WEAPON X

Part III: Mutant Mayhem

By Dino Pollard

Her name was Marie Darkholme, or Rogue. She was a former member of the mutant terrorist organization called the Brotherhood. She was the daughter of the Brotherhood’s founder, Mystique, and, along with her brother, Kurt, she rebelled against the Brotherhood and joined the X-Men. She possessed the mutant ability to absorb the powers and memories of anyone she came into physical contact with. Recently, she had used abilities absorbed from the mutant called Storm in order to kill her.

It would be the last thing Marie Darkholme ever did.

Remy LeBeau was forced to watch as Storm was electrocuted to death by Rogue’s lightning bolts. Storm was his protegé. So, in response to her death, Gambit charged Rogue’s body with kinetic energy. The result was an explosion which took her life.

It is not something the X-Men were prepared for. Particularly Rogue’s brother.

“MURDERER!” exclaims Nightcrawler as he appears behind Gambit in a flash of light. He drives his foot into Gambit’s chest, which catches the thief off-guard. “I’LL KILL YOU!”

Nightcrawler takes another swing, but Gambit grabs his arm and flips him over onto his back.

“Back off!” exclaims Gambit. “Ororo wasn’t in control of her actions, she didn’t deserve to die!”

An optic blast courtesy of Cyclops seperates the two combatants. Beast bounds over to Nightcrawler and holds his teammate back, while Thunderbird holds back Gambit. M, Dazzler, and Cyclops rush to the sidelines.

“Watch his hands, John!” warns Dazzler.

“Don’t worry, I’m watcing them,” says Thunderbird.

“I’m guessing now’s as good a time as any for explanations,” says Beast.

“Let’s start with you, bright eyes,” Thunderbird says to Gambit. “How did you know Storm?”

“I taught her everything she knew,” replies Gambit. “An’ I know what was controlling her.”

“The Shadow King,” says M.

Gambit stops struggling against Thunderbird.

“How do you know the Shadow King?” he asks.

“He’s taken control of someone close to us,” replies Beast. “How do you know him?”

“Feel like I been through this story fifty times…” mutters Gambit. Thunderbird tightens his grip on the thief.

“Then let’s go for fifty-one,” he says through gritted teeth. “Either that or I tear your arm out of the socket.”

“Ah, alright!” says Gambit. “He’s my father, y’happy?”

“ARE YOU PEOPLE LISTENING TO THIS?!” exclaims Nightcrawler. “HE KILLED MARIE, AND THE SHADOW KING IS HIS FATHER! WHAT MORE INFORMATION DO YOU NEED?!”

“Well… isn’t this a predicament,” says Beast.

A bright light appears nearby them. The mutants all shield their eyes from it, and when it fades, eight individuals in black leather are standing in front of them. One of them is very large, and middle aged. He has several weapons strapped to his body as well as short, white hair worn in a crew-cut. His left eye glows as he speaks. Standing behind him is a young man with sunglasses and short, blonde hair. A Native American woman with long, black. A woman with short, white hair. A young Asian woman with short black hair. A young man with a blonde crew cut, goatee, and goggles. And finally, a large man with short, blonde hair and fangs. One the X-Men recognize.

“Sabretooth…” mutters M.

“Alex?!” exclaims Cyclops, noticing his brother among their ranks.

“Things are about to get a whole lot worse,” says the man with white hair. “Say hello to your replacements.”

“Looks like the ZERO transport works,” says Colonel John Wraith. “Good work, Dr. Lang.”

“Thank you, sir,” replies Dr. Stephen Lang.

“Now we just need to await Commander Dayspring’s news that—urgh!”

“Colonel Wraith?” asks Lang. “Are you okay?”

Hello, Colonel.

“Y-yeah… I’m fine, Lang,” replies Wraith.

Phase one is complete, I take it?

“Yeah… Weapon X just went to take out the X-Men,” replies Wraith through the telepathic link established by the Shadow King.

Very nice, Colonel. Continue to serve me, and I can guarantee that you shall become the next Director of SHIELD.

“What about Fury?”

Fury is nothing more than a loose end that I will tie up. You need not concern yourself with him.

“But what happens when the President finds out that I released Weapon X without his knowledge?”

Leave the sniveling little daddy’s boy to me. Just ensure that you have the X-Men in custody.

“Right… no problem.”

With that, Wraith’s headache passes as the Shadow King leaves his mind. He shakes his head and looks over at Dr. Lang, who watches him with curiosity.

“I’m fine,” he repeats.

“You’re the boss,” says Lang.

When Kitty Pryde agreed to Colonel Nick Fury’s job offer, she had expected to become a full-fledged secret agent. Instead, she is left running diagnostic tests on Cerebro, the X-Men’s mutant locating computer. She sighs as she continues the boring work. The door opens, and she turns to see Fury standing there.

“When do I get to do something beyond diagnostics?” she asks.

“Don’t ask me,” replies Fury. “I’m not in charge.”

“Coulda fooled me…” she mutters. “Who is, then?”

“I am.”

Kitty watches as a bald man in a wheelchair enters the room. Fury stands behind him as he moves towards Kitty.

