Chapter 36: We Didn't Start the Fire

As the suit stared at Kyle, his face uncomprehending, Kyle shook his head. They didn't have time for this!

"Look! If we don't get to the President's office, ASAP, he could very likely be dead! So if you don't get your butt moving, I'll do something I would seriously regret."

Shaking himself, the suit nodded, "Follow me."

Bobby spoke quickly, "Magma, Sage, go with him. Cannonball, Jubilee, take Berserker."

The New Mutants nodded, and broke ranks, bolting in various directions.

Magma and Sage jogged after the suit, who was expecting the two to have trouble keeping up with him.

"We'd better hustle." Said Magma. "If we don't, Psylocke could beat us there."

Kyle nodded, "Can you go faster? If not, then just give us the directions."

The suit stared at the two for a minute, then picked up the pace.  To his amazement, the kids barely dropped back, their shorter leg lengths made up for by the bounding strides they used.

The trio quickly found themselves outside the President's Office, and, as the suit opened the door, the two X-Men burst into the room.

"Beat her." Said Magma.

"Good. Cover the President, Magma, I'll distract her."

The President watched the two teenagers in shock. One of the Secret Service men shook his head and walked forward.

"This is not the time or place to be playing games, kids. Run along, before we have to arrest you."

Kyle didn't even bother turning to him, as he focused every one of his senses on looking out for Psylocke.  Magma, however, gave him a nonverbal answer, in the form of her powering-up to her combat form.

"HOLY SHIT!" Said the Secret Serviceman.

Before they could react, the young ninja known as Psylocke broke through the door, her Psy-blade glowing.

"She's here." Said Kyle.

Wolfsbane and Shadowcat jogged through the White House. Well, Shadowcat jogged, Wolfsbane loped.

Coming to an intersection, Rahne stopped, and, whirling around, turned to face a good-sized, purple lynx standing in the right-hand hallway.  The massive cat jumped at her, intending to give her a taste of her claws.  Rahne, however, was having none of it, as she proved by transforming to her wereform, grabbing Catseye's paws, and throwing her down one of the hallways.

"It bein' a good thing that Mr. Logan been teachin' me ta transform quick." With that, she transformed back, and charged after her foe.

Bobby Drake may not have been what many people would have considered the ideal leader for the X-Men Blue Team. He was a prankster, disregarded rules much of the time, and was, overall, as close to being Cyclops's total opposite as was possible.  However, that was only what the people who had never seen him in action could say.  Jean had been correct in her thought that being made tactical leader had done him good.  He was now aware that the others depended on him in combat, and that they trusted him with their lives.  This gave him a sort of caution. He wasn't against rushing in, but he always looked the situation over first, even if it didn't seem like it.

This was why he was seen ice-sliding through the White House.  Even though he was team leader, he was still Bobby Drake at heart, prince of pranks.

However, never let it be said that he can't fight, a lesson that Skin would not soon forget. A lesson that began after he busted Bobby's slide, knocking him off it, and to the ground, where he rolled, and turned to face his opponent, who was behind him.

As Sam and Jubilee burst forth from the door to the roof, they saw seven of Magneto's transport pods sitting on the helicopter pad, as they had expected. The one thing missing, however, was Berserker.

"Well, well. What have we here?" Came the taunting voice of a man they had once counted as a friend.  "If it isn't little Jubie, and Sam too!"

Turning to the voice's source, they saw Berserker leaning against an AC vent on the roof of the building.

Kurt and Lance appeared in the center of the lobby with a *BAMF* only to find themselves looking at the animorphic mutant known as Lockjaw.  There seemed to be a subtle difference though, as his mutation seemed to have increased in strength, so that, in his wereform, his height was almost even with Piotr's.

Colossus and Boomer walked into the pressroom to find Pete Wisdom standing before them on the stage, his knife-fingers ready.  Charging a handful of her patented Boom-Balls, Boomer broke left as Colossus walked towards the blade-wielding mutant.

"Who the hell is that?" Asked the president.

"Psylocke." Magma responded, even as she placed herself between the president and the mutant assassin.  "She's a mutant assassin. Trick is, she's under a form of mind control."

"Why should we believe that?" asked one of the suits.

"Look at her eyes." Was all Kyle had time to say before Psylocke rushed him.

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnny Ray.

South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio

Quickly twisting the top of his cane, the end extend out in a blink of an eye, catching Psylocke in the stomach, and knocking her back to the ground.

"Going to have to thank Remy for showing us how to modify this thing. Works like a dream."

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, Television,

North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

Psylocke flipped to her feet, and rushed forward, her Psy-blade flashing through the air.  Kyle blocked her arm with his staff, and the battle was joined.

Rosenbergs, H Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom,

Bravado, The King and I, and the Catcher in the Rye

Wolfsbane set upon Catseye with a claw to the face, leaving the lynx animorph with a trio of slash marks on down the side of the cheek. The Acolyte transformed into her wereform, and attacked.

Eisenhower, Vaccine, England's got a new queen,

Maciano, Liberace, Santayana Goodbye

Grabbing Wolfsbane up by the forelegs and tail, she used a surprising amount of strength to slam the wolf animorph into the ground.  Wolfsbane transformed back into her wereform just in time to dodge a vicious clawed kick to the stomach.

