X-Men: Night of the Living Brain Dead
by
Ben Church
All characters are the property of Marvel Comics. Except
Hotshot, he's mine.
Chapter 2
Will's entire week was hectic. On Mondays he had martial arts
class, in Kung fu and Ninjitsu. And Tuesday through Friday he had
music lessons with a different instrument each time: harmonica, guitar,
piano and banjo. Then on weekends he hacked into the information
superhighway. In school he was in the choir, and the band. As a result, he
had very little time for school work. And yet due to the fact that he had a
perfect photographic memory, he managed to get all A's and B's.
Will returned home that Monday a little late due to conversation he'd
had with the teacher. Seems he was the most advanced student in the class,
and his teacher wanted him to represent the dojo in this year's tournament.
Will had not enjoyed having to turn him down. It sounded like fun but
he really didn't have time.
He walked up the steps to front door of his building and pulled his
key from his back pocket. But as he inserted the key into the lock, he
noticed something wrong, the door was already unlocked. "What idiot forgot
to lock the door?" he thought.
He shrugged and let himself in, locking the door behind him. He
ascended the stairs to the apartment he shared with his parents
effortlessly. Having lived here for most of his 19 years, he was used to
the climb. Walking down the hallway, he happily contemplated the night's
sleep he was going to get. He was practically dead on his feet. But all
thoughts of sleep left him when he reached his apartment. A sudden rush of
adrenaline banished the tiredness faster than he could read the sign on the
door.
The lock was broken, and fine mist of smoke filled the air. But
what truly occupied his mind was the message spray-painted on the door: "DIE
MUTIE DIE". Fearing the worst, he burst into the apartment and immediately
tripped over something on the floor. He picked himself up and turned on the
light, cursing with fear and anger. The scene revealed to him by the light,
froze his blood and stilled his tongue.
His parents were lying on the floor, blood seeping from gaping holes
in their heads. There could be no doubt that they were dead.
Will barely made it to the bathroom before his stomach reacted
violently to what he had just seen. He stood over the toilet for a moment,
his eyes clenched shut against the horror he had just seen. His parents
were dead, murdered. Tears welled up in his closed eyes, threatening to
break loose from behind his lids. His stomach lurched again, but this time,
he held it down. Then, he remembered the smoke.
Being careful not to look in the direction of his parents, he
followed the trail of smoke to the kitchen. He entered to find a thin
column of the gas whisping from the oven. He opened it, his curiosity
getting the better of him, and saw that there was something inside.
Before he could remove it, the oven exploded.
The explosion sent him hurtling like a cannonball out the window to
the alley below. He hit the outside wall of the building next door,
then fell nearly ten stories, but more damage was done to the ground
than to him.
For a moment, Will lay on his back, watching the flames pouring
out of the windows, in shock of what had just happened. Then he gingerly
picked himself off the ground. He was only slightly amazed to
find that he was not hurt at all. He'd not been aware of his full
potential until now. Even though his clothes had been burned
beyond recognition by the explosion, he was not even singed. Nor had he
been hurt from his fall. His undamaged state was to change
drastically however.
"Well well well, my friends what do we have here?" said an
arrogantly amused voice behind him. "Looks like our freak friend here
didn't die after all." Will looked up. Standing in the alleyway, blocking
his escape, were five young men. He recognized one from school, but he did
not know the others. Before what the leader had said could register, the
closest one threw a brick that connected solidly with his chest. Though not
hurt, he was knocked back into the alley, and they closed in.
The first hit him in the side of the head with a heavy length of
pipe. Will's head rocked back, and bounced off the wall. But much to
the boys' astonishment and fear, he not only wasn't hurt but he was
ready to fight.
"I'm sorry," he growled. "Was that supposed to hurt?" He let loose
with a flurry of punches that quickly brought his assailant to the ground.
Before the others could react he took a flying leap at the
leader and felt his foot strike his jaw. The leader went down
like a marionette whose strings had been cut. While Will was
distracted, another boy had managed to get around behind him. He quickly
got Will in a full nelson, and stood on his feet, immobilizing him. Will
struggled, but the boy was too strong. The two remaining boys produced
knives from their pockets, and came towards him, grinning.
