Disclaimer: Insert witty comment about not owning characters here.
Alright, new chapter up! In this exciting episode, we get to see out favorite web-slinger in action! Spooky keen! Tensions fly between the X-Men as well!
Wall Crawler: Spidey will interact with many of the X-Men, Nightcrawler and Toad included.
Elven Lord Mic: The F.O.H. is indeed connected to someone. I think you'll be surprised when you learn who it is. Also, your prayers are answered, because we will see more of Parker starting this chapter.
Architeuthis: I usually do all my writing late at night, so spelling and grammatical errors will occur from time to time. Good eye though. You also touched upon some good points. Tempers will fly between the former Marauders and their new teammates. Also, concerning Banshee's and the others standings as "students", although they are a bit old for that term, Xavier considers all his X-Men his "students" even if he doesn't mean it in the strictest sense of the word. My bad, I should have made that clearer before. As for Black Tom and Juggernaut? Well, I can't write slash to save my life, so that one's out for this fic at least.
Well, time to enjoy the show!
To say that the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters was crowded would be an understatement. The decades old mansion, originally owned by a Dutch ancestor of Xavier's, before being passed along to him for his use, was currently holding the largest roster of mutants it had known.
Yet, despite the numbers, it somehow managed to accommodate everybody so that no one felt crowded, or felt like their privacy was being invaded. Most of the time.
Every now and again, certain rooms would just become crowded for their own good. The kitchen was usually at the top of the list. Freddy was currently trying to squeeze his way in. Not an easy feat, given his impressive girth and the fact that Sam, Jean, Lance, Lorna, Bobby, and Tabby were all trying to use the room at the same time.
"Ow, hey! Watch it, ya big oaf!"
"Maybe if you weren't taking up all the floor space in front of the fridge we wouldn't have this problem, Lance!"
"I'm taking up space?!" Look whose talkin' wide load!"
"Wide load?! Those're fightin' words Shakedown!"
"Guys! No fighting in the kitchen!"
"He started it Red!"
"I don't care who started it Lance, take it outside!"
"Excuse me? I just wanted to get a sammich, is that too much to ask?"
"Can it Frosty! We're in the middle of something here!" Fred swung his arm in a wide arc, accidentally smacking Sam in the chest, which sent the Southern Boy cannonballing out the door, through the living room, through the entrance foyer, and out a window. He sailed across the lawn before smacking into a tree, which finally killed his momentum.
"Uhh…oops." Fred said.
Lorna gave the whole proceeding an apprehensive look. "Just what have I gotten myself into?"
"Don't sweat it girl!" Tabby said, draping an arm over her shoulder. "You'll get used to it soon enough. C'mon, let's go take a stroll and find us some boys. I think that cutie Alex has taken a liking to you."
Lorna blushed but didn't protest as Tabby led her away from the kitchen, where Jean was still trying to interpose herself between Lance and Fred's argument, and Bobby was trying to find the best way to gather sammich ingredients that didn't involve bodily harm on his part.
Beneath the city streets, in the subterranean chamber known as The Alley, Logan, Piotr, Sean, Remy, Rogue, Evan, and Bishop were overseeing the burial of the Morlocks, who had been viciously slain three days ago by Sinister's band of mercenaries, the Marauders.
Mounds of earth of varying sizes dotted the chamber floor, each one marked by a wooden cross. Sean put the finishing touches on the grave he had been digging and took a moment to lean on his shovel, whipping his forehead, which had collected a fine layer of sweat and grime from the afternoons work.
"Begorah, I be wishin' we were only a wee bit faster getting' word to ye all about this. I feel right terrible about this whole situation."
Logan grunted as he and Piotr lowered the remains of Sunder into the grave, and began to fill it with dirt again. "Ya can't blame yerself, Irish. There wasn't anythin' ya could've done."
"He is correct, comrade." Piotr said. "That you chose not to participate in the horrendous deed at all speaks volumes for your character."
They shoveled the last bit of dirt into place, and Bishop topped it off by jamming a cross into the earth at the head of the grave. Sunder's grave was the final one to be completed. The X-Men bowed their heads in a moment of silence, before filing out of The Alley.
"Well, time ta head back home. I don't know about the rest o' you, bit I'm flamin' starvin'." Logan said as he slung his shovel over his shoulder and headed for the access ladder that would take them to the surface.
"Guys? If you don't mind, I'm gonna stay behind for a little while." Evan gestured back towards The Alley. "You know…"
"Right." Logan nodded. "Take yer time Porcupine. We'll let Storm know where ya are."
