Tales of a Young Mutant 39
Disclaimers: This story, though probably not in all chapters, will definitely have celebrities in it. I don't know what they're sexualities are, and this is not meant to imply them, either. If you are not of legal age in your area, or are not interested in this type of literature, then GO AWAY!!
The X-Men, Spiderman, Blade, the Fantastic Four, Mutant X, and all associated characters are the property of Marvel Comics.
Batman and all related characters are the property of Dc Comics.
Charmed is owned by Warner Brothers.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and all related characters created by Joss Whedon. Copyright 20th Century Fox.
The characters of Final Fantasy are the property of Squaresoft.
Hercules and Xena are owned by Renaissance Pictures, I think.
Street Fighter and Final Fight are owned by Capcom. Fatal Fury and King of Fighters are owned by SNK. Tekken is owned by Namco.
I will use a lot of extra things which I will announce upon use. I don't know if I'll use all the elements listed, but I have them just in case.
This story follows the life of a young mutant I made up, Joshua Monroe. Before you read this story, be sure you have read Adventures of a Real Dark Night in the boy-bands section of this archive, about chapter 7-13. The character was introduced in that story. Also, I encourage reading the stories listed below in the Tales universe, as they crossover from time to time.
For those of you who have read my other story, The Birds and the Bat, this is not a `sex scene in every chapter' type story like the other one was. If you like this story or don't like it, I would like feedback.
Also, email all comments to me at redrealityranger03@yahoo.com or at redrealityranger02@hotmail.com.
Be sure to check out, if you haven't already:
Tales of a Real Dark Knight
Tales of a Superhero Band
Tales of the New Phoenix
Tales of a Human Spider
Marvel Knights
All are in the Gay Male Celebrity Boy Bands section of the archive, save Marvel Knights, which in the Gay Male Celebrity section.
I apologize for the jumps that are being made in these few chapters, but I'm trying to include only the parts that really have Josh's involvement. If you need any reminders of the events, the next four chapters correspond with events taking place in the "Judgments" storyline of Dark Knight, the "Birds of Prey" storyline of New Phoenix, and the "Apocalypse" thru "Legacy" storylines of Marvel Knights.
Thanks, and on with the story.
Tales of a Young Mutant
Chapter 39: The Beginning of the End
The time of the full moon was finally on us. Everyone knew their place in the plan. The time had come. The time for the death of Sinister and Apocalypse.
Logan and I were in our bedroom, suiting up for our departure. I looked over myself in the full-body mirror standing in the room, admiring my uniform, made from a material that looked like a cross between rubber and spandex, but was really the densest body armor on Earth. The bird symbols on the belt and chest, although with X's through them, made me think of Blake and his sacrifice for humanity.
"It won't come to that." I heard from behind me. I turned to see Logan, dressed in a uniform of the same material, with a blue top and bottom, the sides of the pants and the shoulders graced with yellow stripes resembling claw marks, and an X-symbol on the right side of the chest. He didn't wear one of his usual masks, thus giving his hair, cut and styled in the trademark Wolvie way, room to breathe.
"Won't come to what?" I asked, pretending like I didn't know what he was talking about."
"It won't come to you having to destroy yourself to save the world," replied Logan, approaching me. He pulled me into his arms, tilting my head to look up into his eyes. "And you know that, too. I've seen you do wonderful things. Your powers are amazing. Sometimes---"
"What?"
"Sometimes I wish I could be like that, too. Sometimes I wish I could experience what it's like to wield that power myself. To control it like you do, to fly, to do so many great things."
"I could bring you with me sometime." I offered. "Carry you with me when I fly."
"I'd like that." he replied. He leaned over then and the two of us kissed.
I was the one who pulled away first. "Time to go and rally the troops." I told him.
"Lead on, Birdboy," he replied.
"As long as you follow, Beastman," I answered with a smile. I picked up the Phoenix Blade, in its sheath, and strapped it across my chest, then set out to the hangar.
**********
I looked around at the gathering of heroes, ready to enter the planes. I was taken aback and I had to simply stand and look over each of the incredible costumes and uniforms before me.
Cyclops stood talking to Phoenix, his wife; he dressed in his blue costume, with a gold strap crossing the right shoulder, connecting at an X-badge with the strap going vertically down the left. The vertical strap connected to the gold belt he wore, with a square buckled that had a black on red X. Phoenix truly meant that she was keeping her costume in memory of Blake, as she wore a tight-fitting green costume, which had gold gloves almost up to her shoulders and gold boots extending up her thighs. A green sash tied around her waist, with an X-badge holding it tied. The defining feature of the costume was the golden Phoenix emblem on the chest. Over her eyes, Jean wore a set of communication goggles, which the color of the lenses had been converted to gold.
