Chapter Fourteen
The screams grew louder as I sprinted up the stairs to the second floor. As I reached the corridor where the bedrooms were located, I was immediately greeted by a group of terrified, screaming kids fleeing towards me. One of them was the little girl we had met earlier. She recognised me and cried, "Help! Please help us!"
"Where is he?" I demanded.
"In there!"
She pointed to a bedroom on the left, the door of which was lying slightly ajar. I waited until the last of the children had run past me, then walked over to the door, kicked it open, and prepared to attack my enemy. The insectoid was crouched at the opposite end of the bedroom, and hissed angrily at me as I entered. He reacted fastest, spitting a wad of acid at my face, forcing me to drop to the ground to avoid it. The acid splashed on to the wall behind me, eating through the wooden panelling with frightening speed. Even as I jumped back to my feet, the insectoid was hanging from the ceiling and moving above my head towards the door. I hurried after him, determined not to allow him anywhere near the children. Outside the room, he was back on the floor, and was spreading his clawed hands, watching as the frightened youngsters backed away from him.
"Get out of here!" I yelled at them.
From the back of my throat shot a jet of flame that licked at the insectoid's small, squat form – he gave a high-pitched shriek of pain and leapt to attach himself to the ceiling. I ran towards him, breathing another mouthful of fire up at him. If fire could hurt him, then I could keep him away from the kids. What would the X-Men think if they could see me now, going to these lengths to protect the children in their school? Maybe they would see the truth about us, that we weren't mindless killing machines, that we simply wanted to protect our young.
The insectoid snarled angrily and dropped from the ceiling on top of me. I threw myself to the side to avoid him, landing on the wooden floor, jarring myself for a moment. He kicked out at me, hitting me in the jaw, but doing no damage and causing no pain. I rolled over, stood, and approached him with my fists clenched, inhaling ready to breathe fire at him once more, my body tensed and prepared to leap aside to avoid his acid-spitting attack.
"This – this way! Everybody come this way!"
I glanced over my shoulder for just a second. Somebody, I couldn't see who, was directing the children away from us, hopefully taking them somewhere safe. It had been a girl's voice; it was probably one of the older students. The insectoid gave another furious snarl as he saw his prey escaping from him. I breathed another jet of flame in his direction, and again he gave a high pitched howl as it singed his flesh. With lightning speed, and before I could react in any way, he jumped, twisted, kicking me in the face as he moved, and attached himself to the ceiling once more, hurrying away from me as fast as he could. I was about to go after him, but he was heading in the opposite direction from the kids. As long as he wasn't near them, they were safe, and I was doing my duty of protecting them. I ran to the stairs to find out where the children had gone. There were still three of these guys out there somewhere…any one of them could be trying to harm the kids right now.
As I descended the staircase, I saw the children hurriedly filing into a room on the first floor…the dining room, if I recalled the mansion correctly. I darted over to protect them, to try and reassure them. I entered the dining room to find the children gathered in the corner, many of the younger ones sobbing in terror, while the older ones tried to maintain some semblance of calm. Several of the kids screamed when they saw me, clearly thinking I was one of the ones who had come to hurt them. The oldest ones, however, recognised me from my time here, and one of them, a tall lad aged about ten with ginger hair and freckles, spoke up, "Gary, what's going on? What's happening?"
"I wish I could tell you," I answered quickly. "I honestly don't know."
"Is it true what they say – that you've joined the Brotherhood?"
I shook my head, "Don't worry about that just now. All I'm interested in is keeping you – keeping all of us – safe."
He nodded, "OK. Aqua told us to hide in here. Is that all right?"
"Who?"
Before he could respond, I heard a loud crash from the ground floor, and an equally loud furious roar. It had to be the giant mutant – I wondered if these attackers had names…
"All right, listen," I said. "You guys just stay here and keep quiet, OK? There's only one door into this room, so keep it closed and block it up with everything you can. OK? Don't come back out until – until your teachers get back. They should be here soon."
By which time I most certainly shouldn't be here, I added to myself.
"What are you gonna do?" the boy asked.
"What I was born to do."
