SOLD TO RUSSIA

By Brent Lambert

The cold wind blew over the seven mutants fiercely. It chilled them all to the core. Even with their highly insulated leather outfits, they could still feel the freeze of the Russian wind. No one under normal circumstances would tread through this dense snow that came up to their ankles and the blistering wind that turned eyelashes into icicles. These weren’t normal circumstances, though – these guys were X-Factor and this is what they did. They were America’s mutant team and they went wherever they were needed.

A woman with long, straight red hair and a fair complexion turned her body to the side to keep the wind from blasting her in the face. She was one of the newer members of the X-Factor team. Her name was Ms. Witch and she could easily have used her mutant ability, to tap into any magical source and have an innate understanding of it, to ease her and her teammates’ suffering. The only problem was she could only use so much power a day and she didn’t want to waste any of it out here.

“How the hell did we end up out here again?” Ms. Witch complained.

Lorna would have scowled at the woman’s question, but she was too cold to make any facial expressions at the moment. “We’re here to save a little girl last I checked.”

“Couldn’t saving her be less cold?” Red Lotus, one of the other new members of X-Factor, remarked. The former Triad assassin was used to the warmth of Hong Kong, so the freezing cold of Russia was an entirely new experience to him. When he joined X-Factor as a way of getting all of the murder charges against him dropped, he had no idea he’d be doing this.

“Stop complaining and keep moving!” Vargas exclaimed as he walked through the icy wind without even flinching. He stood tall and his face wasn’t even turned. His black cloak blew heavily in the wind and his hair, which was the same jet-black color, along with it.

“I couldn’t agree more. We’re only less than half a mile away from Yvon’s headquarters,” Forge said as he looked at his handheld computer screen that had a grid map of the entire area on it. The grid lines were neon green, the background black, and the HQ of Yvon was a bleeping blue light.

Three days ago

Polaris and Forge walked into the office of Valerie Cooper and found her hard at work scanning through manila folders and reading up on official documents. Cooper was so hard at work that she didn’t even realize that the two mutants had walked into her office. It wasn’t until she decided to take a sip of her black coffee that she noticed the green-haired woman and the Native American man standing right in front of her red oak door.

“About time you two showed up. You really need to work on the punctuality,” Valerie advised as she moved some of her work to the side. She held out her hands to invite the two mutants to sit in the two hard metal seats in front of her aging plywood desk.

“I’m sorry I can’t accommodate the two of you better, but the budget has been strained as of late.”

Forge sat down in the seat and shook his head. “Don’t worry Valerie. We don’t expect to be accommodated. So you have a new mission for us?”

Pushing up her glasses with one finger Valerie said, “Yes, I do have a mission for all of you. It’s a rescue mission.”

Cooper sorted through her stack of documents and handed Polaris a red manila folder. Upon opening it up Lorna saw the picture of a little girl. She looked like she was about twelve. “So what’s the situation with this little girl?”

“Her name is Joan Arkdike. She is the daughter of a Senatorial Assistant and she is a mutant. Her father sold her on the black market to a certain Russian trader by the name of Yvon Rendom. It is imperative that she is bought back,” Valerie stressed.

Forge’s face wrinkled up. “We have no jurisdiction in Russia, though. When we go on this mission we will be totally on our own, won’t we?”

Polaris handed Valerie back the red manila folder with the picture of Joan in it. Valerie took the folder and leaned back in her black leather plush chair. She narrowed her eyes and looked at Forge. “Yes, you will be on your own. Remember this: you work for us. If we want you to be on your own you’ll damn well do it.”

“Why is saving this girl so important anyway?” Polaris asked.

“Because it could be detrimental to the American image in the international eye. We can’t have that happening. Is that understood?”

The two mutants rose up from their uncomfortable seats and walked to the door. Looking back Forge said, “Understood. We’ll prep the team for the mission and be on our way.”

“Excellent,” the government liaison said as Forge closed the door.

Present day

“I thought you said this Rendom guy lived in Moscow,” Fatale said. She was the most surprising member of this new X-Factor, especially considering that she had tried to kill some of the members of this team on multiple occasions. Valerie had taken her onto the team for reasons she had yet to disclose to the older members. The same went for the rest of the new members of the team.

“He does live in Moscow. His base of operations however is outside of the city,” Forge explained over the howling of the icy wind.

