Two days later...
"I've got him." The professor said grimly. "I've told them to meet us at the Blackbird. You know what we need to do. Be careful. He will be waiting." I nodded and left. Rematch time Psycho.
I surveyed the warehouse that I had turned into a trap. Not likely to be lethal. High chance of causing debilitating injuries. I had cut mostly through the supports of the warehouse. The building would collapse quickly if one of the supports was completely severed. I had place a container of gasoline next to one of the weakened supports. The explosion will cause the building to collapse. When the X-Men appear I will inform the local authorities. They will attempt to arrest all of us. Bullets do not pose a serious threat to me. The same cannot be said of the majority of the X-Men.
Twenty five minutes later...
The familiar sound of air being displaced by something unseen informed me of their arrival. I stood at one end of the warehouse. A ruby red blast destroyed a chunk of the opposite side of the warehouse. That missed a support by a couple feet. That would have ended my plan before it began. Logan and Laura entered first, quickly followed by Rogue, Scott, Storm, Kurt, Kitty, Bobby, and Jean. "Weapon X. X-23." They began growling at my use of their designations. Too easy. Scott stepped forward. "Matt, come on we don't have to do this. You can surrender now and nobody will get hurt. My designation... is X-29." I extended the claws in my left hand and Logan smirked. "Come on kid, you know you can't take all of us." I reached down and strapped my katana to my back before replying. "I don't need to." They began their attack. Laura and Logan rushed me. It was all I could do to fend them off. They came from opposite sides, as if used to fighting together. The others weren't so coordinated. Bobby began firing blasts of ice which I maneuvered around so they were hitting Logan and Laura. Scott, Jean and Kurt spread out to cover the doors. Rogue moved in behind me. I ducked one particularly well aimed blast of ice which hit Logan full in the face. With him temporarily distracted I switched to pure offense and overwhelmed Laura. I cut her once across the neck and caught her retaliatory swipe. I twisted her arm so that it was locked in an extended position and I brought my hand down on the elbow. There was the awful sound of bone snapping and she retreated while it healed. Logan yelled at Bobby to quit shooting and began attacking me. I raised my claws to block and suddenly I couldn't move my body. I glanced over at the telepath to see her frowning in concentration. Logans claws sliced through my chest. I did the only thing I could think of. I focused on the telepath and mentally screamed GET OUT OF MY HEAD, putting all my willpower behind it. I could move again but Logan lunged forward and stabbed me through the chest with his claws. Shit. I jumped backwards and kicked him in the chest. He was knocked off his feet. I took advantage of the seconds I had to draw a gun and fire three times at Jean and twice at the gasoline container. I heard Jean scream but I was too busy warding off a healed Laura to check if I had hit the gasoline. Then I heard it explode. It blew with incredible forced and blasted us all back. I began to run. I heard the building begin to creak and groan ominously. Somebody yelled as it began to collapse.
I was hit in the back by what felt like a train. I turned to see Scott preparing another blast. I fired at him and he jumped behind a car. I rolled sideways and his second blast missed by inches. I turned and sprinted behind another building. Pulling out a 'borrowed' cell phone I called 911. "Oh my God. There's so much blood. I don't know, the warehouse they just blew it up. They're mutants. They're X-Men imposters and they just destroyed the warehouse and they're coming after me and oh God please help me. I'm at the docks. Hurry." I hung up. I listened, trying to hear where they were. Two people were walking towards where I was. Two more were waiting around the other side of the building. Fools. I cut through the wall and went straight through the building. Only to be shocked as Kitty and Bobby came straight through the wall. She doesn't make noise when she's phasing? I drew one pistol and began firing at Kitty, forcing her to stay phased. I extended two claws in my right hand and sliced at Bobby. He jumped onto an ice slide and slid away while firing blasts of ice at me. I sheathed my claws and switched the pistol to my right hand. I began firing at him and caught him in the leg on the third shot. He tumbled off his ice slide and I heard the sound of bones snapping and looked over to see him lying there, one arm at an unnatural angle. Kitty looked at me fearfully. "Help him and I won't shoot. Attack me and I will." She ran over to him and began ripping his shirt for bandages. I cut through the wall of the building and began running.
I heard thunder and the sky flashed. Something slammed into my back and knocked me a good five yards. It felt like my skin was melting. I looked up to see Storm preparing to throw another lightning bolt. So that wasn't my imagination. My skin is melting. I aimed my pistol and began shooting. On the second shot the gun clicked instead of firing. But one shot was enough. It hit her in the shoulder and she began to fall. She concentrated and her fall slowed. It looked like it was all she could do to slow her fall so I turned and continued running. I discarded the empty gun and pulled the unused one. I turned the corner of another warehouse and heard police sirens. About damn time. A pair of claws sliced up from the darkness of the shadow behind the warehouse and sliced my gun in half. Shit. I blocked the second strike. Shit! The third one cut through my bicep. SHIT! The fourth I blocked only to be sent flying by a boot planted on my sternum.
