Chapter 30
The next day at the new Bayville Zoo...
A crowd had gathered to witness the Hellions cutting the ribbon and declaring the new zoo open. The Hellions hadn't arrived yet but amongst the crowd were 5 members of the X-Men. Cyclops, Shadowcat, Iceman, Tarot and Nightcrawler all in their normal, everyday civilian clothing. They had decided not to overdo it and come in large numbers. That would have been overkill and drawn too much attention which they don't need after the other night.
After that incident a couple of nights ago with the radio host, though, Scott was more determined than ever to prove the Hellions were full of crap.
Not with him was Jean who had frankly had enough of what she called his hypocrisy. He was harsh on the Hellions but in her opinion he kept making excuses for Emma. Plus she didn't see the point of being at the zoo. What were the Hellions going to do with all those people and cameras around?
In Jean's view nothing.
In fact in Jean's view this only risked aggravating their problems. The radio host's rants plus it seemed careful media manipulation by someone(Jean bet her life Emma) had made the X-Men seem like the bad guys.
Jean's opinion was that they needed to back off and give the Hellions that rope to hang themselves like she said previously but no-one wanted to seem to listen. For some reason everyone's emotions are really strained and on edge and for many of the X-Men they couldn't let this go so here they are minus Jean.
Scott had his arms folded across his chest, a deep frown on his face as he watches this charade gather to begin.
"Scott you're going to, like, scare the animals," Kitty jokes.
Scott turns his head. "You've been spending too much time with that boyfriend of yours," he lightly reprimands her.
Kitty's lips curve up. "You say that like it's a bad thing."
Scott arches an eyebrow.
"Don't give me that look," she tells him off. "I'm here aren't I?" she defends herself.
Scott relaxes a fraction. "Yeah," he acknowledges that fact. She is here. And good for her. "You planning to see Peter later?" he asks, being polite.
Kitty's face screws up in thought. "Not sure. He, Clark and Claire are having one of their 'hanging out' days," she explains, meaning Spider-Man, Superman and Volcana are having one of their team-up days down in New York.
Clark was frankly doing everything he could to stay out of this mess...or that's what it seemed like.
Scott had tried to talk to him about it but Clark fobbed him off.
Weird actually now Scott thinks about it.
He doesn't get to think about it much more as a commotion in the crowd signals the Hellions arrival.
Instantly Scott feels his nerves go frankly over the edge. All the X-Men present feel the same.
None of them realise it is courtesy of Empath who has been working his ass off this last week manipulating the X-Men. Frankly he needs a vacation. Well if this works as planned then he should get one because today will have very...interesting results. Empath looks forward to witnessing them.
New York...
Some days Clark wonders how he lets Peter talk him into stuff like this. It sounded good in theory. Peter had heard word that weapons were being shipped in to the docks today for New York's seemingly never ending war between its crime bosses so therefore the simple answer was that Spider-Man, Superman and Volcana turn up and make sure the weapons never hit the streets.
What didn't go to plan was the unexpected arrival of 4 superpowered villains here to steal the weapons. They're called the Wrecking Crew.
There's Bulldozer (Henry Camp). A large built, stocky man with an armoured metal helmet who fights by using his superstrength and durability to ram his victims head-first.
Next there's Piledriver (Brian Philip Calusky) who fights with his over-sized, superstrong, pile-driving fists.
Third up is Thunderball (Dr. Eliot Franklin) who wields a huge demolition ball on a chain and is able to use it with immense skill and cause significant damage and injury.
Finally there is the team leader, Wrecker (Dirk Garthwaite) who wields a supposedly indestructible crowbar with, as Clark is discovering, seemingly magical properties.
Clark is discovering this to his cost. He was just putting Piledriver down when Wrecker blind-sided him. He went flying into a few shipping crates that were lying on the dockside. As they tumbled around him his fingers went to where the crowbar struck him on the temple and gets surprised when he sees his own red blood on his fingers.
His mind goes over the possibilities, he eliminates what he thinks it can't be and concludes there can only be one explanation as to how he is injured. "Magic," he mutters in disdain.
