Post by thejellyfish on Dec 8, 2014 3:35:11 GMT -5
Astonishing X-Men #3
Riot Rhythm
By thejellyfish
Present DayXavier’s School, Westchester
‘What a shitty day,’ thought Julian Keller, the X-man-in-training known as Hellion. Hellion lifted his metal hand and a green glow appeared as he summoned a telekinetic field to protect himself from the desk being thrown at his head. The X-Men had left him and the other graduates in charge of the school while they went to Australia to fight the Acolytes. ‘What the hell even are these “Acolytes,” and why is the brony subscribed to their bullshit?’ thought Hellion as the chalk board was ripped from the wall and hurled at him. Hellion caught the board and threw it to the side.
“That’s enough! Onyxx, why are you even part of this? You’re a good kid. What did Quire tell you? He promise you friends, that it? C’mon buddy, don’t do this, we’re all friends here,” Hellion said nervously through the dust and debris. Onyxx, a mutant with a body made of rocks, calmly walked over to Hellion and knelt down to reach face level. Hellion looked into the plate that occupied the place a face would normally go.
“What’s my name?” replied Onyxx.
“Hmm?” Hellion shot back.
“My name. What is it!” yelled Onyxx. “If we’re all friends, Keller, then what’s my name?”
Hellion’s face was struck with worry. “Uh, you’re name is. C’mon man, you’re- shit, can I get a hi-,” started Julian before Onyxx stood up and started screaming.
“Okay, okay. No hints, no hints. Jeez!” said Hellion, waving his metal hands in a surrendering fashion. Hellion stood for a few moments, deep in thought. ‘Better start reaching,’ thought Julian, giving up.
“Look man, you know your name. I don’t. And, so what if I don’t know it? I’m not the bad guy here. You’re the one trashing the school with your loser ‘friends’ for no good reason, damn it,” said Hellion, standing up to the giant mutant.
“My name is Sidney Green!” yelled Onyxx as he picked Hellion up by his head and threw him through the wall. Hellion put up a shield around his body before he hit the wall and then fell to the ground outside.
“Hellion!” yelled a feminine voice from the other end of the courtyard. Hellion’s hearing began to fade in and out, each time it came back the voice was closer. The girl knelt down beside him.
“Thank God you’re okay, Julian,” said the girl, as she touched his face. Hellion could see her pink hair and fairy wings through all the haze.
“Aww, you do care, Meggan,” said Hellion with a broken chuckle. “Help me up, we gotta stop ‘em.”
Meggan Gwyyn, also known as Pixie, picked Hellion back up only to see Onyxx jump out of the hole he made and storm off towards Westchester, followed by a flying Quentin Quire. “Come my friend; let’s go show those flatscans what mutants really want from them!”
“Where are Doug and Kitty? We need to stop Quire!” said Hellion, floating a bit above the ground, ready head off towards the town.
“Doug and Kitty are in subbasement. Someone lit Glob on fire and he’s on a rampage down there.”
Hellion sighed. “Go help them, I’ll hold Green and Quire off from the town,” Hellion replied.
Pixie wrapped Hellion in a hug before casting her teleportation spell and disappearing from Hellion’s view. An explosion from the town pulled Hellion back to reality and he raced off to save Westchester.
Meanwhile
Subbasement, Xavier’s School
“Cypher! Shadowcat! You guys in here?” yelled Pixie. The normally white and pristine subbasement was practically covered in scorch marks and the sprinklers were spraying water. Glob Herman stumbled out of the Danger Room control area, now cooled off and trying to shake both Shadowcat and Cypher off of him.
“Pixie!” yelled Shadowcat.
“Help!” yelled Cypher.
Pixie flew towards Glob at full speed and tackled him to the ground. While falling, Shadowcat phased her hand into Glob’s head and reached through the clear goop that made up his skin and touched at his brain.
“You done yet?” she asked loudly.
“I’m done, I swear!” cried Glob. Pixie knew that if Glob Herman had tear ducts, he would be crying.
“Good,” said Shadowcat before swiftly kicking Glob in the face, knocking him out.
“Meggan, what’s happened up there? Where’s Julian?” asked Cypher, a worried look upon his face, which was also covered in soot.
“We saw Sidney and Quentin head out into town. He’s gone to try and stop them.”
“What?! He’s gonna get his ass kicked!” yelled Shadowcat. “We need to help him!”
“No,” ordered Cypher. “We need to contact the X-Men. They need to get back here. We can’t handle Quire on our own.”
“What’s the point, they’re in Australia, Doug! It’ll take ‘em hours to get here!” replied Shadowcat angrily.
“Even still, they should know what they’re coming back to.”
Cypher walked over to the one console that still worked and began working on getting communications up between them and the X-Men.
