Tears of the Innocents Chapter Eleven: The Kids Strike Back, a x-men: the movie fanfic

"Accel, what are we gonna do?" the smallest of the three lost children spoke in a terrified whisper.

Seven year old Acceleratus thought desperately. It was only her pride and her determination that were forcing her to keep a cool head and not simply give into the panic that was overwhelming all three of them. She and her friends had somehow taken a wrong turn when they were being hurried inside the school. She didn't know how far away they'd run from the others, but they'd suddenly turned round to find themselves alone inside the mansion.

"Accel," the smaller girl repeated plaintively. "What are we gonna do?"

On finding themselves alone, the three children had immediately hurried to the elevator. It was what they'd been told to do in the event of danger: head for the underground levels and wait for somebody to come and reassure them everything was OK. None of them had ever been down on the lower levels before, and to their horror they found the elevator wasn't working and wouldn't respond to the call button. Then they'd heard the sounds of screams from near the entrance, and had run deeper into the school.

"You can use your power to scare them off," Accel suggested.

The other girl shook her head helplessly, "No, no, I can't control my power! I just go dizzy and it happens by itself!"

"OK, well…" Acceleratus turned to the boy, "Turtle, I've got an idea. If anyone tries to, you know, get us – "

She didn't want to say the word 'kill'. Pointing to the smaller girl, she finished, " – grab Phobia and use your shell."

"What about you?" the boy asked.

"I'll run for help."

"Look!" the smaller girl screamed, pointing back the way they'd just come.

The two mercenaries at the end of the corridor heard the scream, and instantly saw the three terrified children huddled together.

"Sir, three mutants spotted," one of them spoke into his communicator.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" came Nine's angry voice. "Kill them!"

"But sir, they're just kids! They're no older than – "

"They're mutants, damn it! Kill them!"

"Phoebe, come here!" the boy cried.

The two mercenaries raised their weapons and aimed at the children. Grabbing the smaller girl, the boy named Turtle shut his eyes, took a deep breath and tightened his muscles. A small bony growth at the back of his neck exploded outwards and began to curve and expand around his body. He turned his back on the two men and bullets riddled into the surface of the protective shell that was still forming around him. Within seconds the shell had grown and curved into an impenetrable cocoon around his entire body, surrounding both him and little Phobia held tightly in his arms.

Acceleratus was left facing the two mercenaries. Both approached her, aiming their weapons directly at her heart, but the small girl stood her ground, looking at them defiantly. Never show fear, Pyro had taught her, that makes your enemies feel strong.

"You got some guts, kid," one of them said admiringly.

"I don't need a gun to make me feel brave," Accel snapped.

The men laughed, and she took advantage of the distraction. From a standing start it took her less than a second to accelerate around the corner and away from them. The two mercs considered giving chase, but it was obvious they couldn't catch her. On the floor in front of them lay the mutant shell that surrounded the two other baby freaks. They began to fire at the shell until their weapons' magazines were exhausted. Reloading by pure instinct, they spoke to their comms again.

"Sir, one of the mutants has some kind of shell around him. Our bullets can't penetrate."

A second passed, then the reply, "Keep it busy. Rogers is bringing the flamethrower to you."

"It isn't going anywhere, sir."

Inside the shell, the two children held on to each other frantically.

"What's happening outside?" Phoebe whispered.

Turtle said nothing. He had no way of knowing. Surrounding one's body with an impenetrable shell had two obvious drawbacks: no sound and no air could get through. He knew he could only keep this up as long as they had oxygen. He knew that when his air ran out he'd just have to open the shell and hope that they would be safe. There was no way to tell what was going on outside.

Acceleratus ran on, desperately seeking an adult or even one of the teenagers, somebody who could protect her and her friends. They hadn't found anyone on the ground floor. Maybe somebody was upstairs. Accel hurried towards the staircase that would take her to the first floor. As she passed an intersection she heard a shout and bullets began to spit through the air towards her. Glancing behind her, she saw three more men running in her wake. Why were they moving so slowly? Why were the bullets moving so slowly? Acceleratus was too young to understand that their speed was only relative to her own, as she blitzed her way onwards. She was beginning to tire now. She hadn't been running that long, but she had been accelerating furiously all the time and her small body was beginning to feel the effects.

Scorching up the stairs with incalculable speed, she forced her exhausted form to keep going. She had to find somewhere to hide and get her breath back before continuing her search for the adults. Reaching the first floor and hurtling round the corner, she felt a hand grab her by the shoulder and pull her back. Acceleratus screamed.

