Chapter 6.
Nightveil had inherited her (slightly modified) job title from her predecessor, Dr. Stephen Strange, after he had heroically sacrificed himself in preventing the extra-dimensional Undying Ones from returning to Earth. But, as her responsibilities with FemForce necessitated her residing in Florida, the Greenwich Village brownstone once owned by Dr. Strange was taken over by Jethro "the Green Lama" Dumont. The latter coming out of retirement, to Shangri-La, in order to once more serve as New York City's resident protector against supernatural evil. True! He had been gone for nearly sixty years. Yet, with the aid of Dr. Strange's manservant, Wong (who was, himself, the grandson of Dumont's own former manservant, Tsarong), the Green Lama was readjusting to the modern world relatively well.
It was his astral body that now "sat" before Nightveil within the living room of her levitating mansion. Sitting next to him was someone just as auspicious. The loa, or deceased spirit, of Daniel Drumm. Predecessor and identical twin of the current Brother Voodoo, Dr. Jericho Drumm.
"Are you about this, Jethro?" their hostess now asked.
The Green Lama nodded. "Positive! The last time I felt such energy was during the Battle of Mount Wundagore. Ben Grimm was definitely being controlled by Chthonic magic."
"That doesn't necessarily mean it was a cult of Chthon-worshippers," Nightveil countered.
"Perhaps not," replied Daniel Drumm. "Yet, the Bovier sisters sensed it, too. The fragile truce between them was imposed by my brother. And neither one of them would hesitate, for a second, to latch on to that much mystical power in order to have sole dominion over New Orleans!"
"Oh, great," muttered Nightveil. "A potential mystic turf war. Just what I did _not_ need!"
The Green Lama chuckled. "You knew the job would be a difficult one when you took it!"
Nightveil was on the verge of half-seriously retorting when her crystal ball, the Orb of Agamotto, began to rapidly blink, off-and-on, in an all-too familiar pattern.
"We'll have to continue this discussion some other time, gentlemen. I'm needed in Washington!"
THE WHITE HOUSE (5 MINUTES EARLIER)
President Paul Destine was at his desk, in the Oval Office, signing some papers, when he heard it. The breaking of glass; the screams of female staff members; demands for someone to halt; gunfire when that someone apparently refused to heed; and the screams of his Secret Service bodyguards when their gunfire proved ineffective. All of it culminating with the main door to the Oval Office being turned into veritable kindling by the person who came barging through it!
The mutant mercenary known as Sabertooth.
"Hi ya, Mr. President! I'm here to tear you to pieces... in the name of the Brotherhood of Mutants."
"Sorry," replied the Chief Executive. "I'm afraid I've never heard of them."
"That's funny! A little bird told me you were behind what happened to them, a year-and-a-half ago."
ANTARCTICA (18 MONTHS EARLIER)
It was a nineteenth century Italian whaling captain who had first named the volcanic island "New Vesuvius." But, it was Erich Magnus Lehnsherr, alias Magneto, who had turned it into a base of operations for his self-styled brotherhood. The lot of them had just fled from their ill-fated attempt to extort equal rights for mutants by taking over a U.S. nuclear missile base known as Cape Citadel. The attempt thwarted by none other than Captain Paragon and the Sentry!
That the Sentry had been killed by their youngest member, Rogue, by the absorption of his life force (thereby resulting in her permanently gaining his powers) was of no consolation to the Mutant Master of Magnetism.
"Fear not, brothers and sisters. This sanctuary lies within a hundred miles of the South Magnetic Pole. Ergo, the spy satellites of the U.S. government will not be able to find us, here."
Unfortunately, for him, this pronouncement proved premature. For, suddenly, the blind precognitive Destiny (nee Irenie Adler) became stiff of posture.
"Beware!" she exclaimed. "We are under attack."
As if to remove any doubt of that fact, a pink sword-like blade impaled her from behind. Simultaneously, two pink humanoids suddenly appeared to the left and right of the hyper-obese Blob! Each of them using a suddenly needle-thin index finger to skewer the otherwise impenetrable mutant through his brain via his ears! Magneto immediately knew, from their literally blank-eyed stare, that these humanoids were robots of some kind. Yet, when he tried to magnetically tear them apart... nothing happened! Consequently, when he shouted to the super-swift Quicksilver to do something, it was the last thing he ever did.
