X-Force

The sun rose no differently on the dawn of the day the world was meant to end.

Dani Moonstar watched the footage of the explosion onboard El Conquistador and marveled as dozens of superhumans escaped through the hatch. “There were only six of them in my vision,” she whispered.

“Pull yourself together,” Domino said, her voice harsh. “You wanted to play general in this war. Either start barking orders or get on your horse and run so that someone else can do your job.”

[The first of the subjects has made landfall in Houston, Texas,] Prosh said, a note of urgency in his otherwise-robotic voice.

“Your move, Moonstar. Don’t freeze on me. This is what you’ve been preparing for,” Cable said.

Archangel put a hand on Moonstar’s shoulder. “Everybody has faith in you, but I think you’re going to find out you’ve been underestimating this world’s heroes.”

Dani turned away from the screen and looked Archangel in the eyes, addressing the group. “I’m taking Warren to New York. Cable, take Domino to Houston. Prosh, I’ll need you running the hub for communications on this.”

The orders were received and obeyed immediately. In a flash, the two pairs teleported from the room. Prosh remained behind, fingers locked into the computer console. As he watched red dots pop up around the world where the superhumans were making landfall, his logic-minded brain couldn’t help but wonder if there was still an angle they were missing…

WRITTEN IN STONE

Part V: Salvation

By Hunter Lambright

Houston, Texas

Cable and Domino teleported into Houston to the feeling of the world shaking down. As the tremor subsided, Cable radioed in to Prosh. “What are we looking at here?”

[The superhuman is half a mile north-northwest of your current position. Tapping into emergency communications around the Houston area, it appears that its powers are seismic in nature. It seems to be sending tremors through various levels of rock underneath the city. Even one more tremor like that could plunge the city into a full-on earthquake,] Prosh said. [I’m tapping into traffic cameras to see if I can cross-reference images and get information on who these combatants are].

“Do what you need to do. We’ll keep fighting down here,” Cable said. He grabbed Domino by the shoulder. “Bodyslide by two.”

With the feeling of a tug at Cable’s waist, the two were drug sideways out of reality and back in exactly at the point Prosh had described. The pavement underneath their feat was cracked. The shattering of the street radiated out from the focal point at the center of the crater. Standing there was a woman made of granite. She was thickly-built and stood seven feet tall. Her hair was immobile, jutting out from her head in stony spikes. Her eyes were hazy, pupil-less marbles.

“I’m going to guess that’s our unsub,” Domino said, grimacing. “I should have brought higher-caliber bullets.”

“I have plenty in one of these pouches, I’m sure,” Cable said. “Just like old times?”

Domino nodded. “Just like old times.”

Without a word, they leapt into action. Cable detached one of the pouches from his belt and tossed it to Domino. She caught it in midair and rolled to a stop, loading bullets into her high-powered rifle as Cable launched a frontal assault. The woman held both hands out toward Cable, rocking him backward as his metallic body parts shuddered from vibrations.

Cable gritted his teeth. “Damn!”

“Heads up!” Domino shouted. She emptied her gun into the woman. Every shot landed, thanks in no small part to Domino’s luck powers. Stone chipped off her form in small nicks, but no shot cause extreme damage.

Cable forced himself to his feet. “We’re floundering here, Prosh. Anything yet?”

Prosh’s voice came back shaky. [I was just sent a series of dossiers labeled “Children of the Vault.” Cross-referencing lists your unsub as a member named Piedra Dura, Spanish for “Hard Rock.” What’s bothering me is the source of this aid. It came from nowhere. Someone is helping us but doesn’t want us to know who they are. It’s somewhat bothersome.]

“Let’s win this now and ask questions later,” Cable said. “Any weaknesses?”

[No, but there is a cliché in the profile. Aim for her eyes.]

“Prosh says aim for the eyes,” Cable said to Domino. “Any chance you can make a lucky shot?”

“I can make a skilled shot. Luck just evens things out when we’re fighting supers,” Domino said. “Give me an opening. I’ll get your shot.”

Piedra Dura pulled her fist back into the air to punch the ground to ignite another tremor, but Cable was ready for her. He tossed the psimitar through the air like a lance. The tip speared her shoulder, sending her body into convulsions. Though this psimitar left no physical damage, it pierced the psyche of all it touched. Piedra Dura shook for just a moment, and that moment was all Domino needed.

Domino took aim on the girl. The convulsions made this a difficult shot, but she lived for difficulty. Only through triumph over difficulty could she have any fun.

She lined up her crosshairs and exhaled slowly, finger on the trigger. Just as her finger tugged, the ground shook just slightly in a whimper of an aftershock, shifting Domino’s aim just a few inches toward the ground. Simultaneously, Piedra Dura ducked.

Marble shattered as the bullet entered Piedra Dura’s left eye and exited through the side of her skull. She went down on the ground, screaming, but her rock form did not bleed.

