GI Joe/Marvel universe crossover.
I don't own Marvel or Hasbro.
Silence
Chapter 22: Unwanted Battles
Time: 12:14 local time; Wednesday; 19:14 Zulu
Location: Extensive Enterprises; California
He watched as the man across from him picked at his plate. The other man, an identical copy of himself, glared down at the seafood he'd ordered for lunch.
"Something wrong brother?" Xamot asked, looking up from his steamed mussels. His brother frowned and poked at the mussels on his plate. Xamot could feel his twin's obvious distaste.
"These mussels are bad," Tomax complained. Xamot frowned. His tasted just fine. The Corsican studied his brother's plate for a moment before reaching over and plucking one off of the dish. Xamot ate the meaty inside and found that it tasted no different than his own.
"Maybe you just don't like them," he finally suggested. It seemed impossible and his brother silently agreed. They'd always liked and hated the same foods. He watched as Tomax took another bite, only to make another disgusted face.
"You probably just ate a good one," Tomax replied. Xamot frowned before trying another one. Again, it tasted just fine to him. His brother was frowning now as well.
"I've always liked mussels," his brother replied. Tomax picked up another one and ate it. A feeling of revulsion reverberated inside Xamot's head and he felt and heard his brother gag slightly. A slightly green Tomax finally pushed the plate away. His twin tried to ignore the mussels as he devoted his attention entirely to his salad. Xamot's frown deepened.
He shouldn't let something as insignificant as this bother him, but it did. It was one in a series of 'small' things that had been cropping up the last few days that shouldn't have been. The two brothers no longer fell asleep or woke at the same time, let alone share dreams. Small differences in taste had risen as well and neither brother understood why. The mussels were only the most recent one.
Xamot had quite by accident discovered the previous day that he actually liked jazz and swing music when he'd overheard someone else listening to it. It was odd, as he'd always hated them before. Tomax had been surprised to walk into their shared office later to find his brother listening to Cab Calloway. The older twin had complained slightly about the choice in music and Xamot had turned it off.
Xamot pulled out of his reflections when he heard his brother's comm unit beep. Tomax pulled it out and answered it. One of the Crimson Guard reported that Cobra forces had engaged Magneto. The Corsicans both raised their eyebrows as they listened.
After the report was complete, the two brothers ordered the man to keep them posted. As of yet, they saw no need to be involved in the situation. They had more pressing concerns to deal with at the moment. A member of the Crimson Guard was up for election in Ohio and the twins needed to make sure that he got the senator seat.
There was also an upcoming invasion to plan for.
Time: 15:15 local time; Wednesday; 19:15 Zulu
Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
A blazing inferno scorched through the city's streets. He flew high up in the air and watched as the fire twisted and turned to follow him. Erik Magnus threw up a magnetic shield as the blue white flames burned their way around him. He narrowed his eyes and lifted several cars and one semi-truck off of the street and ignored the people screaming inside. Some managed to escape as he dumped them on their target.
A lithe female figure swore as the metal fell towards here. Throwing fire at them wouldn't do much good considering the amount of metal there was. The flames would only ignite the fuel and possibly damage either herself or the troops under her command.
Fortunately for the Baroness, one of the Cobra troops leapt in front of her and deflected the attack. His granite like hands connected with the semi-truck and he put all of his weight into stopping it. Another Cobra, also a mutant, blew up one of the cars with a blast of energy. A thankful Baroness dodged the other car and sent another scorching blast at Magneto.
"Watch the left flank!" she shouted. Cobra troops, mutant and human, rushed to strengthen a sudden gap in the defensive line. The Baroness wished that a few of Dr. Mindbender's new BATs were present, but they weren't. Even if it had been strategically possible to get them to Pittsburgh in such short notice, the Commander would rightfully have blocked the attempt anyway. He was saving the newest android models for the upcoming attack on the GI Joe Pit.
Half a block to her left, Cobra troops fired vainly at an enormous, obese man. His elastic, blubbery skin deflected the bullets and his heavy weight belied an extremely strong and agile body. The Baroness swore as she got on her comm unit.
"I need Reeves and Marshall here now!" she yelled, referring to two other mutants under her command. "The Blob's here and nothing we're throwing at him is working!"
She grimaced as she fired at another of Magneto's mutants. There was a scream as the woman collapsed to the ground. A roar erupted from Magneto's mouth when he saw his downed comrade. The Baroness, however, smiled to herself.
Frankly, it served the man right. He was the one that had found and attacked the Cobra cell to begin with.
The Baroness watched as some of the non-mutant Cobra troops managed to take down another mutant with a missile launcher. Magneto had come in full force and attacked the cell tucked away in the heart of the city. Cobra had rushed in support troops from its nearest base, as well the Baroness and a few other mutants.
A helicopter roared overhead. She looked up to see several National Guard helicopters approaching. They were fools. The American army had no hopes of stopping this fight and the collateral damage wreaking havoc to the city. In fact, the more damage the better, in her opinion.
As if to prove her point, one of the helicopters went down from a Cobra missile. The other helicopters backed off slightly and circled around the fight.
Of course, it was only a matter of time before someone like the Joes or the Avengers decided to try to interfere. She was proven to be correct about half an hour later. Miss Marvel and Captain America arrived just as they were beginning to beat back Magneto's forces. Shortly after that, three GI Joe Tomahawks arrived.
The middle of Pittsburgh became a three way war zone.
Time: 15:50 local time; Wednesday; 19:50 Zulu
Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
"This is looking sticky Flint, what the hell are we supposed to do?" Someone asked. Flint looked grim as he surveyed the superhuman battle raging below.
"Contain the fight and stop the fighting," the warrant officer answered.
