February 15th 2001, Somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, 9:00 PM EDT

"This is much slower than I expected." I groaned as I laid back on the seats in the cockpit of the Blackbird. "This thing is supposed to be some kind of super jet right? I assumed it would take an hour or two." My ears were bugging me, and I couldn't get them to pop, so my head was buzzing in the most annoying way.

Peter shook his head. "I could see why you might think that. The SR-71 Blackbird's cruising speed is twenty two hundred miles per hour, and the trip from New York to England is three thousand three hundred and ninety nine miles." He sounded excited to gush about the plane, since he'd been geeking out since he was it. "At top speed the flight would be an hour and a half or two hours, but we'd need all kinds of permits and stuff that would take ages to line up."

Jean, who was sitting across from us, nodded seriously. "True. I wish we could cut loose too. It would be nice to make the trip fast, but since there's no emergency we're stuck going about eleven hundred, which is almost twice the speed of most commercial planes." She closed her eyes. "Seems like we'll be there in about an hour, since we left at seven PM Eastern time."

"Well I like it." Purred Felicia from where her head was resting in my lap. "I think it's wonderful being able to stretch out and relax like this." She arched her back and wriggled around, pushing her tits out and making sure I got an eyefull. She'd been acting a bit territorial since she saw how interested Ororo was.

I wasn't the only one who looked though, and I was going to knock Scott's block off if he kept staring at what was mine. Logan had been eyeing her up too, and Jean looked pissed when she saw the older man enjoying my kitten's charms. I was pretty sure the old beast was mounting peppermint patty behind the ray ban wearing douche's back. Which on one hand made me smile because fuck Scott, but on the other hand seemed like a waste because the spunky little redhead was a cutie and was wasted on fucking Logan.

Not really my business, though from her interested looks I could probably MAKE it my business if I felt like trying. I guessed not being able to read me was fascinating. Sadly for her I had an abundant ass burned into my brain, and couldn't stop looking at Ororo and thinking about clapping those colossal cheeks. That was what had Felicia so annoyed I think, she could tell I wanted to dick down the gorgeous Moroccan girl (I'd asked about the accent).

I'd have liked to talk her into playing doubles, but no way even my permissive kitten would agree to sharing her first time with me, at least not without some resentment. It was on my list though.A double scoop of dumptruck booty was my new dram in life, since Ororo and Felicia had truly ridiculous wagons, and a two for one could only make that better.

Probably for the best Jean couldn't read my mind, since I'd been thinking about getting my dick wet with every single girl here on a rotating bases since we got on this plane. I hadn't been able to make time to fuck Betty, which meant I was super backed up, and seeing Ororo's booty hadn't helped. Neither did Felicia's head in my lap, but judging by her nuzzling and not much else she wasn't planning to drain my balls until we got some privacy.

I tried to focus more on the upcoming mission, pushing back the all encompassing horniness. "So, can we actually get into the British Royal Museum? Because I somehow doubt we're going to be able to tell them we're looking for an unknown artifact that may or may not have mystical properties."

Kitty, who was sitting as close to Peter as possible without climbing fully into his lap, perked up. "Oh! I can help!" Kitty had been allowed to come because pursuant to her folk's agreement with Uncle Chuck, this wasn't an X-men mission, so she was free to do as she wanted. What she wanted was pretty obviously to be slobbering on Peter's balls, but since neither of them were anywhere near gutsy enough to express that she was just trailing after him like a puppy while he looked at her shyly. "I can pass through walls and bypass security systems, so I can scope the place out for you."

Ororo grinned. "And I can make sure that we aren't noticed." She batted her lashes at me. "My power is weather control, and in London, the creation of a thick fog is simplicity itself. I can make it so no one can see anything at all. We could be doing practically anything right in front of a whole crowd and no one would have any idea what was happening. I can ensure complete...privacy."

She's noticed Felicia's glares too, and apparently taken them as a challenge. Felicia turned her head, nuzzling right up against my cock and taking a deep sniff, wiggling provocatively as she did. I groaned slightly, because we were in a crowd of people NOW and there was no fog, and I couldn't stuff either of these teases like a christmas stocking despite the overwhelming urge to do so.

I focused on Peter, who seemed to have completely missed Felicia and Ororo's posturing in favor of making moon eyes at his perky new squeeze. "That's amazing Kitty! How does that even work? I'd love to study your powers sometime if you'd be ok with it. Maybe we could train together or something."

It took most of my willpower not to make some comment about her mostly wanting to study anatomy when she nodded vigorously. "Of course! I'd love that. You could show me around your patrol route, maybe teach me how things work in the city." She pouted. "I can't go out on missions because of my folks, so all my training has been in controlled conditions."

Raising an eyebrow, I cut in. "You know, the Wreckoners don't have any sort of age limit or anything, or even an exclusivity clause. You could always come on some missions with us? Just to get a feel for field work." It would give Peter some more exposure to his new mutual crush, and it would give me a chance to possibly swipe one of Uncle Chuck's mutants.

Jean frowned at me. "I don't think the professor would appreciate that very much. His rules for us are for our own safety." I could tell she didn't like saying it, but felt the need to step in out of some misplaced big sisterly concern.

I smiled widely at her. "You can always come along and keep an eye on her. You seem like a capable and impressive woman, I'd love to have you with us in the field." I winked at Ororo. "Same with you beautiful, if you ever feel like checking our team out."

"That does sound interesting." The Moroccan girl mused in her gorgeous accent. "I suppose if our Kitty is going to be going out with you I should definitely appraise your capabilities. I'd have to really put you through your paces." Her voice was teasing and a little hungry, which seemed to go over Kitty's head as she practically glowed at the idea of going out on patrol with Peter.

