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MV1 #72 JANUARY Year 4

One has seen his lover killed. One grew up on the streets, and knows full well the pain of solitude. One was taken from his simple, peaceful life in the ocean and changed - not necessarily for the better. And one has seen the future, and knows it to be lacking. They are heroes who will address the crime that too many others will not. They may not know legal from illegal, but they know right from wrong. They are X-FORCE!

"So Close, And Yet So Far"

What Has Gone Before: Shatterstar, Meltdown, Serendipity, and the cyborg lobster Bill found themselves in Nebraska, searching for their mentor, Cable, who was captured by the Phalanx. Despite individual worries and misgivings, the team is coming together as a group, and now, they face their first true test - a horde of Phalanx drones.

TEXT GUIDE: BLACK text is the story. BLUE text is an editor's note. RED text is the soundtrack.

[Piano intro]

[The end scene of last issue, reprinted with notes for the soundtrack, for your listening enjoyment. Don't say I never did nothin' for ya! -Shawn]

"What's that noise?"

The deep rumble that Tabitha was hearing was getting louder... and closer. And then...

BOOM!

Rocks, dirt, and wheat flew everywhere as several bizarre techno-organic robots literally burst from the ground!

<Prepare yourselves humans... you face the might of Phalanx!>

The drones surrounded the trio. They had witnessed many reactions to their sudden appearance - various humans had been shocked, frightened, resigned...but they had never seen the expression on Meltdown's face.

Tabitha smiled, slowly. "Phalanx, eh? Hmm... guess this means we should give up, huh, guys?"

Shatterstar chuckled. So much for the quiet way in. "Nahhh. We need the exercise."

Tab nodded, chuckling. "Suck it, tin men!"

And the battle commenced...

[intro cool techno beat stuff]

A clear, sunny, calm day, completely shattered by explosions, screams, battle cries, and techno-organic drones duking it out with mutants.

Not exactly par for the course in the tiny communities surrounding Omaha.

Calls were made, rumors were spread - and even before the cops got moving, the television chopper was in the air.

"This is Jesse Barnes, reporting live from a superhuman battlefield. As you can see, we are circling an area where a team of superpowered individuals is facing off against what appear to be some type of bizarre robots! Folks, I've never seen anything like this!"

Hot damn, thought Barnes to himself as he watched the slugfest. Who says only New Yorkers get to see this kind of thing? This is gonna give me one hell of a lot of ammo to use when I'm up for contract renegotiations in the fall...

You're weird/in tears/too near and too far away
He said/saw red/went home stayed in bed all day
Your T-Shirt/Dish dirt
Always love the one you hurt

Tabitha Smith was still haunted by visions.

She saw the mangled, bloated body of a man who deserved to die, but perhaps not at her hand. She saw a drug dealer named Boots, who had just killed Gomi, who had almost killed Shatterstar*.

[*In the soon-to-be-classic MARVEL PREMIERE #75 --Shawn]

And she killed him.

She wasn't sure yet what she thought about that - about killing another human being.

But these... these were Phalanx.

I don't have to hold back. Who gives a fuck if I kill some stinkin' robot?

Time bombs flew, supercharged plasma exploded.

Meltdown was in her element.

It's a crack/I'm back/Yeah I'm standing
On the rooftops shouting out
Baby I'm ready to go
I'm back and ready to go
>From the rooftops shout it out

Serendipity wasn't exactly a skilled combatant, but she held her own.

The Phalanx drone that was attacking her simply couldn't seem to catch the lithe young Goth as she dove, rolled, and dodged around the battlefield. It, of course, had no way of knowing that Serendipity was a precognitive mutant, and knew how the drone would attack before it did.

It just knew frustration, and the occasional sharp pain of being kicked by a strong foot in a steel-toed Doc Martens boot.

It's a crack/I'm back/Yeah I'm standing
On the rooftops having it
Baby I'm ready to go
I'm back and ready to go
>From the rooftops shout it out
Shout it out

Warrior born. Mutant. Freedom fighter. Gay man. Lover, fighter, mate, alone.

Shatterstar was in need of a way to vent his frustrations.

He found it in the Phalanx.

Oddly enough, the small being perched on his shoulder was doing just as well.

Bill, the cybernetic lobster, Gomi's greatest creation and his best friend, seethed with anger and rage. He had lost his only two friends in the world - Gomi and Don.

His claws opened to reveal a pair of small openings, and from the crustacean's small body could be heard the hum of charging capacitors.

Coils were charged with electrical energy, and the resultant magnetic forces were used to propel small pellets, roughly the size of BBs, out of Bill's claws and through the nearest Phalanx.

These devices, called Gauss Guns, propelled said BBs at supersonic speeds. In addition, Bill's ammunition was not simple copper BBs, but rather a sophisticated Teflon polymer that, much like the infamous "cop killer" bullets, exploded outwards on impact, mushrooming and causing grievous internal damage.

They worked just as well on the Phalanx as they would have on humans. Bill, normally quite sedate, was unusually enthusiastic.

"Welcome to Bill Two Point Oh, bitches!"

Apparently Tabitha's language was having an effect on the young lobster.

