BROTHERS IN ARMS

Part III: The Founder

By Dino Pollard

“The M-Squad…” Beast muttered. “I thought we were done with these guys.”

“Looks like we thought wrong…” Cyclops stated. His hand rested on the side of his visor, prepared to activate it at a moment’s notice. “C’mon… just gimme a reason you sons of bitches…”

“Stay right where you are!” an M-Squad agent shouted, holding up his rifle. “Don’t move or we shoot!”

Beast and Cyclops exchanged glances and the two young men grinned. Cyclops flipped the dial on his visor, opening it the full 180 degrees. The blast was wide enough to clear a path through the first flank. He looked to see Beast already bounding through the air, and smiled as he grabbed one agent’s gun with his feet and then smacked him with it. Beast then looked at the gun, studying it for a few moments, before using it on another agent.

“Look at this…” he stated. “Their guns work on humans, too.”

“Is it just me or are these M-Squad guys a dime a dozen?” Psyche asked. M ignored her question and instead concentrated on decimating the M-Squad’s forces. Her powers were telekinetic in nature. She constantly has a low-level psionic forcefield surrounding her body, and this also helps to increase her strength and allows her to fly. However, unlike Psyche, M can’t levitate other objects. As M proves by taking out two M-Squad agents, this doesn’t make her any less powerful.

Psyche, however, is still working at developing her powers. She’s not as skilled as M, but nowhere close to helpless. But against the M-Squad, she can’t take any chances. She concentrates, using her TK to try and deflect the bullets. One by one, she begins to psionically pull their weapons away. This gives M the chance she needs to dive down and take them out.

“Maybe there’s something to this teamwork stuff after all,” said Psyche. M offered no reply. The young Algerian woman didn’t appear to be comfortable with anyone on the team, save for Beast.

“Psyche, contact the others telepathically,” ordered M. “Inform them of the situation.”

“I can’t get a fix on them,” replied Psyche. “Looks like we’re flying blind this time.”

“I’ve been waiting for a rematch with you assholes!!” exclaimed Thunderbird. He ran towards a single agent, joining his hands together and swinging at the agent with all his might. The force was so great that the man felt the impact of the blow through his helmet. Thunderbird followed it up with a slam to the man’s chest.

Before any of the other agents could retaliate, Dazzler unleashed a flurry of light bursts from her hands. The effect would have blinded them, but their helmets provided protection for their eyes.

“Nice try, Britney,” said one. He lifted up his weapon and fired. Some sort of energy field erupted from it and encased her in it. “Your bio says that you need sound to use your powers. Too bad no sound can get through that shield.”

“GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HER!” exclaimed Thunderbird. He rushed the man, but the man countered by firing his weapon again. This time, some sort of canister shot out. Once it struck Thunderbird, a gas of some sort erupted.

“What the hell *cough* is this?” he asked.

“It’s a slow-acting toxin,” replied the agent. “Your speed also means you have a faster metabolism. Which means it’ll start affecting you long before it even begins to affect us.”

“Y’see, we know all about you,” said the other. “The M-Squad plays for keeps, X-Man. And we’ve got the means t’ take you out. So you can bet we’re gonna use those means.”

The agent lifted up his gun and placed the barrel to Thunderbird’s head. Before the trigger could be pulled however, a small explosion erupted behind the agents.

“What the hell?” asked the agent. He moved away from Thunderbird just as something hard slammed into his abdomen. The other agent lifted his gun to fire at the source, but it exploded.

Thunderbird looked up to see a man dressed from head to toe in black, complete with a full facemask. He held a bo-staff in his hands. With the two agents decimated, he took one look at Thunderbird, nodded, and then ran off into the distance. Thunderbird watched as he pulled himself up a fire escape and took it to the top of the building. Then, he hopped from building to building.

“JOHN!”

Thunderbird looked up to see Storm lowering herself to the ground. She noticed Dazzler incased in the energy field and ran over to her.

“What the hell is this?”

“The M-Squad,” replied Thunderbird. “They encased her in some sort of field so no sound could get in.”

“Perfect…” said Storm. “You took them both out?”

“No, some weird guy dressed all in black took care of them.”

Storm looked at Thunderbird for a few seconds, but then turned back to Dazzler.

“Where’s Wolverine?” asked Thunderbird. “Wasn’t he with you?”

“We were attacked same as you,” replied Storm. “He told me I didn’t want to see this and ordered me to get the others.”

“What do we do about her?” asked Thunderbird.

“I dunno…” replied Storm. “Here, let me try something. Stand back.”

Thunderbird moved away, and Storm placed her hands on Dazzler’s body. Lightning erupted from her hands, encasing the forcefield. Then, feedback came, and with a blinding flash of light, Storm was shot back. The field around Dazzler slowly began to vanish, however.

“Not bad,” said Thunderbird. He gripped his stomach. The toxin was still in his system. He didn’t think it was deadly, but it sure made him feel like shit. It must’ve just been designed to slow him down. “Storm?”

