Disclaimer: Hey, wanna know something? I don't own these characters. Surprised?
Greetings! Welcome to the latest installment of Mutant Dawn! Not much action this time around. This chapter answers some pesky questions about the histories of the Marauders. I hope you find it enlightening.
Morlin: I actually could've made it a lot worse, but I didn't want to make too many people sick. And are you sure Cable is here to help?
Goofn1: Wow, a request for more Lance. That doesn't happen very often. Don't worry though, I like him to, and I think you'll like what's coming concerning him at the end of the story.
Caliente: You mean it wasn't complicated before? LOL.
Wallmartshoplifter: You are correct, Skids was a female. My bad.
Well, that's it on my end. Enjoy the show!
The study of Charles Xavier was crowded that night. Xavier himself sat behind his desk, Storm and Logan on either side of him, Hank directly behind him. His chin rested on his entwined fingertips as he observed the five mutants sitting across from him. The rest of the core team of X-Men milled around by the door, some clutching cups of coffee.
Scott, Alex, and Rogue had been cleared by Hank to be released from the infirmary. Scott currently occupied one corner of the room, Jean nestled under the crook of his arm. She had not left his side since he returned. Rogue was sitting in one of the few remaining chairs, Remy standing directly behind her, hovering over her in a protective way. Rogue didn't seem to mind.
Alex sat on the floor near Kitty and Lance. He kept casting glances over at Lorna. One time he caught her eye and they both looked away quickly, blushing slightly.
Xavier sat back in his wheelchair and fixed the five ex-Marauders with his steely gaze.
"Well, why don't you begin by telling me who you all are?"
Banshee, who by silent agreement had been nominated the groups spokesperson, replied. "Well, fer starters, me name's Sean Cassidy. The fetching lass sittin' next ta me is Elizabeth Braddock. Next we 'ave Lorna Dane, wit' the green hair. The large bloke is Bishop. And the young lass be Sarah."
"Just Sarah?"
Marrow nodded. "Just Sarah."
"Very well." Xavier said. "Now, I would like to know how you came to be together, and above all else, who you work for, and what is his agenda?"
"Our former employer be callin' himself Sinister. I dinnae know what is his real name, or where he comes from. I cannae even be sure if'n he's a mutant. He 'as an unusual appearance, but he 'asn't displayed any type o' powers."
Behind him, Xavier could here Hank scribbling away on a clipboard. He made a few mental notes himself before continuing.
"What can you tell us about him?"
"Well, I believe he's somethin' o' a geneticist. How good o' one he is, or where he got his trainin', I cannae say."
"What did he want with Scott, Alex, and Rogue?"
Sean shrugged. "All we know fer sure is that he wanted to do some kind o' tests on 'em." He gave an apologetic grin. "I', sorry I cannae tell ye more, but he didnae confide much in us. Very secretive man he was, kept tae himself. Only talked tae us if'n he be needin' somethin'."
More scribbling. More mental notes. "And how precisely did you come to be in his employ?
"Well, the stories be a bit differn' fer each o' us, but sine I'm talkin', I might as well tell ye mine first.
"I was actually born in ta considerable wealth. The Cassidy name be well known back home on the Emerald Isle. I coulda sat on me arse the rest o' me life, livin' in the lap o' luxury, but tha' wasn' fer me, I can tell ye now.
"I always had a bit o' the wanderlust. As a wee lad, I'd often go getting' meself lost in the woods behind Cassidy Keep. Never bothered me, but gave me mum an' dad quite o' fright on more 'n one occasion." Sean allowed himself a small smile as he recalled the distant memories, then sobered and continue his tale.
"Well, as ye can imagine, things were goin' all well an' good. But then thing's started tae get complicated. Fer starters, me voice started to develop.
"It wasn' so bad at first, but right aroun' fifteen, thing's started getting' interestin'. I 'ad always enjoyed singin' when I was a lad. One time when I was about fifteen, I was practicin' with me tutor. I hit a high note, an' every pane o' glass within' ten meters shattered.
"Me parents took me ta the doctors, thinkin' somethin' might be wrong. They couldnae find a single thing wrong. But as time went by, my screams got worse an' worse. Now, mind ye, the traditional banshee o' Irish folklore is female, but tae everyone around me, I was startin' ta sound more an' more like her.
