X-Force

Black Marvel opened his eyes, quickly shut them against the sudden glare of the sun, then slowly reopened them. He sat up, still in the wooded clearing where he and the rest of X-Factor had tracked and engaged the futuristic mutants known as the X.U.E.

Stirring around Black Marvel were the other members of X-Factor, the government’s secret team of mutant hunters. Forearm was on his knees, helping Tempo and Flex get up. Radius was sitting up, shaking his head to clear it, while Fatale stood over him. Domino was fully recovered and on her feet.

She were standing over the dazed forms of Greystone, Fixx, and Archer. The X.U.E. mutants they had been tracking.

Domino had her rifle point to Greystone’s head. “If you don’t answer me, the remains of your head will be scattered over your friends,” she whispered intensely. The members of X-Factor didn’t doubt that Domino meant it. “What the hell did you do?”

Surprisingly, Greystone smiled in jubilation. “It worked!” he cried out.

Without hesitation, Domino pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened, except a red light flashed over the rifle’s battery. It’s plasma charge had been spent.

“Your lucky day,” Domino spent. With her other hand, she drew a pistol. “This, however, has all of it’s bullets. I saw it loaded with my own eyes. Now explain how that device of yours work before I waste one bullet on that empty sphere of air you call a head.”

Fixx answered for Greystone.

“It’s a time machine, of sorts,” she said. “Greystone designed it to activate the temporal energies of our bodies, in order to force us farther back in time. Since I don’t see our campfire, and your little human soldier boys aren’t around, it must have worked.”

Fixx nodded in Tempo’s direction. “It must have reacted to her temporal powers, so that you were all brought along for the ride.”

“Now we’ll be able to find Shard, make sure she doesn’t disappear on us,” Greystone declared. “With her leading us, we’ll be able to prevent all that stuff from happening. The Hounds, X-Factor, the Magneto Territories, maybe even that mess in Genosha. We can prevent our whole future from happening.”

“Change the present by altering the past?” Tempo asked. She shook her head. “No way. I mean, even if you do find Shard and do all that stuff, you’d have to eventually travel back in time and do it all over again. It’d be an endless loop of you guys moving through the same points in time, but always aging yourselves. Eventually you’d die, either violently or naturally, and thus break the cycle. Once that happens, a paradox would occur, and the universe would probably end or something.”

“After what I’ve seen in my future, that’d be welcome,” Archer said in a tense voice. “Anyway, we’ve got counterparts of ourselves in this time. All we’d need to do is hook them up with Shard, then leave them a message so they can go back and do this.”

“But eventually one of your counterparts would fail,” Tempo argued. “There’s no way you could keep doing this and succeed. Probability guarantees that you would fail at some point, and it’d be then that the time stream would rupture with paradox, destroying the future.”

Archer paused for a minute, musing those words. “Shut up,” he said at last.

“All we need to do is find Shard,” Greystone breathed. “She can help us make everything right, if we can only find her.”

“Um, I don’t really know if this means anything,” Flex said nervously. “But, uh, if we’re in the past, then shouldn’t the Falls Edge Compound be up there?” Flex points up at the waterfall, and the empty land around it.

Domino nodded. “Then either we went back a few weeks, after Polaris destroyed it, or we went back before it was ever built. That’d be almost fifty years.”

“We couldn’t have gone back that far,” Fixx said sullenly. “No way the temporal transporter had enough power for that. That can only mean we didn’t make it far enough. Still after Shard went missing, with no way for us to find her.”

“Not...far enough?” Greystone gulped.

“Them’s the breaks, loser,” Fatale said. “Now turn that thing back on, send us all back, and continue to resist arrest so we can have some more fun with you.”

“I told you it wouldn’t work Greystone,” Archer yelled at his large and misshapen friend. “But you wouldn’t listen. You just kept working on it, saying it’d work, building up all our hopes! It even failed to get us away from these mercenaries like you’d intended!”

“You should have heeded us Greystone,” Fixx chided.

“No,” Greystone whispered. “It worked. I know it worked.” Roaring in anger, Greystone’s size rapidly increased, as well as his misshapen features. Fixx and Archer quickly backed away from their angered teammate.

“You’re trying to trick us!” Greystone bellowed. It was a great sound, one that shook the trees and sent leaves fluttering to the ground. He made his way across the clearing with thunderous footfalls, until he towered over Flex.

The young Canadian mutant looked up at the massive mutant, frozen with shock.

