He which toucheth ye nettle tenderly, is soonest stoung, yt the fly which plaieth with ye fire is singed in the flame, that he yt dallieth with women is drawen to his woe.
-Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit, John Lyly, 1578
Sage sat in front of a vast computer array, multiple semi-transparent screens in various colors hung before her in the air. The screens reflected on the lenses of her cybernetic sunglasses. Her nimble fingers danced like a pianist's as she selected, input, adjusted, and swept aside the various displays and readouts. Behind her stood Wolverine, Domino, and Forge. They gathered around a circular table in the center of their war room. A faintly curved map depicting the Atlantic Ocean protruded from the tabletop like a broad, pale green soap bubble. Thus far, the target they were attempting to track had not appeared on the map display. Beast hovered just over Sage's shoulder, occasionally opening his mouth to offer a suggestion. Sage would interrupt before he could do so with a finger raised in warning. After the third time he attempted to interject, she wordlessly raised the digit between her first and ring finger.
Standing beside Domino, Forge also appeared to be antsy, desperate to provide his two cents. Domino fared him with a deadly look and crossed her arms, daring him to speak. Wolverine watched with some amusement; Forge could be somewhat dense when it came to reading people. Wolverine wanted to see what would happen if the man tried to pose some helpful advice to their resident mutant super-computer.
"I have contact," Sage said abruptly and sat forward in her leather chair. "Tracking the signal now. Super Stallion, do you copy?"
"Of all the ridiculous-Who names aircraft, anyway?" answered the voice though the communications link. The accent was South Asian, and spoke with the clipped manner of British influence.
"I guess the marketing department at Lockheed-Martin. What would you have called it?" asked a second voice. This one female, young, and also of South Asia. Mumbai, but with a hint of casual U.S. American.
"Some kind of bird, certainly. Stallions don't fly."
"Maybe, like, 'Pegasus' would have been better? Let us rename it: Rainbow Dash."
"Excuse me," Sage interrupted. "Super Stallion-."
"-Rainbow Dash," the girl insisted.
"I advise you to change course and report to the following coordinates," Sage pinged off a message to the chopper. "Our team will rendez-vous with you and you will surrender the helicopter, the weapon, and yourselves to the authorities."
"Thank you for the invitation. But I'm afraid we will have to decline your offer," answered the man, an arrogant smile in his voice.
A red blip suddenly appeared on the map, departing the Gulf of Mexico and heading North and East across the Atlantic Ocean. "We have them," Forge confirmed.
Sage continued: "It was not a suggestion. If you refuse to comply, we will send a retrieval team to apprehend you."
"Well, if you insist we pay you a visit, I hope you don't mind if I let myself in through the back door...?" the male voice continued. "This is a very impressive system you have. I think I may just steal most of this. Oh, and this. And now, that's very interesting. Don't mind if I do!"
Sage flinched back with a small gasp as various screens appeared and disappeared without her prompting. She watched with growing irritation as various schematics and code were selected and appropriated, vanishing from the screens. Programs opened, files transferred. She coolly but quickly began to work at cutting their connection, to stop the flow of information.
"Sage," Beast began with cautious dread. "Just what is happening?"
Sage's hands flew across her screens. "I have no idea. He's somehow hacked into my system. But, that's…" She seemed to confer with herself and said: "It's not possible."
"My my my!" the haughty voice continued and then let out a low whistle. "Girl, you as sexy as your code? Look at this line! It's just so-so hot! I'm adding this to my spank bank."
"God, you're so gross," said the speaker's female counterpart. "Who jerks it to code?"
Sage paused a moment, her eyes flicking to the scripts running across her screen. "You...find my code...attractive?"
"You know what, I wouldn't care if you were a troll. I think I'm in love-with your mind," the male speaker continued, almost surprised at himself. "Oh, girl...where have you been all my life?"
"This isn't happening, is it?" Domino asked no one.
"I'm not usually one to ask permission for access...but girl, I got mad respect," the speaker said. "Allow me to play the gentleman. Here, I've returned you to your previous desktop settings."
"Can I ask how you are able to do this?" Sage requested, watching as her array was put back as she had had it.
"I am able to access any data network on the planet," the man replied.
"I can as well," Sage responded. "Via mental computation."
"My power is magic-based," the man offered. "It's more like a conversation than computation."
"That explains why I am unable to predict your behavior," Sage seemed reassured about this.
"I think you and I could design beautiful things together...," the speaker continued in a suggestive voice. "Girl, let's get dirty. Invite me into your Sandbox. I want to do some QA with you."
Sage inhaled sharply and from where Wolverine was standing, he could see two spots of pink appear on her pale cheeks. He had never in his life seen anything that could make Sage look remotely flushed. He thought she'd be coldly furious, but instead she said in a soft voice: "Let's not get too ahead of ourselves. We should at least start in Dev."
