FIGHTING YOUR DEMONS

Raven was not a happy camper, in fact, she was very angry. Life was just not going her way at this moment in time. Actually, as a matter of fact, life was running in the opposite direction. It had been for months now and she was getting extremely tired of it.

She had been the first to recover from the blast and she immediately surveyed the condition of her companions. Ben had been knocked unconscious, but was seemingly otherwise unharmed. The old man was also unconscious, but it seemed that he had a broken arm as well.

Raven, being Raven, her first impulse was to flee, to run far away and to never look back. Then, also because she was Raven, she immediately quenched that urge. So she started looking around the bar to make sure none of the innocent bystanders had been hurt, or, Statuettea forgive, dead. Thank the mountain there hadn't been many people in the bar. After a quick assessment Raven decided that all the people had gotten out of the way of the explosion in time, leading only to minor injuries.

The "Skinner Bar," on the other hand, had been completely trashed. The immortal grieved for the loss of a safe place and a piece of history. Though she mostly grieved for the loss of her last piece of the League.

She had been indecisive before about whether or not she would fight, but now she would be in it if simply for revenge. These people would pay for their disrespect for a man who bled for them. This incident also reminded her that while she may be not too fond of the present and was downright leery of the future, she loved the past and if someone was planning on meddling with that, they would have just have come through her first. Of course she still wasn't sure about this team thing, or their mysterious benefactor, it just wasn't her thing.

She walked stealthily to the door to see why their attackers had not attempted to enter the bar. As she looked out she was shocked to see no one there. That had been the point. Surely the attackers didn't think that small explosion would harm her in any way or anyone else for that matter. So they must have been teasing the team, trying to distract them, or perhaps they were still hiding in the darkness.

A movement out of the corner of her eye drew her attention back to her companions, who were beginning to wake up. Which was good, she was itching for a fight and would need backup. Also, she really wanted to know all this mysterious old man knew about all of their predicaments.

Ben came groggily to consciousness. "Ugh, how much did I have to drink? I mean what happened?" He murmured as he looked around.

Raven had to smile at that comment. 'So young,' she thought wistfully. "The bar was bombed," she replied in a terse tone of voice. She had slipped so far into full leader mode that she didn't see the old man smile and nod slightly. Ben looked up at Raven, then immediately started looking for the nearest escape route. Benjamin Turner was many things; a hero was not one of them. He was not going to get blown up to save a system he didn't believe in no matter how much Raven made him think of the good things in this life.

MEANWHILE WITH THE OTHERS...

Aquial was starting to get very cranky. They had been wandering around for hours following Mystique's "feeling," and it was starting to wear on her nerves. Plus young Justin was a horrible traveling companion.

"Are we there yet?" Justin asked for the thousandth time. This question finally made Aquial turn and start to yell at him, before being stopped by Mystique.

"Quiet, all of you!" The telepath quietly demanded, "We are not alone." That statement lead to the other three members of the little party immediately getting into battle positions. Fire spouted out of Justin's palms, icy balls leaped from Bobby's hands, and Aquial let water begin to flow off her body. They may not be the best of people but they were the best fighters around. Mystique on the other hand started to back away, thinking, 'I'm no fighter, why am I even here?' Then she shocked herself and let her internal power glow in her eyes, she didn't like to fight but she would and so she stood her ground. Then thirty-two men dressed in black surrounded the heroes and started approaching. The quartet looked at each other, as the odds were eight to one against them - even with their special abilities, that was a stretch.

"Is that all you got," Justin sneered out, with an almost feral grin and for a second Mystique almost believed he could take down all thirty-two by himself.

"Yeah," Aquial continued for him, glaring at their attackers, "We can take all of you down in two seconds flat."

Bobby didn't say a word, he just arched his eyebrow and gave a half grin and his eyes seemed to promise pain for any baddies who came near.

Mystique just stared at them. They were acting like nothing was wrong, like this was just an everyday occurrence, and that they had a hope in the elements of surviving. Despite not understanding, she too took a brave pose, perhaps thinking they could win would make it so. Even as the villains approached, she cursed ever leaving her home. She was fighting for her life; it was the most intense battle of her existence. The assassins were obviously trained for one purpose, to destroy all extraordinary individuals. She was so focused on fighting that she didn't even notice that a familiar mental hit was converging on their position. It wasn't until a purple energy ball took out the person she was fighting that she realized her former student, Valandra Moon was in the clearing.

Aquial was silently cursing, there was only so long that she could keep up with this fast pace of kicks, punches and water sprays. She couldn't help but wish she had a sword. Immediately after she had this thought, a beautiful Ktana appeared in her hands. She didn't stop to wonder how it got there she just kept fighting, but she was now armed and in the end that was all that mattered.

The brothers were fighting in tandem. They went ice blast, duck, fire blast, dodge, punch, shift, kick, move, head-butt, etc. Justin was actually enjoying himself, not that he would ever admit that, especially not to his brother. Bobby on the other hand had immersed himself in the routine and the timing of the fight, thinking of he and his brother's best way to survive. All of a sudden they both realized that someone they both knew was in the clearing with them, fighting with them. It was their old playmate Valandra Moon.

Once this amazing young woman joined the battle, our heroes truly began to have a chance of winning and they pressed this advantage, until the battle was finished. Then the four unlikely heroes turned to their rescuer, wondering how the heck she had known where they were.

"Alright," Valandra said with a grin and a clap, "Do you want to know where the rest is or not?"

AUTHORS NOTES

sister: Thank you so much honey, glad to see I can count on you and don't worry

Penny will be back soon enough. Hope you can log in soon.

LXG FAN: Alright, sending off my flying monkeys. Though I don't see how you can say I can't spell when you misspell spell. Mostly I just feel sorry for your intolerance.

Lady Lilrin: Thank you for the cookies, and here is the next chappie.

Krisian Rose: YEAH, you're here, oh thank you. Also, yes very boy crazy, though I do admit I wrote them hot.