“Eva?” asked Sabretooth. “You got him?”
She wavered on her feet but continued to hold her hands out toward the Tyrannosaurus.
“I’m so close,” she said as a thin trickle of blood began to run from her nose. “Almost got him.”
Christopher reached toward her hesitantly, worried. “You need help?” he asked, but she shook her head.
“Almost got it,” she repeated.
“Aw, heck,” muttered Sabretooth. “It’s too late. Graydon, catch!”
He tossed the Box back to Graydon and launched himself at Bob just as the Tyrannosaurus wrenched itself through the entryway in a spray of rubble. Sabretooth landed on the creature’s torso, holding himself aloft with his claws buried deep in its flesh. Bob reared back, roaring in pain. Christopher clapped his hands over his ears, but that didn’t help at all. Bob had some lungs on him.
“I’m sorry,” said Eva, stricken. She wiped her face with the back of her hand and seemed dazed as she looked down at the red smear of blood. “I really tried. I’ve never bubbled something this big before.”
“It’s OK, Eva. It was a lot to ask,” said Christopher, rolling up his sleeves. It was up to him now.
Sabretooth climbed up Bob’s body as the T-Rex tried desperately to dislodge him. Graydon stood nearby, clutching the Box. He intercepted Christopher as he crossed the room toward the ongoing struggle. His face was drawn with worry as he watched Sabretooth scale the giant prehistoric beast.
“How can I help?” he asked. He looked torn for a moment but then thrust the artifact toward Christopher with a convulsive movement. “Do you need the Box? Take it.”
Christopher gently pushed Graydon’s hands away.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I need you to take the Box and hide. Not too far. If Bob gets loose, you don’t want to be on your own. But you can’t stay here. We don’t know what will happen if Bob gets his claws on the artifact, but we can’t risk it. You understand?” he said.
Graydon nodded, beginning to back away, but Christopher put a hand on his arm before he got too far.
“If you run, I’ll find you,” Christopher said. “Please don’t make me do that.”
Graydon glanced back at Sabretooth. Something had changed. For the first time, he’d lost the air of revulsion he’d worn every time he addressed any of the mutants. Christopher had no idea what had happened to cause such a difference, and he had no time to ask, even if Graydon would have confided in him.
“I won’t,” Graydon said simply.
Then he hurried away with the Box in hand.
As they’d talked, Sabretooth had scaled up Bob’s long torso. Now he clawed at the mighty creature’s eye socket, ripping long rents in the scaly hide. Bob whipped his head back and forth, thrashing in pain. Sabretooth went flying, impacting hard against the ceiling and then crashing to the floor. He lay there for a moment, motionless as his accelerated healing worked overtime to try to fix him. As Christopher hurried toward them, his heart in his throat, Sabretooth began to stir. The T-Rex stomped on him, crushing his body with its massive weight. Sabretooth’s face went immediately slack, and he collapsed back down to the ground once more, limp and still.
“No!” Eva shouted. She began pelting the dinosaur with rubble from the pile, throwing with the impeccable aim of a girl who has spent many a summer at softball camp. A chunk of stone hit Bob right in the eye, making him shriek. He thundered toward her, completely forgetting about Sabretooth in his anger and pain.
Christopher darted forward as the dinosaur lumbered past. He leaped onto the massive foot and put his hand onto the scaly hide. The dinosaur was cold to the touch. It felt like a leather jacket on a rock wall, not a living being of flesh and blood. The ever-present flow of tainted magic filled him, twisting his insides, but this time, he knew what to expect. He’d done this before and he’d survived it. He would do it this time too, until there was nothing left of the T-Rex but a pile of bones.
During his struggle with the saber-toothed cat, he’d realized something. A normal living creature was connected to their life force, but these creatures were connected to something else. He’d found a way to sever that connection, but it took time and severe, draining effort. To do so with the dinosaur would strain him, but he had to try. He dug in, ignoring his heaving belly and the queasy feeling deep in his bones, and began to work. The energy overtook him in a rush, nearly knocking him out, but he held on.
