Author's Notes: We now have a Misfit-Verse forum in the forum section of the "X-Men: Evolution" subsection, so any questions or anything you wish to discuss, feel free to post! Many thanks to Theodore Hawkwood for creating it! And Happy Holidays, everyone! Enjoy my Christmas present to you with this chapter! (And I have to go to a party in ten minutes!) Merry Christmas!
CHAPTER 5: Worlds Collide
"Metal pipes!" Paige yelled as she held out her hand, palm upwards, at a nearby dumpster that had a small but adequate collection of jagged, pointed metal rods, reddish from years of rust. With s soft noise and a flurry of white sparks, Paige telekinetically orbed the pointed pipes in front of her, hovering in front of her via the Whitelighter magical aura. With a fling of her hand, the Charmed Wiccan pushed the makeshift javelins at the monstrous fiend and the projectiles bulleted forward, a small cloud of lethal barbs.
Spluck!
The Heartless faltered a bit backwards as Paige and the Slayers looked on at her handiwork. Each and every one of the pipes had struck its mark, and now the living beast has metal shafts protruding out of its face, head, and chest like a deranged porcupine, and out of the torn and punctured flesh was some slight bleeding, dark liquid like tar. Yet if anything, it just made the Heartless madder before it gave a shriek of rage and charged, swinging its gargantuan arms. Paige gasped before she grabbed Phoebe and Piper and orbed all three of them out of the way right before one of the clawed hands came crashing down a split-second later, and with a furious discharge of rock and concrete, the Heartless made a deep impression in the ground. Paige grimaced as she and her sisters orbed a safe distance from behind; those arms must have weighed as much as a car, and even a glancing blow from one of the monster's limbs could mean them having every bone broken in their body.
"Yikes, I think I made it madder!" gulped Paige.
"Gee, what was your first clue?" Faith snapped as she and the other Slayers sprang into action. Shannon aimed and fired her crossbow shaft into the Heartless' right eye, scoring a direct hit while Faith, in a brilliant and exceptional move of acrobatics, jumped from the wall corner of the alley to a nearby fire escape ladder. Scurrying upwards up the metal rungs until she was just high enough, Faith took a flying leap as she drew another wooden stake from her jacket and brought it down hard on the monster's head.
The Heartless arched back and roared as Faith drove home the wooden stick into its right eye, blinding it, and Faith took a flying leap before the Heartless could attempt to claw her off.
Andrew was nervous as he gingerly and awkwardly held a wooden staff in his hands; this was one of the first times he had ever been in battle before, and truth be told, even when he was sent to fetch Dana, he wasn't truly impressive or spectacular. And since the less than thrilling success with anything sharp or pointy in past sessions (though to be fair, Willow managed to sow Giles' ear back in place), Wood decided it would be best if for this mission, Andrew was given something less of a danger to himself that he couldn't accidentally cut with. Willow nodded as she started to invoke her magic.
"Just stay behind and help me out if that thing gets too close before I can use a spell on it, Andrew!" Willow said as her hair turned as white as fallen snow and her eyes became glassy and glazed, a testament to her now transformed state of being a future Guardian since invoking the hallowed Scythe, using her magic to blast the creature of darkness.
"Adustum Vulcanus Inflammo!" Willow chanted, invoking her spell of the fires of the Roman fire-god to set the Heartless alight. Immediately, several fireballs emerged from Willow's hand, and she flung them at the ogre, each spark growing and swelling in size until four large supernovas hammered down on the creature. There was a furious swirl of fire and wind and the Heartless shrieked, but to Willow's astonishment, it had no effect. Though a little singed and smoking vile plumes of smoke, the Heartless charged at Willow and Andrew.
"Oh holy crap!" whimpered Andrew, looking as if he was going to wet his pants right then and there. However, Chao-Ahn was ready to pick up the slack as she rushed by with her axe from behind and delivered a furious swipe with her Slayer strength, neatly decapitating the foot off the abomination's leg, and the Heartless stumbled a bit as it fell forward, now having nothing but a bloody stump.
Kennedy then saw her chance as Chao-Ahn back-flipped to safety.
"I have an idea! Wait for my signal!" Kennedy exclaimed at Rona and Dana before she gripped her swords firmly with both hands before she rushed towards the Heartless. With a leap, Kennedy stabbed the Heartless, driving her sword right through the hand and pinning it to the concrete, the metal blade now firmly stuck and jamming the creature's appendage to the ground. The Heartless roared before it swiped with its other hand and before Kennedy could do anything, she was sent flying from the impact of the blow and crashed against the wall before she fell, limp and bleeding from her head and chest.
"Kennedy!" screamed Willow and Faith as Rona and Dana rushed together, blitzing the Heartless with a flurry of punches and kicks and jabs while Shannon sent another crossbow shaft to the Heartless' head. Then suddenly, several Batarangs flew down before they embedded deep into the monster's flesh, distracting it as the dark fiend howled in pain from the sharp projectiles lodged into its throat, and the other warriors gasped as Batgirl swung down.
"Mind if I join in?" Batgirl said rhetorically as she sent an explosive Batarang this time to discharge furiously on the beast's shoulder.
"Who are you?" Faith asked suspiciously.
"Whoa! Hey, ease up you guys! I recognize her! She's a good guy, uh, girl! She's a member of the Justice League!" Andrew shouted, now looking so gleeful, it was as if Christmas had come early, for a moment forgetting his precarious position in a battlefield. Suddenly, the Heartless managed to wrench its hand free from Kennedy's swords, but before it could try to kill Wood who was nearby, a hail of bullets halted it in its tracks.
The Watcher turned, and to his surprise, he saw a soldier holding a smoking machine gun. The face had aged considerably and seen more than its share of battle and warfare, but Wood could recognize that face anywhere.
"Well, I'll be damned! Marvin?" gasped Wood, nearly dropping his sword and not even daring to believe it. Roadblock gave a wide grin, a sure sign of their happier past memories.
"The one and only, Wood, and sorry to jump in, but you'd be killed where you stood. I'd hate to just shoot and not catch up on old times, but we have to get rid of this Heartless, And I hope ya' don't mind! You all seemed to be in a little bad fix, so me and my machine gun should settle this conflict!" the Joe soldier versed simply as he reloaded his machine gun with a final click.
Faith gave Roadblock a very odd look before she turned to Wood and asked, "Friend of yours?"
Wood nodded as he flung another set of ninja stars, aiming at the legs of the enemy Heartless this time, as he replied as calmly as he could while Roadblock fired from his gun, "We're childhood buddies."
The brown-haired, young woman shook her head in a commiserating demeanor as she muttered, "Damn, Wood, you know the weirdest people"
Rona then yelled in shock as she avoided another swipe of the Heartless' other clawed hand, missing her narrowly as she leaned back acrobatically backwards, her head nearly touching the ground as the deadly fingernails whizzed by, "Oh, for crying out loud! First we run into other Wiccans, a big black baddie that's damn near invincible, and next we run into Batgirl and a soldier from G.I. Joe of all people! What's next? The X-Men and the Misfits?"
"Misfits, YO JOE!" rang out Wavedancer's voice, and likewise, a chorus of voices bellowed back in response, their combined volume overwhelming like a tidal wave.
"YO JOE!" yelled the Joes and their mutant children as they charged. At the same time, Vi and Rona also heard Cyclops' voice ring out impressively, echoing throughout the alleyway as his team either rushed in by foot or by air.
"X-Men, MOVE OUT!" the leader commanded as he let loose a furious discharge of optic energy directly into the chest of the Heartless, but predictably, the red solar energy from the teenager just ricocheted off harmlessly, and the gargantuan monstrosity wasn't the least bit fazed.
Rona gave a commiserating and deadpanned look of disbelief before she wearily turned to Vi and asked, "I just set myself up for that one, didn't I?"
