Disclaimer: As usual, I don't own any of the characters in this story. Marvel has that happy power.
A/N: Hi-ho. Sorry it took so long for this next chapter, but, you know how things are. Well, I only got one review, but hey, you know what? That's OK, because as long as I know even one person is reading my stories, I'll continue to write. Big thanks to you, Architeuthis! Well, here's part 2, enjoy!
Lance Alvers stood in the snack food section of the Bayville supermarket, having a staring contest with the various bags of chips lined up in front of him. What bothered him the most was that he seemed to be losing.
"Shit, what kind did Pietro say he wanted again? Was it the sour cream and onion with, or without the ridges. Or was it salt and vinegar…?"
Why did he have to go through all this crap anyway? Pietro was supposed to be making the Brotherhood into a team, not using them as his personal errand boys. Today, the stuck-up, silver-haired speed freak had Lance doing his grocery shopping, while Todd did his laundry, and Fred had to replace the carpeting that Pietro had wore a hole in with his relentless pacing.
The girls always got out of doing Pietro's chores. Tabitha would simply laugh at him and go off to do her own thing. And Wanda never had to do anything for her twin brother, mostly because Pietro was afraid of her, even if she wasn't after Magneto's blood anymore (why that was, Lance still had to figure out).
So Lance and the others were forced to suffer through all of this. Why again? Ah, that's right, so the Brotherhood could earn a place within Magneto's Alcolytes.
"But…is that what I really want?" Lance muttered to himself. Todd and Fred seemed to think it was a good idea. Tabitha didn't seem to care either way, and who knew what Wanda thought. But Lance, though he wouldn't say so out loud, wasn't sure he though the same way as the others.
Despite the attitude Lance constantly displayed, he was beginning to think the Brotherhood wasn't the place for him. He had genuinely wanted to join the X-Men that one time, but their refusal to accept him was too much for him to bear.
Well, not every X-Man had rejected him. "Kitty accepted me…"
Lance glanced up from his musings, and noticed he had attracted quite a crowd. Many of his fellow shoppers had stopped to stare at the young man who seemed to be having a conversation with the potato chips.
Grumbling, Lance grabbed the first bag that caught his attention. BBQ, if Pietro didn't like it, he could buy his own damn chips. And headed for the checkout.
Piotr Rasputin was never entirely comfortable around Magneto. The man was the Master of Magnetism after all, and with Piotr's ability to convert his entire body to living steel, that left him at a slight disadvantage when dealing with a man who had a notorious hair-trigger temper.
"Well, Colossus, any news?" Magneto asked as he stared down his Acolyte from the depths of his gladiator-style helmet.
"Nyet, Magneto. Whatever presence it was Mastermind thought he felt, he has been able to confirm nothing more on the matter."
Magneto turned his back to Colossus to stare out the large, panoramic window before him, hands clasped behind his back under his scarlet cape.
"This worries me. How is it that Mastermind can detect the presence of a large group of mutants in the area, and then suddenly be unable to sense them any further?"
Colossus did not answer Magneto, for he knew the mutant terrorist did not expect one. When Magneto did not speak further, Piotr took that as a sign that his presence was no longer required, and turned to take his leave.
Upon exiting Magneto's chamber, he noticed that of all his fellow teammates, only Pyro was currently home. Neither Sabertooth, nor Gambit where anywhere to be seen, and Piotr had no idea where they could've gotten to.
He was about to give voice to his questions, when the door swung open and Gambit strolled in, whistling a merry tune. He greeted his fellow Acolytes with a cheery wave, and went to hang up his coat.
"What're you so happy about, mate?" The Australian-born Pyro asked his cohort, one bright orange eyebrow raised in confusion.
"I just been out in da springtime air, how can I not be happy?" Gambit replied with a shrug.
Pyro wasn't convinced, however. "You saw her again didn't you? That X-girl?"
