“The Folly of the System - Part 4”
“People feel like the system is rigged against them, and they’re right. The system is rigged.”
-Elizabeth Warren
“You didn’t literally have to break his neck,” Lorien said to Punchout as he stepped over the guard she had attacked. They were on their way to being imprisoned, the guards of The System believing the two mutants to be depowered. Forge had seen to protecting them against such technology so the two mutants were able to easily get the drop on those who thought they had easy prey.
“He pissed me off. I think that’s plenty of reason,” Punchout said, shaking the sweat out of her braids. Even without her powers, the Genoshan woman looked burly enough to break necks, drink a beer, and throw darts through walls. Lorien half expected her to walk around in biker leather and start calling herself Earl. “So what do you suggest we do now?”
Lorien paused for a moment, hearing the most voices coming from a few floors down the hall. In the midst of those voices were guns being loaded with clips so Lorien made the logical assumption of more men coming after them. He looked up and saw at least a dozen different cameras trained on them. Punchout looked up and saw the cameras then shrugged. Lorien looked over his shoulder and smiled at her. “How about we go and break some more necks?”
“Sounds like my kind of party. Me first?” Punchout asked with the smirk of a kid about to have some cotton candy delivered to them.
“Just follow me,” Lorien said, moving quickly across the ground not making a sound. The young mutant could walk across a floor covered with marbles without ever losing his balance or ever making a single one of the tiny spheres move. He didn’t depend on that balance now, Punchout’s feet making more than enough noise for the both of them.
Lorien pointed at the door when they got to it and Punchout ran through it full force. Her fingers dug into the door, using it like a shield as she battered and spun men through the air. They started opening fire on her, but that’s when Lorien came through the door with his curved knives pulled out. With incredible speed and accuracy, he deflected every bullet away from Lorien. Each deflection sent the bullet into the concrete walls or into one of the people firing it.
He leaped atop Punchout’s head, not adding a single ounce in weight. Flipping himself off of her, Lorien dove into a group of men. Landing on top of one of them, he left the henchmen feel all of his weight and flipped off of him effortlessly. He twisted his body while his head was still pointed towards the ground and stabbed two other men through the chest with his knives. The men cried out and hit the guard all before Lorien was even on his feet again.
There were about twenty men left in the room and Punchout was having a field day with them. The thick metal door still gripped in one hand, the Genoshan tore through the henchmen like they were tissue meeting a wrecking ball. Lorien found the exuberant glee she took in her task to be distasteful at best and psychological at work. He didn’t claim to have had no struggles in his life, but she needed a shrink.
“You’re done having fun?” Lorien asked. He imagined that Punchout could have kept going all night if she was given the opportunity. The woman was a walking time bomb of rage. Lorien had seen it before. Sunfire, one of Lorien’s teachers, had that kind of anger in him. He chose to display it verbally rather than physically. Still, Lorien knew that kind of anger only ate away at people and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to be on a team with someone like that again.
“Yea I think I’m about done,” Punchout said, kicking one of the guards in the head. Every punch, every hit sent a surge of pleasure through her. She wasn’t some sadist who got off on breaking other people. Violence just happened to be a good outlet for her. People saw her exterior and automatically assumed that there wasn’t much going on in her head. Nothing could be farther from the truth. She was constantly wrapped up in thoughts. Memories of the lives she had taken, ruined and the families she left broken. The memories clawed at her like some monster from the grave wanting nothing more to drag her into the dirt with them. The only way she knew how to escape the memories was to fight. Every time her hands punched and her legs kicked, she was able to outpace them a little more.
“We need to go and find the others. I hope they were able to get to Megan,” Lorien said, his thoughts turning to his old friend. He hated himself for not doing a better job of keeping up with those he trained with.
Punchout saw the concern on Lorien’s face and wondered if everyone would ever feel that way for her.
=X=
Agni stood in front of the door to the arena where Chemistra had been put on display so many times before. Behind him were the young woman and her sort-of protector David North. He was a mutant who was believed to have gone completely off the radar. Agni had nearly come to blows with him, but Chemistra and a promise of unanswered questions were enough to prevent that. Admittedly, Agni was thankful for that. He was sure that he could have held his own against North, but the man was Weapon X trained. That just wasn’t something you turned your nose up at.
Maverick was busy working the keypad that opened up the heavy steel doors leading into the arena. Fingers raced across the numbers until the buttons on the keypad turned read. He looked back to Agni and Chemistra. “We’re in.”
The doors hissed opened and the three mutants were ready to charge into the arena. What they found there stopped them in their tracks.
Shard was there, bloodied and bruised. One eye was swollen and a deep gash was running down her thigh. Blood crusted around her lips and her blonde hair was sheened with sweat. But she stood in good condition compared to the Brood specimens lying dead around her. Their blood was pooled heavily around their corpses. She limped her way to Agni and put a hand on his shoulder. “Thanks for showing you.”
