DECLARATION OF WAR

Part II

By Brent Lambert

“Seems we’ve caught their attention,” Fantomex remarked as he ducked a coming energy baton and slammed his knee into the Black Womb agent’s stomach. The impact was enough to send the red armored agent into the air. Fantomex moved fast enough to deliver a kick to the agent’s head while he was still hanging in the air and sent him flying through the ongoing battle and right into a wall. The agent smacked into the metal wall so hard he created a crater.

“Naw they just happened to be strolling through the hall,” Rictor joked as he grabbed one agent by the head and sent enough vibrations through him to level a skyscraper. Needless to say that amount of power was enough to kill the man. Julio didn’t care anymore. All he cared about was freeing his friends and scum that worked for organizations like Black Womb didn’t deserve to live in his mind anyway.

“I’ve got a feeling these guys are just the first line of defense,” Sunspot said as he flew through a crowd of the agents blasting them all in the face as he moved around them. His solar powered blasts were enough to scatter the men like bowling pens.

“I thought Black Womb was supposed to be scary. I’m sucking up these guys like they’re hot cakes. Making sure they have plenty of zombies to distract them in my mind,” Warp Savant laughed. He was able to turn anything into psionic energy and basically put it into his mind. From that point he could have his way with whatever he drained. So he was essentially the mutant version of a hip Freddy Krueger.

“You may have spoken too soon,” Fantomex said as he grabbed one of the agents around his neck and snapped it. He then pointed to the grouping of mutants that were moving through the scores of bodies that had been laid out on the floor by the X-Corps members.

“I recognize them from Department H files. They’re the Marauders…or at least clones of them it looks like,” Northstar reported.

“They’re the ones who massacred the Morlocks,” Sunspot said as he rose into the air above his teammates. Roberto had a feeling that this fight was going to get nasty and he wanted to be in a position that was most advantageous to him.

Shatterstar unsheathed his swords and growled at the oncoming Marauders, “Let these killers taste my blades!”

Fantomex grinned underneath his gray mask as he reloaded his gun, “Glad to see we’re enthusiastic. Take them down, hard and fast!”

Sunspot put his arms in front of him and dove towards the Marauders as he said, “you’re not too bad after all, Fantomex!”

Rictor held out his hands and went into a trance as he sent vibrations through the feet of Marauders. By doing this he enhanced Sunspot’s dive-bomb attack and Roberto became like a bowling ball going through a set of pins. The Marauders were thrown in every direction and that’s when the rest of X-Corps went to work.

Northstar flew forward and slammed into Arclight. He wrapped his arms around the muscular woman and lifted her up into the air. The woman was about to beat her fists across the Canadian’s back, but Northstar began to spin in mid-air and her arms were flung backward from the centrifugal force. Northstar smiled as he began to spin faster and faster. “Enjoy the ride!”

He let Arclight go and the woman went careening through the air until she slammed into a square metal pillar. She hit the pillar right on her back and a sickening snap signaled her splitting in half. Northstar didn’t enjoy the sight, but he was doing what had to be done. They were only clones after all.

As he was descending to the ground he didn’t see Harpoon behind him aiming one of his energy spears. He was beginning to launch the weapon when Fantomex rammed him in the back. The weapon veered in the air and struck Northstar in the shoulder. Jean Paul let out a cry of pain and hit the ground with a smack.

“Bastard!” Harpoon yelled as he turned around to deliver a punch to his attacker, which Fantomex easily ducked. Charging forward, Fantomex jumped into the air and delivered his knee into Harpoon’s nose. Just as the Marauder’s nose was beginning to bleed, Fantomex did a roundhouse kick across the mutant’s temple.

Harpoon hit the ground hard and before he had a chance to react, Fantomex quickly aimed his gun at his opponent’s head. “I should have been your first target.”

There was a single shot and a large chunk of Harpoon’s head was gone. Fantomex was beginning to scan for his next opponent when he saw a limb flying his way. The Neo was able to dodge the appendage, but blood splattered on his white uniform. Looking to the source, Fantomex saw Shatterstar kicking aside the dead body of the Korean mutant, Scrambler.

