Author's note: ALL ART COMMISSION OFFERS FOR THIS STORY WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY DECLINED
...
After Toad and Danger arrived at Hank's Mansion...
Toad hesitantly walked back into the Mansion with a thousand-yard stare, and the Android from the alternate version of the reality, one that had been erased and copied over by his decision following. Danger, or Elektra, as she preferred to be called due to being in a perceived off duty state, walked in behind him, wearing an all-black version of the skintight red leather outfits her LMD line had been using, her hair color altered to be a very dark brown as opposed to black. The Magneto of that Schrodinger's Reality had rebuilt and repaired her and redesigned her internally. Apparently, he also admired the exterior design, because he had done nothing to alter the curvy, muscular physique of the LMD.
"This is the mansion of Doctor McCoy..." Elektra noted as she followed Toad inside.
"Was he anyone special in your reality?" Toad asked, touching furniture to make sure it was real after what he had just been through. His suit had tears, mild burns still from his jaunt on the other side.
"A founding member of the X-Men..." Elektra replied.
"X-Men?" Toad questioned, turning to face her in curiosity, blinking his overly large mutant eyes. "I heard Loki and Magneto use that name. Who are the X-Men?"
"Founded by Charles Xavier," Elektra elaborated. "A pro-mutant rights group conducting clandestine vigilante activity to fight threats to the Mutant Species, and to serve as a diplomatic bridge between Human and Mutant..."
Elektra glided over in an almost unnaturally precise way to a Photo of a human looking but still giant Hank holding up a giant tuna he had captured from the water using his bare hands, wearing only swimming trunks.
"However, years of relentless hostility from the human race resulted in numerous genocide attempts against Mutants from various bad actors," she went on, fascinated by how clean and alive everything looked in comparison to what she had left.
"And eventually, what had started out as another superhero team-albeit one dedicated to protecting a Humanity that feared, hated, and all too often murdered their members- became more extremist in their positions," she added, touching intact furniture, feeling no splinters, detecting not the molecular trace of nearby unburied corpses.
"Disillusionment prompted most of the X-Men to defect from Charles to Magneto to enact a Grand Scheme using a giant Asteroid hollowed out by Lensherr called Asteroid M, to house the majority of the Mutant species, and create their own Nation for which they might finally be on equal footing with the rest of a world that had grown tired of having their fates decided by superhumans for over seven decades, and seeing nothing but apocalyptic levels of calamity across the earth for their trouble."
"What happened next?" Toad asked.
Elektra folded her arms.
"It was a disaster," Elektra said, not pulling the metaphorical punch.
"An unmitigated, unquantifiable disaster..." she continued, pacing as she examined the books and photos in the living room.
"Rife with hypocrisy, treachery, terrorism, and torture from the start of its birth to the finish..." she said, recording everything she saw, already spotting thirty-seven hundred deviations from her files on Hank McCoy.
"The Asteroid M Nation went on to cement everyone's worst fears about Mutants getting real, genuine political power to affect the whole of the earth, all while conveniently forgetting everything they had done to send innocent Mutants running into the arms of those like Apocalypse, who Magneto foolishly allowed entry and influence in the colony..." she detailed as Toad's expression grew more horrified, spotting more and more deviations and realizing her historical database would be almost useless. Almost nothing matched the details of the original reality.
"The X-Men were forced to re-learn humility from the disaster, almost all of them having sank to incredible lows that would have been unthinkable for any single one of them to stoop to only a decade prior to Asteroid M's founding. It was a horrific failure from which their reputation, on a collective and individual level, never recovered from, and one from which their interpersonal relationships, especially with Charles Xavier, were totally destroyed, and this permanent disunity later contributed to the death of Storm and Professor Xavier in two separate battles with Wiliam Stryker, the second battle of which resulted in the permanent disbandment of the X-Men. Charles Xavier's dream died with him."
"What the hell is the point of me saving the world if my friends are just gonna go evil?!" Toad snapped angrily.
"What happened in my version of reality need not come true in yours. There is still time on your end," she replied. "I have already spotted many variations between the original version of this reality and the one you grew up in. Many of the...shall we say...Headache Sources...don't seem to exist or haven't gotten their powers yet based on the contents of these books. In the original version, they were already active for decades by the time the nineteen eighties rolled around."
"Is there a way to find out who doesn't exist faster?" Toad wondered out loud, deciding he might as well spot hazards that could form down the road.
"I believe so. Does this house have a personal computer?" Elektra asked. "One with a Net connection?"
"Yeah...one in my room. I-I haven't used it..." Toad said, "Follow me..."
Elektra followed him up the stairs as he hopped, stopping by Scott's room to put back Future Loki's spear tip in Scott's drawer, before heading to his own.
Though it was utilitarian, it was still three times bigger than the room he'd had back at the orphanage. A personal computer was an unfathomable luxury to him. He placed Magneto's Helmet and the Web-Shooter of Spider-Man that he had gotten from the Semi-Erased reality on a flat dresser top. He felt a bulge in one of the suit pockets and opened it up, blinking as he pulled out the intact visor of the dead Cyclops he had found in the other reality, in a crater of destroyed Sentinels. He had forgotten all about it due to the stress.
He carefully examined the interior. It didn't seem busted. Unlike the visor he saw his version sporting, which had a more monocle like design scheme, this visor had a lens of a solid, curving rectangular strip of shining scarlet set in a slim black frame meant to loop gently around the skull, with multiple dial settings on the side. It was much slimmer than the one his Cyclops used.
"You have Cyclops' visor. Where did you get that?" Elektra asked in surprise.
"Never mind how. Does it still work?" Toad asked.
Elektra took the visor and her advanced sensor tech scanned it.
"Viable. Functional. Solid Vibranium Frame, Vibranium laced electronics and lens system...which remains primarily Ruby-Quartz. Multiple damage settings. He wised up in the later years, started making the visors out of only the most durable materials," Elektra answered, handing it back to Toad, who placed it on the dresser with the other items. "In perfect working order as far as I can tell..."
She gestured to the computer.
"Shall I?" she asked.
Toad nodded.
Elektra's mouth opened on sighting the boxy computer and Toad heard the internet dial up sound from her throat. The computer turned on and began flashing through a bunch of images as she hacked the firewalls of various federal databases. The images flashed by faster and faster until she closed her mouth, and the computer shut down automatically.
"Most interesting..." Elektra trailed.
"What? What's interesting?" Toad inquired, stepping closer.
"There's a good number more than I thought who either don't exist or haven't made themselves known..." Elektra said, eyebrows raising. "And no Jean Grey. OR Madeline Pryor. Not even Jean's parents seem to exist...VERY curious..."
"Who's Jean Grey and Madeline Pryor?" Toad wondered, knowing that given the level of surprise she was exhibiting, it must be a very serious irregularity.
"It all depends on who is doing the asking, along with who you asked, when you asked, and where you were asking them. Both were extremely powerful psychic Mutants, both Omega Level, one a clone of the other. The debate was never fully settled on who was a clone of who in some circles, but it was generally agreed that Pryor was the Clone. Even that notorious contrarian, Osborn, believed Pryor was the Clone," Elektra began, tilting her head thoughtfully as she remembered a tiny little factoid from her old database.
"Just about the only thing The Green Goblin did agree on with the rest of his peers."
"Were they bad or good?" Toad inquired, trying to process all the little details she was telling him. Inwardly, he was confused as to why Magneto had taken the trouble to program such a chatty, detailed personality into the modified LMD.
"Were Jean and her Clone good or bad..." Elektra trailed, flicking her hair back as she sat on his bed.
"Those two passed between those descriptors like they were balls in a ping-pong match, which is NOT a good thing when they both had the power to level the freakin' planet on their own..." Elektra answered with subdued cynicism. "Add in the Phoenix Force and it's like pouring gasoline on a grease fire. Both were members of the X-Men at one point or another, and both attempted to kill the X-Men at later points, only to fail for one reason or another, or sheer stupid luck. It got to the point even Cyclops had enough and blasted Jean AND Madeline back to oblivion after they both came back to life one time too many."
