More Madness at the Mall
"They've been in there a long time," Kitty reported as she returned to the kitchen. "What could Fury and those people from SHEILD talk about with Doug for so long?"
"Probably all those things he saw when he was in the Hellions," Jean told her. Jean, Jubilee, Rachel, Danielle, Rogue and Amara were also in the kitchen having a snack.
"Someone like Doug could be very valuable," Rachel frowned. "I remember back in my time mutants with translating skills and inventing skills were even more prized than telepaths."
"You don't think they'd really take Doug do you?" Kitty thought aloud. "I mean he hasn't done anything!"
"Wise up Kitty," Rouge said. "He was part of an organization that makes the Mafia look like a disorganized Boy Scouts troop."
"Yeah but he didn't know!" Kitty said. "And he left them! That's gotta mean something!"
"Don't worry," Jean put her hand on Kitty's shoulder. "We took in Rina so Doug should be no problem. It'll all work out, I promise."
"Speaking of things working out, how's your therapy going Rachel?" Kitty asked.
Rachel sighed. She looked more comfortable in a yellow top and jeans than she did in her old uniform. "Okay, I mean for onlytwo day's worth of work we covered a lot. But I don't think the Professor is very happy with me. I mean this power I have can cause a lot of trouble."
"You said that you possessed something called a Phoenix Force and you inherited it from me…"Jean began.
"I don't know the whole story myself but I do know you had tapped into that power and the ability to do so could be inherited from mother to daughter," Rachel said. "But I do know that it's part of the very life force of the entire universe."
"That sounds like a lot of power," Rogue said.
"It is," Rachel said. "Even when I went out of control back in Bayville I was doing all I could to hold on. That was only a small fraction of it. A few more minutes and I think I would have lost it completely."
"We all know Jean's pretty powerful," Danielle said. "But it's hard for us to imagine that kind of power."
"You weren't here when Jean's powers went haywire during some of her surges," Rogue said. "Or some of my episodes. Believe me, that kind of power is no laughing matter."
"And if you can't control it..." Jean began then stopped.
"Well isn't this a depressing conversation?" Jubilee groaned.
"We seem to have a lot of those lately," Danielle admitted. "But what else can we do?"
"Plenty! Let's go to the mall and really have some fun!" Jubilee said.
"Hello? We can't! We're practically banned from the Bayville Mall," Kitty told her. "Which totally sucks because they have a great sale at Lord and Taylor's!"
"So we'll go to another mall," Jubilee said. "One where they don't know us!"
"Which mall?" Jean asked.
"We have a few friends who could teleport us anywhere!" Jubilee said.
"Yeah we could go to any mall we want!" Danielle said.
"Well it would be fun to get out of the Institute for a bit," Jean said. "Maybe we should ask the Professor…"
"Jean, you're practically a teacher here," Rogue said. "You don't need permission."
"I am a teacher here," Jean corrected Rogue. "I see your point but still…" She looked at Rachel. "You know what? Let's do it."
"Do what?" Tabitha asked as she walked in with Dead Girl and Blink.
"Going to the mall," Jubilee said. "If Blink doesn't mind doing us a little favor."
"Favor?" Blink asked.
"What kind of favor?" Althea asked as she walked in with Wanda.
"Blink could transport a lot of us to the mall," Kitty said.
"We could use our teleportation watches too," Wanda said. "Which mall?"
"How about that really big one with the Ferris Wheel in New York?" Danielle asked.
"Oh yeah I heard about that!" Wanda said.
"It would be kind of fun," Rogue said. "I am going stir crazy. Even a mall would be a nice change. But don't we need a chaperone or something?"
"Well Blink here's an adult right?" Althea asked.
"I'm twenty," Blink said. "And TJ is 21. I know she'd love to come."
"There you are," Tabitha said. "Two chaperones."
"Look I'll tell Scott where we're going and get a few image inducers," Jean said. "As long as we keep our powers under control and don't attract attention we should be okay. Go find the other girls and see if any of them wants to come."
"Don't worry Jean," Tabitha said. "What could happen?"
"You always say that and something always does happen," Amara groaned. "Remember the cruise ship from hell with the hostile passengers and the erupting volcano?"
