Back to Gatefold#34 by Daniel Ingram
Featuring MUSE! |
"Boom Babies"
Elsewhere, elsewhen
The warrior known as Weapon X lashed out with an energy knife at the black clothed ninja that charged him. Without allowing for a moment of pause, two more ninjas replaced the one Weapon X destroyed. Undaunted, Weapon X produced several energy spikes and let fly, slaying the new comers. Nothing regarding Weapon X’s body language or reaction time betrayed the fact that’d he been fighting ninjas for the last three hours. Behind him Wildchild, Silhouette and Bandit struggled to keep us. A single ninja sought to sneak up on the tired Bandit, but Weapon X observed it easily while keeping track of his own battles, and picked the offending ninja off with an energy spike.
“Thanks, X.” Bandit grunted as another wave of ninjas bore down on them.
Above them, two young boys watched the battle of fists and feet with glee.
“Come on, lets throw another army of ninjas at them, man, this is sooo much cooler than Mortal Combat.” One boy cackled.
“I dunno, man.” The other boy shrugged.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, aren’t ninjas supposed to be like all skilled in stealth and combat? The ability to kick ass is greatly hampered when you’re tightly packed with a punch of other guys. I mean, an army of ninjas may as well be an army of dudes with swords, and how threatening is that in this day and age? Don’t you think mass numbers defeats the purpose of ninjas?”
The two god-like boys thought about that for a moment before coming to the same conclusion. “Nahhh!”
And they threw another army of ninjas at the heroes.
# # # # # # # # # #
In England, Big Ben unraveled like a bad suit and began melting into the street. Englanders begin to transform into all kinds of creatures and begin to hope that England’s greatest hero, Betsy Braddock, otherwise known Captain UK, can save them
# # # # # # # # # #
Aloba Dastoor, otherwise known as the mutant operative Monsoon, looked about the world around him and felt fear unlike anything he’d ever felt before. Not even his near death at the hands of Sentinel hordes could elicit half as much fear as he felt now. His elemental powers, in ways at times even he couldn’t explain, gave him a sense of the health of the planet. And now, the planet, and indeed, were in the last stages of a terminal illness. These children were warping time and reality, and were a cancer to both. Monsoon was like an ant to them, and was powerless to stop them.
And so, he did the only logical thing he could do. He sat down, and prayed.
# # # # # # # # # #
In San Francisco, the mutant celebrity heroes X-Corps fight a pitched battle against techno organic brood who’ve come from Earth 349 to swallow our own.
“Avalanche, get that barricade up!” Sean Cassidy yelled from his vantage point in the air, “Domino, how’s our Redeemer Squad doing?”
Domino sighed as she watched Hazard, Sabretooth, Scrambler, Lifter and the Blob tear into the techno brood while Wolfsbane, Husk and Jubilee began evacuating civilians.
“We’re doing okay.” Domino then looked up towards the red skies, “But unless someone fixes whatever’s pissed off God today, we’re all screwed regardless.”
# # # # # # # # # #
Peter Sosa gulped hard, and was thankful he’d already gone to the bathroom as the boy standing before him would doubtlessly make Peter soil himself. It wasn’t that the boy in and of himself was scary. The boy was about twelve years old, with reddish blond hair and rather average looking. But behind the boy, the sky twisted and turned like it was caught in a spiral and mountains began melting like ice cream.
“Hello, who are you?” The boy asked
Peter wracked his brain to come up with an answer. He knew the only way he had a chance in hell was to try to talk this boy down, “Umm, I’m really your subconscious. You’ve taken a bad blow to the head and need to wake up!”
“Wake up? To what?” The boy asked as he crooked his head towards Peter. The boy possessed incredible telepathic powers, which was both a blessing and a curse. So vast were his abilities, he had a hard time focusing it on just one person. It was like trying to examine a single grain of sand on the beach. His telepathic powers brushed Peter’s mind, and instantly recoiled.
“You’re lying.” The boy said, able to glean that much information.
Peter felt his heart skip a beat and immediately tried another idea, nothing more than a stalling tactic in the hopes of thinking up a solid plan, “Umm, you’re right. I actually come from a post apocalyptic future, and I’ve come back to bring you out of your dreams and into the future with me so we can save everyone.”
