Mutant Generation Force

Issue #10 – End Game – Part Three

Xavier's School for Gifted Students

In a flash of light, eight figures appeared out of thin air on the front lawn of Xavier's School. Cable, the leader of this group looked worse for wear. He was very moody. Not because he had gotten the crap beat out of him by a bunch of monsters, but because he had lead a team of fourteen and had lost six of them to the monsters. It seemed that the monsters had attacked them to distract them enough to kidnap Cannonball, Sunspot, Magma, Rictor, Wolfsbane and Skids. If he hadn't forced Lila and Hub awake to teleport them out, the eight of them would have ended up dead

He looked at is surviving team. Lila and Hub were winded but would be okay. Guido was fine as always but Madrox was still regaining is composure from the death of a few of his dups. Shola and Callisto were a little black and blue but they would be fine. Karima was pretty beaten up but would be okay once her sentinel systems finished their repairs on her body. He was glad they were all alive but he hates that the Anti-Mator had gotten the best of them; gotten the best of him. Someone had provided Anti-Mator with a devise that had messed with his mental powers, otherwise the outcome of that battle would have ended differently.

He led his team into the school and began to sense a presence of panic. He looked and saw students running and carrying on. He knew immediately the school had been attacked. He had to find Domino and assess the damage and casualties if any. He instructed Callisto to take the team to the Infirmary, he would find Dani and Domino and find out what had happened here and try and break the news of what had happened to his team.

After a few minutes he located Domino. She had the Cuckoos hooked up to Cerebro. They were trying to find the location of where the Upstarts had taken their friends. The Cuckoos had already informed her that Cable and what was left of his team were back. Cable wasn't surprised, the Cuckoos were mentally strong and Dom was a quick and smart thinker. Cable quickly filled in the remaining details of what had happened to his team.

"We should have known it was a trap," Domino said.

"Hard to be sure when insiders are feeding us the pieces to the trap," Cable said thinking of Broadband and his just happening to find that clue to help them.

Domino had relayed to him what had taken place at the mansion after they had left. Broadband and Purge had switched sides and let the invaders in. What was most disheartening was having three students turn out to be implanted traitors. Giant Dragon, Tim and Tom and Sparkles, Lisa Green had been just that. Gathering up information and giving the Upstarts what they needed to get into the mansion and take the mutants they needed and get out with ease and speed.

"What about casualties?" Cable asked as he watched the Cuckoos work.

"None, yet. Broadband had used his powers to put several students into comas, including Wicked. Blaquesmith and few students with psi powers are helping bring them back," Domino said with sadness in her eyes.

"Domino, what is it? There's some critically injured?" Cable said swearing not being able to know more immediately. His mental powers had not come back to full strength after being hit with Anti-Mator's devise and using what energy he had left to wake the teleporters.

"White Queen and Pierce came in with guns and instructed the use of force to get what they wanted. We have some students who were shot and badly injured. Most will be okay but there are a few we have stabilized but could die if we don't get them a healer soon," Domino said as she began to follow Cable out the door.

"Who?" Cable said running towards the Infirmary. His powers had helped him pick up enough to know someone close was in there.

"Luna, Tom, Anole, Match and Irene," Domino said softening her voice with the last name.

"Irene? How bad?" Cable said stopping briefly and looking at Domino.

"They're all bad, Nathan. She took a shot in the chest pushing Blaquesmith out of the way," Domino said as she sprinted to keep up with a fast moving Cable.

"What about the healers?" Nathan said as they entered the Infirmary. He scanned the room saw his short old friend and his team working on the coma victims and they other injured.

"Only ones with the level ability we need are Magma and Elixir and both are gone," Domino said as Cable finally found Irene and ran to her side. Domino cringed at the sense of jealousy she suddenly felt, but shoved it away.

"What do you mean gone?" Cable asked as he held Irene's hand.

"As I told you before, Magma was taken with Dani, Warlock, Penance, Karma and Empath," Domino said.

