Don't Play with Chemicals...

[skysong]

After what seemed like an eternity Jake felt the plane begin to slow. According to his watch they had crossed the U.S. in three hours, but it felt much longer. He felt very cramped. After a few minutes of circling the plane landed smoothly and gradually came to a stop. Jake heard the Chemist and his henchmen exit, then became ethereal and floated through the bottom of the plane to follow them. He was getting good at controlling that aspect of his powers, at least. He was inside a warehouse similar to the one he had departed, but this one was littered with steel drums probably originally used to store oil. Now they oozed with a purple liquid that ran down their sides. Jake eased himself to his feet and followed the green-suited men out of the warehouse. They didn't go far before stopping in front of a building with several cylindrical concrete structures attached. It was a water treatment plant. Jake's blood chilled as he understood what they were going to do. He went ethereal, dashed through the walls, and ran to the top of the building as fast as he could. Containers of the purple liquid were already posied for dumping. The Chemist was going to poison New York's water supply, and he was going to do it soon. Once he was finished with this treatment plant he would move on to the next until the entire city was drinking deadly water. Jake blasted the thugs guarding the chemical stockpile, hid their unconscious bodies, and hid himself behind the barrels.

[skysong]

As he had predicted the Chemist arrived only moments later. He and three henchmen walked toward the containers, calling loudly fo the guards to come help them dump the chemicals. Jake leapt up, blasted the first two henchmen, then grabbed the third and threw him against a wall. The Chemist looked surprised for only a moment before he was in action. He drew a weapon resembling a paintball gun and fired brightly colored balls of poison at his foe. Jake used a chemical drum as a shield, then retailiated with blasts of magical energy. Out of amunition, the Chemist hurled his weapon and caught Jake full in the chest. Jake fell, but managed to grab the edge of the cylinder. He now dangled forty feet above the water, which was churned by fans that could cut a man in two as it made its progress into the sewers. The Chemist laughed as he surveyed his fallen foe.

"I'll flush out the trash with the chemicals. How convenient."

He pushed one of the containers, and Jake knew he now had only one chance. He pushed all his remaining energy into a single blast and pushed the container back over the edge. He heard the Chemist give an agonized scream as some of the chemicals hit him, then fell. He was satisfied to see the Chemist fall, then get his lab coat stuck on a concrete protrusion, suspended over the roaring waters. As Jake hit the water he saw police helicopters arrive on the scene, attracted by the fight. Confident that they could deal with the remaining chemicals, Jake was sucked under and spat into a sewer tunnel. He gasped for breath, then passed out, his head resting on a concrete channel just above the water. His final thoughts before the blackness took him were that it made no difference whether his eyes were open or shut.

[skysong]

Jake was floating in a black void. All around him was nothingness, and he had nowhere to go. A ghostly figure gradually cam into being before him. It wore a robe that covered it completely, so Jake couldn't tell who it was.

"You have defeated the Chemist, as I expected. You are just as powerful as I thought, but you sacrificed yourself. Your morals are a distressing weakness."

"Who are you, and what do you want with me?"

"In time, Jacob Jensen, there will be no secrets between us. But remember this: your tests have only just begun. You have yet to face your greatest challenges. Now, return to the mortal world. Your time has not yet ended."

Jake awoke in the sewer tunnel and coughed up water. This mysterious person knew him by name, and also knew what he had been doing. The knowledge was worrying. Jake stood up and promptly hit his head on the ceiling. He crouched and moved along in the tunnel, unable to see but hoping for an exit. His foot hit something, so he reached down and grabbed it. It was a flashlight. He turned it on, dreading what else he might find. Barely stifiling a yell he discovered a human skeleton in waterlogged clothing. After all the water it seemed a miracle the flashlight still worked. Jake looked around nervously. Every scuttle seemed to be a beast coming to devour him. When something finally did grab him, it was more terrifying than Jake had expected: The skeleton had grabbed him around the ankle. Jake struggled, hit the bone, even blasted the skeleton with eldritch power, but it would not let go. He heard a low moan from behind and turned to face it. A horrible creature, its emaciated flesh tattooed with strange designs, shuffled toward him on uncertain feet. The skeleton's grip tightened. Jake was paralyzed with fear, his mind fighting his body in a desperate attempt to move and attack. Just as the creature opened its mouth to bite him he managed to blast it. It fell back for only a moment, but the skeleton’s grip had been broken when the creature had faltered. Jake fled through the tunnels, running as fast as he could in the opposite direction.