Cable plunged the Psimitar through the wound and waited, grim-faced, as Piedra Dura writhed on the ground. Finally, she stopped moving.

“Ours is down, Prosh. Houston is safe.” Cable withdrew his Psimitar. “Lucky we had that tremor, huh?”

Domino winked. “That’s what I do.”

[S.H.I.E.L.D. is sending a containment team. As soon as they have men on the ground, I’ll give you the next location,] Prosh said.

Cable considered this. “How are our other teams doing, then?”

[Most have not yet engaged the Children of the Vault, although there is a developing situation in New York.]

“Then it’s time to see if we were right to put our faith in Dani.”

New York City

The hammer came crashing down on District X.

“Crapcrapcrap…” Jamie Madrox pried himself from his toppled rolling chair. Though recently rendered powerless, he was still attuned to the set of responses that came from years of emergency response. “Where’s it at?” he muttered, tossing stacks of papers in search of some kind of weapon. Instinct caused him to dive to the floor as a purple bolt of energy blew past him and into the wall. The destruction outside had turned into a firefight.

Jamie emerged onto the scene, weapon in hand, and took just a second to orient himself. He caught sight of Bishop, another resident of District X, channeling his energy powers through an oversized rifle as he fired on a hulk of a man whose size was dwarfed only by that of his hammer.

“Madrox!” Bishop shouted, waving him over. “Lend a hand!”

“Bishop!” Madrox warned. The hammer’s shadow blocked out the sun around Bishop.

Gunshots rang out, staggering the hammer-wielder long enough for Bishop to roll out of the man’s range. Izzy Ortega crouched behind a parked car, emptying his clip out on the man’s lower back. The sound of metal on metal grated against Madrox’s eardrums as the bullets ricocheted.

With a sound akin to a phone book ripping, Dani Moonstar and Archangel arrived in a flash of blue light. “Where…?” Warren began, stopping as the skyline answered his question.

“Bigger problems,” Dani said, pointing to the member of the Children of the Vault as he advanced on Officer Ortega. She unstrapped her bow from her back and knocked a trick arrow in a flurry of quick, efficient motions. Before the hammer-wielder had taken two steps, the first arrow exploded in a ball of fire against his shoulder.

[Dani, the files I have call your opponent Martillo, Spanish for “hammer,”] Prosh said over Dani’s earpiece. [More information will be forthcoming as I decode the files I was sent.]

“Assume the hammer is the source of this one’s abilities. Powers seem to be based on technology,” Dani said. “It’s integrated, though, into their life-forms. It might not be as easy as getting the hammer away from him.”

“Got it,” Bishop said, raising his massive firearm. “Focusing on the hammer.”

He shot at the section of the hammer where the head met the handle. Purple energy struck, filling the air with a burning smell, but the hammer stayed together.

Martillo growled, spitting out a string of curses in Spanish. He swung the hammer with a single arm in a wide arc, rolling parked cars over and sending Officer Ortega and Jamie Madrox scrambling. Dani shot off an explosive arrow, landing the blow on Martillo’s wrist. The giant hissed, bringing the hammer crashing down toward her. She jumped backward, pulled out of the way by Warren at the last moment as Martillo’s blow sent spider-web cracks across the pavement.

“That hammer gives him reach on us,” Madrox said. “I don’t have any range to begin with, but I’d kill for a hand grenade right now.” He looked at Bishop. “Or a laser gun.”

“Grab my gun, multiply, give me my gun back, keep the duplicate,” Bishop said, maintaining fire on Martillo. Ortega had shoved another clip in his gun and was firing again at Martillo’s spine. Nothing seemed to have any effect.

Madrox scratched his back. “Yeah, about that… I’m gonna go help with evac.”

Dani shook her head. “We can’t keep holding him at bay. Too much is going on. Every second we lose is more time we’re not stopping someone else!”

Warren shook his head. “Problem is, energy wielders and light munitions aren’t doing anything. Our power-set isn’t broad enough to take this guy down.”

“Whatever happened to good ol’ X-Men ingenuity?” Bishop grunted. “I’m running low on juice, so unless you’ve got a solution, we’re gonna need to call in backup!”

In a gray blur, the three hundred pounds of muscle that was Caliban bounded into Martillo, causing the massive hammer-wielder to stagger. The blow took Martillo to his knees. Caliban pressed his hand to Martillo’s forehead, compressing the composite fear of the New York residents in the area into Martillo’s psyche, crippling him. As the Horsemen Death and Pestilence, he had been gifted with the ability to use emotions as a psychoactive virus. Though the Children of the Vault had spent thousands of years in accelerated time in El Conquistador’s hold, their ability to process emotion had suffered. Caliban had merely exploited this weakness.