"Yeah but this time we're just going to a mall," Tabitha said. "How bad could it be?"
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"Gee Karl you couldn't think of anywhere more original to ditch school than go to the mall?" A tall black haired teenage thug growled. Six teens surrounded a thin boy with spiked green hair and punk black clothes. They were in the alley next door so no one could see him.
"Seemed like a good idea at the time…" He grumbled.
"I don't know what you did to my sister Lykos," One very beefy teen snarled. "Tanya was unconscious all night! Now what drug did you slip her?"
"I didn't do anything, Rex!" Karl snapped. "Leave me alone, or else!"
"Or else what?" One thug asked.
"You really don't wanna know," Karl snarled.
"You tell me what you did you little freak!" Rex grabbed him by the shirt and slammed him against the wall.
"How about I show you instead?" Karl snarled and grabbed Rex by the hands. His eyes started to glow.
"Wh-what are you doing…?" Rex gasped then fell unconscious.
"Who wants to go next?" Karl grinned.
"He's a mutie!" One of them shouted.
"Get him!" Another shouted and rushed him. Only to be grabbed by Karl and to fall unconscious as well.
"Freaking hell…" Another teen shouted. "I'm outta here!"
"We're gonna tell everyone what you are mutie!" The first teen snarled as he ran away. "We'll be back!" The teens ran off.
"Yeah and I'll be waiting!" Karl snarled. He looked down and kicked Rex in the side. "Losers." He quickly skulked away and ran off towards the mall. "They're all losers. Who needs them? Who needs this town?"
Suddenly he saw a flash of light. Instinctively Karl flattened himself against the wall and hid. Then he heard laughter. He looked around and saw several teenage girls had appeared out of nowhere. "Oh man like this is a total trip!" One of them with a brown ponytail giggled.
"Nothing like a ride on the Mutant Express," Another said. She had pink hair. Holding up her wrist she remarked. "Thanks for the image inducers Jean."
"No problem Blink," A tall red head said. "Well ladies? Ready to go shopping?"
"Wow, so this is a mall huh?" A red head with short hair spoke. She looked exactly like the red head with long hair.
"Girl you are in for a treat!" A girl with blonde hair and a zest for life laughed as they went inside.
"They must be mutants…" Karl thought. "Yeah they gotta be." He decided to follow them.
After all, what could happen?"
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"Now remember guys we don't want to attract any attention," Jean told them. "So no powers and don't cause any scenes! Got it?"
"No problem," Tabitha waved. "HELLO BOYS! WE HAVE ARRIVED!" She jumped up and waved up and down. "Come on Amara! DG! Let's party!"
"Now you're talking," Dead Girl grinned. Her image inducer let her look like she had Caucasian skin instead of her normal green pallor.
"You were saying?" Kitty gave Jean a look as the girls went off to go shopping.
"Well as long as they don't blow anything up," Jean rolled her eyes.
"Wow even I gotta admit this mall is pretty cool," Rogue said as she saw all the stores.
"They never had shops like this back in England that's for sure," Betsy remarked.
"It's kind of a drag Althea and I are the only two Misfit Girls here," Wanda remarked. "Too bad the others had to do training back at the Pit."
"Hey! How about we check out the Ferris Wheel?" Althea said. "And you can check out that guy who's been giving you the eye."
"What? Where?" Wanda looked around.
"Back there," Althea pointed with her thumb. "He's kind of cute too, in a dark and brooding kind of way. HEY YOU! YEAH YOU WITH THE GREEN HAIR! COME ON OUT!"
"Althea!" Wanda shouted.
"Yo ho!" Althea waved her hand. "Over he-ere!"
"Will you cut that out?" Wanda hissed.
"No use hiding behind that tree there!" Althea shouted. "She can see you!"
"Althea!" Wanda snapped. "You're embarrassing me! AAGGHH!" She gasped as Althea grabbed her arm and dragged her towards the boy.
"Hi there!" Althea said to the green haired boy. "I'm Althea and she's Wanda! What's your name?"
"Uh…Karl," The boy gulped.
