“Previously, on X-Men: Evolution--”

     “Deadpool, SHUT UP and get upstairs!” Gauntlet said, dodging a kinetic blast from Maverick and firing back with his own blaster. “Get those stun disks on the rest of the X-Men as soon as you can, before they wake up from the noise!”

     “But people who missed the last part won’t know what—OOF!” Deadpool’s comment was cut short as the back of Domino’s fist struck him in the mouth.

     “Wade. Get going. NOW,” Domino gritted through her teeth, firing another few bullets at Maverick.

     “Fine, but don’t blame me if we recieve fewer hits,” Deadpool said sourly, rubbing his jaw as he quickly ran up the foyer’s stairs and out of sight. “And that sounds like it’d be good, but it’s really not!”

     Predictably, Domino’s bullets hit Maverick dead-center, but his Mutant powers again absorbed the kinetic energy from the bullets and they fell to the ground without injuring him.

     “Domino, no amount of luck is going to make your bullets effective against Maverick,” Gauntlet said, grunting as a kinetic blast hit his robotic arm, singeing it. “Get downstairs and capture our targets. I’ll hold off Maverick until—UGH!”

     One of Maverick’s fully-charged fists managed to catch Gauntlet off-guard, the punch strong enough to send the cyborg across almost the entire foyer. Gauntlet shook his head as rapidly-injected stimulants kicked in. Were it not for his robotic half’s implements, the punch would have knocked him out cold.

     “You sure you’ll be able to—“

     “I’ll handle him,” Gauntlet gritted, standing up. “GO!”

     “Can do, then,” Domino said, pressing on the foyer’s elevator switch. Luckily, the elevator was already on the current floor and the door immediately opened. Domino rolled in as one of Maverick’s blasts impacted the carpet where she had been just a split second earlier. Maverick growled and fired another blast at the elevator just as the doors closed.

     “I don’t know what twisted plans H.Y.D.R.A.’s got cooked up now, Gauntlet,” Maverick said, charging up another blast, “But it’s not working this time. Not here. Not with these kids.”

     “Yet again you underestimate us,” Gauntlet replied, smirking as he adjusted a setting on his rifle. “You think we’re stupid enough to abduct an entire cadre of trained Mutant kids? We’re a large organization, Maverick, but even we know our limits. We only have one target. Or two, depending upon your viewpoint.”

     “You are stupid, if you think I’m not going to stop you.”

     “Ah, Maverick, Maverick, Maverick,” Gauntlet chucked. “Always the overconfident one, you were.”

     Quicker than the eye could follow, Gauntlet whipped out a second rifle and fired it at Maverick. Maverick didn’t bother to dodge, but instead of him merely absorbing the energy this time, it actually affected him, sending him right back into the wall behind him.

     “It’s a gun specifically tuned to ignore your kinetic-absorption ability,” Gauntlet smirked as he stepped towards the grunting Maverick. “Its blasts have none of the particular kind of energy you absorb.”

     “Still won’t… keep you from beating me,” Maverick growled, staggering back to his feet.

     “Maverick, we created you,” Gauntlet said. “We have every piece of information on you that you can possibly imagine. We can kill you just as easily.”

     X-23 struggled against Kimura’s grip, but knew it was useless. The woman was very tall—roughly a head taller than Jean—and quite muscular for a female, but that wasn’t what was keeping the much-smaller X-23 from breaking out of her limb-lock.

     Kimura had been picked to be her trainer specifically because the H.Y.D.R.A. test subject’s mutation made her skin invulnerable. She didn’t have superhuman strength although it often appeared to be so because nothing—not even adamantium—could penetrate her epidermis. It made her very effective at dealing out punishment to X-23 whenever she had disobeyed H.Y.D.R.A.’s orders.

     Furthermore, as a result of this Kimura’s skin could in turn pierce anything. If X-23 struggled too much, she would break her limbs. If she attempted to claw Kimura, her claws would snap off. Her former trainer was able to take advantage of all of X-23’s few weaknesses.

     Given the current situation, however, Kimura was the least of her worries.

     The robotic duplicate Sabretooth continued to pound on the incapacitated X-23. Even with her regenerative abilities, she knew she wouldn’t be able to take much more without blacking out. Her rib cage was shattered, as was her nose and hands from the constant assault. One of her eyes was swollen shut, and the other one didn’t look much better.

