2. Unstoppable Meets Unstable
"We land in twenty seconds, be ready," Cyclops commanded as he piloted the Blackbird to a clear area near where Juggernaut was attacking. "Juggernaut procedure twelve, you know what to do. Shadowcat, you're with Nightcrawler, Boom Boom, with me. Jean, be ready.
Acknowledging the order simultaneously, the five man team. Unbuckled their belts and headed to the rear entry hatch of the plane as it auto piloted the landing procedure. The moment it touched ground, the hatch opened and the team ran out with the sound of an explosion occurring in the distance where Juggernaut was. A car toppled out in front of them but was blasted by Cyclops before it could collide with them. Jean made sure none of the following shrapnel struck them as she put up a psychic barrier.
"Safe to say, big guy's angry," Boom Boom commented.
"Then let's put him down for a nap." Leading the way, Cyclops headed for the area where the car came from with the others close behind when they were forced to come to a stop.
A wall of a store exploded as an object shot out from it. It collided with a telephone pole, which was knocked over into a stone archway and crumbled on whatever the object was. A moment later, the stone rubble was shoved off violently as a young man scrambled to his feet.
"Mother f#$%ing cabròn! I liked that shirt you piece of s$&t!" Ripping what was left of his shirt off, Miguel formed his blue energy claws again and leapt back to where he was thrown from, not paying the group of X-Men any attention whatsoever.
"Who vas that?" Nightcrawler asked astonished.
"One PO'ed Mexican mutant," answered Boom Boom.
"Doesn't matter, let's go," Cyclops ordered. "If he's fighting Juggernaut by himself, he's gonna be one dead mutant."
Back where Miguel and Juggernaut were fighting, the unstoppable mutant rammed buildings, leaving nothing but destroyed foundations in his wake. The giant mutant thoroughly enjoyed the destruction he was leaving behind as well as the many people he sent running for their lives. He was about to charge another building when a pair of blue shimmering claws struck the back of his knees.
Miguel slid out from between Juggernaut's legs as the much larger mutant fell to the ground. He gave a yell from the pain he felt, something he only rarely did as a shooting sting made its way up his legs. Before he could stand back up, the clawed mutant hopped to his feet and leapt into the air with his fist cocked back. He delivered a hard hit to Juggernaut's helmet, which sent him back into what was left of a store.
The unstoppable force was actually in a daze from the hit, even going toe to toe with Colossus never left him feeling like this or left a dent in his helmet. Getting back to his feet, he was met with an incoming Miguel who unleashed a yell before digging his clawed hands into his helmet and succeeded in cutting it off. The heavy head covering fell to the ground with a thud as Miguel landed beside it. He kept his attack up as he took several swipes at the gargantuan. Legs, arms, stomach, and chest were sliced into but left no visible markings. Each claw strike left the brute feeling weaker as they passed through him. Juggernaut was now growing scared, scared as this had never happened to him before.
Before Miguel could continue any further, the large man stiffened and fell over, landing in the sand face first. From the sky floated a red haired woman who landed close to the unconscious Juggernaut. Nightcrawler appeared in a cloud of blue smoke to his right with a blonde girl running up with another young man wearing a visor. The last to show up was a brunette girl who floated up from the ground. None surprised Miguel as he knew who they were but that didn't mean he let his guard down.
"Um, like, hi," Kitty said with a wave. "We're…uh…friends-o. We mean you no harm-o."
"What are you doing, Kitty?" Cyclops asked.
"I forgot my Spanish," she said with a slight blush of embarrassment.
"I'll handle this." Standing in front of Miguel, Jean began to use her hands to relay her message to him while speaking in the best possible Spanish she could. "We are friends. We are from America, home of the makers. We have no marbles when we rise from the mansion. We are the exotic men and want to extend a hand in tree sap."
Miguel raised an eyebrow at what she said.
"Thank you for petting our lingerie, Juggernaut for us. We represent a hostile pizza and wish to follow you back to our planet if you want. Our teacher, Princess Xavier's sewer shack is a box for mutants who wish to kill their teddy bears. We will shower you with donkeys if you-"
"Stop raht there," Miguel told her with an irritated look. "If you think you can speak Spanish, you're sadly mistaken. Or if you're trah'n to piss meh off," he formed his claws once again, "think twice."
"Please, we're not trying to make you angry," Cyclops said. "We just didn't know you spoke English."
"Too late, yankee."
Ready to attack, Miguel dug his feet into the sand when a man ran up behind him, shouting, "Cupacabra! Chupacabra!"
"Hate that name," Miguel muttered as he rolled his eyes.
"Chupa, it's your abuela, she's not breathing!"
"What? Where is she?" Miguel dropped his claws and ran up to the man.
"At the clinic. Hurry!"
