X-Force #20

"Daycare's In" Pt. 5

Minutes ago, Madrox had arrived with the rest of his X-Force squad outside of The Nanny's Tunisian facility. He along with the others received an order from Pipeline telling them to only snatch their target objective and no one else. In Madrox's ears it rang like some sick, twisted joke. Pipeline was playing God with people's lives when he had no business to. They possessed the power necessary to get every captive of The Nanny's out alive. Unfortunately, he seemed to be the only one on his team who thought that.

"I'll go along with this Pipeline, but damn you for making me." Then he turned to Mortis. "And if you ever make another pacifier comment about me I'll make sure you wake up to a face full of toothpaste."

He could tell Pipeline looked sorry, but Madrox honestly didn't give a damn. The man just condemned a bunch of kids to who knows what kind of fate. He couldn't imagine a life with The Nanny being filled with sleepovers and video games. So if Pipeline looked sorry, then let him. He hoped this decision kept him tossing and turning at night.

"So how are we going in?" Mortis asked, clearly ignoring Madrox's warning. "We just had some parachutes storm into our mission. Seems like an element we weren't prepared for."

"We can't worry about that now. We have an objective to rescue. That's our priority. Any resistance we run into, we take it down. Once we get into that base, we break off into groups of two. Stay together and search for the boy. Once he's found, you report in and we get the hell out of there," Pipeline said with all the robotic nature that Madrox expected from a Genoshan Magistrate.

"So who do I go with?" Madrox asked, trying to tell Pipeline with his eyes to not partner him with any of the women.

"Since there's seven of us, you're going to go by yourself Madrox. You have the ability to create enough numbers to handle yourself. Caliban you go with Mortis. Shatterstar you go with Copycat. M will come with me. Understood?"

Honestly, Madrox was relieved that he was going to be left to his own devices. He took it as Pipeline giving him free reign to do what he wanted to do. So if he could he'd get to those other kids and put a stop to The Nanny's madness. "Sounds like a plan boss."

Pipeline nodded. "Good. Now let's get the hell in that base."

=X=

30 Minutes Later

Madrox took off in a run through the base, alarms blaring all around him. He made sure to stick to the darkness, to keep himself concealed. It was pretty obvious that this base was full of trouble and they had stepped into something none of them were prepared for. But that seemed to be the norm for just about every mission they embarked on.

He was just glad that Shatterstar had been able to work through the mines surrounding this base and was able to teleport them in without too much trouble. But now he was on his own and trying to locate where The Nanny kept all the children. He had guns in both of his hands, ready to take down any opposition that came his way. "Think it's time we start to cover more ground."

Banging his chest, Madrox created six dupes of himself and pointed each of them in a different direction. Hopefully, one of them would come across the kids and be able to rescue all of them instead of just one. Keeping close to the western wall, Madrox came across a door that was unlocked. He pushed it open just enough to slide through. It was almost completely dark and he was on a staircase. Taking a deep breath, he started to descend down it.

"Hello, is someone there?" a voice called out from the darkness. It sounded animalistic, but was shrill. "Who is it?"

Madrox searched the wall for some sort of light and found a switch. He held a gun in one hand as he flicked it on, illuminating a long, narrow row of prison cells. A brown, furry woman pressed her nose against a jail cell's bars and Jamie instantly recognized her from his X-Factor days. "Shrew, is that you?"

"Yea Madrox, it's me. What the hell are you doing here?" Shrew asked. She looked tired and had more than a few bruises across her body. There was a collar around her neck and her tone of voice seemed completely docile. Madrox pointed his gun at the lock on the prison cell and fired it off.

He pulled open the cell and yanked off the collar around Shrew's neck. "Are you able to walk?"

Shrew shook her head and gripped the side of it. "I think I can."

"Ok. Let's get out of here," Madrox said, helping Shrew off of her knees. "Do you know where The Nanny keeps the kids?"

"You might want to watch out."

Madrox looked to his side and felt a force slam into the side of his face. He flew backwards and slid across the ground, his gun sliding out of his hand. His head was spinning and he looked up to see a transparent woman standing in the dim light of the prison hall. "Vague. Shoulda guessed all you Helle's Belles were back together."

