The Attack of the Black Queen
Amara couldn't prevent her knees from knocking. "Selene…"
"That's right Princess," Selene hissed as she slunk closer to her prey. "Did you really think your family wouldn't escape my wrath? Especially since that fool of a father allowed you to leave Nova Roma?"
"My father is a great and powerful leader!" Amara shouted hotly. "Like my grandmother! She defeated you before!"
"Well, she's not here now is she Princess? Selene grinned evilly as she traced one of her fingernails on her cheek. "And you're completely at my mercy."
"My friends will find me! And they'll defeat you witch!" Amara defied her.
"I doubt it. The only reason I don't tear the flesh from your bones right now is because it would be much more satisfying to do it in front of your grandmother," Selene hissed. "But I think I can amuse myself in other ways…"
"That's enough Selene," A familiar voice barked behind her.
"Why am I not surprised?" Selene sighed in a tired voice. Evan and the Hellions were behind her. "I should have known the White Queen would have sent her brats in to interfere."
"Evan?" Amara blinked.
"Look Selene, this is nothing personal," Evan sighed. "But we have our orders from Frost and Shaw. Just give us Magma and…"
"Fool! You have no idea what sort of forces the Hellfire Club will unleash!" Selene snapped. "I'm trying to save your pathetic lives!"
"The only pathetic one I see is you!" Warpath snarled.
"Oh you are going to pay for that boy!" Selene waved her arm. Several Fire Demons appeared and attacked.
"Remember your training!" Evan shouted as he took several spherical objects from his belt. He tossed them at the Fire Demons. They exploded and the demons were covered in steam, then foam, and then ice. More demons appeared and the Hellions dispatched them in similar fashion.
"What? How did you...?" Selene shouted.
"These little do hickeys the Beta team cooked up make your fire demons as effective as wet matchsticks!" Beef shouted.
"Did you really think we wouldn't be prepared after all the data we have on you?" Evan asked her.
"That was only the warm up," Selene told him. "This is the real show!" Immediately shots of dark energy shot out and crackled from her hands. It crackled all around the Hellions.
"BARRIER CARD!" Tarot shouted, creating a huge barrier around the Hellions, protecting them from the dark magic. The barrier disappeared when the dark magic seemed to fizzle.
"Impressive Tarot," Selene hissed. She prepared another blast. "Too bad it only works once!"
ENOUGH!
A telepathic assault startled Selene. The energy ball fizzled in her hands. "You!" She sneered at the figure emerging from the shadows.
"Did you really think I would send my Hellions in to fight you alone?" Emma growled. "They were my warm up!"
"And did you really think that they'd be much of a challenge to me?" Selene shouted as she cast some kind of ray from her fingers.
Emma changed into diamond form so that the ray bounced harmlessly off her. "Don't be a fool Selene," Emma said. "What do you hope to accomplish by going directly against the Inner Circle like this? I thought you were smarter than that."
"Desperate times call for desperate measures," Selene told her. "You shall never retrieve the M'Krran Crystal if I can help it!"
"Why? According to legend it is the key to absolute power! Power that rightfully belongs in the hands of the Hellfire Club!" Emma asked.
"I think she just wants all the power for herself," Monet snorted.
"Idiots! You don't know how dangerous that thing really is! It's nothing less than a key to the destruction of the entire planet! Maybe even our solar system! Even I don't wish that!" Selene shouted.
"All those years we've been searching…You knew all along where it was didn't you?" Emma's eyes narrowed as she reverted to her normal form.
"Who do you think hid it in that volcano centuries ago?" Selene told her.
"I didn't want it to come to this," Emma sighed. "But you give me no choice." Then she gave out a full telepathic assault on Selene.
"Really Emma? Do you really think your pathetic powers can harm me?" Selene cackled. "Your telepathic assault is useless on me!"
"Then why are you sweating?" Emma snarled. "Selene…This is your final warning! If you resist me further…You will be turning your back on your oath to the Hellfire Club! You'll be thrown out! You will no longer be the Black Queen! Surely you can put your revenge on hold long enough for us to accomplish our goal! Is your thirst for vengeance blinding you?"
"No…" Selene hissed. "It's merely a perk!" She sent another lightning bolt from her fingers. Emma dodged it. "Fine! I wanted to do this properly, but since that's not possible I'll kill her right now!"
"No you won't!" Emma continued her assault even more. "Hellions! Protect Magma and secure her! She's too valuable to our cause!"
"Oh no you don't!" Selene shot out another ray, but this one was directed at Amara.
In an instant before anyone could react Kurt teleported in with Jean. They appeared before Amara. Jean barely managed to create a shield just in time. The Misfits and X-Men then barged into the cave. "Just what I need! More pests!" Selene hissed. She created another barrage of dark magic.
"Hellions! Attack!" Emma shouted. The Hellions used their powers on Selene but she seemed to deflect most of them easily. Her dark magic easily blasted at her attackers, scattering them.
"These guys are on our side?" Fred asked.
