Marauder Missions
Disclaimer: All characters except for Brightburn, Sheath, Ooze and Grace are property of Marvel comics. The other four belong to me. Sheath, Ooze and Brightburn's first appearences were in my story Return of the Hellions. This story and the timeline I'm writing takes place around the time of the Shattering and the Astonishing X-men, although I wrote an alternate Astonishing X-men 3 so the Wolverine who appears briefly is the real one. No money is being made off this story so please don't sue. Feedback would be greatly appreciated.
First Mission
Madelyne Pryor was running for her life or at least sembalence of life. She wasn't alive, merely a psionic being giving physical form, but if anyone could finda way to kill her it was the Marauders. A shot rang out and a bullet penetrated her body. It appeared as though blood flowed out but that was merely to maintain the illusion of being a living, breathing human being. She couldn't feel the trickle of warm liquid as the projectile enteredthen exited. There was no sharp prolonged agony as when muscle was torn or bone shattered. Merely the general pain that was felt whenever she was injured since Nate had resurrected her.
'Damn Nate! If he hadn't run off to help the X-men then he'd be here to help me!'
She was barely able to pick up Scrambler's thoughts before he reached out to grab her. Having no time tomove she wrapped him in a telekinetic field.
"Gotcha."
"Not quite." She flung him away and he landed in the filthy water of the sewer they were in.
"That's the second time I touched you! No way you should've been able to do that."
"You only got me once. All you touched the last time was a forcefield." The one time had been deveastating to her powers. Her teleportation was gone, her telekinesis was halved and her shielding was diminished. If she had been above ground then she wouldn't even have been able to hear her own thoughts.
Vertigo was on the attack next but her powers couldn't effect someone without an inner ear canal to effect her sense of balance. All she was was a projectile for for Maddie to throw at Harpoon, Prizm and Riptide. Prizm shattered under the weight.
"What do you want from me?! Your boss already used me as a breeder! You ruined my life, stole my son from me! What more can he take from me?!"
"I always thought you lost your kid whenyou tried to kill him. Now why don't you shut up and let us finish you off. We've got other jobs to do and we don't like to waste time."
"Then you may as well move to the next job, Arclight. Because you're wasting your time trying to kill me. You don't have what it takes! And I still want answers!"
"Since when do the Marauders need reasons to kill someone? It's what we do, Pryor," Scalphunter declared.
"When my "father", she said the term mockingly, "tells you to And Sinister never does anything without a reason."
"He wants your body, lady," Blockbuster swung at her but missed when she telekinetically flung sewage into his eyes. Taking the chance she ran, with only the two leaders, Scalphunter and Arclight after her immediately.
Blockbuster was struggling to wipe the waste out of his eyes. Vertigo was checking on Scrambler. With her powers worthless she decided to make herself useful by making sure the second most debilitating member of the Marauders was all right. Riptide and Harpoon pushed themselve up only to slip back down again a few times before regaining their feet and heading after the other two.
*****
After putting some distance between herself and the other five Marauders Madelyne turned to face Scalphunter and Arclight.
"What the hell is that moron Blockbuster talking about? My body would probably discorperate if I was killed."
"He meant it literally. You're the one who thought we were going to kill you. Scalp just said that we don't need a reason to kill."
"Sinister wants my body? Please that man is the most asexual person on the planet."
"It's payment for someone he worked with," Scalphunter told her.
Madelyne's shriek of righteous indignation was cut off by Blockbuster's fist. "You're gonna pay for throwing shit in my eyes."
Her anger at the situation let her focus past the noise in her head and stun him telepathically. She held him up as a shield when the recently arrived Riptide spun, flinging blades at her. "Nothing vital," she snorted as she examined the wounds on Blockbuster's body. "Who is it? Stryfe, maybe? Trying to lure Nate or Nathan into a trap. I never heard about Shaw or Selene working with him but it wouldn't surprise me. Maybe they don't think I'm doing enough for the club. Or maybe they're both just pissed off because I kept rejecting their advances lately."
"Sorry, not allowed to say."
Madelyne's anger was peeking now and she was raving. "I'll kill all of you and rip it out of your dying minds! And if you don't know then I'll find Sinister and do the same to him!"
She didn't seem to notice that she was in no position to be making threats as the Marauders moved to surround her. Her ranting was reaching fever pitch when she clutched her head and collapsed.
"Are you okay?" Harpoon asked idly.
"Of course not, do you know how hard it is to possess someone who's already the dark side of someone else? That's basically all Pryor is now, Jean Grey's bad side and she's gone to a lot of trouble to make sure that's what she is."
*******
"I trust you find your new body suitable, Malice."
"Just great. And since I've got more experience then Maddie I can push her power levels up. I've got to tell you I'm surprised that you're doing this, boss. When you destroyed my choker I was a little worried."
"Sinister is a man of his word. You were promised a working body by the time I ceased to employ the Marauders. The destruction of the choker was merely a warning on the dangers of betrayel."
That drew murmurs of surprise from them. "Are you sayingyou're firing us."
"My requirements of your services will be very reduced soon. Though there will likely be occasions when I have need of them. I have been far more active than I wish to be. If I am correct the time in which Sinister is an active participant in evens will soon end."
*******
Second mission
Slorenia
The Marauders teleported into the devesated country and were shocked.
"My god it stinks."
"I never though rotting bodies would bother me," Harppon stated. "Hell, there are a lot of things that smell worse than human flesh decomposing . But this..."
"We've never hung around even when we killed the Morlocks. And that was only hundreds. We're talking millions of people killed here."
The realization that something could kill enough people to discomfit the Marauders was shocking.
"We should've seen if the boss could've supplied gas masks. This really reeks."
