Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel. Why was there never a fighting game for Marvel the way DC had for Injustice? I'd buy the hell out of one in a heartbeat. I'd pre-order it and everything. And I don't bother pre-ordering anything.

Chapter 39: Chasing The Dragon

For as aggressive and out-of-character as Jay had been when David and I found him, he was completely docile for the trip back to Xavier's. He didn't speak to anyone on the flight, and as excited as the former New Mutants were about having him back in the fold, so to speak, they could also tell that something had happened that had affected him deeply.

That 'something', thankfully, wasn't blamed on the beating I had to give him to get him to chill out. Mostly because no one had seen it, and also because we had a sample of whatever had leaked out of his head after he'd gone down.

Once we arrived, Jay was tucked away into the infirmary, while the green goo was taken straight to Dr. McCoy, and I gave my report to Cyclops and Frost.

The lot of them got together after a few hours and called me in for the sake of a first-person reference point.

I was excited, because my first suspicion involved someone I wasn't particularly fond of, and I was chomping at the bit for a chance to be rid of one of my headaches.

I went up to the containment case that had whatever consisted of Quentin Quire in it and wrapped my arms around it, prepared to lift it and remove it from the room.

"Bellamy, what are you doing?" Cyclops asked when he caught me in the act.

I froze and quickly thought of an excuse, "Uh... putting Quire in the brig?"

Yes. And by the 'brig', I meant down our plumbing somewhere. There had to have been a better place than down the toilet, because I didn't want to clog anything up with him.

"Why?" Cyclops asked.

I furrowed my brow in confusion, "You're saying that he didn't do anything to Jay to make him go nuts?"

Miss Frost seemed amused at my attempt to dispose of what was ostensibly a student, "Quentin can only affect someone's mind. He can't enhance their bodies. That by itself disqualifies him from being responsible."

I let go of the containment case and backed away, "So, the green stuff isn't Quire," There went my first theory. Granted, it was weak theory, but still, "…And I was looking for an excuse to pour him down the sink. Well, what was Jay on then?"

Dr. McCoy shook his head in the negative, "Mister Guthrie wasn't on drugs either."

Damn it. There went my second theory then. It was a good thing my job wasn't to be a detective.

I wasn't the only one who was displeased with all the speculation. Mister Summers crossed his arms at two different theories being shot down, "So, what are you telling us, Henry?"

It was what we'd all come together for, after all.

Dr. McCoy puttered over to a sample of the goo that he'd been analyzing under a microscope, "I've taken a look at the substance that came out of poor Jay's ear. It's... fascinating, really. It's inorganic material, but it's built with cells, designed to interact with living nervous tissue."

Something about the way he said that didn't sit well with me, "'Interact,' as in?"

Instead of answering directly, Dr. McCoy asked me another question, "What did you experience, Bellamy?"

I'd already given them all the long and short of it, but had no problems doing it again, "He tried to kill me a bunch of times, and he was a lot mouthier than I was used to him being," I recanted succinctly, "Prodigy says he was a lot stronger than he was supposed to be too. Where'd this stuff come from?"

Emma cleared her throat and spoke up on the matter, "I took the liberty of reading young Joshua's mind to determine the series of events that led us here," She didn't seem pleased by what she'd found, "When he fled the school, he went southwest. He was intercepted mid-flight and pursued into the wilderness."

"By what?"

"That... is where things get fuzzy, I'm afraid," Emma admitted with a frown, "There are small glimpses... but there were restraints, machines, needles..." She shook her head, perturbed at finding herself at a loss. Still, she couldn't read what Jay didn't have to offer in his head, "He was given this substance by someone. That much is for certain."

XxX

The greatest way to find out more information was to get it from the source directly. Even if Miss Frost had gone through Jay's head, I still had to talk to him myself.

Even if he had attacked me... even if his mistakes had resulted in people dying... even if I wanted him as far away from my friends as possible... I still owed it to him as a person to speak to him like one. I'd had some pretty monumental fuck-ups as well.

He was still in the medical bay, so that was where I went. On the way, I called a friend for backup. Hisako met me there and waited outside as a lookout while I headed in. My timing was fortunate, because Jay didn't have his brother Sam, or either of his sisters who went to the school there with him. I'd have to make our talk quick before one of them returned and stonewalled me. After all, Sam knew I wasn't Jay's biggest fan.

I was able to slip into his room where I found him dressed in patient garb, just sitting in his bed, staring at his hands. I cleared my throat to get his attention and he nearly jumped to the ceiling in surprise.

"Uh... hey, Jay," I greeted, not knowing exactly how to broach things gently.

He seemed mortified to see me, "Bellamy, what are you doing here?"

I leaned against the wall by the door. Not only did I not want to startle him by getting any closer, but I also didn't really trust that he wouldn't lash out again, "Well, I kind of need your help," I admitted, "That stuff that came out of you, we're going to try and find out where it came from."

Dejected, his eyes sank to the floor, "Oh. I see."

That wasn't the answer I was looking for. When a guy told you your friends were going to go after something dangerous like that, you showed some kind of concern or interest.

"We don't have a lot to go off of here," I said, probing further, "Anything you can tell us to help."

Jay shook his head, looking conflicted for a moment before letting out a sigh. Eventually, he decided to say something, "That stuff... it got in my head. It kept telling me things," He explained, "Told me things like how I didn't deserve what happened to me. Didn't deserve to be where I am. That things should have been better. That I could make things better."

I just stood back and listened. From the sound of his voice, he seemed to be looking back fondly at the feeling.

"It talked to me in my own head, Bel," Jay continued, "Sounded just like me. Told me that I could be perfect."

I heard him out, and my mouth subsequently moved before my brain could fully debate the merits of blurting my thoughts out, "You want more, don't you?"

He didn't answer. The silence, however, spoke volumes. I wasn't going to get anything worthwhile remaining there, so I gave him a nod of acknowledgment before heading out. As I left, Hisako smoothly fell into step with me as we headed back towards the upper levels of the school. She had been able to listen in to my talk with Jay, and knew everything I did by that point.

Hisako side-eyed me as we stood together in the elevator taking us up, "So, now what?"

"Now?" I said, "Now I need a team. You in?"

I was met with a smirk and a nudge, "Of course. Now you need to fill the rest of the spots."

XxX

Me, Hisako (Armor), Laura, Santo (Rockslide), and the Cuckoos. That was the team I requested to follow up on casing the site of Jay's abduction. I hoped my roster selection worked out, but there were more important things to think about.

I turned to my right, where Laura was seated in the co-pilot position.

The last time I figured there hadn't been a real need for her nose, since I figured we'd just go there, see Jay, and talk to him. I didn't think there'd be a hours-long search. This time, I went in knowing we'd be looking for something, so I brought someone who could find just about anything.

That, and a little sample of the green goo so Laura had a scent to base her search off of.

"I can't believe Jay ran away, all the way to Canada," Rockslide complained loudly from one of the seats behind mine, "I mean, Tennessee? Seriously? He could have picked somewhere cooler to get himself kidnapped, like Tijuana."

He'd been talking about whatever took his fancy from the minute we took off. I didn't remember him being so talkative when I worked with the Hellions in California. Then again, I also had rage-induced tunnel-vision that day, so who knew, really?

Everyone else on the team was much better at tuning him out. I, though, felt the need to constantly engage. Mostly because flying a plane was boring as fuck once you got past the novelty of it.

