GENETIC ECLIPSE

Part XI: Dancing in the Dark

By David Wheatley

Author’s Note: This story is continued from Genetic Eclipse: Gambit #1

Just being in this place makes the beast within me growl, and I think about how I ended up here.

I got a telepathic call from Jean Grey that Shadowcat had been captured by Apocalypse and that the X-Men were facing off against his Horsemen.

That left me to go the rescue, but Madripoor had just begun a bloody civil war. However, I left anyway and I arrived in Japan, only to be confronted by a mystery and a solution. I headed to my office in the corporate headquarters of the Clan Yashida and placed a call to the Princess in Chicago only to learn Kitty hadn’t been captured.

I don’t like tricks and was about to go back to Madripoor, when I saw him. In my office, which was a surprise, as I didn’t sense him come in.

Gateway.

“You do this, bub?” I asked, but he didn’t answer. However, he began to twirl his bullroarer, opening a portal from Japan to Egypt. Gateway’s not steered me wrong yet, and he seems to have taken an interest in my activities.

The portal took me to Egypt about a week or so into the future, just after Kitty had been captured, when I received the message from Jean when it was supposed to arrive. Except at this time I’m in Madripoor fighting the war. Gateway’s managed to arrange it so I’m in two places at once.

‘Why?’ is a question I’ve asked myself, but it looks like he’ll send me back to almost the moment I left. Which means that both of these are important. I knew where they’d take Kitty, so I made my way there and worked my way around the citadel.

Before I can do anything about this situation, Professor X contacts me, letting me know the other X-Men have been attacked. I explain the current situation with me and later he contacts me again, to let me know that Gambit is on his way to Egypt to get the data that they need. I let him know of the warp chambers that get LeBeau here quicker than the Blackbird ever could and as soon as he enters, I’ll know from his scent.

What I have to do is find Kitty, and then we have to keep the Dark Riders busy whilst Gambit completes his mission. That’s gonna be the hard part, as finding my way through this place isn’t difficult.

I may have been regressed to an animal, but I do remember. The cries of the Dark Riders as I hacked through them, the feeling of power as I sliced through Genesis as if he were made of paper. Not the greatest moment in my chequered history.

Now I’m here again, with all-new Dark Riders to face for the life of Kitty Pryde. They’re gonna kill her, and it’s time I make my move.

*SHLUCKT!*

“I wouldn’t do that, bub, if I were you.”

Then I can sense Gambit’s scent in the air. He’s nearby. All I have to do is buy him some time, keep the Riders focused on me. Two of ’em have scents familiar to me, but I recognise their faces. The main one is called Tusk – a big bruiser of a man, whose mutant power is to create little extensions of himself.

He wasn’t there when Genesis made his move, but he was there when Stryfe made his. Gutted quite a few of his extensions before I got side-whacked by Gauntlet on the moon. However, he ain’t the surprise. Danielle is.

“Dani,” I growl at her. She’s been a New Mutant, a Valkyrie in Asgard, and a member of S.H.I.E.L.D. who infiltrated the Mutant Liberation Front before going to X-Force. Seems like she’s adding another piece to her resume.

“Logan,” she answers calmly. Her original power was to project someone’s worst fears at them, an image at first, solid later. Then they became more solid, in the form of psionic arrows. Plus there’s that weird energy thing about her as well. They’re the thing that bother me most. They’re unknown, as is the other fella.

“You three want a piece of Pryde, you’re gonna have to go through me.”

“We’re more than up to the task, Wolverine,” insists the third member of the Dark Riders. I smile, not just because of the taunts I’m giving whilst we all weigh up the options, but because LeBeau’s scent is getting fainter.

“There were more Dark Riders when I sliced through them last time I was here. What makes you think you’ve got any better chance?”

“Me,” answers Dani. “I’m in charge here.”

“Coulda sworn that was En Sabah Nur,” I answer. Dani’s a good leader. She was with the New Mutants, and S.H.I.E.L.D. trained her to be the best as well. Between the unknowns and the knowns, this might be difficult.

“Plus,” says Tusk, “you haven’t got the adamantium to cut through my extensions like last time.”

“Wouldn’t need it to gut you six ways of Sunday,” I answer.