"I'll be home in time for dinner." Evan waved and headed back to The Alley to pay his last respects.
As the X-Men walked along, Remy fell into step alongside Rogue. The southern girl had been quiet and distant for most of the morning while they were working. The opportunity was too much for Remy to pass up.
"You been real quiet petite, you hangin' in dere alrigh'?"
Rogue blinked out of her stupor and glanced up at Gambit. "Oh...sure, Ah guess. Its jus' that…" She trailed off for a moment.
"Jus' what? Don' worry Rogue, you can tell Ol' Remy."
"Well, Ah'm jus' thinkin' about what the Marauders did ta the Morlocks. Ah think about how easily dey slaughtered them all. And then Ah think about how we're eventually gonna have ta fight 'em, and…" She trailed off again. Glancing ahead, she slowed her pace down, so that Logan and the others pulled ahead, giving her and Remy a small amount of privacy.
"And Ah'm more than a little afraid. Ah know from experience how tough an opponent Juggernaut is, an' then there's the other Marauders, who seem even more powerful than the old team, an' Ah worry about what's gonna happen ta us when it comes time ta fight."
Remy watched Rogue as she talked. He knew that openly admitting fear was not something Rogue did on a daily basis, and the fact that she opened up to him was flattering, but at the same time he also felt he should be honored that she would let him see that side of her,
Remy flashed her one of his trademarked grins, turning on a hint of the Cajun charm to help set her mind at ease.
"Remy know you nervous chere. Hell, Remy is to, a bit. But he also know dat de X-Men can handle any situation dat comes dere way. An' as long as Gambit breathin', he watchin' over you petite. You call, he always come ta your rescue."
Rogue looked down at her feet as she smiled shyly. A hand came up to her face and brushed away a strand of white-streaked hair, a nervous habit she had picked up when someone was flattering her, or just being kind to her in general.
Before she could respond, Logan's gruff voice traveled down the tunnel. "Hey! You two lovebirds coming er not?!" Rogue blushed horribly at Logan's choice of words, but Remy merely shrugged, his cocky grin in place, and trudged off down the tunnel, leaving Rogue to hurry in his wake, wondering how she would ever manage to look Wolverine in the face.
"And stay out!" Toad went flying backwards out the bedroom door, after which it was slammed in his face.
Todd huffed and got to his feet. "Man, can you say 'touchy', yo?" Like it was his fault he had popped in on the elf while he was necking with his girlfriend. It wasn't his fault he never locked his door.
"Maybe I shouldn't've asked him about borrowing his inducer. Must still be a sore subject."
Toad hopped off down the hallway. There had to be something to do in this oversized house. Maybe if he was lucky he could find Wanda. He was always up for spending time with his Cuddlebumps. Even if she did spend most of said time hexing him into various objects, blunt or otherwise.
Turning the corner, he came to the landing that led to the stairs. Deciding to forgo the stairs entirely, he hopped over the railing and sailed right down to the bottom floor. He had made far longer jumps numerous times, and never had any problem sticking the landing.
It was most unfortunate, then, that someone decided to walk under him at exactly the wrong moment.
There was a shout of alarm, a shriek, a crash, exclamations of pain, and more than a few swear words. Todd rolled over on his back and attempted to get up, when he found two very sharp points of bone inches away from his eyeballs, and a very angry looking Sarah on the other end of them.
"Would you kindly explain what the Hell you're doing falling on me from the top floor?!"
Todd swallowed and kept his head very still. It seemed that if he moved in the slightest, he'd get skewered. "H…hey, no big deal babes. It's just, usually there's no one under me when I land, I didn't think people like to get squashed."
Sarah's eyes widened in a kind of maniacal way. Her arms holding the bone spurs pulled back slightly, as if preparing to ram them home. "Are you calling me stupid?!"
Toad screamed and covered his face with his hands. "No! No, I'm not, really I'm not! I'm too handsome to die, yo! "
Sarah stared at him for a few minutes, ten rolled her eyes with a huff. "Whatever." She stood up and backed away slightly, Todd scrambling to his feet the moment she did. Having nothing better to do with her bone spurs now, she merely shrugged and threw them over her shoulder.
The sound of breaking china told her she should have watched where she was throwing.
"Oooh, yer in for it now babe." Todd said, apparently having not learned his lesson about making Sarah angry.
Sarah's eyes flashed once more and she briefly considered producing more bones to stick him with. Todd saw this and immediately prostrated himself on the ground, groveling and begging forgiveness.
Sarah started to say something, when she heard voices coming down the hall. They sounded like they belonged to the Professor and Ororo.