"Be quiet!" Chronos snapped. "What are you yelling for?"

"They're gonna kill me!" she wailed, pointing down the stairs. "Help me!"

"All right. Hold on."

One moment Accel was clutching the older boy, looking back in terror at the approaching men. The next moment she was back on the ground floor, just in time to see Turtle's shell opening, he and Phobia gasping for breath.

"What happened?" Accel asked in bewilderment.

Chronos didn't have time to explain time displacement. Nor did he have time to try and decide what was going on. It seemed clear enough. He knew now this was a school for mutants. It seemed obvious that humans would resent such an establishment. They would be afraid of the mutants setting up their own elite ruling class, as it should be. It made sense that the humans would attack the school. Chronos wondered if this happened often.

"What are we gonna do?" one of the little ones asked him.

Chronos had no idea what to do. He was unprepared for the attack and he had no idea of the scale of the invasion. He could use his powers, but he wanted to get a better idea of what he was facing. One of the little kids gripped his hand in fear, but he shook her loose. He had no time for children now. It seemed he was fighting for his life. He wondered if he could conveniently lose these children somewhere, and take the fight to the humans…

"Accel!" came a voice from behind him.

Chronos turned. At the end of the corridor another two teens stood, one of them kneeling down to open his arms. The little girls hurried over to hug him, equal measures of relief and fear pouring out of them. The older one wailed, "Vertigo, what's happening?"

"Tell you later, honey. Helios, take them back downstairs. You," he pointed at Chronos, "go with them."

Chronos bristled. He wasn't taking orders from some random guy his own age!

"What's happening?" he demanded. "How many are there?"

They heard the footsteps of men approaching, and Vertigo snapped, "We don't have time to stand around and talk! All of you go!"

"What are you gonna do?" Helios asked.

"I'm gonna make Pyro proud. Go!"

Stepping over the bodies of the two men Vertigo had knocked unconscious, Dominic led Chronos and the little children back to the elevator. Vertigo turned, facing the sound of approaching mercs, and flexed his arms, "Come on then, inferior life forms."

Fear was driving the mercenaries on a little faster than they would have liked. Fear of the unknown, fear of whatever myriad mutant powers might be awaiting them inside the mansion, fear of possibly meeting an enemy they couldn't match. Seeing two mutant kids disappear in front of their eyes had made then even more uneasy, and now they hurried downstairs with ill-advised haste. Seeing Vertigo, they immediately dropped into firing positions and began to spray the corridor with bullets. Vertigo tensed his muscles. He'd expected this and was already running, jumping towards the wall, planting his feet on the wooden panelled surface and springing up and over the three men. His super-light body structure made a seemingly impossible manoeuvre seem all so easy. The three men reacted in shock as he flipped through the air above them, wrapping his leg around one man's neck, gripping and twisting with his wiry muscles, snapping the mercenary's neck as if it was a twig. Landing on his splayed hands, Vertigo pushed away from the ground and kicked out at the two remaining men, throwing them to the side. One was stunned momentarily, but the other thrust his weapon towards the mutant and fired. Vertigo twisted in mid-air to avoid the hail of bullets, and was forced to land a little less gracefully than he would have liked. The merc swore as his gun's magazine emptied, and he reached for a fresh one. The ninja mutant kicked the weapon out of his hands and drove a knee into the man's throat, crushing his windpipe and killing him instantly.

"Reinforcements!" the remaining merc screamed into his communicator as he scrambled desperately to reclaim his weapon.

From around the corner another group of men came running. Two held ordinary rifles but to Vertigo's dismay he saw the third holding on to a flame thrower.

"Torch it!" yelled the man he'd just been grappling with, who dived to the side, out of the path of the onrushing flamer.

A cloud of fire leapt from the nozzle of the flamethrower towards Vertigo. Leaping backwards and somersaulting over in mid-air, he just managed to avoid the licking flames. Landing on his feet, facing the other way, he fled. He didn't know where he was going but if he could draw the men away from the elevator then the children would be safe. Glancing behind him, he was surprised to see the men weren't following him. They were being attacked from the other side. A cloud of bees – or were they hornets? – was surrounding them, stinging mercilessly, and the men's agonised screams were only partially drowned out by the buzzing of the furious insects.

The man with the flamethrower turned and scorched the cloud of hornets, killing several and forcing the rest to back away. His three compatriots lying dead from the stings they had received to, the man took the only option available to him: he fled. Vertigo waited for the hornets to pursue, but they continued to pull back until they were out of sight. He wondered why, but he didn't have any time to worry about that now. For the man with the flamethrower was coming directly at him.

