I'm sorry for the delayed update. Between getting end of term papers turned in and the holiday season, I got behind in my updates. This is a rather long chapter and as is also noted at the bottom, I will be including a bonus chapter of extra scenes that I didn't put in because of the length.

I've decided to omit my usual Time and Location section headers for this chapter.

GI Joe/Marvel universe crossover.

I don't own Marvel or Hasbro.

Silence

Chapter 25: The Battle for the Pit, Part II

Blood flew as a razor sharp blade passed through flesh, slashing muscle tendons. A female voice hissed in pain as a blue hand clamped down over the deep wound. The other hand aimed a handgun at the sword's wielder and fired.

Snake Eyes effortlessly moved his body an inch to the left and avoided the bullet. He recognized the handgun. It was Lady Jaye's favorite. He could tell, as there was a slight scratch near the tip of the barrel. The ninja didn't know how the blue mutant had acquired it, but at the moment he didn't care.

Two Joes plus Junkyard were injured, Lady Jaye's present whereabouts were possibly questionable, and one Joe was dead. Of the small group of Joes, only Chuckles had managed to avoid injury…and that was only because he had arrived just in time.

Snake Eyes wasn't in a particularly charitable mood at the moment.

Mystique sneered at him. The mutant was good, no question about that. Her close combat skills easily surpassed many of the Joes. The ninja would later learn that she'd formerly worked for the Israeli Mossad during the Cold War. Mossad agents were among the deadliest in the world, even without age and mutant abilities on their side.

The handgun bounced against the wall. His opponent seemed to have given up on the weapon. Snake Eyes blocked a hand strike and knocked a hidden knife out of her hand. The Silent Master struck several pressure points and slammed the woman up against the wall. Her arms hung limply at her side, having been temporarily paralyzed from the neck down.

The Mossad were among the deadliest, but they weren't Arashikage ninjas.

"Well played," Mystique sneered, her amber eyes flashing at him. "You're not bad for a flatscan." Snake Eyes growled slightly in his damaged throat. He knew full well that 'flatscan' was a derogatory term for non-mutants.

His ears picked up the sound of approaching footsteps. At his side, a grim faced Chuckles pointed a gun to the side of the woman's head.

"Where's Lady Jaye?" he asked. Snake Eyes felt his eyebrows rise slightly. Had he noticed the gun as well?

"I wouldn't know," the woman replied, smirking despite the situation. Chuckles slammed a fist into the wall next to her head.

"Bull shit," he snarled. "You were pretending to be her. What did you do to her?"

*The gun,* Snake Eyes signed. *She was using Jaye's gun too.* Chuckles glanced briefly at him and then over at the hand gun lying next to the wall. His gaze paused briefly on the telltale scratch mark before continuing on past the gun. Further down the hall, the limp figure of Heavy Duty lay on the floor. Next to him, an upset Mutt cradled the head of an unconscious dog in his lap while Short Fuze sat nearby, pressing a piece of ripped shirt to his wounded arm.

"Where is she?" Chuckles repeated, turning his attention back to the blue mutant. Snake Eyes tightened his grip around the woman's throat briefly as encouragement. However, Mystique merely chuckled darkly and said nothing.

"She's tied up in a storage closet on the fourth level," Short Fuse suddenly said. All eyes turned to stare at him. The blonde Joe looked very uncomfortable at the suspicious looks suddenly being sent his way.

"I don't know how I know," Short Fuze explained quickly. "I just…know things sometimes. She's alive but unconscious."

"What the hell?" Chuckles swore. A sudden bark of female laughter turned their attention back to the blue skinned woman. Mystique craned her neck to peer over at the injured Joe.

"Clairvoyance," she chuckled dryly. "Looks like I'm not the only mutant here."

Snake Eyes and Chuckles twisted their heads to stare at the Joes' mortar soldier. Mutt also gaped at the blonde haired soldier, who looked too stunned to speak for a moment.

"You're a mutant too?" Mutt finally asked him. "I thought you said you weren't?"

"Of course I'm not," Short Fuze replied sharply. "I would know if I were. I just have hunches sometimes, that's all…."

"Mainframe detected a mutant in your room," Chuckles replied, frowning slightly. "That's why we were investigating in the first place."

"I'm telling you, I'm not a mutant!" Short Fuze replied. "And this isn't really the time for this!" A large boom shook the underground base, as if in agreement with him. The sound of automatic fire could be heard from the level above them.

There was another bark of laughter from Mystique. Snake Eyes frowned down at the woman chuckling underneath his grip. Her shoulders shook slightly in amusement. The ninja failed to see what was so humorous about the situation.

"Foolish child," the woman finally said, looking over at Short Fuze again. "Not all mutants realize they are mutants if their powers are minimal or haven't been fully activated. You should rejoice," she grinned. "You're a member of homo superior." Mystique seemed very pleased by it all. Short Fuze, on the other hand, suddenly looked terrified.

"You shouldn't be here," she added, ignoring the irritated ninja with his hand around her throat. "You and the other two. Why are you serving a government that persecutes you?"

"Shut up," Chuckles warned her. "He doesn't have to listen to your bull shit." Mystique, however, ignored the gun barrel being pressed against her temple.

"They'll hate you," she continued. The woman made eye contact with the frozen Short Fuze. "Hunt you down, force you to hide and live in fear." Snake Eyes felt a slight chill in his chest. Mystique was speaking with the air of experience. Beach Head and Lifeline had hid their powers for years, too afraid to tell anyone. A brief memory flashed through his mind of three sentinels hunting the two men like animals.

"That's no way to live," she added, continuing to look at the other mutant. "Cobra Commander is a mad man, but he's not afraid to work with mutants. Our kind serves openly and willingly in Cobra, with no fear of persecution. Three of Cobra's top leaders are mutants. What can you say about your own government?"

He should shut her up. Mystique was a terrorist. She'd killed and hurt his fellow Joes.

A frozen Short Fuze continued to stare at the blue mutant. He slowly shook his head, as if in denial. His eyes widened in panic and Snake Eyes saw him swallow hard. The other man was deeply shaken and Snake Eyes honestly couldn't blame him.

"Snake…" Chuckles muttered. "Shut her up."

"I'm only speaking the truth," the blue mutant replied, overhearing the man. "Your kind has brought us nothing but misery. Your teammates knew that, why do you think they lied to you?"

Snake Eyes pressed a thumb into one of her wrists and then pressed a tender spot at the base of her skull. Mystique's body went limp as she slipped into unconsciousness. The ninja dropped her unceremoniously on the floor and walked over to Short Fuze. He crouched down on his heels and silently regarded the man for a few seconds. The other soldier avoided his gaze.

*You're injured,* he finally signed, forcing the man to look at him. *You, Mutt, and Junkyard should go the infirmary. We'll find Lady Jaye.*

"B…but…" Short Fuze stuttered. He looked back at the limp form of Mystique, his face pale white. Chuckles bent down and slipped an arm around the frightened man.

"I'm not really a mutant, right?" he asked uncertainly. "They're just hunches." Mutt, Chuckles, and Snake Eyes looked at each other for a moment.

"Let's go buddy," Chuckles finally told him. "I'll buy you a beer when this is all over." The undercover specialist helped him to stand up. After Short Fuze unsteadily got to his feet, Chuckles carefully picked up Heavy Duty's body. Mutt cradled Junkyard in his arms as they began to walk towards the infirmary.

"I'll get them to the infirmary and then go find Jaye," Chuckles told Snake Eyes. "I'm sure you're needed elsewhere." The ninja nodded him and let them go on ahead without him.

Snake Eyes watched as the other man herded their fellow Joes down the corridor. When the ninja was certain that they were in no immediate danger, he picked up the unconscious mutant woman and headed in the other direction. The X-Men would know what to do with Mystique.

Beach Head threw up a weak telekinetic shield as automatic fire rained on his position. Bullets bounced off of the barely visible wall of psionic energy. The shield dissipated a few seconds later and the ranger threw himself to the ground. He reached out with his mind and pulled General Hawk and three other Joes down with him.

There were several sharp pings as metal struck metal. Wayne Sneeden peered up over the damaged A.W.E. Striker and telekinetically lifted a heavy crane and tossed it at the line of Cobra troops. The ranger cursed when one of the Cobra troopers caught the heavy piece of equipment and threw it towards their position. He did his best to slow it down and the crane finally froze for a few seconds before dropping on the floor with a loud clang.

A heavily built figure with metallic skin raced between the Joe and Cobra lines. Bullets bounced off of his hardened skin as the mutant picked up the crane with a grunt.

"Izvinite menya," Colossus said. "I think this is yours." The Russian swung the crane back towards the Cobra position and then launched himself at the Cobra trooper with above average strength. The X-Man tackled the man, but was knocked off with a powerful punch to the face. Not to be deterred, Piotr Rasputin picked up the mutant and threw him across the Joes' underground hangar. The Russian raced after the man and disappeared from sight.

"Who was that?" Hawk asked. The general aimed his assault rifle around the A.W.E Striker and shot several unlucky Cobras.

"Colossus," Beach Head answered. "He's one of the X-Men."

"Remind me to thank him later," the general told him. Hawk pulled a pin on a grenade and lobbed it across the hangar. Cobra troops scattered as the weapon detonated.

"Duly noted sir," the ranger replied. Beach Head fired his M-16 and telekinetically ripped a few grenades off of his tactical vest. He pulled the pins off of the floating weapons and threw them towards the enemy line.

The ranger blinked in confusion when everything suddenly went eerily silent. His grenades exploded across the impromptu battlefield and bullets continued to ricochet around him. However there was no sound from the explosions, the bullets, or any human voices for that matter. It was as if someone had pressed a mute button.

"What the hell's going on?" he heard Hawk think. Beach Head closed his eyes and "listened" as well as he could. He felt Stalker suddenly grab him by the arm and pull hard just as he felt someone attack from his left. The two Joes fell to the ground. Wayne felt rather than heard his fellow soldiers firing at the mutant who was about ten yards from them.

Without even pausing to think about it, the ranger lashed out telekinetically. The mutant, a green skinned man, flew across the room. Deep cuts and lacerations appeared across his body and Beach Head, for the life of him, didn't know how he'd managed to wound the mutant that way. He felt surprise and pain from the mutant as he crashed into the side of a parked Skystriker.

Sound returned an instant later.

