The X-Tremes #2
by Ben Church
b_church@yahoo.com
Feedback!  Please!

I don't own em.

	"Oh my god," Jonathan said.  "What happened?"
	"That's what I'd like to know." Will insisted, 
indicating the empty room.  "I sent them to bed when the 
Zombies started heading for home, and now they're gone."
	"Essex must have taken them." the Innkeeper said.  "He 
must have sensed your power and sent his underlings for them."
	"Fine." Will said.  "That makes about as much sense 
as anything else around here.  Where can I find him?"
	"You can't be thinking about going after them!" 
Jonathan exclaimed.
	"That's exactly what I'm thinking of doing." Will told 
him.
	"He makes his domain in the castle on the mountain 
yonder." The Innkeeper said, pointing at the mountain out the 
window.  "But you'd do well to forget them.  If you go after 
Essex, you may lose your soul.  Your friends are probably 
already dead."
	"I have to try.  If I forget my friends, I've already 
lost my soul."

	Will walked quickly down the road.  His heart was pounding.
Not just with fear, though that was part of it.  Mostly it was 
worry for his friends.  His journey was uneventful.
	Finally, the castle loomed above him, like some model for a
gothic horror movie.  "Ten to one this Essex guy turns out to be a 
Vampire." he thought.  The gate was open, which added to his 
suspicion, that this was a trap.
	"It's always a trap." he sighed.  "Ah well, at least I'm 
here during the day.  Otherwise this would be REALLY disturbing."  
Upon entering the courtyard, he heard the gate shut with an 
echoing boom.  "Yep," he said in a southern accent.  "This here's 
a trap all right."
	When nothing arrived immediately to attack him, he cast 
another suspicious look around.  Nothing.  Absolute silence.  "It's
quiet." he muttered.  "Too, TOO quiet.  Have I passed from 
wisecracking hero to just trying to allay my fear by talking to 
myself?"
	"Nah," he answered himself.  "You've just gone nuts that's 
all."
	"Oh good." he grinned.  "For a moment I was worried."  
Shrugging, he headed for the front door.  He vaguely wondered how 
long he had until sunset.  It didn't particularly matter, it was 
too late to turn back now.
	The door was heavy, as he'd expected.  "Honey!" he called.
"I'm home!"  His voice echoed throughout the hall.  "Echo!"  He 
listened to his echo again.  "Deo!  Mis a Deeeo!  Daylight come and
me wanna go home!"  He grinned.  He loved echoes.  And whoever was 
undoubtedly listening would probably be wondering if he was insane.
"Riiiicola!"
	"Well, he thought.  "The easy part's over.  Now I have to 
find my friends in this place."  Then he heard a scream from the 
next room.  "Hmm." he thought.  "That was nice of them, they 
provided me with a starting place."
	"Now," he thought.  "Should I barge in there, or sneak in?"
Aloud he said;  "You know!  All I wanted to do was live a normal 
life!  Sounds cliche I know but that's what the truth is.  I just 
wanted to be Will Davidson!  Well hell if I'm gonna have to be a 
super hero, I might as well talk like one!  Time to get down with 
Hotshot!"
	He thrust his fists at the door to the room where the 
scream had come from.  Blowing them off their hinges as they burst 
into flames.
	"Damn!" he thought.  "Never let loose a blast like that.  
That felt good!"  He stood in the smoking doorway.  Three people 
he did not recognize had been knocked off their feet by the blast.
	"Please let that be the last time I spout cliches." he 
muttered.  "So who's our first lucky contestant?"
	The one closest to him, a woman rose, off her feet.
	"Let me guess." Hotshot said.  "Vampire right?"
	She flew towards him, her face contorting slightly as she 
screamed.  He could clearly see her fangs.  He ducked and smacked 
her with the back of his hand.  Her gown caught fire as she flew 
over his head.
	"Thank you!  Next!"  A table leg slammed into the side of 
his head.  He staggered back a step then smiled.
	"I'm sorry, was that supposed to-  Oh wait.  That's a 
cliche by now isn't it.  Damn!"  He was hit again, but again, it 
had no effect.  He let himself be pummeled.
	"Now what I'm thinkin' is," he said, as the Vampire hit 
him again and again.  "Is that when my friends were asleep, you 
were able to get the drop on them by doing a little hypnotic 
suggestion.  Just give me a nod if I'm on the right track."
	WHAM!
	"So then, when I showed up, you figured you would lure me 
in here with a scream, thinkin' I'd guess it were one of my 
friends, and just come barging in here.  To either get blindsided 
by you three, or maybe you had some illusion set up that would 
trap me, but it got messed up by my more dramatic entrance.  Am I 
right?"
	He got no answer.  When the table leg once more hurtled for
his head, he caught it.  He was however, driven to his knees, 
though he kept hold of the leg.
	"Damn!" he said, impressed.  "You're strong!"  He heated 
the leg till it began to burn, and still holding it, knocked the 
Vamp off it's feet with a leg sweep.  He rolled on top of it, 
holding the leg over the Vamp's heart.
	"Where are they?" he asked, a menace to his voice that had 
been absent before.
	He was knocked sideways by the final Vampire.
	"Oh right," he grunted.  "There's another one."
	He quickly found his arms pinned to the floor, one Vamp 
holding each.  "You never did answer my question." he said amiably.
"Where are they?"
	"You'll find out soon enough."  He looked up, to see the 
female Vampire, now stripped of her burning gown standing over him.
	"Uh oh." he said.  "This is supposed to be a family show.  
What are you doing all not dressed like that?  You're gonna give 
the censors heart attacks."
	She ignored him, instead, kneeling on the floor next to 
him.
	"C'mon, just give me a hint.  Upstairs or downstairs?"
	She grabbed his chin firmly with one hand and pulled his 
shirt collar down with the other.  "Very well," she said, baring 
her fangs.  "Upstairs."
	"THENK you my deah." he said with a fake English accent.  
Then he vaporized all three Vampires.
	He sat up, looking in astoundment at what he had done.  
And his clothes weren't even warm!  "Where the hell is this power 
and control coming from?"
	Shrugging, he headed up the stairs.  He searched the upper 
floors for a long time before he wondered if the Vampire lady had 
been lying.  The place was like a maze, and he eventually became 
lost.  Finally, he stopped in the middle of the hall.  "This is 
ridiculous." he said aloud.  "Whoever this guy Essex is, why is 
that name so familiar?  Anyway, whoever he is, he must want me to 
find him eventually.  Otherwise why the setup?  I'm just gonna sit 
here,"  He sat on a cushioned bench against the wall.  "And wait 
for him."
	He heard a sigh behind him.  "Oh, and you were so close 
too!"  He leaped from the bench, and saw that a secret door had 
opened in the wall.  There stood a man, wearing, well about what 
he'd expected.  He looked a lot like Dracula, at least, his 
clothes reminded him of the famous Vampire.  The man pointed to 
the door across the hall.
	"Your friends are in there." he said.  "All you have to 
do, is get past me."
	"Essex I presume?"
	"You presume correctly young Davidson.  You and your 
friends posses great power.  I would harness that power."
	"Hold up," Will realized.  "Essex, the whole kidnapping 
Mutants for their power, that's where I know you from!"  Mr. 
Sinister.  He'd never met the man, but he'd been required reading 
at Xavier's.  "The more things change, the more they stay the 
same." he thought.  On his own world, Sinister was a scientist, 
who'd somehow discovered how to live long past his years.  Here 
apparently, he was a Vampire.  His reverie was interrupted by 
pain.  He looked down.  His stomach had been cut.  Essex stood 
in the hallway, his long nails dripping Hotshot's blood.