“Come on everyone! We need to catch up to Shard! I don’t want her getting into something without us because we couldn’t keep up,” Vargas said. Shard was a photon-based lifeform so temperatures didn’t matter to her. This icy wind and freezing snow felt the same to Shard as if she was at Panama City Beach.

“Maybe she should wait up for the rest of us, dammit!” Red Lotus said as he trudged through the ice.

“Keep moving! The more you talk the less you walk,” Forge said.

“It’s kinda hard to tell seeing as how I can’t feel my legs,” Red Lotus replied.

All of X-Factor stared up at the large gray metal wall that was to the entrance into Yvon Rendom’s headquarters. It was an awe-inspiring while at the same time depressing sight.

“So anyone have a clue how we’re going to get into this base?” Red Lotus asked through chattering teeth.

“You know the plan already. Shard and you will pretend to mutant buyers while the rest of us will sneak into Yvon’s base and rescue Joan.”

Red Lotus huffed out a cold breath. “You always have a way of making it seem so easy, Lorna.”

“Fatale, are you ready to take us in there?” Forge asked.

A portal opened up behind Fatale. “I studied the layouts of this place long enough. I’m ready. The question is, are the rest of you?”

“We’re ready. Just get us in there,” Polaris said with a clipped tone. She still didn’t like the idea of Fatale being on the same team with her one bit. Especially after all the woman had done to Alex and her relationship with him.

“Of course, leader. Everyone just follow behind me,” Fatale smiled as she stepped through her portal. Forge and Vargas followed in after her. Ms. Witch stepped in next and Polaris was the last to enter the portal. Once Lorna had stepped through the portal it closed down with a loud boom.

“If that doesn’t get those guys attention I don’t know what will,” Red Lotus laughed.

The large steel door slowly began to split open and once it was passable, Shard and Red Lotus stepped through to find themselves in a much warmer environment. Red Lotus was the only one who noticed. “Man what is this place? The Savage Land or something?”

A young Russian man with slick black hair and piercing eyes stepped out from a corridor with three heavily armored guards behind him. “Hardly the Savage Land, my friend. It’s just that all of our facilities are underground so we have quite the heat output. So I assume you two were the ones making all the noise out there?”

“Your assumption would be right, sir. I heard Yvon Rendom has some of the best mutants on the market. We came to see if what we heard is true,” Shard said as she walked up to Yvon, trying to pull off the best ‘come and get me’ walk she could. She was hardly the type for trying to seduce someone. That was more Fatale’s department, but she was essential to the infiltration of the base so Shard has to play the part of seductress.

“Then you’ve come to the right place my dear. We have some of the top mutants you can find on the black market. Come with me to my office. There we can talk more,” Yvon said as he turned his back to the two mutants.

“Sounds good to me. Anything to get back to some warmth,” Red Lotus remarked.

“Ahh, so my mother country’s climate does not suit you? I understand that. I hardly like it myself,” Yvon smiled.

“So do we have any idea where this little girl is at?” Fatale asked as she walked down the damp and musty hall with her teammates. If one had asked the woman a few months ago if she’d ever work with X-Factor she probably would have killed you on the spot. Now the fact that she was on the team was almost mind-numbing to Fatale.

“Absolutely no clue my dear, but I’m working on it,” Forge said as he held in his hand a large circular device. In the center of the device there was a white screen filled with pink, red, and yellow dots all over. The shaman pressed a blue triangle-shaped button at the top of the device and it made a very loud bleeping sound.

“What are you trying to do here Forge? We might as well just have bought some dynamite with us and set it off. It’d be just as noticeable.”

“Calm yourself Vargas. My magic is keeping us from being seen or heard,” Ms. Witch explained. The Spaniard looked down at the woman to see that her hands were glowing a dull purple color.

“Your magic can only protect us for so long Miss Witch. Then what happens?”

“Then we fight, Vargas. Simple as that,” Polaris said.

Fatale walked up beside Forge and looked over his shoulder. “Care to explain what does this device exactly do?”

“It detects every mutant in a given vicinity. In our case it would be this base. Then it breaks down the mutants into Beta, Alpha, and Omega classes. Red, which dominates the screen, means Alpha mutants. Pink means Beta and Yellow means Omega. The device can then continue to break down the mutants according to my parameters.”

“Interesting… I think,” Fatale said as she walked ahead of Forge.

Forge tapped a few more keys on his device and was able to find his target. “Joan is up ahead, only a couple of cells down to the right. It’s there we’ll find her.”

