Disclaimer: I'm really starting to wonder. Either there's a ton of people reading my story, but none of them are reviewing it, or there's just no one reading it. Anyway, I really owe my great success to. Wait! What great success?! Oh, well, if this was a success I would owe it to BobbyD12. Your reviews are perfect. The long reviews make up for the few that I have. Hey, people, this is nearing the close of the book. It's one of the last chapters. If enough people care, maybe I'll do a sequel. Ha! I can hear your cries of "NO NO NO! Don't write a sequel! I'll just DIE!". Yeah, that's what I thought. That's alright. I'm like Ruben. I don't take offense to anything. (disappears mysteriously)
Bobby and Rogue looked around the strange hallway, their pockets still filled with vials. Sam and Amara were behind them.
"It looks like this hallway just goes around in a big circle," Sam pointed out.
"Look at all the doors," Bobby said. The doors only covered the wall of the hallway they were on, but they seemed to completely coat the other side.
"Those doors probably lead back to where we started," Rogue guessed.
"Hey, look!" Amara exclaimed, "The doors are opening!"
All the doors on their side had begun to creak open. Bobby, Rogue, Sam, and Amara were relieved when they realized that the people coming through the doors were only the other groups of X-Men.
"Hey, it's a reunion," Aaron commented.
"Who are they?" Kurt pointed at the powerless mutants who were following the twins, Melanie, and Siryn.
"Allow me," Shawn said as Aaron opened his mouth, "This is Cory, Frank, and Lorenzo."
"Lorenzo," Ruben grinned, "I like it."
Lorenzo gave Ruben a strange look.
"What are their powers?" Ray asked impatiently.
"Nothing right now," Aaron explained, "Magneto's experiment worked on them, so he has their powers somewhere."
"What do the powers look like when they're taken out?" Amara asked, bracing herself, "Is it gross?"
"Our powers take the form of a swirling, orange liquid when they are expelled from our bodies," Frank explained.
"Dude, what did he say?" Allen asked looking extremely befuddled.
"Are these them?" Sam inquired, taking the orange vials from his pocket.
Lorenzo rushed up to Sam and snatched them from his grasp. He stared at the labels on them. He selected one of them and handed the other two back to Sam. He pulled the stopper from the top of the vial and raised his hand to drink the liquid.
"Wait!" Scott shouted, "Don't drink that!"
"Porqué no?" Lorenzo turned to Scott, speaking in his Mexican accent, "It is mine. I want it back."
"Drinking it might not be a good idea," Scott warned, "You might have to inject it into your bloodstream or something."
"I don't even want to think about that!" Amara shuddered.
"Fine! I'll wait!" Lorenzo scowled at Scott, "But not too long!"
"The doors run all the way around this middle section," Jean informed everyone, mainly to keep Scott or Lorenzo from hurting each other, "We just need to split into our groups again."
"Scott!" Peter tapped Scott on the shoulder, "I just remembered something in that experiment log we found. It said to consume the liquid to get the power back."
"Oh," Scott's face flushed, "I forgot about that. Sorry, Lorenzo."
Lorenzo just grunted and downed the vial in an instant. Frank and Cory followed suit and drained their vials.
"I feel better already," Cory commented.
"Right, shall we continue?" Aaron said rather anxiously.
Cory, Frank, and Lorenzo split into their own group while everyone else moved into the small hallways leading to the various doors.
Bobby's group stopped and looked into the small, circular window of the locked door in front of them. They could see a room with the basic lab furniture inside. At the far end of the room, there was another door that was closed. The group could easily make out a number of ladders that extended beyond their sight, on the other side of the door.
"So, how are we getting in?" Bobby turned to the rest of his group.
"I could probably break it down," Sam suggested, "But that might be too loud, plus it would give me a headache."
"Amara, do you think you could melt the door?" Rogue asked.
"Well, I might, but it..." Amara was interrupted by a voice behind them.