"Hi Karl," Althea grinned. "This is Wanda! Cute isn't she?"
"AL!" Wanda snapped.
"Now how about you two get to know each other better?" Althea grabbed them both by the shoulders and steered them towards the Ferris Wheel. "How about somewhere where you can talk and not be disturbed?"
"Hold on! Wait a minute!" Wanda protested. "You are severely disturbed!"
"Uh, wait a second…" Karl gulped. "I don't like heights!"
"Have fun now!" Althea said as she shoved them both into the Ferris Wheel. "Rev it up!" She shouted out to the attendant, who simply agreed.
"ALTHEA! YOU ARE A DEAD WOMAN" Wanda screamed as the Ferris Wheel moved. "YOU HEAR ME YOU MENTAL CASE? DEAD! DEAD! DEAD!"
Meanwhile not far away Jean had just bought Rachel a bracelet. "Here put it on," Jean said. It was a crystal bracelet. "See I have one too."
"You didn't have to…" Rachel began.
"I wanted to," Jean told her. "I think you should have something from your…Well, from me anyway. It's not much, but at least you'll have something to remember me by."
"Thank you," Rachel hugged her. "You know, I always wondered what it would be like. Having a day like this with you. You have no idea how much this means to me."
"I…I'm glad," Jean said.
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"I am going to kill her!" Wanda folded her arms as she glared out the window of the Ferris Wheel. "She is gonna be so dead…" She looked at the boy next to her. "Uh, sorry about my friend. She's a little…insane. Then again, it's hereditary. I know her family."
"Oh that's okay," Karl felt a strange attraction to this girl. "So…You're a mutant right?"
"How'd you know that?" Wanda gasped.
"I…I can just tell," Karl said. "I think I'm one too…" He had to touch her. He had to show her. Before he could stop himself he grabbed her hand.
"Hey! What are you…" Wanda gasped. Suddenly she felt very weak. Like all her energy was being drained.
"Yes…You are different," Karl gasped. "Mutant energy…So powerful…So strong…So….AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Suddenly his body began to convulse and change. The last thing Wanda saw before she passed out was Karl turning green and start to change shape.
"This has been one of the best days of my life," Rachel grinned as she ate an ice cream cone. "I never even had a real ice cream cone before."
"I'm glad we did this," Jean grinned. "Not just for us, but for all the girls here. Nobody knows we're mutants, no screaming, no fighting…just peace."
"Enjoy it while it lasts," Rogue said as she walked up with a few more girls. "We don't get a lot of it."
"The Exiles don't exactly get bored a lot either," Blink said. "There's always some bad guy or disturbance going on just when we least need it."
"A MONSTER! THERE'S A MONSTER UP THERE!" Someone screamed.
"RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" Another man shouted.
"RUN! RUN WEAKLINGS!" A giant pterodactyl like creature with wings and a long green tail climbed on top of the Ferris Wheel cackling.
"Like that…" Blink sighed.
"Does everyone see what I see?" Danielle asked.
"You mean that giant green pterodactyl in shorts on the Ferris Wheel?" Blink pointed. "Yeah we see him."
"Just so we're clear, you don't find them in malls in this timeline right?" Rachel gulped.
"You don't find them in any timeline, except maybe the Flintstones," Tabitha said.
"Ferris Wheel? WANDA!" Althea shouted. "Oh no!"
The creature held Wanda in his hands. "Yes! Mutant life energy is the key! The key to my power!"
"LET HER GO!" Althea shouted. She focused her powers on a nearby fountain and used the water to blast the creature. He squawked letting her go. Rogue flew up and grabbed Wanda in mid air and brought her down.
"There was another kid up there! Wanda was with him!" Althea said as she took her friend from Rogue.
"I didn't see anyone else," Rogue said. "I'll go back up and…"
"Wait…" Betsy used her powers. "The only presence I sense is the creature's…AGGGHHH!"
"Foolish mortal!" The creature snapped. "Telepathic assaults are useless on me!"
"He…He blocked my probe!" Betsy gasped. The creature jumped up and flew straight at them.
"Perish!" He screamed shooting out some kind of force beam from his mouth. It missed the mutants but hit several stores, creating a lot of rubble.
