The Jewels of Cyttorak (23 page)

He moved forward and within moments he had a grip on the emerald on Service’s chest.

And Robert Service, at the exact same time, had a grip on the ruby on the Juggernaut’s chest.

Phoenix slumped to the lawn and sat watching. She had a terrible headache, but even through the pain she could hear the Professor’s voice.
Jean, I have a plan that should allow us to finally end this.

She nodded and hoped that the Professor’s plan was a good one. They’d hit Service and Cain with everything they had, and it barely slowed them down.

Now it was do-or-die time.

The Professor sat ridged in his hoverchair, his mind focused on what had just happened at the Service estate. Around him the even temperature of his study contrasted with the bizarre mix of heat, humidity, and cold that Storm’s weather-working had brought to the Service estate.

He could also feel all the aches and torn muscles and bruises they were suffering at the moment. But thankfully, all of them were still alive and well.

He was also hurting from what he had felt just a moment before when Phoenix tried to hold Cain and Service apart.

But none of that mattered now. He’d finally located a text that gave him the final piece of the puzzle. He’d run a computer simulation, and now it confirmed his hypothesis. The answer had been staring them right in the face all along.

Now linked with the entire X-Men team on the Service estate, he could feel the minds of Wolverine, the Beast, Cyclops, Gambit, Rogue, Bishop, Storm, and Phoenix. They were all waiting, listening for him to begin.

“I have been able to find many references to the ruby of Cyttorak and the crimson bands of Cyttorak, but comparatively little on this emerald. However, I have found one text that talks of both the ruby and the emerald together, and it confirms what Gary Service told us.

‘ ‘Both of them serve as conduits to Cyttorak, and are sources of great power. Originally they were placed in the

two hands of a statue. A prophecy states that one day the statue would come alive and bring its hands together, which would bring about a new age, as the power of Cyttorak would flood into this world.

“However, while they are separated, only one can serve as a proper conduit for Cyttorak \s power. Cain’s power has gone unchallenged, since the emerald has been shattered for centuries. Now that the emerald is in use, it’s taking power away from Cain, hence the pain he’s been feeling.”

Juggy don’t seem like he’s hampered none,
Rogue said.

“I suspect that is due to Cain’s lengthier relationship with the ruby. Service, for all his power, is still a neophyte. But the advantage may soon be his thanks, unfortunately, to us. You see, both jewels feed off of energy— that only increases their power.”

So all our attacks have had the opposite effect of what we wanted,
Cyclops said.

“Correct. The jewels work much the same way as Bishop’s power.”

Great,
Wolverine said,
so how the hell do we stop ’em?

“The same way the statue was destroyed. The emerald must be physically smashed.”

Easier said than done, Charles,
the Beast pointed out.
Our two overgrown playmates are going at it great guns once again. I doubt we could get through to the emerald to smash it.

Yes we can,
Cyclops said.
Professor, you said
both
jewels are energy conduits, yes?

“That is correct.”

Then we can do it. Bishop, I want you to pull the same trick you pulled before. Absorb the energy field that Cain and Service are creating.

Bishop’s thoughts felt dubious to the Professor.
I doubt they’ll be distracted a second time.

They won’t need to be. You just need to absorb enough of the energy field to allow Phoenix to create a telekinetic wedge between them. It just needs to be enough to separate them for a moment.

The Professor saw where Cyclops was going with his plan. He didn’t like it. “Cyclops, can I assume that you are proposing to fire on Cain’s ruby?”

That’s exactly what I’m proposing. Service has ripped open his artnor, so the ruby is exposed. If Bishop, Storm, Gambit, and I hit the ruby with everything we’ve got, it should give Cain the upper hand and weaken Service enough to allow access to the emerald.

Yeah, but we already proved we can’t blow it off him,
Wolverine pointed out.

Blow it off, no. Smash it, yes. That’s where you come in, Wolverine. Gary Service told us that the emerald, according to legend, was smashed by a wooden staff.

The Professor could feel Wolverine’s smile through the link.
In that case, my claws should have no problem.

The Professor hesitated. Cyclops’s plan was sound, as always, but it meant increasing Cain’s power.

But Robert Service was the greater threat here. Better the evil you know, as the saying went. If stopping Service meant increasing Cain’s power, then that was what they had to do.

‘ ‘Very well, X-Men. One thing, however. If you succeed in smashing the emerald back into its three parts, we must get those pieces away from there as quickly as possible, without touching them. And without letting Cain get them. They are too deadly.”

You got dat right,
Gambit said.
Dem t’ings messed up Remy’s home.

Understood,
said Cyclops, and like thoughts came from the others.

“Good luck,” he said.

Then he cut the link with the team. The strain was beginning to take its toll.

The dark coolness of his study closed in around him and he let himself sink down slightly in his hoverchair. He was worried, both for his team, and for the first time in years, for the life of his stepbrother.

If this didn’t work, there would be no telling what Service might do to him. And that possibility the Professor didn’t even want to think about.

And if it did work, the Juggernaut could become an even greater menace.

Whatever else had happened between them, Cain Marko was still family, and Charles Xavier could not bring himself to wish him ill. At least, not the level of ill that Robert Service would do to him if Cyclops’s plan failed.

Cyclops took a deep breath of as the Professor cut the telepathic link. Then he glanced around at the fight going

me jewels or cyttorak

on between the Juggernaut and Robert Service. They were still just standing toe to toe, holding onto the other’s gem, smashing at each other. Once again, a barrier of ionized air was forming around them.

