"So glad to see that you followed orders." Vladimir said casually as Jacques, Takashi, and Rodriguez lay in their beds in the infirmary. Vladimir was so angry he was beyond yelling. Some people became raging infernos when they became incredibly angry. Others became cold, glacial even in their rage. Vlad's voice was a searing, deadly ice as dangerous and cold as a Siberian winter.
"Bite me." Jacques said between clenched teeth. "That mermaid witch is tough."
"Hence, one of the reasons I told you three not to fight them." Vladimir said icily. "What happened?" He saw Jacques and Rodriguez shift uncomfortably and looked away from Takashi. Vlad might have guessed. The Japanese mutant was too full of samurai pride.
"Well, it's not like your plan worked out anyway!" Jacques said defensively, trying to keep Vladimir from singling out Takashi. "We ended up facing the entire Misfit team! I thought you said that both our teams would attack a different convoy to the Pit and lure the Misfit and Joes away from the Pit so the would be unguarded long enough for Vortex to get us in and steal the Mass Device! What happened?"
"Our attack went…better than expected." Vladimir admitted.
"In other words, we sorta destroyed their communications equipment before they could tell the Joes they were under attack." Amira said sheepishly. "When we finished trashing the material they were transporting we decided to contact Vortex and open a portal back to base."
"We tried to contact you." Phelan said, "But you were, as they say, otherwise engaged."
"Okay so the plan fell through." Semira said, trying to prevent this from descending into a schism between the two groups. "It happens. The things we have to focus on now is recovering and coming up with a new plan."
"It'll be a while before Rodriguez is battle ready again." Amira pointed out. "You just can't walk off electrocution."
"I guess we go with Plan B then." Vladimir said.
"What's that? Is that the one where you sit around and eat Oreos?"Phelan asked. Vlad rolled his eyes.
"No. It's a plan I thought of a while back, but abandoned in favor of what we just tried today. I had wanted us to get some more combat experience, which the backup plan really doesn't involve. Plus Plan B takes longer to implement. A lot longer."
"Well since this one went bust, I guess we don't have much of a choice." Semira said. "What does this plan involve?" Vlad gave a grim smile.
"It starts with us making the Misfits lives miserable…"
000000000000000
"Hey! Who turned off the water?" Pietro demanded the next day as he walked out of the bathroom in just a towel, still covered with soapsuds.
"Forget that! Who turned off the TV?" Fred wondered. "My favorite show was on!"
"What was it a cooking show?" Pietro asked.
"Yeah, how'd you know?" Fred asked. Pietro rolled his eyes.
"I'm psychic."
"More like psychotic." Wanda corrected.
"You're one to talk." Pietro said right before Wanda hexed him against the wall.
"What's going on?" Lance demanded as he stormed in. "Which one of you guys cut the phone line? I was talking to Kitty!"
"Well at least the news isn't all bad then." Toad quipped as he hopped in. "At least the lights haven't—" The lights promptly died. "—gone out." Toad finished with a groan.
"You just had to say it, didn't you Toad?" Pietro asked.
"I don't like this." Althea said.
"That makes two of us." Flint said as he walked inside. "I just came from General Hawk. Electricity and water has been shut off all over The Pit."
"Sabotage?" Wanda asked.
"Of a sort." Flint sighed. "The electrical lines, water and gas mains, and phone lines have been destroyed. Even the power plants that they're connected to have been attacked."
"But how—" Angelica started to ask as a small yellow and purple portal opened inside the room. "Oh. That's how." The portal wasn't open long, only a few seconds, but it was long enough to release several familiar looking blasts of red energy.
Everyone in the room ducked as the blasts impacted against the wall, blowing a hole through it.
"The Hellions again!" Althea snarled. "Everybody, let's head out and meet them head on!"
The Misfits ran outside only to be confronted with the sight of dozens of portals opening and closing all over the Pit each one releasing energy blasts at whatever was in their path.
"Roadblock!" Flint called over the noise. "Has anyone seen where the Hellions are?"
"If my eyes are sound, there ain't anybody around!" Roadblock called back. "Not a hide nor hair, we can't find those creeps anywhere!" The barrage of portals and blasts stopped after a few minutes, leaving an eerie quiet over the Pit as everyone stopped to survey the damage.