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning,

Since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire,

No we didn't light it,

But we tried to fight it

Settling into a combat crouch, Rahne hesitantly checked her ribs, wincing slightly. No doubt about it, she had cracked a rib or three.

Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev

Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Block

As Jubilee and Cannonball watched, Berserker walked forward, almost lazily.  His stance betrayed an arrogance that could not be attributed to anything that his two former teammates could think of. Suddenly, with a burst of electricity to his legs, he jumped forward, flying at Jubilee.

Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dancron,

Dein Bien Phu Falls, Rock Around the Clock

"Whoa!" Jubilee cried out, as the electricity throwing mutant's fist flew at her. Sam knocked her out of the way, dodging to the side himself.

"How'd he do that?" Asked Jubilee.

Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team,

Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland

"I concentrate my electricity into my legs instead of my hands, that simple." With that, Berserker took a swing with an electrified fist, once again gunning for Jubilee. It was all the Asian mutant could do to dodge out of the way of the fist, which cut an electric arc through the air.

Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev,

Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the Suez

Pete Wisdom jumped over Boomer's barrage of Boom-Balls, landing in the aisle in front of Colossus. Taking a swing at the metallic mutant with his right hand as he landed, he was surprised when his knife-like fingers barely even cut his skin.  He quickly dodged out of the way of Colossus's metal-plated fist, and even then, he still received a glancing blow for his efforts.

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning,

Since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire,

No we didn't light it,

But we tried to fight it

Boomer took advantage of the opening Colossus had created by launching a trio of her explosive balls.  The three of them smashed into Wisdom's right arm, knocking him into the rows of chairs.  As he flew into their midst, the chairs flew in every direction, and, as he stood, he found that that had not deterred Colossus in the slightest.

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac,

Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, Bridge on the River Kwai

Skin launched three tentacles of skin at Bobby, hoping to wrap the small mutant up in his prehensile skin.  Bobby was having none of it, as he rolled under the first pillar, jumping forward onto the second, which he then used to bound over the third pillar.  Landing in front of the other mutant, he grinned.

Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball

Starkweather, Homicide, Children of Thalidomide

"Is that the best you've got?  Logan's training sessions are harder." Taking advantage of his opponent's talkativeness, Skin wrapped the icy mutant up with a sudden tentacle from his gut.

Buddy Holly, Ben Hur, Space Monkey, Mafia,

Hula Hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go

Acting quickly, Kurt grabbed onto the crocodile, and with a *BAMF* and a puff of smoke, the two stood outside.  Upon reentry into the real world, Kurt flipped off of Lockjaw, but not without catching some claws to the leg for his efforts.

U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy,

Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo

Kyle and Psylocke traded punches fast and furious in the President's office.  With a sudden scything of the legs, Psylocke put Kyle down long enough to bound past him and make a run towards the President.

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning,

Since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire,

No we didn't light it,

But we tried to fight it

Amara lit up a ball of lava, and smirked. "You really want to try that?" she asked.

Psylocke stopped for a second, giving Kyle an opening to slam her in the small of the back with his Bo staff.

Hemmingway, Eichman, Stranger in a Strange Land,

Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion

As Berserker came in for another punch at Jubilee, he was caught dead in the face with a paff of her fireworks, burning his eyes.]

Lawrence of Arabia, British Beetlemania,

Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson

As he brought his hands to his face, Cannonball came from behind, slamming him straight into one of the metallic spheres, K.O.ing the other mutant.

Pope Paul, Malcom X, British Politician sex,

J.F.K. blown away, what else do I have to say

Iceman grinned at the mutant in front of him, even as he tried to crush his ribs. With a sudden burst of icy energy, he froze the skin holding him, giving his foe an instant case of freezer burn.

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning,

Since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire,

No we didn't light it,

But we tried to fight it

"Ya gonna pay for that, chico." With that, Skin ran away, intending to fight another day.

Birth Control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again.

Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, Punk rock

Psylocke's eyes rolled back down, and the President, and all present could see the fear in them.

"Don't let him get me again!" Was all she got out before, once again, the metallic sphere flew down, and pulled her into it's depths.

Begin Reagan, Palestine, Terror on the Airline,

Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan

As Rahne prepared for Catseye to make her attack, Shadowcat stepped in. Grabbing the female Acolyte in a full nelson, she phased them through the floor, planting them right over the main reception hall, twenty feet up in the air.

"Can we talk this out? You know, cat to cat?"

"Sorry, I, like, totally don't talk to people who hurt my friends." With that, Shadowcat lowered herself another five feet, and dropped Catseye.

Cats may land on their feet, but fifteen feet is a long way to drop.

Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, Heavy Metal, Suicide,

Foreign debts, Homeless Vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz

Wisdom's last sight before he was sent crashing through the door was Colossus's massive fist catching him in the gut, as Boomer gave him the bird.

Hypodermics on the shore, China's under Martial Law

Rock and Roller, Cola Wars, I Can't take it anymore

Lockjaw found that, now that Lance had no reason to hold back his earthquakes, he was no match for his powerhouse foe, and was quickly smothered against a wall by the very earth itself.

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning,

Since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire,

No we didn't light it,

But we tried to fight it