Author's note: I wish to especially thank Red Witch, asha-man72, Animation Lasi, GothikStrawberry, L1701E, LoneGrowlithe, Sparky Genocide, and Aaron for the wonderful reviews! They really make my day! And encourage me to write and upload the chapters faster! Thank you!
Razor: As if your ego needed more blowing…
Althea: Remember people, if you don't review, he can't upload the chapters as much! So please for the love of God, stop encouraging him!
Oh be quiet! Enjoy, everyone!
CHAPTER 3: Dirty Wars
"Oh, come on people! You should be glad Live Wire's here to light up this pitiful excuse of a party-town!" cackled Live Wire as she kept demolishing everything she could in the carnival, despite of how many people were in her way of the flaming wreckage and dangerous bolts of electric energy. Reducing metal to puddles, causing telephone poles and power cables to collapse dangerously upon each other, fires heartily consuming the trees and stands all around, explosions from the parking lot, the crackling pop noises of light bulbs being overloaded from her power surges…it was all too easy. Already, there were several bloody cadavers lying still on the grass, either killed from her direct onslaught or trampled and crushed to death from flaming debris and the crowds of hysteria. There was even a body of a boy, barely four years old, holding the charred remnants of a teddy-bear while he was cruelly crushed to death from the heavy seat that fell from a high point of the Ferris wheel.
Live Wire! The girl then temporarily ceased her blitzes on the crowd as she clutched her head by her temples and screamed as her mind felt like it was being harshly squeezed by a red-hot iron vise as Darkseid emotionlessly intoned his power of the Omega effect in the most sensitive regions of the electric super-human's brain, giving her a very painful reminder to his influence on her current status-quo.
Darkseid's voice echoed in her psyche as she felt the metal apparatus threaten to detonate in her brainstem as it quaked from a faint emission of the flames of his Omega beams, You do well to not forget the true reason of why you are in Bayville, you pitiful Earthling. Make sure you coerce the X-Men and Misfits in arriving to our little testing ground successfully for our second phase. And keep in mind, girl, I am with you for every moment of your fragile and insignificant life as our lowly yet somewhat useful pawn. Fail me…and it shall be your last. Do I make myself clear, Earthling?
"I will…" Live Wire whimpered, nearly sobbing as the pain subsided a bit, but the cold fire in her eyes reflected the string of cuss words she was thinking in her head, her spirit refusing to submit to be anyone's subordinate…or slave as she felt the demigod of Apokolips leave her alone. It was so hopeless, like being an escaped convict on the run only to be caught by a police squad and then being generously let go…only to be shot in the back after taking a few steps.
"Damn you," she hissed with wrathful resentment and spiteful bitterness before she continued to assault the surroundings of the Bayville carnival, now angry enough to kill off everyone she could to appease herself.
000-
"We're here! X-Men, follow Code Theta Contain!" Cyclops said as he and the rest of the team disembarked from the X-Van along with Professor Xavier. Wolverine and Razor were not too far off, with Razor calibrating his glovatrix for prime battle while Wolverine looked on in horror at the obvious devastation of the carnival. There was no doubt about it. Live Wire was here, and if she wasn't stopped soon, more and more innocents would be seriously and horrifically injured, and based on the sentiments of the mass public, it would be most likely the X-Men and other mutants would get the blame.
"Where's Storm? And Rogue for that matter?" Bezerker asked as he hesitantly looked around.
"They're probably still up in the skies, searching for Live Wire from an aerial point-of-view. I just hope they're all right," Nightcrawler murmured worriedly.
"We may have to hurry," frowned Xavier as he placed a hand to his temple, probing the entire lands of the carnival with his telepathy with as much ease as one would find twiddling his or her thumbs.
"Professor, what's wrong?" Cyclops asked.
"I sense Live Wire is not alone here! Though they are not as overpowering as the mind-signals I am receiving from her, I can sense additional mutants here in the vicinity! And two of them are strangers, psyches that I have never sensed before in my life! We may be dealing with new enemies!"
"I'd be more worried about yourselves once we're done with you, you freaks!" snarled a voice, and the X-Men turned to see that they were not alone anymore. The entire carnival was filled with various humans, all of them armed to the teeth with strange and complex weaponry. All of the men and a few women were incredibly fit and athletic, their faces grim and darkened with incredible malicious hatred and loathing for the X-Men; even without going into their minds, Jean and Professor Xavier could sense the incredible feelings of opprobrium and venomous malevolence. It was almost unnatural to think they were even capable of such high levels of intensity. And each and every one of the strange humans was wearing a uniform made of slick, shiny material similar to the uniforms of the X-Men, except they were entirely dark gray and proudly bore badges displaying "H.A.T.E."
"Uh-oh, they're from H.A.T.E, you guys!" Bezerker gulped as he readied himself.
"Get the freaks, men! Wipe them off our planet!" snarled the leader as he and the others charged, brandishing their weapons and guns. Professor Xavier tried to use his telepathy to render them into a temporary comatose state, but to his surprise, other than their projected emotions, he was being blocked out completely! He couldn't even access the mob's surface consciousness; there was some sort of mental block in their minds. But that meant that in order for these mafia-men from H.A.T.E to even be this well-prepared in the first place…
"X-Men, watch out!" Xavier cried out as Colossus transformed into his armor mode to shield his mentor from the passing bullets, "They've been expecting us! It's an ambush! They're telepathically shielded from my mental probes! They're prepared against my powers! H.A.T.E. knew we were coming!"