You sleep/Too deep/One week is another world
Big mouth/Drop out
You get what you deserve
You're strange
Insane
One thing you can never change

"Ladies and gentlemen, it appears that the superheroes - if that's what they are, I can't see any costumes or... yes, yes, they're definitely getting the upper hand..."

"Sorry to interrupt you, Jesse, but here in the studio we've been able to positively identify some of the combatants down there... Two of them are mutants.

Tabitha Smith, a.k.a. Boom-Boom, currently calling herself Meltdown, and Benjamin Russell, a.k.a. Shatterstar, were both reportedly involved in... in a break-in on the S.H.I.E.L.D.* Helicarrier?!?"

[*SHIELD's name has been changed more often than Dennis Rodman's haircut, so even I don't know what the acronym stands for anymore. -Shawn]

"Is that report reliable, Mandy?" Damn anchorwoman bitch, thought Jesse. Breaking in on me. All she does is sit there, look pretty, and smile while talking about dead people. Bet she fucked the producer.

"We think it is, Jesse." Damn glory hound reporter, thought Mandy Jameson, on the other end of the radio linkup. Bet he thinks he'll get a fucking Pulitzer out of this. "Also... we've been able to determine that they are fighting something called the Phalanx... according to the report we have, they're some type of alien... "techno-organic," whatever that means... our New York affiliate is trying to get an expert in their studio, and once that happens, we'll be able to bring you more information about this fast-breaking story."

Abused
Confused
Always love the one that hurt ya
Hurt ya
Hurt ya

The Phalanx is a powerful, determined, and canny opponent. When it can fully concentrate on what it's doing.

But by diverting a part of its attention to attack X-Force, the Phalanx gave Cable an opening.

The Askani'son - a name he'd never been comfortable with, but one he could not avoid - channeled all of his considerable might into one... strong... push!

"Mandy, it looks as though... yes, the Phalanx are falling back... they seem to be retreating into some kind of tunnel... no! No, that's not correct! They're forming a barrier around the tunnel... they seem disorganized, distracted... the young mutants seem to be carrying the day...yes! A burst of what appears to be plasma from the one called Meltdown, and the Phalanx is down..."

"Jesse, your picture isn't holding very steady... what seems to be happening?"

"Sorry, Mandy... one of the Phalanx drones just got hit in the gas tanks or something, and it sort of exploded. Knocked our chopper for a bit of a loop, but the pilot appears to have it under control... the mutants appear to be entering the access hatch themselves! Just the three of them, walking into what is no doubt the alien's stronghold... I've never seen anything like this! They... they're inside, now, and... and there doesn't appear to be much happening... we'll stay on site in case of new events, but for now, maybe it would be best to go back to you in the studio, Mandy."

"Thank you, Jesse..." The blonde anchorwoman appeared on TV screens across the state - across the country, now - splitscreened with a distinguished-looking man in a tweed jacket, with thick brown mustaches and touches of grey at his temples. "With me now is Professor Liam Williamson, of New York's Empire State University. Professor Williamson is the author of Strange New Worlds: Extraterrestrials and their contact with Earth's superhumans. Professor, glad you could make it..."

The news, of course, was not in the minds of the various members of X-Force. No, they were thinking about Cable, and the Phalanx, and how much easier it had been to defeat the drones than they had any right to expect.

They traversed a tunnel created solely of techno-organic material, and Serenity stopped at one point. "Through that doorway," she said, pointing to a circular opening on the right-hand side of the tunnel. Strange lights flickered down the length of the Phalanx-tunnel as X-Force slowly made their way through the portal, feeling for all the world like a virus in a bloodstream... organic, since the Phalanx was the true virus.

When they turned that corner, what they saw shocked them.

Suspended from a multitude of cables and lines, almost completely assimilated by the techno-organic machinery that is the Phalanx, hung the barely recognizable form of Nathan Dayspring Summers.

Cable.

Their erstwhile leader's head slowly raised, and the one eye flashed - so like the old days, that. What was new was the way he looked at them, passionless and cold.

<We are Phalanx. You will die.>

Then, all of a sudden, his expression changed, to one of pain and sorrow. "H...Help me..."

Then there was a brilliant flash of light, and all four members of X-Force fell to the ground.

It's a crack
Baby I'm ready to go
Baby I'm ready to go
Baby I'm ready to go

Okay, folks, here's the second issue. Hope you enjoyed it as much as the first!

A note on the soundtracks - some issues, such as last issue, a song occurs to me because the lyrics sound appropriate. With others, though, the music itself seems to mesh well with the plot, which is the case with this current issue. Try reading the story while listening to the song, and you'll see what I mean.

Now then, letters! Oh, wait... I don't seem to have any. Actually, I think Sam Everett put a review up on the MV1talk list, but I can't find it. Blech. Sorry, Sam!

As for anyone else reading this, you have no similar excuse - write! Write! Let me know I'm not wasting my time here, huh? Just click here and write something. Give my ego a boost.

NEXT ISSUE:Gee, looks like all our main characters died, or something. So much for this plot. Maybe I'll bring in a bunch of new characters and just sweep these ones under the rug... but no. No, that would be cheating. But to give too much away would be too, so suffice it to say, tune in next issue to see how in hell X-Force is gonna get out of this one!