"What about the kid, Elixir?" Cable said looking up.

"It appears he, along with the rest of the New Mutants, Mutant Force and the students known as Preview, Network, Jebediah Guthrie and Joelle Guthrie have stolen a jet and have headed off to rescue the kidnapped mutants," Domino said.

"Great! Now we have them to worry about losing too. Callisto," Cable called out.

"She's gone. She has headed to the sewers to find Healer," Guido said.

"Always ahead of the game," Cable nodded then paused as the Cuckoos sent information into his mind. "Suit up. We have the location of the Upstarts."

"With what team, Nathan? Lila and Guido are the only two in good enough condition to go back into battle," Lucinda said trying to hold together the best she could knowing most of her children were in harms way.

"You have us," Hellion said as he and his team stepped into the room.

"No, we can't take a group of kids," Domino said.

"We're not kids. Out of all the squads we're the best. Emma trained us and we can do the job," Hellion said.

"As much as I hate to do it, he's right. Blaquesmith, Lucinda and Callisto when she gets back will watch over the school. Domino, take the Hellions, Lila and Guido to one of the jets. I'll join you here in a few minutes," Cable said as he knelt down one last time by Irene.

Domino grunted a little as she led the group out of the room taking a few glances back at Nathan with Irene.

Upstart's Headquarters

"How are the others?" Surge asked as she hit King Bedlam with a powerful blast of electricity.

"Prodigy and Wind Dancer are back in the game thanks to you and Elixir," Wallflower said.

"We need to take these creeps down and find the others," Giantess said growing tall and launching a stone pillar at Stryfe who in turn batted it to the side with his mind.

The battle raged as Prodigy and Giantess shouted off commands. Sixteen against four seemed like good odds but sixteen was barely enough to hold their ground against these strong foes. They had to protect Wallflower and Blindspot for their powers were all that was keeping King Bedlam from using his mental powers. Their powers were just enough to make him not think straight to focus them on one person.

X-23 made it past the others and sliced Sentinels armor causing it to start sparking. As Network was able to take control of his suit and shut it down. With the rest of their powers they were starting to get the upper hand. Prodigy was feeling good. They may just win this one. At his signal hey went to phase two. Network, Wind Dancer, Elixir, Icarus and Giantess snuck off to find the missing mutants while the rest of them distracted the Upstarts.

"Who needs the X-Men. Look t us go," Onyxx cheered as he punched Black Tom sending him backwards.

"X-Men you are not," a voice shouted as a gun shot was heard.

They all looked up to see Pierce, Ani-Mator and White Queen holding a smoking gun standing in the doorway. It appeared that al of the Upstarts were now present. Prodigy was about to give more commands when he and the rest of the team realized something. The gunshot meant a bullet had gone somewhere. They all gasped in shock as Rain Boy stood there with a hole in his sits head.

Rain Boy leaked out of his suit and onto the floor. Black Tom quickly let loose his powers burning the liquid form of Rain Boy until he evaporated into nothing. The upstarts had just killed one of their friends. No one could move as members of Mutant Force screamed with tears. Before the Upstarts could engage again, a giant glowing face of the Gamesmaster appeared before them.

"Attention Upstarts. Five hundred points for each mutant killed. When all are dead, the one with the most points will win the final game," Gamesmaster said and then vanished.

Prodigy and his team prepared themselves for the slaughter when the side of the wall blew in. They all turned to see Cable and several others sanding in the new entryway.

"Calvary has arrived. Take them out and take them fast," Cable said as he went straight for Stryfe.

Secret Laboratory of MacTaggert

"Are we ready?" Gamesmaster asked as he looked at MacTaggert.

"Yes, everyone is placed in a tube. All is a go," MacTaggert said as she eyed thirty-two bodies. They had decided to add the extra for good measure.

"Then activate the machine," Gamesmaster said MacTaggert threw the switch and the machine came to life.