“So in the future everyone I know and love is dead, and I’m the only survivor?” The boy asked, “so why would I want to wake up? I like it here!”
# # # # # # # # # #
Jason Blackwood looked at his watch with growing impatience. It had been only ten minutes since he’d abandoned Sosa, and Jason hadn’t the slightest clue as to whether or not that was enough time. David Vanberg sat motionless near Blackwood, his eyes glazed over as a result of Blackwood’s telepathy, and subsequently wasn’t the most interesting conversationalist.
“You know, your bosses really didn’t know what they were dealing with, you know that?” Jason chided, “like kids playing with matches. At least they had the good sense to station you here.”
# # # # # # # # # #
In Metro City, Force Works, composed of Iron Man, Sabra, Talisman, Perun, Silver Samurai, Psylocke and Vibraxis fight in vain against a Negative Zone Invasion.
In New York, the Iron Avengers suddenly find the Queen’s Vengeance transported to their doorstep. Naturally confused and fearing for the safety of the realm, talks degenerate into violence and soon the two alternate Avengers team find themselves in heated conflict with rising casualties
# # # # # # # # # #
“So, you’re telling me I’m my own brother, three generations removed from my cousin who was thrown back in time and I’m my own grandfather?” The boy asked incredulously
“Umm yeah. And that’s why you were chosen by cosmic forces to shut down the insanity and save the world.” Sosa finished his soap opera tale.
The boy looked at Peter for a long moment, utterly baffled. Then, as slowly as day turns into night, the boy smiled at Peter. It was a wicked, predatory smile that Peter immediately knew meant that his time was up.
“Your stories are boring me now.” The boy said. His hands glowed with power as he pointed them towards Peter, “Good bye.”
“Stop.” A familiar voice ordered, and to Peter’s surprise, the boy did just that.
Jason Blackwood strolled forward, a familiar grin plastered on his face. The young boy, whom moments ago was ready to erase Peter from existence, stood at attention like a little tin soldier exactly where he’d been only moments before.
“Miss me kid?”
“The…hell!” Peter said, far too stunned to ask a proper question.
“How’d I stop little god boy?” Jason asked for him. He walked up to Peter and tapped his head gently, “Remember when I first opened up to you back at that Muse safehouse after days of keeping my trap shut? Where I suddenly started telling you everything?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, that was because I’d implanted a mental virus in your head.” Blackwood explained, “A big, stinky virus that’d either destroy your mind or the mind of any telepath that tried too hard to pry something loose. This kid,” Blackwood pointed to the twelve year old, “is mentally linked to all the other reality warpers. Once he was infected, it spread like wildfire. It just needed time to set.”
“You used me like cannon fodder!” Peter shouted in outrage
“Yup. You in the life now, boy, get used to it.” Jason shrugged, “Now, lets fix this mess, shall we? John, order your friends to shut down.”
Though the boy showed no outward sign of hearing the order, the reality distortions began to fade, all the children focusing their powers on fixing the gliches in reality that their powers had created. Combined with Blackwood’s knowledge and skill, time was reset and creation was completely repaired. The Muse team and the children were deposited to the front lawn of the research building they’d invaded.
“Damn, I feel like I just drank the world’s supply of beer.” Random groused as he rubbed his throbbing head.
“Jason, what the hell happened?” Bandit asked, his memory of the events fading like the rest of the world. As the Muse team tried to come to terms with their fading memories, they began to ignore Peter completely, whom they all saw as an uninformed rookie
“It appears these kids were a little more powerful than we thought.” Blackwood confessed, “But I managed to get things back under control.”
“So what do we do with the kids? With their powers…” Wildchild didn’t have to finish the thought for everyone to agree with his assessment. Then, abruptly, the kids vanished from sight, the sole exception being the oldest boy whom Blackwood first seized control of.
“Jason, what’s happened to the youngsters?” Helix demanded of the equally confused Blackwood. Blackwood reached out with his telepathic powers and ‘demanded’ an answer from the reality-altering puppet. Unseen by all, Peter observed that there were several heavily armed security soldiers lay about the lawn, presumably defeated before the children were freed and kept down by Blackwood.
“Seems like my stray thought about maybe altering reality and time to return these kids to their parents was picked up by John here.”
“So that’s why the X-Men never investigated the missing children.” Monsoon observed thoughtfully, “because when they did, they found the children safe at home. A time paradox.”
