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WARNING! This title involves language and/or situations that may be found unacceptable by some readers. Reader discretion is advised.
MV1
#79
AUGUST
Year 4

The Human Rocket. The Weapon X. The Ace. The Seeress. The Explosive Street Kid. The Multiple Man. The Mojoverse Ninja Warrior. Even the Cyborg Lobster.

They have been baptized in crucibles hotter than many of us can even imagine. They have been pushed, tested, hurt, even killed. And they still fight the good fight, in the only way they know how, the only ones who can. They do it their way. They may not know legal from illegal, but they know right from wrong. They are X-FORCE!

WHO IS X-FORCE?
Cannonball - Sam Guthrie, erstwhile X-Man and West Coast Avenger, returned to his roots and the woman he loves. A mutant with the power to 'blast', generating explosive energy for rocket-like flight and a near-invulnerable force field.
Meltdown - Tabitha Smith, once called Boom-Boom, with explosive powers and an equally fiery temper. As rather painful events of her past come to the light of day, Tab finds herself more and more unable to control her anger.
Shatterstar - Ben Russell always thought he was a descendant of the X-Men's Longshot, a warrior from the Mojoverse come to enlist the aid of Earth. Lately events have thrown those beliefs into question, but they do not change his incredible warrior ability... nor the fact that his lover, Gomi, was recently brutally murdered by drug dealers in Boston.
Bill - a cybernetically enhanced lobster, arguably Gomi's greatest creation, now lost and alone in a world that is entirely strange to him. If not for the friendship of Shatterstar, Bill might well have gone mad by now... and perhaps he still will.
Serendipity - a shaman and precognitive, this lovely Goth woman has recently learned that she is nothing more than a creation, aflawed attempt to recreate the being of power called Adam Warlock. Who it was that created her, as well as what they hoped to gained, are still mysteries.
The Multiple Man - Jamie Madrox has the mutant power to create 'duplicates' of himself from kinetic energy. Lighthearted and generally somewhat silly, Jamie can be deadly serious when he needs to be. He just doesn't like it.
The Sleeper - Croyd Crenson is not of this world, but from another Earth where an alien 'Wild Card' virus created men and women with bizarre powers. What brings him to this world is still something of a mystery, but it seems to have something to do with Serendipity and her visions of a dark future ahead.
Garrison Kane - a 'graduate' of Canada's infamous Weapon X program, Kane has gone freelance. Just what he seeks to gain from hooking up with X-Force is still unknown, but it seems certain that there must be something.

"The End of Days Part Two:On A Pale Horse"

What Has Gone Before: Apocalypse has declared that the End of Days have arrived. And this time, it looks like he may actually be able to pull it off.

The White House Signals Office

Daniel Jeffries liked his job. The White House Signals Office was a busy place to work, but you knew - beyond a shadow of a doubt - that everything you did was important. Which, for a Navy man, meant a lot.

That sensation of importance was no more palpable than when Critic-priority traffic came through. Critic-priority was even more important than Flash traffic - a Flash-priority messager had to be in the President's hand within twenty-four hours. Critic-priority had to be seen by NCO* in one.

[*NCO - National Command Authority, a military designation for the President of the United States. Other commonly-used Presidential abbreviations include POTUS (President Of The United States, used most commonly by the Secret Service) and CinC (Commander-in-Chief). --know-it-all Shawn]

Jeffries picked up his secure phone. "Jeffries, Signals. Get me SecDef** immediately."

[** SecDef - the Secretary of Defense. --never-been-in-government-service-Shawn]

Antarctica

"You have a choice."

As the eight members of X-Force were paying attention to the computer terminal before them, which was displaying a gargantuan Apocalypse, they had not heard the arrival of the person behind them. They heard the voice, however, and whirled as one.

It was Caliban.

The Ocean Floor

Atlantis is an old civilization, and it covers a lot of territory. But the bottom of the ocean is a big place, and not even they could observe it all.

In several locations underwater, nanomachines had been emplaced many years previous. They had been working hard, converting rock and water and fish and krill into forms desired by their programming.

They had built factories. And those factories had been functioning smoothly for over forty years, building things that Apocalypse called his Harbingers.

The Harbingers sprang to life as one, powerful jets propelling them to the ocean's surface, and beyond.

The USS Idaho

There was an audible clang, and the USS Idaho pitched ponderously to the side. Crewmen flew about, bouncing off of unyielding metal bulkheads.

"What in the hell was that?" Captain Blackwell had blood dripping down the side of his face from a wound on his temple, and his right hand hurt like hell from spilling coffee on it. Scaldings are no fun.

"We took a hit from something, Cap'n." Marcus White was the XO - Executive Officer - of the Idaho, and he was in much worse shape than his Captain. His right arm was obviously broken, though it was not, at least, a compound fracture, and his normally ruddy skin was pale. "Tully - the sonarman - he's dead, Cap'n. Saw him just before the impact, his eyes got real wide - like he'd heard something... then he just pitched over. Then the impact."

