FIC: Hostile Takeover 14/18 -- Part 2/2
Sam and Roberto had succeeded in completely tearing apart the top part of the base. Almost every single wall had been bulled over and had fallen like dominoes. Many men were crushed from the structure falling and ceilings collapsing, but the boys did not stop. Sam had total control over his abilities, and even at top speed he was able to see when a room did not contain what he was looking for. Every room that was empty or manned only by emerald green clad agents was destroyed. Roberto pitched in by upping the solar radiation in the room and literally flattening things with his plasma blasts. Many agents and objects were burned and incapacitated.
And with Sam’s blast field protecting them, the bullets and explosives thrown and shot at them were all futile for HYDRA. The boys were a complete wrecking ball of destruction, and by the time they had finally found Strucker’s apparent office, the top part of the building was almost completely demolished. Smoke bellowed from all directions, and there were more than a couple of fires burning. The sight and smell of it all nearly made Sam sick to his stomach; even though the actions were necessary, the thought of being the cause of such chaos made his stomach lurch.
But then he thought about everything that was at stake and everything that had happened - everyone that he had known and lost - and the feeling just as quickly disappeared again.
Roberto, on the other hand, looked like he was having a grand old time. Every man that they came across and flew by had been on the receiving end of an all out solar attack from Sunspot. Roberto had yelled at them tauntingly as they burned. It was so unreal that it had frightened Sam; he had to remind himself that Bobby’s mental state at the present time was not exactly at its best.
His best friend did not get off on killing people.
“Lookit this fucking place,” the Brazilian scoffed as he picked up a framed photograph. In it, a bald man with a monocle over his eye stood happily with his arm around the shoulder of a woman. Roberto scoffed and carelessly tossed the thing to the floor. “That’s probably him, crazy caralho.”
“Maybe,” Sam rubbed his chin and began frantically tearing through the drawers in the man’s desk. File folders were piled in the bottom drawer and a bunch of loose papers were neatly stacked in the top. They were covered in notes mostly written in another language and numbered codes. Sam sighed in frustration and tossed them to the floor. “Ah can’t find anythin’ at all useful in here!”
The door slammed open then, and another group of agents pointed their weapons. Sam immediately grabbed Bobby’s arm and covered them with his blast field just seconds before the men began shooting. Bobby glared dangerously in retaliation, and held out his hands. A blinding, yellow light encased his fists and he fired a massive blast toward them. The temperature in the room went up to a dangerous level, and even behind his shields Sam could feel it. Most of the agents fell to the floor almost instantly, and once again Roberto had a manic grin at the sight of it.
“It’s good to see them pay for what they did.”
Sam frowned, but nodded nonetheless. “We should keep moving.”
“Oh don’t do that,” a new voice cut in a few moments later. The man from the photograph - bald and wearing a monocle over his right eye - stepped into the room with his hands folded behind his back. “You must be Samuel Guthrie.”
Roberto clenched his fists and stepped forward. “You Strucker!? Huh!?”
“That would be me,” he nodded and approached them. Roberto fired his fists up again, but Sam grabbed his elbow. The man nodded at the gesture. “Smart move.”
“You the asshole in charge?” Roberto demanded.
“Again, that would be me,” he nodded. “I could not help but notice the damage you’ve done to my base. Are you looking for something in particular?”
Sam clenched his jaw, and did not take his eyes off the big man in front of them. “Ah think ya know what we’re lookin’ foah. Question is, what’re ya doin’ here without any back up? We could just kill ya right now if we wanted tah.”
“You could, but you won't,” Strucker smiled bemusedly. “I am the head of an organization now in charge of fifty seven countries around the world. You kill me, and you will only make this war worse.”
“Or we can start taking down your army by killing you first!” Roberto yelled, holding up a glowing fist.
Another explosion rocked the building from somewhere below, and Sam shook his head. “We already got this base infiltrated. Ya got next tah no back up left, and if yoah here, this has got tah be one of yoah biggest headquarters. There ain’t nothin’ stoppin’ us from takin’ ya down right here and now.”
“Very correct,” Strucker shrugged. “Why else did you think I willingly walked into this room? I would rather go down with honour than as a cowering fool.”
“You think you’re honourable?!” Roberto scoffed incredulously. “There’s no god damn honour in mass genocide. There’s no honour in killing innocents and invading civilian homes! You’re practically the second coming of Hitler!”
“This world was only headed into a state of separatist disarray. HYDRA was only rescuing the world’s inhabitants from themselves,” he said with an irritated frown. “Plans for this world to accept unity and dictatorship under HYDRA rule was in their best interest. HYDRA would protect them from genetic freaks and capitalist ruling. We would have provided all of Earth with one rule and leadership.”
“Ya wanted tah force yoah beliefs down the throats of billions, and ya think that’s an acceptable excuse?!” Sam demanded angrily. “That makes it no better! And who are you tah make decisions foah everyone!?”
“Humankind was disintegrating, and HYDRA only looked to restore it with new life. And a few years from now we were to be stopped completely. This invasion was meant only to prevent that.” He paced, and glanced up at them intensely. “We only took out those who would be responsible for ending this in the long run.”
“Innocent women and children had fuck all to do with your demise!” Bobby seethed.
“No, but they were mutants, and therefore they didn’t deserve to live.”
