Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men: Evolution, or any other Marvel or WB
property.
Notes: Glad everyone is still coming with me on this one.
Roguehobbit: Good point. I'll explain it away by saying that Evan is backup in case the first team needs help. Which it will. The real reason is just that I like Bobby more, though.
JDH3: Say it ain't so! Ah well, I know what it feels like when a story stalls. I have plenty of story ideas that I'm just lost with, so I know what you mean.
Snitter In Rivendell: Yeah, I may have done that because Kurt is MY favorite. Ah well, that's the privilege of fan fiction I guess.
Fantasy Dreamer, Raskolion Phoenix, and Electric Russian: Glad you're all still here, and still liking the story. Hope you stick around.
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Scott turned in circles, panicking. His breathing was becoming ragged, and he was still having problems seeing. There was little to no light, and he could see just enough to tell where he was. Or at least, where he was led to believe he was. He was in a graveyard. An immense cemetery. He turned and turned, looking everywhere that he could see for Kurt, but Kurt was nowhere to be found. Now that he knew he was alone, his fear had doubled, and he wondered what fate had in store for him.
"Kurt! Kurt! Where are you?" Scott screamed into the darkness.
Suddenly, torches all over the cemetery came to life, flames springing from their tips. Scott watched as they lit themselves, one by one.
"Great." Scott muttered to himself, and that same insane cheering could be heard in the distance. "When I find out who and where you are, I'll make you pay."
The cheering subsided a bit, and thanks to the lit torches, Scott could now get a better idea of what his situation was. The tombstones seemed to stretch into the horizon. The moon and the torches lit enough so that Scott could see five old, dead trees. Scott took a couple of steps, being careful not to step on the graves. His footsteps on the ground echoed throughout the graveyard. A sudden movement caught his attention on his left side, and he turned towards it, his hand at his visor.
"Kurt?" he called. There was no answer. "Kurt?"
Another small movement to his right, and the sound of leaves crunching, caused him to swivel his head to his right side. He could almost swear that he had seen something out of the side of his eye, but there was nothing there but more tombstones. Looking into the distance, Scott saw a series of buildings that he took to be mausoleums. In the center of two of those buildings was a bright point of light. It was different from the warm, orange light of the torches. This light looked artificial. Scott turned again, moving toward that light, not seeing the creatures moving on his left and his right, following him.
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Kurt picked himself up, shaking his head. Looking around, he couldn't help but feel horribly scared and annoyingly exasperated at the same time. Once again, he found himself in a different setting, and not knowing where he was made him scared. At the same time, there was a familiarity to this, and he was beginning to become tired of it. He noticed that the laughing, cheering and clapping seemed to be closer. Much, much closer. Looking around himself, he realized that he was in some type of arena. Looking up, there were what seemed like hundreds and hundreds of monitors. He could see himself and Scott on them, replaying events that had taken place within the past two days. Looking to the sides of the arena, he could finally see who it was that was cheering and clapping. They were revolting. Their eyes looked as if they were forced open. They were all horribly obese, and slobbering. He couldn't help but be scared, but he was quickly becoming angry.
"You cheer! You laugh! You clap! Scott and I haff almost been killed! And you vatch us like ve're. . ." Kurt broke off, looking at himself yell on a giant monitor. ". . .on. . .television."
Looking around the arena, Kurt could see the decaying bodies of creatures that he had never seen before. Then he looked back up at the monitors and saw him and Scott fighting both the creature in the forest, and the creature on the spaceship. Now Kurt realized what this arena was for, and he was horribly frightened. How was he going to get out of this? Kurt took the pack off of his back and tore it open. Inside he found the energy bars and began to gulp them down, hoping to have as much energy as he could for whatever these. . .things. . .were going to throw at him. Kurt looked down at his arm and realized that he still had his imager on, and that he still looked like a normal human being. Wondering how he could use that to his advantage, he flipped through the settings on his imager, being careful to keep the image of his human self up.
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"Children, it is time to go." Xavier said.
"Good luck." Hank said to the children as they walked out of the front door to join Longshot, Logan, and Ororo. "Remember your training, and you'll be fine."
"Indeed. Remember to rely on each other. You are a team. While you are all together, nothing can stop you." Xavier said.
"Thank you, Professor." Jean said, heading outside.
Kitty kissed Xavier on the cheek quickly and then ran after Jean. Bobby and Marie soon followed. The younger mutants joined up with Logan, Ororo, and Longshot and walked towards the tree where Longshot had appeared.
"Kurt's tree." Kitty thought to herself as she stood underneath it.
"Okay, kids, pep talk is over. Remember to stick close. We don't know what we'll be running into." Logan said.
"We should be safe when we appear in the Mojoverse. We'll enter the dimension through the resistance headquarters. That should be safe enough to begin with. Or at least, it's as safe as we can get." Longshot said.
"Are you ready, children?" Ororo asked.
"Yes." They all answered together.
