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See Previous Chapters Here
Title: The New Mutants II, Volume X
Author: kanedax
Fandom: X-Men Movieverse, post X3
Spoilers: The New Mutants I & II (see above)
Rating: R for violence & language
Summary: Alison's concert goes quickly to pot
Notes: I hope this comes out relatively coherant. Fight scenes are tough. Battle scenes are tougher. Riot scenes are nearly impossible. As usual, I don't own the X-Men, 20th Century Fox, Marvel Comics, or Tom Lenk, but I stole his line from Conversations With Dead People commentary.
PS: If any of my readers have a Wii, I'd love to have you on my friend list! Just toss your code down in the comments section, if for nothing else than to have some new Miis wandering across your screen.
Previous Chapter (Garden) / Next Chapter (Meltdown)
“I’m gonna knock you out!”
“HUNH!”
“Mama said knock you out!”
“HUUUH!”
“You’re getting awfully good at that thrusting,” Remy screamed into Theresa’s ear, knowing full well that in this environment it was as good as a whisper. He wrapped his arms around her as she ground her rear against him.
She smiled up at him and didn’t reply.
“Don't u neva, eva, pull my lever,” Alison sang into the mic, throwing up a pyrotechnic on the line “Cuz I explode!” As she strutted across the stage, bikini-topped dancing girls jiggled in unison behind her. She looked down into the crowd and, seeing Lucas, tipped him a little wink before moving across to the other side.
Lucas stuck his fingers into his mouth and whistled appreciatively. He looked down to see Sam sulking in the chair next to him, arms crossed over his chest. Lucas plopped down in the chair next to him.
“What’s up with you?” he yelled.
Sam turned his gaze a few seats down, where Cecelia and Paige were dancing with each other. Or, more specifically, dancing with Jimmy in the middle of the two of them.
“I thought you said there were mosh pits,” Sam said. Gazing up and down the rows of chairs. “Why are there chairs, but no mosh pits?”
“What, you want mosh pits?” Bishop replied. “It’s Radio City Music Hall. Mosh pits don’t really work, I don’t think.”
“God, this sucks,” Sam grumbled.
“Get up!” Lucas yelled. “Enjoy yourself! Hot girls on stage!”
“Whatever,” Sam said. “I’m here to watch after Paige, but she don’t need much watchin’ after.”
“Good,” Kitty yelled from next to him, deftly ignoring Bobby’s patented White Boy Dance behind her. “Let her have fun. Have your own fun.”
She reached down and pulled Sam to his feet. He said something to her, but the roar of the crowd drowned it out as Alison finished her cover with a gigantic explosion of light.
“That one was for my buddy Pete,” Alison said to the crowd, “who always told me it was his favorite song.”
Rogue, who had been dancing with Peter, looked at him askance. “Your favorite song?”
Peter laughed and shrugged. “I’m totally obsessed with LL Cool J, and I don’t know why!”
Rogue shook her head. “Boy’s got layers, I’ll give him that.”
“Alright,” Alison said as the crowd died down. The dancers trotted off the stage as she turned around and sat down on a stool her roadie just brought out. “I wrote this last one a couple months ago. I had been going through a lot of stuff, and…”
She cut herself short and looked into the crowd to her left. Rick, who had joined her on a separate stool, acoustic strapped around his neck, followed her gaze. Sounds of commotion could be heard from the far side, even through the general white noise of a quieting crowd.
Rogue could feel the eyes of the crowd following hers as she saw two young men shoving each other in the corner. Despite her acute hearing, she could only barely make out some of the words being exchanged between a black man with yellow sunglasses, a blond streak through his hair, and a pale boy with black hair gelled into spikes.
“Hey, kids,” Alison said from the stage. “Why don’t you take it down a notch, huh? Some people are trying to enjoy the music.”
“Hey, fuck you, lady,” Rogue could hear the pale boy yell. “It ain’t enough I gotta listen to your mutie punk shit, I got to get grief from Genefreak here.”
“Who you callin’ a Genefreak?” the other man yelled in anger.
“Tike,” the girl next to him yelled, “leave him alone, he ain’t worth it.”
At that, the pale boy broke out in laughter. “Tike?” he said. “What the fuck kinda name is that? Why don’t you get with a real man, lady, instead of some halfbreed?”
