TAKING SIDES

By Rob Ballard

Outside Polaris’ Room, 0458 hours…

A faint knock at the door certainly wasn’t going to be enough to wake up the boss, Fixx realized ruefully.

“So much for being subtle,” she thought. “Here goes!” At her command, a swarm of sprites, physical manifestations of her psionic abilities, went straight through the door as though it weren’t even there.

They stopped short of the peacefully sleeping Lorna Dane. Their angelic, not-quite-but-almost humanoid forms seemed to discuss something with each other for a moment, before one of them stepped forth reluctantly, delegated to deliver the urgent message. It slowly made it’s way into Lorna’s mind by way of her forehead, snuggled into the recesses of her mind which was preoccupied with R.E.M. sleep, then finally unfurled like a banner screaming, WAKE UP!!!

Moments later, in the team room…

“Calm down, please,” Lorna shouted above their chatter. “People, one at a time! We aren’t going to get anything accomplished unless we work together on this. Forge, did he say anything to you about where else he might be going last night?”

“No, but that’s not surprising. He doesn’t usually share his plans with me.”

“I don’t see what the big deal is,” Shard said tiredly. “Jamie’s a big boy. Maybe he went out to a bar or something and met someone.”

“No way!” Fixx shook her head and everyone stared at her. “No, no,” she laughed nervously, “that’s not what I meant! I mean, you know, I have a mental connection to everyone on the team.”

“Big sister is watching us,” Shard mumbled.

Fixx ignored her, and continued. “Sometime during the night, that connection was severed. That shouldn’t happen.”

“Isn’t it possible that Jamie didn’t want you to know where he was. That could be kind of embarassing, you know,” Forge grinned.

“Possible, yes, but I don’t think so. I mean…never mind. I’m sure something’s wrong,” Fixx insisted.

“And I’m inclined to trust our new resident psi’s instincts,” Lorna stated. Forge, seeing as how you’ve got to get Trevor to the church this morning, you should stay here. Shard, Fixx, and I will take the EM-craft out and see if we can find Jamie.

Aboard the EM-craft, about 1300 feet above the city of Poughkeepsie, 0531 hours…

Forge created the EM-craft a couple years ago to help X-Factor make rapid progress in emergency situations. Amazingly, the craft, composed entirely of a lightweight, metallic alloy, has a myriad of scanning devices, but no engine. That is, unless you consider the pilot, Polaris, perched above the team in her pilot’s chair, near the geometric center of the metal ball, controlling it’s movements through her command of magnetism. With no engine noise, and no external lights, and an exterior specifically designed to absorb air traffic and military radar wavelengths, the craft is virtually invisible in the predawn darkness.

“I must have lost my connection with him overnight when I was sleeping,” Fixx told them, growing more alarmed by the minute. “I hadn’t noticed until I woke up early this morning, I’m actually surprised the severed connection didn’t wake me up!” she said as she snapped her fingers.

“I’m still not sure we aren’t on some wild goose chase,” Shard told them, frustratingly searching the scanner.

Lorna nodded. “I hate to admit it, but there may be nothing wrong at all. We may be wasting our time. Maybe Jamie just needed some time to himself,” she rationalized, noting the irony in her comment.

“I don’t think so. After what’s happened lately, I don’t think he’d up and leave without telling anyone.” Fixx said with her eyes closed and concentrating. “Hey, wait a minute, stop!”

Lorna brought the craft to an abrupt halt. Fixx explained, “I think I caught a wisp of his psionic signature a moment ago! Can we make another pass?”

“Sure, no problem.” Lorna tilted her arms at a 45° angle and the ship responded in kind. Shard and Fixx braced themselves on the rail as she circled the craft around.

“There’s definitely something here,” Fixx said excitedly. “I’ll need a couple more passes to try and mentally ‘triangulate’ his last position. There’s no guarantee it’ll work, but it’s worth a shot, I think.”

Shard groaned, and Lorna could’ve sworn she saw a touch of green in her face. She grinned a little as she vowed to take her turns a little more gently.

Back at X-Factor HQ, 0629 hours…

Forge checked his watch again. For as anxious as he was to leave when he got here, he sure seemed to be taking his time now, he thought. “Trevor, are you packed yet?” he finally asked, trying to mask the impatience in his tone.

“Yea, all done. So, do you think they’ll have Nintendo over there?”

“Maybe. But don’t you think you’ve had enough Nintendo to last a lifetime?”

“Nah,” he laughed. “I haven’t cleared all the coins on the secret levels of Wizard’s Revenge yet!”

“Well, next time you come back, the games will be waiting for you, I promise. Maybe we’ll even have some new ones, if you’re lucky.”

“Yea, but by then, Jamie will be able to beat me at all of them!” His smile was quickly followed by a frown. “By the way, where is Jamie? I wanted to say goodbye to him, but he’s not around.”

