Jamie, Kitty, Amara and Tabby almost collided with McCoy as they bound out the front door, Kitty and Tabby carrying ice-creams. They'd changed back into clothes that they didn't mind getting dirty first.
"Jamie, wait," the Beast called and they spun around to speak to him.
"Yes Dr. McCoy?"
"We've had this discussion before, please call me Hank, or Beast, or even Mr. McCoy, Doctor makes me sound pretentious, and like the guy from Star Trek. Anyway, I've spoken to The Professor, do you have any ideas?"
"Yes actually. I was a bit daunted at first but after talking to my friends here, and using a little bit of random chance, I'm back on course now." Jamie answered, gesturing to the people around him. "We noticed that the mansion does not have a stage so we're going to see if we can make something suitable - I'm fairly certain I can have help for that part, it's just the play that I have to do by myself."
"Well, I admire your dedication. Charles and I assumed you'd simply act it out in his office."
"There's not the space there 'Mr' McCoy, as you well know."
"Well, I wish you luck. This will be a major achievement if you can do it. Are you worried?"
Jamie thought for a moment.
"Not of my powers, but I am a bit worried that I'll get stagefright. Can I go now, because we need to meet some of the brotherhood?"
"Of course, go ahead." Beast let them go past him and turned up the stairs, no doubt to discuss this latest development with The Professor.
The quartet however met Fred and Todd down by the mansion's garage where they were parking a used Ford Transit that Fred had bought since they'd started working at Freedom LTD. It was apparently the only vehicle he could find that he could fit into while maintaining a sensible shape.
Freedom LTD was an 'interesting' organisation. As far as Jamie could tell they were a mutant P.M.C. who were contracted on an ad hoc basis to hunt down and capture supercriminals usually for S.H.I.E.L.D. but more rarely for some other agency or police force. Its members (that anyone knew about) were Lance, Fred and Todd, and there was also someone with similar (almost identical) powers to Fred that Jamie was familiar with only as Stonewall. Even the one who ran it was shrouded in mystery. (Pietro and Wanda had left to seek out adventures in the big superhero leagues and nobody expected that to last very long.)
Fred and Todd been overjoyed to help Jamie out as they were always up for a trip to the local junkyard, and they really did miss Tabby.
It was a short trip to get there but when they arrived...
Fred swerved the van hard to the left as the remains of another one was flung at them, and as they screeched to a halt they caught a glimpse of the dome-helmeted man throwing it. This was bad.
"Juggernaut." Todd groaned. "I'd hoped I seen the last of him."
Kitty tapped her communicator and screamed "Professor!"
As Kitty informed the X-Mansion that a dangerous enemy was on the loose nearby, Juggernaut hurled another piece of wreckage their way.
Fred jumped out of the van and caught it in his arms before hurling it back.
"You again. The 'immovable'." Juggernaut stepped out into the open. "This could be fun after all."
"Do not engage Kitty. Cain is highly dangerous." The Professor's voice could be heard over the comm."
"That's not possible." Jamie leaned over her. "He's seen us."
"We'll help you as soon as we can."
The Juggernaut and the Blob took each other at a charge, but while Juggernaut was briefly staggered by the impact Blob was sent flying backwards, his van taking the hit. Tabby rolled out of his path just in time, and sent a flurry of cherry-bombs Juggernaut's way, and Toad spat his slime.
Neither of which did any good as Juggernaut marched towards them.
Amara was next to try and stop him. She magma'd up and the ground shook from her power; a great river of lava sprouted from the earth between them and Juggernaut flowing his way. For a moment it looked like the onslaught of molten rock might actually carry Juggernaut upon it, but then his feet found purchase on the shaking ground below. And he was angry. He grunted as he stomped through the torrent, slowly gaining speed until he reached where Amara was standing, and lifted her until she was an inch away from his helmet as she reverted to human form, horror etched onto her face.
"Amara!" Tabby screamed but could do nothing to help.
"I'm gonna crush your neck apart." Juggernaut stretched his arm to full length but before he could carry out his taunt Kitty jump-tackled Amara and phased her through his grip.
Toad tried to distract Juggernaut with his tongue but he may as well have tried to stop an elephant with a paper plane.
Kitty tried to phase Juggernaut into the ground but that didn't work either and she received a backhand for her efforts, hitting her head on the ground and skimming along until she lay beside Fred.
"Kitty!" In a flash Jamie sent some clones to help Kitty as Amara joined him to distract Juggernaut from finishing them off, sending a stream of lava from her hands at him, which unlike Todd's efforts did get his attention.
