New Exiles

By Agent-G And The Uncanny R-Man

Shout outs:

Winblades: Well I'm glad you like the re-write but be warned much later in the story, close to where the original was, we were going to have a gay couple on the team (not the main one though), I won't say who, but just a warning.

Ruby631: Yeah, not the kind of place you want to go uninvited unless you want to have something biblical happen to you.

Thanks to: celtcath74, Red Witch

Chapter 3: Meet MayhemThe mutant travelers suddenly found themselves on a street in a ruined city. The sun was setting and they could see the empty and hollowed out forms of the buildings around them. There was the smell of smoke and several burning type of smells and a few other unpleasant ones too. The city looked like a war zone of some third world but the sighs were in English, at least the ones that were still legible.

"Wow." Morph said looking around. "This place has been trashed." He kicked at some rumble.

Blink looked around. "Kind of reminds me of my Earth a little." She said sadly seeing the devastation and remembering the world were Apocalypse had taken over and all the horrors, like the concentration camps were she lost her parents.

"What happened here?" Heather asked looking at the destruction.

"Nothing good." They turned to see the Guardian looking at the ruins with a note of sadness on his face. "I always hate coming to these worlds." He had seen so much in the millenniums he'd spent in life. He had seen great good and great evil in his times. It was places like this that tore at his core, the fact he was so powerful yet still helpless to help heal this world. He could only give the survivors of this horror a new chance at life.

"Are you telling me we're supposed to save this?" Morph asked him gesturing around him.

"No." The Guardian said to Morph no taking his eyes off the place. "This world is too far gone, what I want you to do is to get someone I feel would be a good member of your team. Oh Blink before I forget I want to give you something."

Blink stepped forward and watched as he reached under his leather jacket and into the brown leather traveling pouch. He pulled out a small side pouch with a belt and a small strap at one end.

She took it with a slightly puzzled look but she put it on. She found that the lower strap seemed to fit on her upper leg. After she finished it she found it fit perfectly and didn't seem to get in the way of her movement.

"Here, this goes into the pouch." He said to her and handed her a small rectangular device. She saw a small screen at the top and a few buttons on the side but a few controls under the screen. "This PADD will allow you to access certain information you might need about certain worlds, also this button here will activate your transport to the next world."

"Why don't you just do it?" She asked him.

"Well I'll be busy. First I have to deal with Timebroker, I got to place that rune in a safe spot. Then I have to try and evacuate the few survivors of this world to a safer place and that will take some time and I might not be done until your next mission is completed at least."

"Well you sound better then the Timebroker already, that guy didn't seem to care who lived or died." Heather said to him, the anger in her voice on Timebroker's past actions evident in them and all the lives that man had just thrown away like they meant nothing.

"Thank you, but I must go now." He said and turned and started to walk off.

"Wait how will we know this guy? How will we find him?" Blink said to him as he was walking away.

"Don't worry he'll find you." Was all he said before he vanished into thin air.

The others stood there for a moment. "Well that was helpful." Morph said sarcastically. "How are we, or this mystery guy supposed to find us?"

"MUTANT SIGNATURES DETECTED!" Bellowed a huge metallic voice from above.

"I think we got bigger problems now Morph!" Heather said transforming into her Sasquatch form. Three giant Sentinels land in front of them. They raised their hands and began firing at the mutants with the laser cannons built into their palms.

The three of them scattered and each had to take on a Sentinel. Blink teleported and used her lances to try and damage as much as possible the joints. Morph transformed into a giant rope and tied up the legs of one causing it to fall down. As soon as he transformed back into his normal form he saw it getting up. "Well it worked in the Empire Strikes Back." He said to himself.

Heather was using her strength and had managed to launch a broken street lamp into one of the palms destroying the laser. She was dodging the blasts but one glanced her causing her to hit a junked car.

Morph was at her side helping her up and trying to get out of her way. "Man we could really use some help right about now." He said. Then several crimson energy beams hit the Sentinel in the head a couple going right through. They could see a figure flying at the head and seemed to punch it a few times, denting the head inward until it fell powerless to the ground.

Morph looked up into the sky. "I wish it would rain a million dollars and super models." But nothing happened. "Oh well I had to try it."

Blink could see the mysterious person who had just finished off one of the three Sentinels, she couldn't get a clear view of him, but that didn't matter he was already working on the second one that she was fighting and she could see the last one Morph was fighting was nearly back up.