"Why was it so special when Cyclops did it?" Toad asked, eyebrow raising in intrigue.
"Because he was married to both of them at one point or another," Elektra answered with a snort, which fascinated Toad that Magneto had gotten so crazy detailed with her personality programming, how off the cuff her tones of contempt or other affectations of annoyance were, despite having been active only a short while. Toad began to wonder whether or not Magneto might have used some of his own personality as a basis.
"His actions with Jean arguably caused a lot of the tragedy that surrounded Pryor later in life. But things were so messed up between them all at that point that even Wolverine understood why Scott did it and took no revenge," Elektra added for Toad thoughtfully before she recalled more of the old information.
"My database claims that Mephisto himself showed up to troll Scott about an hour after he did it by arriving on his doorstep covered in snow, and demanding a blanket..." Elektra said in a bored manner, going over it almost like it was old high school gossip before adding in a snicker:
"Scott was NOT amused..."
"Can you show me an image of Jean?" Toad asked, interrupting the Android's girl-talk moment. "I wanna know who the hell to avoid in case she starts existing later."
"Of course," Elektra confirmed, mouth opening as a full color image of a VERY beautiful fair skinned red head with green eyes in some type of skintight metallic chrome red and gold catsuit with some type of golden bird insignia on her chest, her crimson hair long and straight, appeared shimmering in the middle of the room. Magneto was so prepared he had even thought to install a hologram projector in her throat, Toad realized in amazement.
Toad blinked. "I don't think we gotta worry..." he said enthusiastically, grinning.
Elektra inclined her head quizzically.
"Why not?"
"I know Cyclops. He can't stand Red Heads..." Toad answered confidently. "He'll talk to them, but the idea of dating one seemed to make him actually sick the one time I brought it up."
Elektra seemed to be almost taken aback by this, her mouth falling open slightly.
"This reality of yours IS a weird place..." she admitted in almost a whisper, clearly astonished. "What is WRONG with your Cyclops?"
Suddenly there was a knock at the door, Toad went and hopped to it and opened it, finding a frantic looking Charles Xavier.
"Mortimer, thank God!" Xavier exclaimed. "I've been looking all over for the others! Where are they?!"
He then peered in and noticed Elektra, who smiled and gave the Peace Sign with her fingers.
"Who the hell is that?" he asked, eyebrow raising.
"That's Elektra. Me, Blob, Princess and Misty went off to Germany to go get her Son. A lot of bad things went down. I...had to run a few unexpected errands in the process," Toad said, desperately battling the stress of journeying through that nightmare alternate reality...
"And I met her along the way. She's a sentient LMD. Oh, and when she's on duty, call her Danger..." Toad said.
Xavier rubbed his temples, trying to process the level of crazy and failing.
"Where's Cyclops and Ororo?" he asked, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"No clue man. Things got freaky there. Some group named ORCHIS probably has our scent now."
"ORCHIS? Those bloodsuckers?" Xavier asked. "What the hell?! I turn my back for five minutes and you all go to Europe and piss off ORCHIS?! AND you bring back a strange Android that looks like she belongs in a B-Movie Superhero film?" he sputtered in disbelief.
Xavier then looked at her, holding up his hand placatingly.
"No offense, of course, Robo-Miss."
"None taken," Elektra answered back politely. "Please, continue. I find your ranting entertaining."
Xavier rolled his eyes.
"That makes one of us..." he muttered.
Toad went still at Xavier's exasperation.
"Yeah, it does sound violently insane when you describe it in that manner," Toad admitted in a deadpan tone, though he WAS enjoying trolling Xavier slightly in how he answered him. Toad had been through so much in the past few hours from his perspective that he had run out of damns to give.
"This is no time for flippancy, Mortimer. We are being hunted," Xavier replied crossly folding his arms.
Xavier glanced down at the green jumpsuit Toad wore.
"What's that you're wearing?"
"Unstable Molecule Suit. Long Story..." Toad replied.
"What ISN'T a 'Long Story' in this madhouse I find myself in!?" Xavier complained, throwing up his hands, though deep down he was terrified for the safety of Cyclops and the others. He knew that so far; he wasn't doing a good job of keeping everyone safe. A lapse in judgement he knew couldn't continue, especially if he wanted to establish ANY kind of authority with the teenagers in his care.
"Never mind, do you know where the ones you left for Germany with are?" Xavier asked.
"They had to take one of Forge's portals to a Morlock outpost here in Austin." Toad answered.
"District X..." Xavier breathed, daring to let himself feel a slight level of relief. "They'll be safe there, I think. But Cyclops and Ororo..."
"Don't you have a way to track them by DNA?" Elektra inquired.
"Neither me nor Hank have some sort of 'Magic Mutant DNA Detector' in our pocket-any machine capable of doing that would need massive power requirements too great for Hank's Generators alone to handle. It would also require significant space for it to work properly-"
He stopped.
"Unless I use that Mercy Crown thing Loki gave me..."
"You use it more than once you get paralyzed," Toad reminded him.
"Right. Hank might know. He was the last one to talk to Scott before me...c'mon, we'll go check..." Xavier insisted, and Toad and Elektra followed him.
"So, Mortimer, where exactly did you get this thing?" Xavier asked as they headed to the elevator about Elektra.
"Found it in a junk pile," Toad answered as truthfully as he could, quietly freaking the hell out still at his experience with The Point Stone. "A Mutant managed to get it working for me as a favor."
"And who was this Mutant?" Xavier asked.
"I'd rather not say," Toad replied. "But it works. And it's deadly."
"I see...fine, Mortimer, but we're gonna need to set up some ground rules going forward. Rule One: No more leaving without telling anyone where we are going. That's all for now. I'll try and think up more as the situation warrants."
"Of course, Professor," Toad muttered as Xavier ran a key card through a scanner and the elevator opened, ready to take him down below.
As the entered, there was an alarm in the elevator.
"ALERT. UNAUTHORIZED HUMANOID WEAPONS PLATFORM DETECTED. GRADE 4 ENERGY WEAPONRY, AVENGERS-DERIVED." a computer voice announced.
"Avengers?!" Xavier exclaimed.
Toad grinned sheepishly. "I got a really good deal."
Elektra stifled a snort of laughter.
Xavier stared at Toad a moment and struggled not to smile as he pressed the button that shut the doors.
"My Father would have openly admired your comfort in audacity. He always got a kick outta stuff like that," Xavier muttered to himself as he pressed the button for Beast's floor, overriding the alert, the elevator traveling down.
Opening it, the three stepped out into the lab, and spotted Hank McCoy's gargantuan, blue, canine-like figure reclined on a custom seat, his white, Ten-Gallon hat fixed firmly on his head as he gobbled a raw leg of lamb like it was chicken wings from a local restaurant. He wasn't limited to raw food either, Toad noticed, spotting a platter filled with nothing but double bacon cheeseburgers with grilled onions.
"Howdy, Charlie! Care for a burger? Synthesizer just got done makin' 'em-wait who's that?" Beast asked, spotting Elektra with glowing green eyes.
"Who is that woman and why is she dressed like she is in a B-Movie Superhero film? One that led to a one and done spinoff?" Beast asked, the glowing red implant in his throat that allowed him to speak imparting a metallic tint to its recreation of the Texan accent he had possessed when he still looked fully human, if still a giant.
Elektra glanced down at herself and then Toad and Charles.
"Do I really look B-Movie?" Elektra asked quietly with genuine confusion.
"I'm sure that tight fitting black leather look's gonna be all the rage...like...ten years from now. Maybe twenty," Charles put it bluntly. "Some people still believe bell bottoms will make a comeback, however, so what do I know?"
"This is Elektra, Doctor McCoy!" Toad explained. "She's an LMD I picked up when me and the others went to Germany!"
"You went to GERMANY?!" Beast sputtered in surprise.
