Marvel 2000 Presents
Force Works 20
Eye of the Beholder
Part 4
The story thus far: Edie Sawyer, determined to see Force Works complete their mission of bringing in the rogue mutant team Factor X, has teleported the young heroes into the middle of a firefight involving the team. And that's about all we know so far…
The middle of nowhere
For a split second, Danielle Moonstar, leader of Force Works, almost panicked. Her team was in the middle of a deadly situation with no idea what the hell was going on, and because of how they arrived had no clear way out. But the panic lasted little under a split second.
Even as Tarene began to mouth the words asking for orders, Danielle's military brain was in overdrive. They were in some unknown advanced yet obviously abandoned city. Factor X were battling men in heavy, advanced silver armors that looked as bulky as three linebackers smashed together and likely possessed the firepower of an entire battalion. Factor X was holding their own, but how long that would last or had lasted was unknown. What was also unknown was just how far she should trust Factor X. Dani considered the possibility that they should indeed be helping those who were fighting against Factor X, but wasn't entirely sure.
So, like she often did, she went with her gut. She barked out orders, barely aware of what she'd said until after she'd said it, "Force Works, front and center! Nova, 'Nita back! Tarene, Arsenal, front! Speedball, with me! Everyone else, containment!"
Force Works moved into action like a well oiled machine. Factor X watched as Nova and Kymaera flew to the back of the mob of soldiers and began to tear into them with a passionate fury. While they did that, Arsenal and Tarene stood opposite of their teammates and did exactly the same thing. Factor X, though obviously curious as to where the hell Force Works had come from, sensed that they'd reclaimed the initiative and pressed forward with renewed strength.
No one noticed that Mirage and Speedball were not amongst the team fighting the soldiers, and that was just the way Moonstar wanted it. She eyed Factor X carefully until she found her prey. Once she located her target, she silently motioned for Speedball to follow.
Jason Blackwood never knew what hit him. One moment he'd been Monsoon's ground support, the next someone hit him upside the head with a lead pipe (metal bow, but same difference). Strong, feminine hands grabbed his jacket and quickly pulled him into a side alley of the large technological buildings that made up the city, as out of site as a possible in what amounted to a small war zone.
"Speedball, give me a forcefield and cover me," Mirage ordered. She then roughly shoved Blackwood up against the wall. Holding his collar in a deathgrip, Danielle snarled, "I want full disclosure, now. If you don't, someone will die. Either we will because I don't know what we're facing, or you will because I'll kill you the second the dust settles."
The look in her eyes spoke volumes of the Cheyenne warrior's seriousness to Blackwood, "Fine. We received intelligence on a guy you may know, Eric the Red. According to our information, he'd somehow managed to infiltrate dozens of companies and government installations in an attempt to create a doomsday weapon he's assembled here. Matthew Marshall is an omega level mutant, and the last cog of his machine."
"Umm, Mirage?" Speedball's voice didn't even register to Moonstar.
"Spirits!" Dani slammed Blackwood against the wall in frustration, "We've dealt with Eric the Red before, why didn't you come to us?"
"Mirage? Leader lady!"
"Because we ain't know if ya'd been compromised. We didn't know who to trust and contact was virtually impossible, cherie. Do you know how many agencies be parked outside yo' damn door step?"
"Wait a minute…" Mirage paused, "If Eric the Red is involved…then where's Factor 3?"
"Down!"
Speedball tackled Jason and Danielle to the ground as a human sized missile slammed into the wall just above them. The seeming missile then slid to the ground with a groan.
"Damn…" Kymaera picked her aching body up off the ground, "I think we could use your advice now, Dani."
The quartet of questionable heroes returned to the battle field, and standing in the courtyard where Force Works and Factor X had battling those armored troops was stand one unmistakable man with his bright colored armor.
Eric the Red stared at the collected heroes with sharp disappointment, and he wasn't alone.
Factor 3 stood behind him with no hesitation on their face. The solar powered Sundown cracked his knuckles while Shoc stood at the ready. Gin Genie and Angel looked at attention while the remainder stood there cockily confident of their victory. And behind them stood the battered soldiers who had been in the verge of defeat moments before. Only one thing surprised Danielle, and that was the newest addition to Factor 3.
The man wore an ancient gold armor, stood nine feet tall and as wide as the Hulk. He was once an alien warlord, exile on earth and peacemaker when Danielle had run across him on earth. He helped her wrestle control of her then out of control powers before vowing to pursue a path of peace. Though she didn't know the alien known as Rylor as well as she would have liked, she still considered him her friend. And it broke her heart just a little bit more to know she had to fight yet another friend.
Plus, the fact that the once warlord was powerful enough to combat the Hulk was another important concern.
Creating a psychic arrow but keeping it pointed towards the ground, Danielle thought it best to at least try to parlay until she could get a better handle on the situation, "Alright 'Eric', I've been informed that you guys are the ones who actually kidnapped Mathew Marshall."
"That's correct." Eric the Red replied, "knowing that, will you now surrender? Don't think I don't know…
Eric the Red continued talking, but no one on the opposing side was listening. That's because their heads felt like they were about to explode like overfilled air balloons. Rylor had been silently ordered to attack first, and he began with a powerful telepathic onslaught.
