Ultimate X-Men:

Issue 57

The Most Dangerous Game: Part 2

Somewhere over the Atlantic, the X-Jet shot through the sky, closer to the water then it should be, but sped as fast as it could to its destination. Inside the jet, Angel was at the pilot sit. He looked a little overwhelmed, liked he had never done this before, may it be flying an aircraft or stealing it.

Dazzler was in the passenger side, looking horribly terrified. "Pull up, War!" She yelled fumbling for her seatbelt. "We're not supposed to be going in the water!"

Angle looked at the woman, worry crossing his face and entering his voice, with a meek smile he said, "I'm sorry Ali! I've only flown the X-Jet simulator before this!"

Colossus had taken his usually seat behind the pilot and stared out the window. He looked lost in thought, from his grounding or stealing or from the fact that his sister was kidnapped by a demon lord; it was anyone's guess.

Colossus huffed and turned to look at the man that had taken the seat next to him. He smiled at Alex and gazed into his eyes, man, he thought, the boy was beautiful. He would have to find a way to make his affections known soon or he might lose his chance.

Colossus silently cursed to himself. Of all the things to happen he had to go and fall in love with one of his teammates! He didn't know if Alex returned the feelings or if the young man was just humoring him because of his sister.

He needed to find his sister and find her fast. He hated the feeling that she was suffering in the demon world while he, her older brother was living it up.

Well, living it up was a little bit of an over-statement.

Phoenix looked at Colossus and smiled back at him. He was just coming into his telepathic powers but he sent a mental push towards the man and his smiled deepened. He wondered if the man would ever ask him out. Alex had never thought about a man in that way before, in fact he only ever had "fallen" for someone once before, but in the future he comes from you never had time to fall in love. But he knew he liked Peter more than a friend should and knew he wanted to explore this new option, explore everything about it.

But, Phoenix was also worried about Peter's sister. He couldn't really explain. He had only known Illyana for such a short time, but it seemed that the two had really connected, like they were meant to be friends.

Phoenix was hurt by what happened and wished he could have helped Peter more. If only he had more control over his mental abilities, maybe he could have done something to help more.

As it was Phoenix had no idea how he had gotten out of that crystal prison and was thankful that no one asked him.

Phoenix was brought out of his mental images of himself and Peter when he heard Ali scream. "You don't know how to fly?"

"Hey!" Angle replied a little annoyed. "This wasn't my idea. I don't even want to be here." He shot everyone a quick glare to challenge his "idea" of not wanting to come; in fact he never said he didn't want to come. "When Professor Xavier finds out we stole his jet, we're probably going to get expelled."

From one of the further seats back, Nightcrawler piped up. "What choice did we have, Warren?" Colossus and Phoenix turned to look at him; both almost forgot he was in the jet with them. "Allow a fellow mutant to be slaughtered for entertainment of others?"

"What if he is guilty?" Phoenix asked quietly.

"It doesn't make it right for people to hunt him." Nightcrawler reaffirmed. "I thought you came from a future where stuff like this happened." He stared at Phoenix.

"Um…" Phoenix didn't have a chance to say anything else.

"Besides, Xavier is the most powerful telepath on the planet, right?" Colossus said looking at Nightcrawler and then at Phoenix. "Maybe he planted the idea for this rescue operation in our minds." Everyone turned to look at Colossus, everyone but Angle. "For all we know, we're doing exactly what he wants."

Nightcrawler placed a finger to his lips in thought, eyes slightly going wide. "Mein gott, what if Peter is correct? What if even this conversation was predestined? What if we have no free will… but are merely Herr Professor's pawns."

Alex laughed out loud. "I don't know about you, but I'm doing this of my own free will." Alex tapped his head, his reddish blond hair falling forward. "Herr Professor can't get into this brain."

"Yeah, no offense, Kurt, but that's the weakest rationalization I've ever heard." Angle said joining in on the conversion. "If the Professor really wanted us to help this guy escape Krakoa, why wouldn't he have just told us to?"

"Plausible deniability," Colossus said placing both his hands in his lap and placing his ankles together. "If we're captured, Xavier will be able to claim that he never told anyone to break a prisoner out of a sovereign nation." Alex looked up at Colossus smiling, Colossus smiled back, thinking he had impressed the young man.

