Alternate X-Men #60
Michael Triggs at TRIGGS_M@bentley.edu
-------------------

Psylocke, Archangel, Iron Man, and Hank Pym are caught in some clash in a
ruined building, as three beings stand opposite to them. One blonde woman is
dressed in red armor, targeting a large rifle towards then. Another young man,
with reddish hair, dressed in grey body armor, directs a camera towards them
with minimal effort. A third person, a Native-American woman, with some sort
of bionic implant smack-dab on her forehead, strapping around the side of her
face via her cheeks, is dressed in grey and brown body-armor. In captions :

"The Next Generation Of X-Factor begins here!"

<farther down>

"And Gambit Might Not Survive Their Introduction!"

Title : "Factored In"

-*-
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@@@   Prelude  @@@
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Just outside of Santa Fe, NM.. A whole bunch of cars are evacuating the city
at lightning rates of speed, as thick clouds of smoke can be seen storming
from within the interior of the city.. One strange-looking truck, with a
rather unusual, almost alien shape, seems to be trying to fight the flow
of traffic, which for all sakes and purposes takes up every lane of the
highway..

Inside the truck, country music is blasting, as a young Native American
woman, with thick curly hair, is driving.. She wears a greyish jean jacket,
old and worn from time.. A cotton hood is pulled up over her head..

Within the truck, just over the switch board, a light flashes.. She lowers 
the radio, with the other hand on the wheel, and proceed to click several 
buttons on the panel where the light is flashing..

<A speaker blasting> : "Bareback! Where the hell are you? Refract here!"

"Bareback" casually hits another button on the panel, as she approaches
a roadbloack of some sort, causing her to come to a halt. She speaks
through the speaker.

Bareback : Got a slight problem here. I'm backed up in serious traffic.
           Would have told you sooner, but that blasted communications
           satellite's missing.

<Scan to a communications satellite shooting through the air of Arizona, with
 some bald kid riding it, yodeling or something>

Refract <via speaker> : I don't care what you have to do. Get here. If you're
                        not here in fifteen minutes, we're going to have to  
                        abort this mission!     

Bareback : What about protocol?

Refract <voice getting squeaky> : To heck with protocol! Refract OUT.

Bareback hits a button, shutting off the radio. A pseudo-sadistic glint appears
on her face.. "No protocol.. This should be fun.." She pulls back the hood of
her jacket, pulling her hair out of the way, revealing some cybernetic metal
implant smack-dab on her forehead.. She presses both hands to her head, and
concentrates..

The various cars blocking her path suddenly drive off in random directions,
flying off the roads at high speeds, two of them slamming into each other..
A large oil truck suddenly drives on its own force into the roadblock causing
a massive explosion, walloping like an intense blast of thunder..

Bareback pulls her hood back over her head, letting her hair cover her
forehead again.. She grins at the wreckage.. "That's for Wounded Knee.. Not
all of us have forgotten.." She drives her truck forward, bulldozing over
several dead bodies, and a few disassembled cars.. 

She drives forth to Santa Fe..

-*-

Scene : Santa Fe - Deep Within the ruins of a hospital..
                         
Dressed in a grey suit, with a camera mounted on his shoulder, he rummages
through the rubble of the hospital, looking for something.. Refract mutters
things to himself, trying to keep the soot out of his reddish hair..

"Ah, according to the blueprint grid for this hospital,  the security room
 should be right about here.."

Refract kicks open a door, which nearly gives away on its own from the last
four hours of abuse it took..

Piles of security equipment, battered from the resulting explosions, lie strewn
about.. Behind hise red visor, a computer readout appears before him..

Refract <Staring intently> : Computer, begin downloading all footage to log.

The entire readout of events suddenly flashes before Refract's eyes, on the red
visor he is wearing. It speeds buy rapidly. Suddenly, Refract sees something
that catches his eye :

Refract <raising an eyebrow> : Computer slow-down. This looks like good
                               entertainment. This must be from the last
                               explosion that Cajun caused.
                                        
<<Footage>>*

The footage slows down. The video depicts Gambit glowing brightly, as his body
begins to convolute. Rogue approaches him, touching him.

