti-Blitz. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Dub …?" Puzzled, AB stared at Nightcrawler. "Not you too!"

"Oh no, AB," Xavier replied, his voice hard and grating. He started down the stairs slowly, stabbing the end of his cane into the carpet. "I am the one who is blocking your ability to manipulate the minds of others!"

"Aw--dub--crap!"

"I won't allow you to use my students as puppets!"

"Oh yeah? Dub--watch me!"

AB wheeled away from the advancing Xavier, his beady eyes quickly scanning the murderous crowd below him, and finally settling on Spectre.

"No!" Blitz cried.

"Not to worry, James," Xavier said as Spectre looked up, startled. "I'm shielding her mind from Anti-Blitz's influence."

AB was tearing clumps of his hair out of his head. "You son of a--GAYAAH!!"

Blitz yelped, scrambling out of the way as Xavier sent a psychic version of a roundhouse punch to Anti-Blitz's head, knocking the demented clone off of the railing and bouncing him down the main stairway and into the foyer.

"That's enough of that," Xavier snarled, stopping at the top of the first landing. "You may have some powers, Anti-Blitz, but they are no match for mine. Enough of your parlor tricks! Release my students, or I'll do it myself!"

"Ergh … dub dub DUB!!!" Shoving himself to his feet, Anti-Blitz roared in fury and flung both of his hands out before him. A ball of brown-green lightning blasted from his fingertips and was sent screaming for Professor X!

"Oh, crap!" Tripping over a step as he struggled to stand, Blitz threw both of his hands up in front of him, sending twin beams of blue electricity upwards towards the ceiling. As the beams grew, Blitz quickly pulled his arms apart, stretching the electricity into a wall.

The ball of brown-green lightning shrieked as it collided with Blitz's shield. The noise was thunderous and the light blinding, jarring everyone out of their Anti-Blitz induced dementia.

The impact was shocking, to say the least. Blitz heard himself howling in fright and pain as tendrils of brown electricity snaked their way through his barrier and into his arms, illuminating the bones. He was blasted off of his feet, rocketing back and colliding with Professor X.

"Oof!" they both grunted as they crashed to the ground. Prof. X gasped in horror and quickly started slapping out the small flames on Blitz's jacket as Blitz howled and flapped his arms wildly, trying his best to cool them down.

"Hey … what happened? What's going on?" Cyclops was the first to speak as all of the X-Men snapped out of their murderous trances. Many gasped in horror or fright at their wounds, or at the injuries of their friends. Nobody remembered what he or she had been doing three minutes earlier.

And by the time Blitz, Nightcrawler and Xavier had calmed everyone down, it was evident that the Anti-Blitz had escaped.

Xavier telepathically called for additional help for the hurt X-Men and to search the Mansion grounds. Nyx hurried to the foyer to check on her brother and on her husband, and Wolverine and Tigress arrived shortly afterwards, both declaring that they had combed the Mansion grounds, and found Anti-Blitz's scent trail (gross) leading out into the city.

No one was badly hurt, and as they cleaned themselves up, Cyclops launched into Intrepid Leader Mode. As he was handing out assignments, Nyx, Nightcrawler, and Spectre were busy checking Blitz over for injuries. Nyx and Blitz scowled at Cyclops' back, while Nightcrawler tried to listen to his orders without looking too irritated.

Finally, Cyclops turned to Blitz. "Blitz, since this is your clone, you're with me."

Angry at the day's events, irritated and irrational, Blitz couldn't stop himself from blurting out, "No way!"

Cyclops' jaw dropped open at the defiance. "What?"

"I said no! I told you a long time ago, I don't want to be on any team that you're in charge of!"

"James, this is not the time!" Xavier started, but Emma Frost (having spent all of her time cooing over Cyclops and not helping anybody else who was actually in need of attention) interrupted, "Blitz, you have no right to question Cyclops' abilities--"

"I never would have had to if you hadn't shown up!" Blitz spat, shaking off Spectre as she tried to shush him. "Ever since you arrived on the scene, Cyclops doesn't seem to give a rat's rootie-patootie about anything else."

"That's a lie!" Emma snapped, startling Cyclops, who had opened his mouth to speak.

"You can't even let him defend himself!" Blitz shouted. "You've taken over everything! That's why nobody trusts Cyke anymore--he's got to run everything by you!"

"Don't you raise your voice to me, you snot-nosed little wanker!" Emma spat, advancing menacingly on Blitz. "If your demonic bitch of a sister hadn't found out--"

"Hey!" Nightcrawler roared, shoving his way between Blitz and Emma. "Don't you dare call Dara that!"

"Get out of my way, Kurt!"

"You apologize to my wife right now!"

"Stand out of the way, Nightcrawler!" Blitz snarled as threads of yellow electricity raced through his fingers. "I'm gonna give this peroxide bimbo a tan she'll never forget!"

At that, Cyclops rushed forward, bellowing, "You better not be threatening her, mister!"

"Grow up, Boy Scout!" Blitz shot back. "Talk to me when you actually have a pair--!"

"Guys …"

"--that was out of line, Emma!"

"Guys …!"

"--I'll never be on any team of yours, so long as I live!"

"GUUUUUUUUYS!!!!"

Nyx's frightened, pained-filled scream silenced the foyer. Several people gasped. Everyone turned to look, faces pale, as Nyx staggered, doubled-over. Both of her arms were wrapped around her stomach, and she was shaking badly. No one dared to move as she looked up, her blanched face beaded in sweat.

Her eyes wide, Nyx rasped out, "I think my water broke!"

**************************************************************************************

They rushed Nyx to the hospital wing. Nurse Annie confirmed it; Nyx was about to give birth. Beast gave her as much sedatives as he dared, not wanting to risk the baby, while he and Annie debated over the best means of delivery. They eventually agreed on C-section, causing Nightcrawler to break out into a sweat.

