Chapter 66

Change Is

In The Air

Disclaimer: Well, its been kind of a rough week (more like two but whatever) for me but I think I'm getting back on track. On with the show!

One Year Later, On An Island In The South Pacific

"Well, we've accomplished our goals. Even if it did come at a cost" Sighed Emma 'White Queen' Frost tiredly as she and several others stood near a burning Pyre.

"Got that right." Declared a somber Corsair as Scott and Alex nodded in agreement.

After the three Summers men had started their quest to find Sinister and make him pay for what he'd had a hand in doing to their family, Craig Starr had joined the group after they sought him out for any information he might be able to give them that would help. His family, the Greys, and the rest of the West Coast crew hadn't been too happy about it but had understood his need to help the Summers trio along the way. Eventually, the foursome would be joined by the surviving Hellions in the form of Emma Frost, her daughter Celandine (Sharon ending up at Misfit Manor), Spyke, Monet, and Sinew after the group had been betrayed and cut down by one Donald Pierce after the Cyborg finally got tired of how he was being treated by the rest of the Hellfire Club and with the assistance of Sinister's Marauders, had gone on a murder spree thanks to the fact that Sinister himself had been quietly screwing with Pierce's mind despite the fact he thought himself protected from such things. Naturally there had been some tension at first when the two groups had met up and realized they had some common goals.

But gradually those tensions lessened and thanks to the group's impact on making Sinister's life difficult, he'd had little time for doing much else much to his ever growing ire. Spyke would even jokingly call the group 'X-Force' at one point and the name would stick since it felt more fitting then calling themselves the X-Men. Of course, things would hit a snag when Craig eventually revealed he'd been getting inside information and some distrust would occur after that for a time before they all finally got over it for the most part. This would also finally help get the team to where Sinister and Pierce were basing themselves on an island in the South Pacific. Leading to a surprise attack on the base and causing for a lot of destruction and death to occur. Sadly, Philippa would be among the dead after Sinister had learned of her betrayal and killed her himself. Sparking great rage in both Craig and Greycrow and causing the two to beat the ever loving Hell out of the long lived Mutant as everything went down in flames. Gabriel 'Vulcan' Summers had wanted nothing to do with the rest of the Summers family and seeing how things were going during all this, decided to look out for himself and haul ass much to the unhappiness of the Summers men.

But they were hopeful that he could be gotten through too at some point in the future. "Craig..." Began Greycrow quietly as he watched Phillipa's body burn in the Pyre after having personally ensured Sinister was dead himself.

"Yeah?"

"If I see you again, it'll be too damned soon."

He wanted to blame the kid for what happened to his girl, to kick the crap out of him, but he knew she wouldn't want that. It made him hate that he knew that too and would need time to deal with everything. A lot of time. "I understand." Craig told him and then walked away after one final glance towards the Funeral Pyre.

"What now?" He asked the others as he approached them.

"I wouldn't mind sleeping awhile, I'm kind of tired of fighting and traveling all over the place." Admitted Sinew and using more words than normal for him.

His words were ones the others could agree with as well while Alex mentioned he wanted to get back to Surfing since he missed it and Corsair mentioned needing to check in on the Starjammers in Space to see how things were. "Well, I did hear that Storm took over a School in District X in New York. Perhaps she would be willing to allow us to join her in helping teach young minds?" Emma mentioned as the prospect of teaching again greatly appealed to her.

"I dunno, considering the past, she might not be too willin', Ms. Frost." Spyke told her.

"I'll vouch." Scott told him much to the other young man's surprise.

Giving all he and those with him had been through since the whole death of Spears thing, Scott no longer saw a need to have much issue towards it anymore. "For real!?"

"Yeah."

"Cool, thanks, man!"

Scott nodded with a tired smile as Monet sniffed. "I suppose I can come with." She said, making Celandine roll her eyes as she rested against Spyke.

"I'll be heading back to California myself." Craig told them not too surprisingly.

At The Pit Base

Since the Battle of California, much had changed for the original GI JOE team, and it all began when their mission statement changed from primary focus on Cobra to helping combat against other Terrorist Groups. Which meant they now worked more closely with X-Factor, the West Coast team, and other various anti-Terrorist groups in order to combat against the threat in whatever form it was in. The Joes and X-Factor were also essentially in charge of dealing with Mutants while also working together with Cleveland, Warren 'Angel' Worthington III, and several others after the Jammers and Warren had gotten the idea to found X-Corp. An organization dedicated to helping Mutants all across the world and Krakoa was even said to be involved as well. Unfortunately however, the Joes had also gained themselves something of an enemy in the form of Gabrielle Haller's family after they publically took down Legion and weren't allowed to disclose any information to her due to needing the General Public to have a certain impression where Legion's concerned.