"Forgive my inquisitiveness, but isn't that vandalism?" the group of students turned around to see Mosquito hovering in the hallway, blocking their way out. Pyro stood behind him adjusting the flamethrowers attached to his wrists.
"And vandals should be punished, right mate?" Pyro turned to Mosquito.
"You're the vandal!" Amara shouted at Pyro.
"I'm an arsonist, not a vandal," Pyro explained, smirking.
Amara hurled two balls of flame at him in her anger. Pyro simply lifted his hand and the fireballs stopped and hurtled back towards their owner. Bobby quickly froze them in the air. Sam caught the frozen flames before they could strike Amara.
"I'm quite sure that Magneto wouldn't mind having more test subjects," Mosquito reached out his hand toward Sam. Sam threw the frozen flames. They collided with Mosquito's face. Mosquito hovered backwards clutching his head. Pyro shot two jets of flame from the barrels of his flamethrowers. The flames grew to form a dragon which filled the width of the hallway. The dragon opened its mouth and breathed more fire into the air. Bobby extended his arms and launched his icy beams at the dragon. The dragon gave off steam as it transformed from fire to ice. Pyro and Mosquito stared at the icy dragon blocking their way.
Without warning, Sam blasted right through the middle of the dragon and knocked Pyro and Mosquito to the ground. Amara was busy melting the locked door. Pyro and Mosquito got to their feet. Sam flew back through the frozen dragon, causing it to collapse. The four students ran through the hole where the melted door once stood, Amara still encased in flame. The reached the door on the other side of the room.
"It's locked!" Rogue exclaimed, turning the doorknob fruitlessly.
"Amara, can you melt this door, too?" Sam asked, turning to Amara, "We'll hold those two off with the vials."
Amara set to work on the door while the other three pulled the empty vials from their pockets.
"What you going to do with those?" Pyro scoffed, "Stuff us inside them?"
"No, no, no," Mosquito tapped Pyro on the shoulder, "Don't taunt them! They're going to thr..."
He ducked as a vial flew over his head. Pyro and Mosquito soon found themselves being pummeled with vials. Pyro's shock wore off quickly and he began torching the vials before they could make contact.
"We're all out of vials!" Bobby complained, "Are you done with the door?"
"Yeah, let's go," Amara let the other three go first and then followed them into the room full of the ladders leading upward. Pyro and Mosquito immediately ran into the lab room. Pyro looked upward into the ladder room. He spotted Amara still sheathed in fire. Smiling, he made a downward arm movement. Amara suddenly felt herself being pulled down from the ladder. She plummeted towards the ground, landing in Pyro's arms.
"Keep going!" she shouted to the others, "I'll take care of..."
Mosquito removed his fingers from her forehead.
"What say we take her to Magneto," Mosquito suggested, "The secret way."
"Sounds like a good idea to me, mate," Pyro agreed and they began to walk the opposite way. Mosquito removed a two-way radio from his belt and activated it.
"You've got three children coming your way," Mosquito warned Magneto through the radio, "Keep a good watch."
He deactivated the radio and returned it to his belt. They continued down the hallway in silence.
Jubilee, Kurt, Kitty, and Louis approached the door at the end of the small hallway. It was obviously locked.
"Ha!" Kurt laughed, "They think that this will keep us out?"
"They, like, totally don't know who they're dealing with," Kitty agreed.
"Does this mean I can't blast down the door?" Jubilee asked.
"I know what you mean," Louis said, "We don't really get to use our powers."
"You're just jealous," Kurt commented, "Everyone ready?"
"If you were as quick as me, you'd have finished with Magneto and on your way home," Pietro was standing a few feet away from the group. Lance and Gambit turned the corner to join him.
"Why aren't you home in bed?" Lance taunted.
"I'm not really that tired," Louis retorted.
Lance closed his mouth, apparently not being able to think up a good comeback. Instead, he stomped his foot on the floor. The room shook violently sending everyone but Lance to the ground.
"Watch it, Salad Head," Pietro protested, criticizing the glass helmet that Lance wore over his head.
