RED HAZE

By Jeff Axtman, David Wheatley, Rob Stratton, and Eric J. Moreels

Prologue
Thirty years ago…

The warm Arizona air blew stinging sand against Maverick’s face as he stood outside the abandoned warehouse.

The mission was a simple data retrieval assignment. All he had to do was find a few files from this hidden C.I.A. archive here in the warehouse. Simple enough, and he knew it.

He entered the building using the key he had been given by a mysterious contact at the agency in Washington. He wondered why he was chosen for the mission, but decided not to question it. He just wanted to get the job over and done with.

Inside were boxes and boxes of old information piled on top of one another. The warehouse smelled musty, and a thin layer of dust lined every surface. He sighed.

“Better get to work…” he muttered to himself.

It took several hours to find the four files he was looking for. Once he had finally located them, he placed them in a manilla envelope and put it in the small cloth bag he had slung over his shoulder, then he turned to leave.

But he stopped. He was curious… would the C.I.A. have his file stored somewhere in here? If so, what would they have on him? Would they know… about his past?

He set the cloth bag down and returned to the pile of folders he had been searching through. No harm in a little peek, right?

Over an hour later, he found his file tucked under one of the multitude of boxes in the warehouse. It was out of place, as if someone did not want him to find it. That intrigued him even more.

He opened the file. It was labelled ‘Nord, Christoph’, although that wasn’t the name he went by anymore. Paper-clipped to the folder was a diagram of a DNA strand. He studied it for several minutes, wondering why it was there.

‘That’s strange…’ he thought as he turned the page.

There, stapled to the paper, he found an old-looking photograph of his father. Standing next to his father was a small man with a thin moustache. It was Adolf Hitler, and they were both grinning.

“My… my father knew Hitler?!” he stammered in disbelief.

The next old picture he found was one of him. He looked nearly the same, and was standing next to a man he didn’t recognize. A very short man named, according to the label, ‘Eugene Judd’.

He turned the page, and looked at the last photograph, but was unable to make out what it was. His mind became clouded, and a flood of red blocked out the memory.

End Prologue

The cool Canadian wind rustled Maverick’s hair as he stood outside the complex. He had made the long trek here because of a series of flashbacks he had been experiencing lately, much like the one he had moments ago. The memories were hazy, and he himself did not even recall the events they played out in his mind, except for recollections of his father and the Alpha Flight member now known as Puck.

‘What was on that last photograph?’ he thought. ‘It’s obvious that someone doesn’t want me to remember that picture… but why?’

‘Not only that, but what’s my father’s connection to all of this?’ he continued to wonder, ‘What was he doing with Hitler? And why on earth didn’t I remember Judd when I first met him as Puck?’

He had come for answers to the mysteries of his past, and he knew this was the place to find them… the Weapon X project.

The very words Weapon X hit him like a stake through the heart. He’d been here; Logan had been here; Creed had been here; and the man who’d alerted him to what was going on had been here – John Wraith.

He remembered the meeting as if it were yesterday. In fact, it was yesterday. Maverick was looking forward to spending time with his lady love, Elena Ivanova – another person touched by the curse of the Weapon X Project. What he’d found instead was a surprise in the form of an old friend.

“What the hell are you doing here, Wraith?” Maverick demanded.

“That’s no way to greet an old teammate…”

“Unless you’re Creed…”

“Touché.” grinned Wraith.

“What do you want?”

“Someone’s restarted the Project…”

A chill went down Maverick’s spine as he listened to the rest of Wraith’s explanation, “I want you to stop it before it gets out of hand.”

“Why me? Why not Logan? Why not you?!”

“Logan has been declared off-limits to me…” said Wraith with a caged look that Maverick never recalled seeing before, “I’m putting myself on the line as it is.”

“Are you involved? With the Project?” Wraith didn’t answer. “After what they did to us?!”

“Don’t…” said Wraith, “I can help you a little but not a lot. My ‘Deep Throat’ to your Mulder…”

“Why?”

“Penance.” answered Wraith simply, “Not everything is as cut and dried as it appears.”

