MEXICAN SUGAH

By Brent Lambert

Vargas drew a circle around himself with two sais, concentrating on what lied ahead of him. Quickly, he took off in a run that would give most racing horses a run for their money. Suddenly, robotic drones armed with hi-tech guns popped literally out of the ground. Leaping up into the air, the Spanish ninja took off the heads of two of the larger drones with the sais. While still in mid-air, he flipped his feet into the thin neck of another drone, snapping off its head. Gunfire went around the small area – more or less an acre – and Vargas managed to dodge all of it with the ease that a dolphin swims in the ocean. All of his movements were fluid and almost beautiful to an onlooker.

Lorna watched him every morning do his daily workout, and she had to admit a strong admiration for the man she barely knew anything about.

“Monitoring your troops? You prove to be past my expectations everyday, Lorna.” Valerie smiled, walking up beside the green-haired female who happened to have her hair pulled up into a bandana.

“Thanks, but I just figure if I can’t know anything about Vargas personally, I’ll know at least how he fights,” Lorna explained, feeling a little uncomfortable next to the fully dressed Val. Here she was in damn near pajamas and Val was dressed to kill. It made her feel a little small at the moment.

“I know I’ve been withholding info on Vargas from you. That’s why I’ve come, though. I’m here to give you the deal on our Spanish ninja,” Val said, handing a manila folder over to Polaris.

“I’d rather you tell me,” Lorna said, setting the folder down on a nearby desk.

Despite being a little annoyed, Val smiled. “Fine, but if I’m late for my meeting I’ll have you guys in the Artic before sundown.”

“And meeting up with a couple of Abominable Snowmen. Sounds alright to me,” Lorna rebutted.

Val cleared her throat a bit before speaking, “Vargas is a former Spanish bodyguard for important political figures in his country. He was extremely good at what he did, but quit when his mother was diagnosed with cancer.”

“And you used that to hook him into the team,” Polaris said, admonishing Val a bit.

Getting defensive, Val replied, “Look, the guy is an expert in shotokan, tai chi, tae kwon do, and drunken fist. We had to get him anyway we could.”

“Where does a kid have time to learn all of these fighting techniques?” Polaris asked, looking on as Vargas continued to hack away at the robots.

“Vargas’s father was an ambassador to Japan. Young Vargas had nothing to do, and a Japanese politician took him on and over many years, Vargas nearly dedicated his entire day to fighting and training,” Val explained.

“Okay, now I know why he’s such a good fighter and why he’s such a damn recluse, but why doesn’t he use his mutant abilities?” Lorna inquired.

Val laughed, “He’s been using his mutant abilities the entire time, and you guys never had a clue. Vargas is able to innately know how to use any weapon in a deadly manner. Hence, why he’s pretty versatile with any weapon we provide him with. He has another ability that he is quite hesitant to use.”

Lorna turned her head to the side. “Okay. Go on.”

“He can charge inanimate objects with a type of energy that decays all organic matter around it. The charged object has an effect for a limited amount of time. Vargas, despite his skill, doesn’t like to kill if unnecessary,” Val said.

“I understand, and I wish he would have told us all of this instead of me having to find out from you. No offense of course.”

“None taken, Lorna. Though now might not be the best time to try and pry information out of him. He’s reeling in his own way from the recent terror attacks on his home country. He’s quite the stalwart patriot,” Val said, turning her back to Lorna and walking away.

“Yeah, but I guess to him family means more,” Polaris said, looking down at Vargas, who was wiping the sweat off of his brow.

Red Lotus swallowed a spoonful of Fruit Loops and kept on eating. He was gobbling the food up like a ravenous wolf and didn’t look like he was going to stop.

“Sheesh, Lotus. Eat up a house while you’re at it,” Ms. Witch laughed, as she put her plate of waffles on the table.

“Sorry. It’s just that I’m so hungry. Can’t explain why,” Red Lotus said between swallows as he continued to guzzle up his food.

“Watching you eat, Red Lotus, makes me glad I don’t have to anymore,” Shard said as she flipped through a gun magazine. Everything in that book was an antique to her, but then again the whole world she lived in was basically one large antique.

“I bet it must be wonderful not having to worry about your figure,” Elena said with a smile as she cut into her waffles carefully. She hated to have her pieces unorganized.

“Sure, and I don’t have to worry about my makeup falling off either,” Shard joked.

Fatale walked through the door and received a cold stare from everyone. She always seemed to freeze a room whenever she walked in. Shard saw the woman as a useful asset and nothing more. She felt the woman had no right to participate in the regular activities the other members of X-Factor did. The woman was a cold-blooded killer without even the slightest bit of remorse.

“I see everyone is just a ray of sunshine this morning,” Fatale said snidely as she pulled out a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch from the cabinet.

