Paying the Piper
by
Ben Church
Most of the disclaimer is in Chapter one. I'll repeat the fact
that this is not an official sequal to "Devil's Due", only my personal
vengeance upon the Marauders.
Chapter 2
"Um, did you hear that?" Vertigo asked when the screams had died
away.
"How could I not?" Scrambler replied.
"What do you think happened?"
"My guess is Sabertooth ambushed that thing and killed it."
"Good guess, but wrong." Hotshot said from behind them.
Scrambler and Vertigo turned quickly to face the young mutant.
Since Vertigo's powers were still gone, she stayed behind Scrambler.
"Of all the Marauders," Hotshot said. "You two are the only ones
who aren't really bloodthirsty. You kill only at the behest of
Sinister. Therefore, you get a choice. You can merely be turned into
the Authorities for your crimes," Hotshot had been sure to tell the
others of this decision. He did not want anymore killing than
neccesary. He only wished he'd been able to stop Mystique
from being killed. "May god have mercy on her soul." he thought.
"Or," he continued, "You can be killed in self defense if you attack
me."
"I don't think that's gonna happen." Scrambler said, and dove to
the ground. He rolled and came up with an upper cut that missed.
"Even if you had connected," Hotshot said, kneeing Scrambler in
the gut. "I don't need my powers to take you out." A boot to the head
quickly took him out of the action. "You wanna fight too?" Hotshot
asked.
Vertigo was not a fighter, she had always depended on her power to
keep her opponents at bay. But without it... "No." she said,
surrendering.
The voices of the other Marauders echoed thorugh the tunnels.
Vertigo quickly opened her mouth to call for help, but Hotshot clamped
his hand over her mouth.
"I don't think so." he whispered. With his other hand, he tapped
in the coordinates of the local police station into his teleporter, and
beamed Vertiago and Scrambler there.
"They may escape," he thought. "In fact, they'll probably escape.
But hopefully, once we take out Sinister, they'll be free of his
influence, and less of a threat."
Meanwhile, deep within the labyrinth of tunnels, the rest of the
Marauders had regrouped.
"Do we go after them?" Arclight asked.
"No." Scalphunter said. "We set up an ambush here, when he comes,
we'll be waiting."
For hours, they waited, each in their prospective positions. "I
don't think it's coming." Prism thought. He was crouched next to the
door, ready to blind the thing when it came.
Suddenly, something charged into the room. Prism started, but
never the less acted. The room was filled with blinding light in an
instant. Scalphunter, and Riptide immediately let loose with a volly
of shrapnel and bullets that nothing could survive.
"Well," Arclight said when the smoke cleared. "I guess we
showed...her?" Sure enough, it was Mystique who had rushed in, but she
was already dead, she had been decapitated.
"You know for someone who took out the X-Men," Hotshot said from
the tunnel. "You guys are awfully stupid."
The tremendous blast of heat he gave off, completly vaporised
Prism, but did not touch any of the others.
Something emerged from the tunnel, it was a man sized green
lizard. "Good grief!" Riptide laughed. "They've sicked a mini
Godzilla on us!" Riptide began to spin, throwing his shrapnel at the
creature. Knives, throwing stars, and bits of random metal flew at
Godzilla.
Each and every missile failed to penetrate Godzilla's thick hide.
"Uh, oh." Riptide thought. Godzilla continued to advance, despite
Riptide's assault. "Guys a little help here!"
Scalphunter shouldered his grenade launcher and fired. The
Explosion threw almost everyone off their feet. Everyone but Godzilla.
Godzilla roared, his piercing cry assailing the eardrums of every one
present. Then the spikes on his back began to glow.
"Oh shit-" Riptide was enveloped in blue, radioactive fire. When
Godzilla closed his mouth, the Marauders were surprised to see that
Riptide was still alive. He reeled from the assault, screaming as his
flesh burned. "Put it out!" he cried, in agonizing pain. "Put it ou-"
Godzilla shattered his jaw with a right cross.
While Godzilla's back was turned, Arclight ran to tackle him.
Godzilla slammed his tail against her and threw her against the wall.
Riptide rose, still burning, but no longer able to scream. He
attempted to douse the flames by spinning, but Godzilla grabbed him and
sunk his teeth into his shoulder. Then, he began to shrink, and split
up. Soon, Riptide was being eaten alive by Critters.
"Well all right," Scalphunter said smiling. "These things'll be a
cinch to kill."
"Wrong murderer." Dragon Boy said. He flew across the chamber and
sliced the gun apart. "Now you deal with me."
"And you," Hotshot said to Arclight. "You deal with me."
"Bring it on handsom." She aimed a kick at his head which he
ducked. He threw a punch that she blocked. She came back with a right
hook that threw him back a foot. He lay still on the ground, groaning
weakly.
"Well well well." she said. "Not so tough after all are we?" She
strutted over to him and straddled him. "I've always liked being on
top."
Hotshot dropped the charade and grinned. "I'm sorry, was that
supposed to hurt?" He backhanded her across the face. Arclight rocked
back, her hand going to her cheek.
"What the? That hurt!"
Hotshot got to his feet, picking up a rock and watching it melt in
his grasp. "Fists of fire b----."
Dragon Boy laughed as Scalphunter attempted to kill him with his
submachine gun. "No earthly weapons can harm me mortal!" he mocked
him. As soon as Scalphunter ran out of bullets, he switched to his
plasma rifle. That had about as much effect as the machine gun. "Bad
guys never listen do they?"
Dragon Boy fired a blast of heat from his mouth, melting
Scalphunter's gun. Scalphunter screamed as the superheated metal
poured over his hands.
"I'll take care of this pansy!" Blockbuster said. He brought his
fist down on Dragon Boy's head, but Dragon Boy simply smiled evily. He
grabbed Blockbuster's fist and gave it a sharp twist. Blockbuster's
scream was drowned out by the sound of bone snapping.
In the shadows, Harpoon waited for the perfect chance to run. He
couldn't believe this was happening. They'd just taken out the most
powerful mutants on earth, and now they were being slaughtered by a
bunch of kids!
"Hey mister," someone said beside him. "You asleep or something?"
Harpoon spun and threw one of his spears at the speaker. His
throw went wide, and his opponent grinned.
"Oh now I see why I need to clone you people all the time."
Sinister said. "You're all wusses."
Harpoon cringed, not noticing that Sinister did not usually talk
like that.
"You have failed me Harpoon, this time you will not be cloned, and
I will have your soul."
Now Harpoon began to notice several strange things about Sinister.
One, his voice was lower, more gravely. Second, instead of his usual
blue armor, he was wearing a red and green striped sweater and a brown,
beat up old fedora. What was even more strange was that Harpoon could
have sworn that he wasn't wearing them a second ago.
"What, aren't you going to beg for forgiveness?" Freddy asked. He
held up his glove to his face and shook his head. "Tsk tsk. Nothing's
sacred these days is it?"
No one heard Harpoon's screams.
To be continued...