Dark before the Light
Warnings: Angst, language, some violence, so far.
Pairings: None as of yet.
Summary: Chuck tries to fix something; Anti-Xavier but not really. More bad things + violence.
A/N: Reviews! I would like to thank everyone who reviewed, seeing that people liked this story has greatly encouraged me to write, and I'd like to thank all of you so much for reviewing my story. I know these are kind of short chapters, but I'm still pretty new at this and I'm trying to make sure I do it right. This chapter starts out immediately after "Those who Stand in Shadows."
Okay, ~ Whatever. ~ equals thoughts, and
~-=*=-~
signals a scene switch. R/R!
Pietro only took a moment to get to the jeep. It was started and waiting on the road, and the lines of fire in the distance seemed to flicker just slightly as the boys began to drive. The road was slick with rainfall and the jeep slipped slightly under Avalanche's hand as they sped toward the fighting ground. The main road was clogged with debris and traffic as frantic citizens tried to flee the havoc; the land behind them was burned, the fragile houses and storefronts seeming to shatter with each crash of thunder, and wave after wave of sound hit the vehicles as rubble crashed onto the streets. Lance calmly turned onto what back streets and alleys they could find, and in a moment they saw the carnage.
Red light swirled rhythmically from the remains of a police car amid the rubble. The vehicle was turned on itself, the roof and blue light crushed to the ground. The side the car had landed on, thrown from an unimaginable height, spread outward in a smooth puddle of metal and wires. A man looked out from a cracked window, face frozen in puzzlement, eyes wide and broken in death. The lone light shone on him at intervals, bathing the pale skin in dark red.
The Brotherhood stood frozen by this sight, a crash to their left taking the boys by surprise. Red light, bright and powerful and deadly, speared through a building beside them, shearing the cop car's rear bumper and scraping the car itself across the road a good four feet. The four boys jumped out of the jeep, sheltering behind it as the house, punctured by the red beam, collapsed onto the street.
Pietro glanced up, the first to recover from the shockwave, and his eyes were drawn to the remains of the cop car again. The broken body had been hidden, crushed with the rest of the car under the building's rubble and buried under clouds of dust from the crash. Quicksilver turned from the sight to look across the jeep, seeking the source of the familiar red light. There, standing behind the rubble, a familiar figure. Scott's optic blasts must have been shielded, no light was emitting from his eyes.
Pietro blinked, focusing on the figure a dozen or so yards away. The dust cleared, so slowly, and he saw what was happening. Scott stood facing them, eyes closed, waiting behind the rubble and the dirt. He had simply closed his eyes to protect them from the dust.
Pietro jumped, grabbing Todd's arm and turning to Lance, who had also seen Summers. "Lance- "
Avalanche tensed, ready to dodge. "Take Todd. Run!."
Scott, still facing them, opened his eyes.
In a blur, both Quicksilver and the mutant Toad were gone, Avalanche barely missed by the beam of energy as he jumped. The bright red light hit the Brotherhood's jeep full-on, Freddy Dukes taking the full force of the blow. And quickly getting pissed off.
The jeep slammed against Freddy's stomach, screeching as the metal bent around him, the car unable to withstand the force of Cyclops' blasts. In one movement, Freddy Dukes lifted the damaged vehicle and threw it strait at the other mutant.
~-=*=-~
When Avalanche leapt away from jeep, he went ran down an alleyway across the street from where the house had stood. Hoping to get at Summers from another direction, he followed the street until it hit another road, turning there to eventually intersect the road Freddy and Summers were on. He had sighted yet another road, and planned to turn there, when the rattling sounded behind him.
Lance turned, shaken, wondering hopefully if any pets had survived in this neighborhood, dogs or something that might make that sound.
The rattling grew louder as the rubble strewn about in these fight zones shook rhythmically, and Lance just had time to spot the red-haired X-Man as he was psychically thrown into a wall.