“Bring it on, little man,” he says, and about a dozen extensions appear. I ain’t ever seen much more than that, so I guess he must be at his limit. However the odds are still fifteen to one against me. I like those odds and as soon as Kitty recovers, it’ll be fifteen to two.

“Trial, bring on the hounds,” Dani says to the third member of the group, and he smiles.

“With pleasure,” he grins, but Kitty’s one step ahead of him. The guy’s too cocky and forgot to keep an eye on her. She phases through him but instead of passing through him, stays inside him a moment longer than normal, occupying his physical space with her own.

Not only does he spark and fall to the floor, as what appear to be cybernetics explodes within him, but the sheer disregard for the laws of physics shoves him in to a stupor.

One down, fourteen to go.

“Catch, pun’kin!” I shout as I throw her a little something I picked up in Japan. She catches it and smiles, knowing its importance.

“Thanks, Logan,” she calls back, brandishing the Honour Sword of the Clan Yashida. Between that and my claws, this battle will go a lot easier. “I’ll take Tusk and his Tuskettes.”

“Prefer extensions,” I mutter as I nod. Cyclops called them extensions in his reports on the battle with Stryfe, as well as reporting Tusk wasn’t the brightest of the Dark Riders. Seems Slim was accurate in that assessment, because now he sounds like a sixties pop group.

That leaves Danielle and me. I owe her for Asgard, but if she’s working for Apocalypse then I might have to kill her. As one of our own, she deserves a chance. Still, if these things were easy, anyone could do them.

“You ain’t gonna scare me, Dani,” I say. “An’ you aren’t fast enough to nail me with one of those arrows o’ yers.”

“Really?” she says. “How about a psionic energy blast?” And she unleashes one of the strange powers she’s gotten. I easily dodge, but that was close. I wasn’t expectin’ it, and my head’s ringing from it even without it connecting.

“Never announce what you’re gonna do,” I remind her. “Unless yer fakin’ it.” She nods forms a psionic blade and away we go.

Kitty Pryde doesn’t have time to reflect on everything that has happened to her in the past day or so. All she knows is that she and Logan have to get past the Dark Riders, regroup with the X-Men, and finish Apocalypse.

As she slashes left and right with the sword, slicing Tuskettes with precision and phasing through them, avoiding them as much as possible, she begins to wonder if this is hopeless.

In a sense she is glad that it’s Logan who has come to rescue her, and not the others, though she wishes for better odds. She isn’t one-hundred percent fighting fit after her recent ordeals but she’s ready to give it a go, and with Logan here – the man who has trained her, given her focus – she knows she isn’t going to disappoint.

Yes, there are times when the man scares her stupid, but she knows that is his way. She and the other X-Men accept it. As she fights through the Tuskettes, she sees a resurgence of the savageness she had possessed when she had swapped souls with Sabretooth for a short time.

It helps her focus her anger, frustration, and pain of the last few days, and these people are about to kill her. She’s stopping short of that – albeit just barely – but she’s working hard and as fast as she’s decimating the ranks of the Tuskettes, Tusk is creating more to take their place, withdrawing them into himself then sending them out good as new.

The tactic isn’t working, they need a new one before they’re over-run. Trialis still down and out, and Kitty has a sense of satisfaction about that. A quick glance to Logan and she sees he’s on the verge of cutting loose and taking Dani out.

That isn’t what she wants to see happen. After all, Warren had been freed of the conditioning that had made him Death, along time ago. Perhaps Dani could do the same.

She feints and rolls as a Tuskette comes at her, getting back to back with Logan.

Kitty’s fending them off well, I can see that. However, Dani’s not holding back either. She’s using her newfound talents as well as her S.H.I.E.L.D. training to fend me off quite admirably.

I’m holding back. I don’t want to hurt her, but the events in Madripoor are starting to weigh on me. I’m feeling the need to cut loose, and I’m getting tired of dancing with her. Friend or no, it looks like I’m going to have to kill her.

The same emotions were there when I faced Elektra in the fortress of Chen Yu. Except there’s no love from me protecting Dani. I’ll grieve for her later. Just as I’m about to go for her, I feel Kitty pressing up against my back.

She brings me back from what I was about to do. We don’t need to exchange words, she knows. She’ll face Dani, and I’ll take out my aggressions on Tusk and his extensions. I need a workout, not a therapy session.

