Outcasts and Invaders (2 of 4)
A pink portal opened up where a metal door use to be and out the portal stepped four mutants. All of them shared one thing in common. They were all Exiles. Clarice Ferguson was the first to step out of the portal and two men she had worked with briefly while under the X-Men Omega banner followed her. Their names were Havok and Proudstar. The last to step out of the portal was a man who had been believed to be dead for a number of months. He was a veteran X-Man and member of Excalibur. His name was Piotr Rasputin, but he was better known as Colossus.
"That trip wasn't as bumpy as your last few. Could it actually be that you're improving?" Havok asked sarcastically.
"You'd be right Alex. Too bad you can't do the same in bed," Blink joked. She knew when it came to a guy like Havok the best way to get him off your back was to attack his manhood. Then he wouldn't want to talk to you for a week. He was still tripping on Lorna's baby comment.
"So what? You've been watching me have sex now," Havok replied a tiny bit of anger in his voice.
"It's called girl talk Alex. I'll explain it to you sometime," Blink teased with a wink.
"Let's focus people. We're trying to keep a low profile here and chattering about sex won't help that out any," Proudstar said as he scanned the ceiling for possible locations of hidden cameras. He was pretty sure that a low profile would not be able to be maintained forever. He was damn well going to try though.
"I have to agree with Proudstar on this. We need to keep our concentration on the matter at hand. M.U.S.E. sent Exodus all the information they could muster on this new Bastion, but there is still a lot we don't know here," Colossus said.
Havok swished his tongue to the side and bit down on it gently with his teeth. He didn't like walking into a situation blind and that's what it felt like right now. It was like he was going into a room full of machine guns with just a blindfold on. And what if M.U.S.E. 's information was wrong? Then they were extremely screwed.
"Look for possible hidden cameras. Find them and I'll take them out," Blink said as she pulled out four pink darts from a bag attached to her side.
"There's one at the end of the hall," Colossus said using his head to point at the machine instead of using a finger that might be spotted. Clarice nodded to the veteran X-Man and threw one of her spatially charged darts at the machine. There was a loud boom as the dart made contact with the camera. Pink energy arced wildly from the dart and melted the camera.
"Nice trick," Havok smiled.
"Not really. We're going to be having to fight against this new Bastion's forces very soon. That sound will not go unheard," Proudstar said sternly. He would have thought Blink understood what it meant to be on a covert mission. They were here to get information first and battle later. And Colossus should have known better. There were better ways to take out cameras than making big noises.
"A distraction could be what we need. Havok and Blink get as far away from this area as possible. Proudstar and myself will handle whatever this Bastion sends after us," Colossus ordered.
"You don't have to tell me twice," Havok said grabbing Blink's arm and taking off down the long corridor. Alex wasn't afraid to fight, but he wasn't exactly in the mood for another Church of Humanity esque fight. And he had a feeling that's exactly what that fight was about to be. He just hoped Colossus and Proudstar could handle themselves. Suddenly it hit Havok that Colossus was ten times stronger than he had ever been thanks to Gaunt. The two men would be fine. Peter had been plenty powerful enough on his own before and James had been trained by Cable. That had to count for something.
"You know you can let go of my arm now," Blink said annoyed as she pulled away from Alex's grip.
"Just trying to make sure you keep up," Havok winked. Clarice rolled her eyes and continued to keep pace with Havok.
Knocking sounds came from under Blink as she ran. At first she didn't notice them, but the more she ran the louder the sounds became. Suddenly she stopped and Havok quickly noticed her abrupt movement. He could tell she was concerned about something. Alex just figured that it had something to do with leaving Colossus and Proudstar behind.
"Look I know you're concerned about Peter, but--"
"Maybe if you would listen you would see why I stopped," Blink hissed. Havok quickly shut up and did as Clarice said. He began to hear the same knocking sound that Blink had. Putting his ear to the floor the noise became much louder.
"Now if I'm right, and I usually am, that sound is getting closer," Havok said as he stood up and charged his fists up with cosmic energy. Blink seeing Alex's actions pulled a few darts. If the two of them were just being paranoid she would kick herself in the ass. They would have wasted crucial time listening to some weird sound.
