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Shockwaves, part 3: Murder Ballads part 3
Domino is back…and she’s not alone. She is being hunted by an implacable killer possessing the mutant gene for murder. She has turned to her former pupils and teammates in X-Force - Sam Guthrie, Tabitha Smith, James Proudstar and Jesse Aaronson - for help. However, the young mutants are pupils no longer, but genetic renegades on the front line of a covert war, fighting for the rights of mutant kind. It was for this reason that X-Force turned their back on Domino six months ago - and it for this reason that she now needs them more than ever.
Inside X-Force’s temporary headquarters in San Francisco, Domino stands with her back to the young mutants, her shirt is removed, and she reveals a large creature - with a very big eye - on her back. ‘So, what do you think? Beats having a tattoo, huh? Problem is you gotta die to get one’ Domino exclaims. ‘EEYSSH!‘ Jesse Aaronson a.k.a. Bedlam exclaims, while James Proudstar asks if it hurts. ’Yeah, sometimes when it moves, squirms around at night, mostly’ Domino explains. ‘There’s squirming? Yuck!’ Bedlam exclaims. ‘You are such a girl!’ Tabby “Meltdown” Smith tells him. Bedlam frowns at Domino and asks her if she wants him to scope it out. Domino tells her companion that she would appreciate it, as she would like to know exactly what kind of monkey she has got on her back.
Bedlam reaches out and places two fingers on the green creature, warning Domino that he is liable to hurl at any second, before announcing that it is weird, that he is sensing some kind of energy field in both electro and biomagnetic spectrums. Jesse suddenly pulls his hand away, and declares that the creatures knows he is here. ‘I’m scanning it and it’s scanning me right back!’ he exclaims. Domino remarks that the creature mustn’t like getting prodded, and tells Bedlam to leave it alone, before thanking him for trying. Domino buttons her shirt up while Meltdown ushers the boys away: ‘Okay, nothing to see here, just an old lady getting dressed. That means about-face, guys!’
Sam “Cannonball” Guthrie asks Domino what they do now. He points out that they are still flying blind. ‘You say this thing appeared after you died. That’s some kinda bombshell. Care to enlighten us a little?’ Sam remarks. Domino replies that there is not much to tell, and announces that after realizing she was Marcus Tsung’s mark, she went underground, but needed to be able to move freely to find out why she had been targeted.
Flashback images, narrated by Domino in the present:
Domino reveals that she altered her appearance, posture and body language. She dyed her hair blonde, changed her eye color with contacts and even exculpated her cheekbones with dental putty. But, it still didn’t make a difference, as Tsung found her. Domino explains that it was a beautiful spring morning in Paris when a virtual bullet blew a fist-sized hole in her spine, and she collapsed onto the pavement, dead before she even hit the ground. Domino didn’t even see Tsung, unaware that he was just nearby on the street, face hidden by a newspaper.
The next thing Domino knows, she is in a pathology lab, naked, with some guy about to start the midline incision of her autopsy. She managed to persuade him otherwise as she grabbed his throat. She took a lab coat and left, but the device, or whatever it is, had grown out of the wound on her back, resurrected her somehow, but that isn’t all - it returned her hair to its natural color, and years of incidental wounds and scars were erased.
Present:
‘I’d been remade whole and new’ Domino tells everyone. ‘It’s not you he’s after is it - it’s the device?’ Cannonball asks. Domino replies that it looks that way, but that there is more going on here than she can figure. ‘I mean, why kill me if he knew that was going to happen?’ she asks. ‘Maybe he didn’t?’ Proudstar asks. ‘Or whoever he’s working for didn’t tell him?’ Sam suggests. ‘Bluff and counterbluff. Spook games’ Proudstar points out. Meltdown calls a time out and announces that her head hurts. ‘What do we do now?’ she asks. Cannonball admits that they are out of their depth here, that they need some help. ‘From who? We’re X-Force, the outsiders, remember! We’ve burnt our bridges. Who’s gonna help us?’ Tabitha asks.
Flashback, Six Months Ago:
Atop the Golden Gate Bridge, X-Force stand in their new leather costumes. ‘Spies, spooks and ex-intel types…they’re all lying, conniving, back-stabbing rat-bags who I wouldn’t trust as far as I could spit a brick’ Wisdom tells his team, adding that doesn’t mean X-Force can’t work with them, explaining that the trick is to play them at their own game. ‘Which is what, o great wise, chain-smoking one?’ Meltdown enquires. ‘That’s for you to find out, my child’ Wisdom replies. Meltdown mutters that things are never easy with Wisdom, to which Wisdom tells them that if they want easy, to go and talk to the bald guy with the wheels. ‘I’m serious, children. These people specialise in deceit. Their purpose in life is to perplex and confuse, make you think one thing while doing another’ Wisdom explains.
Bedlam asks if they have to hustle, give them what they want but at a price. ’Or what they think they want!’ Cannonball exclaims. ‘Bright boy. You’re learning’ Wisdom smiles, putting a hand on Cannonball’s shoulder, before motioning out to the city, ‘Look at it…this is the world because those mugs down there are told it is. They expect it to be a certain way because the newspapers, TV, movies and government say so’ Wisdom remarks, adding that it is all a distraction, a sleight of hand, a con. ‘In exchange for cable TV, liposuction, and Brittany Spears cleavage, they’ve been seduced into looking the other way so they don’t see how things really work. So they don’t see the ghost world’.
Wisdom continues, ‘A secret world with a secret history populated by men and women who don’t officially exist’. He remarks that they fight secret wars and die secret deaths on the say-so of powers-that-be that the good people down there have never heard of or voted for. ‘We’re part of it now, aren’t we…part of the ghost world, we’ve crossed over’ Bedlam remarks, to which Wisdom tells the young mutants that they did that on the first day back in China Basin, when they chose to stand by him instead of Domino. ‘It was a hard choice, I know…especially as there’s no going back’ he adds, lighting another cigarette. Wisdom tells X-Force that they all have the talent and aptitude to do good, but that these are just broad strokes, that it is now time for details and finesse. Wisdom adds that they have to know who it’s safe to talk to and who not to, and how to deal with both of them. ‘There will be times you need help and more often than not it’ll come from the unlikeliest of quarters’ Wisdom remarks. ‘This is my final less. I will teach you these things and much more besides because I am wise in name and nature!’
Present:
Night has fallen, and celebrations are taking place at a birthday party for Oscar. Kids are enjoying themselves when the doorbell suddenly rings. ‘I’ll get it. No one touch that cake without me!’ a woman exclaims as she rushes to the door, only to find a strange man standing in front of her. ‘Oh, hi! Another late arrival, huh? C’mon, you’ll have to move fast, they’re about to start cutting…sorry. I didn’t catch your name’ the woman exclaims - but Marcus Tsung just stares at her.
A moment later, Tsung goes over to the telephone and picks it up. ‘Its Tsung. Yes, this line is untraceable. What are your instructions?’ he speaks into the receiver. ‘There is a change of plan. Your quarry has already made contact with her allies’ a voice responds. ‘Then I will deal with them also’ Tsung responds, bodies of children littering the floor. But the person Tsung is talking to tells him not to get side-tracked. ‘I will handle them. You concentrate on Domino’ they order, suggesting decapitation, as it will take the artefact longer to regenerate Domino that way. ‘And the rest?’ Tsung asks. ‘Once she is dealt with, you may play with any survivors’ Tsung smiles and asks where they are now. He then puts the phone down, and puts his hand into the partly cut birthday cake. He brings some of the cake to his lips. ‘Hmmm. Too much lemon’ he remarks.
Meantime, X-Force are dressed in civilian clothing as they stand and sit around on a street corner. ‘What time is it?’ Tabby asks. ‘About thirty seconds since you asked me before. I thought you had a watch’ James replies. Tabby tells him that she does, but that she likes being a pain. Sam, Jesse and Domino are watching their surroundings, and Domino declares ‘They’re not coming’, but Sam assures her that they will be here. Jesse figures that they already are, announcing that he is detecting a low res sensor field sweeping over their position. ‘They’re scanning us! I don’t like it’ James states, to which Sam asks him what alternative they have. ‘Let ‘em check us out. We’ve got nothing to hide’ Sam adds, before Tabby motions to an approaching bus ‘Don’t look now but I think that’s them. See, that’s their high-tech stealth bus’ she remarks.
‘Yep. It’s them’ Tabby exclaims as the bus stops. People inside the bus stare out the window, and the doors open. ‘We’ll catch the next one. We’re waiting for some friends’ Sam tells the driver. A panel on the side of the bus suddenly slides apart, revealing a compartment underneath, and a strange looking woman steps out. ‘We’re not your friends. Now get in. We ain’t got all day’ she snaps. ‘Tab?’ Sam asks. ‘Lucky guess, I swear!’ Tabby replies. James turns to Sam, concerned, but Sam assures his friends that it is okay, and suggests they get going as he enters the compartment. ‘You heard the man, shift it!’ the strange woman with blank eyes orders. ‘Who do you -’ Domino begins, but the strange woman interrupts: ‘No questions. You walk. We talk’.
Inside the compartment underneath the bus, X-Force and Domino are greeted by two other men, one with a strange appearance, the other who looks “normal”, and calling his companion Baker, tells him to check X-Force out. ‘Please hold still for a moment. This won’t hurt’ he tells his gusts. ‘Jess?’ Meltdown asks as the one called Baker raises a hand, ands Bedlam explains that it is wetware dermal circuitry, a security scan, probably the same stuff that they checked them out with earlier. ‘They’re clean’ Baker reports. The “normal” man glances upwards and remarks ‘Traveler, resume course’. A robotic voice responds ‘Understood’, before the “normal” man introduces himself as Abel. He motions to the man with the wetware dermal circuitry and introduces him as Baker, before turning to the “Ever-charming” woman at his side, Charlie. ‘We got your message’ Abel tells them.
Cannonball introduces himself, and begins to introduce his friends, but Abel interrupts, ‘We know who you all are’ he exclaims, adding that they know how they saved the city from the mutagenic bio-engine. ‘It was good work’ Abel remarks. ‘And it’s the only thing keeping you alive!’ Charlie warns them, before asking Abel ‘why are we even talking to them after what they did?’. ‘What did we do?’ Cannonball enquires. ‘Let Pete Wisdom die, you moron!’ Charlie exclaims, shaking a finger at Cannonball, who gets angry and retorts ‘you think we wanted it to happen? Any of us would have taken that bullet for him!’, to which Charlie asks them why they didn’t. ‘That’s it! I’m gonna pop her one!’ Meltdown shouts, clenching her fists, she storms over to Charlie, who raises a weapon and replies ‘Bring it on!’
