Soldier X #6 - Hunting Season

He looked out of the window, staring at the world. Carl Denti, Director H of the NSA, former FBI agent and once known as the Executioner mused on the way things had changed, and how much his work was threatened.

It had been several months since the death of the Tsar, and in that time the team of Soldier X had been hunting the Illuminati, trying to find out more about them, their organisation and what their true intents were. There had been pockets of their forces across America, but every time they had been on the verge of finding something out, their suspects had been assassinated. It was a source of frustration to the team, especially Director H, who wanted the Illuminati stopped.

They were the biggest single threat to the world in living memory, and he would see the Illuminati destroyed, and things were going so well. The battle with the Tsar had gone well, with the Russian mutant being killed and that meant the Illuminati had been crippled, but it was as if a new figure was manipulating things. To their credit Soldier X had worked hard, but so far they had nothing and then the unimaginable had occurred.

The world had gone to hell in a hand-basket with the attacks from the Sons of Set and Hydra and once those threats had been dealt with NSA resources had been redistributed and Soldier X had been given a less of a priority. The world was a different place, and it had not made their task easier. The Illuminati seemed to have gone in to hiding and the leads had dried up and after a month of searching, they had been put on to other assignments until twenty four hours ago, they had been given instructions from Director H and now they were in China.

There was a rumour that there were two leaders of the Illuminati based there and they had gone over to see what they could find - and it had taken some doing to get a hold of that information, but the NSA was nothing if not inventive. If they could make some headway there, then perhaps the Solider X project would get renewed funding, as it was in danger of being shut down. The President was more in favour of using the services of SHIELD, as they had played a major part in saving the country from Hydra, much to Director H's irritation. He did not think too highly of SHIELD, or their Director. The fact that Forge was dead and had been replaced by a computer programme that was running the group with an exceptional hand was also something else.

That the United Nations had ceded control to it was amazing to comprehend, but they had been tricked, but with the restructuring after the betrayal by the Secretary General they had other concerns and Genesis was the least of their concerns. Did nobody remember the problems that had been created by the Vision when the Avenger had decided it knew better than anyone else? This was the chance that the NSA needed to show the President that the NSA was as good if not better than SHIELD.

It all came down to the Soldier X team, whether they could achieve what he had failed to do as the Executioner - to punish those rogue mutants and terrorists. It all came down to this, and he was damned sure he wasn't going to fail.

"I don't believe this," he said, looking at his partner as the Soldier X unit went through China, making waves and taking out the Illuminati strongholds. "We're so bloody close to finishing this and now these wankers are going to ruin everything. One month's stake-out, getting in to the organisation, setting things up and now these... Who the hell are these people?"

"We're working on it. We know one of them is Madelyne Pryor and it's going to be pretty simple tracking her down."

He sighed. "Get word to our people, tell them we're going to deal with these tossers. Let them inform their bosses in the Illuminati, because if we're going to bring these people down, then we need to make sure that these idiots don't ruin it all."

"Good plan." She looked at him. "What else?"

"They're mutants going after international criminals. Some git has ripped us off and they've done it badly. We've had enough knocks to our rep, and I sure as hell don't want anyone thinking that it's us doing this..."

"We'll have got their attention," said William Bourne as he opened a bottle of beer. They were using a former stronghold of the villain known as the Yellow Claw, though the villain had not been heard of since the battle between Godzilla, Moloch and Fin Fang Foom. "First the Tsar, then their ops in the States... You know they're gonna strike back."

"So we wait," said Maddie. "We made enough noise to get their attention and we know that if there is something a grand-scale planner dislikes - it is disruption to his plans." Her mind went to Sinister, the man who had created her, cloned her from the cells of Jean Grey. She had witnessed first hand that he did not like his plans being interrupted. "It won't be long before he sends some of his cronies to investigate - then we capture, interrogate and then we'll smash the Illuminati."

"It all sounds so easy," said Vector, as he dealt the hand of cards they were playing. "If Black Air taught me anything it's rare that things are that easy."