Roberto growled angrily, and that time Sam could not stop him from firing a massive concussive blast at the older man. The room flashed with a bright yellow light, but the moment Sam was able to see again, his mouth fell open in shock. “What the…”
Baron von Strucker had fallen to the ground from the impact, but his skin and body remained unharmed by the hit. “What? You think I was stupid enough to walk into this room without being protected from mutant energy signatures?”
Roberto was stunned. “That’s impossible!”
“HYDRA scientists are only the best in the world,” Strucker laughed amusedly. “That was how we were able to annihilate the X-Men and all of their pathetic students, after all.”
Sam felt rage grow within him at the thought of his dead siblings. “Well yoah technology can’t protect ya from gettin’ yoah ass handed to ya with our fists, now can it?”
Strucker jumped to his feet, and held up his hand. It was encased in a strange device. “So long as you can simultaneously protect yourself from my Satan Claw.”
“God, you’re so fucking clichéd!” Roberto rolled his eyes and stepped forward. “Not only are you practically a Nazi looking to take over the world, but you actually call your most powerful weapon a Satan Claw!? Mãe do Deus, who actually does that in real life?!”
“You’re about to find out,” Strucker glared and held out the gauntlet in front of him. A massive surge of electricity fired out of his fingertips and struck Bobby in the chest. Sunspot screamed out in agony and fell to the floor in a smoldering heap, and Sam immediately put his blast field back up.
“Bobby!”
“And now that the two of us are alone, we can talk,” his hand sparked as he stared at Sam maniacally. “I have been trying to get my hands on you for a long time, Sam Guthrie.”
“Why!?” he demanded.
“You are destined to live for many centuries to come. In just a few years from now, you will be leaving your ragtag group of outlaw team mates behind to join up in an unstoppable mutant force,” he explained, stepping over Roberto’s unconscious body and closer to Sam. “That force, that will occupy both yourself and Cable, would have been the one responsible for protecting the Earth as a whole. Both of you are responsible for taking down HYDRA in year 2021.”
Sam narrowed his eyes. “Ah don’t haveta believe ya.”
“No, you don’t. But you demanded answers, and here I am giving them to you,” Strucker glared and swiftly threw out his fist, landing a punch squarely against Sam’s jaw. “You and he were the last ones left we had to apprehend besides the Wolverine. Your powers, abilities, and genetic code are valuable to us.”
Sam groaned from the ground, and attempted to crawl away; the arm equipped with the gauntlet must have had some strange super strength and a nullifier. Strucker had been able to knock Sam back even with his blast field activated.
“You were the only ones we needed to keep alive,” Strucker continued, and pressed his foot down against Sam’s throat. “In order to prevent HYDRA’s demise, we began a hostile takeover. To destroy those responsible for our downfall. And with the most valuable of our enemies, to take and extract their genetic profiles.”
“Ya wanna clone us!?” Sam asked incredulously, squirming under the man’s weight.
“Not quite. But your unique abilities - your immortality, Cable’s chromoskimming and telepathy, Wolverine’s regeneration, amongst the others of your group - would allow us to create HYDRA super agents. And with those super agents, HYDRA would be able to prevail and operate in any timeline, in every country, and would be virtually indestructible.”
“Yer crazy!” Sam gasped.
“Just watching my own back,” the man pointed out, and held up his gauntlet over Sam’s face. “But it appears as though X-Force has put a bit of a damper on those plans.”
Sam struggled underneath him without so much as a retort; what could he say to a madman? The tricks HYDRA had up their sleeves were completely horrifying, but even still, X-Force was just one small group of kids against an entire army. What else could they do?
They may as well have backed down.
Or...
Or they could keep fighting.
Roberto growled fiercely and dove across the floor to tackle Strucker by the waist. Both men went tumbling to the floor, and Sam was quickly able to jump to his feet. Bobby pulled one of the knives from his utility belt that they had been assigned back at the hotel, and he slashed it across Strucker’s face. Blood flew, and the man screamed - and Roberto only grinned. “Not so invulnerable now, are we?”
Strucker struggled against him, and Sam blasted over to help Bobby pin him down. Sparks flew off of the man’s gauntlet, but his strength could not overpower the combined effort of both younger men. Bobby stabbed the knife at the metal, and managed to pop open the clasps on the Claw. They struggled, but were able to knock it off the man’s hand. Now powerless, Strucker glared up at them with a bloodied face. “Kill me. I dare you. You will be tracked down by HYDRA for the rest of your collective lives, and they will never give up until your dead carcasses are being used as living room rugs!”
Roberto pressed his blade against the man’s throat. “Your threats mean nothing, caralho!”
“Well know this, I will not beg for my life.”
“And we won’t give you the chance,” Sam growled.
“I won’t beg for my life,” he repeated again, that time louder. “Not like Meltdown.”
Sam’s blood ran cold, and he felt his heart slam against the wall of his chest. He got to his feet and stood tall over the older man, never taking his eyes away. “What d-did…what?”
“She is the one, isn’t she?” Strucker taunted. “She did, after all, cry and beg for you, Sam Guthrie.”
Roberto climbed to his feet and grabbed Sam’s shoulder. “Sam, should I-“
Cannonball wretched his arm free, and ignored him. “Ya lie.”
“You should have seen it; it was one of the most dutiful things I have ever seen,” Strucker continued. “On her hands and knees, nude and beaten, and even after all the turns my men took fucking her, she still cried for you.”