Mom and Dad walked up to the two of them. Storm's uniform went back to her upbringing in Africa. She wore a black version of the white costume she usually opted for, which was graced perfectly with the black tiara she wore. Bishop's uniform was black also, with a red belt having the X-badge on it. Bishop wore a long black leather coat also, which I was easily able to determine housed many hidden weapons, in addition to those holstered on his shoulders and at his waist. Of course, all of his weaponry and clothing had an X-logo somewhere on it. Both of their communication's goggles were tinted black.
Iceman was talking with his own lover, Beast, and Pyro with his, Colossus. Iceman's costume was a ice-resembling shade of blue bodysuit, which had a stripe of black that went down the center of the uniform. An X badge was on the belt, as well as the left side of the chest. I knew however, that the uniform was more of a precautionary thing if we were rendered powerless, because when using his ice powers, Bobby generally went into an armored form.
Beast also was wearing more than he usually wore, as generally his costume consisted of a pair of blue trunks and an X-belt. This time he wore a blue bodysuit with the belt. As much as clothing restrained him, he needed it for his own protection. Their comm. goggles were tinted blue.
Pyro's uniform was a black bodysuit, with red gloves and boots, and a set of orange-tinted comm. goggles. The defining feature of the costume was the golden gauntlets on the uniform, which were connected to a backpack on his back. This feature would produce flames that Pyro would direct at the enemy, making him a very important part of the battle.
Colossus' uniform was much less conservative, being a red bodysuit with a golden stripe down the front that allowed his legs and arms to be freely shown, and a set of goggles, tinted red. His needn't be as conservative, considering his mutant power.
Emma Frost I noticed talking with the Professor about the mental attacks that they could use in battle against the enemy. Her costume of choice was a tad bit . . . revealing to say the least. Emma wore a white leather teddy, with thigh-high leather boots. A little too revealing and alluring considering we couldn't sex the enemy into submission. However, she'd likely comment on Colossus's uniform, and, truthfully, she was just as entitled as he was to show some diamond skin. However, the way that she talked to Xavier, while constantly glancing at Cyclops, was really getting on my nerves.
Spyke and Marrow were with Rogue and Gambit. Spyke and Marrow couldn't exactly get a costume of Shi'ar cloth like the rest of us could, but they had gained control of their powers enough to form protective plating around their chests and other vital organs, each needing only a pair of black spandex pants and a pair of comm. goggles.
Rogue's costume was a green bodysuit with a hood to go over her head, a silver stripe going down the center, with silver gloves and silver comm. goggles. Gambit, as always, wore his purple jumpsuit, headband, and his tan trench coat, pockets likely to be stuffed with playing cards and at his waist was the collapsible staff. Gambit opted to wear a red pair of comm. goggles.
Archangel wore a blue costume with a white stripe going down the center, a halo on the chest, and his lover, Nightcrawler, wore a black jumpsuit and a red vest-like tunic. Archangel wore white comm. glasses, Nighcrawler's were black.
Northstar and Quicksilver were talking off to themselves. I couldn't tell what they were talking about. They could have been comparing speed powers, or talking about their battle strategy. But by the innocent, shy little smile on Pietro's face, I could tell that Jean-Pierre was flirting with him. It was remarkable how alike their costumes were. Northstar's bodysuit was black, Quicksilver's a light blue. However, both costumes had the same lightning design on the sides of the costume, though Quicksilver's on his left side, Northstar's on his right. Each had opted for blue comm. goggles.
Charge and Eros seemed to notice, too. Charge wore a black bodysuit, with a lightning bolt on the chest. Eros wore a White bodysuit with an awkward gold symbol on the chest, which resembled a stick figure. If I remembered correctly, it was the symbol of the planet Venus. The two of them both wore white goggles.
I also saw that Shadowcat and Psylocke were off to the side, sparring. Shadowcat's uniform was a black bodysuit, with a golden stripe down the front, gold boots, and a golden belt, with an X badge. Psylocke wore a costume that I hoped would be easy for her to manage fighting in, a violet jumpsuit with a sash around the waist bearing the X-logo on its clip. Each had a pair of black goggles.
I then looked towards the Birds of Prey. The Green Falcon wore an all-black jumpsuit, with a green ring symbol over her chest, a green eye-mask, and a green cloak which was draped over her shoulders. JC, or C as was his codename, still wore the plain black leather bodysuit that Mom had given him before, with the black comm. goggles. I noticed the holstered pulse blaster at his side that Dad gave him, as well as something else . . . JC had a few clips of Dad's solar-energized ammo. Dazzler wore a leather tank top and leather pants, with a black-on-red X badge on her belt. Xavier had bought her a brand new MP3 player the day before, with cordless earphones, and most of us younger team members downloaded our favorite songs to it. She had more than enough music to convert into light energy during the coming battle. Jubilee wore a full-bodied plain-black trainer uniform with yellow goggles, which matched her yellow leather coat. Boomer wore a black spandex uniform, with golden gloves, belt, boots, and comm. goggles.
