It was as if time had momentarily stopped, as Kitku seemed to fall in slow motion. No one moved for that fraction of a second and then the room exploded into action.

Man of War leapt over Kitku's fallen body with speed that Viper had never seen and with one hand caught Viper's blade before it could finish the killing blow and with the other grabbed Viper by the throat. He brought their faces nose to nose.

"Your time is short," Man of War snarled and then heaved Viper into Kim with such force, Kim was knocked off his feet and flew into the back wall with Viper.

Porter and Healer appeared behind Man of War to tend to Kitku.

Man of War spared a glance back at Healer, "She dies, you die."

Healer nodded.

Gatewayer stepped through a portal only to reappear on the other side of the warehouse, closer to Kim.

Liberty touched her belt buckle and the bands on Jasmine and Logan fell away. Logan's special handcuffs dropped to the ground.

Wolverine growled with the ferocity of his namesake and dove toward Viper. "Come on, bub, lets finish it!"

"My pleasure, gijain." Viper got to his feet. He leapt at Wolverine.

Kim stood and materialized his knives and faced off with Liberty.

Some woman in green clothes with brown hair and a white stripe, busted through the roof and, at great speed, was dive-bombing straight for Man of War.

Controller turned his mental attack on her but was unable to do any harm. Tracker fired several shots at her but the bullets had no effect.

"Fuck," Tracker grunted. "Bogey at high noon, two more on her tail. The calvery has arrived, people."

Jasmine brushed off her shirtsleeves and calmly walked through the chaos. She touched Jewel's arm. Jewel gave a side-glance but kept Kim in her view. "If you don't mind, he's mine."

Jewel raised an eyebrow and looked from one to the other. Kim smiled and Jasmine was returning the smile. "Tangoed before, huh?"

Jasmine nodded. "You might say that."

"Suit yourself. You kids play nice." Jewel touched anther gem on her belt and flew up into the air toward a white haired woman. "I found my own playmate."

His back was to her and that was fine with Rogue. She put both fists in front of her and dove straight down at the big guy in black. According to Professor's dog, this was the big, bad ass Man of War. "We'll see about that."

She was closing in on him; she was aiming for his head and braced herself for the impact. At the last possible second, he evaded her. She was streaking past him and in the next moment, she felt his hand wrap around her ankle and her leg screamed in agony as the joints were jerked. He stopped her dead in her flight and Rogue was sure he had dislocated her hip.

In one fluid motion he took her from the air, flipped her over by her ankle and body slammed her on the ground. The air rushed out of her lungs as the floor met her back. Rogue felt the concrete give way to her body.

"Ow," Rogue groaned. Before she could get used to the pain, she felt her leg being jerked again and then she was airborne. Her back hit the concrete wall and the air rush from her lungs once more. She was sure a rib or two had cracked from the impact. Her lungs were on fire as she desperately sucked in air.

"Yer gonna pay fer that!" she breathlessly swore. "Ain't no way ta treat no lady, Mister."

He tilted his head at her and shrugged before blatantly turning his back to her once more.

"Son of a ..." she snapped. She managed to rein in her temper and gathered herself together. Her breathing was steady again, but her leg and back burned with pain. She took another dive for him.

Jewel flew up into the air and found herself outnumbered as a red head came floating in the hole in the roof with a man in ruby quartz goggles and a fuzzy XMan known as Nightcrawler, who teleported into the shadows of the warehouse. "Great, 'Crawler, Cyclops, Jean Grey and Storm."

"Got yer back, kiddo," she heard Tracker assure her.

"Got your right side," Ghost piped in.

"What would I do without you guys?"

"Got you guys covered," Gatewayer informed them. "I'll take Nightcrawler. This should be interesting."

"Okay, lets do this. I've got an appointment for tonight."

"With who?" Tracker asked.

"None of your business."

"The hell ... "

"Enough chatter, let's get this done," Ghost interrupted.

"We'll talk later," Tracker reminded her.

"Uh, huh, right. I'm trying to concentrate here." Liberty flew straight up and into Storm's face. "Hi, ya."

Gatewayer smiled as Nightcrawler attempted to teleport at Man of War. Gatewayer threw up his gateway directly in front of Nightcrawler and opened a second on directly in front of a wall. Nightcrawler hit so hard his teeth slammed together and the air rushed out of his lungs.

"Mein Gott," he swore as started to slide down the wall.

"At the very least," Gatewayer said in his soft tone and produced a portal beneath the stunned Nightcrawler. He opened the second one outside, above the ground, several hundred feet.

