Bobby and Lance

"Hmm? Where did you come from, little humans?" K'vas nec Hiva looked kindly at the two battered mutants.

Lance just stared up at the seven foot man. His tired mind was trying to add up clues; the height, fair skin, and especially the wings. After about five minutes of patiently waiting for an answer, Hiva glanced at Glive, who just grinned spiritedly. Hiva sighed, resigned to using the boy as a translator. He was just about to ask for help when the human leaned down and started whispering to its companion. Another look at Glive gave Hiva bad news.

"What are they saying?" He asked. Glive just shrugged and turned towards where Zieet was staring out a window. "Well?"

The answer was reluctant. "I can't understand them. It's not like what the others speak."

Hiva turned back to the humans. They were both staring at him so intensely that it took every ounce of his self control to not fidget.

"Dude. Are you a mutant, 'cause I don't believe in angels and stuff. What's your name?" The taller of the humans squinted at Hiva.

"K'vas nec Hiva. You?"

The humans looked startled and began whispering again. After a moment of discussion, the first human nodded and turned to face Hiva. "I'm Lance and this is Bobby. We're looking for our friends. They're mutants, too."

Hiva nodded in understanding. The conversation was finally getting somewhere.

"Hey, can you help us out? We left some friends outside the city. Can you help us get them?"

Hiva studied the humans. The speaker was tall for a human and probably looked gruff even on his best days. His clothes were nearly tatters and his exposed skin was cracked and covered with scars, but he still held himself as though he could take on the world. Hiva considered how much time it would take to find the missing mutants.

"Alright, Glive, tell him that we'll send a few scouts out to find the missing humans. We have to meet the others now." Hiva turned to the rest of the Vulgates, leaving Glive to translate his words. He picked five to lead the search team. Two groups of three warriors were sent to find food and shelter in case there was no room at the skatepark. From what the mutants had told them, space wouldn't be a problem, but Hiva didn't feel comfortable relying solely on the mutants. If all went well, the whole group would meet at the skatepark four days later and work on a plan from there.

"They say they understand and they're ready to go when we are." Glive walked to Hiva's side. "Are we leaving now?"

"Yes. Gather the stragglers. Where is our Oracle?" Hiva looked around the close circle of Vulgates, but did not see the Oracle, who read the will of the Fates before each battle.

"Oh, he's still not feeling well. I can do it though." Glive's voice rang like a bell in the silence.

"K'mas ten nec Glive, there are some things that I will take your word on as a noble, and others I will not. This is one of those issues."

"Look, I know you have absolutely no faith in my abilities, but it can't hurt can it? It's not like anyone's life will hang in the balance if I read the signs wrong as opposed to not reading them at all."

One of the Vulgates laughed. "You don't belong here. You're K'mas."

For the first time, Glive looked angry. "And K'ten, so don't you forget it. I outrank every one of you and I'm the only K'ten you have here, so unless you intend to do without, you'll do well to rethink your attitudes. I'm the best K'ten alive and I know it, so don't try to put me down."

"Hey, Curtain or whoever," Lance called from across the room. He couldn't understand what was going on, but he had a feeling it was bad news. "Can we get going already? This place is making me nervous. And stop glaring at each other like that. You look like you're about to kill someone."

K'vas nec Hiva nodded to his followers and they all headed in their own direction. The party that would go straight to the skatepark left last.

"So, Kayvaznick, huh?" Lance sidled up to Hiva as the group was walking to the skatepark. It wasn't far and there was no reason for the Vulgates to subject their wings to any more abuse from the cold. "Is that Russian or something?"

Hiva looked at Glive, who shrugged and turned away again. "K'vas nec Hiva. K'vas nec is ti-tle."

Lance nodded. "Oh, so that's your title. What's it mean?"

"Vulgate..." Hiva searched his limited Earth vocabulary. "Warrior."

"So your name is Hiba?"

"Hiva." He emphasized the 'v.'