I checked to see that the Huntress's team was present and accounted for. Huntress wore a black spandex outfit, accented by violet gloves and a violet stripe down the torso, with a black utility belt and in place of her violet mask, a violet pair of comm. shades. Her beau, Justin, wore a black leather trainer uniform, adorned with a black pair of comm. goggles, and a strange pistol. I remembered from Eric's honeymoon adventure that the blaster gun was a present from a Jedi knight.
Dagger wore a black hood and goggles, with a black top, a cross cut out above the chest. The bottom was black leather pants and boots, with a skirt covering that housed stakes and other assorted weaponry. Blade's costume was an all-black leather uniform, with a belt holding stakes and holy water, as well as a couple vials of blood, which I assumed were for him when he needed them. He wore a long leather coat also, and strapped on his back was his sword. He also had various weapons hidden throughout his uniform. Cloak's costume was all black, too, with a hood that covered his face, making all but his eyes vanish. Ghost Rider, now in human form, wore black leather pants and a black leather biker jacket, with a long chain wrapped around his waist and draped over one shoulder.
The others assembled had mainly plain black leather practice uniforms, but with slight differences. The Charmed Ones each carried a pouch full of potions that I expected they'd be using in battle, and Patrick carried some stakes with him. All three brothers wore a cross around their neck for protection, in case a vamp tried to bite them. Michael didn't carry any weapons, being a white-lighter, but he still wore a protective uniform, his being white instead of black.
Angel's team all wore the black uniforms. Angel carried a sword on his back, stakes in holsters at his hips. Gunn carried two smaller swords, each sheathed at his waist, and stakes in his boots. Cordelia and Fred each had stakes as well, but Cordelia was also armed with a gun, courtesy of Blade, that fired silver bullets. Fred was armed by Bishop with a pulse rifle that shot fire blasts. She also had on each arm a gauntlet, with shurikens magnetized to it. Wesley carried potion vials in a pouch, an ax, and a sword on his back. He also wore a wooden cross around his neck, which was sharpened to a point on one end.
Buffy wore the black uniform also, with stakes of wood and silver holstered at her hips, a short sword on her back, and silver daggers sheathed in her boots, and a silver cross around her neck. Spike added to his uniform the black leather duster he wore to the mansion (which I assumed he probably always wore), an ax, and stakes in his boots, as well as a sword on his back. Willow's costume was different. She had opted for a dark red uniform, in which the pockets carried potions. She had with her, in the case that she would be attacked, a stake on each hip, and a silver cross around her neck. She was reading through a spell book, likely memorizing spells.
As I surveyed the room of heroes, one by one each seemed to recognize my presence. Slayers finished talking with their watchers for the last time before departure, and mentors bid their students farewell. Everyone turned their attention to me.
"Good morning, everyone," I said as I looked around the room. "Thank you, all of you, for showing up today.
"I hope everyone is ready for battle, because that's what we're about to do. We are about to do battle with what may be the deadliest, strongest mutant in the world and his army. But this time, we will not come home defeated. We will not come out of this with our enemy's surrender. We will come out of this victorious, with our enemy defeated.
"Everyone knows their place in the plan already. So we will move out now. If any of you plans to back out, now is the time do so." No one gave any indication that they weren't going into battle. "Good. Then off we go. The time is at hand. It is time to face Apocalypse . . . and win!" Everyone cheered and yelled.
Everyone entered the prospective planes that they were assigned and we set off.
On the plane with me were my parents, Logan, Angel and Buffy's teams, the Charmed Ones, and the Marvel Knights. Storm was flying the plane and Dad assisted, checking navigations between us and the Blackbird. We rode in the X-Jet. We were going over the plan again so that everyone knew exactly what they were doing. A hologram was set up so that everyone in both planes knew the plan.
"So when we get there, essentially everyone's gonna go in kickin' ass." Buffy stated bluntly.
"Except me, Pierce, and Michael," added Nightcrawler in his German accent. "Michael will be healing the wounded in the X-Jet, while Pierce and I teleport them back and forth."
"And me," added Iceman, "My job will be to protect our exit paths, the planes."
"Right," I replied. "Then, when the timing is right, Storm, Phoenix, Gambit, Rogue, Quicksilver, Charge, Eros, Psylocke, Green Falcon, Willow, Blade, and Huntress will enter the Fortress with me. It's very likely that the stronger guards will be inside, so I'll need the speed and experience of them to handle the tougher baddies."
"And while the others are doing the majority of the fighting, you, Blade, Charge, and I will be fighting our way through to getting to secret passage to their inner sanctum," added Eros.
"Correct. This way, if we come up against any assailing troops, Blade can handle them alone. Also, since Sinister will likely keep his remaining Olympians as a "surprise", I'll be needing you and Charge to take care of them, since you guys know the most about them." I replied. "That way, I can go in for the kill, and take down our two main problems once and for all."