"Just ignore it and concentrate on the job, Scrambler. Have you and Vertigo got the tranq guns I gave you?"
"They're loaded and ready."
"I really don't need one, Scalphunter. My powers will work on anyone. It's not like they have to be mutants like with Scrambler."
"But the effects start to wear off as soon as you stop paying attention. We're supposed to keep the body count as low as possible."
"I can't believe the boss telling US not to kill people," Blockbuster stated disgustedly.
"I Was testing out Maddie's powers and I oveheard him talking to someone."
"You were spying on him? Stupid."
Malice shot Scrambler a look and then gave him a small telpathic jolt. Not enough to hurt him seriously but he'd have a headache for a month. "It seems we're doing this for someone else."
"He's hiring us out. Guess that explains why we're searching a devestated country for adamantium when he's got to have connection that can get it for him," Riptide observed, looking down at the small handheld scanners they were all carrying. "He's got connections for everything else.
The search of the dacaying necro-cyborgs proved fruitless. Few of them were even constructed with titanium let alone adamantium. Fortunately all the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents on the surface were busy burying the deceased in the other areas. Abandoning that area of the country they headed for the below ground complex where the Avengers had battled Ultron and his less powerful duplicates.
That was where they first encountered S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives. Twenty of them were coming around a corner continuing their duties of cataloging the pieces of the destroyed robots.
A few went for weapons, others went for radios. None got a chance to use them as Malice telekinetically ripped the items from their hands and stunned several of them. Riptide spun clenching his blades between his fingers rather than throwing the. He had coated them with a powerful sedative. The ones he hit were unconscious in seconds. Vertigo had the rest down on their knees practically throwing up. Scalphunter put trangs in several of them and a couple of pulled punches from Arclight and Blockbuster put down the rest.
"Looks like we hit the motherload," Blockbuster said as they backtracked from where the agents had been. The shattered machines were stacked ceiling high.
"Look like we're not even going to waste our time. Scanner says this stack is all titanium. They must've stored the ones made of secondary adamantium somewhere else," Scalphunter threw down his scanner in disgust.
"Damn. They could be anywhere. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s probably already moved it and just left the trash. The boss isn't going to like this."
"Don't you have a supplier Scalp? Where you get your adamantium bullets?"
He's got a limited supply. I lose the supply and the supplier because the only way he'd give it up would be to kill him."
"So? Your power is to make weapons."
"But Sinister would probably want it all. Besides I'm better with making guns than bullets.
"So your power has to do with making what shoots not what fires. I never knew that," Malice commented.
For most people Scalphunter would never give up that kind of information but he knew the Marauders well enough that he would be able to deal with them even if they knew about a few weaknesses. Besides very few people knew about his skill with non-projectile weaponry.
"I'm going to go see if I can pry the information out of those operatives we trashed." The rest of the mercenary team followed her. "I don't need an audience. It's not like there's going to be a dramatic toture session. They're all unconscious, it'll take me ten seconds to get it if they have it."
It took less time than that. "The adamantium is being stored in the main area of the complex. All of Ultron's tech was destroyed in the battle so they didn't have to worry about booby traps and they could bring in their own security systems."
"Hard to believe secondary adamantium is getting so many security precautions."
"Why's that Blockbuster. Only a handful of people can break the low quality stuff."
There wasn't near as much secondary adamntium but there was more than enough for whatever Sinister needed.
"We've located what you requested sir. It's in a large pile at these coordinates," Scalphunter reported rattling off a series of numbers. The scrap metal vanished in a flash of light. The Marauders followed after.
*****
"That was the most boring mission we've ever been on."
"Why'd we have to do that. You've never used us as errand boys or made us pull our punches."
"Your bloodlust will be sated soon enough, I have another mission for you already." Essex handed Scalphunter a disk. "Prizm will be finished in less than five minutes. He will be joining you for this mission."
"Good. Even if he does always get taken out within five minutes, it feels better to start out a mission with the full team."
*******
"Your murders are goneI trust?"
"Indeed Blaquesmith. Though if you have a problem with them then why did you seeks Sinister's aide?"
"Dayspring does not have time for such a mission and I am without allies except for him. This will be necessary for the battle with Apocalypse's forces. I needed someone who despised the evil one."
"An accurate assessment of my feelings towards Nur. You are aware this is secondary adamantium?"
"Indeed. I have the technology to make the improvement to first quality."
"And the matter of my payment?"
'Of course. Thsi disk contains a copy of Jenskot's genetic structure. I trust that you will not actually clone her. You would not wish for me to regret thsi decision."
"Sinister doesn't not appreciate your threats."
"It is not a threat. The seret of pocalypse's early creations is well known in my time. Of course you are soon to be focusing on your research and I will be returning to my time of origin once Dayspring has completed his mission," Blaquesmith added as he realized perhaps he was going a bit to far.
"Of course. We have other concerns without a petty squabble creating more. You have Sinister's assurances that she will not be cloned. Computer simulations will be more than enough to determine how a relative weakling such as Genesis was produced by the genes of Nathan Summers. If it is not due to Genesis' mothers genes then evidence would suggest that conditions in that time period somehow stunted the development of mutant powers. Nowif you please I have other matters to attend to."
******
Third mission
The location of the lab that the Marauders had teleported to fit more with the first stereotype of mad scientists labs, being a dark, sinister building in the middle of nowhere with a great deal more advanced technology than it should be in possession of, rather than number two. That would be the undergrounf lair that despite being underground was well lit with plenty of fresh air and a great deal more technology than it should have.
