Field Day

[Alright, everyone! Field Day has been amazing so far. All of the training squads have done an excellent job but there can only be one winner today!] Kitty announced. [The results from the last round have the Hellions in first place with a total of 40 out of 40 points gathered, the Corsairs in second with 38 points out of 40, and the New Mutants in third place with a total of 37 out of 40 points.]

The entire field day competition was being broadcasted on each of the TVs in the house. It was a day where all the students and staff were watching as the various training teams competed against random scenarios in the Danger Room and scored on them. The team that performed the best would be awarded a secret prize.

[Most of the training squads have already completed the final round and scored between 9-10 points with only the Hellions having yet to complete their final round. Both the New Mutants and Corsairs have scored 10 points which means that the Hellions must score at least 9 points in the final round if they wish to maintain the first place as they have done in the previous round. So let's see what they will be up against.]

The screen behind Kitty flashed several times as it began to choose a random result from the over 500 training scenarios that the kids could possibly receive. But unknown to her and the other teachers, something foul was afoot.

---

"Are you guys sure we should be doing this?" Elixir asked for the 6th time

"Give it up, Elixir. We had a fair vote. Even though I am against it, we gotta stick to it as a team," Wind Dancer explained, also not liking how they needed to cheat in order to beat the Hellions. She would have preferred if they lost fair and square.

But after losing points in the third round, Prodigy suggested that they hack he should hack the Danger Room and rig the next two rounds. Most of the team disagreed at first but when they saw that the Hellions got another round of full points in the 4th round, half of the holdouts switched sides and caused the votes to be 4-2.

After the vote, Prodigy hacked into the Danger Room and made sure to give all the teams the easiest scenarios except the Hellions. This way, even if someone suspected foul play, they would have to thoroughly investigate every team.

Elixir nodded but still hated the idea on the inside. As much as he wanted to beat the others, he knew that by doing this, they were just admitting that they were inferior to the Hellions.

On the TVs, the screen finally stopped flashing to reveal the Hellions' opponent.

[Oh, my gosh. Are you serious?!?!] Kitty asked whoever was the cameraman. When they confirmed that this was correct, she tried her best to put on a smile as she announced the result.

[Um. I guess this will be one heck of a challenge for the Hellions. They shall be going in against Apocalypse and his first generation of Horsemen. Now, remember, the team does not know who they will be fighting and are going into this battle blind. Let's see how they handle it.]

---

Inside the Danger Room, the Hellions were standing in their uniforms, red and black sleeveless leotards. The only one not wearing one was Dust who was wearing her usual clothes.

"Remember to stick to the plan, everyone. Dust and Knight are on recon. Mercury and Rockslide are our tanks. Tag, stay on me. Where I go, you go unless told otherwise. Got it?"

"Got it!" the team confirmed the plan. They had used this plan in all of their matches and it worked perfectly. They made sure to play towards each person's strengths and cover their teammates' weaknesses.

[Scenario starting in 5 seconds. Lethal force is authorized.]

Soon, the metal room turned into a large, stone colosseum. Beneath the team's feet was sand while there were stone columns that filled the arena. The group was puzzled as they had never imagined this type of setting for their final battle.

Dust immediately turned into her sand form and began to fly around the arena while Knight quickly moved to the nearest column to get a closer look at it. At first glance, the images and words seemed unknown. But after taking a closer look, Knight's eyes shrunk.

"Dust! Back to the others! These columns have hieroglyphs on them. We're dealing with Apocalypse!"

Dust immediately came flying back down as fast as she could. She had just barely managed to dodge a shockwave. The young woman landed next to the rest of her team and all went on high alert.

The Hellions looked around and saw 5 figures standing on columns all around them. Each of the figures was wearing armor but two especially stood out. They each had blue skin but one was tall and muscular while the other was lean and had large metal wings.

"Welcome," said the large, blue man. "It seems you know of me but I do not know of you. But this matters not. If you are here, you shall either survive and prove yourselves worthy to live in my world or weak and shall be snuffed out. Prepare yourselves."

When he finished talking, his 4 Horsemen each made their moves. And with them attacking, the Hellions responded the same.

"Rockslide, take out War. Dust and Me will handle Famine. Mercury and Tag on Pestilence. Knight has to handle Death. Go!"

The team quickly split up to take out their opponents. Individually, Apocalypse's Horsemen were strong but not unbeatable. But together, they formed a power loop that made them very dangerous.

Rockslide quickly charged toward War who fired a massive shockwave at the teen. His body was stunned for a moment before quickly continuing towards his opponent.

The Horseman seemed surprised by this and tried several more times but each shockwave only stunned Rockslide for a moment before he was able to continue. And since War was so focused on offense, he failed to realize that Rockslide had closed the gap.

With a single swing of his fist downward, Rockslide sent War into the ground, not knowing whether he had killed the latter or not but also not caring. With him down, Rockslide went over to support Hellion and Dust but saw that they didn't need it.

Famine was a dangerous mutant that could disintegrate any organic matter that she touched. But telekinetic barriers and sand were not organic. Hellion used his power to create a barrier that trapped the Horseman in place while Dust controlled the sand beneath Famine and turned it into several spikes that pierced through her body.

Pestilence saw that two of his allies had already been killed so he wanted to run away but for some reason, he could not. Instead, he ran directly toward Mercury's body and the spikes she created on herself. The man impaled himself on the young teen's body without even getting the chance to use his power.

While he was paying attention to the other fights, Tag used his power to mark Mercury and have Pestilence come running toward her.

Seeing that his team had already lost three members, Apocalypse looked on impressed. He had not expected the Hellions to put up such a great fight. He turned to see how Death was holding up but all he saw was a dismembered body where the wings, legs, arms, and head had all been separated from the torso.

Apocalypse smiled at the children. They had truly surpassed all of his expectations. Not only did they beat his Horsemen without any casualties but they had done so without a single injury.

"Good. You all have proven yourselves strong. You may live in my world. Leave now. I have other work to be done."

The Hellions were not expecting the fight to end just like that and thought it was a trick. But when the colosseum returned to being the metal plating of the Danger Room, they knew that the scenario was truly over.

[Congratulations to the Hellions. The judges have tallied your scores. In this round, you scored 10 out of 10. You are now the winners of Field Day!] Kitty announced

The Hellions let out cheers at their victory. They had managed not only to beat the New Mutants but all the other teams as well.

Just as they were about to go celebrate, two portals opened up next to them. A man with half his body covered in metal ran out of one while another with an M tattooed on his face came out the other. Both men came out shooting and were aiming at each other. Unfortunately, the Hellions were caught in the middle of it.

Rockslide immediately tried to block one of the blaster bolts but it pierced through most of his body and nearly damaged his core. Seeing the light coming out of Rockslide, Knight and Hellion made their moves.

Hellion set up a barrier blocking Bishop's blasts while Knight charged toward Cable and used his energy-coated blade to block each blaster bolt.

When he neared the elderly time traveler, Knight swung at him and managed to cut his gun in half and the watch he was wearing.

"Shit. That's my time machine you brat! You damaged it."

Not caring what he was saying, Knight quickly reached to take the device away so Cable couldn't use it. But when he placed it in his hands, it began to glow white. And in a flash, Knight disappeared from his spot in the Danger Room.

The entire school froze. Hellion and Bishop that were about to continue fighting. The Hellions protecting Rockslide. The X-Men that were on their way to break up the fight. The students and staff watching.

Each of them saw a member of their school disappear in a flash of light, none knowing where or when he had gone.

(Prologue finally over. Now we can get to the real story!)