"I still don't see why we don't just destroy drop a bomb on the building. Or why we need these communications goggles if we are going to be communicating telepathically." Ghost Rider said.
"I could make one big enough!" enthused Boomer, starting to form one.
"Tabby!" exclaimed Jubilee.
"Aw man." Tabitha moaned, diffusing her bomb.
"That and I don't see why we're waiting until nightfall, when the majority of them will be roaming the grounds." Ghost Rider continued.
"Because they'll be outside, rather than inside." Buffy replied. Ghost Rider gave her a dumbfounded look. With a sigh, she added, "That way, there's not a large congestion of vamps within the fortress that Firebird has to fight through to get to Sinister and Apocalypse. And I highly doubt that they'll stick around with the place destroyed, or that a bomb will kill either one of them."
"Duh." Spike added, getting a glare from Ghost Rider. "And no offense to the `paths, but if one of them gets knocked on their arses, or needs extra power and cuts their link, we need the glasses as back up."
"Exactly. Though I wouldn't have worded it quite that way." I replied to Buffy and Spike.
"You've got to forgive Spike. No sense of tactfulness." Angel said, receiving a mean glare from Spike. I could tell there was some uneasiness amongst some of those on board.
"One last thing." I said, directing this at everyone in both planes. "Some of you may have bits of hostility toward one another, be it due to different species, time periods, etc. However, let us ALL remember that we are fighting them, Sinister's army, not amongst ourselves. Understood?" Everyone replied in the affirmative. As I finished talking, the planes made it to Antarctica. With some awesome maneuvering through abandoned caves on the surface, we made it clean through to the hidden Prehistoric place known as the Savage Land.
Within the fortress of Sinister, alarms began to blare loudly. Sinister's vampire and mutate minions began to shout excitedly from within the throne chamber where Apocalypse and Sinister prepared their ritual.
"Silence!" bellowed Sinister to the crowd. "Vampires! Go out and confront the intruders! We cannot be interrupted! Be sure to release your gargoyle cousins!"
As his minions shouted out battle cries and ran from the chamber, Sinister signaled to some of his remaining Olympians, Hera and Artemis, to hang back, as well as his mutates, the full force of his Marauders, and his most trusted and strongest armed to the teeth vampire generals. "Marauders, guard the inside of the base level of the fortress. My generals, you will patrol the second level, for there are secret passages that exit there. My Olympians, you will not move from the outside of the throne room door." Everyone nodded and replied in the affirmative and set out for their destinations.
"We do not have time for this, Sinister!" Apocalypse bellowed. "We can not be interrupted!"
"Yes, master, I know." Sinister replied as he walked up to his throne. He pressed a button beneath an armrest that caused the chair to move to the side and reveal a hidden passage. "This leads to a very protected room at the core of the fortress, which can only be accessed from here, where we will not be bothered by the sounds of battle outside."
"Good. Then let's get started. I want to begin building my empire before the night is over." Apocalypse replied.
As they began to walk down the stairs, a voice called out to them. "And what, pray tell, would you have me to do, master?"
The two looked to the shadows of the room, searching for the voice. Sinister grinned wickedly as his servant walked out of the shadows, literally, of the wall. The man wore an outfit of all black leather, with leather pants and a leather coat, a black staff with a scythe at one end in hand. A black mask covered his face, with only two air holes and slits for eyes, with a symbol of a lowercase h, with a line through the top of it, above the eyeholes.
"In case the Fabled One makes it this far, you are to kill him," replied Sinister, matter-of-factly.
"It will be my pleasure, sir," he replied.
Apocalypse descended into the tunnel, Sinister behind him. "Have fun, Hades." He said before the throne moved back into place, blocking the tunnel.
"That last one of your Olympians had better be powerful enough to stop the Fabled One," said Apocalypse.
"Do not fret, my lord." Sinister replied. "Even if the Fabled One does manage to breach the walls of the fortress, he still won't be able to stop Hades."
"What makes you so sure?" asked Apocalypse.
"Because he won't," was Sinister's simple reply.
As the X-Jet and the Blackbird landed, we noticed a shroud of vampires approaching us, all dressed in a manner of regular clothing, but nothing protective like us. Each of them carried a weapon of some sort.
<Everyone knows their places?> I said through the link established between myself, Emma, and Phoenix. Everyone replied that they did. <Good. ATTACK!>
Everyone stormed out of the planes, save Nightcrawler, Michael, Pierce and Iceman. Everyone began to engage different enemies, all vampires, to which I estimated several thousand according to the minds.
As I traveled, headed for a pretty straight line toward the fortress, I pulled out the Phoenix Blade. Vampires which had come to confront me stopped momentarily, likely surprised by the sheer elegance of the white-bladed, golden-hilted sword. Their hesitance I used to my advantage, quickly decapitating 4 vamps in one wide swing, then another four with another swing. I simply began to try and hack my way through the forest of vampires as I headed to the fortress.