"We don't know exactly what we're going into. The boss's computers were only able to get into a few files of McCoy's. We know we won't have to deal with Fever Pitch but he's got three new members of Gene nation. Sheath, Brightburn, and Ooze. What we don't know is if any of the allies he had in the past including, Holocaust, Fatale, Ever or Sugarman are with them. So brace yourself for what could be one hell of a fight. Let Vertigo, Scrambler and Malice soften them up. And remember if Arclight and I aren't left at the end the boss wants to check out McCoy's files and experiments so don't trash anything until he arrives and okays it."
Blockbuster and Arclight smashed open the doors and the fight was on. The Dark Beast was apparently aware of his alternate and his forces. Gene Nation was caught slackjawed for a moment but quickly fell inot attack.
Brightburn had apparently been recreated and not completely burned out his body. Depending on where you looked within the flame there were spots of empty space, visible bone, visible muscle and unmarred flesh. Obsidian had restored himself in the shadows and Membrain had pulled himself back together after recovering from the telepathic shock just as he always did. Despite the fact there were hundreds fewer members of Gene Nation the battle with these second and sometimes third generation Morlocks would prove to be more difficult than the massacre of the original Morlocks.
Iron Maiden went for Scrambler but was caught and crushed by Malice's telekinetic grip. After that the three most dangerous Gene nation members attempted to neutralize the three most dangerous Marauders.
Malice found herself totally enveloped in Membrain's body after she finished Iron Maiden. "You only recently gained control of that body so you aren't totally bound to it. It's only a matter of time before I pry you loose. I'm not making any bets on taking on Pryor but I bet she'll be so pissed at you all she'll pretty much ignore us."
Integer was attacking Scrambler the only way he could as a living mathamatical concept. Scrambler found his thoughts filled with everything from basic addition to the most advanced calculous and more. Only one thought other than those could make itself heard.
'I always hated math class.'
Oooze had plastered some of the slime that covered his body onto Vertigo and was using it on her. She was staggering under the effects she normally produced on enemies. Unfortunately for Gene Nation that also took him out of the fight because if he stopped focusing on her she could get up and use her own powers on them.
Sinister's mercenaries weren't to effected by the loss of three of their dangerous teammates. "Get them away from McCoy," Scalphunter ordered. "Take the others out then help Malice, Vertigo and Scrambler."
"You're not getting anywhere near him," Sheath blocked his path and brought down a metal spike. He brought his gun up to block it and the weapon was split in half. The Marauder leader reacted with his usual collectedness. Scalphunter snapped the the broken center sections off the two ends. He snapped the barrel back onto his metal uniform while slamming the but of the weapon into her face. Blood poured out of her broken nose.
"I'm gonna kick your ass before I kill you for that."
"It takes a lot better than you to kill a Marauder, girl. We've died enough times to know that."
*******
Obsidian stretched out his shadowy body wrapping himself around Riptide. "You have to spin to use your powers and I'm not letting you. You're helpless against me, soon my darkness shall consume your soul."
Riptide laughed. "If I had a soul it was consumed by darkness years ago. Hell' I've died so many times it's probably already burning in Hell if there is one."
He struggled against the ebony tendrils holding him but Obsidian held pressure keeping him from moving. Until Riptide suddenly changed directions and Obsidian's hold actually added momentum, making him revolve faster. Dozens of blades flew out piercing the living Shadow's body.
Riptide held the last group of blades and whirled into the Gene Nation member, literally slicing him apart.
"Hmmmm, blood," he noticed as the red liquid spilled out. "Guess there was a little more to this guy than we thought."
*******
Brightburn enveloped Prizm in his flame then seemed surprised when the solid crystal mutant walked through.
"I've been shattered by fists, telekinesis, and falls. I've had my brain fried by telepathy and had any other thing happen to me that you could imagine, but I've never fought anyone STUPID enough to try to BURN CRYSTAL. Crystal doesn't burn, moron." Prizm focused his laser and cut off the head off the fiery mutant. Only then did he remember the briefing. Sinsister had detailed profiles on the longtime members of Gene nation but only the barest information on the new members. What he had told them was that Brightburn was also a psionic entity.
"Oh, crap! Malice!" he yelled to the recently possessed Madelyne who was still struggling with Membrain.
"Get off me!" she shrieked as she felt her hold on her body slipping. If she lost control of Madelyne then the Marauders were in trouble. Finally she was able to fling her protoplasmic opponent off with her telekinetic powers. He was thrown into Integer.
"What the hell do you want, Prizm?"
"I just took out Brightburn and wanted you to make sure he didn't slip into the Astral Plane."
"You've still got an unfried brain, don't you? Nothing there. He must have to burn himself out before he can do that," she said after diverting her attention for a moment. "I've ot more important things to do than check up on your blunders."
The two telepathic entities, Membrain and Integer, were seemingly causinginterference between the two of them. The green protoplasmic mutant seemed to be having trouble pulling himself together. He was solidifying into a more compact form, alternately spouting curses and numbers until Scrambler touched him and he fell apart. Malice finished the job with a telepathic assault that shrank the slime he was made of down to nothing.
******
Vertigo was forcing herself up to her feet much to Ooze's surprise. " Sinister has matched us against clones of ourselves dozens of time so we could overcome our own powers."
"I can do anything you can do," Ooze reminded. 'If you can get up so can I."
"Good point. I bet the same can't be said for your big friend." Vertigo turned her attention to Hemingway. The massive gray mutant had been fighting alongside Vessel against the two Marauder powerhouses, Blockbuster and Arclight. Though only slightly strongrt than them, both had a major height advantage giving them leverage. When Vertigo attacked he staggered for a few moment before toppling over onto Ooze. A bit of slime squirted out from under him and a rather sick crunch was heard.