     X-23, her mouth covered by Kimura’s hand to prevent her from vocally ending the Danger Room simulation, coughed up blood through Kimura’s fingers as Sabretooth rammed another fist into her stomach.

     “Awww, still feeling a little under-the-weather, X?” Kimura said, a sadistic smirk on her face. “Don’t worry, it’ll be over soon, sweetie. Then I can leave you to these dupes and get onto our real assignment.”

     “Real… assignment?” X-23 managed to weakly sputter out, though her voice was muffled by Kimura’s hand. “You’re not… here… for me?”

     “Once again, X, you think it’s all about you,” Kimura replied as her trainee continued to take a pounding. “Fact is, just as Wolverine was old hat when we made you, now you’re old hat. We’ve got something else in here that we want, and it ain’t you. Oh, it’s the next big thing, honey, really.”

     That was all I needed to know, X-23 thought to herself, her thoughts growing increasingly muddled. The pain was becoming too much…

     One more superhuman punch from Sabretooth to X-23 did it. X-23’s eyes rolled back into her head and she hung from Kimura’s limb-lock, limp.

     “Hmph,” Kimura said. “Thought you’d last at least a little longer.”

     Kimura’s hand wandered down to X-23’s neck and felt for a pulse. It was still there, but weak.

     All of a sudden, X-23’s eyes snapped open.

     It took Kimura a second to register what was happening, but a second was all it took.

     “Computer, switch target, behind me,” X-23 barked as loud as she could through her bloody mouth, Kimura’s hand now finally away from her face.

     Sabretooth promptly hit Kimura hard in the jaw, sending her spiraling back into—and through—the closed Danger Room entryway, her body punching a hole through the six-foot-thick metal wall. The Sabretooth robot suddenly stopped, its smashed hand sparking, as its target was temporarily out of the Danger Room and thus out of range of the A.I.’s sensors.

     Kimura’s sudden movement backwards had dislodged all four of X-23’s limbs from their sockets, but the punch had had the desired effect—Kimura had lost her hold on the Mutant clone, who tumbled to the floor, gasping, nearly every bone in her body either fractured or dislocated.

     Kimura scowled as she stood up, completely unharmed by the impact, and stepped back into the Danger Room, fuming. “Why you little—“

     Wrong move, X-23 smirked.

     She was interrupted as the Kimura robotic duplicate X-23 had initially figured she was fighting slammed into the real Kimura head-first, the Danger Room A.I. now re-recognizing the real Kimura as its target. The robot bowled Kimura over, though its dive against her completely smashed its face and shoulders, rendering it inoperable.

     Kimura cursed as the remaining dozen or so robotic duplicates converged on her position.

     “You should know better than this, X,” Kimura grunted as she punched a hole through Sabretooth’s torso, then grabbed one of Wolfsbane’s legs through it and pulled, snapping the leg from its body and smashing what remained of Sabretooth’s torso to bits as she did so. “This’ll only slow me down.”

     And that’s all I need it to do, X-23 thought to herself as she felt bone, sinew, and muscle knitting together.

     Kimura took Spyke’s head and rammed it down into his torso, sparks flying from the duplicate as it toppled over. Taking the faux bone-covered Mutant and swinging it around, she bashed Scarlet Witch and Omega Red to bits, only to be blown back by Cyclops’ optic blast beam, again making a hole in the Danger Room wall, albeit a slightly shallower one that didn’t puncture through to a corridor outside.

     Kimura smirked as she stood up, dusting the metal shards from her arms. “On the other hand, X, I do have to thank you for the added fun tonight… and here I thought it was just going to be me versus you. Not much of a match, really.”

     Keep talking…

     Kimura punched right through the metal casing surrounding the head of a charging Juggernaut duplicate and ripped out its internal wiring. Gambit attempted to lay a hand on her, but she kicked the duplicate’s legs out from under him—literally—and then used one to bash the Cyclops robot across the visor, dislocating its head in the process.

     Toad hopped down from the Danger Room ceiling, spraying a stream of slime from a nozzle in his mouth and onto Kimura’s face. She spat and wiped it away from her eyes, backhanding the duplicate in the process and denting in its face.

     “Alright, now I’m getting a bit bored,” Kimura growled. “Time to end—“

     Kimura stopped, glancing from side to side. The few remaining duplicates had all suddenly ceased advancing on her and now simply stood there, staring at her, blank expressions on their faces.