"Mein Gott!" gasped Kurt in German as he teleported out of the way as one H.A.T.E female member tried to decapitate him with some sort of disturbing machete, it's blade not made of metal but of translucent purple plasma energy. Thinking quickly, the blue-furred Nightcrawler reappeared behind the woman and expertly kicked out with both feet directly into her lower back. Caught off guard, the woman pitched forward, landing onto her face and dropped her weapon before Nightcrawler then stomped on her back again, temporarily stunning her.
"Ach, I'm so sorry, die Freundin!" Nightcrawler apologized over his shoulder, wincing a bit as he was chased by another H.A.T.E. solider who was trying to club him with his rifle, "I normally don't hit girls!"
Meanwhile, Cyclops and Bezerker were trying their best to avoid the powerful energy discharges sent off by a large portion of the army of H.A.T.E. as the enlisted service-people were trying to cut the two teenagers down with wicked, glowing scimitars, the yellow blade heads pulsating with bright, burning power.
"Yeow!" yelped Bezerker as he unsuccessfully tried to electrocute the H.A.T.E. group, only to find out that their strange uniforms were well protected against electricity, even if he powered up to his full potential, "What the hell are these things? Not even the Joes have stuff like this!"
"And they're indestructible!" Cyclops shouted as he blasted a scimitar out of one soldier's hand, "No matter how much I concentrate on their blades, their spears can't be destroyed! I can't break 'em! It's almost like they're made out of adamantium!"
Then one man managed to hurl his scimitar like a javelin directly at Professor Xavier with pinpoint accuracy, and like an arrow, the razor-sharp shaft flew swiftly towards the wheelchair-bound leader. Colossus then deftly went in front of the X-Mentor and took the strike with full-force, thinking his armor would protect him.
No such luck.
"AAAAAAAUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!" screamed Piotr as he weakly sank to his knees, the head of the scimitar halfway embedded into his metal armor and managing to burrow painfully, like red-hot iron, into his flesh and searing his very senses. Despite the agony, Piotr was dumbfounded. How on Earth was this even possible? His armor was resistant to all sorts of energy-attacks and bullets, and though he never tried it, Wolverine himself would have had some difficulty in hacking into it.
"Peter!" cried out Kitty, nearly in tears, before she glared at the man, snarling, "I am like sooooo going to make you pay for that, jerkface!"
"You wanna start playing catch, then, mon ami?" snarled Gambit as he expertly flicked a five-card hand in between his fingers right before he flung them at the splinter H.A.T.E. club, sending many flying back from the powerful series of intense explosions, "Then let's see you try to catch a little game of five-card dodgeball, courtesy of Gambit LeBeau! Remember it, monsieur!"
"Don't worry, you're gonna remember this, you limp-wristed Frenchie!" snarled another solider as he aimed a strange, green-colored, oddly-twisted, metal wand with two glowing orbs on either end before he fired, and to Gambit's horror, he found himself along with Kitty trapped inside a huge, transparent bubble! Shadowcat tried to grab on to Remy and phase them out of the structure, but to Kitty's dismay, she couldn't. The walls of the sphere, though appearing to be extremely fragile, was strong, like a force-field and so dense, not even Kitty could walk through it.
"Hey, I can't like phase out!" Shadowcat cried as she pressed her gloved hands against the prison. The H.A.T.E soldier howled with glee, exuberant that he managed to detain two of the X-Men, before he pointed his wand again at Wolverine and Razor who were using their martial arts to beat back several solders very effectively. But before he could turn it on, a smooth hand, its fingers studded with silver rings and nails painted with black nail-polish, grabbed the back of his exposed neck. The H.A.T.E. combatant screamed at the touch, feeling like his very life force was being sucked out of him before he fell to the ground, unconscious. Rogue's face was impassive as she watched him fall before she clutched her head at the anguish of absorbing the man's psyche and mind-patterns.
Meanwhile, Storm had now arrived and was invoking artic winds to blow away the H.A.T.E. army, and the group was now truly in a bind as they immediately realized that their suit may have been indestructible to energy blasts, but not to the cold and force of powerful winds. A brunette then started to use some very strange gloves that immediately invoked two, giant marionette hands made of purple energy, the ghostly appendages as large as minivans, and with a sneer of bloodlust, both of the ethereal hands balled into fists before flying directly at the weather-witch.
"Back off!" yelled Jean as she placed her hands to her temple and invoked her telekinesis. And like clockwork, the female follower of H.A.T.E. was surprised to see that she no longer had any control of the energy puppet-hands before she painfully felt Jean smash the two energy-forms against each other rather excruciatingly. And as if attached to strings, the woman had no choice but to allow her hands to smash against each other as well, breaking her thumbs in the process. She shrieked in pain.
"You bitch!" she snarled, but already peeved, Jean sent the woman flying with a flick of her hand, and her telekinetic shove threw the fighter into the midst of a merry-go-round. Thanking Jean with a smile for her help, Storm then summoned a miniature tornado in the middle of the faction, rendering the H.A.T.E. extremists helpless.
Rogue managed to recollect herself after losing her bearings for a brief second as she felt the bigot's thoughts of hate and discrimination fill her consciousness…before the bestowed knowledge of how to use the bubble-scepter also popped inside the girl's mind, giving her the answer to help Shadowcat and Gambit.
