Title: X-Kat: The Mutant Squadron
Author(s): RogueFanKC
E-mail address: I do not like giving my e-mail address link available on the
Internet. If you truly wish to e-mail me, go to my author profile at
Fanfiction.net and you can view a picture of my e-mail there or review my story
there (this story is also found on fanfiction.net under the “X-Men: Evolution”
section of Cartoons). The link is http://www.fanfiction.net/u/249987/
Date: April 17, 2005
Rating: T
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of “X-Men: Evolution” for they are the
respective property of Marvel Comics. “SWAT
Kats: the Radical Squadron” in this cross-over fanfic is owned by the company,
Hanna-Barbara.
Summary: At the X-Mansion, the X-Men are bored and contemplating over their
complication of their lives after the tense strains between them and the
Misfits. Forge has invented a new weapon
called an “alternator” that will allow the X-Men to view alternate realities
for informative reasons. Unfortunately,
a slight malfunction has caused things to go not as planned…
Author's Comments/Notes: Note that I am pre-using a fan-universe made in the
X-Men: Evolution universe called the Misfit-verse. In this universe, the X-Men
made allies with G.I. Joe and G.I. Joe adopted the Brotherhood and some other
new recruits after Magneto had tried to kill and betray the Brotherhood. In the X-Men, the members are: Professor
Xavier, Ororo (Storm), Logan (Wolverine), Hank (Beast), Forge, Scott (Cyclops),
Jean, Kurt (Nightcrawler), Rogue, Remy (Gambit), Kitty (Shadowcat), Piotr
(Colossus), Bobby (Iceman), Amara (Magma), Tabitha (Boom-Boom), Ray (Bezerker),
Sam (Cannonball), Roberto (Sunspot), Jamie (Multiple), and Lockheed (Kitty’s
pet baby dragon)
X-Kat: The Mutant
Squadron
CHAPTER 1:
Forge, We’re Gonna Kill you!
“Another
Saturday with nothing to do,” groaned Roberto, lazily drooping his entire body
like a sloth on the couch, the sun streaming in from the window and heating up
his bronze skin and black, curly hair.
He wasn’t the only one; all the New Mutants and most of the original
X-Men, save the adults and Forge, were trying to spend their current day
lounging around the TV and recreation room.
“I know
what you mean, Roberto,” Amara sighed as she looked up from writing a letter
back to her parents in Roma Nova, her brown eyes registering discontent
underneath her dark-brown bangs, “It’s getting to be a big hassle with nothing
ever fun happening to our social lives!
I mean…look at our glamorous roles as X-Men! We save the world, we fight bad guys, we
defend all mutant civil rights…all before turning in for homework, assignments,
classes, and Danger Room sessions! And
what do we get for it?! Nothing but bomb
threats, death threats, anonymous rude phone calls, criticism, protestors at
our front gates and absolute-zero on our free time!”
“What do
you mean? There’s plenty to do here, and
if you’re bored, we can all do another round of the Danger Room training,
especially since we faltered a bit by several seconds during the Epsilon level
‘search-and-recovery’ exercise,” Scott looked up from his book and commented,
amused. He and Jean were quietly seated
on the carpeted davenport of the den, enjoying the sun shining down upon them
from the bay windows, reading their favorite novels.
“Scott, get
real!” groaned Amara, rolling her eyes.
“Yeah, we
hardly ever go out anymore and have fun…although from how we’re normally
greeted in Bayville and from how we’re portrayed on the tube, it’s hardly a wonder
why,” Tabitha griped from the
couch. Alongside her were Kurt, Kitty,
Piotr, Bobby, and a very irritated Rogue who was trying to elbow a very
persistent Remy from getting too close to her from his position on the couch,
all of them half-heartedly watching another anti-mutant propaganda on the
evening news.
“Aw, c’mon,
chere,” Remy pleaded in a suave yet
childish, amused sort of tone, “Let me be your teddy bear so that you can
snuggle with Remy here, all nice and warm and ready for a little Cajun lovin’.”
Rogue
hissed, holding up the remote control, “Keep it up, swamp rat, and you’re gonna
be able to change the channels to the TV with your butt!”
“Ooooh! Remy have no idea chere here would be so kinky!” the young adult winked at the
irritated girl.
“Argh! Will you just get lost and leave me alone,
you mangy mutt?!”
