Chapter 7

The War part I

2015, New York

Cassandra was leaning on the bike in front of the club, waiting for others to show up. She was a little early because she left the Mansion before others since she had some business to take care of. That business was actually a reason she took Scott's bike, well, that and the fact that it will annoy him.

Cassandra glanced at the bag that sat on the bike and smirked. Wonder what the X-men will do once they find out what I did not ten minutes ago. She shook her head. What they should do is thank me, but knowing them, I'm sure they will be pissed.

Fifteen minutes earlier

Cassandra rode two cars before the van she was trailing even though the mobsters in the van probably wouldn't notice her even if she was right behind them. Fortunately, Summers had a helmet on the bike because after she does this job, she wouldn't want to be recognized by these morons if she saw them again. The chances for that are slim, but it's better to be sure.

Sure, she could probably change their memories to her benefit, even though she took a potion to weaken her telepathy, but, from what she heard, their boss knows quite a bit about brain-washing and she wouldn't want him to find out someone has tinkered with his subordinates memories, that would make it clear that information they gave him was false.

The van finally parked in front of a night club owned by the big boss himself and Cassandra stopped the bike right behind them. Two guys got out of the van and headed toward the back, where the money was, but stopped once their pistols left their holsters and flew toward the woman with the helmet.

Cassandra took one pistol in each hand and pointed them at two morons. "Carry on boys, take the cash out." She smirked behind the helmet.

The mobsters narrowed their eyes at her. "Who the fuck are you, bitch!?"One of them yelled angrily.

Cassandra's smirk grew as she shot him in the knee. "Now, now, is that a proper way to address a lady?" She asked him mockingly even as people heard the shot and started to run left and right.

The mobster fell on the pavement and clutched his knee while screaming in pain while his friend watched wide eyed. By now most people around them were panicking and running as far from the confrontation as they could.

Cassandra then turned to the uninjured mobster and pointed both pistols on him. "Now, if your manners better than your friend's and you are going to help a lady by getting the money out of the van and putting it in this bag." She said as she threw him the bag.

The man looked down at the bag then back at her. "This… this bag isn't big enough." He stuttered. He looked very young, maybe in his late teens. Probably a high school drop-out who thought he could earn money by working for the New York's most powerful criminal.

Cassandra smirked again. "Oh, aren't you a sweetie." She spoke in a mockingly sweet tone. "Don't worry though, we're not doing this because of the money, we're doing this because we want you to deliver a message to your boss."

The young boy looked confused, but he took the bag and began filling it. The man who was now silently clutching his knee glared at her. "Who is 'we'?" He asked venomously.

Cassandra waited until the boy gave her the bag before she answered. "Tell your boss that New York belongs to the Hellfire Club from now on." Hellfire doesn't have any intention of taking over New York's underworld but their boss won't care. He will be pissed when he finds out the Hellfire stole his money, and he will destroy them, because even as influential as the Hellfire Club is, they can't beat the Kingpin.

Present

Cassandra smirked as she remembered how she got her revenge. Shaw from this time didn't do anything to her but she will take what she can get. Revenge isn't something that usually interests Cassandra, it's fueled by rage, and rage makes things messy, and it's rarely profitable. However she found a good way to get some quick cash and if she can take another revenge on Shaw while getting it, well, why the hell not.

When she saw a mini-van parking near where she stood, she used magic to hide the bag with money, she already took a wad of cash from the bag. She was going to celebrate tonight.

When the X-man approached her and she noticed the dresses the girls wore she smirked. "If you're trying to seduce me into talking, you're almost there." When she noticed bird-brain rolling his eyes, her smirk turned from teasing to insulting. "Ah, weather witch, when is he leaving?" She asked as she pointed at him. "After I get drunk I want to go get a bite to eat, chicken precisely, and I don't want him attacking me because I ate one of his cousins." She could hear some people trying to stifle their laughs.

Ororo smirked at her. "He's not leaving, so I guess you'll have to watch your back."

Cassandra grinned and pointed at Ororo. "You, I like." Her grin then turned back into a smirk. "When I get you in bed I'm going to love you."

Ororo shook her head with a smirk while Warren rolled his eyes again and pointed at the entrance of the club. "Can we go in now?" He asked with annoyed tone.

They entered the club and started looking for seats, it was still early so they didn't have any trouble finding them. While the girls sat down, the guys went to get them drinks and Cassandra started looking over the club for a conquest. So far, there wasn't anything promising, but the night was still young.

When the guys returned with their drinks Cassandra took a sip of her tequila and prepared for the questioning to begin. "So…" It was Rogue who spoke first. "… ah I don't believe that we've met, I'm Rogue."