That Sentinel looked at the stranger. "SCANNING. MUTANT NUMBER 28746-B23 FOUND. THREAT LEVEL HIGH. ORDERS TERMINATE WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE."

"You got THAT right metal head!" He yelled at it and sent a couple of energy bombs at it and made several holes in its chest. Blink took the opening and fired several of her lances in the holes.

She must have hit some vital parts because the body jerked and fell. She turned to see the last one be destroyed when he raised his hands over his head. The hands glowed and when he brought them down a huge energy like wave took the Sentinel in the face cutting it open down the middle.

It staggered a minute before it fell. The Exiles gathered together as the figure landed. They could see him clearly now. He was tall, wearing what looked like army boots, with urban camo pants. He had on a black shirt covered with a brown leather jacket with sergeant strips sowed onto the arms. He had a Katana strapped to his waist.

His white skin was smudged by dirt and grime, it was clear he hadn't shaved in several days and his mullet of midnight black hair was kept out of his face by a white headband with an oriental symbol on it. There was also something around his neck, a small chain that they would latter see was what his dog tags were on. What were really noticeable were the intense light blue eyes. "You guys picked the wrong neighborhood to walk down on." He said to them his face hard and slightly tired looking.

"Yeah no kidding buddy, who are you anyway?" Morph said to him.

"The name's Vincent Freeman also called Mayhem for obvious reasons." He pointed to the ruined machines. "But this isn't the place to talk." He looked to Blink. "Can you teleport us about one mile in that direction?" He asked pointing in the distance.

"Yeah I think so." She made a portal and one by one they walked through. They ended up in a large area that looked like a parking lot. Heather looked around and gasped at the site she saw. It was the hallowed out remains of the Skydome and the bottom part of the CN tower next to it striking out like a tombstone. The rest of it was laying on the ground in rubble.

"Good Lord...we're in Toronto." She said quietly to herself. She had lived in this city for years and loved it, to see it in ruins like this was disheartening. Vincent led them to a door of a nearly ruined building that looked like it was barely standing and pushed it open. They walked in and after they were all in he closed it. He lead them down some stairs the lights flickering as they descended. Heather had to transform to her human form to fit and when they reached the bottom they saw a room filled with debris but it looked lived in.

There was a fire pit, and lights jury-rigged around the place, they could see a generator in the side with cables leading to it. "So who exactly are you people and why weren't you with the evacuation party?" Vincent asked them.

"Well this is going to take some time." Blink said to him. She explained everything about the Exiles from the beginning to up to now; she had to admit he took the news well.

"So you're now working for this Guardian guy and you think I'm the one that he sent you to find while he saves everyone else on this word and takes them somewhere safe." He said to them. "Well he sounds like a nice guy, but why me? I mean I tried my best and I failed here." He said to them looking down at the floor. It was obvious that he felt responsible for this world."Look you can't beat yourself up about this." Blink gently said to him. "I know, I came from a world that was pretty much ruled by this guy called Apocalypse and when I left, well, things weren't looking that great either."

Vincent looked up at her; he could see she was being honest with him. "Yeah we had that guy here too, but the X-Men defeated him years ago."

"You know I got to ask, what's with all the Sentinels?" Morph asked him. "I mean the city looks like a war zone, don't tell me it's mutant against human."

Vincent shook his head. "No it's everyone against Sentinel." He told them the history of his Earth. How after the defeat of Apocalypse certain political parties urged the creation of the Sentinels to stop these mutant 'threats'. It was started up and when they were let lose they attacked the X-Men first. They were wiped out, and then they moved on.

That was years ago when the Sentinels started their attack he joined up with the Mutant Underground. A couple of his friends had joined with them but that was just the beginning. He remembered how Mary a girl he had known since childhood and who was the first woman he had a relationship had died at the hands of FOH members while trying to get food for the Underground.

That was the beginning of the end for him. He was in a dark mood and tried his best to keep going one day at a time.

But then after a year something went wrong, the Sentinels' programming was to destroy all traces of mutants but they soon realized that mutants came from humans too, and since they were to wipe out all traces they then turned on the humans. Then mutants and humans had to band together to fight off them, but they were losing the war.

