WEAPON X

Part IV: Captives

By Dino Pollard

His name is Colonel Nick Fury. He is a decorated war hero, as well as the Director of SHIELD. His accomplishments are many. And many of them remain a secret from the public. He has been many things in his life. But he has never been a puppet.

Until now.

As he enters the study of Professor Charles Xavier, he does not fully realize that he, like Xavier, is under the thrall of another. A being of immense psionic energy. A being who calls himself the Shadow King. This Shadow King has possessed Xavier’s body for some period of time, the extent of which is unknown.

“The transport carrying Wolverine has arrived,” says Fury.

“Unfortunate…” replies the Shadow King.

“Why?”

“Wolverine’s skeleton is laced with adamantium,” replies the Shadow King. “It acts as a barrier to psionic abilities. Possessing him is a task which would require too much energy at this point. I must keep my priorities straight, Colonel.”

“Then what do we do?” asks Fury.

“We simply inform our dear friend Logan that the X-Men have betrayed SHIELD. Like any good soldier, he will offer his services to bring them down.”

“Understood,” says Fury. “We should probably go meet him, then.”

“Something’s seriously fucked up here…” mutters Kitty Pryde. She looks down at the motionless body of Jean Grey, hoping for some sort of sign from the unconscious mutant. Something that could help her understand what is going on around here.

“Don’t believe we’ve met.”

Kitty almost jumps in surprise when she hears the new voice. She turns to see a man walking towards her. His face is unshaven and his hair is wild. Yet he wears the X-Men’s uniform.

“Who are you?” she asks.

“You must be Kitty,” he replies. “I’m Logan.”

“Oh,” says Kitty. “Yeah, I heard about you.”

“Nice to be known,” says Logan.

“Ah, Wolverine, so good to have you back with us.”

Logan sniffs the air and detects the scents of Fury and Xavier.

“Surprised to see you up an’ about, Chuck,” says Logan. He looks down at Jean’s body. “What happened to Psyche?”

“She was able to bring me out of my coma,” replies Xavier. “Unfortunately, it looks like she fell into one herself.”

“How d’ya explain that?” asks Logan.

“My comatose state was… a defensive mechanism, I suppose,” replies Xavier. “In order to deal with the trauma of killing Mystique, my mind forced me into the coma. Jean tried her best to revive me, but I guess that her inexperience with her own psychic abilities forced her into a similar state.”

“Then why don’t you bring her out?” asks Logan. “After all, she was able to bring you out, an’ since you’re more powerful than she is, it should be a walk in the park.”

“And it would be, if I were at full strength,” replies Xavier. “But my trauma has left me weakened. It may take some time before I’m able to attempt a psychic rescue of any sort.”

“How’d your mission go?” asks Fury.

“Like always, complete success,” replies Logan.

“Good work,” says Fury.

“Things seemed pretty quiet when I got in,” says Logan. “Where’s the rest of the team?”

Fury and Xavier both look at each other. Xavier lowers his head slightly before speaking.

“Logan… the X-Men…” he begins. “They’ve gone rogue.”

“What?”

“Damndest thing,” says Fury. “Storm turned up out of nowhere and started tearing apart the city. We ordered the X-Men to stop her, but they didn’t want to go against their friend. So they joined her.”

“That sounds pretty far fetched,” says Logan.

“I know you feel betrayed, Logan,” says Xavier. “But we have to pick up the pieces. I just received word that the X-Men have been apprehended.”

“By who?” asks Logan.

“Weapon X,” replies Xavier. Logan looks Xavier in the eyes, and then looks to Fury. He sees no change in Fury’s composure.

“Y’ don’t say…” he mutters.

“Uhhh… what hit me…?”

“Same thing that hit all of us, babe,” replies John Proudstar. “Weapon X.”

“Where are we?” asks Alison Blaire. She sits up and finds that she’s lying on a bunk of some sort. She sees John sitting across from her on another bunk, his arms folded across his chest. She also notices that they’re in a holding cell of some sort.

“Dunno,” replies John. “Last thing I remember was fighting that chick, then I wake up here. You see anything?”

“Nothing,” says Ali.

“Great,” says John.

“I don’t like this,” says Kurt Wagner.

“You and me both,” says Scott Summers. “Now keep it down, will ya?”

“How can you sleep at a time like this?” asks Kurt. “We’ve been kidnapped.”

“Yeah, and I’m still dead tired from it,” replies Scott. “So keep it down. We’ll find a way out. In the meantime, just be cool.”

“Be cool?” asks Kurt. “How can I be cool, my sister is dead!”

“And my brother is working for the enemy,” replies Scott. “How do you think I feel?”

“Then how can you be so calm?” asks Kurt.

“Just in my nature, I suppose,” replies Scott. “If I was one of those uptight guys, I’d have to shoot myself.”