Tracker took careful aim, their orders were clear, if the XMen showed up, shoot to wound or maim but not kill. Very disappointing. He got Cyclops in his line of sight when he felt some one taking aim on him. He rolled and ducked as he tried to evade the attack and fired in the direction of the foe. He felt a burn in his left thigh and knew a knife of some sort had hit him.

He ended up behind a pillar on the catwalk and closed his eyes. He had hit his opponent. He looked down at his leg. A flat blade. Archangel. Shit. He closed his eyes again and tried to get a fix on Archangel. He was directly beneath him and bleeding badly from a wound to his side. Nothing like a bullet to the gut to put a dampener on a hero.

He chuckled, did a quick tie on his leg, above the knife, and got ready to change his position. Tracker had to admit fighting Archangel was a challenge and a welcomed one. He rolled and tumbled down the catwalk, firing as he went.

Archangel had propelled himself from under the catwalk and was looping up and over Tracker's head. Both tumbled and rolled, evading the bullets from Tracker and the blades from Archangel's wings. Archangel barrel rolled and swooped down slashing at the catwalk itself in hopes of weakening the structure. Tracker took the advantage and aimed two well placed shots as Angel flew overhead.

He finally rolled to a stop and wedged himself behind a beam. He checked himself with his powers. His right shoulder had taken a hit, deep but nothing to write home about. He checked on Archangel's condition. One shot hit home in the wing and another in the collarbone.

Should make it difficult to maneuver, he thought to himself. Since he couldn't kill, he had to place his shots and that was a hell of a challenge as fast and as agile as Archangel was.

"Got your breath, kid?" he yelled out. "Ready for another round?"

Archangel shook his head as he tried to put more pressure on his gut wound.

"Come on, ain't got all day," he yelled. "Gotta see which one of us is gonna survive. Aren't you curious?"

Archangel couldn't believe his ears. This guy was nuts. He shot past the man and into the rafters, flipping blades from his wings as he went.

Jean focused her powers on the man next to Man of War. He shook his head from the mental attack and lashed out at her with his own mind. Jean reeled back from the onslaught of mental power as it surged against her shields slowly breaking them down. He was very powerful and very good at what he did. She threw a telekinetic bolt at the man, slamming him hard in the chest. He fell backward and although, he managed to shake off the blow, his concentration on his mental attack slipped and Jean was able to get her mental shields back into place.

He stood up and managed a shaky bow to her as he waited for her to right herself. "This isn't necessary."

"Agreed," Jean replied, a bit surprised he was able to get a message past her shields.

"I'm full of surprises," he assured her. "If you would just leave ..."

"I don't think so," Jean interrupted with a snap.

He sighed, vocally as well as mentally. "As you wish."

He lashed out with his mind with a crippling blow. Jean braced her mind for the attack but was still dropped to her knees. She gritted her teeth and held his attack back from destroying her.

Storm raised an eyebrow as Liberty aka Jewel came face to face with her. Storm decided to give her opponent the opportunity to surrender. "If you choose to not attack and surrender now, no harm shall come to you."

"Uh, yeah, right, don't think so," Jewel snickered. "Where do you guys get those lines from?"

She raised her hands toward Storm and fired off several laser shots from her wristbands. Storm, caught off guard, was grazed by one laser but managed to gracefully dodge the rest of the attack. Storm raised her own hands and called on her power to manipulate the weather and fired down a lightening bolt at Jewel.

Jewel spun to the left, narrowly avoiding the full attack but took a good burn to the back of her legs. She cursed at the pain and the fact she was hit. She touched the gem on her necklace and a power shield encased her. "Okay, now we can get down to business."

Ghost eyed his prey. Cyclops, the leader of the XMen. He smiled to himself. He slowly changed himself from his tangible form to his apparition state and moved in silent death towards the unsuspecting XMan.

He wrapped his ethereal body around Cyclops and waited for the perfect moment. He 'felt' the XMan leader shiver at his touch.

Healer touched the girl's neck; she was breathing, barely. His eyes glowed slightly as he checked her from head to toe. She was loosing blood fast, her chest muscles were sliced, and there was artery damage. He checked for the famed poison of Viper's blade and found none. Instead, he watched as her body simply absorbed it. She was immune.

Healer glanced up at Man of War's back but decided he was too busy to inform of this minor miracle. He placed his hands on her wound and concentrated. He felt the flow of energy pour from his body to hers. He closed his eyes, visually saw, and aided the power as it mended her wounds. The muscle tissue was regrown, the arteries reattached, and the wound sealed shut.

He dropped back on his heals and manually checked her vitals. Her pulse was strong and her breathing was regulated. He smiled to himself and touched the girl's cheek.

"You are going to be fine, child," he assured her. "Just fine."