"Hey, babe," said Pete as he walked down the ramp of the SHIELD transport and Lydia smiled, as the two of them kissed. He'd spent the last few days with the rest of the team recovering, after their adventure with the rogue CSA. The British contingent of the team had done what they could to ensure that Dallas Riordan was safe and now the team was reunited at last.

"You still look like hell," she said, looking at him.

"I've had better weeks," the X-Force commander said with a shrug, as he took off his shades, and she could see the tiredness in his eyes. "Hear you had fun without me."

"Fury took us down with ease," said Marcus as he looked at him. "It wasn't one of our finest moments."

"Have we got anything from Gyrich?" asked Siryn.

"No," said Maverick. "Bastard's keeping his mouth shut, and the CSA whisked him away pretty damn quick after SHIELD took him and his people away." Which was probably a good thing in the long run, because Pete wanted a piece of him so very badly.

"Good job Fury told you about the Hellfire Club," said Kate as she came down behind the others. "We'd have been left with nothing otherwise."

"Yeah," said Pete, thinking that it had been a weight off his mind when they'd found out. He'd thought he'd lost her and it had almost destroyed him inside. Now he was angry that they had put him through that and he was in a serious mood to hit things. "Son of a bitch."

"Chapman?" said Lydia, and Pete nodded. "What's the history between you and the Hellfire Club? You mentioned it before and Brian said it was something to do with Black Air."

"Black Air did more than you know as an organisation. They took the most righteous of heroes and broke them," said Pete as he led them from the sun drenched roof of SHIELD-UK to a conference room a few floors down. "That was why they did what they did with Excalibur. They had plans for the UK."

"Plans?" said Kate as they entered the room and sat down. "What kind of plans?"

"A while back, some stuff went down," said Pete, ignoring the question. "A man called James Jaspers became Prime Minister, and gave orders that all super-heroes were to be rounded up and put in to concentration camps. STRIKE, the British version of SHIELD, did this and quite effectively. Jaspers was quite mad, but he also had the power to warp reality."

"Why didn't we hear about this?" asked Maverick. "This is all new. There was some kind of terrorist thing..."

"No," said Pete. "That was Jaspers. When reality is yours to control, you can do whatever you like, make people see whatever you like. Jaspers was defeated by a combination of Captain Britain, Captain UK and the Fury, and it was because they got lucky. Reality has a way of healing and it fixed itself up. The terrorist story stuck, and there's not many who know the truth. Few even remember the name Sir James Jaspers."

"I do," said Kate. "He was the lead prosecutor in the Magneto trials. But if he was dead..."

"Oh he was dead, alright," said Pete. "That wasn't the original Jaspers. He's a clone, created by Black Air, but they kind of made a mistake."

"They cloned someone who could alter reality," said Siryn. "No 'kind of' about it."

"Oh, he doesn't have his powers," said Pete. "Or at least, he doesn't have the ability to access them, but he did have something and he became the head of Black Air and his original ideal stuck."

"To contain super-humans," said Marcus and Pete nodded.

"The Magneto trials were a test of their creation," said Pete. "To see how many people noticed it was actually him. Nobody did. Not Brian, not Betsy, not anyone involved in those days and they knew that there was something about him, a blind spot. They simply couldn't see him as the man they had known."

"So what does this have to do with the plans for the UK and the Hellfire Club?" asked Kate.

"The Black Air remit was to control the heroes, to ensure they worked for them and if they couldn't to take them down," said Brian. "I was assigned to Excalibur to ensure their co-operation, after they had taken out a family of super-humans."

"Who?"

"A family called Destine," said Pete.

"They met the X-Men," said Kate. "How long after that?"

"Quite soon. That was another reason I was assigned to Excalibur. To make sure you didn't get involved. Course by that time, I was already having my doubts, but it was too late to save them. They didn't get them all, and a few escaped. One of which was Samantha Hasard."

"What else did you stop us doing?" Shadowcat said as she looked at him and Pete shook his head.

"That was it, Kit. After that cam Dream Nails, and that was that. "

"What about the other members of the Hellfire Club?" asked Lydia. "That's the Blue and White Queen."

"Let's see the Fugue, the Red and White Queen. Formerly of Gena-Sys, she was one of the last members of the Tektos strike team, before Black Air went in and shut Gena-Sys down. That was something I was in on and that I enjoyed. They put up one hell of a fight, but in the end it was futile. When Black Air do something, they don't do half-measures, and what Gena-Sys were doing was plain wrong, even by Black Air standards."

"What about the former Union Jack, Joseph Chapman?" said Marcus. "Lydia has a distaste for him, and he seems to hate you as well."