My head slammed into the side of the warehouse and my vision was blurred. Concussion. Not good. I tried to stand and fell over. Laura walked over, claws glinting. Just then a group of police officers ran around the building and yelled, "FREEZE. DROP THE KNIVES AND PUT YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEAD." Thank God. I quickly put on an expression of fear and began babbling. "Oh thank God you guys got here in time. The warehouse they destroyed is over there. They're trying to KILL ME. PLEASE DON'T LET THEM KILL ME." I began sobbing and the rest of the uninjured X-Men ran around the building. The policemen trained their guns on them and repeated the command to freeze. Logan look pissed. "THIS KID IS FOOLING YOU." The policeman glanced at me, still crying, and looked back at Logan. "Put your hands on your head and lay facedown on the ground." The X-Men shot venomous looks at me but complied with the policeman's order. The other policemen began handcuffing them and took them to the cars. The policeman who had been yelling orders walked over to me. "We're gonna need to take that sword. You'll get it back when we're done." I removed it from my back and handed it to him. "Son, can you stand?" I sniffled and spoke in a relieved tone of voice. "I don't think so. That girl," I pointed to Laura, "kicked me into the wall. My vision is blurry and I can't balance. Ok, then son, here." He grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet. He put my arm around my shoulders and began carrying me to the car.
We turned around the warehouse to see the X-Men explaining what happened to a doubtful policeman. I immediately whimpered and tried to hide behind the guy carrying me. He shot a hateful look at the X-Men and I listened to the officer questioning them. "You expect me to believe this kid is a wanted criminal," he gestured to me, "that you are supposed to apprehend. He fought all of you, wounded three of you, who, by the way, are nowhere to be found. He blew up that warehouse as a diversion and called us in an attempt to trick us into arresting you?" His tone of voice said not a chance in hell and I had to contain my laughter. The X-Men all looked pissed. Logan looked even more pissed than he had a moment ago. He better calm down before he pops a blood vessel. I had to try very hard not to laugh. Logan began growling and I played my part magnificently. "Oh God he wants to kill me! Please get him away from me! Oh God all those people in the warehouse!" The X-Men looked infuriated by my lie. The officer holding me gestured to Logan. "Get him outta here." He lowered his voice to what most people wouldn't have been able to hear. "He's freaking this kid out. He's practically hysterical." An ambulance drove up and they had an EMT check me out. He pronounced me unharmed and the officer helped me up again. He half-carried me over to the car, handcuffed me, and placed me in the backseat. "For something this big we're gonna need to take you to the police station and question you all there. We'll let you call your parents once we get there ok?" I sniffled again and nodded. They got the X-Men into the other cars and began to drive to the police station. Of course once the guy driving my car was distracted I unsheathed my claws and cut through the handcuffs and the metal grille between me and the driver. He turned at the noise and began shouting but I silenced him with a fist to the face. He slumped, unconscious and I grabbed the steering wheel and stopped the car. I pushed the officer out, ignored the other officers asking what was wrong over the radio and began to drive off. As I was escaping I picked up the radio and said, "Tell the X-Men. This was a nonlethal operation. All I want is to be left alone. If they attack me again I start killing." I ditched the cop car after a couple hours and stole a blue Volkswagon from a parking lot.
Back at the Institute...
"He played us." I was still pissed at that kid manipulating those cops so easily. Everyone who hadn't been a part of the mission began chuckling. I snarled and they stopped quickly. Except Xavier. "You have to admit Logan it was a pretty good plan. I'm aware." Nobody had any doubts the plan was smart. It still pissed everybody off though. Well, just me really. But he would never admit that to anybody but himself. "The kids aren't gonna like it when you take em off the team, Chuck. Only the senior X-Men can handle the kid if he's trying to kill." Charle's expression turned serious. "We're going to stop hunting him." The shocked silence was a far more effective plea for information than shouting could ever be. "I can't risk all our lives when he isn't doing anything besides trying to run. He almost killed Jean when he was trying not to kill." Jean had been bleeding from two gunshot wounds to the chest. If Kurt hadn't been teleporting the injured back to the mansion's infirmary she would be dead now. "I don't want to send you out again. It will only end badly. So we're just gonna wait till he starts killing people for fun? This kid is a killer. He can't be allowed to roam free. Logan, if the time comes when he does start killing innocents, then believe me I will be the first to try and stop him. But it's become too dangerous to go after him when he hasn't done anything. You mean like stomp Rogue half to death? He also healed her when he noticed the condition she was in. It's obvious he doesn't want to kill us, but he will if he thinks he doesn't have a choice." He still thinks the kid's got a chance. Charles, you can be so hopelessly optimistic sometimes. The professor laughed as if he could hear what I was thinking. Of course, he could.
A/N: If you understand the reference in the title after reading the chapter then good job. It's an awesome show. Whew. Took a while to update. I was re-reading my story and one of the chapters after this one is absolute shit. So I'm gonna have to redo the chapter. Sucks because its probably the longest chapter in the entire thing. Funny how that works isn't it? I had to partially redo this one because it's difficult to make the police interact with the X-Men in a believable way. When Kitty listens to X-29 she isn't being a gullible idiot. She figures if he does attack she can just phase out. I'd also like to clear something up. If the X-Men actually believed 29 was a serious threat they would be able to stop him pretty quickly (at his current level). He's not winning because he's better than them. He's winning because he's clever and he's good at playing people against each other. If Logan and Laura went up against him and nothing and no one else was involved they would beat him.