Scott snorted. "I assume this is an open invitation?" He sounded annoyed, and it was obvious he considered me a threat to his chances with Jean, not that I thought he had any in the first place since he apparently didn't know she was playing hide the wild sausage with the world's flea bittenest lumberjack. I honestly was pretty sure her interest in me was mainly academic, so he was on the wrong track, but I admit I considered trying to talk her out of her panties just to prove all his fears true.

In the end it wasn't worth it though. Things with the two girls I was dealing with here now were already complicated enough. I still rolled my eyes at him. "Nope, sorry, trip is full. Try again next time."

Kitty snorted and tried to hide a giggle, and even Jean smirked a bit. Scott looked pissed, but since it was my team he couldn't actually say shit about it. "Anyway." I said firmly. "Kitty, can you bring people along? We need Peter on the inside taking a look at the artifacts around the area we want so he can spot any inconsistencies." I glared at him. "Assuming you've been doing research for part of the flight and not just playing footsie."

They both blushed, but Peter held up a laptop. "Yeah. I have been. Looking into any connections between the museum and the story Strange told us. Whatever the item is I'm sure I can find it."

The brunette girl nodded. "Yeah, I can bring him with me. It won't be easy but I'll manage." She looked over at Peter. "Do we know how the object is connected to the Rosetta Stone exactly?"

Our resident nerd growled in frustration. "We don't even know IF they're connected. We just know Gilgamesh was studying the Rosetta Stone diligently during the time period he was supposed to have the artifacts." Peter sighed tiredly. "If I had to guess I'd say the Zodiac Key or accompanying artifact had some kind of code or something on it. Since the Rosetta Stone is a catch all for ancient languages maybe there was some kind of hidden cipher for whatever language is on there. Maybe directions to the lock that the key opens or instructions on how to use it?"

That sounded reasonable. I kind of wished we could have gotten our hands on the thing, but I wasn't likely to bring that up. Peter felt bad enough about letting them get away without bringing that up. He and Felicia had almost died in that warehouse after all. Speaking of Felicia, I reached down to flick her forehead.

She made a small squeak and lifted her head from my lap to glare at me. I think she'd actually tried to go to sleep like that, and I had to resist rolling my eyes. "So, are you ok with this?" I asked her quietly. "Running off to do this instead of going after Kingpin?" Peter was talking with Kitty loud enough that my lowered tones couldn't be heard across the plane, except maybe by Logan, but who cared what that asshole thought about anything?

I expected her to either get angry or wave it off, but she bit her lip, sitting up and leaning against me so her mouth was near my ear. To anyone else it would have looked like she was climbing into my lap, which wasn't out of character given what they'd seen of her. "I think so." She murmured. "I want to get him so bad I can taste it. But if these guys could potentially end the world or something that would get in the way of my revenge. I want your word we aren't writing this off though."

Snorting, I shook my head. "We had a deal kitten. You get Kingpin's head on a spike and I get you. You joined the team, so I'll hold up my end." She had done more than that, and we both knew it. She gave herself to me completely on the assumption I could do this for her. People like Fisk were basically human cancer anyway, so this was a win-win for me.

She snuggled into me. "Then I'm perfect. I won't push you to ignore obvious pressing issues if you're definitely going to do it." She smirked at me. "Besides, this gets you away from that girlfriend of yours. Though I'm not thrilled to have to fight over you with that fat bottomed slut with the weather powers. I knew what I was getting into though, and I can share as long as I still get my piece.I'm just glad the redhead is only intrigued and not interested in you. Not that I think much of her taste. The hairy old guy isn't exactly a prime cut."

"I would PAY to hear you say that to him." I said with a grin. "But I don't actually need to because he heard it anyway. If he hassles you just let me know. His extra hard bones and unbreakable knuckle pokers aren't in my league, and I'll turn his snarly ass inside out if he tries to pressure you." That was a warning for Logan directly, and he knew it was true. I wasn't sure it would stop him, but I wasn't lying, if he tried to lay a finger on my kitten I'd crush him.

This team was kind of a mess. We had the redhead who seemed to want to be buddies with me because she couldn't read my mind and was banging the middle aged (or older) wild man with the healing power. The eye beam douche who was interested in the redhead and was mistaking her interest in my mental immunity for interest in me just because she ogled my chest a bit. The white haired weather witch with an ass even bigger than my white haired cat burglar who wouldn't quit fighting with them and my resident tech head who was swooning over an equally besotted ghost powered girl.

It certainly wasn't boring, at the very least. Count on Uncle Chuck to send me some entertainment on this trip. I cuddled with Felicia for a bit longer until we finally began our descent into London. "Alright." Said Scott seriously. "We've descending into Heathrow. Now what everyone will do is-"

"Whatever the fuck I say." I said firmly. "Or at least YOU have no input at all. Ororo and Jean were sent on this mission, and Logan is playing chaperon. You bullied your way into us taking you to watch Kitty, but I have zero interest in your opinion. Shut up and look like an Abercrombie mannequin and leave actual operations to the professionals thanks."

I saw him grit his teeth, and vaguely wondered if he'd try to fight me until a gruff voice from the front of the plane barked. "He's right kid." From the cockpit. Logan. "This is his show, so keep your mouth shut and let him run it. Don't worry, I won't let him do anything stupid."

Resisting the urge to tell him he couldn't stop me from doing as many stupid things as I liked, I nodded smugly at Scott. As we touched down, Jean called ahead for a car to meet us at the airport to take us to the museum and I considered what our next moves should be. Technically we were just breaking into a museum which shouldn't be hard with our powers, but deep down I couldn't shake the feeling something might be waiting. Oh well, how bad could a trap set by some ancient thug be anyway. Like anyone was afraid of Gilgamesh.