~-=*=-~
Pietro ran, fast and far, trying to get somewhere safe before he went back to fight Summers. Freddy might not need much help if Scott was alone, but if any other X-Men showed up, he might . . . and as much as he hated to admit it, Pietro didn't see any way that Todd could help them against the kind of powers these guys were showing; the uncontrolled, deadly force had snapped the Speedster out of whatever kind of shock he had slipped into after the news reports. Pietro, Freddy, and Lance might decide to die fighting the X-Men, but Todd . . . didn't deserve that.
Pietro paused, hiding behind a butcher's shop as he tried to determine just how far he had run. He wasn't that tired, but that was really no indicator, especially when he was scared.
"Hey, Quickie, let me down, yo." Todd glared at him, and Pietro realized the other mutant had been complaining for the last few seconds while he was thinking.
Pietro put Todd down, glancing around him for a second. This place looked clear, little rubble and no wrecks, it was likely that Xavier's students hadn't been there yet. Pietro turned back to the younger mutant, who looked around, confused. The trip to this place had taken only a few seconds, and Todd was probably uncertain as to where they were. Good. If he didn't know where they were fighting, he might not get in the way.
Or get hurt.
"Todd, listen, I've been thinking, and I'm gonna go back and find Lance again and try to help him and Freddy. I know you wanted to help us, but it'd be better if you stayed here," Pietro glanced around at the buildings again, trying to be certain that it was safe. "You can just hang out here unti-"
"What?!" Todd stared at Pietro only a second before his eyes narrowed in anger. "Listen, Quickie, I signed up for this, same as you, so don't you even think I'm just gonna go along wi' you leavin' me here! I ain't gonna wait here for any of you guys-"
"Dammit, Todd, we won't be coming back!"
"You think I don't know that?"
Pietro put his hands to his head, clenching his teeth in frustration. He grabbed Todd by the shoulders. "This is a suicide thing, Todd! This is us fighting because we've got nothing else to do and we know we're gonna die. We're going to die, Todd, the three of us, and I don't want you dying too!"
"Why?" Todd stepped back, jerking out of Pietro's grip. "Why the hell do you think I should live if all of you guys die? That ain't fair, Pietro, you can't decide that for me." Todd stared at his friend determinedly, face set. "Maybe I don't want you guys to die either, but you chose to fight, and I did too, so I guess we're gonna die together."
Pietro stood suddenly, eyes sad. "No, we're not, Todd. I- I've got enough shit on my conscience as it is, I'm not gonna add this to the list. You don't know the way back from here, Todd, and I won't show you. I-" He stopped, shook his head, and was gone.
Todd only stared a moment at where Quicksilver had been, the tell-tale breeze showing the direction he had run in. Todd clenched his fists, cursing, then turned, eyeing the buildings around him, and began climbing the wall of the butchers' shop. From the top of it, he would be able to see across the block. From the store on the other side, he could probably see across the neighborhood; if that didn't work, a building a few hops over would let him see the whole city if he wished.
Todd hopped onto the first rooftop, and, unable to see any sign of the fight against Summers, began to walk across it to the second building he had been eyeing. A soft wind brushed over the roof, and the scratching sound of a scrap of paper over the roof tiles made him turn. The other mutant rose like a ghost through the surface of the roof, and when she had risen to the appropriate level, Shadowcat settled gently down on the rooftop, smiling serenely.
Todd's eyes were locked on her when Nightcrawler dropped out of the sky directly on top of him.
~-=*=-~
The jeep flew over Scott's red beams, and as he turned to look at it, the vehicle went soaring over the landscape, matching dents pressing in its sides.
Freddy Dukes wasted no time after throwing the car, rushing toward the leader of the X-Men while he was distracted. The returning red rays barely slowed the Blob down, and Summers was forced to step aside as the larger mutant ran after him. Jumping nimbly over piles of rubble, Cyclops seemed to abandon the battle, his power turned on the land around him as he sought a way away from the monstrous mutant.
