Thank you for the review! There's going to be a couple more chapters after this one so I'm aiming to finish it next weekend. Might not manage it but it shouldn't be too long.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Sinister cast a critical eye over his Marauders, who were lounging around their base again. "Look at you,"he sneered dismissively. "The vanguard of a new world order. Happily committing the sin of sloth."
"You shouldn't mock a bit of sloth, Mister Sinister,"Harpoon replied. "We're just conserving our energy."
"You have powers that raise you above mortal men. And yet you'd prefer to spend your time on simple gratification. It is fortunate I will have more than you in the new world."
"What, like the X-Men?"Vertigo retorted. "You think you'll ever get them to accept you as ruler?"
"They will learn to do so."
At that moment, the door to the room explode inwards. "You may wish to reconsider that,"Scalphunter suggested.
As Havok's blast knocked the door away, the new combined attack group – Xavier, Storm, Wolverine, Beast, Colossus, Havok, Multiple Man, Wolfsbane, Siryn, Leech and Strong Guy – came pouring in. "Spread out,"Storm snapped.
Scalphunter drew his weapon, converting it into a sub-machine gun, and sprayed bullets in their direction. Most of the group dived for cover. Colossus converted his skin to metal and stood in front of Siryn and Leech, deflecting the bullets away from them. Wolverine took one in the shoulder, causing him to collapse into the wall in pain. Wincing, he extracted the bullet with one of his claws and let his mutant healing seal it up. Storm created a gust of wind that knocked the next volley off course. Leech focused his abilities on Scalphunter, who suddenly found his weapon reverting to a more primitive state.
Riptide whirled himself round and hurled spikes at the group. Beast leapt to the front and swatted the spikes aside.
"Wait,"Sinister commanded and all eyes turned to him. "This is not necessary. What do we gain by fighting each other? Soon the world will belong to all of us."
"I learnt a long time ago that the world does not belong to anyone,"Xavier replied.
"But your bloodlines will survive,"Sinister insisted. He gestured to Havok. "You. Alex Summers. I have long taken an interest in your family. I've followed you ever since you were in a children's home. Will you turn on me now?"
Havok stared at him in a mixture of shock and horror. Then, with a roar of rage, he sent an energy blast at him. Sinister screamed as he was struck by the searing ray, backing out of the line of fire. "You…hurt me,"he cried in pain and disbelief. He gestured to the Marauders. "Kill them all." He ran for a flight of stairs.
"He must be trying to release the virus,"Storm realised.
Wolverine gestured to Colossus. "Metal boy, with me." The pair ran up the stairs after Sinister as behind them the fighting broke out in earnest.
Gambit led Kitty, Warren and Jubilee down a side street towards the building and gestured to a small door. "It's in there."
Kitty waited for someone to respond, then suddenly realised everyone was looking at her. Somehow, she seemed to have been nominated the leader of the party. "Okay,"she announced reluctantly,"let's do this. Remy?"
Gambit charged up a playing card and hurled it at the door, blowing a hole in it. Warren flew through the gap and, after checking around him to make sure there were no enemies in sight, opened it for the others.
"Why aren't there any guards?"Jubilee asked as the group headed down the corridor.
"Maybe they've got something else to worry about,"Warren suggested.
Kitty shot him a worried look. "You mean like the other X-Men?"
"Well, I doubt he's that worried about those two,"Gambit noted, gesturing to the screen through which Rogue and Bobby were visible in their cell.
Kitty waved to the pair and was puzzled when she didn't get a response. "Can't they see us?"
"I don't think so,"Warren confirmed. "This must be some sort of two-way mirror."
"Well, we'll see about that,"Jubilee decided. She generated fireworks and hurled them at the screen. They exploded but did no real damage. "Okay, that's one tough cell."
"Guess they didn't think about someone just walking into it." Kitty phased her body and walked into the cell. Rogue and Bobby gaped at the sight of her. Bobby looked like he was about to say something. "In a minute,"she told him. She touched them both on the shoulder, phasing their bodies with hers, and led them out of the cell into the corridor.
"How did you end up in there?"Warren asked.
"Got on the wrong side of Sinister,"Bobby admitted.
Rogue was already down to business. "Kitty, Sinister's going to release a virus. It's going to kill everyone he doesn't think is strong enough to survive. And that's pretty much everyone."
Kitty was shocked. "Well, we've got to stop him."
"We've seen where the virus is, we'll show you." Everyone moved to follow Rogue…except Gambit.
"Remy?"Kitty asked once she realised he wasn't with them. "What's up?"
"I need to face Sinister,"he explained. "I've been hiding from him for too long. It's time to stop being a coward."
Jubilee took his hand. "I'll come with you."
"You shouldn't do that."
"If he's as strong as you say, you'll need some back-up."
Gambit nodded. "Then I'd be honoured to have you with me." They ran down the corridor, still holding hands.
As Rogue headed in the direction of the laboratory again, Bobby looked confused, staring after Gambit and Jubilee. "Have I missed something?"
Kitty grabbed his arm. "Explain later."
Professor X and Havok were crouched behind a sofa as Scalphunter pumped bullets into it. "Draw his fire,"the professor whispered. "I'll freeze his mind."
Havok nodded and leapt over the sofa. Professor X stood up a moment later but Scalphunter had anticipated the move. Converting his weapon into a taser, he fired an electric charge that shut down the professor's robot body. "Don't try a tactic like that on an old soldier,"he warned.
It took all Havok's self-control to fire his powers at Scalphunter's weapon instead of Scalphunter himself but he restricted himself to blasting it out of his hands. Scalphunter snarled and lunged at him, pushing him back against a wall, and the two of them grappled.
Multiple Man had squared up to Vertigo. "Nowhere to run, lady,"he warned her, splitting himself into various duplicates that surrounded her.
"The more of you there are, the more of you will fall,"Vertigo retorted. She focused her powers on all of the copies surrounding her, causing them to lose their balance and clatter to the ground.
"Then let's see how you feel about being unsure of your feet,"Storm suggested, using her wind powers to send Vertigo flying. Vertigo focused her own powers on Storm and both women swayed under the effect of the other's powers, holding each other in place, Vertigo crouching, Storm teetering as she struggled to stay upright.
Siryn aimed a sonic scream at Riptide. He covered his ears at the noise but managed to initiate one of his whirlwind twists. Siryn was hit in the chest by several spikes and went down. "Try doing one of those screams with holes in your lungs,"Riptide sneered.
He turned towards Wolfsbane but Leech aimed his own powers at the Marauder, neutralising his abilities. As Riptide looked confused, Wolfsbane morphed, not into a half-wolf as she had done when she fought Siryn but into a full wolf. She leapt on Riptide, her jaws descending onto his throat with a savage bite that killed him instantly.
Leech stared at her in shock as she morphed back into human form, an ashamed look on her face.
Harpoon hurled one of his charged spears at Beast, who leapt out of the way. "You seem to have forgotten how light on my feet I am,"Beast noted.
"Maybe you should try getting off your feet,"Strong Guy added, delivering an uppercut that lifted Harpoon into the air and sent him crashing into a wall.
Harpoon pushed himself up onto his elbow. "Okay, so you can dodge harpoons,"he noted. "See if you can dodge this." He hurled his spear, which caught Strong Guy through the shoulder, sending him careering back into Beast. The tip of the spear went through Beast's shoulder as well, then embedded itself in a wall, pinning them both there.
Harpoon scrambled to his feet and looked about. "Sinister doesn't seem to have got that virus released yet,"he noted. "Maybe I should have a go." He ran for the stairs, everyone too preoccupied to stop him.