Clutching Nyx's hand, Nightcrawler gently stroked her sweaty forehead as she induced sleep on herself, wanting to conserve energy for the difficult labor ahead. He glanced up at Blitz, Wolverine, Spectre and Tigress as they huddled around the foot of the bed, all seemingly too worried to approach.

"I can't go," Nightcrawler said, his voice shaking. "I have to stay with Dara …"

"We know pal," Wolverine said quickly, his fists clenching at his sides. "We wouldn't ask ya to come anyways. You gonna be okay? Ya need anything?"

Nightcrawler quickly shook his head. "I--I think I'm all right."

The sounds of the fetal and maternal heart monitors were driving Blitz batty. He squirmed, hesitated, then finally blurted out, "Is she gonna be okay? What happened? Was it us all yelling at each other? Maybe her empathy got overloaded--"

"I don't know!" Nightcrawler cried, helplessly sinking into a chair beside Nyx's bed. "It might have been … she's so close to the due date anyways …."

Annie returned from the storeroom, a bundle of surgical gowns in her arms. She glanced at each of the mutants shifting uncomfortably around the foot of the bed, and frowned. "Guys, I can't have all of you in here at the same time. Get out there and catch that freak; we'll probably have a baby waiting for you when you come home."

"But--" Blitz started, then gave a muffled howl of resentment as Wolverine clapped a hand down around his mouth, pinned his arm against his back, and dragged him out of the infirmary.

"C'mon kid, she's right," Wolverine growled as Blitz fought against his unrelenting grip. "We're no good to Dara here, and we have to find Anti-Blitz anyways."

Snarling under his breath, Blitz gave up his struggles. "I cannot believe that Professor X is making me work with Cyclops AND Emma Frost …!"

"Nobody likes it, Blitz," Tigress said as they entered the hangar. "But we need Emma to block out AB's mental powers."

"And as for Cyclops--" Here, Wolverine was unable to suppress the growl in his throat. "--You an' me'll give him a good ass kickin' later."

Furious as he was, Blitz knew that he had no choice; Cyclops was senior member on the team, giving him leadership. Professor X was unable to leave the Mansion, so, in order to protect the other X-Men from Anti-Blitz's maniacal mind scans, Emma Frost was tagging along. When Blitz realized that he was going to be accompanied by Cyke and Emma Frost, he lowered his head and started banging it against a wall.

As they strapped into their seats, Spectre glanced at Blitz. "I don't understand; how come Anti-Blitz's mind powers didn't work on you?"

Pausing, Blitz considered that, then smiled creepily. "'Cuz … I'm already crazy!"

"Come on …"

"I'm not one hundred percent sure, honestly; I think Xavier said that it has something to do with our genetic similarities or something."

"But you don't have telepathy."

"No, I don't. But hey, I never said I understood anything that Professor X says." Sighing heavily, Blitz fell back into his seat. "I'm just gonna go with it and not complain. It's good that at least one of us doesn't get zombified, you know?"

The stench trail wound its way through most of the city, and Anti-Blitz's short-range psychic control had apparently done its work. Everywhere there were crashed cars, smashed store fronts, and dazed people, all wondering what the heck possessed them to beat each other senseless.

The stench trail ended in a landfill, and when Emma tried to pinpoint and then telepathically paralyze Anti-Blitz, she was startled by a sharp voice barking, "DUB!" inside her head, bouncing the psychic attack back at her.

Bewildered, the White Queen turned to the X-Men assembled around her. "The little bugger resisted my attack. He's gotten a tad stronger, but I sensed that he wore himself out driving everybody wonky."

"Try again," Cyclops ordered, and Emma complied, pursing her lips together in a thin line as she concentrated.

After an endless moment, she snorted and shook herself off. "I turned off the mind control, but I can't get him to sit still."

"That's okay," Cyclops replied, his voice suddenly lacking that unforgiving edge he used with his other teammates when they did anything sub-par. Blitz made sure Cyke could see him as he stuffed a finger down his throat and retched.

Cyclops glared at him but chose not to address it. "Emma will stay on board to provide a psychic shield to the rest of us on the ground. I'll go with Blitz--"

"--When Satan wears ice skates!" Blitz exploded, to which Wolverine threw his head back and laughed.

"FINE!" Grinding his teeth together, Cyke rounded on Blitz. "You go with Wolverine and Tigress."

Spectre stood up. "I want to help them."

"You're not an X-Man, Spectre," Cyclops said, his eyes narrowing behind his visor. "You should stay onboard."

"This is as much my concern as any of yours!" Spectre snarled, taking a threatening step towards Cyclops. "That creature down there is the product of a wicked and vile mind! It has killed many people, among them my teammates and best friends! You can't make me stay here!"

"Oh?" Cyclops turned to Emma. "Emma, would you put a psychic hold on her powers?"

Smiling with just a touch of ice, Emma sweetly batted her eyes up at Cyclops. "I'm sorry, dearest, but I'm afraid I can't do that."

"What?!"

"She has a point … and I admire her sauciness."

"Aaarrrrrgggghhh …"

*********

Emma remained in the Blackbird. Archangel and Storm swept overhead. Cyclops, Rogue, and Husk were in one group at the rear of the landfill. Wolverine, Tigress, Blitz, and Spectre made their way through the entrance, Blitz and Spectre hanging back cautiously as Wolverine scented Anti-Blitz out.

Pausing by a pile of junked cars, Wolverine sneezed violently. "Damn reek's comin' from everywhere."

"I think it's stronger here," Tigress said. Wolverine might have had a better sniffer, but Tigress was queen at seeing in the dark. She scanned the creaking towers of automobiles warily, her ears turning this way and that. "He was right here, but he's not anymore."

"Gimme a sec to find out where it's comin' from," Wolverine said, raising his face to the breeze.

Spectre instinctively moved downwind of the Canuck. "I've heard about your friend, Wolverine," she said to Blitz.

