The Jewels of Cyttorak (22 page)

Cyclops figured the hole they had dug was at least a hundred feet deep and thirty feet across when he shouted, “Stop!”

He cut off his own beam, then tried to study the bottom of the pit through the smoke and steam.

From what he could see, Cain stood on the bottom, staring upward.

“You’re dead, Summers,” the Juggernaut said, his huge voice rumbling out of the ground like it was coming from a gigantic megaphone.

“Y’look good down there, Marko,” Wolverine said, walking up and staring down into the huge hole.

“You won’t look so good when I get out of here.”

“I’m waitin’,” Wolverine said, smiling.

The Juggernaut growled and started back up the side of the hole, pounding his fists and arms into the sides of the dirt for handholds.

Cyclops was amazed at how quick he was moving. It was easy to forget that the Juggernaut was fast, given how massive he was.

“Gambit,” Cyclops said. “Let’s keep him down there. You take his right side, I’ll take his left.”

“Bete,” Gambit said, “keep de ammunition cornin’.”

Cyclops blasted the side of the hole under the Juggernaut’s left foot while Gambit blew away the ground under his right.

With a growl the Juggernaut tumbled back to the bottom.

Cyclops blasted the pit another ten feet deep under the Juggernaut, just for an extra margin of safety.

As the dust and steam cleared, Cyclops watched the Juggernaut stand and start up the side again.

Rogue and Storm found Robert Service near the front door of his mansion. The momentum from Rogue’s hit had sent him crashing through three rooms. He was just starting to get back to his feet as they flashed into the room.

“You’ll pay for that,” he said, “as soon as I finish with that red beast.”

“I’m so worried,” Rogue said, smiling at Service and slamming into him as he was starting to rise, knocking him to the floor again. She flew off before he could get his hands on her. She figured that if she got Service angry, he might go after her instead of Juggernaut. Not likely, but worth the chance.

Service tried to clamber up once again, but a hurricane force wind smashed into Service’s chest.

Clearly Service hadn’t been ready for that.

Storm’s gale knocked Service over backward and through the front wall of his home as if it were so much tissue paper.

Halfway down the driveway he landed and skidded, then managed to stand and stay standing against the combined force from the two women.

Service staggered two steps forward at the sudden stop. Both women floated between him and his mansion, smiling.

“That was fun,” Rogue said. “What’s next?” It actually had been fun. She enjoyed seeing someone like Service, who thought they were all powerful, get their just desserts.

“Twister,” Storm said.

Rogue knew instantly what she meant. They had pulled the same trick on the Juggernaut a number of years back.

“Laugh all you want,” Service said. “But you will—”

He took a step toward the two women and Storm lowered the temperature, bringing the blizzard back, forming a thick sheet of ice under his feet while Rogue rushed at Service’s right side.

The big guy moved to hit her, but she knocked his arm away, sending him spinning like a top on the sheet of ice.

Storm kept the ice thick under him while Rogue spun

him.

And spun him.

“Heck, sugar,” Rogue said, laughing, “you’re makin’ me dizzy just watchin’.” Sometimes, she thought, this job was actually fun. And spinning a killer like Robert Service was about as much fun as she could have. She just hoped Remy and the others were having as good a time pounding on the Juggernaut out back.

Service spun for a good fifteen seconds, during which time Bishop finally caught up and joined the group.

Then Service dropped to his hands and knees and smashed one fist through the ice, instantly stopping his spinning.

Rogue was impressed. It had taken him almost a full minute less than the Juggernaut to figure out the same thing. Finishing this guy off was not going to be easy.

When Service looked up at the three X-Men his face was red, his eyes bulging.

Slowly he climbed to his feet as the color returned to his face, replaced by the pale intensity of anger.

“He seems upset,” Rogue said, her tone laced with mock concern. “Normally he’s such a happy-go-lucky sorta guy. Always laughin’, an’ all.”

“Just keep joking,” Service said between gritted teeth. “I will have the last laugh when this is finished.” Rogue smiled at him sweetly. She would do everything in her power to keep him distracted from the Juggernaut. And making him mad at her was one way that seemed to be working just fine.