"Eh, I've been to Tijuana already," I glanced at Laura from the corner of my eye, remembering our adventure, "Besides, this isn't a vacation or something. We're supposed to be tracking stuff."

"If we're tracking, why isn't Wolverine here?" Rockslide shot back.

"Because he's not on the roster for me to choose from," I said, rolling my eyes, "...Also, he's probably not very happy with me right now."

Rockslide grinned and snickered at the thought of Wolverine being pissed off, "When is he ever happy with any of us? Why's he mad at you, Sol?"

"Don't worry about it," I told him, before seeing a curious glint in one of the Cuckoos' eyes. Of course, they were paying attention now. I turned to address them, just in case, "Girls, don't start digging," All three of them pouted at not getting any gossip from me.

Rockslide's reaction was much more dramatic, "Come on!" He complained, like a big, jagged, rocky baby, "You have people mad at you all the time! Why can't you just tell me why?"

I felt like banging my head on the console. He was way too big to be whining, "Mind your own business. Why do you even want to know?"

At that, he calmed down and divulged his reason, "Because I want to laugh."

Well, at least he was honest.

"It's not my place to talk about on my own," I said, hoping that would be the end of it. It wasn't. At that point, the Cuckoos all started giggling to themselves. I didn't need any guesses as to why, "Hey, I told you not to dig into my head!"

"But Bellamy, we didn't take a look into your head," One of them defended for the three of them

The Cuckoos all wore the same black and yellow uniform as the rest of us. However, I'd interacted with them enough to be able to figure out certain personality tells to distinguish between the three of them.

Mindee was traditionally the nicest of the three. Celeste kind of didn't like me and thought the least of me. Phoebe was okay with me, but she was also the smartass - therefore, she was the one that had answered me.

I looked next to me at Laura sitting in the passenger's seat, the only other place they could have possibly gotten the information from. The devious fucks. How did they even know to check with her? Perhaps we weren't as subtle about hooking up as I thought we were. Oh well. It wasn't like I'd really been trying to hide it. It was just my standard operation procedure to try and be a gentleman by practicing discretion.

Laura didn't seem that bothered by it, aside from the fact that her mind had been read. Then again, what did I know? She had a really good poker face, and due to flying the plane, I didn't have the time to read her expression and body language thoroughly.

Thankfully, for the sake of my patience, it wasn't too long of a flight.

We all disembarked and got our bearings. It hadn't been that long since I'd last been there, so I was ready to begin searching around almost immediately. The Cuckoos, Laura, Hisako, and Santo all took a moment to stretch their legs first.

"Aww, man," Santo complained, "This isn't what I was expecting."

I was almost afraid to ask, fortunately, Hisako, my conscience, asked for me, "And what were you expecting?"

Santo shrugged as he stood and looked around, "I dunno. Some deep, dark woods, Wrong Turn, Deliverance, kind of stuff."

Thankfully, Laura approached at that point to occupy my immediate attention. Her hand was extended expectantly, "Bellamy, do you have the cybernetic material?"

I produced some of the green goo that had come out of Jay's ear, set aside neatly in a small vial. Personally, I would have been more hesitant to open it and take a deep smell of it, but compared to some of the things Laura had seen and done, I imagined that this was nothing in comparison.

I let Laura be while she adjusted to the scent, and went to address everyone else, "Alright, we've got no senior X-Men safety net on this one. It's just us. So, let's try not to fuck it up, team!" I finished enthusiastically.

The rest of them just looked at me strangely.

While two of the three Cuckoos just giggled at my half-assed excuse for a speech, Celeste, hands on her hips, spoke up, "...I'm sorry, was that supposed to be some kind of pep talk?"

Hisako nodded, answering for me, "'Don't fuck up' might as well have been one of the Paladins' official mottos," She said with a grin.

I agreed. It should have been, and I defended myself as such, "I mean, yeah. Nothing motivates me more than the thought of, 'Don't fuck up,'" I said, looking around at my unimpressed audience, "No? Not doing it for you? Alright. I'll work on that."

"Oh, I don't know," A female voice with a Russian accent got everyone's attention. We all looked to see a lithe girl that couldn't have been much older than any of us sitting on top of the Blackbird, "I'm pretty sure something like that would have worked for me."

She had short, black hair and wore a dark-colored leotard. She had sleek black cybernetic legs below her thighs. Below her elbows, there were two large black needles in place of the rest of her arms.

I had a bad feeling, but outright attacking new people was something that psychopaths did. I wasn't that far gone mentally just yet, "And you are?"

Before I could get an answer, Laura popped her claws free, taking this individual as a threat. I immediately took up a defensive stance of my own. I felt her judgment was trustworthy enough to heed without a second thought.

Laura quickly backed up my trust in her with a succinct explanation, "She smells of the substance you gave me. Strongly."

Why, hello there, red flag.

The girl stood up on the top of the Blackbird walking around gracefully on her toes, "It looks like the doctor was right," She remarked, "You would come back after all."

And now she was admitting a connection with whoever was behind what happened to Jay. That was the only excuse I needed, "Cuckoos, would you mind?" I asked.

My request had already been processed. Those girls didn't need any permission to probe someone's mind. The problem was that they hadn't been seeing any results, "Bellamy," They all said as one, "We're getting... interference."

What did that mean? Like, another telepath was shielding her or something?

The girl on top of the Blackbird twirled to a stop and smirked down at us, "You can call me Fault Zone," She held up one of her needle arms, making it a point to smirk at Santo as she identified herself, "I think you and I will get along very well."

Santo just blinked vacantly before moving over and nudging me with his rocky elbow, "Psst. Sol. Is the bad guy chick hitting on me?" He whispered with no sense of subtlety whatsoever.

His question was answered when Fault Zone took the tips of her needle arms and stabbed them down into the hull of the Blackbird. The metal jet shook violently before tearing apart from the point of contact. Our method of transportation had been destroyed right before our very eyes.

A high-pitched scream came from Santo's mouth, now realizing what Fault Zone had been getting at before. I couldn't blame him at all. If she could do that to a jet, what could she do to his rocky body? Sure, even if his body was made of Limbo rock now, that just meant he was resistant to magic. He could still be torn apart like conventional rock.

That being said, it was still four-on-one in a physical sense. Between me, Laura, Hisako, and Santo, we would have been fine. The problems really reared when a barrage of plasma bolts blasted into what was left of the plane.

I turned to find the source of the attack, and saw a shirtless Frankenstein's monster of a man, well over seven feet tall, with no matching body parts whatsoever. He had massive cybernetic arms, even more massive than the torso they were attached to. When those arms started to glow, I quickly realized that the plasma bolts were formed through whatever machinery was in those limbs.

...Mostly because this time, he aimed them at us. I was faster, though.

As he fired at us, I sent a blast at his head. Normally that would have been enough to turn any target to pieces, but the giant guy just tanked the shot. He didn't even leave his feet. He only stumbled just enough to knock his shots off-target. Other than that, he didn't budge.

Santo fancied his chances against the giant mishmash of human body parts better than he did against the quick, tiny girl who could crumble him to dust with a touch. I didn't blame him on that front. Santo let out a roar as he charged the bigger of our two enemies.

I caught a glimpse of the surreal sight of our resident man made of rock slug away at something that was even bigger than he was. Something that could stand up to his offense. The man stood his ground and hardly took steps back from being hit.

