They had come, the brave four, to keep Sabretooth from escaping. At the moment, Sabretooth was running through the woods. He wasn't running in fear, far from it. He was relishing the hunt.
There was a black and silver blur, and a heavy stick cracked across the back of his skull. In an instant, he threw out his arm to the side, striking Pietro, who had taken an instant too long to turn around, and had given Sabretooth a chance to act, in the neck. Pietro fell to the ground with a gasping gurgle, and Sabretooth whirled to face him, drawing back his arm to strike again.
Toad hit him next, dropping out of the trees and placing a kick solidly to his spine. Sabretooth stumbled forward a few steps, but he turned swiftly, caught Toad by the throat, and hurled him against a tree. Toad fell with a sickening crack.
The ground started shaking. One tree fell directly at Sabretooth. He caught it, and, with extreme effort, pushed it backwards. Other trees began falling, conveniently missing the two fallen mutants. Then something huge started crashing through the underbrush, felling trees as it came.
"Stop there, Blob," said Sabretooth, grabbing Toad by the back of the neck. "And the same goes for you, Alvers!" He shouted, "Or I rip Frog Boy's spine out through his gut!"
Blob stopped. Sabretooth laughed, and slammed his fist into the side of Toad's head. There was another crack. He threw Toad at Blob and began running again. He stopped at the edge of a high cliff.
The ground started to shake again, as Avalanche stepped out of the trees. Sabretooth snarled and leapt at him. Avalanche raised his arms, and a wave of earth rose up and hit Sabretooth. He twisted in the air and landed on his feet.
"You hurt my team," he said quietly, as Blob, carrying Toad and Pietro, stepped out of the trees. "No one hurts my team."
He raised his hands, and the ground underneath Sabretooth's feet He started running forward, but was unable to get a foothold, and fell, landing in the trees below. Above them a helicopter blade started beating. Holding on to a ladder, Nick Fury, a cigar in his mouth, descended.
He appraised the situation in a quick glance and grimaced. Avalanche flinched slightly under Fury's obvious disapproval, but quickly straightened to military attention. "Sorry, sir," he said, "He got away again. Toad and Pietro are hurt, Toad worse."
Fury stood motionless for a moment, and finally nodded curtly. "Get them onboard then." He snapped. He quickly climbed back up the sturdy ladder, followed by Avalanche, and then Blob, now carrying both fallen teammates in one arm. The ladder swayed under Blob's weight, but held.
The helicopter brought them to a nearby SHIELD base, where Toad and Pietro were rushed into the sickbay, while Fury debriefed Avalanche.
"Whoever told you that Sabretooth was hiding out in that cabin was right, as far as it went," said Avalanche.
"As far as it went?" Fury asked, while lighting another cigar. He stared at Avalanche, clearly trying to decide whether to accept that there had been some flaw in the intelligence, or to blame the entire failure of the mission on Avalanche.
"He knew we were coming," said Lance, obviously upset. "By the time we got there, he wasn't in the cabin anymore."
"Have you stopped to consider that maybe he was just out for a stroll through the woods," asked Fury sarcastically. Lance grimaced and shook his head.
"Of course I considered that," he said, "And I would have gone right on considering it, if not for the fact that he had disemboweled a deer, and painted 'Come Get Me, SHIELD,' on the wall in its blood."
Fury paused for a moment and then nodded. "So," he said, "You arrived at the cabin, and saw the message. What then?"
"Pietro left to locate Sabretooth. Toad followed him, with myself and Blob behind. Pietro was only supposed to find Sabretooth, not engage him."
"But he did," said Fury flatly. He was even more alert now than he had been when he had began the debriefing, and not without reason. Up until that point, the mission had been progressing more or less as well as could be expected. "Why?"
Lance sighed. "Pietro, when he's running, thinks that he's untouchable. I haven't had a chance to talk to him yet, but odds are he never even thought of Sabretooth as a threat."
"Which was a mistake," said Fury. Again, there was no question to his tone. "So Quicksilver was down. I assume that Toad also wasn't supposed to engage Sabretooth on his own. So why did he?"
"I haven't had a chance to talk to him, either," said Lance. "But I know Sabretooth. If Pietro was down, Sabretooth was probably going to finish him off. Toad tried to stop him, and Sabretooth beat him for his troubles. Then Blob and I attacked. Unfortunately, he used Toad as a shield, and was able to escape temporarily. I followed him, with Blob, carrying the others, a short distance behind me. We cornered Sabretooth on a cliff. When I tried to disable him, the cliff gave away."