Sam screamed and dove on top of him, both hands clutched around Strucker’s throat. He smashed the HYDRA leader’s skull against the ground roughly, and his eyes blazed with fury. “Ya lie! Where the fuck is she?!”
“She never once gave up; she actually believed you were coming to rescue her,” Strucker stared up at Cannonball, red in the face and struggling to breathe. “She wanted us to spare her life.”
“Sam!” a new voice interrupted them, and Cable and Domino appeared at the door. Tears stung at the back of the Kentuckian’s eyes, and he cursed when one slipped. “Don’t do it, Sam! Let him go!”
“She wanted us to spare her life. And the life of the unborn child inside of her.”
Sam felt like he was going to be sick. “No…”
“Sam! Don’t listen to him!” Cable screamed again.
Cannonball’s chin trembled as he stared down at the twisted man beneath his hands, and he slowly reached for his utility belt. One gloved hand wrapped around the butt end of a gun holstered there, and he pulled it out. Tip pressed against the sweating skin of Strucker’s forehead, and Sam stared down at him through his tears. “Ya better hope yer lyin’…”
“Sam!” Cable yelled again.
“At least I will die with honour,” Strucker jutted his chin out, pressing himself closer to the barrel. “Not like her.”
The shot rang out. The entire front half of Strucker’s face was blown off, and the blood came back and sprayed Sam in the face. Bitter blood covering the face of a bitter leader. Cannonball climbed off of the body and kneeled soundlessly on the floor. He was cold. Even the warmth of the tears falling down his cheeks felt like ice.
“Shit!” Cable screamed.
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Terry fell to the ground roughly. Her face and body skidded across the dirty concrete of the basement floor, pain piercing every part of her body. She did not know what hit her, or why she fell.
All she heard was the gun go off.
Was she even still alive?
Slowly, the redhead pulled herself off the floor and looked back. There was so much blood. Blood on the walls, the floor, on her. And the source of it all lay in a crumpled heap behind her, breathing slowly and aching to move. Blues eyes widened in fear, and before she could even crawl back to Jimmy, she heard the ‘click’ of a gun cocking.
Spinning around, she saw the figure of her boyfriend, Wade Wilson - Deadpool - standing at the other side of the hall with his gun pointed toward her. Without so much as a second thought, Theresa let out the loudest, most violent scream her vocal chords would allow. The merc flew roughly across the corridor and slammed through a cement wall and a couple of rooms away. Terry did not care right then if he was hurt or even dead - which subconsciously she knew that he was not - she just needed to see if Jimmy was okay.
“Jimmy,” she screeched, and crawled over his fallen body. Blood soaked through his red and blue uniform, completely oozing from a massive hole in his chest. Without a care, she pressed her hand against the wound tightly, and used her free hand to lift the bigger man’s head. “Jimmy! God, please talk to me!”
“Terry,” he coughed and blood splashed through his lips, painting them crimson. “Are you okay?”
She fought to control herself. “Of course I’m okay! It’s ye-- ye’ve been shot-- oh God…” she released the wound and quickly began tearing pieces of her uniform shirt off. Balling the fabric strips up, she pressed them tightly against the gunshot wound. “I just havetah apply pressure-- we can…I can yell for help, and we can get ye-- oh God…”
“I’m just glad you’re okay,” he muttered, voice fading. A large hand lifted and pressed through her hair, and he smiled faintly at her with red stained lips. “You have to get outta here…that guy…I mean, Deadpool…he came after…us--you…”
Terry frowned and held him against her tighter. “He’s gone, I took care of him. We just have tah worry about gettin’ ye outta here…”
Jimmy coughed violently, and another splash of blood came up his throat. Within seconds his skin had paled considerably, and one side of his chest was not rising up anymore when he breathed. “Don’t worry about me…get out of here…”
“Nae!” she screamed frantically, and clutched onto him. “Don’t ye dare say that!”
“Terry…” he breathed out shakily. “I’m sorry I couldn’t…Sam will…he’ll take you to see your dad…”
“No!” she pleaded, and hugged him tightly against her chest.
“I love you,” he told her, as his body began to relax. “I’ve been in love with you since the day I met you.”
Her heart broke right then. Shattered into a million pieces, and she was unsure how it would ever repair itself. She pressed her lips against his forehead and held him close as he died. Blood completely soaked her uniform, and her body went numb. She did not ever want to let him go, but knew she had to the second she saw movement on the other side of the wall. In a rage, she got to her feet and stormed over across the hall. Wade was stirring on the floor.
“Terry…” he muttered.
“How could ye?!” she screamed and dove on top of him. His mask was missing, and a strange red glow flickered in his eyes. Something was wrong with him. “Ye better have a fuckin’ good explanation or I’ll turn yuir brain to mush!”
He shook his head, red once more leaving his brown eyes. “Get the hell off of me.”
“Nae!” she screamed, and balled up his uniform in her fists.
“Please…” he muttered, and glared at her dangerously. He took both of her wrists in his hands, and shoved her away roughly. From her place on the floor she watched him struggle to stand, and, as soon as he managed to, he clutched his head sorely and fell back down to his knees. Red flashed in his eyes again, and he lifted his gun and pointed it at her. “Intruder alert number 200917300. Requesting access to destroy subject…access granted,” he stared down at her robotically and cocked his weapon. “Hail HYDRA.”
She screamed again, that time shattering his weapons completely and knocking him back to a laying position. Once more, the red disappeared from his eyes and Terry crawled over to him. “What did they do tah ye!?”