     She didn’t understand what had made them all stop so suddenly, but she wasn’t about to start asking questions. Searching around the room, she saw X-23 was no longer where she had been left—as had been expected. It didn’t take long for Kimura to spot the claw marks up the side of one of the Danger Room walls. Up in the command console room hanging down from the ceiling was X-23, already mostly healed.

     “Cute,” Kimura said. “Run and hide, X! You’re only delaying the inevitable!”

     “You forgot one,” was X-23’s only reply, twisting a knob and flipping a switch on the control panel.

     “Wh—yeeaaaAAAHHHH!!!” Kimura shrieked as Surge grabbed her by the shoulders from behind, pumping high amounts of electricity into her.

     X-23 pressed a few more buttons and the construct let go, letting a charred Kimura fall to the ground, twitching, before springing from the chair and running out of the Danger Room as fast as she could, clutching her abdomen as the remaining few broken ribs knit together.

     Upstairs in Kitty and Danielle’s room, the sounds from the battle between Maverick and Gauntlet taking place in the foyer were very faint—if one were awake, one would just barely have noticed them, but they were far from being loud enough to wake anyone up who was actually sleeping.

     For this particular room it was immaterial, however, as it had been one of the first rooms Deadpool had hit upon entering the Mansion. Moonstar, being one of the X-Men’s psychic-based Mutants, had been a primary target, and now both her and Kitty had a blinking disc adorning each of their foreheads.

     Suddenly, the light coming from behind Moonstar’s left eye pulsed, to the point where it was rather bright to look at even from behind her closed eyelid. The disc on Danielle’s forehead started to blink faster and faster, until finally about a half minute later a very faint electric surge emanated from it and it shorted out, falling off of Danielle’s forehead.

     Bolting upright and gasping, Moonstar’s left eye returned to its normal brightness. Hearing the faint shots coming from the direction of the foyer and seeing a steadily blinking disc on her best friend’s forehead, it didn’t take long for Moonstar to get a general idea of what was going on.

     “Okay, lessee here… um, I’ve put the discs on—no, I’ve taken care of, that makes it sound more like I killed them. Yeah, that sounds better. Okay, so I’ve taken care of the wolf-changer, the white-haired lady—why does she have white hair, anyways, it makes her look old, she should really just dye it black out something-- the blue-haired dude, the OTHER blue-haired dude, Fourth-of-July Girl, the liquidy gal, the wolf-changer… wait, did I already say her? Crud, I lost count. Okay, let me start again—wolf-changer, white-haired lady—huh?”

     Deadpool arched an eyebrow as two X-kids phased through the wall right in front of him. Upon hearing the tail end of Deadpool’s muttering as they exited their own room, Kitty and Danielle abruptly spun towards Deadpool. Kitty gasped, and Danielle reflexively took a step back, both of them quickly taking a fighting stance.
     Upon seeing who had just walked in front of him, Deadpool let out a girlish squeal and clapped his hands together quickly a few times.

     “Oooo, PAJAMA PARTY! We should all totally—hey, wait a minute, didn’t I already put the stunny disky things on you two? Or did I lose count again… let’s see, wolf-changer, white-haired—“

     “Who the heck are you and what do you want!?” Moonstar asked, ignoring Deadpool’s question.

     “Oh, right. Hi there!” Deadpool said, standing up straight and giving a little wave before clearing his throat. “My name is Deadpool. I named myself that because I like killing people and I enjoy swimming as well. It’s an obvious codename, really. My hobbies include killing people for money, killing people for fun, shufflebo—OW!”

     Deadpool’s introduction was cut short as Kitty karate-kicked him in the face, causing him to stagger back a few steps.

     “Danielle, use your powers on him!” Kitty said.

     “I’m trying—I’m unable to reach inside of his mind for some reason!”

     “Alright then, run and try to get the disks off of some of the others! I’ll keep him distracted!

     “Okay, that was just RUDE,” Deadpool said as Moonstar wordlessly ran down the hallway in the opposite direction. “I wouldn’t have started fighting you guys until you had completed YOUR introductions. Just goes to show—hey!”

     Kitty had attempted to sweep Deadpool’s legs out from under him, but the mercenary had been ready this time and sidestepped her attack.

     “Can’t you just keep quiet!?” Kitty said, exasperated.

     “Between sentences,” Deadpool said, unsheathing both of his swords as his words suddenly took on a darker tone. “Or when I’m fighting little X-brats who won’t give me my monologue time.”

