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MV1 #73 FEBRUARY 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!

"Breaking the Chains"

What Has Gone Before: X-Force has come to Nebraska to search for Calbe, their erstwhile mentor. After a suspiciously short battle against the Phalanx, which was witnessed and televised by local news coverage, the team located Cable - and he appears to have been assimilated by the Phalanx. Then they all fell to the ground, apparently dead.

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

hold on
hold on to yourself
for this is gonna hurt like hell

A bright light. A great darkness. And then more light, but softer, more diffuse.

A swirling fog, a sense of self, and... of others.

Memories...

hold on
hold on to yourself
you know that only time will tell

You thought you knew who you were.

You remember it all so clearly - your youth and your life in the arenas of Mojoworld. Hearing tales of the great rebel Longshot, who sought aid to overthrow the tyrant Mojo, and who journeyed to another world, another dimension, to enlist the aid of the mutant X-Men. You remember trying to follow, and find them again, but instead finding Cable, and his newly-christened X-Force.

You remember the shock when you found you had the face of an Earth boy named Benjamin Russell. You remember trying to discover who you were.

You remember hearing the story, and not caring, because the daws of X-Force were numbered, then. The Phalanx attacked, and you were one of the first to fall, until the X-Men rescued you. You struck out on your own, then, heading to Boston, Ben Russell's home.

You found Gomi.

You never thought to find love - for what use love to a warrior born? - but you found it anyway.

It was difficult - society looks at homosexuals as second-class citizens; how much worse, then, a gay mutant? - but the two of you managed. You swapped stories of your pasts, he in the Fallen Angels, you in X-Force, and fell in love.

The sex was fairly good, too.

Then... then he died. Unjustly, horribly, and all too sudden. There was no hint that it would happen. It just did. Gomi died, and all the happiness you had found... gone forever.

You, Shatterstar, are a warrior born. And now, all you have is war.

what is it in me that refuses to believe
this isn't easier than the real thing
my love
you know that you're my best friend
you know I'd do anything for you
my love
let nothing come between us
my love for you is strong and true

You've not had the most pleasant of lives, no.

You know what it's like to be beaten. Abused. Humiliated.

Raped.

Your father was never a very nice man. He made no claims otherwise. But your mother kept telling you, "Tabitha, honey, you have to understand, he just gets like this when he drinks, he's a good man..."

When she left, you kind of figured it was time you did the same.

But the streets of New York were even crueler than your house, and they're no place to live for a girl on her own. Especially for a pretty, desperate, underage girl like you.

You sold yourself. It was the only coin you had, after all.

It wasn't too bad, really... until you weren't as fresh anymore, weren't as new. After a few years, it got to the point where you had to start streetwalking, and... well, there are risks there.

It was the guy with the beer bottle and the penchant for smacking you around that crossed the line. That was the first time your mutant abilities kicked in, and you very nearly killed him.

You started running again, running from yourself.

It was only later, after you joined X-Force, after you realized what you felt for Sam, after you were trying to deal with him leaving to join the X-Men... that was when it really got to you. You cut loose against the Blob.

And it felt good.

And then... then later...

In Boston, you had to cut loose again. Against a drug dealer. No, a killer. A man who killed Gomi, and his accomplice.

You killed the accomplice. Blew him apart.

It haunts your dreams. Every waking moment, you see it.

And so, Meltdown... what are you running from this time?

am I in heaven here or am I...
at the crossroads I am standing
So now you're sleeping peaceful
I lie awake and pray
that you'll be strong tomorrow and we'll
see another day and we will praise it
and love the light that brings a smile
across your face

All you knew was the sea, and the search for food. You knew how to hunt the small-good-tasty-things that would keep you alive. You got older, and larger, your exoskeleton expanding.

That changed, though, when you wandered into the trap. You know it's called a trap, even though you thought of it as the small-not-escape-space. It was a trap.

You got put in a tank with a bunch of others, and then you were sold. Not to be eaten.

You were rescued from that fate by the one the others called Gomi.

To you, he was God.

He made you what you were. He implanted cold-not-flesh pieces into you, and you became more aware, more intelligent. Sentient, in fact.

