Extraordinary Times

by Kenchi618

The life of a young mutant is perilous enough on its own. Follow the experiences of a student entering the hallowed halls of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, learning just what it takes and what it means to count himself as one of a race that is feared and targeted by many. Welcome to the X-Men, Bellamy Marcher - Hope you survive the experience.

16. LEVIATHAN

Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men. I've got to stop binging shows. I got almost nothing done yesterday because I spent all day after getting off of work watching Marvel's Defenders on Netflix.

Chapter 16: LEVIATHAN

---

Being safe and sound with feet on the ground did a lot for my state of mind. One thing about the Breakworld, was that it looked like crap. That might have just been first impressions talking, since we landed in some murky body of water and climbed out on some desolate rocky waste, but as I believed, first impressions meant a lot.

The air was gross and heavy compared to Earth's. Plus, the sunlight felt weird, "This place sucks. Where are the plants and animals?" I wondered out loud as we climbed up a small ledge, "What do these people eat?"

These were the questions to ask the first time you were on a foreign, hostile planet. The important things that needed to be known.

Agent Brand had no time for my precocious curiosity, "I'll tell you what, kid. Why don't you make sure you capture one alive so he can answer you?" She said as she walked past me. What an unpleasant woman. She received a glowing middle finger aimed at her from behind in return.

As we approached Mister Summers and Miss Frost, they stood at the front of us, the latter trying to figure out just where everyone else had gone, "I can't read a thing. If they made it, they're nowhere near."

Mister Summers let out a sigh of resignation. Of course things couldn't have been easy, though they hadn't ever been, "We'll give them some time," It was the only thing he really could have done.

Dr. McCoy loomed over Agent Brand as she finished climbing the rest of the way up, "If anything's happened to them, Agent Brand-."

She interrupted before he could finish his perceived threat, "You'll what? Eat me?"

"In fact, I will," He said, much to everyone's surprise, "The new math, Agent. You're outnumbered, and not well liked. And I've recently acquired a taste for human flesh, I say with some embarrassment."

I couldn't figure out if it was more along the lines of awesome that he'd threatened to eat someone, or disturbing. Given that he was sticking up for us, I leaned more along the lines of awesome.

"Stow the bickering, guys," Mister Summers ordered, looking out past the expanse before us at our intended destination, "We've found our tomb."

Attur-Hei.

The tomb looked a lot like a pyramid that you would find on Earth, if only significantly wider, with a more forgiving incline. It looked like there were specific paths meant to lead to the top. Also, more importantly, it was teeming with armed Breakworld soldiers.

Everyone seemed to be prepared for a big fight. To be fair, going head-on against them was an idea that might have been effective given what all of us could do. But one of us was exhausted mentally (Miss Frost), and another was without their powers at the moment (Mister Summers). Sans powers, as the French would say.

It wasn't like I had any problems with a brawl, but there was a better way to do this.

Before Mister Summers could lead the way down and start putting boots to asses, I set my hand on his shoulder, "Wait," I said.

I half expected him to throw my hand off and order me to fall in line, "What is it, Bellamy?" It was a bit surprising that he stopped to consider anything that I had to say.

I pointed down at the soldiers we could see patrolling about the tomb site from a distance, "You realize I can take out most of them from here, right?" I asked, getting skeptical looks from more than just one person, "Hear me out. You guys get in close and give me a signal or something. I'll start picking guys off and leading them away."

Miss Frost looked at me like I was out of my mind, "That's preposter-."

"-Alright," Mister Summers, amazingly enough, agreed. I didn't see that coming. No one else did either.

Miss Frost didn't seem to agree with the idea of leaving me by my lonesome, "What? Do you mind running that by me again, Scott, dear?" There seemed to be an edge to her tone, one that spoke of not getting laid anytime soon if the wrong answer was given.

Mister Summers either called her bluff, or didn't care, "I said alright. If he says he can do it, I believe him," That meant a lot coming from the big man in charge of the X-Men, "You're sure you can handle this, aren't you?"

I did my best job at puffing my chest out, trying to be as convincing as a teenager in high school could be, "I would give you a demonstration, but the only thing worth shooting in this shithole are the guys I'm trying to convince you I can hit."

Logic always made for a sound argument, even if it didn't prove your point spot-on.

Agent Brand put her hands on her hips, regarding me with little more esteem than an extra body, "And what are you going to do when they realize where the shots are coming from?"

I gave her a sideways look to let her know her skepticism was not appreciated, "You let me worry about that," My way of saying that I had no idea, "Just get inside the temple, see what you need to see, then get out. Simple, no?"

Dr. McCoy interjected on my behalf. Yet another reason I thought he was the man, "Given that one of us is missing something very important right now," He said, referring to the apparent loss of Mister Summers' optic blasts, "I would say a head-on battle of this scale would be the last thing we would want to get involved in."

The man known as 'Cyclops' conceded to that, even though he had been onboard with letting me do my thing in the first place, "Give us ten minutes to get into a decent position. Emma will signal you, and then you can have at it," He said to me, before leaving me with a word of warning, "Just remember, if things get too bad, none of us can get to you."

I smiled at him grimly, "I'm not some punk that needs to be bailed out by anybody," I jerked my head in the direction of the tomb, "Go. I need to start spotting," And with that, I set out to find the location of every vulnerable target I could see before the shooting started.

As I started walking around, trying to memorize all of the enemy positions, I could hear comments from Agent Brand, "Are we really leaving this to the kid?"

Dr. McCoy stuck up for me, "That 'kid', Agent Brand, is trained by one of our best. Give him a chance," That big, blue S.O.B. was good people.

"They won't."

As if that was supposed to scare someone. I knew that already. I didn't need to hear it from her. If I messed up I'd either be killed, or captured and tortured. Been there, done that already. I didn't look forward to being put in a repeat situation.

So there I was, all alone on the side of a ridge overlooking a big creepy pyramid, guards teeming all over it. Plus two tanks. At least they looked like tanks. Maybe just a pair of armored vehicles. I had an idea that I would find out for certain soon enough.

I kept track of the X-Men's progression, making sure to take note of their position before I started shooting. The last thing I wanted was to bring all of the soldiers over in their direction. It would have defeated the purpose of my drawing the enemy's attention.

"Alright, Mister Marcher, everyone is ready. Fire at will."

'On it,' I kept a steady breath and upon the exhale took my first shot. It knocked my target off of his elevated position and sent him tumbling noisily down the cliff. If that didn't send everyone nearby calling for help in that direction, I didn't understand psychology, 'By the way, they'll be heading over to the far left of the temple from where we started,' I thought back to Miss Frost as the clamor started below.

"Duly noted. And be careful. I would like for all of us to return home in one piece."

'You and me both,' I thought, taking another opportunistic shot at a person that might have been able to spot the X-Men as they snuck toward the tomb.

I took another pair of shots that put down a guy carrying some kind of heavy weapon and someone very close to seeing where I was. Every few shots, I had to change positions to make sure some random grunt didn't spot me and send all of the bad guys sprinting my way.

Compared to the kind of scenarios Miss Pryde had us run in the Danger Room when I started learning how to snipe, this was easy. Truth be told, thought it was going to be academic that I'd be caught. In reality, Miss Pryde and the inherent adaptability of the Danger Room made it so that enemies would eventually catch on and swarm on me, no matter how well I was supposedly doing.

They set up an expedition force to head up to the cliffs to locate me. They wound up going in the complete wrong direction. I had to hold back my laughter and refrain from shooting at the sitting ducks so I didn't give away my actual position. Not shooting at them actually made them think that they had been going in the right direction and that I had fled to keep from being caught.

That left the dregs behind to protect the place. About ten more soldiers, plus one vehicle. The vanguard had taken the other. I rubbed my hands together like an evil mastermind and slid down the side of the ledge to lower myself closer to their level. I had to handle this quickly.

Shooting light was so great. You didn't have to account for distance, or the time it would take for the shot to reach the target, so I didn't have to lead anything that moved. I just had to make sure my crosshairs were on, so to speak.

On my approach, right out of their line of sight I started to sprint. As I got closer, I started mentally marking the order I would take them all out in. That was when I began to fire. In my head, I counted out each successful shot that dropped someone. It took three before the lot of them noticed. By the time they figured out the direction I was coming in, five were down.

They finally started shooting back, only they panic-fired, and no one tried to find any cover. Three more went down. That left one who tried scrambling for the armored vehicle. I got a headshot on him right as he got on top of it to try and get inside.