The others in the troop to aid me were right on my heels, Blade easily dispatching the vampiric demons with his sword skills. I had to avoid looking at Huntress, who was amazingly deadly when in full-on fight mode, staking the demons left and right. Eros and Charge used their powers at higher intensities, Charge frying the vamps until they burned to dust, Eros simply putting them in comatose and brain-dead states with mind bolts. Green Falcon hovered, a green aura glowing around her, as he formed a green blade and sliced through the vamps.
Any vampire who got close enough to Rogue got their heads knocked clean off their bodies by her superior strength, since they were too stupid to realize that most of their weapons could not breach her uniform. One actually tried to behead her, but with Rogue's skin being invulnerable, the blow did no damage. Rogue grabbed the sword, though, and began to slice off vamp head.
Many of the vampires began seemed to explode before I got to them. I found that the reason was that Gambit had been throwing around his charged cards, which landed on the vamps and destroyed them. In addition, Willow had been repeating a fire spell under her breath that caused the vamps to spontaneously combust. And the whooshing sound that I kept hearing, which was always immediately followed by a vampire's anguished cry of defeat, was Quicksilver as he quickly staked yet another vampire.
<Holy shit!> I heard from Blade. I followed his upward gaze and saw a gargoyle vamp swoop down and try to attack us.
<Storm!> I shouted. Mom looked at me and nodded as she rose to the air, Phoenix right behind her. Mom began calling down strong lightning bolts aimed at the gargoyle. The first missed (luckily it fried three vamps, though), but the second one connected, staggering the beast.
<Storm, this species is only defeated by massive loss of blood.> Phoenix commented.
<Rogue! Help them!> I called. Rogue looked up and flew in Storm's direction, while Storm began calling up a tornado.
Three more gargoyles went flying towards Storm. <Storm!> I shouted.
<Got it covered!> Phoenix shouted as the three gargoyles hit an invisible telekinetic barrier.
Rogue easily took care of the first of the gargoyles, slicing it to pieces with her sword, and then went after the other three.
<No!> Mom shouted. <Go back to Josh. I've got this covered.> Rogue hesitantly complied and began helping me again. Mom's tornado finally formed itself, and as the gargoyles tried to approach her, they were sucked inside.
<Now, Jean!> Storm shouted. Phoenix nodded and added her telekinesis in to the mix of the tornado, causing the winds inside to spin about even faster. As the winds grew to a peak, the gargoyles were torn apart, limb from limb.
Another gargoyle approached Storm, but was stabbed through the back by a sword, then beheaded. As the body parts fell, it was revealed that Archangel was her rescuer.
"I could get used to this," he remarked, marveling the sword, then to Storm, "The rest of us can cover this, you guys get inside!"
"Right." Storm replied, hovering back to the ground. After paving our way through the vamps, we arrived at the front of the fortress. Next to us, Michael appeared.
"This is so that things stay easily managed," said Michael as he waved his hand at the group of us, and just like that, we were orbed into the front of the fortress.
Two more vampires wailed in agony as their heads were severed by Cyclops's optic beams. Nearby, Dazzler, music on her MP3 player at its loudest, blasted the heads off of several more demons.
"INCOMING!" shouted Boomer. The others moved out the way as she launched a bomb at the group of vampires. An explosion of body part quickly dissipated into dust and ash.
"Good one Dazzler," Jubilee said as the blasted three vamps in the face with her fireworks. While they tried to see again, she quickly dusted the three of them.
"Thanks, Jubes." Boomer said as she prepared another blast. Suddenly, she was picked up and carried off by one of the gargoyle vampires.
"Let me go!" Boomer cried, trying, with no avail to escape its clutches. The vampire carried her high into the sky and really did let her go. Boomer screamed as she plummeted to the earth, but was suddenly caught again.
"Gotcha." Boomer would seriously have thought that a real angel saved her if she hadn't been around Archangel enough to know he was a mutant. As Archangel tried to set her down on the ground, the gargoyle came around again, claws ready to dig into Archangel.
"NO!" shrieked Boomer as she threw a bomb at the beast. The vampire swerved out the way, digging into the arms of both mutants as it carried them into the sky.
"Aargh! Let us the fuck go!" shouted out Archangel through the pain of the beast's claws imbedded in his arm.
"That's it!" shouted Boomer in anger, "You're toast, mister!" Boomer concentrated on building an energy bomb, at point black range with the monster's torso. When the bomb went off, the demon exploded, but this caused Boomer and Archangel to be shaken from the explosion and to fall helplessly toward the ground.