Cannonball tells everyone to quit it, and points out that what’s done is done. ‘Pete said we could turn to you if we needed to. Was he wrong?’ Cannonball asks the trio. Abel replies ‘No’, to Cannonball turns to Domino, ‘Show them’ he tells her. Domino lowers her shirt to reveal the creature on her back. ‘What is that?’ Abel asks. ‘Better yet, why didn’t it register when I scanned her?’ Baker wonders, raising a hand over the creature. ‘Probably because it didn’t want to. Junior doesn’t like being messed with. He gets kinda tetchy’ Domino explains. Abel asks her if it is alive, to which Domino replies ‘Sort of. I don’t really know’. Abel enquires as to how Domino came by it, to which Domino replies ‘I’m hoping you’ll tell me’. Abel smiles and assures her that they will try. ‘Tell us everything, down to the last detail…we’re not going anywhere’ he replies as the bus continues along the road.
Later, darkness has fallen, and inside the compartment beneath the bus, X-Force gather with Abel, Charlie and Baker around various monitors and computer equipment. ‘If that’s what I think it is, you’re a life saver…’ Domino tells Sam as he brings her some coffee. ‘Any cookies?’ Domino asks. ‘Sorry, I don’t think our counter-culture techno-anarchist friends are real big on grocery shopping’ Sam replies. Suddenly, Domino leans down onto the desk and moans. ‘You okay?’ Sam asks her. ‘No…don’t sweat it…I…I’m fine. It’s passing now’ Domino replies. ‘Dumb question, sorry’ Sam tells her, but Domino smiles and tells him now to be, explaining that when Junior shuffles around it feels like the Hulk is doing aerobics on her spine. ‘Otherwise I’m just peachy’.
Sam tells Domino that she looks beat and asks her when she last got some sleep. ‘I’ll sleep when I’m dead. Oops! Been there, done that already!’ Domino exclaims. Sam frowns at her, ‘Hey, joke! You remember those, don’t you?’ Domino asks him. ‘Sure’ Sam replies. Domino puts a hand on Sam’s hand and tells him not to get too old too soon. Domino then admits that she was wrong, and remarks that for all his faults, Wisdom was right in training X-Force. ‘But don’t take after him too much’ she adds. Sam asks her what she means, to which Domino points out that Sam doesn’t know everything about Wisdom, his past, the events that shaped him. ‘There’s plenty of good in the world as well as the persecution and hatred he was raging against. Don’t let it eat you up like it did him’ Domino declares.
Abel suddenly tells everyone to gather around, as he thinks they have a result. ‘What’ve you found?’ Sam asks. ‘More questions than answers, I’m afraid’ Abel replies, adding that they are weird ones, too. X-Force, Domino and the others gather around Abel, who looks up at a map and reports that he initially trawled every database he knows and called in favors from across the community, and got nothing - a fact suspicious itself. Charlie points out that someone knows about the device, as Tsung’s attempt on Domino’s life proves it. ‘Exactly’ Abel agrees, remarking that whatever data there is, is being held under such secure lockouts, they can’t even get a lead on it, let alone work out what it is. ‘Without being immodest, that scares me, because we’re no slouches at what we do. Whoever’s behind this has access to serious resources to be able to cover their tracks so thoroughly’ Abel states.
Proudstar asks Abel what he found, to which Abel responds ‘A mystery wrapped in an enigma’, before announcing that they have Jesse to thank for this, as he is quite the lateral thinker. An image of a dinosaur fossil appears on the monitor, and Abel states that when his conventional leads dried up, Jesse went looking for visual recognition patterns, if anything matching Junior’s physiological format, had shown up previously, and it had. Jesse takes over, explaining that the fossil was excavated from a mine in the Black Hills, South Dakota, around 1908, and that it is maybe 60 million years old, possibly a lot more, but that is not the best part. ‘Punch it up, Abel’ Jesse asks. Abel clicks on the keyboard, and another image appears, of two men holding another fossil. ‘Junior’s got a big brother somewhere’ Jesse announces. ‘Oh my God’ Domino utters.
Suddenly, the voice of the Traveler can be heard, announcing a security alert, that the stealth field has been penetrated, and hostile marks are approaching on attack vector, reading multiple weapons signatures. The Traveler states that it is locking on and recommends immediate evasive maneuvers. ‘Uh-oh, bad guys’ Meltdown mutters.
Outside, several high-tech choppers fly between the skyscrapers, and a voice inside one of them exclaims ‘Den mother to all wings, we have them, reading eight bio-marks at two-ten. Disengage silent running, make weapons hot’. ‘Copy that, den mother’ one of the “wings” replies. ‘Let’s plough the field! Another exclaims as the choppers open fire. ‘I have a clean visual lock’ someone reports. ‘Take ‘em out! Burn ‘em!’ another orders, as several missiles are dropped from the choppers - and explode as they impact with the bus!


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Shockwaves, part 4: Murder Ballads part 4
Meet Pete Wisdom. He’s dead. But…six months ago…
Flashback, six months ago:
Pete Wisdom stands, cigarette in hand, on a ridge overlooking San Francisco. This former British spy and one-time member of the mutant team Excalibur, took a disillusioned, disparate band of young genetic renegades known as X-Force, and gave them a fresh purpose - to punish those who had perpetrated vile, secret crimes on mutantkind. No easy task, one that cost Wisdom his life. Fortunately, his legacy lives on, lessons learned fighting on the front line of a very secret war: words of wisdom, ‘People don’t try changing the world cause they think they can’t. They imagine it’s too big. The powers-that-be let them think this way cause it’s all about control. Who has it and who doesn’t’ Wisdom remarked. He added, ‘With all I’ve taught you, my X-Men, you have the skills, the knowledge, to change things for the better. So go on, throw a spanner in the works and don’ let anyone stop you’.
Present:
San Francisco’s Market Street, where someone is trying to do just that. Black choppers dart between the skyscrapers, and one pilot, the “den mother” radios to the “wings” congratulating them on their good work. ‘The vehicle is totalled. I’m reading zero life signs’ the pilot announces, before exclaiming that there is movement. ‘Stand by for another pass. We’ll put ‘em down for good this time’ he orders, and as the bus lies wrecked on the street, powerlines down and fire spreading from it, Sam “Cannonball” Guthrie blasts towards the chopper: ‘You are so gonna pay!’ the young mutant exclaims as he darts around the choppers. ‘Take him out, now!’ one of the pilots orders, while another exclaims that they can’t get a lock, as he is maneuvering too fast. ‘Let’s play a li’l follow my leader. Catch me if you can!’ Cannonball shouts, before blasting downwards towards the street.
‘I’m on him. Get in tight, pour it on!’ one of the pilots announces as the chopper moves downwards and starts firing at Cannonball, who blasts low to the road. ‘You really don’t wanna do that!’ Cannonball exclaims, as shards of the road break up with the impact of the weapons fire, and are knocked into the air after one of the bullets strikes a gas main. ‘Pull up! Pull up!’ the pilot shouts as they try to move the chopper to safety. ‘Told you’ Cannonball mutters, looking upwards at the chopper, which is now on fire. At the bus, Tabitha “Meltdown” Smith tells everyone to get out. Looking at X-Force’s associate, Baker, she asks him if he is okay, to which Baker replies that he is a little cooked, but that he will live. Suddenly, several bullets are fired down to where X-Force and their allies are, and one strikes Abel. The peculiar female called Charlie calls out to him, while Domino turns to Jesse “Bedlam” Aaronson. ‘I’m on it’ Bedlam announces, looking up to the chopper, he uses his control over energies to cause the chopper to fall.
‘Electrical power’s out…systems fried! The mutant’s crippled us with an EMP burst!’ one of the chopper pilots exclaims. ‘Brace for impact!’ they report, before the chopper crashes into the side of a skyscraper, then slides downwards, landing on the street. X-Force go over to the chopper, and Meltdown calls out to James Proudstar, asking him if he wants to do the honors. ‘My pleasure’ Proudstar replies, before he uses his incredible strength to rip a panel off the chopper, ‘Knock knock!’ he exclaims, only to find the pilot with a machine gun raised: ‘Die, mutant scum!’ the pilot declares as he opens fire, but Proudstar manages to grab the pilot and holding him up by his neck with one hand, uses his other hand to destroy the gun. ‘That’s mister mutant scum to you!’ Proudstar shouts, warning the pilot to give it up, or else get pounded.
‘I hear that!’ the pilot exclaims, raising his arms overhead. Cannonball approaches him and demands to know who sent him and who he is working for. The pilot replies that he doesn’t know anything, explaining that he just flies their machines. Cannonball punches the pilot in the face, ‘Not good enough, boy! You tried to murder me and mind which puts me in the frame of mind for removing your internal organs in alphabetical order!’ Cannonball warns him, before he starts shaking the pilot, ordering him to talk, and fast. ‘Go to…’ the pilot begins to say, before he glows, and then falls to the ground. ‘Sam, they’re dead! Shot with a virtual bullet. It’s Tsung, he’s here!’ Domino exclaims. Cannonball orders Bedlam to trawl for Tsung’s bio-EMP signature and find him, but looking straight ahead, Bedlam replies that there is no need. ‘He’s found us!’ Bedlam exclaims, as standing on a ridge nearby, Marcus Tsung looks down at X-Force.
‘This is wrong. He carries the mutant gene for murder, kills on line of sight. He can drop us where we stand, so what’s he waiting for?’ Domino exclaims. Cannonball points out that there is only one way to find out, and blasts towards Tsung, despite Domino telling him to wait. Sam tells her not to sweat it, as he has a plan - he thinks. As he gets closer to Tsung, Sam decides that this is the moment of truth, ‘Let’s see what you’re made of’ he tells himself, and an instant later Sam glows, with the surge of Tsung’s death-touch coursing through him. Tsung frowns, and shouts ‘Die, American child!’, but his power has no effect on Cannonball, who smiles, despite the blood tricking from his nose and ears, he remarks ‘Well, ain’t this a surprise. Guess I figured right, my blast field that shields me when I’m flying also reduces the effect of your virtual bullets…mostly’.
Cannonball blasts downwards, ‘It’s enough for me to kick your behind clear into next week’ he tells Tsung, but as he flies down, Tsung just somersaults over Sam with ease.’ Huh? Man, he’s fast…he’s using the momentum to carry himself up the side of the building!’ Sam observes as Tsung indeed runs up the side of the building. Sam urns around, he can’t see where Tsung has gone, before realizing, that he is blasting straight towards him, against the side of the building. Sam isn’t able to pull up in time, and Tsung leaps towards him, kicking him hard in the face, with his bare feet, Sam plummets to the road below. Meltdown calls out to him and rushes over. Tsung drops down to the ground, ‘You have failed, American child. As I knew you would. Your confidence in your talent is your weakness’ Tsung states.
Tsung puts a foot against Cannonball’s neck, and announces that he is blocking the windpipe, starving Cannonball of oxygen, neutering its higher functions. ‘Try as you might, you cannot summon enough concentration to activate your mutant power’ Tsung states, smiling as he declares ‘I win. I am murder. Time to die’, when suddenly, he finds himself under attack. ‘What is this?’ he demands. Bedlam concentrates hard and tells X-Force that he is blocking Tsung’s neural bio-EMP with a feedback loop, essentially turned his power off, but announces that he cannot hold Tsung for long. ‘I’m already there’ Proudstar declares as he speeds over to Tsung, who turns around: ‘Ah, now I understand. Ingenious…but ultimately futile’ he states.
