“False Flag - Part 3”
Previously: Abigail Brand provided X-Force with information on attacks occurring against anti-mutant groups across the country. Though the groups were not exactly The Right of The Purifiers, Brand wanted the attacks against them investigated nonetheless. X-Force was sent to protect one anti-mutant group leader and was caught off-guard by his assassins, causing them to lose their mark. And now they’re under a media microscope.
=X=
Jerome Vox watched the flat screen in his office with hard, amber eyes.
“Waiting on her conference to start?” a woman asked, entering the office. Every part of her attire was black from gloves to her vest to her high heels.
“Of course. I don’t know how it’s going to turn out for her but I don’t imagine it being good,” Vox said, allowing the short, Vietnamese woman to stand by her. Rush was by far his favorite agent of the newly formed X.S.E.
“Do you think this will be enough for her? X-Force is finally screwed up enough to put the whole damn organization under a magnifying glass,” Rush said, her words sharp and high-pitched. Vox could hear the passion behind every one of them and that’s why he appreciated her. She was dedicated to seeing this organization handle itself right.
“She’s going to stick with X-Force, at least for now. Brand is blaming all of this on social media skewing things, but we both know better. They failed a mission. A simple mission and they had superior numbers against the enemy,” Vox said, his frustration bubbling over.
“Do you think Assistant Director Forge would speak for us? He seems a sensible man and has to see the truth of X-Force’s failings,” Rush said.
Vox shrugged. “Maybe, but he’s loyal to Brand. Wherever she goes, he tends to follow.”
The television showed Brand approaching a podium, her hair pulled back and in a black business suit. Vox put a hand under his chin as he watched. “There she goes.”
=X=
Phoenix, Arizona
Brand stepped to the podium and took a deep breath to prepare herself for the worst. The camera lights were cruel and continuous. That had been Brand’s excuse for coming to the conference with her shades on. “Hello ladies and gentlemen, I am here before you today in order to address concerns stemming from the actions of X.S.E. in Charlotte.”
“Cain Jessup is a known pro-human activist. Is it true that your X.S.E. agents badgered him before his death?” The question came from a reporter from Fox News. Brand loathed that he was the first parasite to get a question out. The people he worked for were all too eager to paint her organization as human hating.
“My agents were not badgering Mr. Jessup. Unfortunately, Mr. Jessup denied the protection of X.S.E. prior to his death based on his pro-human convictions,” Brand replied, seeing Tonza wince to her right. She wanted to cuss because she knew that she had just walked into a pile of dung if her Media Coordinator physically reacted.
“So are you suggesting that Mr. Jessup was responsible for his own death?” the question came from a reporter from CNN, a petite little redhead who looked like she was eager to climb her way up the ladder. Brand wanted to smack all the make-up off of the dainty girl.
“No that is not at all what I am suggesting. Mr. Jessup’s death was solely the result of an attack of mutant extremists. Extremists that my organization firmly denounces,” Brand said, gripping the sides of the podium so hard she was surprised that the wood hadn’t cracked yet. The annoyance of bureaucracy she could handle, but this was a whole other animal.
“Based on the video we all saw, it doesn’t appear that X.S.E.’s best were put on the job of protecting Mr. Jessup. Was his protection not a high priority for you?” This time it was Al-Jaazera America. The curly haired Saudi-American looked like he wanted to high five the reporters on his left and right. Brand started to wonder if she was imposing all of these smug emotions.
Brand leaned forward into her mike. “Let me make this abundantly clear; X-Force is my premier team and I stand behind them one hundred percent. It was wholly unfortunate that Mr. Jessup was murdered, but it was due to no lack of effort on my team’s part.”
Director Brand walked away from the podium, cameras flashing and people shouting behind her.
=X=
Elsewhere
Hallowpoint chewed on his omelet as him and the rest of his team watched the press conference with Brand ending. He wiped his mouth with a napkin. “They’re trying to make it look like she let him die on purpose.”
Four Alarm swallowed down a scoop of oatmeal and belched after a few sips of Coke. “Wasn’t the whole point of killing all these ignorant bastards to make mutants look better? Get rid of the people talking crap about us?”
Snake-Oil shook her head. “Doesn’t seem right, not any of it. And I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t even remember how I ended up getting involved in this in the first place. Doesn’t that strike anyone as odd?”
