EXECUTIVE DECISION

Part II

By Dino Pollard

The Xavier Institute; War Room

Kurt Wagner – Nightcrawler – and Domino sit on one side of a large, circular table with an X engraved in it. On the other sit Pete Wisdom and Betsy Braddock – Psylocke. Wisdom is a former Black Air operative and served with Kurt on Excalibur. Betsy is a former X-Man and also served on Excalibur for a time. Domino knows them mostly by reputation.

“It is good to see the both of you again,” says Kurt. “Now tell us, what brings you from England?”

“Business, fuzzy,” says Wisdom. In his hand is a zippo lighter that he flicks open and closed with his thumb as he speaks. “Betsy and I’ve seen Rory Campbell.”

“How is Rory these days?” asks Kurt. “It feels like ages since I’ve spoken to him.”

“Doing good, has a nice, cushy new job, too,” says Wisdom. “Actually, he’s the reason we’re here.”

“Rory is organizing a worldwide mutant strike force to combat some of the many threats posed to mutantkind,” says Betsy. “With the X-Men going public and X-Factor owing allegience to the States, that means it’s easier than it ever has been for organizations which exploit mutants to function. Organizations like Black Womb.”

“How do you know about Black Womb?” asks Domino. “None of that information has been released to the public.”

“Rory’s got connections, sunbeam,” replies Wisdom.

“So you want a black ops team of X-Men?” asks Domino.

“We like to refer to it as X-Corps,” says Wisdom. “We have a lot of people to speak with, but there are several prospects here in the Institute that we’d like to consult. The two of you are top of the list.”

“Not interested,” says Domino. “It’s not that I don’t agree with you, because actually I do. You’re absolutely right, Wisdom – with the X-Men operating in a public capacity, that means we can’t take on some of the more subtle threats to mutantkind. But I did the black ops thing. I did it for most of my life. I’m done with that now, I’m staying here.”

“Fair enough,” says Wisdom. “What about you, Kurt? I could use a commanding officer.”

“You want me to lead this organization?” asks Kurt. “What about you, Betsy?”

“I’m no leader, Kurt,” replies Betsy. “Perhaps for a small squad I am, but not for something as large as X-Corps. You’ve proven yourself as the leader of Excalibur and the X-Men.”

“I appreciate the vote of confidence, but something like this is too large for me as well,” says Kurt. “I have leadership experience, yes… but the X-Men and Excalibur are quite different from this X-Corps you’re proposing. I’m not your man to lead this, Pete.”

“Sorry to hear that, Kurt,” says Wisdom.

“That being said, I still want to be a part of this,” says Kurt. “And I have someone in mind who will serve in this leadership capacity far better than myself.”

Seattle

“It’s pretty crowded,” says Cable. “But I think it’s a safe assumption that our mystery mutant is in there.”

“Yes, there is a very interesting energy signature,” says Xorn, the latest addition to the X-Men’s ranks. “I wish to learn more of it.”

“Let’s move in,” says Fantomex. He checks his handguns quickly, making sure that they are loaded.

“Slow down,” says Cable. “I’m running this op, Fantomex.”

“As if I care,” says Fantomex. “I don’t need any help, nor did I request any.”

“Doesn’t matter to me,” says Cable. “Kurt felt you could use the back-up, especially considering the energy readings this mutant gives off.”

“And your new friend?” asks Fantomex.

“Nathan told me of this mission, and I expressed interest in coming along,” replies Xorn. “I am a student, Fantomex. I simply wish to learn.”

“Read a book,” says Fantomex.

“If I could see printed words, I would,” says Xorn. “I don’t perceive the world in the same way you do, my friend. I have no eyes to see. I see things in terms of their auras.”

“And what does my aura tell you?” asks Fantomex.

“You shine like a beacon,” replies Xorn. “Your mutation places you at a level above that of most living organisms.”

“Good, then stay out of my way,” says Fantomex. He walks towards the small building.

“Fantomex wait!” exclaims Cable, but Fantomex ignores his call. “Dammit.”

Cable runs after him, leaving Xorn standing on his own.

“These X-Men are fascinating,” he says. “I wish to learn more.”

The Xavier Institute; Cafeteria

“Y’know, it’s weird,” says Danielle Moonstar. “I expected things to calm down now that Cassandra is gone. But tensions seem just as high as ever.”

“Scott and the Professor haven’t been on what one would call ‘good terms’ for quite some time, Dani,” says Piotr Rasputin moments before sliding a french fry into his mouth.

