Chapter 22

Welcome to Hell

The X-men flew out of the portal one by one landing on the ground unconscious.

Evan being the first one to get sucked in the portal was the first to regain consciousness, "Aw man, are we still alive?"

Kurt got up next, "If we weren't, I don't think my butt would hurt this much" he said rubbing his rear.

Dean groggily came back to life, his face was resting on something soft. He looked up just as Jean regained consciousness. He was laying on top of her.

Dean looked down to where his face was a second ago, Jean's breasts.

Jean's face flushed red with embarrassment.

Dean got up, "Uhhh" he froze, this was awkward.

Jean had no idea what to say either.

"Ok" Dean said calmly, "I'm just gonna break the ice. Thank you for cushioning my fall" he said with a half smirk.

Jean managed a small smile, "Just don't make a habit of it"

'I make no promises' Dean thought as he took in his surroundings.

Above them almost lost in the gloom was a ceiling of stalactites. There was black volcanic sand stretched inland about a hundred yards to the base of a high stone wall, which marched off in either direction as far as he could see and there were these weird statues all around them. Most of the statues were broken but those which were still somewhat intact were freaky. There were some of these weird looking creatures, others of warriors in armor preparing to slaughter someone.

The air was really hot and somehow there was reddish light coming from nowhere. Faint screams of pain and terror could be heard in the distance.

"Is everyone ok?" Scott asked dusting himself off.

"I think so" Rogue said helping Kitty up.

Kitty looked around and had a fearful look in her eyes, "Guys, like we need to get out of here. This place is creeping me out"

"I agree" Kurt said, the fact that he teleports through this place was making him uncomfortable as it is.

Scott looked back from where they dropped. The portal wasn't there anymore, "I don't think there is a way out of here. There's no portal to go back through"

"I threw a lightning bolt at the machine before I was pulled in. That way Forge wouldn't get sucked in with us" Dean said.

"You might have either saved us or doomed us" Scott said thinking hard on that, "Did you get a good look at it before you went through the portal?"

"Yeah, it didn't look damaged. It's a good thing I didn't put much energy into it" Dean said.

"But we're still going to have to wait for Forge to fix it, and we don't know how long that'll take" Jean said.

"Hold up" Evan stopped them, "You're telling me we're stuck here?"

"Maybe for days" Rogue said wondering out loud.

"Oh no" Kitty said in a low voice. She looked like she was taking this harder than anyone else.

"We should probably stay here in case Forge opens another portal" Scott said.

Funny thing is Dean felt the opposite. He had this feeling, like something was drawing him towards the distance. It was inexplicable but he knew he had to find out what it was.

"Guys…I need to go" Dean said staring into a general direction.

"Wait what?" Rogue asked.

"I can't explain it, but there's something out there. And I can feel it pulling me towards it" Dean said. His gauntlets vibrated slightly, like it was reacting to something.

"Dude you're just curious" Kurt said, "I mean don't get me wrong I'm curious too but this place doesn't look teen friendly"

Dean shook his head, "No…it's something else" he walked slowly.

Jean went in front of him, "What are you doing? We can't split up now, what if something happens?"

Dean looked troubled, "Jean" he knew what her reaction would be but said it anyways, "This feeling, I think it involves my other half"

And on queue Jean made a face like she didn't take him seriously.

"Are you kidding? Stop it with the Gods nonsense" Scott said saying it flat out.

Dean looked at the others who shared the same expressions. All except for Rogue.

Rogue stepped towards him showing he had her confidence.

Dean looked disappointed, "You know what? When you guys came to me with your world of people with crazy powers I never bated an eye. But when I tell you something just as bizarre you all look at me like I'm crazy" he looked at Rogue with a small smile before walking away, "At least one of you believes me"

Rogue followed his lead.

As he left his teammates were overwhelmed with guilt, well some anyways.

Kurt sighed and looked at Evan, "He's got a point"

Evan nodded, "Yeah, what kind of mutant friends would we be if we didn't support our teammates?"

The two of them went to catch up with Dean.