‘You labour under the same delusion as your friend. Permit me to enlighten you’ Tsung states, as Proudstar lunges to punch him, but misses, and is confused. ‘By the time I was thirteen, several years before my gift manifested itself. I had already killed nine men with my bare hands alone’ Tsung reveals. His fingers tense, and he boasts that he studied martial arts so lethal and obscene that they have no name, that he can kill with a caress and cripple with a touch. He grabs Proudstar by his armpit, adding that his genetic gift is merely an adjunct to these skills he possesses. ‘Your mistake. The last you will ever make’ Tsung declares, as Proudstar falls on top of a shocked Bedlam, who is unable to move.
‘Ah, that’s better…’ Tsung smiles, turning his attention back to Cannonball, he places his foot against Cannonball’s neck once more’ Where were we? Oh yes, your death’ he states, when suddenly, ‘Guess who?’ Meltdown declares as she comes up behind Tsung and places her hands over his eyes, before unleashing he plasma charge directly on Tsung’s face, causing the villain to scream in agony. Charlie, Abel and Baker all avert their eyes, and suddenly, Tsung falls to the ground, his face terribly burnt. ‘Oh my…Tabitha…what did you do?’ Domino asks, surprised. ‘What I had to do’ Meltdown replies. Tabitha drops down beside Sam, ‘Talk to me…you okay?’ she asks him, holding him in her arms, before they get to their feet and kiss. Proudstar has recovered, and gotten up from the ground. ‘You want me to pucker up too?’ Bedlam asks him.
‘I take it that’s a yes?’ Meltdown asks as she and Sam separate. ‘You saved my life, Tab. This’s getting to be habit’ Sam tells her. Tabby replies that she lies it, especially the smooch part, as it makes her toes tingle. Suddenly, ‘Tabitha, behind you!’ Domino exclaims, as Tsung has gotten to his feet, and he places a hand around the back of Meltdown’s neck, ‘That’s good…because you get a similar sensation by having a hole blown in your spine. What say we give it a try, eh?’ Tsung asks, his face still smouldering from Tabby’s blast.
‘There’s only one way to end this’ Domino decides, picking up a gun from one of the fallen chopper pilots. ‘Or what? I’m the one with the upper hand, here. I’ve won. You’re all dead’ Tsung declares as Sam, Jesse and James close in towards Tabitha. ‘Looking into my eye’ Tsung grins, indeed he only has one eye now, the other being covered over by melted flesh. ‘I’m looking you son of a…’ Domino begins as she raises the gun and fires, striking Tsung in his arm, forcing him to let go of Meltdown and fall backwards. Suddenly, ‘Romany…Romany Wisdom?’ Domino calls out as she sees Pete Wisdom’s sister. ‘The girl’s clear…finish him’ Romany barks into her communicator.
Soldiers can be seen on nearby rooftops, ‘…take him out’ Romany orders, and an instant later, several bullets are fired into Tsung’s body, including his head, and he falls to the ground. ‘So much for the mutant gene for murder. He’s got the mutant gene for being a corpse now’ Romany declares. She turns to Abel, Baker and Charlie and tells them that she cut them some slack for what they did for her brother, but that was one time. ‘He’s gone…we’re done…cross the line again, I’ll put you all down’ she warns them. ‘They were only trying to help us!’ Cannonball points out. Romany smirks at him and asks ‘Were they? You’re so naïve. Maybe that’s why he picked you?’
A large vessel appears overhead, and bright lights shine down from it the streets below. ‘Ours?’ Cannonball asks. ‘Please. No arguments. I’m not looking for a fight. So come with me or my marksmen will drop you, okay?’ Romany replies. ‘You saved us, now you’re threatening us. Why?’ Bedlam enquires. ‘What can I say? Those are the breaks. That and the fact little miss lucky there has Armageddon riding on her back’ Romany explains. ‘What?’ Cannonball asks. Romany reveals that the thing on Domino’s back wiped out the dinosaurs. ‘Global extinction, nuclear winter, etc, etc…she’s wearing it, pr part of it, at least. We have to get it off her, pronto’ Romany declares.
Suddenly, ‘NO!’ Domino exclaims with a strange voice, as she reaches up and grabs Romany around the neck. ‘Domino!’ Cannonball declares, but Domino uses her other hand to grab him. ‘No one touches us…’ the strange voice from within Domino snarls. ‘We touch them!’ the voice adds, as strange tentacles with spiked-mouths whip around from the creature on her back, and attempt to latch themselves onto Cannonball and Romany - ‘I don’t think so!’ Romany exclaims as she reaches into her jacket and pulls out a weapon - firing it at Domino’s head, point-blank range. Domino then falls to the ground, the tentacles writing around her. ‘I hate it when they do that’ Romany mutters, before motioning to the vessel which has lowered to the street, ‘Shall we?’ she suggests to X-Force.
Later, X-Force are gathered in an office, and watching a news report, which the announcer states that the three navy helicopters were returning from maneuvers to the naval base at Alameda when the mid-air collision occurred, and that all three air crews were killed, although there were no civilian casualties. She adds that there was substantial property damage, estimated to run into tens of millions of dollars. She reveals that the navy is currently cooperating with the civil authorities to investigate how the collision occurred and why the aircraft were flying so dangerously low over the city. ‘Pete was right. The bigger the lie you tell, the more folks will go for it’ James remarks. Looking at a biscuit of some sort, Meltdown frowns and exclaims ‘Would someone tell me what this is supposed to be, cause it’s not a cookie!’
Romany smiles as she enters the room, ‘Back in the old country, we call it a Jammie Dodger’ she remarks. Cannonball asks how Domino is and when they can see her, to which Romany replies that she is fine, that they caught this one in time. ‘You’ve done this before?’ Sam enquires. ‘That would be telling’ Romany responds. James supposes that Romany can’t even tell them what the creature is, either, to which Romany states that they honestly don’t know. Romany explains that a best guess is that it is sentient technology, an alien component of some form. Bedlam asks if it is bio-organic, like the Phalanx, but Romany replies ‘No, it’s something new, or old, take your pick’.
Sam asks how Domino got infected, to which Romany replies ‘Now how but why? It wasn’t just bad luck. She was chosen. By whom or to what end, we don’t know’. Sam asks what happens now, and Romany tells him that for them, nothing, X-Force get to take their friend home ‘We keep the device’ she adds. ‘Who’s this “we”? How do we even know who you say you are? Last time we saw you, you looked like a school librarian!’ Sam points out. Meltdown agrees, and suggests that Romany could be the bad guy here. ‘Same goes for you, cherub’ Romany replies as she points out that X-Force took everything Peter said on faith, but that she knows from experience that Pete was an extremist with his own agenda.
Meltdown replies that Pete was their friend, that he wanted to do the right thing and make a better world. ‘And you believed him?’ Romany asks, hands on hips. Sam frowns and remarks that he sees where this is going, what Romany is doing, and tells her that it won’t work. ‘You’re trying to undermine us, undermine what Mister W taught us. Why?’ he asks. Romany scowls and replies ‘You want the truth?’, and reveals that years before X-Force met Peter on Genosha, and even before Excalibur, Pete had a psychotic episode, a breakdown, and he was in a catatonic state for six months, did nothing but drool and take food and drugs through a tube. She asks X-Force if they never once questioned why Wisdom was such a zealot, why he was driven to punish those who had inflicted terrible injustices on mutants. ‘The answer’s obvious if you think about it’ she remarks.
Continuing, Romany tells X-Force that back in the early days, way before Black Air, Peter was assigned to a covert unit known as the Factory, that their remit was data extraction from genetic anomalies - mutants, and during his time there, Peter committed the kind of offences that X-Force is now avenging. ‘He was a traitor to his own kind!’ Romany declares. Meltdown begins to cry, while Romany explains that eventually it all proved too much, but that you don’t resign fro that kind of life, and Wisdom was interrogated, incarcerated and tortured - they broke him.
Romany reveals that she nursed her brother back to health, that when he recovered, he embarked on his single-minded crusade to try and atone for his actions. ‘Peter was my brother and I loved him - beneath the sarcasm and cigarettes, he was a tormented idealist who wouldn’t let anyone or anything sway him from his purpose - it got him killed’. James, Sam, Jesse and Tabby listen intently as Romany tells them that they were lucky today, as second chances don’t happen too often in this game. The sun sets outside, lowering down over the skyscrapers, and Romany tells X-Force to go home, and get a life while they still can. ‘Before you bury another friend…or they bury you’.


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Rage War, part 1
Tabitha “Meltdown” Smith sits solemnly on the edge of a building structure, high over San Francisco as the sun sets in the background. The world weighs heavy on her shoulders, heavier still since she is a mutant, a unique twist of fate, a stray protein of a DNA chain that makes the ordinary extraordinary and gifts the lucky recipient with abilities some only dream of. Right now, she doesn’t feel so lucky and as for dreams - try nightmares. As a mutant, her super ability is to turn light into a weapon. As a member of X-Force, she is a genetic freedom fighter, visiting retribution on those who persecute mutantkind. Two days ago, she saved a friend from an assassin, an act which cost the killer his life, and has prompted her to ask herself some hard questions, the answers to which lie somewhere else.
New York City, two police officers approach a house down a street lined with houses joined together. Inside the house, a teenage girl with short ink hair stands in the middle of a very untidy room. Her mother, cigarette in hand, starts calling out to her husband. ‘Frank! Frank! Will you come and talk to y’daughter for a change! She never listens t’me anymore!’ the mother calls out. ‘Why’s she only my daughter when there’s trouble?’ Frank calls out from the next room. ‘Hello? Excuse me? I have a name, you know. I have rights!’ the girl exclaims. Her mother tells her that the only rights she has are to breathe in and out and not make this any worse than it is. ‘What the hell happened in here?’ a wide-eyed Frank asks. ‘Nothing. That’s my point, genius. I told her to clean this pit up yesterday. Instead she sneaked out and spent the night who knows where. I just caught her creeping back in!’ the mother explains.
The woman asks Frank when the last time he came in here anyway, to which Frank points out that their daughter isn’t a little girl anymore. ‘I can’t just, y’know…’ he mutters, when suddenly the doorbell rings. ‘You are in serious trouble, young lady’ the girl’s mother tells her. ‘You say that like it’s a new thing’ the girl mutters, while Frank opens the door, to find two police officers waiting.
