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Issue #9 |
Written By Tom Moses |
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The night passes as though no one could ever stop the day from coming anew. The morning is far from early, nearly spilling into the afternoon, though it feels much earlier to a man waking due to a counsel with a good friend lasting well into the nighttime hours of the morning. Adding to a discomfort of being partially awake and tired, the sound of a telephone doesn't want to stop.
"Hello." stumbling to the phone, the sleep deprived Bobby Drake answers with a yawn.
"Are you going to sleep the day away or what?" a hyperactive voice belonging to a woman instantly registering in Drakes mind as important asks.
He attempts to rub the sleep from his eyes, "Zel, I thought you were going to call later?"
"It's twelve thirty in the afternoon Bobby," he could almost hear the interrupted sound of laughter Zelda Clarke tried to suppress. "Come on Bobby, get up and take me somewhere, I'm bored."
With a move that could very well shock many that knew him, Drake jumped from the bed with the girls' invitation. The attempt at restarting their childhood relationship going much better than he'd planned at this point, "And where should I take you, lady so fare?"
The laughter almost begins anew from the opposite side of the phone, "I know Hank is your friend and all, but his vocabulary doesn't suit you Bobby."
"Are you kidding? Here I was actually trying to form coherent sentences and I get blasted for it? Go figure," he mused, as he pulled clothing from his dresser in frenzy. "By the way, what's my time limit to get there before I get replaced?"
"Should I give you the benefit of the doubt that I woke you up?"
"Most would have much more trouble than you to make me get out of bed." Drake said
".How does an hour sound?"
Drake smirked from behind the receiver; "I'll see you in forty-five minutes then." Using the sentence as a departure from the phone he grabs a towel making way to the shower connected to his room. Turning the water on, without the slightest worry of adjusting for temperature, the usually socially inept mutant began to think of the prospects of his day as he stepped into the shower.
The fire burned well into the day before it could extinguish itself. Shiro takes swift control of the area, the government officer places the site under armed guard with efficiency difficult to duplicate. As one of the few mutant division officers of the Japanese Self Defense force, Shiro Yoshida deems the site as government sensitive, preventing anyone from entering. The investigation crew would be on scene in a matter of hours, though he had questions of his own to answer. From a borrowed cellular telephone, he dials a number he hoped he'd never have to. A safe enough distance away from stray listeners the voice answering the other end is only slightly memorable.
"Xavier's School for the Gifted, this is Alex."
"I'd like to speak with Xavier or Cyclops." Shiro spoke with urgency almost confused with rudeness.
"I'm sorry, I think you have reached the wrong number." Havok tried to sway the unrecognized voice.
Annoyed with the secrecy Shiro tries once again, "My name is Shiro Yoshida, I'm an ally of the X-Men," he tells Alex with a shortness returning to his voice. "I want to talk to their leader - Summers I think his name is - now."
"Sunfire?" Havok asks, placing the voice in a vaguely placed memory. "This is Havok; I've assumed command for the temporary."
"Fine, Fine, I don't care who is in charge Havok." Shiro interrupts. "But I think you need to find your way to Osaka, Japan, Havok. Preferably within the next few hours, apparently you've lost a complex in an explosion."
"Sunfire you know as well as I do, we do not have any 'complexes' in Japan."
"Then you're going to want to be here a lot sooner than." Yoshida continues, "It seems a scientific site with your trademark will be a point of scrutiny very soon."
Havok's eyes grow wide, frantically he searches for pen and paper over the disorganized desk. "I'll assemble a group just tell me where to go."
"It's called the Osaka Mountain Research Facility." Shiro spells out; his English perfect though his accent thick. "I'll do what I can in accordance with my agreement with Xavier, but do keep in mind I cannot keep a governmental inspection team at bay for very long."
The phone dies without warning, though Havok expected just as much from the caller. Pressing an intercom button with a bold letter 'H' embroidered upon it, Alex Summers doesn't wait for much of an answer from the furred mutant to which it belongs. "Hank, I need you ready to go in less than five minutes. Bring what you need to investigate an explosion site and bring Cecilia to the War Room immediately."
Thinking for a moment on which mutant to reach to next, Alex is interrupted by a monotone voice behind him, "Why does Henry need a forensics box?"
Alex turns to face the wheelchair bound Charles Xavier, "There's been an explosion at a facility with our namesake in Japan. Shiro reached out with a professional courtesy to let us know about it."
Sensing the trouble behind the words Alex spoke, and without reaching into the young man's mind, "I do not question your reasons Havok. Though I'd like to be aware of things before you are pressed to action."
"I didn't see ample time to let you know before I called a meeting Charles."
"Who do you plan to bring?" The dreamer of coexistence asks.
