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Issue #1 |
"Roundtable" Written By Brian Hamilton |
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“Take a seat Cassidy.”
Sean did as told and took a seat in front of Fury’s desk. He never imagined the man behind S.H.I.E.L.D. behind a desk, but then he thought back to the life he led as an inspector for Interpol and even after that as a member of the X-Men and how his former students in Generation X saw him in everything from a suit and tie, to his field uniform, and behind a desk grading papers.
“You needed to talk?” Sean asked knowing already what Fury wanted. Yesterday was X-Force’s first “mission” of sorts. It was simple. S.H.I.E.L.D.’s intel had caught wind of a domestic terrorists organizations planned attack on the biggest indoor mall in the U.S.: The Mall of America. Their job was to stop the attack with as little noise as possible. Needless to say, they failed.
“Dammit Cassidy I didn’t call you in here for my health! Do you have any idea how much clean up we have to do because of that little fuck up? Four mutants trained by an Interpol inspector and a former white queen of the Hellfire Club and they can’t stop one suicide bomber? How-”
Fury’s tirade was interrupted and drowned out by Sean’s own vocal explosion.
“Listen closely Fury! Emma and I were teaching them how to live with their powers! Not play your little spy games!”
A chuckle escaped Fury’s lips at Sean’s ignorance. “How many times are you going to tell yourself that before you finally believe it? The intel from Xavier’s and even at the Westchester school indicates you did more fighting than teaching. Emplate, Bastion, Juggernaut, Cordelia Frost, and even your own cousin!”
As much as he wanted to stay angry, Sean’s body language changed, his fist unclenched and the vain in his neck calmed, as Fury’s point sank in. Teaching had taken second place in Westchester and even back in Ireland.
“Now, do you have any other points you want to raise so that I can shoot them down?”
Nothing. Silence.
“I thought so.” Fury stood from behind his desk placing a folder of papers underneath his arm as he made his way to the door. “Round everyone up and meet me downstairs in the lowest level War Room in ten. This is an argument we all need to have out.”
The cold, metal doors to Fury’s office slid shut upon his exit leaving Sean by himself. He let out a heavy sigh as he ran a hand through his red blonde hair. “What ‘ave I gotten us into?”
It was supposed to be a pretty simple mission but our first mission didn’t turn out as planned.
“…look at all the fucking intel….”
I normally don’t zone out, but at this point ah did again. I pride myself in having a longer attention span than Angelo, but there’s just something about lectures that don’t do it for me.
After our mission I had already began familiarizing herself with the S.H.I.E.L.D. computers. While they had almost no intel on the duplicator, only his name David Riley, they had plenty on his mission. He was a homegrown terrorist and he simply wanted to create an atmosphere of fear like every other terrorist. Beyond that is when the intel started contradicting itself. Hargadine had set up multiple web sites to recruit for his ‘cause’ but each one was different. He left multiple trails to find him, but there were so many keeping track of the differences between the reals and the fakes was taking up most of my time.
“…Starsmore you pussy….”
Then there was Jono. Given the nature of his powers his mission was the simplest of all. Keep a telepathic ‘ear’ open for Riley and once he found him knock him out. Things didn’t exactly go that way. That’s when ah tuned back into the argument.
“I’m not going to just scan the thoughts of an entire mall of people to find one person!” Jono’s thoughts were broadcast into the minds of everyone present at the table with the same ferocity if he had said them out loud. “Beside, Gil synched up with me and was able to take him out. What does it matter?”
Fury calmed down to collect his thoughts and spoke with slow deliberation. “Starsmore, we’re talking about the lives of thousands here! What if he had set off the bomb before Gil acted?”
“And I’m talkin’ about the ethics of telepathy. If I did that what makes me better than Xavier?”
At the mention of Xavier, any semblance of control Fury was still maintaining was lost. “This isn’t the boy scouts anymore! I hate to break it to you but the lives of the people in that mall out weigh the ethics of reading minds without permission.”
Ah turned to face Sean who was sitting to the right of Fury and hadn’t made a sound since we sat down. “Sean, can you back Jono up here? He has a point.”
