The alarms rang through the facility, and the members of the
team ran out into the halls, dressing quickly. Bolting down the hallway
towards the control room Pete Wisdom lead the charge, white shirt and
black pants already on, trying to shrug on his dress coat.
"What the bloody hell?" Jacqueline Crighton stumbled out of her
temporary bedroom, looking around her irritably at the early wake-up
call.
"Status report," Pete ignored her as he barked at the automated
alert system, running a hand through his short dark hair to try to tidy
it a bit.
"Superhuman incursion, London, England," the computer reported
as images appeared on the main monitor. It looked like a team, attacking
a facility at the edge of the city, but most of the players didn't look
familiar.
"Huh," Dani Moonstar spoke up, the native American looking at
the screen thoughtfully, "I recognize Reaper," she pointed out a pale
figure with a scythe.
"Codex," Kate spoke up, the oddest tone to her voice. Pete
looked over at the metallic woman and was startled to see such an..
irritated look on her face as she glared at the brown haired woman who
lead the attacking force.
"You know these guys?" Lisa Garrison asked, the tough blonde
pulling her Britannia uniform on. Standing just behind Lisa her Sidhe
lover Llyan looked on worriedly.
"I have a bit of information on them," Kate admitted, "from
records I studied in the future. They're the Marauders, and that woman,"
she nodded to Codex, "is their field leader."
"Hold on a moment," Rhane Sinclair blinked, her red hair falling
into her eyes, "I thought that the X-Men had defeated them."
"They beat the original team, yeah," Rachel Summers spoke up,
her short red hair spiked a bit from sleep, "but Mr. Sinister maintains
a wide variety of operatives, and he usually calls the field team the
Marauders. Sadly, I don't know much else about them."
"Marvelous," Pete muttered, running his hand through his hair.
"Whoever they are, they're thrashing that facility, and we should
probably stop them. Kate?"
"I can get us there, no problem," Kate nodded.
"All right, people," Pete looked over his team, "be ready to go
in five!" As his teammates scattered he was surprised to see Jackie walk
over to him.
"Do you think you could use as hand?" Jackie asked curiously,
her pure white hair falling in a wave down her back.
"Wouldn't mind," Pete admitted, "but you sure? With your powers
in flux, it could get a bit dangerous to you."
"It's probably safer being with your team than around anyone
else right now," Jackie shrugged. A slight grin, "And I'd like to get
out and stretch my legs a bit."
"All right," Pete agreed and she was gone in a blur of speed.
A little less than five minutes later they were gathered, ready
to go. "I still think this is a ridiculous looking outfit," Jackie
muttered, dressed in a borrowed X-Men uniform.
"Llyan is staying here," Britannia said, fully dressed in the
Captain Britain uniform, "she says she'll help guard the place, just in
case."
Rhane and Dani Moonstar stood to one side, both of them dressed
in a matching set of X-Men uniforms. Dani's was done in gold and brown,
while Rhane's was gold and red. Right beside them Rachel was pulling the
gloves on for one of the traditional black and gold suits.
"Figured out a new codename yet?" Kate asked Rachel curiously.
Rachel shrugged and smiled cheerfully, "Not yet." She looked
over at Kate curiously, "Do you have any suggestions?"
Kate raised an eyebrow and chuckled, "You're asking the woman
with the codename Widget for suggestions?"
Rachel blinked, then began to laugh.
Pete grinned, 'Nice to see them getting along a bit better.'
Speaking up he said, "Everyone ready to go? Then let's move."
Kate rose up into the air, energy flowing out of her artificial
body to form the teleportational gateway. One by one they went through,
then she leapt herself, the gate snapping shut behind her.
There was smoke in the air as they appeared in the city,
dropping down onto the bare road. The side of the building nearby had a
large hole blasted into it, and there were figures laying in the rubble.
Fires glowed within, and the sounds of fighting could be heard.
"Spitfire," Pete commanded, "do a recon, but don't engage
anyone! Just give us an idea what we're up against here."
"Got it," Jackie was gone in a flicker of flame.
"Shall we go," Moonstar asked, a psionic arrow ready to be used.
Wolfsbane shifted, taking on the half-human, half-wolf form that
she used in battle. She moved over to the fallen figures, "They're not
dead," she sniffed, "just asleep."
