By the time Storm glided out in the rain to join her teammates on the lawn, the front gate had already been busted through like it was made out of paper. Visibility reduced by the downpour, Juggernaut's methodical pace turned into a full-out stampede when he saw the welcome wagon out for him. Within full eyeshot, Jean, Cyclops, Havok and Storm stood shoulder to shoulder, and one floating above. Using ridiculously powerful wind, telekinetic force, and beams shooting out of eyes and hands, the four put out their best effort to stop the unstoppable.
His feet digging into the earth beneath him, Juggernaut slowed down greatly but could not be stopped. The other X-Men fanning out to join the battle were scattered from their planned formation by Weapon X, who had stealthily taken out the guns and other defenses hidden under the lawn. As the red-clad monster was almost upon them, the Summers brothers and company broke off their offense to get the heck out of dodge.
Juggernaut skidded to a stop and turned quickly. Cyclops rolled to a halt and spun around, hand moving to his visor for the next charge. But to his surprise, another mammoth mutant stood in his way. Cain Marko walked right into every ounce of Fred J. Dukes, who dented his helmet right on the X with a huge right hand. As had as it was to imagine the Blob sneaking up on anyone, nobody from either side of the battle had noticed Freddy or the rest of the Brotherhood until they found themselves fighting right beside them.
"What the--" Toad, crouched in a battle stance, did a double take upon seeing Wolverine fighting against Nightcrawler. "A little help here?" Kurt said as he leaped by with Weapon X breathing down his neck. Todd shrugged and whipped his tongue out, sliming Weapon X's mask over. Although blinded, the Wolverine lookalike could still hear the wart-faced punk laughing, so he lunged in that direction.
Caught off guard, Toad leaped back several times, and then did a backwards flip landing on a tree limb. Taking a breather, he looked down helplessly as Weapon X cleared his eyes and started hacking at the tree. This guy didn't have the metal claws, Todd noticed when he saw that he didn't slice the tree down immediately.
On ground level, the clawed lumberjack saw a brief flash of Kitty as she phased through from the other side of the tree and then right through him. Spinning with claws outstretched, he swung and went right through her. Making herself solid at just the right moment, Shadowcat kicked Weapon X square in the gonads. As he doubled over, Toad descended and landed with a two-footed stomp right on the back of his head. Caught up in the moment, the two enemies shared a high five, which ended with Kitty crying out and trying in vain to shake the slime off her hand.
Slowly climbing to his feet, X looked at two boots standing right before his eyes. "Guess one runt's as good as another," Sabretooth snarled, uppercutting him backwards into the tree trunk. His advantage was short-lived, however, as he looked sideways to see the boss man leveling a gun at him. "Mr. Creed, your services are no longer needed," he said flatly, firing a few exploding shells into Sabretooth, blasting the 'X' off his uniform in addition to half his shoulder and midsection.
Avalanche, Quicksilver and Spyke turned in the direction of a large group of men in black uniforms coming towards the battle. "Rock and roll," Lance said, rolling his eyes back and clenching his fists. "Lookout!" Pietro shouted, pushing Lance off balance before he stomped his foot down. Avalanche's eyes popped open just as Weapon X's claws plunged through his helmet just a hair's breath away from his head, shattering the pieces into his eyes.
Spyke launched three quick spikes right into X's mask, sending him reeling backwards trying to pick the bone shards out of his face. "You OK?" Pietro asked Lance, who was furiously rubbing his eyes until he realized that made it hurt more.
"Yeah, fine, just point me in the right direction and I'll shake things up."
"Hey man, this is my house! You're gonna trash everything if you can't see where you're 'shaking!'"
"So what's he gonna do, sit on the bench, coach?"
Without a word, Rogue walked up and touched the back of Lance's neck. He fell face-down in the wet dirt, and she cracked her knuckles and gave the two arguing boys a glare.
"Hey, thats fine with me," Evan said quickly.
"No problem here," Pietro added.