“Forgive me, my friend. I was a bit too zealous in banishing these scum,” Shatterstar apologized from afar.

Fantomex pointed behind Shatterstar and said, “I think you might want to get a bit more zealous. We have more trouble on the way.”

The son of Mojoworld looked behind him and saw two more groups of Marauders heading their way. He smiled, “Like lambs to the slaughter. Let them come!”

“Help!” Rictor cried out catching the attention of both Fantomex and Shatterstar. Julio had been pressed into a corner by Blockbuster and was being lifted off the ground by the brutish mutant. Rictor struggled to maintain consciousness as he clawed at Blockbuster’s arm. He needed to concentrate to create his vibrations and being pinned against a wall wasn’t helping in that task.

“Go! I can handle this,” Fantomex said to Shatterstar as he began to unload gunfire at the oncoming clones.

Xorn heard the gunfire from Fantomex’s weapons and knew he could easily help his friend vanquish some of those clones, but he was up against the one Marauder who could give him a problem. His gravitational energies were of no use against Prizm, who simply absorbed the energies and redirected them. Xorn had been dodging most of Prizm’s attacks so far, but he could only keep it up so long.

“Give it up fool! More of us are on the way and you’re already being kept on edge,” Prizm boasted as he sent another blast at Xorn.

Xorn would have grinned if he could have, “Or maybe I’ve just been looking at this the wrong way.”

A blue gravitational field appeared underneath Prizm and before the Marauder could react the large square metal tile under him began to float upward. Prizm jumped off the tile and as he was falling through the air Xorn was right there to meet him. With a powerful punch Xorn shattered the living crystal mutant into pieces.

I was trying to use my powers against you when I should have been using them to help myself. It was a strong possibility that you couldn’t survive a punch that hit with the force of an asteroid, Xorn thought as he landed on the ground.

Xorn heard a loud whirling noise and turned to see Riptide. The Marauder had a stare of hate through the spinning vortex of his body. Before Xorn had a chance to react four shuriken stars struck him in the chest and they hit with such force that Xorn flew through the air and rolled across the ground. He was unconscious and breathing slowly.

Shatterstar was only able to spare a second glance at Xorn as he ran to Rictor’s aid. Julio looked desperately to Shatterstar as he slipped into unconsciousness from a lack of air. Shatterstar roared at the sight and flung one of his swords forward. The weapon struck right under Blockbuster’s knee. The Marauder let out a bloody roar and let Rictor’s body drop to the floor.

“I spared you with that blow,” Shatterstar said as he jumped into the air and sent his second sword through the top of Blockbuster’s head. It happened so fast that Blockbuster didn’t even have time to scream. As his body slumped to the floor Shatterstar removed both of his bloody swords. “I do not offer my kindness more than once.”

“We’re in some deep shit here, ‘Star,” Warp Savant said as he stood next to his teammate. “I can bring the wounded into my mind for the time being, but we’ve got more clones to handle.”

“You’re outnumbered and you’re outgunned. We can take care of this.”

Warp Savant gaped at the sight of who had managed to sneak up on Shatterstar and himself. Domina and her Neo had arrived and it seemed that they were on their side. Savant had a hard time swallowing that assumption, but the fact his head wasn’t rolling on the floor already was a good enough reason to believe it.

Shatterstar snarled at the sight of The Neo. “Your help is neither needed nor wanted.”

Domina laughed and said, “You have a warrior’s spirit. It is to be admired, but your two friends are already being pushed into a corner and I doubt the two of you will be of much help to them.”

Warp Savant knew the truth of what Domina was saying. “She’s right Star. We gotta let them help us!”

“So be it,” Shatterstar sighed, “Then let us go onward to battle!”

“I’ll get Northstar, Julio, and Xorn out of here,” Warp Savant said as he bent over Julio. He knew he didn’t need to be in this fight. The Neo were some of the most gruesomely efficient people he had ever seen.

“Yes spike, remove your people. They will only serve as distractions,” Rax said as he aimed his crossbow at one of the Arclight clones and sent a bolt through her eye.