"This is for the best," Rylor screamed into their skulls, tearing at the edges of their sanity, "were Eric the Red not such a great man, he would not have amassed the followers that he has."
Wiz Kid struggled to activate several vital knobs on his wrist attachment to his tech pack in an effort to stop the onslaught. He was a little better protected than most, but that wasn't saying much. But, like always, he had a plan. And with the final twist of a button, he put it into action.
Rylor screamed as he was telepathically ejected from the minds of Force Works and Factor X. Those closest to him felt a sharp stab of pain in their minds that quickly faded, but it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the easy way, had just gone up in smoke.
Wiz Kid smiled as he picked himself up, it had actually worked! All he'd done was determine the telepathic frequency that Rylor was operating on, and flooded the frequency with radio waves. The flood of counter energies not only caused an effective feedback loop (and telepathy blocker in general), but made it impossible for Rylor to get another lock on them again. Too much static, like receiving a television signal.
But it was still Force Works and Factor X who suffered the most from the telepathic assault, and they didn't recover half as quickly as Factor 3.
"Gen Genie," Eric the Red snapped, "attack pattern 3!"
The slightly drunken mutant focused her seismic powers at the earth beneath them and unleashed an earthquake that rocked both hero teams from their feet. Strangely enough, the earth quake wasn't powerful by any means. In fact, Dani could sense the short burst wasn't really meant to hurt them. So what was the point…?
Moonstar looked and saw a small field of rubble in front of the earth mover, and everything clicked.
"Strongest, forward right fucking now!" Danielle barked.
Geni Genie concentrated, and power that could move mountains, metric tons of solid matter, was directed at pieces of rubble no larger than your average baseball. The seismic energy washed over them and pitched them through the air at speeds many times faster than the speed of sound.
Nova, Random, Arsenal and Tarene brought their hands up to cover their face, the rubble scratching and tearing shallow but painful cuts into their bodies. They didn't dare move, their invulnerable bodies acting as a buffer to protect their weaker teammates. Speedball and Jason Blackwood used their respective powers to block what their teammates couldn't. It took the telepathic Factor X member known as Fixx a full twenty seconds to gather her wits to muster a telepathic attack that disabled the earth mover.
"Mondo," Eric the Red shouted, "now!"
The island born mutant leapt forward and literally dove into the ground beneath his feet. A moment later, a Mondo made of stone rose out of the earth, then another and then another.
"Incredible, he's managed to create mental duplicates within his absorbed bio-matter!" Wiz Kid explained as he blasted several stone Mondos into dust with his wrist blaster.
"Factor 3, forward!" Eric the Red yelled, as his team leaped into action.
Phat turned his entire body into a wave of body fat and washed through the lines of his enemies. Hybrid leapt his teammate and tackled Weapon X, confident his alien costume would let him overpower the ebony killer. The armored men had their orders, and began bombarding the four stories tall Helix with their most powerful shells directed at his chest and face.
Sundown teleported behind Arsenal and blasted the hero with his energy blasts before teleporting away. He reappeared behind Nova's exposed back, and slammed his hands together downwards in a powerful jack hammer that sent the human rocket spiraling towards the ground below. The insect-powered mutant known as Angel shot up into the air like a bullet, and came down feet first into the mutant known as Bandit's chest. Bandit flew backwards, but managed to land on his feet as the mutant disgustingly called Angel flew forward for a follow-up attack.
Rylor, seeing no purpose in niceties, summoned his war mace into his hand and met Tarene's war hammer in mid arc. The explosive impact was like a bomb blast, deafening ear drums and weakening the supports of every building in the city.
And almost on cue, a new batch of soldiers burst onto the field. They weren't armored, but they were heavily armed and there seemed to be no end of them.
"We can't win like this, Blackwood!" Moonstar shouted as she and the leader of the M.U.S.E waded into the legion of soldiers. Her psychic arrows combined with his telekinetic powers allowed them to keep the attackers back, but for only a moment.
There was a crack of thunder, and from the tallest building that hung over the battle field shot a gout of blue energy that reached up and out into the air.
"That can't be good." Speedball commented
In Tokyo Japan, waves began crashing against the shore line with abnormal strength. Though hardly threatening now, the waves begin to grow taller and taller. If they are not stopped soon, they will be tsunamis.
In the rubble that was once San Francisco, an earthquake that barely registers on the rictor scale is the cause of anxiety at first before it's dismissed as a nuisance, barely worth getting worked up about. But that opinion quickly changes when the quakes fail to stop.
In the mid west of America known as tornado alley, conditions ready themselves to become deadlier than any time in history.
And it's the same the world over. The ring of fire, volcanoes that sit on the earth's crust in the Pacific Ocean, feel an unnatural urge to come alive. Dormant faults begin to stir with signs of life and animals the world over panic as nature itself is slowly overridden.
"What the hell is he doing?" Mirage fought off the soldiers with enough skill to still observe what was transpiring.