Buffy blocked the vampire's sword swipe with her own, and then kicked him in the gut, and as he clutched himself, she swung the sword, decapitating him. She was fighting back to back with Angel, like old times before he moved from Sunnydale. She marveled at the skill of the other members of his team, Cordelia almost slayer-like in her fighting skill, Wesley seemingly a master of weapons and magic, Gunn hacking away with axes, and Fred quick with the pulse rifle. But what caught her attention as she decapitated yet another vampire was the two mutants falling from the sky.
<Holy shit!> Buffy thought. <Someone, help them!>
<Got it!> Buffy turned to the direction of the mental voice and saw Cloak looking up at the two. Behind him, two vampires tried to tackle him, but Cloak turned to them and shouted out, "Cremare!" and the two vampires caught on fire and burned to dust. That done, he turned back to the falling mutants. "Strigare!" he shouted. Almost about to hit the ground, the two suddenly became frozen, unable to move, however, they didn't stop falling."
"Shit!" he cursed himself. But as they almost touched the ground, they did actually freeze.
"Leave the temporal stasis to the professionals." Cloak heard. As he turned, he saw Perry had been the one to actually stop the descent of the mutants. Perry then went back to work of blowing up the many approaching vampires. Another turn and he saw a puff of sulfur appear and disappear twice, Archangel and Boomer vanishing with it. The smell of fire and brimstone confirmed that Archangel and Boomer would be fine. Cloak turned his attention back to the battle at hand.
"Good job, Nightcrawler," said Michael as he already began the healing process on Boomer.
"I do what I can," replied Nightcrawler as he watched the orange glow emanating from Michael's hands as he healed the unconscious Boomer's wounds. He then turned away and went to Archangel, who opened his eyes as Kurt approached him. His wounds had already begun to heal themselves.
"Hey blue-boy," Archangel said as he sat up.
"Hey yourself." Kurt replied with a frown.
"What?"
"You almost got yourself killed out there!"
"Me?! I didn't tell Boomer to blow the thing up!"
"You didn't try to stop her very much, either!"
"It got the job done, didn't it? Besides, we're fine now. Why are you so mad?"
"Because you could have died out there . . . and I would have had to face the fact that I had lost you. And I don't want to have to do that. I love you, Warren."
Warren warmed at his lover's words. "I love you too, Kurt."
"This is all well and dandy, but we need to get back out there and fight, guys," a newly rejuvenated Boomer announced.
"She's right." Archangel replied, looking at Kurt.
"I know." Kurt replied. Boomer stood on the other side of Kurt and –BAMF- they were back in the battle.
Two more vampires tried in vain to stab Colossus with their swords. Finally realizing that their opponents were wearing very protective body armor, they tried to cut off Colossus' arms. Thus they sacrificed their swords, and their lives as Colossus tore their heads off.
Another of the gargoyles tried to swoop down on them, but Dagger caused an explosion of light right in the vampires face, blinding it, making it easy for Bishop to fire an extremely powerful blast at it, searing its head off. Bishop turned and didn't have time to stop the vampire that was about to jump on him. He didn't have to, either. Marrow, with a bone hewn like a sword, sliced through the demon's abdomen, cutting it in half, it burning and turning to ash. Another male vampire tried to attack her from behind, but sensing it, she turned and deflected his sword, staggering him, then swung again, decapitating him.
Beast ducked under the sword swing of a vampire, then rolled and sprung forward, pouncing the demon, then using a stake he'd acquired, turned the demon into dust.
He turned to his left as a group of three vampires tried to ambush him, but suddenly stopped and tried to turn back. But it was too late. Three fireballs flew from behind Beast to hit each of the vamps, incinerating them.
Beast turned, relieved to see Pyro. Beast was ready to give a grateful, intelligent quip, but John Allerdyce had already turned his attention to the battle again, toasting vampires left and right. Beast should have felt relieved that Pyro was such a big help in using his powers to fight the demons. But the look on Pyro's face as he relentless destroyed the vampires—the wicked grin—it made Beast wonder if John was fighting to help Josh, or if he was fighting because he enjoyed it.
Shadowcat staked another vampire, then sidestepped one trying to attack her from behind, squatted and did a sweep kick, knocking the vamp on his back. She then staked him.
Hearing a screeching noise, she looked up as a gargoyle tried to attack her. Shadowcat went intangible, allowing the demon to pass through, giving her a chill. The demon, confused, slammed straight into the ground, where a more than happy Spyke was there to slice the demon open.
"Good one Kitty." Spyke said.
"We're in battle here. My codename is Shadowcat, Evan." Kitty reminded him.
"Aha! You just used my real name too, Shadow!" he retorted.
"Oh. . .bite me!" she replied, defeated.
"Less yappin', more fightin'!" came Logan's growl as he made short work out of several more vampires. Remains from several of the gargoyle demons lay around him after he'd either gutted them open for trying to attack him or else after he shot them down with his regenerating claws. The students obeyed their mentor and went back to work.
