by Sami Merchi
<< You okay, Dani? >>
Rahne Sinclair was in her transitional werewolf form, prowling ahead, looking for any clues of which way to head. She was intensely focused on her job, determined to lead X-Force out of the trap they had stumbled into.
Having received an energency call from the Morlock tunnels, X-Force had rushed to help, but had instead fallen into a cleverly orchestrated ambush. They hadn't even seen their assailants, nor had Rahne or Feral caught their scents, before the trap had been sprung.
The team had barely escaped with their lives by collapsing the tunnel floor, and fallen down to some new tunnels. Except these tunnels were not supposed to be here. Even Feral who had lived for years among the Morlocks, had not known of these tunnels.
And now it was Rahne's job to find the way out of here, and bring her team to safety. But her concentration strayed. As much as she tried to focus on her job, she always found herself worrying over Dani. The injuries she had suffered, both physically and emotionally. Her head had been bumped hard, but Rahne knew her heart was hurting even worse.
<< 'm okay, furtop. Just find us a way out of here, okay? >> Dani replied via the mindlink they shared. Silent, effective communication, the reason Bobby had ordered them to take the point and find the way out of here. Dani so often these days found herself surprised at how capable a leader the Brazilian had become. But he had just become worse in handling the matters of the heart.
o O (Lower-class savage???) Dani thought to herself, Amara's words plaguing her every step of the way. Her Cheyenne heritage had always been important to her, even moreso than her mutant heritage. When she had first arrived at Xavier's School, she had customized her New Mutant uniform with a belt and booths proudly displaying that she was a Cheyenne. And if Xavier was not going to accept that, she had been more than ready to drop his colors in favor of her Cheyenne blood. She was not ashamed of being a Cheyenne. And being called a 'lower-class savage' was definitely something that made her blood boil at the very least.
Amara wasn't going to get away with saying something like that, no matter how much she was the Black Queen of the Hellfire Club. Dani had 'counted coup' on the Beyonder - Amara was hardly a worry to her. After this was over, if they got out of this mission alive, Dani was going to show Amara what it meant to mock her. But right now they both needed each other too much.
<< Nae, Dani... >> Rahne interrupted Dani's thoughts. << We need tae talk... >> She paused, standing up from all fours, giving a quick glance and sniff around before turning towards her soul friend. Her expression serious, she swallowed once, hesitant to start the conversation, not being too experienced in matters such as the one plaguing the Cheyenne.
Dani sighed, then fell into a crouch and moved against a wall to present as small a target as possible. << Okay, what is it, Rahne? >> she asked even though she knew the answer. She had hoped to get thru this without having to let Rahne know...but it was inevitable right now. She had gone a step too far. And they had to talk now. She looked downwards and continued before Rahne could say anything. << I love him, Rahne >> she stated simply, and the psilink echoed hollowly at those words for more than a few heartbeats.
Rahne dropped back to all fours silently as the wolves she so resembled, and let her ears scan the area for a while before speaking again. << Aye... I know, Dani... >> her thoughts quietly spoke. << I... I love him tae... But na' in th' way ye do... >> Averting her lupine eyes from Dani, she bit her lip, wondering whether she should go further. She knew she had to. That was the reason she had stopped. << I... >> she started but didn't find it in herself to say what she wanted to. On feeling Dani's eyes curiously on her, and feeling Dani starting to suspect, she nonetheless turned her eyes onto Dani, looking at her sadly. << I always knew, Dani... >>
On confirmation of her suspicions, Dani's eyes snapped wide, but she made no sound. << What... What did you know, Rahne? >> she asked but once again, she knew the answer. She just wanted to hear it from Rahne. Not from her currently over-stressed mind.
<< That ye... ye... >> Rahne paused and swallowed again, turning away. Thankfully wolves couldn't blush and that extended to her wolfoid changeform. << Ye know... >> Again, she paused for a moment and Dani patiently watched her, closing her eyes for a moment. << Muh wolfen senses, Dani... >> Rahne tried to explain but couldn't bring herself to say the words.