"I know, that was my reaction..." Xavier grumbled as he pinched his nose. "Hank, do you have any idea where Cyclops and Ororo went?"
"Cyclops took one of my bikes and the girl went with him. I didn't think it'd be a problem..."
"We don't know Clan Akkaba's full capabilities! We have a pipeline. Maybe they have something similar," Xavier said tersely, still beating himself up over letting the others slip completely beyond his sight so easily. "We have both committed a serious error-"
"Now, now, Charlie, hold your horses! It's not a disaster! I got a tracker on the bike I lent him-" Beast tried to reassure. "All I gotta do is bring it up on the monitor and we'll know where he is."
"Hey, Doc, ya' mind?" Toad asked, gesturing to the plate of burgers, real food looking better to him than it ever had in his entire life.
"Sure, help yourself, kid," Hank replied as he began bringing up the tracking program for the bike. Toad happily began munching on burger after burger ravenously, devouring them.
Meanwhile, Hank typed a command on his futuristic looking flat screen computer. A map of the city showed up, with a red dot in a park.
"There, I know that park. Looks like they're just getting some air, by my guess," Beast said, pointing to the simple red dot on the custom computer screen.
"We need to find a way to recall them..." Xavier said quickly, on the verge of looking desperate.
Beast rubbed the underside of his canine-like snout.
"I probably shoulda given the boy a pager..." Beast admitted before sighing.
"Heck, guess the old sayin's true. Just 'cause I'm a genius don't mean I'm not a right plum bonehead..." Beast admitted, embarrassed.
"I messed up too, Hank. I was Military; I should know better..." Xavier replied, looking at Toad as he busily gobbled Hank's lunch burger by delicious burger.
"I never thought my first class would involve so much intrigue and violence..." Xavier trailed, looking sadly at a clearly traumatized boy he knew instinctively that he had not been there to help when he probably needed him the most.
"Maybe Cyclops was right in his criticisms, back when we first met. About me forming a school. About whether that would make things worse or better..." he admitted to Beast quietly.
"If I can't even stop a bunch of teenagers from running off behind my back, how can I properly hope to guide them anywhere else?" he asked himself.
"Maybe...maybe you ought to fall back on that military training..." Beast suggested quietly.
Charles turned to Beast.
"I am trying to open a school, Hank, not a barracks...not a boot camp..." Xavier countered tersely.
"Military Academies DO still exist for a reason, Charles. Just sayin'...we're at war anyway, as far as I'm concerned. Clan Akkaba and Essex are just the start of it..." Beast replied with a shrug.
"These are scared teenagers who are in over their heads," Xavier replied, watching as Toad, clearly eating for comfort as much as energy, slumped into a seat in the back, burping.
"You ain't gonna be dealin' with normal people, in spite of whatever positive spin you put on the state of their existence. Cyclops and Ororo? Those two are potential walking nukes. Unless they get taught the discipline now, before it really hits them just how powerful they really are, or they'll despise any notion of it later in life," Beast warned, folding his arms. "People with great power either learn great responsibility or they learn people with great power learn greater self-destructiveness."
"This is a very dangerous line of thought," Xavier all but snapped at Hank quietly.
"There is a world of difference between training someone to understand their mutant gifts for the betterment of society, to defend themselves, and teaching them to use those gifts in a fashion resembling that of a Soldier. One is Humanitarianism, the other is what humans have been doing ever since Society decided it needed professional killers on call," Xavier replied in an almost whisper so Toad and Elektra would not hear, though Elektra pretty much recorded every word.
"I did NOT take these people in so I could indoctrinate them into organizing as some sort of militant cult only masquerading as an academy for higher learning. I took these people in to help them, not exploit them like all those men I saw die in the jungle were exploited by their leaders..."
"Essex and Clan Akkaba aren't going to be so understanding. You rattled the Hornet's Nest, Charlie; You HAD to know you'd get a few stings...that there would be growing pains...what'd you expect?" Beast asked back innocently. "Noble sentiments ain't gonna teach these kids to stay put-"
The dot on the screen representing Cyclops' current location began to move.
"Hold up, they're moving..." Beast said.
"They're on the road..." Beast said. "Looks like they're heading back..."
His nostrils flared in agitation as he saw the computer light up with messages that the bike had suffered a crash.
"God, no..." Beast snapped.
"What is it?" Charles asked.
"Tracker's telling me the bike just got a near miss from an unknown type of energy weapon..." Beast said. "They're being attacked!"
"I'll rev up the Jet..." Xavier said, immediately going for the Hangar...
There was a rumble beneath their feet.
"Wait a moment...what's that?" Beast said.
The floor in the distance burst upward, the shockwave knocking everyone back as some sort of gigantic drill bit designed to resemble a merry-go-round in an amusement park bore its way upward.
Xavier, coughing, picked himself up at the same time Beast did as the merry-go-round portion of the drill came to a stop, spotting a figure in a crisp white three-piece suit with matching top hat, wearing a steel mask that was designed to resemble a human face with a stylized orange mustache and goatee made of steel with matching eye lens.
"COME ONE, COME ALL TO THE OPENING DAY OF OUR FIRST EVER MURDERWORLD TRAVELING CIRCUS!" the man shouted jovially, voice amplified by systems in his mask as he hopped off one of the pony-shaped seats, the area darkening somehow and spotlights appearing over him.
"Dear God, it's him..." Xavier breathed, face twisting into contempt and pure hatred instantly at the sight of the masked man.
"THAT'S RIGHT FOLKS. OUR EXPERTLY TRAINED TRAVELING ENTERTAINMENT CREWS HAVE LABORED HARD FOR MONTHS TO BRING YOU ONLY THE HIGHEST QUALITY SLAUGHTER IN THE COMFORT AND CONVENIENCE OF YOUR OWN HOMETOWN, ALL WITHOUT HAVING TO PAY FULL-PRICE TICKETS TO GET YOUR FIX OF DEATH AND DESTRUCTION! SO, STEP RIGHT UP, WHETHER YOU'RE READY OR NOT, WE'VE GOT AN INCREDIBLE LINE UP FOR YOU TONIGHT! ACTS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD, STUNNING FEATS OF DARING! DEATH DEFYING BRAVERY AND OF COURSE, DEEEEEEEEAAAAATHHHHTRAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPPSSSSS..." the stranger exclaimed, pulling off his top hat to reveal a stylized orange pompadour of steel.
Out of the man's top hat somehow sprung a tornado of fire that rushed towards them and only Beast frantically hitting the button for an emergency Force Field on a console next to him prevented the tornado from reaching Xavier and the others.
"Charles, take 'em and run! Don't look back!' Beast yelled as he rushed to a nearby cabinet to get an old rocket launcher he had modified.
"Run! RUN!" Xavier yelled, and they all booked it for the elevator, Toad breathing in panic as his adrenaline spiked.
"Who is that?" Toad yelled.
"Edward Arca. He's an extremely dangerous assassin." Xavier answered as he pressed a button and sent the elevator hurling upward...
...
Beast, in the meanwhile, fired rocket after rocket from his huge, specially modified weapon at the masked man, who fired a shower of sparks from the underside of his white top hat that dissolved them.
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, BOYS AND GIRLS, CHILDREN OF ALL AGES, WE GOT US OUR FIRST ACT! HAILING FROM AUSTIN, TEXAS, WEIGHING A STAGGERING NINE HUNDRED POUNDS, OVER SEVEN FEET TALL, GIVE IT UP FOR THIS DARING BLUE FURBALL. THE BEEEEEAAAAAAASSSSSST..." The strange man said as he reached into his coat, pulling out what looked like a spinning top and flung it at Beast, where it rapidly expanded somehow into a floating, flaming red drill bit that raced for Beast, only for the superstrong Mutant to swat aside the strange killing instrument, his blue fur not even singed and lunge for his attacker, sharp talons for claws sliding out, strong enough to rip through solid titanium, and Edward Arca barely evaded the swipe with an elegant backflip away from Beast, the lens of his masks firing out fireworks like sparks that turned into multi-colored ribbons that momentarily confused McCoy as Arca rushed in, throwing his top hat...just as Beast threw his Ten Gallon Hat.
