A/N: I own neither Naruto nor X-men. Reviews fuel chapters.
Angel897: Thanks for the review, it was exciting to get a long one^^. I can't answer to many of your questions because it'd ruin things later in the story, but I do intend on them still having shinobi-like traits to be explored through the story.
Chapter Eight
11:01 AM. Jet: Monica, Alkali Lake, March 04.
"Seriously, this is so cool! It's like we're on a helicopter!" exclaimed Naruto, who had long not only gotten over the initial embarrassment to of being caught staring at Sasuke, but completely forgotten it all together. He was watching with wide eyes the descent of the jet to the ground.
"Except for that we're on a jet, dobe," The raven replied, not bothering to lift his head, or even open his eyes.
"You're missing it! You're missing it!" he shouted, face pressed against the window of the jet. Originally it had been Sasuke by the window, but he had given it up after relentless pestering by the blonde. "We're landing, teme, landing! And you're missing it!" The jet finally came to a rest, the constant roaring fading into a dull hum before silencing completely. Naruto jumped up, ready to lunge from the jet and frolic through the area they'd landed on.
"There's something I'm still not sure of," said Jean. Storm looked over from her role as pilot, unbuckling the belt that crossed her chest in an 'X.' "Why would Tomair use Alkali Lake as a base?" Storm opened her mouth to answer, but was interrupted by Magneto calling from a couple seats behind.
"He has a fixation with a Stryker case from decades ago, my dear," he said. "For all we know, he could be trying to re-create it."
"What was the case?" Storm asked, turning to look back at him.
"No one knows," he replied. By this time he was standing as well was Mystique at his side. They left the jet. The lake was full and shimmering under the beams of sunlight. They didn't mingle but rather strayed into two defined groups: that of the X-men and Magneto's team. The grass hadn't been cut in a while, gracing the members' ankles as they walked. They walked for several minutes towards the wall and spillway that lead into the supposed base of Henry Tomair. When they neared Jean suddenly grasped her head with her hands, eyes clenching shut with a sudden gasp. The majority of them stopped, looking back.
"Jean?" Storm rushed over to her, a hand falling on her shoulder. "Jean!" said redheads eyes snapped open again.
"We gotta get out of here." Storm looked confused for a split second, to which Jean yelled a frantic "Now!"
"Back to the Jet!" Storm shouted at the others. She and Jean had been friends for a long time, and she knew these "rushes" Jean got weren't to be taken lightly. They turned only to find a trio of people standing in their way. In the middle was a man in his middle ages, wearing a dark sweater and dark pants, holding a clipboard firmly to his side. His hair was for the most part brown, but starting to gray around his ears. Beside him, to his right, was a young girl. She was of medium stature, locks of strawberry-blonde hair falling in light waves over her shoulders. Her head lolled off to one side, mouth slightly agape and expression vacant. Her body weaved uncertainly back and forth, as if she could tip over from lack of balance any minute. To his left stood tall was a young man, hair swept messily and black in color. His appearance was a stoic and cold one, clad in all gray. His eyes were just as vacant as those of that described before him, but he stood upright, gaze ahead of them.
"Who the hell are you?" Naruto blurted out before anyone could stop him. The definite female of the three craned her neck to look at them without raising her head at a rather painful-looking angle, her eyes seeming to connect for the first time on any level, but not fully seeing them.
"Naruto," Sakura whispered sharply, reaching forwards, grabbing his arm. He man in the middle gave a polite smile and inclination of his head.
"I am Mr. Henry Tomair. It's a pleasure to meet you. I was very excited when I first started to pursue Mr. Stryker's work, but finally being here is quite the thrill."
"What do you want?" demanded Storm, not taking her eyes off the three.
"To indulge," he replied, stepping back once. "Please, humor me." The two around him then stepped forwards. It seemed almost ridiculous that Tomair would send out only two people against the group of both Magneto and Xavier's men, but there was an air of confidence around the man in addition to the small smile and crow's feet above his eyes. This threat didn't seem to impress Eric, who allowed a small smile to cross his features before he turned and began to head off, associates following him.
"Hey!" Jean called, turning wildly around to see them departing at the moment of danger. Magneto bothered neither to call or turn back. They'd reached a dead end on their search, and facing Tomair now risked playing a deadly domino effect that risked toppling the outcome of their careful planning. And that he could not allow. Almost as if Tomair knew these very thoughts, he began to chuckle, but not comment on the leave. It didn't matter enough to comment. Magneto wasn't who he was after. What was very on cue but seemingly surprising was the act of the dark-haired male stepping forwards. He suddenly disappeared, reappearing in front of Wolverine and delivering a punch to his jaw. There were no warning signs of his apparition, only blunt execution.
Logan let out a grunt of surprise as his head snapped to the side under the force of the man's fist. He aligned his neck with a twist and a crack, grunting as he did so. Before he could come back with a strike of his own, the back of the stranger's attire was yanked by Naruto with a triumphant shout, spinning him to deliver an attack of his own. With another non-warning the male disappeared, this time only going far enough to get out of the way of the blondes' onslaught and throw a series of punches to his stomach. Naruto attempted several blind attempts at punches, but it was clear the other was simply to fast.
Meanwhile, the strawberry-blonde female made no movement, but a blue current formed around her in a semi-circle, rushing out in a wave to where Jean, Storm, Sakura, and Sasuke were. The three let out various exclamations, the ground beneath them pulsing with energy and knocking them to the ground.