"But that still doesn't explain me." Alex said. Colossus's smile faded as he thought it over, nothing came to mind. If the professor were controlling them to do this, why was Phoenix coming along?

For the fun? The danger?

Breaking the silence Alison finally decided to say something. "Tin-Man, if we're captured, we're probably going to be the next people to die in this Hunger Games knockoff."

"Exactly." Angle said nodding his head. "We should have at least waited for Cyclops and his team to get back from their mission."

"It looks like we have arrived." Alex said pointing out the window towards a small little island. The rest of the group looked out the window and no one else said anything as the jet zoomed ever closer to the tiny little island that mutants could call death.


Somewhere on one of the cliffs on the island sat Mojo's mansion. He was standing in front of a huge TV, a video camera recording him. "Welcome, friends, to another episode of Hunt for Justice!" He held out his hands in a warm embrace. "I'm your host, Mojo Adams, and I'm very proud to introduce the newest hunter brave enough to take on the savage animal who still seems to be alive and thriving somewhere on this treacherous island."

The overly fat man smiled a sickly smile, showing off his yellow teeth. "Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the young man known to gaming fanatics around the world as Arcade!" Mojo yelled the man's name as the camera moved over to get a good look at the red headed man that was standing next to Mojo. He was huge, more muscle than anything else and he was armed to the bone.

Three guns hanging off of him, a gun in each hand and knifes strapped up and down both legs.

Metal casings were on his knee caps and shoulders, two more guns on his back, two at his hips and one final one thrown across his back.

The camera quickly moved back to Mojo Adams. "This prodigy comes to us all the way from his video-game empire in Redwood Shores, California." Mojo paused for dramatic effect and then took a deep breath. "At the tender age of thirteen, he designed Murderworld, the original "first-person shooter," making him an instant millionaire."

"How much longer?" Arcade asked, clearly annoyed, looking through the scope of his gun.

Ignoring the comment, Mojo went on. "Since then, Arcade has used his fame and fortune to travel the globe in search of more immersive gaming experiences." Arcade put down his gun and narrowed his eyes at the fat little man. "Over the last three weeks, he's watched countless hours of raw footage of our contestant, hoping to devise a unique strategy that will—"

"Let's skip the cut scenes and get to the action, Mojo." Arcade said cocking his gun.

Mojo stopped and narrowed his eyes at the taller man. "Actually, why don't we try this once more from the top?" He said with a sick smile spreading across his face, he knew exactly how to touch someone's buttons. "To be honest, I don't get the feeling that you want this enough. I'd like to see something with a bit more sincerity coming from you, show me your fire."

"Sincerity?" Arcade said pointing the cocked gun at the man's head. Instead of Mojo turning to shock he smiled. Nothing seemed to bother the man and that tended to disturbed others. "You want sincerity and fire?" Arcade screamed as he realized that the gun wasn't having the desired effect it was suppose to.

The effect did work on the camera crew and producers however. "Guards!" Someone yelled running to get some help.

Mojo held up his hands, not in shock over the gun, but to try and calm everyone else down. This was going to make very good television program, very good, he smiled. "No! Keep rolling, Major Domo!"

Arcade moved the gun from Mojo's head and pointed it at the camera. "I'm here because my sister was killed when Magneto blew up the Brooklyn Bridge, all right?" He put the gun away and spit on the carpet. "With that mutie locked away for life, wasting your murdering gene-freak is the closest I'm ever going to get to tasting justice."

"Thank you, child." Mojo said rubbing his chin and straightening his tie. "That's exactly what our audience needs to hear." Mojo slide his hand across his neck at the cameraman.

"Whatever," Arcade said turning away from the man. "…just tell your goons to stay out of my way. From here on out, your island is my free-fire zone." He walked away, planning for the ride of his life.

"Excellent segment, sir." Domo said walking up to Mojo.

"I… suppose…" Mojo said as he turned to face the television screen.

"What, you don't honestly think that heavily armed psychopath is going to have any trouble taking our "longshot," do you?" Domo asked turning to face the same television. An image popped on of the man being hunted. "The mutant is famished and exhausted and—"

"I have no doubt Arcade is going to succeed, Major Domo." Mojo said sighing. "But part of me misses Mr. Centino already. He's far and away the best player ever to set foot on Krakoa."

