Ok, I want to warn some of you that, since I got out for the summer from class, I've become a bit more busy. So the chapters might slow down a bit, to not every day. I realize that this is a REALLY bad part for that to start happening, but please bear with me. They'll keep comin, I promise!

Chapter 21

Fight for Life

"Yeah, it was actually random chance that I met her," Donovan was explaining as to the circumstances of his and Kitty's meeting. "We obviously go to different schools, but there's a really cool local coffee shop downtown. I know, coffee shop, cliché. But I like coffee. Anyway… I ran into her outside but… nothing happened. She just… ended up on the other side of me. Luckily nobody else saw, but we got to talking… obviously we had the mutant thing in common."

"It's just so weird to think of Kitty Pryde… dating. I mean, we were always just a group of friends. I mean, Bobby and Rogue were dating, but it was like they were just friends since nothing ever happened," John said.

Donovan nodded. "She's probably grown up a lot since you saw her last. She's actually got a job downtown near that coffee shop."

John scoffed. "Well," he said. "At least she can afford to illegally buy her own booze now."

Everyone gave him a strange look, but he waved it off with an "it's a story for another time" wave.

Just as there was a silence brewing in the conversation, Donovan gasped and collapsed backward against the counter. Scott was immediately there to catch him, holding him steady as he stared straight ahead, panting heavily.

"What is it, Dono?" Scott asked, worry evident in his voice. "What did you see?"

As soon as Donovan's eyes focused again, they widened in terror. "Get down!" he yelled, dropping to the floor immediately.

Back at Xavier's, John would have instantly questioned him, but he'd learned better in his time with Magneto. When someone says duck, you hit the fucking deck.

John did a swift pirouette in his chair, grabbing Eva on his way down. The instant he hit the ground, maelstrom broke out. He could hear, see, and feel the glass windows of the kitchen shattering inwards on top of all of them. The next thing he noticed was the fact that Paul slid down to his knees in front of his chair, hand held to his neck on top of what looked like some kind of dart. His vision quickly became unfocused, and he fell forward, barely caught by Donovan.

"Tranquilizers," Donovan said, pulling the dart out of a now passed out Paul.

Scott gritted his teeth from his spot on the floor on the opposite side of the kitchen. He held up both his hands toward the windows, and they immediately replaced themselves. Another round of darts hit the windows, but this time they didn't even dent.

"Bullet proof," Scott said, rocketing to his feet. "Get to the doors and defend them. They'll have no choice but the doors!"

John didn't waste a second. He jumped to his feet, as did everyone else present. But instead of heading for a door, he turned to Eva.

"I want you to get out of here!" he said quickly.

"What?" she gasped. "No, John. I can help you!"

"No," he said flatly. "You're already farther into this mess than you should be. If you get out now, you'll be relatively safe."

"No, I won't leave. I have to help!" she cried back.

"Eva!" he practically yelled, stepping right up into her face. "These guys are highly trained operatives. I've already come to the realization that we are probably going to get caught. I won't be responsible for your capture too."

Just at that moment, Pietro came whizzing down the stairs to stand next to him. "He's right," he said, to which John nodded affirmatively. "Take my car," Pietro continued, holding out a pair of Pontiac keys with a firebird engrained on the handle. "They've already surrounded the house, but if we can draw them out the front, you can make your escape.

"Go to the Independent Records store and tell Wanda what's happened. Do not let her come back here, you understand!" Pietro finished, shoving his keys into Eva's open palm.

"But, I…" she started to protest.

"Please," John begged, flinching at the sound of another volley of darts. "If we get caught, you'll be more use to us out than in. Just go."

Eva sighed, obviously realizing that protesting was futile. She pressed a quick but undeniably passionate kiss on his lips before turning and darting toward the back door.

"Alright boys," John said, brandishing his igniter and fastening it to his wrist. "Time to make a commotion out front!"

John led the way, followed by Scott, Donovan, Pietro, Billy, and Dominic. He tossed a weary look back at Paul, who lie unconscious on the kitchen floor.

"This may be in vain, but I wanna make one thing perfectly clear," John said as he reached the front door, beyond which he could see at least fifteen camo-clad soldiers approaching the house, guns raised.

"We don't back down for nobody," he said, his face set in a scowl. "Give them absolute hell!"

* * *

Commander Trask held his breath as the front door opened, and to his surprise, every single one of his targets was there.

He held his comm. to his lips as he slowly inched toward them. "All units to the front, I repeat; all units to the front!"

He lowered his gun as the six mutants stepped tentatively out the front door.

"You just come nicely, and nobody gets hurt," Trask called to them as his team converged around them. "Let's not make this difficult or people will get hurt."

"See, there's where you're mistaken," the mutant called Pyro yelled back. "We will be harmed. We will be treated unfairly, and we won't get a say in what happens to us. But you do have one thing correct."

"And what is that?" Trask called back, secure in the marksmanship of his team.

"People are going to get hurt," the boy called back confidently.

Without warning, Pyro threw two huge streamers of fire equivalent to the explosion of two gas tankers. Most of Trask's men ducked behind their fireproof blast shields, but Trask used the opportunity.

"All units attack!" he yelled, both out to his nearby men, and into his comm.

Some of the men that hadn't been hit by the blasts immediately rushed the small group, but the mutants did something unexpected.

Trask hadn't expected them to be organized, but they were. The speedster, Pietro was his name, took off and began ripping guns from the hands of his men in a flash of white. The glass-creator, Scott, stepped forward and began shattering the blast shields to allow Pyro's flame to access his men. Their suits were flame-resistant, but under that kind of intense heat, nothing is.

Two of the mutants, Trask recognized them as Billy Hamilton and Donovan Steynburg, stepped forward and entered into hand-to-hand combat with some of the men that Quicksilver had already disarmed. The skinny one, Dominic, then began to swing at a few of his other men with what looked like a baseball bat made of pure diamond.

Trask knew he needed some kind of upper hand, but how? Two things had to be done before he could make any headway; the speedster had to be stopped, and they had to extinguish Pyro's flame. He was useless without a fire source.

He tried firing a tranquilizer dart, but they melted in the heat of the flames before they even got to him. And the glass-manipulating mutant immediately crushed the ones that weren't caught in the inferno.

Trask was sure any other agent would have taken many other measures before resorting to this, but he was fed up with these freaks and their self-imagined almighty power.

"Switch to lethal rounds!" he called.