Back to GatefoldIssue #9 by Ed Ainsworth
|
"New Armies Shield"
“Where we at?” Serafina asked, brushing her dark hair from her face. She watched Mark's naked form lean over the edge of the railing that ran along the outside of the Conquistador upper decks. The floating boat slid through the air, banking to the left slightly, as the hazy apparition of Madagascar loomed in front of them.
“Madagascar,” Mark said curtly, looking over his shoulder at his girlfriend. She swallowed loudly, and approached him quietly.
“I know that,” she said, her voice choking away from her. He turned to face her, a smile plastered on his face.
“What's got you?” Mark asked, a hand reaching out for her. She retracted and pulled her arms in close to her chest.
“How many?” she asked, in a quiet voice, her face transforming into a vulnerable child. Mark sighed and turned away from her.
“Let's not do this now.”
“Lets do it now, Mark,” she ordered, looking through long strands of hair, “You helped my people, and you are helping my people, and I appreciate that,” she paused. She really did appreciate that. The Children of the Vault had been through the ringer and really separated and thrown to the four winds, “But If I open myself to you, I need to know more.”
He turned to her again, his face full of sympathy.
“Sera...I can't just...That isn't who I am. I'm not a wet blanket, complain and talk about my past type. I'm a move forwards and the past is the past,” he admitted. His weaknesses were fairly large. He was a closed off man, a man with a past that was something he never spoke of. Every now and then Serafina would hear bits, and see chunks but he never told her stories of his past. Of the scars on his body, or the memories that made him laugh or well up when he drifted off into thought.
“Like me?” she asked, tears drawing to the surface of her eyes, “Someone who lives too much in the past?”
“Sera...Come on, I didn't mean it like that...” Mark reached out again, grabbing hold of her. She pulled her arm away and shot him an angry glare.
“You don't mean anything Mark. You're just involved with me for something to do. SOMEONE to do. I'm sick of it.”
He watched her storm away and sighed to himself, looking up into the sky and rolling his eyes.
“Chalk another one up to me being an asshole then,” he said quietly, looking over the bow of the ship again, “Bloody women. Maybe I should go gay and see what all the fuss is about.”
~~~~~~~~~~
The Conquistador Meeting Room
“This is one of the last ones is it?” the bald head of Josef Huber, the Isolationist stared down at the document that lay before him, “It's all the information I could get from our limited contact with Xaviers and SHIELD.”
Mark shook his head and leaned back in the chair, looking at his gathered “Elite” before him. They were the few who knew his complete plans, and almost exclusively male.
“Why is she important, or rather, why are they Important?” Sangre asked, leaning forward on the sheet of metal that was the desk. Mark noticed an angry glint in his eye. Serafina had spoken to him, but he was keeping it professional for the time being.
“Because she is,” Mark replied, brushing his comment to the side. He didn't have time for things like that. Sangre knew the over all plan, he didn't have the patience today to explain it all. Amalgam nodded silently, and Mr. Immortal furrowed his brows in a confused manner.
“So, we're going to grab her?” he asked, scratching his chin gently, as Mark sighed and put his head on the table.
“Recruit. We want and need her. That is all. I'm not stealing anyone, that isn't my intention,” Mark looked up at Craig who leaned back and smiled. Sometimes, he thought the kid acted stupid when he was really a lot more clever and devious than he first implied. People were starting to loose their trust in Mark, and Craig was letting everyone know that Mark wasn't going to kidnap anyone. He wouldn't.
“Sangre?” a voice crackled through the communicator in the meeting room, as the five cast their eyes up towards it's source.
“What is it Aguja?” he asked.
“We got something on the shores. Something a bit weird...It's...” She paused and stuttered a little, “Well, it's a fight. I can tell you that much.”
“We're going to need more information than that,” Mark asked, “Who's fighting?”
“Well,” she began, clearly trying to make out the information, “Some girl and a monster fighting...Can you just come down here? It's like trying to read the back of a man's head for he Weather.”
The others got to their feet as Craig put his up on the table.
“I could probably do that,” Immortal said with a smirk, as the others looked back at him. He shrugged his shoulders.
“Hey, it's not like that's the weirdest thing we've seen, right?” he said with a smile, opening the folder and thumbing through the information, “I'll be reading.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Conquistador Bridge
“What we got?” Sangre asked, as the trio bounded up onto the bridge, “Wait? Where's Mark?” Sangre ran towards the front viewing window the bridge of the boat and slapped himself in the mouth, his hand slowly dripping down over his chin and off towards the floor.
“Oh. Why does he always do that?” Amalgam asked, cocking her head to one side. Josef put his hand on her shoulder and sighed.
“He has no concepts of what he should be doing in a human society, Gaia. I believe that he is more at one with Nature than any of us could really understand – Except yourself.”
She looked up at him, and then turned her attention to the hurtling flesh coloured man, who had leapt over the barrier of the boat and was using the wind to guide his descent towards the battle below.
