The woman with the red hair strained, as if her efforts were taking their toll.
Inside his head Service could feel a tickling sensation, but nothing more.
“Is this all you have?” he asked, then laughed.
“Not quite,” the woman with the white streak in her hair said.
Suddenly she shot forward, head down, and rammed him in the chest.
It felt as if the world had exploded around him.
He went flying backward, smashing through the dinning room wall and into the kitchen as darkness flooded over his mind.
This can’t be happening,
was his last thought.
X-NCK
Cain headed the craft in sharply toward the private runway behind a large estate. He was really getting the hang of this plane. Think left, the plane went left. Think right and the plane went right. Made flying a whole lot easier.
He stared at the tree-covered estate below. All he wanted was to get on the ground as quickly as possible. He could tell that Service was down there, in that big house. He was going to finally catch up to the guy and really pound him. Hard.
Payback for all the pain. And for leading him clear around the country, making him work with the X-Men again.
Cain focused on getting on the ground and the plane followed his thoughts, tipping nose straight down, heading directly for the large hangar.
“Hey,” Cain said, “not so steep!”
But it was too late. He had focused on getting on the ground for too long and the plane had responded. Taking him to the ground.
Straight at the ground.
Fast.
With a huge impact and explosion, the plane smashed into the hangar, and the jet inside. A huge fireball roared into the air. Twenty miles away the ground shook.
It took Cain thirty seconds to push his way up out of the flaming wreckage. He emerged unscathed. He shook off debris, stood, and headed for the big mansion.
“Nothin’ stops the Juggernaut, pal,” he said to the big house. “’Bout time you found that out.” “De big guy,” Remy said, staring out at the huge fireball from the direction of the runway, “has arrived.”
“I was wondering how he was going to do on landing,” the Beast said. “I see he did it in normal Juggernaut fashion. Too bad. That was a good little plane.”
“Here he comes,” Gambit said.
The Juggernaut was striding across the lawn. And Gambit could tell he was angry.
Very angry.
A large explosion shook the center of the house.
“Looks like dis up t’me an’ you,” Remy said.
“Seems that way for the moment,” the Beast said. “Until the others finish their task of breaking up that emerald.”
Gambit stepped to an umbrella stand near the back door and grabbed all four umbrellas and the walking stick that it held. Then he went through the back door and out onto the lawn, the Beast right behind him.
The Juggernaut saw them and only shook his head, not slowing down in the slightest.
Gambit hadn’t expected him to.
“Stop dere,
mon ami,”
Gambit said.
The Juggernaut said nothing. Just kept walking.
Remy charged the first of the umbrellas with kinetic energy and then threw it like a spear at the Juggernaut.
It hit, tip first, on the Juggernaut’s chest and exploded.
One right after another Remy charged the umbrellas and threw them.
One right after another they exploded against the Juggernaut’s chest.
And one step after another the big guy kept coming. The explosions didn’t even slow him down.
This was twice in two days Gambit had faced one of these big monsters. It was getting old real fast.
Hank then bounded right into the Juggernaut’s path. “Cain, listen to me. You have to give us a chance to stop him before—”
The Juggernaut didn’t even let Hank finish talking. He swung at the blue-furred mutant with a giant fist. Luckily, the Beast had been expecting it, and managed to duck the blow.
“Okay,” Hank said, leaping to the roof of the house in a single bound. “I’ve always felt that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, but if it’s fisticuffs you want, then it’s fisticuffs you’ll get.
He ripped apart a brick chimney and threw each brick with uncanny accuracy, using both hands and one foot. The bricks hit the Juggernaut like machine-gun bullets, one right after the other against his head with intense force.
He didn’t even glance up.
Gambit grabbed a small lawn statue of a frog, charged it with energy, and threw it as hard as he could. The explosion against Juggernaut’s chest blew out the windows in the kitchen and back area of the house.
But Cain Marko was obviously too angry to even stop and fight. He just kept going.
He reached the back door of the house and didn’t even bother to open it, just plowed right on inside.
Gambit glanced up at Beast on the wall of the house and shrugged.
