Location: in the woods surrounding the lunatic_cafe

[the_crossroads]

Sabretooth,
Bizarro #1,
Hulk,
Sentinels

Thing,
Spike,
Silent Bob

Sabretooth was perched up on a ridge, overlooking the cafe and the area surrounding it. It wasn't that he was afraid of any of the people inside it but attacking in close proximity would get him sent back to Hell. That and there were those within that the protective spells didn't effect that could attack him as they pleased, the moment he did anything to protect himself he'd get blasted back to Hell.

Much as he hated to, he would have to wait until those he wanted to kill came out and left the proximity of the magics influence. It had worked fine with cave_buffy so it stood to reason.

Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one that had figured this little trick. Of the four remaining sentinels he'd managed to take out two and damage another. For the time being he'd managed to avoid the others but he could still sense them hunting him.

A sudden burst of motion from the front of the cafe caught his attention and he watched a very pale creature in a cape walk out. It stood there for a second and looked all over the place, giving him a better chance to focus on it. It had a very odd scent, looked mostly like a human male, and it had a large backward "S" on the front of its shirt. Then it stopped and looked directly at him. It took off, flying straight for him.

Sabretooth booked for cover.

Bizarro had seen the mutant clearly enough with its microscopic vision and landed where he had just been. Focusing his x-ray hearing on the surrounding area, it managed to get a lock on where Sabretooth was and roughly which way he was headed and flew that way as fast as he could. Just before he got to the mutant, he slammed through 3 trees, a very confused coyote, and a hummingbird that didn't quite get out of the way in time.

Scooping up Sabretooth, it flew straight up. Bizarro didn't have a specific plan, having overheard some conversations it knew that the mutant had hurt someone that everyone seemed to care for so hurting the mutant would be a good thing. Other conversations had made it out that the mutant was very hard to kill. Bizarro figured it would just make something up as it went along but now that he had the mutant, who was biting and clawing its indestructible hide to no avail, it wasn't sure if it could think of a way to kill him.

Sabretooth was really pissed, even after his berserker rage had started to dwindle off. It was apparant he couldn't harm this creature but if it kept flying upwards he was going to run out of air soon....least he thought he would as nothing else made common sense about this place. Either way, he wasn't going to chance it. Since he couldn't hurt this thing, he'd have to do something a bit more creative.

He reached for its cape and pulled it over its head, causing Bizarro to veer hard to the left and then plummet into a tailspin....kind of. Just before they hit the ground, causing a half mile crater, Sabretooth began to wonder if maybe that had been a bad idea.

Shortly after Bizarro had wandered outside, Hulk had gone out too. He'd been drinking a fair amount of wine, as much as madame_pegasus could provide. He was a little curious where she hid it all as she didn't wear much in the way of clothes...or maybe it just seemed that way from his height. Soon as he got out, he gave a major stretch, took a massive breath of air, and looked around.

Pretty.

That was when Hulk caught sight of Bizarro flying away, landing, then rushing along the ground towards the woods. Hulk thought it was a bit odd but he didn't know Bizarro real well. Just about to go back inside when he heard a massive impact noise and then saw Bizarro and someone that looked vaguely familiar flying up into the clouds, maybe fighting. This got the Hulk's attention since he couldn't inside, maybe they'd fight him. Also, Hulk wanted to know who the sort of familiar looking person was. He took a leap to just under where they'd taken off from.

Unfortunately, Hulk landed where he'd intended and a sentinel, which had been tracking Sabretooth, happened to arrive at the same time. The sentinel locked onto the Hulk and fired a plasma burst at him, just before the Hulk had quite landed, knocking him off his feet. Hulk rolled up snarling in time to get a large metal foot in the face, knocking him back another 100 feet. Getting up, tearing a large chunk of the ground, Hulk leapt at the sentinel's face, slamming the dirt and rock into its visual receptors, "Metalhead not hurt Hulk anymore!" hitting the ground hard, Hulk punched through its left leg causing the robot to lose its balance and fall to the ground. Hulk leapt onto its chest and reached for its head to tear it off when just to their right, Sabretooth and Bizarro rammed into the ground knocking them all in opposite directions.

The impact caught the attention of Ben and Spike, who were sharing a light around the side of the cafe. Spike had noticed Ben smoking them in the corner and asked if he had a spare. So they popped out, as not to make too much smoke from the two. Spike had to keep close to just under the roof as the sun was setting but it wasn't quite down yet, which suited Ben fine as he wasn't feeling particularly public like. They'd only had a few puffs when the shaking started. Spike moved around, keeping to the thin shadow while Ben popped right out to the parking lot and started storming off into the woods towards where the smoke was rising from.

Looking at the woods after Ben, Spike watched the ground where the shadow ended trying to decide if it was worth it. The light was dim but it was at that iffy point where it might sting a bit or cause him to combust. He looked at his watch before remembering he didn't wear one, "Bloody hell, what a time not to know it." he grumbled.

"It's 5:57p." said a quiet voice. Spike turned and saw Silent Bob leaning next to the front door of the cafe. Bob nodded to where Ben was headed, "You've got another 10 minutes till you can get out there."

