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| X-men 2099UG Issue #17(A), Volume 2 Written by Chris Lough |
| The 2099 Underground is a project whereby a group of fans are putting together a series of stories continuing from Marvel's fantastic futuristic 2099! Ignoring the ignoble and inaccurate "2099: World of Tomorrow", we're exploring what we feel is the true spirit of 2099 as envisioned by then Editor-in-Chief Joey Cavalieri. Participation is open to all. Comments about this issue should be sent to the author. Or you can visit our message board and post your thoughts on the issue. Anyone wishing to join the mailing list should do so by signing up at Yahoo! Groups. It's free and easy! Simply type in the keyword "Ghostworks" and you're good to go. |
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| The small personal transport augered its way through the wind of Alaska’s everlasting winter. The Hellfire Club’s base of operations loomed ahead in the shadows. The sun would be up soon, for a whole two hours, before it gave up on this section of the planet. Aloria appreciated the dimness of her surroundings. It provided a sense of enclosure that kept her alert. The pilot’s board booped with the familiar ring of a comm signal. “Mistress”, he called back. “Incoming message, Inner Circle encryption.” Aloria let her attention drift from the financial reports on the screen in front of her and keyed up the signal. The passageway between her chamber and the pilots’ sealed shut as the computer awaited the encryption unlock code. She suspected it was simply Shaw calling to deliver a joyous proclamation on how well the Halo City campaign went. To her surprise, Morphine Somers’ jagged features and pinched face materialized on the holo. “It has to be NOW, Aloria,” his deep crackly tone indicated. Quickly she adopted a more aggressive look to her face. The “now” to which Morphine spoke of was his own drastic plan to topple Shaw. As the closest one to Shaw, she was key to his access to him. She added a pleased tone to her voice, she had to sound like she was glad to hear from him. “That can be arranged easily,” she purred. “He is no doubt flushed with joy over Halo City’s fall.” Morphine’s face irked a bit. “Just the opposite, actually. Somehow they repelled his army. But the defeat has the same impact on him. He will need you close, just not for the same reasons.” Morphine stumbled over those last few words. He was of a mind that Shaw and her were brother and sister as well as lovers. “Excellent,” she flushed. “His armada has never been defeated if he didn’t engineer it himself.” Shaw owned his own army, which he leased out to countries and radical groups for a considerable fortune. With the added bonus of easy political maneuvering. “We will mount defeat upon defeat on him today.” She chose the word “mount” precisely for the impact it had on Morphine’s filthy psyche. “He’s in the complex now, I know that much. He’ll probably meet you in the hangar personally. I’ll be in his quarters.” She had given him Shaw’s access codes to his own quarters. She had her own concerns. “It shouldn’t be hard to single him out there?” “It shouldn’t,” she answered precisely. “We are arriving now. Erase this message. I will see you in a few moments.” Morphine nodded. “Very well.” * * * As Morphine had projected, Shaw was indeed waiting there in the hangar, along with Rentaro. The two of them were perhaps the deadliest pair on the planet, invincible inside and out, almost. The Black and White King of the Hellfire Club’s Inner Circle. “Have you heard?”, Shaw said gruffly as she disembarked. “Yes, Halo City, right? How did they EVER manage to defeat the army?”, she asked. Shaw and Rentaro walked alongside her as they left the hangar, “I don’t know. The ground troops fought against hard resistance, according to the records, but the air squadrons simply…stopped.” The last word came out of Shaw in a whisper. “Perhaps you haven’t been paying them enough,” she teased. “This is no time for humor!”, he roared. “The entire air squadron flew out to sea until their gravity packs ran out of fuel. How can an entire ARMY fly itself into an ocean?” “Several telepaths, perhaps, working in conjunction. Or a phalanx of netdivers,” she offered weakly. Rentaro spoke up. “The former isn’t available anywhere in the world, nevermind Halo City. The latter is too well guarded against.” “I would think that if telepaths were going to congregate anywhere, it would be a city of mutants,” Aloria proposed. “Either way, there is one among us who has the knowledge to answer these questions.” “Where IS that rat, Morphine, anyhow?”, Rentaro spoke. Aloria smiled. “Hiding. But I know exactly where. Follow me, gentlemen.” * * * Shaw’s private suite was two parts opulence and two parts swift functionality. As Morphine stood there in the shadows of the unlit rooms, he fantasized about wresting Shaw’s empire completely out from under him with a few keystrokes. Of pulling the pieces out of the Hellfire Club one by one. His hands fought the urge to do it now, but he had to be patient to the utmost. Shaw’s fall was not much longer in the making. Morphine positioned himself where he’d have a good, unobscured view of the entrance Aloria would be bringing him through. A good sense of the dramatic was important when you were toppling someone who thought themselves invincible. In a way, Shaw was, as his mutant power allowed him to absorb any impact tossed at him, absorb it, and add it to his own invulnerability. All Morphine needed was a touch, though, to watch Shaw crumble before him. The lights to Shaw’s suite swiftly came on, they were here. Morphine readied himself. The door slid open to reveal…three figures. Immediately, Morphine summed up the situation. Friggin’ shock. He’d been had. He turned to bolt, he could melt his way out of the place if he had to. Turned…but found an invisible wall locking him in place. “Admirable to try supplanting me so early, Somers,” Shaw boomed. “But insipidly idiotic to trust a member of the Inner Circle so early, as well.” “I knew you’d slip sooner or later, Morphine,” Rentaro