Helios swore under his breath. The mercenaries had found the elevator. Motioning the children to silence, he glanced cautiously around the corner. Two or three men with rifles in camouflage gear appeared to be investigating why the elevator wasn't working. Cassandra must have pulled its circuits apart again. This was a problem. Even if the men were to leave, how could they take the lift back down if it wasn't working? Was there any way they could signal Cassandra? Not from up here. There had to be another way to get down there. Had Atlas finished reopening the tunnel yet? Could they try and get back down that way? That would involve going outside the mansion, past where the invaders were based outside. No, that was far too dangerous a route to take the children on. And besides, he couldn't even remember where the tunnel opening was. There were one or more secret passages that led outside the school, but again, he had no way of knowing whether it was safe to go outside.

Was there somewhere else safe he might take these children? Dominic could think of nowhere. He glanced at them for a second. Tiny Phoebe looked at him with fear in her eyes. Acceleratus seemed uneasy and restless, as if she longed to be moving at high speed away from danger, rather than standing still and inviting it. The boy Turtle was unreadable, though seemed reassured that Dominic was in charge of the situation. The older boy, who Dominic knew only from a couple of glances exchanged, was looking back the way they had come, checking nobody was in pursuit. Damn it, Helios thought to himself, what do I do? If I was on my own I'd make a break for the tunnel. I can't do that with the kids. But at the same we can't just stay here and wait for somebody to find us. Where the hell is everyone? The X-Men, Pyro, the Angels, where are they? It was Vertigo who had first coined the term Angels to describe Annie and Gary. He had meant it sarcastically, but with their golden eyes and seeming omnipotence, the name had stuck, amongst the younger generation anyway.

Eventually little Phoebe couldn't contain herself any longer, hissing, "Dominic, what are we gonna do?"

The men heard. Looking up suspiciously, the two of them wasted no time in moving into covering positions, their rifles held steadily and ready to fire.

"Investigating sound on the ground floor," one of them spoke into his comm. "Elevator seems to be out of commission; recommend you send someone to repair it."

Dominic knew there was no other option but to run. There was nowhere safe to run to, but staying where they were was tantamount to suicide.

"Go," he hissed to Chronos. "Take them. I'll follow you in a second!"

His intention was to blind the mercenaries by shining light into their eyes, then make their escape while the men were dazzled and disoriented. He gently put a hand on Phoebe's shoulder to direct her towards Chronos, but the girl wasn't moving. Her eyes had glazed over and she was bent double, gasping for breath. Her power was activating.

"I'm – I'm going to go dizzy…" she breathed.

Losing consciousness, she slumped against Dominic, who managed to catch hold of her.

"Don't look at her!" he hissed to the others. "Whatever you do, don't look at her!"

The two mercenaries turned the corner. The first man reacted in shock and horror, jumping backwards to avoid the enormous saltwater crocodile that snapped at his heels. He had seen his father eaten by a crocodile when he was four years old, and had lived with a deathly fear of the creatures ever since. This one was twice the size of the one that had killed his father. His scream of terror tore through the air as panic overtook him, his weapon falling to the floor as he scrambled desperately to get away.

The second man's scream reached the same pitch and volume as he saw the headless, unravelling zombie lurching towards him. The undead monster let out an unearthly moan and reached for him. Falling over himself in his urge to escape, the man dropped his pack and his weapon before fleeing down the corridor as if carried by the wind itself. The first man was not far behind him.

Phoebe, aka Phobia, gasped once more and regained consciousness as her power ceased. Exhausted, she could barely stand. Dominic lifted the tiny girl into his arms and hurried towards the elevator. Maybe – it was hoping against hope – but maybe Cassandra had reactivated the power in the few minutes since the men had checked. He hit the call button – but nothing happened.

"What was that?" Chronos demanded. "Why'd they run off like that? What did they see?"

Dominic nodded towards Phobia, "She can project a person's worst fear into their mind. That's why I told you not to look at her."

"Well, why didn't she do it sooner?"

"She can't control it. Here, take her. I'm going to try something."

Resenting being used as a baby carrier, Chronos held the small girl while Dominic pulled off his gloves. Dropping them on to the floor, he held up his hand to the lift door. While one of his hands had the ability to reflect sunlight, the other acted like a solar cell, absorbing the light and storing it for later use. A beam of light shone out from his palm, and he curved his hand inwards until the light had intensified into a thin ray. A crackling sound came as the focussed light became a laser, which began to cut through the door. Hopefully if he could get the door open, he could shout down the lift shaft to Cassandra. Hopefully she would hear him.