Tike, shaking in rage, dove on top of the boy. The two exchanged punches, as the surrounding crowd either joined in or pushed themselves away from the melee.
“Hey, security!” Alison yelled into the mic. “Security!”
Three beefy men could be seen pushing their way through the crowd to get to the scuffle. As they approached, an agonizing scream erupted from the fight. The pale boy pulled back, his hands covering his face.
“Oh, god, he’s melting!” someone screamed. As the guards approached, Tike threw his hands up.
“I didn’t mean to!” he yelled. As he did, liquid flipped from his hands and landed on nearby crowd members. As the liquid touched them, smoke began spewing from their clothes and skin. Their screams of pain joined the pale boy on the floor.
“Oh, shit,” Tike said, whirling around in terror, causing more of the acidic sweat to splatter the bystanders. As they clutched their injuries, others began to run away in horror. Some ran down the aisles while others attempted to climb over their chairs.
The ensuing rush caused the entire front section to quickly dissolve into a mass of panicked bodies. Cecelia, Jimmy, and Paige quickly backed up against the oncoming flow, and bumped into Lucas and Sam.
“Everybody stay close!” Bobby yelled.
“Yeah, not having much problem with that,” Kitty replied, her face pressed into Sam’s back.
“Ah!” Peter said, shocked, as he felt something on his harm. He looked down to see Rogue’s face getting pressed against his arm.
“Sorry,” she said, struggling to keep her distance. “I got pushed. At least I’ve already absorbed you once, right?”
Peter looked down at Rogue, looked towards the stage, and then lifted her up by her armpits.
“What are you doing?” she said, shocked.
“Getting you out of here,” he said. “Roll with the fall, okay?”
Rogue looked to the stage and, realizing what he had planned, nodded her head. “Thanks.”
“Anytime,” he said, and tossed her. Her arms whirling in the air, Rogue got them underneath her and rolled to a stop.
She looked up to see Alison running over to her, the microphone still in hand. “You alright?” she muttered.
“Yeah,” Rogue replied, feeling a twinge in her shoulder. “In a second.”
“Everybody, please!” Alison yelled into the microphone as Rogue popped her shoulder back into place. “Calm down! Everything’s going to be okay!”
But as Rogue looked across the crowd, she saw that, clearly, everything wasn’t okay. The hysterics of the front row had spread across the entire main floor, where a wave of bodies was attempting to move its way to the back exits. Some audience members in the balconies stared down in shock, while others, swept up in the moment, had begun to take it upon themselves to deal with any unruly ticketholders.
“This is bad,” Rogue mumbled. She looked down to see Theresa and Remy get pulled away from the rest of the group in one direction, while Paige, Cecelia, and Jimmy pushed in the other direction.
Just as it seemed the din couldn’t get any louder, a small explosion erupted from the back of the main floor. Crowd members who had been trying to push themselves through the door found themselves running into others who were fleeing what Rogue could only assume was another mutant with some sort of energy capabilities.
“Oh, God, Oh, God,” the boy beside her mumbled. Rogue turned to see Alison’s band mate, Rick, staring bug-eyed into the crowd. “My folks are out there.”
“Where?” she said, scanning the crowd, hoping to find a place to teleport that wouldn’t fuse her with another person. Instead of replying, Rick jumped from the stage, shoving his way through the throng and yelling for his parents.
“Rick!” Alison yelled after him, but Rogue grabbed her arm before she could go after him.
“Don’t,” she said. “You’re safer up here.”
Alison pulled her arm away, and scanned the crowd in shock. “How could this happen?” she breathed.
“I guess security could keep the weapons out,” Rogue said, “but it couldn’t keep the anti-mutant types from causing a scene. Or the untrained mutants from breaking out.”
“This is insane,” Alison said, and pushed the microphone to her mouth. “Everyone, please stop!”
“It’s no use,” Rogue said, looking around. “Even if they could stop, your sound’s turned off.”
“What?” Alison said, shaking the microphone. “Why would Bucky do that?”
“Couldn’t say,” Rogue replied, then looked behind the proscenium. “Is everyone else back there? Dancers? Stage crew?”
“Yeah,” Alison said, nodding.
“Go back, make sure they get out of here safe,” she said.