Oddly, that made the hackles on the back of Blitz's neck raise. "Oh?" he said, trying not to sound icy. It almost didn't work; it seemed like every girl that passed through the X-Mansion developed a crush on either Wolverine or Gambit, and it was EXTREMELY annoying.

Spectre nodded. "He's a legend in the Madripoor underworld--"

"I can hear you!" Wolverine called back to them in a teasing, sing-songy voice.

Blitz fumed and Spectre laughed. "I would like to spar with you sometime, Logan-san."

"Would be a pleasure, honey," Wolverine said as he cautiously took a few steps to the left. "Provided we catch this little grease ball first …."

No sooner had Wolverine said that than a resounding crash echoed through the junkyard. Jolted, all four mutants spun around, craning their heads up to look at the figure of Anti-Blitz silhouetted against the junkyard's spotlight.

One eye bulging maniacally, Anti-Blitz cackled and hefted a vicious-looking chainsaw up in front of him.

"How much wood can a woodchuck chuck?!" he screamed gleefully, catching the cord of the chainsaw in one hand and jerking it mercilessly back.

The chainsaw shrieked to life with a horrifying, "RrrNNNrrrnrrrnrr!!" Blitz humiliated himself in front of Spectre by screaming like a baby as he turned and ran.

Howling with laughter, Anti-Blitz launched himself at the shocked group below him. Tigress yowled and sprang aside while Wolverine stood his ground, popping all of his claws and looking, for a brief second, rather unhappy.

Hearing the screaming grate on metal on metal, Blitz was jarred back into his wits. Smacking his forehead, he cursed his cowardice and turned to help Wolverine--only to slam into Spectre, who was running full tilt after him.

Spectre's eyes narrowed at him. "Blitz! Why did you run?"

"Huh? Why did I run?" Exasperated, Blitz pointed to the other side of the junk heap where they standing. "He's got a freaking chainsaw! Why did you run?"

Biting back an oath, Spectre's hand lashed out, wrapping itself in the front of the startled Blitz's jacket. "I came to drag you back!"

"Well, then why are we standing here?" Shaking her off, Blitz turned back to the junk heap. "We have to call Cyclops--"

Blitz never had a chance to finish. Even as he was speaking, he saw something moving out of the corner of his eye. Startled, both he and Spectre looked down as the polished, silvery, egg-shaped container rolled to a stop at their feet.

Spectre realized what it was first, and she screamed, both of her hands flailing out to shove Blitz away. "No--!"

The grenade exploded with a head-ringing bang, engulfing the junkyard in thick white smoke. The smoke swamped Blitz and Spectre, rushing into their lungs, choking them, burning their eyes.

Blitz gagged, fighting for the breath to shout for help. A dark haze settled over his eyes as he pitched forward, his mind groggy and his legs weighing over a ton.

Thudding to the earth, Blitz wheezed one last breath, his rapidly closing eyes picking out Spectre's crumpled form just a foot away.

"Spectre …" he whispered. Then the world went black.

**************************************************************************************

It felt like Blitz had been out for hours. When he finally woke up, his head was heavy, his eyesight blurry. Groaning, Blitz lifted his head and squeezed his eyes shut, blinking them rapidly to adjust--only to see a hideously scarred face peering at him as it adjusted a massive laser leveled at Blitz's head!

The badly scarred man smiled pleasantly as he adjusted the tip of the laser at Blitz's face. "Now, zis von't hurt a bit …"

"SWEET MERCIFUL CRAP!!" Blitz screamed, trying to leap back. He yelped as heavy metal cuffs bit down into his wrists. Horrified, Blitz looked down at himself; he was strapped to a metal operating table that had been tipped up to face the laser. No matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't loosen the metal bands around his body.

The barrel of the laser was huge, but it tapered down until it was the width of a Bic pen. Along the base of the tip, a series of electric blue lights rotated counter-clockwise while several nasty looking razors and clamps and drills rotated clockwise.

The lights and the entrustments stopped rotating at the same time. With a metallic "spring!" sound, a clamp popped into place along the tip of the laser.

Gulping back a serious of pitiful wails and pleadings, Blitz felt his eyes widen as the clamp inched towards him. He tried to sink as far back into the table as he could to escape, but it was impossible.

He gritted his teeth, steeling himself as the clamp hovered under his nose.

'Bink!'

"OUCH!" Swearing ferociously, Blitz shook his head hard as the laser glided backwards along its track, proudly holding its pilfered nose hair aloft.

"What the hell was that for?!" Blitz cried, now finally able to see with the laser out of the way. He was in a large, dark room, some kind of converted laboratory. It seemed to have been hastily cobbled together; cables and wires were dangling everywhere, and huge plastic tarps were set up as dividers.

Hearing someone hiss his name, Blitz looked to the left, and with a mix of joy and worry saw Spectre, apparently unharmed, but strapped to a table as he was. Behind Spectre was a huge man--if you could call it a man. He looked like a Pillsbury Doughboy with attitude: not quite as flabby, but jacked. He lumbered around like Frankenstein, swinging his arms like a gorilla … The Pillsbury Frankengorilla.

"Now zen," said a voice. Blitz's head snapped back before him, seeing the heavily scarred man reemerge from behind the laser. The man walked up to the tip of the laser, holding a beaker of fluid. He nodded in satisfaction as the clamp dropped the nose hair in the beaker. "Ser gud. Buckboard!"

"Hnf." Lumbering rapidly to the scarred man, the massive Buckboard (Buckboard …? His name was Buckboard?) very gingerly accepted the beaker. Holding it close to his chest, Buckboard waddled off behind Spectre again, where Blitz lost sight of him.

Blitz returned his attention to the man in front of him. The man was tall and revoltingly thin, wearing his lab coat like a sack. He was balding in clumps, and the left half of his face was ashy gray and tight, dried like jerky. It mustn't have been originally part of his face; Blitz could see the horror-movie stitches running down the center of the man's face.