Storm looked at him sternly. “I doubt that. You have killed a man in cold blood. You will be punished.”

Service only snorted, then started back toward the house and the Juggernaut beyond.

“I have an idea,” Bishop said. “Rogue, bring me those power lines.”

Rogue knew what Bishop was going to try. “And do a little wrapping along the way?” she asked Bishop. Bishop gave Rogue a sharp nod.

A moment later Rogue had the hot power lines off the nearby poles and in her hands.

“A little water and ice, Storm,” Bishop said.

Service was shortly drenched in water and the ground under him still layered in thick, hard ice.

As fast as she could go Rogue spun the thick, charged wires around Service.

Then she handed the hot end of the wires to Bishop. He held the wires with his left hand, channelling the charge through himself and blasting it—along with the energy he’d accumulated from Service and the Juggernaut earlier—back at Service. Again, he focused on the emerald. Rogue nodded in appreciation. There was still a chance, after all, that they could break the emerald in three. If they did that, it would make things much easier.

Service’s hair stood directly on end from the charge and his face turned red as he strained to break out of the wrapped wire.

Then, with an angry roar, Service did just that. A shower of sparks flew in all directions. Storm moved herself out of their path. Neither Rogue nor Bishop bothered doing the same. Her invulnerability protected her, and his mutant power allowed him to absorb the charge.

“You don’t look so good, sugar,” Rogue said coo-ingly to Service.

“Can you get him airborne?” Storm asked Rogue.

“I can try.”

At full speed she headed off to the side of Service, then came around behind him faster than he could follow and hit him low and upward, square in the back of his

legs.

It felt as if she’d run into a solid stone wall. The impact rocked her.

Her blow sent him about ten feet into the air.

Instantly a tornado formed under him and spun him upward.

Rogue landed next to Bishop and worked to catch her breath. That impact had almost knocked all the wind out of her and she felt the impact clear through to her bones.

“Are you all right?” Bishop asked.

She nodded and took another deep breath. “Just give me a half a minute before you ask me to run. That’s what I get for bein’ cocky ’bout bein’ invulnerable.”

For thirty seconds Storm kept Service spinning in the air. Then the big guy tucked his arms tight against his side, put his legs together, and twisted around slightly so his legs were aimed at the ground. There just wasn’t enough surface on him for the winds to hold that much mass aloft.

He hit the ground like a missile, going up to his ankles in the concrete.

“Now,” Service said, stepping out of the hole he’d made and glaring at the X-Men. “If you are finished playing around, I’ve got a red monster to deal with.”

He turned and strode toward the mansion.

Rogue glanced at Storm. “I got an idea that’ll put some distance ’tween him and here,” she said. “Gimme a boost?”

Storm nodded.

With a quick turn Rogue spun around and came in at Service low and upward. She caught him right in the center of his stomach, pushing upward and away from the Service estate with everything she had. She could feel the boost of Storm’s winds helping her lift him.

One hundred feet.

Two hundred feet.

She could feel his hard hands grabbing her by the shoulders like steel vises and yanking her away from his body. Then as if she were nothing more than a rag doll, he physically threw her aside.

She tumbled through the air for a moment, then righted herself and turned to watch.

Storm’s winds kept pushing on Service. For a few more moments Storm managed to shove him higher and farther away from the mansion. If he’d allowed it to continue, Rogue had no doubt that Storm might just have given him enough velocity to reach orbit. Maybe even beyond.

But again Service didn’t let their trick last long.

He simply pulled in his arms tight against his body again, and then put his legs together. With a simple twist he aimed for the ground.

Nothing Storm could do at that point. His huge body was like a wing cutting through the air. So she stopped and with Rogue returned to the front of the mansion.

By the time Service hit the ground in the middle of a nearby forest, he was almost a mile away from the Service estate.

Storm turned to Rogue and Bishop. “Let’s retreat and make a stand where Phoenix has her shield,’’ Storm said. “I don’t think we can do much more out here.”