"Sasuke!" called Sakura. She had looked over at how the other two were fairing and came to a decision. "We'll handle this, you go help Naruto!" The raven looked over at her for a moment, questioning her judgment in only the briefest of flickers before nodding and hurrying over. Sakura now focused her attention of the female in front of her, brows knitting. Another pulse of energy shot threw the Earth, but the three were expecting it this time and didn't quite fall over. What they weren't expecting was ribbons of color shooting up from the ground and ensnaring them. As soon as it wrapped around them Jean cried out at an instant, agonizing pain in her head. She threw said back, mouth open but now silent, eyes squeezed shut. Storm snapped her head in the direction of the other, calling out her name but getting no response. The fabric continued to squeeze them, steadily growing stronger surely until they would breath no more.
"Storm!" Sakura called out. "If you can get me out of here, I think I can get to her!" Storm's eyes widened, looking between them for a moment before the iris' faded into the backdrop of her eyeballs, all one glassy white surface. As this happened the wind picked up, blowing her hair around her face. Dark clouds rolled over the sky, thunder booming. A crack of lightning struck the ground next to their assailant, dirt spraying up on contact and raining back down on her. The dazed female stumbled back several moments afterward in reaction to this, and in that moment Sakura felt her bindings grow just a little weaker but tighten just as the opposing female's concentration was back. It seemed the binds took a nice bit of intent to maintain, Sakura quickly decided. Good. Lightning continued to rain down in rapid succession, and at the opportune moment, she escaped.
Naruto and Wolverine were finding it quite impossible to land a hit on their foe as he flickered about untouched, striking them whenever he found an opening, with was often. Sasuke had joined the struggle and at first reached the same result. Wolverine lunged, claws drawn, and just narrowly cut through the after-image of their opponent. Letting out a low growl from the back of his throat he whipped around, trying to catch sight of him again. The boy with the dark, spiky hair, who's name he'd never learned, closed his eyes and for a fleeting moment Logan mistook this for a sign he was about to faint. But before action on his part could be taken, the boy's eyes snapped open again.
But something was...different. It didn't take long for the wolf to pinpoint this small, but significant irregularity in Sasuke's appearance. His eyes, once bottomless, obsidian pools had become a rich crimson in color, absolutely brilliant around the pupil and fading darker to near black around the edge of the iris. With that he charged, landing a punch straight to the face of their quick attacker, catching him for the first time since the battle began. His fist landed right on the nose, sinking in with a crunch. His hand was pulled back and another was delivered to his gut. The hand assaulting pulled back and another was landed to his gut, doubling him over.
Before a third could possibly be pulled the male disappeared again. These movements happened in such rapid succession it left Logan momentarily stunned. Though it would be impossible to prove, the actuality of the situation was that the teleporter hadn't made haste due to Sasuke's attack, but had been planning it beforehand and received the beating just before he could, pure mental memory, akin to muscle memory, allowing him to do so under the distraction of his face being crushed in. He reappeared several feet away from them, clutching his nose with a loud cry of pain.
Naruto sprang from behind the distracted male, who whipped around and delivered as strike to his face. What should have been a painful-sounding click of Naruto's head snapping to the side under the force was instead a loud pop and what was supposedly Naruto disappeared in a puff of gray smoke. Green-haired-boy gripped his hand, frowning. A...substitution of some sort? No way, what he hit genuinely felt like flesh...just before it gave under his and, sinking in and through as if he'd punched a balloon and even popping into nothingness in accordance to the same theme.
Another Naruto grabbed him from behind in his second distraction in a bear hug as yet a third ran around, landing multiple punches. Unfortunately, though bound, he still rose his feet, planting them in Naruto's chest, forcing him backwards and eliminating whatever it was that held him. Surprisingly the Naruto he kicked didn't vanish like the others, but tumbled back with a cry of surprise, landing on his back. A searing pain pierced his chest and the green-haired boy looked down to see three blade protruding from his chest, blood glistening around the exit wounds. Wolverine stood behind him, arm stretched out, knuckles only an inch or so from his back. After a moment his claws retracted with a metallic scraping back into his hands. He slowly lowered his hand back to his side as the boy collapsed onto the ground. Naruto's eyes were wide as he pushed himself back to his feet, shocked gaze trained on Wolverine. Said wolf turned to look at the raven who, though not shocked or in possession of any emotion, stared as well, eyes having at some point changed back into their previous onyx.
All three, as if on cue, remembered the women and looked over to see the three had finished off their opponent as well, who had had stepped behind Tomair, now standing. He put his hands together, the clapping sounding through the tense, silent atmosphere.
"I do say you have exceeded all my expectations," he said, the comment seemingly directed at all of them. He didn't show any empathy or even glance at the fallen, bleeding young man. A whirling was heard in the distance, growing louder and louder with each second as a helicopter came into view, lowering until it was hovering above them, a rope latter hanging off the side. "Excuse me, my dear," he said, stepping past the female behind him to shared a minimal reaction, just blinking once or twice.
"Tomair!" Jean yelled after him as he approached the latter and grabbed a hold of the fourth to last rung with his hand, foot of the same side stepping on the lowest rung. He looked over to her.
"I'd love to stay and chat but I've got to fly!" he called over the loud whirling. They began to hurry forwards towards him but it was too late, and the helicopter had already began to rise and take off, taking him with it. They looked to each other for just a second until the bodies of Wolverine and Sasuke were covered with blue, streaks that criss-crossed their flesh like a railroad track, save it was void of any patter before they, too, vanished. Though much more literally, as there was a moment of blur, and they were gone.
"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted in surprise, lurching forwards to his comrade a moment to late. His voice was matched with Jean's shout of
"Logan!" in unison.
"Kuso[1]!" Naruto exclaimed, thrashing his head to one side. "Kuso!"
[1] Shit!