Blackwell nodded. "Shit. Okay, let's see about getting a damage report..."

Fort Meade, Alabama

The Harbingers were sighted by most every industrial nation immediately. At thirty different locations, an extraordinarily large number of small metal objects emerged from the ocean at high speeds. The waves they created caused some more reactionary intelligence officers to believe that they were missle launches from ballistic missle submarines, but that estimate was hastily revised.

In Fort Meade, Allyson Tremont watched the realtime footage from the Keyhole-16 reconnaissance satellite. As the President's NSO - National Security Officer - she was one of a very small number of people with the security clearance to watch such. "Do we have tracking on the launches?"

The NSA* officer beside her shook his head. "We're trying, but they keep changing course. They're not moving in a simple ballistic arc, like a missle would. Besides, there are four hundred of 'em - and that's in this cluster alone!"

[* National Security Agency. --Spy-Guy-Shawn]

Antarctica

Cannonball was the first to speak. Shatterstar had filled him in on most of what had befallen X-Force in his brief term with the Avengers, and that included what they knew about what had happened to Caliban. He knew that this was not his old friend and ally... this was an enemy, a sadistic one if Croyd could be believed. "What do you mean, a choice?"

"Simple. Right now, the boss's Harbingers will be launching. They're these little machines, each about the size of a man, with jets and wings and a big-ass laser cannon." Even the inflections of the familiar voice had changed. Caliban was no longer. "Oh, and about twenty pounds of Semtex explosive. Every nation in the world is under attack right now, every population center is being shot at. Now... you can fight me, and try to get your old friend Caliban back... or you can leave me be, and I'll show you where the plane is. With the plane, you can get to the Boss."

In a low, angry voice, Meltdown hissed, "Why would he give us that kind of a chance?"

One mammoth eyebrow was raised. "Simple. 'The strongest will survive'. That's his motto. But it ain't yours, right? So, this way you can try settling who's right. If he kills you, then it's Armageddon time, kids. If you stop him, well... he'll have to rethink his priorities. But I don't think that's gonna happen."

Caliban grinned. He had many, many sharp teeth.

Worldwide

Mozambique. Los Angeles. Granada. Toronto. Beijing. Ankara. Everywhere, really.

Swarms of Harbingers swooped from the sky, dazzling laser beams cutting a wide swath through everything that lay before them. Whenever they took damage that did not destroy them, they swooped earthward, and exploded on impact, a devastating blast.

Superheroes rallied to the defense of their homes. National Guards and armies were called out.

A slugfest, on a worldwide scale. Utter chaos.

Washington D.C.

The Secretary of Defense nodded. "I understand, sir. Yes sir, the Secretary of State will inform SHIELD, and they'll keep the UN appraised. Yes sir." He hung up the STU* and sighed, rubbing his face. Picked it up again, dialed ComSubLant.

[* Secure Telephone Unit - a phone with a scrambling device. --Reads-A-Lotta-Tom-Chancy-Shawn]

The USS Idaho

"No sir." Captain Blackwell was bandaged, now. "We're shipping water, sir - we were at antenna depth when the impact occurred. I'm afraid not, sir." The communications unit was damaged, and Blackwell had to keep listening through the static. "No sir, the weapons room was hit hardest, I'm afraid. No sir, we do not at this time have strategic launch capability. No sir, it has not moved. Yes sir. I understand sir."

He hung up the comm unit and turned to the Officer of the Day, his face pale. "How fast can she move?"

The OOD blinked. "I can get maybe four knots, sir. We can't dive, either."

"Get me as much speed as you can, heading 000." That was due north. "Immediately."

Antarctica

The plane turned out to be of alien design, much like everything else Apocalypse used. Caliban - the Bodysnatcher - had explained that the plane was how he had gotten here in the first place.

Shatterstar was in the copilot's seat, frowning. "Why are we headed in this direction? Apocalypse is standing over there." They would miss the mammoth figure by about forty miles.

It was Serendipity, in the back, who answered. "Because it's a decoy. Right?"

"Right-O, lady." Tabitha couldn't get over hearing Caliban's voice speaking so easily... he used to be so childlike... "The real base is in South Africa somewhere. Never did find out exactly where."

Cannonball just stared out a window. He didn't want to leave the Bodysnatcher in control of Caliban, but... he didn't have a choice. The needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few.

So it was that X-Force was in transit, missing perhaps the most important event of the entire crisis.

Midair

The B-2 bomber, or "stealth bomber", had just refueled in midair a few moments ago when the onboard sensor system told the pilot that he had a lock on his target.

A murmured prayer. A glance to his copilot.

"Base, this is Romeo Three."

He pressed the button. The bomb bay opened. An object dropped, an engine burst into life.

The nuclear missle sped towards the enormous Apocalypse, still standing in the ocean, laughing.

"Fox three."

NEXT ISSUE: Umm.... uh-oh.

 -Shawn-