"You're Krumbiegel, aren't you?" Blitz demanded.

Pausing in the cleaning of his monocle, the man arched a misshapen eyebrow at Blitz. "Ja. I am Professor Frodrik Krumbiegel. Und you--" Here, Krumbiegel smiled sardonically. "You are zee famous X-Man Blitz, no? Blitz …" Chuckling, Krumbiegel turned to regard Spectre, who was glaring balefully at him. "Und zee lovely Spectre, formerly of G.E.I.S.T., hm?"

"Where are we?" Blitz snapped as Krumbiegel carefully returned his monocle to his right eye. "Well? Answer me, you walking freak show!"

"Zer ist no need for insults!" Miffed, Krumbiegel smoothed out his grimy hair. "Zee two of you are in my special aircraft. Ve are on our vay to my secret laboratory in zee mountains of Swishenspit."

"In Swishen …?" Bewildered, Blitz blinked. "What??"

Seeming not to hear him, Professor Krumbiegel continued on with his monologue. "But, alas, I haff been impatient, und haff begun zee research early …."

"Research?" Blitz didn't like the sound of that. "What research?"

"DUB DUB DUB! WHEEEEEE!!!" Launching himself over the startled Spectre's table, Anti-Blitz (sans the chainsaw) bounded into the center of the room, a big sadistic grin plastered all over his face.

AB zoomed up to Blitz, driving his face disgustingly close to Blitz's. "Hiya!"

"Dammit!" Blitz gagged on AB's vile breath. "Do you have to be everywhere?"

Anti-Blitz shrugged. "It's a free trip to Europe. How could I pass up?"

"In truth--" Krumbiegel said, nimbly stepping aside as AB sprang into a series of whirling back flips. "I haff rescued zee one you call 'Anti-Blitz' from zat revolting little man in zee garbage dump."

Little man? He had to be talking about Wolverine. Blitz's heart sank; were Wolverine and Tigress okay? Did the X-Men realize that Blitz and Spectre were missing?

"It vas Buckboard who subdued you two," Krumbiegel said, a hint of smugness in his voice. He didn't pay any attention to Anti-Blitz as he turned somersaults around the malformed professor's feet. "I needed you, Blitz, to continue my research."

"And what about me?" Spectre's voice cut like an icy katana blade. "Why did you take me?"

"To discover your mutant talents, of course!" Krumbiegel said mildly. "I never did find out vat it vas zat enabled you to escape my drones."

"You mean those snake things?" Blitz asked, watching Anti-Blitz chew on a cable and vainly hoping that he'd at least choke on the rubber insulation.

"'Snake things' indeed!" Krumbiegel sneered, rounding on Blitz. "Zose vere my own creation, aided by zee genetic material of zee Brood aliens."

"You must be real proud."

"I most certainly am!"

Blitz ground his teeth. "That wasn't supposed to be a compliment …"

"But vhy?" Krumbiegel mused, apparently talking to himself. Stepping over the Anti-Blitz as the clone became snarled in the cables, Krumbiegel began to pace, one hand holding his deformed chin. "Vhy did zee Anti-Blitz turn out zee vay he is? He is zee only successful cloning I haff been able to observe--zanks to you, Miss Spectre!" he spat in her direction, and Spectre jerked hard against her bounds, as if wanting to reach out and strangle him. "You haff hindered my experiments for so long--I haff very little understanding of Anti-Blitz …."

"Yeah, that's a real shame," Blitz said sarcastically, carefully flexing his fingers, feeling electricity tingling in his bones. "What's going to happen to me and Spectre?"

"Happen to you? My dear boy …" Smiling eerily, Krumbiegel gestured to the laser behind him. "Recall zat I haff removed a single nose hair from your proboscis?"

"How the hell could I forget? That friggin' hurt!"

"I intend to use zat nose hair to create another, more perfect Anti-Blitz."

Hearing that, Blitz's eyes flew open, and he swung his head around to stare at Anti-Blitz. AB was currently trying to extract his tongue from the top of a hotplate, which he had apparently licked and burned his skin to.

Horrified, Blitz spun around, rocking his table on its hinges. "More Anti-Blitzes? No! I WELCOME DEATH!!!"

Hearing the exchange, Anti-Blitz glanced up, his tongue peeling away from the hotplate with a puff of greasy black smoke. "Huh? You're gonna make a new me??"

Surprised, Krumbiegel nodded. "Vouldn't it be vonderful?"

"No freakin' way!" With a snarl, Anti-Blitz wrenched the hotplate's cord out of a wall of sockets and whipped it at Krumbiegel's head, who yelped and dove to the floor.

"Nobody's gonna shove me aside!" Anti-Blitz roared, springing from the counter up on top of the laser. "You lied to me!"

"No, no, no!" Krumbiegel cried, waving his hands wildly as Anti-Blitz prowled along the laser. "Zat vasn't zee idea at all! Please, Anti-Blitz, come down from zere … you vouldn't vant to set anything off accidentally."

"Oh, no?" Grinning wickedly, Anti-Blitz leapt from the cannon and landed right smack on top of a console of multi-colored switches and buttons. "Ta-daaaa!"

"No!" Krumbiegel screeched as the laser gave a low hum. The tip flaring, the laser snapped up and aimed itself straight at Blitz.

"Eep!" Blitz felt his eyes bug out as the laser slowly trundled towards him. "Doc, you better do something fast!"

"Waahaahaahaa …. Dub!" Laughing manically, the Anti-Blitz scrambled aside as Professor Krumbiegel lunged for the console, hurriedly slapping a series of buttons, powering the laser down.

"You dunce!" Krumbiegel snarled as he pulled himself up on his shaking, spindly legs. "You could haff put a hole in zee ship--sent us crashing to our deaths--!"

"That was the idea, brainiac!" Still chortling, the Ant-Blitz smartly saluted Professor Krumbiegel, then skittered off down a hall, laughing wildly and smashing things that sounded very expensive.