smiled. Rentaro openly hated him, whereas the other members simply tolerated him. Now with Shaw’s support behind him, he would have enormous leeway to do whatever he pleased with Morphine. Aloria’s telekinesis held him firmly in place, but he found he could still speak. “So why, Aloria? I’m understandably curious.” “Because I don’t like you, Somers,” she said simply. “And you were never to be trusted from the first minute you stepped in here. Someone had to keep an eye on you.” Shaw stepped up to Morphine, their faces only a few inches apart. “You know about my forces defeat at your city, Morphine,” he spoke softly. “I am VERY curious as to how this was accomplished. And I imagine it will take a long, painful process of questioning before I am satisifed with your answer.” Morphine took the opportunity to utter a few choice words in Shaw’s direction. As he did, several armed men came into the room. “Now Morphine,” Shaw said. “These men will see you to your new quarters.” As Shaw spoke, one of the men quickly fastened an inhibitor collar on Morphine’s neck. The collar’s sting made him cry out and he fell to the floor, no longer supported by Aloria’s telekinesis. His face full of anger and defiance, he looked up at Aloria, “Hope you sleep well, tonight, witch.” Aloria simply laughed, “Morphine, you’re so soft.” It had been so easy to convince him that she and Shaw were actually brother and sister. “Appealing to your frankly disgusting underlying nobility was as easy as a pained look in your direction and a single sentence.” She was right, he had believed her out of…what? Some twisted sense of chivalry he possesed. He cursed himself for trusting someone here so blindly. Cursed himself as the sudden blow to the back of his head led him to unconsciousness. * * * The aircraft cleaved clouds in two as it sped towards Alaska. Its occupants on a mission of deadly importance and urgency. The X-Men had a friend to rescue…and vengeance to dish out. The ten mutants faced each other around a holographic representation of the Hellfire Club’s Alaskan Complex. Less than a day ago the villians inside that complex had ordered a swarm of soldiers and armament to lay siege to Halo City. The attack nearly tore apart the already damaged metropolis, destroyed everything they had worked for, and forced its heroes onto the edge of death. All in what was probably nothing more than a simple power bid for the Hellfire Club. It made Krystalin mad. Mad enough to want to throw down everything she could on these people and let the wind carry their ashes away. That wasn’t her way, it wasn’t the X-Men’s way, really, but she still fantasized about it. “We’ll split up into teams of two,” she explained to the X-Men gathered around her. Victor Ten Eagles, Xi’an, Shakti, and Metalhead to her left, the old guard, of sorts, of the X-Men. Xi’an had been the one to gather them all together, to infuse them with a dream of harmony that was worth giving your life for. Victor traveled the same path of forgiveness as Xi’an, both of them had been part of a reckless mutant mercenary group called the Lawless before they had found their own peace. Victor was inherently more stable than Xi’an, and not a mutant, but still a dangerous man if provoked. Shakti had been with them forever, the matriarch of the group and still playing that role now with the fledgling X-Nation. She was no longer a member of the city’s mutant Protectorate, but she’d always be an X-Man, and this concerned her. They needed her battle experience and power, she added much to this fight. Metalhead…Eddie…was newly rejoined, having gone through his own personal crisis. His massive metal bulk would be equally useful during this campaign. To her right stood Sham, Quiver, Shell, and Bloodhawk. Bloodhawk, though he always claimed never to be an X-Man, had fought alongside them more than once. Krystalin suspected they were the only family he allowed himself to have. Quiver was here because of family, too, although his were all part of the Hellfire Club. His vendetta was personal. His family had been chasing him all his life, hounding him to be a part of the Hellfire Club whether he wanted to or not. Quiver had never had the…ability…to fight back before now. Before the X-Men and Halo City. Sham was his best friend in the entire world, and had the potential to be a staggeringly powerful mutant. An X-Man currently under the tutelage of Victor, she reportedly was just beginning to learn how to use her mastery over light and sound to cause serious damage. That would be needed today. Shell was the newest addition to the X-Men, a misfit who could process ultraviolet radiation into impervious body armor, he had followed Eddie from the Freakshow. He was fascinated with the concept of superheroes. Krystalin wasn’t sure about bringing him, as he had never really faced a true fight until yesterday. She would pair him with Eddie, though, she was sure together they’d be fine. Across from her stood Alex Moss, mutant precog and escapee from the Hellire Club. His visions of the future only came to him during intense meditation, but they provided him with insight and forewarning he needed to stave off and keep one step ahead of the Hellfire Club’s agents. By his own admission, he didn’t go in for “heroics”, but he had been the one to tip them off to the Hellfire’s ensnaring plan for Halo City. And he had agreed to accompany them on their attack on the Inner Circle. He provided the information they needed to have an edge against the Inner Circle. Their fall ensured his freedom from them. He wasn’t as nearly a disagreeable person to be around as he tried to make himself seem. She continued her debriefing. “Our attack has several targets to it, but for the first part we’re better off setting out as two separate teams. Our first priority is to locate and rescue Henry.” She turned her gaze to Alex, he stepped forward from the bulkhead he was leaning against and stepped up to the holo-table. “The upper levels of the complex are for Inner Circle business. The more useful pieces of the complex, such as the hangar, computer banks, and so forth, are the creamy middle. While