"Which is why the Bashem Brothers are outside," said Galatea, checking her two cards. The Bashem Brothers was the collective nickname for the four NSA agents that were keeping an eye on them for Director H. Papovich, Tenku, Harris and Manning were ghosts, trained to be expert in this kind of thing and even the team had a hard time shaking them. Right now they were outside, patrolling the perimeter of the compound. "They'll know what's going on before we do." She put down her chips. "Raise twenty." There was a no powers rule for the game, so that meant no telepathy, no super speed, or using the sixth sense.

"Interesting cards, bud," said Whisper, as he checked his cards and then tossed them away. "You keep dealing like this, we'd better get some action soon."

"Get stuffed," O'Hare growled at him and Whisper smiled. Velocity shook his head as he too threw his cards away. There was no point playing with the hand he'd been given and Enigma followed suit, but Maddie shook her head.

"Call," she said and O'Hare smiled.

"Maddie and Galatea head to head," he said. "Let's see what's the flop gives us." There was something relaxing about playing poker before a big battle...

"Wish we were in there," said Tenku. "I could do with taking some money from the children." Harris chuckled and checked his comm device.

"Radio check."

"Loud and clear," came Manning's voice. "No ghosts so far."

"The night's young," said Tenku. "Not exactly secret operations, but then again, we might get lucky - they might think we're SHIELD."

"Nah, we're not that incompetent," Manning answered and Harris chuckled.

"Figures that Pete Wisdom would hook up with them, he always one of the biggest jokes in British Intelligence."

"That's enough chatter," Papovich said. "Check again in twenty. Out." There was an audible click.

"What's his problem?" said Tenku. "The Ruskie's not usually that abrupt..."

"You're about to find out," said a female voice and a fist came out of nowhere sending the Aisan to the floor, but as he fell back, he put his arms down and pushed himself back up, using a spin kick to swipe at his attacker and at the range he was at there was no way he could miss the target.

"I don't know who you are but you just made a mistake," he said. "I was trained by a master of the Si-Fan."

"And I was trained by a man who's kicked more Si-Fan butt than anyone else." The girl still stood there as if his kick had gone right through her and in that moment of hesitation she lashed out, striking him in the face with the hell of her hand and Tenku fell to the floor as if he'd been struck with a bat and he didn't move.

Harris was also having a problem as someone had grabbed his legs with something and yanked him down to the floor and his hands had been bound as well. Whatever was holding him burnt like nothing else he had experienced and now he was getting a kicking from his attacker.

"Who's laughing now, tosser?" he said and Harris realised just who was attacking him, but before he could call it in, he lost consciousness as a heavy boot slammed in to his forehead.

"They just don't make NSA agents like they used to," he said to his partner before lighting a cigarette.

"The other two have been subdued," she said. "Guess it's time for the main event."

"And remember, if it starts to get tough, hang back," he said. "Bad enough you said you were coming..." She shook her head. She'd made a decision that she knew he wasn't going to like, but now wasn't the time.

"Understood," she said and he stubbed the cigarette out and he called the rest of the strike force.

"Take 'em down."

"Something's wrong…" said O'Hare said, his sixth sense flaring. It never reacted this way unless there was a serious, serious problem and he stood up as did the others.

"How have the Bashem's not told us?" said Bourne.

"Maybe they can't," said Madelyne. "Get ready, I think we're about to have company…" Soldier X prepared, the card game abandoned and then they came through the door, a military unit working together - six people working as a team and Madelyne realised this wasn't the people they were expecting. This was X-Force, which meant they had gotten involved in a SHIELD operation. That meant the whole mission was blown and now they had been discovered. Director H was not going to be happy about this, but there was no way they could have known. "Don't…" she started to say, but the team saw an enemy and did not hear her and they went to work…

"Peter Wisdom," said Erin O'Hare. The two former Black Air agents looked at each other. "Guess we're going to do this."

"Oh yeah," said Pete and punched him in the gut. "That I owe you for Sheffield." Then O'Hare slammed his fist in to Wisdom's chin

"And that I owed you for Bristol…" The two agents then continued to fight, trading punches and kicks as the two of them showed exactly how and why Black Air had trained them.

