Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 399 LIMBO

A large white disc formed at our feet. Casting an illuminating light all around us, Magik moved to the middle of the disc. “This is my power,” she said to everyone, students included. I noticed Lyra, Hope, Morgan, and three boys from class with us. All the rest must have gotten out of the window. Since we were fairly certain Lyra was the target I felt that the others should be fine. 

“And what is that exactly?” I asked as wind began to blow in my face. Looking around, it was all darkness except the white flat disc shaped platform around us. I assumed we were moving but I couldn’t see or feel anything around us. Just an empty space. 

“I call it Limbo,” Magik said. The blonde breathed heavily near me. 

“What is going on?” One boy asked. 

“Are you a mutant?” Hope asked, almost disgust in her voice. Which was funny since I was fairly certain she was one as well. 

“We are trying to get you all to safety,” Jean said. “Thank you, Ms. Rasputin for…trusting us with your power. I’m sure it saved us.” We continued to move through the expanse around us.

“Yes, thank you step-sis,” I said. “Too bad I don’t have cool powers like this.” 

“Shut it,” Magik said through ragged breath. “We are almost there.” I looked ahead to see an opening in the darkness. Pale green light shining through, I slowly realized it was the reflection of light against trees. Since I had no idea what Illyana’s power was in the Marvel comics I was excited to find out. We drew closer and the hole in the space got larger. 

We flew through on the white disc and I realized we were actually flying pretty fast. As trees zoomed past and below us we were going nearly 60 miles an hour. Below us was a huge alien forest. More like a swamp, there were large trees but a huge marsh all around the trees. Moss covered waterways going this or that way it was an interesting place. 

At first I thought the sun was setting because the sky was yellow instead of blue, but the sun was way up above us. The sky yellow, I wondered if we were on a separate planet, brought here by Kmagick’s power somehow. 

“What is thi-” I asked but stopped as Kmagick screamed.

Her hands shooting up over her head I finally noticed that her veins had turned slightly blue. Popping out of her skin she did not look well. She screamed a blood curdling Wilhelm worthy shriek and the white disc we were floating on blinked out of existence. Like we were on an episode of Scooby Doo I felt us wait for a split second  before we were propelled forward as we fell to the planet’s surface. People screamed, I rolled my eyes. 

Grabbing Jean first, I began collecting all the other students one by one. “Hold onto each other!” I yelled as we plummeted. They didn’t fight it as I held a person in each hand and started grabbing people like a barrel of monkeys. When I had everyone but Illyana I dove us down and raised us back up so the now passed out blonde was on my back. 

By that time we were almost splattered on the swamp floor. I lifted us up with all I had. Decelerating quickly, both wings of people smacked into one another. The last students barely hovering above the ground I held us there, ignoring their screams. 

“Jump off!” I yelled down. The two guys at the bottom of my people rope stopped yelling and looked down. When they noticed they were so close they jumped down and I began descending. People getting off one by one until I was on the ground. Looking at each of them I gave a nod. 

“Terrible, just terrible. Was none of this covered in your active school shooting drills?” I asked. “Next time it might actually be life-threatening. I expect professionalism, and less yelling. Johnson!” I barked at one of the boys. “Your script said to lightly scream, not shriek like a woman. I thought you lot were professionals.”  

They looked at one another confused for a moment. -You should knock them all out now.- I thought hard. I looked to Jean. 

-You know that’s not the right thing to do- She thought at me, then looked at Illyana on my back. “Set her down,” she said. I rolled my shoulders and dropped the light blonde on a patch of grass. Jean’s hands went to her head and Kmagick whimpered. 

“What happened to her?” 

“That was the Betrayer,” Jean said.

“Blue balls?” 

“Yeah, I mean no,” she hissed. Then let out a tired sigh. “He can expel a gas that makes people see illusions,” she said. “We are lucky he didn’t touch anyone. She must have breathed in the smoke.”

“Great,” I said, looking around, we were in an open field out of the swampy water. The kids were a beacon of fear as I ignored them. “So we are stuck here until she is done with her psychedelic trip?”

“Looks like it,” Jean said. She stood up, looking at the students. “I know you all have questions, but…it's a little hard to explain…” 

“People tried to kill us. This girl took us to her secret pocket dimension,” I said simply. 

“That’s…kind of right,” Jean said.

“I assume they can’t come after us?” I asked Jean. 

“No, the Marauders members I saw didn’t possess a skill to open dimensions,” Jean said. “The plan was always to come here to wait for reinforcements.”

“Well thanks for telling me the plan,” I said, mildly angry. “It would have been good to know step-sis here had an exit strategy.”

