Chapter 2- The Element of Fear
The six teens at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters observed Logan as he lounged on the couch watching a basketball game on television. Logan tipped a bottle up towards his mouth. When he removed it, a loud belch escaped his lips. Kitty started to squeal at the sound, but was quickly hushed by her teammates. Logan turned his head, but found no one standing in the doorway. After a few seconds, he turned around and the teens continued their surveillance.
"This ain’t gonna work," whispered Evan.
"Of course it will," replied Scott as a smile began to spread across his face. "Are you ready Jean?"
Jean nodded. Cyclops pulled his cell phone from his pocket, and proceeded to dial. After a few seconds, the phones around the mansion started to ring to life. The kids watched Logan as he became agitated.
"Hey, somebody wanna grab that?" called Logan into the air. There was no response. "Doesn’t anyone else hear that?!" There was still no response. The only sounds that replied were the continued ringing of the phone and voices from the television. "Lazy kids," Logan muttered to himself. "Hello."
"Logan, it’s me, Professor Xavier," said Scott into the phone. Kurt started to giggle, but was hushed by Rogue jabbing him in his ribs with her elbow. "Logan, I’m sorry to call so late, but we need you to come and pick us up at the airport."
"What’re you talking about? I thought you said the conference was gonna last a couple of days," replied Logan.
"Well, it’s been postponed. I’ll explain it later. We should be landing in about half an hour," said Scott.
"All right, I’m leavin’ now," Logan said. Logan clicked the phone off and rose from his seat. "Hey troops, front and center." The teens quickly filed into the room to find an agitated look on his face. "Listen the Prof.’s comin’ home early. I have to pick him and ‘Ro up at the airport. Any of you taggin’ along for the ride?"
"No thanks, Logan," said Kurt. The blue-furred teen disappeared in an explosion of brimstone and appeared on the couch. "Ve kinda vanted to catch this horror movie marathon."
The other students all started to file into the couch and on the floor near the television. Logan scratched his chin and eyed the kids suspiciously. Then, he placed his hand on his temple and shook his head. "Fine. We should be back in a couple of hours. You kids stay outta trouble." Logan then picked up his jacket and headed towards the front door.
"Don’t worry Logan," Scott yelled after him. "We have everything under control." After hearing the front door shut, shouts of applause erupted from the teens. "Way to go, Jean. You did great!"
"It was easy making Logan think he was talking to Professor instead of you Scott," replied Jean. "I just hope the telepathic suggestion of going to the airport holds long enough for us to get to the Graveyard and back."
"Don’t sweat it, Jean," said Kurt. "Ve’ll be back long before Logan vill."
"Besides, if we come back with the money, I doubt anyone would mind," said Rogue.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" chimed Kitty. "Let’s go!"
The teens all rose to their feet and headed out of the room. They dashed out the front door, and into Scott’s convertible. Once each of them filed into the car and fastened their seat belts, Scott revved the engine. Then, the red convertible raced through the main gate and disappeared into the darkness of the night.
***
"This is way creepy," said Jean as she wrapped her arms around Scott’s right arm.
The rest of the team looked ahead of them to find a dimly lit wooden shack. They slowly marched towards the front door. Once they reached the doorway, they all gulped and glanced around at each other. Eventually, all of the eyes fell onto Kurt. The blue-furred elf made a loud gulp as he extended his hand and pushed open the door. The silence of the night was broken by the sound of a loud, eerie creek.
The teens crowded very closely to each other as they tried to squeeze through the doorway. The discovered that the shack was deserted and empty. The only items to be found were six headset communicators with microphones and a computer. Once all six of the kids had entered, the door slammed shut.
The children all screamed as they clasped onto each other. After a few moments of pure panic, they began to calm down and approach the computer. Scott picked up the headsets, and started passing them down.
"Hey y’all," said Rogue. Everyone turned towards her to find that she was pointing at the computer. "Look at the screen." The screen had come to life, and a message has appeared. The message simply said: Hello, Kitty. Are you ready for the Graveyard ?
Everyone turned towards Kitty. She slowly walked towards the computer and sat in the chair in front of the console. As her fingers danced across the key, the message was replaced with a map, a set of directions, and a chart assigning everyone a color.
"So, Kitty? Vat do ve do?" asked Kurt.
"Well, it looks like each color has an assignment to complete," explained Kitty as she read the directions on the screen. "Some of us will work in pairs, but the rest have to do the job solo."
"I don’t like the sound of that," said Scott. "Maybe we should…."
