Suddenly Remy understood what he was witnessing.
The birth of a second Juggernaut.
The emerald was like Cain Marko’s ruby.
Two Juggernauts in the world. Not good.
Not good at all.
Where were his X-Men teammates when he needed them?
Finally the green glow stopped.
The man stood at least seven feet tall, his head brushing the high ceiling just below where Remy crouched. His muscles were huge and his clothes hung off him in tatters. The emerald was a gigantic, glowing jewel in the center of his chest, attached there by a force Remy could only guess at.
Suddenly the building shook and again dust rained down on Remy as the behemoth started to laugh, flexing his muscles, staring at his own hands and arms.
One of Bella’s assassins swung a big sword at the laughing giant, but the blade just bounced off him.
Without missing a laugh, the man flicked the assassin away, knocking him clear through the wall and into the next small office.
And that seemed even funnier to the man, so he laughed even harder.
Bella, along with the other assassin, did the smart thing. They got out of there, ducking through the door while their opponent was still in a good mood.
Remy had no doubt that was the last time he was going to see her anywhere near this new Juggernaut. Fighting straight up, something as big as this man had become, was not her Guild’s style.
Another time, Bella, Remy thought as his wife disappeared toward the stairs.
On the main floor of the warehouse, between laughs from below, Remy could hear fighting breaking out. He had no idea what was going on down there. Maybe some of Toole’s men were too stupid to run and were attacking the assassins. The assassins would make quick work of them.
Remy scrambled quickly to his feet, then aiming at a panel near the door below, he dropped through, crashing to the floor of the office and tumbling once toward the door leading to the stairs.
He came up on one knee, facing the huge man with the tattered clothes, the emerald in his chest, and the hearty laugh. From this angle, Remy was now sure that he was as large as the Juggernaut. Not good.
Not good at all.
‘ ‘Where did you come from?’ ’ the man said, his voice booming so loud it smashed the last remaining monitor on Toole’s ghost setup.
“From your worst nightmare, mon ami." Gambit quickly charged two cards and in rapid succession flicked them at the behemoth. He wasn’t sure how effective they would be, but he had to at least give it a try.
The explosions rocked the building, and made the man pause for a moment, before taking another breath and continuing to laugh.
But nothing else.
The explosions hadn’t even staggered him.
Not good.
This was not good at all.
Wolverine kicked hard at two of the assassins surrounding him, sending both tumbling backward over the concrete as a dozen more assassins swarmed down the stairs from the second floor, led by a beautiful woman in purple.
Behind them, from the second floor, someone was laughing really, really loud. An annoying laugh that almost broke into Wolverine’s good mood.
Almost, but not quite.
He spun and interrupted another assassin’s sword with a sharp punch to the guy’s face. He could feel his nose snap. Blood instantly flooded the inside of the assassin’s cloth mask, soaking it, and dripping down the front of his chest. He stood there for a second in what seemed to be a frozen shock, then slumped to the floor.
Again the laughing from upstairs rolled through the warehouse like thunder on a hot summer day.
“Someone’s havin’ more fun than me,” Logan said, growling at the ceiling.
Behind him Storm and Rogue arrived.
Around him, out of the shadows, dozens and dozens more assassins swarmed at him.
Rogue immediately went to work on the masked figures, sending them flying in all directions.
Storm spun up a small tornado and took out four more, smashing them back into the wall, leaving them there, stunned and without swords.
Wolverine, between slashes with his claws at the sword arm of one assassin, and kicking another in the gut, saw the woman in purple, flanked by two of her troops, slip out the back door toward the river.
“The boss lady just cut outta here,” Wolverine shouted to Storm. “Want me t’go after her?”
“Our primary concern is Service,” Storm said as she struck two of the assassins’ swords with lightning, charging them enough to force them to drop the weapons. That set them up for Rogue.
“Just thought I’d ask,” Wolverine said. Then with three quick slashes, he cut down three of the assassins as above him two more quick explosions rocked the building.