"Get us out, cherie! Remy can't breathe!" choked Gambit as he tried to hold whatever precious molecules of oxygen he could treasure into his lungs, and due to the unbreakable prison, he was slowly but surely suffocating along with Kitty, both of them close to passing out. Growling, Rogue immediately snatched the odd-shaped wand the H.A.T.E. soldier dropped on the grass.
"YAAAHHH!" screamed Rogue in rage as she swing the pointed rear-end of the metallic-weapon into the spherical bubble's surface with all of her strength, and to her extreme, relieved satisfaction, there was a faint glow from the wand as it invoked some sort of invisible energy discharge of opposing polarity, and with a simply pop, both of the trapped X-Men felt the walls disappear as they toppled to the ground, gasping heavily. Rogue immediately rushed over to Gambit's side as Bezerker, Wolverine and Nightcrawler managed to perform a trio-attack to distract and forcefully disarm several troopers with a combination of martial, gymnastic moves and missiles from Ray and Kurt's glovatrix weapons.
"You all right, swamp rat?" Rogue asked worriedly. Gambit managed a weak grin before he placed a hand on Rogue's rear-end…which unfortunately led to the Southern belle sending Remy back to the ground with a swift punch to his jaw.
"Figures it's on the one time I show that useless gumbo some sympathy!" griped Rogue as she helped Shadowcat up.
"Retreat, comrades! RETREAT!" cried the leader of the armed force, shouting over his walkie-talkie.
"Oh no you don't!" shouted Iceman as he chased after the retreating mass. Jake perked his head up worriedly as he saw Bobby go rushing headlong into the proverbial tiger's mouth.
"Bobby, get back here!" Razor cried as he chased after Iceman. Both of the tailed after the remains of the splinter group towards the parking lot where several armored limos were waiting, ready to dash off before the Bayville police came.
"Hey, two of those freaks are still on our tail!" cried out one H.A.T.E. solider.
"This'll stop them!" snarled the leader as he took out a strange bazooka-like gun and fired a single blast of sound which magically amplified itself over a thousand-fold before coming out directly towards the X-Teen. Bobby gasped before he felt Jake grab him around the shoulder while summoning up the Tesla force-field from his glovatrix.
"Get down!" he commanded as he put himself in front of Iceman.
That was the last sight Jake and Bobby managed to remember as the sonic discharge struck the both of them and sent them flying over fifty feet backwards, only to come crashing down against the steel-frames of the carnival kiosks before succumbing to painful unconsciousness.
000-
At the same time the X-Men had arrived to the Bayville Commons…
"Aw, is this it?" moaned Live Wire to herself in disappointment as she surveyed the now deserted and abandoned grounds littered with blood, debris, and an occasional dead body, "I wanted to have some more fun!"
"Then how about we play 'Dunk-the-Heartless-Witch'?" screamed a girl's voice in rage as the superhuman then heard a unmistakable sound of a powerful, surging, uncontrollable waterspout heaving directly towards her back, and instantly, Live Wire transformed into a single bolt of electricity before she teleported out of the way right before the massive force of liquid crashed where she stood seconds ago. The blue-haired terrorist then rematerialized to see a livid girl with black hair and blue-highlights in front of a oddly-gathered team of mutant teenagers and army-solders, most of them glaring at her with hateful anger. A girl with white, bobbed hair and a dragonfly-like appearance held her hands to her mouth in horror as she gasped, nearly crying.
"How could she? So many people! She even killed women and children!" she choked.
"It gets easier every time," smirked Live Wire as she readied her hands for an electric blast for the sorry-troupe.
Wavedancer was shaking with rage as she said lowly, "You are going to pay big time for what you've done, you slut! I'll personally make sure of that! Misfits, move out! Yo Joe!"
"YO JOE!" hollered all of the Misfits and the G.I. soldiers. At the battle-cry, Live Wire's eyes widened as she recalled the unique motto. Of course! They were the soldiers from G.I. Joe, and from the look of those kids, they were obviously mutants and powerful ones at that. And the fact that they were the Misfits sealed her deal with Darkseid. But then that meant…
"You!" Live Wire snarled upon seeing the familiar face of Cover Girl, a woman who had clashed and butted heads against Live Wire when she used to still be Leslie Willis, the controversial DJ. Now eager for revenge, Live Wire sent a continuous stream of electricity directly at Cover Girl. Reflexes springing in, Cover Girl managed to evade the blast by doing an effective roll-evasion technique, but Live Wire was not the least bit discouraged as she sent a multitude of streams upon the Misfits and Joes, sending many of them to scatter before sending another powerful flare directly at the female G.I. Joe at full force.
Low Light then managed to protect Cover Girl as he transformed into a full humanoid consisting of nothing but dark-colored rubber, his flesh rearranging his molecular structure into the electrically-resistant material, and as expected, the flash struck him directly in his broad chest before lingering a bit forcefully and vanishing into thin air. And Low Light was still managed to remain standing upright on his own two feet without even a scratch.
"What's the old saying, Live Wire?" Low Light snarled as he swung a fist, "I am rubber, you are glue…"
Like Mr. Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four, Low Light's arm extended with his fist flying towards Live Wire like a bullet with a soft, elastic noise, and quick on her feet, Live Wire managed to evade the flying, rubber fist, but distracted, it allowed Spirit, Roadblock, and Xi to throw several miniature capsules at the electric mutant, scoring all direct hits. Shrieking, Live Wire coughed and sputtered as she was enveloped within plumes and plumes of some sort of gray, ashy substance, and to her horror, she realized what it was as she felt the electric-impulses in her body cease altogether.