"Oh come on, Scott," said Evan. "Don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet now."
"Yeah, it’s just a radio contest, Scott," said Rogue. "The most they’ll do is try to scare us outta here."
"I’m glad you’re so confident Rogue," interrupted Kitty, "because you’re first."
"Huh?!" gasped Rogue.
"Kitty’s right," said Kurt, who was now sitting next to Kitty. "It says that you have to go to the mausoleum in the center of the cemetery and vait for further instructions."
"Fine," said Rogue. "Who’s my partner?"
"You have to do it solo," said Kitty softly.
Rogue swallowed hard, as she felt a hand fall upon her shoulder. "You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to, Rogue," said Scott.
"I’m fine," said Rogue. She walked towards the door and turned the knob. The door opened with the familiar squeak and Rogue turned to look back towards her friends. "See you guys at the finish line." The door closed behind Rogue, and the remaining students turned their attention to screen. Their eyes followed a purple dot move slowly towards the mausoleum on the computer screen.
The dot finally stopped and they each heard Rogue’s voice in their headsets. "I made it guys. What do I do now?"
"The instructions say that there is an open tomb inside. Inside the tomb is a box. You have to retrieve the box," reported Kitty. "The only bad news is that I have to disconnect your communicator."
"No way," said Scott.
"I’ll be fine, Scott," said Rogue. "Remember it’s just a game. We see this kind of thing on MTV all the time." After a brief moment of silence Rogue asked, "What do I do after that?"
"You just vait there for one of us to come and get you," said Kurt.
"Right," said Rogue. "Well, here I go." Suddenly, there was a click in the headset and the purple dot on the screen disappeared. Rogue placed her hand on the door of the mausoleum and pushed it opened. The room was completely abandoned. At the end other of the building, one of the tombs was opened. Inside of the tomb was the box Rogue was supposed to retrieve.
A smile began to spread across Rogue’s face as she started towards the tomb. Once Rogue was about half way, she heard something moving in the room. She paused to look around the room, but found no one there. She started walking towards the tomb again, but this time was interrupted by a different sound, a voice.
"Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch," whispered the voice. Rogue searched the room again but found no one there. The voice sounded again, only little louder and closer. "Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch."
"All right guys, this isn’t funny," said Rogue. She searched around the room as her voice filled the room as an echo. By now, she was only a few feet from the open tomb. Rogue glanced at the open tomb and the box inside. Instinctively, she grabbed it and ripped the box open. Inside she found a black cell phone. Rogue picked up the phone, and it rang to life in her hands. Rogue flipped the phone open and lifted it to her ear. "Hello?"
"Hello Rogue," said a distorted voice, "what’s your favorite scary movie?"
"Ha-ha," sighed Rogue. "Very funny."
"Are you ready to scream, Marie?" asked the voice on the phone.
"Listen I’m tired of these games. Tell me what I’m supposed to do," said Rogue, sounding slightly annoyed.
"I’m going to better than that, Rogue," said the voice. "I’m going to tell you what not to do, okay. Whatever you do, don’t turn around."
"Huh?" said Rogue as she turned around. Rogue found herself face-to-face with a man wearing a hockey mask. His suit was red down the middle and the legs and arms of the suit were trimmed with a black stripe running down each side. The masked man raised foot and kicked Rogue in the abdomen. The blow slammed her against the stone tombs. The masked assailant then raised his foot and jammed it across Rogue’s throat. Rogue grasped the foot and tried to remove it, but couldn’t.
"Sleep tight, princess," said the masked man.
Rogue’s eyes became heavier and heavier as she felt the life being choked out of her. Rogue’s arms slowly fell from around the foot to her sides. Once her eyes closed and her head began to sag, the masked man removed his foot. Rogue fell to the floor unconscious. The masked man bent down and picked the girl’s lifeless body up and placed it inside the open tomb. Then, he shut the open door, leaving Rogue trapped inside the tomb.
The masked man pulled the hockey mask off of his face. Underneath the mask was another mask. A red mask, with black circles around the eyes. It was Deadpool. The mercenary started to chuckle as he headed for the door.
"This is the threat that I was hired to eliminate," sighed Deadpool. "Boy it’s hard to find good prey these days." Deadpool exited the mausoleum in search of his next target.
***
The screen came to life once again, and another set of instructions came up. After glancing across the screen, Kitty turned around to face the other kids. Her eyes fell upon each of her friends as she looked at them. "Well," announced Kitty, "it looks like you’re up next, Evan."
