A FATALE MISSION

By Brent Lambert

Elena opened the door carefully and was surprised to see Vargas, shirtless, meditating over a purple carpet. She knew that Vargas was a true warrior, but hadn’t quite expected to find him meditating. Looking around, Elena saw that his room was quite barren in comparison to hers. Not a single poster or picture hung from the dusty gray walls, and his bed was just as dull.

“Is there something I can do for you, Elena?” Vargas asked, stopping his meditation to take a sip from the cup of apple juice that sat next to his knee. The liquid flowed down his throat, satisfying his thirst. Vargas had been in the same position for almost four hours, and becoming parched was a regular thing. Though he hadn’t been planning to stop to drink for another hour, Elena had been unexpected company. Not unwanted, but definitely unexpected. Few of his fellow mutants socialized with him, yet alone came to his room.

“Lorna was just sending me around to see if everyone was feeling alright. That fight in Mexico was intense,” Elena said, praying that Vargas wouldn’t write her off as some little girl. From day one she had felt an attraction to the rugged Spaniard, but she pushed it back in her mind. She didn’t join X-Factor to find a relationship. Now, though, her lust grew a little bit stronger at this particular moment, and Ms. Witch wished that a little more mental discipline was instilled in her.

“It was indeed gruesome to see the madness of Sugar Man at work. That’s exactly why we need to find Fatale and stop waiting for permission,” Vargas said, rising up from his meditative stance.

“I would have figured you didn’t care much for Fatale,” Elena replied, still standing at the doorway waiting for an invitation to come in. Boon couldn’t help but to stare at the rippled back of Vargas as he poured his remaining apple juice down the drain. If the Spaniard’s long hair hadn’t been wrapped in a ponytail all Elena would have seen was just black his covering his back.

One night she had made her bathroom mirror into her private peeper. Using it, she caught a few glimpses of Vargas in the shower. She had felt bad about it afterwards, but the guilty pleasure was well worth it.

“I don’t care for her in the slightest, but I wouldn’t sentence the terrorists who attacked my country to be prisoners of Sugar Man. I’ve seen the man’s work up close and it smacks of sadism,” Vargas said, picking up a black t-shirt from his kitchen counter and slipping it on. He walked to the doorway where Elena was standing and took off the rubberband that was holding his hair up. Getting the item out of his head, he it tossed behind him and the object landed on the floor with hardly a sound.

“I know a hairdresser who could just work wonders with you,” Elena said, smiling gently at Vargas. From what she knew of the man, he wasn’t much for jokes, but she didn’t really know what else to do. If Vargas had the temperament of Red Lotus he would be the absolute perfect man, but for the moment she was ready to settle with almost perfect.

“I think I like my hair the way it is. Would you care to come with me and train?” Vargas invited. He wasn’t the best at talking to women. It was something he had no experience with. He almost wanted to smack himself in the head; why the hell would she want to train with him? If he only knew just how awkward the situation was for Elena as well.

“As long as you agree to take that shirt off.” Ms. Witch smiled, and Vargas couldn’t help but to return it.

“If your superior has already given you the go ahead to let us rescue Fatale, why haven’t you?” Forge asked, both confused and outraged at Val’s attitude towards the situation regarding Fatale. The woman, despite her faults, was being held captive by two of the vilest people on the planet. Giving the go ahead to save her should have been a no-brainer. What was the problem?

“My superior is in more ways than one a bit suspect. I just want to make sure you guys aren’t walking into an impossible situation,” Valerie explained. X-Factor meant a great deal more to her than her superior knew. Many on the team were good friends, Elena and Forge especially. Sending them out to find Fatale was a road full of dangers and normally she would accept the risks, but this time the mission hadn’t been initiated by her and thus the risk factor was something she had no control over.