“I don’t believe we’ve met,” he says with a warm voice. He extends his hand. “I am Professor Charles Xavier, the head of Project: X-MEN. You are Kitty Pryde, correct?”

“Yeah…” she replies, slowly taking his hand. “Why?”

“I’m just trying to get acquainted with the newest member of the team,” says Xavier.

“Ah!” she exclaims, pulling her hand away. “Your hand’s like ice!”

“My apologies,” he says.

“Where are the others?” she asks.

Xavier and Fury both look at each other, and then Fury offers a reply.

“They’re no longer with us,” he says.

“What do you mean?” asks Kitty.

“They’ve switched sides,” replies Xavier. “Unfortunately.”

“Okay…” she says. “That doesn’t sound quite right…”

“Ms. Pryde, I’d prefer it if you did not challenge my authority,” says Xavier.

“No problem there,” says Kitty. “No challenging going on here whatsoever.”

“Good,” he says. “Now then, be sure Cerebro is fully operational. I look forward to locating more mutants for our cause.”

“Right,” says Kitty. “No problems there.”

She waits for Fury and Xavier to exit the room. Once the door closes, she concentrates and begins to float into the air, through the ceiling. In the floor above is the medical bay, where Jean Grey lays in a coma. Kitty’s form becomes solid, and her feet touch the ground. She walks over to Jean’s body and looks down at her.

“Man, am I out of the loop…” she mutters.

“What’s the meaning of this?” asks Beast.

The white haired man lowers his gun, but doesn’t holster it. He steps forward, and the rest of Weapon X prepares to leap into an attack.

“Commander Nathan Dayspring at your service,” he says. “Or Cable if you prefer codenames. We’re Weapon X, and it’s our job to bring you in.”

“Think again, pal,” says Thunderbird. “We’re government agents, blinky.”

“So are we,” says Cable. “And after Storm’s rebellion, we’ve been ordered to bring you in.”

“This is complete bullshit!” exclaims Cyclops. “Alex, what the fuck are you do—”

“Oh shut up, Scotty,” replies Alex as he unleashes a plasma blast from his hands at his brother. Cyclops is sent flying from the impact. “And by the way, the name’s Havok.”

“The way I see it, you have a choice,” says Cable. “You can either come quietly, or be taken.”

“Well, it looks like you two got t’ings y’ need to settle,” says Gambit. “An’ seeing as how I’m not an X-Man, guess that means I’ll be on my wa—”

Before Gambit can move, the legs of the young man known as Cannonball explode, propelling him straight into the Cajun thief.

“You’re not going anywhere, pal,” says Cannonball, and drives a kinetically-fueled punch at Gambit. Remy falls to the ground, stands and wipes some blood from his lip. He reaches into his trench coat and pulls out three plastic-coated Bicycle playing cards. With a thought, the cards begin to glow as Gambit charges them with kinetic energy.

“THAT TEARS IT!” he exclaims as he hurls the cards.

Sabretooth moves to the front of the group, dodging past the cards, and then leaps forward.

“We tried it yer way, Cable,” he says. “Now all bets are off!”

His claws seem to shine in the light as he slashes at Gambit. Before Sabretooth’s claws can reach him, M bodyslams into him.

“I haven’t forgotten about our last encounter,” she says.

“Ya wanna go for round two?” asks Sabretooth with a grin. “Yer funeral, babe.”

Sabretooth moves towards her and slashes. M narrowly avoids the attack, flying back in retreat.

“You’re the leader, Hank,” says Dazzler. “What do we do?”

“What you think I know what I’m doing?” asks Beast. “I’m just making this up as I go along!”

“Fan out!” orders Cable, and the Weapon X agents all scatter from his position to combat the X-Men.

“She’s cute.”

“Guess so.”

“What’s her name?”

“Mariko.”

He sees the image of Mariko Yashida, the woman he loves before him. Her form begins to change shape. Her long, black hair shortens and becomes red. Her Asian features become Caucasian. Her brown eyes become green. Now, she has become a completely different person.

“Jean?”

“We’ve got a problem, Logan.”

“What’s happening?”

“I don’t have much time left. I was only able to break free long enough to make contact with you, and it won’t be long before he reasserts control over me.”

“What are you talking about?” asks Logan. “Who?”

“He’s worried about me, now. He’s prevented me from using his name. I can’t speak it, but you just need to realize that the Professor is under someone else’s control.”

“Who’s control?”

“What part of, ‘he’s prevented me from using his name’ did you not understand? Just trust me on this. When you get back to the mansion, you need to get out of there quickly.”

“…okay.”

“And get Kitty out of there. I didn’t have a chance to make contact with her.”

“Who’s Kitty?”

Logan’s eyes snap open, and he shakes his head.

“You okay, sir?” asks the SHIELD operative who pilots the chopper.

“Yeah…” mutters Logan. He rubs the sleep from his eyes and sits up in his seat. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little tired.”

“Don’t worry, sir,” says the pilot. “We’ll have you back home in a few moments.”

Logan looks out the window and in the distance he can see the grounds of the Xavier University. His home. The base of the X-Men. And he wonders just how much things have gone to hell in his absence.