Sucker Punch shrugged. “Figured I wouldn’t ask any questions. I get to turn invisible and keep busting heads. And now I’m busting that I’m actually am sure are douches. Sound like the life to me, shaky memory or not.”
Their provider walked into the conversation. She was a terrifying mix of biological and mechanical engineering, her body a perfect meld of the two. Despite however ugly it made her look. She was truly a beast, like the griffin from which her name derived. “Are we beginning to doubt our work?”
Gryphon looked over each of them, their eyes making contact. One by one their eyes and face went limp and they spoke in unison. “No Gryphon. No doubts at all.”
“Good because we have much more work to do.”
=X=
El Paso, Texas
The next victim on the anti-mutant hit list was a man named Gregory Henderson. He was an African-American anti-mutant activist who espoused the belief that mutants were created by the government in league with aliens to help wipe out minority groups. It was a trial for Shard to actually pretend that she even wanted to protect this man.
Shard stood at the door of his church with Agni at her side. “If you don’t let us protect you you’re bound to end up like Jessup.”
Gregory laughed. “Serves him right, acting like his people didn’t have anything to do with your people. I don’t care. I’ll take your protection. The more mutants kill and fight each other, the better it is for me anyway.”
Agni put a finger against Gregory’s chest. “Idiots like you have created this situation and now you’re putting my men on the line.”
Shard perked up an eyebrow at the statement of “my men”, but kept her comment to herself. “We’re not here to be your friends. We’re here to save your life. So let us do what we have to do and that’ll happen.”
Gregory nodded. “Fine, whatever. Just trying to save your sorry asses in the media. If you really thought of yourselves as a minority, you would already know that’s not a battle you’re ever going to win.”
Gregory shuffled back inside the church, Shard having to admit to herself that there was some truth in his words. But she didn’t have the time to contemplate them now. She turned to the dozen or so men dressed from head to toe in black. They were baseline humans and served as part of X.S.E., but Shard knew the men to be well trained. They had just recently helped the X-Men on Muir Island.
“Form a perimeter around this place. I want eyes in every direction. Our enemy teleports and they teleport well so they could come at you from anywhere,” Shard said and turned to Agni. “Get X-Force inside the building. I want us right on Henderson’s ass.”
Agni nodded. “Will do.”
=X=
An Hour Later…
Hallowpoint teleported from above one of the X.S.E. soldiers, his foot landing on the man’s mouth as he brought him to the ground. Teeth were shattered as scattered as the man’s head bounced up and down on the hard, rocky ground. Gryphon warned them to expect resistance and she was right.
Hallowpoint ducked and took position behind a large rock that had a gold plate with an emblem of the church on it. Quickly, he pulled out the pieces of his rifle and constructed the weapon in less than a minute. He propped it up on the rock and put an eye to the spy hole. Truthfully, with his enhancements he didn’t need to do that anymore, but old habits die hard.
He immediately spotted the soldier guarding the back entrance to the church and aimed his rifle at him. A bullet was let loose and tagged the soldier in his high end Kevlar, knocking the soldier to the ground and sending an electric current through him.
Hallowpoint cloaked himself and snuck in through the backdoor, making his way past church robes and garments into the actual pulpit and choir area. Before he could look out into the pews, a fist smacked him across the face and sent him spinning.
“We have a telepath dumbass,” Punchout said, pointing a thumb at Agni. “Knew you were coming from a mile away.”
Hallowpoint dropped out of cloak and ducked behind one of the choir chairs as the rest of his team teleported in at the front of the church. They had followed Hallowpoint’s signature like a tethered rope.
Four Alarm came in shooting with all four arms, but his bullets were evaporated by Chemistra. She ran up to him and jumped, pressing a hand across his face. The minute her skin touched his, she turned his sweat to sulfuric acid. Four Alarm screamed as flesh and his cybernetic eye band were burning. Chemistra could have did that from far away, but she wanted to feel the sensation of it. She smiled as he reeled back.
Sucker Punch, fully invisible, tried to land a punch on Agni, but he expertly dodged it. With precision, he kicked Sucker Punch’s leg out from under him and dropped the man to the ground. “I don’t have to see you to hurt you.”
An electric bullet from Hallowpoint buzzed through the air, striking Agni in the shoulder. He went flying back across the pews, electricity locking his body in agonized place.