When he decked Santo back, chunks of rock were knocked off of him. He may have been able to take it; he may not have been. It wasn't the point. Slugfests were never my first option.

"Cuckoos!" I barked at our resident psychics, "Can you take him down?"

It was worth another try. We were a team, so why not try and use all of our strengths to bring the behemoth down quicker and easier.

The telepathic triplets focused as one and tried to pry into the giant's mind as he and Santo set to work trading haymakers that could demolish a house.

It wasn't like Fault Zone was going to just let us do as we liked, though. She attempted to exploit her speed edge and attack the Cuckoos while they were focusing on Santo's opponent. I fired at her, and while I couldn't hit her, I corralled her away from the Cuckoos and into the path of Laura and Hisako. Despite working together, the girls had trouble landing a blow.

Even as measured and precise as Laura was in a fight wasn't enough to allow her to slice into an enemy that moved with the grace of the highest-level ballerina, only with cybernetic legs grafted onto her. Whether it was her background or the green goo that pumped Jay up, she managed to pull it off.

...And if she was on it, there was no doubt in my mind that the other guy was too.

"Bellamy!" The Cuckoos called out to me, still trying to pry into their target's mind, "We... subdued one of his minds."

One of his minds?

"What do you mean, 'one mind'?" I shouted back to them.

Fault Zone blocked a strike from Laura's claws with needles on the ends of her arms and kicked her away into Hisako, who armored up to catch her safely, "Brigade has the mind of 100 soldiers, all fused into one. Good luck getting all of them to shut down before you die here."

That opened up an entire list of questions that I wasn't in a position to get an answer to. Chief of all concerns was, where did these people come from? But more importantly, I had a decision to make.

Our force had effectively been split into two, with Laura and Hisako fighting Fault Zone, and Santo taking on Brigade while the Cuckoos tried to disable him mentally. Because I wasn't Jamie Madrox and couldn't split myself in two, I had to join one battle or the other.

At the end of the day, Santo couldn't die, and if Brigade destroyed his body and turned his attention onto the Cuckoos, they knew well enough to bail out of their telepathic attack and turn diamond in order to defend themselves. But if he could drop Santo, there wouldn't be much of anything to keep him from blasting away at everyone fighting Fault Zone from afar.

To hell with that, I figured, so I decided to help Santo first. Hisako had her psionic armor to protect her, and I believed in Laura's fighting ability enough to let them to it. Santo's biggest asset was his size and strength, and against Brigade, he was outclassed in both of those categories.

Credit to him though, even though he had been left alone for a bit, he'd done his best to give as good as he gave. Still, he hadn't managed to get Brigade off of his feet, and it was clear which one had been winning when I made my choice.

Santo had his arms wrapped around Brigade's body, his head at the side of his hip as he tried to muscle him off of the ground. Brigade dug his boots into the ground, a trail being created as Santo drove him back while wrestling for leverage. Brigade reached down and wrapped his arms around him, lifting him upside-down.

For someone as big as Santo, being in the air, and not of his own volition, was a very unwelcome experience, "Whoa-whoa-whoa!" Out of his element, the poor guy flailed his arms and kicked his legs helplessly.

Brigade lifted him up over his head, and before he could drive him down into the dirt, I jumped right in Brigade's face and blasted him at as close a range as I could without blowing my own arms off.

He stumbled back, but neither fell nor dropped Santo. When the smoke from the explosion cleared, there was barely a mark on him. His focus was now on me, and he had a Santo-shaped projectile set to launch at me.

"Fire in the hole!" Brigade shouted, throwing Santo at me with one arm. With his other, he took aim at Santo and shot him with a plasma blast. The blast hit before Santo got near me, and the impact of it sent me flying. It was a better alternative than getting hit with all of Santo's body weight.

I sat up off of the ground, wondering why I didn't have an 800 behemoth with metal arms pummeling my brain into the dirt. Brigade seemed to be having a bit of a mental episode, holding his head and writhing around. The Cuckoos must have been doing their job well trying to deal with all of his minds, because he ripped a tree out of the ground and hurled it at the girls.

I blasted the tree out of the air. It showered them in debris, but they didn't have to turn to diamond to protect themselves. If the Cuckoos used their diamond forms, they lost their telepathic abilities, and risked erasing all of the progress they made on whittling Brigade down. They were our best chance to stop him, because there was no way he was going to give me the time to charge a decent Lux Bomb.

Santo and I didn't quit though. We both got up and rushed Brigade while we had the chance. To cover the slower Santo, I threw light blades at him. They cut into him a bit, but didn't Santo got behind him and wrapped his arms around him, lifting him off of the ground and slamming him on his neck. I boosted myself above them and jumped down on his head, stomping as hard as I could.

"Santo, hold him down!" I yelled, trying to take advantage of any opening we could take.

Santo scrambled into a position to pin the man-monster down. While he did so, I formed light blades and kept hurling them at the spot where his arms connected to his torso. It was like trying to cut through the armor on a tank. It took five hits in the same spot just to leave a real mark.

Brigade let out a manic scream and managed to get up off of the ground, even with Santo actively working to hold him in place. With Santo clinging to him like a backpack, Brigade reached over his head and pulled Santo over, slamming him to the ground. On the way down, one of Santo's flailing limbs caught me in the shoulder - just inches away from my head.

Brigade busied himself by beating Santo into the ground with repeated heavy punches that shook the ground. Every time Santo groaned, Brigade just hit him again. Eventually, he turned to look at what was left of the Blackbird, and must have felt inspired. He started lumbering over to the plane, and I didn't want to know what he planned on doing with it.

"Fuck this..." I muttered to myself, feeling my arm entirely out of socket. Looking over at Laura and Hisako, they were faring better, but were fighting to a stalemate instead of winning, 'Cuckoos... I know you can't read Fault Zone's mind, but could you still screw with her?'

There was a lapse of time between my loudly thought out request and their response. Either they were deliberating or found it hard to multitask.

'Screw with her how?' One of the girls eventually asked me.

I channeled a fairly strong explosive blast into the open hand of my good arm and started running over to the fight with Fault Zone, 'First, tell Laura and Armor to break off from her and come to me. Can you make her see something as something else?'

'An illusion? Yes, we should.'

Exactly what I wanted to hear. Laura and Hisako got the message as the started working their way toward me. I fired a blast near Fault Zone that kicked up a large amount of dust into the air, concealing her sight, 'If you can, make her see Brigade as Armor,' I requested, beckoning Laura and Armor to get as close to me as they could, "I hope this works..."

We all huddled together and I focused all of the energy in my body through mine and theirs. Using that light as a medium to bend around us, I made the three of us transparent. It wasn't perfect, but as long as we didn't move, Fault Zone wouldn't have seen us do it. And if the Cuckoos' illusion worked, she would have a more pressing issue to concern herself with.

When the dust around Fault Zone cleared, she looked around, only to find Laura and Hisako nowhere near her. Instead, she focused in on Brigade getting a good grip on the Blackbird to start lifting a piece of it off of the ground. When she rushed him, I couldn't help but grin.

"Oh, no you don't," I heard her say as she dashed at her own comrade. Brigade never saw it coming when she rammed her seismic needles right into his back.

We all then got to watch a man be torn apart. Or, a man comprised of 100 other men. Either way, it was gross. I'd seen people be dismembered before. I'd seen Laura cut off arms and legs. I'd blown off people's arms and legs. This wasn't as clean as that.