I let Dani come in close, and as she unleashes another blast of energy, Kitty phases us both, placing her hands on my shoulders and flipping over me to face Dani, solidifying her foot, and booting her in the face. As she moves she passes me the sword.

She wants to face her as herself. Which is fine by me as I retract my claws. This is going to be fun, because unlike Kitty, I’ve no qualms about shoving the sword through these extensions all the way. See how long it takes Tusk to fix them when they’re dead. Within moments, I’m at the man himself.

It seemed way too easy, and I wonder why? Does he know Gambit’s here? Has he sent the extensions to deal with LeBeau? There’s too much noise in here to tell if any alarms are going off, unless it’s something keyed to the Dark Rider’s personally. That would make a lot of sense, and if it’s right, then Gambit’s gonna have company.

I hope not, because as good as LeBeau is, no way he can deal with the extensions alone. However, if I can distract Tusk enough, he might get a chance to slow the extensions down and regroup with Kitty and me. I slam the sword in to the rock floor, embedding it.

“Don’t need a longer reach to take you down, bub,” I say.

“Payback time, X-Man. The revenge of the Dark Riders.” He comes towards me, and I leapfrog over him, landing behind him as the claws come out.

*SCHLUKT!*

“Hope you put up a better fight than they did.” He doesn’t know how much I regret what went down, how far I went, but as long as I can keep the bravado going, then maybe I can unnerve him a little.

Kitty faces off against Danielle. Two old friends, now mortal adversaries.

Dani suddenly tenses, then notes that the Tuskettes have mostly gone and smiles as she forms a psi lance, knowing the energy blast won’t affect someone who can phase. However, psionic weapons can. Kitty shivers slightly at the memory of her earlier interrogation, but stands back.

“I’m not going to fight you, Dani,” she speaks to her opponent, her voice calm, her mind going through techniques and disciplines shown to her by Psylocke on how to defend against psionic weapons. What she does remember is that the weapons forge a momentary link between the two of them and maybe, just maybe, it will shock Dani back to reality.

It’s a risk, but risk is part of the job when you wear the mark of Xavier.

“You’re a fool, Pryde,” spits Dani, not approaching. “Apocalypse has shown me the way, the truth.”

“The truth is often the light, so why are you a Dark Rider?” says Kitty, using basic logic.

“I…” Dani hesitates a moment. “No, you’re just trying to confuse me, and it won’t work!” She slams the psionic lance forwards, and Kitty braces herself for the pain as it connects, slicing through her mental defences like paper.

For a moment their minds touch, and both women scream out loud as both see the truth reflected in the other.

For Katherine Pryde, she sees the depths of the alterations that Apocalypse has used on her friend, how she truly believes in what she is now, how the Danielle Moonstar she knew is dead and buried, in her place a dark and vindictive spectre. She experiences what Apocalypse did and what he promised, and she knows she will never be the same again…

For Danielle Moonstar, she sees the depths that have made Katherine Pryde a different person to the one she knew. Her time in Excalibur, her relationship with Pete Wisdom, the death of her father, the separation of the X-Men, her rift with Xavier, and how instead of becoming a bitter, twisted individual, she has gained strength, matured, grown, and accepted things. She sees a light in her that she thought she would never see, and she knows she will never be the same again…

Then Dani falls as an explosion knocks her to her feet, barely a moment after her connection with Kitty.

“Kitty! Petite!” cries a voice that Kitty only barely hears.

“Gambit?” she whispers, before sinking into the dense oblivion Dani has created for her.

Tusk’s taken quite a bit of damage and he hasn’t touched me once. He hasn’t produced any extensions either, so they must be occupied.

I confirm it as I taste the air and sense Gambit and the extensions heading this way. I know we don’t have much time left, so I have to end this quickly.

Tusk comes down, a grin on his face as his extensions come closer, and I can see some of them holding vials. He needs to focus to carry them without spilling the vials, and his need to concentrate on them means he doesn’t concentrate on me as much. I slam his nose with my fist, retracting my claws before I do so, and the fear of them penetrating his head scaring him into a momentary lapse. His extensions stop in the middle of the room, some of them felled by Gambit’s projectiles. There’s now only one of them left standing.

