Logan looked grimly through the windshield of the motorcycle as he continued his pursuit. He smelled a rat, and not only because he was following one. This seemed far too easy. Surely Pyro could not have been ignorant of the tracking devices present in all of the X-Men's vehicles. Surely he could not have been stupid enough to flee in one, without even deactivating the tracker. OK, so Logan had headed in the wrong direction to start with, and it had taken him hours to finally pick up a trace of the signal, but surely Pyro was not this careless. Logan guessed he would find that out when he caught up with the tracking signal. The bike's superior speed should make that only a matter of time.
Inside he was boiling with rage. He'd known, from the very first minute of the so-called alliance between Scott's X-Men and Pyro's Brotherhood, that the fire-starter could not be trusted. While the others had been fooled by Pyro's supposed devotion to the duplicating kid Gemini, and his apparent loss of interest in murdering humans, Logan had always harboured suspicions. There was just no reason why Pyro should suddenly stop killing. He'd been doing it all of his adult life, and there was no reason why he should suddenly lose interest. Well, actually there was a reason. The reason Logan had suspected from minute one: politics. In a position where the X-Men were stronger, where Pyro's trump card – Gladiator – had made clear his refusal to carry on fighting the X-Men, it was only sensible for him to feign a more peaceful outlook.
But Logan knew that Pyro had been plotting all this time, looking for another way to restart his war of hatred on the human population. Magneto was dead, Mystique had vanished, the Plague had backfired, so Pyro had had to start afresh and look for another murderous scheme. Now it seemed he'd found one. It all made sense now. It all fit in. The murdered speakers, the attack on the school, it was all part of a plan to destroy hopes for peace. Once humans and mutants were once more at each other's throats, Pyro would cease his pretending and launch a new bid to eradicate humanity.
Logan frowned for a second. He had to admit, there were times even he had doubted he was right. Pyro's devotion to young Gemini had seemed so genuine. At times he'd actually seemed a like a father with a daughter. There had been times when someone had made a slip-up and an opportunity had presented itself for Pyro to hurt humans, and Logan had watched him, convinced he would take it. He hadn't – at least, not until tonight. There could be no doubting what they had seen on the security tape. Melody and her little girl had been burned alive.
Wait a minute – wasn't Melody Gemini's sister? Man. That was going to be hard for the kid to take. At least it was proof that Gemini wasn't part of Pyro's scheme. As much as he hated to admit it, Logan was actually growing fond of the duplicating girl. Her determination and her fiery spirit, now channelled in the right direction, were proving a great help. He couldn't help feeling bad about how she was going to handle this.
He was getting close now. The tracking signal indicated Pyro was less than five miles ahead, travelling far slower than Logan was. It didn't make sense – why the hell hadn't he deactivated the tracker? He must have known it was there. It was possible he just wasn't thinking straight; after all, he'd just killed two defenceless people in cold blood. He hadn't even left any remains. He must have burned the bodies down to ash.
When I'm finished with him, he'll beg to be burned alive, Logan thought furiously. What he was about to do wasn't anything to do with the X-Men fighting the Brotherhood. It wasn't political. It wasn't a mission, or a duty. This was personal. This was something he should have done a long time ago. At last, Scott and Storm and Oculus and whoever else had been taken in by Pyro's lies, weren't around to try and stop him.
Back at the conference centre, in the midst of the unfolding chaos, determined to buy Vertigo as much time as possible to get the children to safety, Gemini had charged the mutant swordsman head on. She timed her attack carefully, so that the very moment he was prepared for her approach, she suddenly summoned her twin and began running at him from two different directions. That was when he used his surprise attack. Stretching his arms out to either side, he suddenly began to spin at impossible speed, whirling towards both of her, the enormous swords cutting through the air like lasers.
Gemini was small for her age, and her lack of height was what saved her life. An inch taller and she would not have had time to duck underneath the blades, both twins hitting the ground in a perfect somersault, both kicking out from a grounded position at the swordsman's legs, their combined attack knocking him on to his back.
Atlas was on the scene now, summoning an enormous chunk of debris from the wreckage, and preparing to hurl it at the enemy mutant's head. But before he could do so, Chronos yelled at both of his friends, "Behind you! The humans!"
Gemini looked round in horror. The humans had finally managed to find a way over the trench that Atlas had created, and they swarmed on to the scene, waving whatever makeshift weapons they had to hand.
"Stop!" Gemini screamed. "We're not the enemy. They are!"
She pointed at the swordsman, who was already on his feet and whirling with both swords outstretched, decapitating the two humans who were reckless enough to charge at him. But her words met with no response, and she quickly found herself surrounded by six or seven very large, very angry humans. She ducked under a punch from one of them, and hurried towards her friends.
