Mutant Generation Force

Issue #25 – Morlock Massacre II – Part Four

Morlock Tunnels – Main Living Community

Synch laid there for a moment, stunned and trying to recall what had just happened. They were in the middle of a battle when Rictor jumped the gun and unleashed his powers upon the Marauders. This resulted in Prism using his powers to capture and redirect Rictor's power right back all of them causing the ceiling and living area to cave in on all of them. Thanks to his new stone skin, Synch had survived and was fine but was now trapped underneath an unknown pile of rubble. He had no idea how he was going to get out or if anyone else had survived.

"Can anyone hear me?" Synch asked with great strain and uncertainty of the level of his voice.

"Everett, is that you?" Husk asked from somewhere near him.

"Yes, are you okay?" Synch asked whishing it wasn't so dark.

"Yeah, my steel skin pretty much saved me," Husk laughed nervously.

"As did my stone skin but it doesn't help with getting me out of the encasement," Synch said.

"Maybe you can synch with my powers and use it with higher abilities to get out," Husk suggested.

"I thought about that, but I don't want to risk losing my protective form. Not sure how your powers would make with my new secondary mutation," Synch said knowing that now wasn't a good time to chance the unknown.

"I know what you mean. I'm afraid to change my form too, even though I'm pinned so tight I don't think I could move enough to peel my skin away," Husk said.

"I do have an idea. Maybe I can use my powers to reach out and not only check on the others but maybe synch with a power that might be useful," Synch said as he closed his eyes.

Everett reached out with his powers, searching for a mutant signature to synch up with. He began to worry when he wasn't finding any. Was he and Husk he only survivors? Was this the tragic ending to their first mission? It couldn't be and he wasn't going to give up hope. Pushing out farther he finally felt a signature straight above him. It was familiar to him and he had to guess it was Arclight. The fact that he didn't feel anyone directly above him but her made him know it was safe and his only chance at freedom and payback.

Reaching out with his powers he latched on to the mutant signature above him. He could feel her power becoming his power and instantly saw every spectrum of its use. He pulled his power back into him and then called upon his new acquired ability. Pushing his powers upwards he sent shockwaves that caused the debris on top of him to push up and away from his body in a huge explosion. He then used the power to create shockwaves to propel him up as if in flight. The Marauders turned in shock as the ground under Arclight exploded and tossed her across the room as Synch came flying out and landing in front of them.

Synch glanced quickly and saw that he and the Marauders were the only mutants standing in what was left of the Morlock's home. He hoped that everyone was alive and okay somewhere below the debris. He wanted nothing more than to search for them and help them out, but right now he had a handful of evil mutants to take down. Having died once and given a second chance at life has made him determined to never die again. This was one fight he didn't intend to lose. It was time to kick some Marauder butt.

Calling on his new power, Synch sent a shockwave that sent everyone but Blockbuster flying backwards. Knowing he couldn't let any of them get the upper hand he cranked up the power causing the Marauders to be pinned to the ground from the shear force of the shockwaves. Blockbuster wasn't down, but at least it was slowing him down and making it hard for him to advance too fast at him. Synch knew he couldn't keep this up forever and had to come up with another method of keeping them down. Glancing up he saw the ceiling and knew he had no choice. To survive he would have to bury them.

"We have to stop him," Scalphunter said as he tried to move.

"You're right, and I'm sorry I have to do this, John," Harpoon said as he glanced over at Arclight and was able to move his arm just right and call on his powers.

"No!" John Greycrow screamed as he heard his girlfriend scream and turned enough to see Harpoon's Slayspear sticking through Arclight's head. "I'll kill you!"

"It had to be done. He was using her powers against us and the only way to stop that is to kill his power source," Harpoon said as the shockwaves vanished, leaving Synch void of the power.

"I'll deal with you later. Blockbuster, finish him," Scalphunter said as he and the rest of his team began to recoup from the after effects of the shockwaves.

"I'll love this," Blockbuster smiled as he charged at Synch.

