Onset War (2 of 5)
Part 2: Defacing
Vyper dodged the two knives that flew from Longshot's hand and slid across the ground to kick out the man's feet from under him. Any normal man would have fell flat on their face, but Longshot wasn't a normal man. With quick reflexes Longshot caught himself mid fall and flipped over Vyper.
Cory quickly rose up from the ground and charged towards Longshot. Before he could get to the man Yurike charged him from behind and held him in a tight bear hug.
"I'm a snake beotch," Cory laughed as he easily slid out of the woman's grip and bit her on the leg. Yurike yelled, but Cory ignored it. While still holding onto her leg he threw his legs upward and kicked Yurike in the face. The woman went flying back and at that moment Vyper released his grip on her leg. Flipping forward Cory planted his feet in Longshot's chest and sent him flying into some medical equipment.
"Not so lucky now huh?" Vyper asked as he stood over the body of Longshot.
"Actually yea. I am," Longshot smiled as a dart hit Vyper in the neck. Cory's eyes widened and he fell unconscious.
"Come on Longshot. We got work to do," Yurike said not even caring to tend to her blood stained leg. Onset wanted her soldiers back and Yurike would deliver.
"Sheesh! What's the rush? We won," Longshot complained as he rose from the ground wiping the boot prints off of his chest.
"The rush is that any one of those Exiles could come down here any moment! Would you like to fight Polaris?" Yurike asked growing impatient.
Longshot understood and threw out the tiny red discs Onset had given him. They each hit a captured soldier of Onset. Not a single one missed. That was the luck of the man though. It's what made him a movie star in his dimension. The legendary luck of Longshot.
"The teleporters are set."
"Fine let's go," Yurike said pressing a red button in the palm of her hand. Her and Longshot along with the captured soldiers of Onset disappeared.
After a while Cory groaned and pulled the dart out of his neck, "Man I can just hear Exodus bitching."
"Exodus won't be bitching anytime soon comrade. Help me," Colossus said as he came into the infirmary with Exodus in his arms.
Sunfire and three Sunspot clones fired out their respective blasts as they cleared the way for Magik, Ever, and Cortez. Illyana and the others were going to take down Gaunt, but they needed a clear opening to do it. Having mutant soldiers surrounding you didn't make their plan any easier. So Shiro and the clones were making quick barbeque of Gaunt's mutants.
Flames engulfed and erupted across the bodies of many of the mutants Gaunt had created using Mutant Forger's abilities. Some died without even the slightest scream. Others went mad with pain and simply killed themselves. Even more fell to the ground in agony from having a limb incinerated. This carnage and mayhem sickened Shiro.
"There is no honor in fighting like this," Sunfire murmured to himself as he continued to barrage the mutants below with atomic flame.
"Honor is a thing of the past. Survival is the future," one of the Sunspot clones said as struck down a group of mutants that had huddled together in the hopes of making some false last stand.
"Does Gaunt even care about the mutants he makes?" Sunfire asked to no one.
"No and so we shouldn't care either," a giant bird made of light said as he flew by Shiro.
"Perhaps you're right. I hate to admit to there being truth to your words."
And with that Sunfire flew away and went down into the heat of the battle alongside Polaris and Jadianna. He didn't want to hear anymore of Babylon's talk. He just wanted to finish this battle and drink some green tea. Perhaps that might help him wash away this stench of guilt.
"You remember the plan right?" Cortez asked nervously as he ran alongside Magik and Ever to where Gaunt was flaunting over his coming victory in the air.
"Yea I remember man. Just take a breather or something," Magik suggested as they neared their target.
Ever laughed, "Don't worry Fabian. You're working with professionals here."
"Small comfort there," Cortez replied.
"Ahh just shut up and get ready!" Magik ordered as she made a stepping disc a couple of feet in front of her. Illyana jumped onto it and disappeared only to come up behind Gaunt.
Wrapping her arms around his neck she began to chant, "Powers of Elune hear me call out to you! Demoness give me your strength! Fill the blood of the wicked!"'
Magik's body began to glow an eerie blue and Gaunt cried out in pain. His very blood was being turned against him. Though the only blood Gaunt really had was in his head the spell had still been effective. For every inch that blood flowed Gaunt felt the pain of a thousand deaths.
"That would be your cue," Ever said to Fabian as he used his telekinesis to hold Magik and Gaunt steady in the air.
"Yeah all the screaming was a good indicator," Fabian snickered as he lifted his hands high in the air and shot off a power reducing blast. It hit Gaunt dead on and the man's power slowly slipped away from. He wouldn't be able to make coherent words let alone a mutant for the next couple of hours.
"Sorry big guy. You lose," Magik whispered in Gaunt's ear as she let go of him and fell to the ground with the grace of a ballerina. The body of her opponent hit the ground with a thud.
"Buhiitchh," Gaunt managed to mumble out before his mind fell into darkness.
"I've been called worse," Magik replied as she dusted off her hands, "Uggh I just hate touching gross things!"
"You three did well. With Gaunt out the way things might go a little more smoothly now," Judas Traveller said as he floated over to the three mutants. Four of the black cloaked mutants tried to sneak up behind Traveller, but with a swipe of his hands the bodies of the mutants went out of control. Using the power of Masque he had made their internal organs shrink and crunch together. The four would die agonizing deaths.
"I bet you liven up all the parties."
"Traveller does have a way with people," Cortez teased, "You should see him on Friday nights. You'd swear he was 20."