Presently, a thunderous explosion prompted everyone on all sides of the free-for-all to look. It was impossible to tell who had knocked who down, but Blob and Juggernaut were now pummeling each other on the ground. The more it rained, the softer the ground got, and the more of a disadvantage the clumsy Fred faced. That coupled with the fact that Cain had much more battle experience, being old enough to be the boy's father, made the fight a testament to the Blob's mutant toughness.
Staggering to his feet, Sabretooth quietly accepted the pain and used it to get that much more fired up. He'd originally followed the boys in black to try and take out Logan, but now that they'd given him the pink slip, it was time to paint the town red. Dashing to the closest black suit he could find, he picked the man up by the back of his shirt and cracked his back with one punch. Cyclops couldn't help but pause in confusion when he saw Sabretooth fighting on his side.
Presently, half of the locks on Juggernaut's helmet came snapping off after about the tenth solidly landed punch by the Blob. Then, and only then, did Cain Marko's mean streak kick in. Usually reserved for his dear family members, Cain directed all his hatred into one simple thought: Nobody knocks off the Juggernaut's helmet. Battling back furiously, Jug's fists crashed into the Blob with scary accuracy for someone in such a blind rage.
Deep into their own smaller battles with Weapon X and the rest of the black suits, the other mutants briefly turned their attention to the clash of the titans just in time to see Fred Dukes get knocked out. As the mammoth mutant hit the mud with both a thud and a splat, his fellow Brotherhood members virtually froze in place. Since they'd known Freddy, it had been a given fact that he never lost in a fist fight. And although the portion of his body armor that extended to his knuckles was mangled painfully around his fists, Juggernaut had clearly won.
Storm was the first to react to the change in the roster, downing a wall of black uniforms and hurling lightning bolts at Juggernaut. If nobody challenged him, he would undoubtedly rampage into the mansion, where the Professor and Logan were helpless to stop him. But, helmet loosened and all, Jug shrugged off the lightning storm and turned toward the institute.
The soft ground broke apart with a slight sucking noise as Rogue tried to hold off Juggernaut with Avalanche's power. The irresistable force was temporarily caught up, but instead of clumsily lifting his feet he simply trudged through the dirt with ease. The noise behind Rogue went unnoticed, as Lance's seismic abilities were hard to control. When Weapon X popped up from her blind side and dug his claws through her uniform, however, she noticed.
As she was taken down hard and cut deep by six bone claws, Rogue's scream caught everyone's attention. Cyclops was the first to respond, shooting a narrow force beam from his visor that clipped X neatly in the back of the head while he was mounted on top of his victim. The black-clad mutant went sprawling out a few yards but rolled behind a crowd of his human teammates to avoid getting blasted again.
Sabretooth was tearing apart the opposition, oblivious to the other mutants, when he almost tripped on a fallen body. It was the girl with the skunk streak in her hair. He paid her no mind until he saw that she'd been skewered by the runt. Pausing momentarily to look at the wounded girl, something that always entertained him, he growled in surprise when his hand started moving toward her face.
Having been absorbed by her once before, Sabretooth knew not to touch her. But he was just barely pulling his arm away."You have to help her," a voice said. He looked up with a snarl to see Jean, with her hands outstretched.
Sabretooth strained every muscle, but Jean's telekinesis had been recharged since trying to stop Juggernaut, and at last his clawed hand touched Rogue's cheek. With a groan, he fell backwards and just barely stayed conscious as his healing factor was drained, leaving him unable to compensate for his multiple shotgun wounds.
Just a few yards away from the brawl his students were engaged in, Professor X waited anxiously at the base of the stairs. He got a mental picture of what was going on, who was down and out, but he couldn't get a clear telepathic connection with Juggernaut or Weapon X. This made him nervous, but the usually cool and collected Charles Xavier was struck with absolute fear when his half-brother came exploding through the wall across the room.
In quite possibly the stupidest move of his daredevil career, Nightcrawler BAMFed in directy in front of Juggernaut, with hopes of 'porting him back outside before he could get to the Professor. He sadly underestimated the big man's speed, however, and had to leap sideways to avoid being trampled. Kurt realized that he should have planned his move better just before Juggernaut backhanded him through a window.