"I'd like to give you super admin rights," the speaker replied, his voice seductive. "Full access to my entire system."
"Maybe not on the first date...but I could make you a Light User, until I can trust you to keep your hands to yourself," Sage replied, a slow smile on her face.
"Playing hard to get? I'm up for the challenge. I love a woman with tight permissions management," the man continued. "What is your username, gorgeous?"
Sage let out a breathy laugh.
"Sage!" Wolverine snapped at the same time someone on the intercom shouted: "Nil!"
"Quit flirtin' and stay on task!" shouted another male voice over the intercom.
"Take Nil out in de field, he said. Give him a chance to prove himself, he said," a woman said in a singsong kind of way. "Proved himself just another boo-coo amoureux, I say." (womanizer)
"Cut the chatter," the male authority said. "Nil, end communique."
"Shit," Wolverine said to himself, recognizing the telltale accents.
"Sorry, love. GTG," said Nil. "Can I call you, text you? Sext you? Follow your Insta feed?"
Wolverine shouted: "Sage, can we get on with this? We don't have time for you to arrange your love life."
Sage offered Wolverine another rude gesture over her shoulder.
"Cock-blocking Sage?" Domino asked Wolverine and shook her head. "Uncool."
Sage told the team: "Prepare for the drop. You'll only have one chance at this. Otherwise, you're going for a swim."
"One chance is all I need," Domino said dryly. Sage often felt the urge to needlessly overexplain, as if they didn't understand the logistics of their mid-air operation.
"No casualties," Wolverine told the others. "No lethal force."
Domino raised an eyebrow. "They're in possession of a WMD. In a stolen military aircraft."
"If these jokers are who I think they are, then there will be humans involved," Wolverine said. "And possibly-former allies."
Beast and Wolverine were outfitted with ram air parachutes. Dom and Forge were armed with Tactical Air Initiated Launch grappling guns, though given Beast's bulk and Wolverine's weight, the gunmen (gunman/gunwoman?) were not going to enjoy them piggybacking. With Forge's marksmanship as well as Dom's (plus a lot of luck), they had the best chance at hitting their swiftly-moving target.
A gateway was opened, courtesy of the Gateway, and the quartet fell through the air adjacent to the Super Stallion's (Rainbow Dash's) flight path. Beast and Wolverine deployed their parachutes. Forge and Domino simultaneously fired, the barbed grappling hooks piercing the undercarriage of the chopper. The lines held firm. To take the brunt of his weight from Dom, Wolverine lunged forward to grasp the gun in her hands, then cut the suspension lines from his 'chute with his unsheathed claws. The parachute whipped away, straps flailing. Domino began to retract the grappling line, drawing them closer and closer to the bottom of the chopper. They were flying not too far above the gray waves below. Wolverine could feel the spray of saltwater on his exposed face and arms. From the corner of his eye, Wolverine could see that Forge and Beast were successful in approaching the chopper as well. Beast's claws dug furrows into the body of the aircraft and he began to climb up the side towards the starboard cabin door. Using his claws to create handholds, Wolverine moved to the rear of the craft to the cargo ramp. Dom was using magnetic grips to walk herself to the port side. Forge was likewise making his way to the cockpit door.
Hanging now from one arm, Wolverine drove his claws into the cargo ramp and began piercing himself a rough, square opening. With both sets of claws buried in the undercarriage, Wolverine heaved his legs upward to pound the door he'd carved for himself. A second hit caused the metal to buckle and implode inward. Wolverine found himself in the cargo hold on all fours, taking in his surroundings. The interior was like being within the ribcage of an enormous beast, the walls strictly utilitarian, lit only by the portholes along either side of the cabin. The hold was largely empty save for a large wooden crate in the center, held in place with several nylon straps. Beast and Dom were tearing their own entry via the cabin doors, Beast with his claws, Dom with a small explosive charge that sent the door flying away.
Wolverine leapt to the top of the crate. In front of him and blocking full view of the cockpit was a double computer array to the left and right; the controls for the helicopter's weaponry. Two chairs bolted to the floor were poised before the computers. A girl sat in one of the padded chairs, turned to face the cargo hold. Her expression was mildly annoyed as she regarded the intruders. She was holding an iPhone in one hand and paused her idle scrolling to roll her eyes. A teenager, her black hair parted in the middle and held in two long ponytails high on her head. Her thick fringe was bluntly cut over large brown eyes. She was fair-skinned, full-lipped, with a nose pin in the left nostril. This must be the girl who had dubbed the chopper 'Rainbow Dash.'
"This isn't going to go the way you hope it's going to go," she told them.
Dom leveled a weapon at the girl. "Get on the floor and put your hands behind your head," she told the girl.
The girl seemed to think about this for a half-second. "Uh, no."
