Destiny

Destiny

Chapter Six

Hello. My name is Jonothon, also known as Chamber. I guess it's my turn. This part starts where Wolverine's left off.

After Raiden left, we went back to training. I don't know why we bothered. We were probably all going to die anyway, regardless of how much self defense stuff we knew. Anyway, eventually we got tired of Kung Fu, and split off into our teams to work on our teamwork. Husk, Synch, Gambit, Nightcrawler and I all headed off into a corner to work together.

"Last night I came up with an interesting idea for how we could work on our combat skills." Everett said. "I was thinking we could do a chess type thing, only with three teams."

"Dat coul' be int'restin'." Gambit said.

"Yeah. The idea I had was, each of the three teams have someone that's kind of like the king of a chess set, and the other teams try to take out that king. But since there's three teams, we'd attack one team, and be defending against the other team."

"Why don't you ask Scott if we can do it?" Paige suggested.

"I think I will." He said. He went over to where Scott was, and talked to him. A moment later he came back. "He likes it. We're going to do it."

He didn't have to tell us, because just a second later Cyclops called out,

"I just got an interesting idea on how we could develop our combat skills." He relayed Synch's idea to everyone. "Okay, everyone, in a minute, pick a member of your group, not the team leader, to be the king. And I am giving the teams colors to make this easier. Storm, your team is the Gold Team; Husk, your team is the Red Team, and my team is the Blue Team. The Red team is going after the Blue team's king, the Blue Team is going after the Gold Team's King, and the Gold Team is going after the Red Team's king. Does everyone have that?"

Nods and murmurs of assent.

"Alright, now, the kings can defend themselves. We all have to work on combat skills. But the kings can't attack; they can only defend. Understand?"

Everyone nodded again.

"Ok, pick your kings, and do something to show that they are the king. And remember, they don't have to be standing out in the open; and they can move around. Go ahead."

We conversed, and Synch volunteered to be our king.

"It's my idea, I may as well be our king." He said. He looked around for something to show that he was the king, and grinned when he found an old red blanket. He shook it out and draped it around his shoulders.

"How do I look?" He asked, turning around.

: You look bloody ridiculous, mate: I projected to him. I had gotten better at talking without a mouth. But it was nowhere close to the real thing.

"Um, people, do you realize who we have to defend against?" Kurt asked.

"Who?" Gambit asked.

"Him." He pointed over at Wolverine, who was showing off by extending and retracting his claws, over and over again.

"Oh, dis not gonna work." Gambit said.

: Why not? : I asked. : We can take that blighter:

"Especially if I synch with his power, and use it to fight him." Everett said.

"You're the king, Ev. You can't fight him." Paige said as she shed her skin, to reveal metal underneath.

"Oh, right."

"Okay people." Scott said. "Here we go. Who are the kings? Raise your hands."

Everett raised his hand, along with Phoenix and Jubilee.

"We have to take out a telepath?" Paige asked.

"I guess so." Nightcrawler said.

"Alright. Everyone knows what they're doing, let's start. Kings get a one-minute head start. Everyone else stay where you are. The kings get to go to a corner or the second floor if they want. And remember, you can move around and defend, but no attacking."

I watched Synch tap Nightcrawler on the shoulder, then jaunt up to the second level in a cloud of red, sulfurous smoke. Phoenix went to hide in a corner, and Jubilee climbed up on a crate big enough to put a VW Beetle in.

"Okay. Here we go. Capture, but don't kill the kings. Pull your punches. On your mark, Ready, Set, Go!"

Paige and I headed towards Phoenix, but Cyclops and Iceman stopped us. Husk said, "You take Iceman, I'll take Cyclops."

I nodded and changed course to intercept Iceman. He grinned at me and reverted to his ice form. I unhooked the scarf over my face.

: Fire against ice. Who do you think would win? : I asked him.

"Lets find out." He said cockily.

I got ready to blast him, but a snowball came flying at me at about a hundred kilometers a second. I ducked and rolled out of it's path, and came up behind a crate, where I was finally able to blast him. His ice covering deflected most of the energy away.

: Bloody hell: I muttered. I realized this was going to be trickier than I thought.

"Ha! And fire bites the dust!" Iceman exulted.

: Not so fast: I said, jumping out and blasting a pile of boxes behind him. Some of them disintegrated, but most of them fell down on top of him. But in the last second, he managed to construct an igloo around himself, and none of the boxes actually hit him.

"I'm the King of the Castle! You're the dirty rascal!" Jubilee sang from atop her crate, thus distracting me from ducking the huge block of ice that Iceman dropped on me. I was a second away from being crushed, when suddenly Kurt appeared beside me, and ported me to safety.

: Thanks, mate: I projected to him.

"No problem." He said, then ported away again.

I turned to face Bobby again. He grinned at me and created two big ice balls, one in each hand. I blasted them away, then shot him full in the chest. Again, it ricocheted off, and hit me. But of course, I didn't feel anything. I was quickly running out of ideas. I had no clue as to what I should do now, except keep blasting him, and hope to wear his armor out. But, then a charged card flew down and exploded right in front of Iceman's feet, blowing him back to hit a post. I looked up, and saw Remy hanging over the railing on the second level, more cards in his hands, waiting to be charged. I waved at him, and he went back to protecting Everett. I went over to check on Iceman, to see if he was okay. He was. He was just a little out of it. I looked up and spotted Phoenix standing in the corner.

: That was dumb, gel. You shouldn't have cornered yourself like that: I projected as I went towards her.

"I didn't." she said. I stepped forward and touched her arm, or tried to. My hand went right through hers.

: A bloody projection! : I said. I looked around for the real Phoenix. There were three others.

: Hey, Everett: I projected to him, and him alone: Can you figure out who the real Jean is? :

There's more than one? He asked me telepathically.

: Yeah. She's projecting images of herself everywhere:

I saw him looking around at all them; She's over there. He said, pointing to a corner behind Jubilee. I squinted and could make out her fire red hair.

: How do you know that's her? : I asked him.

She's the only one who has a psi signature. He answered.

: Thanks:

No sweat.

I made my way over to where Jean was, hoping that if I masked my thoughts, she wouldn't sense me coming. It worked, and I snuck up behind her, preparing to blast her if I needed to, and touched her back. My fingers touched solid flesh. She turned around, and swore in a very unladylike way.

: You're coming with me, gel: I said to her.

"Alright." She sighed.

Then I suddenly realized that no one had said what to do when we captured the king. I grabbed her arm, and projected loudly,

: I got Phoenix, the Blue King:

Everyone on the Blue team looked up, and Cyclops said,

"Well, game's over. Red team won."

The rest of my team cheered, and Everett and Nightcrawler jaunted down to me.

"Way to go, bro." Everett said, slapping me on the back.

: Couldn't have done it without you, mate: I said.

Well, that was my bloody touching tale of how I beat the Blue team. I guess for the next two days we did nothing, really, we just trained, and that's boring, do when Phoenix tells her tale, it'll be when we finally found the portal, and entered Outworld. But that's it for me. Chamber out.

Author's Note: OK, I need feedback here. Did I portray Synch's power right? I don't know a whole lot about them GenXers, seeing as how I've never read any of their comics. Someone tell me if I made a big mistake anywhere. Thanx so much.

Flashgriffin