Gambit gave a mysterious little smile. "Maybe I did, and maybe I didn', Gambit never tell."
"She is the enemy. If Magneto found out you were consorting with her…" Colossus began, but Gambit interrupted him.
"He only find out if you tell him. You ain't gonna do dat ta your ol' pal Gambit, are ya? 'Sides, it nothin' harmful. Ain't givin' out any of our secrets or nothin'"
Piotr merely sighed and shook his head. Further conversation was cut off when Sabertooth made his entrance, looking as surly as ever. The big mutant glanced at his comrades briefly.
"Where's Magneto?" He asked simply.
Colossus pointed over his shoulder, and Sabertooth stalked into Magneto's chambers.
"Yes, Victor, what is it?" Magneto asked as Sabertooth entered, without even turning around.
"I got something, a scent."
Now, Magneto did turn around. "Do go on."
"Outside of town, 'bout thirty miles. Really weird. Kind of like a reptile and a human all in one. It's difficult to describe."
Magneto peered at Sabertooth for a few moments, then nodded and turned to the window again. "Tell the others to prepare for departure. I want you to show me where you picked up this scent."
Sabertooth nodded, then turned and departed from the room.
The Beast sat hunched over on the floor, large, furry fingers hurriedly typing away at a keyboard. The keyboard was plugged into an open panel on the side of a large bank of monitors, all of which were currently displaying millions of lines of binary code.
Hank stopped typing for a moment, and then glanced up at the displays. He narrowed his eyes a moment, gave a quite 'hmmm' then returned to his typing, not even pausing as he took a sip from a mug of coffee clutched in his toes. He looked up again when he heard the sound of the door opening, and saw Professor Xavier enter, his motorized wheelchair making no noise as it rolled along.
"Well Hank, how goes the conversion?" Xavier asked as he pulled up to the computer bank where Hank was working.
"Not as swiftly as I had hoped. I'm having trouble with this particular line of code here." He pointed to one of the screens, which had stopped scrolling. One line of ones and zeros was highlighted in red.
"Which program is that?" Xavier asked, leaning forward for a closer look.
"If I'm not mistaken, it's the one that connects the primary psion detector to the signal digitizer/spectrum analyzer. It seems that the problem is that while they function normally as is, they won't work in reverse after the conversion is complete."
Xavier nodded as he considered the problem. With the mansion itself restored, he and Hank had focused their energies now on the rebuilding of the mutant-detecting computer, Cerebro. Originally, Cerebro would detect mutants by picking up on the psionic wavelengths of their brains, which differed from normal humans. Xavier could then use his own mental powers to boost the effectiveness of the detection.
However, during the early stages of construction, when Cerebro's code was still being written, the Professor had decided to slightly alter the design. He proposed that they use Cerebro to augment his abilities, believing he would be able to more accurately pinpoint a mutant's location, by locking on to their signals using his own powers. Beast had volunteered to rewrite the program that would allow for the conversion.
This was no easy task however. A program as sophisticated as Cerebro had millions of lines of code to go through and, even with occasional help from Kitty during her spare time, the process was slow going, especially when they ran into dead ends like the one they faced now.
"Suppose we were to reroute the psion detector through the cybernetic frequency antenna exciters, then back into digitizer?" Xavier asked after some thought.
Hank scratched his hairy chin, before pushing his glasses further up his nose. "Now that you mention it that just might work. That would allow us to bypass the programming block in the digitizer by making the computer think it was running under its normal commands. Excellent thinking, Professor. The only problem is it will take some time."
"Just do what you can, Hank. On another subject, how is the side project coming along?'
The Beast brightened considerably when Xavier mentioned this, and set down the keyboard to cross the room and retrieve something from a shelf. Returning, he handed it to the Professor. It was a small, black rectangle, about half the size of a playing card, and only a few centimeters thicker.
