"Looks like we got to the party a little bit too late," Wolverine said as
he watched the scene below them from the Blackbird's main window.
"There's such a thing as being fashionably late, Logan," Storm told them. "We must get those people under cover. They don't know the danger they're in."
Storm's eyes unfocused and turned white as she summoned her power. Clouds rolled in from out of nowhere and rain began pouring down on the unaware patrons of the boardwalk and casino. People began to run into the nearest buildings in an effort to get out of the rain.
"Good work Storm," Cyclops said. "They're damp, but they're as safe as they can be."
"What the hell?" Badlands looked up as the downpour started. "Where did this come from?"
"I think I know," Glow said wearily. "And it means one of two things."
"Like what?" Badlands shouted to her over the sound of the rain.
"Either the cavalry's here or we're in for a whole heap of trouble."
"Hope it's the first," Mez put in.
The rain did have a bonus effect besides getting the civilians under cover. It tore through the wings on Checkmate's pack, sending himself and DreamWeb plummeting to the ground.
Nearing the docks, Magneto heard the rain coming and looked up in time to be bathed in the torrent. Sabertooth looked up as well and growled. They both knew well what that sudden storm meant.
"Well, Charles. You finally decided to get off your rear end and do something," Magneto spoke to the unseen enemy.
"It's really creepy when men as old as you start talking to yourself," Whirlwind said, swooping down on them. Before the two could even react, Whirlwind had started a tornado, widening it to accept the rainwater streaming down. Turning it into a waterspout she hurled it at Magneto, sweeping him off his feet and nearly out to sea.
Sabertooth's sheer bulk and firm grip on the docking moor and his leader were the only thing that kept that attack from killing Magneto.
"Oh, I don't think so," Sabertooth yelled as he pulled the older man back onto the dock and charged for Whirlwind who flew easily out of his way.
Sabertooth tried to pull in his charge before his target got clean away but was halted mid-stride, surrounded by a glowing blue bubble. Shield flew into view; taking the force shield he'd surrounded the henchman with, and hurled it away from him. It skipped down the beach like a pebble over water. Shield tossed him into the side of a lifeguard's metal tower. The structure crumbled and folded in on top of the savage.
"Oh hell! Badlands! Witch woman at ten o'clock," Glow shouted.
"I see her!" The air warped as he moved into super speed to catch DreamWeb as she fell.
"I've got the other one!" Glow yelled. "Somewhere up there is a telepath named Jean Grey! Mez, tell her to get Storm to turn off the waterworks. They're making this harder for us, not easier."
The Mezmerizer nodded once and cast her eyes upward.
Inside the Blackbird Jean gasped. Her eyes grew wide and she stammered something incoherent. When she turned to her companions they noted her pupils were wide and dilated.
"Glow says to turn off the weather. And The Mezmerizer wants to know when we're going to get off our asses and help them kick Magneto's butt."
"Good enough invitation to me," Wolverine said, extracting his claws.
Cyclops evaluated the mood of his team quickly. "All right, Storm, call off the rains. I'm taking us down."
Cyclops set the Blackbird down right on the waters next to the dock where Magneto had Whirlwind at a standoff. Magneto had his back to the boardwalk shops and Whirlwind was now over the docks.
The older mutant was tearing off bits and pieces of the shops on the boardwalk and of the boats around them and hurling them at the woman. Whirlwind was hard pressed to catch the shrapnel in her tornado and didn't dare risk flinging it back for fear of hurting the few people still milling around in the shops. She could see the frightened faces of men, women, and God help them, children gazing out of the shop windows.
"Isn't that just like you young people? Never willing to make a few sacrifices," Magneto taunted her.
"Sacrifice this," Cyclops called out just before hitting Magneto in the chest with an optic blast.
Whirlwind, able to let down her guard, guided the tornado filled with shrapnel over her head and out to sea where it harmlessly dissipated, leaving the salvage floating in the rough waves.
"Much obliged Stranger," Whirlwind breathed a sigh of relief.
"Save it. That's not going to keep him down for long - I couldn't use full power with so many." Cyclops started a lecture.
"Civilians around, I know. I know," she cut him off. "Why do you think I was holding a level F3 tornado intact for so damned long? That's not easy to do you know."
"Sorry," Cyclops was slightly taken aback but had no further chance to respond.
