A/N: Greetings, everyone! Hope you're all having a decent time wherever you are. I must say that the USA is great, although there are still a lot of things that confuse me, mainly the fact that pretty much everything is paper after 50 cents. Anyhoo, I'll get on with the work. Hope you can forgive me for blowing off a bit of steam and just choosing to relax for a week or two- I'll start work on the arc and try to make it consistent.
Vendettakiller19: Don't worry- I'm not going to stop with the arc. I just needed a short break and wanted to see the sights and live in the moment. I'm presently crashing in Laguna Beach and therefore I've got much more time on my hands, though I'll be back in the UK by the time the next one comes out.
Ninjaofmusic-Nya: Thanks for taking the time to read through the stuff you missed initially and review it, much appreciated! I'm pleased that Archangel is still as menacing as I need him to be, so that proves I was doing something right during Danger Ratings- sorry for scaring you!
New York City, Present Day
The man felt his heart racing as he noticed the searchlight sweeping the streets from above, with the roar of helicopters temporarily drowning out the noise as the media fought for the best view of the action, while the police at least made an effort to nominally keep the peace and stop the demonstrations from escalating into an all-out riot, as had happened in the past.
He clung to the shadows, desperately doing his best to stay out of sight. To the casual observer, the street he was in appeared deserted, but the keener eye would note the odd movement coming from the brick wall. Closer inspection would reveal a man's shadow, and if not for the overhead activity and vehicles of all sorts rushing past, his panicked breathing may have been easy to hear.
Right now, this day was easily in the running for one of the worst in his entire life.
He leaned out, and then hurriedly pulled back. Yet another truck rushed down the street, slowing down and skidding to a halt before it made a turn in the road. The momentum was enough to open the back doors and send some sort of vehicle flying out from the back. It was difficult to describe in his panicked state, but he briefly overheard the word "scrambler" being mentioned as it landed on thin, spider-like legs, the driver visible through the transparent cockpit bubble that shielded him from the outside world. As it moved along the street, dozens more like it began creepily climbing across the large buildings that made up this part of the city, desperately sweeping the area in search of mutants to arrest and detain.
Relieved that it seemingly hadn't noticed him, he leaned back against the wall and sighed, doing his best to just breathe normally for a few seconds. Quickly, however, his joy turned to surprise when, without warning, one of the scramblers dropped down and landed in the road, turning to face him. He stayed deathly still, but through the transparent cockpit he could see the pilot staring down, presumably at a screen.
A few seconds later, the pilot looked up as his screen showed the infrared image of the mutant trying to blend in to his surroundings, as well as the flashing words REGISTERD MUTANT: Victor "Anole" Borkowski.
"Victor Borkowski, you are in violation of Zero Tolerance Directive 616," the man declared, his voice filtered slightly by his vehicle's loudspeaker.
It was now that Anole started to panic, his camouflage failing him as his skin returned to its natural green colour.
"Turn yourself in or risk physical injury."
For a brief second he contemplated turning himself in, thinking that it may perhaps go his way if he decided not to fight. Then he reminded himself that he had only used his powers to try and hide from a world that hated and feared him, and that whatever followed arrest wasn't worth it.
He spun around and madly climbed up the brick wall, the possibility of escape fuelling his efforts. In response, the scrambler walked forward and started to follow him up, its multiple arms providing it with greater balance. He felt the arm swipe at his back and narrowly miss, and redoubled his efforts to climb, his heart pounding in his ears.
There was a loud "BAMF" as another mutant clad mostly in red suddenly appeared out of thin air, clinging to the wall with his hind legs and stretching out his hand. Anole briefly took in the pointy ears, dark blue skin, yellow eyes, misshapen hands and almost demonic tail.
"Here, take my hand!"
The decision wasn't a hard one to make, Victor reasoned to himself. He might as well ask the questions later and get out of here first. He stretched out and took the hand offered to him, hoping that he could get out of sight quickly and to somewhere safe with the stranger.
Moments before they were teleported away, he turned his head to notice the scrambler shooting a tiny barbed probe upwards in their direction. He was fortunate enough for the scrambler to miss him, but the stranger was seemingly not as lucky, as the probe dug into his leg, releasing an electric shock as they both vanished from sight.
They landed in a quiet street a few blocks away. Anole took a moment to assess the damage to himself, seeing that he was fine, before turning his attention to his unexpected rescuer. Electricity was now arcing up his leg as the he realised that the probe had attached to his body. With a painful yell, the blue mutant strained to face him.
"Get off the streets. Hurry," the other man muttered.
"But what about you?"
"Go! I'll be alright!"
Somewhat reluctantly, Victor Borkowski turned and ran down into a dark alleyway as Nightcrawler tried to grab the probe and remove it. His efforts to do so were rewarded with further currents of electricity and resulting pain, seemingly as a way to punish his resistance. He tried once again, but it was as if several ants had crawled inside his body and then spontaneously combusted, all the while hurting him from the inside out.
He convulsed for several seconds as he yelled in pain, before collapsing and groaning as he passed out, the probe still shocking him for a few moments after he fell unconscious.
As he lay unmoving, three scramblers ominously crawled towards him, the way that predators would be certain that their prey is down.
"Target confirmed as the member of the X-Men Nightcrawler," muttered one of the pilots into his radio.
"Finally," said another. "We finally take down one of those creeps. A hundred bucks goes to the first of us to take down the next one."
They all muttered their agreement as they drew closer to him, readjusting their targeting systems.
"Ready...aim...fire..."
It's a shorter chapter than I usually do, but I wanted things to be given a kickstart, as I won't have much time for writing over the next few days. Boy, am I looking forward to writing this story arc.
One thing I randomly wish to note is that the scripts originally had Senator Kelly resign his post in the Senate to join the Human High Council, but I didn't feel this matched with the character development that he had in the show, where he chose to step down- also, I kind of made him say he wasn't interested in doing what he'd done before. So I decided I'd add General Kincaid from the X-Men: Legends game, since he fits the bill pretty well.
If you've enjoyed then a review, favourite or follow would be appreciated. Be sure to share it with your fellow fans if you enjoyed it, and I'll see you all next time!