Completely stark bollock naked.
“Of course there is the possibility,” Josef continued, releasing his hand from Amalgams shoulder, “that he just likes being naked.”
~~~~~~~~~~
The Beach of Madagascar
Violence had erupted as the duo had tried to escape from the port. The Deviants had been tracking them across Africa and had caught up with them as they left Mozambique. Arcadia Deville was a mutant with the ability to manipulate reality, at least at a low level. At a young age she had been taken by an organisation known as the Damocles Foundation, and experimented upon by Deviants and Eternal's bound together to try and create a new dominant form of life on the planet.
Now, bunched together on the beach, using the last ebbs of her power, the new Deviants charged at Arcadia and her Monstrous partner, the Dragon-like Deviant known as Ulysses Dragonblood. His fists tore at the collective flesh of any of the mutated monsters who got close enough to Arcadia.
The sand a few feet away from them exploded into a spire that stretched into the sky, and kissed the leaves of the trees that lined the edge of the beach. From that spire which was no just an indentation in the sand, stood the naked and partially annoyed form of Brother Nature, hunched and breathing heavily, his teeth bared.
“Care to explain to me why these things are attacking you here?” he asked, his fist cutting through the soft flesh of the Deviant closest to him, taking it off it's feet. His foot prints left steaming imprints as he made his way towards Arcadia and Ulysses. The creatures around the pair paused for a moment.
“They want Arcadia,” Dragonblood growled, stepping in front of her paternally. Mark stood close to him and reigned his anger in. He needed to cooperate with this hulking protector.
“So do I, but for a different reason,” He said with a smirk. Dragonblood said nothing, his hands behind him, touching Arcadia's wrists.
“I don't care about experimenting on her. I want her to use her abilities,” Mark said, as he turned around, a bolt of lightning arcing from his fingers and into a Deviant, throwing him backwards into the surf.
“Everyone wants her abilities,” Uylsses said, throwing a fist into Mark's chest, sending him skidding back through the sand. The hero growled and threw two burning balls of fire down into the sediment beside him, throwing plumes of glass upwards into the faces of their attackers.
“You bloody idiot, I don't want her abilities to take over the planet, I want her to try and save it!”
“What you want and what you get are two different things entirely,” the Deviant replied, lifting one of their attackers and throwing him at Mark. The living projectile caught him in the stomach and sent him rolling onto the sand into the surf. Mark shook sand from his beard and looked towards the crashing waves. Beneath their surface, marching from the ocean floor, was a literal army of Deviants.
“Listen...We don't have time for this,” he said quickly, pushing the unconscious mutate off his body and standing up. “We've got an army of Deviants coming from the Sea floor and I'm fairly certain we can't take them if we don't fight together.”
“A truce?” Dragonblood asked incredulously, as Arcadia poked her head around from behind the huge brutes arm.
“I think a truce,” she said, offering a shy smile to Mark. Dragonblood sighed and rolled his eyes, turning to her for a moment and speaking in hushed tones from the side of his mouth.
“You cannot be serious about this man,” the huge Deviant hissed. Arcadia offered him that sweet, heart melting smile and cupped his much larger hand for a moment.
“I'm not dating him, Uylee. I'm just giving him a chance, like I told you to need to do. He dropped form the sky and started fighting for us, and with us,” she cocked her head to one side, sending a few short strands of purple hair dropping onto her shoulder.
“There is more to it than that, Arcadia. He wants you for something,” the scaled Deviant flicked his head over his shoulder to check what Mark was doing. As it happened, he was firing bolts of electricity into the water to shock the Deviant army now pulling itself from the depths.
“Everyone wants someone for something,” Arcadia said with wisdom beyond her short years. “You want to protect me, sure, but that's to make you feel better. About what happened.”
Uylsses hung his head and held up his hand.
“Your point is made. We will join with this man for the time being, but do not say I did not warn you.”
“Ah, you're so funny when you're admitting defeat!” she smiled, blasting two bursts of energy through the gaps between his arms and body. He turned around once she had finished. Mark was backing up to them.
“Ready to accept my help?” He asked. Dragonblood nodded.
“Under duress.”
~~~~~~~~~~
“Director Waynesboro?” came a sheepish call, as the Doctor looked up from the stack of documents that sat on her desk, next to her laptop. She removed her thin glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose where they sat.
“Yes? What is it now?” she replied, almost at the point of exhaustion.
“There's...something you might want to see out here,” the agent said, remaining in the doorway of her office, hovering, as the director got to her feet.
“Something? You're going to have to be more specific than that, Agent Toomes.”
“It's that weird energy signature you wanted us to look for, you know the bending of the Magnetic lines and the wind patterns?” he said, sitting back down at his terminal, in a room with four other Agents. They were on the bridge of a much smaller, scaled down version of the helicarrier. A vehicle that used propellers and geomagnetic patterns of the Earth, coupled with electromagnets to stay aloft. It was Waynesboro's own designs.