"Gemini!" Chronos called. "What do we do?"
"Stop him!" she shouted, pointing at the swordsman, who was slicing and dicing his way through the crowd of humans, making effortless progress towards the parking lot, where she could just about see Vertigo and the kids.
The crowd was too large and too dense. Gemini tried to fight her way through to get to the enemy mutant, but there were too many humans, and all of them were intent on attacking her instead of their real enemy. If they had still been in the Brotherhood, this would not have been a problem. She knew how to kill people with a single punch or kick. But that wasn't an option now.
Matters really didn't need to be made any worse, but made worse when they were when a phut sound came from behind her and one of the humans trying to grapple with her immediately collapsed to the ground with an enormous metal rod sticking out of his chest, blood pouring everywhere. Loping through the crowd with his tall, gangling frame was another of the enemy mutants, the one with the bizarre weapon in his hand. He aimed at a human who was approaching him, firing another huge spike into the man's neck and killing him instantly.
Gemini panicked. What had happened to the X-Men? Hadn't they been fighting this guy?
"Get out of here!" she screamed at the humans.
At that moment, however, there was a sudden blinding pain in the back of her head as she was struck from behind by a human with some blunt object. Crying out in pain and pitching forward, Gemini fell helplessly in front of the mutant with the spike weapon. He aimed directly at her head.
"Oh no you don't!" came an angry voice from behind him.
The spike-firer howled in pain and was himself thrown to the ground, and Gemini looked up to see Helios standing over him, his gloves off, light bursting from his palm, his hand curved so as to focus it into a laser.
"Honey, behind you!" Cassandra's voice shrieked from Gemini's right.
Helios turned on the spot, just in time to see a grenade roll to a stop at his feet. Without Cassandra's warning, he would have had no chance to react, and as it was he only just had time to pick up the explosive and hurl it away from him to an open space where it could harm no-one.
"Where did that come from?" he demanded.
"Look out!" Cassandra screamed.
She grabbed him and pulled him out of the way as the previously stunned spike-firer suddenly leapt to his feet and with a phut sent a spike zipping through the air to where Helios' neck had been seconds ago. Gemini slammed her fist into the back of the attacker's head, eliciting another shout of pain and causing him to whirl round to face her.
"Gemini!" came another shriek from Cassandra.
Phut.
There had been no time to react. Gemini's mouth gaped open but no sound would come out, as the enormous spike had pierced her lungs, and only blood was gushing from between her lips.
"No!" came a scream.
Atlas hurled an enormous rock at the spike-firer's head, smacking him clean in the face and sending him flying through the air.
"Gemini!" the teenage earth mutant howled as he ran towards her.
Gemini swayed, her body unresponsive to any of her brain's commands, and collapsed on to her face. She couldn't breathe and she could feel her vision swimming in front of her. The pain would have been unbearable for any normal person, but Gemini's pain level was far beyond that of any normal person, and with a supreme effort of will she was able to remain conscious. She was aware of her own blood pooling around her. She was aware of Atlas beside her, his hands squeezing hers, his cries for her to hold on.
"Is she OK? Is she OK?" Cassandra sobbed, running to her friend's side.
Before she could get there, however, a foreflash suddenly came into her mind's eye, and she changed course. Another grenade, arcing through the air towards them from behind where Helios was standing, landed directly in front of her. With the forewarning she was able to kick it clear and shield her eyes from the resulting explosion.
"Where the hell are those coming from?" Helios snarled.
"There!" Cassandra cried, pointing.
Flitting amongst the crowd of increasingly panicked humans, she had seen a figure in dark glasses and a black trench-coat, with a grenade in each hand.
"I've got him," said Helios. "Cover me!"
Chronos was still fighting his way through the crowd, trying to keep the swordsman in sight, but falling further and further behind as the enemy continued to simply slash his way through any humans who got in his way. He was still heading for the parking lot where Vertigo and the children were. What was drawing him that way? Why would he be going after Vertigo? Did he know him from somewhere? Although they were friends, Chronos had to admit that Vertigo made people dislike him pretty easily.
Whatever. It didn't matter. He was a friend, in danger. And the children were there too. Chronos didn't have much contact with the younger children at the school – he was only a few years older than they were, really – but he still felt an instinct to protect them. What precisely he was going to do if he managed to catch up with the swordsman, he wasn't entirely sure. Maybe he'd freeze time and steal the guy's swords, or just punch him out. Or both.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw the attack coming. The woman dressed in the black catsuit, the woman he had seen earlier, suddenly lunged at him out of the crowd, a sideways kick catching him in the jaw, knocking him backwards. She followed up with a punch aimed at his throat, which Chronos was only just able to react in time to, raising both of his arms to deflect her fist. A second later her leg spun round in another devastating kick, throwing him headlong, causing him to cry out in pain.
