Mark C: Can't wait to see the fight huh? Well now you don't have to wait any longer.
Ranndie Mazda: Here's the fight, and here's the dinner. Enjoy!
AntiClownOutsiders: That is perhaps the most interesting review I have ever read. Seriously.
Jp3711nc: Thanks, and yes, the Morlocks are going to be in it, but not for a while now.
Author's Note: I'm sorry that this took so long to get up. I broke my hand in the beginning of May, and I've been working on this little bit by little bit. As an official apology to all my readers and reviewers I'm making this chapter extra long.
Chapter 20: Fight, Fight, Fight!
Trenton, New Jersey, Marvin's Motorcycle Repair, 10:00 PM, Friday.
A young twenty something man dressed in spiked leather was closing up shop; behind him waited a teenager of about the same build, and dressed in similar leather clothes. "Come on Mat, hurry up. Sara and Michelle aren't going to wait forever." The teen said as he leaned against the outside wall.
Mat came out of the shop and locked the door behind him. "Patience Mark, the girls are meeting up at the theater. I've just got to make a quick stop at my place first." He said as he got on the Harley Davidson parked in front of the store. "Did you want a ride?"
"I've got that heap of junk my dad calls a car. I'll meet you there." Mark answered.
"Fine." Mat said before the Harley roared to life. He ripped out of the parking lot and was off down the street in minutes. The city streets were almost bare; no one really went riding around the gang areas at this time of night. Mat's helmet kept his hair from whipping in the winds save for the very ends that stuck out of the helmet.
Within minutes he was back at his apartment. "Junk, bill, junk, junk, oh hey my comic book, bill…" He said as he went through his mailbox and headed up the stairs to his apartment. Upon reaching the third floor he went to the third door on the left.
His door was slightly beaten up, and when he opened it he had to be careful not to break the hinges. His apartment was revealed to be nothing more than a two-room place. A small junky bedroom off to the right and separated by a half wall, a bathroom to the left, and directly a head was a sink and a table.
He threw the mail on the table as he came into his apartment, he unzipped his jacket, and it was then that he noticed that his message machine was blinking. He hit the button and then continued to get changed.
"Hey Mat, this is Sean. Harris came in today looking for you. Call me if you get the chance." The machine clicked as he put on a clean shirt.
"Hey bro! What's up? It's me Becky! Y'know, your little sister?" Mat looked up at the machine. "Well, I've got good news. I wanted to talk to you in person but since you're not there I'll just say it. I'm getting married!" Mat choked. "I know. I'll call you back. I'm staying at this place in Bayville." The machine clicked again.
He stared at it in disbelief. "Who could she be getting married to…?" He asked with a pause. "King." He smirked. "Well I'll be."
Bayville, Rocco's Pizza Place, 9:00 P.M., SaturdayRogue, Joe, John, Amara, Will, and Elise all sat at a circular table in the dining room of this pizza place and Italian resturaunt. The dining room was fairly empty except for them and their waitress that kept coming in and out. Red and white designs and checkered table clothes everywhere.
"And that's why we've got to show up." Will said, finishing his little monologue about why they had to fight the brotherhood that night.
"I don't like it." John said shaking his head. "Even with me and you and Joe. We don't have Chris. You don't want to tell James. We're under manned, we don't have our field leader, we'll get our butts handed to us."
Joe looked to Rogue but she didn't say anything. "We have to fight. If we don't they won't rest until they get what they're after." Joe said shaking his head. "Our best bet is to let the X-Men in on it. They know our opponents, they're strengths, weaknesses, everything."
"No. Scott is totally against it and the professor will never let it happen." Will said shaking his head. "This is something we need to do."
"The three of us, against Lance, Pietro, the frog, and the big guy, and that girl they hang with?" Joe asked. "We're simply out numbered."
"What about us?" Amara asked, looking to Rogue. "You guys just keep talking like we're not even here."
"I'm sorry." Will said shaking his head. "But this is kind of personal."
"What about the girls in your group?" Amara asked.
"Well, no offense Elise, but the female Warrior's powers aren't exactly combat oriented. We'll end up trying to save them, or they'll end up getting hurt." John said shaking his head.
"Well that's kind of sexist." Rogue said with a glance to Joe.
"No." Elise said shaking her head. "It's the truth. Megan, Danielle, and I don't have any training in fighting and our powers are more strategic than any of the guys'. Grace and Rebecca are the only ones useful for that sort of thing."