"Ah, so, Hiva. Are you the boss of this group?" Lance looked around at some of the other Vulgates. To be perfectly honest, the only Vulgates who looked shrimpier than Hiva were Glive and Zieet, though Lance didn't know their names.

Hiva answered with a smile, already knowing what was going through Lance's mind. "Yes."

Lance grinned back and tilted his head so he could look Hiva in the eye. "Cool. Kinda short, though, aren't you?"

"No, young."

Lance chuckled at that, but he quickly grew somber. "Look, Hiva. I know my power isn't all mystic, but there are things I just know. After getting my butt kicked so many times by the X-Men, I've sort of developed a sixth sense about trouble, if you know what I mean." Hiva bent closer to hear Lance's words, since his voice had dropped several notches while he spoke. "What I'm trying to say is, I've got experience with pain and trouble, and I can sense it coming. Intuition, if that's the right word. And man, we're heading into some major trouble. I don't know what, exactly, but maybe we should turn around."

"Lance," Hiva looked the mutant in the eye. "I understand, but others are in." He pointed ahead, towards the entrance of the skatepark. "What to do..." He shrugged helplessly.

Bobby, silent for a long time before, nudged Lance in the side. The two of them whispered furiously. Bobby jabbed a finger at his bag several times during the conversation, but his meaning was lost on the Vulgate. Meanwhile, Hiva warned the rest of the Vulgates to stay alert for trouble.

"Okay, how about this, you send about a quarter of your best fighters to hang back. The rest of us will go in and if something bad happens, we'll send one person out to get backup. The others will show up a little while afterwards, so they can be like a second wave. What d'ya think?"

Hiva paused as he tried to figure out what a wave was, but nodded that he understood the gist of the suggestion. "Good."

The group was divided shortly thereafter and what remained of the Vulgate's party approached the skatepark. At the door, someone within slid a peephole open and cautiously observed the group. The peephole was shut quietly and the door opened. Hiva looked at Lance, who was standing in a protective circle of fighters. Bobby was in a different circle, ready to bolt and send a signal for the other Vulgates if necessary. At an unspoken command, half of the Vulgates shifted into their battle-ready forms, with metal wings, steel-like claws and blood-hungry fangs. Hiva stayed as he was, but stepped into the building as though he suspected nothing.

He got nothing, since the corridor that the door opened into was empty. The entire group filed into the skatepark. As Hiva peered into the darkness behind the ticket booth, and Zieet complained to Glive about the smell, Lance stood next to the door. "It's a trap, there's no doubt about it now." He said it dully, as though they were already so deeply trapped that there was no point in trying to escape.

"Don't be stupid." Zieet said haughtily- though he said it in his native language. "We can just walk out, the door's still open."

Hiva looked back at the door. It was strange for a second, seeing Lance's silhouette against the sun outside.

"Bobby," Lance's voice was low. "Go now, get the others. We don't have time."

Bobby nodded and started for the door. He barely made it three steps before a deep rumbling sound shook the corridor. Hiva watched, motionless, for a split second as the light beyond Lance's silhouette shrank. A door, heavy and metal, was dropping behind Lance, and there was no time for Bobby to make it out.

Amid shouts of anger at the deception and a flurry of motion, Hiva pulled a startled Zieet out of the way and yelled for everyone to move out of the way. In one smooth movement, he tore the bag off Bobby's bag and hurled it towards Lance. The bag caught the mutant in the chest and propelled him backwards, right out of the door. The whole incident took less than two seconds.

Lance looked up from where he lay on the ground and gasped. The door was nearly shut and his torso was directly underneath it. He scrambled backwards as fast as he could and yanked his legs away from the door, praying that he was far enough.

There was a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach as he realized he wasn't.