Longshot held his hand out, holding the device in his hand. It was already set to return to the Mojoverse. A simple twist on the head of the machine, and the process began. To the mutants, it looked as if the world simply wavered out of existence. It reminded Bobby of heat waves which you can see in the distance on a really hot day. Their vision blurred, and suddenly they were traveling forward while not moving at the same time. Each felt sick to their stomach, and as Kitty fell to the ground, the world solidified. They were no longer moving, and each needed to brace themselves against something.
"Remind me not to do that again." Marie said.
"Fine, we'll leave you here." Bobby said, breathing hard against the wall which he was using to support himself.
"Quiet!" Logan growled. "We don't know where we are, or who or what may be here."
"Logan is right." Ororo said, looking around.
Longshot nearly gasped.
They were in the center of a room that looked as if it used to be a lab. Now it was in shambles. Broken glass and burned paper littered the ground. Small, uncontrolled fires burned in the room. The entire place looked as if it had been completely torn apart. Longshot moved quickly through the room, looking for a sign of life. All he found were bodies strewn along the floor. These people were once scientists, part of the resistance movement against Mojo. Now they were dead. They were torn apart. Longshot closed his eyes, cursing silently. He knew that there was only once creature that could cause this amount of devastation.
"Warwolves." Longshot said.
"Werevolves?" Kitty asked.
"No. Warwolves. They're kinda like Mojo's secret guard. They're disgusting, vile, deadly creatures." Longshot said.
"What are they?" Bobby asked, trying not to look at the bodies on the ground.
"They have skin like metal. Almost like liquid metal." He said.
"Like the Terminator?" asked Kitty.
"The what?" Longshot asked.
"Never mind." Kitty said.
"Well, they're mostly made up of metal. They have sharp beaks, and sharper claws. And all they want to do is serve Mojo and kill anything that stands in his way."
"Enough. How do we find Kurt and Scott and get the hell out of here?" Logan asked.
"They have the two trapped in studios right now. We have to figure out which studio each is in, and then get them out at the same time." Longshot said.
"Why at the same time?" Jean asked.
"Because they're both constantly being monitored. When we break them out, everyone in this world will know. They're the most popular shows on television right now. As soon as we break them out, we must regroup as soon as we can so that we can travel back to your world." Longshot said.
"So what you're saying is. . .once we make our move, there's no turning back." Logan said. "Good. Just the way I like it."
"We have to be careful. Unless I'm mistaken, which I never am, Mojo has both the security force and the Warwolves out looking for me. And if they find me, they find you." Longshot said.
"So what's our first move?" Ororo asked.
"First thing we do is find out which studio they're in. The best way to do that is to go straight to one of the arena's."
"And then?" Ororo asked.
"And then we watch some television." Longshot said, turning a blade over in his hand.
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Mojo sat at his monitors, laughing at Scott.
"What a moron! I swear! And here I thought he had been the brains of that little dynamic duo!" Mojo screamed and laughed.
"I suppose the viewers are right to favor the other one." Major Domo said.
"Shut up, Major. Switch the station to the other one." Mojo yelled.
Major Domo picked up the gigantic remote control sitting on the table that separated him from Mojo, and turned the monitor to another station. Suddenly the screen showed Kurt, walking around the arena, yelling at the people watching him. Mojo smiled. It was almost disturbing how out of it the viewers were. Here was this teenage boy yelling and pleading for help and they simply looked at him as entertainment. It was just sick enough to get Mojo off.
"Well, that's hardly exciting!" Mojo said. "What are you going to do to him next?"
"He's going to have a tough future ahead of him." Major Domo said. "He has a line of beasts and ruffians lining up to fight him. All of them want their fifteen minutes of fame, I suppose."
"Fun! Fun, fun, fun!" Mojo said.
At that moment, Minor Domo ran into the room. She bowed to Mojo, who rolled his eyes, before addressing Major Domo.
"Sir! The surveillance equipment that we left in the resistance movement's lab have tipped us off! Longshot is back!" she said.
"Longshot is back?" Mojo asked, his smile widening.
"Yes, Sir!" she said, turning to Mojo. "And it looks like he brought six outworlders with him!"
"Aha! What did I tell you, Major? I told you! I told you he'd bring more!" Mojo yelled, and then began to laugh.
"What would you have us do, Sir?" Major asked Mojo, a forced smile on his face.
"Hmm. What to do? What to do?" Mojo wondered.
"May I make a suggestion, Sir?" Major asked.
Mojo rolled his eyes again, acting greatly annoyed.
"Well, since you've already interrupted my important thinking, I guess you should!"
"What if we send The Agent out after them?" Major asked.
"The Agent?!?" Minor squealed.
"Shut up, Minor! Major, that's the dumbest idea I've ever heard!" Mojo screamed.
"Yes, Sir. I'm sorry, Sir." Major Domo said, bowing.
"It's fine. Okay. What to do? I know! We'll send The Agent after them!" Mojo said.
"Brilliant idea, Sir." Major Domo said.
"But, that was your. . ." Minor began, and then cut herself off with a glare from Mojo. "Brilliant idea, Mr. Mojo, Sir!"
