DEUS EX MACHINA

By Brent Lambert

with a plot assist from Dino Pollard

Ecstasy wildly tugged at her chains and wished that her powers had some effect on Skin and the other transformed mutants, but their body chemistries were completely alien to her now. The added cybernetics and drugs of Ahab had changed them into something that didn’t even feel human. Her senses were repulsed every time she attempted to reach out to them.

Skin stared at her with blank white eyes and said, “Stop your attempts. We can feel them and they are futile.”

Unholy circuitry was merged into the flesh of Angelo and the other captured mutants. The microchips seemed so small and insignificant, but those tiny machines were helping to keep Stacy’s friends in the hell of Ahab’s servitude. It was a hell those soulless eyes intended to trap her and Fixx in. Part of her was angry at Skin for the current predicament she found herself in. Why wasn’t he able to escape Shaw and warn them? They could have beaten the Psi-Sentinels that way. Those poor children wouldn’t have been made to suffer.

Stop! This is not Angelo’s fault, Stacy thought harshly. She immediately felt shamed for placing any blame on poor Angelo. Those empty eyes were dam walls holding back the floodwaters of Skin’s anguish. She couldn’t begin to imagine the intensity of Skin’s fury as he watched the recruits being altered in the way he was. No one could see it, but that Stacy knew that Angelo was fighting against Ahab with all his might.

Stacy began to struggle, once again, with her restraints and the rattling filled the hollow, dome-roofed laboratory. Skin turned his eyes towards the former Norn and she instantly ceased in her struggle. Those eyes were so deathly devoid of…anything that it rattled her. Looking at him made her feel like she was staring into an empty husk. For a moment she feared that Angelo was lost to them forever. What could possibly exist behind such emptiness? If the eyes were the gateway to the soul then surely Angelo had to be lost to them.

Why was she so conflicted? Maybe the idea of her friends screaming and pleading on deaf ears was too chilling to deal with. Honestly, it was too chilling to think she would soon be like them. Better to be an empty shell. Too much of her had been spent in slavery. She would rather die than to give up her hard earned independence. The Theater of Pain had taught her that some things were far worse than death.

How much longer would it be? How much longer were they going to make her wait? Ahab had every intention of turning them into his lap dogs, so what was the hold up?

“Look,” Fixx suddenly said as she stared off past Skin and to the Psi-Sentinels that were packed into the corners of the lab. Every last one of them was staring up at the roof. What the hell did they see?

Kid Omega moved to Skin’s side and said, “We have a problem. Ahab needs to be informed.”

An ear-splitting screech came from above and everyone in the room looked up to see just what had made it. The source of the sound was plainly obvious. Three men were floating in the middle of the giant gap that use to be the roof. Pink psionic energy was bristling off all of them. The man in the middle was wearing a red cape and had glistening silver armor. It was ridged all over and full of razor sharp edges. On both sides of him were two tall and lanky men. Both were wearing black leather from their necks down and they each had a golden sword in hand. The man to the left had long white hair with glowing red eyes. His opposite had spiky short, white hair and glowing lime eyes.

It was clear to Stacy that this trio was considered a threat. The Psi-Sentinels began to fill the air around them and from their glowing craniums it was clear they were using their special talents. Talents that had caused the majority of X-Corps to be taken down. These three men weren’t even flinching.

“Anyone you know?” Stacy asked. She was fairly new to the world of the X-Men and their affiliates. Identifying friend or foe was not always an easy task for her. She wasn’t the type who liked to study databases. Cerebra was the plague to her.

Fixx shook her head, “No one I know.”

Stacy bit down on her bottom lip and hoped that these three men were friends. If not, they were probably headed into more trouble than they were before.

“Our people are coming. Just sit tight,” Fixx said reassuringly.

Stacy sighed. “They better be. We’re sitting ducks right here.”

The two women continued to watch the spectacle above them as the Psi-Sentinels surrounded the three invaders. The middle man laughed as the robots tried to penetrate his mind. He simply waved his metallic hand and all of the Psi-Sentinels began to shake violently. Their heads all began to explode one by one and like rocks they landed on the linoleum floor with a smack.

Ecstasy tried to utter some words for what had just occurred, but she couldn’t muster them. From what Cable had told her he had some difficultly fighting off the telepathy of those monstrosities. This man in metal and red had just dispelled a large number of them with a simple gesture. She prayed he was an ally.

Landing on the ground, the three men began to walk towards The Hounds led by Skin. There wasn’t any sort of fear on their faces. Ahab had programmed emotion out of them. Stacy would have reached out to see if that really was the case, but part of her wasn’t sure just who was the worst evil in this fight.

“Fugitives: Stryfe, Trajan, and Hadrian surrender yourselves now. No violence will come to you this way,” Skin said in a voice completely not his own. It sounded mechanical and forced.

