Queens of Sacrifice

Roll Call:
X-Force: Cable, Domino, Cannonball, Boom-Boom, Warpath, Shatterstar and Feral.
The New Warriors: Night Thrasher, Chord, Marvel Boy, Firestar, Speedball, Silhouette, Nova and Namorita.
Mission Status: Both teams desperately head towards the Muir Island Scientific Research Center off the coast of Scotland. Having failed to contact the island's owner, Moira MacTaggert, in order to tell her that A.I.M. seeks to recreate her son, Proteus. Both teams tensely anticipate the worst.

"X-Force-1 to Muir Island Center--Co you copy--!" Domino tried for what seemed like the thousandth time. She turned to Cable and said, "Still no response, Cable."
"You copy, Chord?" Cable asked, taking the radio mike.
"Roger. Do we land or send a fly-by recon?" Chord asked.
"The latter. Cannonball, high-altitude fly-by. Check for ground security defenses...Be careful." Cable said.
"No problem, Sir. I'll even dull my blast-field noise down. They won't hear me at all." Cannonball answered.
Chord also ordered Firestar to go along with Sam. Once they were underway, she asked, "Why do you think they're not answering, Sam? That's not like Dr. MacTaggert, is it?"
" Harness coulda' gotten here first, Angel, or it could be Dr. MacTaggert helself, She's been actin' kinda' funny lately. Like she's a totally different person." Sam answered.
Unknown to Cable, and the others, Moira MacTaggert, Jaime Madrox, Siryn, Legion and Polaris are all under the control of a supreme telepath known as The Shadow King. For now, though, he loosens his hold. He does, however, have Moira activate the islands defenses. The perimeter guns began to fire at Cannonball and Firestar. Cable and Chord sent Nova, Namorita and Marvel Boy to help them. They managed to take out all the guns, but just as they took out the last one, they were all struck down by a sonic blast.br> "That was a sonic scream, but I thought you said the X-Man Banshee was off planet!?" Marvel Boy said.
"He is. Will his daughter do?" Moira MacTaggert asked. Brandishing a huge plasma rifle. "We'd hoped to avoid this, Children...Islanders--Take Them Down!"
With this Siryn, Polaris, Multiple Man, and Legion attacked Sam and the others. Polaris floored Namorita with one blow. Sam and Nova took to the air where Sam took out Siryn. Moira blasted Nova out of the sky where he was immediately attacked by Legion. Marvel Boy attacked Multiple Man with a telekinetic blow which only served to make six more of him. Before the islanders could press their advantage, however, Cable's voice interrupted.
"I'd stop where you are, if I were you...Your choice, of course, Moira--But a woman of science should have no problem calculating these odds."
Cable stood atop a hill, overlooking the battle. He, Domino and Chord were armed with heavy plasma rifles. Along with them stood Warpath, Night Thrasher, Feral, Shatterstar and Speedball.
"Fights over. Why are you here, Cable?" Moira asked.

Meanwhile, in Edinburgh, Scotland, Harness had arrived with the young boy named Piecemeal, who was so large by this point that Harness had to haul him around in a van. Harness, once again, forced the young boy to feed on the energy that had once been the mutant called Proteus. The boy was now larger than the mutant known as The Blob and still Harness forced him to feed. The sensors in Harness's armor said that a nearby castle was the focal point for the energy and began to drag the boy towards it.

Back on Muir Island, Cable, and the others, had assembled inside one of the briefing rooms as Cable explained the situation to Moira.
"It's a long story, Moira--But it involves several very dangerous mutants--And it involves you and your son."
"Kevin!? I'm listening." Moira said.
"It started with X-Force tracking down The Alliance of Evil. They were running interference for two other mutants. An armored hulk called Harness and a small energy-absorbing boy named Piecemeal." Chord started off.
"Seems like everywhere they went, Piecemeal was absorbing a specific energy wavelength. The Alliance told us they had been hired by a company called Genetech." Sam added.
"Genetech had asked us for our help because they were afraid they'd gotten involved in something over their heads. They were right." Night Thrasher put in.
"Eventually, we found out three things--#1 The Alliance had actually been hired by the international weapons makers known as Advanced Idea Mechanics. #2 An A.I.M. facility in Brooklyn was mass-producing injection-molded body casings for the containment of the unknown energy. #3 By using the Cerebro mutant detecting system, we pin-pointed the energy wavelength that A.I.M. was after to a nexus point in Edinburgh." Marvel Boy added.
"This leads us to believe that two seperate factions have been actively trying to recreate Proteus. Someone hired A.I.M. to do so through energy absorption, containment and manipulation. Someone else hired Genetech to do it biologically with information obtained through your own experiments." Cable finished explaing.
"I learned a long time ago that my sons cellular structure may have the ability to replicate itself. I had the chance t' do so--to bring my son back t' life--But I chose not to--I allowed my son t' know the kind of peace and tranquility in death that he'd never known in life..." Moira told them.
"Dr. MacTaggert...If it's not too painful...It may help us to know...Exactly what were the circumstances surrounding your son's life--And death--?" Marvel Boy asked.
"My son was born an energy vampire of sorts. He lived his childhood in isolation--A human guinea pig--As I tried t' find a way t' cure him...Angry and bitter, he escaped, possessing one body after another--His enormous energies burnin' them all out...The X-Men Battled back--But were barely a match for my son's reality-altering abilities. Finally, having burned out his final host body--That of my ex-husband, Joe--Proteus was in a vulnerable pure energy form--His anathema t' metal proved his undoing, as Colossus defeated him, dispersing his energy form t' the four winds. My son's life and death are demons I was done with years ago an' won't be wantin' t' haunt me again! If recreatin' him is what A.I.M. is wantin' to do, then we'll help you stop it!" Moira told them.
Before the meeting could go any further, they were interrupted by a call from Scotland. "Muir Island--This is Brigadier Alysande Stuart. We have superhuman activity in Edinburgh. An unidentified armored character and a very large glowing mass of flesh--If you can believe that!"
"This is the final move! We'd better get to Edinburgh, fast!" Night Thrasher said.

