Thanks to Marvel Comics for all of their wonderful characters. Psylocke, Juggernaut, Courier, Nitro are all their characters.

Chapter 1

“What in the hell did you think you were doing, Psylocke? You are going to get us both killed if you keep that crap up.”

“I said I was sorry, Courier. What more do you want. I can’t go back and change it. Besides, the bastard had it coming. Any man that would wear polka dots and stripes together deserves a class A ass kicking!”

Courier started laughing at that one. She was currently using the form of a middle aged executive, the one we had come to bust. Robert Hunter had been suspected by Homeland Security of selling secrets from his company’s research into “smart” explosives to Al Qaeda.

Smart explosives had the potential to revolutionize demolitions. They could be programmed to act like a shaped charge, focusing a blast in any direction without actually shaping the charge, thereby magnifying the power of the blast exponentially. Rand Industries was the tip of the spear in this weapon class, and Hunter was its CFO. He was a complete asshole, someone whose five million dollar plus stock options in the hottest company on earth salary wasn’t enough.

Hunter had managed to get away, and the op went south after that. I was brought in to provide backup and get intel on who was doing what. I had gained a lot more control over my abilities in the year and a half since I had changed from a slightly nerdy sixteen year old boy to a sort of hot meta chick with the ability to, among other things, could read peoples minds.

I was assigned to Homeland Security rather than the more traditional Department of Metahuman Affairs. My particular talents were well suited to stealth. I could fight, but I wasn’t in the class of the heavy hitters, and had no desire to get my pretty face messed up.

I had developed a fast friendship with Juggernaut, aka Cain Marko. I liked his attitude and he looked out for me like a big, REALLY big brother. There are worse guys to have on your side. He really hadn’t gotten on board with any government agency, but he never said no when they needed his talents, either. He was my big teddy bear.

So, the mission went south, and Courier was almost out of the building when one of the security goons had made her as a phony. He was tipped off by the real Mr. Wilson on his way out. He tried to stop her, I stopped him, a little louder than necessary, I guess. I should have listened and just mind wiped him, but that outfit was more than I could stand.

We made it to our ride with time to spare and hauled butt. Courier began the change back to her regular form. She was a shape shifter, but she had gotten “stuck” as a female when something happened to her on one of her/his many missions. She could still shift, but always had to revert to a super stunning brunette that made people stop what they were doing to look at her. If I wasn’t attached, even I would try to have a go at her.

She still hadn’t fully accepted her new life. She always said she would “get” someone named Remy if it was the last thing she did. I think she likes him, but what do I know. Heck, I don’t even know who Remy is, and I don’t ask.

“So, from all the gunfire I heard, I’m guessing you didn’t get out clean, eh, Courier?” greeted Supervisory Special Agent George Garrison.

“Ha, ha, ha and screw you, George” replied Courier. “The rookie here got a little punch happy. Evidently YOU didn’t give her her Ritalin.”

That got my attention. “HEY! Jackie, that was mean!”

She looked at me with those perfect brown eyes and squinted. “It’s Courier, squirt!”

Pouting, I crossed my arms and spat “I’m not a squirt and I don’t need Ritalin” Then I smiled. “But you need to show me your boobs, Jackie”

Courier acted all exasperated and started to pull off her top. “Okay. You know all you have to do is ask.”

I spoke softly and smiled. “Stop it, Jackie! What in the world are you doing? Keep your shirt on, you tramp! I don’t want to see your boobs, girl!”

Suddenly she realized what she was doing, and turned several shades of red. “Stop that!”

I replied frostily, “Then stop treating me like a little kid, or you’ll be showing your boobs to the first man I see”

“All right ladies. That will be enough of that. Teammates don’t treat each other in that way. Psylocke, tone down the mind games, or I’ll suspend you without pay for the next six months. Courier, stop acting like you are the only one who knows what she’s doing.”

Courier mumbled. “I’m not a lady.”

Garrison had taken about enough. “Jackie! What part of knock it off don’t you understand? Until you figure out a way to stop looking like Miss Universe, then you are a girl!”

We were both chastened. I loved Courier like a sister, but we also fought like sisters. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, she was a girl, through and through. As was I. Our hormones sometimes got in the way, but we were kind of getting a handle on it. On the job, we were a pretty good team. We just had a bit of a struggle getting along the rest of the time.

I think she kind of resented me because of my rise in the Agency. Hey, I couldn’t help it if I had mad skills! I was pretty much indifferent to the political end of things in the Agency, and Jackie wasn’t. She was trying to get ahead, and I think she saw me as a threat. She couldn’t have been more wrong. I didn’t care one way on another about my position in the ladder. I was there to do a job, and I didn’t want the responsibility of having other people depending on me.

I decided to be the bigger person. “I’m sorry, Courier. I’ll try to be a little more discreet next time.”

“Okay” she grunted. “It’s okay.”

I put a big smile on my face, and leaned over to her. “Not good enough, big sis. Give us a hug!” I proceeded to give her a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Forgive me?” I said in my best little girl voice. “Please?”

She couldn’t hold back the laughter any more. “All right, you silly kid, all is forgiven” She then hugged me back.

Garrison smiled. “Okay, now that you’ve got that little matter handled. Let’s get back for debrief.”

We went over the op for the next 5 hours. I was crazy tired by the end of it, and getting very silly. The bottom line was the operation was compromised by some kind of mole in the system. Who or what that was would have to wait.

I got a driver to take me home, and Tracy was already in bed. We had moved out of her house when we went to college. We had both been accepted to the University of Michigan, so we didn’t have to move far. I got in due to my Government connections, and Tracy was Miss Braniac and was in an honors program at the school. She was in pre med, and her class load was a challenge, even for her.

We were getting along better than ever, and we were both sure that we would be together for the foreseeable future. I would have liked to say forever, but she never would go that far. It was just in her nature.

I tried to sneak in to the bedroom so I wouldn’t wake her, but I tripped over a shoe she left in the middle of the floor.

“Dammit!” I hissed.

“Hello beautiful” came a tired voice in the darkness. “Late night, huh?”

“Yeah, making the world safe for democracy isn’t a nine to five job, I guess. Sorry about waking you.”

“That’s okay, hon. You can wake me anytime you want.” Tracy yawned. “It’s only two thirty in the morning. You should be able to get a few hours sleep before your first class. When is it?”

“Eight o’clock” I sighed.

“Get undressed and come to bed, Betsy. You’ll feel better in the morning”

“Okay. Just let me get some jammies on.”

“Oh, for Pete’s sake girl. Can’t you sleep naked?”

“No, I can’t, and if I come over there, I won’t get any sleep, because you won’t keep your paws off of me!”

“Spoil sport. You are such a girl. I should be the one protecting myself from you!”

I smiled as I slipped on my sleep shirt. “What can I say? You’re the one who wears the pants in this family. And I’m the one who protects my virtue!”

“Get into bed, my little flower. Give me a kiss and go to sleep.”

I rolled into the bed and gave the love of my life a kiss. I fell asleep soon after, with Tracy stroking my hair.

I got painfully out of bed at 6:30. With not quite 4 hours of sleep under my belt, I was miserable. Tracy had gotten up about fifteen minutes before I did, and had already gotten some coffee going, and it smelled wonderful.

I walked in to the kitchen of our little apartment. Tracy was at the counter, getting her lunch ready. She turned around and burst out laughing. “What in the world happened to you?”

“What?” came my tired reply.

“Look at yourself, Betsy! Good Lord, you look like a sorry imitation of Amy Winehouse!”

I shuffled back into the bedroom and looked into the mirror. “Ohhhh, God!” I moaned.

I looked like a crack whore. My hair was everywhere and what makeup I had left was smeared all over my face. I had bags under my eyes, and was a general wreck.

Dipping my head in defeat, I muttered “I hate being a girl”

Tracy had come into the bedroom behind me and pinched my bottom. I jumped and screeched a little bit. “No you don’t, Betsy. You just hate the work. It’s not as easy to look beautiful when you burn the candle at both ends. I worried about you. You need to take some time off one thing or the other. Here’s your coffee, just like you like it.”

I turned to Tracy and took the cup. Sipping it, I relished the bittersweet taste. Tracy knew exactly how I liked my coffee.

Sighing deeply, I agreed. “I know. But I’m not sure what I should do. Part of me loves the difference I’m making in keeping the country safe. The other part just wants to be a normal girl for awhile.”

Hugging me, Tracy said “I know, Betsy, I know. But you’re going to have to make a decision soon. You can’t keep doing this.”

“Yeah, but I’m not making it today. Let me finish this and I’ll get into the shower and try and fix the damage.” I smiled at her, turned around and shook my booty.

The shower worked wonders. I stayed in until the water began to cool down, and then proceeded to get ready for the day. I still had about thirty minutes before I absolutely had to leave, so I took a little extra time with my makeup. The bags weren’t completely gone, and my eyes were still a little bloodshot. Some eye drops and that was fixed. I didn’t overdo the makeup, and a little eyeliner and mascara finished the look. I went with leggings and a baggy top with some cute boots. Looking in the mirror, I thought I cleaned up pretty well.

Tracy was already gone by the time I was ready. I grabbed by bag and headed out the door. I nearly forgot my cell phone, and grabbed it.

As I was walking to class, my phone rang. It was Courier.

I tried to sound chipper. “Hello?”

“Psylocke, we need you back in Detroit. There’s been an incident at Rand Industries, and it’s bad. We’re sending a car to pick you up now.”

“But I have class at eight.” I protested.

“Not any more. It’s already been taken care of. Use your phone to check the media reports on the way.” She hung up.

“Shit!” Why am I the one they go to first? I’m just a kid, something they remind me of every time I’m on an op.

A black SUV pulled up beside me and the back door opened. A polite looking gentleman got out and greeted me. “Are you ready, Miss Braddock?”

“Yes.” I got in, but I wasn’t happy.

On the way in to Detroit, I pulled up the media reports. There had been a massive explosion at the Rand Industries Jefferson Road Complex. The one million square foot building was nearly leveled, and hundreds of people were feared dead, thousands more wounded. The blast radius was a half mile in diameter. An elementary school nearby was heavily damaged, and over 100 children were hurt, with 15 confirmed dead.

I was stunned as I looked at the devastation on my little phone screen. Tears dripped onto the screen, as I realized that this could be another 9/11. I saw a broken little body being carried out of the school, and I began to cry. Who could have done this?

“Here, Miss Braddock. Take this.” The agent that let me in to the SUV offered me a handkerchief.

Taking it, I thanked him. “I’m sorry. I guess I should be stronger.”

“Don’t apologize for tears. There are some things that it’s okay to cry about. This is one of them. I hope you never get used to this. We are going directly to the scene. It will get much worse”

I couldn’t watch any more. I put the phone in my bag and looked out the window, crying silently.

When we got to within the blast radius, I was shocked at what I saw. The only thing I could think of was pictures I had seen of Hiroshima after the atomic bomb. I saw body parts, people walking like zombies and cars and houses simply destroyed.

The vehicle stopped and I got out. I was looking down, trying to avoid tripping, when I saw a little arm sticking out of some rubble. I bent down to hold the hand, not knowing why. It just seemed so lonely. As I touched it, I realized it was not attached to anything. I jumped up and put my hand over my mouth, stifling a scream. Agent Grant, the one who had been so nice to me, caught me.

“It’s okay, Miss Braddock. Just hold my hand, and we’ll get there” All I could do was give him a whispered thank you.

I saw the Homeland Security command center vehicle, a converted semi trailer and tractor. Courier was waiting for me when I got out of the SUV. She could see I had been crying.

“I know it’s tough right now, Betsy. But you need to be strong right now. Let’s go inside.”

I couldn’t speak. I was devastated that my city had been struck by such a disaster. I followed her numbly into the Command Center.

The Center was a fifty three foot trailer that was similar to the ones used to haul race cars. There were about twenty people in the trailer, coordinating the rescue investigation teams. There was a small area at the front of the trailer where Garrison was. Courier and I went there.

Garrison looked at me with concern. “Are you okay, Psylocke?”

I didn’t respond. I was looking at the news feeds on the monitors over his head. I flashed back to losing my parents in and explosion almost two years ago. This was hitting me hard.

“Psylocke? Psylocke!” I couldn’t respond. What was happening to me?

I just sat down on the floor. No hysterics, no scene. Tears were streaming down my face. Courier got down on her knees and cupped my face in her hands.

“Betsy? It’s okay to be sad, but we have a job to do. I need to know you can handle this.”

“It’s just so much… so much death. I can hear people who are trapped. People who won’t make it. Babies…who want their mothers, but can’t find them. They don’t understand.”

“Betsy! Shut it off! Stop thinking about it!”

Garrison spoke up at the wrong time. “Courier, if she can’t handle it, get her the hell out of here.”

Glaring at him, Courier spat back “Listen you ass. She’s been through this once before. You’re the genius who called her in. Didn’t you listen? She can hear the dying. ALL of them. I suggest you shut the fuck up and let me handle this.” She turned back to me. “Betsy? Are you able to shut them out?”

“Yes” came the weak reply. “I’m better now, thanks. It was just a little much. This brings back a lot of bad memories.”

“I know it does, Betsy. But we need all hands on deck for this one. Will you be good to go on this?”

“Yes, I think so.”

She helped me up. “Good, because we can use all of the help we can get.”

Garrison was surprisingly quiet. Courier had put him in his place. He was out of line and he knew it. He began the briefing. “Courier, you and Psylocke are the only metahumans assigned directly to this unit of Homeland. All of the others are out right now, either combing the wreckage, or helping to maintain order. We have been tasked with determining what happened here, and if it is related to our investigation of Robert Hunter.”

Garrison continued talking, but I ignored him. I could find Hunter.

I began to concentrate. I wasn’t going to let some psycho ruin my city. I had found Hunter before, and now that I knew his thought patterns, it would be easier to find him.

I left the noise of the command center behind. Expanding my search, I found him. He was still in town, but I couldn’t locate him exactly. I focused on his thoughts…

“Oh my God, NO!” I yelled.

“What, Betsy?” asked Garrison.

“I know what happened! I also was able to narrow down where he is.”

“How?”

“I just can, okay. He’s within 40 miles of here. His thoughts are clear, but I can’t locate him exactly. Something is wrong with his body, and I think I know why.”

Garrison looked sick. “Close the door, and explain”

“There was an accident in the lab. Hunter had managed to get back in after we left, and was putting the finishing touches on a bomb to level the lab and destroy all of the research on the smart explosives. Somehow, He got a chemical mixture wrong, and the nanites in the explosives bonded with his DNA. He set the explosives and they went off prematurely. He was at ground zero. The explosion was far more powerful than he anticipated. Somehow he survived. He has been changed physically, but I don’t know how yet.”

“And you are sure it was him you read?”