"Son of a bitch," Stalker groaned, rolling to his feet. Beach Head ignored him as he tossed his weapon to a surprised Deep Six. His fellow Joes needed the weapon more than he did.

Besides, it was time for him to go on the offensive.

The ranger leapt over the overturned vehicle they had been using for cover. Surprised Cobra troopers gaped when their weapons were suddenly ripped from their hands and tossed towards the Joe position. He heard Alpine laugh as he and Stalker collected some of the Cobra weapons.

Wasting no time, Beach Head levitated the barricades Cobra had set up and dropped them on top of the ill trained troopers.

"Beach!"

Beach Head barely had time to process Stalker's shouted warning when a wall of ice suddenly slammed him into a wall. Unbearable coldness numbed him and his lungs screamed for air. Panic shot through him and Wayne pushed it away as best as he could. With great effort, the ranger managed to shatter the ice, but another blast hit him an instant later.

The ice shattered again and Beach Head fell to floor. Numb, wet, and drinking in deep breaths of air, the ranger looked up to see Jean Grey floating above him. He looked behind her and watched as all the Cobra troopers suddenly collapsed. Hawk and the other Joes peered at the scene with incomprehension.

"Thanks," Beach Head told her.

"You could have done that too," the telepath told him lightly. "Your empathic skills are strong enough that you can implant basic emotional suggestions at this range." The ranger mentally face palmed. Stupid son of a…he knew he was capable of projecting emotions! Making already somewhat cowardly Cobra troops run away in sudden terror would have been easier than telekinetically throwing things at them.

Dammit. When it came to using his mutant powers, he really was a greenshirt.

"Uh…what happened?" Stalker asked, walking over to them. Several other Joes and greenshirts continued to eye the limp forms of Cobra troopers and mutants with puzzlement.

"Jean gave them a telepathic suggestion to go to sleep," Beach Head explained. Stupid stupid, he should have thought to try something like that. He was still getting used to the idea that he could use his empathy as an offensive weapon.

"Next time," Jean said in his mind. "You're still learning."

"That won't work on the Cobra leaders," the ranger told her. "I couldn't read anything from the Baroness." The woman and several other mutants had attacked their position earlier, but Cable and Banshee had forced them to back off.

"I know," Jean Grey replied. "I tried to scan some of them. We'll just have to use our TK instead."

The sound of General Hawk clearing his throat drew their attention. There was a somewhat irritated look on his face as he regarded the two mutants. Beach Head belatedly realized that they'd been speaking telepathically. The ranger briefly wondered how the man had known, but then realized that sight of two known telepaths looking at each other in silence had been a giveaway.

"Sorry sir," he apologized. Speaking telepathically with other telepaths came so naturally now that he often didn't realize when he was doing it.

"How long will they stay unconscious?' the general asked. Jean Grey told him that they should remain asleep until she told them to wake up. Satisfied with the answer, General Hawk shouldered his rifle and stepped cautiously around the unconscious mutant that had attacked Beach Head.

"Hawk to C and C, what's your status?" the general asked into his radio. Communications in the Pit had been sketchy, but Mainframe had managed to set up a new, secure line. Cobra had been making a special effort to cut the Joes' Command and Control center off.

"Not good," Flint's voice said over the line. "Cobra's new BATs aren't anything like the old ones we're familiar with. They're…" Static came over the line and cut off the rest of the warrant officer's sentence. Hawk asked him to repeat and Flint's voice came back on.

"…greater firepower than before, more agile, and more heavily armored," the warrant officer continued. "They're more accurate too and they can repair themselves." Hawk listened gravely as he listened to the rest of the report. Flint was holed up in the Command and Control center with Breaker, Mainframe, the two SHIELD agents, several greenshirts, and one of the X-Men. A unit of Crimson Guardsmen was apparently trying to push its way into the command center. Nearby, several other Joes were trying to break through the Cobra line and link up with Flint.

"I'll go help them," Jean Grey told him. Her eyes closed a moment as she reached out with her mind. She reopened them and sent a telepathic burst of information into Hawk's mind. The general blinked in confusion and reeled from the sudden information flooding his brain. Clayton Abernathy suddenly knew where all of the X-Men were, what their abilities were, as well as the fact that Lifeline and the X-Man known as Storm were tackling BATs near the motor pool.

Damn useful, even if it did give him a slight headache.

"Flint," Hawk said. "Jean Grey is on her way to help." The red haired mutant nodded at him and phased down through the floor.

"Understood," came the reply.

"General Hawk," This time, it was Kamakura on the line. "Jinx is missing. Could one of the telepaths try to find her?"

"Beach Head?" Hawk asked. The ranger closed his eyes and concentrated on doing an empathic sweep of the base. Beach Head eventually found her. He couldn't pinpoint a precise position, but she seemed to be between the second and third levels. He could tell that she was frustrated, angry, and a little worried.

"Jean?" he asked silently. He felt the woman touch his mind for a moment as she searched for Jinx's mental signature.

"She's trapped in one of the air shafts," Jean Grey told them a few moments later. "According to her mind, she's between the second and third levels near the detention center. She ran into Tomax."

"Did you get that?" Hawk asked into the comm unit, not sure if the ninjas had received the telepathic message as well.

"Yes sir," Kamakura replied. "But we're a bit busy at the moment with Zartan and Firefly, so…"

"I'll send someone else," Hawk replied.

"Tunnel Rat's trapped down by the armory," Beach Head replied, knowing what the general was thinking. Hawk frowned as he thought of whom else to send. He'd rather keep the ranger with him if possible. Beach Head was his best way of keeping track of who was where.

"I will send Gambit," Ororo Munroe said over the unit. "He is on his way now."

"Thank you," Hawk said. According to the information Jean Grey had given him, the Cajun mutant was a former thief. He was probably as good of a choice as any to prowl around the Pit's ventilation system.

"Beach Head," Hawk said, rubbing his forehead. "Can you tell me where the rest of our people are?" The ranger nodded his head and closed his eyes. Little by little, information began to trickle into the general's mind. Hawk found himself knowing the general locations of his soldiers, their emotions, and physical wellbeing. The locations of Cobra's forces, at least the ones without telepathic blockers also became known to him.

Clayton Abernathy groaned as his brain hit information overload. He sat the edge of the A.W.E Striker and massaged his temples. How the hell did Beach Head deal with having that much sensory information running around in his mind?

"Sorry sir," the ranger apologized. Hawk waved him off. Headache or not, telepathy had been his most expedient route to gaining information. The general's only regret was that Beach Head's telepathy wasn't strong enough to give him exact locations or to allow him to communicate directly with fellow Joes without having to use the radio. However, you made use of what you could. He was extremely grateful that Beach Head's abilities were as strong as they were.

"I'm no Jean Grey or Xavier," Wayne Sneeden said quietly. Hawk instantly regretted the thoughts that had just run through his mind. The general patted the younger man's shoulder.

"Son…you've got no reason to apologize," he said. "We all have our strengths and weaknesses. I'm just glad that you are willing to share the gifts you do have."

"Thank you sir," Beach Head said. There was a moment of silence as he continued to eye the general.

"You sure you're okay sir?" he asked carefully. "Jean and I both just dumped a shit ton of information into your mind. Telepathic brains are better equipped to handle all of that." Well that certainly made sense. Hawk was still trying to process everything and he found that he was unable to retain all of the information he'd just received.

"I'm fine," Hawk reassured him. The general put a new magazine into his rifle and made a quick inventory of his group. Beach Head, Deep Six, Stalker, Alpine, Torpedo, Tripwire, and eleven greenshirts silently waited for his next order.

"We're heading topside ladies and gentlemen," the general said. "I want Cobra Commander's head."

Jinx swore silently as she yet again struggled in vain. The pitch dark ventilation shaft was beginning to feel a bit unsettling. She was starting to understand a little what people with claustrophobia felt like. Once she figured out how to get out of Tomax's trap, she was getting the hell out of there.

Ninja or not, being unable to move or speak in a cramped, dark air shaft was not pleasant.

"Come on, think Jinx," she mentally told herself. Her muscles tightened again as she struggled against her invisible bonds. The ninja sighed when the effort proved useless yet again.

Stupid god damn Tomax…at least, she was sure it had been Tomax. It had been pretty damned hard to tell in the dark, especially since his shape hadn't been completely solid. She didn't know what the hell he'd done, but he was going to pay for it. The realization that the Cobra mutant could have easily killed her was infuriating.

The minutes ticked by. Jinx listened to the firefight being fought around the Pit. The base shook again and the ninja hoped that nothing would come crashing down on her. After a few more minutes, Jinx was surprised to hear a female voice in her head.

"Help is on the way," the woman said. The ninja wondered for a moment if she was hallucinating, but the voice reassured her with some humor that she was in fact real.

"I'm Jean Grey, one of the X-Men," the mutant replied. "A man named Gambit is on his way to help you."

"Thank you," the ninja thought back. Once the woman had said her name, Jinx was able to recall that she'd met the mutant on her one trip to Xavier's school. Tommy had spoken highly of her, as she had been the first one to realize that he'd been brainwashed.

Jinx waited impatiently for her rescuer to arrive. Dammit. Ninja weren't supposed to be rescued. She was definitely going to repay the favor to the bastard who'd trapped her. The woman didn't care which Crimson twin it was. Both men were equally guilty of past crimes, so if she could kill them both, then all the better for the world.

A very, very slight noise drew her attention. Jinx listened carefully, unsure if she'd heard it or not. She concentrated on ignoring the automatic fire nearby. She'd never been as good with the 'Ear that Sees' technique as Storm Shadow was. Then again, most Arashikage ninja weren't. That didn't mean, however, she couldn't use it.

There it was again, an almost silent scrape of someone crawling very quietly through the ventilation shaft. Whoever it was, he or she was almost as silent as a ninja.

Almost, but not quite.

"Go find de ninja Gambit," she heard a voice muttering down the ventilation shaft. The ninja recognized the Cajun accent, thanks to years of serving with Gung Ho. The voice was somewhat familiar and she couldn't help but think that she'd probably run into the man on the night she'd visited Storm Shadow.

"Yeah right," the man replied to himself. "Make Remy leave all de fun to go play hide n' seek…not as much fun as blowin' up mini sentinel robots…"

"Mmff!" Jinx said, unable to get any intelligible words out. She heard the man pause a moment and listen. The ninja repeated her failed attempt at speaking.

"Dat you Jinxie?" the man called out. "Don't worry Chère, Gambit's comin'."