"What about Magneto?" Chuckles asked. "He's doing us a favor, isn't he? He found a Cobra cell and attacked it for us."
"Magneto also doesn't care if civilians are killed, unless they're mutants," Flint answered.
The stickiness of the situation wasn't lost on him. Magneto hated the American government for the rampant anti-mutant bias in the country and he'd more than once attacked government installations. By aiding him, the Joes were unofficially sanctioning his extreme anti-human and anti-government behavior. On the other hand, Magneto also considered Cobra to be an enemy and as the old saying went, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
"And how're we supposed to fight against mutant powers?" Lift Ticket asked doubtfully from the cockpit. "It's not like we even have Beach Head and Lifeline here."
"We'll make do," Flint responded sharply. The Avengers had sent Ms. Marvel and Captain America. Tony Stark and James Rhodes were also on their way. It irked the proud warrant officer to no end that the Joes needed to rely on other people for help instead of being able to do the job themselves, but at the same time he was glad for the help.
Before Beach Head had left for Charles Xavier's school, the two men had surprisingly been in agreement when they both told Hawk that the Joes needed to begin conducting battle simulations on how to fight against superpowers. As of yet, however, the new training scenarios hadn't been completely written and implemented yet. This was going to be a crash course on how to fight mutant abilities.
Flint didn't like that one bit.
"So whose side are we on in this one?" Roadblock asked. Flint sighed in frustration, as he himself wasn't entirely sure.
"We've been ordered to prevent more collateral damage and civilian death," he replied. "We're to take out Cobra with the hopes that helping Magneto will bring an early end to the fight." Hawk had also expressed the hope that maybe by helping the Brotherhood of Mutants, they might be able to show Magneto that not all humans hated mutants. Even Flint had thought that it might be too optimistic and the general had agreed.
"Hey Flint!" Rock n Roll shouted over the comm unit. "Cobra's got Magneto cornered! Do we help or not?"
Flint swore as he listened to the report. Several Cobra, under the command of the Baroness, had cornered the mutant leader by a university campus. Two blocks from him, the Blob was tearing through Cobra troopers as well as civilian bystanders.
"I'll handle the Blob," Miss Marvel's voice said over the unit.
"Unit one, back up Magneto," Flint finally ordered. "Deploy the A.W.E. Strikers and the Wolverine."
Flint watched as the two other Tomahawks each lowered a Striker, with two Joes in each one. Meanwhile, Cover Girl plowed through the line of firing. The two vehicles followed after her. He winced as a plasma discharge bounced off of the tank's armor. The new Wolverine was an experimental one, as Tony Stark had upgraded the armor to make it more durable.
Sci Fi targeted his laser weapon on the Baroness as Mercer whipped one of the Strikers through a now broken line of Cobra troops. Captain America leapt through a volley of fire and threw his shield at one of the Cobra mutants. It struck the man in the face and left him unconscious. The Avenger retrieved his shield and hitched a ride on the other Striker, which was being driven by Leatherneck. Jinx, who'd been the other passenger, jumped out of the moving vehicle and began to slash her way through the Cobra ranks with deadly efficiency.
Flint swore as something hit the Tomahawk, which sent it spiraling downwards. His heart jumped into his throat as they quickly neared the ground. There was another jolt as something stopped the helicopter before it crashed.
"I've got you!" A female voice called out. The warrant officer instantly realized that Miss Marvel had caught the helicopter. The Avenger lowered the now broken aircraft to the ground and the Joes piled out, taking cover around it.
The ground lurched beneath their feet and partially buckled up. It took all of Flint's concentration not to fall flat on his face. Thunderous footsteps walked towards the Joes and paused. The warrant officer grimaced when he came face to face with a very pissed Blob.
"What's this? A puny soldier with a toy gun?" the mutant asked.
"We're here for Cobra," Flint answered firmly. The man laughed and the folds in his belly shook from the effort. He stopped laughing a moment later as a look of pure rage crossed his face.
"You attacked me!" the man bellowed.
"I attacked you!" Marvel answered, flying at the mutant. "You were hurting civilians!" Carol Danvers circled the mutant and grabbed an arm and managed to pull the Blob away from the Joes. Despite her incredible strength, even the former Air Force colonel had trouble moving the mutant.
Despite the situation Flint took a moment to, well, marvel at Ms. Marvel. It wasn't so much that her powers were impressive, even though they were. No, she had a spectacular service record and could easily have been in GI Joe if events in her life had taken a different course. According to her files, she was probably as good of a pilot as Ace and she'd had training in special ops when she'd served in SHIELD and the CIA. This was before she'd even gained her powers.
All of this boded well for the Joes. Ms. Marvel was accustomed to operating in a military environment and had no problems with taking orders from the Joe leaders.
"Marvel, keep Blob from interfering," Flint ordered. "I don't think he's in the mood to play by our rules."
"Understood," Came the immediate response. There were no questions or concerns on her part about if she could do it or not. She was a soldier at heart.
Flint watched for a weak point in the fighting. He spotted a low retaining wall and led his small unit towards it, with Roadblock and Low Light giving them suppressing fire. When the two Joes joined up with then, Flint pointed to a tall educational building on the school's campus.
"Low Light, get up there and start picking off some of these guys," Flint ordered. The sniper nodded and made his way quickly towards the building as they covered for him. There was an earthshattering boom to their left as Miss Marvel crashed through a row of cars and into a building. Flint bit off another curse.
"Maybe it's not such a good idea to send Low Light up there," Roadblock told him. "That building could go down any minute."
"I know," Flint admitted. There were also probably civilians trapped inside of it that needed to be evacuated. With all the heavy fighting unfortunately, there was nowhere to safely evacuate them at the moment.
God damn urban warfare. The civilians always suffered.