“I’ll second that…” says Alison Blaire. She takes a sip from her can of Diet Pepsi. “I don’t feel all that comfortable here anymore, at least not while I’ve got Becca to worry about. I know she’s got a little playmate with Rachel, but it’s just too strange for me.”

“What are you saying?” asks Piotr.

“I’m thinking of leaving the school,” replies Alison. “I never really intended for this to be a permanent stay, and I think I should be moving on. The incident with Cassandra just helped me to realize that anything can, and usually does happen where the X-Men are concerned.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, Alison,” says Piotr.

“I think I might take some time off, too,” says Danielle. “Just feels right, I guess.”

“No way, no way!”

The three X-Men turn their attentions to the recent arrivals in the cafeteria. The woman called Stacy dressed in shorts and a sports bra as well as a new, and somewhat surprising, addition to the Institute – Cain Marko, the Juggernaut – wearing shorts and a t-shirt as opposed to his usual crimson armor. He holds a towel around his neck.

“Hey, I won fair and square, so that means you gotta pay up,” says Stacy.

“Uh uh, no deal,” says Cain. “Bet’s off, toots.”

“What’s going on?” asks Alison.

“Marko here bet me twenty bucks that I wouldn’t be able to do Kurt’s usual acrobatic work-out faster than his recorded time,” says Stacy. “He lost, and now he’s whining about paying up.”

“Doesn’t count,” says Cain. “You never told me you could control your own adrenaline!”

“You never asked,” says Stacy.

“Man, that’s total crap…” mutters Cain. “I’m hungry, I’m gonna grab something to eat.”

Cain turns away from the group and heads towards the food area. Thanks to Shi’ar technology, as well as innovations from the likes of Forge, the Xavier Institute is fully equipped with a cafeteria manned by robots that prepare the food for the faculty and student body. Cain takes a tray and grabs a few burgers and a bottle of water from a cooler. As he gathers his food, he detects the scent of smoke in the air and looks towards it. He sees that the source of the smoke is a cigarette hanging from the lips of a man with short black hair, a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a tie, and black slacks.

“Well well well,” he says. “Cain Marko hanging out in the Xavier Institute. Will wonders never cease.”

“Do I know you, limey?” asks Cain.

“Pete Wisdom, formerly of the British intelligence community,” he replies. “Think of me as James Bond, just better looking.”

“Riiiiiiight, sure thing pal,” says Cain. “Is that supposed to impress me?”

“Don’t worry, Marko, I’m not here to arrest you or anything,” says Wisdom. “I wear the X myself, actually. Or I did. Back on the other side of the pond, that is.”

“Sounds good,” says Cain. “What’s that gotta do with me?”

“Word has it you’ve cleaned up your act,” says Wisdom. “Fighting on the side of angels now, I take it?”

“What’s it to ya?” asks Cain.

“Think about this,” begins Wisdom. “You working with the X-Men. Right now, the X-Men have been thrusted into the public spotlight. It’s bad enough that the world is seeing them as buddy buddy with Magneto. But toss in the Juggernaut to the mix, and that makes things worse for their perception.”

“Whaddaya saying?” asks Cain. “That I’m not good enough to be an X-Man?”

“Not at all, lad,” replies Wisdom. “What I’m saying is that it’s detrimental to not only the X-Men’s image, but also to your step-brother’s, for a known felon to be running around with them. Especially when I have better uses for you. A job where you’d feel much more at home.”

“Hey Cain, what’s takin’ you so long?” asks Stacy, walking towards her teammate. “We’ve been… oh, sorry, didn’t know you were talking to someone.”

“Not a problem,” says Wisdom. “I’m Pete Wisdom. You’re Stacy, right?”

“Yeah, how’d you know?” asks Stacy.

“Kurt told me about you,” replies Wisdom. “He and I go back.”

“Oh cool,” says Stacy. “Am I interrupting something?”

“Not at all,” says Wisdom. “In fact, what I have to say to Marko, you might wanna hear as well.”

Seattle

The three X-Men make their way through the small bar. A band plays on the stage, blasting punk rock music through the stereos. Although in many situations, Cable, Xorn, and Fantomex may seem out of place, this is not one of those. The tenants of the bar dress in all sorts of different clothing, multi-colored hair styles, and various piercings and tattoos.

“Nathan, I am detecting some sort of foreign substance in the area,” says Xorn. “It seems to be altering the behaviors of the people in this establishment.”

“It’s called alcohol, Xorn,” says Cable.

“Alcohol, eh?” asks Xorn. “Where is the source?”

“Over by the bar,” replies Cable.

“This seems most interesting,” says Xorn. “I must learn more. Excuse me, my friends.”