Jean looked skeptical.

"Don't tell me you actually believe him" Scott crossed his arms.

Jean looked at her closest friend. Even though they shared most of their opinions, when she looked at the way Scott was acting Jean started to realize how dense they were being.

"That doesn't matter, he still deserves our support. I'm going" Jean looked at Kitty, "You coming?"

"There's absolutely no way I'm going exploring in this disgusting place" Kitty said.

Jean shook her head and went in the direction the others went in.

"Why is no one thinking straight?" Kitty wondered out loud.

It didn't seem right to stay behind and let the others go blindly into possible danger, especially when you're the team leader.

Scott couldn't let Dean make him look afraid, "Can't believe I'm doing this" he went in the same direction as Jean.

"Hey I'm not going to follow you!" Kitty warned him.

"Didn't ask you to" Scott said as he left.

"Fine! See if I care" Kitty stayed put. If the others wanted to be stupid then let them. She kicked the sand beneath her feet in frustration and uncovered a white stone underneath the black sand.

Kitty looked at it with curiosity and tried to kick it but it must have been mostly buried because it didn't move an inch. She used her hands to dig around it to see how big it was.

After uncovering a good portion of it she backed away in horror as she realized it was a human skull.

'Don't freak out, don't freak out, don't freak out' Kitty thought to herself trying to stay calm.

Suddenly black smoke came out of its eyes and it growled at her.

Kitty screamed at the top of her lungs and ran for her life towards the others, "Wait for me!"

One by one they caught up with Dean and Rogue.

Dean didn't say anything, at least they were good enough friends not to let him go alone.

As they moved along the faint screams seemed to get louder, more distinct.

Dean was moving in the front leading the way, Jean stayed close to him, and this place seemed to get scarier as they kept moving.

Dean spotted in the distance some greenish light. It was slightly better than the dark red they were seeing.

He approached first and spotted something you definitely don't see every day. He saw a wooden barge full of what seemed people in gray hooded robes. The barge was being poled by a figure in a long black robe.

But the real question was what were they floating in? They were floating across a dark, oily river, swirling with bones, skulls, lost limbs, flesh that stunk worse than Toad did, and some places even had whole corpses or skeletons.

Mist curled off the filthy water, the barge came to a stop by some craggy rocks, and the passengers began to disembark, a woman holding a little girls hand. An old man and an old woman hobbling along arm in arm. A boy no older than 12 shuffling silently along in his gray robe.

Dean started to approach when something came out of the dark oily river, a black skeleton crawled out or rather jumped out and grabbed Dean's heel.

A loud screech came from the skeleton.

Immediately Kitty started screaming and hid behind Kurt.

The figure in the long black robe couldn't help but notice.

Upon instinct Dean kicked the skeleton in the face sending it right back where it came from.

Dean noticed the figure in the long black robe approaching.

As it came closer it was easier to notice some pretty important details that Dean missed before. He blinked making sure he wasn't seeing things but when he opened his eyes he saw that the figure had no face. It had a skeletal face, it was transparent, letting Dean See straight through his skull. Where his eyes should have been were empty sockets, they were totally dark, full of night and death and despair.

Dean snapped out of it, this was no time to be dumbstruck, he had to be brave.

"Hey you!" he said with a dark voice as he pointed at the group with his boney finger "You all should be on the line, what are you doing?" as he came closer he noticed what they were wearing and found it kind of odd.

The teens were speechless from the sight in front of them.

"Wait a second" he leaned forward and took a sniff even though he had no nose, "You're not dead. I should've known"

"Dead?" Scott managed to say out loud in confusion, "What do you mean? Where are we?" he said with little confidence in his tone.

"You mean that you don't know where you are?" he asked.

Dean was putting the pieces together, that hellish feel, the sounds of death, the black river, the boat full of people, the skeleton man.

"We're in…the Underworld" Dean said out loud.

Everyone looked at him like he was crazy but they didn't deny it either.

