by I'm Not Mister Mxypltk and Chewy Walrus
Berlin, Germany:
K'tl looked at Tom. Mick Harrison's face had never expressed so much anger.
"You..." K'tl said. "WHY WON'T YOU DIE?!"
As he screamed these words, the ground started shaking, making the debris in it jump.
"What a cliché," Marv Velo commented, trying to free himself from the stone grip K'tl had created by smacking a fluffy bunny at it.
Tom noticed that K'tl was staring at him as he yelled. He looked behind to see who he was talking to, and only then he realized it was him.
"Uh, look, man..." Tom said, rather awkardly, "...I don't know what's going on here. I only came 'cause a voice in my LEAVE MICK ALONE! head told me to. Uh, did I just burp?"
"How many times have we done this? Three? Four?" K'tl asked, slowly floating in Tom's direction.
"I've never seen you before in my SEVERAL TIMES, AND I ALWAYS WIN! FACE IT, BRO, YOU'RE THE LOSER IN THIS FAMILY life," Tom said as he, apparently unconsciously, started elevating from the ground. Then he thought for a moment. "Man, that was a weird burp..."
As K'tl and M'xy argued and Tom made random comments like any scared and confused young man would do in a situation like this, the stone grips K'tl had created to hold the heroes were slowly falling apart.
K'tl must concentrating on M'xy right now, Velo rightly deduced, as he gave the giant stone hand a deadly blow with his fluffy bunny.
Danny Hearn and Tobias Christopher freed themselves as well, both of them secretly wondering how many fluffy bunnies Velo had brought with him. The stone hands now lay on the floor, desperately trying to reach their enemies as they disintegrated.
"...Hold me..." one of the hands muttered as it felt life leaving itself.
"Die, Nazi hands!" T.C. exclaimed as he started kicking the stone hands.
"Enough, Tobias," Danny said, holding the speedster back. "They've been through enough. We have to help M'xy now."
The three men looked up to K'tl and Tom/M'xy.
"You should take a little detail in consideration," they heard K'tl say. "This time, you can't touch me. Hurt me, and you'll be hurting your pal, Mick. Don't you think he's been through enough because of you already?"
There was a moment of silence.
"Uh... He's not saying anything. The dude in my head, I mean," Tom said.
K'tl smiled and prepared to continue tormenting Velo, Danny, and Tobias to death, while M'xy stood there unable to do anything. As K'tl gave his back to him, Tom/M'xy waved his hands and made the vegetation on the graveyard grow in an unnatural way, making it sneak up on K'tl.
"What--?" K'tl said, surprised as the vegetation grew around him, firmly imprisoning the fifth-dimensional being.
"Sorry, Mick," M'xy said. He made the vegetation keep growing, because he knew that, if he gave K'tl one moment to recover, all would be lost.
"He's gonna kill Mick!" T.C. yelled.
"No!" Danny said. "Hal, wings!"
Seconds later, wings grew from Danny's back, tearing the back of his upper body clothing. He flew next to M'xy. "M'xy!"
M'xy didn't answer. He was concentrating on K'tl.
"M'xy, listen to me," Danny insisted, grabbing M'xy by the shoulder.
M'xy looked at Danny.
"There's gotta be another way, M'xy..." Danny said, and as he spoke those words, he saw movement in the ball of vegetation that held K'tl. Then he saw an arm coming from inside, destroying part of the green prison. "Look ou--"
Then, a good, old-fashioned, big, loud explosion of light covered the whole graveyard.
Berlin, ten miles from the cemetery:
Pneuma paused, hovering in the air quietly, turning to gaze in bewilderment at the brilliant explosion from the spot he had just come from. As he gazed toward the explosion, he felt the presence of his teammates surrounding him at this, the agreed-upon point of rendezvous.
"It is done," Sheik said, smiling at Mimic, who grinned widely with the face of Danny Hearn.
"Oh, yeah..." the shapeshifter said, brushing off his clothes. "That was more fun than I've had on a mission in a while."
Rose glared at her co-worker, raising an eyebrow.
"What?" Mimic asked, shrugging. "Did you see who that was back there? That was Marv Velo! I worked with him in the government back in the day. I would've loved to stop and catch up... see what he's been up to as of late."
"I think it is rather obvious that Mr. Velo has been working for MBL Consulting," Sheik responded, walking over to Pneuma's still-hovering form. "Apparently, our employer couldn't trust the job to just one firm..."
"Could've been more than one," Mimic surmised, changing his face to its normal featureless expression. "...Employer, I mean."
Sheik stopped at this, pondering. "A very astute observation, Mimic," he said, running his hand over his long beard. "However, our loyalties lie only to our employer and to his demands."
As the Sheik extended his hand, the quiet spirit known as Pneuma slipped the leather-bound book into his tanned palm. As the Arab's eyes scanned the tome, his expression remained completely unaffected by what he saw.
"So, what's the verdict?" Mimic asked, his hair changing to a stark red color.
"It is the Liber Vitae," the Sheik answered monotonously. Then, looking in the direction of the cemetery, where the explosion had just lit up the sky, he spoke once more. "We must return to our Berlin safehouse. From there, we will contact Omicron, Xyber, X-Acute, and Arges in Brazil. Let them know we've found it and that they can fall back."
"And in the meantime?" Mimic asked.
"In the meantime," Sheik said, handing the book to Rose, who nodded and slipped it into her bag. "In the meantime, we return to Switzerland and find a way to make contact with our employer. With any luck, we'll be able to arrange an exchange sometime within the next few business days, before MBL Consulting realizes that we've given them the slip."
Mimic popped his neck, his face now that of a thin, long-haired Irish grudge band drummer, as he walked to the road, beginning his hitchhike to the safehouse. Pneuma sighed his assent and vanished from view, heading back to the safehouse. Rose immediately darted back into the forested area, attempting to find the best route back. When they had gone, the Sheik sat calmly on the ground, crossing his legs in a meditation position and closing his eyes. A whispered incantation and a deep breath later, and any evidence that any members of the Geneva-based superhuman organization Project Omicron had once stood on that spot vanished without a trace.