Chapter 6

The Morlocks

The six X-Men got out of the X-Jet near 22nd Street, and proceeded to the nearest manhole,

"Let me see if I can get this open." Brick said, turning his right arm into a crowbar, lifting the manhole cover, and jumping inside. The other five had decided to use the ladder that led into the sewer line,

"Now, where's Marrow?" Magma asked, looking around to find no one there,

"I don't know, but keep your eyes open for anything." Kim said, looking around as well, that's when a voice startled the group,

"I've been waiting all afternoon." the voice said, the person seemed to be hidden in the shadows,

"Come on out, Marrow, I know it's you." Magma said,

"We meet again, Magma, you look different from the last time I saw you." said a woman, the likes of which, the five friends have never seen. Her red hair was cut short, she wore a green and black tank top, and green and black bicycle style pants, and there appeared to be bones growing out of her back, like the spines on a dinosaur,

"I'm not that much different, Marrow," Magma said, smiling slightly, "allow me to introduce you to five new X-Men, Shockwave, Mold, Staticfire, Dream Weaver, and Wildfire." Magma said, introducing the five newest additions to the X-Men to the leader of The Morlocks,

"How are you, I am Marrow, the leader of the Morlocks," Marrow said, bowing to each in turn, "I called you here because I believe that GRSO soldiers have found their way into the sewers again."

"Where did you find them?" Kim asked,

"Just a little further north of here, they killed a couple of Morlocks, and took several others, no doubt, to test something new on them." Marrow replied, her face looking disgusted,

"Weren't you able to stop them?" Magma asked,

"No, there were too many of them, it appeared to be a coordinated attack of some kind, they hit four different areas at once." Marrow replied,

"Okay, we'll investigate the target areas, and if there's any of them left, we'll take them out." Kim said,

"Thank you, Shockwave, by the way, you look familiar." Marrow said, staring hard at Kim,

"Yeah, I've been told that." Kim said, smiling,

"Oh, come off it," Magma said, elbowing Kim playfully in the ribs, "her real name is Kim Possible."

"I thought I recognized you," Marrow said, "you see, I may have been born in the sewers, but I do keep in touch with things that happen above us." she added, turning an appraising eye on Kim,

"So not the drama." Kim replied, waving off the praise,

"Well, let's get to it." Ron said, grabbing Kim's attention,

"Right, we'll take it from here, Marrow, you need to tend to your people." Kim said,

"I will, and thank you again for your help, X-Men." Marrow replied, leading the group into the sewers, and to the last spot that the Genetic Research Sciences Organization's elite soldiers were last seen,

"This is the last place they were seen, they took Healer from our midst here." Marrow said,

"They got Healer?" Magma asked,

"Yes, they did, if you could be so kind, please bring him back to us, alive." Marrow replied, her face sad,

"We will, Marrow, you need to have faith." Kim replied,

"I do have faith in The X-Men, they've helped us out, when nobody else would, thank you, and good luck on your journey." Marrow said, bidding the six X-Men goodbye,

"We're on our own from here, so keep your eyes open for anything suspicious." Kim said, looking in the darkness for anything out of the ordinary, then, turning to Bonnie, she added, "It's a little dark down here, Bonnie, could you shed a little light on the subject?" Kim asked,

"Sure thing, K." Bonnie said, snapping her fingers, a huge flame shot from her hand, illuminating the path in front of them,

"That works." Magma replied,

"Let's hope we don't have to get into a fight." Bonnie replied,

"Why?" Magma asked,

"If I have to use my abilities, we'll be in darkness again, I can't hold onto this, and fight at the same time." Bonnie replied,

"Is there anyone that can go topside for a closer look?" Kim asked, Brick shook his head,

"No can do, Kim, this passage isn't high enough." he replied,

"Hang on a second," Ron said, some cables to his right had caught his attention, "these are power lines."

