ISSUE #30 MUSE Part 4 The Factor of X by David Ingram

Springfield Texas "So this is what the secret base of the Muse looks like," Peter remarked as Blackwood drove their SUV down a dirt road. To the left of them was a herd of cows, and to the right were just endless tracts of grass, "a farm in the middle of no where. It's very…untraditional." "I brought us here because we'll need some privacy while I'm getting Factor X together," Blackwood explained while he watched the road. They pulled into the open garage, and stepped out. Weapon X and Michael were already there, having been sent ahead by Blackwood to secure the adhoc 'base'. "Michael, Weapon X, what's the sit rep*?" Blackwood asked. (*Situational report-military David) "The Mutant strike team, Wildchild, Helix, Fixx, Bandit, Silhouette and Random are all present and accounted for, but some are not that happy about being here," Michael reported. "Meaning what?" Blackwood asked. "Meaning that while we're thankful you for protecting us from the Friends of Humanity and other such racist scum, it doesn't mean that we're your little tin soldiers," a voice stated. Sosa looked around for the source of the voice, and found nothing. He looked at the others, who were staring at Blackwood's shadow. Peter was stunned when he saw a tanned woman, obviously of mixed heritage, wearing braces slowly melt up from Blackwood's shadow wearing a yellow and dark blue suit, "is that how you got Helix to join? Dangle a carrot in front of his nose when you need something?" Blackwood sighed heavily, "I wouldn't pull you into this if I didn't need you, Sil. You've worked with the Warriors and worked well. The guy we're going after…we can't let him get away." "There are others," Sil stated, "Force Works, X-Corp…" "Not for what I intend to do, Sil," Blackwood said with narrowed eyes, "We have the chance to ensure that the mutate bonding process is wiped out forever, and I'm not going to leave an opportunity like this to someone else. I'm going to take it an' do the job meself. If mutant liberty offends you, you can leave, right now." The mistress of shadows huffed, "Fine, I'm in. But only because I know you would likely draft some other poor soul who isn't half as experienced. I'll be watching you," she warned as she melted away into the floor. "Whatever floats your boat, Sil. Where's our last member?" Blackwood asked. "Beer run," Michael sighed. Before Blackwood could say another word, the roar of a Harley was heard just outside the garage, startling everyone but Weapon X. Peter Sosa turned around to see a pasty white man wearing a brown leather jacket and pants, ray band sunglasses with a stogie in his mouth and a bandana on his head. "I thought my ears was burning." Random grunted as he got off his bike with a six-pack tucked under his arm. "I…thought you were dead," Peter stammered, completely intimidated by the huge albino man. "They don't call me Random for nothin'," the mercenary stated as he walked inside, "Whenever you want to get this party on the road, let me know. This crowd is a buzz kill." Blackwood rubbed his temples wearily, "Peter, why don't you go inside and get comfortable. We won't be able to underway until midnight, at any rate." Peter nodded and carefully headed inside. The house looked average enough, with pictures and whatnot hanging on the wall. Peter could hear the sounds of conversation in what was likely the dining room, but he didn't have the nerve yet to enter. Thankfully for Peter, the garage was situated next to kitchen. Peter walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out a coke. When he closed the door, he found himself in a completely alien world. "Holy shitnitz," Peter muttered. The landscape couldn't be weirder. All around him volcanoes were erupting, airplanes were flying upside down while yellow submarines were breaching the rocky surface of the ground. "Hold on a sec," a female called to him, "and don't panic." "Don't panic?" Peter thought to himself, "I've been transported to Mars on crack!" A split second later, the environment returned to normal and Peter saw a thirty something year old women standing together with a young woman who's mind seemed to be engrossed in the stuffed bunny that she was carrying. "I'm sorry about that. Alice just doesn't like new minds too much," the older woman explained, "I'm Suzy. Are you the new guy Blackwood warned me about?" "Yeah, Peter Sosa," the junior hacker stated as he extended his hand, "how'd you get missed up in this crazy stuff, if I may ask?" Suzy ran a playful hand thru Alice's hair and sighed, "In case you hadn't noticed, Alice here is a mutant. Her father used to abuse us on a regular basis. When her powers emerged, Alice… withdrew into an illusion world, where she remains to this day," suzy explained wearily, "I left my bastard husband after that. Xavier found us, and helped us set up a new life here. Since then, Blackwood's helped some, establishing a rapport between us, but we haven't been able to fully draw her out yet. What she did to you was a defensive mechanism," she explained. "I'm sorry to hear that," Peter said thoughtfully "Thanks. It would likely be easier on Alice if Blackwood wasn't using my house for a damn mutant community center," Suzy scowled. "We won't be staying long," Blackwood said as he finally entered with Weapon X and Michael, "Peter, go join the others in the living room. Just because we can't leave just yet doesn't mean that we can't start the briefing." Peter silently obeyed, and as he entered the living room found that the weird things could still shock him. Sitting in the corner in a