The three groups were soon approaching Edinburgh in two air craft. The New Warriors chopper wasn't handling the turbulance as well as X-Force's craft. Chord radioed Cable. "Energy patterns are registering off-scale. I'm worried about flying the chopper any closer."
"Hang back then, Chord. We can evac from a strategic flanking route." Cable told him.
"We have to separate them--Get Harness out of the way so we can deal with the child." Moira said.
"Fine. Madrox, Speedball, Marvel Boy, Legion and Firestar join the Doctor in dealing with Piecemeal. Domino--You and Chord--Stay airborne--Cover us with firepower and stay ready for a quick dust-off. The rest of us will take that armored scum out!" Cable told them.

Cannonball and Nova attacked first, knocking Harness off the ramparts of the castle and to the ground below, where the rest of their force waited. Boom-Boom immediately threw one of her plasma bombs, keeping Harness dazed. Warpath, Namorita and Polaris moved in raining blow after blow on Harness. Harness activated the armor's repulsor rays to get rid of these three and deployed the armor's lasers and took out Boom-Boom, Siryn, Shatterstar, Night Thrasher and Feral. Of them all, Feral was hit the worst. Cable ran to her and asked, "Feral--?"
"One life down--Eight to go, Boss." Feral answered.
"Stay down--I have you covered--" Cable ordered, as he laid down suppressing fire to keep Harness at bay. Nova and Namorita moved in and each grabbed one of Harness's arms and flying straight towards Warpath and Polaris who each delivered a mammoth blow knocking Harness back fifty feet into and through the castle wall. As Harness came out of the rubble of the wall, Cable fired with his plasma rifle, scoring a direct hit to Harness's head, and ordered, "Everyone who's still up and about...attack in unison! Finish Him Off!"
Cannonball flew in delivering another chrushing blow to Harness, immediately followed up by Warpath, who delivered a blow which shattered Harness's helmut, which in turn shocked all of the assembled heroes as they discovered that Harness was in fact a woman.

Atop the castle, Moira, and her team had been trying to drain of some of the energy that the boy had absorbed. But so fan could not even stop him from absorbing still more of the energy. The boy was screaming in agony as the machine that Moira had brought to absorb the energy from the boy overloaded and exploded.

"What's goin' on up there?" Cable yelled.
The only answer he got was a new scream from the young boy, who as now a giant blob of flesh that could not even speak clearly, "Mommy--Helb Me--Pees--Mommy!"
"His entire body's rupturing! He can't keep the energies inside of him anymore!" Moira shouted down to the others.
"You--You're his Mother?!" Warpath asked of Harness.
"Gilbert--Hold it in--Did you hear me?! Hold it in, Gilbert! Hold it inside you or you'll ruin everything!" She yelled to her son.
"Mommy--I can't--I CAN'T!!" And than the young boy's head exploded, followed a nano-second later by his body. In his place was a maelstorm of energy which covered the sky for miles around. And at the center of this maelstorm stood a being. The being looked down at the people below and spoke, "We are one. We are Gilbert Benson and Kevin MacTaggert. We are Piecemeal and Proteus."
"We are in big trouble." Warpath said.
"Hello, Mothers." The being said looking at Moira and Harness, "And Good-Bye."
With this, the maelstorm of energy which covered the sky, lowered and enveloped the entire city and countryside of Edinburgh and every building, tree, man and woman which had been there...simply vanished.