Ta da!!! Immediately follows the end of the last instalment. Enjoy.

Chapter 8: X-Men (Still)

Lester turned to Bobby, a question in his eyes. Bobby shook his head and turned back to the television. "We don't have to stop just because Steph's gone."

"Good," Lester replied, "because I have a heap of great X-Men quotes that I intend on using tonight. Put the gym tape in."

Once the tape was in they sat for a few moments watching the sparring session between two of the guys. They were circling around each other menacingly; crouched low, fists at the ready. The shorter of the two, Zed, spoke, seeming to hiss the words out. "I am the rocks of the eternal!" Lester shouted. "Crash against me and be broken!" Zed then rushed the other guy and pinned him beneath his short, though incredibly muscled, form.

The other guy, who's head was just visible by Zed's shoulder, muttered something which Bobby graciously filled. "Threats. Consider me duly intimidated."

They laughed. Both at the spectacle that was the sparring session and the dialogue they added. Sparring was fun to watch no matter what. This just made it better.

"Isn't this the tape with Steph's hand-to-hand lessons?" Bobby asked, fast-forwarding through the rest of the session. "That has to have some good footage on it."

"Oh! Yes! Stop here! Stop here!" Lester exclaimed, bouncing up and down on the couch, rather than answer his friend. "This is from when Hal and Cal got in that big tiff and they ended up in a free for all! We have to watch this!!"

Bobby sighed and rewound it to the beginning of the fight. Hal and Cal were practically thrown into the room by Ranger who then proceeded to glare at them as when they landed on their respective arses and stared up at him. He barked out an order that, to the trained lip reader, was something along the lines of "Work it out. Now." They lunged for each other but stopped millimetres away when they realised Ranger was still glaring at them. He shook his head and muttered, Lester filled his words, "Here I am, Cyclops, so called leader of the X-Men, and how do I use my optic blasts? As a snooze alarm." That said, he swiftly turned and left the men to it.

The moment Ranger was out of sight Hal was all over Cal like a rash. Cal brutally pushed him back and got to his feet quickly. A few similar encounters followed until Cal managed to seize Hal in a sleeper hold. "I've been an X-man since I was fourteen," he seethed through Bobby's lips. "It's like wearing a big sign saying, 'Please try to kill me, I like it." He made a jerking movement and kicked Hal where it was sure to hurt.

A flash of limbs and, had it been a cartoon, a cloud of smoke and their positions were reversed. Cal choked something out that Bobby once again voiced. "What makes you such a bitch, Emma?"

A short struggle, cut off by Hal once again gaining control of the situation. "Breeding, darling," Lester filled as he hissed something in Cal's ear. "Top class breeding." Lester turned to Bobby as the tape played on. "Nice call."

"Thanks."

Men were now joining the fray. Originally to pull the two battling gorillas off each other, but a misplaced punch and they were in for a pound. There were ten guys, all with fists flying, by the time Steph and Lester appeared at the edge of the screen in the doorway.

Screen-Lester surveyed the scene with a critical eye and spoke to Steph. "By my count there are only a few thousand of them," Bobby voice-overed. "Cover me, I'm going in."

Steph's eyes widened a bit and she replied, "Okay."

"I was just joking," Bobby filled as Screen-Lester spoke again.

She gulped and Lester filled her next comment. "So was I."

They fight continued as they watched for minutes. When it didn't seem to be coming to any kind of end Steph shouted something and all the men stopped dead as if frozen. Throats were still in hands. Fists were inches from guts and faces. Men were balanced on one leg in the preparation of kicking their opponent. Hal, who was now beating shit out of Dayle, made a comment which was promptly provided by Couch-Lester. "I didn't know she knew words like that."

On the other side of the group, Cal, who was pinned to the ground by Hawk, replied using Bobby's mouth as a vessel. "It was probably your influence." And without any warning, they were once again at each other's throats. The rest of the assembled men looked at each other confusedly and joined ranks to pull the two to opposite sides of the room. Tank appeared behind Lester and Steph, gave out a few orders and the room cleared quicker than if he had announced a seventy percent off sale in Macy's shoe department to a room of teenage girls. He nodded to Lester and Steph before leaving himself.

Bobby and Lester watched in amusement as Screen- Lester and Steph proceeded to start up a sparring session. It didn't take much for Lester to bring Steph to the ground. He had her pinned with one foot, no worries, when she spoke. "Peter, my friend," Bobby filled.

"Da?" Lester spoke for himself.

"Your foot," Bobby/Steph continued.

"Da?"

"Please remove it from my spleen."

The two grown men on the couch almost fell off as they were convulsed with laughter. They only barely heard the loud thudding on the wall that was followed by a disgruntled "Pipe down in there! Some of us are trying to sleep!" This only caused them to laugh hard and louder until the door burst open. Tank stood there, his angry face in place. "I can hear you all the way down the hall," he seethed. "Cut it the hell out. Brown, go to your own apartment and if I hear a peep out of either of you before morning, unless there's an emergency, I'll meet you both on the mat at nine.

You know what to do. It's not hard. Just hit the button.