Dani looked downwards and nodded. << You knew that Bobby and I have been sleeping together >> she stated with cold simplicity and Rahne's head turned around to just nod once. Her eyes came up, locking onto Rahne's. o O (How did I ever think I could keep it a secret from her??) she thought to herself. o O (By the Great Bear, HOW could I have been so stupid??)
Slowly Rahne moved closer and placed a hand onto Dani's shoulder, oblivious to the Cheyenne's thoughts. Silently she wondered if she had just destroyed their relationship, if Dani was going to be upset at this.
Ironically, Dani was wondering close to the same - whether she had demolished any semblance of trust her friend had in her. The guilt gnawed at her, the guilt of having kept a secret from Rahne, the guilt of...something inexplicable. She just felt horrible, her expression saddening. << I'm sorry, Rahne >> she whispered.
With a gentle motion, Rahne placed her hand onto Dani's cheek and held it there comfortingly. << There's nuthin' tae be sorry 'bout, Dani... >> she just said. << Ye did what ye felt was right in yuir soul >> she said, smiling faintly. << I dinnae agree with ye an' Bobby goin' behind Amara's back an' I dinnae like it. But yuir muh very best friend, Dani, an' if tha's what ye want, I willna' be 'gainst it. >>
A quiet descended to the tunnel and Rahne glanced back the way they had come. Some hundred feet behind them were Sam and Tabitha, looking at them and waiting for them to get moving again, Tabitha with more than a few vicious curses waiting on her lips. Dani looked back to Rahne and nodded, getting up slowly. o O (It's not what I want, Rahne. It tears me up. It has for years. But I love him. And I know he loves me.) She paused and bit her lip as she took a few steps, continuing on their way onwards, in search of the surface.
o O (Don't I?)
"Are we gonna die, Sam?"
Samuel Zachery Guthrie, 28 years old, turned his head to look into the eyes of the woman he loved. Had loved for almost a decade now. How long had it been since the New Mutants had become X-Force? It would soon be 10 years, Sam thought. What a fool he had been to leave X-Force in the first place. Leave Tabitha. How could he have thought that their love could survive if they were on different teams?? Definitely not one of his brightest moves.
But at least he had had the good sense to come back. After X-Force had left the Mansion, Sam had been separated from Tabitha. And after that came the External Wars, and Sam had been caught up in them and the aftermath for a long time.
The time he had spent as War, his biochemical explosive energies at Apocalypse's command, had helped him understand Bobby's situation. Had helped him understand that anyone could fall from grace. If Bobby hadn't made a deal with Gideon, Sam could still be War.
Fortunately Bobby had made the deal. To this day, no one on the team except maybe Amara knew what price he had to pay. Gideon and Burke - or Gambit or whatever the treacherous cajun wanted to call himself - had rescued Sam and delivered him to X-Force. And Sam had remained with them ever since. Remained with them - and Tabitha. And he wasn't about to leave. "Don't worry, Tab. Ah'm not gonna let anyone hurt you", he smiled reassuringly.
That was one thing that Sam excelled in, and 'Berto was positively abysmal at. Inspiring people. Cheering them up. Giving them hope. That was something Sam had done since his earliest days in the New Mutants. Bobby could intimidate people into following him. He could even gain respect and have everyone follow him by the sheer strength of his aura. But Sam lacked that. Unlike Bobby, he was able to come down to the other people's level and be friendly. Comfort them. Just...be there. That was his gift.
And that was just what Tabitha needed right now. Glancing ahead, she noticed that Dani and Rahne were still stationary, as if waiting for something. Of course, she was unaware of the psionic communication going on between the two, but had she known, it probably wouldn't have made much difference. She turned towards Sam, and put her arms around his waist, pulling the tall man against her. "Sam..." she started, her eyes looking into his, nervously. "...if we get out of here alive..."