Gregory Henderson watched on fear as Snake-Oil twisted and turned her way from the energy blasts of Shard and the punches of Micromax. The young South African girl laughed as she dodged each blow. Her arms twisted and curled until her claws were able to nick the necks of both her attackers. The powerful poison in them immediately overtook the two mutants and they stumbled around until fall into unconsciousness.
Gregory’s back straightened and he looked the girl in the eye. “You’re a monster.”
“I know,” Snake-Oil grinned as she plunged her poisonous metal claws into his heart.
Hallowpoint rolled away from his battle with Lorien, Maverick and Punchout. “Good job! Let’s go!”
Four purple energy signatures later and the anti-mutant assassins were gone.
=X=
Later
Brand walked through the church, Gregory Henderson behind her as she surveyed the damage. “Dammit! These bastards got away again.”
“And they would have killed me,” Gregory said, clutching a hand to his heart.
“Yea you owe me one there pops,” a skinny Jamaican man with dreadlocks said as he approached the two. He shape shifted into Gregory Henderson and smiled. “Easy as cake.”
Brand nodded to the young man. “Good job Devin. I appreciate your cooperation in this mission. You can head back to base.”
The young man saluted. “Of course Director. Pleasure to help.”
Brand waited until the man walked out the church before she screamed. “What the hell is the problem?! We can’t stop four mutants? This isn’t the X-Men people. Everything we know says these mutants haven’t operated as a group before and yet you STILL lost the target.”
“He’s standing right there,” Punchout said.
“And when did I give you permission to speak,” Brand said, her voice sharp and cutting. “I am sincerely beginning to regret making X-Force my prime team. This is embarrassing! This entire mission should have been easy. A walk in the damn park!”
Shard spoke up. “We can hurt them. Today proved it. We just need to be able to find them.”
Brand waved a dismissive hand in the air. “Forge is working on it. But he shouldn’t have to be. This should have been handled today! Right here! Now I’m going to have deal with those sharks again questioning the very point of our existence.”
Chemistra meekly raised her hand up and Brand turned on her. “What? And it better be good.”
“I think I might know where they are.”
NEXT ISSUE: Where are Hallowpoint and his companions hiding? Will X-Force be able to take them down?
Previously: Abigail Brand provided X-Force with information on attacks occurring against anti-mutant groups across the country. Though the groups were not exactly The Right of The Purifiers, Brand wanted the attacks against them investigated nonetheless. X-Force was sent to protect one anti-mutant group leader and was caught off-guard by his assassins, causing them to lose their mark. And now they’re under a media microscope.
=X=
Jerome Vox watched the flat screen in his office with hard, amber eyes.
“Waiting on her conference to start?” a woman asked, entering the office. Every part of her attire was black from gloves to her vest to her high heels.
“Of course. I don’t know how it’s going to turn out for her but I don’t imagine it being good,” Vox said, allowing the short, Vietnamese woman to stand by her. Rush was by far his favorite agent of the newly formed X.S.E.
“Do you think this will be enough for her? X-Force is finally screwed up enough to put the whole damn organization under a magnifying glass,” Rush said, her words sharp and high-pitched. Vox could hear the passion behind every one of them and that’s why he appreciated her. She was dedicated to seeing this organization handle itself right.
“She’s going to stick with X-Force, at least for now. Brand is blaming all of this on social media skewing things, but we both know better. They failed a mission. A simple mission and they had superior numbers against the enemy,” Vox said, his frustration bubbling over.
“Do you think Assistant Director Forge would speak for us? He seems a sensible man and has to see the truth of X-Force’s failings,” Rush said.
Vox shrugged. “Maybe, but he’s loyal to Brand. Wherever she goes, he tends to follow.”
The television showed Brand approaching a podium, her hair pulled back and in a black business suit. Vox put a hand under his chin as he watched. “There she goes.”
=X=
Phoenix, Arizona
Brand stepped to the podium and took a deep breath to prepare herself for the worst. The camera lights were cruel and continuous. That had been Brand’s excuse for coming to the conference with her shades on. “Hello ladies and gentlemen, I am here before you today in order to address concerns stemming from the actions of X.S.E. in Charlotte.”
“Cain Jessup is a known pro-human activist. Is it true that your X.S.E. agents badgered him before his death?” The question came from a reporter from Fox News. Brand loathed that he was the first parasite to get a question out. The people he worked for were all too eager to paint her organization as human hating.
