Her name is Emily, and the past few days have been hell for her. Her latent mutant powers to emit optic blasts finally emerged, and when they did, her father paid the ultimate price. She vowed to never use her powers again, and ever since then, she has been on the run, hunted by a mob of bigots.

In order to get away from them, she tried jumping into Niagra Falls, but was rescued by the team of mutants called X-Force. They then fought off the mob, and in order to pay them back, Emily broke her vow. It was then that she discovered a new aspect to her powers--the ability to siphon another mutant's powers for a short time. After this, she agreed to join X-Force, using the code-name Siphon. Now, it was time for her baptism of fire. Soon after the mob was gone, the team witnessed an object fall into the Canadian wilderness across the border.*

(* It all happened last issue - Dino)

"Do you guys do stuff like this every day?" she asked.

"Not exactly," Dani Moonstar replied.

"Yeah, we look forward to days like today," Warlock joked.

"Pay 'im no mind, Em," Rahne Sinclair, called Wolfsbane interjected. "Th' walkin' circuit board likes tae make a lot o' jokes, an' that's about all he's good f'r."

"If it wasn't for me, you'd never be able to use alla that complex Shi'ar stuff!!" Warlock exclaimed.

"And ye still cannae figure out how tae program th' blasted VCR..." Rahne muttered.

"So... where'd that thing land?" Emily asked.

"Good question," Theresa Rourke, Siryn, replied. "'Lock, are ye pickin' up anythin'?"

"Nada," he said.

"I can feel a presence here..." Dani said. "But I can't seem to make out any projections..."

"We'll have tae split up, then," Siryn said. "Dani an' Em, look around to th' north. 'Lock, Rahne, come with me."

"This.... doesn't make any sense..." Dani stated as the pair began searching around.

"What doesn't?" Emily asked.

"All I sense is death..." Dani replied. "But, that's it. No hopes, no dreams, not even fear. Nothing. It's almost as if we're looking for a ghost..."

"Ghosts?" Emily said with a grin. "You can't be serious."

"After you've seen what I've seen, the concept of ghosts isn't too hard to grasp," she said.

"So you mean by being with you guys, I'm stuck in a science fiction movie?"

"Something like that..." Dani noted. "But worse."

Suddenly, Dani stopped short.

"What's wrong?" Em whispered.

"The presence of death is very strong..." Dani replied. "Whoever we're looking for is very close..."

The strange masked man watched the two young women with interest. However, this interest wasn't lust, nor love. It was the hunt.

He gave his prey a silent stare, prepared to leap out at any moment...

"Rahne...?"

"My senses are nae pickin' up anythin'..." Rahne replied, fully-transformed into her wolf-state. "We may be goin' th' wrong way..."

"Ye pickin' anythin' up from Dani?" Terry asked.

"She senses somethin'...." Rahne answered. "Th' link is nae as strong as it usually is. There's some interference..."

"What could be causin' that?" Terry asked once again.

"Broadcast towers...?" Warlock suggested. The two women simply glared at him. "What?"

"A telepath!" Rahne stated, stifling a chuckle.

"I've got something!!" Dani exclaimed.

"What?" Emily asked. "What happened?"

"The resonance of death is extremely strong..." Dani replied. "Hopefully... I might be able to..."

She says no more words. Instead, Dani Moonstar concentrates on making that tangible. An image begins to form before them. That of a man in a tube of some sort, surrounded by others. Then.... pain... The death of one man... and the birth of another...

It is at this time that the hunter reveals himself. Clad from head to toe in a black bodysuit, he leaps from his hiding spot, prepared to attack the two members of X-Force!!

"Em, quickly!!" Dani shouted, a psionic bow and arrow forming in her hands.

Emily, or Siphon as she is now called, nodded, concentrating on the man, then letting loose with red energy beams from her eyes.

An aura formed around the hunter, blocking the beams.

"What?!" Emily exclaimed. "What just..."

She was cut off mid-sentence as the hunter landed on her. He was then struck with one of Moonstar's psionic arrows.

"Get back!!" she ordered, pulling back to fire another.

The hunter simply looked at her, then extended his arm. The forcefield around it shot outward, forming into a spike of some sort. Dani quickly dodged away, firing another arrow.

"Rahne!!" she "shouted" through her telepathic link with Wolfsbane. "I think we found what we're looking for!! I need you guys to get over here right---ARGH!!"

"DANI!!!" Rahne shouted.

"What happened?" Siryn asked, running to Rahne's side.

"Dani an' Em..." Rahne replied. "They were attacked by someone... Tried t' contact me telepathically, before she... she... We've got tae help 'em!!"

Without waiting for her teammates, Rahne Sinclair broke out into a sprint to locate her friends.

"W-wait!!" Warlock shouted, his techno-organic body shifting into a motorcycle while Siryn flew through the air.

"Stay right where you are!!" Siphon ordered, her eyes glowing blue. The hunter turned away from Moonstar and began to approach his next victim.

Siphon let loose with a blue optic blast, attempting to absorb his powers. Instead of gaining the forcefield which surrounded him, she instead felt the thoughts of other people forcing their way into her head!!

"Wh--what's happening...?!" she shouted, clutching her head in pain.

"LEAVE 'ER ALONE, YE BLOODY MONSTER!!!!" Wolfsbane shouted, leaping on the hunter's back. The forcefield exploded into hundreds of spikes, forcing Rahne off.

"St-stop..." Siphon pleaded. "You can't fight him... he's not what you think..."

"Those are some nice spikes ya got there," Warlock began, thousands of spikes forming in his body. "Now lemme show ya mine!!"

The spikes shot out from his body, all harmlessly deflecting off the forcefield.

"Dani, are ye all right?" Siryn asked, helping Moonstar up.

"Wh--Terry...?" Dani asked. "Y--yeah... I think so..."

"Don't fight him!"

"What was that?!" Dani asked.

"Ye heard it too?" Siryn said. "It 'sounded' like... Em? I didnae know she had telepathic powers."

"Neither did any of us..." Moonstar stated. "That can only mean that she siphoned them off of our opponent."

"We cannae even touch him..." Siryn noted.

"At least not physically," Moonstar replied. "And it's obvious Em doesn't have as much control over those telepathic abilities she absorbed. That's why this is up to me..."

Concentrating hard, another psionic bow and arrow began forming in her hands, larger than the ones she usually fired. Her brow furrowed in concentration, she pulled back, and sent the arrow flying towards her target. The hunter felt this arrow. His entire body became rigid. Dani pulled back and fired another arrow, followed by another, and another. It was almost too much for her, or the hunter, to bear. And soon, his forcefield began to flicker off, giving Wolfsbane the opportunity she needed to take him down.

"That was... too close..." Dani stated, struggling to stay up.

"Ye shouldnae o' done that, Dani," Siryn said. "Ye've still nae fully recovered from usin' Cerebro."*

(* Last issue - Dino)

"I'll be fine, Terry," Dani replied. "Let's just see who our new friend is."

"When I siphoned his power, I picked something up," Em began. "His memory is muddled, and all I could get from him was that he's called Weapon-X."

The rest of the team looked at her with shock.

"What?" Em asked. "It's true. He attacked us because killing is all he knows. Almost as if it's been implanted inside of him..."

"That's why I sensed no hopes or fears from him," Dani replied. "Only death. All this man knows is death."

"But if he's really th' new Weapon-X, then what do we do with him?" Rahne asked.

"We should get 'im back tae th' Mansion," Siryn stated. "But first, we need tae find whatever fell from th' sky."

NEXT ISSUE: The team finds what they were looking for, and ends up regretting it!!