Attention: Generation X and their villians, as well as any other mutant mentioned in this story, is property of Marvel Comics. The character Richard Cale is named after family relations. Any other reference to anything copywrighted is a chance happening.

That's What It's All About

A Big Problem, Many Small Ones and A Tall Man

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I. Spiral
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Spiral looked on at the screen and said, "It looks like they are proving tougher than you thought they would. Do you think having Abcissa try and sabatoge them was a good idea." She had to admit that she didn't like how Mojo treated the slave girl. He always seemed to hold back on her. She did have to admit that the one boy was clever.

She watched as she heard Richard Cale start laughing. She could see how irate Mojo was starting to get. She watched as Mojo walked over to the edge of the pit that Richard Cale and Jubilee were kept over and said, "Alright boy, what's so funny? Or do you want to explain it to the plant below?"

She noticed the brazen look on the boy's face as he said, "You don't have the guts, lardo. If you dump us, your 'ratings' will go through the floor. Audiences don't like rigged games."

Spiral then noticed as the ratings started to drop. She knew Mojo was taping what was happening in the room, but the vocal was only transmitted when he spoke to Richard Cale, or Richard Cale spoke to Mojo. She looked over at Mojo and said, "Sir, the ratings are starting to drop."

She watched as Mojo stepped back, and turned to Spiral. "Keep an eye on them. I don't want them trying anything. I need to find out more about that boy." She figured that Mojo was going to taunt Generation X again.

After he left, she was startled to hear Richard say to her, "So that's the phoney's name. What was he smoking when he thought that up?" She knew Mojo had told him a little of the background on Abcissa, but she also figured Jubilee told him some as well.

She looked up at the captive boy and said, "At a time when Mojo wasn't playing with a full deck," She heard Jubilee laugh at that, but ignored it. "he tried to something quite dangerous. During that time, he had Abcissa in tow, from a future where Jubilee willingly agreed to be his slave. Somehow during that event, when Jubilee refused, Abcissa remained. She has been in tow ever since."

She looked on as Rich said, "I think you envy her. She seems to be Mojo's favorite." With every word he spoke, Spiral wanted to punch Richard Cale for it. She then looked at the screen. Generation X was about to enter the next zone, and maybe one of them would be staying a long time.

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II. Yvette
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Yvette looked out the door that lead to the next movie. She didn't recognize where they were heading. She turned back towards the others and said, "I don't recognize this one. The only thing I can think of is that it looks like a masoleum."

She knew it wasn't a comforting thought, but when Mojo appeared on the one screen in the little room, the masoleum became more comforting. She watched as the fat blob said, "Well, well, well, two down and three to go. I'll admit that you're full of surprises. I never expected you to be able to call in extras, however they will make for nice additions to my slaves."

She watched as Darrett just laughed. "Doubt it, fatso. They were dead to begin with." She noticed how agitated Mojo looked when he heard that. She tried to supress her laughter, but she felt she couldn't.

When she laughed, she heard Mojo say, "Go ahead and laugh it up, but you have only 3 hours and 45 minutes to save your boyfriend."

That brought her back to reality. She looked at Mojo and said, "If you kill my husband, I'll make you regret it." She then saw a smile cross Mojo's face, and it scared her. She gave him too much information.

Mojo nodded and said, "Thank you for that information. I might have to rethink some things." The image disappeared. She was scared now. She didn't know what Mojo meant, but she had a feeling that it wasn't good.

She turned to her 'father' and said, "I'm scared now. What will he do to Skitz now?"

She felt him hug her, trying to comfort her. "I don't know. But something tells me that Mojo just saw another plan come to life." She didn't feel to comforted by that. Then he said, "However, that may just save Skitz's life."

She then heard Emma say, "But we might want to have Beast check him out? First, we need to finish this. This next area is odd. I'm picking multiple brainwave activity. Possibly we will have a lot of enemies to face here."