Bishop whistled. “Hmph. Should’ve called for backup sooner then.”

Dani ran over to Caliban and the fallen Martillo. “Caliban! How did you find us?”

“Caliban sensed the arrival of Moonstar and Archangel,” the former Morlock said. “Caliban guessed so many were here because something was happening.” Sensing her next question, he added, “Sunspot stayed with the Deviant.”

“How widespread is this, Dani?” Bishop asked. “Let’s get this contained. I’ll call the X-Men and we can get this situation contained before it gets any worse.”

“No, no X-Men, Bishop. I’ve seen the future, and that’s the road to everyone dying,” Dani said, pushing past him.

Bishop held out his hands in disbelief. “Dani, you can’t tell me you seriously believe that you’re going to do this on your own. No one doubts that you can, but the point of us all teaming together is so that you don’t have to carry the world on your shoulders.”

Dani shook her head. “You don’t get it. I saw it. In New York City, if everyone gathers… everyone dies.” A single teardrop fell onto her cheek from the frustration of the situation. Bishop’s words echoed Warren’s and Domino’s. No one wanted her to do it her way, but no one understood that she had to for their sakes.

Her eyes traveled upward as the teardrop floated off her cheek and into the air. All around her, liquid began to rise from open surfaces. Fountains, open drinks, and the perspiration on their skin rose into the air, rising to form a fast-growing mass of water in the sky. “Shit.”

“What?” Warren asked. “What does it mean?”

“It’s starting,” she whispered. “Sangre’s come to kill all the heroes.”

Warren put a hand on her shoulder. “Well, then we won’t let him.”

Dani breathed. The plan was gone. She would have to make do with the situation that she’d been handed and pray that it would turn out differently. “Bishop, you and Caliban keep Martillo down until S.H.I.E.L.D. containment gets here. Warren, you’re with me.

“Let’s see if we can prevent the superhero apocalypse.”

Tokyo, Japan

Shiro Yoshida hovered in midair as he saw the chaos that was striking the city. Something had rewired the entire city, one of the most technologically advanced in the world, so that the city was attacking its inhabitants. Traffic lights were going on and off out of sync, causing traffic to melt down. Hovering next to him on the back of the synthformer robot Baymax sat Hiro Takachiho fiddling with his tablet computer.

“I’m trying to take readings, Sunfire, but it seems like everything connected to some kind of mainframe is completely unresponsive!” Hiro said. “My firewalls are barely holding up. This is coming from something smarter than code. Someone’s plugged their brain into Tokyo!”

“Have Big Hero 6 focus on cleanup and reactionary purposes. I’ll find the villain who’s doing this,” Sunfire said, flying off on a stream of flame.

“Shiro!”

The sound was sharp. Hiro screamed as he plummeted through the air. Sunfire darted back in a mad attempt to catch him before he was flattened against the closest rooftop. “What happened?”

“Baymax went crazy! Whatever is going on, it’s gotten to him, too!” Hiro said.

Sunfire nodded, setting Hiro safely on the roof. “Stay here. Coordinate the efforts of Big Hero 6,” he reiterated. “I will fix this.”

He had barely been in flight for thirty seconds before he was hit from behind by Baymax. “Be warned. You will not take me on so easily in a fair fight!”

Baymax’s rockets reversed, sending him backward toward Sunfire in a second attack. It was on the second pass that Sunfire saw the sensor attached to Baymax’s armored form. Sunfire rolled with the attack, clinging onto Baymax. His hands grappled for the sensor, and when he found it, he poured solar energy into its circuitry. For just a second, Baymax faltered as his systems rebooted. Then the Big Hero 6 member came back online, once again flying under his own power.

“What happened?” Sunfire demanded.

“I was pinged by a pale woman in black. That is the only image that was transmitted to me before my memory bank goes blank,” Baymax said. “How long was I under her control? Is Hiro safe?”

Sunfire nodded. “I caught him before he landed. It is good that you were only gone for—”

Baymax and Sunfire were buffeted as a shockwave erupted through the skyway. “It came from that direction!” Baymax said, pointing. “Probably shouldn’t get too close to her, though.”

“Get to Hiro. I’ll take on this pale woman of yours,” Sunfire said, flying off toward the source of the shockwave.

Blasting between buildings in an aerial catfight were the pale woman in black and a robotic creature that looked like it had seen better days. Sunfire recognized it from his weekly digest as the Assemble robot, a robot gifted with the powers of several of the Avengers. “Fool! The witch controls machinery!” Sunfire shouted.

“Got it covered,” said a voice within the robot. “Serafina here has nothing on me.”

Serafina, the pale girl, let loose a series of black wire tendrils from beneath her cloak. “Your technology is mine to command.” She spat. “Pathetic humans, mutants… meet your evolutionary betters.”