"Oh no…" she whispered to herself in horror, staring at her dust-covered hands.
"Like it?" Roadblock grinned as he and some of the Misfits and Joes advanced towards her, "It's silicone dust, a really handy tool to make your powers go bust! Since the thing's electrically resistant, it'll make our fight with you more persistent! Now with your electricity on the malfunction, we'll be able to send you back to maximum security for your homicidal dysfunctions!"
"What are you? Members of the Geek Poetry Squad?" Live Wire snapped as she lunged towards Roadblock, but Wavedancer was quicker as she jumped in front of her guardian and delivered a sharp right hook followed by an uppercut to the chin with a grunt. Upon the second punch, Live Wire rolled her eyes towards the back of her head and toppled over lifelessly.
"I told you I'd personally make you pay for what you did," exhaled Althea wearily.
"Looks like all we hafta do is take her back to Stryker's Island," commented Brittney.
"I don't think so, young one," a calm woman's voice said in the background, and before any of the mutants and Joes could realize it, they were all send backwards, flying before crashing onto the debris-filled grassy dirt. Althea and the Blind Master cursed themselves for not being aware sooner as they all looked up to see a robust, raven-haired woman, trim and athletically built underneath her long robes of midnight-blue and gold hem along with an strange golden-headdress around her forehead while she was holding a strange scepter, still glowing from its earlier discharge.
"Who the hell are you?" growled Shipwreck as he reached for the Eagle pistol strapped to his side, but the woman just glared at all of them with her cold, blue eyes before taking a weird-remote from her pocket and pressing the button.
"We shall meet again, Misfits," Big Barda intoned coolly as a portal of light appeared suddenly behind her, and picking up the unconscious form of Live Wire with one hand, she flew directly into the rift before it sealed behind her. Blind Master was truly troubled as he sensed the appearance of the tear in the space-time continuum…it was so unnatural.
"It couldn't be," he murmured.
"I can't believe we lost her! We lost Live Wire!" raged Cover Girl in frustration. But unfortunately, at that very same moment…
"Kill them, troops! Death to the freaks and the freak-lovers! Kill them all!" commanded a woman as she and a massive throng of members of H.A.T.E., all of them armed with strange weapons, completely besieged the Joes and the Misfits.
"Aw, geez, not these guys, yo!" Toad groaned as he drew out his wooden bo staff strapped on his back and flung himself upon the attackers along with Xi and Low Light. A man then used his energy-gloves to create two giant replicas of his hands in the form of plasma-specters before he sent them to crash down directly on the three warriors. Lance, however, would have none of that.
"Back off!" Avalanche snarled as he used a good portion of his strength to terra-form the ground, and amazingly, two powerful columns of dirt and earth rose up from the floor, spiraling up towards the heavens and forming thick yet flexible pillars. With a snarl, Avalanche motioned the columns of dirt to block the hand-marionettes before bringing them down upon the dirt and pinning them down with extreme vigor before Avalanche succeeded in crushing the specters flat, and the H.A.T.E. soldier certainly felt every bone in his hands break from the impact as a result to Lance excruciatingly compressing the energy-link.
"Augh! My hands! That little punk broke my hands!" he hollered in rage.
"Your lucky I don't decide to break the rest of your body along with it, you fascist!" snapped Lance as he sent a powerful tremor to rock the ground and send a good fraction of the unit to topple over, trip, and fall.
Meanwhile, Spirit and Blind Master were busy trying to fight three men, two of them wielding energy-scimitars and one wielding a blade of plasma. With a sneer, the man expertly sliced through Blind Master's cane, neatly rendering it useless while Spirit was having a bit of trouble trying to dodge the blasts from the scimitars.
"Well, strike me down!" leered the H.A.T.E. minuteman as he got ready to stab Blind Master, "I'm actually supposed to be scared of a blind cripple?"
Grinning, the African-American ninja master simply strafed to the left at the last second before delivering his foot to the back of his attacker's knee, satisfied at the soft crack of the opponent's kneecap splintering. The H.A.T.E. military man cried out before he toppled to his knees, which allowed Blind Master to deliver a downward chop to the back of the bigot's head.
"Strike you? Well, thank you for the invitation! Don't mind if I do! And thanks for the free weapon!" Blind Master grinned as he picked the unconscious man's energy machete.
The men who were trying to kill Spirit suddenly found themselves weaponless as a silver blur passed by them, and Spirit suddenly found himself armed with one of the energy-scimitars and Pietro took off again.
"Spirit, thought you could use some help!" Quicksilver yelled as he dashed in and out, weaving in between many of the H.A.T.E. soldiers and stealing their weapons from them.
"Thank you, young one!" Spirit responded back as he let loose a fierce energy discharge from his newly acquired mace which sent both of the H.A.T.E. members screaming before they crashed to the ground, seriously burned and unconscious, but luckily still alive. The Native-American Joe looked at the weapon with troubled amazement. By the Great Spirit, this was not a normal weapon, even by their standards…
Wavedancer and Xi were busy fighting back to back, watching each other's exposed side, as they kept trying to deflect and dodge the multiple bullets and laser blasts as they were shot at from both sides. It was then that Xi came to a hasty decision…
"Wavedancer, switch with me!" Xi yelled suddenly, and on cue thanks to endless training and honing their techniques to by synonymous as one mind, Althea ducked and leveled her back as a stepping stone to allow Xi to back-flip towards the alternate opponent using Althea's body as support while Wavedancer simultaneously threw several razor-sharp ninja-stars towards Xi's foe in the opposite direction.