“Oh, God,” Alison moaned, her eyes glued to the first mezzanine, where a man was hanging from the edge, pushed over by the writhing bodies.
“Go!” Rogue yelled. Alison forced herself to turn away and ran backstage.
“You okay up there?” Bobby yelled to Rogue as he was pushed against the edge of the stage.
“Probably better than you,” she yelled back. She turned to see Kitty standing calmly in the middle of the crowd as people phased through her. “Your girlfriend seems to be doing fine, though.”
Bobby chuckled despite the elbow that had just hit him in the back of the head. “I’m about to power up myself here. Keep the bruising down. Can you see anyone else?”
Rogue scanned the crowd. Theresa had lifted herself from the ground and was floating above the throng while Remy appeared to have been caught in a tussle with a skinhead. Sam and Lucas were trying to work their way towards Paige and Cecelia, while Peter was intimidating people to a distance with his steel skin.
“Can you see Jimmy?”
“Yeah,” she said, pointing towards the two girls. It appeared that he was keeping his field down despite the tense situation, as any contact that Cecelia made with another member of the crowd produced an isolated force field, and Jimmy stood no more than a foot away from her.
Bobby looked towards the direction of Rogue’s finger and nodded. “Pete!” he yelled. Peter turned, his steel eyes gleaming. “Get Jimmy a little assist over to the acid kid. That might help calm things down a little bit.”
Peter nodded just as the crowd in the back of the theatre grew in volume. Rogue looked up and gasped.
“Better hurry,” she said. “Looks like the cavalry’s arrived.”
Bobby turned to the back of the theater and swore under his breath.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Tony Stark said, walking down the stairs towards the edge of the second balcony, “By the authority of the United States and the United Nations, Project Defender asks that you please evacuate the building in an orderly fashion.”
“Yeah, like that’s going to work,” Rogue muttered. However, she was surprised to see that, after much of the crowd got a look at the Defenders, they seemed to calm down slightly. It probably didn’t have anything to do with the iron-clad figure of Tony Stark or of Reed Richards, who both stood on the second balcony. Nor did it have much to do with the brother and sister team of Sue Richards and Johnny Storm watching over them from the first.
No, she thought, it probably had more to do with the two hulking behemoths that had arrived on the ground floor. The people in back began to slowly stream out the doors, trying their best to avoid contact with Ben Grimm and the green monster the television told them was Bruce Banner.
“No way that’s the same guy,” she said to herself.
One by one, people started to leave. There were still plenty of scuffles breaking out across the floor, but one was quickly interrupted as sharply as if someone had put a wall between the two.
“You got him, Sue?” Reed asked into his earpiece.
“One of them,” her voice replied, as her body had vanished into thin air. “We’ll have to get them to the authorities quick, though. I can only put up one field at a time, and there’s more than one field needed to get everything broken up.”
Reed sighed, and turned to Tony. “We need a way to keep them off each other until we can get them outside…”
“Which won’t be happening any time soon,” Tony replied, scanning the exits. “We’ll want to keep them isolated from the general public, anyway, to avoid any flare-ups.”
“Right,” Reed replied, reaching down from the second balcony and wrapping his arms around the fighter outside of Sue’s field. “Johnny!” he yelled to the floor below. “I’m going to have to ask you to do a little collateral damage, if you don’t mind.”
“Fuck no, I don’t mind,” Johnny replied, grinning broadly.
“Language, Johnny,” Sue said. “We’re in public.”
Reed scanned the floor, looking for a relatively clear space. He stretched his neck down below the first mezzanine, and found what he was looking for.
“Give us a fire wall about here,” he said, the arm not wrapped around the fighter running along the edge of a row of chairs. “This’ll be our temporary jail until we can get everyone out.”
“Fuckin sweet,” Johnny replied. He pulled his hands into fists, and within a split second his body was encased in flame. He floated down to the area Reed pointed out, and quickly drew a line of fire along the chairs, isolating the section from the rest of the floor.
“Easy does it,” Reed said, lowering the young man into the wall.
“Get your fuckin’ hands off me, mutie!” the boy said, slapping Reed away.
“What is this crap?” Ben heard another audience member yell. “Mutants started this fight, now they’re sending in more mutants to clean it up?”