As they all ventured forward, Yvette noticed that it looked like a crypt. This was starting to scare her. As they continued down the one hall, she heard Synch say, "This is exactly like a masoleum."

Yvette then heard Darrett say, "I've seen this somewhere, but I can't place it." She wondered if it was a movie that Rich had only seen in passing. It was very creepy, just by the setting alone.

As she continued on, she noticed something in the distance. It looked like one of the crypts had a huge spherical handle. Then she noticed something eerie. It was floating, and starting in her direction. She was about to duck down when she stumbled over something. She noticed a plaque there, inscribed in her own native tounge. She looked over it and realized Rich was trying to help them. She then looked up at the ball and saw the two blades on it She stayed low, and shouted back, "Everyone get down."

She heard everyone hit the floor just before the sphere flew over where they were all standing. Yvette listend as Blink said, "What was that?"

She heard Darrett then say, "Now I know where we are. We're in one of the Phantasm movies. This is not going to be easy." Yvette looked down at the plaque. That was what Rich had said in his message. She then noticed more on the plaque. Something that made her worry. It was how Mojo managed to capture them all. He had replace one of them with a fake, and she couldn't believe who it was that had been replaced.

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III. Emma
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Emma noticed that Penance was looking at something, and made her way over to Penance. Ever since what happened with Monet, Emma had been focusing on developing Penance's psychic abilities. When she got next to her, she said mentally "What is it, Penance?"

She waited until Penance looked back at her and said, "Skitz is helping us. He left us a clue about what we are up against, but there's more."

Emma looked at the plaque. She figured Rich hadn't put the clue in English, but in Penance's native language. "What does he say?" Something about Penance's face told her she wouldn't like what it was.

Penance glanced back and then looked at her and said, "Mojo replaced one of us already. That's how he captured all of us." Emma looked back and realized what Penance was saying. The only one who it could be was Jubilee. The only question was when was the switch made. "I think she might be doing stuff to sabatoge us."

Emma just nodded and said, "Alright, but for right now, we can't do anything. If we did anything to Jubilee now, Mojo might do something to the real Jubilee. And I think if we fail to get through this, Jubilee will be dead." She heard Penance gasp aloud. She then said, "Right now, the best we can do is play this like we are trying to save Skitz."

She watched as Penance nodded and said, "You're right, Emma." She watched as Penance then looked up and said, "Looks like everything is clear right now."

As everyone started getting up, she heard Darrett say, "Ok, I know this series. I know Rich watched number 3 with me, but I know this series better than he does."

Emma watched as Sean said, "Alright lad, what do we need to find then to get out."

She listened as Darrett said, "Mojo most likely put the exit to the movie in the embalming room, where the Tall Man does his dirty work. We will have to be careful of more of his spheres, as well as dwarves. Just to let you know, everything is dead here."

Emma was puzzled by this. She looked at Darrett and said, "If everything is dead, then how am I picking up brainwave activity."

Emma was almost startled when she heard another whistle. She turned and saw another silver sphere coming right at all of them. She watched as Chamber shot a bolt of energy at it and it fell to the floor in two. She then noticed a disgusted look on everyone's faces as Chamber said, "There's our answer. These sphere have brains."

Darrett then said, "That's how they work. The Tall Man takes the brains from the corpse and puts it into these deadly spheres. The corpse then becomes like a mini-slave, and will do anything for the Tall Man."

She then heard Synch say, "Is there any way to stop this Tall Man?" It would help if they knew that.

She almost was crestfallen when Darrett shook his head and said, "Not really. He doesn't like cold, but it won't matter what you do to him. He just comes back."

She heard Skin remark, "Well, I think we better get moving before he comes checking on his toys. I do not want to be here when he sees what happen to one his ... troops."

She saw Husk look at Skin and say, "Change what you were going to say?"

Darrett just smiled and said, "Well, that was the tagline of the movie?"

