RETURN OF SPIDER-X

CHAPTER 42: FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE

The X-Men were flying straight to the Juggernaut while Xavier and the others went to Washington the mood wasn't exactly that great. Most of them had been there the last time they fought him and they weren't looking forward to round two. Peter and Wanda hadn't really fought him, they had in the simulator but not in real life.

Wanda wouldn't show any kind of fear but seeing how worried everyone looked was getting to her. Especially from Evan saying how even in the simulations Juggernaut had gone down too easily. And the last time they ran that, it took them nearly twenty minutes of battling to get that helmet off on her first run. So that wasn't really encouraging to her.

Peter was just as nervous but he handled it in his own way, making jokes. "So does anyone know where he gets that armour? I mean seriously when did the Big and Tall stores start to have a medieval line of clothing? Come one who wears armour now a days and the guy is a walking tank, does he need to dress for it?"

"Kid do you make more jokes the more you get nervous or what?" Logan asked him from his seat.

"Oh come on I don't do that," Peter crossed his arms and looked about the window for a minute, "Okay a man walks into a bar and says…ouch."

Rogue took his hand trying to reassure him that it would be okay. He grinned back at her feeling a bit better, although this was Juggernaut. The guy was like the walking boogieman for this team, pretty much the heaviest hitter that they had ever come by and here he was going to fight him. At the moment he kind of wished he could have stayed in bed with Rogue at this point but if the team needed him he would be there.

"So what's the game plan man, we do got one right?" Evan asked Scott and Logan, personally he hoped so, he didn't want to go into this without one. He was in no mood to get his head kicked in.

"We'll just have to go in hard and fast, try to keep him off balance and hope to get his helmet off so Jean can use her telepathy." Scott said to his team.

Jean bit her lower lip, she wasn't sure that she could pull this off. Sure she was a telepath but she wasn't in Xavier's league and she had never had to try something like this. Her telekinesis was her stronger power, she knew she should train her telepathy more but she mostly just kept her mental shields intact.

Scott could see and in a way he thought could feel how she was and touched her hand. She looked up and him and he gave a small smile, 'I know you can do it Jean.'

She gave a small smile back at him, feeling a bit better but not totally. This would be very hard but she had to do it, if she couldn't then what else could they do to stop him? Jean gripped his hand in return, it helped to give her some strength to know that he was there, and that he believed in her.

"Heads up there's the dame," Logan said as they saw it. He was bringing them around as they saw a few other helicopters, they looked like news helicopters and Logan grumbled something. He couldn't understand how people can just sit back and watch stuff like this happen. He already saw the wreck of what looked like a military chopper, it looked like Juggernaut threw something heavy that took off the tail part.

"Okay I'm taking us down at the end of it," He told them as they got ready, they could see him now standing there in the middle of the dame looking at them. Thankfully he wasn't anywhere near something he could rip out and throw at them.

"Okay when we land everyone get into position, Peter, Kitty and Kurt. I want you three to help take his helmet off. The rest of us will try to cover you and keep him busy." Scott told them as they landed. The X-Men exited out of the hatch quickly as they came face to face with Juggernaut who was walking towards them.

"Well I just knew that Charles would send his children to their deaths," he said as he walked towards them his feet making large thumping sounds from his weight. The man looked like he could lift up the world given how large he was. "But I was hoping to see my good for nothing brother here, but breaking you apart will be almost as good."

"Okay everyone you know the plan," Scott shouted out as the team started to move out. Scott sent several optic beams, while Spyke fired out a few bones spikes at him. Wanda threw a few hex bolts, she was surprised how little effect her hex powers had on Juggernaut. She had been trying to make him fall down of something but he only just barely budged.

He mainly ignored the other attacks but he was focused on them, which was good since Kurt ported himself, Kitty and Peter behind the large man. "Okay vell zhat vas the easy past," Kurt said to himself.

"Yeah like no kidding this isn't going to be easy he's not stupid and once he figures out we're here he's totally going to be ready for us." Kitty said as they moved closer to the large man as the other tried to keep his attention off them.