"Marshall's an omega level mutant!" Blackwood shouted over the din of the battle, "Eric's machine is manipulating his power so's he can get hisself a fingerhold on the planet's weather and use it as a weapon!"
Mirage struck down a half dozen soldiers with her arrows, "Eric's a damn madman!"
"Or the sanest man alive!"
Mirage didn't see the werewolf like man known as Vivisector until it was almost too late. He lunged at her from the corner of her vision and tackled her to the ground. Blackwood saw this happen, but he was too preoccupied with the regular soldiers to even think about helping the Force Works leader.
"Forty thousand people die every day no matter what," Vivisector hissed, his canine teeth posed threateningly close to Dani's neck, "What pray tell is wrong with using those lives to advance world unity?"
"'Cause it won't work!" Moonstar slammed the top of her forehead into Vivsector's nose and slipped a hand free and slapped it against the lupine mutant's skull, releasing a powerful psychic arrow that all but shut the mutant's mind down.
Pushing the young Harvard grad off her, she stood up and took stock of the situation. Tapping her comm. unit on the side of her cowl, she barked out orders to her team, "We need some sizzle, widespread. Teams flower and gates, plus anyone close at hand, get ready to reengage and recommit. Six Mississippi!"
Wiz Kid, battling soldiers alongside the mutant Random and Monsoon, heard his leader's orders, and began counting.
One Mississippi…
X-Treme let loose a round house kick that floored a half dozen soldiers. His eyes locked on Eric the Red, who was merely observing at the moment, he counted. In less than a minute, Eric's time would come, and Adam would beat the answers out of him.
Two Mississippi…
Arsenal bobbed and weaved through the air, trying to shake the immaterial Factor 3 member known as Shoc. The once hero simply phased through Bobby's optic blasts, and he knew that all Shoc would have to do was phase through him to win the fight. But winning the fight wasn't on his mind once he'd heard Dani…
Three Mississippi…
Four Mississippi! Wiz Kid knew he had only seconds to spring into action.
"Yeah, bring it on bastards!" Random shouted as he sprayed his foes with his personal organic bullets. He glanced at Wiz Kid just in time to see the technomorph lob three very strange devises into the air. The globes exploded in a ball of white light that washed over the entire battle field.
Arsenal turned towards Shoc and fired his optic blasts as wide as he could, blinding the once hero. With Shoc off his back, Arsenal fired wildly into the battle below him, striking odd groups of soldiers who returned fire. On the ground below, Kymaera clasped her hands together and smashed the ground with her considerable physical strength, tossing friend and foe alike from their feet. Mirage threw an illusion of total darkness over the battle field, dropped the illusion then raised it again before Nova the Human Rocket slammed into the ground, shoulder first, producing a second earthquake even more powerful than the first.
Confusion reigned on the battlefield for a moment, as Factor X and Factor 3 tried to not only collect themselves quickly enough to discourage the opposing sides of using Force Works' tactics to their advantage, and trying to understand just what the hell was Force Works thinking? Their tactics only caused confusion and destruction with no obvious combat advantage.
But no one could put too much thought into that as both sides threw themselves at one another. So intent to reclaim lost ground and or protect themselves, no one outside of Force Works noted the absence of Wiz Kid, Wolfsbane, Wildchild and Monsoon from the battle field.
Kyle Gibney's fist slammed into the unprotected jaw of a Factor 3 soldier, "Stay down damn it!"
He, along with Wolfsbane, Wiz Kid and Monsoon stood amongst a throng of defeated soldiers with anxiety.
"So what's the plan?" Wildchild asked as he looked back the way they'd come, "does Eric and those Factor 3 guys know we're here?"
"I've jammed their communications," Wiz Kid informed him. Taki reached into a pocket, removed a spiral object and tossed it to Monsoon, "the plan is this. You three find Marshall; see if you can disconnect him from Eric's doomsday devise. What I gave Monsoon miniature electro magnetic pulse devise, that hopefully will cripple the weapon."
"Why are you not coming with us?" Monsoon asked.
"We cannot afford to place all our eggs in one basket, as it were," Taki explained, "I've another idea should you three fail."
"Wait; hold up, you're the tech guy!" Wildchild protested, "You need to come with us…!"
"I disagree," Wiz Kid deadpanned, "but would you like to stand here debating it several hours…?"
Wildchild and Monsoon looked towards Wolfsbane for guidance, who could only rely on her faith in the young Japanese man to guide her, "We don' have time tae debate this. Taki…God be with you."
Without looking backwards, she quickly made her way into the buildings depths. Monsoon and Wildchild spared Wiz Kid a curious glance before following the Scotswoman.
Once they were gone, Wiz Kid just shook his head at their ignorance, or perhaps it could be called faith? He didn't much know of the latter, truth be told. But he knew that there was no way in hell anyone but one person could shut this devise down. Eric the Red was the key to all of this, and Wiz Kid knew just how to exploit that fact. It was childishly simple, in fact.
Exploit the conscious of a man threatening global destruction. What could be easier…?
