36. Rematch

"We're clear for takeoff, Logan," Kurt said as he flipped the last few switches in the Blackbird's cockpit. Behind him were Professor Xavier, Jean, and Scott.

"Good, I'm bringing Piotr to the X-Copter," Wolverine radioed back. "He's injured but he'll live. I need Megan to have the copter ready to go and circle the compound. I'm going back in to find Noi."

"Logan," Megan's voice came over the com unit. "Where's Miguel and Justine?"

"Back fighting Eric in the cliff side dome. I have a feeling Noi was heading there but couldn't find her."

Looking up at the outstretched hand of Justine, Miguel was just about to reach out for it when two metal spikes shot out of her chest. Her expression was one of shock and pain as her eyes grew wide and mouth opened in a silent scream. A harsh gasp escaped her mouth as her body went stiff and was lifted up by her killer, Eric. Blood from her wounds splattered on his face as Justine's limbs slightly jolted back and forth stiffly.

"No," Miguel whispered. "Justine!" Hoisting himself up over the side, he formed his claws and charged at Eric when a conscious Replicator shoulder tackled him to the side. Without thinking, he buried both black claws into his head with a yell, killing him instantly then turned back to find dozens of Erics with Justine's body lying prone on the ground.

Ignoring the copies, Miguel ran up to Justine and looked her over. She was barely breathing and coughing up blood. "Justine? Come on, stay with me." He lightly slapped her face to bring her around before placing one of her hands over her wounds. "Come on, heal yourself."

Coughing up blood, Justine responded, "I…I can't. It doesn't work like that."

"Just concentrate, okay. Heal yourself. I can't fight him without you."

"Yes…yes you can. I'm…I'm not going any…anywhere." She shifted slightly and lowered her hand. "I can heal others but not myself. F#$kin' sucks, don't you think?" She looked over at the army of Erics and sneered. "He killed Sarah. He kidnapped Noi. I wanted to kill him myself. Promise me you'll get him. And promise…promise you won't kill yourself."

As the light faded from Justine's eyes, Miguel laid her down gently and began to breathe hard. His entire being shook from being so angered as he slowly stood and formed his black claws. All he needed was one good shot; one hit could bring this fight to an end but as it was, it was impossible to tell which one was…

Instantly, Miguel's eyes twitched. He knew how to tell which one was the real Eric. Looking at each copy, he scanned their eyes. Each duplicate stared back at him with evil grins on their faces as they stood at the ready with weapons drawn. As Miguel continued to look over each one slowly, he felt a strength course through his body when he locked eyes with one of the copies towards the back. The moment his eyes flashed blue, he imprinted the real Eric Romano's physical strength and developed a wolf-like grin, his claws turned blue soon after as he figured out a way to find the one he wanted.

Popping his knuckles, he kept his eyes on the one to the back and made his way forward. The copies around him advanced and took turns attacking him with none doing any damage as they disappeared once they 'hit' him. Dozens more appeared to take their place but again, Miguel surveyed each one until he imprinted Eric again and this time, he delivered a hard kick to his side.

With Eric on the floor, Miguel went in for the kill. His claws cut through the air and sliced through the faux mutant's arm. Weakened, Eric tried to put some distance between them and had more of his copies try to confuse the X-Man but it wouldn't work.

Standing back up, Eric attacked with his tonfa's knowing he couldn't physically hurt Miguel, but couldn't give him the opportunity to bring him down. He was a mutant who needed to die and Eric was a human who would go to any lengths to make sure him and his kind were wiped off the face of the Earth.

"You think you can kill me like this?" Eric asked as he blocked an incoming claw attack. "You have no f#$king idea!"

Standing with his arms out to the side, Eric motioned for Miguel to come at him. Imprinting him one last time to make sure it wasn't a trick, the X-Man dashed forward and sliced through the Italian's chest only to be shocked when his fingers hit his upper pectoral and not his claws.

"My turn," Eric said with a laugh. He delivered a front kick hard enough to knock Miguel flat on his back. "I made sure to keep this a secret from everyone, but I can cancel out your powers. All your powers."

As if to prove this, Eric attacked without mercy, forcing Miguel to roll away and go on defense as the spiked tonfas came dangerously close to skewering him. Time and time again, he tried to form his claws but couldn't, Eric had indeed took away his ability to use his powers, knowing full well Miguel wouldn't be able to heal if struck.