Freddy chased Summers doggedly, certain that Pietro or Lance would return in time to trip Summers up enough that Freddy could catch up with him. Before this could happen, though, Cyclops had run to a fenced-in alley and, eyes closed to shield their blasts, had somehow managed to climb over. It should only have taken the Blob a few seconds to crash through after Scott, but someone else intervened.
To an observer, had any been there to see it, it would have seemed absurd. For a moment, the huge boy only stood there, a strange look upon his face, and then he began to scream. The loud, booming, continuos sound would have to have frightened the supposed observer; the shriek's animalistic qualities, the fierce, howling way it was uttered; the way the young man began swinging his hands, clawing at the air, at the unseen threat that had reached to his mind, all might have driven anyone watching to near insanity at the ridiculousness of the pose, the transformation from a determined fighter to a shrieking, frightened child.
After some time, the young mutant froze, shaking only slightly as he glanced around at his surroundings. From the other side of the fence, another mutant appeared, simply blasting the barrier with his now open eyes to proceed through. Freddy Dukes barely glanced at the other young man, instead starting off to the west, the way that he had come. Scott Summers went east, back toward the mansion.
The monster in Xavier had gained another toy.
~-=*=-~
Pietro cursed himself lightly for deserting Todd like that, but it was better that Todd be alive and unhappy than dead with his friends.
Pietro stopped at a crosswalk, torn between leaving Todd, as he had planned, and going back for the other boy. He didn't want Todd to die, but he didn't want Lance to die either, and he wasn't stopping Lance from fighting . . . mainly because Lance was their leader, and too big to carry besides, but still . . .
He'd go back for Todd.
Pietro nodded to himself, decided. Todd wanted to fight with them this last time, and it would be selfish of him to make the boy stay out of it. Pietro had better hurry, too. He had wasted almost three seconds thinking.
Three seconds is more than long enough for a stray breeze to be recognized as a person, especially if they stopped in the middle of the road.
Before Pietro had moved, a line of spikes appeared blocking the road the way he was heading. Pietro turned in time to see another row of spikes land, blocking the other side of the road. Pietro turned again, eyes wide as he saw the source of the weapons walk casually toward him from one of the broken houses lining this street. As he watched, another line of bone spikes sprouted from Evan's arms, extending outward like a fan from shoulder to elbow. Pietro found himself almost shaking when he saw the lifeless, deadened quality of Evan's dark brown eyes. This time he had the sense to dodge when the spikes flew at him.
~-=*=-~
Lance tried to breath as he was held against the wall a good two or three feet above the ground. His vision started growing spotty as he couldn't breathe, and did he blink or was the lack of air worse than he thought? Avalanche focused on the situation. He couldn't brace himself against the wall enough to offer any kind of resistance to Jean's psychic force, and the way it limited his breathing was probably a cause for worry. Still, Jean's power had limits - he had seen that while he stayed at the institute - and she couldn't keep him here long enough to choke to death him if he stayed cool and didn't panic.
He hoped.
~-=*=-~
Todd blinked uncertainly, aware of blacking out for a moment but uncertain as to why. The answer came when he felt a pair of furry hands wrap around his neck.
The mutant Toad grabbed Nightcrawler's wrists in his own, looking the other mutant in the face to see that his eyes, normally gold to the point of luminescence, were now cold, dark, like dead wood or metal. Todd fell back on the roof - it seemed he had only fainted for a second - and brought his legs up, kicking the blue mutant in the stomach.
Todd never used his leg muscles offensively. Those legs let him jump twenty feet in the air, and could launch him across a room in seconds. He had never let himself find out before what that kind of power could do to a person. It was kind of scary.