With the infiltration team inserted, the battle degenerated into a giant free for all, and that was just fine for Adam Sol, The X-Treme. Eric the Red had yet to choose a dance partner, after all. Adam Sol did a quick scissor kick and sword and axe in hand, made his way towards the mysterious man whose image Adam hated until anything else.
Eric the Red, for his part, was hardly unarmed. Besides his incredible power, Eric kept an energy shield on his left wrist and a blazing energy sword in his right. He blocked Adam's bladed weapons with his left and swung his sword forward in a fashion that would have sliced Adam in twain had the alien warrior not leaped up and over the swing. Adam rolled into a standing position behind Red.
"We have business to discuss," Adam growled as he held his sword in front of his face, sizing Eric up.
"I'm not the same man you knew who wore this armor, Adam," The brightly clad man stated, "but simply because I'm not he does not mean I cannot help you, or the world."
"Save it."
Adam launched himself into the air, gripping his axe in both hands and came down like bullet. Eric the Red jumped back as Adam came down exactly where he'd been standing, his feet spider webbing the concrete and sending dust into the air. Eric swung his shield outwards, brushing up against the Shi'ar warrior. Adam tipped backwards to avoid the swing, and Adam followed up with a stab from his sword aimed at X-Treme's heart. Adam sidestepped the thrust easily and slammed his arm down over Eric's sword hand, trapping it under his arm pit.
Unfortunately, that was what Eric was hoping for. He lifted X-Treme into the air like he was a baseball and slung him into the ground with a –wham!-. Adam could only see stars for the next several seconds.
"You can't win," Eric warned.
"That won't stop us," Adam grunted.
Eric didn't have a second to ponder the 'us' as the deadly living weapon known fittingly as Weapon X crashed into his side full speed with both feet. Eric the Red rolled with the blow and spun around, coming face to face with the silent warrior.
"Well, if it isn't the already legendary Weapon X," Eric the Red readied himself, "talking never has much effect with you, so shall we?"
Weapon X crossed his wrists in front of his chest, energy lances in each hand. It took less than three tenths of a second for him to decide on a course of action.
With deadly speed and efficiency that would shame any machine to shame, Weapon X attacked. His razor sharp lances slashed through the air at dizzying speeds, each and everyone careening towards a vital area of Eric the Red. But Eric himself was hardly at a lost as to what to do his sword and shield an equal blur of motion as he fought back. But even a man of Eric the Red's skill found himself hard pressed to keep up with Weapon X. A slash here, a stab there and a thin slash across the chest were quick punishments Weapon X handed out to the madman.
Their arms a blur of motion, Weapon X in a blink shifted tactics. Balancing on one foot, he lashed out with a snap kick to Eric's mid section that if successful, would have left the man in a most advantageous position for Weapon X. But as fast as the former government killer was, Eric the Red was faster. Eric caught kick by Weapon X's ankle in his left hand, and he brought his right hand slamming down on X's knee joint, snapping it. Weapon X didn't even register the man consciously, only the fact that he was at a disadvantage and needed to shift tactics. Sadly, Eric wasn't done. Moving swiftly while he held onto Weapon X's ankle, he pulled the black clad warrior towards himself while the back of his right hand went flying into Weapon X's face. The bone of his lower jaw shattered, and Eric the Red slung Weapon X towards the charging X-Treme.
X-Treme leapt high into the air over the fallen mutant, and came down towards Eric the Red feet first. The armored warrior crossed his wrists behind his shield, but even that wasn't enough to fully protect himself from X-Treme's powerful kick that sent him sprawling. The half human, half Shi'ar warrior landed beside the already healed Weapon X.
"Double team?" He asked. Weapon X said nothing, but Adam Sol could feel him silently agree.
Each armed with their respective daggers; two of the most lethal men alive renewed their assault. X-Treme took the lead, lunging at Eric the Red with his bundi daggers. Eric flipped over X-Treme and came down upon the blond warrior's shoulders, slamming him into the ground before leaping into the air and landing just under a swing from Weapon X's energy lances. Eric the Red drove his shoulder into Weapon X's stomach, and let loose a round house kick that struck the side of Weapon X's head and smashed across X-Treme's face as the warrior attempted to sneak up on Red.
"I see why they call you heroes. You can't beat me, that's scientific fact," Eric the Red somersaulted towards X-Treme too fast for him to defend himself. Both feet slammed into Adam's upper chest. Using the hybrid as a spring board, Eric launched himself towards Weapon X. Twisted in mid air to avoid the energy daggers that singed his chest, he came down feet first on Weapon X's neck, crushing it, "and yet you still fight."
Even Weapon X's healing factor was stressed by such a powerful and precise shot, so Eric the Red felt safe when he turned away from the ebony killer and looked towards Adam Sol with eyes and an expression that clearly knew too much, "I can help you, you know. You have living family on this planet, and I can find them for you if you're willing to join me."
"See that?" Adam Sol swept his hands outwards towards where his fellow Force works members were fighting Factor 3, "My family's right here."
X-Treme studied Eric the Red's subsequent smile carefully. The smile was hard to read, to say the least. Was it smug self assurance because Eric had predicted he would decline the offer, pride or something else? It didn't matter, he decided. The most jagged and twisted dagger in his arsenal appeared in Adam's hand and a moment later it was flying like an arrow in the direction of his foe. Eric the Red sidestepped it easily.