"Yes, I can feel the power. Soon I will absorb the life energies of all thirty-two mutants to give me a new body and the means to kill the X-Men," Gamesmaster said as all the tubes began to glow bright red.

"What? You said that the machine would bring back my friends and just brainwash the others into following you. You never said anything about them all dieing and you getting a new body," MacTaggert screamed realizing she had been used.

"Naive to the end, Mona MacTaggert," the Gamesmaster said as a wall vanished revealing a near dead crippled body in a wheelchair.

"Cassandra Nova? I won't let you do this to me or my friends. You promised," Mona said as she went for the off switch.

"Mona, you dare help the team founded by my brother, the man who did what he did to you and your friends and the others? The same man who set your sister, Moira upon the path that led to her death?" The image of Gamesmaster said as he floated over the glowing body of Cassandra Nova and then using his powers to paralyze Mona.

"I," Mona began but realized she could no longer form words.

"You were naive. I knew of my brother's involvement with the others and you and your friends. I was going to use you in a different way so I implanted the ideas for you to save the New Mutants and Gen X members as they thought they had died. Even to get the bodies of the ones that had actually died.

"After my brother had managed to kill me, I did manage to survive secretly and kept my crippled body in hiding. That's when I met the Shadow King and we formed a plan to work together. The plan to convince you to continue to help me under the assumption that the Gamesmaster could bring back your friends when all along our plan was to use the thirty-two to give us each new bodies," Gamesmaster laughed as his face shifted from Cassandra to Shadow King and back and then vanished as the machine went into the final phase.

"Don't worry we wont let them win," Giantess said as her team came into the room.

"No," Cassandra screamed from within the glowing tube she now sat in as Network began to take control of the machine to shut it down as Shadow King used what energy he had to try and reach her.

"Don't worry boss. We'll kill the, for you," Tim and Tom said as they became a giant dragon and rushed the small band of mutants with Sparkles, Purge and Broadband right behind them.

Upstarts Battle

The battle at hand had kicked them into focus. They would have time to mourn for Rain Boy later. Now was the time to put an end to the Upstarts once and for all. Hellion and his team took charge against Prodigy's mumblings. Hellion used his powers to throw Pierce backwards. Prodigy still couldn't believe that Justin Pierce was a member of the upstarts. He was suppose to be an ally and had even dated Dani a few times.

King Bedlam turned and began to reach out to Hellion's mind. The death of their team mate had weakened the girl's hold on him. He almost had it when Rockslide's fist flew at him and hit him in the face. He rubbed his head to look at the arm attach back upon the rock-like kids body. He was about to get up when X-23 made a slicing motion.

"That's for Rain Boy," X-23 said as King Bedlam's head came off his body.

"X-Men don't kill!" Prodigy and Cable both shouted at the girl as Cable reached out with his powers to push her back away from her prey.

"But we do," Stryfe said as he used his mind to grab the distracted Cable and throw him into the wall.

"I felt your mind. I know it's you, Tyler. I don't know how you came back from the grave but I won't let you're evil kill again," Cable said grabbing hold of Stryfe and pinning him to the wall.

"You have no clue," Stryfe said trying to counter Cable's hold.

Cable pushed out with his mind with all the force he could. In a scream of pain, Stryfe's ripped right off revealing his face. Cable gasped as he saw a woman's face beneath the mask. This woman was not Tyler but she did look like him and more like Tyler's mother. Who was this woman pretending to be Stryfe? The distraction was enough for the woman to push out and slam Cable to the ground.

"Who are you?" Cable asked as he reached out with his mind to find a familiar psyche.

"Don't you know your own daughter?" The woman asked pinning the shocked Cable with more force.

"What?" Cable asked not knowing what to say.

"Yes, mom was pregnant. She had someone mask it from your sight so she could continue to follow you in battle. When I was born she gave me to another to care until your war was over. After your neglect killed her and you vanished Tyler came back and found me and helped raise me.