The kick sounded a series of pops in Nightcrawler's ribs, and Todd felt more than one snap as he sent Kurt flying off of the building, landing on the roof of a laundry next door. Todd stood on shaking feet, his back to the tall hotel that had been his objective before Kitty showed up. She was still standing there, and as he watched her the dead smile she had sported slowly turned to a grimace of pure hatred. She was still in her night clothes, and the cruel way she bared her teeth was in complete contrast with the pink cotton bedclothes, her matching sweater pulled over the top against the cold.
Shadowcat ran toward him, and Todd jumped to the side just as she phased through the floor.
~-=*=-~
Pietro stopped in front of the line of spikes blocking his way back to Todd, and ran again as another bone spear nearly grazed his arm. Evan was walking toward him, the bone walls on either side meeting the peach siding of the house behind him. As he looked as the walls of bone around him, Pietro wondered at how much of his own skeleton Evan had lost.
Spyke stopped moving forward a few yards from Quicksilver, dead eyes narrowed sharply. For a moment, Pietro thought he sensed a light buzzing in his head, then dismissed it, focussing on the fight. He had to get past Evan, stop him somehow if possible. Lance was probably cursing him right now for being late. Pietro glared at the mock-Evan, watching as the monster moved Evan's body to the left slightly, Evan's right arm extending several thick, short spikes like throwing knives. Pietro smiled, seeing enough room to escape.
~ Fine, I'll deal with Evan later. Right now, I've gotta help Lance and Freddy deal with Scott. It must have been seven minutes already. ~
Pietro ran quickly at the opening between where Evan's body stood and the wall of bone. When he ran, he activated his powers more than usual. When he activated his powers, a small trap in his mind went off. For a second, he was unconscious.
When Pietro woke up, Evan's hand was around his neck, the spikes extending from it scratching at his throat.
~-=*=-~
A/N: I know there wasn't all that much action in this chapter - I can't seem to write an action sequence very smoothly - but the next couple of sections might be all action, or I might just shorten the fight stuff, depending on how it goes over with the reviewers. I value all reviewer's input, so please take the time to review if you haven't done so already. Again, I'd like to thank those viewers who have already reviewed, it really makes me happy to read them all.
.
Warnings: Angst, language, some violence, so far.
Pairings: None as of yet.
Summary: Chuck tries to fix something; Anti-Xavier but not really. More bad things + violence.
A/N: Reviews! I would like to thank everyone who reviewed, seeing that people liked this story has greatly encouraged me to write, and I'd like to thank all of you so much for reviewing my story. I know these are kind of short chapters, but I'm still pretty new at this and I'm trying to make sure I do it right. This chapter starts out immediately after "Those who Stand in Shadows."
Okay, ~ Whatever. ~ equals thoughts, and
~-=*=-~
signals a scene switch. R/R!
Pietro only took a moment to get to the jeep. It was started and waiting on the road, and the lines of fire in the distance seemed to flicker just slightly as the boys began to drive. The road was slick with rainfall and the jeep slipped slightly under Avalanche's hand as they sped toward the fighting ground. The main road was clogged with debris and traffic as frantic citizens tried to flee the havoc; the land behind them was burned, the fragile houses and storefronts seeming to shatter with each crash of thunder, and wave after wave of sound hit the vehicles as rubble crashed onto the streets. Lance calmly turned onto what back streets and alleys they could find, and in a moment they saw the carnage.
Red light swirled rhythmically from the remains of a police car amid the rubble. The vehicle was turned on itself, the roof and blue light crushed to the ground. The side the car had landed on, thrown from an unimaginable height, spread outward in a smooth puddle of metal and wires. A man looked out from a cracked window, face frozen in puzzlement, eyes wide and broken in death. The lone light shone on him at intervals, bathing the pale skin in dark red.
The Brotherhood stood frozen by this sight, a crash to their left taking the boys by surprise. Red light, bright and powerful and deadly, speared through a building beside them, shearing the cop car's rear bumper and scraping the car itself across the road a good four feet. The four boys jumped out of the jeep, sheltering behind it as the house, punctured by the red beam, collapsed onto the street.