"When I was nineteen, I ran away from home. I was becoming too much trouble for my parents. The neighbors started whisperin', an' I decided ta leave before I brought shame ta my family's name.
"I eventually ended up joinin' Interpol." Sean chuckled. "Yeah, that's right. I was on the straight an' narrow. Things were goin' well dere fer a while, I traveled a lot, got to see a lot o' the world. I was generally happy with me life.
"But I shoulda known better than ta think it would stay that way. Back home, me older cousin, who 'ad always been jealous o' me an' my standin' in the family, started sturrin' up trouble. Made some accusation's about me parents, an' about me. Eventually, he ended up framin' me fer the murder o' me own father. I had ta leave Interpol an' go inta hidin'
"I lived on the run like dat fer about five years. Dat's when Sinister found me. I don' know how er why exactly he managed to, I kept my tracks pretty well covered. But he did, an' he offered me purpose in life, a chance ta get off o' the street, if'n I'd just do what he asked. It was a pretty sweet deal at the time, how could I resist. I never knew things would turn out like they did, wha' happened tonight an' all."
Xavier nodded as he absorbed Banshee's story. "A most interesting set of circumstances, Mr. Cassidy. Although I imagine that your story will be just as, if not more interesting, Ms. Psylocke." Xavier turned to the purple-haired telepath. "You mentioned your name was Elizabeth Braddock. Any relation to the House of Braddock?"
Betsy gave a small smile. "The very same. I'm their only daughter."
"You will forgive me for pointing out, Ms. Braddock, that as far as I know, the House of Braddock has no Japanese lineage."
"You would be correct in that analysis, Professor. You must realize that I did not always look like this. My birth body was about a head shorter, had blond hair, and was not quite as…shapely."
"Indeed. Then perhaps you could enlighten us about how you came to be in the possession of the one you currently occupy. Does it have any significance to the odd marking over your eye?"
"It has every significance. This…" She pointed to the blood-red mark in the shape of a J, "Is the mark of The Hand. They are an order of assassins dating back hundreds, if not thousands, of years. When I was young, I was captured by a number of their organization."
She trailed off for a moment, as if considering what she would say next, then continued. "After that, things get a little fuzzy. I remember that this body once belonged to a woman named Kwannon, and that she was dying, but beyond that I can't form complete memories. I've diverted every bit of psychic power I have to unraveling the mystery, but I can't penetrate my own barriers."
Xavier considered this for a few moments. "Perhaps in time, working together, we may be able to solve that mystery. But that still doesn't explain how you came to work for Sinister."
"He promised to help me straighten out my memories. Looking back now, I don't know why I believed him, but I was so desperate at the time." She put her face in her hands. "God, my family must be so worried about me. I've been such a prat."
Xavier got a good chuckle out of that, so did most of the room. "Perhaps after we've gotten you cleaned up and settled in, we can see about contacting them."
Betsy looked up, a smile spreading over her beautiful features at the thought.
"Now, Mr. Bishop, concerning you-"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you, let's leave it at that." Bishop cut in, arms crossed over his broad chest.
"I…see." Xavier said, slightly flustered by the brusque response. "Perhaps you'd let me read your mind, that way I could get an idea-"
"I'd rather you didn't."
"Well…very well then." Xavier said, feeling a bit put out. He quickly turned to face Polaris, eager to continue.
"My story is a bit simpler than Sean's or Betsy's." Lorna said. "When my mutation manifested, my parents completely freaked out and threw me out of the house, telling me never to return. I was living on the streets when Sinister found me. As you can imagine, I jumped at the chance of a better life. I never imagined that life would include murder, which is why I chose to leave him, despite what he had done for me."
"I'm very sorry to hear about your past, Ms. Dane. It always grieves me when not even the ties of family are enough to cross the human-mutant barrier and unfortunately, yours is not an isolated case. And that leaves you, Sarah."
Sarah shrugged. She seemed rather bored sitting here listening to life stories, and appeared eager to get hers out of the way. "Mine's almost the same as Lorna's, except that I was always on the streets, an orphan from the start. I've done some things that aren't exactly high on the moral scale, but killing's not something even I'd stoop to, so I jumped ship." She shrugged. "No biggie."
"I see. Well, thank you Sarah. And all of you. There are just a few more things I need to ask of you before we're done here. What of your three former teammates who chose to remain loyal to Sinister?"