“A real war zone,” he shouted to Rogue, who only nodded as she snapped the heads of two assassins together.
Down the stairs near the door Gambit bounded, taking the stairs three at a time. About halfway down Gambit dove and rolled, coming up behind a large cement pillar. Then, with three quick flicks of the wrist, he sent a card sailing back up the stairs. Those cards of his were more powerful than hand grenades, and about a million times more accurate.
Three more explosions rocked the building.
More laughter filled the warehouse.
“Remy!” Rogue shouted with a mixture of elation and concern.
‘ ‘Joinin’ the fun, bub?’ ’ Wolverine asked as he dove in beside Gambit to avoid the flying wood and concrete from above.
The Cajun actually looked suiprised. “What are you—’ ’
At that moment Wolverine glanced up at the huge, almost naked figure of a giant coming down what was left of the stairs. This, he thought, has gotta be Robert Service.
Gambit charged a large chunk of wood and tossed it at the giant as Service reached the bottom of the stairs.
Wolverine ducked behind the pillar with Gambit just as the explosion rocked the warehouse. This one actually made the big guy take a step backward. Then he stopped, glanced down at the tattered remains of his clothes, and laughed again.
“Annoying, ain’t he?” Wolverine said.
Service cut off his laugh and started toward Gambit and Wolverine.
Both of them stood, side by side, ready to fight. Wolverine had his claws out, Gambit had cards charged and ready to toss.
Wolverine was ready for this fight. Service had been the reason for that long trip around the country. Now he was going to pay the price.
And as far as Wolverine was concerned, the fare wasn’t going to be cheap.
Suddenly the two of them were picked up and wisked almost instantly back across the warehouse floor by Rogue.
She sat them both down. “Sorry, Storm’s orders.” Then she smiled at Gambit. “Hi there, sugar.”
“Good t’see you, p’tite,” Gambit said, smiling back at her.
Behind them Service laughed and started toward them.
“You two lovebirds mind?” Wolverine said. “We got a fight to finish.” He stepped over the body of an assassin to meet Service head on. No matter what the size, he wasn’t afraid of anything.
“Wolverine,” Ororo’s voice cut through the warehouse. “We work together on this.”
Logan stopped, growled, then nodded, staring down the approaching giant. After being cramped up in that tin can for so long, this was what he was spoiling for. But Ororo was right. This was a teamwork situation all the way.
Beside him Gambit stepped forward and stood his ground beside Wolverine.
Storm moved to the far right.
Rogue went left, staying beside Gambit.
Wolverine let his claws snap outward, then smiled at the approaching giant.
Explosions were rocking the warehouse as Jean released the telekinetic bubble around the four X-Men and the Juggernaut just outside the door. Scott went through the door first, ducking left, as Bishop came in behind him, going right.
The warehouse looke
d as if the fight had been going on for some time. Bodies of masked figures were scattered around the concrete floor. Some still had swords in their hands, others didn’t. From what Scott could tell, they were members of the Assassins Guild. But what that guild had been doing here was anyone’s guess at the moment.
Wolverine, Rogue, and Storm had been joined by Gambit and were in the process of facing down the huge Robert Service. There was no doubt that now he was as large as the Juggernaut, and the emerald had attached to him and was glowing from his chest.
In the past the team hadn’t had a great deal of luck beating the Juggernaut, but they had managed to stop him at times. And the way Scott figured it, Service wasn’t as experienced a fighter as Cain, and was still new to the powers.
And he wasn’t protected from Jean’s powers by a helmet like Cain wore.
So maybe they had a chance.
“Now,” Storm shouted to her team.
Wolverine and Gambit charged. Gambit threw a halfdozen cards in quick succession right at Service’s bare chest.
At the exact same moment Storm hit him with a full bolt of lightening.