"Just shut up and help us defeat the witch!" Monet snapped. "She wants Amara dead!"
"Whatever you do, don't let her touch you!" Evan shouted.
"No problem!" Pietro zoomed around and created a mini tornado around Selene. However she managed to counter the attack and shot a force blast sending Pietro into the cave wall! "Whoa!"
"Okay, time for me to bring down the house!" Lance shot out a tremor.
"Are you nuts?" Beef shouted as the cave shuddered. "You'll cause a cave in!"
Selene blindly shot out a blast that threw Lance across the cave. "Time to recharge!" She hovered over him preparing to do something vile. Selene stopped and stared at Lance. "No…It can't be…" She gasped.
That moment of distraction was all Evan needed. He shot his spike out and it hit her shoulder. "AIEEEE!" Selene screamed.
Monet! Celandine! NOW! Emma coordinated a telepathic assault that sent Selene screaming to her knees.
"Even you can't fight off three telepaths at once!" Evan shouted.
"Make it four!" Jean joined in the assault. Even with all her power, Selene could not fight this many enemies while wounded and distracted.
"This isn't over!" Selene hissed clutching her shoulder as she seemed to dissipate into a black shadow and disappeared.
"Is it over?" Rahne asked.
"I think so…" Lance let out a breath.
"Why did she looked so freaked when she saw you?" Evan asked Lance.
"I haven't a clue," Lance shrugged.
"Well in that case…HELLIONS! ATTACK!" Evan shouted. Immediately the Hellions started to attack the X-Men and Misfits.
"You backstabbing…" Rogue snarled as she charged ahead. She punched Warpath clear across the cave.
Roulette used her powers to create black disks, which bounced around the cave walls and hit the mutants. "Watch out!" Scott shouted as his powers accidentally hit a huge section of the cave ceiling. A rather medium pile of rubble rained down on them.
"SMOKE CARD!" Tarot stuck out a card and it changed to a strange cloud. Soon none of the X-Men or Misfits could see. Monet and Emma used a psychic attack to temporary stun them. When the smoke finally cleared the Hellions had gone.
And so had Amara.
"Damn it!" Roberto shouted. "They got away!"
"Not all of 'em," Sam pointed to a dazed Warpath. "Looks like your buddies left you behind."
A sound of a jet could be heard outside. Kurt teleported away then back. "They took off! I couldn't teleport fast enough to follow them!"
"Maybe we can," Althea started to fiddle with the buttons to the teleportation watches. "What the…?"
"Mine's not working either," Pietro fiddled with his.
"Great, our teleportation watches are fizzled out!" Wanda groaned. "Must have happened when Roulette hit us with one of those black disks!"
"No biggie," Arcade said. "Kitty and I can have them up and running in under two hours. Trinity showed me how they work."
"So we're stuck here?" Lance folded his arms. "Great! Just great!"
"I tell you one thing," Sam grumbled. "I am seriously getting sick of the Hellfire Club trying to make our lives miserable!"
"Well from where I'm sitting they're doing a pretty good job of it," Rahne told him. "They got Amara! Again!"
"Okay who the hell was the lady in black? And what's going on?" Lance looked at Warpath.
"Her name is Selene, the Black Queen of the Hellfire Club," Warpath grunted.
"Oh this just keeps getting better," Sam groaned. "Now we have a White and Black Queen to deal with!"
"If The Black Queen and the Hellions are on the same side, why were they fighting?" Tabitha asked.
"Simple stupid," Warpath growled. "Selene was going against orders. The Hellfire Club wanted Magma alive for a reason."
"What reason?" Logan roared as he shot his claws out at him. "You'd better give us some answers, Bub!"
"Or what? You'll kill me like you killed my brother?" Warpath snarled.
"We didn't kill Thunderbird," Logan growled. "Proteus did that."
"Funny, I thought you said he died when the Tin Man over there slammed a car on top of him," Warpath said sarcastically. Peter looked sad at that comment.
"It wasn't his fault!" Kitty shouted. "Proteus had taken over your brother's body and was going to kill us and an entire town full of people! There was no other way!"
"Yeah right," Warpath growled. "Like I'll believe anything you say. If you're going to kill me, you might as well do it. I'm not going to tell you anything. Apaches don't fear death. And you can forget about reading my mind. Ms. Frost prepared us all for that."
"He's right," Jean sighed. "There are mind blocks. They're just as strong as the Professor's."
"Well Miss High and Mighty didn't prepare you for everything!" Rogue said as she removed her glove and tapped Warpath on the face. Warpath passed out.
"Does he really think the X-Men are responsible for Thunderbird's death?" Angelica asked. "That's crazy."
"Yeah…He's real broken up about his brother," Rogue sighed. "Frost really played on his grief and anger to get him to join up."
"Yeah well as sad as that is, those creeps have Amara," Roberto snapped. "So where is she and what do they want with her?"
"You're not gonna believe this…" Rogue told him.
Next: The situation really gets hot and explosive!