Stalemate.

Well
, he thought,
if this works, that '11 be broken in a minute.

Cyclops nodded to Bishop, who once again thrust his hands into the energy being generated by the two behemoths.

As Bishop had feared, it did not distract them this time.
Go, Jean,
Cyclops thought to his wife through the rapport they shared.

Scott Summers could see the frown of intense concentration on the face of the woman he loved as she tried to drive the combatants apart.

For a moment nothing happened. Service and Juggernaut continued to pound at each other, oblivious to Bishop’s presence right next to them.

Then, just for a moment, they broke apart, looks of surprise on both their faces.

“Now!”
Cyclops shouted.

Bishop, being the closest, was the first to fire, hitting the ruby with all the power he’d just accumulated.

Cyclops fired a beam as tight as the one he’d used to dig the trench earlier.

Storm sent a barrage of lightning.

Gambit had ran out of cards, so he grabbed several rocks and branches and tossed them with unerring accuracy at Juggernaut’s chest.

It looked for a moment like a miniature bomb had exploded in front of Cain Marko.

The Juggernaut screamed.

So did Robert Service.

Then, the X-Men’s barrage still in full force, Juggernaut charged forward and bodyslammed Service, who landed fifteen feet away on his back.

“Cease fire!” Cyclops ordered, cutting off his optic blast. “Wolverine, now!”

To an observer unfamiliar with Wolverine, they would think that he was leaping onto the chest of a defenseless man and slicing his heart out.

But Cyclops knew Logan was more precise than that. With three precise swipes, he slashed at the emerald.

Service screamed once again, and slammed a fist into Wolverine’s stomach that send the Canadian mutant flying back toward the estate. Rogue flew off to rescue him.

Then Service tried to get up.

There was a huge explosion of bright green light.

Force blasted outward, like a solid, invisible wall, smashing through the air and mowing down everything and everybody in its path.

Cyclops tumbled head over heels, coming up flat on the grass facing the lawn. The wind was knocked out of him, but he could still see what was happening to the two giants and his team.

Service tumbled three or four times, head over heels, then lay still on the grass. Right before Cyclops’s eyes Service shrunk down to a normal size.

The Juggernaut was tossed a hundred feet backward, landing with such force that he plowed a five-foot-deep trench in the lawn.

Rogue, while trying to retrieve Wolverine, was smashed into the house. Both of them ended up crashing through a second-story bedroom.

Storm managed to protect herself with her power and ride out the force wave.

Phoenix somehow had gotten a protective bubble around Gambit and herself, but no one else.

Hank was slowly picking himself out of a rose bush. Bishop had been thrown against a tree, but he too moved slowly.

And on the tom up-grass where the two combatants had just been fighting, three emeralds lay, shining in the afternoon sun.

Cain shook his head and managed to sit up.

He was a good distance from where he’d been fighting with Service. Most of the windows were blown out of the mansion and his stepbrother’s annoying group were scattered around the huge lawn like child’s toys tossed away. Granted, they had helped him feel stronger by feeding him energy. But that didn’t make up for trapping him in that stupid hole.

He climbed to his feet and looked around.

Where was Service?

Then he noticed the naked, normal-sized man laying face down on the lawn and realized he had won.

He also realized the pain in his chest had stopped. It

had been there so long, it seemed, that he’d almost gotten used to it, like he’d almost gotten used to the beatings from his father.

But now, like his father, the pain was gone.

He could feel nothing. No drive to find anything. No direction to follow.

He was free again.

And he was going to make sure he stayed that way.

On the grass near where the naked man lay was the emerald, now in three pieces again. He would make sure that no one ever could hurt him again with that stone.

Ever.

Keeping his eyes focused on the stone, he started back toward where he and Service had fought.

Suddenly he was hit from the side by that annoying little furball, the Beast. He grabbed him and tossed him in the direction of the huge hole in the yard.

Then Storm faced him, holding up her hand for him to stop.

“No, Cain,” she said. “Don’t touch the stones.”

He ignored her and kept going, now not more than twenty steps away from the largest of the emeralds.

Suddenly a huge wind was hitting him squarely in the chest, pushing him backward. He caught his footing and pushed forward, one step slow at a time.

Nothing was going to stop him.

Nothing.

Especially Charles’s annoying little group.

“Storm!” Cyclops shouted with what breath he could muster, pushing himself back to his feet at the same time.

The Juggernaut was headed back for the emeralds. The Beast had tried to stop him and gotten brushed aside. Bishop stood before him, shortly joined by Rogue flying down with Wolverine from the second story, but he was still coming, getting closer and closer.

Someone had to move those emeralds. And the only one of them who could do that without touching them was Storm.

“Storm, blow the emeralds over by me, quickly!”

The Juggernaut had forced Rogue back almost to the emeralds now, and had smashed aside Bishop like he was nothing more than an annoying weed in his way.

Storm formed a wind with consummate ease—given the microblizzard and the tornado, the winds had already intensified to a degree most atypical for midsummer, so it was a simple matter for Ororo to give them a push.

Within seconds all three stones landed on the grass in front of him. That had bought them another twenty paces and a few more minutes.

Cyclops stared at the dangerous gems at his feet, then shouted to Phoenix who had joined the fight with Rogue to slow down the Juggernaut.

Suddenly, he heard the Professor’s voice in his head.
Cyclops, quickly, you must blast the emeralds the same way you blasted the ruby.

“But won’t that increase their power?” Cyclops said.