Disclaimer: This chapter is pretty long. Its got this great part where. I'm not going to tell you. You have to read it to find out. HA HA HA! Anyway, I've got some issues to cover. First of all, Diana, the reason that I state the obvious isn't because I think my readers are dumb. It's because I wouldn't understand my story if I didn't. I'M THE DUMMY!!!!!!!! Second on the agenda, I would like to thank all three of my reviewers and I apologize to BobbyD12 for not meeting your expectations on recognition. How do you want me to recognize you? I know! I'll tell a story about you. Once upon a time, there was a person named BobbyD12. BobbyD12 was reading a story on the internet and decided to review it. The author thanked BobbyD12 for reviewing, but BobbyD12 wasn't happy. BobbyD12 wanted more recognition. So BobbyD12 demanded that the author give more recognition. The author decided to tell a story about BobbyD12. BobbyD12 thought the story was annoying and beat the author up. Then BobbyD12 wrote a story. The End. How's that? Pretty good, huh? Oh, well. If I keep this up, I'll have a disclaimer as long as this chapter. Enjoy this at your own risk. disappears mysteriously Snarf!
Everyone turned around as Magneto entered with his usual four people. They would have gone back to what they were doing except that Magneto had brought a newcomer.
"Pietro!" Magneto called out, "Locust!"
Pietro shot over to Magneto's side while Locust scuttled more slowly, smiling sinisterly.
"Here we go again, mate." Pyro said to Mosquito who nodded. Sure enough, as soon as the newcomer was shown his room, Pietro shot over to the armchairs. No one was playing cards. Everyone was in an arc around the TV.
"Go away," muttered Lance.
"Now is that any way to welcome your new—," Pietro ducked as Blob hurled a taco at him.
"I'll begin then," Pietro scowled. He went through the introductions in a minute's time finishing with, "This is Jeff Telton, or Photon."
Everyone turned back to the TV. Blob pushed Pietro aside as he retrieved his precious taco.
"Short attention spans they've got," commented Photon, staring at Nightmare's dark purple hair, "What's with his hair anyway?"
"Oh, you mean old Mauve Mane over there," Pietro smirked, "He says it grew in naturally. Personally, I'd dye it or something. It's pretty repulsive, if you ask me."
"Oh, right," Photon said, eyeing Pietro's slick, white hair and wondering why Pietro didn't dye his hair.
"You're just lucky you didn't get Toad for a roommate," Pietro said, "He reeks to high heaven. Oh, and Blob, you'd be scrunched up against the wall. He probably takes up the whole room. Well, I don't fancy your position either. Stuck with Pyro, you're more likely to wake up with third degree burns, than lose a poker game to Gambit."
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Photon.
"Oh, sorry," said Pietro, "Let me slow down a little. Pyro likes to burn things. He burns things with fire. Fire can give you third degree burns. Pyro will more likely give you third degree burns, than you'll lose a poker game to Gambit."
"No," said Photon, a little irritated, "I mean about Gambit and poker."
"Oh, right," said Pietro, "Gambit likes to play cards. That's why he uses his power on mostly cards. Gambit can make stuff explode with his mind. Poker is a card game. The point of Poker is to...,"
"Is Gambit good at Poker?" asked Photon angrily.
"Of course Gambit's good at Poker!" Pietro shouted, "Are you crazy? I didn't say that in my expression before for nothing!"
Pietro shot away into one of the rooms on the far wall.
"Yes," said Locust, grinning villainously, "He's always like that."
"What's all this I hear about Pyro?" asked Photon, calming down.
Before Locust could answer, Pyro got up from his armchair. Photon and Locust watched as Pyro walked out the back door yelling, "Who wants to start a bonfire out back?!" No one seemed to want to start a bonfire with Pyro, or for that matter even hear what he had said. Smoke began to appear outside. Suddenly, the bonfire expanded to form a huge burning scorpion.
"He's always making fire art," explained Locust over Pyro's hysterical laughter, "I like it though. Neat looking in my opinion."
Photon looked back at the group in the armchairs.
"I should have been a plumber," he thought to himself.
The students gathered outside the door to the Blackbird's room. Shawn was in the front telling Ray to, "Be patient. You can't rush a serious artist like Aaron." Ray just rolled his eyes and turned around to talk to Allen. Suddenly, the door slid open to reveal Aaron smiling gleefully.
