Back for the next to last time (most likely) I'm sorry if this part appears
a little rushed. I'm TRYING to get the Genosha portion finished before I go
for a while and I think I'm sacraficing quility-oh well.
I know this is going to sound pathetic but if anyone out there is interested
in seeing the future parts, please e-mail me and let me know to keep on
going. It may be 3 months until the next few parts but I'll come back with a
BANG! I have about 30 more parts brewing in my cranium.
In case you missed any part you can easily find them on the web at:
www.geocities.com/SoHo/6329
www.spydernet.com/lori/index
www.ici.net/cust_pages/darqstar/ffindex
Part XVI
Cable's team made to the border the city without incident. From a distance
the place seemed hyperactive but now that they were close, things appeared
too quiet. It was too cliché not to be a trap. There was nobody outside of
his team and a few select people in Genosha that knew of their eminent arrival.
He psi-scanned the area, trying to use an undetectable amount of power and
found that most people were going about their day-to-day business. They
strolled down the boulevard, the image inducers still masking their
appearance. Where to begin, he asked himself. According to Philip Moreau and
the members of Safe Haven, (*1) the best place to start would be where
Cyclops and Havok almost destroyed the whole city. (*2) Hodge would have
moved his base of operation in the last eighteen months but he wasn't
exactly walking around with a full deck of cards upstairs.
While passing the entrance to a three story mall, Caliban began a fit of
sneezing that almost knocked him to the ground. He fought the urge to run on
all fours and escape the outskirts of the city but his feeble brain knew
Cable-Nathan needed his assistance.
"Are you alright big guy," Sunspot asked, trying to get in close to
Caliban's violently convulsing body.
"I smell mutants close but don't smell them." It was the only way Caliban
could explain sensing the mutates.
"I'm confused," Cable said, wrapping his arm around Caliban's weight.
"Caliban know mutants around but mutants cannot all be in the same place."
Cable beamed with understanding. Caliban must be feeling the megacomputer
that was sucking the mutates power from them, forcing them into catatonic
states. He didn't need to psi-scan possible genegineers until he found one
that know where it was. Caliban was unwittingly the key. "Where is this
smell coming from?"
Caliban sneezed violently three times before being able to point towards
the remains of a crumbling building. It was probably the least likely
habitat for the megacomputer but that made it the most probable. It was the
perfect camouflage.
"We have two hours before we are expected to detonate the pulse generator.
Caliban, are you capable of proceeding?"
Caliban's senses were working in hyperdrive. Focusing on Cable-Nathan was
becoming more difficult. "Caliban don't think he should. Caliban's head hurt."
Cable was counting on the Morlock's ferocity if needed but jeopardizing the
mission wasn't worth the possible extra effort on his part. "Caliban, I want
you to head back to the plane and stay there. Understood?"
Caliban nodded an affirmative and stood on his own. Without hesitating, he
lopped back in the direction they had come from. The intensity of his mutant
ability decreased progressively as he put distance between himself and the
megacomputer.
"Roberto, nothing else in the plan changes. He wasn't as vital as your job
will be. Let's go, the clock is burning."
The two mutants took off in a sprint down the road. As they came further
into the city, traffic presented a problem. More times than Cable cared to
think, the two men had to wait for a gap in traffic to cross roads. Not too
many people strolled the streets. Like typical city dwellers, they ignored
everyone else on the sidewalk, so watching two men sprint along at breakneck
speed went noticed but only while in view.
Nearly twenty minutes had gone by before they stopped in front of the
abandoned building. The front doors, originally glass were boarded up and
covered with yellow police tape warning of internal hazards. Through the
many broken windows, Cable smelled the distinct odor of burning wood.
"There's no time like the present," he said and kicked the planks with his
booted foot. The wood splintered where it was nailed into the door frame but
remained attached. On his second try, a loud crack echoed in the hallowed lobby.
Roberto stepped inside first, prepared for an attack from any direction.
None came. Huddled in the corner were a group of vagabonds that stood around
a large metal garbage can with the glow of a fire outlining the rim. Scrap
wood lay haphazardly every few feet. The dust was thick throughout, evidence
of this place being abandoned for years.
Cable followed with his gun drawn. The homeless men and women cowered at
the site of the huge armed man.
"Are you sure this is the place," Sunspot asked. "I don't see anything that
would prove we're in the right spot."
Cable reached for the inhibitor collar around his neck and snapped it off
with a sharp tug. He counted on this sending a massive alert to the
magistrates running the country that a mutant had infiltrated their sacred
mutant-less home. Quickly he psi-scanned the area expanding outward until he
caught the faint impression of the computer he was looking for in someone's
view. The signal came from directly below them but almost two hundred feet
under the ground.
"Sunspot! I have a fix on it's location. I need you to burn us a path
straight down. There must be some sort of elevator or air conditioning vent
beneath us. When you hit that cut off."
At the sight of the Hispanic man turning into an ebony wraith, the other
occupants of the building fled in mortal terror. thankfully, they were too
frightened to scream 'mutants' in the street.
The overly dry wood floor went up instantly covering the room in smoke. The
concrete beneath presented little problem as well. The heat sent shards of
rock everywhere. Cable put up a telekenetic shield to protect him from the
brunt of Sunspot's efforts. Without warning, Sunspot disappeared. Cable
leapt the few paces to see his teammate floating in a narrow chamber that
extended vertically. Running lights barely illuminated the shaft. Molten
metal oozed down into the darkness, solidifying before striking the ground
below. Tiny pings echoed until the chamber cooled enough and settled.
