Lexi Moore was growing impatient with Gambit and Rogue. It was apparent
both their comm-links were off, and neither had replied to her growing
number of messages. Kurt had been easy enough to reach, a tad of static and
he was set. It infuriated Lexi that neither Shadowcat, nor Julie, nor would
Paige take time off to aid a friend in need. She figured she was jumping to
conclusions, and she would let Strobe decide the course of action. Lexi was
a messenger; Strobe was a leader.
Finally it appeared Gambit's comm-link had received a message and was returning it. Lexi adjusted her headset and the frequency to reply.
A static-filled voice on the other end began to speak. "Hello? Hello? Did someone call? Bonjour? Hola? Anyone dere?"
"Gambit, this is Assassin." Lexi checked her screen: no new developments for the branch of S.H.I.E.L.D.
"Sassy! What brings you t'call?" The Cajun accent made understanding even more difficult. Lexi attempted to alter the frequency again.
"Must I tell you again? Call me Assassin. If you must indulge in petty nicknames, call me Lexi."
"Right, Sassy. Now why did ya call?" On the other end Gambit poked his head out his room door to make sure no one was eavesdropping.
"You're needed again. Our last attempt at S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't completely wipe them out. There is a base off in Nevada. It seems much like Sublime's U-Men of old, but more advanced. They've been performing a Weapon X type project to create super-soldiers. They are almost like the Sentinel program; they are mutant-robot hybrids built to kill other mutants."
"I t'ought we were on vacation." Gambit groaned. At last he had returned to a familiar place, met up with some lost friends, one in particular, and managed to get a good night's sleep without the fear of incoming S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.
"We need you to come. Rogue too, if she can. Do you need the stats, or should we brief you here?" Lexi altered the frequency yet again. This time he came in loud and clear. Lexi smiled for the first time of the day. Finally, something was working.
"Brief me now. Hang on." Remy covered the comm-link with his hand.
"Who're you talkin' to?" Rogue sat perched at the end of the bed.
"Sassy. She wants us back again." Remy closed the door. Rogue let her profane tongue speak its mind.
"Can't we ever get a decent break? Why, do they want us back to whoop some more Sentinels for them?" Rogue was plainly upset. Bad enough they had had to leave without telling anyone three years ago, now they had to repeat the process. "Can't that slut Strobe just fry them?"
Remy uncovered the comm-link. Making certain to accent the word "Sassy", he spoke.
"Okay, we're in, Sassy. Tell us all."
Though Lexi tried to hide her irritation at his annoying pet-name for her, she couldn't hide a certain hard edge in her voice. "The project is out in the Sierra Mountains. So far we've found that they are modifying mutants with 'useful' powers by transforming them into cyborgs. These cyborgs have only the partial genetic structure of the original mutants. However, they contain a computer microchip that controls them. The only known 'hub' to these microchips is in the aforementioned base. If we destroy the base, the cyborgs become utterly useless."
"What's so bad 'bout dese cyborgs?"
"They're set to hunt out mutants, much like Sentinels. They find the mutants that S.H.I.E.L.D. finds useful, then kill the rest. In the end, they all die, but the 'useful' ones just end up dying and getting turned into mechanical mercenaries instead. All we need is a way in and out. It should be a simple mission for a thief like you. We need you by tomorrow evening; that's our first strike and your chance to get in."
Lexi thought the exasperated sigh that followed sounded like "Where?", so she gave him the location.
"We'll be dere, we'll be dere. Long as we get a break afterwards."
"You have our word. You can take a five-month Caribbean cruise if you want. Long as you get this done. Regular security protocols." Lexi checked off another two members of the team roster. Things were going better than she'd expected.
"We're gonna want one heckuva cruise." Remy put down his comm-link. He wanted a Caribbean cruise where they all served gumbo, and buffalo wings for Rogue. He just wanted to rest all day and sunbathe and swim in a pool and sleep in. The last thing he wanted was to risk getting killed by a series of mutated robots.
Life wasn't easy. Remy and Rogue left the room empty. The crackling voice of Assassin was not heard on the comm-link as she softly gasped to herself.
"Oh God. This is worse than we thought."
Strobe and Aqua met Kurt in a remote region of Kenya. Cleverly piloting the Nightingale, a sister-jet to the Blackbird, they landed without so much as disturbing the herd of impalas two hundred meters away. A few of the cautious females raised their heads, and a nearby meerkat bolted, but for the most part, the animals felt unperturbed by this strange metal invader. Strobe redirected the flow of electricity to the batteries to dampen their sound. Aqua lowered the ramp.
Kurt stood there in his X-Men uniform. It hung a tad loosely on him, as if he'd lost weight since they'd last seen him. His face was gaunt, but his eyes still shone with the same flamboyant perkiness they always had. His tail was wrapped around the hilt of his cutlass and he beamed as they came down the ramp. Ororo, standing next to him, was dressed in a beautiful African garb, red and green and gold, and had her hair done up with an animal bone pin. Strobe felt obligated to converse with her.
"Beautiful attire, Ms. Munroe." Strobe had the sudden urge to bow to this woman before her. Truly the phrase goddess could be denoted to someone so regal.
"Thank you, Strobe. I came here to see Kurt off. You did tell me that this would be a simple mission, with little danger. If not, I would feel my presence necessary." Ororo's voice compelled obedience.
"Of course, Ms. Munroe. I understand your concern, but we should be fine. It will probably take less than a week to get everything sorted out. It's S.H.I.E.L.D. again. The last time was a synch." Strobe was using her refined dialect she had picked up throughout the years. Normally it took constant attention, but around Storm it came naturally.
