Links In A Chain
The Time: Our Future, Cable's Past:
Four men make their was cautiously through a swamp, weapons ready, alert for any danger, for war rages all around them. Their alertness does them no good, however, as a thermite bomb explodes in their midst, killing three instantly and dismembering the last man horribly.
Seconds pass and three new men appear from the glow of teleportation.
"Nate, what do we have here?" Tetherblood asks.
"A 'Therm' got pumped, T-Blood. Looks like a Canaanite platoon was caught in the blast. Boak, scan the area." Nathan orders.
"Scanning, Nathan." Boak answers.
"Tell me, Boak, if the bomb was one of ours." Tetherblood tells him.
"Negative. Pan-African origin." Boak replies.
"What difference does it really make who made it, or who set it off? With so much fighting going on all over the world, everyone killing everyone else for an inch of ground or a breath of air. It's getting hard to keep track of who is responsible for what, anymore." Tetherblood says.
"It matters, T-Blood. The reasons why we choose to fight, they should always matter. When they don't anymore, when we fight simply to kill...then we've become what we've been battling against all these years." Nathan tells him.
"I know that as well as you do, Nathan. I'm just tired is all." Tetherblood says.
"Wait! One of them is still alive! Boak, I need a medi-scan fast!" Nathan orders.
"Rad-burns on seventy percent of his body. Internal bleeding, massive skeletal fragmentation...I don not believe he will survive, Nathan." Boak tells him.
"Then let's put him out of his misery." Tetherblood says, as he raises his plasma rifle to kill the dying man.
"No! Not like this! Boak, send out a signal beacon to the Canaanite Sector Evac Patrol, tell them one of their own is down. Then let's get the Flonq out of here. That pump is going to have Canpatrols and Panaf troops crawling all over this place." Nathan tells them.
"Done, Nathan." Boak says.
"Body-Slide by Three." Nathan orders, leaving behind a legacy of hate that will rise up to smite him years later.
The Time: Today.
Cable, Theresa and Sam work in X-Force's Communications Relay Bunker in their Camp Verde, Arizona headquarters.
"Ye really think this should work, now?" Theresa asks.
"Should, Terry. You have to remember, I'm cobbling together piecemeal equipment here, but if we can fire it up, you'll have constant contact with the Professor since he's transferred into our computer system here and has linked to my cross temporal data banks which are at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean and I'll continue to have access to him from my safehouse in Switzerland also." Cable explains.
"Which comes in handy, should you decide ta up and disappear on us again, right, Cable?" Sam asks.
"Yep." Cable replies, smiling at the young man he loves as a son.
"Well, that's refreshing, albeit frustrating, honesty for a change. I'm tossin' y' about, Cable. I, for one, think y' have every right to yer freedom." Theresa tells him.
"I appreciate the thought, Theresa, but I understand Sam's hesitation. I'm just not going to deny that there will be times that I need to take care of some personal business, without the need, or frankly, the desire, for X-Force to help out. The new me will stay in touch, though. I'll respect your needs if you'll respect mine." Cable tells them.
"Fair enough." Sam says.
Suddenly, a huge holographic projection of a man/machine appears before them.
"How unfortunate for you, Dayspring, that sometimes, you may have little choice as to whether your children may serve you...or bury you!"
"Sinsear! So it was you who used the Tinex before the Clan Chosen and I were able to destroy it." Cable says.
"Cable, we could use some info." Sam tells him.
"It's a holographic projection of a butcher from my timeline. A merciless soldier. A one-man-army with almost a million bloody kills to his credit." Cable explains.
"Frankly, I think I'd rather not have known." Theresa says.
"My quarrel is not with you Cassidy Rourke, Theresa. I wish only to fulfill my programming objectives." Sinsear says.
"You were sent back in time to kill me, right?" Cable asks.
"How egotistical of you. Actually, no. I was sent to kill a Canaanite rogue agent, but my secondary programming permits me to accommodate a personal pleasure, which is indeed to kill you." Sinsear says, as both he and Cable disappear in a flash of teleportation.
"Cable!" Sam yells.
"Sam, he never finished getting the comm-link online an' he had no equipment nor weapons a'tall on him." Theresa tells him.
"All 'a which means that wherever he is, he's on his own." Sam says.
Cable finds himself inside a massive undersea base, standing amidst several columns. Atop one of these columns stood Sinsear.