“You know Forge likes that,” Red Lotus said, finishing up his Fruit Loops.

“He’s meeting with Val at the moment. In short, I don’t give a rat’s ass what Forge likes,” Fatale said, pouring the cereal into a large blue bowl.

“So what’s the mission this time?” Forge asked, taking a seat as usual in Val’s office.

“For months, the government has been keeping tabs on the Sugar Man. We’ve tracked him down to a rural Mexico town. We’ve been given authorization by the Mexican government to search for Sugar Man. I want him apprehended and bought back here. My superiors have a few questions they would like to ask him,” Val said, outlining X-Factor’s next mission.

“I’m sure,” Forge said, showing his disdain as he rose up from his chair and walked out of the room. He knew exactly what Val meant by her superiors having questions for Sugar Man. They wanted his knowledge on genetics and would probably end up using it for their own purposes.

Val sighed as Forge walked out of the room, “Damn it. Why couldn’t they come up with a different way to combat these Weapon X types?”

“Sugar Man. Just saying that name makes me sick to my stomach,” Shard hissed.

“He’s the reason Genosha is such a wreck in the first place. The guy is practically a war criminal,” Ms. Witch added as she adjusted her shirt under her seat belt.

“And so Val thinks that he’s continuing his experiments in Mexico. I guess we gotta go and finish the guy off.” Fatale smiled and popped out the blade that was hidden underneath her palm.

“No. We’re not killing him. Val wants him alive,” Forge said, as he continued to guide the plane over the Gulf of Mexico.

“You’ve got to be kidding me! The man deserves nothing less than death. And Val wants him bought in?” Polaris replied, flabbergasted by what Forge had just told her.

“It makes perfect sense. The US wants to know what Sugar Man knows. The knowledge he has is too valuable. No way the government would want to waste that,” Vargas said, finally saying something. He hadn’t spoken the entire ride.

“This is total bullshit!” Red Lotus yelled, throwing his hands into the air frustrated.

“It’s total common sense. Something you seem to be lacking in, Lotus,” Shard commented.

“Cut me some damn slack! Why are you always riding my case?” Red Lotus asked. If there was anyone on the team who knew how to push his buttons, it was Shard. The woman seemed to have some cold comeback for anything he had to say. He enjoyed the competition and all, but after a while it started to grate.

“Because you have such an interesting saddle,” Shard winked.

“It’s pointless to debate here people. Our orders are to bring Sugar Man back alive and that’s what we’re going to do,” Forge said, pulling the plane in for a landing outside a small rural town.

“Accidents can always happen,” Fatale said, not in the least bit joking. Surprisingly, Shard found herself agreeing with the woman.

“Well, who would have thought,” Shard whispered under her breath.

As the plane began its descent, Elena felt what was in the thoughts of her teammates and it made her shiver. There wasn’t a single one of them that wanted to keep Sugar Man alive.

Depressing desolation would hardly be words enough to describe the town that X-Factor was entering. No one could be found on the streets save for a few small children and they quickly ran away at the sight of Forge and the green-haired woman standing next to him. Store signs hung sideways off of buildings and enough chipped paint was flung on the ground to paint Donald Trump’s penthouse. Emaciated dogs were on every street corner fighting for another breath and buzzards waited overhead for another meal. The only place that had any spark of life was a bar that had flashing lights and a large ‘Keep Out’ sign on the front of it.

“Could he be anymore obvious?” Red Lotus asked with a laugh of disbelief. It was like Sugar Man was begging them to come in.

“How were you ever an assassin, Lotus? Think about it! For all we now Sugar Man probably wants us to come in there. He might have enough booby traps to make an Outback hunter embarrassed. It’s better I go in,” Shard said, stepping ahead of Forge.

“Hold on, Shard! What makes you think he doesn’t have something prepared for you?” Forge asked.

“Because if he does have traps there’s no way he designed them specifically for us!” Shard replied, upset that Forge was questioning her judgment.

“If Sugar Man has traps set up he probably has surveillance set up too. If he didn’t know we were coming before I’m more than positive he knows now,” Vargas added.

Shard turned back and smiled at Vargas. “Point taken. So what do we do then?”

“Whatever we do, we have to do it as a team. That’s the main thing,” Forge said.

“That still doesn’t explain what we need to do. A plan is what we need, Forge,” Fatale said.

“You teleport us into that club, Fatale. Once in, I want Vargas and Shard to take out any surveillance cameras or weapons nearby. I’ll try to disrupt the machinery as much as possible. Elena, you’ll play defense and provide everyone with protective shields. I doubt Sugar Man’s prepared for magic. Forge and Red Lotus, I want you guys to go and do some scouting. There, that’s the plan,” Polaris replied, flexing her co-leadership muscle.

“Everyone knows their roles. Let’s get to work,” Vargas said, unsheathing his large, broad sword from behind him and bringing it forward.