"Not all of us and I'll be damned before I let you take Shrew away."

Shrew shook her head and Madrox wondered what was going through her head. Whatever that collar had done to her, she wasn't quite back in top mental form. "So that's what you do to your friends Vague? Keep them locked up in a cage."

Vague switched off the light and Madrox wasn't able to see her. He reached for his gun, but his hand was kicked back. A pain shot up his arm and he figured that she had broke one of his fingers. Suddenly, he felt a weight on top of him and hands striking him across the face. The blows weren't exactly about to break any bones but he needed to get a grip on the situation soon.

"Shrew is our friend. We did it for her own good!"

"Shut up!" Shrew yelled through the darkness and tackled Vague into a wall. She slashed the transparent woman across the face and bit her on the shoulder. Then she sent a knee into the woman's stomach and watched her collapse to the ground. "You watched her beat me every day. Every day!"

Having lost her concentration, Vague was able to be seen by Madrox. He picked up his gun and shot her in the knee cap. The woman started howling in agony and Shrew looked back at him in horror. He returned the look with a cold seriousness. "We don't need her communicating with anyone that my team is here. Now do you want to get out of here or not?"

Shrew looked down at Vague and then back at Madrox. "You've changed."

"I take that as a yes?"

"Yea, let's go."

=X=

Egypt

Havok and Blind Faith stood in front of the small house, Alexi a few feet behind Alex. "Is this the place?"

"Yes," Havok said looking around him and at the other houses on the street. "Need to make sure we don't have any hostiles around."

Bind Faith moved in closer. "Hostiles for us or for your new recruit?"

"For him. He served as a member of Egypt's security services under President Mubarak. He's got a list of enemies almost as long as we do."

Blind Faith laughed. "And yet this is the man you want to add to our team. Why?"

Alex really would have preferred that Blind Faith just trusted his judgment, but then he wouldn't have been much of a second-in-command. "Gabriel has a number of skills that I think would make him an asset in the kind of work that we do. Not to mention, that he's one of the more powerful mutants I've come across in a while. We have a real opportunity here."

"An opportunity to add another psychopath to our team. I'm not stupid Alex. I know that the Egyptian security forces didn't have a reputation humanitarian's could be proud of. Do we really need another person with loose morals on the team?"

"You know exactly why we need more people on this team," Havok said as he knocked on the door. "Can you try and not look so damn sour?"

Blind Faith smirked. "I'll think about it."

The door opened and a forty-something woman was standing in the doorway. Havok was only able to come to that judgment by the wrinkles around the woman's green eyes since she wore a veil. She looked at the two men oddly with just a hint of danger in her eyes. "Why are two Europeans on my doorstep?"

"Russian and American," Blind Faith said. "And trust me, there is indeed a difference."

The woman looked at them intensely. "This is about Gabriel isn't it?"

Havok nodded, trying to look as pleasant as possible. He could see a dozen ways how this situation could get out of hand and he wanted to avoid that. "Yes, we know about your son and his work. We also know people want him dead and we want to help."

"We'll see about that," Mrs. Massari said. "Come out of the street before you're seen. Things here are still very tense."

The two stepped into the house and Blind Faith immediately asked, "So where did you learn your English? You pull off an American accent well."

"I grew up in America. Even served in the Air Force," Mrs. Massari said, directing a hand to two chairs in a corner of the living room. "Please have a seat. I'll go and get Gabriel."

"You don't need to get me," Gabriel said stepping out of the kitchen. "I heard everything. Who are you? CIA? NATO?"

Havok stood up from the chair and held out his right hand to be shaken. He knew better than to put out his left as it would be considered an insult. "Neither Gabriel. We're both mutants and we know you are too."

Gabriel took the hand and shook it firmly. "That still doesn't answer my question."

"My team is called X-Force. We're an independent black ops unit that works to take out threats to the mutant community across the globe. I recognize your talents and think you could offer a unique perspective to my team."

Gabriel folded his hands across his chest. "If you want me on your team I have one condition."

"I'll see what I can do. Name it."

"Get my parents out of this country and set up comfortably in Europe. My work has put them in just as much peril as me. I don't want them paying for my work."

Havok looked back at Blind Faith and then to Gabriel. "Given my people's talents that shouldn't be a problem at all."

