Neophyte sat in the forest and listened to the sounds. He was never good at telling what noises were what, and he kept hearing the Acolytes attacking. Andre assured him he was just being paranoid.
Andre was scared, but he felt safe in Neophyte’s arms. He thought what Neophyte had done before was very brave, and he was very impressed. We certainly showed those crappy Acolytes.
But now they were on the run from them. They knew the Acolytes were following them. They would not be so stupid as to let them go. It was only just a matter of time before they were found, but they wanted to go down fighting, not crying.
Suddenly, the world around them stopped. Moments before they had been running through the forest, trees blurring, jumping over bushes, but now the trees stopped.
Or did they? No, it was really Andre and Neophyte who had stopped. They were frozen, unable to move, or even to talk.
The Acolytes had found them.
A spinning white light encompassed, and Andre and Neophyte winced, fearing the coming onslaught. Instead, they saw a large group of people who were strangers to them, standing in front of them. A blast was shot from a blond girl’s amulet, a powerful plasma blast, that hit it’s target, and suddenly, they could move again.
A girl ran up to them, checking them over. She was normal sized and had long, blond hair and pointed ears. "Are you okay?" she asked.
"Yes," Andre answered, rubbing his neck. "Who are you people?"
"We’re Excalibur," Meggan answered. "And we’re here to save you."
With that, an enormous green hand flew across the air and plucked up Neophyte from where he was standing. Meggan looked up and flew towards, slamming against the exoskeleton with no effect. Straining her eyes, Meggan called to the electromagnetic spectrum and attacked the skeleton with it, bombarding it with magnetics. It still didn’t work. The hand stayed despite it’s beating.
Finally, Kitty Pryde air-walked her way up there and phased Neophyte out of Unuscione’s grip. Grabbing Neophyte and Andre near her, she stayed behind to watch them.
"Why are you helping us?" Neophyte asked.
"Because that’s what we’re here to do," Kitty answered.
Meanwhile, Colossus and Unuscione were fighting, and Rahne and Douglock stood over an unconscious Frenzy.
Scanning the battle ground, the two mutants were astonished to see Excalibur winning so easily and so quickly. Meggan fought off Voght’s mists and took her down quickly, and Colossus shrugged off Unuscione’s exoskeleton. Pete, Rahne, and Douglock took down the twins all by themselves, and only two Acolytes, the new ones, were left.
Andre and Neophyte knew that, but they couldn’t see the last two ones.
Out of nowhere, Neophyte was grabbed from behind by a man with large, strong arms, and Andre was dragged away, too. Turning around with a suprised look on her face, Kitty saw the man grabbing the two. "Uh uh!" she said, reaching out and phasing the two out of the man’s grip. She jumped at the man, kicking him in the face, while she grabbed Andre and Neophyte and phased them away. "Get 'em, Meggan!" Kitty shouted, as Meggan flew down and punched the man’s lights out.
"There’s one person left," Andre heaved, not used to Kitty’s mode of transportation. A white disc appeared, and Illyana popped up with a woman at her feet.
"Last one," Illyana said. "She’s not that powerful." Illyana stepped off the disc and it disappeared. Looking around, the team saw that they had won and had managed to save the two people they came for. "Let’s go then, shall we?" Illyana suggested. "And quickly, before anyone decides otherwise!" Illyana looked around one last time at the beautiful forest, and prepared to teleport everyone out of there.
A man laughed, deeply and throatily.
"I don’t think so," the man said, as Illyana felt to the ground in pain, screaming.
Douglock and Rahne ran to her, while Kitty backed up closer to Andre and Neophyte.
"Who are you?" Pete Wisdom asked.
"You don’t need to answer that, Exodus, we know who you are!" Colossus shouted.
"I am glad you do, Colossus," Exodus said, floating down from the air to the forest floor. "Because you will need to remember my name when you are dead."
***
"Brian?!" Moira said. "What’s wrong with ye?"
"I-I’m juth fine, Moira," Brian insisted over the phone.
"Look, I just called to say hello and give ye an update, but if this is a bad time," Moira said.
"Ith no bad time," Brian said. "I’m juth fine."
"Brian, have ye been drinking?"
"Um, no........" Brian giggled. "Not a drop!"
"Ye have, haven’t ye?!" Moira shouted. "Brian, you brute! Why did ye do it?"
"Look, Moira," Brian sternly answered. "I don’t need thith bull from you, or any of your lousy stinkin super-heroes, you got that?"
"Well, I’m sure Meggan would like to hear that," Moira shot back.
"I don’t give a friggin thit about that bimbo," Brian slurred. "I’ve got me own babeth right here, don’t I, honey?"
In the background, Moira could hear a strange woman giggle and invite him back to have more sex.
"Is that a prostitute?!" Moira screamed. "Brian Braddock, I assure YOU Meggan will be hearing all about this!"
"Hey, thereth no reathon to get all worked about thith, I’m juth thayin that....."
"Ye will be saying no more to me, because I am hangin up the phone!" Moira shouted, slamming the phone down on it’s receiver.
Moira skulked about for the rest of the day, and Lockheed, who sometimes visited her when she was alone on days like these, could tell she was angry from far away, and spent the day in Kitty’s room and outside instead of with her.
To Be Continued
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NOTE: Anytime Brian talks, the "s" is "th" instead. So, "so" would be "tho", and what not. That’s Jason’s Drunkense for ya! (Or, Drunkenthe! Teehee!)