*WHUMP!*

The sound he made as he fell off and dropped to the dirt was satisfying. So was the silence of a job well done. I blew at nonexistent smoke that would have been wafting from my fists. And that was when I realized something.

The last guy had opened the armored vehicle... and there was no one around to stop me. Spending the better part of my life playing Grand Theft Auto had prepared me for this moment. What kind of superhero-in-training would I be if I didn't try to steal it?

...Don't ask the question of why a hero would take to stealing a vehicle. Call it 'commandeering' if it makes you feel better.

I hopped in the front seat and noted that it had a push-button start, "Ooh!" I said as the machine hummed to life. It was quiet, I had known that from a distance, but even inside it was still easy on the ears, "And it's just like an Earth ride!"

It was just a transport, so there were no weapons, but that little baby had some horsepower to it... or whatever Breakworld used to describe the power of a car. I drove it away from the makeshift camp right up to the entrance of the pyramid where there were more guard that were down for the count. I hadn't done that, so I figured everyone else had made it inside well enough.

I jumped out, leaving the thing running in case we needed a quick getaway, and jogged inside to see if there was more I could do in the meantime.

When I caught up, the lot of them were just standing around and staring ahead. When I got to where they were, I got to see up-close just what had them so enraptured.

"Oh shit," I let slip under my breath.

On the wall, there was a giant mural of a metalled up Colossus, destroying the Breakworld with his bare hands. It looked like he had ripped the core out of the planet. Either that, or he was yanking the sun over across the galaxy for some face time with the fine denizens of this world.

The thing that really made it freaky was that it wasn't just a painting of a prophecy. It was etched in stone.

After I'd said something, everyone turned around with a start, finally noticing that I was there, "Solaris," Mister Summers said, "The enemy?"

I snapped out of my hyper focus on the wall, just like that, "Oh. On a wild goose chase somewhere that-a-way," I said, pointing in a direction away from here. I then gave him a smile that was all teeth and malice, "Everyone that didn't go ain't gonna be getting up for a good, long while."

"You handled it without getting a scratch?" Miss Frost asked, looking me over... and probably reading my mind to get my recollection of events. It took a moment, but when she was done she seemed pleasantly surprised, "Hm. Excellent work, Mister Marcher."

A compliment, from the lady that ran the gambit from thinking I was an idiot to being able to tolerate me for my apparent talent? I'd take it! "I stole their armored car thing too. I think they've got a few rides at the camp we passed," I said, giving that information out, just in case.

Dr. McCoy was busy climbing all over the mural, trying to take trace bits of it for testing. Even so, he still had the time for one-upmanship, "I hate to say I told you so, Agent Brand," He began to lead on before being cut off.

"-No you don't," She said back dryly. Yet, she didn't argue any counterpoints, which was as close to a 'well done' as I was going to get from her, "Let's finish analyzing this thing."

At that moment, both Mister Logan and Hisako flew in to the chamber on beat up, flying bikes. I wanted one, "Sorry we're late," The man with the claws in his fists said, "...Whose tank is outside?"

I raised my hand, "It's more like an armored car, really. No weapons or treads."

Mister Logan grunted in response, looking over us to take a head count, "Where are Pete and Kitty?"

I pointed back to the tank, "They haven't gotten here yet, but they're somewhere. The radio in that thing keeps going on about the metal man."

"What happened to you lot?" Miss Frost asked.

Mister Logan's lips curled in distaste. Clearly, whatever had gone down left him quite upset, which wasn't exactly hard to do, "Agent Brand's brilliant plan went south. Our pretend burning wreckage stopped pretending," How vague, and yet it still sounded painful, "We get through this, I'm gonna pop a claw through her eye. You guys cool with that?"

Miss Frost didn't give it a second thought, "Absolutely."

Mister Summers started out a bit more diplomatic, "Logan, we don't just..." It lasted for all of two seconds, "Nah, go for it."

By now, Mister Logan had caught sight of the mural on the wall and let out a whistle, "Well this doesn't leave a whole lotta room for doubt, does it? How's it work? Is that the sun?"

Hisako tilted her head to give a little bit of a think as she speculated over what it was we were supposed to cause, "So, what? Supernova? Orbital shift?"

Dr. McCoy gave a small round of applause for her theory, "Very likely, Miss Ichiki. High marks for the stowaway student."

Logan put a hand on her shoulder with a heavy clap, "Can't call her a student anymore. Armor here is our new teammate."

Hisako seemed to be nervous at a call like that being made with no one else's input, especially when Miss Frost and Mister Summers just stared back at her, "I mean... that is, Logan said-."

Miss Frost waved off her attempts to be modest, "Oh, it's lovely. God knows the team's going to need some new blood soon."

"Did he teach you the handshake?" Mister Summers joked.

They were just going to go with it? My eyes went wide, but I didn't say anything. Instead, I just lingered back, mouth shut. It was just some honorary thing, seeing as how she had been stuck with him by herself, and they'd probably had to kick some ass to get those bikes.

Really, it was cool that I didn't get the same accolades. A pat on the head, and a 'good boy, Bellamy' was enough.

...

...No it wasn't. My ego demanded parity. I wanted to be a goddamn X-Man.

I rolled my eyes, "Whatever your handshake is, it's not as good as a 'too sweet'," That she still wouldn't do.

Logan walked over and smirked right at me. He knew I was miffed. He knew the whole 'teammate' thing was messing with me, "Don't be jealous now, Glowstick."

The thought went through my head to kick him in the nuts. Those weren't coated in Adamantium, and he'd heal from it quicker than anyone else would.

I worked my jaw for a bit, half mouthing every curse I wanted to give him, "You know what? I'm just gonna take all of this rage that's building right now, put it in a ball, and stick it right here," I smacked my fist against my belly, "And keep it there for the next poor bastard that tries to get in my way. So thank you."

The cream rose to the top. You couldn't hold back raw talent. All that good stuff. I was the man. I knew I was the man. As long as I didn't end up scattered across Breakworld in itty-bitty pieces by the end of this ordeal, everyone else would know it too.

"So. I guess you had a good day," I struggled to not be a bitter ass. Hisako was still my friend and teammate... unless being made an X-Man in the field took her off of the Paladins. That would have sucked.

She turned to me with the dullest expression she'd given since we were beamed up onto S.W.O.R.D.'s ship, "I saw Wolverine with all of his skin burned off."

How exactly was I supposed to react to that? "...Cool," We fell into a weird silence for a moment. But only for a moment, "...Does this mean you outrank me now?"

She threw her hands up in the air. No fair. I was the one who should have been annoyed, "Oh my God, I knew this was coming!"

"That makes one of us."

"You still run the Paladins!"

"Are you off the Paladins?"

"I-!" She made to snap back at me until she seriously considered my question. It calmed her down, "I'd better not be. I'd miss you idiots. And yes, that includes you. Moron," She added before I could mention it for her.

I grinned at her and chuckled, "I knew I'd grow on you."

"Like a fungus," Hisako said with a scoff. We just turned and kept looking at the mural. I felt a shift of movement and saw her holding up the 'too sweet', "I'm glad we're both still alive."

There was a first time for everything. I returned the gesture. I didn't admit it out loud, but I was happy that both of us were too, "Of course we're still alive. We're the Paladins. It's us against the world. And I never thought I'd mean that literally."

Dr. McCoy dropped from the wall with a small bag containing bits of the mural, "I'm afraid that without a lab, I can't tell much about this carving."

Agent Brand held a device that produced a hologram of alien characters turning into a language we could recognize, "The symbols are older than anything in our data banks. Gonna be a while before we get specifics. I say we split up."

Dr. McCoy's expression clearly brightened, "At least we agree on something."

Agent Brand put away her device and addressed him directly, "You're coming with me."

His happier outlook on life quickly vanished, "And so ends that era," Who could blame him? We'd all been dealing with this hardcase of a woman since we'd left home.

Agent Brand gave her reason for needing the resident egghead of our little crew, "I need to get a look at the weapon they've got pointed at the Earth. There's a base directly under its orbit, a hundred miles east. You're science division, so you come with."

Mister Logan cut in with his own aims, "I wanna find Pete and Kitty. I'll take the kid," He noticed me perk up and took great pleasure in bursting my bubble, "...The quieter kid."

And here I thought we were cool with each other.

Mister Summers apparently wanted a piece of the big boss of the Breakworld, "I'm interested in this Kruun," It definitely sounded like he was spoiling for a fight.