“Get away,” he pleaded and struggled to hide his face. “Now!”
She grabbed him roughly, holding both his cheeks in her hands as she stared down in his eyes. They were sunken in and bloodshot. Something was so very wrong with him. “What did they do tah ye? Why won’t ye let me help!? Please…X-Force is here now. We can help ye!”
“Sorry, Red,” he muttered. “I need even more brain surgery than before. They put something in my…real funny, huh? Take the guy with the cancer and screwed up fucking head and make an even bigger puppet outta him. Good guy heroin’ business wasn’t much my scene anyways. Too much kumbaya, if ya know what I mean…”
“This ain’t a time tah be crackin’ jokes,” she pleaded with him, holding him closer. “Let me help ye…”
He pulled away, and squeezed his eyes shut. “I killed your Indian.”
“Dinnae call him that!” she yelled.
His eyes flashed, but he managed to shake it away again. “My healing keeps interfering with this fucking robot in my head. Just what I needed - another personality. But hey, maybe it’s for the best, huh? Now I got a legit reason to leave you alone and let you have something better.”
“Nae!” she pleaded and leaned down to press her mouth against his. He barley kissed her back, but the feel of his lips against hers provided Terry with an odd sort of comfort. “I already lost Jim, and I cannae lose ye too!”
His eyes flashed red and he shoved her away. “Destroy intruder…”
“No!”
He clawed at his forehead and rolled onto his side. “Get away. I gotta…I can’t stay here, Red. I’ll just get you killed and you’re way too hot for the cold and clammy look.”
She grabbed his hand and squeezed. “Nae Wade! I love ye!”
“It’s been good,” he agreed and climbed to his feet slowly. “But I can’t keep doing this with junior in my head up there. I was thinkin’ about namin’ him Bob. Whattdya think?”
Her shoulders slumped, and she dropped her hands to the floor beside her as she watched him walk away. “Wade…”
“I love you, girl, but…fuck it. Romantics ain’t my thing and you know that. I gotta get this…” he grabbed his head and fell against the wall. “FUCK!”
Terry’s chin trembled as she watched him, her heart breaking all over again. “We can help…”
“I’ll get you killed,” he muttered against the wall, not even daring to look at her. “I can’t do that. Some loony shit head thought it’d be funny to actually give me a heart after all, hilarious, huh? I’m only doin’ this for your own good, Red.”
“Don’t leave,” she pleaded one last time.
He finally turned to face her. “Sorry.”
Blue eyes watched in sorrow as he stumbled away, grabbing at the sides of his head as he muttered in duelling voices to himself. A victim once more of organized terrorists, and that time it pulled them apart for good. So much of her fight thus far had been for him, and now he only walked away. Leaving her alone in the world without him, and without her best friend.
And the only thought that passed through her mind right then was that she hoped the agents would just come back and finish her off.
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“Cable is fucked! This is so fucked!” Rictor babbled as he and Shatterstar ran through the hallways of the basement. They had yet to be approached by any more agents, and for that the Mexican was glad. “He’s probably walking us straight into a trap.”
“There will be no traps,” Shatterstar assured him, clutching his swords tightly in his fists.
“There could be!” Rictor argued. “Then what, huh? We get tortured, pumped full of drugs, and shoved in a gooey tube! That’s sick!”
Shatterstar grabbed him by the elbow and stared down at him. “That will not happen. I would gladly die in return for not allowing that to happen.”
Brown eyes widened fearfully. “That’s no better!”
Shatterstar sighed and turned on his heel, continuing to walk to their destination. He had showed no fear or hesitation at all so far, and Rictor wondered how the hell he always managed to be so god damn brave. They had no reason to trust anyone anymore, yet he was allowing them to walk into something blindly. Ric loved a fight just as much as the next guy, but he sure as hell did not think taking on an army was about to get them anywhere.
They reached the hall labeled ‘Zone 6’ and stopped as they stared down the hallway. It was the first one that had been lined completely with rows upon rows of steel doors. Cable had informed them telepathically on their way there that they were looking for door 1206B. They had no idea what to find there, or what to expect.
“Why the hell couldn’t he have explained this to us?!” Ric demanded.
Shatterstar shook his head and stalked down the hall, silver eyes scanning over the numbered placards on each one. The corridor reminded Ric so much of a jail, and an influx of memories poured into his head. Shivering, he shook the thoughts away and jogged to catch up with his friend. They needed to stick together.
After so much, Rictor could not allow them to walk into something blindly and meet their end. They had fought for weeks by that point, and allowing HYDRA one quick and easy win was not an option. They had each other’s backs through thick and thin - no matter what. And if the Mojoworlder felt he had to trust Cable’s intuition then…fine. They were going to.
But there would be no way in hell those HYDRA agents would take him on alone. Screw that.
Shatty stopped in front of the door they were looking for and slowly tightened his grip around the handle of his sword. He glanced down at Rictor one more time. “I’m going to open it, Julio.”
Rictor nodded and let a bright green glow encase his fists. “All right, compadre. I’m ready.”
Shatterstar pulled on the handle and found it locked. So he stuck the end of his sword between the door and the frame and worked it like a wedge. The metal groaned and twisted, but as soon as a couple of screws popped loose, it swung open easily. The room was completely covered in darkness, but it was not enough that they could not see. Taking one step in, Rictor felt his chest tighten up and his breath hitch in his throat.