"He told me how you led mom to her death. I chose to follow him vowing when I got old enough I would help him. He found a way to travel back in time and told me tales of you and your evil X-Men. I wasn't completely convinced till the day my husband went back in time with Tyler and didn't come back.

"Tyler told me you had killed him. I wanted to go back with him the last time he went but he wouldn't let me. I waited for years and Tyler never came back. I soon found a means to go back after him. When I arrived here I landed in a hidden base of Tyler's. There I learned you and your evil X-Men had killed him. First mom, then my husband and now my brother.

"I vowed to watch and plot your death when the Gamesmaster came to me with a deal I couldn't refuse," Cable's daughter shouted as Cable touched her mind and found her words true as well as her name.

"Tosha, what he told you were all lies. You have to believe me," Cable said as he pushed his mind onto hers to help her see the truth.

"No!" Tosha screamed as she suddenly saw the truth in her mind. The woman dropped and began to cry hysterically.

"Lila, get her out of here," Cable said as Lila vanished with his new found daughter.

"We're down by two," Ani-Mator said with fear.

"Means more points for the rest of us," White Queen laughed.

"They're mostly kids. Come on now," Black Tom said as he sent a powerful blast from his stick hitting Blindspot in the face.

"My face, it burns," Joelle screamed holding her head in her hands.

"She's burnt pretty bad," Prodigy shouted out to the others.

"Cable, we need get these kids out of here," Domino said trying to get Cable's head back in the game.

"We can handle our own," Tag said as he touched Sentinel and sent him running in the opposite direction.

Dust engulfed the running man so he couldn't see causing him to run into a wall. The Hellions gave out a cheer as they smiled at their team's wining moves. Despite Domino's shouts for them to fall in line they chose to follow their own commands and it was working out just fine. They didn't need to follow, the others needed to follow their lead.

The Hellions were the best, so Hellion thought until he accidentally pushed a pillar near Flubber tripping him. Flubber got up swearing to come face to face with Pierce. Pierce morphed his arms into giant needles and lunged them into Flubber's body. Giant volts of electricity sailed through Flubber's body until he dropped to the ground lifeless and smoking. Hellion gasped at the sight and grabbed pierce throwing him back away from the dead student.

"Looks like your young students aren't as trained as you thought," Block Tom laughed at Domino as she kicked him in the face.

Prodigy couldn't believe it. Two fellow students had been killed. His team was in shock, while what was left of Mutant Force was either in great shock or boiling with killing rage. He shouted out to Cable with a warning but was too late. Onyxx had thrown X-23 plunging her into the back of Sentinel. She was thrown off of him by Cable's powers to reveal the bleeding holes in his back.

"She killed another one. She has to be controlled," Surge said to Prodigy.

"Yeah, but is it wrong to feel like he got what he deserved?" Bluefire asked.

"Yes, no matter what he did to your family it doesn't give us the right to take a life," Prodigy said.

"Yeah, and that's why your dieing while the Hellions prevail by fighting to survive," Hellion said using his powers to block bullets from Pierce's hands from hitting them.

"Cable we need to remove her," Domino said.

"No. As much as I hate it, it's them or us right now and she is giving us an advantage. Just help me keep an eye on her so she doesn't kill again," Cable said using his powers to throw Black Tom across the room.

"Maybe I can calm her," Wallflower said as then stopped.

"Time to die," Ani-Mator said pointing a gun at her.

"Kevin, help," Wallflower screamed as she saw Wither near by.

Without a moments hesitation Kevin had his hand on Ani-Mator. Before Ani-Mator could even think about pulling the trigger he had become a pile of ashes. Laurie gasped at the site of what Kevin had just done. She turned to him with water in her eyes but scared and grateful.

"Did I make you do that?" She whispered.

"No. I had to do what was needed to save you," Kevin said not really sure if he was telling the truth or not.

"Well, it won't work twice," White Queen aid pointing her gun at Kevin and pulling the trigger.

"No!" Mercury screamed shoving Kevin out of the way taking the bullet herself.