"Big time," Vi agreed as she then managed to narrowly dash by right after the living atrocity struck, missing the girl, her feet so slight and noiseless, it was as if she was flying. With a short burst of speed that couldn't had been possible for any capable human, the Slayer took a flying leap towards the creature's exposed right side and quickly slashed forward with her knife. The monster servant of the Thirteenth Order howled as a deep gash about a foot long split open, making a soft, wet ripping noise as the skin and flesh cracked open like an egg. Snarling, the Heartless aimed a kick at Vi that would have surely taken off her head and stomped her into a bloody pulp, but Vi then got a brilliant idea as she remembered her training back in London and at Sunnydale. Strafing to the left, Vi avoided the kick right before she lodged her knife deep into the joint in the back of the leg where the knee resided in, a weak point in any upright opponent, and the Heartless fell to its knees again, just still just as dangerous as ever. This gave several of the Misfits and X-Men to attack as they struck in a unified force, but unfortunately, like Cyclops' energy blast, this Heartless seemed immune to such attacks.
"Whitelighter, Dragonfly, go heal as many people as you can and be prepared to act as backup for any injuries! Hurry!" Wavedancer commanded as she flung an acid pellet at the Heartless' face, letting the caustic liquid eat at its flesh excruciatingly.
Paige and Phoebe's eyes widened in shock as they literally stopped in their assault and stared at Justin.
"Whitelighter?" Paige echoed, her jaw dropping.
"Did she just call him 'Whitelighter'?" Phoebe said, still in disbelief, but in the back of her mind, she knew that the term was too vague and obscure for anyone outside the Charmed Ones circle to even acknowledge. Justin paid no attention as he reached Kennedy while Dragonfly tended to Chao-Ahn who had a massive and serious gash on her arm.
"I got you. Let me heal you," murmured Justin as he laid his glowing hands on the injured Slayer.
The enemy then roared as it tried to grab Dana who was nearby, but Kurt then grabbed the Slayer and teleported away before the claws could reach them, but alas, the instant Dana saw Nightcrawler's face, she shrieked before she started to beat him up.
"Yow! What are you doing?" Kurt cried as he kept trying to dodge Dana's attacks. If it wasn't for his Danger Room training, he would have never made it through the girl's assault unscathed.
"I must rid this world of all demons, hellspawn!" snarled the Slayer as she tried to jam a wooden stake into Nightcrawler's heart, but thankfully, the X-Man was able to teleport out of the way before the lethal stab.
"Mein Gott! I am not a demon, die Freundin! I'm a mutant!"
At the same time, Piper saw that her molecular combustion wasn't working, and she commanded to her other sisters.
"We'll have to use a spell! Use the one we've used to banish the Source! We can't stop it, but the strength of our lineage and ancestors might!" Piper declared.
Together, the three sisters linked hands before they chanted, and Willow gasped as she could feel it, the aura of the Earth, rushing around from every object and terrain from all around, crashing like an unstoppable force of power as the words of the Charmed Ones grew more and more foreboding and vigorous. The skies rumbled, though there wasn't a cloud in the sky, as the winds started to pick up and howl.
"Prudence, Patricia, Penelope, Melinda…" Piper chanted.
"Astrid, Helena, Laura and Grace…" Phoebe chanted.
"Halliwell witches, stand strong beside us…" Paige finished.
Altogether, the sister chanted as their hands clenched hard against each other's palms as they intoned, "Banish this evil from time and - !"
Suddenly, there was a fierce cry of pain as Phoebe felt something hot hit her back, and she collapsed on her knees as more multicolored energy streams rained down on her, causing instant burns and blood to run down her body. Piper and Paige turned to see to their surprise and horror, a Chinese girl firing fireworks at them. And because of her intervention, the Charmed Ones couldn't finish the spell, and the Heartless was still running rampant.
"What the hell?" Piper gasped.
"Die you witch!" screamed Jubilee as she kept firing upon Phoebe and her family. Wolverine gasped before he made a move to grab her, restraining her in a bear-hug and pinning her hands to her sides.
"Kid, stop! What the hell is the matter with you?" Logan cried as Whitelighter and Dragonfly moved to heal Phoebe.
Then the Heartless started to scamper as Storm let loose several rounds of lightning, and in its mad dash, it reached out towards a petrified Andrew.
"Andrew, move!" Shannon cried, and in a last, split-second decision that could only go on the borderline between admirable and foolish, Shannon shoved Andrew to the side just as the Heartless' clawed hand lunged.
"SHANNON!" screamed Vi and Caridad as the Heartless succeeded in catching their fellow Slayer, with the girl struggling in the abomination's right hand, the fingers squeezing her body like a vise of iron.
"No, not again!" Andrew cried, instantly remembering Anya's death at the battle of the Hellmouth.
"Oh God!" Shannon screamed as she tried to fight and squirm out of the Heartless' grip, "I got stabbed and burned by Caleb, got thrown out of a moving car and nearly died, and now I'm gonna get eaten by some monster! Oh God, my life really sucks right now!"
"Leave her alone, ya' big Heartless yahoo!" Rogue screamed as she and Sunspot blitzed the creature on its left as a team, intending to physically brawl and pummel the monster into letting go of its bounty, but now intent on killing at least one of its opponents, shrieked inhumanly as it then swatted hard with its left claw, and Rogue and Roberto felt the wind get knocked out of them as they were sent flying by the hard blow, enough to break every bone in their bodies.
Crash!
Rogue and Sunspot wearily picked themselves out of the rubble that they caused when they crashed through the entire brick and mortar wall of the nearby warehouse, and thankfully, it was deserted at the time, so no one got hurt. And thanks to Roberto's increased strength and durability in his energy mode and Rogue's invincibility, neither of them was greatly wounded, but the two X-Men were dizzy nonetheless along with some bruises.
"Ugh…" Rogue muttered as she shook the cobwebs out of her head.
"As soon as the room and ground stops spinning, then I'm gonna pound that giant freak," groaned Sunspot as he gingerly touched his throbbing head. During this, as Shadowcat and Dragonfly rushed towards the two injured teammates, the others were busy trying to figure out a way to get Shannon.
"I've got a shot!" Low Light said as he aimed his sniped rifle dead center in the Heartless' left eye, but Andrew then squealed in fright.
"No!" he yelled urgently, "Don't shoot! You might hit Shannon!"
"I have to chance it, kid!" snapped Low Light, but then he felt a cold, pricking sensation underneath his chin, and he glanced out of the corner of his eye out of the eyesight of the sniper-scope to see Caridad with a menacing look on her face as she held the edge of her sword right above Low Light's Adam's Apple. One swift motion was all it would take.
"Drop the gun. You're not risking my friend's life," Caridad growled. Low Light admirably didn't falter and kept his gun aimed at the experiment of darkness.
"I can make the shot! Trust me!" Low Light snapped. Caridad then brought the edge of the blade closer to the Joe's throat, the metal nicking him slightly and drawing a drop of blood.
"I don't," Caridad emphasized before she commanded with deadly command, "Drop the gun, or I drop you."
Deciding to ignore the precarious delicacy of the tense stand-off, Low Light ignored the small intake of surprise from Caridad as he immediately turned into pure adamantium, a substance that in no way the Slayer would ever penetrate with her sword blade. With his body now immune to any danger from the girl's weapon, Low Light was free to fire, but Caridad wasn't the least bit daunted and at a loss as she then brought her sword down on the sniper's gun.
Crack!
Low Light gasped as his beloved and previous sniper rifle was now rent into two useless pieces of metal.
"Now you're starting to bug me, you little upstart!" the G.I Joe sniper snarled at Caridad who did not look the slightest remorseful for her interference.
Suddenly, to everyone's surprise…
Kaaa-shhhhiiippp!