The brilliant play worked. Xi leapt high into the sky before descending upon the two men who were shooting at Althea, and both of them were quickly pummeled into submission as the snake-like mutant struck out with his claws ripping apart their resistant, protective uniforms in a matter of seconds. Althea, on the other hand, managed to embed the ninja-stars directly into the hands of the three men, and howling with rage and pain, they all dropped their guns. Thinking with natural quickness and her ninja expertise, Wavedancer flipped forward into the very middle of the trio before she delivered a single palm-punch directly upwards towards the man's nose, breaking it while she simultaneously delivered a backward push-kick into the second soldier's stomach. After elbowing the third man in the sternum, Althea picked up one of the dropped rifles before she slammed it directly into the forehead of the H.A.T.E. solider behind her, rammed the head of the gun into the gut of the third trooper, before swiveling around and bringing the butt of the rifle down directly upon the head of the last soldier with a satisfying whack.
Wavedancer simply smiled to herself as she saw the three men topple over to the ground, unconscious, before she ran off to help Shipwreck and Roadblock deal with several other H.A.T.E. warmongers.
Cover Girl and Low Light were busy trying to retaliate with another small faction. Thanks to Quicksilver, Cover Girl easily gave them enough trouble with a stolen energy-scimitar, but several H.A.T.E. soldiers then aimed powerful laser cannons directly at Low Light before they all fired.
Low Light snarled as he again turned his body into pure, misshapen glass, the material in wild, quartz form, unpolished and every part of his body reflecting the sunlight shining upon him and Cover Girl in different angles. Undaunted, Low Light managed to raise a prism-like arm directly in the path of the laser beam, and by a sheer stroke of luck, the various angles of Low Light's glass arm managed to refract and divert the intense beams of deadly radiation directly back to the guns of the soldiers themselves, reflecting their attacks right back. Like a well-known example of a glass prism, the Joe solder simply used his ability to change the make-up of his body to glass to reflect the beam right back at their oppressors.
"Arrrrggghhhh!" hollered one H.A.T.E. minuteman as the beam struck his guns and barely grazed his hands, immediately melting off the skin of his appendages rather painfully while reducing his powerful gun into a disgusting pile of molten metal and runny liquid which was actually the hate-monger's flesh and blood liquidized into goop from simply being singed by the laser. This gave Toad the opportunity as they flung himself onto the fray, and thanks to his powerful legs and a few whacks with his staff, all of the attackers were quickly subdued.
"Yo, we are rubber, you are glue! It bounces off of us and sticks to you!" laughed Toad as he delivered a roundhouse kick directly into the temple of the last remaining H.A.T.E. zealot.
At the same time, several soldiers then used a very weird weapon as they all fired a big, gelatinous blob of slime towards Freed, Lina, and Wanda. Blob immediately rushed in front of the two female Misfits, instinctively protecting them, but not without a price.
"AAAUUUGGHHHH!" screamed Blob as he fell to his knees, the gelatinous green blobs of slime spreading down his entire body by the second, translucent yet it was setting every cell and nerve in his body on fire despite his impervious skin. And like it was alive and sentient, the slime was spreading its noxious aura, almost consuming the fat Texan Misfit bit by bit.
"Fred!" gasped Lina. Wanda then looked more closely, and she saw to her horror, within the green slime were tiny specks, microscopic robots that were actually living inside the mold and were trying to burrow into Fred's skin. And despite his invulnerability, it was doubtful that he would last much longer from the strange microbes. Scarlet Witch then remembered what they were when Airtight and Mainframe taught one of their classes.
"Oh my God, they're like nanites!" gasped Scarlet Witch.
"That's right, and you're next!" sneered one of the women of H.A.T.E as they all aimed their guns, but then Wanda had enough.
"I've got a better idea!" growled the goth mutant as she flicked her ringed-fingers at Blob, and with a strange, sickening popping noise, to the attackers' collective horrors, the slime-mold of nanites dissolved off of Blob's body, and thanks to Wanda's probability-inducing hex-bolts, the slime starting reforming back into spheres and projectiles only to come flying back towards their oppressors.
"Augh! Get it off! Get it off!" screamed another servicewoman as she furiously tried to free herself from the slime, but thanks to Wanda's hex-bolts, it wasn't going to happen.
Justin, meanwhile, found himself alone and face to face with a wicked man wielding an even more wicked-looking rifle.
"G…gu-…gun!" whimpered Whitelighter as he held his hand out, trying to orb the man's weapon next to him, but he was so nervous, the teenager could only cause the rifle to shimmer faintly in a silver outline before the haze died away.
"Oh crap," whimpered Justin as the man just grinned before pointing his gun, aiming the armor-piercing bullets into Justin's heart.
Then miraculously, Justin felt himself get picked up and carried out of harm's way before the enemy could even blink.
"For crying out loud, why do I always have to save your worthless butt?" griped Quicksilver as he stopped running, still having a death-grip on Whitelighter with one arm around the cubby boy's waist.
"Thank you, Pietro," gasped Justin, nearly crying from coming that close to death.
"And will you quit thanking me for everything? It's annoying!" snapped Quicksilver.
"I'm sorry," Justin confessed.
"THAT'S annoying too, chubby-cheeks!"
"Dragonfly, get Whitelighter out of here! He's not used to fighting yet!" Blind Master hollered as he helped Wavedancer disarm the remaining factions of H.A.T.E with Shipwreck and Roadblock, thoroughly concerned for his son. Dragonfly nodded as she obediently grabbed Justin's hand and led him discreetly out to safety.