Jinxie? Did the man just call her Jinxie? She hadn't even seen the man yet and she already wanted to kill him. The irritated woman listened as the X-Man crawled closer. A pair of red dots suddenly appeared. When the man drew closer, she realized with a start that they were red pupils. They were almost like a pair of devil's eyes looking at her in the dark.

She recognized those eyes. The ninja had fought alongside of him during the sentinel battle. Jinx seemed to recall that he'd managed to destroy one of the robots.

A bright light made her blink as the man pulled out a small flashlight.

"Dat's better," the man told her. "Not very nice bein' all alone in de dark, non?"

"Mmff," she replied. The light swept her face as Remy LeBeau scrutinized her.

"Hey, Gambit recognizes you," the Cajun said. "You're de pint sized ninja dat's cousins with Storm Shadow."

"Pint sized?" she asked irritably. The ninja froze a moment when she realized that she could suddenly speak again. The red eyes looking at her seemed surprised too.

"Remy thought you couldn't talk," Gambit said, still pointing his flashlight at her face.

"I couldn't before," the ninja replied. "I don't know why mfmffs…" Her voice became muffled once again when the mutant flicked his flashlight away from her face to study the rest of her body. When the light fell on her hand, she felt the invisible bond around them loosen. The flashlight moved back to her face before she could attempt to move her fingers.

"You say something?" the man asked. "All Gambit caught was 'I don't know why mfmffs."

For the love of all that was sacred…did the X-Men have to send the most annoying person they could? The Cajun was on the Shipwreck and Clutch annoying scale and that was a feat in itself. Unfortunately, however, she needed Gambit's help and was hardly in a position to smack him upside the head.

"I was able to talk," she replied testily. "At least until you moved the flashlight away. Light seems to be the…"

"Key to solving dis," the Cajun finished. "Gambit noticed too." He moved the light away from her face and pointed it at her foot. The mutant asked her to move it and the ninja complied by wriggling her toes and moving her foot a few inches to the left. Once he moved the light away, her foot became frozen in place once again.

"Dis ain't enough light," Gambit told her, rubbing his chin. The Cajun stared thoughtfully at her, though he was considerate enough to point the light at her mouth so she could speak.

"Just great," Jinx muttered, wondering how they'd get enough light into the shaft to free her. The Pit had the equipment to easily do it, but not the time that was necessary during a battle taking place inside the base.

"Don't worry Chère," the man grinned. "Gambit will get you out. Maybe you give him a thank you kiss after dis, non?"

"Don't push your luck Cajun," she warned. "Just because I can't move now doesn't mean I can't stab you later with sharp, pointy things."

The X-Man had the audacity to snicker at her. Jinx glared at him as he dug something out of his trench coat. It looked suspiciously like a deck of cards. Her assessment was proven correct when he pulled two cards out of the box.

"What good is that going to do?" she asked irritatedly. The man waved a finger at her and made a 'tsk tsk' sound.

"Come now Chère, don't you go insultin' Gambit's cards. These are his good luck charms. You've seen me use them, haven't you?"

Now that he mentioned it, the ninja did recall him being able to turn the cards into exploding bombs. She watched as the two cards in his hands started to glow. Jinx had a sneaking suspicion about what he was planning.

"Hope dere's nothing important underneath or above us," Gambit told her. "Cause we're taking a trip." The Cajun tossed the cards as far as he could away from them, one to their left and the other to the right. Jinx stiffened in surprise as the man threw himself protectively over her. Two, deadly blasts shook the ventilation shaft and the ninja muttered a curse when the shaft gave out abruptly beneath them.

The ninja and the X-Man plummeted down to the next level. Part of the floor above them gave way and dropped down in large chunks. Jinx and Gambit quickly recovered from their fall and avoided the falling debris as best as they could. The ninja pushed Remy LeBeau out of the way before a piece of the steel reinforced floor could fall on top of him.

"There," she told him. "My debt to you is repaid." The red eyed mutant blinked at her in surprise before rubbing his head. The Cajun stared at the chunk of debris that had almost made him into a human pancake.

"Gambit would have preferred de kiss," he told her. Jinx gave a vexed sigh and rolled her eyes. The man was positively insane.

"Well Gambit isn't getting a kiss," she replied irately. "Gambit got his ass saved instead."

"Good ting too," the man replied cheekily. "Gambit likes his ass just the way it is."

Jinx felt torn between wanting to strangle the mutant and admiring his ability to so easily brush off danger. Shipwreck and Clutch would have been smart enough to back off and stop hitting on her by this point.

"Do you always talk this much?" she asked him.

"For you Chère," he grinned charmingly. "Gambit talk as much as you like."

"Fine. Shut up," she ordered. Jinx brushed dust off of her bodysuit and checked her weapons to be sure everything was in its place. Her Cajun companion, on the other hand, was considering her words.

"Gambit change his mind," he finally replied. "How about he talk as much as he like, non?"

The man yelped when Jinx reached out and smacked him. Gambit danced away from her and rubbed a new sore spot on the back of his head. Red eyes glared at her while he muttered a few swear words in French.

"Dat wasn't nice Chère. Next time Gambit leave you tied up," the man scowled. Jinx smirked as she contacted her fellow ninjas. Kamakura informed her that they were fighting against Firefly and some mutants. Zartan had apparently slipped away and Snake Eyes wanted her to find him.

"This is where we part ways," she told the Cajun. Gambit shrugged his shoulders. He looked around at the destruction he had personally caused. There was now a large, gaping hole in the Pit's second floor.

"Remy hope there was no one above us," Gambit said, rubbing his head. "Maybe dat wasn't such a bright idea."

Jinx stretched her body as she looked around. There didn't appear to be any injured bodies from the Cajun induced explosion. Too bad a few Cobras couldn't have been caught by it.

"De name's Gambit, by the way," the man told her, holding out his hand. Jinx rolled her eyes. As if she hadn't gathered that already, considering his strange habit of referring to himself in the third person.

"I noticed," she said dryly, shaking his hand. "What kind of name is that anyway?"

"Life's a gambit,' Remy LeBeau explained. "Sometime you win, sometimes you lose. It all depends on how Lady Luck deals de cards. What 'bout you?" he asked. "Wit a name like Jinx you must be a bad luck lady." Jinx rolled her eyes. Beach Head had called her a 'bad luck lady' the first time he'd heard her code name as well and other Joes had been known to joke about her being bad luck.

"Shut up," she told him. "Call me bad luck again and I'm sticking a shuriken up your butt."

"Nuttin wrong wit bad luck Chère," Gambit replied with a grin, completely unfazed by the threat of ninja retaliation. "As long as you're bad luck to de bad guys, non?"

Jinx smirked as she suddenly threw a shuriken over the mutant's shoulder and hit a Cobra Viper in his neck. The Cajun looked over his shoulder to see Cobra troops suddenly swarming into the hallway. A flash of pink hair alerted her to the fact that Zandar had joined them.

Zandar threw a couple of knives their way just as the Cobra Vipers opened fire. One of the Vipers leaped over the volley of bullets and raked at the ninja with clawed hands. Jinx pivoted and slammed her elbow into the mutant's throat. The man coughed as he went down.

Seconds later, the mutant was back up and completely healed. Jinx was forced to engage him yet again. The man was faster than the average human, but he wasn't any faster than a trained ninja. As fast as the Cobra Viper was, his attacks and defense were sloppy.

Remembering Snake Eyes's earlier fight with Deadpool, Jinx stabbed the mutant through the heart and cut off his head. It was brutal, but she wasn't taking any chances with a mutant that had healing factor.

At her side, Remy LeBeau threw a charged card down one end of the hallway. A quarterstaff appeared in his hands as Cobra Vipers closed in on him. The Cajun's feet lashed out and Jinx realized that his martial arts training was primarily in foot boxing.

"Looks like I'm stuck with you for the moment," she told him. Gambit twirled his staff and knocked a few Vipers out with a crack. The Cajun swung around to defend himself from Zandar, who had decided that he had a better chance of fighting the X-Man instead of the ninja in close quarter combat.

"What, you mean you're letting these guys slow you down?" the Cajun asked.

Gambit hissed slightly when Zandar managed to get a bowie knife past his quarterstaff and embed it into his side. The X-Man retracted his staff with a flick of his wrist and slipped out of his trench coat. Remy wrapped the coat around Zandar's knife hand and kicked one of the man's feet out from underneath of him. The Dreadnok fired a silenced Beretta at the Cajun and hit him in the shoulder.

Jinx leapt over the Cajun and knocked the gun from Zandar's hand. Her next strike left him unconscious. The ninja then gracefully avoided bullets as she threw shurikens at their attackers. Cobra Vipers began to run after she disemboweled a few more of them.

She wiped the blood of her sword and grinned at the X-Man.

"I believe I said 'I'm stuck with you for the moment," she repeated innocently. Gambit grinned as he eyed the bowie knife that Zandar had managed to stab him with.

"How's the wound?" she asked. The mutant shrugged and told her that his body armor had taken the brunt of the attack. The knife wound wasn't as deep as it could have been. The shoulder wound, on the other hand, looked pretty nasty. Jinx advised him to go to the infirmary and get it looked at, but the Cajun brushed it off.

"What now Chère?" he asked, looking at the knife before sticking it through his belt. The Cajun winced slightly as he bent down to pick up his trench coat.

"Now?" she asked. "Kill some Cobra; hunt down Zartan, save the Pit…what about you?"

"Me?" Gambit asked. "Same ting, only I'm going to use Pink Hair's knife to blow something up."

"His name's Zandar."

"His name's Pink Hair," the Cajun replied firmly. "Dat's his new name."

"Okay, Pink Hair it is," Jinx replied, smirking slightly. "Now we're definitely parting way."

"What about dat thank you kiss?" the man asked. The ninja turned around to glare at him. Gambit grinned cheekily at her as he held up his hands.

"Just kidding Chère. Rogue wouldn't like it anyway."

Gambit took off in the other direction, though not before he pilfered some more knives from the unconscious Zandar. Jinx found herself grinning ever so slightly as she made her way through the damaged Pit.

She never did find Zartan.

"Mainframe, I want a better connection," Flint ordered. "I could barely understand Hawk."

"On it boss," the Joe answered. The soldier currently had his head and half of his body inside a wall. Wires and a partially dismantled control panel lay at his feet. Nearby, Breaker was doing his best to monitor incoming battle reports.