Agent Brand shook her head, green hair swishing to the side, "You're not up to facing him. I've got men in the field. I think you and Frost should rendezvous with them and wait for word."

Our glorious leader didn't like the sound of that, "Oh, is that what you think?" He said, an edge to his tone. Being anywhere but on the frontlines, in the action made him feel uncomfortable. To be fair, I did too..

Normally, conflict resolution wasn't Brand's strong suit, but Dr. McCoy's words from earlier must have stuck with her. She had basically no leg to stand on if we all went off on her, "No offense, but you're powerless right now, and she's more unstable than normal. I wasn't counting on either of those things when I brought you here," She finished under her breath.

Mister Logan whispered none too subtly, "Want me to pop that claw?"

"No, the lady has a point," Mister Summers conceded before pointing at me and gesturing to himself and Miss Frost, "Bellamy, you're with us," Before anyone could say anything against it, he turned to Agent Brand, "You just said we didn't have any firepower. If he doesn't count as firepower at this point, I have no idea what you were hoping for from us."

"Besides, the poor boy has to go with someone," Miss Frost added, "Look at him. He's like a puppy staring at all of the families through a pet store window."

It was jarring just how accurate that assessment was. So much so, I didn't have the strength to fight it and say anything back. I was a full head taller than her, yet felt very low. I walked past the two of them. More like through them, "Just... get in the armored car when you figure out where we're going."

Before I could leave and head back for my ride, Mister Summers put a hand on my shoulder to stop me, "Quick question. How good are you at flying?"

I turned halfway around and raised an eyebrow, "I'd have won the Field Day event if David couldn't absorb Nightcrawler's pilot mojo from sitting next to him," And I'd gotten better since then. A few times, Miss Pryde had even let me mess around in the Blackbird for more live practice, "Why?"

XxX

The answer to that question was simple: because we all couldn't fit in one Breakworld flight craft.

Mister Summers and Miss Frost got into one, leaving me to fly the other one alone. I had never flown alone. To make things scarier, we were on a hostile planet, in case anyone had forgotten. So I wasn't just flying, I was also playing fighter pilot.

Even as quickly as we'd moved out, of course it would have stood to reason that the soldiers camped near the tomb would have eventually noticed that we'd dropped all of the guys they left behind, stolen a bunch of their vehicles, and sabotaged the rest. So it only stood to reason that they would send planes to shoot down the ones that we'd taken. You know what that meant? Dogfights. Plenty of dogfights.

As playing Grand Theft Auto for the better part of a decade had prepared me for hijacking an armored car, years of playing Ace Combat, as well as actually getting real flight training got me prepared to shoot down alien pilots in the skies of the Breakworld.

As a plane tried to line itself up with Mister Summers' to try and shoot it down, I slipped in behind and did the deed first. Boss-man using himself as bait made it easy.

They sent a squadron after us, but they hadn't lasted very long after the engagement started. There was one sovereign ruler of Breakworld, so it wasn't like their pilots got a lot of practice on-world fighting other enemy pilots. I had a feeling any 'war games' that troops took part in were to the death.

It was the only way that I could explain how I was handling them so well. Even when I wasn't picking up the scraps from Mister Summers, I still shot down a few in my own right. But it was nothing compared to the other plane containing X-Men

Mister Summers was good. Really good. The best pilot I'd ever seen. Granted, I had only seen a few better than me, but they had all been X-Men. Still, he was leagues above any of them. I'm pretty sure he didn't even need Miss Frost to co-pilot and watch his back. I'm pretty sure he didn't need me to pick up the scraps and take out any planes that he couldn't get rid of himself.

Eventually, we came across a flaming wreck in the woods. The fact that they had an intact forest was amazing to me. I had to apologize for my brazen assumption that I was on a crapsack planet.

"Bellamy, look alive," I felt Mister Summers say to me telepathically, with help of course from Miss Frost, "If that's the last of the splinter ship, the troops can't have gone far. We'll have to circle until we see something or get a signal."

'Gotcha,' I thought back, moving out of the formation I had been keeping outside of combat with their plane, 'Splitting off to start searching.'

What proceeded was nearly an hour of boredom. All trees looked the same when you were over a thousand feet in the air. Yes, my eyesight was good, but it wasn't that good. Thankfully there were instruments in the plane that let me get a better look at what was in closer to the ground. Breakworld jets really were a lot like jets on Earth. I could locate what I was looking for, I just needed a sign.

My sign came in the form of a goddamn flying purple dragon that was a dead ringer for the one my teacher kept back at the Institute. It was a dead ringer because it was the very same, "Lockheed? What the fuck are you doing here?" I said to myself when the weapons locked on to the would-be bogey. I did not fire a missile at my teacher's pet dragon, thank you. Instead, I found a place to put the plane down to investigate, "If this is a trap... it's a really good trap," I said as I hopped out of the cockpit and started heading that way.

Eventually, I saw Lockheed land on a tree branch in the woods and look down at me. When he realized who it was, for the first time ever, he seemed happy to see me. The growls that came out of his mouth as he flew down and landed on my shoulder seemed pleased, at least.

The feeling was mutual, especially because he then led me to the S.W.O.R.D. soldiers that had been on the decoy escape vessel. We came across all of them taking up hiding spots for a would-be ambush.

I almost started laughing in relief. There were more of them than I had expected to see. What a stroke of fortune, "Oh man, I thought all of you guys were toast. I'm so happy to see you," I said once I was close enough.

The first soldier, the one I guessed was in charge of who was left, lowered his weapon and visibly relaxed his body, "Same here. You're that kid. The one with the X-Men, right? They're still kicking, aren't they?"

And then some. Of course, that was before we had split up again, so anything could have happened, "Last time I checked, we were all alive. Your boss too. Have you guys been hanging around here the whole time?" I asked, looking around at the amassed fighting force. They all seemed tired, "So is this place teeming with soldiers or anything?" I needed to know in case I had to be ready to shoot a bitch.

An odd alien soldier with a red dragon-like head answered, "Honessstly, we haven't sssseen any patrols ssssince we crashed. At leassst not on the ground," He hissed quietly.

I scratched at my head and continued to look around, "That makes sense of one thing at least. There were a lot of planes swarming around near the crash site. We had a bunch of dogfights on the way over here. The skies are clear now."

Everyone else reacted positively to that bit of news, "Outstanding. Now what?"

A great question. One that I hopefully had a satisfactory answer to, "Now I've got to get a signal to Cyclops and Emma Frost. They're out looking for you too," I said, looking up through the canopy of the forest with a frown, "I have no idea how to send something without letting everyone see it. Bad guys included."

All of the S.W.O.R.D. soldiers winced, clearly not liking the sound of that. I couldn't blame them. They weren't as well equipped and they would be outnumbered if another battle started. I didn't necessarily want to fight a ton of people either, "Well that's no good."

Agreed. However, it wasn't like we were powerless, or stuck on the ground, "Fuck it. Do you want me to just hop back in the plane and circle tight around here? I'm sure they'll come back, see me, and get in touch eventually," I wasn't much for military strategy. I just wanted to help, "If anything pops off while I'm up there, well, just get your distance, because that thing has weapons."

The guy in charge seemed to have his shit together when it came to handling things in the field, but making calls beyond that seemed to vex him, "It would be nice to have some air superiority," He seemed to be debating the decision, "...No. Stay down here. You've got some firepower in those hands. We might need that more than you up in a plane you're still learning how to pilot."

Fair enough. Either way, I could deal with it. And I had remembered that I had a second way to communicate with Mister Summers and Miss Frost, as long as they were somewhere close. He said they would circle the area, so maybe it had a chance of working.

'Hey, Miss Frost, can you hear me?' I started thinking out loud, much in the same way I would have tried to contact Ruth on my squad, 'It's Bellamy. I've got the S.W.O.R.D. guys here. It looks like most of 'em are in one piece. They seem tired though.'

I waited patiently for a response, even though it seemed to take forever to get. Eventually though, after close to two minutes, right before I gave up, I got an answer, "That's wonderful, dear. We're on the way to you now. And don't worry about what happens next. Everything is fine."

If that wasn't the most ominous thing I had heard all day, I hadn't been paying attention to what had been going on around me.

Heavy thuds on the ground and rustling in the trees started to get all of our attention. The soldiers around me started holding onto their guns tighter, their heads whipping around to try and figure out what was coming.

I looked up and saw the cause of all of the trouble, "Oh, you have got to be kidding me."

