Part Eight: Exchange Students. Psylocke was helping Meggan and Courtney Telepathically, trying to make them forget that they loved Brian before he had done this to them. That was her main concern now, not the vengeance she would exact from her turncoat brothers. They had been in their cell nearly two days. Brian and Jamie had left, she was well aware of that, but Meggan had only recently regained consciousness, and Courtney wasn't at that point yet. It wasn't that she didn't want to get courtney to a hospital, it was Brian's precautions. He'd been certain that once they left, the women would be able to get out of the cell, so he'd taken the only key with him, wherever he'd gone. A new awareness caught her Betsy told the Elf. She scanned the minds of "Get them down here," Meggan smiled. Psylocke sent word of their location to the mutants, and there was a loud crashing sound. Several loud crashing sounds, actually. The door to the cell burst open as a giant skeleton, holding a scythe, slashed through the wood. Tarot stood behind it. Thunderbird was fighting with the guards upstairs, and Tarot freed Meggan from her inhibitor while having her monster cut a way out through the wall. It took only a moment for the sound of laser fire to stop and for James Proudstar to descend into the dungeon. "Emma contacted us," Tarot told Psylocke as Meggan picked up Courtney. "Tai and Shinobi staged a little revolt and busted out of The Academy with half the Hellions following them." "Brian and Jamie killed Amanda and Marcus," Psylocke told them. "They decided to spare us, and dumped us down here." "The cards said that you were victims yourselves," Tarot said. "Its too close to be a coincidence. They are working together, and there's someone else on their side." "Who?" Meggan asked. Marie shook her head. "the cards were not that specific." "Who's left in America?" Psylocke asked. "Right now, nobody," Thunderbird said. "Emma, Kitty, Angelica, Dwayne, Allison, the remaining Hellions, Jean, Warren, and Magneto are on their way here to get us." "So we're up against a few traitorous Lords Cardinal and the half the Hellions?" Betsy asked. James nodded. "Either Shaw, Leland and Pierce are all dead and buried," he said, "Or they're working with Tai, Shinobi and the Braddock Boys." "How long until help arrives?" Meggan demanded. "About an hour, the way Jean and Magneto fly." The Hellfire Club waited an hour, thinking about vengeance. "Such a pity that Pierce and Sebastian couldn't join us," Harry Leland said to Shinobi. "A pity" the boy murmured. "I'll miss my father." "You will," Leland snickered, "When you want to tell him how the Hellfire Club conquered the world AFTER you assassinated him." "Be Quiet," Selene told the pair. "Magneto is still alive, you know." "That's YOUR fault, witch," Leland told her. "You said that you could handle the X-Men." "And what have you done?" Selene hissed. "I'm certain that you were in enormous danger while you transferred Sebastian's funds to Shinobi's name." "This is unbecoming of you," Tai told Selene. "I will not have my allies fighting amongst themselves." The group was walking through the jungles of southeast Asia, near Vietnam. Tai would not permit Firewall or Captain Britain to fly through the growth, nor would she allow Magma to ride a lava wave through the forest. They walked, and they had been walking for hours. The flies bothered Shinobi initially, until he decided to become intangible. Then the little stinging monsters passed right through him, unable to land so they might drain his blood. "We will be arriving shortly," Tai told the group. "Right through that copse of trees is the Temple of the Dragon's Breadth, where we shall all meet our destiny." "There's my chance to get even with that bitch" Jenny smiled. The group moved through the growth, into a large clearing. The sight was awe inspiring. It reminded Amara of her homeland, Nova Roma. The temple was fully two hundred feet tall, made of yellow sandstone, with faces of bizarre gods carved into the rock. Birds perched on its highest towers, while vines crawled up its sides. A row of guards, dressed in black bamboo armor and armed with spears, stood outside of the entrance way. No one could see beyond the black portal, but they all felt the power emanating from inside it. But Firewall, Bloodstrike, Smiling Tiger and Midnight's Fire could feel it more keenly than any of them. The temple held something for them, a truth hidden long ago, and they were going to reclaim it now. Daniel Thomas "...But I do not enjoy the killing...I AM NOT VIOLENT!! And I will put an arrow through the brains of anyone who says I am!!!"-Artemis (Artemis Requiem #4-DC)