"Shit!" Sarah grabbed Todd's arm and started to drag him out the door. "C'mon, before someone sees us!"
Todd didn't protest, he didn't much relish the idea at being caught at the scene of the crime.
They were out on the grounds and a good two-hundred feet away from the mansion when they heard a high-pitched voice coming from the door. "My vase!"
"Man, Storm sounds pissed." Sarah said.
"That…wasn't Storm." Todd said.
Sarah blinked and looked at him. "That was the Professor?"
"Yeah…he gets pretty wacky over his priceless collections."
"That thing was priceless?!"
"Uh…yeah. Ooh! An' he's gonna know it was you, he'll find your bone shards."
"Crap. Maybe he'll blame it on that other bone-thrower, uh…Evan."
"I don't think he's home right now."
"Crap."
"Hey, are you an' him related somehow? Y'know, having almost identical powers and all?"
Sarah shrugged. "I don't think so. But then again, who knows? I know next to nothing about my family tree, so anything's possible I guess."
They walked, or in Toad's case hopped, along in silence for a few more minutes. Toad wasn't paying much attention to where he was going, so he almost missed catching sight of Wanda. He would have gone right by if Sarah hadn't made a comment.
"Hey, isn't that that girl you're always going on about?"
Todd looked up and, sure enough, saw Wanda sitting by the fountain about fifty yards away. He was all set to go hopping right on over when he caught sight of a familiar head of bright orange hair hovering near her.
"Aahh, figures that nut-job would be there."
Sarah raised an eyebrow. "What d'ya mean?"
Todd pointed. She's been spending a lot of time lately with that Pyro guy. I'm starting to think she likes him."
"Starting to think?"
Toad sighed. "Well, alright, I know she likes him."
"And you're still all caught up on her?"
Toad shrugged. "What can I say?"
Sarah grunted and rolled her eyes. "There's nothing I hate more than a lovesick man." She suddenly reached out and grabbed his arm, dragging him towards the front gates. "C'mon, we're gonna go find something to take your mind off of her."
Toad protested slightly, but found himself pulled inexorably onwards by the headstrong girl. He finally decided to surrender to fate and see where it led him.
Alex lounged under the shade of a large birch tree, flipping through a magazine. While he was glad to be with his brother and all, he did miss the beaches of his Hawaiian home. It had been some time since he had been surfing, and the Northeast wasn't known for its waves.
Still, he couldn't deny he was having fun. He enjoyed honing and learning more about his powers in the Danger Room with his teammates. Point in fact; Logan had commented that Alex complained the less out of the others when it came to their sessions.
The sound of someone clearing their throat interrupted his reveille.
"Excuse me, laddie."
Alex scowled and looked up at his visitor. Sean Cassidy was one of the last people he wanted to see. While it was true that Xavier had granted him and his four companions a full pardon, and welcomed them to the team, Alex wasn't quite so ready to forgive just yet.
He still nursed a grudge from the time the Marauders kidnapped him and his brother. He was inclined to forgive Lorna, mostly because of his large crush on her, but as for the other four, well, that was a different story.
The worst of it all was, thanks to the new team set-up implemented by the Professor, Alex was forced to work with three of the former Marauders, and one of them, specifically the one standing right in front of him, was the team leader!
"What?" He growled, closing his magazine.
"Look lad, I dinnae expect ye ta be all chummy with me after what me an' the others did ta ya, but now that we're on the same team an' all, an' I've been put inta a position o' leadership, I was hopin' we'd be able ta out the past behind us an' all." Sean held his hadn out to Alex to shake.
His response was two blasts of plasma square in the chest.
Sean flipped backwards head over heels until he managed to right himself in mid-air, shaking his head to try and clear it.
"Alrigh', I guess I owed ye that one."
Alex got to his feet, both hands glowing with plasma ready to be released. "You owe me a lot more than just that one!" He shouted, his laid-back, surfer attitude giving way to anger he couldn't remember ever displaying before in his life.
"After everything you've done, you expect me to just shake your hand and forget it!" Alex fired off another pair of bolts at Banshee, who swerved out of the way.
"Tha's what I was hopin' for, aye." Banshee replied as he dove to avoid another shot. "I'm not sayin' we have ta be friends or nothin', but we can at least try an' act professionally towards each other, like adults."
"Easy for you to say!" Alex scoffed, attempting to blast Sean out of the air. The Irishman continued to bob and weave through the air as he attempted to calm Alex down. The youngest Summers didn't look like he was going to be slowing down any time soon; he had improved drastically since arriving at the Institute. Sean decided he was going to have to take some action.