"That's better. Major, get a handle on your help." Mojo said airily, his platform walking away from them, making a spider-like clicking noise across the metal floor.
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The X-Men followed Longshot down a dark alley, keeping in the shadows so as not to be seen. The X-Men were all in wonder of this new world, and fear. It was so different from the world they were from. It was a giant city, covered with entertainment complexes, stadiums, arenas, and studios. It was as if Hell had turned itself into Hollywood. They ducked down, keeping low, so that security force wouldn't see them. Logan felt completely lost. These new smells told him nothing, and his senses seemed to be playing with him.
"So where are you taking us, Bub?" Logan asked.
"We're going to an arena where viewers sit and watch the shows. Hopefully, we can figure out where Scott and Kurt are."
"Longshot, why are you risking so much to help us?" Jean asked.
Longshot stopped walking long enough to turn around and tell her.
"I'd do anything to bring down that fat, yellow bastard." Longshot said, and then turned again.
The X-Men followed him blindly through the city. They crossed street after street, walked mile after mile, until they came up on the arena that Longshot was moving towards. It was gigantic. Bigger than any arena that the X-Men had ever seen. Lights covered every inch of the marquee sign outside, and Kitty's jaw dropped when she read what the marquee said.
"Welcome to Mojo Arena 3! Featuring: The Outworlder Who Will Not Die! Watch This Young Man As An Army Of Creatures Bent On His Death Attack Him, One After Another! Starring: KURT!"
"Oh my God." Kitty said silently.
"Well, we need to get inside." Longshot said. "This is going to be pretty tough."
"Speak for yourself, Bub." Logan said, and then walked out into the street towards the arena.
"What are you doing? Stop!" Longshot called, but Logan continued to walk towards the arena.
That's when the security hit them.
A large regiment of secuirty had been flying through the air high above them, following their movements through the city. Now that they were getting close to the arena, Mojo had apparently given them the order to attack, and attack is just what they did. Longshot heard them before anyone else, and ran out after Logan. Logan turned and saw Longshot rushing at him. Logan popped his claws out and faced the other man, almost as if he was daring him to attack.
"GET DOWN!" Longshot yelled.
Logan looked up in time to see four of the wasp/mantis/locust things coming down on him, their weapons drawn at him. Logan ducked and swiped out with his hands, cutting the four things into quarters. Each fell out of the air, splattering their green innards against the ground. There was a moment of silence, one that Bobby would always remember as the calm before the storm. The "calm" before all hell broke loose. Looking up, the X-Men and Longshot realized the fight before them was going to be hard. There were at least one hundred of those things above them now.
Bobby screamed, and threw his hands up in front of him. He began to hit as many as he could with small, sharp ice pieces, knocking them out of the air. When one fell out of the sky, another showed up to replace it. Rogue ran between Logan and Ororo, both of whom were taking down as many of the security guards as they could, and touched Bobby. It was only for a second or two, but now both of them were shooting chunks of ice into the sky.
Ororo lifted up off of the ground, feeling the wind sweep around her. If these things wanted a fight, she'd be more than willing to give them one. Drifting to her right, Ororo raised her hands and created a small whirlwind. Half of the creatures still in the air were trapped within it when she raised her hands higher and sent them upward, atmospheres away from them. Dropping low to the ground, she hit as many of them as she could with bolts of lightning, feeling the fury within her building.
Kitty stuck close to Jean. Much like Kurt, her power was mainly defensive. When one of the security drones came too close to her, Kitty phased through it, causing it to drop to the ground in shock. She kicked it in the face and grabbed the weapon in its hands. Holding it up, she looked it up and down for any type of indication of how it functioned. Longshot saw her pick it up, and immediately rushed to her side. He snatched it from her hands, touched one of the creatures with the tip of the stick when it flew too close, and it dropped to the ground.
"That's how you use it." Longshot said before pulling more blades from his jacket and throwing them into the sky.
"Thanks." Kitty said, watching Longshot flip end over end away from her, jumping into the air and landing in a perfect pose of attack.
"He could give Kurt a run for his money in acrobatics." Kitty thought before turning back to the battle.
Jean was busy building a defensive shield around the team when one of the security drones hit her in the face.
"Jean!" Kitty cried out, running to her friends aid.
Two security drones dropped out of the sky, grabbing both of her arms. Kitty phased through them and touched each one with the staff. Each one fell to the ground. Kitty phased through everything, trying to reach Jean. But her effort was in vain. Three of the drones picked Jean up and flew off into the aky.
"Storm! Help Jean!" Kitty screamed.
Ororo turned in midair, looking for Jean. She saw the drones, and just as she was about to fly towards them, was knocked unconscious by a drone. She fell from the sky and hit the ground hard. Logan ran towards her, but was detained by four more of the drones. He cut most of them into pieces before ten more of them threw him to the alley. His last vision of Ororo was of her being carried away by drones before he was thrown into the sewers and locked down there.