The two hats sailed through the hair at deadly speed colliding with each other in a sharp metallic clang, Hank's hat sailing back to him like Arca's hat did the same.
Beast lunged clapping his hands together so hard that Arcade barely spun out of the way of the resulting shockwave which crushed part of a titanium wall behind him...and barely ducked Hank's tossed hat, which sailed like a boomerang back to Hank's clawed hand.
"WHAT AN OUTSTANDING DISPLAY, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! DOCTOR MCCOY SEEMS TO LIKE MODIFYING THE CONTENTS OF HIS HABIDASHERY LIKE YOURS TRULY!" Edward Arca boomed in his enhanced voice.
"I heard from Charlie you were one sick puppy Arca, but DAMN," Beast exclaimed. "You're really into this whole ringmaster bit, aintcha?"
"JUST A REMINDER, FOLKS, ONLY MURDERWORLD APPROVED TREATS IN THE MAIN EVENT!" Arca replied, somehow pulling out a long diamond studded cane from his white suit, he clicked a button and Beast blinked, watching as a balloon inflated to tremendous size from out the top of the Cane, taking the shape of a dragon which breathed actual fire, and then sicced it on Beast.
"Ask a stupid question..." Beast muttered as he was forced to run through his lab as the massive Balloon beast chased him.
"Dear God, it reminds me of College!" Beast complained as he leaped over and dodged bursts of fire that melted delicate lab equipment. "How do I go through life getting attacked by ANOTHER Balloon Monster?! It's downright uncanny, my luck!"
"WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT DISPLAY OF ALL-AMERICAN ACROBATIC FORTITUDE, FOLKS? THAT'S WHAT BEING A FIVE TIME OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST GETS YOU! QUALITY! QUALITY ONLY FOUND AT THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH, MURDERWORLD!" Arca shouted back, his cane controlling the secrets behind the Balloon Dragon's use as it ravaged Hank's lab.
"You ain't just the ringmaster, fella', you the whole damn circus!" Beast yelled in exasperation while dodging a heavy fire blast from the Balloon Dragon. He spotted a device that had survived the initial rampage. It was an oversized, camera like device, and he grabbed it, shining the white beam from its lens onto the dragon as intense microwave energy battered its ultrathin nano-machine layer, causing it to burst.
He dialed the intensity up as he whipped it at Arca, who countered by rapidly spinning his cane which somehow formed a shield of green energy that absorbed the effects of the white light microwave beam.
But Beast had more than one way to attack. An implant in his skin summoned the spider bots he used for fine Motor Work descending from their release ports above, firing the welding lasers built into their eyes at Arca, forcing him to vanish in a comically large puff of smoke and re-appear somehow behind Beast in the same puff, jamming the Diamond tipped cane into Beast, which made Beast roar in pain from the eighty thousand volt discharge in the cane tip before swiping angrily at Arca, who retaliated by reaching into his top hat, pulling out a mechanical bunny built around a stick of plastic explosive, and let it start hopping towards Beast with a beeping sound, making Beast realized it was actually a specialized proximity mine.
"You're kidding..." Beast trailed, in sheer awe at the depth of Arca's madness.
"EVERYBODY LOVES A GOOD GAG WITH CUTE ANIMALS AT MURDERWORLD!" Arca shouted back.
Beast ran on all forms, the mechanical bunny giving chase with a surprisingly fast sprint, its beeping growing faster the more it closed in on Beast, who climbed a wall to try and escape, only for the rabbit to somehow run up it to continue the pursuit.
Beast got desperate and leaped in mid-air, twisting in the air to fire is microwave projector and destroying the bunny which erupted in a powerful explosion that caught beast, violently slamming him into the ground and leaving a crater. Beast leapt back up, prepared to continue the battle, picking up a chunk of floor and hurling at the speed of an average nine-millimeter round being fired and Arca ducked as it shattered into the wall behind him with a mighty crater.
"WOW, MY LOVELY AUDIENCE! THE GOOD DOCTOR SEEMS TO HAVE MADE THINGS ON MY BODY CLENCH THAT I DIDN'T THINK COULD!" Arca exclaimed. "LET'S SEE IF ONE GOOD TURN DESEEEEEERRRRRRVES ANOTHER!"
"Oh, what? What do you got besides exploding bunnies?" Beast asked, baring his claws. "Let's see if I can't get back all the quarters other people sunk into you, you crazy bastard."
"TONIGHT! FOR THE AUDIENCE"S PLEASURE! USED! BANANA! PEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLS!" Arca shouted, showing the black inside of his top hat.
Beast's eyes went wide as he was hit by a storm of seemingly endless, flowing banana peels that slammed into him with the force of a bean bag shotgun round, thousands of them all at once and he was instantly flung backward, knocked out cold.
"SIGHT GAGS ARE FOR PROFESSIONALS, ONNNNNLLLLLLYYYYYYY..." Arca bellowed, directing some of his clown themed LMD's to remove the now unconscious Beast...
...
"Who is Arca?" Toad asked during the ride up.
"In the criminal underground he's known as Arcade. He sets up these large areas resembling Amusement Parks called Murderworlds that function as death traps. The U.S. Government tried to assassinate him after he first started doing it in Vietnam. He murdered hundreds of people in the countryside and tortured captured American Servicemen sent to him by the Viet Cong... including a man on the team I was assigned to under the command of Captain Rogers..." Xavier explained, hearing loud rumbles below that shook the elevator as it traveled upward.
His face hardened into a grimace and his fists clenched as the elevator came to a stop up top.
"A Marine Scout Sniper named Frank Castle..." he said quietly as he stepped out of the elevator.
Toad's unnaturally large eyes widened as he hopped after a now extremely paranoid looking Charles Xavier, whose head was darting everywhere looking for danger.
"Wait...you're telling me you knew The Punisher?!" Toad sputtered quietly in surprise.
Charles wheeled around on Toad with a haunted look to his gaze that made Toad suddenly shrink away from him unconsciously.
Xavier's voice came out very soft.
"I did not know The Punisher except by his crimes. The Punisher was a monster who savagely murdered over five hundred members of the Italian Mafia across New York City in a week, put Loki in a coma, and evaded the rest of the Avengers hunting him for another three weeks, killing another eight hundred criminals before Daredevil finally stopped him," Xavier clarified in a very quiet, strained tone. He knew this wasn't the time, but he couldn't help it.
"I knew Frank Castle, the Marine who saved my life, and the life of Captain Rogers at great personal risk to himself. That is how I prefer to remember him." Xavier finished in a quiet hiss before continuing.
Xavier nodded as he peaked around a corner. Dark, Unnatural Laughter could suddenly be heard echoing faintly through the mansion.
Danger peered around. "No hostiles detected...We can move..."
Xavier hand signaled them to follow him silently, making a beeline for his guest quarters.
"So the torture inflicted by Arcade..." Toad trailed as he scrambled inside with Danger after Xavier, who nodded in reply. "Was that why The Punisher didn't get the needle?" He couldn't help but ask. The Punisher's rampage had been so devastating to the New York criminal underworld that there were actually no murders committed in the city during the time he walked, hid, and fought in the streets, other than by The Punisher and the criminals he slaughtered. He had made everyone not on his radar who was tempted to break the law THAT terrified. Toad's ears darted around, listening for threats.
"I'm certain that the horrors Arcade inflicted on Frank led to his eventual break with reality and initial rampage in Hell's Kitchen," Xavier said as he slammed his fist on a wall, and a hidden panel containing some sort of Automatic Riot Shotgun with a large drum clip slid out of its concealed recesses in the wall as a steel shutter came down on the door. "I testified as much in a closed hearing the Media never learned about, due to National Security issues present."
