"Oh man, oh man, oh man!! What the hell was that? I thought you said it couldn't come back for a while?!"


"Getting excited won't help Jon, Hudson."


"Yeah, whatever man! You said El Diablo couldn't come back!"


"Okay, so maybe I was off a little in my calculations. Clearly Mephisto did come back and now he has Jon."


"Oh man, oh man, oh man!!"


I swear, Hudson is as big a whiner as Cyclops. "Get a hold of yourself!"


"But what are we going to do??"


"We are going to mount a rescue, of course."


"To where? Hell???"


"Yes. My X-Men and I just rescued Wolverine's clone/daughter/sister from there not too long ago. It's really not such a big deal."


"Are you freakin' kidding me?? Hell??"


"Snap to soldier! We have a man missing and we are going to rescue him!"


"But my commander isn't going to send troops to hell. You're X-Men are who knows where. You and I can't do this alone!"


"We won't be alone. We still have the contestants who are left from Last Gladiator Standing 2. Kriss, Henchman and Bennet."


"Bennet?? That guy's just some kind of dude in a suit! What the hell can he do??"


"Well . . he is very devious and manipulative. He might just do alright against Mephisto."


"I don't man, this plan sounds pretty weak."


"Yes well, just be sure you bring a lot of bullets."

I watched as Jon helped Private Hudson to his feet. "It's a good thing you happened to have a dimensional portal closing hand grenade with you," I told him.

"Actually," Jon answered, "that was just a regular concussion grenade I had borrowed from Hudson as we were running in. I didn't know what we were going to find."

"Yeah, what the hell was that thing?" Hudson asked in that slightly whiny voice of his.

"That was Mephisto, the Dark Lord," I told them.

"So what, is he like the devil?" Hudson asked.

"He tries to be, I suppose. He's actually a kind of alien ruling his own dimension that he does pattern after hell. There are a few other beings similar to him and they all compete for human souls. Seems to bolster their power somehow."

"And what did he want with me, do you suppose?" Jon asked.

"He said your soul was particularly powerful. I wouldn't worry though, his ability to move between dimensions is limited. I doubt he'll be able to return here for -"

A sudden loud hum pierced the air, cutting off my words. With a searing flash, the misty portal re-opened and two long red arms reached out and grabbed the back of Jon's tunic.

"You cannot deny the will of Mephisto!" a dark voice shouted from the other side as Jon was pulled through the gap.

Hudson instantly leaped for the portal but it closed as soon as Jon was through. Hudson hit the floor hard.

"Oh great!" he wailed. "What the hell do we do now??"

"Well mortal, do you surrender or do I get the pleasure of ripping the flesh off everyone in this complex?"

Jon glanced over his shoulder at my seemingly lifeless body still hanging in the air. Then he turned to the still form of Private Hudson, slumped in the corner. His eyes slowly wandered back to Mephisto.

Jon met his gaze, staring straight back at him. With raw determination, he titled his head back and thrust out his chin. The tension was so thick between them that neither even took a breath. After what seemed a lifetime, Jon spoke.

"Fine. I surrender. If you spare the others."

Mephisto threw back his head and roared with laughter. Jon's face did not waiver the whole while that the devil laughed.

When the final sounds died in his throat, Mephisto said, "Perhaps I over-estimated you, mortal. We shall see."

He raised up his red right hand and gestured causing a swirling portal to open up in front of them. Mephisto took a step towards it and motioned to Jon.

All at once Jon lunged himself forward, crashing hard into Mephisto's back. The dark one staggered into the portal. Jon kicked him hard in the mid-section and Mephisto doubled over.

Pulling a round grenade from the back of his belt, Jon threw it with all of his might, straight at the demon king. A ferocious explosion tore through the small room, sending Jon flying and collapsing the portal. Mephisto was on the other side.

My body collapsed in a heap and my astral self was pulled back into with tremendous speed. I quickly crawled into my chair and rushed over to Jon.

"Are you alright?" I asked frantically.

Jon struggled back up to his feet and patted the smoke off his tunic. "Considering the alternative, I'm doing just fine. Think we've seen the last of him?"

"When Mephisto wants something, he isn't stopped so easily. It take a lot of power for him to cross dimensional barriers though, so we have a little time."

"Then we better get to planning, Professor."

I watched helplessly as Mephisto chocked the life out of Jon, the Intergalactic Gladiator. Hudson writhed in a most painful looking way on the floor. Jon, ever the hero, reached his trembling hand towards his wrist device. With a tremendous effort, he managed to press one of the buttons. Suddenly a loud screeching sound emminated from the device.

In a fit of shock, Mephisto released Jon and quickly covered his pointy red ears. Jon himself was doubled over from the horribly loud noise. Not pausing to try and catch his breath, Jon cut off the wail and gave a terrific roundhouse kick that landed right on Mephisto's chin.

The giant demon staggered back, more suprised than injured. Jon whirled around to give another furious kick, but Mephisto had recovered himself and easily blocked it. He grabbed Jon's leg and using his own momentum, sent him flying across the room.

By this time, Hudson had staggered to his feet. With a ferocious space marine howl, he lunged at the demon, smashing head first into his stomach. Unmoved, Mephisto hissed as he smashed down with double fists into Hudson's back. One enemy collapsed at his feet, he turned back to Jon was struggling to stand.

Jon fumbled for his wrist device again but Mephisto, in a blur of red motion, was upon him. He wrapped his large hairy hands around the device and squeezed. The metal creaked and electric flashes danced from it. The device was destroyed.

Mephisto put his hand on Jon's neck again.

"Listen to me, hero," he rasped in his dark and evil voice. "Surrender to me or I will kill all of them. Give me your soul or I will take Xavier and Hudson and all the rest of the people you lured here to play your little game. And then I will kill you. What say you?"

As I spun limply in the air, I realized that I was watching myself from a distance. Mephisto was there in all of his red-skinned, loin cloth wearing glory laughing like the demonic maniac that he is, enjoying using my body like a telekinetic top while I floated in a corner, watching helplessly. Somehow his attack had forced me to astrally project.

With a gesture, Mephisto stopped my spinning. My limbs suddenly stretched straight out, rigid except for my neck which lolled in a most unpleasant way. The demon lord brought his hands together and started to crush my body. Panic flooded my non-corporeal essence. I tried to blast him psionically but my powers are very limited when I'm dis-embodied.

Blood started to leak in trails from my ears and nose. I could see my body folding in on itself. The creaking of my bones warned they were all about to pop.

Just then the door to my room slid open. In rushed Jon, the Intergalactic Gladiator, followed closely at his heel by Private Hudson. They both had weapons drawn and opened fire at Mephisto. The demon recoiled for a moment in surprise. Then he whirled on Jon and Hudson.

"Pitiful mortals!" he bellowed. "You're pathetic toys can't hurt me!"

To prove his point he raised his arm quickly and both men went flying back against the wall. As they crumpled to the floor, weird webbing suddenly filled the empty doorway, blocking off any further hope for help.

"Oh man, you're game is so over!" Hudson shouted, springing to his feet.

He pulled out a vibro-blade and lunged at Mephisto. The giant demon easily grabbed Hudson's wrist, twisting it until the blade dropped. Smoke started to billow from his palm and Hudson howled in agony. Mephisto tossed him across the room just as Jon landed a devastating flying kick right in Mephisto's chest.

At least it would have been devastating against anyone but Mephisto. The demon laughed and grabbed Jon by the throat. His mighty fingers wrapped around his neck and started to choke the life from him.

This rescue wasn't going very well at all.