Bobby saw it happen, and immediately "iced" his way to the sewer. He froze eight of the drones on his way there, weaving between them. As soon as he got to the grate, he turned to call for Marie's help. However, Marie, left by herself at this point, was taking the full brunt of the drones' attack. Her face formed a grimace as she threw ice chunk after ice chunk at the incoming drones. They were getting closer and closer, and finally, one knocked her out. Bobby screamed her name before getting knocked out himself.
Longshot cursed under his breath. This wasn't the way it was supposed to happen. He couldn't believe that he was going to fail. Flipping backwards out of the way of an incoming drone, he turned over and threw two more blades at it, each hitting one of the drone's giant eyes. It doubled over, screaming in agony. Longshot turned around to run towards Kitty, and he almost got there before he saw her sink underground. Longshot's eyes widened in disbelief.
"Where did she go?" Longshot wondered, and was promptly hit by a drone with a stun gun. Drifting out of consciousness, he had time for one parting thought. "What happened to the little girl?"
With the outworlders broken apart, the security drones did a count. They had captured five of the rebels, one had escaped, and one was confined within the sewers of Mojoverse. No problem. They'd find the sixth rebel as soon as they took these prisoners back to base. And the Warwolves would be released into the sewers. Mojo would order it immediately. The drones flew off, leaving the camera crew who had filmed the entire battle for a show that would be televised later.
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Kurt had been lying on the ground for the last twenty minutes. Nothing had happened in that time and it almost seemed as if everyone in the arena was asleep, or resting. Kurt had no idea what they were resting for, but he figured that it didn't mean good news for him. He'd rest for as long as they were resting. He had eaten almost all of the energy bars in his pack, and was beginning to regret it. How could he have known that nothing would be coming for him anytime soon? Rolling over onto his stomach, he began to study his imager again. He understood the basic principles of how to change it now, and he wondered what he'd be able to do with it. He had fiddled with it until he had saved at least thirteen different appearances in its settings. He only hoped that would help him out when trouble came for him.
Suddenly, lights began to turn on around the stadium. His "audience" seemed to be waking up, and began to watch the screens again, clapping.
"Vonderful." Kurt said aloud. "Now ve'll see vhat'll happen."
The audience came alive again, and the clapping began to thunder through the building. And that's when Kurt heard something that scared him more than anything had.
"Hello, ladies and gentlemen! You've seen him defeat two of the most vicious creatures on the planet! And now, here, for your viewing pleasure, is Kurt!" a voice boomed out of the p.a. system in the arena.
The audience ate it up, and Kurt's heart began to beat faster.
"Tonight, this being known as Kurt will fight creature after creature, all hoping to take him down! And you are here to witness it! The biggest star since Longshot will now battle for his very life! Stay tuned!"
Kurt swallowed out of nervousness. Closing his eyes, he began to pray.
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It seemed to Scott that no matter how fast he ran, or for how long, he would never reach that light. It seemed to get further and further away the longer he ran toward it. And the sounds of crunching leaves were growing more and more frequent. He began to see things out of the corner of his eyes more and more as well. He knew that he was definitely no longer alone, and he felt as if he were going crazy. Hearing another noise to his right, he suddenly ripped off his visor and began to shoot in every direction, turning his head back and forth. Tombstones, grass, and earth were ripped out of and off of the ground. They flew in every direction. He succeeded in hitting two of the five dead trees, ripping them out of the ground, upending their roots.
"What are you? Where are you?" Scott screamed.
That's when it attacked him. It was small, about the size of a raccoon. However, it's jaws more than made up for its size. It was almost all mouth, and it had row upon row of serrated, sharp teeth. It flew towards him, moving fast. Scott couldn't see anything now with his visor off, and it sank its teeth into Scott's leg. Scott screamed in agony, and brought his visor back to his eyes. Looking down, he could see the little thing shaking its jaws back and forth, trying to rip a piece out of his leg. He shot it, and it literally exploded. Reaching down with his left hand, he could feel his flesh bleeding.
"Oh, God. Oh, no. Oh no, oh no, oh no." Scott said, falling to the ground.
He took his pack off of his back and opened it. Inside was the first aid kit that he had found inside of the spaceship. He began to administer first aid to his wound when another one of the creatures rushed into the light around him. It paused when he brought his hand to his visor. Growling, the two looked each other over. To the thing, Scott looked like easy prey. Injured. To Scott, the thing looked like instant death. Finally, after pausing for a few seconds, the thing reared back and bellowed. Scott let loose a blast, and the thing exploded much in the same way the other one had.
"Well, at least they die easy." Scott thought.
Somewhere close by, he could hear another one of those things bellow. And another one. And another one. And another one. And another one. And another one. . .
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So there ya go. Kurt's in a lot of danger. So's Scott. So's everyone else. The first appearance of the Warwolves is coming up soon. They're pretty bad. Anyhow, I hope everyone is still diggin' the story. I dig it. I actually think I may end up liking this the best out of any of the stories that I've written so far. It's certainly coming the easiest.