Beast moved towards the girl, hands raised in a placating manner as if he intended no harm. "I apologize, my young-."
"Now," the girl said.
Wolverine had an instant to realize there was someone hiding between the crate and the interior hull. A bright yellow flash struck Wolverine in the side of his skull, just over his ear. Wolverine found himself yanked skyward to strike the roof of the aircraft. His world was spinning. When he blinked his eyes, it was not to see himself on the ceiling, but instead held as if by a powerful gravitational force to the floor. He saw his surroundings as if they were upside-down. His stomach revolted and he coughed a stream of bile. Below him, or above him, stood a figure. For a moment Wolverine thought he recognized the man by the unruly brown hair, whiskered chin, long brown coat and bo-staff held in his hand. But this man was shorter, appeared considerably older, his hair was curly, and his eyes were blue.
The man crouched beside Wolverine's head. "Confusion spell. Sorry, friend." He then bounded off towards the cockpit, bo spinning.
The man dashed forward, dodged a fired round and swept his staff upward forcing Domino back a pace. A woman dropped from the ceiling where she had been hidden within the canvas straps stretched throughout the interior of the craft. Wolverine could only see her from behind (and what a behind it was). She was full-figured, dressed in dark red, her golden blond hair pulled into a long tail down her back.
The teenaged girl was speaking in a bored tone. "Left. Right. Duck. Left. Left. Block."
As the girl spoke, the blond woman obeyed her commands, managing to anticipate Domino's every punch and kick.
"There," the girl said and pointed before returning her attention to her iPhone.
The red-clad woman sent a bola spinning in an unexpected direction. Simultaneously, Domino jumped directly into its path. Domino's expression was one of confusion, not comprehending how her powers could suddenly fail her. The bola wrapped itself around her torso and she fell to the floor. Through his spinning vision, Wolverine blinked at the seated girl. She idly brushed her fingers through her bangs. Wolverine's eyesight shuddered like the interrupted signal from a satellite dish, and what he thought he saw was a third eye in the center of the girl's forehead, blinking at him. It just as quickly vanished. The girl looked up at Wolverine and smirked.
"Clairvoyant," Wolverine ground out and attempted to pull himself along the floor/ceiling towards her.
Beast was battling an unseen opponent who had emerged from the cockpit. The red-clad woman and the curly-haired man were dragging Domino away from the brawl, back towards where Wolverine lay. Domino snarled at the pair, body thrashing and legs kicking.
"Should we help him?" the red-clad woman asked her elder, referring to whomever was battling Beast.
"Not about to strike an opponent in de back like some assassin," the man responded and looked down at their two captives. He told them: "Soyez calme. We're not your enemy." (Be calm)
"Guild-?" Wolverine managed. "You've stolen-Stark tech."
"Dat's only half de story," the man replied.
He was interrupted from further elaboration by an explosion that shook the entire chopper. Beast was thrown backwards to crash into the wooden crate, shattering it. He rebounded and attempted to stand when the woman produced an object no bigger than a fountain pen, held it to Beast's temple and shocked him. Beast crumpled like a marionette with its strings cut.
"Also courtesy of Stark," she said with a grin, twirling her pen.
Beast's opponent was revealed and it was as Wolverine had thought (feared?). He hadn't seen the man for nearly a year, and before that hadn't exactly been keeping tabs on his comings and goings.
If not for the dark red eyes, the coat, and the staff which was still radiating pinkish energy from the explosion, Wolverine might not have recognized Gambit. Besides the coat, he wore an armored chest piece in a color somewhere between pink and plum, a muddy hue. The serge fabric of his pants was woodland camo, in a brighter shade of green than what Wolverine was most familiar with. Not U.S. or Canada issue, this was meant for jungle, along with the black combat boots. A folded balaclava of the same fabric was around his neck. Gambit was sporting a beard now, his cheekbones appearing all the more prominent, his hair was longer and knotted high at the back of his head. The wind from the broken cargo doors whipped through the cabin, stirring the tail of his coat. Notably, Gambit was not smiling, not even smirking. His expression was hard and cold.
There was commotion from the cockpit. "Mechanical hand is it?" said that snooty voice from the earlier communication. "How about you punch yourself in the face then?"
"What-!" Forge could be heard saying right before there came the sound of metal hitting flesh. Forge let out a pained 'oomph' of surprise.
"Now...go kick your own ass!" Nil announced.
Forge tumbled down the riser that led to the cockpit to land in the cargo hold. His mechanicalized leg attempted to kick the seat of Forge's uniform.
Nil laughed uproariously. Gambit turned to look over his shoulder into the cockpit. "Nil. Stop."
"You've lost your sense of humor, Mis'eu LeBeau!" Nil called.
"Humiliatin' people is not what I'd call funny," Gambit responded.