“We have to find a way out of here,” says Kurt.

“Wolverine’s still out there,” says Scott.

“So?”

“So, these guys are called Weapon X, right?”

“Right…”

“I remember Logan once mentioning that he was held prisoner by these assholes,” says Scott. “So once he finds out that they’ve captured us, he’s gonna come after them. And I’m guessing that he’ll want some payback.”

“I should never have come…” says Monet St. Croix.

“What do you mean?” asks Hank McCoy.

“I should never have come to New York,” replies Monet. “I should have refused Xavier’s offer and just stayed in Florida.”

“You don’t mean that,” says Hank.

“Yes I do, Hank,” she says. “I lived a perfect life there. I was rich, beautiful, and powerful. I had everything I ever wanted.”

“Then why did you join the X-Men?” asks Hank.

“Truthfully, I don’t know,” replies Monet. “Boredom, maybe.”

“Boredom?”

“Being rich has its perks, but it can also make for a pretty uneventful existence,” she replies. “I wanted excitement in my life. But looking back, I think this may have been too much excitement. At first, it was fun. Working for the government, taking out mutant terrorists. But it’s gotten way too serious. Jean is in a coma, Xavier’s been possessed, and Storm and Rogue are dead. This is too much for me.”

Hank moves from his bunk over to hers and places his hands on her shoulders.

“It’s okay,” he says.

“How can you say that?”

“Everything will work out for the best, trust me.”

“Henry, look around you,” she says. “This isn’t the movies, this is reality. We’re in deep shit, here.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you swear,” he says with a slight chuckle.

“This isn’t funny,” she says, shooting him an angry glare.

“I’m sorry,” says Hank.

“I always act so calm and collected, like nothing can phase me,” says Monet. “But… it’s just a cover.”

She looks into his eyes.

“I’m scared, Hank.”

“I know,” he says, wrapping his arms around her. “I am, too.”

Colonel John Wraith steps into the Oval Office with Henry Peter Gyrich and Bolivar Trask by his side. The President stands from his seat and greets them once they enter.

“Gentlemen,” he says. “Thank you for coming on such short notice. Please, sit.”

He motions to the couches that sit before the desk, and then he moves over to one of them and takes a seat across from his three guests, the only thing that seperates them being a glass coffee table. All of them seem extremely confident, not at all worried about this meeting, or the possible ramifications of their actions.

“I suppose you want to discuss the… incident on Liberty Island,” says Gyrich.

“Incident?” asks the President. “That’s a nice way of putting it.”

He picks up a remote from the table and uses it to turn on the television set that sits in the wall. On it is footage of the X-Men’s battle with Weapon X on Liberty Island.

“Would someone mind telling me what the hell is going on here?” asks the President.

“Exactly what you wanted, sir,” replies Gyrich.

“This looks like two mutant groups duking it out,” says Bush. “I did not authorize the use of Weapon X, I authorized the use of Sentinels.”

“But Mr. President, the Sentinels were there,” says Trask.

“Then why don’t I see them, Mr. Trask?”

“Because you can’t see them,” replies Trask. “Not without a microscope, anyway.”

“What do you mean?” asks Bush. “Project: SENTINEL was supposed to involve the use of mutant hunting robots.”

“We’ve gone one step better, Mr. President,” says Trask. “The latest in nano-technology has allowed us to create miniature Sentinels, virtually invisible to the naked eye. They enter a mutant’s body through any orifice, and neutralize the x-gene, rendering the victim powerless. In short, Project: SENTINEL is basically a mutant virus.”

“With the Sentinels rendering the X-Men powerless, that made it relatively easy for Weapon X to capture them,” says Gyrich.

“And that’s where I come in, sir,” says Wraith.

“I specifically said I wanted to be fully debriefed on Weapon X before I authorized it,” says Bush.

“Yes, I know,” says Wraith.

“How could you release Weapon X without authorization?” asks Bush.

“Special Executive Order 768-04,” replies Wraith.

“What’s that?” asks Bush.

“It states that in matters of national security, SHIELD is authorized to go over your head, Mr. President,” replies Wraith. “And this was a matter of national security.”

Wraith reaches into his pocket and pulls out a CD jewel case. He takes out a compact disc from it and walks over to the television.

“You wanted a debriefing on Weapon X?” asks Wraith. “Well, you’re about to get it.”

He places the disc inside the DVD tray and hits play.

“I can’t believe we lost him again…” mutters Shard.

“Who’s idea was it to let him walk?” asks Bishop.

“Shove it,” she says.

“Now, we have two dead mutants on our hands, as well as a bunch of others missing,” says Bishop. A ringing noise emits from inside his coat. He reaches inside his breast pocket, pulls out a cell phone, and places it to his ear. “This is Bishop.”

He listens to the man on the other end speak.

“We’ll be right there,” he says, then hangs up. He looks over at Shard. “Good news, they found our man.”