"Well you can't say we started something this time!" Kitty said to Jean as she phased through some of the rubble.
"Typical," Rogue moaned. "We can't go anywhere without something going wrong or some crazed mutant showing up!"
"I am Sauron!" The creature that was Karl shouted as he shot out several more force beams.
"And I am ticked off!" Rogue flew up and went towards him. "Listen you prehistoric Tweety Bird, I am gonna clip your wings!"
"I think not!" Sauron laughed as he dodged Rogue's blows. "WHAT?" Suddenly he was held in place by a telekinetic grab.
"I can only hold him so long!" Jean shouted.
"I'll help!" Rachel held onto him too with her powers.
"Let me go!" Sauron struggled.
"Now just hold still," Rogue took off her glove and reached for his face. "And…AGGHHHH!" She got a huge shock when she touched him. Enough for her to blank out for a moment and to fall to the ground.
"Rogue!" Jean let go of her hold on Sauron in order to catch her telekinetically.
"HAHAHAHAAHA!" Sauron broke free of Rachel's hold and flew upward.
"Are you okay?" Kitty asked her friend.
"Yeah…Just a bit surprised that's all. He…He can drain mutant energy too! It's like we canceled each other out," Rogue told them. "But I did get one thing. That thing's another personality of another mutant. A kid. Someone named Karl."
"Oh no…" Althea thought. "Tell me I didn't…Oh great!"
"What did you do?" Kitty glared at her.
"Let's just say that my idea for some matchmaking backfired big time," Althea groaned.
"SUFFER!" Sauron screeched as he made more force beams, blasting everything and at everyone in sight. The mutants dodged the attack as best they could.
"Fry you overgrown turkey!" Amara fired up and used her powers to throw fireballs at Sauron.
Sauron dodged them easily. He made a nosedive at Amara and managed to grab her with his talons. "More energy! More power!"
"UGGGHH!" Amara grunted as she felt her strength being drained. Using what little reserves she had, she converted to her Magma form for a few moments.
"HOT!" Sauron screamed as he dropped her. Amara returned to her regular form just before Nocturne caught her.
"We really have to stop meeting like this," She quipped as she ran out of the way of Sauron's blast attack.
"Here! Cool off!" Althea shouted as she directed another blast of water at Sauron. She managed to get a few good hits before Sauron used his force beam to blow up the fountain and seal the water main shut. Althea used what little water was left to make water cannon balls at Sauron. "Okay, I'm gonna need help here!"
Sauron made a swoop towards Tabitha and Jubilee. Both of them used their powers to blind him. "AGGGHH! WHEN I GET MY TALONS ON YOU!" He screamed.
"Oh no you don't!" Rachel hovered into the air. She turned fire red and flames seemed to emit from her body. "Let's see how you can handle a real bird of power!"
Then the shape of a phoenix was formed and it blasted Sauron through several columns and into a wall, where he crumpled to the ground. "Scratch one birdie…" Rachel said as she powered down.
Suddenly a laser shot fired at her. She barely put up a force field in time. A huge group of brown armor clad soldiers stormed in, firing weapons at them. "What is this? A Big Blow Up Mutants Sale?" Kitty gasped as she phased through an electrified net just in time.
"GET THE MUTANTS!" One of the troopers shouted.
"I can't make telepathic contact!" Betsy said.
"Neither can I! They're blocking us somehow!" Jean said as the mutant girls ran.
"Not them…" Rachel gasped as she saw the armored figures. "Not them! We have to run!"
"But the mutant…" Kitty said.
"We'll have to come back for him later," Jean said. "Come on! Let's get out of here! Blink!"
"You don't have to tell me twice!" Blink told them. "Hang on!"
Thanks to Blink and Althea's teleportation watch they managed to transport themselves several miles away on top of a roof. They watched the commotion from where they were. "Wanda? Wanda? Speak to me!" Althea tried to shake her friend awake.
"Uh…Al?" Wanda moaned.
"Wanda!" Althea shouted for joy. "Are you okay?"