That, and even if the General Public did know the full truth, a lot of them would still want to try and hurt David despite his unintentional role in everything. The whole thing ultimately causing Gabrielle to take her life and is one of the reasons her family is causing problems for the Joes. Betsy and Sarah were no longer with the team due to being recalled back to the UK and or in Sarah's case, being on a long term assignment. Though Lance hadn't liked Betsy having been recalled, they still made their relationship work as best they could thanks to various means to communicate and as well as the Mass Device. Lance himself was now also in charge of the Misfits, something that had happened after Althea came out of her Catatonic state a few days after a certain Virus tried to kill Toad a second time. But despite the increase in responsibility, the Earth Shaker was doing his best to make time to be with his family in Miami.

Virus also had yet to be found and reportedly had a hand in helping the Dreadnoks escape from Prison as well since they'd all been on the ground and in the thick of things instead of being on the Cobra HeliCarrier. Althea had decided to leave the team and even the Base itself as she needed time to deal with everything as what had happened with Todd had been the final straw for even her limits. Wanting to try and be a teenager without having to worry about anything and talked to Lila in Cleveland about destinations she could go too for such a thing. Shipwreck hadn't been that happy but he had undertood his oldest's need to get away but the same couldn't be said for her sisters. Whom all felt like she was doing what their mother did despite Althea's attempts to get them to see otherwise. And thankfully, the Clan Leaders had seen the merit of her needing to do this and while Xi did try and go with her, he'd end up pursuing the next level of training he, Althea, and Todd were meant to be doing together.

As he felt it was the best way to go about things, course it helped he had some encouragement in that area from those in his life. Althea had yet to return but Love was about to have a hand in her return.

"Where… Am I? Why lookin'… Green?" Mumbled a voice that had heard better days.

In A Town Near The Pit

"Alright, Ladies, The Avalanche Tour has concluded for the day, please enjoy the rest of your day and thank you for going with 'Avalanche Tours'." Quipped Lance 'Avalanche' Alvers as he pulled in front of a Nunnery on a Bus filled with Nuns.

All of whom were giggling in appreciation of his joke and while Lance hadn't been enthused about getting roped into driving around a bunch of Nuns for the day, he had to admit it hadn't been that bad in the end. "I hope you don't mind if we request you to be our driver again in the future?" Asked one of the Nuns as she and her Sisters disembarked.

"Well, today wasn't so bad so I might be down for it depending on what's going on around then." He told her with a smile.

Earning himself a smile in return and a pat on the arm. "You are a good boy, Mr. Alvers, let no one else tell you different."

The genuineness of her words made the young man rather happy. "I won't, thank you, Sister Jennifer."

With another smile in his direction, Sister Jennifer departed and Lance suddenly wondered how things might go with Lina involved before shaking that thought off. "Nah, probably a bad idea."

"Lance! Are you there!?" Came Lina's excited if urgent sounding voice over the Joe Comm on his wrist.

Making Lance raise his eyebrows and feeling a little worried. "Yeah, I'm here, what's up?"

"He's awake! Lance, he's awake!"

Her words confused the young man as he spoke again. "Who's awake?"

"Todd, Lance! He finally woke up even if it was for a few minutes! Get over here!" She told him and though he couldn't see it, Lina had tears in her eyes over the whole thing.

Lance's eyes widened in shock. "Holy s**t! I'll be there as soon as I can!" Came his excited response and quickly got out of the Bus and towards his Jeep and once in, hauled ass for the Pit.

"MY FRIEND'S AWAKE! THE TOAD IS BACK!" He yelled as he left the parking lot near the Nunnery.

"Well… Praise the Lord for He is Kind." Murmured an outside Nun after hearing those words.

Having vaguely remembered hearing how things had gone for that particular individual in the Battle Of California last year.

A Little Later

Despite Lifeline's barely put in effort to keep a huge crowd from being in the medbay where Todd was concerned, he couldn't help but feel intensely happy to see everyone in high spirits. The fact Todd himself was awake again and had an insanely happy, if tearful Althea cuddling into his side was another Godsend in the Healer's eyes. "Far as I can tell, my young friend, the reason your skin is green now instead of only when you are in Salt Water is that the attacks on you by Virus and the open wounds gained afterwards, allowed for the Blood in your body and the Salt Water to mix to alter your appearance's skin color."

"And… No way to, to change that?" Asked Todd slowly with a frown on his face.

"None at this time, it appears you are stuck this way, Mr. Tolensky."

Todd's frown deepened at that and it wasn't hard to miss. "Well… Somethin' else to get, get used too… I guess." Sighed the young man somewhat despondently.

"We'll help you through it, son, that's a promise. We did before and we'll do it again." Roadblock told him without bothering to rhyme.

Murmurs of agreement were heard from the others and it made Todd thankful, even if a part of him still none the less resented the fact he was full on green now. But he'd deal with it as needed while putting in the work to get back into fighting strength. And then… Then he'd find Virus and kick his ass!

Author's Notes: I'm probably gonna be doing a bigger time jump in the next chapter but we'll see where my thinking goes. I might even take a page from my old discontinued fic 'X-Force Horizons' and re-use the Toad/Virus fight scene from that for this fic. Granted, some re-writing for that would need to happen most likely.