Sam smiled and brushed an errant lock of Tabitha's brunette hair from her cheek back behind her ear. He liked how she had quit using the peroxide and let her hair grow. Now a beautiful dark brown and reaching all the way down to the middle of her back, it was a sight to behold, especially when taken as good care of as Tabitha did. "WHEN we get out of here, Tabitha..." Sam interrupted quietly and smiled.
The smile was contagious and Tabitha couldn't help but feel a bit better, a bit more reassured. She shivered a bit against Sam and pressed her head against his chest, looking away from his eyes. "When we get out of here..." She paused again, and swallowed. "...will you marry me?"
Silence reigned for two whole seconds, and the two lovers hadn't noticed Rahne and Dani having gotten up and moved on. Sam was too stunned by the question to even answer, and then there was no longer time.
A huge THOOM snapped them to alertness. They whirled around, looking for any threats, but before they could take a step in any direction, the tunnel caved in in front of them. Just in the direction Rahne and Dani had been in. Sam's eyes went wide. They had just been separated from Red Team. Or worse. Dani and Rahne could have been UNDER the cave-in...
As rocks started falling down from the ceiling, Dani and Rahne both knew they had only a fraction of a second to either act or be crushed. With an incredible stunt of acrobatics that she every day thanked her SHIELD training for, Dani leaped forward, curled into a ball in midair and rolled forward as she hit the ground, springing to her feet as she started losing her momentum and kept running straight ahead, barely just avoiding the cave-in.
Rahne's wolfen musculature propelled her ahead on all fours in her changeform, faster than any human being could run. She stopped after the rumbling had ceased and the tunnel appeared safe once more. But her nose caught several scents. << Dani. Trouble >> she said quickly as two forms stepped out of the shadows.
"REPORT!!" Bobby shouted into the comlink, cursing himself a million times over for having sent Red Team over to the point. He had felt the rumbling, and his heart was seized by cold fear. Nonetheless he let none of the fear to the surface, only anger. Showing fear was not good for morale.
With a quick glance to his sides, he nodded Rictor and Magma ahead. "Move it!" he snapped and started flying forward. However, before he could streak more than twenty feet ahead, the trio was overcome by a wave of nausea and dizziness. Unable to keep flying straight, he crashed to the tunnel ceiling, then flew straight into the floor, dropping Deadpool from his shoulder.
Rictor stumbled over his feet, and crashed to the ground, a humming building up around him as he instinctively put up his vibrational forcefield that destroyed everything he came in touch with. "Damn it", he muttered, inaudible over the low humming of his forcefield, as he tried to get up but failed.
Magma didn't fare much better. She fell to one knee, her eyes on Sunspot as he crashed. "Roberto!" a cry escaped from her lips, her eyes flaring with the fires of the Earth as she tried to maintain her balance.
"Don't worry, sweetie", came a voice. First Amara couldn't understand where it came from, but the wave of dizziness slowly lifted from over her, and she stood up. Facing her, her husband stood up as well, his fists crackling with black energies. His eyes were on her, and despite her fiery exterior, she felt a chill in her soul when she realized where the words had come from. "He'll soon be dead. Just like you." The words came from Roberto!
"Fekt!" Shatterstar cursed
venomously, then lifted the comlink to his lips again. "Black
Leader? Blue Leader? Red Leader?" he repeated monotonously,
but thru gritted teeth, his double-bladed sword moving in the air
restlessly, waiting for some flesh to dig into. There was no
response on the comlinks, just a steady static. Shatterstar
narrowed his eyes and shook his head as he turned to face Theresa.
"I believe we are being jammed", he stated without
emotion.
erry put a hand to her forehead in frustration. "Great", she muttered in her Irish accent, and stood there quietly for a moment, thinking of their options. Then, she glanced around and pointed ahead the tunnel, to the direction the other teams had gone. "Okay, Feral, I want ye t' take th' point. An' do it quick, we havenae time t' waste. I'll be backin' ye up, an' Shatterstar, I want ye t' be th' rear guard."