“Shut your trap, kid,” Ben replied. “We don’t wanna hurt ya, but that don’t mean we won’t.”
“Oh, yeah. Big man.” the boy said, stepping into Ben’s face. “You wouldn’t be so tough if you weren’t a freak.”
“Why you little-“ Ben stepped forward, and the boy backed away mockingly.
“Hey, you’re a glorified cop, Rockhead!” he yelled, backing down the aisle between the two exits. “You hit me, it’s police brutality! I’ll sue your ass!”
Ben took another step toward the punk, but quickly felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around to see Reed’s arm and head stretched down from the balcony above to his eye level.
“Let him go, Ben,” Reed said. “It’s not worth it.”
“Like hell it ain’t,” Ben muttered, yet kept his position. The boy ran down the aisle laughing, and bumped his shoulder into Bruce on his way out the door. Bruce flinched, and his head spun, irritated, towards the boy as he left.
Ben saw, much to his dismay, that many crowd members seemed to be pretty amused by what had just transpired.
“Yeah, get out of here, freaks!” one of them yelled.
“Why don’t you bring in the real cops and deal with your own kind? Leave us humans alone!”
As Reed dropped down and hauled more and more instigators behind the wall of fire, Ben stewed in his own juices as more and more of the exiting crowd gave him motivation to break some teeth with his giant rock fist. Verbal insults flew at him from all directions, mugging faces greeted him at the door, and once he spun around, sure that he had felt a spitball hit the back of his head.
When he turned around, he saw that similar things were happening on the other side. Bruce didn’t seem to be taking it quite as well, as Ben saw his face begin to twitch with anger.
“Reed,” Ben said into the communicator, “You might wanna get Banner out of here, he ain’t looking to hot.”
Before Reed could reply, Ben watched as a large soda container flew across the floor and slammed Bruce in the back of the head.
“I didn’t mean to,” Tike quivered as Jimmy and Peter approached him in the corner.
“It’s gonna be okay,” Jimmy said, noticing the floor beneath the boy’s feet was bubbling and steaming. “We’re gonna get you out of here.”
“Don’t touch me, I’ll… AAUUGH!” Tike screamed in pain as Jimmy pushed his neutrality field outward.
“Oh, sorry!” Jimmy replied, quickly pulling it back. He saw with dismay that Tike’s arms had started turning an irritated shade of red.
“I guess his mutant power keeps him from getting burned by the acid,” Peter said.
“Yeah, I guess,” Jimmy replied. “Maybe that force field lady can come down and give you some space to move.”
Just then, an animalistic roar erupted from the back of the auditorium. Terrified screams echoed throughout the hall, and the three mutants watched in horror as a dozen bodies flew outward from the exit.
“What is that?” Tike asked.
“Someone’s pissed,” Jimmy muttered.
Peter turned back to them. “Stay here,” he said, and began running towards the commotion. Jimmy grabbed him before he could get too far.
“Let me come with,” he said. “I might be able to shut him down.”
Peter, whose right arm had turned back to human flesh at Jimmy’s touch, furrowed his brow in concentration. “Okay,” he said. “Come on.”
“Stay here,” Jimmy reiterated to Tike. “We’ll get someone over to help you.”
Tike nodded. “Someone needs to help Anna, too.” He turned to look at one of the women he had burned, who had passed out on the floor nearby.
“They will,” Jimmy replied, and followed Peter down the row of chairs and up the aisle.
“Look out!” Peter yelled as he ran towards the back, trying his best to only gently shove people out of the way. Jimmy stuck close behind, careful not to touch Peter while he was still in steel mode. “Coming through!”
Peter turned back to Jimmy. “How much room do you need?”
“Get me within ten feet,” he replied. “I know I’ll be able to get him from there.”
“You sure that won’t be too close?”
“I saw him on television, Pete,” Jimmy said. “The big green version’s only a mutation. Xavier could have taken him in a fistfight when he’s not powered up.”
“True,” Peter stopped, suddenly realizing that he was there. He stared up at Bruce Banner, who was howling in rage. His arms were swinging wildly, unconscious bystanders strewn around him.
“Now or never, Leech,” Pete said, and Jimmy let his field out. Peter, forgetting that he was still steeled up, felt the organic metal skin convert to flesh.
