Paying the Piper
Hi everyone! This is not an official sequal to Devil's Due. I am
writing this with the permission of Laersyn. The only things that
belong to me are Hotshot, Medic, Cinema, Monster Master and Dragon Boy.
Everything is else is shamelessly stolen from someone else. Mostly
Marvel. Feedback should be sent to: rlchurch@erols.com
X-Tremes Team Roster:
Hotshot (you know him)
Medic: Chinese American, can heal any physical ailment.
Cinema: Can pull charectors from movies into real life and control
them.
Monster Master: Can change his form into any fictional creature.
Necromancer: Just you wait and SEE!
Chapter 1
Scott Summers lay as he had for two weeks. Ever since an
anonymous call to the hospital alerted them to his presence in an alley
downtown. He was in a coma when they found him and he had yet to
recover. The only explanation anyone could come up with was that he
had run a foul of some gang. But Thomas meant to find out the truth.
Thomas was the son of a wealthy business man named Mark Sheridan.
Neither were what they seemed. Mark was not human. He was of a race
older than human kind. He had traveled back to the mortal world after
his kind's and other fey's thousand year self induced exile, to
discover how humanity had changed. Taking the form a human, he fell in
love with, and married a human woman named Julia. Thomas was the
result of that union.
Thomas was a hybrid, half human, half dragon. Consequently he
could change his shape, but not completely. He could not change
completely into a dragon, but only a hybrid form. He was the son of a
red dragon and therefore in his hybrid form he could breathe fire.
Like all dragons he can be harmed only by magic and can perform great
magic himself.
Thomas was a candy striper in the New York city hospital. He
wheeled the food cart down the steril corridor, towards Mr. Summers'
room. He opened the door and checked to make sure no one was watching.
Then, he closed the door and placed his hand on Scott's forehead.
"What happened to you?" Thomas asked. "Who did this to you?"
Thomas' mind began to fill with images from the events that had taken
place. As he watched, Thomas felt the familar sensation of his Dragon
blood begining to boil. Someone was gonna pay. Big time.
* * * *
Will Davidson switched off the T.V. The news had just ended and
he still could not believe what had happened. Cyclops was in the
hospital in a coma, and no one at the mansion could be found. And
X-Factor was missing.
"It's go time." he muttered.
* * * *
"Hello?" Trish called. "Is anybody here?" Trish Tilby, ace news
reporter was used to dangerous assignments, but this one took the cake.
She'd come to find out what had happened to Hank McCoy, the Beast.
When she'd heard that Scott Summers was in the hospital she'd rushed
here as fast as she could to find Hank. But Hank was not who she
found. Or rather, who found her.
"You're not with X-Force." Blockbuster said, picking her up. "Oh
well, maybe you'll make good bait."
* * * *
"Who's this?" Scalphunter asked when Blockbuster arrived with his
catch.
"What don't you recognize her?" Arclight asked. "It's the famous
reporter Trish Tilby."
"I don't watch television." Scalphunter retorted. "It rots the
mind. Anyway, what are we supposed to do with her? She's not with
X-Force."
"I thought we could her as bait or something." Blockbuster said,
tossing her onto something soft.
"Bait?" Scalphunter asked incredulously. "The only one who would
have cared is dead."
Trish's blood ran cold at that remark. "What did you do to Hank?"
"Hey Prism," Sabertooth said. "Turn on the lights." Sinister had
recloned all the Marauders that had been killed by the X-Men and let
Sabertooth out of stasis.
"Sure thing Sabe." Prism immediately filled the cavern with a
soft light.
Trish gasped at the sight before her. There the X-Men lay where
they had fallen, and from the looks of things, they hadn't died easy.
The gorge rose in her throat, but she forced it back down. She didn't
see Beast. Suddenly, realization dawned on her, and she looked down.
The soft surface that Blockbuster had tossed her on was not a cushion
like she'd origionaly thought.
"No!" She leaped to her feet, but Blockbuster grabbed her.
"Not so fast lady."
"Get rid of her Blockbuster." Scalphunter ordered.
"Sure, but I'll do it my way." Blockbuster grinned and grabbed
Trish's dress, preparing to tear it off her.
"I don't think so!" a fiery voice called from above.
Prism was so surprised that he accidently turned off his light,
all anyone could see were two glowing red eyes glaring down a them.
"What the hell is that?" Blockbuster asked.
"Who cares?" Scalphunter said. "Harpoon, bring it down."