It was a giant, metal insect with thin, sharp metal legs. It reminded me of the big metal spider from Wild, Wild West, only somehow scarier. And yet, I didn't start cutting it down at the legs. Mostly because I remembered what I'd been told a minute earlier about not freaking out over whatever happened next.

Like I said, the lead S.W.O.R.D. soldier only felt certain operating in the field, "Stay low! If they engage, return fire and fall back in Alpha-Kree Formation! Maybe it'll miss us."

The dragon-headed guy was less certain of that fact, "No, it won't."

Either way, if there was going to be another fight, I figured there wasn't anyone around that was going to cover my ass. More like I would be expected to cover theirs, seeing as how I was one and they were many. With that in mind, I marched on out to deal with whatever this thing was.

Its thorax lowered to the ground and opened up. It was then that I bore witness to a badly beaten up Mister Summers and Miss Frost emerging from inside of it.

I wasn't even surprised. Why else wouldn't something like that have tried to kill us all on-sight, "I have a lot of questions," I said, trying to play it cool, "What happened to you? Weren't you guys in a plane? Where did this thing come from?"

Out of the two of them, Miss Frost looked particularly beaten up, which was weird since she could turn to solid diamond to protect herself, "To answer all of your questions in order..." They moved out of the way and Danger stepped out of the same doorway.

She was right. That did answer all my questions, all at once even. But on the same end, it opened up so many more; namely-, "Why am I not shooting her right now?"

You know, because she tried to kill me three times. Oh, and because she actually did kill two students back at the Institute. Granted, it was kind of indirectly, but in the same vein it was exactly what she'd wanted.

"We've come to an understanding," Mister Summers said, apparently okay with whatever turn of events that had occurred out of my line of sight, "And now we have transport for all of you."

"Okay, great," I said, not knowing what exactly we were going to do with our newfound mobility for the many. Because it didn't sound like he meant it was for all of us, "...Wait. Transport for them? What about us?"

XxX

I had to leave my sweet, sweet jet behind for the S.W.O.R.D troops to use, because Dr. McCoy had done one better and found a full-on space transport for us to use. There was a moon base in orbit around the planet that apparently housed the weapon that would destroy our planet. That was what the brains of our operation had determined, so that was what we needed to check out.

Our blue, furry main man met up with us and picked us all up. By all of us, not just me, Mister Summers, and Miss Frost, but everyone else too. Hisako, Mister Logan, Mister Rasputin, and Miss Pryde.

I was ecstatic to see my squad advisor again. She seemed much better off than she had back when we'd first been taken away from the Institute. I brought it up once I had the chance.

"Am I alright?" Miss Pryde seemed confused that I was saying such a thing to her instead of the other way around, "You're my student. Shouldn't I be asking you that?"

By now, I figured we were far past the point where any schooltime authority she had over me held sway here, "Hey, if you were going to, it should have been about two days ago," I said, talking to her like a regular person instead of my teacher, "I've just been trying to roll with the punches since we got here. Before we landed, you were the one that looked like you'd just heard that God was dead."

Miss Pryde frowned at my poignant description of her temperament while we'd been adjusting to getting taken by S.W.O.R.D., "It wasn't that bad," She said. I did my best impression of an Easter Island head staring back at her, "...Oh, wow. Was it really that bad?"

I nodded. While we may have been past it, I couldn't just pretend like it hadn't happened at all, "There was a reason me and Hisako didn't bother huddling around you this whole time. But you seem better now, and I'm glad. You don't have to tell me about whatever got into you."

Miss Pryde's eyes went wide for a split-second before she looked away, "That's... a particularly surgical choice of phrasing, Bellamy," She said, her face turning red.

I didn't know what the big deal was. I hadn't said anything strange, "Why? I don't know what that-," She took a step back against Mister Rasputin's chest, who also seemed a tad flustered. It was then that my train of thought pulled into the appropriate station, "Oh! Well, good for you two."

Nothing else I could say, or that I needed to say. Mister Rasputin had taken her to pound town... again. It had happened once before to my knowledge, right after he showed up at the Institute. Something about students catching Miss Pryde running upstairs naked after phasing through the floor. I had not been fortunate enough to be present for that.

Hey, if she could fit the time to get laid in between everything on Breakworld trying to murder us, more power to her. I wished I could figure out how to swing such a thing. We should all be so lucky to have that method of stress relief available.

Mister Summers, ever the consummate leader, needing to have his i's dotted and t's crossed, spent the flight time rifling through the intelligence that S.W.O.R.D. had collected on the Breakworld, "Brand, your files don't show any mention of the name, Aghanne."

Apparently, Miss Pryde and Mister Rasputin had been taken in by some splinter group against the current regime. Their leader was a woman who desired peace and thought Colossus could be the one to bring it. So we didn't have the entire Breakworld trying to cut our heads off.

Agent Brand frowned as Mister Summers kept checking the info, "Well, no, of course. If what Rasputin says about her is true, she'll have been expunged from the records," She said, "I'm amazed she's even alive at all."

"We'll we need to talk to her if we're going to figure this whole thing out," Mister Summers asserted, "If her interpretation of the prophecy is true, if Peter is somehow involved in saving this race..."

Then we could actually get through this without destroying the whole goddamn planet in order to protect ours. I was down for some hero shit.

"We're coming up on the moon," Dr. McCoy announced to the rest of us, "Hmm. Disturbing lack of security."

We trusted his ability to pilot, so the rest of us were focused on the fact that we could possibly get out of this without waging a war against a whole planet. Mister Logan wasn't necessarily onboard with that approach, "Saving this place? I don't know. The kid and I have been seeing this place at ground level. I kinda like the version where Pete blows it up."

The next time Dr. McCoy spoke, he wasn't just informing us of our status. He clearly needed our full attention, "Okay, people. We have more bad news."

Mister Rasputin moved to the front to look out over his shoulder, "What is it? We expected the moon to be fortified. You don't think we can land?"

"It's not quite that. It's..." Dr. McCoy trailed off before chuckling to himself. But it wasn't a laugh that someone gave when they were involved in something funny, "You know, I thought I'd have a lot more fun if I ever got to say this for real – That's no moon."

The Star Wars reference was apt, seeing as how we were flying to a veritable Death Star. A Death Star where instead of a planet-smashing super-laser, there was a gigantic missile loaded in the middle of it.

I had to take a second look. People actually made things like this? It was real? "They built this thing to fire one missile?" I asked.

"It's ten miles long," Mister Summers observed, which made it an even scarier thought that it was probably going to be fired at the Earth.

"Well, I didn't bring you here for nothing," Agent Brand said, but it was clear that even she hadn't expected to have to deal with a weapon of that consequence.

The hair stood up on the back of my neck, "This is..." For once, I didn't have the words to express how I felt, "How are we supposed to stop that thing?" I doubted there was an exhaust port the size of a womp rat for us to fire a photon torpedo into to take the whole thing out.

My question would have gone unanswered anyway, but the klaxon of impending doom alerted us to incoming ships pouring off of the space station.

Dr. McCoy grit his teeth, a bit of a true-blue growl rumbling from his throat, "We outrun these warships never."

Mister Logan gripped the back of Dr. McCoy's seat so tightly, I thought his claws were going to pop out, "So we got a plan here? I don't wanna play 'Man Who Fell to Earth' again."

Something about this attack didn't sit well with me. More than just the fact that we were going to be blown into the dark vacuum of space, "Wait. We're really close. Why'd they wait so long to attack? This thing isn't exactly stealthy. They had to have seen us coming before now."

Mister Summers' face was stony, until a flash of realization crossed it. Then he was all business again, "There's a repair craft in the back. Fits one. You go, I stay," He said, "Emma, help me."

"I, uh..." It was a vague enough request to leave Miss Frost stunned for a moment, but after making direct eye contact with him, she caught on, "Right. I'm linking you all psychically. There's surveillance on the ship. Try to keep talking like normal," She instructed to the lot of us, "Yes, he's right. It's best."

"Sure. Talking is one of the things I'm really good at," Seeing as how this was my move that I had us do with Blindfold all the time, I'd better have been good at double communication, "So your whole plan is to go out there and get popped by the space goons? Then what? You want me to take over or something?"

I thought I saw a look of acknowledgment from Mister Summers at how well I handled both the mental and verbal conversation simultaneously, "They'll come after me. It'll buy you time, and if anything happens, I'm the most..." He gave a quick pause to convey how difficult it was for him to say what was next. It was just a cover to detail the situation, "We need to get closer to Kruun. That won't happen unless he thinks we're helpless. So I'll take the repair ship and get myself captured," "...I'm the one with no powers."