The nervous children watched me as ran from the room, heading downstairs to fight off whatever invaders I might find. I had heard the roar of the giant, and he shouldn't be too difficult to track down. The insectoid was skulking around somewhere as well. I had no idea where the other two might be, the skeletoid and the one who looked like a ghost.
"Come on, X-Men," I muttered to myself. "Hurry up and get here!"
The irony of it didn't escape me. A few minutes ago I had hoping and praying that they wouldn't get here, that we could get away safely before they arrived, but now the situation was completely different. For all I knew, they were still with Mystique, wherever she was, still trying to fight her illusions. If only Mystique knew that the longer she now delayed them, the more mutant children were being put in danger. I couldn't protect the kids forever, not on my own. There were too many for me to protect by myself. The X-Men would be all right. There were nine of them, and they knew the children well enough to make sure none of them was missing. For a moment or so I worried that maybe one or two them might have been left behind upstairs, but the boy would have told me.
I reached the bottom of the stairs, and paused in the shadows on the ground floor, listening intently for any sound that might tell me where my enemies were. For a few moments there was nothing, then I heard a noise from somewhere to my right. I took a deep breath then, keeping in the shadows, I began to move in that direction. Soon the sounds became louder and more pronounced, and it became clear that somebody was clumsily moving about in one of the rooms on the right hand side of the corridor. I listened at each door until I found the right one, inched it open, and looked through the crack.
The giant mutant was inside the room, stomping about angrily, throwing furniture around and generally tearing up the place as he searched for anybody who might be hiding from him. What should I do? Should I attack him and try to knock him out? Or should I merely keep an eye on him until Crusader and the rest got back? In the end I didn't have to make a decision, as a door at the other side of the room opened, and the other three walked in: the insectoid, the vampire and the ghost. I could get a proper look at him now. He walked with a curious-looking gait, almost gliding as if he was a ghost. The skin of his face and hands was chalk-white, the rest of his body hidden beneath a black cloak that brushed the ground as he walked. He looked like a walking corpse, all apart from his eyes, which were a startlingly bright blue.
"They are not here…"
When he spoke, it was as if an icy cold wind had swept throughout the room, carrying with it the stench of death and decay. That had to be partly my imagination, but right now I couldn't be sure what was imagined and what was real.
"We came to the wrong place?" said another voice – the vampire – his voice sounded dry and cracked as if it was being forced through a throat that was made entirely of bone, with the muscles wasted away.
The corpse-like one glanced at him, "No…this is the right place…but they are not here…"
"There's a whole buncha kids upstairs," said the insectoid, in a voice that was more like a cackle than anything else. "What if we kill them instead?"
"Yes…" said the ghost slowly. "War?"
The giant looked over.
"Go to the front entrance and wait…we will join you once it is done…Pestilence?"
The insectoid responded, "Yeah?"
"Go to the top of the building and keep watch…those we seek may return ere long…Famine?"
The vampire looked at him.
"You and I will go together…these children will die…for the Apocalypse has come…"
"The Apocalypse has come," the other three repeated.
I watched with a growing sense of dread engulfing my heart. Who were these guys? They were acting as if they were part of some crazy cult. 'The Apocalypse has come' – what the hell did that mean? And what were those names they had used? War…Pestilence…Famine…of course – from the book of Revelation – the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The fourth was Death. I vaguely remembered the words from the Bible: I looked, and there before me was a pale horse. Its rider was named Death. That had to be the name of the ghost. I continued to watch, my fear growing and gnawing at my insides, as the four of them began to move towards the door I was hidden behind. I knew I had to do something or I would be discovered, but my mind was so confused and overwhelmed by what I had just seen, that I couldn't make myself move an inch.
"Hey," came a hiss from behind me.
Caught totally by surprise, I jumped what felt about a mile, and whirled to see who was there. It was Helios. I finally came to my senses and the two of us hurried away from the door, ducking into the shadows by the stairs.
"What are you doing?" he whispered. "The rest of the – the rest of your people have gone."
"I know – I'm here to protect the children."
"That's what we're supposed to be doing!"
"Huh?"
"The X-Men told us they had to go…I'm not sure where exactly, I think it has something to do with the - with your people. They didn't want to leave the kids unguarded, so they left me and Aqua in charge."
"Who?"
He didn't answer, instead he asked, "Gary, I don't understand! What happened to you? Why did you join the Brotherhood?"
