Disclaimer: Be a cool graduate. Throw beachballs at the audience.

Learning to Breathe

51. Virrulent Vengeance

Virus watched his teammates with disgust. How dare they leave him behind? And worse, how could they not even miss him? He was important, and they all should know that by now. Why, Zartan himself had extended the invitation. How could they disreguard that.

He couldn't take sitting still anymore. Using his mutant abilities, he un-merged from the game consol and appeared in the room.

No one noticed, so he decided to make them notice.

"Thought you could leave me behind, did you?" He asked. The group turned around.

"Good lord, Virus, you missed the shuttle and we couldn't wait!" Vampira glared.

"Not our fault you're an antisocial asshole." Bryan grunted. Virus seethed.

"You deliberately left me behind!"

"We knocked on your door. No one answered. We left." Lady M glared up at him. "Blame your self."

"You will pay for this treachery!" Virus shouted. A lizzard-man on the couch looked up at him.

"What the hell is your problem?" He asked. "We were enjoying a nice R-rated adventure film and you just made me miss the scene where they blow up the car."

"And who are you supposed to be?" Virus asked. "A Godzilla impersonator."

"Drop dead, loser." The reptilian teen rolled his eyes and looked to Andi. "Is this the jerk that wouldn't meet the plane."

"Yes." Andi groaned. Only then did Vincent realize that the gator-boy was sitting close to Atlantis. Entirely too close.

"Step away from her!" The Brittish mutant demanded, stalking up to the other teen. Reptile-boy glared up at him and then stood up, causing Vincent James to look up at the newcomer's massive array of teeth.

"And what will you do about it?" The other boy barred his teeth.

"Be careful, Steve." Mitch warned. "Dorkmeister's a technical genius."

"Won't need technology for this." 'Steve' glared down at virus with his piercing yellow eyes. "You think you own the girl, huh?"

"She's mine!" Virus declared. "I won't let you take her from me!"

"I belong to no-one." Andi growled. "It's about time you learned that."

"The lady has spoken." Steve smirked. Virus gulped. "Now. FEEL SOME PAIN!!"

Virus didn't know what hit him, but he knew it hurt. Steve somehow pinned him down and pulled his arms behind his back at a painfully awkward angle with one of Gator-boy's enormous shoes pressing against the genius's spine. Virus yelped in pain.

"MOMMY!!" He wailed.

"Hey, Leathersuit, leave some of him for the rest of us to torture!" Kristen said.

"No problem!" Leathersuit grinned, pulling Virus up off the floor, only to slam him down onto it again. This time, the smaller boy's back took the brunt of the blow.

"Owie." Virus wimpered.

"You gonna stop treating the girls like possessions?" Bryan asked. Virus glared at the hick-boy.

"They're more mine than yours, hillbillie!"

"Keep pounding him, Steve. He ain't learned nothin' yet." Bryan waved.

"I'll be glad to if someone else will hold him still." Steve answered.

"I call dibs!" Kristen piped up.

"You ain't tall enough to reach him." Mitch corrected her. "I'll do it." The Las Vegas born boy held Virus fast with his monstrous arms while Steve continued to waylay the technology-possessing mutant.

And that's what they were doing when Zartan and the other Dreadnoks returned.

"What is going on in here?" Zartan shouted. Everyone froze. Leathersuit was in mid-punch.

"Uh, hey boss." Bryan said. "Virus came over after all."

"I see that." Zartan groaned. "Why are you breaking his nose in?"

"He simultaneously dissed Andi and pissed off Steve." Kristen spoke up. "So, Steve started beating him up."

"I told him I'd help." Mitch beamed. Zartan sighed.

"Of all the outlandish stunts… Golem, Leathersuit, let Virus go." He ordered. Both boys complied.

"My face." Virus said. "I can't feel my face."

"Probably because them two broke it." Monkeywrench said.

"Not helping." Zartan glared. "Virus, what the hell did you do?"

"He was trying to steal her from me!" Virus shouted. "You can't have her! She's my girl, not yours!"

Crack.

"Oooh. Pretty birdies." Virus said before passing out on the floor. Everyone stared at Andi, who had snuck up on the boy's right and decked him.

"Now that was therapy!" She said, glaring down at the English inventor. "Pervert."

"All of you, to your rooms." Zartan ordered. "We will discuss this later."

"That means you too, Steve." Gnawgahyde glared at his nephew. The boy groaned.

"Damn." He hissed, slulking out of the room. The others followed suit in hopes of finding their temporary sleeping quarters. Zartan sighed.

"I don't believe this." He grumbled. "In less than two hours they've managed to knock two people unconscious and set the entire schedule behind for two days."

"Not to mention turning on their own teammate." Burnout added. "Good god, it's a teenaged version of us!"

"Only with powers and no sense of self-preservation." Monkeywrench said. "Do you have a fire extinguisher around?"

"Yes, but somehow I don't think it will be enough." Burnout groaned. "I'm going back to the garage. May a well get something done while they're holled up."

Across town, an appartment building

In a small one-bedroom appartment, two men sat and talked about the events of the day. One of them, an older man in his thirties, looked across the room to the teenager stretched out on the couch.

"Thanks for helping us take care of those gang-bangers, kid." The man said. "The chief was about to have my hide if we didn't get this resolved."

"Don't mention it." The blond-haired boy said. "The Kid of Rock is glad to help." Bobby Parsons, aka Kid Razor, had been in Chicago to help a friend of the police captain back in Cleveland. Marcus Luther, the man across the room, was a captain in the Chicago police force, who had opened his couch to the teen while he cleaned up the crime in the city.

"I still don't know what's up with the rash of robberies in the midtown district." The captain mused. "People keep seein' strange things over there. People who turn invisible and creatures made of goo. It's all just creepy."

"No joke." Razor said. "But they'll regret the day they ran into the Kid of Rock. I'll show them the true power of Rock."

"Be careful, Razor." Luther said. "They have powers too."

"Yeah, but they don't got the skills, and that's what really counts." Razor grinned.