"I've seen what you consider funny, and seems to me the British are attempting to fill a void with the purely absurd," Nil continued. "I have yet to see a Monty Python sketch that tickles me in the slightest."
Wolverine could see the magician of mechanics relaxing in the pilot's seat, arms folded over his head, the portrait of repose. Wolverine hated the guy immediately. Forge did stop trying to kick himself in the rear, however. Gambit kicked Forge's rifle away before he could reclaim it and gripped the man by the front of his uniform.
"You people have really fucked this mission," Gambit told Forge.
"Did you expect us to let mutant thieves make off with a neurological weapon?" Forge asked rhetorically.
Gambit lifted Forge to his feet and shoved him roughly towards where Wolverine lay, Dom remained bound, and Beast was coming to.
"Only three of us are mutants, the others are just plain resourceful. Pop, unhex him," Gambit ordered the curly-haired thief and pointed at Wolverine. Gambit crouched to look into Wolverine's face. "If you go all berserker up in this chopper, I will drop you into the Atlantic and you can walk back home, comprenez?" (understand)
Wolverine growled at him. "Who the hell-do you think-you're talkin' to...bub?"
"Y'know what," Gambit held up a staying hand to his father. "Check that. Let him stew in his own sick for a bit longer."
Wolverine attempted to reach out an arm to grip Gambit, but missed Gambit's leg by at least a foot. Gambit stood and stepped away with an impatient shake of the head.
"You said we only had half the story," Domino said to the older thief. She nodded backwards to the machinery that had been exposed when the crate collapsed. It looked like the top half of a tank, with a long barrel of exposed mechanics. "Are you or are you not stealing this thing?"
"I'd have called it 'interception,'" Gambit told her. "Not stealing."
"We're not after de t'ing," Wolverine now recalled that Gambit's father's name was Jean-Luc, as Gambit was fond of saying he was Jean-Luc's favorite adopted mutant son. "We heard tell through our channels it was about to be taken by AIM mid-delivery. So we stepped in."
"'Course, we were gonna piece-part it out and sell the components to the highest bidders in recompense for our troubles," Gambit continued.
"And the helicopter?" Forge prompted.
"It was a loaner," Gambit said. "And I was flyin' without the insurance package. Y'all owe me a couple million dollars."
The girl at the fore of the craft looked up from whatever it was she was doing on her phone. "We're about to have more company," she said.
"Nil?" Gambit called.
"Oh, it's no biggie. Just a twat in a mechanical super-suit," Nil said idly.
Within the aircraft they could hear a familiar voice cut in over the audio system. "You kids better behave or I'll turn this thing right around, see if I don't!"
"Ugh," Gambit said with disgust. "G-D'ed Iron Man."
"We're already at max capacity for fragile male egos. And I got to have words with Mister Stark," the red-clad woman said and threw up her hands in frustration. "Remy, Nil, The Bratman, Ash Williams over here...I'm sorry but one of you has got to go."
Domino might've chuckled.
"You have until the count of three to disarm your weapons," Iron Man continued. "And reverse course. One..."
"I sincerely hope it's just de one Avenger," Jean-Luc said to his son. "I'm gettin' too old for dis."
"Two-hoo!"
"Oh, do shut up," Nil said from the cockpit. "Will anyone really miss another old white egotistical bijillionaire? Hope he likes his trip to the bottom of the Puerto Rico trench."
"Nil, don't-," Gambit began.
As the aircraft pivoted in midair, they could see through the ruined cargo door the sight of Iron Man plummeting headfirst into the ocean.
"You dumbass," Gambit said and dropped his jacket. He then collapsed his staff, strapped it to his thigh holster, and swan-dived out the open door.
The blond woman blinked. "Did he just-?"
"He'll be fine," said the teen girl. "I'll tell you when you need to start worrying."
Jean-Luc's look of panic was marginally assuaged. He turned back to their captives. "Mercy, let de woman free." Looking at Wolverine he said: "As for you, no funny business unless you want to revisit your breakfast as well as your lunch."
Jean-Luc's hand whispered beside Wolverine's ear. When he pulled it back, he held the spell between his two fore and middle fingers, performed a twist of his wrists, and the golden disc that made up the spell dissolved. Wolverine pushed himself upright, one eye closed, a hand to his head. Mercy had freed Domino. Then she stood, retrieved a first aid kit from a wall compartment and pulled out a cold pack. She cracked it and held it out to Beast.
"Sorry, Big Blue," she apologized. "Y'awrite?"
"Your pen packs quite the punch," Beast grimaced and held the ice pack to his head.
"Beats pepper spray," Mercy smiled. She was quite attractive, a girl-next-door look if that girl happened to eat a lot of red beans and rice and wore tight corset-tops.
The helicopter suddenly shook with an explosion from the rear.
"Not Iron Man?" Mercy asked.
"We've got AIM all up in our biz-nass," Nil said.