     In a blurr of steel, Deadpool swiped one of his swords right through Kitty’s neck and another lengthwise down her torso in one smooth motion.

     Deadpool over-lunged in surprise as both swords met no resistance and tumbled to the floor, one of his swords biting into the wood between Kitty’s feet.

     “Oh, puh-lease,” Kitty said, rolling her eyes before grabbing him at the sides and phasing both of them halfway down into the floor. Letting go of a struggling Deadpool, Kitty phased back up so that she was standing on the floor again.

     “Hey, how did you—oh, right. You’re that phasing chick,” Deadpool said, scratching his chin. “I must’ve forgotten in those five seconds since I saw you phase last. Darn ADD. Or is it ADHD? I never can keep them straight. Ah, anyways. Quite the quandary.”

     “Still, if I remember your file correctly,” Deadpool continued, yanking his other sword out of the wood, “When you phase, you phase out of everything. Like, you can’t even breathe the air. Soooo….”

     Almost faster than Kitty’s eye could follow, Deadpool plunged both of his swords into the floor beside him and effortlessly turned them around him until they had formed a small circle around his torso. Then, pulling both swords out and planting one on the floor further in front of him, he hefted upwards, pulling himself free of the floor with only a few small circles of wood encircling his torso.

     “Let’s see how long you can hold your breath,” Deadpool said, an obvious smirk forming underneath his mask. Swiping one blade at Kitty, she reflexively phased, but no sooner had one blade passed through her than Deadpool’s other sword sliced through her in the opposite direction. Again Kitty kept in her phased state, but Deadpool continued the onslaught—for no longer than a tiny fraction of a second was one blade not slicing through her phased form.

     After a few more slices, Kitty realized what Deadpool was planning and backed up, breaking into a run. Unfortunately, Deadpool followed her easily, keeping up the sword-slicing and forcing Kitty to keep in her phased state.

     “Unfortunately?” Whose side are you on?! Come on, you gotta admit, this is a KILL-HER idea! ...Eh? You see what I just did there?

     Her lungs starting to tighten, Kitty dove into the floor.

     “Oh, no you didn’t!” Deadpool remarked, driving both of his blades deep into the floor right as Kitty’s feet disappeared into the wood and did the same swift circular motion he had done moments earlier, only this time he kicked the dissected portion of the floor downwards—aimed right for Kitty, who had collapsed on the floor of the level below. She only got in one quick gulp of air before she was forced to phase again as the circular section of the floor/ceiling—and Deadpool—landed right on top of and partially through her.

     Immediately starting up his constant sword-slashing through Kitty’s phased body again and again, Deadpool said, “Death by sword or suffocation!? I’m feeling generous tonight, so I’ll let you choose!”

     Domino sighed in relief as the elevator finally dinged, indicating that it had descended to the desired sub-basement.

     Finally, she thought as the door slid open. You’d think with as much money as these people have, they’d get a faster elevator.

     Stepping out cautiously, brandishing both guns, Domino relaxed as she heard faint sounds of explosions and crashes coming from much further down the hall.

     Good, sounds like Kimura’s got X-23 busy. This should be a cake walk, then. Lucky me.

     Domino ran down the corridor in the opposite direction of the Danger Room, making the occasional left or right, having memorized her destination thoroughly days ago. As she followed her mental map, she flipped her current guns their holsters on her thighs and pulled out two considerably longer rifles from her back. Taking two tranquilizer darts from the ammo belt crossing her chest, she loaded up both rifles and cocked them as she rounded the final corner.

     Two pairs of sleepy but increasingly frightened eyes looked up at her as she walked casually over to the holding cells, brandishing her two rifles.

     “Okay kiddos, we can do this two ways,” Domino addressed the two Jamies. “I let you two out of these cells and you come with me quietly, or I drug you both up and you come with me very quietly. The drugs these tranquilizers are filled with have some very unpleasant after-effects, so I’d advise the former. Oh, and I know both of you have had your powers blocked off, so don’t try to bluff your way outta this one.”

     Maverick socked Gauntlet square in the fleshy half of his jaw, sending the H.Y.D.R.A. operative down to the floor.

     “Oh, you’ll get in your potshots, Maverick,” Gauntlet stated, rubbing his jaw as he scrambled back to his feet, “But this is a fight even you can’t win. You’re outnumbered, out-gunned, out of kinetic energy to buff you up, and quite frankly outmatched. Ever since my cybernetic upgrade, I’ve made a few… enhancements to myself.”