The wires wrapped around the Assemble robot, plugging into every orifice. Sunfire turned toward Assemble, ready to fight it in the same way he had rid Baymax of his viral infection. And then… nothing happened.

The air stood still as the wires froze in place. Serafina’s smile disappeared, replaced with confusion, terror, and agony in quick succession. Her flight cut out, and she began to fall from the sky, her wire tendrils lifeless around her. The Assemble robot came back to life in time to catch her before she plummeted to the earth, delivering her to the roof of the closest skyscraper. It held its arm up as a transceiver. “S.H.I.E.L.D., this is Black Howler to Helicarrier, requesting prisoner transport, the anti-tech model. Respond to my location.”

“What just happened?” Sunfire asked, dropping to the rooftop next to Assemble.

The chest cavity of the Giant Man-powered robot popped open. Gabriel Jones climbed out of the robot’s torso. “Dani Moonstar knew this was going to happen. We retrofitted the Assemble robot with room for a human operator and programmed it with an electropsych virus.” He shook his head and chuckled. “Don’t tell her this, but I didn’t believe it would work.”

Sunfire looked over the edge of the rooftop. The city had stopped attacking itself. “Another day, another threat. Now we are left here to clean up,” he muttered.

Jones shook his head. “We’ll drop you some troops, but this is a worldwide thing. I have to get back stateside immediately, because the situation is ongoing. Let’s just hope the rest of our teams are having as good a time of it as we did.”

Tel Aviv, Israel

“Burn!”

Siryn dodged another blast of fire as the Child of the Vault called Fuego chased her across Tel Aviv. She had stopped him from burning down a series of synagogues, but he had cut her off at every attempt to lead the chase out of the city. The heavily-cloaked man had a flaming skull for a head, bringing more and more people out of their homes to draw fire instead of keeping them inside where they could not be seen as cannon fodder.

“Voy a quemarte,” said Fuego, “and I’m going to enjoy every minute of it.”

She closed her mouth for a moment, allowing herself to free-fall, spinning to her back as she did. Fuego took the opportunity to throw a pair of fireballs in her direction. Siryn opened her mouth and screeched, blowing the fireballs back at Fuego, switching the frequencies to catch her wings once more before she skidded across the street. Fuego blew through his own fireballs with little effort.

Siryn shifted direction again, but this time Fuego anticipated it, cutting the distance between them nearly in half by taking on the distance diagonally. “Fried songbird is on the menu tonight!”

Blue light flashed. “Yeah, right. Not if we’ve got anything to say about it.” Domino and Cable emerged on a rooftop. “Thanks for holding the line, Terry. Let’s see if we can’t take this creep on,” Domino said with a grin.

Just then, edged on by Domino’s luck powers, Fuego’s knee caught on one of the rooftops, sending him tumbling across the sandstone. “Mala suerte, amigo,” Siryn spat, turning around to pin Fuego to the rooftop with her scream.

“Psychic attacks are the only thing that will keep these guys down that we’ve found so far for certain,” Cable warned, readying his Psimitar. He launched it like a javelin. The psychic weapon channeled his telepathic powers into Fuego’s torso, riddling every nerve with psychic turmoil. The Child of the Vault’s body convulsed until he collapsed on the roof, his flames extinguished as he slipped into unconsciousness.

Domino kicked at Fuego’s body. “One more of these nutjobs down. Let’s see how many more we can get.”

Mexico City, Mexico

Yellow energy blasts peppered Mexico City under the power of Aguja. The majority were swallowed by rips and folds in time and space as Trevor Chase manipulated the curves of reality to swallow the energy and redistribute it elsewhere. The young teen sat cross-legged, moving his hands as he watched the energy balls increase in number, entranced as any other teenager would be if he were doing the same with a video game controller.

“He can’t keep that up for long,” Empath said. “Without a flyer, we’re at a severe disadvantage.” Magma nodded. “I won’t summon the volcanic energy of this area. We’ve already lost one city that way. I won’t let that happen again.”

Empath shook his head. “Amara, if it comes down to using your powers to try to save the city and inadvertently destroying it, it’s the same outcome as not trying to save the city from destruction at all.”

[Manuel, I just got word that Caliban’s powers crippled one of the Children of the Vault. If you’re able to get close enough to Aguja, I imagine you could do the same,] Prosh said. [Psychic attacks have proven to be our most useful options.]

“Thanks, Prosh,” Empath said. He bit his lower lip. “Amara, is there any way we can get me close to her? If I can look her in the eyes, I can mold her.” He tried not to notice as Amara averted her eyes at his words. “Please.”

“I can get you there.”

Empath looked at Trevor. “Are you sure you can do that, Destiny?”

“I can fold you inside reality here and open the same rip up by Aguja. The only problem you’ll have is that you can’t fly,” Trevor said. “Hnh. Destiny. I like how that sounds.”