Kurt and Kitty got to their feet, each of them taking hold of either Jubilee or Louis. Kurt teleported behind the door while Kitty phased through it. All four students now stood behind the door. Jubilee made a face through the window at Pietro, Lance, and Gambit.
"They can't get us now," she remarked.
Gambit walked up the door and placed his hands on it.
"See, he doesn't know what to do now," she continued.
"Uh, Jubilee, I'd step away from the door," Kurt said, knowing exactly what Gambit was doing.
"Huh, why?" Jubilee turned to face the other three, Kurt pulling Louis backward.
Kitty grabbed Jubilee's arm and dragged her away from the door just as it exploded, sending debris flying through the room. Gambit, Lance, and Pietro stood in doorway, smirking. Gambit took a deck of cards from an inside pocket of his trench coat.
"Care for a game of Poker?" he asked as the top card began to glow. He flicked his wrist, sending the card towards the small group. The card's detonation sent the four students flying into the walls. Louis stood up, brushed himself off, and turned into the biggest Venus flytrap anyone had ever seen. Jubilee shot a beam of sparks and tiny flames at Pietro. He simply shot across the room in the blink of an eye. Gambit began flicking cards through the air, destroying everything in sight. Kurt teleported behind Lance and kicked him in the back of the head.
"You stupid rodent!" Lance turned on Kurt, "I'll show you!"
Lance's eyes rolled up into his head as the ground began to shake again. Big columns of the floor suddenly shot from the ground. Kurt teleported just in time to avoid getting pummeled by the ruined floor. Kitty was easily avoiding debris and flying cards by phasing through them. She shoved Gambit who tripped over a column of floor and fell to the ground.
Jubilee was still attempting to hit Pietro with her firework beams. Pietro was zooming around the room, laughing and taunting Jubilee. He was so busy taunting, that he ran right into the huge Venus flytrap. The flytrap wrapped Pietro up with vines and began to slam him into the nearest wall, all the while, Pietro making unintelligible protests. Jubilee changed her target to Lance who received a shock when he was thrown off his feet by a sparking beam. The Venus flytrap hurled Pietro across the room. He landed in a crumpled heap next to Gambit.
"Come on!" Kurt shouted, "Let's go up these ladders!"
The four students ran to the ladders and began climbing. The three Brotherhood members got to their feet and ran after them.
"They're too far up the ladders!" Lance complained.
"I can catch up to them in no time," Pietro bragged.
"You may be able to run fast, but I'm sure you probably can't climb as fast," Lance scowled.
"I'll report it to Magneto," Gambit said, pulling a two-way radio from his belt.
Shawn peered through the circular window into the room full of weird supplies.
"This should be no problem," he said turning to his brother.
"I agree," Aaron said, "They think that they can hold the Kerr team out."
Aaron bowed to Shawn, Siryn, and Melanie. He then transformed into a termite and crawled under the door. The other three watched as Aaron's face appeared in the window. He smiled at them. He looked around. He could be heard saying, "Where's the door switch?" Aaron suddenly looked up. His eyes widened and he transformed into a rather large frog. He began to hop up on the furniture knocking things on the floor. All the while, bright balls of light were flying in every direction.
"Great," muttered Shawn, "Photoman's here."
"Guess who else is here," Toad said from behind them. Siryn, Shawn, and Melanie turned around to see Toad crouching in front of Blob, both of them smiling.
"Even better," Shawn grumbled, "Stinkball and Tub o' Lard."
"Hey!" Blob yelled, "I'm not a Stinkball!"
"Yeah, I agree," Shawn said as he jumped out of the way of Blob, "Toad's the Stinkball. You're the Tub o' Lard."
Blob turned away from the huge dent he had made in the wall to face Shawn. He let out a yell and charged him again. Shawn disappeared. Blob stopped and looked around.
