As the group of mutants moved down the hallway, a door opened and three identical young men stepped out in single file.
"That's far enough children." They said in unison, it sounded a bit rehearsed, but at the same time natural. The center man spoke next. "Master Cortez sends his regards." A smirk crossed all three of their faces as their hands glowed and plasma energy shot forth towards the young X-men
Waya Lifted her shadow in front of the group and solidified it into a shield. It was the only non-animal related thing she could do with shadows but it only worked properly when she used her own. "What is it with this place and triplets?!" She asked as her shield deflected the plazma blast.
"Should we try and cut a hole in the ground again?" the
twins asked, ducking behind the shield.
Maribel bit her lip and cowered behind the entire group. She definitely wanted to get off this rock. Behind Jeremy, Maribel tucked her head in and rested her hands on his shoulder blades.
Jeremy grunted softly, shaking his head as he hid behind the shield with the others "Guys I don't think you could make another hole in the floor, it took too much out of you." He licked his lips and glanced at the shield "I could take over one of them, pull a few strings, distract them while you weigh another down so they can't move and Waya can go in for the third." He looked at Maribel purposefully, he didn't want her to get her hands dirty; she shouldn't have come really, she wasn't used to fighting like this.
"
"Yea, because it worked so well last time when you guys tried a mental attack."
the twins commented. "They could be telekinetic too for all we know."
"The last time we attacked from the inside they ran screaming for the hills because we opened their darkest secrets. You were the ones who dropped our bodies and left with them"
Jeremy huffed slightly "Look I'm not saying I'm going to fully take over, I'm just going to confused them long enough for you to act!"
"Ya'll do realize we can hear you, right?" The one on the left asked. They weren't exactly far away from them after all.
"SHUT UP!"
Jeremy stuck a hand in the air, the fingers only just above the shield "I'm new at this ok!" He grumbled and stayed crouched down "They really think we're a threat?"
"Yes they think we're a threat."
Waya told Jeremy, "I dunno why but something really bad is gonna happen if we don't get them away from one another."
The triplets opened fire again, strafing the ceiling above the group, raining down plasma heated chunks of metal and rock. It was evident that they weren't going to wait forever. They had their orders though. These children were not to go any farther, no matter what.
Waya lifted her shadow almost a moment too late. Some of the debris had had a chance to reach them before it fully covered them. She pulled a few of their shadows with it, creating a much more solid shield above them. However there was no ventilation from the abundance of dust that had made it in.
"Let's just try physical, yea?"
the twins proposed. "What about that string thing?" one of them asked Maribel.
Maribel cowered and quickly shook her head. She was no where near as experienced as the others. The whole reason she came to the school was to learn how to control herself.
"No better way to practice than in the field right?"
Waya didn't know wether or not Maribelle could do much damage but it was worth giving the girl a try.
Maribel started to frantically sign
No! No! No! When the twins suggested it, Maribel was half hoping that Waya would stick up for her. This wasn't looking good.
Jeremy sighed and closed his eyes, his body becoming still as he shot backwards through the shadow shield. He drifted through, his white vapour representation flying straight at one of the triplets, darting around the floor, trying to get them to shoot at it instead.
"Your gonna have to start some time."
Waya told her. As Jeremy made to distract the triplets she concentrated, thinking of the same path Jeremy had taken her on into the Cuckoo's mind/s. She found she didn't need as much concentration as she had dealing with the telepaths and quickly sought out their
fear room as she thought of it.
"Alright, that's enough of the playin around. Whatta say Sven, Eric?" The middle brother asked, looking at his brothers as he held his hands out to them. With a smile on both of their faces, they grasped their brother Harlan's hands and merged into one monstrous sized man.
Jeremy's ghost stopped the ground assault now, weaving through the air in front of the massive man and trying to distract him frantically. He'd try anything, make a ceiling tile drop on their head, rip the floor from beneath them, wedgie, but he felt like he wasn't going to be able to stop these guys.