rocking chair was Silhouette, whom Peter had met earlier and standing closely by was a tall African American male wearing a brown trench coat and sporting lightning tattoo over his left eye. Standing to the right was Fixx and an Indian man wearing a leather suit like Peter himself had worn when he infiltrated an army base. The two were deep in discussion, about what Peter didn't want to know. And finally, sitting on the couch and taking up the majority of it was a man four hundred pounds if he was an once with leather patches on his skin and reading 'War and Peace' and wearing a tailor made business suit. What made the scene even odder was the fact that the man was holding the book with his feet and turning the pages with his toes. "Good evening, my fellow mutant in secrecy. How are you this exceptionally luminous day?" the man asked as he looked up from his book. "Umm, fine?" Peter replied. Peter took a seat in the corner and waited. Despite the fact that he was a mutant, Peter felt incredibly uncomfortable with this group. For one thing, Peter, despite his mutant heritage, considered himself normal. This crowd was anything but. For another thing, he suspected that everyone here could kick his ass with one hand tied behind their back while standing across the room. "I can almost feel my manhood shrink," he thought to himself. After about three hours of general socializing combined with periods of standing around and doing nothing, Blackwood entered the living room, obviously ready to begin. He cleared his throat softly, but it was enough to make him the center of attention. "I'll get to the point. We're here today because of one man, known as the Sugar Man," Blackwood explained. He concentrated, and in the center of the room appeared a telepathic image of the horrible Sugar Man, a being that looked like nothing more than a huge head with two arms protruding on both sides of his body, sharp, jagged teeth and the most menacing eyes Peter had ever seen, "according to Cable and verified by other sources, this creature is directly responsible for creating the mutate bonding process, a form of genetic slavery. It turns mutants into mindless slaves known as mutates. Sugar Man built himself a power base in Genosha, but lost that shortly before Magneto came into power. He's been M.I.A since then." "So how'd you guys find him?" Random asked as he entered the living room, with a six pack under one hand and a cigar in his mouth, "I mean, you'd think Mags or someone else would have had someone snuffed him after the shit he's pulled." Blackwood didn't miss a beat, though he had explained the situation already. He knew Random was doing this just to be a jerk, "As I told you earlier, Michael, Peter and I recently encountered a rogue, sentient cerebro. It was searching out potential allies, and on the short list was Sugar Man. We have his location, and that's all we need." "So, what are you guys going to do with him?" Peter inquired. "We're going to run him to ground, and then kill him," Blackwood replied casually, "any questions?" Almost no one in the living room batted an eye at that statement. Death was, in some ways, a regular part of their lives. Even Silhouette, who was once a superhero in New Warriors, knew that there were some beings and creatures out there simply undeserving of life. And from what she had learned about Sugar Man from Blackwood, she believed Sugar Man to be one of those beings. Only one person raised any objections to the intended plan. "Hold up, what gives you the right to just go out gung ho and kill someone?" Peter demanded. "And what should we do with him?" Blackwood asked evenly, "Hand him over to some government who'd gladly exploit his knowledge in genetics like Genosha? No way in hell, boy." "I don't know, but premeditated murder isn't right!" Peter said forcefully, "Suppose Sugar Man is a genetically engineered creature from an alternate reality with a screwed up sense of right and wrong, and he doesn't appreciate the consequences of what he's done?" Peter had no way of knowing his statement was truth, absorbed from the rogue Cerebro when he used his powers to stop it. All he knew was that he planned murder of a living, sentient creature was wrong. Blackwood smirked, "Kid, stop reading so much science fiction. We're going to put the Sugar Man down, whether you like it or not. So shut your yap. What do you care? The Sugar Man's not even human." "People have said that before about us," Peter hissed. "You self righteous punk…"Blackwood snarled as he stepped towards, "how dare to just waltz in here and start lecturing us about right and wrong!" "Peter is simply voicing concerns about our mission, ones almost everyone here has." Fixx stated as she walked to Peter's side, directly warding Blackwood off, "Honestly Jason, you should be able to deal with a little dissent better than this." "I don' like being questioned by rookies or punks, or in dis case, both," Blackwood spat. "There's no way I'm going on this mission," Peter said harshly. Blackwood locked eyes with Peter for a long moment, and then laughed, "What the hell makes you think that you're going on this mission, boy? You've got no combat experience, no combat abilities and you're as green as grass. I need to for another mission, but you're sitting this one out," Blackwood turned away, slightly chuckling to himself. The thought that Sosa would think that he'd go on a combat mission… Peter looked towards Fixx and asked, "Why'd you back me up? I thought that you hated my guts." The future telepath shrugged, "When we merged our powers to stop that rogue cerebro, your mind was