You don't know why He did it. You never have.

He made two of you, but Don - your brother, your friend - was killed, crushed by a giant lizard.

Then, later, He died, too.

It is a lonely thing, being the only one of your kind in the universe, isn't it, Bill?

oh god if you're out there won't you hear me
I know that we've never talked before
oh god the man I love is leaving
won't you take him when he comes to your door

You knew, early on, that you were different.

Maybe it had to do with the fact that you think you were made, not born.

You remember growing up in a small white room, with cameras, and people giving you food through a small hole in a door. You overheard them saying something about a 'Secret Empire'.

One day, you knew how to escape. You didn't learn, you just... knew. And so you did, because you didn't like it there.

You found out that the city you were in was called Boston. You also found that you could see the future.

You had a friend... he called himself Jackal. He lived on the streets, same as you. He helped you get acclimated, and brought you food. It wasn't charity, he'd say, 'cause you knew what lottery numbers were gonna come up, and all that.

One day you saw him in a car accident. Which was wierd, 'cause he didn't have a car. So you shrugged it off.

He died. He was carjacking, that night, and when he tried to get the car to the chop shop, another car hit him. He died instantly.

That's when you started getting into the Goth scene.

You know things. You know who you're going to fall in love with, and what will happen, and how it will end. You know things.

Not everything. You didn't see this happening. But you know how it will turn out, sort of.

Knowledge may be power... but sometimes it's a chain, you'd say. Wouldn't you, Serendipity?

am I in heaven here or am I in hell
at the crossroads I am standing
so now you're sleeping peaceful
I lie awake and pray
that you'll be strong tomorrow and we'll
see another day and we will praise it
and love the light that brings a smile
across your face...

"Where am I?"

It doesn't matter which one you are... you all say it at the same time. Floating in a fogless fog, a voidless void, you all ask it. And none of you are ready for the answer.

"You're inside me."

That's Cable's voice... only... inside your head. Some of you recognize the sensation, from when he'd communicate with you telepathically. He sends you knowledge - knowledge that is not expressed in words, but in thought.

You know what you must do.

Cable - Nathan Summers, the Askani'son, the Dayspring, and all that stuff - is one of the most powerful psis in human history. But his powers have traditionally been used almost solely to hold off the ravages of the techno-organic virus in his body.

But psi is a power of the mind and the will, and now there are five wills behind it, not one.

A push of mental energy, and....

"Mandy! Mandy, there's just been an explosion out here, where the battle was taking place... the shock wave is making it difficult for the helicopter to remain aloft..."

"Jesse, is there anything moving? Any hint of what caused the explosion?"

"No, there's... wait! Wait, I see people moving... Ricky, get the camera focused right down there... yes! I can see... it appears to be the mutants sighted earlier... and one more... a body, it looks like... no, no, that one's moving too... the hell with this. Max, take us down. I'm going to try for an interview."

"Jesse, wait! Wait it could be..." Mandy sighed when she realized that Jesse had shut off his link. "Well, folks, it looks like we'll have the full story for you momentarily..."

Tabitha Smith trudged out of the wreckage of what had been the Phalanx's base, supporting half of Cable's weight on her shoulder, while Shatterstar supported the other half. More than half, really - 'Star was strong.

Some reporter guy - he must have been a reporter, he had a microphone - ran up to her, cameraman following. "Miss Smith? Miss Smith! Can you tell us what happened here?"

Tab looked around. None of the others looked like they were gonna say anything, so she turned back to the guy, whose shirt had 'Barnes' enblazoned on it. "Yeah, sure. We probably just saved the lives of every person on this planet. Excuse me."

"What will happen now? Is the Phalanx gone for good?"

"What's gonna happen now is that I'm going to take a long, hot shower, and sleep for about a month. Excuse me, please."

The reporter kept bugging them until they got to the clearing where they'd hidden the PACRAT. 'Star shut off the SEP field that kept the craft from prying eyes, and they climbed aboard and took off.