"Yeah, so?" Kim asked,

"KP, think Phoenix for a second, I traveled through the power lines to get to work, remember?" Ron said, making Kim think back to another time, and place,

"Can you do it now?" Kim asked,

"Piece of cake." Ron replied, taking a few steps back from the power lines, then, taking a huge leap, his body became encased in pure electrical energy, and he disappeared into the high voltage line,

"He should come back with some information in a few seconds." Kim said, now leaning against the wall.

Just as predicted by Kim, Ron arrived back a few seconds later, with a wealth of information,

"They're getting into the sewers by means of transporters, the sub systems are scattered throughout the sewer line several yards in front of us." Ron relayed,

"How many soldiers?" Monique asked,

"A small division, about eighty, maybe more." Ron replied,

"Oh, great." Bonnie said, shaking her head,

"Remember, we're X-Men," Kim said, "we've got to stop them from doing what they came down here for."

"There's a snag, KP," Ron said, making Kim whip her eyes onto him, "these guys look like they've been trained to fight mutants."

"Can this get any worse?" Kim asked, throwing her hands into the air,

"Yes, it can." Brick said, pointing in front of the group, where several GRSO soldiers were standing in front of them,

"Let's see what you got, mutie." one of the men said, then, as a group, all of them charged the six X-Men, who immediately went into action.

Bonnie was the first to find her target, creating a thermal pocket around the soldier, she was able to lift him from the concrete floor, and a few feet into the air, where he hung for a few seconds, before Bonnie let him smash into the floor, face first,

"The winner by knockout, Wildfire." Bonnie said, a huge smile on her face,

"Keep your focus." Kim said, hitting another of the elite soldiers with a huge pulse blast, that sent him into the wall opposite, where he went through it, sending flying debris, and bits of stone throughout the area,

"Two down, and a bunch more to go." Brick said, molding his right arm into a tire iron, he swung hard at a nearby soldier, sending him flying into a stack of barrels in a corner,

"I got this one." Monique said, concentrating hard at the first soldier to come after her, but she hit a slight problem, she locked onto the wrong mind,

"Oh my God, this can't be happening." Magma said, fear in her eyes, the scene in front of her was her worst nightmare, she was watching her own funeral,

"Magma, what's wrong?" Kim asked,

"It's my worst nightmare." Magma replied, curling up into a fetal position, and refusing to move,

"Monique, let her go, you got the wrong mind." Ron yelled, looking over at the African-American beauty,

"Oh dear God, I'm sorry, Magma." Monique said, finally opening her eyes, and realizing her mistake,

"Please don't do that again." Magma said, now coming back into reality, and taking out two soldiers with a lava fissure that engulfed them both,

"I'll try not to." Monique said, now looking in the direction of the nearest soldier, and getting a clean lock onto his mind, she projected to him, his ultimate nightmare,

"RATS! BIG RATS! GET 'EM OFF ME!" the soldier screamed, flailing at every part of his body he could reach,

"That takes care of him." Monique said, just in time to be knocked across the floor by a huge wave of energy that struck her in the solar plexus,

"Woah, pulse weapons, your power's no good against that, KP." Ron said, looking around and seeing that the man was standing in a small pool of water, he looked a little harder, and saw a dead electrical cable,

"Oh, this is just too good to pass up." Ron said, allowing the power of his mutation to course through him, turning his body into pure electrical energy, he shot into the cable, making it live. Kim watched, stunned, as the soldier's body was wracked with over 800 volts of electricity, when Ron reappeared, the soldier fell to the ground, very dead,

"Strike three, you're out." Ron said, looking at the soldier's body,

"Woah, Ron, I didn't think you had that in you." Bonnie said, looking at Ron, stunned at what he had done,

"Simple equation, water, and electricity don't mix, so I took advantage of an open spot." Ron explained,

"Don't ever do that again, Ron, you had me scared that it would get us too." Kim said,

"I have a little better control over it than that, KP, but I'm glad you weren't in the water with him." Ron said,

"What do you mean?" Monique asked,

"That's my mutation weakness, if I activate my power under water, I can double my electrical output, and end up killing everything within a hundred feet of me, as long as they're in the water, that is." Ron explained,

"So, we all have a weakness?" Monique asked,

"Oh, yeah," Magma explained, "Example, for me, I can't be shut up in a cold room for too long, anything below freezing for me, for more than an hour, could kill me."