It was working. The dinosaur felt its strength ebbing, and it did everything in its power to dislodge him. It stomped its feet, making his ears ring. It spun around in dizzying circles so he had to hold on for dear life. It pitched its body back and forth, trying desperately to reach him, but its struggles became increasingly weaker as he sapped its strength.
Then, just as with Graydon, the flow of power changed. He felt the moment when it began to clutch at him, trying to pull him into its depths. Now, instead of trying to dislodge him, it tried to suck him in. He heard words in the distance, spoken by a deep and booming voice. He’d heard that voice somewhere before, but he couldn’t place it. He strained to make out the words. If only he could get a little closer…
Then someone grabbed him, and his senses snapped back to his body, taking him by surprise. He found himself lying on his back on the ground, looking up at Eva. Littering the floor around him were hundreds of enormous bones. He had unmade the dinosaur.
“Christopher? Can you hear me? Are you OK?” Eva asked, worried.
He took a moment to gather himself and consider her question. His head spun, and it felt strange to be aware of his body again, but it seemed like everything was intact. His stomach wasn’t too sure about things, but that he could deal with. He nodded and tried to look reassuring.
“My insides want to become my outsides, but otherwise I’m OK. What happened?”
“I pulled you away. You said you couldn’t get free when you tried to heal Graydon, and I figured the same thing might happen again, so I took a chance on it.” She looked around at the pile of bones. “I think it paid off.”
“Yeah.”
“Can I help you up?” She offered a hand.
He shook his head, and she retreated with an expression of hurt on her face.
“Eva, I like you a lot, so I’m going to ask you to go away now. There are only so many times that you should have to see me vomit in one day.”
She snickered. “You keep this up, and I’m going to suggest that they change your X-Men name from Triage to Puke Bucket.”
He had a witty retort for that, but it would have to wait until later. He got to his feet and staggered toward the trash can, holding his hand over his mouth. He probably had nothing left to heave at this point, but better safe than sorry. Eva stood out of the way and kept the rest of her witty comments to herself.
Chapter 19
Eva didn’t know who to help first. Christopher hugged the garbage can like he’d fallen in love with it and was contemplating a proposal. Sabretooth, who appeared to have survived the undead Tyrannosaurus foot stomp through sheer stubbornness, had climbed to all fours on the debris-strewn carpet but couldn’t manage to make it any further. He wavered there, shaking his head as if to clear it. She had no clue where Graydon had gone. The jerkface had probably run off with the Box again, knowing him.
She sighed and dusted off her hands before marching over to Sabretooth. He’d been hurt the worst, so it seemed like the most logical place to start.
“Do you need anything?” she asked. “Want me to help you up?”
“Just give me a minute,” he muttered. Then, to her surprise, he added, “Thanks. You did a good job there. What’s your name again?”
“Eva. Eva Bell,” she replied, feeling rather flattered.
“You got a mutant name yet? Don’t let Cyclops pick it. If you look up the word ‘lame’ in the dictionary, you’d find a
picture of Scott Summers. If you need one, let me hook you up instead.”
Sabretooth sat back on his haunches and wiped his face. He looked at his hand, stained with blood and dust, with a confused look that clearly said he didn’t quite remember what had happened. Eva’s heart went out to him.
“They call me Tempus, on account of the time bubbles. I don’t think that’s too silly, do you?” she asked.
He considered, rubbing his chin. With every passing moment, he looked less dazed. Animation returned to his face, and he looked around, reorienting himself. But all the while, he kept up the casual conversation, pretending that everything was fine. Stalling for time. She didn’t have the heart to call him on it.
“That’s not bad, actually.” He stood. Stretched. Eva could hear the POP-POP-POP of his spine as it adjusted back into place. He sighed with obvious relief. “Now that’s more like it.”