Evan checked his headset and exited the door. As he started walking, Kitty gave him his instructions. He was to head towards the edge of the graveyard where he would find a cave. His mission is to search the cave for a box containing loot hidden from grave robbers. Once he recovered the box, he was to wait under radio silence for further instructions. After a brisk walk, Evan found the cave and started to venture inside.
"Okay, guys, I’m running silent," said Evan. On the screen, an orange dot disappeared and Evan’s head sit clicked off.
Evan moved through the cave with his hand against the wall. As Evan moved deeper into the cave the wall became smoother and smoother. Eventually, the floor became slippery as well. Evan began to lose his footing. Evan slipped and fell to the ground. The slippery floor carried Evan’s body deeper and deeper into the cave. Eventually, Evan’s body was deposited into an open cavern in the cave.
Evan made his way to his feet and looked around the cavern. It was obvious that it would be too difficult to go the way he came, so he decided to find another way. Evan walked a few feet and found a small pond. Evan walked towards the pond and bent down. He dipped his hand in the water and splashed some of the cool liquid on his face. Evan wiped the water on his face and looked in front of himself to find what looked like a treasure chest.
Evan walked around the small pond to find that the object was a treasure chest. Evan tried to pry the lock over, but it was useless. Evan produced a thin pin-like bone spike to pick the lock. After a few seconds of working the lock, he heard a loud click. Evan lifted the chest and opened. The sight inside the chest caused Evan to stumble backwards to the ground and clutch his heart.
Inside Evan had found a head. Evan crawled back towards the chest and looked at the head again. He tapped the head, but nothing happened. He tapped it again and waited, but the head remained motionless. A smile started to spread across Evan’s face as a sense of relief began to wash over him.
"Whew!" Evan sighed. "For a moment, I thought you were real."
Evan looked at the head once again and noticed the red mask with the black circles around the eyes. As he studied the head, he started to place his around the head and lift it out of the box. All of a sudden, the eyes fluttered open and looked up at Evan.
"Ahhh!" screamed Evan as Deadpool burst out of the chest. "What are you?!"
"Your worst nightmare!" said Deadpool as he reached behind back. As he brought his hand back into view, Evan noticed that there was a kitana blade in his hand. Deadpool swung the sword at Evan, which was barely blocked by one of Evan’s larger bone spikes. As Deadpool pulled back for another attack Evan rolled away and got to his feet.
"As far as I’m concerned, this nightmare is over!" shouted Evan. Evan reached back and threw his spike. The spike landed in left Deadpool’s shoulder.
Deadpool looked down at the spike and shook his head disapprovingly. "I really wish you hadn’t done that," said Deadpool. Upon seeing his attack hadn’t slowed Deadpool down, Evan started to run. Deadpool threw a bag of powder in front of Evan that exploded when it hit the ground. From the ground a cloud of smoke emerged and Evan ran through it. Once he was inside the cloud, Evan began coughing and became dizzy. He grasped his head and slowly stumbled to the ground.
Deadpool started to approach the unconscious teen as the smoke cleared. Once he made it to Evan, he sheathed his sword and pulled the spike out of his shoulder and looked at the wound. After a few seconds, the wound began to seal itself. Deadpool dropped the spike to the ground and lifted the boy over his shoulder.
"Well now," said Deadpool sounding like an old southerner, "looks like I dun bagged meself a whopper!" Laughter filled the cavern as Deadpool carried Evan out of the cave, ready to take down his next victim.
***
"Scott and Jean are next," said Kitty.
"I don’t like this," said Scott. "We haven’t heard from the others yet. Maybe something’s wrong here."
"Scott, it’s just a game," said Kurt. "They vant to get us vorried. Don’t sveat it, man. The others are fine. Besides, the game vill be over soon."
"Come on, Scott," said Jean as she started to pull at his arm, "the sooner we get this over with, the sooner you can relax." Jean tugged Scott out of the door, and the red and pink dots started to move away from the shack on the map.
"All right guys, there’s a fresh gravesite about half a kilometer west of your position," reported Kitty. "According to the instructions, you have to finish digging the grave. Once you’ve reached the bottom, you’ll find a clue to where the others are."
"Now, don’t you feel better?" said Jean. "We’ll be able to find the others as soon as we finish the mission."
"Sorry, guys," interrupted Kitty. "The instructions say that I have to cut your radios now. Good luck." The headsets clicked and the dots disappeared from the screen. Scott and Jean continued to walk through the Graveyard. As they did so, the looked at the headstones. As they continued to walk it seemed that they kept hearing noises coming from the graves.