"Yep but then that's why we're the heroes, if it was easy then anyone would be able to do this." Peter said to them, "So who wants to go first?"

Jean was taxing her powers to their limit when she was trying to hold Juggernaut back, but it was like trying to hold back the moon or something. She was slowing him down but that was it, and she could already feel the pain in her mind from overworking herself. "I…argh…Really hope they hurry…" She strained out as her body started to shake a bit.

"You're doing great Jean," Scott told her as he fired a blast to cover Logan who went in close to attack him, his claws only a slight annoyance and he backhanded Wolverine the blow sending him back at least twenty feet, and left a ringing in his skull for a moment.

"You think you can stop me? I'm the Juggernaut! Nothing stops me!" He yelled out at them but then he heard the porting sound of Kurt's power and felt one of the latches of his helmet came off. "Oh no, not this time you little blue freak."

He managed to grab Kurt and threw him off the bridge, Kurt quickly teleported himself as soon as his body was over the railing and had a not to pretty landing on top of the dame. "Oh man I do not vant to do zhat again." He sighed feeling his heart hammering, some days it really paid off to be a teleporter.

Peter took his turn this time leaping the distance while his back was turned. He landed and managed to get one of the latches off before a giant fist slammed into skull sending him to the ground in a daze. His vision was blurred and for a moment wondered if he had a concussion when he saw three Juggernaut boots about to come on down on his skull.

He felt a weight on him and suddenly he was moving through the ground and into the dame, when his vision cleared he saw it was Kitty, "Nice save Kitty."

She smiled as she helped him up, "Like no problem you okay?"

"Other then a few killed brain cells and I think I lost some of my childhood memories yeah." He shook his head as he grabbed her and fired a web line for them to get to the ceiling so she could phase them through it, back up to the fight.

When Rogue had seen Peter go down she got both very afraid and angry at Juggernaut. Then Kitty had come in with the last minute save so now she was just really pissed off at Juggernaut. First he tried to throw her brother off a dame and now tried to flatten her boyfriend. Well she wasn't going to take that and charged in, "Hey you, why not try hitting a girl!"

With her new found speed and agility she ducked under a vicious haymaker and actually managed to jump on top of him she struggled fort he latch and just when she got it he grabbed her by the waist and slammed her into the ground. Her entire back hurt as she cried out in pain. "Try to hit a girl huh? Well if that's what you want." He raised a fist about to pummel the goth.

Webbing suddenly covered the front of his mask blocking his eyes and mouth holes, "Get the hell away from my girlfriend!" Peter yelled out sending a dropkick to the helmet trying to get him off balance. He was a little off balance already from trying to get the webbing off and Peter took advantage of that and picked up Rogue and got out of the way, as Scott and Wanda blasted him with their powers.

"You okay?" He asked her as she was holding her ribs.

"God ah hurt…but yeah ah think so," She gave him a small smile, "Thanks for the save."

"Hey I owned you one, besides no one manhandles my girl and gets away with it," He told her making her blush just a little.

"Less flirting more fighting you two," Logan said to them as that broke them out of it and they went back into action, seeing as Juggernaut had just ripped off the webbing at that poin. It wasn't an easy fight, as they only had on latch left but Juggernaut was also trying to put the latches back on, so they had to pour it on when he did forcing him to attack them.

Peter was about to try another web line to the face when his spider-sense went off only this time it was to the right and from high up. It wasn't Juggernaut setting it off and he looked just in time. "Incoming!" Spider-X shouted out as everyone close to him he pulled out of the way as and explosion went off.

Everyone looked to see where that had come from, even Juggernaut was surprised by that little turn of events and took a moment to look. There was the sound of maniacal high pitched laughing with the roar of an engine. There in the sky on something that Peter had seen before that the Hobgoblin used was a batglider. At first he thought it was the Hobgoblin but when he got a better look this was different.

This one had on no cloak, and instead of being brown and orange this one was green and purple. "Oh man not another one," Peter said to himself picking himself up.