     “Out-gunned? Maybe,” Maverick said, grunting as Gauntlet got out a short pulse blast from the gun specially designed to hurt the vigilante Mutant. “But I have yet to see what’s so—“

     Maverick was interrupted as Gauntlet’s robotic fist pounded into his stomach with a superhuman force, propelled by the high-strength mechanical tendons in his new arm.

     Maverick grunted slightly, but the kinetic force of Gauntlet’s punch was completely absorbed by his body.

     “Okay, now that was just stupid, Gauntlet.” His right hand glowing pink, Maverick turned to the side and unleashed a huge blast of the energy back at his enemy.

     Gauntlet ducked as the energy blasted past and into the foyer wall behind him, leaving a fairly large hole behind.

     “Not particularly,” Gauntlet smirked. “Just needed to get you into the right position.”

     Before Maverick could process what was happening, three H.Y.D.R.A. agents crashed through the glass entryway that was now directly behind the vigilante. Two of the agents each took hold of one of Maverick’s arms, while the third restrained his head back.

     “You really think I didn’t call for backup the second you showed up?” Gauntlet said, adjusting a few settings on his rifle as he walked up to the struggling Mutant.

     “You’re good, Maverick, I’ll give you that,” Gauntlet continued as he pointed the barrel of his energy rifle directly at the vigilante’s head. “But even you aren’t—“

     Gauntlet was cut short as a blur suddenly swept between him and Maverick. A second later, half of the rifle he was holding fell to the floor, sliced off.

     “YOU!” Gauntlet growled, clearly running out of patience as he turned to glare at X-23. “I have had enough of your infernal MEDDLING!”

     “Get used to it,” X-23 said, unsheathing her foot claws as well. She smelled strongly of Febreeze, which she had grabbed from the kitchen and sprayed all over herself to mask her true scent from Gauntlet. “H.Y.D.R.A. made me, now it gets to deal with the consequences.”

     In the next moment so many things happened at once that it was hard for any one person to completely follow what was going on.

     Kitty was very quickly running out of options.

     Her face had gone from blue to purple, and she actively had to focus to keep her vision from going blurry. It wouldn’t be much longer before she reflexively HAD to phase in and take a breath, and that would be the end of her.

     She had continued to run from Deadpool, but somehow her assailant had managed to keep up with her no matter what she had done. She had run through two walls, up to the second floor and then down again, and still Deadpool constantly had his swords slicing through her phased-out form. He was fast—though not fast enough for Kitty to consider it one of Deadpool’s Mutant abilities. No, his abilities clearly had to do with dexterity and agility. He was able to slice holes through walls, floors, and ceilings big enough for him to slide through, and all the while it barely slowed him down at all. He was also able to leap higher and farther than anyone else she knew besides Toad. During the one time she thought she might have been able to get a few breaths in—after she had phased up to the second floor again—Deadpool had taken out a silencer pistol and fired a round of bullets at her as he pulled himself through the hole in the floor and quickly caught up.

     And now here she was on the first floor again, in the main gathering room, her sprinting now down to a mere exhausted jog as her lungs felt ready to explode.

     “C’mon, just phase in already!” Deadpool said impatiently, his swords still circling through her. “I gotta kill that Indian gal you were with, too, and I don’t have all night. I got an early morning tomorrow, and—“

     “Kitty!” came Moonstar’s voice as she and Paige ran into the room. “Don’t worry, I’ve gotten help!”

     Paige’s skin on her left arm had sloughed off to reveal a acidic mucous appendage in its place, and the rest of her exposed skin was currently starting to peel off as well, though in the minimal light provided by Moonstar’s eye and the moonlight coming in through the room’s window, it was hard to make out what exactly those parts of her were turning into.

     “Get the heck away from my friend,” Paige growled, discharging a glob of acidic mucus from her left arm. “I’m not losing anyone else here.”

     Deadpool howled as the acidic blob hit him right in the face. Clutching his mask with both hands he staggered backwards as Paige and Moonstar ran up to Kitty, who, finally able to phase back in, had collapsed to the carpet, gasping for air.

     “GAAH!!! MY FACE! MY BEAUTIFUL, NINE-OUT-OF-TEN FACE!” Deadpool screamed, pulling off his mask—already half-burned-away-- to reveal a thoroughly scarred and disfigured face underneath it as the acid continued to eat away. “OH, IF ONLY I HADN’T GONE AFTER—“

     Quickly and in one smooth move, Deadpool dropped his mask and rolled on the ground, picking up one of the swords he had dropped and bringing it right down on a surprised Paige’s skull.