"Zis is not right!" Krumbiegel screamed, tearing clumps of hair out of his already balding head. He tore down the hall after AB, shouting back over his shoulder, "Buckboard! Vatch zee prisoners!"

The giant with the head like a summer squash grunted an affirmative, and slowly began to lumber back to Blitz and Spectre's tables, taking his time doing so.

Seeing their only chance, Blitz twisted awkwardly in his bonds to face Spectre, who was trying to see where the Anti-Blitz had gone.

"Spectre!" Blitz hissed, shaking his head wildly to catch her eye. "Psst! Can you phase through the straps?"

Looking uncertain, Spectre glanced down at the metal straps across her body. "I think so …."

"Good. I'll distract Buckboard so you can get out."

Before Spectre could agree, Buckboard's lumpy visage thumped back into the spotlight. He regarded Spectre curiously for a moment, then shuffled over to stare at Blitz.

"Glachhk--ugh!" Disgusted, Blitz turned his face away from Buckboard's noxious breath. "Halitosis, whew!"

Buckboard arched an eyebrow, not completely understanding.

Grimacing, Blitz forced himself to turn back and meet Buckboard's glare. "You get me, lumpy? I said you have bad breath!"

Buckboard blinked.

"What're you looking at, turkey eyes?" Blitz shot, resisting the urge to peer around Buckboard's shoulder to see how Spectre was faring. He didn't want to draw attention to her. "Not too often that you see somebody as handsome as me around here, what with Patchwork Face and--HEY!! DON'T LOOK OVER THERE!!! I'm talkingto you, monobrow!"

At that, Buckboard spun back around, snorting like an irritated bull. For some reason, he had turned to look at Spectre, nearly catching her phasing through her restraints. Blitz managed a glimpse of the beautiful ninja heaving a sigh of relief.

She was nearly free now, but fear of Buckboard seeing her had stopped Spectre from phasing completely, and now her left ankle was still trapped. She'd need another few minutes before she could free her foot.

"Yeah, that's right, ya giant shaved ape!" Blitz spat. "You, with the half a brain and … uh … D-dude, I was only kidding …."

Apparently, not only was Buckboard very big, he was also very sensitive to insults, and had a very short temper. Buckboard reared back, smashing the knuckles of his boulder-like fists together and roaring in fury.

Blitz screamed. "Spectre, SOME TIME TODAY--!!!"

"Kiai!" Her voice piercing every corner of the lab, Spectre lunged into the air, lashing a foot out towards Buckboard's misshapen head.

Growling and (eeeewwww) drooling, Buckboard wheeled around, swinging one arm like a bat at Spectre, and blinking in dumbfounded surprise as it passed right through her.

The real Spectre was on the ground, launching herself at Buckboard, slamming her fist into his gut at full speed. Buckboard doubled over, his eyes bulging in pain, giving Spectre an unobstructed shot at his face.

Spectre leapt into an elegant back flip, smashing her feet into Buckboard's boxy chin and snapping the huge man's head back. Unable to stop his momentum, Buckboard staggered backwards rapidly, finally tripping over a set of cables and careening to the ground.

"That won't stop him for long!" Blitz cried as Spectre sprang up right, rushing for the control panel.

Confused, Spectre stood there for a moment, scanning every button and lever. "I can't read these controls! I don't know what to press!"

"Spectre, he's getting up!" Blitz screeched, rattling around on his exam table as a very pissed Buckboard rolled himself over, and slowly stood up right.

"Bikkurishita!" Spectre cried, diving for the floor as Buckboard's wildly swinging fist connected with the control board, obliterating the instruments beneath his knuckles.

"Whoa, whoa, hey, whoooaaaa!" Blitz hung on for dear life as the table he was strapped to fell backwards, spun 180 degrees to the left, and then 180 degrees to the right, before finally spinning in a complete circle and bucking like a wild horse.

"Spectre, for God's sake, stop this thing!" Blitz howled, craning his neck to watch Spectre run up to him, keeping his table between her and the raging Buckboard.

"I'm working on it, Blitz!" Spectre snarled as she ran to keep up with the table, skidding to a halt and scrambling to continue with its erratic rotation.

Blitz squeezed his eyes shut, nauseous. "The power of Christ compels you!" he bellowed, feeling the table speed forward along the track, and then backwards. "The power of Christ compels you! The power of Christ--uh-oh …."

By now, Blitz recognized that humming sound. His eyes shot open, and he lifted his head, watching in growing terror as Professor Krumbiegel's laser snarled to life.

Rotating through a selection of tools, the laser selected a scalpel--then the beam flared on anyways, so the scalpel seemed kind of moot. The arm began to slowly rise, cutting a glowing red line into the floor before them.

"Holy crap!" Blitz slammed his head back and looked up at Spectre. "At least get my hands free!"

"One thing at a time!" Catching the edge of the table, Spectre roared in effort and threw her weight against it. Blitz yelped as the end of the table snapped up, clocking Buckboard in the chin yet again.

"Waaaarrrrgggghhhh!" Slamming his hands down on either side of Blitz, Buckboard snarled and wrenched the table off of its support. With that out of the way, he simply flipped the tabletop--with the yowling Blitz still attached--away from him.

Swearing a blue streak, Blitz rolled himself over onto his knees, then stood up with agonizing slowness. Hopping along on his toes, Blitz toddled over to the laser beam.

Swallowing hard and rolling his eyes heavenward, Blitz very carefully inched up to the blazingly hot beam, edging the table restraints into the laser.

'Spring--sprang--sprong!'

"Finally!" Shaking the straps off, the newly freed Blitz rushed to the console. Seeing the sparking wires and crumpled paneling, Blitz's heart sank; the controls were totally trashed. There was no way he could turn the laser off--at least not manually.

