Chapter Twenty-Seven: Half The Man
A/N: Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you enjoy this chapter - we're getting close to the end of the story now, after which you'll just have to bear with me until Days of Futures Past comes out until I start writing the sequel.
Snatch, to be honest, had never really been much of a fighter. He'd always stood back and let others do the work…only now, he wasn't content with that. Not when that 'work' consisted of killing other mutants who had once been his friends. He swallowed hard as the battle raged inside of him, and once more, he was torn about where his allegiances lay.
Lucie sprinted down the corridor, and Snatch was forced to shield his eyes from the bright light that she emitted. Meth was close behind her, his pearly white teeth bared in anger as he chased after her. Snatch watched, nothing more than an observer, someone on the outside. Lucie mounted the banister and slid down, which Charles had instructed her not to do several times in the past.
Meth reached into his pocket and pulled out a Swiss army knife, the sort that Snatch used to cut ropes when he'd done Boy Scouts. The Rogue took the stairs three at a time, leaping down in the hope of catching Lucie. Snatch's mind suddenly added it up. Knife…Lucie…oh, yeah. The two combined probably meant death. Suddenly, Snatch wasn't sure he was willing to let that happen.
"Hey, Snatch!" Damn it. Meth had seen him, and was gesturing wildly to Lucie. "Get her! Bishop's ordered us to kill the brats."
Snatch stared at Lucie. He stared at Meth. Then he made his decision and stepped towards Lucie, whose eyes widened with fear. However, her expression became confused as Snatch suddenly swept her behind him and then he jumped forward, punching Meth in the face so hard that the mutant hit the banister and slid in a heap to the ground.
"What just happened?" Lucie queried, clearly puzzled, "But…aren't you on their side, Snatch?"
Snatch flexed his hand, not quite able to comprehend what had happened himself. Lucie was eyeing him suspiciously and it was only then that he registered what he'd done. He had chosen a side.
"Not anymore. And it's not Snatch."
Lucie huffed a sigh. "Okay, who are you supposed to be now?"
Snatch smiled grimly. "Elliott."
"I don't remember seeing you around here." The voice was a high whine that made Sean grimace as he whirled around to face a lanky, sandy-haired woman who advanced on him with a stiletto knife in her hand. "I'd certainly remember a ginger."
Sean was offended at the comment about his hair colour, but he hoisted a rather unconvincing smile across his freckled face. He laughed nervously. He didn't know what the woman was talking about, because he'd certainly been at Charles's mansion the entire time. Only thing was, Sean didn't know who the woman was either.
"Umm, I'm just a forgettable person?"
"No, wait." The woman's grin was shark-like, and Sean picked up that her accent was Russian. "I remember you now. You're rather pathetic, aren't you? No wonder I didn't know who you were at first. The screaming boy. Well, let's see how loudly you can scream now."
The woman raised the stiletto and Sean grimaced, stumbling backwards. This nut-job woman was going to kill him. He opened his mouth and was just about to unleash a sonic scream, when someone's voice beat him to it.
"BATTERRRRR UP!"
There was a dull CLUNK as a wooden baseball bat made contact with the woman's head. Sean gaped at his saviour as Danni flushed, brushing back her dark hair with a rather embarrassed smile as she lowered the bat. The woman slumped motionless onto the ground, and Sean continued to stare.
"What?" Danni asked a little defensively, "The baseball bat's the only weapon in my arsenal right now."
"I adore you," Sean whispered, then felt his cheeks begin to heat up and he cleared his throat, "I mean…that is to say…maybe we should go out for, I don't know, dinner or a movie sometime?"
Danni raised her eyebrows, but a mischievous smile played about her lips.
"You have really got to stop hitting on girls, Sean," she sighed, "Sometimes, you don't know when to shut up."
Sean shuffled his feet, but was then paralyzed with shock when Danni dropped the bat with a clatter and leaned forward to kiss him rather shyly on the lips. It lasted a mere moment, but that was enough for Sean. He just stared at Danni, open-mouthed, as she reached down to pick the baseball bat up again.