"Now you're not ev…"
-Thunk!-
"Eeeraggggh!" Eric the Red roared in pain, and looked down at his foot. Imbedded in it, and thus pinning him to the ground, was Adam's dagger. The flat of Weapon X's palm slammed into his face, and Eric replied with a head-butt that broke Weapon X's nose. Reaching down and pulling the dagger painfully free left Eric the Red exposed as X-Treme and Weapon X drove both their fists into his face. Instantly recovering, Eric the Red grabbed both men by the sides of the head and smacked their skulls together. Kicking them away, Eric the Red felt a powerful furnace of rage build up inside his body.
"Enough games," He growled through gritted teeth. And then it got really ugly.
Speedball, like always, was in constant motion. Mirage had ordered him to be the swingman, which meant it was his job to not find a specific target, but to assist anyone who looked like they might be in trouble, and move on. Right now, from what he could see, an old friend could use a multi-colored hand.
Silhouette and her boyfriend Bandit had been cut off from the others by a considerable amount of soldiers. They were holding their own for now, but Speedball didn't want to chance how much longer that would last.
"Need some bubbles?" Robbie asked as he came down from his last bounce, scattering a handful of troops.
"Your company is always welcome, Rob…Speedy," Silhouette answered as she swung her braces outwards and struck down several more soldiers. Speedball allowed himself a minute to be amazed at how effectively Bandit and Silhouette fought. They fought like a lethal dance troupe, every move appearing as though it were carefully considered and calculated for seeming weeks for maximum effect. Ten seconds had passed and the couple had already down fifteen men in that span of time.
Quickly realizing that the duo had allowed themselves to be separated, Speedball almost considered moving on. But something was weighing on his mind that needed to needed answered just as much as this battled needed to be won. So, taking care to stay out of the immediate way while still fighting, Speedball addressed his old friend.
"Sil, why on earth are you here? I thought you quit the hero business."
"I did," With unnatural grace, Silhouette dived into a shadow in the floor. A moment later, the shadow expanded, swallowing up eight soldiers faster than quicksand. They emerged with Silhouette a moment later in fetal positions, babbling in fear.
Moving onto another target, she continued, "I just didn't get out soon enough. Some people took offense to our activism in Warriors, tracked me down and posted my information on the internet to let nature take its course. The MUSE…they've been protecting me from reprisal ever since."
Speedball blasted another wave of troops, "You could have gone to Dwayne, or come to us…"
The darkforce manipulator snorted, "I do that, and I'll get pulled back into the spotlight. I'm working my way out Speedball because I know this life isn't for me and it's still dragging me down after all these years."
Speedball felt Silhouette's words stab at his mind, opening old wounds of doubt. Confident that his old friend didn't need anymore help, he bounded away, the back of his mind focused on anything but the battle.
"Does anyone have an idea what to do?" Kyle Gibney asked his compatriots.
They had fought their way into the most vital part of the building. The room they were in was filled with monitors and scanners, built around a plastic globe that contained the hovering form of Mathew Marshall, who was surrounded by a bubbling crimson energy that was funneled into a spire of energy into the roof and undoubtedly beyond. They'd already activated the electro magnetic pulse devise Wiz Kid had given them to not effect whatsoever.
"His power, they're using it to assume control of the planet's biosphere!" Monsoon exclaimed. His nature orientated powers made him especially sensitive to what was happening, "the energy, I can feel it assuming control of the planet! We don't have much time!"
"I say we need to make with the smashy!" Wildchild exclaimed as he picked up the weapon of a fallen soldier and began to destroy the computers and monitors that littered the room. Wolfsbane followed suit while Monsoon let loose lightning bolts that fried all the electronics present. After several minutes, the trio stopped and observed their utter lack of effect.
"Blast it, they must have backups!" Monsoon scowled.
"On a doomsday machine? That's against the rules!" Wildchild quipped, "We need to get back to the others, now! We need to rethink our attack!"
"What about him?" Wolfsbane pointed towards Marshall, "We cannae jus' leave him!"
Wildchild tossed the gun he'd picked up towards the sphere that imprisoned the young powerful mutant. It took less than three seconds to disintegrate before even making it three feet to Marshal.
"You wanna try, it's on you."
Reluctantly, Rahne followed the Factor X members out of the room and activated her psi-link to Mirage, updating her on what had happened. Rahne only got one response.
Just where the fucking hell was Taki?
Sundown teleported behind Arsenal, clasped his hands together and swung downwards, propelling the faux mutant to the ground below. Before he could teleport again, emerald energy scored his back. His mind reeling, Nova slammed into the solar powered man's kidneys at mach-2.
The man called Nova gripped sundown's neck in one hand, "Pucker up!" The haymaker sent Sundown flying through a half dozen buildings as was forcefully returned to Mother Earth.