"There it is, Scott," said Jean. She pointed towards a grave resting on the top of a hill. Next to it was a pile of dirt and a single shovel. Both of the teens walked towards the grave. Scott climbed inside and grabbed the shovel and started digging. "Having fun?"
Scott paused to look up at Jean who was wearing a smile on her face. The smile on her face actually caused Scott to smile. "I’d feel a little better knowing that I wasn’t the only one getting dirty," replied Scott. Scott reached into the grave and threw a handful of dirt onto Jean’s blouse. "Now I feel a lot better, how about you?"
Jean grabbed Scott’s head and rubbed it into dirt at the mouth of the grave. When Scott pulled his head up, his face was covered with dirt, and so were his glasses. After a series of giggles escaped their mouths, Jean sighed and said, "Hand me your glasses and I’ll clean them for you."
Jean grabbed Scott’s glasses and rubbed the lenses clean with her blouse. When she was done, she placed the glasses back onto Scott’s face. "All right, let’s finish up so we can get out of here," said Scott. He dug a little deeper until he found a sheet of paper in the grave. "What’s this?"
Scott picked up the note a read it aloud. " ‘The clue you’re searching for is right underneath your feet and all around you.’ What is that supposed to mean?" Scott looked down and a hand shot through the ground and grasped his neck. Suddenly what appeared to be a zombie began to rise out of the grave and lift Scott Summers into the air.
"Scott!" shouted Jean. She used her telekinetic powers to lift the shovel and use it to knock the zombie’s arm off. Scott fell back into the grave and fired an optic blast. The zombie flew to pieces and fell to the ground.
"Thanks, Jean," said Scott. He turned to see a hand over Jean’s mouth and an arm wrapped around her waist as it pulled her away from the grave. "Jean!" Scott climbed out of the grave to find that zombies were rising out of the graves around the entire cemetery. Scott fired an optic blast at the monster holding Jean. He managed to knock its head off. Jean then used her telekinetic powers to send each of the zombie’s appendages flying off into different directions.
"What’s going on here?" said Jean as she ran towards Scott.
"I don’t know, but it’s definitely not a simple radio challenge. And judging from our clue, and our current situation, the others are definitely in trouble," answered Scott.
"You know, maybe all you X-Men aren’t as dumb as you look," said a voice in the distance.
"Who are you?" asked Scott.
"My young friends," said Deadpool, "welcome to Fright Night. I am your host for the evening. Please, call me, Deadpool."
"What do you want?" asked Jean.
"Well, I want nothing more than for you all to die, young Skywalker," replied Deadpool sounding like Emperor Palpatine from the Return of the Jedi. With that said dozens of zombies began to swarm around Scott and Jean. As they tried to fight off the horde, they noticed that the zombies were nothing more than androids.
"Scott, there are too many of them! What are we going to do?!" asked Jean.
"We have to hold out as long as we can!" shouted Scott over the sounds of combat.
"I can’t hold out any longer!" cried Jean.
Scott turned around to find that the zombies had overwhelmed her. "Jean! No!" yelled Scott. He fired optic blasts at the zombies on top of Jean. Once he had cleared them away from around her, he felt them already clamping onto his back. Scott fell to the ground reaching for Jean. The zombies continued to climb onto their backs pulling and tugging at the two teens. Scott continued to crawl forward and only stopped when his hand reached Jean’s.
"Uh!" said Deadpool in disgust. "Teenage love! It’s so… so… icky!" Deadpool pressed a few buttons on his wristwatch and the zombies began to rise. They lifted the unconscious bodies of Scott Summers and Jean Grey into the air and carried them after Deadpool as he marched through the cemetery.
***
"Vell Kitty," said Kurt. "It looks like I’m up." Kurt headed for the door and paused. He turned around to find Kitty sitting at the console. "Vill you be okay?"
"I’ll be fine," said Kitty. "Good luck out there, Fuzzy-elf"
Kurt waved and double-checked the holographic imager on his watch before he stepped out the door. Kurt was supposed to head to the large oak tree in the center of the cemetery, and find something out of the ordinary. He ran across the cemetery until he reached his destination. "I’m here, Kitty," he said.
"Yeah, I see ya, Elf," said Kitty over the head set as she stared at the blue dot. "Time to cut the link. Bye." The blue dot disappeared and the headset clicked.