The first to reach him, sliced open Will's left arm, and laughed at
his scream of pain. A minute later they had produced several deep cut in
his arms and legs.
"Why-why are you doing this?" Will gasped in pain.
"Because your a mutant, fucker. And we couldn't let such a
marvelous effort go to waste could we?"
Wills face reddened with fury as he realized what he meant. "You
killed my parents?"
"That's right my mutilated freak. And now we're going to kill you."
"You son of a bitch!" Will screamed, and slammed his head back into
the nose of the boy holding him. The boy released him and held his nose,
groaning. Then Will hit him in the neck with his elbow, and cracked his
head against the wall. The first boy with the knife lunged at him. Will
dodged effortlessly, the pain of his injuries all but forgotten. Will
grinned and caught the boy's wrist. "My turn asshole." He gave his wrist a
twist and heard bone snap. Then he took hold of the front of the boy's
jacket and threw him into the side of a nearby dumpster.
The last remaining boy threw himself at Will. Will grabbed the
boy's hand and concentrated. The blade of the knife glowed red, then
white. The boy screamed in pain as he felt his flesh burn. Will released
his hand abruptly, and looked in stunned terror at what he had done.
Their leader lay unconscious with a broken jaw, the boy that had held
him probably had a broken nose and a fractured skull. The others were
injured just as badly. Will blanched, turned, and ran out of the alley.
"Fucking mutie." the boy who's hand he had burned said, and drew a
gun from his jacket with his good hand. He aimed the gun and fired. The
bullet entered through Will's left temple, and exited through his left eye.
Will howled with pain and thrust unthinkingly out behind him with his power.
The wave of heat left nothing behind in the alley.
Will awoke with a start to find that he had been sleeping standing
up. He examined himself, carefully. He was wearing a hospital smock, and
his wounds had been dressed. There was only a dull ache and an odd hollow
feeling where his left eye had been. Only after assuring himself that he
was indeed still alive, did he pay any attention to his surroundings.
He was imprisoned in a tall transparent cylinder that had no
visible exit. The cylinder stood on a slightly raised platform with
LED's inside the cylinder on the floor and ceiling. The room itself was an
amazing if frightening sight. There were several other similar
cylinders in a row against the back wall. Two of them were occupied.
The occupants were almost as unusual as the room itself, a blonde
ordinary looking man, and a huge man with a sprig of white hair. The
walls were lined with banks of computers, of a type he had never seen. In
the opposite wall, was an observation window beyond which was some sort of
control room which, for now, was empty.
A door at the left of the room opened and a skinny man in a lab coat
and sun-glasses came through. He wore a yellow bow-tie with red polkadots
and had short red hair. The man looked at Will, and smiled when he saw that
he was awake.
"I just came in to scare you." he said, grinning. "My name is
Arcade. Me and my new partner are going to take over the world, and you are
going to be one of our mindless slaves, that will help us do it. And now if
you'll excuse me, I must now leave you unguarded after telling you my entire
plan. Ta ta." With that, he left.
"Yeah, whatever." Will said. "I don't think I'll be hanging around
long enough for you to be doing any mind control on me, weirdo." Will
pressed his hands against the wall of the cylinder, and
concentrated, attempting to call upon his power, but he was too weak.
"Damn." he thought. "Now what do I do?"
"I can answer that." said a voice.
"Who, what, where?" Will asked in alarm. A young woman with long red
hair had entered the room. Before he could ask how she knew what he was
thinking, he heard her voice in his head.
"My name is Jean Grey. I'm a telepath. Don't be afraid, I'm
going to get you out of here." She went to the computer, and
pressed a control. The cylinder slid up into the ceiling, releasing
Will. Will tried to step out, but he collapsed. Jean helped him up.
"Easy," she said, "You're still very weak."
"What happened to me in there?" he asked.
"Arcade drained your strength to keep you from escaping, but now
that you're out of the chamber, your strength will return soon."
