Chapter 13: Survival of the Fittest
After the attack by Sabretooth the teachers decided the students could use some survival training. Xavier had signed them up for a weekend at Ironbacks Survival Camp, since none of the students wanted to take survival lessons from Logan. Kitty was still recovering from the attack so she remained at the institute.
Coincidentally, Mystique had signed up the Brotherhood for the same survival camp. However Blob didn't go due to an event at The Sharing, which Blob had joined a few weeks ago. That club had expanded into Bayville recently and Mystique had plans to investigate it. But for the moment she had other priorities, like releasing the Juggernaut from prison.
She had gone to the prison disguised at a guard. After releasing him she expected the Juggernaut to cooperate. In exchange for delivery of Cerebro Mystique would let him do whatever he wanted with Xavier. However he batted her aside and simply walked out of the prison, not caring about gathering attention.
Back at survival camp the first task for everyone was an obstacle course. Everyone had to climb up a rope, slide down a line, get in a raft and cross the river. Scott and Lance ended up turning the course into a race. When they reached the rafts Lance used his power to shake the earth and push Scott into the water. As Lance crossed the river his raft was hit by one of Scott's eyebeams and tossed him into the water. Scott took the lead and crossed the finish line first.
The X-Men and the Brotherhood started arguing over who cheated. The instructor noticed and stopped it. He gave them a new task. Retrieve a flag from the top of Mt. Humiliation and bring it back with a team photo at the top.
Scott rushed his teammates as quickly as possible. Evan barely kept up, having lived in the city for most of his life. When everyone reached the mountain Scott tried to ignore the "no powers" rule for the camp, wanting to get to the flag as quickly as possible. Jean quickly corrected him, refusing to use a rope that had been secured with one of Evan's spikes.
While climbing the mountain everyone felt it shake. They didn't know that the Brotherhood had tried to take a shortcut through an abandoned mine. The shaking had come from Lance trying to clear a path. Instead it had trapped them inside a cave in. Rogue spotted a mineshaft leading straight down and heard Toad complaining at the bottom.
Since this was a life or death situation the X-Men rescued the Brotherhood. They may be jerks but they didn't deserve to be stuck in there. When they were out of the mine the race to the flag resumed. Both teams made it to the top at the same time. They were fighting over the flag when the Blackbird arrived. Storm was inside and told everyone about the Juggernaut attacking Xavier and Mystique at the institute. Everyone boarded the Blackbird and it flew away, dropping off the flag and a picture of both teams at the instructor.
During all of this the Juggernaut arrived at the institute. Logan and Ax in human morph stood outside the front door, waiting for him. With a Shredder in one hand and a Dracon Beam in the other Ax fired both weapons at the Juggernaut. The green and red beams struck the Juggernaut, who only felt them tickle him. Ax increased the weapons to maximum power and fired again. This time they damaged his outfit and left minor burns, but the Juggernaut's invulnerability prevented further damage.
"Fancy toys won't stop the unstoppable" Juggernaut said. He charged in and tossed Ax out of the way. With no healing factor like Logan the impact knocked Ax out of the fight. Logan slashed his claws at the Juggernaut several times, but only left a mark where Ax had already burned him. Juggernaut grabbed Logan and threw him into the mansion.
Juggernaut walked inside, destroying everything in his path. He walked right through Cerebro, damaging it beyond recognition. Mystique was infuriated when she saw the damage. She followed the path of destruction to the Danger Room, where Xavier was waiting for the Juggernaut.
"You lumbering imbecile!" Mystique yelled. "What did you do? Sit on Cerebro? What happened to our deal?"
"I don't make deals!" Juggernaut said as he smacked Mystique aside. She slid across the Danger Room, stopping at Xavier's feet.
With Logan out of the fight Xavier knew he had to activate the Danger Room. "Active Logan's run X13." The voice command brought to life several large saw blades, spinning maces, and laser turrets. The Juggernaut quickly destroyed the equipment, annoyed with Xavier's pathetic defenses.
At that moment the X-Men and the Brotherhood arrived in uniform. "Take a break Wolverine" Scott said.
"We'll take it from here" Lance said.
"Well now, this is a surprise" Mystique observed.
"Remove his helmet" Logan ordered.
Jean attempted to telekinetically lift the Juggernaut away from Xavier. She was only able to hold him up for a few seconds and had to drop him. As he fell Tobias as a rhinoceros charged into the Juggernaut, pushing him a few feet to the side. Kurt teleported in and opened one latch, but was tossed aside as Juggernaut recovered.
Tobias tried to charge into Juggernaut again, but was hit by his massive fist tossing him across the room. Scott fired an eyebeam, hitting a spot that had been weakened earlier making Juggernaut stumble backwards. Avalanche shook the ground, deforming the floor beneath Juggernaut and tripping him. Pietro blurred in and opened a second latch before getting tossed away.
Storm came in and generated tornado force winds around the Juggernaut, disorienting him. Rogue took a sample of Toad's power and they both hopped on Juggernaut, each removing one latch. With all four latches opened they hopped away, allowing Scott to fire another eyebeam and knock off the helmet.
Now vulnerable, the Juggernaut was attacked by Xavier's mind. Several physic blasts were needed to bring him down, and Juggernaut fell at Xavier's feet. With the battle over the X-Men and the Brotherhood cheered in victory.
"Now there's something you don't see everyday" Mystique said.
"I agree, and that's a shame" Xavier replied.
"Come on boys" Mystique said. "Let's get out of here before you're invited to a slumber party."
Later that night Xavier and Logan returned the Juggernaut to the prison that held him before. Xavier had a chat with the warden regarding tighter security. After he left a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicopter landed at the prison, with Nick Fury exiting it.
Fury had known about Juggernaut escaping and did everything in his power to keep the local authorities from attempting to fight him. He let Juggernaut reach Xavier's institute, knowing that only Xavier's telepathic attacks could bring him down. There had been risks, but Fury calculated that Xavier's X-Men would have been able to remove Juggernaut's helmet and have Xavier disable him.
In the prison Fury walked up to Juggernaut's cell. A special container filled with a unique paralyzing fluid to keep him sedated. Then Fury saw that Juggernaut's outfit had been damaged and he had two minor burns on his chest. What could have done that to the Juggernaut? he wondered. No mutant he knew of had that kind of power. What is Xavier hiding this time?
A/N: Not a whole lot I could do with the episode. Juggernaut breaks out, Juggernaut attacks, Juggernaut gets beaten by Xavier, end of story. Up next Ax makes a very long distance phone call.