"And we can't tell Rebecca cause she'll tell James." Will said with a nod.
"So what about Grace? She'd jump at the chance." John said. "She'd probably be more enthusiastic about it then you Will."
"You're probably right." Will conceded. "So we'll ask Grace then."
"But we're still out numbered." Joe pointed out.
"What about Nathan or Mike?" Rogue asked looking to John.
"I'd sooner ask Elise or Megan." Will said shaking his head. "No offense to Mike, but I can't see him being of any use in battle, and Nathan won't do it. Besides, we don't want anyone ending up dead."
"I've got some decent powers." Amara said glancing to Rogue. "And Rogue knows how to handle herself."
"True." Will said thoughtfully. "But, and no offense, I want just the Warriors to do this. We'll have to do it without our full force, that's all."
"But then our team work is all screwed up." Joe said shaking his head. "Without James we don't have a leader, and without Jessica, Chris, and Rebecca some of our maneuvers are undoable. We're cut off at the knees."
"We'll just have to make due." Will said shaking his head.
"I don't like it." Joe said glancing to Rogue.
Xavier's Institute for Gifted Youngsters, 10:00 PM"Where are the guys?" James asked as he came into the living room with his arm around his fiancé. Ororo sat on the couch reading a book of some kind, and most of the lights except for the one next to her were off, making the room dark except for that one spot of light.
"I think a few of them went out on a group date." Ororo said with a smile as she looked up from the book she was reading. "They said that they wouldn't be back until late."
"I wonder why they didn't ask us to go." Rebecca asked looking to James.
James shrugged. "I dunno." He paused. "Will you excuse me for a second?" He asked looking to Rebecca.
She nodded and he ran off as she sat down on the couch next to Ororo.
"How are the wedding plans coming along?" Ororo asked with a smile.
"So far so good." Rebecca nodded. "Elise and I picked out the bridesmaid's dresses. James is getting a tux by the end of the week. I've ordered the invitations, and other things of that sort. There's still a lot of work to do, and James hasn't even picked a best man."
Ororo smiled. "Well he is rather close with the younger members of the group. Who do you think he'll pick?
"To be honest I think he's closest to Will. But he knows better than to put Will in charge of the bachelor party." Rebecca said with a laugh. "I honestly don't know. I don't think he's thought about it since Zack killed Jessica. To be honest I don't blame him." She paused. "You know I really didn't think it would work out when James and I first got together."
"How did you and he get together?" Ororo asked.
Rebecca nodded. "It's a long story."
"Well I've got no where to go." Ororo said as she set down her book.
"Okay." Rebecca started. "I don't tell many people this but I grew up in Jersey, but ran away from home when I was sixteen. Originally I went to Philadelphia, but I made my way to Chicago. My mutation had already manifested, but I didn't know that there were other people like me. That was at least until I met a guy by the name of Zachary Johnson." She paused.
"Go on." Ororo said with a reaffirming nod.
"He recruited me I guess you could say, into his all mutant inner circle of this gang. He took me back to this place he called the Palace, It was a pizza place, and introduced me to the other members, one of which was late. There was Johnny Namui, Jeremy Claus, Ashley Valentine, and David McHel." She took a breath. "In the order that I met them. And then there was of course Zachary, the latecomer, and myself. The latecomer turned out to a be a big muscular guy the others all called 'King.' By the way the others treated him I thought he was the leader, but I was wrong. He turned out to be just Zack's enforcer. Well after talking with him a few times, and getting to know him, after a few months, James asked me out. A particularly odd date to be honest, he asked if I wanted to come to his place sometime for dinner with him and his sister."
"Jessica?" Ororo asked.
"Yes." Rebecca nodded. "But even though I was a mutant myself, I had yet to meet a mutant whose mutation was physical." She explained. "And James gave me, no warning."
"What happened?" Ororo asked curiously.
"Well I freaked out. Definitely not one of my prouder moments, but James calmed me down, and explained it to me, and apologized, and we had dinner. One of the worst dinners I've ever had mind you, and then he walked me home." Rebecca said with a smile. "Not one of the best dates I ever went on, but the company was good, and the conversation wonderful. James and I grew rather close. Until about a year or so later."
"What?" Ororo asked raising a brow.
