PAST STORIES

By Brent Lambert

Several Months Ago

Strong Guy and Multiple Man stood outside the X-Factor compound with an assortment of suitcases at their feet.

“I really wish you guys weren’t leaving,” Polaris sighed as she stood with her one hand on her hip. Lorna felt like the team was just falling to pieces ever since Havok had been rescued from that other dimension. Alex left shortly after to go to the X-Men, and now the two guys who made up the soul of the team were headed to Muir Island.

“Nothing can stay the same forever, Lorna. Guido and I just feel we gotta move on and do something more. Working on Muir Island could help us both discover a lot about ourselves and our mutant abilities,” Multiple Man explained, hoping that Lorna could understand where he was coming from. He loved X-Factor and he wasn’t leaving it out of selfish reasons like Havok had done, but he just needed to help in a different way.

“And maybe Doc MacTaggert can help me recover from my deformities,” Strong Guy added.

Polaris couldn’t argue with that and never would she deny the chance for Guido to look normal again. The man meant too much to her, and Lorna would give up a great deal just to see Guido be happy. Maybe Muir Island was right for him, but she still wondered exactly what Jamie was going to get out of it.

“Alright guys. Take care of yourselves, okay? I don’t want to hear Moira telling me you’ve been misbehaving,” Lorna said, walking up to the two men and kissing each of them on the cheek.

“I’m not going to get as sentimental as Lorna, but I do wish you two a fond farewell. Take care of yourselves,” Forge said.

“Ditto here,” Shard commented.

“Where’s Fixx?” Jamie asked, looking around for the woman from an alternate future where the Sentinels had once conquered the planet.

“She’s off somewhere at the moment. She said she wanted to be here, but business was calling. Though she sends her love,” Shard said, covering for her teammate.

Jamie smiled, “I bet she knew she was going to cry if she said bye on her own.”

“Tears of joy,” Strong Guy laughed as he picked up his and Jamie’s luggage on one shoulder.

“You sure you can balance that, big boy?” Polaris asked, staring at the mound of leather on Guido’s right shoulder.

“He’ll be fine. If not I’ll just make a dozen bellboys,” Jamie joked.

“Sure you will. Now come and open up the car door for me,” Strong Guy said, making his way towards the exit of the X-Factor complex.

“Please don’t tell me Jamie’s driving,” Polaris said, showing fake distress.

“Of course! Who else is going to lead this little road trip to the airport?” Jamie smiled, giving Lorna a thumbs up.

Lorna and the others watched as Jamie and Guido left the compound. Forge let out a somber sigh and a tear streamed down Polaris’s cheek. Shard stood firm, not showing any emotion. It wasn’t her way to cry. She had already cried enough for two lifetimes.

“Dammit,” Polaris said to herself, overcome by emotion. She walked away from her two teammates, rushing quickly to her room in the compound.

“Is she okay?” Shard asked.

“Lorna will be fine. She was just very close to those two guys. They were almost like family. Can’t blame her if she’s a little upset,” Forge said, his forehead wrinkling a bit as he scratched underneath his ponytail.

“No, of course not. I just wonder where Fixx was.”

Forge looked confused, “I thought you said…”

“I lied. I just didn’t want Jamie and Guido to leave with a sour moment,” Shard explained.

“Understandable. It’s just like Fixx to go off and leave without telling a soul,” Forge said, growing a little concerned with the erratic behavior of the ex-X.U.E solider, Fixx.

“It’s her way, Forge. You have to understand. Where the two of us come from, hiding was a normal part of life. It’s a little hard for her to adjust to the openness of this time period,” Shard explained, taking up for Fixx. Though she didn’t always applaud the woman’s efforts, Shard understood the reasoning behind them.

“Don’t you think she’s been here long enough by now to have learned how to properly adapt?” Forge asked. He had tried to understand Fixx and the others, but it was because of Greystone that they had lost Havok. It was because of an X.U.E. agent that X-Factor literally began to fall apart at the seams. Forge was starting to lose patience.

“Give her time, Forge. Your patience is legendary in my time period. Show me those legends are right,” Shard smiled.

“Forgive me, Shard. These past few months have just been a strain on the soul and mind,” Forge said, clutching his head in tiredness.