Blockbuster took advantage of the distration that caused for Vessel, slamming a right cross into his jaw. Vessel took a few steps back to balance himself and left himself wide open for Arclight.
She slammed her fist into his chest generating a shockwave. Arclight continued to push through, shattering ribs, into his heart, exploding it, reaching his backbone and obliterating his spine. She shook the dead body off and wiped her gore covered arm on her uniform.
"Finish you, now Hemingway snarled from behind them. For some reason Vertigo had stopped using her power on him.
Suddenly Blockbuster felt himself being lifted off his feet. "What the hell are you doing, Malice?!"
"A variation on a move the X-men used when Maddie was staying with them. It's called a fastball special." She flung him with such force that he punched through Hemingway's skull. He looked just a little queasy when he punched out the other side.
"I never though I'd find a way to kill that was too disgusting for me, I guess I just never expected to be covered head to toe in some guy's brain."
"Poor baby," Arclight sneered condescendingly.
******
Seeing that Gene Nation was defeated with the exception of one member McCoy turned to Fatale to order her to teleport him away. He had to leap backwards as he did. Because a great deal of debris came crashing down from the ceiling. Even then he took quite a hit on the head. The gray-furred alternate of Hank McCoy was almost out on his feet, Harpoon had tossed one of his harpoons into the ceiling destroying it and preventing the getaway.
"Fatale, what are you waiting for? Evacuate us now!" he ordered. They'd worked on detailed evacuation strategies in case Gene nation was decimated. Trying to clear his head he wondered why she hadn't just teleported around the debris and gotten him out of there. Fatale paused for a second then with a thought the mutate woman was gone and didn't reappear. The Dark Beast didn't have time to realize he'd been abandoned before another of Harpoon's harpoons drove itself into his chest.
Next he turned to help Scalphunter as the team leader was having some trouble.
He didn't have the free hand or the time to assemble a new weapon. Fortuantely even though he didn't do that much with bladed weapons he did carry a combat knife to fix as a bayonet and was using that to parry her spikes.
Her legs fell out from under her as Harpoon struck them from behind. The mission was going perfectly. No point in screwing it up now. In less time than than it took to blink Scalphunter had a rifle assembled and fired. She rolled and jumped to her feet. Several slugs entered her body in the next few seconds, but all quite bleeding in a short amount of time. She grinned around the pain.
"My body's real good at dealin' with blood loss, just like my genetic ancestor Marrow." It was true. Just like Marrow whose bones grew in odd angles and had a tendency to pierce blood vessels, the same thing happened to Sheath with her various growths. Scalphunter dealt with that by shooting her right between the eyes.
******
"Well, done my Marauders. No injuries and all save one of your targets dead."
"Right boss, and she ran out on him when I was about to finish him off, right after he told her to get him out of here."
"I'd say that probably takes her off the list of his flunkies."
"Indeed, Scalphunter. Return to base I have a new program with the X-men I wish for you to run in the training room." When the X-mansion had been destroyed during Inferno the Marauders had scavenged some of the Sh'iat tech from it.
"So we're gonna be taking on the X-men again?"
"No Blockbuster. You will be aiding them whether they wish it or not."
Epilogue
Sinister had finishe the computer investigation then turned to the girl strapped to the lab table.
Gaia stared at the white-faced man in terror. Was she in a better position with him or McCoy?
"I have done extensive investigation as to what was in the final growth tube and have been unable to determine what was in it. You have been here for numerous weeks, you will tell me whatever you know."
"Wha?"
"The final growth tube, child. Do not lie to Sinister."
"I saw that one woman, umm I think her name was Fatale, and she was yelling at him saying he said it wasn't possible. He said anyone could make a mistake,told her to lie down and then stuck this big needle into her stomach. Then she told him that he wasn't touching her again after that screw up. He told her that he'd do whatever he liked to her. That's what he put in there. Then when she came in here a few minutes ago she was mumbling about damn maternal instincts. Then she disconnected part of it it and took out a smaller tube and vanished."
"Likely his child then. Sinister will have to ensure the child does not follow in the father's footsteps. McCoy has greatly hurt the evolution of mutantkind with his Morlock experiments." With a flick of a switch Gaia was loose.
"Thank you so..."
"Your arm."
"What?"
"Extend your arm. If you wish to thank me then extend your arm." She did and a hypodermic needle appeared and drew a blood sample. "I do not have time for you or this other child now." That comment was said as he looked at the first growth tube. He removed the infant girl within, drew a blood sample and handed the now crying child to Gaia. She used her telepathy to sooth the child that McCoy had named Grace. "Take the child and return to your allies. With what Nur is capable of it will soon be unsafe for any mutant of significant power to be alone."
******
Emma Frost answered the door at the Massachusetts Academy and was surprised to see Gaia holding a baby a the door. It hadn't been nine months since she'd left.
"Uhh, hello Ms. Frost. According to what The Dark Beast said when I heard him talking to himself is that this is your daughter." That was one problem with being away from people for so long as she had. The girl was unbelievably blunt.
******
Logan found himself somewhere other than the bar he had been going into. He looked up at the small mutant standing at the controls of the teleporter. "You're the guy who's always tellin' Cable waht ta do, Blaquesmith."
"I am. I have an offer for you."
"Not interested."
"Do not be hasty. You believe the Askani discipline to be so different than Xavier's dream but it is not. There would be no price and this may save your life in the battles to come with the forces Apocalypse is gathering."
"So what are ya offerin' me?"
"Adamantium. The process is advanced enough that it will not cause a regression to your feral state."
"All right, if you're so sure ya can do it. I been down on my game lately, maybe it'll help."