"Well James and Zack had a big falling out, and the other members of the inner circle got pretty involved. James ended up faking his own death, but in order to protect himself, and me, he didn't tell me. I thought he was dead. He blew up this huge warehouse, and I was the only one to meet his sister. I knew something was up when she wasn't at his apartment." Rebecca paused for a breath. "The team fell apart. We all split up and ran in different directions. I headed to New York City, where my brother was living at the time, and eventually ran into James again at an arcade."
"What'd you do?" Ororo asked almost excitedly, now obviously getting into the story.
"Well at first I didn't believe it was him, but when he saw me, he looked directly into my eyes, and then I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt it was him. Thomas had approached him before then and he had joined this new group, I joined up too, and here we are, now engaged." Rebecca said with a smile.
"Sounds romantic." Ororo stated with a smile.
Meanwhile
Kitty was walking down the hall, more than likely on her way to her room, when she passed by the open library door, and the most beautiful music she'd ever heard hit her ears. She stopped in her tracks when singing suddenly joined the music. Perhaps the most angelic voice she'd ever heard. It was a woman's voice, a soprano, the notes were so beautiful, and it was almost tangible.
Then the woman's voice was joined by a man's, singing in tenor. Before she knew it she was standing in the library. The professor was sitting in his wheelchair by the lit fireplace, and Danielle stood by the closed grand piano with a CD player resting atop it. The music and the singing jolted to a sudden halt as Danielle hit the stop button. Both turned and looked at Kitty.
It was like she'd been shaken awake or something, she didn't know what to do or say. "Uh…" Kitty started.
"It's okay Kitty. Come in. Danielle was just allowing me to listen to some of her earlier singing." The professor explained.
"That was you singing on the CD?" Kitty asked, almost shocked.
Danielle nodded silently.
"That was amazing!" Kitty jumped excitedly. "Sing something for us!"
"I can't." Danielle answered, rather mater-of-fact-ly.
"Kitty…" The professor started.
"Oh don't be shy!" Kitty said excitedly, trying to convince her to sing.
"No, I mean I can't." Danielle said as she raised up her chin. "Artificial vocal cords have their limits."
"Oh." Kitty said, now feeling embarrassed, and somewhat ashamed. "I-I'm sorry… I…"
"It's alright." Danielle said with a nod.
"Out of curiosity, who's was the male voice that was singing?" The professor asked.
"That was my boyfriend. Evan." Danielle said with a slight smile. "He lives in Canada now."
"You were both quite good." The professor said with a nod. "Did you take lessons?"
"Mr. Robaldi taught me to sing." Danielle answered. "Or at least he taught me how to use my talents. You met him when you were in New York. It was his music center that we used a lot."
"Amazing." The professor responded. "Perhaps sometime you'll allow me to listen to the whole CD?"
"Sure." Danielle took the CD out of the player. "You can listen to it later if you want." She said as she handed it to him.
"Thank you." The professor said with a nod.
Mike was the next to break into the conversation, he'd been watching Shakespeare with Beast all day but that was finally over so the other people could use the living room. "Have any of you seen Jean?" He asked looking over to the professor.
"I believe she's in the kitchen with Scott, Nathan, and Grace." The professor answered.
"Thanks." Mike said with a nod.
The Kitchen
"So what exactly do you eat anyway?" Jean asked looking over to Nathan. "I mean if you can't eat anything organic…"
Nathan shrugged. "I have no idea." He said shaking his head. "Tom made a concoction that seems to be able to withstand the acid inside my saliva that is digestible in my system, it took a long while to get it right though."
"What did you eat before then?" Scott asked looking over to Nathan. All of them were sitting around the kitchen table. Scott and Jean had dinner on their plates, of some sort of meat loaf and mashed potatoes. Grace had a salad, and Nathan had a can of something or other.
"I didn't." Nathan said shaking his head. "I was getting a bit weaker physically, but for a year or so I didn't have any incoming nutrients. I underwent some tests and found that I'm more like a plant in that respect. I can absorb light and nutrients from the atmosphere, and convert it into energy, but that gives me less energy and nutrients then when I actually eat food. So I still need food, I can just go without it if I wanted to."
"Interesting." Scott said with a slight nod.
"And what about you?" Jean asked looking over to Grace. "Your whole time here I don't think we've ever really talked about you, or your mutation or your past."