“Mark?” she leaned forwards, and pressed a few buttons on the console, pushing the agent out the way.
“What's happening there?” she asked, looking back at him. He gulped again and flicked a few buttons as the screen began to zoom in on the battle below.
“Typical,” Kate said, wrapping her arms around herself, “He thinks he's the only one who gets involved in these things.”
She slammed her palms down on the terminal and stared in the agents face.
“Get us there. Now.”
~~~~~~~~~~
On board the Conquistador
“Mark?” came a familiar voice, as she raced down the corridors of the huge boat. Her black hair swung violently from side to side as she came to an abrupt halt. Her family stood before her, in silence. Sangre stepped forwards and put her hand on her shoulder, as Aguja, Perro, Cadena and Fuego all did the same. She smiled and returned the sentiment.
“What's happening?” she asked quietly.
“They're climbing the ship,” Sangre said, grim determination in his voice, “We are to protect it.”
“What about the others?” she asked quietly, as their hands slid from her shoulders and to their respective sides.
“They're too important to risk in a fight like this,” Sangre continued, gesturing behind them.
“And we aren't?” Serafina's back straightened. Sangre shook his head slowly and turned around. They walked as a group, as one, towards the open deck of the ship.
“That's the long and short of it,” Perro said with a grunt.
“Then I think you should all be aware, as of now, I am no longer with Mark. I cannot allow this,” Serafina declared. Perro chuckled to himself, adjusting his sunglasses with his huge fingers.
“You don't have a say in this, 'Fina.”
“I do, and I won't let this happen. He can't bring us together, only to let us die in a fight he got us involved in. He doesn't care about anyone other than himself.”
“No, he doesn't,” Sangre started, as the hands began to pull themselves over the railings of the boat, the Children of the Vault forming into a circle in the centre of the deck, “Maybe that's for the best?”
“The best?” Cadena argued, the ever present irritation in her voice reaching almost new highs, “He doesn't care if we live or die. How can we find the rest of our kin if we're not here?”
Sangre said nothing as he watched Fuego and Cadena cover their area with bursts of fire and charges of electricity heating and arcing through the air towards their monstrous attackers.
“Do you know what the Vault is?” Sangre said finally, as a burst of water erupted from his flat, joined hands working in conjunction with Aguja's bursts of wind.
“I know what a Vault is,” Serafina said, her back pushed against Perro's as he thrust his hand down, compacting the Deviants onto the deck with increased gravity.
“We're experiments, Sera. We're experiments to try and recreate nature in human forms. I read all our files. I have many more I need to work through and read, it is what Cadena and I do every night.”
“So you tell us this now?” Serafina cawed, her voice hoarse already from anger, as she rotated into the centre of the circle, her elemental protectors firing bursts of water and electricity with wind and fire.
“You are the only one who didn't know, Serafina. You're the only one who doesn't fit the mold.”
“Sangre...” Cadena's tone was full of warning, as she looked at her lover.
“She has a right to know,” Sangre said, with Perro nodding in agreement, the Deviant's numbers forever increasing. Moving closer and closer to the tight circle.
“She doesn't need to know it now...” Aguja scolded, looking over her shoulder to their leader.
“She does,” Sangre began, his teeth set on edge in annoyance, “Because I say she does. Serafina, you are not a Child of the Vault in the traditional sense. You are not natural.”
She looked down at the ground and sighed, rubbing her arm, as her brothers and sisters fought to protect her. She loved them, but hated them for lying to her. Were they even her brothers and sisters? Why did they feel the need to keep her out the loop.
“Your powers are science based. You tap into technology...You were the first of their new breed. The breed that was to come after us, to be better than us. You're part of the breed that was to take and understand this Earth after we raised it to the ground.”
“I don't understand,” she responed, the circle drawing so tight that she was hemmed in by a sibling on every side, each touching her with their shoulders.
“You're the next evolution of us, Serafina. Generations are much shorter for us because we lived in a controlled, simulated environment. You are the Mutant of the Children. You're us...the Future.”
“What does that mean?” She asked, holding herself, and twitched as she was exposed. Fuego dropped onto his knee, a semi-melted sword lodged into him and halfway through his collar bone.
“It means we'll die to protect you.”
~~~~~~~~~~
The Beach
“Oh God,” Mark looked up into the sky, as his blood covered body shining in the sunlight.
“What is that?” Dragonblood asked, his linked hands coming down into a powerful blow, knocking his assailant over.
“It's Kate,” Mark replied, shaking his head and sending arcs of electricity and wind hurtling from his fingertips, “We need to fall back, this isn't going to get any better yet.”