"They're gaining..." Dr. McCoy didn't even have to try and double speak, under the guise of being focused on outrunning the enemy, "There's a good chance they'll kill you, boss."

"You're supposed to be the leader," Agent Brand argued without thinking to us, to buy time for Mister Summers.

"That's why I'm acting like one," Mister Summers said as he thought to us, "They brought Peter back to life. They'll do the same with me if they think I have information they need," It made sense, "The most important thing is to keep Kruun from finding out about our ace in the hole."

"Well they've got a big stinking gun. So why couldn't we have a big stinking gun? They're scared of us already, right?" I thought out loud to the group as I spoke, "Are you serious? I thought you said that was the kind of thing we can't just go around using."

Mister Summers liked my idea, "A secret weapon? That would work."

Dr. McCoy chimed in, "We need a name. Something imposing and ominous."

"Leviathan?" Emma tested out loud.

"Oh, honey, that's irresistible! Leviathan," Mister Summers took it and ran with it, "It's our best hope now. The rest of you keep low until Leviathan shows up. Pete, it's too dangerous for you to make contact with Aghanne. Emma will go instead," He continued giving us instructions, "Krunn'll work me over for a while, trying to get that out of me. The rest of you get to work. Emma, I'll need schematics of the prison. Logan and Hisako, get yourselves captured in a few hours so we've got a force inside."

"I object!" Miss Pryde basically stage yelled out loud at the entire party.

It was so off-kilter and stilted, it caught us all off-guard, even Mister Summers, "Kitty?" "What?"

None of us could believe how bad it was.

Miss Frost: "Bugger me, was that acting?"

Mister Rasputin: "Is not courtroom drama, Katya."

She turned red, but kept her embarrassment in her head, "To... all of this! You're not just gonna throw your life away after... all of this," She said out loud. In her head, she sounded just as humiliated, "Shut up! I'm not good at having two conversations at once, and I actually do hate Scott's plan!"

I couldn't help myself, "...You mean you object to it," I thought, focusing on Miss Pryde.

I'm a complete asshole.

"Shut up, Bellamy!" She snapped back at me in her mind. Truthfully, if she hadn't have done that, I would have just let it die. But since she didn't, I had to rub her face in it more.

You know... like a complete asshole. Which I was. Have we established that?

"If it matters, I'm not really a fan either. Of Cyclops being our decoy, or of calling that thing in to finish up in Breakworld," I said, flexing my conversational gymnastics, "I really don't get why this is so hard. See?" "But then again, nobody listens to me."

I really was trying to be a better person like I promised. It was hard. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I had Hisako around to check me. As was tradition, "Your mouth has no filter. You don't have to think to talk. Most intelligent people actually do," It was literally the only contribution she gave to the mental or verbal string of comments.

Mister Logan smirked, "Guess Emma's running the show. That'll be interesting," His voice hitched once or twice, "Fucking Glowstick. I'm gonna crack up. I'm cracking up."

"Say something cynical," Agent Brand advised, giving him the opening to do so,"Excuse me, I'm the one who's gonna be-."

"Right. Right," Mister Logan thought as he cut her off out loud, "Don't even dream it. Good luck, Summers," "End this already before I lose it."

Mister Summers started walking away from us and gave his final marching orders, "Agent Brand. You and Hank work that prophecy out. Peter, go bring Aghanne into the fold if you can. Be outside the prison in a few hours. Bring everyone." He opened the door to the hold of the ship and stopped, "Stay away from Kruun, stay away from the prison, even if they take me alive," "Logan's right. I'd better go before Kitty tries to act again," "Emma."

"Darling?" The worried tone of her voice sounded legit. Her thoughts reflected that, "Scott, if Kruun has you at his mercy-."

"Don't worry, my love. 'Leviathan' will save me," Mister Summers didn't even turn back around,"They're all yours."

With that, he left for the back of the ship and the repair vessel that would serve as the start of his little plot/scheme. We weren't talking about it out loud for some reason, but even so, I felt the need to project a thought to everyone else around me, if only to lighten the mood.

"Goddamn it, that was awesome! If this works, I'm stealing the shit out of this when we get home!"

I just had to show my appreciation for such good use of psychic misdirection. That was outstanding.

With that, we watched Mister Summers head out in the repair craft. For a dinky little staff service thing, he made it move. He went straight through the enemy formation without taking a shot. He actually got a ship or two to destroy another of their own with friendly fire.

They all got angry and went at him, swarming his way. He never turned off, heading straight away from us as he weaved through the shots.

"What have we done?" Miss Pryde whispered, her eyes stuck on the sight of Mister Summers taking all of the heat off of us and onto himself.

Dr. McCoy turned our ship back around to Breakworld and left Mister Summers to do his thing, "Give 'em hell, boss."

The murderous concentration of fire was too much for him to fend off for long. One hit turned to two, turned to more. A repair craft wasn't meant to withstand any kind of barrage. There was absolutely no armor on it. The enemy pilots blew it wide open.

One could only hope his body survived the explosion, because he wouldn't survive space.

Miss Frost must have stayed connected in order to feel him out until the end, "He's going," She muttered to herself, "...And so are we. Henry?"

"Already on the way back to Breakworld," Dr. McCoy confirmed for her, "Hold on, people."

XxX

I drummed my fingers impatiently off of the side of a wall I leaned against as what was left of our ragtag group of mutants and extraterrestrial agents/soldiers gathered together at the bridge of Danger's freaky giant insect transport.

There wasn't anything I could really do. Miss Pryde and Mister Rasputin were off rallying the local resistance movement. Mister Logan and Hisako were getting themselves caught so they could be Mister Summers' inside team when it was time to storm the palace.

It made sense for her to be there, really. He could basically regenerate any injuries that befell him, and she could protect herself from almost anything. That made them the most durable and prepared for that kind of fight. I just wasn't used to it. I didn't like it. I wasn't used to being relegated to the roles I found myself in. For me, it was one of those 'before you can lead, you have to learn how to follow' situations. It was an exercise in patience.

Meanwhile, it seemed like everyone else had accomplished their objectives.

Miss Frost sat in a chair behind Danger's driver's seat, a hand held to her temple, "Sorry, my head is stuffed with building plans. What's not the sun?" She asked Dr. McCoy.

Our furry, blue friend seemed to be taken aback by whatever he'd found out, "The prophecy. It talks about pulling the light from the Breakworld, through the 'Temple of Power'."

Agent Brand took over the explanation, "Kruun's thronehouse sits on a reactor. It powers everything, literally by pulling energy from the planet's core."

"It's not a prophecy though, it's a plan," Dr. McCoy jumped back in, "The inscription we found at the tomb is absurdly specific. It's practically an instruction manual on destroying the Breakworld."

Miss Frost's brows furrowed as she tried to take note of this and what she was trying to do psychically, "And who do you think would want to-?" She stopped when she got a ping of what she had been looking for, "Hold on, I found Scott. Are we close?"

"We'll be at the prison in thirty seconds," Danger replied, the calm countenance of an analytical machine. To that end, I pushed myself off of the wall and loosened myself up. Even more fighting was ahead.

"God, he's in so much pain," Miss Frost lamented. Having been subjected to torture before, I could only imagine how bad it was when it was of the high-tech alien variety.

It was only fair play that in exchange for that, Mister Summers got to unleash an optic blast that tore a gaping hole in the ceiling of the fortress. Just in case anyone forgot that he actually had the raw power in addition to the tactical know-how to lead the X-Men.

When we hit the fortress, the place was madness. Guards were scrambling all over the place, caught between trying to get to wherever Mister Summers was, to trying to get their hands on Mister Logan and Hisako – both of whom had gotten loose within the building, and dealing with us; a handful of mutants and some well-armed and pissed off other-worldly soldiers.

Also worth mentioning, Mister Rasputin and Miss Pryde arrived and jumped in with the leader of the Breakworld resistance. The more the merrier.

We caught them on our way in and mashed our way past. Sometimes we caught pockets of enemies facing the entirely wrong way. To say they got rolled over was an understatement. When we caught up with Mister Logan and Hisako, they just folded into the rest of our group and joined us in the smack down.

"Miss me?" I said, running up to her side as I kept my eyes ahead, shooting anything with greenish skin and Breakworld metal armor, "I mean, I know it's only been like three hours, but still-."

"Getting captured sucks," Hisako said, taking the opportunity that came with my ranged shooting to armor down before she exhausted herself, "Especially when you're throwing the fight. Do you know how hard it is to lose on purpose?"