"Because I saw the truth."
"What truth?"
"I saw what the humans really are. When they killed her."
"Killed who?"
"Marina."
His eyes widened in surprise, "But Gary, Marina's not - "
"Sshh!"
The Apocalypse mutants were approaching. Helios and I ducked back as far as we could into the shadows, hoping we could remain unseen. I was too nervous and worried about the children for my camouflage to work. I was caught in indecision. We could hide or we could fight. My natural instinct was to fight, but was that such a great idea? There were four of them and two of us. I knew I could more than hold my own in a battle, but I wasn't so sure about Helios. And I didn't know for certain what powers these four guys had. I had never seen the ghost in action, and I was loathe to fight outnumbered against an enemy of unknown strength.
But I knew I had to do something. They were on their way to kill the children, and for me that was not an acceptable outcome. I would keep the kids safe, no matter what it took. Even if I had to sacrifice myself - well, it was better that I die than all of the children. I was beginning to understand why Pyro had allowed himself to be captured by the X-Men, so the rest of us could get to safety. He was simply being a good parent looking after his adopted children. It was exactly the same feeling that I was experiencing now. The children here, and the future they represented, was far more important than one single life. Yes, they were probably going to grow up and become X-Men, become my enemies…but still, they had to be given the chance to see the truth. I made up my mind. As the four Horsemen reached our hiding place, I stood. The ghost was the first to spot me, and he held up one deathly pale hand to halt the others.
"You want to kill those children, you'll have to kill me first," I challenged.
The insectoid Pestilence made as if to charge forward, but the ghost raised his hand once more to stop him. For several moments the two of us stared at each other, my chestnut brown eyes matching his brilliant blue ones. Then he spoke at last, "I am Death…you will stand aside, mortal…for the Apocalypse has come…"
My anger beginning to rise at the thought of these monsters harming the children, I retorted mockingly, "Well, the Apocalypse is going to have to wait. I'm the Gladiator and it has to come through me first."
This time the insectoid could not be stopped, and he sprang towards me, all his claws pointing directly at my throat. I reacted as quickly as I could, breathing out a wave of flame that met his oncoming form, burning him badly and dropping him to the floor. The other Horsemen responded instantly, the giant War and the vampire Famine moving towards me, ready to attack.
"Gary!"
Helios was on his feet, his left hand out, light shining forth from his palm and blinding the four Apocalypse mutants. Each of them flinched, screwing up their eyes against the light, and I took advantage of their momentary distraction. I kicked Pestilence in the chest, knocking him back into the others, sending Famine sprawling. War managed to keep his feet, and he swung a huge fist in my direction. Taken by surprise, I tried to dodge, couldn't, and his punch flung me through the air, hitting the wall with a hard, jarring impact. My mind fought against the shock, wavering on the brink of unconsciousness, and I struggled to get back to my feet. Helios was backing away from the Horsemen, and Pestilence spat a mouthful of acid in his direction. I dived to tackle Helios to the ground, knocking him to safety. The acid hit the wall and dribbled down towards the floor.
Famine was on us now, his dry, bony hands reaching for my neck. I twisted to kick him away, but his thin skeletal form was tougher than it looked, and he absorbed the force of the kick without losing his balance. War threw another punch, which I just about managed to avoid, and Helios lifted his hand once more, blinding our enemies a second time. I grabbed Famine and flung him away from us, taking care not to let his skin touch mine. With his eyes closed against the light, Pestilence spat acid in what he hoped was my direction. It missed. Clumsily, blindly, War swung his fist, hitting nothing but the wall. I delivered a devastating punch to his jaw, knocking him on to his back. Death still stood at the back of the group. He hadn't moved since the fight had begun, seeming content to allow the other Horsemen to finish us off.
"You know not who you defy…" said Death menacingly, his voice once more accompanied by the sensation of an icy cold wind and the stink of putrefaction.
"Oh, I wouldn't worry too much about that," I smirked, my anger breeding confidence. "I'm the world's most powerful mutant."
"I wouldn't be too sure of that," came a voice from behind me.
