The crowd had started amassing around the time Mojo had predicted. Everyone was fighting for front row seats and some of the viewers were obviously half-drunk. The stench and noise of the crowd was enough to make Wolverine physically ill.
"It reminds me of the Coliseum in Rome." Bishop mused grimly, "Everyone turning out to see blood and carnage."
The three X-Men continued to silently watch the events slowly unfold. No one at the mansion would know what had happened to them so there was no hope of being rescued by the reast of the team. Between the three of them they could not come up with any means of escape and even if they could they were still trapped in this alternate dimension. Wolverine was starting to go stir crazy with the hopelessness of the situation. They were trapped.
*If he wants a fight he is going to get one.* Wolverine thought darkly, *I will fight through everyone and everything until I get to Mojo and skewer that worm.*
The loud speakers started to boom some kind of music and the crowd became hushed. A voice started to announce the sponsors of the event along with their logos. Wolverine could see movement in the tunnel entrances and examined what was going on. There were groups of people in exotic costumes, both men and women. The costumes were rich colors of purple, teal and scarlet that clung the bodies of the wearers. The women wore skirts with slits traveling all the way up their thighs while the hems grazed the floor and the tops were tiny, exposing the midrift. The men wore tight pants and shirts. All of them wore some kind of bracelets and anklets that gleamed gold.
"Introducing," a voice soared over the speakers again, "the Stellar Dancers Performing tonight with singers Andromeda, Ursa and Orion."
Steam started to flood the floor of the arena as dancers ran for their places. When the music started the steam began to rise and disipate into the air as the entertainment began. Dancers leapt and gyrated together across the floor as the beat picked up. There came a clear feminine voice above the music. The singer stood on a platform that was slightly elevated from the rest of the floor. She was wearing what the rest of the dancers were wearing except her dark hair was braided in the back with jewels woven between the folds and a stone dangled around the middle of her forehead from a delicate gold chain circling her ebony crown of hair. Two back up singers accompanied her, one man and one woman. The man was of medium build with light brown hair and the woman was a small, delicate looking strawberry blond with her hair falling in loose ringlets around her face.
Mojo had a special box above the floor where he leered at the dancers. He was very pleased with the turn out. Everything was going according to his plans and the fighters would come out immediately following the musical number. When the music started to crescendo before the finale a guard hit a switch that began to lower th X-Men's cages. The room befan to fill with steam again that was so dense no one could see anything. With the final chords the song ending was punctuated with an odd explosion that looked like fireworks. The X-Men had been preparing themselves mentally for the fight sequence that was to begin when the cages abruptly stopped lowering in mid-air and they dangled ten feet from the floor. It was difficult to see what was happening through the cover of steam.
Some sort of commotion had begun on the floor. Suddenly Wolverine was aware of explosions that sounded like shots being fired from a gun. A cacophony of screams started to rise and people were diving for cover or running towards exits. Finally enough steam began to lift so that the X-Men were able to just barely make out a man wrestling with a guard on the floor. One woman was firing an odd looking gun into the air in order to create confusion and the darker one was using a spear to fend off another guard. A group of guards were closing in around the struggling three in an attempt to contain them. Eventually they were forced into submission by the threatening ring of guards and were presented before Mojo's box.
Mojo had been watching the scene with apprehension but now that it was under control he was enraged at the interruption of his spectacle. He practically shrieked, "Andromeda, I warned you never to cross me again. Now you will be made an example of.
The woman with the dark hair took a step forward. Her face was absolutely expressionless as she lifted her violet eyes to meet Mojo's. There seemed to be a tangible electricity in the atmosphere. Mojo started to become nervous and his tension heightened with the woman's continuing lack of emotion.
"Well?!"
"Go to hell! came the sudden impassioned reply as the woman turned and launched the spear through the air. The spear hit the well camouflaged control panel on the wall with pin-point accuracy and sparks showered to the floor from it. The floors fell out of the X-Men's cages and they plunged to the ground, tucking and rolling as they hit. No sooner were they on the floor when Wolverine extended his claws and Gambit charged a card. Mojo screamed in fear and anguish as he hastily retreated out of his box and disappeared.
A guard tackled Andromeda immediately and clamped his hands around her throat. She fell backwards and rolled on her back, flipping him through the air over her head. Another guard was about to fire on her but Wolverine knocked him over with a sudden blow to the back and the gun clattered to the ground. Wolverine made quick work of two other guards and was fighting his way through the room to reach Andromeda. If he had any plans of helping her he was to be sorely disappointed. She was holding her own.
Gambit blew up what he thought was a camera.
"We are having technical difficulties. Please stand by."