“One hundred percent”

“I’ll need to brief the Secretary. If there is a bright side to this, it is that foreign agents aren’t responsible or this. We can safely call it an industrial accident. Rand Industries won’t survive, but we won’t have to risk an escalation in the Middle East. Good work, Psylocke.”

I looked at him grimly. “This isn’t over. If he can survive an explosion of this magnitude, I think we are looking at another bad guy that will be very hard to deal with”

Thanks to Marvel Comics for all of their wonderful characters. Psylocke, Juggernaut, Courier, Nitro are all their characters.

Chapter 2

Garrison looked at me with something in his eyes bordering on fear. Fortunately, I didn’t have to rely on the look in his eyes. The man was scared about what happened, and the potential of having a human bomb walking about.

“Do you mean to tell me that this man survived a blast equivalent to ten thousand pounds of TNT, at the point of explosion?”

“I think he caused the explosion, boss. It wasn’t intentional, from what I got from him, but the nanites from the explosives have destabilized his molecular structure, enabling him to explode at will, and then reform his body.”

Courier was shocked “Son of a bitch, Garrison. This guy’s our worst nightmare. A suicide bomber who can explode over and over again. None of our facilities will be safe”

“I know the ramifications, Courier. Psylocke, can you track him?”

“It’s difficult, but I can at least keep tabs on his mental state. I don’t think he has reformed his body. That’s why I can’t get a fix on his location”

“Keep working on it. We’ve got to get this nutball shut down, and quick. Stay here while I get the Secretary on line. I may need you to explain”

I was twirling my hair absentmindedly while listening to him and gave a sarcastic laugh. “Like he’s going to listen to a purple haired weirdo like me. Can’t you just tell him that you have some good intelligence or something like that?”

He dismissed the thought. “Just be ready to explain”

The Secretary of Homeland Security came online on the secure videoconferencing channel. Special Agent Garrison began the briefing. Garrison turned it over to me, and, like the 18 year old I was, I stuttered and stammered and generally made an ass of myself.

The Secretary rolled his eyes and addressed Garrison. “Please tell me that you have more to go on than the word of this girl”

I shot a look at Garrison and gave him my best “SEE?” face.

“Sir, however Psylocke's briefing was delivered, I believe her assessment is correct. We have a serious threat to national security here. Psylocke will attempt to keep tabs on him, and we will mobilize the necessary assets to deal with the situation”

“Do we have J1 available?”

“Not at present. He can be a bit…recalcitrant at times. I’ll see what I can do, but there are no guarantees”

The Secretary leaned forward. “You get him online and available or bring him in. That’s an order, Garrison”

I knew who J1 was. Cain. I laughed out loud at the prospect of anyone bringing him in against his will.

The Secretary glared into the screen. “Something to add, Agent Braddock?”

I opened my mouth to give the Secretary a piece of my mind, but Garrison intervened. “No sir, she doesn’t”

“Very well, Garrison. Keep me informed”

“Yes sir.” The screen went to a test pattern.

Garrison glared at me. “Do you have any idea who that was?”

“Yes, I do. A pompous ass that insults me and expects me to like it. I could have him playing with dolls in two seconds, and he’s mouthing off! And really. Who’s going to drag Cain in if he doesn’t want to come in? I’ll tell you. No one, that’s who! Not even that big ass woman from Chicago”

Courier interjected a thought “He likes you, Psylocke”

“And I want to keep it that way. I’m not going to bother him unnecessarily.” I then turned to her. “And he doesn’t like me like ‘that’, Courier. He saved my life taking out that big ugly ape that Shadow King sent I owe him”

Garrison pounded his desk. “Enough! Psylocke, contact him now!”

“Oh, screw you, Garrison. I’ve had just about enough of being treated like a second class citizen around here. I was promised an education, and all you’ve done since I got this ability is work me to death. I missed my senior prom, Homecoming, Christmas with Tracy’s family, MY FAMILY!” I was beginning to get loud now. The stress of the day was causing me to melt down, and that was bad for everyone in that room.

The staff members working in the Center were starting to stop what they were doing and looking toward the supervisor’s office. I didn’t care.

“Agent Braddock, you will get yourself under control NOW!”

That did it. “I’ll show you control, SIR!” I proceeded to shut down everyone’s mind in the trailer, with the exception of Courier. The activity went to zero. I looked at Courier, who I still considered a friend.

“Jackie, you had better get that big jerk under control, or I swear to God, I’ll wreck him” I walked to the exit of the Command Center, and then turned to her. “I’ll TRY to contact Cain, but no promises. I’ll also tell him about what that arrogant ass of a Secretary said. I promise you. If I say the word, Hunter will be the least of your worries. I love Cain like a brother, and don’t get in the way of that.”

I started to break down. “I have had the worst day of my life after the death of my parents. I’ve seen crap today that no one my age should have to see, and GI Joe up there expects me to go on like nothing’s happened. I’m going home, and don’t bother me until tomorrow. And it had better be only you that comes to see me. Everyone should wake up in about five minutes”

I went to the nice Agent who helped me. I was crying now. “Can you drive me home please?”

“Sure, Psylocke. Are they done with you?”

“I’m done with them. Let’s go” A subtle mental push ensured no more conversation.

I picked up my cell and dialed the number that Cain gave me. If I dialed that number he knew it was me.

His gruff voice was a welcome sound. “Hey kid. What’s up?”

I couldn’t hold back the emotion. “Can we talk? In person? I’m sorry to bother you, but something terrible has happened, and I might need your help”

Cain was in Canada, at a cabin he built. No one but me knew he was there. I related the events of the day and he listened intently. I told him about what the Secretary said, and he burst out laughing.

“I’ll be down tomorrow, kid. Don’t worry about a thing. I’ll even buy you and Tracy dinner”

That brought a smile to my face. “I really am sorry to bother you, Cain. I know how you like to be left alone”

“Don’t worry about it. See ya”

I disconnected, feeling much better. Agent Grant was locked in to driving, so he didn’t hear my conversation. I saw to that.

An hour later, I was walking in to our apartment. I noticed I had picked up a couple of observers, courtesy, no doubt, of Garrison. I focused on them and they drove off. Garrison was pissing me off.

I dialed Courier and she picked up on the first ring.

“Jackie? I just sent two of Garrison’s boys on their way. The next ones get sent away with instructions to kick his ass. I’m serious. Leave me the fuck alone!” I disconnected.

Tracy was inside watching the news reports. It was the only thing on any of the news channels. All of the local channels were on the explosion.

Tracy paused the DVR and ran up to me, giving me a big hug. She was crying, which started me all over again.

“I just can’t believe it, Betsy. I knew people in that area.”

“I know, Trace. Just be glad you weren’t there. It was…terrible”

“You had to go there? Why?”

I looked at her like she was nuts. “My job, Trace. Some nut job set the explosion. It wasn’t a terror attack, though”

I had to get a shower, to get rid of the dust of that terrible place. I also needed Tracy to come with me, but I didn’t want to disturb her. “I’m taking a shower, hon” I said “I’ll be back in five”

I went to the bathroom and sat on the toilet. I cried for the people who wouldn’t be coming home. For the babies who lost their parents. For the parents who lost their babies. I got mad all over again at the bureaucrats who couldn’t get past the fact that I was hurting. So what if I had a job to do. I AM AN EIGHTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL! I haven’t been in sixteen wars and a hundred years of government intrigue. I am a self absorbed little girl. Deal with it. I need time to process this stuff. I don’t care if I was the most powerful person on earth.

I stripped and got into the shower. I let the water run over me. My tears got lost in the water.

I heard the bathroom door close. The shower door opened and Tracy got in with me.

“It’s okay to cry, Betsy. I’ve been doing it all day.”

I needed her right then. Wrapping my arms around her and feeling her slick skin, I kissed her passionately. She returned the kiss. Feeling weak in the knees, I sat on the shaving ledge in the shower. Tracy knelt in front of me, probing my mouth with her tongue. I returned her kisses as hard as I could. My fire was lit, and she knew just what to do. We made love for the next three hours.

We lay in bed, basking in the afterglow of our passion. I was exhausted, as was she.

I turned to her, leaning on one elbow, running my fingers through her hair. “Thank you, Tracy. I really needed that. I needed to know that there was still something good in this life”

Turning on her side to face me she smiled and spoke. “You’re not the only one who can read minds, you know”

Leaning forward, I gave her a light kiss on the lips. “What would I do without you?”

“Go crazy, I guess” She then gave me a little pinch on my right nipple. I squealed and gave her a toe curler. She had that glazed look in her eyes when I stopped.

I rolled over to get off the bed “Let me make us something to eat”

Tracy grabbed my arm and pulled me back as I squealed with laughter again. “Oh no you don’t missy. I’ve got something for you to eat”

“Ewww, gross! That’s not romantic at all, you unladylike beast!”

“Whatever, wench…..”

My phone was off the entire night. The apartment phone was off the hook. I didn’t miss it, and wouldn’t have answered it had it rung. I was off the case until someone apologized. Maybe I’m selfish, but I was done with being the junior g-man on the team. Especially one who solved ninety eight percent of the cases we were assigned.

At around six thirty AM, I picked up my phone and turned it back on. There were several messages from Garrison, and one from a blocked number. I had to listen to these messages.

“Psylocke! How dare you use that mind crap on me…” Delete.

“You had better answer this phone. We….” Delete.

“Ok, I may have been a little harsh, but you have to under…” Delete. This was fun!

“Okay, Betsy, You’ve made your point. Come on back in and…” Delete.

“Take the rest of the night, think about things, and get back to me in the morning. We need you on the team.” Delete. That’s better.

“This is Secretary Smith. You are in violation of…” Delete, block number. Tee hee! He doesn’t need to talk to me anyway.

I dialed Courier’s number.

“Hello? Betsy?”

“Hi, Jackie. Your goons can pick me up in one hour.”

“Okay, Psylocke. They are on their way.”

I took my shower and cleaned up. I did my hair, which had taken on more purple highlights in the last year. Looking in the mirror as a put on my makeup, I looked for some signs of Brian, of the Braddock family. There was nothing. I looked like a healthy mix of Caucasian and Asian. I loved my new face, it just seemed exotic. I dressed for action in my preferred uniform, a black leather bustier and leather pants with spandex panels in the thighs for flexibility. I sheathed my katana and placed it in the black bag that carried all of my weapons. I was fully proficient in firearms, but I didn’t carry them. They made too much noise, and I was a stealth weapon.

It was funny. When I put on my uniform, it was like a switch flipped. I was no one to be messed with, and my team knew it. It wouldn’t have mattered yesterday, but now I was pissed. It was a cloudy day, and I decide to mess with the goon squad. The pulled up into the parking garage of the complex. I shadow teleported from the apartment to the garage. The driver was looking in my direction when I came out of the shadow. I’m told it looks creepy when I come out of a shadow. All you see are two glowing eyes and then all of a sudden I come out. Cool.

As I exit the shadow, driver goon about jumps out of his skin. “Damn” He says. Ha! “little girl” my ass!

“Let’s go” was all I said as I got into the car.

They took me to the command center. Courier was there to meet me again.

“Welcome back, Psylocke. I see you’re ready to get serious”

“”Yeah,” I nodded. “But Garrison had better shut his big mouth. I’m not playing today.”

“Understood. The Secretary, however…"

“Had better keep his big yap shut too”

“Oooookaaaayyyy”

We went in to the command center and Garrison was waiting. He wanted to say something, but wisely kept his mouth shut. His thoughts, however betrayed his obvious irritation with me.

I tapped my head. “Special Agent Garrison! What is a 'stupid cunt'? Was that directed at me?”

“Never mind, and stop reading me! You said yourself it’s impolite”

“Sorry, *sir*. Juggernaut will be here today”

His mood lightened considerably. “Good work, Psylocke. I didn’t think he would come”

He came because I asked him. Otherwise, he’d still be on vacation. He doesn’t respond well to threats. Neither do I, as you know now”

“Point made, Psylocke. Have you located Hunter?”

“Yes, and he’s already changed his name. He calls himself Nitro now.” He is in Taylor now. I focused, to get a better fix on him. He was at a bank. I suddenly realized what he was doing. “Shit!” was all I could say before he detonated. Then things went black.

Thanks to Marvel Comics for all of their wonderful characters. Psylocke, Juggernaut, Courier, Nitro are all their characters.

Chapter 3

Psylocke, Juggernaut, Courier and Nitro are from the Marvel comics universe.

I added some art to help you visualize the main characters.

Robert Hunter, aka Nitro entered the Chemical Bank branch in Taylor, Michigan. He was dressed in a rumpled outfit consisting of khakis, tee shirt and an unbuttoned flannel shirt. His long white hair was a mess, and he looked more like a bum than a former high level executive of the sixth largest company on the Forbes 500.

He waited patiently in line, casually whistling a tune, which didn’t sound like much to the outside listener, but in his mind was a rendition of the Pat Travers tune “Out Go the Lights” which was always preceded by “boom boom”. He chuckled openly at that.

The accident that had changed him was a fortuitous accident. The research was gone, but he became more than the research. He was now a living, breathing bomb. He didn’t know how big an explosion he could cause, but he knew that there were a lot of people who would pay big money for his talents. Right now, he needed some walking around money, and he didn’t need any witnesses. He stepped up to the counter, where he saw a pretty, petite woman of about 25 working the window. She was very pregnant.

“May I help you sir?” asked the bank teller with a smile.

“Yes, I’d like to make a withdrawal, please.” He looked at the name plate in front of the window. “Missy”

“May I have your account number, sir?”

He got an evil smile on his face and his eyes began to glow a bright yellow. “Sure! It’s 3…2…1…”

The explosion blew out the front of the building. Missy, her supervisor and 9 other bank patrons were killed instantly. Missy was just about to go on maternity leave.

There was a mist in the bank, that began to coalesce into a human form, then features could be made out, and soon, Nitro was back in his normal form, no worse for wear. He went behind what was left of the counters and collected what he guessed was about ten thousand dollars.

A police cruiser pulled up to the remains of the bank. The uniformed officer ran to the building, calling for fire and rescue as he ran. He looked into the shell, and saw an older man walking about in the rubble.

“Sir! Are you okay? You need to get out of here. Fire and rescue are on the way.”

Looking at the officer impassively, Nitro just laughed. “I’ll be fine, officer, but you need to walk away”

“Why?”

“I’ll ask you what may seem like a dumb question, but humor me”

“What?”

“Could you identify me in a lineup if you had to?”

“Yeah, I guess. Why?”

Hunter’s eyes began to glow. “Wrong answer….”

I woke up slowly. My head was throbbing and my vision was extremely blurry. I couldn’t get it to clear.