"Hmmm" the skeleton man said before coming closer to Dean, he sniffed him out a little with his invisible nose, "You...you smell like..." he paused briefly out of surprise, "You're a demigod! Yes it's faint but I'd know that stench anywhere" He snarled.

The word demigod shocked the mortal teenagers in the group.

"What do you want?" Dean asked with more confidence than Scott managed.

"Well now that you asked I would like to know HOW THE HELL DID YOU GET HERE WITHOUT MY HELP!?" the skeleton yelled.

They were all surprised at his loud tone.

"We uh…opened a portal that led us here" Dean said awkwardly.

"GREAT! FIRST MORPHEAS FINDS A WAY TO GET DOWN HERE WITHOUT ME NOW THIS?" he yelled out as he paced back and forth.

"Well if we're that much of an inconvenience why don't you just bring us back?" Scott asked.

The skeleton man stopped pacing back and forth and stared at Scott before bursting out in laughter, "I don't think you read up on your history, I bring people to the underworld, I don't return them to the world of the living"

"We'll can't you just make an exception because we're still alive?" Jean finally managed to talk behind Dean.

"Sorry beautiful but that's not my problem, it's yours" He said.

"But won't your boss be unhappy with having living people down here?" Dean pointed out.

The skeleton man analyzed the situation, "Hmm yes that could be bad for me. None of you look like you belong here. Except for you" he pointed to Kurt "You'll fit right in"

Kurt noticed this and it scared him, "Me? Why me?" he said even though he knew why, his appearance.

"We'll look at you, it's obvious you have demon blood in you" He said like it should have been obvious that he looked like a demon this whole time. Which it was, they just didn't want to say demon out loud in front of Kurt.

"D-d-demon?" Kurt stuttered with shock at what he was hearing. He never expected to actually be a demon, he just thought it was his mutation.

The skeleton man snapped his boney fingers, "I got it! I could just kill you all and that way I don't have to hear about it from my boss"

"Wait what? No that would be a terrible idea" Dean tried to appeal to the skeleton man but it was like he was invisible.

"Yeah that's a great idea. That will solve everything" He held out his hands and dark energy formed in them. The energy took shape into a Scythe, a curved long blade on a long wooden handle, the weapon of the grim reaper.

"Well kids, say bye-bye to life" he charged with his Scythe.

Kitty and Evan were too afraid to do anything, Kurt was still too stunned from the revelation of at least one of his parents was a demon. Scott and Jean just froze on the spot which left only Dean and Rogue and she sure as hell wasn't going to try and absorb him.

Dean decided he had enough of the skeleton man, "No!" he shouted as he raised a hand and caught the Scythe right at the end of the long wooden handle.

The actual blade was inches away from his face, but the son of Zeus looked unafraid with little sparks of lightning around him.

The skeleton man let go of his weapon and backed away. He dropped to his knees, "Oh please I'm sorry, I didn't know you were a child of the big three, please don't hurt me" He begged.

The lightning seized to spark. Dean decided this was a good moment to press his advantage while he had it and get some answers out of him.

He still had the scythe in his hand. He grabbed the other end with his hand and snapped it in two like a toothpick before tossing it into the dark oily river, the river Styx.

Dean walked up to the skeleton man and lifted him up by his black robe with one hand, "Now you listen to me! We need a way out of here and you're going to take us back"

"I told you I can't. The only way I can do that is if I'm ordered by the big man" He said

Dean was hoping he wouldn't have to encounter the god of the underworld but it seems like it was inevitable. Dean set him down now that he calmed down a bit, "What should I call you?"

The skeleton man straightened out his black robe, "Charon"

"Charon, where can I find Hades?" Dean asked.

"That way" Charon pointed toward where the dead souls were walking to, "You'll know where to find him"

Dean was about to say something but he stopped when he heard a loud noise.

A sound came from somewhere nearby outside the green gloom, echoing off the stones, the howl of a large animal.

"Old three-face is hungry" Charon said. His smile turned skeletal in the greenish light, "Bad luck for you kid" Even though Dean was sure he could definitely beat him in a fight, Charon still creeped him out a bit.