Cassandra nodded at her. "Cassandra." She then smirked and licked her lips. "I'm loving the southern accent." She purred.

"Hey, hey, hey." The man sitting next to her, Gambit, protested with a smirk. "She's taken."

Cassandra shrugged. "Never stopped me before." She then took another sip of her drink and turned to Bishop. "Anyway, ask your questions so we can get it over with, then we can enjoy our night."

It was Sage who asked the first question. "How did you come to be under Selene's care?"

Cassandra shrugged. "My mother sold me to her." She took another sip, completely ignoring the widened eyes.

Ororo shook her head. "Why?"

Cassandra rolled her eyes. "How about I just tell you the whole story?" When she got a nod from everyone around the table, she continued. "See, my parents hated, or hate rather, mutants, my father was a member of F.O.H. and later Purifiers. And, before you ask, Purifiers are an anti-mutant gang that doesn't exist yet." She took another sip of her drink. "Fortunately, he was killed before my powers manifested or he might have killed me before Selene got a hold of me. After my father died, mother lost all the money she had, since she was one of those 'stay at home, fuck your husband'…" She was interrupted by Warren clearing his throat.

Cassandra turned to glare at him, even as he started to speak. "Could you be a little less… crude?"

Cassandra rolled her eyes and took another sip of her drink. "Could you be a little less… prude?" She smirked when she got a glare. She then turned to Betsy. "What's sex with him like?" When Betsy opened her mouth to answer, Cassandra raised her hand to stop her. "No, let me guess. Missionary, missionary and… what else?" She tapped her chin and then grinned and snapped her fingers, like she came to a realization. "More missionary."

"Nothing wrong with missionary." Jean muttered to herself, but, unfortunately for her, Cassandra, who was sitting right next to her, heard her.

Cassandra stared, wide eyed, at Jean. "I…" She shook her head. "You're shitting me, right?" When Jean just blushed, she shook her head again. "I should've known. That husband of yours really is a shmuck." She then looked Jean up and down. "That's it. I'm going to help you get laid." When Jean started to argue, Cassandra shushed her. "I don't care that you're married. You have a seriously sad sex life."

Ororo cleared her throat. "Perhaps it would be best to continue with your story." She said, trying to spare Jean any further humiliation.

Cassandra turned to glare at her. "I'm blaming you, you know?" When Ororo pointed at herself with a confused expression, Cassandra nodded. "Yes, you, I mean you are her best friend. You should have stopped her from committing sexual suicide." She then turned to Jean again. "Please tell me he at least gives you oral."

"Can we please stop talking about this?"

It was at that moment that Betsy decided to talk. "Oh, no, no. Cassandra is raising a valid point here." She then glanced at the guys in the booth. "Boys can you go buy us more drinks or something, it's time for a little bit of girl talk." The guys were out of there in the blink of an eye, it would appear they were eager to get the hell away from this conversation.

Ororo shook her head and rubbed her eyes. "How the hell did we get into this conversation?" She whispered to herself.

Sage glanced at her. "I believe she's punishing us because Warren interrupted her." When Ororo looked at her curiously, Sage continued. "It was obvious from her conversation with Bishop and later with Warren's interruption that she dislikes being interrupted."

Ororo nodded thoughtfully. "So, interrupting her again would be a bad idea?"

Sage gave her a slight, almost unnoticeable smirk. "I believe she threatened Cyclops with taking away his voice if he interrupted her again." She then glanced to see how Cassandra sat with her legs crossed and her back completely relaxed in the chair, her left arm is propped on the armrest by her elbow, the index finger of the same hand is touching her smirking lips, her right arm is simply resting on the other armrest. "Her mannerism is very similar to Selene's, it's obvious she lived with her for a long time." She whispered quietly to Ororo.

Cassandra glanced at the two who weren't joining the conversation to see them talking quietly. She shook her head with a smirk. "Ororo, come on, you're her best friend, you should give her some advice." When Ororo looked at her questionably, she rolled her eyes. "I'm trying to help her get laid, but she refuses, and these two aren't helping."

Ororo cleared her throat. "Well, she loves Scott, so, of course she shouldn't sleep with anyone else." She stated it like it was obvious.

Cassandra rolled her eyes and waved a dismissing hand. "Yeah, love is well and good, but she needs to have at least one real orgasm." She spoke the last part with a smirk.

"Hey!" Jean defended. "I've had orgasms!"

"Sure you did." Cassandra said sarcastically.

"Whatever, it's my sex life and it's not any of your business." She told her with a glare.

Cassandra glanced behind Jean to see guys are coming back with their drinks, and that they appear a little wary. "Fine." She agreed.