"Is there anyone that actually likes him outside of us?" Shadowcat said to Lydia Del Ruiz as they took on their own opponents.

"I don't think so," she said, as she took on Galatea who had turned to herself in to her organic rock form and the banter was forgotten as Galatea swung her might fist towards her, but the woman known as the Shadow moved out of her way.

Her strength was also her weakness as she was slower than Lydia was, though she also seemed a little sluggish, as if an old wound was not coping as well with the cold temperature, but she was an agent of SHIELD and she was prepared for some kind of pain and Kelly LeStraude knew she would have to be able to land a blow if she wanted to stop the woman who was attacking her. Even though she was organic rock, Del Ruiz was using her powers to keep her off guard, off balance and it was keeping her busy. The NSA training was good, but was it as good as the training given by SHIELD? They'd soon know and she allowed herself a quick glance to where Whisper was being confounded by Shadowcat.

His gravity powers were very effective and they had proven decisive in dealing with the Tsar, but Shadowcat's intangibility was making her lighter than air and he couldn't stop her from striking her, but after she had gotten in a couple of serious hits, he had gotten wise and he was ensuring that when she solidified to attack, he altered the gravity, making sure she had to stay in a phased state. If she stayed like that, she couldn't hit him, but it would only work if he kept his concentration on her.

Galatea considered this and it all came down to training. Was he as good as he thought he was? Were any of them?

"You'll not stop us," Bourne said, as he turned back the bio-kinetic blast that had been thrown by Maverick, who rolled and ducked under it, ploughing his head in to the man's gut, knocking him to the floor.

"Son," said Maverick, "I've been fighting idiots like you for a long time, and I hear it every time."

"We're the new class," said Bourne. "It's time you were taught a lesson!"

"Learn this first," said Maverick, channelling his energy in to his fists and slamming his fists in to the Hurricane of Potential and William Bourne suddenly knew he was in a fight, and he could feel the taste of salt in his mouth.

"Let's go then," the Hurricane said and the two of them started to fight each other, using their strength against each other and Velocity shook his head as he watched.

That was what it was a big free for all between two teams of supposed heroes and then he began to slow down and he couldn't run as quickly. In fact he could stand up and he looked up to see a young woman there, or at least that was what he thought - he could see an outline of three women and there was something wrong with him. It was an attack on some kind and if he had to guess it meant that he was under a sonic attack, because there was something wrong with his balance. Without that all his super speed was useless and he gripped his head as pain spread around it. It was like a migraine but there was nothing he could do and he was annoyed at being taken out as easily as he had been. Even Enigma was holding her own against the team's telepath who was taking on both Enigma and Madelyne Pryor as well, or that was what it looked like.

In reality, it was something different

~Call this off!~ she was saying. ~It doesn't have to be like this. We don't have to fight~

~Your people started it, ma'am~ Raven replied. ~Ah'm trying to keep your girl from hurting herself by attacking me. If you can't control them, we're going to have to~

~I surrender on our behalf~ This was not the way she wanted to redeem herself. ~Just bring this to an end~

~I'll pass the word~ said Marcus, ~but we've instructions to take you down. Soldier X is closed down, by authority of SHIELD~

~Can they do that?~ Madelyne said.

"We just have," Wisdom said. O'Hare was down, beaten and Galatea had fallen and she wasn't moving as Lydia had her covered with her pistol, the look in the woman's eye telling her she was prepared to use it. Velocity was throwing up from the sonic attack and Whisper was keeping Shadowcat at bay until Pete shot his leg with a hot knife and he fell over, pain shooting through him.

"I had him," Kate said.

"And I am not risking the baby," Pete said, then looked at Maverick. "Davey, stop pissing about and hit him!" Then both the Hurricane of Potential and Maverick were thrown to the floor as the wall exploded and as the dust cleared the two teams could see a squadron of troops enter, along with two figures. "Oh, fucking terrific…" Pete muttered, recognising them. "There's no way this is going to end well," Wisdom muttered.

"Agents of SHIELD, surrender now. You are now prisoners of the Mandarin."

TO BE CONTINUED IN X-FORCE #40