"You Time-Ripped this entire structure through the Tinex?" Cable asks.
"And what of it? When your Clan Chosen Rebels originally commandeered the first Tinex, did you not send back an entire Space Station?" Sinsear replies.
"You could have killed me with the flick of a button, once you knew my location. Why bring me here?" Cable asks.
"Because, once, you could just as easily have killed me with the pull of a trigger, as well. And you chose not to. And for that mistake, Dayspring, for having turned my life into the tragic atrocity it has become, I am going to make certain you die, just as I have. One minute at a time, ravaged, inside and out, by machines and the tortured loss of your own fragile humanity." Sinsear tells him, as he releases several small ball-like objects from his wrist that speed towards Cable firing lasers
"Stab His Eyes! He has Buzz-Drones! He's a walking weapon!" Cable thinks, as he seeks cover behind the largest of the columns. "Blame yourself, Nate. You're so busy playing the part of a good father figure that you neglected the part about being a good soldier."
"Activate Pylon One." Sinsear orders.
"Don't tell me...I'm standing next to Pylon One." Cable thinks, as he tries to roll away, but several tendrils drop down and send a sharp electrical shock through him.
"You disappoint me, Dayspring. After our previous encounters, I had expected more from you. Maybe, as a result of all the failures you have endured, the fight has been taken out of you? Ironic, then, that the last bitter disappointment in a most bitter life is losing to a machine which you helped create." Sinsear says, standing over Cable's still convulsing body.
"I'm..not..a failure...because I've..lost...some battles..only if I..stopped trying to fight the war, like you have, only then would I be a failure. And that's never going to happen!" Cable tells him, as he telekinetically pulls the electrified tentacles over towards Sinsear.
ZZZCHATHZZZ
Sinsear falls, many of his systems shorted out, while Cable pulls himself along the floor, trying to put some distance between them.
"Well played, Dayspring. Unfortunately for you, the chords had already expended much of their reserves on you. Which means, while you can run from your past, you cannot hide from it. I am the Sinsear, Dayspring, and I will burn the truth of your guilt down to your very core." Sinsear says, as he extends his arm towards Cable and orders his offensive computer, "PEESBEE: Search and Destroy." With this order, a parabolic slicing blade flies out of Sinsear's wrist launcher and arcs towards Cable.
"He programmed it to search and destroy, which means it won't stop until it connects with me, or something else." Cable thinks, as he pulls himself ever faster and ducks under the first pass of the deadly blade. "That pylon up ahead...about thirty meters. It has his control console at the top. It has to have a central command link...if I can reach it...ARGGGHH" Cable yelled, as the blade sliced through his right arm. The pain galvanized him and he pushed himself to his feet and runs to the control pylon, turns and waits for the blade. At the last possible second, Cable drops to the floor, letting the blade sink deep into the pylon. Cable pulls out the blade and drives his fist through the hole the blade has made and pulls the metal back, exposing the inner wiring of the pylon. "Now, let's even up this fight a bit. All the pylons are linked to this master terminal. If I can eliminate the control link, then Sinsear loses the use of his little battle arena." Cable thinks, as he reaches in and pulls loose much of the wiring in the pylon.
"NOOOOO!" Sinsear screams, as he sees what Cable is doing.
"Now, Sinsear. Now we're back to square one. And that means it's time to face me, Man-to-Man!" Cable begins to rain blow after blow on Sinsear. "Can you do that, Sinsear? Is there enough man left inside that machine you hide behind?"
"I..don't know...if I can..Dayspring." Sinsear says, as he pulls himself up from the floor where Cable's last blow has landed him, blood pouring from his shattered lips and broken nose. "Since it is..rather...obvious..that..I am..not a..man...any longer."
"You're wrong! You choose to be a machine! Look at you. You bleed like a man. You hurt like a man. You hate like a man. The only thing you do like a machine, Sinsear, is follow orders. And whose choice is that?" Cable asks him.
"Perhaps..you are...correct, Dayspring. Perhaps, when you unwittingly both saved and ended my life so many years ago, we both became that which we were meant to be. You are a man who uses technology to help himself and I am a machine which is hindered by my manhood, but you will soon be asking these self-same questions all over again. Of yourself and of those you once loved." Sinsear tells him, as he throws a disc to Cable and then hits a switch on his belt and teleports away.