And sure enough, as 'Star took the controls, Tabitha fell asleep. In the back, Cable was in a doclab, technology from his own future working to heal him. And Serendipity... who knew what she was thinking, staring out the window.

'Star let Bill take the controls through a cybernetic linkup, and reflected...

For a time, there, I wasn't just me, he thought. I was all of us. I wonder if the same thing happened to them...?

Bill said, "It did."

hold on
hold on to yourself
for this is gonna hurt like hell

No fights, just one explosion, and a mass of characterization... I hope I'm a good enough writer to have pulled it off.

Anyways - letters!!

Let's hear from Mark Bousquet, in a review that was posted to the MV1talk list...

I like what Shawn is doing with this book, but it's not without some reservations. In this issue, X-Force fights the Phalanx in an effort to free Cable from it's clutches. There's a great set-up and some great dialogue from Tab and Shatterstar as they first face-off with the Phalanx - I've got no problem with Tab swearing. (One of the bits with the reporter seemed a little much, but that's just personal preference, I suppose.) X-Force goes about attacking the Phalanx and Shawn makes a point to touch on all the characters during the fight. However, some of the bits felt awfully skimpy to me. The scene that focused on Tab was well done, but the rest of the team felt more like guest stars than the dueling reporters covering the event. Shatterstar and Serendipity especially seemed to get the cold shoulder. What's there is good, I just wish there were more meat to their scenes. Sometimes it felt like I was getting more out of the bits of music dialogue than I was out of the story. All in all though, it's a beginning that deserves watching. The team going after their former mentor is a nice touch and it will be interesting to see what becomes of it. The dueling reporters were a lot of fun to read about, too. The only real complaint I have with the book is the lack of subplots - the main story is well done, but I wish there was more here to speculate about.

-- Mark ...

Well thanks, Mark! I know that there's been a big dialogue on MV1talk about the language I use in this book, and over in Protect and Serve. I'm not going to beat a dead horse, so here's what I have to say and that's it on this topic.

I do not feel that it would do justice to the characters here to have them not swear. Tabitha will do so the most, obviously, but given her history... well, you'd swear too.

What history, you ask? Well, if the hints you got this issue weren't enough, keep reading...

As for the lack of focus on some characters... well, I tried to give everyone equal time in this issue. Tabitha is my "main character" - without her, really, there would be no X-Force, and this will become even clearer as time passes. On the other hand, that's no excuse for me to slack off with the characterization of the other cast members, and so I'll try not to do that in the future.

Oh, and subplots? Subplots, you say? Stay tuned...

FYI, Mark is the writer of Avengers West Coast, All God's Children, and probably some other stuff that I forgot about. His work is incredible, check it out!
 
 

Our next (and final) letter is from Sam Everett, writer of MV1's Triathalon! Sam writes:

Nice continuation for the first arc! Poor, poor, Cable. I hope he'll get out of this predicament, and I really hope he can better control his TO virus when it's all said and done.

Let me get this straight: Serendipity can see the future, correct? Is it just general visions (i.e. Brazil will be a major global power in about 2 years), or can she see very specific things (i.e. exactly what pair of socks I'll be wearing next Wednesday)? I like heroes with these powers, and I hope you can really flesh her out soon.

The scene with the reporter was interesting...I trust you're going to follow up on that chopper reporter's statements about his fellow news personalities.

All in all, a very good job!

Sam Everett

Cable's T-O virus - stay tuned.

Serendipity's powers are a mystery, really, but one that will be explored in the future. For right now, though, I'm keeping her mysterious on purpose. Hey, every X-Team needs a mystery man, or woman!

Follow up? Me? Naaaah. Don't worry, the news folk are going to become rather important as time goes on. How? You'll see...

Boy, now I understand why Kurt Busiek gets such a kick out of teasing his readers. Hee hee!

Email my by clicking here and tell me I'm doing a good job! Even if I'm not!

NEXT ISSUE: So... where does the team go from here? How's Cable doing? What on Earth was that bit about Serendipity's past? How is Bill going to try and fit in? And what will the news people do? Will they report this the way they report all mutant activity, or...

Come back next issue, and find out!

-Shawn-