“Good, I’ll move ahead and scout the area,” Fatale said as she took off in a run towards where the target was.

Saving the girl was X-Factor’s priority, but in truth no sympathy came from the heart of the teleporter. Joan was as blank and unimportant to her as a Trigonometry book was to a five year-old. Looking back on things, the former assassin wished she would have got into the mutant slave business herself. It looked to be quite the profitable investment. Unfortunately, Fatale was here in the freezing cold of Russia, trying to save some girl and save America’s image from being tarnished.

“Anyone care to tell me when Fatale got so excited abut this mission?” Ms. Witch asked suspiciously. She couldn’t help but to get goose bumps whenever she was around Fatale. And that was before she even knew of the woman’s past. After that, the goose bumps got worse.

“She just wants to get home quick. Everyone catch up to her. She might need some assistance,” Polaris said as she surrounded herself with a magnetic field.

“Never did I think I would see the day when you would be sending people to help Fatale,” Forge remarked.

“Maybe she’ll be dead by the time we get to her,” Vargas said, unsheathing his sword. He had nothing against the woman when it came to fighting skills. In that sense he was very much like Fatale. What he didn’t like, though, was the dishonor she displayed. She had been a merciless killer and criminal. Vargas put absolutely no faith in the woman. She was not to be trusted.

“I don’t like her anymore than the rest of you, but she is a member of this team. And if we don’t treat her as such we’ll only be hurting ourselves,” Forge said, reprimanding Vargas for his comment.

Vargas didn’t respond, but simply took the lead and caught up to Fatale first. He found the woman looking at Joan’s cell and simply shaking her head. The Spaniard had feared that the young girl was dead for a moment, but his worries quickly subsided upon seeing the ragged girl curled up in a corner.

“How awful! No child deserves to be treated in this manner,” Vargas said to himself, since he hardly expected Fatale to care anything for the innocent.

“Let’s just take her back home and get it over with,” Fatale said nonchalantly. Vargas had intended to respond to her, but Joan cut him short.

“I’m not going back home!” the young girl wailed. Looking down, Vargas saw tears streaming like a new river down Joan’s face.

“What’s going on?” Ms. Witch asked, hearing the cry of the child along with Polaris and Forge.

“The little brat doesn’t want to go home,” Fatale snickered.

“Watch it, Fatale,” Forge warned, his voice turning colder than the newer members of X-Factor had ever heard it.

Polaris used her powers to unlock the cell and she walked over to where Joan was curled up. Bending down, Lorna saw that Joan had been malnourished and hadn’t seen a bath for some time. Ignoring the smell of the child as best as she possibly could, Lorna moved in closer. “We’re here to get you out of here, sweetie. We’re going to take you back home.”

Joan began to scream louder than she had the last time. Polaris was beginning to put it together – something back home was more awful for Joan than being in this hell hole. Though Lorna couldn’t possibly imagine what it might be.

“Perhaps if she doesn’t want freedom, we can free some more willing mutants,” Fatale said, looking around the cells and seeing dozens of mutants trapped.

“That’s not our mission, Fatale. Our mission is to rescue Joan. No more, no less. Understood?” Forge asked, stating this question more to everyone on his team than just Fatale. He knew all of them were tempted to save other mutants from Rendom. The idea had crossed Forge’s mind many times, but X-Factor wasn’t the X-Men. They worked for the U.S. government and they had no authorization to save anyone but Joan.

“Crystal clear, Forge. So how about I just teleport the little rat back to America? If you don’t remember, Shard and Red Lotus are up there dealing with Rendom directly. I think they shouldn’t be in that situation for long. Especially with that Red Lotus fool around,” Fatale replied.

“Hate to say it, but Fatale does have a point. We need to get Joan and fast!” Ms. Witch exclaimed. She had never in a million years expected to be in agreement with Fatale on anything, but she never thought she would ever be in the middle of Russia either. Life had more twists and turns than even the most skilled author could come up with.

“Why don’t you want to go home, Joan?” Lorna asked in the gentlest voice she could muster. It had been a while since she had to deal with children. She had hoped that one day her and Alex might have had a couple, but things were so different now. She really had no idea where they stood. He was with the X-Men and here she was still with X-Factor.

“He’s there. My dad. At least here I don’t get hit,” Joan said, her voice barely audible. She didn’t want to get into anymore detail. That’s all this lady, whoever she was, needed to know about her. At least here she didn’t have to go to sleep scared of waking up to bloody sheets. That was her sole consolation in this place. At least it was better than home.