"Keep your eyes open in case anyone's coming," he said to Chronos.

The light beam continued to cut into the door.

The three military class helicopters were the first thing that caught Pyro's attention as he and Gemini walked back up the path that led into the estate. At first he was unsure what to think, then the sound of a scream in the distance left him in little doubt what was going on. His daughter looked at him, waiting for an explanation or an instruction telling her what she should do.

"The school is under attack," he said.

"It's what?"

"Under attack. It's happened before. You'd think an attack on their own school might make the X-Men see the humans for what they really are. I guess they're still as blind as they ever were."

"What are we gonna do?"

"What we've always done: defend our own kind. Someone has to. Come on."

As they got closer to the choppers, they noticed the pilot sitting in the cockpit of each one, obviously ready for a swift takeoff if that turned out to be necessary. Pyro directed Gemini towards the first helicopter, "Kill that pilot. I'll take the other two."

Igniting his lighter, he stepped closer to the two furthest copters. Twin balls of flame hovered in front of him as he waited for the moment to strike. The pilots were probably armed. He had to hit them before they had a chance to react. Waiting until both humans were looking the other way, he hurried forward, yanked open one of the cockpit doors, and thrust a fireball inside. The man's scream alerted the pilot of the second helicopter, who looked over in surprise and consternation, but Pyro had already launched the second fireball. It hit the man in the face as he thrust open the cockpit and raised his handgun.

Both men having burned to death, Pyro looked over at Gemini. Both of his daughter had dragged the pilot from the third helicopter, and one of them drove her knee into the man's throat. It was a trick Vertigo had taught her, and Pyro unconsciously winced as the man's windpipe was crushed and blood exploded from his mouth. He nodded to Gemini approvingly.

Ahead of them lay the mansion, and they could see that what looked like a mobile command post had been set up in the gardens in front of the building.

"What's going on? Who are these people?" asked the girl.

"Does it matter? All humans want to wipe us out. You know that. I'm only surprised this doesn't happen more often."

"Just tell me what to do."

Gemini's trauma and mental anguish were gone now, swept aside by the shock of what was going on and her survival instinct kicking in. It had always been like this. Once the battle was over and she was safe, then she could retreat inside her mind and try to sort herself out. It was like she was two different people. When fighting she was Gemini: the bold, confident young mutant who could duplicate herself and control both bodies with perfect synchrony. At other times she reverted to being Alexandra: the young girl who'd been sold by her mother, then raped and tortured for two years by human researchers. Sometimes she wondered if she could just leave Alexandra behind and be Gemini always, but now was not the time to be concentrating on that. Right now she was Gemini, and ready to fight for survival against the humans once more.

"Stay close to me," Dad was saying. "We'll get in close; I'll take out as many as I can with a first barrage; then we'll have to look for cover and pick them off one at a time."

"Where is everyone else? Where are the X-Men?"

"Who knows? Probably inside somewhere trying to understand the humans rather than fight them off."

"Where are Cassie and Gladiator?"

Pyro said nothing. He didn't want to voice his fear that his students had probably been caught by surprise, overrun, and killed. Otherwise Gladiator at least would have been out here defending the school. Unless perhaps he'd been talked out of it by the human-loving Crusader, or by that screwed-up water girl. Then Pyro reprimanded myself. You can't think about her that way. Gemini is messed up too. Keeping low, running behind cover whenever they could, the two of them began to hurry towards the school, all the time watching carefully for any lookouts or sentries the humans might have posted to watch their backs. There seemed to be none. Presumably that was what the pilots in the choppers had been for. Those three men had died before they could have had a chance to raise the alarm.

When he felt they'd got close enough, he put his hand on his daughter's shoulder and the two of them knelt down behind a piece of architecture. They could just about overhear the humans talking; the sub-creatures were discussing how their next assault on the school would commence. It was time to put a stop to their murderous plans. As he flicked the lighter, Pyro glanced over at Gemini. She was looking back the way they had come, making sure nobody was pursuing, unconsciously fingering the locket Mystique had given her. Remembering what was inside, Pyro sighed, I wish you were still around, boss. I've tried to carry on what you started, but it's not been easy. His usual confidence began to return and he grinned, I don't know if you can see me from wherever you are now, but watch this. I hope I make you proud.

He stood, and from his lighter rose a ball of flame. It grew and expanded until, just as it could expand no more, his hand shot out and the gigantic fireball flashed through the air towards the unaware humans. Beside him Gemini stood, her eyes wide, waiting with bated breath to see the humans' demise.