“You might wish to be careful with your stray thoughts.” Fixx suggested.
“Our only question now,” Blackwood smiled, “is what do we do with a reality controlling mutant?”
“How about we keep everything the same and make sure this kid has a normal human body. Better pull out now, Blackwood.” Peter said as he stormed up to John with a sense of righteousness. Peter whipped out a handgun he’d concealed on his person and pressed it to young John’s temple. After an unperceivable second of hesitation, Peter pulled the trigger twice and ended the boy’s life.
“Peter, how…”Fixx muttered softly. The entire Muse team was shocked into silence, but no one was more stunned than Fixx herself. She knew this young man better than anyone, and could never conceive of him as a cold-blooded murderer. Peter spun around and pressed the gun to his own head as the others began to approach.
“You happy now, Jason! I got my hands dirty!”
“Peter, put the gun down, we can talk about this.” Blackwood replied evenly
“You’re a fine one to talk about talk!” Peter laughed bitterly, “Where’s your fuckin’ accent now?”
“Excuse me lad?”
“Oh, there it is! Just when you need it.” Peter sneered knowingly, “It’s a façade, isn’t it you spy bastard! Something to keep your so called teammates at arms length, so they never even know if you’ve misspoke!”
“Peter, I know you’re upset, but you need to calm down.” Silhouette advised, “Shooting yourself won’t help anything.”
“Any of you bastards ever notice how Blackwood screws up a lot for an old spy hand?” Peter asked his as eyes went from Factor X member to member, “how that plane of yours didn’t have a half ass cloak, or how we went barging in on a completely benign government building? Those government guys were trying to help those kids! He didn’t screw up, he tricked us into a damn corner and has nearly gotten us all killed! Twice! Is this what ‘the life’ is supposed to be like?!”
Peter let his words sink in for moment before making one last statement, “He also could have grabbed this gun out of my hands.”
And then, Peter Sosa made the smartest decision of his young life.
The End?
End notes: Well, it’s the end of the Muse mini series, I hope you’ve all enjoyed it. But the fun doesn’t end here (fun as in shadow conspiracies, back stabbing and loose ethics) oh no, look for the Muse team to show up in Force works, very, very soon.
The warrior known as Weapon X lashed out with an energy knife at the black clothed ninja that charged him. Without allowing for a moment of pause, two more ninjas replaced the one Weapon X destroyed. Undaunted, Weapon X produced several energy spikes and let fly, slaying the new comers. Nothing regarding Weapon X’s body language or reaction time betrayed the fact that’d he been fighting ninjas for the last three hours. Behind him Wildchild, Silhouette and Bandit struggled to keep us. A single ninja sought to sneak up on the tired Bandit, but Weapon X observed it easily while keeping track of his own battles, and picked the offending ninja off with an energy spike.
“Thanks, X.” Bandit grunted as another wave of ninjas bore down on them.
Above them, two young boys watched the battle of fists and feet with glee.
“Come on, lets throw another army of ninjas at them, man, this is sooo much cooler than Mortal Combat.” One boy cackled.
“I dunno, man.” The other boy shrugged.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, aren’t ninjas supposed to be like all skilled in stealth and combat? The ability to kick ass is greatly hampered when you’re tightly packed with a punch of other guys. I mean, an army of ninjas may as well be an army of dudes with swords, and how threatening is that in this day and age? Don’t you think mass numbers defeats the purpose of ninjas?”
The two god-like boys thought about that for a moment before coming to the same conclusion. “Nahhh!”
And they threw another army of ninjas at the heroes.
# # # # # # # # # #
In England, Big Ben unraveled like a bad suit and began melting into the street. Englanders begin to transform into all kinds of creatures and begin to hope that England’s greatest hero, Betsy Braddock, otherwise known Captain UK, can save them
# # # # # # # # # #
Aloba Dastoor, otherwise known as the mutant operative Monsoon, looked about the world around him and felt fear unlike anything he’d ever felt before. Not even his near death at the hands of Sentinel hordes could elicit half as much fear as he felt now. His elemental powers, in ways at times even he couldn’t explain, gave him a sense of the health of the planet. And now, the planet, and indeed, were in the last stages of a terminal illness. These children were warping time and reality, and were a cancer to both. Monsoon was like an ant to them, and was powerless to stop them.