"I'm not some THING to be talked about." Grace said as she ate her salad. "I have excellent balance, I had a rather normal growing up life in Pennsylvania, and I like the color blue." She smiled. "Me in a nutshell."
"Okay…" Jean said a little hesitantly.
"Hey Grace. Phone for you. I think it's Elise." Mike said as he came into the kitchen.
"Thanks." Grace smiled as she stood up. "I'll get it in the hall."
A Payphone at the Park
A man stood in a telephone booth just outside Bayville's public park. "I set everything up. No need to worry." He said speaking into the phone. "Did you pick up those gangsters?" He asked the man on the other line. "Good." He said with a devilish smile. "My employer will be arriving here soon, the rest of us are already here and waiting." He paused. "Good. Don't worry. We'll see what they're capable of."
James' Room at Xavier's
James was changing his shirt in his bedroom, a rather large one-bed room that was his for now. Soon the thought came to him that Rebecca would be joining him here. Or would she? Maybe that would move out and get their own place. Or maybe there was like a special room for any married couples. Maybe he would move into her room. But now wasn't the time to think about that.
The message light on his phone was blinking, so he hit the button. "Hey Jimmy. It's me. I finally managed to meet the kid, introduced myself. I don't think he's all that interested though. I'll have to call you back, some guy's trying to- (click)." The phone cut off.
James raised a brow and then shrugged. "Well, he'll call me back. But right now I've got to go talk to Rebecca." He said aloud to himself as he left his room.
Brotherhood Boarding House
"Are we seriously going to do this?" Tabby asked as she came down the stairs.
"Of course we are." Pietro said as he zipped into the living room.
"We ain't cowards. We're going to thrash those geeks." Lance said with a scowl on his face.
"I don't know…" Toad said a bit hesitantly, explaining himself when he got disapproving glares from Lance, Fred, and Pietro. "I mean remember that Chris kid? Maybe they call themselves 'Warriors' for a reason."
"Oh don't be such a baby." Lance said with a smirk. "This might even be easy."
Bayville Public Park, 11:50 P.M
"So where do you think they are?" Will asked as he, John, Joe, and Grace entered the park. With Rogue, Amara, and Elise following somewhat behind.
Will was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, but without socks or shoes. John was opposite, with fancy shoes, khaki pants, and a silk button down collar shirt. Joe was in jeans, a pocket t-shirt, with an open button down long sleeve shirt, and a pair of gloves. And grace was in some Capri pants and a belly shirt.
"I'm sure they'll be here." John said as he looked around.
"If they're not here by ten after is it safe to say they didn't show and just go home?" Joe asked. He really wasn't looking forward to this fight as much as the others.
"We'll see." Will said shaking his head.
Suddenly the jeep pulled up behind that them Amara and Rogue recognized. "They're here." Rogue said looking to Will.
"Good." Will said with a smile. "Let's get this done."
The group gathered in a rather large clearing in the center of the park with some larger trees on the edges and a smaller tree in the center of the clearing.
And eventually the Brotherhood came into view. Just around the bend and into the clearing of the center of the park. It was completely deserted. As was normal for this time of night in this town.
"What the…?" Will, Joe, John, and Grace were laughing so hard, that Amara was so confused. She looked over to the Brotherhood. She couldn't see what they were laughing at; it was just the brotherhood, in their combat uniforms, ready to fight.
"What are you wearing?" Will asked between outbursts of laughter. "You look like you've got a salad bowl on your head!"
Lance scowled. "They're called uniforms!"
"And you call us geeks?" John asked after regaining his composure. "This is going to be easier than I thought."
"Oh yeah?" Lance yelled. The ground beneath them began to shake. John leaped up, a good fifty or so feet into the air, and landed on a rather tall tree, up in the branches. Will did the same thing; only he climbed, sticking to the tree with his bare hands and feet. Grace flipped backwards avoiding the moving earth through a series of gymnastics, and Joe just stood there and took it.
Lance smirked. "See that was enough to send you all running."
Pietro laughed along with Freddy and Tabby.
"Our turn?" Joe asked with a slight smirk on his face. "Come here speedy. Or should I call you lightning with those little stripes on your pajamas?"
Pietro was running at him already, quick as lightning, but Joe's glove was already off. Catching Pietro off guard he punched him in the face as he ran towards him, knocking him down and having blood come from his opponents nose. The girls who were watching, Elise, Rogue, and Amara all winced and looked away.