Meanwhile Spider-Man is agilely leaping over one of Bulldozer's charges, planting his hands on the man's back and pushing off into air, firing a webline onto a nearby dock crane. "Of course I get the cheap, imitation Rhino knock-off!" he complains childishly. He swings over and lands on a couple of stacked up crates. He turns round and whistles loudly at Bulldozer. "'Sup dude! I have gotta know what you hiding under that metal dome of yours. Buck teeth? Bulldog nose? Sloping, Neanderthal type brow? I mean the thick skull goes without saying."
"I'm gonna squash you flat, bug!" Bulldozer promises.
Spider-Man gasps. "I've never heard that before," he says, his voice trembling in mock terror.
"Come down here and fight like a man!" Bulldozer yells, shaking a fist at the human-arachnid.
"I don't suppose I could persuade you to come up here and fight like a spider could I?" Spider-Man quips back.
With a roar Bulldozer charges at the shipping crates planning to demolish them and bring Spider-Man down to him.
Spider-Man crouches and waits. He has to time this just right. Just before Bulldozer impacts Spider-Man unleashes a blob of webbing which hits ankle height and sticks the man's legs together. He trips, careening forward and hits the bottom crate.
Spider-Man leaps off, somersaults mid-air and lands behind the man with perfect form and grace. Bulldozer's impact has knocked the bottom crate in, leaving the top one hanging over. Two weblines later and Spider-Man is pulling that top crate off and it lands on top of the fallen villain. "There. That'll hold you," he believes.
While Spider-Man was dealing with that member of the Wrecking Crew, Volcana was dealing with Thunderball. She was weaving through the air dodging Thunderball's attempts to hit her with his demolition ball.
"Come on down, girlie!" Thunderball shouts after just grazing the annoying flare-haired pyrokinetic. "I promise to make it quick!"
Volcana sends a fountain of fire at him but for a big guy he moves quick and dodges. "Yeah, well, that's not something I would boast about!" she retorts. "Women don't appreciate quick! Nor do they appreciate what you're obviously compensating for asswipe!"
"What you talkin about girl?!"
Volcana smirks evilly. "Well you know what they say about men and their weapons," she says, her voice laden with innuendo. "The larger the tool, the smaller the..."
With a cry of anger Thunderball gets what she means and throws his ball at her.
'Perfect,' Volcana thinks to herself. See Clark and Peter aren't the only ones who can smack-talk their enemies into making a mistake. She swoops in, under the tossed ball, forms a large fireball between her hands and just before impact ignites it and the blast sends the large superpowered villain flying...but even as he is he manages to whip the chain his ball is attached to and it wraps around Volcana's ankle.
"Aw shi...!" her swear is cut off as she is yanked to the ground and lands hard on the dock. Not being invulnerable like her brother or not even as durable as Spider-Man the impact leaves her badly dazed.
Spider-Man swings to the rescue...only to find his webbing sliced by Wrecker throwing his crowbar through it...leaving the wed-themed hero flying through the air right into a corker of a right hand courtesy of Piledriver.
He lands near Volcana making a pained 'oomph!' sound. He definitely felt it but it takes more than that to put him down and he almost instantly flips back up to his feet so as to protect his flame-haired partner.
Wrecker and Piledriver move in to take on the wallcrawler when a blast of icy-cold win freezes them to the spot.
Superman blurs by them, the cut on his head already healed and bends down to his sister's side. "You alright?" he asks her.
Volcana waves him off and he helps her to her feet. She's a little groggy but she is fine. Probably be a bruise or two later though.
By now Wrecker and Piledriver have broken free of the ice Superman put them in and Thunderball and Bulldozer have rejoined their colleagues.
Superman frowns slightly as his hearing picks up an odd noise from the distance on a sunny day. It sounds like...thunder?
"Now you little brats are going to get it!" Wrecker promises darkly.
Before either Spider-Man or Superman can rattle off a pun someone else gives an answer.
"I think not, villains!"
Everyone looks up to see a tall, well-built man with long blond hair hovering above. He was dressed in thick chain-mail armour that showed large and ripped muscles and a dark blue and black armour vest with three circle bumps down each side. He wore matching coloured pants and boots, though the boots had a red line down the back of each. A billowing red cape, attached at the shoulder, swirls in the wind while on his head was a dark grey and metallic winged helmet. On his wrists he wears black metallic gauntlets and in the hand below those, in the right hand, a short handled hammer that was surging and sparking with electricity.