“Val, my team has accepted the risks. We would be absolutely devoid of emotion if we didn’t try to save Fatale. She’s being held prisoner by two of the most psychotic men I’ve ever known,” Forge said as a chill crept down his spine at the thought of what Fatale could be undergoing right now. The shaman didn’t feel that Val was empathetic to this situation. She seemed almost reluctant to let X-Factor even try to track down Fatale, wherever might be.

“Have you ever thought that maybe Fatale deserves what she’s getting? The woman is a cold blooded killer after all, and maybe karma is just coming to bite her in the ass,” Val said snidely, seeing clearly that Forge didn’t like what she had suggested.

“How could you even think that? Fatale is a member despite her faults! Need I remind you of your past with Wildchild?”

Val slammed her hand on the desk and rose up from her seat, her face flushed with red. “Don’t even go there! That was a different situation. Need I remind you of what youdid in Vietnam and what Fatale did to Generation X? You’re losing sight here. Fatale isn’t worth the lives of anyone on this team. She was manufactured to be a killer and maybe it’s about time someone put her down!”

Forge shook his head. “You’re wrong, Valerie. We’ve all made mistakes, and while Fatale may have more than her fair share of them, I still think there’s something that can be redeemed in the woman. You kept Sabertooth on this team. Why can’t you keep her?”

Val sighed and sat back down in her seat, putting a hand to her forehead. Reaching behind her seat, she picked up a manila folder and tossed it over her desk to Forge. Not even looking at him she said, “That’s information containing all the places where Dark Beast and Sugar Man have been active in the last six months. You can start looking for Fatale in those locations.”

“I’ll take my leave then,” Forge said, getting up from his seat and heading for the door. He didn’t like the fact that Cooper had been so reluctant to send them on this mission. What did she know that the rest of them didn’t, and why wasn’t she telling him?

“One thing before you go, Forge. If this gets screwed up, you’ll have no one to blame but yourself,” Val said coldly.

“Understood,” Forge replied with just as much iciness in his voice. The whole room suddenly felt like the North Pole in terms of emotions. He knew then that the two of them weren’t leaving this meeting on good terms.

Lorna lifted the phone off the hook and had to consciously stop herself from hanging it back up. She didn’t really get why she was so riled up over calling an old friend. Sure, it had been a mighty long time since they conversed, but friends were still friends no matter the distance or time passed, right? That’s what Lorna kept telling herself as she moved her index finger across the number pad. She could fight megalomaniacs, terrorists, and deadly sociopaths, but got the jitters when calling up an old college girlfriend. If she weren’t so nervous, Polaris would probably laugh at herself.

“Come on, girl. This isn’t anything to be nervous about,” Lorna said, trying to reassure herself. The effort at restoring confidence had been less than effective. Without the slightest bit of warning, her friend answered the phone.

“Hello?” the familiar voice said, catching Lorna so off-guard she nearly dropped the phone. Taking a deep breath, Polaris pulled herself together and her anxiety washed away at that moment.

“Hello, may I please speak with Sherrie?” Lorna asked, knowing full well that Sherrie was already on the phone. It was only out of habit that Polaris requested to speak with the Caribbean beauty that had stayed a couple rooms down from her in college. Those had been good times for Lorna. No Magneto, no X-Men, no Sentinels, and most of all she got to be normal. For a short time in her life she was just like everyone else. That time, like so many other precious things in Lorna’s life, came to an end. Her entire life had been a curve and right now she couldn’t be sure if she was riding a high or low.

“This is she,” Sherrie replied with a voice tender enough to lay babes to sleep. Lorna could almost smell the faint scent of honey that Sherrie always use to wear. Polaris wondered if Sherrie had changed much since the college years. Did she still have that Angela Basset haircut? Would she still snore at night? All those questions blazed in the back of Lorna’s mind.

Polaris had allowed herself to become so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn’t hear Sherrie ask a question until she had repeated it three times. “May I ask who’s calling?”