"Flint, Cobra's taken the airfield," Breaker told him. The warrant officer listened as Scarlett told them the situation over the radio. HISS tanks, with the help of the BATs, had overrun the airfield. Several mutants, including Tomax and the Baroness, were aiding the blockade group. Other than a few helicopters, the Joes were unable to get any aircraft out.

"Is that a problem?" a voice asked. Flint shot an irritated look at the blue skinned X-Man in the room. Warren Worthington III seemed to be of the opinion that the X-Men were sufficient to combat the lack of assault aircraft.

Arrogant prick.

"Yes, it's a problem," Flint replied tersely. Now wasn't the time to get into an argument. The warrant officer tried to tell himself that he didn't know the man and was hardly in a position to judge him. After all, the mutant had been helping the greenshirts and SHIELD agents with them fight off several Cobra attempts to overtake the control center.

"Cobra's got their air force here in full force," he explained carefully, willing himself not to punch the man. "Your people are currently handling Cobra's mutants and the BATs. That leaves everything else for us."

"I suppose so," Archangel replied. He didn't seem entirely convinced.

"You've got something to say Worthington, say it!" Flint snapped, his temper boiling over slightly. He had more important things to do than listen to the stuck up man criticize him.

"Losing your cool?" The mutant replied coolly. "Hardly fitting for a commanding officer, is it?"

Arrogant son of…

"I think that's enough," one of the SHIELD agents intervened. Jimmy Woo, the senior of the two agents, stepped between the two men. "I'm too close to retirement to listen to two, reasonably intelligent men squabble in the middle of a fight," he said.

Both men backed down at the glare he sent their way. Flint forced himself to bury his dislike for Worthington. Right now he needed to work with the man, not fight with him.

"I'm told that half of your team is standing by," Flint said instead, forcing his voice to be civil. From what he understood, the X-Men operated two combat teams. Storm led the Gold team while Cyclops led the Blue team. Scott Summers had decided to keep the majority of his team at the mansion in case it was attacked. He'd sent a couple of his team members to assist Storm, but wasn't willing to send more unless it was necessary.

"Yes," Archangel replied. "Cyclops is standing by in case we need reinforcements." From the tone in his voice, the blue mutant didn't seem to think that reinforcements would probably be necessary. Flint decided to take that as a hopeful sign.

The command and control center shook again as Cobra renewed its attack. An explosion rocked the room as the thick, titanium doors were forced open. Flint took cover behind a chair and fired at the intruders. The greenshirts and SHIELD agents opened fire as Crimson Guardsmen tried to force their way into the large room.

There was a flutter of large wings as Archangel ducked underneath the gunfire. His wings were of little use in the enclosed area. Having no other mutant abilities at his disposal, the X-Man fired his borrowed rifle.

"Yes," Flint suddenly heard the mutant say. "I'm the only X-Man in the room. There are only three Joes, plus the greenshirts and two SHIELD agents."

"Worthington, who are you talking to?" the warrant officer asked. The mutant had an odd expression on his face and there was a distant look in his eyes.

The gunfire suddenly stopped and Flint looked back at the door questioningly. Why had Cobra stopped firing?

Something hard slammed into him and Flint's head bounced painfully against the floor. The gun was knocked out of his hand as someone tried to pin him down. Two hands grabbed his throat and squeezed tight. Flint gasped for breath as he kicked out with his feet. He managed to free his left hand and claw at the man's face.

A strong wing smacked him in the face. Fucking hell, Worthington?

"What…the…hell…are you doing?" the warrant officer gasped. The mutant didn't answer as he attempted to strangle the Joe. Flint heard the sound of bullets hitting flesh and the X-Man backed off. Blood dripped from one of his wings and his shoulder. Nearby, Jimmy Woo and Mainframe both had guns pointed at the mutant.

Flint rolled to his feet and slammed a fist into Worthington's face. He grabbed one of the man's arms and threw him over his shoulder in a judo throw. The warrant officer tried to pin the mutant underneath of him, but the man's wings were making it difficult.

"Stop this!" a female voice called out.

When the voice of Jean Grey had no effect, the mutant telepathically went into Flint and Archangel's minds and forced them to stop. The warrant officer swore mentally at her. Why was she defending someone who was obviously a traitor?

"He's being controlled," the telepath told him. "He's being given voice commands, but I'm not sure where it's coming from."

"Can you stop him?" Flint asked her mentally. The telepath let him go and the warrant officer was suddenly able to move and talk again. He rubbed his throat as he looked at the red haired woman now standing in the room. The Crimson Guardsmen fired at her, but their bullets bounced off some sort of shield. A few moments passed before Jean Grey answered his question.

"I can break the commands he's been given, but I can't break the hypnotic hold that Xamot has over him," she finally answered.

"Xamot?" Flint asked. "How do you know it's him?"

"Warren met with the twins in an attempt to get information out of them," she explained. "Xamot put a hypnotic suggestion into his mind after physically touching him, but Cable was able to break the command. We assumed that Xamot had to physically touch someone to control them. However," the Phoenix said. "It appears that he's able to do it with only his voice."

Flint counted to three before he chose a response. The X-Men had sent them information about the twins' suspected powers, but they hadn't given any information on the encounter between Archangel and the Crimson twins. Flint wasn't entirely happy about that fact.

"Worthington tried to what?" he asked. Stupid idiot. The moron had walked right into that one, as far as he was concerned. Even if Flint hadn't known that the twins had mutant abilities, he knew full well that the two men were sneaky, ruthless bastards. Worthington had been a fool to think that he could waltz into Extensive Enterprises and try to get intelligence.

Of course, his views on what Worthington should or shouldn't have done were hardly helpful at the moment.

"What can you do about it?" Flint asked, rubbing his eyes. He had too many things to do at the moment and babysitting an X-Man that was being controlled by Xamot was hardly something he had time for.

"The only thing I can do right now is to force him to sleep," Jean Grey replied reluctantly. "Until we can find how Xamot's transmitting his voice, that's the best I can do."

"Unless you take out Xamot," he pointed out. The woman nodded, admitting that it was another possibility. She turned her attention to the struggling Archangel. A mental command from her made the man shut his eyes and drift off into a deep sleep. The Phoenix levitated his body and gently deposited it in a safe corner of the room.

"I will find the twins," she told them. "They're both wearing telepathic blockers, as are the Crimson Guardsmen."

"That would be helpful, thanks," he told her.

Jean floated out of control center. Outside, it was eerily silent and Flint couldn't help but wonder why there was no gunfire. Had the X-Man already taken care of the Crimson Guardsmen or had they retreated when they'd realized that she was there?

"Flint, I've got Hawk on the line," Breaker said.

He couldn't worry about any of that right now. As long as Jean Grey had his back, then he wasn't going to worry about Cobra attacking them from behind.

"Move it!" Xamot shouted. Red uniforms retreated swiftly from their former position. The Corsican mutant knew that he and the men under his command had a snowball's chance in hell of facing Jean Grey. If he'd guessed right, she would come after them after she dealt with Worthington. Unfortunately, however, there was a group of Joes in their way.

Several Crimson Guardsmen collapsed after being struck by bullets. Xamot flattened himself against a wall and aimed his firearm at the group of Joes. Where were the damned BATs when you needed them? As well trained as his men were, they had become boxed in between the Joes and one of the most powerful mutants on the planet.

"A little help here, brother," he thought. Xamot winced when the Crimson Guardsmen next to him went down with a bullet through his heart. Forget Jean Grey. The Joes were likely to get him first.

"Surrender Xamot!" a voice shouted. A bald headed Marine had an M-16 pointed directly at him. The mutant debated his options before finally dropping his gun and raising his hands up in the air. Tomax had better get here soon.

"I'm almost there," he heard his brother think. Xamot felt some relief, but it was soon replaced by dread when a red haired woman appeared next to him. Psionic energy crackled around the Phoenix as she floated in front of him.

"Release Archangel," she told him. Xamot said nothing. His telepathic blocker kept her from mentally forcing her way into his brain. According to her psychological profile that had been constructed from Cobra intelligence, Jean Grey wasn't likely to use her other abilities to do anything particularly horrific to him. The Joes, on the other hand…

"Just because you have a telepathic blocker doesn't mean you're safe," the Phoenix told him. "I can reconstruct your body, perhaps telekinetically try to find and remove the implant that's blocking me. How does that sound?"

She was bluffing. Surely she was bluffing. On the chance she wasn't, however, he needed to bide time until Tomax arrived.

"I'm only doing what I think is right," he told her, uncomfortably aware of the fact that she had frozen his body against the wall. "Most of the world governments are against our kind. I'm trying to help build a world where mutants and humans can live together in peace."

"Bull shit," Gung Ho said. "Don't listen to him ma'am."

"It's not bull shit," Xamot responded. "My brother and I had to hide our mutations to get ahead in the business world. I'm not Magneto, I don't hate humans. Cobra is willing to integrate our kind into its organization."

Jean Grey was studying him intensely. Xamot forced himself to keep talking. He knew he wouldn't convince the woman to agree with him, but at least making her consider his position would waste valuable seconds.

"A peaceful world?" she asked. "Under a Cobra dictatorship? How much blood and freedom would you sacrifice to buy a 'peaceful world'?" Xamot sensed that his brother was near. Keep talking, he told himself. Just a little more…

"If that's what it takes," he replied. "We're not seeking the domination of humankind like Magneto is. Just…"

"The domination of the world?" the X-Man asked dryly. "With you among the ruling elite, I suppose. Are you really seeking a peaceful world, or is it just an excuse for you to grab power?"

"If you're a member of the ruling elite, you can't be persecuted," he told her. "You don't have to go hungry or hide in fear."

"Enough of this," one of the Joes said. "Sorry lady, but the guy's stalling. Let us handle him."

"Very well," the woman answered. "But don't touch him. I'm not sure precisely how his powers work, but since he hasn't used his hypnotic ability on any of you yet, I'm guessing that he has to physically touch his target first."

Great, she'd managed to figure it out. Fortunately, he sensed that his twin was very near. Xamot purposely tried not to look around for any moving shadows. They needed the element of surprise if they were going to pull off his escape.

The mutant felt his brother's shadowy hand grab his ankle and pull him down. Xamot grimaced when he felt his body suddenly contort and turn into a living shadow. He always hated traveling like this. It wasn't painful, but it was damn uncomfortable and just plain weird. Tomax always made fun of him for thinking that, as it was as normal as breathing for him.

