Dark Marvels: X-Men

For Danielle Moonstar, an eternity of torment ended abruptly as the darkness enshrouding her fell away, leaving her bathed in light. For a fraction of a second, as she squinted against the bright spotlight, she heard someone yell, “What the...!” That moment of sound was all that she needed.



Tom, standing next to Jubilee, was still staring in horror at Danielle Moonstar when he heard a low moaning sound coming from all around him. He spun, staring in horror as decaying corpses began to crawl onto the stage. “No!” He screamed, pulling a pistol from its holster on his shoulder and firing wildly. “Stay away! Don't come near me!”



Next to him, his friend Randall was racing towards the still-bound mutant when a flaming apparition rose in front of him. “I trust you...” She moaned, raising her hands. Randall skidded to a stop, stumbling backwards as his pants grew wet.



“It wasn't my idea.” He babbled. “Angelica, please, it was Tom, don't burn me, oh god!”



As the room exploded into chaos, Tabitha took a deep breath behind her gag. As satisfying as it was to watch her tormentors screaming in terror, Danielle's powers could only stretch so far, and she was still trapped. She strained against her latex cage, grunting behind her gag... and felt it give way. The motor whined to a halt, and Tabitha pushed her thumb and forefinger together, rolling a small explosive. A moment later, she was tearing her way free of her prison, and rushing to Danielle's side. A small flight of bombs blasted at the feet those few men who'd had the sense to stay silent and were trying to approach Danielle from behind, sending a blast of splinters through their shoes. They fell back with curses, and Danielle's mind lanced out to grip them.



It was the work of a moment for Tabby to slide a small bomb into the padlock holding Danielle's stocks closed, and she pulled her friend free. “Are you alright?” She asked softly.



Danielle nodded, sweat and cum staining her face. “Where's Jubes?” She asked.



“Right over there, with...” Tabitha broke off as a high-pitched scream of agony exploded through the room. Danielle, shocked, let her illusions fade as she spun to see what had happened. Tom was standing under Jubilee's cage, holding a long, vicious knife. He'd sliced Jubilee's left hand off through the bottom of the cage, throwing them wildly at the phantasms pursuing him. Blood flowed from the ragged stump, and Jubilee herself was slumped against the cage, fear and pain finally driving her over the edge. As they faded away, he spun to look at the two free mutants. “Don't!” He yelled, holding his pistol to the back of Jubilee's head. “You try one of your mutie tricks and she's fucking dead!”



“No.” Tabby whispered. “What do we do?”



“I don't...” Danielle swallowed heavily. “I don't know.”



“Randall!” Tom screamed. “Where did you go!”



The far door of the stage opened, and Randall walked through sheepishly. “I'm sorry, Tom.” He said. “It... they brought Angelica...”



“Shut up and cover this bitch. And keep her from bleeding out.” Tom snapped. He looked back to the mutants, as Randall obeyed, his own pistol replacing Tom's as he applied a bandage over Jubilee's amputated hand. “These two are too dangerous to keep.” He said darkly, stepping forwards. Tabby raised her hands defensively.



“One more step, and I blow your face off.” She warned darkly.



“Will you?” Tom looked back at Jubilee. “I guess friendship doesn't matter to muties, huh?”



Tabby hesitated. “If we back down, you'll just torture us and kill us.” She bit off.



“No, we're done with that.” Tom said, looking around at the panicked remains of his men. “We're just going to gas you and sell you to our supplier.” He snapped his fingers. “George, now.”



There was a slight pause. Tom frowned, looking up at the darkened balcony. “George?”



There was a hint of motion, and a body fell from the balcony, slamming onto the stage with a meaty sound. George was clearly dead – someone had grabbed his head and twisted it around well past the point where his neck had snapped. Someone gasped. Tom raised his pistol.



“Kill them all!”