Yet it was only when they reached the outskirts of the carnival grounds before Lina and Justin stumbled on a disturbing sight.
"Oh my God!" gasped Dragonfly as she and Whitelighter rushed over to the unconscious forms of Razor and Iceman, lying on their sides in the grass, the green turf staining into dark pools from their blood. Whitelighter's face blanched as he felt the urge to throw up intensify along with the nervous butterflies in the stomach, but Dragonfly, summoning every bit of medical training Lifeline and Bree taught her over the months, managed to look over both the kat and the ice-mutant in a professional and collected, hawk-eyed manner.
It was then that the insect-like mutant noticed the telltale yellow and black uniforms with the obvious "X" symbol on their apparel, and she immediately guessed who they were.
"Oh my gosh, they're X-Men!" she gasped as she took Bobby's pulse by placing two fingers on the main artery on his neck, relived to find it still beating strongly.
"X-Men? They're X-Men?" gasped Justin, not sure how to feel about this, but he knew that this was an emergency. Both the kat and the teenager were badly hurt, and everyone else was too busy trying to fight back H.A.T.E.
"Uuuhhhh…" groaned Iceman as he was slowly regaining consciousness, only to find himself in immense pain, his chest on fire along with the dawning realization that he lost all feeling in one arm. Despite the pain, Bobby was then startled to see two unknown strangers kneeling over him, and alarmed, the teenager tried to bolt up and get into a fighting position, thinking that Justin and Lina were enemies, but the sudden movement cost him dearly as he felt his next cry out in agony.
"Aaaaaahh!" Iceman moaned in pain as he fell back to the ground none too gently, now realizing that he must have broken his arm when the soldiers of H.A.T.E. ambushed him and Razor…along with some other body parts.
"Don't move!" Dragonfly ordered sternly as she began spitting out some of her healing silk on a horrific gash on Iceman's head, immediately forming an airtight and sterile bandage, "You're hurt, and any sudden movements might result in causing your injuries to go worse, not to mention I need to make sure your neck isn't fractured. Please, lie still!"
"Don't touch me," Bobby tried to threaten, his left hand glowing softly with artic energy as he shakily tried to force the girl with white hair and green eyes and wings to leave him alone, every muscle quivering from exertion and shock of his injuries. Dragonfly held her hands up to show to Iceman she was yielding with no intention of harm; given his current state, she wisely remembered Lifeline and Bree's advice to not give any reason for a patient to be hostile unless absolutely necessary and Iceman was clearly in a position to not be taken lightly.
Still disoriented, Bobby tried to wake up his instructor, whispering hoarsely as he kept his eyes trained on the two mutant strangers, "Razor…Razor, c'mon, wake up! Wake up, dammit! We need to get out of here!"
Lina's eyes widened in horror as she said solemnly while pointing a finger at the kat, "Um…I don't think he's going to be waking up for long if we don't help him soon."
It was then that Iceman and Whitelighter looked at Razor's body more closely to see a horrific and dreadful sight. When the kat had crashed against the kiosk due to the intensity of the attack, he unluckily landed on top of a jagged piece of the metal infrastructure. And like a nightmare, the jagged pipe had gorged completely through Razor's midsection, the tip completely slicked with hair, pieces of torn flesh, and dark blood, and the kat, though unconscious, was painfully breathing, his chest vainly trying to rise and fall despite the lethal stab wound from the rod embedded through his stomach.
"Oh…" moaned Justin before he did the only rational thing that came to him. He swiveled around, fell to his knees and threw up right there and then on the grass, emptying his stomach. Dragonfly fought the urge to roll her eyes in exasperation as she threw her caution to the winds and rushed by Razor's side.
"Leave him alone! Don't touch him!" Iceman snarled, though his head was increasingly pounding with dizziness as he was close to entombing the dragonfly-girl in a pillar of ice, grabbing Lina roughly by the arm. Dragonfly then whirled her head angrily, at her rope's end.
"I'm a medic-in-training, you idiot!" she snapped in frustration, "If I were your enemy, I wouldn't even bother helping him or you! And if you don't let me help him, he's going to get worse! Do you want Razor to die?"
Bobby looked sullen as he cast his eyes downward, not bothering to answer, his head swimming in guilt. Lina took the lack of response as an answer as she knelt down next to Razor's prone form. It was quite serious, and Dragonfly didn't have the right surgical tools in her pack to effectively treat this kind of impalement, not to mention that she couldn't effectively do anything to patch up the stomach organ that was slowly leaking hydrochloric acid into his bloodstream, killing the X-Man bit by bit.
"What are you waiting for?" Iceman wheezed as he fell to his knees weakly, "Can't you just pull it out? Don't just stand there! Do something!"
"I can't pull it out like that!" Dragonfly explained steely, "If I pull out the pipe, I might make the wound even worse and risk damaging his internal organs even more from the trauma! It needs to be surgically removed, but there's not enough time for that! And even if I try sealing the wound with my silk, it won't stabilize him!"
Then it hit her.
The dragonfly-mutant yelled over her shoulder, "Whitelighter, come here and help me! I need you to heal Razor!"
Still a bit shaky, Justin managed to wipe his mouth as the nausea subsided. The cubby teenager then managed to kneel next to Bobby and Lina as Lina then explained, "Whitelighter, I need you to heal Razor, but before you can do that, the pipe needs to be removed! Orb the metal stake out of Razor quickly and then heal him!"