Forge wasn’t exactly sure how to handle the question. He couldn’t exactly tell the boy that Jamie had been kidnaped, and was probably in big trouble. Then again, Trevor knew how dangerous it was to be a mutant, himself. “Jamie’s out on a mission, Trevor. We need to join up with him soon. Once he gets back, I’ll give him your message, ok?”

“OK, deal. Do you need help carrying those?”

“No thanks, Scotty can help me.” Trevor’s friend materialized from nowhere again, and picked up a couple of the bags. Forge was certainly no stranger to the supernatural, but something still bothered him about Trevor’s abilities. It was really interesting that…

“What’s wrong, Forge?” Trevor asked, interrupting Forge’s train of thought.

“Nothing… I…” All at once, Forge had an idea. “Scotty,” he asked hesitantly, “where are you from?”

“I live at Bannerman’s Castle… Why?”

“Just curious. And can you tell me who your parents are?”

The young blonde boy looked disbelievingly at Forge, almost like he thought he should already know the answer.

“Please Scotty, humor me this time.”

“My dad is Alex and my mom is Maddie.” Forge froze, his brow shot up and his eyes were as wide as half-dollars.

“Yep. Alex and Maddie Summers,” The boy added helpfully. “You remember now, right?” he asked his elder.

A short time later, after reintroducing Trevor to Father Vincent and saying his goodbyes, Forge had a few moments to think clearly. He knew Lorna would want to know what he’d found out, but also remembered the discussion they’d recently had about staying focused. The time to test his new theory was going to have to wait awhile longer.

Outside the Late Night Go-Mart, 0631 hours…

“Well, Lorna, Jamie was definitely here,” Fixx declared, and Shard confirmed after checking the readings herself. Her eyes widened as she noticed something else. “and…I’m getting a residual psionic signature that I think recognize…” Fixx’s words trailed off, and began walking around, as if she were trying to catch scent of something.

“Well, spit it out then,” Shard told her.

Fixx shot her a glance, and after another moment, continued. “…it’s Daydreamer. She’s definitely been here in the last 12 hours, I’d say.”

Lorna’s brow shot up. “Daydreamer… from the Hounds? Damn it! I knew Stone was involved in this somehow!”

“Okay, I think now would be a good time to come up with some sort of strategy. Besides, it’s going to be getting light soon.” Shard advised her.

X-Factor HQ, 0639 hours…

~RIIIING~

~RIIIING~

~RIIIING~

~Click~

“You’ve reached the secure line of X-Factor headquarters. You have 10 seconds to enter the six digit password.”

~Beep – beep – beep~

(pause)

“Damn! What was it again…”

~beep – beep – beeeep!~

“Thank you. You may leave your message after the tone.”

“This is Stone. I have new information regarding Mystique. This is a very dangerous situation, not only for you but for mutantkind. We must meet immediately. You can reach me at 555-1894. If I don’t answer with, ‘the albatross,’ then hang up. Make very sure that your number cannot be traced.”

Bowser’s lab…

“Well, well, well, who have we here?” Bowser ambled over to the brown haired young man held in check by the stasis field.

“His name’s Jamie, boss. He’s the Multiple Man,” Furnace called over.

“Oh really?” Bowser examined Jamie carefully. “He doesn’t look very multiple to me. Is there something wrong with him?”

“Other than the fact that he’s in stasis and alone?” asked Furnace.

“You’re right, I guess that would be it,” Bowser bellowed. “I have some good news and some bad news for you Jamie, which would you like first?”

Jamie didn’t answer because he couldn’t. Bowser continued. “Oh! Pardon. How terribly rude of me. Anyhow, the good news is that your team members will soon be here to rescue you!” Bowser grinned brightly. Then he dropped his head and frowned, “Unfortunately, the bad news is that my friend over there is going to rip them to shreds before they get a chance to. I’m terribly sorry.” Bowser gestured toward the figure against the wall while he patted Jamie on the shoulder.

As he walked away, he called out, “Yes! They’ll wish they’d gone up against a fleet of Sentinels!”

A short while later, in Polaris’ office…

“Stone, what the hell is this all about? We know you have one of our teammates, so you’d better have an explanation!” Lorna thought it was absurd having to discuss this over the phone. This is something she’d much rather negotiate in person. Stone hadn’t yet given her the opportunity.

“Lorna, I don’t know what you are talking about,”

“Polaris, to you, mister!” Lorna growled. “I want to know what your beef is with my team!”

“I don’t have a… ‘beef’ with your…”

“Cut the crap, Stone. You have a very good friend of mine in your possession. So if you want to go a few rounds, you just name the where and when!” Forge was sitting next to Lorna as she was nearly screaming into the speaker phone. He hadn’t seen Lorna this upset since after her traumatic reunion with Alex. He put his hand on her shoulder to steady her, but she absently brushed it off and continued fuming.

Stone raised his voice in response. “Lately, I seem to be having trouble getting through to people. You’d think my enormous mass would get their attention, but I guess not. So listen to me a moment and perhaps I can help you!”