"Where are we putting Packrat's stuff?" asked Sam.
"Dr. Grey gave him a room down the hall from here," said Aaron.
"Right," said Shawn, "Shall we begin?"
Aaron and Shawn did the honors of opening the cargo door. They each took an armful of Packrat's collection and started back down the hallway.
"Oops," Shawn said to Ruben as a plastic battle ax and a bright blue wig fell from the top of the pile he was carrying, "Can you get that?"
Ray scowled as he grabbed a woven basket full of multicolored golf balls. Roberto helped Rahne carry an electric orange trunk overflowing with old disposable cameras.
"This is disgusting!" exclaimed Amara. She had uncovered a pair of rotting toilet plungers. She kicked them towards Ruben.
"Maybe we should have brought gloves or something," said Ruben as he reluctantly picked up the plungers.
"There's nothing wrong with this stuff," said Shawn enthusiastically and to Amara's horror he snatched up a moldy banjo.
Aaron turned around and dropped the fungus covered chandelier he was carrying.
"Shawn!" he stuttered, "It's, it's, it's..."
"Spit it out, bro," Shawn was still examining the banjo, "What is it?"
"Summers!!" Aaron forced out. Shawn's banjo flew through the air and landed in an astonished, and slightly revolted Jubilee's arms.
"Uh, hey, Mr. Summers," shouted Shawn to Scott who was walking rapidly towards them, "We were just, uh, helping Brine unpack his stuff."
"He's not buying it, Shawn," said Aaron.
"He must have found out about our little storytime event yesterday!" Shawn looked around quickly, "Let's hide in the cargo area!"
"Oh, yeah," said Aaron sensibly, "That would save us for what, fifteen seconds?!"
"We could fly the jet away," suggested Shawn, hurriedly.
"That would let us live for six extra seconds before we crashed the thing!" Aaron rapped his brother on the head.
"Well, there's only one alternative," said Shawn pointing his finger at the air above them, "RUN!!!!!"
The rest of the students watched as Shawn dragged Aaron, who was staring around at the spot Shawn had been pointing, seeing, of course, absolutely nothing, out of the room.
"Keep unpacking!" Shawn was heard shouting from the hallway.
Everyone had finished unpacking around lunchtime.
"I can't believe we actually touched that stuff," said Amara, still sickened by the items that they had carried.
"Dude, you were the one who said to get in the program," said Allen.
"It's get with the program," said Kurt.
"At least, we'll be able to go with them to save the mutants from Magneto," said Bobby looking on the bright side.
"How are we going to find out when their leaving?" asked Ruben, once again making things more difficult, "They're not going to tell us."
"Shut up, Ruben," said Ray giving him a dirty look.
"Shawn and Aaron can spy on Dr. Grey or something," said Melanie.
"If they survive Mr. Summers' rage," said Travis.
"We'll see them tonight," said Kyle gesturing toward Roberto.
"Yeah," Roberto nodded, "If they don't show up, then we'll assume that Mr. Summers has them hanging on his wall or something."
"That's gross," commented Amara.
"Lunch is over!" Mr. Kamon yelled from his counter, "Now GET OUT!"
Roberto walked into his room later that night to find the twins in their beds.
"Where have you guys been?" asked Roberto scornfully.
"Summers finally caught us when we tried to open a door," said Shawn.
"Unfortunately," Aaron continued, "We realized, way too late, that the door we were trying to get into had been glued shut by some prankster."
"Whoever did that sticky deed will dread the day we find out who they are," Shawn vowed.
"Yeah, right," said Roberto as he climbed into bed. He had a suspicion that the 'prankster' they were talking about were probably themselves.
Downstairs, a blue, furry man walked through the back door. He quickly moved down the hall with ape-like agility towards Professor Xavier's office. He burst through the door to find Xavier staring at him.
"Welcome back, Hank," Xavier greeted him.
"Thanks, Professor," Hank McCoy said, "I need to talk to you."
"I'll summon the rest of the X-Men," said Xavier.
Xavier and Hank were soon joined by Logan, Scott, Jean, Storm, and Tom Fulke.
"Hey, Beast, nice to see you again," said Scott.