The spiky haired attacker smacked the armored man on the shoulder and laughed. “Can you believe that big bro? These guys actually think we’re going to surrender.”

“Just go ahead and kill them now bro,” the other attacker said.

“Hadrian and Trajan simmer down now. These are our fellow brothers. They have been abused by the wretched humans, but we can twist their programming to our cause,” Stryfe said as he walked towards Skin. Just as he was about to reach out and touch Skin’s face an unseen force struck Styfe and sent him flying into a table full of test tubes.

“Don’t touch him Stryfe!” Sunspot said angrily. “I don’t know how you’re still alive, but you’re not taking any of my teammates anywhere!”

Kid Omega pounced on the opportunity that Roberto had presented him with and struck out at the three mutants while they were distracted. Stryfe and his companions writhed in pain as Quentin was delivering pain equivalent to a hot nail being driven up your urethra. Sunspot knew that it was Omega attacking Stryfe and Roberto didn’t have a clue what to do. He had flown ahead of his teammates, but now he wished he had stayed back with them. This mess wouldn’t be his to handle.

“You’re about as stubborn as Logan was!” Nightcrawler said, as he appeared only a few feet away from Sunspot. Kurt quickly moved to grab both Fixx and Ecstasy. He placed a hand on each one of them and teleported them away from their bonds.

Ignoring Kurt’s comment Sunspot asked, “Where’s everyone else?”

“Dealing with Psi-Sentinels. They’ll be here soon. What’s wrong?” Kurt asked sensing the distress in Roberto’s voice.

Sunspot gulped back a nervous lump in his throat. “Stryfe’s here for starters.”

“Your friends are free and even now they’re going to confront Stryfe. I would suggest you let us go and aid them as well,” Gamemaster said coolly despite the WHO soldier that was pointing a gun dead center in his face.

Warp Savant laughed and shook his head. “Whoever this Stryfe fellow is I’m sure my guys can handle him without you backstabbers being there.”

“You’ve had these guns in our faces for a few minutes now. Do you intend on doing anything with them?” Sebastian asked angrily.

Candra smiled. “Too late for him to. NOW!”

With her exclamation the guns of the soldiers were suddenly snapped in two by her telekinesis and the Hellfire Club were atop the soldiers with amazing speed. Shaw grabbed his soldier and slammed him into the ground by his throat. Candra gave two of the soldiers major strokes by busting open arteries in their brains telekinetically. Astra disposed the rest of the men as she transported them all to some hellish dimension.

Suddenly, Warp Savant was all alone and the eyes of the Hellfire Club turned on him. He shrugged and said, “Hey I thought Stryfe was the bigger problem here!”

“He’s right. My Hounds have already reported to me via our comm.-link. Stryfe and his two companions are currently engaging the members of X-Corps,” Ahab said.

Shaw rubbed his chin for a moment and said, “Then there is no need for us to confront Stryfe directly. Let the members of X-Corps deal with him as they see fit.”

“Father you can’t expect me to just abandon this facility! It didn’t come cheaply!”

Sebastian glared at his son and unsympathetically said, “We’re leaving. Now. We have more than enough resources to pick up the pieces. We lose a little today, but gain far more tomorrow.”

Gamemaster turned to Warp Savant and pointed towards the door. “Go to your friends. They’ll be needing you.”

He didn’t like just letting these guys go, but he didn’t really have a choice. Besides, if Gamemaster was telling the truth then his priority lied with his friends. His teammates needed him and he wasn’t about to fail them now. “Alright. But you bastards just know we’re going to come after you. One way or another.”

Sebastian smiled. “I wouldn’t expect anything less from Xavier’s brood.”

Fantomex fired a shot at Stryfe, which was promptly blocked by his telekinesis. That move had allowed Cable enough time to move in and deliver a telekinetically packed punch to his archrival. When he hit the ground Cable put a boot into his face and said, “I don’t know how the hell you crawled back to the land of the living, but you better start talking and now!”

“Why talk? Just read my mind,” Stryfe said through a bloodied mouth.

Dayspring reached out to the mind of Stryfe and he saw everything he needed to know. “Where is he?”

“I wouldn’t know. I don’t know where any of them are. I only found Trajan and Hadrian because they were in the same facility with me,” Stryfe said with a boot still in his face.

Cable pulled his boot back and helped Stryfe to his feet. “Fine. Let’s talk.”

“Don’t we need to take care of your Hound friends first? They’ve been causing my boys and yours quite a bother. Especially that Quire child,” Stryfe said with an evident sneer.

“They’re our friends. We’re not trying to hurt them.”

Stryfe nodded. “Fair enough.”

“Tell your boys to help mine.”

Stryfe smiled. “Already did. Before you even read my mind. I knew what you saw in there would be convincing enough.”