"And I can't activate my power under water." Ron said,

"What's mine, then?" Bonnie asked,

"Extreme cold." Ron explained,

"Okay, then what about me?" Brick asked,

"You can't use your power in confining spaces, or you could be trapped there forever." Ron said,

"And mine?" Kim asked,

"That one's easy, you can't pass through solid rock." Ron explained,

"Which means that I can't pass through concrete?" Kim asked,

"No, it has to be organic, other than that, you can pass through it with no problem, as long as you keep the sonic fields between you, and the object you're passing through active." Ron explained, then as an afterthought, he added, "You've also got another ability that you haven't used yet, flight, if you stop too fast in flight, it could kill you."

"How did you find all of this out?" Monique asked,

"Professor Xavier told me, my last time in the Danger Room, when I almost took out the whole room, Cyclops, and Wolverine included." Ron explained,

"I don't remember that?" Kim said,

"That's because it was early morning, and Cyclops, and Wolverine were the only ones with me." Ron explained,

"Okay then, what's mine?" Monique asked,

"You can't control a mind that's stronger than your own." Ron said, looking at Monique,

"But I can still find out what their worst nightmare is, right?" Monique asked,

"Oh, yeah, you just have a harder time finding it." Ron explained,

"Bonnie, you and Monique also have the same ability as Kim, flight, and, like her, you haven't used it yet." Ron said,

"Professor X told you all of this?" Kim asked,

"Yep, he told me all of it, and asked me to tell you. You can do the same thing, Brick, if you wanted to." Ron said,

"No, thanks. If man were meant to fly, he would've been born with wings." Brick said, frowning,

"You're afraid of flying?" Bonnie asked, looking at the former quarterback,

"Yeah, why do you think I don't talk on the X-Jet." Brick explained,

"I didn't think about that." Bonnie said,

"I already knew, but I didn't say anything." Monique said,

"Don't you just hate psychics, you can't keep any secrets from them." Bonnie said, as the group trudged through the sewers, to finish the problem, and allow the Morlocks to live in peace again.


Back at the mansion:

The six member group that had helped out the Morlocks were relaying everything about the sweep of the sewers to the rest of the X-Men,

"They took Healer, so the Morlocks are kinda in a bit of a problem at the moment." Magma explained,

"True. Did you manage to 'liberate' any of the GRSO soldiers' equipment from them?" Beast asked,

"Yeah," Kim said, handing over several radios, and listening devices she had taken from the GRSO soldiers,

"Most excellent, I will get to work in attempting to ascertain where the soldiers base of operations is located, perhaps that will give us the answers to our queries." Beast said,

"Let's hope so, Beast. In the meantime, it's time to relax for a while, X-Men, but don't wander too far." Professor X said, looking at the group at large.


And that's that, just a little background, each X-Man, according to the comic books, has a weakness of some kind, so I needed to give each of the five a weakness, Kim's weakness, in the way of her mutation, she has two, she is unable to pass through solid rock, and during flight, she can't stop too fast, otherwise she could severely damage major internal organs, which, in turn, could kill her, Ron's weakness, since he is able to generate electricity, his main weakness would be water, Bonnie, since she is pyrokenetic, her weakness would be extreme cold, and Monique, not only is she able to generate a person's worst nightmare, but, she's also telepathic, which makes her able to carry out her first mutant ability, her weakness is that she can't break into a mind that is stronger than her own, and Brick can mold his body into anything he needs, as well as triple his own height, or weight, but if he were to do so in a tight, confining space, his own body would betray him, causing him to be stuck that way forever, plus, he is major scared of flying.

Hope you like this one, in the next chapter, the five friends run int their first members of The Brotherhood, Toad, Avalanche, and Sabertooth. Who comes out on top? You'll have to figure that one out.

As always, keep the reviews coming.

Doug