"Rictor, Mimic, an' Sauron. No surprise ta anyone they chose ta stay." Sean said.
"Rictor is Julio Ramirez." Lorna put in. "I can't say a lot about his background, but I do know that he was the first."
"The first what?" Xavier asked.
"The first Marauder. He was Sinister's first recruit, which is why Sinister made him the field commander."
"Mimic, or Calvin Rankin, as he's also known, isn't a mutant." Betsy said. "As I understand it, he gained his copying powers when he inhaled a mixture of chemicals as a child. No one knows what the compound was, and it hasn't been duplicated since."
Behind him, Xavier heard Beast pause for a moment in his note taking, and then begin to scribble more furiously. Xavier imagined that the nature of that chemical compound would be of great interest to Hank. He motioned for Psylocke to continue.
"Also, I don't think Sinister recruited Mimic so much as he hired him. He's something of a mercenary, I guess you could say, using his powers for the highest bidder."
"An' then there's Sauron." Sean said. "That boyo's perhaps the biggest mystery o' them all. His real name be Karl Lykos an' as a person, he's actually quite meek. He only transforms ta Sauron after he's had mutant energy ta feed on. How exactly he got ta changin' inta a human pterodactyl nobody can figure out. All we know is that his personality does a complete 180. He becomes all murderin' an' psycho, as ye've all seen."
"This is all extremely interesting." Xavier said. "The last thing I want to question you about is the attack on the Morlocks earlier this evening. Do you have any idea why Sinister would order such a thing?"
"All he told us was that the Morlocks were aberrations that needed to be cleansed from the gene pool." Polaris said, shuddering as she remembered the scene in the sewers."
"Obviously, Sinister must have replaced you. It is not possible that three men killed all those people."
Banshee shrugged. "If'n he did replace us, we didnae know about it. He never mentioned any other Marauders."
"He did replace you, I saw them myself." Evan said, speaking up for the first time.
"Can you tell us about them, Evan?" Xavier asked.
"Well, the first and most obvious one was the Juggernaut."
Xavier blinked, shocked at the news that his half-brother was involved. He shook it off and motioned for Evan to continue.
"Well, there was this one chick dressed in green and pink. I don't really know what she did. I heard the others call her Vertigo occasionally. Then there was this Japanese guy who could fly and shoot fire and stuff. I think he said his name was Sunfire or something like that.
"Then there was this guy who was almost as weird as that Sauron guy. He had really white skin, and he had these weird tentacle things that came out of the bottom of his wrists."
Wolverine suddenly became very interested in the conversation. He leaned across Xavier's desk and stared at Evan. "What did this guy call himself?" Logan demanded.
"Uhh…something…something-Red?"
"Omega Red?"
"Yeah! Yeah, that's it. Omega Red."
Wolverine growled and stood straight again. "Rosovitch, great."
"You know him, Logan?" Xavier asked.
"Yeah, me an' him tangled a while back. His real name's Arkady Rosovitch. He's a kind of Russian super-solider, the Communist answer to Captain America. I hadn' heard from him in years. And now here he is, turnin' up workin' fer Sinister and slaughtering mutants. This'll get real interestin'."
"Indeed. And the last replacement Evan?"
Some Irish guy with black hair and a goatee. He carried this walking stick that he blasted people with.
Sean spun in his chair to face Evan. "Black Tom? Did he call 'imself Black Tom?"
"Um, from what I remember, yeah."
Sean swore as he turned around again.
"An acquaintance, Sean?" Xavier asked.
"Tom is me older cousin, the one I told ye about? The one who murdered me father an' pinned the blame on me?"
"Ah, yes." Xavier said. "Another connection to the past working for Sinister."
"I shoulda expected it. That kind o' thing always was right up his alley."
Xavier nodded. "Thank you all for your time. Rooms will be provided for you shortly, but I have one final bit of business to attend to. Scott, Jean?"
The two mutants, who, despite being exhausted, had listened with rapt attention to the stories, straightened and looked to their mentor. "Yes, Professor?"
"I would like you to gather everyone and have them meet in the War Room. I would like to address them."
"Uhh, everyone Professor?" Scott asked.
"Everyone."
"I don't think the War Room can hold that many."