“If Remy
here get lost, chere then will go
find him, no?”
“I’ll find
you a nice, quiet place to hide your dead body if you don’t quit buggin’ me,
you reject from the
“Ah, come
on, Rogue…loosen up a bit! Ah, Remy
know! Why don’t the two of us play
hide-and-seek underneath your blankets?”
“Try it,
and the things Wolvie and I would do to will make you actually look forward to
burning in hell for a lifetime!”
“At least
the time Remy spend with you before that happens will be like heaven, eh mon cherie?”
“I will not
slam his head through the coffee table, I will not slam his head through the
coffee table, I will not slam his head through the coffee table…” Rogue had to
mentally tell herself in a furious pace.
“We must
really be in a rut if we consider fights between Remy and Rogue as
entertainment,” Kurt murmured as he focused more on the banter instead of the
evening news, smiling at the dirty look Rogue threw at the blue-furred mutant
and the amused look Remy threw at him simultaneously.
“At least
it’s like totally better than watching this garbage,” Kitty said, making a face
as she saw pictures and footage of the latest riot trashing the city, all for
the sake of anti-mutant hostility, “No wonder we’ve been totally expelled for
good from Bayville High. With like, all
of the protests and hate-rallies and the Mutant Registration Act going on,
we’re seriously lucky all of us are alive and around to even watch this stuff
and complain on how lame our lives are at this point.”
“Not that
being around is a much better alternative,” sighed Piotr, “It’s not just our
Bayville high school. So far, we’ve been
banned and kicked out of the Bayville mall, the zoo, the public library…”
“Nice
going, Gambit,” groaned Roberto after hearing that statement.
“That
explosion was NOT Remy’s fault!” the
Cajun mutant snapped in defense, “If anything, it was the fact that Amara
started that book-bonfire that got us kicked out in the first place!”
“Hey, I got
startled from the water-main backfiring mess you created, and I lost
control for one minute!” Amara staunchly retorted, “It was only a couple of old
textbooks that needed to be updated anyway!
The library wouldn’t have missed them!”
“What was
scary was the fact that seeing Amara burning her books prompted the other kids over there to burn their books, even though they all
conveniently forgot that the books were the library’s,”
Sam smiled at the memory as he was seated with Jamie, doing the crossword
puzzle from the funnies section of the Bayville newspaper, “I hafta admit,
Amara, I’ve never seen kids get so into a bonfire, especially since they all
kept cheering you on as a hero for giving them the guts to quit doing
homework.”
Jamie then
giggled as he piped up, “I remember that!
That was when the head librarian had a mental breakdown, right there and
then when he saw the kids burning that prized oil-portrait of William
Shakespeare the library had hanging in their main sanctuary! That was the first time I saw a grown man
cry.”
Sam then
asked aloud as he focused on a box in the puzzle, “Hey, anybody know a
seven-lettered word for ‘mythological bird’ that ends with the letter x?”
“
“Gee, in
that case, I can’t blame him for banning us from the library, then” drawled
Roberto sarcastically as he looked at Amara.
Piotr
continued tiredly, “And let’s not forget the pet shop, all five city parks, the
Gut Bomb burger restaurant…or what’s left of it.”
“Hey, the
manager shouldn’t have promoted that all-you-can-eat special! Not my fault I ate him out of business! Besides, he’s happier now! Last I heard, he cashed in his insurance
money and is living a new career as a beachcomber on the
“On the
upside, you’re the first person I know of to have infamous warning posters with
your face plastered on them to every burger and fast-food joint on the East
Coast, Blue,” chuckled Tabitha, “not to mention that you’re the first mutant to
ever make the ‘Ten Most Wanted’ list of the Atkins Diet Association. Now that’s an accomplishment! Hee hee hee!”
“…the local
pound, all of downtown Bayville, the arcade…”
“Hey, that
guy accused me of cheating in the Marvel
vs. Capcom 2 tournament and got me unfairly discharged from the final
tier! He deserved to get a little iced!”
retorted Bobby.
“Uh,
Bobby? Considering which body part of his you iced, you’re lucky the guy’s parents
didn’t go along with their threat of suing the Institute for endangering the
future family lineage,” Rogue grumpily said.
“Let’s face
it, you guys,” Bobby sighed, “with the world hating us like this, we’re not
going to be able to go anywhere.”