‘Frank Casey?’ one of them asks. ‘Yes, officer. Is there a problem?’ Frank replies. ‘No problem’ one of the officers remarks, before both grin, and their eyes glow green - before Frank is incinerated by a burst of flame. ‘Frank?’ the woman calls out when she sees the flames, but the police officers are gone, replaced by strange humanoid creatures with large weapons in the place of one of their arms. ‘Oh my God…’ the woman utters. ‘The secondary progenitor. Kill it’ one of the strange beings declares, and fires a blast towards the woman, but she dodges it. ‘Mom!’ the girl exclaims. Her mother tells her to run, while one of the beings races off after her. ‘Bring her…alive’ the other creature orders.
‘Please...why?’ the woman asks, before the other creature fires his weapon at close range, and she is engulfed by the energies. ‘Mom!’ the girl calls out as she hears the chaos. She makes it to a window, and tries to open it. The second creature appears behind her, telling her not to run, as they won’t hurt her. ‘You got that part right, cause’ I’m outta here!’ the girl exclaims, tears in her eyes. A strange-looking dark is thrown at the girl, and she falls to the kitchen floor, unconscious. The creature picks her up and joins his comrade, ‘Both progenitors are dead. We have the anomaly’ he reports. ‘Good. Clean this place’ the first replies, and the exit the house, and once they are clear, it explodes.
Back in San Francisco, a reporter stands on a busy street, where civilians start to gather around her as she announces into her camera that Senator Kelly is chasing the presidential ticket, and the anti-mutant question has risen once again. ‘Nowhere more so than here in San Francisco, where an estimated third of the city’s population recently underwent involuntary, violent mutation at the hands of force or forces unknown’. The reporter states that the effect was only temporary, but that eighteen hundred people died as a result, with many more suffering from post-traumatic stress. She declares that this scenic city by the bay has seemingly returned to normal, but if you scratch the surface, you will see the fear and apprehension in people’s eyes as they look at their friends and neighbors and ask themselves: ‘Were you a mutant?’
The civilians gathered nearby all start looking at each other, ‘I’d normally object to any kind of prejudice, but this is different. Mutants are dangerous. People died here! We have to protect our own!’ a white man declares. ‘You can’t justify persecution no matter what., Hasn’t history taught us anything?’ an elderly woman exclaims, while a young black woman shouts ‘We should round ‘em all up and dump ‘em out on the island…out on Alcatraz!’
‘Come and get us if you can…’ Jesse Aaronson a.k.a. Bedlam snarls as he fires a blast of energy at the television, shattering it. ‘Cause I got your mutant menace right here!’ Jesse mutters, his hand charged with more energy. ‘Could you quit killing the TVs Jess? If the news makes you mad, try switching the channels. It’s cheaper’ James Proudstar suggests as he carries a large meeting room table over his head with ease. ‘Hey, I like the news okay, that newsgirl’s hot. It’s those other mooks that get me riled!’ Jesse mutters.
James Proudstar is an emotional and physical anchor to his friends, he is big, buff and impervious to just about everything - he can fly, too. Bedlam plays electromagnetic and bio-magnetic fields like harps from hell. He’ll give your laptop and your cerebellum a hard time.
James sets the large table down inside X-Force’s office headquarters and tells Bedlam that people are scared, that he can’t blame them for being frightened over what happened. ‘Watch me! They’re dumb, bigoted dirtbags who need a wake-up call!’ Jesse replies, adding ‘What about those poor folks who were mutated by the bio-engine? Talk about trauma! They need medical help, counseling, but they’re probably going to be too petrified to ask. God knows how they’re holding up’. Jesse points out that if those “nice” folk down there knew X-Force was up there, they would be coming after them with guns and torches and pitchforks like something out of an old horror movie. ‘And they call us monsters’ Bedlam scowls.
‘That’s because we are’ Domino points out as she enters the large office space, carrying several large books. ‘They’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg, but think it’s the whole thing. If they knew half the stuff we do about the mutant world, they’d all pull together, regardless of creed and color to wipe us from the face of the Earth…and they’d all die trying!’ Domino declares. Domino is a former freedom fighter and former team leader of X-Force, now back as field controller. She projects a probability altering field that stacks the odds in her favor. You do not want to be standing next to her in a thunderstorm!
James begins putting some chairs around the meeting room table and tells Domino that not all humans are sweetness and light. ‘What about all the crimes that humanity’s pulled on mutants over the years?’ he asks. Domino starts placing the books on the table and replies that she doesn’t have all the answers, that they just try to do what they can to stop bad situations becoming worse and spilling over into genocide. ‘There’s a lot of work to be done. We all need to get started’ Domino remarks, before asking where Meltdown and Cannonball are.
Meltdown is still sitting on the edge of the construction tower, when suddenly, ‘Hey’ Sam “Cannonball” Guthrie calls out as he appears next to her. Sam hands Tabby a cup of coffee, ‘Decaf?’ Tabby asks. ‘Would I dare?’ Sam replies. Sam is X-Force’s team leader, named Cannonball thanks to the propulsive force that hurls him through the air. Sheathed in an energy field that protects him against most things except maybe the affections of Miss Smith. Tabby glances away, before telling Sam that she senses a whole bunch of questions that he is just busting a gut to ask her. ‘That right?’ she enquires. Sam replies that he was worried, pointing out that Tabitha has been really quiet lately, which isn’t like her.
‘Well, frying the face off a guy then watching his brains blown out the back of his head would upset even the sunniest disposition, you think?’ Meltdown replies, frowning. ‘Works for me’ Sam replies, asking Tabby if she wants to talk. ‘Why? I’m glad that maggot was put down. He would have killed us all. Wish I’d thought of it sooner - that’s not what you expected to hear, is it?’ Meltdown replies. Sam frowns and replies that what she said is the understatement of the millennium. ‘What’s brought this on?’ he enquires. ‘Nothing…everything…’ Tabitha replies, before adding that when Pete wisdom said they’d burned their bridges, made themselves outsiders, she didn’t realize it would be like this. ‘For all he taught us, I thought it’d be the same as before. Dangerous…exciting…scraping by on the skin of our teeth kinda thing’.
Meltdown turns away and tells Cannonball that it never really hit her until she saw him dead in that chair - for all their mutant powers, someone just walked up and shot Wisdom in the face. ‘What’s that to stop happening to any of us? This isn’t the same old game, Sam. Loud and big and noisy like with the X-Men. This isn’t Professor Xavier’s way…’. While people down below go about their business, Tabitha continues, declaring that this is nasty, mean, anonymous deaths at the hands of strangers who have never worn costumes or used codenames in their life. ‘They’ll kill us if we don’t get to them first. We can’t afford to be soft anymore’ Tabitha states. Sam tells her that they can’t afford to let all this turn them into murderous, avenging angels. ‘We’re not out for revenge, Tab. It’s justice we’re after’ he points out.
Sam continues, stating that doing the wrong thing for the right reason just doesn’t wash - murder is murder, Pete didn’t want them to become killers. ‘Maybe he should’ve look where it got him!’ Tabby replies ‘You don’t mean that’ Sam tells her. ‘Don’t I? When we were up against the fallout from that mutagenic bio-engine, we had to save a city full of mutated crazies fro themselves. It’s tough picking a single face out of a crowd. We saved thousands, some died. We couldn’t help them all, but we did our best’ Tabitha tells Sam, while adding that Tsung was one man, that he had a mom and a dad and might have been kind to puppies - or ate them. ‘Who knows? Despite the fact his people leveled a city block to get at us, you held back, didn’t you? Saw him as a human being, right up until he was stamping on your throat!’ Tabitha exclaims.
Cannonball frowns and replies ‘Sure, I do. Because no matter how dire stuff seems, there’s always alternatives. Maybe harder to find, tougher to use, but they’re there’. Tabitha turns away, while Cannonball tells her that he won’t kill a man. ‘Take everything he is, everything he has. I won’t do it. And deep down neither will you’. Meltdown begins to cry, and turning back to Sam, explains that she thought he was going to die. She reminds him that they meant something to each other once, and she can’t - doesn’t - want to lose him. Sam places a hand on Tabby’s face and tells her not to worry, as he isn’t going anywhere. They then kiss, with the sun glowing behind them.
Meanwhile, in New England, a couple are unloading grocery shopping from their car, when a voice calls out ‘Daniel and Carol Lindenbrook?’, the couple turn, ‘Yes. Can I help you?’ Daniel replies. A bald man stands before them, ‘It’s more what I can do for you, old friend’ he remarks. ‘Just listen to my voice and only my voice. There is nothing else but my voice’. Carol and Daniel drop their groceries. Eggs smash and cartons crack against the ground. ‘“The woods are lovely, dark and deep and I have promises to keep…and lies to go before I sleep”!’ the strange man remarks. ‘…and miles to go before I sleep’ Daniel utters. ‘Remember…remember…’ the man tells them, as they keel over, and transform into hideous creatures. The strange man frowns, before a voice calls out ‘Comrade Doctor?’, to which the doctor replies ‘Hello, Major Lieutenant’, as he looks at the hideously transformed Carol and Daniel Lindenbrook. ‘Welcome back’ the doctor tells them. ‘The world, comrade Doctor…is it given?’ they ask. ‘It is’ the doctor tells them. ‘War!’ one of them exclaims.
Soon, a boy on a skateboard rolls up to the driveway. ‘Hello, Philip’ the mysterious doctor remarks. ‘huh? Who are you?’ the boy replies. The doctor reaches into his jacket and claims that he is an old friend of the family. ‘Yeah, right! You’re a creep. Where are my folks? My dad’s gonna be so mad at you for sitting on his car. He’ll kick your butt and I’m gonna watch!’ the boy exclaims, stepping past the spilled groceries. ‘Children…I love them’ the doctor mutters as he fires his weapon at the boy, shooting a strange dart into him.
Meantime, in San Diego, a man and a woman stand on a dock, a large cargo ship is nearby, and they are surrounded by crates and boxes. ‘Are you certain she’s on this one?’ the man asks. The woman replies that intelligence lost her in the Gdansk Shipyard, she was trapped and disappeared. ‘This vessel was the only way out. This was its destination. If she’s anywhere…it’s here’ the woman remarks, unaware that another woman is crouched behind some crates, and suddenly, she raises a weapon and fires it at the first woman, seemingly destroying her.
The man dodges the blast, but spins around, and his body transforms into a hideous creature similar to others that have recently manifested. ‘Traitor!’ he booms as he fires a weapon back into the warehouse, but the woman dodges it, ‘Too slow. Too bad’ she calls out as she fires another blast, striking the man and sending him down. The second woman goes over to him, ‘Lucky for me, they don’t make you like they used to’, and using the knife attached to her gun, she shoves it into his chest, and pulls out a spiked weapon. ‘In which case…you won’t be needing this’ she declares.
Back in San Francisco, smoke billows into the air above a United States Department of Agriculture and Fisheries are, which is restricted. A building is demolished, and bodies lie smoldering, disfigured. A huge crater is in the middle of the area, and at the bottom of it, a hideous creature lies.