“Always so straight forward,” Fatale said, grinning and opening up a magneta-colored portal in front of the team.

“Hell yeah!” Red Lotus yelled, jumping into the portal. Ms. Witch and Shard quickly followed behind him.

Fatale was the last to jump through the portal and as she did, it slammed shut behind her.

Vargas threw a sai into a camera that was above his head while Shard blew away two more that were in front of her. It was at that moment that robots reminiscent of the maid on the Jetsons came through a doorway to the left of X-Factor.

“This looks like it’s going to be fun,” Elena said as her pupils disappeared and her eyes turned into a dark purple. A pale green light began to surround all the X-Factor members and just in the nick of time, as the robots began to attack with a hail of bullets.

“How long do you think you can hold those shields?” Polaris asked as she charged forward to greet the six robots head on.

“As long as I nee-ARGHH!!” Elena cried as she fell to the ground. When she hit the floor, her teammates saw four spikes were stuck in her back.

“Looks like we got some more company!” Vargas exclaimed as he charged into battle. Pulling out his broad sword, he cut the arms off the rabid mutant that had attacked Ms. Witch. Spinning in the air, he kicked the mutant in the chest and sent him into a group of what looked like zombie dogs.

“I doubt me and Forge here will be doing some scouting,” Red Lotus said as he leaped into the horde of mutants. He rammed one of them in the face with his shoulder and back-kicked another in the stomach. Grabbing one of the zombie dogs by its leg, he flung it into a little girl that had four heads. Whatever Sugar Man had been doing here sickened him to the core. What kind of monster could commit such atrocious acts?

“Watch out!” Vargas yelled, but it was too late. Red Lotus turned to find a behemoth of a woman in front of him. She grabbed the former Triad assassin by the arm, and to his surprise the woman had teeth in the palm of her hand. Quickly pulling back he saw a chunk of the flesh from his arm was gone.

“That’s just nasty,” Red Lotus said, disgusted by the fact one of Sugar Man’s little monsters had bit him.

“Get over it,” Forge said, coming up behind Lotus and shooting the big woman in the head.

“It seems that Sugar Man has taken to using homeless people and strays for his experiments,” Polaris commented as she flew above the two men and sent out a magnetic wave that knocked a large number of the mutants to the ground.

“Seems your plan wasn’t as foolproof as you thought,” Fatale yelled as she kicked an oversized cat in the head. It flew into a nearby wall and collapsed it, revealing a secret compartment.

“Well, well, what do we have here?” Fatale smiled as she saw that Sugar Man was in the room typing away on a computer. At the sight of Fatale, though, he suddenly became very afraid.

“Watch, babe. He’s a friend,” a voice said as a large brute landed over the unconscious body of the mutant cat. The voice was all too familiar to Fatale.

“You?!” Fatale yelled.

“Yep. You don’t seem happy. Shucks, I was hoping we could make out or something.” Dark Beast smiled as Fatale began to back away in fear.

“Don’t be so quick to walk away,” one of the Mengo Brothers sang as he grabbed Fatale across the waist.

“I hate Justin Timberlake,” Stan said as he put a towel over Fatale’s face. The woman struggled for a bit, but soon fell asleep.

“Shit! We’ve got trouble folks!” Polaris yelled, as she turned around to see that Fatale had been ensared. She cursed herself for not being more attentive and for letting Fatale go at it alone. Flying with all the power she could muster, Lorna made her way to Dark Beast and her captured teammate. Her power wasn’t enough, though, and Fatale and her captors disappeared in a flash of light.

“NO!!” Polaris yelled flying through the spot where Dark Beast had just been.

“We need to get out of here! There’s no point in being here if Sugar Man is gone,” Vargas said, slashing through two more mutants that had once been elderly women with his sword.

“We’ll have Val send some people to clean up this mess. Right now we gotta find Fatale!” Polaris exclaimed as she wrapped all of her team in a magnetic bubble and ripped through the rusty metal and rotten wood that made up the club’s roof.

“She’s gone,” a tall man with caramel-colored skin said as he entered into Valerie Cooper’s office.

“And who would that be?” Val asked, looking over memos and not even taking the time to look up at her visitor.

“Fatale. Dark Beast managed to get his hands on her finally,” the black man replied cooly.

Val jumped back in surprise. “How? Did you see this?”

“Of course I did, Valerie baby. You know that’s why I’m your commanding officer. Anyway, I wanted to tell you that when X-Factor is back, let them go looking for Fatale and give them this,” the man said, throwing a paperclipped manila folder on her desk.

“What’s this?” Val asked, more than a little annoyed that the sly fox that was her superior had wrecked the organization of her memos.

The man smiled mischievously. “Don’t be lazy, Val. Be a good girl and read. You’ll understand.”