“So
what? At least we can focus more on
having time to study and plan on how to build and strengthen our tactics as the
X-Men,” Scott provided a bit too eagerly, which prompted a lot of groans all
around and a couple of pillows being thrown at him good-naturedly.
Jamie
whined, “Scooooooott! We didn’t want to
have being an X-Man rule our life like this!”
Remy then
said, “The kid’s right, mon ami. Being an X-Man is only a part of who we are;
it does not govern our life ta’ be shaped as a soldier for the rest of our
lives. We need to grow and live as a
family, not as some mutant army Peace Corps.
After all, being a person means enjoyin’ life every now and again, no?”
Rogue put
on a look of fake shock, gasping mockingly, “Well whaddya know! The swamp rat?! Being philosophical?! Call the news team quick, Kitty, cause this
is a sure moment of a pod-person from outer space!”
“Remy is
wounded, chere,” Remy shot back in
jest.
“Anybody
know a seven-lettered word that starts with w and ends with o and is
a word for ‘Native-American folklore’?” Jamie asked to no one in particular in
the living room as he concentrated on the crossword puzzle again.
“The word’s
wendigo, kid,”
Bobby
sighed, remembering that he was still on probation, before respectfully saying
to
Jean said,
“We were all discussing how bored we are now, apparently, considering that the
New Mutants think that they have no fun since we’re all forced to stay in the
X-Mansion and that we do nothing but study, go to classes, and Danger Room
sessions.”
For a
while, there wasn’t much else but the sounds of the TV as the X-Men sat around,
moping and wondering.
“I miss the
Misfits,” Jamie said suddenly. There was
nothing but an uncomfortable silence. It
was amazing how everyone, every noise, every side chatter ceased to be, when
all the older X-Men just stared at Multiple, thinking (or in some cases,
hoping) it was a joke. Yet, the
miserable look on Jamie’s face said otherwise; the adolescent was serious.
Tabitha
then mirrored the look of sadness on her face as well. She sighed, “I do too, Jamie.”
Bobby just
looked down at the floor, guilt evident in his features. Kitty’s face was stony, but Piotr could
detect a faint trace of a tear starting to well up in her eye. Passive aggressively, the Russian mutant
gently wrapped his strong arms around her petite waist, trying to comfort
Shadowcat. Kitty smiled at the gesture,
but Piotr was still slightly steamed that in her eyes, competing against her
affections for Piotr, she still wanted to see that…that hoodlum. OK, granted, when they learned of Lance’s
past, Piotr could have honestly said he felt pity for the earth-shaker. No one certainly deserved that, at that young
of an age. But didn’t that still show
that Piotr was the better man for Kitty, was the one who would be the least
likely to cause her pain? With all that
baggage, it would be doubtful that Avalanche would even last with Shadowcat
anyway. Was it so wrong to take the
obvious road then? To do what was going
to be inevitable?
Scott’s
voice was struggling to maintain its control as he reprimanded gently, “Jamie… as
much as I respect that opinion… I think it’s better for all of us if we don’t
hang around the Misfits for a while. After
all, things have been a little strained between both of our teams.”
Jean just
scowled slightly behind her book, but she kept quiet. Yet the sentiment running through her head
was obviously somewhere along the lines of “Good riddance”. And it was also obvious that the same opinion
was also being repeated in some of the other X-Men, especially Piotr and
Gambit.
Roberto
sighed, “I have to admit, it really hasn’t been the same without them showing
up to bug us. I never thought there’d be
a day when I miss the explosions and fighting and chaos that happened to the
mansion. I mean, it’s so quiet that it’s
literally driving me nuts! I almost wish
we could have one more fight with them.”
“I don’t,
Roberto,” huffed Jean, “I’m glad they all stopped bugging us and annoying us
and disgracing the Institute with their presence. It’s about time they stopped being so
childish and left us alone so that we could concentrate on establishing the
goal of mutant-human peace, something that I daresay the Misfits could hardly
ever do.”
Amara then
snapped as she coldly spoke to the redhead, “Hey, childish or not, it was still
wrong to treat Lance like that!”
“Look,
Amara. I truly am sorry that Lance had
to go through that, and that he had such a rough past. But it doesn’t change the fact that he and
the rest of the Misfits could grow up and stop acting like such destructive
clowns and ruining the name of mutants everywhere!”