Later.
Notes: Glad everyone is still coming with me on this one.
Roguehobbit: Good point. I'll explain it away by saying that Evan is backup in case the first team needs help. Which it will. The real reason is just that I like Bobby more, though.
JDH3: Say it ain't so! Ah well, I know what it feels like when a story stalls. I have plenty of story ideas that I'm just lost with, so I know what you mean.
Snitter In Rivendell: Yeah, I may have done that because Kurt is MY favorite. Ah well, that's the privilege of fan fiction I guess.
Fantasy Dreamer, Raskolion Phoenix, and Electric Russian: Glad you're all still here, and still liking the story. Hope you stick around.
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Scott turned in circles, panicking. His breathing was becoming ragged, and he was still having problems seeing. There was little to no light, and he could see just enough to tell where he was. Or at least, where he was led to believe he was. He was in a graveyard. An immense cemetery. He turned and turned, looking everywhere that he could see for Kurt, but Kurt was nowhere to be found. Now that he knew he was alone, his fear had doubled, and he wondered what fate had in store for him.
"Kurt! Kurt! Where are you?" Scott screamed into the darkness.
Suddenly, torches all over the cemetery came to life, flames springing from their tips. Scott watched as they lit themselves, one by one.
"Great." Scott muttered to himself, and that same insane cheering could be heard in the distance. "When I find out who and where you are, I'll make you pay."
The cheering subsided a bit, and thanks to the lit torches, Scott could now get a better idea of what his situation was. The tombstones seemed to stretch into the horizon. The moon and the torches lit enough so that Scott could see five old, dead trees. Scott took a couple of steps, being careful not to step on the graves. His footsteps on the ground echoed throughout the graveyard. A sudden movement caught his attention on his left side, and he turned towards it, his hand at his visor.
"Kurt?" he called. There was no answer. "Kurt?"
Another small movement to his right, and the sound of leaves crunching, caused him to swivel his head to his right side. He could almost swear that he had seen something out of the side of his eye, but there was nothing there but more tombstones. Looking into the distance, Scott saw a series of buildings that he took to be mausoleums. In the center of two of those buildings was a bright point of light. It was different from the warm, orange light of the torches. This light looked artificial. Scott turned again, moving toward that light, not seeing the creatures moving on his left and his right, following him.
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Kurt picked himself up, shaking his head. Looking around, he couldn't help but feel horribly scared and annoyingly exasperated at the same time. Once again, he found himself in a different setting, and not knowing where he was made him scared. At the same time, there was a familiarity to this, and he was beginning to become tired of it. He noticed that the laughing, cheering and clapping seemed to be closer. Much, much closer. Looking around himself, he realized that he was in some type of arena. Looking up, there were what seemed like hundreds and hundreds of monitors. He could see himself and Scott on them, replaying events that had taken place within the past two days. Looking to the sides of the arena, he could finally see who it was that was cheering and clapping. They were revolting. Their eyes looked as if they were forced open. They were all horribly obese, and slobbering. He couldn't help but be scared, but he was quickly becoming angry.
"You cheer! You laugh! You clap! Scott and I haff almost been killed! And you vatch us like ve're. . ." Kurt broke off, looking at himself yell on a giant monitor. ". . .on. . .television."
Looking around the arena, Kurt could see the decaying bodies of creatures that he had never seen before. Then he looked back up at the monitors and saw him and Scott fighting both the creature in the forest, and the creature on the spaceship. Now Kurt realized what this arena was for, and he was horribly frightened. How was he going to get out of this? Kurt took the pack off of his back and tore it open. Inside he found the energy bars and began to gulp them down, hoping to have as much energy as he could for whatever these. . .things. . .were going to throw at him. Kurt looked down at his arm and realized that he still had his imager on, and that he still looked like a normal human being. Wondering how he could use that to his advantage, he flipped through the settings on his imager, being careful to keep the image of his human self up.
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"Children, it is time to go." Xavier said.
"Good luck." Hank said to the children as they walked out of the front door to join Longshot, Logan, and Ororo. "Remember your training, and you'll be fine."
"Indeed. Remember to rely on each other. You are a team. While you are all together, nothing can stop you." Xavier said.
"Thank you, Professor." Jean said, heading outside.
Kitty kissed Xavier on the cheek quickly and then ran after Jean. Bobby and Marie soon followed. The younger mutants joined up with Logan, Ororo, and Longshot and walked towards the tree where Longshot had appeared.
"Kurt's tree." Kitty thought to herself as she stood underneath it.
"Okay, kids, pep talk is over. Remember to stick close. We don't know what we'll be running into." Logan said.
"We should be safe when we appear in the Mojoverse. We'll enter the dimension through the resistance headquarters. That should be safe enough to begin with. Or at least, it's as safe as we can get." Longshot said.
"Are you ready, children?" Ororo asked.
"Yes." They all answered together.