"Don't become over-confident. You never know what S.H.I.E.L.D. has in store." Strobe decided to take this advice whole-heartedly.
"Mein Fraulein, farewell for now. I'll return." Kurt kissed Ororo on the cheek. He and Aqua bounded up the ramp into the jets. Strobe followed, but before ascending turned to Ororo and bowed. Ororo didn't see; her face was to the cockpit from which Kurt waved at her.
"Take care of yourself, Kurt!" Ororo gave them a tailwind to get started. They left, and Storm waited until they were completely out of sight before turning and walking away. She was nervous beneath her calm exterior. Strobe had not yet made enough mistakes to realize the penalties. She was rash, inexperienced, not the kind of person Storm would want as a leader. She had not yet seen death, not had anyone torn away from her, not had to cry herself to sleep. What price would she pay if she wasn't ready, or acted prematurely? If so, who would ultimately be held responsible, who would have to take the fall? Who would be the one to lose everything?
As the sun began to set, Ororo prayed that Katy-Jo's good luck did not run thin.
"Why do you have to leave? You just got here three days ago. I don't understand." SheCat looked into Remy's satanic-colored eyes. She had caught him and Rogue trying to be secretive about taking off on the motorbike in the wee hours of dawn. The sun was yet to rise, and a few singular stars speckled the violet sky. Rogue was already on the motorbike; Remy stayed a second to come out on the driveway and hold SheCat's two hands in his. She was plainly afraid he wouldn't return for some time. "I'll miss you."
"I'll be back soon. You can count on it." He dropped her hands and returned to the motorbike, blowing the SheCat a soft kiss as he mounted, leaving no explanation. Rogue didn't see as she checked her fuel gage. She revved the bike.
"We'll see y'all around, SheCat. Don't have such a long face." With that final comment they accelerated down the driveway, rounded the curb and were lost from sight. SheCat was left alone again, parodying the morning vigil she had kept for three long years.
"Lexi! Any new developments?" Aqua strode into the Nevada base, Kurt and Strobe following. Lexi wheeled around in her chair, holding her team roster list and printed out pages of the S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters. Strobe walked behind her and peered over her shoulder and Kurt took to a crouching position on the desk, in order to give himself a view. Aqua stood behind Strobe, tall enough to give himself a decent view as Lexi whirled again to accommodate for the change in position.
"Katherine, Paige and Julie couldn't make it, or so they said. Gambit and Rogue called, and should be arriving by motorbike tomorrow at around three o' clock New York time. You'll need to pick them up about here, about that time." She indicated to a map, pointing at a small point in Colorado marked R&R.
"Can't they just finish the drive?" Aqua pressed Lexi with questions. Lexi would know, she had been trained by Sage.
"They don't have enough money or gas, and they don't trust the motorbike. They said it was 'misbehaving'. Supposedly it isn't driving smoothly and has trouble steering." Lexi replied coldly. Aqua always expected everything to be easy, hanging around Katy-Jo and ordering others around. Lexi was the one who did all the work, hacking, typing, code- breaking, organizing. She picked up a pile of photocopies and printed pages, passed them to Strobe.
"It gets worse. The main control center we were going to strike at was a decoy. The real control center is located at the base of the cliff. The only way in-" Strobe cut her off.
"Is directly through the entire base. Dear God, it'll be like trying to get through a minefield!" Strobe flipped through the print-outs again and cursed. "This is definitely not what we expected at all."
"It increases the risk factor by a good deal. The infiltrators will not only be passing through the cyborg's hangar, but also the human armory and sleeping quarters. This means that they will not only have to deal with cyborgs, but with human soldiers as well, and armed ones at that, if they alert the armory." Lexi turned to Strobe. "You realize that whoever goes in there has little chance of getting out without getting into a firefight." Strobe swore again.
"Are ve still going through with the plan?" Kurt peered at the papers in Katy-Jo's hands. The base itself was half a mile long, but the only way through involved a series of hallways, doors and security systems.
"Yeah. We've got to do this. But we might as well warn Gambit and Rogue: it's gonna be dangerous and it's gonna be ugly."
Exactly 21 hours, 17 minutes and 22 seconds later, as Lexi had timed, Gambit and Rogue's motorbike pulled up to the Nightingale, parked on a remote Colorado highway. The ramp was already down, and all four of the other team members were waiting at its base. Kurt was hanging upside down from one of the ramp's upper supports, Aqua was lazily resting on the bottom step, and Assassin and Strobe stood up waiting. Strobe, because she felt it necessary to maintain the leader image, Assassin because she thought it was very un-businesslike and also very uncomfortable to sit down in anything but a computer-desk chair.
Rogue was driving, and Gambit had fallen asleep in the backseat, after having driven eleven straight hours. As they pulled up, she gave him a light smack on the chin, and he came to.
"You're four minutes late." Lexi reported. "And approximately eighteen seconds."
"Who asked you?" Rogue was quite cranky. She had driven for more than ten hours, and Lexi's annoying comments was not improving her mood at all. "Why do you care so much 'bout a measly little four minutes?"
"And eighteen seconds. I was trained by a human-computer to pay attention to this kind of stuff." Kurt helped the still-drowsy Remy carry the motorbike into the jet. Rogue glared a second at Lexi, until Strobe came forward to check her comm-link "just in case". Lexi, nose in the air, picked her way up the ramp, making certain to shoot an icy glance at the Southern girl. Assassin and Rogue never had gotten along, especially when it came to matters of detail. Assassin was both accurate and precise, consistent and meticulous. Rogue simply got things done.