"Same to you, Cyclops," Hank replied.
"Hank, what is it you wished to inform me of?" Xavier asked calmly.
"It's Magneto," said Hank, "He's found another mutant target."
"Who is it?" asked Storm.
"They referred to him as Nucleo," said Hank, "His power is similar to Gambit's, but much worse. The explosions he creates are catastrophic."
"When will Magneto be going after him?" asked Logan.
"I'm not entirely sure," said Hank, thoughtfully, "Sometime soon, I believe."
"Professor maybe we should take Peter and Ben with us," suggested Jean, "They're old enough to handle the situation."
"Good thinking, Jean," said Xavier, "I'll go track Nucleo with Cerebro. You can inform Peter and Ben of the mission, tomorrow."
"Good night, Professor," said Storm as she and the others left the room.
"Good night, Storm," said Xavier, and he turned to go to Cerebro's chamber.
The students awoke the next morning and went down to breakfast. They assembled at their usual table and began to talk amongst themselves.
"Hey, Rogue," said Bobby excitedly, "Did you know we're starting biology classes again? Mr. McCoy's back."
Hank McCoy was Bobby's favorite teacher.
"How'd you find out about it?" asked Rogue, "I haven't seen him."
"I passed him in the hallway," said Bobby, "He was talking to Mr. Summers."
"But I bet you don't know what they were talking about," Bobby turned around to see Shawn and Aaron standing behind him.
"Who cares what they were talking about," said Bobby.
"A bit forgetful aren't we?" Aaron said impatiently.
"They were talking about another mission to rescue a mutant," Shawn said, "Don't tell me you forgot why we unpacked all Brine's stuff."
"Of course not," said Bobby quickly.
"When are they going?" asked Amara.
"Tonight," said Aaron.
"How're we going to get in without anyone noticing?" asked Roberto.
"Keep your shirt on, Sunny," Aaron responded.
Ruben chuckled.
"Leave that part up to us," said Shawn, "All you have to do is hide in the Blackbird's room instead of going to bed. We'll distract anyone who's making sure nothing fishy's going on."
"I wish I could be as tricky as they are," Ruben said to Sarah who was sitting next to him, "The most I can do is look strange."
Everyone departed for their classes with the mission that night still in their heads. When that night finally came, the students hid themselves in the Blackbird's room. Scott walked in and checked the cargo area to see if anyone was inside. There was no one there. Satisfied, he began to walk towards the cockpit where Jean, Professor Xavier, Hank McCoy (Beast), Storm, Peter Rasputin, Logan, Tom Fulke (Piledriver), and Ben Flemming were waiting for him. Suddenly, he heard a crash behind him. He ran back to the entrance to the room to see Aaron and Shawn trying to force a chest of drawers back into the closet that it had fallen out of.
"What are you guys doing?" Scott asked them suspiciously.
"What are you doing, Mr. Summers?" asked Aaron looking over his shoulder into the Blackbird's room to see the students sneaking into the cargo area.
"Don't give me that!" said Scott impatiently, "What are you up to?"
"Are you going on another mission?" Shawn asked innocently, "Can we come?"
"Of course not!" Scott said accusingly as Roberto helped Rahne into the cargo area and closed the door quietly, "You guys let out the secret last time."
"Fine," said Aaron, "We'll just stay here and look at the wall."
Scott raised his eyebrows and turned around and walked back towards the cockpit. As soon as Scott was inside the cockpit, the twins ran quietly to the cargo area and opened the door.
"Fasten your seatbelts," Aaron said to them all, "It's going to be a bumpy ride."
Scott walked past the rest of the team towards the copilot's chair.
"Scott," Xavier said smiling, "I think you need to..."
"Not now, Professor," said Scott hurriedly, "We're late as it is."
"If you insist," said Xavier, looking at Jean. Jean smiled and looked at Scott while Xavier's voice in her head told her some interesting facts about the cargo area.
"We're almost there," said Storm from the pilot's seat.
Peter looked out the window. There was a lot of trees in this area. Peter tried to look through the trees to the ground below. He suddenly caught sight of a figure standing in a small clearing. He squinted so that he could see it better. The figure raised it's arms into the air. Peter was thrown back away from the window as the jet jerked sideways. Luckily their seatbelts were on, so they didn't fall onto the floor.