Down below, Mirage flipped over one soldier into the midst of a collection of a dozen more. With practiced reflexes, she unleashed a hail of her personal arrows before the men even took aim at her with their weapons. Scanning for more targets, she never saw the stone hands reach out from the ground until they grabbed her ankles in a concrete grip.
"What the Hel?"
The mutant she recognized as Mondo rose up seamlessly from the ground, his visage the same as the ground beneath her feet, "Sorry, babe, but you're not going anywhere."
"I dink not, comrade," Blackwood said in stereotypical Russian. He telekinetically crushed the hands that gripped Moonstar and lifted her out of Mondo's grip. Mondo then gripped his head as his mind exploded in pain underneath Blackwood's telepathic assault.
"Thanks." Moonstar quickly appraised the battle, with felt some relief when she saw that the tide was turning in their favor. Factor 3 was far from wrapped up, but she could see that they were now contained and wouldn't last much longer against Force Works' and Factor X's superior firepower. Hopefully they could end this quickly enough to deal with Eric's doomsday devise.
"Factor 3, pull back now! Evacuate to fall back positions!"
Moonstar snapped her head to the side to see Eric the Red in the middle of the battlefield, X-Treme and Weapon X unconscious at his feet.
"This can't be good," Mirage muttered.
In the blink of an eye, everyone who pledged allegiance to Eric the Red fled the battlefield. Even Rylor, who'd been stalemating Tarene let loose a powerful blow and retreated leaving only Eric the Red alone to face the combined teams.
For a moment, there was silence. Was this guy really that insane to think that he could take out two superhuman teams? Or was it just a stalling tactic? The energy that was spiraling into the sky was gradually getting brighter and brighter, which certainly couldn't be good.
Eric the Red steadied his breathing as he scanned his opponents and noted the locations of the most dangerous ones. The bulky, three stories tall Helix was to his right, the child goddess Tarene to his left, the Human Rocket Nova hovering ten yards directly behind him with Random just outside his peripheral vision on the left. The rest were just fodder to Eric.
Throwing his arms out wide, he remarked, "Shall we bring this cliché clash of ideologies to its cliché conclusion?"
Richard Rider was the first to answer, blasting towards Eric the Red at breakneck speeds. But even as fast as he was, he wasn't fast enough to see Eric sidestep his dive-bomb and then grab him by the ankles. Eric the Red held on just long enough to redirect Nova's flight path straight into Helix's supersized head. Both were unconscious before they even struck the ground. By then, the crimson armored villain was already in motion.
With lightning quick reflexes, Tarene unleashed a blast of mystic energy at the villain who'd hurt her so once before, but he deflected it with his shield into the mutant Random, blowing a whole in his malleable body and removing him from the fight. Rolling to a nearby corner, he literally reached into the shadows and pulled Silhouette out by her neck. Throwing her bodily into Speedball, he then flipped over the speeding body of Arsenal.
Raising his shield to block psychic arrows and telekinetic blasts, he looked to see Mirage, Fixx and Blackwood who had him in their sites. With unnatural grace, he ran towards them, intent on closing the distance.
"I can't get a grip!" Blackwood warned. His telekinetic powers splashed off the man like water off a duck. But before another tactic could be considered, Eric the Red's body crashed among them. A single swipe of his shield was all it took to knock the collected leaders senseless.
But that hardly meant the battle was over for Eric. He felt a cool breeze on his neck, and barely ducked under a flying punch from Kymaera. Acting quickly, he chopped at the princess' ankle, hitting the little wings that gave her flight perfectly.
"Arrgh!" Namorita doubled over and fell from the sky instantly as pain wracked her body.
"Bastard!" Arsenal snarled as he flew towards the madman, his bone claws extended with the full intent of gutting the armored madman. Eric the Red threw his energy shield directly at Arsenal's steel neck, and a moment later he fell from the sky, making odd gargling noises.
"Oh, this is not good," Wildchild observed as he, Rahne and Monsoon saw the state of their comrades. Only Tarene, Speedball, and Bandit, besides themselves were still standing. And considering Eric the Red's past and current performance, no one expected that to last.
"Ideas?"
"Go down fightin'?" Wolfsbane suggested. Images of 'Braveheart' flashed in her mind.
"You could surrender, young lady," Eric the Red offered, "I've plans for Force Works, and no desire to unduly hurt you."
"There is option three," A new voice suddenly boomed. Everyone looked to see Wiz Kid striding out of the main building, a particularly smug look on his face, "you could shut down this devise for us."
"I guess genius and insanity really are interrelated," Eric scoffed.
Wiz Kid calmly strolled towards Eric the Red until he was standing only three yards away, "As is ruthlessness. I must say, your doomsday devise is quite laudable. The combination of alien technology and advanced human hardware makes your weapon a true cipher. It must have taken you years, and I doubt even Reed Richards could make heads or tails of it fast enough to truly disable it without making the situation worse."
"You've stumbled across a plan three years, two billion dollars and a brain trust of dozens of some the most brilliant minds on the planet, even if they didn't know it," Eric the Red looked at Wiz Kid with a look of almost contempt, "what makes you think you can stop me now, at the climax of my plan?"
"Simple," Wiz Kid answered, "I cannot."