"Good, well then let's get out of here."
Will, with Jean supporting him, headed for the door. They were
halfway there, when Jean stopped short. She had a vacant look in her
eyes for a moment, then she looked frightened.
"They know you've escaped." she explained quickly. "I'll try to
hold them off, but you must get as far away from here as possible." She
stared hard at the wall and a section of it blew out, creating a gaping hole
to the forest beyond. "Get to the road to the east. A friend will pick you
up there." Now Will could here running footsteps approaching the room.
"Before you go, there's just one more important thing I have to do." she
said. She grabbed his head and closed her eyes. Will's head felt as if his
mind was being forced to hold more than it was intended to hold. Then he
knew only that he must get away. He turned to the hole in the wall, and
began running.
Victor Creed drove leisurely down the mountain road, waiting for
Jean's call and trying to appear inconspicuous. Which wasn't as hard as it
used to be, now that he had more control over himself. Suddenly he heard
Jean's voice in his head.
"Victor, plans have changed. Instead of me, you must pick up a young
boy, about 19 years old. He has short hair and he's wearing a hospital
gown. He's also badly wounded so he'll need medical attention. I've placed
all the information we need in his head. Hurry!"
"Why the change Red?" he thought, but there was no answer. Victor
smiled grimly. The hunt was on.
Will woke from one nightmare into another. He suddenly found
himself running through the woods in a hospital smock. He did not know
where he was or what had happened to him. He only knew he must keep
running. There was something terrible behind him that he must escape. But
he did not know how much longer he could keep this up, the exercise was
quickly exhausting him and had reopened his wounds. The pain was terrible,
and the loss of blood threatened to overwhelm him. Finally, when he could
go no further, he staggered onto a road. Directly in the path of a car.
The car struck him dead on, and threw him three feet into the air. He
landed hard behind the car. The car screeched to a halt, and the driver's
side door opened. Will was barely aware of the large figure that picked him
up and placed him carefully into the passenger seat of the car. He blacked
out as his seat belt was fastened.
Victor hit the brakes as soon as the boy staggered out of the woods,
but he was unable to stop in time. Victor had driven with the window down
so he could search for any unfamiliar scent. But instead he'd found a scent
he knew well. The scent of blood. he'd followed it
instinctively to this spot.
The boy was apparently unhurt by the collision but he was, as Jean
had told him, seriously injured. He carefully put him in the car and
headed for where he'd left the mini-jet.
Arcade glanced at his console where a screen showed the clearing
where the bus had been abandoned.
"Well it's a good thing I put an X-tra bomb in that bus. It didn't
even have to drop below 50 mph!" he laughed. "Wait a minute, what's this?
Quicksilver escaped! Ah well, so her majesty's zombies have to go out of
their way. It's not my problem." Almost on cue, the door behind him opened
and a young woman with long black hair entered.
"But," she sneered, "What is your problem is that one of your
'zombies' has betrayed you."
"What are you talking about Selene?"
"Only this." She gestured, and Jean was dragged in by two of
Selene's zombies.
Arcade could still not bear to look at them for long. The
humans captured by Arcade's robot, they looked to him like the
Cryptkeeper on that late night HBO show. These were Selene's victims.
What comforted Arcade was that they were completely under her control, and
that he was still indispensable to the Black Queen, so they would not attack
him.
Jean, however had been severely battered by them. But she hadn't
been cadaverized.
"So how exactly has she betrayed me?" he asked.
"She was too strong for your machine you fool! She helped the
boy escape!"
"What? I had that thing on full power! How could even she have
resisted it? I'll have to put in a bigger battery."
"Since you have failed to control her I will do it my way."
Arcade grimaced. "Fine. But not where I can see. I just ate. Oh by
the way, Quicksilver managed to get out of the clearing before the gas got
him."
"My servants have already dealt with him. But how shall we deal with
our young escapee? This woman has placed all the vital information she has
learned in his head."
"How do you know? I know, I know, you're a telepath. Anyway, it's
no problem, I'll just send my newest 'recruit' after him."
To be continued...
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