|
#6
OCT 13 |
 |
“Old Places and New Horizons” Part Six
Agua Buena, Panama
Fantomex narrowly avoided the jaws of an oversized wolf by sliding underneath the creature. As he slid underneath it, he pressed his guns up against the wolf’s underbelly and let off a line of shots. The white bullets ripped through the wolf’s flesh and bone like a knife through hot butter. As he slid out from under the east, Fantomex propelled himself to his feet, flipped through the air and planted bullets in the heads of two more wolves. The beasts collapsed to the ground, blood pooling around the entry wounds.
“Pest control was something we should have covered a bit more in the World.” Fantomex side-stepped the pincers of dog-sized crabs buzzing through the air on insect wings. A whole swarm of them were coming in Fantomex’s way and he could see the acid roping from unnatural mouths. If that didn’t make matters bad enough, the Witcher was coming at him from his right. It was a two-sided attack that his brains were quickly having to process through.
That processing was brought to a halt when raucous yelps of pain went up from the flying crab things. Every last one of them burst into flames and started to fly round in wild, random patterns. Fantomex spotted Typhoid Mary moving towards him with a three headed tiger on her tail. The creature roared its murderous intent, but Mary had no fear in her eyes. Fantomex found it admirable and strangely alluring.
He didn’t have any time to contemplate that though because the Witcher was still coming from his side. Spinning to meet the man head on, Fantomex ducked his sword and slammed his shoulder high into his chest. As the Witcher flew backwards, Fantomex aimed his guns at the mutant. He let off six shots and every one of them connected with the Witcher’s torso. Blood quickly dampened the Witcher’s arms as he slammed into the dirt.
It was obvious from the rapid rising of his chest that the Witcher was struggling to find breath. Fantomex took no enjoyment in watching anyone struggle for life, so he lifted up one gun and pointed it at the Witcher’s head. It’d be clean, quick and would put the injured mutant to rest. Before he could pull the trigger, however, tthe Witcher’s body disintegrated into dust and so did all of his creatures. The dust swirled upwards, gathered together and vanished in a flash of red light.
Typhoid Mary moved to Fantomex’s side. “That was a bit easy.”
“Too easy. I have a feeling our friend is still very much around.”
Druid landed right on top of Ulysses Dragonblood’s sword, light as a feather and kicked the Deviant in the face. The blow landed far harder than Dragonblood expected, sending him crashing into a small collection of rotting planks that passed for a house. Ulysses quickly got up to his feet to see Druid’s coming right for him. He stepped a few inches to the side, grabbed Druid’s ankle and threw him down into the rubble of the house. Dragonblood heard Druid cry out as a rusty nail stabbed into the mutant’s thigh.
Dragonblood quickly tired to sling his sword into Druid’s face, but the mutant caught it between his hands without drawing an ounce of blood. In a gravity defying maneuver, Druid flipped himself up feet firs, right over Dragonblood’s head and yanked his sword from him. Tossing he weapon down on the ground, Druid gritted his teeth and removed the nail that had stabbed him. “You have proven no challenge to me. I stand by my previous statement.”
Running forward, Dragonblood charged with all the furor of an angry bull. He would have snatched Druid up into a bear hug, but the mutant was too quick. He stepped to the side, but Dragonblood had expected as much. Pretending to commit to the bear hug, at the last minute he lashed out his fist and struck Druid across the cheek. The blow sent the hooded mutant spinning round into the air and crashing to the ground face first.
Ulysses wasted no time considering mercy, wishing to collect payment for Druid’s harsh comments. He grabbed the back of his opponent’s hand and slammed his face into the dirt again and again. Bones broke and teeth were loosened like grapes being plucked from a vine, but Ulysses made no attempt to stop. Muffled cries of pain escaped from Druid’s lips, but they were all but ignored. “You insult my world, you insult me!”
“Stop, Dragonblood! Now!” The voice was Fontanelle’s so Ulysses looked up to see her with Juggernaut and Domino. Cradled in Juggernaut’s arms was Domino, who did not seem to at all be well. That only made him all the angrier with Druid, but he did as the woman said.
“Where are the others?” Dragonblood asked, rising to his feet.
“Probably not beating people into a bloody pulp. Sugar Man is our focus here, Ulysses.” Fontanelle moved past him and went to check on Druid. “You’ve nearly killed this man.”
“Not exactly what Charlie was going for,” Juggernaut said.