“She’s coming to, Garrison.” I recognized Courier’s voice. “Hey, Betsy, take it easy. Just lie there for a second”

“W-w-what happened? Where’s Tracy? Is she okay?”

“She’s fine, Betsy, she wasn’t there, remember? You’ve been out of it for about an hour. You’re in the hospital”

I could hear Garrison in the background. “Doc’s on his way”

Courier was holding my hand. “Do you remember anything?”

Closing my eyes, I tried to remember. Everything was too fuzzy, like trying to remember someone whose name is on the tip of your tongue. “No. My head hurts. The light in this room is killing me. Turn it off. And call Tracy.”

I could feel Courier turn to whoever was still in the room. The lights went off.

“There. Is that better?”

“Yes, thanks. My head still feels like it’s gonna pop.”

“Just close your eyes and try to relax. We’re trying to figure out what happened to you. I called Tracy and she’s on her way”

“Good. I feel like crap”

The doctor came into the room. “Betsy. I’m Doctor Blake. I’m going to take a look at you, Okay? Why are the lights off?”

“They hurt my head.”

“Interesting. I’m going to need to turn them on for a little while, so close them if you have to”

He performed his exam, and asked me to open my eyes. The light was still on, and the pain was intense.

“I’m gonna throw up!” I lost my cookies into one of those funny shaped cups. My head was in agony.

“Shut the lights off!” shouted the doctor. The lights went off.

I was crying, angry and in pain. “Give me something for this headache, dammit!” I moaned, unable to scream like I wanted too.

“Take it easy, Betsy” soothed Courier. “We’re on it. C’mon, doc. Can’t you do something?”

“Hang on” He reached for a hypo and injected something into the IV. “There, that should help”

Soon the pain faded, and I could relax.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Well, you have a pretty serious concussion, but I’ll be damned if I know how you got it. According to your friends here, you just collapsed. While you were out we were able to do a CAT scan, and your brain was injured as if you had been struck by something. We normally only see this kind of brain injury in soldiers who have been exposed to an explosion of some sort.

I was still foggy, and starting to get very sleepy. “I need to get some sleep.”

The doctor spoke up quickly. “That’s not a good idea right now. I want to do another scan, just to make sure there isn’t anything we missed. Do you think you can stay awake for that?”

“I’ll try, but don’t count on it.” Then I was out.

I woke up feeling a lot better. My headache was gone, and I could remember what had happened. Nitro had gone boom when I was connected to him. It must have created a psychic feedback wave that had affected me like I had been there.

Looking to my right, I saw Tracy sleeping in the chair by the bed. She looked so cute sitting there all curled up.

“Hey sleepyhead. Wake up.”

Yawning, Tracy rubbed her eyes and smiled at me. “How are you feeling?”

“I need to pee”

“So, pretty much normal then”

“Ha, ha smarty pants. So I don’t have a super bladder”

I was still hooked up to the IV, and I really needed to pee. I buzzed the nurse to help me up. About three anxious minutes later, a nurse showed up.

“Oh. So you’re finally awake! Good. I’ll let the Doctor know you’re up”

“Ah, I really need to pee”

“We’ll need to wait until the doctor gets here before you get up”

Tracy began snickering. “Here it comes”

“If I don’t go now, you’ll have something else to do before he gets here. Like clean up this bed. I have to PEE”

“Oh! That bad, huh. Okay, let’s get you fixed up”

I ended up peeing in a bedpan, which is about as screwed up a way to go as there is. But I did feel a lot better after I was done. I can’t hold my bladder. When I have to go, I have to go. I’ll bet Supergirl never had this problem.

The doctor came and went. I passed all of the tests they give to concussion patients. Tracy was totally calm, which really helped me out. If the roles had been reversed, I would have been a wreck.

After checking my pupils one more time, the doc pronounced me fit. “I can’t explain it, but you appear to have recovered really well from your brain injury. I’m not saying you’re healed, but I think we can cut you loose for now.”

I knew I was okay. If there’s one thing I had a sense of, it was my body. I knew when I was hurt, and when I was recovered. My brain had a way of healing itself, evidently, and I wasn’t complaining. I just shut down, and it did its work.

They pulled the IV out, and I was able to go to the bathroom to take care of myself in the proper way. I washed myself off as well as I could, and brushed my hair. Tracy had brought me some things to wear, a cute maxi skirt that was totally comfortable and some flats.

Walking out of the bathroom, I looked in my hand mirror. Biting my lip, I wasn’t happy with what I saw. “Tracy, my hair is complete crap. Could you braid it for me?”

“Why certainly, baby girl! One long one?”

“Yes, thank you”

As I sat down on the bed she took my brush and began separating my hair for the braid.

“You never want your hair braided. Why now?”

I shrugged. “Woman’s prerogative? Besides, I like having you play with my hair”

She laughed. “You’re learning, Betsy. You’re learning. Soon the student will be the Master”

I was discharged later in the morning. Garrison met me at the hospital door with a very big man.

“Cain!” I shouted as I ran to hug him. “It’s so good to see you!”

“Good to see you too, kid” he rumbled. “You too, Tracy. C’mere”

Tracy came over and hugged Cain. We were both dwarfed by the seven foot behemoth. For someone so big, he knew just ho to control his strength. His hugs always made me feel safe. He never squished me.

“You girls ready for something to eat? I’m buying.”

“Well, duh! I mean I just came back from death’s door. Don’t you think we deserve some handsome guy buying us lunch, Tracy?”

Rolling her eyes, she said “Why yes, Betsy, yes we do. After all that death’s door crap, I mean drama”

Cain laughed a laugh that would make a bear cringe. “Handsome guy, huh. Well since he’s not here, maybe I can buy”

Garrison was watching impatiently. This guy needed to take a serious vacation. I could tell he hated Cain, but I didn’t get any deeper. Not polite, you know. Besides, I don’t think Cain Marko really gave a damn what Garrison thought of him.

“C’mon, let’s take my ride”

“What about my car?” asked Tracy.

“Don’t worry about it; we’ll pick it up later”

Cain’s “ride” was a customized H1 Hummer with a diesel engine, which was about the only vehicle in the world big enough for him. Garrison made a move to come with us, but Cain stopped him.

“Unless you fit in the “girls” category. You ain’t invited, Garrison”

I felt bad about that for some reason. Maybe because I blew up at him earlier. “It’s no trouble, Cain, really. I don’t mind if he comes”

“I do. We’ll catch up with you later, Special Agent”

As we pulled out of the parking garage, I spoke up.

“Well, that was awkward. Did you have to be so, I don’t know, short with him?”

Turning to look at me, he gave a small grin. “Just watch you back around that guy, kid. I don’t trust him. He’d sell you out in a heartbeat to advance his agenda. He’s all about him self. Believe me, I know”

“How?”

“Because he sold me out once, that’s how. He’s a worm from word go in my book. If I were you, I’d keep an eye on his thoughts”

“Okay, if you think so”

“I do. I would be a really good idea” Pausing, he said, “So, where to? Are you up to eating?”

Replying quickly, I said, “Always. I didn’t say anything before, but I think I heal from brain injuries, pretty rapidly”

Tracy was surprised. “Brain injury?”

“Yeah. I was connected to Hunter when he detonated. Somehow, that created some kind of feedback that damaged my brain as if I had actually been there. Two days later, and I’m ready for, what do you think Tracy? Cajun?”

She bounced on the seat like a little kid. “Ohh, yeah girl. That’s a crazy good idea”

I looked at Cain. “We need Cajun!”

He took us to a place by one of the casinos in town. He had the valet park his monstrosity. He looked like some high powered pimp, rolling in with two beautiful girls on his arm. He had this silly little grin, knowing he was making a big splash. Men and their egos! It was fun though.

We got a table in the back of the restaurant, away from the crowd. Sitting down, he was as tall as the little waitress that came to serve us. She was clearly intimidated by the huge man.

“W-what would you like to drink, sir?” She asked nervously.

“A gallon of iced tea. With lemon, please”

“And the ladies? They’ll have iced tea also” He looked at me and winked. “Still like the berry tea?”

Smiling, I replied “How sweet of you to remember, Cain. Now what about Tracy?”

“Plain, no sweetener. She’s sweet enough”

Tracy made a retching noise “Oh, please, Cain. Stop before I get sick!”

While they were laughing, I leaned over to the waitress and whispered “He’s a big teddy bear. Just be nice to him, and he’ll be nice to you”
I explained the situation to Cain over out drinks. From what I discovered to the bank robbery. He ordered for both of us, some fish concoction that was very tasty.

“So, do you think you can help us? This guy sounds like he would be a little out of my league. Garrison doesn’t want the other metas involved if he can help it”

He shook his head. “That’s not surprising. Less credit to share for him. Yeah, I think this guy is right up my alley. I did a little checking on the bank job he pulled. Fifteen people killed, including a cop and a teller who was eight months pregnant. Cops thought it was a bomb. They still do. I was against holding that bit of information back, but Garrison’s the boss, I guess. So when do we get to work?”

“As soon as we drop Tracy back at the hospital. Tracy, remember. You know nothing, okay?”

“Yeah, I know. Top secret. Don’t worry; your secret is safe with me”

As we were driving back to the hospital, I dialed my phone to contact Courier, thinking about the people killed by Hunter. This guy was a stone cold psycho. Having the Juggernaut with me was an edge that we needed. He could blow himself up all he wanted to, and Juggy would shake it off. Well, I hoped he would shake it off. After watching him pound that big creature a couple of years ago, I wasn’t sure anyone could take him.

“Psylocke?”

“Yeah, it’s me. Where are you?”

“At the scene of the bank job.”

“Okay, I’m heading your way. Is Garrison there?”

“No, He grabbed a flight to Washington to kiss up to the Secretary. We are on our own”

“Great! That’s the best news I’ve had all day. We’ll be there in about thirty minutes”

After hanging up, I spoke to Cain. “I’m going to check out for awhile. I’m going to try to find Hunter”

“All right. Do your thing”

I closed my eyes and began to listen. I don’t know what else to call it. I finally found Hunter. I couldn’t locate him exactly again. I knew he was still in the area. His mind was getting harder to track. It was like he was changing patterns. His thoughts were jumbled, and I could tell he was stating to lose his grip on sanity. Or was it something different? Was something fighting for control? I needed to think harder….

“We’re here” Cain jolted me out of my meditation and I jumped and squeaked. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to wake you”

“It’s all right. I wasn’t asleep. I’m having a hard time tracking him down”

Courier came up to the Humvee. “Hi, Cain. Nice to finally see you again”

Cain blinked. “So you’re the new Courier. What happened to Jacob?”

Courier shifted a little and swallowed. “I’m Jacob.”

Cain started to say something and then began to laugh. “No shit! Aren’t you taking this shape shifting thing a bit far? The Jacob Gavin I knew was more likely to be getting the clothes off a woman than putting them on”

Courier started to turn red. “I had an accident, and now I’m stuck like this. I can still change, but I always end up like this”

“Serves you right, Jake. Every girl you ever blew off is laughing their collective ass off right now”

“Don’t remind me, Marko. I’ve thought about that every day since the change” then she smiled. “It has its benefits, though”

“I’ll bet. So, what have you got?”

“Not much. Microscopic analysis of the debris shows a level of nanites. Inert, inactive, dead. Whatever you want to call them. But it’s as good as a signature. We’ll know whenever he sets off a blast”

Kicking at a brick, I asked, “What enables him to blow?”

“That we don’t know. We do know that the human body has a lot of chemicals that could be very volatile in the right situation, but, in his case, we don’t know”

Looking around the shell of the building, I said “If what I’m getting from his mind is right, the process is driving him insane. I’m not having much luck getting a fix on him. When I do, just leave him to Juggernaut and myself. You’re smart and a pretty good fighter, but unless you find a way to imitate him to death, then you won’t be much use in a fight with someone like him. Nothing personal, okay?”

She nodded. “I understand, Psylocke, I do. I had no plans of mixing it up with him anyway. I’ll keep doing what I can here, and give you what intel I can find. We are already watching his home, all his family, and three of his ex wives. The fourth one is dead, killed in the Jefferson explosion”

She turned around and went back to scouring the wreckage. “Oh, Psylocke?”

“Yes?”

Your stuff is in my trunk. I got you a new combat uniform. It’s a lot better than what you had. Your weapons are in there too”

“Thanks, I’ll get them, Jackie”

“Jackie?”

I cringed, knowing I just made a mistake. “Sorry, Courier. I forgot.”

Cain walked over to Courier. “Jackie?”

She turned around, her face even redder than before. “Do I look like a Jacob? Don’t even go there. Besides aren’t you a little small to be a ‘Juggernaut’?” She made the air quotes. Oh no.

“Small?”

Cain started his transformation. I don’t know if the armor is hidden by illusion or appears from nowhere. All I know is its damned impressive. By the time he was done, his armored head was scraping the ceiling, and his already impressive girth was tripled. He reached down, picked up a piece of stone and crushed it like a marshmallow. “You were saying?”

Courier put on her glasses “You wouldn’t hit a girl with glasses, would you?”

Even the mighty Juggernaut had to chuckle at that one.

To be Continued

Thanks to Marvel Comics for all of their wonderful characters. Psylocke, Juggernaut, Courier, Nitro are all their characters.

Chapter 4

Cain changed back to his smaller form and said good bye to Courier. She looked a little paler than before. He can have that effect on people.

I found my new uniform. It was like a totally black unitard, leaving both of my arms uncovered but covering my breasts and tapering to a turtleneck. It also had two opera length gloves. The material was stretchy, Kind of like Lycra, but denser. The whole outfit was very light.

I got into Cain’s Hummer to change. The “uniform” if you could call it that, was Skin tight, and revealed every curve I had. The top part had a built in bra for support, and something akin to panties already incorporated into the garment.

There were no shoes or boots to go with it. The footwear was already a part of the legs.

The whole ensemble was very easy to put on, and was extremely comfortable. I was a bit uneasy stepping out of the vehicle.

Cain and Courier were still talking to each other when I came into view. “Well? What do you think? Too much?”

Courier saw me first and went goggle eyed. “Wow. They said it would be form fitting, but…”

Cain did a double take. “Whose idea was this? She looks like, well, there’s not enough there! She can’t go around looking like that!”

I blushed hard after that. “I feel like I’m naked. I can’t wear this to fight. Anybody would die laughing before I got a chance to do anything.”

“Wait a minute, before the two of you go all Victorian on me, let me explain that garment. It was specifically designed for you. You are looking at a costume, if you will, that cost 3 million dollars to develop. First of all, it is constructed of a new fabric that is based on spider silk. It has the flexibility of spandex, but is bullet resistant, cut proof, and will insulate as well as a parka, while breathing when it needs to, to keep you cool. The gloves and built in boots are constructed of the same material, with a polymer on the fingers and palms that will allow you to virtually walk up walls. Not like a fly, but you’ll be able to use the terrain to your advantage, allowing you to increase your leaping ability and use the terrain in an urban or inside environment to your advantage. They are also shock absorbing, so you won’t run the risk of breaking your hand on someone’s jaw”

I was amazed, but still suffering from shyness. “Okay, I get it. It’s high tech. But I’m next to naked, Courier!”