Summoning a ball of lightning into his hands, Blitz stood behind the laser, lining it up with Buckboard's butt as he advanced threateningly on Spectre. Allowing the lightning to grow to the size of a bowling ball, Blitz nodded to himself, drew his arm back, and let the electricity fly.

The ball of lightning rocketed through the arm of the laser, blowing apart every circuit and melting every wire. As the annihilated laser ground to a halt, the ball of lightning sped on, bouncing over the floor twice before introducing itself to the seat of Buckboard's pants.

"Striii-iiiike!" Blitz crowed triumphantly as Buckboard tore around the room, howling in pain and frantically slapping at the fire on his butt.

On Buckboard's next revolution of the lab, Blitz yanked a fire extinguisher down from the wall. "Here, let me help you with that."

Grateful, Buckboard slammed to a stop and bent over, his rear end still smoking.

Unable to suppress a chuckle, Blitz raised the fire extinguisher and sent it crashing down into Buckboard's skull, sending the giant toppling over into a lifeless heap.

Blitz was stomping out the flames on Buckboard's butt when Spectre reached him. "We have to get out of here," she said.

Blitz nodded. "They must have put my two-way radio someplace in here. If we can find that, we can call the X-Men for help."

"They'll be too far away!" Stepping over the unconscious Buckboard, Spectre started towards the hallway that Krumbiegel and Anti-Blitz had disappeared down. "If we find the cockpit, we can at least land this thin--"

A muffled explosion shuddered through the jet, knocking Blitz off his feet and into Spectre's arms. Around them, the ship trembled and keeled threateningly before righting itself. A klaxon blared and red lights flashed overhead as the jet finally regained control.

"What was that?" Blitz gasped as Spectre hefted him to his feet.

"It couldn't have been good." Spectre broke into a run, all but leaving the startled Blitz in her dust. After a second's hesitation, he charged after her, following her as she wound through the corridors.

With the flashing lights in the hallway, it was difficult to see, and Spectre didn't see the fallen Krumbiegel until she tripped over him.

Outraged, Spectre grabbed the barely conscious mad scientist up the lapels of his lab coat and pulled him upright. "You! Monster! You killed my friends! I'll send you to hell piece by piece, you vile--!"

"Wait!" Yelping, Blitz dove in, just managing to catch Spectre's arm as it cocked back, ready to launch a fist into Krumbiegel's already ruined face. "Not yet, Spectre! We might need him."

Spectre spun around, her eyes blazing with hate. "Need him? For what? I refuse to wait a moment longer, Blitz! He must be punished!"

"You can't be the one to do that!"

"How dare you say that!" With an oath, Spectre wrenched her arm free of his grasp. "He ruined my life!"

"No! Killing him will ruin your life, Spectre!" Blitz snapped, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her. "I know you're not a murderer! I know that if you kill him now, you'll never be able to live yourself!"

"This is the way it's done, Blitz! This is how the ninja live--"

"YOU'RE NOT A NINJA! YOU'RE AN X-MAN!!"

The words were out of his mouth before Blitz even realized he was thinking them. Hearing that, Spectre froze, and she stared, wide-eyed, into his face.

Her beautiful eyes glassed over, and her voice cracked as she struggled to speak. "I must avenge their deaths …."

"Not this way, honey." Hurt, Blitz folded Spectre into a hug, holding her tight. "It's not worth the heartache. I've seen the way Wolverine and the others get when they've killed someone, and I wouldn't wish that on you."

"Ahem … excuse zee interruption …."

Jolting, Spectre spun around, ripping free of Blitz's embrace. She snarled viciously at Krumbiegel as the hideous doctor struggled to stay awake. "Zer is … a slight problem …."

"What?" Blitz asked, catching Krumbiegel as the professor started to pitch over. "Wake up! What problem?"

Weakly, Krumbiegel lifted a bony hand and pointed a long finger behind Spectre. "He is … evolving again …."

"WHAT?" By the time Blitz turned around, it was too late. A volt of brownish-green lightning ripped past his face, slamming into Spectre, lifting her off of her feet and throwing her hard into the steel-plated floor.

"No! Spectre!" Blitz could hear wicked laughter echoing behind him as he shot to Spectre's side, carefully rolling her limp form over onto her back. "Oh God! Spectre!"

Her shinobi was smoldering faintly. Blitz hurriedly slapped out the embers as he searched for a pulse in her throat.

Spectre's heartbeat was weak and erratic beneath his fingers. She was breathing shallowly, and the muscles in her arms gave short, violent spasms.

Swallowing hard, Blitz gently laid Spectre back down. Though she didn't look very well, she was lucky; she was more likely to survive from a direct lightning strike than from a bolt that landed nearby. Had the lightning bolt missed, it would have superheated the air and literally cooked Spectre to death. The bolt that hit her would leave only minimal damage.

At least, Blitz hoped.

His fists clenching and crackling with energy, Blitz slowly stood up and turned. He faced Anti-Blitz, taken aback by the clone's sudden increase in size, and by the haze of electricity hissing around the creature's body.

Anti-Blitz was grinning savagely. "Well?"

"You could have killed her."

"I hoped that I had." Chuckling, Anti-Blitz slowly backed up. Behind him, a door slid open, revealing what must have been the engine room of Krumbiegel's flying laboratory. "You gonna do something about it, hero?"

All of the training he had received, all of his instincts told Blitz that he shouldn't follow Anti-Blitz into that engine room. He remembered what he had told Spectre about not killing Krumbiegel, about how horrible she would feel if she had ….

Suddenly, Blitz didn't give a damn.

The resolve must have shown on his face, because the Anti-Blitz laughed triumphantly and charged into the room, galloping along the catwalk.

Blitz rushed after him, roaring in fury as he launched lightning bolt after lightning bolt at Anti-Blitz, narrowly missing the Anti-Blitz each time.

The engine room was filled with humming generators that emitted a soft, dark blue light. The further he ran into the room, the more Blitz became aware of the electricity these machines were expelling.