I focused on taking a few distance shots, sticking close to protect her so she didn't have to use her powers unnecessarily. Losing to the people on this planet, even intentionally, probably hurt, so she was likely feeling it, "No, because I'm a winner. And winners like Bellamy Marcher lay down for absolutely no one," I paused for a moment to add something else, "...Unless you're a lady. Then I might lie down for you."

I could feel Hisako roll her eyes next to me. If I weren't shooting bad guys left, right, and center, she probably would have punched me in the arm, "We're fighting an army here, and you're making awful jokes."

"It was more of a double meaning kind of thing, but I catch your drift," I said, sending a burst of energy through my body to speed up and dropkick open the doors to Kruun's torture chamber. It was there we found a thrashed and shirtless Cyclops standing over his captors, including the 'Powerlord' himself, "Oh captain, my fucking captain!"

I saluted that man when I landed through those doors, completely unironically. How could I not do it seriously? He literally DIED to use himself as bait. All to give us an opening and get people inside of the main facility of the planet. That's some real leader shit.

"Bellamy, language," Mister Summers chided, sounding a bit worn out at the ordeal he had undergone. He did spare a bit of a smile though, "Also, thanks."

A soldier started getting up in the corner of the room. I went to go and shoot him, but Mister Summers did it instead, barely turning to blast him with his eye beam, "Uh... nevermind. You've got it," The man was in charge for a reason.

At that point, others started swarming in and securing the place. Mister Summers directed traffic, pointing out the main Breakworld guy, Powerlord Kruun. Mister Rasputin grabbed him and wrapped him up in metal to keep him in place.

As the guy in charge of the alien force threatening our planet was subdued, Mister Summers spoke to the rest of us, "So, here's where we stand. We have their Powerlord inside his most impregnable prison."

Mister Logan let out a snort, "We pregged it quick enough," Cocky, even if it was true. It sounded like something I'd have said, actually.

Mister Summers raised an eyebrow, "We're the X-Men," That did too.

"We're not," Hisako and I said at the same time, pointing out the obvious.

Mister Logan gave me a smack on the back of the head, "You basically are now."

I didn't even mind getting hit like I was a misbehaving seven year-old. I was just happy to hear that come out of someone's mouth. Not only was I easy to goad into a fight, apparently I was easy to satisfy.

The Breakworld resistance leader moved forward to provide input, "Soldiers will come. Sylatin, Kruun's underling, will be massing a force, even now. He'll know how to get in."

The idea of a prolonged siege of that dump didn't appeal to anyone, "What kind of fight can we put up?" Mister Summers asked. We needed the planet's core. That was the only reason we had broken into the place to begin with.

Agent Brand's top S.W.O.R.D. soldier responded, "We've secured the facility and picked up some impressive weaponry. If they come hard, we can still buy you a few hours."

A bunch of pissed off soldiers with fancy new toys they could use to get some revenge on enemies that would be running straight at them to take the fortress back. It sounded like a good defensive fighting force to me.

"Can we use this guy as a bargaining chip?" Mister Summers asked Aghanne, referring to the captured Kruun.

Aghanne hesitated, but eventually shook her head no, "They will do everything in their power to protect him, but bargaining is not exactly a Breakworld concept," Things like mercy, surrender, retreat. Soft terms like that weren't recognized there, "If they begin to see Kruun as weak..."

They would take him out and have him replaced. Weakness was unforgivable to this culture. It was visible in the way they carried themselves and how advanced and overbearing their military complex was.

Agent Brand spared Kruun a glance, probably thinking of the best way to use him while we had him, "There's a chance Sylatin may nuke the place anyway. He's after Kruun's throne. He was making a deal with us."

I stopped her right there. This just didn't seem smart to me, "Wait. You made a deal with the guy's second-in-command?" I remembered something she'd told us before we'd ever arrived. Back when we'd been getting briefed on S.W.O.R.D.'s main ship, "That was your source on Breakworld? Not any of these... resistance people?"

You know... the lady that seemed to know the inner workings of the planet's command? The person with the underground army that was fighting against the tyrant in charge, instead of the guy going along with his every whim?

Agent Brand scowled at me. It probably pissed her off to be questioned by a teenager, "Kid, what do you know about espionage?"

Age meant nothing when it came to logic, "I know you don't make a deal with anyone's right-hand man!" This wasn't a movie. Not everyone was ambitious beyond loyalty. Some people actually were fine with where they were in life. In a position like someone's underboss, this was normally the rule instead of the exception, "How do you think they got that high up? Because whoever the boss is can trust 'em! Why are we not dead?"

"Sure ain't from lack of trying," Mister Logan cracked, looking around at the large group standing around, getting information, "Can we get this show on the road already? I'd like to finish this while we've still got a planet to go back to."

Time was indeed of the essence, something Mister Summers understood, "Our priority is the missile. We can either disable it up close, or convince Kruun to stand down. We work both angles. Two squads."

Yay. We were all splitting up again. It seemed that life wouldn't let us all stay together and handle everything as a complete unit for too long. Granted, when we all came together, we could take down whole fortresses full of armed guards in less than twenty minutes. Maybe it was a little unfair to ask.

"Hank, you get Kitty to the missile. If the two of you can't disable that thing, it can't be done," Mister Summers said, "Agent Brand knows the terrain, so she's in. Logan and Armor are the escort. That whole satellite is going to come down on you once they realize you're there. Solaris has the most firepower out of the lot of us."

Right. Me, Miss Pryde, Dr. McCoy, Mister Logan, Hisako, and Agent Brand playing the role of the away team. Fantastic.

It was the first time Hisako and I had been stuck together since we'd been teleported from the Institute, "Paladins, mount up," She said under her breath. I laughed.

One of the people who didn't seem to agree with this arrangement was Mister Rasputin, "Scott..."

He wanted to go with Miss Pryde. He wanted to be away from the planet that he was supposed to be destined to destroy. Mister Summers didn't bend to sentiment, "I'm not asking, Pete. You're our ace in the hole. You can actually do the thing Kruun fears most – kill the planet," Colossus winced at the thought. Mister Summers set a hand on his shoulder, "It's ugly, but it's a card we've got to hold."

Seeing as how the other outcome was our planet being destroyed, most of us didn't have a lot of sympathy for this place getting the ax. We were supposed to be superheroes though, so it wouldn't come to that if we could help it. Still, Earth came first. We lived there, after all.

Mister Summers continued issuing marching orders, making sure we were all organized, "Aghanne and Emma are with us. The rest of you are holding the fort. Make a big noise of it. The more forces you draw here, the better chance everyone else has."

The S.W.O.R.D. soldier from before held the weapon in his hand tightly, "Our boys who were captured got worked over pretty bad. We're ready for some fireworks."

"Outstanding."

What else needed to be said?

XxX

You know, whenever you hear about these great adventures, these amazing struggles that the good guys go through, it never sinks in just how exhausting all of that crap really is.

We had been going for days, off of very little rest. And I didn't sleep under normal circumstances. Now it was sinking in about Miss Frost's old worries on my risk of mental fatigue. All of the fighting, traveling around, more fighting, and never sitting still... I didn't even have time to bask in any real light source to recharge. I had to make due with artificial light most of the time, and it wasn't like there was even a lot of that on spaceships.

We landed on the fake moon in Breakworld's orbit without any problems. That was as good as our attack went. Breakworld soldiers came out of the woodwork to try and stop us. I mean wave after wave. They went at us en masse. And we couldn't stop. We had to keep pushing through. If we stopped, we'd get surrounded.

Saberwolf told me not to hold back in live combat. I didn't. There were too many bodies flying around for me to do that. When I shot someone, it was with the intention to make sure they didn't get back up again. When I hit something, I punched or kicked with the intent to go through it.

"This is legit. This is real. Can't back down. Can't run away," I heard Hisako chant to herself, her psionic armor protecting her body and making her a lethal weapon to smash through enemy soldiers.

I shot through her armor when I could. She trusted me enough to keep from adjusting her movements to let me do what I needed to do and continue fighting in her own way. That good old trust and teamwork that came with extended time in a squad. Nothing could beat it.

Somewhere along the way, Agent Brand had gotten shot by some energy weapon that left her down and out, chest smoking. Dr. McCoy scooped her up and carried her to a trench on the metal satellite that we had advanced to and hunkered down in for cover. I was our only ranged fighter since the lady with the guns went down, so I went to work popping my head up and shooting anything that came our way.