Rolling her eyes, she replied. “Oh, get over it. If you run into any males, they’ll be too distracted to fight. Another advantage you have. And it will help you blend in to the shadows, as it reduces your infrared signature. Move around, give it a try”

I flexed and stretched, dropping down into a split. She was right. It didn’t pinch or pull anywhere. Popping back up, I did a back flip, then ran to a wall and leapt. She was right again, I felt like I was clinging to the wall. Before I knew it, I was ten feet up, and then I did a somersault off the wall, landing next to Cain and Courier.

I was exhilarated. “Ok, I’ll take it.”

Smiling, Courier replied, “I thought you might. Here’s the sash that goes with it. It’s made of the same material, and can be used as a rope if needed. Why, you ask? Every girl needs an accessory to go with an outfit.”

Cain groaned at that one. “If you to ladies are through with fashion hour, we need to get going.”

I got into the spacious back seat of the super sized SUV. “I need to track this guy down. My last reading was south of here, so we can start in that direction”

“Okay. You’re the boss. Just let me know when you get anything else”

---

Nitro was driving south on Interstate 75. He had lifted his newest ride, a Ford pick up, from an older gentleman that wouldn’t need it anymore. Killing these insects was easy. They we no longer of any consequence. Robert Hunter was dead, only Nitro remained.

“I have the power now to take what I want” he thought to himself. “Anyone who gets in my way will die”

He got on his cell phone and called his Yemeni contact, Aziz. He didn’t know if that was his real name, and he didn’t care. He needed to get his name on the market.

“Aziz? This is Robert Hunter. At least I was. I am now known as Nitro, and I have something you will be very interested in”

“Hunter? They said you were dead”

“Not quite. I have something that will make your jihad into and unstoppable tidal wave. You can have it for the right price”

“What is it?”

“The Jefferson Street explosion?”

“Of course I know of this. It’s been all over the news”

“That was me”

“What? You caused all of that destruction? Our sources say it was an industrial accident.”

“You need to get new sources. I caused it and the explosion in the bank later”

“How are you doing this?”

“Trade secret, my oily friend. But I can say this. My talents are available for the right price. Tell you what, the first one’s on me, the next one you pay for. Watch the news, and I’ll be in touch later”

Twenty minutes later, at a rest stop around Toledo, Nitro demolished the facility killing fourteen more people. He never looked back.

An hour later, he was on the Ohio Turnpike, heading east. He called Aziz. “About that next job. I’ll need a team. Let’s meet.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Cain, I’m getting next to nothing. I can get a general direction, but I can’t lock on to him like before. It’s frustrating, like following someone in the fog, just barely being able to make him out”

Cain turned the radio down. “I know where he’s been. There is a report of an explosion at a rest stop in Ohio, east of Toledo. Al Qaeda is claiming responsibility, but I’ll bet it’s our boy”

“How many people this time?”

“They don’t know, but it’s more than ten”

“Shit! Why can’t I lock on to this clown?”

Shaking his head, Cain answered. “I don’t know kid, just keep your cool and focus. Do you think it’s possible that someone is shielding him somehow?”

“It’s possible, but he would have had to have gotten an ally, and as far I know, he hasn’t contacted anyone. He’s a loner based on what I’ve been able to find out before.”

“We’ll get him. And when I get my hands on that maggot, he’ll wish he’d never been born”

I called Courier to get an update. I asked her if he had any know metahuman contacts. She said she would find out, but that she didn’t think so. I also told her that I was sure he was heading east, and that I believed his final destination would be either Philadelphia or New York City.

Garrison called me for an update.

“I am having a lot of trouble keeping him locked in. I can no longer get a direct read on his thoughts, but I can still get a general idea of where he is going. It looks like Philly or New York City”

“Just great. Metahuman Affairs is getting involved now, and they are dispatching some of their assets to this. I didn’t object, but we are not sharing intel with them. The last thing I need is that lot of amateurs getting in the way”

“Well, they might be useful in corralling him once we get him located”

“No!” he interrupted. “Under no circumstances are any of those associated with Metahuman Affairs to be contacted. That’s an order”

“Okay, okay. It’s just a suggestion. I don’t know any of them anyway”

“Keep me informed” he abruptly hung up.

“As I looked at the phone, I spoke to no one in particular, “What an asshole”

Cain looked at me through the rear view mirror. “Told you”

Sticking my tongue out at him, a realized we had been on the road for a few hours. The pressure on my bladder had been building for awhile now. “Hey, big guy, I need to pee and get something to eat. How about we stop?”

“I’m fine. Can’t you wait a little bit?”

“No, I can’t. I have to pee! So help me, Cain, I will go all over your back seat if you don’t stop. Surely you have to get some gas or something”

I can go fifteen hundred miles on a tank. Thanks to the extra fuel storage I had installed. I hate to stop to fill up”

“Please, Cain. I have to go!”

Chuckling, Cain said “Alright, alright. You girls are all the same, always stopping to do something in the bathroom.”

“HEY, don’t be a chauvinistic p-i-g! We are just a little different, is all”

We pulled in to a BP station and I threw on the Maxi dress I had as a cover up. I wasn’t fighting now, and no one needed to see my, well, stuff. I took care of business and went to the little food mart to grab something to eat. I got a Diet Coke in a thirty two ounce cup with ice and some beef jerky and went to the counter to pay. I heard the rumble of a bunch of motorcycles pulling up.

The cashier rang me up. “That’ll be $5.25. By the way, I love your hair. How do you do your highlights? Purple is so cute with your hair color”

“Thank you” I replied. “My hairdresser does it, I really don’t know how” Reaching into my bag, I pulled out my wallet and handed her a twenty. She really didn’t need to know that the highlights were permanent.

The cashier looked out of the corner of her eye at the ten or so outlaw biker types who swaggered into the store. They were loud and obnoxious and generally were making asses of themselves.
She sighed. “I hate it when those Guys from the Raptors come in. I never feel quite safe with them in here. They hassle me and any customers that come in. I wish they would just go away. My old boyfriend is one of them. He’s the one by the door.”

She pointed to a good sized bald man trying to pull off a Stone Cold Steve Austin look and doing a fairly good job of it. He seemed to be the leader of the bunch.

“Are you going to be okay, like with these guys here? I can stay a little bit until they leave”

She gave me a faint smile and said, “Thanks, but I ‘d hate to see you get mixed up with these guys, they know me, but a couple of those creeps wouldn’t be above roughing up a pretty girl like you”

“Oh, I can handle myself”

Stone Cold at the door spoke up. “Hey Sarah! How about you and the bitch come on a ride with us. You won’t be sorry”

Sarah, the cashier replied “Joe, why don’t you and your boyfriends go. The manager told me that I would be fired if you guys came around causing trouble again. I need this job to support the baby you never seem to want to have anything to do with. I mean why would you? It’s only yours”

“Ahhh, it’s a girl. I’ll see what she’s like when she’s fourteen. I might be able to get a good price for her then”

I knew this sorry piece was serious. I turned to walk out. “You’re disgusting. A baby is a gift, and you want to sell her?”

Joe lost his arrogant smile. Clearly he had a problem with women, and now one was challenging him. His buddies were oohing and ahhhing. One said “the bitch has you cold, Joe. You gonna take that?”

I hated this creep, and I had never seen him before. I knew he was a misogynist, and had beat Sarah many times. He had killed girls before. Molested children. He wouldn’t again. I walked past him to the door.

He reached for me, but I was faster. “Hey, bitch, no one talks to Killer Joe like that”

I wasn’t going to trash the store. I set my drink and the bag of beef jerky on an ice freezer by the door. Then I turned just as he reached me and fed him a right into his solar plexus. He went down hard, gasping for breath.

His buddies saw what I had done and came running out the door.

“Oh you’re fuckin’ dead, bitch. No one lays a hand on a Raptor and lives!”

I couldn’t fight them like I wanted to and not destroy my new dress. I didn’t want to play any mind tricks on them either. I had a better plan.

“CAIN! HELP ME!”

The bikers had surrounded me. “Oh we are going to have some fun with you before you die” Said one with four front teeth missing. “Get her clothes off, She’s gonna ride naked for awhile”

Then a deep voice echoed behind them. “I don’t think she’s going anywhere with you, dick lips”

“Yeah, well fuck…” he turned around “yewww?”

Cain was gone. The Juggernaut was there. The Raptors, whoever they were, at least tried to fight him. After fifteen seconds, they were down. Bullets bounced off him, knives didn’t scratch him. They were down and in bad shape. Killer Joe had started to get up and I cut him back down with a psychically charged punch to the sternum.

“Stay down, ‘killer’. Cain, would you please take care of these minibikes?”

“What do you want me to do with them?”

“Could you wad them up like paper?”

“Yeah, but it might get a little messy.”

I put on my best puppy face and put my hands together. “Pleeeaase? Show me how strong you are”

Cain smiled. At least I think he did, it was hard to tell through his helmet. “Ohh, okay. I can’t say no to you, kid”

Juggernaut proceeded to take all of the bikes and crushed them like cheap aluminum cans. He set them down where they were parked. Oil and gas were dripping out of the wrecks. I made them all forget what happened, and put a fear of Sarah in their minds. They wouldn’t bother her any more, and no one would know about Cain.
I picked up my soda and took a big sip. “Byee, guys! Have fun.”

After we got back into Cain’s vehicle, he asked me “What did you need me for? You could’ve just done your mind thing and it would have been over”

“I know, but I couldn’t have ruined their bikes like you did, and I wanted them to suffer. I wasn’t going to fight them because I just got this dress and I didn’t want it ruined. They might have torn it”

“Holy hell, girl. I can’t believe…I mean sheesh…women”

I giggled. “Aren’t we wonderful?”

“Okay, beautiful. Have you gotten any closer to finding this guy?”

“I’m still working on that. He’s still heading east. I’m not having any more luck than I was. I can’t help but think something is up here that I’m not getting. He is still in that fog. He’s getting further ahead of us. Can you go any faster?”

“I could, but if we get pulled over, we won’t get any closer. I’ll keep it right here at 80, and hope we’re good. Do you have your get out of a speeding ticket free badge?”

“My what? Oh! I know what you mean.” I dug into my bag and found my HS badge. It had some kind of endorsement on it that would get me out of pretty much any problem I would incur on the highway. “Got it! Now you can step on it”

My phone rang again. It was Courier. “Hi, Jackie. What do you have for me?”

“You might be right about New York. We’ve done some checking on Hunter’s phone records, and he placed a lot of calls to a Mosque in NYC. It’s a known hotbed of Muslim fundamentalist activity. There’s nothing to really pin them down on, they’ve been really good at hiding their tracks”

“Maybe you should get to New York, and do a little ground work. You can infiltrate like no one else can”

“Yeah, I know. I’m already on my way to the airport. I have a charter waiting for me. It’s an F-15, and we are kicking in the ass all the way there”

“Good luck, and we’ll see you there”

I hung up with Courier and called Tracy.

She answered the phone. “Hi baby! Ya miss me?”

I smiled. “All the time. I just wanted to let you know we are on the way to New York City. Unless we can catch creepy before then”

“Okay. You tell that big boob Cain Marko I said to keep an eye on you”

I smiled as I twirled my hair. “He always does. You know that.”

“He’d better, or I’m coming out there and kicking his ass”

That made me laugh. “I’ll let him know. Look, I just wanted to say hello, and that I was thinking of you. I’ve been trying to track this gut all day, and I’m shot. Can I call you tomorrow?”

“You’d better. I need to get to bed too. Sleep well, and I’ll see you when you get back”

“Love you, Tracy”

“I love you too, Betsy. Bye”

“Bye”

“What did Tracy have to say?” asked Cain.

“She said that if anything happened to me, she was coming to kick your ass”

He laughed. “You know, she probably could”

I curled up in the back, and told Cain to let me know when it was morning.

---

Aziz dialed the number assigned to X, the leader of the special projects unit created by Bin Laden before the 9/11 attacks. X was never named, but those who saw him said he was the devil. Aziz didn’t believe such things. He dismissed the superstitions of the people he dealt with as the rantings of a primitive desert culture. Djinn and demons indeed.

Yes, Aziz. What do you want? X spoke Arabic with a strong English accent.

“Hunter has called. He has some new abilities, and he wants to work with us. He is asking for a team. Can we help him?”

“Of course. My experiments are nearly complete. We will be able to help our friend in a much more substantial way by the time he arrives. I have already deduced his particular skill set. He will be most useful. Call me when he arrives”

“Very well. See that you don’t fail us, X”

X smiled. “My dear Aziz. Have I ever failed? Good day”

X disconnected the call. He didn’t know why he tolerated the insolence of these terrorists. They were a means to an end. The breakdown of society. Only the strong would survive. He knew that the little creatures who served him would try to kill him in their ignorance. They would try, and fail. They called him devil. He could hear their petty little thoughts as if they were speaking to him. His experiments were creating more and deadlier Hybrids. Metahumans indeed.

Maybe they were right. In more ways than one. They couldn’t even pronounce his last name correctly. X indeed. It served his purpose. Mystery was his ally.

His name was Essex. And he would show the world who the devil really was.

This chapter is a little short, but I'm setting up for something bigger down the road. Enjoy!

Thanks to Marvel Comics for all of their wonderful characters. Psylocke, Juggernaut, Courier, Nitro are all their characters.

Chapter 5

I woke up after about 4 hours of driving. The big guy didn’t like listening to the radio, so that was a blessing. The problem was I could never sleep in a vehicle. About four hours of restless dozing was all I could muster, and I also had to, well, go.

I stuck my head up front and happily announced, “Guess what? Potty break!”

Cain looked at me like I was insane. “Potty break? What are you, three?”

Climbing into the front seat, I sat down, pouting. “That’s not nice, Cain. You know I have trouble holding it. It’s my kryptonite. What would you rather have me say? ‘Pull the damn thing over, I gotta piss?’”

He started laughing. “Well, yeah, I guess.”

Well two years ago, I might have. But I am a lady now, and ladies don’t talk like that. In fact, I refuse to”

“No offense, kid. But you *did* used to be a male, didn’t you?”

“Well, yes. But I changed and with that change came a lot of other changes. I don’t know many guys that can get pregnant, do you?”

His ears were beginning to get red. I was loving this.