Sidestepping a thrust from one of the spiked tonfas, Miguel stumbled on a chain from one of the overhead lights that had fallen earlier. He grabbed it and managed to block an incoming attack just as a spike grazed his face. Blood spilt from a diagonal slice stretching from the top of his right eye to just below his left.

"How does it feel to bleed?" Eric taunted as he twirled his bloodied tonfa around before kicking Miguel in the ribs. "You can't heal, you can't make your claws, and you can't defend against this."

A sudden shockwave sent Miguel flying across what was left of the dome. He went tumbling across the floor and crashed into a pile of stone debris as Eric continued laughing. Another shockwave sent him the other way and into a toppled stone pillar hard enough to break his leg. The bone stuck at least an inch through the skin as Miguel let out an agonized scream.

"So you can be broken after all. I'll tell you this much, even though I'm fixing to ram my tonfas into your skull and prevent you from healing, I must give you credit on not killing yourself. I only romanced that disgusting bug to win her trust, but when you came back, I was certain I could push you over the edge far enough to cease being a problem for me. I guess you could count yourself lucky you're one of the few who has witnessed this cancelation power I gave myself. But like all the others before you, excluding the Russian, you will-"

Before he could finish, Miguel used his chain to wrap Eric's neck up and bring him in close. The result was a leaping roundhouse kick to his face, which also resulted in popping Miguel's leg back in place. The injured and bleeding mutant crawled backwards as Eric fought to brake the daze he was in.

"You crazy, stupid son of a b#$ch," Eric said as he brought a hand to where he was struck. "For that, I'm going to make sure you never see the final blow coming."

Forming copies of himself, Eric readied his tonfas to bury in Miguel's heart when an unexpected voice shouted over them. It was Noi who stood on the balcony overlooking the battle.

"Noi? Get out of here!" Miguel yelled as he fought to get to his feet.

"No, come down here and die with your friend!" Eric shouted.

"Get out of here!" Miguel had managed to stand using a nearby slab of concrete. "He can cancel your powers!"

"No, he can't." Stepping towards the edge of the balcony, Noi's eyes flashed purple. "I couldn't read him because of his cancelation power. I can't affect him, but he can't affect me."

"We'll see about that." Firing another psychic shockwave, the area around Noi blew apart but the girl stood as if nothing happened. Another shockwave took out the flooring she stood on, forcing her to change into her shadow form and head over to Miguel.

"I can't be affected by psychic attacks," she stated matter of factly as she stared at Eric. "It's one of my secrets I kept from you. And here's the second." Still in her shadow form, she wrapped herself around Miguel and took on another form altogether.

With a bright green light, Noi's shadowed self covered Miguel from head to toe and began to resemble black armor with green pulsating light between protective plates along his body. Each dark area was like a translucent black shell that took on an appearance to Spartan-like armor. The last to be covered was his head as a matching helmet-like covering shrouded around him, blacking out his face and leaving a pair of glowing green eyes as the indication there was a face behind the helmet.

He had stopped bleeding. His leg was completely healed. He stood at full height and formed his claws which were now twice as long and had a mixture of blue, green, and purple energy circulating around them.

Try as he did, Eric couldn't make the shadow-covered Miguel go back to his original self. With his cancelation power useless, he fired a psychic shockwave, only to see nothing happen to his target who was now coming closer. Left with only one alternative, he formed his copies again and attacked. That plan didn't work as Miguel's eyes flashed a moment before he leapt after him.

Barely moving out of the way in time, Eric fought back with his tonfas while trying to avoid the much more deadly serrated claws. His shirt was soon ripped across the abdomen and blood seeped from his open wound. He didn't feel weak which meant Miguel's claw attacks were now on the physical level. Back and forth they went with swipes, punches, kicks, and jabs. It took all of Eric's martial arts training to keep his mutant foe at bay when he finally stabbed him in the bottom of the head with a tonfa spike.

Thinking he won, Eric stepped back and waited for Miguel to fall to the floor. Instead, the shadowed X-Man reached up and pulled the tonfa out. His wound had instantly healed. Throwing the weapon across the dome, Miguel charged after Eric who was barely holding his own with his lone weapon.

"I'm gonna kill you mutant freaks!" Trading a kick to Miguel's head for a slice to his right arm, Eric reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a detonator. A push of the button triggered an explosion in what was left of the dome and began a large landslide, sending the structure and the cliff into the water below with both Eric and Miguel riding down on the slabs of falling earth.