Lorna jolted out of her thoughts and smiled mischievously. “I’ll give you a hint. It was a week before we got out for Christmas and there was that big party at Rosco’s. You got so messed up, I had to take you home myself.”

Sherrie laughed, “If it ain’t Lorna Dane I don’t know who else I’m talking to! What’s going on sweetie? I haven’t heard from you in forever. I thought you fell off the face of the earth.”

“Sorry about never calling, but life has been… a ride… since college ended. I’m working with the government now, so it doesn’t leave much room for free time,” Lorna said.

“Girl, I understand that. I’m working with a big oil company now and I’m having to go from one rig to the other for weeks at a time. Actually, I’m leaving for one in a couple of hours. You’re lucky you caught me,” Sherrie replied.

“I guess so. I’ll promise to keep in contact from now on though. Having some old friends to talk to would be nice.” Lorna smiled, hearing rustling and a masculine voice in the background.

“Yeah, same here. Being on a nasty rig with a bunch of greasy men makes you appreciate your friends,” Sherrie laughed.

“I hear that. So who’s the man I hear in the background? A boyfriend perhaps?”

“Oh, that’s just my personal slave. You remember Steve, right? Me and him got hitched,” Sherrie explained.

Lorna was shocked. “You mean Steve as in the guy who just about tore his leg clean off falling off the trampoline?”

“Yeah, he’s my baby. He’s such a damn sweetie!” Sherrie exclaimed.

Lorna hadn’t really been paying attention to the last statement because Forge was standing at her doorway. His cheeks were drawn tightly together as he was clenching his jaw waiting for Polaris to finish her conversation. Lorna shook her head in acknowledgement of Forge and said, “Sherrie. I’m sorry to have to do this, but I gotta go. Works calls.”

“Okay babe, but hit me up on my cell. The number is 456-897-1344,” Sherrie said.

“Alright, I got it. I’ll call you later, Sherrie. Bye,” Lorna said, hanging up the phone and turning her attention to Forge. “So I’m guessing Val has given us permission to go after Fatale.”

Walking into the room, Forge pulled out the manila folder and laid it next to Lorna’s phone. “Yes, she has given us permission, but to cover more ground the team is going to have to split up.”

“Won’t that make the team more vulnerable and put us in harm’s way?” Polaris asked, opening up the folder and looking over its contents.

“That’s why we better make sure whoever we pair together make a damn good team,” Forge replied.

Every major city throughout the world suffered from the scourge of ghettos. So many would come to a city seeking hope, new dreams, and a better way of life, only to find desolation, hopelessness, and every other emotion that could make sleeping a little more difficult. The poor journied with the hope and promise of discovering an easy prosperity, only to find that everything that tasted sweet wasn’t good for you. More than a few were trapped by the suffocating smoke, the addictive drugs, the poverty, and the endless cycle of violence. Even in a city as friendly and hospitable as Toronto, it was no different.

Shard and Ms. Witch were in downtown east Toronto at the moment, specifically walking down Jarvis Street, one of the shadier parts of the city. It was mid-day so any criminal activity hadn’t really kicked up to into full gear, but they were still on alert. It was here, though, that Shard felt truly in her element. In her future, the entire world was as shady as this street. There weren’t many places you couldn’t go where you wouldn’t find drugs, racism, or Emplates, and most of the time it was a combination of the three.

“You care to tell me why you’re smiling?” Elena asked, fanning herself with her hand. Ms. Witch had been completely surprised by the heat she encountered in Toronto. She would have sworn up and down this place was an icy kingdom year round. She wasn’t so ignorant of the city anymore.

“Honestly, Elena, I don’t think you would understand. This place just feels right to me,” Shard replied.

“Take me back to the mountains and give me a pair of skis. Then I’ll feel right.” Elena grinned as she shed the tiny leather jacket Forge had given her.

“You might want to keep that on, Elena,” Shard said, bending down and pulling out one of the guns from her ankle.