As the two men left, Jean looked back at Cyclops with an offended look on her face. "Was my Spanish really that bad?"
He shrugged. "I thought it was pretty spot on."
Several hours later, a visor-less Scott Summers with ruby quartz sunglasses on sat in the Blackbird with a radio as he spoke to Professor Xavier. "…So that's our situation, Professor. Jean's keeping Marko sedated mentally while Kitty and Tabitha are trying to convince Miguel to come back to New York with us."
"It wasn't supposed to be like this Scott," the Professor stated. "Did you find out the reason Marko was down there?"
"Jean picked up on him accepting a contract from a local cartel to destroy the town should they not comply with them. It was all about the money. And I think he also wanted an excuse to demolish a town. He also seemed to inadvertently caused an elderly woman to have a heart attack. She was the grandmother of the mutant we're here to see."
"My condolences to his family. However, Cerebro has been picking up on strange fluctuations about him. He's one of only four mutants who give off that signature in the world. And the closest."
"What is it about him, Professor?"
"He's giving off two different X-Gene readings, as if his mutation shifts from one ability to another. I've never encountered one like him before. Please, try to convince him to come back to the institute."
"Will do Professor. We'll try." After putting the radio receiver back in its holster, Scott sat back in his chair and sighed. "A guy who can go one on one with the Juggernaut and win without any help…I hope he's on our side."
At the local clinic, Miguel sat silently in a chair as a group of doctors moved his abuela's body from the hospital room to the morgue. He didn't feel like looking at her as she was carted by with a sheet covering her. She was going to be taken to a nearby crematorium then have her ashes buried in a nearby cemetery.
Kitty and Tabitha, still in their uniforms, sat across the hall from him. They didn't know what to say besides the obvious. Getting their first look at him, they noticed there were no scars on his tanned body or bruises for that matter. Given he was in a fight with Juggernaut and was thrown through a building before crashing into and buried by a stone archway, he should be dead. Instead, it looked as if he had just wondered in from a dust storm. The only addition to his skin was a tribal wolf tattoo following his left shoulder blade as if it were stalking prey.
"Um…Miguel?" Kitty said softly. "We, like, were supposed to ask if you want to come back with us to New York. And, um-"
"What she's trying to say is," Tabitha interrupted, "our leader, Cyclops, told us we were not only here to stop Juggernaut, but see if you would come back with us due to your powers."
He continued to sit quietly.
"Our, uh, professor, Charles Xavier, he helps mutants. He could help you…" she came to a stop when she saw Miguel move his eyes to look up at her. His long hair shrouded his eyes and looked as if light itself were afraid of shining upon him.
"Juggernaut. What did you do to him?" he asked.
"He's back at our plane, the Blackbird, near where you fought hi-"
Standing up, Miguel stomped down the short dimly lit yellow corridor to the nearest door and threw it open. The two girls followed after him as he ventured into the hot sun. One thing they noticed while following him was everyone in town acted afraid of him. His arms were flexed and a scowl was on his face, giving them the reason as to why they may be afraid. It didn't take him long to reach the Blackbird and the girls were doing their best to keep up with him. Kurt appeared in a puff of smoke, finishing his run through town to see if anyone was in need of help and he too followed the three after quickly getting out of Miguel's way.
Entering the vehicle, Miguel took a direct route for the unconscious Juggernaut and formed his claws on one hand. Instead of being blue this time, they were black as a murderous look took over his eyes. He didn't hear the others yell for him to stop. He didn't see Cyclops leave the cockpit with a hand on his glasses. All he saw was the prone body of Juggernaut and raised his clawed hand above his head as he brought the clawed tips to a point and brought them down over the mutant's head.
Kitty gave a shriek as Kurt and Tabitha yelled for him to stop. Scott shouted his name but he didn't hesitate in bringing his claws down on the villain. If it weren't for Jean's telekinesis, he would've impaled said villain's head and killed him. His arm was stopped in mid attack and refused to go further. Growing angrier, Miguel strained in vain to break whatever was holding him back but it was no use.
"Miguel, stop." Scott ordered as Jean held Miguel's hand in place. "I know what you want to do but I can't let you do that."
"Then turn your head," Miguel said through gritted teeth.
"Listen to me, I would be lying if I told you he doesn't deserve to be killed. But what you're about to do…what you want to do is not what we do. We're here to take him back into custody."
"He killed mah abuela!"
"No he didn't," Jean said. "Not directly."
"He still had a hand in it."
"Miguel, you want revenge?" Cyclops asked. "This isn't the way to take it. Revenge by death is not the way we do things. Believe me, if we did, mutants everywhere would be hunted down to extinction."
"Ah don't care about other mutants, ah just want this one!"
"Jean, do it!" On Scott's orders, Jean knocked Miguel out with a psychic blast.