Codex put the jet on auto-pilot, sliding her headset off with a
soft sigh. "Any sign of pursuit?" she asked her co-pilot calmly.
"The scanners show clear," the redheaded young man said, his
eyes narrowed, "and I'm not picking up any of the sort of echoes we'd
get from a cloaked craft."
Codex looked over at him, reading his expression. "I'm sorry we
had to tangle with the X-men, Rusty," she said, "I wouldn't have brought
you with me if I knew."
Rusty Collins shook his head, managing a smile. "Not your fault,
boss," he said. A pause, "We knew what we were signing up for."
"Fair enough," Codex got up out of her seat, giving him a smile.
"Keep an eye on things here, I'm going to check on the others."
"Got it," Rusty nodded.
Codex left the pilot's compartment, moving into the body of the
aircraft where her teammates were seated. Nearest to her was a tough
looking blonde, metallic wristbands gleaming in the light. "Hey, Blaze,"
she nodded.
"Lauren," Siena Blaze looked up with a smile. "You know, it's
kind of cool using my powers without blowing up the neighborhood."
"So the dampers we gave you are working fine?" Codex nodded to
the wristbands.
"Pretty cool." Siena agreed. She grinned, "We sure showed those
X- Men!"
Codex shook her head firmly, "We did all right, but if we run
into them again they'll be better prepared. Part of why I got us out of
there fast was the longer the fight went on, the more likely it was they
might recover."
Siena nodded thoughtfully, "Think we'll run into them again?"
"You can count on it," Codex said as she moved on. Not far away
a pale young man sat, cleaning a modified scythe. "Reaper," she said
simply.
"Yeah?" Reaper looked up curiously.
"I don't care if you want to pursue a vendetta against
Moonstar," Codex said, her voice hard, "but don't let it interfere with
your job. Understood?"
"Fair enough," Reaper sullenly agreed. He looked up at her
curiously, "You do know they aren't going to take this loss laying down,
right?"
"From what I've seen of Wisdom, he'll want to take us down,"
Codex agreed. She smiled, "Which means as team leader it's my job to see
that he doesn't."
That got a laugh from Reaper. "Well, if anyone can it's you," he
smiled.
Codex moved off, pausing beside a utterly silent figure. She had
the back of a steel helm open, studying the circuitry within intently.
From the neck down she wore a simple armored suit, a long gun sitting on
the seat beside her. "Freelance," Codex nodded to her.
She looked up, dark blue hair falling into her eyes as she said,
"Commander. Suit operating within standard limits, organics are
nominal."
Codex sighed softly at the computer-like tone of the armored
warrior. "How do you feel?" she tried asking.
"Invalid query," Freelance answered, looking back down at the
circuitry in front of her.
Feeling dismissed Codex moved on, considering the girl's odd
situation. Found in the ruins of her battlesuit, her body almost as
wrecked as the suit was. Nursed back to health she was utterly without
memory, only retaining knowledge of the suit's design itself. The only
identification they found was the nameplate of the suit, 'Freelance,' so
that was what they called her.
"So you're still trying to draw her out, huh?" the casually
dressed young man asked her from his seat nearby, pushing sandy brown
hair back from his face.
"I always hope," Codex shrugged. She gave him a smile, "I see
the transformation back to normal worked, Bezerker?"
"Pretty well," he reached up to touch a simple charm around his
neck, engraved with the image of the hammer of Thor. "And like this you
can call me Steve."
"Maybe," Codex gave him a cool smile as she moved on.
Up ahead a figure got up from her seat, moving over one. At
Codex's curious look the black haired girl with sunglasses smiled,
"Shields fell asleep."
Codex looked over to where the little blonde slept soundly,
curled up in her seat. "Thanks Shades," she gave the woman a ghost of a
smile.
"She's a nice kid," Shades shrugged, her black jeans and shirt
matching her hair, "a little too nice for this company, I think."
"She made her choice," Codex answered, "and so far she and
Thermal are doing pretty good. We'll just have to keep an eye on them."
"You know that I'd volunteer for that," Shades looked back at
the sleeping Shields with an odd sort of longing.
"Don't get too attached to her," Codex reminded Shades quietly,
"they may not be sticking around here too long."
"Right," Shades agreed as Codex moved into the back compartment.
Codex sealed the door, using a verbal code and keycard to secure
the system. She sat down at the console, setting her hand on a steel
plate, There was a prick as blood was drawn, a DNA scan rapidly
performed, then the communicator activated.
There was barely a moment of static as the connection was made,
then a white faced figure gazed out of the screen at her, "Mission
status, Codex?"
"All the harddrives have been recovered, sir," Codex reported.
"We acquired 60 % of the biological samples before we were forced to
abort at the arrival of the European X-men."
"Excalibur," Mr. Sinister nodded thoughtfully. "The harddrives
were the priority, of course. Any operatives lost?" he asked coolly.
"We successfully pulled the entire team out," Codex said with a
slight smile.
Mr. Sinister nodded thoughtfully. "What reaction do you expect
from Excalibur?" he asked.
Codex frowned slightly, "I studied Mr. Wisdom's profile before
we launched. I suspect he'll want a rematch, but his ability to do so
will be limited."
"Oh?" Sinister asked.
"He doesn't know who we are or whom we work for," Codex said
simply, "at best he might deduce our connection via what we targeted.
His contacts in the intelligence community may be a point of concern,
but we may be able to turn that to our advantage."
"The cover story we circulated," Sinister agreed, "your team's
ties to Weapon X."
"Exactly," Codex agreed. She hesitated, "Sir, why are those
harddrives so important?"
Sinister smiled coldly, "The data on them might well be
invaluable. They contain hacked information from both the Avengers and
Fantastic Four's databases on all the superhumans and other beings they
have encountered."
To be continued...
Authors Notes: Thermal and Shields are Rusty and Skids, both from
earlier issues of the series X-Factor. Siena Blaze was a member of the
Upstarts before disappearing a while back. Reaper was a member of the
Mutant Liberation Front, before that organization disbanded. Bezerker,
Freelance, Codex and Shades are all original characters, more or less.
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