Not for the first time, Flint wished that Magneto would have shared information instead of attacking Cobra himself. The Joes or even SHIELD could have taken out the small cell with a minimum amount of casualties and collateral damage. Unfortunately, there was no point in wishing for the impossible. Magneto would never have shared information even if the moon was falling from the sky. The situation had happened and now they had to deal with it.
Flint's comm unit suddenly beeped as Tony Stark came on the line.
"Rhodey and I are almost there," he answered. "What do you want us to do?"
"Stark, go help Marvel with the Blob," Flint answered. "Rhodes, I need you to help us protect civilians. We're northeast of that huge building that's sticking up like some gothic needle." Half of the building had gothic architecture, but it was designed in a blocky way that he personally found distasteful.
"Understood," Rhodes answered.
The two Avengers arrived nearly a minute later. Iron Man took off towards where Marvel and the Blob were fighting. War Machine landed next to the entrenched Joes, who were firing at a group of Vipers. Flint was relieved to see that Cobra's troops were beginning to pull back.
He watched as a purple haired Cobra Viper went down. His friends' bodies also collapsed as Low Light's bullets reached their target.
"Sniper!" One of Cobras yelled. He went down an instant later, a bullet through his heart.
The rest of the troops retreated and began to run towards the Baroness's position, which wasn't looking good either. Flint looked over to where Stark and Danvers were still fighting the Blob. Dammit. They needed to set up a blockade to trap Cobra's forces. He didn't need to have two of his heaviest hitters distracted from the main battle.
"Someone get Magneto on the line!" Flint yelled into the unit. "Tell him to call off Blob, there's more important ways we can use our resources!"
"How the damn hell are we supposed to do that?" Leatherneck answered. "He barely wants to acknowledge that we're actually helping him!"
"I don't care, just do it!" the warrant officer ordered.
"Good luck with that," Rhodes muttered. Flint turned a glare on the Marine who immediately apologized with a delayed "Sir."
A few minutes later, Magneto descended upon their position, apparently eschewing the use of the Joe's communications. The man floated above the Joes with his arms crossed across his chest.
"You wish to speak with me," he stated. Flint straightened as he prepared to lock horns with the man. He was fully prepared for Magneto not to cooperate.
"Call Blob off," he demanded. "We're better off joining our forces against Cobra." Flint was sorely tempted to call Magneto a damned fool for allowing the whole situation to escalate like it had. However, now was not the time to piss the man off. For now, the warrant officer needed the mutant to work with them.
"If that's so, then why did two Avengers attack him?" Magneto asked coolly. There was a certain touch of arrogant impatience in his voice.
"He was attacking Cobra with no regard for civilians," Flint answered. "We're here to protect them, not kill them."
"Perhaps you are," Magneto answered. "I, on the other hand, could care less about human 'civilians.' I'm only here for Cobra." Flint bristled in response and forced himself not to respond with 'You're no better than the anti-mutant bigots,'". He didn't, however, which took all of his self-control. Instead, he tried a different tact.
"And how do you know that there aren't any mutants mixed up in there?" Flint questioned. "And even if there aren't, at least one or two of them are going to give birth to a mutant." Most likely, anyway. Magneto stared down at him with intense contemplation before finally nodding.
"Very well," the man finally replied. "You're logic is sound. We will keep the civilians out of harm's way as much as possible."
"There's a large group of Cobra heading towards the southwest," Flint said. "We should split our forces into a pincer movement and trap them so they can't escape."
"You're not in the position to be giving commands," Magneto told him coldly. "I will give the orders." Flint ground his teeth. He'd been afraid of this as well. Agreeing to work together in theory was a hell of a lot different than actually doing it in practice.
"Then what do you suggest?" he asked angrily.
"Stay out of my way," the mutant answered. He flew back up into the sky and away from Flint's group. The warrant officer felt his face redden in sheer outrage. Flint kicked at a bush and pretended that it was Magneto's face.
"God dammit!" he swore.
"Look at this way," Rhodes told him. "At least he agreed to call off Blob and try to keep civilians out of the cross fire." Flint paused in mid curse at that. The Marine had a point. He looked over and saw that the Blob was following after Magneto, having left Ms. Marvel and Iron Man behind.
Flint closed his eyes and counted to three. He willed his temper to stay in check. At least Magneto had agreed to something, even if he had refused to work together with them.
"All units," he said into the comm unit. "We need to end this now before it gets worse. Regroup and…"
"Flint, Duke's on the other line," Chuckles said. Flint immediately switched over to where Duke was waiting. Flint relayed the current situation and wasn't entirely pleased when he found out that their orders had been changed.
"Back off?" he asked, not happy.
"Not our call Flint," Duke answered. "The Jugglers are quite content to let Cobra and Magneto pound on each other and do the work for us."
"They've turned the god damned city into a warzone!" Flint shouted. "We can't let them continue like this!"
"That's why you guys are to stay there and evacuate the civilians to a safe area," Duke answered, also unhappy.
Flint sighed as he switched back to the other line and relayed the new orders. As to be expected, no one was entirely happy with the situation, even if they agreed on the need to protect the civilians. The Joes and the Avengers began to pull trapped people out of the rubble and shepherd them to a somewhat safer location.
The whole situation was over about an hour later. Cobra managed to slip away, though with heavy casualties. Magneto was quite irritated by it and Flint feared that he might take it out on them. The leader of Genosha, however, didn't attack them. Instead, he and his band of mutants also left the city.
Flint surveyed the destroyed section of the city he was currently standing in. It looked like something out of a WWII photograph. God damned Cobra. God damned Magneto. This fight never should have happened. The Joes could have taken care of the Cobra cell quietly and with little damage. The civilians probably wouldn't have even noticed that something had happened.