"That endeavor, I am pleased to say, has proceeded much smoother. With these mini-Cerebro units, the X-Men will be able to locate missing comrades in the field, and also further narrow down a search by Cerebro. Obviously, they won't be functional until the main computer is back online, but once that's finished, these will be ready for use straight away."
"Excellent news, Hank." The Professor said, handing the unit back over to Beast.
"You two tech heads done playing with your toys for a minute?" Wolverine asked as he strode into the room. Xavier turned his chair to face him.
"For the moment. What is it that you require, Logan?"
"Got someone upstairs who wants to speak with you." He replied, jerking a thumb over his shoulder.
"Who?"
"You'll see." Was all Logan would say.
The pale man strode into the meeting room, where around a table sat his two field commanders. One was Julio who, up until his master entered the room, had been drumming his fingers on the table in boredom. The second the door had opened, he had ceased the action, and sat up a little straighter in his chair.
The second occupant at the table was a very unassuming young woman. The only physical feature that would set her apart from a crowd was her head of bright, emerald green hair.
The pale man wasted no time with formalities. "Julio, report."
Julio cleared his throat before beginning. "Earlier today, Cassidy spotted one of Magneto's Acolytes sniffing around the area where we took down Lykos after he broke free last week."
"Which Acolyte?"
"The animal, Sabertooth."
The pale man rubbed his chin with a blue-gloved hand. "Likely using that sense of smell of his. He will have noticed Lykos' distinct scent for sure. This could become a problem." The pale man then turned to Julio's female companion. "What have you got to add, Lorna?"
"Around the same time, a large aircraft was sighted in the vicinity of our location. It circled around several times, and then vanished." The green-haired woman, Lorna, supplied.
"That could be any number of things, but if it is what I think it is, it could pose as much a problem as Magneto. Julio, Lorna, I want you both to tell the others to prepare. It's very possible we may receive company within the next few days."
"Colonel Fury, to what do I owe this honor?" Xavier asked as he was introduced to his guest.
The man he addressed, Nick Fury, was the head of the Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Logistics Division, better known as S.H.I.E.L.D. A government funded, high-tech, worldwide anti-terrorist group. S.H.I.E.L.D had access to technologies that the general public didn't even know existed, and was charged with keeping track of and preventing terrorist attacks, of both the normal and paranormal variety.
Fury himself was a grizzled veteran of World War II, who bore a patch over one eye. Only the patches of gray at his temples gave any indication of his age. Fury was in top physical condition, and his mind was a sharp as ever. He could usually be seen chomping on a cigar, a trait he shared with Logan, but had currently refrained from indulging himself in accordance with Xavier's no-smoking policy.
"You won't be so pleased to see me when you here what I have to say, Xavier." Fury said, cutting right to the chase. "At 1433 four days ago, we picked up a large group of energy signatures congregating around a supposedly deserted military outpost, thirty miles outside of town. Upon closer inspection, conducted from the air by our helicarrier, we could not visually confirm any activity taking place there, though we continued to detect the energy signatures. However, some type of interference was preventing us from determining exactly what it was we were picking up."
"Why are you sharing this information with us, Colonel?" Xavier asked.
"We have reason to believe that they were mutant energy signatures. Unless our intelligence is mistaken, your mutant detecting computer is not currently in operation. I thought it would be prudent to inform you of the situation."
"I appreciate that Colonel, but wouldn't it be easier for you and your agents to deal with this yourselves?"
"S.H.I.E.L.D can't become involved without knowing what it is exactly that we're dealing with, not officially anyway."
"Well, I'm very glad you came to me with this information, Colonel Fury, although I'm not to sure I like the idea of you keeping surveillance on us without our knowing it."
Fury gave a small smile as he turned to leave. "We keep surveillance on everyone Xavier, that's our job." Then, without waiting for good-byes, Fury excused himself from the room.
"What do you think?" Xavier asked Hank and Logan once Fury had departed.
