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#6
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“Heart of a Lion”
XSE HQ
Miami, Florida
Morales looked through the surveillance cameras as Wisdom and Baraka walked off the hangar pad. She knew the history between the two of them and could see the tension even now. Her other agents may have been handed to her, but Baraka was her choice, primarily because he would keep Wisdom off-kilt and out of her hair. There were other attributes to be admired about the mutant though.
Baraka had the heart of a lion and fought for his friends jut as viciously. In his home country he was known as the revolutionary hero Askari. Surprisingly, the man had not fought for the supremacist mutant agenda but to establish a true democratic government. San Zanibar could have easily gone the way of Genosha’s despotic regime. Askari had managed to fight off the corruption inherent in all mutants. He was still one of them, but Morales imagined that he could be tolerated.
“You shouldn’t look so smug. It makes your blush look bad.”
“What do you want, Whedon?”
Evangeline Whedon was one more mutant being forced down Morales’ throat. When Irene departed from the service of the XSE, Whedon was sent in to fill her place. The mutant also had a large set of legal expertise that was supposed to be geared to the program’s advantage. Whedon’s hiring only highlighted one of Morales’ many problems with mutants. Any perceived discrimination was created by their own insular natures. A mutant only wanted to deal with other mutants.
“I have the press strategy for how we’re going to handle the agent departures and arrivals. I’ll be delivering the initial press conference at the Pentagon.” Whedon sat a thick manila folder on Morales’ desk. She back stepped and put her hands on her hips, exuding attitude.
Morales wanted to let the woman know exactly where her place was, but Director Bridge’s warning ran true in her mind. She would not lose her command because of a snooty mutant. “I will have a flight prepared for you immediately Whedon. Was there anything else I could help with you? I’d rather not spend all day on pointless details if I don’t have to. My job requires a lot of me,” Alisande spoke without ever looking Whedon in the eye. Let her know just how unimportant she was.
“You’re not slick, Morales. I know exactly what you’re doing by bringing in Askari.”
“And just what is that?”
“You keep playing with fire, Morales, and that pretty face is going to get burned.”
“I’m not in a position where I would ever want to take advice from you, so please leave my office and keep on playing reporter.” Every word stung like a hard snowball flung in the face. At least that’s how Morales hoped it felt. A pleasing image of Whedon crying like a child entered her mind.
Whedon laughed and turned toward the door, displaying the dragon tattoo that wound its way across her back. Morales hated the way she dressed like a tramp off the Las Vegas strip, and she hated that laugh even more. This freakish waste of space had the nerve to be condescending with her?! Morales fought so hard to not respond that her teeth ground together like nails across a chalkboard.
“You could stand a massage, Ali…you look tense.” Whedon walked out the office and gently closed the door behind her. That annoyed Morales even more because Whedon had deflected her every word. What gave her the right to act like she was above her? She was a mistake of nature that no real human could ever find tolerable. That fact calmed Morales as her jaw loosened and she focused on her next task. Pressing a line on her Avaya phone, Morales called one of her assistants. “Assemble the team. It’s time for a mission briefing.”
“They’re already all in one location, sir. I’ll direct them to the usual conference room.”
Morales put a finger to her lips. “All together? What are those bastards up to?”
The possibilities swirled in her head.
“This is a simple mission…on the surface.” Alisande stood on a stage in front of Wisdom’s squad, which was spread out across the stadium seating. “Limbo is an entirely unpredictable place and we really have no idea what we’re about to walk into.”
“Hell,” Sunspot said. “We might as well not skip around the issue. That’s exactly what that place is.”
“Get into theological reasoning all you want, just recognize that this place is dangerous. A citizen of this ‘Hell’ nearly brought New York to its knees years ago. I won’t have that kind of incident on my head.”
“Is one woman really worth all this trouble?” Askari asked from the back of the room.
Sunspot turned around in his chair to look at him. “She’s worth it to Charles Xavier and that should be all the explanation you need.”
