Me: Yay!! Chapter three is up and running!! I can't believe I got this done!
Iman: You better not make us look like crap.
Me: Don't worry!! I made you awesome!! I hope...
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Bayville Mall
Jamie sat looking at the mall doors and sighed. Iman looked over at him and frowned, "what's wrong, Jamie?"
"Blood is in the air. Blood is everywhere. Blood is on the ground. Kathrine's blood will be found." The group looked up and saw a small boy with brown hair, brown eyes and fair skin. He was small but they could visibly tell how old he was. Fourteen.
"What did you say?" Iman asked, looking at him.
"Shadowcat is going to be killed," he replied. "In there." The boy pointed to the mall and then headed in the other direction.
"That was creepy," Tabitha stated, watching the boy with her eyes.
The boy suddenly stopped and turned to look at them, "unless someone stops it of course." He then quickly ran into the darkness.
Iman unbuckled himself and jumped out of the car after the boy. He returned only moments after the rest of the group had finished unbuckling. "Where'd he go?"
"I lost him," Iman replied, bewildered. "It's like he just vanished."
"But you've got senses like Mister Logan!" Jamie cried out, running up to Iman. "How did you lose him?"
"Don't know," Iman replied.
"Something tells me we should get inside the mall," Roberto said, staring at the mall doors as they opened to let people in and out. "Let's go."
"Wait!" Tabitha cried out, popping open the glove compartment. "Maybe shades left some shades for us to use." The group looked at her and she smiled. "Hey, we need to look stylish when we go in there." After digging through, she found five spare pairs and handed them out to the group. "It'll also be a way we'll recognize each other in the large crowd."
"How many Middle Easterners do you know who have blue eyes?" Iman asked, looking at Tabitha.
"Hey, it'll disguise your visual differences of other Middle Easterners," Rahne stated with a smile, pinching the boy on the cheek.
Now, to get the image straight, imagine Tabitha, Roberto, Rahne, Jamie and a sleek muscular Middle Easterner all in shades matching those of Scott's all wearing the same style of clothes. White teeshirts, blue jeans, work boots and leather jackets. That was in fact what everyone was wearing.
Starting off from the right was Iman. Tall but not as tall as Roberto with desert brown skin and hair. Next to him was the small and petite Jamie. Short brown hair and pale skin. Then was the Scot, Rahne. Her hair was short red and let loose falling just below her ears and her skin pale. Then was Roberto, the Brazilian male. His hair dark and neatly gelled back making him look like a bad boy when compared to his dark skin. And finally Tabitha. With blond hair just as long, if not slightly shorter than Rahne's, her pale skin was similar to that of Jamie's. She was shewing pink bubble gum. To an outsider it would have looked like they were siblings but none of them seemed to care as the others in the mall looked at them as they seemed to walk in near slow motion. Suddenly real time hit them and they started laughing.
"That was kinda fun," Tabitha stated. "So, let's hit the arcade. Come on, Rahne. Meet back here in two hours?"
"I think we should stay together," Roberto stated and Tabitha frowned.
"Yeah, I agree with Robby," Rahne stated. Tabitha smirked at this statement and then looked over at Iman and Jamie. Jamie was obviously clueless but Iman caught the drift.
"I think we should find Kitty first," Iman stated, looking around.
"Yeah, I saw Lance's jeep out front," Tabitha stated.
"Lance?" Iman said, looking at her.
"Her supposed not boyfriend," Rahne stated, looking at Iman. "So, where do you think she is?"
"I can send me out," Jamie suggested.
"And creep everyone out?" Iman asked. "Good idea but not in a place like this." Jamie nodded and looked around.
"I see them," Roberto stated, pointing over to the clothes store.
"Clothes," Iman groaned.
"What's wrong with clothes?" Jamie asked, looking up at Iman.
"Nothing," Iman replied looking down at Jamie. "Let's go tell her that she's in danger."
"Why would she believe us?" Jamie asked, turning to look at Kitty. "She'll never believe you when I'm with you."
"She doesn't have a reason not to trust me," Roberto stated. The group looked at him and he smiled lightly. "I'll be back." Roberto quickly ran off to Kitty and inform her of what had happened outside. They saw her laugh and Roberto returned huffing and depressed. "She didn't believe me."