"He musta been really nutty if whatever you said to the judge worked," Toad realized as he watched Xavier take out not only the auto shotgun, but one of those old single shot thumper guns from Vietnam that fired forty-millimeter grenade rounds...except the rounds themselves were strange, made of a perfectly translucent material that displayed everything within, including the actual warhead, which contained a strange purple light at the center, with circuitry all around it.
"The Punisher is convinced that his wife and children were murdered in Central Park in a Mob ambush meant to kill him specifically...even though no such thing happened," Xavier replied as he handed Toad a few smoke grenades. He offered another shotgun in the hidden rack to Danger but she declined with a polite shake of her head.
"The Mob had never even heard of him before he started killing them. He didn't even live in the area they were known to have control of. Even showing his still-living family to him does nothing to break the delusional state. One day, he stitched the image of a white skull to his old catholic priest outfit, grabbed an M-16 and an ammo belt and visited a restaurant the Mafia's scum liked for the spaghetti..." Xavier continued grimly as he peaked his head out of his room into the hallway.
"What could cause a break with reality like that?" Danger whispered out of genuine curiosity as he gave the hand signal to follow him, and she did so immediately. Xavier's description did not AT ALL match her files on the Punisher's backstory.
"I suspect that The Punisher is subconsciously remembering something awful involving the Vietnamese civilians, which were made a part of Arca's tortures upon Frank during Frank's captivity. Something Arca did to him that may...vaguely...match the fantasy he's constructed involving the death of his real family," Charles answered in almost a whisper as he hugged the wall, shotgun aimed forward.
"So, there could be a grain of truth in his belief?" Toad asked as he kept low, crawling on all fours.
"A small one. His actual family may not be dead, but that doesn't mean that there wasn't a family who died, somewhere...with Frank present, somehow..." Xavier said. "The Punisher is a vicious, unrepentant spree killer. But he was born from very real pain and trauma. Trauma that the monster we left Hank down there with is all too happy to inflict for his own twisted pleasure."
"LADIES ANNNNNNNND GENTLEMEN! LET'S GIVE IT UP FOR OUR SECOND ACT TONIGHT. HAILING FROM ESSEX ORPHANAGE, WEIGHING IN AT TWO HUNDRED FIFTY POUNDS OF ULTRA DENSE MUSCLE PACKED INTO ONE WIRY FRAME, GIIIIIIIIIIVE IT UP FOR MORTIMER! TOLANSKY! TOYYYYYYYYNNNNNBEEEEEEEEE!" Arcade announced from seemingly everywhere in the mansion.
"He knows where we are..." Toad said as they moved slowly.
They heard the banging of cymbals from down the hall, and they stared as a toy monkey that banged golden chimes rolled on the floor before making a turn towards them, speeding up as its chime banging got louder and louder. Charles was already firing the shotgun on full auto, and it exploded violently, collapsing the hallway ahead. Everyone but Danger was knocked off their feet.
"If I had let that thing keep banging it's cymbals, our ear drums would have eventually burst," Xavier said coughing as he stood up.
"Arca! Is that the best you got? A Sonic Disabler?!" Xavier shouted. "Come and get me, you psychotic piece of filth! I may have gotten my PHD is Psionic Neural-Physics, but I also have a Masters in Throwing Hands!"
"AND AN EXTRA SPECIAL WELCOME...to the man who threw me into a vat of Agent Orange..." Arcade said, the last words coming out as a hateful hiss as he broke character for a single moment.
HAILING FROM WESTCHESTER, NEW YORK! WEIGHING IN AT A LANKY ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-FIVE POUNDS...CHARLES! FRANCIS! XAVIEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" Arcade added a second later. There were the sounds of thousands of people cheering and clapping from everywhere around them, including whistles.
Danger glanced at Charles.
"A vat of Agent Orange?" she questioned. "As in, the Jungle Defoliant?"
"Edward Arca is a bastard," Xavier replied with a grumble.
"AND LAST, BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST, WEIGHING IN AT FOUR HUNDRED POUNDS OF SCULPTED INDUSTRIAL METALS AND EXPERIMENTAL NANOALLOYS FORMED THROUGH SOME UNKNOWN PROCESS OF MAGNETISM, HAILING FROM HELL IF I KNOW, A B-MOVIE SUPERHERO!"
"THAT'S IT!" Danger snapped, closing her eyes. The leather clothing she wore began to sparkle, breaking down and shifting over her body, re arranging itself to resemble a HIGHLY revealing t-shaped red leotard with thigh high red boots and matching red gloves that went past the elbow. The materials, as opposed to leather, now seemed to resemble spandex.
"I'm sorry guys, but if I had to listen to one more crack about how I was dressed as ANYTHING less than A-list, I'd have started tearing my robotic hair out," Danger snorted.
"Danger, honestly, I think you might be...overcompensating a bit..." Xavier said helpfully, trying not to stare anywhere except her face.
"Now, now, Professor, let's not get too hasty..." Toad protested with a grin.
"Sweetie, in the Superhero Business, you either go all in or you go home. There's really no middle ground. You get an iconic look, you stick with it, and you only switch to a new costume if it looks cooler or makes you look hotter," Danger replied to Charles in a huff.
"Okay, who programmed you?" Xavier muttered under his breath as she walked by him, her sternum mounted energy cannon blasting the debris into dust.
"LOOK AT THAT LMD PROVING ONCE AND FOR ALL VAPORWEAR CAN FIX ANY MID-TIER CONCEPT!" Arcade announced. "FOR OUR FIRST CHALLENGE, WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A MAN'S HOME, HIS CASTLE, IS TURNED AGAINST HIM VIA HAVING JUST LEFT THE FAUCET ON?"
Water began to flow from the cracks in the floor. Toad hopped ahead in the passage, only to slam his face by accident against an invisible barrier. The water began to fill rapidly.
Danger tried blasting the invisible barrier with her sternum cannon only to find that her energy beam was absorbed into it harmlessly.
"High intensity Force Field. Localized generator," Danger noted. "Shielded from scans, however. It's generating another field behind us..."
"Well, where the hell is the water coming from?" Toad snapped.
"Unknown. Appears to be spontaneously generating itself." Same energy field blocking us is blocking the walls and the floor," Danger answered. "His command of technology is rather impressive."
"Arca always leaves a little flaw in his death traps that may allow his victims to survive should they recognize and exploit it..." Xavier said as he frantically began looking for anything out of place in the quickly filling passage.
"Is the field covering the ceiling?" Toad asked, rubbing his nose still from the impact.
"No, but that is presumably because above us is a structural weak point...we try and blast through to create an exit, we could bring the entire structure section above us and all its electricals crashing down above our heads..." Danger replied. "Arcade chose his kill box very well..."
Toad tried to scramble for a plan when he noticed the crystal chandelier above them.
"Why doesn't Arcade create something inescapable?" Toad asked as he jumped so high he reached the ceiling.
"He doesn't find it sporting. The Lunatic enjoys seeing whether his targets can escape. Each of his victims were always given a way out, even if it was obscured. Even Frank could have escaped if he had successfully discovered the flaw in his own prison. Sometimes they actually did spot the flaw...most didn't..." Charles said as he waded hip deep into the water.
"That Chandelier? Is it electric?" Toad asked, crawling towards it.
"Yeah...yeah, it is!" Charles said, getting immediately where Toad was going.
"I think we need the equivalent of the ol' toaster in the bathtub trick. Danger, can you hover while holding someone?" Toad called out as the water filled the passage.
"My flight systems fully repaired twelve minutes ago. Yes." Danger answered.
"Grab the Professor..." Toad said, "And make sure you stay above the water at all times..."
"Affirmative," Danger replied, wading through the water towards Charles, grabbing him by the collar and activating the jets in her heel, which pushed the water down as they were lifted up.
Toad casually yanked the chandelier out of its sockets with his superhuman strength, causing it to spark, as he pulled more electrical guts out from the base still attached to it as he yanked it towards the water, where it sparked violently on impact, electrifying the water and affecting the barrier.