an open book to me. A dirty, lazy empty book, I might add, but I know you to be a good man." Before Peter could thank her, the house started to shake and rumble. Silhouette teleported to the source, and the rest of Factor X along with Peter rushed outside to the source of the disturbance. They saw Blackwood standing calmly on the porch as the wind whipped his gray hair about, his hands clasped together behind his back while a modified Blackhawk jet touched down on the lawn. "That one of Xavier's leftovers?" Random grunted. "No, it's a favor from the C.I.A for some subbing I've done for 'em," Blackwood replied as he approached the jet. "Subbing, what do you mean by that?" Bandit asked as Factor X followed him out to the plane. "While I confess that I am uninformed about the majority of your life, I can only assume 'subbing' refers to sub contracting," helix stated with a smile. He never missed a chance to show off his evolved brain. "Give the man a gold star," Blackwood smiled. A ramp at the end of the jet started to lower, and two men wearing flight jackets emerged. The two men saluted, and then one began, "Mr. Blackwood, this is compliments of the C.I.A We now consider all debts null and void." Blackwood nodded, "Of course, thanks you gents. I've got someone who'll drive you two back into town. Course, you won't be able to remember anything about this location. SOP*, you understand." (*standard operating procedure-who do you think this is?) "Of course." One man nodded, before walking to the garage where Suzy was waiting to take the men back to town. "Let's saddle up, Factor X. We got us a war criminal to deal with," Blackwood declared. The bottom of the world "The South Pole. Why someone would want to hang their hat here is beyond me," Bandit stated as he looked out over the foreboding (to him anyways) white virgin wastelands. "Being away from the so called civilization can be a blessing at times," Wildchild stated from his seat without looking towards Bandit. "Screw that, dogface." Random smirked, "give me take out pizza and David Letterman over eatin' wild growin' shit any day of the week." "Peace is different to each man," Monsoon stated from behind Random, "Wildchild, for instance, finds peace in solitude. You find peace in insulting others despite your wish for acceptance by those very same people." Random looked over his shoulder at Monsoon, "If you really think that I care if you self righteous angst machines accept me, you don't know jack." Monsoon's lips moved to form the slightest of smiles, "Oh? Then leave, right now. You'd make your way home in time." "I ain't leavin' until Blackwood forks over the check for this gig." Random grumbled. Up in the cockpit, Blackwood listened to the conversation, and thanked God that he only called Factor X together rarely. This was Bandit and Silhouette's first mission with the team for instance, and they didn't know what to expect from their teammates. That might be dangerous. "Jason, we are nearing the location that the files indicate the Sugar Man to be at," Michael reported. "How's the cloak working? We haven't been picked up, have we?" Jason asked. "Impossible to say, my friend. Given what little we know about the Sugar Man, it is impossible to even guess at his technological abilities," Michael replied. Almost as if fate wanted to emphasize that point, the rear engine exploded into a huge fireball. A split second later, an electro magnetic blast ripped thru the plane, disrupting the mutant powers of all aboard, and the majority of the equipment aboard. "Shit!" Blackwood exclaimed, "Monsoon, put out that fire! Sil, get ready to teleport us out!" "We can't do jack, man! Our powers don't work!" Bandit yelled back. "There is no time for any last minute heroics!" Michael declared as he pulled on the control stick, desperate to maintain altitude. Sub zero temperatures and blinding snow blasted his face, but he didn't give up. To his credit, he managed to bring plane down at exactly the right angle. The modified Blackbird felled from the skies in a slightly controlled dive, and skidded across the formerly pristine snow for a good two hundred feet before slamming into a snow bank. After the collision, nothing could be heard except the slight cracking of the flaming engine compartment. "Mutantstry to takemypower away," a childish voice stated as it crossed the ice towards the burning plane. The horrible Sugar Man stepped forward, his tongue whipping around like a snake about to strike. Flanking him was a good dozen men dressed for the weather and armed to the teeth with high tech weapons. "Take them insideand secure them," Sugar Man ordered. The men replied with a reluctant nod and entered the burning plane. They pulled out the unconscious Factor X and began to carry them back to their secreted base. Sadly for the Sugar Man and unknown to the men, they were two members short. "Soldiers," Weapon X stated simply to Michael as they hid behind a snowdrift not twenty feet from the crash. When the plane came to a stop, Weapon X and Michael were the only people inside still conscious, though they were in far from perfect shape. Michael could feel three broken ribs and had a terrible gash down his left arm, while Weapon X had a half dozen broken bones throughout his body. Not that that could stop him from helping Michael to safety, let alone slow him down. "Those aren't just any soldiers," Michael said gravely, "they're Genoshians. My countrymen." Next Issue: It's Weapon X and Michael alone against the Sugar Man and his Genoshian allies. Can they prevail? And what will be the fate of the Sugar Man if they do?