He heard surprised shouts before his brother pulled through a large crack in the damaged wall. Xamot clung onto his brother as they moved away from the Joes. The mutant closed his eyes and kept them closed for the duration of their escape.

"Patience, brother," an amused Tomax told him. "It always surprises me that no matter how many times we travel like this, you still act like it's going to hurt you."

"I don't think I'll ever get used to this," he replied. This time seemed a little worse than the last one. Xamot didn't know if their mind link had previously transmitted more of his brother's confidence or not, but he found himself feeling more uneasy this time around.

He finally felt his body reform and solidify into a normal, human body. Xamot breathed in a sigh of relief and opened his eyes. The two brothers were now standing behind a couple of destroyed Joe vehicles. The ground had been scorched black, as if by a burning fire. Airplanes and helicopters zoomed over head in an aerial battle. Lightning and heavy winds slashed the sky as several mutants were engaged in battle.

"Worrywort," his brother joked. "Just be glad I have that mutant power." Xamot rolled his eyes. He was glad, of course he was glad. Being turned into an indistinct shadow and shoved through a crack in a wall was preferable to sitting in a GI Joe prison.

"What about our men?" Xamot asked. He didn't feel comfortable in leaving their Crimson Guard behind.

"They knew what they were getting into," Tomax told him. "Besides, neither the Joes nor Grey are going to kill them."

Xamot felt marginally better when he heard that. He told himself that he wasn't concerned about the men's lives. Extensive Enterprises had put a lot of time and money into training the Crimson Guardsmen and altering their faces through plastic surgery. Each soldier was a valuable commodity worth thousands of dollars. Perhaps it would be possible to free at least some of the men at a later date.

"I need a weapon brother," Xamot said. He didn't particularly like being unarmed in the middle of a battlefield. His brother nodded and disappeared. Xamot crouched down behind a still smoldering vehicle and waited for his twin to reappear. Several minutes ticked by before a shadow hand reached out from underneath the twisted metal. It deposited an assault rifle and several magazines on the ground.

"Good luck brother," his twin said.

"You too," Xamot told him. He quickly grabbed the weapon and clicked it off of safety. The ammunition he slipped into a pocket. The Corsican peered around the tank to study the battle. GI Joe vehicles closed in on the airfield he was currently in. From the looks of it, two units of Cobra troopers had been captured. The rest of their ground forces had been split between the northeast and southeast corner of the area.

It was only a matter of time before the Joes recaptured the airstrips, unless Cobra managed to bolster the hole in its line. From the looks of it, Destro was attempting to do just that. The Scotsman was leading a contingent of HISS tanks, battle android troopers, and Cobra troopers to plug in the gap. Two mutants flew alongside the man as they fought their way past the Joes and X-Men.

Far beyond, sitting safely in Cobra's battle control vehicle, was Cobra Commander. It just figured that the man would stay as far away as he could from the front lines. Damn coward. He should be on the front lines fighting with his troops, not hiding in the back waiting until it was safe enough to charge to the front and claim the glory.

After several harrowing minutes, Xamot finally managed to join Destro's group. He winced as the Cobra troopers were mowed down by well-trained greenshirts. Cobra's main army was never as fully trained as they should be and were more often used as cannon fodder. When he and Tomax had been tasked with running the Crimson Guard, they had taken steps to assure that the men under their command were as well trained as possible. If the twins had taken anything from their experience in the French Foreign Legion, it was that rigorous discipline and training were necessary to forge an elite combat unit.

That was why the Crimson Guard was of a significantly higher caliber than the average Cobra trooper.

"Glad you could join us Xamot!" Destro shouted, noticing his uniform among the Cobra troopers. "Unlike our dear Cobra Commander, at least you're on the front line!"

Xamot took cover behind one of the tanks when a Joe Tomahawk flew low and strafed them. One of the mutants by Destro aimed her hand at the helicopter and fired a blast of energy. The helicopter exploded an instant later, though not before it managed to fire a rocket at the group of tanks. The Crimson Guardman covered his head as the projectile hit the line of tanks just ahead of him and exploded.

A high pitched scream blew another tank away and damaged the one in front of him. Xamot flattened himself against the ground and waited for the attack to cease. When it was over, he saw a red haired X-Man fly away from his position.

A sensation of pain and fear shot into his mind. Xamot turned his head to see a badly wounded Cobra trooper lying on the ground. The Corsican looked around and back at the dying man. He tried to ignore the man's terror, but found it increasingly difficult.

Xamot took a deep breath and crawled towards the wounded trooper. Bullets zoomed by his head as he dragged the man behind a damaged tank and out of the line of fire. He looked down at the Cobra trooper and saw that his abdomen had been blasted open. Bits of intestine could be seen through the gaping hole in his body.

"H…help," the man whimpered. "I…d…don't want to die."

The mutant swallowed as his throat suddenly went dry. Stupid empathy, why did he have to feel this? He should just leave the man and let him be. He couldn't save the man, he wasn't a damn medic.

However, despite all logic, Xamot placed a comforting hand on the man's shoulder. This easily could have been him. It could have been him lying in the ground, with his guts hanging out.

It suddenly struck him just how futile everything was. They all would die someday; it just depended when or how. Xamot looked around and saw that other Cobra soldiers were lying motionless on the ground. Most were dead. Some were dying.

Was this piece of ground honestly worth his life?

The man cried softly as he began to sink into unconsciousness. Xamot didn't know why, but he found the man's hand and held it tightly. As the Cobra trooper faded into nothingness, the mutant empath was suddenly pulled into the man's mind. He saw flashes of faces the man knew, followed by regret. Consciousness gradually disappeared, as if being sucked down a black hole. A panicked Xamot resisted the hole and tried to fight his way back out of the dying man's mind.

Suddenly, there was nothing. No emotions, no pain. Just death. Emptiness.

The Corsican man crawled away from the dead man and leaned against the damaged tank. Sweat poured down his face and he began to tremble slightly. He stared blankly around the battlefield. In the back of his mind he felt his concerned brother call out to him. Too traumatized to even contemplate speaking to his twin, Xamot shut him out.

He sat and stared at the dead body.

"It's lookin' a little rough Steeler old buddy!" Clutch shouted. The Joe mechanic swerved the VAMP multipurpose attach vehicle and narrowly avoided machine gun fire. A couple of Cobra Night Ravens flew overhead and fired down at the Pit. Two energy blasts from the base knocked both fighter jets out of the sky.

"Hey, was that Stark's new defense system?" Steeler asked. The Joe had taken the position of front gunner while Clutch drove. Leatherneck was currently operating the vehicle's two rear guns.

Clutch grunted a reply as another Night Raven was shot out of the sky. He didn't know what the system was called, but Duke had said that it fired something Stark called pulse bolts. The bolts apparently picked up kinetic energy as they flew, so the farther the bolts traveled, the harder they hit.

"Oh crap," he muttered. A line of Cobra HISS tanks was rolling towards him from across the air field. He could just make out Cobra Commander in the distance. The man was unsurprisingly behind the main line of attack.

"Hurry it up granny!" Cover Girl shouted over the radio. There was a crunch of metal as her Wolverine smashed through several BATs. Clutch gritted his teeth as he swerved to follow after her.

"Easy for you to say," he muttered. "You've got the new armor."

"What'd you say?" she asked sharply.

"I said there's a god damn line of HISS tanks in front of us!" he shouted.

"That's not what you said!" Cover Girl shouted back.

"Shut up Court….oh hell," Clutch swore. He watched as a couple of missiles suddenly appeared in front of him. The mechanic stepped on the gas and pulled down hard on the wheel. He waited for the inevitable explosion, but instead he felt a heavy wind and an icy chill.

"What happened?" he shouted, too focused on driving to find out what had occurred.

"Not sure," Leatherneck answered. "It happened too fast. There's a wall of ice in front of us now though."

Out of the corner of his eye, Clutch saw what appeared to be a blockade of ice between them and some of the HISS tanks. An icy figure, which appeared to be surfing on moving ice, moved over next to them.

"Don't worry guys, we've got your back," the man called out. The X-Man explained that he and Lifeline had protected them from the missiles. Iceman veered away from the soldiers to take on some BATs. Clutch heard a large boom several moments later and saw a giant fireball explode in his rearview mirror.

"Man down!" Leatherneck shouted. "It's the guy that just helped us!"

Clutch whipped the vehicle around to head back for the mutant. Bluish hot fire rained down on the X-Man and melted any ice he tried to form. Leatherneck and Steeler opened fire on the Baroness, who laughed and fired a shot their way. The VAMPS's driver whipped the steering wheel to the left and stepped on the gas. A scorching wall of fire shot past the vehicle and exploded behind them.

Lightning flashed as a hurricane level wind blew the Cobra terrorist away. Clutch brought the VAMP to a screeching halt and Steeler jumped out to check on the fallen X-Man. The Joe picked up a dazed Bobby Drake and deposited him in the vehicle. The mutant had reverted to his normal human form and seemed rather worse for wear.

Above them, a storm raged with fury. A blizzard toppled the HISS tanks. Lightning blew Cobra fighter jets out of the sky. Heavy winds and cold sleet toppled Cobra troops, mutants, and BATs alike.

Amidst it all was the most magnificent woman Clutch had ever seen. Lightning streamed from her eyes and her white hair shimmered in the blackening sky. The mechanic had seen and pursued many beautiful women in his life. Never, however, had he felt so humbled by a woman. Being in the presence of the X-Man known as Storm made him feel like a lowly peasant in the presence of a goddess.

"How is he?" Clutch asked, focusing his attention back to driving. He heard Bobby Drake groan from behind him. At least the man was still alive. Who the hell would have guessed that the Baroness had been hiding that kind of power all these years?

"Not good," Steeler answered. "He's burnt pretty bad. He'd have been burnt to a crisp I think if not for his powers."

"We'll get Lifeline to look at him," Leatherneck said, firing at some Cobra troops. "Where is that damned medic anyway?"

"He's with Rogue," Iceman replied. "Cobra's got their most powerful mutants out here. Between them and those robot things, we've been pretty busy." He pointed up into the sky and the Joes could just make out a large battle taking place.

"I can imagine," Steeler said, watching one of the mutants plummet into the ground with an earth shattering crash. "What's your name?"