"Wonderful. Invite me to your house, treat me as rudely as you did, then you don't' even have the decency to fight to the end. I wonder what this disc contains?" Cable goes to the control pylon and reconnects the wires he had pulled loose, restoring power to the computer and inserts the disc. "It's Sinsear's programming orders."
PROGRAMMING PARAMETER ENCAPSULATION: OPERATIVE:SINSEAR MISSION:TIMERIP PAST SEQUENTIAL FLOW MISSION OBJECTIVE: ELIMINATE AGENT #345 TIMERIPPER DESIGNATED: THE OTHER NOMENCLATURE: TOLLIVER
"Tolliver? Tolliver was a time traveler? No! He was just an arms dealer. He couldn't have been...Computer: If Tolliver was Agent #345 then who was Tolliver to begin with?" Cable asks.
NO SUCH DATA AVAILABLE
"Tolliver is dead. I saw him die. But why would Sinsear have come back in time to kill him, unless he isn't dead. And if he isn't, then who is Tolliver? And just what did Sinsear mean by 'Someone I once loved'?" Cable asks himself, never once suspecting just how much he will regret finding out the truth behind the mystery of Tolliver.
The following afternoon, Cable summoned everyone to the Communications Room to monitor a most interesting conversation that he'd picked up, between Nick Fury, Val Cooper, Forge and Professor Charles Xavier.
"I think underestimatin' them would be a big mistake, Val." Fury said.
"Why do you say that, Nicholas?" Val asks.
"Because this MLF has a much more clinical approach than when Stryfe led 'em. That's why." Fury replies.
"How so?" Forge asks.
"Like so, Forge: They been systematically gettin' the materials they need. Equipment, personnel, armament, like they got an overall plan. Now, they've kidnapped Henry Peter Gyrich. I'm tellin' ya' somehow it all fits together." Fury explains.
"I've already prepped the PAC-RAT. Just in case." Sam tells Cable, as they watch the conversation.
"Good. I never thought when I patched into the 'Commission On Super-Human Activities' security systems that we'd pick up a gem like this." Cable replies.
"Well, if this new MLF is that well organized, we have to nip them in the bud, fast. Charles?" Val asks.
"It has been only days since the X-Men returned from Genosha. I am...reluctant...to send them out right now. This kind of situation is precisely why X-Factor was developed, isn't it?" Charles asks.
"Start the systems scanning for the genetic signatures on file for the MLF members we've encountered before." Cable tells Sam.
"I thought they just said they're gonna' send in X-Factor?" Sam asks.
"Just wait and see." Cable replies with a knowing grin.
"We can't use X-Factor, Charles. With all the media attention this is getting we can't allow Gyrich to be connected with our activities without appearing to condone his actions and policies." Forge explains.
"Politics. Wonderful. So who goes in and does the dirty work when no one else wants to?" Fury asks.
"Screen off. Lights on." Cable orders and turns to his team, "Take one guess!"
"Us as usual, right?" Sam replies. "So Val Cooper, Professor Xavier, Forge and Nick Fury just jaw on an' on while we go fight their battle for 'em? Don't quite seem fair t' me anymore."
"No one ever said it would be fair, Sam. Just necessary." Cable tells him.
X-FORCE MISSION STATUS: THE PERSONNEL ASSAULT CRAFT IS PREPPED. MISSION OPERATIVES: CABLE, CANNONBALL, BOOMER, FERAL, RICTOR, SHATTERSTAR, SIRYN, SUNSPOT AND WARPATH.
The computer announces.
"There is an expression on this world, if I'm not mistaken. Would now not be the right time for us 'To get our hands dirty'?" 'Star asks.
An hour later, on an ancient island hadden deep within the Bermuda Triangle, Cable splits the team up into three units. Cannonball, Boomer, Sunspot and Rictor will bust in through the front. Siryn, Warpath and 'Star will take the rear, while Cable will use Feral to sniff out Gyrich and rescue him.
Once he and Feral are in position, Cable activates his communicator.
"Unit two, we're in position." Cable tells them.
"Copy, unit one. We're just about ready. How about you, Sam?" Siryn asks, over the comm-unit.
"Unit three, in position. Ready whenever you are. But be careful, Gang. I recognize this place from Xavier's files. Magneto used t' use this island as his hangout." Sam tells them.