When blood splashed and meat chunks hit Fault Zone in the face, she snapped out of it. The girl stepped back, staring at the standing cadaver that she had created. Her face quickly turned from one of shock to anger, and she whipped around to face us.

It was now all of us against just her. Had she not just minced her walking weapon in Brigade, those might have been odds she could deal with. Without him, she wouldn't last long against us, and she knew it.

"Dr. Roekel said the adult X-Men were the ones who were dangerous. Not the children," Fault Zone said, slowly backing away as we all started to get closer, "This was not how this was supposed to go."

Hey, underestimate us at your own peril. We didn't break into someone's wardrobe to get our uniforms. We earned our stripes.

"That's on you," I said, trying not to jostle my dislocated shoulder as we bore down on her, "You can just quit. Make it easier on all of us."

She didn't quit. She didn't surrender. But she didn't fight either. She turned and ran. On those legs of hers, we didn't have anyone fast enough to catch up to her, so we just let her go. It wasn't like we had the jet to use against her either. The Blackbird was destroyed.

Hisako walked up to me and scowled at the sight of our wrecked ride, "Do you think any of the equipment in there still works?" She asked, "If not, I'm pretty sure the map said it's ten miles to the nearest town... and phone."

"What do we do with that?" Laura asked, pointing in the direction of Brigade's scattered remains.

The Cuckoos all turned to get a good look and let out a loud, "Ewwww!" in unison. Clearly, gore wasn't their thing. To be fair, Hisako and Santo didn't seem to be that great with it either.

I sighed and went off with Laura to check on the Blackbird, "There better be a big-ass tarp or something to bag this guy up in," I said.

As morbid as it seemed, there was probably a lot that could be learned from Brigade's body, and if we didn't leave with it, it would probably be gone by the time someone got back to pick it up.

Santo heard me and called out before we went inside the jet, "Are you gonna make me carry him?"

I stopped and turned around to take at Santo, then at the mess spread out across the ground, "I have one good arm right now, and you can lift a building, so yeah," I'd probably help him bag it though.

"Aw, man," Santo complained, "This mission sucks, Marcher."

Yes. Yes, it did.

XxX

Cyclops paced around the mission briefing room as he heard out my telling of what had happened out in the field. He never stopped me once, even when I paused at moments where I figured he'd want to offer some kind of input. He simply heard me out until I got to the point where we received a ride out of there.

I couldn't blame him, really. I'd only wanted him to say anything because I needed some feedback on how we'd handled the situation. There was a lot to unpack from what had happened.

"Fault Zone and Brigade," Cyclops said, more to himself than to me, "I've never heard of them before. Two new superpowered individuals."

I sat in for the meeting shirtless with an ice pack taped to my shoulder, "Well, one," I corrected for the sake of accuracy, "I'm pretty sure whatever's left of that Brigade guy isn't getting back up."

His eyebrow quirked upward, "You know, I noticed that," He said wryly.

I was quick to deflect before anything could be blamed on my lack of empathy for my slain foes, "If it makes you feel any better, Fault Zone did it to him, not any of us," I specified, "...I mean, the Cuckoos made her think she was attacking Hisako, but whatever."

Upon my bringing up Fault Zone utterly ending Brigade, Cyclops' mind turned to a different direction, "Speaking of whom, how did she escape? I know she had a massive speed advantage, but Laura has an extraordinary tracking range."

That she did, and we tried to capitalize on that once we regrouped; after Laura had mercilessly popped my shoulder back into place. I'd been willing to jerry-rig a sling and wait it out until an actual medical professional could see it, but in her own words, I was no good in battle with one arm. Then she worked it back into joint before I could do anything. Vicious little...

"After we sent out the call, I had Laura track her," I recanted for Cyclops' sake, "The trail died about ten miles away from where we fought."

The trail just vanished, and Laura couldn't determine anymore from scent. She said it was as if Fault Zone had teleported away, which was weird, because if I had the ability to teleport, I would have broken it out a lot sooner than after I'd already lost a fight.

"That likely means accomplices," Cyclops grumbled, "What do you think are the chances that we're dealing with a whole group?"

Fault Zone didn't say anything being a part of any force or organization, but she had come with backup. Still, there wasn't much for me to latch onto as far as conversation went, but what little was said stuck with me, "She mentioned something about a Dr. Roekel," I said. There was no sign of recognition on Cyclops' face, "Not ringing any bells?"

"None," He replied, sounding very put out, "And that's what bothers me."

Very reasonable. There was no fear quite like that of the unknown. In this case, there was plenty of reason for it. The hits kept coming against the X-Men, specifically the student body. But that was where we came in, or where we were supposed to come in.

After a moment of thinking to himself, Cyclops sighed and gestured for me to follow him, "Walk with me, Solaris."

I got up from my seat and fell in step with him, "What are you thinking?" I asked as we headed to what I could only assume was Dr. McCoy's lab.

He took a moment to finish gathering his thoughts before he let me in on what was in his head, "I still want your team taking the lead on this. You've done as good a job as could be asked so far," The bit of praise made me feel uncomfortable. If everyone else hadn't been so on-the-ball in the field, things could have gone worse. Cyclops noticed and nudged me with his elbow, "...Take the compliment, Bellamy."

I did so begrudgingly, "Thank you."

Laura was right. I really was bad at taking compliments.

When we arrived at Dr. McCoy's lab, we found him pouring over Brigade's remains. I figured he would have found the work of performing an autopsy to be morbid, but he seemed enthusiastic.

Despite his focus, he heard and smelled us enter, "Come, come," He requested, waving at us to approach without so much as looking our way, "This is remarkable."

"I'm hoping you found something good, Hank," Cyclops said as we all stood near the table Dr. McCoy used to examine the material.

"Have I?" Dr. McCoy exclaimed, turning around to face us. He calmed himself and cleared his throat before continuing, "This man is deceased."

Given the obvious statement, I couldn't fight the urge to be a sarcastic dick, "Yeah, we noticed that. I prefer to call it 'cadaverrific'."

Dr. McCoy was not impressed. He gave me the flattest look he could muster before making me look like an idiot, "Did you also notice then, Mister Marcher, that despite being 'cadaverrific' for several hours, all of the cellular tissue is still alive."

I raised my eyebrows in surprise, "No. After death, isn't it supposed to be something like five percent still alive after 70 hours?" Thank the thoroughness of Xavier's curriculum for good biology classes.

Dr. McCoy nodded to my assumption, "This isn't a mutation. At least, not a natural one," "It will take more time for me to learn all I can from this individual. At the very least, there's an abundance of material to work with here, as morbid as that sounds."

Sorry, not sorry. Don't try to kill my friends, and I won't have my psychic teammates trick one of your friends into killing you. Besides, after what I was told, I might have been doing Brigade a favor.

"Apparently, he's made of 100 different guys," I told Dr. McCoy. His eyes went wide in surprise, "Frankenstein's monster-style."

"That would explain all of the different DNA signatures," Dr. McCoy muttered, reaching to a metal pan he'd kept on the table to pull out some multi-pronged metal device, "And this."

I had no idea what it was. It was still covered in blood and… pieces of brain? Yikes. I didn't seem to be alone though, as Cyclops didn't know what we were looking at either.

