The whole room sprang into action all at once. Kitty, Storm, and Rogue assumed ready stances simultaneously. Kitty's name was her attitude as her alert eyes picked out her prey. Storm immediately ran forward to protect Lara, as she knew that no mere human could withstand Mystique's martial arts skills. Rogue made a sharp movement and in no time, her white gloves flew to the floor. Her eyes glittered dangerously as she noticed that she was a target for Sabretooth.
"Come and get me, ya big pussy."
The first move Mystique made was to the ground. The blue mutant put one hand on the floor to sturdy herself as she brought her left leg into the air. It tried to make contact with the tomb raider's face, but to no avail. Mystique's blue heel was caught neatly by Lara's mere hand. Quickly, Lara spun the captive ankle and flipped her attacker away to the side. However, it wasn't so simple, as Mystique twisted in midair and expertly flipped farther from Croft.
The two women sized each other up, the mutant showing increasing interest in her target. Lara didn't dare move her eyes from the figure in front of her. She had experienced the mutant's lighting-fast movements and parried them. But Lara knew that if she wasn't able to block just one strike, it could be all over.
In the far corner of the room, Pyro, Iceman, and Kitty took on Toad. It seemed that numbers didn't matter to the Brotherhood, for Toad was agile and not easily caught off-guard.
Pyro flicked open his lighter and manipulated a flame into the air. Smirking at Toad who was crouching arrogantly in front of him, Pyro formed the tiny flame into an amphibious state; he knew that he now held the green mutant's attention... so he decided to play.
The tiny frog grew to the actual size of Toad and turned around. It faced its clone and a decipherable smile spread across its face, outlined in lines of orange fire. Jumping up and down spastically, the fire-figure performed a handstand and made a rude gesture to its counterpart. Toad was beginning to lose interest and focus more on how he was being made fun of. This was what Pyro was counting on.
In an instant, a second flame was produced, this time forming into a very different person. As the blaze was molded, the flames flickered dangerously, heating up the already hot atmosphere. This next form was in the shape of the fire manipulator himself. Pyro watched as Toad eyed the two elemental characters cautiously. The green mutant did not see Bobby and Kitty slowly head in separate directions.
Commanding the flames with miraculous ease, Pyro directed the amphibious figure and his own image toward each other. They faced off, sizing up their opponent. Five seconds went by and the emblazoned entities hardly moved. Pyro knew that he was losing Toad's interest, but he knew that everything would change. Finally, the copy of Pyro leapt onto Toad's counterpart and pinned him to the ground. This sudden movement made Toad's head sharply turn back to where the action was, leaving him completely unaware that Iceman and Shadowcat were about to pounce on him from behind.
In a matter of half-seconds, the two mutants attacked Toad from behind, copying the movements of Pyro's creations. They pinned their adversary to the ground and held him there; Iceman completely froze Toad's body, save for his head. This rendered the amphibian helpless. The three teenagers all high-fived in triumph.
Pyro arrogantly walked over to the green mutant's frozen body. Making sure that he was in a position where Toad could see, Pyro made his clone kick the fiery amphibian to the floor.
"That symbolic enough for ya, frog?" Pyro spat on him.
Then smiling darkly, he let Toad watch as a burning shoe smashed the clone-Toad into the ground.
In the opposite corner, Sabretooth was fighting Nightcrawler, Rogue, and Wolverine off. Unsurprisingly, he was losing, but he had the endurance to keep on defending himself. Nightcrawler's mutation allowed him to create the best "surprise attacks", mostly just for ticking off the large feline so Wolverine and Rogue could really do some damage. Claws unsheathed, Wolverine pounced on Sabretooth, only to be batted away before he could plunge his claws into his enemy's abdomen. Rogue desperately searched for areas where she could do the most damage.
"Kurt, Ah need your help."
Soon after, Nightcrawler disappeared and reappeared on top of Sabretooth's head. Latching on, he continually smacked the felinoid in the face with his long tail. Rogue simply waited for her opportunity.
And there it was.