“It’s working,” he said, smiling down at his arms. He looked up at the big green hulk, expecting to see a small, pale scientist.
What he saw instead was a big green hulk, who was staring at them in anger. It turned and ran towards them.
“Jimmy!” Peter yelled, diving across and hitting the boy out of the way just as Bruce took a swing at them. The fist whistled past, just barely missing Peter’s leg as it smashed into the floor with an earth-shaking rumble.
“What the hell was that?” Peter heard a familiar voice yell. He looked up to see Ben Grimm launching himself at Banner, wrapping his orange stone arms around his waist. “Were you trying to stare him to death?”
“What happened?” Jimmy wheezed, the breath knocked out of him. “He’s still a…”
“Doesn’t matter,” Peter said, pushing himself to his feet. “Shut your field down, and get back to the others.”
“But…”
“Go,” Peter said, his body reforming its steel exoskeleton.
“Hey, it’s Tinman!” Ben grunted as he wrestled with Banner. “You’re the one from the bridge, right?”
Peter latched his arms around Bruce’s legs. “Yeah, it’s me.”
“Good to see - Waugh!” Ben was cut off as Bruce grabbed him around the neck and tossed him towards the far wall. He then looked down at his legs, and his eyes stared into Peter’s in anger.
“I think I can get him from here.”
Rogue turned to Sam, who had been able to claw his way up to the stage.
“What?” she asked him as he backed up towards the rear of the stage. “What are you talking about?”
“I can take that green thing out,” Sam yelled, spitting into his hands and rubbing them together.
“You can’t be serious,” Rogue said. “That has to be at least fifty yards.”
“Keep an eye on Paige, would ya?” Sam said, firming his stance. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
“Sam, wait…” Rogue said, but Sam ignored her and sprinted to the edge of the stage. As he neared the end, he dove forward. His body was instantly encased in a bullet-shaped glare of yellow energy, and he launched across the top of the crowd at rocket speed towards Banner.
Rogue watched as Bruce saw Sam’s incoming attack, and flung his giant green arm up, swatting Guthrie away like a bug. Sam’s momentum continued to carry him past the point of deflection, and he slammed at high speed through the mezzanine above and blasted through the back wall.
“Oh, my God,” Rogue heard a voice next to her. She spun to see Alison had returned from the back. “The balcony’s gonna collapse.”
“Everyone’s out of there, right?” Rogue asked rhetorically, but quickly noticed the flame wall that had been created by Johnny was still there, the audience members Reed Richards placed behind it now trapped beneath the creaking overhang.
“They have to get them out of there,” Alison said. “Why aren’t they doing anything?”
Rogue saw that Reed was attempting to hold the balcony together, his body stretched across the chasm created by Sam’s blast. She could faintly hear him yelling “Johnny!” but she also saw that the flying fire-covered man wasn’t hearing him.
Tony, on the other hand, was now flying above the crowd, his jet boots floating him over Bruce. He was frantically pressing buttons on his arm.
“Shit,” Rogue said, looking back towards the fire wall. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and disappeared from the stage in a puff of blue smoke. A split-second later, she appeared within feet of the wall, but six feet off the ground. This second distance disappeared moments later as she plunged to the floor, barely avoiding the chairs.
“If you want something done right,” she muttered to herself, lifting her hand and pulling open a gap within the flames.
“Everybody out!” she yelled as a dozen crowd members raced to the opening. “The roof’s collapsing!”
“Hey!” a voice screamed as the last few people began crawling over the smoldering chairs to freedom. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
She turned her head to see Johnny floating in the air thirty feet away. His face was twisted in anger.
“Don’t let them out!” he yelled. “They’re the bad guys!”
Is this guy serious? Rogue thought. Is he dense?
“Hurry up!” she yelled at the last straggler. She kept her hand aloft, making sure the flames didn’t re-close.
“Hey, didn’t you hear me, bitch?” Johnny yelled, and dove forward, speeding towards Rogue. She glanced quickly back at the flame, then realized she only had a split-second before he’d be on her. She only had time to think of one thing as her other hand flew out.
Flame off.
She watched as the flames surrounding Johnny peeled off him like a banana, and she realized too late that without his flame he couldn’t fly. She felt his body collide at high speed with hers, knocking her backwards. She felt her arms and legs get tangled up with his as they rolled along the ground, and heard her skull crack and her neck snap as they slammed into the far wall.