"Don't worry," Rahne stated, patting him on the back. "You tried." She then glared at Kitty who was currently in a deep, passionate kiss with Lance. She rolled her eyes. "Not dating my ass." Iman looked at Rahne and then over at Lance and Kitty kissing. His face went into complete shock and horror. What they were doing totally defied the laws of his religion.
"Hey, Wheels, you okay?" Tabitha asked, patting him on the face. "Wheels?" Iman nodded and then looked at Tabitha who was only an inch away from his face. He jumped back a foot or two and then sat down in a nearby bench. "What's wrong?" Tabitha sat down and waved her hand to Roberto, Rahne and Jamie to leave the two alone for a little while.
"So, what do you wanna do, Kiddo?" Roberto asked, leaning on Jamie's head.
"Don't call me 'Kiddo,'" Jamie replied, taking Roberto's elbow off of his head.
"Yeah," Rahne said, kneeling down next to Jamie. "He's not a kid anymore. He's twelve."
"He's still got the cuteness factor," Roberto stated. "That classifies him as a kid."
"What if I told you that you had the cuteness factor?" Rahne asked, looking at Roberto with a certain gleam in her eyes causing said Brazilian male to blush. "Just what I thought."
Gross, Jamie thought watching the two make goo goo eyes at each other. As he looked around to take his mind off of the dopey love birds with him, he thought he saw a glimpse of white hair, blue suit and all in a blur. "Guys, I think the brotherhood is planning something."
"Brotherhood?" Rahne asked, looking at him.
"If you're alone as much as I am in the mansion with a bunch of adults, you'd learn a lot of things yourself," Jamie stated, looking at her. "They're a bunch of bad guys."
"Mystique," Tabitha stated, approaching them. "I saw her."
"Jamie just caught a glimpse of Quicksilver," Roberto stated.
"That can't be good," Tabitha stated. "The Brotherhood is planning something. I just know it."
"And whatever it is is going to kill or nearly kill Shadowcat," Iman stated, visibly shuddering. Obviously remembering that deep kiss she and Lance had shared.
"Should we warn the others?" Rahne asked.
"No," Iman stated. "We should be capable of taking care of them ourselves."
"What can you do?" Tabitha asked, looking at Iman. "As far as we know, all you have are enhanced senses."
"In was trained by both S.H.I.E.L.D. and H.Y.D.R.A. They were training me to track weapon X up until Logan came to get me this morning. I'm an expert marital artist."
"Any other secret abilities we need to know about you?" Rahne asked as the ground started to shake.
"Just one," he replied, revealing his claws only enough for the group to see.
"Seems to me like you've got more control over those than Mister Logan," Jamie stated, staring at Iman's hands. Iman noticed and quickly retracted them.
"I only use them when I really need to kill something and kill it fast," Iman stated. Suddenly the ground started shaking and the mall was suddenly in panic and was empty withing ten to fifteen minuets. The only people left were Raven, Pietro, Kitty, Lance, Roberto, Jamie, Rahne, Tabitha Iman and Ororo who was out of sight watching the events unfold. She watched as a single boy stepped out of the gap, smirking. "What is he doing here?" Everyone looked at the boy who had prophesied Kitty's death.
"I see that you have not yet left the mall," he said, looking at Kitty. "You have made a grave mistake. I have seen your death in his arms." The boy pointed at Lance. "Master will be very pleased at what I have done for him."
"And indeed am," a male voice stated, stepping into the shadows, surprising everyone of what it was. The boy's master was none other than Mesmero. "You are relieved of duty." Suddenly, the boy passed out and fell to the floor. Everyone looked at the bald, tattooed head guy in a purple robe. "Did you miss me?"
"Mesmero," Kitty and Ororo stated in union.
"What are you doing here, Mesmero!?" Kitty asked, glaring at him.
"No reason," he replied. "Just here to send Professor Xavier a message."
"And that is?" Lance asked, glaring at him.
"I've found a mutant much stronger than Apocalypse," Mesmero stated. "His will power however, is very much weaker than his."
"And this all powerful mutant is who?" Lance asked, glaring daggers at the middle easterner.
"His name is Celeste," Mesmero stated. "He's still dormant but I know where he lies." Suddenly the boy woke up and looked around frightfully. "See you later, Mutants!" Suddenly, Quicksilver and Mystique as well as Mesmero himself were gone and the group looked over at the boy.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!" he screamed suddenly, causing the building to begin crumbling. He then suddenly was accompanied by strange beings that glared daggers at everyone in the lobby.