the servants quarters, kitchens, garages, and so on get the bottom. There are only one or two levels underground because the desolation of Alaska was considered enough security. There are bunkers and storage facilities, but that’s the extent, really, of the underground facilities. However, they’re simply considered part of the lower levels, because that’s how the Inner Circle’s class-sensitive minds work,” Alex explained. “Henry will be in the lower levels,” he continued. “But I’m not entirely sure where. I tried doing a viewing to see if I could foresee us rescuing him, but I didn’t turn up anything. In fact, this entire operation was absent from my viewing.” “What does that mean?”, Ten Eagles asked. “It means that either this operation isn’t going to happen. Or it’s simply too chaotic, with too many variables and outcomes, for me to get a clear picture.” Ten Eagles crossed his arms. “So…that’s bad news either way.” “I would take it like that, yeah,” Alex answered. “But as I was saying, Henry will be in the lower levels. It’s my hunch that if they’re keeping him captive then they’d do it in the underground levels. The Catacombs, as they’re called. That’s where we should start our run.” Krystalin mulled over Alex’s choice of words. “IF they’re keeping him captive…” she thought. She didn’t want to believe Henry was dead. “The first team will go after Henry, I’ll be leading that one,” she continued with the briefing. “Shakti, Xi’an, Quiver, and Alex, you’ll be joining me.” Surprise lit up Quiver’s face. “Me? I don’t get it…” Shakti was there because her mutant-sensing abilities could find Henri, he surmised. Xi’an was there to heal Henri if he was too weak to move himself, Alex was there to guide them through the installation. But what was he for? “Rescuing Henry isn’t our only stop,” Krystalin explained. “We’ll be hitting the garages on the lower levels, too, to seal off any escape. Plus, I want to avoid any confrontations between you and your family.” “Oh…,” Quiver said quietly. His family. Gavin and his father Martin. Both enormously powerful mutants in their own right. He had been looking forward to an opportunity to bring them down once and for all, but he supposed Krystalin’s approach was smarter. They’d fight harder if they knew he was there. “After we rescue Henry, Alex, you’re going to lead my team to their computer banks,” Krystalin continued. “With Henry with us, we’ll be able to tap into their database and pull everything we need to pull the Hellfire Club down from the outside” “Those banks are well guarded, Krystalin,” Alex warned. “By all kinds of mechanical and human security traps. I suppose I can’t dissuade you from getting to them?” Krystalin gave him a cold stare. “Didn’t think so.” Alex nodded at the other X-Men, “What are you guys going to be up to?” Krystalin answered Alex herself, “Victor, you’re going to take Eddie, Dexter, and Sham to their hangar. Destroy anything and everything in it. We need to immobilize every form of escape from the Complex. No one in there is escaping justice. Not the Inner Circle, not the lowliest of servants, not Morphine Somers.” “I hope you’ve been paying attention to my lessons,” Victor nodded towards Sham. “Sure thing, teach. I’ve got a lot of love to give in the form of crumpled aircraft,” Sham answered. “We’ll need your power, Sham,” Krystalin said. “Once you’ve finished with that hangar, stay there until I contact you. Once my team is through with the computer banks, we converge on the Inner Circle.” “What if the Inner Circle converges on us before we can get to them? They’re not going to sit back while we destroy their only means of escape,” Shell asked. “Then you take them down. End of story,” Krystalin answered. “Bloodhawk, you fly a perimeter around the base. If you see anyone leaving, stop them cold.” “I understand,” Bloodhawk nodded. “Right. Is everyone square on our mission?” The X-Men voiced their agreement. “Great. Everyone suit up and get ready, this all begins soon.” * * * “So you’re an X-Man!”, Gavin exclaimed as he sat in front of Christopher’s…no!…Henri Huang’s weakened form. He peered closer. “That’s incredible. How have you managed to disguise yourself so well?” Henri’s shiftless gaze swiveled back and forth as he stared at the floor of his cell. He let his head hang limp. Gavin had visited him for hours on end everyday, trying to squeeze any information out of him. Henry had resisted, as hard as he could, but there was only so much he could take before there was nothing left. Food and drink seemed like precious commodities. Peace was, as well. And he sorely missed not waking up in pain every morning. “Lots of cheap Christopher costumes at the store…,” he mumbled out. He was only barely sure of what he was saying these days. Gavin knew he was an X-Man. So what? He was surprised Gavin didn’t already know, given how Morphine had betrayed him and the X-Men. The stuffiness in his head cleared for a moment. Wait…why HADN’T Morphine revealed him yet? “It doesn’t matter,” Gavin said to Henri’s surprise. Usually a smart remark brought upon another pummeling from Gavin’s gravity-wielding powers. Suddenly, Henri heard the door to the chamber sliding open. “I think I’m done with you for the moment,” he said as he stepped out. Henri lifted his head up, sharp pains shooting up his neck the entire time. Gavin turned to look at him, a content smug on his face. “Until I ask the Inner Circle what they want to do with an X-Man.” Gavin let the X-Man chew on that as the door sealed itself and he strode upwards from the Catacombs. This was absolutely perfect. With Morphine’s aide revealed, Morphine himself would be exposed in disgrace. Quite probably neither of them would survive to see the world outside the Complex ever again. And with Morphine so quickly revealed as a judas, the Inner Circle would be open to him once more. And this time he WOULD take his rightful place with his father. * * * Shaw’s lips were almost curled into a snarl as the loss reports came in. The Inner Circle was gathered around him, minus their newest member, in the strategy chamber. Video interfaces and computer terminals