ISSUE #117

Washington, D.C.

It was late at night and the New X-men were hot on the Purifiers trail.

" Laura?" Noriko asked.

Laura sniffed the air and nodded.

" I can smell the guns. I can smell the Anti-Telepathy implants. They are here." Laura told the woman.

" Finally!" Santo exclaimed. " This is like the eight church we've checked."

" That sentinel pilot narrowing it down to Washington, wasn't that helpful." Julian stated.

" Anole.... Once we're inside, I want you to find out what you can about the baby. We'll run interference." Noriko told the boy. " Laura what do you see?"

Laura stood up and looked down at the church and the guards surrounding it.

"Seven Purifiers on the outside perimeter, all armed with Anti-Mutant weaponry." Laura spoke." Two guards on the upper level no weapons. The side entrance is the one we want... It's the most heavily guarded." Laura explained.

" Wow." Hisako stated.

" Heh, you ain't seen nothing yet, armor." Santo told the girl.

The New X-Men followed Laura's directions and descended down to the side of the church. Julian used his telekinesis to destroy the guards' weapons, while Laura and Cessily used the distraction to take them out without making a noise.

Once the guards were handled, the group made their way into the Purifiers church, slinking down through the side tunnel.

.......

Meanwhile back in Antartica.

"What? We're running?" Greycrow asked Sinister.

" Cyclops is no fool... He knows what is at stake here. He will be coming, and direct conflict with the X-men on their terms will not further our goals." Sinister explained. " So, we will confront the X-men on my terms."

" Wait." GreyCrow spoke. " Where's Harpoon?" He asked.

And suddenly as if on cue, Harpoon came crashing through the nearby wall.

" Oh, Hell." Vertigo exclaimed. It was Logan and the other X-men.

" We're here for Rogue and the Baby." Logan told the Marauders. " Only question is.... How many of you need to die before we get them?"

........

Back In Washington.

" Paul, do you copy? Brother Paul?" One of the Purifiers was doing com checks, and one of the brothers wasn't responding, due to having been incapacitated by Noriko and her team.

Victor, who was hanging on the rafters above, watched as the men left to check on their teammate and when they were gone, he dropped down and went straight to their computer. He searched their logs for any information on the baby but found nothing.

" They don't have the baby." Victor stated. " They don't-" Someone had covered Victor's mouth as he was speaking shocking the boy.

" What are you doing here?" The man asked Victor.

Victor, in a panic, grabbed the man's arm and swung him over his head.

" Don't even try to-" Victor spoke. He got a look at the man and then realized he had made a mistake. " Rictor?! Um, aren't you with X-Factor?" Victor asked the man.

" You have to get out of here." Rictor told the boy.

" What are you talking about? The Baby, it's not here... But we can still shut down the Purifiers." Victor told the man.

" We?" Rictor asked, but then it dawned on him. " Oh, God... The New X-Men. You don't get it kid. We've got a much bigger problem than the Purifiers."

Downstairs the New X-Men were busy giving Victor the distraction he needed, unaware of the true danger they faced.

" Fry, you bastard!" Noriko yelled. She unloaded on a purifier with everything she had. Scorching his flesh with electricity.

It became so violent, that Julian felt the need to step in.

" Surge! Ease up!" Julian told the girl, but Noriko wasn't hearing any of it.

" Back off, Hellion!" She yelled.

" No, don't do this!" Julian yelled. " You don't want to be like this." He said to the girl. " Watch out!" Julian threw Noriko to the side and barely dodged the gunfire coming from one of the purifiers. Julian then turned around and slammed the man into the wall with his telekinesis.

" You! You were at the mansion." Julian stated.

" Yes. I've been there many times. On my first trip I sent that busload of your friends to hell, and on the next, I put a bullet in Ms. Collins's head. And today, we will send the rest of you back to Satan." The Purifier exclaimed.

Julian then felt five, very sharp, objects pierce through his back and come out through his chest.

" JULIAN!!!" Cessily yelled.

" Oh no." Noriko whispered.

Thew New X-Men were in complete shock as Julian was impaled multiple times.

" Come to me children." The woman spoke. " Come to LADY DEATHSTRIKE."

Deathstrike dislodged her fingers from Julian's back and threw him to the ground in front of Noriko and the others.

" All good children are supposed to be tucked into bed at this time of night. So, it follows that these children are not good at all. Reavers-- Be severe with them." Deathstrike commanded.