Pietro glanced up, the first to recover from the shockwave, and his eyes were drawn to the remains of the cop car again. The broken body had been hidden, crushed with the rest of the car under the building's rubble and buried under clouds of dust from the crash. Quicksilver turned from the sight to look across the jeep, seeking the source of the familiar red light. There, standing behind the rubble, a familiar figure. Scott's optic blasts must have been shielded, no light was emitting from his eyes.
Pietro blinked, focusing on the figure a dozen or so yards away. The dust cleared, so slowly, and he saw what was happening. Scott stood facing them, eyes closed, waiting behind the rubble and the dirt. He had simply closed his eyes to protect them from the dust.
Pietro jumped, grabbing Todd's arm and turning to Lance, who had also seen Summers. "Lance- "
Avalanche tensed, ready to dodge. "Take Todd. Run!."
Scott, still facing them, opened his eyes.
In a blur, both Quicksilver and the mutant Toad were gone, Avalanche barely missed by the beam of energy as he jumped. The bright red light hit the Brotherhood's jeep full-on, Freddy Dukes taking the full force of the blow. And quickly getting pissed off.
The jeep slammed against Freddy's stomach, screeching as the metal bent around him, the car unable to withstand the force of Cyclops' blasts. In one movement, Freddy Dukes lifted the damaged vehicle and threw it strait at the other mutant.
~-=*=-~
When Avalanche leapt away from jeep, he went ran down an alleyway across the street from where the house had stood. Hoping to get at Summers from another direction, he followed the street until it hit another road, turning there to eventually intersect the road Freddy and Summers were on. He had sighted yet another road, and planned to turn there, when the rattling sounded behind him.
Lance turned, shaken, wondering hopefully if any pets had survived in this neighborhood, dogs or something that might make that sound.
The rattling grew louder as the rubble strewn about in these fight zones shook rhythmically, and Lance just had time to spot the red-haired X-Man as he was psychically thrown into a wall.
~-=*=-~
Pietro ran, fast and far, trying to get somewhere safe before he went back to fight Summers. Freddy might not need much help if Scott was alone, but if any other X-Men showed up, he might . . . and as much as he hated to admit it, Pietro didn't see any way that Todd could help them against the kind of powers these guys were showing; the uncontrolled, deadly force had snapped the Speedster out of whatever kind of shock he had slipped into after the news reports. Pietro, Freddy, and Lance might decide to die fighting the X-Men, but Todd . . . didn't deserve that.
Pietro paused, hiding behind a butcher's shop as he tried to determine just how far he had run. He wasn't that tired, but that was really no indicator, especially when he was scared.
"Hey, Quickie, let me down, yo." Todd glared at him, and Pietro realized the other mutant had been complaining for the last few seconds while he was thinking.
Pietro put Todd down, glancing around him for a second. This place looked clear, little rubble and no wrecks, it was likely that Xavier's students hadn't been there yet. Pietro turned back to the younger mutant, who looked around, confused. The trip to this place had taken only a few seconds, and Todd was probably uncertain as to where they were. Good. If he didn't know where they were fighting, he might not get in the way.
Or get hurt.
"Todd, listen, I've been thinking, and I'm gonna go back and find Lance again and try to help him and Freddy. I know you wanted to help us, but it'd be better if you stayed here," Pietro glanced around at the buildings again, trying to be certain that it was safe. "You can just hang out here unti-"
"What?!" Todd stared at Pietro only a second before his eyes narrowed in anger. "Listen, Quickie, I signed up for this, same as you, so don't you even think I'm just gonna go along wi' you leavin' me here! I ain't gonna wait here for any of you guys-"
"Dammit, Todd, we won't be coming back!"
"You think I don't know that?"
Pietro put his hands to his head, clenching his teeth in frustration. He grabbed Todd by the shoulders. "This is a suicide thing, Todd! This is us fighting because we've got nothing else to do and we know we're gonna die. We're going to die, Todd, the three of us, and I don't want you dying too!"