“I’d probably be just as tired as you right now, except I’m made up of photons. They don’t usually tire out,” Shard laughed, weakly walking away from Forge. The shaman knew sorrow, and Bishop’s sister was emanating it. She longed to be human once more. Forge could see it and he felt incredible sympathy for her.

“If I could help you, my sister, I would, but I know of no magic to cure your condition,” Forge said, more for himself than for Shard. In fact she couldn’t even hear him, but it made the shaman feel better. Walking in the opposite direction of Shard, the American Indian man made his way to his abode in the compound. Perhaps there, he thought, he could find some solace and comfort on this sad day.

A Month Later

This was Fixx’s abode. All the walls were as barren as her soul could be at times. She didn’t have pictures of friends of old and memories past. She was a solider from the future – her childhood hadn’t even happened yet. Besides, trying to hold on to friends was a useless effort; time flowed along and there was nothing you could do about it. Trying to hold on to the past was a wasted effort. Fixx’s mind was focused on the future, hence why was she was quickly packing suitcases to leave X-Factor.

“You’re not even going to let the others know, are you?” Shard asked, annoyed, with her arms folded across her chest.

“There is no reason to. I don’t want to bring anymore grief to Lorna and Forge,” Fixx said, not even taking the time to look at Shard. She just continued to furiously pack what belongings she had accumulated since being on the X-Factor team. Honestly, she could care less about whether she had her stuff or not, but she didn’t want to leave reminders of herself around for the others.

“You’re going to bring more grief to them by just walking out! What’s wrong with X-Factor? I thought it’d be your kind of place. The XUE operated a lot like this team does at times,” Shard reasoned, trying to pry answers out of Fixx. She just couldn’t understand why Fixx was leaving the one place she was familiar with in this time.

“I’m tired of fighting, Shard. It didn’t work in our time and it certainly isn’t working here. There has to be another way to achieve the dream! And I plan on finding it. Without fighting!” Fixx exclaimed as she slammed her suitcase shut and started to move to the door.

Shard let the woman walk past her, not wanting to have to look at the weak soldier. Stopping at the door, Fixx sighed, “Look, let Lorna and Forge know this didn’t have anything to do with them. It’s all me. My heart is just tired. I need a change.”

“You’re a pathetic excuse for a soldier, Fixx. I’m ashamed to say you were ever an XUE agent,” Shard replied coldly, not turning to look back for one last time at her teammate. All Shard heard was the door close behind her.

A Week Later

“Look, the situation is this, guys. X-Factor is down to three members. We need more numbers and fast. We’ve been on a downtime period for quite a while, but I have a feeling things are about to start heating up again. My agents are already tracking down new members and they should be arriving over the next couple of weeks,” Val announced, looking down at the report she had compiled on the current situation of X-Factor.

“Hold on a second here! Don’t we get any say in who our new teammates are going to be?” Lorna asked, a little upset that they hadn’t been consulted earlier about new teammates being sought out.

“Quite frankly, Lorna, you don’t have any say whatsoever in who your new teammates will be. I have the CSA, NSA, and FBI all breathing down my neck. They want the government’s mutant strike force up and operational again. My ass is on the line here and I don’t have time to play diplomat,” Val explained quite harshly.

“Fine, Val. We got it. We’ll play the game your way this time. I guess the three of us better start training twice as hard. I’m not going to have any rookie outdo me,” Shard said, without the slightest bit of humor.

“Agreed. Are our training facilities back to full operation?” Forge asked.

Val nodded, “Of course. I made that a top priority once I found X-Factor’s new members.”

“And what if these new guys turn your offer down? What then?” Lorna asked, still not pleased with the way Val was going about this whole deal.

Val smiled, “Believe me. They won’t turn us down.”

Wisconsin

Elena walked down the busy street, holding her purse tightly. She had already had two purses stolen before this one. And each time she tracked down the thief with her mutant abilities and beat the snot out of them. Funny enough, one of the thieves was an ex-boyfriend of hers. She took far too much guilty pleasure in whupping him good.

As she made her way towards Victoria’s Secrets, an arm slipped into hers. It belonged to a tall black man that looked like your stereotypical fed. Elena was about to let her displeasure and shock be known, but the man whispered in her ear quickly, “Don’t scream. I’m a friend of Val’s.”

“And just why should I believe you?” Elena asked in a harsh whisper.