Danger, as she hovered with Charles, spotted a device shimmering beneath the water, by the corner of a passage, having previously been hidden by an optical camouflage field.
Her free arm turned into some kind of laser cannon and fired at it, and it burst in a shower of sparks as the water flooded out in both directions, with her firing at the electrical cable the chandelier was still connected to in the receding water, killing the power in it and allowing them to land.
Charles hefted his shotgun.
"Something is wrong..." Charles said.
"Wrong? Something's been wrong ever since I ran into you, Professor," Toad exclaimed, dropping from the ceiling to the ground.
"It's too easy. Arca's traps were good, but he had a fondness for the overly complex. This was relatively straight forward, this water trap..." Xavier trailed rubbing his chin thoughtfully, momentarily ignoring the fact he was a wet, soaking mess like Toad.
"Maybe he's pressed for time," Danger suggested.
"Or maybe he's doing something else..." Toad mused. "Think, Professor, 'cause I don't know this guy. If YOU were Arcade, what would you be doing here while toying with your victims?"
"WHAT AN ASTOUNDING BRAIN TWISTER!" Arcade announced, his voice seemingly omnipresent.
Xavier gave it a moment of thought, considering how and where Arcade popped up from.
His eyes went wide.
"Dear God."
Xavier was running.
"The PRINTERS! He's going for the Printers!" Xavier shouted. "Follow me, both of you!"
"Printers?" Danger asked.
"The Danger Room above us is tied to an extremely complex series of machines that Hank refers to as 3D Printers. They run on a number of delicate parts using rare metals and are both difficult to forge and highly intricate. I KNEW his approach was too damned simple," Xavier grumbled as he ran to the kitchen, flicking the nearby light switch on rapidly to open a hidden panel in the kitchen floor that led to a staircase.
"Simple? He tried to drown us!" Toad exclaimed. "We risked getting violently electrocuted to free ourselves!"
"Trust me, that is softball stuff in this profession..." Danger assured Toad.
"The bastard's after the parts!" Xavier exclaimed as the staircase began to spiral downward as they all traveled it.
"So, is he trying to kill us or not?" Toad asked as he followed.
"Oh, I'm sure he will if he can swing it. But his primary mission, I think, is the printers..." Xavier said as they reached an elevator at the bottom.
"Why would he be after those?" Danger asked.
"Because they're the future of manufacturing on an industrial scale if we can simplify it. Only Tony Stark, SHIELD, Reed Richards, possibly this Essex fellow we're chasing, or Arca himself has got anything close to Hank's Printers, and all of those people still need to build large spaces and larger, specialized machinery for fine detail work..." Xavier explained as they all headed into the elevator that wasn't listed in the blueprints and shielded from scans. "But not Hank. No sir. Hank found a way to miniaturize it. He can upscale the process too, should he wish..."
"The only downside is Hank's mechanisms cost one hundred times as much to produce in comparisons to some of the best technology any of the other people can field, and on top of that are extremely difficult to understand and replicate. Given the fact Arca is choosing to hit us now means he learned about the Danger Room somehow...and there's NOT a whole lot of people who knew about the Danger Room outside of me, Hank, those we've gathered, and the uppermost echelons of the United States Government..." Xavier added as the elevator traveled slowly downward.
"Someone talked," Danger mused.
"That's my theory," Xavier replied grimly, hefting his automatic shotgun.
"And I AM going to find the little weasel who blabbed..." he said bitterly, eyes taking on a hard glare.
The elevator opened and the trio exited out to a smaller, clean looking laboratory with mirror walls and ceiling, and a strange, white lit floor.
Xavier kept the shotgun ready as he poked his head out with it, swiftly checking his peripherals in the manner so common to soldiers before venturing out fully.
"We're in the entrance lobby..." Xavier said as they followed.
Xavier went up to the keycode reader and swiped his card, opening the door at the end, and that was when they came under heavy gunfire from a slim but muscular woman with a moe-type haircut and a dark blue leotard with matching boots, firing an M60 at him. Charles returned fire and Danger converted her arms into some kind of heavy cannon and blasted THROUGH the wall slamming into the woman-who disintegrated into a chunky pile of green goop...
"That was a Miss Locke clone..." Xavier said with a grimace as he approached the chunky, slimy goo pile the clone had been reduced to. "Cheap synthetic memory cells. Easily grown...and easily destroyed."
He looked at Danger and Toad. "Arca can afford to throw an army of these things at us..."
He took point again and they all soon came under more fire as they peeked around a corner, two Miss Locke clones advancing, firing M-16's at them.
"Toad! The smoke grenades I gave you!" Xavier yelled.
Toad tossed one from cover and white smoke filled the white tiled passages as Xavier advanced, diving as he opened fire on the clones, exploding them into green goo with his shotgun blasts. He scrambled up, grabbed one of their M16's and emptied it into the next Miss Locke Clone that blasted through a wall with a shaped charge. At last the grenade launcher with its strange ammunition came out and he fired on the second squad of shotgun armed Locke Clones.
The transparent grenade round sailed through the air, detonating above them and a strange sphere of crackling purple energy enveloped them and they froze, the surfaces of their artificial body shuddering and bubbling while Danger blasted them all with her heavy energy cannon."
"What kind of grenade round is that?" Toad asked.
"One I developed that uses cloned, genetically modified brain tissue forged into living circuitry, Mortimer," Xavier answered. "It arms once it leaves the barrel, and generates a powerful field of simulated, wirelessly transmitted but confined brainwaves that attack the parts of the brain responsible for movement and breathing, paralyzing both momentarily..." he answered as he dumped the spent round out of the thumper.
"It never got much traction...there were concerns the use of them in the field might constitute a war crime due to the risk of Brain Damage because of the at times variable length of the paralysis effect..." he trailed, staring thoughtfully at one of the translucent rounds before loading it.
"And you just...make these..." Toad trailed, raising an eyebrow.
"Can't let my education go to waste. There will always be a need for a nuclear option. Besides, it's the sort of weapon I'd only use on someone like Arcade, or those Assassins sent by The Hand that ruined Christmas Eve for me about two years back," Xavier replied.
He gave a thoughtful pause before adding; "I collected enough priceless katanas that night to open a museum..."
Danger knelt and examined the goo, and her artificial skin incorporated the information of the cell structure into its own system, absorbing the unpleasant looking substance, as did the nano alloys and nanomachines crawling through her.
"This might prove useful, down the road..." she said as her 'costume' shifted its color to dark blue as a result of the impromptu upgrade.
"Professor, may I examine one of your grenade rounds?" Danger requested.
"Should I really be making you more powerful?" Xavier questioned hesitantly, though, it should be noted, he handed her one of the rounds anyway...
Danger immediately examined it, internal machines snaking out of her fingers and disassembling the round, incorporating its technology into her systems before reassembling it and handing it back to him.
"It will take me some time to come up with a suitable use for it. Please be patient," she requested.
"Don't rush," Xavier muttered.
The trio reached a decontamination chamber, and Xavier swiped his card to open it...
And found what looked like a simple mail man in a custom, transparent chamber, capped by giant replicas of Arcade's face mask at the top of the chamber, all eyes on the masks lit up. Toad's mouth fell open as he saw a bunch of I.V. feeds strapped to the man's arm. The Mailman had his mouth taped shut, but he was awake, alert, and clearly panicking. There seemed to be some sort of mechanism in the chamber with him slowly manipulating a Rubik's Cube into being in a "solved" state.
"AND ON TO OUR BRAIN TWISTER OF A DEATHTRAP!" Arcade's seemingly omnipresent voice announced once again. "CAN CHARLES FRANCIS XAVIER MAKE SURE THIS MAILMAN LIVES TO SEE HIS NEXT ROUTE? OR IS THIS POOR FELLOW ABOUT TO BE A CASE OF 'RETURN. TO. SENDER'? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-"
"Damn that maniac..." Xavier hissed.
"NO SWEARING IN THE MAIN TENT! WE HAVE CHILDREN WATCHING THIS BROADCAST!" Arcade shouted from everywhere.