The End
Disclaimer: All characters except for Brightburn, Sheath, Ooze and Grace are property of Marvel comics. The other four belong to me. Sheath, Ooze and Brightburn's first appearences were in my story Return of the Hellions. This story and the timeline I'm writing takes place around the time of the Shattering and the Astonishing X-men, although I wrote an alternate Astonishing X-men 3 so the Wolverine who appears briefly is the real one. No money is being made off this story so please don't sue. Feedback would be greatly appreciated.
First Mission
Madelyne Pryor was running for her life or at least sembalence of life. She wasn't alive, merely a psionic being giving physical form, but if anyone could finda way to kill her it was the Marauders. A shot rang out and a bullet penetrated her body. It appeared as though blood flowed out but that was merely to maintain the illusion of being a living, breathing human being. She couldn't feel the trickle of warm liquid as the projectile enteredthen exited. There was no sharp prolonged agony as when muscle was torn or bone shattered. Merely the general pain that was felt whenever she was injured since Nate had resurrected her.
'Damn Nate! If he hadn't run off to help the X-men then he'd be here to help me!'
She was barely able to pick up Scrambler's thoughts before he reached out to grab her. Having no time tomove she wrapped him in a telekinetic field.
"Gotcha."
"Not quite." She flung him away and he landed in the filthy water of the sewer they were in.
"That's the second time I touched you! No way you should've been able to do that."
"You only got me once. All you touched the last time was a forcefield." The one time had been deveastating to her powers. Her teleportation was gone, her telekinesis was halved and her shielding was diminished. If she had been above ground then she wouldn't even have been able to hear her own thoughts.
Vertigo was on the attack next but her powers couldn't effect someone without an inner ear canal to effect her sense of balance. All she was was a projectile for for Maddie to throw at Harpoon, Prizm and Riptide. Prizm shattered under the weight.
"What do you want from me?! Your boss already used me as a breeder! You ruined my life, stole my son from me! What more can he take from me?!"
"I always thought you lost your kid whenyou tried to kill him. Now why don't you shut up and let us finish you off. We've got other jobs to do and we don't like to waste time."
"Then you may as well move to the next job, Arclight. Because you're wasting your time trying to kill me. You don't have what it takes! And I still want answers!"
"Since when do the Marauders need reasons to kill someone? It's what we do, Pryor," Scalphunter declared.
"When my "father", she said the term mockingly, "tells you to And Sinister never does anything without a reason."
"He wants your body, lady," Blockbuster swung at her but missed when she telekinetically flung sewage into his eyes. Taking the chance she ran, with only the two leaders, Scalphunter and Arclight after her immediately.
Blockbuster was struggling to wipe the waste out of his eyes. Vertigo was checking on Scrambler. With her powers worthless she decided to make herself useful by making sure the second most debilitating member of the Marauders was all right. Riptide and Harpoon pushed themselve up only to slip back down again a few times before regaining their feet and heading after the other two.
*****
After putting some distance between herself and the other five Marauders Madelyne turned to face Scalphunter and Arclight.
"What the hell is that moron Blockbuster talking about? My body would probably discorperate if I was killed."
"He meant it literally. You're the one who thought we were going to kill you. Scalp just said that we don't need a reason to kill."
"Sinister wants my body? Please that man is the most asexual person on the planet."
"It's payment for someone he worked with," Scalphunter told her.
Madelyne's shriek of righteous indignation was cut off by Blockbuster's fist. "You're gonna pay for throwing shit in my eyes."
Her anger at the situation let her focus past the noise in her head and stun him telepathically. She held him up as a shield when the recently arrived Riptide spun, flinging blades at her. "Nothing vital," she snorted as she examined the wounds on Blockbuster's body. "Who is it? Stryfe, maybe? Trying to lure Nate or Nathan into a trap. I never heard about Shaw or Selene working with him but it wouldn't surprise me. Maybe they don't think I'm doing enough for the club. Or maybe they're both just pissed off because I kept rejecting their advances lately."
"Sorry, not allowed to say."
Madelyne's anger was peeking now and she was raving. "I'll kill all of you and rip it out of your dying minds! And if you don't know then I'll find Sinister and do the same to him!"
She didn't seem to notice that she was in no position to be making threats as the Marauders moved to surround her. Her ranting was reaching fever pitch when she clutched her head and collapsed.
"Are you okay?" Harpoon asked idly.
"Of course not, do you know how hard it is to possess someone who's already the dark side of someone else? That's basically all Pryor is now, Jean Grey's bad side and she's gone to a lot of trouble to make sure that's what she is."
*******
"I trust you find your new body suitable, Malice."
"Just great. And since I've got more experience then Maddie I can push her power levels up. I've got to tell you I'm surprised that you're doing this, boss. When you destroyed my choker I was a little worried."
"Sinister is a man of his word. You were promised a working body by the time I ceased to employ the Marauders. The destruction of the choker was merely a warning on the dangers of betrayel."
That drew murmurs of surprise from them. "Are you sayingyou're firing us."
"My requirements of your services will be very reduced soon. Though there will likely be occasions when I have need of them. I have been far more active than I wish to be. If I am correct the time in which Sinister is an active participant in evens will soon end."
*******
Second mission
Slorenia
The Marauders teleported into the devesated country and were shocked.
"My god it stinks."
"I never though rotting bodies would bother me," Harppon stated. "Hell, there are a lot of things that smell worse than human flesh decomposing . But this..."
"We've never hung around even when we killed the Morlocks. And that was only hundreds. We're talking millions of people killed here."
The realization that something could kill enough people to discomfit the Marauders was shocking.
"We should've seen if the boss could've supplied gas masks. This really reeks."