lined the walls, in stark juxtaposition to the trappings of wealth entwined between them. Carved golden wall busts and patterns of gild winding through it all. Red velvet curtains were drawn back from the terminals and screens in use. The floor of the perfectly circular room was, in contrast, bare of anything besides a luminscent circle in the midst of the room. Currently an elaborate holo of Halo City hovered above the glowing floor panel. Statistics and information flowed by both on the holo and the screens around them. “We’re looking at an almost seventy percent loss of our combined forces, both in trained personnel and equipment,” Martin Rentaro said coldly. “As you can see,” he nodded at the holo. “Halo City has more than weathered our assault. The soldiers we have managed to recover have been reduced to the mental state of infants.” Shaw simmered. “This has NEVER occurred before, Rentaro.” Aloria spoke up. “Neither of you have ever taken on a city full of superhumans before, either.” Rentaro ignored her for the moment. “The mental assault on our soldiers suggests a total and blanketing psi attack. What I’d like to know is how an attack of such magnitude occurred. If one individual is responsible for this, that person would have to be the most powerful telepath in charted history. If not, then Halo City has a cadre of powerful, seasoned and trained psi’s at their disposal. Either way, how did this escape our attention?” “It seems Somers has not yet outlived his usefulness,” Shaw whispered. “Get him in here,” he nodded to Aloria. Aloria stepped over to the wall and keyed up a comm signal. As she ordered Morphine moved to the strategy room, the meeting continued. “What more, the successful deflection of our attack gives the Protectorate an opportunity to politically maneuver the populace of the city back in their favor,” Rentaro continued. “What is the status of our own psi agent?” Shaw shook his head, “Hate-Monger has not checked in recently and my other agents can find no trace of him. This, coupled with the significant drops in protests outside the Protectorate’s tower, draws a morbid conclusion. It is safe to assume his services are lost to us.” Jonathan Richards chose that moment to speak up. “Coupled with the quick capture of the She-Hulk and Random does not bode well for our contingency plans.” Before Shaw could retort, the door to the chamber slid open. Morphine Somers, flanked by guards, dragged him into the room. “Somers,” Shaw spoke up. “I am in a particularly foul mood. This will be unpleasant for you.” Morphine tried a grin. “You mean more so?” “You fascinate me for some reason, Morphine,” Jonathan Richards spoke as Shaw stalked over to Somers. “But even you have to be smart enough to know your gallows humor is going to fall flat here.” “I have questions for you that simply must be answered, Somers,” Shaw said as he slammed his thick fist into Morphine’s thin frame. Following with a powerful swipe across his face. “You deliberately sent my forces into the arms of a telepath that could utterly demolish them, did you not?” Morphine sniffed back the blood that was surging out of his nose. His lip felt split. To say nothing of his poor ribcage. What was this business about a telepath? “You mean Shakti?”, he croaked. A moment of puzzlement crossed Shaw’s face. “Haddad has never possessed such power,” Rentaro clarified. “Otherwise her altruistic actions would have drastically broader ranges." “You slept with that, Aloria?”, Amanda Mallie, the White Queen to Aloria’s Black Queen status, asked, her eyebrow arched. “Yes. I had to bathe before and after,” Aloria said with more than a twinge of disgust. “It was good while it lasted, babe…,” Morphine said as he dangled between the guards. “And I have no idea what you’re talking about, Shaw.” Shaw’s anger boiled outward. He grabbed Morphine by his shirt and shook him like a doll. “Do not LIE to me! You plotted with Aloria to overthrow me, you advised me on the best avenues of attack to unravel the X-Men and capture Halo City! And now all my forces lay in defeat with not a SINGLE dead X-Man to show for it!” The door slid open before Morphine could gather himself to answer. “Father,” Gavin spoke as he strode in. “Gavin!”, Martin Rentaro bit out. “This is Inner Circle business! Leave this chamber immediately! We will discuss this lack of manners later.” Gavin faltered, but continued forward to his father. “Sir! Morphine’s aide is an X-Man! The one codenamed Meanstreak, Henri Huang, sir.” Gavin looked over to Morphine, dangling in the air under the power of Shaw’s strength. “Or do you already know?” Shaw turned from Gavin to Morphine. “Your case is quite damning, Somers.” With a raise of his hand, Gavin used his gravitational powers to pluck Morphine from Shaw’s grip. “I can pry the truth from him,” Gavin announced to the room. “I doubt it will take more than five minutes.” Morphine hung in mid-air before Gavin. “Release him, Gavin!”, Rentaro boomed. But Gavin was determined to prove himself to his father and the Inner Circle. Ignoring his father’s comment, he continued onward. “So Somers,” he said. “How many bones do you think I can break before you tell us what we want to know?” Suddenly, Morphine yelped out a strangled cry of pain. Something was pressing inward on him from all sides. He hung there, his mouth open in a rictus of pain, his eyes clenched tightly shut. “I said RELEASE HIM!”, Martin Rentaro ordered. His eyes flashed with a brief fire as the sound of the very air around them being torn in half pervaded the room. In an instant, Gavin was pounded back into the wall. The impact crumpled a video monitor and sparks flew out as Gavin slid to the ground, dazed. Morphine crumpled to the ground as Rentaro crossed the room towards his son. Gavin lolled his dazed head upwards, blood dripped from somewhere above his eyes, his father loomed before him. “Fool,” Rentaro bit out. “You have intruded on my business for the last time. It was my mistake in believing I could raise you as an heir. My patience with you has finally reached its end.” Gavin’s mouth hung open, slack with pain and disbelief. This