"Where'd he go?" Blob's anger was growing. Toad shot his tongue out towards Melanie. It suddenly stopped and slammed into the wall. Toad yelped in pain. Shawn reappeared holding Toad's tongue. He smiled and disappeared again. Melanie began to shrink into a golden mist.
"Huh?" Blob said as the mist entered his ear.
"Uh oh," Toad said, his tongue still out. Blob reached out and grabbed his tongue. Toad screamed as Blob tugged hard on his tongue sending him careening into the far wall. The gold mist exited Blob's ear and changed back into Melanie.
Meanwhile, inside the room, Aaron the frog was narrowly avoiding the blasts from Photon. Photon ground his teeth in frustration. Two more guns sprouted from his arms. He began firing with them combined with his triple-barrel weapons. Aaron hopped behind a large metal pot. He transformed into a centipede.
"See if you can catch me now, Photoman," Aaron thought to himself and scuttled out from behind the pot. Photon hadn't noticed and kept firing at the pot. Aaron scurried between Photon's legs. He stopped moving as soon as he was behind him.
"Argh! What was Shawn's advice?," Aaron thought, "Shawn gives me too much advice. I can never think of it when I need it."
Photon stopped shooting and looked around.
"Oh yeah!" Aaron felt the light bulb go on in his head, "Use your imagination!"
Two more guns activated at Photon's shoulders. A cupboard exploded as it was struck by another shot from Photon. A doughy substance began to seep from the shattered cupboard. Aaron began to grow. His body took the form of a giant snake. The end of his tail twisted to form a scorpion's tail. Two feathery wings grew from what were his shoulders. To finish the transformation, four clawed feet were shaped to hold him up.
Photon turned around. Aaron stared at him through the yellow slits that were his eyes. His forked tongue flicked in and out of his mouth. Photon backed away. His shock only lasted a few seconds, for he began firing his guns repeatedly in Aaron's direction. Aaron's elongated body allowed him to twist into contorted positions. He easily avoided the lasers and photons burning the air around him. He quickly approached Photon moving through the storm of deadly light around him. Photon had backed into the wall. Aaron's lethal tail swung swiftly and struck Photon's armored shoulder. The attack had only left a dent. Aaron drew back from a kick from Photon. A very familiar weapon sprung from Photon's back.
Aaron flapped his wings and lifted himself into the air. He moved in to strike, but the weapon on Photon's back began to glow. A split-second later a thin beam protruded at incredible speed and collided with Aaron's left wing. The wing burst sending feathers everywhere. Aaron hit the ground and transformed back into himself. He clutched his shoulder in pain. Photon walked towards him smiling maliciously. Aaron suddenly found himself looking into one of Photon's triple-barrel firearms.
"Uh, do you think we could talk about this over tea or something?" Aaron said painfully.
Blob had just gotten Shawn in a headlock and was cutting off his air supply. Toad was unsuccessfully trying to catch Melanie.
"Yo, Blob!" Toad yelled at him, "You can get two people in headlocks! Couldn't you even figure that one out?"
Blob nodded and smiled. He walked towards Siryn, still keeping the suffocating Shawn in the headlock. Siryn backed into a corner. Blob laughed as he reached out to give her Shawn's treatment. Siryn had no choice. She screamed. Blob dropped Shawn and covered his ears. Toad completely lost his concentration and did a face plant into the floor. Melanie and the recovering Shawn blocked the sound as much as they could by covering their ears.
Photon looked up to see the circular window on the door shatter. He didn't have time to figure out why it shattered because his ears were immediately pierced by the shrill scream coming from the other side of the door. Aaron also felt the extra pain and tried to cover his shoulder and his ears at the same time but failed. Photon shot a laser from his shoulder which blasted down the door. He had to stop the screaming.
He walked through the doorway, wincing from the pain in his head. It felt like his brain was going to explode. He turned to the red-haired girl who was emitting the painful scream. He lifted one of his triple-barrel guns. He suddenly found himself flying backward and sliding down the wall. He looked up to see Toad smirking at him. The smirk was wiped off his face as a gold mist left his ear. Siryn stopped screaming.