Five soldiers were struck by the flame ball, and the fire subsequently spread to the rest of the group around them. The air was thick with men's screams and the sound of flesh burning. The rest of the humans – a safe distance away from the flaming, flailing mob – quickly got over their initial shock and reacted with military precision, dropping into defensive positions and scanning the area to determine where the attack had come from. Pyro shoved Gemini to the ground and launched another fireball at a group of three or four humans, before ducking into cover himself. Bullets spat off the ground beside them.

"Perhaps this wasn't such a great idea," he muttered to himself.

Screwing up his eyes against the sudden sunlight, Atlas climbed out of the end of the tunnel and sat for a moment on the ground, getting his bearings. Yes, he remembered now. This was where Mole had dug the original tunnel to sneak inside the X-Men's base from below. He was outside in the woods, near the edge of the estate. The school building was not too far away. Atlas was tired, but he knew he couldn't stop now. If the humans were near here, he and his friends could take the advantage of surprise and kill a number of them. If there were no humans here, they might be able to get the children out through to the tunnel and take them to safety. Wherever that might be. Anyway, the first thing to do was to assess what threats, if any, were close to the tunnel entrance.

Reaching the edge of the treeline, he was just in time to see the massive cloud of flame as it flew like a released bird from Pyro's outstretched hand, soaring towards the humans and engulfing them in burning death. Atlas watched as Pyro and Gemini ducked into cover, the humans reacting more quickly than might have been expected. Several of them were inching their way towards the hidden mutants. One man pulled the pin from a grenade and flung it towards them. Atlas lifted a hand, and a rock flew from the ground in front of him to smack into the grenade, knocking it off course. It exploded in mid-air, harming no-one.

Standing at the edge of the woods, he wasn't exactly inconspicuous, and it didn't take long for one of the humans to spot him. Atlas raised a mound of earth and ducked behind it just in time, as bullets began to fly overhead. He thrust his hands into the loose soil around him, and called upon his power, sending a violent earth tremor out towards the humans. The onrushing mercs had no warning of what was coming, and all of them were thrown off their feet as the ground began to shake violently around them. Atlas increased his power, and gouges and cracks began to appear in the earth on which the men lay sprawled. Disturbing the very fabric of the ground, he turned the whole area into a gigantic mire of quicksand. The humans, already sinking, began to struggle desperately yet futilely to escape. More screams began to fill the air, to match those of the men who Pyro was still setting alight with carefully thrown fireballs, as he and Gemini moved across the garden, continually outmanoeuvring their pursuers. Had Gemini seen what Atlas had done? He desperately hoped so. He wanted more than anything to be able to impress her.

Nine couldn't believe what was happening. More than half of his task force was dead now. He'd walked round the back of the mansion to try and plan the best way to enter from there, only to find that in his absence some mutant freaks had launched an attack from the entrance to the estate, and annihilated almost every man he had on that side. How had they done it? Were there other ways out of the building that One's schematics hadn't shown? Angrily, Nine tightened his pack around his shoulders and spoke to his second in command, "When I give the signal, begin the attack from the rear."

"Yessir."
He stepped towards the rear entrance. No more fooling around. It was time to take matters into his own hands now.

Relief flooding through her system, Cassandra knelt down to hug Accel and Phoebe tightly as the elevator doors slid open.

"You're all right…" she whispered. "Oh, Phoebe…Accel…I was so worried about you…"

"I'm OK," said the older child.

The other kids backed away slightly when they saw Phoebe. Shy and miserable, the six year old gripped Cassandra's hand tightly and huddled against her.

"You heard me, then," said Helios to Cassandra.

"Yeah. Where's Vertigo?"

"I dunno. We got separated. He could be anywhere."

The two of them embraced each other briefly, simply out of relief that they were still safe and none of the children had been hurt. Cassandra suspected that he wanted to hold her a little longer, but she wasn't willing to get close to anyone any more. She pulled away.

"Listen, I had an idea," she told him. "We can access the hangar from here, right? Do your jets have any weapons?"

"No. We could use one to get the children out, but neither of us know how to fly them."

"We need Vertigo."

"Yeah."

Vertigo had managed to evade the man with the flamethrower, but the ground floor was still crawling with mercenaries, and he could find no way of getting to the elevator. He'd heard a pair of screams and assumed Helios had got a couple of the sub-creatures. Not bad, considering Helios was an X-Man. He hadn't heard the sound of any children screaming, so he guessed they were still safe. What to do now? Should he try and find the kids? Should he try and find somewhere safe to hole up until the X-Men got back? How long would that be? Should he try to pick off as many humans as he could, using his familiarity with the mansion to remain hidden? Should he steal a weapon from a fallen soldier and use it to fight off the rest? No. Mutants didn't use weapons. They didn't need them. Pyro's rule.