Longshot held his hand out, holding the device in his hand. It was already set to return to the Mojoverse. A simple twist on the head of the machine, and the process began. To the mutants, it looked as if the world simply wavered out of existence. It reminded Bobby of heat waves which you can see in the distance on a really hot day. Their vision blurred, and suddenly they were traveling forward while not moving at the same time. Each felt sick to their stomach, and as Kitty fell to the ground, the world solidified. They were no longer moving, and each needed to brace themselves against something.
"Remind me not to do that again." Marie said.
"Fine, we'll leave you here." Bobby said, breathing hard against the wall which he was using to support himself.
"Quiet!" Logan growled. "We don't know where we are, or who or what may be here."
"Logan is right." Ororo said, looking around.
Longshot nearly gasped.
They were in the center of a room that looked as if it used to be a lab. Now it was in shambles. Broken glass and burned paper littered the ground. Small, uncontrolled fires burned in the room. The entire place looked as if it had been completely torn apart. Longshot moved quickly through the room, looking for a sign of life. All he found were bodies strewn along the floor. These people were once scientists, part of the resistance movement against Mojo. Now they were dead. They were torn apart. Longshot closed his eyes, cursing silently. He knew that there was only once creature that could cause this amount of devastation.
"Warwolves." Longshot said.
"Werevolves?" Kitty asked.
"No. Warwolves. They're kinda like Mojo's secret guard. They're disgusting, vile, deadly creatures." Longshot said.
"What are they?" Bobby asked, trying not to look at the bodies on the ground.
"They have skin like metal. Almost like liquid metal." He said.
"Like the Terminator?" asked Kitty.
"The what?" Longshot asked.
"Never mind." Kitty said.
"Well, they're mostly made up of metal. They have sharp beaks, and sharper claws. And all they want to do is serve Mojo and kill anything that stands in his way."
"Enough. How do we find Kurt and Scott and get the hell out of here?" Logan asked.
"They have the two trapped in studios right now. We have to figure out which studio each is in, and then get them out at the same time." Longshot said.
"Why at the same time?" Jean asked.
"Because they're both constantly being monitored. When we break them out, everyone in this world will know. They're the most popular shows on television right now. As soon as we break them out, we must regroup as soon as we can so that we can travel back to your world." Longshot said.
"So what you're saying is. . .once we make our move, there's no turning back." Logan said. "Good. Just the way I like it."
"We have to be careful. Unless I'm mistaken, which I never am, Mojo has both the security force and the Warwolves out looking for me. And if they find me, they find you." Longshot said.
"So what's our first move?" Ororo asked.
"First thing we do is find out which studio they're in. The best way to do that is to go straight to one of the arena's."
"And then?" Ororo asked.
"And then we watch some television." Longshot said, turning a blade over in his hand.
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Mojo sat at his monitors, laughing at Scott.
"What a moron! I swear! And here I thought he had been the brains of that little dynamic duo!" Mojo screamed and laughed.
"I suppose the viewers are right to favor the other one." Major Domo said.
"Shut up, Major. Switch the station to the other one." Mojo yelled.
Major Domo picked up the gigantic remote control sitting on the table that separated him from Mojo, and turned the monitor to another station. Suddenly the screen showed Kurt, walking around the arena, yelling at the people watching him. Mojo smiled. It was almost disturbing how out of it the viewers were. Here was this teenage boy yelling and pleading for help and they simply looked at him as entertainment. It was just sick enough to get Mojo off.
"Well, that's hardly exciting!" Mojo said. "What are you going to do to him next?"
"He's going to have a tough future ahead of him." Major Domo said. "He has a line of beasts and ruffians lining up to fight him. All of them want their fifteen minutes of fame, I suppose."
"Fun! Fun, fun, fun!" Mojo said.
At that moment, Minor Domo ran into the room. She bowed to Mojo, who rolled his eyes, before addressing Major Domo.
"Sir! The surveillance equipment that we left in the resistance movement's lab have tipped us off! Longshot is back!" she said.
"Longshot is back?" Mojo asked, his smile widening.
"Yes, Sir!" she said, turning to Mojo. "And it looks like he brought six outworlders with him!"
"Aha! What did I tell you, Major? I told you! I told you he'd bring more!" Mojo yelled, and then began to laugh.
"What would you have us do, Sir?" Major asked Mojo, a forced smile on his face.
"Hmm. What to do? What to do?" Mojo wondered.
"May I make a suggestion, Sir?" Major asked.
Mojo rolled his eyes again, acting greatly annoyed.
"Well, since you've already interrupted my important thinking, I guess you should!"
"What if we send The Agent out after them?" Major asked.
"The Agent?!?" Minor squealed.
"Shut up, Minor! Major, that's the dumbest idea I've ever heard!" Mojo screamed.
"Yes, Sir. I'm sorry, Sir." Major Domo said, bowing.
"It's fine. Okay. What to do? I know! We'll send The Agent after them!" Mojo said.
"Brilliant idea, Sir." Major Domo said.
"But, that was your. . ." Minor began, and then cut herself off with a glare from Mojo. "Brilliant idea, Mr. Mojo, Sir!"