The interior of the Nightingale had a different feel from the Blackbird. The inside was more home-like, seeing as the team mostly had to live in it. It had five rooms: the control room/cockpit, two bedrooms and the engine compartment. A small hallway connected the rooms. Rogue, exhausted, fell atop on of the beds in her and Remy's room. Gambit grabbed some salted turkey-jerky out of the control room, then crashed out beside her, still half-asleep. Lexi sneered at both of them.
Strobe had the personality quirk of studying Gambit constantly, attempting, vainly, to understand her friend's infatuation with the man. She honestly had no idea. True, he was compassionate at times, but he could also be stand-offish. To Katy-Jo he always seemed that he had either not had enough rest, or way too much. And he was argumentative, sometimes boastful, and often cold to others. His only truly endearing fact was his looks, which Aqua beat out any day.
Katy-Jo switched her view-point to that of an optimist. He was actually quite humorous, when she thought about it, very intelligent despite his goofy image, and even, she admitted, empathetic to others. He did have his good points, and in her years working with him, she often admired his determination, resourcefulness, and perkiness. His selflessness had, though almost costing him his life on multiple occasions, saved the mission and the team many times over. Plus, he had certain spunk to him. Though Strobe would never love the man, she liked his presence.
Strobe had just gotten used to Rogue's fairly soft sleep murmuring when a much louder sound erupted from the room. Strobe grimaced; Remy snored.
The moon had barely risen when the team finally set out on their mission. They had to operate by darkness. For Kurt, this wasn't a problem; his keen night eyes let him see with a fair amount of ease as he moved stealthily among the trees, almost invisible from the shadows, the only material not skin being his black pants. He had a physique that would make any girl drool, and it served him well as he swung in between braches. His years in the circus paid off, and he was close enough to the high security establishment to spot any potential ways in. Most of the higher, less guarded windows seemed potential candidates, hoping that the others could make a sufficient distraction. Unable to bamf because of the noise, he slipped quietly back into the dark.
"Can you safely take both of them? Is there a safe landing spot for you?" Strobe pressed him with questions when he reported back. Because of Lexi's discovery, Strobe was taking extra precautions. Kurt affirmed the questions, and Katy-Jo continued. "Okay. Nightcrawler, you take Gambit and Rogue up into the trees and wait until the brawl starts. Aqua, start us off. I want the entire lower story inundated. Assassin, you pick off the first people who run, I'll deal with anything shooting at us from the upper stories. Nightcrawler, take them in as soon as the way is clear, wait until we're all shooting. Then, you've got the directions. Get to the control room and tear the place apart. Assassin and Aqua, when I give the word we storm the place and wreck it. Remember, we're not aiming to kill." There was a snort. Surprisingly, it was not from Rogue, but from Assassin. "Good luck, everyone. Let's go." Strobe began scaling a nearby tree, followed by Aqua. Kurt grabbed Remy and Rogue, and with a soft bamfing sound, disappeared.
Lexi held her bow and quiver close, carefully laying her finger on each arrow in turn. Forty arrows in all. Hopefully forty would be enough. Carefully putting on her quiver, she removed an arrow and set it to the bowstring, and stalked quietly off in the direction of the others.
Mr. Jansen was calmly checking the generators on his nightly watch when the attack was initiated. Checking the pressure, normal, and the water temperature, also normal, he figured he could stop and eat the ham and cheese sandwich his wife had made for him. He rested on the sole chair, overlooking the entire room, and unwrapped the sandwich in all its cholesterol glory. Looking at the sandwich, he took a monstrous bite of it, a little bit of mayonnaise collecting on the unshaven stubble of his chin. As he prepared to take another, he happened to look at the floor. A trickle of water was seeping over the ground. Instantly he leapt up and checked the generators. Nothing was leaking, but the floor now had a fine layer of water coating it, and that was steadily rising. Strangely, he noticed that the water seemed only to be rising, as if the only ripples were created by him.
A low roar of rushing water caused him to look up at the door. The door was closed, but it was not for long. With a swift current, Mr. Jansen was carried away. The sandwich floated harmlessly on the surface.
Outside, Aqua dropped his raised arms. Ducking behind a tree as angry and confused soldiers came out, he spoke softly to Katy-Jo.
"I think that should be good." He was sweating. He had had trouble filling small swimming pools before; an entire lower story had been a tiring task.
"Don't worry, Assassin and I will take it from here." Strobe poked her head out from behind the tree. Raising her hand, she focused on the patterns of electro-magnetism. A spark popped and crackled between her fingers, then a bright, flashing bolt of electricity bowled into the first soldier. Focusing again, another volley of blasts incapacitated the next wave of soldiers. But now she was under fire.
Assassin, located behind another tree, had her bow loaded. Strobe had told her not to kill. Strobe was a good leader, but these people had threatened her race. They slaughtered her kind, used their bodies as hosts for more foul deeds. Assassin would never let that go unpunished.
Concentrating on her arrow, she brought her mutation into play. The first thing her arrow touched, it would pass directly through. Stone, wood, fabric, skin, nothing, not even adamantium, would stand against the physical force, and then the arrow would have one less obstacle to worry about.
She saw Strobe, under fire, throwing low-powered lightning around. Living up to her name, causing chaos among the inertia of the soldiers and knocking the rest over. She saw one grab a grenade, pull the pin, and cock it to throw. Lexi sighted her arrow. She aimed for his heart.
Kurt bamfed Gambit and Rogue in. The window was an easy entrance, and it appeared that there was no one in the hall. They were all outside getting shocked, or shot at by a mercenary archer. No one had bothered to patrol these halls. Thankful for small favors, Kurt led Remy and Rogue further, mentally processing where they were and where they were going.