“Okay! I *am* a girl. All the way down to my DNA. I like makeup, silly chick flicks, doing my hair, my nails, wearing pretty clothes, talking to my girlfriends till all hours of the evening about relationships. You don’t know what you are missing. I, on the other hand, do. A lot of burping, farting and chasing skirts. Gross”

I could see he was getting very uncomfortable. It was all I could do to keep from laughing.

I hopped up on my knees and leaned into his ear “And, you dear, sweet teddy bear, one of the great things about being a woman is getting big, strong guys like you,” I kissed him on the cheek, “to do things for us. Now be a dear and let me have my potty break, pleeeese?”

That was enough for him “Okay, okay! I’ll pull over at the next gas station I see. Damn! I’d rather fight ten of those big demon things than have to deal with this.”

Now I had to pour it on. I gave him a big hug around his huge neck, causing him to swerve “Oh, thank you, Cain. You’re such a gentleman! I don’t know what I would do without you!” My voice was little girl syrupy sweet, and I looked up through my eyelashes at him.

His face was completely red. He turned to the driver’s side window. I saw him smile in the side mirror. “Women! I hope to God that never happens to me!”

I giggled and then laughed. “You are such a big sweetie, Cain, but don’t worry, your secret is safe with me. Now step on it. I’m about to burst” Note to self. No more big gulps on road trips.

We traveled in silence for the next couple of minutes. Cain broke the silence “So, what were you like, you know, before?”

“Before the change?”

“Yeah”

“Oh, I don’t know. It’s kind of hard to remember. It’s not like you would think. I was in a coma for several weeks while I changed, and my neural pathways were rewritten. I woke up a girl, but it wasn’t a big shock. It wasn’t like if you were all of a sudden transferred into a girl’s body. You know, a male soul in a female body. Do you know what I mean?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I think so. That would be tough for me. Probably impossible”

“I know what you are talking about. It wasn’t that way for me. I was a female soul in a female body. The only thing that didn’t change was my relationship with Tracy. Otherwise, I found that my old male habits died. I had the memories, but not the feelings”

“That’s why you are so well adjusted, isn’t it?”

“Yep. I took to the whole thing right away. There were some bumps, sure. But I adjusted and took to what nature had wired me to do. Being silly like I just was something I would never have done as a boy”

“Did you ever have desires, you know…”

“To be a girl before? No way, never. I had a beautiful girlfriend and I was doing well in school. This all came from nowhere. But all told, I prefer the way I am now than the way I was. You may not think so, but being a girl rocks, and being a girl like me? Totally rocks!” She looked ahead, her eyes brightening. “OOOOHHHH, there’s a station at the next exit. Hurrrrry! Oh gosh, I hope there isn’t a line.”

Cain looked at Betsy. She was now focused on the gas station ahead. She had been through hell, had an old life ripped away, had something else thrust on her, and was still a semi normal eighteen year old who had to pee too much. Someone who had a pure soul.

He somehow had a bond with her that he couldn’t explain. Then it hit him. The little girl who was kidnapped from his block when he was a child. Cain saw the event, but couldn’t stop it. Grace was her name. They found her forty eight hours later, dead. He was blessed with tremendous physical gifts, even without the Cyttorak Gem powering him. That’s why he got involved in security, why he got involved in the military, and spook work. It was for Grace. He had suppressed this memory for years. A single tear rolled down his cheek.

He felt sorry for anyone or anything who ever tried to harm her again. It wouldn’t be pretty.

~o~O~o~
Courier had the mosque under surveillance from the rooftop of an adjacent apartment building. She had changed to the form of the janitor of the building. The real one had been given a vacation to his native Dominican Republic. She had performed his duties during the day, running video surveillance during the day, personal surveillance at night.

She was intently staring at the entrance, with state of the art audio recording devices being run by agents from an empty apartment two floors below.

“What is going on in there?” she asked no one in particular.

“I don’t know, either. What do y….” came a voice beside her.

Courier jumped nearly out of her skin. “EEEEEEEEEEKKK! “Came the rather feminine reaction.

The costumed figure jumped back and imitated him perfectly. “EEEEEEEEEEEKKK”

Courier was breathing hard “FUCK! What the hell!” she jumped back, holding her, or his, for the moment, chest. WILSON! You son of a bitch. Don’t *do* that. You look creepy enough without sneaking up on me like that!”

Wade Wilson replied in kind. “What do you think you’re doing? I’m one of the good guys. You nearly killed me with your girly display of femininity. Besides, what are you, a spy or a font? Really, I mean come on. Can’t you come up with something better than that? Boobenstein. The incredible cross dresser? Something.”

“What in the hell are you doing here, Mr. Wilson?”

Wilson, aka Deadpool was not buying what Courier was selling. He started doing a dead on impersonation of Walter Matthau. “Dennis! What’s the meaning of this incursion onto my roof? I’ve planted daisies up here, and the garden club is on the way. Take a hike, boy!”

Then switched to a ridiculous falsetto. “Now George, boys will be boys. Be nice to little Dennis”

Switching back, Wilson replied to himself. “Martha! If Dennis gets away with this, the terrorists win!”

He then switched to a passable George W. Bush. Rather an impersonation of Will Ferrell doing George Bush. “Alright, Dennis. What’s our strategery? Is the mission accomplished? I’ve gotta get back to Crawford”

Courier let her male form change back to her default setting, that of a ravishing black haired beauty. She absolutely hated Deadpool. He was a mercenary, a bounty hunter, terribly scarred from attempts to cure him of terminal cancer. The therapies used to cure him left him unbalanced, but in possession of a brutal array of special skills. He had gotten hold of some technology that allowed him to teleport limited distances. He could heal extremely fast. She had seen him replace severed limbs and watched them reattach. He was a skilled swordsman, a crack shot, and expert with about every weapon known to man as well as virtually unbeatable in a fight.

Oh, and he was freakin’ nuts.

“Wade, shut your pie hole.”

Wade looked down at the ground, kicking it dejectedly. “Shucks, ma’am ya don’t have to go all tumbleweed on meh”

Deadpool was masked. Hooded really. He had a red and black costume that was part body armor, part ninja outfit. He carried two katanas, two semi-automatic pistols, about twenty clips on a bandolier, knives, and a banana. A banana?

“Wade, why do you have a banana?”

“I get hungry you know. I just want the people reading this story to know that there is no substitute for a balanced diet. And that diet begins with bananas. The choice of four out of five chimpanzees. The fifth one just likes to throw shit as well as eat it”

Courier rolled her eyes. “Deadpool! I’m guessing you have an interest in this case?”

Then came Pee Wee Herman. “Well duh!” Then back to his real voice. “If by interest you mean the Twenty five million dollar reward for Aziz al Damashq, then yeah. I guess you could say so. You see, I have a house payment coming up, and the kids need braces. You know how it goes”

Courier’s interest was piqued. “What do you know about this operation?”

“Everything. I’ve been reading along from the beginning. This author is really terrible. Cute, but terrible”

“Okay, Wade. Seriously. What do you know?”

“Okay, But I’m not hearing a please!”

Courier forgot how maddening it could be talking to Wilson. He was under the constant impression that we were all just characters in a novel. That and he had seen every movie ever made and was constantly quoting them.

“Okay. Please!”

“Give us a kiss, beautiful”

“WADE!”

“All right, all right. Word is that the boys there have the head of their special projects unit here to greet your exploding boy. They are putting together a team of metas created to wreak havoc on society”

“How do you know this” Asked Courier.

“I've been reading the story. Sheesh!”

“I swear, Wade. If you don’t stop…”

“Wow. You need to lay off the coffee. Can you say ‘single focus?’

"I ‘questioned’ one of their ‘people’ before I ‘killed’ him and ‘dumped’ his body in the ‘river’. Satisfied?”

He put air quotes all over the place, but I understood what he did.

You mean the ‘Devil’ is here?”

“Well he ain’t in Miss Jones, sister!” Yeah. John Wayne.

“So I’m guessing you want in? To get Aziz?”

“Gee Wally! Sure!”

“And I have no choice in the matter, right?”

“Sure you do. Just like every time. You either let me play ball or I take my glove and fuck everything up from here to Sunday. Your choice. The missus needs a new puppy”

“All right. But you play by team rules, you understand? There are two more people coming. A rookie agent and Cain Marko”

Deadpool cocked his head. “Marko? My bestest buddy and longtime friend?”

Courier rubbed her temples. Yes, that Cain Marko”

“Do you think he remembers Berlin?”

“What do you think?”

“Son of a bitch. Guess I’ll have some splainin’ to do eh, Lucy?”

And go easy on the rookie. She’s just a kid, and about as green as a gourd. But Cain likes her, and he won’t take kindly to her getting hurt”

“You got it, Lt. Columbo.”

Wade Wilson ran to the edge of the roof, turned, and looked back at Courier. “Ok, I’ve finally got this flying thing down. Look ma! No hands!” Then he jumped.

Courier ran to the edge, looking down, expecting to see a red and black stain on the sidewalk. Nothing.

“Did he splat?” Came a voice next to her.

“EEEEEEEEEEKKKKK” Dammit, Wilson!!

He did a back handspring to avoid the Courier’s punch and kick. “Never gets old!”

~o~O~o~
Dr. Essex was preparing the last of the serum vials. The replicated DNA had been placed into the retroviruses prepared especially for the test subjects. The transformation would be complete in twelve hours.

He ran down the list. All of the checks had been performed, the subjects were suspended in the ctyoplasmic medium, all safeties were off. He proceeded to inject the retroviral soup into each of the subjects IV tubes. When that menial task was completed, all he could do was wait.

Essex could create metahumans at a prodigious rate. The problem was that the changes were not stable. The DNA from the shape changer was not enough. Cell walls broke down after no more than forty eight hours. This resulted in the death of the subject. There had only been the one success, but there would be time to analyze her. This one called Nitro. He was a worthy experiment. He would be there soon. Right now, he was too dangerous to experiment on. But a tissue sample would be nothing to get.

Dr. Essex turned the light off in the lab. He would be back in 10 hours to check the changes. Things were looking up.

~o~O~o~
Betsy was sitting on the front seat of Cain’s Hummer, her legs curled up around her left side, as she was reading a book. “Are we there yet, Dad?”

Cain gritted his teeth. “That stopped being funny three hours ago, kid.”

“Sorry. This lit textbook is sooo incredibly boring. I’ve gone brain dead. I’ll say one thing. This outfit I’m wearing is the most comfy thing I’ve ever worn in my life. I don’t want to sound gross, but it’s like being naked without being naked”

“Yeah, that makes perfect sense, kid. We’ll be there in about ten. Why don’t you enjoy the sights?”

“You’ve seen one big building, you’ve seen them all. I just want to get this over and get back home”

“Why don’t you call Courier?”

Betsy’s eyes brightened. “Hey! That’s a great idea!” She dialed her number.

“Courier” The voice was male, and had a Spanish accent. This took Betsy by surprise.

“Jackie?”

“Yeah, Psylocke, it’s me. Doing a little undercover work now”

“What kind?”

“Vacuuming a hallway right now. Are you guys about here yet?”

“Cain says about ten. Will you meet us?”

“No. Cain knows where to go.”

“Okay. I’ll see you later, Courier”

“It’s Lou for now. Buenos dias, muchacha”

“What did she say?” asked Cain.

“That you would know what to do”

“Okay. Well, kid. Things are about to go from boring to ultra boring unless something happens fast”

“I know what you mean. I can still sense him, but he is almost nonexistent. I think he is more machine than man at this point. That’s why I can’t find him exactly. I think I can explain it. It’s exactly like trying to listen to a radio station that’s almost too far away. His consciousness exists, but it is being shielded. I’m guessing by the nanites. This guy is so screwed”

“Were here. Grab what you need and let the valet take the rig.”

Several black suited agents met us. I grabbed my backpack and weapons case. “I’ll take that for you, ma’am”

“Oh, wonderful! Thank you. I sooo need a potty break”

Cain spun around. “Oh for crying out loud!”

To be Continued...

Like any other author, I love to get feedback. Please leave one if you like.

Thanks to Marvel Comics for their wonderful characters. Psylocke, Juggernaut, Courier and Nitro are all pert of their universe.

Thank you also to donjo for making sure this didn't suck. Read his stories, too!

(And after a long break...)

Chapter 6

All of the characters were in place. I was sitting with Jackie and Cain in the back of the conference room. I was gothed out in a black leather bustier, low rise leather jeans, black lips and ridiculous amounts of eye shadow and pale foundation.

I wanted to make a statement that I was my own person, and not a faceless agent. The results turned heads. Mission accomplished. The Boss, a rather large, muscular man, quite handsome even with the eye patch gave me a scowl, though. I stuck my tongue out at him after he turned around, and being a good girl at heart, I didn’t read his mind.

The room was full of agents, with enough dark suits to make me want to look for Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith.

“Okay, people. Settle down, we have a situation” The room got quiet. The Boss was at the podium, and no one made a sound.

One of our agents has tracked a terrorist known as Nitro to the city. We have assets in place here to deal with the threat, but I cannot overestimate the threat this character poses to this city. Agent Jasper, continue the briefing, please.

“Here’s what we have. Nitro, AKA Robert Hunter, is a scientist with an axe to grind. Through a process unknown to us, he has gained the ability to detonate his entire body, with varying levels of power, with the known upper limit of a small nuke in the neighborhood of a kiloton”

“People, the threat is real. There is a clear and present danger to the population of the City of New York and indeed the world. Agent Jackie Gavin and her team will be point on this investigation. Our job is to provide support, tactical and logistical”

Agent Jasper took a sip of water and continued. “This threat is greater than anything we have faced to date folks, and I don’t have to tell you the importance of nailing this guy before we have another 9/11. Your individual team leaders will have your assignments”

The Boss met with us in Jackie’s temporary office. He came up to me and shook my hand. It was way bigger than mine and rough. “I’d like to introduce myself, I’m the Director. I’d like to thank you for your help on this case. You’ve been a real asset. The Secretary thinks you’re a bit of a…well…”

“Bitch?”

“Yes, but all I see is a very attractive, if style challenged young woman.”

I held out my arms. “Not a big fan of the goth look?”

“I’m a bit traditional when it comes to clothing, but considering your history, you’re doing quite well”

I blushed. “Uhh, thank you, I guess”

“Jackie, what do we have?”

“Aziz is trying to recruit this guy, and if we don’t head him off, we’ll have a hell of a time putting the genie back in the bottle”

The Boss rubbed his chin. “We’ll just have to see that he isn’t able to”

The Boss turned to me. “Betsy, can you narrow him down?”

“I’m trying, but it’s like trying to see a ghost. He’s in Manhattan, I know. Somewhere in Lower Manhattan. I’m really getting tired, though. I’ll need some sleep”

“I keep forgetting. You’re what, seventeen?”