There were seven of them. They all looked like shadows with piercing yellow eyes. One thing was certain though. They were constantly changing shape even if they knew what they were.
"Who dares destroy our little master?" one of them asked looking around. "Are these seven bothering you master?"
"They kidnapped me!" the boy cried out. "Destroy them!" Iman instantly extracted his claws and smirked.
"Something that needs to be killed and killed quickly," Iman stated. "My kind of fight. Listen, no one touches the boy until the others get here!"
"What others?" Rahne asked, looking at Iman.
"The professor was waiting for us to use our powers to pinpoint our location. Now he has a more powerful mutant than he bargained for. Let's get them!"
"Who died and made him in charge?" Shadowcat asked, phasing out of her clothes while wearing her uniform.
"Don't know but I like his style," Avalanche replied, smirking.
The seven shadows instantly attacked while the boy just sat there, shivering.
Boom-Boom
Boom-Boom lead her Shadow away from the rest of the group to the other end of the lobby and quickly turned around, holding a handful of her bombs. She smirked and threw them at the Shadow who simply inhaled them making a small *boom* inside of it. She looked at it with a mixture of surprise and a smirk. "Just what I need, a challenge." Tabitha smiled and created another bomb of great size and threw it at the Shadow who inhaled but was unaffected by the explosion. Her face went wide in surprise. "I'm doomed."
Sunspot and Wolfsbane
"This is new," Sunspot stated, as he and Wolfsbane were standing back to back being flanked by Shadows.
"Sure is," Wolfsbane stated. "I'd hate to see this boy mad." Sunspot quickly powered up and shot a blast at his Shadow which gobbled the attack up like it was a snack. It smirked. Wolfsbane transformed into hybrid-form and charged hers but it dodged aside just before contact. The two Shadows stood side by side as Sunspot and Wolfsbane stood next to each other.
"Do you notice something?" Sunspot asked, studying the shadows carefully.
"Yeah, I see it too," Wolfsbane stated, looking at them. The two of them nodded at each other and then charged the Shadows, quickly attacking the other, harming the two shadows. "It worked." The two proceeded to fight the shadows.
Multiple
Multiple looked at his Shadow. It was the same size as him exactly. He waved his hand at it and it did the same. He tilted his head to the side and it mimicked him exactly.
"What's your name?" Multiple and the Shadow asked in union.
"I'm Multiple!" they both replied. Multiple and the Shadow blinked. "How can you be me?" Multiple then slammed his fist into his palm creating four more of himself. The Shadow copied him, creating four other Shadow-Dupes. The eight of them looked at each other.
"Let's play a game!" one of the Multiple clones announced. All of them looked at that clone. "What?"
Suddenly, Multiple received himself an idea. He sent a message to the three clones and they all nodded as did the Shadow and it's clones. "Run amok against them!" Multiple and the Shadow cried out, creating more dupes. The Shadow and Multiple stared wide eyed as the clones tackled the original Shadow as did the Shadow's clones tackling the original Multiple.
Avalanche and Shadowcat
"What's going on here?" Shadowcat asked, staring at the Shadows. "This has better be a bad dream."
"Sorry, Shadowcat," Avalanche stated, closing his fists. "I don't think this is one."
"I figured as much," Shadowcat stated.
"Let's just make the best of this," Avalanche replied. "Let's just kick their asses." Avalanche stomped on the ground as did one of the two Shadows and nothing happened. Shadowcat looked at him.
"Well?" Shadowcat said.
"My power didn't work," Avalanche replied. "There must be something wrong with this place."
"Or with the boy," Shadowcat replied, pointing to the brunette boy cowering in the corner.
"Go get him," Avalanche stated. "I'll handle these too."
"Certainly," Shadowcat replied, nodding and started running towards the boy. One of the two Shadows saw what she was doing and instantly swooped over to her and grabbed her. "I can't phase through it!" she cried out. "AH!!"
Iman
Iman glared at his Shadow which was lacking claws while he had all his out. The Shadow looked startled but went into a fighting pose none the less. Iman ran right up to his target with his super speed and sent flying by a simple backhand from the Shadow. Hitting the fountain in the center of the room, he stood up out of the water and smirked. "Is that all you've got? My super strength? That's pretty lame if you think about it for a minute." Iman stalked towards the Shadow slowly and extended his claws slightly further. "This is going to be fun."
