Gifted by Peter David Page B

and blood. She had instead employed her secondary ability, which she typically favored when going into a combat situation: Her body had transformed into an organic form of glittering diamond. It provided her both a high degree of invulnerability and also increased strength. As casually as if she were hailing a taxi—something Emma 98 would never be caught dead doing—she stuck out her left arm and clotheslined the soldier. The blow struck him across the throat and he coughed up blood as his rifle went flying.
    A fourth soldier didn’t know where to look first: left, right, in front of or behind him. While he was trying to make up his mind, Wolverine cut through the ceiling with his claws and crashed down from overhead. The soldier looked up, and then he wasn’t looking at anything. Wolverine had knocked him cold, an action for which he should have been grateful. Wolverine could just as easily have taken his head off.
    Meanwhile Kitty continued to pop up and down through the floor like a ghostly mutant Whac-a-mole, pulling one hostage after another to safety. There was still a handful of tuxedoed men remaining when the X-Men converged from all sides on the leader, who was essentially the eight hundred pound gorilla in the room. Kitty fully materialized in the room, hoping—praying—that the fight was more or less over. The X-Men had just dismantled all the black-clad guys within seconds. Certainly this one creature wasn’t going to try to stand alone against them.
    “Hmm,” he said, not sounding particularly perturbed at being alone and surrounded. “X-Men…you do not disappoint.”
    “This doesn’t have to go any further,” Cyclops warned him.
    He snorted. It sounded as if it was supposed to be a laugh of some sort. “I wasn’t aware it had begun.”
    “Whatever it is you want from these people…”
    “He got it already, Cyclops,” said Wolverine. “This was a test.”
    The behemoth nodded slightly. “Not a difficult one, it’s true. But you still performed admirably.” He glanced at Emma and added, almost 99 as an afterthought, “And don’t meddle with my mind, Miss Frost. You could not hope to decipher my thoughts. Whereas yours…”
    And suddenly there was some sort of round device in his hand. It looked like the Chinese weapon called a wind and fire wheel. It was a flat, metal ring with long, vicious blades extending from the edges, like fangs, clearly capable of slicing anyone they struck to ribbons. The behemoth gripped the blade tightly by its handle, and it was suddenly obvious he had no intention of surrendering.
    Without a word spoken between them, but moving simultaneously due to long practice, Wolverine and Cyclops went for him from either side. Cyclops unleashed an optic blast as Wolverine leaped through the air, ready to hit hard and fast with his claws. Before the blast could strike home, the behemoth brought his armored right arm up and deflected it effortlessly.
    Kitty tried to shout a warning that there were still hostages about. She wanted to cry out that if everyone could just keep their testosterone in check for another minute or so, she could get the remaining hostages to safety—since it was obvious that the big guy wasn’t really interested in them—and then the combatants could proceed to beat the living crap out of each other in relative peace. She didn’t have the opportunity, however, as the deflected optic blast hit her broadside and knocked her off her feet. She lay on the ground, stunned, barely managing to remain conscious.
    The huge being spun out of the way of Wolverine’s attack, which wouldn’t have seemed possible given his size. He drove his left fist forward, catching the clawed mutant squarely on the chin. Wolverine’s head snapped back, momentarily staggering him. Pressing his attack, 100 the behemoth swung the wind and fire wheel. It sliced directly across Wolverine’s gut. He went down, clutching at his stomach, trying not to think about what it was