“Your friend is going to end up drunk,” says Fantomex.

“He has no mouth,” says Cable. “How can he drink?”

Cable continues to walk through the bar, pushing past the patrons with Fantomex following. Cable’s eye glows brightly as he scans through the crowd. His scan stops on a man in the corner of the room.

“That’s him,” says Cable.

The two X-Men make their way to the table. At the table sits a young man in his early twenties. His hair is spiked and he has a small goatee, both of which are blue. He has a large M tattooed on his face, as well as several piercings. His arms, which are revealed bare from the rolled up sleeves of his jacket, are covered with so many tattoos that barely any skin is visible. A pair of Oakley sunglasses cover his eyes.

“Somethin’ I can help you guys with?” he asks.

“My name’s Nathan Summers,” says Cable. “This is my associate, Fantomex. We’re from the Xavier Institute. Maybe you’ve heard of us?”

“Yeah, I’ve heard of you – you’re X-Men, right?” he asks. “Name’s Warp Savant, by the way.”

“We are,” replies Cable. He and Fantomex each take a seat across from Savant. “Warp Savant, that your birth name?”

“Yes and no,” says Savant. “I was first born a human. Then when I hit puberty, I was reborn as a mutant. So I gave myself a new name to coincide with my rebirth.”

“You showed up as quite a large blip on our Cerebro network,” says Cable. “What exactly can you do?”

Warp Savant grins and lifts up his beer bottle. He drinks down the remains of it and waves it in front of the faces of Cable and Fantomex. As they watch, the bottle seems to break up, little bits of it vanishing until it’s completely gone.

“A teleporter,” says Fantomex. “A teleporter caused a huge blip on Cerebro?”

“I can break down matter into psionic energy,” says Savant. “That bottle now exists within the confines of my mind. I can reassemble the psionic energy into the same matter wherever I choose. Head’s up.”

The bottle reappears in the air and falls. Cable stops it with his telekinesis and sets it back on the table.

“Care to pay a visit to the Xavier Institute?” asks Cable. Savant simply smiles in response.

At the bar, the tender sets down a glass of beer. Xorn grasps the glass and lifts it up slightly, examining it. A string of energy emerges from the mouth of his iron mask and travels into the glass. The beer seems to vanish as the energy fills the glass. Once the glass is empty, the energy line disappears.

“So this is alcohol,” says Xorn. “Fascinating.”

The Xavier Institute

Near the lake which lays on the border of the Xavier Institute’s grounds, two young lovers lay on the ground, their arms wrapped around each other, their lips locked together. The man’s hand moves across the woman’s body, towards her breast and she grabs it.

“Stop,” says Leyu Yoshida. “We shouldn’t be doing this.”

“Never heard you complain before, chica,” says Angelo Espinosa. “What, you afraid your ex might find out?”

“I hardly care what Cameron knows or doesn’t know,” says Leyu.

“So if it’s not that, then you just afraid people are gonna find out you’re sleeping with the gray guy?” asks Angelo.

“That is n-”

“Hey, I don’t really care,” says Angelo. “I don’t really want anyone to know we hooked up, either. No strings, remember? I still think you’re a stuck-up bitch.”

“And you’re a crude loudmouth,” says Leyu.

“‘Attagirl,” says Angelo before kissing her again. “Now you’re getting into it.”

“Mmmm… suppose I am…” says Leyu.

“Ahem.”

Leyu and Angelo immediately look up and see Pete Wisdom leaning against a tree, cigarette between his fingers.

“Don’t mind me, just having a smoke,” he says.

“You want somethin’, cabron?” asks Angelo.

“Now that you mention it…” replies Wisdom. He walks towards the pair and flicks his cigarette into the lake. “Don’t worry, I don’t care if you two are shagging or not. Doesn’t mean bollocks to me, because I don’t know either of you from Adam. I’m more interested in your professional lives than your personal ones.”

“What are you talking about?” asks Leyu.

“Sit back and relax, children,” replies Wisdom. “Uncle Pete’s gonna tell you a story. A story about the X-Corps.”

With one hand behind his back and the other hand gripping the metal bar, Alex Summers pulls his body up, lifting his chin over the bar, then lowers himself back down.

“Why Mister Summers, are you trying to impress me?” asks Betsy Braddock from the doorway.

“In your dreams, Bets,” replies Alex. He releases the bar and lands on the ground. Picking up a towel to wipe the sweat from his forehead, he sits down and looks up at his former teammate. “What brings you here?”

