New York City.
It always came back to New York. Seriously, did bad guys know that there were other cities on the eastern seaboard where they could set up shop? Then again, to be fair, with all of the random bullshit going on in New York City on any given day, there was a great chance that your particular brand of weirdness could go unnoticed compared to all of the louder, flashier, more dangerous stuff going on.
Either way, it was where we ended up as we followed Eddie and Cessily. We reached the city properly after night had fallen. To carry us as far as he did as quickly as he did with his telekinesis, kind of showed how scary strong Julian could be. There were definitely some muscles upstairs that weren't being flexed.
We had to dodge a few planes taking off, because he wound up flying very close to an airport, but once we were in the city proper, and were no longer following Eddie's general direction, we lost him and Cessily. When our comms chirped to life, it couldn't have come at a better time.
Not just for us, for Eddie too, it seemed.
"Hey! Hey! Some backup would be nice right now, guys! Where are you?"
Hearing him so out of sorts was off-putting. He'd been just fine when we'd checked in a few minutes ago, "I think we're in Queens. Where are you?"
"You're in Queens!?" Eddie asked, his voice in the kind of high pitch I only heard out of him when he was in a panic, "Dude, how are you not seeing the big fucking light show going on right now!? You can't miss it!"
As he spoke, Julian pointed out what Eddie had been referring to. A massive baseball stadium, where from our bird's eye view we could see bolts of electricity flying around in the near dark. It was a good thing the season had ended weeks ago. Poor Mets - didn't even make it to the postseason.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me," Julian said as he started taking us in that direction, "Shea Stadium?"
I smacked him on the arm with the back of my hand, "Hey. They tore Shea down forever ago, you philistine. It's Citi Field."
Julian scoffed dismissively, "Oh, forgive me for not knowing anything about scrub teams. I like being a winner."
I narrowed my eyes at him, "Name five recent players on whatever your team is."
"Shut up, Marcher!"
With that attitude coming from him, I definitely needed to start gambling on sports with Julian when we got the chance. I had played poker with the guy; he was a real pigeon. But that could be saved for leisurely moments; not when we were flying above a light display that would have put a Dazzler stadium show to shame.
We got a closer look than any of us wanted when bolts started being fired our way. Thankfully, Julian had a telekinetic shield up to defend us, "Whoa!" He exclaimed at the sudden shift of focus from our new enemy, "Damn! I get enough of this from Ashida! I don't need it from whoever this is!"
The source of the electricity was a shirtless, bald man wearing goggles. He had scars all over his body that looked like electric burns, but his most notable feature were nodes all over his head and body.
I took aim from the distance we were at and prepared to snipe him from afar. Before I could ask Julian to lower the shield so I could take a shot, Wink appeared in the middle of the protective bubble we were in, "Excuse me, children," She said as she stabbed Julian with one of her blades.
"AARGH!" He writhed and lost his concentration, dropping me, Megan, and Hisako from the air.
"Shit!" I flailed in the air for a second before trying to save myself by firing blasts as I fell. It wasn't a smooth landing, as I smashed into stadium seats that did not bend or give when I hit them. It definitely could have been worse though.
Looking up from where I fell from, I could still see Julian, with his glowing green outline around him. Alright, he was still upright for now. Hopefully we could get this over with quickly enough to fix him. I wasn't so worried about Megan or Hisako, seeing as how the former could fly, and the latter had survived a fall from way higher just from armoring up. They would be fine.
As I picked myself up and crawled out of the seats onto the stairs, Eddie hurriedly stopped to float right in front of me. In his arms, he had what I eventually identified as Cessily. Whatever was happening, she struggled to keep her humanoid form.
"Take her," Eddie said, glaring at the electric man still flying around the middle of the stadium, "I'm going back up."
The way he worded that, it seemed like he didn't plan on taking me with him, "What? Take me too. We can kick his ass!"
"I can kick his ass," Eddie insisted, sparing a look to the metal girl he'd just handed off to me, "Right now, get Cess away from him. She doesn't do so well with electricity."
Before I could curse him out, he took off again, flying back into fighting the guy I presume did the damage to Cessily. Fine. He had a point. I trusted my boy enough to stay alive until I could get Cessily somewhere she could recover.
"Tch," I wasn't a fan, but I had a vulnerable teammate to deal with, "Come on, Merc. You ain't the only wounded we've got right now."