"Keep shooting, Glowstick," Mister Logan said, looking over my shoulder over our cover. We could both see the large numbers of enemies gathering a distance away. I could still hit them, but there were way too many of them for me to scare into a retreat. They would endure the losses as long as they could get their heavy weapons and units together.

They stood between us and the massive missile protruding from the satellite like a tower on solid land.

"This is so primitive," Miss Pryde complained, having hacked into their systems to try and disarm the missile, "There's constant position adjustment from the orbit thrusters, a combustion detonation system, and a clock. There's no actual uplink to the missile."

"How do you make a doomsday weapon with no controls?" Hisako complained, taking the moment we had huddled in the trench to rest. If she was too tired, she wouldn't be able to armor up, making her squishy and vulnerable, "The countdown is the only thing it relies on?"

Mister Logan yelled back at the others while he stayed over my shoulder, spotting the best places to fire at grouped pockets of troops to slow them down, "Anybody wanna hear about the army heading our way? It's a colorful story!"

Miss Pryde chose to leave the hacking alone once it was clear it would get us nowhere, "Enough. I'll take the shortcut," With that, she dove into the ground, phasing through the metal.

Fair play. If only one of us could make it to the missile, that was one more than we were otherwise getting there. She was also the best equipped to disarm all of the wiring inside of the damn thing.

You had to go with what you knew. I could shoot a bitch in the face from half a mile away, so that was what I stuck to doing. Leave the technical stuff for the people who could handle it.

Not that I wanted to complain, but it never ended. The fight just kept dragging on. They would move forward on our position, taking cover in other trenches when they could reach them

"Is Miss Pryde almost done yet?" I asked still doing my part to ward off soldiers. They kept getting closer. Pockets of them moved up whenever I targeted another set, "They're gonna make it here eventually!"

Dr McCoy was in communication with Miss Pryde as she worked from the inside, "Keep it up for as long as you can. She's inside of the missile now."

Mister Logan hopped down from his place as my spotter, "What's she telling you, Hank?"

A shake of the good doctor's head signified nothing good, "She's gone in for miles and hasn't found any wiring. No hatches. Nothing to help it navigate to Earth."

I was getting exhausted. I had never had to fight so often, so long, without ample time to properly recharge to keep going, "Hisako, eye check!"

She scampered up to where I was and took a gander at my eye color, "You're on red. Dark red," Well that was no good, "How close is that to empty?"

"Really close," I told her.

Agent Brand had recovered enough to limp over to the wall underneath me and lean against it, "So what? I have no idea how his powers work."

"If they go black, he dies," Dr McCoy said, bluntly describing my situation for the sake of the uninitiated.

Brand looked up at me and cursed, "Shit. Get down," She held a nasty burn on her stomach, "Time for some close-quarters action, I guess."

I slid down to sit on the ground. I needed a moment to get myself together. I had never been so tired before, "Sorry. I'm definitely running low. Just… just give me some time to recharge. A few minutes, maybe."

Mister Logan stooped down by me to get a good look at my condition, "You gonna be alright, Glowstick?"

I dropped my head back and looked up at him, "Does it matter? Still gotta fight."

Mister Logan grinned down at me and gave me a pat on the head, "Good answer, you damned smartass."

I sat there and tried to focus on gathering energy. As much as I could. If I actively concentrated on drawing in more light, I could do it faster. I couldn't do much else in the meantime, though.

However fast I could try to absorb more energy, it wasn't fast enough. I don't think anything would have been fast enough... or mattered in the end.

It was quick. It was sudden. There was no launch preparation. No countdown. No alarm. Out of nowhere, the missile just fired out of its hole in the satellite.

The rumbling started. All eyes turned to the missile. Dr. McCoy's mouth slowly fell open, "Oh no. No."

"She's firing!"

The sound of the missile taking off was the loudest thing that I had ever heard. For something of its size to launch, heading as far off as it was set to go, it needed a BIG push. Even covering my ears, I still felt like they were about to bleed.

And off it went. A big silver sliver, stabbing through the darkness of space. There was nothing we could do to pull it back down. The thing about it was, it didn't go off with a sustained eruption. It was more closer to a big burst.

"It's got no thrusters!" Hisako shouted at the top of her lungs, trying to get her voice to carry over the departing rumble of the launch blast.

"Of course not," Dr. McCoy whispered, more to himself than anyone else. His eyes were wide in horror, transfixed on the rapidly disappearing projectile flying away "Precise timing. Perfect trajectory, but no guidance systems. No engine. Just a giant metal rod, hollow at the front," My heart dropped into my stomach, "It's not a missile. It's a bullet."

Once it left the atmosphere of the satellite, it wasn't going to stop.

It wasn't going to lose momentum. Not in space. Not as carefully aimed as it was. It was going to go all the way and plow straight into the Earth. It was ten miles long. An asteroid that size hitting the planet would end it. With a bullet that size, no one had a chance.

After that, everything was a blur to me. There was yelling. I think we got in contact with Mister Summers, or Miss Frost. One of them. We ran. Left our positions behind and fled back to the ship. Staying there wouldn't mean anything. There weren't any controls. That much was clear by now.

The next moment, I found myself deposited in the cockpit, sitting at the steering wheel, voices chattering frantically around me. My chest hurt. Breathing was hard. I couldn't get enough breath.

Dr. McCoy's furry hands put mine on the wheel.

"Bellamy, I need you to fly for us. Take us back to the Breakworld," My fingers froze on the controls. My teacher was hurtling through space in an alien bullet headed straight for my planet. Dr. McCoy set his hands on my arms and roared into my ears, "BELLAMY! Fly the ship!"

I needed the shock to function. I took off without even thinking about it. My mind was out to lunch, but my body still knew what to do. It was full speed off of the satellite and back to the hellhole called the Breakworld.

"We should be going after Kitty," Mister Logan snapped, pacing around behind me like a wild animal. He was upset, obviously. We all were.

"We can't catch a bullet flying through space. Not in this vessel," Dr. McCoy reasoned, taking stock of what moves we had left to make, "Scott and Emma are headed back to Earth in Kruun's fastest ship. We need to back up Peter."

A growl rolled from my self-defense teacher's throat, "Pete should do the goddamn job and get out," I couldn't help but agree.

"Tell me I didn't just hear you suggest genocide," Dr. McCoy said in return.

"What do you think they're trying to do to us!?"

Agent Brand tried to get cooler heads to prevail. Fighting amongst ourselves in the dead of space, or otherwise falling apart now would do nothing for any of us, "If Summers gets close enough, he can bounce a message to Earth. Maybe get some of the Avengers working on this from the other end. We need to take one last shot at Kruun."

Someone there, with all of the minds and abilities amassed on Earth, had to be able to stop that bullet. If we couldn't, someone had to.

Mister Logan still wanted to sink his claws into something fleshy and alive, "I can kill him, right?"

Agent Brand burst his bubble, "I've got something more diplomatic in mind."

Hisako sat in a passenger seat, staring out at the black of space, knees pulled up to her chest, "Peter doesn't know, does he?" She asked, petrified by what was happening, "He doesn't know about Kitty."

XxX

Going back to the Breakworld and putting the squeeze on the guy in charge didn't do anything. There wasn't any way to stop what they'd set into motion.

The Earth wasn't destroyed. But in the end, it wasn't because we saved it. It wasn't all of us, anyway. Even Earth's Mightiest Heroes, The Avengers™ weren't able to stop Breakworld's weapon before it reached them.

The bullet went straight through the planet and out the other side without touching anything. All thanks to the person that had been stuck inside of it when it had been fired.

Unfortunately, there was no turning it around or catching it after the fact. And off it went, where no one could reach it – with Miss Pryde inside of it. The hero of the day, and yet no one could do anything to help the person that had saved everyone's ass.

Breakworld wasn't destroyed. A conspiracy had led all of this to occur. We were all used by the leader of the resistance against Kruun for the sake of getting Mister Rasputin onto the planet to destroy it. I wished she was still alive. I wished I could give her the beating I wanted to so badly. The crazy bitch actually considered destroying her planet saving it, was willing to let ours be destroyed to accomplish it, and we lost someone precious preventing both.

Speaking of their 'Powerlord', he was deposed by Colossus, but kept in power because no one there wanted to run a whole planet. They would behave because if they didn't, we could always come back and finish the job. After that we all went home with our tails between our legs.

All of the scientists and mystics that knew they owed the X-Men their asses for bailing them out of the end of the world tried to help. All of those big brains, and none of them had any kind of solution to make the bullet stop, get the bullet back, pry it open, nothing. It was a real Humpty-Dumpty situation. All of those minds, and no one had any ideas on how to clean all of this up.