February 16th 2001, British Royal Museum, 2:00 AM EDT

Contrary to my opinions, we did NOT end up rushing into the museum after a ten minute check from Peter and Kitty. The girl was competent and determined to prove herself, both to Peter and the rest of the team, and she made no bones about the fact that the search would take as long as it took. We, in the meantime, posted up across the street while Ororo flooded the area with mist, letting the stuff seep into the museum itself to help our crew.

It took hours for her to go over every inch of the place, but when she and Peter finally came back, our resident genius laid a small book on the table. "Ok. This is all the information I could gather. I drew out maps for every wing, marked the guard posts, and wrote down the timing for the patrols based on my observation. I also took the liberty of highlighting the fastest route to Rosetta stone room and marking not only the locations of all the sensors but the angles of all the cameras and their blind spots."

Felicia plucked it off the table. "Anhauser." She said simply. "Decent security system, but the thermals they use are bargain basement bullshit. I assume you guys were easily able to avoid the heat sensors even outside of non corporeal form. Ororo's mist probably isolated them enough to render them nearly useless unless someone gets pretty damn close."

The X-men with us gave her a suspicious look when they heard how she dissected the security, but Pete and I knew she was a thief so we didn't bat an eye. I raised an eyebrow at her from behind my mask. "That should be helpful. We might need to be in there a while, can you shut down the rest of the system enough for us to walk around in there unnoticed?"

Peter and Kitty had done a damn good job, but they'd stayed moving, using her power and his own wall crawling to avoid guards and security systems alike. Felicia flipped through a few pages. "Yeah. If the cheerleader is ok with another ride along this time I can shut it down, I need to get to the control room, but if we're going to take up a position we're going to need to make sure the guards don't stumble on us."

I looked over at Jean. "Can you keep an eye on the guards with telepathy? If we know they're coming, Ororo can create diversions with her abilities whenever they get close. Assuming you can't just like...mind control them. I don't know how your powers work."

She gave me a sour look. "I am NOT mind controlling the guards." I noticed she didn't say she couldn't. "But I can monitor them to help Ororo."

It was easy to tell she was annoyed. It was almost funny how badly she wanted to be the rebel bad girl, but she was too responsible to make it stick. She seemed to default to disapproving big sister mode. I was shocked someone like her was willing to break bad enough to bounce on Wolvie's dick. Maybe she had daddy issues or something.

Giving a nod, I turned and said to Felicia. "Ok, you and Kitty head in to shut down the security system. Jean will let us know when it's done and we can head in. Just meet us in the room with the Rosetta Stone." I turned to Peter. "I assume you have some way of checking the thing for codes and whatnot?"

My masked buddy nodded, holding up a weird baton looking thing. "Multi-wave optical frequency oscillator. MOFO for short." Kitty giggled and my friend's chest puffed up a bit. "This will not only allow me to scan the surface of the stone to upload the images into a program that will cross reference all the symbols with the time period in question, it will ALSO scan a few layers beneath the surface of the rock to find hidden glyphs and images."

He sounded proud as hell, and I had to admit he had a reason. I clapped him on the shoulder. "Damn impressive man. I didn't know you had gear like that." I was pretty sure he'd made the damn thing too, because it looked cobbled together despite obvious attempts to pretty it up. I might have underestimated just how much of a nerd Peter was, because while calculating the distances of some steps to spring us from a spell was crazy, THIS was a whole other level.

Felicia and Kitty vanished into the mist, and I turned to Ororo. "You sure you can hold this?" I looked around in amazement. "Because...this is a fuck ton of mist. Like...isn't this tiring?" The fog bank here was thicker than pea soup, and it had come out of nowhere. Not to mention she was pushing it into the museum proper, and who knew how much effort it was taking to move it around in there.

She opened her eyes. "No. It isn't tiring. My power doesn't work like that. Once I got the fog in place I only need to make small adjustments inside the building. Not to mention this is London. Fog conditions are a fact of life here, especially this time of night. Causing this was much easier than it would be elsewhere, and not even suspicious because I bet they've had this problem a dozen times."

"Still." I said. It was weird being in the fog like this. It was thick enough that anyone more than a few feet away might as well not be there, so despite all of us being on this side of the street we were basically alone. "This is damn impressive. You've got to be working your ass off to do fine manipulation of the fog inside. Or am I wrong?"

She grinned at me, turning around to wiggle her leather clad ass at me. "I'm not sure. Is it still there?" She chuckled and then turned back to face me. "It's not easy, but I don't mind. This seems like a fun mission, and I'm glad I got to participate. Not least of which is because Kitty is a sweet girl. She deserves to have a chance to use her powers like this. Thanks for giving it to her. Anyway, I need to get closer for some small scale alterations, I'll be back." I watched her go, happy she was so enthusiastic about all this.

"It's time." Called Jean from off to one side. I turned to look at the redhead through the fog as she stepped close enough to be seen. "Black Cat was able to get it done pretty fast. She's shockingly good at this kind of thing." She paused, and expected a comment on her thievery, but instead she said hesitantly. "Also...she might want to look into therapy. Her worldview isn't exactly the healthiest thing. I won't share details because that would be wrong, but she could use someone to talk to."

The news that my slightly nympho revenge obsessed potential booty call had issues wasn't really lost on me, but I wasn't in a position to tell anyone their shit wasn't on right, so I just shrugged. "Healthy is what gets you through the day, red. Those in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. I'm happy with who I am but most people wouldn't consider me too healthy either, whatever Cat needs to do to get by is on her. I'm around to listen but I won't assume I know best for her."

She paused. "That's...surprisingly sensitive coming from you." She flinched. "Not that I know you at all, or can really say anything about how you live your life or-" She started babbling, trying to back pedal, and I burst out laughing at the panicked look on her face.