"He will," said Pete with a sigh. "He used to date Romany and he never did like me that much. Liked me even less when I kicked the crap out of him and Scratch smashed his hands with a sledgehammer. Took him months to recover, but even with his stamina and strength he was never going to be Union Jack again. He should have joined Black Air."

"You seem almost proud," said Siryn.

"I was at the time. He was faster and stronger than he and I took him down. He's never forgiven me for it. Plus I always figured he had it coming. Never liked him."

"Which leaves Vortigen Walker."

"Just Vortigen, really," said Pete. "He was one of the Proud Walkers, one of Merlyn's agents from Otherworld, one of the beings that was able to create the pathways between Earth and Otherworld. He fought alongside Brian and the Black Knight against Necromon and the Evil Walkers, but it shattered the pathways between Otherworld and Earth, and Vortigen became the last of the Walkers, the last druid. He was supposed to be in New Camelot, but I remember that he became bored of not having a kingdom of his own and went to see if he could help the world of man."

"What happened to him?" asked Maverick.

"They killed his wolf, broke his staff of power and basically hounded him until he was a broken shell of a man," said Pete. "It was... an intense campaign and they outnumbered him."

"That's sadistic," said Kate.

"Don't I know it," admitted Pete. "There are things Black Air have done, things you should never learn of."

"So how did they come to be the Hellfire Club?" asked Lydia. "As I understood it, Excalibur crushed the British version."

"Black Air was soundly thrashed, but they weren't defeated," said Pete. "Chapman approached Shinobi Shaw to build the Hellfire Club and Shinobi agreed, thinking he could control this lot, but then Sebastian returned and the UK lot were left to their own devices. Chapman took advantage and gathered the Inner Circle as a direct counter to the remnant of Black Air, and to get the upper hand by whatever means possible."

"How do you know that?" asked Marcus.

"I worked for them for a little while, while I was dating Samantha." He looked at Kate who was in shock at all the revelations. "After I left Excalibur."

"So what now?" she asked.

"It seems they've become as big a threat as Black Air," said Lydia. "They are dangerous, manipulative and what they were backing the rogue CSA."

"They've got my sister, and they've screwed SHIELD over," said Pete. "What happens now? We take down the Hellfire Club and get Romany back."

"Cordelia, always a pleasure to my American counterparts." Joseph Chapman looked at the woman on the other end of the videophone.

"Shinobi's dead."

"Of course he is," said Chapman, shaking his head. "I won't believe it until I see his body burned to ash."

"We have it on camera," the White Queen said.

"Like we have the death of his father the first few times," said Chapman. "This is a terrible ruse on the part of the US Inner Circle."

"It's no ruse," snapped Cordelia Frost. "Bishop..."

"Ah," said Chapman. "Now if you'd said that in the first place. I warned Shinobi that messing with him would have consequences."

"As did your little escapade with the Commission. They have Gyrich."

"I know," said Chapman, his face darkening. "I should never have let the fool take charge. I knew he couldn't handle SHIELD."

"So we all make mistakes, Joseph. Will you be attending the funeral?"

"No," said Chapman. "I've better things to do than that."

"Well, I just thought I'd let you know," said Frost and signed off. Chapman closed his eyes. Shinobi, dead? Their little game of one-upmanship over? It was all so dull, however he knew that it would not stay that way for long. His spies had heard that there were rumblings of trouble in the distance. He knew X-Force had gathered in the UK after taking on both Hydra and the rogue CSA and he knew that Wisdom would be looking for his sister. Sooner or later they would be coming here and he stepped outside to brief the rest of the Inner Circle.

Trouble was on it's way and they needed to be ready.

The knock at the door roused Worcester and he hurried to the main entrance.

"May I help you?" he asked as he looked at the two people standing there. He knew them; they had been here before and while he would like nothing better than to slam the door on them, that was not the correct way of doing things.

"Nope," said Wisdom. "Get out of my way. Official SHIELD business."

"Do you have a warrant?" asked Worcester. He knew that SHIELD had protocols to follow as well as other law agencies. Wisdom looked at Agent Del Ruiz and then turned back to Worcester.

"Warrant? Just here." He grabbed Worcester and slammed his head against the door post. "Here's... my... warrant." Worcester staggered and slumped to the floor in a heap.

"Wait for Forge to give us the go, I said," Lydia muttered.

"They know we're coming," said Wisdom as he stepped over Worcester. "Why wait?" Lydia shook her head as they stepped through.

"This is too easy," she said as they looked around the empty hallway.

"Yeah it is," said Pete. "Come out, come out wherever you are." Four Hellfire Club agents came out. "Four of you? That's it?"

"I'm insulted," said Lydia looking at him.

"Terminate mutant intruders," said one of them and the two of them shed their normal forms.