Mister Rasputin was a wreck. A metal shell of a man, if ever there was one. He and Miss Pryde had been together, romantically. They had just been reunited, and just like that they'd been split up again. Mister Summers didn't let anything show, but he was a lot more attentive to Hisako and I in the days after we got back. Believe it or not, Miss Frost actually shed a tear.

Mister Logan sulked around day drinking, at least until Hisako had snapped him out of it and sought him out for some training. Speaking of Hisako, she'd basically put her head down and put her shoulder to the plow. She started training a lot harder on her own. Solo training was all we really could do at this point. The semester was close to an end. Too close to replace the advisor to the Paladins. It was too soon for something like that, so it was for the best.

Again, we all tried to get back to normal, just like the last time some terrible happening had befallen us. This one hit a little bit closer to home than before.

"Yo, brahs," Eddie said, returning to where we were hanging out in the common area on a weekday night. It was me, Eddie, Ben from the Paragons, plus Julian, Santo, and Brian from the Hellions, "Fear not, I've come with a reload of refreshments."

Julian grinned at the sight of the two six-packs dangling from Eddie's hands, liquid sloshing around inside, "Nice, Tancredi," He said, telekinetically pulling a can away for himself, "You stole Logan's beers?"

Eddie faked offense at being accused of theft, "Who says they're his? They could be anyone's," He said in jest before waving it off, "That's the excuse I'm using if he comes after us, since I know you'll all bail on me."

Ignoring, of course, that we were way too young to be drinking in the first place.

Brian let out a laugh, waving off taking a can when one was passed his way, "Running away won't matter," He pointed out, "By the time you realize he's coming, he'll probably have us all ID'd by smell."

A rumbling laugh came from Santo's rocky throat, "God, that's weird to think about," He said, "Speaking of weird, how's it going with that new teammate of yours? She's like Logan, isn't she?"

Julian flicked the tab from the can over at his friend, bouncing it off of his head, "Santo, let the squad stuff go for tonight."

"What? You're more hard up about the squads than anyone?"

"And what just happened that would probably make it a really shitty thing to talk about, genius?"

Julian really wasn't a bad guy. He was just the mutant equivalent of the high school top dog jock. He legitimately thought he was better than everybody else, and went out of his way to prove it. But if you proved you had some spine and some talent, he'd back off, which he did after the whole Danger Room kerfuffle.

Granted, it wouldn't change everything about how he interacted with you, he was still an asshole, but it definitely helped cut down on the confrontations. For instance, I could sit down and drink a beer with the fucker.

While Julian and Brian were admonishing their teammate Santo, Eddie front-flipped over the back of a couch and landed on the cushion, tossing a beer to both me and Ben, "Here you go, glorious leaders. Pop one open and be somebody."

Ben nodded his thanks and did just that. I held the can out in front of me and stared up at the ceiling. I didn't feel much like hanging out, but I didn't want to be a downer.

Eddie gave me a hard pat on the back and a grin before turning his attention to the NBA Playoff game we had all gathered to watch that night. He was trying to keep spirits up on the team, not just here, but otherwise. I had to meet my main man halfway and make an effort to move forward.

"Why don't they tell us about this part?" Eddie asked, popping the tab of his can, "I mean, we always hear about the wins. All the times they stopped Magneto, or went into space and kicked ass-."

"-But the shit like this never came up, did it?" I said, getting a positive hum from Eddie as he started drinking, "When it doesn't go right. When they lose. There's a graveyard on the property for a reason," And we'd been there before, not too long ago.

We didn't have to go there again. Miss Pryde wasn't dead. She was just... lost. Gone. Away from us, somewhere we couldn't go and get her. Not easily.

"You want to talk about it?" Eddie asked, shrugging when I turned his way questioningly, "Hisako already talked to me. Probably didn't want to talk about it anymore than you do, but she did. Blindfold probably read both your minds already, so she knows what you're feeling better than you do."

Well, I had to talk to someone, and the last thing I wanted was some kind of therapy session again with someone like Miss Frost. Eddie was as good as anyone to talk to. Better than almost anyone, actually.

"I lied, Eddie," I eventually told him, opening my own drink, "I said something that I couldn't back up. I said it like it was a fact. Not only was I wrong, I was wrong at the top of my voice."

Eddie scoffed and took a sip of his beer, "Dude, there was literally nothing you could have done. You could have made it there with hours to spare, maybe a whole day. There wasn't a way to stop that thing from firing."

"It didn't sound like there was anything anyone could have done," Ben interjected, sounding a bit pensive at maybe prying into the conversation of others. There was no need. He was sitting right there. If I didn't want him to hear what I had to say, I wouldn't have said it or I would have left first.

"I know. That's what I mean," I said, bringing the fellow squad leader into our talk, "After the Danger Room thing, I always figured that, okay, we weren't ready for any of that. We got caught with our pants down and we got screwed. Fine. Make sure that doesn't happen again."

Everyone remembered. I kind of broke the atmosphere at the ceremony after the Field Day deaths. I said some brash shit. I ran my mouth to get everybody to stand tall, which I felt was fine... just so long as I could back it up. In the end, I didn't.

Replaying everything in my head, the way I always did when I ran a training program or fought, did nothing. No matter how many times I ran it all back, I couldn't think of anything that we could have realistically changed that would have made a difference for the better. It would have been funny if the outcome hadn't been so damned sad.

I took a sip and leaned back again, pressing the can to my head, "We did everything right. At least, it looked like we did. We made it in time. We got to the doomsday weapon, and then... poof," I opened the fist of my free hand, miming the release of dust, "It's like, 'Hey, congratulations! You did it! You still lose though!'"

Frustrating wasn't the word to define it. Maddening was more like it. It almost made you wonder what the point of it was. Leave it to someone else. But then, if everyone thought that way, who would be left to stop all of the disasters?

Speaking of which, "You're coming back, right?" Eddie asked, "The semester's almost over. You've had enough of what this place is really like. No one would blame you if you cut bait and left."

He had to have been kidding. Even Ben looked at him as if to ask if he had been serious. Eddie knew me better than that.

"And leave you guys all alone? No way. You guys need me, and you know it," I said, trying to bring some levity back to the proceedings, "I am the Paladins' guiding light in the dark, literally."

Eddie laughed and threw up the 'too sweet', "No, I know that already. I'm your hype man, remember?" I reciprocated with a 'too sweet' of my own, "You sure you still want to be an X-Man though?"

There was no question to be asked, "Yeah, because the rest of you still do," I told him. As much as it would eat away at me if anyone else got hurt, or worse, died, on my watch, it would tear me up that much more if I found out it happened and I wasn't around to at least try and do something to stop it, "Eddie, I don't care about saving the world. I fight for the people around me. That's what means the world to me."

Some people didn't have the stomach for this place. After the semester ended, a lot of kids probably wouldn't be back. A lot of kids' parents would probably pull them out. I wouldn't be one of them. Not if I could help it. But that's a part of this story for another time.

"Hey, hey, hey, halftime's ending!" Brian's voice called out as everybody else made their way back to the couches to sit down and watch the second half of the game.

"Alright!" Santo stomped over, taking a seat in a reinforced chair for the bigger students, "Hey, Tancredi, beer me!" Eddie grabbed one from one of the six-packs and tossed it over. Santo caught it in his big rocky mitt and crushed it when he grabbed onto it, "...Oops."

Beer dripped out of his hand onto the floor. I felt a smart remark coming on until I was cut off by a roaring voice from deep within the halls of the living areas.

"GRRRRR... WHO THE FUCK DRANK ALL MY GODDAMN BEERS!"

Everyone could feel Mister Logan's question accompanied by the metallic ring of his claws unsheathing. We all scattered like cockroaches when the lights came on. I watched the rest of the game in my room, in fear of having my door carved open by the Wolverine, thirsty for blood and alcohol.

It was a good thing I didn't sleep in the first place. I definitely wouldn't have gotten any sleep that night.

---

That's it for this chapter, guys. Whew, what a monster. But I couldn't find a natural place to split it, so I kept it all together.

And with that, the Paladins have lost their senior X-Men advisor to the depths of space in a mission that was doomed from the start. Another harsh reality of heroism, that sometimes your circumstances just won't allow you to win, especially when you're as curse-stricken as the X-Men seem to be.

So what comes next? We'll see. Until next time, I hope you enjoyed.

Kenchi out.