"Brother, I've been waiting a long time for this," Cain said in a surprisingly calm voice. "Remember when I was ten and I cracked dad's pool cue on your back? Cuz your bald carcass looks even more like a cue ball now than ever." Xavier's eyes widened as his demonic half-brother stomped closer and closer.
"Forgot to chalk up, Jughead," a voice said from behind. Jug spun around, seeing only a paper flying off a desk in the corner. Turning back around, however, he saw Quicksilver standing between him and Charles, holding a fire extinguisher. Before he could make a move, the white-haired mutant blasted him right in the face, coating his mask with the white substance and getting it in his eyes and mouth, up his nose, and through the gap in his helmet before zooming off with Professor X and wheelchair in tow.
Being wheeled outside in a blur of speed, the Professor was in disbelief. Magneto's son had just saved his life. But how long could the Brotherhood and X-Men hold off Weapon X and Juggernaut? The answer came sooner than he would have liked, as the unstoppable mutant came crashing through another wall and back outside.
Pietro had no sooner shifted his weight to one foot than three claws and a fist shot by his face. Trying to zoom out of harms way, he stumbled over Weapon X's leg, placed in between his own, and fell awkwardly to the ground. Professor X tried to stop the masked mutant with a psychic blast, only to discover the same blockage that Juggernaut's helmet gave him. X kicked Quicksilver right in the face, knocking the boy out before he even got halfway to his feet.
Following his teammate's lead, Jug slowed down his mad charge, wound up his leg, and punted his brother's wheelchair a good twenty feet across the lawn. Xavier's verbal and telepathic cry of pain as he tumbled along the ground like a skiier flailing down a mountain jarred everyone in the midst of their battles. Jean, being tuned in to telepathy much more than anyone, was shocked at the numbing fear she picked up from the Professor.
Not that far away, Professor X's mental plea for help was recieved by someone else. Eyes slowly opening a crack and adjusting to the light, he mumbled incoherently as he tried to shake that disoriented feeling. He knew what was going on right in his backyard, that mental image had said it all. They needed his help out there, he decided as he swung his feet over the edge of the bed and met with a wave of dizzyness, healing factor or not.
His feet digging into the earth beneath him, Juggernaut slowed down greatly but could not be stopped. The other X-Men fanning out to join the battle were scattered from their planned formation by Weapon X, who had stealthily taken out the guns and other defenses hidden under the lawn. As the red-clad monster was almost upon them, the Summers brothers and company broke off their offense to get the heck out of dodge.
Juggernaut skidded to a stop and turned quickly. Cyclops rolled to a halt and spun around, hand moving to his visor for the next charge. But to his surprise, another mammoth mutant stood in his way. Cain Marko walked right into every ounce of Fred J. Dukes, who dented his helmet right on the X with a huge right hand. As had as it was to imagine the Blob sneaking up on anyone, nobody from either side of the battle had noticed Freddy or the rest of the Brotherhood until they found themselves fighting right beside them.
"What the--" Toad, crouched in a battle stance, did a double take upon seeing Wolverine fighting against Nightcrawler. "A little help here?" Kurt said as he leaped by with Weapon X breathing down his neck. Todd shrugged and whipped his tongue out, sliming Weapon X's mask over. Although blinded, the Wolverine lookalike could still hear the wart-faced punk laughing, so he lunged in that direction.
Caught off guard, Toad leaped back several times, and then did a backwards flip landing on a tree limb. Taking a breather, he looked down helplessly as Weapon X cleared his eyes and started hacking at the tree. This guy didn't have the metal claws, Todd noticed when he saw that he didn't slice the tree down immediately.
On ground level, the clawed lumberjack saw a brief flash of Kitty as she phased through from the other side of the tree and then right through him. Spinning with claws outstretched, he swung and went right through her. Making herself solid at just the right moment, Shadowcat kicked Weapon X square in the gonads. As he doubled over, Toad descended and landed with a two-footed stomp right on the back of his head. Caught up in the moment, the two enemies shared a high five, which ended with Kitty crying out and trying in vain to shake the slime off her hand.