"What is 'this', Hank?" Our glorious leader asked before I could.

Dr. McCoy was excited to explain, "A neural network. I haven't seen technology like this on the planet. Likely a method to control our friend here," He gestured to Brigade's body, "...Who would create something like this?"

It was hard to tell what he was referring to; the neural network, or Brigade himself? Either way, yes.

"This poor creature," Dr. McCoy lamented aloud for Brigade's sake. Him and all of the individuals that comprised him, I would have wagered, "I'll continue my work here. I'll let you know if I discover anything that could point us in the right direction."

In the meantime, all that was available for us was resting up and waiting for the next time we would be sent out. It didn't take very long for our services to be required again.

XxX

After getting back to the dorms, I came across my former Paladin crew in the common area we tended to frequent. It was good that even with Ruth not being a member of the X-Men squad, she still felt no reason not to stick with us. She actually seemed happier now that she didn't have to train to fight.

The first thing I saw was poor Hisako sprawled out on a couch, face planted in an open book. Unfortunately, being on a superhero team didn't absolve you from class responsibilities. She'd probably been studying when she decided that enough was enough and she'd just collapsed into the pages. I poked at her as I walked past, only to get an annoyed groan out of her.

When I took my seat next to Laura, Ruth clambered right next to me on my other side. I winced when she latched onto me like a barnacle, as she jostled my shoulder. She immediately noticed my reaction and let go, apologizing, "Sorry. Yes. She did not mean to hurt you. Yes."

I gave her a little nudge with my head against hers to let her know it was alright. Laura, being the person that put my shoulder back into place, also fussed over me a bit.

"Are you still in pain?" She asked, green eyes shining with concern.

I leaned over and gave Laura a kiss on the forehead, "I'll be fine," I told her, "If my body decides this is enough damage to let me sleep tonight, I'll be as good as new tomorrow morning."

Laura seemed a bit put out and I wondered why until she vocalized her reason with a question, "Does this mean you don't want me to spend the night in your room?"

Absolutely not. She would have an open invite to my quarters for as long as we were together, "I never said that. Besides, we don't have to do it every time you stay over," I paused for a moment to consider what I'd just said, "...Unless you want to. I'm definitely not gonna say no."

At that point, Eddie butted his way into the conversation, "Yeah-yeah, you two having sex, whatever," He said, pushing Hisako's legs off of her couch to make room for himself. The tired girl sat up properly, glaring at him the entire time, "More importantly, seeing as how someone left me on the bench for today's mission, and you three are here now, I demand details. Tell me a tale. Spin me a yarn."

While I thought of a way to tell Eddie about the day's events in an entertaining manner, one of my other friends felt malicious enough to take all of the fun out of it.

Still glaring at Eddie for making her sit up, Hisako dryly laid out the entire interesting series of events, "We landed and had to fight a girl with needle arms who could cause earthquakes, and a guy made of 100 other guys."

It was almost remarkable how she could say something like that and make it sound as uninteresting as she did. Even Laura would have put more life and spirit into it. She at least would have been more descriptive.

"Bellamy ordered the Three-In-One to cast an illusion on the girl," Laura picked up the explanation, "She was tricked into killing her comrade before retreating."

Eddie let out a low whistle and looked my way, "Wow. Adding to the old body count, huh Bel?"

I wanted to chuck a pillow off of the couch at him, "And how the hell do you figure that?" I demanded to know.

Lucky for Eddie, Hisako spared him my diatribe by defending me, "To be fair, Bel is, at best, mmm... third-hand responsible for this one."

Hey, a half-assed defense still counted as a defense. The intent had been there, even if the effort had been subpar. Besides, I could explain myself just fine.

"Yeah, it's not like I blew his head off myself," I said, realizing that pretending that I hadn't at least made the attempt to do so would have been disingenuous, "I mean, I did try. But I'm pretty sure Brigade could have taken a tank round to the face and brushed it off."

Also, I wasn't sure what the rules of engagement are on what was basically Frankenstein's monster. Taking him out was probably doing him (or them) a favor.

Eddie muttered his response, "God knows the Paladins have produced enough corpses," I must have been scowling from how he backtracked, "I'm just saying, I don't imagine any of the others would get it if they watched you erase someone's face."

I had to admit, he had a point there, as past evidence already alluded to, "Probably, seeing as how the Hellions literally stopped me from murder-death-killing the most awful bitch I've had to fight so far," Laura tensed, knowing I had been talking about Kimura. I reached down and gave her hand a squeeze, "After us, they were the next hardest student squad."

Hisako scoffed, "We're only 'hard' because you and I got trapped on Breakworld. That, and Laura's past that makes all of our stuff look like child's play."

True. The only time life started slapping us all in the face was after we'd all decided to attend Xavier's. Besides, even if we only had Laura's baggage, that still meant more bodies than all of the other student squads combined. The fact that Hisako and I basically fought a interplanetary war to boot only reinforced that.

Eddie held up his hands defensively, worried he'd offended any of us, "Don't think I'm jumping down anyone's throat, dude. I get it. Being all P.C. superhero stops when the bad guy is pointing a gun at everyone you care about."

I believed that he got it. Because unlike many of the student combatants that had been sequestered away in the sub-levels as a last line of defense, he had been outside with me when the Sapien League and the Purifiers had attacked. He'd seen just what the people who wanted our heads were willing to bring to bear in order to make such a thing happen.

Also, being a complete bro, even if I was fucking up in some way, he'd at least try to understand why I was doing it. Really, you couldn't ask for a better friend.

From there, we just hung out together. It had been a while since we could all just wind down and spend time with each other. It was a nice little come-down from people trying to kill us earlier that day.

We shifted over to a very important conversation for the time. It being a few weeks before the holidays, I needed to make my list and check it twice, "'Tis the season. What do you jerks want for Christmas? Or Hanukkah? Or... whatever you celebrate?" I asked them.

Hisako, being the contrarian that she was, couldn't make things easy, "Aren't you just supposed to get us what you think we'll like? Or something heartfelt and meaningful? It's the thought that counts, Bel."

I just stared across the sitting area at Hisako, near to the point of social discomfort, "...I'm hearing 'nice pair of socks' from you," She stuck her tongue out at me.

Eddie, on the other hand, fully embraced the capitalistic spirit of the holidays, "Fuck that. What's the spending limit?"

A good, sensible question that I was prepared to answer, "Around fifty bucks, I guess. Not for you," I quickly specified for Laura's sake, "Just tell me what you want that I can get within reason, and I'll make it happen."

Laura seemed confused by the concept of gift-giving, "But I don't want anything."

Eddie immediately complained at my show of favoritism, "Why does she get no limit? You know, other than the obvious reasons," He lewdly made a show of finger into hole to illustrate his point.

I pointed right next to myself at Laura, "Because I'm pretty sure she's never gotten a fucking present before," Laura nodded in casual confirmation. As if it weren't one of the saddest things anyone had heard all day.

Eddie wanted to continue being belligerent but couldn't find anything to latch onto to keep arguing, "...That's actually a good point."

"I'm hearing 'big bag of chocolate dicks' for you," I said. Eddie flipped me off in return, "Why are you all making this so hard? Tell me what you want so I can shower you in appreciation for putting up with me," A quick thought was put into my head of what Ruth wanted, "Thank you, Ruthie," She readily accepted my thanks with a big grin, "At least one of you is down with the program. Please get me something by Monday."