He sighed again. The adrenaline had by now drained from his body, leaving behind an aching weariness and a knot of anger. Cobra and Magneto had left, but the Joes and the Avengers were going to be here for the next few hours cleaning up the mess they'd left behind.
"Boys," Flint said to no one in particular. "Life just sucks sometimes."
They all agreed.
Time: 15:21 local time; Wednesday; 23:21 Zulu
Location: Cobra Headquarters, Alaska
The Crimson twins were walking through a hallway in Cobra Command when they learned of the Baroness's defeat. Considering the odds she'd been up against, perhaps it wasn't surprising that she'd lost. The only question was how Cobra Commander would react to it.
Seeing as the man in question had ordered yet another emergency meeting, the twins were about to find out. The man did love his meetings. Both brothers were convinced that the Commander often called them just to stroke his own ego. Of course, he did have suspicions about his colleagues that he never bothered to hide, so micromanaging was a necessity for a megalomaniac.
Tomax didn't seem to mind however, Xamot noted. Usually he didn't either, as both men loved the challenge. Messing with Cobra Commander's mind had always served to be a source of amusement for them as well. However, for reasons the scarred twin didn't understand, he simply just felt tired.
The business affairs of Extensive Enterprises and their duties with the Crimson Guard also usually engaged his mind and filled him with energy. For the past few days, however, Xamot had begun to struggle with a growing feeling of restlessness and boredom. Tomax had noticed of course, but his twin didn't understand it either.
"Perhaps you're coming down with something brother," Tomax suggested. "We are in Alaska; perhaps you've simply caught a cold." Xamot pointed out that he didn't feel sick. His brother wasn't quite convinced.
"We're attacking the Pit in two days," his brother said. "You should rest up, in case you are getting sick." Xamot getting sick would also mean that Tomax would, at least after a fashion. Even if he wasn't physically ill himself, he'd still feel the effects.
Usually he would anyway. Maybe he wouldn't now.
"There has to be a different reason," Xamot insisted. "None of this started until after Sinister removed the telepathic link between us."
"But he put it back into place," Tomax pointed out, but he was frowning as he said it. Unspoken was the thought that perhaps something had changed after Sinister had messed with their mental link. The two men passed through the Crimson Guard's living quarters. They walked by the barracks and a rec room as they wondered if Sinister was responsible for this mess or not.
Laughter from the rec room suddenly drew Xamot's attention, who paused to glance inside. A small group of Guardsmen were gathered around a table and playing cards. The image triggered something in his mind and a forgotten memory surfaced.
"Is Tarek cheating again?" Tomax asked. "I swear he's cheating… isn't he brother?" Xamot nodded his head, agreeing with his twin. The two young men, not even yet twenty years old, were seated on the bottom floor of a tent. A dusty sandstorm blew outside.
"I'm not cheating," another young man scoffed. The twins and the other solders in the tent gave a disbelieving snort. The Moroccan glared at all of them. Every single one of them wore the uniform of the French Foreign Legion. The youngest three of the unit had decided to amuse themselves with a game of blackjack until the sandstorm stopped.
"Allah's honor," the other young man insisted. "I'm just good at cards."
"Well there you go boys," their unit commander chuckled. "It's 'Allah's honor'."
"This is the same Muslim who doesn't care if he eats pork," Xamot pointed out. "AND he's gambling. Allah's honor my ass."
"Oh yeah?" Tarek gloated, turning over his cards. "Then what about this? Twenty-one!"
Both twins groaned as they threw their cards at the other man. The Moroccan snickered as he reshuffled the cards and collected the francs he'd won from the two brothers.
"Another game?" he asked. The two brothers sighed as they nodded their heads. The Moroccan Legionnaire reshuffled the cards and dealt them out again.
Xamot blinked and wondered why the hell that memory had decided to pop into his mind. It had been years since he and his brother had served in the Foreign Legion, which they had only joined to escape from the poverty they'd grown up in.
"Stop staring brother," Tomax told him silently. Xamot realized that he'd indeed stopped to stare. The four Crimson Guardsmen had paused their card game to warily watch him, wondering if they'd done something wrong.
Xamot tried not to look too embarrassed as he started walking again. He could feel the concern coming from his brother. Tomax honestly thought that something was wrong with him. Maybe he was right.
"It's nothing," he told his brother. "I…was just thinking. Remember how we used to play cards with Tarek?"
Tomax had a surprised look on his face. He'd seen the memory that had flashed through his brother's mind and had no idea why it had even come up. Neither of them ever talked about their days in the Legion anymore. Tomax, for his own part, wonder why his brother even cared.
"You mean the crazy Moroccan that always cheated us?" Tomax asked. "I remember."
"We tried to cheat him too," Xamot pointed out. It had been a constant game between them.
The Moroccan in question had gone through basic training with the brothers and then had been assigned to the same unit. He'd actually been something approaching a friend, or at least as close to a friend that the twins had ever allowed anyone to get.
"Why are you thinking about Tarek?" his brother asked. "He died a long time ago, why do you care?"
"I don't," Xamot shrugged. "I just remembered us playing cards with him, that's all."
Tomax gave him an odd look, but didn't say anything else. The two brothers continued on their way. For some reason, Xamot couldn't put the card game out of his mind. The image of three young men joking and laughing inside a tent seemed to be stuck on replay. Neither he nor Tomax had played cards in years, considering such a plebian game to be beneath them now.
So why did he suddenly feel like playing? And why did he suddenly have a strange, dull ache in his chest as he thought about the dead Moroccan?
And why…why were he and Tomax starting to disagree on some things? It shouldn't be happening at all and it disturbed both brothers. Even odder was the fact that it had usually been Xamot disagreeing with the things they usually did or liked, rather than the other way around. Tomax's new dislike of mussels had been an exception.