"Why?" Todd stepped back, jerking out of Pietro's grip. "Why the hell do you think I should live if all of you guys die? That ain't fair, Pietro, you can't decide that for me." Todd stared at his friend determinedly, face set. "Maybe I don't want you guys to die either, but you chose to fight, and I did too, so I guess we're gonna die together."
Pietro stood suddenly, eyes sad. "No, we're not, Todd. I- I've got enough shit on my conscience as it is, I'm not gonna add this to the list. You don't know the way back from here, Todd, and I won't show you. I-" He stopped, shook his head, and was gone.
Todd only stared a moment at where Quicksilver had been, the tell-tale breeze showing the direction he had run in. Todd clenched his fists, cursing, then turned, eyeing the buildings around him, and began climbing the wall of the butchers' shop. From the top of it, he would be able to see across the block. From the store on the other side, he could probably see across the neighborhood; if that didn't work, a building a few hops over would let him see the whole city if he wished.
Todd hopped onto the first rooftop, and, unable to see any sign of the fight against Summers, began to walk across it to the second building he had been eyeing. A soft wind brushed over the roof, and the scratching sound of a scrap of paper over the roof tiles made him turn. The other mutant rose like a ghost through the surface of the roof, and when she had risen to the appropriate level, Shadowcat settled gently down on the rooftop, smiling serenely.
Todd's eyes were locked on her when Nightcrawler dropped out of the sky directly on top of him.
~-=*=-~
The jeep flew over Scott's red beams, and as he turned to look at it, the vehicle went soaring over the landscape, matching dents pressing in its sides.
Freddy Dukes wasted no time after throwing the car, rushing toward the leader of the X-Men while he was distracted. The returning red rays barely slowed the Blob down, and Summers was forced to step aside as the larger mutant ran after him. Jumping nimbly over piles of rubble, Cyclops seemed to abandon the battle, his power turned on the land around him as he sought a way away from the monstrous mutant.
Freddy chased Summers doggedly, certain that Pietro or Lance would return in time to trip Summers up enough that Freddy could catch up with him. Before this could happen, though, Cyclops had run to a fenced-in alley and, eyes closed to shield their blasts, had somehow managed to climb over. It should only have taken the Blob a few seconds to crash through after Scott, but someone else intervened.
To an observer, had any been there to see it, it would have seemed absurd. For a moment, the huge boy only stood there, a strange look upon his face, and then he began to scream. The loud, booming, continuos sound would have to have frightened the supposed observer; the shriek's animalistic qualities, the fierce, howling way it was uttered; the way the young man began swinging his hands, clawing at the air, at the unseen threat that had reached to his mind, all might have driven anyone watching to near insanity at the ridiculousness of the pose, the transformation from a determined fighter to a shrieking, frightened child.
After some time, the young mutant froze, shaking only slightly as he glanced around at his surroundings. From the other side of the fence, another mutant appeared, simply blasting the barrier with his now open eyes to proceed through. Freddy Dukes barely glanced at the other young man, instead starting off to the west, the way that he had come. Scott Summers went east, back toward the mansion.
The monster in Xavier had gained another toy.
~-=*=-~
Pietro cursed himself lightly for deserting Todd like that, but it was better that Todd be alive and unhappy than dead with his friends.
Pietro stopped at a crosswalk, torn between leaving Todd, as he had planned, and going back for the other boy. He didn't want Todd to die, but he didn't want Lance to die either, and he wasn't stopping Lance from fighting . . . mainly because Lance was their leader, and too big to carry besides, but still . . .
He'd go back for Todd.
Pietro nodded to himself, decided. Todd wanted to fight with them this last time, and it would be selfish of him to make the boy stay out of it. Pietro had better hurry, too. He had wasted almost three seconds thinking.
Three seconds is more than long enough for a stray breeze to be recognized as a person, especially if they stopped in the middle of the road.