As fast as she could react, Rogue raced into the gap in Sabretooth's arms and lunged toward his neck. Extending her arms to their fullest, she smacked one hand onto the male mutants throat and one to his right temple. The effect was immediate; Sabretooth tried to fight her off, but her focus was too strong, her will was much too strong. In moments, his large body thudded to the ground, unconscious.
Bobby was there to help with the ice-cast. Two mutants down, the worst one to go.
Logan sheathed his claws with a metallic snikt!; his attention now lied with the two women in the center of the room. Lara was fighting Mystique and she wasn't dead yet! Logan wanted to jump into the scuffle and help it along, but something told him to stay back. It was Jean; she had entered his mind and told him to back off. The only reason she hadn't interfered yet, was because Lara was doing a damn good job of defending herself and staying up on the offensive as well.
Storm had also tried to help, but she was met with the same reply. Lara wanted no one to fight her fights or her battles. Logan was turned on.
Smack!
A hard blow connected with the blue mutant's face. Lara stepped back and continued to bounce up and down, keeping her alertness and adrenaline up. She felt that this mutant... Mystique? was a very decent match. Lara only wished that Bryce could build something like her for the tomb raider to practice with!
Suddenly, Lara was very intent on what was happening. Mystique was advancing and Lara sensed that she was about to jump. She sensed right; the red-haired mutant leaped off of the ground, unnaturally high and aimed to spiral kick right on top of Lara. Already anticipating this, Croft ducked and slid under her assailant. Catching the mutant off-guard, Lara sent a fierce kick upwards and made Mystique lose her graceful appearance in the air, causing her to fall to the ground in a clumsy mess.
Mystique made to spin around and continue fighting, but Lara was already there, punching her in the face. For the first time in a long time, Mystique felt like she had a worthy opponent- maybe... too worthy. She grabbed one of Croft's wrists, attempting to slow the attacks on her blue face, but Lara merely countered this by shifting her wrist inside of Mystique's and grabbed the mutant's wrist instead. Without anything left to do, Mystique realized she had an opening and head-butted her attacker. This maneuver made Lara back away a bit, but she did not relent.
In a rage, Croft pinned the shape-shifter to the hard floor and straddled her, locking her blue arms to her sides. In response, Mystique lifted her legs upward and wrapped them around Lara's throat. To that, Lara simply grabbed Mystique's jugular. Evidently, this was a stalemate.
Every X-Men watched this battle in highest amusement. Especially one mutant in particular...
"'Dyce, I know what you're thinking... and it's not cool."
St. John Allerdyce smirked mischievously and got an all-too familiar sparkle to his eyes. Bobby Drake saw this coming and smacked his friend across the head.
But John just kept on watching.
Three minutes flew by in nothing but heavy breathing. Both women on the floor glared into each other's eyes, refusing, silently, to let go. Lara held her head up in defiance; she didn't want her adversary to know that she was beginning to feel lightheaded. But the tomb raider knew for a fact, that Mystique was feeling the same exact way. She wasn't going to let go. She wasn't.
"Please! The both of you, stop! I beg you!" It was Storm's voice. "Stop this nonsense this instant. You're going to kill each other!"
"I won't let go until she let's go," Mystique spoke, her words covered with venom.
Storm sighed; she knew that was going to be the case.
"Jean, can you separate them?"
"No," Lara said sharply. "We started this and we'll finish it. If you're willing to let go, I will do so as well. Not before you, and not after you."
Mystique closed her eyes, as result of the headache that she undoubtedly had. Swallowing her pride momentarily, she nodded her head.
"On three then," Croft said. "One... Two...Three."
Both women flew apart from one another in a blinding rush. Mystique flipped from the floor and made to lunge toward Lara again, when she was instantly met with the barrel of a gun. The shape-shifter stopped in her tracks, still breathing hard.
"Cheater," she whispered with a hint of admiration in her voice.
Lara smiled. "Never said I played fair."