“Yes”

“Damn shame we need you. You’re too young for this crap. You ought to be out with some boy”

“I have a girlfriend, Sir”

He raised an eyebrow. “Quite, errrr, interesting.”

“Well, keep working as you can. Your room is upstairs in the hotel; don’t worry about checking in, here’s your key. Get some rest, Agent Braddock. You’ll need it”

He looked to the very large man standing next to me “Cain. Glad to have you aboard. Nicer than having to fight you”

“Yeah, don’t get used to it, amigo. I’m here for her” he thumb pointed to me. “Piss her off, and I’m gone, along with her”

I squealed, jumped up and kissed him on the cheek. “You’re so sweet! You’re my big teddy bear! Carry me upstairs, daddy! I’m sleepy”

I did make him blush that time. “Knock it off! He growled as he wiped the black smear off of his cheek. I ain’t got time for this” I did see him stifle a smile.

The Boss raised his hand. “All right, let’s knock off for tonight. We’ll be back at it at 0800” He winked at me. “Daddy’s little girl needs her beauty sleep!”

Cain didn’t carry me upstairs, but I did continue concentrating on Nitro’s location as we ascended in the elevator. I was narrowing it down. “Cain, do you have a map of Manhattan?”

“Not with me, why?”

“I think I may be able to narrow down the location if I have a map”

“I’ll call down and we’ll get a map in the morning. You need some sleep. Your eyes look like two piss holes in the snow”

“I’m not that bad…am I?”

“Look in a mirror when you get to your room” the elevator opened to the thirtieth floor.

“You’re in room 3028. I’m two doors down. Get some sleep”

“How will you sleep? You’re too big for the bed”

“Don’t need it. I’ll just watch ESPN all night”

I stopped at my door. “This is going to get dangerous, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. Nothin’ we can’t handle though. You stick close to me; I ain’t dealin’ with your crazy girlfriend if you get hurt. She scares me”

I giggled. “I don’t care what people say. You’re the sweetest man I know”

“Yeah, don’t let I get around. I got a rep to maintain”

I unlocked the door to my room. I had never been alone in a hotel room before. It had that familiar new hotel room smell that only the good places have. My bags were already in the room, so I went into the bathroom to get cleaned up for bed. I looked in the mirror. My eyes were puffy and gross looking. And really red. I guess I was tired. I cleaned off the makeup, which wasn’t fun. The goth look takes a lot of makeup and while it may look good, it’s a bitch to remove”

After ten minutes of cleaning, I was back to being the fresh faced ingénue with purple hair that everyone knew and loved. I looked like I was fourteen. After going potty (So much nicer to say). I turned down the bed. I was naked, and debating whether or not to wear anything to bed or not.

Turning, I saw myself in the mirror. I was one smoking hot babe, and I did nothing for myself. It was just me. The old me would have had a little boner seeing a naked chick like me. I got nothing sexual, but I did turn and thought my butt was getting a little big. Now that bothered me. I got my sleepshirt out, an old Detroit Lions tee that I had loved as a boy, and felt comfortable in as a girl. It came to mid thigh, which was just right for me.

I was just getting comfortable when I heard a rustle and looked to the chair by the window. Sitting there was a man I had never seen before. I stifled a scream.

He was in a red and black outfit and his face was covered. “Howdy, Princess”

My psychic daggers came out on their own I covered my chest protectively. “W-w-who are you? What are you doing in my room! All I have to do is scream and you’re in real trouble”

I couldn’t get a good read on his mind. He was very chaotic in his thinking. “Easy, Ariel, it’s me, Prince Charming”

“Okay Prince. You have three seconds to tell me why you’re in my room. Then I scream”

“No need for that little lady. The name’s Deadpool, and I’ll be helping you out on this little adventure” He paused, looked up to the ceiling. “Is that the best line you could write for me? I’m supposed to be way funnier than that!”

Okay, now I was confused. “What I the heck are you talking about? More to the point, WHO are you talking to”

“The chick writing this thing. Not too bright sometimes”

My daggers went away, and I pulled my cover up over my boobs. “You’re nuts. What do you mean…never mind”

“Look Lucy. I’m helping you, Fred and Ethel get to the bottom of your Mr. Boom Boom problem. I know where he is, and we can move anytime. He’s not due to meet Ahab the Arab for another twenty four hours”

“Why are you telling me?”

“I wanted to meet the new kid. I heard you were hot. Not disappointing, by the way. Courier is too, I don’t know…frigid for me. I liked her better before she did the he/she thing.”

I smiled. “I’m seventeen, you perv. I used to be a boy, and I have a girlfriend”

“Dammit! Not you too! He looked at the ceiling again. “I’ll get you for this! Why can’t that guy who writes Green Arrow write my lines?”

I looked up too. “What *are* you doing?”

“Complaining to the boss”

“Uh, this has been nice and all, but I really do need some sleep I’m really tired, so…”

“I don’t scare you?”

“No. Not at all. I see your, for lack of a better word, mind”

He let out a theatrical gasp that sounded like one of the body snatchers. “You can? Well, I never! Of all the noive? Well, princess, nice girls like you really should wear panties to bed, and your butt really isn’t too big…giggity”

It was my turn to gasp as I pulled my covers closer. “You didn’t!”

“I diiiiid!”

“I think I will scream! I can’t believe you saw me naked! Oooooooooohhhh!”

“And you’re magnificent! She’s a lucky girl, that girlfriend of yours” he stood up and bowed.

“With that, Miss Godiva, I take my leave. He ran to the window and jumped. I expected there to be an explosion of glass but he just disappeared. I rushed over to the window, to see where he landed. I couldn’t see anything.

“Is he dead?” a voice from behind me said. He then spanked my bottom. TWICE!

“EEEEEEEEEEKK” I screamed.

“Never gets old!!” And he was gone.

I heard the rumbling of big feet coming down the hall. The lock clicked and Cain was in the room. My eyes must have been as big as saucers, and I was holding my stinging bottom.

“What the hell happened? Are you okay?”

I was blushing furiously. I didn’t know what to say. “Somebody was here!”

“Who?”

“His name was Deadpool. Do you know him?”

He rolled his eyes. “Shit! Yes, I know him. Nutty as a pet coon. What did he want?”

“He says he is working with us on the case, and he knows where Nitro is. He’s supposed to meet Aziz in twenty four hours. He’ll be back tomorrow to tell us where, I think”

“Just great. If this turns out like Berlin I’ll make a grease spot outta him!” he looked at me strangely “Why are you holding you rear end?”

Blushing even harder, I cried “He spanked me!”

“On the butt?”

“Where else, you big dork!”

Cain tried. He really did try not to laugh. “Did you have it coming?” Then he bellowed. “The guy is nuts, but he sure knows how to make an entrance”

I stamped my foot in an ineffectual feminine protest “Get…out…now…you…big…JERK!”

Cain was still laughing as he closed the door. My face was as red as his Juggy suit. I was mortified. I touched my still sore bottom, and was surprised to find I was a little aroused, wondering what it would be like for Tracy to spank me. I shook my head to get the thought out. “No! I am NOT going there! God, I am such a perv. I never had these thoughts as a boy!” I thought to myself. And I went to my bag and got the pair of panties (Detroit Lions, of course) that matched the shirt and put them on. No, I don’t know why I needed them to match and why I needed to put them on. I am a good girl, after all. Darn that Deadpool!

I dreamed about being back home with Tracy. We were sitting on a park bench, watching the geese. My head was on Tracy’s shoulder, and we were just enjoying the water, the warmth and the sun, when an explosion detonated nearby. My mother’s head landed on my lap.

I was awake immediately, I tried to scream, but I was too terrified. All that came out were wheezes. It took a little time to realize that it was a dream. Then I burst into tears. I just realized I was in way over my head. This guy, whatever he was, could blow up like a nuke. I was worried I’d break a nail. Juggernaut, I knew could handle himself. Jackie was really smart and experienced. I was a little girl trying to play with the big guys.

Looking at the clock, I saw it was only two thirty. I got up, used the facilities and got a drink of water. I had to get some sleep. I got some Benadryl from my bag. It always worked better than any sleeping pill. Two of them, and in fifteen minutes, I was back in dreamland.

~o~O~o~

Nitro was walking the streets of Lower Manhattan. He was looking for some action, and didn’t care what it was. He found he didn’t need as much sleep since the change.

Stepping into The Chain, a dive that catered to those with little or no interest in the legal side of business, Nitro sat at the bar. There were a couple of tired topless dancers going through the motions on a makeshift stage. Most of the clientele was engaged in other business. He threw a hundred dollar bill on the bar. “Whiskey”

The bartender, a large man with long hair tied into a ponytail asked. “Any preference, big spender?”

Nitro looked at him like he was an insect. “The kind with alcohol, smartass, and keep ‘em coming”

The bartender thought he saw something flash in the Nitro’s eyes. This guy was nuts. He would keep an eye on him. He gave the bouncers a signal to be ready to give this guy and introduction to the street.

“You gonna pour some whiskey, or stand there giving signals?”

“Look, pal. I don’t much like you, and I don’t care how much money you throw on the bar, you ain’t givin’ the orders. One word from me and out ya go”

Nitro smiled. He was a lean man, but well muscled. His eyes flashed. “The either pour the whiskey, or sic your dogs, but do me a favor. Shut the fuck up, will you?”

The bartender gave the signal. Two men, large by any standard moved menacingly to the smaller man. “All right, loser. You’re outta here”

One of them reached for Nitro’s shoulder. Nitro spun in the stool and gave the man an open palm to the sternum that sent him flying ten feet back to the wall. He slumped and sank down; dead from a bone sliver to the heart fro his smashed breastbone.

The other bouncer was able to connect with a shot to Nitro’s jaw. He sagged into the bar, and started laughing. The bouncer grabbed him and Nitro quickly broke the hold. He then threw the hapless man across the bar after breaking his neck.

Nitro’s eyes were pure white light. He had an evil smile and turned to the bartender. All he said was “boom boom…”, then exploded.

The front of the bar blew out into the street. Body parts were everywhere. The only survivors were the two dancers, who were cowering and screaming, holding tightly to their poles. There wasn’t a scratch on them. On the bar, was a single bottle of whiskey, undamaged, not having moved from the place it was set.

A figure began to coalesce from the smoke. “…Out go the lights!” He laughed, a humorless laugh that kind of sounded mechanical to the girls.

“Come on girls! Let’s go. You owe me for saving your lives. Hurry up! Chop chop!”

“B-but we’re naked!” whined one of the girls.

“Didn’t bother you before, shouldn’t bother you now. Come on, before I finish the job”

The girls struggled over the rubble in their six inch platforms. “O-okay! We’re coming! P-please don’t hurt us!”

He threw a smoky jacket at them that he pulled off a headless torso. “Share this. I’m staying just around the corner” He grabbed the bottle. “Get ready to party, girls. And you’d better make it good, or it will be your last”

Thanks to Marvel comics for their wonderful characters. Psylocke, Juggernaut, Courier and Deadpool are all theirs. Buy something of theirs, willya! :)

Chapter 7

Tracy and I were walking on the beach. It was sunny and warm, and we were hand in hand, enjoying the walk. I was totally happy. Then everything started shaking.

“Betsy! Betsy! Wake up! You’re late!”

“Wha-what? I do’wanna, mom!”

“WAKE UP!”

“I’m awake, god dammit!” I was pissed. “What the hell is so important?” My hands charged with energy.

It was Jackie. “Hey, easy there, Betsy. You’re late for our briefing. You didn’t answer the wake up call, so I came up to see what was wrong”

My hair was a mess. It was covering my face like Cousin It. I still hadn’t opened my eyes. Sleepily, I replied. “So you have a key to my room too? Why doesn’t everyone just stay in here then? Between you, Cain and that mental patient Deadpool, My room is just a freakin’ meeting hall”

“You saw Deadpool?”

“Yeah, I did, and he saw too much of me, that asshole”

“Wait, what?”

I flopped back down and threw the covers over my head. I was in a full blown teenage girl hissy fit, and I didn’t care who knew.

“He spied on me somehow and saw me naked. He made a crack about me not wearing underwear under my shirt. He scared me and then he…he *spanked* me. Then Cain comes in and laughs about it! A man saw me NAKED, and it’s a big joke! Then I couldn’t sleep and…and…I hate you people!” I burst into tears.

Jackie sat next to me and rubbed my back. “Hey, Betsy. It’s okay”

“No it isn’t! It’s not okay! I don’t belong here!” I was near hysterics, and I didn’t care.

Cain picked that minute to walk in. “Hey. We need to get down there, now. The boss is getting itchy. He pointed to his phone”

I sat upright in my bed and screamed at Cain. “GET OUT! I hate you people! I’m going to die and no one CARES! I’m just a kid. I don’t want to die…” I fell back down, sobbing and beating the mattress.

Cain backed out without saying a word. Jackie got up and whispered something to him. He nodded and left, dialing something on his phone.

Jackie returned to the bed where I was still inconsolable. “Cry it out, honey. It’s okay to cry”

“I hate my life. Mom and dad are dead because of me. I couldn’t stop that…that maniac from killing all…those…people!”

“It’s gonna be all right, Betsy”

“NO IT ISN”T!” I screamed. “Have you ever heard a baby die? How she doesn’t understand why she hurts and where her mommy is? Have you ever heard the last thoughts someone has before the leave this world? I have! hundreds of times. It-it stays *here*” I poked my head, hard. “And it never, ever leaves!”

“You’re right, honey. I don’t know what that’s like. I don’t know how to help you, but I’m willing to listen”

“I–I want to go *home*. I want my mom and dad. I don’t want to die!”

The Boss got the call from Cain. “Code Purple, Boss”

The Boss scowled. “You sure?”

“Yeah. Poor kid’s having a meltdown”

“Shit! Okay, I expected this, but I hoped it would wait. I’ll handle it”

Cain growled on the other end. “Don’t hurt the kid, or you’ll wish you’d never been born. She’s family to me”

“Don’t worry, Marko. I like the kid too. The last thing I’m going to do is hurt her” He hung up the phone and called for his psych team.

When the team assembled, he addressed them. “The kid’s having PTSD episode. Bad. She needs help and needs it bad. She’ll be worthless to our operation as is. Problem is, she may be the only one able to stop this guy from blowing half of New York back to the stone age. So here’s the plan…”

I was still crying when I heard the door to my room open. “GET OUT!” I screamed. “Go awayyy”

I felt a stick, and then everything went black.

~o~O~o~
“This plan of yours sucks!” raged Cain. “You said she wouldn’t get hurt!”

“I didn’t hurt her. I just put her to sleep, Marko. She’s deeply troubled. She’s been through enough pain and trouble in the last year to put ten people out. And no thanks to that idiot Garrison, she’s managed to survive. He’s on his way to Iceland now on his new assignment”

“And you knew that guy was an asshole from the word go, and you let him stay? I oughta…”

Jackie put her hand on Cain’s arm. “Not now, Cain. What *is* the plan?”