Apparently, Anti-Blitz was aware of this as well. He leapt up onto one of the generators, snarling as white tendrils of electricity snaked up his leg. He pivoted on the generator and leapt into the air, summoning up the stolen electricity and combining it with his own. With a roar the Anti-Blitz fired a rocket of lightning at Blitz.

Gasping, Blitz skidded to a stop and leapt back, flinging out a shield of energy to protect himself. The shield protected him from the worst of the assault, but the impact alone knocked Blitz off of his feet, sending him tumbling end over end back down the catwalk.

Grunting in pain, Blitz rolled off his shoulder and sprang to his feet. Not thinking twice, Blitz reached out and slammed his palm against another generator, hissing as the stolen electricity burned its way up his arm.

Gritting his teeth, Blitz whipped his free arm out, hardly taking the time to aim as he launched a beam of amber electricity at Anti-Blitz. The demented clone howled and scrambled wildly across the engine room, trailed all the while by Blitz's electricity.

Blitz's attack was cut short with a jolt, rattling him away from the generator. Baffled, Blitz looked up, feeling his eyes widen in alarm as the generator, overheated and spent, began to smoke through the vents in its sides.

Again, the jet began to shudder, and a new siren shrieked through the plane. Inside the engine room, the lights turned from calming blue to panic-inducing flashing red and yellow.

Anti-Blitz didn't seem to notice the warning sirens. He vaulted from generator to generator, pausing long enough to siphon additional electricity to lob at Blitz.

Suddenly (and for the first time in his life) grateful for the mind numbing training sessions Cyclops had put him through, Blitz dodged and feinted, cursing viciously when Anti-Blitz bizarre electricity managed to zap him. Any other kind of electricity wouldn't have hurt Blitz at all, but this strange brown-green stuff was excruciating.

Seeing another ball of that sickly green electricity screaming towards him, Blitz gritted his teeth and concentrated hard, wrapping his right hand in a shield of static energy. Racing towards the ball of lightning, Blitz slid across the catwalk and flung his hand out, catching Anti-Blitz's lightning bolt like it was a fastball. Though the shielding around his hand protected him from the worst of the attack, it wasn't going to hold for long, and Blitz could already feel his skin beginning to blister.

Sending a charge of electricity up his arm, Blitz roared in agony and threw the lightning ball as hard as he could.

Anti-Blitz had one second to widen his eyes before the massive lightning missile blasted into his body, lightning up his skeleton and sending him flipping backwards into the air, screaming.

Blitz didn't see where the Anti-Blitz landed, but he heard a thunderous crash and saw a trail of smoke and sparks. Standing slowly and wincing as he shook out his burnt hand, Blitz crept forward, darting along the generators, straining to see in the shadows.

"Blitz!"

"Wagh!" All but leaping out of his skin, Blitz spun around. His heart gave an ecstatic jolt when he saw Spectre standing in the doorway, leaning heavily on the jamb to support her wobbly legs. "Spectre! You're okay!"

Spectre nodded, panting hard. "We can't stay here any longer. The jet's going down--LOOK OUT!!"

Behind Blitz, a set of generators exploded, launching bright red shrapnel in every direction. And, rearing out of the smoke like a hideous cobra, was the Anti-Blitz, three times his original height and bristling with muscles and fangs.

"Awww--Fudgicle!" Not knowing what else to do, Blitz bolted, racing for the door as Spectre screamed for him to hurry.

Snorting a gout of flame and smoke, the beastly Anti-Blitz sprang into the air, easily clearing the remaining generators and crashing to the catwalk before Blitz, bending it.

The impact of the Super Anti-Blitz nearly jarred Blitz off of his feet, but when the quaking didn't stop, he realized with horror that it was the jet plummeting; he and AB had destroyed too many of the generators, and the jet didn't have the power to stay airborne.

Spectre gave a shriek of fright as the engine room doors began to slide shut on her. She tried to wedge her body between the doors, but there was no stopping them. "I can't get them to stay open!"

"Spectre, go!" Blitz shouted, backing away in horror as the Super Anti-Blitz advanced on him, its scorpion-like tail swishing eagerly and shocks of electricity racing between its back spikes like they were TV antennas. "Get out of here!"

"No, James, I won't leave you!"

Still weakened from her attack, Spectre no longer had the strength to force the doors open. With a gasp, she lost her grip and staggered back as the doors clanged shut.

Though the body of the Super Anti-Blitz looked curiously a lot like the rancor from Star Wars, the head was still that of Anti-Blitz. The over-evolved clone smiled wickedly, raising twin pincer claws. "Dub frickin' dub!"

Blitz didn't even hear himself scream as the pincers came crashing down. He dodged left, then right as the claws punched into the thin catwalk floor. Finally, the Super Anti-Blitz's tail swept out, tripping Blitz and sending him smashing face first into the catwalk.

Blitz cried out in terror as one of the pincers slammed down around him, pinning him to the floor. He felt the pincer closing in around him, and images of Specter, of his mom and dad and his brother, of Dara and Kurt and their baby, of Professor X and all of his friends at the Institute began to flash rapid-fire through his brain. For God's sake, it couldn't end like this!

The Super Anti-Blitz was cackling victoriously. "AH HAHAHAHAHA! WAHAHAHA! HAHAHA … huh?"

Stunned, Blitz craned his head back, watching in disbelief as Anti-Blitz staggered back, wrenching its pincer claw away from Blitz's body. A look of pure confusion passed over the Anti-Blitz's face, and then …

And then Blitz found himself staring down at a cockroach.

It happened so quickly; one minute, this huge, grotesque monster was looming over Blitz, and the next, a cockroach-like bug with the face of the Anti-Blitz was scuttling around, cursing a blue streak.

Blitz stood up and stared down at the bug as it shook a leg at him like a balled fist.

Slowly, Spectre crept up to Blitz and the insect, staring at the creature in disbelief. "What … what happened?"