“Let’s hope,” Beast said, “that our friends were a little more successful than we were.”
Gary Service pointed to the driveway to his estate. “In there.”
He held on as the driver of the camouflaged transport truck turned sharply and sped up the driveway. A huge fire was raging behind the mansion, near the runway. Gary didn’t want to think about the chance that was Robert’s plane burning back there. He wanted his brother stopped and in jail, not dead.
The transport truck skidded to a halt in front of the main door to the mansion and a moment later a second truck did the same. As Gary climbed out twenty men jumped down and formed two lines, facing the mansion. Each man wore military garb and were armed with knives, hand grenades, and AK-47s. It was the largest force Gary could put together in the few short hours, and it had cost him over a quarter of a million to do it. But if it helped capture Robert, it would be worth it.
“Half in the side door,” Gary said, pointing to his right. “The other half come with me in the front.”
Explosions rocked the ground. It sounded to Gary as if they came from behind the house.
Trager, the man in charge of the mercenaries, quickly had his men running in both directions as Gary moved up and shoved open the front door.
Inside smoke drifted in the air in the marble foyer. Crashes and small explosions echoed from the direction of the kitchen.
Sounds like there’s a war going on in there,
Gary thought.
“This way,” he said, heading down the hallway, ten armed and trained men right behind him.
Cyclops bent over the still form of Robert Service. The emerald was still attached to the man’s chest and he was starting to stir. They clearly hadn’t been able to damage the stone enough to break it free. But it was clear that the stone was divided into three parts. Just how to break the gem back into those parts was the main question.
And there wasn’t much time from the sounds of the explosions rocking the building from the back. The Juggernaut was almost here and there was no telling what he would do when he found Service.
Cyclops glanced around at Phoenix. “Can you get a mental lock on him?”
After a moment she said, “No. The interference between the two gems is fierce.”
Service groaned.
‘ ‘What knocked him out?’ ’ Rogue asked.
Before Cyclops could respond, the outside wall of the kitchen exploded inward, covering them all in flying dust and wood.
The Juggernaut had arrived.
He stopped just inside the kitchen and looked around through the dust. ‘ ‘Where is he?’ ’
“We’ve got to keep them apart!” Cyclops shouted. “Storm, lay down an ice path back toward the runway.”
Instantly Cyclops fired his hardest ray square at the Juggernaut’s chest as Storm created a blizzard of snow and freezing rain to cover the ground under the Juggernaut with a sheet of slick, smooth ice. The room grew significantly colder, and Cyclops noticed the sun disappearing behind a sudden influx of clouds.
With a rolling tackle, Wolverine knocked the feet out from under the Juggernaut, sending Cain sprawling on his back on the ice and snow. Then the force of Cyclops’s beam pushed hard, sending the Juggernaut back along the path that Storm was laying down.
Gaining speed away from the house.
After the Juggernaut was moving at a good clip, completely unable to stand or stop on the icy surface, Cyclops stopped firing his beam. The momentum of the Juggernaut might carry him for a mile or so, as long as Storm kept the microblizzard going.
On the floor in front of him Robert Service moaned and tried to sit up.
“Anyone got any bright ideas?” Wolverine said, looking down at the huge form of Robert Service.
Before Cyclops could answer, a large group of men carrying guns charged into the dining room and took up positions, weapons aimed at the X-Men.
Then Gary Service stepped forward.
And Robert Service stood up.
The Juggernaut had never been as angry before as he was right at that moment. He felt like a turtle trapped on his back, sliding, unable to stop. That and the intense pain in his chest from being so close to the man with the green emerald. He was almost clear back to the runway before his anger moved aside and allowed him to think. The X-Men had tried this stupid stunt on him once before.
He slammed his fist hard into the ground, right through the layer of ice.
Instantly he stopped.
He stood by stamping his feet hard, down into the ground below the layer of ice. Then he turned and headed back for the mansion.
Storm flashed ahead of him and back inside before he had taken three steps. It didn’t matter. This time he would take care of that stupid Service and stop the pain.