"You're all talk," a voice behind Synch says as two powerful blasts hit Blockbuster and pauses his charge.

"Good to see you, Bishop," Synch said as he saw the veteran X-Man walking up carrying Siryn. "How is she?"

"Shielded her with my body and used up what power I had in reserve to blast us free of the cave-in. I stopped the bleeding. She's hurt pretty bad, but she'll live," Bishop said as the last of his power was drained upon Blockbuster.

"Good to hear she'll be okay," Synch smiled as he reached out with his powers making Siryn's his own.

Calling on his new power, Synch opened his mouth and sent a high pitch scream right at Blockbuster causing him to drop to the ground and cover his ears in pain. Changing tactics, Synch shifted the sound and frequency of the sound waves. Suddenly the sound vanished and Blockbuster gave a startling yelp. Synch called off his power as the Marauder fell to the ground unconscious.

"What did you do to him?" Riptide asked as the four remaining Marauders had gotten to their feet.

"Long story short, I told his brain to make him go to sleep," Synch said as he opened his mouth to let loose his power again.

"Go ahead, try it," Prism said as he jumped into Synch's path and called on his powers causing Synch to stop.

"Can't risk him sending it right back at us," Synch said as Bishop nodded.

"Looks like it's the end of the road, X-Men," Scalpunter said as giant weapons formed on both of his arms.

"Yeah, for you maybe," M said as she came smashing out of the rubble and right at the evil mutant.

Scalphunter turned as M grabbed him by the neck with her left hand and flew straight up as she ripped his weapons off his arm with her right hand. M wasn't sure what she should do. Bishop was giving the approval to do it while Synch shouted his disapproval. As his neck began to give, M pulled back and decided to make Everett happy. Instead of killing the mutant, she threw him with great force into the far wall were he hit and then landed upon the ground.

"You should have finished him," Bishop growled as Synch just glared at him as Harpoon pulled out another Slayspear.

"Yes, to live, I agree," X-23 says as she extends her claws from each hand and crosses her arms in front of her and lashes back outwards, slicing open Harpoon's throat.

Prism takes a step back as X-23 shifts around and brings her leg up in a round kick. Just as her foot reaches Prism, an adamantium claw extends from her foot and shatters the evil mutant's head right from his body. X-23 brings her foot back down and goes into a crouching position as Prism's body and head fall to the ground. She immediately looks for her next kill.

"X, where's Rahne and Feral?" Bishop asked as he recalled X-23 leaping towards the two wolves battling when the ceiling caved down on them.

"I don't know," X-23 growled as a shadow caused her to shift.

They all looked over to see the Marauder known as Riptide laughing as he began to call on his powers. Synch tried to think quickly. In a matter of seconds Riptide's body would be spinning and his death stars would go flying. He would survive with his stone skin but he wasn't so sure about the others, especially Siryn. Before he or anyone could react, a loud growl came from above as a cat-like creature pounced upon Riptide. Synch gasped as he saw the very savage Feral tearing Riptide apart with her teeth and claws. In a matter of seconds, Riptide was no more.

"Feral, can you understand me?" Synch asked as the beast had turned towards them, ready for the next victim.

"I will handle her," X-23 said as she extended her claws.

"No, she doesn't know what she's doing," Synch said as Feral growled and licked her lips.

"Everett, the Feral we know is no more," Bishop said as he eyed the savage cat.

With a howl, Feral leapt at the group of mutants. They all prepared for the attack when a loud gunshot went off followed by three more. They all watched in shock and horror as four blasts plunged into Feral, three into her body and one in the side of her head. Feral hit the ground and did not move. Synch didn't have to look at was left of her face to know she was dead. Synch looked over to see Scalphunter laying against the wall holding up a smoking gun.

"Down kitty," Scalphunter chuckled as he gave one final cough, and dropped his gun and head.

"Darn it!" Synch swore as he tried to hold the tears back as he glanced down at Feral's body.

"It's a hard world we mutants live in and the future only gets darker. To survive, sometimes it's them or us and we have to make and live with the decisions we dread," Bishop said as he placed Siren gently on the ground.