Emma just said, "This is not the time to be making jokes and talking about the movie." She then reached down and picked up part of the broken sphere. She looked at the image she saw and smiled. "Now, we can use this to look down passages." She watched as everyone nodded and they were off.

As they made their way through the halls of the masoleum, Emma heard Jubilee say, "Darrett, how tall do you think this Tall Man would be?"

She noticed as Darrett froze and said, "Did he see us?"

Jubilee shook her head and said, "No, he just went down the hall where we came in at." Emma felt a bit releaved at that, but she expected this fake Jubilee to do something to help the Tall Man. She didn't want to tell the others. Emma knew if they all knew, Mojo might try something dangerous.

When she turned to face the front, she noticed that Mondo had disappeared. She wondered if the boy had merged with the walls. She watched as Banshee then said, "Alright everyone, Mondo says the next door is the room we are looking for, and he's says that there's hundreds of the spheres in there. He's trying to use his ability to prevent them from moving. I just hope we have enough time for him to do something."

It was almost as if Emma was expecting it, but not what she thought would happen. All of a sudden, she heard Penance scream, as if she was in terrible pain. They were lucky that Penance hadn't tensed up, but they weren't so lucky when she heard an almost growling voice yell out, "Girrrlllllll." Apparently the Tall Man heard Penance's scream.

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IV. Mondo
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Mondo heard Penance's scream and knew that he had to be ready to act quick. When he noticed the door to the refrigerated room, he knew what he had to do. He quickly openned that door. He noticed how everyone of the spheres slowly stopped moving. Apparently, the cold had a negative affect on them. He then heard the whole group come towards the room. He could hear Banshee say, "Hurry everyone. Last thing we need is for that bugger to get a hold of us."

He watched in silence as they all entered the room and headed for the door out. As each one past, he heard a few asking where he was. He didn't want to show where he was yet. He knew timing was everything, especially when he had to protect people he cared about, like Daria. He then saw Daria and Emma enter carrying Penance. Apparently, Penance was not totally with it. He then saw the Tall Man enter the room. Darrett was right about the man's description. In fact, it looked like the Tall Man's outfit was a few sizes too small. Just as the Tall Man was on Emma and Daria, he heard Daria say, "Mondo, help us."

It was time. The Tall Man had quickly glanced at the open door. The cold was affecting him. Mondo started to morph out of the wall and pushed the Tall Man with such force that he went flying into the refrigerated room. He quickly slammed the door and said, "Sorry, sir, but you need to chill for a bit." Afterwards he turned and said, "Everyone, to the door. He won't stay in there for long."

As they finally dragged Penance in the door, Mondo heard Darrett say, "Mondo, close the door." Mondo looked up as he got in the door and saw the small window on the refrigerated room's door shatter as a gold sphere came out with three blades on it. He didn't want to find out where it came from, but had a feeling it was the Tall Man itself.

When he finished closing the door, he heard the gold sphere ricochet off the door. He slowly sat down and then said, "What happened?" He was concerned at how fast chaos broke loose.

As everyone caught their breath from the run, he finally heard Penance say, "They're hurting Rich. I can tell. I don't know what they are doing, but I can tell." He could see it in her eyes that she wasn't making it up.

Almost as if he was waiting for the right time, the screen lit up showing Mojo. "Well done. I though a least one of you would have ended up stuck to one of those spheres."

He listend as Banshee said, "Alright Mojo, what are ye doing to Skitz?"

Mondo watched as the bloated form just said, "Nothing. It might be a strain from pulling these movie ideas from his head, but I'll cut you all a break. The fun won't start in the next area for 15 minutes. So you have that much time to get as far as you can. Just one bit of advice."

He heard a bit of venom in Jubilee's voice as she said, "What's that?"

He was unnerved when Mojo's grin got wider and said, "Have a light, and remember," The watched as Mojo moved aside, giving them a clear view of Skitz, hanging as if he was unconscious. "two hours and 45 minutes, and he dies." When the door to the next area openned, Mondo shielded his eyes from the blinding light.