"What was that?" Ben asked from the seat across from Peter.
"It must be Magneto," Peter answered him, "I just saw someone down there raise his arms right when the jet twitched."
"What now, Professor?" asked Storm.
Xavier didn't answer. Jean looked over at him and entered his mind. He was making sure their cargo was alright.
"Professor?" said Storm, a hint of worry in her voice, "Are you ok?"
"What?" Xavier opened his eyes, "Oh, yes."
"Should we land?" Storm asked him.
"Yes," answered Xavier, "Land a little ways from where Magneto tried to send us out of control."
"Right," Storm immediately began pressing a number of buttons and continued steering the jet.
They landed in another small clearing and let down the ramp.
"Scott, wait," Xavier said, while everyone else left the jet, "There's something I need to tell you about."
Jean walked to the cargo area door. The professor had told her telepathically to open it while Scott was still inside. She opened the door to find a large amount of their students sitting inside.
"Hi, Dr. Grey," said Shawn smiling, while the students got out, "Nice night for a ride, eh?"
Cyclops left the cockpit looking terribly annoyed. How could he have been so stupid? The twins had made that diversion for a reason. He sighed and tried to calm down. He didn't want to be responsible for any injuries that could be acquired by the students. He walked up the now large group.
"Lighten up, Summers," said Ray, watching Cyclops' expression, "You have a larger army now."
"Might as well take roll call," suggested Jean.
Beast cleared his throat, proudly. He knew all the names the students used in battle. In alphabetical order.
"OK," he began, "Just tell me if you're here if I call your code name. Berserker!"
"Right here," said Ray.
"Cannonball!"
"Here," said Sam.
"Colossus!"
Peter grunted.
"Daydream!"
"Over here," Melanie said from behind the twins.
Beast continued through the names: Flare (Travis), Flash (Ruben), Iceman (Bobby), Jubilee, Komodo (Kyle), Magma (Amara), Nightcrawler (Kurt), Ooze (Allen), Outlet (Ben), Quasar (Sarah), Redwood (Louis), Rogue, Shadowcat (Kitty), Shift (Aaron), Shroud (Shawn), Siryn, Spyke (Evan), Sunspot (Roberto), Volcano (Max), and Wolfsbane (Rahne).
"OK," Beast said, out of breath, "Let's move out."
The large group moved through the forest as silently as possible. Jean searched around with her mind for any unwelcome signs of life, but couldn't find any. Eventually, they came to a wall of trees that blocked a small slope. Beast climbed into one of the trees. Shift transformed into a crow and flew up into the same tree.
"Can you see what's going on?" asked Storm quietly.
"The members of the Brotherhood are scattered around this area," said Beast, "No sight of Magneto or Nucleo, though."
Everyone waited another ten minutes before Beast gave another report.
"There's still not much going on," he whispered, "The Brotherhood just seems to be waiting for something."
"They're waiting for Magneto to chase Nucleo to them so that they can ambush him," said Logan sniffing the air, "I can smell both Magneto and Nucleo. They'll be here any minute now."
"Wait!" Beast said suddenly.
Beast and Shift were the only ones who could see what was going on. A man wearing a long cloak burst through the trees into the sloped area. His long, silvery hair was tied back and from what was seen of him, it looked like his right eye was made of glass. The newcomer was soon followed by Magneto. This must have been some sort of signal because the entire Brotherhood stood up from their hiding places. The glass-eyed man stopped running.
"You can run no longer, Nucleo," said Magneto loudly, "It is time to surrender and join me."
"I will join no one!" Nucleo thundered, his glass eye shining in the moonlight, "I have no need to share my beliefs with anyone else!"
"You give me no choice," Magneto's voice rang out through the trees, "I will have to take you by force."
"That's our cue," said Logan. His adamantium claws slid from their sheaths inside his arms. He sliced down the wall of trees as Beast jumped back into the group and Shift landed on the ground and grew back into his original form. The nearest members of the Brotherhood looked up at them.
"It's the X-Men!" shouted Gambit.
"Neither of you shall take me without a fight!" Nucleo shouted, "Feel my wrath!"