"Open the cargo ramp," Domino commanded. She retrieved her weapon from where it had fallen. The girl reached up behind her to one of the computers and keyed in a command. The rear cargo ramp began to descend.
"Nil, we need you back here," Jean-Luc called. "Help dismantle dis thing. If we're taken, we don't want them gettin' hold of it." He looked at the members of X-Force. "Any of y'all pilots?"
"Beast," Wolverine said and nodded at the cockpit, then looked at Dom. "You handle the firepower. Forge?"
Forge looked up from where he was salivating over the exposed weapon. When he was told to join Domino, he looked as if someone had kicked his puppy.
"So...am I blasting these jerkfaces into their next lives, or what?" the girl asked, fingers poised over the computer keyboard.
"You'll have to ask Remy," Jean-Luc responded. "We don't-."
Suddenly, a gold and red form blasted through the open port cabin door, glowing a bright white-pink. A second form clung to Iron Man's chest and the pair slid across the floor to almost fall out the starboard side. Beast grabbed them both by the ankles before they plummeted once again to the ocean below.
Iron Man coughed wetly, lifted the visor to his helmet manually. Water leaked out. "You-idiotic-hare-brained-."
Gambit was likewise coughing up sea water. He rolled off Iron Man's chest to lay on his back with a squelch. "Shoulda let you sink."
Mercy rushed to his side. "Remy, you okay, cher?"
He looked exhausted and tried to sit up, Mercy assisting him. "Not de easiest run in my playbook. My get up and go has got up and went."
Iron Man was prostrate on the floor, immobilized. "Could whoever depowered my suit, please turn me back on!"
"How'd you manage to fly back up here with no power?" Wolverine asked.
"Ask the Energizer Bunny," Iron Man turned his head slightly to try to glare at Gambit. "I don't recall that you work as a human battery. Don't your powers usually make things explode?"
"They won't, unless I break my concentration. Like, say, when some jerk berates and cusses me out the whole time I'm tryin' to save his stupid life," Gambit snapped.
Wolverine was making his way towards the cockpit. He finally got to meet Nil face-to-face. The man was medium complected, with a neatly trimmed beard, and handsome boyish features. Black eyes under thick dark brows. He wore various parts of what might have been an Indian military uniform, circa late 1800s, complete with red turban. His grin showed Wolverine a gold tooth. It matched the ring in his ear.
"'Sup," Nil said with a nod of his chin. Wolverine barely resisted the urge to throttle the thief.
"You're needed in back," Wolverine snarled and jerked his thumb towards the cargo hold. "And plug Iron Man back in!"
Nil gave a put upon sigh and proceeded to the rear as Wolverine assumed the co-pilot's seat. Beast pulled himself into the captain's chair.
"Ajna, make sure the dude with the rude 'tude doesn't crash our Stallion," Nil told the girl.
"Rainbow Dash," Ajna corrected. "Aren't ships and such supposed to be girls? And why do I have to be the one to babysit?"
Gambit had managed to regain his feet. He grabbed the other thief by the front of his uniform and put a finger in Nil's face. "Do not. Do that. Again."
"Right, right, no killing, blah blah blah," Nil sassed. "Your stupid honor code is going to get us all killed, you know?"
"We are not assassins," Gambit informed him in a low warning voice.
They were assailed by another blast that caused them all to stagger. An AIM airship was behind them. Wolverine could see they were attempting to hail their aircraft, probably requesting immediate surrender. Likely, they wouldn't destroy the chopper, not without securing the weapon first.
Now repowered, Iron Man rose to his feet and lowered his visor. "Just how many people are after this thing, anyway?"
"If you build I.T., they will come," Gambit said. "Nil, tear this thing apart."
"No, no do not do that. That is my intellectual and physical property. It merely produces an audio distortion effect," Iron Man insisted.
"That, combined with AIM's newest infrasonic tech, will cause people to at best, crap themselves, hallucinate ghosts, and suffer lung collapse, and at worst, have they heads exploded," Gambit said with a roll of his expressive eyes, hands spread and shrugging, like NBD. He seized his coat from the floor and pulled it back on. "But, y'know, whatevs."
Mercy had arranged herself on top of the weapon, looking somewhat like Jane Fonda, Vietnam, 1972. She looked equally self-satisfied. "Hello, Mister Stark."
Iron Man paused. With some dread, he said: "Uh. We've met, haven't we?"
Mercy: "Uh huh."
Iron Man hesitated. "Met gala? Regatta?"
"No, Mister Stark…your boudoir."
"Oh. Right. How nice to see you again, uhm…"
"I'll give you three tries to remember my name," Mercy said, blue eyes bright with menace.
"Oh, that's easy-Nancy," Iron Man said.
Mercy raised her "pen." "No."
"Silly of me, of course it's Mary!"
"One more try."