Polaris bit her bottom lip. For anyone to think this place was better than their home was heartbreaking. Grabbing Joan by the shoulders and looking into her eyes, she said, “I promise you that you won’t have to go back home. I’ll help you make a better one.”

Joan’s eyes lit up for a second and then the momentary hope flew away. “Why should I believe you?”

“Because I know what it feels like to not have a home,” Lorna replied with such sincerity that she surprised herself.

“Alright. I’ll go, but please don’t me back to him. Please,” Joan cried as she wrapped her arms around Lorna’s neck.

“Promise,” Lorna said as she cradled the girl in her arms. Looking back to Fatale she said, “Do your thing. Get us out of here!”

“First let me send a signal to Shard and Red Lotus knowing that we have Joan,” Forge said, tapping his belt buckle. That would send a signal to Red Lotus and Shard that the target had been acquired.

“So we’re just leaving them behind?” Ms. Witch asked shocked.

“I’ve known Shard for a while. Trust me when I say they’ll be fine. Now let’s go!” Polaris commanded.

“You don’t have to ask again,” Fatale smiled as a portal opened up underneath all of X-Factor. They all went falling through the portal and were well on their way back to America.

Elsewhere

“So what kind of mutant are you looking for in particular?” Yvon asked from behind his large mahogany desk.

Shard crossed her legs before answering, “We’re looking for an energy manipulator. Someone dealing with the elements in particular.”

“You know, like Storm or something,” Red Lotus added. He was extremely nervous being in this situation. He had fought himself out of some nasty messes before, but he didn’t like this mission at all. Being alone in a tight room with a bunch of mean-looking Russian mutants wasn’t Red Lotus’s idea of fun.

“I believe we have a few of those. Care for a drink?” Yvon said in his thick Russian accent as he pulled out a couple of shot glasses.

“I don’t drink,” Shard said waving her hand to dismiss the drink.

“I wouldn’t mind some myself,” Red Lotus smiled as he took the half-filled glass from Rendom. Just then a beep went off in his ear. He looked over to Shard and he saw the same subtle reaction from her. She was much cooler about these things than him, but at least he knew they weren’t going to have to stick around for much longer.

“So, X-Factor, have you acquired target?” Yvon asked, catching Red Lotus and Shard completely by surprise, but not for long.

Shard leaped out of her seat and kicked Yvon in the face. He went flying back into the bookcase behind him. Books came crashing down on the unconscious mutant seller. She then round-housed two of Rendom’s larger guards. The blows weren’t enough to take the goons down, but a few photon energy blasts were enough to finish them off.

Red Lotus meanwhile was up against one of Rendom’s thugs who had transformed himself into a panther/human form. The former hitman was having no problem holding the mutant off. He carefully managed to dodge all of the brute’s blows and delivered his own paralyzing attacks while doing so. He did this until Shard shot the beast in the back with another of her energy blasts.

Dusting his hands off as if he had done a great deal, Red Lotus said, “Anyone care to explain how the hell Rendom knew we were with X-Factor?”

“I don’t know, but I’m sure Cooper has some of the answers,” Shard said angrily. Something stunk here and she didn’t like being deceived.

Next day

“You know what you’re asking me, aren’t you, Lorna?” Val said as she pushed up her black-framed glasses. X-Factor had been successful in retrieving Joan. Personally and professionally, Val was grateful for that, but what she was being asked now was testing her patience.

“Look, you owe us this much. You didn’t tell us Rendom’s ability was to sense deception and automatically know the truth. That could have gotten Red Lotus and Shard killed. Now if you do this for me, I won’t let Red Lotus egg your car or Shard blow a few new holes in you,” Polaris said with a smile.

“I don’t see this as being funny,” Val responded coldly.

“And I don’t see a little girl wanting to stay away from an abusive father as being funny either. Val, I’ll personally take this girl to the Xavier Institute if you don’t do something,” Lorna said, now sounding just as serious as her government liaison.

“Fine! The government is working on a new program for disadvantaged mutants. I’ll get her placed in that. There she’ll get this so-called ‘home’ you’re trying to give her. Now go!”

“Thanks, Val,” Lorna said as she walked out of the door. As she closed the door behind her she smiled. Sometimes the smallest victories were worth a dozen of the big ones.