Because I did not want to be caught out shopping with only days to go. Last minute shopping was hell to me. Even a few weeks out was cutting it close to running into the crowds.

All frivolity was thrown out the window when Sooraya came into the common area, wringing her hands worriedly. The moment she saw us, she ran right over and threw herself to the floor. We were all up with a start. Before anyone could ask what was wrong, she looked up with tears in her eyes through the opening of her niqab.

"Jay is gone!" She exclaimed.

I was on the floor with her in an instant, grasping her shoulders, "What do you mean, 'Jay is gone'? How is he gone?" She didn't have an immediate answer, instead shaking her head, "Fuuuuck... Cuckoos!" I shouted both out loud and in my head. I needed to summon a team.

Jay took Quire? Why would he take Quire?

Seriously? Who wants Quire? We didn't even want Quire.

Much like the last time I had to go after him, the team I called upon were again entirely New Mutants. Prodigy, Surge, Elixir, Wind Dancer, and Wallflower. I figured that they could talk him down, and if worse came to worse, Wallflower could use her pheromones on him to make him chill out.

Before I knew it, I was jogging with the boys of the team from the locker room to the hangar, suited up and ready to go.

"Where the hell was Cannonball?" Elixir asked. the gold-skinned boy had gotten dressed slower than the rest of us, and was stuck adjusting his uniform as we ran, "When we went to see Jay, he was watching him like a hawk."

To be fair, I managed to find a moment to slip in without being bothered, "A guy's gotta go to the bathroom sometime," I said.

It wasn't like Jay had been badly hurt. Yes, I'd probably broken his back during our fight, but he could heal like Laura or Logan did. There was no doubt that physically he was 100%.

If he really wanted to leave, he could find a way out. I just figured it would have taken longer for him to make a run for it. His mom hadn't even managed to make it up to school to see him and likely take him home yet.

My ass was chapped over the fact that I had to do the exact same thing twice in less than 36 hours, but work was work, "Whatever," I eventually settled as we boarded the jet, "The Blackbird is warmed up, the Cuckoos are in Cerebra. Let's go chase Icarus down."

"Make sure you don't break this one," Surge remarked. The girls were already in the Blackbird, strapped into their seats when we arrived, "Pretty sure Cyclops will make you pay for this one out of pocket if you crash it."

"I didn't crash the last one," I pointed out, "A girl with arms that could cause an earthquake punched it, or something. I don't know. Let's just go already." It was then that I noticed we had an extra teammate. One that I hadn't sanctioned to be on the team, "Uh, hello."

Sooraya sat in a seat of her own, already buckled in, which meant she was not willing to take no for an answer, "I wish to accompany you."

Right. Through the whole Hellions/New Mutants feud, Sooraya and Jay had always been the ones that had respected each other. They had some kind of thing. What that thing was, I had no idea, nor did I care. But seeing as how I wanted this to end with the least amount of violence and heartbreak possible, an extra set of peaceful hands couldn't hurt.

That being said, I wasn't just going to have someone subvert my roster without working for it in some way. Even if I was fine with having her there, I was going to make her sweat a bit to earn it,

I fixed her with a stern look, bringing my full height to bear, "I don't remember asking Phoebe, Celeste, and Mindee to send you to the hangar, Sooraya," It was awesome being the tallest humanoid mutant on the team.

From how she refused to meet my gaze at first, and how even the more outspoken members of the team (Surge, Wind Dancer, Elixir) didn't stand up to me, I did seem to have some sort of semblance of authority amongst my peers. I was told such, but it was good to know for certain.

Sooraya took a breath and measured her words before letting them go - a quality that I, personally, needed more work with, "I want to help Jay," She said, "We've spoken many times about our faith. I... wasn't able to do anything to help him when he was doubting his faith in Allah. That led him to Stryker. Everything that has happened since then, I want to show him that people care. That we can help him."

I stared at her without moving, trying to see if she would falter, but she didn't, and we were wasting time, "...Alright."

To everyone's surprise, I consented without any fuss and simply moved to the controls to begin taking off. I was acutely aware that everyone was staring at the back of my head. I ignored them all.

David took his seat in the co-pilot chair once we were safely in the air, eyeing me oddly behind his goggles, "That's it?"

"Yeah. I'm not a complete dick," I said, focusing more on following the directions the Cuckoos were putting into my head, "Don't get used to it though. The next person who tries to push their way onto a mission I don't put them on is getting kicked the fuck off the plane."

XxX

Originally, I'd expected to chase Jay down in the Blackbird, and swoop down in front of him, cutting him off while Wind Dancer got out to chase him down. That didn't happen, though. He stopped on a small island in the St. Lawrence River right by the Canadian border, and we disembarked after putting the jet in stealth mode. I wanted to sneak up on him this time.

Wind Dancer's powers allowed her to keep the sounds we made from carrying through the air. I didn't even know that was possible. then again, what did I know about physics?

What I lacked in physics knowledge, I made up for in common sense, so when I caught sight of Jay, I came up with a simple approach to deal with him.

"Okay, Wallflower, Wind Dancer," I said, getting both girls' attention, "Buzz him with some pheromones so we can go home."

Sooraya interjected before either of them could say they understood, "I would like to try talking to him first."

"What?" I asked incredulously, "Talk to him when he's on the Blackbird and we're on the way back," I wanted her to keep him calm after we had him.

I didn't know why Jay had stopped in the middle of nowhere. I didn't want to know why he'd stopped in the middle of nowhere. We'd tried the 'Mutant Outreach Program' with him already, and he'd tried to kill me. While he wasn't hopped up on green goo this time, I still didn't want to screw around with him.

Sooraya closed her eyes and let out a sigh, "Bellamy, I hope you do not throw me off of the team for this. But if you do, I understand."

'This' being going against a clearly defined method of approach. Sooraya walked out from our hiding place. I was shocked. Sooraya was so demure, I hadn't figured she would just do something like that, especially after I'd let her go along.

That was what I got for being a soft touch. Give someone an inch, and they would take a mile. It must have been the Hellion influence in her.

From the rock he had been sitting on, Jay noticed her approach. He sprang to his feet, nearly knocking over Quire's container as he tried backing away, "No! You shouldn't be here!"

He was jittery, looking ready to bolt again. Sooraya approached him as unassumingly as possible, "Why not, Jay? No one is here to hurt you."

Well, we were in it at this point, so I just remained where I was. Getting face-to-face with the guy that had beaten the piss out of him just the other day wasn't going to do anything other than make him panic.

She managed to get close enough to take his hands into hers. He wanted to bolt. It was all over his face. But her presence was enough to convince him to stay where he was, "You shouldn't be here," He repeated, "None of you should."

"He's right, you know."

The voice came from behind us. Right behind us. We all turned, only to see wisps of black disappear into the air.

"Goddamn teleporters," I muttered. We'd been dealing with that a lot lately.

As we turned back around, we saw Sooraya stepping back from Jay, as he stood close to a woman that had managed to force her way between them while we weren't looking.

Tall, with pale skin that had a familiar green tinge to it, she wore a black, shoulder-less leotard, black arm sleeves, and thigh-high black heeled boots. A veil kept all of her facial features out of sight. All we could make out were her yellow eyes peering at us.