"Vat vas that?" Kurt yelled as a loud explosion erupted from the other side of the compound.

"Kurt, bring the Blackbird around ocean side," Xavier told him. "I can sense Miguel and Noi in that area."

"What about Eric? Or Justine?"

"I can't sense either of them. We must hurry."

"Chuck, Elf," Logan said over his communicator, "I have a visual on what looks like Justine and Noi in the water. Megan's gone to get them but I still haven't seen Miguel or that mutant wannabe."

"Logan," Megan said over the com, "I've got Noi, but Justine…she's…she's dead. She was stabbed in the back. I'm bringing them aboard now."

"Roger that. I've lowered the cargo door for you."

The waters of the Mediterranean Sea churned violently as the cliff supporting Eric's chateau came crumbling down. Where the dome once stood was nothing but an empty space with large chunks of rock and dirt still falling into the water.

Swimming weakly to the shore, Miguel struggled to keep his head above water. Waves crashed onto him, feeling as if they were trying to hold him under the surface from time to time with the riptide hinting it could take him out to sea at any moment. Eventually, he made his way to the shore and crawled up the rocky ground. Water was coughed up along with bile as his body rejected the foreign salt laden liquid.

After throwing up what felt like every internal organ he had, he lay on the shore face down. Every muscle in his body ached as he took in deep breaths of air. He couldn't remember what happened after the explosion, which forced him to black out and waken underwater.

"Noi…" He suddenly remembered. "Noi?"

Forcing his body to move, Miguel managed to get to his knees when a hard object slammed across his back. Letting out a yell of pain, he fell forward as blood fell from where he was hit when he was hit again and again.

"Think I won't die without killing you?" Eric shouted as he wielded a pair of chained shackles. "I won't die until all mutants are rotting in the ground!"

He again struck Miguel across the face with his chained weapon. As the mutant lay on the shore, he grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and violently pulled him towards the water as the X-Copter and Blackbird came into view.

"I'm gonna make sure they see you die, especially that winged b#$ch. And if any of them come down here, they'll find they have no powers and die right beside you."

Within the Blackbird, Nightcralwer unbuckled himself to teleport to where Miguel and Eric were when he felt a sharp pain in his spine. As he let out a yell from the cockpit, the others with him could only stare as his blue fur receded into his skin and his tail disappeared into his body.

Over in the X-Copter, Megan's wings were forcibly absorbed into her back with a shooting pain resonating from each slit. Her hair lost its colorful appearance, taking on a shade of light brown and her eyes whitened with sky blue irises forming. Logan looked back at the withering girl as her ears became normal.

"Megan?" he called as he kept the copter stable. "Megan, what's going on?"

"It's Eric's other ability," Noi answered. "He can cancel your powers but not mine. I'm going down there with Miggle."

"No, you stay here. I'm gonna land and make that imitation mutant pay."

Down on the shore in knee deep water, Eric paid no mind to the two aircraft as he wrapped his hands around Miguel's neck. He leaned his entire bodyweight on him to make sure there was no way he could break the hold and get his head out of the water. A sick smile was plastered on his face as Miguel struggled to free himself from the faux mutant until he ceased to move. Making sure he was truly dead, Eric pushed down on his neck a few times before relaxing his grip.

Underneath the sea water, the drowning mutant had his eyes closed. Since infancy, this was his biggest fear, drowning, which would force him into a panic. As he lay on the sandy bottom, he concentrated, not on his lack of oxygen, but what Noi and her Shaolin brethren taught him and pictured those who brought him peace until he calmed down. With his bearings straight, he opened his eyes and saw his would be killer with a triumphant look on his face.

"Can't die, my ass," Eric muttered as he got to a knee. "Two down, several thousand to-"

Breaking the surface of the water, Miguel delivered a right hook to his would be killer's face. With his foe staggered, he clamped the shackles Eric used as a weapon around his wrist with other end clamping around his own.

"No illusions, no powers, just meh and you." Miguel wound up and delivered a hard right to Eric's gut, forcing him back to the shore.

Returning the hit, Eric struck back with a left to Miguel's face who then backhanded him as a counter. Both men refused to back off and with nowhere to run, Eric was forced to stay and fight. Head-butting Miguel, he wrapped the chain connecting the shackles around his neck and pulled as hard as he could. Managing to keep from getting choked out, Miguel slammed the back of his head into the face of Eric, breaking his nose and freeing himself.