"Relax red, I just said I'm not perfect. " I said with a laugh. "I'm not gonna bite your head off for agreeing with me. Besides let's be real here. Being a mind reader is bound to make anyone confident in their judgement. I bet not being able to read me is really throwing you for a loop. Must be shitty trying to learn to interact with someone without the input you've had your whole life. Like trying to walk around when you suddenly can't see."

Cocking her head at me, she frowned a bit. "You're much more perceptive than most people think, aren't you? I'll be honest, I kind of assumed even without the mind reading I had you pegged. I figured all you thought about was fighting and fucking and you just bulldozed through life. But you think things through more than I expected."

"That why you've been staring at me? I thought you liked the show when I was shirtless." I knew that wasn't why actually, but I wanted to fuck with her about it a bit.

She blushed lightly, having stepped close enough for me to see that. "I don't hate the view, but I'm seeing someone. It was more curiosity. I'd like to maybe talk more though. As friends." She grinned at me. "Are you capable of having female friends you don't have sex with?"

I laughed. "That question shows you're plenty good at reading people, mind powers or no. Yeah, I can do friendship, I can't promise not to be a little flirty, it's my nature, but I can try to dial it back." I stopped. "Wait, I should mention first that if you change your mind I'd totally be down to bang you. NOW I can be platonic friends."

Jean rolled her eyes. "I don't think you know what that means, but I'll teach you all about it. First lesson, saying that you're going to be waiting to have sex with me the second I'm ok with it is NOT platonic."

"So I should have just implied it?" I said casually as we headed for the museum entrance. "Because that seems arbitrary."

Jean threw her hands up with a groan. "No, Billy, the issue is not the SUBTLETY with which you propositioned me. It's that you did it at all. Friends don't make sexually suggestive comments to each other." She paused self consciously. "Well, I mean mine don't I know some people have relationships like that."

"So telling you how nice your ass is in that jumpsuit is off the table?" I said with feigned seriousness. Then yelped as a rock slammed into my shin. "Fuck! You did that didn't you?"

Jean just strolled forward with her nose in the air. "I have no idea what you're talking about. If anything hurt you just now it was probably just the universe punishing you for your bad joke." She stopped and looked over her shoulder, mostly hidden by the mist in all but outline. "And don't look at my ass when I walk away." Then she turned and left.

"A platonic female friend huh? Weird." The closest I'd had to that was Alli, and I threw her a bone every time one of us was feeling rowdy. Sure we hung out when we weren't fucking, but this would be a new experience for me. Oh well, could be fun, plus I was already finding myself ass deep in women. Having someone to talk to about it might be nice, especially a mind reader.

Gathering up at the entrance, Jean helped coordinate us and then led us inside, helping our group avoid any of the patrols based on the path that Kitty had mapped out. Once we arrived in the room with the Rosetta Stone I looked over to our resident weather witch. "Hey, Rory, pull back the curtain for us will you beautiful?"

The Moroccan girl stopped and turned to me slowly. "Rory?" She said flatly. I just stared back, until she finally sighed and rolled her eyes. She flicked a hand and the fog within the Rosetta Stone exhibit rolled away, revealing a large room. Peter strode forward, unslinging the backpack he'd had the MOFO in. He pulled out the scanner, a laptop, and a few leads with other kinds of sensors on them and started his work.

Kitty and Felicia came out of the fog. "Ok." Said Felicia seriously. "I couldn't justify a full breakage. The shutdown sequence is timed. The thing will boot back up in three hours, which will be about an hour before the place opens for the day. We'd better be out of here by then."

"Yeah." Said Kitty excitedly. "And I was able to loop the cameras for us, so there won't be any trace of us here." I was sure Peter would have given Felicia some way to do that if she couldn't herself, so I assumed she'd let Kitty help to further my goal of getting her on the team.

Peter was so engrossed in his scans he didn't even notice when his new crush approached, but she didn't seem too upset about it. He was typing furiously on the laptop between passes with the wand. After about fifteen minutes he stopped and turned to me. "Ok...we might have an issue."

"What kind of issue." I said cautiously. "Like...there's a bomb here issue, or like a we've got nothing kind of issue."

He looked at me grimly. "More like a 'there's a guy inside that rock' type issue." He turned the laptop around to show me the screen, where I could see a hazy outline.

"Who or what the fuck is THAT?" I said in confusion. "Is he wearing armor?"

"Yeah, and it's solid gold for some reason." He highlighted some text. "Based on this hidden string of cuneiform I'm pretty sure this is a stasis chamber or something. Gilgamesh didn't hide the object that the Key opens in here. He hid HIMSELF. Though I have no clue why he would have done that. No real description either. It just explains a brief summary of who is in there, and then the name of some Sumerian creation myth. Enuma Elish."

We all froze as the letters and symbols on the stone began to glow. A deep red light suffused the room, followed by a grinding sound as the front face of the Rosetta stone began to rise, revealing an empty space in the center. We all turned to glare at Peter, who flinched back. "Oh COME ON. How was I supposed to new it was voice activated? That was so not my fault."

"You know." I snarled. "For a genius you can sure be an idiot sometimes." I took up position in front of the stone, condensing a pair of hypocenters on my fists as the man inside came into view. Pale, regal looking, with golden blonde hair and golden armor. As his eyes snapped open and I saw the red irises I felt a sliver of ice run up my spine. I had a feeling this was going to be a mess.

February 16th 2001, British Royal Museum, 3:00 AM EDT

"So..." I said slowly. "Does anyone else see the douchey looking guy in golden armor glaring at us like he wants to flay us alive?" My team members all nodded, and I sighed resignedly. "Yeah...I was afraid of that. I was kind of hoping it was just me."