Slowly climbing to his feet, X looked at two boots standing right before his eyes. "Guess one runt's as good as another," Sabretooth snarled, uppercutting him backwards into the tree trunk. His advantage was short-lived, however, as he looked sideways to see the boss man leveling a gun at him. "Mr. Creed, your services are no longer needed," he said flatly, firing a few exploding shells into Sabretooth, blasting the 'X' off his uniform in addition to half his shoulder and midsection.
Avalanche, Quicksilver and Spyke turned in the direction of a large group of men in black uniforms coming towards the battle. "Rock and roll," Lance said, rolling his eyes back and clenching his fists. "Lookout!" Pietro shouted, pushing Lance off balance before he stomped his foot down. Avalanche's eyes popped open just as Weapon X's claws plunged through his helmet just a hair's breath away from his head, shattering the pieces into his eyes.
Spyke launched three quick spikes right into X's mask, sending him reeling backwards trying to pick the bone shards out of his face. "You OK?" Pietro asked Lance, who was furiously rubbing his eyes until he realized that made it hurt more.
"Yeah, fine, just point me in the right direction and I'll shake things up."
"Hey man, this is my house! You're gonna trash everything if you can't see where you're 'shaking!'"
"So what's he gonna do, sit on the bench, coach?"
Without a word, Rogue walked up and touched the back of Lance's neck. He fell face-down in the wet dirt, and she cracked her knuckles and gave the two arguing boys a glare.
"Hey, thats fine with me," Evan said quickly.
"No problem here," Pietro added.
Presently, a thunderous explosion prompted everyone on all sides of the free-for-all to look. It was impossible to tell who had knocked who down, but Blob and Juggernaut were now pummeling each other on the ground. The more it rained, the softer the ground got, and the more of a disadvantage the clumsy Fred faced. That coupled with the fact that Cain had much more battle experience, being old enough to be the boy's father, made the fight a testament to the Blob's mutant toughness.
Staggering to his feet, Sabretooth quietly accepted the pain and used it to get that much more fired up. He'd originally followed the boys in black to try and take out Logan, but now that they'd given him the pink slip, it was time to paint the town red. Dashing to the closest black suit he could find, he picked the man up by the back of his shirt and cracked his back with one punch. Cyclops couldn't help but pause in confusion when he saw Sabretooth fighting on his side.
Presently, half of the locks on Juggernaut's helmet came snapping off after about the tenth solidly landed punch by the Blob. Then, and only then, did Cain Marko's mean streak kick in. Usually reserved for his dear family members, Cain directed all his hatred into one simple thought: Nobody knocks off the Juggernaut's helmet. Battling back furiously, Jug's fists crashed into the Blob with scary accuracy for someone in such a blind rage.
Deep into their own smaller battles with Weapon X and the rest of the black suits, the other mutants briefly turned their attention to the clash of the titans just in time to see Fred Dukes get knocked out. As the mammoth mutant hit the mud with both a thud and a splat, his fellow Brotherhood members virtually froze in place. Since they'd known Freddy, it had been a given fact that he never lost in a fist fight. And although the portion of his body armor that extended to his knuckles was mangled painfully around his fists, Juggernaut had clearly won.
Storm was the first to react to the change in the roster, downing a wall of black uniforms and hurling lightning bolts at Juggernaut. If nobody challenged him, he would undoubtedly rampage into the mansion, where the Professor and Logan were helpless to stop him. But, helmet loosened and all, Jug shrugged off the lightning storm and turned toward the institute.
The soft ground broke apart with a slight sucking noise as Rogue tried to hold off Juggernaut with Avalanche's power. The irresistable force was temporarily caught up, but instead of clumsily lifting his feet he simply trudged through the dirt with ease. The noise behind Rogue went unnoticed, as Lance's seismic abilities were hard to control. When Weapon X popped up from her blind side and dug his claws through her uniform, however, she noticed.