The man lands with a hard thump on the ground between the 3 young heroes and the 4 villains. "Fear not, younglings," he addresses the teenagers in an assuring, confident and authoritative voice. "Thor the Thunderer will deal with these foul miscreants."
It starts with Volcana and then moves on to Spider-Man before being finished by Superman as the 3 voice their utter disbelief at this.
"Oh my..."
"God..."
"Of Thunder."
The New Bayville Zoo...
Emma takes the over-sized scissors in hand ready to cut the ribbon. A ribbon being held between 2 elephants. "I would like to say on behalf of myself and my students, including the couple who are down with the flu, what an honour it is to be here today to open this fine new attraction to our fair city," she addresses the crowd in her best PR performance.
The 'couple' not here being Roulette who is safely hidden from sight in position and the other being Dust who had refused to come...which was so unlike her to be so troublesome but perhaps, Emma realised, she has been pushing Dust too far, too fast. Perhaps after this she'll send Sooraya back to the Academy in Boston for awhile and get a replacement. She has plenty of other students who can fill in.
That's for later contemplation.
Anyway when Dust chose not to come Penance wouldn't leave her side so the red-skinned mutant isn't here either...which might be for the better. Penance can be a little unpredictable at times.
Emma resumes her speech. "It's just a shame that there seem to be some around here who are resentful...one might say jealous even at the fact our selfless acts have earned us some unsought for fame," Emma says coyly. "I don't want to name names...well I don't really have to after what happened earlier in the week. I will say it greatly saddens me that these individuals can't put aside their petty emotions and work with us to make this city even safer than it already is." Emma fixes her gaze on Scott, Kitty, Kurt, Bobby and Marie hanging around at the back of the crowd. She raises her voice and asks them directly, "What do you say X-Men?"
That is Roulette's cue and from her hidden spot she unleashes one of her bad luck discs, hitting Cyclops glasses which fly off. A red crimson beam shoots out, tearing up the earth, scattering the crowd and spooking the elephants which begin charging about.
Scott finds himself unable to shut his eyes...which is a terrible stroke of bad luck isn't it?
Next Roulette targets Iceman. His hands glow black under the influence of Roulette's bad luck discs and his powers malfunction creating a sheet of ice across the ground which causes the panicking crowd to start slipping on. There are going to be a few broken bones after this is over.
One of the elephants ends up sliding on the ice heading right for a man threatening to squash him. Kurt has to teleport in to save the guy as the Hellions simply stand back and watch the show for the time being.
Next target for Roulette is Kitty. One bad luck disc has the brown-haired girl tripping up over her own feet and over the barrier to the crocodile pen where she falls in the water with a big, loud splash.
As the crocodiles swim at her Kitty swims for it while in the background Scott still can't shut his eyes, being forced to simply look upward lest he hit something or someone.
Kitty reaches the transparent barrier and tries to phase through it...only to get stuck halfway through. What a stroke of bad luck!
Kitty struggles against her own malfunctioning powers to get free. "Someone, like, get me out of here!" she yells.
Scott's head snaps on instinct toward her plea and he smashes the barrier apart freeing Kitty by chance but also allowing the crocodiles loose.
Meanwhile the 2nd elephant is still running about wildly. It heads for the zookeeper and Kurt ports in and saves him...only for all the darn bad luck to reappear with the man on a floodlight...which breaks apart and the two fall to Earth.
Marie breaks out one of her cards and creates the construct of an angel which flies in and catches the two.
All of a sudden the construct starts to mutate, changing from an angel to a devil.
A black glow is around the pocket Marie keeps her cards in and that is when she finally figures it out. "Jen," Marie says through gritted teeth as she desperately looks around for her former friend.
The devil laughs manically and breathes fire scaring the life out of Kurt and the zookeeper. It then tosses them aside and blows out fireballs from its mouth, shattering the fences that keep the tigers in, freeing them now.
The Hellions are doubled over, laughing hard. Even Emma joins in...but eventually she decides enough is enough. "Ok. We need to save the day," she informs her students.
They bring themselves under control and go clean up the mess. By the time they do the police have arrived and all they find is people blaming the 5 X-Men for this.