It didn't take me long to find Julian, taking a knee behind the stadium seating to nurse the wound at his side. While Wink had gotten him good, he seemed more pissed off than grievously wounded, but the bleeding didn't look like it was going to stop anytime soon.
"Hellion," I called out, getting his attention.
"Marcher," He replied with a pained chuckle, "I thought these X-Men suits were supposed to be armored. Clearly, not on the fucking sides," It was then that he saw what I had in my arms, "Crap. Cess. That guy got you?"
For how she seemed to be fighting to reform, he seemed awfully calm, which in turn calmed me down, "What does she need?" I asked, wanting to help.
Julian shook his head, "She just needs a minute to get herself together."
I nodded and held up a glowing orange hand, "Cool. Let's fix you then," Before I could approach him, he held me back with his telekinesis, "Hey. Come on, dude."
"Whoa-whoa-whoa," He cut me off, frantically backing away, pointing at my hand, "What are you gonna do with that?"
I shrugged him off and got closer again, "Burn that stab shut. Now hold still."
"Wait," Julian insisted, "Is it gonna hurt?"
Obviously, "Yes. A lot," There was no point in lying to him. He might not have been the smartest, but that didn't mean he was gullible, "But it'll keep you from bleeding to death, which is what I'm more worried about right now."
Julian let out an exasperated huff, weighing his chances of surviving without my help. Looking down at just how much blood he had lost and was still losing influenced his decision, "Do it. Just make it QUICK!" I'd already grabbed him before he could finish giving me the okay - before he could wuss out again, "MARCHER! GODDAMN IT!"
I ignored him, and just kept my death grip on the wound until I felt enough time had passed. I was amazed he didn't try to pry me off. God knows he could have flung me to the other side of the stadium if he really wanted to. Of course, as with most things, there was some good and some bad. The good? I did manage to stop the bleeding. The bad? If Elixir wasn't capable of healing burns that deep, he'd probably have a scar in the shape of my whole hand on his side forever... which was kind of funny. We'd have to wait until we got back to school to answer that question though.
"I've... I've got Cess," Julian said tiredly, voice temporarily hoarse from screaming bloody murder thanks to my barbaric form of medical attention, "Go... go kick someone's ass already. We'll catch up."
"Don't pass out," I told him before running off to get back to Eddie. I couldn't find him or the guy he was fighting in the stadium anymore. Instead, they were battling high up in the sky above. I couldn't see well enough to tell who was winning, or to take a potshot to try and influence the decision.
Well, there were ways to fix that.
"Pixie!" I called out and started moving. It didn't take long for Megan to reach my side by the time I reached a corridor back to the open stadium, "Hi. Do you think you can get me up there?" I asked, pointing up.
My winged ex followed the tip of my finger and looked out to where lightning was flying around freely. She didn't seem enthused about going up there, "Again? I don't really want to see what a bug zapper feels like, Bel."
Neither did I, but I had to get within aiming range, "Not super close. Just close enough that I can get a clean shot," On second thought, I didn't really need her to hang around once I was in position, "...Hey, can you just teleport me up there?"
She didn't teleport like Mister Wagner, she used portals. So theoretically, she could have just cast one on me and sent me alone without having to come along for the ride. Of course, not being out of her mind, and for some reason valuing my well-being more than I did, she had reservations about such a plan.
"Then what?" Megan asked, "Who's gonna catch you?"
That was a great question. My first answer would have been Eddie, but depending on where I wound up, and how much attention Eddie was paying to his surroundings, there was a great chance he wouldn't be aware I was falling. Thus, he wouldn't catch me, and I'd have to risk another crash landing. Given how volatile every similar landing I'd ever attempted had gone, I didn't like my chances of doing it safely from any higher. Even so, I was willing to go for it.
I never got the chance to convince her though. A wall of fire blocked us from proceeding out into the open stadium. As we stepped away from the heat, a woman walked our way through the fire. The woman in the burning orange complete bodysuit that I'd had to deal with before – Solara.
"Crap," I couldn't help but say aloud as I covered my face from the flames.
"Well, well, what have we here?" She immediately recognized who she was dealing with. The predatory smirk I could see through the visor of her outfit showed me that much, "Remember me, little boy?"
"I remember blasting you in the face," I said in return, "How's your neck?"
That managed to wipe the expression off of Solara's face, "Great, no thanks to you. But I guess I can consider us even when you're ashes on the floor."