Empath shrugged. “If you can fold me back in and out of reality back here once I’m done, we can try that. Otherwise, well, we’ll worry about it when we get to it.”

“Okay, get ready,” Trevor said, never once taking his eyes off the yellow energy balls that he was dissipating.

He waved his hand in Empath’s direction. It was as if someone had wrapped a curtain around him. For a moment, he saw the starry innards of Eternity. The next, he appeared in midair, arms flailing comically. The pigtailed Aguja looked at him and started to laugh. Empath’s eyes flashed blue.

In that moment of eye contact, everything changed. Manuel was able to imprint himself on her psyche. You do not have any desire to harm anyone. You do not hate humans or mutants. You wish to sleep. Those and a dozen other thoughts entered Aguja’s mind. Her newfound exhaustion took over, and instantly Empath regretted his decision. He could have made her care for his safety so that she would fly him to the ground. Instead, he was still in free-fall.

For a second, he permitted himself to put his faith in Destiny. A few seconds later, as he fell toward the ground in tandem with Aguja’s unconscious body, he screamed. “Trevor!”

The breath was knocked from his lungs as he landed on the smooth, polished surface of a slide made from igneous rock, spiraling safely down to the ground with Aguja in tow. When he reached the end of the slide, he rolled off the edge and to his knees. He wrapped his arms around Amara’s legs and kissed her thigh. “Thank you for saving me.”

Amara bent and kissed him on the top of the head. “I was only returning the favor for the dozen times you’ve done the same for me, love.”

He stood and they embraced. “What happened to Trevor?”

The teen moaned and rolled over. “Folding reality around a person is different than folding it around inanimate objects or energy,” he uttered. “I felt like… like something didn’t like it.”

Empath accepted this, keeping what he saw in the folds of reality to himself. “What now?”

Amara looked to Aguja, drawing in the air with her hands. As she did, a full-body cast of igneous rock formed around their prisoner. “Now? We wait. We wait and we pray.”

Pisa, Italy

The hardest part of fighting Perro was not knowing which way was up.

Matt and Luke kept their feet on the ground, but Perro commanded perception of equilibrium along with localized gravity shifts. Already, he had sent Hellion flying to the right as if right were down. The teen had suspended himself with his telekinesis, but not before falling three blocks away from the Leaning Tower.

“I’ve got nothing! What am I gonna do, heal him to death?” Elixir shouted, his arms wrapped tightly around a signpost in an effort to tether himself to one equilibrium.

Perro bared his teeth in a feral grin. “Gravity is my bitch, niñito. You defend your world with teenagers? No es posible, muchachos.”

Hellion swiped at Perro with telekinetic lines from afar, but the effort was next-to-useless when his perception changed every few seconds. Perro laughed his efforts off.

Elixir crawled over to Matt and Luke. “Syndicate, it’s up to you. You guys have an electro-magnetic pulse for a heart. Perro’s powers are tech. You can stop him in his tracks.”

Matt looked at Luke. “You ready for this?”

“Won’t it kill us?”

“Won’t Perro kill us if we don’t try?” Matt shot back.

Luke turned up his nose. “I hate it when you’re right.”

They looked down at Elixir, barely able to keep their own balance. “We’ll do it. But… if anything happens, tell Dani to take care of Sparks for us,” Luke said.

Matt swallowed. “And if she wakes up and we’re gone, tell her we went out as heroes instead of jailbirds.”

Perro continued gloating as he rotated gravity and gravitational perception, sending street signs, shop stands, and pedestrians flying down into what felt like oblivion, only to revert gravity to normal and send them skidding across the streets. As gravity reverted, Syndicate ran forward, tackling Perro to the ground. Perro rolled them over. “Feisty, no? Locos, ambos.”

“You wanna bet?” Matt asked.

Luke gritted his teeth. “We are not crazy!”

The glow from their chest grew. While their heart rate sped up, the strength of the emission of magnetic energy increased. Finally, their chest flashed white with energy. Perro was rocked backward, the equipment all around the beefy man’s body sizzling. His eyes rolled back in their sockets as the parts of the technology that were wired into his nervous system fried.

“You did it!” Hellion screamed, floating over to Syndicate. “You… guys?”

Syndicate lay still. No glow pulsed from their chest.

“Oh fuck.”

“Move it,” Elixir said, shoving Hellion out of the way. He stripped off his gloves, laying his hands flat on Syndicate’s chest. “Come on.”

Nothing happened.

Elixir forced every ounce of energy in his system toward his palms. He gritted his teeth as his forehead tensed, perspiration collecting at every pore. “Come… ON!”

As Hellion looked on, Elixir’s eyes went white, the pupils disappearing. A gold flash flew out of his body, starting at the base of his spine and wrapping its way around his arms. The flash disappeared into his palms, leaving his hands glowing as they transferred the energy into Syndicate’s chest.