Fontanelle sighed. “He’ll live, though. Now we need to find the others and, more importantly, Sugar Man.”
Juggernaut looked up at the gigantic red tear in the sky. “And maybe someone can explain what that is.”
The clashing of Remy and Belladonna’s bo staffs made enough ruckus to send the nearby birds retreating in fear. They clanked and vibrated hard enough to make Gambit’s arms feel like Jell-O. He was evenly matched with this version of Belladonna and something about that was invigorating. It was a powerful enough feeling to provoke a smile out of him and get a scowl out of Belladonna. “Same ol’ Remy…smiling and prancing around like you’re royalty.”
Gambit took a few steps back from her and twirled his staff in front of him. He had been training with the bo staff since he was a boy and it felt as much a part of him as his arm or his leg. So it felt good to finally be able to really get a chance to flex his skills to the maximum. “Gotta assume you’re talking about the Guild.”
“Guild here, the Caste back home. You and Elektra proclaimed yourself King and Queen. You two wanted to make your mark and nearly got us all killed in the process. You hide behind that same mask of arrogance he did.”
She charged at Remy, her beauty marred by rage. Their staffs clashed and Belladonna pushed her weigh on them, throwing Gambit off balance for a moment. Taking advantage of his lack of balance, Belladonna kicked him in the chest. Gambit was flung backwards and went tumbling over a pail of dirty water. He grabbed the pail’s hand, charged it with kinetic energy and flung it at Belladonna.
The rickety bucket exploded in front of Belladonna’s face and sent shards of wood all across her face and chest. She hollered and started waving her hands wildly in front of her face. It was a crucial error that Gambit immediately took advantage of. He ran forward, jabbed her harshly in the stomach with his bo staff, and then wacked her across the face with the weapon. The metal striking her in the temple was enough to send Belladonna into unconsciousness.
Pressing his headset, Gambit said, “My target is down. Where is everyone at?”
Wraith’s voice responded. “Nemesis’ location. Get here now!”
Juggernaut took a blast from one of Sugar Man’s guardian cyborgs right in the chest. He laughed, grabbed the bulky cyborg by the arm and flung him out into the Pacific Ocean. “Big mistake thinking you can mess with the Juggernaut.”
Domino was riding on the Juggernaut’s shoulder, shooting at the cyborgs with her one good arm. Whatever kind of armor these guys had, it wasn’t easy to break through even with her plasma gun. For a lot of reasons today, she was actually thankful to have the Juggernaut around. “Think you can throw a few more of them like that?”
“It would be a mistake to think a simple toss of the arm will rid us of them,” Fantomex said, shooting the cyborgs in crucial areas with excellent proficiency. Domino was surprised and a little jealous to see his bullets doing the damage that her weapons couldn’t. It seemed like for every cyborg that they put down, Sugar Man was calling out a dozen more.
She saw exactly the meaning behind Fantomex’s words when she witnessed a cyborg jetting out from the ocean. It had to be the one Juggernaut had just tossed away. Three large, raring engines were protruding from its back and it was streaking across the ocean at rapid speed. It would be back on land in a matter of seconds. Juggernaut was too busy working through other cyborgs to even notice. She banged her fist on the man’s helmet and said, “We got incoming, Cain!”
The cyborg flew low and streaking right words them. Domino wasn’t worried about Juggernaut surviving the impact; the man could probably survive being sucked won a black hole, but she was a lot more fragile. She aimed her rifle at the cyborg, hoping her one shot would be enough to put it down or throw it off course. Steadying her arm, Domino nearly pulled the trigger when a blur of brown moved through the air. That blur turned out to be Gambit, who had managed to time his flip just right and to on top of the cyborg. He slammed his bo staff into the cyborgs neck joint, sputtering up oil and blood. The cyborg whirled and twisted through the air until it crashed into the ground at the trapped Doctor Nemesis’ feet.
Gambit had jumped off the cyborg long before then. He looked up at Domino. “Look like you took a few knots, non?”
“Something like that. Shooting up these clowns is a pretty good remedy.”
Wraith appeared behind Gambit with Revanche in tow. Remy was used to teleporters giving off some kind of sound or physical reaction when using their abilities, and the fact that Wraith did neither still unnerved him a bit. It was little wonder that he did the kind of work that he had. He had almost unparallel stealth ability. Gambit nodded to the man. “Good to see you’re still in one piece.”