And so, he did the only logical thing he could do. He sat down, and prayed.
# # # # # # # # # #
In San Francisco, the mutant celebrity heroes X-Corps fight a pitched battle against techno organic brood who’ve come from Earth 349 to swallow our own.
“Avalanche, get that barricade up!” Sean Cassidy yelled from his vantage point in the air, “Domino, how’s our Redeemer Squad doing?”
Domino sighed as she watched Hazard, Sabretooth, Scrambler, Lifter and the Blob tear into the techno brood while Wolfsbane, Husk and Jubilee began evacuating civilians.
“We’re doing okay.” Domino then looked up towards the red skies, “But unless someone fixes whatever’s pissed off God today, we’re all screwed regardless.”
# # # # # # # # # #
Peter Sosa gulped hard, and was thankful he’d already gone to the bathroom as the boy standing before him would doubtlessly make Peter soil himself. It wasn’t that the boy in and of himself was scary. The boy was about twelve years old, with reddish blond hair and rather average looking. But behind the boy, the sky twisted and turned like it was caught in a spiral and mountains began melting like ice cream.
“Hello, who are you?” The boy asked
Peter wracked his brain to come up with an answer. He knew the only way he had a chance in hell was to try to talk this boy down, “Umm, I’m really your subconscious. You’ve taken a bad blow to the head and need to wake up!”
“Wake up? To what?” The boy asked as he crooked his head towards Peter. The boy possessed incredible telepathic powers, which was both a blessing and a curse. So vast were his abilities, he had a hard time focusing it on just one person. It was like trying to examine a single grain of sand on the beach. His telepathic powers brushed Peter’s mind, and instantly recoiled.
“You’re lying.” The boy said, able to glean that much information.
Peter felt his heart skip a beat and immediately tried another idea, nothing more than a stalling tactic in the hopes of thinking up a solid plan, “Umm, you’re right. I actually come from a post apocalyptic future, and I’ve come back to bring you out of your dreams and into the future with me so we can save everyone.”
“So in the future everyone I know and love is dead, and I’m the only survivor?” The boy asked, “so why would I want to wake up? I like it here!”
# # # # # # # # # #
Jason Blackwood looked at his watch with growing impatience. It had been only ten minutes since he’d abandoned Sosa, and Jason hadn’t the slightest clue as to whether or not that was enough time. David Vanberg sat motionless near Blackwood, his eyes glazed over as a result of Blackwood’s telepathy, and subsequently wasn’t the most interesting conversationalist.
“You know, your bosses really didn’t know what they were dealing with, you know that?” Jason chided, “like kids playing with matches. At least they had the good sense to station you here.”
# # # # # # # # # #
In Metro City, Force Works, composed of Iron Man, Sabra, Talisman, Perun, Silver Samurai, Psylocke and Vibraxis fight in vain against a Negative Zone Invasion.
In New York, the Iron Avengers suddenly find the Queen’s Vengeance transported to their doorstep. Naturally confused and fearing for the safety of the realm, talks degenerate into violence and soon the two alternate Avengers team find themselves in heated conflict with rising casualties
# # # # # # # # # #
“So, you’re telling me I’m my own brother, three generations removed from my cousin who was thrown back in time and I’m my own grandfather?” The boy asked incredulously
“Umm yeah. And that’s why you were chosen by cosmic forces to shut down the insanity and save the world.” Sosa finished his soap opera tale.
The boy looked at Peter for a long moment, utterly baffled. Then, as slowly as day turns into night, the boy smiled at Peter. It was a wicked, predatory smile that Peter immediately knew meant that his time was up.
“Your stories are boring me now.” The boy said. His hands glowed with power as he pointed them towards Peter, “Good bye.”
“Stop.” A familiar voice ordered, and to Peter’s surprise, the boy did just that.
Jason Blackwood strolled forward, a familiar grin plastered on his face. The young boy, whom moments ago was ready to erase Peter from existence, stood at attention like a little tin soldier exactly where he’d been only moments before.
“Miss me kid?”
“The…hell!” Peter said, far too stunned to ask a proper question.