The blood red eyes scoured us all, drilling into us like the man was hoping to see our souls. The condescending sneer on his lips as he took us in wasn't really giving me the impression that he was a warm and fuzzy person. I had to admit, this wasn't what I pictured when I thought of Gilgamesh.

The ancient kind took a long breath. "Time." He said derisively. "Another treasure for me to hoard. Your reasons for waking me, mongrels? Are you simply thieves? Or is it to be some favor of boon you wish to beseech?" As he finished speaking, his eyes snapped to our resident redhead, glaring her down. "You dare?"

We all looked at Jean, who winced. "Ow." She said, holding her skull. "I can't see his mind. It's...protected, somehow." When she saw us all staring she flushed a bit. "Sorry, it's kind of my go to reaction to meeting powerful unknown entities" She turned to look at Logan. "Don't suppose you know this guy?"

The hairy man actually looked a little offended. "Being older than I look doesn't make me prehistoric. I wasn't around in ancient sumeria, red." Jean giggled a bit at the reaction, and I saw Scott scowl at the exchange. Maybe he did know his girl was getting her milkshake blended by Logan. Or maybe he was just a possessive dick who pined after a girl who barely noticed him and got pissy when she interacted with any other man. Based on my interactions with him I was leaning toward the latter.

"Um, guys?" Said Kitty hesitantly. "I don't think we should be ignoring the ancient hero king. He doesn't seem amused." At her worried tone, I looked up to see Gilgamesh stepping from his stone sarcophagus.

Deciding to take charge, I stepped forward myself, drawing his attention. "Alright, Jean, no more trying to mind read our new friend. Everyone else, shut up and let me talk. Especially Scott."

"I didn't even SAY anything." Protested the glasses wearing dick hotly.

"No, but I really don't like your face. So shut up on general principle." Ororo snickered at that, but I ignored her to focus on Gilgamesh. "So, Gil. Can I call you Gil? We're here about an artifact that you had in your possession quite some time ago. One you decided to get rid of for some reason. We didn't know you were here, and didn't mean to try to wake you up. We just kind of needed more information about the Zodiac Key."

His eyes flashed, and a series of portals opened around him, what looked like lances and swords slowly easing out of them, aimed directly at us in a way that couldn't be seen as anything but a naked threat. "Know your place, mongrel. You speak to the king of heroes. Show me respect, or I'll carve it into your cooling corpse."

I twitched, annoyed. This guy wasn't exactly likable. I wanted to punch him even more than Scott. However I ALSO didn't want to get me and everyone I brought with me riddled with what looked like very sharp and based on some of the glows, possibly magical weapons. "Apologies." I grunted out. "Your majesty." That last bit kind of hurt to say, but it hurt less than a spear the size of my leg to the gut, so I swallowed my pride.

The golden asshole preened. "It seems even the dregs can be taught. I recognize your untruth, but knowing your place is more important than sincerity. As for your purpose...you seek no information, you seek the astrolable. You wish to follow the map to the vault that key unlocks." He clicked his tongue. "Fools. You seek to unearth that which should stay buried."

"What, exactly." Said Peter, eyes boring into Gilgamesh intensely. The crimson irises flickered over to my friend, who repeated himself. "What should stay buried? What are we seeking to unearth? Because you seem pretty much unruffled by us, and some of us are scary. Now maybe you can't tell how strong we are, but anything as old as you probably has some tricks for sensing danger. So what made you decide to give up the key and hide in a stone box for however many decades?"

A dozen new portals formed, more weapons emerging, and they all angled at Peter menacingly. "I do NOT hide." Snarled the enraged king. "I simply...wait. Prudence is not cowardice. Should he awaken, I could destroy him myself. But not without cost. So I chose to lie in wait. To bide my time until another answer became apparent."

"Wait." I said slowly. "So the key was...bait? You were dangling it out into the world to try to find someone who could beat this...whoever he is? That's stupid. How would you even know the people who came were strong. It's not like you arranged a te-" I stopped, sighing and pinching the bridge of my nose. "We have to fight you for the astrolable, don't we?"

The king of heroes smiled, for the first time since I'd met him. It wasn't a pleasant smile. There was no joy or warmth. Only a dark, violent amusement. "Not at all, mongrel. Were I searching for one who could unseat me I would have been sealed for eons. No, you need not defeat me. You need only survive." His eyes shone, and the dozen or two portals became a fucking thousand of the things. "Of course, that would be more than the last few searchers managed."

He flicked his hand casually and a fucking WATERFALL of razor sharp weapons came roaring toward us. Without thinking I punched the air, smashing the space in front of us in one of the largest expressions of energy I could safely manage.

As the dozen or two weapons bounced off the broken space, the rest were driven back by a massive wind vortex on one side and a burst or telekinetic force on the other, as Jean and Ororo deflected the attack outside my radius. As the weapons fell away, they dissolved into a shower of red sparks, and I saw the same exact weapons begin to slowly ease out of the portals.

"Logan, get Spidey, Cat, and Kitty out of here." I paused. "I guess Scott too, but don't like...put yourself out or anything." A squawk of affront came from the glasses douche, but since I was busy and also who cared, I ignored him. The space I'd broken, which had been a stable shield for a while, broke down, and a burst of powerful shockwaves roared across the chamber at Gilgamesh.

Deciding discretion was the better part of not demolishing a national landmark, I just said. "Fuck it, I got this." And snatched up Felicia and Ororo, getting squeaks of surprise from both girls as I barreled out of the building while Gil was distracted.

Peter, being faster than me, grabbed Kitty and booked it himself, and Jean snagged Scott and Logan, much to my disappointment. I heard Gil roar with outrage, until Ororo tossed a fucking lightning storm over my shoulder at him, slowing him down.