Prior to being dismembered.
The same thing happened to the amazingly agile Mortimer Toynbee (alias "The Toad"). Quicksilver was able to avoid an identical fate for several minutes. All in an attempt to buy time for his sister, the Scarlet Witch, to be evacuated by the Vanisher via teleportation! While Rogue used her new super-powers to simply fly Sabretooth out of there. Ultimately, however, superior numbers hemmed him in all sides. Ninety seconds after that, only Unus the Untouchable was still alive.
And when he noticed trumpet-shaped protuberances emerge from the humanoids' otherwise featureless faces, he snickered.
"What are you planning to do, ladies? Smother me to death with blown kisses?"
As it turns out, he was half-right. Those trumpet-shaped protuberances began to emit poison gas. One of the few things his oxygen-permeable forcefield could _not_ repel!
THE WHITE HOUSE (PRESENT DAY)
"I'm gonna flay you a piece at a time, Destine, till you admit your culpability."
Before Sabretooth could make good on that threat, however, he suddenly felt himself hit from behind by what felt like a diamond-hard cannonball! And the next thing he knew, he was out on the White House lawn by the world-famous Rose Garden. Literally on his hands and knees before a blue-eyed, redheaded beauty in a form-fitting red unitard with a matching, cat-eared mask. And offset by white, fur-rimmed boots with matching claw-tipped gloves!
"Bad kitty!" said She-Cat of FemForce. "Trying to see the POTUS without an appointment. Mama's got to spank!"
Sabretooth slowly got back on his feet.
"You and what army, beeyotch?"
Whereupon, he lunged at her without warning! But, She-Cat, of course, was an expert at feline body language and had seen the anticipatory tensing up of muscles getting ready to spring. Consequently, she sprang upward, herself, at the penultimate moment. Somersaulting and twisting at the zenith of that leap so that she came down facing the small of Sabretooth's back.
Raking her claws straight down along it.
"ARRRRRRGH!" screamed the mutant mercenary.
She-Cat grinned. "You're up, again, Vic!"
In direct response to this, a red-white-and-blue blur came rushing down from the sky. Stopping just long enough to reveal Ms. Victory! A blonde, blue-eyed woman in a form-fitting leotard and mask of those three aforementioned colors. And a woman who subsequently grabbed Sabretooth by the ankles... before hauling him up into the sky, upside-down!
"YAHHHHH!" Sabretooth screamed, again (though, this time, more in startled shock than angry pain). "Put me down, you beeeeeeeeeee...!"
"As you wish," Ms. Victory chuckled, having calculated that they had already reached the desired height of two hundred feet, anyway.
For, as planned, he landed in the right palm of "Too Tall Tara" Fremont. Yet another member of FemForce! Initially recruited as an expert in jungle survival, for what was intended to be one mission, only. But, now, a full-time member serving as the team's other part-time giantess.
This hundred-foot-tall, raven-haired brunette, wearing a jungle camouflage-pattern leotard (likewise made of SpandeXX), grinned as she clenched her right hand into a fist. Pinning Sabretooth's arms to his side. Whereupon, she began spanking his posterior... with flicks of her gigantic left index finger!
"OW! OW! Stop that, you...! OW!"
Ms. Victory (nee Joan Wayne) continued chuckling as she observed this bizarre-yet-strangely-appropriate form of punishment. That is, till Nightveil- -the one who had teleported them here from their Orlando, Florida, headquarters- -reappeared.
"How's the POTUS?" asked the former.
"Physically, unhurt. Just startled."
"I'd be surprised if he wasn't," replied Ms. Victory. "So, why do you look so grim?"
"I took the opportunity to psi-scan Sabretooth as you were airlifting him. And I saw the incident he was alluding to, in his memories. Magneto and most of his mutant accomplices were basically massacred! By pink, rubbery-looking robots of a type I've only seen only once before. In our files concerning... the Leader!"
"The Leader?!" echoed her teammate. "But, he's dead!"
"Presumed dead. No body was ever found."
Ms. Victory grimly considered this fact.
"We'd better hand over Sabretooth for special detainment. Then, reconvene in Orlando for a confab."
Nightveil nodded. "Agreed."
tbc