Husk Emerges

"Well, well what a surprise," Arcade droned as he watched Scott's team fight through the corridors. "Five minutes to get through the first wave. They are good. Unfortunately for them, I'm better. All I have to do is get my second wave of drones in position like so…" He typed on the keyboard. "I'll send a few of my fire generated ones to heat things up! That's right! Now to herd them down corridor C. Perfect. Just perfect."

Meanwhile in the hallways. "This is not good!" Forge panted. "Yikes!" He dodged a fireball. "Man these things are insane!"

"Totally!" Kitty phased through one of the fireballs.

"This way!" Scott led them down a corridor into a darkened room. As soon as they were all in the light went on revealing a light gray metal room. The door shut immediately behind them. "Hey?"

"No problem," Kitty attempted to phase through the room but she couldn't. "What the…I can't phase through!"

"I know this room!" Forge said looking around. "Oh no!"

"What is this stuff?" Peter tried pounding on the walls. Immediately after the first hit the walls vibrated a loud ring. They all screamed at the reverberations.

"What was that?" Scott shouted.

"It's vibranium," Forge grumbled. "It's an unusually unstable man made metal. I remember requesting it so I could study its properties. The vibrations are what must be keeping you from phasing us out."

"So like my powers are useless here?" Kitty asked. "Great! We're trapped!"

"Why is there a room like this?" Jean asked.

"Uh my doing I'm afraid," Forge sighed. "I was running a diagnostic on some of my inventions and Cerebro recommended that a room made with vibranium might help…"

"Cerebro?" Kitty raised an eyebrow. "You mean Arcade!"

"Oh man!" Forge groaned. "He must have somehow manipulated my diagnostic unit in my computer!"

"Why not?" Kitty grumbled. "He manipulated Cerebro and our e-mail!"

"Maybe I can…" Scott readied his visor.

"DON'T!" Forge stopped him. "Trust me, that's not gonna work. Unless you want us all to be fried with your own eye beams."

"Oh this is getting better and better," Amara groaned.

"How the heck did that little twerp figure out how to catch us so easily?" Scott grumbled.

"He had access to Cerebro," Jean said. "He must have studied the file on our powers and learned about our strengths and weaknesses."

"Well he sure did his homework on us," Scott grumbled.

"So now what?" Amara asked.

"We're gonna have to call for help," Scott sighed.

************************************************************************

"Are you okay Storm?" Jamie asked.

"A bit winded but I'll be fine," Ororo sighed as she lay next to the Institute gate wall.

"Well you'd better sit the rest of this out okay?" Logan said. He looked at Bobby. "You don't look as bad though."

"I think my ice form helped me a little," Bobby sighed. "Not much but a little."

"What is taking them so long?" Rogue grumbled. "Something should have happened by now."

"Wait…" Ororo put a hand to her head. "I'm getting a message. It's Jean. They've been captured. They can't get out."

"Oh great!" Logan groaned. "So much for that plan."

"Well this night is rapidly going downhill fast," Tabitha grumbled.

"So now what?" Bobby asked. He saw the drones patrolling the lawn.

"Maybe I can draw their fire?" Sam thought. He took off before anyone could stop him.

"Cannonball no!" Logan shouted. Sam managed to dodge a few and take out a drone by slamming into one. However it knocked him out and he lay there on the ground. Paige's eyes widened as she saw the drones prepare to fire.

"SAMMY!" Paige screamed as she ran towards him.

"KID NO!" Logan shouted.

Instantly Paige's skin hardened and her body seemed to grow. She covered her brother's body with hers as the drones fired their bolts. Remy managed to blow one of the drones up but not after it fired on Paige. "PAIGE!" He shouted. "What the…?"

Paige had transformed into some kind of rocklike being. It covered up her entire skin as well as her hair in a tan hue. Her clothes were a bit tattered but she looked fine. "Huh?" Sam looked up, dazed.

"Get him out of there!" Logan shouted.

With amazing strength Paige grabbed her brother and ran back to the gate. The drones fired at her back but she didn't seem in the least phased by it. "Sammy!" She shouted. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah just need to stop that ringing in my ears," Sam grumbled. "Paige?"

"Are you okay?" Tabitha asked.

"Fine," Paige told her. "I didn't feel a thing."

"You didn't?" Bobby asked. "But how did you…?"

"Last I checked rocks don't conduct electricity that well," Paige told him. "I just thought of it and boom. You know I think I'm getting the hang of this."

"Hmmm…" Tabitha looked at the mansion. "If those drones can't hurt Paige. Maybe that's the ticket."

"What are you talking about?" Logan asked.

"Kurt you up for another trip inside the mansion?" Tabitha asked.

"Yeah," Kurt said. "But we tried that. Nobody can touch that control panel without getting fried!"

"She can," Tabitha indicated Paige.

"Yeah!" Paige said. "Just tell me what to do and I can do it!"

"What?" Sam yelled.

"I'm immune to electricity with this skin!" Paige said. "Why wouldn't it work!"

"No way!" Sam snapped. "It's too dangerous!"

"I hate to say it Cannonball but the rookie has a point," Logan sighed.

"This isn't exactly what I meant when I promised my parents I'd keep her safe!" Sam shouted.

"Don't worry," Bobby said. "I'll watch her back and tell her what she needs to do."

"Yeah but who's gonna watch yours?" Remy smirked.

"Fine we'll try it your way," Logan sighed.

"All right!" Jamie pumped his fist.

"You stay here to watch after Storm!" Logan told him as they went.

"Great! She gets to go fight and she hasn't even been here a few hours!" Jamie groaned. "Life is so unfair!"

I got the vibranium idea from one of the old 'Spider Man and His Amazing Friends' cartoons, the one guest starring the X-Men. Next up, more action and Arcade!