"Just ignore it and concentrate on the job, Scrambler. Have you and Vertigo got the tranq guns I gave you?"
"They're loaded and ready."
"I really don't need one, Scalphunter. My powers will work on anyone. It's not like they have to be mutants like with Scrambler."
"But the effects start to wear off as soon as you stop paying attention. We're supposed to keep the body count as low as possible."
"I can't believe the boss telling US not to kill people," Blockbuster stated disgustedly.
"I Was testing out Maddie's powers and I oveheard him talking to someone."
"You were spying on him? Stupid."
Malice shot Scrambler a look and then gave him a small telpathic jolt. Not enough to hurt him seriously but he'd have a headache for a month. "It seems we're doing this for someone else."
"He's hiring us out. Guess that explains why we're searching a devestated country for adamantium when he's got to have connection that can get it for him," Riptide observed, looking down at the small handheld scanners they were all carrying. "He's got connections for everything else.
The search of the dacaying necro-cyborgs proved fruitless. Few of them were even constructed with titanium let alone adamantium. Fortunately all the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents on the surface were busy burying the deceased in the other areas. Abandoning that area of the country they headed for the below ground complex where the Avengers had battled Ultron and his less powerful duplicates.
That was where they first encountered S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives. Twenty of them were coming around a corner continuing their duties of cataloging the pieces of the destroyed robots.
A few went for weapons, others went for radios. None got a chance to use them as Malice telekinetically ripped the items from their hands and stunned several of them. Riptide spun clenching his blades between his fingers rather than throwing the. He had coated them with a powerful sedative. The ones he hit were unconscious in seconds. Vertigo had the rest down on their knees practically throwing up. Scalphunter put trangs in several of them and a couple of pulled punches from Arclight and Blockbuster put down the rest.
"Looks like we hit the motherload," Blockbuster said as they backtracked from where the agents had been. The shattered machines were stacked ceiling high.
"Look like we're not even going to waste our time. Scanner says this stack is all titanium. They must've stored the ones made of secondary adamantium somewhere else," Scalphunter threw down his scanner in disgust.
"Damn. They could be anywhere. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s probably already moved it and just left the trash. The boss isn't going to like this."
"Don't you have a supplier Scalp? Where you get your adamantium bullets?"
He's got a limited supply. I lose the supply and the supplier because the only way he'd give it up would be to kill him."
"So? Your power is to make weapons."
"But Sinister would probably want it all. Besides I'm better with making guns than bullets.
"So your power has to do with making what shoots not what fires. I never knew that," Malice commented.
For most people Scalphunter would never give up that kind of information but he knew the Marauders well enough that he would be able to deal with them even if they knew about a few weaknesses. Besides very few people knew about his skill with non-projectile weaponry.
"I'm going to go see if I can pry the information out of those operatives we trashed." The rest of the mercenary team followed her. "I don't need an audience. It's not like there's going to be a dramatic toture session. They're all unconscious, it'll take me ten seconds to get it if they have it."
It took less time than that. "The adamantium is being stored in the main area of the complex. All of Ultron's tech was destroyed in the battle so they didn't have to worry about booby traps and they could bring in their own security systems."
"Hard to believe secondary adamantium is getting so many security precautions."
"Why's that Blockbuster. Only a handful of people can break the low quality stuff."
There wasn't near as much secondary adamntium but there was more than enough for whatever Sinister needed.
"We've located what you requested sir. It's in a large pile at these coordinates," Scalphunter reported rattling off a series of numbers. The scrap metal vanished in a flash of light. The Marauders followed after.
*****
"That was the most boring mission we've ever been on."
"Why'd we have to do that. You've never used us as errand boys or made us pull our punches."
"Your bloodlust will be sated soon enough, I have another mission for you already." Essex handed Scalphunter a disk. "Prizm will be finished in less than five minutes. He will be joining you for this mission."
"Good. Even if he does always get taken out within five minutes, it feels better to start out a mission with the full team."
*******
"Your murders are goneI trust?"
"Indeed Blaquesmith. Though if you have a problem with them then why did you seeks Sinister's aide?"
"Dayspring does not have time for such a mission and I am without allies except for him. This will be necessary for the battle with Apocalypse's forces. I needed someone who despised the evil one."
"An accurate assessment of my feelings towards Nur. You are aware this is secondary adamantium?"
"Indeed. I have the technology to make the improvement to first quality."
"And the matter of my payment?"
'Of course. Thsi disk contains a copy of Jenskot's genetic structure. I trust that you will not actually clone her. You would not wish for me to regret thsi decision."
"Sinister doesn't not appreciate your threats."
"It is not a threat. The seret of pocalypse's early creations is well known in my time. Of course you are soon to be focusing on your research and I will be returning to my time of origin once Dayspring has completed his mission," Blaquesmith added as he realized perhaps he was going a bit to far.
"Of course. We have other concerns without a petty squabble creating more. You have Sinister's assurances that she will not be cloned. Computer simulations will be more than enough to determine how a relative weakling such as Genesis was produced by the genes of Nathan Summers. If it is not due to Genesis' mothers genes then evidence would suggest that conditions in that time period somehow stunted the development of mutant powers. Nowif you please I have other matters to attend to."
******
Third mission
The location of the lab that the Marauders had teleported to fit more with the first stereotype of mad scientists labs, being a dark, sinister building in the middle of nowhere with a great deal more advanced technology than it should be in possession of, rather than number two. That would be the undergrounf lair that despite being underground was well lit with plenty of fresh air and a great deal more technology than it should have.