He passed Maverick a piece of paper. “I was never here, but we will meet again…” he said, and promptly vanished,

Maverick was angry at being put in this situation. “Damn!” he said, and went to check on Elena before doing what he had to do. What needed doing…

Which brought him back to the here and now…

All those years of pain, all those who had suffered directly and indirectly – Maverick couldn’t let it happen again. The Project had to be destroyed at all costs. Too many years have passed to allow this place to continue with its’ nefarious experiments. No one will suffer anymore. No one…

“This is for you, Elena.” he told himself, and went in….

He scaled the tall chainlink fence with ease, avoiding the barbed wire at the top, and dropped effortlessly to the ground on the other side. He crouched there, perfectly still, while he scanned the area for any security devices. He found none, and began moving stealthily to one of the entrances to the complex.

‘There’s definitely been less interference than I expected,’ he thought to himself as he made his way to a side entrance. ‘Which means either the boys at the Project were expecting me… or I’ve been able to catch them off guard. You just never know… the Project has that effect on people.’

“Should be smooth sailing from here, though…” Maverick whispered to himself as he set explosive charges on the door. He stood back as the force of the explosion blew the reinforced door off its hinges. He stood in the open entrance, smoke swirling at his feet. He spent the worst years of his life in this place, and it made him uneasy to be back here again.

Alarms sounded throughout the facility, and Maverick snapped out of his thoughts.

‘Guards will be here soon,’ he thought to himself, ‘which means I better get moving!’

As soon as he set foot inside, his mind was attacked with a barrage of memories. Maverick collapsed to the floor, and cried out in agony.

The memory was clear now. No longer was it a red haze that he could barely discern, it was now too clear…

He was in this very facility, the Weapon X complex, many years ago. He was barely sixteen, but he had experienced more horrors there than anyone should in a lifetime. He had been poked and prodded, tortured and exploited more times than he could count since he had been brought there by… whom?

Why was he there? What kind of monster would experiment on a mere boy?

Then he saw it. The face of his torturer, the one face he recognized out of the crowd of Weapon X doctors every day when they came to conduct their studies on him.

The grinning face of his father…

“GUHH!”

Maverick was sprawled out on the floor of the facility, exactly where he had collapsed a few moments ago. He rubbed his head briefly, then stood up slowly.

He was surrounded on all sides by heavily armed guards pointing their weapons at him. He glanced around, but couldn’t find any method of escape.

“Looks like we’ll have to do this the hard way!” he announced to the guards seconds before he pulled a gun from a holster on his thigh.

He leapt into the air, and kicked one guard in the face, sending him reeling backwards. Maverick landed on the ground and rolled away from the downed guard, firing at the others. He flipped up, hitting a nearby guard with a quick backhand.

Two more guards ran at him from behind. He spun around and shot them in the knees, watching as they fell to the ground and screamed. He didn’t notice one guard creep up behind him until he hit Maverick in the back of the head with the butt of his rifle, sending him to the floor… hard.

The remaining guards gathered around him as he kneeled down, his back to them.

“Yer not so quick now, are ya punk?!” the guard who had hit him shouted. Just then, Maverick whirled around, his fists glowing with vibrant energy.

“You shouldn’t have done that!” he said, watching the guards’ eyes go wide as they realized what was about to happen.

Maverick slammed his fists into the ground, unleashing a shockwave of kinetic energy that effectively knocked out the remaining guards and left the floor cracked and smouldering.

“Now to find answers about my father…” Maverick growled at the mention of the man who had so willingly tortured him, his own flesh and blood. He holstered his gun and prepared to search the facility.

He made his way through the complex, trying not to draw any undue attention to himself, until he came across the figure slumped in his way.

“The Juggernaut?” he said, unable to believe his eyes. He quickly scanned the fallen form of Cain Marko, and saw that there were some wounds that were healing very rapidly. Maverick needed to know who had done this to him and what he could be facing, so he got close to help the man known as the Juggernaut. He’d expected Marko to be angry with whoever did this to him, but he didn’t expect to be in his way when he awoke.