"Mo-maur-mer-," Iron Man attempted.
Mercy's eyes narrowed. "You'll beg for it." She thrust her arm forward and zapped him in the codpiece.
Iron Man folded over and groaned. "Oh….have...Mercy."
"Last time we met, you said that multiple times, quite loudly, as I recall."
"Would ya quit screwin' around!" Gambit cried while Jean-Luc laughed loudly.
"I like this woman," Domino commented as she fired warning shots at the approaching aircraft. It was still out of range.
Gambit hung out the starboard cabin door, loose strands of hair whipping around his head. "Need a tether," he said. "And an anchor." Wolverine emerged from the cockpit, pulled down one of the parachute containers from above, and tossed it to Gambit. He pulled on the harness and Wolverine gutted the container to pull out the lines from the canopy. Gripping the lines, Wolverine braced himself as Gambit leaned out from the open door, hanging above the waves at a forty-five degree angle. He removed a stainless steel hunting slingshot from his jacket pocket.
"What're you, Dennis the Menace now?" Wolverine asked.
"Goin' for more of a David versus Goliath vibe," Gambit answered idly as he took aim, drawing back his ammunition which glowed a bright shade of pink.
The AIM aircraft, a massive tilt-engine chopper, hove into view. The cabin doors were open, armed agents crowded the opening, taking cover behind a raised barricade. Iron Man blasted from the cargo hold, flying towards the enemy aircraft's cockpit. Rainbow Dash was peppered with gunfire. Domino returned fire from the cargo door, Forge from the cabin. While Domino and Forge provided cover, Gambit let fly his slingshot. The resulting explosion struck one of the rotors and the enemy airship shuddered. Several combatants tumbled from the open doorway to fall into the ocean below. Wolverine pulled Gambit back into the cabin. The AIM ship moved forward with a sudden burst of speed.
Several grappling lines were fired in their direction. The ones that hit their target were cut free by Wolverine's claws. Unfortunately, one was beyond his reach. Wolverine made his way down the cabin. He began wrenching apart panels to try to rip the tether free from the interior.
"How come you can shoot people out of the sky and I can't?" Nil whined as he picked apart the machinery. Wolverine saw him stash several choice components away in his uniform.
"Because now we got a for real superhero," Gambit said. "Let the caped crusaders clean up the mess. Plus, it'll keep Stark busy while we skedaddle."
The airship was performing a slow pirouette in the sky, struggling to stay aloft. Iron Man had taken out the windscreen. Now Rainbow Dash was being dragged along with the failing airship by the grappling line.
"Hard to make away when we're about to be dragged down into the middle of the Atlantic," Beast observed from the cockpit.
"Please, take your time with that line," Gambit said to Wolverine. "No rush."
"Where you been, Cajun?" Wolverine asked conversationally as he sliced his way through the hull.
"What's it to you, homme," Gambit said, aiming another missile at the rear rotor of the AIM ship.
"Kate mentioned she'd run into you," Wolverine said, once more taking in Gambit's appearance. The camo made more sense now that he thought about it. "Gulf of Guinea."
"So, I guess I merit a mention," Gambit said.
"Seemed you didn't want any attention," Wolverine continued and he found the barbed end of the grappling line and pierced the hull beside it with his claws.
"Reigning from Mount Olympus is busy work," Gambit replied. "Wouldn't want you to trouble yourselves none on account of us mortals."
Iron Man was beginning to physically steer the enemy airship away. It was perhaps due to this that their opponents realized their fight was lost. The missile fired in their direction was intended as a parting shot. Gambit let fly his slingshot, striking the missile before it could make its target. The explosion was enough to rock them all back into the cabin, sending their aircraft into a tailspin. They heard Beast cry out from the cockpit as the windscreen shattered. The chopper bucked as Beast struggled to maintain control. The panels weakened by Wolverine's claws tore free with a screech, freeing them from the grappling line. Mercy was scrambling towards the cockpit, using the various canvas straps to pull herself forward. The only one who seemed to not be in a frenzy of motion was Ajna, who had the foresight to fasten herself into a five-point harness. Nil was pinned between the port side and the weapon, which had broken free of its bindings. The machine began screaming high-pitched bleats and they all clutched their skulls, heads splitting in pain.
Wolverine dragged at the machine, attempting to free the pinned thief. Forge joined him and once the technomancer was free, the tech-wizards began further dismantling the device. Forge smacked one of Nil's hands away and the two men glared at each other.
"Move!" they shouted at one another.
Mercy called from the cockpit: "We need a medic for Big Blue. Plus another pilot would be nice!"
"Beast is our medic," Domino grumbled, but recovered the first aid kit and made her way into the cockpit. She tossed the kit to Mercy and assumed control of the aircraft.
The machine blessedly ceased its infernal bleating. The sudden lack of sound was shocking in its relief.