"Such careful positioning, and all for nothing", came a teasing but cold voice from the depths of the tunnels. Almost instantly afterwards, the whole area was bathed in light, far more than necessary to light it up - blinding X-Force completely. Within a second of that the heroes started hearing whizzing sounds and felt objects flying past them, some hitting them, tearing them apart...
The two forms stepped out of the shadows in front of Dani and Rahne. The other, a hulking man over eight feet in size, built like a tank. The other one was tall, but not quite as tall. About six and a half feet, his long black hair flowed down his shoulders to a gray body armor which was laced with some sort of objects. And he was holding a rifle of some sort in his hand. "Nice to see you again, Moonstar", he stated with an emotionless smile. "Too bad you both gotta die." Scalphunter started levelling his weapon towards Dani, his eyes narrowing.
"NAE!!!!!!!!" Rahne leaped towards the Marauder leader, her claws flashing in the air, intent on ripping the man to shreds before he could fire his weapon. Unfortunately, she was not paying attention to Blockbuster. Though the big man was nowhere as fast as Wolfsbane, her momentary distraction served him well, as he practically plucked her from the air with his large hands.
SNAP
"AIIEEEEEE!!!!!!" The scream came from Dani's lips as she saw Blockbuster simply, with a quick motion, snap Rahne's spine. The death-echo of Rahne's thoughts struck Dani thru their mindlink, and amped her powers to unbelievable levels, as she received the pain and transmitted it onwards, the force that normally was focused into her psionic bolts now bathed the whole tunnel, the same pain that was wracking at her thru the mindlink being broadcast all over the area.
Blockbuster simply stared ahead for a while, then fell backwards, causing a THUMP as he fell to the ground. Rahne's lifeless form was dropped to the ground at his feet. He didn't move. Nor did she.
Dani fell to her knees, her mind torn by the death-echo and her heart feeling as if it had been ripped from her chest. She could barely concentrate on anything, and thru the blur she was lucky to realize someone was walking towards her.
Scalphunter was a psychic ghost. That was his mutant power. True, not as flashy as some, but when no one expected it, it was an invaluable ace in the hole. No psychic attacks affected him. No psionics were able to detect him. No telepath could read his thoughts. To the non-corporeal world, it was as if he didn't exist. And unfortunately Dani's psionic bolts fell into the psychic category. Her broadcast had not affected Scalphunter in the least, and he smiled as he knew that was exactly how he had planned it.
With a leisurely pace, he walked up to Dani, and then, with a sharp motion, smashed the butt of his rifle to her head. She slumped to the ground, unconscious. Scalphunter smiled, coldly, eerily, turning Dani over to her back with the tip of his boot. "Scrambler."
"Well well well..." came a voice from the darkness. "Lookie what we gots here... If it ain't li'l Tabby an' her chump boyfriend. Hoo ha! This gonna be fun!"
Tabitha instantly froze into place. That was the voice that had plagued her over the years. The voice that had haunted her dreams since she had been a teenager and made a stupid stupid mistake... She started trembling and clutched to Sam tightly, not wanting to face her worst nightmare. Victor Creed. Sabretooth.
Immediately a dull orange field appeared around Sam and Tabitha, the result of Sam's triggering his powers. His blast field was nigh impenetrable, meaning Sabretooth had no chance of getting thru. He also took hold of Tabitha and rose a couple of feet into the air, the blast field encircling them completely, from above and below. He stroked her long brown hair quietly, as his eyes looked for their enemy, sifting thru the darkness.
They didn't have to wait for long. Soon, Sabretooth emerged from the darkness, almost tauntingly, challenging Sam and Tabitha to do something. "What's wrong, li'l Tabby?" he smirked, his eyes hungrily on her. "Changed yer hair color, but that ain't enough to fool ol' Creed, is it? What, ya scared o' me?" He smirked again and took a step closer.
Sam lifted his hand up and pointed it at Creed. "Not a step closer or ah'll blow ya t' kingdom come, Sabretooth", he stated. "Now, where are our friends?"