Opening his mouth, Banshee emitted a wail. It was only a fraction of what he was capable of, and wouldn't do any lasting damage to Alex, but it would disorient him and hopefully deter the younger man from continuing his attack.
As luck would have it that was exactly the moment Scott came looking for his brother. Having not witnessed Alex strike the first blow, he was not aware of the whole story behind the situation. All he saw was Banshee screaming at Alex, and his brother down on one knee, holding his ears.
"Bastard! I knew it! I knew you were still working for Sinister!" Scott reached up and ripped off his glasses, unleashing the full fury of his optic blasts.
Sean was alerted to Scott's presence by his yelling. Ceasing his sonic attack, he turned in time to see a crimson flash, and a deadly wave of energy bearing down on him. He jerked to one side, managing to avoid taking the full force dead on, but the wide beam still clipped him and knocked him into the ground, driving the air out of him.
Scott replaced his glasses but kept his hand on them so he could pull them away at a moment's notice. He then began to advance menacingly on Sean.
"You could've at least come up with a better ploy! Sneaking into our ranks under false pretenses of switching sides. I knew the Professor should've thrown you all out on your asses from the start!"
Banshee tried to speak in his defense, but he was having trouble catching his breath after Scott's attack. Scott began to raise his glasses once more, intent on finishing the job.
"Scott, wait. Don't lose your cool, bro." Alex got to his feet, his ears having finally stopped ringing. "He was just defending himself, I attacked first."
Scott lowered his glasses and turned to look at his brother. "You did?"
"Yeah. I just wanted a little bit of payback for the kidnapping and everything. I'm not too happy about the current set up, but I do believe that he's on our side." He fixed Sean with a steady glare. "That still doesn't mean we're gonna be all buddy-buddy now, though."
Sean gave a weak smile and stood on shaky legs. "Tha's good enough fer me tae be goin' on with." He turned his gaze to Cyclops. "An' you, lad?"
Scott gave him a hard look. "If I catch even the slightest hint of betrayal from you…"
"I understand boyo. I'd expect nothin' less from ye. I can see how devoted ye are to ye family an' friends."
"Right, glad we understand each other." Alex nudged Scott in the ribs and raised an eyebrow at him. Scott sighed and said, "Sorry about blasting you." He then turned on his heal and went to find Jean. He could do with some cheering up.
The Bayville General Store was known for two things. It had the best deals on foodstuffs you were likely to find, and its' owner, an elderly gentleman by the name of Ernest, was tolerant of mutants.
Unfortunately for him, it was the latter trait that made his store a target for an unusual band of 'customers'.
A small contingent of roughly fifteen men, all dressed identically in the uniforms of the Friends of Humanity, were currently running amok in the store, smashing displays, grabbing food as they would, and generally terrorizing the poor, kindly old man who was just trying to make a living.
"Why…why are you doing this to me?"
"Isn't it obvious? You serve muties!" The leader of the group spat.
"I just treat them like paying customers!" Ernest replied. "They come in here and get what they want and everyone goes about their business without any trouble!"
"Well, you got trouble now, old man! Anyone who helps muties might as well be one of them! We're gonna make an example outta you!" With that, the F.O.H. marched Ernest out of the store at gunpoint. One remained inside, and began to douse the store in gasoline from a can he was carrying. He then poured a trail that led outside to the sidewalk, where his leader was holding a lighter. The man was currently addressing a group of people who had gathered across the street to see what the commotion was about.
"Let this be a lesson to all of you, in case you get it into your heads to be friendly to mutie scum!"
Among the small gathering of people, Peter Parker watched the scene unfold and gave a resigned sigh.
"Three days, that must be some kind of record." Glancing around, he noticed that everyone's attention was riveted to the scene across the street. Peter was thankful for that, as it allowed him to slip unnoticed into an alley. Once he was sure he was safely hidden away from prying eyes, he began to remove his clothes.
He was thankful, not for the first time, that his skin-tight costume could be worn comfortably under his normal clothes. It made things a lot quicker. All he needed to do was lock his web-shooters into place, pull on his gloves and boots, and slip the mask over his head, completing his transformation in just under seven seconds.
Leaping onto the wall, Spider-Man crawled back out into the street, watching the small riot from his new vantage point.
"Please, don't!" Earnest was pleading. "That store is my livelihood, you can't-!"
"Enough outta you, old man!" The F.O.H. member shouted. He pulled back the butt of his assault rifle, preparing to strike the old man across the head.
He was very surprised when a thick strand of what looked like gray rope suddenly latched onto the barrel of his gun and yanked it from his hand.