"I think it's worth checking out. I know Fury, he doesn't joke around about this kind of stuff." Logan said, who looked like he was spoiling for some action after hearing Fury's report.
"I concur." Beast added. "We need to determine if this alleged group of mutants poses a danger to us."
At that moment, they all heard the sound of a car pulling up, and the sound of the student's voices as they approached the mansion.
"Scott and the others are home from school. Logan, have them meet me in the War Room as soon as possible." Xavier said, before wheeling out of the room.
"C'mon losers, get up off your asses, we got stuff to do!"
Lance barely spared Pietro a glance as he sped into the room, then went back to the newspaper he had been browsing. He'd be damned if he let himself be bossed around. His other two, somewhat brainless companions didn't have any problems asking "how high?" when Pietro said "jump."
"What's up, Pietro?" Fred asked as he stood up, one large, meaty fist balling us, as if in anticipation of a fight.
"Got a call from the old man, said he wanted us to meet his group at some old base or something about thirty miles outside of town." Pietro said as he paced around, never content to stand in one place for very long.
"Thirty miles?" Lance asked, throwing down his paper. "And how, exactly, are we to get to this location? We can't all move as fast as you can, you know."
Pietro gave Lance a look one usually reserved for single-celled organisms. "You got a jeep, don't you? You can drive, can't you? Go on and get ready, I'll go get the girls. Move it!" Then he turned and sped from the room.
Lance snarled and stood to go change into his uniform. "You two better chip in for the gas!" He barked at Fred and Todd, before he stormed out of the room, the floor shaking slightly in his wake.
"Man…" Todd said, snatching a fly out of mid air with his freakishly long tongue. "What crawled up his ass?"
Five, spherical orbs floated through the air, held aloft by some unseen force. There was no noise to indicate a motor of any kind as they glided silently along. In truth, they were guided purely by the will of a single man. Magneto sat in contemplation within the steel confines of his own orb, using his magnetic powers to guide them along almost as an afterthought. If Mastermind and Sabertooth were correct, he would soon come across more potential allies in his fight against homo sapien. Not to mention Charles and his little band of followers.
The five orbs, sunlight gleaming off their metal hulls, settled quietly into the dirt. The tops slid open and Magneto emerged into the warm, afternoon air. His acolytes followed shortly after, and Magneto sent the orbs a few yards away.
He peered out from the depths of his helmet at what was once a military outpost, but had been abandoned since 1978. It had stood up fairly well to the ravages of time. Its white-washed walls, though covered with a layer of ivy, and showing signs of discoloration in some spots, were more or less whole. Small windows were spaced at even intervals around the rectangular building, and they were frosted, to prevent outsiders from looking in.
"Well, do we get this party started or what?" Pyro asked, small jets of flames spurting out of the wrist mounted flamethrowers that were connected to the tank of fuel he wore on his back.
"No." Magneto said. "We wait for my son."
Pyro shrugged and went to lounge in the shade of a small tree. Sabertooth began to pace around, looking very much like the proverbial caged animal. Gambit amused himself with a few card tricks, some of which involved minor explosions. Colossus merely stood where he was, steel plated face completely neutral and unreadable.
Before long, Magneto spied a cloud of dust off in the distance. After a few more minutes, a shape could be discerned, moving in their direction. The shape took form, becoming that of a rust-red jeep. The jeep pulled up to them, and the Brotherhood clambered out, Pietro running up behind them on his own power.
"You're late." Magneto said, by way of greeting to his son.
"Hey, it ain't my fault I'm stuck with these slo-mo's as teammates." He whined, casting a withering glance over his shoulder at the others.
Magneto grunted, and then glanced over at Pietro's twin sister. Wanda looked back at him with an unreadable expression. It seemed that Mastermind's implanted memories were working correctly, still though; something about the way she looked at him…
Magneto shook it off and gestured to his Acolytes, who gathered around him. "Alright, we're moving in. Our top priority is to try and recruit whoever's in there. If that fails, we are to eliminate them as quickly as possible. We can't risk them having exposure to…"
He was cut off as a large shadow descended over the group. Everyone looked up to see the shape of a specially modified SR-71 Blackbird as it lowered itself to the ground with its VTOL jets.