"Hold on," Sunspot warned just before grabbing Cable and plunging
themselves deeper. They passed several doorways for an elevator but at each
one Cable insisted the megacomputer was further down. At the bottom sat the
elevator, blocking entrance into the underground complex. Sunspot gently
landed the two on top and tore open the emergency hatch.
The inner doors were closing and a man in a tan suit was just about to push
the button marked 05 when Roberto dove feet first into his torso. The kick
threw him back, knocking his head into the side of the elevator. The blow
rendered the man unconscious.
Cable jumped down, shaking the elevator dangerously. "Next floor men's
ware, sporting goods and freedom for mutates," he said with ill-humor and
pushed the door open button.
Outside was a short hallway and a set of double doors where a steady, dull
hum vibrated.
Sunspot took the point and as he crossed the threshold, claxons sounded
everywhere. The lights dimmed and red emergency lights came on, turning
everything a hazy red hue.
"Go for the door," Cable shouted as the ceiling rumbled, dropping a gate in
their path. Before it reached the floor, Cable telekinetically halted its
motion. Both men dove and rolled underneath as the one ton gate crashed down
cracking the floor in a spiderweb pattern.
Before Cable stood, he shot of a blast of his plasma cannon, imploding the
double doors ahead of them. Several scientists inside were running about,
scooping up massive printouts, while a few 'suits' milled around, confused.
As he entered the room, Cable roared, amplifying his voice in the men's
heads with his telepathy. The scientists wasted no time fleeing out a door
off in the back of the huge chamber. The suits, partially deafened by the
roar drew pistols and tried to fire at the invaders. Cable put a stop to it
before they could get off their first shots by shutting off their voluntary
motor functions.
"Damn. Look at that thing," Sunspot said, finally taking in the
megacomputer. To say it was massive would be an understatement. Around the
base, lights blinked in erratic patterns that only the operators would have
a clue to their meaning. Four keyboards were situated at waist level and
monitors ran all around it cylindrical shape. On each monitor various views
of the mines, the complex itself and sometimes total blackness showed. Every
ten seconds, the monitors blanked out and refocused on another camera. It
was only until Cable noticed one view showed a mans hands digging taking up
the complete screen did able realized the cameras were implanted in the
mutates eyes. This had to end here and now.
The megacomputer shuddered and a pulse of white light streamed out from the
top, running along the cables that ran every which way along the ceiling.
>From there Cable surmised that the wires ran to every part of the country,
nullifying the mutates inborn abilities and memories. He needed only to look
at Sunspot for the younger man to understand what he needed to do.
Roberto closed his eyes and pulled together every ounce of power he had
absorbed from the sun's solar radiation. He took one long breath and
exploded outward. The black globe of energy inflamed everything in the room.
The plastic coated wires melted and fused together. The pipes and wires
along the ceiling snapped to the ground, throwing harmless sparks at their
feet. Above, the heat soared through the roof and the two hundred feet of
earth, releasing a blast only after hitting the lower atmosphere.
Cable psionically blocked himself, along with the men he had frozen, from
Sunspots devastating power for the few seconds it needed to last.
Sunspot collapsed from exhaustion. Moaning, he tried to pull himself
upright but his arms were too weak after his effort. "Did I... do it," he
asked. A small trail of blood leaked out of the corner of his mouth.
Cable held his hand out to the youth. "You were great."
Sunspot took the offer and was pulled to his feet. After a few wobbly
seconds, he was able to stand on his own. While Sunspot regained his
balance, Cable momentarily shut off the other men's minds, putting them to
sleep but causing no permanent damage. "I need you to hang in there for just
one more minute Roberto."
Sunspot only nodded, saving the little energy he had left to get them out
of there. They went back through the hallway they arrived from. The
emergency lights were much dimmer, Sunspot having blown most of the nearby
fuses. The gate that had blocked their path had blown almost into the
elevator shaft.
Cable pushed the button to open the elevator but it refused to work. It
figured, he thought and laughed as he read the sign 'In case of fire, use
stairs.' He wedged his thick fingers between the seam of the door and slowly
wrenched them apart. Inside the man was still sleeping, unaware of what was
going on around him. Not wanting to rely on Sunspots depleted energy to get
them out Cable hoisted them psionically through the hatch and up towards the
surface. He rarely relied on his telekinesis since it wasn't too often that
he was able to use it without pain from the techno-organic virus. Just as
they reached the rim of the shaft, he felt the tickle of his metallic arm
stretching out of proportion. Screaming, he gave one last ditch effort and
pulled them through with some slight help from Sunspot. Both men felt like
Death had just given their hearts a little brush with her cold hand.
The building was almost completely destroyed. The explosion had blown apart
one face sending the rest of the building toppling over into the street.
Fire engine sirens whined from a distance, rapidly closing in.
A middle aged woman watch the two of them emerge from the rubble and ran
over to help. She would have thought they were two vagrants who were known
to inhabit the abandoned building but Cable's cybernetic arm hung almost to
the ground with jagged edges digging furrows into his pant leg. She screamed
in terror and pointed, drawing the attention of everyone present.
Cable did the only sensible thing he could come up with. He ran in the
opposite direction of the rendezvous point, dragging a weary Sunspot behind
him. The others would find them if necessary and the last thing he wanted
was to endanger his entire team. As he ran, he heard the buzz of magistrate
ships behind him preparing to launch an offensive.
End Part XVI
Next: The other members of X-Force and what happened to them along with the
return of the Morlock I created that actaully has a purpose, believe it...
or not
-"The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is the little extra"
(
geocities.com/soho)