“Shit… Josh… Josh, it worked,” Hellion said, pointing at the area under Syndicate’s chest. No longer was the glow coming from Josh’s hands. It came from Syndicate’s reignited heartbeat.

Josh collapsed against Syndicate. “Oh, thank god. We did it. We did it.”

New York City

Forge blew off another shot at Olvido only to see the bullet sucked into another black hole. “Come on, team! Need some help over here!”

“Trying, just a wee bit occupied,” Banshee said, using short, whistling bursts of his vocal powers to disrupt the frequency of the hard-light soldiers attacking him. “Luz is giving me some trouble yet!”

“Got your back, Forge!” Shadowcat shouted as she phased up from the ground under Olvido, Colossus in tow.

Colossus armored up. “Sleep, tovarisch.” He reared his fist back, already too close for Olvido to create a black hole to absorb the blow. The Child of the Vault took the hit and crumpled to the ground.

Banshee stumbled back as Luz moved her hard-light projections toward him. He prepared to unleashed a full-force scream.

BAMF!

In a purple cloud of smoke, Nightcrawler teleported in with an acrobatic kick to the back of Luz’s head. The young Child of the Vault crumpled to the ground from the blow, causing her light projections to disappear.

“You looked like you could use an assist, mein freund,” Nightcrawler said, teleporting over to Banshee and offering him a hand up.

The wind picked up for a moment, heralding the arrival of the African weather goddess, Storm, as she drifted to the ground on the wind’s power. “It is fortunate the Avengers priority alert went off when it did. We saw that the X-Men had responded and wanted to offer our assistance, with the rest of the Avengers on their way behind us.”

There was a thick, heavy flapping noise as Archangel made a beeline for the ground. “Hey, everyone. I saw Ororo fly in and thought maybe I could find some of you here. Dani Moonstar says she knows what’s going on. Tell the rest of your teammates that we’re converging at Times Square!”

When he finished speaking, he spread his wings and took flight again.

“Hello to you, too,” Kitty muttered, rolling her eyes.

Nightcrawler flashed his trademark devilish grin. “You heard the man! Times Square, here we come!”

BAMF!

“Eat rock, chumps!”

The X-Student known as Rockslide slammed his gray, stone fist into Corregidora, the strongwoman of the Children of the Vault. “How do ya like that?”

“I’ve seen better,” Corregidora said, catching the second fist in her much-smaller palm, absorbing the force of the punch and forcing Rockslide back.

A green-scaled boy leapt onto her from behind. “Yeah? Well how about with a monkey—er, lizard—on your back?” Anole asked.

“Monkey-lizard?” Rockslide asked.

Anole flashed him the evil-eye. “I was trying!”

Corregidora flung Anole off and into Rockslide with a force that sent Rockslide to his back. “I tire of your quips. Give me a challenge!”

“How’m ah for a challenge?”

Corregidora was swept off her feet as Cannonball swept in from the sky, pummeling her into the street. The Child of the Vault was blown into unconsciousness by the force of the blast. Cannonball stepped up out of the debris. “You kids all right? Ah can’t believe you dolts stowed away on the Blackbird!” he shouted.

“You totally stole our kill!” Rockslide grumbled, sitting up.

“Sam?” Dani Moonstar stopped in her tracks running on a cross-street when she saw her former teammate. “Sam Guthrie?”

“Dani Moonstar. How in hell did you end up comin’ here? Last Ah heard, you were abducting students,” Sam said, smiling.

Dani shook her head. “It’s all been for a reason. I promise. Everything that I’ve done, every time I’ve acted crazy the last few weeks, it’s all been leading up to this.”

Sam laughed. “You don’t have to justify yourself to me, Dani. Bobby and I talk once a week. He’s been telling me what’s up.”

“That would be how he knows you’re a teacher now,” Dani said, gesturing toward Rockslide and Anole. She stared up at the still-growing water globule in the sky. “Shit. We have to get to Times Square now. If we don’t, we lose this big time.”

[Dani, just got word from Moscow that the Chicago Morlocks from Harkins’ lab have dispatched Cadena with Postman rewriting her nervous system,] Prosh reported.

“Thanks, Prosh,” she said, holding her hand up to her earpiece. She looked to Sam. “Wanna give me a lift?”

Sam held out his hand. “Why, Ah thought you’d never ask.”

Avengers. X-Men. X-Factor Investigations. New York Police Department. All gathered in Times Square to determine how to stop the thin, pale, bald man gathering the large water mass above the city. Captain America conferred with Beast over the likelihood of this becoming a city-wide problem. Ortega met up with Tom Corsi, his partner, to see if there was any word on his family. Forge and Iron Man talked about possible technological solutions.