Black wisps flew off of her body, keeping Sooraya from getting close to either her or Jay. The mysterious woman reached over and stroked Jay's face, "Oh... it's okay," She cooed, "You did the right thing for yourself. The doctor will be pleased."

At this point, we were all standing with Sooraya, backing her up. Josh tried to reach out to Jay, who seemed torn over going with this new woman, or coming back to his friends, "Jay, what are you doing? Come on, man, let's just go back to school."

Sofia tried to follow up, "He is right, Jay. Your brothers and sisters are worried about you. Your mother is coming to see you. Please."

Jay took a step away from us, putting the veiled woman more between us than before, "You don't understand," He said, looking down at his open hands, "I'd been feeling like I didn't have any control. But when that stuff was in me... the way it made me feel... like no one could touch me. Like a... like a... god," He struggled getting the last part out, "I felt like a god."

Sooraya was aghast. Blaspheming must have been the last thing she'd expected Jay to do, "Jay, what are you saying?"

"You don't get it!" Jay snapped at her, causing her to flinch, "It told me how I could be perfect! I need it back!" He continued to rage.

Was he… addicted to whatever that green crap had been? It hadn't been a drug. Dr. McCoy had told us as much. But Jay seemed strung out.

Josh shook his head, "Dude, you're sick. We can help you. Just-."

"They won't ever understand," The strange woman next to Jay said, speaking only to him, "Not unless they experience it for themselves. Unfortunately, Dr. Roekel sees nothing in them. Just you, Jay. You're special, like the rest of us."

Jay nodded, unsure. His eyes cut to the container that he had carried all the way with him, "And Quire?" He asked.

"The doctor sees uses for him," The woman told him, putting a hand on his shoulder, "You'll never feel helpless again."

Having heard more than enough, I fired a blast that missed the woman and carved a line in the ground between Jay and the woman, separating them. She glared at me through her veil, the black of her arm sleeves extending to form claws on the ends of her fingers.

I kept one hand aimed at her while I pointed with my other at the line in the ground, "See that? That's the line of death. You cross it, and your freedoms no longer exist."

Following my lead, Noriko had sparked up electricity in her hands and Sofia had started whipping up the wind, both prepared to fight.

The woman defiantly teleported over the line, then again once I fired at her in retaliation.

She managed to get in the middle of my group, but while she'd gotten behind me, Sofia and Noriko had seen her reappear. When she went to slice them up with her claws, Sofia flew out of her grasp. Nori blocked the attack with her metal gauntlets.

"Hey, lady! That's sensitive equipment!" Nori complained, letting loose with her electricity as the woman teleported away from repeated blasts, "Hold still!"

I growled under my breath. It was never not annoying to fight someone who could teleport. Especially when they could do it outright, instead of needing to chant or jump into a portal. Training against Nightcrawler had taught me that.

I couldn't even use the Cuckoos to help, because this woman wasn't a mutant. Not like us. If she had been, the Cuckoos could have found her while they were tracking Jay in Cerebra. Something to tuck away for later to inform everyone about, if we made it out.

"Solaris!" David shouted, gifting me with some information after having observed the fight, "She doesn't have a long range for her teleportation!"

That was great, but I needed more details than that, "How long is 'not long'?"

"405 meters per jump!"

"What's with the metric! I'm not Canadian, Prodigy!"

"About 1300 feet!"

Alright, I could work with that. If nothing else, I knew that she couldn't teleport out of my range in one or two bursts. Still though, her tells were much less prevalent than Riddick's had been. Thin black wisps kicking up were the only thing that told me she was about to jump, or was about to reappear somewhere. Not like my future son's bright-ass portals.

Sofia had taken to the air to try and use her powers to fight more traditionally. The original plan whenever Wind Dancer and Wallflower were with me were to use the combination of wind and pheromones to bring the enemy down. With the constant teleportation of the woman we were facing, we couldn't slow her down enough for Wallflower to hit her with pheromones. Not without getting the rest of us as well.

It was at this point that I noticed Jay had taken off with Quire's container in his grasp. He flew from the fight, his red wings flapping as hard as they could to carry him away quickly.

I pointed at his departing form, "Wind Dancer! You're the only one who can fly! I need you to go after him!"

Sofia turned her attention away from the fight and to Jay. Surprised at the sudden shift in objectives, she nevertheless nodded and started to fly away. The woman we were fighting took the opportunity to target her, and teleported on her back, tearing at Sofia's arms with her claws.

"AHHH!" Sofia cried out, but proved she had a bit of toughness to her, gritting her teeth through the pain and kicking up a wind storm around her body that would have shredded her assailant in return had she not teleported when she had the chance.

Instead of headhunting out of revenge, Sofia kept her eyes on the prize and went after Jay.

It would be okay. Josh could heal her with a touch, and she'd be as good as new. Sofia was the only one with the means to pursue him, so she had to focus on that over fighting.

That was what the rest of us were for.

"Doesn't she ever get tired?" I said aloud as we all tried and failed to pin her down. Noriko let out a series of colorful curses as her attempts piled up.

David had spent the battle doing what he could to analyze her with the hi-tech visor her wore over his eyes. He could only catch so many decent glimpses of her, so it took a while for him to compile enough data for him to use, but eventually he got me something good.

"Her right thigh," David said to me, "There's some kind of machine in it. Every time she teleports it lets off a signature."

That sounded promising, "Can you track it?" I asked.

David fiddled with his visor for a moment before a smirk grew on his face, "Oh yeah."

I flexed my fingers, preparing a blast, "Just point. I'll shoot."

The woman continued teleporting all over, giving the rest of us hell. I stayed close to David, both to protect him, and to follow his direction when he finally gave me my cue.

Finally, one time she vanished in black wisps, David's finger shot out, pointing in the direction she'd teleported to, "There!"

I didn't bother confirming the sight for myself. I just lined up my shot right with where David had pointed and fired.

"Haah!"

There was a scream, and then the sound of a body hitting the ground. Noriko mercilessly pounced all over the opening provided.

"Take this!" Nori shouted as she hit our enemy with electricity. She wasn't able to fully unload, however. Almost as soon as she started, her target teleported away again, "Goddamn it!"

She hadn't been able to finish her. But between Nori, David, and I, we'd messed her up. She was limping, and something was wrong with her teleportation.

The fight was as good as over.

The woman stopped trying to teleport and faced us. Despite facing me, David, and Noriko all together, she didn't try to surrender. She was going to make us put her down. That was fine. I understood, as I wasn't the surrendering type either.

"Laurie!"

Or maybe she didn't quit because she had an ace in the hole.

In the midst of the fighting, I'd taken Josh and Laurie's presence for granted. Josh was a healer, and you didn't put your white mage on the front lines if you could help it. Laurie's power, while very effective, couldn't help us against someone she couldn't get close enough to dose with pheromones. I'd expected them to stay back, but I didn't know there had been someone else to worry about.

Josh's cry prompted us to turn his way, where he was on his knees nursing a burn on his shoulder and chest. Laurie was caught in the grasp of a woman in a bodysuit that covered her from head to toe. It burned orange with the fire she projected. The only part of her actual body that was visible was her face through a visor.

One arm was wrapped around Laurie's throat from behind, while the other was pointed right at her head, a condensed flame in her palm.

The veiled woman we had been fighting had managed to get to relative safety a short distance away from us, "It took you long enough, Solara," She said to her fiery cohort.