I whirled in surprise. Crusader stood at the end of the corridor. Cyclops and Wolverine were on either side of her, and within seconds the rest of the X-Men had appeared beside them. For a moment I paused, trapped between them, the X-Men on one side and the Horsemen of the Apocalypse on the other. Both were my enemies, and both would kill me if they could.
"Gary!" Crusader exclaimed. "Gary, I know why you're here! I know you want to protect the children! We don't need to fight! Gary, please!"
"My name is Gladiator!"
"Gary, listen to me. Please, Gary. There's something you have to know. It's about Marina."
My fury rose at the name of my dead love, and I yelled, "Don't you ever mention her name! It's because of you people she's dead!"
Before Crusader could respond, I heard Famine's wheezy voice from behind me, "Those are the ones."
"Kill them…" Death commanded.
"Looks as if my work here is done," I said.
I activated my camouflage, taking everyone by surprise, and without hesitation I ploughed straight towards the Horsemen. I had to escape either way, and I'd rather have taken my chances with them than the X-Men. Kicking Famine aside, I swerved past Death, avoided the swiping claws of Pestilence, and was free. Pushing open the nearest door, I found myself in a darkened room. There was a window; I ran over to force it open and jump out on to the ground outside.
I could leave them to it. The X-Men could look after the children now. What happened between them and the Horsemen didn't really matter to me. If our enemies expended all their energy fighting each other, all the better for us. Speaking of that, where were the rest of the Brotherhood? I looked around for a moment to try and get my bearings - where was the jet from here? It took me a minute or two to work out exactly whereabouts in the estate I was, then I headed in the direction we had left the aircraft. It did occur to me that they might already be gone, that Pyro might have fulfilled his promise to get away immediately, but as I hurried through the darkness, I could just about make out the shape of the jet nestled by the edge of the treeline. The landing ramp was still down, and I hurried up into its interior. Vertigo sat restlessly at the controls, with Recyclo leaning coolly against a seat. In the main compartment Mole lay unconscious, with Atlas trying to tend to him, busy mixing together some herbs in a small strip of bandage. Scarab was watching over his best friend with concern in his face. Relief spread over the faces of both of the girls as they saw me.
"You waited for me!" I exclaimed breathlessly.
Cassandra stood, and we kissed. She smiled, "Of course we waited for you. You think I'd let them leave without you?"
"What happened?" Gemini asked. "Did you see the X-Men? We think they just landed!"
"Yeah, they did. Where's Pyro?"
Vertigo raised his eyebrows, "Actually, we were hoping you might tell us that."
"Eh?"
"We - uh - seem to have lost him."
"How?"
"After you ran back into the building, he told the rest of us to get back to the jet. He was right behind us - at least I think he was - I lost sight of him when we reached the trees."
"He must have got lost - he wouldn't know where we'd hidden the jet, remember."
"Yeah."
"We have to find him," Gemini declared. "Vertigo, do something!"
He looked at her, "What do you want me to do about it? If Mole were awake he'd be able to sniff him out - but he's not."
"We have to search for him!" she demanded angrily. "I'm not leaving here without him! He's the reason why we came here!!"
"All right, keep your panties on. Atlas, Scarab, you stay here and watch over Mole. The rest of us will split up into pairs and look for Pyro. Gladiator and Cassandra, me and Gemini, and Recyclo…I guess you're on your own."
"I prefer it that way," Recyclo said.
"Let's go."
The five of us left the jet, and I looked around in the darkness.
"He could be anywhere," I said.
"PYRO!!" yelled Gemini. "Where are you?"
Vertigo put his hand over her mouth, "Keep your voice down! You want the X-Men to hear us?"
"I think they're busy right now," I said.
"Whatever. Split up and start looking."
Cassandra and I moved away from the jet, heading a little deeper into the forest.
"These trees go on forever," she said. "I can see how easily he must have gotten lost. We'll get lost too if we're not careful."
"Yeah."
"What happened inside the mansion? Did you run into the X-Men? What happened with those other guys?"
"Yeah, I left them fighting each other. I don't know what those guys wanted exactly…but I think they were here to kill the X-Men."
"Does that mean they're on our side?"
I shook my head, "Oh no. Absolutely not. Their reaction, on failing to find who they had come for, was to kill all the children in the school. I had to stop them."
Cassie smiled, "I love you, Gladiator. I think you'll make a wonderful father."