Suddenly, he heard Shadowcat cry out, "AH!" He turned and saw Shadowcat in the grasp of the Shadow and her glared.
Boom-Boom heard Shadowcat cry out and created a large bomb and threw it at the Shadow and ran past it as it ate the bomb. She made it to the rest of the group and threw a bomb at the Shadow that was holding onto Shadowcat, startling it and causing it to drop Shadowcat. Iman dashed over to Shadowcat and picked her up, bringing her to the group and then retrieved Multiple.
"Wow," Multiple said when his feet were planted firmly on the ground. "I think my head's spinning."
"Worry about that later," Avalanche stated, putting Shadowcat on her feet. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," she replied, going into fighting stance. "So, how are we going to take care of these things?"
"They're our Shadows," Sunspot replied. "They know our every move and know all of our abilities. We can't take them out on our own."
"Yes we can," Iman stated, glaring at the Shadows. "We just need to get to the boy."
"But-"
"I know he's small and weak," Iman stated. "But we've gotta do it."
"So not Muslim like," Ororo stated, watching the fight from where she stood as the others came. She looked at them and held her arm out to stop them.
"What gives, Auntie O?" Spyke asked, looking at her.
"They have been fighting a good fight up until you got here," she replied, looking at them. "I want to see how well they fare."
"And if one of them gets hurt badly?" Wolverine asked.
"We intervene," Ororo stated.
"Just think of this as the Danger Room," stated Sunspot to the others. "Our target is Shade, the boy. First one there has to calm him down." The group nodded and readied themselves. "GO!!"
At once, Boom-Boom created several small bombs, Multiple multiplied and Avalanche stomped on the ground several times creating a diversion as did the bombs as Boom-Boom threw them creating a loud *boom*. Several of the Shadow clones became distracted and that's when Sunspot took his chance. He fired a beam of heat energy at them and they vanished. His Shadow attempted to block the attack but was too late. Shadowcat completely phased herself and quickly ran towards Shade. She quickly darted and dashed and then ran right into her Shadow, falling down backwards.
"Phase," Iman whispered, touching her. When she did so, he immediately picked her up and ran to the opposite side where Shade was sitting. "You calm him down while we take care of these things." Shadowcat nodded and became tangible again.
"Hi," she said, touching the boy with a smile on her face. The boy screamed and screamed loudly. Everyone including the Shadows covered their ears. All of Multiple's clones vanished as well as all of the Shadows. Suddenly, it was silent and they all uncovered their ears and opened their eyes. The boy was unconscious. Shadowcat picked the boy up and brought him over to the others.
"Congratulations," Ororo stated, exiting the shadows receiving a blast from Sunspot.
"Oh, sorry Ms. Ororo," he said, rubbing the back of his head. "You startled us."
"I think I should watch it next time," Ororo walked up to them with Wolverine, Spyke and the others from the Mansion behind her. "That was some great teamwork. And you make a great leader, Iman."
"There is no such thing as a team if there is a leader. Only trust that one will follow a set idea that one spits out randomly." Iman withdrew his claws as Roberto powered down and Rahne reverted to her traditional form. "I have trust in them and I believe that they have the same amount of trust in each other."
"A battle is not won with just trust," Wolverine stated.
"But it helps," Jamie stated, looking up at the fearsome Canadian.
"Hey, don't get your breaches tangled up in a not just because we handled something on our own," Rahne stated with a smirk on her face. "Hey, professor, what do you say you let us go on some missions together?"
"I don't think this is something we should discus here," Rogue stated, pointing to the door. "The police are here."
"In that case, we should flee," Iman stated, taking a step towards the door. "So, I trust you brought the Blackbird.
Scott looked out the doors and instantly saw his convertible, "did you guys take my car?"
"I thought you asked him," Iman said, looking at Rahne.
"I did," she stated, smiling and shrugging. "When I took his keys I said and I quote, 'Scott, I'm taking your car. Don't say anything if it's alright.' He was asleep."
"You could have left him a note," Iman stated.
"Didn't think of it," she said, rubbing her head. "Oh well."
Scott glared at them, "Professor!"
"Just report it stolen," he stated. "Right now we need to get out of here before we are caught."
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Me: And that's the end of this chapter folks!!
Jamie: OH wow!!! A new X-Men!!!
Iman: And a new enemy.