Everyone screamed in fear as Mercury lay on the ground. After a few moments, she rolled over as her body shifted and the bullet dropped to the ground from her side.

"Wow, it worked," Mercury said as Kevin helped her up and Rockslide hit the Queen with two flying fists.

"Okay, let's wrap this up and find the others," Cable said as he and Domino took down Black Tom while Surge and Bluefire took down Pierce with additional help from the others.

Secret Laboratory of MacTaggert

Giantess knew that they had been battle for far too long. They needed to take these guys down and fast. She knew Network had stopped the machine's process but was still trying to find a way to shut it off. Cassandra and Shadow King were using what energy they had to hold down Mona and keep a shield around the device. Luckily Network's powers didn't' need for her to actually touch the machine.

"How could you do this?" Elixir asked Sparkles.

"Easy, they offer more than the X-Men ever could. Money and great power," Sparkles said as she almost caught Elixir in her teleporting sparkles.

Elixir had her distracted when Icarus flew up behind her and hit her over the head with a steel rod he had found. Sparkles hit the ground hard. Elixir ran up and placed his hands on her head. He called forth his powers with enough to heal her wounds keeping her unconscious but alive.

With a loud thump they all turned to see Giantess putting down Giant Dragon. The dragon vanished and two unconscious boys took its place. It wasn't long before Wind Dancer was able to use her wind powers to hit Broadband hard enough against the wall to knock him out too. Purge surrendered immediately and in a matter of moments they had all four tied and bound.

"I did it the machine is off," Network said as the tubes and Cassandra's body quit glowing in a loud explosion.

Network used her powers to open one tube. Sam Guthrie fell out. Elixir ran to his side and placed his hands on him as Mona got to her feet and walked over to Cassandra's body. In a matter of moments Sam woke up coughing. Elizabeth gave her brother a big hug as she quickly caught him up to speed.

"Cassandra Nova and Shadow King were behind this?" Sam said looking over to the body.

"She's dead. You guys did it," Mona said dropping the limp arm.

"Wrong," a voice shouted as a figure shattered a tube and jumped out hitting the floor.

For a brief moment they saw the form of the X-Force member known as Gaia. Then the figure shifted to a shadowy color making it hard to make out a face. The figure turned and faced the others.

"Is that Gaia or Cassandra?" Sam asked to no one in particular.

"Neither. The machine was stopped before it could create two bodies but it was on long enough to create me. The machine took this body and merged it with the other two. Gaia, Cassandra Nova and Shadow King are dead. In their place now stands Shadow Nova. Prepare to die," Shadow Nova said but then paused.

"No powers?" Sam said shooting at the figure.

"It appears so or they haven't powered up yet," Shadow Nova gasped as Cannonball was almost upon her.

Sam collided with a wall as in a flash of sparkling lights she was gone. They all turned to see that Sparkles and the others were gone. They had escaped, but at least they had stopped them for now.

"Let's get our friends out of those tubes and go home," Sam said as Network began to call forth her powers.

"You must forgive me and take me with you," Mona said in tears.

"Why would we help you?" Sam asked the woman who appeared not that much older then him.

"Because I have information that will not only explain why I did what I did but it will also show you who your real family is," Mona said smiling.

Before Sam could respond Cable and his crew came walking in. They all swapped stories as Cable and Domino helped Network free the remaining thirty from their tubes. They may have saved the day but there would be a lot to deal with once they got home.

Epilogue

"Their freeing the other's from the tubes and they will be heading back here soon," Preview said as she wiped the tears from her eyes. She didn't handle death well.

"That's good to hear," Lila said as she kept an eye on the weeping Tosha.

"No!" Preview suddenly screamed as she went in and out of a trance.

"What is it? Did you have a vision like the one you were telling me about?" Lila asked.

"I saw a storm. It's bad. The storm is coming," Preview gasped as her eyes flared red with fire as she passes out.

Next: Issue #11 – Picking Up the Pieces