Waya exclaimed in a surprised cry and was thrown back against the wall of her shadow bubble. Her hand immediately went to her forehead "Owe..." She said gravely and when she took her hand away from her forehead her eyes where ablaze with fury. "That's it." She said hoisting herself up, opened the bubble just enough to slip threw and left it open should the others decided to go on the offensive. The thing's shadow was thick and solid, Waya pulled on it and manifested as many shadow ravens as the shadow would allow. The sorrow immediately attacked with hammering beaks and slashing talons. The majority targeted the monster's eyes while the others frenzied wherever they could get a beak in.
THe being know as Kleinstock roared and thrashed out at the shadow ravens, batting them from the air around him, slamming his massive fists into the walls of the hallway. His strikes sent shockwaves rippling down the metal corridor. His feet stamped into the ground, causing the same effect through the floor as well
Jeremy really hoped that the others were looking after his body... He didn't fancy going back and finding it dead. He went up in front of the massive man's eyes again, darting around their head, whizzing about and just trying to be annoying; he didn't fancy trying to possess them.
Maribel fell on her butt from the shaking floor. She winced and hustled back up. She was definitely going to die this time. With shaky knees, she moved backward down the hall, keeping her eyes locked on the large, now single man before them.
The twins took the liberty of guarding Jeremy's body once more. Jaden slung him over his shoulder while his brother stepped forward and lifted gravity's pull on their foe.
As Kleinstock destroyed
Waya's ravens she simply used the dispersed shadow to create more. The creature's shadow was impressive, it felt far deeper than a normal person's shadow and she liked it. It was so dense she felt as if she could almost take it from the monster, take it and keep it for herself. She'd never felt anything like it.
Kleinstock roared and barely even seemed to be affected by the raised effects of gravity dealt by the twins. He continued to swat at the shadow ravens and blew a mighty breath as the wispy thing floating around his head, aiming to disperse it.
Jeremy wasn't effected by silly things like physics or reality any more however, so he just swirled around them faster every time they tried to blow him away. At least he was distracting them, apart from that he had no idea.
Maribel had backed up to the other end of the hall by now. She hesitated running down the next corridor. They needed to find Phinagin, Jr and Rhydian! But- they were probably killed by now.
"I feel like she's got the right idea."
Jayden said, hoisting Jeremy's body up more on his shoulder.
Defeated,
Jaden gave up his gravitational attempt, not sure how else to attack.
At least
Waya's ravens where keeping Kleinstock from attacking any of them head on. She was trying to get into the things mind but found more difficult and much less orderly than the Cuckoo's. "Can you posses this thing Jeremy?"
Kleinstock raged and slammed his fists into the walls, tearing the paneling off and smashing the shadow ravens in between the massive sheets of metal and rock.
Maribel backed up against the wall all the way down the hall. Why the hell couldn't these maniacs RUN from danger?! She would definitely want a transfer after this....if she ever survived it.
Waya winced as she felt most of her ravens shatter and disperse. She decided to go to the opposite end of the spectrum and chose an elephant. Kleinstock's shadow was still as thick as ever so she summoned it around her, building the elephant so she resided in the core of it's body. Brandishing it's tusks Waya charged forward and rammed directly into Kleinstock.
The behemoth of a man stumbled backwards at the sudden attack of an elephant. He dropped the panels and grabbed a hold of the large black animal, hoisting it effortlessly into the air
That,
Waya hadn't been expecting. His strength was monstrous and she couldn't go any larger or stronger and still fit within the space of the corridor. If she let the shadow disperse she'd no doubt get crushed and wouldn't be any good to the others.
With a roar of sheer displeasure, Kleinstock hefted the elephant down the hallway, back down the way they had just come. His mission was to prevent them from coming any further, if that meant pushing them back, that wsa fine.
Jeremy didn't like this idea, but he flew straight at the massive figure of Kleinstock; he'd try to possess it, to throw it around inside enough for it to be properly downed. He wasn't going to be pushed back...