Laura stepped forward and stood in front of Julian.

" Keep away from Julian Keller. I'm warning you." Laura told the Reavers.

They didn't listen, so, Laura made good on her warning and cut clean through one of the many reaver soldiers.

Everything broke lose after that.

" Get us out of here!" Santo yelled. He jumped in front of Laura and the others, using his stone body as a shield, and attacked the Reavers.

" I'm... I can't!" Pixie yelled. She tried to use her magic to teleport the team out, but she couldn't concentrate enough to summon forth the magic required.

Things were going south quickly, Lady Deathstrike's cybernetic body, along with her adamantium fingers, easily sliced through Santo's body parts. And the total number of reavers began to swarm the remaining New X-Men.

" Damn it!" Noriko cursed. The frustration of it all hit her the worse. Not only were they all severely outnumbered, but Julian was also on the verge of death.

" You should have stayed home little girl. May you take this lesson into the afterlife." Deathstrike told the young girl.

Deathstrike tried to stab Noriko, only for Rictor and Victor to knock the woman back.

" Noriko are you alright?" Victor asked.

" Victor behind you!" Noriko yelled.

Victor turned around just as Lady deathstrike lunged at him, her claws mere inches from his face.

* Crash!

The wall of the church exploded and in an instant Victor and Noriko were snatched away from Deathstrike, by none other than Ian himself. Although Deathstrike did not fall short, as her claws had managed to make four very large gashes on the bottom of Ian's torso.

' Urghh!' Ian grunted internally. ' What are those damn fingers made of? Adamantium?' Ian asked himself. He didn't let it show, but that had hurt him more than he expected.

" Another lamb for the slaughter?" Deathstrike asked.

Ian ignored the woman and instead turned his attention to pixie.

" Pixie! Get us out of here! Now!" Ian yelled at the girl. He was absolutely livid with the situation. But it wasn't the time to be angry.

" I can't!" Megan yelled back.

" Pixie, close your eyes." Rictor told the girl. " Shut it all out, and focus. If you can't get your friends out of here. They're all dead." Rictor told the girl.

With a sense of clarity, and understanding of the danger, Megan nodded.

She shut her eyes tight and started chanting her spell.

" Sihal Novarum Chinoth. Sihal Novarum Chinoth!" Megan yelled.

A bright pink started to surround the New X-men and in an instant, they were all teleported out of the building. Though not as they had expected.

In her panic, Megan had teleported them blindly, causing many of them to crash hard across different part of Washington.

When the dust disappeared, Ian and Julian were both falling towards a car. Ian quickly grabbed the boy and turned, just before they landed, allowing his body to take the brunt of the fall.

" Damn it. That hurt." Ian groaned. Ian pulled himself oof the wreckage and grabbed Julian. " Come on you heavy bastard, no, no one help me that would be too much." Ian complained. " What the hell were you idiots thinking?" Ian asked the boy.

" Sinclair....." Julian coughed. He was weak and still bleeding badly.

" Damn it, Julian. You're losing to much blood. You won't make it at this rate." Ian took one look at Julians wounds and knew what he had to do. " This is going to hurt, I'm sorry Julian. But I have to stop the bleeding." Ian told the boy. he grabbed Julian's hand and squeezed. and then he pointed his heat vision down at the holes in Julian's chest and seared each of them shut for the moment.

Julian hollered in agony, from what must have felt like a thousand tiny knives digging into his flesh. But it needed to be done. Once Ian was done with Julian, it was his turn. Ian stood up and looked down at the wounds on his stomach, and then did the same to them as he did Julian's.

" URGGGHHHHH!" Ian growled. It was bad. It hurt bad. But again, it needed to be done. Or else they'd both bleed to death before anyone found them. " I'm gonna tear that bitch's arms off!" Ian growled.

Ian once again picked Julian up into his arms and started trying to radio for help.

" Can anyone hear me? Scott? Emma?" Ian asked.

There was a pause for moment, but then a helpful response.

" I hear ya, Sinclair. I'm on the way." Bobby told the man.

" Bobby, get here as fast as you can, me and Julian... Both bleeding badly. I've seared the wounds shut, but Julians still got some bleeding on the inside." Ian told the man.

" Don't worry, I'm on the way. Just try to hang on." Bobby told the man.

" Not like we have much of a choice." Ian groaned. He sat down next to Julian and there he waited.