He was part of a special elite force in Toronto and they did their best. During the years in the team he found love in another woman in his team a mutant. For awhile he thought there was hope but six months later he had watched her get killed by a Sentinel like so many of his friends. It was strange, as a kid living in the orphanage he had loved shows about giant robot like the Transformers. But now he didn't like them, in fact he hated them. They had caused so much pain and suffering, they had taken everything he had left in life.

Near the end a young woman a rookie was smitten with him. He had become kind of a legend over the years and he returned her feelings, or tried to. He cared for her, she had been a sweet girl but sadly he never loved her. It shamed him that he couldn't and that she died hoping that one day he would. She had deserved to have someone that could love her back.

Vincent told them of in the last days of the resistance force in Toronto was being evacuated, him and his squad or what was left of them, were to ensure the people escaped to the water but then the Sentinels came. Vincent and a few others stayed behind to cover the retreat. They gave it their all and one by one they fell. At the end Vincent was all that had survived.

"That was a week ago, I don't know if any of the others made it or not." He finished his tale staring into the fire with slightly haunted eyes. The others were silent after wards, but Blink stepped forward a little.

"Vincent I know you most likely feel responsible, I lost people too who entrusted me to lead them. But I keep going on and fighting, and I know you must have tried your best but maybe that's why we're here. To give you a second chance." He looked up at her then really listening to her words.

"Look the way I see it, you think you've failed this world, well why not try and make up for it with us. We go to many worlds and try to help them, and from what I've seen no one could have won this war. But with us you can make a difference, so I'm asking you...will you join us?"

Vincent regarded the woman for a moment. He then looked to the small fire burning deep in thought. "You said that he was saving all the rest, so there's no one left here if I do stay." He thought about dying alone on this rock, being the last one on this world just stay here and lay down and die but that wasn't his style. He was always a fighter; if he had wanted to just lie down and die he would have done that a while ago.

He actually smiled a little then, the first smile in what felt like a lifetime to him. He looked back at Blink and the others. "Sure why not. Everyone needs a reason to live for and to die for. I got nothing left here. Besides I need to do something with my life...to try and make up for here...if I can help others and save a few worlds...then maybe all the sacrifices might mean something in the long run."

"Glad to hear it, it will be nice to have a fellow Canadian on the team." Heather said smiling at the man. He nodded and went to pick up a worn travel bag, it held all of the items that meant anything to him. It had some spare clothing, a few pictures and mementoes but most importantly it held his sword.

It was a samurai's sword and not just any sword. When he was seven he was able to learn the martial arts from an old man in his neighborhood that was descended from a long line of samurai warriors. Vincent remembered all those years of training those were the carefree days of this youth. At the end of his training he was not only taken into the clan but also the clan sword.

It was a legacy to carry on the clan and now...he was the last and if he died then the last of the Mototsugu clan legacy died with him and he promised his sensei to do honor to the clan and to carry on the legacy. He never broke a promise and he wasn't about to now.

"Well if I'm going I want to take this, since I doubt I'll ever be back here." He said to them hoisting the bag onto his back.

Blink nodded and pulled out the PADD. They gathered together and she activated it like the Guardian showed her to and instantly they were all transported by a flash of light.

Across the town a few figures watched the Sentinels at their work completely invisible to the giant machines. The three figures looked alike with stylized shades and slicked back hair. One was white haired, another was a red head and the final one was blond. They wore large black trench coats with red glyph markings down the sleeves and a strange red symbol on their backs.

"It is going well." The blond one said in a calm and nearly emotionless voice.

"Yes, it was a good idea of our masters to reprogram the machines." The red head said in agreement in the same creepy voice. "Soon this world will be ready for us to take over, the survivors will be too weak to stop us and they will serve us."

The last one though cocked his head slightly to the left. "Something is wrong. Many of the remaining life signs are disappearing."

"Are the Sentinels getting too thorough?" The red head asked.

The white haired on shook his head. "No...they are not passing on...they are simply...gone."

"This does not go well." The blond said. "If this keeps up there will be no one left and our masters won't like an empty planet."

"Agreed." The other two said at once.

"Should we report of investigate?" The red headed one asked.

"We should try and find the cause of this." The white haired one said. "Then we report."

"After we have dealt with it." The other one agreed. All three nodded their heads as one and flew up into the sky.

TBC...

NEXT: MEET AUGUST