“Good.”

Thunderbird cracks his knuckles and faces off against a slender woman with short, white hair. He smirks when he sees her stand with her hands on her hips.

“This is rich,” says John. “What do they call you, honey?”

The woman cracks a smile.

“Northstar.”

“Well, Northstar, I’m about to show you why they call me Thunderbird,” he says as he rushes towards her with superhuman speed. He swings his fist, prepared to bring it down on her, but instead, he hits air.

“Huh?”

“You want to try that again?”

Thunderbird glances up and sees Northstar hovering above him. She smirks and seems to vanish. In reality, she moves faster than the eye can see. Thunderbird does not have an opportunity to react. Instead, he feels her fist striking him at every direction at once. He thinks that a woman her size should not be able to hurt a man his size. Unless she has superhuman strength. Or is there something else?

The young, Asian woman called Meltdown lifts up a finger. Firecrackers seem to explode from the tip as she stands before the Dazzler.

“So… you’re Alison Blaire,” she says. “Y’know, I’ve been wanting to do this ever since they started overplaying your damn ‘music’ on the radio.”

Meltdown’s hand flies forward and firecrackers explode from her fingertips. The Dazzler does her best to try and avoid the sparks. The crack and pop sounds they make fuel Ali’s ability to transform sound into light. The sound waves channel through her body, and when they exit her hands, they exit as powerful light bursts. Meltdown nimbly avoids the blast, however, and rushes forward. As she does so, she brings her leg up and strikes Dazzler with it.

“Pop stars,” says Meltdown. “Pfft, pathetic.”

“Don’t you people get it?” asks Cannonball as he rockets into Gambit. “You can’t beat us! It’s impossible!”

“Guess I’m just stubborn, then…” mutters Gambit. He draws a card and tries to charge it. However, nothing happens. “What’s going on?”

“Call it a secret weapon,” says Cannonball. He pulls his fist back and surrounds it with a kinetic field. Then, he delivers an uppercut that sends Gambit flying off the island and into the bay.

M tries to strike at Sabretooth with one fist, but he grabs it. She tries again with the other, and he grabs that one as well, then headbutts her. She falls back and he kicks her. Before she can fall, he lashes out with his claws and slices into her abdomen. He turns and licks the blood from his claws.

“Looks like the outcome’s still the same.”

The young, Native American woman pulls back the invisible string of her psionic bow, and a psionic arrow flies from it. Beast avoids the first one. He uses his agility to move past all the arrows she fires. Then, without warning, he stops and his eyes grow wide with fear. He sees a mother clutching her son’s hand.

“Mommy, mommy, lookit the funny monkey man!”

“What…?” asks Beast. “What’s happening?”

He reaches out and sees that he’s surrounded by bars of some sort. He sees people pointing at him and laughing. He hears them chant freak and animal. Some throw things at him. Others make faces.

“No…” he says. “No, I’m not an animal… I don’t belong here… I graduated top of my class, I was accepted to schools all over the country. I’m a genius. I’m—AH!”

He cries out as one of the psionic arrows strike his back. The woman called Mirage stands over his prone form.

The visor of Scott Summers opens the full length to emit a powerful concussive blast of crimson energy. His brother, Alex, provides a backstop to the optic blast with his own plasma blasts. Both of them stop.

“What the hell are you doing, Alex?” asks Scott.

“The name’s Havok,” replies Alex. “And I’m doing my duty. You crossed the line, Scotty. I’ve gotta bring you in.”

“You don’t believe that garbage, do you?”

“Yeah, I do,” replies Havok.

“Don’t make me hurt you, bro,” warns Cyclops.

“Go ahead.”

He moves the lever on the side of his visor and it opens up once more. This time, however, no blast comes forth.

“That’s… not supposed to happen…” mutters Scott. A plasma blast from Havok knocks him out cold.

“Yes it is,” he says. “We’ve covered all the stops, bro.”

Nightcrawler appears behind Cable in a flash of light. However, before the young mutant has the chance to strike, Cable’s cybernetic arm grabs Nightcrawler’s wrist and flips him over. Cable places his foot on Nightcrawler’s chest and pins him to the ground, then aims his gun.

“At this range, I can’t miss,” he warns. “So don’t move.”

Nightcrawler grins slightly and tries to use his mutant ability to teleport. Yet, to his surprise, he finds that he cannot use his powers anymore. His smile quickly fades, and one crosses Cable’s face.

“You X-Men don’t get it, do you?” asks Cable. “This was all planned out.”

He lifts up Nightcrawler with his cybernetic arm and holsters his gun. The rest of Weapon X bring their captives to him as well. Aside from Cannonball, who lands empty-handed.

“Where’s the Cajun?” asks Cable.

“Dunno,” replies Cannonball.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” asks Cable.

“I hit him, and he flew into the bay,” replies Cannonball. “After that, I lost him. I searched, but no luck.”

“Dammit…” mutters Cable. He speaks into his headset. “ZERO transport, thirteen passengers. Destination: home.”

In a flash of light, the X-Men and Weapon X vanish.