Bonds Forged In Battle

Hellfire Club

He'd endured for so long now, over five thousand years and he'd expected to live for thousands more. Now he had to face up to the fact that he Apocalypse, The First One might finally be dying. Over the last few years he'd fought the X-Men many times and on several occasions they'd thought him dead, so had his other enemies such as Stryfe, Cable and Sinister. Indeed on those occasions he'd come close to death but he'd always managed to reach his regeneration chamber and recover. Yet each time a little more was taken out of him and gradually he'd begun to weaken. The last battle with Onslaught had seen him wounded severely and unless he could reach his regeneration chamber he would die a slow lingering death, just gradually weakening and at the same time all the countless centuries of existence would catch up with him. Unfortunately he'd lost the regeneration chamber some time ago, his enemies had seen to that and now Apocalypse would die not a warrior's death but just waste away. This was unacceptable.

En Sabah Nur stumbled as his legs nearly gave way underneath him; he panted desperately trying to fight off the wave of nausea flowing through him. These attacks were getting more frequent now, about three or four times a day now and each time it took longer for it to pass. The pains were constant now and getting worse, from a nagging itch they were now like red hot needles in his spine. So hard to breathe as well, literally having to fight to breathe at times and he could hardly concentrate from the pounding in his head. Using his powers only made the agony that much worse and now even retaining his normal form required too great an effort. He found he could tolerate his condition, make the pain bearable by remaining in this human guise.

"I'm no longer of the strong now, I've become weak, a pathetic dying old man. By my own terms I am no longer worthy to exist but, I don't want to die. I won't die, not after living so long, I can't die," he whispered to himself and for the first time in all his thousands of years of existence, he felt truly afraid.

It was only his utter desperation, knowing that he needed the help of another that had caused him to even consider allying himself with Selene. He knew all too well that he'd be playing a dangerous game as she was most definitely not to be trusted. It hadn't been so long ago that she'd slain most of her fellow Externals and drained their power, taking it for her own use and boosting her power to unprecedented levels. If she suspected any sign of weakness Apocalypse knew that she wouldn't hesitate to do the same with him. Still there had literally been nobody else he could turn to, maybe the X-Men could have saved him but he doubted they'd be prepared to save the life of their worst enemy. Sinister was out of the question, twice Apocalypse had trusted him and twice he'd been betrayed nearly dying each time. He wished now that Candra still lived, she might have helped him but now she was either dead or lost for all eternity. He shivered, wondering whether that was the fate destined for him.

"So many of we immortals have died recently, maybe we were weak and deserved to be winnowed out but still I feel so alone."

Selene smiled as she gazed into the crystal held in her hand; the image of Apocalypse, so lonely and frightened vanished. She had been surprised by the success of her eavesdropping spell but it only served to confirm his weakness. She had picked up his every thought, learnt his pathetic little secret and it sickened her to see just how weak he'd really become. Well she would put him out of his misery sooner or later; when it suited her she would claim his power as her own.

"Don't worry Apocalypse you have one more day to wallow in your misery but soon, very soon you will meet the same fate as Gideon and the others. Then you will have the satisfaction of being winnowed out as the weak should so that the strong like me can become stronger!"

Selene chuckled to herself and then sank back down into the plush cushions of the luxurious four-poster bed. She sighed enjoying the smooth feel of the silken negligee against her skin and she idly let her mind wander. Maybe if Dark Beast survived she would make him her ally, she could do with a new Black King after all and he did have a brilliant mind. She ran her fingers along one of the furs on the bed and wondered what it would be like to stroke that silky gray fur, feel those strong arms wrapping around her and those claws and fangs. Maybe he was like an animal but still he'd make a change from her usual partners and she was always willing to experiment. Then she sighed and shook her head.

"No he probably wouldn't agree to what I'd have in mind. I mean he looks at a beautiful woman and all he thinks about is that she'd make a suitable test subject. Now Remy on the other hand is cute and I'd love to get to know him better,"

She closed her eyes and purred like a cat; hopefully it wouldn't be too long before she got to share the bed with somebody. Until then she would dream.

McCoy's apartment

"Well I hope this Bourbon is satisfactory Remy, nothing fancy I know but the best I could come up with at such short notice. Still it should serve adequately to drink a little toast to the newest member of the Brotherhood,"

"Oui mon ami, dis is good Bourbon Random and anyway it just good dat Remy has new family non."