"Dinner would be nice," she said coyly.
Bishop was enraged at how he had been made to look like the fool. Someone had killed Ghost – and he had the feeling he knew who – because suddenly, everyone's powers were back online. Magneto had attempted to attack Bishop, only to find his own energy turned against him. Now, Bishop stomped along the corridors towards Charles's office, wrenching the door open…only, he was by no means alone.
"Ah, Bishop." Charles's tone was casual as he glanced across at the irate young mutant. "Things didn't quite go as you'd planned, I'm guessing?"
Bishop was overcome by the rage that boiled within him. He had had enough of playing the game of deception, because it hadn't worked. He was down to final resorts, and he hissed angrily at Charles's words.
"I'll kill you," he snarled, drawing violently upon the telepath's energy. Charles immediately paled and clutched the arms of his wheelchair for support. Bishop's expression was one of animalistic fury as he tightened his grasp upon Charles's energy, sucking it forth from his frail body.
Someone cannoned into him from the side, catching him around the waist and throwing him down to the ground. His head bounced and his vision swam. Bishop looked up to see a blue-skinned girl with her teeth bared in anger as she raised a fist to hit Bishop.
"Don't you ever try and hurt Charles again."
Bishop only laughed hoarsely. "Or what?"
He splayed his fingers and pushed with his collected energy, so that the blue-skinned girl rocketed across the room and slammed heavily into the opposite wall. Charles stared with wide eyes.
"Raven!"
Bishop was incensed now. Too long had he been denied what he wanted. Right now, he wanted Charles dead – and he would have that small victory. He raised his hand again, but before he could resume the process of forcibly taking Charles's energy from him, the door slammed open and Tobi stood there, green eyes blazing.
Immediately, Bishop lowered his hand. Charles was one thing – and Tobi was another completely. If there was one person he would dearly love to kill, it was her. A feral snarl crossed Bishop's face and suddenly, the fire in Tobi fizzled out and she stood a step back, afraid.
"You," he spat.
Tobi was terrified of Bishop. She had never seen him this enraged, this out of control. Mystique lay unconscious on the ground and Charles was hunched over in his wheelchair, pale and weak. Tobi swallowed hard as Bishop swung around, prepared to turn his wrath upon her. Then she did what was natural, what would allow her to survive – she ran. And the frightening part was, Bishop gave chase.
Tobi was fast due to her mutation, yet Bishop's fury drove him on. By the time Tobi was closing the doors to the bunker where she had fled to, Bishop was already sprinting straight at her. He raised a hand and Tobi wheeled out of the way, just as the doors were blasted off their hinges and across the cement floor.
Bishop strode towards Tobi, a vicious smile crossing his lips. Tobi pulled the revolver from her jeans, but her head was already starting to spin. Her finger inched towards the trigger – and for a moment, panic lit Bishop's grey eyes, before he swung his hand forward. Tobi hadn't even seen the whip, but she felt its harsh sting on her arm, forcing her to drop the revolver.
"I've been looking forward to this," Bishop acknowledged, his grey eyes shining fervently as he crossed towards Tobi. She wanted to call on her strength, on anything…but Bishop's mutation was slowly but surely overpowering hers. He was sucking the energy clean from her and there wasn't a thing she could do about it. "This isn't going to be easy, you know. I'm going to make it slow. I can promise, you'll scream a lot. You deserve it."
"For what?" Tobi laughed hoarsely. "Being a better thief than you?"
Bishop's smile froze on his face and he flung his arm out, backhanding Tobi hard across the face. She stumbled and her hands clenched into fists as she regained her footing. Bishop lunged at her, but Tobi used the last of her speed to ricochet herself off the wall, kicking off it and spinning so that Bishop was left punching at thin air.
"You're afraid of me," Bishop sneered, watching Tobi carefully. Her energy was fading – he could tell by the way she struggled to maintain a steady footing. "You've always been afraid. Now you'll die afraid."