Leyu wasn’t quite sure why Cable had just helped Stryfe up off the ground, but she didn’t really have time to ask as she was trying to avoid the punches of Skin. She had picked him because she was hoping that maybe she could break through to him. Stop whatever Ahab had done to him.

“Angelo it’s me! It’s Leyu!”

Skin just kept coming relentlessly. Punch after punch. He wasn’t stopping and Leyu could only dodge so many times. She refused to use her powers though. They had too much potential to cause lasting harm to Angelo. That was a risk she was not going to take.

“C’mon Angelo stop this! You can take control!”

This time a punch landed. Right in Leyu’s gut and she collapsed onto the floor out of breath and in complete despair as Skin moved to stomp on her head. With the force he had punched her with he would probably break her skull. She closed her eyes as his foot came down, but to her utter amazement it stopped only inches from her.

The Hound’s body was shaking. “Le…le…Leyu…puh…lease!”

Tears were streaming down Leyu’s face and she quickly rose to her feet. Holding out her arms she said, “That’s right Angelo! Fight it! Fight him! You can do it!”

“So…so…sorry,” Angelo managed to mutter out as he fainted and fell right into Leyu’s arms.

She began to stroke his hair. “I got you. I got you. It’s going to be alright.”

Psylocke ran up beside Leyu and asked, “Is he alright?”

Leyu nodded. “I think he is. Ahab’s programming wasn’t as potent as he thought.”

Betsy smiled compassionately. “No it wasn’t. Angelo’s made of tougher stuff than that. Everyone else has been taken care of as well.”

Looking at the circuitry on his face Leyu asked somberly, “How are we going to fix this?”

“Don’t worry about that luv. X-Corps has more than its fair share of connections. He’s going to be alright.”

“Alright I think someone should start explaining,” Havok said as he walked up to Cable with Trajan and Hadrian behind him. Only moments ago they had been trying to behead Alex and just as quickly they were helping him battle off Spyke and Tattoo.

Cable looked to his uncle and said, “Black Womb has managed to capture X-Man.”

Havok let that sink in for a just a moment and asked, “I’m guessing this isn’t our traditional Stryfe then?”

“No. I’m based off of the genetic template as are my two brothers,” Stryfe said.

Alex gently smacked his forehead. “Man oh fucking man.”

Wisdom walked up to the gathering with Nightcrawler in tow and said, “But I’m sure it gets worse. It always does.”

Stryfe nodded grimly. “Trajan and Hadrian were part of Black Womb’s Project: Roman. Essentially, Amanda has used the DNA of Nate Grey as a springboard to create a whole assortment of psychic warriors. There’s at least one for every Roman Emperor and I haven’t the slightest clue where the rest of them might be.”

“Mein gott! The insanity of Black Womb knows no bounds!”

“I need to find my brothers. I have two strong sources that I think might have an idea of what direction to point me in. Sebastian Shaw or The Neo,” Stryfe said catching the attention of Fantomex.

The Neo finished helping put Kid Omega on a makeshift stretcher and moved to the crowd. He looked Stryfe directly in the eye and said, “You don’t want to go looking for The Neo. If they find out you’re a product of Black Womb they will kill you without hesitation.”

Sensing the threat in his tone Stryfe wrapped his cape around himself and said, “I think it is time for us to go brothers. Stay out of my way X-Corps and I’ll stay out of yours.”

After he was gone Havok asked, “Can we trust him?”

Cable shook his head fiercely, “No. I picked up on one tiny thing as he was leaving.”

Wisdom tossed his cigarette to the floor and smashed it, “Should I even ask?”

“Essex.”

That name got a rise out of everyone who was within hearing range of it. Fantomex said bluntly, “Who better to help someone track down people based off the DNA of a Summers?”

Havok couldn’t argue with him. “Who better indeed.”

Psylocke quickly interrupted the melancholy exchange. “While you boys are off having cryptic conversations we have people that need tending. And has anyone even thought to look for Juggernaut yet?”

With that question everyone looked around at each other and Havok shrugged his shoulders. “I guess in all the commotion we forgot about him.”

Ahab strapped in his belt as the plane began to lift off and he looked over to Shaw with a smile. Sebastian returned it and said, “So I assume you were able to bring aboard your cargo?”

“Yes. The big brute was quite a fit, but I couldn’t risk losing him as a potential Hound. Someone that can go head to head with The Hulk is not a prize you so easily give up.”

“Well, at least one profitable thing came out of capturing X-Corps,” Candra said.

The insult rolled off of Sebastian. “Of course my dear. And you’ll find what I have waiting at home all the more exciting.”

Two Days Later

Wisdom was seated behind a desk, much to his own displeasure, hearing a briefing from Bishop. The man was as procedural as they came and Wisdom could only imagine how much it irked him having to deal with a man like himself. Peter knew the black ops game better than most though and for X-Corps to make it they would have to listen to him. At least for now.