"We should start worrying now," Ajna said unhelpfully into the silence.
Gambit and his father were still at the cabin door, watching Iron Man toss refugees from the airship wreckage into several inflated life rafts. "AIM is down for the count, looks like," Gambit observed.
"We got a bogey," Dom called. Ajna turned her chair to face the computer screen as Wolverine joined her to regard the display.
"Too small to be an aircraft," Wolverine said. He glanced at the girl but she remained silent, a troubled look on her face.
Forge and Nil approached the rear cargo door cautiously. "A flyer," Forge said. "Mutant."
Nil squinted at the small brown dot that was growing in size and shape as it approached. "Something really odd about it… But it's almost as if-they're part machine?" Nil glanced at Forge who was faring the thief with a surly look. "Oh, not sorry. Please, feel free to take offense."
"Hostile?" Gambit asked.
Their aircraft was punctured by several spiked barbs.
"That's affirmative," Forge answered, deadpan.
The flyer zoomed around the chopper, whisking past the windscreen then circling around to port. The cockpit took several barbs as the figure blasted past.
"Dom!" Wolverine called.
"We're okay!" Dom said with a pained grunt. She pulled a barb from her shoulder. "Female, covered in brown and white spines."
Mercy added: "Porcu-pussy."
"Heh," Domino said and her smile became a grimace. "And it is now apparent that the spines are poisonous."
"She's comin' back around," Gambit said, watching the figure's progress. At his side, Jean-Luc had a bola in his hand. He began to spin it in preparation.
Forge retrieved his rifle. "Let me handle this."
Gambit shot him a look. "You're not in charge here."
"No. I am," Wolverine stepped in.
"Oh great, dick measuring contest," Mercy muttered. "You think you boys can sort yourselves out before both our pilots pass out?"
"Nil, you said she's part tech," Gambit said and began to move towards the cockpit. "Can't you work your magic?"
"Seems more organic than technic," Nil said, his expression one of mild confusion. "And I don't know...something else. Like, has free will or some shit."
Wolverine put a hand to Jean-Luc's arm. "We'll take it from here," he told the older thief. "Know any healing magic? Help with the injured."
Jean-Luc looked irritated, but seemed to see the sense in the direction. His eyes turned to his son and the two shared a wordless communication for a moment. Jean-Luc joined Gambit on the riser leading to the cockpit. Mercy levered Domino from the co-pilot's seat. With Dom on her shoulder, Mercy helped her to where the two thieves stood. Jean-Luc took her weight and Domino was placed in the other chair beside Ajna. Gambit fastened Dom into the seat. Pink foam had appeared on her lips and she began to twitch.
"Shit," Wolverine said, putting his hands on her shoulders.
She grinned a bloody grin at him. "Just a little tickle," she groaned out.
Jean-Luc was pulling a pouch from his uniform. He handed it to Wolverine. "Be better as a tincture, but get her to choke this down."
"There's no way I'm going to lift Blue," Mercy called. "He's unconscious."
The mutant woman flew beneath their aircraft, out of range of Forge's weapon.
"Merce, get down from there!" Gambit commanded. "Nil can take over from the cabin. Ajna, find somewhere else-."
Ajna had already made herself scarce, taking a seat in one of the folding chairs along the cabin wall.
Gambit stepped up onto the riser and yanked Mercy down just as the cockpit was assailed with a dozen more barbs. Several deadly bolts narrowly missed striking the buxom thief in the back. They could hear the sickening sound of flesh forcibly punctured, see the spray of blood that hit what remained of their windscreen.
"Mon dieu!" Mercy cried, trying to peer back into the cockpit, her face a picture of horror. "Blue!"
"Don't worry about him," Wolverine told her.
"But, he's-!"
"We can bring him back," Wolverine assured her.
"Life is cheap," Gambit muttered. "Take cover behind the machine with Ajna. Keep your heads down."
Forge fired at the mutant as she circled back for another pass. "What does she want? The weapon?"
"No," Gambit said. "This ain't the first one of these people t'come after me."
"You've seen Porcu-pu-uh-this mutant before?" Forge asked.
"Not her specifically," Gambit answered. Barbs suddenly pierced the undercarriage of the helicopter.
"We're getting turned into Swiss cheese!" Wolverine snarled. "We need a portal outta here."
Forge touched the comm link in his ear. "Sage, we need emergency extraction."
While Forge was turned the spined mutant passed alongside their aircraft. Jean-Luc sent a bola flying at the woman just as she loosed a volley of spines. Gambit lunged forward in front of his father, grabbed a spine before it could strike Jean-Luc in the chest. Gambit immediately charged the spine and sent it spinning back in the direction of their attacker. She had been snagged in the bola, then blasted from the sky by the force of the explosion. The figure tumbled to the sea below.