"Heads up, people!" Beast warned as a thin, whip-like beam extended from Nucleo's pointer finger. The X-Men scattered just in time. The beam struck a nearby tree and with a deafening bang, the tree exploded, propelling burning bits of bark and wood through the air. As if that wasn't enough, the explosion engulfed a good number of other trees creating the beginning of a forest fire. Iceman acted quickly, freezing the burning trees before the inferno spread. He looked out over the sloped area and spotted a young guy with light brown hair.
"Rogue!" Iceman called, "Look! It's John!"
Rogue stared at Pyro with amazement. She remembered how John would always follow her and Bobby around. They hadn't really treated him much like a friend. That was probably the reason that he had joined the brotherhood in the first place.
"We have to talk to him," she said to Iceman.
"I'll try to get closer to him while we fight," Iceman replied.
Zombie and Toad looked up as Flare jumped down in front of them.
"You guys are ugly," Flare told them.
"Let's get him!" Toad yelled, offended.
Flare was ready. His hands began to give off a red glow. Just as Zombie and Toad were only five feet away, Flare launched a huge, glowing, red ball of luminosity towards them. Toad jumped quickly out of the way, but Zombie got the full blast of it. He flew backwards and landed on top of Sabretooth who threw him aside.
Pillbug curled up into a little ball. He was wearing an iron shell on his back. This gave the effect of him being a metal basketball when he rolled himself up. Pillbug began to roll forward at top speed towards Wolfsbane who had transformed into the red wolf and had latched her teeth onto Locust's leg. Sunspot turned around. He saw the iron ball hurtling towards Wolfsbane.
"Hey, Flash!" Sunspot bellowed.
"Hey what?" Flash turned to face Sunspot.
"Use your power!" Sunspot shouted back to him, "I need it!"
"Ah, right!" Flash yelled, catching on, "One solar ball of light, coming up!"
Flash glowed so brightly, that his features were no longer visible. Suddenly, the light expanded across the landscape in the blink of an eye. Sunspot smiled. This was just enough light for him to use his power. Sunspot also began to glow. He could feel his muscles strengthening very quickly. He turned back towards Wolfsbane. Luckily, Pillbug had been on the other side of the sloped area when he started, so he was almost three feet from his target. Sunspot jumped in front of him at the last possible moment. Pillbug slammed into Sunspot knocking him over, but sending the iron ball flying backward. Sunspot got up slowly and went to help Wolfsbane handle Locust, who was breathing deadly clouds of plague into the air.
Volcano had just lifted Paste into the air when the ground started to shake. Paste shrieked with pain. Volcano's hands were scorching his skin from the heat. Volcano dropped Paste as he fell to the dirt below. He looked up to see Lance Alvers (Avalanche) with his eyes rolled back into his head. Volcano stood up and charged Avalanche. Avalanche's eyes moved from the inside of his head to look at Volcano. Volcano grabbed Avalanche by the glass helmet he was wearing. The glass began to melt immediately. Volcano hurled Avalanche towards Quicksilver. Quicksilver easily avoided getting hit as he dashed away in a blur of blue and silver.
Meanwhile, Sabretooth had picked up Ooze by his throat and was attempting to strangle him. Instead of doing any damage, though, Ooze's throat just seemed to flow through Sabertooth's fingers. Sabretooth roared and launched Ooze at a tree. Ooze crashed into the tree, but his body just slid off of it and melted to the ground.
"Dude, being a ball of goo is so totally awesome," Ooze said, smiling.
Iceman and Rogue crept up behind Pyro. He had created a huge serpent out of flames and was making it chase after Redwood and Nightcrawler. Nightcrawler leapt on top of Redwood and they both disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
"John!" Iceman yelled.
Pyro turned around and the serpent disappeared.
"Well if it isn't my favorite people to hang out with," he said with a sarcastic smile, "So nice to see you again."
He shot two jets of flame from the flamethrowers concealed on the arms of his uniform. The flames grew into the form of the serpent again and surrounded Iceman and Rogue with its burning coils.
"Wait!" shouted Rogue, "John, we're your friends!"
Pyro threw his head back and laughed insanely, "You're no friends of mine! And you never will be!"
The coils of the blazing serpent slowly drew closer to Iceman and Rogue. They drew back from the heat, but the inferno was getting almost to close for them to move.