The Heartless screamed at once, a lone howl of sounds that could never come from a human vocal chord as its right arm was now completely severed, the edges of the laceration smoking as if seared by something red-hot. The entire appendage was cleanly cleaved off at the shoulder, and to the Heartless' stunned horror, the arm fell off and with it, its prey. But before Shannon could hit the ground, with a yelp, she felt something securely and protectively snatch her in mid-air before darting away from the monster. Something huge, furry, and warm, emanating a powerful aura of calm yet deadly boldness…
"No way!" Avalanche exclaimed, and his face suddenly lit up with awe and relief. Shadowcat noticed this with some conflicted puzzlement as she, the Slayers, the Charmed Ones, the Scoobies, the X-Men, the Misfits, and the Joes witnessed Leomon sliding into a full stop right in front of the crowd, carrying a shell-shocked but intact Shannon in the crook of his left arm.
"What the hell?" Wood exclaimed, and Leomon roared his command to everyone.
"GET CLEAR!" the swordsman snarled as yellow ki energy built up in his right fist, and sensing what was about to happen, everyone, Slayer, human, witch and mutant alike, dove out of the path as the lion then aimed his devastating attack on the Heartless immediately.
"Oh, like this isn't going to be pretty!" Shadowcat gulped.
"Everybody vamoose, cause it looks like Leomon is gonna cut loose!" Roadblock yelled.
"Holy crap!" Faith gasped as she and the others could sense the power of a very destructive force, one that was not readily found on Earth, as Leomon pumped his fist high in the air, bellowing his battle cry so loudly, it sent a shiver down the spine of everyone in the vicinity.
"GAIA!" Leomon roared, "FIST OF THE BEAST KING!"
And with a roar of a thousand lion kings, Leomon shot out a gigantic ball of yellow-colored life force, the gigantic surge of power now forming into the roaring, translucent head of a brawny, massive, roaring lion, heading full out directly into the Heartless. And thanks to Jean using her telekinesis to hold it in place with every ounce of her mental strength, there was no chance for the monster of darkness to evade the attack.
The creature gave a final shriek as it stupidly accepted its fate, and upon contact, the energy ravaged it, incinerating the monster sent by Zankou instantly, causing it to dissolve, but unfortunately, the explosion of ki energy was so destructive, it spread throughout the entire alley, threatening to incinerate all of them in the process.
"Willow!" Kennedy exclaimed.
"I got it!" Willow cried as she raised both of her hands above her head, and immediately, a barrier of shimmering, magical energy surrounded everyone, the Charmed Ones, the Slayers and Scoobies, the X-Men, the Misfits, the Joes, Batgirl, and Leomon. The shield buckled and quivered like gelatin, but thankfully, it still remained steadfast. And they remained safe while the Heartless evaporated and was engulfed by the ruinous and overwhelming strike. In a few tedious and long seconds, the rumbling stopped and the luminosity died away, leaving nothing but a wrecked alleyway, charred stone and scorch marks on the walls white the entire concrete pavement was cracked and ruined, fractured as if a stampede of elephants stormed through this very spot.
In short, it was a complete wreck.
There was a short scream of rage as everyone then turned to see Jubilee trying to attack Phoebe Halliwell again with her powers, doing her best to use her powers and blast the Wiccan where she stood, with Roberto and Logan trying to physically restrain her.
"Jubes! Jubes, stop! What's up with you?" Roberto cried out.
Jubilee had tears of pain and rage on her face as she squirmed, screaming, "Let me kill her! Let me kill her! She murdered my parents! That girl named Phoebe murdered my parents!"
The X-Men, the Misfits, and the Joes stopped and stared at Phoebe Halliwell while Piper and Paige flanked both of her sides, instantly coming to her defense.
"You know her?" Paige asked roughly, indicating with a nod of her head to Jubilee.
"She's one of us. She used to be a student of the Institute until her parents took her away after the Sentinel attacked us and exposed the existence of mutants to the entire world," Sunspot explained, and the mention of her dead mother and father sent Jubilee into a greater frenzy of bloodlust.
"And she killed them! The bitch killed my parents! She sent a vampire to my house to murder all of us, and then she lit my entire house on fire! And I saw her! I saw her! I saw Phoebe kill my parents! And she tried to kill me!" Jubilee screamed shrilly, now half-sobbing and hysterical as she weakly sank to her knees, weeping piteously. Phoebe was utterly stunned, and she didn't like some of the glares she was getting from the mutants or the Joes.
"But I didn't!" gasped Phoebe, "I didn't! Really, I didn't do anything! I never met her before in my life, and I have no reason to kill her and her family! I'm a good witch, a Wiccan! I wouldn't ever kill anything if it isn't endangering an innocent or isn't a demon! I didn't kill her parents! She's lying!"
Then the Professor and Jean looked into Jubilee's devastated and grief-filled mind with their telepathy, and what they saw stunned them, the images of the vampire heartlessly executing the Lee family, and the image of Phoebe using the power of fire, similar to that of the mutant, Pyro, to erase all the evidence, the exact words of Phoebe's phone conversation etched accurately in Jubilee's mind. The Professor was fuming at the pain of his student, his eyes dark and glittering, and he had to force himself to check his temper and he breathed heavily in and out, trying to cool down his bubbling wrath as he looked on at Piper, Phoebe, and Paige. They had no idea how close the Professor was to losing it fully (and really, not even Magneto would have been foolhardy enough to anger Xavier in this way). Jean turned to the others and nodded.
"She's telling the truth," she said in a low and hateful voice, brimming with allegation, "I just looked into her mind! Jubilee is telling the truth! The Professor and I saw it! The vampire, the girl named Phoebe over there, the murder, the destruction of her home and her life! It's all true! Phoebe Halliwell did send a vampire to kill Jubilee and inadvertently murdered her parents!"
Althea turned to Trinity who nodded additionally.
"We can't look into her mind, but we can sense her grief…and it's pretty genuine," Daria admitted.
Now a lot of the crowd was staring suspiciously at the Charmed Ones (and Wolverine and Rina looked ready to kill), and Phoebe felt overwhelmed and angry as she stood her ground.
"I didn't do anything! I'm telling you the truth! Why would I continue to deny it if I did murder her parents? I'm telling you, I'm innocent! I didn't kill anyone! I have no idea of what's going on or what she's talking about!" Phoebe yelled, now losing her temper, her face flushed and burning a brilliant shade of red.
Xavier then decided to ask some questions from what he gained from the images he witnessed in Jubilee's mind.
"Is your name Phoebe Halliwell?" the Professor asked in a restrained yet admirably controlled voice. Phoebe whirled on Professor Xavier before she decided to answer his question truthfully and show that she wasn't lying.
"Yes," she replied rather heatedly.
"And is your sister's name Piper Halliwell?" the Professor continued, leading into his questioning and his frown now getting darker and more accusatory.
"Yes," Phoebe hissed impatiently.
"And do you know of a place called P3?"
Piper frowned as she answered, "Yes, that's my night club that I own here in San Francisco. How did you know that?"
"And what do you know of the Turok-Han?" the Professor asked calmly, probing deeper with his telepathy. The Slayers, Willow, Wood, and Andrew's heads perked up.
"The Turok-Han? Did you just say the Turok-Han?" gasped Andrew.
"Yes, it's the vampire that killed Jubilee's parents, the one that Phoebe sent to try to assassinate her back in Los Angeles. Why? Do you people know what it is, any information at all that can help shed some light on this subject?" Jean provided.
"A Turok-Han is a super-strong version of a vampire on steroids. We've fought them before, and they're really evil and nasty!" Rona explained.
"And not that many people know of the legend of the Turok-Han because they're so ancient and haven't been seen for centuries until recently that the stories of them disappeared and have been forgotten due to obscurity. So the only way your friend Jubilee could know about the Turok-Han…is that if her story is true and that her parents really were killed by a vampire! Trust me, a Turok-Han exists and it's very real! Only a person of black magic or a servant of the First could control them!" Kennedy provided.
