Angelo Espinosa couldn’t remember the last time he blended into a crowd, but it went without saying it was before his skin turned grey. The same went for his best friend in the new life he had found himself in: Jonothon Starsmore. Jonothon didn’t suffer from some strange, and attention drawing skin pigmentation. Instead, he had it worse. The lower half of his face down to the middle of his chest was replaced with a glowing furnace of psionic energy. But, no attention was drawn to the two as they sat on a bench in the middle of the Mall of America in Minneapolis masquerading as two normal strangers who stopped to rest during a day of shopping thanks to Jono’s image inducer and Angelo’s limited shape shifting abilities.
“I don’t like this.” Jono’s lack of a mouth didn’t stop him from communicating. Instead, his thoughts were projected directly into the minds of those around him as was the case now between him and Ange.
“What other choice do we have amigo? Xavier is a wanted criminal and Lord knows where the X-men are. Besides, I’m kinda having fun playing the spy.”
“We had plenty of other options Ange. Fury pushed us into this.”
“Hey! If you have a problem with Fury take it up after the mission.” The voice interrupting the conversation belonged to S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Daisy Johnson who was stationed on the other side of the mall atop a balcony over looking the innumerable patrons of the mall, Jono and Ange among them. “There are innocent lives at stake. Clear the radio we’re gonna need it.”
As the radios feel silent and time moved on Daisy became increasingly vigilant. This was a precision attack and a secretive one that almost went unnoticed by S.H.I.E.L.D.’s resources. Fury had put things and people into motion to stop the loss of life, but she couldn’t help but wonder if it would be enough or would en up a case of too little too late.
To say I was concerned was an understatement. Things ended roughly in Monaco, and there was no telling how long it would take for everyone to get over what they had been through.
I spoke up announcing my presence. “How are things faring out there Fury?”
Colonel Nicolas Fury wasn’t quick in his response. Instead, he paused making sure to choose the right words. “You know how undercover operations work Sean. You’ve been in this line of work long enough. There are too many variables to correctly predict any outcome, good or bad. You gotta trust them out there and if you can’t trust ‘em then I suggest you pray for them and the people at that mall.”
I took a seat in a chair next to Fury in front of a wall lined with screen after screen of cameras tracing everyone’s movements and positions in the mall. They were all safe and in their designated spots. . . for now. “That wasn’t the answer I was hoping for.”
“If you wanted me to lie to make you feel better then you came to the wrong person Sean. And if I did lie you would still know their success depends entirely on them. But Daisy’s out there with them. She may not be as seasoned as me or you, but damn it, the girl’s got a good head on her shoulders.”
“Ay,” I sighed grudgingly accepting that there was nothing directly either one of us could do in this situation to help. “Hand me a comm. link. You might not want me in the field, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to leave my students deserted.”
A soft chuckle escaped Fury’s lips as he handed Sean an earpiece. “When are ye going to learn Sean? Those kids stopped being your students a long time ago.”
This was nothing new to me. The thought had been playing in the back of my mind since Monaco. They had been forced to become adults because of events out of your control Sean like Xavier’s outlaw status, SHIELD repossessing the mansion, and like Monet’s disappearance. I refuse to believe she’s gone for good. If Emplate can come back time after time from wherever he dragged Monet then surely she can do the same. She’s a smart lass…
I could really use a drink right about now. Need to get my mind on other things.
“How are Paige and Gil?” I asked to no one in particular. Fury was busy absorbed in his work. Instead, I could see clearly as they played the undercover roles they had been given.
“You ordered a number five with onion rings instead of fries and a orange soda. That brings your order to $6.55. Thank you and come again to Nina’s Burgers.”
“Thanks,” The patron smiled as he handed over the ten-dollar bill and took his change. He took the moment to look the girl taking his order up and down. He stopped and glanced at her nametag. “Joelle. Say, what time do you get off? Maybe me and you can walk around the mall for a bit.”
She smiled back politely but easily brushed off his advances. “Thanks but no thanks babe.”
Rejected, the man walked away order in hand while the man at the register next to Joelle’s began laughing under his breath. “Damn Paige, did you really have to do him like that?”
“Oh hush Gil.” Paige whispered in response struggling to hide her own laughter. She shut her register down and headed to the back.
Gil followed suit and went to the back, away from the eyes of prying customers. “You alright Paige. I was just kidding about old dude up there. If you wanna kick it before we save the world that fine with me. Fury on the other hand….”
“No, of course not. It’s just that I’m feeling a lil nervous about all this. I can fight Emplate, Prime Sentinels, hell even Juggernaut, but trying to stop a domestic terrorist gives me the jitters. I can’t help but think about what if we mess up. And then I look at you . . .”
