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MV1 #74 MARCH 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!

"Agendas"

What Has Gone Before: Cable has been rescued, the Phalanx has been defeated, and it was all captured on live television. What now for X-Force?

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

There's the image of a man
Who commands a high opinion
And he hides his hatred with a sheepish grin

Jorg was the finest of warriors. He had trained since his youth in the ways of the sword. And now... now he was on his quest. The quest he had trained for.

The quest to save his village.

He had fought through countless skeletons and devil-kin and burning dead, zombies and black knights and foul familiars. And now he was nearing the end of his quest...

...But no! Everything... suddenly fades... into a blizzard of static...

Jorg... is... dying...

"I do not see the point, Tabitha."

"The point? It's Diablo! It's one of the coolest games ever! Shatterstar, you need to lighten up, you know that?"

Shatterstar set down the controller for the recently de-powered PlayStation. "Bah. Real fighting is done with the entire body, not the fingers that push buttons. I am going to train."

Tabitha just shook her head and walked away. "Loosen up, 'Star. I'm gonna check on our patient."

And beside him flanking closely
Are the boisterous hollow masses
Who lap up whatever trickles in

"Free will, that's what! What makes you think your visions are the only future?"

"I never thought I'd be having a conversation about determinism with a cybernetic lobster."

"Believe it, Serendipity. Just 'cause I'm a half-robot crustacean doesn't mean I don't believe in free will. I do. I don't care what your fucking visions say. I make my own future."

The young Goth girl stood and sighed. "Whatever, Bill... look, I'm going to take a nap."

"Yeah, yeah, just like a human, running away!" Bill the lobster winked, though, briefly.

Serendipity smiled as she walked out of the room. It's hard on him... I think he's mad at me for not being able to save Gomi. But I saw his death... there was nothing I could do, right? It was fate... I know it was...

This intercourse of nature,
This vulgar social pastime
Reflects the lowest mark of our progress
And the few who ride peripheral
Maintain subtle advantage
Fighting hard to abstain and redress

Nathaniel Dayspring Askani'son Summers, aka Cable, was a changed man. That much was obvious.

Tabitha regarded the man who had changed the New Mutants into X-Force, the man who single-handedly took Xavier's dream and twisted it. The man who told them all that a war was coming. He was gaunter, less... less intimidating. His muscle mass had dwindled away while he was a prisoner of the Phalanx*, and the techno-organic virus... it had spread.

[* Cable was freed from the Phalanx by X-Force last issue. So read it already! --Shawn]

Strange black and yellow circuitry had moved up the left side of his neck, and the lower part of his jaw... one tendril extended up to just below his ear. Though his clothing covered it, Tabitha knew that the virus had spread to most of his torso and a good portion of his left leg... his genitals, too. Cable would not carry on the Summers line, not anymore.

"My telepathy, my telekinesis... they're still there, but... less powerful. I can barely lift a book with my teke... I used to be able to shatter mountains."

"You'll get over it, boss. Least you're still alive." Meltdown lounged in a nearby chair as Cable emerged from the autodoc unit. Cable was unconscious when they had transported the autodoc into the loft that X-Force had rented here in Boston, and he wasn't quite sure if he wanted to know how they managed to get it inside.

"Yes, well... on the plus side, somehow the Phalanx affected my techno-organic virus. It's not trying to take over my entire body anymore... I even have some limited control over it."

"See? Bright side to everything."

Cable nodded. "It's going to make the war harder, though. I'm going to need X-Force more than I have in a long time..."

Tab's back stiffened.

Tell me do you know your place
In the big parade?
Are you more than they?

Leaders and followers
Leaders and followers

Serendipity regarded the vast plains, watched the white buffalo run by, saw the wispy white clouds drift across the pale blue sky. "What the..."

"This is your place, though you know it not."

The voice from behind her startled into turning around. She saw an Indian... Native American, to the politically correct. Short, wrinkled skin a rich bronze from the sun, in traditional garb - a headdress with a pair of feathers, leather clothing, moccasins. The kind of Indian that didn't exist anymore, outside of old movies.

"Who the fuck are you? Where is this place?"