“Likewise,” John said and then directed attention to his companion. “This is–”
“Kwannon. I knew my world’s version of ya,” Gambit said, putting some idea of the situation together in his head. He just hoped John wasn’t making a mistake. “Guess de Sugar Man don’t have such a tight grip on you, yea?”
Revanche went straight to the point. “Door Death knows where the dimension smasher is. He’s your best bet because we both know you’re not going to get it out of Sugar Man.”
Domino hopped off of Juggernaut’s shoulder, wincing a bit. She looked up at the red tear in the sky. “Do you think the dimension smasher can close that?”
“Ask him,” Fantomex said. A still trapped Doctor Nemesis was hefted on his shoulder and he dropped the man in the midst of them. Fantomex didn’t even wait to hear his cries of disrespect before he returned back to the fight.
Gambit bent down in front of Nemesis. “We’ll get you out later. De others trying to buy us some time so we better not let dem down.”
“I would have to see exactly how Sugar Man has modified my machine, but on first guess I could close that hole with it.”
Gambit looked up at Revanche. “I got an errand for ya, if ya willing.”
“Ask.
“Use dat beautiful brain of yours and find out where Sugar Man got de thing hidden.”
Revanche nodded and closed her eyes for a moment. She dug through every mind in the town that wasn’t completely blocked out. Finally, she had her answer. “It’s in his stomach.”
“Great. So we got to get close to him and take it. No other way,” Gambit said, using his powers to charge the energy bands holding Nemesis captive. His kinetic energy caused the bands to explode and Doctor Nemesis was freed.
“It’s not going to be that simple,” Revanche said, pointing out to the ocean. “That tear is pulling through something and Sugar Man is on it. The one here is just a duplicate.”
Gambit frowned. “Ok den, here’s de plan. Wraith, you gonna have to do some serious jumping here.”
Wraith nodded. “Who am I taking?”
“Me, Dom, Juggernaut and Kwannon. Doc, you and de others take care of Sugar Man’s people here. Make dis town safe and den haul it to whatever Sugar Man don’ pulled out.”
Doctor Nemesis rubbed his wrist. “Suits me just fine. I need to have a talk with my friendly other.”
Gambit wasn’t sure what it meant, but it didn’t matter. “Ok den, let’s get moving.”
The Xavier Mansion
On screens in front of Professor X were Speed, G.W. Bridge and Colonel Miguel Reyes. Each one represented a crucial organization to the protection and safeguarding of ordinary humans. Speed was an agent of the interdimensional policing agency known as A.R.M.O.R. while G.W. Bridge represented its sister organization S.H.I.E.L.D.. Colonel Miguel Reyes was the Director of the Commission for Superhuman Activities, more popularly known as The CSA. None of them looked like anything approaching pleased.
G.W. Bridge was perhaps the last happy. “An island has just appeared off of Panama’s rim and you’re asking us to let your one team of people handle it?!”
“I wouldn’t be asking if I didn’t believe my people were fully capable of handling the task. I am not asking your organizations to not be prepared to intervene, but give us time.” Xavier really wanted to give his new team the chance to pull through. They needed this opportunity more than any of these three men could possibly realize.
“I’ve dealt with a lot f things coming through your pipeline, Xavier, but this has got to rank as one of the most unbelievable. Do you really think we can sit by and not do anything?” Bridge asked, a series of veins protruding very prominently out of his neck.
“I have to agree with Director Bridge,” Speed said. “My organization’s mandate is to handle these sorts of problems. I wouldn’t be very worthy of my paycheck if I sat this one out, Professor.”
“An hour. Can you at least provide my team with that? The Avengers are granted carte blanche in many affairs they’ve handled. Why are my X-Men not being granted the same? Have we not proven ourselves capable?”
Colonel Reyes looked the most conflicted. “The only reason S.H.I.E.L.D. and the CSA have not actually been allowed to go in yet is because of the Panamanian government. They think our response will be too overzealous so that’s your best bet.”
“Reyes…” Bridge practically growled.
“If you can, pull political strings, gum up the process and that’s how you’ll get your hour,” Reyes said. ‘I’m putting my neck out here for you, Professor. I better not walk away from this screwed.”
Bridge relaxed. “It’s your career, Reyes. Not mine.” His image blacked out.
Speed pushed his lips to one side of his face. “Only because I admire you, Professor, I’ll try to slow things down on my end. But make sure you don’t fail.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
To Be Continued...
Next: In Dark X-Men #7: What awaits Gambit and the others on the alternate Genosha?
Previous Issue | Next Issue