"Iceman," the mutant replied. "Or Bobby Drake." He held a hand out and shot a small wall of ice at some battle android troopers. The human sized robots melted the wall of ice and continued to fire on the moving vehicle. A few shots from Leatherneck tore three of the robots apart. A few minutes later, however, the BATs began to repair themselves.

"Fucking hell," Leatherneck swore. "These things are a lot tougher than the old BATs."

"They're almost like mini-sentinels," Bobby Drake said. He winced slightly from his burns as he buried some more robots in ice. The ice shattered and melted as the BATs freed themselves once again.

"Yeah, well, we're not going down without a fight," the Marine told him. Leatherneck and Steeler poured artillery shells on the BATs while the X-Man in their group encased the scattered pieces of robots in a deep shell of ice.

"I think that did it," Iceman said. "That's below freezing temperature and the ice is preventing them from reforming."

"Alright!" Clutch whooped. "Now let's go kick some more snake ass!"

The three Joes shouted a chorus of 'Yo Joe!' and zoomed on through a now destroyed part of the Joes' airfield. By the end of the day, Robert Drake had picked up the battle cry as well.

James Rhodes gritted his teeth as he did a systems check of the Conquest fighter jet. Other than a few helicopters, the Joes hadn't yet been able to get any aircraft off the ground. General Hawk had made it a priority to get at least one of the airstrips open. Several SHIELD Orca assault helicopters had arrived to help the Joes force Cobra away from the airfield. The SHIELD and GI Joe helicopters circled a recently recaptured airstrip while Tony Stark, Banshee and Cable kept some of the Cobra mutants at bay.

"Ace, Slipstream, War Machine, and Lift Ticket," Breaker said over the unit. "We've secured two of the air strips. Your mission is a go."

Rhodey waited as Lift Ticket and Ace began to move their jets out of the hangar. He'd originally tried to get to his War Machine suit, but Cobra had managed to get to the armory first and block it off. Duke had ordered him to get up to the hangar instead. Rather than wait around and try to fight his way to the armored suit, the sergeant had reasoned that Rhodey would be more useful in a Joe Tomahawk or a Conquest.

He watched as the Joe fighter jets disappeared into the level above him. Rhodey heard them take off about a minute later, despite heavy Cobra fire.

"War Machine, Slipstream…you're next," Breaker said. "Be careful though, it's going to be a bit bumpy."

"Roger," Rhodey acknowledged. He maneuvered the jet onto a specially designed platform. As the platform rose to the top level of the Pit, he pulled down his helmet visor and checked his oxygen mask. The platform stopped moving and an open runway stretched out in front of him. A couple of greenshirts gave the Conquest one last check before giving him the thumbs up.

"You have a green light Rhodes. Yo Joe," Breaker told him.

James Rhodes pushed down on the accelerator and felt the Conquest's fuel nacelles rumble from the sudden surge in power. The jet took off down the airstrip. A rocket zoomed just in front of him and exploded to the right of the airfield. A Joe Tomahawk flew around in a circle and fired a missile at the attacker. The Marine had a sudden feeling of déjà vu, having run into a similar situation during one of his tours in Southeast Asia.

He pulled back on the joystick and the Conquest was finally airborne. Rhodey gave a small whoop as he shot up into the sky and turned the jet into a barrel roll to avoid colliding with a Cobra Rattler. The Rattler turned to follow him. Seconds later, it had been joined by a Night Raven.

"Rhodes, watch your six!" Ace shouted.

"Already on it!" Rhodey shouted back.

The Marine turned the jet ninety degrees to the left and accelerated to 400 knots. He then pulled back on the stick and brought himself above the two Cobra fighters. The Night Raven had the sense to turn itself into a lag displacement roll. The Rattler, on the other hand, tried to escape by pointing its nose down into a sudden dive. Rhodey grinned as the Conquest's radar system homed in on the Rattler.

His missile blew the Rattler to the seven winds.

"Semper Fi baby," Rhodey muttered. The Marine flew his jet around in a vertical circle and turned his attention back to the Night Raven.

Short Fuze sat quietly while one of the greenshirt medics bound up his arm. The pain from his wound was agonizing, but he'd had worse. It certainly didn't compare to the confusion warring inside of him.

Was he a mutant? He supposed it did make sense, as much as he wanted to deny it. His hunches were always correct and the soldier had never really understood why he knew the things he did. He'd sometimes even had the occasional dream that came true, such as the time that he'd dreamt that his mother would develop cancer.

Short Fuze had never really considered it to be a mutation, though. It had been something he'd always considered to be normal. After all, didn't most people experience a premonition or two in their lives? Spirit and the ninjas were capable of mystical stuff and they weren't mutants.

"You going to be okay?" Mutt asked, sitting down next to him. Short Fuze winced slightly as he moved his injured arm.

"Okay enough to fight," he answered. He wasn't injured enough to be sitting in the infirmary during a battle.

"Oh no you don't," the medic replied. Short Fuze and Mutt, however, ignored the woman. Doc and Lifeline had been the only medics that ever been able to order any of the Joes around. A greenshirt certainly wasn't going to tell them no.

"And how do you guys plan to get out?" the woman asked smugly. The two Joes belatedly remembered that Tony Stark had installed force field generators around the infirmary just before the attack had started. Only the medics and the greenshirts guarding the patients had the access code to let people in and out.

"You're going to let us out," Short Fuze told her. "Or do you want us to tell Beach Head that you prevented two Joes still capable of firing a weapon from fighting?" The medic blanched slightly and muttered under her breath.

"And Beach Head will know we're not lying," Mutt added. "You know, with him being a telepath and all. Just think what it'd be like to have him poking around in your brain."

"You fight dirty," the medic sighed. "Fine. You can go."

The two men grinned as they walked towards the infirmary exit. Short Fuze glanced down at the limp form of Lady Jaye as they passed by a bed. He paused to look at her for a moment. It was the blue mutant's fault she was unconscious, as well as the fact that he was injured and Heavy Duty was dead.

"Mutt," Short Fuze said. "Let's go take down some snakes for Jaye, Heavy Duty, and Junk." So what if he was a mutant? That didn't change anything. He was still a GI Joe and the blue mutant had picked a fight with the wrong people.

"I hear yah buddy."

The two men took off down one of the hallways. Neither Joe was quite sure where to go, but they decided to follow the sound of gunfire. Short Fuze tried to will himself to "know" where they should be, but his mutant ability didn't tell him. Mutant ability…he was still having trouble calling it that. The Joe still wasn't completely convinced that he had a mutation.

"Not much activity on this level," Mutt noted. They headed up to the next level. The two soldiers peered carefully out of the staircase door before exiting it. Short Fuze tried to raise someone on his radio and finally managed to get Duke. The sergeant ordered the two men to head towards the armory. Apparently the Dreadnoks had decided raid it in the hopes of stealing the Joes' weapons.

A sensation of danger ran through Short Fuze's mind. He instinctively reached out and grabbed Mutt, pulling him back. The soldier pushed him down to the floor before joining him with his hands over his head. Seconds later, the wall above them exploded out and shrapnel sprayed across the hall. Both men winced from the heat of the blast.

"Way to go Thrasher!" someone yelled. "Now hurry it up, Zarana wants the Thunder Machine ASAP!"

The Joes scrambled out of the way as the Dreadnok's armored vehicle smashed through the rest of the wall. Short Fuze couldn't even begin to wonder how the gang of delinquents had managed to get the huge vehicle down into the Pit.

"Hey! There're two Joes here!" one of the Dreadnoks shouted.

"I'll take care of them!" another man shouted cheerfully.

"Get 'em Wilson!"

The Thunder Machine crashed through the other wall and brought part of the ceiling down. Short Fuze looked up to see a man dressed in red and black spandex looming over them. A mask completely covered his face and two katana handles could be seen behind his back.

"Hey guys, what's shakin'?" the man asked. "Other than this base?"

"Go fuck yourself," Mutt snarled him.

"Oooo…feisty. Sorry man," the strange swordsman replied. "As much as I'd like to try, it's physically impossible to do that." The man pointed his gun and fired two shots. Each one missed the two Joes by one inch.

"Your aims off," Short Fuze told him. The man shrugged as he twirled his guns and pocketed them.

"Nope, just an intentional part of my plot twist that hasn't been revealed to you guys yet," the man answered. "Now be a couple of good boys and pretend to be dead."

"What?" Mutt asked. There was a crack as the madman kicked him in the jaw. The Joe groaned when he felt his jaw break. The dog handler held a hand to his bleeding mouth and glared at the other man.

"Oops, sorry dude," their attacker said. "I told you to pretend to be dead." Another kick by the man sent Mutt skidding across the hallway.

"You son of a bitch," Short Fuze swore. "Leave him alone." He reached for his gun, but the man stepped down on his hand and then kicked him in the shin. Pain lanced up his leg and the Joe felt his eyes water.

"Okay, so anyway," the man told them. "I'm going to go now. Tell Snake Eyes that Deadpool says hi." The mercenary booted him hard in the stomach and Short Fuze felt his vision waver. Deadpool ducked through one of the giant holes that Thrasher had made and disappeared.

"Short Fuze," Mutt groaned. "What the hell just happened?"

Short Fuze groaned miserably in reply.

"Look out!"

Duke immediately heeded the shouted warning and jumped out of the way as a huge vehicle smashed through the Joes' defensive line. He stood back up and fired his weapon in the direction of it. He watched helplessly as the Thunder Machine tore past the soldiers and parked itself in front of the armory's entrance.

"God dammit!" he swore. Roadblock fired his machine gun at the Dreadnoks and to everyone's delight, several bikers screamed after being shot. Unfortunately, however, the Joes' ammunition was starting to run low and the Dreadnoks, with the help of a BAT, had managed to secure the armory. Duke knew full well that the gang was loading as many weapons as they could into Thrasher's vehicle.

He'd tried to contact Flint and have the warrant officer redirect more soldiers down to the armory, but everyone else was tied up elsewhere. The leader of the X-Men's Gold team had ordered Colossus to help them, but the Russian hadn't arrived yet.

"Hey guys!" A red and black figure somersaulted over a surprised Sci-Fi and drop kicked Dusty in the face. The desert trooper went down as several Joes turned their fire on the mercenary. Bullets ripped through Deadpool's body, but nothing slowed the man down. The mercenary jumped over the Thunder Machine and entered the armory as well.