"The X-Men." Magneto finished with undisguised annoyance.
The Blackbird completed its landing cycle, and its powerful engines wound down. The ramp unsealed itself, and its crew disembarked. Led by Wolverine, the X-Men stared down the Brotherhood and the Acolytes with open hostility, a feeling that was more than mutual.
"Why am I not surprised?" Magneto asked, as his followers formed a tight circle around him. "I feel ashamed that I didn't count on Xavier's pet mutants to interfere here."
Wolverine growled and stepped forward to get in Magneto's face. Not something easily accomplished, with the very broad chest of Colossus baring his way.
"Here's the deal, bub. You and your fanatics here pack up your stuff, turn tail, and get back under the rock you crawled out from under, and we don't have to rough you up."
Magneto scoffed as he rose above the gathering with his magnetic powers. "My ill-bred, swaggering little savage, I invite you to try." He then turned to address his Acolytes and the Brotherhood. "Our original goal has been postponed for the moment. Deal with the X-Men first."
"All right, now we're getting somewhere!" Pyro shouted as he raised his arms above his head, jets of flames shooting upwards to take the shape of an enormous, firey bull, before it charged down the X-Men. They all scattered, accept for Cyclops, who opened the front of his ruby quartz visor and unleashed a beam of crimson energy at the bull, dispersing it.
Wolverine's claws snapped out from the back of his hands, and he made a beeline straight for Sabertooth. "You and me, Creed!"
"Wouldn't have it any other way, runt!" Sabertooth shouted as he leapt to meet Wolverine's charge, tackling him in mid air. The two old enemies rolled across the ground, snarling and slashing at each other. Sabertooth brought their movement for a stop and placed his feet in Logan's stomach, kicking him off. Wolverine pulled off a flip and landed on his feet. Charging immediately at Sabertooth again. His claws flashed out, looking for an early victory.
Of course, things with Sabertooth rarely went easy. The much larger mutant ducked under the strike and lashed out with a powerful leg, catching Wolverine behind the knees. Logan howled as he fell backwards. Sabertooth was on him almost as soon as he hit the ground. Grabbing onto Logan's ankles, Sabertooth lifted him off the ground and flung him several feet away.
"I knew it was going to be one of those days." Wolverine muttered as he righted himself in mid air, and prepared to meet his opponents next charge.
"Hey! Where's Bone-Boy? I was looking forward for a chance to mop the floor with him today!" Quicksilver shouted as he ran circles around the X-Men.
"Evan's got his own things to deal with! Now hold still, damn you!" Cyclops shouted as he attempted to knock Pietro off his feet with an optic blast. Though if he expected the silver-haired boy to stand still for him, he was sorely disappointed.
"Nyah nyah! Catch me if you can Summers!" Quicksilver shouted as he nimbly dodged another of Scott's blast.
"Easy enough." Came another voice, and Pietro found himself suspended in the air, unable to run anywhere for lack of friction with the ground. Pietro turned his head to spy Jean, her arms outstretched, obviously holding him aloft with her telekinetic powers.
"Hey! No fair siccing your girlfriend on me!" Quicksilver protested, as he tried in vain to break away from Jean's mental grip.
"All's fair Speedy, hate to break it to ya." Cyclops smirked, before sending Quicksilver tumbling away with an optic blast.
"Great work, Jean!" Cyclops shouted, flashing the pretty redhead a thumbs up.
"Don't pat yourself on the back yet, Summers!" The voice of Avalanche came from behind him, before the ground beneath his feet began to shake violently. Cyclops attempted to twist around to get a shot at Lance, but he lost his footing as the earth began to break up around him. A large chunk of rock broke free and slammed into his ribs, sending him sprawling and knocking the air out of him.