"Henry and Cecilia are the most necessary," Havok began, "though I'm just making random calls to make everyone aware of a possible situation before I choose a team."
"Why those two?" Xavier asks flatly.
"What's with all the questions Charles?" Havok nearly accuses the man, "What is it you don't trust about me?"
"This is your arena Alex; you can do as you wish."
Alex stares into the brown eyes of the bald telepath. Running his hand through his hair, he sighs, "Professor, I'm not Scott. Either you let me do things my way without any interference, or find someone else."
Xavier's eyebrows scowl at the insubordination present in the voice of the younger Summers. "I don't see where you're acquiring this situation Alex."
Alex pinches the bridge of his nose, shaking his head at the memories of leadership from a past time. "I'm sorry Professor, Val often got in my way without making it very obvious a lot of times. Not to mention I'm a little more used to things going my way from the beginning due to my recent 'experiences.'
"All that is well and good Alex, but be aware that I am accustomed to being told of matters before anyone is assembled in any meeting." Xavier instructs the new leader.
Havok smirks at Xavier's words. "Well it looks as though we're going to have to get used to a lot of changes around here then Charles." Havok turns to walk to the elevator to take them to the lower levels of the mansion. "Care to join me in the War Room Professor?"
A crowd is gathered some minutes after they should have arrived. Several stories below the planet's surface, a meeting as typical as waking in the morning most days begins to take form. All the familiar faces stand in their familiar places, all somewhat creatures of habit over the years. The Winged man stands against a far wall placing him slightly outside the group, though not far from the cold metal table. A crouching man covered in blue fur sits in conversation with the white-haired goddess of a woman beside him. One face easily seen as not at ease in the room sits silently as Cecelia Reyes tries to ignore the spurts of conversation Jamie Madrox tries to engage her in. Though the topics of conversation all come to a halt as the newest leader and the vastly important telepath enter the room.
Alex Summers is not a stranger to the concept of leadership, though most of the experience shared by the rooms occupancy gives the role of his title a much more difficult situation than he could have thought of. Immediately walking into the room he takes his headcount to ensure everyone is present, coming upon a discrepancy right off. "Drake is apparently too good to show for this?"
"Our wayward snowman had another engagement to attend before this meeting become of precedence." Henry McCoy chimes in defense of his friend. "He wasn't present at the time of your call to arms."
Alex rolls his eyes at the long-winded doctor. "Good enough. Warren fill him in if he decides to show up sometime today." Alex said, pointing to the winged man. "Beast, Jamie, Ororo, and Cecelia, our presence is required in Japan post haste. I received a call from Shiro Yoshida not even fifteen minutes ago; there has been an incident in Osaka Japan that could be an interesting lead to follow up."
The group remains silent as they accept the fact they must leave quickly, an incident not uncommon. The sound of movement from one member of the group stands out from the rest, heads all turning to the originator of the noise. "I'm not going," Cecilia said, standing from her seat. "I thought I made this clear? No 'missions,' No fighting, and especially no expectations on filling anything more than a medical role I was brought in to provide."
Caught off guard by her statements, "Cecelia, you're expertise is a needed factor, I assure you this is only an investigative matter. The way Sunfire pressed the ordeal over the phone proved to me that your talents would be indispensable in the field."
The doctor stares around the room at the individual faces giving their own looks of disapproval mixed with their understanding. "Then assure me right now that my abilities aren't to use for defense maneuvers or some nonsense that you can conjure up Summers, convince me you only want to use my medical expertise and not the force field I generate."
"Doctor Reyes. If you would have watched the early report this morning, instead of Hannity and Colmes, you would be aware of the situation and the death toll that continues to rise from the ashes of the complex's demise," Henry interjects, his somber voice putting a sense of urgency into the minds of everyone around him. "Sixty-five thus far from burns and more than likely other reasons we can only guess at. Your experience in this matter is far more in depth at the physical level than my own in the typical medical sense; your involvement cannot be overlooked."
Slumping back into her chair with defiance only she could muster, "Just don't make this a habit."
"Okay then." Alex draws out, "That is what little information I have - thank you for explaining Henry - Warren and Bobby will sit back in reserve for the 'just in case' scenario. Suit up, we meet in the hangar in ten minutes."
"So how did everything go last night?" A slender blonde asks the man she lays against. The two sharing a couch in the woman's small apartment, content with their setting regardless of her earlier phone call wishing to be elsewhere.
"Alright I think." Bobby Drake answers her. "I doubt it did any good, but Warren seems to be thinking a little clearer, looks like you are right with these things after all."
Zelda looks into Drake's eyes, "Like there was any doubt?"
"No I don't think there was."