"Son of a bitch!" someone swore. Duke whole heartedly agreed. The Joes had immediately tried to secure the armory as soon as they had heard the Pit had been breached. However, no one had expected the new BATs to be so deadly.

"Excuse me," a Russian voice said politely. Conrad Hauser turned his head to see a hugely built man with metallic skin trying to make his way through the firing soldiers. Duke held up his hand and a few Joes moved out of the way to allow the mutant to pass.

"I'm Colossus," the X-Man said, holding his hand out to the first sergeant. Duke shook his hand and with some amusement noted how the Russian's hand dwarfed his own. The mutant asked him what the situation was. Duke quickly explained while the Joes tried to avoid the Dreadnoks' heavy fire.

Near them, Blowtorch aimed his flamethrower at the armory, but let up after only a few seconds. The Joes were afraid that they might possible set off the weaponry in storage. While Duke had no qualms about blowing up the Dreadnoks, the force of the resulting explosion would injure their own people.

"Very well," Colossus told him.

The X-Man ran at the armory and suddenly frantic Dreadnoks began to fire at him. Bullets bounded off of his metallic skin and one stray bullet hit an unlucky Dreadnok in the leg. The lone battle android trooper fired at the mutant, who grabbed the machine and ripped it apart. Men began to shout inside the armory and motorcycle engines could suddenly be heard. The Russian mutant put two hands against the Thunder Machine and pushed it over onto its side.

A cheer erupted among the Joes as they followed after the X-Man. The fighting grew even more brutal as the Joes tried to force themselves inside. The newly repaired BAT killed a greenshirt before Roadblock blew it apart again. Blowtorch blasted at the destroyed robot in the hopes of frying some of the pieces beyond repair. Seconds later, however, wires began to snake towards each other as the machine attempted to fix itself.

"Everyone concentrate fire on the BAT!" Duke ordered. Colossus could handle the Dreadnoks for the moment. The Joes pounded at the robot until it was reduced to little more than pebble sized fragments. Wasting no time to see if it was down for the count, Duke ordered the Joes to assist Colossus.

"Yippie kay yay!" Deadpool shouted, launching himself at the X-Man. Two katana blades flashed in his hands as he landed on in front of Colossus. Blood flew as the adamantium swords sliced across his chest. The Russian grimaced as he grabbed the mercenary around the ankle and slammed him into a motorcycle.

"Get the Thunder Machine upright!" Zarana ordered. Ripper and Roadpig rushed to the vehicle while the woman stepped into the armory entrance, holding an RPG in her arms.

"Hit the deck!" Duke shouted. Joes and greenshirts ran for cover when the RPG fired. A bright light lit up the area as the rocket exploded. Duke blinked his eyes as he tried to determine the damage. Surprised to find himself unhurt, the sergeant looked around to find that Colossus had used himself as a shield to protect the soldiers.

A second rocket hit the mutant head on. The mutant fell to his knees, temporarily dazed. During the time that he and the Joes had been distracted, the Dreadnoks had managed to get the Thunder Machine upright.

Duke fired off a shot and managed to hit Zarana in the abdomen. The woman crumbled to the floor. An enraged Roadpig screamed in fury and charged at him. There was a loud thud as Roadblock tackled the Dreadnok and wrestled him to the ground.

"Duke!" Blowtorch shouted. "They've got Rhodes' War Machine suit!"

The first sergeant looked over to see that several grunting bikers had managed to strap the hulking armored suit to the Thunder Machine. Thrasher jumped into the vehicle and swiveled the vehicle's Gatling guns towards the entrenched soldiers.

"Stop them!" Duke ordered. "Don't let them get that suit!"

Motorcycles zoomed out of the armory while Thrasher provided cover fire. Roadblock decked Roadpig in the jaw, but the burly Dreadnok shook it off and punched him back. One of the Dreadnoks turned his motorcycle around to fire at the dark skinned Joe.

"Holy shi…"

The Dreadnok brought his bike to a skidding halt to avoid crashing into a very tall Russian. Colossus picked up a suddenly terrified biker and tossed him gently onto the ground. A metal hand grasped the motorbike and threw it at the tank like vehicle. Using his other hand, the X-Man tossed a struggling Roadpig against a wall.

Duke raced into the armory with the radio to his lips. He relayed the message to Stark, who immediately said that he was on his way. The sergeant looked around the now empty armory to access the damage. Artillery shells were scattered about the floor. Other than a few knives and hand guns, the Dreadnoks had stripped the armory bare.

His eyes fell on two pairs of crutches that had been tossed into a corner. Duke's heart skipped a beat when he saw that all four crutches sported paint jobs and "Lifeline 360" on their sides. He laughed as he ran towards them.

The Dreadnoks hadn't realized that they weren't normal crutches! And now, thanks to that fact, Tony Stark, James Rhodes, and Wayne's Sneeden's warped brainchild would actually come in handy. Duke picked up one of the camouflage ones and examined it. Stark had said that one of the crutches had a rocket launcher while another had a flame thrower.

Which one was which though? He racked his brain, trying to remember. Stark had given him a report detailing what the crutches did, but he had failed to give an instruction manual. None of which helped Duke now, as he tried to figure out how to use the damn things.

"Top?" Tunnel Rat asked, sticking his head inside the armory. "What are you…?"

"Take one," he told the Joe. "These are the crutches that Stark modified into weapons." The smaller man's eyes lit up as he took one of the green crutches.

"How do these work?" he asked eagerly.

"No idea," Duke said, grabbing another crutch. "Get the other one and let's go. Cobra's not getting that suit."

The two men raced out of the armory to find that the Dreadnoks had disappeared. Duke could hear them tearing their way through the Pit, trying to get out. Colossus and several Joes were gone, presumably in pursuit of the biker gang.

"Hey Top," Tunnel Rat said, kicking a motorcycle. "They left one of their bikes behind."

"Get it upright," Duke ordered. A battered looking Dusty helped them to tip the bike upright. The blonde sergeant climbed on and placed his pair of crutches across his lap. Tunnel Rat climbed on behind him with the other two.

Duke gunned the motorcycle and took off after the others. It wasn't difficult to follow the trail of destruction until the Dreadnoks came back into view. Colossus had managed to rip the War Machine suit off of the armored vehicle, but Deadpool was currently standing between him and the suit.

"Rat, get ready to bail!" Duke shouted. "Three, two, one…now!"

Both men threw themselves off of the moving bike and the motorcycle slammed into the Thunder Machine. Duke rolled to his feet and aimed one of the crutches at the Dreadnok vehicle. He found a hidden switch underneath the arm rest and pressed it.

A string of electrical energy shot out and hit the vehicle. Not quite sure what it was, Duke decided to aim for the driver. The next shot hit Thrasher. The Dreadnok slumped over in his seat and the Thunder Machine veered to the left and slammed partway through a wall.

Tunnel Rat, it turned out, had the crutch that had been turned into an RPG. Miniature missiles slammed into the Thunder Machine and ignited the gasoline of the motorcycle. Deadpool abandoned his fight with Colossus and leapt through the fire to save his fellow Dreadnoks. Duke watched as he grabbed the unconscious Thrasher and Zarana and teleported away. The mercenary returned several seconds later and grabbed another Dreadnok, this time Buzzer.

"He's extracting them!" Duke shouted. "Make sure he doesn't get the…"

Deadpool was back again, this time with a bazooka in his hands. Duke froze as he looked at the weapon. Not good. Where the hell had he gotten a damned bazooka?

"Boom!" the mercenary shouted. Duke winced slightly in spite of himself and several Joes threw themselves to the floor. Wade Wilson broke into hysterical laughter and slapped his knee.

"Syke!" Deadpool shouted. He jumped over Colossus and threw two gas bombs out of his hands. The rest of the Dreadnoks used the diversion to make their escape. Tears streamed down Duke's face as he tried to see through the smoke.

Through his blurred vision, he saw the mercenary place one hand on the War Machine suit. The other hand pressed something on his belt. He and the armored suit vanished an instant later.

"Son of a…" Duke paused mid swear to cough his lungs out. He fell to his knees as the tear gas began to have more of an effect. His eyes began to sting painfully and he temporarily lost his vision. Strong, hard hands picked him up and the sergeant felt himself being carried away from the smoke. The hands put him down and left. Duke listened as footsteps returned with more coughing Joes.

"Colossus?" he asked. He sneezed a few times as their rescuer knelt next to him. His guess had been correct then. The Russian mutant had carried the Joes away from the tear gas.

"Yes," the mutant answered. There was a pause before he spoke again. "I'm sorry. I wasn't able to stop Deadpool."

"Not," cough, "Your fault," Duke told him. He blinked his eyes and found that he could now see a blurry figure kneeling next to him. The GI Joe sergeant shakily got to his feet. Piotr Rasputin helped him up and Duke thanked him.

"I don't understand," the X-Man said. "Why is Deadpool with Cobra?"

"That's a surprise?" Duke asked him.

"Yes," Colossus answered. "He has his problems, but in his heart, I believe that Deadpool wants to do the right thing. He just doesn't know how."

Duke didn't have a reply for that. The X-Man seemed to know more about the mercenary than he did. However, Wade Wilson didn't appear to have a sane thought in his brain. The sergeant had no idea how the mercenary was justifying his alliance with the Dreadnoks.

"Roadblock," he said. The tall Joe turned to look at him.

"Please help anyone who's too injured to fight to the infirmary and then head up top," Duke ordered. Roadblock saluted. Colossus, meanwhile, was giving the machine gunner a very curious look.

"Are you Marvin Hinton?" the Russian asked suddenly. "The host of 'Cooking with Kung Fu Grip'?" Roadblock looked surprised for a moment before breaking into a huge grin. He held a hand out to the mutant and the two men shook hands.

"Sure am," the gunner replied. "You a fan?"

"Yes," Colossus nodded. "In fact, your show is very popular at the mansion. I know a few people who will probably want an autograph." Judging from the pleased smile on Roadblock's face, it was one of the best compliments he could have asked for.

"Really?" Roadblock asked. Still grinning, he pumped Colossus's hand up and down enthusiastically before letting go. "Aw shucks. I guess I'll have to pay you guys a visit over there. What's your name? My codename's Roadblock."

"Colossus, but my real name is Piotr Rasputin. I'm an artist," the other man answered.

"An artist, huh?" The gunner smiled. "Maybe you can show me some of your artwork sometime."

