Excalibur (Marvel Comics) - The new way (crime)
mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:
EN-US;mso-fareast-language:IT">Author: Little Firestar
Rating: T to be safe
Fandom: Excalibur/X-Force (Marvel Universe)
Characters: Pete Wisdom; Dani Moonstar; Christine Stark [OC]
mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:
EN-US;mso-fareast-language:IT">Summary: When you have mutants in your team, or at least you can ask them to help you out, solving a case isn’t that difficult. It just doesn’t make is less hard.
mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:
EN-US;mso-fareast-language:IT">Spoilers: None
Genre: Crime
T
here was only one way to describe what had happened in the Liberty palace, and it was carnage. Mutilated bodies were scattered all around the places, naked limbs cut, such a mess Wisdom wasn’t even sure he could actually say if there was any actual victimology or if the deceased ones had been chosen by chance and chance only.
He kneed in front of one torso, legs cut and bloody right at his side, and studied carefully the remains; he counted something like ten cadavers, more or less, he couldn’t be sure; the only thing he was sure of was that there was a mixture of genres, age and races. There was no apparent connection, but only a deeper investigation would have provided answers, such as there was a link between them. Did they know each other? Had they been taken in a same place? He didn’t know.
The scientific team was busy all around him, collecting everything but not the body parts; still looking at a limb, this time belonging maybe to a young girl or a rather petite woman, he overheard the medical examiner saying something about the limbs being cut with something that resembled a surgical instrument, but not with the necessary knowledge. Or maybe there was knowledge on the killer’s part, but the was inexperience in the actual killing in what seemed cold blood; the Korean man said also something about the victim killed over a short amount of time, maybe just few days, and about the lack of hemorrhage from the tissues, so either they had been killed before being cut or the killed had dried them first.
God helped him, he really hoped it wasn’t some junkie vampire recently sired and unable to control the thirst.
“I think you could relax, there aren’t bites on their neck. Not that I can see, at least.” His touch unconsciously lingered on a neck as he heard the voice, and he turned, facing Dani Moonstar, the native-American as proud as ever of her heritage, and the woman who had just talked, Chris Stark, as impeccable as always in what he assumed was a brand Armani. “And, by the way, it’s a Valentino.”
Moonstar shot her a death glare, freezing the woman on the spot, not giving a damn about age - she was younger- and status- Chris used to be a so-called hero longer than she did.
No further words were needed.
He reached her, and tried to shake hands with the dark-haired girl, but Dani stubbornly refused to, pretending she wasn’t paying attention to him, focusing on her surroundings instead; he knew, though, the truth, and the truth was that Dani never liked him, not even when he was team-leader; now that he was back with the British intelligence, it looked like things had just deteriorated more.
He pretended he didn’t mind, even if he did. He just reserved a little bit of respect, considering that he had faked his own death to protect Moonstar and her team-mates, and that to ensure their safety he had gone far enough to kill his only family left, Romany. Didn’t matter she had lost her mind, she was still family, and the fact she was using and abusing his own people and innocents hoping to make the world a better place didn’t mean he wanted to see her dead.
“Your people, I need them to leave. The lesser we are, the better it is” Moonstar said, standing in the middle of the room, cold and sure, determined, hands joined like in a prayer.
He did as he was told, and joined Chris at the other side of the room, immediately feeling it, in the back of his mind, the tale-tale sensation of his mind being on display no more, secured form any kind of psychic attack, Moonstar’s as well; his eyebrows reached his hairline, and not for the first time since he had received the call that morning he wondered if what Moonstar had told him she was going to do was even possible.
Sensing his thoughts, or maybe just knowing him and what people tended to assume, Moonstar answered his silent question as the air was suddenly filled by static electricity. “My mutant gift allows me to connect with humans’ minds and project their own fears, and there’s nothing humans fear more than death itself…”
“I know what your powers are, and I know they need a living human being to make the connection. These people are dead, how do you think you’ll be able to feel their greatest fear?”
“You seem to forget that I’m not any mutant. I may serve humankind and my people, but remember that I serve Odin and Hela as well, as one of the Valkyries, and as a servant of the Goddess of Death, I’m connected to the last moments of these human beings, so that I could see if they were worthy enough to enter Valhalla. “
(Right, sometimes he forgot that Dani Moonstar was the only Native-American who also happened to be an Asgardian Valkyrie.)