There was a moment of silence, as Eric the Red could almost sense that Wiz Kid had another card to play.
"Ergo, you will."
Eric the Red looked at Taki with a raised eyebrow, "And now we're back to the insanity."
Wiz Kid produced a small keyboard on his wrist, and typed in several commands. Suddenly, a flat-screen holographic image of Magneto appeared. Sitting behind him in an executive board room fashion looked like Genesis of SHIELD, Cyclops of the X-Men, Mirage of Force Works, the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and several well known mutant terrorists.
"What on earth…"
Wiz Kid's mouth formed into a smile. He brought a single finger to his lips, "Shh. Listen…"
"Were the circumstances not so tragic, I would be celebrating," 'Magneto' began, "following the unprovoked attack on Genosha by Justin Hammer and the world's unwillingness to address such a brazen and illegal attack, mutant leaders have finally seen the truth that I have known for some time. Humans cannot be trusted. Ever."
"What is the point…"
"Wait for it," Wiz Kid answered in a hushed voice.
"Therefore," 'Magneto' continued, "they must be eradicated. Using our planet against the humans is merely the first step. There are dozens of mutant cells all across the world awaiting my signal, to say nothing of the mutants I've gathered under my wing in Genosha. Even those who foolishly defended mutants for years, such as my daughter, the X-Men and Force Works, have seen the light and fight for me now, no longer lapdogs of the humans. Mutants have infiltrated every aspect of human society, awaiting my orders. Goodbye humanity, you will not be missed."
"Is…there a point to this?" Eric the Red asked, more than a little concerned about the answer.
"You know there is," Wiz Kid answered, "You see, I've hacked into your communications grid and managed to contact our Work Tower. The moment your doomsday devise goes off, this message goes out to everyone."
Eric the Red gasped, as did more than a few of the collected heroes. When he finally spoke, he pointed an accusing finger at the young Japanese boy, "I've heard the accounts, but they don't do you justice! You're an evil monster! You little bastard…!"
"Thank you for noticing sir," Wiz Kid smiled and clasped his hands together and pointed his forefingers at Eric like a gun, "I trust you realize the implications of that faux declaration of war?"
"Genocide and war unlike anything this world has ever seen," Eric surmised.
"As opposed to just world devastation," Wiz Kid added, "the world may indeed come together and unify, but only to kill the other half. Is that what you want…?"
By now, Force Works and Factor X had largely recovered and had surrounded the crimson mastermind, unwilling to see if Taki's plan would indeed work. But they hadn't taken a step before the spire of energy magnified like a new born star, just this side of blinding.
"Tick-tock, tick-tock," Taunted Wiz Kid, "your plan is now mine. Even if you win, you'll lose. I've given you two choices. Genocide, or nothing. Make your choice. Now."
"Damn you boy, I'll make you pay for this," Eric the Red depressed a concealed button on his gauntlet, and the tower of energy pouring from the main building ceased, "Don't celebrate too quickly. Do you really think I didn't leave myself a backdoor?"
To no one's surprise, Eric the Red teleported away, just like the rest of Factor 3 had already done.
Dusting themselves off, no one could pry their eyes off Wiz Kid. Finally, Nova mustered the courage to ask the question pin-balling in everyone's mind.
"Taki, that was a bluff…right?"
His answer was drowned out by a massive explosion that rocked the very foundations of the city.
"Incoming!" Someone shouted. The heroes looked up to see chunks of steel and concrete falling from the sky like lethal rain.
Nova picked the biggest piece of debris and flew into it, turning it into much less dangerous bits of dust. Random, Wiz Kid and Arsenal blasted the smaller bits while Speedball and Blackwood protected their teammates. Finally, Tarene spun her war mallet like a helicopter blade and the winds it created safely deflected the shrapnel.
"Anyone else think we need to amscray?" Speedball commented.
"Whad aboot that Marshall boy? We can' jus' leave 'em!" Rahne protested again. She felt a rush of air, and then saw Nova standing beside her.
"I just checked, and I don't see him anywhere, but…"
There was another explosion that rocked the city's foundations.
"…I think his energy is still here. We need to jet, now!"
"Where? How? We're at the North Poll, there isn't civilization for miles!" Fixx warned.
"Thank God for that," Wiz Kid stated, "all the energy that Eric was channeling into his weapon…it dwarfs Hiroshima! It's head between the legs time, boys and girls."
"No it's not," Silhouette said confidently, "I've got an idea. I can use momentum sometimes when I teleport through the darkforce to make the trip faster and longer. If I can surround us in a bubble of darkforce, I may be able to use the force of the explosion to teleport us safely away from here."
"But can you teleport so many people?" Kymaera asked, "last time I checked, you couldn't teleport half as many people as we have now!"
"That's assuming the force of the explosion doesn't rupture your bubble first," Wiz Kid added.
A nearby building died a loud, ugly death, only making everything tenser.
"Like we gots a choice at this point?" Random asked.
"I can extend my kinetic shield to buffer for Sil," Speedball offered, "but enough of the science fiction. If we're gonna do this, we gotta do it now!"