“Fall back?” Arcadia asked, sweat pouring off her forehead, her bruised face and body glistening in the sun. She wasn't a fighter and Mark knew it. He could see swarms of flying Deviants heading towards the boat that floated above them, leaving the aquatic and land based beasts ambling and running towards them. Climbing over the rapidly mounting bodies of their fallen friends and family.
“Seriously Kate, if you can hear this. Piss off,” Mark said, looking up at the ship.
Three ropes shot down from the outside of the now descending and slowing helicarrier, it's great engines drawing the attention of the larger deviant and some of the fliers. Turning their backs on Mark and the others, they began to make their way towards several agents who were sliding down the ropes towards the sand.
“Shit, they're not going to make it. Dragon-Face...”
“Dragonblood,” the Deviant interjected.
“Yeah, whatever. We need to try and keep those people alive,” Mark said, waving towards the descending agents and breaking into a run.
“No, you need to do that. My duty is to protect Arcadia.”
“We don't have time for this crap,” Mark said, as Draongblood refused to budge. Mark shook his head and ran away from him, calling huge spires of rock to rise from the sand to impale some of the beasts.
“KATE! GET YOUR ASS OUT OF HERE.”
“Pleased to see you too,” came the call from the Scientist as she dropped into a roll and opened fire on the Deviants, along with two other agents who made it down the ropes without being nabbed or stabbed.
Mark vaulted over a larger quadrupedal Deviant, and threw himself legs first into one of the closest armoured monsters to Kate. It hit the dirt and he turned quickly, standing behind his former lover, casting balls of fire towards the Deviants.
“You shouldn't have come,” Mark said, electricity crackling over his eyes.
“You made me do this, Mark,” she said, getting to her feet and grabbing hold of his wrist, “You're under arrest.”
“Now? Seriously?” Mark pulled his hand away, as all their attentions were diverted for a moment, as a Deviant flier was sucked into one of the engines, raining down over them. The Helicarrier listed to the side before it began to drift towards the shoreline.
“Madagascar is fucked enough without you ruining it,” Kate continued, changing the firing mechanism in her gun to pepper the deviants in front of her with shotgun pellets.
“Yeah, because I started this and then crashed my crap piece of flying metal into it!”
“You did start this, Mark,” Kate yelled in his face. He turned to face her, his huge hands crushing a Deviant's head.
“They were fighting already. I was trying to stop it!”
“Great job,” Kate flashed him a thumbs up, as she emptied the last of her clip into the Deviant before her. It was at that point that her Helicarrier crashed into the shoreline and exploded, knocking everyone off their feet and into the sand. She fumbled her ammo, dropping it underneath the tentacle of a Deviant before her. Twisting around to unclip the hand-gun on the small of her back, she witnessed her remaining agent impaled on a Deviant sword and hoisted into the air.
“Damnit...” she cursed under her breath.
“MARK!” came a call from above. He looked up from his position in the sand and grabbed hold of Kate's ankle, pulling her back from the tentacles now embedded in the sand.
“Time to leave,” Mark said with a smile, looking up at Serafina, who outstretched her hand to him. The prow of the Conquistador exploded into the beach, filling the air with vaporised Deviant and sand.
“DRAGONBLOOD!” Mark screamed, throwing Kate over his shoulder. She unloaded the remaining bullets she had into the Deviants around her, all the time holding onto Mark's shoulder as tightly as she could to steady herself.
In the distance she could make out a similar scene. A huge Deviant barrelled through the dazed monsters towards them, a woman over his shoulder as well.
“Mark...”
“That's Dragonblood. He's on our side. Probably.”
“Great. Fill me with confidence.”
He leapt through the air, his hand out-reaching and grabbing hold of Serafina's. She braced herself against the railings of the boat, and began to pull him up. Mark looked down at Dragonblood as he took a running leap and made it over the edge of the boat and onto the deck.
“Damn.”
“That's some leg muscles,” Kate commented, as Mark grabbed hold of the railings and Serafina pulled her off.
“Thanks,” Kate responded, grabbing Serafina's hand and shaking it firmly, “Thank you.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Mark scoffed as he pulled himself over the railing and collapsed onto his back staring up at Kate and Serafina.
“We're over,” Serafina said, crouching down next to him. Mark's face dropped a little and he nodded quietly.
“I thought as much,” he replied.
She offered him a weak smile and touched his chest, “There's nothing in there, Mark. You're not designed to think of others.”
Mark put his hand over hers and nodded gently.
“I understand, but If I didn't think of others then I wouldn't be doing what I am doing now.”
“No, but what you're doing now, Mark,” Serafina continued, pulling her hand away and wringing it through her other as though she were cleaning it, “What you're doing now is consuming you. It's becoming what you are and who you are...not what you do.”
He sat up, and closed his eyes for a moment.
“I understand.”
“I think that's the most upsetting part of all,” Serafina said, turning away from him and walking back towards her gathered family, “I think you do understand. You're not ignorant to your failings or to what you've done to me. You know what you've done, and you've done nothing to stop it or rectify it.”