"I'd like that," the mutant replied humbly. Roadblock waved goodbye and turned around to follow Duke's orders. There was a lightness to his step that hadn't been there before.

"You made his day," Duke told the mutant. The Russian smiled as they watched Roadblock walk away with several other Joes.

"I'm glad," the X-Man told him. "There's been too much violence today. I'll be happy when this is all over."

"So will I," Duke said. After a moment, he added, "Thank you for your help."

"There is no need to thank me," the other man answered. Even so, Duke thanked him again. Colossus finally accepted the gratitude shyly. The sergeant patted him on the arm and quickly surveyed the rest of their group. Tony Stark showed up as he was doing a head count of his soldiers.

"Looks like I'm too late," the man said, looking around.

"I'm afraid you are," Duke apologized. "Deadpool teleported away with the suit."

Iron Man swore darkly. Needing something to vent his irritation, the Avenger spotted the abandoned Thunder Machine. He gave the vehicle a few good kicks to get his frustration out of his system. Iron Man paused for a moment before bending over to examine something in the vehicle. He turned around and spotted the Lifeline 360 crutches.

"Hey Duke! I told you those would come in handy!" the man shouted. "Aren't you glad we made them now?"

"Shut the hell up Stark!"

"Touché."

Xamot didn't know how much time had passed before Destro stumbled upon him. The Scotsman had ducked behind the abandoned tank to find cover. He froze in surprise and stared down at the pale Crimson Guardsman. The mutant gave him a blank look before turning his attention back to the dead trooper.

"What are you doing?" the man asked sharply. "There's still a battle."

"I felt him die," Xamot replied quietly. "I was in his head. I didn't mean to be…I just got sucked in."

Destro didn't respond for a moment. The Scotsman peered around the tank and then looked back down at the mutant. He finally gave a small sigh and knelt down next to the Corsican.

"What's the point Destro?" Xamot asked bleakly. "We all die. Why does all of this matter? What good is any of this going to do for us in the end?" The Scottish Laird considered his words carefully for a moment.

"What matters is how we live," Destro finally answered.

"But why?" the other man persisted. "That could have been me. What am I fighting for?"

"That is a question I can't answer for you," the Scotsman replied. He patted Xamot awkwardly on the shoulder and pulled him to his feet. "I can, however, tell you that this is hardly the time for philosophical inquiry. I'll be happy to discuss the nature of life and death with you later…after we get out of this."

Destro picked up the gun Xamot had dropped and placed it in his hands. The Scotsman spoke into his radio and listened as several units gave him an updated battle report. Realizing that the airfield was now a lost cause, the man ordered the Cobra troops to withdraw and regroup at the south end of the base.

"The battle is turning against us," Destro finally told the other man. "It is only a matter of time before we are forced to retreat."

"But for now?" Xamot asked him.

"But for now we fight. Gather your courage Xamot, the day isn't finished yet."

Lifeline sighed as he looked at the Cobra mutants advancing on him. One of them had superspeed, which was causing him the most trouble. Of the X-Men, only he and Rogue were a match for the woman. His own speed surpassed the Southerner, but the Cobra woman was faster than he was. The medic was reluctant to use violent means, but his options for a pacifistic solution were dwindling.

"You've got no choice Sugah," Rogue told him. "We've got to take her down."

They'd been playing a deadly game of tag the last hour or so. It had been all Edwin could do to prevent the woman from killing his fellow Joes. And now, after using his own impressive speed for such a lengthy time, he was starting to become winded.

A sonic boom shook the very air and the speedster slammed into Lifeline before he could react. Fists moving faster than the speed of sound pummeled his chest and face. An acrid taste entered his mouth when the mutant drew blood. Rogue flew down to help him, but a superfast fist sent her flying.

Out of breath. He was getting tired.

Out of breath. Edwin blinked as a possible solution occurred to him. Everyone needed to breathe.

He managed to grab one of the mutant's hands before she could hit him again. Lifeline reached out and wrapped his other arm around her torso. The medic shot high up into the sky. Higher and higher he flew and the woman suddenly stopped struggling out of the fear that he would drop her.

The temperature rapidly dropped as the air thinned. Still higher Edwin flew, hoping that the woman would pass out before he did. His vision began to blur slightly and his chest began to burn. The medic didn't know how many miles he had flown when the mutant in his arms finally went limp. Her head rolled against his chest and her breathing became shallow.

Feeling intense relief, Lifeline turned around and began his descent back to the ground. The oxygen level increased and he breathed in several gulps. Rather than return immediately to the battlefield, he flew back towards the X-Mansion. He sought out Professor Xavier, who promised to take care of restraining the woman.

The medic thanked him and returned to the Pit. When he returned, he saw that the battle was winding down. The rest of Cobra's battle android troopers had been destroyed, with their scattered parts encased in ice. Iceman had figured out how to keep them from repairing themselves. Banshee had helped the Joes to destroy the remaining androids while Storm and Iceman had covered them with ice.

Storm, Rogue, and Cable were now in pursuit of several mutants, including the Baroness. Figuring that the X-Men could handle the rest of the battle, Lifeline went inside the base to retrieve a medical pack. He'd done what he could to help with the fighting. Now it was time to do his duty as a medic.

A sonic boom threw Scarlett to her feet. Several other Joes also lost their balance, but the ninjas managed not to lose their dignity. The red head heard a grinding noise and looked up to see the flaming wreckage of a SHIELD helicopter hurtling down towards their position. A female figure flew between them and caught the main part of the debris and tossed it away.

Snake Eyes pulled her out of the way just before the helicopter's tail rotor could impale her. Their mutant comrade flew down and rescued Spirit and Recondo from meeting a similar fate. She deposited her charges next to Scarlett and flew up to catch a rocket propelled grenade. The grenade was thrown back towards the Cobra position, where it detonated.

The X-Man floated back down to check on the soldiers. She asked if they were alright, to which Scarlett gave her an affirmative. The mutant woman, who sported a white streak in her brunette hair, cocked her head and looked down at the Joes with a sudden smile.

"Ya'll are a bunch of hunks o' good lookin'," she drawled, looking at several of the men. "Why're you soldier boys always so danged cute?"

"Cute?" Spirit asked, unused to being described as 'cute'. A mischievous grin crossed the woman's face and she swooped down and blew the Native American a flirtatious kiss. A shocked Charlie Iron Knife gaped as she suddenly swatted his and Snake Eyes's rear ends. She winked at Recondo and flew back up into the air.

"Hey!" an outraged Scarlett yelled after her, a strong Georgia accent coloring her voice. "The one with the mask is private property!"

"Sorry dahlin'" the woman called back apologetically. "Ah didn't know he was taken!" The X-Man flew off to rejoin the fight. Scarlett looked over to see that her boyfriend's shoulders were shaking from silent laughter. She reached out and swatted him.

"And you…stop being so smug," she told him. Snake Eyes signed back telling her that he wasn't smug at all. Scarlett didn't believe him.

The Joes resumed their attack. Cobra's forces began to pull more and more back until they were finally in a full retreat. A cheer erupted among all the soldiers and X-Men when they realized that they'd won the battle. The celebration continued for a short while before everyone began to sober up and access the damage.

Scarlett and the others began to search the battlefield for wounded men and women. Lifeline zipped around and treated people as fast as he could. The X-Men, meanwhile, helped move debris and carry people to safety.

"Been a hell of a day, hasn't it?" General Hawk asked her. Scarlett nodded her head at the man, who was standing next Stalker and Storm. Nearby, Beach Head was helping a limping Cover Girl walk towards the base.

"Just let me carry you, it'll be a hell of a lot faster Barbie doll," he told her.

"I don't need to be carried," the tank driver shot back. "I can walk just fine."

"Limping ain't 'just fine'," the ranger retorted. Scarlett rolled her eyes as the two Joes continued to bicker. It figured that the two would find something to argue about in spite of the battle they had just fought.

"Yargh!" Another voice drew her attention in the other direction. A red eyed man in a trench coat was scowling and swearing at Jinx and Kamakura. Jinx was smirking innocently as she twirled a katana blade in her hand.

"What the hell are you screaming about LeBeau?" Beach Head bellowed. "The fight's over!"

"Mon Dieu," Gambit shouted. "Ninjas! They're all monkeys! Rabid, sword carryin' tailless monkeys!"

The Cajun mutant continued to rant and swear. Scarlett shook her head when Jinx broke into hysterical laughter. She had no idea what the woman had done, but apparently the X-Man had been the victim of a ninja prank.

"You're just now figuring that out?" Beach Head shouted back. "I've known that for years!"

Snake Eyes flipped the ranger off, who answered back with a middle finger of his own. General Hawk chuckled as he listened to the exchange. The white haired woman at his side chuckled as well and shook her head. The Cajun mutant's outcry had lightened the mood considerably.

"It is encouraging to know that after all of this, they've retained their spirit," Storm told the general. "Although I, for one, intend to take a long nap." An amused Hawk agreed with her. Several other Joes were smiling as well.

All heads suddenly turned when Remy LeBeau took off in the opposite direction and tried to hide behind a surprised Wayne Sneeden.

"Here homme, take these," the X-Man said, thrusting several shuriken into the ranger's hand. Beach Head gaped down at his hand and then over at the insane Cajun, who had taken off at a run again. Jinx gave a surprised squawk when she saw the weapons in his hands.

"My shuriken!" she shouted.

"Gambit!" Beach Head bellowed after the mutant. "Did you just fucking pickpocket a NINJA?"

There was no answer as the man raced in the direction of the Pit. All eyes watched as an enraged Jinx tore after the Cajun with threats of violence. After several minutes, a very distinct, male yelp echoed over the battlefield.

Scarlett only mildly felt sorry for him.

Chapter notes: There were at least four additional scenes I wanted to put in, but didn't due to the length and flow of the chapter. I will include them in a special bonus chapter, which I hope to have up over the weekend or by the end of next week by the latest. One scene will be a Beach Head and Cover Girl scene. There will also be an additional Deadpool scene.

Beach Head having once called Jinx a "bad luck lady" is a reference to the cartoon movie.

As for the equipment that Tony Stark retrieved from the Avenger compound last chapter, what he grabbed were actually force field generators. These were what he installed around the infirmary just before the attack, in order to protect the patients and medical staff.

The crutch that Duke used to shoot Thrasher with was a neural stunner, which temporarily paralyzes the victim.

Izvinite menya: Pardon me in Russian