Random grinned and raised his glass in salute. Remy smiled and took a long swallow of the Bourbon as Fatale and Havok also raised their glasses. Remy was finding he was more at home amongst these people, more able to relax and be himself than he'd ever truly felt with the X-Men. These people were like him, not just sycophants to some hopeless dream like Scott or even necessarily as principled and moral as Ororo or Hank. No these people walked the path between the dark and the light, perhaps never entirely being one or the other keeping to the shadows. Remy knew this truth, that the world was shades of gray like the X-Men themselves despite how they'd like to think.

"Remy just hope dat you don't hold his X-Men past against him," he chuckled.

"Remy I would never leave you alone in the Antarctic, I'd stay with you and help you to keep warm," whispered Fatale with a wink and a grin.

The ensuing laughter quickly died down as Dark Beast entered the room with Mastermind in tow. For a moment Remy wondered if McCoy was angry about them drinking but there was something more on his face. The yellow eyes were narrowed and something about the way his ears twitched, the slight rippling of the fur. He looked tense like a predator as it prepares for the moment of the kill. McCoy sniffed the air and growled a little before speaking.

"I'm afraid the drinking will have to wait till later folks, Martinique's picked up the thought patterns of some enemies real close by and I've just picked up a familiar scent, Sabretooth. They're almost on top on us so we'd better get moving if we want to give our guests a suitable welcome."

A few minutes later

"So here we have Sabretooth sending us ahead into danger as a 'scouting element' and when I asked why he didn't go himself or send Feral in, he threatened to rip my throat out. Doesn't he care at all about the fact that we might get hurt sister?" whined Andreas Strucker.

"In a word no, but look on the bright side this means that we get our chance at glory. I don't believe it, there's the Dark Beast all alone and I don't think he's even seen us," exclaimed Andrea.

The Dark Beast looked up and did a very good act of being completely astonished as Fenris joined hands and fired off first Andreas's concussive blast which missed by a wide margin. Fatale had to avoid grinning; everything was going according to plan with her shape-shifting skills easily fooling the two mutants. As the disintegrating burst shot towards her she teleported behind the twins making them think they'd won an easy victory. At the same time Martinique prepared to use one of her illusions for the next phase.

"I don't believe it, we took down McCoy all by ourselves, I bet Sabretooth will be sobbing his socks off that he missed out on the action," the triumphant Andreas let go off his sisters hand to go over and inspect the charred illusionary corpse.

At the same time Martinique created another illusion of invisibility over him while Fatale now took his shape and went over to Andrea. The first inkling the woman had of anything wrong was when Fatale's fist slammed into her jaw. With a sigh one half of Fenris slipped to the ground unconscious.

"Sister, whatever is the matter with you, wait who the hell are you," snapped Andreas as Martinique revealed herself to him.

"I'm your worst nightmare come to life. Now what do you fear Andrea Strucker?" purred Martinique.

With a grin she slipped through his thoughts and sent horrific illusions into his mind, one after the other as he first screamed and then sank into merciful oblivion.

"Well that was easy. Wonder if the others will have more of a challenge," muttered Fatale.

Elsewhere in McCoy's apartment

Victor Creed grinned as he heard the sounds of battle fade; he hadn't expected much of Fenris which was why he'd sent them out of his hair. He didn't really care what happened to them and any enemies left, well he could mop those up afterwards. He and Feral could smell Dark Beast and Remy not to far away but unfortunately they had a couple of pests to deal with first. Havok was sending wave after wave of plasma towards them and his first blast had succeeded in singing away a lot of Creed's hair and making him seriously annoyed. Random had morphed his arms and was firing off a stream of his organic bullets.

"Ya can have the honor of dealing with these two darlin, I'm going ta take care of Remy and McCoy," growled Creed.

"Be glad too," purred Feral.

With a roar she leapt through the air at Havok, twisting to avoid another plasma burst and landing square on his chest knocking him flat on his back. The wind knocked out of him he could only groan as the feline mutant hissed at him and the claws slowly descended towards his face. To his considerable surprise and consternation she then started stroking his hair and purring. Her face moved close to his own and she licked his face with a rough rasping tongue.

"You know Alex you are kind of cute and I am in the mood for a mate, I think you would do very nicely," she purred.

"Uh, I think I'd have preferred it if you wanted to kill me," gulped Alex.

Creed grinned and started striding towards the door, stopping short as Random leapt in front of him at point blank range and then he was literally riddled with organic bullets. Creed simply grinned as the bullets thudded into his flesh, ripping and mangling it, tearing through muscle and bouncing right of the adamantium skeleton. He actually purred enjoying the pain and loving the look of panic on Random's face as the wounds literally closed up right before his eyes.

"Word of advice bub, bullets ain't any good if yer opponent has an adamantium skeleton, all ya do is ta make him mad. Now let's see what ya had fer breakfast," growled Creed.