He rubbed his forehead gently and leaned backwards.
“That's just the way I am,” he responded.
“Then the way you are is wrong.”
TO BE CONTINUED...
“Madagascar,” Mark said curtly, looking over his shoulder at his girlfriend. She swallowed loudly, and approached him quietly.
“I know that,” she said, her voice choking away from her. He turned to face her, a smile plastered on his face.
“What's got you?” Mark asked, a hand reaching out for her. She retracted and pulled her arms in close to her chest.
“How many?” she asked, in a quiet voice, her face transforming into a vulnerable child. Mark sighed and turned away from her.
“Let's not do this now.”
“Lets do it now, Mark,” she ordered, looking through long strands of hair, “You helped my people, and you are helping my people, and I appreciate that,” she paused. She really did appreciate that. The Children of the Vault had been through the ringer and really separated and thrown to the four winds, “But If I open myself to you, I need to know more.”
He turned to her again, his face full of sympathy.
“Sera...I can't just...That isn't who I am. I'm not a wet blanket, complain and talk about my past type. I'm a move forwards and the past is the past,” he admitted. His weaknesses were fairly large. He was a closed off man, a man with a past that was something he never spoke of. Every now and then Serafina would hear bits, and see chunks but he never told her stories of his past. Of the scars on his body, or the memories that made him laugh or well up when he drifted off into thought.
“Like me?” she asked, tears drawing to the surface of her eyes, “Someone who lives too much in the past?”
“Sera...Come on, I didn't mean it like that...” Mark reached out again, grabbing hold of her. She pulled her arm away and shot him an angry glare.
“You don't mean anything Mark. You're just involved with me for something to do. SOMEONE to do. I'm sick of it.”
He watched her storm away and sighed to himself, looking up into the sky and rolling his eyes.
“Chalk another one up to me being an asshole then,” he said quietly, looking over the bow of the ship again, “Bloody women. Maybe I should go gay and see what all the fuss is about.”
~~~~~~~~~~
The Conquistador Meeting Room
“This is one of the last ones is it?” the bald head of Josef Huber, the Isolationist stared down at the document that lay before him, “It's all the information I could get from our limited contact with Xaviers and SHIELD.”
Mark shook his head and leaned back in the chair, looking at his gathered “Elite” before him. They were the few who knew his complete plans, and almost exclusively male.
“Why is she important, or rather, why are they Important?” Sangre asked, leaning forward on the sheet of metal that was the desk. Mark noticed an angry glint in his eye. Serafina had spoken to him, but he was keeping it professional for the time being.
“Because she is,” Mark replied, brushing his comment to the side. He didn't have time for things like that. Sangre knew the over all plan, he didn't have the patience today to explain it all. Amalgam nodded silently, and Mr. Immortal furrowed his brows in a confused manner.
“So, we're going to grab her?” he asked, scratching his chin gently, as Mark sighed and put his head on the table.
“Recruit. We want and need her. That is all. I'm not stealing anyone, that isn't my intention,” Mark looked up at Craig who leaned back and smiled. Sometimes, he thought the kid acted stupid when he was really a lot more clever and devious than he first implied. People were starting to loose their trust in Mark, and Craig was letting everyone know that Mark wasn't going to kidnap anyone. He wouldn't.
“Sangre?” a voice crackled through the communicator in the meeting room, as the five cast their eyes up towards it's source.
“What is it Aguja?” he asked.
“We got something on the shores. Something a bit weird...It's...” She paused and stuttered a little, “Well, it's a fight. I can tell you that much.”
“We're going to need more information than that,” Mark asked, “Who's fighting?”
“Well,” she began, clearly trying to make out the information, “Some girl and a monster fighting...Can you just come down here? It's like trying to read the back of a man's head for he Weather.”
The others got to their feet as Craig put his up on the table.
“I could probably do that,” Immortal said with a smirk, as the others looked back at him. He shrugged his shoulders.
“Hey, it's not like that's the weirdest thing we've seen, right?” he said with a smile, opening the folder and thumbing through the information, “I'll be reading.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Conquistador Bridge
“What we got?” Sangre asked, as the trio bounded up onto the bridge, “Wait? Where's Mark?” Sangre ran towards the front viewing window the bridge of the boat and slapped himself in the mouth, his hand slowly dripping down over his chin and off towards the floor.
“Oh. Why does he always do that?” Amalgam asked, cocking her head to one side. Josef put his hand on her shoulder and sighed.
“He has no concepts of what he should be doing in a human society, Gaia. I believe that he is more at one with Nature than any of us could really understand – Except yourself.”
She looked up at him, and then turned her attention to the hurtling flesh coloured man, who had leapt over the barrier of the boat and was using the wind to guide his descent towards the battle below.
Completely stark bollock naked.
“Of course there is the possibility,” Josef continued, releasing his hand from Amalgams shoulder, “that he just likes being naked.”
