The Show

For the most part, Nate was concealed in the tall, red curtains. Instead of hovering in the air, he had opted to conserve his power and simply kneel on the catwalk. It was difficult enough to mask his psi-patterns from Jackknife, and he was pretty sure that Gen X knew he was there. If they didn’t, then she did. Nate tried to push the name out of his mind, and ended up getting her voice. Mentally, anyway.

“Nate, I need your help.”

“Nice to see you, too, Monet,” Nate nearly spat. “I’m kinda busy myself, though.” He could tell she was angry now.

“We’re both here to stop Jackknife. Why don’t we work together?”

Given time, Nate could think of a million reasons, but only one came to mind at the moment. “I’ve beat him before. You don’t even know what he looks like.”

There was something like a sigh in his head. Then, a hint of her old arrogance returning. “Fine. You take care of Jackknife. But who’s going to hold off the Psi-Ops while you’re doing that?”

Nate’s eyes widened. “Monet, if this is some kinda sick joke...” But he knew instantly that she wasn’t kidding. Partially because her end had gone silent, and partially because of the pain that exploded in his head. Nate grabbed his temples, trying to focus past the damage. The effort only made the pain worse. He suddenly looked down, noticing a dark red stain on his jacket.

There was a sharp pain in his chest, followed by a deep voice he would never forget. “Time to die, boy!”

Nate whirled around, expecting to see Jackknife. All he saw was a blur of silver, just before everything went black. Then, he fell from the catwalk, plummeting towards the stage.

As TLC danced across the stage, Everett knew that something was wrong. It was just a gut feeling. Then it became Monet’s voice in his head. “Everett, synch with me now!” There was no confusion, no doubt, and no questions. And if people noticed the faint rainbow-like aura radiating from Everett’s body, they instantaneously considered it a trick of the lighting and dismissed it just as quickly. Though he probably got a considerable amount of shocked looks when Monet swooped out of the night sky, grabbed him, and flew towards the stage.

Everett had always wanted to get closer to TLC, but when Monet dropped him in front of the group, it wasn’t for the purpose he’d had in mind. That’s when he saw the Psi-Ops, dropping and swirling through the sky like vultures with their next meal in sight. “Get down!” he shouted at the three women. Luckily, they obeyed.

There were about seven of the armored men in all. They all whipped out large guns, training them on Everett. Praying that Monet was still nearby, he kneeled next to T-Boz and extended his aura, until it surrounded TLC. The Psi-Ops fired, causing the stage to literally erupt into flames. Everett grunted from the strain, but the aura held, and for now, they were safe.

Everett glanced over at T-Boz, who was staring at him with a mixture of fear and confusion. He flashed her a quick smile. “Loved the album.”

T-Boz smiled back weakly. “Thanks...”

“Increase lasers to 75%!” the leader shouted. The other Psi-Ops redoubled their efforts, trying to break through the young mutant’s shielding.

“Sir, he’s one of Xavier’s kids!” another said, recognizing him from the files.

“Then I want him dead!” the leader barked, tapping the button for his rocket boots. He was blasted forward, flying over Synch’s head. Then he changed direction and burst through the stage.

A few seconds later, the portion of the stage directly under Synch collapsed. The young mutant didn’t have time to defend himself as the leader slammed into him, scoring an instant knockout. “Stay down, freak,” he commanded. Then he climbed through the hole and grabbed Chilli by the arm. When she tried to pull away, he applied more pressure. She winced in pain as he grinned. “You’re a pretty little thing. Too bad I have to kill you. We could’ve had some real fun together.”

“Not in this life,” she replied, spitting in his face.

“Bad idea,” he said, raising a hand to strike her.

“Hands off, pal,” Jubilee said as she climbed onto the stage. “No way I’m going to let you off my fave group!”

“Tell it to someone who cares,” he snapped. “Take her out, boys!” Three Psi-Ops instantly circled the girl, readying their lasers.

“Now, Gaia!” she shouted. Gaia flew through the air, slamming into one Psi-Op. Jubilee blinded another with a few well-placed sparks.

The third grabbed T-Boz, jamming his arm-mounted laser cannon into her throat. “Not a step closer,” he spat, glaring at them. Jubilee and Gaia froze.

“Let her go!” Left Eye shouted, running towards the lone Psi-Op. The man aimed his laser at her. T-Boz tried to warn her, but the warning came too late. The Psi-Op fired three times. Left Eye leaped into the air, the shots just missing her. Before he could fire again, she locked her hands together and smacked him across the face. The man stumbled and fell to the ground, blood spurting from his cheek.

“Nice moves!” Jubilee said approvingly.

“Hey, where’d that other one go?” Gaia asked suddenly. Much to their surprise, the leader and Chilli had disappeared.

“Hang on,” Spawn had warned her when he dove through the air.

Darkchylde probably should’ve listened to him. Because she’d had some experience with flying herself, she didn’t think it would matter. Spawn’s method of flying, which consisted of simply hurling himself anywhere at an alarming speed, was having a negative effect on her stomach. “Slow down!” she yelled over the roar of the wind.

“Can’t,” Spawn replied. “If I slow down, we’ll lose them.”

Darkchylde closed her eyes and tightened her grip on his cape.

They’d been following the Psi-Ops for about five minutes now. The largest of them, apparently the leader, was carrying a young woman in his arms. “Get me closer and I’ll take it from there,” Darkchylde said.

Spawn said nothing, but one of his many chains whipped out and snared a nearby flagpole. “Hope you’re as good as you say you are,” Spawn muttered.

“Better,” she replied.

Without a trace of hesitation, Darkchylde dove through the air, leathery wings sprouting out of her back. She sailed in closer, positioning herself above the leader. Seconds later, her wings disappeared, and Darkchylde slammed into the leader’s back. As she’d hoped, this was a major distraction to him. Unfortunately, it also caused him to drop the woman he was carrying.

“Spawn!” Darkchylde screamed at the top of her lungs.

Instead of answering, one of Spawn’s many chains snaked around the woman’s waist. After getting one good look at him, she was ready to scream.

“We’re the good guys!” Darkchylde shouted, flashing her a thumbs-up. The woman stared at her for a moment. Then she looked back at Spawn. Neither was surprised when she passed out.

Nate groaned and slowly sat up. The first thing he noticed was that his nose had stopped bleeding. The second was that Left Eye was standing over him. “Tell me you’re one of the good guys,” she said, “cuz you’re way too cute to be evil.”

Nate blinked, as if he hadn’t heard her. “Um...sure.”

Left Eye shrugged and helped him up. “Either way, I think you missed all the action.”

Nate turned around, only to see that she was right. The assembled might of the Psi-Ops had been defeated, and was now lying on the stage in a large heap. Spawn and Darkchylde were carefully inspecting the pile, making sure that none of them were conscious. The members of Generation X, however, were too busy trying to get autographs from T-Boz and Chilli. Nate figured that Left Eye had been the first to turn them down.