Bishop knocked the heads of two guards together and turned to see the male singer being pummelled by another guard on the floor. He flung that guard into the air and gave the man a hand up. He didn't realise that another guard was about to gore him in the back with a spear until he turned around. The delicate woman shot the guard with a gun and he crashed to the floor with a spear still in his hands. Bishop plucked an odd looking gun from the corpse. He wasn't entirely sure how it worked but all guns were the same, it was simply another one to add to his collection.
The delicate woman shouted at Andromeda, "We'll have to make a run for the control room."
The dark woman, Andromeda, nodded and grabbed Wolverine's arm, "We're getting you out of here." and jerked her head towards the nearest exit that was beginning to close. Wolverine signalled for Gambit and Bisho to follow him and they all made a break for the door. The just made it through within a hair but one of the guards wasn't so lucky.
*Close doesn't cut it sometimes bub.* Wolverine thought grimly as he and his team mates followed the three total strangers to wherever they were leading them. Normally it would have surprised him that he was allowing himself to be lead blindly but his instincts told him that now was not the time for questions.
After rushing through a maze of white washed hallways they got to a room and shut the steal door behind them. The delicate woman typed something into a number pad by the door that Wolverine assumed was a lock code. Looking around the room they could see it was filled with machines, large monitors, buttons, keyboards, and flashing lights.
"I hope you have some clue as to what you're doing Ursa." Andromeda sighed at the delicate woman, "You are going to have to work fast."
Ursa practically threw herself onto the machines, typing fast and furiously. Wolverine noticed that something resembling a phone booth started to whir and shake. He raised his eyebrows.
*What is going on here?!
"We're sending you back to your dimension." Andromeda explained as if she had read his mind. (Perhaps she had.) "But only if we can go with you."
*Cyke is going to love this one.* But Wolverine wasn't about to argue with his one ticket back and neither were Bishop or Gambit. Andromeda nodded and turned her attention toward the man with her.
"Orion, stand by the door and warn us if you hear anything."
It seemed that no sooner had Orion positioned himself by the door then he shouted, "I think I hear them out there."
"Didn't take them long." Andromeda muttered turning to Ursa tensely, "Do you have the right coordinates in?"
Ursa nodded without lifting her eyes from what she was doing, "We should be ready to transport in two moments."
Orion's voice reached them from the door, "We don't have to moments. They are going to start setting charges to blast through the door if they can't overide that code of yours Ursa."
"Don't distract me love."
"How many can transport at a time?" Andromeda asked.
"Two every thirty seconds. Any more than that I can not safely guarentee."
"Orion, get ready. You jump after the big one and red eyes."
Orion protested harshly as he ran to the two women, "And what about you two? How do you know they won't send someone after us?"
"Ursa will jump before me and I'm going to destroy the machine right as I jump." Andromeda answered soberly.
Orion shook his head, "I'm not leaving without you and Ursa."
"I don't recall giving you the option."
"Get ready to jump you two." Ursa interupted as she warned Bishop and Gambit. They made their way to the cosmic telephone booth. When Andromeda nodded they threw themselves into it and disappeared in a black haze.
Wolverine placed his hand on Orion's shoulder, "We're next bub." But Orion made no move to go.
In a fluid movement Andromeda grabbed the gun that Ursa had put down and aimed it directly at Orion's head, "If you persist in this you won't have to worry about one of Mojo's minions. I'll dispatch you myself."
Ursa looked up momentarily at Orion. Her eyes were pleading with him to go. He stood there for another minute before he heard some crashing against the door. With Andromeda's gun still trained on his head he walked over to the portal and with a last wistful look in Ursa's direction he jumped through.
There was an explosion and the door blew apart before Wolverine had a chance to jump into the portal. Guards crouched by the door and began to barrage the three occupants with laser fire. Two blasts hit Ursa as she turned toward the direction of the assault and they both hit her right side. Andromeda started to return fire as she dodged some blasts aimed at her and hit the floor beside her motionless friend. Wolverine inched along the floor towards the two women and checked Ursa's signs.
She had been hit badly and blood spurted from her two wounds. Without a word he picked up her limp body and made a wild dash for the door, praying it had been thirty seconds since Orion had jumped. Andromeda covered him as he dove through the doors.
Andromeda had her hands full setting the charge that she had somehow had hidden under her costume and attaching it to the computers while she tried shielding herself from the continuous fire. She was hoping that she had given herself enough time to make it to the portal before the explosion destroyed the room. If the portal collapsed before the jump was completed she would be trapped between dimensions.
Under the heavy fire from the doorway she managed to make it to the door just the charge was going off. The force of the explosion propelled her the rest of the way through the door. At that moment the whole room was ripped in half and everything in it became shrapnel.
End of Chapter 2