~~~~~~~~~~
The Beach of Madagascar
Violence had erupted as the duo had tried to escape from the port. The Deviants had been tracking them across Africa and had caught up with them as they left Mozambique. Arcadia Deville was a mutant with the ability to manipulate reality, at least at a low level. At a young age she had been taken by an organisation known as the Damocles Foundation, and experimented upon by Deviants and Eternal's bound together to try and create a new dominant form of life on the planet.
Now, bunched together on the beach, using the last ebbs of her power, the new Deviants charged at Arcadia and her Monstrous partner, the Dragon-like Deviant known as Ulysses Dragonblood. His fists tore at the collective flesh of any of the mutated monsters who got close enough to Arcadia.
The sand a few feet away from them exploded into a spire that stretched into the sky, and kissed the leaves of the trees that lined the edge of the beach. From that spire which was no just an indentation in the sand, stood the naked and partially annoyed form of Brother Nature, hunched and breathing heavily, his teeth bared.
“Care to explain to me why these things are attacking you here?” he asked, his fist cutting through the soft flesh of the Deviant closest to him, taking it off it's feet. His foot prints left steaming imprints as he made his way towards Arcadia and Ulysses. The creatures around the pair paused for a moment.
“They want Arcadia,” Dragonblood growled, stepping in front of her paternally. Mark stood close to him and reigned his anger in. He needed to cooperate with this hulking protector.
“So do I, but for a different reason,” He said with a smirk. Dragonblood said nothing, his hands behind him, touching Arcadia's wrists.
“I don't care about experimenting on her. I want her to use her abilities,” Mark said, as he turned around, a bolt of lightning arcing from his fingers and into a Deviant, throwing him backwards into the surf.
“Everyone wants her abilities,” Uylsses said, throwing a fist into Mark's chest, sending him skidding back through the sand. The hero growled and threw two burning balls of fire down into the sediment beside him, throwing plumes of glass upwards into the faces of their attackers.
“You bloody idiot, I don't want her abilities to take over the planet, I want her to try and save it!”
“What you want and what you get are two different things entirely,” the Deviant replied, lifting one of their attackers and throwing him at Mark. The living projectile caught him in the stomach and sent him rolling onto the sand into the surf. Mark shook sand from his beard and looked towards the crashing waves. Beneath their surface, marching from the ocean floor, was a literal army of Deviants.
“Listen...We don't have time for this,” he said quickly, pushing the unconscious mutate off his body and standing up. “We've got an army of Deviants coming from the Sea floor and I'm fairly certain we can't take them if we don't fight together.”
“A truce?” Dragonblood asked incredulously, as Arcadia poked her head around from behind the huge brutes arm.
“I think a truce,” she said, offering a shy smile to Mark. Dragonblood sighed and rolled his eyes, turning to her for a moment and speaking in hushed tones from the side of his mouth.
“You cannot be serious about this man,” the huge Deviant hissed. Arcadia offered him that sweet, heart melting smile and cupped his much larger hand for a moment.
“I'm not dating him, Uylee. I'm just giving him a chance, like I told you to need to do. He dropped form the sky and started fighting for us, and with us,” she cocked her head to one side, sending a few short strands of purple hair dropping onto her shoulder.
“There is more to it than that, Arcadia. He wants you for something,” the scaled Deviant flicked his head over his shoulder to check what Mark was doing. As it happened, he was firing bolts of electricity into the water to shock the Deviant army now pulling itself from the depths.
“Everyone wants someone for something,” Arcadia said with wisdom beyond her short years. “You want to protect me, sure, but that's to make you feel better. About what happened.”
Uylsses hung his head and held up his hand.
“Your point is made. We will join with this man for the time being, but do not say I did not warn you.”
“Ah, you're so funny when you're admitting defeat!” she smiled, blasting two bursts of energy through the gaps between his arms and body. He turned around once she had finished. Mark was backing up to them.
“Ready to accept my help?” He asked. Dragonblood nodded.
“Under duress.”
~~~~~~~~~~
“Director Waynesboro?” came a sheepish call, as the Doctor looked up from the stack of documents that sat on her desk, next to her laptop. She removed her thin glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose where they sat.
“Yes? What is it now?” she replied, almost at the point of exhaustion.
“There's...something you might want to see out here,” the agent said, remaining in the doorway of her office, hovering, as the director got to her feet.
“Something? You're going to have to be more specific than that, Agent Toomes.”
“It's that weird energy signature you wanted us to look for, you know the bending of the Magnetic lines and the wind patterns?” he said, sitting back down at his terminal, in a room with four other Agents. They were on the bridge of a much smaller, scaled down version of the helicarrier. A vehicle that used propellers and geomagnetic patterns of the Earth, coupled with electromagnets to stay aloft. It was Waynesboro's own designs.
“Mark?” she leaned forwards, and pressed a few buttons on the console, pushing the agent out the way.