couldn’t be happening… “Guards!”, Martin yelled. “Take Gavin outside the Complex.” He looked down at his son. “You are welcome here no longer.” * * * The transport sunk down through the cloud cover, blasting them apart as the plane carrying the X-Men swooped towards the Alaska Complex. It hugged the ground immediately, blowing up enormous drifts of snow in its wake. On the front viewscreen, the Alaska Complex loomed before them. “Lt. Markson, take us right to the lowest edge of the Complex, underneath the mid-level hangar,” Krystalin ordered as she leaned inwards into the cockpit, holding onto the doorframe. “Once we’re out and you’re above the hangar, activate the explosives and bring the rest in. Then bug out and maintain a perimeter surrounding Bloodhawk’s.” “Roger that, ma’am. And good luck,” Lt. Markson replied. “We’ll be there in thirty seconds.” “Good luck to you, Lieutenant, see you outside,” Krystalin said as she stepped back into the cabin where the rest of the X-Men were suiting and loading up. Bloodhawk they had already let out while they were higher in the air. A beeping on the comm in the cabin confirmed a message from Bloodhawk. The omni bombs were in place around the hangar door. “My team, we are thirty seconds from contact,” Krystalin announced. She bit her lip and tried to mentally quell her nervous shaking. It felt like their raid on the Theater of Pain all over again. Except this was worse. Back then they had just been a ragtag bunch of mutants kept together out of loneliness and desperation. All, or almost all, anyway, believing in the righteousness of their mission, but afraid of having no place to call home. Now it was different. This was her family, and they were fighting for one of their own as well as a city full of people who depended on them. The stakes were higher. She looked at them all and tried not to think that this might be the last time she saw one of them. “Be careful. Everyone. Even you, Alex,” she said. “I want to see us all back in Halo City tonight.” She stopped herself there. If she kept going, they’d NEVER leave the plane. She had to be hard, they all had to be hard. And vicious. And fast. “Ten seconds!”, Lt. Markson called. As he said it, she could feel the craft slowing down. Immediately the cabin door started to lift open. The cold air rushed in, but she hardly felt it beneath her protective uniform. The snow came kicking and blustering in, obscuring their vision. As the hatch opened all the way, the stone and metal façade of the Alaskan Complex rushed towards them. The aircraft slowed to a crawl and the snow died down as they neared it. Krystalin mentally marked their entry point. She turned to her team. “Ready?” They all nodded their affirmativess. She turned to the other team, Victor’s team. “Good luck.” Victor nodded, his face quirking as if struggling with something. “You too.” The craft slowed to a stop, the snow rushes subsiding, and Krystalin braced herself. “My team, out!” Shakti, Xi’an, Quiver, and Alex Moss all bounded out of the craft, sinking up to their knees in the snow drifts, working their way quickly to the Complex. It towered over them now, casting an enormous shadow as the sun rose. As Krystalin ran towards the hatch, Victor suddenly grabbed her by the arm. Spinning her around to face him, he clutched her close to him. “Victor?!?”, Krystalin squeaked, surprised. “Come back,” he said solemnly, his tone deadly serious. Kissing her before she even had a chance to respond. After a few moments, Krystalin drew back. “I will,” she said softly, gripping his hand, and turning to go before he could respond. As Krystalin bounded out into the snow, Victor looked down and opened his hand. A crystalline heart lay there, sparkling in the light. Victor bit his lip and recomposed himself. “Lt. Markson,” he pronounced. “The first team is clear.” Immediately the hatch closed and the aircraft rose upwards. “I knew it,” Sham declared giddily. “I totally knew there was something goin’ on between those two!” * * * “Shake that rock face apart, Quiv,” Krystalin ordered. “We need to be inside before those bombs go off and pelt us with debris.” Quiver did not respond, raising his hands to slam vibratory waves into the rock face in front of them. The ground around them jerked and shook as the feedback melted into their surroundings. Immediately the rock face began to crumble and crumple in on itself. With a loud snap, a huge chunk of it broke off from the wall and fell backwards into the complex. Just large enough for them to slide into. “Let’s go.” * * * “They’re in,” Lt. Markson announced on the cabin comm. “Everyone brace yourselves, I’m detonating the bombs and then we’re going in.” * * * “Pretty hard on your boy there, Rentaro,” Morphine said as he tried to rise. Vaguely he wondered if the power inhibitor had worn off yet. Probably not. He grimaced, killing the old-fashioned way was so messy. “Shut up, Somers,” Shaw growled as he tromped over to Morphine and threw him over on his back. He crouched and raised his fist in the air. “You WILL tell us the identity of the psi or psi’s Halo City used against our forces. I offer you this bargain, Somers. Tell us everything and we toss you out in the Alaskan winter to fend for yourself. Don’t, and we tear you apart right here.” Gosh, he was all heart. “Alright Shaw, I’ll give you the straight truth. As far as I know, Halo City doesn’t have a psi like that. Dust and Exodus were the closest we came, and both of them are dead.” “Then so are you,” Shaw said in a low, grave tone. He drew his fist back to strike Morphine… Suddenly, the strategy room seemed to heave. An enormous sonic boom echoed through the chamber as everyone stumbled to the floor. An explosion? Shaw was the first to speak, “What in the hell was that? I want a status report on the holo NOW!” Morphine didn’t care what it was. Maybe it was little Gavin blowing off some steam. Maybe justice was coming to the Hellfire Club. Whatever. He quickly scrambled towards the door. He wasn’t going to let this opportunity pass him up. * * * Gavin moved along sluggishly with the guards down the hallway. His mind