"Then you have me at your service."

=X=

The Screaming Palace

"Can't believe this place has a library," Mortis asked as she ran her black glove along the spine of one book. She was disgusted when she pulled back a line of gray dust. "She could try to clean it though."

"Nanny like to read," Caliban said, sniffing the air. "Many mutants here."

"You have such a lovely talent of stating the obvious," Mortis said, pulling one of the books out of its place on the shelves. This wasn't the most impressive collection she had ever seen, but at least the woman knew how to keep trashy romance novels around. "Seeing as how The Nanny is in a big metal shell, she should be her own personal vibrator."

"Why would she want to vibrate?" Caliban asked. He sniffed the air again. "Mutant very close."

"They're all close. We're in a mutant farm," Mortis said and added with a laugh. "We really need to get you into some sex education honey."

The Morlock growled and turned his head in the direction of the door. "Mutant here."

A loud crash followed and the metal door to the library blew open. Standing there was a woman with purple and black armor with hair to match. She was wearing a bright red lipstick that Mortis found to be completely tacky given her armor. It stood out like a tramp in front of a church. She wagged a finger at the woman. "You could stand to tone down the color darling."

"Oh so you're so about to get your ass kicked bitch!" Tremolo said as she radiated a series of sonic waves from her body that forced the two X-Force members to grip their ears, lest they go deaf. "Now start talking. Who the hell are you?"

Mortis looked up and suddenly saw Sway with a gun to the back of Tremolo's head. Lois chalked it up to the woman's time manipulation abilities. It was a neat trick that Lois imagined every teenage boy wished they had for the girl's locker room. Caliban, like a gentleman, asked, "Mortis ok?"

"I'm fine. Even better that our lil Chinese gunner is here."

Sway pushed the gun against Tremolo's head, not taking the time to respond to Mortis. "Where are the children?"

Tremolo grumbled. "All this trouble over some fuckin kids. Who gives a fuck about the little brats anyway?"

"I do when one of those kids belongs to a Chinese diplomat. Now start talking or I put a couple of bullets through that thick head of yours."

Caliban looked up at the roof and growled. "Mutant."

The roof above them exploded and a large purple and gray cyborg fell through it. Having grabbed almost everyone's attention, Tremolo used the distraction to elbow Sway in the stomach and flip her over her shoulder. Sway landed on the ground with a smack and Tremolo sent out another barrage of sonic waves, forcing everyone to grip their ears. She was about to stomp on Sway's face, when Caliban leaped into the air and tackled her to the ground.

"Be quiet," Caliban said as he punched the buff woman in the face. He turned his attention back to Mortis and saw she was cornered by the new combatant to the field.

"Get back!" Mortis yelled, forming a ball of destructive energy in her hand that she threw at the cyborg. The blast hit it in the face and disintegrated much of the metal plating revealing the face of a young teenage boy, though horribly scarred by whatever transformed him.

"Leave friend alone!" Caliban said, slamming his shoulder into the cyborg's back. Mortis dodged out of the way as the two crashed through one of the shelves of books.

Mortis went over to Sway and helped her to her feet. Sway nodded her appreciation and looked to the hole in the wall that Caliban had made courtesy of his collision. "We need to help him."

"Not a chance," Mortis said garnering a shocked look from Sway. "Trust me on this. Those two are about to have a hell of a rumble and we'd be more of a distraction than a help. He's got a nose on him. He'll be able to find us. We need to go after those kids."

Sway looked down at the unconscious Tremolo. "Guess we need to find someone else to get this information from."

"Then let's go before those two decide to bring the fight back in here."

=X=

London

Gabriel looked at the London apartment buildings around him. "So you have teleportation technology. Pretty impressive for an independent black ops group."

"We have our backers. You'll find out more about that once we get back to base," Havok said.

"And I'm assuming that base isn't London," Gabriel said. He was about a head taller than Alex and had a darker complexion, but Blind Faith couldn't help to notice that he had some similar features to Alex. They had the same eyes and their hair went in the same direction in the wind. It was a curious little similarity.

"Base is a pretty complicated matter as well," Blind Faith answered. "Just give us a bit of time and everything will be laid on the table for you."