She didn’t notice Maverick, but the minute she spotted him she jumped back and winced. “You’re back huh? Oh Brand is going to have a fit.”
“Who’s Brand?”
Before Shard could say anything, Agni jumped in. “I’ll explain later.”
SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE ACTIVATED. DESTRUCTION IMMINENT IN 10 MINUTES.
“Sore losers,” Chemistra said. “They know they’re done.”
“And want to take us all down with them,” Maverick said.
David knew the ins and outs of the security system in this facility. There were more than enough explosive to take out this building and everything else in a five block radius. The System housed too many valuable goods here to not have such a scorched earth policy in place. Chemistra was counted as one of those valuables. In that moment, David decided he was going to get Megan out of here in one piece. She deserved to be thought of as something more than just a piece of property.
“We need to get to the command station for the self-destruct system. It’s going to be guarded. Laser trip wires followed by some sweeping laser nets. Will cut you to tiny pieces in a second. It wouldn’t hurt if you guys had someone invulnerable to help us out,” Maverick said, picking the injured Shard up in his arms and walking out of the arena.
Agni smirked. “Well, there is one person we could try and see if--
“Don’t even Agni,” Shard said. “I’m hurt not deaf.”
Agni shrugged. “It was just a suggestion.”
He didn’t particularly care for Punchout and wouldn’t mind using the woman to test out some security systems. As far as he was concerned, she was a war criminal and XSE harboring her was no better than when the United States harbored German scientists after World War II. She was abhorrent.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THIS IS YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD MICROMAX ON THE LINE. ALWAYS WANTED TO SAY THAT. THE FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD PART. ANYWAY, WE’RE NOT GONNA GO BOOM. THAT IS ALL!
The four let out a collective sigh of relief. Shard rested a bit easier in Maverick’s arms. “I’m guessing that The System is probably a thousand miles away.”
“If they’re smart,” Chemistra said. Her eyes were full of rage. The chance for revenge slipped away from her. It was a hard pill to swallow. Even her newfound freedom seemed small compared to the chance to do away with those who had done her so much harm.
“Call Brand,” Shard said. “Let her know mission accomplished.”
=X=
Two Days Later
XSE Headquarters (New Mexico)
Brand sat behind her desk with Shard and Agni in front of her. She was busy typing away at her computer. “So let’s start with the good news. We have plenty of their flunkies captive, captured tons of their illegal weapons tech and have a mountain of intel about known associates and partners.”
Agni was brave enough to ask, “And the bad news?”
“Not a single leader of The System was captured. Their entire organization is still intact. And yes, while we have enough intel to put a severe hurting to them, they will still be intact at the end of it. So you want bad news Jin? How about this?” Brand stopped typing and pounded a fist on the desk. “You’re more than likely going to have to go after them again, costing this organization precious time and resources. Maverick and whoever this girl is were not the objective.”
“I respectfully disagree,” Shard said. “Maverick and Chemistra are valuable and I want them as a part of my team.”
Brand sat back in her chair and laughed. She had all the posture of someone who was expecting to be fed a long line of bull. But Brand just about always looked that way. “I want to hear this.”
Shard straightened her posture. “Maverick is too well trained an agent and dangerous element to cut loose. The man has no memory of who he once was and I have to think part of that is because of Shaw and Tessa. I can’t help but to let go of the idea that maybe David North is still a good man. And if the David North we know is gone then we can rebuild this one.”
Brand pushed up her green sunglasses. “And the girl?”
“Like Lorien, she was a ward of Exodus’ group The Exiles. Amongst her teachers, she can count Exodus, Colossus, Domino, Havok, Blink--
Brand raised up a hand. “I get your point. She’s too valuable to let walk out the door too. Fine, for the moment you can keep them. But you better keep your eyes on them. The minute they step out of line, the minute they screw up one of my missions…”
Shard nodded. “Understood.”
Agni helped Shard to her feet, the thigh wound she received from the Brood heavily bandaged. Shard pulled away from him and walked on her own out of Brand’s office. She didn’t look back, but she could feel an uncertain gaze from Agni. If Shard was honest with herself, she wasn’t quite certain about him either.
=X=
South America
Gryphon traced her sharp, metal fingers along the mutant specimen spread out on the metal operating table. The arms and legs had been removed along with one eye. Gryphon had those body parts placed in sterile containers for future experiments. But what she had taken away, Gryphon intended to replace.
Bastion and The Aguilar Institute had taught her a great deal about creating hybrids.
NEXT ISSUE: An old enemy of X-Force (at least older incarnations) is back in the form of Ekatrina Grayznova, the woman now known as Gryphon. She’s coming for the new team and she isn’t coming alone.
