X-Men #13: The Long Goodbye pt2

 

The Long Goodbye pt2

by Peter Parker

A crackle and a spark in the night air brought the smell of sulfur and two confused, well-dressed teenagers.

Jean Grey was ready to lay down for a nap after the long, emotionally exhausting funeral held for her teammate Havok. The tears were done. She had nothing left but the desire to collapse and she did, just before the sphere of energy took her.

Havok’s brother Scott Summers was standing by the lake on the Xavier’s school property when it happened. He kicked a rock. Without the satisfaction he’d hoped for, he threw one harder than he kicked. Havok, or Alex, when he wasn’t wearing his X-Men costume, was the brother Scott never got to know. Suddenly there was a keening surrounding him and the sunlight got too bright to see. Scott was no longer by the lake.

Mystique slowly opened the wooden gate behind the Klink, the neighborhood’s abandoned casino. Her deep blue skin made her hard to see through the dark city’s veil of night. She spotted Mysterio in the corner.

He danced a white plastic ball around his hand. First the palm and between each finger. The he danced the ball along the backside of his hand. He rambled something about the horrors of the city and the dangers of a knife in the hands of someone who had a murderous mind, and as he said these things, the ball began to acquire a red tint. In fact, it got redder and redder before I finally realized it was coated in blood.

I still couldn’t move. Myself, the kid, and now this blue skinned assassin were spectator’s to this devilish magic act.

Mystique noticed the kid. Mysterio was as mesmerized by his show as I was meant to be, so when she ran to the girl behind a garbage can, he didn’t notice at all.

“Are you Gem?” she asked the kid.

The child nodded.

“I’m one of the X-Men. My friends and I are here to save you.”

I didn’t say anything. I think I was also unnoticed, in my black suit, designed by the Spider-god itself. Then again, maybe I wasn’t as unnoticed as I thought. Either way, she spoke to the kid like nobody else was there and the girl told her that she was ready to leave.

“Ah! An audience!”

Mysterio snapped out of his trance, the ball becoming a bloody dove, lifeless in his grasp.

“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages… welcome to the greatest show on Earth.”

Mystique stood and made herself obvious. She was bold and beautiful. The kind of woman you love only once, and even then from a distance… if she didn’t have an inclination to kill you, that is.

“I’m not here for a show. I’m here to take the kid home.”

I knew that’s what she wanted, and I remember the Vulture bringing her to Mysterio, telling him not to let the kid out of his sight. He said that the Goblin just bought her off some ginger and that there were big plans in the works for this little one. But Mysterio didn’t seemed pressed. He insisted that Mystique and the kid stay for one more trick, and when he played with the dead dove, only to make it vanish before their eyes, he took a bow and motioned toward the only gate out of the “Burial Grounds”.

“You may leave,” said Mysterio. “But the girl has to stay.”

Mystique traded glances with the little girl and left. Somehow, I slipped from Mysterio’s hypnotic control and followed her.

The Black Cat was hopping that night. Cigarette smoke, the clinking of ice cubes in glasses, and Jazz music (the actual sound of a good man’s soul). That’s what the club was all about, and heavies in the corner were having such a good time taking it all in that they didn’t even mind it when Silk Spider and Wolverine walked in and went straight to the VIP booth. The pair stopped before the curtained off section of the bar. Wolverine leaned in to listen to who or whatever was inside.

“This is where I met the little girl,” said Silk Spider. “This is also where they kicked my butt.”

Wolverine leaned in a little closer, knowing that the crowd on the floor weren’t paying attention.

A large had jutted from the curtain, grabbing Wolverine by the head and yanking him into the veiled booth.

Norman Osborn himself, the Goblin, stood nearly a foot and half taller than the X-Man. He demanded to know what Wolverine wanted, but what he got was a shape tongue and a sharper pair of claws. Osborn fired his shotgun. Wolverine and Silk Spider managed to avoid being hit, but as the rest of the X-men and I came into the club, the spray from the gun’s barrell hit the mutant named Madison Jeffries.

Silk Spider tussled with Electro who came to his boss’ aid while Jeffries, Cyclops, and Marvel Girl battled with Hammerhead and a couple of his goons.

Sparks flew. Punches were thrown. Noses were bloodied and lips were split,
but the night didn’t start to get really weird until Norman Osborn took one final slice from Wolverine’s claws. His body, cut in half, dropped to the floor in one big puddle of blood. The Goblin was dead.

Hammerhead took it as a sign to assert his newly found dominance over Osborne’s former HQ, though that dominance didn’t last long.

Jeffries sat crumpled against the wall by the door. He raised his right hand and played with the space in and around the mobster’s head. The metal within Hammerhead dome slowly caved in, causing him to also crumple to the ground.

Cyclops and Marvel Girl had their hands full with Electro. They took some hits from his modified cattle prods. Jeffries, raised his open hand toward Electro and caused the electrified rods to transform into tin foil.

We entered the Black Cat as the battle was in full swing.

Mystique shouted to Wolverine that she found the child and he, she, Silk Spider and myself all went back to the yard where Mysterio was performing his sick show. There, the Vulture perched on the fence. His long sharp fangs dripped saliva. The monster was preparing to swoop upon the child and devour her when the sharp metal claws of a very angry mutant did their job. The Vulture lay at our feet, seemingly dead.

Back at the club, Jean Grey was displaying some of her own mutant powers. She levitated off the ground and began glowing. It looked like her team might fall but with her hands to her temples, Jean Grey closed her eyes, screamed and gave off a psychic blast that dropped everyone.

Later, we discovered that she was having visions. She discovered that their former teammate Havok was not dead and that a pig in a Spider-Man suit was looking for Silk Spider.

Thankfully, the child Gem opened a portal and returned the entire group home. Unfortunately, that included me, but I think I can handle this world for a while. From what I understand, they need a Spider-Man.

Note:  I was wrong to say that we all arrived with the Gem child.  When everyone got to safety, she was asked about the robot called Danger.  She's a kid, so she acted in a way a kid would.  She ran off to go back to get him, leaving all of us with no way to help her.  "Good luck, kid.  You're gonna need it."