“You were an afterthought,” Jean said. “You shouldn’t have been needed at all. Ross just wanted-”

“Ross?” Lyra asked, perking up. “General Ross? My grandpa?” 

“No, the guy from Friends,” I assured her. My eyes drifted to Morgan who appeared scared shitless. “Come on, pretty sure I noticed a cave while saving all your asses.” I began walking in the direction I noticed the rocks. The yellow air overhead, green grass underfoot, I was slowly getting used to the environment. Curious if this was my first time on a new planet I grabbed Illyana and fireman carried her. Wearing her like a boa over my shoulders.

“Weston, what the fuck is going on?” Hope asked, coming up behind me. 

“Impromptu field trip,” I said. I noticed the tiny robot of hers was hovering outside of her shirt, ready for action in this new place. 

“No! Stop with the bullshit. We all get targeted by some freaky boy band and you all have super powers?!”

“Ha! They did look like a boy band. Damn, I should have made that joke,” I said. I turned back to face Jean. She was way more scared than she was letting on. Though she was the oldest there by a few years, I could tell she wasn’t confident at all. 

I noticed Hope, Morgan, and Lyra were all scared shitless as well. Everyone was, but the other guys from class were background characters in my book. I couldn’t remember any of their names, and I kept feeling like they were wearing red shirts. Expendable and easily forgotten on this alien world. I thought through who to threaten to eat first. 

“Weston, please,” Morgan pleaded. Normally her Haki was bright and shining, now it was dark and gloomy. It didn’t suit her at all. 

I eyed Jean, but she didn’t stop me. “I am from a super secret group called the X-”

“Weston,” Jean said. 

“Force,” I said. “The X-Force protects whoever needs protected. Fighting villains, keeping damsels safe. We heard that the school might be attacked so they sent Illyana and I.”

“And her getting knocked out was part of the plan?” Hope asked. Accepting the lie rather easily. She was the daughter of one of the richest men in the world, maybe it wasn’t so far fetched. 

“Yeah, Illyana has a strange addiction to psychedelic drugs that…help her open portals,” I said looking around. “Just think about this as a short vacation. Once her trip and hangover is done, we can get back to our world.”

“So we are really on another world?” One of the boys asked. 

“Yep,” I said. “I don’t think there are any-” I stopped talking as a huge crocodile lifted out of the water ahead. I had missed it because it’s body was made of massive stones. At least twelve feet tall and sixty feet long it lifted out of the water and began running at us. 

“Fucking bullshit,” I said as I dropped Illyana like a sack of potatoes. “You sure you don’t need me for this fucking plan?!” I yelled at Jean as I began to power up. I coated my body in Nen as I began circulating Haki into my body. Sparks flying around me. I started to run at the huge crocodile. “Brought to an unknown fucking world. No warning. No explanation, and I gotta deal with the fucking-” I jumped up into the air, fist extended out. The crocodile surprised me by opening it’s rocky jaw. Instead of punching it I fired a powerful Nen Blast. The white energy shot through him, piercing from skull to tail. 

It spasmed and died. Landing on it’s closed maw I forgot what I was saying. “Not for a while crocodile,” I said. “No wait…pile drive…crocodile. Shit there’s gotta be something I can say.” 

—

The world of Limbo that Kmagick took us to wasn’t all that great. I had to kill another six beasts before we got to the cave I noticed. Huge monsters reminiscent of the Cthulu world in Invincible, at least they weren’t near as deadly. I was able to get everyone to the cave, despite how many times I tried to get the boys to scout ahead for me. They didn’t want to for some reason. 

“Just look inside,” I said to one of the boys. “We gotta make sure the girls are safe.” 

“I’m not fucking going in there!” The guy yelled, his voice echoing in the large irregularly shaped cave entrance. I had worried it was a large monster pretending to be a cave and snapping us up, but I didn’t sense anything too dangerous close by. A bunch of snakes or worms deep in the cave I guessed it was some kind of breeding ground, but I didn’t see anything too big. 

“Come on, don’t be a baby. I got us here,” I said to him. 

“Stop teasing him,” Jean said, trying to act more confident. She walked forward, able to feel no psychic callings from animals. I guessed she knew it was safe as well. We stepped inside and people sat down on rocks near the entrance. The cave angled downward but no one was willing to check it out. 

“How’s sleeping beauty?” I asked, dropping Illyana. Her head hit a rock and made a conking noise. I cursed, hoping that wouldn’t extend our time there. Moving her head to rest on the rock I looked around to make sure no one noticed. 