	The doors to the chamber flew open, Hotshot's hurtling 
body almost slamming them off their hinges.  One actually broke 
from the impact, sending splinters into his already bleeding body.
	Essex had not let up on him for a second.  His claws had 
proved a very effective weapon, as had his greater speed and 
strength.  Hotshot had not gotten a shot off.  And it was still 
only daylight.  Actually, through the haze of pain and blood, 
Hotshot could see that the sun was setting.
	"Oh perfect," he thought.  "Now he'll be twice as 
powerful."  Then he noticed something.
	Essex stepped through the open doorway, shaking his head 
sadly.  "I must say," he remorsed.  "I'm disappointed in you.  You 
took out my minions so easily, but against me,"  He sighed.  "Ah 
well, what was I expecting from a mortal."
	"Essex," Will growled.  "Who are you calling MORTAL?"  He 
rose up, hair sprouting, muscles expanding, and wounds closing.  
He cut open Essex with his own claws.
	Even through the pain of the transformation, Hotshot 
retained his own mind.  "I'll be damned." he thought.  "I'm still a
Werewolf!"*
	He grinned, which, in his wolfen form came out as a snarl.  
Essex seemed slightly unnerved, or at least surprised.  "Maybe you 
won't be such a disappointment after all." he smiled.
	"Oh I'd hate to disappoint you." Hotshot growled.  He wasted no
more words, and merely attacked.  This round, the fight was more even.
Any wounds inflicted by either fighter was almost instantly healed.
In the back of his mind, where his intellect had been pushed back by
the raging beast in him, many thought's went through Will's head.  "Is
this what it's like for Wolverine?  Always keeping the animal at bay?
I'd better end this quickly.  I won't be invulnerable when the sun 
rises again."
	He let himself be knocked down for a bit.  Fortunately, he 
landed by the splintered door.  As he "struggled" to his feet, he 
surreptitiously picked up one of the shards.
	"I think it's time we ended this game." Essex said.  "Don't 
you?"
	"Yeah," Hotshot said.  "I do."  He turned, and hurled the 
shard at the approaching Vampire.  He was right on the mark.  Essex
stared in shock, and vaporized.

	It didn't take long after that to find his friends.  With 
Essex's death, his power over them had broken, and they awoke from 
their hypnotic trance.
	Clarice almost kissed Will, but restrained herself.  The time
had not come for that yet.  But soon.
	"Let's get the hell out of here." Will said.  And with that,
he activated the Dimension Shift.

*Hotshot was turned into a Werewolf in "Werewolves".

Next Issue:  High Noon with Sheriff Logan and Mad Dog Creed, who will
win.  And Clarice decides, it's time.