"That's better. Major, get a handle on your help." Mojo said airily, his platform walking away from them, making a spider-like clicking noise across the metal floor.
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The X-Men followed Longshot down a dark alley, keeping in the shadows so as not to be seen. The X-Men were all in wonder of this new world, and fear. It was so different from the world they were from. It was a giant city, covered with entertainment complexes, stadiums, arenas, and studios. It was as if Hell had turned itself into Hollywood. They ducked down, keeping low, so that security force wouldn't see them. Logan felt completely lost. These new smells told him nothing, and his senses seemed to be playing with him.
"So where are you taking us, Bub?" Logan asked.
"We're going to an arena where viewers sit and watch the shows. Hopefully, we can figure out where Scott and Kurt are."
"Longshot, why are you risking so much to help us?" Jean asked.
Longshot stopped walking long enough to turn around and tell her.
"I'd do anything to bring down that fat, yellow bastard." Longshot said, and then turned again.
The X-Men followed him blindly through the city. They crossed street after street, walked mile after mile, until they came up on the arena that Longshot was moving towards. It was gigantic. Bigger than any arena that the X-Men had ever seen. Lights covered every inch of the marquee sign outside, and Kitty's jaw dropped when she read what the marquee said.
"Welcome to Mojo Arena 3! Featuring: The Outworlder Who Will Not Die! Watch This Young Man As An Army Of Creatures Bent On His Death Attack Him, One After Another! Starring: KURT!"
"Oh my God." Kitty said silently.
"Well, we need to get inside." Longshot said. "This is going to be pretty tough."
"Speak for yourself, Bub." Logan said, and then walked out into the street towards the arena.
"What are you doing? Stop!" Longshot called, but Logan continued to walk towards the arena.
That's when the security hit them.
A large regiment of secuirty had been flying through the air high above them, following their movements through the city. Now that they were getting close to the arena, Mojo had apparently given them the order to attack, and attack is just what they did. Longshot heard them before anyone else, and ran out after Logan. Logan turned and saw Longshot rushing at him. Logan popped his claws out and faced the other man, almost as if he was daring him to attack.
"GET DOWN!" Longshot yelled.
Logan looked up in time to see four of the wasp/mantis/locust things coming down on him, their weapons drawn at him. Logan ducked and swiped out with his hands, cutting the four things into quarters. Each fell out of the air, splattering their green innards against the ground. There was a moment of silence, one that Bobby would always remember as the calm before the storm. The "calm" before all hell broke loose. Looking up, the X-Men and Longshot realized the fight before them was going to be hard. There were at least one hundred of those things above them now.
Bobby screamed, and threw his hands up in front of him. He began to hit as many as he could with small, sharp ice pieces, knocking them out of the air. When one fell out of the sky, another showed up to replace it. Rogue ran between Logan and Ororo, both of whom were taking down as many of the security guards as they could, and touched Bobby. It was only for a second or two, but now both of them were shooting chunks of ice into the sky.
Ororo lifted up off of the ground, feeling the wind sweep around her. If these things wanted a fight, she'd be more than willing to give them one. Drifting to her right, Ororo raised her hands and created a small whirlwind. Half of the creatures still in the air were trapped within it when she raised her hands higher and sent them upward, atmospheres away from them. Dropping low to the ground, she hit as many of them as she could with bolts of lightning, feeling the fury within her building.
Kitty stuck close to Jean. Much like Kurt, her power was mainly defensive. When one of the security drones came too close to her, Kitty phased through it, causing it to drop to the ground in shock. She kicked it in the face and grabbed the weapon in its hands. Holding it up, she looked it up and down for any type of indication of how it functioned. Longshot saw her pick it up, and immediately rushed to her side. He snatched it from her hands, touched one of the creatures with the tip of the stick when it flew too close, and it dropped to the ground.
"That's how you use it." Longshot said before pulling more blades from his jacket and throwing them into the sky.
"Thanks." Kitty said, watching Longshot flip end over end away from her, jumping into the air and landing in a perfect pose of attack.
"He could give Kurt a run for his money in acrobatics." Kitty thought before turning back to the battle.
Jean was busy building a defensive shield around the team when one of the security drones hit her in the face.
"Jean!" Kitty cried out, running to her friends aid.
Two security drones dropped out of the sky, grabbing both of her arms. Kitty phased through them and touched each one with the staff. Each one fell to the ground. Kitty phased through everything, trying to reach Jean. But her effort was in vain. Three of the drones picked Jean up and flew off into the aky.
"Storm! Help Jean!" Kitty screamed.
Ororo turned in midair, looking for Jean. She saw the drones, and just as she was about to fly towards them, was knocked unconscious by a drone. She fell from the sky and hit the ground hard. Logan ran towards her, but was detained by four more of the drones. He cut most of them into pieces before ten more of them threw him to the alley. His last vision of Ororo was of her being carried away by drones before he was thrown into the sewers and locked down there.