"Prime Sentinels," said Pete, looking at Lydia as they did so. "Now that's more like it." Then they dived out of the way as the four sentinels went to work. Pete fired a hot knife at one and then the other and though the first was struck through it's head, the other seemed to absorb the energy.

"Energy signature registered and adapted," it said.

"I hate these guys," said Pete, knowing he couldn't take a sentinel without his powers. "Lyd..."

"On it," said Lydia and the Shadow leapt at the other Prime Sentinel and started exchanging blows with it. Her powers were at their peak thanks to the sunshine of earlier and that left Pete with the Hellfire goons, who had been content to let the Sentinels deal with it. Now they were in the mood, and they produced electrostatic shock batons and they came forward.

Pete wasn't a trained martial artist, he wasn't skilled with weapons but he was good at fighting. He knew how to hurt people and he did it well and the first one came to him and Pete moved past the baton, grabbed the guy and raised his knee on to the arm which gave a satisfying crack, and at the same time the second came in, but Pete twisted the second goon in to him and the baton struck home, leaving it one on one.

The man cracked his knuckles and threw a punch which Pete dodged, but he didn't miss the uppercut that followed it and knocked him to the floor, but Pete had taken harder shots than that in his time and he kicked out at the other guy's legs and knocked him to the floor. Then Pete aimed a shot at the guys crotch and the guy was out of the fight. Then there was a satisfying crack as Lydia snapped the neck of the Prime Sentinel and it went limp.

"Think there's anymore?" asked Lydia.

"Yup," said Pete. "This was just the beginning. I wonder how the others are doing?"

"I said two sentinels wouldn't be enough," said Fugue as they watched the monitors.

"Yes," said Chapman. "I know you did, and I said it was just phase one. The real question is where the other SHIELD agents are. Two against six was never going to be enough, I just wanted to get their powers neutralised, though Miss Del Ruiz does have style."

"She's mine," said Hasard. "I want her."

"You're still hung up on Wisdom," said Fugue with disdain and Samantha gave her a dark glare.

"And you're still annoyed he told you to sod off. And don't you dare try to manipulate my emotions again."

"What is it with him and women?" asked Chapman, softly. "He smokes, he drinks, he eats fried food like nothing else, he's arrogant, distant, crude..."

"What can I say, we go for the bad boy types," said Shadowcat.

"Aye," said Siryn. Maverick and Raven were also there and the Hellfire Club Inner Circle were trapped.

"Oh very good," said Chapman, impressed. "Phased through the building using Raven's telepathy to screen yourselves and your phasing disrupted the detection systems."

"Something like that," said Maverick. "Pete figured you'd be interested in the fight downstairs."

"Yes," said Chapman. "And I figured he'd pull something like this. He's very... predictable."

"Stand down," said a voice and Vortigen Walker stood behind them, having entered with three Prime Sentinels.

~Pete, we're in trouble~ sent Raven.

~Be right with you~ came the reply.

"Telepathic signature detected. Neural lockdown in effect..." the Prime Sentinel spoke and it locked on to Raven in an attempt to shut down his psionics and Raven's eye's flashed red as the natural defences kicked in and a red halo appeared around the Prime Sentinel. The Sentinel tried to disengage but the kick it got from Marcus overloaded the neural networks in it's brain but he knew he had to keep the lock on them, or the Prime would rceover and this trick would not work again, nor would any of the others that had been used.

"I can't hold him forever!" Marcus cried as soon as the halo appeared and X-Force exploded in to action. Shadowcat did a double back flip, phasing as she did so and passing through the Prime Sentinel, causing it to spark as it's electrical systems burnt out. The major weakness of the Primes was their size compared to the originals that had towered over them before. Now they were more of a personable size they could combated that little bit easier.

Maverick was also pretty good as his hands flared with bio-kinetic energy and he grabbed a hold of the sentinel, pushing his hand through it's chest and grabbing circuitry and ripping it out of the Prime which fell to the floor.

"They really don't make these like they used to," he said as he looked at Chapman who clapped his hands.

"Three Prime's in under sixty seconds," he said. "Very good."

"When SHIELD rounded them up, we did a little work no them," said Lydia standing in the doorway. "It's easier when you know what you're doing." Her gun was pointed at the back of Walker's head. "Marcus, go help Pete find Romany." Raven nodded and headed out to help their commander.

Chapman took a moment. So Wisdom had gone after Romany, and he knew this place almost as well as anyone else. There were four of them and four SHIELD agents, so the odds were even. Except they were not the Inner Circle for nothing and without a word being said, the Lords Cardinal fought back.

Vortigen may have been taken down and diminished but was not without his powers. Though they were not what they were he was still a druid and he cast a simple illusion to alter the gun for a moment. It was only a solution, but it was enough to make Lydia gasp in surprise and that moment's distraction allowed him to plough his elbow in to her and sending her winded to the floor, and for the moment out of the fight as she grabbed her chest.