He followed the guns path as it sailed backwards, right into the waiting hand of a figure clad in what looked like red and blue spandex. The figure took the rifle in both hands and bent it. He then tossed the ruined weapon away.
"Honestly, do you really have nothing better to do with your time? You should really consider taking up paint-ball if you enjoy using guns so much. Far less destructive."
The thug eyed the figure for a few moments, eyeing the bright costume, the way he had bent the rifle with his bare hands and, most importantly, the fact that he was sticking to the wall, and came to the only obvious conclusion.
"He's a mutant! Shoot him!"
Fourteen rifles leveled at Spider-Man. An intense buzzing blared at the base of his skull, and he leapt clear of the building he was perched on, just as a hail of bullets struck the spot he vacated. Extending one hand, he double-tapped his palm with his middle and ring fingers. A strand of artificial webbing shot out from his wrist-mounted shooter and attached itself to the corner of the building on the opposite side of the road. Spider-Man swung over the bewildered heads of the crowd below and alighted on a window ledge that was far too narrow for any normal person to get their balance on.
"One of these days I'll stop bothering to ask if they wanna do this the peaceful way. They never take the opportunity anyway." Before his opponents could respond, Spider-Man leapt off the side of the building and descended straight into the midst of the startled F.O.H. members. His right fist lashed out at the same time his left leg extended backwards in a kick. Both blows hit home, and the enemies on the receiving ends dropped like stones.
His spider-sense began to blare incessantly. Performing a perfect back flip, Spider-Man avoided the incoming blow from behind. The rifle butt that was intended for him continued on to smack into the chin of the wielder's ally instead.
"Well, thanks for the timely assist pal. What that all my opponents were as helpful as you." Spider-Man shot a web line which wrapped around the F.O.H. member's ankles. He then gave a tug, tripping the man and dropping him on his head, knocking him right out. "Although since you're unlikely to be so accommodating again, I'll just let you take a nap."
His spider-sense providing another warning, Spider-Man rolled to the side to avoid the bullets fired from his remaining adversaries. Glancing to one side, he noticed the crowd of people still standing around gawking. Why did they always do that?
"Hel-ooo?! Do you not see the guns? This is the part where you run away!" He shouted as he twisted away from another round of deadly fire. The crowd finally seemed to get with the program and made a hasty retreat.
Firing two more web lines, Spider-Man relieved two men of their firearms. He was then occupied for the next several minutes avoiding gunfire. He leapt and rolled, twisted and flipped as he trusted his reflexes and his spider-sense to see him through alive. As agile as he was, a few bullets managed to graze him in non-vital areas, drawing small amounts of blood.
"Man, times like this I wish I kept the symbiote. Venom never has to worry about getting shot." He muttered to himself as a bullet skinned his forearm. During the melee, he had noticed the head goon talking into a cell phone. Probably calling for reinforcements. He needed to end this quickly. And where the hell were the police? Gunfire usually brought them running.
"And I thought this week was going to be boring." Spider-Man said as the battle continued.
Following a telepathic summons from the Professor, the members of the X-Men's Gold and Silver Teams were currently assembled in the War Room. They all listened intently as Xavier explained the situation.
According to the local news, a small group of men, who are apparently members of this Friends of Humanity that attacked the Brotherhood several days ago, were terrorizing an elderly general store owner who is friendly towards mutants.
Kitty gasped. "That's Ernest! I shop at his store all the time!"
Xavier nodded. "Indeed. Anyway, as it happens, eyewitnesses claimed that as the group was preparing to burn down the establishment, a figure in a red and blue costume appeared and began to defend the store from the men."
"Red and blue costume?" Cannonball asked.
"Correct." Xavier said. He then turned and activated one of the monitors that were tuned into the local news station. The picture showed said red and blue figure battling a group of armed men. As they watched, he leapt around with an agility that could easily match Kurt's. He emerged unscathed from a hail of gunfire and proceeded to knock out three F.O.H. members in a timely fashion.
As the feed continued, two white vans pulled up and several more F.O.H. members poured out. The mysterious hero was now facing greater numbers than before.
"As you can see, the fellow is quite outnumbered, so I'm sending you in to assist. You should be able to handle the situation, but Blue and Green Teams are on stand-by just in case. Are you all clear?" There were nods and murmurs of ascent.
"Good. Return safely, X-Men."
Whee! Spider-action is good, no? More action next chapter as our wall-crawling hero meets up with the X-Men. Also, Magneto enters the scene once again! What does the Master of Magnetism have up his sleeve?
Stay tuned to find out! Until then, Cobra awayyyyy!