Morales’ jaw twitched. “Xavier has nothing to do with it!”
Husk smirked. “Not from what my resources tell me. You done ticked off quite a few folks, and us getting Illyana is just you paying the piper.”
Morales smiled back. “Funny how that works, seeing as how I’m staying here and you’re the ones going into the fire and brimstone. I suppose I really should thank Xavier.”
“What if Illyana doesn’t want to come back?” Warpath asked, bored by the pissing match.
Morales felt he almost sounded eager at the prospect of Illyana’s resistance. “If she doesn’t wish to return then you classify her as a threat and remove her from the picture”
“We’re missing a crucial piece of information here,” Bedlam said. “Just how are we getting into Limbo? Last I checked none of us were capable of dimension hipping.”
The door at the back of the small auditorium was pushed inward and revealed a tall, slim, attractive Native American with a head full of disheveled black hair worthy of any college slacker. “I believe it’s my job to answer that question for you.”
“This gentleman is Charles Littlesky, but he’s better known in your circles as Portal.” Calling the mutant anything formal made Morales’ stomach churn. He didn’t deserve her courtesy or his position. “Portal is on retainer for this mission. He’ll be your transportation in and out of Limbo so you better damn well protect him.”
Portal moved up to the podium next to Morales and spoke. “I don’t like sugar coating things so I’ll cut to the bad parts. I think this mission is a fool’s errand and people will die. I’ve also come to the conclusion that Illyana Rasputin is a psycho bitch so don’t expect me to shed a tear if we can’t bring her back.”
Bedlam leaned over and whispered to Husk. “Isn’t he just a basket of sunshine?”
“The worst is that he’s our ride home”
Morales saw the two of them talking. It disgusted her that mutants thought they could enjoy the blessings of the world. Romance was a beautiful thing not meant for freaks. It would be a stroke of justice if one of them died in Limbo.
Morales let her shower water rush into her hair and down across her body. Holding her head down, Morales let the rhythm of the water and the heat submerge her thoughts. She had to or her rage would utterly consume her. Their stink was all over her and it made her want to puke, but she had to do this because she was the only one who could keep these loose cannons in check. Too many in SHIELD were lax on the mutant issue and would let these animals operate with impunity. She refused to allow that.
The cries of innocent victims killed by the monstrous acts of mutants rang in Alisande’s head. They demanded justice and she would deliver it. Among those righteous voices she heard the cries of two innocent children. She would never let their deaths be in vain. Through her life, their deaths would mean something. That thought alone kept her real feelings at bay. So much hate and frustration stirred in her heart that some days it threatened to swallow her.
Finishing her shower, Morales dried herself off and slipped into her uniform. Even though it was getting late, her day’s work wasn’t done yet. She needed to pay a visit to her most notorious prisoner. There were questions she needed answered and she had been putting off the confrontation for too long. Walking to her personal desk, Morales picked up her walkie talkie. “I want a security detail at my quarters in ten minutes. It’s time for me to pay Ms. Nova a visit.”
Limbo
“You won’t stop, will you?”
Magik looked through the campfire at the man who so resembled Belasco or any other classical Devil figure, but she knew enough to not buy into it. Azazel was no more a Devil than Belasco was. “No, I won’t. I thought that’s why you went out of your way to find me?”
Azazel smiled in that way that was both charming and made your skin crawl. The old mutant certainly had more charm than Belasco could ever hope to muster, and that just made Magik distrust him more. She still questioned why she accepted his company after years of being alone. He brought too much uncertainty into her life.
“I found you for many reasons, Darkchilde; some you already know and others it is not time for you to know. Your curiosity invited me to your side.” Azazel’s hairless tail reached out from behind him and grabbed a piece of cooked meat by the edge of the fire. Like a hand, the tail moved the food to Azazel’s mouth and he quickly devoured it. “And you have yet to tell me what your next move its?”