did flips trying to contemplate what had just happened. His father…after all these years…had disowned him. Gavin’s head came crashing down on itself. His entire life had been his father and the Hellfire Club. He had always vied for attention from him, even when he was young, when Quiver was the focus of his father’s attention. When Gavin had been merciless to his brother in hopes of some kind of attention, anything. And even now, he realized, it was the same, just with a different cast. He had wasted so MUCH of his life here. And now he had nothing. The guards led him to the lift at the end of the hallway, another guard was stationed there with a syringe dart in his hand. “Your powers are to be inhibited, Rentaro. Hold still, this will be relatively painless,” the guard in front of the lift spoke. Gavin did as he was told. He always did, in the end. So what if they inhibited his powers, he wasn’t going to use them. The Inner Circle could overpower him easily, his own father could. If he tried to go back there he’d most certainly get killed. That made it all even worse, he realized. That he couldn’t hurt them. “Go ahead,” he spoke. As the guard moved the dart smoothly toward his neck, the hallway suddenly shook with an insane fury. The dart sailed past his neck he and the guards fell to their knees. The fall to the floor only worsened the injuries his father had dealt him. As his head knocked on the floor, a sharp pain shot through his brain. He clutched his head as the hallway stopped shaking. What the hell had that been? An explosion? It seemed to come from below. Who could have possibly done that? The X-Man? He was… Wait, Gavin thought, maybe something was going on that none of them could think of. Morphine and that X-Man had been working in concert to bring down the Hellfire Club…it was entirely possible they had both planned for the X-Men to come save them. Or if not the X-Men, somebody else. Odds are the X-Men…or whomever…didn’t stand a chance against the entire complex. Especially not since the entire Inner Circle was present. But wouldn’t it sting if he, oh, accidentally set the X-Man free? And helped whoever had caused that explosion? The guards got to their feet immediately. The one with the syringe dart approached him as he lay on the floor. “Stay still,” the guard spoke. “Not right now,” Gavin responded, pinning the guards to the floor as he himself crawled back up onto his feet. Without a word, he entered the lift and disappeared from his father’s life for good. * * * The aircrafts turbines were deafening as they maneuvered into the hangar, the hovering rockets were ablaze with a bright blue fire as they kept the aircraft bouyed on a small pocket of thermal air. Charred bits of rock and metal still rained down all over, both inside and outside the hangar bay, leaving thin trails of smoke as they poured down, clattering down on the aircraft and onto the floor. Inside the craft, as it settled onto the ground, the four remaining X-Men stood ready. “Eddie, Dexter,” Ten Eagles ordered as he did a final check with his armaments. “You two take point. Sham and I will need you to deflect their firepower.” “Got it,” Dexter, the mutant named Shell, and the newest face of the bunch said as the hatch began to slide open. Victor himself was unsure about bringing Shell along. The mutant had no virtually combat experience, merely an eagerness that could jeopardize them all. Krystalin had brought him, in the end, and Victor knew why. They needed all the muscle they could gather, and they had to gamble that Shell’s proximity to his friend Eddie would keep him sensible and sane. “Stay close and work fast,” Victor bellowed over the roar of the turbines outside. “Find and seal every entrance and exit in this hangar. Maintenance hatches, ventilation shafts…everything! We need to buy ourselves time to cripple their vehicles.” The other three nodded affirmatives as Victor spoke. Quickly he made his way towards the hatch, where they waited. “Now let’s move!” * * * A bolt of electricity shot towards Morphine’s legs, sending a charge right up his spine. His leg muscles quivered and went numb, collapsing from underneath him and sending him streaking across the hard floor. Morphine flipped himself over to see the members of the Inner Circle regaining their composure. “You’re not going anywhere, Morphine.” That was Nathaniel Dumakas, White Bishop and cuthroat vibranium dealer. His talent was, of course, electrical manipulation. As Shaw rose, a flashing alarm appeared on the strategy room’s holo. From a quick glance it looked to be saying the explosion had originated in the hangar. Shaw turned his gaze to Morphine. “Guards, take him down to the Catacombs, we’ll deal with him shortly.” The guards hoisted him up violently, and before Morphine could react, the butt of a rifle slammed across the back of his head. A sudden flash behind his eyes was the only thing he saw before he faded from the world. “Notify the entire Complex, roust every guard, shoot any unidentified intruder…,” Shaw ordered, his words fading as the guards dragged Morphine from the strategy room and into the hallway. They paused almost immediately, the door sliding shut behind them. Ahead of them, other guards were sprawled on the floor. “Report!”, one of Morphine’s guards ordered. Weren’t they supposed to escorting Gavin Rentaro out? “What’s going on here?” * * * The five of them ran down the dark granite hallway, lit every few feet by harsh yellow safety lightbulbs. Krystalin, Shakti, Xi’an, Quiver, and Alex Moss made their way through the lower levels of the Complex. So far they had found no resistance aside from a few cleaning orderlies and cooks heading to the food storage rooms for ingredients. The staff hadn’t given them any trouble past a few puzzled glances and harsh words. Shakti dropped the few she thought might notify others and they continued onward. Moisture covered the slate walls around them, the air was musty and damp, with a sharp stab of cold in them. “Alex, where do these storage tunnels lead out to?”, Krystalin asked. “Um, I don’t really know,” Alex answered. “I assume we’re near