"Perhaps you should go rest," Tomax suddenly suggested, looking at him. "Both of us don't need to go to the meeting." Xamot started to protest, but he ended up sighing and agreeing. Something was obviously wrong. Tomax wasn't the one that was tired and restless. He wasn't the one digging up memories that were better left forgotten.
Xamot sighed as he bid his brother farewell and headed towards their living quarters. He flopped down in his favorite armchair and stared up at the ceiling. The Corsican mutant willed himself to feel sleepy so he could lie down, but his body stubbornly refused. He did feel tired, so he should logically feel sleepy.
He didn't though. Instead, he began to fidget from a growing feeling of restlessness. What the hell was wrong with him? The worst part was that none of the things were necessarily bad, just different. And he and Tomax had never been different. Had they?
Two young boys sat together in a narrow alley way. Eight years old and identical in every way, they dug into their filthy pockets and pulled out a few coins. The two children counted the money and were dismayed to discover that after a day of begging, they barely had twenty francs between them. On Corsica, or anywhere in mainland France for that matter, it was barely enough to buy a cheap loaf of bread.
The slightly younger of the two brothers broke down crying. They hadn't eaten anything all day and his throat was parched from thirst. The hot and humid Mediterranean climate wasn't helping the matter either.
"Stop crying," the older one said, however his bottom lip trembled too. Xamot continued to cry and a few tears finally rolled down his brother's face as well. His brother wiped them away with a grimy hand.
"Crying's not going to help," Tomax repeated, trying to sound like an adult. He was the older of the two brothers, so he always took the lead. Xamot sniffed and finally held his tears in. His stomach rumbled and felt tight against his ribs.
"Sorry," Xamot said quietly. He sniffed again as tears threatened to spill out once more. "What're we going to do?" he asked.
"Steal," Tomax said matter of factly. "It's the only way we'll eat."
Xamot shook his head and forced the memory away. He didn't want to think about their childhood, it had been horrible. The slums of Sartene hadn't been pleasant and the twins had escaped from it as fast as they could. They had never looked back.
"What the hell's wrong with me?" he muttered, getting up to pace around the living room. Elsewhere in the Cobra Compound, unbeknownst to the Crimson Guardsman, a much stronger telepath was watching him with great interest. An intrigued Mr. Sinister carefully reached into the much weaker empath's mind and probed about. The twin grimaced as another memory surfaced.
The two brothers huddled around a dirty newspaper that they'd dug out of the trash. An elderly man from the slums had taught them how to count and read a little. Now they got their hands on whatever they could to practice. French was different than Corsican though and the newspaper was in French. Xamot sounded through the unfamiliar words. Being able to speak the language was different than being able to read it.
"This is stupid," Tomax finally scowled. "We'll never learn this way. We need to go to school."
"How?" Xamot asked. Neither of them had any money except for what they managed to get through stealing or begging. They were already ten and had never been to school.
"I don't know," his brother replied. Tomax glared angrily at the newspaper and Xamot could guess what he was thinking. He knew his brother well enough to know what he was probably going to say next.
"It's not fair!" Tomax exploded, kicking the newspaper. He gestured towards the nicer end of the city and began to rant angrily.
"All those people have all the money they want! Nice clothes and expensive food…and they don't even care about people like us! They pretend we don't exist!" Xamot didn't say anything, knowing that it was better to let his brother get his frustrations out first. His twin had always had a harder time keeping his temper in check.
"Someday that's going to be us," Tomax repeated for the hundredth time. "Except we won't be stuck up like them, but we'll at least be able to eat and go anywhere we want!"
Xamot quietly gathered up the newspaper and folded it. His brother continued to rant and swear words that a ten year old probably shouldn't know. It WASN'T fair. He wanted to go to school too….and he wanted to have an actual bed to sleep in. He'd never slept in a bed before.
Xamot was also tired of trying to sleep on an empty stomach.
"We can't go to school right now," Xamot told his brother. "Until we can do that, the newspaper's all we've got."
His brother calmed down and took a deep breath. Tomax finally walked over to his brother and held his hand out for the newspaper. Xamot gave it to him and watched as he opened it back up. The two boys returned to sounding out words.
Xamot banged his fists on the wall. Was there some demon conspiring to torment him today? He didn't want to think about any of this! Frustration and confusion continued to grow inside of him. The Corsican pushed them down. That last thing he wanted was for Tomax to feel any of it. He was already concerned enough.
"Leave me alone," he muttered. Xamot felt himself growing even more upset. He took several deep breaths to calm himself down. He just needed a walk, that's all he needed. A good walk and some exercise would clear his head.
The Crimson Guardsman exited the living quarters and made his way out into the hallway. He wandered aimlessly for a while, but the confusion wouldn't go away. Xamot pushed down another burst of frustration. He should have gone to the meeting. At least he'd have had something to distract him.
"I'm just saying…Angelina Jolie should totally ditch Brad Pitt," a voice said up ahead. Xamot sighed when he saw Deadpool, Buzzer, and Ripper heading in his direction. Great. As if his mood wasn't bad enough, a couple of Dreadnoks and the maniac with the mouth had to come and make it worse. The Corsican hesitated a moment and debated if he should keep going and try to slip by them, or if he should just turn around. That hesitation proved to be fatal, as Deadpool looked up and noticed him.
"Hey! It's one of the clones!"
Xamot gritted his teeth and kept walking. As irritating as this encounter was going to be, at least it was a distraction. Buzzer and Ripper both snickered slightly as he approached and he felt his mood darken even more.
"I'm not a clone," Xamot replied. Buzzer raised a disbelieving eyebrow while the other two laughed. Deadpool scratched his head in puzzlement.