As she was taken down hard and cut deep by six bone claws, Rogue's scream caught everyone's attention. Cyclops was the first to respond, shooting a narrow force beam from his visor that clipped X neatly in the back of the head while he was mounted on top of his victim. The black-clad mutant went sprawling out a few yards but rolled behind a crowd of his human teammates to avoid getting blasted again.
Sabretooth was tearing apart the opposition, oblivious to the other mutants, when he almost tripped on a fallen body. It was the girl with the skunk streak in her hair. He paid her no mind until he saw that she'd been skewered by the runt. Pausing momentarily to look at the wounded girl, something that always entertained him, he growled in surprise when his hand started moving toward her face.
Having been absorbed by her once before, Sabretooth knew not to touch her. But he was just barely pulling his arm away."You have to help her," a voice said. He looked up with a snarl to see Jean, with her hands outstretched.
Sabretooth strained every muscle, but Jean's telekinesis had been recharged since trying to stop Juggernaut, and at last his clawed hand touched Rogue's cheek. With a groan, he fell backwards and just barely stayed conscious as his healing factor was drained, leaving him unable to compensate for his multiple shotgun wounds.
Just a few yards away from the brawl his students were engaged in, Professor X waited anxiously at the base of the stairs. He got a mental picture of what was going on, who was down and out, but he couldn't get a clear telepathic connection with Juggernaut or Weapon X. This made him nervous, but the usually cool and collected Charles Xavier was struck with absolute fear when his half-brother came exploding through the wall across the room.
In quite possibly the stupidest move of his daredevil career, Nightcrawler BAMFed in directy in front of Juggernaut, with hopes of 'porting him back outside before he could get to the Professor. He sadly underestimated the big man's speed, however, and had to leap sideways to avoid being trampled. Kurt realized that he should have planned his move better just before Juggernaut backhanded him through a window.
"Brother, I've been waiting a long time for this," Cain said in a surprisingly calm voice. "Remember when I was ten and I cracked dad's pool cue on your back? Cuz your bald carcass looks even more like a cue ball now than ever." Xavier's eyes widened as his demonic half-brother stomped closer and closer.
"Forgot to chalk up, Jughead," a voice said from behind. Jug spun around, seeing only a paper flying off a desk in the corner. Turning back around, however, he saw Quicksilver standing between him and Charles, holding a fire extinguisher. Before he could make a move, the white-haired mutant blasted him right in the face, coating his mask with the white substance and getting it in his eyes and mouth, up his nose, and through the gap in his helmet before zooming off with Professor X and wheelchair in tow.
Being wheeled outside in a blur of speed, the Professor was in disbelief. Magneto's son had just saved his life. But how long could the Brotherhood and X-Men hold off Weapon X and Juggernaut? The answer came sooner than he would have liked, as the unstoppable mutant came crashing through another wall and back outside.
Pietro had no sooner shifted his weight to one foot than three claws and a fist shot by his face. Trying to zoom out of harms way, he stumbled over Weapon X's leg, placed in between his own, and fell awkwardly to the ground. Professor X tried to stop the masked mutant with a psychic blast, only to discover the same blockage that Juggernaut's helmet gave him. X kicked Quicksilver right in the face, knocking the boy out before he even got halfway to his feet.
Following his teammate's lead, Jug slowed down his mad charge, wound up his leg, and punted his brother's wheelchair a good twenty feet across the lawn. Xavier's verbal and telepathic cry of pain as he tumbled along the ground like a skiier flailing down a mountain jarred everyone in the midst of their battles. Jean, being tuned in to telepathy much more than anyone, was shocked at the numbing fear she picked up from the Professor.
Not that far away, Professor X's mental plea for help was recieved by someone else. Eyes slowly opening a crack and adjusting to the light, he mumbled incoherently as he tried to shake that disoriented feeling. He knew what was going on right in his backyard, that mental image had said it all. They needed his help out there, he decided as he swung his feet over the edge of the bed and met with a wave of dizzyness, healing factor or not.