Fantomex looked back and made no expression at the sight of his brethren. If they were here to help he would make no argument about the matter.

Shatterstar ran up beside his teammate and said, “I am not pleased at their presence either my friend.”

“We’ll deal with them after we take care of Black Womb’s experiments,” Fantomex replied as ducked a volley of shurikens from one of the two remaining Riptide clones.

“Mueller didn’t say anything about The Neo showing up,” one of the Arclight clones exclaimed.

Fantomex flipped over a battling Domina and Prizm. He landed right in front of the Arclight clone and kicked her to the ground. He pointed one of his guns directly at her head and asked, “So Mueller is here? Right now?”

“She was. She’s not anymore. She left the moment you clowns decided to sneak into this place,” Arclight said with a smile. One of the Scalphunter clones was sneaking up behind Fantomex with his own gun.

“You shouldn’t smile. Your friend is already dead,” Fantomex said. Arclight just thought he was bluffing, but an energy chain wrapped around Scalphunter’s head and removed it from his body. Fantomex smiled beneath his mask. “The Neo are extremely efficient. And unlike Mueller, none of you will be escaping.”

Amanda Mueller was sprung out in the middle of the floor and crawling along it. She was trying to make her way to the exit door that seemed a thousand miles away. It had all happened so fast. Her escorts were taking her to a getaway plane when a sudden force slammed them all the ground. She seemed to have been the only one to survive the attack as all of her escorts had puddles of blood at their mouths. That let her know whatever had attacked her had something personal against her. It couldn’t be him though. It was impossible! He was supposed to be dead.

“Who’s out there?” Mueller asked as she continued to crawl along the cold, metal floor.

A sinister voice answered her, “An old friend, Amanda. I just wanted to stop for a visit. I see that your work has been progressing nicely.”

A deathly chill crawled up Mueller’s blackened flesh, “You’re supposed to be dead.”

“I have had the opportunity to learn just how fluid death is Amanda. I have also had the opportunity to unleash some of your other experiments. Having them in my service will prove to be most amusing.”

“Which ones?” Amanda groaned as she began to feel a slight headache.

“The Forsaken and Gaunt. I would have taken the Shockwave Riders, but I decided to let them pay you a kindly visit.”

That was where the source of her headache was coming from. Amanda knew what was coming for her. With rage she yelled, “You will never have control of my work!”

The voice laughed long and hard. “Oh my sweet Amanda! I have already taken your work. You were always under my eye and now you have outlived your usefulness. I would tell you what’s on the other side, but I don’t think you deserve the pleasure.”

With that the sound of metal clanking against metal ringed through Amanda’s ears. The elderly woman looked up and saw the cybernetic Neo that she had hoped to possibly sell to Iran or North Korea. Now they were here to be her executioners.

Amanda saw one of the Riders lift up their sword and she muttered her final words. “Make it quick.”

And the sword came down across her neck.

Domina threw the head of the last Marauder clone to the ground and stepped on it with her feet in one last fit of rage. The bloodstained Neo gathered around her.

“You guys saved our necks back there,” Warp Savant said as the standing X-Corps members stood a reasonable distance away from The Neo.

“No need to thank us. We didn’t do it for you. We had come here for some of our captured brethren. We do not need to destroy you today spikes. Take what you will from here and we’ll do the same. Just don’t let our paths cross,” Domina warned as the Neo turned and walked away.

Warp Savant rubbed the back of his head in confusion. “Never thought I’d be happy to see those guys show up.”

“How long till the guys heal up in that head of yours?” Sunspot asked.

“About an hour or two. I can speed up time in my head enough till they’re ready to go. I got them in a hospital filled with beautiful ladies,” Warp Savant smiled.

“I doubt Julio will pay much attention,” Shatterstar commented. “We need to get moving. Cable and the others need us.”

Fantomex put new clips into both of his guns. “Agreed. We don’t know how much time we have left here.”

Sunspot frowned up. “Knowing Shaw we don’t have much time at all.”

“Then let’s move out,” Fantomex said.