Exiles: Desperation

Chapter IV:

Panoptichron

Craig sat down at the table under the fierce glare of the woman who was probably his best friend, Clarice Ferguson. "I told you, I… I can't explain."

"Why not?" she pressed.

"Because you wouldn't understand," he said. He looked up finally, into her eyes, and once again she got a sense for how old he really was.

"Craig," she said, hurt in her voice. "I've been doing this longer than almost anybody. Morph is the only Exile with more hours clocked than me. How can you say I wouldn't understand?"

"Because you are a hero, and only a hero," he said darkly. "You want to know what my mission had me do?" he asked. "I'll tell you. I killed a good man. A man who would have protected his people and loved a wife someday. I shot him right between the eyes, and then killed his guards, and set off bombs to cover it all up."

She just stared at him for a moment. "I did it because it was necessary to fix the rip. It was what the multiverse needed…" He lowered his head again. "I didn't want you coming along, because I didn't want you to seem me do that."

She shut her mouth. For all the time that she'd been a leader, the Timebreakers hadn't sent her to do something so bloody. They'd had Weapon X for that.

Craig pushed away from the table, "I… I'm just going to give you some time on that one." He walked down the Hall of Habitats, and away from her.

She turned down to stare at their uneaten sandwiches. She felt like throwing up to know someone she cared about was capable of that. Then again, she'd always known Mr. Creed was more than willing to bloody his hands for the right reason. Why did it trouble her so that Craig could be that violent, that cold? It had been over a month since they had started their "Exiled Army" project. Craig and she had been very close. She chalked it up to being the first person he'd met, but he was funny, and wise, and very kind. He didn't let his eyes travel and paw at every scantly clad form that walked by him, yet he made her feel lovely every time they chatted. Could she be… no… it was too soon. Cal, she still loved him. She couldn't be feeling something for Craig.

Craig was sitting on a mountain top in one of the rooms off the Hall of Habitats. He liked coming there. It was peaceful, serene.

"Problems?" came a voice. He looked to see his friend, Captain America, from the Ape world.

"Strange feelings," he said quietly. "Ones I thought I wouldn't have again."

"Love?" asked the gorilla.

Craig shook his head, "Shame. Somehow Clarice can make me feel like a complete monster for doing… doing what I know needed to be done."

"Those we care about can always make us feel as if we have gone wrong," the Ape replied. "It's a good thing."

"Yeah… but I thought… well I thought I couldn't feel shame any longer after… after all I'd been through."

The Gorilla shrugged his shoulders. "You'd be surprised what you feel; even when you know there is no reason for it. I still get offended when someone makes a 'Monkey' joke at my expense." Steve looked at the watch on his left ankle. "Well, I must go, I have a mission in an hour, and I have to prep."

"Do well," Craig said to the gorilla. "Keep your fur clean."

"And you," Steve returned with a smile.

'Why did he think I was feeling love?' Craig wondered. 'I mean sure, I care a great deal for Clarice, and for what she thinks of me, and I know she is beautiful, and I would do just about anything for her but I don't… damnit.'

Earth-80395

"Watch it Sue!" Called Johnny "Thing" Storm. A hail of bullets impacted upon Johnnies back as he placed himself between the bullets and his sister.

"Johnathan," Susan "Candle" Storm scolded. "I could vaporize the bullets before they even get close." She ignited and flew off.

The Exiles Fantastic Four team was facing off against The Church of Doom, a cult dedicated to Dr. Doom.

"Alright, enough guardin' Susan," snapped Ben "Stretch" Grimm called. "Thing, take out that wave of Doombots, Candle I need those planes downed Now. Spider-Woman, we're taking down the Priestess and the Apprentice."

Stretch used his amorphous body to plow through countless dregs.

Beside him, also serving on the team, was Mary-Jane "Spider-Woman" Watson, from the Vi-Lock world. She had volunteered when they mentioned they were recruiting. She would do anything to feel slightly closer to her now dead former lover, Sunfire an Exile who died in action.

"Forget the Cannon fodder people," snapped Dr. Reed "Mr. Fantastic" Richards through the taluses. "You need to pull the masks off the Priestess and the Apprentice. Doom himself will take care of the rest."

"What do you think we're trying to do!" snapped Grimm, as he slung a couple of dregs out of his way, trying to stretch his way to his opponents.

"GOT 'EM!" called out Spider-Woman. She slung two web-lines to reveal the faces of Lyja Lazerfist and Johnny Storm.

Instantly all four members were ported out as Doom expressed his disgust with being represented by a Skrull.

Panoptichron

"You alright Sue?" asked Johnny, looking over his "sister"

"Fine, Johnathan," she said in a tired voice. "Must you make a fuss after every mission?"

"I'm sorry…" he said, his face falling downward. "It's just… I lost you…er… MY Sue in a bad way and I… well, I can't loose you again."

She gave his arm an understanding pat, not sure if he could feel it through the rock. "It's alright, Johnathan. I understand. It is nice to have a friend… I don't think either Ben or Mary-Jane likes me very much."