And Charles’s little scout troop wasn’t going to be able to stop him.
“Gary,” Cyclops shouted. “Stay out of this! X-Men, ready!”
He poured his hardest beam straight into Robert Service’s emerald, just as they had done before.
Bishop yanked out an electrical socket, touched the two wires together against his palm, and directed the electrical charge at Service’s emerald.
Storm dropped in beside Cyclops and added her strongest bolts of lightning.
This time Service stood there laughing.
Cyclops couldn’t believe what he saw. It was as if Service was taking all the energy being shot at him and
using it to get stronger.
Suddenly Rogue, head down, flashed at Service. But this time he was ready for her. He simply raised an arm and smashed her aside, sending her through a wall and off into the air.
“Halt!” Cyclops shouted and cut off his beam. Bishop and Storm did the same with their attack.
An odd silence fell over the crowded dining room, kitchen, and hallway area.
Then again Robert Service laughed, the huge sound echoing through the house.
“Anyone ever talk to you about that annoying laugh, bub?” Wolverine said, sneering.
Hank, who had entered with Gambit a moment behind the Juggernaut, shook his head. “This is not a good development at all. Not at all.”
“Got dat right,
mon ami,”
Gambit said.
Service ignored the X-Men, and the men with the rifles. He faced Gary Service. “Nice seeing you again, little brother. How’s our dear old father holding up?” Gary moved one step toward his huge older brother and stopped. “He’s dead.”
Robert Service again laughed. “I knew I was having a good day.”
“I’d say that good day is about to end,” the Juggernaut said from the hole in the side of the kitchen where the door used to be.
“So,” Robert Service said, turning to face the Jug-gemaut. “You’re the red creature who has been following me and causing me such pain.”
“Stop him!” Gary shouted to the men with the guns. He pointed at the Juggernaut.
Instantly the room was rocked with the intense noise of ten AK-47’s opening fire at once.
Cyclops knew that to the Juggernaut, those bullets were nothing more than annoying little bumps. The bullets ricocheted in all directions off the Juggernaut, tearing up the walls and ceiling of the kitchen.
Phoenix instantly formed a telekinetic bubble around the X-Men.
Dust and plaster filled the air along with the incredible sound of ten AK-47 rifles being fired inside at the same time.
One man with a rifle went down, a small hole spurting blood from his arm, the result of a ricochet.
“Hold your fire!” Cyclops yelled. When it became clear that the men had no intention of doing so, he shouted to his team, “Get the guns away from them!” Another ten armed men stormed into the crowed area, filling the area with chaos.
The Juggernaut stepped two huge steps forward and grabbed Gary Service. He held Gary out in front of him like a rag doll in the hands of a child.
Wolverine meanwhile slashed through two of the rifles with his claws. Then he took the two men and cracked their heads together.
Beast, using both hands and one foot, yanked guns out of three others’ hands.
Shouting, “Leave my brother alone!” Robert Sendee
Z3«,
jumped forward into the line of gunfire that still raged at the Juggernaut, smashing a huge fist into the side of the behemoth’s head.
The blow caused the Juggernaut to drop Gary. Storm whisked the dazed man out of danger with a gust of wind as she blasted three other guns with lightning.
Less than a minute after Cyclops had given the order to disarm them, the firing stopped. Every man with a weapon had been stripped of his firepower.
Wolverine snarled at two of them. “Get out of here before I tear you apart and have you for dinner.”
“It would not be unwise to heed my friend,” Hank said, twirling one rifle with the toes of his right foot. “He loves red meat.”
Without waiting for orders from their leader, or Gary, the men scrambled for any opening they could find out of the area.
As they did so, Robert Service hit the Juggernaut with a huge, solid blow to the chin.
It was a blow Cyclops could imagine no one surviving.
The Juggernaut flew backwards, crashing through the wall and landing on his back on the lawn.
“This is going to be fun,” Service said, stomping after him through the hole.
Cyclops glanced at his teammates. The fight they had hoped to avoid was about to happen. And there didn’t seem to be a thing they could do about it.