"What's wrong?" Zelda asks, "You seem a little far away, what's on your mind?"
"I'm fine Zel." Bobby tries to assure her, "I guess I'm worried about my friend."
"That was a quick answer, but why do you sound unsure?"
"Oh you know me Zel, always the unsure party." Bobby says, hoping to fend off a round of questioning from his reunited girlfriend.
Zelda sits up, moving her position to Drakes lap. She squeezes his cheeks and pushes his face into hers playfully. "We talked about this back at Harry's, but you're wrong Bobby I don't know this person you've turned into since I saw you last."
His eyes shift from left to right as an opportunity finds him. "I take it then, this relationship has nothing to do with my personality but how great looking I am?" he asks with a smirk. "This is a new twist, defiantly something I could get used to."
She smiles at his humor, though is quick to jar him back to reality with the clap of her hands against his face. "You can come back to earth now, really Bobby in every way that you are the same when we were kids, there is something just really different about you."
"Babe, I don't know what you're trying to get at, but I'm fine."
Zelda sighs, "That's something I've noticed about you the past few days." She says, "You're always fine, from what I remember you were never 'just fine.' You always had that goofy grin on your face, and always cracking jokes. You're still doing all of that, but it's almost like you're trying to force it all to come out. As funny as you are and you used to be, you seem like you're forcing yourself to stay the same though you have changed."
Zelda's words pierce through Bobby's mind, forcing him back to admitting his crush on Warren's recently deceased lover. The memory forcing him further to different memories with the common theme that ate at him since the end of his teenage years. The inadequacy he felt, the many times of uselessness he hid behind his wall of jokes, "Zel, as much as I appreciate the concern, don't worry, I am fine."
"Are you now?" she questions with a mischievous look Bobby once saw in a mirror. She stands from the couch the two share, walking quickly to the door and locking it. "I'm sorry Bobby, but from where I stand 'fine' is not good enough." She remarks as she drops the key down the front of her shirt.
"Oh man, I just got trapped in an apartment with an insanely gorgeous woman.whatever am I to do?" Drake says with his usual tone of sarcasm. "This almost seems like some sort of plot you'd see in porn."
"You've got it all wrong Bobby." Zelda says with a serious look on her face. "This situation guarantees nothing of even a PG rating, unless you start being honest with me, and no disappearing act can save you this time."
An aircraft as dark as night, and as different from anything any country employed in its military arsenal touches down for a strangely gentle V/STOL landing for its size. The aircraft is huge, accommodating the five passengers comfortably, though vastly unimpressive to the Japanese military officer accustomed to the aircraft. Shiro Yoshida stands at the base of the lowered ramp, his arms crossed and a look of agitation painted on his face.
Five individuals step out of the plane one by one, Sunfire pressing through them to find his way to the blond man he instantly recognizes as their new leader. "You people have some serious explaining to do," the armor clad Sunfire accuses his recent arrivals.
"Sunfire, we didn't come halfway around the world to get lectured, I'd like to get this investigation started right away if you don't mind." Havok reverses the Japanese man's lecture, pressing a finger into the shorter man's chest. "Beast, take Cecelia and gather whatever information you find relevant. Shiro, is there any part of this complex at least somewhat undamaged from fire?"
Yoshida points towards the eastern part of the facilities. "Those buildings there, they have mostly structural damage but it was all we could salvage without endangering the residential buildings."
"Take us there." Havok almost orders. "I want to know why you think is this our building."
"X-Force, X-Factor, and Excalibur are all disbanded am I correct?" Sunfire asks.
Alex searches his mind for the correct thing to answer, "I believe so, why?"
"Then name me another organization which uses the letter 'X' as a floor covering."
A wide smile forms on Havok's face, his glances towards the remaining team members accompanying him show a similar sign. "X-Corps," he mutters under his breath.
"Excuse me?"
"It's a long story, we'll fill you in as we go." Alex explains to their longtime ally. "In short, they're a paramilitary group responsible for the death of one of our own."
"I heard of Psyloke's recent parting. My condolences."
"They've reached the site sooner than I anticipated," a man says into the radio at his side.
"How many?"
"Five, additional to Sunfire," the spying man answers. "The animal was expected, the weather witch as well. There is one face I do not recognize and the one barking orders is definitely not Cyclops.they brought the traitor as well."
The man dressed as any other on the street allows the microphone to drop, letting his attention fall on the splitting group of X-Men. "There are too many variables. Wait for reinforcements to arrive and plan your attack according to any information you gather. Headquarters out."
Static once more pollutes the speaker emissions, as the spy shuts the device down. "Happy hunting X-Men, though prepare to depart empty handed."
<To be continued.>
