"Medic," Pete Wisdom yelled as the team emerged from Kate's
teleport gate into the Muir Island medical bays while hauling their
injured companions behind them.
"What happened?" Cecelia turned from her work to demand, the
African American doctor quickly kneeling down by the unconscious
Moonstar.
"We got our butts kicked, is what happened," Pete growled.
"Is she going to be all right?" Rahne plead, the mutant
werewolf's short red hair messy from her repeated transformations.
"My love!" Llyan ran to Lisa's side, the willowy redhead
dropping to her knees. "You've been hurt," she cried as a soft glow
began to appear around the sidhe lady's hands.
"Got blindsided," Lisa groaned, her short blonde hair falling
into her eyes. She smiled gratefully up at Llyan, the color of her face
already improving.
"Some kind of temporary paralysis," Cecelia reassured Rahne as
she looked over Dani. She looked over at Lisa and Llyan, then frowned at
Pete, "What's that?"
"The sidhe have a powerful healing ability," Pete explained
patiently, "at least from what I remember from the last time I ran into
them."
"Then why doesn't she...?" Jackie groaned, holding her head in
her hands. Other than a headache, the white haired speedster didn't look
too bad, thankfully.
Llyan shook her head regretfully, "I'm sorry, m'lady. My gift
will only work for the one whom I've given my heart and soul."
"Too bad," Pete sighed. He looked at his fallen teammates, then
over at Cecelia. "Can you take care of them?" he asked.
"Of course," Cecelia said, helping Rachel get shakily to her
feet before demanding, "but where are you going?"
"I'm going to find out who they were and what they were after,"
Pete said, "then as soon as we're able we're going to go kick some
asses." He looked to where Kate stood, "You're with me."
Kate hesitated, looking towards where the shaken Rachel was
being helped, but the redhead gave her a smile and a slight nod.
"Right," Kate followed Pete out of the medical ward.
"I'm going, too," Jackie said, appearing by Pete's side in a
burst of speed.
Pete raised an eyebrow, "You sure you're up to this?" He
hesitated a moment before adding, "That was quite a hit you took."
"I'm fine," Jackie said firmly, "I've taken worse, over the
years." She smiled grimly before adding, "And I want another shot at
that blonde that nailed me."
"Fair enough," Pete nodded. "Conference room," he said, leading
the two women behind him. They entered the command center and he waved
them to seats before looking at Kate. "I should have pumped you for data
before we left," he admitted, "but I got cocky."
"I would have volunteered more," Kate quietly acknowledged, "but
there was a risk of affecting the timeline."
"I bloody well hate time travel," both Pete and Jackie found
themselves saying, then both looked at each other in surprise.
"So what can you tell us?" Jackie asked impatiently.
Kate walked over to the computer bank where she pulled out a
connector cable from her wrist. She plugged in, concentrating for a few
moments, and images from the battle appeared on the viewscreen. "Reaper
and Siena Blaze," she identified the pale faced figure and the energy
wielding blonde, "enemies of the X-Men until they disappeared a few
months back."
"Looks like they're back," Jackie said thoughtfully.
"Thermal and Shields," Kate highlighted a redheaded young man
and a slightly trashy looking blonde girl, "former associates and wards
of the original X-Factor team under the names Rusty and Skids. They were
forced to join the Mutant Liberation Front, then were Acolytes under
Magneto. They seem to be followers, willing to go with any sufficiently
strong leader."
"We know all this," Pete scowled, "who were the new players?"
Kate nodded slightly. The image of a brown haired woman in a
simple black bodysuit appeared as she said, "Codex, also known as Diana
Ramsey."
"Ramsey?" Pete frowned, it was as if he recognized the name from
somewhere.
"She's the elder sister of Douglas Ramsey," Kate said, her face
grave as she continued, "the New Mutant known as Cypher. She possesses
an advanced form of Doug's own mutant power, the ability of almost
instant translation."
"Translation?" Jackie repeated. "But she was anticipating our
movements, organizing her teammates," she frowned, "how does that
relate?"
"Diana can read a person's body language as easily as printed
text," Kate explained, "she knows what you're going to do just by
watching you move."
"Mutant powers don't normally repeat that way," Pete noted
thoughtfully. He scowled suddenly, "Sinister did something, didn't he?"
"Exactly," Kate nodded to Pete like a teacher to an especially
good student, "he grafted the mutant ability from Doug's DNA onto his
sister's genes. If they weren't so closely related, it wouldn't have
even been possible."
"That's vaguely creepy," Jackie noted.
Kate called up the image of the armored warrior that had
defeated Britannia, "Codex called him Bezerker. I don't know who he is,"
she zoomed in on details of the armor, a symbol at his neck, "but that
design appears to be Asgardian."
"I'd better ask Dani about that later on," Pete noted to himself
softly, "she might just know something about it."
"The native American girl?" Jackie looked at him in confusion.
"She actually ended up in Asgard and Valhalla for awhile,
eventually fighting alongside the Valkyries against Hela," Pete smiled
at the stunned look on Jackie's face, "you ask Dani about it some time,
it's quite a story."
"I'll do that," Jackie blinked.
"Shades," Kate called up an momentary image of Pete's opponent,
"seems to possess some form of invisibility. Sadly, I have no other data
on her."
"Could we do a facial comparison with the police databases?"
Pete shrugged, "We might just get lucky for once."
"Codex referred to someone called Freelance as well," Kate
noted.
"I got that one," Pete sighed. "A couple of years back Black Air
dropped me and a team of mercenaries in Latervia to acquire an artifact
belonging to Victor Von Doom. Freelance was one of them," he said.
"So who is he?" Jackie asked.
"She," Pete corrected her quietly, "though I never actually saw
her take her suit of battle armor off, she sounded female to me. She
wears a gray suit that looks almost like a primitive version of Iron
Man's gear."
"How powerful is she?" Kate asked.
"She went toe to toe with Doom," Pete said dryly, "and lived to
tell the tale. Her, I, Deadpool and a team of top mercs went in there,
but only three of us made it out."
"Damn," Jackie murmured softly.
"That's what we have on the Marauders," Kate disconnected from
the computer system, "though their objectives remain unknown."
"Then let's go to the scene of the crime," Pete said dryly, "and
find out." He looked over where Jackie had gotten out of her seat, "You
mind coming along?"
"I'd love to," Jackie said, "though I'm curious as to why?"
"If they won't talk to Pete Wisdom leader of Excalibur and Weird
Happenings Organization member," Pete said dryly, "they might be
compelled to talk to Lady Jacqueline Crighton."
"Nice," Jackie agreed.
To be continued...
Author's Notes: I don't know if Doug Ramsey actually had an elder sister
in the comics. If he didn't, you can just assume she was the black sheep
of the family and never got mentioned.
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