Victor Creed
"This is getting old." Creed muttered to himself.
They were still traveling and killing everything in their wake, but sadly, Victor finally had to admit... killing was only fun if you had to work for it. Humans, mutants, everyone fell before the army of monsters. The pitiful creatures didn't even scratch Victor or his subordinates. Maybe if Logan had shown up it would have been a bit more interesting, but he was nowhere to be found and Victor hadn't heard anything about the X-Men since Xavier died. For all he knew there was absolutely no one out there worth killing anymore.
"I mean, even I have standards. This is wrong."
Victor Creed looked around. Valzinameku had gone ahead with those damned minions of his and left the soldiers to clean up the mess.
That was how that son of A put it. "Cleaning up." Victor would have laughed if he weren't so disgusted. He wondered briefly how strong Valzinameku was and immediately came up with a plan to alleviate his boredom.
"You there, get your ass over here!" Victor called to one of the soldiers. It bounded up the hill Victor stood on and waited for its orders.
Victor looked the thing up and down.
"I want you to send a message to the boss. Tell him that Creed went crazy and started killing all the soldiers."
The messenger blinked twice and nodded. As soon as it was out of Creed's line of sight, he set his plan in motion.
And yeah, it was going to be the likes of which no one, not even the X-Men, could top. There was just one problem left to solve.
Like finding that damned Wolverine so he could brag about his brilliance.
Alex's Group
"Arise, my companions. We must reach the others soon."
Logan moaned and swore half-heartedly before he sat up slowly. He looked around briefly for the source of the annoyingly perky voice and found himself staring in the bright green eyes of Lucifer.
"What happened?" Logan asked weakly. His healing factor was working hard, but there was a strange pain in his stomach that was kicking ass.
Lucifer's gaze wavered for a moment. He knelt beside Logan and braced one hand on his chest. There was a sickening ripping noise and suddenly the pain was gone.
"You were unfortunate victims of a gas explosion." Lucifer answered as he tossed away a bloody rock that was shaped like a javelin. "We must move soon. Pietro needs attention."
"Damn Brotherhood brat. Of course he does." Logan made it to his feet. "How is everyone?"
"Of course you and Kitty are unharmed. Lorna survived by erecting a wall of some sort of metal around herself. Pietro was severely injured but managed to get enough distance between himself and the debris to survive. He tried to carry Alex with him, though, and got slowed down."
Logan stumbled towards the spot where Lorna and Kitty were crouched over Pietro and Alex. "Alex... and Remy? What happened to them?"
Lucifer hesitated for the briefest of moments. "Alex is alive, but barely. I sincerely doubt he will live through this."
"And Remy? Don't tell me he..." Logan let the sentence hang. Lucifer met his gaze for a second and then sighed.
"Logan. We have to get moving. He's dead and we cannot do anything about that. If we don't get moving now, Pietro and Alex will die for sure. We can mourn later." Lucifer turned away from Logan and picked up Alex. His head was plastered with blood and a corner of a rock was just visible beneath his matted hair. "I can carry two people, so Kitty will travel with me. We definitely won't break any speed records, but we'll move faster this way." Lucifer spread his wings wide and looked back at Remy. "If you want, we can cover him with rocks and bury him later."
"No, you're right. We've got to worry about the living." Logan muttered gruffly.
"Come along then. We should go." After Kitty had wrapped her arms around his neck and positioned herself so she wouldn't interfere with Lucifer's wings, the Vulgate took off.
"Logan..." Lorna whispered. "I'm scared. Why is our luck so bad all of a sudden?"
Logan shook his head. "I'm not sure." A strong wing picked up and howled across the torn landscape.
With it, a single feather was carried away.
Iceman and Northstar
Jean-Paul skidded to a stop and generously gave Bobby his space, space which the X-Man used to throw up the last of what looked like a candy bar of some kind.
Once Bobby recovered, he shakily stood and surveyed the area with Northstar.
There wasn't much to see except, oh, Remy's mangled arm lying about five feet from his head, which was also missing a body.
"I guess we got here too late." Jean-Paul cleared his throat. "Maybe we can catch up with them, but we don't know which way they went."
Bobby sighed deeply and turned around. "Well, Pietro's probably on his way to our group now. They'll most likely be following him."
"That's actually not very likely. They must be hiding around here somewhere. I mean think about it, someone's bound to be injured," Jean-Paul frowned. "Why risk it when they knew we'd come to see why they sent the flare up. They're around here somewhere."
"Why don't we just follow the blood?" Bobby knelt down by a sticky patch on a rock and followed the trail it left with his eyes.
"Blood?" Jean-Paul followed his gaze. "Well, that's a start. C'mon." He grabbed Bobby and took off after the trail.
Three miles later, the trail ended at Alex's body.
Storm's Group
"Why is it taking them so long? They should be back by now." Mystique took a deep breath and willed herself to stop worrying.
"Relax, Boss Lady. We're back now." Jean-Paul let Bobby slip to the ground again and shrugged at the look the other mutants gave him. "He's just not used to light-speed, I guess."
"So what happened?" Lance sat down on the ground and leaned against a rock. Without a word, Storm and Wanda sat next to him and focused what little attention they could on Northstar.
"I dunno, gas explosion, I think. They left. We followed a trail for a while, but it was a… dead end." Jean Paul smirked slightly.
"You sick bastard." Bobby growled as he struggled to his feet. "Remy was blown to bits. We followed a trail of blood for a while. That dead end was Alex. After we found his body we lost track of where the others went. If they had kept going straight, they would have run straight into the wall that surrounds the other half of the city. They just disappeared."
"No one just disappears." Storm frowned. "Either way, that means we're down two people and Logan has no one to signal us with."
"Hang on, you mean to say that Pietro hasn't stopped by here yet?" Jean-Paul asked incredulously. "Where would he have gone?"
"Too many questions. We still haven't found that other telepath and there's no point in forcing anyone to find shelter. We couldn't get them to if it was right in front of us. We're all too tired and cold to bother with anything but dying." Mystique looked at Jean, who was still searching for the telepath. Both of them looked like they would topple over any second.
"I guess that's it then. We just sit here and die." Bobby looked around at the seven mutants. "We just leave the fighting to the people who can survive and we don't bother trying anymore."
Lance groaned. "Bobby, it's not like we want to die. We can't do anything about it."
"Yes, we can." Bobby surveyed the group again. "Okay, no, we can't, but we can try. Look, I'm gonna go, and I'm gonna find the others. You can stay here and die if you want, but I'm an X-Man, and if I die, I'll die like Dr. McCoy." Bobby backed up and headed in the direction he thought Bayville would be." Standing up. Not even death is going to stop me from protecting the people I care about. I hope you rest in peace." He called over his shoulder.
The last of the mutants watched his solitary figure disappear into the distance.
"I wonder where Lucifer is. I found one of his cousins. Little guy was dead though." Wanda muttered, holding up a brown feather. "I hope he's okay."
"Lemme see that." Lance reached for the feather. "Where'd you find this?"
"Remember that rock that you said looked like an upside down pencil?"
"Yeah... that one..."
Wanda took the feather back and stroked the ground with its tip. "It was sticking out the bottom. I guess the bird was crushed by the rock."
Lance squinted his eyes at the pale sun. "You serious?"
"Yep."
Lance took the feather from Wanda once more and ran a finger along the edge of it. He held it up in the air and let the wind take it away. "I guess this is it." He stood with a grunt.
"I guess so." Wanda whispered.
"I'll be seeing you." He promised as he followed the feather.
Wanda didn't answer. No one answered.
No one cared.