Remy suddenly stopped Nightcrawler. Holding his shoulder, he led him back a few paces, then pulled what looked like a spray-can out of his trenchcoat. Kurt watched as he leaned over, sprayed the air, then blew on it. A glowing red laser system lay itself visible for the next five yards, in a checkerboard pattern. Kurt could barely make out a door at the end of the hall.
Motioning silently to Kurt, Rogue wrapped her arms around him. He bamfed to the end of the hall, returned for Gambit, then watched as Rogue took Remy's spray can and hit the doorknob with it. Nothing. Cautiously, she opened it.
What they saw next took their breath away.
Strobe heard an explosion, and instinctively turned to see if Assassin was unharmed. She saw her, calmly aiming her bow, the same cold expression in her eyes that she saw in cats, waiting for the mouse to run. The bowstring twanged almost musically, and a sound Katy-Jo could never describe as anything but a death rattle followed. Strobe called out to Lexi.
"Assassin, stop it! We were aiming not to kill! Stop it!" Strobe was almost pleading. She didn't like to kill; she did not want to see death. Lexi looked at her coldly, then returned to drawing the bowstring. It danced and hummed as she fired arrow after arrow. Body armor was nothing; helmets were as useful as air. Screams filled the air as the shafts rained down, each one accurate. One scream for one arrow. Strobe's faith in Lexi fell like ashes to the ground. "X-Men don't kill!"
Assassin's voice was cold and calculated, every word building up a foundation of rage and hate until it threatened to spill over. "They discriminate against us. The innocents I will not harm, but those butchers will pay in blood for every mutant child abandoned, every little boy forced to work in the freak-show, every teenage girl selling her body for money that her parents wouldn't give to her because she was different. This is for the Sentinel Act, for Weapon X, for the Savage Land! This is for us, Strobe, this is for us!" Assassin fired her last arrow, heard one last shriek, then leapt noiselessly down from the tree.
Strobe and Aqua stayed in their tree, watching her as she waited for anyone stupid enough to come close, crouched behind a tree. Spitting out words like hot poison, Aqua called to her.
"You sound like Mystique, don't you know that?" Lexi didn't care.
Ten cyborgs were in a hibernating state. The room itself was a broad hallway, each side lined by five metallic vigils. Rogue walked in first, followed by Kurt, then Remy, guarding the back, bo-staff extended. He closed the door quietly behind him. Kurt got a hold on the wall, then started crawling up to the ceiling for a better vantage.
For a second they all stood in morbid fascination at the cyborgs. Most were half machine, half mutant. It seemed that the mutant half had been preserved well, and though dead, could easily be animated. They were humanoid, of different size, as if a person and a robot had been split down the middle then mix and matched. One stood out at them, half metallic, then half of what looked like a preteen boy. The hair had grown long from lack of treatment, and the skin had careful patterns of microchips imbedded just beneath the skin. The face was hidden mainly by the dark, but the metallic eye, the open red one, still haunted them.
Remy grabbed Rogue's gloved hand, and they started to tiptoe to the other end, careful to make as little noise as possible. Rogue grabbed Gambit's trenchcoat pocket as it started to jangle and clack ever so faintly from poker chips. Gambit suddenly stopped her.
"Wait.weren't dere ten cyborgs?" Remy motioned to the right side of the hall, filled with shadow. Rogue followed his gaze. The wall had only four cyborgs on it. The one they had been looking at was gone.
"What the -!" Rogue felt something very solid slam into the base of her skull, sending her into a partial back-flip and cutting off her cry. A second later Kurt was knocked from the ceiling. Remy half-turned in confusion, then received a blow to his jaw that lay him flat.
"Who's hittin' us?!?!" Rogue cried out again as she felt, but didn't see, something pummel her face. Covering her bleeding nose and lip with one of her hands, she lashed out. Her fist connected with something metal, and for the briefest moment she thought she saw a glimpse of the cyborg in front of her. "He's invisible!" Another blow, now to her stomach, doubled her over.
I t'ink we figured dat out. Remy thought. As he tried to stand, the cyborg whirled around him, chipping at him, clockwise it seemed, but he rose and swung the bo-staff, baseball style, in the opposite direction. He felt it connect harder than expected. The staff spun out of his hands, and the cyborg appeared before them, on the ground, and let out an ear-piercing alarm.
Kurt was fast enough on his feet to avoid the brunt of the first blow as another cyborg shot at him. He bamfed directly behind it, jackhammer kicked it to lay it flat. Rogue was dealing with her own problems, being shot at by one and in a fist fight with another. Gambit dove for his staff, and narrowly dodged a kick to his head. The ensuing chaos was enough to drown out Rogue's cursing, and the sound as the door swung open, revealing behind it at least thirty armed soldiers.
"What's going on here?! I thought they were all outside!" The military sentry in the front row caught sight of Kurt as he bamfed to the front and simultaneously punched and kicked a soldier, then bamfed away to resume quarreling with the cyborgs. "Capture the intruders! Set cyborgs to stun! Keep them alive or the General will have our heads!"
"Kurt! Get outta here!" Remy was surrounded by no less than three cyborgs, all attempting knock him silly with their frying-pan sized hands. Another was shooting at him, chipping some kind of toxic dart, and it was all he could do to avoid the initial attackers. Four darts stabbed into his neck. "Get Rogue and get outta here!"
"Bamf, Kurt! Forget about me!" Rogue, too, had taken a dart, and was beginning to feel the effects as her every action slowed down. Kurt took a last look at them.
I'll be back for you. I swear. With that final thought, he bamfed away. A dart aimed for him hit the wall behind.
SheCat was asleep when one of the girls in her dorm woke her up with the wireless phone. Fluttering her eyes to clear them, she wondered who would call at one a.m.
