When I left the X-men with Warrren, a few weeks back, I was glad to be away from the group. I've never considered myself a true member of the X-men. Not since, I swapped bodies with an oriental assassin (don't ask me to explain how I managed this, I don't quite understand it myself). They didn't trust me... always eyed me with a great deal of suspicion. I don't blame them, I've never really done much to earn their trust. Never really been much of a team player, never have been. I've always felt like the fifth wheel... a telepath on a team that was full of them. Why call upon me when you had Jean and the Professor? I felt like an outsider... felt like one, I was one. Everyone else on the team had someone to lean upon when the going got rough. This fact became even more apparent with the recent loss of the Professor. The group got even closer, while I once again ended up on the outside looking in. I would of left the team months ago if it hadn't been for Warren. In all the time I've known him I always considered Warren a very shallow person. That was until he risked every thing to save my life, after I'd been gutted by the escaping Sabertooth. It was a that moment that I realized that I was more than just one of his conquests... that he truly had feelings for me. Problem was... I wasn't sure I felt the same way. Maybe I had gotten so use to being an outsider that I didn't know how to be anything else. Now I've lost my chance. I don't have to worry about fitting in on the team, because there no longer is any X-men. The mansion is empty, the team has disappeared. It appears that I'm the only one left and if I don't find some help soon, even this won't be true. Who ever took out the rest is taking their best shot at taking out me as well. A monster calling himself the Abomination has been hunting me for the past week. Now I'm trapped, with no allies to turn to... but I'm not ready to give up yet. It's time to ask for help outside of the X-men family. I've arrived in New York City, home of the super heroes, all I need to do is ask one of them for help. I think that's how it works? They always help the damsel in distress... even if she is a mutant.
Sheer luck allows me to avoid being hit the first time, as the Abomination buried his fist into the rocky shale up to his elbow where I had been moments before. While he struggles to extract his fist out of the ground I ram one of my physic knives into his forehead as I leapfrog over his head and land behind him. Normally my physic knives disrupts the nerve endings in the targets brain, rendering him/her unconscious. It worked perfectly the first few times I used it on the Abomination but after that it just seemed to stun him for a few minutes. A few minutes that became two minutes, then one minute, then less and less time, every time I used it on him. It was like his brain was adapting to my attack so that each time it had less effect on him. My attack this time had no effect on him whatsoever. Faster than I can react to, his large scaled fist clips my right shoulder and sends me flying though the air at about 60 MPH. I manage to disappear into a shadow about a second before my flight though the air would of been halted by a very solid looking brick wall. Maybe these new powers aren't that bad.
I take back that last thought. I've just emerged into one of the worst smelling places I've ever been... That last revelation is interrupted when gravity finally takes a hold of me and sends me splashing into the river of water flowing below me. An underground river in New York City? That's when I put two and two together... this is the most disgusting... I'm in the sewers under the city! Two seconds later I'm emerging out of a shadow on a subway platform surprising the heck out of about a dozen New York commuters. Making my way though the crowd toward the stair case to the surface proves remarkably easy. You would be surprised how quickly people get out of your way when you're coated in raw sewage. When I emerge into the daylight I take note of two things. First that the giant four that use to be on top of the Fantastic Four headquarters appears to have been replaced by a giant thunderbolt sign. The second thing I take note of is that my little shadow walks have taken me a grand total of about a half a block away from the Abomination. It takes him about half a minute to notice me rushing toward the doors of the Fantastic Four building. I make it though the revolving doors, into the building, about a second before he comes crashing though them. Come on Fantastic Four, if a eight foot, green scaled monster on a rampage in your front lobby doesn't get your attention, I don't know what will. Wait the Fantastic Four are dead! So are the Avengers! I didn't think about that... who's left to stop this creature from killing me?
I get my answer a half a minute later. A huge pink fist slams into the Abomination driving him across the room and though a set of heavy oak doors. Jean? No... it's not. It's a flying lady... it look like she's screaming? She looks worried when the Abomination lets out an ear shattering roar and freezes (must be a rookie) a second later, when a huge conference table thrown by the Abomination screams toward her. Diving across, I slam into her sending both of us out of the path of the huge wooden table. The heavy table hits the ground once and then begins to tumble end over end, heading straight at the group of spectators that has gathered to watch this fight. Just seconds before the table would've slammed into the crowd an armored man that look like a small fighter jet, plows into the table and sends it flying off in another direction, where it crashes harmlessly into an empty corner. After a quick glance in our direction the armored man flies off toward the advancing Abomination. The screaming lady gets to her feet... turns back to say a very quiet thank you and then flies after the fighter jet man.
They're losing badly. Fighter jet man was taken out seconds after he had unleashed a small army's worth of fire power upon the Abomination. You could almost see the disbelief register on his face, though his helmet, when he realized his attack had no effect whatsoever. He didn't even seem the hit coming. The hit that sent him crashing out the front of the building, though the side of a bus passing on the street outside, and plowing into the office building across the street. The screaming lady isn't doing much better. Her see though pink walls that she's forming in front of the Abomination, might as well be made out of tissue paper, for all the resistance they're posing to the monstrosity that's making its way toward her. I struggle to my feet... or at least I try to. I never should of stayed off my feet this long. All the injuries I've amassed over the past week, have caught up with me. My entire body feels like one giant bruise, not to mention the thousand or so cuts I received from my battle with the Abomination in that giant greenhouse outside the city yesterday. Pushing the pain aside, I rise to my feet and limp my way, as fast as I can, toward the fight. I'm going to be to late... the screaming lady is going to die! That's when they arrive. It would appear that the screaming lady is a member of a super hero team. A very angry looking super hero team from the looks of it.
