Teacher Bashing

Chapter One: Milk Run

by Samy Merchi


DISCLAIMER

1) This material is not used for monetary profit in any manner. It is done solely for enjoyment purposes, and as homage to the great stories and characters of Marvel Comics Group

2) All the characters, events, and locations portrayed within are recognized as property of Marvel Comics Group should they so wish.

3) This story has been written by Samy Merchi <samerc@utu.fi>. Any commentary in the form of compliments or critique is welcomed, and eagerly hoped for. So go ahead and drop me a line telling me what you thought, okay? It'll make my day. ;)


"'Berto? Do you have the cabin sighted?"

"Yup. About half a mile ahead. Want me to...?"

"No. Hold position. I bet he has the whole place laced with security systems. Heat detectors, particularly, considering where we are. I want you to hang back until after hell breaks loose, got it?"

"Gotcha, Dani. Want me to...?"

"Yup. Keep running a recon circle with the cabin at the epicenter. One mile radius." She paused for a moment. High altitude would leave 'Berto open for radar detection and surface-to-air weaponry. Low altitude would make him less effective because he would have less visibility. But compromises have to be made. "Keep low."

Tabitha shivered a bit from the cold despite the warm, fluffy arctic overcoats provided them by SHIELD. "This sucks", she complained. "Why can't he pick someplace warm for bases?? Like Maui or something??"

"Because then your mouth wouldn't freeze and it'd just keep going, Tabitha?" commented James Proudstar teasingly. "He knows better than to risk that." He winced a bit at the sharp jab he received in his ribs, courtesy of the young lady in question.

Rictor hung back and kept trying to practice a new trick with his vibratory powers - trying to keep himself warm by vibrating himself. Unfortunately, it wasn't working very well.

The last one was Shatterstar, trudging thru the foot-deep snow indifferently, his expression as emotionless as always, only concentrating on what was up ahead. He did not notice the cold - or if he did, he did not give any sign of it.

As X-Force crossed the ridge, they saw up ahead what Sunspot had already discovered. In front of them opened up a valley, nestled in an earthen bowl in the middle of mountains. The ground was snow-covered, somewhere moreso than elsewhere, but whiteness was everywhere, wherever you turned your head. And at the very bottom of the valley was a cabin, smoke coming out of the chimney to signify there was definitely someone at residence.

Most likely the two people X-Force were here to apprehend. Since they had become Agents of SHIELD, they had had more than enough missions, luckily enough so that they could choose from them, and thereby leave off the ones they didn't want to do.

And do only the ones they wanted to do.

And this was most definitely something they wanted to do. All of them. This pair had been a thorn in their flesh for too long now. Something that had to be removed. With a swift, surgical strike, preferably with a maximum of damage. And that was exactly the kind of job X-Force lived for.

Dani frowned a bit as she took in the layout of the valley, her tactical brain examining for any discrepancies with the satellite maps SHIELD had provided them. Nothing. Everything seemed to be all right. But her senses kept screaming that whenever everything seemed perfectly all right, that's exactly when something is up.

Biting her lip lightly, she sniffed at the air, then glanced over at someone whom she knew was more capable in these matters. "James", she said sternly. "Is anything out of place? Anything catch your eye...or ear?" Her suspicious tone got Warpath on alert as well, and he tensed up, closing his eyes to concentrate.

First, he sorted out the sounds and scents coming from his teammates, and then started expanding what his heightened senses detected, starting to tune himself in with the silent, cold Alaskan nature.

"You're right, little Cheyenne", Warpath nodded, and Dani wrinkled her nose at the appellation, making her feel like she was still a New Mutant. "Something's definitely wrong here", the Apache continued. "Everything's quiet. No animals anywhere." His eyes narrowed a bit as he looked to Dani. "I'd say they're expecting us."

Dani rubbed her chin faintly in thought. She had expected as much. In fact, she'd have been impressed if they had made it thru all the security around this place without tripping any of it. They had lost their element of surprise, that much was certain. But why hadn't their enemies tried to turn the tables and take the initiative yet? There were two possible explanations. Either they were still trying to get their bearings - or they were waiting. The second choice was much less to Dani's liking, and that was exactly why she prepared for it.