“What's happening there?” she asked, looking back at him. He gulped again and flicked a few buttons as the screen began to zoom in on the battle below.
“Typical,” Kate said, wrapping her arms around herself, “He thinks he's the only one who gets involved in these things.”
She slammed her palms down on the terminal and stared in the agents face.
“Get us there. Now.”
~~~~~~~~~~
On board the Conquistador
“Mark?” came a familiar voice, as she raced down the corridors of the huge boat. Her black hair swung violently from side to side as she came to an abrupt halt. Her family stood before her, in silence. Sangre stepped forwards and put her hand on her shoulder, as Aguja, Perro, Cadena and Fuego all did the same. She smiled and returned the sentiment.
“What's happening?” she asked quietly.
“They're climbing the ship,” Sangre said, grim determination in his voice, “We are to protect it.”
“What about the others?” she asked quietly, as their hands slid from her shoulders and to their respective sides.
“They're too important to risk in a fight like this,” Sangre continued, gesturing behind them.
“And we aren't?” Serafina's back straightened. Sangre shook his head slowly and turned around. They walked as a group, as one, towards the open deck of the ship.
“That's the long and short of it,” Perro said with a grunt.
“Then I think you should all be aware, as of now, I am no longer with Mark. I cannot allow this,” Serafina declared. Perro chuckled to himself, adjusting his sunglasses with his huge fingers.
“You don't have a say in this, 'Fina.”
“I do, and I won't let this happen. He can't bring us together, only to let us die in a fight he got us involved in. He doesn't care about anyone other than himself.”
“No, he doesn't,” Sangre started, as the hands began to pull themselves over the railings of the boat, the Children of the Vault forming into a circle in the centre of the deck, “Maybe that's for the best?”
“The best?” Cadena argued, the ever present irritation in her voice reaching almost new highs, “He doesn't care if we live or die. How can we find the rest of our kin if we're not here?”
Sangre said nothing as he watched Fuego and Cadena cover their area with bursts of fire and charges of electricity heating and arcing through the air towards their monstrous attackers.
“Do you know what the Vault is?” Sangre said finally, as a burst of water erupted from his flat, joined hands working in conjunction with Aguja's bursts of wind.
“I know what a Vault is,” Serafina said, her back pushed against Perro's as he thrust his hand down, compacting the Deviants onto the deck with increased gravity.
“We're experiments, Sera. We're experiments to try and recreate nature in human forms. I read all our files. I have many more I need to work through and read, it is what Cadena and I do every night.”
“So you tell us this now?” Serafina cawed, her voice hoarse already from anger, as she rotated into the centre of the circle, her elemental protectors firing bursts of water and electricity with wind and fire.
“You are the only one who didn't know, Serafina. You're the only one who doesn't fit the mold.”
“Sangre...” Cadena's tone was full of warning, as she looked at her lover.
“She has a right to know,” Sangre said, with Perro nodding in agreement, the Deviant's numbers forever increasing. Moving closer and closer to the tight circle.
“She doesn't need to know it now...” Aguja scolded, looking over her shoulder to their leader.
“She does,” Sangre began, his teeth set on edge in annoyance, “Because I say she does. Serafina, you are not a Child of the Vault in the traditional sense. You are not natural.”
She looked down at the ground and sighed, rubbing her arm, as her brothers and sisters fought to protect her. She loved them, but hated them for lying to her. Were they even her brothers and sisters? Why did they feel the need to keep her out the loop.
“Your powers are science based. You tap into technology...You were the first of their new breed. The breed that was to come after us, to be better than us. You're part of the breed that was to take and understand this Earth after we raised it to the ground.”
“I don't understand,” she responed, the circle drawing so tight that she was hemmed in by a sibling on every side, each touching her with their shoulders.
“You're the next evolution of us, Serafina. Generations are much shorter for us because we lived in a controlled, simulated environment. You are the Mutant of the Children. You're us...the Future.”
“What does that mean?” She asked, holding herself, and twitched as she was exposed. Fuego dropped onto his knee, a semi-melted sword lodged into him and halfway through his collar bone.
“It means we'll die to protect you.”
~~~~~~~~~~
The Beach
“Oh God,” Mark looked up into the sky, as his blood covered body shining in the sunlight.
“What is that?” Dragonblood asked, his linked hands coming down into a powerful blow, knocking his assailant over.
“It's Kate,” Mark replied, shaking his head and sending arcs of electricity and wind hurtling from his fingertips, “We need to fall back, this isn't going to get any better yet.”
“Fall back?” Arcadia asked, sweat pouring off her forehead, her bruised face and body glistening in the sun. She wasn't a fighter and Mark knew it. He could see swarms of flying Deviants heading towards the boat that floated above them, leaving the aquatic and land based beasts ambling and running towards them. Climbing over the rapidly mounting bodies of their fallen friends and family.