Sabretooth seemed more amused than intimidated. Nonetheless, he stopped approaching, but ignored Sam's question. "Look, chump - I'll make ya a deal. Gimme five minutes alone with Tabby here, an' I'll let ya live. Whaddaya say, Sammy-boy?" he grinned, his eyes flashing by the trick of some light. "We got a deal?"
Tabitha tensed visibly in Sam's arms, and slowly turned her head to look at Creed... No! She turned back before she could look at him, burying her head onto Sam's chest, and trembling.
"Not on your life, Sabretooth", Sam stated, his hand still pointed at Creed, and ready to release a powerful concussive blast in his direction.
"Awwwww... Ain't that jes' sweet? Two li'l kiddies who gonna stick together no matter what, huh?" Creed grinned and took another step closer.
With a huge BWA-THOOM, orange energies blasted from Sam's hand, hitting Sabretooth and knocking him against a wall. The Marauder slumped to the ground, catching his breath, his eyes still coyly locked onto Tabitha.
The brunette had tensed up at the word 'kiddies', and now swallowed, looking up into Sam's eyes and putting her hand up to caress her lover's cheek gently. "Put me down, Sam", she said quietly.
Sam looked at Tabitha curiously, but something in her eyes told him that she was determined to do this. He didn't argue, slowly lowering himself down to the ground.
"The blast field, Sam", she stated emotionlessly as she removed herself from his arms and turned towards Creed, her eyes suddenly cold, her trembling having vanished. But she was still tense. Tense as a rock. "Let me out."
Again, Sam looked dubiously at Tabitha, but she had turned her back to him, and wasn't looking back. She waited patiently for him to let her out of the blast field, her eyes just staring eerily at Sabretooth. Sam bit his lip, then lowered the blast field from around Tabitha, but glanced around nervously, to be able to cover her up again at any sign of danger.
Tabitha took a step towards Creed. "I am NOT a 'kiddie', Creed", she said venomously. "I am twenty-five years old. I am an adult and I'm not going to spend any more nights being afraid of you or being haunted by you. And DON'T call me 'Tabby'. I'm Meltdown, you trash. You made me, now suffer the consequences."
Creed's eyebrow rised slightly as he looked at this young woman, then his lips went back to a taunting smile. "Nice speech, Tabby. Too bad I can smell yer fear, kid." He paused, then his grin widened as he remembered another button to push. "Psylocke's blood was mighty tasty, but I bet yers will be even better..."
"Shut up, you animal. I'm concentrating."
"Heh. On what?"
"I've never created a plasma bomb inside a person."
Both Sabretooth and Sam's eyes went wide. Sam reached for Tabitha's shoulder to calm her down. Sabretooth let out a vicious snarl and leapt at Tabitha in hopes of cutting her down before she could do what she had said.
Sabretooth was fast.
But not as fast as the speed of thought. A huge explosion rocked the tunnel, concealing any death scream of Sabretooth's. As the flash and shockwave of the explosion settled, Tabitha wiped some blood from her face. Creed's blood. And she smiled.
Sam took a look at the tunnel, and the results of Tabitha's handiwork all over the walls. He winced, closing his eyes and casting them downwards. o O (Mah god... She... she...) He swallowed and was unable to complete the thought, then felt a wave of dizziness come over him and he shut off his blast field, falling onto his knees and leaning forward. Something felt really bad in his stomach. He heaved a few times, then vomited all over the tunnel floor.
Roberto picked up the unconscious Deadpool, and with a quick motion threw him towards his wife. Sunspot was not, in fact, in control of himself, but had been taken by the Marauder Malice as a host body. X-Force's strike commander had been possessed. And Malice smiled as she watched Deadpool fly towards Magma. "You going to catch him?" she smirked. "Gotta be a hot touch you have, sweetie."