"I knew it!" snarled X23 and Cyclops as they glared back at the Halliwells.
"I'm telling you, I know nothing of the Turok-Han!" Phoebe retorted.
The Professor then stated quite harshly, "Jubilee's mind says otherwise, especially since she eavesdropped on your phone conversation with Piper and overheard how you planned to send an army of Turok-Han vampires to slaughter and kill all of us, the X-Men, the Misfits, and the Joes, once we arrived in San Francisco."
"An army?" gasped Willow. It was so similar to that of the battle at the Hellmouth of Sunnydale…
"Hold it!" Wood said calmly before the other Slayers could join in on the lynch mob, "Yes, the fingers do point to the Halliwells, but let's not forget that these are the Charmed Ones we're talking about, the strongest witches of white magic that ever existed in the history of magic! Yes, Halliwells, I know of the legends of your lineage. But my point being is that Wiccans do not kill and commit acts of murder because they are good magic spellcasters! Just because a Turok-Han was sent to kill Jubilee's parents doesn't mean necessarily that it was one of the sisters who sent it!"
"You've got to be kidding me!" Scott growled.
"You mean you're not going to do anything?" Jubilee shrieked, outraged.
Storm then said sternly, "Child, even if she was guilty, what can we do? X-Men do not kill, and we cannot punish those in retribution! And we are not under any authority of law to judge these Halliwells by trial! And we need to stop and make sure that they are guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt!"
Jubilee was now inconsolable as she wept angrily and shouted, "I knew it! I knew you wouldn't believe me! You don't care that my parents were killed and that Phoebe gets off scot-free! You don't care! This is why I didn't contact you guys before! Because I knew you'd all try to stop me from avenging my parents! I hate you! I HATE ALL OF YOU!"
And with that, sobbing, Jubilee dashed off, away from the scene, away from her friends, and away from her family, alone and with no support to help her.
"Jubilee, wait!" yelled Iceman, intending to rush after her, but Wolverine placed a hand on his shoulder, shaking his head at the adolescent. Lina looked sympathetic and touched, her heart going out to Bobby.
"Hold it Ice-Cube, she's not ready to deal with us yet…especially since I gotta hunch she's got a good reason to be so hostile to these three over here."
The feral-grizzled mutant then glared at Piper, Phoebe, and Paige rather harshly, his suspicions mounting, and immediately, Phoebe and Piper were offended.
"I'm telling you, I did not kill her parents! What part of that sentence do you not understand? I don't even know her! And need I remind you that she tried to kill me?" Phoebe snapped, her eyes blazing angrily, and really, she felt less than courteous towards the X-Men for even blatantly accusing her of such a thing. Jean stared at the Charmed witch rather accusingly as she folder her arms across her chest, not believing a word the witch said.
"Memories don't lie," Jean said, her voice icy and spiteful, "People like you do, however."
Phoebe, Piper, and Paige immediately glared at the X-Girl, and though they couldn't use their Wicca magic to attack under the threat of losing their abilities permanently, they could say that they really, really hated Jean Grey right then and there.
Pietro then said after some thought from the background, "Could Jubilee's memories have been tampered with? You know, like some sort of telepathic implant or lie? Keep in mind that Emma Frost is just as powerful as you, Xavier, and since she's in the Hellfire Club, she might have done something to Jubilee."
Xavier frowned, but he softened his glare at the Charmed Ones as he admitted, "It is pure speculation, Quicksilver, but you do raise a valid point. The mind isn't one-hundred percent reliable."
"Hard to fake something like that, Professor," Iceman argued, "Jubilee's out there, and she thinks that no one believes her, that we don't give a crap about how she's an orphan now! It isn't fair to Jubilee! We should go find her and go after her! It's not safe!"
Dragonfly placed a hand on the seething X-Man's shoulder, whispering, "Iceman, we'll get to the bottom of this soon, I promise. The Joes will see what's going on with Jubilee, but until then, you can't accuse these women of something that atrocious."
Ororo then remarked wearily, "And we'll use Cerebro to keep watch over her and make sure that she will not put herself in any danger. But until then, we cannot force her to stay with us if she does not wish to."
Iceman sighed, but nodded, still worried, and Dragonfly wanted nothing better than to hug Bobby and let him know that it would turn out all right (though she had no idea how much Bobby would have wanted that if she did).
"Paige, let's go. I don't want to be around the likes of them," Piper murmured, agitated, but Paige and Phoebe both shook their heads.
"No, we need to find out why there's a boy with the same powers of a Whitelighter!" Paige said impatiently.
"And I think we should also stay for the Slayers and mutants' sakes, to see if any of them are hurt or need some help. And as much as I hate that red-headed bitch and the Professor right now, I think we can trust them, both the X-Men and the Misfits. Batgirl was obviously sent by the Justice League to help us, so we can guess why she's here. And the Book of Shadows did mention that vampire slayers are inherently on the side of good," Phoebe added, though she did secretly admit that she didn't want to just stand here and be accused of a crime she didn't commit. Piper felt her frustration and resentment at her two younger siblings multiply at the way she was being overruled.
Meanwhile, the other X-Men, some of the Joes, and Misfits were not the least bit pleased, to say the least, upon spotting Leomon again as he let Shannon gently back on the ground. Shannon looked at Leomon with grateful eyes as her fellow Slayers and Scoobies rushed to her side, checking to make sure that she wasn't hurt.
"Mein Gott! It's Leomon!" Nightcrawler exclaimed.
"Leomon?" Faith and Wood repeated, murmuring. It was an unfamiliar name if you weren't used to saying it.
"You've got a lot of nerve showing your furry face here again after what you did to Raven!" Scarlet Witch snapped, her eyes flashing dangerously and her hands crackling with a blue luminescence.
"Scarlet Witch, don't be rude! He just helped us!" Brittany protested.
The Charmed Ones and the Slayers and the Scoobies were puzzled to say the least. Dana, in a rather harsh and disturbingly eager voice, "So, can we kill him? Or kill the mutants?"
"That's not funny!" snapped Jean, reprimanding Dana with her hands on her hips in an annoyed voice, "Keep in mind that we helped you, so you better act civil if you know what's good for you! We're not your enemies!"
"Uh…is the lion a friend of yours?" Paige asked dubiously, changing the subject and unsure if even the strangers themselves had a definite answer. Forge nervously coughed as he answered while some of the X-Men just sent Paige poisonous glares.
"Well, I guess you could say he's a friend," the inventor admitted.
"Don't kid yourself, Forge!" Cyclops snapped as he brought a hand to his visor, ready to blast the digital soldier where he stood, "We don't know anything about him, and for all we can speculate, he could be trying to manipulate us like the Hellfire Club! Heck, he might even be a spy for the Organization! X-Men, don't let him leave!"
"Ach! Cyclops, are you insane? We can't treat Leomon like a prisoner! He helped us!" Nightcrawler argued. Leomon's eyes turned artic as he glared at Cyclops.
"Word of advice, Cyclops: I have saved you and your pathetic band of friends and allies three times by now, so I expect you to shut up and remove whatever stick that was lodged up your rear end if you truly know what's good for you."
Several Misfits (Lance most noticeably) sniggered at this softly, and Cyclops grew even madder.
"So why are you even here?" Rina asked none too gently, frowning at the sudden thought that the lion warrior's timing was awfully convenient.
"Who cares why he's here?" snapped Rogue as she flew into the air, face level with the lion, making a fist, "He's here and he's not welcome, and God knows I've been wanted to return the favor of what he did to me in Jump City and what he did to Raven! And I know I could use a new fur rug in my room!"
"Rogue!" Storm chastised.
The lion snorted at the girl, "Unless you wish to find out how thick the walls are here, X-Man, you will keep your distance from me."