“I’ve got some…special people working on her now. They are creating a psychic barrier of sorts, keeping the pain she’s feeling segregated. It’s temporary, but I’ve been assured she won’t be harmed. I’ve got the best working on her now”

Cain thumped his fist into his other palm with a huge smack. “Digging around in her brain isn’t harming her? You’d better get to the point quick”

“At ease, Marko. I told you I’m not going to hurt her, and I’m going to be true to my word. There have been some events that you may not be aware of. Last night, a bar was blown up and forty people in the bar were killed. Two strippers that worked there were found fifteen minutes ago. They were raped and murdered. Nitro was the culprit in both crimes. He doesn’t care who he hurts or why. Psylocke, we believe, is the only one who can shut him down. If we can’t get her back in fighting shape, and if your team can’t stop him, my people predict a series of catastrophic events that will make any event in our history pale in comparison”

Cain relaxed. “Okay. I’ll buy that”

“I rather not use the girl at all until she’s had some seasoning. I disagree with the higher ups who view all metas as assets to be exploited. Some just want to live their lives. Not everybody has the stomach to do what must be done. We don’t have a choice now”

The Boss’s phone rang. Picking it up, nodded. “Good”

As he hung up, he moved to the door. “She’s done. Come with me”

They walked down the hall to the Medical Treatment room. Jackie caught a brief glimpse of a bald man in a wheelchair as the elevator doors closed

~o~O~o~
“Hi guys!” I chirped as Cain, Jackie and The Boss Entered the room. I felt strangely refreshed and I couldn’t understand why I caused such a fuss earlier.

“Sorry for the big mess earlier. I’m okay now. I think I’m PMS-ing or something”

Jackie smiled and gave me a hug. “Its okay, Betsy. Just as long as you’re okay now”

“Never better, but I do need a shower and my breath is gross” I looked at Cain who appeared uncomfortable. “I’m sorry I yelled at you earlier. I didn’t mean it”

“It’s okay, kid” he rumbled. “I’m not the sensitive type”

Looking at the Boss, I pouted. “Can I pleeese go back to my room now? I *need* a shower!”

“Jackie, you go up with her. Cain, I need to brief you about the mission”

As we rode up the elevator, I asked Jackie if she forgave me.

“Nothing to forgive, kid. We all have our moments, and you’re probably right, it was PMS. I get really cranky every time mine comes around. It’s the worst” She smiled her dazzling smile at me. “Now, let’s focus on getting you cleaned up and back to work”

The shower felt amazing. My head hurt a little, but it quickly went away in the hot water. I spent the better part of twenty minutes just letting the water hit me. Jackie knocked on the door. “We’re running late, princess. Get moving”

Sighing, I finished washing and conditioning my hair. The bathroom was a mass of fog, and I turned on the exhaust fan and the infrared light. Patting myself dry, I felt so warm I didn’t bother to wrap the towel around me. I dried my hair and took care of my other business and twenty minutes later I was ready to go.

Jackie, could you give me my outfit? I yelled through the door. I knew Jackie still had thoughts about other women and I didn’t want to be a distraction. Regardless what people may say, not all women are comfortable being naked around other women. I was one of those.

“You put makeup on?”

“Sure!” I said innocently. “I’m not going out without looking my best. I noticed you’re wearing some too”

She rolled her eyes. “I put mine on early. I didn’t hold the whole team up”

“So?” I giggled.

Jackie smiled. “Let’s move, Princess”

We made it down to the briefing room. Cain and The Boss were going over some plans. We were all looking at the plans on the table “Glad you could finally make it. Okay, as I was saying, Aziz will meet Nitro tonight, here, and…”

“I’ll be there to collect Aziz” I jumped and squeaked a little bit as Deadpool made his unwelcome appearance. We all looked at him. “What? Is something hanging off me?”

He made the mistake of teleporting (I guess that’s what it was) right next to Courier. She calmly smiled and kneed him in the whatsits.

“okayyyyy, that hurt.” He gasped. “Didn’t see that coming”

She bent down and grabbed him where it hurt. “That’s for being a peeping tom, Wade. We girls don’t like to be looked at when we are naked” she squeezed tighter. And seventeen year old girls should *never* be looked at” She squeezed again.

“Okay, you win” He gasped.

“Apologize, Wade” squeeze.

“sorry…”

Jackie let go with a satisfied smirk. “Good boy, Wade”

“Don’t mention it…Courier” he gasped.

The boss continued like nothing had happened. “So, as I was saying, we will be here… I was smiling after Jackie winked at me. I so owed her.

It was five minutes before Wade was able to speak. “Uhhh, thanks for the support, guys. I’m okay”

The Boss turned to Deadpool. “Oh, Wade, were you here?”

“Ohhhhh, you’re good, one eye” He said, pointing at the Boss. “Ignoring me and all that. I like you. We’ll need to get better acquainted”

“No we don’t, Wade. You’re a good soldier, but that mouth of yours…”

Deadpool looked up. “Now wait just a doggone minute. That line isn’t even original! Foul! Foul! And you call yourself a writer!”

I looked at Jackie questioningly “Don’t ask” she mouthed.

Wade turned his attention to Jackie “And you, Miss ball grabb-urrrrk”

A huge hand cut off Wilson’s diatribe as it closed around his torso. “Remember me, ‘ol buddy?’”

Deadpool teleported out of Juggernaut’s hand. “I can explain all of that, Jugs”

The Boss slammed his fist on the desk. “Enough of this nonsense! We’ve got a job to do!” He muttered something about amateurs and continued. There will be ten or so hired goons with Aziz. Take care of them ASAP Marko, Wilson, they’re yours. Any surprises, and I’ll feel better if Juggernaut is there”

“Only ten? Let big mouth over there handle them”

“Hey! Just because you don’t have the rapier wit of a Deadpool, don’t bad mouth the…mouth. All right”

The boss continued. “In a sense, Marko is right. The terrorists in this faction of Al Qaeda have been paying big money to some very powerful entities who would like nothing more than to bring this country down. The fall of the Soviet Union left some pretty powerful people in the lurch even twenty years later. Be ready for anything”

We also have reliable intel they have a master genetics whiz on the payroll. With all of the nonsense going on with genetics research, I wouldn’t put it past them to have a few tricks up their sleeve…”

~o~O~o~
Essex was completed with the final experiments. The large man strapped to the table was a willing participant. Abd al Malik Nagi was a convicted rapist and murderer in the United States, revered in his home country because he only killed infidels Essex had managed to make him “disappear from the penal system six months prior. Nagi bore little resemblance to the average sized man who left the prison. He was nearly eight feet tall and muscled to an extreme degree. He didn’t look like a bodybuilder, however. Large and blocky, he weighed almost 800 pounds.

“Relax, my friend,” Essex spoke in an almost hypnotic tone. “This will only hurt a little”

With that he emptied the syringe he was carrying into the intravenous line running into Nagi’s arm. Immediately, Nagi’s eyes rolled back in his head and he went limp. What Essex knew was that Nagi was in terrible pain, but paralyzed. He smiled. The targeting system would have an easier time on the implant in his chest. The radiation gun was ready and Essex punched in the keys that would begin the gamma irradiation. After entering the code, Essex smiled thinly. Now the fun would begin.

~o~O~o~

We found accommodations on their way to Lower Manhattan a bit tight in the Tactical Armored Vehicle or TAV that Homeland Security kept on hand for these situations. They told me it was a modified Infantry fighting vehicle and was armored to withstand 30 mm projectiles and had a 40 mm auto cannon and twin 50 caliber machine guns. The crew of two was sandwiched in with Courier, Deadpool, the Boss and I. Cain wouldn’t have even come close to fitting, so he used his H1 to get there.

“Umm, excuse me, but why are we going in a tank?” I asked the Boss.

This isn’t a tank, Psylocke, It’s a TAV” he replied tersely while checking his weapons for like the tenth time.

“Okay, TAV or whatever. Couldn’t a car get us there easier and with a lot less attention?”

“It’s always good to go in with overkill. That way, I don’t have to call it in when things get out of hand. Lately, they always get out of hand” He went back to clicking and poking and prodding, whatever these guys do with their penile extensions AKA guns. I liked my sword.

“Sooo, what…”

The Boss looked at me with a glare. “Don’t you ever shut up?”

Deadpool jumped in. “Hey! You’re supposed to be telling ME that, one eye!” He paused and then suddenly said. “Ooops! Gotta go!” then he blinked out. That was a cool trick.

Suddenly Courier sniffed the air. “Oh god. He didn’t.” She sniffed again and then held her nose. “That son of a bitch FARTED!”

I caught the briefest of whiffs before I held my nose. “Ewwww, gross! Gag! Why would he do that with *us* in here!”

I could have sworn The Boss had a small grin on his weathered face. “What’s the matter girls? Can’t handle a little ‘eau de latrine’?”

I was livid and still holding my nose. “I can’t believe I’m breathing it! Don’t you have like a gas mask or something? I’m gonna be sick.”

“NBC equipment is right over your head, missy, but I wouldn’t recommend throwing up in a gas mask. Now that’s gross, as you are so fond of saying!”

“Oh god. Let me out!” I said dramatically. “I *hate* men and I *hate* him!”

“Settle down, princess we’re almost there. Besides, I’ll bet it’s gone by now”

“Jackie! Aren’t you going to say something? Anything?”

“She looked at me. That would require breathing, something you are doing a lot of. Why don’t you calm down and focus on the mission”

Still holding my nose, I pouted. “Bastard” I thought. I’ll get him somehow. I quieted my mind and reached out. We were close, within a mile, I guessed. I could feel Aziz, several lackeys; I counted around twelve or thirteen, and four or five really chaotic minds. They seemed part animal and part human. And they were completely wild.

“I think we may have a problem. I’m getting some funny thought patterns. I’m not sure, but they may have some weird animal human hybrids there”

The Boss raised his eyebrow. “Are you sure?”

“Well, no, but they are some whacked out minds. It’s the best guess I’ve got. I’m kinda new to this, you know”

“One to Delta. Stay on your toes. Possible modifieds on scene. They’re expecting us”

I was issued an ear radio, as was everyone else. I heard the response. “Delta, copy. Use Vulcan ammo, people. Shoot to kill”

Vulcan ammunition, as it was explained to me by Jackie, was a high energy round for the small arms that gave them the hitting power of a 50 caliber machine gun. They looked like a tracer traveling to their target, and any soft human hit by the round pretty much blew apart. More junk thought of by people with nothing better to do than kill things, I thought.

“One minute to egress, team” called the vehicle commander. I could hear the strike team, a group of specially trained Army Rangers tasked to the Delta unit calling off their positions.

I was still confused by what my job was. I had been told to stay with the Boss. I was starting to get really nervous. “What am I supposed to do? Look pretty?”

“You stay with me, and I mean right on my tail. You’re taking out Nitro. Your particular talents will short him out” I think he saw the fear in my eyes, because I was scared. Really scared. The Boss took my chin in his hand “You’ll be okay kid. Stay with me, and do what I say when I say to do it, and you’ll be fine. Blast his freaking mind with everything you’ve got”

“Don’t let me die, okay” was all I could muster in a very small voice.

He smiled at me. It was a crooked smile from a battle scarred face. “I won’t. I have confidence in you, and you are way stronger than you think you are”

The back of the TAV opened up. We rolled out and Courier had changed to the form of a rather muscular man that was about 5 inches shorter that she was. She winked at me and deployed.

“One to Delta. Go/no go, team leaders”

“Two, go”

“Three, go”

“Angels Four, go”

The building was a large warehouse along the riverfront. The entire area was poorly lit, and the warehouse was worse. I was holding on to the Boss’s belt. He turned and winked. “Ready?”

I nodded nervously. I was not ready for this shit. And now I thought I needed to pee.

“GO!” The night lit up.

And I had to pee…

To be Continued

Thanks to Marvel Comics for their wonderful characters.

Chapter 8

Someone fired a grenade into the main door of the warehouse. A tremendous explosion rocked the area, but the door held with minor damage.

“Get outta the way!” bellowed Cain. He charged the door and effortlessly blasted through it. I could see bullets hitting his body, but other than a small indentation where they struck, they did nothing other than piss the big man off.

“He’s in! Move!” the assault team moved in. I could see Wade as he blinked in and out, swords drawn. He cut down two of Aziz’s guards before they knew what hit them. He nearly cut them in two.

Seeing that made my tummy do a little flip. I decided to focus on other things. A large explosion rumbled inside the building, blowing out windows. “Nitro’s taken out team three. He seems to be immune to the Vulcan rounds”

“I’ve got him” a familiar voice crackled over the radio. It was Wilson.

Wilson blinked in to the rear of Nitro. “Hey, homeless guy. Have you seen a dude in here with an explosive personality? A guy who gets a bang out of life?”

Nitro turned to Deadpool. “Oh, you’re funny, a real comedian, aren’t you” He spoke in a voice that was almost mechanical.

Wilson chuckled. “Well, I do have my moments. You wouldn’t want to give up without a fight, would you? I have a lot more bad jokes in my trick bag”

Nitro smiled. “No, I think you’re going to have to make me surrender”

“Okay. But it’s your funeral”

What followed was a display of swordsmanship and teleportation that was a blur. Nitro was hit over twenty times with sword strikes and punches in less than five seconds from every direction. Deadpool took Nitro’s legs out from under him with a leg sweep to finish. Wilson wasn’t even winded as he stood over Nitro’s prone form. “And Wilson sticks the landing! The crowd goes wild. I think it’s a ten, ladies and gentlemen” Then he noticed Nitro didn’t have a scratch on him.

“Finished?” asked Nitro his eyes flashing white.

“Awww for cryin’ out loud. HELLLLLLP!”

Nitro exploded with the approximate force of a pound of C4. It was a shaped explosion that focused on where Deadpool was. Nitro reformed out of the mist.

Deadpool taunted Nitro from the shadows. “You’re gonna have to be faster than that, greasy. Nice parlor trick though. You’re my kind of guy!”

“Do you think swords and bullets have any meaning for someone who can manipulate his very body as a tool of destruction?”

“No, but I’ll bet Oxi Clean could use you as a spokesman. Things just haven’t been the same since Billy Mays croaked”

“You insolent little…”

“Creep? Toad? I’ve been called them all! Sticks and stones, greasy” He quietly drew his pistol and blinked behind Nitro. He emptied his ten round clip into his head and torso. Nitro dropped like a stone.

“Now bullets, on the other hand…”

“Will NEVER hurt me”

“Crap” was all Deadpool could say before Nitro exploded again. He flew backwards from the force of the explosion as it sent him backwards fifty yards. He skidded to a stop at Juggernaut’s feet.