The response didn't come from me. It came from Megan, of all people, "Bring it on!"
At a loss for words at her spirited reply, from behind me, I just stood there, unable to finish whatever thought I'd started with, "...Well, you heard her."
"I did," Solara said before igniting the air around her into an inferno.
Megan and I ducked around a corner to avoid being burned alive. Solara dashed through it, using it as a screen to close the distance between us and launch a close-range attack with flaming hands. She quickly found out how terrible of an idea it was to try and use her hands to take me on when I cracked her in the face with a right hand before she could get to us.
The crack sound of my hand hitting the visor of Solara's outfit got a cringe out of Megan. "Ooh! Do you hit everyone like that?"
I shook my hand out before trying to follow up by blasting Solara, who flew off in temporary retreat, "Everyone who tries to kill me, yes. Come on."
My thinking was that if we left her alone for too long, there was a chance she would just burn down the whole part of the stadium we were in. The remaining flames all over the place from the last few things she'd tried fueled my consideration.
We chased her into the outfield section of the park where things opened up near Shea Bridge. That was when Solara chose to turn an about-face and bombard us. That didn't mean she caught us unprepared though.
Getting fire thrown at us wasn't something new. Megan had come from a team with Match before we'd ever become X-Men, after all. That being said, having it sent my way with the actual intent to kill was something new entirely.
I couldn't fly, but Megan could. That meant she was better suited to avoiding Solara's fire blasts than I was. This was good, because I was pretty sure getting a juicy burn from one of those things hitting us would hurt her more than it would hurt me. Just the nature of my powers alone left me more resistant to fire than her.
I said resistant, not immune. Being lit ablaze would kill me the same that it would anyone else, so it behooved me to keep that from happening. Still, being set on a pedestrian bridge only gave me so much room to dodge. One of Solara's favorite moves seemed to be flying down the length of the bridge and strafing the whole thing with flames. The only problem was that it made her an easy target. The third time she tried, it seemed like she'd gotten my aiming down and was able to dodge while getting off a pretty good rush.
To get away from her attack, I nearly wound up taking a spill off of the bridge. I was able to stay on though.
The entire time, Megan had been trying her best to help while avoiding being burned in the air. To get Solara off of her tail, she tried to hit her with pixie dust in her wake as she fled, but it didn't seem to stop her at all. I fired a series of blasts that shook Solara from pursuing Megan, but that just turned her attention back to me. She flew away and seemed to set up for another strafing run on me.
This time, Megan flew down to join me at my side, "My dust isn't working! She has that thingy on her face!" She complained before her face lit up, "Wait. I have an idea."
Far be it from me to stifle the creativity of my teammates, "You're one-for-one on the day, so far. Go for it," I said, giving her my blessing.
Megan nodded, wings twitching in anticipation of her own next move, "Remember what you wanted to do earlier with my portal?" She asked.
When I wanted her to drop me in the air above Eddie's fight with the electric guy, "Yes?" I replied uncertainly.
Megan looked over at me and smiled, "Don't miss, please. Sihal novarum chinoth!"
That was the last thing she said before I found a portal at my feet, and then I found myself standing in the air behind Solara as she swept in on Megan alone. As I started to fall, I grit my teeth and let loose a blast with both hands. I did not miss.
My blast hit Solara square in the back, exploding and sending her down and forward. She hit one of the metal trusses of the bridge with a sick thunk of flesh and bone hitting something much harder than it, then flipped over it, coming to a stop near Megan's feet.
Megan never moved from her spot, even when a flamethrower the width of the bridge she'd been on had been coming her way.
I only had to land from thirty or forty feet in the air this time. Much more manageable than hundreds of feet up. When I did so, I stormed right up to Megan, stepping over Solara's prone body to tower over my pink-haired teammate, "Pix. What the hell was that?"
I was not pleased.
Completely unfazed by my demeanor, Megan had the same smile she showed me before teleporting me up, "One of us had to stay so she still had a target and kept on course."
A dangerous course of action, to say the least, "And what if she'd burned you?"
"I knew you wouldn't miss," She said brightly, leaning up into my face to go nose-to-nose with me; with a confidence that I wasn't prepared for.
In the end, she had been right in her assumption. I didn't miss. Still, that was a lot of faith to put in your goddamn ex-boyfriend.
It was then that I realized how close she'd gotten, or how close I'd allowed her to get in order to properly express my anger. Like, danger close.