Dean turned towards the rest of the team, "Guys, I know this is a lot to take in. It is for me too, all I'm asking of you is to keep it together for now. We need to keep a cool head if we're gonna get out of here"

"Wait what happened to waiting for Forge?" Scott asked.

"Like I said before, who knows how long that'll take. If we go talk to my uncle maybe we can save us some time" Dean thought optimistically.

"I may not be the biggest expert on greek mythology but isn't Hades like…a bad guy?" Rogue asked.

"Creepy definitely, I'm not sure about bad" Dean said.

"I don't like this, I don't like any of this" Kurt said looking scared.

"So do you want to stay and wait or leave now?" Dean asked.

"Well when you put it like that…" Evan said.

"Now would be nice" Kitty said.

Jean looked at Scott to persuade him.

Scott looked like he wanted to pull his hair out, "Are you guys serious?!"

"Majority wins, let's go" Dean said leading them away.

"I'd wish you luck but there isn't any down here" Charon said as they left.

They made their way to the line which was storming with creepy dead people.

Their gray hooded robes now gone the X-men could see the full extent of brutal death.

There was this one guy that was missing the back of his head, probably shot himself.

This other woman was holding her daughter's hand and their whole bodies were full of bloody wounds, in some places bones were even sticking out.

This other person was so screwed up they couldn't even tell if it was a girl or a guy. The person's whole front was flat and gruesomely bloody, jumped off a building.

Then there was this old man who was in a wheelchair that was rolling itself somehow. But the bizarre thing wasn't the wheelchair, it was the old man. He looked so thin, so deathly pale, so shriveled up. He looked like he was going to disintegrate into dust any second.

Jean started to panic. What was she doing here? These people around her…they were dead.

Jean held Dean's hand.

Under normal circumstances this would've been something nice to consider, but he knew how she felt. She wanted reassurance that somebody else was alive in this place.

Scott was so worried that he didn't even notice.

Kurt, Kitty, and Evan were clinging close to each other.

They passed by a person who's skin was charred beyond recognition.

Kitty puked at the sight of it.

The howling of the hungry animal was really loud now, but they couldn't see where it was coming from.

The three-headed dog, Cerberus, who was supposed to guard Hade's door, was nowhere to be seen.

Around them were black-robed ghouls like Charon. But they had some distinct differences like they had actual flesh, even thought it was old and moldy, and you couldn't see their faces at all. It was like staring into a bottomless pit of death.

They were probably here to make sure there was order. You know, so nobody skipped the line, started pushing, running, started a commotion that held up the line, anything that would put them behind schedule. That is if they even have one.

Up ahead there was more green mist. They got closer to it, the howling was so loud now it shook the ground at their feet, but they still couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Then, about fifty feet in front of them, the green mist shimmered. Standing just where the path split into three lanes was an enormous shadowy monster.

Cerberus looked like a purebred Rottweiler, except of course that he was the size of a mammoth, and had three heads.

The dead walked right up to him with no fear at all. Two lines parted on either side of him. The third line of souls walked right between his front paws and under his belly, which they could do without even crouching.

The dog's middle head craned toward them. It sniffed the sulfurous air and growled.

Dean noticed this and realized something, "I think Cerberus can smell the living"

"But that's ok" Evan said trembling next to Kitty and Kurt, "Because you have a plan right?"

"Right, a plan" Jean said.

Dean had never heard her voice sound quite so small.

The middle head snarled at them, then barked so loud that Dean's ears almost popped from the amount of sound the beast generated, keep in mind Dean's very good hearing.

"Jean" Dean looked as confident as he could manage, "See if you can read its mind"

"Ok I'll try" Jean focused on the crazy beast's mind, "I don't think I have a word that translates exactly"

Dean looked over to Evan, "Yo, make me the biggest bone spike you can manage"

"Ok man but I don't think he wants to play fetch" Evan made a long thick spike out of his forearm, almost like a staff.

Dean took the bone spike and approached the beast slowly, "Hey big fella" he called up, "I bet they don't play with you much"

"GGGRRRRRR!" Cerberus growled.