"Scott!" Jean shouted, and started to float over to him, when she suddenly found herself unable to move, as if she were stopped by the same trick she had just used on Pietro. A glance over her shoulder, however, revealed that the Scarlet Witch was behind this.
"Wanda, what are you doing?! I thought you hated Magneto!" Jean shouted, wondering what had come over the girl.
Wanda looked at for a few moments with what could almost be called confusion, and then she snarled and flung Jean away. "Don't confuse me!"
Across the battlefield, Nightcrawler was locked in a staring contest with Boom-Boom, the very girl he used to have a crush on during the brief time she had been a member of the X-Men. It shouldn't have come to this.
"Tabitha, wait! I know being an X-Man didn't work out that great for you, and you live with the Brotherhood and everything, but that doesn't mean we have to fight each other, does it?"
To her credit, Tabby looked genuinely sorry that she had to do this, but she wasn't about to back down either. "Sorry Fuzzy, but that's the way these things work out sometimes. I'll try to go easy on you." She formed one of her "time bombs" in the palm of her hand and hurled it at Kurt.
Kurt teleported out of the explosives path, reappearing behind Boom-Boom. His whip-like, prehensile tail snaked out and wrapped around her ankle, pulling her off her feet. Tabby landed hard on her front, grunting as the breath was knocked from her.
Kurt winced, not at all pleased with his actions. He didn't have much time to mull it over however. Something caught his eye and he turned to see a playing card float gently through the air and land at his feet. He blinked at it, attempting to discern its significance. Then it began to glow, and Nightcrawler suddenly remembered the Acolyte called Gambit, and his penchant for making things explode. Before his brain could complete the order to teleport, the card blew. Nightcrawler sailed through the air, hit the ground, bounced, and skidded several feet, bringing him right into the middle of Sabertooth and Wolverine's slug fest.
"Elf! Whaddya think yer doin'?!" Wolverine yelled as Nightcrawler bowled into him, knocking him off his feet in mid-charge.
"Ah…heh, very sorry mien fruend, I didn't mean to…"
"Heads up!" Wolverine shouted, grabbing Kurt and rolling, narrowly avoiding Sabertooth, who was inches away from landing on Nightcrawler's head.
"Ya know Elf, the next time you want to…"
"Wolverine, look out!" Kurt yelled, grabbing Logan's arm and teleporting out of the path of two supercharged cards.
"Huh, guess that makes us even, then." Logan grumbled, as he and Nightcrawler untangled themselves to meet the combined charge of Gambit and Sabertooth.
High above the conventional battle royal, Storm hovered, supported by the winds that were hers to command. Before her, a monstrous creature created of roaring flames loomed. Its master, Pyro, directing its actions from the ground with that sadistic smirk he always seemed to wear in battle. The creature dove at her, massive mouth agape, seeking to ensnare her in its firey jaws. Storm swooped below it, out of its path. She then turned and summoned a rain cloud, directing it at the firey creation. Water poured forth, drenching the monster, depriving it of its life-giving oxygen. It sputtered and died.
Pyro cursed loudly and decided to drop the creative approach. Lifting both arms, he directed to jets of flame at Storm's hovering form. It was all too easy for Storm to merely flit out of the way. However, she allowed herself to become too overconfident, and failed to notice the flames curling around and diving back towards her. She felt an intense heat on her back, and then her cape burst into flames. Reeling in shock, her control slipped and she dropped a few feet before she regained her composure enough to detach the cape and let it drop to the ground, saving herself from being set aflame.
So the battle waged on thus. Sometimes the combatants faced off one-on-one, sometimes they paired up to battle their foes, but it was obvious neither side was going to score a decisive victory anytime soon.
A lull fell over the battle as the two teams stared each other down. Everyone was bruised, battered, bloodied and dirty, with the exception of Magneto, who hadn't participated in the battle, and Colossus, whose metallic hide remained unscathed.