"There will be others, sir."

"Will there?" Mojo placed his hands in his pockets, shaking his head. "Genosha has exiled most of its mutants already, and the few who did remain are hiding, not out committing capital crimes." Mojo turned away from the television screen. "What happens when our neighbor runs out of potential contestants for us to use?"

"There are mutants rotting in prison cells all across the globe, Mojo." Domo said turning away from the screen as well, looking down at the fat man. "Perhaps it's time we take our "talent search" worldwide."


Genosha International Airport:

Kitty, Jean, Bobby, and Scott just landed from their flight and reached the luggage area. Jean looked around as she grabbed her backpack from the belt among the hundreds of other bags. She wasn't paying any attention to the luggage, but watching all the television sets that were in her area.

She had already noticed about twenty of the things and they all were on the same channel. She growled as she walked with the rest of her crew through the airport. "This makes me sick." Jean said as the group past a huge screen television with the blond haired mutant running for his life.

"The entire country must be glued to that show." Cyclops said shaking his head. "How can people be amused by something like this? It's like Roman gladiators."

"Or Project Runway…" Kitty interjected as she watched the television screen.

"Can you blame them?" Bobby said from behind the group. Kitty turned around to look at the man, eyes narrowing just slightly. "The dude murdered one of their favorite leaders. I mean, our parents all tuned in to watch Jack Ruby shoot Lee Harvey Osborn."

Kitty frowned at the man and shook her head. "First of all, his name was Lee Harvey Oswald." She hissed at him. "And second, we don't know Arthur Centino killed this Lord Scheele guy. You can't trust the same cops who helped round up an entire group of people for deportation." She pulled her David's Star from around her neck. "Ask my grandparents."

"Get bent, Kitty." Bobby stabbed a finger at her. "Bad enough I have to take orders from Captain One-eye, I don't need you in my grill, too."

"In my grill? Pretty cool, Vanilla Ice." Kitty hissed, rolling her eyes at the young man.

Enough! Jean screamed at both of them in their heads. And all four stopped dead in their tracks. Scott looked down at the woman holding on to his arm and decided not to say anything when he saw the look in her eyes. We're supposed to be gifted exchange students, not a bunch of freshman brats on spring break. Now shut IT!

The group continued towards the exit without saying another word. As they left the airport no one in the group had noticed the white haired woman that had followed them since they arrived.


The X-Wing softly landed in the middle of a jungle and the door slid open with a whoosh. Phoenix was the first one off the jet. Phoenix floated through the air looking around, holding a hand to his forehead.

"My telepath abilities are pretty weak compared to Jean's, but I'm not picking anything up."

Colossus quickly jumped out of the jet and landed in front of Phoenix, he took a defensive stance around the man, looking back and forth. Phoenix placed a hand on his lower back, very close to his bottom end. Colossus jumped slightly foreword.

"I said we were clear." Phoenix smiled up at him. Colossus blushed a dark shade of red as he rubbed the back of his head. Before he could say anything the rest of the crew slowly walked off the jet.

Nightcrawler inched his way down, looking around the jungle, his tail twitching every which way. Dazzler was right behind him shaking her head. "Uck, I can't believe you made me air sick war… Me! Air sick."

"Hey, any landing you can walk away from…" Angel said from behind her lowering his head as he walked down the steps. He wasn't the tallest member of the group but the jet seemed to be built just for the Professor.

"Let's move out." Colossus said looking around trying to decide which way they should go. "First priority: Take down the broadcast system they got goin on."

"Perhaps Angel could make a few passes overheard, and attempt to locate the—" Nightcrawler began, but Angel cut him off.

"Actually, if it's okay with you guys… I think I'm gonna wait with the plane."

"What?" Dazzler said turning around to look at him. "You can't wuss out on us know, War."

"I just… I just have a bad feeling about this place, okay?" He looked at the rest of the group. "Besides… With so much jungle I wouldn't be much good to you."

"Don't worry about it, Angel." Phoenix said floating up into the air, fire surrounding him. "I can take a few quick sweeps."