“Having fun?”

Wilson raised his right arm, pointing to the sky. He wheezed out “I have not yet….begun…ahhhh, you get the point” then he passed out.

“INFIDELS!” It was Aziz. “I was prepared for your cowardly attack! Here are some of my djinn for you to entertain. Allahu Akbar!”

Juggernaut looked around him as he was surrounded by glowing creatures, vaguely human, but clearly modified.

“This is gonna be fun. Aziz. When I get done beatin’ these assholes, I’m comin’ for you”

~o~O~o~
I was working my way with the Boss and five team members to where I knew Nitro was. I was directing them, when a large explosion sent a red and black blur flying backwards from the center of the building. The roof collapsed over the spot of the explosion.

“Is that the best you’ve got?” a voice echoed from the rubble. “I am GOD! You will all bow to me!”

“Keep talking, jackass” muttered Captain Nelson, the leader of the team. “The more you talk, the closer we get”

“Nitro! This is the Director! Can we work this out? You don’t have to blow everything to hell! Maybe we can come to an agreement!”

“I know you! You’re the one who said my research had no value! Now you want to talk? Come closer so I can see you. Then we can talk”

“All right. Just go easy on the blasting”

“Boss! Hissed Nelson. Are you nuts? That idiot is gonna wipe the floor with you as soon as he gets a bead on ya!”

“I hope he’s enough of an egomaniac to hear me beg for mercy. Psylocke, you get behind him and short out his head with those psychic daggers of yours. If we can take out his mind, the rest will follow. Just remember your training, and you’ll be fine”

“Okay Nitro. I’m coming out” he whispered into his comm. “All units, clear out!”

~o~O~o~
The four creatures surrounding Juggernaut were all about seven feet tall, and looked like hybrids between a man and a bear. The main thing that set them apart was that their claws looked like some sort of metal, and they were glowing red. They growled, but their growl was not of an animal. It was more like fingernails on a chalkboard.

Deadpool was starting to come out of his explosion induced stupor. He noticed the creatures and remarked, a la Jed Clampett, “Welllll, doggies. Granny’ll love these fer the pot with collard greens and possum squeezins”

“Will you shut up, Wilson?”

“You need any help?”

“No. What I need is for you to stand there jabbering like a big asshole!”

“Okay, big guy, can do” he paused and held his pistol like a microphone. “And here we are, ladies and gentlemen, in the center of the ring. These bruisers are just itching for a brawl, and Juggernaut is just the palooka to deliver”

One of the monsters leapt at Juggernaut and he met it with a blow that shattered its face. It slid in a lifeless heap by Deadpool, who held its paw, checking for a pulse. He made a big show of shaking his wrist as if trying to jar a nonexistent watch to life. “Well either its dead or my watch has stopped”

The three remaining creatures were on top of Juggernaut clawing with and punching with everything they had, which wasn’t enough to scratch his magically enhanced hide. He grabbed the one that was gnawing on his arm and drove in straight into the concrete with a sickening thud. “Will…you…shut…up!!”

“Well, the palookas are fiddling in the ring, and I don’t think much of the tune. Jugs is bobbing and weaving. It’s nice work if you can get it!”

Juggernaut grabbed the other two and slammed them together in a mess of gore. The fight was over in a minute. “All right Wilson. Those are just lines from a Marx Brothers movie”

“Hey! I’ve been waiting for years to get those into a fight. Besides, I don’t write this crap. I just say what the chick who writes this dreck tells me to say”

Aziz fired several shots from an assault rifle. They all struck Juggernaut and he didn’t even notice. Deadpool blinked from his spot on the back side of the warehouse wall the thirty meters to Aziz’s position. He had him by the throat with a pistol to his chest. “Come on, Aziz! Play nice!”

“You infidels will never be victorious. I will see to it. Kill me, and seven take my place”

Deadpool punched him. “Yeah, I get it. Virgins and all that. yada, yada, yada, I keel you. Been there done that”

“I’m going to take care of that idiot Nitro. You keep an eye on our buddy here”

“Can do, big red. I’ve had my fill of him anyway. C’mon butt nut. Let’s get better acquainted. You’re gonna make my next house payment”

Juggernaut turned to go to the other end of the building when a blur crashed through the ceiling and landed in front of Juggernaut. He was huge, and dressed in a type of middle eastern garb. His face was covered from nose to chin, and his eyes glowed green. He was nearly the size of Juggernaut, and obviously spoiling for a fight.

“I am the Right Hand of Allah, infidel. And you will now pay the cost of opposing the Holy Jihad”

Juggernaut smashed his fists together and growled. Bigger men than you have tried, punk”

The Hand rushed forward, faster than humanly possible and gave Juggernaut two rapid fire punches that sounded like bombs going off. Juggernaut staggered back, obviously stunned by the force and speed of the blows.

“All right! Juggernaut smiled. “Someone worth fighting!”

The Hand hadn’t counted on Juggernaut being so resilient. “By the Prophet! That should have been enough to level a mountain!”

Deadpool had to get his two cents in. “He don’t know you vewy well, do he?”

“He’s about to find out why they call me the Juggernaut!”

Juggernaut charged, and the Hand easily dodged him and drove a big elbow into Jug’s back. It was a tremendous blow, driving Juggernaut forward and down. The Hand pressed his advantage, jumping on top of Juggernaut, leveling pile driving shots on his body and helmet.

Juggernaut finally had him close and blasted the Hand with a massive two handed punch that sent him through one of the outside walls of the warehouse. “Not bad, dickhead, but you still hit like a girl”

The Hand finally came to a skidding stop one hundred meters from the point of impact of the punch. “By the Prophet, this one is strong, but I will take his SOUL!”

He charged straight at Juggernaut at full speed, which was for him, about 65 miles per hour. Juggernaut was waiting.

“The secret to hitting the fastball is knowing when to…SWING!” He rotated his body more gracefully than a nearly two thousand pound man should be able to. The Hand’s momentum was stopped dead and Juggernaut drove him into the concrete floor, burying him three feet deep.

“You’re outta your league, boy!” Rumbled Juggernaut. The Hand, shaken and nearly unconscious, struggled to his feet.

“Never,” he gasped, “Never will I surrender to the infidels”

“Suit yourself” Jugs drove a massive right into the Hand’s chest. He rocketed out of the building and into the East River. He didn’t surface.

~o~O~o~

I had found two of Aziz’ cronies who hadn’t been killed. They were trying to escape out the back. I was able to turn them around and they were now sneaking up behind Nitro with the intention of emptying their weapons into his body.

The Boss was getting closer to Nitro, trying to stall for time as I tried to get into position to strike.

“Closer, Mr. Director, closer. The blasts have one side effect, and that is that my hearing is damaged. I can’t hear you”

“I know what you’re doing, Nitro, and it won’t work. I have people all over this place ready to do whatever it takes to bring you down”

Nitro chuckled. “Why, whatever do you mean? If you make it worth my while, I’ll join your little cause. But I think you will find that my price is a little steeper that of your conscripts”

“What do you mean?”

“I know that they serve, not because of any patriotic duty, but because they are forced to by this pathetic government. Serve us or be our guest in some shit hole prison”

The Boss was surprised by that revelation. He knew it was true, but how would this guy know about that? “I don’t know what you mean, Nitro. All our operatives are working completely by their own choice”

“Now wait just a damn minute” I thought to myself. “I was threatened with that very thing!” Join or get locked up. I did it because it was the right thing to do, not because of the threat. I would have joined regardless. But this guy knew. And he wasn’t going to let them get him without exacting a price. He wasn’t as crazy as I thought he was. He was a psychopath, that was for sure, but he had a method to his madness.

“Come closer, Mr. Director, close enough to look into my eyes and tell me that lie again”

My little puppets managed to get close enough to open up on Nitro. The Director hit the ground as they fired. I leapt and covered the twenty five feet in a second they stopped firing as I hit Nitro with my psychic daggers extended. He screamed in agony as I did from terror that he was going to explode and end my life.

I saw into his mind, or what was left of it. It was ruled only by his ego, and the callousness he would have killed everyone in his way was apparent to me. He needed to die. I gave him everything I had, and he finally collapsed, his eyes and expression blank. Whether he would wake up again was something I didn’t know. He wasn’t dead, not physically, but his mind was the closest thing I could get to dead.

As I removed my power from him, he dropped like a stone. Looking at the director, I saw Jackie rushing to my side. I felt sick for a moment, and then everything went black.

~o~O~o~

Wilson was distracted momentarily by the screams. Aziz took advantage of that and quickly pulled a hidden weapon in his coat. He shot Wilson in the stomach.

“Ow! You crazy son of a bitch! That kind of hurt for a second!” Deadpool yelled. “Well, the reward is dead or alive, so…”

He pushed Aziz away from him and drew his pistol, then with one swift motion, he put one round into Aziz chest, dropping him.

“Ahhhhh, crap!” Deadpool cursed as he saw the wound. All that leaked out was hydraulic fluid and sparks from the circuitry of the Life Model Decoy that was Aziz leaked onto the floor. He had never been there.

The LMD laughed. “Once again, Wilson, I evade your clutches. Your side wins this round, but the war is far from over. It is as the Koran says…”

Deadpool put six more rounds into the LMD, silencing it. “Like I care what the Koran says. Boooooringg!”

Juggernaut’s rumbling laughter could be heard from below the mezzanine. “Looks like the bank will get the house, Wade”

“Real funny, Red. It’s the same old story…Ahhhh, never mind” He blinked out.

A mile from the scene of the battle, The Right Hand of Allah exited the water. “The infidels have not heard the last of me. Especially the one known as Juggernaut. There will be a next time!”

The Hand then glowed and shot into the sky, disappearing from sight as he flew east at near the speed of sound”

~o~O~o~

The darkness that enveloped me slowly gave way to a grey fog. “She’s coming out of it! Get the Doctor!”

I recognized the voice, but in my fog, I couldn’t come up with a name. “Honey? Can you hear me? It’s Trace. Wake up Betsy!”

“Oh, yeah, Tracy, okay, that’s the name”

“Yes! It’s Tracy! Please wake up!”

Slowly, my eyes adjusted to the light in the room. “W-what happened? Where am I?”

“You’re in the hospital in New York City. You’ve been out of it for three weeks. God, I’ve been so worried. Charles said you might be under for another month” Tracy hugged me tight, and it felt good. It seemed like a lifetime ago that we had last been together”

“Water. I need water” I asked in a hoarse voice that I almost didn’t recognize as my own.

I felt a spoon at my lips. “Ice chips for now, sweetie”

I took the spoonful of ice chips and held them in my mouth until they melted, then swallowed. It felt so good going down. “More, please”

I took another spoonful. “Take it easy, hon. The doctor is here now.”

“How are you feeling, Ms. Braddock? You gave us quite a scare”

“I’ve been better. A lot better. What the heck happened?”

“You had a cerebral episode of unknown origin. Your brain shut down its higher functions for about three weeks. We don’t know why, but a visit from a Dr. Xavier seemed to be the turning point. He was able to stabilize your function, and get you on the road to recovery”

“So I’m not dead?”

The Doctor smiled. “Far from it. You need to gather your strength now. Three weeks in a bed will take it out of the best of us”

I tried to sit up, but was too weak. “Uggh. I get your point. I guess I need to take it slow”

The Doc ran a few tests and asked me the standard “how are you feeling” crap. Evidently I did okay, because he told me to get some rest and he’d be back in the morning.

Tracy laid her head on my stomach. “You scared me to death, Betsy. Please don’t do this any more. I’d die if you got hurt”

“Don’t worry about that. I’m so done with this save the world crap. I found out a lot about how people like me are treated, and how we are nothing more than physical assets to the spooks. I’m done”

Tracy and I shared a good cry, and I fell asleep again. It’s funny how being in a coma for three weeks can make a girl sleepy, but there you go.

I found out the next day that Cain had been called to North Africa for some unfinished business with some super baddie that he had fought that last night. Jackie was on assignment in Kazakhstan. The Director was back in Washington. My new “minder” gave me a call and asked to see me. She seemed like a nice person. Too bad.

A middle aged woman knocked on my hospital room door. “Betsy? I’m Agent Debbie Jackson. I’m taking over for Agent Garrison. I’ll be you point of contact for any future assignments that come down” She glanced at Tracy. Could we speak in private?”

I smiled sweetly. “Agent Jackson, is it? Can I call you Debbie?”

She smiled. “Of course you can!”

“Great! Debbie, This is the love of my life, Tracy” They shook hands. “Debbie, anything you can say to me, you can say to Tracy. That’s rule one”

Debbie looked a little uneasy. “I wasn’t briefed on Tracy”

“That’s okay, it’s not your fault. You seem like the decent sort, which I can tell because I have already read your mind and haven’t seen anything I don’t like. That’s good, because if I had found any deception on your part, the next thing you would have remembered, you would have been back in your house, wondering what you did yesterday”

Debbie was definitely uneasy now. “I don’t understand”

“Again, that’s okay. I’m done being a tool of the agency. I am going to take a couple of years off, and IF I decide to work for you again, I will. But it will be my choice. Understood?”

“But the Director said…”

I never stopped smiling. “I don’t care what the director wants, Debbie. You’re more than welcome to check up on me whenever you want. Buy me lunch, whatever. But let me be clear. I don’t work for anyone. I’m seventeen and getting ready for my senior year. I’ve already lost too much time to graduate with my class, but graduate I shall”

Debbie was starting to look positively disturbed now. “Miss Braddock, this is highly irregular”

“I know. It’s always irregular when one of your slaves develops a spine. I don’t have anything against you personally, Debbie. You’re a decent person. Which is why I’m not telling you to tell Homeland Security to take a flying leap”

“Miss Braddock! You are in violation of your agreement with us”

“An agreement is, by definition, agreed to by both parties. I was told this was the way it would be or I would be thrown into prison. Do you have any idea what that is like?”

“N-no, but I can’t just tell the Director…”

“I know, Debbie. I do” I looked at Tracy. “Throw me my phone”

I punched the hot key that gave me the Director. He answered on the second ring.

“Miss Braddock! Glad to hear you’re up and about!”

“I’m out, Director”

“I’m not surprised, Miss Braddock. You know, I don’t have to accept your ‘resignation’”

“I know, but you will, won’t you?”

The Director lit up a cigar before he responded. Let’s just call it a break, Why don’t we?”

“Sorry to be a pain, Director, but you know how we kids are. I have homecoming to plan and the Winter Ball, and then there’s Prom”

“Point well made. I think the nation can get along without you for say, a year or two?”

It was my turn to smile. “I think that will do”

“Don’t lose your phone. Just in case. Goodbye, Agent Braddock”

“Just Betsy, sir. Just Betsy”

The End