"Hello?"
"SheCat, we need you now."
"Who is this?"
"This is Assassin. I work with Strobe. You're needed."
"What?"
"Rogue and Gambit have been captured."
Finally it appeared Gambit's comm-link had received a message and was returning it. Lexi adjusted her headset and the frequency to reply.
A static-filled voice on the other end began to speak. "Hello? Hello? Did someone call? Bonjour? Hola? Anyone dere?"
"Gambit, this is Assassin." Lexi checked her screen: no new developments for the branch of S.H.I.E.L.D.
"Sassy! What brings you t'call?" The Cajun accent made understanding even more difficult. Lexi attempted to alter the frequency again.
"Must I tell you again? Call me Assassin. If you must indulge in petty nicknames, call me Lexi."
"Right, Sassy. Now why did ya call?" On the other end Gambit poked his head out his room door to make sure no one was eavesdropping.
"You're needed again. Our last attempt at S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't completely wipe them out. There is a base off in Nevada. It seems much like Sublime's U-Men of old, but more advanced. They've been performing a Weapon X type project to create super-soldiers. They are almost like the Sentinel program; they are mutant-robot hybrids built to kill other mutants."
"I t'ought we were on vacation." Gambit groaned. At last he had returned to a familiar place, met up with some lost friends, one in particular, and managed to get a good night's sleep without the fear of incoming S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.
"We need you to come. Rogue too, if she can. Do you need the stats, or should we brief you here?" Lexi altered the frequency yet again. This time he came in loud and clear. Lexi smiled for the first time of the day. Finally, something was working.
"Brief me now. Hang on." Remy covered the comm-link with his hand.
"Who're you talkin' to?" Rogue sat perched at the end of the bed.
"Sassy. She wants us back again." Remy closed the door. Rogue let her profane tongue speak its mind.
"Can't we ever get a decent break? Why, do they want us back to whoop some more Sentinels for them?" Rogue was plainly upset. Bad enough they had had to leave without telling anyone three years ago, now they had to repeat the process. "Can't that slut Strobe just fry them?"
Remy uncovered the comm-link. Making certain to accent the word "Sassy", he spoke.
"Okay, we're in, Sassy. Tell us all."
Though Lexi tried to hide her irritation at his annoying pet-name for her, she couldn't hide a certain hard edge in her voice. "The project is out in the Sierra Mountains. So far we've found that they are modifying mutants with 'useful' powers by transforming them into cyborgs. These cyborgs have only the partial genetic structure of the original mutants. However, they contain a computer microchip that controls them. The only known 'hub' to these microchips is in the aforementioned base. If we destroy the base, the cyborgs become utterly useless."
"What's so bad 'bout dese cyborgs?"
"They're set to hunt out mutants, much like Sentinels. They find the mutants that S.H.I.E.L.D. finds useful, then kill the rest. In the end, they all die, but the 'useful' ones just end up dying and getting turned into mechanical mercenaries instead. All we need is a way in and out. It should be a simple mission for a thief like you. We need you by tomorrow evening; that's our first strike and your chance to get in."
Lexi thought the exasperated sigh that followed sounded like "Where?", so she gave him the location.
"We'll be dere, we'll be dere. Long as we get a break afterwards."
"You have our word. You can take a five-month Caribbean cruise if you want. Long as you get this done. Regular security protocols." Lexi checked off another two members of the team roster. Things were going better than she'd expected.
"We're gonna want one heckuva cruise." Remy put down his comm-link. He wanted a Caribbean cruise where they all served gumbo, and buffalo wings for Rogue. He just wanted to rest all day and sunbathe and swim in a pool and sleep in. The last thing he wanted was to risk getting killed by a series of mutated robots.
Life wasn't easy. Remy and Rogue left the room empty. The crackling voice of Assassin was not heard on the comm-link as she softly gasped to herself.
"Oh God. This is worse than we thought."
Strobe and Aqua met Kurt in a remote region of Kenya. Cleverly piloting the Nightingale, a sister-jet to the Blackbird, they landed without so much as disturbing the herd of impalas two hundred meters away. A few of the cautious females raised their heads, and a nearby meerkat bolted, but for the most part, the animals felt unperturbed by this strange metal invader. Strobe redirected the flow of electricity to the batteries to dampen their sound. Aqua lowered the ramp.
Kurt stood there in his X-Men uniform. It hung a tad loosely on him, as if he'd lost weight since they'd last seen him. His face was gaunt, but his eyes still shone with the same flamboyant perkiness they always had. His tail was wrapped around the hilt of his cutlass and he beamed as they came down the ramp. Ororo, standing next to him, was dressed in a beautiful African garb, red and green and gold, and had her hair done up with an animal bone pin. Strobe felt obligated to converse with her.
"Beautiful attire, Ms. Munroe." Strobe had the sudden urge to bow to this woman before her. Truly the phrase goddess could be denoted to someone so regal.
"Thank you, Strobe. I came here to see Kurt off. You did tell me that this would be a simple mission, with little danger. If not, I would feel my presence necessary." Ororo's voice compelled obedience.
"Of course, Ms. Munroe. I understand your concern, but we should be fine. It will probably take less than a week to get everything sorted out. It's S.H.I.E.L.D. again. The last time was a synch." Strobe was using her refined dialect she had picked up throughout the years. Normally it took constant attention, but around Storm it came naturally.
"Don't become over-confident. You never know what S.H.I.E.L.D. has in store." Strobe decided to take this advice whole-heartedly.