The pair just looked at each other for a few moments until Lara spoke again:
"Now, can I trust you to stay still if I lower this gun? Because if you move again, I'm afraid that I'll have to shoot you."
"I'm fast; what if you miss?"
Lara gave a silent snort. "I shoot to kill."
Smiling nervously, Mystique backed away with her hands raised. Her comrades had fallen and now she was to fight alone. She knew, internally, that the fight could have been over at any time if the telepath simply picked up Mystique and pinned her to a spike somewhere. They had been generous, so maybe the fighting was to stop... for the meantime.
The Tomb Raider lowered her gun and slid it back into her boot. Suddenly, she began to laugh. It wasn't the time nor place to do it, but she had to. To lessen the tension, to release steam, whatever! Now she felt better.
"So," Lara began cheerily, "is there something I can do for you, Mystique, that I am qualified to get you or do for you that doesn't involve the murder or devastation of any of my new friends?"
Snickers could be heard in the background from the teenagers and adults alike as they listened to Lara inexplicably change from warrior princess to casual business woman. Truly, they never knew if they could ever figure out everything about Lara.
Mystique sighed. "We just want the X-Men out of our way for once, that's all," she said. "They don't understand that what we're trying to do something good for our world. The future is not humans, it is mutants. The Brotherhood is the world's savior, not the X-Men."
There was a malicious gleam in Mystique's golden eyes. Lara thought the shape shifter sounded so emotional when she was speaking, yet... how could she be so brainwashed to believe half of the things that she spoke? Croft shook the thoughts away.
"This is an issue that I cannot get involved in, I'm afraid," Lara said lightly. "But I will not tolerate the slaughter of innocent people. That I will stop. And I'm also afraid that I will have to side with those who prevent it, not cause it. The X-Men are my choice for the future; I simply do not agree with you, Mystique."
The blue mutant hissed. "That is because you are a human. Any brain-dead homo sapiens would side with the group who is in favor of protecting human life. If the cards are not in your favor, you don't want them played. Is that right, Ms. Croft? I say that you're just as weak and pathetic as the rest of your kind. You will die like the others and I will enjoy every moment of it when the time comes..."
"Hey, back off, Blue."
Mystique sharply turned her head to the sound of a gruff voice. Surprisingly, it wasn't Logan's. Pyro stepped forward.
"You wanna pick on someone, you challenge me to a fight. Don't go insulting people better than you." He flicked his lighter open and kept the flame lit.
Golden eyes introduced themselves to John's. She smiled and looked at Lara.
"Looks like you've got a boyfriend; I bet he'll miss you when you die."
"Alright, Mystique, that's enough." Logan joined Pyro. "You couldn't even fight Lara off, and you tell her that she's just a human? What does that make you?"
"Yeah," Iceman stepped forward. "What makes you any better?"
"Lara is better than you'll ever be." Kitty, Kurt, Jean, Scott, and Ororo agreed.
The X-Men now stood in a line, together, backing up their new friend. Mystique's eyes widened; how could a human have so much support from mutants? What made her different? But her eyes spotted a mutant that hadn't said anything at all- Rogue.
"It looks like there's someone that isn't on your side, Lara." She threw her eyes toward Rogue.
The X-Men turned around and faced the lone girl standing behind them all. Kurt especially eyed his friend with increasing interest and worry. Marie simply stood for a moment, fighting with the emotions in her mind. In the end, she walked toward her comrades and stood next to Lara. She clapped a gloved hand on the tomb raider's shoulder.
"Ah'm as much behind Lara as any X-Men. An' ah plan to stay that way."
Furrowing her eyebrows in defeat, Mystique's yellow eyes lowered briefly. Her voice was thick with acid as she spoke:
"Then you all will die."
Turning on her heel, she made to leave the mansion. When she reached the door, Jean called out from behind her.
"Hey, Mystique! You forgot your trash!"
Spinning around, the shape-shifter was just in time to see two figures rushing toward her at full speed. Unable to control her sudden scream, she watched as her two companions crashed into her. X-Men laughing, the three Brotherhood members tumbled outside and into the night.