Or maybe the Toad had attracted his attention after all, because Juggernaut grabbed the tongue and span him round, throwing him into Amara and sending both of them into half a combine harvester. Tabby flew into a rage sending more cherry-bombs as Jamie sent some clones to help out, and created more still for what was to come. He had summoned the most that he could control properly and even so he had to beat down stray thoughts like 'Fred's snoring' or 'Kitty's clothes have ripped up' or 'Amara's really warm' and instead focus on the clones he'd made for Juggernaut fighting, having each of them pick up a girder or spike or two before sending them in, hoping to hit the eye-holes or mouth-hole in Juggernaut's helmet. He knew he couldn't puncture the indestructible skin (or eyes or mouth) below but he hoped he could keep him from seeing them by blocking up the gaps.
The first ones were instantly battered into nothingness but the rest came in from all sides. Many clones joined the first wave in being disappated but Active Jamie Clone #17 managed to jam his spikes into the eye-holes, and the Jamies jumped for joy... until Juggernaut pulled them out again.
Before Juggernaut could react Jamie tried a zombie apocalypse stampede, that is to say creating nearly a hundred clones with the single thought to charge Juggernaut in order to distract him. The good news - it didn't overload him. The bad news - Juggernaut was smashing the clones faster than he could create them and was slowly coming towards him as he did so. Jamie backed up as much as he could but found his way blocked by the remains of Fred's van and Juggernaut flung his duplicates around like dolls.
Then the other X-Men arrived.
Scott's eye beam caught Juggernaut in the upper right arm but it didn't do anything. Blasts of lightning hit his chest but he shrugged them off. Wolverine landed in front of him prodding with his claws, but Juggernaut simply grabbed one of the arms and pushed the claws back into his body, muttered something Jamie couldn't hear but assumed was insulting, and then gave Wolverine a finger flick, propelling him with such force that Jamie had to duck to avoid decapitation by flying mutant. Jean lifted every item in the junkyard and barraged Juggernaut with them again and again, until he spotted her and grinned.
"Batter up."
The back end of a Ford Escort was punched out from the ring of junk heading straight for Jean, but Scott's eye-beam broke its momentum and it fell to the ground. Still, it had shaken Jean enough for her to lose concentration and the items fell to the floor.
Then Bobby tried to freeze him in a block of ice as he'd done before, but this was a conscious Juggernaut and he simply swivelled his way out of it, so Bobby instead tried to freeze the ground into an ice-rink so that their foe couldn't balance, but like with the lava river he stomped through it and gripped the ground beneath.
Beast jumped onto the back of Juggernaut's head and grappled with him, and using the distraction to his advantage Sam blasted straight for Juggernaut much like Fred had tried to earlier, the differences this time were that Sam was airborne and Juggernaut was taking this charge at a standstill.
There was a shockwave from their collision, which sent Beast flying from Juggernaut's back and even Jamie several meters away was shunted a little. Juggernaut had been forcibly leant back as Sam cannonballed through, his posture resembling Neo-mid-bullet-dodging, and if not for superpowers he'd have certainly fallen over.
As Juggernaut pulled himself back to fully upright his rage grew even further and he looked around to see if he could find his latest attacker, but Sam's attack had had an effect Juggernaut hadn't realised - his helmet fell to pieces.
The Professor sent a psychic barrage at his brother and for a brief moment Juggernaut felt the hurt, but then something unexpected happened. The look of sharp pain crossed to The Professor's face.
"What's happening? Has he picked up mental shields?" Wolverine asked.
"It's worse. There's another telepath actively defending his mind."
"What?" Every X-Man still conscious looked around to see if they could spot someone.
Jamie couldn't see The Professor's struggle with his unexpected assailant, but Jean could see, well, sense it clearly enough. The figure on the astral plane wreathed in flame brandishing chain whips standing between the two of them would be difficult for any nearby psychic to miss, and The Professor this time bringing his giant gladiator mode forth to fight could probably have been felt by psychics and anyone else with an aura from as far away as India.
But as the two started to engage Juggernaut seemed to suddenly get wise, and he fled from the scene going straight off a handy cliff, the X-Men not in any real state to persue. The fiery projection faded from the astral plane, and everyone saw a meteor like object fly after Cain from high above.
"What was that?" Tabby asked eyes glued to the sky.
The Professor looked much older when he said sadly "That was my son."
An: Sorry, I know that chapter was a bit short but try as I might I couldn't think of anything that would make it longer without severely dragging down the tone.