In the distance, she faintly heard the sound of gunfire.
Then she saw black.
“Who’s shooting?” Bobby yelled, once again wrestling with a panicked crowd.
“It’s Stark,” Remy replied from next to him. “He’s the only one that’d have any firepower in here.”
“Goddammit, that maniac’s shooting into the crowd!” Alison yelled. She watched in horror as Tony flew circles around Banner, spewing machine gun fire down on him and Peter, who still had a firm grip around one of his legs. The bullets bounced harmlessly off both of them, some of the deflections ricocheting into unsuspecting bystanders.
“Alison!” Remy yelled. “Your microphone! Give it to me!”
Alison looked down and realized she was still holding the useless thing in her hand. She tossed it into the crowd toward Remy, who bounced it in his hand once or twice before charging it full of kinetic energy.
“Everybody stand back!” he yelled uselessly, yet was still able to get a good angle as he launched it toward the metal-clad Stark. Stark turned towards the arcing object, but before he could dodge, he was surrounded by flashing colored lights. Disoriented, he swung his arm lamely at the microphone, missing it completely as it slammed into him and exploded on impact.
“Nice throw, Cajun,” Alison said to Remy as Tony fell to the floor, his heavy steel body crashing through the chairs.
“Nice assist, Dazzler,” he replied, smiling.
“This… is… getting irritating,” Bishop said lamely, finally finding enough of a perch to push himself up onto the stage.
“Hey, Bish,” Alison smiled.
“Hey, Albuquerque,” Lucas replied, panting. “Long time no see.”
“Yeah, no shit,” she said. Looking around at Radio City Music Hall, she sighed. “The tour’s not going so well, though.”
“Well, Professor Munroe says you’re invited back to the Academy if you want to after the show. You and the band.”
“Sounds great, if we can ever get out of here,” she said. “And I ain’t leaving my crowd behind, and I’m definitely not leaving my Rick behind.”
“Who’s Rick?”
“My guitar player,” Alison said, scanning the crowd. “Cool guy. You’d like him.”
“Emergency exits?” Theresa asked, landing on the stage beside the two.
“Not enough, apparently.” Lucas said.
“Rick!” Alison yelled, spotting him and jumping into the crowd after him.
“She’ll be alright,” Theresa yelled, patting Bishop on the shoulder as he looked out after Alison.
“We need to get people out of here faster,” Bishop said nervously.
“Do you have any suggestions?” Theresa asked. As she did, she heard a tremendous crash as Reed’s grip on the balcony finally slipped, sending it crashing to the floor.
“Well, one,” he said faintly.
“What’s that?”
“This place is pretty torn up, right?” he asked. “So if it’s torn up a little more it won’t make much of a difference?”
“Probably not,” Theresa said, looking at Bishop, who had closed his eyes in concentration. She looked down and saw his hands wavering, like they were caught underwater, or like a heat mirage.
“Work with me, Siryn,” he said, turning towards one of the side walls. He threw his hands out, and a concussive blast emitted from his palms, pounding against the brick.
“If you say so,” she said. She opened her mouth wide and emitted a high-pitched shriek in the same area as Bishop’s blast. Within seconds, a hole had opened up in the wall, a good ten-feet wide.
“Bobby!” Theresa yelled as she saw some of the brick began to fall from the sides of the hole. “Shore that thing up, would you?”
Bobby nodded and, throwing his hands out, formed an ice archway around the edge of the hole. The crowd began streaming towards the gap and out into the night air.
Lucas and Theresa spun towards the sound of a large crash near the back of the room, where it appeared that Peter and Ben had finally wrestled Bruce to the ground. They could hear Grimm yelling at Banner, and could see Bruce’s flailings slowing down. Reed took the opportunity to slip into the group, and Lucas could see the glint of a needle in his hand.
“Is that going to work?” Theresa asked. “If the bullets bounced off him…”
Reed plunged the needle into Bruce’s arm. Peter pulled back from Banner’s body as it began to shrink in size. The green skin faded to a pale white, and the caveman-like face softened into the weak jaw of the scientist from the television.
“How’d you do that?” Peter asked.