Havok locked his eyes on one ritzy apartment complex. "Right now, we kind of need you to be an advocate for us. We're here to try and snatch up another new recruit."

"MI-13?" Gabriel asked.

Blind Faith laughed. "Far from it."

Gabriel's nose turned up. "A civilian?"

Havok could imagine how that would look from the point of view of a security professional. It would seem almost unconscionable to throw an untrained civilian into the kind of work that they did. But that perspective also showed Havok that Gabriel really didn't understand the world of mutants. In the struggle to protect mutantkind, there really was no such thing as a mutant civilian. Every mutant had a stake in protecting their world.

"I know it sounds harsh, but things operate differently with us," Havok said.

"Yes, you X-Men are a bit unorthodox," Gabriel said. Alex and Alexi both looked at him wide-mouthed. "What? Did you think I had no idea who you are? Egyptian intelligence isn't as backwater as you Westerners might think."

Havok laughed. "I think you and Monet will get along just fine."

Gabriel saw the sarcasm in the comment and folded his arms across his chest. "Who's the target?"

"His name is Thomas Jones. Once worked with a group of my associates under the name of Alchemy. He's a genius biochemist."

"And you're about to throw him into high risk operations?" Gabriel asked. "I'm starting to rethink my decision."

Blind Faith laughed. "Trust me. I do every day."

"Could you two save the negativity until after we grab Alchemy? I don't want to scare the kid off."

"He's a biochemist. What makes you think he would want a part of a black ops outfit anyway?" Gabriel asked.

"There's a pretty compelling reason. He lost family members in the Little Rock attack."

Blind Faith was about to press the button to buzz Alchemy's apartment, but he halted. "Are you serious Alex? Are you really planning on manipulating this boy using that? Doesn't that strike you as the least bit wrong?"

Havok frowned. "I don't like it, but we do what we have to do. And who's to say this kid doesn't want a chance to get back at the people who hurt his family? He might want a chance to stop another Little Rock from happening."

Gabriel popped a piece of gum into his mouth. "Instead of making it into a debate why don't we just let the boy decide for himself what he wants to do?"

A tall, lanky young man with large glasses and a big nose approached the three mutants holding a bunch of grocery bags in his arms. "So what do you want with me?"

"Who says we want anything from you?" Gabriel asked.

The man frowned at Gabriel. "Because I'm the only mutant that lives in this apartment complex."

Havok smirked at Gabriel and turned his attention back to the young man who had to be Thomas. He was even skinnier than Alex expected him to be and for a moment he wondered if this guy was really ready for what X-Force's world offered. But then he remembered with mutants, great power could hide behind the smallest of frames. "My name is Alex Summers. I believe you know my older brother Scott. His more public name is Cyclops."

"So you're part of the X-Men?"

"Not exactly. At least not a public part of them. We're black ops and I want to offer you a spot on our team."

Alchemy looked like he had just been told his parents were from Mars. "Are you serious? Black ops? Do you have any idea what I do for a living?"

"I'm well aware of that, but I think you're underestimating yourself and your abilities. You truly are a powerful mutant Thomas and I know about the family you lost in Little Rock." Alex could feel Blind Faith's eyes boring into the back of his skull. "With our team, you would be working to prevent any more such tragedies from ever occurring."

Rage flashed across Alchemy's face for just a moment. It was so intense that Havok wasn't sure how such a small frame had mustered up that much anger. Then Alchemy's expression returned to normal, but he was silent for a few moments. Moments that seemed to drag on forever. "How soon do you need an answer from me?"

"The faster the better. Any personal loose ends we'll be able to take care of for you. I have a friend who happens to be very good at making sure my team has enough cash for almost any issue. I saw it in your face a moment ago Thomas. You want this. We can train you. Make you into the kind of person that can handle this sort of work. I wouldn't throw you to the wolves. I promise."

Alchemy nodded, but it seemed more to himself than to Havok. "Ok. Let me get my things and we can leave."

NEXT ISSUE: Caliban and Orphan-Maker throw down!

Havok

Blind Faith

Vulcan

Alchemy

Mortis

Caliban

Madrox

Pipeline

Shrew

Tremolo

Orphan-Maker

Sway