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#1
JAN 09 |
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“Hope Springs”
Nathan Dayspring Summers, known to most as Cable, sat in meditation in the small womb-like chamber just off his quarters. More accurately, he hovered about a foot off the floor, held aloft by the massive telekinetic power he possessed. Nathan needed time to relax and clear his mind. When Charles asked him to return to the X-Men, Nathan’s created this room, which was built specifically to deafen or even mute the thoughts of beings outside it. It was a small measure of peace that all telepaths desired, but Cable had never before had.
A mission, a purpose such as his, left him little time to anyway. As the destined ‘Askani’son’ Nathan had been trained practically from infancy to save the world from the evil of the being known as En Sabbah Nur: Apocalypse. The two beings had bitterly fought all of his life, including the time that he traveled into the far past, an era he discovered was Apocalypse’s birthplace. Cable knew most people would get a headache even considering it. Today marked two and a half years from the day that he had finally destroyed Apocalypse.
But Cable would always be a soldier whether his greatest enemy was destroyed or not. The world would always find a way to replace one evil with another and he would be there to stomp it out. The Askani raised him to do no less and he would never stray from that ideal. Charles Xavier had asked him to come back into the X-Men because a new threat had been discovered on the horizon, something involving Weapon X, the organization responsible for giving Wolverine his Adamantium and a host of other gruesome experiments.
When he walked out of the meditation room, he was greeted by Emma Frost. There was something inherently seductive about the woman, which made Cable not trust her in the slightest. Women like her used their beauty as a weapon and he had been told enough times about her history. How she managed to snag up Xavier as a boyfriend only made him even more suspicious of her. It seemed like a move to jockey for power and nothing resembling real affection.
“We’re about to meet in the War Room,” Emma said.
Cable’s eyebrow perked up. “About?”
“Roberto has come back with information that I think you and the others might want to hear.”
Sunspot was one of the mutants that Cable had taken under his wing when he first returned to the present, creating a team called X-Force. Roberto’s family had ties to the Hellfire Club and he had been sent there to spy on them for the X-Men. Cable wasn’t comfortable with the idea of putting Sunspot in the midst of Sebastian Shaw and his people, but it had to be done. Roberto was their best way in and the X-Men needed to know what their enemies were up to.
“I know you would have preferred this be done some other way, Nathan, but Roberto really was the only viable choice for this mission.”
Cable stood over her and looked down at her with one of his eyes glowing. “And as a teacher, I thought you would have respected my apprehension at throwing him to the wolves.”
Emma thought about the Hellions and Generation X and how much she had cared about them. She’d never wanted them to be in harm’s way but danger always seemed to find its way. It was something a mutant teacher had to ultimately accept, that their mutant charges would be in danger eventually. “Roberto knew the risks when he proposed the idea. He is not a child anymore, Nathan, as much as you would like for him to still be. As a fellow teacher, you should understand our children must grow up.”
“Let’s just get to this meeting and see what he has to tell us.”
The other part of Cable was proud that Roberto was surviving his mission thus far. It was a testament to his training and the potential he saw in the young man, but the Hellfire Club was not something to be underestimated by any measure. Sebastian Shaw was one of the most dangerous men on the planet and Roberto was trying to pull the wool over his eyes. Sage had done it for years and years, but she was a special mutant with very specific talents. He had his doubts about Roberto being able to keep up the ruse for as long.
Logan sat at the far end of the conference room sipping the remnants of a beer from the bottle held between his fingers. He had promised Storm to keep alcohol off campus after the semester started in the morning, which meant finishing the remaining longnecks he’d left in the kitchen’s industrial cooler. He set the bottle down on the table, then set his feet next to it and leaned back. He didn’t exactly see the problem with a few bruskies in the fridge, but Ororo said she didn’t want to have to explain to someone’s parents why their child got drunk and started the next great blizzard.
Ororo Munroe glanced at him for a moment with a slight glare, worthy of a lioness. Logan burped softly and Rogue suppressed a chuckle. Emma rolled her eyes and Warren gave Logan the classic angry stare that the two always shared. The two had never had much of a friendly history; Warren saw Logan as an uncouth, out of control brute and Logan just thought Warren was a spoiled rich boy. The two didn’t have much respect for each other.
“‘’scuse me,” he grunted. “Go on.”
“Like I was saying, right now things are anything but quiet in the Inner Circle,” Roberto said. “Shaw has assembled a new Inner Circle and guys, it’s not a joke. The people he’s put together this time make me think we may be facing the most dangerous Inner Circle yet.”