Tobi bared her teeth and tried to hit him, but he only grabbed her wrist. Her movements were sluggish. She was slowing down. Tobi's green eyes flickered with fear for just a moment, before Bishop twisted her arm behind her back. Dread surged through Tobi, because she knew what was going to happen. There was a sharp crack as Bishop snapped her wrist ruthlessly to the side, breaking it…yet due to her high pain tolerance, she didn't utter a sound.
Bishop shoved her forward, so that her knees gave way and she smacked heavily down onto the ground. He gritted his teeth in savage glee and kicked her in the face for good measure, pleased when blood started to spurt from her nose and lip. Tobi kicked upwards, catching him at the ankles so that he too hit the ground. Desperate to escape from her childhood bully, the nightmare that still plagued her, Tobi started to crawl away from Bishop, ignoring the steady stream of blood that spattered down her front. Her wrist flashed with white-hot pain, and she bit back a cry.
Bishop noticed Tobi's pathetic attempt to escape, and he grabbed her by the ankle, dragging her back. He clambered onto her, despite her futile efforts to push him off, his face a picture of loathing and rage. Bishop pinned Tobi's good arm down and hit her across the face. Her head snapped to the side and she retaliated by head-butting him in the nose, and then spitting in his face.
Both young mutants were stained with blood, both their own and the other's. Bishop ground his teeth as saliva dribbled down his cheek, and he curled his hand into a fist and punched Tobi hard in the stomach. She made a muffled noise of pain and folded in on herself. Triumphant, panting with exertion, Bishop clambered unsteadily to his feet.
"What's the matter, Bishop?" Tobi taunted him, her voice hoarse with agony. "Not as easy to break as you thought, am I?"
Bishop responded by silently uncoiling his whip, letting its end slither to the ground like a snake. Tobi watched in trepidation, but said nothing as a sadistic smile crossed her foe's face.
"This made Alex scream," Bishop mused, his eyes glittering, "Oh, how I should love to hear you scream. Will you do that, Tobi? Will you scream for me?"
"You're half the man that Alex is," Tobi snarled across at him, yet her eyes widened with apprehension.
Tobi started to hyperventilate as Bishop raised the whip. Panic coursed through her veins, because she knew any attempt to escape was hopeless. She was bruised and battered and stained with blood. She was going to die down here, she knew it. With a rather unhinged laugh, Bishop brought the whip down on Tobi with an unforgiving CRACK.
It took a moment to realize that she was screaming. As Bishop snapped the whip down again and again in manic delight, her screams resonated off the walls of the bunker, coming back to haunt her. She stopped trying to fight. She stopped trying to do anything.
Tobi thought she saw an angel then. His hair was blond and his eyes were narrowed with vengeance and…it was Alex. He stood there with his fists clenched and Tobi could see the red energy blurring around him as he powered up, like a weapon ready to open fire.
"BISHOP!"
Bishop looked up from Tobi's broken, bleeding body to see Alex standing across from him, releasing a stream of red energy, directing it straight at him. He was caught off-guard, so he didn't even have time to catch the energy beams before they slammed into his chest, throwing him six metres backwards as he screamed.
"Tobi!" Alex raced across to the bronze-haired girl, leaning down and scooping her up off the ground. She was a mess – blood everywhere, her eyes glazed with the pain of the whip that Bishop had subjected her to…a pain Alex knew all too well. Despite the grime that stained her face, Alex pressed his lips to hers and kissed her passionately, as he hadn't done in what felt like such a long time.
Only across the bunker, Bishop had seized up a weapon of his own. Despite the hole in his chest, despite his imminent death, he still had time. A completely evil smile crossed his face as he pointed the revolver, his shaking finger pulling down on the trigger. The sound of fireworks exploding resonated throughout the bunker. Alex and Tobi glanced around as Bishop laughed, the sound forced and insane, before the gun dropped from his fingers and he smacked down face-first onto the ground, dead.
Alex frowned. "What…?"
But then he turned to stare at Tobi, whose green eyes were wide with horror. She pulled her violently trembling hand away from her chest – and it was stained with blood. Bishop had shot the last bullet into her heart.