"We have to find the others and get them back to the mansion," Synch said wanting noting more than the others to be alright.

"We'll find them," Bishop said as he gave commands to X-23 to start sniffing them out while Synch reached out with his powers hoping to latch on to someone.

The Secret Mutants

Secret Genesis – Part Two

Muir Island The Past

A Secret and Secluded Part of the Island

"Who is that?" Anna Marie asked as she stepped into Mona's office and glanced at the photo of a man with long dark hair that was pulled back into a pony tail.

"This is Daken, he will be one of your fellow students here," Mona said as she eyed the photo of the man.

"What can he do?" Anna asked not because she really cared but because she couldn't wait to try out her powers on someone new.

Almost right away, Mona had started studying her powers. It seemed she was able to foresee a person's mutant ability and then cause her mutant gene to shift and change to match that of the mutant and allow her to copy their powers. The only side effect was that when she did that, it slightly weakened the other's powers and she only had them for a limited time. Of course Mona was the only one she could practice with, but it seemed she had no control over the time limit. Her genes would shift back to normal with no warning or reasoning. One time she could teleport for a minute and another time she could do it for ten minutes.

The one thing Mona kept stressing was that she had to be careful until she mastered the time limit of her geneshifting abilities. Anna agreed. The last thing she wanted to do was copy the ability to fly and reach one hundred feet high and suddenly lose the ability and plummet to the ground. All in all, she liked her powers but wished she could shift her form like her father, Raven, instead of here genes. That way she wouldn't have to go around looking blue and could fit in and not feel like an outcast. Anna tried to deal with these feelings and Mona being so accepting made it easier to feel accepted. She was beginning to like Mona and now she would have a new person and power to train with.

"According to his file, he has healing capabilities that also give him enhanced strength, senses and reflexes," Mona said as she saw Anna smiling.

"Nice, and not bad on the eyes either," Anna said trying to cover her nervousness about Daken reacting to her blue skin.

"Why don't you go get a room ready for him? He'll be here any moment," Mona said turning back to the file as Anna left the room mumbling.

This new one made her a bit nervous. Xavier didn't know his true age since his healing factor slowed his aging. He looked like he was in his teens, but Charles thought he might actually be older than that. Charles said that he had run into a mutant and in helping him he had found a memory of a woman who had been murdered while carrying his child. Feeling the pain of this loss, Charles couldn't shake it from his mind when he went to use Cerebro to look for more mutants and a strange blip appeared. After hours of studying the blip, Charles came to the conclusion that this unborn child was alive and a mutant.

It was luck but Charles had finally tracked the mutant to Japan where he found him and other children being held in an old orphanage. It seemed this crime lord abducted children and trained them to be his personal thieves and thugs. Daken was among these children, older and tougher but the only mutant. Charles had learned from reading their minds that the crime lord had stumbled across Daken's mother lying dead with none in sight anywhere. The crime lord was going to move on quickly before any authorities arrived and accused him of killing the woman, when he heard a cry.

He stopped and realized the cry was coming from the woman's womb that was already partially cut open. The crime lord knelt down and realized that the baby was somehow still alive inside and he quickly pulled out his blade and cut the baby from the womb. To his surprise the baby survived and seemed special. The crime lord took in the baby and named him Daken and trained him to follow in his footsteps. Especially when he learned that his Daken was very special in the fact that he healed very quickly and had enhanced abilities. So Daken was made the favorite and trained very well.

Charles didn't go into detail in the report but he had managed to defeat the crime lord and put him into custody as well as all the children. Charles managed to "hide" Daken from the authorities and "convinced" Daken that the crime lord was not his father figure and to come to Muir Island to train to use his powers for good. Daken didn't like it and Charles said he may prove difficult, but Charles had gotten Daken to agree that he wanted a better life and that this may be the fresh start he deserved instead of being placed into the system or worse, facing criminal charges with the crime lord. Charles told Mona that he wasn't sure if he could find his father again and for now it was wise not to mention it to him. Once again, Mona "decided" to listen to Charles and would do her best to help this new mutant.

