By The Uncanny R-Man and Agent-G
Shout Outs-
Episodic: Hey glad to hear from you again, but yep this is ending.
D-M-N-W-T: Hey! I'm glad to hear from you again I thought I lost ya. Mexico huh? No wonder you were out of contact for so long.
Sean Malloy-1: We'll have more stuff on this over time, don't worry, but it's time to end this fic.
Aaron: Yeah well, it had to end at sometime, and I do like to go out with a bang.
Jenskott: Glad you found it so exciting I wanted to end this with a bang and who better then The Brood? If you're sorry for Jean now wait till this chapter.
Silver Warrior: Yeah Sabertooth would be, but he wouldn't work with those two at all. I'm not sure those two will learn about Sinister since they both come from different realities it might not have been him to do it.
Doza: I'm not sure either lol, but yeah this is the last chapter and I like this world I may get back to it at another time. Yeah I can see the Highlander reference lol.
Thanks to: X-Over
CHAPTER 30: PEST CONTROL
-New York-
They had taken a flight as close as they could to the old Avenger's mansion and Blink used her powers to take them the rest of the way so they wouldn't task her powers. Besides the Exiles, there was also Logan and Deadpool as well as a squad of troopers with the new modified weapons tech. Currently they were waiting overlooking the mansion looking at the defences.
There were partial brood soldiers walking around, humans/mutants that looked partially alien as well as full formed Brood who had taken over the bodies completely and looked like their true bug-like form. They were mainly trying to see if there was a pattern to their movements. Also given who the Queen Brood had taken over, they all wore psi-blockers to hide their minds from what was once Jean Grey and any other telepath they had taken.
Logan however couldn't help but notice that dark skinned woman from the Exiles kept on looking at him funny. He could feel her eyes on him and it was starting to get annoying, even her husband was looking at him strange. "What?" He finally snapped at them.
"I-I'm sorry," Heather told him looking away, she couldn't help it. He looked, sounded and acted so much like her Logan, her first great love, and her first husband who she had to kill with her bare hands.
James placed a comforting hand on his wife's shoulder. He knew going into a relationship with her that Logan would always be in her heart that a part of her would always love him but this was also hard for him too. Logan had been his friend for years, hell he had been best man at Heather's first wedding. "You have to understand we had a Logan in out reality too…we were very…close to him…he died and well seeing you it's…"
Logan sighed and shook his head, "Yeah fine, whatever." Personally he didn't want to think about this other reality stuff. The fact that there were realities where this didn't happen just made this whole thing worse to him. When the X-Men had been infected he had been force to right…and kill a few of the people that had been his friends. He just hoped that any other Logan out there didn't have to go through that, he doubted he would sleep again for the rest of this life.
Deadpool was getting bored, he wanted to shoot something soon, he wished he could have brought his Gameboy along, he was close to catching all the Pokemon in his game and had really worked up these awesome levels for his favourite ones. So he turned to the dark haired guy with the mullet. "Hey 80's man, so what's the deal with you? You seem pretty calm about all of this stuff then the rest of your crew."
Vincent looked at the red and black costumed man, he already knew the guy was nuts. On their travels they had met a few versions of the Merc-With-A-Mouth and all of them were nuts to some degree, seems like a few things were universal. He just shrugged at his question, "I used to live in a world like this…Only take away the alien bugs and replace them with Sentinels."
"Damn…sucks to be your world. But you guys won right?"
"No…we lost." He said grimly looking in the distance at the building. "Blink also came from a world where Apocalypse took over."
"Jeez and I thought we had it bad, at least with our problem a can of raid can cure." He looked at Blink who was looking at the Avenger's mansion with binoculars. Well mainly he was checking out her ass in the battle suits. "Nice lady though, easy on the eyes, very exotic look, legs that go on for ever and an ass that-"
"Finish that sentence and I'll rip your face off and feed it to you." Mayhem said coldly to him.
"Girlfriend?"
"Yeah."
"Happily dating?"
"Very."
"Into three ways?" Vince turned and glared at him with crimson glowing eyes, "Okay…I'll take that as a no then…how about-"
"All the ladies are spoken for and Dare and April are gay and dating each other," Then he noticed Wade about to ask something, "And no you can't let them take you to gay bars or watch them." He groaned.
"Okay how did you know I was going to ask that?"
Vince sighed, "You live with Morph long enough you get a sense for that kind of stuff."
The others decided to wait till night to make their assault. The regulars would make a distraction while the insertion team went in and took out the Queen.
-Brood Asteroid-
Guardian wasn't having a good time either, for the past hour he had been battling the horde of Brood and the Weapon X team. It was taking everything he could use not to get killed. He could have just blown up the facility but he still sensed life in this place and as a Guardian he swore to try and save all innocent life. Unfortunately that usually came to bite him in the ass more then once like now.