“Hijos de…no!”
Shatterstar stepped up beside him. “Fekt.”
Rictor did not even bother inspecting the room. He ran inside as fast as his legs allowed him to, and dropped down to the curled up body in the corner. “Tabitha?!”
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Go to chapter fifteen.
And with Sam’s blast field protecting them, the bullets and explosives thrown and shot at them were all futile for HYDRA. The boys were a complete wrecking ball of destruction, and by the time they had finally found Strucker’s apparent office, the top part of the building was almost completely demolished. Smoke bellowed from all directions, and there were more than a couple of fires burning. The sight and smell of it all nearly made Sam sick to his stomach; even though the actions were necessary, the thought of being the cause of such chaos made his stomach lurch.
But then he thought about everything that was at stake and everything that had happened - everyone that he had known and lost - and the feeling just as quickly disappeared again.
Roberto, on the other hand, looked like he was having a grand old time. Every man that they came across and flew by had been on the receiving end of an all out solar attack from Sunspot. Roberto had yelled at them tauntingly as they burned. It was so unreal that it had frightened Sam; he had to remind himself that Bobby’s mental state at the present time was not exactly at its best.
His best friend did not get off on killing people.
“Lookit this fucking place,” the Brazilian scoffed as he picked up a framed photograph. In it, a bald man with a monocle over his eye stood happily with his arm around the shoulder of a woman. Roberto scoffed and carelessly tossed the thing to the floor. “That’s probably him, crazy caralho.”
“Maybe,” Sam rubbed his chin and began frantically tearing through the drawers in the man’s desk. File folders were piled in the bottom drawer and a bunch of loose papers were neatly stacked in the top. They were covered in notes mostly written in another language and numbered codes. Sam sighed in frustration and tossed them to the floor. “Ah can’t find anythin’ at all useful in here!”
The door slammed open then, and another group of agents pointed their weapons. Sam immediately grabbed Bobby’s arm and covered them with his blast field just seconds before the men began shooting. Bobby glared dangerously in retaliation, and held out his hands. A blinding, yellow light encased his fists and he fired a massive blast toward them. The temperature in the room went up to a dangerous level, and even behind his shields Sam could feel it. Most of the agents fell to the floor almost instantly, and once again Roberto had a manic grin at the sight of it.
“It’s good to see them pay for what they did.”
Sam frowned, but nodded nonetheless. “We should keep moving.”
“Oh don’t do that,” a new voice cut in a few moments later. The man from the photograph - bald and wearing a monocle over his right eye - stepped into the room with his hands folded behind his back. “You must be Samuel Guthrie.”
Roberto clenched his fists and stepped forward. “You Strucker!? Huh!?”
“That would be me,” he nodded and approached them. Roberto fired his fists up again, but Sam grabbed his elbow. The man nodded at the gesture. “Smart move.”
“You the asshole in charge?” Roberto demanded.
“Again, that would be me,” he nodded. “I could not help but notice the damage you’ve done to my base. Are you looking for something in particular?”
Sam clenched his jaw, and did not take his eyes off the big man in front of them. “Ah think ya know what we’re lookin’ foah. Question is, what’re ya doin’ here without any back up? We could just kill ya right now if we wanted tah.”
“You could, but you won't,” Strucker smiled bemusedly. “I am the head of an organization now in charge of fifty seven countries around the world. You kill me, and you will only make this war worse.”
“Or we can start taking down your army by killing you first!” Roberto yelled, holding up a glowing fist.
Another explosion rocked the building from somewhere below, and Sam shook his head. “We already got this base infiltrated. Ya got next tah no back up left, and if yoah here, this has got tah be one of yoah biggest headquarters. There ain’t nothin’ stoppin’ us from takin’ ya down right here and now.”
“Very correct,” Strucker shrugged. “Why else did you think I willingly walked into this room? I would rather go down with honour than as a cowering fool.”
“You think you’re honourable?!” Roberto scoffed incredulously. “There’s no god damn honour in mass genocide. There’s no honour in killing innocents and invading civilian homes! You’re practically the second coming of Hitler!”
“This world was only headed into a state of separatist disarray. HYDRA was only rescuing the world’s inhabitants from themselves,” he said with an irritated frown. “Plans for this world to accept unity and dictatorship under HYDRA rule was in their best interest. HYDRA would protect them from genetic freaks and capitalist ruling. We would have provided all of Earth with one rule and leadership.”
“Ya wanted tah force yoah beliefs down the throats of billions, and ya think that’s an acceptable excuse?!” Sam demanded angrily. “That makes it no better! And who are you tah make decisions foah everyone!?”
“Humankind was disintegrating, and HYDRA only looked to restore it with new life. And a few years from now we were to be stopped completely. This invasion was meant only to prevent that.” He paced, and glanced up at them intensely. “We only took out those who would be responsible for ending this in the long run.”
“Innocent women and children had fuck all to do with your demise!” Bobby seethed.
“No, but they were mutants, and therefore they didn’t deserve to live.”
Roberto growled angrily, and that time Sam could not stop him from firing a massive concussive blast at the older man. The room flashed with a bright yellow light, but the moment Sam was able to see again, his mouth fell open in shock. “What the…”
Baron von Strucker had fallen to the ground from the impact, but his skin and body remained unharmed by the hit. “What? You think I was stupid enough to walk into this room without being protected from mutant energy signatures?”