At X-Force’s office, the team is seated around the meeting room table, and Domino tells her friends that she owes them an apology. ‘When you disbanded the old X-Force, left me and joined Pete Wisdom, I was angry. I wanted you to fail. Hew saw potential in you I didn’t, remade you into something vital and new. I’m sorry that I didn’t have his strength of vision, but I’m grateful now for the opportunity and honor to work with you again’. Motioning to the large folders on the table, Domino tells X-Force that they are Pete’s legacy from his time as spook in the British Secret Service, that it is an extensive black library on those individuals, organizations and governments who have committed unspeakable crimes against mutantkind. Domino reveals that she has trawled through the files and graded them on a triage basis, and announces that there are eighty-two cases required direct action, two hundred and three secondary incidents, and sixty tertiary.
Tabitha states that there is only one thing they want to do right now and that is find Pete’s killer, Niles Roman, and tear him apart. ‘Slowly’ James adds. ‘Not gonna happen. Not yet. I know how you feel, but we’re not in the business of revenge’ Sam states. ‘Excuse me?’ Jesse calls out. ‘I guess you haven’t been keeping up with current events, pal, but I thought that’s exactly why we’re here!’ he adds. James agrees, and points out that they are doing the work that none of the other mutant good guys will touch. Sam tells his teammates that Roman’s time will come, but not now and not today, as they are too angry, and it is blinding their judgment. ‘He’ll use that against us. He’ll be expecting us’ Sam explains. Domino agrees with Sam and states that going against Roman would be tactically unsound.
‘We don’t care! This isn’t business, this is personal!’ Tabitha exclaims, standing up. ‘Then you’ll die. Don’t play Roman’s game, bide your time, make him sweat, then move in for the kill’ Domino declares. James looks at Jesse and tells him that he doesn’t look too good. Clutching his head, Jesse replies that he it is his head. ‘Wow, this smarts’ he mutters. Tabitha asks him ‘What’s up’ and Jesse replies that it is like a Galactus-sized migraine but that it is coming in pulses, bio-EMP feedback, with spikes in it. ‘There’s a pause, then it’s starting over!’ Bedlam exclaims. Everyone stands up and gathers around, with Domino asking Jesse what their frequency is, and how often they are hitting. Jesse replies that they are intermediate, and in short and long bursts. ‘Ow! This hurts so bad!’ he declares.
Domino asks for a pen, to which Meltdown tells her ‘You’re not going to do some kind of gross emergency surgery, are you?’ Domino explains that she is writing down the message that someone is trying to send to them via Jesse, and tells Jesse that when the pulses recycle, to call them out, long and short. ‘Stand by, incoming’ Jesse replies. ‘Messages? Did I miss something?’ James asks. Sam explains that long and short pulses on a repeating cycle is an old-fashioned morse code. Still clutching his head, Bedlam explains that he is all done for now, and asks Domino if she is getting anything useful. Domino replies that she can’t tell, and announces that it says Valentina and then some numbers which read like coordinates. ‘Mean anything to anyone?’ Domino enquires. Sam, Jesse, Tabby and James all frown, and Sam reveals that they know her, that she is Major Valentina Rychenko of the Soviet Army, an old friend of Pete’s - and it sounds like she is in trouble.
At an undisclosed location, Valentina is surrounded by all sorts of weapons as she tinkers with some equipment, and the spike weapon she tore from the creature lies at her side.


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Rage War, part 2
Bitter River, California, cars are strewn about, fires rage, destruction is everywhere, and Major Valentina Rychenko staggers through the chaos. ‘That the best you’ve got?’ she thinks to herself, knowing that she is out of time, out of bullets and out of luck. ‘I’m dead - Warborgs’ she thinks to herself as the strange, hideous creatures loom over her. ‘Major Valentina Irena Rychenko…’ one of them begins, while Valentina recalls how she saw one Warborg butcher an entire Muhjadin rebel camp in Afghanistan, three hundred me and boys cut to pieces small enough to fit in a shot glass. ‘Someone must really want me stopped’ Valentina realizes. The Warborg continues, ‘…by sanction of the Dumas and the Executive Security Committee, you are sentenced to death by summary field execution, effectively immediately’ the Warborg announces, raising its weapon-arm to her face and close range. ‘Do it!’ Valentina exclaims.
Suddenly, ‘HEY!’ a voice calls out from above. ‘Pick on someone your own size!’ James Proudstar declares as he drops down, knocking the two Warborgs aside. Valentina looks up, surprised, her face covered in blood, ‘Hello, Major…we got your message. Sorry we’re late’ Sam “Cannonball” Guthrie announces as he, Tabitha “Meltdown” Smith and Jesse Bedlam stand before Valentina. The Major replies ‘Better late that never’, before telling X-Force to watch themselves, as those are Warborgs, part meat, part machine, all bad news and hard to kill. Valentina recalls how X-Force were recruited, tutored and mentored by her old friend, Pete Wisdom, a one-time British spy turned genetic freedom fighter for the mutant cause, and knows that with X-Force here, there is still a chance to turn this around.
‘SEE!’ Valentina declares as everyone dodges another series of blasts from the Warborgs, who have got to their feet. A voice is heard over the teams’ communicators, informing Jesse and Tabby that they are the “floor show”. ‘Copy that’ Meltdown replies, as she creates beams of plasma - “light blades” - blinding the warborgs and keeping them busy, while Bedlam uses an EMP burst to destroy the technology that the Warborgs are using. But their plan doesn’t work. Watching the battle on a series of monitors, Domino contacts X-Force, telling them that the Warborgs must be built to function in post-nuclear-conditions, that they are EMP shielded and packing photo receptive cells, meaning they are sucking up the energy from Meltdown’s assault like a sponge.
‘Understood’ Cannonball replies as he grabs the Major and blasts into the air, he orders Meltdown and Bedlam to pull back, as they will have to do this the old way and hit them with a big blunt object. Proudstar takes his cue, ‘Way ahead of you, boss’ he calls out to Cannonball as he slams into one of the Warborgs, taking hold of its weapon-arm, he directs the weapon at the other Warborg and fires, blasting a hole through its stomach. The Warborg shoves its arm backwards, sending some spikes into Proudstar’s shoulder. James cries out in agony, but recovers quickly, and tears the Warborg’s weapon-arm from it’s shoulder and shoves it against the Warborg, ‘Gonna make you eat it…gonna…’ he exclaims, before clutching his head, then keeling over.
Cannonball, Bedlam, Meltdown and the Major rush over to him, ‘What’s happening to him?’ someone asks. The Major explains that it is toxic shock, as those barbs are tipped with a neurotoxin, a close quarter defense mechanism. Valentina adds that, in a way, Proudstar is double lucky, for his mutant genome made him semi-resistant to the toxin, and if he were a human, he would be dead by now. ‘Gee, that’s a relief! For a nano-second there I thought he was in trouble!’ Meltdown mutters sarcastically, before asking Valentina what else James has to be grateful for. ‘Pete Wisdom’ the Major replies, revealing that along with all the other weird and obscure spook stuff he crammed into his head over his lifetime, is an encyclopedic knowledge of toxins and poisons. ‘If anyone can save him, Pete Wisdom can’ the Major declares. Sam, Jesse and Tab look shocked.
In La Jolla, California, two girls lie sprawled on the floor of an up-turned living room. ‘Who are they?’ a voice calls out. ‘Your children’ a mysterious bald man replies. ‘Children? How is that possible?’ asks a man, his body transformed, covered in screaming faces, while a giant insect stands beside him. ‘It isn’t’ the man remarks. ‘Shall we kill them?’ the insect asks. The bald man addresses the insect as “Captain” and tells her that isn’t necessary. The man with the screaming faces sits down and holds one of the girls, and exclaims ‘Comrade Doctor, I don’t understand. You told us we should not have been able to have children…the mutation process, it was a sacrifice we made…for the motherland’ he states, to which the doctor admits he was in error. ‘Is it war, Comrade Doctor?’ the insect asks. ‘Yes, it is’ the doctor replies, but the man with the screaming faces goes over to the window, and looking outside, sees children playing down the street, and declares that it doesn’t look like war.
‘Another error, Comrade Doctor?’ he enquires, but the insect-captain addresses the man with the screaming faces as Lieutenant and exclaims ‘You forget your place’. But the lieutenant asks how they would know if the doctor is not lying to them, that he has not turned traitor. ‘Because he is Racal. We vowed to serve him and the motherland for a cause greater than ourselves’ the captain points out. The lieutenant drops back down to the ground and holds both of his daughters, while calling the insect Katarina, he exclaims ‘Look at them, they’re teenagers! We were only supposed to be under for a few years, our personalities buried beneath the implants. We weren’t supposed to be able to have children. Now that we’re reactivated we have a family who we don’t even know. Can you remember their names? We had a life…a family…now we’re going to die!’ He gets back up and points at Racal, asking him ‘Why have you done this to us? What is it you want? Why couldn’t you have left us in peace?’
Rubbing his head and not looking overly impressed, Racal calls out to the captain, who raises an insect claw and slices off her husband’s head with ease. ‘Does the order still stand, sir?’ the captain asks. ‘Is the mission still viable?’ she enquires, looking at her children. ‘What? Oh, yes, captain. Go on and do your duty, the motherland expects you to die well. Have fun’ Racal replies. Outside the house, a car has pulled up in the driveway, ‘Progenitor! We’re too late!’ someone inside the car exclaims. ‘Racal! He has an anomaly, we should kill him now and take it!’ he exclaims, but the other person in the car decides that they will wait, for Racal has already acquired several others prior to these. ‘We’ll track him to where he’s holding them and seize them all’ he adds, watching as Racal loads the two girls into a car.
Meantime, ‘He’s dead?’ Valentina asks as X-Force are still amongst the destruction in Bitter River. Cannonball tells the Major that Wisdom was shot by a mad scientist named Niles Roman, and that they tried to contact her through the comm-channel that Pete left them, but there was no answer. Valentina explains that she had problems of her own around then, and reveals she has gone AWOL from her post. ‘There’s a kill order out on me’ she adds. ‘Yeah, we kinda noticed’ Meltdown mutters, watching as Bedlam touches Proudstar’s head with a small energy burst. Cannonball tells Valentina that they will help her for sure, but that they have to see to their own first, and asks her if there is anything she can do for James. Valentina replies ‘I think so’, while Cannonball asks Bedlam if he is okay.
Bedlam explains that he is using a trickle of bio-EMP energy to stabilize James’s condition, and that it is doing some good, but not much, and it will only buy a little time. ‘Go do what you gotta, I can handle this’ Bedlam tells Cannonball, while Meltdown exclaims ‘That is officially gross’ as she watches Valentina reach into the head of one of the Warborgs, explaining that they have data clusters implanted between the cerebral hemispheres of the brain, so they can still function even if they lose eighty percent of their organic components. ‘Organic?’ Cannonball enquires. The Major turns to him and explains that Russia lost a lot of men in Afghanistan and Chechnya, and that Russia doesn’t like to waste resources, even dead ones, so these men were reanimated with some kind of smart technology that she has never seen before. ‘You don’t say. We came across something like that no so long ago ourselves’ Meltdown declares, but Cannonball tells her that this isn’t the time.