"Well, ain't you Mr. Handy today." Spike growled, "What bloody good's that goin do me as I can't go?"

Silent Bob shrugged, patted the frustrated vampire on the shoulder, and stuffed both hands in his pockets...ambling in the direction Ben had gone. Spike watched him go, taking a half step but then holding back when his hand started to sizzle. Cursing, he kicked the side of the cafe, which gave him more cause to get pissy as he hurt his foot.

Getting just outside the impact zone, Ben saw the Hulk on his side, only about half concious. Near to him he also saw an unconcious Bizarro and a sentinel with no legs pulling itself around as it charged up its mouth cannon. He heard a rustling in the bushes behind him, turning barely in time to see Sabretooth limping away. Wasn't much of a decision but instead of chasing the mutant, he jumped on the back of the sentinel's head, punching through to the electronic brain and tearing it up. That ending the problem with killer robot, he reached down to the Hulk, "Up you go, greeny. I put tha kibosh on that tinker toy."

Hulk rolled up, taking Ben's hand and letting him help to his feet before he slugged Ben across the clearing. "Rockman get away from Hulk!"

Whatta revoltin development dis is Getting to his feet, Ben yelled at the Hulk, "What the heck'd you do that for you walkin cabbage patch?!" he pointed at the sentinel's remains, "I just took that thing out ta help ya!"

"Hulk not want be on any team that have Rockman as member!" and charged Ben, knocking him through another tree as the two behemoths rolled through the woods pounding on each other.

Bizarro chose about that time to wake up, hauling itself up against a tree for support while it got its bearings. It noticed Ben and the Hulk all but trying to kill each other a little bit away and smiled, "Bad to see such good friends being cruel to no one." Looking around, it couldn't spot Sabretooth anywhere. It loped off into the woods in what seemed like a good direction to find him and hurt him.

Keeping as much distance between himself and the growing noise behind him, Sabretooth worked his way around the side of a tree to catch his breath. His adamantium bones had kept him from breaking anything in the fall but he was pretty much a walking bruise still; his healing factor working on that hardcore. It'd be another minute before he was back to normal, which would go a bit faster if he could find something to eat. Fuel for the fire and all.

That's when he caught a normal human scent moving close to his position. Smiling, and healing, he crept around the side of the tree to see what food delivery had brought him.

Pausing for a second, Silent Bob felt a disturbance in the Force...or better to say, there were chills going up and down his spine. He'd had a brief glance of Ben getting thrown over him by the Hulk and had circled wide to get out of the way, figuring the gamma spawned poster child for anger management would be right after shortly. There was no sign of anyone else, beyond the remains of a sentinel. Figuring the impact was close to where the two big guys had been fighting a second ago, he changed to that direction.

The slightest snapping of a twig was enough to get his attention as Sabretooth jumped at him. He stepped back, causing the mutant to miss on his first charge but there was no way he'd dodge a second. He reached in his pockets, for anything frantically, as the mutant charged him again.

*BONG* Adamantium skull meets frying pan!

Holding the frying pan in both hands, he stepped back slowly, not taking his eyes off his attacker. Sabretooth, still not fully recovered from how this had all started out, was shaking off the ringing in his head from the unexpected assault. He hadn't figured the little fattie would have offered much more than a brief scream before he was halfway down his gullet.

"Nice move, bub." he snarled at Bob, "Ain't gonna do ya much good though. Yer still goin be my next meal." he ran at Bob, slashing through his coat at his belly as the frying pan hit him in the side of his head.

Little known fact, Silent Bob really isn't that fat. He really is big boned and the slash that was aimed at his belly didn't quite connect with flesh but it came damned close. Knowing he was royally screwed, Bob did the only thing that came to mind.

He bit Sabretooth on the nose as hard as he could!

Roaring and throwing the human off him, Sabretooth clutched his nose tightly as the blood flowed down his face. It was more the pain than actual damage, "Yer really pissin me off, flatscan!" pulling his hands away from his face he stepped over Bob, "Yer teeth ain't nowhere near sharp enough to do me anywhere near the kinda damage that'd save you." he reached a hand up to slash his meal dead on the spot when some other idiot landed on his back.

Spike got a firm choke hold around Sabretooth's neck, yanking back hard. Still sizzling a bit from the sun having been low enough not to actually make him burst into flames but still high enough to cause him some discomfort, he'd began running for the woods shortly after Silent Bob had disappeared from sight. Just couldn't let it weigh on his concience if anything happened to the guy. He didn't actually know the quiet guy all that well but key_girl liked him and that was good enough for him.

Ramming himself back against a tree, Sabretooth tried to shake the vampire off as he was in just a right enough spot that he couldn't quite get at him with his claws. Lack of oxygen wasn't a big concern, the less air he got the more savage he'd get and that usually worked out great for him. He moved off from the tree and slammed back into it again, trapping Spike between the two for a second time which hurt a lot.