"Come on! I can carry Aaron!" Shawn instructed.
"Up the ladder?!" Aaron protested, "You'll drop me!"
With that, Aaron turned into a seven-legged spider the size of a card table and began to crawl up the ladder room wall. Shawn, Melanie, and Siryn began to climb up the ladder after him. Toad hopped into the room and began climbing up the ladder room wall after the four students. Photon stayed at the bottom of the ladders, firing after the young X-Men; in his rage, however, he missed every time.
"Uh, I'll tell Magneto," Blob said. He took his two-way radio from his belt.
"So how are we going through this door?" Ray turned to the other three students in his group.
"Dude," Allen shook his head, laughing at him, "I can fit through it."
Ray didn't say anything so Allen moved next to the side of the door. He pressed his hand against the crack in between the door and the wall. As the other three watched, he gradually slid through the crack. His face appeared in the window.
"Dude, which button is the one to open this thing?"
Ray groaned. If anything, Allen must have gotten dumber by trying to cram his head through small spaces.
"There's only one button," Ray said impatiently.
"Is it for the door?" Allen asked.
"What do you think?" Ray asked, getting more annoyed by the second.
"Uh, I don't know, dude," Allen stopped smiling and got what looked like a concentrated look on his face, "It might set off the alarm or something."
"Just press it," Ray glared at him.
"Ok, dude, if you say so," Allen pressed the button next to the door.
The other three walked into the room and looked around. It had torture equipment lying in various places.
"This looks like a pleasant room," Kyle commented.
"I don't think so, dude," Allen said, checking the room for pleasantness.
"Great," Ray muttered, "Here come the pleasant people."
Coming down the hallway to their room were the last people anyone would want to see. Zombie and Hammerhead, led by Sabretooth, were walking towards them.
"Quick! Lock the door!" Ray instructed.
Max pressed the button for the door. He picked up a chair that was plugged into the wall. He yanked the cord out of the wall and placed the chair in front of the door.
"That probably won't hold them for long," Kyle informed him.
Sure enough, a few seconds later, they could hear the door being ripped open. It was only a moment before the chair in front of the door was hurled out of the way. Sabretooth let out a roar and charged Max. Max stood his ground and took hold of Sabertooth's hair as soon as he was close enough. Sabretooth only had a moment to realize what happened, because his hair had suddenly ignited. He began racing around the room trying to put out the flames.
Zombie had picked up two long poles from the floor. The poles were covered in spikes except for the handles. Zombie swung one of the poles in the air. Ray ducked and the pole collided with the chair with the wire. The chair was suddenly lost from view in a shower of sparks. The chair continued to emit sparks as Ray stopped Zombie's attack with a jolt of electricity. Allen rolled out of the way as Zombie his the ground.
Hammerhead was in a tussle with Kyle who had transformed into the huge lizard. Kyle was holding Hammerhead back to keep from being severely bitten, when Sabretooth tripped over a large clamp-like device and collided with both Kyle and Hammerhead. The device toppled over and landed on Allen, who grunted with discomfort.
Max lifted a guillotine blade and hurled it at Zombie. Zombie was brushing himself off when the blade severed his torso from his waist. The top half of his body hit the ground with a thud. The young X-Men received a surprise when Zombie's torso lifted itself back onto its waist. Zombie smiled as his skin mended itself around his torso. He pulled the guillotine blade out of the wall, where it had embedded itself, and threw it back towards Max. The blade was almost to its target, when Allen jumped from nowhere and collided with it. The blade's speed sent both it and Allen into the wall. The blade pinned Allen to the wall but no damage was done to his extraordinary skin. Max punched down the door to the ladder room. He pulled the blade from the wall releasing Allen.
"Ray, take Allen and go," Max instructed, "Me and Kyle can hold them off."
"Whatever," said Ray as Kyle let out a low growl, "If you insist. Come on, Allen."