<<End>>                              

(* Presumably from the events in Alternate #59 --Mike)

Refract <commenting> : That bloody leech thought she could sap his power from
                       him. Go figure. I guess mutants are as dumb as they
                       look.

<<Footage>>

Rogue suddenly begins to glow bright red. She stares at her hand, as it begins
to discorporate before her. She motions to scream, but the silence of the
footage hampers any audible scream from getting out. 

<<End>>

The footage suddenly goes staticky.

Refract <sighing> : Computer, what happened?

An automated voice replying : Security Camera #21 rendered non-functional
                              at 14:13.

Refract : Hm, poor chick.. Even for a mutant, she wasn't bad looking..
          Oh well.. That's life..
                                                     
<fade out>

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@@@ END Prelude @@@
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Scene : A Hospital in Santa Fe..

In the middle of what was a hospital, Gambit's body lies on the ground. It
is glowing bright red, phasing in and out of focus.. It has been placed into
some sort of coffin-like stasis chamber, courtesy of Stark Enterprises.. 
Several Stark Employees are currently making modifications on it.. 

Archangel hovers over Gambit solemnly.. Psylocke, whose clothing has been 
reduced to rags, sits in the corner, holding a bandaged leg.. 

Several other people are in the room as well.. Respresenting Stark Enterprises
is none other than Iron Man himself.. Accompanying him is a close associate
of Anthony Stark, Dr. Hank Pym, who happens to have a considerable knowledge 
of biogenics.. Iron Man speaks to one of the technicians, as Dr. Pym carefully
monitors a gage of some device attached to the stasis chamber..

Archangel <to Pym> : How is he? 

Dr. Pym : This isn't good, His body seems to be changing into energy. At the
          rate it's going, and the sheer amount of energy created per unit
          of mass, this could be a problem. I'm not entirely sure if this
          containment unit will be able to sustain the amount of energy
          he is containing. Damn, there was another company who had created
          a mold capable of containing this sort of energy, but as luck would
          have it, their primary headquarters had some sort of chemical
          explosion.

Iron-Man <turning from the technician> : This stasis chamber can withstand
a nuclear detonation from the outside. So, hopefully, it can contain a
detonation from the inside.

Archangel : Is there anything that can be done to restore his body?

Dr. Pym <holding his hand to his head> : I don't know. This is really going
beyond my area of expertise. There seems to be some change in his genetic
pattern. However, I'm not sure if this change is natural..

Archangel : What do you mean?

Dr. Pym <performing another test> : I am beginning to suspect that a 
foreign agent may have been introduced into his person. As to what sort
of agent this is, I'm not entirely sure. The spectroscopic readings don't
lie. 
 
There is a moment of silence. Iron Man finally speaks up, patting Archangel on
the shoulder.

Iron Man : "I'm sorry. There's very little we can do for him now. I wish we
could just hook some gizmo up to him, and make him all better. However, life
isn't that simple. What I'm worried about now is insuring that he's not going
to turn Santa Fe into big crater. Your best bet as far as returning him to
normal goes might be Hank McCoy, one of your own. Once we've validated that
this chamber can contain the energy he is holding, then we can arrange to
transport him back to the X-Mansion."

<a smug voice from elsewhere> "I'm soRRy, but that's not a possibility. This 
 man is a serious health risk. I'm afraid we're going to take his body into 
 custody."

A woman dressed in red armor, with mid-length blonde-hair, holds a government
badge passively in one hand. She plucks at a leather strap holding some sort
of weapon to her back in her other hand.

Iron Man is the first to speak up, as he attempts to explain that it would be 
effective towards handing the body of Gambit over to this third-party
organization, who has people trained for this sort of problem. Meanwhile,
Psylocke, who has perched up in the corner onto one leg, silently communicates
with Archangel via telepathy.

Psylocke <TK to Archangel> : I've tried to read her thoughts, and I find that
  they're simply not there.

Archangel <thinking> : They're what? Could she a robot or something?

Psylocke <TK to Archangel> : I'm not sure. We'd better do something quickly
  though. Iron Man's attempts to sway her don't seem to be working.

Archangel <thinking> : Well what are we supposed to do? If do anything
  forceful, it will appear in every paper in the country overnight!