Instantly, it seemed, Rogue and Wolverine were at Service’s feet, snapping them out from under the behemoth, sending him over backward with a huge, earth-shuddering crash that smashed the concrete under him.
“Phoenix!” Scott shouted. “Can you get through?” He hoped that she could use her telepathy on Service and bring him in under their control.
Jean was standing, concentrating, shaking her head. She glanced at Scott. 1 ‘The two jewels are connected in some fashion,” she said. “It’s creating a nasty psychic interference. I can’t break through it.”
Scott frowned. “All right, we’ll try a more direct approach.”
With Jean at his side he stepped forward and fired at Service, carefully adding his optic blasts into the fight, making sure he didn’t hit any of his teammates.
And for the moment it looked like they actually might beat Service.
Then, like a monster raising up out of the ocean in a late-night B-movie, Service stood up.
With a swat he sent Wolverine sailing through the air and squarely into Bishop. Then both of them smashed into a cement support pillar. The impact would have killed any normal human, but Wolverine was back up almost instantly and headed once more for the fight.
Bishop was a little slower getting back to his feet.
Service took Rogue’s grip on his leg and bent back her hand until she let go, then shoved her so hard that she went through the roof. A block later she managed to get control and return.
Service then gut-punched the Beast off his back, turned and hit the returning Wolverine so hard it smashed him through the roof. The Beast skidded across the pavement for a short distance before snapping himself up and around. Bishop tried to help Beast, but a backhand by Service sent him flying again. The blow knocked him completely senseless and by the time he came to, the fight was over.
Service ignored Scott’s blast and Storm’s bolts, walking right at them, forcing Scott to back up and finally move aside.
Wolverine came back for a third time and hit him again, full in the head, claws slashing.
Service again just flicked Wolverine away, this time sending him through a wall and out into the street.
Gambit picked up a large chunk of concrete, charged it, and tossed it directly into Service’s chest.
The explosion blew out one wall of the building and shattered windows across the street. Jean barely got a bubble around herself, Ororo, and Scott to protect them from the blast.
But Service seemed completely unfazed. Scott was amazed. So soon after getting the gem Service seemed as powerful as the Juggernaut.
Ororo then tried one more trick. As Service stepped past Scott, she covered him with a quick cloudburst, then froze the water instantly on him and around his feet.
That stopped him for all of two heartbeats. Then the ice on him cracked.
After that, he clapped his hands.
The impact resulted in a shockwave that sent the X-Men flying.
As the mutants tried to pull themselves together, Service stomped one huge foot down on the floor. The ceiling came crashing down around them.
Then the world went black around Scott Summers.
The pain in Cain’s chest felt like it used to feel when his dad hit him hard, with the belt. In all his years as the Juggernaut, he couldn’t remember pain like this.
As a kid, he couldn’t get away from the pain. His father’s belt was like a constant reminder. But as the Juggernaut, he’d escaped the pain. And no one could push him around. Now, suddenly, the pain was back.
And he felt trapped with it.
So, as he did when he was a kid, stuck with his father and that weakling stepbrother Charles, he got angry.
Angry at being trapped with the pain.
Angry at the pain.
And even angrier at the cause.
Service had taken out the X-wimps before Cain even had a chance to get near him.
Which suited Cain fine. It meant Cain had Service to himself. “I’m gonna kill you now,” he said.
Service just laughed.
Cain hated being laughed at. Nobody laughed at the Juggernaut.
He started to walk forward. The floor planks strained under his weight.
“Funny thing about these warehouses,” Service said. “They’re very old. And with a very weak structure. Why, I bet it would take just one impact in the right spot—’ ’
He stomped his right foot onto the already-strained floor.
Suddenly, Cain felt the ground give out from under him and he fell.
“Happy landings!” Service called down, then laughed again.
Cain fell through to a basement, landing on a concrete floor. He didn’t feel the impact.
He did feel anger.
He started to search for a way out of this basement. Then he’d find Service.
It didn’t matter how long it took.