"Al…promise me something…" Wanda said weakly. Then with a strength she never knew before she wrapped her hands around Althea's throat. "NEVER DO THAT TO ME AGAIN!"
"AGGGHHH!" Althea gasped. "Come on…urk…Wanda…How was I…gasp…Supposed to know…Urrrkkkk…"
"You know for someone who nearly bought it, she's got a strong grip," Dead Girl remarked.
"Well you should know," Betsy said.
"Hey those soldier boys got mean and green locked down tight," Tabitha reported as she looked through a pair of binoculars.
"Where'd you get those binoculars?" Jean asked. "On second thought I don't want to know."
"I swiped them during the fight," Tabitha said.
"I told you I didn't want to know!" Jean snapped.
"Wanda…Stop choking me…AAGGGKK!" Althea was trying to fight Wanda off.
"NEVER! NEVER! NEVER! NEVER! NEVER!" Wanda screamed as she throttled her friend. "NEVER! NEVER! NEVER!"
"Wanda knock it off!" Kitty phased Althea from her grasp. "Save it for the guys who were trying to kill us!"
"Like those crazy commandos down there. Who were those guys?" Rogue asked.
"All I could make out was the letters GRSO," Tabitha told them as she handed over the binoculars to her. "Wonder what they stand for?"
"Genetic Research and Security Organization," Rachel told them.
"You know about them?" Rogue asked.
"Yes," Rachel's face grew hard. "In my time they were the ones who sent the Sentinels to hunt mutants. They were the organization in charge of hunting mutants and experimenting on them. Until the Sentinels started turning them into cyborgs under their control."
"That explains why they were so prepared against us and that Sauron creep," Amara grumbled.
"Oh…Goody," Blink groaned. "Just what we need in this dimension. When are we leaving again?"
"We have to get back and tell the others about this," Jean said.
"Jean I saw some news cameras," Dead Girl said. "Odds are they already know."
"Oh goody," Tabitha remarked as they teleported away. "Won't that make for some lovely conversations when we get home!"
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Meanwhile somewhere in a hidden sanctuary, another mutant had felt the presence of the Phoenix Force. "No…" She whispered as she observed the news reports. "It can't be…"
She went to a crystal and focused on it. "This is the same power but it's not from this time. It's displaced…Then there's still a chance that…"
"My lady!" A Bacchae walked in and knelt. "I have news."
"I told you not to disturb me!" She roared.
"Forgive me, but this is urgent," The Bacchae handed her a piece of paper. "I thought you would want to see this for yourself."
She read the paper and her eyes widened. "Is this true? Is this what Shaw is planning?"
"Yes my lady, our intelligence has confirmed it. They've found it but have not excavated the crystal. Not yet anyway."
"And they won't, unless…" She thought. "You were right to bring this to my attention. Leave me." The Bacchae did so.
"Fools…" She muttered to herself. "Infinite power is one thing, but even this is far beyond mere mortals grasp!"
And for the first time in centuries, the Black Queen was afraid.
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Sauron snarled and tried to remove his restraints. Although he still had enough mutant energy in his system he knew it would not last forever. Karl was already trying to break through his mind.
"No…" Sauron snarled. "No…I will not go back to the darknessss."
"Shut up freak," The GRSO guard in the transport prodded him with his rifle. "Where you're going it'll be plenty dark." Suddenly the vehicle halted to a violent stop. "What the…?"
Suddenly the roof of the truck opened up like a sardine can. "What the hell…" The guard readied his rifle only to have it take out of his hand.
"I'll take that if you don't mind," Magneto spoke as he wrapped the rifle around the guard and threw him to the side of the wall.
"Who are you?" Sauron hissed.
"I am Magneto," He spoke. "And your savior…"
"Yessss…" Sauron's eyes narrowed. "Great power…You have great…Uk!" He gasped as Magneto used his abilities to lift Sauron in his metal restraints out of the truck. There were two metal spheres nearby and they floated towards them.
"I think I'll keep you in those restraints until I know precisely how your powers work," Magneto spoke as he lowered Sauron into the metal sphere. He closed it up and went into his own sphere.
Next: Things just seem to keep going downhill and they're not gonna stop! What else is new?