“Take it back runt!” Greystone roared as he moved in over Flex. “You’re trying to trick us. Trying to keep us from finding Shard, from destroying every hellish thing you’ve done so far!”

“N-no......” Flex stuttered. But Greystone wasn’t listening. He was standing directly over Flex now, his breath nearly bowling the frightened young man over. Instinctively, desperately, Flex punched his hand up against Greystone’s enormous mid-section, desperately trying to get the giant away from him. Flex’s hand came away as a blade, covered with blood.

With blood streaming from the small wound in his stomach and a groan coming from his lips, Greystone collapsed onto the ground with a great shake. Lying on the ground, he shrank down to about eight feet in height.

“That’s enough of that,” Fixx cried. Psionic fairies fluttered around her head in a great swarm. “We’re out of here!”

Thousands of psionic fairies flew outwards, striking the mutants of X-Factor with a great telepathic attack. They fell into unconsciousness quickly, collapsing to the ground before they even knew what was happening.

When they would awaken, they would find the Hounds gone.

Interlude~

“You are the world’s greatest actor,” a handsome, rather thin man said to himself in the mirror. He was wearing a pair of designer sun-glasses, and had slick black hair. “You deserve more than the fifteen million dollar salary for this film. All are in awe of your acting talent, and jealousy would be the only reason if you don’t win an award.”

The actor jumped at the sound of sudden knocking at his trailer door. Nervously, he removed the black wig, reveal a head that was almost totally bald. The only hair he had was a thick shock of white hair at the top of his forehead.

“Uh, come in!” he called once he’d placed the wig on it’s stand.

The trailer door swung inward. A plain looking man, of average height, average build, with brown hair and brown eyes walked in. A man whose only unique trait was his ability to duplicate his average body up to forty times. He is Jamie Madrox, the Multiple Man.

At the sight of the tall, thin actor, Jamie smiled.

“I’d heard, but I couldn’t believe it until I saw it with my own eyes,” Jamie said in a jovial voice. “Guido, buddy, you’ve lost weight. I bet I could beat you with just one of me now.”

Guido Carosella laughed. Before, he used to tower over Jamie by several feet. Now, it was more like six inches. “Just a classic case of overload I guess. But hey, at least it’s better than another heart attack.”

“Yeah,” Jamie replied uncomfortably. He’d always regretted not being there when Guido went into the coma. “So, I see you’ve decided to go for some serious acting. Make good use of the image you’ve got, and stop being the mutant joke?”

“Hey Jamie, I was having fun back then,” Guido said defensively. “Save some lives, do some good, make people laugh about the mutant problem rather than fight about it. Just like how I plan to make them really think about it.” Guido laughed. “You should see the Oscar speech I wrote.”

Jamie laughed. “Oscar? Guido, you’re starring in a movie about a gifted genius exploited by the government. Somehow I don’t see you giving a stellar performance.”

Guido laughed with his friend. “Why not? I’ve already sorta lived it. Switch the intellect for strength, and you’re looking at my life. And you wouldn’t believe who I had to beat out for this part.”

“I can think of a few people.” Jamie answered. “You remember that scene in Good Will Hunting where Matt Damon is having an interview with the NSA? This movie sort of makes me think, ‘What if he took the job?’.”

Guido burst out laughing. “Dude, I was thinking the exact same thing! When I got this, I asked the suits about it, and they said Matt turned it down.”

“Heh, that makes a strange sort of sense,” Jamie said with a smile. He then looked back at the trailer door. “Hey Guido, the dupe I left outside sees a hot little number coming over here.”

Guido sits up, a grin on his face. “Oh baby, that must be my leading lady Jennifer Connelly, come over to practice our hot love scene.”

“Doesn’t look like her. ‘I’m” asking her if she’s a groupie looking for an autograph,” Jamie replied with a grin. The grin was then wiped off Jamie’s face, replaced by shock. “Uh, Guido, she’s saying she wants to kill you. Oh god, her eye’s...glowing....Argh!”

His hands clutching his head, Jamie screamed with the agony of a man dying. “Augh!!! S-she killed him Guido! Uhn, the pain! Guido, get down!”

The shocked and concerned Guido was tackled to the ground by Jamie. Milli-seconds later, the entire front half of the trailer was consumed in a fire that gave off no heat, and disintegrated. Their attacker floated outside, over the corpse that had been a duplicate of Jamie Madrox. The duplicate’s head had been burst open, leaving his brain free to ooze onto the ground.