“And why is that?” Elena asked, not having any desire to put on that heating pad Forge called a light jacket.

“Forge specially designed that jacket to be body armor. He didn’t want things to get too nasty for us. Put it on and zip it up all the way. You’ll see what I mean,” Shard said, pulling out another gun so she had an even set.

“And what if I would have zipped this thing up all the way before you had said something?” Elena asked as she slipped the jacket back on and pulled the zipper all the way up to the base of her neck. Suddenly, the jacket became very warm and began to stretch over her entire body, excluding her head, like warm butter on a stack of hot pancakes. The zipper itself eventually melted into the black as if it had been consumed by quicksand. Finally, Elena was wearing a completely black body suit.

“I knew you wouldn’t zip it up because it’s not fashionable and you can be such a damn prep sometimes,” Shard explained as they moved towards the location Valerie had given them. It was a rundown convenience store that had some secrets in its basement. Dark Beast and Sugar Man were nowhere near as particular as Sinister had been and they were willing to set up shop in the most unexpected and humble of places.

“I’m a prep that kicks ass and don’t you forget,” Elena said with mock seriousness as she began to float off the ground. Suddenly, her body armor morphed again, catching her off-guard. A blue X appeared on the center of her chest and spikes protruded from her shoulders, elbows, and knees. “What the hell is this stuff?”

Shard looked back and smiled, “Defense mechanisms. There’s no telling what kind of danger we might end up facing and Forge doesn’t want any of us to get hurt.”

Elena nodded, but she knew the real reason why Forge had given her this armor. He didn’t trust her with her powers and felt that she was a burden to the much more experienced Shard. Ms. Witch was no fool and she damn well didn’t like to be treated like some wet behind the ears rookie. Hadn’t she proven herself enough already? What would it take for Forge and Polaris to trust her?

“Let’s move in and see if we can find more than Doritos in here,” Shard said, holding out both guns in front of her. She blew away the fragile door with only a single shot from each gun.

“Hopefully we can get to Fatale in time if she’s here,” Ms. Witch hoped, as she called upon a spell that would essentially give her and Shard x-ray vision. It would help make the search ten times easier.

Polaris flew above the clawing and scratching mutates. With a sweep of arm, she sent out magnetic energy that knocked four of the smaller mutates into a nearby brick wall. Their bodies made an odd sound upon hitting the wall. It wasn’t a crack so much as it was the sound of clay slamming into the concrete. Green organs spewed from the deformed mouths of the purple-scaled mutates.

“Oh you have got to be kidding me,” Lorna said in disgust as she saw the mutates literally explode from the inside out on impact. Staring at the sight had caused her to lose focus temporarily and allowed a blue behemoth to jump on her back. Luckily, her magnetic shield had stayed intact and the mutate was able to cause no damage.

“Be careful, Lorna!” Forge scolded as he took aim at the monster and blew its head off with a purple plasma blast. The hairy monster fell off of Lorna and hit the ground with a thud.

“Good looking out Forge. I apprecia-ACCKK!” Lorna cried out as a blue tentacle wrapped itself around her body. Forge quickly found that the source of the tentacle had come from the stump where the head of his previous victim had been. It was just one tentacle, but there were in fact dozens of them. They wrapped around the other mutates and crushed them like they were blocks of sugar. The only thing saving Lorna so far had been her magnetic shield.

Forge knew the inevitable was about to happen. The free tentacles turned towards him. He braced himself, knowing it was going to take agility that would make Nightcrawler jealous to get out of the way of these things. Just imagining his body being crushed by those slimy appendages was enough of an incentive to make Forge move.

“Don’t even think about it!” Polaris yelled as she created another magnetic field, surrounding the mutate and lifting both herself and the creature high into the air. Forge could only look on and hope that Lorna knew what she was doing.