He could see the power in his eyes, the anger, the lack of recognition. Maverick grimaced; this was not good. There was a very good chance that the Juggernaut would see him as a threat. Whilst he realised that shutting down the project wasn’t going to be easy, he’d never dreamed that he’d be facing Cain Marko!

A flash of pain seared across Maverick’s mind, as in his mind’s eye he saw the Juggernaut swinging one massive fist towards him. The blow came, and Maverick managed to dodge with it. Juggernaut was not in a good mood and he wanted to take it out on someone, whether or not it was the person who’d blindsided him or not. Maverick wondered if they could reason this out before it got out of hand, and decided to try. There was a good chance they were on the same side.

“I don’t suppose we can tal… *UNNNFF!*”

The blow from the Juggernaut’s fist sent him back in to the wall, only his power to absorb kinetic impacts saving him.

“Guess not,” he said, wiping the blood from his mouth. The Legacy Virus had caused him unbelievable pain before it had gone in to remission, and he figured that being swatted like a fly by the Juggernaut wasn’t in that league. Well, once at any rate. Two or three times could be pushing the barrier a little.

The annoying part was that he’d allowed himself to be blindsided like that. The memories of the Project were causing him to react badly in situations where he would normally be fine. He knew that this was probably going to hurt, but he decided he had very little to lose. If Marko was defending the Project, there had to be a reason. He may act like a mindless brute, but Maverick knew he wasn’t.

“Okay, Marko,” he said, with a tone he’d often heard Sabretooth use when they were in Team X, “Now it’s my turn!”

The bravado was for as much his own benefit as the Juggernaut’s, because when it came down to it, he wasn’t sure he could win. The energy crackled in his hands, as the impact from the Juggernaut’s blow had powered him up, and he unleashed it all around Marko, for all the good it would do. He kept pouring it on, wondering if it would do anything to him, but soon his hands were in too much pain for him to continue. They both hurt like blazes, as the smoke billowed around them from the devastation his powers had caused.

“Nice move, shrimp!” said Marko, with a smile as he emerged from the smoke, apparently unharmed, or if he was he disguised it well. “Ya didn’t do much, but hey whaddya expect? I’m the Juggernaut!”

“I’m surprised you know how to pronounce ‘Juggernaut’, let alone spell it!” taunted Maverick, wondering what the hell to do next. His taunts were giving him time to come up with new ideas. If he made the Juggernaut angry, he might make him careless. It was a long shot, but he had little choice.

He’d read the files, seen the tapes, and spoken with Logan about fighting the Juggernaut, and most of the sources said the way to beat him was to out-think him. A physical confrontation was no good at all, unless you had a team around you; and even then victory wasn’t certain. The ability to absorb impacts and rechannel the energy was no good if the blows were repeated without stopping. He needed to get smart and get smart quickly!

The first thing being to move out of the way of those fists. The roar from the Juggernaut almost compensated for the vacuum his blow had created. Their battle had carried them through to a nearby lab, sending startled scientists fleeing down the corridors.

Juggernaut swung at him with an uppercut, which Maverick had to throw himself back to avoid, landing hard on the floor, at the same time pulling his guns from their holsters. The impact of the fall was absorbed, though there was a flicker in his new cybernetic eye as he closed it to protect himself. A reflex action, nothing more.

The Juggernaut strolled over to Maverick and reached down to grab him just as Maverick hit him with a kinetic uppercut. The blow knocked Marko back, but only served to enrage him more.

“No fancy powers o’ yers is gonna stop me!” he bellowed as he raised his fists above his head, preparing to bring them down on Maverick.

“Nothin’ can stop the Juggernaut!”

Maverick flipped backwards, away from Marko’s attack. He managed to fire a few rounds at the giant, but they merely bounced off the forcefield that surrounded the Juggernaut.

‘This is a lost cause!’ Maverick thought. ‘There’s no way I can stop this guy without getting myself killed! I’ve got to think of something… and fast!’

