Chapter Sixteen:
Since surrendering her high heels to Gambit, Mystique had kept her comfortable place at the bar. She was reclining back on her elbows calmly, as if there was not a horde of snarling Trolls attacking the other patrons. She had been forced to shift slightly when Harmony tackled one of the aggressive creatures over the bar; however, the amusing events of the past few moments had made up for that one inconvenience.
The Trolls seemed not to notice Mystique at all, even though it had been her shoes that started this new wave of chaos. It was Gambit's head they were calling for.
Mystique watched as the shattered bottles around her were formed into a disorganized wall, cutting the room in two and momentarily separating the Trolls from their targets. She had absolutely no problem with the fact that the wall had separated her from the others as well.
The makeshift structure began to crack almost immediately. The Trolls were pushing against it en mass, their shouts and growls becoming more frenzied under the instigating shouts of their King.
Mystique could see the others preparing for the oncoming attack through the wall's blurry surface. A dark smirk rolled across her lips as a cracking noise could be heard over the horde's reveling. She had not expected to be so entertained tonight.
Before the Trolls were able to charge through the breaking glass, Mystique decided she should take a few precautions in the next moments to ensure her own safety. She turned herself back toward the bar, and leaned over to get a look at the fallen Troll who had been knocked out by the overzealous vampire. As she examined his features, Mystique's face and body began to morph into an identical clone of the creature.
The effect was flawless, except for the fact that she was wearing a real dress. No matter. The Trolls would be far too busy with killing the Cajun X-Man to notice that one little detail...
Mary peeked over the bar in terror as a large section of Sid's glass wall came crashing down. The sound of shattering glass was deafening, but quickly muted out by the triumphant glee of the Trolls.
Just as the first few creatures charged down on the others, Mary felt someone grab her arm and haul her down to the floor. Nancy shoved a new pile of CD cases into her lap and glared at her.
"Hey! Pay attention!" Nancy barked angrily, "Unless we find what we're looking for, we're all gonna be screwed!"
Mary shoved Nancy's hand from her arm and shouted back, "What about Remy and the others? We have to help them..."
Nancy tossed two worthless music selections over her shoulder, and then looked over at Mary with a dark smirk as the floor beneath them rumbled.
"Don't worry about them," she said, "All they gotta do is hold those thing off long enough for us to..."
Mary watched as Nancy's eyes grew wide, and then she heard something snarl above her head. Before Mary even had a chance to glance upward, Nancy was chanting and holding one hand out in front of her, palm upward, her fingers curled. A ball of green light flashed from Nancy's open fist, and knocked the Troll off the bar back toward the main fight.
Mary gaped at Nancy dumbly for a moment, but the dark witch just grinned and blew the proverbial smoke from her fingers.
"Black Magic Woman, chicka," Nancy said proudly, and then turned back to their task, "But Santana's not coming to our rescue tonight..."
With a satisfied laugh, Nancy looked down at the last CD in the box, and held it up for Mary to see.
"Tonight..." she continued, "...It's all about the Brothers Gibb."
Remy held the pool cue in his hands defensively, as a wave of sneering Trolls ran toward him. The bottom heavy pole felt as menacing as a toothpick to the anxious Cajun, who suddenly decided all those loan sharks in New Orleans were really not so bad compared to the problems he found up north.
He felt some reassurance in the fact that the rest of his compatriots had not run screaming out of the club and left him to his doom. But, as he glanced around, they all seemed as worried as he was. Except for Toad, who sneered back at Gambit and made a less than comforting sawing motion with his hand across his throat.
Gambit braced himself as the first Troll reached him. He dodged one blow, and then used the pool cue to deflect another before it could reach him. As two more growling creatures lunged for him, Gambit twirled the cue like a practiced showman and delivered a few more hits to his attackers.
Sid and Rebecca had their backs to each other, rotating in a practiced defense maneuver. They were mostly dodging. The Trolls attacks were slow and lumbering, but their fists had enough force to shatter the remaining tables when the innocent furniture got in their way. Rebecca focused a small burst of fire into each of her hands, but did not unleash it at the creatures. They seemed unnerved by her hand-held torches and ducked away from her grasp. Sid landed a few hard knocks to the creatures before he took a nasty shot to the head. He stumbled backward a step, unintentionally knocking Rebecca to the ground with him.
Fortunately, the dance floor began to shake under their feet and a good number of the Trolls also lost their footing. Lance was standing near the stage, both of his hands clenched into fists as he used his power to force shockwaves into the ground below the club. A row of hanging lights over the stage fell from the ceiling and shattered over the abandoned drum set.
Oz sighed unhappily as he watched that musical tragedy of the drums, and then recommenced hitting the Trolls around him with one of the bar stools. The tremors faded away as Lance was knocked over by none other than Relish, the Troll King himself, who had a bit more sense than his followers. He yanked Lance up by the back of his vest and shoved him across the floor, knocking over a few of his own followers like a row of bowling pins.
Relish stalked toward the young mutant, who was trying to get to his feet. Lance shook his head in an attempt to clear his doubled vision, and felt the Troll King's powerful hands lock around his collar and yank him up. Relish only had a moment to glower at the boy before he had his turn to be knocked over.