Abruptly, the ground to began to tremble a bit and looking around, Forge saw cars being lifted off of the ground, and in the distance he saw the pointed steeple of a mosque being lifted off of the building. The cars quickly squeezed and changed themselves into spikes. All twelve spikes went flying at the mutate and when they were only seconds away from impact, Lorna dropped the magnetic shield surrounding the monster and every spike hit dead on. The creature released its grip on Polaris and fell to the ground, oozing thick red blood.

“I doubt the citizens of Istanbul will be happy with us defacing one of their mosques,” Forge said as Lorna touched the ground.

“True enough, but they could have a big monster wrecking their entire city right now instead,” Polaris replied.

“That monster would never have been in the city if we hadn’t disturbed it. Remember?” Forge said, looking over at the unmoving body of the mutate created by either Dark Beast or Sugar Man. The two’s styles were so similar it was hard to mark down something as being one or the other’s work.

“Of course I remember.” Polaris smiled. “Doesn’t mean the people of Istanbul have to know that.”

“How much do you wanna bet that we find Fatale?” Red Lotus asked as he leapt off of the roof of the building and landed on the ground with a cat’s grace. Vargas followed behind him, his black cloak making the Spaniard seem to be a Grim Reaper.

“I seriously doubt that we will find Fatale in Madrid. The Dark Beast is a clever man and I’m sure he knows a great deal about our team. And I am well known enough that the Dark Beast would know this place to be my home. He would be incredibly foolish to be here,” Vargas explained, moving slowly amongst the dark streets of Madrid. Being here made the Spaniard want to feel great joy, but he was here on business and as good as it felt being back home, he had to focus.

“You’re talking logic, man. I’m talking gut instinct. I’m telling you I can feel it. Fatale is here. My feeling is always right,” Red Lotus replied, keeping his distance from Vargas just enough so that Vargas could scout the area, but not so far that if the man needed help he wouldn’t be able to get there in time.

“How could you have been an assassin? To kill requires precision and discipline, not feelings. I hope you do not rely on these feelings often,” Vargas criticized, as he dipped quickly into an alley at the sight of a young couple engaging in a bit of making out.

“Oh come on, man! They’re just teenagers. No need to get all James Bond on me,” Red Lotus said, trying to contain his laughter at what he thought to be quite the ridiculous sight. Vargas was one of the most feared fighters in Europe and Asia, yet here he was hiding from two teenagers who had just come out of Joy Enslava, one of the biggest clubs in Madrid.

“They’re not normal,” Vargas hissed. He couldn’t even begin to fathom why he had been partnered with someone as foolish and unprofessional as Red Lotus. The man had skill in combat, but only because of his mutant abilities. He had no discipline because all of his power had come to him without even the slightest bit of work. In a respect, his mutant powers had been his silver spoon.

“Seriously, dude, what have you been smoking? They’re just-ACK!” Red Lotus yelled as a purple tentacle suddenly enveloped his face and flung him up into the air above a light post. The tentacle came from a dragon tattoo that had been on the side of the kissing boy’s neck.

“Damn fool,” Vargas growled as he charged up his sword with the glowing black energy that sucked away the lifeforce of anything or anyone it touched. Kicking himself off the nearby brick wall, Vargas went flying into the air and with his sword sliced through the tentacle. The black energy traveled down into the boy, sending a limp body down to the concrete. The girl who had been with him screamed loudly, but only for a moment as a sai was soon lodged in her throat. Just like the sword, the three-pronged weapon had been charged with the black energy.

Red Lotus’s body hit the ground with a thump. After hitting the pavement, the former Triad hitman bounced onto the road. He didn’t even attempt to get up and simply stared into the night as he said, “How did you know?”

Vargas could tell that every breath was aching Lotus at the moment and he had to stifle a laugh. Walking over to the side of road where his teammate was decked out, he knelt over his body and said, “No self-respecting teenager would be kissing outside of Joy Enslava. You could have sex in the middle of the dance floor and hardly anybody would care in that club. That was my first hint. and While watching them kissing, I saw the female had serrated teeth. My alarms went off then.”