“Yer a wimp!” cried Marko, coming closer as Maverick shifted position, looking straight in to the eyes of his oncoming opponent all the while. “Come and fight me like a man!”

“How about I fight you like a Maverick?” quipped David, as his laser targetting system kicked in, his vision temporarily disappearing from that eye as the thin red laser locked onto the target, moving across the eyepiece of the Juggernaut’s helmet.

“*GRARGGH!*” the Juggernaut cried out in pain. “Ya little punk! I can’t see anythin’! Come ‘ere so I can pound ya!”

Maverick ignored the Juggernaut’s request, and fired a stream of bullets at him, using the laser targetting device to aim at the Juggernaut’s helmet. The bullets bounced harmlessly off, as the Juggernaut flailed aimlessly, trying to connect with Maverick as he tried to regain his vision.

He’d slowed Cain Marko down but that wasn’t going to stop him. Nothing stopped the Juggernaut, as he was so fond of saying. Well, maybe the X-Men, but Maverick wasn’t the X-Men. He was one man alone, and he couldn’t beat Marko. He knew when he was outclassed.

“Maybe now we can talk about your situation, Marko?” Maverick asked, as he dodged the flailing fists of his enemy.

“What’s there ta talk about?!” Cain replied, angrily, as he crushed a nearby computer console with a devastating blow, sending sparks flying.

“Well, maybe we can work out a deal…” suggested Maverick from the opposite side of the room.

“A deal? I don’t think so, runt! The Juggernaut don’t make deals!” Marko exclaimed, as he noticed Maverick had ceased his attack, and so, in turn, ceased trying to hit the mercenary.

“Listen, I’m just here for information, what’re you here for?”

“They’re fixing up my friend, Tom. Making him better…”

“Tom? Black Tom?”

“Yeah, what’s it to ya?”

“What if I told you that we could both get what we want if we just go our separate ways?” Maverick offered. He was getting desperate.

“No! How do I know I can trust ya?!” the Juggernaut practically demanded, as he rubbed his eyes, his vision returning.

Look, like I said, I’m here for info, you’re here to help out your friend. Once we both achieve those things, we can get whoever’s running this place and shut it down for good!”

“Huxley.” Marko stated with a growl.

“What?”

“The guy’s name is Doctor Huxley… he’s the one in charge.”

“Huxley, huh?” Maverick ponder this for a moment, as if he recalled the name, but dismissed the thought to deal with the matter at hand. “So, Marko, what do you say?”

“I’ll do it, but not fer you, fer Tom.” replied Cain.

“What’s wrong with Cassidy?” asked Maverick.

“He’s infected with a virus, Huxley is curing him, ‘cept he brainwashed me into thinkin’ I was Head of Security here. Then the runt Wolverine arrived, and he got my old self back.”

“Wolverine’s here?” asked Maverick. This wasn’t exactly unexpected, but a welcome surprise nonetheless. He wondered if Wraith knew… if Wraith had known all along.

“Yeah,” said Marko with anger in his eyes, “the runt decked me – hey, what can I say, I ain’t been myself lately…”

“So, let me get this straight… they brainwashed you, are curing Cassidy, and yet you trust them?” Either Maverick had been hit too hard, or he was missing something.

“Nope,” replied the Juggernaut, “and as soon as they’ve cured Tom, I’m gonna bury this place! But not until they cure him, and I won’t let anyone interfere either! Which means I’ve gotta stop Wolverine from screwing this up…”

“So you want to stop them, I want to stop them, and Logan wants to stop them…” said Maverick. “So why were we fighting?”

“‘Cause yer plannin’ to take this place down before they’ve cured Tom! You stop the treatments now, he’ll be trapped in that wood form. If Huxley can cure him, that’s great. But then I’ll tear this place down because he brainwashed me! Nobody messes with the Juggernaut! You can watch, else you’ll be my way!”

“Charitable of you.” said Maverick, shaking his head. Regardless, he now he knew the man in charge of the Project, and the man he wanted a little chat with…

“Okay,” he said, figuring he wasn’t gonna get through to Marko that this was an obvious setup, but his devotion to Tom was admirable. “How about this…”

He was interrupted by a group of guards who arrived on the scene, guns blazing.