The Indian just smiled. He was missing some teeth. "You ask many questions. Because of this, I name you Wants To Know Why. Now, an answer. I am Two White Feathers. And another - this is the Dreamtime.

"It is your place."

Serendipity awoke with a start. "What the hell..."

She glanced around her room, dimly lit from the setting sun, bare of decorations or amenities. A plain, ordinary, boring room.

Her heart was going about a million miles an hour. Whatever was happening... it shouldn't frighten her this much... right?

Recognition by proximity
And a brand new face
Just a smidgen of success pie
And a pinch of social grace
You can play with the big boys
Or you can tell them what to do
But sooner or latter there's another one like you

"You miss him too."

Shatterstar was always amazed at Bill's mobility - and his stealth. He never even heard the little lobster crawling into the room that he had cleared for use as a dojo. But he set his swords aside, and answered calmly.

"Of course I do. I loved him."

Bill did not seem impressed. "He was God, to me. Now God is dead."

Shatterstar nodded, and sat in a chair. "He was the only thing that gave me a reason... something other than fighting. Without him... all I know, now, is how to kill."

The two friends, each in a world not his own, each tied together by loss and pain, just sat silently for a long time. Eventually, Bill scuttled over to rest a claw on Shatterstar's leg... and somehow, it made them both feel a little better.

The voyeuristic public
Of which we're all a part
Maintains perspective on the human play

"Good evening, this is CBS Evening News. I'm Tom Brokaw.

"Our top story tonight - CBS polls indicate that mutants - seemingly ordinary people possessed of remarkable powers - are gaining a strange sort of acceptance of late.

"Spurred mainly by the repulsion of what is now known to have been an alien invasion base in Nebraska by a team of young mutants who call themselves "X-Force," polls show that anti-mutant sentiment is at an all-time low, especially among the younger segments of the population. The name "X-Force" is presumably some kind of reference to the "X-Men," a well-known band of mutants - mutants who many consider outlaws... Tonight we begin our three-part series on mutants, entitled "Marvels Among Us". We go now to Trish Tilby, in Nebraska."

"Thanks, Tom. The atmosphere here is curiously calm, for a town that came very close to an alien invasion. S.H.I.E.L.D. reports that the particular aliens were called "the Phalanx," and were comprised of what is called a "techno-organic" substance - alien machinery that can somehow infect human beings. The mood here is one of relief, and the heroes of the day, oddly enough, are mutants - the prevailing sentiment being that mutants may be dangerous, but alien creatures that can take over humans are a lot more dangerous.

"With me today are two men on opposite sides of the mutant rights debate - Reverend Kyle Dampier, a spokesman for the Omaha chapter of the Friends of Humanity; and Joseph McIntyre, founder of the Unity Coalition. Gentlemen..."

And while many have desires
Of joining in the show
Many turn and go the other way

Tabitha just shook her head at her erstwhile mentor. "Look, Cable... you've done a lot for us. Trained us. Made us stronger. But it's over now."

To say Cable looked shocked was an understatement. "What do you mean?"

"Ever since the New Mutants started up, they've been about someone's dream. Xavier's. Magneto's. Yours. It's about time we found our own dream, Cable. Maybe we can do some good in a different way, some way you haven't tried. Something that doesn't involve explosions and alien menaces and balls to the wall mutant powers. 'Cause let's face it, Cable, your way hasn't done us much good so far."

Nathan Summers didn't know whether to laugh, or cry, or faint. It had finally happened.

The kids had grown up.

Tell me do you know your place
In the big charade?
Are you fear and shame?

Letters, letters, letters... gee, I don't seem to have any. Oh well...

Hey, gang - in case you haven't heard, I just took over the writing duties on X-Men as well... and that means we're going to have something that the mutant titles at Marvel haven't had for a long long time... continuity! *gasp!*

Events that began unfolding this very issue, in fact, will have a major impact on the X-Men very shortly! So stay tuned, True Believer - it's gonna be a hell of a ride.

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

NEXT ISSUE: X-Force without a leader! What does this mean for the team? What's the deal with Two White Feathers? Where's Cable going? And how has X-Force forever changed the face of mutant-human relations?

Oh, yeah - and maybe some new cast members! Stay tuned!

-Shawn-