When Toad saw the Troll King grab Lance again, he leapt once and landed a solid kick into the creature's back. Relish flew across the room, landing in a pile of disoriented Trolls who cursed and spat as they tried to untangle themselves from each other.
Relish glared upward as Toad crawled across the scaffolding above the battle. He stood quickly, pointing up at the green mutant and cursing at the other Trolls for their incompetence.
Toad sneered back, and opened his mouth wide. A large gob of slime shot from Toad's throat toward the Troll King. Relish swiped a hand through the air and deflected the strange substance before it could reach his face. Toad heard the Troll King laugh in a mighty and horrible voice.
"An interesting skill you have, my friend," Relish called with amusement, "Come down and let us discuss it..."
Toad continued to glare contemptuously as he replied, "Oh, right. Let me just do that."
"Your friends are in danger..." Relish continued, "Why not come down and try to save them?"
Toad chuckled, and glanced around at the others doubtfully, "Oh, yes... I'm quite worried about them. Really... look at all my worry..."
A screaming Troll flew in the air between them, screeching like Wilhelm, as Relish spoke again.
"Then... you won't mind if we take the head of your leader as a token of our satisfied vengeance?" Relish bated with a sneer.
"Leader?" Toad asked with a frown, and then nodded toward Gambit, "You mean 'im? I'd rather enjoy it if you did, actually..."
While Toad and the Troll King discussed his fate, Gambit struggled with a group of at least a dozen attackers, who had him cornered among the billiard tables. He whacked the creatures with the pool cue until it cracked in half, and was searching for something else to use as a weapon.
"Pardon!" he cried irritably, "But Remy would appreciate a little help when you all have the time!"
"Keep your head on, man!" Pyro shouted fending off the Trolls with bouts of fire from his lighter, "We're a little...ack! A little busy...!"
One of the more daring Trolls leapt onto Pyro's back and began to throttle him from behind. St. John struggled to breathe as the Troll tightened its grip on his neck. He brought his lighter up close to his own face and tried desperately to re-ignite the flame. After three or four spins with this thumb, he managed to catch a spark with his power and held the fire steady.
Before he could concentrate the heat toward the Troll, another unexpected weight landed on his back. Harmony was clawing and gnashing her teeth at the creature attacking Pyro as she hung onto its back. The Troll was forced to use one of its arms to fight off the frenzied vampire, which allowed Pyro to take one long and needed breath.
Unfortunately, St. John was at the bottom of the three-tier pile and only managed to stay on his feet for a few steps before the battle on his back made him fall to the ground.
"We're in trouble," Rebecca said to her brother.
Sid nodded, "Yeah. I noticed."
Like the others, they had now been cornered by a rabble of angry Trolls. Rebecca kept her hand alight with flame, which deterred their attackers for the moment, but they were obviously loosing fear of her trick. Sid was rubbing his head unhappily where the Trolls had seemed to enjoy punching him, but the resulting migraine was making it difficult to concentrate on the glass for protection.
They were backed against the bar and the remainder of the glass wall. Rebecca heard a familiar voice cursing from the bartender's aisle. She nudged Sid and jerked her head back, giving a silent instruction to jump over the bar. He complied without argument as Rebecca smashed a half empty bottle of vodka onto the marble surface. She slid through the liquid as she followed her brother, keeping a wary eye on the Trolls as they swiped at her. Once both she and Sid were clear, Rebecca put one of her fiery palms against the bar and ignited the spilled alcohol. She sighed with relief as the Trolls leapt back away from the mini inferno and trudged after Sid toward Mary and Nancy.
"So..." Sid quipped to Mary wearily, "How're you liking New York so far?"
"Shut up, ass," Nancy shot back as she struggled to get the disco CD to play in the soundboard.
"Did you try kicking it?" Rebecca asked.
"Twice," Mary confirmed by pointing out the two dents that suspiciously matched the witch's boots.
The three non-witches cried out in surprise as one brave Trolls managed to leap through the fire. Once he put out the lingering flames in his hair, the Troll urged his friends to follow suit.
"Kick it again, Nance..." Rebecca said with panic as the Trolls lurched toward them. She felt a wave of heat roll from her body as her mind reacted to the threat. The power was dancing before her eyes, taunting her to unleash it again... like with the Sentinel...
Mystique watched the battle from the sidelines, sighing with boredom as the Trolls began to get the better of the X-Man and his friends. She spared Pyro and Toad only passing glances. What she was really interested in was the bass player from the band. He had only had a few moments to use his gift, but the power within him was unmistakable.
If he survived, she was sure Erik would like to meet him... and introduce him to the Brotherhood. Unfortunately, by the tide of the battle, Mystique was not certain that any of the others would come away unscathed.
The Trolls were bearing down on all engaged parties. Not surprising considering how outnumbered they had been in the first place. She spotted one large group of Trolls carrying the X-Man Gambit over their heads triumphantly, bringing him to their king.
Mystique lost sight of the Cajun as he was dumped to the ground at Relish's feet. She assumed it would be the last time she saw the suave Mr. LeBeau...
...But then, the music started...