Magneto came flying up out of the rubble he'd fallen into and landed a scant twenty feet from them. "So, you want to play? Very well, children. We'll play as long as you mind your manners."
"Does he think everyone on this planet is younger than him?" she asked.
"Don't know," Cyclops said as he fired another optic blast only to have it repelled by Magneto's force field of magnetic energy. "Right about now I don't think it matters."
Badlands managed to catch DreamWeb from falling to her death only to have to twist away from her before she could touch him with one of her webs of psychokinetic energy that would have enabled her to control him as she had Glow's brother.
"Well that's gratitude for ya," Badlands snorted as he dropped her flat on her rear and returned to his wife's side.
"This is an outrage!" DreamWeb shrieked.
"Not exactly Miss Congeniality, is she?" asked Storm, coming up alongside Badlands and The Mezmerizer.
"Glad to see you could join the fun," Mez said.
DreamWeb used the brief exchange to charge another psychokinetic energy web and throw it at them. Jean Grey held it in place with her telekinesis.
"Thought you could use a hand," Jean said, not taking her eyes off the web as she sent it back in the direction of its creator.
"The more the merrier I always say," Badlands grinned as DreamWeb dodged the web of her own making.
"I wonder if that silver collar of hers is truly metal," Jean asked.
"I don't know," Storm replied. "Let's find out."
Static electricity flew from her, raising her white hair as she summoned a lightning bolt. The bolt flew off her fingers and hit DreamWeb in her middle. The other woman screamed and jerked stiffly for a moment before collapsing.
"Nice job," Badlands commented.
"Thank you," Storm said sociably.
"Question: where'd Glow and Checkmate go?"
"And where's Logan?" Jean asked, suddenly looking around them.
A blot of blue light shot past the orange-haired woman and she screamed in frustration.
"How many different powers do you have with that stupid belt?" Glow shouted at him. "And why wasn't I given a list?!?"
Glow had caught the heavier man but had only been able to slow his decent, not stop it altogether. She'd lost her hold on him only eight feet above the ground, but he'd tumbled from her hands to the beach's sands in time to turn and face her down. Using his belt to give and control a variety of abilities he succeeded in frustrating Glow. The woman didn't know when she was supposed to defend herself and when to attack. Some of the powers built into that neat little belt were deadly to her, and depending on the mode, her own power wouldn't have any effect.
"I believe the lady had an interest in this little piece of fashion," a gruff voice spoke in Checkmate's ear.
The scientist froze as he heard the *snikt* of metal being extracted next to his neck and waist. He froze as he felt three blades being pressed against the back of his collar. Checkmate slowly held up his hands and kept them away from his power belt. With a quick swipe of his claws, Wolverine relieved the villain of his belt and tossed it out into the darkness.
"What are you going to do to me?" Checkmate asked.
"Well that depends on what the lady says," Wolverine told him.
Glow answered by charging her power up and pointing her finger at Checkmate's chest. "You'd better get out of the way Wolverine. I don't want to go back on my promise."
He backed away and moved to the side swiftly and silently. Checkmate moved surprisingly fast for someone of his size. He bolted and Glow's shot went astray. She fired three more times in rapid succession. Checkmate managed by some cursed luck to dodge each one and run for it.
Glow and Wolverine were on his heels but he beat them to the fallen body of DreamWeb. He swept the unconscious woman up and ran for Magneto's location.
"BADLANDS!"
"On it fearless leader!" he shouted as he launched himself at Checkmate.
"Stop calling me that!" Glow thundered after him. She pulled up short and stopped running. She held her sides panting, "I fly to much and run too little."
"Wouldn't have expected that from you," Logan said.
"Wouldn't have expected you to help me like that," Glow still held her sides against the stitch in them, but drew her eyes up to hold his own black ones.
He stiffened, but didn't say anything in response.
"Glow!" The Mezmerizer called. "Checkmate's in the middle of the battle between Whirlwind, Magneto and your other friend."
Storm, Mez, and Jean joined the group. "We can't find Sabertooth, or that red-haired guy."
"Shield, my brother," Glow said. "He was facing off with the overgrown Ugly."
"What's going on? There are only four of them. They shouldn't be getting by us this easily!" Badlands said as he reappeared before them.
"I lost them! Can you believe it? ME, THE KING OF BLOODY SHADOWS! LOST THEM!" he ranted.