"John, stop!" Iceman yelled through the flames, but Pyro only laughed again. Suddenly, Cannonball flew from nowhere and smashed into Pyro knocking him off his feet. The serpent disappeared once again and Iceman and Rogue stood up again.
"Thanks, Cannonball," said Iceman.
"No problem," Cannonball replied, "Anytime."
Pyro picked himself up off the ground and looked around for Iceman and Rogue, but they weren't there anymore. He didn't care. They had never treated him as a friend before. He wasn't going to let them start now.
Jubilee had just ignited Gambit's trench coat with her sparking embers when Magma shouted a warning.
"Jubilee! Look out!"
Jubilee turned around to see Colossus in full armor holding a fallen tree in his right hand. She was confused. Wasn't Colossus with the X-Men? She dived out of the way as Colossus flung the tree at her. She looked up to see a sparkling, blue mist exit Colossus's ear. The mist took form and Jubilee realized that Colossus had been possessed by Nightmare. Nightmare dodged Colossus and started towards Jubilee with a menacing smile on his face.
Ooze and Komodo were deciding who to take on when Ooze looked over towards the scene with Jubilee.
"Dude, check it out!" Ooze said nervously, "We need to totally bust that guy!"
Komodo's long legs began to grow even longer. His knees bent backward. A long tail sprouted from in back of him. His head elongated to form a lizard's head, while his long hair retracted into his head. Reptilian skin spread over his body. His clothes had also changed. They had created an armor for his torso and shoulders. He bared his pointed teeth.
"Ok, dude, let's go," instructed Ooze.
Jubilee tried to get up to escape, but she only stumbled over a rock and fell backwards. She landed on something squishy. She looked over into Ooze's face.
"That was disgusting," Jubilee said to him, "But thanks."
"Dude, not a problem," he said as if this happened every day.
Nightmare began to transform into the blue mist. Komodo was too quick for him. His tail lashed out and sent Nightmare flying. Nightmare winced as his head cracked against a large stone embedded in the ground. The last thing he saw before darkness clouded his vision was a boy flickering into sight to attack Photon with the help of a large gorilla. They seemed to be protecting a blonde girl. A very familiar blonde girl.
Magma lobbed a fistful of flames at Toad. Toad hopped out of the way and aimed a jump kick at Magma. She moved quickly and instead, the force of Toad's kick snapped the nearest tree in half as if it was a toothpick. Toad whirled around angrily to find that Magma had been joined by Spyke and Berserker. Magma had encased herself with flame so that she looked like she was one of Pyro's creations. All three mutants glared at Toad. Before Toad could react, Spyke's skin grew long spikes that detached from his skin and flew towards Toad. Toad ducked and the spikes rooted themselves to a tree. Toad jumped over a ball of fire and an electric shock. At the same time, he saw Hammerhead standing around a little ways away. Toad gave a demonic smile. He wrenched one of the long spikes from the tree behind him and threw it with all his strength towards the three attacking mutants. The spike grazed both Magma and Berzerker's arms leaving small cuts that began to bleed slowly.
"I'd hate to be you now," said Toad as he jumped over them to attack someone else.
"What'd he mean by that?" Spyke asked the other two who shrugged.
Nearby, Hammerhead looked up. He sniffed the air. He smiled widely, showing a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth. He turned towards the group of three mutants who were watching Toad hop away. He immediately began to advance on them.
"He's a disgusting toad," said Magma, "Of course nothing he says will make any.."
"Heads up, people!" Berserker shouted.
Hammerhead had reached them. He shoved Spyke out of the way and moved towards Magma and Berserker, opening his mouth, revealing his two rows of sharp teeth.
"I'll fry you to a fish stick!" Berserker yelled, releasing bolts of blue electricity into Hammerhead. The bolts only seemed to slow him down and make him angry. Magma launched two pairs of fireballs at Hammerhead. They hit him leaving burn marks on his skin, but once again only slowing him down.
"Run for it!" Berserker shouted as he broke into a sprint with Magma on his heels. Hammerhead immediately burst into a run. He made a leap and tackled Magma to the ground. He opened his mouth to take a bite out of her back, but he was thrown back by the force of a searing, green beam. Hammerhead looked up to see Quasar shoot another green beam at him. He rolled out of the way as the grass sizzled where the beam hit the ground. He forgot about Berserker and Magma to move towards Quasar, dodging her beams.