[Wolverine]

Wolverine walked past the scene of where the fight was held. He walked over to the ledge investigating. He looked at the body on the ground. Trying to figure out who the man on the ground was. Then he heard something coming from the ground. His claws lashed out from his hands and everyone around him looked at him strangely.

"Never seen claws before? Get used to it, bub"?

He started digging through the ground but useless. He just tried to see where the noise came from by sniffing but couldnt catch it.

[skysong]

Jake listened hard. The thing seemed to have stopped pursuing him. He was close enough to the treatment plant to know that the police had certainly arrived, perhaps bringing a costumed hero with them. Hopefully they would do a better job then I did, Jake thought. Suddenly he heard voices from behind him. He flattened himself to the wall and listened hard.

"Could that be he? It would appear so."

"Aye, tis he. Prepare thy weapons."

Jake didn't like the sound of that. He ran further down the tunnel only to discover it was a dead end. Calm down, he told himself. I've never yet been clobbered in a fight. Just ran away a few times. Now I can't run, so i'll fight my way out. Mabye they aren't even looking for me. But the two men continued to advance down the tunnel. They were dressed in blue robes that hid their faces. One carried some sort of wand, the other what looked to be a remodeled submachine gun. It occured to Jake that to his ethereal form there were no dead ends. He went ethereal and began to leap through the wall, but instead he struck it. Jake turned and attempted to fire a magical blast at his pursuers. Nothing happened. His powers had been nulified. Jake threw himself at the blue-robed men, knocking the wand from one. The other opened fire on him. Jake fell back. He had been hit several times, and though it seemed they had passed through him, leaving no wounds, the places the bullets had impacted felt as though they were being drilled through. Jake fought the dark, but it closed in too fast. He lasped into unconsciousness again. The two blue-robed men grabbed him, looked nervously around, then headed off through the tunnels.

[Wolverine]

Wolverine kept on smelling what he heard and as he kept going, he found himself in a tunnel.

"That guy better be worth this!"

Wolverine just walked through the tunnel no smelling more than one. Out of a sudden, a skeleton came out and attacked Wolverine.

"Time for action!"

The skeleton tried to bite him a couple of times but failed miserably. But a kick or two to the skeletons ribs had done it. Wolverine kept on movin. Then he heard some fighting between a group. Wolverine looked while his back was on the wall but it was too hard. He turned and jumped towards one of them. He had some sort of gun. But dropped it after hit by Wolvie.

"Started the party without me? Im not God but close enough, Id say!"

[skysong]

The blue-robed man fell back as he was disarmed, then motioned to his comrade from the ground. The other man activated his one-shot recall device and sped toward Lord Grimlock's underground bunker (this continued in The Twilight Project). The other drew his envenomed knife and leapt at Wolverine, hoping to force him back long enough to reach his gun and blow away his attacker permanently. The gun had been designed specially to bring down Jake and had only three shots left anyway, but it was effective against any sort of mutant, and that was what the man was sure wolverine was.

"It is noble of you to attempt to save your friend, but our master has plans for him. He will gain power beyond imagining, and you will never reach him in time. Even should you defeat me, despair in that knowledge."

[Wolverine]

"Me? Friends? You do not know me?"

Wolverine using all his might pushed him so hard it made a crack in the tunnel. The man kneeled down but picked up his gun. He aimed it at Wolverine. Wolverine assumed it would do him no harm but luckily for him, he missed due to the darkness. Wolverine then looked at the man. He lunged towards him, putting all his weight over him. Wolverine was on top of the man. The man tried escaping but was to useless.

"What's your plans? I know you got some. Give it to me or suffer the most longest and hardest death a man could ever face."

"No! I will tell you nothing!"
"I'm sorry then! Hope I'll see you in hell some time soon!'

Wolverine slamed his claws into the man's chest. Wolvie twisted his hands and pulled it out, leaving him alive but soon dead. He then looked at Jake.

"WHat should I do to you , bub?"