"That's impossible. Mez, can you track them?" Glow asked as the entire group headed over to provide backup for Whirlwind and Cyclops.
"GET DOWN!" Whirlwind screamed at the top of her lungs.
"What the-?" Jean's eyes widened and she fell to the ground, flattening herself as much as possible.
The others followed her example.
The satellite dish had taken to the air again and soared overhead crashing into the side of the casino's main building. The sounds of screams could be heard as the building's structure creaked under the strain and part of the side started to fall in on itself.
"Oh no," Glow muttered. "Is this day EVER going to end?"
Magneto was currently picking up a small metal shack that up until that moment sold souvenir seashells.
"Are we tired of our little games so soon?" Magneto called out to the heroes.
"Storm, he's holding a giant lightning rod," Glow whispered. "I use my power, I light up like a Christmas tree and give him warning. You use your power."
"Right."
The white-haired woman unfocused her eyes as she called back the earlier storm in order to summon the lightning that could render Magneto helpless. She never got to deal the final blow. Magneto suddenly disappeared and the shack dropped to the beach front, raining seashells everywhere.
Glow put her head down in the sand and heaved a great sigh.
"We blew it. Our first mission in over 19 years that we've blown."
"It was bound to happen sooner or later, fearless leader," Badlands said.
"Michael if you call me that one more time, I swear I'm going to pump you so full of 'tricity that you'll be unconscious for the rest of your life," Glow growled from her seat.
"Come on, we need to get out of here, and now," Cyclops ordered, coming over to them with Whirlwind walking besides him. "The locals have called in the police. Some of them are already here."
"Right." Jean got to her feet, dusting herself off as she helped Storm to her feet. Whirlwind pulled Badlands and Mez up. Glow offered a hand up to Wolverine. He looked at her hand for a minute as if seeing a viper. She slumped her shoulders and would have pulled her hand back when he reached out and grasped it. She pulled him to his feet.
"We've got to get back to the jet," Cyclops said, looking at The Tech Team leader. "Are you coming?"
Glow glanced at Mez who shook her head slightly. Glow turned back to Cyclops, "A ride home would be great. Mez doesn't have enough energy left to teleport us again. Not over that distance."
Jean turned and looked startled at the tiny woman in the black cloak. Mez returned her gaze with an even, calm one of her own.
"There's such a thing as being fashionably late, Logan," Storm told them. "We must get those people under cover. They don't know the danger they're in."
Storm's eyes unfocused and turned white as she summoned her power. Clouds rolled in from out of nowhere and rain began pouring down on the unaware patrons of the boardwalk and casino. People began to run into the nearest buildings in an effort to get out of the rain.
"Good work Storm," Cyclops said. "They're damp, but they're as safe as they can be."
"What the hell?" Badlands looked up as the downpour started. "Where did this come from?"
"I think I know," Glow said wearily. "And it means one of two things."
"Like what?" Badlands shouted to her over the sound of the rain.
"Either the cavalry's here or we're in for a whole heap of trouble."
"Hope it's the first," Mez put in.
The rain did have a bonus effect besides getting the civilians under cover. It tore through the wings on Checkmate's pack, sending himself and DreamWeb plummeting to the ground.
Nearing the docks, Magneto heard the rain coming and looked up in time to be bathed in the torrent. Sabertooth looked up as well and growled. They both knew well what that sudden storm meant.
"Well, Charles. You finally decided to get off your rear end and do something," Magneto spoke to the unseen enemy.
"It's really creepy when men as old as you start talking to yourself," Whirlwind said, swooping down on them. Before the two could even react, Whirlwind had started a tornado, widening it to accept the rainwater streaming down. Turning it into a waterspout she hurled it at Magneto, sweeping him off his feet and nearly out to sea.
Sabertooth's sheer bulk and firm grip on the docking moor and his leader were the only thing that kept that attack from killing Magneto.
"Oh, I don't think so," Sabertooth yelled as he pulled the older man back onto the dock and charged for Whirlwind who flew easily out of his way.
Sabertooth tried to pull in his charge before his target got clean away but was halted mid-stride, surrounded by a glowing blue bubble. Shield flew into view; taking the force shield he'd surrounded the henchman with, and hurled it away from him. It skipped down the beach like a pebble over water. Shield tossed him into the side of a lifeguard's metal tower. The structure crumbled and folded in on top of the savage.
"Oh hell! Badlands! Witch woman at ten o'clock," Glow shouted.