"Just try it and die, furball!" Wolverine snarled as he and X23 released their adamantium claws with a bloodcurdling shikt, and the Slayers, despite what they have seen and witnessed before in the past, couldn't help but marvel and feel a bit intimidated at the two feral mutants.
"So…we can attack him?" Dana asked again, now getting hotheaded and overenthusiastic to fight some more as she eagerly kept fingering her knife. Kurt gave Dana a rather dirty look.
"Can you keep her under control? Mein Gott, she even tried to stake me! And after I helped her!" the blue furred mutant snapped. Kennedy didn't like the way Kurt voiced that sentence, and the Slayer placed her hands on her hips, defensive.
"Hey, she's not an animal, and if she sees something that looks like a baddie or a demon, then of course she'd stab first and ask questions later! You can't blame her!" she retorted.
"Still, she like owes him an apology!" Shadowcat snapped. Dana then gave both Kurt and Kitty a particular rude gesture with her middle finger, sneering. Andrew then timidly explained to the X-Men before they could take offense and before a riot would break out (and really, Kurt and Kitty looked ready to reach out and pound Dana flat).
"Dana's not really social, so don't take what she says too personally. She's just trying to learn how to interact with people, and she's learning. Please, don't be mad with her! She just doesn't know how to relate with others!" Andrew said.
Dana then unceremoniously punched Andrew hard in the gut, causing him to change whatever he was going to remark into a fit of whimpering and groaning as she snarled, sounding like a broken record, "I don't need you to speak for me, you geek! So can we attack the lion or not?"
"Don't attack him! Leomon's a friend! He's a good guy!" Avalanche yelled immediately afterwards, holding out a hand to cease the girls before they could decide to blitz Leomon. Cyclops immediately rebutted this.
"No, you can attack him! He's evil!" Cyclops snapped, and Lance immediately became incredibly defensive of Leomon as he went toe to toe with the X-Men leader.
"Stuff it, Summers! Leomon's good!" Avalanche snarled.
"No, he's evil!" Cyclops growled.
"Good!"
"Evil!"
"Good!"
"Evil!"
"If you want to attack Leomon, you get through me first, X-Geek!" Lance threatened as he then brutally shoved Cyclops backward.
"Oh, with pleasure! This way I can give two jerks exactly what they deserve!" Scott snapped, giving in to his anger as his hand went up to his visor, eager for retaliation, but the Professor and Ororo jumped in.
"That's enough! Cyclops, you certainly know better than that!" Xavier yelled from his wheelchair, his face red and certainly angrier and more annoyed than Jean had seen him most times before in the past.
"Stop this at once! Both of you!" Ororo yelled, placing a hand in between the two quarreling mutants as a flag to cease and desist.
There was only a tense silence for a few seconds. Then Shannon then said from the sidelines, acting as a tiebreaker.
The Slayer stated, "You guys…if Leomon was evil, he wouldn't have saved me. I owe him my life. And if he was a baddie, we'd get a feeling about him, remember?"
Wood and Faith had to concede that Shannon had a point. All Slayers could detect and inwardly sense any malicious forces sent by the first, and though the Heartless was certainly foreboding and chilling, from the apparent looks from the other Slayers (save the frowning and disturbed Dana), not a single one of the girls felt the need to be hostile at the strange Goliath who had assisted them. Even Kennedy, one of the most cautious and provocative of the bunch, turned to Faith and sighed, nodding her head.
"I don't like him, but I don't sense anything about this guy," the girl confessed. Piper then narrowed her eyes in her trademark icy-glare at the lion.
"We'll see about that," she said, and with a flick of both her hands, Piper froze Leomon with her powers. She expected Leomon to be trapped in temporal stasis, so she felt her jaw drop as Leomon rumbled deep from his throat as he felt the magic all around him…but it failed to freeze him. There he still stood just as dangerous and mobile and animated as ever.
"Trying to freeze me, witch? I hate to disappoint you, but you're not that powerful," Leomon growled, and Piper took a step backwards as her sisters gaped.
"No way!" breathed Paige loudly.
"What did she do? What did he mean by freezing him? I don't see any ice," Bobby asked, confused, and Phoebe explained to the X-Men in a rush, temporarily forgetting their previous spat.
"My sister has the power to freeze time, but unlike your powers, she can only freeze bad witches, evil entities or mortals! Anything that isn't evil and that's magical, you know, good magic, she can't use her abilities to stop time and freeze them! And Piper's strong enough to stop bad immortals and Externals! So if Leomon can't be frozen…!"
She trailed off, but Andrew finished it for the middle sister in a soft voice, catching on.
"Then that means Leomon isn't evil and that he's very powerful like Gandalf from 'Lord of the Rings'," Andrew murmured. Everyone turned to Cyclops who was now utterly fuming, humiliated at being shot down with this logic (and who could blame him?).
"Well…" Cyclops griped, his face now beet-red at the prospect of admitting that Avalanche was right but still adamantly stubborn, "Leomon's not evil, but he's not on our side!"
Wood turned to Roadblock for confirmation, and though the Joe wished he could argue the side a bit, when it came down to it, the teenager had a valid point. Roadblock said with some guilt, "Cyclops' judgment, you can trust. Leomon helps from time to time, but he's not one of us. He may have stopped that Heartless, but who he works for is anyone's guess. Before he gave that creature a whirl, Leomon tried to assassinate an innocent girl."
At this assertion, the Slayers and the Charmed Ones looked back at Leomon rather accusingly while Leomon just remained stonily impassive, his arms folded across his chest and looked at them with narrowed yet condescending eyes. Well, except Shannon of course, and she was shocked when Wood was reaching for another set of shuriken underneath his coat.
"Wood! What are you doing? He's not an enemy! He saved my life!" Shannon protested heatedly, nearly outraged. Leomon then shot the African-American Watcher a piercing glare that immediately made the man, though he had no idea why, freeze in his tracks.
"I assure you, Watcher," Leomon rumbled deeply, a corner of his mouth bared and showing teeth, "that if you attack me, you will be dead before you even hit the ground. I'm not evil, but that doesn't mean I won't rip you apart if you even start anything foolish."
"Funny thing, flea-farm, I was about to say the same thing to you," Faith said simply as she aimed her crossbow with a loaded shaft right at the spot between Leomon's eyes. Roadblock then aimed his machine gun at the Digimon, his face now stern and annoyed and instantly defending Wood.
"You can't take all of us, not in a fair fight, so it'd be easiest if you try to remain polite. I can't say it's a coincidence that you'd just appear, so tell us what the heck you're doing here," the Joe rhymed.
Rona, disturbed, asked no one in particular, "Uh…does he always talk like that? Like he's some sort of poet?"
"You get used to it, yo," Toad replied, shrugging.
Leomon replied coolly to Roadblock, "First of all, to help kill that Heartless to make sure it couldn't endanger innocents since it was apparent that none of you, Slayers and Charmed Ones included, were powerful and skilled enough to stop this creation."
Several of the Slayers, especially Kennedy and Faith, and Piper seemed infuriated at the hidden barb, but before any of them could say a scathing retort, Leomon's next statement surprised everyone.
"And secondly, I have a message of warning for the Halliwells and the Slayers, since they are now involved in this."
Piper, Phoebe, and Paige looked startled as Leomon then turned to the Charmed Ones while Wood, Andrew, Willow, and the other Slayers perked up. It wasn't every day they get a message or an omen of caution to help them beforehand, so out of respect and curiosity, they and the other allies remained quiet.
"I was told to warn you in case I was not able to halt the Armageddon of Trigon," the feline said in his baritone voice, "You three are in terrible danger, for the Organization is now targeting you alongside the Hellfire Club for their plans in destroying the world and all life beyond. And this may be a battle you cannot win, or at least not entirely."