Roberto was stunned. “That’s impossible!”
“HYDRA scientists are only the best in the world,” Strucker laughed amusedly. “That was how we were able to annihilate the X-Men and all of their pathetic students, after all.”
Sam felt rage grow within him at the thought of his dead siblings. “Well yoah technology can’t protect ya from gettin’ yoah ass handed to ya with our fists, now can it?”
Strucker jumped to his feet, and held up his hand. It was encased in a strange device. “So long as you can simultaneously protect yourself from my Satan Claw.”
“God, you’re so fucking clichéd!” Roberto rolled his eyes and stepped forward. “Not only are you practically a Nazi looking to take over the world, but you actually call your most powerful weapon a Satan Claw!? Mãe do Deus, who actually does that in real life?!”
“You’re about to find out,” Strucker glared and held out the gauntlet in front of him. A massive surge of electricity fired out of his fingertips and struck Bobby in the chest. Sunspot screamed out in agony and fell to the floor in a smoldering heap, and Sam immediately put his blast field back up.
“Bobby!”
“And now that the two of us are alone, we can talk,” his hand sparked as he stared at Sam maniacally. “I have been trying to get my hands on you for a long time, Sam Guthrie.”
“Why!?” he demanded.
“You are destined to live for many centuries to come. In just a few years from now, you will be leaving your ragtag group of outlaw team mates behind to join up in an unstoppable mutant force,” he explained, stepping over Roberto’s unconscious body and closer to Sam. “That force, that will occupy both yourself and Cable, would have been the one responsible for protecting the Earth as a whole. Both of you are responsible for taking down HYDRA in year 2021.”
Sam narrowed his eyes. “Ah don’t haveta believe ya.”
“No, you don’t. But you demanded answers, and here I am giving them to you,” Strucker glared and swiftly threw out his fist, landing a punch squarely against Sam’s jaw. “You and he were the last ones left we had to apprehend besides the Wolverine. Your powers, abilities, and genetic code are valuable to us.”
Sam groaned from the ground, and attempted to crawl away; the arm equipped with the gauntlet must have had some strange super strength and a nullifier. Strucker had been able to knock Sam back even with his blast field activated.
“You were the only ones we needed to keep alive,” Strucker continued, and pressed his foot down against Sam’s throat. “In order to prevent HYDRA’s demise, we began a hostile takeover. To destroy those responsible for our downfall. And with the most valuable of our enemies, to take and extract their genetic profiles.”
“Ya wanna clone us!?” Sam asked incredulously, squirming under the man’s weight.
“Not quite. But your unique abilities - your immortality, Cable’s chromoskimming and telepathy, Wolverine’s regeneration, amongst the others of your group - would allow us to create HYDRA super agents. And with those super agents, HYDRA would be able to prevail and operate in any timeline, in every country, and would be virtually indestructible.”
“Yer crazy!” Sam gasped.
“Just watching my own back,” the man pointed out, and held up his gauntlet over Sam’s face. “But it appears as though X-Force has put a bit of a damper on those plans.”
Sam struggled underneath him without so much as a retort; what could he say to a madman? The tricks HYDRA had up their sleeves were completely horrifying, but even still, X-Force was just one small group of kids against an entire army. What else could they do?
They may as well have backed down.
Or...
Or they could keep fighting.
Roberto growled fiercely and dove across the floor to tackle Strucker by the waist. Both men went tumbling to the floor, and Sam was quickly able to jump to his feet. Bobby pulled one of the knives from his utility belt that they had been assigned back at the hotel, and he slashed it across Strucker’s face. Blood flew, and the man screamed - and Roberto only grinned. “Not so invulnerable now, are we?”
Strucker struggled against him, and Sam blasted over to help Bobby pin him down. Sparks flew off of the man’s gauntlet, but his strength could not overpower the combined effort of both younger men. Bobby stabbed the knife at the metal, and managed to pop open the clasps on the Claw. They struggled, but were able to knock it off the man’s hand. Now powerless, Strucker glared up at them with a bloodied face. “Kill me. I dare you. You will be tracked down by HYDRA for the rest of your collective lives, and they will never give up until your dead carcasses are being used as living room rugs!”
Roberto pressed his blade against the man’s throat. “Your threats mean nothing, caralho!”
“Well know this, I will not beg for my life.”
“And we won’t give you the chance,” Sam growled.
“I won’t beg for my life,” he repeated again, that time louder. “Not like Meltdown.”
Sam’s blood ran cold, and he felt his heart slam against the wall of his chest. He got to his feet and stood tall over the older man, never taking his eyes away. “What d-did…what?”
“She is the one, isn’t she?” Strucker taunted. “She did, after all, cry and beg for you, Sam Guthrie.”
Roberto climbed to his feet and grabbed Sam’s shoulder. “Sam, should I-“
Cannonball wretched his arm free, and ignored him. “Ya lie.”
“You should have seen it; it was one of the most dutiful things I have ever seen,” Strucker continued. “On her hands and knees, nude and beaten, and even after all the turns my men took fucking her, she still cried for you.”
Sam screamed and dove on top of him, both hands clutched around Strucker’s throat. He smashed the HYDRA leader’s skull against the ground roughly, and his eyes blazed with fury. “Ya lie! Where the fuck is she?!”
“She never once gave up; she actually believed you were coming to rescue her,” Strucker stared up at Cannonball, red in the face and struggling to breathe. “She wanted us to spare her life.”