"Mein Fraulein, farewell for now. I'll return." Kurt kissed Ororo on the cheek. He and Aqua bounded up the ramp into the jets. Strobe followed, but before ascending turned to Ororo and bowed. Ororo didn't see; her face was to the cockpit from which Kurt waved at her.
"Take care of yourself, Kurt!" Ororo gave them a tailwind to get started. They left, and Storm waited until they were completely out of sight before turning and walking away. She was nervous beneath her calm exterior. Strobe had not yet made enough mistakes to realize the penalties. She was rash, inexperienced, not the kind of person Storm would want as a leader. She had not yet seen death, not had anyone torn away from her, not had to cry herself to sleep. What price would she pay if she wasn't ready, or acted prematurely? If so, who would ultimately be held responsible, who would have to take the fall? Who would be the one to lose everything?
As the sun began to set, Ororo prayed that Katy-Jo's good luck did not run thin.
"Why do you have to leave? You just got here three days ago. I don't understand." SheCat looked into Remy's satanic-colored eyes. She had caught him and Rogue trying to be secretive about taking off on the motorbike in the wee hours of dawn. The sun was yet to rise, and a few singular stars speckled the violet sky. Rogue was already on the motorbike; Remy stayed a second to come out on the driveway and hold SheCat's two hands in his. She was plainly afraid he wouldn't return for some time. "I'll miss you."
"I'll be back soon. You can count on it." He dropped her hands and returned to the motorbike, blowing the SheCat a soft kiss as he mounted, leaving no explanation. Rogue didn't see as she checked her fuel gage. She revved the bike.
"We'll see y'all around, SheCat. Don't have such a long face." With that final comment they accelerated down the driveway, rounded the curb and were lost from sight. SheCat was left alone again, parodying the morning vigil she had kept for three long years.
"Lexi! Any new developments?" Aqua strode into the Nevada base, Kurt and Strobe following. Lexi wheeled around in her chair, holding her team roster list and printed out pages of the S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters. Strobe walked behind her and peered over her shoulder and Kurt took to a crouching position on the desk, in order to give himself a view. Aqua stood behind Strobe, tall enough to give himself a decent view as Lexi whirled again to accommodate for the change in position.
"Katherine, Paige and Julie couldn't make it, or so they said. Gambit and Rogue called, and should be arriving by motorbike tomorrow at around three o' clock New York time. You'll need to pick them up about here, about that time." She indicated to a map, pointing at a small point in Colorado marked R&R.
"Can't they just finish the drive?" Aqua pressed Lexi with questions. Lexi would know, she had been trained by Sage.
"They don't have enough money or gas, and they don't trust the motorbike. They said it was 'misbehaving'. Supposedly it isn't driving smoothly and has trouble steering." Lexi replied coldly. Aqua always expected everything to be easy, hanging around Katy-Jo and ordering others around. Lexi was the one who did all the work, hacking, typing, code- breaking, organizing. She picked up a pile of photocopies and printed pages, passed them to Strobe.
"It gets worse. The main control center we were going to strike at was a decoy. The real control center is located at the base of the cliff. The only way in-" Strobe cut her off.
"Is directly through the entire base. Dear God, it'll be like trying to get through a minefield!" Strobe flipped through the print-outs again and cursed. "This is definitely not what we expected at all."
"It increases the risk factor by a good deal. The infiltrators will not only be passing through the cyborg's hangar, but also the human armory and sleeping quarters. This means that they will not only have to deal with cyborgs, but with human soldiers as well, and armed ones at that, if they alert the armory." Lexi turned to Strobe. "You realize that whoever goes in there has little chance of getting out without getting into a firefight." Strobe swore again.
"Are ve still going through with the plan?" Kurt peered at the papers in Katy-Jo's hands. The base itself was half a mile long, but the only way through involved a series of hallways, doors and security systems.
"Yeah. We've got to do this. But we might as well warn Gambit and Rogue: it's gonna be dangerous and it's gonna be ugly."
Exactly 21 hours, 17 minutes and 22 seconds later, as Lexi had timed, Gambit and Rogue's motorbike pulled up to the Nightingale, parked on a remote Colorado highway. The ramp was already down, and all four of the other team members were waiting at its base. Kurt was hanging upside down from one of the ramp's upper supports, Aqua was lazily resting on the bottom step, and Assassin and Strobe stood up waiting. Strobe, because she felt it necessary to maintain the leader image, Assassin because she thought it was very un-businesslike and also very uncomfortable to sit down in anything but a computer-desk chair.
Rogue was driving, and Gambit had fallen asleep in the backseat, after having driven eleven straight hours. As they pulled up, she gave him a light smack on the chin, and he came to.
"You're four minutes late." Lexi reported. "And approximately eighteen seconds."
"Who asked you?" Rogue was quite cranky. She had driven for more than ten hours, and Lexi's annoying comments was not improving her mood at all. "Why do you care so much 'bout a measly little four minutes?"
"And eighteen seconds. I was trained by a human-computer to pay attention to this kind of stuff." Kurt helped the still-drowsy Remy carry the motorbike into the jet. Rogue glared a second at Lexi, until Strobe came forward to check her comm-link "just in case". Lexi, nose in the air, picked her way up the ramp, making certain to shoot an icy glance at the Southern girl. Assassin and Rogue never had gotten along, especially when it came to matters of detail. Assassin was both accurate and precise, consistent and meticulous. Rogue simply got things done.
The interior of the Nightingale had a different feel from the Blackbird. The inside was more home-like, seeing as the team mostly had to live in it. It had five rooms: the control room/cockpit, two bedrooms and the engine compartment. A small hallway connected the rooms. Rogue, exhausted, fell atop on of the beds in her and Remy's room. Gambit grabbed some salted turkey-jerky out of the control room, then crashed out beside her, still half-asleep. Lexi sneered at both of them.