Patrick blocked the sword attack of a vampire, and then stabbed him in the chest. The demon, of the silver-fearing variety, burned to ash. Two more vampires tried to attack him, but Patrick jumped and levitated into the air and spun around, kicking the two in the face.
"Let the enemies of my desire be vanquished by a burning fire!" Patrick yelled out. The 2 vamps instantly caught on fire and screamed as they burned to ash.
Patrick was caught off guard by another vampire, however, and was stabbed through the stomach.
"No!" shouted Pierce as he orbed to the scene. The vampire pulled his sword out of Patrick and tried to attack Pierce, who orbed out before the vamp's sword could hit him. Upon reappearing, Pierce threw a potion of his that caused the vamp to catch fire and become dust.
Pierce knelt beside his brother as another vampire tried to stab him, this one being of the bumpy-headed kind.
"Stake!" Pierce called as he saw one on the ground behind the vamp. The stake turned into blue sparkles, which Pierce materialized into the vampire's heart. The demon looked at its chest in surprise as it turned to dust.
Another vamp tried to attack the two brothers, but wailed in extreme agony and burst into flames and dust. As the dust fell away, Pierce saw Wesley, his cross-stake in hand.
"We've got it covered; get him back to the Blackbird!" Wesley enthused.
Pierce nodded and orbed himself and Patrick away.
More vampires approached them, and as they did, Fred and Justin took aim and fired upon them, aiming at the heads with the flare bullets. Considering both types of vamps were susceptible to fire and sunlight, they all fell easily before the two. Gunn kept the other vamps at bay with his twin short swords, quickly stabbing one vampire in the chest, hoping that it was vulnerable to the silver blade. If he was right, then the vamp would burn and turn to dust. If not, he simply decapitated it with the other sword and kept moving. So far he was pretty accurate in his decisions. And whenever more than one vampire would attack him at the same time, he would spin around, slashing both vamps, decapitating them, and then move on.
While he performed this maneuver again, two gargoyle-type vampires circled in the air high above his head, readying to swoop down from above to attempt to claim him as his prey.
"Excuse me, but may I borrow one of these?" Gunn looked to his left to see the mutant Northstar. "I lost the one I had to another one of those gargoyles."
"Bring it back fast." Gunn said as he stabbed a silver-hater in the heart. Northstar caught the sword as it fell from the ashes of the vampire and with lightning quickness soared into the air. Gunn was amazed at what he saw next. The gargoyles descended upon him as soon as the second blade had left him. A white streak passed around the two gargoyles so fast that if Gunn would have blinked, he would have missed it, and he was reminded of episodes of Dragonball Z.
Gunn turned back to the fight and watched as the four vampires about to engage him suddenly turned into ashes.
"So, how did I do?" asked Northstar as he finally came to a stop next to Gunn.
As Gunn surveyed the ashes, as well as the falling gargoyle limbs, he replied, "You damn show-off."
"I'll take that as a complement," replied Northstar as he returned Gunn's sword to him and picked up two of the fallen swords from the enemy vampires.
"Um, guys, we could use some help here!" shouted Fred as she made dust out of a couple more vamps.
"Back to work." Gunn stated to Northstar as they returned to fighting.
C shot down three more vamps, and then reloaded the pulse rifle Bishop had given him. He figured he must have fire at least a few hundred shots before finally having to change clips. C finished just in time to shot three vamps in the neck at point blank range, severing their heads.
Another vamp tried to sneak C from behind, but was yanked backward as Ghost Rider wrapped his chain around its neck, slinging him backward and using him as a yoyo to knock down several vampires which approached him. Then he pulled hard on the chain, tightening the loop around the vamp's neck so tight that its head was severed from its body. As that vampire turned to dust, Ghost Rider pulled his chain back to him, then fastened a blade of medium length to the end. He then slung the chain around again, this time it decapitated several vamps.
A vamp decided to get too close to Ghost Rider, trying to ambush him from behind. Ghost Rider turned and breathed fire onto the vamp, which wailed and burned to dust.
Cordelia and Spike worked together, Cordelia using Blade's semi-automatic silver guns to slay vamps. Any vampire that wasn't killed by the silver would be immediately disposed of by Spike, using his ax to decapitate them.
Emma was also teamed with them. She used her telepathy to reign in the male vampires of the group, who were attracted to her scantily clad form and her erotic images that she sent to their minds. With any mental defenses they could have down, she would then create the intense mental image in their minds that they were catching fire. The vampires would scream in agony, and the ones that weren't dusted by the image would be offed by a swift swipe of Spike's ax. The females and the males who weren't affected by Emma's beauty (which Emma instantly assumed were gay vamps) would then attack. But since her diamond form gave her near invincibility and super strength to boot, Emma easily dispatched them with stakes of either silver or wood.