Waya dispersed the elephant before she was sent hurtling into the twins and Maribelle. She slammed into the twins, unable to halt her speed with levitation. She didn't look too happy that she and Jeremy where doing all the work.
The twins held their arms up before being tackled by Waya. They grunted and groaned, leaning up with her in their laps. "We are going to be too exhausted to get the others out of their cages if we fight this guy."
"Tell that to him."
Waya groaned, picking herself back up. Her shadows weren't working but she could almost taste Klienstock's shadow and it was aggravating not to posses it. She feared that might become an issue and decided to try another mental attack. She could sense Jeremy trying something and decided to give him a minuet to see if it worked.
Kleinstock grabbed at his head, roaring as he was suddenly invaded by the foreign entity. He thrashed from side to side, slamming himself purposefully into the walls, hoping to knock the thing out of him
Maribel placed her hands on her head and crouched down to her knees. She wanted to run away now, but the others wanted to fight. She was scared and wanted to go home! Maribel, unlike the others, knew little to nothing about her mutation or how to use it. Terrified for her life, she started to cry.
Jeremy was thrashing about inside their minds, slamming against everything he could, wrenching at anything and hoping it would give. He was wrecking everything he could, nothing just trying to reduce the mind of this massive man into nothing but a shuddering pile of jelly.
Waya could vaguely sense what Jeremy was trying to do and she was too afraid to take his shadow again, for now. It simply tasted too good. reaching out for Klienstock's mind she found that she couldn't get in.
Jeremy, helm me out, I can't get in!
In a last ditch effort to free itself of the foreign entity, Kleinstock gripped his head fiercely and roared as he split back down into the three individual brothers
All Waya found in reply however was "AARRRRRRRRRRR
RRRRGGHHHH!" as Jeremy felt his own mind being torn into three as the brothers divided. His ghost form threw itself from the triplets, fleeing before he was torn to pieces.
The triplets were only disoriented for a moment before they realized what had happened. Shaking their heads clear, they raised their hands and started strafing the hallway with plasma blasts, forcing the young mutants back the way they had come.
Having been connected to Jeremy's mind at the time of the split sent Waya staggering back. She didn't pull her shadow up in time and caught a shot in the side. She was thrown backward again, her side sizzling and filling her nostrils with cooking flesh.
Maribel huddled down and shut her eyes tightly, unable to scream.
"Petal!" the twins shouted. Turning around, the two of them locked arms firmly. They created a strong, gravitational pull on the three of them. The surge alone shattered the tile floor.
The last thing Waya heard before being slammed into the hall wall and temporarily blacking out was the sound of the twins shouting their pet name for her. She would have rolled her eyes at them had falling to the floor not been more important at the time.
Jeremy's spirit staggered back and forth, escaping away from the triplets and heading back towards his own body. His mind was reeling, but he'd feel better in there he knew, he could recover in his own body. His spirit almost flopped into his body, immediatley causing it to convulse and let out a yell of pain.
Maribel's sobbing broke when she heard Jeremy scream. Opening her eyes, she saw him convulsing on the floor. Now that the twin's had the enemy distracted, she gathered the courage to get up. Hustling over to him, Maribel grabbed his wrist and dragged him back, away from the action. She was going to be stuck her if they all died.
A pool of blood was forming under Waya but as her wound gushed her body immediately began to staunch the flow, trying to reconstitute the gaping hole in her side.
The triplets were forced down onto the ground as the twins assaulted them with their gravity abilities. You could hear some of their bones breaking under the strain, but they managed to look at each other, smirks crossing their faces. They didn't stand a chance this way. Their hands reached out to touch each other, to once again become the hulking monster version of themselves
Jeremy finally stopped writhing and convulsing as his mind seemed to just reel now, instead of being a chop salad for a brain. "Don't... let them touch!" he yelled, his blood red eyes focusing on the triplets for a moment before spinning around again in his head.
"On it." the twins said at once, pulling the triplets away from one another, pinning them on the walls and one on the ceiling.