There was a blur of motion, and Tom collapsed to the ground, puking in agony. The blur stopped in front of Danielle and Tabitha, revealing itself as a young man with shocking white hair, wearing a gold-and-black bodysuit. His piercing blue eyes swept over the room as he twirled Tom's pistol in his hands. “No mutants are dying today.” He said haughtily. “Isn't that right, Mystique.”



Randall straightened, smirking as his gun swept around to cover the crowd. His skin rippled and flowed, clothing melting away as breasts grew out of his chest, and his body slimmed. A moment later, a blue-skinned woman in a matching suit stood, protecting Jubilee from the crowd. “You do enjoy your entrances, Quicksilver.” She chided gently.



The crowd was stock-still, shocked into silence. For a moment, the tension was thick enough to cut with a knife. Then, one of the men on the stage drew a knife and charged forwards, slashing out. Quicksilver ducked around him in a golden blur, kicking back to shatter his kneecap. “Naughty boy.” He laughed. “And you know what happens to naughty boys?”



The stage groaned and bent, steel girders tearing themselves free as the five mutants began to lift into the air, accompanied by Tom and the groaning guard. As it did, the fire doors around the room bent and twisted, snapping shut, and the roof tore itself off, leaving the room open to the night air. Tabitha looked up, seeing two women floating in the air. One raised her arm, and the stage floated up to her, letting her land softly on the platform, a golden tiara framing her face. Tabitha's breath caught in her throat, as the reality finally set in.



Someone in the crowd finally found their voices. “Oh, my god!” A woman yelled. “It's the X-Men!”



Mystique nodded to the newcomers. “Polaris. Thank you for the assist.” She turned to the other woman, a striking black woman with hair the same shade as Quicksilver's, who was watching the room without interest. “We have the leader here. Colossus and Gambit have dealt with every guard not in the room below and withdrawn, and there are no more mutants in the building.”



“Excellent.” The black woman raised her hands, and wind howled down from the sky, catching her words and echoing them through the room. “I am Storm, leader of the Gold Force of the X-Men. You have tortured and murdered mutants. The penalty is known.”



The room exploded in terror. Humans bolted for the exits, clawing at the doors that Polaris had forced shut. Others fired their pistols in the air, as though they could pick Storm out of the sky.



She smiled, without a trace of humour or kindness. One hand raised to the sky, and the clouds swirled at her command. Then, without fanfare, Storm brought her hand down, and the sky fell with her.



Lightning flashed, hammering into the stands that Tom had set up. Caught in it, men and women screamed in agony, their skin igniting as their eyeballs exploded. Storm let blast after blast arc through the sky, avoiding her platform with ease. Rain hammered into the room, striking with enough force to bruise and guiding the electricity to find new victims. Trapped like rats, the humans screamed, begged, and died. The arcs were painfully precise, killing one human at a time. Some, the least fortunate, survived the strikes, crawling and mewling like kittens as their skin smoked, and the wind brought the stands down in a crash of metal.



Tabitha and Danielle watched in awe and terror as Storm's vengeance on their behalf took place. As they did, Polaris walked over to the guard moaning on the platform next to Tom. She gestured, pulling him to his feet by the metal in his belt. “And who is this?” she said softly.



“Nobody who matters, sis.” Quicksilver shrugged. “He couldn't jump off quickly enough.”



“Let's help him, then.” Polaris gestured, and the man was thrown from the platform with a scream. As he fell, Storm looked down, and lightning wreathed him, following him to the ground to explode in a group of his fellows. His last image before his brain was crushed against the floor was of his friends cooking beneath him.



Storm levelled her fury against the human kidnappers, only stopping when Mystique caught her eye. “Helicopters incoming.” The shapeshifter said.



“Very well.” Storm gestured, and lightning filled the building. “Polaris, bury them.”



“With pleasure.” As the platform began to accelerate, Polaris gestured, and the building collapsed onto the corpses of the men who had, only minutes before, been torturing the three mutant runaways. As she did, Storm turned to Tabitha and Danielle, her rage melting away, and smiled gently.



“It's alright now, girls.” She said, stroking Danielle's hair. “You're safe.”