"You do?"
"Yeah. Hey, wait - did you see something up ahead?"
"Where?"
"There! It's Pyro!"
We had found him. Hurrying through the darkness, we drew closer to our leader. Kneeling on the earthen ground with his head bowed, he didn't appear to be aware of our approach.
"Pyro!" Cassie exclaimed. "Were you lost? The jet's this way, come on!"
Pyro made no response. I was about to shake him by the arm when I noticed he was kneeling in front of something. Looking over his shoulder, I could see it was a small gravestone. A terrible sickening, sinking feeling spread over my heart as I realised what it had to be. This had to be Marina's grave. The X-Men must have buried her here in the forest after she had died, and put up this gravestone as a memorial. My fury burned. How dare they. Her death had been their fault - how dare they pretend that they were affected by her passing? It wasn't until I took a closer look that I saw the name on the gravestone. It wasn't Marina's.
JACQUELINE CARTIER was the epitaph. It was a name I had never heard before. Who was she? How had she died? Why was she buried here?
"Was she - was she your friend?" Cassandra asked softly, laying her hand gently on Pyro's shoulder.
He looked up, and his voice shook, "Yes. She was the only person I ever loved. The only person who ever understood me for what I truly am."
"What - what happened?"
Pyro sighed, and closed his eyes, as if he could shut out the terrible memories that he had to be reliving, "A human killed her."
"Is that the reason why you - ?"
"Why I joined the Brotherhood? It's part of the reason," he paused for a moment, then clearly decided to open his heart to Cassandra. "Initially I joined to piss off the X-Men; I was sick of them treating me like a kid. When I met Jacqueline, something changed inside me. There was something there that had never been there before. It was something that I didn't even know it was possible to feel. It was like a whole new world had opened up inside of me. That probably doesn't make any sense to somebody your age, but - "
"It does," I said. "I feel the same way you do. I joined up because the humans killed my friend."
He went on, "It was the most wonderful feeling I ever knew. It only lasted for a matter of hours before she was taken away from me. I've never forgiven the humans or the X-Men for that loss."
"Then we feel exactly the same way," I told him.
He looked at me, "Yes - I suppose we are one and the same. All of us. Don't - don't mention this to anyone."
"We won't."
Pyro stood, and looked down at the small grave once more, "I never even knew she was buried here. I - it's - never mind. I don't think anybody else would understand the way I feel. Let's go."
Just like that, the window he had left open into his heart, was closed. Cassandra and I looked at each other as he walked away, back the way we had come, then we hurried after him. I cast a final glance back at the small memorial in the midst of the forest. The sickening feeling had not lifted entirely from my heart - what if there was a similar shrine elsewhere in the woods, devoted to Marina? What if I had happened to stumble upon it, as Pyro must have just happened to stumble upon this one? What must it have done to him? To have those memories, which he must have been trying so hard to suppress, suddenly etched into his subconscious once more? I couldn't begin to imagine what he was going through. To have gone sixteen years or more constantly reliving the death of the one he loved. I had lived almost a month since Marina's death, doing exactly the same thing. It was hellish enough, but at least I had Cassandra by my side. Pyro had nobody. And sixteen years…longer than I had been alive, Pyro had been living with his heart ripped out. No wonder he hated the humans the way he did…
I was feeling subdued when I got back to the jet; Cassandra obviously sensed my mood and made no attempts to talk to me, instead gently holding my hand in hers. Vertigo, Gemini and Recyclo were waiting for us, and we gathered in the main compartment of the jet. Mole had just regained consciousness, and was sitting up when we got back, holding a bandage against a wound in his forehead.
"Vertigo," said Pyro. "What was it you wanted to show me earlier?"
Vertigo must have brought back the papers from the X-Men's meeting room, as he produced them now from inside the cockpit, saying, "These. The X-Men were having a meeting just before they left. It makes quite interesting reading, I think you'll find."
Pyro took the documents and scanned them. He was a fast reader, and by the time he had finished the last page, his eyes had already widened with intrigue.
"This is it," he said.
"What?" asked Gemini.
He looked at her, then at each of us in turn, "This is what we need. This is the last piece in the puzzle. This spells out our final victory over the X-Men."