Piper felt her blood run cold at this statement. She immediately thought of Leo, Wyatt, and Chris, and the thought of them being in grave jeopardy and with no definite and concrete assertion that they would triumph was certainly terrifying. And considering that this practically confirmed what the Batman and General Hawk cautioned them of two days ago, Piper felt even more helpless (and coincidentally, she was inwardly cursing Batman and Hawk for involving them in further danger, even though it was by no way any fault of theirs). Paige shivered a bit, but as much as she tried to rationalize the possibility that Leomon may not be an ally, she felt herself be drawn into his aura and presence. He was dangerous…but he was good as well. Phoebe's mind was crystal clear, however, and she rummaged through all the recent occurrences of the following two weeks as she then asked, "Um…Mr. – uh…Mr. – um…"
"Leomon. My name is Leomon, Phoebe," the behemoth repeated emotionlessly, realizing the witch was lapsing on his name.
"Leomon, is there a way to stop the Gathering of Twilight?" Phoebe asked, eager for that one shred of hope. The Joes and the elder X-Men immediately paid closer attention; that was also a similar question that had been plaguing them for the past several days, and Willow made a small squeak of surprise. Leomon looked a little downcast and guilty as his gaze fell.
"Before, I would have said yes, it could have been stopped," Leomon answered solemnly and grimly, "But due to recent events and my past actions…I do not know. There's a possibility that it can't, that it's too far in motion to be stopped, that no matter what happens now, the Gathering of Twilight will be on Earth."
The Misfits, X-Men, and Joes realized what the lion was referring to.
"You did the right thing, Leomon," Pietro said fiercely, for once acting serious, "It wasn't worth Raven's life to sacrifice her to save the world! And whoever your boss is, he isn't always right you know!"
Wood turned a questioning gaze to the mutants, but Spirit and Blind Master shook their heads.
"We'll explain later," Spirit said curtly.
"The…the Organization?" Paige stammered, "But…but why are they after us? We've never dealt or directly fought with anyone from this Organization before in the past! We don't know anything about them! So why are they after us?"
"It's not you they are after, but the Nexus, Paige," the lion clarified with a frown before he turned to Willow and said, "And I believe you are the one named Willow Rosenburg, correct?"
Willow nodded, and to her fear and slight surprise, Leomon actually strode over and knelt down on one knee so that he could have a better way to be eye level with the red-haired witch (not that it was much good since even on bended knee, the Digital warrior was still twice her height). Blind Master was confused until it came to him; he was kneeling down to be able to make it less threatening and intimidating for the girl. And the ninja master could detect that Willow was certainly nervous; her aura was fluctuating madly and her heart was rapidly beating. For a moment, Kennedy was alarmed that the lion was going to hurt Willow.
"Keep your distance from Willow, or I'll neuter you, fang face!" Kennedy snarled, her hands ready to use her twin short-swords. Yet the red-haired Wiccan placed a clammy hand on her Slayer's shoulder, silently telling the girl to let the lion speak and to give him a chance. Leomon nodded gratefully at Willow before he delivered his message.
"The voice in your dream has said that it is coming, and it is true. The Gathering grows closer. Beware of the angel with the wings of darkness for you will have to ultimately fight her in the upcoming battle," Leomon rumbled softly. Willow's eyes grew wider at the mention of the Gathering and how it was linked to her dreams that she had for the past week. And Batgirl's eyes widened in shock. The angel with the wings of darkness? It was the very same thing Supergirl said before she succumbed to the coma.
"How…how did you know about the voice I've been hearing in my dreams? And why…why me? Is it because of the experiment? Is the angel linked to Experiment 666?" Willow gasped, and Leomon's eyes had a touch of compassion underneath the steel. Phoebe, Piper, ands Paige's respective heads perked up at the mention of the Experiment of the Beast.
The lion soldier said, "No, the angel is separate from the Experiment to come at the Gathering, but she is still just as dangerous. Be prepared to fight her with all the strength you can muster, for she will be very powerful."
"And how is it you know of this?" Kennedy said suspiciously, already starting to make up her mind that Leomon was not to be trusted, "Are you trying to set us up so that we'll take the fall for a fight you're probably too cowardly to do yourself?"
"I wouldn't be surprised since the overgrown furball's done it before," Rogue spat, her memories at what Leomon did to Raven now starting to rile her up.
"That's a lie, and you know it, Rogue!" snapped Sunspot in response, surprising some of the X-Men nearby. Leomon ignored them as he looked directly into Kennedy's eyes, and she could tell that Leomon was deadly serious.
"No, but I was told that Willow may be one of the few forces who can be powerful enough to fight the angel to come, otherwise it will mean the deaths of some of her friends and those she cares about."
"Told be whom, bub?" Wolverine said rather darkly, and Leomon just glared at Wolverine as he rose back up into his full standing position.
"Another time, Wolverine," and then Leomon turned to Willow one last time as he hinted mysteriously, "I know you are apprehensive, but you will not fight alone, Willow. I promise you that…"
And with that, Leomon gave a mighty jump before he disappeared over the rooftops of the nearby skyscrapers and vanished in the night sky.
"He is so cool!" Andrew marveled, his eyes glassy and shining with excitement. Low Light sighed before he turned to the blond teen.
"Unfortunately, he left before he could tell us everything he knows about the Gathering, kid," the Joe said worriedly, "And Leomon knows more than what he's telling us, but we have no way of finding out everything he knows about the Organization or the Hellfire Club's plans since the giant prick isn't willing to trust us with his secrets."
"The Organization?" Caridad asked, cocking her head to the side slightly.
"They're trying to destroy the world by bringing in the Heartless to Earth. We don't know who they are or where they've come from, but from what we can tell, they're very powerful and very influential. The Heartless are these supernatural creatures of darkness, and coincidentally, it was a Heartless we just fought. You can tell by that black-and-red symbol of the crossed out heart on their bodies. We could learn more about this future battle, but unfortunately, Leomon won't tell us and we have no way to track him down," Cover Girl explained. Batgirl shook her head, smiling smugly as she held up a black device.
"Not to worry," Batgirl explained, "I shot a Bat-Tracer on Leomon when he wasn't looking, and now that the bug's on him, I can use the Bat-Wave to track down his movements. Leomon's now on my radar."
"Wow, groovy!" Forge marveled, but then Batgirl's face crinkled in shock as she looked at the radar screen, befuddled.
"Batgirl, what's wrong?" Jean asked, and Batgirl looked up to the mutants and Slayers and Charmed Ones in astonishment and confusion.
"I don't understand, but the Bat-Wave says that Leomon's still here! It says he's still in the alley with us!" Batgirl protested, and then Quinn's sharp eyes caught a familiar object on the ground next to her.
"Uh, Batgirl? Hate to burst your bubble, but…" the Triplet sister said hesitantly as she knelt down and picked up the object before holding it in plain view for everyone. It was the black, bat-shaped tracer; Leomon has detached it from his body reticently before he left without anyone seeing him. Shipwreck cursed.
"Damn, he's good," the Joe sailor half-marveled. Batgirl felt her irritation at Leomon grow at the warrior getting an one-up on her. Roadblock and Spirit however just got off the cell-phone with General Hawk as they informed him briefly of the situation.
Spirit turned to Piper, Phoebe, and Paige as he said, "Halliwells, we just got off the phone with General Hawk and he says all of us, Batgirl, the Misfits, the Joes, and the X-Men should reconvene at your manor, if you're willing. With the Heartless coming after you three, you may need to thoroughly discuss what you talked about last time. We can teleport over to your house considering that Hawk had already had Mainframe program to coordinates to your manor through the Mass Device yesterday."
Piper looked like she was going to explode or die of a heart attack as her face turned purple, and she shouted, "Excuse me? Just who the hell does Hawk think he is to volunteer my house and home as a meeting place for all of you?"