As the triplets were being squished into the various surfaces around the hallway, another door opened and a young Hispanic man in Acolyte uniform walked out. "Never thought the three of you would need backup. Guess I was wrong." He placed his hand on the metallic surface of the wall and smirked to the X-men as his body began to transmute into the same metal.
Another young Acolyte walked up behind Jeremy and Maribel from down the hallway. "Oh look at you! Cute lil thing, ain't'cha?" His strikingly red hair was a bit of a shout out to what his abilities were. His hands went ablaze in seconds after he spoke those words. These mutant soliders were trained to enjoy their work.
Maribel gasped and held tightly to Jeremy's shirt. Scrambling, she dragged him away from the soldier. She kept her eyes on the man and hustled backward, leaning over.
"For crying out loud!" Jayden said, noticing the two additional rivals. They held their arms out, keeping the triplets away from each another.
"A little help here, Petal!" Jaden shouted, praying that her healing was just about done.
Waya's healing factor may have been more impressive than her mother's, but having a basket ball sized chunk of yourself get blasted out of you by plazma fire took some time getting over, no matter how fast she could heal.
"I got it I got it" Jeremy muttered, trying to stand up shakily, thrusting one hand out in front of Maribel "You... you don't have to fight. You can run. Find... Eliza." He was barely standing, his legs were shaking and he was obviously slightly off kilter.
There was no way she would be able to find Eliza in this place. Besides, her friends weren't doing the best against these guys. Maribel shook her head at Jeremy, grabbing onto him, keeping him on his feet.
"Oh ain't you the noble one?" The redheaded pyro said as Jeremy tried to stand to fight him. "You don't stand a chance against me, just give up." The fire on his hands flared during his last statement, the heat from them alone was enough to make them uneasy.
"So what can you boys do exactly?" The now-metallic man asked as he strolled closer to them. All he had to do was hit them or distract them enough and Kleinstock would be back on their feet again. He cracked his neck dramatically as a grin crossed his face. "Me? I take on the strengths of whatever I touch. Ever wonder how strong titanium can be?" At the end of his question, he slammed a metal fist into the ground, sending a shockwave across the floor
The twins held the triplets apart as they stumbled against the wall from the shockwave. "Tell that to our faces!" they demanded, glaring at the metal man. Their eyes glowed, about to snatch the first instant they could to hypnotize him.
Maribel's wide eyes stared at the psychokinetic hands with fear. She wanted to help, she really did...but her ability was so foreign!
As the shock wave vibrated threw the floor Waya was roused. She was in a lot of pain as she lifted her head and saw the new metallic guy and it didn't take much to realize that they where screwed. She still had a great deal of healing left to do but that was always best done when surrounded by shadows. She managed to get to her hands and knees and teleported. When she reappeared she was standing inside the metal guy's shadow. She was still covered in blood and looked even more pale than usual as she shouted "Hey, Bozo! Are you afraid of the dark?" She didn't even let him respond before teleporting and taking him with her. She was gone for a solid ten seconds before returning alone and in much better health than she'd left in.
Jeremy was overbalanced by the shock wave, but managed to catch himself on the wall so he didn't fall over. Turning to the firey headed man he held his boney fist out at him; it didn't quite had the same effect as the man's own flaming digits but still it was a defiant movement. "Listen here pal, I'd like nothing else but to go home and live out my life in peace, but I've got to stop people from dying. If we don't disable to nukes in this place then the government's going to just bomb the station out of orbit. So if you DON'T mind we'll be passing through you. Litterally." And with that he folded over backwards, his spirit shooting towards the firey man quickly in one massive bolt of light.
Maribel gasped and fell backwards onto the floor. Her knees were shaking and her face was white with shock. She was hyperventilating and frozen.
"That's our girl!" the twins shouted, looking back at Waya with bright smiles. The boys focused on the triplets in their gravitational grasp. Together, they moved their hands and in sync, the three started to twirl in the air.
Waya smiled weakly at the twins and slumped against the wall. She looked healed but she was still in a lot of pain.