“People feel like the system is rigged against them, and they’re right. The system is rigged.”
-Elizabeth Warren
“You didn’t literally have to break his neck,” Lorien said to Punchout as he stepped over the guard she had attacked. They were on their way to being imprisoned, the guards of The System believing the two mutants to be depowered. Forge had seen to protecting them against such technology so the two mutants were able to easily get the drop on those who thought they had easy prey.
“He pissed me off. I think that’s plenty of reason,” Punchout said, shaking the sweat out of her braids. Even without her powers, the Genoshan woman looked burly enough to break necks, drink a beer, and throw darts through walls. Lorien half expected her to walk around in biker leather and start calling herself Earl. “So what do you suggest we do now?”
Lorien paused for a moment, hearing the most voices coming from a few floors down the hall. In the midst of those voices were guns being loaded with clips so Lorien made the logical assumption of more men coming after them. He looked up and saw at least a dozen different cameras trained on them. Punchout looked up and saw the cameras then shrugged. Lorien looked over his shoulder and smiled at her. “How about we go and break some more necks?”
“Sounds like my kind of party. Me first?” Punchout asked with the smirk of a kid about to have some cotton candy delivered to them.
“Just follow me,” Lorien said, moving quickly across the ground not making a sound. The young mutant could walk across a floor covered with marbles without ever losing his balance or ever making a single one of the tiny spheres move. He didn’t depend on that balance now, Punchout’s feet making more than enough noise for the both of them.
Lorien pointed at the door when they got to it and Punchout ran through it full force. Her fingers dug into the door, using it like a shield as she battered and spun men through the air. They started opening fire on her, but that’s when Lorien came through the door with his curved knives pulled out. With incredible speed and accuracy, he deflected every bullet away from Lorien. Each deflection sent the bullet into the concrete walls or into one of the people firing it.
He leaped atop Punchout’s head, not adding a single ounce in weight. Flipping himself off of her, Lorien dove into a group of men. Landing on top of one of them, he left the henchmen feel all of his weight and flipped off of him effortlessly. He twisted his body while his head was still pointed towards the ground and stabbed two other men through the chest with his knives. The men cried out and hit the guard all before Lorien was even on his feet again.
There were about twenty men left in the room and Punchout was having a field day with them. The thick metal door still gripped in one hand, the Genoshan tore through the henchmen like they were tissue meeting a wrecking ball. Lorien found the exuberant glee she took in her task to be distasteful at best and psychological at work. He didn’t claim to have had no struggles in his life, but she needed a shrink.
“You’re done having fun?” Lorien asked. He imagined that Punchout could have kept going all night if she was given the opportunity. The woman was a walking time bomb of rage. Lorien had seen it before. Sunfire, one of Lorien’s teachers, had that kind of anger in him. He chose to display it verbally rather than physically. Still, Lorien knew that kind of anger only ate away at people and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to be on a team with someone like that again.
“Yea I think I’m about done,” Punchout said, kicking one of the guards in the head. Every punch, every hit sent a surge of pleasure through her. She wasn’t some sadist who got off on breaking other people. Violence just happened to be a good outlet for her. People saw her exterior and automatically assumed that there wasn’t much going on in her head. Nothing could be farther from the truth. She was constantly wrapped up in thoughts. Memories of the lives she had taken, ruined and the families she left broken. The memories clawed at her like some monster from the grave wanting nothing more to drag her into the dirt with them. The only way she knew how to escape the memories was to fight. Every time her hands punched and her legs kicked, she was able to outpace them a little more.
“We need to go and find the others. I hope they were able to get to Megan,” Lorien said, his thoughts turning to his old friend. He hated himself for not doing a better job of keeping up with those he trained with.
Punchout saw the concern on Lorien’s face and wondered if everyone would ever feel that way for her.
=X=
Agni stood in front of the door to the arena where Chemistra had been put on display so many times before. Behind him were the young woman and her sort-of protector David North. He was a mutant who was believed to have gone completely off the radar. Agni had nearly come to blows with him, but Chemistra and a promise of unanswered questions were enough to prevent that. Admittedly, Agni was thankful for that. He was sure that he could have held his own against North, but the man was Weapon X trained. That just wasn’t something you turned your nose up at.
Maverick was busy working the keypad that opened up the heavy steel doors leading into the arena. Fingers raced across the numbers until the buttons on the keypad turned read. He looked back to Agni and Chemistra. “We’re in.”
The doors hissed opened and the three mutants were ready to charge into the arena. What they found there stopped them in their tracks.
Shard was there, bloodied and bruised. One eye was swollen and a deep gash was running down her thigh. Blood crusted around her lips and her blonde hair was sheened with sweat. But she stood in good condition compared to the Brood specimens lying dead around her. Their blood was pooled heavily around their corpses. She limped her way to Agni and put a hand on his shoulder. “Thanks for showing you.”