A sound from over his shoulder alerted him instantly to another attacker, but Vertigo couldn't move fast enough to avoid the throwing knife that embedded itself in his upper arm. It would have sliced into his neck if he hadn't raised his arms instinctively. Caught by surprise, and in shock from the pain, he stumbled and fell on to his side. The first thought that jolted into his startled mind was Recyclo! but that mutant was dead. This had to be one of the humans, but one with extraordinarily good aim. From a covered position came a spray of bullets, which Vertigo managed to roll over and avoid, but this only increased the pain from the knife in his shoulder. He gasped and tried to pull the blade free, but the pain was too intense.

Nine stood, his rifle held at waist height, approaching the struggling figure of the mutant. The boy tried to remove the knife from his shoulder, but Nine knew that was only making it worse. Stepping closer and aiming his weapon at the mutant's head, he was taken by surprise as the boy's leg kicked out, sending the rifle spinning out of his grasp. Nine recovered quickly, and swerved away from another kick. Getting himself under control and ignoring the pain, the mutant climbed to his feet. It was obvious the knife and the pain were impairing the boy's balance and co-ordination, and Nine took advantage, grabbing another knife from his belt and aiming for the mutant's jugular. The boy could only throw himself backwards in desperation, falling over and landing in an agonised heap, still trying to pull the first knife free. Nine moved in for the kill.

Before he could administer the killing blow, something grabbed Nine around the neck and jerked him off his feet. Gasping with surprise, he stabbed his knife backwards to catch whoever was holding him. He hit only air. The grip on his throat increased. He could no longer breathe. He forced himself not to panic. A hissing noise sounded in his left ear.

"Hold him," Gaia said to the baby python.

As the mercenary struggled to shift the snake, desperately trying to free his windpipe, Gaia gently placed the baby cobra on his shoulder. The viper sank its fangs into the man's neck, and the constrictor loosened its grip.

Nine broke free, his muscular arms throwing the python away from him, slashing at the tiny cobra with his knife. It had bitten him, but the anti-snake serum he'd taken should protect him from that. Recovering his balance, he saw the woman. The snakes were moving towards her – this had to be the woman who controlled the animals, the one who had killed so many of his men already. Grabbing his communicator, Nine barked, "Commence attack from rear!"

Soon the sound of the rest of his unit could be heard, approaching his position. The boy was still crouched in the corner, and still struggling to pull the knife from his arm. Nine faced the woman. Her eyes were focused on the ground at his feet, and he looked down.

"Shit!"

The black widow spider was already crawling up his foot, and Nine flicked it away with his knife, then crushed it underfoot. The woman gave a gasp of dismay. Nine reached for his handgun. From behind him came a snapping and snarling sound, as a small wolf began attacking him.

"No! Get away!" the woman cried.

Nine swung the handgun round to aim at her head, but the ninja boy kicked it out of his hand and smacked his fist into the mercenary leader's face. Or where his face had been, at any rate. Nine ducked away from the blow, kicked the baby wolf away from him, and grabbed his rifle from where it had fallen earlier. There was a clatter of footsteps and the two mutants were surrounded by the rest of his men.

"Go! Go!" Gaia yelled at her animals.

The creatures disappeared around the corner. The mercenaries ignored them. Without the woman to control them, they guessed the animals would pose them no threat.

"Kill them, sir?"

Nine shook his head, "Not yet. We may need them as bargaining chips to help stabilise the situation out front. You, you, and you, stay here and keep them covered. The rest of you, let's clean up the front."

Three men stayed behind to guard the injured boy and the woman. Vertigo sank to his knees, the agony in his shoulder getting worse, and Chloe knelt beside him, looking for some way she might ease his pain.

"The kids are safe," Vertigo whispered to her. "We took them downstairs. Helios was taking the last ones to the elevator when we got split up."

"You've done well. Hold on and we'll get through this."

The boy gave a cynical laugh, "I don't think so."

Gaia's expression suddenly changed, as if something had just occurred to her. She gave him an odd sort of smile, "Have faith."

"In what?"

But her only response was the same mysterious smile.

