X-Men: Savage Adventures 4/16 Author: Timo A. Nieminen Date: 1998/02/25 Forum: alt.comics.fan-fiction "In the footsteps of Pyrrhus" Savage Adventures part 4 of 16 ============================================================ Standard disclaimer: Many of these characters are the property of Marvel Comics. Stella is inspired a character created by Bronwyn Walker. Otherwise this work is in the public domain. Distribute freely. It is rumored that a hideous rotting disease will claim the lives of any who seek to make a profit from it, or falsely claim it as their own work. Rated PG (language, violence, adult situations) Extra warning: This is the most violent episode. Timo Nieminen timo@physics.uq.edu.au ********************** The four X-Men had woken up early. The night had been short, only a few hours long. A quiet breakfast followed by a hike to a nearby lake shore. Across the lake stood a walled village, where they expected to find the mystery villain who had duped the Savage Land Mutates into thinking he was Magneto. They also hoped to discover who, or what, had teleported Storm and Wolverine away from inside the Blackbird. "Rogue, I can't see any lookouts on this side of the village," said Dazzler. "I don't they expect anybody to come across the lake." "Good, we might get across without bein' spotted. Bobby, if you're ready." Rogue gestured towards the shoreline. Bobby walked to the water's edge. He activated his ice powers, covering himself in a layer of thick ice. "Voila! The Iceman Express, at your service." Dazzler grimaced as she got in. "What a great day. First I get hardly any sleep, then I walk miles and miles, and now I freeze my butt off. Least things can't get any worse." The others followed her in. Iceman sat in the stern, and pushed the boat forwards by creating a sheet of ice behind it. At the speed they moved at, it wouldn't take them long to reach the far shore. They had almost reached the other side before they were spotted. The few villagers by the lake ran through a gate in the wooden village wall. The X-Men reached the shore and quickly got out of the ice boat, Dazzler and Rogue rubbing their cold and damp behinds. Rogue moved to the left, Iceman to the right, leaving Joseph in the centre to protect Dazzler. "Here they come! Right on cue!" yelled Iceman to the others, as six people ran out through the gateway. The six spread out as they came into the open. "And they're not from around here!" On the left was a tall man in a skintight white costume, with dark glasses over his eyes. Next, a man in black with a short cape. He held a rapier and dagger in his hands. A Lone Ranger mask and a thin moustache completed his Zorro-like look. In the middle were a woman in a star-speckled black costume and a tall and heavily built man who was solid black in colour. The X-Men couldn't tell if he was wearing a costume or not. Next was an olive-skinned woman in a black singlet and camo pants, with a pistol in her left hand and a large gun in her right. An AK-47 rifle was slung at her side. The last one was crouching and growling. It seemed lightly-built, but long, dark hair hid its features. Joseph moved forward to block the tall black one. The woman in the star-suit reached out and touched his force-field in front of his face. Joseph looked surprised. The woman with the gun fired her pistol at Iceman, who ignored it, letting the bullets bounce off his ice armour. He called out, "Who are you people? Why are you attacking us?" The feral one answered with a loud snarl and jumped forwards, only to frozen in mid-leap by Iceman. "I can't see!" called Joseph. "She blinded me!" "Ain't gonna be blindin' no-one else," answered Rogue as she flew forwards and grabbed the woman, moving her away from Joseph. The man in white fired a yellow beam of energy at Joseph, and knocked him over. The tall black man moved forwards to confront Dazzler. She fired a light blast at him. His blackness seemed to absorb it. The man with the sword called out to the X-Men. "We are the Outlanders! Surrender now, and we won't hurt you. Much." The woman who had blinded Joseph easily broke free of Rogue's hold, and pushed her away. Rogue just managed to avoid falling over. {Shit! Somethings wrong. She must have done something to my powers.} "Y'all don't get away that easily, girl!" said Rogue, as she spun around on her right foot, hitting her opponent in the face with a solid turning side kick. She followed this up immediately with a second kick, hitting the woman in the side of the head with her right shin. The star-costumed woman dropped to the ground, out cold. The man with the sword slashed at Rogue, forcing her to duck. "You took out Stella, but she set you up for me. Now that she turned off your telekinetic force field, you have no chance against a skilled swordsman like me." "What the Hell are you talkin' about? Ah don't have no telekinetic force field." {She did something to me though. Don't seem to be super-strong any more, don't think I can fly. Safest not to test invulnerability.