Once we got outside, I could see the portals glowing from within the building. Lots of them. He was coming at us for another pass and our asses were grass if we just kept defending. Somehow this was costing him almost no energy, and Ororo, Jean, and I had used a ton of power from what I could tell.

Dropping the girls in the grass across the street as I stopped I stripped off my jacket, planting my feet as I turned to face the building. "Ororo, I need a funnel cloud around that place. Impassible winds. Kitty, you work with Jean to get the guards out, go in through the ground. Do them one at a time if you need to. I might be able to drop this asshole, but it's going to be heavy on collateral damage."

Ororo nodded, and her eyes began to glow as the winds picked up around the building. Jean and Kitty broke off to one side. Peter stepped up next time as I started to gather energy. This was going to be EXTREMELY difficult. It was more energy than I could safely use, and while I was willing to let the fallout be what it was, I'd still need to CONTAIN enough energy and then shape it.

"This is going to be a big deal isn't it?" Peter said in a hushed tone. He's waited a few minutes to talk, letting me do my thing for a while before chiming in. I nodded tightly, not daring to waste enough concentration to speak. This move was something I'd never used before. I'd come up with it, trained it on a smaller scale, but it caused way too much destruction for me to use it any circumstances that weren't life or death, even proper training. He crossed his arms. "Alright. I'm with you. Do what you need to do."

I must have looked surprised, even with my focus, because he chuckled. "Look, Billy. You might not be the most careful guy, but I trust you. It's clear that you thought about this enough to have the girls get the civilians out. So if you think you need to do this, then do it. I'm with you all the way." The hypocenters around my hands had been growing brighter. Not bigger, but brighter, and the I felt the energy in them start to destabilize, little sparks and skips of power coming off the orbs.

Clamping down on them with my will, I forced the energy to solidify. This wasn't anything I could do mid fight, not really. But with time to work I had the inner strength to tame much more of my power than I was capable of safely using on the fly. Combined with this being a matter of most of the damage being unleashed AFTER I used the attack, it was enough for me to do it. I was getting close.

Jean and Kitty sprinted over. "Alright." They panted. "We got them out. There were only a few people inside. Whatever you're going to do, do it now, because that tornado is looking like a pincushion." She pointed and I noticed the spears and swords trying and failing to break through the vortex.

"Rory!" I bellowed. "Wait until the next barrage and then cut the wind. I've got it from here." She called back an affirmative, and I waited, holding onto more power than I could have imagined using this morning. After a second the wind began to die down, vanishing as quickly as it came.

I glanced at the museum. A row of columned stone buildings, this would be easier because I knew that there was no one inside and the damage would be localized. I smashed both hands forward, shattering the space, but rather than punching, my hands were open.

As the power cracked the air, I curled my fingers in the shattered world, and with all my strength, dragged one up, and one down, making a circular motion. As I did, I released all my energy, and the vibrations tore through the world, half in one direction, half in the other.

The massive shift in energy in that pattern did exactly what I'd wanted it to do. It tore up an entire fucking building and the ground underneath it, and dropped the whole son of a bitch on the museum hall we'd all just come out of, where Gil was currently waiting. I knew because he'd come to the door to try to get a better view to attack the vortex.

I locked eyes with him as the building smashed down, a massive football field sized sheet of earth crashing into the museum and flattening the whole fucking place like a pancake. I dropped to my knees as the aftershocks rippled through the earth, too exhausted to stand. Felicia was at my side in an instant, Peter joining her as they tried to help me sit down. At five hundred pounds my kitten didn't have the muscle to hold me up.

"Holy shit." Said Kitty, with muted awe. "That was...that was insane. I've never seen anyone do anything like that. You completely destroyed him."

"That." Said a clipped, familiar, very annoying voice. "Is a tad optimistic." We all turned to see Gil, sitting in some kind of weird golden ship throne, head on his palm, smiling down at me with interest. "But I'd say you passed the test at least." He glanced at the utter devastation I'd unleashed. "I admit your attack capabilities are...adequate."

As we stared in stunned horror at our enemy, completely fine, he smiled and a portal opened over his hand. A small, intricate, golden clockwork device dropped into his palm, and he tossed it carelessly at us, only for Peter to dive for the thing. The astrolabe, I would assume.

I wanted to call him an asshole, to yell and scream, but I couldn't beat him, especially not like this. And he WAS giving us what we wanted. Well, almost. We didn't have the twins, but we had what they wanted, and we hadn't been quiet about getting it, they would come for it soon. Which only left the question of what the fuck IT was.

"What does this lead to?" I said seriously, pointing to the astrolabe. "You said it would unearth someone. Someone powerful. Someone even you acknowledged. Who? At least tell us that," The throne had begun to rise into the air, but it stopped at my question, already oriented to shoot off into the night.

Without looking back at me, Gil sighed. "I suppose a showing like that earned at least some degree of reward. You might be a mongrel, but you're a powerful mongrel. You'll be useful when he arises, as I know he eventually will. Fine. You ask his name, I do not know it. Have never. He predates me, predates the gods, predates this world perhaps. He has slept for generations, and lived for eons."

"Ok." I said frustratedly. "But that means nothing if we don't know what to call him."

He smiled. "But you do. His name is lost, but they do have a word to describe him. It was used in ancient times, to speak of his coming, and struck such fear and horror into those who heard it that through the millennia it became synonymous with death and destruction on a scale that ends the very world. A being so horrible that they identify his very existence as the end of times. They called him...Apocalypse."

February 16th 2001, British Royal Museum, 3:00 AM EDT

"Shouldn't we...I don't know. Go help with cleanup?" Said Jean uneasily as we watched the fire crew dig out the destroyed building. We were far enough away that the thick fog Ororo had barely been able to reconjure was covering us completely, up on a nearby hill.