"We don't know exactly what we're going into. The boss's computers were only able to get into a few files of McCoy's. We know we won't have to deal with Fever Pitch but he's got three new members of Gene nation. Sheath, Brightburn, and Ooze. What we don't know is if any of the allies he had in the past including, Holocaust, Fatale, Ever or Sugarman are with them. So brace yourself for what could be one hell of a fight. Let Vertigo, Scrambler and Malice soften them up. And remember if Arclight and I aren't left at the end the boss wants to check out McCoy's files and experiments so don't trash anything until he arrives and okays it."
Blockbuster and Arclight smashed open the doors and the fight was on. The Dark Beast was apparently aware of his alternate and his forces. Gene Nation was caught slackjawed for a moment but quickly fell inot attack.
Brightburn had apparently been recreated and not completely burned out his body. Depending on where you looked within the flame there were spots of empty space, visible bone, visible muscle and unmarred flesh. Obsidian had restored himself in the shadows and Membrain had pulled himself back together after recovering from the telepathic shock just as he always did. Despite the fact there were hundreds fewer members of Gene Nation the battle with these second and sometimes third generation Morlocks would prove to be more difficult than the massacre of the original Morlocks.
Iron Maiden went for Scrambler but was caught and crushed by Malice's telekinetic grip. After that the three most dangerous Gene nation members attempted to neutralize the three most dangerous Marauders.
Malice found herself totally enveloped in Membrain's body after she finished Iron Maiden. "You only recently gained control of that body so you aren't totally bound to it. It's only a matter of time before I pry you loose. I'm not making any bets on taking on Pryor but I bet she'll be so pissed at you all she'll pretty much ignore us."
Integer was attacking Scrambler the only way he could as a living mathamatical concept. Scrambler found his thoughts filled with everything from basic addition to the most advanced calculous and more. Only one thought other than those could make itself heard.
'I always hated math class.'
Oooze had plastered some of the slime that covered his body onto Vertigo and was using it on her. She was staggering under the effects she normally produced on enemies. Unfortunately for Gene Nation that also took him out of the fight because if he stopped focusing on her she could get up and use her own powers on them.
Sinister's mercenaries weren't to effected by the loss of three of their dangerous teammates. "Get them away from McCoy," Scalphunter ordered. "Take the others out then help Malice, Vertigo and Scrambler."
"You're not getting anywhere near him," Sheath blocked his path and brought down a metal spike. He brought his gun up to block it and the weapon was split in half. The Marauder leader reacted with his usual collectedness. Scalphunter snapped the the broken center sections off the two ends. He snapped the barrel back onto his metal uniform while slamming the but of the weapon into her face. Blood poured out of her broken nose.
"I'm gonna kick your ass before I kill you for that."
"It takes a lot better than you to kill a Marauder, girl. We've died enough times to know that."
*******
Obsidian stretched out his shadowy body wrapping himself around Riptide. "You have to spin to use your powers and I'm not letting you. You're helpless against me, soon my darkness shall consume your soul."
Riptide laughed. "If I had a soul it was consumed by darkness years ago. Hell' I've died so many times it's probably already burning in Hell if there is one."
He struggled against the ebony tendrils holding him but Obsidian held pressure keeping him from moving. Until Riptide suddenly changed directions and Obsidian's hold actually added momentum, making him revolve faster. Dozens of blades flew out piercing the living Shadow's body.
Riptide held the last group of blades and whirled into the Gene Nation member, literally slicing him apart.
"Hmmmm, blood," he noticed as the red liquid spilled out. "Guess there was a little more to this guy than we thought."
*******
Brightburn enveloped Prizm in his flame then seemed surprised when the solid crystal mutant walked through.
"I've been shattered by fists, telekinesis, and falls. I've had my brain fried by telepathy and had any other thing happen to me that you could imagine, but I've never fought anyone STUPID enough to try to BURN CRYSTAL. Crystal doesn't burn, moron." Prizm focused his laser and cut off the head off the fiery mutant. Only then did he remember the briefing. Sinsister had detailed profiles on the longtime members of Gene nation but only the barest information on the new members. What he had told them was that Brightburn was also a psionic entity.
"Oh, crap! Malice!" he yelled to the recently possessed Madelyne who was still struggling with Membrain.
"Get off me!" she shrieked as she felt her hold on her body slipping. If she lost control of Madelyne then the Marauders were in trouble. Finally she was able to fling her protoplasmic opponent off with her telekinetic powers. He was thrown into Integer.
"What the hell do you want, Prizm?"
"I just took out Brightburn and wanted you to make sure he didn't slip into the Astral Plane."
"You've still got an unfried brain, don't you? Nothing there. He must have to burn himself out before he can do that," she said after diverting her attention for a moment. "I've ot more important things to do than check up on your blunders."
The two telepathic entities, Membrain and Integer, were seemingly causinginterference between the two of them. The green protoplasmic mutant seemed to be having trouble pulling himself together. He was solidifying into a more compact form, alternately spouting curses and numbers until Scrambler touched him and he fell apart. Malice finished the job with a telepathic assault that shrank the slime he was made of down to nothing.
******
Vertigo was forcing herself up to her feet much to Ooze's surprise. " Sinister has matched us against clones of ourselves dozens of time so we could overcome our own powers."
"I can do anything you can do," Ooze reminded. 'If you can get up so can I."
"Good point. I bet the same can't be said for your big friend." Vertigo turned her attention to Hemingway. The massive gray mutant had been fighting alongside Vessel against the two Marauder powerhouses, Blockbuster and Arclight. Though only slightly strongrt than them, both had a major height advantage giving them leverage. When Vertigo attacked he staggered for a few moment before toppling over onto Ooze. A bit of slime squirted out from under him and a rather sick crunch was heard.