     The sword cracked in half from the blow—more of Paige’s skin had sloughed off to reveal a solid diamond form underneath.

     “—oh.” Deadpool finished, suddenly looking depressed. Then, a split second later, his disfigured face was suddenly grinning again, as if nothing had gone wrong. “But nah, I was just pullin’ you kids’ legs. I’ve always looked like this. Side effect of my regenerative abilities and all. I’m fine, don’t worry about….”

     Deadpool trailed off. As he had been talking, Paige and Moonstar’s gazes had turned from him to something behind him, their eyes slowly looking further and further up until they were clearly fixed on something not only behind the H.Y.D.R.A. mercenary, but considerably taller than him as well.

     “…Wait. Oh, come ON,” Deadpool chuckled, “I’m not falling for that whole ‘There’s someone behind you!’ trick. Although… if I’ve learned anything from watching television, it’s that if someone doesn’t fall for it, that means there someone really is behind them. Maybe I should turn around, that way nobody’ll be there…”

     Deadpool reluctantly turned around—and came face-to-chest with an almost seven-foot-tall, muscular steel man.

     Punching a fist into his open palm for emphasis, Colossus glared down at Deadpool.

     “Well, poop. Television, you’ve failed me again.”

     The door from the foyer to the gathering room suddenly splintered in two as Deadpool sailed through it, landing just a few feet short of Gauntlet.

     Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, Maverick brought up his legs and “grabbed” the H.Y.D.R.A. agent holding his head by the sides of his boots, then proceeded to fling the surprised agent into Gauntlet. He then brought his arms together in a swift motion, knocking the two H.Y.D.R.A. agents holding those appendages into each other, dazing them just long enough for him to weasel out of their grasp.

     “Gauntlet! Buddy, pal!” Deadpool said, his face rapidly healing from the steel fist he had received in the jaw, “Long time no see! How’s it going?”

     X-23 hurled herself at one of the H.Y.D.R.A agents that had been holding Maverick hostage, plunging her claws into his chest.

     The elevator dinged as Colossus and Husk entered the room through the splintered doorway, both clearly ready for a fight.

     A dozen more H.Y.D.R.A. agents poured into the foyer from outside, having been driven to the site by the increasing noise and Gauntlet’s signal for help.

     “X-23?!” Maverick asked uncertainly, reaching out to the clone as she retracted her adamantium claws from the agent’s corpse now on the floor.

     Before X-23 could respond, a hole suddenly appeared in the middle of her forehead and she collapsed to the ground amidst gasps from Paige, Colossus, and Maverick.

     Domino stood in the now open elevator, her silencer still smoking slightly. Walking out cautiously, she aimed the gun around, making sure nobody came close to either her or the two Jamies. One Jamie had his arm clutched firmly in her hand, while the other was hoisted over her back, unconscious—that Jamie had refused to come along with her quietly.

     “Come on, am I the ONLY one who actually accomplished their mission here?!” Domino said. “I thought Kimura was supposed to take care of the clone.”

     “That she was,” Gauntlet growled, standing back up and brandishing a new gun. “But regardless, you’ve gotten what we’ve came for. We’re leaving now.”

     “You are NOT leaving!” Colossus growled. “You expect to come in here, take hostage one of our members, and just leave!?”

     “Jamie?!” Paige asked. “Why would you want—“

     Two separate bullets bounced off of Paige’s diamond forehead and Colossus’ steel temple, followed by a sigh from Domino.

     “These people talk too much. And I can’t do anything to ‘em. Gauntlet?”

     Gauntlet made a motion with his head, and immediately all of the conscious H.Y.D.R.A. agents brandished guns similar to his.

     Colossus charged at them with a roar, his fist brandished, just as Gauntlet and all the H.Y.D.R.A. agents together fired their sonic emitter guns at Colossus, Maverick, and Husk. Forced to cover their ears as the loud, high-pitched tone became the only thing audible, both fell down to the floor in utter agony before finally becoming unconscious.

     “Alright, that no doubt woke everyone else in the Mansion up who doesn’t have a disk on them,” Gauntlet said after they all turned off their guns. “Domino, get the Jamies to the chopper outside the Institute grounds. We’ll be following shortly afterwards.”