She didn’t notice Maverick, but the minute she spotted him she jumped back and winced. “You’re back huh? Oh Brand is going to have a fit.”
“Who’s Brand?”
Before Shard could say anything, Agni jumped in. “I’ll explain later.”
SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE ACTIVATED. DESTRUCTION IMMINENT IN 10 MINUTES.
“Sore losers,” Chemistra said. “They know they’re done.”
“And want to take us all down with them,” Maverick said.
David knew the ins and outs of the security system in this facility. There were more than enough explosive to take out this building and everything else in a five block radius. The System housed too many valuable goods here to not have such a scorched earth policy in place. Chemistra was counted as one of those valuables. In that moment, David decided he was going to get Megan out of here in one piece. She deserved to be thought of as something more than just a piece of property.
“We need to get to the command station for the self-destruct system. It’s going to be guarded. Laser trip wires followed by some sweeping laser nets. Will cut you to tiny pieces in a second. It wouldn’t hurt if you guys had someone invulnerable to help us out,” Maverick said, picking the injured Shard up in his arms and walking out of the arena.
Agni smirked. “Well, there is one person we could try and see if--
“Don’t even Agni,” Shard said. “I’m hurt not deaf.”
Agni shrugged. “It was just a suggestion.”
He didn’t particularly care for Punchout and wouldn’t mind using the woman to test out some security systems. As far as he was concerned, she was a war criminal and XSE harboring her was no better than when the United States harbored German scientists after World War II. She was abhorrent.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THIS IS YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD MICROMAX ON THE LINE. ALWAYS WANTED TO SAY THAT. THE FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD PART. ANYWAY, WE’RE NOT GONNA GO BOOM. THAT IS ALL!
The four let out a collective sigh of relief. Shard rested a bit easier in Maverick’s arms. “I’m guessing that The System is probably a thousand miles away.”
“If they’re smart,” Chemistra said. Her eyes were full of rage. The chance for revenge slipped away from her. It was a hard pill to swallow. Even her newfound freedom seemed small compared to the chance to do away with those who had done her so much harm.
“Call Brand,” Shard said. “Let her know mission accomplished.”
=X=
Two Days Later
XSE Headquarters (New Mexico)
Brand sat behind her desk with Shard and Agni in front of her. She was busy typing away at her computer. “So let’s start with the good news. We have plenty of their flunkies captive, captured tons of their illegal weapons tech and have a mountain of intel about known associates and partners.”
Agni was brave enough to ask, “And the bad news?”
“Not a single leader of The System was captured. Their entire organization is still intact. And yes, while we have enough intel to put a severe hurting to them, they will still be intact at the end of it. So you want bad news Jin? How about this?” Brand stopped typing and pounded a fist on the desk. “You’re more than likely going to have to go after them again, costing this organization precious time and resources. Maverick and whoever this girl is were not the objective.”
“I respectfully disagree,” Shard said. “Maverick and Chemistra are valuable and I want them as a part of my team.”
Brand sat back in her chair and laughed. She had all the posture of someone who was expecting to be fed a long line of bull. But Brand just about always looked that way. “I want to hear this.”
Shard straightened her posture. “Maverick is too well trained an agent and dangerous element to cut loose. The man has no memory of who he once was and I have to think part of that is because of Shaw and Tessa. I can’t help but to let go of the idea that maybe David North is still a good man. And if the David North we know is gone then we can rebuild this one.”
Brand pushed up her green sunglasses. “And the girl?”
“Like Lorien, she was a ward of Exodus’ group The Exiles. Amongst her teachers, she can count Exodus, Colossus, Domino, Havok, Blink--
Brand raised up a hand. “I get your point. She’s too valuable to let walk out the door too. Fine, for the moment you can keep them. But you better keep your eyes on them. The minute they step out of line, the minute they screw up one of my missions…”
Shard nodded. “Understood.”
Agni helped Shard to her feet, the thigh wound she received from the Brood heavily bandaged. Shard pulled away from him and walked on her own out of Brand’s office. She didn’t look back, but she could feel an uncertain gaze from Agni. If Shard was honest with herself, she wasn’t quite certain about him either.
=X=
South America
Gryphon traced her sharp, metal fingers along the mutant specimen spread out on the metal operating table. The arms and legs had been removed along with one eye. Gryphon had those body parts placed in sterile containers for future experiments. But what she had taken away, Gryphon intended to replace.
Bastion and The Aguilar Institute had taught her a great deal about creating hybrids.
NEXT ISSUE: An old enemy of X-Force (at least older incarnations) is back in the form of Ekatrina Grayznova, the woman now known as Gryphon. She’s coming for the new team and she isn’t coming alone.