‘There!’ Valentina declares as she holds up something, pulled from the Warborg’s head. Sam asks ‘What is it?’ to which the Major explains that it is a kind of hard drive, and with it, they can access the shared memory data of the other Warborg cells operating Stateside. ‘There’s a good chance they’ll give us a lead on Racal’ she points out. ‘Racal?’ Sam asks. Valentina explains that he is the man she is after, and so are the Warborgs, as they are based on his designs. ‘He’s the only one who can save James’ Valentina explains, before pointing out that they need a phone line and a terminal computer. ‘Out here? This place’s a war zone!’ Sam declares, but Meltdown reminds everyone that their headsets are state of the art satellite relays, better than a phone system. ‘We patch ‘em into the brain thing and whatever was on the dead guy’s mind gets relayed back to Domino, who processes the goods and gets ‘em back to us!’ Meltdown declares.
‘Outstanding!’ Cannonball exclaims, adding that all they need is a deck of cards, and asking Domino if she got all that. ‘Copy, Sam’ Domino replies as she states that she is installing a universal read-all database. ‘Ready for the download on your word. Oh, and tell Tabby, it’s official…I’m impressed’ Domino replies. ‘Damn straight’ Meltdown smirks, while Bedlam continues to try and save James, and tells him to hold on.
Meanwhile, aboard the SHIELD Helicarrier, Nick Fury lights a cigar and tells Ms Wentworth that he has a meeting with the United Nations Security Council in six minutes, so she only has three, and to make them count. Motioning to several monitors, the plump Ms Wentworth reports that in the last seventy-two hours, six military bases across the country have been attacked, with the loss of all hands. She explains that they were low priority installations, mostly document storage and warehousing, with little in common, until they backtracked their prior usage. She is about to reveal what this is, until Fury interrupts: ‘I know my history, Ms Wentworth. They’re decommissioned nuke silos and mothballed tactical command facilities’, before asking her if she has any leads on who did this.
Ms Wentworth clicks her remote control and the images on the monitors change, and she informs Fury that they have the perpetrators themselves. Images of the graphic, bloody mess of bodies appear on screen, and Ms Wentworth reports that autopsy codes them as baselines humans outfitted with serious mutagenic augmentations, and that the augmentation is dramatic and terminal, that their bodies couldn’t have lived beyond maybe nine hours in this state. ‘Marilyn’ Fury calls out as he presses the intercom on his desk. ‘Yes, Colonel?’ Marilyn’s voice calls out. Fury tells her to inform the Council representatives that he is running late, and if they bitch, to give them a doughnut. ‘Hold back a couple of strawberry for me’ he adds. ‘Yes, Colonel’ Marilyn responds, before Fury looks up at Ms Wentworth, and addressing her as Jennifer, announces that he is all ears.
The images change again, and Jennifer reports that Extechop says the augmentations are old soviet work, and dates them at twenty years plus, but aside from that, they are a mystery. ‘We’ve nothing else on them, or at least didn’t have until this morning’ she adds, as the images change again. ‘Warborgs!’ Fury exclaims, asking Ms Wentworth where they were located. Jennifer reports that they were located in San Diego, and reports that they did a cross match with the other mutates, and basically they are the same, only the Warborgs are this year’s model, updated versions. Jennifer informs Fury that their hard drives were corrupted, but that they restored some partial files, and the Warborgs were one of three excursion death squads sent Stateside to kill two high ranking cover service officers gone AWOL.
Two more images appear on the monitors, and Ms Wentworth reports that the female matches the profile of Major Valentina Rychenko, ex-spetnaz and former pilot and astronaut, later seconded to cover services. ‘Last we heard from her, she worked with Peter Wisdom and the mutant X-Force in containing a biological hazard in Science City 51’ Jennifer informs Fury, adding that the male is unknown, and is not on any database. Looking closely at the monitor, Fury declares ‘I know his name…’.
‘Constatin Racal’ Valentina begins as she and Meltdown cling to Cannonball as he blasts through the air. Valentina reveals that Racal was a genetic quartermaster for a deep cover bio-weapons initiative in the early 1980s. She explains that it was a paranoid time, with the threat of nuclear war hanging over them all, and it was decided they needed a first strike capability actually on US soil to destroy key weapon and command facilities. Valentina continues, stating that the KGB wanted to use conventional undercover agents, but Racal gave them a more unconventional alternative.
Flashback images, narrated by Valentina in the present:
Valentina reveals that Racal selected forty men and women culled from across the Armed Forces - Russia’s warrior elite - each ready to defend the motherland whatever the cost, whatever the personal sacrifice. The men and women were deep programmed with new lives, new personalities, they wouldn’t have to pretend they were Americans…they would genuinely believe that they truly were. But, that was just set dressing, for the real show was when Racal reconfigured and reprogrammed their DNA with a secondary mutagenic template to turn them into living weapons. The use of a verbal key - a word or phrase - would activate the template trigger in their subconscious and initiate a total psychological change - they would then attack and destroy their designated target.
It was a suicide mission, there was no way to turn themselves back, their enhanced, mutated chassis could only survive a few hours to complete their mission, and while twenty-eight survived the initial implantation procedure, another four made it but became psychotic. They were smuggled into the United States to start their lives as American citizens, genetic time bombs ticking away in suburbs across the country.
Present:
‘And the rest is history’ Valentina declares, but Meltdown points out that these things have a habit of coming back to bite you on the butt.  Valentina replies that no one intended their being under deep cover for so long, as the Kremlin feared their personality programming would start to erode, triggering spontaneous mutation, and so, Warborg teams were sent to the US to “clean” the sleepers, but they found something unexpected. ‘Like what?’ Cannonball enquires. ‘Children’ Valentina replies, explaining that the sleepers were supposed to be sterile, a side effect of the genetic rewrite, but nineteen of them had children, and it was projected that they would eventually manifest powers of their own, purer and considerable more potent than their parents’, so the order was given to reacquire them.
Valentina reveals that Racal had fallen out of favor in recent years and was kept out of the loop, only when he found out, he went AWOL, came looking for the children before the Warborgs did, and so she went after him. Meltdown explains that she doesn’t understand why the Warborgs are after Valentina, as well, but before there is an answer, Cannonball tells everyone to have their eyes front, as it looks like the bunker from the Warborgs download. They land, and Cannonball states that this is where the other unit tracked Racal down to. Noting the damage, Cannonball remarks that there must have been one hell of a fight. ‘Scratch one bad guy’ Meltdown exclaims, looking at a destroyed Warborg. ‘Over here’ Cannonball calls out, as he sees another fallen Warborg. ‘Make that two. Someone plays rough’ Meltdown declares, and entering another part of the bunker, ‘Guess who?’ Meltdown mutters, as she sees the “comrade doctor” up ahead, standing in front of tanks holding the stolen children of the Russian mutates.
‘Constantin?’ Valentina calls out. Holding a large weapon, the doctor spins around, ‘Valentina? Is that you?’ he asks, before smiling and extending his arms, ‘It is! Hah! What’re you waiting for, baby? Come give your old man a hug!’ he exclaims. Valentina smiles as she and Constantin embrace. ‘Old man?’ Meltdown asks. Cannonball frowns, and mutters ‘Why do I get the feeling we’ve been had…?’


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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Rage War, part 3
‘You lied to us!’ Sam “Cannonball” Guthrie frowns as he and Tabitha “Meltdown” Smith stand in a bunker-laboratory, surrounded by strange equipment, and teenagers inside tanks of fluid behind them. With her arms around mad scientist Constantin Racal, Major Valentina Rychenko replies ‘No, I…I didn’t deceive you, Sam. I just neglected to tell you certain facts, that’s all. The truth would have complicated matters at the time’ Valentina explains. ‘Ah’m sick and tired of this spook crap! Who’s your friend and who ain’t. We trusted you and you abused that trust!’ Sam tells Valentina, while Meltdown exclaims ‘That’s rich! You called for help, we came running and look where it got us! Our friend’s dying out there cause of you!’.
‘You can still -’ Valentina begins, but Meltdown interrupts, ‘Sure. Yeah. Right. Let’s kick her ass!’, but Racal raises an arm, with a large gun attached to it, and warns ‘You will not touch my daughter. I have a gun!’, to which Meltdown asks him if he has the number of a good proctologist, because if he points that thing at her again, he will need it.
Cannonball looks sternly at Valentina and tells her that this is how it is gonna be: ‘I don’t care that you lied. I don’t care about you, your father or what the hell’s going on here. My priority is James. I ain’t gonna let another member of this team die on my watch’. ‘Sam…’ Valentina begins, but Sam tells her to shut up, that she doesn’t talk, she listens. ‘Your father comes with me and fixes James. Refuse, we’ll break you and leave you to bleed. Choice is yours, make it fast’. Valentina and Racal just frown.
Shortly, Cannonball holds onto Constantin Racal and blasts skyward, leaving Meltdown at the bunker entrance with Valentina. ‘Good call’ Meltdown tells Valentina, who replies ‘You know James could already be dead?, to which Meltdown tells Valentina that she better hope he is not, for both of their sakes, and watches Cannonball blast across the sky.
At that moment, aboard the SHIELD Helicarrier, a SHIELD agent informs Colonel Nick Fury that satellite recon has locked onto Sam Guthrie’s Cannonball effect. Fury stands on a platform, flanked by various officers, and watches Cannonball and Racal on a large monitor. A SHIELD officer reports that Cannonball is nineteen clicks east of the Bitter River locale, en route to Aaronson and Proudstar. The officer adds that Cannonball’s “passenger” has been identified as Doctor Racal. Fury turns to his staff and orders the ground assault teams and air cavalry to scramble. ‘I don’t wanna turn this into a scrap, but if it comes shove, I wanna take ‘em down hard and fast!’
‘Light me, boy!’ Fury tells one of his staff, who raises a cigarette lighter, to light the cigar hanging from Fury’s mouth. Someone sitting in front of a monitor informs Colonel Fury that X-Force’s comm-units are still live, and asks if he should jam them. ‘Not yet’ Fury replies, explaining that X-Force will figure something is up. ‘Wait till our boys are on station then cut the comm traffic on my mark’ Fury orders. ‘Call me old fashioned, but fer all the guts and gizmos we got working fer us, nothing beats the element of surprise’ Fury declares. At that moment, dozens of sky-vehicles fly off the Helicarrier.
Back inside the bunker at Bitter River, Meltdown is examining some equipment, and Valentina approaches her, telling her that she has every right to be mad. ‘Gee, thanks, but guess what? I don’t need your permission’ Meltdown retorts. Valentina smiles and asks ‘Ok, so what do we do? Fight? Isn’t that what you spandex types do? Will it make you feel any better?’ Meltdown considers it. ‘Tempting…but nah. You probably wouldn’t play fair and end up beating the snot out of me’. ‘Probably’ Valentina replies. Looking at the children inside the tanks, Meltdown asks Valentina if she has any idea what her father is doing with them. ‘No’ Valentina responds. ‘But you hope it’s something good, right?’ Meltdown asks her. ‘I mean, you don’t want to have come all this way only to find good old Dad’s pulled the wool over his little girl’s eyes’ Meltdown adds.