Blockbuster took advantage of the distration that caused for Vessel, slamming a right cross into his jaw. Vessel took a few steps back to balance himself and left himself wide open for Arclight.
She slammed her fist into his chest generating a shockwave. Arclight continued to push through, shattering ribs, into his heart, exploding it, reaching his backbone and obliterating his spine. She shook the dead body off and wiped her gore covered arm on her uniform.
"Finish you, now Hemingway snarled from behind them. For some reason Vertigo had stopped using her power on him.
Suddenly Blockbuster felt himself being lifted off his feet. "What the hell are you doing, Malice?!"
"A variation on a move the X-men used when Maddie was staying with them. It's called a fastball special." She flung him with such force that he punched through Hemingway's skull. He looked just a little queasy when he punched out the other side.
"I never though I'd find a way to kill that was too disgusting for me, I guess I just never expected to be covered head to toe in some guy's brain."
"Poor baby," Arclight sneered condescendingly.
******
Seeing that Gene Nation was defeated with the exception of one member McCoy turned to Fatale to order her to teleport him away. He had to leap backwards as he did. Because a great deal of debris came crashing down from the ceiling. Even then he took quite a hit on the head. The gray-furred alternate of Hank McCoy was almost out on his feet, Harpoon had tossed one of his harpoons into the ceiling destroying it and preventing the getaway.
"Fatale, what are you waiting for? Evacuate us now!" he ordered. They'd worked on detailed evacuation strategies in case Gene nation was decimated. Trying to clear his head he wondered why she hadn't just teleported around the debris and gotten him out of there. Fatale paused for a second then with a thought the mutate woman was gone and didn't reappear. The Dark Beast didn't have time to realize he'd been abandoned before another of Harpoon's harpoons drove itself into his chest.
Next he turned to help Scalphunter as the team leader was having some trouble.
He didn't have the free hand or the time to assemble a new weapon. Fortuantely even though he didn't do that much with bladed weapons he did carry a combat knife to fix as a bayonet and was using that to parry her spikes.
Her legs fell out from under her as Harpoon struck them from behind. The mission was going perfectly. No point in screwing it up now. In less time than than it took to blink Scalphunter had a rifle assembled and fired. She rolled and jumped to her feet. Several slugs entered her body in the next few seconds, but all quite bleeding in a short amount of time. She grinned around the pain.
"My body's real good at dealin' with blood loss, just like my genetic ancestor Marrow." It was true. Just like Marrow whose bones grew in odd angles and had a tendency to pierce blood vessels, the same thing happened to Sheath with her various growths. Scalphunter dealt with that by shooting her right between the eyes.
******
"Well, done my Marauders. No injuries and all save one of your targets dead."
"Right boss, and she ran out on him when I was about to finish him off, right after he told her to get him out of here."
"I'd say that probably takes her off the list of his flunkies."
"Indeed, Scalphunter. Return to base I have a new program with the X-men I wish for you to run in the training room." When the X-mansion had been destroyed during Inferno the Marauders had scavenged some of the Sh'iat tech from it.
"So we're gonna be taking on the X-men again?"
"No Blockbuster. You will be aiding them whether they wish it or not."
Epilogue
Sinister had finishe the computer investigation then turned to the girl strapped to the lab table.
Gaia stared at the white-faced man in terror. Was she in a better position with him or McCoy?
"I have done extensive investigation as to what was in the final growth tube and have been unable to determine what was in it. You have been here for numerous weeks, you will tell me whatever you know."
"Wha?"
"The final growth tube, child. Do not lie to Sinister."
"I saw that one woman, umm I think her name was Fatale, and she was yelling at him saying he said it wasn't possible. He said anyone could make a mistake,told her to lie down and then stuck this big needle into her stomach. Then she told him that he wasn't touching her again after that screw up. He told her that he'd do whatever he liked to her. That's what he put in there. Then when she came in here a few minutes ago she was mumbling about damn maternal instincts. Then she disconnected part of it it and took out a smaller tube and vanished."
"Likely his child then. Sinister will have to ensure the child does not follow in the father's footsteps. McCoy has greatly hurt the evolution of mutantkind with his Morlock experiments." With a flick of a switch Gaia was loose.
"Thank you so..."
"Your arm."
"What?"
"Extend your arm. If you wish to thank me then extend your arm." She did and a hypodermic needle appeared and drew a blood sample. "I do not have time for you or this other child now." That comment was said as he looked at the first growth tube. He removed the infant girl within, drew a blood sample and handed the now crying child to Gaia. She used her telepathy to sooth the child that McCoy had named Grace. "Take the child and return to your allies. With what Nur is capable of it will soon be unsafe for any mutant of significant power to be alone."
******
Emma Frost answered the door at the Massachusetts Academy and was surprised to see Gaia holding a baby a the door. It hadn't been nine months since she'd left.
"Uhh, hello Ms. Frost. According to what The Dark Beast said when I heard him talking to himself is that this is your daughter." That was one problem with being away from people for so long as she had. The girl was unbelievably blunt.
******
Logan found himself somewhere other than the bar he had been going into. He looked up at the small mutant standing at the controls of the teleporter. "You're the guy who's always tellin' Cable waht ta do, Blaquesmith."
"I am. I have an offer for you."
"Not interested."
"Do not be hasty. You believe the Askani discipline to be so different than Xavier's dream but it is not. There would be no price and this may save your life in the battles to come with the forces Apocalypse is gathering."
"So what are ya offerin' me?"
"Adamantium. The process is advanced enough that it will not cause a regression to your feral state."
"All right, if you're so sure ya can do it. I been down on my game lately, maybe it'll help."
The End