Danger went up to examine it, running a deep sensor scan with her eyes.
"The mechanism is wirelessly monitoring his heart rate and breathing. The more his heart rate climbs, the faster the mechanisms inside that chamber solve the puzzle. From what I am seeing...if it does get solved, it functions like a lethal injection chamber on death row, pumping a variety of chemicals into him designed to cause death...and the puzzle is getting solved faster and faster, increasing its speed for every twenty beats his heart rate jumps up," she said after turning away from the mailman and answering in a quiet voice to Charles. "Anti-handling sensors have been fitted from the outside. If we attempt to breach the chamber and physically remove him, the injection process will start. He will die in seconds if that happens," she added. "He's also on a timer. If we don't get him out in four minutes, he's dead anyway."
"Is there a way for you to interfere with the signal for the transmitters?" Xavier asked.
"No. It's very sophisticated, the firewall system," Danger said. "Quantum Encryption."
"He looks like he can move his arms. Why not just have him rip the feeds out?" Toad asked.
"Arcade attached sensors to the feeds. Any attempt to remove them will trigger an injection. He'll probably be out cold before he could get even the first feed out, and dead fifteen seconds later," Danger answered plainly. "And it looks like Arcade told him too, because he hasn't dared touch his arms."
"We'll never get him out of there before this sicko's trap goes off! If the timer running out doesn't kill him, his own heartbeat will!" Toad exclaimed.
"His heartbeat...that's it..." Xavier said with a grimace. "There's no way out but to die..."
He started sweating at the implication.
"I think we have to momentarily stop his heart..." Xavier whispered to them...
"How?" Toad asked.
"The same way you got us out. Electricity..." Xavier answered flatly. "We have to electrocute him somehow...or make him electrocute himself..."
Xavier approached. "How much time left, Danger?"
"Three minutes," Danger answered.
Xavier looked and saw gaps in the machine that was solving the puzzle cube, with sparking innards. Always a deliberate, but risky flaw with Arcade. Always. He was enough of a sadist to stick the only way out right in front of you, just to see if you were desperate enough to take it.
"Sir?" Xavier called out. "I'm Professor Charles Xavier, and I have good news and bad news. The bad news is I can't get you out. I try and touch that chamber I'll set everything off. The good news...you can get yourself out. Maybe. But you could die..."
"Two minutes, forty seconds." Danger said quietly to Toad, who's stomach was twisting at the depth of Arcade's cruelty.
Charles pointed to the puzzle solver. The Mailman's eyes followed the puzzle being very close to solved, fear sweat pouring down his face.
"I suspect the only way to free you is to completely stop your heart before the timer in that chamber runs out, or that puzzle gets solved. The only surefire way to do that is to electrocute you. The means of which are right in front of you, where you see the sparks in the machine," Xavier said soberly and carefully, trying to keep the information concise, and lay out the trapped man's options clearly. "There's a strong chance you will die, just so you know. And it will hurt worse than anything you have ever felt. But if you do nothing, you WILL die. The choice is yours. I wish I could put it softer, but you have minutes to live...or less judging by that puzzle..."
Xavier stared firmly into the terrified man's eyes.
"I cannot promise you will live. But I give you my solemn word that I will do everything in my power to save your life," Xavier vowed with unshakeable conviction in his words. "It's time to choose, sir. Possible death...or certain death?"
The man stared into his eyes, and then, whimpering, ventured forward into the machine, full of raw, naked terror, blubbering under his gag. Toad suddenly realized he hated Arcade about as much as he hated Essex. Danger looked visibly horrified.
The Mailman held out his fingers to the gap in the machine. The puzzle cube was seconds from being solved when he stuck his fingers in. All the machinery inside sparked as the man screamed and fell backward, shutting down as the chamber opened and Xavier rushed in to aid the fallen man, ripping the gag off his mouth while listening for a heartbeat. He immediately began doing CPR, praying that it wasn't already too late. Toad wanted to be sick as Xavier frantically performed mouth to mouth resuscitation. The terror on Xavier's face was clear for all to see as he frantically performed the procedure.
Toad felt sick at the sight. Danger couldn't even watch.
After a minute, Danger perked up in surprise, detecting a heartbeat as the mail man coughed violently, whimpering.
"Danger, this man needs immediate medical attention. There is a small med-bay outside the decontamination chamber. We have to take him there and you will have to stand by to stabilize him and keep him alive. Me and Mortimer will confront Arcade,"
"Arcade is extremely dangerous. I may be the only way to get past some of his defenses..." Danger warned, hands going to well-formed hips.
"Right now, this man needs the most dangerous and overpowered of us three to keep him alive. You'll be his only defense if more Locke Clones come," Xavier replied firmly. "We'll handle the crazy bastard ourselves..."
Danger nodded and gently picked the man up.
"Let's go," Xavier said, heading out of the decontamination chamber and into a large lobby-like area that led into different departments, with doors big enough to accommodate McCoy's massive mutant frame. Toad was amazed.
"Just how do you guys keep all this hidden?" Toad wondered, scratching his head.
"When you have as much connections as Hank McCoy or me, you can get away with quite a lot, Mortimer..." Xavier answered as they carried the barely revived man down the halls to a section listed with a Red Cross, they came into a clean white room with lots of seemingly automated medical equipment, including medical capsules big enough to house Hank himself or a regular human. Xavier set the injured mailman inside the human sized capsule and the machines inside immediately went to work stabilizing him while Xavier grabbed a sawn off semi auto shotgun with the stock removed, along with an ammo belt of shotshells.
"Are you SURE You can handle Arcade?" Danger asked once more.
"I'm sure," he answered. "Lock the door when we leave, Danger..."
As Xavier made a beeline for the Printer section with Toad following, the Mutant Teenager worked up the nerve to comment.
"Y'know, fer' a humanitarian, you're pretty good at this violence stuff." Toad remarked.
"Being good at it is what made me eventually decide to be a humanitarian...I didn't want to end up like Arca...or, God forbid, Frank..." Xavier responded, swiping his card to finally enter the printer section.
It had been trashed. Much of the section was on fire, LMD units designed to look like circus clowns carefully moved boxes of choice parts from stripped down white platforms of varying sizes. Most of the printers had already been disassembled.
"CLOWNS!" Xavier roared, opening fire as he advanced , blasting the heads of four of the Androids off.
"I HATE CLOWNS!" Xavier roared again. "ARCA! WHERE ARE YOU!?"
"SOUNDS LIKE THE GUEST OF HONOR DECIDED TO CRASH THE PARTY EARLY!" Arcade said, appearing in a puff of smoke on the arm of a miniature automated crane.
"FOR OUR NEXT ACT WE PRESENT OUR TRAVELING! REVOLVER! CLOWNS!"
The Clown LMD's whipped out long barreled high caliber revolvers that fired 50. Caliber BMG rounds tipped with explosives, firing at Charles even as she blasted them down in turn, Toad firing gobs of his industrial glue strength mucus at faces to blind their targeting while Xavier gunned them down, tossing all his smoke grenades at an advancing squad of Miss Locke clones armed with M60's.
Arcade cackled and removed his top hat, and out of it came fiery sparking rockets that detonated like grenades on impact, not even caring if he hit his own minions, forcing both Toad and Xavier to run and fight for their lives to avoid the screaming rockets as they splashed the area at random.
"MORE ADRENALINE FLOWING HERE THAN A HIGH STAKES BETTING MAN AT THE KENTUCKY DERBY, FOLKS. BROUGHT TO YOU! BY! MURDERWORLD!" Arcade shouted.