It was then that ah noticed it. Working for S.H.I.E.L.D. was affecting all of us differently, but while Sean seemed to handle it he had actually been doing the worse.
“Fury’s right Paige.” He sighed and stood up from his seat at the table before continuing, “Ethics wasn’t our concern. It was keeping those people safe and doing it discreetly. Now if you’ll excuse me I need a drink.”
To Sean, Xavier was a friend but more importantly a mentor. If ah was in his shoes, would I react differently? If the man who taught me everything about the X-Men and how to use my powers was at the top of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s most wanted list would ah be all smiles? Instead of dealing with it on my own terms back home in Kentucky I had to suppress how ah felt about it because my charges were training to be super spies, a life I left years ago.
Everything Sean worked for had changed beyond his control leaving him a shell of his former self. It all started off so simple, but things change. Ah was empathetic. I would need a drink also.
“The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” ah muttered to myself.
Fury heard and signaled in on me. “Guthrie and Espinosa, how the hell did you miss Riley? He was right in your face…”
That’s when ah zoned out again.
A clear vial of a silvery liquid came down with a thud on the table. Daisy Johnson walked around behind the table and took a seat the mystery vial resting between her and Angelo Espinosa. “No. Should I?”
“Its MGH. Mutant growth hormone. It’s a designer drug that when taken gives the user mutant abilities. They’re a pill form, but when taken intravenously the effects of the drug take place almost immediately. ”
Angelo picked the vial up, looking it over. “That’s good and everything chica but why do I care? I’ve got powers. I’m not looking for more. What do I care that some spoiled kids from the suburbs can pay to be a mutant for an hour?”
“Because, X- smart ass, for one its addictive and destroying lives. Secondly, to make MGH it has to be filtered from an active gene. Someone out there is kidnapping mutants, torturing them, and using them to make a drug ten times more addictive than heroin. And you are going to stop them.”
His ears perked up at the last sentence. “Me? As in by myself. With no backup?”
“Not exactly. I’ll be leading a group in the field to pull you out if anything does south. Guthrie will be running things from here. You’ll be covered from all sides.
Daisy’s finger danced over the keyboard built into the desk and floating a few inches above it a holographic map of the continental U.S. popped up. A single star lit up in the mid-west. She continued, “Last week three cops were killed in Chicago during a bank robbery. Their murderers were using MGH at the time. That’s where you’ll be going. A major MGH factor is making moves in Chicago and we have reason to believe its not stopping there. Imagine if it hit a major city like New York and every common criminal can rip car doors off or stop bullets. We need an inside man for when we finally have an opportunity to take these guys down.”
Angelo was silent as the severity of the situation dawned on him. “Guess I don’t have much of a say in the manner, huh?”
“Not really, no. No one is going to believe that a Kentucky blond or some leather clad English boy with a volcano for a mouth is in the market for MGH. You’ve been getting better at using your extra skin for shape shifting. You’re the best man for this one.”
Daisy reached underneath the desk and pulled out a plain manila folder from one of the drawers. “Besides, you owe me. I pulled your cousin’s records from L.A. He was involved in some heavy stuff. Selling drugs, extortion, gang banging. I know you probably don’t want to admit it, but getting involved with Cassidy may have been the best thing that happened to him. People involved in that life rarely live to see twenty-one.”
“Yeah, cuz us X’s live to see so much longer.” Ange muttered under his breath. He shook his head in an attempt to recollect his thoughts. No point in getting distracted by the thought of his cousin’s possible death when he would soon be going undercover and facing his own. He stood from his seat and made his way for the door. “When are we headed out?”
“We’re waiting until tomorrow. There’s a big operation moving out today and we don’t want any wires getting crossed.”
“What big operation?”
“Well if I told you I’d have to kill you.”
Ange paused on his way out, confused about weather to chuckle or take his curvy superior seriously. He landed somewhere in the middle. “Heh. Right.”
Daisy laughed, walking to the door of the war room. The two mutants stopped at the door, her laughter slowly subsiding and his nervous chuckle turning into the real thing.
“I don’t know why I deal with you.” Ange said, smiling from ear to ear.