He froze time just long enough to get out of the way of her next attack – feeling stunned, he didn't have enough strength or concentration to do any more than that – and scrambled to his feet, running round behind her. As time restarted, he smacked his fist into the back of her head, causing her to scream in pain and fall forward on to her face. But she flipped upright almost immediately and turned to face him, murder in the eyes that were the only thing he could see through the cat-suit. From somewhere on her person she produced a tiny pistol, which she lifted and aimed directly at Chronos' head. He panicked. From point blank range there was no way she could miss, and he hadn't recovered enough strength to freeze time again.
With an angry shriek, another woman suddenly appeared out of nowhere, kicking the gun out of the assassin girl's hand, then swivelling to drive her fist into the masked face. The girl in the catsuit gave another scream of pain and staggered backwards.
"Leave my friends alone!" Gemini screamed at her.
"You..." the cat-suited woman snarled, in a voice that Chronos realised sounded almost exactly identical to Gemini's. "How many times do we have to kill you?"
"I was going to ask you the same thing!" Gemini hissed angrily. "Who the hell are you? What do you people want? Whatever it is, I promise you it's not going to happen!"
The other girl laughed, "It already has happened! Look around you – see how your precious conference lies in ruins. See how you and the humans have turned on each other! See how the struggle between mutant and human always turns to violence, and when it does, the strongest invariably emerge victorious!"
"Might doesn't make right," Gemini snapped.
"Who said anything about right? There's no such thing. The rules are whatever the strong decide. We are the strong – so either get out of our way, or die along with your fellow weaklings!"
Chronos gasped. Who was she talking about? Was she talking about the X-Men? Were they dead? Or was she talking about the humans, so many of whom had already died today? Gemini and the other girl continued to watch each other warily, both ready to counter the other's move, neither ready to make the first move.
"Gemini," a voice suddenly spoke into the communicator she was still wearing. "It's Helios. I think our friends are backing off. If they leave, don't engage them. There's at least one unidentified hostile somewhere in the crowd – we don't want to endanger any human lives if we can avoid it."
Chronos glanced around. He could see the guy with the spike weapon, hurrying away into the distance, limping heavily, presumably from injuries inflicted by Atlas. The swordsman was nowhere to be seen, and neither were Vertigo or the children. And now the girl in the catsuit was backing away from them, perhaps having decided this battle could not be won, or more likely satisfied that her original objective had already been carried out.
"So long, little girl," she mocked at Gemini. "We'll meet again."
Then she turned and began sprinting after the other enemy mutant, away from the scene, far too fast for either of them to hope to catch up. Gemini watched her go and then dropped to her knees, breathing heavily and crying in pain.
"Are you OK?" Chronos asked, his hand on her shoulder.
She nodded. Atlas appeared beside her and said softly, "It's all right, Ian, I've got her."
Chronos backed off, and Atlas knelt down beside Gemini, cuddling her gently.
"I thought I'd lost you..." he whispered to her. "Don't do that to me!"
She gave a laugh through her tears, "I – I didn't even know I could do that..."
Gemini's injuries had been fatal, and she had been mere seconds away from her death, when with her last reserves of strength she'd summoned a twin. She hadn't known if it would work. She had no idea if she could live on in her twin's body if her original body died. She had never tried it before. It was always the twins who had died before, their bodies dematerialising back into non-existence the moment they expired.
But this time it had been the other way round. In a new, uninjured duplicate body, she'd experienced the last few seconds of agony as her original body succumbed to the spike embedded in its lungs, and then she had watched herself die and her original body dematerialise into the air. She hadn't known it was possible. So her power wasn't just the ability to summon a respawning duplicate. She was actually dividing herself across two bodies, both of which could survive the other's destruction.
And now that the immediate danger had passed, she could finally pay attention to the pain and let herself cry and let herself deal with the terrible stress and strain that she had to undergo every time one of her bodies died.
"Gemini!" came a shriek from behind them. "I thought you were dead!"
Cassandra came hurrying to Gemini's side and knelt down to hug her friend. Helios stood beside Chronos, "Ian – you all right?"
"Yeah – looks like they're running."
Helios nodded, "They've already done what they came for. We'd better get out of here before the humans realise the people trying to kill them are gone, and start trying to kill us again."
"What about the teachers? I mean, the other X-Men. They were fighting them to begin with, weren't they? What happened to them?"
"I don't know – I can't find any signs of them, and they aren't answering their communicators."
"What?" Chronos gasped in horror. "Are they OK? And where are Vertigo and the children?"
"I don't know that either. I just hope he can get them somewhere safe."