“My agents were not badgering Mr. Jessup. Unfortunately, Mr. Jessup denied the protection of X.S.E. prior to his death based on his pro-human convictions,” Brand replied, seeing Tonza wince to her right. She wanted to cuss because she knew that she had just walked into a pile of dung if her Media Coordinator physically reacted.
“So are you suggesting that Mr. Jessup was responsible for his own death?” the question came from a reporter from CNN, a petite little redhead who looked like she was eager to climb her way up the ladder. Brand wanted to smack all the make-up off of the dainty girl.
“No that is not at all what I am suggesting. Mr. Jessup’s death was solely the result of an attack of mutant extremists. Extremists that my organization firmly denounces,” Brand said, gripping the sides of the podium so hard she was surprised that the wood hadn’t cracked yet. The annoyance of bureaucracy she could handle, but this was a whole other animal.
“Based on the video we all saw, it doesn’t appear that X.S.E.’s best were put on the job of protecting Mr. Jessup. Was his protection not a high priority for you?” This time it was Al-Jaazera America. The curly haired Saudi-American looked like he wanted to high five the reporters on his left and right. Brand started to wonder if she was imposing all of these smug emotions.
Brand leaned forward into her mike. “Let me make this abundantly clear; X-Force is my premier team and I stand behind them one hundred percent. It was wholly unfortunate that Mr. Jessup was murdered, but it was due to no lack of effort on my team’s part.”
Director Brand walked away from the podium, cameras flashing and people shouting behind her.
=X=
Elsewhere
Hallowpoint chewed on his omelet as him and the rest of his team watched the press conference with Brand ending. He wiped his mouth with a napkin. “They’re trying to make it look like she let him die on purpose.”
Four Alarm swallowed down a scoop of oatmeal and belched after a few sips of Coke. “Wasn’t the whole point of killing all these ignorant bastards to make mutants look better? Get rid of the people talking crap about us?”
Snake-Oil shook her head. “Doesn’t seem right, not any of it. And I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t even remember how I ended up getting involved in this in the first place. Doesn’t that strike anyone as odd?”
Sucker Punch shrugged. “Figured I wouldn’t ask any questions. I get to turn invisible and keep busting heads. And now I’m busting that I’m actually am sure are douches. Sound like the life to me, shaky memory or not.”
Their provider walked into the conversation. She was a terrifying mix of biological and mechanical engineering, her body a perfect meld of the two. Despite however ugly it made her look. She was truly a beast, like the griffin from which her name derived. “Are we beginning to doubt our work?”
Gryphon looked over each of them, their eyes making contact. One by one their eyes and face went limp and they spoke in unison. “No Gryphon. No doubts at all.”
“Good because we have much more work to do.”
=X=
El Paso, Texas
The next victim on the anti-mutant hit list was a man named Gregory Henderson. He was an African-American anti-mutant activist who espoused the belief that mutants were created by the government in league with aliens to help wipe out minority groups. It was a trial for Shard to actually pretend that she even wanted to protect this man.
Shard stood at the door of his church with Agni at her side. “If you don’t let us protect you you’re bound to end up like Jessup.”
Gregory laughed. “Serves him right, acting like his people didn’t have anything to do with your people. I don’t care. I’ll take your protection. The more mutants kill and fight each other, the better it is for me anyway.”
Agni put a finger against Gregory’s chest. “Idiots like you have created this situation and now you’re putting my men on the line.”
Shard perked up an eyebrow at the statement of “my men”, but kept her comment to herself. “We’re not here to be your friends. We’re here to save your life. So let us do what we have to do and that’ll happen.”
Gregory nodded. “Fine, whatever. Just trying to save your sorry asses in the media. If you really thought of yourselves as a minority, you would already know that’s not a battle you’re ever going to win.”
Gregory shuffled back inside the church, Shard having to admit to herself that there was some truth in his words. But she didn’t have the time to contemplate them now. She turned to the dozen or so men dressed from head to toe in black. They were baseline humans and served as part of X.S.E., but Shard knew the men to be well trained. They had just recently helped the X-Men on Muir Island.
“Form a perimeter around this place. I want eyes in every direction. Our enemy teleports and they teleport well so they could come at you from anywhere,” Shard said and turned to Agni. “Get X-Force inside the building. I want us right on Henderson’s ass.”