"Piper!" scolded Phoebe harshly as she then turned to the two Joes and replied, "Yes, we'll help in any way we can, and our home is open for all of you. It'll be a tight squeeze, but we can manage."
"You've got to be like kidding me!" Kitty yelled at Blind Master and Spirit, "Are you guys like forgetting that she killed Jubilee's parents? Aren't you going to like arrest her? She totally committed murder! She's evil! And yet you want us to go to her house?"
"Oh, will you drop it?" Phoebe growled, wishing she could punch Shadowcat's lights out, "I told you that I didn't kill that girl's parents! She's lying or obviously mistaken!"
"Funny, the only liar I see is the one right in front of us!" Iceman snarled, locking his gaze directly at the Halliwell. Piper and Paige looked ready to slap Bobby in the face hard for that remark, but then Althea and Xi stepped in.
"That's enough! Now's not the time to be fighting, especially since the last battle with the Heartless is sure to draw the attention of the police! They're probably already on their way here!" Wavedancer snapped.
"And remember the law of due process: a person is innocent until proven guilty," Xi pointed out calmly, but if anything, that just made several of the X-Men even madder.
"Oh what a surprise! Of course the Misfits would take the side of a murderer!" Jean said in an acidic and sarcastic tone of voice, inflamed at how they didn't seem to be convinced at the concrete evidence from Jubilee's mind and grief that thoroughly convinced her beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Halliwells were evil and plotting against them. Wanda whirled on Jean angrily.
"Hey, not everything is what it appears to be, Miss Snob-of-the-Year!" Scarlet Witch growled.
"Oh please, if it was an X-Man who died, you'd naturally be jumping up and down with joy!" Jean retorted.
"That was a low blow, Red!" Toad snapped from the sidelines, and Justin then tried to act as a peacekeeper as he tried to step in between the two arguing girls.
Whitelighter begged, "Please stop, you two. We shouldn't be fighting, and Jean didn't mean it, Wanda. She's just angry and upset that Jubilee - "
"Oh, will you just shut up, Whitelighter?" Jean snarled, her eyes searing into the adolescent, "Stop trying to play the Mr. Nice-Guy act because it's as annoying as hell to watch you act like a sensitive nimrod when you're just as much as a delinquent as the rest of your psychotic family!"
"Jean, that's enough!" Nightcrawler snapped, now furious and coming to Justin's defense, "Leave him alone!"
"I don't need you to stick up for my team, Kurt! So butt out!" Wanda shouted.
"Don't talk to Nightcrawler like that!" Jean retorted.
"Then get out of my face!" Scarlet Witch ordered.
"When you get yours out of mine!" Jean shot back in just as fierce of a command as she flicked her long hair out of her face and inadvertently smacked Wanda in the mouth with her tresses. It was purely accidental and unintentional, but it was enough for the goth as she retaliated and gave Jean a shove. Gasping and then suddenly furious, Jean shoved the female Misfit back even harder, nearly causing Scarlet Witch to topple over backwards. Wanda then grabbed Jean in a half-Nelson and there was plenty of hair pulling and shrieking on both sides as Toad, Whitelighter, Nightcrawler, and Forge grabbed the two girls and tried to pry their respective teammates apart.
"Stop it, yo!" gasped Toad as he tried to prevent Wanda from using her fist.
"Jean, stop! This isn't cool!" Forge cried out as he got accidentally scratched by Jean's nails.
"That's enough, both of you!" and Wanda and Jean both felt their wrist being painfully seized by a hand with a grip of iron, and both the teenage girls ceased their brawling as they looked up to see a livid and angry Shipwreck, glaring like a stern father. Shipwreck continued, growling and incensed while the other four boys backed off.
"Now listen here: if the two of you can't stop, then both of your are going to be sent to the Pit for KP duty and you can forget about briefing with the Halliwells and General Hawk! We've got enough worries about the Heartless and the Gathering to deal with something stupid like this! And this is coming from moi, the King of Stupidity! So you two have a choice! Either I let you both go and you can remain quiet until we get back to base, or I send the both of you to the galleys at the Pit where you can help B.A. peel potatoes for the next week!"
"You can't! You don't have any authority to punish me!" Jean protested heatedly, and Shipwreck leaned his face close to hers so that Jean could look directly into his livid and withering gaze.
"Watch me," he growled, "And I can assure you that Charley and Stormy will agree that we're all sick of this fighting between both groups."
Jean looked pleadingly at the Professor and Ororo from the sidelines, but she saw that Shipwreck was telling the truth. The Professor looked on unsympathetically while making a steeple with his hands, and Ororo shook her head, letting the student know that she acceded with Shipwreck wholeheartedly (as shocking as that sounded). Jean's face flushed from embarrassment before she lowered her gaze to the floor, and upon taking that as an answer, Shipwreck released the two, and Scarlet Witch and Jean just backed away from each other, rubbing their wrists and glaring daggers, but thankfully saying nothing.
Spirit then faced Xavier and Wolverine, saying, "Hawk says the Halliwells can be trusted, and until we get to the bottom of this with Jubilee, we can't just accuse the three of something we haven't looked into yet. I know you trust the testimony of Jubilee, and I don't blame you for I do agree she wouldn't lie about this, but like Scarlet Witch said, things aren't always what they appear. It could be a possibility that they're being framed, so until we know more, don't act so hostile to them since they are fully cooperative with us."
Rina grumbled under her breath, but thankfully she didn't say anything. Logan, still unwilling to let it go, turned to the Charmed Ones and growled, "Just remember to not try anything funny. I'll be keeping my eye on you three witches."
"Funny, I was about to say the same thing to you, X-Man," Piper growled, fantasizing the thought of using her powers on the stubborn jerk.
Roadblock then turned to the Slayers and Scoobies and said in a serious tone, "Also, whoever you girls are…you're welcome to come as well. Not only does the Heartless threat endanger you, but I have the feeling that it may be helpful if we could brief you guys, especially since we've dealt with Leomon and the Organization before in the past. And I guess it's safe to say that you want to protect the Earth from getting destroyed too. And I know Wood, so any friend of his is a friend of mine."
"In other words, we could assist each other in this since we have the same common enemy," Blind Master emphasized.
"Absolutely no way in hell - !" Piper began when she heard this, but Paige pinched her sister hard on the arm as a warning to shut her up.
"Piper, now's not the time! We want to prove to them that we're good and that we didn't murder anyone, right? Well, let's start by showing them we have nothing to hide!" Paige retorted.
"I dunno if we can trust them, you guys," Rona whispered fiercely in the meanwhile, "How do we know that the mutants and the Joes can be confided with our secrets? How do we know they're not working for the Initiative or Wolfram and Hart or some other government group that just wants to see us dead or use us as their own foot soldiers? And we still don't know if the Charmed Ones really aren't siding with the Turok-Han!"
Wood looked at Roadblock for a minute, contemplating, before he replied, "No, I think we can trust them. Rona, I've known Marvin since we were kids, and despite our past dealings with the military, G.I. Joe is different. I know I've had reservations about mutants and the Joes before in the past, but Marvin wouldn't associate himself with them if this General Hawk was a bigot and a jerk. He's a good judge of character."
"People change, Wood," Rona highlighted flatly.
"Rona, don't be rude!" Vi scolded as she swatted her friend lightly on the arm, "They're offering to let us know what's going on! They're not obligated to do it, and yet they're offering us! I think this shows that they're good!"
Caridad was silent but then she turned to Faith and asked, "Faith, what do you think? You're the eldest Slayer, so what's your opinion on this?"
It wasn't surprising that Caridad turned to Faith for the deciding vote considering that Faith was the original Slayer and co-leader of the next generation along with Buffy. Not to mention that the other girls looked up to Faith as sort of the "cool aunt" parental figure, so in that case, Faith earned much respect and trust from the other girls. Faith looked at the others before she grinned, eager for more adventure.