“I’m sick of being hunted, Azazel. If Belasco wants me then he can have me, but it is going to be on my terms.”
“Are you sure Illyana? We are both experienced sorcerers, but Belasco has great might.”
Magik stood up and walked around the fire. “Years ago, a demon diviner told me when I made this choice that help would come to me.”
Nova’s Prison
Alisande walked up to the Plexiglas door that served as one side of the floating, power dampening box that held Cassandra Nova captive. Taking Nova as a prisoner was one of her few enjoyable moments as the commander of XSE. Thought part of her wouldn’t mind setting her loose again. No one killed mutants better than mutants, and Nova exhibited that lesson well.
Nova was facing away from Morales. She was garbed in a simple white jumpsuit that hung loosely from her gaunt frame. Alisande found Nova to be more hideous than many mutants she had met. The woman’s sunken cheeks and large eyes were something right out of a horror movie. Then there were her liver spot covered hands to consider. They looked like some gnarled spider waiting to take you into a trap to be dissolved.
“I would advise you to take care, Morales. I have no stomach for you or your roaches today.”
Morales tapped on the glass like someone torturing a fish in a bowl. “Too bad. You can be easy and cooperate with this or I’ll have you put in a world of hurt.”
“Your threats are as empty as your head, Morales. Please go and deliver them to someone with equal mental capacity.”
“You’re a smart woman. You know how much I care about you filthy kind. I wouldn’t hesitate to remove you from the picture.”
Nova laughed in a barely audible tone. “You give me such hope for your kind.”
“Save your mind games for someone who gives a damn. I have questions and I expect full and complete answers.”
Nova looked up at the roof of her prison wistfully. “You’ll get answers, but I doubt you’ll ever take anything I say as truth.”
The old hag had a point, but Alisande refused to give her any credit. “You can stop stalling. Why are you trying to resurrect mutants?”
“I am doing far more than just that.”
“Why, Nova, not what.” Alisande could already feel her patience running thin.
“I assume you’re referring to my agent that attacked the Guthrie whelp?” Nova still had not turned to look at Alisande or her security guards.
“You brought back Everett Thomas and made him into a mindless weapon. He nearly killed her, one of her friends if you mutants are actually capable of such a thing. I want to know why and how you did it?”
“Because I have a wonderful man handling all my scientific endeavors and his imagination needs satisfying.”
Morales shook her head. “You’re making this too easy, Nova. I was hoping that my specialist wouldn’t go to waste.”
“If you’re implying torture, my dear, then just go ahead and get it over with. I promise to make sure your friends earn their compensation.”
Alisande narrowed her eyes. “Oh, don’t worry…they will.”
Wisdom’s squad had gathered to meet Portal the morning after the latter’s brutal assessment of their mission. The mutants had gathered in the cafeteria because Portal wanted breakfast before he left. His argument to Wisdom had been that their departure location didn’t matter since he could create portals anywhere. It was a hard bit of logic for Wisdom to argue with so they all joined in on the breakfast festivities. Portal had a way of softening people with his bluntness.
Husk played around with her food, working the fork back and forth through it. She only took a bite seldom and even her chewing lacked energy. Wisdom was starting worry that her encounter with Synch had left her scarred and depressed. Askari was enough to worry about without having to consider the mental health of those under him. There was no point in taking this to Morales. She would just use it as an excuse to remove Paige from the team; Lord knows Alisande had been looking for a reason.
“So how do you even know where Limbo is?” Bedlam asked. “You can’t possibly now the location of every dimension out there.”
“I don’t. I just sort of have an innate connection. Give me a few details and I can generally get you to the right place.”
Bedlam scowled. “So what you’re saying is that you could possibly take us to the wrong place.”
“Of course I could, but I can’t imagine too many places being worse than Limbo.”
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To Be Continued...
Next: In X.S.E. #7: XSE arrives in Limbo and Dr. Roderick Campbell shows up on Alisande’s doorstep.
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