Christopher finally extricated himself from the garbage can and trudged toward them. Eva’s mother always loved to say that she looked like death warmed over. If she didn’t have her hair perfectly done or her makeup on just right, she pulled out her favorite phrase even if Eva thought she looked just fine. For once, the saying fit. Christopher looked exactly like death warmed over. Dark circles ringed his eyes, and his face had gained an ashen tint. But he grinned with delight as he saw Sabretooth on his feet.
“I’m glad you’re OK,” he said.
“You sure you’re OK, kid?” asked the older mutant, his face drawn in concern. “You don’t look too good.”
“I feel like death warmed over,” said Christopher.
Eva laughed aloud, making the other two look at her strangely.
“My mom always says that,” she explained. “I was just thinking about it, and now you said it. Don’t mind me. I’m probably hysterical.”
“You and me both.”
Graydon’s dry voice took them all by surprise. He climbed down the pile of rubble on the far side of the room where he’d been hiding. The Box slipped from his grip and rolled down before him, coming to a sliding stop on the floor. He picked his way down with surprising nimbleness. He’d never seemed particularly athletic to Eva, but then again, she’d only ever seen him as a mutant-hating politician. There had to be more to the man than that, didn’t there?
He picked up the Box and ambled over, taking in their various expressions of shock and surprise. He offered them a thin-lipped smile in return.
“You all thought I’d run, didn’t you?” he asked.
“I wonder why,” said Sabretooth dryly. “Oh, I know. You hate our guts.”
“Only in general terms,” admitted Graydon.
Sabretooth’s eyes lit up, but he tried to play it cool. “Yeah, I get that. I’m glad you’re safe, and not just because you brought that Box back.”
Graydon’s eyes roved over the room. If it had been damaged before, now it was obliterated. The dinosaur’s bulk had crushed nearly every remaining artifact and display, leaving only the occasional piece intact. Eva felt a little sick as she looked over the destruction.
“That’s astounding,” said Graydon. “How did you defeat something so powerful?”
“He did it,” said Eva, pointing at Christopher.
“Well,” Christopher demurred, “Sabretooth weakened it. Eva slowed it down. You helped get the Box out of the way. Then I sealed the deal, that’s all.”
Eva giggled. “Sealed the deal? You sound like a car salesman.”
“Can you get me a good APR?” asked Graydon, joining in on the joke to the shock of everyone involved.
Christopher stuck his tongue out at them. Sabretooth made a big show of rolling his eyes and throwing his hands up into the air.
“You see what I have to put up with, Bob?” he asked the nearest pile of bones. “A bunch of children.” As if in response, the floor rumbled, and Sabretooth’s eyes went wide. “Hey now,” he said warningly, kicking at the bone. “Stay where you are, Bob. We don’t need to go for round two.”
The floor rumbled again.
Graydon brushed plaster dust from his hair, looking up at the ceiling. Hairline cracks began to crawl across the surface, and a distant rumbling suggested that something was happening. It didn’t sound good.
“I don’t think it’s the dinosaur,” he said. “I think it’s the Grace. It took a lot of structural damage during that fight, and Bob took out a few galleries on its way to us, too. I think we need to get out of this building before it falls on us.”
“We can’t forget that guard,” Christopher reminded them.
“Right. Back the way we came?” asked Eva, starting in that direction.
“You won’t make it out that way.” Graydon started down a different hallway, urging them to follow. “There’s an emergency exit just down here.”
It felt like a huge risk. He had hated them from the start, and perhaps his new attitude was just an act, calculated to make them follow him into certain death. The thought of putting her life into his hands did not feel like a bet that Eva wanted to make. It somehow made her feel less safe than leaving it all to chance. But the other two started to follow, and there wasn’t time to argue. The building shuddered with increasing intensity, and a steady rain of plaster and paint began to patter down around them.
“OK,” said Eva, hurrying after them.
