I didn't have time to look back. Laughter followed as I ran. I ignored the bodies of my friends that marred the floor. The smell of blood and methane filled the air. My whole body ached. Tears flowed freely from my three eyes. A spiking pain bloomed on my shoulder with every rapid step, the metal blade that white-haired devil had pierced me with scraping bone. I had to survive. I couldn't be the last. This wasn't the end of the Morlocks.
Spoiled sewer water filled my ragged shoes as I sped around a bend in the tunnel. My legs finally gave out, and a cry of pain escaped as I fell into the gore that had flooded the sewer system. The taste of iron filled my mouth. Oh god. Whose blood was this? Piper's? Tommy's? Callisto's?
Voices echoed, coming closer.
"Hey, this one's mine," said a saccharine-sweet voice, high and cracked. "I already tagged him, didn't you see my blade in his shoulder?"
I crawled to the corner and peeked out. The man speaking was long-limbed, with a strangely feminine, gaunt face and bone-white hair. He strolled as if the death around him meant nothing. I pushed back my shout of rage. I had the chance to surprise them.
Next to the whirling blade-thrower was a man who looked carved out of diamond. Light reflected off his body, filling the tunnel with a clinical white glow. "We're here to wipe them out. If I see him, he's dead. No matter if you think his life is yours," said the diamond creature.
Silently, I reached out with my mutant sense and began drawing in the gaseous elements in the air. My skin undulated and parted as I absorbed gases. They had gifted me the name Fume, lord of the gaseous elements, a living chemical plant. I would produce a localized mustard gas to blind them, to smother them in my hatred.
A quick, clumsy lurch was the only thing that saved me as the diamond foe shot a blinding light. Heat rolled over me. The place I had been exploded with a boom, raining down bloody sewer water and dust. Damn it. No.
A look of a boy finding his favorite toy crossed the white-haired ghoul's face. His smile carried no kindness, his gums showing like an ape attempting to scare.
"I found you," sang the murderous bastard. "Name's Riptide, and you'll be my sixtieth prey today."
I rushed to my feet. For a moment, the pain threatened to bring me down again, but I fought through it. I would die standing in the same tunnels my people did.
Before either of the murderers could make a move against me, a silver blur crashed into Riptide. The man screamed as he flew into a wall. A huge titan with metal skin in a red and yellow uniform stood over Riptide, his face frozen in a rictus of fury. I recognized him. He was an X-Man, Colossus. He grabbed the squealing man by the neck. There was a moment of hesitation before he sharply turned Riptide's head with a crack.
Seeing the opportunity, I flung my hands forward and with a scream shot a jet of pressurized air at the diamond man. He jumped out of the way, the air stream smashing into the tunnel wall. The ground rocked. The tunnel was on the verge of collapse. The diamond man glared at me and lanced a burning light beam. My teeth gritted and I flexed my awareness, the air ionized and shaped into a compressed shield around me.
Cruel light engulfed my vision, but still I could perceive my surroundings by movement in gas pressure. I felt the diamond foe aiming at me again. Oh, no you don't. I blew out a cloud of pure oxygen and mentally rushed it at him. With a slight thought, I sped up the particles. A great boom destroyed the last of the tunnel's foundations, engulfing my enemy. Car-sized rocks crashed into the ground. There were so many particles in the air, I couldn't see. I withdrew my awareness of gases.
I fell to the ground, the last of my strength gone. Soon, I'll meet all of you again. I imagined the family that accepted me: Tint with his colorful chrome skin, Protective Piper with his animals, and my sweetheart Mabel waiting for me on the other side. Something lifted me.
I dimly felt the air rush over me as someone ran with me in their arms. My blurred vision cleared, and I looked up at the steel X-Man. I tried to find the words to say. Didn't I want to die here?
My thoughts were cut off as a crescendo of blasts smashed into Colossus's back. I flew as he stumbled and dropped me. I rolled to a stop and looked back. Hatred filled my every being.
At the entrance of the collapsing tunnel stood the diamond man, his body glowing with fire. Had he absorbed my attack?
He marched forward, and he raised his head. This was it.
The man suddenly stopped and rose in the air. Was he flying? The scared look on his face said otherwise. I turned to see a beautiful red-haired woman, her arm outstretched, her face pinched in concentration.
The diamond man tried to push against the telekinetic hold, but with a growl of fury, the woman threw him against the collapsed entrance. She did it again and again until he stopped moving. I laughed before passing out.
"Serves those monsters right."