Megan knew it too. I could sense her apprehension. We were stuck locking eyes when she licked her lips, "Hey, uh, we never had that talk, did we?"
Talk? We definitely had the breakup blowoff conversation. I vividly remembered that whirlwind of sadness at the homecoming dance. I also vaguely remembered Megan reaching out to me after Limbo, but there had been no shortage of weird happenings going on afterwards that sidetracked whatever conversation that was going to be from happening.
Real world bullshit thankfully pulled me out of the potential quagmire rearing its head in front of me when the communicator went off.
"Now really isn't the time," I told Megan before diverting my attention away to speak to whomever was on the other end of the call, "Yo."
Hisako's uncertain voice rang out in my ear, "Uh, Sol? Is there supposed to be a giant tunnel underneath the stadium?"
I raised an eyebrow, "That depends."
There were the tunnels that teams used to get into and out of the stadium without having to deal with moron fans. There were service tunnels that staff used to get around underneath the feet of the general population and out of the way.
"Well, this one is about 50 feet in diameter, and I'm not sure how far down it goes."
"What do you mean, 'down'?" I asked.
"I'm saying it goes straight down to... somewhere. No idea where, and I'm not really keen on finding out, but-."
"-But it's probably where we need to go," I finished for Hisako, sighing deeply, "An evil alien dude dug a tunnel under the Mets' field? Seriously?"
"I dunno what to tell you."
Nothing. There was nothing she could realistically tell me that would make the day any better.
"Right," I accepted the weirdness in the end. At least we knew where to head next, "Come back. We need to regroup before anyone tries to go spelunking."
Speaking of regrouping… I had been looking at the sky for most of the fight with Solara, and realized that there had been a distinct lack of lightning that have previously been fired all over the place.
That was either really good, or really bad.
xxx
Electricity guy's name had been Johnny Ohm, not that it really mattered. Why didn't it matter? Because apparently Eddie had opened up a frothy can of whoop-ass on him. There was hardly a mark on him.
Curiosity bit at me. I had to ask, "How?"
"'How,' what, Sol?"
The shit-eating grin on Eddie's face when we met back up and I started grilling him over how he'd managed to not get zapped to a blackened crisp made me want to reach out and choke him.
"Don't give me that crap, Wing," He easily dodged when I took an annoyed swipe at him, "How did you beat that guy by yourself?"
Eddie's body language drooped, "Dude… I told you I had it. You still thought I was gonna lose?"
"I was afraid of it, yes!" I admitted snappishly. Eddie seemed mildly hurt by my concern over his capabilities, so I reeled myself back in, "I didn't think you would lose, I just didn't know how you'd win."
Eddie wasn't exactly the key offensive threat on the team. For as good as he was at what he did, what he did wasn't head-to-head fighting.
Eddie gave me the dryest expression he could muster, "His flying was trash compared to mine, and the river is right next to the stadium," He deadpanned, "I knocked him in and shorted him out."
Wow. Effective.
"Did he die?" I couldn't help but ask.
Eddie shrugged his shoulders, "I'unno."
I couldn't question that eloquent response, but I would see to it that I would never underestimate Eddie again. That didn't mean I planned on throwing him face-first into a fight with Apocalypse or something, but my boy had proven to be reliable every time I'd fought by his side. Between fighting Riddick, the Purifiers, and now this, he'd earned his stripes.
I put a hand on Eddie's shoulder and pulled him in, pressing my forehead to his as I spoke lowly, "You said you'd kick his ass, and you kicked his ass," I grinned at him supportively, "Bet you wish Cessily had seen you be all cool."
"Oh, dude... I wish," Eddie replied, just as positive as he had been when I found him, "Maybe I can get Blindfold to dump my memories into her head."
From nearby with the others, Hisako cleared her throat to get our attention, "Ahem. If you two are done bro-ing out-."
"Never!"
Hisako ignored Eddie and powered through her sentence, "-We've got an ominous hole in the ground to explore," She gestured to said hole in the ground, lit up at the bottom, though we couldn't really make anything out down there, "What do you think?"
We all stared for a moment before Eddie shrugged and hovered over the hole, "Whatever. I'm riding a hot hand right now. Might as well push our luck while we're here."
Agreed. Thus, we all descended. It had been a long day. Whatever happened from then on out, we'd find some way to handle it.
...Hopefully.