Cable telekinetically floated Roberto’s printed information to every mutant present in the War Room. Rogue picked up her sheet of paper and looked down at the list making up the new Hellfire Club. “Dangnabit thing ain’t even finished yet and it’s already spooky.”
“Indeed,” Ororo affirmed. “Is there a reason he hasn’t selected a White Queen yet?”
Emma smiled, shining all of her perfectly bleached teeth. “It is incredibly hard to attempt to replace perfection.”
“He’s still searching for candidates and he hasn’t allowed me a position in the Inner Circle yet. He doesn’t quite buy my loyalty yet and wants to make sure that I can be entirely trusted.”
Cable kept reading over the information that Sunspot had gathered together from the Hellfire Club. He was impressed with it, but it seemed like too much too fast. Roberto was putting himself at real risk by giving them all of this. “What’s this ‘Project: Glimmer’?”
Sunspot took a moment before responding. “It’s supposedly an instantaneous transport system. It is a project that Shaw hasn’t given me much access to as of yet, but he’s said that it’s going to revolutionize the movement of armies across the globe.”
“Teleportation,” Cable grunted. “You heard how it works yet?”
“Only that it involves wormholes or portals or some crap like that.”
“I was also able to find several large transactions out of Shaw’s personal accounts,” Karima spoke up. The group glanced at her curiously; the former Prime Sentinel was a unique ally. The ‘lost love’ of the former X-Man Neal Sharra, she was the only Prime Sentinel that had somehow overridden its programming and more or less restored its humanity. She came to the X-Men shortly thereafter, offering her experience as a detective using her nanite-enhanced powers. Because of her relatively unknown status, she operated as Sunspot’s bodyguard.
“What type?” Logan growled.
“There have been numerous transaction exchanges between Shaw Industries and Trask Enterprises,’” she said. “I’m currently working to find out more.”
Cable glanced at Roberto and took a deep breath. “Well, that’s definitely a disturbing development. Those two companies working together can’t be a good thing.”
Emma blew on her freshly manicured nails. “From what I’ve heard, Sigrid Trask isn’t anywhere near the frothing at the mouth idiot that Bolivar and his son Larry were.”
“For my money, that could mean the situation is more dangerous, not less,” Warren said.
“Even so, we don’t have enough information for us to act on so I need to get back to spying,” Roberto said, spotting Cable’s quickly hidden displeasure. “I know you don’t like it, Nathan, but I really think I have to do this. The Hellfire Club has a number of resources at their disposal that makes them a real threat now. You guys need information.”
“And I will make sure that no harm comes to him,” Omega Sentinel said.
“You damn well better,” Cable said.
“Profanity isn’t necessary, Mr. Summers. I know how to do my job and I know how to do it well.”
Sunspot sat a hand on her shoulder and smiled at Cable. “Don’t worry about him, he’s just a grumpy old man.”
The Next Morning
The foyer of the Massachusetts Academy’s main building was pure chaos the following morning. Nearly sixty young mutants all wanted to know where to go at once. Storm and some of the other X-Men had traveled down from the Mansion to assist Professor Xavier and Beast in directing the youths. Ororo was standing next to her mentor and said, “I still do not agree with segregating some of the children to the Mansion. It just feels like another form of discrimination.”
“I understand your feelings, but I have to think about the safety of the students here. The most powerful among them put the entire school at risk for a variety of reasons. I cannot allow these students to be in jeopardy if there is a way for me to prevent it,” Xavier said as he alternately smiled at students and spoke to her.
Ororo folded her arms across her chest. “And would you have isolated me in such way? Are my powers not as dangerous as some of those you have isolated?”
Xavier looked at her with tender eyes and took one of her hands in his. “I am not doing this to be cruel, Ororo. You must know I have the best interests of these students at heart. Why do you think I’ve made you the Headmaster of the Mansion? If there is anyone who understands the dangers of power it’s you.”
Storm sighed. “You know I do not think you cruel, Charles, I just don’t want any of the children to feel different. And I don’t like any of them to be around Emma in all honesty.”
“Ororo–”
“No, Charles, I will not forgive as easily as you. That woman tortured me and my stole my body. She violated me in a way that few can imagine, and in my eyes she has a part to play in the deaths of six billion souls. I will not forget that, Charles. The memory of the D’Bari deserves better than that.”