} "Don't take my word for it, just let me make my point!" he replied, lunging at Rogue, forcing her to jump over Stella, towards the village wall. He followed. Meanwhile, the large light-absorbing man, moving with unexpected speed, grabbed Dazzler and pinned her on the ground. His bulk absorbed most of the light from her as she tried to blast him off. The other woman fired her large gun at Iceman. He raised a thick ice-wall in front of him. The rocket fired by the gun hit the wall and exploded, sending a blast of energy straight through the ice-wall, hitting Iceman. The impact knocked him over and into the water. His coating of icy armour was cracked, with a large patch melted through over his chest. The woman dropped her rocket launcher and readied her rifle. Rogue saw her taking careful aim at Dazzler, who was still trapped on the ground. "Dazzler! Watch out for gun girl!" Dazzler looked, and fired, hitting with a well-aimed concussive light blast. The other woman was knocked back a few metres by it, and lay where she landed, unconscious. Rogue, distracted by the threat to Dazzler, dodged solidly into the village wall while avoiding the sword. The man with the sword saw his chance, and grinning broadly, he thrust solidly at Rogue. She almost dodged out of the way of the attack, but was solidly hit in her right shoulder. The sword continued through, the point embedding itself in the wooden wall. Rogue looked at her bleeding shoulder. {Guess I'm not invulnerable, either.} The man laughed, let go of the sword, and moved forward with his dagger. The energy blaster in white was still trying to get past Joseph's force fields. Joseph seemed to be concentrating. Rogue looked around. Iceman was out of the fight, Dazzler was still struggling against her opponent, glowing very brightly. The man with the sword seemed determined to draw out the finish as long as possible, waving the dagger in front of Rogue's face. She saw her chance, and grabbed the blade, forcing the point to under his chin. She hit his left elbow with her right hand, driving the point upwards. He fell to his knees. He didn't seem to be cut too deeply, and glared at Rogue. He whispered, "Now you all die, bitch. Slowly." "Not today." She kicked the hilt of the dagger, driving the blade deep into his throat. He dropped to the ground and twitched. Rogue stood, still pinned to the wall by his sword, blood dripping from her cut left hand. The man in white was still blasting at Joseph, when suddenly he just stopped and collapsed. This left only Dazzler's opponent. He was no longer black in colour, but had a deep reddish tinge. He released Dazzler and stood up. He started towards the lake. He never made. He had only barely started to move when he suddenly exploded. Dirt and mud splatteed the X-Men and the Outlanders. Dazzler was stunned by the blast, and lay on the ground, bleeding from her nose. The blast also freed the feral Outlander from this ice trapping him. He took advantage of his opportunity and fled back into the village. Dazzler recovered from the explosion and stood up. She dragged Iceman out of the water, then looked up at Rogue and Joseph. She watched as Joseph reached out with magnetic force and pulled the sword from Rogue's shoulder. Rogue leaned against the wall for support. Dazzler ran over to help. "Joseph! Come and help!" "I can't see! Everything is grey." "But, how did you?" asked Dazzler, looking at the sword on the ground. "I can feel my surroundings magnetically." "Like radar, hon," mumbled Rogue. "Joseph, get Bobby in the boat. Get the gun too." He did so, while Dazzler helped Rogue into the boat, and tried to stop the bleeding. Rogue asked, "How's Bobby?" "He's burnt, but not too badly. He's still out. Keep still. Joseph, you better get us to the other side; the lynch mob's on the way." Later, Rogue sat leaning against a tree, her shoulder and left hand bandaged. Bobby, his chest also bandaged, looked at the others. "I hope we don't have to go through anything like that again in a hurry." "How does it feel?" asked Alison. "It's numb. Hate to think what it'll feel like tomorrow." "You, Rogue?" "Stiff'nin' up a bit. Won't hardly be able to move mah arm in a few hours. Could've been worse. Should've watched where Ah was goin'. Damn!" {Face it girl, you fucked up. Get it right next time; these guys need me. Storm and Wolvie need me.} "Ah'll be fine. He didn't hit anything important." "Joseph?" "I am fine, except I still cannot see. Everything is grey. Even when I shut my eyes. But I can use my magnetic powers to feel things around me. I won't let you down." "Joseph, that girl that did that, she's s'posed to be able to turn off telekinetic powers. That might mean she's some kind of telepath. Maybe she affected your mind?" "You might be right, Rogue. I didn't know that your powers were telekinetic." {Neither did I.} "But that would explain a number of things. I will have to think about this." Later, when Joseph and Robert were asleep, Alison talked quietly to Rogue. Rogue reassured her, "Weren't your fault. Y'all had no choice in the matter. They were tryin' to kill us. Can't exactly handle people like that with kid gloves, can we?" "But they died, Rogue." "Yeah, they died. Ah'm not sayin' that it's right. It just happened, is all. Only thing we could've done about it is died instead. You did your best. Ain't your fault he exploded." "But ..." "No buts, girl. It was goin' to be him or you. If it was mah choice, Ah'd have picked it the same way it happened." "We're going to have to go back there, aren't we?" -end of part 4- -- Timo Nieminen - timo@physics.uq.edu.au Home page: http://www.physics.uq.edu.au/people/nieminen/nieminen.html Spirits: http://www.physics.uq.edu.au/people/nieminen/spirits.html Shrine to Suds: http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Venue/4960/beer.htm Wine: http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Arena/2010/