Opting for a new tack, Spike yelled in Sabretooth's ear, "You were sayin somethin bout sharp teeth a bit ago...?" he bit down into the folds of the muscled neck in front of him causing the mutant to roar out in pain. Not only because if the agony from the bite, Spike was going for as painful a feeding as possible, but from the flow of himself into the vampire's mouth. Hitting the ground hard and rolling every which way, he couldn't get him off.

Spike was lost in the feeding at this point, feeling no pain at all as the healing energies of Sabretooth's blood flowed into him. Along with it came a flood of memories of things not too different from what he already knew but from an altered perspective. Sabretooth had no demon inside him but what did rage there paled the demon that Spike had inside. It was an all consuming rage at the world, a need to kill and main and cause as much suffering as possible that he'd never experienced and scared him to the core. That and the age the blood told was nearly as great a shock.

Sabretooth was older than he was by quite a bit.

Kicking off him, to get away from everything he was, no matter how much the blood had strengthened him, Spike hit the ground and came up fast. Sabretooth charged him, weaker still but not giving ground. The vampire, Big Bad that he was, turned sideways into the charge, wrapping an arm around the neck and turned the mutant into a tree, getting out of the way fast. That metal skeleton made direct attacks hard but not impossible. He kicked Sabretooth in the side hard, going for the meatier areas away from actual bone. Sabretooth hit the ground, his healing factor already strained and now operating with less blood to support it not quite being up to the job. Spike smiled, about ready to give the justice for what he'd heard this thing had done to cave_buffy.

Bizarro came into the area about then, saw what Spike was doing and hit him with its ice vision, freezing the vampire in place. Reaching down for Sabretooth, it flipped him over its shoulder to take him away when Silent Bob popped in his face with a questioning expression. Confused for just a second, it figured out the look, "Worry little, am putting him where him cause little harm."

Having had to deal with Jay for years, Silent Bob was used to not totally understanding someone when he was listening to them but even so...that was a bit of a strain. Reaching into a back pocket, he pulled out something and shoved it into Bizarro's face. The imperfect Superman backed off fast as it saw the blue rock, dropping Sabretooth and looking extremely scared, then confused when it didn't feel bad. It looked carefully at the blue rock that was still being held at it, then got pissed fast.

During this brief distraction, Spike managed to get out of his little frozen prison and rush Bizarro. His first punch barely got its attention but the second did. It picked him up and flew through the woods with him, squeezing him hard to choke the air out of him.

Bizarro wasn't aware that Spike didn't need to breathe. Still, unable to get free of its grip, Spike went back to what had worked so well with the mutant he'd been about to polish off a second ago. Much as he didn't miss Andrew, the geek talk he seemed unable to stop spouting was enough to tell him that Superman was vulnerable to magic, and hence magical creatures. Bizarro was likely the same, so he grabbed the arm holding him and bit into it firmly.

Hurt by the unexpected pain, Bizarro dropped Spike, which suited the vampire fine because he'd never tasted anything so awful in his life. Whatever that thing had pumping in its veins, it wasn't blood. Bizarro went off to try and track down Sabretooth again leaving the vampire spitting as much of its "blood" out of his mouth as he could. He'd gotten about just the last of it when something popped into his field of vision and he moved fast.

Ben came crashing down hard where the vampire just was and just decided that maybe if he didn't get up this time, maybe the Hulk would leave him be. As it happened, he lucked out. Bizarro's sudden departure attracted the Hulk's attention and he chose to follow the flying creature. Not hearing him approach, Ben peeked up to see him heading in another direction. That's whem he noticed Spike, "What're you doin out here?"

Still having that awful taste in his mouth, Spike grimaced, "Bloody wishin for a breathmint, about now."

Having been left mostly on his own, with an unconcious psychotic mutant, Silent Bob did what any person would do in those circumstances. He sat on Sabretooth's back and alternated between hitting him over the head with the frying pan and zapping him with a taser when ever he stirred; sometimes both. This had been going on for only a few minutes when the clang of metal feet got his attention and he got picked up off of his semi-concious seat.

The last remaining sentinel gently placed Bob behind it as it began to scan Sabretooth, noting the weakened condition and began to charge up for termination. It leveled the surrounding area with a sizeable plasma blast. Afterward, the mutant was still there, though his skin was burned away along his entire back and his adamantium bones were visible to the light. The sentinel ramped up another charge.

"Metalhead still making noise!" Hulk rammed into the machine's back, "Stop making noise, Metalhead!!" the sentinel, unable to reach the attacker on its back, electrified its outer casing, shocking the Hulk off it. Designating Sabretooth as the less immediate threat, it turned on the Hulk, launcing wrist missiles at him and keeping him off balance.

Silent Bob had been yanked out of the way by Spike, who was quickly rushing him and Ben from the area, all of them pretty much having had enough and not wanting to mess with the sentinel. Bizarro flew high overhead but couldn't relocate Sabretooth and circled back towards the cafe in case the mutant had headed that way. That just left the Hulk and the sentinel fighting near the unconcious, severely burned and battered psychopath that had kind of been the focus of this whole mess to begin with...

...which will be saved for another entry as this one's too long as it is.