Nervous, Justin held out his hands and said shakily, "Pipe!"
Nothing happened. Justin said a bit more forcefully, "Pipe!"
The pipe still remained, and Lina was starting to grow increasingly worried. Time was of the essence. Justin tried again several times but he couldn't get it, that sudden surge of warmth and vitality in his body.
"Can't you do anything right?" roared Bobby, now nearly distraught on seeing his favorite teacher dying with absolutely no one doing anything worth a damn to help him. It was then that Justin lost his patience.
"Well it's hard for me to orb a stupid pipe when I'm given a lot of pressure!" he snapped heatedly, but it seemed that his rare temperamental emotions were the right circumstances for at the mere mention of the word, "pipe", with a luster of white sparks, the jagged piece of metal teleported out of Razor's midsection and into Justin's hands. Whitelighter then noticed he was holding a metal stake smeared with the kat's blood, and disgusted, Justin freaked, yelping, as he dropped the pipe on the grass in surprise. Dragonfly let out the breath she was holding out with relief as she then noticed the kat's stomach wound was gushing profusely.
"Whitelighter, heal him! Quick!" she ordered.
Justin then awkwardly placed his hands on Razor's abdominal and let the light consume the kat. Dragonfly sighed in relief; it would take a while, but Razor was safe for now. The dragonfly-girl then turned her attention to the weakened, shivering Iceman with great consideration and gentleness. The stress of it all finally got through to the teenager as he started to experience the first signs of battle-shock, his hands quaking so much, they were nearly in convulsive spasms.
"He'll be all right," Dragonfly said soothingly, gently, as she took out a roll of sterile bandages and began to wrap a nasty, deep gash on the X-Man's forearm, "Don't worry, but let me tend to you now. You're also badly wounded, and I think you're going to need to fix that broken arm quickly and soon."
Now the pain and the soreness of H.A.T.E.'s attacks on him and Razor was beginning to catch up with him as Bobby nodded weakly, resting his weight against an upright pole that used to be the center support-beam of a now demolished tent, close to passing out. He couldn't help but realize, despite his tiredness, how much his insides were tingling when he watched Lina cautiously and gently tend to his wounds with either medical supplies from her bag or by spitting globs of silk from her mouth.
Unfortunately, the respite was not to last for the group.
"Get away from them!" shrieked a voice in rage from a bit off in the distance, and both Justin and Lina looked up to see the angry group of New Mutants of the X-Men staring with much anger and vengeance at the two unknown-Misfits. Justin was confused.
"Huh?" was all he could utter dumbly.
"What did you do to them?" screamed Tabitha as she readied an enormous plasma time-bomb, about as big as a bowling ball, "Get your hands off Iceman and Razor, or so help me, I'll make sure your guts get strung up all over this place!"
"I suggest you listen to the nice young lady, and scram back with that Live Wire chick, you greenhorns!" growled Cannonball as he prepared himself to launch directly at the two. Lina's eyes then widened in horror as she realized what it must look like to them; the X-Men thought that she and Whitelighter attacked the two anonymous X-Men and were working with Live Wire. These New Mutants must have thought that Justin and Lina were enemies.
"For the last time, get your hands of Razor and stop whatever you're doing to him! You're hurting him!" Multiple cried, beside himself and now furiously defensive of Jake as he multiplied into five other clones, each of them armed with their own respective glovatrix, before aiming a single mini-rocket directly at Whitelighter whose glowing hands were still rested on Razor's wound. Whitelighter was now truly scared. If he stopped healing the cat-like X-Man, he and Lina would be safe but Jake's injuries would get worse (and quite possibly he would die from them). And if the two Misfits ignored the warnings, they would get attacked by the X-Men.
"We can't do that!" snapped Dragonfly heatedly, "We're healing him! If we stop, he'll die!"
Bobby then weakly managed to put himself in front of Lina before the New Mutants could fire.
"What?" gasped Sunspot.
"Don't hurt them, you guys!" Iceman yelled hoarsely, as insistently as he could while shielding Dragonfly, "They helped us! Don't hurt them! They saved me and Jake! They weren't the ones who hurt us! They're helping us! Razor's badly hurt, and they're trying to help him!"
There was then a sudden, loud groan as Razor regained consciousness as Whitelighter finished healing the kat, and disoriented, Jake pushed himself up into a sitting position as Whitelighter respectfully backed off. The other New Mutants were greatly relieved as they rushed to their teacher but not before the other X-Men along with Professor Xavier then arrived in plain view. Most noticeably, Rogue and Colossus were missing from the scene. Upon seeing Bobby and Jake, all of them showed extreme elation and peace of mind, but then that soon disappeared when they saw two unfamiliar teenagers nearby.
"You're the X-Men!" Justin couldn't help but blurt aloud as he slowly began to recognize the familiar figures he saw so many times in numerous news reports back at the Lavadome. Wolverine's eyes then narrowed a bit at the two young mutants. There was no way these kids just came into this fire-fight and just somehow managed to come across as helpful while evading H.A.T.E.'s attacks; it was way too convenient. And the thoughtful minds of Cyclops, Professor Xavier, and Cannonball were apparently thinking of the same thing.
"That's right, and like, who are you two?" Shadowcat asked.
Justin then thought it might be best if they were candidly honest with the X-Men as he replied nervously, "I'm…I'm Whitelighter and this is Dragonfly. We…we're mutants, like you."