The two sinister villains made the preparations for the ritual, the ritual that would open a portal so powerful that it would destroy human life and leave nothing but mutant kind, mutants that would be subject to Apocalypse rule forever more, with Sinister at his side. En Sabah Nur shed his outer garments and left himself with nothing but a pair of trunks. In addition to the markings that Apocalypse already inherited on his body at birth, added characters needed to be drawn on his body, which Sinister applied with a vial of ink and a thin brush. Even Sinister had to admit that his master had a very muscular and (though no one but himself would say so) attractive body.
As Sinister completed his body painting of his master, a new alarm could be heard from above. Sinister turned to monitors in the hidden chamber and noticed that the Fabled One and his friends had just appeared inside his front door. While his minions approached it, Sinister had a thought come to mind to make their demise even the more . . . sinister.
As we rematerialized in the foyer of Sinister's fortress, we began to look around, Phoenix and I both sensing approaching mutants. As we began to think of the best way to accomplish our goal and defeat them, however, we noticed that from a fixture in the ceiling a blue beam of light descended, which formed itself into Sinister.
"Hello, kiddies. Don't you know that breaking and entering is illegal just about everywhere?" he said.
Green Falcon, who stood beside me, began to form a weapon with her ring, but I caught her hand and stopped her. "Don't waste energy. It's only a hologram."
"Correct." Sinister said. "And I suppose that with your presence here, you intend to stop mine and Apocalypse's plan." Sinister looked from side to side, scanning the room of heroes. "And I see you decided to bring all of my old acquaintances back, too. Including a couple of my old flames. Including my most favorite and prized possession. We used to have some good times, together."
"I'm not one of your possessions anymore!" shouted Eros. "And I hated every single moment that I was forced to submit to you."
"If you think that you're going to get your slimy hands on him again," Charge said, stepping in front of Eros, "then you've got another thing coming."
Sinister looked at the two of them, with an annoyed face. "Oh, for Christ's sake, I wasn't talking about Cupid at all. Sure, you were a good lay, but you weren't all that. I've had better two-cent whores than you," he replied evilly. Cupid began to surge with mental energy.
"Hold off your anger, Eros," I interjected, "it'd be a waste." Then I looked at Sinister. "You can't hurt a cowardly hologram."
"Nice words coming from the vampiric family man." He retorted.
"I already know how I'm going to rectify that. By killing you." I snapped.
"Ooh, so testy. First you'll have to live long enough to kill me."
"Which I will." Then a nagging thought kept coming to me.
A thought which Eros voiced. "Wait a minute, if I'm not who you were talking about, then who is?"
"Oh, he knows he is. A certain Cajun thief everyone loves to hang around. Someone who assuredly can't cope with his bisexuality because his first man leaves such a mark on him. A man who—"
"Shut. . .up!!!" Gambit shouted. Everyone turned their attention to him, Rogue trying to console him. But Gambit was bent over crying.
Now it started to all make sense. His hatred toward me and Logan, his hate toward Eric, which all started to wane after we saved Taran and Cole. And the conversation in the shower that happened between myself and Remy regarding Logan's ability to love. And the cock size comment? And . . . oh my god, he was checking me out! But the truth of the matter was, Gambit had been the first Cupid!
"The funny thing is," continued Sinister, "that I didn't force Remy to come to me like I did Taran. He came looking for me, looking for the financial contributions that I could give him. Stole for me willingly, as long as he was getting paid. And when I discovered that the reason that I always felt attracted to him, the reason that I hired him on in the first place, was that subset of empathy, that charm power of his. . .and when I discovered he was actually attracted to me and the idea of having sex with a man, and an older one at that. . .I had to have him then. Oh god, those were some of the best nights of my life."
Gambit was unable to speak. Feelings of anger, of sorrow, of humiliation emanated from him like a waterfall. I knew that both I and Eros could feel it. But everyone was in a state of confusion, on whether or not he could be trusted, especially since he went to Sinister deliberately.
But before I could unite my team again, Sinister sent the final blow. "You know what the most remarkable of his achievements was, though? It was building me my elite group of mutants, the Marauders. Then, after an especially wonderful night of sex, he had the idea of a cloning machine that could regenerate them." As he said this, the thirteen of us were surrounded by Sinister's mutates, known as the Marauders, this time the full force of them, not just the ones that we encountered in the sewers.
Everyone stood ready for battle, and I could feel that everyone had distrust in Gambit now, save Eros and me. I knew that there must be a second story there, but we didn't have time for it now.
"I think this will serve as a reminder of old times, yes?" Sinister said as his holographic image disappeared.
Then the battle began as the Marauders attacked.
So how did you guys like it? Send all of your comments to me at either of my email addresses, redrealityranger02@hotmail.com or jercolap@hotmail.com. redrealityranger03@yahoo.com, the other email address I have, has had too much junk email flow through it, so I'm sticking to the first two I listed above. I'm sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. I've finally gotten rid of my stupid, outdated computer and have gotten a new one, so the story should be getting out faster. Send me an email, tell me if you like it. Until next time!