"Here we go," Mona said to herself as she got up to meet the incoming plane.

"Wait for me," Anna said as she came up behind Mona as she was about to step outside.

They watched as a boy who looked to be in his late teens stepped off the plane. He wore a white t-shirt and blue jeans. His long hair was pulled back revealing his rough features and angry eyes. Mona could tell the kid didn't come from a great upbringing and was living as him against the world. Mona and Anna took a step forward as he was soon right before them. He stopped and looked both Mona and Anna up and down, not showing any sign of emotion on his face.

"Hi, Daken. This is Anna Marie Adler and I'm Mona Kinross," Mona said as she held out her hand.

"Where's my room?" Daken growled as he pushed his way past them and entered the building.

"Well, that didn't go as bad as I thought it would," Mona sighed.

"Mona, you said your last name was Kinross, but when I first got here you told me it was MacTaggert. What gives?" Anna said looking at Mona with suspicion.

"I did? I don't recall doing that and I don't even know where I would have gotten that name from. I was born Kinross and will remain till I get married one day," Mona said as she felt a headache forming.

"Okay, whatever. We better go check on Daken," Anna said as she eyed Mona for a moment and then went inside.

Mona stood there for a minute and then let the weird moment vanish away back to the back of her mind as she felt a strange presence. She turned around to see Charles coming down the plane's ramp with a girl of about thirteen or fourteen with flaming red hair. She looked very shy and awkward. Mona didn't realize she was getting another student so fast. She quickly met up with the two.

"Greetings, Ms. Kinross," Charles said with a smile.

"Hi, Charles, I didn't realize you were coming personally and with a second student," Mona said eyeing the child.

"I wanted to make sure Daken made it here with no problems," Charles said with a smile.

"Yeah, he seems a bit on edge but I think he'll be just fine here," Mona said and then nodded at the girl, "who do we have here?"

"This is Theresa Cassidy," Charles said out loud and then switched to his mind so the child wouldn't hear. "She has been raised by her uncle without her father's knowledge. She knows nothing of her father and her father believes she died along with her mother during a bombing.

"Her uncle decided not to tell his brother of the child and now that Tom has "decided" I should take her in to train her on her mutant powers, I think its wise to let the identity of her father remain dead," Charles said with a mental push.

"I almost see a pattern here. These children are all coming from very bad and broken homes," Mona thought back.

"Yes, the world can be cruel to mutants. Until the world learns to coexist with us, they are safer here with you," Charles said.

"What powers does she have?" Mona asked.

"She can generate supersonic screams. Which accidently manifested during a fight with her uncle and resulted in him agreeing to let me take her in to help with her gift," Charles explained back.

"My name is Mona Kinross and I think we'll all get along just fine here," Mona smiled as Theresa looked up at Charles.

"Don't worry, Theresa. You'll be safe here and Mona will help you to better understand and use your powers," Charles said as the girl nodded and walked over next to Mona.

"I can't stay long. I have to head to Africa to check out a possible mutant that I want to recruit for my school in the States," Charles said as he gave a friendly smile to the little girl and then nodded at Mona and left.

"Take care, Charles," Mona said as the bald man boarded the plane and left the Island.

"You ready to see your new home?" Mona asked.

"I don't have to share a room next to the boy with long hair do I? He scares me," Theresa whispered.

"Don't worry. Everything will be okay. He's not that bad. Not everything is what it seems on the outside and should never judge another just by looks," Mona said as the girl nodded and then headed into the facility.

Mona couldn't believe it. She had three students and could now do more tests and actually start training a group. Things were starting to come together. She knew some students may be harder to deal with then others, but that didn't stop her. She was ready to get things moving. The only thing that pulled at her mind was just how many more students Charles planned on brining her and who would be showing up next? No matter what, she couldn't wait.

Next: Issue #26 – Morlock Massacre II – Part Five & Secret Mutants: Secret Genesis – Part Three