He was running down a corridor trying to outrun the Brood chasing him and also to get to where he sensed the life forms. At an interception he jumped and spun in the air dodging a Brood alien coming from the other side attacking low. He used his massive sword to decapitate the other one on the other side. He jumped at hitting the floor spun and fired an energy beam wiping out the Brood that attacked him.
He looked back and ran right into the Grey Hulk and got a punch to the gut sending him to the floor with a nasty pain. He looked up at the smirking Hulk, he knew that this version was a more powerful version of Banner's Id. The dark side of him. "Well little man with a big sword, you compensating for something body?"
Adam just jumped back to his feet, "Get out of my way I don't have time for his."
"Ha! I like to see you try, maggot." He slammed his fist into the floor and threw it actually but Adam was faster and jumped back. Then he planted a foot of the ground and high kicked Hulk in the face staggering the brute back but he didn't finished there. He continued on his assault with punches to the gut and face, ducking and weaving his wave past the Hulk's slower attacks until Guardian with a double punch sent the massive grey monster flying.
"I'm stronger then I look, big man," he grinned that is right before he had to dodge left as bullets flew by where he was.
"Impressive, not many people would have been able to avoid suck an attack," Slade called out to him the leader of Weapon-X. He had with him an M4 assault rifle in his hands in the ready position and crouched low ready for his opponent to come back out. The rifle contained thanks to their 'employers' adamantium tipped rounds and were mystically enhanced. The perfect thing to hurt a Guardian with.
"I really don't have time for this," He muttered to himself. Everywhere he went there were Brood or Weapon-X guys coming out of the woodwork. What was worse was that he felt the last non-Brood captives were being moved. And just his luck it seemed like it was back to that wide-open implantation area. It was the perfect trap for him. He knew they were herding him that way as well. "Oh well, who wants to live forever?" He asked himself as he made a dead run to that area.
Slade heard him running and touched his communicator, "He's heading back to the main room, get ready he's going back there too easily."
Which it was, Adam for intents and purposes had one thing over them all, he knew how to get out of situations like this. After a few thousands years you tend to have the same old stuff happen to you time and time again. So you learned how to turn the odds in your favour. He grabbed a spare teleportation device in his travel pouch. He leaned against a wall with the opening to the large implantation area with a queen in there.
He set the device in his hand for a wide range teleportation. Luckily the Transportation Room at the Complex had excellent security and if a few of the Brood ended up going for the ride? Well they would be smears on the ground in less then a second when the auto defences kicked in. "Well then…go guts no glory as a man once said," Adam muttered to himself.
He moved out in blinding speed, he didn't want them to know just how fast he was so he learned to save a few tricks like this in his hand. You never let your enemy know just what you can fully do, how else can you surprise them? He ducked under that X23 woman who nearly decapitated him with a foot claw.
That Terminator woman, the TX was trying to get him locked on but even her enhanced tracking abilities were too slow.
He saw the group of captives, a wide range of aliens of all sizes and ages. He had to work fast, he threw the extra recall device in the middle of the group of people. There was a few seconds delay then a blinding flash of light and they were gone. "Well that's one problem solved." He said grinning a bullet hit near his foot and he looked around to be surrounded by Weapon X members and Brood aliens.
"Well now I think our 'benefactors' will enjoy the knowledge that you are out of their hair." Slade said as he and the others advance.
"It's nice to be popular," Guardian smiled at them.
"What are you so happy about?" Hulk growled out at him, he wanted a little payback against this little man. No one made a fool out of him like he just had.
"Because my big, grey, psycho… You people no longer have innocent bystanders to protect you against me." He grinned at them as his eyes glowed blue. He was now free to go all out on them and Slade knew his plan now. Take out of the hostages and they were open to any attack he wanted to do. He knew this was too easy with what he read on him.
Guardian's hands glows blue and then looked straight up, Slade knew then what he had planned, "He's going to breach the dome!"
It was too late, a huge blast left his hands and the dome blew outward into the vacuum of space. The air was sucked out into the cold depths as even Brood aliens tried to hold on but many were lifted off the ground into the air and into the space's cold hands of death. The Weapon X members were a bit more lucky and Guardian saw them all touch a device and they flashed.
He should have known they would have their own recall devices. As the air was now gone he looked around. There was no sound as the place was now a tomb for the Brood. He saw the floating bodies and to ensure this didn't happen he was going to send a bomb back here and atomise this place into particle dust. He reached for his own personal recall device and disappeared. He had to get the hostages back home first. He just hoped the Exiles were doing well.
-Brood Nest, Earth-
The attack had pretty much gone on as planned, while the troops that came with them attacked from the front Blink teleported the Exiles inside of the old Avenger's HQ. That was pretty much as far as the plan went until the defence systems kicked in as well and any Brood still in the mansion.