"What's the situation?" General Hawk asked after the preliminary reports of damage came flooding in. Duke, the Misfits, and their handlers were present.
"Mixed." Duke admitted. "Most of those blasts didn't hit anything of value just the walls, ceilings, ground, and the like. Nothing too bad unless the budget's tight again. We think the primary purpose was random destruction or just to get back at the Misfits for trouncing them the yesterday."
"You said 'mostly,' does that mean that there was some damage that did destroy important facilities or equipment? What about casualties?"
"On that last count, surprisingly few. There are some bruises and broken bones, but that's par for the course for any given day around here. Beach Head got a concussion when the bathroom stall he was in was destroyed. He got hit in the head with the toilet seat."
The Misfits snickered.
"It's not funny." Spirit said.
"Who're you kidding?" Shipwreck snorted. "Of course it is!"
"Any way, there is some bad news…"
"You mean Beach Head will recover?" Pietro quipped. Duke ignored him.
"Some of those blasts did manage to hit our backup generators and supply rooms. In addition to the earlier destruction caused to the phone lines and water and gas mains, we're going to have a serious problem keeping the base up and running."
"Have you sent out damage teams to repair everything?" Low Light asked. Duke sighed and nodded.
"Yes, but there's nothing to stop the Hellions from doing this again."
"The cowards didn't even show up to face us themselves." Xi grumbled.
"That's what we found too." Shipwreck said. "There's no evidence those landlubbing scum ever even set foot on the base." Clearly he had not forgotten what they did to Althea and was still furious.
"If we could meet them in a straight up fight we could beat them and they know it too." Althea thought out loud. "That's probably why they're trying this instead."
"That'd be my bet too." Hawk agreed. "Is there any way to shield the Pit from those portals? Prevent them from opening portals here?"
"No, we don't think so. At least, we haven't figured out a way to yet." Duke said. "We've got our people working on it, but since we don't even know how these portals work, I wouldn't count on finding any solutions."
"What about Trinity? Could they come up with something?" Hawk asked.
"Maybe, but even geniuses need something to go on. And…" Duke winced. "One of those portals opened up in their lab. They're pretty…upset." Hawk winced too.
"It's almost enough to make me feel sorry for those Hellions when they meet Trinity. Almost. That reminds me." Hawk said. "What do we do, now that we know that Hellions are working for Cobra?"
"Could they be renegades? Broke with the White Witch?" Cover Girl suggested.
"Then why still wear the uniforms?" Spirit countered. "But I'm more interested in why haven't we seen them before? And why aren't the any of the other Hellions working with them?"
"Do you think something happened to the other Hellions, and these are their replacements?" Lance suggested.
"Maybe. Or Maybe Frost just figured that with all the hundreds of students she has at her Academy she can afford to have more than just a single team of less than a dozen mutants as fighters and soldiers." Althea mused.
"Sounds more like her." Low Light said. "But I don't get the Cobra connection. Is she using them to take over Cobra or just offering their services in order to get Cobra in the Hellfire Club's pocket?"
"Maybe we should call Xavier and see if he can gather any more information on these mutants. It might be something he can use." The Blind Master suggested.
"Given how many mutants there are and how well the Hellfire Club has been able to hide them from Cerebro I don't hold out much hope that Xavier knows these mutants himself or can locate them for us." Hawk said. "So far they're laying low. Our intelligence doesn't put them at the Terror Drome, but that's all they can tell us."
"SHIELD could probably find out more about them." Fred said. "Of course it's not like we've got any pictures of the guys and most of their powers aren't all that unique…" He trailed off.
"You know Fred you should really consider ending your thoughts about a sentence or two earlier." Pietro said dryly.
"Still, it's a lead to consider." Hawk said as he stood up. "In the meantime, we need to work to restore power to the base and keep looking for ways to track down these new Hellions."
"What do you think they're up to?" Toad asked him.
"Based on what they did today…" Hawk sighed. "I think they're trying to put the Pit under siege."
"That would be bad." Pietro blinked. Wanda snorted.
"You're just worried your health care products wont be able to arrive."
"Well, some of us care enough to put a little effort into our looks…"
"So what do we do now?" Althea asked General Hawk, ignoring Wanda hexing Pietro again. Whatever Hawk was going to say was lost as another batch of portals started popping open all over the Pit and started wrecking whatever was near them.
Hawk groaned. "I need a vacation."