Running lightly across the huge expanse of quicksand, stepping only where he knew the ground was solid, Atlas noted with satisfaction the terrified screams of the men who were slowly sinking below the surface. It struck him as slightly ironic. The earth had brought forth so much life for him to cherish and nurture. Now he was returning some of that life, in the form of these mercenaries who were about to be swallowed up by the quagmire. One doomed, sinking soldier grabbed desperately at Atlas' feet as he ran past, but could find no purchase and disappeared beneath the surface of the newly-made swamp. Pyro and Gemini were still crouching in cover, and the few remaining humans were spreading out to surround their position. A fireball caught one of them in the chest and the man howled as the flames burnt him alive.

A new group of humans were running down from the front entrance of the school. Atlas reached the edge of the mire, and knelt down beside his friends.

"Boss!"

"Atlas! Are you all right?"

"Yeah. Listen, I've got an idea – "

Another fireball flashed out, killing another soldier.

"What's your idea?" Pyro asked.

"Gemini can use her twin; send her across to the treeline. She'll lure the humans over that way."

"So what?"

"They'll walk right into the quicksand I just made," he said, pointing proudly back the way he had come.

Pyro nodded, "Gemini, do it."

With practice, and with teaching from the X-Men, Gemini was finding it much easier to summon her twin. Whereas before it had caused her great pain and required great concentration, now she felt only the slightest twinge of discomfort, and could summon her duplicate with a minimum of mental strain. She closed her eyes, breathed in deeply, and her twin appeared beside her. The duplicate stood, and disappeared on its mission.

"Is there any way to tell the two of you apart?" Atlas wondered.

"No. Except that if she dies, I don't. If I die – well, I assume she does too. I've never exactly tested it."

"Get down!" Pyro yelled, pushing them flat on the ground and covering them with his own body. A second later, there came a thunderous explosion as a grenade detonated mere feet away.

"It's working! Look!" Atlas cried.

Several mercenaries had broken off from the main group to pursue the fleeing twin. Maybe they thought she was running to try and summon reinforcements, but for whatever reason a sizeable force had been sent after her. The surface of the mire was now flat and unbroken. Those men who'd been unfortunate enough to get caught in it last time, had now been sucked down beneath the surface. The onrushing group now had no idea what they were running into. They fell, and there was no chance of getting back out. Atlas felt the warm glow of pride and achievement inside him. Finally he'd managed to make a difference, to do something that nobody else could have done, and even better, both Pyro and Gemini had seen him do it. He glanced at them, hoping for some words of praise. Gemini's triumphant smirk mirrored the one on Pyro's face, and the man merely nodded his approval to Atlas. That, from a man who rarely gave praise of any kind, was more than enough.

Nine was struggling to keep his anger under control. Once again he'd been completely fooled by the freaks. He'd seen no danger in letting his men pursue the running girl. She wasn't armed, and there didn't seem to be anywhere she could run to. He hadn't wanted to take any chances, however, and had sent a large enough force to counter whatever powers she might conceivably have. It had never occurred to him that the mutant freaks had the intelligence to lay any kind of trap. Complacency had gotten the better of him. He was the best. He knew he was the best. That in itself could be a problem, though, as he tended to underestimate his enemies too much. In this case, he had certainly been guilty of assuming too little of the mutants. No more.

"Cover me," he snapped.

His men knelt and trained their weapons on the position where they knew the three mutants to be hiding. There was no sign of the girl in the forest, and she had obviously only been a decoy. If she had any potent destructive powers, it was unlikely she'd have been used that way. She had to have been the weakest of the four. Nine put her out of his mind. Scanning the gardens with his eyes, he plotted out his route. He'd work his way around behind the mutants' position, then finish them off. His men would keep the freaks occupied and keep their attention on what was in front of them. The freaks would not survive this time.

Had Nine only known about Gemini's mutation, he would have realised how his plan was flawed. As it was, Gemini's twin, hidden amongst the trees at the edge of the forest, saw him working his way stealthily around. Since the twin was controlled by Gemini's mind: anything the twin knew, she knew too, and thus she was forewarned of the mercenary leader's approach.

"Dad, somebody's coming at us from behind," she hissed to Pyro.

Too preoccupied with targeting one of the other humans, he didn't hear her.

"Dad," she repeated, tugging his arm.

This time she got his attention, and the two of them turned just in time to see Nine raising his rifle to fire. A ball of flame spat towards him, melting the rifle into a fused, useless lump of slag. Angrily Nine threw it aside, and with lightning speed he pulled a blade from his belt. None of the mutants could react fast enough, and the knife spun through the air to impale Pyro's hand, his lighter dropping to the ground. Even as Pyro grimaced against the pain and desperately grabbed for the lighter with his good hand, Nine was on them. He kicked aside Gemini's panicked attempt at self defence, and easily moved out of the way of the barrage of rocks that Atlas sent at him. Stamping on Pyro's injured hand, he picked up the cigarette lighter and he spoke into his communicator, "I got them."