The truth was Ben was having his own displacement problems. The Sue Storm of his world had been his wife, and even given him children before she left him for Reed Richards. He avoided her after missions so that he wouldn't say things to her that she really hadn't earned. After all, this Sue was a nun.

Mary-Jane avoided her for reasons less simple. Sue's powers were incredibly similar to Sunfire, the Exile Mary-Jane had been in love with. When sue was ablaze it was almost impossible to tell her from Sunfire. It hurt Mary-Jane, who had yet to fall in love again. She at least had a good friend in Morph. Together the two of them were teaching Miguel "Spider-Man" O'Hara how to be funny. It was an uphill battle. He wasn't allowed to be the only unfunny spider-man in the omniverse.

Sue and Johnny walked through the Halls to the main cafeteria, where they ate. Sue almost shrank behind Johnny when Reed walked past them. This Reed wasn't like the one from her world. She didn't like how his eyes traveled over her. How he seemed to view her like an object. The only thing they knew about him was that after they had received their powers, the members of the Fantastic Four from his reality had joined Nick Fury's SHIELD program. Reed Richards had spent the last few years as a spy in deepest of covers.

"Guten tag Sister," came a voice that restored comfort to Sue. Kurt Wagner was about the only person in the Exiled Army she felt understood her relationship with God, probably because he was a priest himself.

"Good afternoon Father Wagner," she greeted him. "Was your venture successful?' she asked.

"Oh, this I must tell you in person," he said with a chuckle as he thought of what had happened to his field leader.

Mary-Jane sat at a table, eating a burger and fries with a few girls she had become accostumed to eating with. They were both on what was known as the "Bruiser" team. Betsy "Juggernaut" Braddock and Molly "Basher" Hayes were her friends in here. "Any good missions?" she asked absently.

"We took down the Berlin Wall," Betsy said. "Good history lesson for the bird here," she gestured at Molly. While Betsy was Seven foot eight inches tall, and built like She-Hulk, Molly was twelve and built like… a skinny twelve-year-old girl.

Molly stuck her tongue out as she put away another chicken nugget and chugged down some coffee. "Not hard really," she said. "Just concrete and rebar. We got to hear this really cool guy speak though."

"his name, luv, was Ronald Reagan. 'Bout the last half-way decent prez you yanks elected… not that he was an angel dear just… halfway decent."

"I wouldn't know," Mary-Jane said with a shake of her head. "Last president I can actually remember was… George Bush, and he was turned into a Vi-Lock in office."

"Cyber-Zombies… eugh," Molly shuddered going to put her tray up.

"You know," Betsy said, once they were alone, "You'll have to talk to your Team members eventually… including Candle."

Mary-Jane looked at her suspiciously.

"Relax Luv, I don't know why you're avoiding her, but I have a descent idea. You have the hots for her don't you?"

"How did you know that I'm…"

"ever hear the term 'takes one to know one?" she asked with a grin.

Mary-Jane just stared wide-eyed at the tall British woman.

Betsy just smiled smugly. "sorry to break your heart luv, but that one is completely and totally straight."

"Well… It's not that," Mary-Jane said reluctantly. "She just reminds me of… someone."

"Ah, that blows then." Betsy put a massive hand on her friends shoulders.

All of a sudden a call came over the intercom. "This is an Emergency Bruiser Call. Repeat, an Emergency Bruiser call. All Bruisers report to excursion plat form immediately. Betsy ruffled Mary-Jane's short red hair once and took off running. She was quickly joined by Molly, Shang-Chi (the Phoenix), Rick "Hulk" Jones, and Johnny "Thing" Storm. They quickly filed into the Exursion platform and were joined, surprisingly, by Taskmaster.

"Alright," Said a weak looking General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross. "You're being dropped into a Hydra den where they are preparing to send a missile full of all kinds of bio- and chemical- weapons into a major Aquifer and poison the U.S. for decades to come. Bruisers, your job will be to punch, and kick anything that gets in your way. The only Metas there will be knock-offs of Captain America, Iron-Man, Hawkeye, and Thor. None of them near the originals, plus a couple thousand Hydra-soldiers. Taskmaster is going to be disarming the warheads and make sure that missile doesn't launch. Clear?"

"Sir, yes sir." Responded the Bruisers, who were used to their "dispatcher". They were transported in.

Earth 727

It was like setting off a bomb. Except for the Taskmaster, all of the members of the team were high level super-strengths with high degrees of invulnerability. The most impressive were Phoenix, because along with his strength and invulnerability he was trained in martial arts, he could take on fifty men by himself without the Phoenix Force. With it… he was a weapon of mass destructions, and Basher. Her normally weak looking body was augmented by psionic powers that made her massively strong and completely invulnerable even when it came to enchanted objects. This is why she wasn't even phased when the Thor-knockoff shattered his hammer over her head. She gave him a punch in the gut and sent him flying.

With her helmet off, Juggernaut was fighting in double time, by using her strength on those closest and her telepathy on those further away.

Hulk was launching himself into the air to do battle with the Iron Man knockoff.

That was when a few words came over their ear pieces that they would never be able to forget… "What in the Sam-Hell?! Phoenix! Do you see anyone else teleporting in?"