“How’d I stop little god boy?” Jason asked for him. He walked up to Peter and tapped his head gently, “Remember when I first opened up to you back at that Muse safehouse after days of keeping my trap shut? Where I suddenly started telling you everything?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, that was because I’d implanted a mental virus in your head.” Blackwood explained, “A big, stinky virus that’d either destroy your mind or the mind of any telepath that tried too hard to pry something loose. This kid,” Blackwood pointed to the twelve year old, “is mentally linked to all the other reality warpers. Once he was infected, it spread like wildfire. It just needed time to set.”
“You used me like cannon fodder!” Peter shouted in outrage
“Yup. You in the life now, boy, get used to it.” Jason shrugged, “Now, lets fix this mess, shall we? John, order your friends to shut down.”
Though the boy showed no outward sign of hearing the order, the reality distortions began to fade, all the children focusing their powers on fixing the gliches in reality that their powers had created. Combined with Blackwood’s knowledge and skill, time was reset and creation was completely repaired. The Muse team and the children were deposited to the front lawn of the research building they’d invaded.
“Damn, I feel like I just drank the world’s supply of beer.” Random groused as he rubbed his throbbing head.
“Jason, what the hell happened?” Bandit asked, his memory of the events fading like the rest of the world. As the Muse team tried to come to terms with their fading memories, they began to ignore Peter completely, whom they all saw as an uninformed rookie
“It appears these kids were a little more powerful than we thought.” Blackwood confessed, “But I managed to get things back under control.”
“So what do we do with the kids? With their powers…” Wildchild didn’t have to finish the thought for everyone to agree with his assessment. Then, abruptly, the kids vanished from sight, the sole exception being the oldest boy whom Blackwood first seized control of.
“Jason, what’s happened to the youngsters?” Helix demanded of the equally confused Blackwood. Blackwood reached out with his telepathic powers and ‘demanded’ an answer from the reality-altering puppet. Unseen by all, Peter observed that there were several heavily armed security soldiers lay about the lawn, presumably defeated before the children were freed and kept down by Blackwood.
“Seems like my stray thought about maybe altering reality and time to return these kids to their parents was picked up by John here.”
“So that’s why the X-Men never investigated the missing children.” Monsoon observed thoughtfully, “because when they did, they found the children safe at home. A time paradox.”
“You might wish to be careful with your stray thoughts.” Fixx suggested.
“Our only question now,” Blackwood smiled, “is what do we do with a reality controlling mutant?”
“How about we keep everything the same and make sure this kid has a normal human body. Better pull out now, Blackwood.” Peter said as he stormed up to John with a sense of righteousness. Peter whipped out a handgun he’d concealed on his person and pressed it to young John’s temple. After an unperceivable second of hesitation, Peter pulled the trigger twice and ended the boy’s life.
“Peter, how…”Fixx muttered softly. The entire Muse team was shocked into silence, but no one was more stunned than Fixx herself. She knew this young man better than anyone, and could never conceive of him as a cold-blooded murderer. Peter spun around and pressed the gun to his own head as the others began to approach.
“You happy now, Jason! I got my hands dirty!”
“Peter, put the gun down, we can talk about this.” Blackwood replied evenly
“You’re a fine one to talk about talk!” Peter laughed bitterly, “Where’s your fuckin’ accent now?”
“Excuse me lad?”
“Oh, there it is! Just when you need it.” Peter sneered knowingly, “It’s a façade, isn’t it you spy bastard! Something to keep your so called teammates at arms length, so they never even know if you’ve misspoke!”
“Peter, I know you’re upset, but you need to calm down.” Silhouette advised, “Shooting yourself won’t help anything.”
“Any of you bastards ever notice how Blackwood screws up a lot for an old spy hand?” Peter asked his as eyes went from Factor X member to member, “how that plane of yours didn’t have a half ass cloak, or how we went barging in on a completely benign government building? Those government guys were trying to help those kids! He didn’t screw up, he tricked us into a damn corner and has nearly gotten us all killed! Twice! Is this what ‘the life’ is supposed to be like?!”
Peter let his words sink in for moment before making one last statement, “He also could have grabbed this gun out of my hands.”
And then, Peter Sosa made the smartest decision of his young life.
The End?
End notes: Well, it’s the end of the Muse mini series, I hope you’ve all enjoyed it. But the fun doesn’t end here (fun as in shadow conspiracies, back stabbing and loose ethics) oh no, look for the Muse team to show up in Force works, very, very soon.