“Well… alright then, fine… go ahead,” Polaris stuttered. Forge had to stifle a chuckle.

“That’s better. I can assure you’ll get better results this way. Now, first, let’s talk about Mystique.”

Polaris was about to interrupt when Forge shook his head and put his finger to his lips. Reluctantly, she let Stone continue. “Mystique is working for Bowser.”

“What?” Forge and Polaris were both stunned. “Bowser is dead. He was abducted.”

“Correction: Bowser was dead. As for Mystique, I saw her returning to the hound base tonight.”

“Even if that were true, why would Mystique help Bowser? She hates his guts! She’d just as soon kill him than help him!”

Stone’s words were slow and even. “Not this Bowser. He’s much more powerful than before. He’s not your ordinary government buffoon anymore, X-Factor. When he returned, he appeared normal at first. The department even gave him his job back. Apparently they weren’t worried too much about what might have happened to him, or perhaps he had a good excuse.

“Since then, he’s become increasingly mentally unstable. It eventually got so bad that he was replaced as head of the Hound program. However, he seems to have enough political clout to keep the heat off. I’m not sure anyone even bothers keeping a close eye on him anymore. So, with Bowser on his own, and plenty of resources at his disposal, its become a very volatile situation.” Polaris and Forge were both thinking that someone like Stone probably didn’t spook too easily.

“As for his plans, I’d be very surprised if they didn’t involve a confrontation with you. I’m betting that Bowser has your teammate, as well. By the way, I managed to find out the radioactive material that Mystique was taking were rare isotopes of Vanadium and Hafnium, at least according to the label I was able to catch a glimpse of. That doesn’t mean anything to me, but I thought it might help you.”

“That does help,” Polaris told him, her voice much more even and measured. “Thank you, Stone, it helps a lot.”

“You are welcome. If I can be of further assistance, you should be able to reach me here.”

“We may just do that,” Forge told him, and they hung up. “What are we going to do?” he asked Lorna.

“I think it’s time to cash in on some favors and give a couple of our friends a call,” she said as she winked at Forge, then turned to go look up a phone number.

Bowser’s lab…

Bowser, Soundwave, Daydreamer, Furnace, and Saw-arm all stood off to one side. None of them really felt it wise to get in the way of the new, enhanced hound, lumbering it’s way over to the unmoving Jamie Madrox.

Suddenly, the hound announced ominously, “Target designate: Madrox. Mutant power to generate duplicates of self.”

“Continue,” Bowser gestured for the hound to approach. Then to Saw-arm, “Free the Multiple Man.”

Jamie fell over half a meter from the position he’d been stuck in since his arrival. His legs gave out as he hit the floor, weak from being frozen in place for over twelve hours. Despite the pain searing through his lower body, he wasted little time as he scrambled backwards away from the hound.

“Counter-measures programmed within, and initiated.”

“Whoa, can’t we discuss this a little first?” Jamie pleaded, to no avail. “How about rock-paper-scissors? Tic-tac-toe? Blackjack?!” The hound didn’t laugh, didn’t smile, and didn’t slow down.

“Well, then, don’t say I didn’t give you a chance. Now I’m gonna have to call in the cavalry.” Just as Jamie was about to pop his fist on the ground, a pale yellow beam shot forth from the hound, enveloping Jamie. It didn’t hurt him, but despite his frantic attempts to create dupes, nothing was happening.

“That’s right, Mr. Madrox,” Bowser chided from the sidelines. “Your mutant power has been nullified. I think you’ll find him a very frustrating opponent.”

The hound came ever-closer to Jamie, who had scrabbled himself up to the back wall and closed his eyes, fearing the worst. Right as the hound came within lethal striking distance, Bowser bellowed, “STOP!”

“Directive alpha-prime halted.”

“Name your other targets.”

“My other primary targets are: Polaris. Forge. Fixx. Shard.”

“Very good. This is excellent work, I must say. Congratulations to all of you. I think I speak for all of us when I say, ‘we are ready for a rematch’.”

LaGuardia Airport…

The young woman pushed her emerald-colored hair up underneath her Dodgers baseball cap, climbed into her rental car, a new maroon Toyota Camry, and looked around as she tried to make the slow painstaking crawl to I-87 north. “Traffic. Guess that’s the one thing LA and New York City have in common,” she sighed.

On the banks of the Hudson River, near Poughkeepsie…

The enormous grinning man handed the taxi driver a crisp, $100 bill. “Keep the change, buddy! Anyone who can put up with me for that long deserves it,” he laughed. He stepped out into the crisp fall air and grabbed his luggage. The chill gave him a quick shiver as he told himself, “One thing’s fer sure, this ain’t Florida!”

NEXT: A couple familar faces show up at X-Factor’s door! But this is no time for a reunion! Is the team ready for their most dangerous nemesis yet?