     Domino wordlessly nodded, shifted the unconscious Jamie around on her shoulder into a more comfortable position, and pulled the conscious Jamie after her, who looked back at his unconscious friends with an utterly terrified look on his face before the three of them exited the foyer and were out of sight.

     “H.Y.D.R.A agents, follow her. Take Maverick with you, he knows too much. Also take the dead agents, we’ll dispose of them later.”

     “Uh, Gauntlet, methinks you’re forgetting some stuff,” Deadpool protested. “Namely, what about the X-23 gal? Y’know, the one YOU ALL created? ‘Cause if I know anything about the Weapon X regeneration procedure—and I think I do, but that could have been another one of my hallucinations-- that bullet ain’t gonna keep her down for long. Shouldn’t we take her, too? And what about Helga the Horri-I mean, Kimura?”

     “X-23 is no longer of any use to H.Y.D.R.A. Her rebelliousness is too rooted in her personality now. And now that she has moved in with these ‘X-Men’, her life will be too occupied to continue her little crusade against us. That was the whole point of this job, Deadpool—to replace her. You knew this.”

     “I did? I mean… yeah, I did. I was just testing you.”

     As Deadpool finished talking, Gauntlet’s enhanced hearing picked up multiple sounds coming from the bedrooms of the Institute.

     “And if Kimura can do anything, it’s fend for herself,” Gauntlet hurriedly continued, packing away his various guns and motioning for Deadpool to follow him as they ran out of the partially ruined foyer and towards the edge of the Mansion grounds. “Whatever X-23 did to incapacitate her, I’m sure it didn’t last more than a few minutes at the most.”

     “Oh, and Deadpool?” Gauntlet asked, his gaze turning towards the Mutant in the red-and-black uniform that was running alongside him.

     “Yeeeeeesss?”

     “What exactly were you doing before you were thrown into the foyer?! You better not have killed anyone.”

     “What? Pssssh,” Deadpool replied, waving Gauntlet’s accusation away with his hand as they disappeared into the recently supplanted trees surrounding the outer grounds of the Mansion. “And disobey your direct order? I cringe at the mere thought! I was merely defending myself against a bunch of those bullies that had attacked me…”

     X-23 slowly opened her eyes to find herself in the medlab’s bed, surrounding by Kitty, Moonstar, Xavier, Piotr, and Scott.

     “Oh, thank god she’s okay,” Kitty breathed. “I was worried for a second there.”

     “I’ve seen Logan survive more than his fair share of punishment,” Xavier said, placing the bloody extracted bullet down in the pan and taking off his gloves. “Believe it or not, a bullet to the skull is only a temporary setback when you’ve got a healing factor as powerful as they have.”

     “Ugh…what…what happened?” X-23 said, her mind and memory still groggy.

     “Well, from what we can gather,” Xavier said, rolling over to the sink and washing his hands, “H.Y.D.R.A. executed a well-coordinated attack on the Mansion, severing all our security systems before they even entered the premises. One of their agents had then infiltrated the Mansion and placed disks on about half of us that had rendered our bodies inert, though not all of us for some reason.”

     “They totally knew what they were doing, too,” Kitty said. “Hank and I checked the security systems thoroughly—they shot the external system wires at just the right places and in just the right sequence to not trigger an alarm. They must have really detailed information on this place.”

      “It does not inspire confidence,” Xavier said. “We’ll clearly have to change the way our security system is set up to insure whatever information they have on the Mansion is out-of-date. I’m not sure how they acquired this information, but we have to make sure they don’t do so again.”

     “Their information couldn’t have been that up-to-date,” Danielle protested. “This one crazy guy we met in the hallway that almost killed Kitty—Deadpool was his name, I think—was apparently surprised that I had been able to deactivate the disks. I guess they didn’t know about my more recent Mutant power.”

     “But they knew that there were two Jamies,” Scott said. “I mean, they were clearly who H.Y.D.R.A. was after. And that happened after you got your technopathy and ability to control machines.”

     “Something does not add up here,” Piotr commented.

     “I agree,” Xavier said. “Still, they apparently knew enough about us to send in a mentally unstable individual in first. According to Danielle, she wasn’t able to reach into his mind and make him see his greatest fear as she can do with nearly everyone else. For whatever reason, this ‘Deadpool’ cannot have his mind detected or affected in anyway by psychics, which explains why neither Jean nor I sensed his presence after he infiltrated the Mansion. And they knew enough to place discs on the three X-Men psychics before sending in the rest of their team.”