"Hmm, I see your point. Better make it the Danger Room, then. I'm sure that will accommodate everybody."
The two nodded and left to carry out their orders.
"The rest of you head down their now please. Show our guests the way." Everyone filed out of the study. Xavier stayed behind to confer with his three instructors for a few moments, then followed his students.
In the span of ten minutes, every occupant of the Institute was milling around the danger room, awaiting the Professor's arrival. Those not included in the meeting that took place earlier were engaging in many separate whispered conversations. Speculations passed back and forth about what this gathering was about, and also about the five former Marauders who stood off to one side, separated from the main body.
The Danger Room doors opened and Xavier rolled in, followed by Logan, Hank, and Ororo. All talking ceased immediately. Xavier smiled around at everyone, then began speaking.
"First of all, thank you all for coming. As our first order of business, I would like you all to welcome your new teammates. Please welcome Banshee, Psylocke, Polaris, Marrow, and Bishop."
There was a chorus of murmurs as this news sunk in. Practically the entire student body was weary of these new recruits. Those who had sat and listened to their stories, however, immediately broke into a round of applause, and the rest of the X-Men soon followed.
After the noise had died down, Xavier continued. "Now, we come to the main purpose of this meeting. As I am sure you are all well aware, our current roster totals at twenty-eight X-Men. It goes without saying that a number such as that could get a little difficult to manage."
"You're not gonna throw some of us out, are you?" Toad asked, sounding nervous. "Some of us don't have a place to go, ya know?"
Xavier smiled and shook his head. "You needn't fear Todd. I have no intention of throwing anyone out. This mansion can and will continue to accommodate you. Myself and the other instructors have simply devised away to make you all more manageable.
"You will each be divided into four teams; Blue, Gold, Silver, and Green. Each team will have seven members." Xavier reached under his chair and pulled out a piece of paper. "The teams have been set up thus:
"Blue Team will consist Cyclops, Jean, Rogue, Gambit, Sunspot, Berserker, and Psylocke.
"Gold Team will be Banshee, Colossus, Toad, Nightcrawler, Havok, Marrow, and Bishop.
"Silver Team will have Shadowcat, Avalanche, Polaris, Magma, Spyke, Cannonball, and Boom-Boom.
"Finally, Green Team will consist of Blob, Scarlet Witch, Iceman, Pyro, Wolfsbane, Jubilee, and Multiple." Xavier put the paper away, then addressed the X-Men again.
"Each team will have a leader who will command them in the field. Blue will be led by Cyclops." That news came as no surprise to anyone. They all expected the Professor's first student to have a leadership position.
"Gold Team will be led by Banshee, whose long experience will be a great asset, I believe. Plus, having a former enemy lead will promote acceptance and teamwork." Sean looked mildly shocked at being appointed Team Leader so soon after joining, but accepted the position in good grace.
"Silver Team shall have Avalanche as it's leader."
"Uhh…did you just say me, Professor?" Lance asked.
"That's right Lance. I know you already have leadership experience from the Brotherhood, and I'm confident you will do a fine job."
Lance was about to protest again, when Kitty bopped him on the head. "Just shut up and take the job will you?"
Lance smiled and nodded. "Alright, I will."
Xavier chuckled. "Excellent. That leaves us with Green. After careful consideration, I have decided to nominate Iceman as leader." There was a general uproar at Xavier's comment. "I know what you're all thinking!" He said, speaking over the noise until there was quite again. "I realize that Bobby has a reputation as a prankster, but he has shown a remarkable talent for tactics when he sets his mind to it. I have every confidence that he will perform admirably."
Most everyone seemed to accept this. A few were still weary though, especially the members of Green Team. Bobby gave them all his best 'You Can Trust Me' grin. That made them all the more weary.
"Well, that's everything, I believe. Now, all of you to bed. It's been a long day, and we have much to do in the coming days."
The X-Men slowly filed out of the Danger Room, talking amongst themselves as they headed for their rooms.
That night, five former Marauders experienced the first peaceful sleep any of them could remember for a long time.
Well, I hope that shines a little light on the Marauders for you all. I know there are still some mysteries to be solved, specifically about Bishop. Those will come to light very soon. Next chapter features more of the Friends of Humanity, as the newly developed Teams get their first test runs. Stay tuned! Cobra awayyyyy!