A stream of metal formed from Hasard and fried towards Siryn, who hadn't expected it and it speared her through the shoulder and pinned her to the wall, another stream of metal coming at her breast and Siryn looked at her, wondering if she was fast enough to take the Queen down before she was speared through the heart. At the same moment Chapman leapt the distance between himself and Maverick and wrestled the man to the floor and Maverick was surprised at the strength of the man as well as his grip.

"MAVERICK!" called Shadowcat as it happened then noticed Siryn and realised she was alone. Very alone. Her friends had been defeated and suddenly Kate felt as if she were 13, being hunted once more by the Hellfire Club as they sough to add her to their ranks, and this time there were no X-Men to save her. "NO!" she cried and dived through the floor.

"Damn," said Fugue as she looked at the space where she had been. "Her mental defences are very strong. Luckily the distraction of the others let me break through."

"Find Wisdom!" Chapman said as he pinned Maverick down and North couldn't get free. Fugue nodded and vanished through a trapdoor.

"Hell with this," said Maverick and fired a concentrated burst of kinetic fire at Chapman. It washed over him, burning away the clothing and flesh. Chapman let go off Maverick to protect himself and yet still managed to hold North in place, but the flesh burnt away around his hand, to reveal robotics. "Bionics," gasped Maverick.

"Have you any idea how much it costs to get these repaired?" said Chapman, brining his hand down across Maverick's face.

"Like this?" said Maverick and grabbed the hand and twisted it, using his the strength given him from the blow to fend Chapman off and he pushed the hand up hearing the slight tear of metal and knowing he'd damaged it. Chapman pushed back, but the damage left him weakened and North forced Chapman back, allowing him to get back on his feet. Chapman reached for the other hand of Maverick and the two of them stood there grappling, wondering which of them would give first.

"Let him go!" said the Blue and White Queen, "or your colleague dies." Walker stood over Lydia and Maverick wondered what the hell to do. This Hellfire Club, while not as experienced as the other incarnations, had them pretty much sown up. Then there was a click.

"I was just thinking the same about your King," gasped Lydia, and a second gun was pointed up at Walker. It was small enough to fit in her palm, but it would make a very nice hole. "And if I see this as anything other than a gun, I'll pull the trigger that isn't there and see how real it is."

"Stalemate," said Maverick.

"Perhaps, not," a voice said, and they released each other, not sure who had spoken or who they were with, but both could see that Lydia was standing, as was Walker, both of them covered by several guards. "Consider yourselves all under arrest."

"Ro!" Wisdom called out as he headed for the lower levels of the Hellfire Club, to the catacombs where Margali Sardoz had unleashed the Demon on to London. It was the best place to be. "ROMANY!"

"Stop!" called one of the goons who soon joined his comrades in arms as an unconscious body on the floor.

"Dammit, Ro, where are you?" he called.

~Pete~ he heard in his head.

~Marcus? Can you sense my sister down here?~

~No, but there's a lot of people entering the building. I can't get a distinct impression on any of them~

~I don't like the sound of this~ said Pete. ~Marcus...~ Suddenly pain went through his head and he knew that Marcus had just been taken out. "Oh, shit..." he said. People entering wasn't good.

"Hello, Peter," said a voice and Pete turned to see a familiar face and he shook his head.

"Fugue..." he said. "Long time no see."

"I ought to kill you," she said, "but I've a much better idea," she said and Pete felt himself drawn to her. Her powers, she had to be tweaking his emotions, making him attracted to her.

"Are you kidding?" he said, trying to fight it as she came closer to him. "We don't have time for this..."

"I've wanted you for so long," she said, pulling down the zip of her dress and letting the material fall to the floor. "And I know you want me."

"I know this isn't real," he said, but he couldn't help it. He wanted her so badly. "I'll kill you for this," he said and he grabbed her in a passionate embrace and she pulled him down to the floor.

Outside, Kate gasped for air and shook her head. She'd panicked, panicked like she hadn't done in years and she was ashamed of herself. She'd been trained by Xavier, by Logan, by SHIELD, trained not to give in to panic and fear but she'd done so in a moment.

"Idiot," she said as she shook it off. Whatever had got to her had passed now, so it had to be Fugue who had done that to her. Then the side street was flooded with light and she ducked inside a wall to cover herself.

"They're not here," she heard a voice say.

"We got the rest though," said another. "Wisdom, Pryde and Fugue won't get far. SHIELD-UK's covered, WHO is covered and there's nowhere else for them to turn. Take the others to Wonderland." The voices faded away and Kate risked looking outside to see that both X-Force and the Inner Circle were being taken away and she gasped as she saw the insignias.

They'd been captured by Black Air.