Psylocke <TK to Archangel> : I think I have a plan. A way to get the container
  with Gambit's body out of here without this turning into a bloody mess.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@@ Interlude @@
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
                                                      
Scene : Washington DC

Trevor Faulkman sits at his computer, typing at hurried paces. He has a meeting 
at which he is supposed to go over the current condition of the government
sanctioned team known as X-Factor, whose current membership was "fired" several
months ago.*

(* For the complete story, check out the X-Factor Protocols series of short
   stories I'm currently writing.. -Mike)

He is suddenly interrupted by his "secretary", a disembodied, computerized
voice known only as Edie.. She speaks devoid of most emotion..

"Mr. Faulkman. I just received a cyberspace message from one of our chief
associates at our Denian Facility. There was another break-in, and a small 
quantity of genetic fodder was taken. This is the second break-in relevant 
to our operations this month."

Trevor slams his hand down against his desk angrily, his brown curly hair
getting into his face..

"What about the stash of gene-fodder that Riot picked up from Genetech?"

Edie <rationally> : It does seem secure. However, there does seem to be some
 crisis emerging via a group of New York based supergr-.
                                         
Trevor <cutting her off> : We can worry about that later.. As long as it is
  safe for now.. By chance, did we get any footage of the party who broke into
  Denian? 

Edie <hollow-voiced> : Affirmative. Intruder identified as Cyclops, from the
  X-Men.

Trevor : Boy, that fellow sure gets around, doesn't he?

Edie : Sir, his behavior seemed very non-conventional. Both in this case, and
his earlier break-in at West Foothills*, several things did not make any sense
logically. To start with, he seems to be going about these break-ins alone,
while the X-Men have been spotted elsewhere in larger groups. 

(* Alternate X-Men #55 -Mike- *)

Trevor : So? Maybe the bald guy "who thinks nobody knows about him but we all 
  do" sent him on these solo missions to keep a low profile on them. He  
  wouldn't send large numbers of people exactly, due to the inherent criminal
  activity of these missions.

Edie : However, another factor involves his reaction to cameras, he almost
  seems to be trying to get caught by the various security cameras.

<a monitor flicks on, depicting security footage. Cyclops has his face right
 up in it, and is making silly faces into it.>

Trevor : Yeah, definitely out of character.. More than likely, he's being
  mind-controlled by some powermad villain looking to take over the world
  or something.. However, it gives us a good excuse to nuke the X-Mansion,
  now doesn't it? <a grin> I can picture it now..

<Scene : New Mexico, just outside of Santa Fe..>

Something..

  Drops..

    From ..
      
      The ..
     
        Sky ..
          
           With ..
           
              A ..
     
               Loud ..
 
                 <<<<THUD>>>>

From the alley where the impact took place, several cats screech, high-tailing
it out of the darkness, as a high-pitched whistling noise can be heard. Almost
reminiscent of tone-deaf youngster singing in the shower..

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@@ END Interlude @@
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
 
Scene : Santa Fe

Minutes ago, a government agent entered the remains of a hospital, looking
to take the secured, highly-energized body of the X-Men known as Gambit into
custody. Seconds later, another government agent, dressed in grey, with reddish 
hair has entered the scene.

With a camera mounted on his shoulder, he zooms in on the body of Gambit,
scanning it carefully, with the addictive glance of curious etched upon his
face. Psylocke, Archangel, and Dr. Pym, stand dumbfounded, not entirely knowing
how to handle this situation, as Iron Man attempts to reason with the other
agent, a blonde-haired bombshell dressed in red armor.

Unknownst to the others, Psylocke and Archangel are in telepathic
communication..

Psylocke <telepathically> : What I should be able to do is telepathically
  make them think that the container holding Gambit has disappeared. 

Archangel <thinking> : And then what do we do?

Psylocke <telepathically, thinking> : We'll worry about it when the time comes.
  This is the only chance we have to possibly save him.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Psylocke presses her hands to head, as her rests her back against the wall,
to support her bad leg. Doctor Pym, and Iron Man, and several other people in
the room turn their heads in amazement, as the chamber containing Gambit
suddenly disappears, Gambit, and all. 
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

The lad observing the chamber seems to show no shock at all. He continues to 
survey the chamber, calmly motioning to the blonde-haired woman behind her.