Flash watched Nucleo destroy another few trees with another whip-like ray. As he watched the trees burn to the ground, he caught sight of Hammerhead advancing toward Quasar. Quasar was attempting to hit Hammerhead with her beams of glowing, green luminescence, but he was evading them too quickly. Flash broke into a run and started to glow.
Hammerhead was almost to his "next meal", when a blinding flash of light left his eyes temporarily useless. He stopped moving and was hit by another sweltering beam.
Logan was in a heated fight with Sabretooth. They both knew each others' moves so well, however, that the fight was sure to never end. Logan looked up to see Beast swing from a tree and slam his feet into Sabretooth. He was so busy watching them, that he didn't see the shimmering king of spades land at his feet. It exploded, sending Logan flying backwards.
Cyclops fired his optic blasts at Gambit who was laughing at the quickly recovering Logan. As Gambit soared through the air, Jean used her powers to send him careening into Massacre, phasing through Shadowcat in the process. Massacre got up and was joined by an identical copy of him. They each took a dagger from their belt and flung them at Jean and Cyclops. Cyclops blasted one out of the sky and Jean simply created a psychic bubble around herself. One Massacre became angry and transformed into Beast. The newly created Beast charged Cyclops, but was blown away from him by a strong gust of wind created by Storm, who began to create lightning bolts. The phony Beast transformed into its original form, Mystique.
Close by, Shroud, Daydream, and a pit bull fled from Photon, who was firing continuously at them. Piledriver walked up behind Photon. Photon spun around to meet Piledriver's huge fist. Photon was knocked backwards, but he instantly got back up again. The strange looking weapon swung out from Photon's back. The tip glowed for a moment and suddenly released a thin laser from it, straight at Piledriver. Nightcrawler came from nowhere and landed on Piledriver's back. Just before the laser made contact, Nightcrawler and Piledriver disappeared in a cloud of smoke. The laser created a massive crater where the two X-Men had been an instant ago. Photon gritted his teeth and turned around. He was once again knocked to the ground. He looked up to see Quicksilver laughing at him. Photon got up, confused. He became even more confused when a golden mist departed from Quicksilver's ear. Quicksilver stopped laughing and looked around with a blank expression on his face. Shroud suddenly appeared behind Quicksilver and tripped him. Photon prepared to fire on both Quicksilver's attacker and the golden mist which had become Daydream. Photon was suddenly slammed to the ground for a third time.
"Nice going!" Shroud called to the polar bear standing behind the fallen Photon.
The polar bear growled proudly and stepped on Photon's head.
On the other side of the sloped area, Outlet removed a flashlight from his pocket. He turned it on, letting the beam point endlessly to the sky. He opened his hand and the light left the flashlight and entered Outlet's hand as a glowing ball. He whipped around just as Locust landed in front of him with a nasty smile on his grotesque face. Locust opened his mouth to breath a cloud of pestilence at Outlet, but the ball of light shot from Outlet's palm. The light struck Locust in the face and he let out a screech of agony. Outlet turned his flashlight back on and stroked his goatee. Outlet had used his energy to restore the light.
Redwood's fingers extended into vines and wrapped around Blob's thick legs. Blob looked down and grabbed a handful of the vines. He gave them a forceful tug and Redwood hurtled towards Blob. Blob stepped sideways and Redwood collided with the ground. Blob laughed and took a step backwards. Right on top of Siryn's foot. Blob dropped the vines and covered his ears as Siryn's abnormally piercing scream echoed around the trees. Nearby, what was left of Avalanche's helmet shattered above his head.
"Whoa, what was that?" Avalanche asked an ear-covering Quicksilver who jerked his thumb toward the screaming girl next to the kneeling Blob.
Both Avalanche and Quicksilver turned around and looked up into Colossus's face. Avalanche picked up Quicksilver who began to protest incoherently. Avalanche tried to slam Quicksilver into Colossus but Quicksilver just went right through Colossus's metal skin. Colossus stepped to the side to reveal Shadowcat leaning on him. He picked up Avalanche and Quicksilver and bashed their heads together, knocking them out cold.