Looking up past Jamie, Guido sees his attacker with eyes wide from fear. She was a young woman, surrounded by a fiery aura of psionic energy. Her eyes, pulsating with psionic power, were locked onto Guido’s with unspeakable fury behind them.

“I am Tiffany Wenrich,” she snarled. “You took the only friends I ever had. You took me back to my father. You ruined my life.”

For the second time in a long while, Tiffany smiled. “Now I’m going to kill you.”

~End Interlude

“Uh, damn,” Domino moaned. She opened her eyes, pressed her palm against her pounding head, and slowly stood up. “That’s it, we need to get some kind of psi-shielding.”

Seeing that her pistol was on the ground, Domino quickly picked it up. Holding it carefully in her hands, she looked around the clearing. The X.U.E., of course, had taken off, leaving X-Factor behind. Like Domino, many of the mercenary mutants were just recovering from the mental attack, and were rising to her feet. Domino quickly noticed that Black Marvel was missing. She cursed under her breath.

“What was that, Domino?” Fatale asked with a coy smile.

“Nothing,” Domino said. Taking the pistol by the barrel, she thrust it in Fatale’s direction. “Take this, turn the safety off, then give it back to me.”

Fatale frowned. “Why?”

“Because I don’t want the gun to accidentally shoot somebody or blow up in my hand,” Domino said in a sarcastic manner. “Just do it.”

As Fatale complied, Domino noticed something else about the clearing. A large puddle of blood that must have belonged to Greystone. Domino figured that Fixx must be holding the wound closed telekinetically, because there wasn’t a trail.

Radius was standing over the blood, smiling. Flex was lying next to the blood. His eyes were open, but looked empty. Domino immediately recognized a man in shock.

Radius, however, didn’t.

“Way to go bro,” Radius exclaimed to Flex. “Just when I think you’re the biggest wuss there is, you go and run some asshole through. Keep this up, and you’ll be a man yet!”

Flex didn’t respond. He just continued to lay there, shivering, his eyes looking out at nothing.

Sighing, Domino took back the pistol from Fatale, holstered it, and strode over to where Flex lay. She pushed Radius away.

“Get back kid,” Domino said. “Give him some air.”

She then kicked Flex square in the ribs.

“Get up,” Domino snarled. “We still have a job to finish, you cowardly little worm.” She reached down, grabbed Flex by the hair, and dragged him to his feet. “I said get up!” she yelled.

Pushing semi-conscious Flex into his brother’s arms, Domino turned to the other members of X-Factor. Fatale was looking at her in a considering way, a smile on her face. Tempo and Forearm, by contrast, were a little shocked and disapproving of Domino’s actions.

“Listen up good people,” Domino said. “Our target has eluded us, and we can only assume that Black Marvel has gone after them in pursuit. Considering that we are in the past, and our targets have a known desire to alter their future, we have to assume the worst. They’re going to try and change history in some way. Therefore, we go after them, and stop them before they can do anything.”

Domino studied the faces of the rookies around her, gauging their reactions. Radius, Fatale, and Tempo were in total agreement, while Flex and Forearm seemed to have doubts. Domino sighed. These kids had the power, but not the training. Even with one of their own wounded, the X.U.E. would have the definite advantage in a straight-up brawl.

“Fine then,” Domino continued. “Let’s go find the X.U.E..”

Two men and a woman strode through the halls of the Capital building. To the minds of all that saw those three, they were Congressmen, or maybe Senators, or perhaps high-ranking assistants to a Congressman or Senator. Nobody exactly knew for sure, and that was enough for those three to go on their way without incident. The result of perfectly subtle telepathic suggestions that had been given out by the woman.

As to the highly sophisticated security and surveillance of the Capital building, it simply failed to detect those three individuals. The result of a low-level electric charge that had constantly been generated by one of the two men.

The second man, unseen by the electronic surveillance and unnoticed by the human onlookers, was slightly hunched over, with his hand pressed over his stomach. Less than an hour ago, blood had poured from this wound, but the moment it was sealed shut. This man felt no pain from this wound, for his brain had not been given the synaptic signals from the nerves in that area of his body.

No pain. No blood. Both were the result of the telepathic and telekinetic power of the woman.

The woman was Fixx. The man that generated the electricity was Archer. The man that had been sorely wounded was Greystone. Together, they were Xavier’s Underground Enforcers, a team of renegade mutants from the future. They were there, in the past, determined to prevent their hellish world from ever coming about.

“We just need to find Shard,” Greystone kept muttering.