“Stop them!” said the head guard, and they kept firing. The bullets bounced of Marko and Maverick’s respective armours, doing nothing more than causing an annoyance. Maverick shook his head, and the Juggernaut just laughed. Marko stomped one massive foot on the ground, knocking the guards off balance.

“As I was saying,” said Maverick, “we seem to be here for the same goal, if not the same reason. I’ll deal with Logan – he’ll trust me a lot more than he will you. How about you take out your pent-up frustrations on those gentlemen who seem to think shooting us will work?”

“Sounds like my kinda plan!” replied the Juggernaut.

“Good!” said Maverick, glad that he wasn’t going to have to fight the Juggernaut anymore. He wondered how Logan had managed to deck him so easily, and made a mental note to ask him when he caught up with him.

“We’ll rendezvous at the main labs, where Huxley can explain himself. Then you can see the truth, and maybe we’ll find a way of making Black Tom human again…”

Juggernaut gave a quick nod, and then charged at the guards who had regained their footing. Maverick smiled and went to find his former team mate. Juggernaut had seemed quite reasonable, which was odd. Maverick wondered what Marko knew that he didn’t.

However, he had to catch up with Wolverine. The X-Man may be short, but he could move fast, and Maverick didn’t know how much of a lead he had on him. He quickly checked his weapons, and headed off…

Doctor Horatio Huxley stood in his office, watching the events play out on a monitor mounted on the wall. He gripped his chin ponderously with each passing moment.

“These events were unexpected, to say the least!” he muttered in the dim light of the room. “Not only has Marko overcome his brainwashing, but now Maverick has learned the truth about his past… and his father.”

Doctor Nieukerke stood on the other side of the room, and hesitantly cleared his throat. “Not to mention, sir, the damage to equipment in their ensuing battle.”

“Of course,” Huxley replied somewhat sarcastically, “how could I forget?”

“Do you have a plan of action, sir?” Nieukerke asked.

Huxley walked over to his leather chair and sat down. For a few minutes he sat in silence, letting the glow of the monitor cast odd shadows across his already evil-looking face.

“Yes…” he finally said. “Yes, Doctor Nieukerke, it seems I do have a plan. The time has come at last for me to put my greatest creation to good use…”

Running through the corridors of the Project, shooting the occasional guard who got in his way or who tried to make a fight of it, Maverick hurried to where the commotion was greatest. It had to be Logan. No one caused as much trouble as he did. The loss of adamantium had unleashed his feral side more than ever, and the restraint he normally attributed to him was fading in the midst of battle.

He turned the corner to see a group of costumed people standing in the corridor. They didn’t look like the X-Men from this angle, and Logan didn’t like involving them in ‘personal business’ anyway. He wondered who they were, and with his guns drawn he announced his presence. It could be that the Project had some defenders. The smoke was thick, they looked threatening, and he didn’t have time to check if they were would-be allies or enemies – he had to find his friend.

“Everyone stand perfectly still whilst we sort this out!” he said, hoping that the costumes didn’t recognise him as an intruder. His authoritative voice made them all stop, which was a surprise in itself for Maverick. He’d hoped for nothing more than to distract them, so he could get by and bluff his way through. They turned around to face him, and Maverick then recognised them. The costumes were undeniable, the stances prepared and ready, and more to the point they had more than a casual interest in the Weapon X project. It was rumoured that one – or was it two of them – had been actively involved. They all faced him now, and there was nothing he could do to prevent his own face falling.

“Ah, #@%&!” he said, repeating a phrase he’d recently heard, which seemed to apply in this situation.

It was Alpha Flight, and he was aiming his guns straight at them…

NEXT: The Maverick/Puck rematch! As Alpha Flight arrive at the Weapon X project to discover why it’s in operation again, they encounter not only Maverick, but also a certain Doctor Huxley! And as for Huxley’s plans? Well, it seems he’s unleashed his Weapon X creation against the assembled heroes!