"No." Colossus said looking at Phoenix. "I want us to stay as a group. I'm not going to force anyone to come, but if you stay behind, you stay in the jet." Colossus emphasized the word in; he looked at everyone and then nodded as he turned around to walk away.

"Isn't Pete hot when he plays front man?" Dazzler said smiling at the big man.

"You have no idea…" Phoenix said walking a little faster to catch up with the huge metal man.

Nightcrawler jumped to all fours and started to run in a half crouch kind of way, ignoring Alison and Phoenix as they all made their way into the woods.

"Angel," Colossus called back to the winged man. "If we're not back in an hour, take the plane back to Xavier's."

"And then what?" He called back.

"I don't know about these guys, but I'd like to be buried next to Hank."

Phoenix watched the big man walk ahead and looked sad for a moment. The man was hurting. Hurting more than Alex had thought.

Everyone will be hurting soon, Alex. Everyone. A voice inside Phoenix said. Phoenix hesitated for only a moment. That was the same voice that talked to him when he first manifested his Phoenix powers!

What was going on with him!


Somewhere else on the island, Longshot, as Mojo has dubbed him, was standing on a high cliff overlooking part of a valley. Mojo smiled at the television screen, but then concern blossomed across his face. "What in the world is our star doing now? He can't fly the coop, can he?"

"No, the mutant may have hollow bones, but our records say he's not a flier. He's agile, but also delicate." Domo said taking an active interest into the television. Domo held out his hand and the man's assistant put the clipboard in it.

Pulling the clipboard to his face he read it. "If he tries to jump, he'll…" The man stopped as he thought about the possibilities that the mutant could be thinking of.

"Oh, no." He said suddenly. Mojo whirled around at him

"What?" Mojo hissed.

"What if… what is he's realized he can't beat us? What is he's decided to forfeit?" Domo said throwing his hands into the air. "If the mutant commits suicide, he'll destroy the finale."

"Then forget the game!" Mojo yelled balling his hands into fist. "Just give Arcade the mutie's coordinates! Tell him to kill this thing before he kills itself!" Mojo was foaming at the mouth he was so angry.

Suddenly the television screen turned to static. Mojo gasped and took a step back. "What?" He yelled. "Is this a joke?! Give me a picture, dammit!" He screamed as he turned around and starting waving his fist at people. "Give me something!"

Domo ran to the said of the room where all the computer equipment, he starting to punch some of the buttons shaking his. "I… I don't know what's happening, sir." He said franticly. "Our remote cameras have stopped transmitting."

Mojo turned to the other wall and grabbed the phone of the wall. "Control Room, where the hell is my feed?!" The man he was talking to tried to say something back, but Mojo started screaming at the man over the phone.

Somewhere else on the island, Arcade was lurking around the dense jungle with one of his bigger guns out. "Arcade what's going on out there?" It was Mojo talking to the man through his ear piece.

"You tell me, Mojo." The man answered back, squatting to look at some tracks. "I lost that sorry excuse for a camera crew you saddled me with about an hour ago."

"We have no video feed for the entire island!" Mojo screamed at the man.

"Yeah, I thought as much, it's what I would of done… about a week ago.." Arcade smiled as he ran down the trail and jumped over a huge fallen tree. "Your prisoner has finally decided to stop plaing defense. He's decided to attack where he knows it'll hurt most…" Arcade landed on his feet with a thud and looked around. "… Your ratings."

"I can't afford this! I'm sending out a shock team to back you up!" Mojo yelled.

"Don't bother, I ran a hundred simulations for a scenario just like this." Arcade said coming close to a clearing. He smiled when he knew which simulation this mutie was going through. Number 56. "Your animal is good, but he's also predictable…"

Arcade slide to a stop as he came to the clearing. This was not simulation 56… he would have to make a 101 simulation.

Arcade was not expecting this at all.

Arcade watched as a woman stood back from the fallen tower, looking at the fire that was blazing. He then quickly noticed a blue demon like creature standing halfway up the broken tower, yellow smoke swirling around him.

Then he noticed the two that were threats; the big metal man ripping the tower out of the ground and the flying teenager who was surrounded in what looked like fire, a reddish glow around him.

"Who are you?" He asked pointing his gun at the woman.