Gil gave himself a glance over in the nearest mirror. “I know you like to Paige, but I don’t wanna break up a happy home.” He laughed aloud, but received no similar response from Paige. “Sorry. Continue.”
“You’re brand new to this world, but you’ve held your own so well against everything that’s been thrown at us. Hell, you’ve been chopped up and given new powers and that still hasn’t stopped you. Everything’s just so different right now.”
By now Paige was on the edge of tears, and Gil was freaking out. Where he came from some of the chicks were worst than the guys. They didn’t shed tears. They fought, sold drugs, stole, and generally were some of the toughest girls you would find anywhere.
“We’ve spent these past couple of months together chica, but you couldn’t be any more wrong about me. I get just as nervous as you, if not more, I just hide it better. Growing up where me and Angelo grew up you couldn’t be nervous or scared. The moment you showed any sign of weakness you could lose your life. And taking a look around not much has changed.”
Paige reached out and grabbed Gil around the waist giving him a tight hug. “Thanks Gil. I needed that.”
“Um, Jono isn’t going to blow my head off or anything?”
The Kentucky native chuckled under her breath and released her hold on the team’s second Espinoza.
“Espinoza and Guthrie, we have action on the first floor,” Daisy interrupted over the radio. “Starsmore and Ange need backup. I’ll cover crowd control.”
“That’s our cue chica. Lets go.”
Chaos erupted on the first floor of the mall. People ran in all directions but at center of it all stood three mutants.
“Look hombre, you don’t want to do this. Think about how many people are going to be hurt if you go through with this.”
Any attempts to defuse the situation fell on deaf ears as the person the group was there to stop ripped his jacket open revealing a home made bomb strapped to his chest and a detonators in each hand.
“Wow. This just got a lot worse.”
Too many things happened at once for Jono or Ange to keep up. Screams erupted over the radio from Sean to get their asses out of their and from Fury to put the man down before any one was hurt. At the same time Gil and Paige arrived in the opposite direction, yards behind the wannabe suicide bomber. Taken by surprise by the arrival of two more people, the bomber’s thumbs rested above the detonators ready to take them all out with the press of a button.
“Take him out Starsmore! Now!”
A psionic blast erupted and struck the bomber. He froze as the part of his brain that controlled motor function was paralyzed.
The group of mutants crowded around the incapacitated bomber. Paige leaned over and pulled a pair of scissors from underneath her Nina’s Burgers uniform. With a few radio lead, precision cuts the bomb was defused and pulled off him.
“Wait a minute, I know this guy.” Paige exclaimed. “He hit on me while we were stationed upstairs.”
“You just have the best luck with boyfriends, huh chica?” Angelo joked. Paige shot daggers at Angelo and Jono elbowed him in side in response to the joke but Gil chuckled. “At least someone finds me funny.” He mumbled to himself.
“This doesn’t make any sense,” Paige continued, “He was just upstairs. We were barely able to make it down here in time. How was he able to move so fast?”
“Everyone, we have a problem. I just got word from Fury and Cassidy, we’re dealing with a duplicator; someone who can make copies of himself. What we have here is a dupe. Our eyes and ears upstairs are reporting the original escaped with the crowd. Ange, Starsmore, grab him and bring ‘im on in.. Oh yeah, Starsmore, Fury is going to have your ass when we get back.”
“So Fury, what now? Is that one for the good guys?” I asked, my face a blank page of any discernable emotion.
“I know what you’re getting at Sean. Spare me. Who knows how many lives we saved today - mutant and human. It still may rub you wrong way what we’re doing here, but they aren’t your students anymore and they’re doing a lot more good working for us than they ever did for Xavier. Get over it.”
Fury ripped his comm. link off his ear and left the room leaving Sean in stunned silence. There would be meetings after meeting, briefing after briefing and more intel than he could handle as a result of this. A homegrown, possibly mutant, terrorist that was working by himself and almost succeeded. He almost set off a bomb in the biggest mall in the U.S.
Maybe Fury was right. As Generation X, Emma and I taught the students how to effectively use their powers, but what did they do to further Xavier’s dream? The answer is nothing and I know it. They were too busy fighting the demons of our past to deal, Emma’s connections with Dark Beast and my own twisted family, to face what the future was throwing our way. We couldn’t run from it anymore now. It was at our doorstop and X-Force would be right there to deal with it.
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NEXT ISSUE: X-Force and Fury sit down to discuss the ramifications of their first mission and things don’t look too good for Jono. Also, Daisy Johnson has a bone to pick with Angelo. All this and more in “Roundtable”