"We're twins," he repeated, "Not clones."
"Could have fooled us," Buzzer replied. Xamot shot him a glare. Anger began to creep into his chest and the Corsican was suddenly spoiling for a fight. Perhaps the odd frustration inside of him had reached a boiling point, or perhaps it was simply a matter of his Mediterranean upbringing. Poor or rich, growing up in Corsica had meant that he'd developed a strong sensitivity concerning his reputation and any insults that might tarnish it.
"I'm not my brother," Xamot snapped. Buzzer blinked and seemed taken aback by that response.
"Are you okay?" he asked carefully. "You're acting a little…odd. Aren't you supposed to be at that meeting now?" Buzzer had always been more intelligent that he let on. The twins had never been able to figure out why he chose to hang around a group as uncouth as the Dreadnoks.
"Tomax went," Xamot replied stiffly. "We both didn't need to go." There was another questioning look on the man's face and Xamot could feel the curiosity from him. His empathy was very weak, but that didn't prevent him from feeling the man's emotions.
"Now if you'll excuse me," an irritated Xamot said, trying to push past them. "I'm kind of having a bad day." This again turned out to be the wrong thing to say. The Corsican froze slightly when Deadpool draped an arm around his shoulder.
"Dude…then you should totally hang out with us," the mercenary said. "It's always fun down in Dreadnoksville." Xamot seriously doubted that. He'd seen what Dreadnoksville looked like and it had never been his idea of fun.
"Don't bother Wilson," Buzzer said. "It doesn't matter which twin it is, they both have sticks up their asses." Xamot bristled at the comment. He turned around and shot a deadly glare at the blonde. There was a small smirk on the man's face, yet there was something calculating in his eyes. The Corsican wondered for a moment if Buzzer was intentionally trying to piss him off.
"Go to hell Buzzer," Xamot responded. "I'm not in the mood." He froze slightly when he realized that a slight Corsican accent had crept into his voice. The mutant had no idea if it was because of the odd memories he'd been having or if it was just a marker of how upset he was at the moment. He blinked in confusion for a moment and noticed that the others were staring at him.
"Blimey," Ripper said. "I think you're done right Buzzer. I think he's got a kangaroo loose, he does." Xamot scowled and pushed past the group. He should have just stayed in his room. He should never have gone out for a walk.
However, a certain mercenary seemed determined to foil him. Deadpool was at his side again and Xamot gritted his teeth. Why wouldn't the damned idiot just go away?
"Which one are you, Tomax or Xamot?" the mercenary asked. Xamot gave a deep sigh and forced himself to calm down. He had to deal with this and losing his cool wasn't going to help it.
"Xamot," he answered stiffly.
"Cool, can I call you Xay?" the man asked. Xamot stared at the man for a long moment, too surprised to say anything else.
"No," he finally replied. Deadpool apparently took that to mean 'yes,' because he cheerfully slapped a hand against one of Xamot's shoulders.
"Sweet, Xay it is," the merc responded. Xamot gaped at the man, who had just ignored what he'd said. He heard Buzzer snicker nearby.
"I just told you no!" the Corsican responded. Again, a slight accent crept into his voice.
"What's wrong with 'Xay'?" the clueless Deadpool asked. "It sounds better than 'Mot.'" Xamot gave a frustrated sigh. Trying to reason with Deadpool was like twisting a fork in your brain. He finally gave up on reasoning and decided to take his frustrations out physically. The Corsican slammed Deadpool into the wall and kicked his feet out from under him.
Buzzer and Ripper immediately backed off. They watched in shocked silence for a few seconds before they began to cheer at the sudden fight. Xamot, for his own part, doubted the wisdom of picking a fight with Wade Wilson. There was a reason that the man had a deadly reputation.
Deadpool's foot connected with his mouth and Xamot went down. He tasted blood in his mouth and hoped that no teeth had been broken. The Corsican flipped over onto his hands and twisted his body to avoid a knife. Xamot then somersaulted into the air and leaped over Deadpool's head. He planted a foot against the wall and jumped back off. The mercenary laughed gleefully when he blocked a hand strike.
"Hey, if I win can I call you 'Xay'?" the maniac asked.
"You can probably call him anything you want," Buzzer smirked. "How about 'Buttercup'?" Just for that remark, Xamot planted a foot into the blonde's face. The man swore as he hit the ground. Ripper gaped a moment before cracking his fists and throwing himself into the fray. Buzzer jumped in a few seconds later with a broken nose.
The fight turned into a four way brawl for a short time. However, Deadpool and Xamot were both the superior fighters and it ended up just being them again. The mercenary kneed him in the stomach, to the cheers of two Dreadnoks. Xamot tried to twist away from the man, but the loudmouthed merc grabbed both of his arms and forced him down.
"I win," Deadpool grinned. "Xay it is."
Xamot called him a very dirty word in French. Wade Wilson ignored it, perhaps not even comprehending that he'd been insulted, and pushed a foot into his back. The Corsican winced as the man twisted his arms behind his back. The Crimson Guardsman tried to kick the mercenary, but missed, mainly due to the fact that Buzzer had decided to hold his legs down.
"What're we gonna do now?" Ripper asked. "The fight's over now." He seemed disappointed, as he'd obviously enjoyed watching the fight.
"I dunno," Deadpool shrugged above him. "Let's go play cards or something." Ripper's mouth widened into a large grin, revealing a set of unbrushed teeth.
"Sweet! Let's play poker!" the Dreadnok replied. Xamot felt himself being lifted up off the ground and slung over Deadpool's back.