"Not a problem boss." Harpoon's energy spear flew straight and
true right through the space that the creature had been. It dropped
from the ceiling and landed gracefully before them. It raised one red
scaled arm and pointed at Blockbuster and Scalphunter.
"You two will be the last. You will live to see your companions
die. Then you will feel pain ten times what you have caused. In the
end you will beg for death."
Scrambler popped up from a trapdoor and grabbed the thing by the
back of his neck. "Yeah whatever. What are you gonna do without any
powers?"
"Foolish mortal." The creature grabbed Scrambler's arm and threw
him into Vertigo, cutting off her power.
Scalphunter immediately opened fire with his automatic rifle. The
creature was hit several times but none of the bullets penetrated.
"Retreat and regroup at the rendevous!" Scalphunter ordered.
"Are you kidding?" Arclight asked incredulously. "We can take
him."
"I know that Arclight." he retorted. "But I prefer to be the one
doing the ambushing."
"Oh."
"Now move it!" The marauders quickly dispersed into the maze of
tunnels around them.
Trish cringed as the creature turned towards her. "Don't be
afraid." the thing said. It's form slowly began to change. "I won't
hurt you." Now, before her stood, instead of a hideous monster, a
handsome young man with long red hair.
Trish looked, open mouthed at him. "You must be a mutant." she
said, shocked.
"Well," Thomas said. "Something like that." Assuming a business
like attitude, he said; "Now Ms. Tilby, as I have just saved your life,
I think it only fair that you do something for me in return."
"What?" Trish asked, slightly suspicious.
"You must never tell anyone about me. Not what I look like or
anything. If you must do the reporter thing, only say that you were
almost raped but saved by a reptillian creature. Can you do that for
me?"
"Sure." Trish said. "This is the secret identity thing right?"
"Exactly." Robert smiled. "I'm glad you understand." Sadly he
added. "Now I'm going to send you home, but first I wish to offer my
most heartfelt condolences for your loss. Please make sure they
recieve a proper burial, and rest assured. Their death's will be
avenged."
"Thank you." Trish whispered. Robert raised his arms and began to
chant in an unfamiliar language, and her view of the tunnels was
replaced with that of her apartment.
* * * *
Thomas prepared himself to kill. It was not something he enjoyed,
but there could be no other punishment for the bastards that had done
this.
"Uh, it looks as though there is someone here." a voice said.
Thomas looked to see several people entering the alley. "Hello."
he said, deciding to be friendly.
"Uh, you didn't happen to see a bunch of murderous, cold blooded
soon to be dead people around here did you?" Will asked.
"As a matter of fact, I have." Robert told him. "May I take it
from your statement you are here to make them pay for their crimes as
well?"
"You may." Will smiled. "Glad to make your aquaintence Mr...."
"Just call me," Robert reverted to his hybrid form. "Dragon Boy."
* * * *
Sabertooth picked up the scent not long after the Marauders had
split up. "Hold up babe." he said, motioning Mystique back.
"What is it Creed?" she asked irritably. Silently, she planned
how to kill each of the Marauders for the death of Rogue, but she knew
she couldn't accomplish that if she was dead.
Sabertooth sniffed the thick goatish smell and quickly determined
that it came from up ahead. "Stay here frail." he growled. "I'm gonna
hunt." Sabertooth disapeared into the darkness.
Mystique waited impatiently for him to come back. "God I hate
him." she thought. Suddenly, she heard a sound she did not hear often
enough. The sound of Sabertooth screaming in pain. But it was not
merely a "oh ouch I been hit" scream. It was a scream of pure,
torturing agony. A scream he'd often made his victims emit. A scream
that continued for a long time, and then was suddenly cut off.
"Creed?" Mystique called. "What on earth could make him scream
like that?" she wondered. Tired of waiting, she headed after him to
see what was wrong. Several feet from where she'd been standing, she
found his body. His headless body. A few feet on, she found his head,
a huge gaping hole in his empty skull. Finaly, she found his brain.
"Oh Jesus." she said, and turned back the way she'd come. She
started to run, hoping to escape whatever had done that to Sabertooth.
Suddenly, she ran into something unyeilding. She reeled back, and
switched on her lamp. Once her eyes adjusted, she saw what she had run
into. It was a tall, well built man, wearing a hockey mask. Mystique
did not have time to scream nearly as long as Sabertooth did.
To be continued...