“Over the top,” Rogue said, holding out her arm for Bishop to hold onto. “Need a lift?”

A moment later they landed beside Phoenix.

“We stopped him for a short time,”. Rogue said to Phoenix. “But he’s headed back here.”

“Not long enough,” Storm said.

Rogue could only nod her agreement to that.

For a short time Cyclops thought that just maybe they had found a way to stop the Juggernaut. He kept trying to climb out of the huge hole they’d dug under him, but every time Cyclops and Gambit had simply knocked the Juggernaut’s hand- and footholds away.

“Cyclops,” Hank said, pointing back toward the mansion. “Storm and the other team are beside Phoenix. It would appear they might need some help with Service.”

“Wolverine, go and see what you can do,” Cyclops said without taking his eyes away from the hole. “Hank, you keep Gambit supplied with ammunition.”

From what Cyclops could tell through the swirling smoke, the Juggernaut was again on the very bottom of the hole. And from the looks of it, he was crouching.

Then suddenly the Juggernaut sprang upward, shoving as hard as he could with those huge legs.

Three quarters of the way up Cyclops hit the Juggernaut directly with a full blast, trying with everything he had to push him back down. Gambit smashed him with a large, kinetically charged brick.

The combined force of their attack stopped the Juggernaut’s upward motion, but he shoved both feet and both hands deeply into the side of the pit, then started climbing.

Cyclops managed to vaporize the soil under his right side while Gambit sent explosion after explosion against the soil to his left.

And for a moment it looked as if it might work again. Cain started to topple over backwards.

But then, just at the last possible moment, the Juggernaut sank his legs firmly into the side of the pit, crouched, and sprang away from the wall, smashing into the other wall twenty feet under the two X-Men.

And in a position where they couldn’t see the pit wall.

Before either of them could move around for an angle of attack, the Juggernaut was up and over the lip of the huge hole.

He turned and stared at Cyclops. “When I’m finished with this Service jerk, you’re gonna pay for that little trick, Summers.”

“Just trying to save your life, Cain,” Cyclops said.

“You worry about your life,” the Juggernaut said. “I’ll take care of mine.”

With that he turned and headed back for mansion.

At that moment Cyclops could see Service coming out of the side of the mansion, headed for the Juggernaut.

Only Phoenix stood between them now, and Cyclops doubted she had enough power to hold them apart very long.

Round two was about to begin and for some reason Cyclops didn’t believe there would be a round three between the two giants.

Phoenix saw Service come through the mansion, then to her right she saw the Juggernaut emerge from the trap Cyclops and Gambit had built for him and head toward

Service. It looked as if it was now her turn.

In her mind she constructed the strongest telekinetic shield she could form and spread it between the two marching giants. She hoped it would be strong enough to keep the two titans apart.

Then a half-second before the Juggernaut hit it, Robert Service hit the shield and bounced back, surprised.

The Juggernaut did the same.

Storm and Bishop both hit Service, knocking him back away from the shield.

Cyclops and Gambit smashed at the Juggernaut, making him stagger back a few steps.

Again they both started forward, arms outstretched, ready to grab the other.

And again they hit the shield and bounced back.

Inside her mind, Phoenix could feel the enormous strain of holding the shield up against the two. She didn’t know how many hits she could withstand.

Wolverine jumped onto the back of Service and started slashing with his claws.

Service grabbed Wolverine like he was nothing more than a dirty shirt and tossed him aside.

Rogue went in hard at the Juggernaut, but he smashed her away, sending her tumbling like a ball across the lawn and into a tree. Then, ignoring the constant barrage that Cyclops and Gambit flung at him, he moved up until he could feel the shield. Then with a mighty blow, smashed his fist into it.

Phoenix had seen the blow coming and braced herself, but it felt as if her mind was being ripped out through her eyes. Never in her life could she have imagined such pain.

Drop your shield
, the Professor’s voice echoed clearly in her head.

But
—she started to object, but his voice filled every nook of her brain.

Now!

She did as he said just as the Juggernaut started to again swing at the shield.

There was nothing there for him to hit.