And can you blame the people? After all what did all this look like?
Emma asked the X-Men whether they would put their pettiness aside and the response appeared to be Scott trying to blast them and then the X-Men go around causing chaos and damage.
It is the Special Crimes Unit that arrive on the scene, the one the X-Men have been helping train and irony of ironies they have no choice but what they do next.
They have no choice but to arrest the X-Men.
New York...
"You!" Wrecker spits out angrily at seeing the man who claims to be the Norse deity.
Thor's blue eyes narrow at recognition of his foes. "So we meet again. Thou hast learnt nothing since our last encounter I see," he remarks because the day the Wrecking Crew gained their powers Thor was the one who stopped them.
"Oh I learnt something alright," Wrecker assures him. "I learned how sweet it will be when I make you pay!" he says, fuming with anger.
Thor's grip tightens on his hammer; Mjolnir.
"Any last words?" Wrecker asks it as a threat.
"I have 3 words," Thor replies.
"Oh and what are they?"
Thor grins wolfishly. "Have at thee!"
Thor literally charges head-first into battle leaving the 3 teens looking on slightly lost about what they do now.
"Do we help?" Volcana wonders.
Spider-Man's jaw moves a little up and down. "I'll tell you when I get over my fangirling squee moment," he says. Peter had never met 'Thor' before. He heard the rumours, seen the videos on tv and online but had never been in the presence of the God of Thunder before today...though admittedly his scientific inclined mind mildly scoffed at the notion of this guy being an actual God.
Course one might be curious as to what Clark thinks...well it's not so much what Clark thinks as what Clark knows. Remember big icy fortress with the repository of Kryptonian knowledge, the history of a race that visited Earth over thousands of years and recorded what they saw and discovered. There's an entire section on Asgard...which admittedly Clark hadn't gotten around to reading yet. It was on his list. Remind him to make it the next thing he reads.
Otherwise what has Thor been to him but just another one of a seemingly endless breed of superpowered people that have been popping up these last couple of years.
Volcana arches an eyebrow as Thor smacks Bulldozer hard with that hammer, cracking the metal helmet as the large man goes flying into a couple more shipping crates. "He's...pretty good," she has to remark.
"I'm coming over all of a flutter," Spider-Man mock swoons.
Superman snorts. "The cape's a bit much," he critiques.
Volcana and Spider-Man look at him.
"I'm sensing cape envy," Spider-Man jokes, with a smirk under his mask.
Volcana sniggers behind her hand.
Superman rolls his eyes. Yeah, so he's not a big fan of capes. Sure his costumes in the past have had long coats but they were all his mother's ideas. When he chose an idea it was this one he is wearing with a jacket.
When Piledriver manages to blind-side Thor Clark decides they better step in and help. "Duty calls," he remarks as he blurs off.
Spider-Man fires a webline. "Tally-ho!" he calls as he swings into the fray.
Volcana rolls her eyes at the two of them. Morons. Her fire ignites, her hair transforms into flame and she lifts into the air.
Piledriver manages to land 3 consecutive blows on the large blond man, knocking the Thunder God down to one knee. However, before he can follow that up a blur smashes into him and when that blur stops you find Superman with his fist driven hard into Piledriver's mid-section knocking all the air out of him.
Superman's eyes glow menacingly red. He waggles a disapproving finger at the man. "You weren't tagged in," he chastises. He then lifts Piledriver's head up with a single finger under the chin and smashes an uppercut into him. As Piledriver goes literally flying into the air Superman kicks off, flying after him and grabbing him by an ankle and then spinning him round and round and sending him soaring straight up out of sight. "176 seconds," he strangely remarks.
Back down on Earth Wrecker clocks Thor from behind once but only once before Thor manages to block the follow up blow with his hammer. While the 2 engage in a clash, hammer against crowbar Thunderball swings his ball above his head seeing an opportunity to aid his team-mate. The ball goes backward but before he snaps it forward it is tagged by a thin line of webbing. "Didn't your mother teach you it's rude to throw giant metal balls around!" Spider-Man quips.
"Give me that you overgrown newspaper smudge!" Thunderball retorts.
"That's so hurtful!" Spider-Man says with false sad emotion as he engages in a tug of war with Thunderball. Thank you spider-sticking powers.