“Two things,” says Betsy. “First, I wanted to offer my condolences for the death of Scanner. From what I understand, the two of you were just starting to…”

“Get on with it,” says Alex.

“Very well,” says Betsy. “As you may or may not know, I’m here with Pete. The reason we’re both here is because we’re recruiting.”

“What, another X-Men spin-off?” asks Alex.

“On a much larger scale, actually,” replies Betsy. “I know about the time you spent in that alternate reality, Alex. In order to solve some of the problems, you had to take a harder approach. You may not realize it, but many of those same problems exist in this world as well – they’re just well-hidden.”

“And your new team can deal with that?” asks Alex.

“This new organization can, yes,” replies Betsy. “We’re talking wetworks, black ops – things the X-Men can’t or won’t involve themselves with. Things like Black Womb, they don’t just go away after blowing up one facility and shutting down another. They’ll still be around, Alex.”

“You don’t have to say any more, Bets,” says Alex. “I’m in. As a matter of fact, I was planning to leave the X-Men for a bit anyway. Now I have an excuse to stay gone.”

“Bishop… what are you doing?” asks Deathbird from her bed. Her eyes are fixed on Bishop as he rummages through his closet.

“I’ve spoken to Pete Wisdom,” replies Bishop. “He and Kurt would like me to go with them.”

“Go where?” asks Deathbird.

“X-Corps,” replies Bishop. “They’ve asked me to help administrate it.”

“What is X-Corps?” asks Deathbird. “We are wasting our time here when we could be ruling together. Would you rather stay here and remain a soldier or do you want to come with me and become a king?”

“The answer to that question is simple, Deathbird,” replies Bishop. “I am, and always have been, a soldier.”

“You… you reject me?” asks Deathbird.

“Yes,” replies Bishop. “X-Corps is vital to the future of mutantkind and Charles Xavier’s dream. From what Wisdom has told me, it sounds very similar to the XSE from my era. Only this time, it is far in advance – prior to the Sentinel attacks and the Summers Rebellion. This could be the beginnings of a golden age for mutantkind. And I must remain here to oversee it.”

“I cannot believe what I am hearing!” exclaims Deathbird. “What about me? What about what we had?”

“We never had anything,” says Bishop. “You admired me as a warrior. You felt I was a suitable candidate to father strong children, that’s all. It’s over.”

“And what do you expect me to do?” asks Deathbird. “I am not welcome here.”

“Go sightseeing or return to the Shi’ar,” replies Bishop. “I… cared for you, Cal’syee. But it was a wasted effort. You don’t care about anyone save yourself.”

“Mark my words, Bishop. If you walk out that door, you will regr-”

Before Deathbird can finish her sentence, Bishop has already left the room and slammed the door behind him.

“I’ve spoken with most everyone I wanted to speak to, Kurt,” says Wisdom. He sits in the War Room with Psylocke and Nightcrawler. “Save for Cable and Fantomex. And this Xorn you told me about seems interesting as well.”

“The three of them are on a mission right now,” says Kurt. “Investigating a potential Omega mutant that turned up on Cerebro. They are due to check in any moment now.”

Almost on cue, an incoming call alert appears on the monitor in the War Room.

“Go ahead,” says Kurt.

An image of Cable appears on the monitor.

“We’re en route from Seattle, Kurt,” says Cable. “We have your mystery mutant in tow. He calls himself Warp Savant.”

“Good work, Nathan,” says Kurt. “Pete Wisdom and Psylocke are here as well. They’d like to have a word with you.”

“What about?” asks Cable.

“We’ll discuss that once you get here,” replies Wisdom with a small smile. “Have I got an offer for you gents…”

New York City; One Week Later

“How are things progressing, Doctor Campbell?”

“Very well, sir,” says Rory Campbell. He sits in the office of his employer in a chair before the desk. His employer stands before the massive windows, staring out.

“You didn’t mention my name, did you?”

“Not at all,” replies Rory. “Although I’m confused. Why the secrecy, Mister Worthington?”

Warren Worthington the Third turns away from the windows and sits in his chair. He folds his hands and sets them on his desktop.

“X-Corporation marks a huge step in human and mutant relations,” says Warren. “I have to maintain a good public image. But at the same time, I can’t condone acts of human rights violations against mutants to continue to go unpunished. X-Corps is necessary, and if their actions ever become public knowledge, I know many of the world’s governments won’t be happy. I can’t be connected to that. Not for my sake, but for the sake of X-Corporation.”

“I understand,” says Rory.

“It’s a whole new game, we’re playing,” says Warren. “Welcome to the future, my friend.”

NEXT: X-Corps #1 & X-Corporation #1!