“Val helped you track down the man who killed your uncle. She let you have your justice on him. In return you owe her a favor. She’s calling you in on that,” the man replied, tugging on his tie a bit and smiling as an old couple passed by. They were eyeing him suspiciously and he didn’t really feel like having anybody snooping in on his conversation.

Having no reason to doubt the man, Elena laughed, “Alright, fine. Sheesh, Val really makes sure that she gets her debts repaid, huh? She was never like that in high school.”

“You knew her back then?” the man asked, surprised.

“Heck yeah. I was a freshmen and she was dating my older cousin. You should have seen her hair back then,” Elena smiled, feeling a bit more comfortable. The adrenaline was starting to wear off, so she was doing her best to act natural. Though a question battered her mind – what did Valerie want?

Spain

Vargas picked up the beautifully purple-hued flower and partook in its scent deeply. The aroma filled his nostrils with what could only be described as nature’s beauty. When he had been much younger, Vargas had always thought of taking walks in his grandmother’s fields as a pointless task. Nowadays, though, those fields were his only refuge from the pain his world was suffering at the moment.

Suddenly, hearing a rustle amongst the tall grass Vargas unsheathed his long and thick sword. Looking around, he cried out, “Who’s out there? Show yourselves!”

“Calm yourself, big boy. I’m over here,” a middle-aged woman said, stepping out from the right of the Spanish warrior. She had heard of the reputation of Vargas only through Cooper, but looking at his pig sticker, the agent was pretty confident that he had indeed earned that rep.

“What do you want here?” Vargas asked, dropping his sword to his side, but not letting go of it completely. The woman might have deception in mind and the Spaniard wasn’t one to be unprepared. As he stood waiting for the woman to respond, a strong wind blew by them, sending Vargas’ hair into his eyes. He nearly panicked because he was vulnerable and the woman could attack.

“Don’t flip out, big man. I’m not here to harm you. Only offer you a spot on the US government’s X-Factor team,” the woman informed, seeing the urgency begin to well up in Vargas’ body language.

“Why would I want to join your team?” Vargas asked, eyeing the woman as if she had said something utterly ridiculous.

“Your mother is sick and we promise her the best medical care the United States can provide if you serve on the X-Factor team for a year. Here’s the contract to prove it,” the woman said, handing over a rolled piece of paper to Vargas. The Spaniard stared down at the contract and kept his sight on it as it was passed to his hand.

“Fine. I’ll help you. For my mother,” Vargas said, gripping the contract tightly.

The prison cell was dark and Fatale was its lone occupant. She had been in here for two days and was given scarce amounts of food and water. Just enough so that she would survive but not too much so that she would be weak.

There came a streak of light that stretched across the ground and up Fatale’s shoulder. Into the cell stepped Forge, accompanied by Valerie Cooper.

“How did I guess?” Fatale managed to cough out. Talking even exhausted her.

“I’m not here because I want to be, killer. I just came to give you a spot on my team whether you like it or not,” Forge said, gritting his teeth the entire time. The thought of this murderer being on his team made him sick to his stomach.

“And who’s going to say I’ll play nice?” Fatale asked smiling weakly.

“You either work with us or we send you back to McCoy. We know you’ve been running away from him for months now. And I doubt you want to go back there,” Valerie said, dead serious.

“Fine. Bastards…” Fatale moaned before passing out.

“The name is Red Lotus. I used to be an assassin and boy I was sure good at it,” the Chinese man said, throwing a dart into a nearby board.

“And now you’re trying to get away from the Triads? Why?” Polaris asked from across the recreation room. It was empty and the building was near closing hour. Lorna was all alone with this last and final recruit.

“Because I purposely botched up an assignment. I wasn’t going to kill a pregnant woman! And so I’ve been paying for it ever since. Valerie offered me this whole X-Factor deal and at first I turned her down. Now I’m reconsidering,” Red Lotus explained, throwing another dart and getting a bullseye.

“And why is that?” Polaris wondered out loud.

“When you start getting guns fired off at you and having cars exploding around you, minds tend to change. If you catch my drift?” Red Lotus said, throwing his last dart.

“I do. I might as well welcome you to X-Factor then.”

Red Lotus turned and smiled, “Sweeter words have never filled my ears.”