"I see her!" The air warped as he moved into super speed to catch DreamWeb as she fell.
"I've got the other one!" Glow yelled. "Somewhere up there is a telepath named Jean Grey! Mez, tell her to get Storm to turn off the waterworks. They're making this harder for us, not easier."
The Mezmerizer nodded once and cast her eyes upward.
Inside the Blackbird Jean gasped. Her eyes grew wide and she stammered something incoherent. When she turned to her companions they noted her pupils were wide and dilated.
"Glow says to turn off the weather. And The Mezmerizer wants to know when we're going to get off our asses and help them kick Magneto's butt."
"Good enough invitation to me," Wolverine said, extracting his claws.
Cyclops evaluated the mood of his team quickly. "All right, Storm, call off the rains. I'm taking us down."
Cyclops set the Blackbird down right on the waters next to the dock where Magneto had Whirlwind at a standoff. Magneto had his back to the boardwalk shops and Whirlwind was now over the docks.
The older mutant was tearing off bits and pieces of the shops on the boardwalk and of the boats around them and hurling them at the woman. Whirlwind was hard pressed to catch the shrapnel in her tornado and didn't dare risk flinging it back for fear of hurting the few people still milling around in the shops. She could see the frightened faces of men, women, and God help them, children gazing out of the shop windows.
"Isn't that just like you young people? Never willing to make a few sacrifices," Magneto taunted her.
"Sacrifice this," Cyclops called out just before hitting Magneto in the chest with an optic blast.
Whirlwind, able to let down her guard, guided the tornado filled with shrapnel over her head and out to sea where it harmlessly dissipated, leaving the salvage floating in the rough waves.
"Much obliged Stranger," Whirlwind breathed a sigh of relief.
"Save it. That's not going to keep him down for long - I couldn't use full power with so many." Cyclops started a lecture.
"Civilians around, I know. I know," she cut him off. "Why do you think I was holding a level F3 tornado intact for so damned long? That's not easy to do you know."
"Sorry," Cyclops was slightly taken aback but had no further chance to respond.
Magneto came flying up out of the rubble he'd fallen into and landed a scant twenty feet from them. "So, you want to play? Very well, children. We'll play as long as you mind your manners."
"Does he think everyone on this planet is younger than him?" she asked.
"Don't know," Cyclops said as he fired another optic blast only to have it repelled by Magneto's force field of magnetic energy. "Right about now I don't think it matters."
Badlands managed to catch DreamWeb from falling to her death only to have to twist away from her before she could touch him with one of her webs of psychokinetic energy that would have enabled her to control him as she had Glow's brother.
"Well that's gratitude for ya," Badlands snorted as he dropped her flat on her rear and returned to his wife's side.
"This is an outrage!" DreamWeb shrieked.
"Not exactly Miss Congeniality, is she?" asked Storm, coming up alongside Badlands and The Mezmerizer.
"Glad to see you could join the fun," Mez said.
DreamWeb used the brief exchange to charge another psychokinetic energy web and throw it at them. Jean Grey held it in place with her telekinesis.
"Thought you could use a hand," Jean said, not taking her eyes off the web as she sent it back in the direction of its creator.
"The more the merrier I always say," Badlands grinned as DreamWeb dodged the web of her own making.
"I wonder if that silver collar of hers is truly metal," Jean asked.
"I don't know," Storm replied. "Let's find out."
Static electricity flew from her, raising her white hair as she summoned a lightning bolt. The bolt flew off her fingers and hit DreamWeb in her middle. The other woman screamed and jerked stiffly for a moment before collapsing.
"Nice job," Badlands commented.
"Thank you," Storm said sociably.
"Question: where'd Glow and Checkmate go?"
"And where's Logan?" Jean asked, suddenly looking around them.
A blot of blue light shot past the orange-haired woman and she screamed in frustration.
"How many different powers do you have with that stupid belt?" Glow shouted at him. "And why wasn't I given a list?!?"
Glow had caught the heavier man but had only been able to slow his decent, not stop it altogether. She'd lost her hold on him only eight feet above the ground, but he'd tumbled from her hands to the beach's sands in time to turn and face her down. Using his belt to give and control a variety of abilities he succeeded in frustrating Glow. The woman didn't know when she was supposed to defend herself and when to attack. Some of the powers built into that neat little belt were deadly to her, and depending on the mode, her own power wouldn't have any effect.