It was pure and utter chaos at that point, laser turrets, defence bots of different types, and aliens filled the hallways and the Exiles fought to the best of their abilities. Deadpool, Blink, Vindicator, April and Dare focused on the Brood while the rest dealt with the defences.
"Don't these things ever give up?" Vindicator asked in his battle suit as he fired nano-tech weapons at the alien parasites.
"Nope, they're pretty much like roaches," Wade Wilson said as he back flipped to dodge and attack and fired his weapon at the alien, "They just keep on coming."
April was using her gravity powers to keep the Brood aliens on the ground as she shot them. Some of them seemed to revert back into normal people but when they didn't and turned into a puddle of organic goo her heart sank each time. "How are you doing, babe?" Dare asked as she kicked an alien and shot it.
She turned to answer and then fell back an arrow hitting her in the chest, "April!" Dare cried out and saw a Brood in a purple uniform with a bow and arrow set taking aim at her, "I don't think so!" She ran forward dodging the arrow just barely and fired. The Brood screamed out and as it started to turn human she saw it was the Avenger Hawkeye.
She would be surprised later now she just went to check on her girlfriend, "April honey, are you okay?"
"Yeah," She sat up and pulled the arrow out of her chest armour, "Lucky my suit was able to save me…but that hurt." Dare just hugged her glad she was okay and helped her up they still had work to do.
August wasn't doing too bad at this point she smashed through the drones with her fist and threw them against another, "This is too easy," She cried out in pain as something hit her from behind and looked to see a laser turret training on her. "Okay payback time!" He threw a fireball at it melting the machine and winced as she tried to stand.
"You alright, luv?" Jono asked covering her.
"Not sure…hurts like a bitch. Is it bad?" August asked him.
He looked at her back, there was a scorch mark on her and it looked like it clipped one of the spots were the armour was weakest but he didn't see any blood or anything, "Doesn't look lethal, you sure you can go on?"
She got to her feet, "Yeah…just…let me work through the pain."
They continued on their way through the depths of the mansion. Fighting their way through it all battling Brood the entire way as well as fighting off heroes that they still recognized, some of them they saw would survive the nano-weapons and others weren't so fortunate.
They managed to save Captain America, Falcon, Tigra, Wasp, Spider-Man, and even a few mutants that Logan had heard disappeared not too long ago. They were Storm, Colossus, Feral, Dani Moonstar, Magma, and Warren. There were however others that weren't so lucky. A green skinned one looked to have been She-Hulk as well as Scarlet Witch, Daredevil which hit too close to home for Dare seeing what looked like part of her father turned into an organic mess.
There were also Johnny Storm the Human Torch of the Fantastic Four, as well as a couple of friends of Logan's Rogue and Gambit. But they moved on until they literally blasted through a set of double doors into a large chamber.
It looked like a converted meeting hall but with monitors all around it and sitting there on a makeshift throne with a mane of red hair was the Brood Queen that had once been Jean Grey. The Queen had taken over the mutant's body early on and kept the red hair of her host and her powers, it helped her to keep in touch with her drones. "Well, now it's so nice to see you again Logan, however I don't like your new friends or the weapons they have."
The Queen looked them over and suddenly a powerful TK blast sent them all onto their backs with crushing force, "I don't like it at all, you've somehow found a weapon capable of destroying us and we cannot have that."
Two Brood drones came and picked Logan up and carried him to the Queen as she kept his body in check with her powers, "Let's take that little device off that's blocking your thoughts," She saw it and pulled it off with her powers and then with his mind open she went into smashing through all his mental barriers, "My, my…so that's where you got the weapons…interesting…and I also now know the location of the resistance headquarters."
"Jean…don't…do this…you fought the Phoenix…you got to still be in there…" He told her and she just laughed at his face.
"Please, the Phoenix Force was nothing compared to me and I am Jean, I am everything she was and more so. I have all her thoughts and memories I even saved my loved ones and had a place for them with me." A few Brood stepped forward and Logan looked at them. "Surely you remember Scott, Jubilee, Bishop, Betsy, and Alex. You can join us you know, be one of us again. You can be with me. I know it's what you always wanted." She stroked his cheek with an alien hand.
"You may have her memories…her powers…but not her soul…you're not her and them…they're just empty shells now." Logan growled out and The Queen threw him to the ground hard.
"Pitiful…but it matters not that you are immune to us so you must be exterminated." Then the Queen looked to the others, "But first you all can travel through other realities, that will be most welcome to us. To be able to spread to even more worlds then we can count."
"You won't get anything from us," Blink hissed out even though it felt like she was being crushed.
"And do you think you can stop us? I doubt it."
Blink just smiled as she clenched her hand over her weapon she couldn't live her hand but then she didn't have too. The weapon glowed in her hands and then disappeared, The Brood Queen roared in pain as she clutched her massive chest cavity.