“So you didn’t find a blasted thing?”

Bishop shook his head. He was confirming what he had found for the fourth time. “No, Wisdom. Juggernaut wasn’t anywhere in that complex. Fantomex and I searched it from top to bottom.”

“Shite. Just what I need. You know Ahab probably has him don’t ya? Damn Juggernaut as a Hound is too much to deal with!”

Ignoring his ranting Bishop said, “What would you like for us to do?”

He leaned back in his chair and propped his black boots on the desk. Loosening up his tie and putting his hands behind his head, Wisdom finally said, “Nothing. I don’t want to agitate the Hellfire Club at the moment. Ahab will strike with him when’s ready to and knowing that fanatic it’ll be soon. Right now though we got other pressing matters to deal with.”

The door to the office suddenly flew open and Havok quickly walked in accompanied by Xorn and Ecstasy. Wisdom smiled. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“I’ve just come to inform you that the three of us are leaving X-Corps effective immediately,” Havok said.

The smile of Wisdom quickly faded away. “What the hell? You’re leaving when this organization needs you the most?”

Xorn stepped from behind Alex and said with a calm, gentle voice, “The ways of X-Corps are not working for the three of us. They’re not effective enough. We do not leave in malice and ask that you do not take any hard feeling over the matter.”

Wisdom groaned. “You always have a way of making things sound so peachy Xorn. Alright I’m not pissed. We need to cut back on numbers anyway, but still…why?”

“I think I’ve come up with an idea that might prove to be beneficial to all of Xavier’s lot. Even X-Corps,” Alex said.

Bishop had remained quiet the entire time and would remain so. It was not his place to say anything in this affair and honestly, it was one less hothead he would have to deal with. Havok was too much of a stubborn leader, Xorn held back too much, and Ecstasy was too much of a loose cannon. Truthfully, Bishop didn’t see any harm in them leaving, but he wouldn’t voice it. He would just let events unfold around him.

“Well then do what you feel is best,” Wisdom said. “I just hope you don’t regret whatever it is you plan on doing.”

Alex laughed. “Me and regret don’t get along much. I’ll see you around Wisdom. Take care.”

After the three mutants had left the office Bishop said, “We’re better off without them.”

“Maybe, but I would have at least liked Xorn to have stuck around. His gravity abilities would have been helpful against Juggernaut,” Wisdom said and then there was silence for a moment. “I’ve changed my mind Bishop.”

“About what?”

“About waiting for Juggernaut to show up. Take Meltdown, Mimic, Kid Omega, Bedlam, and Maverick with you.”

Bishop nodded and was about to head out the door when Wisdom said, “Oh and one more thing!”

Looking back Bishop could only hope that it was something serious and not one of his idoitic remarks. How he ever managed to get experience in his field of work was beyond Bishop.

“Try to capture Ahab if you can. He’s a second priority, but it would be nice to have him for interrogation.”

Later That Night

“I called you guys here for one specific reason tonight,” Bishop said to his fellow future refugees, Archer and Fixx. “I want the two of you to leave X-Corps.”

Fixx already had that intention in mind, but she was not happy that Bishop was now ordering her to do it. “Where do you get off telling me where to stay and go?”

“I am not trying to force you two out of X-Corps, but I have a bad feeling about things. The events we have just went through felt all too much like the events that led up to our future. I thought our presence here was changing things, but it just doesn’t seem to be working that way.”

“So what are you saying?” Archer, the man of pure energy, asked.

“I want the two of you to have normal, peaceful lives while the opportunity is still there. The struggle is where I’m most at home, but that isn’t the case for you two. We all came back to this period for a purpose and that purpose may even be beyond our understanding, but I think the two of you deserve a chance at real happiness,” Bishop said and then added, “Besides when the struggle does come I want to know I have two people out there I can count on waiting on the sidelines.”

Fixx smiled. “Bishop getting sensitive on us. Never thought I would see the day. Well, I’m taking the kids with me. Spkye and Omega say they want to stay behind, but the others are ready to pack their bags. I called up Cooper. She’s going to set us up with some temporary housing.”

“And I need to find out just who Jude Black was. I was on my way to doing that before all this trouble went down. I guess I’ll just get back to it,” Archer said.

“Good. And if the two of you could check on Shard from time to time.”

“Yeah,” Fixx said with a bit of hesitation. “You got it Bishop.”

Why the hell is he being so melancholy, Fixx thought to herself. She backed away from Bishop and left the room. The thought plagued her for the rest of the night.

“Did you give him the glimpse?” a woman barely clothed in fine blue silks said from atop a metallic throne.

“Yes, just enough to torture him,” her messenger replied. He was a young man who delighted in the pain of others. Especially those who lived in such a barbaric era.

The woman’s thin lips parted into a smile. “Good. Let them choke on his vision.”