Guys came back to the booth and glance at them warily. "Are you done with the girl talk?" Asked Neal with a fake smile.

Cassandra sighed. "Yes, we are. You can sit down, you blushing maidens." When the guys sat down, she took her new glass and took a sip. She then smirked at them. "So, what have we learned today?"

All of them looked at her confusedly except Ororo and Sage. "We learned not to interrupt you anymore." Said Ororo with a sigh.

Cassandra grinned at her. "Good girl, I'm going to give you your reward later tonight." She winked at her. Ororo just sighed and rolled her eyes.

Wilson Fisk sat in his chair at the top of the Fisk Tower, looking out the window while listening to two morons telling him about how some Hellfire bitch stole his money and declared war on him. He couldn't stand to listen to them anymore so he stood up, effectively silencing them, and turned to them with a fake calm expression.

"So, let me get this straight." He chuckled, but there was no humor. "Some Hellfire bitch came to you, took you guns, and stole my money?" The older guy was about to defend himself by saying that she was a mutant and that she didn't take all of the money but Fisk's glare silenced him. Instead, he just nodded. Fisk nodded calmly, then his expression turned to the one of fury, and he punched his desk with incredible strength. "Then why the fuck are you still alive!?" He yelled at them furiously.

They both took a step back, the older guy flinched because of the pain in his knee, he should have went to the doctor first, but he knew that even though the Kingpin was angry now, it would be ten times worse if he waited to report to him. They both gulped but didn't say anything.

Fisk turned away from them and looked down at the city. "So, Shaw wants to take the control of my city from me, huh?" He said as he rubbed his chin. "Well, he's about to find out that's easier said than done." He chuckled and took his business phone from his desk. He dialed a number and pressed the phone on his ear. He smirked when he got an answer. "Mr. Smerdyakov? I have a job for you."

Cassandra looked around the, now packed, club. It was about two hours since they arrived and Cassandra managed to steer the conversation away from her past so far, not that she was ashamed of her past but insulting Warren and teasing the other X-men is way more fun. She managed to make them all blush at least once. Well, all of them but Sage. That girl is a tough nut to crack, and Cassandra digs it.

Cassandra took the drink that was brought to her by Gambit, she quickly decided which X-men she likes and which she doesn't. Storm is not so bad, she can be serious, but she also knows when to raise her legs on the table and relax, the only thing Cassandra doesn't like about her is that she doesn't know how to spread them, which is when Cassandra is asking her to. She should be honored that Cassandra wants to have sex with her. I mean, sure, she did have sex with more women than she can count, but still.

Rogue is not so bad either, and she's not so bad to look at either. Bad to touch, though. Cassandra sighed at the thought. And she's not about to propose a psychic sex, no that would make her fall to the level Scott. For those who care, that level is bellow zero and above… well, there is no level bellow that, level Scott is at the bottom of the ladder.

Betsy, well, that's one hot British minx. The only problem about her is that, between her relationship with bird-brain and her flirtations with Thunder-chicken, or whatever his name is, Cassandra would have to get in line. Her relationship with bird-brain is practically over, what with her flirting with Thunder-chicken AND Cassandra. And her relationship with Thunder-chicken won't be too long, what with them being completely different AND, again, her flirting with Cassandra.

Gambit, she might like, he's not as bad as brain-damaged asshole or bird-brain, and he shares her love of fine women and the art of stealing without getting caught.

Bishop is a silent kind of guy. The trait all men should have, in her opinion. But he also doesn't know how to have fun, or even relax, so that's a minus. But as long as he's quiet they should be fine.

Thunder-chicken is… well, he's a mutant who hates himself for being a mutant. Cassandra could never understand those people, they were given those powers with reason and that reason is to do whatever the fuck they want with them, that's how Cassandra sees it, at least.

Jean is nice, all in all. They could perhaps be friends if Cassandra wasn't hiding the fact that Scott is cheating from her. Oh, Cassandra has no doubt Jean will find out, and when she does, Cassandra will have hell to pay. Not literally, hopefully.

Bird-brain, well, her opinion of bird-brain is common knowledge by now, but for those who don't know, she can't stand the sight of him. He's almost as bad as Scott in his self-righteousness.

Sage is an enigma, and who doesn't love a good enigma? Sage might prove to be very interesting. Cassandra doesn't hold any illusions that she will manage to get her into bed, but that's not important since, for once, her interest in a woman isn't because of her bedroom skills, although there is no doubt in her mind that they are more than satisfactory. No, her interest in Sage lies in the woman's complex personality. It should be fun trying to crack the enigma that is Sage.