Solara? That was appallingly close to Solaris. Also, I called bullshit on that name. I literally took my powers from absorbing light. She just looked like she threw fire around. That wasn't solar. I didn't know what word to use to describe that, but it pissed me off.

Oh. And she had one of my teammates as a hostage. That also left me quite upset.

"Dr. Roekel didn't expect you to get beaten, Wink," Solara said to the veiled woman before continuing to threaten us, "Now, children... back off, or I'll turn your friend here into the prettiest little cinder there ever was."

The entire team remained still, worried for the fate of their friend.

I, on the other hand, lifted my fist and shot Solara in the face over Laurie's shoulder. Just like that. Solara's head jerked violently from the impact of the concussive blast, and she dropped to the ground, arms limply leaving Laurie as she fell. Laurie dropped to her knees, face frozen in shock.

Yeah. Having me play William Tell with you, only using a bad guy holding you hostage instead of an apple on your head, would likely do that to you. The poor girl had probably seen her life flash before her eyes when I took that shot.

With the danger abated, Josh was at her side in an instant, checking her over to see if she was hurt, "Laurie! Are you okay?"

Josh's voice and gold-skinned touch snapped her out of her trance. She quickly looked herself over and found a distinct lack of injuries, "I... I think so."

Ah, young love. Josh hadn't even bothered healing himself before tending to her. Hopefully he got to that sooner rather than later, but I could respect that.

Noriko walked up to me and gave me a knock on the arm. With big metal gauntlets on her arm, it smarted, "You're insane," She said, though there wasn't any real heat in it, "Did you think about what might have happened to Laurie if you'd missed?"

I eyed her from the side, "Nori, I can't sing or dance, my roommate beats my ass at every video game we play, and my handwriting is... barely legible," I made a so-so motion with my hand before making a finger gun, complete with glowing index digit, "But if you put me in front of a stationary target, I don't care how small it is. I'm not gonna fucking miss."

We all have our talents, after all. Mine just so happened to be the best goddamn aim in the school. And it was getting better every day. It was really hard (see: damn near impossible) to dodge something moving at the speed of light. It was just a matter of making sure my aim was precise when I decided to point and click.

The Wink, meanwhile, still couldn't teleport away. Noriko's attack had fried the technology David had discovered in her thigh. It likely regulated whatever power she used to teleport, because while she tried and started to do it, it was unstable and never took her very far.

This was bad for her, as her attempts to escape were thwarted by perhaps the angriest person there. Sooraya, of all people.

I had never seen Sooraya upset before. I never thought I would see it, honestly. She was easily the politest of my cohorts. But when she caught The Wink trying to teleport away, and then laid into her with a blast of sand that knocked her on her ass, it was clear that she was not pleased.

The Wink got up and tried to get away again, only for another painful wave of sand to slam into her, "Gah!"

I'd heard that sandstorms could be dangerous, but I didn't realize that if enough of it hit you hard enough, it could rip your skin off. With all of the skin showing on The Wink, I got a firsthand education on that front.

"You have corrupted my friend," Sooraya declared, grains of her sand form body shifting about wildly, "I will not forgive you!"

Despite her state, The Wink didn't leave well enough alone, "Poor Jay feels the same hunger that I and my cohorts feel. A need that must be satisfied. What kind of friend are you to keep him from what he wants?"

Sooraya turned back into her human form and moved her hand over her heart, "When what he wants will turn him into something awful..." She started to say, shaking her head in the negative, "...I would like to think I am the kind of friend who would do anything to keep it from hurting him."

The sound of slow clapping filled the air. The source? One of the most unholy looking individuals I'd seen up to that point.

A gangly man standing seven feet tall with a body that seemed more like green liquid than flesh. It was all contained within a see-through suit with a black mask that covered his head, black gloves, and black leggings and boots. The way he walked; his limbs shifted as though he were boneless.

Under one of his arms, he held an unconscious Sofia.

Damn it.

"Dr. Kilham," Wink said from where she lay on the ground.

The 'man' in question spoke in a warped voice, "My dear, Wink, you and Solara seem to have gotten the worst of things here," Before I could so much as twitch, Dr. Kilham slung his arm to the side, launching slimy globs of fluid from his fingertips.

They hit a nearby boulder and melted it in seconds. He then put those same fingers to Sofia and kept his solid white eyes locked on mine. The implication was clear. It was the same ploy Solara went for, only more effective, because he knew who was the most dangerous out of all of us in the moment.

I didn't fancy my chances of another quickdraw shot when someone was paying close attention to me. This Hazmat seemed smarter than Solara had been. If he'd seen me take down Solara, he knew all I needed to do was raise my hand and I could take a shot too fast for him to respond to. If I moved either hand any higher than my waist, he would melt Sofia's skull before I could get it high enough to shoot.

If I was hesitant to keep fighting, what he said next sealed it for me.

"Joshua Guthrie is already safe with Dr. Roekel. I'm afraid continuing to fight would benefit neither of us any longer," Dr. Kilham said, "None of us have any reason to remain here, so I would appreciate it if you allowed us our departure."

He was right, as much as it smarted. I'd sent Sofia to stop Jay. If she was here, he was somewhere we couldn't reach. I wasn't about to risk grievous harm being done to Sofia, even if it was guaranteed that we could get Jay immediately. Now that there was no chance, there was no way I was going to fight any longer.

I said I wasn't much for surrendering. That was true. But I also wasn't much for letting people under my command get hurt. We could regroup and figure something out. We couldn't replace Sofia's life.

I kept my hands down and kneeled to the ground, placing my hands in the grass, "Stand down, guys."

None of them liked it. Nori even let out an angry huff. But no one tried to go against it. They all followed my lead.

Being the enemy, I expected treachery. However, once Wink had gathered a newly awoken Solara and started leaving, Dr. Kilham set Sofia down and backed away, keeping his fingers pointed at her.

Three beams shot down from above that caused our enemies to vanish. We all looked up to see some unidentifiable aircraft high in the sky above us. Their way of escape.

Once they were gone, we all got up and ran over to Sofia. Josh healed the wounds we saw her suffer and checked her over for any others. She would be fine. Whatever had happened to her in our absence had just shaken her up.

My fists were clenched so tightly they shook. The mission was a failure. Jay was gone, and he'd taken Quire with him. For what, I had no idea, but it likely wasn't good.

This was what losing felt like? I'd almost forgotten. It had been a while since I'd felt it – a few months, actually.

…

...Yeah, I still hated it.

And that's the chapter, everyone.

For those of you unaware, the villains that are being used this arc are from the video game Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects. I'm pretty sure I've said it before, but I love that game. After a replay, the gameplay doesn't hold up nowadays in my opinion, but at the time, I was all in on it.

Ah, 2005. Man, those were the days. Never take your youth for granted, children. One day, you'll be like ol' Kenchi, working a 9-to-5 to keep a roof over your head, with the lights on and food in your fridge. Also, to pay off those stupid student loans you have (thanks, college). You'll want to sleep all the time, but you can't, because you've got real stuff that needs doing. Your body will ache for no reason all the time, though it will likely be because of the years of abuse you put it through fighting and wrestling (no regrets).

Okay, some of those things were really specific to me, and probably not to some of you. But I can only speak for my own experiences, not yours! You get my point, I'm sure.

…What were we talking about again? Oh, the story.

Well, I hope you enjoyed, and will continue to do so. Until the next time.

Kenchi out.