Ch. 23 – New, Old Friends
Slash was ready to use the Blackbird
as a weapon to get his teammates out of there. Xavier, however, came to him on the radio.
"Wait Slash. Before you do something irrational, get back
here, and I may be able to get you another team to work with."
"But Charles, my wife is in there! The bastards have her, and…and…"
"I understand Matthew. It is useless to try and fight them on your
own. I know a few mutants who are
friends of us that you can use to combat the FOH." Slash was upset, but he realized Xavier was right.
"I'm on my way." He heard the sounds of guns firing into the
night and cheers of the FOH at capturing the X-Men.
Slash arrived at the mansion in not
his best mood. It wasn't like a SEAL to
leave his buddies behind. Slash stormed
off the airplane headed for the monorail to take him back to the mansion. He looked at his watch. It was about nineteen hours until kingdom
come in the Hampton Roads area for humans and mutants alike. As soon as the monorail stopped, he ran off,
and headed up the elevator to the Ready Room. When he arrived, he found five other mutants with Xavier. Two were Cable and Havok, whom he met at
Cyclops' funeral. He had never met the
large African American man and woman (they had to be married or brother and
sister), and a woman with green hair was hanging all over Havok. He walked in.
"What were you thinking? It's not in my training to leave my
teammates behind?? My wife is down
there with them! I could have taken them!" Xavier met his anger with a blank stare.
"No, I'm afraid you could not
have. There were to many of them. You needed help. And I believe these five will be more than willing to help." Slash looked at them.
"Well, I'll trust your judgement
professor." He turned to Cable. "Hey Cable. Glad to see you again. Again,
I'm sorry about your father." Cable
nodded.
"Yeah, Cyke was a good guy. Never knew him much as a dad, but hey, it's
still a tough loss." Slash nodded, and
moved over to Havok.
"Havok, who's your friend here?"
"Slash, I'd like you to meet
Polaris. Polaris, this is Slash, leader
of the X-Men."
"Nice to meet you Slash."
"Good to meet you too. Say, what are
your powers?"
"I'm like Magneto. I control the magnetism of the earth."
"Ah, I see." He continued and walked over to the African
American man and woman.
"I'm Slash. Who are you two?"
"I'm Bishop, and this is my sister
Shard. We're from the future, like
Cable. We're just not as far ahead as
him in time."
"Ah I see. Well I'm glad to have you two along. I want to get the X-Men
back."
"Yeah, and I wanna cream some FOH
butt into the ground." Slash turned
back to Xavier.
"I think I'm gonna like these
guys. Just one problem. They anticipated our first attack. Now we need a new route in. The backdoor didn't work."
"So you go in the front door."
"Huh?"
"I'll explain once you are on your
way." Slash pulled out his MP-5 and
chambered a round. Cable looked at the
gun in shock and disbelief.
"Whaddya call that, a water pistol?"
"You mock what you do not understand
Cable. This is the latest in German
firearm design. The H & K
submachine gun, one of the finest firearms in the world today." Cable looked at Bishop, and together pulled
out their rifles. Slash just stared
(and drooled) at the guns.
"Now that's a piece of
firepower." Xavier intruded in the
middle of the conversation.
"I believe we have some X-Men to
save."
"Oh yeah!" Slash led them out to the monorail to reach the Blackbird.
'Well, at least it's not as bad as
it could have been.' Thought Shadowcat
as she looked out the barred gun port. They had applied something to her to block her powers. Now she couldn't simply phase through the
walls. Maybe it was some kind of
radiation generator. She wasn't
sure. She looked out into the night
sky. Somewhere, she knew that Slash was
coming for her. It was just a question
of when.
Wolverine was chained to the wall,
like in the old medieval times when they chained a person with all four limbs
in opposite directions. That way, he
couldn't use his claws to hurt the FOH. Nightcrawler was looking outside at the starts, like Shadowcat. Gambit managed to persuade the guards to
allow him and Rogue to be in the same cell. They were going at it, because I mean, come on. They couldn't do it before. Jean was in the corner thinking of her new
son. Jubilee kept trying to get the
attention of the guards. Iceman just
paced back and forth, wishing Scott was there to help formulate a plan to
escape. Beast sat going over poetry in
his mind. Psylocke was laying on what
the FOH called a bed. Only Storm was
jumpy. They put her in the smallest
cell possible, because they could sense her fear of small places. But the X-Men did not have to wait long for
a rescue.
At the gate to the base, drove up a
sleek navy blue Excursion. The US Army
soldier looked at the plates: New York state. He looked at the command sticker. A blue officers sticker belonged to the command at Fort Drum, New
York. He stopped the truck, and there
were two Army officers in the front seat.