Then Dani Moonstar arrived on Cannonball’s back. “Thanks for the ride,” she said. “I know you’re all worried about the threat this man poses. His name is Sangre, and he wants us all dead. But I think I can stop him.” Muttering continued behind her, but she didn’t let it distract her. Instead, she called on her mutant power of illusion projection, using it to communicate directly with Sangre.

Projecting her image blown up ten times, she looked at Sangre as she spoke. “I know what you’re going to do, and you don’t think there’s any way we can stop you. I want you to know that you’re wrong.”

Sangre laughed. “The rest of the Children of the Vault gathered data. Their enhancements sent me that. They were testing you. I know your weaknesses.”

“Then why?” Moonstar asked. “Why are you doing this in the first place?”

“You’ve seen how this ends, right, Miss Moonstar? You’ve seen that this ends with everyone in the world either dead or at my feet, with my people on the throne of the world. We are the rightful inheritors of the earth. Mutants had their chance. Now my people get theirs,” he said. “I will drain this city and I will wash it out in a tidal wave of blood. I will wash the world out so that it is clean for the Children of the Vault.”

Dani stomped, her projected image growing angry. “You’re a sad man, you know that? You think you’re the first to think he’s the next ruler of the world? You think you’re the first who even got close to winning? You aren’t. And us? We win every time.”

Sangre gestured with his arms toward Times Square. “Win now.”

At his gesture, the gathered heroes felt first their lips grow dry, watching as water droplets came from their gathered populace towards Sangre. Then, they began to feel their skin chap. “He’s draining us dry,” Warren cautioned, a hand on her shoulder. It was scratchy to the touch.

“Fuck,” Dani whispered in a raspy voice. The Avengers and X-Men with long-range powers began to attack Sangre, having given Dani her chance, but the closer they got, the more quickly they were drained, falling down as they passed out from dehydration. “What did I mess up?”

Everything was still on track for the end of the world. The heroes of the world were still dying all around her. And then, when Warren’s hand slipped off her shoulder, she understood.

With all of her effort, she summoned the projection again. “Sangre, I figured it out. You win when I try to do it all by myself… when I try to divide everything to win the day. But that’s not how it works. Prosh. I need them. Everyone.”

In flashes of blue, they appeared from around the world. Gabriel Jones appeared with Sunfire tagged onto his bodyslide device. Empath, Magma, and Destiny arrived in a single warp, as did Syndicate, Hellion, and Elixir. Cable, Domino, and Siryn were next, with Sabra joining them from Israel. The freed former Morlock Hounds showed up from Moscow, the snow quickly melting off their garments. Prosh himself arrived next, joining Cable at his side. Finally, from elsewhere in the city, Sunspot and Caliban arrived with a shackled Odysseus Indigo.

“You’re only bonded with your Children of the Vault because you’re a species,” Dani croaked. “We win because we’re a family… and we will support that no matter what.” She turned to Sunspot. “Fastball special that bastard.”

Sunspot fired up his powers, picking up Odysseus Indigo with the ease of super-strength. He aimed and threw the Deviant toward Sangre. Sangre dodged in midair so that Odysseus Indigo missed completely. “Your attempt failed,” Sangre muttered, continuing with the liquid drain.

“No,” Sunspot said. “I just had to get him close enough to turn off your powers.”

Sangre’s eyes widened. Then, he plummeted from the sky. He landed in a clump, where Cable waited to scramble his mind with his Psimitar. “It’s over, Sangre,” he said, plunging the tip of the psychic spear through Sangre’s head.

“Dani, the water!” Empath yelled. The water that Sangre had gathered from all around the city and all of the heroes’ bodies was no longer suspended in midair by his power.

Destiny held out his arms. “I’ve got it.”

All around the sky, space opened up and folded back upon itself, drawing in the water and opening back up elsewhere, in and around the city. There would be no tidal deluge today.

It was then, seeing that she had succeeded in every impossible way, that Dani Moonstar blacked out.

When Dani woke up, the first thing she saw was Warren’s face looming at her bedside. She recognized it as one of the patient rooms at the X-Mansion. “How long was I out?” she grumbled.

“Just a day,” Warren said, putting a hand on her arm. “Don’t try to do too much moving around right now. They’ve got you on a saline drip until you’re hydrated back to normal. Sangre messed a lot of people up pretty badly.”

“Yeah,” Dani said. “Yeah, he did. But they aren’t dead like they were in my vision, so, y’know, bright sides of life and all.”

Warren smiled. “You saved a lot of lives, Dani. You proved that you have it, that you were right all along. I don’t think it would have worked that way with anyone but you.”

“Flatterer.”

“Heroine,” Warren teased back, but the banter was cut short by a sharp knock on the doorframe.

Cable stuck his head in the door. “I heard Dani was awake. Mind if I talk to her for a few minutes?”

Warren shifted uncomfortably, then stood up. “Yeah, go for it. I’ll come back in a little while, sound good?”