Ray sent another bolt of electricity into Sabretooth and dragged Allen into the ladder room. Max and Kyle turned to their adversaries as the other two climbed the ladder.
Roberto, Rahne, Ruben, and Sarah looked into the circular window of the door in front of them. It looked like a large janitor's closet.
"It's locked," Roberto informed them, "And there's no sunlight for me to use my power."
"I can do it," Sarah said quietly.
The rest of them stood back as she burned a hole through the door with her green beams. There was now a sizzling opening in the middle of the door.
"That's awesome," Ruben said to himself.
The four students stepped through the hole into the room. Rahne transformed into the large, red wolf and sniffed the air. She growled and looked into a corner of the room. There was a huge pile of cardboard boxes stacked in that corner.
"Who goes there?" Roberto asked threateningly, "Show yourself!"
"You asked for it!" Paste shouted, jumping from behind the boxes and launching two globs of glue towards the group. Sarah burned one out of the air with a beam. The other glob plastered Roberto to the wall.
"You can't do that!" Ruben exclaimed. He reached out his hand and Paste's hands flew to his eyes. Roberto, Rahne, and Sarah uncovered their eyes. Sarah burned the glue off of Roberto who slid onto the ground.
"I can help," Ruben insisted, dodging a stumbling Paste. He sent another flash of light through the air, Rahne and Sarah covering their eyes again just in time. Roberto took the light energy and began to glow. He got up and began to charge Paste. Paste had just gotten his eyesight back, when Roberto slammed him into the wall. Paste pushed Roberto away but was slammed backward again by the red wolf. He pushed the wolf away and shot two more splotches of glue at both Roberto and the wolf. Roberto suddenly found himself covered in glue again. He looked over from the floor to see Rahne, still in her wolf form, plastered to the ground. He struggled to get loose, but he knew it was useless.
Paste smiled and expelled a large ball of the sticky substance towards Sarah and Ruben. Sarah simply burned a hole through it with a beam. The beam kept moving through the glue and hammered Paste in the chest. He screeched in pain as he tripped and fell to the floor. Paste reached out his hand and snagged one of the boxes in the corner with a handful of glue. Still holding the glue, Paste swung his hand forward. The box, still attached to the glob, hurtled towards Ruben and Sarah. Ruben dived sideways, knocking Sarah to the ground, but keeping them both from being crushed by the box.
"Wow," Ruben said stunned, "I didn't think I could do that."
The box lay in pieces. What was in the box appeared to be a bomb of some sort. Paste got up and began flinging multiple balls of glue at Ruben and Sarah. The two young X-Men got up and began evading the sticky projectiles. Sarah lifted her hands and started to blast as many globs as possible. Ruben looked around the room as he ducked under the flying goo. He took a step backward and slipped on a mop that was lying on the floor.
"Hey," Ruben chuckled and picked up the mop, "Stanley Spadowski!"
Paste was taken by surprise when a crazed Ruben suddenly cracked him over the head with a mop. He staggered backward into a table with a tennis ball, a wrench, and a large mirror on top of it. Paste fell along with the table and the contents upon it. Sarah had just launched another beam at Paste, when he knocked over the table. The beam instead hit the mirror which cracked. The beam multiplied and shot throughout the room.
Ruben suddenly found himself looking at half of a smoking mop as one of the beams sliced off the other half. Roberto and Rahne were released from their pasty prison by one of the stray beams. The third of the beams collided with the bomb that had been laying on the floor. The bomb immediately ignited, emitting a faint hissing noise. Roberto, being the only one to notice, ran to the bomb and picked it up. He began to run towards the door that they had come through, but didn't pay enough attention to his path. The tennis ball had bounced over from the table and landed near the door.
"Roberto, look out!" Rahne yelled, way too late. Roberto slipped on the tennis ball, the bomb soaring from his arms. Everyone watched as the bomb slammed into the far wall. It exploded on impact, sending everyone flying backwards. Paste hurtled through the ladder room door. Unfortunately for him, he kept going and smashed through the opposite door, simultaneously obtaining injuries from ladders.