A slash of his claws drew a gout of blood from Random's side and sneering Creed stepped past the wounded mutant. Time to finish him off later once the job was done. Remy and McCoy were waiting for him and he was going to love the kill.

"I'll keep that in mind next time, if I don't bleed to death first," whispered Random as he clapped a hand to his wound.

A few minutes later

"Keep moving Remy, agility is the one advantage we have over him, keep your distance and use your charged cards and leave the close range fighting to me. I'll follow the example of Mohammed Ali, float like a butterfly and sting like a bee."

Those had been Dark Beast's words and they'd followed the plan only for McCoy to get a rather nasty surprise as he landed his first punch and nearly broke his fingers. Creed had simply grinned as the blow that would have shattered his ribcage just left a bruise. He'd taken advantage of McCoy's surprise and claimed first blood, slashing through the fur and into the flesh of his enemy's forearm. Now he was pausing to lick the blood from his fingers.

"Mighty sweet and tasty shaggy, I'm going ta enjoy killing ya; I'll skin ya alive in front of yer new pal. Then Remy you and I are going ta get up close and personal boy. Yer going ta wish ya had frozen ta death in Antarctica."

"Merde, Remy not afraid of you kitty cat, see how you like de cards," sneered Remy flinging three in quick succession.

Creed growled as they exploded right in his face temporarily blinding him and allowing McCoy a chance to recover. A fist slammed with the force of a sledgehammer straight into his solar plexus. Any normal human would have been killed instantly by that blow and even Creed nearly went down.

"I see I'll just stick to areas not protected by bone Creed. Poor baby, I expect that really hurt," snarled McCoy as Creed staggered back doubled up in pain.

A screaming Feral rushing in with coat ablaze before diving out of the window causing a momentary distraction. Then a snarling, enraged Sabretooth was charging them, Remy was knocked flying by a blow of Creed's fist. McCoy snarled too and the two bestial mutants met head on slashing with claw and fang. McCoy had the advantage here at close quarters where his superior strength could come into play. Grappling with Sabretooth he tried to find a nerve cluster or pressure point or alternatively some other soft and vulnerable areas like the throat or groin. A good solid blow would disable Creed long enough for him to get his hands around his throat. Asphyxiation should be enough to do the trick. Unfortunately Creed was just too much for him to handle in this enraged state, claws and fangs ripped through fur and into flesh again and again. Minor wounds each time but gradually they took their toll. Grinning triumphantly Creed got McCoy by the throat in one hand while grabbing the still semi-conscious Remy's throat with his free hand.

"Hey two fer the price of one, first I'll choke ya both ta death and then I'll rip out yer hearts and eat em, then I'll gut ya and tear off yer heads fer Selene."

"I-I'd l-look behind y-you f-first," rasped McCoy as he gasped for breath.

"Say what," snarled Creed catching the familiar scent just too late.

Three adamantium claws slammed into his back slipping between adamantium bones and deep into his guts. With a last defiant snarl, Creed staggered back, stumbled, fell and lay still.

"Ya know bub, ya might have adamantium laced bones, but they don't do a thing ta protect yer guts. Guess ya learned that now didn't ya," growled Logan gazing at his bloodied claws.

"Stars and garters, what on earth is that," snarled McCoy.

Mountjoy had stepped out of Creed; the feral was too badly wounded to be much use at the moment. Luckily for him Mountjoy would finish the job. Smiling he waved lazily and stepped towards Remy, ready to absorb the mutant into him, gain his powers and finish off the rest. Then he yelped as a plasma burst scorched his shoulder. Clutching his wound he turned to see a glaring Alex backed up by Fatale, Mastermind and a bandaged up Random. Glancing from them to the snarling McCoy and the gleaming adamantium talons of Logan he made his choice.

"You win this round but this is only the beginning," spat Mountjoy.

Creed groaned and began to stir so Mountjoy absorbed the mutant into himself before making his escape through the window. The others were too taken aback to try and stop him.

Yer a coward, ya should have stayed ta fight, snarled the thoughts of Creed,

"Discretion is the better part of valor and he who fights and runs away lives to fight another day," hissed Mountjoy.

McCoy's apartment

Dark Beast grinned revealing all his fangs and holding out his hand turned to Logan.

"Logan I'd like to thank you for the timely save, you have my gratitude. Oh stars and garters, there is no need for this," he sighed heavily as two adamantium claws were placed on either side of his neck.

"Now bub unless ya want ta try fer three why don't ya tell me what yer doing with Remy" growled Logan.