"Just like we discussed, Feral and I will be on a five minute delay. Keep the comm-links online during the entire operation. If we find out that Gyrich is dead or too difficult to extract, we are to bug out immediately. Subdue as many members of the MLF as you can, but do not hang back after the clear signal is given. Unit's one and two, move in now." Cable orders.
Six minutes later, Cable and Feral are deep beneath the ancient fortress.
"Anything yet, Girl? We're running out of time." Cable tells her.
*SNIFF SNIFF* "I smell starch, a stiff upper lip." *SNIFF SNIFF* "Yep. Bureaucrat, dead ahead." Feral replies, pointing to a cell.
"Gyrich." Cable says, as he looks inside the cell.
"Cable!" Gyrich says in shock.
"You expected, maybe someone who cared?" Cable asks.
"Actually, I expected S.H.I.E.L.D. or possibly even X-Factor." Gyrich replies.
"Sorry, they're all too squeaky clean for a dirty mess like this one. Let me spread some thermite gel on the lock." Cable says, and then he waits a moment as the gel melts through the lock and then he opens the cell door.
"See, Gyrich, sometimes you need a band of 'Terrorists' to stop a band of terrorists." Cable tells him.
"HSSSSSSST" Feral draws up in an attack position.
"What is it?" Cable asks.
"We got big trouble!" Feral replies.
FASHAZZZZKKK
Cable and Feral are knocked to the floor by a blast of high energy plasma.
"A pity to see a mutant soldier of like mind kowtowing to the needs of a human butcher like Gyrich. We have so much in common, Cable. Your band of X-Force renegades and my MLF. Surely we can find some common ground from which to proceed in our quest for mutant freedom. You understand that for us to achieve what we strive towards there is a need, indeed a preference for sacrifice, for bloodshed. The question I pose to you then is this, will you join me in my war? Or in betraying your own kind and choosing not to, will you die with any shred of honor whatsoever?" Reignfire asks him.
"Who are you?" Cable asks.
"I am Reignfire. I am the future. I am the coming storm. I am the harbinger of mutant liberation. Even if it must be squeezed from the clutches of humanity's clawing fingers one drop of blood at a time." Reignfire replies.
Cable leaps up and delivers a blow which knocks Reignfire back down the narrow hall and dives for his plasma pistol.
FACHOW
The blast strikes Reignfire directly in the face. Cable had meant it to be a killing blast, but Reignfire is merely stunned.
"How many times do idiots like you have to make the same mistakes? Stryfe, Magneto, Apocalypse, now you. When will any of you learn that the subjugation of humans doesn't mean liberation for mutants?" Cable asks, as he blast Reignfire again.
"Look out!" Gyrich yells, as Reignfire is knocked back towards he and Feral.
"Look out for yourself, Gyrich. You think I'm gonna' put my neck out onna' line for a mutant hater like you? No way!" Feral tells him.
"You came here to rescue me, Feral, so like it or not, you already have put your 'Neck on the line' for me." Gyrich replies.
"And I assure you, she will regret having done so, Gyrich." Reignfire says.
"Regrettin' it already, Dude." Feral replies.
"Then stand with us, Feral. Use this opportunity, send a message to the oppressive human cows! Flay Gyrich alive right now!" Reignfire tells her.
"You have to help me out here, Reignfire. I'm trying to teach these children the difference between right and wrong. And all along, I've stressed, 'There's a time for Flay, and a time for Work. And right now, we've got a job to do!" Cable says, as he blasts Reignfire, yet again, with his plasma pistol. "Take Gyrich and get out, now!" Cable orders Feral.
FASHASH
Reignfire's blast knocks Cable through the castle wall and he falls the thirty feet to the ground below.
"This is not good." Cable says, as he gets to his feet and makes for the cover of the dense jungle which surrounds the castle with Reignfire flying in pursuit.
"You won't escape alive, Cable. You simply cannot run from the road you have chosen to take. You set a course for yourself and the children you took under your wing. You said you would fight the dirty fight and make the hard choices that the other mutants were unwilling to make. Well, here I am. Offering you the opportunity to join us in walking the road together, and you refuse?" Reignfire shouts.
"There's a difference between walking a road and rolling a tank over it. I'm trying to teach these kids to be willing to use their powers to fight for what's right. Not just think that because of their powers they have the right to fight. It's something would be demagogues like you never seem to be able to figure out." Cable shouts in reply.