And when he did, his green glow would be painted all ovef'the pavement.
Rogue smashed her way through the rubble of what used to be the warehouse ceiling before finally reaching daylight. Whatever this Robert Service guy was like before, she thought, he was definitely in Juggy’s class now.
She looked around to try to find her teammates. At first, she saw nothing, but then a red optic blast came flying upward through the debris. Scott, Hank, and Bishop climbed up through the hole the blast had made. Seconds later, several bits of ceiling seemed to move of their own accord, which meant Jean was at work. Logan, Jean, Gambit, and a shaken-looking Ororo surfaced after that. Rogue remembered Storm’s claustrophobia and shivered. Being buried alive like that must have been torture for her.
‘ ‘Everyone all right?’ ’ Scott asked. After various affirmative grunts, he asked, “Where’s the Juggernaut?” Logan said, “He bolted. So’s Service. I got both their scents. Follow me.”
The Canadian mutant led the team through the streets of New Orleans—where, Rogue noticed, the pedestrians barely batted an eyelash at the gaudily dressed super heroes, three of whom were flying through the air.
As they moved, they noticed evidence of Service’s passing: smashed cars, broken lampposts, and the like.
“That ain’t Service,” Wolverine said. “That’s Marko. He’s followin’ our man.”
“We’re heading back the way we came,” Bishop said. “Toward the airfield.”
Sure enough, they arrived shortly at the airfield. Service’s trail had gone cold, according to Wolverine, but Juggernaut’s trail led right to the Blackbird. Which sat by itself.
“Where’s the li’l Shi’ar ship?” Rogue asked.
“Good question,” Scott said, sounding more than a little testy.
“Mr. Summers!” called a female voice. “Thank God you’re back!”
Rogue turned to see a short woman with brown hair trailing out from under a Twins baseball cap. It was Kris, the owner of the
airfield. She didn’t look like a mutant to Rogue—but then, someone who just met Rogue wouldn’t think her to be one, either. She wondered what the young airfield owner’s powers were.
“Kris, what happened?” Scott asked. “Where’s the RavenT ’
“The Juggernaut stole it.”
Gambit groaned. “Well, ain’t dat jus’ fine?”
Kris shrugged. “He just stomped in, climbed into the Raven, and took off. We couldn’t stop him.”
“I hope you didn’t even try,” Scott said.
“How’d the big lug even know how t'fly the thing?” Rogue asked.
“Fairly easily, actually,” Hank said. “Like the Danger Room upgrades the Shi’ar provided, the Raven uses a telepathic interface. Pretty much any idiot can fly it just by thinking about it. And Cain isn’t just any idiot.”
‘ ‘Service probably took off in his own plane and Cain is following,” Ororo said.
Logan snorted. “Good bet.”
“Then we’d better follow both of them,” Scott said. “Let’s go, people.”
As one, the X-Men moved toward the Blackbird. As they went, Rogue wondered how much good it could do. Robert Service had already beaten the X-Men once, without even working up a sweat. They weren’t likely to do any better the second time.
Still, they had to try. That’s what being an X-Man was all about.
Gary Service had just finished looking in on his father, then had returned to his office, when his private phone rang.
He had hardly slept at all the night before, and had only catnapped as the day had progressed, and he’d heard no word from anyone. It had been one long day.
He’d managed to track Robert’s plane to Idaho, then back to New Orleans. But he had no idea what was happening. The old man was alive and looked like he would be for days, if not weeks or months. So what happened to Robert was critical to Gary’s plans. And even though he hated his brother, there was a small part that was worried about him.
Gary quickly picked up the phone before the second ring and simply said, “Yes.”
“Gary' Service, please,” a voice said. “This is Hank McCoy.”
“Yes, Doctor, this is Gary. Any word on Robert?” “Not good, I’m afraid,” McCoy said. “Your brother managed to find the other parts of the emerald.”
The Jewels of Cyttorak Page 13