He turned around to see her lying unconscious on the ground. The feedback must’ve been too much for her.

“Oh hell…”

“Very impressive, Charles… I see you’ve certainly been keeping busy since last we met.”

Charles Xavier lay motionless on the floor. Therefore, he was unable to offer any sort of response. The founder of the Brotherhood was busy examining the Cerebro system.

“So this is how you found them all, eh? You always talked about developing Cerebro back in the old days. Glad to see you finally accomplished your goals. Too bad you had to become a sellout in order to achieve them.”

“Don’t. Move.”

The founder turned around to see Xavier still lying on the floor. His left arm was beneath him, propping him up slightly. He looked straight at the founder. In his right hand was a gun aimed straight at the founder.

“I mean it, Raven.”

“Firearms, Charles?” asked the indigo-skinned woman. “How unbecoming of you. And by the way, you can call me Mystique.”

“How did you get in here?” asked Charles.

“Simple – I’m a shapeshifter,” replied Mystique. “It’s not that hard to get past security cameras and fingerprint scans when you can change into anything you want. And as for your psychic powers, well, you taught me how to shield myself from scans. Now come on, Charles. Put down the gun. We both know you can’t use it.”

*BANG*

Mystique fell to the ground as the bullet pierced her leg. Charles took this moment to pull himself up into his wheelchair.

“Don’t presume to know me, Darkholme…” he stated. He kept the gun trained on her and picked through her mind. It was difficult, but he had to try and find the location of the Brotherhood. He scanned their location, and transmitted it to the rest of the X-Men.

Colonel Fury walked down the corridor of the SHIELD HQ. He gripped the knob on the door at the end of the hallway. On it was his name engraved on a brass plate. He turned the knob and stepped inside. The first thing he smelled was cigar smoke, yet he hadn’t been in here all day and he wasn’t smoking one now.

“Good evening, Colonel.”

Fury slowly walked forward. His eye was filled with rage towards the man who was sitting in his chair, feet propped up on Fury’s desk. He was bald, with three scars running across his face, and a cigar perched between his lips. He held open a box full of them towards Fury.

“Cuban?” he asked.

“Those are illegal,” replied Fury.

“So is a lot of stuff we do.”

“I’m only gonna ask you this once, Wraith – what the hell are you doing in my office?”

“Who says it’s gonna be your office for much longer?” asked Wraith.

“Is that a threat?”

“You tell me.”

Fury leaned in close to Wraith.

“Keep on pushin’,” hissed Fury. “I’m itchin’ ta push back.”

“Now that is a threat,” said Wraith.

“Don’t ya got other matters t’ attend to?” asked Fury.

“I’m already the head of my department, Fury,” said Wraith. “It didn’t take me long to get that position. And now, after fifteen years, I may be looking at the top spot.”

“Over my dead body,” said Fury. “Besides, don’t ya got a rogue super soldier runnin’ around? That can’t be promising for yer career.”

“So far, it’s not as bad as mutant terrorists running around while your strike force has their tails stuck between their legs,” said Wraith. “You should be more careful, Fury. But I guess monocular vision makes it hard to see things in perspective.”

“Get the fuck out of my office.”

Wraith stood and put the cigar out on Fury’s desk. Fury grabbed him and shoved his face onto the spot where the cigar ask was.

“Ya see that?” asked Fury. “Yer gettin’ the repair bill.”

He then shoved Wraith into the wall. He opened the door, and pushed him out.

Wraith began to walk down the corridor.

“Hey Wraith.”

He turned to look at Fury standing in his doorway.

“Word t’ the wise, asshole – watch yer fucking mouth.”

Fury then slammed the door. Wraith continued walking down the corridor, ignoring the stares of other agents. He grinned. Mission accomplished. He was getting to Fury. Soon, everything will fall into place.

“They’ve got twenty hours,” said Colossus. “Do you think it will work?”

“If they don’t, then we get to have some fun,” replied Toad.

“Gooooooood,” said Marrow, staring at one of her bone shards. “Waiting here is startin’ t’ piss me off.”

Nightcrawler sat away from the group. He was thinking of the words Mystique spoke to him.

“You’re a Darkholme. So stop acting weak and embrace your destiny. The humans would kill us if we gave them the chance. It’s time we took action.”

“Mother…”

*ZAKT*

A red beam of energy slammed through the wall of the Brotherhood’s home. They were using an abandoned tenement as their base of operations. Up until now, they remained undiscovered. That was before Professor Xavier sent the location of their base to the rest of the X-Men.

Wolverine stood front and center with his claws extended. Cyclops stood by his side, a hand on his visor. the rest of the X-Men were gathered behind them. Wolverine stepped forward, a rage building in his eyes. He snarled and lifted his claws up, giving the Brotherhood a reason to fear him.

“Start praying.”