“Remy
agree. We’re better off without those
losers anyway,” grumbled Gambit.
Rogue gave
Gambit a look of disbelief and, dare she say it, outrage.
Kurt then
growled uncharacteristically, showing his canines, “What gives you the right to
judge them like that? After all, let’s
not forget you’re hardly what I would call the perfect angel! Does the term ‘Guild of Thieves’ mean
anything to you?!”
“Hey, you
hated them too, so get off your high horse, Kurt! After all, you hated all the trouble they
caused us, what with the explosions, the fights, the number of times they
wrecked the mansion! Don’t pretend that
you feel all bad and guilty when you’re just as glad as any of us that they’re
gone for good, you hypocrite!”
Kurt turned
a deep crimson, which oddly contrasted against his blue face.
“Look,
let’s just drop it, okay you guys?” Scott tried to placate gently, “The whole
point is that the Misfits aren’t going to come around any more, and we’re all
better off because of it. We need to
heal and get over what they did to us before we can even think of being… allies
with them.”
Kurt
frowned at Scott, and along him followed equal glares of disdain from Tabitha,
Amara, Jamie, and (surprisingly enough) Rogue and Logan.
“Hey, we’re
almost done!” cheered Sam, though it was obvious he was trying to lessen the
tension in the room, as he and Jamie concentrated on the last word of the
puzzle, “can anyone tell us a nine-lettered word that starts with o, ends with g-h-t and means ‘assault’?”
“That would
be the word, ‘onslaught’, young Samuel,” Professor Charles Xavier provided
helpfully as he wheeled into the living room with Ororo, Hank, and Forge. Forge was excitedly following and carrying a
new metallic gadget in his hands. The
professor frowned when he suddenly sensed the gloomy mood in everyone’s minds;
even without simple telepathic probing, Xavier could sense the wave of
discontent among the X-Men. And he
didn’t need to read their consciousnesses in order to find out why. He prayed deep down that it would pass.
“What’s
that you’re carrying, Forge?” asked Jean as she spotted the strange mechanism.
The mutant
inventor eagerly blurted out, “Behold, my latest invention! The alternator!”
Every one
of the students and Logan just gave Forge a really odd look.
Sam then
asked in humor, “Forge, did you forget ta’ take your Valium prescription again
or what?”
“Remy
thinks that when they were handing out names for inventions, our little Forge
here must have been last in line,” snickered Gambit.
Hank then
explained to the kids, “What young Forge meant was that this device acts like
the image inducers we have at the X-Mansion, except it is actually more
realistic and can physically create such illusions.”
“So why
call it the ‘alternator’?” Bobby asked, piqued, as several of the students got
up and gathered all around Forge and the adults.
“Do you
remember when we all traveled through the portal to Mojo’s dimension with the
Misfits and Shipwreck?” Hank asked.
Ororo rolled her eyes at the memory and so did
Forge then
explained, “I just thought how it would be cool to view other dimensions and
see how we would look like in different realities and alternate worlds! You know, sort of like how we saw the X-Men
being led by Magneto and how in another alternate dimension, we had the two
Shadowcats fight each other. Well, this
is how we can see what we would look like in alternate dimensions! The alternator is like a TV that can tune in
to the specific frequency of an alternate universe by setting in coordinates of
the tenth dimensions of time and space, and voila! We get images of how things
and people look like had they been in different dimensions!”
“So it’s
like a spy-cam, but only for different dimensions and realities? That is so totally cool!” marveled Kitty.
Ororo then
explained, “It may also aid us in the future.
Do you remember that when we visited the reality that Magento was now
currently leading the X-Men after the Professor was attacked and had to be taken
care of by the alien race, the Shi’ar Empire?
The Beast in that reality
told us to beware of something called the Legacy Virus, and that should it ever
come to pass in our timeline, all we would have to do is inject the virus into
“Oh, I get
it,” Rogue said, “So if we use this alternator-doohickey, we may be able to
find out some more about bad stuff coming our way had we all been in some
alternate universe and use the knowledge from that to equip ourselves of any
enemies and troubles if they happen in our world too.”
“Affirmative,”
Hank nodded with his blue, shaggy head as he turned to Forge, “May I suggest
that you are welcome to do the honor, Forge?”