"Well if it isn't the mutant brat brigade," The mystery man said as his glider hovered there in above them. "You know you're becoming a very big pain in my backside."

"Man we don't even know who or what the hell you are." Evan shouted up at him.

"Oh yes introductions. Well let's just say that a…third party that I'm close to had a vested interest in that facility you trashed to free your friends. Do you have any idea how much money and resources you cost? Hell I had to go and clean up the mess thanks to you lot."

"Wait you're the one that burned it down?" Kitty was surprised that someone would go that far.

"Correct, now as for my name you can call me the Green Goblin, oh and here's my card!" He threw a pumpkin bomb at the mutants which Jean managed to deflect.

'Great this is just what we didn't need,' Scott thought to himself as he has to think fast. "Spider, Nightcrawler, Jean take care of that guy. The rest hit the Juggernaut!"

"Ah so you're sending them out to play, how nice." The Green Goblin laughed as he saw one of the news choppers and got a wicked idea. "Although I doubt you have enough to save the lives of those people and fight me off."

"Vhat is he talking about?" Kurt asked Jean as she then watched in horror as he threw a bomb at the tail section of the news chopper. "Oh god," Kurt muttered as the craft started to fall.

"Jean try and slow it down, Kurt get them out of there, I'll try to hold it!" Peter shouted as he jumped over the damn. He fired two web lines and then stuck himself to the bridge. Jean reached out and when Peter's webs stopped it she made sure it wouldn't smash up into the side of the dame.

"Hurry Kurt!" Jean said and immediately he went into the helicopter. The people were of course scared out of their minds and so he just grabbed one and teleported them to one of the sides of the damn, then going back to the others.

The Green Goblin however wasn't done yet, he laughed as he targeted Jean and threw several razor bats at her. She kept up the vehicle for as long as she could but she had to get out of the way. She was too tired to put up another shield, so one of the bats cut her arm. She gritted her teeth placed a hand onto the wound, it wasn't too deep but it hurt like hell.

Peter felt the extra weight and grunted as now he had to keep it up all by himself. "Oh man hurry up guys," he muttered to himself. He wouldn't let this fall but it felt like his arms were nearly about to pop out of his sockets. Peter just prayed that he could hold off, he had to no matter what he knew he had to hold on. No matter how much his arms were burning, of the fact his hands were shaking from holding the webbing he would hold on.

"Well look here, the spider is all along well that's just perfect for me!" Green Goblin laughed as he threw a bomb. Peter's eyes widened under the mask he had to think quickly, he let himself fall just enough for the bomb to hit the wall. He stopped himself and cried out as his arms took the strain of stopping the helicopter by himself.

"Oh man I don't think I can do that again," Peter moaned feeling some chucks of the wall hit his back. The Green Goblin came back and this time fired off several bombs, and Peter knew he couldn't dodge them he just couldn't. He had to hold on as long as he could.

He felt the bombs go off lifting him off the wall, it was like things were in slow motion as he fell. He tried to still think of a way to save the people in the helicopter but he couldn't think of anything. He wouldn't accept that there was nothing he could do, not this time.

But Kurt appeared and the next thing he knew he was back on the dame with Jean. "Kurt what about the others? Please tell me you got them all."

"Ja, I got zhem don't vorry about it." He assured Peter as he gave out a long sigh.

Scott was having his own problems with the Juggernaut, they still have trouble with that last latch. Evan was out at the moment as Logan was helping him up, Juggernaut had ripped out part of the dame and thrown that and Evan had just barely managed to dodge it. "You kids think you can stop me? I'm the one with the power here and you kids got nothing." He taunted them.

"Power, you want to see power well then fine take this!" Scott had never done this before, hell he didn't even knew what the limits of his powers were. He was always too afraid to let loose and see what they could do when he untapped them. But now he had no choice, he had a clear shot and took off his visor. Red optic energy was unleashed like a tidal wave, but still the Juggernaut kept on coming.