Within seconds the rest of his men were surrounding the position. Gemini had torn off a scrap of something and was hurriedly wrapping it around her father's wound. Atlas was waiting for the right moment to turn the whole area into quicksand, but he suspected he wouldn't have time to do so before they figured out what he was doing. They'd been caught by that trick before.

"All right. Kill them," said Nine. "The ones inside the mansion too. When they're all dead, we'll pull out."

Tossing the lighter to one of his men, he turned and headed for the helicopters. It had taken more time and a lot more lives than he might have anticipated, but he had won. Was this really all the mutant population could provide as a challenge? Were these really the much-feared mutants who had stopped the Apocalypse? How the hell had this ragtag bunch of individuals managed to destroy the immortal Horsemen? He shrugged. Perhaps the Horsemen hadn't been everything they were made out to be. As he saw the choppers ahead of him, Nine suddenly winced and put his hand to his temple. Great. Just the time to have a headache coming.

As the men surrounding them collectively grimaced and reflexively put a hand on their foreheads, Pyro and the others knew something was happening.

"What was that?" a man demanded.

"You felt it too?"

"I've had migraines before, but that was – "

"Oh, fuck, what is this…" one of them gasped, dropping his weapon and putting both hands to his head.

"Shit, that hurts – "

"My head – it's like I'm being torn apart – "

"Oh my – "

Then their words became screams, and the men were on their knees, clutching at their skulls, yelling as if the devil himself was pouring hot lava on their skin, falling on to their sides, curling up into foetal positions, rocking back and forth, howling, their fists tightening, their bodies twitching, then lying still. For a moment none of the three mutants moved, then Pyro reached out to check one of the men. He was dead. They were all dead.

"What happened?" Gemini cried.

None of them knew.

"What happened?" asked Vertigo.

The three men lay dead, their bodies at the grotesque angles they'd writhed into during their agony. Chloe stood, and helped the boy to his feet.

"Gaia? What happened? What was that?"

"I did tell you to have faith. That was my husband."

"Oculus? What did he do?"

"He's downstairs, using the Cerebro machine. It amplifies his telepathic power; he used it to 'fry' their minds."

"Of course…you mean you knew? You knew before it was going to happen?"

"Yes. He told me. He was using the machine to search for Mystique. He must have just discovered what was going on here."

"The children. We have to check on the children!"

"They're fine. We're all safe. Come on, you need to get that shoulder healed."

She began hurrying towards the elevator, and Vertigo followed close behind her. He'd got there before them, and Vertigo watched as Oculus and Gaia came together, held each other tightly, and kissed. Huh. He'd never seen Oculus show any emotion before. Oh well, there was a first time for everything. Despite himself, Vertigo actually admired the man, though nobody knew. He saw in Oculus a reflection of his own cynical nature, his own pessimistic view of life, his own refusal to expect anything but the worst. He respected the way Rosiçky didn't have the same childish optimism that the other adults (other than Pyro) seemed to share. Gaia smiled as she gently took Vertigo's arm and held it out for her husband to heal.

"This will hurt," Rosiçky said as he took hold of the knife.

Vertigo gritted his teeth, determined to show no pain in front of two X-Men. Nevertheless he could not prevent a small gasp of pain escaping as the blade was pulled free. Rosiçky's hand touched the wound, and a moment later it closed up, the pain vanishing. All that remained was an intense, warm feeling that lightened his heart and for a moment threatened to pierce through the cloud of cynicism that shrouded Vertigo's mind. He felt unfamiliar emotion stirring in his heart. Memories began to seep through. No. I can't think about the past. It hurts too much. He pushed the emotions and the memories away, and settled back into his cynical shell.

Nine had collapsed by the side of the nearest helicopter, the pain still feeling as if his head was being torn apart. Through supreme force of will, he managed to climb into the chopper's cockpit. Pushing the dead pilot aside, he swiped at the auto-pilot controls and engaged them. Falling to the floor and screaming in agony, Nine tried and failed to comprehend whatever force was now destroying him. The helicopter rose from the ground and ascended into the sky, turning and heading back the way it had come, back to the headquarters of the Twelve. As the distance from the estate increased, Nine breathed more easily. The pain was decreasing. Once he was a good few miles away, it had disappeared completely. He deactivated the auto-pilot and took the controls himself.