“And you couldn’t tell me this because…”

“You’re a warrior or at least you’re suppose to be one. You should have been looking for these things just like I was. You could learn a bit more caution,” Vargas said, grabbing Red Lotus’s red sleeveless shirt by the shoulder and pulling him up to his feet.

“If I was as paranoid as you I’d be afraid to take a shit,” Red Lotus replied.

“All this arguing over me. I’m flattered, gentlemen,” Fatale said as she stepped through one of her famous portals with Dark Beast in tow.

“I was wondering when you were going to show up. I’ve seen the Mengo Brothers tagging us for hours. They can come out from behind that blue Sedan,” Vargas said, as the two mercenaries popped up from behind the vehicle sheepishly. The Spaniard had just made a fool out of them and it earned them a scowl from Dark Beast.

“You’re always the observant one, Vargas. I appreciate that about you. It makes you a worthy challenge,” Fatale smiled, shifting her body into a fighting stance.

“Man, I knew you would turn on us, Fatale. I just didn’t think it would be this soon,” Red Lotus said angrily. He wanted nothing more than to smash Fatale’s face into the pavement. Why did he actually care about this woman? Foolishly, he had let himself forget about this woman’s past.

“You didn’t exactly show a great deal of loyalty to me. You were supposed to be my teammate, but you abandoned me without a second thought!” Fatale ran at Vargas, who grabbed her shoulder and used her own momentum to flip her over him into a light post.

“She’s being mind controlled, Lotus! Take care of the Mengo Brothers and Dark Beast. I’ll handle her,” Vargas ordered, unsheathing his sword.

“Whatever. I’m not even going to ask how you know she’s being controlled,” Red Lotus said, turning his back to Vargas and making his way for the Mengo Brothers, who had guns drawn.

“When has Fatale ever called us her teammates?” Vargas yelled.

“Clever, clever,” Fatale replied as she pulled herself off of the pavement and charged at Vargas again. She unleashed the tiny dagger that was hidden under her wrist and slashed at Vargas, cutting his black shirt.

“Close, but you’re not in my league,” Vargas said as she cut straight through Fatale’s dagger with his sword. Fatale jumped back in surprise, thinking her hand was more than likely gone. Taking advantage of her momentary distraction, Vargas roundhoused her in the stomach, sending her into the hood of a rusty red car.

“Good hit, but you lost this battle from my first blow,” Fatale smiled, looking down at the cut she made on Vargas’ shirt. The Spaniard looked down too and saw that green mold was beginning to overtake his clothing.

“What the hell is this?” Vargas exclaimed, as he began to tear away at his shirt. But it only made the situation worse as everything that touched the mold began to grow its own patch of it. Now Vargas had mold growing on both arms and on his right leg.

“The mold was created by Dark Beast specifically for you. In about three seconds the mold will release an electrical charge and…

“ARGHHH!!” Vargas yelled as he fell to the ground, his mind fading into unconsciousness.

“You’ll be out cold.” Fatale smiled, leaning over and picking up Vargas’ sword.

Sitting down the sword after a few moments of observing it, Fatale pulled out a sai from the back of her belt. Looking at the weapon for only a moment in sadistic glee, she flung it and struck Red Lotus in the back of his thigh.

“Shit!” Red Lotus cried out as the world around him suddenly became blurry. He knew that whatever hit him was going to make him lie down for a bit. So he slapped the side of his right leg quickly and hit the ground with a thud.

The former Triad assassin had managed to hit the emergency signal implanted inside his pants before he went down. The rest of X-Factor would at least know they were in trouble.

“Good work, Fatale. I’m now in possession of three of the government’s mutant operatives. I doubt they will be pleased,” Dark Beast proclaimed, grinning wolfishly as he lifted Red Lotus onto his shoulders.