Mounting the chest of the dazed man, Miguel began to land punch after punch to his face as Eric tried to cover up as best as he could. Picking his spot, he stuck back with a palm to Miguel's jaw, managing to knock him off and get up to kick the depowered mutant. Feeling his ribs crack from the attack, Miguel managed to grab hold of Eric's foot and twist it hard enough to break his ankle, bringing him down to the ground.

As both men separated from their injuries, Eric took the opportunity to search for anything he could use as a weapon when he saw a glint of metal in the water. While Miguel struggled to breathe with a punctured lung, Eric pulled out one of his broken tonfas from the water, grateful the spiked end was intact. As Miguel tried to sit up and continue the fight, Eric dove on top of him with the spike aimed at his heart.

"Just…let it happen," Eric said between gritted teeth. "Just let it cut into your heart and it'll all be over. No…more pain, no more perse…cution, just the…welcoming embrace of…of death."

"Go to hell," Miguel grunted.

Pushing up with all he could muster, Miguel felt the tip of the weapon poke where his sternum was. He let out a grunt as he tried to push Eric off of him but was too tired to separate from him.

"Come on, Chupa. You really want to keep going on like this? Being hunted just for being born different? There's no shame in losing to someone who's superior to you in every way. I am the greatest of all time, after all."

"Ah told you," Miguel grumbled. "Never call meh Chupa, mother f#$ker."

Inhaling deeply, Miguel gathered all the saliva in his mouth along with the blood he could taste and spit it all in Eric's face. The momentary distraction was enough for him to rip the tonfa out of his grip and impale the mutant hunter in the chest.

"Mah name's Apex." Rolling the dying man over, he buried the rest of the weapon in his body. "That's for Justine and Sarah." With one last push on the tonfa, Miguel rolled off the dead man and lay on his back, panting as he felt his healing factor kick in.

A few moments later, several pairs of feet came running up to the resting mutant. Logan, Kurt, Scott, Megan, and Noi arrived by his side and took in what he had done. Laying in a pool of blood that was being taken out to sea was Eric with his eyes still open and the spiked tonfa in his heart.

"Miggle!" Noi shouted as she fell to her knees and wrapped him in her small arms. He returned the hug by wrapping his unshackled arm around her. Megan was next as she planted a long, deep kiss on him once Noi let go.

"Miguel," Logan said as he stood over him, "You still alive, kid?"

"Yeah," he responded, a little light headed from Megan's show of affection. "I'm only half dead."

"I knew you would come," Megan said as she held him tight.

"Always." He leaned his head against hers as he worked on catching his breath from fighting.

"Know how I knew you would come?" Noi asked. She reached into a pocket and produced the bandanna he had given her. "You said you would always come back for it."

Miguel grinned at the sight of the Chinese girl holding the piece of cloth. "Keep it."

Kneeling down beside him, Logan popped a claw and cut through the shackle on Miguel's arm. "One thing about what we did here, we put a stop to anymore fake mutants being created."

With help from Kurt, Miguel stood up and wiped his face clear of blood with his shirt. "Miguel, Justine…she's-"

"I know, Kurt. I saw when Eric killed her."

"I'm sorry. I know she was a good friend of yours."

"Can't believe we trusted him," Scott said. "He captured the professor, kidnapped Jean and I on our honeymoon. Why didn't the professor pick up on him?"

"It was his powers," Noi told him. "I could never read him like I can with the rest of you; and it might have meant other psychics couldn't pick up on his thoughts either."

"But how did you end up in the water?" Kurt asked. "Logan thought you went off to find Miguel."

"I did," the girl explained. "When I saw Miggle in trouble I sort of assimilated with him. Psychics can't hurt me and I can't hurt them unless I assimilate with someone."

"What does that mean?" Logan asked.

"It means Ah was protected from Eric's mental attacks and his physical ones." Miguel rubbed the bottom of his jaw where he was stabbed earlier.

"Come on," Megan said as she wrapped her arms around him. "Let's get you back to the mansion so you can heal up. Then get you to bed."

"Oh, hell, don't put meh in one of those damn Godforsaken medical beds again. I've had enough of that s#$t."

Stretching to get closer to his ear, Megan grinned and whispered, "That's not the bed I had in mind."

Turning red and grinning, Miguel lightly chuckled as he wrapped an arm around her waist and started back to the X-Copter.

"Kitty's gonna have a field day with these two," Logan grumbled as he shook his head and rolled his eyes.