Gambit was falling forward now and Jean-Luc seized him by the jacket to prevent him from falling into the ocean. Forge grasped Gambit's opposite arm and together they laid him onto his back on the floor of the aircraft. Wolverine saw then that Gambit had been hit, one spine through the right eye socket protruded through his left cheek. There was another through his neck, and a third in his midriff.
"Remy!" Jean-Luc cried, falling to his knees beside his son.
Mercy had unfastened herself from her seat. She threw herself forward. Gambit's one functioning eye focused on them, blinked. He struggled to draw a breath.
"Don't...let…," he said hoarsely.
"Save your strength. We'll get you to a healer," Jean-Luc told him. He jerked the spine from Remy's midriff, hesitated over the one in his neck.
Forge said: "We've got a portal. Nil."
"I have eyes."
Wolverine crouched beside Gambit. "Well, it's a good thing. You were just shot in the head is all."
"You think this is funny?" Mercy snapped and shoved Wolverine's shoulder.
"I told you, girl. We can bring him back," Wolverine told her.
"One, don't call me 'girl.' Two, no you can't," Mercy said coldly. "He stole his genetic sample when he left. He destroyed it."
Wolverine felt a jolt of surprise. "We'll just-," Wolverine gestured to Gambit's prone form.
"And he had me cut himself off from your Cerebro computer. No backups," Nil continued. "I picked your LOCKSS. Put up a firewall."
Wolverine turned to regard the man who stood before the computer array. He stared at the back of the technomancer's head. "What?!"
"Digital security protocol. LOCKSS. Lots Of Copies Keep Stuff Safe," Forge supplied.
"No, not that! What do you mean you 'cut him off'?" Wolverine demanded.
"Is my English not clear enough for you? I could explain in my native tongue if that would help." Slowly Nil said: "Baikap-."
"Why would he want you to do that?" Wolverine interrupted.
Jean-Luc said exhaustedly: "Maybe he got tired of making the same mistakes over and over. He didn't want to go back."
"He'll die if he doesn't go back!" Mercy said tearfully.
"It was his decision," Jean-Luc's expression was grim, hand on his son's forehead.
Mercy punched her father-in-law in the chest. "Henri died trying to protect Remy! Don't make his death a waste."
"Mercy, s'il te plaît…" Jean-Luc said, rubbing the place over his heart.
"You know I'm right," Mercy continued to protest. "If not for Remy or Henri, do it for the rest of us. Everything he's built this past year will be for nothing. We'll be right back where we started! And don't forget his-."
Gambit was shaking his head, gasping through the hole in his throat.
Jean-Luc was torn. Wolverine dropped a hand on the man's shoulder. "The choice is out of your hands," he told the thief. "We can't afford to lose any of our people."
The man might have been relieved to not have to make the choice. "Remy, I'm sorry," he said softly. "Nil, you'll go with him."
"What? Me! I'm not going to some jungle island!" Nil shouted. "I do not do jungles. No way, never again! Have Ajna go! She likes watching him sleep anyway!"
Ajna threw a spent shell casing at him. "That was one time! At least I'm not the one who makes out with AI. And I can't go."
"And why is that?" Nil asked.
Ajna, pouting, looked at her phone. "For some reason, I'll be denied entry."
"Are you two brother and sister, or what?" Forge asked.
They both loudly protested. "What, just because we're both from India!? We're not even from the same region!"
"Gross! No wai! Sick, I'm not related to him! We don't even remotely look alike!"
"Ajna…" Jean-Luc began.
"Don't bother asking," she told him. "Even if I could see what happens next, I wouldn't tell you."
"What do you mean? You-you can't see?" Mercy began hesitantly. "But you're the most powerful precog on the planet!"
"We also appreciate that you don't communicate in nonsense alliterative riddles or obscure drawings," Nil said dryly.
Forge and Wolverine exchanged a worried look. Ajna caught their glance, regarded them carefully before turning back to her phone. "Overselling it," Ajna told her companions.
Mercy turned back to Gambit. His remaining eye was no more than a red-hued slit. His breath was uneven and ragged. Blood was leaking from his mouth and nose, seeping steadily from the barb in his neck with every heartbeat. "So...you're sayin' he might not remember anything since before he left your island?" she asked sadly.
Wolverine glanced at Domino. She was nodding in her chair, sweating profusely. A line of pink-tinged spittle leaked out of the corner of her mouth. Her pale skin looked like candle wax, but she was alive. "Only if he dies," Wolverine said.
Jean-Luc turned to Wolverine, his gaze cold and hard. "Then you'd best see that he doesn't."
Next time: Interview with a Technomancer
Nil and Ajna were both intro'd in Gambit's 2nd series. Nil appears again in All New X-Factor. All we know about him is that he's a technomancer, his dad killed his mother, he killed his dad, and he was born in the mid-1800s.