Magma froze as she realized the truth of Malice's words. If she caught Deadpool, he would be fried alive at her touch. But she was still too unsteady on her feet to dodge either. She -had- to power down. With a quick curse, the fiery yellows and oranges of her flowing lava form disappeared, and she turned to a beautiful woman with flowing blonde hair. "WWHUNGGGHH!!!" she gasped as Deadpool hit her. Then almost suddenly, she felt a stinging pain in her back, and a fraction of a second after that she saw the tip of a harpoon, glowing with energy, tear out from the front of her chest. She tried to say something, gasp out some last words, but all that came out was a weak gurgle. She fell down to her knees, her eyes on her husband's form for perhaps the last time.
Behind Magma, the Marauder Harpoon smirked and pulled another harpoon from the quiver on his back, and concentrated. It started glowing with yellow energy, and he prepared to throw it at Rictor, not caring that Julio was still on the ground and being imbalanced by Vertigo's powers. All Harpoon cared about was getting the job done. Quickly and efficiently. With no playing around.
"Theresa! The projectiles are coming from seven o' clock!" Shatterstar shouted, his acute hearing pinpointing the direction Riptide was in, spouting dozens and dozens of little sharp organic blades towards the three members of X-Force. Having been blinded by Prism as had his two teammates, the warrior in him knew that every second of prolonged combat was an advantage to their enemies.
Terry quickly whirled around at Shatterstar's direction, and let loose a devastating sonic scream which shattered the approaching projectiles to pieces, serving as a shield from Riptide's attack.
Unfortunately, upon seeing this, the Marauders changed tactics. Prism pointed a finger at Siryn, and a pencil-thin laser shot out, almost burning a hole thru her head, but just barely missing, burning at her temple and causing her to scream in pain, almost stunning her. She fell down like a puppet with her strings cut.
Shatterstar immediately recognized the cry of pain, and decided to take the initiative. "With me, Feral!" he shouted and leaped upwards and towards the Marauders, performing a series of acrobatic movements in the air to make himself as hard to hit as possible.
Prism fired at Shatterstar several times as he leaped towards them, but the agile Mojoworlder was too skilled in evasive actions. "Die!" Prism shouted but to no effect. Shatterstar landed onto his feet, only ten feet or so to the right of Prism, and immediately aimed a sharp slash with his double-edged blade towards the direction of the voice.
Feral quickly followed Shatterstar in, sprinting towards the closest unfamiliar scent, which happened to be Riptide. Having turned to smirk at Prism being cut down to size, Riptide almost didn't notice Feral before it was too late. Almost. As Feral was just about to leap at Riptide's throat, the Marauder turned around to notice the feline, and in panic started spinning at high speed, practically showering Maria with his deadly projectiles.
The result was not good. Splatters of blood filled the air behind Feral as the projectiles ripped thru her in masses. The momentum of her leap was completely stopped and she was even blown backwards by the powerful shower of Riptide's arsenal. She fell to the ground and did not move, bleeding severely.
There was a scratching noise as Shatterstar's sword slashed across Prism's throat in a clear attempt to decapitate the Marauder, accurate as an atomic clock even despite his current lack of sight.
He didn't succeed. Prism smiled and reached a hand to grab Shatterstar instead by the throat. "Sorry, flesh boy", he grinned. "Sinister thought I broke too easy, so he made me as hard as a diamond. Your sword will break before you make a scratch on me", he explained in the time-honored tradition of bad guys with too big mouths. He lifted Shatterstar upwards in a steely grip that Shatterstar knew was too strong for him to escape. The hand tightened around his throat like a vice. "Let's see how good you'll look, pretty boy, after I send a couple of dozen lasers thru your head."
Neither Marauder noticed the quiet humming...
"Keep her under. Don't let her wake up. We'll be needing her." Scalphunter's voice was as cold and analytical as ever as he walked along the tunnel. To his right walked Blockbuster in his clumsy, heavy pace. And to his left was the man he had given the orders to.
Scrambler, carrying the unconscious form of Danielle Moonstar.
And behind them something was ducking from shadow to shadow, following them with an almost unearthly silence and grace.