"Good boy" Dean said weakly. He started waving the stick.

The dog's middle head followed the movement. The other two heads trained their eyes on him, completely ignoring the souls. He had Cerberus's undivided attention. Which might not be a good thing.

"Fetch!" he threw the stick into the gloom, a good solid throw meant to keep Cerberus busy for a while, maybe thrown a little too far.

They heard it go splash in the river Styx.

Cerberus glared at Dean, unimpressed. His eyes were baleful and cold.

'So much for the plan' Scott thought.

Cerberus was now making a new kind of growl, deeper down in his three throats.

"Um" Jean said, "Dean?"

"Yeah?" Dean replied.

"I just thought you'd want to know" Jean said shaking.

"Yeah?" Dean asked.

"Cerberus? He's saying we've got 10 seconds to pray to the god of our choice. After that...well…he's hungry" Jean said.

"Ok then, it's time to defend ourselves. X-men let him have it, Spyke you're up" Scott said.

Evan approached slowly and shot some spikes at the monster, they harmlessly bounced off his skin.

"Ok let's see how it likes my optic blast!" Scott fired upon the beast, and when he stopped the beast still stood there unharmed growling a bit louder now.

'Uh-oh' Dean thought.

"Five seconds" Jean said, "Do we run now?"

"Um" Dean thought, "Try lifting him up in the air"

Jean tried but no budge. He must've weighted a ton, "I can't he's too big"

"Alright then everyone back away and run cause we're about to play a game of tag with Cerberus" Dean said backing up, preparing for something.

"Wait, what are you going to do?!" Rogue asked panicking.

"I said run!" Dean yelled as he charged at Cerberus. He jumped in the air and punched Cerberus's middle head with all his might.

The second he did that the others ran for it, realizing what was about to happen.

Cerberus's middle head moved sideways from the force of the blow but the head moved right back to its original position, unharmed.

Cerberus's red eyes, on all three heads, were staring right at the young half-blood ready to bite a chunk out of him.

"Come and get me you mutt!" Dean yelled at Cerberus as he took off full speed.

At the Institute

Logan went to get the Professor and Ororo.

"Logan calm down, now explain to me what happened" Charles asked rolling inside the danger room.

"Something went wrong, that little machine went haywire and sucked up all of them" Logan said.

"This isn't good" Ororo said, "What will we tell their parents?"

"Until we're certain that we cannot retrieve them, nothing, we will handle this" Charles said.

"I'm sorry about all of this, I only wanted to help" Forge said working as fast as he can.

"You couldn't have foreseen this outcome, the best thing to do now is to focus on repairing your invention" Charles said.

The Underworld

Cerberus ran after Dean barking and growling. He paid no attention to the other X-men for the time being.

Dean had to admit that Cerberus was fast, really fast. He looked back to see how close Cerberus was and he was almost right behind him.

'Shit' Dean thought. He saw one of those broken statues and ran towards it.

He leaped towards it and jumped off it to get away from Cerberus.

Cerberus ran right through it, destroying it, and kept on chasing Dean like nothing happened.

Scott noticed that Dean was in trouble, it wouldn't be long until he was Cerberus's new chew toy.

"Everyone pair up! We need to help Dean" Scott yelled.

As Cerberus was chasing Dean he felt something hit his body. His left head looked over and spots Kurt and Evan shooting spikes at him.

Cerberus ran at them and right before he could tackle the duo Kurt teleported himself and Evan away.

Cerberus came to a stop right where Kurt teleported and started sniffing the sulfurous smoke that Kurt left behind.

Dean slid underneath Cerberus and kicked his stomach before running again, "Catch me if you can!"

Cerberus started chasing Dean again.

Eager to catch his target, Cerberus started running full speed.

Right as Cerberus was about to strike, Dean stopped in his tracks and laid down flat on the floor.

Cerberus, running too fast to immediately stop, slid past him.

He turned around looking for his target when all of a sudden he was hit with a red optic blast. Cerberus looked to where the blast came from and spotted Scott and Jean, he ran at them.