As I feel his nose bend under my fist, I lift my leg and kick him in the lower abdomen. Normally I’d aim for the chest, but he’s a lot taller than I am. It’s still enough to send him back and over on to the floor. In seconds, I’m on top of him and two claws are out, surrounding his face, the middle claw just poking out of my wrist, pressing onto his jaw.

“Have him give me the vial, bub,” I tell him, “or I’ll show you why three’s your unlucky number.” As he does so, I hear Kitty and Dani scream and turn to look, just in time to see Gambit knock Dani out with a couple of charged projectiles.

Foolish of me, because as I look, Tusk throws me off, towards the others. I land with a thud, my ribs cracking, and it’s suddenly hard to breath. As I look up, waiting for my healing factor to kick in, I see Tusk’s extensions start to surround us, and Trial’s getting up as well, collecting the vials from the extensions.

“Logan?” asks Gambit.

“Hold on,” I wheeze. “Ribs shattered… punctured a lung. Healing factor… kicking in.”

“Not do you much good if we’re dead, mon ami,” he coms back. Tusk’s extensions are getting closer, but I can also smell other things in here as well.

“LeBeau, can you see Phalanx?”

“Mon dieu!” he answers, which I take to mean yes.

“Gentlemen,” announces Trial. “These hounds are indeed based on Phalanx. However, we cannot stay to watch them destroy you. We have business elsewhere. A legacy to distribute.” He chuckles, leaving us in no doubt as to what he means.

“Logan,” says Kitty, coming round slowly, “we have to stop them. If that Legacy Virus gets out and infects humanity…”

“I know, darlin’,” I answer, “but we can’t get past these extensions and the hounds.” Then I see them start to fade out – some kind of teleportation device. Even Dani’s going with ’em. We’re alone, and the hounds are advancing toward us.

Back in Madripoor…

“We commit the body of Jessica Hoan to the Earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust,” the priest says as the coffin of Tyger Tiger is lowered into the grave.

The burial provides a respite in the fighting, giving Elektra, Jessica, and Yukio time to rest. In the background, David watches the funeral and pulls a communicator from his pocket.

“Wondered when you’d call.”

“Don’t be like that, Davey.”

“You never said Tyger would get it.”

“We never expected it to happen. The predictions…”

“Were wrong, man! And it cost Tyger Tiger her life.”

“I’m sorry, Dave,” came the voice. “If we’d known…”

“Too late, fella. What do you want?”

“A status report.”

“The country’s going to hell. Logan’s been called away, and we’re short-staffed. What’s Zoe said?”

“You’re it, Davey. LL&L won’t send anyone else in.”

“Thanks for nothing, Wraith. Is Logan’s destiny worth the cost?”

“Apparently so. I don’t like it any more than you do, but my hands are tied.”

“Are mine?”

“You’re the LL&L agent in Madripoor. You know the autonomy that goes with that. Just don’t…”

“Give away more than I have to. If I live through this I’ll be in touch. Goldfish out.” David makes his way down towards the women. “Any sign?”

“Not yet,” admits Elektra. “At least both sides have enough respect to stop fighting for the funeral.”

“You okay?” asks Jessica of David, seeing the anger in his eyes.

“No, I’m not,” he says. “Let’s get back to the Princess.”

On a hillside overlooking the cemetery, three figures watch as the funeral takes place.

“You did well, X,” says the tall man, pushing his glasses up as they slide down in the rain.

“Thank you, Professor.”

“I think the time for illusions has ended, don’t you ‘Professor’?” says the third man.

“Yes, ‘Cornelius’,” comes the answer as the two men shimmer, the Doctor becoming Aldo Ferro – the Psi-Borg – and the Professor becoming a tall creature, covered in white fur, surrounded by mystical green flames and power sparkling like stars at its fingertips.

“Who are you?” asks X.

“Your creators, Experiment X,” says Ferro. “You are what the results of Project X should have been, and together we will destroy the man named Logan, taking away everything which he holds dear, then taking away his life.”

“Death to the first one,” says X.

“Excellent,” says the ‘Doctor’. “Let his allies rest. Then we shall tear this island apart.”

Read X-Men #13, Uncanny X-Men #16, & Apocalypse #10 for parts 12-14 of Genetic Eclipse!

NEXT ISSUE: Wolverine returns to Madripoor, to save the island he calls home. Truths are revealed, identities discovered, and alliances formed as we start Revelations – the sequel to The Past!