the kitchens, from the cooks we’ve run into. We could come out there or we could just keep wandering through the storage areas, I guess.” “I have yet to sense Henri’s presence,” Shakti stated. “He’s probably on the other side of the Complex, then,” Krystalin said, before anyone else could respond. “Or further underground.” “Hm. I would have thought he’d be around here, really. I mean, if you’re going to keep someone captive it’d make sense to do it with stone walls,” Alex gestured to their surroundings. “We just need to keep going,” Krystalin ordered. “And hope the Inner Circle hasn’t moved him to the upper levels.” The five of them continued onward, rounding a bend in the hallway and coming upon a stone stairwell immediately in front of them. “Guess this hallway ends here,” Alex stated. “Thank you, Alex,” Krystalin said more than a little sharply. “Let’s go,” she continued charging up the stairs. “Krystalin…wait!”, Shakti warned, her face showing the preoccupied gaze she seemed to adopt when utilizing her powers. Krystalin knocked open the door at the top of the stairs and rushed through, unheeding. Krystalin stepped out into a more normal-looking level of the Complex. A simple red-carpeted hallway with dark wooden panels carved in simple square patterns all the way down. Small columns ran along the wall as well, made of the same wood. Krystalin swiveled her head to look down the other way and immediately spotted three guards rounding the corner. Her reaction was instant. Immediately a sheath of crystal blocked the hall between her and the guards. Laser bolts splattered against it less than a moment later, as the four X-Men ran up the stairs to join Krystalin. Krystalin breathed a quick sigh of relief, feeling the adrenaline still surging through her. That had surprised her more than she cared to admit. “You have to be more careful, Krys,” Shakti lectured, a worried tone in her voice. “I know how concerned you are for Henri, but you have to keep a level head.” Krystalin just nodded, swallowing. Another volley of laser bolts came splattering against her crystal blockade, chipping off chunks of the crystal and sending it sprinkling to the floor. They could hear the hard thumping of running footsteps. “Um, we should take out those guards, don’t you think?”, Quiver ventured. They heard a sudden heavy thud as Shakti narrowed her eyes, followed closely by two more grunts and thuds. “Done,” Shakti stated suddenly. “Xi’an…” A laser shot suddenly rang out behind them from the sidearm Xi’an was carrying. The party swiveled in time to see a single guard falling prey to Xi’an’s aim, falling sideways to the floor as it rounded the corner behind them. Xi’an rose from his defensive crouch and turned to Shakti with a questioning eye. “Nevermind,” Shakti said. “I don’t sense anyone else yet, let’s keep moving.” “Right,” Xi’an nodded as he removed the glove from his left hand and placed it on the crystal blockade, which dissolved almost instantly under his corrosive touch. They continued down the hallway, stepping over the unconscious bodies of the three guards. Xi’an stopped for a moment to dissolve their firearms before they continued on. They rounded two more corners, once left, once right, passing a number of doors and passageways before Shakti suddenly spoke up again. “Guards!”, she yelled, seemingly surprised. The shock slid away in an instant, however, as a man emerged from the door right beside her. With combat instincts honed over the years, Shakti’s hand blurred to her right, smacking the guard’s pistol to the floor. With her left hand she finished her swivel and met the guard’s right-handed grapple with her own left. She yanked him forward by his own grip and slammed an elbow into the side of his face. A sickening crunch and muffled cry emitted from the guard’s facemask. Well aware of how close the guard was already inside her defense, she stuck out a leg and bent him over it. He slid down on his back and she stepped back quickly. Her eyes narrowed as the guard struggled up, lunging for Shakti. He fell limply back to the ground…and stayed there. Abruptly, another guard flew into the wall next to her. Rebound hard and sliding to the floor…the guard from the door across the hall from hers, she knew. She had sensed them both a mere moment before they had come upon them, reminding just how much her telepathy still needed work. The other guard slid down the wall, receiving a sudden and swift cross kick to his face. He met the floor devoid of consciousness, courtesy of Xi’an’s boot. “Oh…wow,” Quiver said meekly. “Keep moving,” Krystalin ordered. * * * “There. We have them,” Alexander Shaw said triumphantly as two separate images showed up on the strategy room holo. One showed the five X-Men, Krystalin’s team, making their way down the hall. The other showed the four in the hangar, making their way around sealing off the entranceways. “You did not apply the inhibitor immediately?”, Martin Rentaro roared to the guard by the door. A guard who was beginning to seriously question reporting back to the White King of the Inner Circle. Rentaro turned to Shaw, “Are the cameras picking up Gavin?” “They are searching,” Shaw replied. “Perhaps he will run into your other progeny.” Shaw smiled at Rentaro. Martin’s brow furrowed in puzzlement, he strolled closer to the holo. “Quiver is with them,” he said, his eyes locking onto the scene of them making their way through the Complex’s lower levels. “How incredibly foolish.” “And our lost seer, as well. Mr. Moss has linked up with them,” Shaw added. Martin made his way to the door. “I do not care about Alex Moss’ desertion. He is not my concern.” Rentaro turned once again towards the Inner Circle before he left the strategy room. “I am going to take care of Gavin.” His gaze locked onto Shaw. “Finish this ridiculous business. The X-Men have been lucky, so far, and they presume much to think to attack us here. Finish them.” * * * “Thank you,” Gavin nodded to the guards stationed outside the door to Henri Huang’s cell. The guard nodded back and slid the key card back out. The door slid open and closed again crisply as soon as