Jean levitated herself and Scott high up in the air to avoid any chance of being caught.

Cerberus started jumping in the air to try and grab Jean and Scott.

He was about to get one of them when Dean came from underneath him and pulled him down from his tail, "No way!" Dean shouted.

Cerberus started chasing Dean once more until Rogue grabbed his attention by throwing some rocks at him.

Cerberus leaped at Rogue and Kitty who were standing together and phased right through them.

Cerberus looked stunned, all three of his heads cocked sideways confused as to what just happened.

Once again Dean grabbed his attention and the other X-men continuously grabbed his attention for a short time before giving him back to Dean.

Unexpectedly, Cerberus spotted Rogue by herself, and ran at her. Rogue was separated from Kitty in the midst of all this.

Dean looked behind him and noticed this, 'Uh oh'

Nobody was around to get her out of that situation so Dean took off at his top speed and tried his best to catch up with the beast.

Rogue started running but she couldn't outrun the beast.

Jean noticed this and instinctively tried to stop the beast with her telekinesis but she only managed to slow it down a little.

Just enough for Dean to catch up and jump on its back.

"Alright c'mon you mutt let's see what you got!" Dean shouted holding on tightly to Cerberus.

Cerberus started jumping around in circles trying to remove the teen from its back like a bull.

As Dean was going through his joyride with Cerberus he noticed that all three heads had their tongues sticking out. Dogs sweat through their tongues so Dean knew what that meant, 'He's getting tired'

Dean started hitting the beast's ribcage to provoke him, "C'mon! That all you got!"

Cerberus doubled his efforts and started moving around like crazy.

'That might have not been a good idea' Dean thought as he felt his grip slipping.

After a couple more seconds Dean lost his grip on the beast and was sent flying through a broken statue and bounced off the ground a few times from the momentum

"Ow" Dean muttered.

Cerberus now looking for a new target spotted Kitty, "Hey! Over here!" She shouted at the beast.

Cerberus bared his teeth and ran at her. When he reached Kitty he was surprised to see that he couldn't even touch the teenage girl, yet alone eat her. He tried again, again, and again but his efforts were futile.

After a couple of minutes of trying to touch Kitty Cerberus collapsed to the floor exhausted and panting. Cerberus whimpered, probably sad that he failed his master.

Kitty looked at the tired beast and felt sorry for it, "Aww he looks so sad" she said as she approached it. She went up to the beast and started petting it.

"Kitty what are you doing?!" Scott asked panicking.

"I'm being nice to him" Kitty said as she continued to pet it. Kitty then started rubbing the beast's belly. Cerberus's tail started wiggling and he looked like he was enjoying the belly rub.

Cerberus then sat up a second later and stared at Kitty.

"Sit boy!" Kitty said to him.

The others were all sure that any moment now Kitty would be living dog food. But instead, Cerberus licked his three sets of lips, shifted on his haunches, and sat.

Kitty said, "Good boy!" she started scratching under his ears. Cerberus started licking her with all three of his heads.

Kitty turned toward the others "Go, now"

Evan said, "But—"

"Now!" Kitty ordered.

The group inched forward warily.

Cerberus started to growl.

"Stay!" Kitty ordered the monster.

Cerberus whimpered, but he stayed where he was.

"What about you?" Scott asked as he passed her.

"I know what I'm doing, Scott" Kitty muttered. "At least, I'm pretty sure…."

"Never mind that we gotta move, those other guys in the hoods might stop us if they figure out were alive. Let's make a run for it" Dean said hastily. He also was amazed at Kitty's bravery but he didn't want to risk being jumped by a group of grim reapers.

"Good boy" Kitty said as she was forced to leave the beast by himself. But her voice was full of melancholy and uncertainty. The monster's heads turned sideways, as if it worried about her.

"Good dog. I'll come visit you soon. I-I promise" Kitty turned to her teammates, "Let's go"

The monster whimpered as she left.

Author's note: Sorry about the late update everyone, it's been a busy week. So I'll just have a double update day haha