Almost everyone agreed on that. Huddled closely together with Speedball and Silhouette at the front, they awaited their fate with baited breath.
"Just like old times, huh?" Speedball smiled.
Silhouette couldn't help but feel her spirits rise at Speedball's joke. He always had that effect. Taking his hand in hers, she smiled back, "Just like. Who needs hanging out at Starbucks?"
Speedball was first, concentrating so that his force field expanded up and outwards to include his friends and allies. The multi-colored bubbles were hardly the most impressive thing visually, but they'd never once failed to protect Robbie from harm. He hoped that winning streak kept up.
Silhouette was next. Reaching into herself with her mind, she tugged at the ever present darkforce connection she felt. It flowed from her feet like the blackest oil and began to work it's way up, encapsulating the underbelly of Speedball's force field, leaving the two hero teams in total darkness.
"Hey," Wildchild said suddenly, "where's Blackwood?"
"Outside." A voice said into their mind.
Blackwood looked towards the building that was Eric the Red's doomsday devise. It had cracks and holes that ran the entire length with light and energy spewing out breaks. He had expanded his telekinetic powers around the bubbly, ebony globe beneath his feet, "You guys need an extra buffer. No way can Sil do this on her own."
Factor X hardly protested, nor largely did Force Works, except Tarene.
"We have to save him!" She protested, though even she wasn't foolish enough to make a move that might endanger the others.
"This is the life we lead," Was all Fixx said. Speedball shuddered at the comment, but remained quite.
Blackwood could almost sense the building explosion readying itself to overtake him. Was this how it ended, he wondered. Dying on some unknown battle field, fighting a battle on which the fate of the planet hinged with no one knowing or caring if he lived or died? Was this his fate, he wondered?
His life flashed before his eyes in a single blink, leaving him with only one answer, "Hell with it all. We all die sometime."
It was then the wave of whiteness overtook him.
The collected heroes felt a jolt like the start of a roller coaster, only a thousand times more sudden and disorientating. Silhouette and Speedball, like the heroes they were, managed to maintain their force fields as their teammates were thrown about in the pitch black darkness, reality coming and going. Finally, the two teams were spit back to earth, albeit from eight feet in the air. They landed with grunts and grimaces all around, though surprisingly, the shadow caster Silhouette managed to land on her feet.
"That was easy than I thought," She observed. She then promptly passed out. Bandit caught her before she struck the ground.
"Well, chalk that up as one of our roughest yet quickest escapes yet," Wiz Kid stated as he brushed himself off.
Standing to the technomorph's side, Mirage pulled out an oval pager like devise with a large green button in the center. Mirage pressed the button as she hissed, "Oh, you're not out of the woods yet."
Wiz Kid then froze, against his will. His teck-pack, including his braces, seized up locking him in place like a statue. And before he could even begin to analyze the situation, Mirage's fist slammed into his face. She followed up with a knee to his stomach and then flipped him over on his back, expelling the air from his lungs.
Wiz Kid was seeing stars as Mirage stood over his prone form, a psychic arrow primed in her bow, "If you're wondering how, thank Adam and a Shi'ar toy he has. You're good, but they're a few hundred years ahead of even you."
"Then why?" groaned Taki, feeling the loose teeth in his mouth.
"Because when I give you an order, I expect you to follow it. Some interpretation is fine, but under no circumstances do you ignore it to do your own thing!" Mirage snarled, "If Eric had called your bluff…assuming that's what it was…we would have been forced to take that building down by force which could have made things worse!"
"Or might have worked just as well," Wiz Kid offered.
"Is that a statement of fact, 'cause it sure as hell doesn't sound like one from the smartest member of Force Works!" Moonstar snapped, "So from now on, you follow my orders to the letter. You have an idea? Fine, inform me. Are we clear?"
There was a pregnant pause of silence.
"She asked you a question," Kymaera stated. Wiz Kid looked to see both the Atlantean princess and Arsenal move to both sides of their leader. Their intent and purpose was obvious.
"Crystal." He answered, daring to pick himself up.
"Umm, Mirage…we have a problem," Tarene said, her voice filled with trepidation.
All Danielle had to do was look around to realize what Tarene was referring too. No one had given much attention as to where they'd landed, thankful to be alive, but there was no mistaking it now.
They'd teleported into the middle of Times Square. And it went without saying that they drew a few astonished gazes from even the most jaded of New Yorkers.
"…those terrorists, Factor X!"
"…Force Works, what are they doing?"
"…who's side are they on?"
By now the gathered heroes had drifted to the opposing side of the other with their own team.
"Shit, this ain't good. What the hell we gonna do?" Bandit asked as he cradled his unconscious lover in his arms.
With a heavy heart and voice that threatened to crack, Mirage answered, "The only thing we can do."
Concentrating, she created one of her patented psychic arrows and pointed it towards the heroes who'd helped save the world only minutes before.
"Factor X. You have four seconds to surrender yourself to Force Works… or else…"
Next issue: It's Factor X vs. Force Works, this time for real. And win, lose or draw, things will never be the same for Force Works again! Plus for you fanboys out there, Weapon X vs. X-Treme!