“Yeah, Warren,” Dani said. “I’d like that.”

Cable took a seat, not saying a word until the door was shut behind Warren. “Dani, I wanted you to know that you did really well out there. You won the day. Your actions out there and for the past few weeks are commendable.”

Dani sighed. “There’s a ‘but,’ isn’t there?”

Cable grimaced. “We missed something.” He unfolded a newspaper. The headline read, “WILD MUTANT KILLS 72 IN WASHINGTON MONUMENT MASSACRE.”

Dani moaned. “What happened?”

Cable unfolded the newspaper and started reading. “’Witnesses say that a man made of metal set a girl, now identified as mutant Tildie Soames, at the Washington Monument shortly after dawn. When the girl fell asleep, her power was awakened, manifesting as a creature from her nightmares. The creature proceeded to kill 72 and injure 37 more.’ Want me to keep going?”

“No, I heard enough,” Dani said, shaking her head. “So, ‘a man made of metal,’ huh?”

“That’s right,” Cable said. “Tin Man.”

“Tin Man,” Dani agreed. “We thought the Children of the Vault were his endgame. They were a distraction.”

“Prosh suspects that the Tin Man was the one who fed him that information that helped us defeat the Children, too, aiding us on the distractive threat while keeping us away from the threat that really mattered,” Cable said.

“Okay, so what did he gain from all of this?”

“We’re looking into it, but it sounds like there might be Sentinels going into heavy reproduction underground. In politics terms, someone has good reason to believe that they’ll be contracted to build Sentinels by the U.S. Government, and so they’re starting ahead of the curve,” Cable said. “But my guess is that Congress won’t go that route. That doesn’t matter to the Tin Man, I’m guessing, because I think all he wanted from this is jump-starting Sentinel production.”

Dani shook her head. “I don’t get it. What’s his actual endgame, then?”

“I’ll work on that, get back to you when I have a better idea,” Cable said. “Believe me when I say that when I know anything, you’re the first person I’ll tell.”

“Thanks, Cable. For everything.”

Cable patted her on the shoulder. “Always another war. I’m going to head off to pursue some personal business for now, but if you ever need me again, let me know. I’ll come back. It was good working with you.”

“You too, Cable,” Dani said. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”

Cable nodded. “Probably not. You should get some rest, Moonstar. You need it.”

He shut the door behind him on the way out, and the lights went out automatically just a moment later, but Dani was unable to sleep, plagued by thoughts of Tin Men, nightmare monsters, and the idea that she had won, only to lose again…

The Damocles Foundation
San Francisco, California
Two Weeks Later

Dani sat in the empty computer room of the Damocles Foundation, staring at the computer screens blankly. Magma and Empath had returned to Argentina, saying to call if they ever needed help. Syndicate had left with their sister Sparks, their sentence commuted officially by some finagling on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s part. Gabriel Jones had sent Domino off on a mission of her own, while Cable had gone back to working with Prosh to track what had happened to Apocalypse following his return from the dead as a psychic entity. Siryn had elected to stay in New York to spend some time with her father Banshee. Word was that the former Chicago Morlocks had disappeared into the sewers in the confusion of the aftermath. Caliban had returned to his quiet existence on Genosha. Of the adults, only Archangel, Sunspot, and Dani remained. Elixir and Hellion had stuck around. All of this stayed on her mind. She didn’t even blink as Trevor walked up behind her, almost silent as he walked.

“You’re not happy, are you?” he asked.

Dani shrugged. “You win some, you lose some. We won, but we still didn’t get everything right, either. But we didn’t all die in New York, and that counts for something.”

Trevor nodded. “I think I understand now. Grandma Irene wrote what she saw in her visions, but I think it was possible that she saw alternate futures sometimes, warnings of what our world could be if we make different decisions. I think she knew that. She wanted you to be able to make a decision that would let you win, so she made you think you had to change things. You did. And look where we are now.”

“You’re probably right,” Dani said. “The first Destiny was a very wise woman, and I think she’d be happy with what the second Destiny is doing with the name.”

“Really? I thought it might be in bad taste,” Trevor said.

“No, I don’t think so,” she said. She put a hand on his shoulder. “Trevor, I want to tell you something. When I met up with Sam in New York and saw him with those kids, I realized that something had been missing the entire time I was playing rogue agent. I want to open up a west coast academy for mutant kids and go back to being a teacher again. And I want you to join it. Josh and Julian, too, if they want. I think maybe there, you’ll have a little bit better time going about understanding what exactly ‘destiny’ means.”

Trevor nodded. “Miss Moonstar, I think that’s a very good idea. It says so in your book.”

“Does it now?” Dani asked, standing up to leave the room. “Well, good for the book. As for me, I think I’m going to spend some time making my own future… not screwing around with one that’s written in stone.”

 

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