Strobe had the personality quirk of studying Gambit constantly, attempting, vainly, to understand her friend's infatuation with the man. She honestly had no idea. True, he was compassionate at times, but he could also be stand-offish. To Katy-Jo he always seemed that he had either not had enough rest, or way too much. And he was argumentative, sometimes boastful, and often cold to others. His only truly endearing fact was his looks, which Aqua beat out any day.
Katy-Jo switched her view-point to that of an optimist. He was actually quite humorous, when she thought about it, very intelligent despite his goofy image, and even, she admitted, empathetic to others. He did have his good points, and in her years working with him, she often admired his determination, resourcefulness, and perkiness. His selflessness had, though almost costing him his life on multiple occasions, saved the mission and the team many times over. Plus, he had certain spunk to him. Though Strobe would never love the man, she liked his presence.
Strobe had just gotten used to Rogue's fairly soft sleep murmuring when a much louder sound erupted from the room. Strobe grimaced; Remy snored.
The moon had barely risen when the team finally set out on their mission. They had to operate by darkness. For Kurt, this wasn't a problem; his keen night eyes let him see with a fair amount of ease as he moved stealthily among the trees, almost invisible from the shadows, the only material not skin being his black pants. He had a physique that would make any girl drool, and it served him well as he swung in between braches. His years in the circus paid off, and he was close enough to the high security establishment to spot any potential ways in. Most of the higher, less guarded windows seemed potential candidates, hoping that the others could make a sufficient distraction. Unable to bamf because of the noise, he slipped quietly back into the dark.
"Can you safely take both of them? Is there a safe landing spot for you?" Strobe pressed him with questions when he reported back. Because of Lexi's discovery, Strobe was taking extra precautions. Kurt affirmed the questions, and Katy-Jo continued. "Okay. Nightcrawler, you take Gambit and Rogue up into the trees and wait until the brawl starts. Aqua, start us off. I want the entire lower story inundated. Assassin, you pick off the first people who run, I'll deal with anything shooting at us from the upper stories. Nightcrawler, take them in as soon as the way is clear, wait until we're all shooting. Then, you've got the directions. Get to the control room and tear the place apart. Assassin and Aqua, when I give the word we storm the place and wreck it. Remember, we're not aiming to kill." There was a snort. Surprisingly, it was not from Rogue, but from Assassin. "Good luck, everyone. Let's go." Strobe began scaling a nearby tree, followed by Aqua. Kurt grabbed Remy and Rogue, and with a soft bamfing sound, disappeared.
Lexi held her bow and quiver close, carefully laying her finger on each arrow in turn. Forty arrows in all. Hopefully forty would be enough. Carefully putting on her quiver, she removed an arrow and set it to the bowstring, and stalked quietly off in the direction of the others.
Mr. Jansen was calmly checking the generators on his nightly watch when the attack was initiated. Checking the pressure, normal, and the water temperature, also normal, he figured he could stop and eat the ham and cheese sandwich his wife had made for him. He rested on the sole chair, overlooking the entire room, and unwrapped the sandwich in all its cholesterol glory. Looking at the sandwich, he took a monstrous bite of it, a little bit of mayonnaise collecting on the unshaven stubble of his chin. As he prepared to take another, he happened to look at the floor. A trickle of water was seeping over the ground. Instantly he leapt up and checked the generators. Nothing was leaking, but the floor now had a fine layer of water coating it, and that was steadily rising. Strangely, he noticed that the water seemed only to be rising, as if the only ripples were created by him.
A low roar of rushing water caused him to look up at the door. The door was closed, but it was not for long. With a swift current, Mr. Jansen was carried away. The sandwich floated harmlessly on the surface.
Outside, Aqua dropped his raised arms. Ducking behind a tree as angry and confused soldiers came out, he spoke softly to Katy-Jo.
"I think that should be good." He was sweating. He had had trouble filling small swimming pools before; an entire lower story had been a tiring task.
"Don't worry, Assassin and I will take it from here." Strobe poked her head out from behind the tree. Raising her hand, she focused on the patterns of electro-magnetism. A spark popped and crackled between her fingers, then a bright, flashing bolt of electricity bowled into the first soldier. Focusing again, another volley of blasts incapacitated the next wave of soldiers. But now she was under fire.
Assassin, located behind another tree, had her bow loaded. Strobe had told her not to kill. Strobe was a good leader, but these people had threatened her race. They slaughtered her kind, used their bodies as hosts for more foul deeds. Assassin would never let that go unpunished.
Concentrating on her arrow, she brought her mutation into play. The first thing her arrow touched, it would pass directly through. Stone, wood, fabric, skin, nothing, not even adamantium, would stand against the physical force, and then the arrow would have one less obstacle to worry about.
She saw Strobe, under fire, throwing low-powered lightning around. Living up to her name, causing chaos among the inertia of the soldiers and knocking the rest over. She saw one grab a grenade, pull the pin, and cock it to throw. Lexi sighted her arrow. She aimed for his heart.
Kurt bamfed Gambit and Rogue in. The window was an easy entrance, and it appeared that there was no one in the hall. They were all outside getting shocked, or shot at by a mercenary archer. No one had bothered to patrol these halls. Thankful for small favors, Kurt led Remy and Rogue further, mentally processing where they were and where they were going.
Remy suddenly stopped Nightcrawler. Holding his shoulder, he led him back a few paces, then pulled what looked like a spray-can out of his trenchcoat. Kurt watched as he leaned over, sprayed the air, then blew on it. A glowing red laser system lay itself visible for the next five yards, in a checkerboard pattern. Kurt could barely make out a door at the end of the hall.