Spider-Man digs in and puts all his strength into pulling making Thunderball do the same. While he does this Volcana swoops in and grabs the chain which she promptly melts. The tension suddenly snaps. Spider-Man has his incredible agility and did he mention spider-sticking powers to save him. Thunderball isn't so lucky as he goes flying...right toward a floating Superman with his arms folded across his chest. He waits till the last second before delivering the coup-de-grace and knocks Thunderball clean out.
Back with Thor and Wrecker, while the villain was powerful and determined, he faced a foe with literally centuries of experience in battle and while many had claimed Thor to be arrogant to the point of folly one thing he would never allow is that same arrogance to deny him the chance to sing about another glorious victory.
Thor manages to disarm his foe and with a series of skilled blows from his hammer he knocks Wrecker out cold.
Superman, Spider-Man and Volcana gather round Thor and the fallen Wrecker.
"Ha! Ha!" Thor crows his victory. "Tis a glorious battle. You fought well younglings," Thor compliments them.
Volcana growls and her flames flare up around her. "Ok I let it go the 1st time and I'm even going to let it go this time but he calls me 'youngling' again I'm turning him into a spit roast. I don't care if he is really a God," she swears, utterly pissed at being called that.
Superman doesn't answer. He's counting. "170...171...172...173...174...175...176..."
176 seconds is the time it would take Piledriver from where Clark sent him to return under the influence of gravity.
"Incoming!" he yells as he point at the falling man.
"Hey Goldilocks think you can hit him?" Spider-man dares Thor.
One corner of Thor's lips curl up. He likes a challenge. "Aye," he answers succinctly. Using the strap attached to his hammer Thor spins it round and round and with a mighty throw sends it straight at Piledriver. With a flash of lightning it strikes dead-on.
By now Superman is busily moving around some of the shipping crates at superspeed to create a slide at an angle to cushion the man's fall a bit.
Piledriver impacts and bounces down to the ground where he lies groaning and unconscious.
Superman dusts his hands off and turns round to walk back.
That is when Thor really looks at the young man for the 1st time. His eyes are drawn to the symbol on the jacket. He raises his hand and his hammer returns to it, flying through the air under its own mysterious power. He then uses it to point at Superman. "Tell me, how dost thou come to bear that mark?"
Superman frowns. "It's the symbol of my family," he answers.
Thor's eyes widen in revelation. "Thou art of Krypton."
Volcana and Spider-Man are suitably shocked but not as much as Superman himself. It is one thing his people knew of Asgard but for anyone to know them back totally surprises him. "Y-You know my people?" he asks, his voice stuttering at the revelation. People have suspected he's an alien before but for this man to just come out and say the name of his long, lost planet almost knocks Clark over.
"Aye. I had the pleasure of meeting one of thy people..." Thor trails off as he takes a moment to recall when it was in mortal years, "Twas a thousand years ago. A fine and noble race though I was not aware they were still visiting Midgard," he remarks, almost chastising himself for not seeing this truth before. That the boy is one of their kind.
"They're not," Superman can only say.
"What dost thou mean?"
Superman sighs. He's usually not big on coming out and telling this story but if Thor knows of Krypton he should probably know of its final fate. "They're gone. Dead. All of them. It's just me now," he says, his voice pitifully sad.
To hear such a terrible thing naturally you don't want to believe it but Thor can hear the sadness and sincerity in the boy's voice. "Tell me everything," he requests.
Well Clark started so he might as well finish. "You might want to sit. This could take awhile," Superman advises.
Thor does so upon a small pile of wreckage while Spider-Man and Volcana make sure to tie up the Wrecking Crew. Superman starts pacing around, trying to think of the words and summon up the nerve before he stops, turns and begins to tell this man(God?) about Krypton's end.
Author's Note: Hooray! Thor! Wanted to do this for ages and with a need to get Clark out of Bayville while the Hellions set the X-Men up I thought this was the place to do it. Plus for an immortal God who has been visiting Earth for centuries it occurred to me he might have met a Kryptonian at least once. Please forgive me if I got Thor's speech wrong. As much as I like him I'm not that much of a fanatic of the Norse God so haven't studied his speech all that much. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; No Good Deed part 5 as the fallout from the zoo has serious consequences.