"It appears we are at an impasse, X-Men." Magneto called down. "But you are clearly the worse for wear. Concede the battle, and you will be allowed to depart safely."
Dream on, bucket-head!" Wolverine snarled. "Why don't you actually come down here and get your hands dirty for once!"
Whatever Magneto's reply was, it was cut off when the ground began to shake violently. All eyes immediately turned to Avalanche, but he looked just as shocked as everyone else, and was also fighting to maintain his balance. "It's not me!"
"No, it isn't." Another voice rang out as the shaking stopped. "I just couldn't think of a better way to make sure I had all of your attention.
The door to the military facility had swung open and a man had stepped out. He had brown hair, and eyes to match. He wore a green and black outfit with high shoulders and fingerless gloves. He swept his gaze over the assembled mutants and gave a contemptuous smirk.
"An impressive display, and all for us? How flattered I am." He said, hands on his hips.
"Who are you?" Magneto asked, floating closer to the ground to get a better look at this new arrival.
"Friends call me Julio. You can call me Rictor."
"Are you responsible for the mutant energy signatures we picked up here?" Storm asked.
Rictor shrugged. "Well, me and my friends. Why don't I introduce you to them?"
Rictor turned towards the low building and called off a list of names, one at a time. Each time he did, the owner of the name stepped out, to varying reactions.
"Marrow!" The first of Rictor's team members was a girl who couldn't have been any older than Kitty. She had short red hair that ended in a widow's peak above her forehead. She wore a green and blue halter top, with matching pants. She had a petulant look on her face that screamed "rebel" as she stepped next to Rictor.
"Bishop!" Next out the door was a towering black man who easily matched Sabertooth in height. His black hair hung past his shoulders, and he had a stylized M tattooed over his right eye. A holster on his back housed a very nasty looking gun of a design no one recognized.
"Mimic!" Mimic had no defining features. He was fairly handsome, with blond-brown hair and a goatee. The look on his face suggested he was bored with the world, and he appeared terribly disinterested with the proceedings as he joined the others.
"Banshee!" A high-pitched wailing emerged from the building, causing everyone to grimace in pain, and a figure came streaking out. Banshee was as Irish as his moniker, with flaming red hair and startling green eyes. He touched down next to Rictor and closed his mouth, ceasing the wailing, to everyone's relief.
"Polaris!" The young woman who stepped out next had a very regal bearing. It also seemed that green was her favorite color. Her entire costume, complete with cape was green, as was the lipstick she wore, and the mass of curls atop her head. She glanced at the assembled mutants and gave a sniff, before joining her companions.
"Psylocke!" Every man present, girlfriends or significant others not withstanding, immediately began to drool at the exotic beauty that stepped into the afternoon sunlight. She was of Asian origin, likely Japanese, and had a mane of flowing, dark purple hair. Her body was of supermodel quality, and her "costume", if it could be called that, looked like nothing more than a dark blue one-piece bathing suit, with thigh high boots and elbow length gloves. Even the odd, blood-red J-shaped tattoo over her left eye did not detract from her beauty.
"And last, but not least…" Rictor glanced around with a wicked smile, he was going to enjoy this.
"Sauron!" The crowd's reaction did not disappoint Rictor in the least. Every member of the X-Men, Brotherhood, and the Acolytes, Magneto included, gasped at the monstrosity that burst out the door. Supporting himself in mid-air by beating great, leathery wings, Sauron was a pterodactyl given human form. Cruel, yellow eyes peered out from above a wicked looking, curved beak. His skin was a sickly olive green color, and the expression on his face was one of pure malice…and ravenous hunger.
Rictor nodded at his assembled team, then turned to face those gathered.
"Ladies and Gentleman, allow me the distinct honor of introducing you to the new future of mutankind." He indicated himself and his comrades with a sweep of his arm.
"We are the Marauders."