"Damned if I know." Snarling at the squeaking bug, Blitz lifted a booted foot and drove it down on the Anti-Blitz, crushing it.

With that accomplished, all Blitz wanted to do now was get the hell out of there. Catching Spectre's hand up in his own, Blitz ran for the doors. "Can you phase us through?"

"No, I'm not strong enough."

"That's okay. Stand behind me." Making sure that Spectre was properly shielded, Blitz lifted a hand and fired a volt of electricity into the door, blowing a massive hole into it.

Darting through, Blitz turned and helped Spectre through. As soon as she stepped into the hallway, she looked to the floor. Not seeing the scientist, Spectre scanned up and down the corridors, and bit back a curse. "Krumbiegel's gone."

"We'll find him." Taking her hand again, Blitz broke into a run, racing for the back of the jet. As he suspected, there was a bay filled with escape pods. Two of them had already been jettisoned (Buckboard must have escaped too), and through the open ports, Blitz and Spectre could see forests and snowy mountains growing increasingly closer.

"Come on!" Quickly pushing Spectre into an escape pod, Blitz swung in after her, slamming the door shut behind him. He hardly had time to buckle in before Spectre slapped the launch button, dropping them down into the snowdrifts below.

They landed with a bone-rattling "WHAM!", then were sent tumbling down the mountainside. Spectre never made a sound, but Blitz was screeching like a banshee.

The escape pod crashed through a dozen saplings before finally slamming to a halt at the base of two huge pine trees. Blitz wasted no time unbuckling his seatbelt, throwing open the door and lunging for the snow. "LAND!!!"

Blinking rapidly in the bright sunlight, Spectre gazed up into the sky, watching silently as Krumbiegel's airship turned into a massive fireball high in the sky. She sighed heavily. "I lost him again."

"And you'll find him again," Blitz said (when he was finished puking). Wearily, he stood, watching as debris drifted down to earth. "I am so glad that's over with," he muttered.

Then it dawn on him; how were they going to get home?

**************************************************************************************

Located by Professor X's scans and newly recovered by the X-Men, a very relieved Blitz and Spectre were flanked by Tigress, Wolverine, Gambit, and Iceman as they left the hangar bay and made their way into the Institute.

"Congratulations, mon ami," Gambit said, smiling around the cigarette in his mouth. "You've passed a milestone!"

Puzzled, Blitz glanced at him. "Milestone? What are you talking about?"

"You haven't heard?" Iceman asked, incredulously. "Everybody has to go through all this crap to become a real X-Man." He began to tick them off on his icy fingers. "You gotta discover you're a mutant, you have to be contacted by the X-Men, you have to hold your own in battle against an enemy that's eleven times your size and save the lives of your friends while you're at it, you have to have an archenemy, get a girlfriend …."

"Now all you have to do is die at least once!" Gambit said, grinning at Blitz's horrified look.

Blitz turned to Wolverine for confirmation, but the fearsome little Canadian shook his head. "They ain't kiddin', pal."

"Oh, for the love of …."

Before Blitz could finish that thought, the door to the infirmary swung open, and a dishelmed looking Nightcrawler stepped out. Seeing his brother-in-law like that jolted Blitz, reminding him that he had left his sister in the hospital wing. A cold feeling of dread seeped into his stomach, but Nightcrawler grinned to see Blitz. "Blitz! Dara had the baby!"

Blitz stopped dead in his tracks and was bowled over by Tigress. "What?!"

"Come see, all of you! Schnell!" Grinning with pride, Nightcrawler rushed back into the infirmary, with Blitz hot on his heels.

Nyx was in her human form, sitting upright in bed. She was holding a bundle of white fuzzy blankets and happily cooing and kissing the little figure within.

She glanced up with a smile as Blitz and his friends crowded in. "There you are! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine! What about you?" Blitz's eyes widened at a tiny blue hand as it grasped at Nyx's finger. "Is it a boy or a girl?"

"It's a boy," Nyx said, gently turning the blankets to face Blitz. "This is Kurt Junior."

"Aw!" Tigress giggled. "We didn't get a good look at him before we left to find you guys."

Blitz stared, open mouthed at the fuzzy blue baby. He looked a lot like Nightcrawler, save that he had wings, arched feet, and a whip-like tail, like Nyx.

Stunned, Blitz shook his head. "Well … I'm a monkey's uncle."

"Blitz!" Spectre scolded, and Nightcrawler looked as though he were about to leap across the bed and pummel him.

"It's not a bad thing!" Blitz cried, and Kurt Jr. squirmed unhappily at the noise. "It's just that he's cute like a monkey."

Behind him, Blitz heard Iceman shrug and mutter to Gambit, "The little guy does kind of look like the winged monkeys from the Wizard of Oz …."

Blitz held his arms out. "Can I hold him?"

Nyx nodded, and Nightcrawler sighed. "Okay. Just … be careful, ja? He's brand new."

Very carefully, Blitz scooped the little baby from Nyx's arms. Now he could see why her pregnancy became so difficult; Baby Kurt was pretty heavy, and those wings of his were mighty big for such a little thing.

Spectre smiled at the infant. "He's lovely."

"Nicht wahr?" Nightcrawler agreed.

Grinning, Blitz looked up at Nyx and Nightcrawler. "Can I babysit?"

A horrified silence blanketed the room. Out of the corer of his eye, he saw Tigress and Wolverine exchange a look; Blitz's escapades in babysitting Siberia had been less than ideal, to say the least ….

Spectre chuckled at Nightcrawler's stricken expression. "Don't worry, Nightcrawler-san, I'll give him some pointers."

Nightcrawler visibly relaxed. "I suppose so."

Pleased with that, at least, Blitz smiled down at his nephew. "Don't worry, kiddo. We're gonna have so much fun …!"

At that, Baby Kurt promptly spat up all over Blitz's jacket.

THE END