“Adamantium needle,” Reed replied. “And a lot of elasticity behind the shove.”
“Is it an antidote?”
“It’s a sedative,” Reed said, not saying anything more.
Peter nodded, and stood up, the steel skin echoing as he cracked his sore neck.
“You did okay again, kid,” Ben said, patting Peter’s shoulder. “Don’t know if I could have wrestled him down without ya.”
“Yes, well done, son,” Reed said, staring down at the unconscious body of Bruce Banner. “You were on the bridge, as well? The bus accident?”
“Yeah, I was.”
Reed nodded, his mind lost in concentration.
“Johnny?” a voice yelled from above. Peter and Ben looked up to see Sue leaning over the edge of the second balcony, staring into the corner. “Is that Johnny?”
Ben and Peter turned to see what she was looking at, and Peter’s heart froze.
“Rogue?” he said quietly.
“Johnny Boy?” Ben said. The two raced forward, leaping over chairs and pushing aside debris that had been strewn out from the wreckage. As they reached the two unconscious bodies, Ben reached forward to grab Johnny.
“No, don’t!” Peter yelled, grabbing Ben’s arm. “You can’t touch her.”
“Why not?” Ben asked.
“Just trust me,” he said. “It’s better for both of you.” He bent down, carefully grabbing Johnny Storm and pulling him off of Rogue. To his horror he saw that Johnny’s face was covered in the familiar pulsing blue veins. He also saw that they weren’t fading nearly as fast as they normally would after Rogue absorbed someone.
“What happened to him?” Ben asked as Peter lifted Johnny into his arms.
“He’s in a coma,” Peter said. “She absorbed him.”
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know,” Peter replied. “But you should probably get him out of here.”
“What about her?”
Peter bent down again to Rogue. He saw that her neck was bent in an awkward position.
“She broke her neck,” he said nervously. Peter tore a strip of his shirt from around his waste and, wrapping it around his hands, gingerly moved Rogue’s head into a straighter position. He flinched as he heard tiny little snaps as he moved it.
“Holy shit.”
“She’ll be fine, I think,” Peter said, seeing that her blouse and dress had been torn in many places, exposing her bare skin. “It’s already starting to heal. I’m just trying to make sure that her head’s closer to a normal position when it happens.”
“Weird,” Ben said. Peter looked around quickly and, grabbing a nearby trench coat, wrapped Rogue in it.
“We can help Marie,” Peter said to him, lifting Rogue from the ground. “Get him help.”
Ben nodded. “We take care of our own.”
“Yeah.”
“You did good work, kid,” Ben repeated.
“Thanks.”
“If you ever need a job,” Ben said, “feel free to give us a call, okay? I think you’d be good for team.”
“Where is everyone?” a voice came from below. Lucas and Theresa looked down to see the top half of Kitty’s head sticking out of the bottom of the stage.
“We’re here,” Paige said, being supported by Cecelia. She was bleeding from several cuts along her arms and face.
“Jimmy? Rogue?” Bobby asked.
“Where’s Sam?” Paige asked, looking around. “Where’s my brother?”
“He’s probably outside,” Remy said, climbing up onto the stage. “His shield was still up when he went through the wall. It probably stayed up when he landed.”
“Oh, God,” Paige muttered, looking sick.
Peter ran up to the group, the wrapped body of Rogue in his arms.
“What happened?” Bobby asked, running towards him.
“Bad,” Peter replied. “I found her unconscious with that fire guy on top of her. She absorbed him.”
“How long?” Bobby said, looking down at Rogue’s pale face.
“I don’t know,” Peter said, an unfamiliar note of panic in his voice. “He looked pretty bad.”
“Get her out of here,” he said to the group. “Go find Professor Cassidy and Mr. Forge.”
“What about you?” Kitty asked.
“I have to go find Jimmy,” Bobby replied.
“He’s not back here yet?” Peter asked. “He might have gone off to find that acid kid again.”
“I’m staying, too,” Kitty interjected. Bobby looked at her with concern. “You’ll need help finding those two. Plus Alison’s still around here somewhere.”
“She went to find her friend,” Lucas said. “If one of you wants to come with me, we could probably find them pretty fast.”
“Okay,” Bobby said. “Remy, Theresa, Peter. Get the Rogue and the girls out of here and back to the Academy. We’ll catch up.”