Agni nodded. “Will do.”
=X=
An Hour Later…
Hallowpoint teleported from above one of the X.S.E. soldiers, his foot landing on the man’s mouth as he brought him to the ground. Teeth were shattered as scattered as the man’s head bounced up and down on the hard, rocky ground. Gryphon warned them to expect resistance and she was right.
Hallowpoint ducked and took position behind a large rock that had a gold plate with an emblem of the church on it. Quickly, he pulled out the pieces of his rifle and constructed the weapon in less than a minute. He propped it up on the rock and put an eye to the spy hole. Truthfully, with his enhancements he didn’t need to do that anymore, but old habits die hard.
He immediately spotted the soldier guarding the back entrance to the church and aimed his rifle at him. A bullet was let loose and tagged the soldier in his high end Kevlar, knocking the soldier to the ground and sending an electric current through him.
Hallowpoint cloaked himself and snuck in through the backdoor, making his way past church robes and garments into the actual pulpit and choir area. Before he could look out into the pews, a fist smacked him across the face and sent him spinning.
“We have a telepath dumbass,” Punchout said, pointing a thumb at Agni. “Knew you were coming from a mile away.”
Hallowpoint dropped out of cloak and ducked behind one of the choir chairs as the rest of his team teleported in at the front of the church. They had followed Hallowpoint’s signature like a tethered rope.
Four Alarm came in shooting with all four arms, but his bullets were evaporated by Chemistra. She ran up to him and jumped, pressing a hand across his face. The minute her skin touched his, she turned his sweat to sulfuric acid. Four Alarm screamed as flesh and his cybernetic eye band were burning. Chemistra could have did that from far away, but she wanted to feel the sensation of it. She smiled as he reeled back.
Sucker Punch, fully invisible, tried to land a punch on Agni, but he expertly dodged it. With precision, he kicked Sucker Punch’s leg out from under him and dropped the man to the ground. “I don’t have to see you to hurt you.”
An electric bullet from Hallowpoint buzzed through the air, striking Agni in the shoulder. He went flying back across the pews, electricity locking his body in agonized place.
Gregory Henderson watched on fear as Snake-Oil twisted and turned her way from the energy blasts of Shard and the punches of Micromax. The young South African girl laughed as she dodged each blow. Her arms twisted and curled until her claws were able to nick the necks of both her attackers. The powerful poison in them immediately overtook the two mutants and they stumbled around until fall into unconsciousness.
Gregory’s back straightened and he looked the girl in the eye. “You’re a monster.”
“I know,” Snake-Oil grinned as she plunged her poisonous metal claws into his heart.
Hallowpoint rolled away from his battle with Lorien, Maverick and Punchout. “Good job! Let’s go!”
Four purple energy signatures later and the anti-mutant assassins were gone.
=X=
Later
Brand walked through the church, Gregory Henderson behind her as she surveyed the damage. “Dammit! These bastards got away again.”
“And they would have killed me,” Gregory said, clutching a hand to his heart.
“Yea you owe me one there pops,” a skinny Jamaican man with dreadlocks said as he approached the two. He shape shifted into Gregory Henderson and smiled. “Easy as cake.”
Brand nodded to the young man. “Good job Devin. I appreciate your cooperation in this mission. You can head back to base.”
The young man saluted. “Of course Director. Pleasure to help.”
Brand waited until the man walked out the church before she screamed. “What the hell is the problem?! We can’t stop four mutants? This isn’t the X-Men people. Everything we know says these mutants haven’t operated as a group before and yet you STILL lost the target.”
“He’s standing right there,” Punchout said.
“And when did I give you permission to speak,” Brand said, her voice sharp and cutting. “I am sincerely beginning to regret making X-Force my prime team. This is embarrassing! This entire mission should have been easy. A walk in the damn park!”
Shard spoke up. “We can hurt them. Today proved it. We just need to be able to find them.”
Brand waved a dismissive hand in the air. “Forge is working on it. But he shouldn’t have to be. This should have been handled today! Right here! Now I’m going to have deal with those sharks again questioning the very point of our existence.”
Chemistra meekly raised her hand up and Brand turned on her. “What? And it better be good.”
“I think I might know where they are.”
NEXT ISSUE: Where are Hallowpoint and his companions hiding? Will X-Force be able to take them down?