She continued her train of thought calmly, while her eyes scanned the obvious as well as the less obvious hiding places in the terrain. Their enemies knew they were coming. And the enemy wasn't exactly stupid. It was pretty safe to assume the enemy knew they knew. So the enemy would probably expect either a head-on assault since the surprise was blown anyway, or altering the plan, and coming in more sneaky.

But Dani didn't play by those rules. She was as good a tactician as the enemy, if not better. They would keep at the original plan. That should hopefully take the enemy off-guard and maybe give them back the element of surprise. Especially since their opening gambit would most likely draw out the enemy in one way or another.

"Meltdown. Rictor. Nuke the cabin."

With that command, the mutant named Meltdown snapped her fingers, a glowing orb appearing at the tip of her finger, which she lifted up in front of her mouth. With a soft 'puff' from between her lips, the orb started moving forward, hovering in the air, down the slope towards the valley floor and the cabin. Rictor watched the glow move along, and prepared to add his own powers into the symphony of destruction when it hit the overture.

Unfortunately, it never did.

Before the glowing plasma orb reached halfway towards the cabin, there were two hollow thumps. "INCOMING!" Dani shouted, her SHIELD training kicking in as she recognized the grenade launcher sounds, and she tossed herself down onto the ground, as far away from the others as possible. The others quickly followed suit, except for Warpath. The Apache had picked up the direction the sounds had come from, and was rushing towards the source like a freight train, at speeds approaching a hundred miles per hour.

"James, NO!" Dani shouted, but too late. The trip wires carefully laid on the ground before the bunker Jimmy was heading towards, caught the Indian's feet, and a cloud of gas erupted from the ground, at about the same time the grenade shells hit the ground near the rest of X-Force. Huge explosions filled the air with the very same gas, trying to incapacitate the team.

Before the gas could force itself down Dani's lungs, she felt herself be picked up by strong hands which caught her under her arms, and she glid forward in the air, as Sunspot streaked ahead, carrying her out of the gas cloud, and towards the direction Warpath had went into. "Bobby, wait!" Dani quickly said as she realized this. "Not that way!" Typical trickery. She was almost ninety-nine percent sure that the launchers were automated. "Try there!" Her hand pointed across the valley, towards the perfect hiding spot from where both the location of X-Force, and Warpath's current position, could be seen. The hunch paid off. As soon as they turned around and started towards the other side of the valley, there was a 'chunt' sound, and a cloud of smoke from the position they were headed towards. Surface-to-air missile!

"'Berto, power down, NOW!!!" Dani shouted, and quickly wrapped an arm around the Brazilian. Da Costa did as told, and his obsidian-black form instantly faded to a chocolate-brown skin. Unfortunately, as the solar form faded away, so did his flight capabilities. The two remaining X-Forcers started plummeting towards the ground.

The tactic was effective in at least one way. Dani's guess had paid off, and the missile had been a heat-seeker. When it suddenly lost the huge heat source it was tracking, when Roberto powered down, it took a moment to recalibrate. And during that moment, it flew past the X-Forcers, aimless and lost.

However, the two young soldiers were not in the clear yet. They quickly impacted onto the ground before Roberto could even realize what was going on, and having passed the valley, they were headed upslope, onto which they crashed. Both of them were experienced and skilled in tumbling. Only one remained conscious.

With but a thought, Dani Moonstar invoked her 'solid mirages' power, creating a bow out of thin air that helped her better aim her psionic bolts, and with one smooth motion, she pointed it upslope, towards the position the missile had been fired from. An arrow of psionic energy materialized out of nowhere onto the bow, seething blue energy writhing, ready to be unleashed. Standing protectively over Sunspot's form, her eyes narrowed as she drew a bead onto the forehead of the man standing upslope.

"It's been a long time, Moonstar", came the man's booming voice, old and experienced.

"Not long enough", she hissed venomously and kept the aim precise, perfect. "We're here to take you in on the authority of SHIELD. I hope you don't come quietly..." She bared her teeth as she spat out the last word, the name of the large man. "...Cable."


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