Peter nodded. “Come on,” he said, and he led the group of six X-Men through the hole and into the outside air.
“Dad said they’d be at Starbucks,” Theresa said, looking up and down 6th Avenue. Before they walked ten feet, they saw Sean and Forge push through the crowd towards them.
“Theresa!” Sean yelled, closing his daughter in a large hug. “You guys are okay?”
“Rogue’s pretty bad,” Remy said. “We need to get to the van.”
“They’re just around the corner,” Forge replied. “I was lucky enough to find an area not cordoned off by police.”
“Where are the others?” Sean asked.
“Still inside,” Theresa said. “Bobby, Kitty, and Lucas are looking for Jimmy and Alison.”
“And Sam?”
“Was there a big boom out here?” Remy asked.
“Something landed over by Rockefeller Center,” Forge said. “There’s already police tape and medics over there, though.”
“That would probably be him.”
“Oh, no,” Paige said faintly.
“I’ll go check on him,” Forge said. “And I’ll wait around for the others. You guys head back to the Academy. Get Rogue down to the lab.”
“But Sam…” Paige said.
“Sam’ll be fine,” Forge said anxiously. “I want you all out of here. Now.”
“Come on,” Sean said, motioning the group to follow him. Peter instantly moved, trying to cradle Rogue’s limp head in his hand. Remy and Theresa followed close behind, and Cecelia grabbed Paige by the arm, pulling her along. They turned the corner and ran towards the van.
“Theresa,” Sean said. “Flip down the back seats and lay Rogue down there. We should still have enough room for everyone else if we squeeze.”
“I’ll sit in back with her,” Peter said flatly. Theresa nodded and flipped down the seats. Peter set Rogue gently on her back, then climbed in and closed the hatch behind him. Sean climbed into the driver’s seat, with Paige in the passenger’s side. Cecelia, Remy, and Theresa piled into the middle row as Sean pulled the van back into traffic.
“Are you sure Sam’s going to be okay?” Paige asked as they drove out of town.
“Forge will make sure he’s okay,” Sean said. “From what I tested, as long as he kept his shield up he shouldn’t have anything more than a mild concussion.”
Paige shook her head. “Boy thinks he’s Sir Galahad, or something.”
“I’d be more concerned about you,” Sean said, looking at her cuts and bruises. “You too sore?”
“I thought you said you tested us, Professor,” Paige replied, looking down at her bruises as though she were noticing them for the first time. She dug her fingers into one of the deeper cuts and pulled down on the skin, tearing it the length of the arm.
“Oh, God,” Theresa said from the back. Remy and Cecelia held similar looks of shock and disgust.
“What?” Paige said, pulling the skin from her hand like a glove. “It’s okay. Look.” She wiggled her fingers, which, despite a slight smear of blood, were unharmed. Her arm was also back to normal, the cuts and bruises gone.
“Just warn us when you do that, okay?” Theresa said, her face tinted green.
“Okay,” Paige said. “I’m gonna do the other arm now. Then probably the face.”
“Thanks for the warning,” Theresa said, turning pointedly to the window.
“Professor?” Peter yelled anxiously from the back. “You might want to hurry.”
Rogue’s body had begun to spasm slightly. Her head, which was cradled in Peter’s lap, jerked back and forth on her partially-healed neck.
“Vater unser im Himmel,” a small voice escaped from her mouth, “Geheiligt werde dein Name.”
“What’s she saying?” Theresa asked nervously.
“Dein Reich komme,” Rogue continued to moan, “Dein Wille geschehe. Kiss him kiss him you’ll never get a better chance kiss him!”
“Professor!” Remy yelled.
“I’m driving as fast as I can, boy,” Sean replied, hunched over the steering wheel as the group escaped the confines of New York City.
Peter just stared down at the twitching, rambling face of Marie D’ancanto, his eyes wide with helpless horror as he tried his best to hold her in place.
“We are the future, Charles, not them. They no longer matter. Welcome to Mutant High. Let me at ‘em, Stryker, Sue, seriously, you gotta see what happened, those gooks won’t know what hit em. You know all those dangerous mutants you hear about in the news?”
Her eyes flew open, and she grinned darkly at Peter.
“I’m the worst one.”
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