Forge
announced in a gleeful voice, excited, “Here we go! Ladies and gentlemen, prepare to be
amazed! I’m setting the coordinates for
the ninth-dimension, alpha x-y plane, in the phi-orbital!”
With that,
the Native-American mutant pressed a couple of buttons before turning on the
red switch, and instantly, a beam of light shot out of a lens from the very
front of the hand-held machine. With a
wide berth, the white beam spread out into a circle before immediately
projecting out an image. Interested,
everyone peered into the circle to see what they would be witnessing in another
alternate universe. What they saw was
some sort of grand city. It was
certainly a beautiful sight. The
megalopolis was huge, littered with tall skyscrapers and buildings along with
grand parks, cleverly designed towers with a touch of Renaissance artistic
look, all perfectly next to a scenic view of a wide, sparkling river, clean and
glittering under the setting sun. To
tell the truth, it was surprisingly similar to
“Um…what
are we supposed to be seeing?” Sam asked, “This doesn’t look really different
from
“Remember,
Sam, looks can be deceiving,” Professor X replied, “Just because the city does
appear to be normal, it could be most likely that the world could be
astoundingly different in ways we cannot comprehend nor imagine.”
“Maybe this
is where the X-Men are gonna live in the future or perhaps this is another
reality where we lived in some major city instead of Bayville,” suggested
Tabitha.
“Hey, I see
some sort of sign,” Scott pointed out, “Forge, is there any way we can get a
close-up view of the city, perhaps see what’s on the sign? We might know more about this city and
whether or not we have a place in that parallel universe if we could get a
better look.”
“Hold on a
minute,” Forge said as he tried to fiddle with the settings of the alternator
again, but then a screaming voice broke through the quiet den.
“Get back
here, Lockheed!!!” screamed a voice from the hallway in rage, and the X-Men
turned to see the purple pet dragon cackling madly in a high-pitched hissing
glee while the red-and-blond haired mutant, Ray Crisp, chased after him with a
furious look of hopping rage. And
everyone could notice the fact that his dark, woolen sweater now had some
dark-brown, runny dragon dung on it, smearing the fabric (and a good portion of
his head) with the reeking mess.
Lockheed was hissing and giggling madly, flying gracefully in loops
while enjoying the chase. Some of the
X-Men could have sworn that the dragon was actually laughing.
“Think it’s
funny, you Barney-demon reject?! Let’s
see how funny it’ll be to have you have ten thousand volts shock your system!!”
Ray snapped in his blind anger as he started to build up a furious blast of
electricity from his right fist, the energy starting to pop and crackle
alarmingly.
“Leave
Lockheed alone, you creep!” Kitty angrily warned as she stamped her foot on the
carpet.
“Ray, calm
down, man!” Roberto tried to soothe his teammate as he tried to put a hand on
Ray’s shoulder. But Ray was beyond
reasoning.
“I’ll calm
down when I fry that overgrown lizard!!
Die, you little dragon-spawn!!”
And before anyone could stop him, Ray let loose a furious blitz of
electricity at the purple, pet dragon.
Unafraid, Lockheed managed to skillfully execute a simple barrel-roll in
the air with a flap of his wings and dodged the searing stream of energy aimed
at where he was a split-second ago.
Unfortunately, Lockheed was directly behind the alternator Forger was
holding in his hands. With a crackle and
an intense rush, the alternator was subjected to hundreds of voltage and watts
of pure energy, hot, heavy, and extremely damaging.
“Oh
no!! My invention!!” cried Forge as the
alternator hissed and sparked madly, quivering from the overload to its
circuitry and energy components. Yet,
surprisingly, it wasn’t causing any pain to Forge who was still holding it.
“Why aren’t
you dropping it?!” shrieked Amara in panic, “It’s going to explode!!”
“It
can’t!!” yelled Forge as he tried to stabilize the alternator, “I built the
alternator device from non-conducting metals and from the spare parts of the
remote-control dimension-rift machine we got after you guys came back from
Mojo’s dimension!! No matter how much
damage it takes, the alternator won’t explode or heat up and conduct energy, so
we’re safe from anything the alternator does!!”
Apparently,
Forge had forgotten the popular expression, “famous last words”. All of a sudden, the alternator started
beeping and flashing madly, shaking even more up to the point where it was
actually starting to blur slightly as it vibrated and hummed, as if something
was starting to build up.