"Come on Xay old boy," Wade Wilson said cheerfully. "Let's go play poker. You like poker? I love poker!" Xamot gaped as they made their way through the Cobra base. Buzzer separated from them for a few minutes and returned with duct tape. There was a sadistic grin on the man's face as he wrapped the tape around the Corsican's legs, preventing him from moving.
And that's how Xamot somehow got abducted by an insane, chatterbox of a maniac and two Dreadnoks. The irony of it was that he'd actually wanted to play cards not even two hours earlier. However, the indignity of it all meant that he couldn't cooperate willingly.
Therefore, a mixed string of Corsican, French, and English swear words floated down the hall.
Time: 19:40 local time; Wednesday; 02:40 Zulu
Location: Cobra Headquarters, Alaska
Zartan didn't quite know how to respond to the scene in front of him. He'd just returned from a nearly week long reconnaissance of SHIELD and had sat through a boring meeting with Cobra Commander. They'd gone over the Baroness's fight in Pittsburgh, as well as SHIELD's defenses. Then they'd yet again gone over the battle plan that was to take place in two days.
While the presence of only one Corsican twin at the meeting had drawn a couple of curious looks, no one had commented on it. It wasn't out of the ordinary that only one would show up if there were other things they needed to take care of. However, it was still rare enough that it raised a couple of eyebrows when it happened.
He just hadn't expected to find the other twin knee deep in Dreadnok territory.
"Man, you suck at poker Xamot," a masked man said.
"Shup up Wilson," the Crimson Guardsman warned. Zartan raised an eyebrow at the clearly irate Corsican, who was sitting at a table with Buzzer, Ripper, Thrasher, and a certain masked mercenary.
"Zarana…" Zartan said. His sister looked over at him. She'd been leaning against a wall and watching the game with an amused look.
"Why is Xamot here?" he asked. A smirk crossed her face and she looked as if she wanted to laugh.
"Deadpool and Buzzer kidnapped him," she answered. Zartan stared at her for a long moment. Okay….
"Why is Deadpool here?" he asked, deciding that pursuing the other question might damage his sanity. His sister rolled her eyes and shrugged her shoulders.
"He decided to join the Dreadnoks."
Well then. Everyone had certainly decided to be busy while he was gone. Zartan smirked slightly as he walked over to the poker group. Xamot eyed him warily as he approached.
"What's this?" Zartan asked dryly. "Two new Dreadnoks since I've been gone?" Deadpool gave a joyful whoop at being called a Dreadnok. Xamot, on the other hand, scowled at him.
"This isn't my choice," he responded.
"Shut up Xay, you know you're having fun," Deadpool replied.
"Xay?" Zartan asked. Xamot grimaced while the Dreadnoks around him began to laugh. An amused Buzzer explained that Deadpool had decided to give the Corsican a nickname. The blonde related the fight, pausing to glare at the Crimson Guardsman when he explained why he now had a broken nose. Xamot shrugged, but Zartan detected a brief look of amusement that briefly flashed across his face.
"Serves you right," Xamot responded.
Zartan chuckled to himself. As amusing at the whole situation was, and as tempting as it was to keep Xamot tied up, he finally ordered the men to let the Corsican go.
"Aww….can't we keep him?" Deadpool whined. Xamot sent a murderous look his way and probably would have tried to kick the mercenary if his legs hadn't been duct taped to the chair. Zartan grinned slightly. He wouldn't deny it; he loved seeing his Dreadnoks get the better of one of the twins. And he supposed Deadpool was a Dreadnok now. Zartan knew how skilled the man was, so he wasn't going to say no to having him around.
Besides, kidnapping Xamot was definitely a check in his favor.
"Xamot is not a pet," Zartan smirked. "So yes, you have to let him go."
Deadpool sighed dramatically as he reached down and sliced through the tape binding the Corsican twin. The moment he did so, Xamot kicked him in the head and tackled him to the ground. The poker table was kicked over in the struggle as the two men attempted to beat the hell out of each other. Deadpool laughed the whole time, apparently finding it all to be a mere game.
Xamot swore at him the entire time.
Rather than break it up, Zartan took a seat and grabbed a soda. You couldn't find entertainment like this on television. The other Dreadnoks decided to join in the fight as well. Tables and chairs were smashed as blood went flying. Cheers and laughter rang above the din of combat and Zartan smiled the whole time.
"Uh…what's going on?" Zandar asked, walking into the large room. Zartan looked over at his younger brother and smirked.
"Just another brawl, like usual," he answered. Though to be fair, this one was far more entertaining than usual.
"Why's Xamot here?" his brother asked curiously.
"Deadpool and Buzzer kidnapped him."
"Uh…so why're they fighting?" Zandar ventured to ask. Zartan grinned on the expression on his face.
"Because Deadpool and Buzzer kidnapped him," he answered again. Zartan watched as Buzzer managed to repay Xamot back for the broken nose. Blood dripped from the Corsican's nose as he tripped the blonde Dreadnok. Deadpool tackled the man from behind and they crashed into a motorcycle and toppled it over.
The fight was drawing to a close when a pissed Tomax finally showed up. Everyone save Deadpool stood around panting and covered with cuts and bruises. The other Corsican twin gaped at the sight of his brother sitting on top of a motorcycle and drinking a grape soda, there being of course, no actual bottled water floating around in Dreadnok territory.
"What the hell?" Tomax yelled. His face turned a distinct shade of red as he surveyed the scene.
"You missed the show," Zartan told him nonchalantly. "Your brother put up quite the fight. Too bad Deadpool has healing factor." Tomax sputtered at him, apparently having figured out through their telepathic bond that his brother had been kidnapped and then had tried to retaliate.