Roberto looked up to see the wrench from the table racing towards him, propelled by the explosion. He felt an intense pain in his head as the wrench made contact with it. He looked over to see Rahne running towards him while Ruben crouched over Sarah's unconscious form. He closed his eyes and blacked out.
"Now what do we do?" Ruben asked, obviously panicking.
"Well, I can't carry either Roberto or Sarah by myself," Rahne informed him.
"Oh, that's comforting," Ruben made a weird face, "Ok, I have an idea."
"Uh," Rahne flinched, "You have an idea?"
"Yeah, so what?" Ruben said, taking no offense, "What's wrong with that?"
"Um, nothing," Rahne answered quickly. It wasn't a very good time to offend anyone.
"Good," Ruben began, "I guess if I put Sarah on my back, I can also carry Roberto's feet. That way, you can carry his shoulders."
"Ok, sounds good," Rahne agreed.
Rahne helped Ruben lift Sarah onto his back. They then continued with the plan and lifted Roberto.
"We can't go up the ladders," Rahne stated, "We'll just have to try to get out of here."
"Ok," Ruben agreed and began to sing quietly to himself as they walked out the door. He looked back to see flames spreading throughout the room, "There's somethin' gross in the fridge today. It's green and growing hair. It's been there since July. Oooo..."
Travis had just blasted down the door with a "flare". He walked into the room followed by Evan and Ben. In the dim light, they could see that the room looked just like a normal living room. There were comfortable-looking armchairs around an unlit fireplace. There were also a number of totem poles place around the room.
"Who keeps these things anymore?" Evan commented, "They went out of style years ago."
"I think their pretty neat," Travis said examining one with a frightened look on its face.
"Whatever," Evan looked around the room, "It's a bit dark in here isn't it?"
"I can take a hint," Ben said, making a hand gesture toward the lights. They immediately grew brighter.
"This looks comfy," Evan sat down in one of the armchairs. To his surprise, he found himself looking at Storm sitting across from him in a different chair.
"Hello, Evan," she said while Evan got over his shock.
"What are you doing here?" he stuttered.
"Beast and I became split up and I came to look for someone in here," Storm replied.
"How'd you get in?" Travis asked looking around the room, "I don't see any other exits."
"I used that door," Storm pointed across the room to a closed, wooden door.
Travis, Evan, and Ben turned to look at it.
"It looks like a closet door to me," Ben said confused. He turned back around, "Huh? Where'd she go?"
Evan and Travis turned around to find that Storm had disappeared.
"Do you think we're seeing things?" Evan suggested.
"Maybe Magneto recruited a mutant who makes people hallucinate," Travis put in.
All three jumped as they heard footsteps enter the room. They whirled around to find Packrat crouching next to the door they had broken down.
"Did Storm just leave that way?" Ben asked him.
"Brine doesn't know what you is talking from," Packrat stated apparently confused.
"I guess not," Ben walked to the wooden door.
"How come you're not with Professor X anymore?" Evan asked Packrat.
"Tunnel clapsed. Us's stuck in filth. Brine gets away to find safe place where no hurting beasties lie," Packrat replied
"The professor's stuck?!" Ben exclaimed as he turned around.
"What Brine says," Packrat concluded.
"We have to go help him," Ben turned to Travis and Evan.
"No, no, no," Packrat smiled, "Brine can't let you do that."
"What? Why not?" Evan asked incredulously.
"Because Brine isn't Brine," Brine replied. As the three X-Men watched, Packrat's tail disappeared along with his large coat. His facial hair receded into his head to reveal blue skin. Packrat stood up to his full height. Mystique now stood where Packrat had been crouching moments before.
"What'd you do to the professor?" Evan demanded.
"I didn't do anything to your professor," Mystique grimaced, "I made that whole story up."
"So the professor's alright?" Ben asked hesitantly.