Red-Haired Lad : Psylocke [i.e. Betsy Braddock, Lady Mandarin] is using 
telepathics.. While it's not affecting me, due to my implants, could you 
please take care of her? All the noise her ruse is generating is giving me
a headache.

Psylocke <in shock> : How do you know so much about me?

The woman <laughing> : I wish I could give you a technical explanation for
our knowledge. Let me put it this way. Ever tried to put a Phalanx in juicer?
It's not easy. But as you can see, it's paid off.

The woman rips the gun from her back with lightning speed, nailing Psylocke
with it before she has a chance to respond. Psylocke erupts in a blue light,
and gently levitates to the ceiling.

Archangel and the others motion to do something.. The Red-Haired Lad speaks up,
while still taking readings on the chamber containing Gambit..

Red-Haired Lad : Don't bother doing anything.. This camera on my shoulder isn't
  for show.. It takes pictures.. And with your rep, one slip could seriously
  ruin your PR, capice? We are the spin-doctors of tomorrow, dude.. We control
  the images in the heads of the ants..

The Woman : Refract. Quit yapping, and finish working! Time is money!

Refract/The Lad : Exactly, Coil.. Why do you think I'm going so slow? 
  Besides, we're not going anywhere until Bareback shows up.. Ha. And you're 
  griping that I'm slow.. Sheesh..

>From the distance, the sound of a large truck can be heard plowing through the
wreckage of the hospital, its loud humming overpowering the distant noises of
sirens.. A truck crashes through the remains of one of the wall.. A Native
American woman is driving..
              
Refract <getting up> : Speak of the devil.. That's our lift..

Refract runs over to the back of the truck, jumping in..

Coil pulls out her rifle again, zapping the chamber in blue light.. It 
suddenly begins to float towards the aft section of the truck, as she guides 
it along with her weapon.. She turns back, for a second..

Coil : Arriverderci.. Don't worry.. The levitation ray should wear off
  shortly.. I think.. It's still not been tested though.. Chaulk it up to
  no government funding..

Archangel <shouting> : We're not just going to let you walk away with him!

Psylocke <telepathically to Archangel> : We have no choice. We're outmatched.

Archangel <shouting> : Maybe not..
                                                                            
Coil is suddenly grabbed by a large hand.. That of Hank Pym, who has grown to
a titanic size..

Coil <being clenched> : Pym, you're a fool. This act will ruin your reputation.
  Refract is getting footage of you as we speak.

Pym : I have a little bit of reputation I can spare.. Can you say the same?
  This footage is capturing both of us, after all..

Coil <grinning> : Good point.

Coil <to Refract> : Shut the cameras off.. As a matter of fact, Ref, disable
  every camera in a two-block radius..

From the back of the truck, an intense flash of yellow light can be seen coming
from Refract's video camera.. Nearby, several reporters are caught offguard, as 
their video equipment suddenly is disabled..

Coil <to Pym> : There, happy? Now we can get down and dirty.. 

Dr. Pym <clutching> : What can you possibly do? I'm holding your weapon down..

Coil : Who said anything about me? Bareback? You think your Cyberkinetics can
handle Stark technology?
                                                            
Dr. Pym suddenly feels a large metallic fist slam into his back.. The intensity
of the punch causes him to drop Coil, who lands with a thud.. The fist of Iron
Man..

Archangel swoops at Iron Man, in absolute shock, getting knocked against the
wall by repulsor ray, from Iron Man, who is surprisingly silent.. Archangel
skutters to his feet, only to see the blonde-haired Coil, which a big grin
on her face, as the large rifle in her hand, composed of some transparent 
material, begins illuminate an intense green color, the barrel pointed at 
Archangel.

Coil : This gun is loads of fun. If you thought the blue blast was loads of
  fun, wait until you see this one! This thing has every color of the rainbow.
  It should give your downfall a prismatic quality.

...

..

.

<TO BE CONTINUED>

Next Issue : The Clash with Coil, Refract, and Bareback concludes next issue,
  in the way you least expect it to! Keep Both Eyes On This! 

<The next issue image panel : A picture of a broken communications satellite,
 with government protocol written on it. It is lying in an alley in some city
 district somewhere, still relatively in piece.>

<Stand Disclaimers Apply>