"Who the hell are you?" Dazzler asked back placing her hands on her hips.

"Clever, Mojo." Arcade said as he took a few steps closer. "Throwing a few extra muties into the mix to keep things interesting, huh?"

"Dazzler watch out he—" Phoenix yelled from the air, but it was too late. Arcade opened fire on the unsuspecting girl standing not ten feet in front of him.

"No!" Colossus yelled as he rushed to Alison aid, but he was too slow. Alison threw her hands into the air and tried to duck before the bullets could hit her. But her eyes widened as she noticed the bullets started too slow and then completely stopped not two inches from her face. She looked up at Phoenix who was holding out his hand, stopping the bullets with his mind.

Phoenix looked like he was struggling with something as sweat started to bead across his forehead.

The bullets dropped to the ground as Colossus rushed at the man firing the things. The man grunted as Colossus lifted him over his head. "Not the defenseless prey you were expecting, eh?" Colossus said taking a stance to throw the man as hard as he can into the nearest tree.

Phoenix groaned as he saw that Dazzler was okay and slid out of the sky. Nightcrawler quickly teleported to the falling man, grabbed him and reteleported back to the ground.

"Thanks elf…" Phoenix said and Nightcrawler nodded at him.

"Your ear canals metal, too?" Arcade asked as he pulled something out of his pocket and pushed it. A sound so loud poured out of it and Colossus let the man fall as he fell to his knees. Colossus yelled in pain as Arcade pointed the little object closer to him. "Yeah, bet you get crazy reverb in there."

Phoenix looked up at the sky, his eyes filling with tears. The pain that he was feeling, how could Peter stand it! Phoenix looked around as he saw that fire erupted around his body.

For some reason his powers were going out of control. It always seemed to happen when he tried something new or over excreted himself.

"Keep turning it up to eleven, little man." Dazzler said as she began to suck up the sound, her hands stretched out. "The louder you whine, the harder I bring it." She started to produce light, so much light. It first came as tiny balls of color, than the balls grew larger and larger as she sucked up more sound. She finally smiled as she brought her hands together in front of her. The balls of light turned into one steady stream of light and shot out at Arcade. He screamed in pain as the beam of light made contact. Arcade was hit so hard that he fell about twenty feet back and landed against a huge tree.

Once the sound was gone Phoenix shook his head, eyes closed. He would gain control of this! He would fight it as long as he could!

Yes… A voice hissed in his head. The battle of life…

Phoenix finally forced the power down and ran over to Colossus, placing his hands on the man's head, turning it at an awkward angel. "Are you bleeding, is there blood?" He said in a rush.

Colossus placed both his big hands over Phoenix's and looked up at the boy. "I am fine." He managed a week smiled and Phoenix smiled back at him, letting him go.

"AH!" Dazzler yelled.

Phoenix looked away from the huge man made of metal and saw Dazzler fall to the ground, some kind of gung gluing her hands to her face.

"Cool, right?" Arcade said pointing at the thing on his wrist that shot out the glue. "One of my programmers reverse engineered this thing from some polymer he scraped off a wall in Manhattan last –"

He was cut off as Nightcrawler teleported right in front of him and landed a punch to his face. Arcade shook his head not realizing what had happened.

Nightcrawler teleported back again, this time a little further up and landed a kick to the man's stomach. Finally understanding what was happening, Arcade smiled.

"A teleported. I got bored with that gimmick circa Asteroids." Arcade slowly reached for something behind his left boot. "If I were a novice like you, I'd probably jump right…"

Nightcrawler teleported right where Arcade threw his knife, the man gasped as he felt the cold steel slide into his right side. He looked down at the handle going to reach for it, but Arcade placed a tighter grip on the hilt.

"No!" Phoenix yelled.

"All I have to do is flick my wrist, and I will open you up like a—"

"LET HIM GO!" A voice yelled from the jungle. Everyone still able to turned to look at the source of the voice. "I'm the one you want."

Arcade smiled as he grabbed onto Nightcrawler who slowly started to close his eyes. Arcade withdrew a gun and pointed it at the man in the tree. "True that." Arcade started to shoot at the man, but he seemed to miss at every shot. Every time a bullet landed Longshot was one step ahead.