Charles let go of Ororo’s hand and looked down. “She is a more wounded soul than you know, Ororo. I would not ask you to forget, but forgiveness does not require that. It just requires moving forward. All I ask is that you try.”
“I’m not ready to try. Not yet. But when I am, you will be the first to know,” Ororo said. She didn’t think that there would ever be a time when she was ready to forgive Frost for all she had done, but Ororo had once said the same thing of Rogue and now she had no greater friend. Perhaps in time she could do as the Professor asked.
“Ororo, there is something else I need you to do.” She turned back to him. “Once everything is settled down here, take Logan and Betsy. I’ve located a pair of endangered mutants in South America. My intelligence shows that the children’s mother and step-father were killed and they are currently on the run in the jungle near their home. I’m afraid the attack has all the earmarks of Weapon X.”
“Goddess,” Storm muttered. She took the file and thanked Charles.
“And Ororo,” he said, “be careful. Logan has a personal interest in these children.”
“What is that?” she asked.
“They are his.”
Shaw Industries South Campus (Tallahassee, Florida)
“Shaw, I need you to tell me where we’re going,” Roberto DaCosta declared. It had been a hurried trip in the early hours of the morning that made Sunspot worried. He wasn’t foolish enough to assume that Shaw didn’t still think him a potential spy, so this trip could very well be the moment that Cable was so worried about. Luckily, he still had Omega Sentinel as his body guard. The woman carried enough ammunition to put down a German blitzkrieg.
Sebastian Shaw looked over his shoulder, grinned and continued down the narrow and crudely carved tunnel. “You’ve been asking about Project Glimmer,” he replied, “and it’s time you know about it, to know the truth about Glimmer.”
Ozymandias, White King of the Inner Circle, walked to the right of Sunspot holding a stony gaze straight down the tunnel. A few circular, dim lights hung from the upper edges of the stone wall making Ozymandias’ all white eyes even more eerie than normal. “I still think this is a mistake, Shaw. This boy lives and breathes the mantra of the X-Men. He cannot be trusted.”
Madylene Pryor, the Black Queen, laughed in her usual slightly maniacal way. “Who in the Inner Circle can actually be trusted, Ozymandias? We all operate with our agendas. Besides, it doesn’t hurt to have some eye candy along for this trip.”
Being talked to like that by someone who looked so much like Jean Grey unnerved Roberto, but his family training had taught him how to handle people like her and the rest of the Inner Circle. He was just fortunate that Emma and Charles had built powerful enough psychic blocks in his mind to keep Pryor out. “I would think by now that I have provided you enough information on X-Men operations to show you that I can be trusted.”
Shaw nodded carefully. “Which is exactly why I am showing what Project Glimmer is, my boy.”
Roberto glanced over his shoulder at Karima but she simply raised an eyebrow in reply. “How much further then?” he asked.
“Just another few yards,” Shaw replied. “Not far.”
The five continued on in silence for several more moments until Shaw came to a stop. He turned to a door set into the rock and opened the door, then Shaw led them into a cavernous room. Small arches stood around the room, each guarded by soldiers in blue armor and white masks, the standard uniform of the Inner Circle’s rent-a-cops.
Portals appeared in the different arches, each with a distinctive sound that Roberto couldn’t compare to anything else. Shaw led them through the room, avoiding Inner Circle troopers transporting pallets of goods. Finally, they reached another door where Shaw stopped, turned to them, and placed his hand on the doorknob.
“Roberto, Karima,” he said, “meet the secret of Project Glimmer.”
He pushed the door open. Inside, there was a complex monitor in front of a chair that was practically womb-like. Inside sat a lavender skinned girl, several IV’s plugged into her arms with various colors of fluids flowing into her. Her eyes raced back and forth rapidly. It was a horrific scene that made Karima tense. She knew what it was like to be transgressed against so thoroughly. Sunspot saw this emotion in his body guard and nonverbally tried to urge her to remain calm.
Madylene walked up to the trapped girl and traced a finger along her cheek. It was flirtatious after a fashion and made Sunspot feel nothing but disgust. How could this woman have come from someone as kind and brave as Jean? She looked back at him, as if feeling his thought, and smiled wickedly. “She’s just so cute when she’s asleep.”
“Who is she?” Sunspot asked.
“Someone that I believe my dear Emma wished she could have saved.”
“This is Clarice Ferguson,” Ozymandias said. “She calls herself Blink.”
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To Be Continued...
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