“Uh…kid?! I don’t think it’s supposed to do that, is
it?!!”
“It’s not!”
Forge yelled, now fearfully alarmed as the alternator then flashed before creating
a huge, purple-blackish portal, swirling and crackling with thin streaks of
electricity and blue energy, as a gigantic rip in time, space and reality
formed in the middle of the den. Almost
immediately, the rift grew and grew, increasing in size by ten-fold every
microsecond, and the entire room started to quake and rumble due to the inward
force of the gravitational pulls of the portal.
And to the collective X-Men’s horror, the pull was getting stronger and
stronger.
“Forge,
turn it off!!” yelled Bobby.
“I
can’t!! It’s stuck!!” Forge cried as
tried to shut down the alternator.
“Hey, I
can’t teleport out!!” gasped Kurt in horror as he tried to drag Rogue, Kitty,
Piotr, Tabitha, and Bobby out of the room, only to find out that he couldn’t
jump out of the room. No matter what,
the brimstone clouds emerged and disappeared over and over, only to reveal that
Kurt couldn’t teleport from the exact same spot.
“That’s
portal must be preventin’ you from getting out of there! Everyone, let’s scram while the getting’s
good!” Sam yelled as he grabbed Jamie and Ororo’s hands, ready to dash out with
his mutant power. Logan and Roberto were
about to grab Hank and the Professor, and Jean tried to contain the portal’s gravitational
forces by surrounding it with a telekinetic bubble, but before anything could
be done, the portal flashed, and with a small explosion, the rift in time and
space engulfed every living organism in the den before disappearing, taking the
X-Men and Lockheed to worlds unknown.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”
screamed all the students and the instructors as the G-forces caused them all
to plummet amongst the whirlpool of reality and light, the wormhole swerving
and converging in all directions like an out of control roller-coaster. With such extreme pressure tearing at their
bodies from all directions, it was unbearable.
Luckily, Jean acted quickly.
“Everyone,
hang on!!” she commanded telepathically, her words echoing in everyone’s mind
like a stern order, “I’m surrounding us with a force-field!!” With that, Jean used her telekinesis to
encase all of them with a bubble of translucent force, the opposing orb pushing
back the crushing feelings of the portal and preventing the X-Men from being permanently
damaged from the acceleration and speeds.
Before the X-Men could even gawk at the fascinating and eerie sights of
the rift, their trip came to an abrupt end at the end of the tunnel, engulfed
in a white, blinding illumination.
With a
yell, all of the X-Men crashed hard on something gritty and solid, like
pavement. Groaning, the X-Men shakily
got up, disoriented, dizzy, and bruised, but otherwise, all right with no
broken bones or critical wounds. The
Professor’s wheelchair was slightly battered, but still fully functional, and
Forge’s alternator was smoking, charred, and non-responsive, but aside from
that, the mutant inventor could see that no parts were badly damaged and
smashed. The tear in the space-time
continuum had vanished without a trace.
“Is
everyone all right?” groaned Hank as he rubbed his aching elbow
unconsciously. Scott and Jean
immediately did a head count, including them, to see if any of their teammates
had been separated from the trip.
“Nineteen?”
Jean asked her boyfriend.
“Nineteen,”
Scott nodded in relief, “Every X-Man and X-Woman has been accounted for.”
Lockheed
then flew by, a bit wobbly, before landing softly into Kitty’s arms.
“Well,
twenty if you include Kitty’s dragon,” moaned Scott. Meanwhile, the X-Men and the New Mutants were
in awe as they realized their surroundings.
“Uh, homme,” Remy gulped, “Remy don’t think
we’re in Bayville no more.” The Cajun
mutant spoke the truth; to everyone’s horror, they were now all in the middle
of a city, the very city they had been observing earlier through the alternator
before Ray blasted it. Except now, the
civilization no longer seemed so pristine and peaceful at the close-up. Instead, it was more like a metropolis
war-zone. Rubble and cracked streets
were apparent everywhere along with huge masses of overgrown vines and plants
hanging limply from damaged buildings and torn down offices, almost as if
“
“Forge!!”
every X-Man and X-Woman screamed at the top of their lungs, “We’re gonna kill
you!!!”