Xavier managed to drop one clown, grab his still loaded revolver and start using it to explode other Clown LMD's and Locke Clones, Toad not holding back his superhuman strength. When Toad didn't hold back, it was easy to see how lethal he really was, how punches and kicks got more savage, his long tongue used as a brutal cross between a whip and a battering ram that swiped aside whole crowds of both. His fists always went through chests or heads with each punch, moving or jumping so fast they couldn't properly target him. Charles grabbed one of the machine guns and blasted his way to Arca, duel wielding both the machine gun and the shotgun, amazingly ripping through them faster than even Toad did. Xavier was the one who reached Arcade first, a trail of destroyed clowns and dead goo piles behind him in the burning facility.
"I'm gonna ask you only once, Edward..." Xavier growled, dropping the now empty machine gun and pointing the shotgun on its last shell at him along with his grenade launcher.
"Where. Is. Hank?" Xavier snapped.
"OUR AMAZING FIRST ACT GOT SIGNED TO A NEW DEAL WITH SEBASTIAN SHAW!" Arcade answered.
"No..." Xavier whispered as Toad finally caught up.
"YOU SICK MONSTER!" Toad yelled in rage. "HE WAS JUST A MAILMAN, FOR GOD'S SAKE!"
"EVERYONE IS WELCOME! AT! MURDERWORLD!" Arcade replied jovially at a genuinely furious Toad.
Then...Arcade broke character and Charles knew the sadistic torturer he had dropped into a small lake of Agent Orange was absolutely still alive in this bizarre shell he saw before him.
"Don't worry Charlie. I'll tell you where he is..." Arcade sneered. "That's the death trap."
Arcade, in a pure flex, turned his back on both of them.
"He's on his way to a stolen SHIELD Helicarrier in the Swiss Alps. It's in cloak mode," Arcade said. "Do hurry off to die, now."
"Don't you turn your back on me you arrogant bastard..." Xavier hissed.
"Shaw didn't ask you to steal the Printers, did he?" Toad asked immediately in realization. "Because you are awfully quick to give him up..."
Arcade turned to face the Mutant.
"Perceptive little froggy, aren't you?" Arcade noted quietly.
"Who told you to steal the Printers, Arca?" Xavier demanded.
"SORRY! THAT'S ALL FOR TONIGHT FOLKS!" Arcade yelled as he went back into character, the tip of his can in flating a giant red balloon horse that breathed fire, which blocked Xavier's shotgun fire and bounced his grenade round away to detonate harmlessly in the distance along with Toad's mucus gobs, with Arcade hopping onto it and tipping his white hat to Charles and Toad.
"WHO KNOWS?! MAYBE WHEN YOU TWO REACH MURDERWORLD PROPER , YOU'LL GET A DISCOUNT! ENTRY! FEEEEEEEEE!" Arcade shouted in his ringmaster voice before fleeing down a tunnel he had made into the very rock itself atop his fire breathing balloon horse.
Xavier grimaced.
"I really hate Edward Arca..." Xavier growled.
...
"Think he's working for Essex?" Toad asked Charles as they headed back to check on Danger.
"Not sure. It's a possibility..." Xavier admitted as they reached the med bay, finding the lobby area totaled and with piles of green goo everywhere.
Danger walked out, waving at them.
"They swarmed me after you left..." Danger said. "I was forced to heavily damage the area..."
"The guy Arca grabbed off the street. Is he still alive?" Xavier asked in a grumble.
Danger nodded. "He's in stable condition. I can't guarantee he'll stay that way if we remove him from the medical chamber you stuck him in. He was hurt pretty bad."
Xavier's hands went to his hips.
"Great, just freaking great...well, the danger is gone for the moment. I'll activate the Night Nurse LMD," Xavier said, going over to a mirrored wall and typing on a hidden key pad whose buttons lit up, and the wall split open to reveal a Life Model Decoy designed to resemble a pale skinned, hourglass figured woman in a a revealing, low cut black cocktail dress ensemble wearing a Black Nurse's hat.
"How can I help?" The Night Nurse asked in a very sweet, demure voice.
Danger raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you object to my costume being too revealing earlier?"
"This is Hank's design, not mine," Xavier replied with a shrug, still furious about Arcade managing to escape. "Hank likes his eye candy when treating the odd bruise or burn...plus, he intends to market them in all over the world next year."
Danger raised an eyebrow. "I have to admit...for a business plan, it'll be difficult to mess up."
A bemused smile crossed Danger's face as Xavier and Toad struggle not to snicker at her comment for a second before getting themselves back under control. Even the Night Nurse LMD seemed to crack a tiny smile.
"Doctor McCoy's been kidnapped," Toad explained. "He's apparently being taken to some Hellicarrier hidden in the Swiss Alps..."
"Helicarriers are almost impossible to detect in stealth mode..." Xavier said, reloading his shotgun. "Fortunately I know someone with the means to penetrate the cloaking field. After we retrieve the others, we're heading to Herbert Wyndham's facility in Antarctica. He maintains a private preserve there called the Savage Land..." Xavier said as he led the Night Nurse to the man who had been electrocuted.
"Wyndham is one of the only people on the planet other than Hank or Reed Richards who has the tech to find a fully stealthed Helicarrier..." Xavier said. "And there's no chance of locating Richards unless he wants to be found..."
Toad looked at the Night Nurse. "The Mailman...is he gonna live?"
"I have been programmed with the knowledge of the finest physicians around the world. If anyone can help this man recover, it's me..." The Night Nurse said confidently.
"Let's get back to Hank's lab up top. We're all much to vulnerable right now to try assessing damage." Xavier said.
Xavier turned to the Night Nurse. "Keep him sedated for now. If we don't return by tomorrow, I want you to stabilize him as best you can, then drop him off at the closest hospital you can find."
"Of course, Professor..." The Night Nurse replied.
"And don't open this door for anyone but us until that deadline I gave you passes..." Xavier said as they left.
...
"Well...he didn't damage the Jet..." Xavier said as he stepped through the totaled remains of Hank's lab. The items Loki had given them were still secure, but now inaccessible without Hank's codes, locked away in a vault of solid purified carbonadium that has clearly been attacked relentlessly by Arcade, yet they had held their secrets.
"But that's only because he wants me to go after Shaw."
"I overheard Ororo mention Shaw earlier." Toad said. "Who is he?"
"He's the head of the Hellfire Club..." Xavier answered grimly. "Mutant Organized Crime Ring. Don't know much about their inner workings...they've always tried to stay away from me...until now..."
Xavier went over to the computer that had been tracking Scott. Amazingly, it was still halfway functional despite moderate levels of damage and after a few very patient minutes he had hot wired it enough to get it working again , and it showed the motorcycle's location in the desert.
"We can't leave yet..." Xavier said. "Edward Arca was alone with this jet for God only knows how long. We are not leaving until I do a clean sweep of its innards from top to bottom. Danger, come with me, I'll need your sensors..."
Toad paced outside for a while, overstressed, wanting to fall asleep, but having too much adrenaline to. By the time the third hour rolled around Xavier came back down the ramp.
"It's time to go, Toad! Hop in!"
"Hey, you made a pun!" Toad commented.
"Did I?" Xavier said in a moment of academic curiosity before it hit him.
"Oh, my, he's right. My eggs REALLY must be scrambled..." he muttered as he headed back up the ramp as Mortimer joined him...
Danger's costume morphed back to its less revealing black leather appearance.
"Second thoughts?" Toad asked as he sat down.
"Mortimer, there is fighting supervillains and there's a cop stopping me on the street every five minutes..." Danger replied. "All things in their proper place..."
The black flying wing jet VTOL-lifted out of the lab...
...
Present...
"So let me get this straight..." Scott said as Xavier flew the Stealth Jet to District X after having picked Scott, Ororo, and Fred up from the mysterious cave that had the final resting place of Carter Slade. "A Circus Performer Assassin knocked over Hank's mansion, kidnapped Hank, nearly murdered a mailman and sicced robo clowns and scantily clad female hench clones at you. And now Beast is possibly in the Swiss Alps."
Xavier blinked.
"Yep. That about sums it..." he answered, increasing the speed of the Jet.
"And we have to book it to District X, because if they hit us at Hank's house, chances are, they're about to hit District X!" he added fervently as he piloted...