Before Pietro had moved, a line of spikes appeared blocking the road the way he was heading. Pietro turned in time to see another row of spikes land, blocking the other side of the road. Pietro turned again, eyes wide as he saw the source of the weapons walk casually toward him from one of the broken houses lining this street. As he watched, another line of bone spikes sprouted from Evan's arms, extending outward like a fan from shoulder to elbow. Pietro found himself almost shaking when he saw the lifeless, deadened quality of Evan's dark brown eyes. This time he had the sense to dodge when the spikes flew at him.
~-=*=-~
Lance tried to breath as he was held against the wall a good two or three feet above the ground. His vision started growing spotty as he couldn't breathe, and did he blink or was the lack of air worse than he thought? Avalanche focused on the situation. He couldn't brace himself against the wall enough to offer any kind of resistance to Jean's psychic force, and the way it limited his breathing was probably a cause for worry. Still, Jean's power had limits - he had seen that while he stayed at the institute - and she couldn't keep him here long enough to choke to death him if he stayed cool and didn't panic.
He hoped.
~-=*=-~
Todd blinked uncertainly, aware of blacking out for a moment but uncertain as to why. The answer came when he felt a pair of furry hands wrap around his neck.
The mutant Toad grabbed Nightcrawler's wrists in his own, looking the other mutant in the face to see that his eyes, normally gold to the point of luminescence, were now cold, dark, like dead wood or metal. Todd fell back on the roof - it seemed he had only fainted for a second - and brought his legs up, kicking the blue mutant in the stomach.
Todd never used his leg muscles offensively. Those legs let him jump twenty feet in the air, and could launch him across a room in seconds. He had never let himself find out before what that kind of power could do to a person. It was kind of scary.
The kick sounded a series of pops in Nightcrawler's ribs, and Todd felt more than one snap as he sent Kurt flying off of the building, landing on the roof of a laundry next door. Todd stood on shaking feet, his back to the tall hotel that had been his objective before Kitty showed up. She was still standing there, and as he watched her the dead smile she had sported slowly turned to a grimace of pure hatred. She was still in her night clothes, and the cruel way she bared her teeth was in complete contrast with the pink cotton bedclothes, her matching sweater pulled over the top against the cold.
Shadowcat ran toward him, and Todd jumped to the side just as she phased through the floor.
~-=*=-~
Pietro stopped in front of the line of spikes blocking his way back to Todd, and ran again as another bone spear nearly grazed his arm. Evan was walking toward him, the bone walls on either side meeting the peach siding of the house behind him. As he looked as the walls of bone around him, Pietro wondered at how much of his own skeleton Evan had lost.
Spyke stopped moving forward a few yards from Quicksilver, dead eyes narrowed sharply. For a moment, Pietro thought he sensed a light buzzing in his head, then dismissed it, focussing on the fight. He had to get past Evan, stop him somehow if possible. Lance was probably cursing him right now for being late. Pietro glared at the mock-Evan, watching as the monster moved Evan's body to the left slightly, Evan's right arm extending several thick, short spikes like throwing knives. Pietro smiled, seeing enough room to escape.
~ Fine, I'll deal with Evan later. Right now, I've gotta help Lance and Freddy deal with Scott. It must have been seven minutes already. ~
Pietro ran quickly at the opening between where Evan's body stood and the wall of bone. When he ran, he activated his powers more than usual. When he activated his powers, a small trap in his mind went off. For a second, he was unconscious.
When Pietro woke up, Evan's hand was around his neck, the spikes extending from it scratching at his throat.
~-=*=-~
A/N: I know there wasn't all that much action in this chapter - I can't seem to write an action sequence very smoothly - but the next couple of sections might be all action, or I might just shorten the fight stuff, depending on how it goes over with the reviewers. I value all reviewer's input, so please take the time to review if you haven't done so already. Again, I'd like to thank those viewers who have already reviewed, it really makes me happy to read them all.
.