The Kleinstock brothers were getting quite tired of this constant separation. On most days they simply lumbered around the Asteroid as one. It was far easier should a combat situation arise. Now that they were spinning, however, their patience was at it's end. Their hands glowed as their plasma-powers heated the air around them. If their allies couldn't get them down, they'd have to do it themselves
The Acolyte boy known as Rusty couldn't believe his eyes when his partner suddenly vanished through the floor. He'd never seen anyone take him out that quickly. He didn't even know what happened, and now this frail stick of a boy was trying to attack him head-on?? Where did this people come from?? They had all been briefed on what the major players of this incarnation of the X-men could do, but what he was seeing was pretty hard to explain, let alone believe. The fire grew in his hands, creating a wall of flesh-searing heat, his aim was to block the creature's advance
The bolt of light passed through the fire shield without even pausing, and as Jeremy smashed into the boy all he heard was the word "NO!" before everything seemed to... ring an odd silence. It wasn't a pain, more like a sudden removal of all pain, the ones that you didn't notice, stress aches or slight twinges. Everything just went... and two glowing figures were lying on the floor, at least to everyone else. To Jeremy and the boy Jeremy was ontop of the lad, kneeling on his chest like a predatory animal but looking rather shocked by this turn of events; all around them was the real world, but it seemed blurry, as if everything was being seen through someone else's glasses. Then the soft thud seemed to ring through the air as the body of the boy bounced off the floor. "Oh crap" Jeremy mumbled, the boy the only one who could hear him "I killed you."
"DUDE!" Waya exclaimed rather surprised that Jeremy could even do that. She spat out a mouthful of blood and righted herself, basically all better. "Nice...Push the fucker over and do it to Kleinstock!"
Maribel, who had been kneeling next to Jeremy's corpse, sprang back with a gasp. Did that just happen?! Lifting her hands shakily, she asked, 'Is he dead?'
The triplets eyes nearly shot from their heads when they watched what happened to Rusty. "Hey! What the fuck did you just do to him!?" They shouted in partial unity. Despite the fact they were being spun by the twins, they fired their plasma blasts off; the spinning actually seemed to help them in creating chaos from it.
There was a loud HISS! as a set of doors opened, rank thick air seeped out as a somewhat disturbing visage stepped into the hallway. "Lord Cortez believes that I should not be allowed to battle you children. That it would not even prove to be entertaining for me." His skin cracked as the smirk spread across his face. "Shall we see who has more fun with this?" He asked them slowly, as though every breath was a hassle. His armor HISS!'d just as the doors did, releasing more of the rank air into the crowded hall. The metal panels lining the walkway began to slowly rust over as the thick smog-like air came into contact with them. "Know now, that none shall leave here alive, for you unfortunate souls now face the power of Decay."
Waya's shadow sprung up the moment the triplets began fearing, but the arrival of this new player prompted a "-the fuck?". Something in her sixth sense told her that it was not a good thing to go any where near that mist. Her first instinct was to just flee, to teleport everyone out and just run, but they where too spread out and she couldn't reach all five of them and Jeremy wasn't currently in his body. "FUCK!"
Jeremy stood up and began shouting "Guys, fling them over the other side, they wouldn't be able to get through the mist, Waya, get everyone out of her-" He paused he was still a ghost, and what did he know about doing mission strategies? Why was he even shouting orders. It was that women, she was still in his head. He grabbed Rusty's shoulders quickly. "I'm dragging you back into your body" he said, knowing that he was the only one who could hear Jeremy right now "And the moment we're in there I want you to RUN. Cortez is trying to kill you, like he did to Magneto, alright!" He grabbed the boy's soul hard, dashing straight back to the prone body and both of them entering at the same time. He hoped Rusty could run...
The twins were right ahead of Jeremy. When the three started shooting like spinning, drunken maniacs, they launched him towards the new foe. "Waya- we need to get out of here!" they said seriously, moving in closer.