Daisy grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him closer, their lips inches from each other. “Oh yeah you do, but it’s nothing to remind you.” She placed her soft lips on his stealing a kiss. The moment between the two over, they left, the briefing over, back into the life of a bustling hellicarrier under the guise of teammates and nothing more.
The two men were a living exercise in dichotomy. Both were rich, one significantly more than the other, but came about their resources through vastly different means. The businessman held position after position of power, slowly climbing the corporate ladder until he amassed millions. His ascension stopped with his most recent position: ambassador to the country of Monaco. It wasn’t a “paid” position in the typical sense of the word, but his millions were carefully watched over by a team of accountants and stockbrokers; slowly amassing tucked away in the European Stock market.
He had a family in Monaco. A son, three daughters, two of them twins, and a wonderful wife. His lived the perfect life until it collapsed around him. His wife was murdered at the hands of his son and his daughters disappeared to the states. Any semblance of order his life seemed to take after that did not last for long. His daughters were in and out of his life after that and when they finally stayed brought along with them three more young mutants for him to take care of. They were adopted into his family and he loved them like they were his own. Everything was normal as normal got for him.
The ambassador’s story didn’t stop there, but the man sitting opposite him was less concerned with his past and more concerned with his money. He wanted a piece of it and was willing to do whatever for it…as long as the price was right. But first, he had some questions of his own.
“So, Mr. St. Croix, if you don’t mind me asking, but how exactly did you hear about me. I tend to work in more underground circles. What kind of problems could a man of your status have that he couldn’t throw high paid lawyers at?”
Cartier St. Croix sighed, hoping to avoid all this and cut straight to business, but he couldn’t fault the mercenary for his questions.
“You’d be surprised the kind of activities politicians and businessmen get involved in Mr. Denning. Your name comes highly recommended by some of Europe’s richest because of your bodyguard, spy, and mercenary work along with your ability to keep a, but his laughter was met with a cold stare from across the table. He awkwardly straightened up and cleared his throat. “Continue.”
“Three months ago a man came to me in my darkest hour with a proposal. He said he would rescue my children from an anti-mutant terrorist group in exchange for a favor. He came through on his promise. The children being held hostage were safely returned, but my eldest daughter disappeared.”
“Let me guess, and you want him dead. I may be a gun for hire but I’m not killer.”
“You misinterpret my request. My part of the deal was that I would keep his name and the name of the people who rescued my children out of the media. He needed me to pull any and all the strings I could to keep the operation a secret.”
The mercenary adjusted in his seat. “Well, did you?”
“ I did.”
“Well if you don’t want him dead what do you need a man of my talents?”
“Because Mr. Denning-”
“Look stop with the Mr. Denning stuff.” The man interrupted. “Paladin works just fine.”
“Because Paladin, this man and people like him constantly put the lives of children at risk for their own needs. I want him and whatever operation he’s using the kids who rescued my children for stopped. I believe he’s still up to something or he wouldn’t have asked for me keep their rescue efforts hidden.”
Paladin’s mind raced through the information he had been presented to him. A short but not so simple case of revenge. Nothing he hadn’t done before and the ambassador was loaded enough.
“I had a hard time finding any leads for you to follow, but something popped up in the news that caught my attention.” Cartier continued. He pushed a pile of pictures and as much information as he had been able to retrieve toward the purple clad mercenary. “A terrorist attempt at a shopping mall in the states that was stopped, by the eyewitness’ accounts’, a teenage super group.”
“That’s not that hard to believe. There’s enough of them out there why wouldn’t there be on in Minnesota?”
“Their descriptions match the same teenagers who rescued my family. In fact, I believe you may even have a past with them.”
“Yeah yeah. Stretchy boy, diamond girl, rainbow kid. I did some work for one of their headmasters.” Paladin stopped as he reached the last picture. It was a simple black and white video still taken from the ambassador’s security cameras. He instantly recognized the man in the picture. The blue jumpsuit, graying hair, eye patch.
“Good, then you won’t have any problems. Nick Fury needs to be stopped before he destroys anymore innocent lives.”
TO BE CONTINUED: Angelo goes on his first solo mission with devastating results. Meanwhile, Jono and Gil chat it up and Paladin’s runs into some figures from Generation X’s past that are more than willing to help take down X-Force.