“What?” asks Shard. “Where?”

“They just fished him out of the bay,” replies Bishop.

Kitty Pryde sleeps peacefully. Her dreams are pointless ramble. Some of them involve a mixture of her new life with the X-Men, as well as with her past life at Empire State University. She is awakened from her slumber by a hand that covers her mouth. She opens her eyes in shock to see Logan standing before her.

“Shh,” he says, placing a finger to his lips. “I gotta get you outta here.”

“What’s going on?” she asks.

“I’ll explain later,” he says. “Right now, we gotta go.”

“What’s this all about?”

“Let’s just say that Xavier’s not himself,” he says. “Now hurry up, we gotta go.”

“Here we go,” says Wraith, offering the narration for the presentation. The first man who appears onscreen is a large man with short, blonde hair as well as razor-sharp claws.

“First off, we’ve got Victor Creed, also called Sabretooth,” says Wraith. “He’s a veteran of Weapon X, been with us ever since ‘Nam. He’s got a healing factor and heightened senses, similar to Wolverine’s, but stronger. He’s also got razor-sharp claws on each hand, and his bones have recently undergone the adamantium bonding procedure.”

The next man who appears is younger, about high school age. He has short, blonde hair and wears sunglasses.

“This is Alex Summers, or Havok,” says Wraith. “Younger brother of Cyclops. He absorbs ambient cosmic waves and rechannels them as powerful plasma blasts.”

Next is a young man, a little older than Havok, with very short blonde hair and a goatee to match. He also wears goggles of some sort over his eyes.

“Samuel Guthrie, Cannonball,” says Wraith. “He can generate a kinetic forcefield around his body which he can use to propel himself through the air at incredible speeds. While the forcefield is active, nothing can harm him.”

A young, Asian woman with short black hair appears on the screen.

“This is Jubilation Lee, or Meltdown,” says Wraith. “She can generate powerful pyrotechnic energy blasts that resemble fireworks.”

A young, Native American woman with long black hair appears next.

“Here we have Danielle Moonstar, also known as Mirage,” says Wraith. “She has powerful psionic abilities that allow her to project holographic images of thoughts from a person’s mind, primarily their worst fear. She can also create weapons out of psionic energy that disrupt a victim’s neurochemistry.”

The next person to appear on the screen is a young, Caucasian woman with short, white hair.

“This is Jeanne Marie Beaubier or Northstar,” says Wraith. “She possesses the abilities of superhuman speed and flight. In addition, her mind is slightly fragmated, and she suffers from multiple personality disorder. The other persona is a male, Jean Paul Beaubier, whom she claims is her brother.”

“Now how do you plan to keep these mutants under control, Colonel?”

“Simple,” says Wraith. The next image to appear is that of a large man with white hair, a glowing left eye, and a left arm composed of metal.

“This is Commander Nathan Dayspring,” says Wraith. “Like Sabretooth, he is a Vietnam vet, and a decorated SHIELD agent. His body is lined with cybernetic parts that enhance his natural abilities, including his cybernetic eye which makes him a crack shot. Unlike Wolverine, Dayspring is not a mutant, so his loyalty is to his country. His codename is Cable, implying the link between the human government and the mutant strike force.”

The screen turns black.

“Now, Mr. President,” says Wraith. “Let’s talk.”

“Man, what a bum job this is…” mutters one of the security guards.

“Why do you say that?” asks the other.

“C’mon, you can’t tell me that this job doesn’t suck. We’re stuck here guarding a door that we have no fucking clue what’s on the other side of. You’d think we’d at least know.”

“Times like this, I’m reminded of the old saying that seems to apply to everything nowadays.”

“What would that be?”

“Don’t ask, don’t tell.”

“I think that’s bullshit, we should know what’s so important that we gotta be risking our lives for.”

“Right, like we’re really risking our lives here. It’s probably just a bunch of government files or some bullshit like that. Not like we’ve got a living weapon behind this door.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re ri—”

“Wait…” says one of them, lifting up his gun. “Did you hear that?”

“No… why?”

“There it is again!”

“It sounds like it’s coming from… inside?”

The banging noise continues. Both the guards move closer to the door, and then, they hear it begin to tear from the wall. They both move to the sides as the door rockets forth as if it were blown off its hinges. They both bring up their guns and step up to the now-open doorway. Their guns are pulled from their hands and flipped around so that they are now floating in mid-air and aimed directly at the guards. Invisible fingers squeeze the triggers, and a bullet travels through each guard’s head.

A figure hovers past the two dead sentries, and the base which has been his prison for a long amount of time is torn open as if it were paper. He wears an outfit made of leather, with a flowing red cap and a helmet. He begins to rise forth into the sky. He deeply breathes in the fresh air. He smells freedom in the air, and laughs.

Magneto is back.