They rushed through rooms full of smashed galleries and past an empty display that had once housed a pair of saber-toothed tigers. Eva would have stopped to marvel at it if she’d had the time. Instead, she let out a delighted squeal that was cut short as a large chunk of ceiling collapsed onto the empty display. She scrambled backwards, a stray piece of stone flying at her face, slicing her cheek.
“You OK?” Sabretooth shouted, catching her.
She nodded wordlessly, clapping a hand to her bleeding face. He shoved her back onto her feet and they ran on, unable to risk slowing for even a moment.
The tremoring of the building intensified, and ahead of them, the doorway leading to the next gallery began to collapse in on itself. Sabretooth put on an inhuman burst of speed, sprinting ahead. The wall began to disintegrate into giant pieces, slabs of marble toppling in slow motion toward the ground. Sabretooth reached the doorway just in time to save it from being buried under a pile of rubble. He put his shoulder against the largest stone and shoved with all of his considerable might, holding it aloft. His enormous leg muscles bulged. Veins popped. He let out a mighty roar of effort, trembling with strain.
“Go!” he yelled.
They needed no further urging. First Graydon clambered through the gap between Sabretooth’s legs, then Eva, and finally Christopher escaped into the chamber beyond. Once they were all clear, Christopher called to him.
“We’re good. Come on!”
Sabretooth released the stone and dashed free as fast as he could, but it wasn’t quite fast enough. One of the jagged pieces of marble sheared a strip of flesh off the side of his bicep, digging in deep. He grunted in pain, flinging himself free. The rest of the ceiling came down on him faster than even he could roll with his mutant reflexes. He would be pinned beneath tons of marble, and Eva worried he wouldn’t be able to regenerate if his head was crushed. As Cyclops had reminded them frequently, Christopher could heal a lot of things, but a crushed head wasn’t one of them.
The giant piece of marble froze inches from Sabretooth’s face, suspended in a glistening bubble. Eva strained with all of her might, pulse pounding, her fingers stretched to their limits. Her teeth were bared in a rictus of concentration as she held a few tons of stone off the ground in her time bubble. She could feel her hands tremble as she reached out toward the bubble, trying desperately to keep hold of it. It was the biggest one she’d ever made, its contents heavier than she’d ever held, and she’d done it just in the nick of time.
Sabretooth sucked in his stomach and squirmed out from
underneath the time bubble. He eyed it as he did so, as if he expected it to fall at any moment, but it remained in place, suspending the heavy stone in time. Eva lowered her trembling arms as he stood up next to her and the rest of the group joined them to marvel at the sight.
“How long will it stay like that?” asked Sabretooth.
“A few minutes, maybe,” said Eva. “With a bigger bubble, it may degrade more quickly. We should move on to be safe.”
He nodded. “Thanks for the save, Tempus.” He put a teasing amount of stress on the name.
“We’re even, Sabretooth,” she responded with a grin.
“Enough witty banter already.” Graydon turned his back on them. “You’re making me regret not leaving with the Box.”
“You have a thing against witty banter?” Eva asked as she followed him from the currently quiet building.
“It clashes with his rep,” said Christopher.
Graydon opened his mouth to argue, considered, and then closed it again. “He may have a point,” he admitted. “I concede.”
“You should write this down. Commemorate the day,” suggested Sabretooth.
“Get it bronzed,” added Eva.
“OK, now you’re starting to tick me off,” grumbled Graydon. “Stuff it.”
“Sorry,” said Eva. “You still got the Box?”
He patted his dingy jumpsuit. It had acquired a new set of stains atop the old ones, dust and blood and sweat layered on top of the motor oil and unidentifiable crud that had already stained the once-bright fabric.
“I got it,” he said. “Where we going next?”
“Let’s get that guard out of the supply closet first. I’ll bubble him so we can get a head start, just in case he decides to sic the cops on us after all. Then we’ll find a place to plan where the sky isn’t going to fall on us,” she suggested.
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