"Emily, are you okay?"

"Dad... no..." she replied. "No, Dad... stay back, I--"

"ARGH!!!"

"DAD!!!!"

She bent down beside him, her eyes glowing red.

"No.... Dad I'm so sorry... I tried to warn you... I..."

"Get away from him, kid."

"Who are you?"

"He's dead!! That damn mutie killed him!!"

"No... I didn't mean to... it was an accident!!"

"Well, it's time for another accident!!"

"No... please no.... DON'T!!!"

"KILL THE MUTIES!!!"

"DEATH TO ALL MUTANTS!!!"

"NOOOOO!!!!!!"

"Em... Em wake up!!" Dani shouted. "EM!!!"

"Get away from me!!" Emily exclaimed, knocking her teammate, Dani Moonstar to the ground.

"Em, it's me, it's Dani."

"D-Dani...?" Em asked. She slowly got to her feet, looking around. "Oh God... Dani, I'm sorry... I..."

"Don't worry about it," Dani replied. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I think so..." Em stated. She looked around the hotel room the team was lodged in for the night. On their way back to Canada, they spotted this town and decided to get some much-needed rest. Emily was in her street clothes when she met up with the team, and Dani had an image inducer stored in an emergency pack she carried with her. Warlock was able to configure the range so that it would expand to the entire team. The rates were good enough for them to rent out three rooms. Warlock and Weapon-X shared one, with Terry and Rahne in another, and Dani and Em sharing the last one.

"Was it a nightmare?" Dani asked.

"You might say that..." Em replied. "But it felt so real..."

"It happens sometimes," Dani said. "Come on, let's go for a walk."

"My bologna has a first name, it's O-S-C-A-R! My bologna has a second name, it's M-A-Y-E-URK"

Warlock looked down to see a glowing blade sticking through his abdomen. He looked to his roommate as the source. Weapon-X, the newest member of X-Force was sitting there, the forcefield surrounding him and his hand extended.

"Okay... so I take it you don't like Oscar-Mayer?" 'Lock asked. "What about Kid Rock? I'm a pimp, you can check my stat--"

The blade grew in size.

"All right... what about Will Smith? Gettin' jiggy wit' i--"

The blade continued to grow.

"Not a rap fan, I see. How about the Backstreet Bo--"

The blade nearly grew larger than Warlock.

"Okay... maybe I'll just shut up..."

The blade retracted, and Weapon-X's forcefield dissipated. He laid back on his bed.

"Sooooo...." Warlock stated, his head extending over to his new teammate. "What's your story?"

The silent assassin simply looked at the alien, and extended his hands out, putting them beside Warlock's head. Then, he began to concentrate.

"...Show you..." his telepathic voice rang out.

Warlock's mind became flooded with memories as he saw men experimenting on Weapon-X in a tube. They flashed by extremely quickly, and they were all brief. Warlock saw scientists screwing around with Weapon-X's mind... altering his perceptions, implanting thoughts and memories. Then, Warlock saw his teammate's first time out. His first experience using the battlesuit given to him by the Weapon-X program. He saw a massacre. He saw Weapon-X standing in a pool of blood and bodies.

Then, the memories stopped as Weapon-X removed his hands. Warlock simply stared at him in disbelief. Not only because of the memories he saw, but because Weapon-X was able to so easily project them into his alien mind.

The silent young man laid back down, and a smile appeared beneath his mask.

"...I wonder how Terry and Rahne are..." Warlock stated, exiting the room via the phone lines.

"Why me?"

"Excuse me?"

"Why me?" Em repeated. "I mean, why did you decide to share a room with me. I was under the impression that you and Rahne were really close."

"We are," Dani replied. "And under normal circumstances, I probably would have. But, with everything that's been happening lately, I didn't need her to fuss over me. Besides, I thought it'd be nice to get to know you a bit more."

"There's not much to know," Em said. "I'm just a girl with bad luck..."

"Why do you say that?" Dani asked.

"My mom died when I was real young," Em began. "My dad tried his best to support me financially as well as emotionally. I always understood why he couldn't be there for me at times. And then... my powers surfaced..."

"Oh..."

"You already know what happened then. Things just went from bad to worse..."