"Then your own weakness will doom you to repeat the sins of your past, Nathan Dayspring!" Reignfire yells.
"What? How do you know my name?" Cable asks.
SKREEEEEE
AAAARRGH
Reignfire is knocked from the sky by the sonic scream of Siryn before he can answer Cable's question.
"Are ye all right then, Nathan?" Theresa asks.
"Fine, Theresa. Though I wish you'd waited ten seconds before doing that." Cable replies.
"Ye want I should be bringin' Reignfire back, then?" Theresa asks with a grin.
"No, thank you. Just clear out the underbrush so we can locate the others." Cable tells her.
Theresa uses her sonic scream to blast away the thick jungle growth and exposes a scene of utter chaos. X-Force is engaged with the MLF and Feral has turned against them and attacked Gyrich only to be stopped by Tempo who has apparently turned against the MLF.
"On second thought, maybe I wish you hadn't." Cable says, as he takes in the scene before him.
"Stay back, Feral." Tempo tells her.
"Why you protectin' him?" Feral asks.
"Maybe because, cliche'd as it sounds, two wrongs don't make a right." Tempo replies.
"Then, Tempo, you traitorous witch, what about a billion wrongs spread throughout countless centuries?! What if the killing of one man could help prevent the deaths of thousands, even millions, over the coming decades? What if killing Gyrich, right now, could save the future for all mutants?" Reignfire asks, as he flies up and blasts Tempo down and out of Feral's way.
"What if it could, Reignfire? What if it couldn't?" Gyrich asks calmly.
"You know in your heart the path you wish to take, Feral. You have looked at your teammates and found them wanting. They don't understand you. They don't accept you. Be a part of something better, something harder, something stronger! Join the MLF, Feral. Kill Gyrich, now and let the road you take be bathed in blood!" Reignfire tells her.
"YES!!" Feral screams, as she leaps for Gyrich's throat.
"NO!" Cable shouts, as he blasts Feral out of the air in mid-leap. "Stab Your Eyes, Reignfire, for twisting her around!"
"Did ye..." Theresa asks.
"Kill her, Theresa? No, the gun was set on low-level plasma charge I just stunned her." Cable replies.
"Listen to yourself, Nathan. Low-level, indeed. Better to curse yourself for denying her the right to be what she was meant to be. And for denying yourself the right to fight this war the way you Know it Should be fought!" Reignfire tells him, as he scoops up the unconscious Feral.
"No. I've fought that war with myself already, Reignfire. I won't fight it again." Cable tells him, as he blasts at Reignfire with his plasma pistol.
Reignfire meets Cable's blast with one of his own, negating it.
"Locus, Moonstar come to me!" Reignfire yells, as he grabs Gyrich and flies up to meet them.
"Locus, locate Forearm, Reaper and Wildside. We are teleporting out of here, now." Reignfire orders.
"What about Tempo and what are we going to do with Gyrich?" Moonstar asks.
"The former is a traitor and no longer one of us. The latter is target practice." Reignfire says, as he drops Gyrich and Locus and Moonstar, both, fire a blast which will surely tear him asunder if they strike.
"No! Not after everything we've been through. I cannot, will not, allow her to kill someone in cold blood like this. If I can just..." And suddenly Sunspot takes off into the air flying.
"DaCosta!" Cable yells trying to stop him.
"I did it! I used my solar powers to fly! Gyrich, cover your eyes. This might get rather explosive. I'm going to intercept Locus's beam and pray that my powers can disperse her attack." Sunspot tells him, as he flies between Gyrich and the oncoming blasts.
SKASHAKATHOOM
"What're you...Feed-back is screwing us up...We're both going to..." Locus screams, as both she and Roberto disappear in a blinding flash of light and Gyrich falls into the ocean.
"Bobby!" Sam screams to the now empty heavens.
"They're all gone!" Warpath says.
"But Gyrich has been spared." Shatterstar adds, as Gyrich walks up onto the shore.
"Gyrich, this Better have been worth losing two members of my unit for." Cable tells him.
"If anything, Cable, I am more convinced than ever that you and your kind pose a threat to humanity." Gyrich tells him with a sneer.
POOM
Cable give him a right cross which knocks him back five feet onto his back in the wet sand.
"Then this wasn't worth it at all." Cable tells him, as he turns and walks back towards the PAC-RAT, pondering at all that has been lost today with nothing gained in return.
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