It took them about ten minutes to take down the Abomination. They won, and the crowd that had gathered let out a roar of approval. They were chanting out the name "Thunderbolts", which I'm guessing is the name of this group. The crowds never chanted "X-men" after our fights. I don't blame them though, I almost cheered for these guys myself. I must admit, I'm impressed. This group, the Thunderbolts could give the Avengers a run for their money. Their leader looked like a regular Scott Summers, spouting out the orders and the corny threats... plus, he actually went up against the Abomination with only that little pig sticker of a sword, and is still alive to tell the tale, for now. Him and the fighter jet man were taken to the local hospital in an ambulance a few minutes ago. The screaming lady rode to the hospital with them, for moral support, I guess, while the rest of the group appears to be cleaning up the mess from their little war. They're the proto-type super hero team. They got the "gadget guy" in a man that looks like he's carrying half the equipment from Hank's labs on his back. They got the "strong guy" in a woman who went toe to toe with the Abomination and she was winning until he dropped a bus on her. Actually they have two strong guys, the other one being a 60' giant, who managed to finally stop the Abomination, by stepping on him like a bug and driving him down at least six feet down into the pavement. I'm going over to thank them... it's the least I can do, after all they did just save my life.
Atlas is pretty nice. I found out the giant's name is "Atlas", the "strong guy" woman is named "Meteorite", and the "gadget guy" making his way over is oddly enough, named "Techno". When he gets with in ten feet of me some of the equipment on his back begins beeping erratically. A large piece of the equipment morphs over his head, reforming itself into a helmet like device. Quickly the man they called Techno begins to scan the crowd and then apparently not finding what he's looking for there, his gaze settles on me. As more equipment rushes over both of his arms his team mates begin to ask him what's wrong?
"She's a mutie... a telepath!" are the words I hear him whisper frantically, before I notice that the equipment on his arms his become two very large plasma cannons.
"Telepath! She knows! Take her out!" tones Meteorite very quietly seconds before she shouts out loud enough for the crowd to hear.
"Mutant outlaw, you are a carrier of the Legacy Virus, we can not allow you to continue to infect the general population as you have been, please surrender peacefully, we do not want to hurt yo..." and then she flings herself back away from me, making it look like I've hit her, slamming back into the remains of the bus she crawled out from under, a few minutes ago.
What are they doing? Do they work for Bastion... why are they acting like this? They're determine to paint me as the villain. One quick mind scan later and I discover why. Of all the rotten luck... the one time I actually go outside the X-men family for help, I stumble headlong into the middle of some demented super villain's master plan. I barely get out of the path of the twin lethal plasma blasts fired at me by Techno. Unfortunately I don't avoid the streaking Meteorite, who catches me from behind. I manage to twist around in mid-flight and put one of my physic dagger right between her eyes. We're both gonna hit the ground doing close to 40 mph. I think I wrench a couple muscles in my right shoulder as I snag this lamp post when we streaked past it, but this looks a lot less painful than carving a deep groove into the road bed like my good friend Meteorite has. Dropping ten feet to the ground I suddenly notice how dark it has gotten considering it's two o'clock in the afternoon. Oh geez... now I know how an ant feels. Atlas foot slams down on the area where I stood seconds before. This is the third time today my new shadow walking power has saved me. I watch from half a block away as Atlas lifts his foot off the road and after not see my remains pressed into the pavement, he checks the bottom of his foot to see if I somehow ended up there. I can see the confusion register on his face. Let him wonder how I did that... I'm out of here. I don't see the twin heat seeking missiles fired at me by Techno until it is to late. The two projectiles slam into me and then release their explosive charges. That's funny, I always though dying would hurt more...
Bastion had stood in Jubilee's cell for the past hour. She had not said a single word the entire time... she hadn't spoken to anyone in well over a week. Bastion found comfort in this. In the beginning he had found her constant taunts and threats extremely annoying. There was only so many ways you could be creatively killed by the X-men Wolverine but during the first week, Jubilee had mentioned them all and then some. Now she said nothing... he had broken her will. She had been full of energy and hope in the beginning, but now all that was left was an empty shell of what had been there before. The firecracker had gone out. Bastion thoughts were broken by the young woman who entered the room.
"Sir?" started the lady before she was silenced by the icy cold stare that Bastion sent her way.
"Yes!" toned Bastion, he had to say it twice before she finally spoke up.
"The termination of target number 27 has been confirmed, sir." she said. Bastion stared at her a long time before he spoke.
"See that the large population homeless living under the streets of New York are given what Mr. Blonsky asked for." Bastion said before he dismissed her and turned his attention back to Jubilee.
"You hear that Jubilee... She's dead. What did you call her, the mind witch. As of this moment, little one, you're the last X-men left alive on the entire planet." stated Bastion before continuing on "Make that was the last X-men alive, good-bye Jubilee..."
Pulling out the same plasma gun that he killed Graydon Creed with, Bastion fires a single shot at Jubilee, and watches as over the next few seconds she is vaporized, until all that is left is a pile of ash.
"That went far quicker than I expected... I hope the rest of the X-men get back before I get bored."
The End?