I groaned. "No. Because A. You'd have to explain why you and Kitty knew about the incident early enough to evac the guards, and B. Because I don't have the money to pay for an entire museum building. The Rosetta stone was in there. That shit is priceless, there's no possible way I have enough money for it, and all the other shit in that building. We saved the people, and property damage isn't my problem."

The redhead didn't look convinced, but Kitty piped up. "Jean, we didn't have masks on. The chances of any cameras catching us are slim in that mess, but I don't think we want to stick around where we might get caught and arrested. We have some leeway because the Professor's friendships, but this is way beyond that. It would hurt the X-men if we were linked to this."

Jean glared at me. "This wouldn't have happened if you'd help back a little. You could have killed somebody with that stunt."

I just shrugged. "I was trying to kill somebody. Sadly it didn't take. But as for holding back, I have two settings. Controllable close range, or absolute devastation. Close range wasn't cutting it. I didn't see you managing to put down the golden oldie. A thank you would be nice, since I'm pretty sure he was trying to pincushion us."

She opened her mouth to respond, but Ororo cut her off. "Enough." Said the older girl. I hadn't really noted it with all the flirting, but she was probably early twenties, older than anyone except Logan. "Jean, I understand your agitation. That was...very overwhelming. But Billy isn't at fault here. He did what he needed to do to protect the team. Try to aim your anger where it's warranted."

The redhead deflated. She slumped back onto the grass, hands over her face as she sighed deeply. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right." She looked at me sheepishly. "I'm sorry. This isn't on you. I guess not knowing what you're thinking makes it easy to jump to the worst case scenario." She frowned. "I still think you were reckless, but this wasn't your fault. Maybe Kitty's right, maybe we should just go home."

Felicia shook her head. "No way." We all looked at her. She pointed at the building. "We managed to beat the twins here, but we left a hell of a calling card. No chance they don't track us down for the Astrolabe. We each have half of the puzzle, which means something's gotta give. They have to jump us, and if we go home, they're going to do it in New York, where they clearly have resources."

Peter nodded. "That makes sense. Finding out where Fisk's shipment was going must have taken a huge network. I mean sure, they're European and probably have resources to tap here too, but we KNOW they have people in New York. Waiting nearby to lure them in might be a smart call."

"What?" Snapped Scott angrily. "We are not going to play bait with you! We agreed to fly you out here and help you get that thing out of the museum. Knowing what it does I can concede that was a good call, but I refuse to put my people in danger by letting them-"

"Whose people?" Interrupted Jean cooly. Scott stopped talking. "We've had this discussion before Scott. You aren't in charge. Logan is the senior team member on this mission. Billy is the mission leader, and I'm the ranking junior member. You aren't the one who calls the shots here. You don't decide what we do."

The sunglasses douche, sneered at her. "Oh, and I'm sure you wanting to help has nothing to do with you drooling over him when he had his shirt off."

Jean surged to her feet with a snarl. "Enough! Get back to the plane. You're off this mission. This is clearly an important situation with serious repercussions. Having briefly noted that Billy is attractive doesn't make me compromised. The fact that you can imagine putting everyone on this team in danger because you want to stick your dick in someone says more about you than it does about me. And for your information, I'm already seeing someone, not that it's any of your business. Logan and I have been having sex for a few months now."

Scott paled, stumbling back in shock. "What? But...he's a teacher. And like...sixty years older than you." He glared at Logan. "What the fuck is wrong with you? She's nineteen!"

No one was impressed by his outrage, given the whole, seething jealousy thing. Jean didn't let him change the subject. "Who I have sex with is between me and them. I'm an adult, which is more than I can say for you, based on your behavior. As I said. You're off this mission. Return to the Blackbird. Now."

Snarling, the preppy asshole turned and stalked off into the fog. I didn't bother hiding my snickers, but Jean was too pissed to glare, she just rolled her eyes at my childishness. I turned to Logan. "You're a huge dick, but kudos on tapping that." The redhead narrowed her eyes at me. "What? Friends are allowed to be happy for friends when they get laid. I can't exactly congratulate you because Logan looks like a shaved buffalo to me. One person in this relationship is clearly punching up, and it definitely isn't you."

That actually got a giggle from her, and a glower from the older man, but she just walked over and pecked him on the cheek, whispering in his ear. He looked pretty mollified by whatever it was, good for him. Felicia seemed unimpressed with Jean's taste, and more willing to show it now that things were out in the open. Logan had been leering and she didn't like him much.

Ororo looked unconcerned, but Kitty's eyes were wide and her jaw was hanging open. "You and...Mr. Logan?" She looked at the man, blushing a little, but I didn't think it was attraction so much as the whole teacher student thing. Peter still looked annoyed at the glance, which made me smile.

"Well, if today's episode of the Old and the Restless is over could we get back to the possible end of the world? Because...I live on the world. Kind of like it how it is. And I don't know about you but a guy whose name apparently gave us the word for the end of life as we know it seems like the kind of neighbor I could do without."

Jean seemed to snap to attention, turning off her affectionate mode to be pure team leader. I was pretty impressed. She had a knack for keeping an eye on the prize when it counted. "Right...bait. I think we should help. But we should also rest. They might be on your trail, but even once they get here they'll need time to track us down. If we hole up somewhere nearby I can keep an ear out with telepathy and let you know when they're coming."

I nodded gratefully. I was...fucking wrecked. Exhausted and shaky. My head was pounding and my eyes wanted to close so bad I could taste it. I wasn't in shape to be fighting anyone. I would if I had to, but I'd drained a huge chunk of my energy, and I needed rest and probably a metric fuck ton of food to recover. Speaking of which. "How about we stop for something to eat first? Because I can't recharge without some grub."