     “Wait a minute,” X-23 said, sitting up in her bed suddenly, her eyes widening. “What about Kimura?”

     Everyone else stared at her, confused.

     “Who is this ‘Kimura’?” Piotr asked.

     “You didn’t find anyone in the Danger Room? No one at all?” X-23 asked, her brows furrowing.

     “Just a bunch of destroyed robotic drones—some of drones of us, I might add,” Scott replied. “What was that about?”

     “It’s… Wait, what about the other person?” X-23 replied, abruptly changing the subject. “A blond-haired man. Mid-30s.”

     “I am not sure,” Piotr responded. “I remember who you are referring to, but I assumed he blacked out along with Paige and myself when the H.Y.D.R.A. agents used those sonic guns. When I came to, he was gone.”

     X-23 growled, swinging her legs over the side of the bed and starting to get up.

     “Woah, woah, woah!” Scott said, putting a hand on X-23’s shoulder to stop her. “X-I mean, Laura, you just had a bullet slammed into your head! Even your healing factor is going to take a while to completely repair the damage. Professor X said you shouldn’t be walking around for at least a few hours, your balance and motor control centers of your brain were the parts most affected by the bullet.”

     “This man referred to me by name,” X-23 protested, brushing Scott’s hand off and attempting to stand up but failing, instead falling back down onto the bed. “He knows something about me, Cyclops. And he wasn’t siding with Gauntlet and the other H.Y.D.R.A. agents. They must have taken him, and he’s the only connection I have to my past left that isn’t actively trying to eliminate me. I have to find him.”

     “We will, Laura. I promise,” Xavier said reassuringly. “However, at this time we simply have no leads. The H.Y.D.R.A. agents left nothing behind, and with S.H.I.E.L.D. disappearing after the Nimrod incident, we have no one else we can ask about this. I’ve also used Cerebro to try and find their Mutant signatures, but whatever advanced equipment they have is blocking me from finding any of them. Unfortunately, we must simply wait and find out exactly what they wanted with both Jamies.”

     “I can track their scent,” X-23 said. “But I need to leave, now.”

     “I saw them leave by helicopter as me and most of the others entered the foyer,” Scott interjected. “Your Mutant abilities wouldn’t be helpful in this situation, Laura. They definitely covered all their bases.”

     X-23 merely growled in response.

     “And we’ve got to get you ready for school, Laura,” Xavier said. “Today I called in approved absences to Bayville High as we all recover from this and help to repair the parts of the Mansion that were damaged, but tomorrow it’s back to our normal schedule.”

     “Let me get this straight,” X-23 said, her face turning a slight shade of red in frustration, “The facility who created me has two of the X-Men captured, along with the only person who could possibly know more about the inner workings of H.Y.D.R.A., and instead of going after them you want me to attend high school!?”

     “Laura,” Xavier said, sighing before he continued, “I know it’s difficult. I really do. But elements of surprise, things that are unknown… it’s simply something that you have to deal with here. We’ll find out what this was all about soon enough, and I doubt we’ll like the answer. And we will devote all available resources to finding H.Y.D.R.A., I promise. But if we put everything on hold every time something comes up, well… we’d never get anything done. An education—as well as normal socialization—is something you desperately need, Laura.”

     “…and Kimura has reported in, as well?”

     “Yes, sir,” Gauntlet said, his head bowed, his gaze on the floor instead of the cloaked figure in front of him. “After she had recovered, she escaped via the Mansion’s hidden waterfall exit. The mission did not go entirely smoothly, but we completed our objective. Both Jamie Madroxes are ours. And, as a bonus, we captured the vigilante who has been a thorn in our side for so long—Maverick.”

     “Oh, how delightful. We’ll have lots of fun with him. Are both of the Madroxes comfortable?”

     Gauntlet looked up at the cloaked figure, uncertain. “Um… they are currently having rather painful tests run on them, sir. Should I—“

     “Relax, Gauntlet, it was a joke. I really do have to get better at telling those. Regardless, you are dismissed. Tell Deadpool and Domino that their pay should be deposited in their accounts within the week.”

     “Thank you, Sinister,” Gauntlet said, bowing again before he exited the room. “I shall be in my quarters getting some rest. Do not hesitate to let me know if you need anything else.”

     Sinister laughed. “You know I won’t.”

The End
 

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