Motioning silently to Kurt, Rogue wrapped her arms around him. He bamfed to the end of the hall, returned for Gambit, then watched as Rogue took Remy's spray can and hit the doorknob with it. Nothing. Cautiously, she opened it.
What they saw next took their breath away.
Strobe heard an explosion, and instinctively turned to see if Assassin was unharmed. She saw her, calmly aiming her bow, the same cold expression in her eyes that she saw in cats, waiting for the mouse to run. The bowstring twanged almost musically, and a sound Katy-Jo could never describe as anything but a death rattle followed. Strobe called out to Lexi.
"Assassin, stop it! We were aiming not to kill! Stop it!" Strobe was almost pleading. She didn't like to kill; she did not want to see death. Lexi looked at her coldly, then returned to drawing the bowstring. It danced and hummed as she fired arrow after arrow. Body armor was nothing; helmets were as useful as air. Screams filled the air as the shafts rained down, each one accurate. One scream for one arrow. Strobe's faith in Lexi fell like ashes to the ground. "X-Men don't kill!"
Assassin's voice was cold and calculated, every word building up a foundation of rage and hate until it threatened to spill over. "They discriminate against us. The innocents I will not harm, but those butchers will pay in blood for every mutant child abandoned, every little boy forced to work in the freak-show, every teenage girl selling her body for money that her parents wouldn't give to her because she was different. This is for the Sentinel Act, for Weapon X, for the Savage Land! This is for us, Strobe, this is for us!" Assassin fired her last arrow, heard one last shriek, then leapt noiselessly down from the tree.
Strobe and Aqua stayed in their tree, watching her as she waited for anyone stupid enough to come close, crouched behind a tree. Spitting out words like hot poison, Aqua called to her.
"You sound like Mystique, don't you know that?" Lexi didn't care.
Ten cyborgs were in a hibernating state. The room itself was a broad hallway, each side lined by five metallic vigils. Rogue walked in first, followed by Kurt, then Remy, guarding the back, bo-staff extended. He closed the door quietly behind him. Kurt got a hold on the wall, then started crawling up to the ceiling for a better vantage.
For a second they all stood in morbid fascination at the cyborgs. Most were half machine, half mutant. It seemed that the mutant half had been preserved well, and though dead, could easily be animated. They were humanoid, of different size, as if a person and a robot had been split down the middle then mix and matched. One stood out at them, half metallic, then half of what looked like a preteen boy. The hair had grown long from lack of treatment, and the skin had careful patterns of microchips imbedded just beneath the skin. The face was hidden mainly by the dark, but the metallic eye, the open red one, still haunted them.
Remy grabbed Rogue's gloved hand, and they started to tiptoe to the other end, careful to make as little noise as possible. Rogue grabbed Gambit's trenchcoat pocket as it started to jangle and clack ever so faintly from poker chips. Gambit suddenly stopped her.
"Wait.weren't dere ten cyborgs?" Remy motioned to the right side of the hall, filled with shadow. Rogue followed his gaze. The wall had only four cyborgs on it. The one they had been looking at was gone.
"What the -!" Rogue felt something very solid slam into the base of her skull, sending her into a partial back-flip and cutting off her cry. A second later Kurt was knocked from the ceiling. Remy half-turned in confusion, then received a blow to his jaw that lay him flat.
"Who's hittin' us?!?!" Rogue cried out again as she felt, but didn't see, something pummel her face. Covering her bleeding nose and lip with one of her hands, she lashed out. Her fist connected with something metal, and for the briefest moment she thought she saw a glimpse of the cyborg in front of her. "He's invisible!" Another blow, now to her stomach, doubled her over.
I t'ink we figured dat out. Remy thought. As he tried to stand, the cyborg whirled around him, chipping at him, clockwise it seemed, but he rose and swung the bo-staff, baseball style, in the opposite direction. He felt it connect harder than expected. The staff spun out of his hands, and the cyborg appeared before them, on the ground, and let out an ear-piercing alarm.
Kurt was fast enough on his feet to avoid the brunt of the first blow as another cyborg shot at him. He bamfed directly behind it, jackhammer kicked it to lay it flat. Rogue was dealing with her own problems, being shot at by one and in a fist fight with another. Gambit dove for his staff, and narrowly dodged a kick to his head. The ensuing chaos was enough to drown out Rogue's cursing, and the sound as the door swung open, revealing behind it at least thirty armed soldiers.
"What's going on here?! I thought they were all outside!" The military sentry in the front row caught sight of Kurt as he bamfed to the front and simultaneously punched and kicked a soldier, then bamfed away to resume quarreling with the cyborgs. "Capture the intruders! Set cyborgs to stun! Keep them alive or the General will have our heads!"
"Kurt! Get outta here!" Remy was surrounded by no less than three cyborgs, all attempting knock him silly with their frying-pan sized hands. Another was shooting at him, chipping some kind of toxic dart, and it was all he could do to avoid the initial attackers. Four darts stabbed into his neck. "Get Rogue and get outta here!"
"Bamf, Kurt! Forget about me!" Rogue, too, had taken a dart, and was beginning to feel the effects as her every action slowed down. Kurt took a last look at them.
I'll be back for you. I swear. With that final thought, he bamfed away. A dart aimed for him hit the wall behind.
SheCat was asleep when one of the girls in her dorm woke her up with the wireless phone. Fluttering her eyes to clear them, she wondered who would call at one a.m.
"Hello?"
"SheCat, we need you now."
"Who is this?"
"This is Assassin. I work with Strobe. You're needed."
"What?"
"Rogue and Gambit have been captured."