Ororo nodded, letting out an almost sexual moan. "Food. Yes. I need that so badly right now. Anyone know of a place nearby to eat?"

Jean didn't bother to argue, and Logan surprisingly did know a place open at three in the morning. The Grange White Hall hotel nearby had a restaurant called the English Garden. We all wanted some food, so we headed there, and everyone ordered way too much, on my dime mind you, not that I cared, and we all sat down to eat. To my lack of surprise, Ororo took a seat next to me.

"So." She said with a smile. "You're pretty impressive." To my surprise she didn't vamp on me or purr the compliment, it was sincere and she clearly felt like she was speaking to an equal. I was kind of touched. I liked the sex kitten routine, but realistically I had one of those, and pretty much the sexiest one imaginable. Ororo seemed pretty badass (thick clappable cheeks not withstanding) and I was interested to learn more.

"Thanks." I said with a smile. We'd stripped off all masks and uniforms in an alley with no cameras, so my face was visible. "You kicked ass out there too. Where'd you learn to handle your powers like that?"

She gave a wry grin. "I may not have been the most...rule abiding girl in the past. I've used my abilities for some less than reputable things in the past. Things that gave me some preparation for robbing a museum." She gave me a sly look. "Seems like white haired thieves are something of a type for you."

"Oh really?" I asked smugly. "And what makes you think that you're my type? "

She leaned in close to whisper. "Because you stare at my ass like you want to suffocate between my cheeks, and even your pretty kitty can see how badly you want me." The feeling of her hot breath in my ear had me hard as a rock. She pulled back, putting on an innocent expression. "So, how did you like working with the X-men? Thinking about making this team up a regular thing?"

I snorted at the abrupt tone shift. "Well, I think I'd need some more time with the team members. Seeing how I work with them individually. Especially you. I'd have to give you a thorough inspection." If she could flirt so could I. She bit her lip, looking me over hungrily, and then I decided to do a subject change of my own. "So. How did you get into thievery."

Shaking off her obvious lust, she focused on the question. It seemed thinking of whatever it was threw cold water on her libido. "I came over from Morocco as a girl. Things were...not ideal there. I lived in Tangier. It's a hard place. Hot and dry and brutal at times. I hear it's been getting better, though not in the parts where I lived. I fled to the United States because of...interest. Power and beauty is a bad combination in most places, and Tangier wasn't different. I'd have been locked up and kept as a pet."

Her voice was clinical as she talked about being captured and used for sex and power. Like it didn't even phase her. I imagined people had tried that more than a few times. It was...horrible to think about. Freedom was all I put a premium on, and the idea of being taken against your will and forced to be a tool. It was sickening to me. I reached out and grabbed her hand. I'm not an empathetic guy, but her life had some disturbing mirror parallels to mine. She was my worst case scenario.

She squeezed back with a soft smile. "When I got to the US, I was free. I gloried in it. Adored it. I used my freedom however I wanted. If I saw a car I wanted I stole it. If I saw a man I wanted I had him. Kitty tells me that I was experiencing what the Amish call 'Rumspringa'. That girl spends far too much time reading. In any case, as you might expect, that caught up with me. I stole a car and the police caught me. I tried to use my powers to get away, but...I lost control. There were children there. So I bottled it up, and I was caught."

I whistled. "Yeah. I could see how that would be rough. You seem to be fine now though. How did you escape?"

"Jean." She smiled. "She came to the FBI building where I was being held in Texas and impersonated and agent to spring me." At my surprise, she grinned. "She can be a wild card when she wants to be." She grimaced. "Though letting that big hairy oaf plow her like a back field may be the worst possible expression of that aside from banging the controlling dick with the sunglasses."

I shrugged. "I've done dumb shit to bang hot girls before. I assume Logan is her type. If we're her friends we'll let her get it out of her system." She shot me an incredulous look. I shrugged. "We agreed to be friends. I'm willing to try it. Never really been platonic with a girl before. Besides, assuming you're interested I'm at four women I'm trying to juggle right now. Just so you know."

She shrugged. "I knew of at least one. I'm not looking for a wedding ring and a picket fence. You're huge, and muscly, and sexy, and powerful. I'm sexually interested, though I'm not going to give it up as easily as that fat breasted slut over there talking to kitty."

I chuckled. "Awww, does someone have some titty envy? Trust me, I'm just as enthralled with that wagon you're draggin'. But yeah, I get it. You want me to work for it. Check. Does this count as taking you to dinner? Since I'm paying?"

Her grin turned wicked. "Depends on where you're expecting your goodnight kiss." I looked at her plump and inviting lips and got even harder at the implication. At my expression she gave a low, throaty chuckle. "So...four. Who are the others."

"Well one is my girlfriend, Gwen. She's a tiny blonde with a punk rock aesthetic, though admittedly most people are tiny to me. Then there's Betty. She's an older lady, maybe in her late thirties early forties. Sexy though, and very interested. And of course Felicia, who is...hard to pin down. She's using me for revenge on her dad's killer, but I think I'm pretty much her property now as far as she's concerned."

At her raised eyebrow I just waved her off. "Hard to explain. She really is a lot like a cat. I'm her human, and she doesn't care what I do, except when she does, and she's pretty passive aggressive about showing it. But she's sexy and fun and smart and damn useful to the team and we have fun together. I'm glad I met her." Ororo looked thoughtful. I'd expected her to be jealous or disinterested, but it sounded like she like what she heard about how I was with Felicia. Not sexually though. I considered the possibility of recruiting her, she'd be a huge asset to the team. Filing that away, I turned back to my food. I needed to fuel up. No use recruiting if we all died in the end of the world.

As usual, the next 10k is available on pat-reon at that site/malcolmtent. Hope everyone enjoys. Also no this isn't a fate cross, I just like using expys sometimes.