"How convenient that you show up to help Iceman and Razor when we get attacked by H.A.T.E," Scott announced suspiciously.
Bobby then explained the whole thing as the group silently and respectfully listened. There was a short pause after Iceman finished, although several such as Amara and Jamie were smiling thankfully at Lina and Justin.
Razor then turned to Cyclops, Jean, and the Professor, adding, "I believe them, and I don't see any indication of why they should be lying. H.A.T.E. and the Friends of Humanity wouldn't even send mutants to do their dirty work, and they wouldn't heal us if they were working for that electric mutant who attacked us back at the Mansion."
"Me too. I trust 'em," Iceman added insistently.
"I don't," Jean said simply, crossing her arms over her chest before addressing to Lina and Justin, "No offense, you two, but after dealing with some strange tactical-strike by H.A.T.E. and having some strange electric super-mutant who blasted us back at our home, we're not exactly sure we can call your good timing to appear here as purely coincidental and fortunate."
"Hey, doesn't helping Razor and Iceman help prove anything?" protested Dragonfly angrily, placing her arms on her hips. Jean just returned the glare back.
"Not in my book," she said coolly.
Justin fearfully placed a clammy hand on Lina's arm before the insect-like mutant could tell the red-headed telekinetic off, "Lina, don't…you can't blame her."
"Why don't we discuss this at the X-Mansion?" Professor Xavier broke in gently, "And to you two, Whitelighter and Dragonfly, I and the other X-Men thank you for your help. We are very grateful that we are fortunate enough to have you two come across Robert and Jake when you did. If you wish, you can come with us as our respected guests?"
Jean managed to look a bit irritated and impatiently scandalized as she spoke to the leader of the X-Men via a telepathic mind-link, Professor, aren't you even going to look into their minds? We don't know what they're doing here or if they really are who they claim to be!
I understand your concern, Jean, but rest assured, I am not that foolhardy. If we try to make a friendly acquaintance with these two young ones, then it shall be easier to pick up on any stray thoughts when they are not as defensive and nervous. We want to show that we mean them no harm as well as they mean no harm to us. And if we can convince them to accept an immediate invitation for them to come to the X-Mansion for a visit, it shall be safer and easier to see if Whitelighter and Dragonfly are not our enemies.
Jean scowled a bit, but she had to agree deep down. In the ruins of a carnival where a massive battle was fought and where it was a potential crime scene which would result in hundreds of members of the law enforcement, it was not the safest place to linger around.
Some of the New Mutants now began grinning at the two new mutants, starting to warm up. Jamie then piped up excitedly.
"Hey, Whitelighter, Dragonfly, do you two wanna come with us? We live over in Bayville in a huge mansion, and we can let you guys stay to have some dinner with us! You wanna come with us, sleep-over, join our team?"
"Merde, the kid needs to learn something about being too tactful," Remy sighed, but he had to admit to idea of having Justin and Lina as new recruits for the X-Men was a bit appealing. And some were tempted to agree with Multiple. Yet to their confusion, Justin and Lina's faces were a bit scandalized as they glanced at each other meaningfully, taken aback.
"Um…actually, we…already belong on a team," Dragonfly admitted a bit nervously in a whisper, knowing that the X-Men weren't going to like the inevitable answer.
"Come again?" asked Ray, his eyes crinkled in shock.
"Another team?" mused Storm as she placed a hand on her hip, "How odd…except for Magneto and his Acolytes, there is no other mutant team except maybe -"
And as if on cue…
"Whitelighter, Dragonfly! Hey you guys, I found 'em!" yelled Quicksilver as he suddenly appeared next to Justin and Lina in a cloud of wind and dust thanks to his super-speed.
"Quicksilver?" gasped Kurt in outrage. It was then that the speedster noticed that Justin and Lina weren't alone.
"Huh? FUZZBALL!" he shouted in gall.
"Hey, what's with all the commotion, yo?" Toad asked as he and the Misfits and the Joes came around the bend…only to see the X-Men with their newest recruits and Quicksilver.
"Oh no…" Scott groaned as his face grimaced.
"What the - ?" Avalanche exclaimed.
"Whitelighter, Dragonfly, what are you two doing with the X-Men?" Cover Girl asked, surprised. The X-Men gasped at the nonchalant familiarity of Cover Girl's voice, meaning one obvious thing…
"You're with them?" Jean blurted out in horror to Justin and Lina as she pointed at the Misfits. Both of the new mutants nodded silently.
At once, the Joes, the Misfits, and the X-Men bar Lina, Bobby, Jake, Justin, Jean, Cover Girl and Pietro echoed the same thought in stupefied shock…and outrage.
"YOU? What are you doing here!"
Author's Note: Well, thanks for tuning in for another chapter, you guys! Check back next Friday in "Unwelcome Reunions" as the X-Men and Misfits now meet each other face to face, and find out how the new recruits are taking the tension as Jake, Lina, and Justin meet the other team for the very first time. And there shall be a tragic end to a long-time romance problem (or will it be the end?)! And as if things won't be awkward enough, trouble brews even more as both the enemy and allies converge to Bayville…
Toad: Just outta curiosity, how badly are we gonna be humiliated in this fic?
Not a lot…only once in a while…for every paragraph in the upcoming final battle. And maybe a few times in the chapters beforehand. And you won't be alone! Your new friends will join in on the embarrassing…er, dramatic scenes!
Supergirl: We hate you…SO MUCH.
Then that's a sign I'm doing something right! (grins)
Read and review! Constructive criticism welcome!