“Sam!” a new voice interrupted them, and Cable and Domino appeared at the door. Tears stung at the back of the Kentuckian’s eyes, and he cursed when one slipped. “Don’t do it, Sam! Let him go!”
“She wanted us to spare her life. And the life of the unborn child inside of her.”
Sam felt like he was going to be sick. “No…”
“Sam! Don’t listen to him!” Cable screamed again.
Cannonball’s chin trembled as he stared down at the twisted man beneath his hands, and he slowly reached for his utility belt. One gloved hand wrapped around the butt end of a gun holstered there, and he pulled it out. Tip pressed against the sweating skin of Strucker’s forehead, and Sam stared down at him through his tears. “Ya better hope yer lyin’…”
“Sam!” Cable yelled again.
“At least I will die with honour,” Strucker jutted his chin out, pressing himself closer to the barrel. “Not like her.”
The shot rang out. The entire front half of Strucker’s face was blown off, and the blood came back and sprayed Sam in the face. Bitter blood covering the face of a bitter leader. Cannonball climbed off of the body and kneeled soundlessly on the floor. He was cold. Even the warmth of the tears falling down his cheeks felt like ice.
“Shit!” Cable screamed.
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Terry fell to the ground roughly. Her face and body skidded across the dirty concrete of the basement floor, pain piercing every part of her body. She did not know what hit her, or why she fell.
All she heard was the gun go off.
Was she even still alive?
Slowly, the redhead pulled herself off the floor and looked back. There was so much blood. Blood on the walls, the floor, on her. And the source of it all lay in a crumpled heap behind her, breathing slowly and aching to move. Blues eyes widened in fear, and before she could even crawl back to Jimmy, she heard the ‘click’ of a gun cocking.
Spinning around, she saw the figure of her boyfriend, Wade Wilson - Deadpool - standing at the other side of the hall with his gun pointed toward her. Without so much as a second thought, Theresa let out the loudest, most violent scream her vocal chords would allow. The merc flew roughly across the corridor and slammed through a cement wall and a couple of rooms away. Terry did not care right then if he was hurt or even dead - which subconsciously she knew that he was not - she just needed to see if Jimmy was okay.
“Jimmy,” she screeched, and crawled over his fallen body. Blood soaked through his red and blue uniform, completely oozing from a massive hole in his chest. Without a care, she pressed her hand against the wound tightly, and used her free hand to lift the bigger man’s head. “Jimmy! God, please talk to me!”
“Terry,” he coughed and blood splashed through his lips, painting them crimson. “Are you okay?”
She fought to control herself. “Of course I’m okay! It’s ye-- ye’ve been shot-- oh God…” she released the wound and quickly began tearing pieces of her uniform shirt off. Balling the fabric strips up, she pressed them tightly against the gunshot wound. “I just havetah apply pressure-- we can…I can yell for help, and we can get ye-- oh God…”
“I’m just glad you’re okay,” he muttered, voice fading. A large hand lifted and pressed through her hair, and he smiled faintly at her with red stained lips. “You have to get outta here…that guy…I mean, Deadpool…he came after…us--you…”
Terry frowned and held him against her tighter. “He’s gone, I took care of him. We just have tah worry about gettin’ ye outta here…”
Jimmy coughed violently, and another splash of blood came up his throat. Within seconds his skin had paled considerably, and one side of his chest was not rising up anymore when he breathed. “Don’t worry about me…get out of here…”
“Nae!” she screamed frantically, and clutched onto him. “Don’t ye dare say that!”
“Terry…” he breathed out shakily. “I’m sorry I couldn’t…Sam will…he’ll take you to see your dad…”
“No!” she pleaded, and hugged him tightly against her chest.
“I love you,” he told her, as his body began to relax. “I’ve been in love with you since the day I met you.”
Her heart broke right then. Shattered into a million pieces, and she was unsure how it would ever repair itself. She pressed her lips against his forehead and held him close as he died. Blood completely soaked her uniform, and her body went numb. She did not ever want to let him go, but knew she had to the second she saw movement on the other side of the wall. In a rage, she got to her feet and stormed over across the hall. Wade was stirring on the floor.
“Terry…” he muttered.
“How could ye?!” she screamed and dove on top of him. His mask was missing, and a strange red glow flickered in his eyes. Something was wrong with him. “Ye better have a fuckin’ good explanation or I’ll turn yuir brain to mush!”
He shook his head, red once more leaving his brown eyes. “Get the hell off of me.”
“Nae!” she screamed, and balled up his uniform in her fists.
“Please…” he muttered, and glared at her dangerously. He took both of her wrists in his hands, and shoved her away roughly. From her place on the floor she watched him struggle to stand, and, as soon as he managed to, he clutched his head sorely and fell back down to his knees. Red flashed in his eyes again, and he lifted his gun and pointed it at her. “Intruder alert number 200917300. Requesting access to destroy subject…access granted,” he stared down at her robotically and cocked his weapon. “Hail HYDRA.”
She screamed again, that time shattering his weapons completely and knocking him back to a laying position. Once more, the red disappeared from his eyes and Terry crawled over to him. “What did they do tah ye!?”
“Get away,” he pleaded and struggled to hide his face. “Now!”
She grabbed him roughly, holding both his cheeks in her hands as she stared down in his eyes. They were sunken in and bloodshot. Something was so very wrong with him. “What did they do tah ye? Why won’t ye let me help!? Please…X-Force is here now. We can help ye!”