‘Now who’s not playing fair!’ Valentina exclaims. ‘Truth hurts, don’t it’ Meltdown mocks. Head in her hands, Valentina asks what she could do, for regardless of his past, Racal is still her father, and he was going to die unless she did something. ‘You don’t know what it was like!’ Turning away from Valentina, Meltdown replies ‘Funnily enough, I do’, before cocking her head, and asking Valentina if she heard something. Outside the bunker, dozens of SHIELD vehicles descend from the sky, and SHIELD agents begin to surround the bunker, while Fury orders his team to commence jamming their comm traffic now.
Meanwhile, in San Francisco, inside X-Force’s office HQ, ‘Sam, do you read me? Tab, Jesse, sound off, goldsmith!’ Domino exclaims as she sits at a desk, surrounded by monitors and communications equipment. Domino declares that someone is blocking transmissions on all wavelengths, that she can’t hear her teammates. ‘But if by some chance you’re getting this, don’t’ come back here…something’s going down, something big’, indeed, outside, civilians all start looking upwards, and a voice contacts Domino over the communications system: ‘Domino’ they call out. ‘Yeah? Who wants to know?’ Domino replies. The voice tells her to look out the window, and she does: ‘Aw, crap’ she mutters, as SHIELD vehicles surround the office tower where X-Force have made their headquarters. The SHIELD agent informs Domino that they have her comrades, and that she is to stand down and surrender her position. Domino stands at the window and one of the SHIELD vehicles aims a weapon at her, adding that they have sanction to use lethal force if required. ‘This is your only warning’.
Back at Bitter River, Cannonball and Racal have arrived where Jesse Aaronson a.k.a. Bedlam is keeping watch over James Proudstar. Racal kneels beside Proudstar and reports ‘That’s all I can do. The rest’s up to him’. Sam asks if James will make it, to which Racal replies that he stands a chance. ‘From what you’ve told me, his mutant genetic configuration renders him impervious to most things’. Bedlam continues to release a small EMP charge into Proudstar’s head, and states that the Warborg neurotoxin is something of a double-edged sword, as it is poisoning him, lowering his innate resistance, which is, ironically, enabling the anti-viral agent administered to take hold.
Racal tells Sam and Jesse that they have to pray the neurotoxin hasn’t compromised his system past the point of recovery. Proudstar moans, while Bedlam reports that his brainwave patterns are less erratic, that they are stabilizing. ‘So far so good’ Sam smiles, while Racal points out that Proudstar could still die. ‘If he does, so you still intend to make good your vow to kill me?’ Racal enquires. ‘Sam?’ Bedlam calls out when Sam doesn’t answer Racal, for Sam has turned his attention to where dozens of SHIELD sky-cars are dropping down around them. ‘I wouldn’t sweat it, doc…because right now, that’s the least of our worries’ Sam declares, when Nick Fury emerges from one of the vehicles. Fury assures Cannonball that he isn’t here to fight him, and points out that it looks like his friend needs a medic. ‘You and me, though, we need to talk. Big time’ Fury declares.
In the Ural Mountains, Russia, snow falls over a scientific facility, which is heavily guarded by Russian operatives. Inside, a laboratory is filled with strange equipment, and several small tanks, containing various youths. A scaly arm reaches out and rubs against one of the tanks, while unseen, utters ‘My beautiful, beautiful girls!’
Meantime, inside a SHIELD facility, Domino, Cannonball, Meltdown, Bedlam, a recovered Proudstar and Valentina sit around a meeting table. ‘So, tell me. Why exactly did we let ourselves be captured?’ someone asks. Cannonball explains that sometimes discretion is the better part of valor, and that going toe to toe with SHIELD air cavalry wasn’t going to get them any answers, just a world of hurt. Sam adds that Jimmy needed medical attention. ‘I owe you’ James smiles art Sam, who replies ‘You betcha’. Suddenly, a door opens and Fury and Racal enter the room. ‘Heads up, we’ve got company!’ Meltdown exclaims. Racal takes a seat beside his daughter, while Fury stands at the head of the table and tells X-Force that they must have million questions, but that will have to keep, as they are on the clock and don’t have much time.
Fury informs X-Force that he wants them to work on a job SHIELD can’t touch, but that as mutant loose cannons, X-Force can. Domino frowns and asks why they would want to do that, and Fury presses a remote which turns a monitor on, and tells them that it will give them the chance to catch up with Dr Niles Roman - the maggot who murdered their boss, Pete Wisdom. An image of the deformed Roman appears on the monitor, and X-Force turn and face it, scowling. ‘We’re listening’ Cannonball replies.
The monitor changes, and X-Force see themselves on it, as Fury reveals that ever since the old X-Force disbanded and reformed under Wisdom, SHIELD has been watching them. He adds that Wisdom was always a wild card, and recently, even more so. An image of Science City 51 appears on the monitor, as Fury tells X-Force that less than a year ago, they received a distress call from their buddy here, Valentina Rychenko, as Science City 51, a covert research facility was being overrun by a project that had gotten out of control - meatspore storm troopers. Fury announces that what Major Rychenko didn’t know was that her father built them using leaked specifications from Cuckoo, a nasty, corrupt corner of United States intel.
‘You knew?’ Valentina frowns at her father. ‘Valentina…’ Racal begins, while Meltdown grins and waves at Valentina: ‘Told you!’, and Racal explains that they had spent decades trying to make the Cuckoo data work before they brought him in. He claims that he warned them it was unstable, and finally managed to extrapolate portions of it, but even those, the storm troopers, proved unpredictable. As an image of Racal and his experiments appears on the monitor, Racal explains that the most success he had was in adapting some of the theory in creating the early Warborgs and later the sleeper agents. ‘It was an exciting time, we were pioneers breaking ground on a new genetic frontier’. Rubbing his head, Racal states that times change and he fell out of favor with the new regime, and was sidelined.
Racal states that he is a patriot, that he loves his country, but now it is run by gangsters and thugs playing at politics, so when he heard about the plan to kidnap the sleepers’ children, he had to act. Racal informs X-Force that as a man gets closer to death, he cherishes life all the more, and the sleepers were a lost cause, but the children were innocents, they deserved a chance. Proudstar frowns and Racal and asks if he tried to save their parents, the sleepers, but Racal replies that there was nothing he could do, as they were suffering psychological slippage, he had to activate them and let them complete their mission. ‘You did what? Why?’ Cannonball demands.
Racal explains that the sleepers had been deep-programmed, if he had given them orders contrary to their programming, they would have gone on to destroy their secondary targets - the nearest city to their locale. ‘Better a few hundred soldiers die than millions of civilians’ Racal remarks. Meltdown grits her teeth and asks Racal why he didn’t kill them. ‘What’s a handful of psychos against a few hundred soldiers?’ she enquires. Fury announces that what’s done is done, and that Racal has pledged to give his full cooperation, before explaining that he thinks it is Roman who is behind the abduction of the sleepers’ children. Fury motions to a screen showing a satellite recon taken of a covert military installation in the Ural Mountains, where there has been a lot of activity - men and technical equipment going in by the truckload, and two days ago, Roman arrived.
Fury reveals that SHIELD backtracked the intel on Cuckoo right back to the Sixties, and it seems Roman was playing both sides, and leaked the Cuckoo data to the Soviets as some kind of contingency plan. Fury states the Roman has switched sides for good, and is looking to play a whole new game. Cannonball points out that Roman activated a mutagenic device under San Francisco just to see what the numbers on a mutant / human ground war would look like. ‘What’s he gonna do for an encore?’ Sam asks. Fury replies that whatever it is, it won’t be good, which is why he wants X-Force to go in and stamp on it, hard. He explains that as SHIELD, they can’t be seen to act against what on paper at least is a friendly nation. But X-Force can, so he wants them to take out the facility and Roman. ‘How is your choice’ Fury adds.
Domino points out that Roman deserves what is coming, but asks about the kids. ‘I won’t hurt them. None of us will go that far’ she adds. Racal explains that if Roman is doing what he suspects, then that won’t be the problem, for all the abductees he has are girls. ‘So?’ Meltdown asks. Racal explains that human females are born with a lifetime’s supply of viable eggs, potential children, hundreds of them, and all of those potential children are female, it is only later, after fertilization, that hormones dictate their final gender. He points out that it stands to reason that the sleeper’s daughter’s eggs each possessed the enhanced genome of the original. So, using accelerated growth tanks and the sleepers conditioning process, Roman could exponentially grow and harvest eggs from each generation of female fetuses. Racal points out that in a matter of days, he could have an army of tens of thousands of immensely powerful beings ready to blindly follow his orders, and it may already be too late to stop him.
And, in the facility in the Ural Mountains, that is exactly what is taking place, as scientists go about their work, and Ford pushes the crazed Dr Niles Roman around in a wheelchair, as he examines the fetuses growing inside tanks that line the wall of a very, very large cavern. ‘Lovely…lovely little soldiers’ the mad doctor croons….


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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Rage War, part 4
Once upon a time, a noble mad had a fine dream that the different and disenfranchised - mutants, like himself, could coexist in peace and tolerance with the rest of humanity. He drew to him others who would share that dream, and they kept dreaming it, too. While humans burned mutant homes, destroyed mutant businesses and denied them the right to education, free speech, liberty and equality of life. Maybe that’s why they wear the “X” - nothing to do with the genes or chromosomes, instead it reminds them of what humanity wants to do to them - examine, exclude, exterminate. ‘Once upon a time, we shared a noble man’s fine dream…and then we woke up’ Tabitha “Meltdown” Smith thinks to herself as she and her teammates - Sam “Cannonball” Guthrie, James Proudstar, Domino, Jesse “Bedlam” Aaronson - known as X-Force, as well as their associate Major Valentina Rychenko - ‘A kinda Russian James Bond’ Tabitha thinks to herself - as they fly though the airspace wearing jetpacks, save for Cannonball and Proudstar who can fly.
‘We don’t play nice, we don’t play fair. You hurt mutants, we hurt you, Simple. We’re about to pound a guy so hard he’ll wake up in a previous life’ Tabitha tells herself. Wondering if it sounds harsh, well, the guy they are about to pound did murder their boss and is threatening to set loose an army of monstrous clones derived from genetically enhanced, deep cover, Soviet super soldiers. ‘When did things get so complicated?’ Tabitha wonders, before Bedlam report that they are in sensor range, and are being scanned. Down below, Russian soldiers guard a bunker and look upwards, ‘’They’ve made us! Incoming!’ someone exclaims as missiles are launched skyward.