"I know what you're going through," Dani stated. "When my mutant power to create images of people's greatest fears first emerged, I couldn't control it. I created a symbolic vision of my parent's deaths. Shortly after, they disappeared while on a trip in the mountains, and my visions were haunted by a demonic bear. The bear transformed my parents, and he would have done the same to me if not for the actions of my grandfather, a shaman. He raised me in the mountains, and sent a letter to Professor Xavier, a friend of my father's. Before the Professor could arrive, my grandfather was killed by a cyborg named Pierce. I was hunted by Pierce's men, until I was rescued by the Professor and Karma, another mutant like me. I joined up with the New Mutants to defeat Pierce, and remained with them to learn how to use my powers. On a trip to Asgard, I became a Valkyrie, one of Odin's warrior wome--"

Dani noticed Em's puzzled look and simply chuckled.

"Well... let's just say it's a long story," she continued. "But, you're not alone. Everyone in X-Force has been through tough times. Warlock was actually dead for a period of time."

"Then how..." Em began.

"I don't think there's enough time in the day for that story," Dani said. "You migh--"

She was cut off, as the ground began to shake.

"What's going on?" Em asked.

"It's an earthquake..." Dani replied. "Oh no... the town!!"

"I'm telling ya, the guy's a regular nutcase!!" Warlock exclaimed.

"'Lock, will ye just calm down?" Rahne pleaded.

"He tried to kill me!!"

"Can ye blame 'im, boyo?" Terry asked with a grin. "Ye said it yuirself, ye were singing the Oscar-Mayer song."

"But EVERYONE loves Oscar-Mayer!!" Warlock stated. "Seriously though, why is he here? Why don't we just ask other people who've tried to kill us if they wanna join? Think maybe Ahab's looking for a team?"

"'Lock, th' Weapon-X Project messes with a peron's head," Terry explained. "Try t'understand, he's been engineered tae do this. And ye saw how he helped us against Sinister.* He was actin' on instinct at th' time. An' also, if we keep him on the team, we can also keep an eye on him if he does go rogue."

"I STILL don't like it..."

"Ach, ye're impossible..." Rahne stated, throwing her hands into the air. Suddenly, the building began to shake, and the three teammates were thrown off their feet.

"An earthquake...?" Terry asked, struggling to get to her feet.

The door smashed open, and Weapon-X was standing there. He motioned for them to leave.

"We have tae help th' townspeople!!" Rahne exclaimed, transforming into her wolf-form.

Weapon-X simply looked over at Terry, his head tilted to the side as if he was confused.

"Ye cannae use yuir forcefield tae hurt anyone," Terry ordered. "We hafta help these people, understand?"

He slowly nodded, and watched as Terry took off into the air, her sonic scream propelling her. Warlock began to move as well, gathering as many people as he could.

Weapon-X felt a familiar psychic presence, and glanced over to see Dani and Em doing their part as well.

Now he understood. They were saving lives. This is what they did. Their whole purpose was to help people. They weren't working for someone else. They weren't forced to do any of this. They were doing this because it's the right thing to do.

The whole concept still seemed alien to him. He had never used his suit for anything but battle. He had never used his powers except to cause pain and suffering. And now, he was being called on to do it.

How can you erase something which has been programmed into your brain?

Wolfsbane moved quickly into houses, gathering people and taking them to safety. But there was only so much she could do.

While carrying a child in her arms, a piece of rubble blocked her path. She turned to go the opposite way, but she looked up to see one of the buildings beginning to topple. There was no time to get away, so instead, she covered the child, using her own body to shield him.

Then, she heard the rubble crashing around them. She opened her eyes to see a shimmering dome surrounding her. She turned to see Weapon-X standing there, his forcefield extended to a dome, protecting her from the falling rubble.

Once it passed, he deactivated his forcefield, and she simply stared at him.

The rest of X-Force gathered around the two. The other townspeople began to stare at them in disbelief.

"We should get going..." Dani said. "We don't want to draw anymore attention."

"Aye..." Terry agreed, turning away. The team headed back across the Canadian border, where their plane was left.

NEXT ISSUE: The team heads home--just in time for the Apocalypse cross-over!!