"And if you expect me to believe that you might as well go and jump off a bridge," Magik laughed as she stepped backwards into one of her discs.
"Man you know how to scare off the ladies Cortez," Ever laughed as he ran off to help Colossus who was fighting a brute nearly as big as him.
"Just ask Amelia," Fabian replied to himself as he took off into the field of battle as well.
Green glob hit Arwen's shirt and it began to grow until it had enveloped her upper body and half of her legs. The glob was beginning to move up her neck until Blink came and stabbed the glob with one of her javelins. Being displaced for a fraction of a second made the glob fall off of Arwen and turn back into it's original form; a fifteen-year-old Japanese girl.
"These constructs of Gaunt's look quite real," Arwen said staring down at the young girl.
"A little too real," Blink agreed.
Lorna flew overhead with two cloaked mutants in her hands, "I think that about wraps it up guys. Any prisoners that we have are being held by Sinister and his lot for the time being. We're keeping Gaunt though."
"Glad that's over with," Blink said rubbing a minor wound she had gotten on her shoulder. Looking out across the New Mexican desert all she saw was dead bodies. The bodies of Sinister's clones and Gaunt's mutants and from flowed enough blood to make the sand red.
"What of the bodies?" Arwen asked curious as to how they would cover up this battle.
"I shall handle that," a suave, but almost mechanical voice said from behind the two women. Turning around both of them saw different things. Blink saw enemy and Arwen saw master.
"How Essex? I don't think even you have that much storage space," Clarice said snidely.
"I'll make use of them," Sinister smiled as a Feng Tu clone walked out from behind him. Essex had every mutant in existence in his DNA database and Feng Tu was just one of them. He would be perfect for this occasion.
"You're lucky Joseph's not around. He'd rip that guy to pieces," Blink warned. Just about everyone had seen what happened to X-Corp in China. It wasn't a pretty sight and Joseph was staunchly protective of those he called friend. Luckily, Joseph was on a break at the moment. Exodus and Clarice had decided Joseph needed a vacation before taking up the fight again. He had a lot of things to deal with. This current crisis though might end up pulling Joseph off his little break.
Honestly, Clarice wasn't sure how Joseph would react to everything going on. There was Star Prophet, who looked like Astra and indeed had the woman in her. Then there was the fact that Sinister was around. Joseph had extremely mixed feelings about the man from the time he had worked under him during the Apocalypse. Things were starting to get complicated around here and she wasn't sure if Joseph was up for it.
"Joseph knows his place Clarice. Perhaps you should have a little more faith in him," Sinister replied, "Now if you'll allow my clone to do his work."
The clone of the Chinese scientist moved forward and stretched his hands outward. Suddenly all the dead clones and dead mutants Gaunt had created rose up from the ground. Terrasect portals began to open up all over the battlefield and the troops stepped through them in an orderly manner.
"I hate to waste such valuable items. Especially if Onset intends on pursuing this little war of hers."
"That's all human life has ever been to you Essex. Just valuable items," Colossus said walking alongside his sister. He made sure his Illyana stayed close by. It made him feel a little stronger and though he wouldn't readily admit it Illyana being around made feel a little more confident in facing Sinister.
"My dear Piotr. How are you enjoying your enhanced powers? From the looks of things you couldn't be better," Sinister complimented as he stared down the mutant of steel.
"We appreciate the help Essex, but why did you give it? I know we're not exactly on your favorite people list."
Sinister laughed, "You presume to know so much Piotr."
"Just answer the question!"
"If Onset intends to pursue this conflict then so am I. And I'm willing to help those she might have her eyes set on," Sinister explained.
"The enemy of the enemy is my friend. Fine I can understand that Sinister, but I can't promise that we'll be the greatest of allies at the moment. We have suffered a bit. We'll need time to recover," Colossus responded.
"Of course. I do have a plan of attack though. We can't sit around playing the defensive game forever. I'm going to send my zombie troops right into the heart of Onset's base and I think she can help me find out where it is," Sinister said pointing to Star Prophet.
The woman that was a meld of Astra and Fontanelle looked shocked, "Me? How?"
"Tell me exactly how your prophetic powers work and don't spare me on the details," Sinister said.
Star Prophet took a breath and began what she knew would be quite the explanation, "My visions can be set to certain parameters dictated by me. I can choose how far into the future I want to see, specifically where I want to see, and I can decide on people I want to see. Sometimes I can even choose to make the visions revolve around much broader subjects. So essentially I can customize my visions to suit my needs. Hence how I found out so much about this coming war."
"Good. See a vision of Onset two minutes from now," Sinister ordered.
Star Prophet nodded gently and focused on the vision. She was in a trance state for only a couple of seconds before she snapped out of it. With eyes that spoke of revelation she said, "I know where Onset's at. She's in the same Tibetan base she used when she tried to summon the Dark Zodiac. The part of me that is Astra remembers it well."
"Good then my forces shall attack there. I doubt they'll defeat Onset, but hopefully she'll get the message that we're not playing games," Sinister said.
"And I'll lead them into there," Mutant Forger exclaimed as he moved next to Magik.
"What? Why?" Colossus asked confused at Forger's sudden decision, but before he could protest any further Ever interfered.
Do not stop him Colossus. He does what he does now for himself and no one else. Let him have this moment of glory.
With Ever's little speech Colossus said no more on the subject. Sinister smiled at Forger, "So you're finally going to realize your potential. You may lead my troops. Just make sure you lead them well!"