Bobby saw it happen, and immediately "iced" his way to the sewer. He froze eight of the drones on his way there, weaving between them. As soon as he got to the grate, he turned to call for Marie's help. However, Marie, left by herself at this point, was taking the full brunt of the drones' attack. Her face formed a grimace as she threw ice chunk after ice chunk at the incoming drones. They were getting closer and closer, and finally, one knocked her out. Bobby screamed her name before getting knocked out himself.
Longshot cursed under his breath. This wasn't the way it was supposed to happen. He couldn't believe that he was going to fail. Flipping backwards out of the way of an incoming drone, he turned over and threw two more blades at it, each hitting one of the drone's giant eyes. It doubled over, screaming in agony. Longshot turned around to run towards Kitty, and he almost got there before he saw her sink underground. Longshot's eyes widened in disbelief.
"Where did she go?" Longshot wondered, and was promptly hit by a drone with a stun gun. Drifting out of consciousness, he had time for one parting thought. "What happened to the little girl?"
With the outworlders broken apart, the security drones did a count. They had captured five of the rebels, one had escaped, and one was confined within the sewers of Mojoverse. No problem. They'd find the sixth rebel as soon as they took these prisoners back to base. And the Warwolves would be released into the sewers. Mojo would order it immediately. The drones flew off, leaving the camera crew who had filmed the entire battle for a show that would be televised later.
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Kurt had been lying on the ground for the last twenty minutes. Nothing had happened in that time and it almost seemed as if everyone in the arena was asleep, or resting. Kurt had no idea what they were resting for, but he figured that it didn't mean good news for him. He'd rest for as long as they were resting. He had eaten almost all of the energy bars in his pack, and was beginning to regret it. How could he have known that nothing would be coming for him anytime soon? Rolling over onto his stomach, he began to study his imager again. He understood the basic principles of how to change it now, and he wondered what he'd be able to do with it. He had fiddled with it until he had saved at least thirteen different appearances in its settings. He only hoped that would help him out when trouble came for him.
Suddenly, lights began to turn on around the stadium. His "audience" seemed to be waking up, and began to watch the screens again, clapping.
"Vonderful." Kurt said aloud. "Now ve'll see vhat'll happen."
The audience came alive again, and the clapping began to thunder through the building. And that's when Kurt heard something that scared him more than anything had.
"Hello, ladies and gentlemen! You've seen him defeat two of the most vicious creatures on the planet! And now, here, for your viewing pleasure, is Kurt!" a voice boomed out of the p.a. system in the arena.
The audience ate it up, and Kurt's heart began to beat faster.
"Tonight, this being known as Kurt will fight creature after creature, all hoping to take him down! And you are here to witness it! The biggest star since Longshot will now battle for his very life! Stay tuned!"
Kurt swallowed out of nervousness. Closing his eyes, he began to pray.
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It seemed to Scott that no matter how fast he ran, or for how long, he would never reach that light. It seemed to get further and further away the longer he ran toward it. And the sounds of crunching leaves were growing more and more frequent. He began to see things out of the corner of his eyes more and more as well. He knew that he was definitely no longer alone, and he felt as if he were going crazy. Hearing another noise to his right, he suddenly ripped off his visor and began to shoot in every direction, turning his head back and forth. Tombstones, grass, and earth were ripped out of and off of the ground. They flew in every direction. He succeeded in hitting two of the five dead trees, ripping them out of the ground, upending their roots.
"What are you? Where are you?" Scott screamed.
That's when it attacked him. It was small, about the size of a raccoon. However, it's jaws more than made up for its size. It was almost all mouth, and it had row upon row of serrated, sharp teeth. It flew towards him, moving fast. Scott couldn't see anything now with his visor off, and it sank its teeth into Scott's leg. Scott screamed in agony, and brought his visor back to his eyes. Looking down, he could see the little thing shaking its jaws back and forth, trying to rip a piece out of his leg. He shot it, and it literally exploded. Reaching down with his left hand, he could feel his flesh bleeding.
"Oh, God. Oh, no. Oh no, oh no, oh no." Scott said, falling to the ground.
He took his pack off of his back and opened it. Inside was the first aid kit that he had found inside of the spaceship. He began to administer first aid to his wound when another one of the creatures rushed into the light around him. It paused when he brought his hand to his visor. Growling, the two looked each other over. To the thing, Scott looked like easy prey. Injured. To Scott, the thing looked like instant death. Finally, after pausing for a few seconds, the thing reared back and bellowed. Scott let loose a blast, and the thing exploded much in the same way the other one had.
"Well, at least they die easy." Scott thought.
Somewhere close by, he could hear another one of those things bellow. And another one. And another one. And another one. And another one. And another one. . .
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So there ya go. Kurt's in a lot of danger. So's Scott. So's everyone else. The first appearance of the Warwolves is coming up soon. They're pretty bad. Anyhow, I hope everyone is still diggin' the story. I dig it. I actually think I may end up liking this the best out of any of the stories that I've written so far. It's certainly coming the easiest.
Later.