Fury nodded. "Dismissed, Alvers." He said. Alvers turned and walked out. Fury thought for a moment, and then picked up the phone and pressed a single button. "This is Fury. What's the status of Project Resurrection?" He listened for a moment, and then nodded. "Okay! You have permission to progress. But I want to be there for the final phase!"
He slammed down the throne, took the cigar out of his mouth, and rubbed it out in the ashtray in front of him.
Lance, meanwhile, upon leaving Fury's office, had headed towards the medical wing. When he reached it, he found Blob sitting outside.
"They said they'll be all right." Blob explained, "But they need to rest." Lance nodded, but walked in anyways. He was intercepted by a doctor armed with a stethoscope and a clipboard.
"You can't come in here!" He exclaimed, staring at Lance's uniform, "You'll contaminate-"
"Relax," said Lance, "I just want to know how my team's doing." He looked the man in the eyes, as if daring him to say that that wasn't possible. The man held Lance's glare for a moment, and then sighed and dropped his gaze to the clipboard.
"Agent Quicksilver sustained a blow to the throat. He is currently unconscious, and required a few moments of respiratory assistance, but is expected to make a full recovery. Agent Toad sustained a dislocated shoulder and a pulled muscle. He should also be fine. Now will you get out of here and let us work?" He made shooing motions with the clipboard and Lance left. He nodded to Blob, who followed him back to the barracks.
Above the door, Barracks 24 had been painted out, and the words Freedom Force painted above. Lance casually strode in, took his helmet off and set it on the table, and ran a hand through his hair. He glanced about the barracks.
It was a cross between a military shelter, and a house inhabited by four teenaged males. There were eight bunks on two walls, although there was also a hammock hung from the ceiling. On the walls were several posters of women in various states of disatire. Scattered about the floor were various articles of dirty clothing.
The barracks held several large tables. One of these had been reserved for eating. Another was covered by various text books and sheets of notepaper, material for Lance's continuing studies, in a hope to get his GED. Yet another held a number of parts from a Jeep, a good number of them partly or completely disassembled.
There was also a small kitchen, for which Fred Dukes, the Blob, immediately headed. Lance started to roll his eyes, but stopped when he realized that, in addition to several ingredients from the small fridge, Fred was also taking out a number of pots and pans. He had been showing an interest in cooking recently, so Lance just sat down at the table covered with study material, and opened a textbook, more or less at random.
Scott Summers walked in the garden, pushing Xavier's wheelchair before him. Next to him walked Jean Grey. "You said something was worrying you?" Xavier asked, calmly.
Scott nodded. "Right after the thing with Apocalypse, Magneto took the Brotherhood and headed off to who knows where. Kitty still got e-mails from Lance, occasionally, I know that, but about three months ago, that stopped. Since then, we haven't heard a peep from Magneto, the Brotherhood, nothing."
"And you're worried that something's happened to Magneto?" Asked Jean, puzzled. "I mean, he's not exactly a helpless bystander."
"No, as far as I'm concerned, if something happened to Magneto, he deserved it," said Scott bitterly.
"Scott," began Xavier, "The whole point of what I am trying to accomplish with the Institute and the X-men."
"I know, professor, and I'm sorry. But let me finish. What I'm worried about isn't that something happened to Magneto. What I'm worried about, is that Magneto is going to happen to something. Or someone. Namely us."
Xavier sighed. "I agree, Magento's absence is a cause for concern. But as of yet, there's not anything we can do about it. I have scanned for both Magneto and the members of the Brotherhood repeatedly. I have been unable to find any of them, although I did receive a faint resonance that resembles the mental patterns of the Scarlet Witch from Tibet."
Scott sighed. "All right. We'll keep upgrading the security procedures, but…"
Xavier nodded gravely. "The next move is Magneto's."
Pyro stood a little distance from the fence, absently flicking a lighter open and shut. The guard ran towards him, shouting, "Put your hands up."
Pyro raised his hands, still holding the lighter. "Hail Hydra!" He shouted. The guard paused for a moment, which was all Pyro needed, or wanted. The flame from the lighter leapt out, doubling and redoubling as it surrounded the guard. He screamed in agony. A few seconds later, alarms began going off.
The fireball left the guard's corpse and flew through a fence, melting part of it away as it went. It struck the base, but instead of exploding, it reached at the base, pushing its way in through doors, and cracks in the concrete. Once inside the base, it continued increasing, burning away anything flammable in the base as it swept the halls. It reached the vehicle bay of the base, setting off ammunition and gas tanks until it created several other fireballs. The whole time, Pyro just sat against the base of a tree and laughed as he directed the destruction. This job wasn't half bad after all.