“Sorry, Red,” he muttered. “I need even more brain surgery than before. They put something in my…real funny, huh? Take the guy with the cancer and screwed up fucking head and make an even bigger puppet outta him. Good guy heroin’ business wasn’t much my scene anyways. Too much kumbaya, if ya know what I mean…”
“This ain’t a time tah be crackin’ jokes,” she pleaded with him, holding him closer. “Let me help ye…”
He pulled away, and squeezed his eyes shut. “I killed your Indian.”
“Dinnae call him that!” she yelled.
His eyes flashed, but he managed to shake it away again. “My healing keeps interfering with this fucking robot in my head. Just what I needed - another personality. But hey, maybe it’s for the best, huh? Now I got a legit reason to leave you alone and let you have something better.”
“Nae!” she pleaded and leaned down to press her mouth against his. He barley kissed her back, but the feel of his lips against hers provided Terry with an odd sort of comfort. “I already lost Jim, and I cannae lose ye too!”
His eyes flashed red and he shoved her away. “Destroy intruder…”
“No!”
He clawed at his forehead and rolled onto his side. “Get away. I gotta…I can’t stay here, Red. I’ll just get you killed and you’re way too hot for the cold and clammy look.”
She grabbed his hand and squeezed. “Nae Wade! I love ye!”
“It’s been good,” he agreed and climbed to his feet slowly. “But I can’t keep doing this with junior in my head up there. I was thinkin’ about namin’ him Bob. Whattdya think?”
Her shoulders slumped, and she dropped her hands to the floor beside her as she watched him walk away. “Wade…”
“I love you, girl, but…fuck it. Romantics ain’t my thing and you know that. I gotta get this…” he grabbed his head and fell against the wall. “FUCK!”
Terry’s chin trembled as she watched him, her heart breaking all over again. “We can help…”
“I’ll get you killed,” he muttered against the wall, not even daring to look at her. “I can’t do that. Some loony shit head thought it’d be funny to actually give me a heart after all, hilarious, huh? I’m only doin’ this for your own good, Red.”
“Don’t leave,” she pleaded one last time.
He finally turned to face her. “Sorry.”
Blue eyes watched in sorrow as he stumbled away, grabbing at the sides of his head as he muttered in duelling voices to himself. A victim once more of organized terrorists, and that time it pulled them apart for good. So much of her fight thus far had been for him, and now he only walked away. Leaving her alone in the world without him, and without her best friend.
And the only thought that passed through her mind right then was that she hoped the agents would just come back and finish her off.
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“Cable is fucked! This is so fucked!” Rictor babbled as he and Shatterstar ran through the hallways of the basement. They had yet to be approached by any more agents, and for that the Mexican was glad. “He’s probably walking us straight into a trap.”
“There will be no traps,” Shatterstar assured him, clutching his swords tightly in his fists.
“There could be!” Rictor argued. “Then what, huh? We get tortured, pumped full of drugs, and shoved in a gooey tube! That’s sick!”
Shatterstar grabbed him by the elbow and stared down at him. “That will not happen. I would gladly die in return for not allowing that to happen.”
Brown eyes widened fearfully. “That’s no better!”
Shatterstar sighed and turned on his heel, continuing to walk to their destination. He had showed no fear or hesitation at all so far, and Rictor wondered how the hell he always managed to be so god damn brave. They had no reason to trust anyone anymore, yet he was allowing them to walk into something blindly. Ric loved a fight just as much as the next guy, but he sure as hell did not think taking on an army was about to get them anywhere.
They reached the hall labeled ‘Zone 6’ and stopped as they stared down the hallway. It was the first one that had been lined completely with rows upon rows of steel doors. Cable had informed them telepathically on their way there that they were looking for door 1206B. They had no idea what to find there, or what to expect.
“Why the hell couldn’t he have explained this to us?!” Ric demanded.
Shatterstar shook his head and stalked down the hall, silver eyes scanning over the numbered placards on each one. The corridor reminded Ric so much of a jail, and an influx of memories poured into his head. Shivering, he shook the thoughts away and jogged to catch up with his friend. They needed to stick together.
After so much, Rictor could not allow them to walk into something blindly and meet their end. They had fought for weeks by that point, and allowing HYDRA one quick and easy win was not an option. They had each other’s backs through thick and thin - no matter what. And if the Mojoworlder felt he had to trust Cable’s intuition then…fine. They were going to.
But there would be no way in hell those HYDRA agents would take him on alone. Screw that.
Shatty stopped in front of the door they were looking for and slowly tightened his grip around the handle of his sword. He glanced down at Rictor one more time. “I’m going to open it, Julio.”
Rictor nodded and let a bright green glow encase his fists. “All right, compadre. I’m ready.”
Shatterstar pulled on the handle and found it locked. So he stuck the end of his sword between the door and the frame and worked it like a wedge. The metal groaned and twisted, but as soon as a couple of screws popped loose, it swung open easily. The room was completely covered in darkness, but it was not enough that they could not see. Taking one step in, Rictor felt his chest tighten up and his breath hitch in his throat.
“Hijos de…no!”
Shatterstar stepped up beside him. “Fekt.”
Rictor did not even bother inspecting the room. He ran inside as fast as his legs allowed him to, and dropped down to the curled up body in the corner. “Tabitha?!”
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Go to chapter fifteen.