"What's the problem soldier?" Asked a man dressed in Navy khakis.
"Nothing sir. It's just the base is closed."
"You see this?" He pulled the Eagle and Trident right off
his uniform. "And this?" He pulled his Lieutentant Commander bars off
his uniform. "Does this say the base is
closed?"
"Unfortunately yes sir." The SEAL was getting upset.
"Look Corporal, I have here with me
the commanding officer of the 10th Mountain Infantry Division. I want into this base right NOW!" The soldier snapped to attention.
"Proceed SIR!" Slash drove the Excursion past the soldier.
"Xavier was right. That was a piece of cake. Now, to get into the fort, disable the
missiles, and then get our people out of there. The drove up to the main entrance of the fort, closest to the old
harbor command center. There was an
armed FOH guard at the gate. He stopped
them.
"I'm sorry gentlemen, the fort is
closed. Now, turn your vehicle back
around before I have to open fire." Slash responded.
"Is that all you have to say to a
war hero? Don't you recognize Major
General…Mike…Johnson from the Vietnam War? He's commander of the 10th Mountain Division in New
York. We had the guest quarters
reserved a few weeks ago for his arrival. We've just drove in from upstate New York. You deny this hero of war his rest??? And you DARE to call yourself an American!" The soldier sniveled a bit, and then let
them enter. "See I told you a little BS
always works." He turned the car in the
direction of the old harbor command post, and the remainder of the team got up
from their hiding places in the back and readied their weapons. Slash stopped the car outside the post. It was humming with activity.
"Alright everyone, you know what to
do." Slash pulled out another Flash
Bang grenade, and secured it to his web belt. He rushed up the old cast iron steps as the other five secured a
defensive perimeter. Cable and Havok
took the top of the casemate (or the parapet of the fort). Bishop and Shard took street level behind
the armored Excursion. Polaris provided
a magnetic shield around them all. Slash approached the door, opened it just slightly, threw in the
grenade, and then slammed the door shut. It did what it was suppose to do. Slash ran into the door, spotted the radio gear, shot it up, and then
placed C4 on the computer gear. He set
the charges and blew up the room. Looking around, he told the other four members to go disable the launch
computer on each of the missile launchers while he went to go free the
X-Men. Slash maintained a low profile
moving quickly along the base of the casemate in the fort. The FOH soldier ran above him on the parapet
and around him on the road that circles the inside of the fort. Slash radioed the rest of the team.
"Be advised guys that there a crap
load of FOH freaks headed yours. And
they don't look happy." Bishop
responded.
"Already ahead of you chief." A blast behind him cut down three FOH
soldiers. "Ha ha ha. Nailed that guy." Slash smirked, and moved on. He felt strange as he neared the casemate where the team was being
held. He was about to crash through the
door, when Havok came on the radio.
"Hey Slash. We got about 40-50 bad guys out here. How soon can you spring the…sorry, had to
take a guy down. How fast can you
spring everyone?"
"I'm on it now. Give me two minutes, and I got them. How 'bout those missiles?"
"Dis…disabled. All squared away."
"Good. I'm going in." He broke
down the door, but couldn't see like he had been able to before. An FOH guard appeared, and Slash cut him
down then saw the machine that was putting out the radiation to disable the
team. He blew it up with a three round
burst. Suddenly, the sounds of freedom
were heard. Nightcrawler appeared next
to him. Storm blew up the bars with her
lightening. Wolverine grunted and tore
apart the chains. Beast very carefully
pulled the bars apart. Jean unlocked
the lock with her mind. Jubilee just
blasted it in a shower of fireworks. Archangel blasted the lock with his explosive feathers. Rogue and Gambit, after getting dressed,
blew up the bars. Iceman froze the bars
then kicked them out. Shadowcat was the
only one unaccounted for.
"WHERE'S KATE?" Slash screamed.
"I think the FOH commandant took
her. He felt she was attractive." Slash was looking really furious.
"Now, go and help Bishop, Cable,
Havok, Polaris and Shard. They are
being overwhelmed. Flyers escape by
air, everyone else by car. The
Blackbird is outside the base. I'm
going after Shadowcat." Wolverine stopped
him.
"I'm coming with you bub. She's my responsibility too." Slash shook his head.
"I need you to get them out of
there. My wife is my priority. I'll get her. Now GO!" Wolverine, use
to defying orders knew Slash was dead serious about this one. Wolverine was off with the team in the
direction of the battle. Slash was off
to the Commandant's Quarters. It was a
place where famous Americans such as Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee had
spent nights sleeping there. Tonight,
it was to be a place of vengeance.
I'd be upset too if
someone laid a hand on my woman. Keep
sending in feedback.