Hammerhead took a huge bite out of a tree. The tree landed with a thud on Komodo's head which knocked him unconscious. Komodo fell on top of Ooze.
"Dude, you're heavy," Ooze said to the unconscious Komodo, "Would you mind getting off?"
Paste threw a handful of a gluey substance at Shadowcat, but only succeeded in gluing Avalanche and Quicksilver to Colossus's feet. Paste gave an embarrassed laugh and ran away as Colossus pulled Avalanche and Quicksilver from his feet and launched them across the landscape. Paste approached Mosquito.
"Hey, I have an idea," Paste told him.
"Do tell," Mosquito said fixing his goggle-like glasses.
"Just use your power on everyone that I glue to the ground," Paste said smiling, "If this works, we may have some hostages for Magneto."
Paste hurried away. Mosquito's insect-like wings lifted him off the ground and he followed Paste.
Shroud and Daydream were riding on a llama to escape Photon's lasers, when a large glob of glue sent Shroud toppling to the ground. The llama skidded to a halt. It started to turn back to help Shroud, but a whip-like beam suddenly shot six inches from the llama's face. The llama took a good number of steps backward before tripping over an unconscious Komodo and a complaining Ooze. Daydream fell off the llama and landed on Komodo making Ooze give a loud "Oof," from under them all. Shroud watched the whole scene with a look of pity on his face and a blanket of glue covering him. He looked up to see Mosquito hovering above him.
"Oops," said Shroud sardonically, "I left my pesticides at home."
Mosquito reached out a hand and placed his fingers on Shroud's forehead.
"Hey, don't touch me with those..." Mosquito removed his hand from Shroud's forehead.
"Ok, Paste, this one's out cold," Mosquito informed Paste, "Who's next?"
Paste merely ran off in another direction with Mosquito hovering after him.
Wolfsbane watched as Sunspot picked up Pillbug as his iron ball and threw him as far as he could. Sunspot turned around to look at Wolfsbane, but instead saw Massacre with a dagger pointed in his face. Wolfsbane was behind him, in her human form, pinned to the ground by her sleeves with daggers. Massacre pushed Sunspot backwards, but Sunspot didn't fall. He could only watch as Paste and Mosquito surrounded Wolfsbane. Paste covered her with a huge glob of glue and Mosquito placed his fingers on her forehead. Sunspot saw her stop struggling. He was too preoccupied with Wolfsbane, that he didn't see the form of Redwood's fist grow into a gigantic tree limb. The limb was still shaped like a fist as it punched Massacre with an extreme amount of strength. In the process, the dagger that had been pointed in Sunspot's face grazed his nose, leaving behind a bleeding cut. Sunspot didn't have time to go and help Wolfsbane because Hammerhead suddenly appeared, apparently smelling the newly spilled blood from Sunspot's nose. Hammerhead chased Sunspot and Redwood away as Paste and Mosquito went to find another target.
Shadowcat looked up as a puddle of glue formed around her feet.
"Do you, like, actually think that's going to hold me?" said Shadowcat haughtily, "You totally don't know what I can..."
Mosquito had just drifted behind Shadowcat and had placed his fingers on the back of her neck.
"Take what you need and leave," Magneto's voice reverberated through the sloped area. Blob had just cracked Nucleo over the head with his fist and was now lifting him over his shoulder. Paste and Mosquito picked up Shadowcat and Wolfsbane.
"Hey, Sabretooth!" Paste yelled, "Take care of the kid with the camo."
Sabretooth picked up Shroud and carried him off. Before the X-Men could do anything, the Brotherhood had disappeared entirely.
"Come on, people!" Beast shouted to the remaining X-Men.
"We can't leave!" Shift objected, "They mutant-napped my brother!"
"We can't go looking for him now," instructed Cyclops, "We need to inform Professor Xavier of the situation."
"But, Shadowcat's gone too," Nightcrawler joined in, while Shift said something about the Professor being able to read minds.
"So's Wolfsbane," Sunspot added.
"We still need to see the Professor," said Cyclops in an end of discussion tone, "Besides we need to recover before we go rescuing."
Everyone followed Cyclops back to the plane, most of the students grumbling. Xavier was waiting for them.
"Everyone get back on the plane," he said, before anyone could speak, "We'll talk when we get back to the institute."