Meanwhile
Perth, Australia
Charles Xavier landed the X-Jet on the beaches of Perth and hobbled over to the door, opening it. “To me, my X-Men! The Purifiers have a group of soldiers en route, ordered the Professor.
Gambit, Beast, Storm, Nightcrawler, and Psylocke filed into the jet and took their seats. “Huh, why would the school be contacting us?” asked Beast as he took his seat in the pilot’s chair. Charles accepted the call while Beast put the plane in the air.
“Hello, is anyone there?” asked Cypher from the other end of the line.
“Yes, my boy,” replied Beast. “What’s the matter? Is something wrong?”
“Yeah, Quentin started a riot with Sidney and Herman. We subdued Herman in the subbasement but Sidney and Quentin went off to Westchester. Hellion chased after them,” replied Pixie.
The rest of the plane erupted into noises of shock and worry.
“What does that fool boy hope to accomplish? Quentin is the most powerful student at the school, and if he got to poor Sidney…” said Xavier with a small shiver.
“Double time it to the school, got it. You kids go help Julian,” ordered Hank.
“Okay, Pixie’s readying the portal now,” replied Cypher.
“And Doug,” said Hank.
“Yeah, Professor McCoy?”
“Do be careful.”
“I will,” said Cypher before the line went dead.
Meanwhile
Westchester, New York
“Go to Hell, Keller. It’s what you deserve after what you did to your own mother!” yelled an enraged Quentin Quire as he flew around Hellion, who was currently trying to rip Onyxx away from a bar. Westchester was almost completely destroyed. Crushed cars lie in the street, Main Street was nearly wiped off of the map, and an entire neighborhood was on fire.
“Get outta my head, Quire! You’re not supposed to know about that,” said Hellion with a struggle, finally getting Onyxx away from the bar and throwing him down the road.
“I’m not in your head, Keller. I like breaking into your room and reading your journal,” replied Quire with a smirk. “Okay okay, fine. I am in your head. What would Meggan say if she knew that-,” Quire started before being interrupted by Hellion throwing one of his metal fists at Quentin’s face.
Quentin fell to the ground and landed with a thud. Hellion walked over to Quire’s body and knelt down.
“Quentin, no!” yelled Sidney as he charged Hellion. Hellion quickly put up a bubble around himself and was launched into the bar.
Hellion’s vision began fading in and out as Quentin picked himself back up. Quentin began floating in the air and using his telekinesis to grab all the debris from the surrounding area. He prepared to strike Hellion when a bright light appeared and Shadowcat, Cypher, and Pixie stepped out.
“Quentin! Sidney! Stop!” ordered Shadowcat. “Don’t you see what you’ve done?” she pleaded, gesturing to the destruction around them, while the bar’s owner poked his head out from behind the bar.
“I see what I’ve done. I’m quite proud of it, in fact,” replied Quentin.
“Shut up, Quentin. We know you’re proud,” shot back Doug. “Sidney, look around you. This isn’t what you want. You’ve always been the nice one. I thought you wanted a world where you could walk down the street and not be subject to odd looks because of who you are or what you look like. Or am I wrong?” asked Doug, extending his hand towards the hulking mutant.
“Julian didn’t know my name,” said Sidney quietly. “What’s the point of all that when I’m still just a shadow to the people who are just like me? What’s the point when my fellow mutants ignore me and what I have to say goes unheard? I ‘m noticed among humans because of who I am and what I look like, but at the school I’m just another mutant.”
“First off, Julian’s an ass,” said Shadowcat.
“Hey!” exclaimed Julian.
“Second, you’re not just another mutant Sidney. You’re Onyxx. You’re super strong and super tough. But, that’s not all. You’ve got a good heart and you’re smart. And any smart person will tell you that the things you want in for mutants won’t happen if you go any farther down this path.”
Sidney stood for a moment in thought and looked back at Quentin. The bartender moved over the shotgun that was on the wall behind the bar.
“Sidney, I don’t know what Quentin promised you, but was this worth it?” asked Pixie.
“Quentin, this is wrong. We should stop,” said Sidney, taking a step towards the floating young mutant. The bartender grabbed the shotgun and took aim.
“Oh, really?! We should stop?!” exclaimed Quire. Quentin then used his telekinesis to rip poor Sidney into chunks of rocks, killing him.
“No!” exclaimed Doug, who ran over to the pile of rocks that occupied the space Sidney once stood and knelt.
“Fucking bed wetter, I knew he was soft. I knew he’d betray me. I knew it,” Quentin mumbled while grabbing more debris from the area.
A loud noise rang out and Quentin went back a few inches in the air. The bartender had fired. Quentin fell to the ground, still alive.
Paramedics could be heard in the distance, closing in on the bar. Julian stood up and walked over to the rest of the group and placed his hand on Meggan’s shoulder, before passing out and collapsing into her arms.
Next Time: Mutatis Mutandis