Chapter 6

Chaotic Dance

Pietro was stunned that Spectrum was moving as fast as he was. To people watching on the street, they were just a pair of blurs rocketing down the street, except Spectrum's hot claws were giving off a trail of red light. "How are you matching my speed?"

"Are you stupid or something? I'm copying your powers."

"I'll show you stupid!" Quicksilver stopped dead and zoomed back the way they came. As Spectrum caught up again, Pietro tried to trip him. Spectrum caught Pietro's foot with his claw and knocked him in the side with the other. "AAAAAHH!" Pietro rolled forward at super-speed, coming to an abrupt groin-first stop on a fire hydrant.

Spectrum slid easily to a stop in front of the others. "Who else wants some?" Then his smile disappeared with a quick head count. He turned around in time to get a Toad tongue in the face.

"I'll take a piece, yo!" Toad called from on top of a 3-story building. Spectrum wiped his face, then lashed out with a hideously long tongue of his own. Toad caught the tongue in his end. "Yo, you think you could catch me with my own trick?" Now it was Spectrum's turn to smile. Fire shot from his mouth quickly down the long tongue, burning Todd's hand. "What the hell?" Toad let go to cradle his hand, and Spectrum pulled his flaming appendage back into his mouth. Then he shot out Toad's slime spit, only his was burning, bearing a closer resemblance to napalm. "HEY!" Toad leaped out of the way, landing on the sidewalk, and was immediately shoulder-tackled by Spectrum running at Quicksilver-speed.

"Stop messing with my friends!" Lance made the ground quake, knocking Spectrum over. The blue-haired mutant jumped to his feet and leaped out of the way before a motorcycle smashed the spot he had been standing in, courtesy of Blob. He then pressed his hands, still covered in hot rock, to the ground. A wave of vibration rippled out towards Avalanche, but stopped short of him. Lance looked around, confused, but then the ground in front of him erupted in flame. He was knocked back and peppered with cement, hitting a store-front window and cracking it. Spectrum then quickly ducked, narrowly avoiding one of Blob's bowling-ball-sized fists. Blob followed with a downward hammer-blow, and Spectrum dashed back to avoid it. He then ignited the claws on his hands, and shot back towards Fred.

"Stay away, lightweight!" Fred pulled a section of concrete off of the sidewalk, and used it as a shield. Spectrum yelled in frustration as his claw became trapped in the sidewalk block.

"What took you so long to get here, fatty?" He tried to pull loose with his collection of powers, but none of them popped him free.

Blob leaned the sidewalk chunk forward, beginning to crush Spectrum under it. "I was finishing your ice cream cone, creampuff!" At the last second, Spectrum pulled his regular hands free of the burning claws, and used Toad's powers to leap free of the falling chunk of concrete. He tried to leap back towards Blob, but his legs were stuck to the road. He noticed Wanda holding his feet down with her powers.

"You aren't going anywhere!" She rolled out of the way as Spectrum launched an underground fire attack at her. She then dodged a flaming tongue, and burning spit. A flowerpot hit Spectrum on the head.

"What the crap?" He turned around, and noticed Blob was chucking random objects at him. He couldn't get out of the way, and watched like a deer in headlights as Blob lobbed onto him a local celebrity, an anvil, a safe, and a Volkswagen, in that order (yes, they were all within arm's reach of Blob).

"Do you think we got him?" asked Pietro, who had limped over, clutching his nuts.

"How could we not?" Wanda asked. "Fred dropped a car on him." Suddenly, Spectrum exploded upwards out of the bug's trunk, his body heavily on fire. He bounced along the ground, shooting down the street at high speeds.

"I'm guessing Sam's, Amara's, and Pietro's powers," Lance said as he got up, rubbing his head. "I can't believe he's running away. What a loser!"

"Loser that beat the hell outta you," Toad snickered.

"Like you fared any better," Blob snorted.

Colossus emerged from under the elephant in his steel form. He stumbled to his feet, clutching his head in his hand. "That hurt. It hurt a lot."

"Watch out," Gambit warned everyone. "He's a shapeshifter!"

The elephant reformed in a split-second into the blond kid. "What was your first clue?" He then transformed into a cheetah, dashed toward Piotr, transformed into a rhinoceros mid-charge, slammed his horn into Colossus at cheetah speed, shapeshifted into a gorilla, slammed Piotr sideways into the street, shifted back into a cheetah, charged towards the metal Russian again, transformed into a lion, slashed him across the chest (drawing sparks from his metal skin), shifted to kangaroo, double-kicked Piotr into the air and jumped after him, shifted to a bat, got above Piotr, and elephant-dropped him again. This combo happened so fast, that everybody could only watch as Colossus was cratered into the ground. The blond boy emerged from the crater. "How did you guys like that?"

In a flash, Nightcrawler was behind him, holding his arms back. "You're going down, whoever you are! We so do not need to deal with you right now!" The kid transformed into a rat, easily sliding from Kurt's grip, and then into a wolf. He slashed Kurt across the torso, then turned and ran towards Shadowcat. She phased through the flying claw attack, so he charged towards Rogue instead, shifting into a bull mid-charge. Gambit threw a charged card, destroying a large chunk of the road in front of the shapeshifting boy. He stumbled in the pothole, and slid to a halt in front of Rogue. He leaped back up as a tiger, but she had already removed her glove and grabbed his face.

"How do y'all like that, jerk?" She threw his groaning form to the ground, and turned to the other X-Men. "Something's wrong with the memories I absorbed. I think they've been modified." Suddenly, a vine lashed around her, pinning her arms to her sides. "Uh-oh, it doesn't look like we're out of the woods yet!" The vine lifted and threw her into a nearby bus. Bio stepped from an alley, several vines lashing from his shirtsleeves.

"No, my friends, the woods have come to you."

End of Chapter