Out of nowhere the ground suddenly exploded and out of it sprang a Puerto Rican woman with short, curly hair. Leaping up into the air she kicked Havok in the chest with her black boot and sent the mutant flying all the way to the end of the long, sleek corridor. Not once did Havok's feet touch the ground as he was flung across the hall. A look of shock was spread across Alex's face as he flew. He had expected trouble, but nothing like what had just happened to him. That kick had knocked the wind out of him and the worst part was it didn't look like the woman had put all her force into that kick.
Preparing herself for anything was something that Blink lived by so she didn't let the sudden attack on Havok throw her off. Leaping up into the air she stabbed the woman in the back with two of her darts. For her presents Blink received a quick jab to the stomach by the woman. The jab knocked Clarice into the roof and sent her crashing to the floor. As she struggled to get herself up her hair was suddenly grabbed by the woman. Blink, though still in pain, was able to see something that caught her off guard. Instead of blood that should have been dripping down the woman's back Clarice saw black oil. There was a tiny puddle of the oil at the woman's feet. So now she finally understood why the woman's hits had been so hard. She was a damn machine.
"When are you mutants going to learn?" the woman laughed as she lifted Blink up so the two of them could see eye to eye.
"Who knows," Blink snickered as she created a tiny portal in front of her fist that would lead to the robot woman's innards. Throwing in a couple of fully charged darts caused the woman to immediately drop her. Grabbing at the little hair she had the woman began to spin around wildly as pink energy arced from her body. Eventually the woman fell down utterly defeated. Oil oozed out of orifices all around her body.
"A robot huh?" Havok said as he made his way back down the hall favoring his shoulder.
"Would you expect anything less from someone trying to be the next Bastion?" Blink asked thinking back on her first encounter with the first madman to call himself Bastion. He had allied himself with the Phalanx, Harvest, and their alliance had bought about the deaths of thousands of mutants. Many of them had her allies and her foes alike. Some she didn't even know, but there was one thing she knew after that experience. On her life nothing of that nature would ever occur again.
"No I wouldn't. Though--ARGHH!" Havok yelled as he was hit in the neck with an neuron blast that would temporarily take him out of any kind of activity for a couple of hours.
"Alex!" Blink exclaimed as she ran to her fallen comrade. She never saw another blast of the same kind hit her from behind. Before her body could impact with the ground a lanky black man picked her up over his shoulder.
"Uggh just touching these things grosses me out."
"Come on Zeke, you know we can't be squeamish around these things. We just gotta deal with them," a chubby Asian woman said as she picked up Havok on her shoulder.
"I'm just glad Zoe and Chad captured the other two," Zeke laughed as he looked at the mutant he had. Bastion had said its name was Blink. What kind of name was that and who the hell had pink skin? He would be glad when Bastion wiped these freaks away from the Earth.
"This is the place," Sunfire said unimpressed as he looked around the Canadian wilderness.
"I'm positive Shiro. This is the scene of my dreams," Exodus replied as he stared around dreadfully at the surroundings. Every detail was the same as in his dreams. The tiny oak tree with a heart carved into it and the weeds at the base of the tree next to it. So familiar was this setting that the former Horsemen of War couldn't stop himself from getting goose bumps.
"Are you sure this isn't just some big coincidence? I know something has been bothering you lately, but isn't this taking it a little far?" Polaris asked.
"Is anything ever a coincidence when it comes to us," Exodus said as he stared up at the blue sky. It was the exact same view. There was a square shape natural viewing window formed by the trees. It was the only way you could see the sky. Bennet remembered looking up at the sky in his dreams. Whenever he did it was at that moment when--
"The both of you take to the air now!" Bennet yelled.
"What?" Shiro asked confused. Just then black tentacles rose from the ground and wrapped themselves around the bodies of the three mutants.
"I'm assuming this what you were talking about," Polaris said as she struggled to release herself.
"Just like in my dream," Exodus muttered.