"Hey, there's not baddies, so it's cool. And besides, isn't the whole point of this mission's to learn what we can about this Experiment 666?"
That settled it, and Willow turned to the Joes and agreed, "We'll go with you. You helped us fight in that battle, so we decided we can trust you for now."
Blind Master and Roadblock smiled. Then Chao-Ahn's annoyed voice rang out as she impatiently spoke in irritated Cantonese, "Will someone please tell me what's going on? I never get to know what is happening to us!"
Before Shannon and Caridad could find the words, Blob overheard the Slayer from Shanghai and he smiled before he spoke in Cantonese, "We're going to the house of the Halliwells not far from here so that we can brief everyone about the new evil that we're fighting and plan a strategy to protect the world."
Chao-Ahn's eyes grew bright, her face lighting up gratefully at the obese mutant, as she exclaimed, "Yes! Finally, someone who can speak my language!"
The other Slayers, X-Men, and Misfits were staring at Blob with great astonishment. Daria exclaimed, "Blob, I didn't know you could speak Chinese!"
Fred grinned as he stated, "You never asked. Didn't you guys ever wonder why I always knew what to say whenever we do takeout Chinese food? I picked it up enough when I was living on Granny's farm when I was a kid, and we had to hide a couple of Chinese acrobats from the law in our barn."
"Uh…Chinese acrobats?" Wood asked, perplexed.
"Yeah, but it wasn't their fault! They had no idea that illegal fireworks laws were in effect at the time, and they didn't mean to blow up the police station considering that my Aunt Ralph was the one who accidentally lit the fuse when he threw away his cigarette."
"Illegal fireworks?" Kennedy asked in a deadpanned voice, her face now humorously showing a brilliant and priceless display of confusion, disbelief, and wariness.
"Aunt Ralph?" echoed Andrew, his left eyebrow twitching.
"Yeah, Aunt Ralph met them when they were looking for work at his sideshow, and he brought them in considering that he needed a replacement act to make up for our dancing elephant Petunia when she ran off with one of the circus tigers to go live in the forest. But it was a good thing. Last time we checked, they're happily living with some cult in the Midwest named the 'Saint Francis of Animal Husbandry'," Fred explained, but if anything, this just disturbed the Slayers and Scoobies even more.
"He's got to be making this up," Caridad uttered before she turned to the X-Men and Misfits, begging, "Please tell me he's making this up and that he's delusional."
The X-Men and Misfits shook their heads, and Althea clarified, "We've met his relatives. They really are like this."
"It's official," Rona groaned as she rubbed the bridge of her nose, "We've met people who are weirder and stranger than all the demons, vamps, and baddies put together."
Then Chao-Ahn was saying something rather fervently and emotionally, pointing at the other Slayers in an accusatory manner, as she spoke to Fred.
"What did she say, Blob?" Dragonfly asked when Chao-Ahn was finished. Fred has the most peculiar expression on his face as he turned to the Slayers, Wood, Andrew, and Willow.
"Didn't you know Chao-Ahn's lactose intolerant? She says you've been constantly trying to poison her with milk and dairy foods," the large mutant teenager remarked, and a bit taken aback, all of Chao-Ahn's friends and comrades shook their heads or gave blank expressions of puzzlement.
"You know, this explains why Chao-Ahn threatened to bash our heads in at the airport if we offered her ice cream one more time," Shannon mused, reflecting back. Althea sighed as she swatted Fred's arm.
"C'mon, we'd better get over there and stop lollygagging before the cops show up from all the ruckus we caused," she said, and indeed, the heroes could hear the distinct wail of sirens in the background, the police now suddenly coming to the very place of battle, and it would be a little hard to explain to the cops why a bunch of mutants and humans were at a supernatural crime scene. The Misfits and the Joes grabbed on to as many as they could, and with a flash, the Mass Device teleported all the mutants, the Joes, the Charmed Ones, the Scoobies, and the Slayers away just as the first squad car drove up.
Unfortunately, not a single one of the warriors and soldiers noticed a pair of people looking at the scene with awestruck eyes, filming the entire debacle of the supernatural from the lens of an extremely powerful video-camera from a rooftop of a building two lots over with shock, disbelief, and excitement.
"Oh my God," gasped the KTSF reporter, Elana Jimenez as she held her hands to her mouth, her microphone now forgotten as it was tightly clasped in her sweaty palms. Indeed, it was the only thing she had been able to utter for the past several minutes, her breath caught in her throat, as she and her cameraman, Wilson, just viewed the scene in trepidation and wonderment.
"Whoa, this will win us the Pulitzer prize for sure!" Wilson gasped as he focused on the image of the San Francisco police force scourging the devastated area, "I guess that tip Geoffrey got was legit!"
"Are they all…you know, mutants?" Elana asked, unable to still convince herself that what she had just witnessed was no illusion. Wilson shook his head.
"I can see why you'd think that considering that I recognize some of them as the X-Men and the Misfits that we've been hearing about," Wilson rationalized as he turned off the camera, shaking with excitement, "But those guys with the weapons and guns are from G.I. Joe! As for those strange girls, I don't know…we're too far away to record any noise or sound from the battle scene. But whatever that huge black thing was and whatever that lion is, I'd really doubt that they're mutants! They don't even look anything remotely human, and it's possible that they're aliens, like those freaks in the Justice League! But whatever they are, we've got it! We've got it on film! Oh man, Geoff's gonna flip out when he sees this! Call him right now!"
Elana phoned the number on her speed-dial as she and Wilson rushed down the stairs, and Geoff picked it up before the first ring ended.
"Hello?" the editor asked, breathless and anxious.
"We got it, Geoff! Get the news crew and the staff at KTSF! We've got a scoop, the biggest scoop in American media history since the mutants got outed at the Sentinel incident and Nixon's involvement with Watergate! We don't know exactly what we got, but it's huge!" Elana gasped.
"Great! Take it to KTSF right away! We already have a buyer for the licensing and primary usage rights of our footage!" Geoffrey exclaimed, and Elana frowned, confused at the unorthodox sequence of the process. Usually, all the editors would review any footage and determine its validity and credibility before deciding to air it and inform other media and news stations for a chance of using the footage for their news segment for a price, of course.
"We have a buyer already?" repeated Elana, incredulous.
Geoffrey's smile grew so wide, it threatened to split his face as he spoke on the phone, "Yes, and they're willing to pay us two million dollars per use of our footage in their licensing agreement. Elana, don't you see? What you have is gold! This is one of those offers you can't refuse!"
"Two…two million?" gasped Elana, repeating it out loud and scarcely believing it. Not even the footage of the Pope's benediction or the outing of the mutants via Trask's Sentinel gained this much money in revenue for usage and licensing. And the price was for every use of the footage on any station, no matter how mundane, limited or unknown it was. And two million dollars multiplied by every time the footage Wilson got was shown on TV or displayed in a newspaper front page…
An entire day of copyrights alone would be enough to skyrocket the KTSF station to the top news station of the entire world, if not the most lucrative.
Wilson heard her, and he too stopped in astonishment and swore out loud.
"Two million? Jesus H. Christ, who's buying this? The President of the United States?" Wilson exclaimed. Geoffrey apparently heard him from the sensitive reception of the mouthpiece.
"Better," Geoffrey clarified with an eager and wonderful smile, "An interested benefactor from the lucrative branch of Lexcorp Media…"
Author's Notes: Next Friday, tension rises between all groups as it is apparent no one knows which side is telling the truth, but things get worse for the Charmed Ones when the Slayers, the X-Men, the Joes, Batgirl and the Misfits argue their case. And Piper finally snaps when she and the others find out who Justin's real father is! Things are going to get ugly in the chapter "Not Exactly An Ideal First Meeting, Is It?", but until then, read, enjoy, and review! And Merry Christmas!