Scott and Todd

Scott slowly rose through the fog of unconsciousness with the help of Kurt's frantic shaking. He took a deep breath, tried to collect his thoughts and opened his eyes. Kurt shrieked and teleported away and, belatedly, Scott squeezed his eyes shut. He waited for a hail of ceiling tiles and insulation to fall on him, but nothing happened.

"My apologies, friend Scott." A strange voice asked in an eerily emotionless voice. "I have temporarily suspended your ability to use your powers. I feared you might panic and attack someone."

Scott cautiously opened his eyes. He could see clearly, no more red-tinged images, and not only that, but he didn't have to wear his visor either. He looked around at the white room with surprise. It had been years since he had seen any color other than red- red either from his visor or his mutant power. He blinked rapidly as Kurt peered over the edge of the table that he was laying on, completely incredulous. He had heard that the mutant was blue, but never really believed it.

"Why am I not dead?" Kurt asked

"It matters little how the feat is accomplished. We are in danger here. This skatepark, as you call it, is overrun by characters much like this one." The stranger pointed to the prostrate and unconscious Beam.

Todd took the moment to interrupt. "Which is yet another reason that we should just kill him and get it over with. Even if we go down, it's one less of them for the next group to deal with."

Scott didn't answer, but shook his head. The argument was over a moot point. Not only was Todd outnumbered by the X-Men, but Scott was acting as leader and if he said they wouldn't kill anyone, they simply wouldn't kill anyone.

The stranger spoke again. He had light brown hair that almost looked blonde and his eyes were somewhere between blue and grey. "Perhaps the human may yet have a purpose. It would be best if we do not yet dispose of it."

Todd's voice was steadily rising. Scott got the impression that either Todd knew the man or had been arguing with him since Scott lost consciousness. "Don't be stupid, are we going to carry him around? We still have to get out of here. If we kill him now, we won't have to do it later."

"But Todd, do you not acknowledge that we have to escape this place?"

"Well, duh. I have no intention of staying here."

"Then it follows," the stranger's voice hardened. "That it is important that we find out why this human is behaving so erratically."

"Look." Todd snarled. "I don't care about your logic. You're about as smart as they come, but you're just like Summers- naive. Your logic can be just as nice as anything, but you aren't being reasonable."

"What's so reasonable about killing someone?" Scott demanded.

"The fact that it's either them or us." Todd snapped at Scott, still glaring at the stranger with all his might. "The Professor's dead, Scott. Get over it. No matter how you try, this isn't the time or place to play at peace. It's not that I like killing people, but sometimes its necessary."

"Todd, are we not supposed to work together? How can we be effective if you refuse to listen to me?" The man's voice was calm, but it had a dangerous lilt to it. "This is getting out of hand. Our most pressing issue is the destruction of Valzinameku. Nothing else must interfere. This human can assist us. To kill it before we have used it to its full potential is a waste that we will regret later."

"Lucifer, I don't give a rat's tail. I don't consider you my partner and you can tell your flaming Fates that too. My first problem is getting out of here alive and I can't do that with you interfering."

The stranger, who Scott now noticed had wings, crossed his arms. "Suppose I told you that the easiest way to get out of this alive is to defeat Valzinameku?"

Todd grinned in a most unfriendly fashion. "I'd say you were lying."

"If I can place a human in a state of suspended consciousness that gives me total control of their mind, what makes you think that our enemy cannot as well? These humans are under Valzinameku's control. If we destroy him, we don't have to worry about these pawns." Lucifer explained as if this was the most rational thing in the world and some child had dared question the logic of it.

"Great idea, Lou." Todd mocked. "We'll destroy the demon and then we won't have to worry about anything anymore. Now, all we have to do is call Valzinameku and ask him to come here so we can kill him. It's a brilliant plan!"

Lucifer nodded. "It is, however, slightly flawed. My intention is to go back to the beginning and defeat him from there."

Todd blinked. "Wait, you mean, we're going back underground?"

"Yes. We're going to the caves that Valzinameku came from. I suspect we will find a clue about how he may be defeated."