In a moment Spitfire was back, "There's eight of them, including
Reaper and Codex. One used super strength to clear some rubble in there,
and another seems to have energy powers."
"Let's see what we're dealing with," Pete agreed as they headed
inside.
Within the facility itself a brown haired woman in a simple
black bodysuit directed the others. "Grab the hard-drives first," Codex
ordered as she pointed outside, "we need the information on them more
than we do the bio-samples."
A tall blonde held her hands over her head, light shining forth
for the others. "How long do we have until the cops arrive?" she asked
curiously.
"I'm not worried about the police, Blaze," Codex said to the
blonde, "I'm more concerned with the Weird Happenings Organization, and
the European X-Men organization."
"European X-Men sounds so formal," Pete said as they moved into
the room, "you can just call us Excalibur, at least after we finish
arresting you."
"Blaze, take out the wall! Bezerker, Reaper, hit them," Codex
barked.
Even as Blaze blew a hole in the wall a massive armored figure
ran forward, shoulder down to run right into them. Pete barely leapt
aside from the charge as Britannia took the hit head on, trying to
protect the others.
"Damn he's strong," Britannia muttered, trying to stop them as
they punched right through piles of wreckage and out of the building.
She tried a punch, discovering he was as tough as he seemed, then
settled in for some serious fighting.
"Oh, hell," Rachel used her telekinesis to deflect flying pieces
of rubble, trying to protect the others. She focused on the leader,
trying to grab her even as the woman tossed something her way. In a
moment the air around her exploded into white-noise, sending her
staggering, disoriented.
"She knew Rachel was going for her," Pete muttered, using his
hot- knives to try to tag Codex, "is she some kind of esper?"
"Been a while, traitor," Reaper attacked with his scythe, moving
in on Moonstar before she could dodge. Instantly she was paralyzed,
Reaper's power acting to shut her body down.
"Dani!" Wolfsbane cried, driving him back with fang and claw.
"Freelance, Shades," Codex used a communications device on her
throat to call out, "Shield and Thermal! Anyone who's free get over
here, the rest of you get the targets out, as soon as possible."
"I'm already here," a woman's voice said from empty air as Pete
felt a sudden punch right to his gut. An uppercut rocked his head back,
sending him staggering backward as the voice added, "And the drives are
ready to go."
"Damn it," Jackie cursed as she sprinted across the battlefield,
only to cry out in surprise and pain as she slammed right into an
invisible barrier. She swayed a moment unsteadily, then just collapsed
there unconscious.
"Skids?" Rhane blinked, looking up at the blonde forcefield
wielder in pure shock. They had sort of been friends once, way back when
they all hung out with X-Factor. "How could you be helping them.. ?" she
asked weakly.
"Distracted," Reaper cut her down while she looked away.
'We're being taken apart here,' Pete thought to himself grimly
as he threw a burst of hot-knives at the ground at their feet, sending
dust and smoke up into the air. "Got you," Pete growled as the invisible
girl was outlined for a moment, and he punched her backwards.
"Very nice," the girl shimmered, revealing a black haired young
woman in sunglasses. "Name's Shades," she gave him a grin.
"Pull out," Codex commanded, only to pause when she met Kate's
eyes. Something seemed to pass between them, some form of recognition.
She shook it off as she continued, "We've got what we came for, we can
play later."
"Get your people back," a red headed young man ordered as fire
danced around his hands, "this is the only warning I'm giving you." With
a wave a sheet of fire washed across the room, racing right towards the
X-Men.
"Shit," Pete grabbed Jackie as the others moved to grab the
nearest person, getting away from the fires as fast as possible. Outside
the building Britannia lay there on the pavement unconscious, but
apparently otherwise unhurt.
There was a loud rumble, and on the other side of the building a
slim fighter craft rose up into the air. It hovered, turning, then in a
flash of fire it was gone into the distance, a quickly fading light.
"Do we go after them?" Rachel asked grimly, still swaying a bit
from the sonic grenade that she had been hit with.
"No, we're heading back to base to have Cecelia go over the
injured," Pete Wisdom said, eyes dark with anger, "then I'm going to
come back here and find out what they were after."
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