Scott poured on the power he felt it rushing through him, it felt like his brain was heating up and his eyes were full of static electricity. He could see him getting closer but Scott pressed on, even when he felt like he was draining himself. He never thought he had a limit but it felt like he was tapping into power he shouldn't, like he was using too much, too soon and too fast. For a moment Scott wondered if this could kill him? Could he literally use so much energy that it would take his very life force?

He didn't know but someone had to stop this monster and he tried so hard and yet the large man kept slowly moving forward. Then Cain Marko was on top of him and his massive fist wrapped around his face covering his eyes, Scott cried out as it felt like his skull was in a vice.

"Now I got you, let's see if I can pop that head of yours like a zip-huh?" He heard the last latch unhook and looked to see Kitty there, she had phase through him and actually unlatched it while she was partially still in his body. She jumped forward and grabbed Scott phasing him out of Juggernaut's hand.

Cain quickly tried to put it back on but it wasn't easy with his build, but something snagged his helmet, he felt something connect and looked. Peter had web lined his helmet, "Hey mind if I borrow this? No? Thanks!" He pulled and the helmet popped off.

Peter thought of taking two birds out with one stone and used the helmet like a projectile at the Goblin. The villain in the sky saw it coming and just narrowly avoided a head on collision. However his glider got clipped from the helmet. He was surprised the armored dome did so much damage as he had to fight for control.

The Goblin sneered at the kids, he couldn't control his flight and he was losing altitude, if he didn't pull out of the fight and look at the damage he might not be able to get back. He hated losing to these kids, these mutants. But as his glider started to slowly fall he manoeuvred it to the small town down bellow. He would get it fixed, go home and then plan for the next time.

This wasn't the end, oh no he would be back and next time they wouldn't get off so easily.

Jean meanwhile was trying to get into Marko's head but it wasn't easy he was fighting her. She was panting and sweating now as she strained to get into his mind. Cain fought her off as he moved forward he wouldn't go back to prison he wouldn't be locked up again. He saw Kitty helping a tired Scott and he made his way to them.

Jean saw this, saw him moving to Scott, her Scott. She couldn't let him hurt him, she wouldn't! She focused even more power going to her limits and then digging deep down and putting all her strength into it. She saw Juggernaut raise a fist to the two of them, "NOOOO!" Jean screamed out and her powers unleashed on their enemy.

Juggernaut screamed as his brain was on fire, he held his hands to his head crying out in pain. Then finally he fell, there was a large thud as he hit the ground and he wasn't getting back up anytime soon. Jean dropped to the ground as well totally exhausted.

The others started to pick themselves up, it had been a long and hard fight but they had done it, they had beaten him. They were blinded as more spotlights hit them and they saw more helicopters show up but these well all black with a logo on the side.

"Are those things from SHIELD?" Wanda asked holding her arm which had taken a blow in the battle.

Logan grunted, "Yeah figured for Fury to show up when all the hard work is done."

-Congress-

Back in the congress building everyone had seen the heroic fight, the appearance of that Green Goblin, the rescue of the news crew. Everyone there had watched it in silence and in awe at what those people had done. They had saved the town and managed to defeat the Juggernaut.

The news crews were still shooting as the reporter said that to him these kids were true heroes at what they had done. Everyone across the world had seen this battle as the mutants put their lives on the line, and for those in Congress it put things into perspective.

Congressman Owens was at a loss for words at the sight of that. He expected nothing but destruction and devastation, not what he was seeing. "What just happened?" He asked no one in particular.

"That gentlemen and ladies is what my school is for," Xavier said proudly at how well his students have done. "We teach them how to control their powers and to use them for good. We are here to ensure that there is peace between humans and mutants. As we have shown, we are not all the enemy, there as bad mutants yes, but there are good as you can see there on the screen."

"We are just like you in that regard there are the good and the bad, and my dream is for a world where we can all live together as equals. They didn't have to go out there and stop him, they could have sat back and did nothing, but this is not the case. And I hope their actions here today show you all that we can live together."

After the events of the broadcast congress went into a debate and with the majority had agreed that mutants would have the same rights as everyone else. There were some still opposed but for now mutants everywhere were just as much a citizen as they had been before mutants were exposed to the world.

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