"So…" A slightly tipsy Betsy began while laughing. "He entered his bedroom to find you, his wife and her best mate in bed together, naked, and, in the end, he was the one to apologize for entering the room without knocking?" Cassandra was just telling her a story about how she was caught having sex with some girls when one of the girls' husband caught them in the act. He entered the bedroom and started shouting, insulting and threatening them until Cassandra had enough of listening to his bullshit about how he works all day to provide for them and his wife goes and fucks some bitches. I mean, the woman was a lawyer and he was a high-school teacher, who is there providing for who? Anyway, she had enough, so she broke his nose and made him apologize to the ladies and go outside and wait until they were done. Of course, they didn't have any more sex after that, but it was fun making him say it.

Cassandra nodded with a smirk. "I told you that story was amusing."

"Yeah, I'll never doubt you again."

Ororo shook her head with a smirk, this woman managed to spend an entire hour talking about her sexual escapades. "So, Cassandra, did you have anyone important back in your time?" She asked, trying to stop them, them being Cassandra and Betsy, from talking about sex for another hour.

"Important?" Cassandra looked thoughtful for a moment, then she shook her head. "No, my life in the last three years was consisted of one-night stands, not that it was too different before that." She said the last part with a shrug. "You should know what life is like when you're always traveling."

Ororo nodded. "Yes, it can be tiring."

Cassandra nodded. "Exactly, and most of you do that by choice, imagine my case, forced to travel with people I don't even like." After she said that, she took another sip of her drink.

Rogue turned to look at her curiously. "Why, exactly, didn't you like them?"

Cassandra turned to look at her. "Well, most of them were self-righteous assholes. Worse than the brain-damaged asshole." She glanced at Jean and smirked. "No offense." She then returned her attention to Rogue. "They were trying to fight for their so-called greater good, well not Sarah, she was a mercenary. But their methods were a touch too… extreme."

"Extreme, how?" It was Jean who asked that question.

Cassandra glanced at her and closed her eyes, sighing. "Extreme like destroying an entire city just to catch one criminal." She then chuckled. "You know what the best part was? That criminal was out of the city way before it was destroyed." She glanced at others to see their horrified faces. "Now are you glad I left them to die?"

Gambit shook his head. "Wow." He took a big gulp of his beer. "What did the criminal do?"

Cassandra started laughing really hard, when she finally calmed down enough to respond her eyes were full of tears. "She was a fucking smuggler, she didn't even smuggle weapons, no." She started laughing again, like this was really funny, and to her, it really was. "She smuggled cocaine."

Warren snorted. "Like you didn't do anything like that." In the last two hours, Cassandra's dislike of Warren became more than mutual.

Cassandra turned to look at him with glowing eyes, her deathly glare was still very visible. When she spoke, her voice was cold and deathly. "I cheated people out of their money, I made companies go bankrupt, I tortured people for my own amusement, I killed people with a smile on my face, but…" Warren was about to interrupted her but found himself unable to, he also found himself unable to breathe, seeing as how Cassandra had a telekinetic hold on him. "But, I draw the line there, I don't rape, I don't kill children and I do not massacre people like that." When the rest of the X-men noticed Warren's problem with breathing, they started to get up to help him, but before they could, Cassandra released her hold on him and waved a dismissive hand. "Don't bother, I released him." She spoke to the X-men, she then turned to Warren with the same glowing eyes. "Next time you piss me off like this, I'm finishing the job."

Everyone was silent for a long moment, only the sound of Warren's heavy breathing could be heard from their booth. Ororo shifted uncomfortably and cleared her throat. "Well, what were we talking about?"

Cassandra sighed. "Don't bother, there's no way we're going to have fun after this." She gulped the entire drink. "Well, the fun is over, let's just go back to the mansion." When everybody agreed, they started getting up from the booth. When Cassandra saw Gambit heading to the bar to pay she followed him, just as he was about to take out his credit card Cassandra gave the bartender the cash. Gambit looked at her with confusion and Cassandra only smirked. "Wanna earn lots of cash in the… less than legal way?" When Gambit raised his eyebrows with interest Cassandra's smirk turned into grin.

AN/ That's chapter 7. The War is the first of what I'd like to call mini stories that will serve as both the part of the story and the story of their own. They are important for both progress of the main story and they will also provide new and refreshing stories so you won't have to read God knows how many chapters for only one finish, instead there will be a big number of villains and heroes who not part of the X-men universe.

As for the reason of Kingpin going to war with Shaw, it's quite simple, I never understood how both Shaw and Fisk were powerful criminals and they just ignore each other.

As always, follow, favorite, review.

Correction: The villains and heroes are a part of the marvel universe, they are just not a part of X-men, that was my mistake.