Kurt looked around and waited at the tree. "Now vat am I supposed to find around here?" Kurt asked himself. He glanced at the area around him and surveyed the ground carefully. Then, Kurt saw something that caught his attention. "Vow! Vas ist das?" Kurt held the object into the light. It was a sticky substance, but practically unbreakable, like a spider’s web. "I think I found it!"
"No, no, stupid! That’s not what you’re supposed to find," said a voice from above.
Kurt traced the voice back to its owner. A masked man was lounging in the tree. He placed his hand on the branch he was sitting on and swung from it to the ground. He landed in front of Kurt. Kurt looked at the masked man from head to toe. He marveled at the red suit trimmed in black as well as the red mask with the black circles.
"Vow! I don’t believe it! I’m such a big fan of yours!" said Kurt to Deadpool.
"Y-you are?" asked Deadpool slightly perplexed.
"Of course I am," said Kurt. "I never believe that stuff they print about you in the papers. You’re not a criminal! As a matter of fact you’re my hero!"
"Well I…. Wait a minute! What do you mean I’m not a criminal?" asked Deadpool.
"Everyone knows that Spider-man is only the coolest super-hero ever," said Kurt. Then, he noticed a hint of annoyance beneath the mask of Deadpool. "You are Spider-man aren’t you?"
"Gee, I don’t know," said Deadpool. "Why don’t you tell me? Can Spider-man do this?" Deadpool extended his hand at Kurt and a silver line shot from his wrist. When the line touched Kurt’s chest, volts of electricity moved through the cord and into Kurt’s body.
"Ahhhhhh!" shouted Kurt. As he screamed, his holographic imager began to flicker and his holographic image was replaced with his actual blue fur and tail. Kurt’s body fell to the ground unconscious and smoking.
"Gee, I guess I’m not Spider-man after all, huh?" said Deadpool to Kurt’s unconscious body. Deadpool looked around the cemetery and set his eyes upon the shack. A smile began to spread on his face behind the mask as he whispered, "And then there was one."
***
Kitty sat in the shack staring at the computer waiting for the final message to come onto the screen. All she could see was her own yellow dot, staying put in the shack on the computer screen. Then, she noticed something different. A dot was moving towards her. A single black dot.
Kitty rose out of her chair and glanced back at the door. Who was supposed to be black? None of her friends were assigned that color. Kitty turned her attention back to the screen. A message had appeared on the screen. Once she read it Kitty rose out of her seat and backed away from the computer.
Tears began to form in Kitty’s eyes, as she realized that this had all been a trick. A trick that led her friends into danger, and a trick that was going to cost all of them their lives. Kitty looked at the message again: All around the Graveyard, the hunter chased the X-Men. Now the fun’s done, and I got to run… Boom ! Goes the Kitten !
Kitty saw her yellow dot start to fade from the map. Filled with fear and terror, she turned a raced towards the door. She reached for the knob and began to turn, but it was too late. The sound of the explosion seemed to carry on for miles. The flames rose high into the air, and Deadpool could do nothing but admire his handy work as debris fell from the sky. Deadpool reached into his pocket to produce another cigar. He rolled up his mask and placed the cigar between his lips. He searched his pockets for his lighter, but couldn’t find it.
Deadpool pulled the cigar from his mouth and placed the edge next to burning piece of wood from the shack that had fallen next to him. The cigar came to life as it started to burn on one end. "Thanks for the light, Kitty," said Deadpool.
He searched his own pockets and pulled out Scott’s cell phone. "Well, I think it’s about time to call the guest of honor," said Deadpool to himself. He turned the phone on and pressed the home auto-dial. The phone started ringing. After a few rings, Logan answered the phone.
"This ain’t funny, Summers!" said Logan. "You kids mighta thought your little psychic prank was hilarious, but when you get home you’ll know differently!"
"Logan, Logan," said Deadpool. "Is that anyway to answer the phone?"
"Who is this?" asked Logan. His tone was more cautious now. "How did you get that phone?"
"Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten this ‘ol Weapon X war-horse," teased Deadpool.
"Wilson?" asked Logan.
"That’s right, Wolverine," said Deadpool. "And if you want what’s left of your kids, I think you better get down to the Graveyard."
"Oh, I’m comin’ all right ‘Pool," said Logan, "but if you’ve harmed one hair on those kids…."
"Oops!" interrupted Deadpool. "It looks like you’re already too late Logan." Logan dropped the phone and rushed out the front door, as laugher from the phone filled the X-mansion.