“Still asleep,” Jean said. She looked from inside the cave to outside. Her indecision apparent she was completely lost. 

“I’m going to go look around then,” I said walking back to the entrance. 

“Don’t go,” one boy said. I sneered at him, disgusted. 

“Please, Weston,” Morgan said. I smiled at her.

“You can come with,” I said. She opened her mouth, confused for a moment but blushed and nodded.

“Seriously?!” A boy asked, his voice echoing in the cave as well. 

“Shut the fuck up, there’s a bunch of snakes down there,” I said. “Stop yelling, stop whining, stop breathing,” I told the boys. “Do what the fuck she says.” I pointed at Jean. “I know she might not look it, but she can keep you all safe. I will be back in a little bit. With any luck, I can catch us an Uber out of here and we will be back in time for lunch.” The boys quieted, eyeing Jean. 

“I’m coming with,” Hope said. I frowned at her, but remembered her robot.

“Fine, but I’m not carrying you,” I said.

She huffed but whispered something and the microscopic robot began to grow in front of her. In a matter of seconds it was human sized and she was getting on the back of the blocky robot. 

“You coming?” I asked Morgan. She nodded, wide eyed as she moved to jump on my back. My hands in the crook of her knees I lifted off and the robot flew after me. It had some weird propulsion system under it’s feet, kind of like Iron Man in the movies. The legs turning into almost real engines I wondered why Pym was so much more badass in the comic than in the movies. 

Once we were a few dozen feet above the cave I turned to Hope. “Are you alright?” I asked. 

“Nope, I have no idea what’s going on,” she said. There were actual handholds on the robots back. I was getting jealous. 

“Good me too,” I said and began to rise again. The yellow sky still very eerie. I began to spin slowly as I scanned the horizon. Trying to find anything at all there had to be a reason Illyana could travel to this place specifically. Either aliens in the place, or some drama she didn’t know was going on. I planned to make sure we were safe for the moment. 

“You really do have super powers,” Morgan whispered in my ear. 

“No, just talented,” I said.

“I can tell,” she said, her hands wrapping around my neck. “So are you a mutant?”

“No,” I said with a sigh. “I was involved in an accident that granted me powers. Some failed attempt at a guy trying to grow his dick back.”

“Can you be serious for a moment?” Hope asked. 

“I am,” I said. 

“Then where is that protector of yours?” Hope asked. 

“Oh shit, Tabi? Yeah, I better grab her. Was she still at your house?” I asked Morgan.

“Yeah, my mom was feeding her a lot last time I saw her,” Morgan said. I sighed, wishing I could live the leisurely life of the tailed beast. I would have to summon her if things got bad. She hated being called when there wasn’t anything interesting going on. 

When we were close to the clouds I stopped rising upward. Something glinting below us, I frowned as I tried to see it. Like metal moving this way and that, it was the only thing not nature related around us. I began to fly in the direction. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“What the fuck is that?” Hope asked.

I opened my mouth to answer, but her robot did in a very robotic voice. “It appears to be metal constructs.” We continued to draw closer and my eyes became more confused. In the vast swamp were a couple dozen actual robots trudging through the water. 

They were green, blue, and red tinted metal. But none were bulky like Hope’s pet. They were at least eight feet tall, had long spindly arms, bat wings at their backs, metallic horns on their heads, and looked like some weird mix between demons and robots. The monsters trudged through the water and were making a B-Line right for the cave system everyone was in. 

“Fuck,” I said, dropping down. “Not good, I’m going to deal with these guys.” I dropped down onto a patch of moss. Morgan emitted fear but that skyrocketed as the robots blew up. I looked up to see Hope’s robot had fired a missile at the demon/robots. 

“How about a little fucking diplomacy!” I yelled up at her. 

“They don’t look friendly!” She yelled down as the demon things screeched and took flight. Some began firing weapons at us. Cursing, I grabbed Morgan and threw her on my back and began fighting the inhabitants of this world. 

The first I went up against was a black steel demon that was twelve feet tall. Sleek black metal horns mounted over it’s head, it had large bat wings. Guns mounted into it’s arms, it began spraying bullets at me as I flew at it. Coating my body in Nen I headbutted right through the thing. My nen covering Morgan as well we weren’t scratched at all as we flew right into another robot demon. This one had a laser mounted in it’s mouth. A red glow inside the laser barrel, it began pointing it’s maw at us as I twisted and turned to barely dodge the attack. 

Killing this monster with ease as well, another explosion went off and the fighting continued. I wasn’t exactly sure what was up with this world, but I had to admit, the inhabitants were easy to kill and rather diverse. All and all more fun than school, that was for sure.