“Seriously Kate, if you can hear this. Piss off,” Mark said, looking up at the ship.
Three ropes shot down from the outside of the now descending and slowing helicarrier, it's great engines drawing the attention of the larger deviant and some of the fliers. Turning their backs on Mark and the others, they began to make their way towards several agents who were sliding down the ropes towards the sand.
“Shit, they're not going to make it. Dragon-Face...”
“Dragonblood,” the Deviant interjected.
“Yeah, whatever. We need to try and keep those people alive,” Mark said, waving towards the descending agents and breaking into a run.
“No, you need to do that. My duty is to protect Arcadia.”
“We don't have time for this crap,” Mark said, as Draongblood refused to budge. Mark shook his head and ran away from him, calling huge spires of rock to rise from the sand to impale some of the beasts.
“KATE! GET YOUR ASS OUT OF HERE.”
“Pleased to see you too,” came the call from the Scientist as she dropped into a roll and opened fire on the Deviants, along with two other agents who made it down the ropes without being nabbed or stabbed.
Mark vaulted over a larger quadrupedal Deviant, and threw himself legs first into one of the closest armoured monsters to Kate. It hit the dirt and he turned quickly, standing behind his former lover, casting balls of fire towards the Deviants.
“You shouldn't have come,” Mark said, electricity crackling over his eyes.
“You made me do this, Mark,” she said, getting to her feet and grabbing hold of his wrist, “You're under arrest.”
“Now? Seriously?” Mark pulled his hand away, as all their attentions were diverted for a moment, as a Deviant flier was sucked into one of the engines, raining down over them. The Helicarrier listed to the side before it began to drift towards the shoreline.
“Madagascar is fucked enough without you ruining it,” Kate continued, changing the firing mechanism in her gun to pepper the deviants in front of her with shotgun pellets.
“Yeah, because I started this and then crashed my crap piece of flying metal into it!”
“You did start this, Mark,” Kate yelled in his face. He turned to face her, his huge hands crushing a Deviant's head.
“They were fighting already. I was trying to stop it!”
“Great job,” Kate flashed him a thumbs up, as she emptied the last of her clip into the Deviant before her. It was at that point that her Helicarrier crashed into the shoreline and exploded, knocking everyone off their feet and into the sand. She fumbled her ammo, dropping it underneath the tentacle of a Deviant before her. Twisting around to unclip the hand-gun on the small of her back, she witnessed her remaining agent impaled on a Deviant sword and hoisted into the air.
“Damnit...” she cursed under her breath.
“MARK!” came a call from above. He looked up from his position in the sand and grabbed hold of Kate's ankle, pulling her back from the tentacles now embedded in the sand.
“Time to leave,” Mark said with a smile, looking up at Serafina, who outstretched her hand to him. The prow of the Conquistador exploded into the beach, filling the air with vaporised Deviant and sand.
“DRAGONBLOOD!” Mark screamed, throwing Kate over his shoulder. She unloaded the remaining bullets she had into the Deviants around her, all the time holding onto Mark's shoulder as tightly as she could to steady herself.
In the distance she could make out a similar scene. A huge Deviant barrelled through the dazed monsters towards them, a woman over his shoulder as well.
“Mark...”
“That's Dragonblood. He's on our side. Probably.”
“Great. Fill me with confidence.”
He leapt through the air, his hand out-reaching and grabbing hold of Serafina's. She braced herself against the railings of the boat, and began to pull him up. Mark looked down at Dragonblood as he took a running leap and made it over the edge of the boat and onto the deck.
“Damn.”
“That's some leg muscles,” Kate commented, as Mark grabbed hold of the railings and Serafina pulled her off.
“Thanks,” Kate responded, grabbing Serafina's hand and shaking it firmly, “Thank you.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Mark scoffed as he pulled himself over the railing and collapsed onto his back staring up at Kate and Serafina.
“We're over,” Serafina said, crouching down next to him. Mark's face dropped a little and he nodded quietly.
“I thought as much,” he replied.
She offered him a weak smile and touched his chest, “There's nothing in there, Mark. You're not designed to think of others.”
Mark put his hand over hers and nodded gently.
“I understand, but If I didn't think of others then I wouldn't be doing what I am doing now.”
“No, but what you're doing now, Mark,” Serafina continued, pulling her hand away and wringing it through her other as though she were cleaning it, “What you're doing now is consuming you. It's becoming what you are and who you are...not what you do.”
He sat up, and closed his eyes for a moment.
“I understand.”
“I think that's the most upsetting part of all,” Serafina said, turning away from him and walking back towards her gathered family, “I think you do understand. You're not ignorant to your failings or to what you've done to me. You know what you've done, and you've done nothing to stop it or rectify it.”
He rubbed his forehead gently and leaned backwards.
“That's just the way I am,” he responded.
“Then the way you are is wrong.”
TO BE CONTINUED...