Maribel gasped when she saw Decay completely deteriorate the steel hall. It was unknown to Maribel how her legs were still able to stand.
"NOOOO!!!!!!!!" The Kleinstock triplets shouted as they were rocketed without their own control towards Decay. By simply raising one hand, the morbid Acolyte turned his vicious life-draining abilities on them. His eyes flared as the triplets were reduced to dust. The foul smelling cloud of what used to be three promising Acolytes slowly descended around the man. His skin slowly grew softer to the eyes, some color even appeared where once it was deathly gray. His exhaled dramatically, a hint of a sigh in his voice. He sounded like someone who had just had a sip of a fancy wine. "Delicious..." He whispered softly, as his eyes sought other targets in the room. "Such succulent glorious youth...." He grinned devilishly and licked his no longer dry lips. His armor made various hissing and clicking sounds as ancient locks became undone and slowly his armor began to fall to the floor; revealing the garish form of one of the Acolytes' most dangerous members
"Fall back!" Waya shouted and began backpedaling towards Maribelle and Jeremy. She was closest to Decay and defiantly didn't want to know how well her healing factor could deal with his abilities.
Too scared to cry at this point, Maribel grabbed Jeremy's shirt, she pulled him firmly. Looking away from Decay and the others, Maribel took off in a sprint down the hall, nearly clipping the corner.
The twins extended their hands to Waya as they too ran backwards. Pulling her with their gravity, the boys set her in front of themselves. "Shadow-porting would be a bit USEFUL right now! HINT HINT, PETAL!"
As the twins pulled her back Waya reached out and grabbed the back of Maribelle's dress, dragging both she and Jeremy back towards the twins. "It doesn't work if we're all over the place!"
With a little bit of "help" from Jeremy Rusty's body was up and legging it away from the cloud of poison, spurts of flame tossing them forward towards his friends. It was a jumble in his mind right now, the boy still in shock from having his soul ripped out of his body and leaving it numb enough to Jeremy to wield. But it felt like trying to run in someone's socks if they're six sizes too big, Jeremy kept stumbling as he ran, but he wasn't going to slow down. "Almost there!" he yelled, hoping that they realized that Jeremy was in there as well.
"Yes! Run! Run from Decay!" He shouted as he progressed down the hallway after them. It was a shame they took the boy Acolyte's body with them, his life-force was still fresh enough to drink. The armor that fell from his body was the only metal in the room that seemed unaffected by the stank mist surrounding his semi-mummified body. Each step he took looked less and less labored, each breath grew more intense as he feasted on the life-giving energies of all in his path. The non-living materials of the hallway rusted as they gave what little energies they had to their new master. Only life-force would sustain him, only life-force give him what he so desperately graved; and these children were ripe with it!
Maribel held her dress up and ran with all her might. She might not be any good with her mutation, but her legs sure as hell worked! Holding onto Jeremy's corpse, she hustled him as much as a short girl could. Looking to the twins and Waya, her eyes pleaded for help.
The twins hurried and grabbed Jeremy's arms and legs from Maribel. They hoisted him up and took off along with the group. "Jeremy! You need a better mutation!"
Once they where close enough Waya grabbed all their shadows, even Rusty's and teleported. She wasn't about to try to go head on with a guy who could decay anything he got close to. She aimed for the labs, hoping there weren't too many lights on down there.
Decay let out a blood-chilling guttural shrill as the entire group vanished before him. His fists slammed into the walls of the hallway, sucking every bit of energy out of them. The lights dimmed and fell from rusted bindings, the metal panels turned to metallic dust, even the rock of the meteor itself shivered and cracked beneath his touch. With a roar of hunger, he stormed out of the ruined corridor in search of life-force. Outside of his containment suit, every step he took caused more of the Asteroid to decay
Jeremy gave a sigh of relief as he felt the encompassing grip of Waya's teleportation. He didn't know where he was going, but it was better than here he was sure. Silently and smoothly they moved to the asteroid-m labs.
Stumble!