"I believe the lady had an interest in this little piece of fashion," a gruff voice spoke in Checkmate's ear.
The scientist froze as he heard the *snikt* of metal being extracted next to his neck and waist. He froze as he felt three blades being pressed against the back of his collar. Checkmate slowly held up his hands and kept them away from his power belt. With a quick swipe of his claws, Wolverine relieved the villain of his belt and tossed it out into the darkness.
"What are you going to do to me?" Checkmate asked.
"Well that depends on what the lady says," Wolverine told him.
Glow answered by charging her power up and pointing her finger at Checkmate's chest. "You'd better get out of the way Wolverine. I don't want to go back on my promise."
He backed away and moved to the side swiftly and silently. Checkmate moved surprisingly fast for someone of his size. He bolted and Glow's shot went astray. She fired three more times in rapid succession. Checkmate managed by some cursed luck to dodge each one and run for it.
Glow and Wolverine were on his heels but he beat them to the fallen body of DreamWeb. He swept the unconscious woman up and ran for Magneto's location.
"BADLANDS!"
"On it fearless leader!" he shouted as he launched himself at Checkmate.
"Stop calling me that!" Glow thundered after him. She pulled up short and stopped running. She held her sides panting, "I fly to much and run too little."
"Wouldn't have expected that from you," Logan said.
"Wouldn't have expected you to help me like that," Glow still held her sides against the stitch in them, but drew her eyes up to hold his own black ones.
He stiffened, but didn't say anything in response.
"Glow!" The Mezmerizer called. "Checkmate's in the middle of the battle between Whirlwind, Magneto and your other friend."
Storm, Mez, and Jean joined the group. "We can't find Sabertooth, or that red-haired guy."
"Shield, my brother," Glow said. "He was facing off with the overgrown Ugly."
"What's going on? There are only four of them. They shouldn't be getting by us this easily!" Badlands said as he reappeared before them.
"I lost them! Can you believe it? ME, THE KING OF BLOODY SHADOWS! LOST THEM!" he ranted.
"That's impossible. Mez, can you track them?" Glow asked as the entire group headed over to provide backup for Whirlwind and Cyclops.
"GET DOWN!" Whirlwind screamed at the top of her lungs.
"What the-?" Jean's eyes widened and she fell to the ground, flattening herself as much as possible.
The others followed her example.
The satellite dish had taken to the air again and soared overhead crashing into the side of the casino's main building. The sounds of screams could be heard as the building's structure creaked under the strain and part of the side started to fall in on itself.
"Oh no," Glow muttered. "Is this day EVER going to end?"
Magneto was currently picking up a small metal shack that up until that moment sold souvenir seashells.
"Are we tired of our little games so soon?" Magneto called out to the heroes.
"Storm, he's holding a giant lightning rod," Glow whispered. "I use my power, I light up like a Christmas tree and give him warning. You use your power."
"Right."
The white-haired woman unfocused her eyes as she called back the earlier storm in order to summon the lightning that could render Magneto helpless. She never got to deal the final blow. Magneto suddenly disappeared and the shack dropped to the beach front, raining seashells everywhere.
Glow put her head down in the sand and heaved a great sigh.
"We blew it. Our first mission in over 19 years that we've blown."
"It was bound to happen sooner or later, fearless leader," Badlands said.
"Michael if you call me that one more time, I swear I'm going to pump you so full of 'tricity that you'll be unconscious for the rest of your life," Glow growled from her seat.
"Come on, we need to get out of here, and now," Cyclops ordered, coming over to them with Whirlwind walking besides him. "The locals have called in the police. Some of them are already here."
"Right." Jean got to her feet, dusting herself off as she helped Storm to her feet. Whirlwind pulled Badlands and Mez up. Glow offered a hand up to Wolverine. He looked at her hand for a minute as if seeing a viper. She slumped her shoulders and would have pulled her hand back when he reached out and grasped it. She pulled him to his feet.
"We've got to get back to the jet," Cyclops said, looking at The Tech Team leader. "Are you coming?"
Glow glanced at Mez who shook her head slightly. Glow turned back to Cyclops, "A ride home would be great. Mez doesn't have enough energy left to teleport us again. Not over that distance."
Jean turned and looked startled at the tiny woman in the black cloak. Mez returned her gaze with an even, calm one of her own.