"You son of a…" the other man swore. Zartan listened with amusement as Tomax told him just how exactly he was going to get revenge for having the audacity to abduct his brother. The Dreadnok leader innocently reminded the Corsican that he'd had nothing to do with it and had hardly been in the position to stop Xamot and Deadpool from fighting each other. Tomax fumed at him for a few seconds before launching into an angry rant.
Zartan raised an eyebrow. He'd known the twins to get angry, but he'd never seen either of them ever lose their cool like Tomax currently was. Even Xamot, as pissed as he'd been, hadn't entirely lost his temper. For the first time, Zartan wondered if something strange was going on.
"Let it go brother," Xamot finally said, limping over to his brother. "It's done now, let's just go." Tomax, apparently, wasn't quite so willing to let it go. He uttered a few more choice insults at Zartan, who listened with great amusement. Xamot finally sighed and grabbed his brother's arm.
"Come on, I just want to get out of here," the other man said quietly. Tomax finally shut up and followed his brother out of the Dreadnok's section. Zartan watched them leave with a contemplative look on his face. He looked over at Buzzer, who was icing a lump forming over his eye.
"Are they acting strange or is it just me?" he asked. Buzzer sat down in the chair next to him.
"It's not just you," the man explained. He shrugged when Zartan sent him a questioning look.
"I don't have any idea why," Buzzer responded. "I didn't even notice it until today." The blonde paused in thought for a moment.
"You know what's stranger?" the blonde asked. "I think Deadpool was right…I think he actually enjoyed playing cards, even though he cussed us out the whole time."
Zartan raised an eyebrow, but didn't dismiss the idea. Buzzer was remarkably good at reading people when he wanted to. He supposed it had something do with having a doctorate in sociology. The leader of the Dreadnoks shook his head again.
"I'm gone for just a few days and things get more interesting," he observed.
"How'd it go at SHIELD?" Buzzer asked. Zartan smiled.
"Good. Getting close to Nick Fury shouldn't be a problem," he answered. He'd managed to come back with a fairly detailed blueprint of the agency's headquarters. In addition to stealing information, Cobra Commander had also given him new instructions not even an hour earlier.
The next time that Zartan snuck into SHIELD, he was to assassinate Nicholas Fury.
Time: 22:23 local time; Wednesday; 02:23 Zulu
Location: GI Joe Pit
Duke sighed as he listened to Flint and Captain America each gave him their reports of the battle. He took a sip of coffee as the warrant officer gave an estimated casualty count. Both looked exhausted, but Steve Rogers looked less worn out. It probably had something to do with the super soldier serum.
"There are about forty-seven bodies that have been recovered so far," Flint said, referring to civilian casualties. "And about thirty more are injured. We're lucky it's not worse than that."
"I managed to put a tracer on one of the Cobra vehicles," Captain America told him. "We can trace it and find out where they went." Duke nodded, at least something had come from an otherwise pointless battle.
"I suppose we need to let the X-Men know," Flint said, "Especially since Magneto was involved. Beach Head and Lifeline need to know what happened."
"They might already know," Duke said. "Stark may have already told them." He wasn't quite sure how, but the Avenger had become friends with the two Joes, especially Beach Head. Duke didn't quite put it past Stark to have contacted the two men after the battle.
"He might have," Captain America agreed. "He's on good terms with the X-Men. I'll ask him if he did or not."
"Regardless, we need to contact them ourselves," Duke pointed out. "Beach Head's going to be chomping at the bit to get out of his leave and come back when he hears about it." Professor Xavier had been giving Hawk status reports concerning the two Joes. The X-Men's leader was quite adamant about the fact that Beach Head still lacked control over his abilities and was still struggling with his claustrophobia. It was probably a good thing that Psyche Out was going to the school the next day for one of Beach Head's twice a week therapy sessions.
"Rogers," Duke said. "Give us the radio frequency for the tracer you put on. I know the Avengers will track it, but I'd like for us to be able to confirm it." Captain America nodded his head. He saluted and exited the office.
Duke and Flint looked at each other and sighed.
"You look like hell," Duke told his friend. "Go get some sleep."
Flint nodded his head and left. Conrad Hauser sat in his office and stared at the reports on his desk. Dealing with Cobra was bad enough, but now Magneto had decided to throw himself into the mix. The Joes were going to have to think of a way to deal with both camps now. The whole incident had also proved just how underprepared the Joes had been to tackle a superpowered battle.
He wanted the Joes conducting new battle scenarios by the next day. Duke didn't care how long someone had to stay up to design the new training; they needed something in place immediately. More refined training could follow.
Duke got on his comm unit and requested two new individuals. A few minutes later, there was a knock on his door. Miss Marvel strode in and saluted him.
"At ease," Duke told her. Carol Danvers complied, but still stood at attention. The Joes' second in command nodded in approval. There was another knock on the door and this time Leatherneck walked in. The Marine glanced over at the woman, but didn't say anything as he also saluted.
"Danvers, Leatherneck's in charge of the Joes' PT while Beach Head's away," Duke explained. "I want the two of you to work on a new training program for tomorrow. The Joes need practice dealing with superpowers." Miss Marvel and Leatherneck both nodded.
"Good," he responded. "I want a detailed proposal on my desk by 10:00 tomorrow. Dismissed."
Miss Marvel and Leatherneck exited the office, leaving Duke and a stack of reports. He looked through the civilian casualty list and grimaced. Something like this wasn't going to happen again.
Author's note:
Sorry, no Beach Head and Lifeline this time. However, I do have a bonus scene for anyone who wants to read it. It'll be about another day before it'll be ready since it needs some editing yet. Just PM me and I'll send it. It takes place just after the sentinel attack, between chapters fourteen and fifteen.
As for the Crimson twins, their past is never fully explained. However, it is canon that they grew up in poverty and had joined the French Foreign Legion as a way to escape it and see the world.