Cannonball tells Bedlam that he wants EMP, an bio-EMP bursts with broad dispersal, to take out the troops and their toys. ‘Understood’ Bedlam replies, telling everyone to stay behind him, unless they want to drop like a comatose stone, as he unleashes his powers below, causing chaos as the missiles fall backwards, amongst various bunkers, vehicles and crates, and knocking some soldiers skyward. Cannonball reports that the only things left standing now are EMP-shielded Warborgs - dead men dripped in science. ‘Jimmy, you know what to do’ Sam tells his friend. ‘PAY BACK!’ Proudstar replies, armed with two powerful weapons, he moves towards the ground, firing the weapons, which gets the attention of the Warborgs, who all look upwards, only to be ripped to shreds by the bullets that blast through them.
As he sets down on the ground, Proudstar is contacted by Meltdown, who tells him that was some serious overkill, and asks him what is in those weapons. ‘Pretty cool, huh?’ Proudstar replies, explaining that they are adamantium-tipped, explosive flechette rounds rigged to a mini gun belt feed, and that it fires one thousand rounds a second. He continues to fire the bullets, taking out more of the Warborgs. Proudstar reveals that he and Domino stripped them from a SHIELD air cavalry car before they left.
Cannonball, Meltdown, Bedlam, Domino and the Major land, and Proudstar points out that the last time they went toe-to-toe with the Warborg freaks, they almost killed him. ‘This way, they don’t even get within spitting distance’. Meltdown smiles and asks what their “Uncle Nick” said, considering SHIELD is not supposed to be involved here. ‘Not much. He doesn’t know we’ve got them’ Domino replies, while Cannonball suggests they carry on with their mission, and go and pay the doctor a house call.
However, inside the bunker deep within the Ural Mountains, the deformed Dr Niles Roman and his associate, Ford, are watching X-Force on monitors. ‘Fascinating! Look, Ford. Our guests are none other than those mutant mongrels who proved so bothersome in San Francisco!’, and with tanks lining the walls of the laboratory all empty, Roman declares that their timing couldn’t have been more opportune.
At the entrance to the bunker, the large door is pounded against, and eventually, falls to the side, thanks to Proudstar’s incredible strength. ‘We’re in!’ James tells everyone. ‘Uh-oh’ Meltdown mutters as she sees what is waiting for them up ahead. ‘We’re too late…big time!’ Cannonball exclaims as hundreds of hideous monstrous mutates are waiting for them.
‘This will be amusing’ Niles Roman tells himself , smirking in delight as he continues to watch on monitors.
Cannonball tells Bedlam to shut them all down, but Bedlam replies that he can’t, while Proudstar tries to put the door back in place, and Domino and the Major shoot weapons at the mutates who try to get through. ‘What?’ Cannonball asks Bedlam, who explains that some of them have EMP dampening abilities, and are shielding the rest. ‘I can only handle a couple at a time’ he adds. Proudstar tells his teammates that if they are going to do something, to do it fast. ‘I mean it!’ he exclaims. ‘Plan B?’ Domino asks Cannonball. ‘You can do it?’ he enquires. ‘Do we have a choice?’ Domino points out, when suddenly, a large brute forces the door down. ‘Let’s move!’ Cannonball orders, as he blasts into the chamber, while Meltdown and Bedlam release their powers, keeping back as many of the mutates as they can. Cannonball tells the Major that after they punch a breach in their lines, she and Domino will go through, and everyone else will close up behind and watch their backs. ‘Copy that’ the Major replies.
‘Ingenious. Their scheme could actually pose a threat to us’ Roman tells Ford, deciding that this may call from some radical thinking.
Cannonball blasts through the chamber, literally tearing mutates apart with his blasting. Meltdown releases beams of plasma, striking into the mutates, frying them, while Bedlam extends an electro-blast backwards, keeping the mutates at bay, and Proudstar uses his strength to hurl pieces of equipment at the larger mutates. Reaching a door, Domino announces that they are through. ‘This is it!’ she tells the Major, who follows her into the room. Domino asks Valentina what they are looking for, and motioning to large vat containing a glowing energy, ‘That!’ Valentina exclaims. ‘Oh!’ Domino gasps, while Valentina explains that to fuel a covert science operation this size, you need a massive, untraceable power source, such as a cold fusion reactor. As she begins firing her weapon at a console, Valentina tells Domino that if they rig it to blow right, they can take out Roman, his creatures and the complex. Valentina begins fiddling with the wires, while Domino tells her to get to it, and she will cover her.
‘Hmmm, enterprising. I think we are for once in genuine jeopardy’ Niles Roman states as he watches Valentina at work. He instructs Ford to bring him his drugs, and preparing two large vials of a pink fluid, Niles brings them, in an injector, to Niles Roman. ‘Ready?’ he asks. ‘Go ahead’ Niles replies, and Ford injects the fluid into the back of Niles Roman’s neck.
The battle in the large chamber continues to rage, ‘There are too many! We can’t hold them back much longer!’ Proudstar exclaims, but Cannonball blasts about, declaring that they  can and they will, when suddenly, ‘STOP THIS!’ a voice booms, and the mutates halt their attack. ‘Stop this immediately!’ Dr Niles Roman declares, as Ford pushes him in his wheelchair, passing the mutates, and reaching X-Force. ‘Dr Roman, I presume?’ Meltdown enquires. ‘Stop this, I implore you. For the sake of every living soul on this planet!’ Dr Roman exclaims. Frowning, Meltdown asks him what he is talking about. ‘You’re the bad guy’ she reminds him. ‘My dear, you have either been well and truly deceived or are considerably more moronic than you look!’ Roman replies, claiming that he is trying to prevent the subjugation of the entire human race.
‘Okay, now this is getting seriously strange’ Bedlam mutters. ‘Sam?’ Domino calls out as she looks in from the other room. Cannonball glances back at her and tells her to keep working, as this isn’t over yet. Sam turns back to Roman, and instructs him to say his peace. ‘Who sent you? The Department? SHIELD? Carnival? They are pawns in a game the design and dimensions of which they can’t comprehend. They are mere puppets, just like you’ Roman replies, while asking ‘What did they say I was? A maniac? A scientific zealot?’, causing Meltdown to step forward, and shaking her fist exclaims ‘You killed our boss, you freak!’, but Proudstar holds her back, and tells Roman that they know what he is. ‘You fronted a corrupt intel bureau in San Francisco, detonated a mutagenic bio-weapon beneath the city, turned thousands into deranged mutants, just for the sake of some war game experiment!’
Roman sniggers and replies that he had no choice. ‘Hundreds died!’ Cannonball points out. ‘To save millions’ Roman declares, while telling X-Force that, from their actions, he took them for the enemy. ‘They were establishing a bridgehead in the city, I had to stop them. Activating the bio-engine was my only option…and it was glorious!’ he declares. ‘That really isn’t helping’ Proudstar remarks, arms folded across his chest, he declares ‘Our late boss, Pete Wisdom, said you and Cuckoo were as corrupt as they came!’ but Roman replies that Wisdom just told them what he wanted them to know, as the players in this game are potent, sly and invisible. ‘When my field agency glimpsed a fraction of their true purpose, they killed us all…almost all’, before exclaiming ‘Ask yourself, what is a cuckoo?’, to which Meltdown stares down at him and replies ‘I’m looking at one’.
Cannonball crosses his arms and replies ‘It’s a bird, lays its eggs in others’ nests. The hitchhiker then kicks out the other young and takes over’. Roman tells the young mutants to apply that reasoning on a cosmic scale. Sam replies that he doesn’t understand, before exclaiming ‘Oh, hell - aliens! You’re talking about an alien invasion, aren’t you?’. Roman frowns and explains that this is only one alien, and it is already here. ‘One is enough’ he adds, before revealing that millions of years ago, when the infant Earth was nothing but a boiling mass of toxic gas and molten rock, and extraterrestrial creature, part ship, part being, entered this solar system.
Roman informs X-Force that the alien collided with Earth, shearing off a vast body that would eventually become the moon. He adds that it is fair to assume that the device itself was destroyed, vaporized by the impact, and barely a few molecules remained - but that was all it needed. Each aspect of the whole was alive, and it slowly began to repair itself, taking millennia, of course, evolving from one form to another. The discarded forms were then found by archeologists in the fossil record. Roman explains that in the last century it had begun to manifest itself more aggressively, whether by influence or infection, it tried to progress to some kind of the next phase of development.
Cannonball remarks that it sounds like the regenerative device which was grafted onto Domino not so long ago. But Meltdown frowns, ‘You’re not buying this are you? What about the bio-engine? Explain that!’ she exclaims. Roman announces that when he joined Cuckoo in the Fifties, during the Cold War, his remit was to build a mutagenic engine as a means of extrapolating data on a potential mutant / human ground war between Russia and America. He admits that he became engrossed in his work, and that it blinded him to the true aim of the program, a fact he stumbled upon quite accidentally. Roman reveals that the engine was a machine not for creating mutants but for manufacturing enhanced components - human components. He explains that, via its agents, the device intends to convert the Earth into a new vessel, with humanity as organic parts in a living ship. ‘Ironically, it was the Russians who picked up on this first, thinking me part of the conspiracy, they tried to kill me…twice!’ Roman adds.
Roman continues, stating that he used certain of Cuckoo’s resources to heal himself, hence his inhuman condition. ‘Thanks to those Russian bullets, I’m also missing half of my brain, but I get by’. He adds that he hasn’t slept since 1971 and exists mostly on baby food and prescribed narcotics injected into his brain stem. Roman explains that the Russians have mostly managed to hold out against the device’s infiltration, as he convinced them of his loyalty and endeavoured to use the bounty of Dr Racal’s sleeper program, to create an army of resistance. Cannonball asks him if he can prove all of this, to which Roman replies ‘Of course not! I told you the people involved are experts at what they do!’
Roman exclaims ‘If you want to take over the world, you don’t manipulate those in power but the ones who put them there…the intelligence communities. The Americans, the Germans…the British’.
At another location, X-Force and Roman are being watched on cameras. ‘That’s enough from the good doctor, I think’ a woman calls out. She puts a hand on the shoulder of a man she calls Michael, and instructs him to deactivate the LMD’s infiltration protocol. ‘Activate the vibranium initiative’ she adds. ‘Yes, madam’ Michael replies, before announcing that the vibranium initiative is enabled. ‘She’s live’ he adds.
Back inside the bunker, ‘New instructions received and understood’ a voice calls out. ‘Major?’ Cannonball asks as everyone turns to Valentina, who suddenly sheds her clothing, revealing a mechanical form underneath. ‘Infiltration protocol deactivated’ the LMD states, before her torso falls from the rest of the body, revealing a small glowing cylinder. ‘She’s a flipping bomb!’ Cannonball exclaims. ‘Vibranium unit primed. Initializing…’ the LMD states. ‘SAM!’ Meltdown screams as the bomb explodes, and engulfs X-Force, Roman and the mutates in a blinding display….