"I didn't say that," Mystique snapped, "How am I supposed to know what's happening to your precious professor. My power isn't mind reading."
"You're not going anywhere until you tell us what's going on!" Evan threatened.
"You must be a fool to fight me," Mystique scoffed.
"Yeah, we would be wasting a lot of time doing that, wouldn't we?" Travis shrugged.
"Enough of your comments!" Mystique retorted angrily and promptly transformed into Toad. The phony Toad jumped onto the ceiling and ran to the other side of the room. It's tongue shot out of its mouth and wrapped around Ben's legs. Ben suddenly found himself being launched into a closet.
The fake Toad made a giant leap and landed next to the closet. It slammed the doors and snapped a chair leg from one of the armchairs. It then proceeded to place the leg onto the handles of the closet, preventing Ben from escaping. Evan and Travis watched as the false Toad began to grow. The form of Toad had enlarged to form an extremely tall man who was covered in dark red armor. He wore a dome-shaped helmet that was latched to his armor.
"It's Juggernaut!" Evan exclaimed.
"Jug of Milk, what?" Travis said, expressing his confusion.
"He's sort of a mutant and he's really, really powerful." Evan explained as the newly formed Juggernaut began to walk towards them.
"I guess that explains it," Travis took cover behind an armchair as one of the fake Juggernaut's giant fists made a crater in the floor. Evan shot a few spikes at Juggernaut, but only succeeded in giving the gigantic menace a good laugh. Travis took this to an advantage and blasted the closet door to pieces, freeing Ben. Ben removed a flashlight from his belt and turned it on. A ball of light flew from the tip of the flashlight into Ben's extended hand.
The copied Juggernaut was still busy trying to crush Evan under his foot. Evan was dodging the huge feet as fast as he could, but it was obvious that he was running out of energy. Ben threw the light sphere at a nearby totem pole. The totem pole toppled over into Juggernaut's path. Juggernaut, in his overconfidence, didn't notice the fallen tiki face and stepped on it. As heavy as Juggernaut was, the totem pole still sent him slipping onto the floor. Juggernaut's form shrank into Pietro and took off around the room.
"Great," Travis complained, "How's this going to work?"
"I'll take care of it," Evan assured him.
Many long spikes grew from Evan's arms. He pointed them at a wall and fired them. The spikes embedded themselves in the wall, creating a wall of their own. The phony Pietro came around on his revolution around the room. Running at top speed, he received a surprise when he collided with the recently formed wall. Pietro transformed back into Mystique.
"You are proving to be very difficult," Mystique said with loathing in her voice, "It looks like I'll have to use more than just brute force."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Evan scowled.
"Beats me," Travis scratched his head.
Mystique moved to one of the nearby armchairs and reached under it. She then withdrew a fairly large photon gun and pointed it at the three X-Men.
"That's cheating!" Evan protested.
"What, you think I don't know that?" Mystique sneered, "I don't have to play by the rules in my own game. Now prepare to meet your end."
"That's looking on the positive side of things," Travis muttered.
Mystique pressed a button on the side of the artillery and the sound of it powering up could be heard.
"Let's see. I think I'll shoot you first," Mystique smiled, pointing the gun at Evan, "Just because you've been so annoying."
Mystique pulled the trigger. At the exact same moment, Ben made a hand gesture towards the gun. Evan shut his eyes. Travis blinked.
"What's the matter with this thing?" Mystique raged, "Oh, what's the use?"
She threw the gun aside and aimed a kick at Ben. Travis quickly hurled a "flare" at her. Mystique was thrown backwards into the far wall.
"I was outnumbered," she fumed, looking up at them furiously.
"Since when do you play by the rules?" Evan commented.
Mystique ignored him and turned into Allen.
"Later, dudes," said the fake Allen and then slid into a crack in the floor.
"Like I said, she doesn't play by the rules," Evan concluded.
"We'd better go see if the professor's really alright," Ben suggested.
"Now I'm paranoid," Travis mumbled.