Gavin was inside. Meanstreak hung there, trying to pretend he was asleep. “I know you’re awake, Huang. I’ve come to save you,” he stated simply. Henri rolled his head up, squinted through his black eye. He worked his tongue between his bruised and swollen lips, remoistening them. “…’ooray for me…,” he mutterred. “I’m letting you go,” Gavin stated simply. “You’re gettin’ funnier every day, Rentaro,” Henri bit back, preparing for the blow he knew was coming. Instead, his manacles unclasped themselves and he floated there limply, hovering. Henri snapped his eyes open and twisted around in the gentle grip Gavin held him in. This had to be another trick. “You think this is an interrogation trick, right?”, Gavin said. “It’s not.” Gavin left it at that. He was not going to go so far as to confirm how right Henri’s taunts had been. He wasn’t in the mood to admit fault quite yet. He just wanted to hurt. A different set of people this time. He gave a smirk, supposing things weren’t all that different at this point. Henri’s mind tried to work fast, forming scenarios as to what this latest torture could possibly be. Maybe they were going to let him escape just to clamp back down on him? No, that was dumb. Henri shook his head to clear the cobwebs. It hit upon him that Gavin was simply taking him to the Inner Circle. Although that begged the question as to why the members of the Inner Circle simply didn’t come down to him. A class thing, he guessed. They probably let no one dictate their actions, just on general principle. The door slid open once again and Gavin walked past the guards with a stony expression, Henri hovering behind him in Gavin’s gravitational grip. He could drop them both right there. Should he? Either way, if someone came sniffing down there they’d know someone had taken Henri. Odds were the Inner Circle knew he was loose, he cursed himself silently, he should have taken out those guards upstairs. Whether or not he took these two out, they’d probably know it was him. Who else would come free him? * * * Martin Rentaro’s personal communicator beeped. He keyed it open as he walked down the hallway. A private frequency…Inner Circle…he clicked it on and Shaw’s face appeared. “Rentaro, Gavin is in the Catacombs. He’s just freed Morphine’s aide from the interrogation cell. The rest of us are heading to the hangar to rid ourselves of these X-Men.” “Acknowledged,” Rentaro responded and flipped the communicator shut. Rentaro didn’t know what Gavin was suddenly up to, but it didn’t matter at this point, he would catch up with Gavin soon enough. And then there would be a reckoning. * * * Shell jammed his armored fist through the small aircraft’s hatch door, it finally gave through, after crumbling from his previous assaults. The locking mechanism fell limp and clattered to the ground as Shell yanked it free. The hatch slid down lifelessly. “Nice, kid,” Victor Ten Eagles muttered as he rushed in towards the cockpit. At the entrance to the cockpit, Shell held Victor back and stepped in. A laser bolt meant for a human spanged off Shell’s body armor. “Aha! Sneaky little pilot, aren’t you?”, Shell taunted to the man crouched next to the doorway. Shell grabbed the gun and stomped it under his foot as Victor poked in and nailed the pilot with his own wrist-pistol. “I thought you knew never to rush into enemy territory so blindly?”, Shell asked as Victor entered the cockpit fully. “I wasn’t the only one who thought this craft was pilotless,” Victor taunted back, though well aware of his lapse in judgement. Most of the aircraft that had pilots in them had already attempted to lift off. If only to be buffeted back down by a torrent of sound that Sham had created. Eddie himself had strolled up to one of the crafts, stuck his hand right in the engine, pushing past the intense heat of the rocket, and tore it out. The alien metal that he was bonded to withstood all that, somehow, although it sure wouldn’t be safe to touch him for a long time. “In any case, let’s tear up the instrument panels and get out of here,” Victor ordered. Shell took to the task immediately, plunging his fists into consoles and panels of instrumentation. Victor placed a few well-aimed laser shots here and there. Shell seemed to be having almost too much fun with this. Victor kept an eye on him, sure that Shell probably still thought this particular mission was just more superheroing. Victor would be glad when this was all over. Shell…Dexter, rather…had seen an awful lot of action and destruction in his brief tenure with the X-Men. He didn’t know, had no way of knowing, that their lives weren’t like this all the time. He hoped they weren’t fostering something ugly in Dex. The young had a lot of energy to burn, and not much sense. It was a combination Victor knew all too well from his own past. Sparks and flashes streamed forth from the flight panels in the cockpit. “Good enough,” Victor said. “Let’s go.” As Shell and Victor crept out of the torn hatch, they were suddenly blown back by a sonic boom. Gripping the sides of the hatch to steady themselves they heard the horrible screech of an entire aircraft sliding its way towards the hangar opening. It’s progression stopped just at the edge, with smaller debris following it and making the tumble outside to the snow far below. Victor poked his head out from the hatch opening, “Sham?”, he asked, concerned. She stood, half-bent with her hands resting on her knees, farther down the hangar. She was shaking her head and seemed to be recovering her breath. “Hold on,” she said, straightening up. Flicking her finger, a final, lesser, sonic boom pushed the aircraft fully out of the hangar, sending it spiraling down. She turned to them, smiling. “Just need to catch my breath. How am I doing, teach?” Victor’s mouth hung open a bit. “Er, uh, fine. Just fine. Just pace yourself, okay?” A noise from his left caught his attention. Sparks were flying from one of the sealed doorways into the hangar. “Look sharp everyone. They know we’re here.” He adjusted his wrist-pistol and checked its charge. “Take cover. This is going to get tense.” CONTINUED IN THE NEXT HALF! |