“That’s why we’re here Greystone,” said Archer. “If anybody can give us answers, it’ll be Val Cooper. We find her office, kidnap her, torture her a little, we’ll find out what happened to Shard.”

“Or I could just take the information out of her mind,” remarked Fixx.

“No,” snarled Greystone. “She’d be psi-shielded. And even if not, she doesn’t deserve the painless solution. Cooper caused a lot of pain, will cause a lot more pain, and we’re entitled to out pound of flesh.”

“Only if we can do it without spilling a drop of her blood,” Fixx added.

“Don’t worry,” Greystone replied. “I intend to spill a lot more. A few pints, at least, to pay for what that snot-nose punk took out of me.”

Archer gave Greystone a worried look, then exchanged glances with Fixx. They said nothing, however. The three mutants continued to traipse through the halls of the Capital building, checking the names of each office door. One office they passed belonged to a Representative Primrose.

Greystone turned his head for a second glance at the door, his brow crinkled in thought. “Why does that name sound familiar?” he slurred.

“It’s probably the guy who’s intern went missing,” Fixx said absent-mindedly. “Cooper’s office isn’t in this section. Let’s move on.”

They moved on to the next hall, and the next, going through the Capital Building section-by-section. All the while, Greystone kept muttering Primrose’s name over and over again. He knew that he knew that name from somewhere.

Eventually, the three mutants passed an empty conference room. By the door, a schedule of committee meetings was posted. One in particular caught Greystone’s eyes, and he abruptly came to a stop.

“That’s it,” Greystone said.

Several feet in front of him, Fixx and Archer stopped and turned to look at him. Greystone met their eyes with a touch of insanity behind his own.

“Primrose,” Greystone continued, “Was....is....the head of the House Committee on Mutant Affairs. Cooper works for him. Snikt, he’s probably the guy behind this new X-Factor. Just imagine all the grief he’s done already, all the mutant lives he’ll destroy in the next few weeks, and the countless others he’ll destroy in the future. We have a chance to stop that.”

“What are you saying, Greystone?” asked Archer cautiously.

A thin, sinister smile formed on Greystone’s lips. “Let’s kill him.”

With those three words, Greystone turned around, and began to go back the way they had come. Back to Primrose’s office. Fearful, Fixx and Archer hurried after him.

“Greystone, you’re not thinking straight,” Fixx said hastily. She grabbed Greystone by the shoulder. “It’s the shock from the wound. I’m doing what I can to keep it in check, to inhibit the pain, but I can’t undo the damage that’s been done. You....you’re dying!”

To her surprise, Greystone laughed. Then he whipped around, and back-handed her across the face. Fixx flew several feet down the hall, where Archer inadvertently caught her. Both on the ground, Archer and Fixx saw Greystone increase in size until his head nearly reached the ceiling.

“All the more reason to kill that son of a bitch while I have the chance!” Greystone yelled. He began to run down the hall, his massive legs carrying him with great speed. “If I’m dying,” his voice echoed as he left the sight of his two rational friends, “then I’m leaving with a bang!”

“Nothing?” Sabretooth asked.

“No sign of Mystique sir,” one of the X-Corps soldiers stated for the whole squad. “It’s my belief that she sprouted wings and flew away.”

“Yeah, she’s gettin’ to be more of’a harpy every day,” Sabretooth agreed. Sabretooth held out Wildchild’s chain. “Do me a favor and walk the dog while I make a call. It’s not exactly a one-man job, but then you ain’t exactly one man.”

“Of course sir,” the soldier said. “I’ll take care of it.”

The soldier accepted the chain. Flanked by two other soldiers in the identical X-Corps uniforms, he led Wildchild into the woods. Left alone in the clearing, Sabretooth took out his cell phone and dialed the office of Representative Henry P. Primrose. If Mystique was missing, the Congressman would want to know.

“Hiya sweets,” Sabretooth greeted the voice on the other end. “Tell Primrose that Creed’s on the line, and he should take it immediately.”

Sabretooth frowned. “Hasn’t been in all day?” he asked. “Okay, thanks.”

Muttering in annoyance, Sabretooth hung up and tried Primrose’s cell phone. It rang twice, then the last voice Sabretooth had expected to hear answered.

“Hello?” a female voice asked.

“Well well well,” Sabretooth said with a smile. “Hello....Mystique.”

Next Issue: What’s Mystique doing with Primrose’s cell phone? Could it be she took it off his corpse after Greystone finished pounding the guy to a pulp in the past? Find out next issue!

Sam Everett & Stephen Crosby (1/29/2001)--Silkee! Productions