"Stay back!" Arcade yelled, his voice beginning to shake.

"I'm begging you." The man said as he landed on his knees in front of the man, placing a hand in front of him to help support the land. "Don't pull that rigger."

"This is for my sister, you murdering piece of—"Arcade fired the gun, but instead of the bullet flying out of the gun something happened… something that no one could explain and the gun exploded in Arcade's hand.

Arcade yelled as the blast hit him in the head and he fell back. Longshot looked at the red headed boy who was holding a hand out, palm facing Arcade. He didn't know if it was his luck, or the man before him. Longshot didn't care either way.

Longshot rushed over to Nightcrawler before he could hit the ground and helped him to stand up right. "Don't try to move, friend."

"Impossible." Nightcrawler said placing a hand over his wound. "How… how did you know his weapon would backfire?"

Longshot took a quick look at Phoenix and saw that he was now helping the big metal guy. "Oh, it's sorta my thing. Don't ask me how, but I can alter the probabilities of certain situations to work out in my favor." He stole one final look at Phoenix and shook his head, at least he hoped it was his power this time. When Nightcrawler looked at the man even more confused, Longshot smiled. "Basically, I'm super lucky."

Dazzler walked to the two, hands still glued to her face, she mumbled something.

"Yeah, if you're so lucky, what are you doing here?" Colossus asked as he leaned on Phoenix for support.

"Waiting for something like you to fall out of the sky."


Back on Genosha, the X-Men there were all standing in a semi-circle looking at the crime scene. The sun was setting and made the sky look like it was on fire. Jean had her hands placed next to her head, slightly floating off the ground.

"Are you sure this is it, Scott?" She asked putting just a bit more pressure into her physic probe. "I'm not picking up any psychic residue of a struggle here."

Scott turned the page to the newspaper he had brought with them, pushing his lips out. "Well, this is where the Genoshan authorities claim they found Lord Scheele's body, along with the mutant who supposedly knifed him to death."

Iceman was sitting on the grass, leaning back resting on his hands. "Supposedly? Didn't you read the report? The killer was found with the murder weapon in his three-fingered hand." Kitty scowled at him kicking some dust in the air. "He assassinated somebody's husband… somebody's father!"

Scott closed the paper and looked down at the teenager. "Bobby, if you had studied the report instead of just skimming it, you would have noticed the lack of blood in the crime-scene photos." He began to fold the paper even smaller to fit it back into his pocket. "I think Scheele was killed somewhere else, and then brought here… along with the mutant the real killers found to be their fall guy." Bobby just shrugged and made a couple of iceballs; juggling them.

"So what do we do now, oh fearless leader?" Kitty asked smacking one of the balls from the air. Glaring down at Bobby.

"Dive under the topsoil and see what you can find Kitty." Scott said placing the paper in his back pocket. "Look for any foreign objects the police might have missed… or failed to cover up." Bobby had made another ball to replace the one Kitty had smacked away and started juggling them. "And keep whatever she brings refrigerated, Bobby."

"Great, now I'm a glorified cooler…" Bobby whined.

"If the politician was so beloved by these people, who would have a motive for killing him except the mutants his government was against?" Jean asked as she landed to her feet, giving up the physic search.

"Scheele didn't really become popular with humans until he was "martyred," Jean." Scott said as if he were talking to a child. "The Professor told me he was one of the few public leaders to oppose the "relocation" of Genosha's mutant population. I think this might have been punishment for…"

"Hold on." Jean said placing a hand to her forehead. "It feels like there's someone else…" Jean couldn't finish her sentience, she fell foreword as she felt something hit her in the back of her head.

"Jean!" Scott yelled as he turned to see what hat hit the woman. A very tall woman with pure white hair was staring at Scott and Bobby. She glared at them with such hatred Scott didn't know if he should attack the woman. "Woman, give me one reason why I shouldn't blow your head off!"

"Actually, Mr. Summers, I'll give you six." The woman said as she dropped her trench coat. Bobby gasped as he saw the woman had six arms. Each hand was holding a weapon of some sort. Scott almost gaped at the woman, how on earth had she been hiding all that under her coat… Well, no matter, this bitch hurt Jean and she was going to pay for it.

To Be continued: