Excalibur

EVERYBODY NEEDS A HERO

Part II: Past and Present

By Mark Lake

The beautiful English countryside, in which a large cottage sits quietly, with not a noise to be heard. No noise, except for the whimpering and groans of a bruised and broken man.

Life could be better. If Brian Braddock could even get past his headache he’d probably think that.

Unfortunately all he could do was act on instinct. He desperately crawled through the cottage, using the boards to drag his body along. He tried to ignore the pain that was caused from his ribs pushing into his lungs. If one was a romantic, one would say Brian was simply dragged along by the concern and love for his wife, for she was nowhere to be seen. No, Brian was acting purely and utterly on some internal survival instinct that knew what his only chance of survival was.

A sigh of relief was let out from Brian’s lungs as he finally reached his destination, the stairs to the basement. Of course he still had to get down them. He struggled to position himself in an upright position, knowing that doing this was only going to make things worse. Unfortunately Brian Braddock didn’t have a choice, he had to get down these stairs to activate the com link. With one last effort, he lunged forward, flying down the stairs and into the computer at the very bottom, his face smashed across the screen as his body flew into the keyboard. At that, the modem started to dial.

In moments of tension, the Excalibur Ready Room had always been filled to bursting point. Excalibur had often been home to ten or more people. In the present time there, was no Excalibur and only three people remained resident in the Muir Island Research station. It was a lonely place.

However all three people now occupied the room, and did indeed appear tense, as if memories had forced them to come here believing somehow tension would be relieved. Moira MacTaggert, Rahne Sinclair, and Douglock sat quietly looking at each other. All three did not know what to do. For the first time in a long time they had encountered a problem where they did not know who was going to help.

As if to make it worse one of the most distasteful men who had ever been resident on Muir Island was due in a matter of minutes.

“Is there anyone else who may help?” queried Douglock.

“Who Dougie? There is nae a soul,” Moira replied, staring blankly at her coffee.

“You should call Kurt!” barked Rahne, in an almost authoritative manner that startled the other two.

“Kurt is busy Rahne, ye know that he’s an X-Man again.”

“So it’ll just be the three of us and Wisdom will it, will the four of us save the world, what about Brian an’ Meggan?” Rahne threw her coffee to the floor as she ranted.

It would be an understatement to say that no one had ever seen Rahne like this before, but she had been when she had confronted Reverend Craig, and now she was again. It was just possible that Rahne Sinclair was finally starting to vent her considerable passion and anger to the world.

Moira stood and confronted Wolfsbane face to face.

“Look girlee, we have to respect both Kurt’s and Brian’s decisions.”

“Even when they are needed?” queried Douglock innocently.

“Even then,” Moira said solemnly, “Brian has no wish to be involved in these types of shenanigans ever again, and quite frankly, I cannae blame him.”

Rahne turned her back to her mentor as the tears began to fall from her face.

Just then the monitor in front of her blinked into life. There, squashed against the screen, was Brian’s face. Looking horribly beaten, he began to slip down, the only thing that remained on screen was his blood.

“Moira?” whimpered Rahne.

“Get the Flit,” responded Moira.

As Peter Wisdom began his approach to the front door of Muir Island Research station he paused. It had taken him no time at all to get here, a chartered flight with his connections with W.H.O., it was all a bit too easy.

But was that the reason he paused? Actually, no. It was because he hated making a habit of re-entering his past, and it was habits he was doing all too often of late. First there was his joining Excalibur only to go up against Black Air, then the leaving Excalibur only to hook up with Kitty again, and now he was outside the Muir Island facility, facing both Black Air and his old teammates. Life was not good.

He took a deep breath as he rang the door bell. The fact that his ringing coincided with the noise of the Midnight Flit coming over the Facility was perhaps one of the greater ironies of Wisdoms life.

“Typical! I come all this way, and yer so keen to see me that you go and bugger off!”

He pressed the button again, hoping that one of them was still there.

Five minutes later…

Wisdom was now annoyed. For the past five minutes he had been pressing the button, but no-one had answered. He had had quite enough of the slack attitude that was now being displayed at the Muir Island facility.

“Step away from the door please,” a voice said from behind Pete.

Wisdom spun around to see a young police officer, holding out his truncheon and waving it nervously in Pete’s general direction.

“Ah come on mate, I’m here to see Moira MacTaggert, she knows I’m coming…”

All of a sudden a tall dark man stepped inbetween the officer and Pete.

“Hello, I’m Agent Strickland what are you doing here Mister…?”

Wisdom decided that his real name was not exactly what was needed right now, and so he replied, “Kobi… Greg Kobi…”

“Ah, well why are you looking for Moira MacTaggert, Mister Kobi?”

“It’s her bloody research centre Mister Strickland,” Wisdom said, already knowing he was going to regret whatever Strickland said next.

“Well, as of nine o’clock this morning, Muir Island Research Centre is in the possession of the British Government,” said Strickland with a broad grin on his face.

“Government?”

“Yes, Missis MacTaggert has been involved in some pretty… shall we say risky business deals, and as such all her property has been removed from her ownership.”

“There’s no bloody law that says you can do that, you bastard!” screamed Wisdom, incredulously.

“It’s not everyday that you find out that someone has been using their research station, and their government funding may I add, to conduct illegal experiments.”

“Bloody hell, yer a maniac! I’m outta here…”

With that Wisdom pushed past the still very nervous police man, past Strickland and into the path of the several vans and cars, some of them police cars, that were making their way to the front of the grounds.

“This is bloody ridiculous,” cursed Wisdom as he sparked up a cigarette.

“I realise that Mister Kobi, now as an associate of Missis MacTaggert’s, I hope you wouldn’t mind waiting around to answer a few questions.”

“Of course not,” cursed Wisdom taking a long drag.

Strickland proceeded to walk away from Wisdom and pulled his radio from inside of his coat.

“Base this is Strickland.”

“Base here, go ahead…”

“We have Wisdom, repeat, we have Wisdom…”

No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t seem to stabilise Brian.

Moira worked passionately over the broken body of Brian Braddock as the very machine of his creation started on its’ return journey to Muir Island.

“Come on ye stubborn man, get some rhythm inta ye!”

Douglock looked on concerned as Moira grabbed and pulled at the various equipment that was keeping the former Captain Britain alive.

“Are ye having any luck,” came the voice of Rahne from the cockpit.

“No I’m not, girl…”

“Moira?”

“What is it Dougie?!” snapped Moira.

“Where is Meggan?”

“I dinnae know.”

“What are we going to do?” whimpered Douglock.

In his short existence he had never seen a team mate in such pain, though he had experienced it. He also had never really known true concern for one.

“Firstly boyo, yae gonna shut up, then Rahne is going to put this damn piece of machinery on auto-pilot and help me.”

“Is there nothing else I can do?” asked Douglock.

“Yes, yes ye can boyo,” panted Moira. “You can get hold of Kurt, we need him, get hold of anyone yae can.”

A tear trickled down Moira’s left cheek as she came to the realisation that they needed something very special if things were going to get any better.

Kurt sat dumb founded in front of the tel-screen as he listened to the little robotic boy innocently describe what had just transpired. In the background of the picture he saw Moira and Rahne at work over Brian’s badly beaten body.

“Ach, mein gott…” Kurt finally said.

“Will you help us?” asked Douglock innocently, the experience clearly pulling his fledgeling emotions apart.

“Ja,” whispered Kurt, not really knowing how he was to do this though.

“How?” came the obvious question back.

“I’m on my way mein freund. Hold tight Dougie, hold tight.”

“I will.”

Kurt hit the tel-screen off and somersaulted from his chair backwards. During that somersault, a million things ran through his head.

Did he go alone? Or did he take the other two ex-Excalibur members with him? More to the point, could he? Could Peter really be thrust into a position where Meggan’s life could be at stake? He surely doubted that, and he’d need clear thoughts from his team.

His team? There was no team, not anymore. Kurt had seen to that.

And what of Kitty? How could he expect her to go headlong into another adventure with Wisdom? How was she ever meant to get on with her life, if all that ever happened was that she was thrust into scenario after scenario with Wisdom? Especially after she had only just experienced such a scenario?

The answer was quite simple – the emotional wreck that was Excalibur was not going to be reformed.

Kurt Wagner was going on his own, there was no other option for it. He was going for dear friends, certainly not for the idea of being a leader or a hero again.

Kurt stopped in his tracks, realising that his duties as an X-Man could not be suddenly stopped, he was no longer the decision maker, if he was going to go he had to tell someone first. He went back to the tel-set and pressed the record button.

“Hello, trouble in England. Gone to Muir Island. Back soon, auf wiedersehn.”

He teleported to the bottom of the stairs of the mansion, and then charged toward the exit. There was no way he could borrow the Blackbird, or indeed any of the X-Men’s private craft, for this was his own business and business he did not wish to involve any of the X-Men in. As Kurt reached the front door, he did not expect it to open as it flung open, knicking him back and landing him on his backside.

“Kurt?” said a very blurry tall man with very blurry blonde hair.

“Ja?” inquired a dazed Nightcrawler.

“Kurt, I’m sorry I didn’t expect someone to run at the door as I came in!” the blurry figure said as he offered an extended hand. Kurt also noticed the slender figure of someone else behind the man, her face also draped in concern.

“Erh?” grumbled Kurt, as he blinked hard trying to focus his eyes.

“Where were you off to in such a rush?” said the blonde man.

“Scotland.”

“Scotland? But the meeting is today!”

Kurt sluggishly stood up and replied, “Brian, have to go see Brian…” He shook his head as the blonde form started to take the more familiar form of the Angel, Warren Worthington III.

Just then the slender blur leaped toward Kurt and held him by both arms, her face showing concern. This close Kurt could tell that the blur was Psylocke, Betsy Braddock, Brian’s sister. He had almost forgotten her.

“Oh Betsy,” Kurt said suddenly snapping to his senses, “Brian’s been hurt…”

“How badly?” she asked, her face full of concern.

Were you ever asked questions like that? How bad? Did you ever tell the truth?

“He is bad, but he will live,” lied Kurt, smiling reassuringly, “I was just going to sort out the whole horr… business to make sure that we know who and why.”

“Do you know why?” asked Warren, clearly concerned for his lovers’ brother.

“Moira suspects Black Air.”

“Oh God, are you sure he’s going to be alright?”

“Of course, of course, you have my word,” said Kurt, cringing inside.

“Should I come with you?” asked Betsy, looking deep into Kurt’s eyes.

Nightcrawler’s eyes flashed between Angel’s and Psylocke’s. It was clear that Betsy wanted to go, and Warren did not. However neither did Kurt want her to go, for when she saw what state Brian really was in, his head was going to be on a block.

“Nein, nein. I would not worry my little head, everything will be fine. Now, I must be going.”

“I’ll get you a flight,” said Warren raising a finger, “I’ll give you my private jet, but do me a favour… wear an image inducer!”

“Ja, good idea.”

“Also tell everyone of your actions,” added Warren, his responsibilities as a founder member of the X-Men showing through.

“In the meeting?” asked Kurt.

“Yes, in the meeting,” said Warren almost in an authoritative manner.

“Okay,” said Kurt grudgingly, realising who he had to explain it to, “But one thing Warren, Betsy – I am to keep my reasons for departure a secret. Peter and Kitty would be a little too eager to come along, and as their former leader I believe the best place for them is here.”

“Agreed,” replied Angel.

Kurt sighed realising that Peter and Kitty’s first lines as he explained it to them…

“Are you sure you don’t want us to go with you?” asked Colossus.

“Look, mein freund, Excalibur is no more. You two become happy X-Men, and I shall be back in a month or two.”

“Well, if you’re sure Kurt,” said Kitty hugging him, making the lying all the more difficult.

“Yes Kitty, everything will be fine.” Kurt replied, hugging her back.

“Okay then, shall we see why we were called together?” asked Peter.

“Good idea Peter, let’s see what’s really going on…”

The three friends entered the room full of X-Men, little knowing that things would be vastly different when they came out of that meeting, and that Kurt’s leaving would be the least of their problems.

“Where am I?”

Those were the first thoughts that entered Meggan’s head, which was of no real surprise since she was in most definitely different surroundings to her home. All she could pick up was the slow dripping of water and the scurrying of feet near her.

“Are you okay?” came a little voice in the corner.

“Who’s that?” Meggan asked sluggishly.

“They call me Tangerine,” said a young girl with bright orange hair that shimmered even in the darkness of the room, “Are you okay Miss?”

“Okay?”

“Yes, I was a bit afraid when they first dropped you off – you looked in a bad way, but its nice to see you’re looking a little better.”

Meggan focused on the young girls’ face. It was only when she looked at the face that it dawned on her, just how young was Tangerine?

“I’m twelve,” replied Tangerine, to the unasked question.

“What?”

“I’m twelve, Meggan. I could see you were wondering how old I was.”

Meggan moved her painful muscles into a crouching position and held out her hand, “How…?”

“How come I have powers and I’m only twelve?”

“Please, Tangerine, I’d just like…”

“Like a conversation? You find me saying what your thinking a little off putting?”

“Yes, if that’s alright.”

Tangerine grabbed hold of Meggans hand and walked toward her, crouching by her.

“They’re scared of you, Meggan.”

“Why?”

Tangerine moved her left hand and touched the large collar around Meggans neck, with all the pain Meggan was feeling it was no surprise that she had not thought about that.

“What does it do?”

“It’ll mean you can’t do anything but be normal.”

“Oh, but how? I’m not a mutant, no one knows…”

“They always know, they know everything Meggan.”

“You poor, poor girl, what have they done to you?”

Tangerine lifted up the dingy grey jumper she was wearing to reveal a large electronic display on her arm, “It helps me do my thing.”

“Reading peoples’ minds?”

“Yes, and yes it does hurt.”

Meggan pulled Tangerine tight hugging her and praying that…

“I’m sure Brian will be okay, he seems to be a mighty strong guy.”

“Thank you Tangerine,” said Meggan, as tears came to her eyes.

Kurt didn’t have the faintest clue as to what was going on.

Today was quickly becoming a day of the most bizarre nature. First, he had been shepherded down to the Muir Island runway by three helicopters and now he found once he had landed that he was surrounded by police and men in black suits. Suspecting that he was landing in a pit full of Black Air operatives who already knew who he was, he decided to switch off the image inducer. There was no point in hiding the truth when they would probably find out in seconds anyway.

“It’s like waking up in a land full of Pete Wisdoms,” he muttered to himself as he exited Warren Worthington’s jet.

“Sir, if you’d like to come this way please,” said one of the many ‘Pete Wisdom’ clones.

Kurt followed the man round to the front of the Research station, and as he got nearer he heard a very familiar voice.

“Arrest me boyo? You’re joking me aren’t yae, because yae ain’t gonna do it!”

Moira, a very annoyed Moira that was for sure.

As he turned the corner he could certainly see why. Moira was surrounded by five of these black suits and arguing heavily with the leader of those five. The Flit had been set down at the entrance for some reason and Rahne and Dougie were fending off the physical abuse of the police as they tried to drag them away from it. Occasionally, Kurt caught a glimpse of a large black creature with shiny skin in the shadows.

“Hello Kurt, how’ve ya been?” came an all too familiar voice, that was coupled with an all too familiar smell of tobacco breath.

“Peter, nice to see you could make it,” replied Kurt.

Wisdom now walked alongside the two men ushering Kurt along. “Yes, so bloody glad I could make it. You lot attract this kind of bloody trouble.”

“I could say the same for you.”

“True… so Kurt, where’s the cavalry?”

“I’m it…”

“You thinking that was a bad idea right now? We could’ve really done with the tin man.”

“And Kitty?” asked Kurt, in an almost hurtful manner.

“I’ve recovered from that relationship, how’s Amanda?”

“Are you here to help Wisdom, or have you now reverted to being a cynical old man again?”

Pete stopped dead in his tracks as Kurt walked on toward Moira. The elf may well have got a point. He was definatley not at his most positive. He also had to remember that he and the elf had had something that almost neared a friendship during his time, and now they were taking low shots at each other again, just like when they had first met.

“Can I help you sir,” asked Kurt as he got nearer to the five men and Moira.

“Ah, you would be Kurt Wagner wouldn’t you? I’m Agent Strickland,” said the leader holding his hand out in offer of a handshake. Kurt took it willingly.

“Agent? Of what?”

“I’m Special Services, here on government business.”

“Special Services?”

“Yes, a division of WHO.”

“Really? I had not heard of that one.”

“We operate away from the main body of WHO.”

“Oh…”

“Kurt! I’m glad you could come!” interrupted Moira as she gave a distasteful sideways glance to Strickland.

“How’s Brian?” Nightcrawler inquired of Moira.

“Well, unfortunately Kurt, this man dinnae want me to enter the base so I cannae give him the medical attention he badly needs!”

“As I’ve explained to Missis MacTaggert, Mister Wagner, the Muir Island research facility has been confiscated by the government, and therefore only government personnel may enter.”

“And why is this?”

“We have enough to suspect that Missis MacTaggert has been using Muir Island for criminal activities, thus she has now been placed into custody and Muir Island into our hands.”

“What of Brian Braddock?” said Kurt his eyes wide as the very event dawned on him.

“We have offered to fly him to hospital, but Missis MacTaggert has denied us access to her craft, which could get him there more speedily than our vehicles could. If he dies, it will be her fault.”

Kurt reassuringly placed a hand on Moira’s shoulder,

“Let me have a word with Agent Strickland, Moira, I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Okay Kurt…” replied an obviously shaken Moira.

Kurt gently took Strickland by the arm and led him away, smiling in a positive manner.

“Well, obviously as you can see Moira is in a bit of shock right now.”

“I see that Mister Wagner.”

“Please, call me Kurt. I’ll tell you what, mein freund, I’ll go and have a word with her?”

“If you’re sure Mister… Kurt,” said Strickland.

“I’m sure if I can calm her down we can reach an amicable agreement.”

“Yes, I’m sure,” replied Strickland.

With that Kurt turned and left the brief conversation to head toward Moira, as he did Strickland pulled out his radio.

“Base, Strickland reporting in. We have Nightcrawler, permission to close the net?”

“What about the other two?” responded the radio.

“Colossus and Shadowcat are not present, but surely this is just too damn good to miss.”

“So be it. Close the net, Agent Strickland.”

With that, the radio clicked off. Strickland switched it to another frequency, “Strickland to all ops, five minutes to net closure.”

Sloppiness often leads to mistakes, such as not remembering that one of the people on the grounds had improved hearing. This probably would have meant that Strickland would never have used the radio. As soon as one of the ops near Rahne Sinclair took that message she bounded away from the Flit she was guarding and toward Kurt and Moira, now involved in a heated debate.

“Rahne,” cried Douglock after her, “I can’t guard the Flit on my own…”

“Moira, we need to look at the situation before acting!” said Nightcrawler.

“And ye needed to bring help Kurt!”

“I AM the help Moira, we are not here to start a war! We need to assess the situation, and THEN act.”

“Fine! Let’s just turn over Brian to the people who may well have killed him!”

“He’s not dead yet, Moira.”

“He will be…”

“Then turn him over, we need to get him into a hospital!”

“We need to get him into the Med Lab.”

“How are we going…” Kurt was cut off as Rahne bounded over.

“We have to get out of here now,” interrupted Rahne, slightly out of breath.

“Vas?”

“An order over the radio from Strickland, he wants to ‘close the net’.”

“Well that sounds good doesn’t it boyo,” said Moira, looking at Kurt angrily.

“Okay Moira, okay… it’s time to take action then,” said Kurt his face looking down as he tried frantically to formulate a plan.

“Cover for me Moira,” said Kurt and with that he teleported with the smell of brimstone the only thing remaining.

“Well that wasnae very nice,” said Rahne.

“Get back to the Flit Rahne, Kurt is doing his job.”

“Aye Moira, but just remember, Kurt isn’t in charge here anymore, because there is no Excalibur.”

And with that she ran back to her guarding post.

“Oh my dear, if he had known you would be like this I’m sure he never would have returned.” she muttered.

Moira looked toward the front door of her home, the place she had lived in for years. It came as a complete surprise to her when the security door closed over the more subtler wooden doors, as it did all around as Muir’s secure facilities locked down, closing the whole complex off to those both inside and out.

“Oh my God!” screamed Moira as she saw it happening, not knowing how it had occurred.

“Did you do this MacTaggert!” screamed Strickland grabbing her by the arm as he ran over to her.

“Unhand me yae brute,” responded Moira, pulling her arm away.

“Where’s Wagner?” demanded Strickland.

“I dinnae know,” said Moira, smiling as she realised what Kurt had done.

“CLOSE THE NET!!!!!” screamed Strickland down his radio, and with that operatives started to enact his orders, spreading out across the grounds, some herding the large black-skinned creatures before them.

“Well Brian, it’s just the two of us!” smiled Kurt as he looked down on Brian laying on the Med Lab’s bed.

Nightcrawler’s fingers quickly activated the auto-doc that would hopefully ensure that Brian would make it through at least the rest of the day.

“Ach, I fear you are not going to be much conversation, are you mein freund,” sighed Kurt, as the security lockdown rang around the complex.

Kurt moved toward the coffee maker as the auto-doc went on with its noisy business.

“Well, at least I don’t have to put up with Moira’s bad coffee.” he grinned.

Why was it Kurt thought that when he played the leader he always seemed so serious, and yet with his recent times with the X-Men, and now when it was just him and an unconscious Brian he could smile and joke? Maybe that was why he did not want to reform Excalibur, at all costs, because he preferred to be more relaxed. And leadership did not allow for relaxation.

Moira, Rahne, and Douglock had finally realised exactly what Strickland had meant by ‘close the net’. Although the Flit and Muir Island were still secure, the three had now been put in the back of a police van while people ran around and screamed commands. One voice above all could be heard, and that was Stricklands.

“WHERE IS WISDOM?”

“WHERE IS THE INFILTRATION TEAM?”

“HOW MANY MEN DO WE HAVE INSIDE THE COMPLEX?”

All questions that seemingly went unanswered. Moira put a reassuring arm around Rahne, “See Rahne, Kurt did come good.”

“But all we do is sit here?”

“Aye, I think I know what Kurt’s doing, and if we want to safeguard Brian we have to play it by Kurt’s rules one more time.”

“One more time,” replied Rahne.

Outside they could suddenly hear more commotion.

“I need the robot boy,” said one voice.

“Strickland said that no one was allowed to take any of the crew,” came the voice of an officer guarding the van.

“Strickland needs the robot boy to get inside, so get him out.”

The doors opened and the two guards came into the van, “You,” one guard said, pointing at Douglock, “this way.”

Douglock looked at Moira for support.

“Go,” replied Moira, “and remember, dinnae do anything stupid. We’re playing it by the rules.”

“Yes Moira,” replied Douglock sullenly.

With that, he got up and left with the two guards, who quickly locked the van behind them.

“Go with the agent,” ordered one of the officers.

With that Dougie looked at the agent in the black suit. “Mister Wi..”

“THIS WAY!” shouted the agent, “AND DO NOT SAY A WORD!”

With that, Pete Wisdom led Douglock on his way.

After they were far enough away from the guards, Douglock asked “How did you disguise yourself, Mister Wisdom?”

“Come on boy, I’m a man in a black suit surrounded by bloody men in black suits. How difficult is it to blend in?” Pete answered rhetorically.

“Oh…” was Douglock’s only reply, although he was noticeably impressed.

The two walked toward one of the many side entrances to the complex.

“What are we going to do Mister Wisdom?”

“Break in and help Kurt. There are other Black Air Ops in there, and they need to be dealt with,” said Wisdom, solemnly.

“But Moira said…”

“Can it! She don’t know what the hell she’s talking about. She’s a doctor, I’m an ex-Black Air operative, so I know what I’m talking about.”

“You want me to break in then?”

“Get on with it!” snapped Wisdom, worryingly taking a puff of his cigarette as Douglock’s hand sprang into life – turning into a dozen tendrils and launching themselves at the doors’ lock.

“I’m gonna kill myself if I keep doing this?” muttered Wisdom to himself.

“Smoke?” queried Douglock, still busily working on the lock.

“No, hang around you lot…”

NEXT ISSUE: More on Meggan’s plight as she meets a ghost from the past! Wisdom and Douglock to the rescue! Also, will Excalibur actually reform?

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