"What have you done?"
"I just teleported my weapon into you!" She said, the pain caused her concentration to break and now they were all one their feet firing their weapons as the Brood tried to defend their Queen but the Queen was dying. Her body was attacking the foreign object in her and had released the nano-tech ammo into her system. The psychic backlash was felt through the Brood collective and the Exiles took this moment to wipe out the other drones.
It hadn't lasted long and soon the room was empty all that was felt was the remains of The Brood. "Alright, the witch is dead! I say it's party time!" Wade said happily but the others weren't in such a good mood they only watched as Logan knelt near the remains of what had been his friends. They all knew loss and that Logan had just lost many of his closest comrades. They didn't envy him and just gave him his space as the grief of what they had to do overcame him.
Logan looked at what was left of them, remembering all the good times and the bad. "I'm sorry…" Was the only thing that he whispered out to them.
-Complex-
It had been a day since the whole Brood incident and it seemed that with the new weapons Earth as well as the other worlds 'infected' with Brood would survive. Guardian had given the technology to those other worlds in hope that they would fight off the Brood but the damage had already been done.
Even though as of now Earth was being freed from the Brood the cost was high. Many of the people of the planet couldn't be saved and many died. A lot of the heroes of that Earth were also gone too. They just had been infected for too long and any trace of humanity was long gone. Intellectually they knew that when a person was infected after a certain point that person cease to exist and wasn't 'alive' in a sense anymore.
But still they all couldn't help but feel that this wasn't a success. Everyone was pretty much in a foul mood sitting in garden. It was a beautiful area and the warm sun and very relaxing it also helped them to deal with what happened and that there was still beauty in life.
Blink was cuddling up against Vincent resting her head on his shoulder thinking about it all. She hated it when missions like that showed up in her life. Sure they saved the world but it didn't seem like a victory to her. She knew that at times no matter what they did eventually things like this would happen and that she just had to deal with it.
"Well at least Morph and Rahne are most likely having a good time," Jono said trying to lighten the mood.
"No kidding I bet those two are going at it like jack rabbits," August smiled a little.
"Jealous?" Dare asked her who was cuddled up next to her girlfriend.
"Not at the moment…not in the mood," She told the newest member of the team, "After all that sex is the last thing on my mind."
"I think it's the last on everyone's mind," Blink had to agree with her, even though she and Vincent pretty much shared each other's bed nearly every night they had only been holding each other through the night. They both just needed comfort after something like that, so much death and destruction.
"I think me and James are going to visit home," Heather told everyone, "Guardian gave us all two weeks off and I want to see home again and visit my family there."
Blink nodded her head, "Yeah that's good. I was thinking of visiting TJ and see how she's doing. Then maybe go see Victor and the kids," She looked at her boyfriend, "Wanna visit with me?"
He gave a small smile and kissed her forehead, "Sure thing. Better then spending it here all alone."
"Well I'm going to take April and show her around my home, maybe even meet my parents," Dare spoke up. She and April had talked about it since April had no real family herself. Although she did consider Vince like a brother given the kind of thing they went through. Even if he wasn't her 'real' Vincent it was still nice to have someone familiar in her life.
While the others were thinking about that mission the Cosmic Guardian, Adam was also thinking on things. He was in the Lookout Tower looking over the beautiful area that the Complex was in. He chose this area to build the Complex because of the view here. It was one of true beauty and helped to remind him that despite all the ugliness and evil he saw in life there were still areas untouched by it.
He thought about how he brought this group of Exiles into his fold. So far they had done very well, maybe better then he had hoped but there were still things out there that they would need more strength to face. They still needed to train harder and gain skill that they will need. August would need to overcome her fear of using magic he knew, the universe had a way of exploiting your fears. The others all had personal demons they would need to face and overcome.
All of them still had strengths they didn't know they had as well. There was also the matter of Thunderbird in the special infirmary. He still didn't know why he wouldn't wake up, there were only a few reasons why and none of them good.
There were many more challenges ahead for them all and he just hoped that they were strong enough to face them all when the time came. But now he just wanted them to rest up, after events like that it was best not to push them. He'd let them rest up and when Morph got back from his honeymoon then maybe he'd start them off a little small if he could.
He bent forward on the balcony and sighed. Maybe he should take some time off as well. There were always dangers and evil to fight nothing he did would change that, and he didn't want to burn out. Ever since he broke ties with that old organization he once served he'd pretty much been on his own. Perhaps the future would bring better things for them all…He could only hope.
And sometimes in the end…Hope was all you had.
THE END
Well there it is it's over…for now at least. A few small fics and one-shots and spin-offs can always come from this whenever one of us can come up with. So even though this may be the end it may not be permanent.