But now there stood two Pietros one dressed in a 'combat uniform' the other in regular clothes. The one on the ground holding his nose as he stood back up. And the one who was cracking his knuckles as he watched the other stand up. "Ready for a second round?" It was like this Joe was nothing like the one they'd met before, this one wasn't shy, or timid, or friendly, or scared of fighting. This one was out for blood.
Lance made the tree that Will was in fall to the ground, and ran along it as it fell to the base of the trunk and then leapt off with rather gymnastic qualities and landed in front of Lance with a smirk.
John was teasing Tabby and Fred as he landed in front of them with a bow from the tree he had been in. "Care to try your luck?" He asked as he cocked his head.
Tabby smirked and made a rather large bomb, pausing a second before she threw it. What were this guy's powers again? Throwing it she released her mistake when he merely held out a hand and the very bomb she launched was thrown back at her in mid air, exploding in the stomach of the Blob.
Blob smirked. "I think I'll try." He said as he started forward.
John smirked as the giant ran towards him. "The bigger they are." He said with a smirk. "I can't believe I'm going to use this quote." He leaped up at the last second and would've landed on the Blob's head but launched a second field, which propelled him in the air, and then hit the blob and knocked him forward into the dirt. Hard. "The Harder they fall." Blob got up and spit out a rather large mouthful of dirt.
Grace and Toad were having fun as well, swinging, jumping, flipping and fighting through the trees. But Grace had one thing over Toad. She knew martial arts. Giving him a rather hard kick to the stomach both landed on the ground. "Ready to give up?" She asked not really meaning it.
"Sure." Toad said before his tongue came out, and wrapped itself around her ankle, pulling back and bringing her to the ground. Quickly he leapt up and on top of her, placing his hands on her shoulders and pinning her to the ground. "How about you?"
"Nah." Quickly she rolled them up and reversed the situation. "Unlike your group seems to be, we're not afraid of Violence." She raised her fist to punch him in the face, but she was ripped back by Quicksilver, who was suddenly knocked to the ground by another Quicksilver.
Toad spit a wad of slime at her and knocked her down again, but again the Quicksilvers were going at it at super speed, punching, running, zipping, blocking each other. "Had enough?" The one dressed in regular clothes asked the other.
"Never." Quicksilver answered arrogantly. Smirking they both went back at it.
Lance was getting aggravated at this point; he couldn't seem to get his hands on Will. They'd left the clearing now, and were in and amongst the trees. Will was like a squirrel, he kept climbing and disappearing, Lance couldn't get to him. "Get down here!"
"As you wish." Said a voice from behind him, turning he was kicked to the ground and his helmet flew off as Will drop kicked him.
Lance shook his head. "Ow… This isn't right! That's not how the X-Men fight!"
"They don't fight. They use their powers to stop you from fighting and using yours. We don't do that. We have one way to win a fight. Hit them until they stop." Will said with a smirk. That wasn't true, that wasn't their only tactic, but this had been Joe's plan, to scare them, to shake them awake. And it was working. Quicksilver was bleeding from his nose, and was going to have several bruises. Tabby was already a little roughed up, and Toad was screaming like a banshee and doing everything he could to stay away from Grace.
"Get back here!" Grace yelled as she ran after him.
Quicksilver looked over to Toad seeing him ran away shook his head. "Enough of this." He said with a smirk, and zipped off, passing Toad in the retreat.
Blob was still roaring and ready to go, just getting Angry at John who kept leaping up and avoiding him, but Tabby grabbed him and led him away, they didn't want to get hurt, but they were. The Warriors were actually fighting. Fist to fist.
Lance stood up, all alone. With a hateful glare in his eyes to Will.
"Get going while you still can. Or should I call John over here to break your legs?" Will asked with a mean little smirk on his face.
"I'll do it." Quicksilver's voice said behind him. Turning Lance saw that it was Pietro wearing Joe's clothes, or in better words, it was Joe in a copy of Quicksilver's body.
Lance shook his head. "Forget this."
Xavier's Mansion
"What can I do for ya?" Logan asked as he answered the door, looking to a rather punk-looking twenty something guy, who's Harley was parked in the driveway.
"Hey. I'm looking for a Rebecca Holden?" The man said with a smile.
"Who are you?" Logan asked a little shortly.
"Oh, just tell her that the god of war is here to see her." Mat said with a smile.