She closed her eyes, and there she saw him; he was alone, and his bloody eyes told a story of craziness and bloodlust, but, as Chris had assumed, he wasn’t a vampire. He looked like an hybrid, a mixture of machine and human, a scalpel were a hand was supposed to be, and if the signs on his body were evidence of any kind, he had been made by the same hands who had created Deathstrike; he was young, too, and his eyes were also desperate, there were tears as he soaked himself in the blood from the creatures he was killing.
“He has been created, and then abandoned because he was considered trash by his creator. But he awoke and he was all alone, and didn’t know who or what he was any longer, didn’t know what had happened to him. he hoped he could find again his humanity by feeding with human blood, and despite failing every time, he keeps trying, and keeps killing. “ Dani said, lowering her hands at her sides, tears leaving her eyes. It wasn’t just the fear of the victims she saw, but the one of the “monster” as well.
“Cerebra recorded Deathstrike’s signature last time we met her. “ Chris started, the micro-computer implanted on her bracelet transmitting images so quickly he didn’t actually understand them. “I’ll send the data over to the Stark-tech satellites hoping to find something that could mirror it or be close to the source code she possess. If he is still in London, we’ll find him, and if he left, he’ll no be able to contain his bloodlust.
But he wasn’t listening to her. he suddenly felt sick with the smell of blood and decay, and couldn’t stand the place any longer. he walked away, because he already knew the murderer, he just needed to find him, and the two mutants inside were already working on it.
“Are you completely sure about what you are saying?” he asks her as he drives, Chris at his side with on holo-map of the city of London shining in the dark of the night, green lines and dots coming from the bracelet at her wrist, the latest technological gem by the Stark-tech department.
She huffs, rolling her eyes in annoyance, hearing the question for the impromptu time. “Yes, Cerebra and Friday picked up the signal, a magnetic impulse beating in time with a cerebral electric wave. Deathstrike and her people are unique that way.” She didn’t add the obvious “and I’m never wrong”, even if it’s the case; he is already bothered by this case, mass crimes tend to do that to Wisdom, and she didn’t want to make it worse. It wouldn’t be right, not when the reason he hated so much investigating mass crimes is that his own mother had died because of one. “Stop, it’s here.”
He left the car, and immediately Special Forces followed Shim at arm’s length, guns ready to shot. They can’t risk anything, not with such a fragile psyche in the game, not when their enemy is a living weapon of mass destruction without any kind of control- the most modern weapon of mass destruction.
They silently broke in, like they were in stealth mode, wondering, not for the first time, if one of the technological augmentation the young boy received by the dimensions-traveler Spiral was the ability to detect other, and here he was, just like Cerebra told them. And here he was, soaked in blood, once again surrounded by dead bodies, bodies destroyed beyond recognition.
There were tears in his eyes, tears of madness, tears of anger. For himself, for the ones who did this to him? they didn’t know, and probably neither did the boy. He just knew one thing: he was disgusted by himself. Disgusted because he craved violence and death and blood, and because he hated having those cravings commanding his very being.
He couldn’t stand it. And so, in what used to be an heartbeat when he still had one, in his last and only moment of humanity, of lucidity, he took a decision.
He attacked them, weapons ready to kill, but with no intention of killing at all, but that, his “enemies” they didn’t know. all they saw was a menace ready to destroy their existences, ready to erase the lives they had. And they couldn’t have it.
Time of death was 2.45 PM, Greenwich Time, due to multiple gunshots.
London never saw similar deaths again, and the body - at least, what was left of his human body - was buried as a John Doe on State Money; nobody reclaimed the lost boy, and they never found what his name used to be.
And Spiral was still at large, using innocents to transform in death machines for her master’s enthusiasm, just like he had thought, and no one seeemd able to stop her, not once and for all. he would have to think about it, Wisdom mused, one day, he would have to do it, and do it on his own, because he ahd a way of dealing with things, and people tended to not appreciate his methods.
EN-US;mso-fareast-language:IT">Author: Little Firestar
Rating: T to be safe
Fandom: Excalibur/X-Force (Marvel Universe)
Characters: Pete Wisdom; Dani Moonstar; Christine Stark [OC]
mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:
EN-US;mso-fareast-language:IT">Summary: When you have mutants in your team, or at least you can ask them to help you out, solving a case isn’t that difficult. It just doesn’t make is less hard.
mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:
EN-US;mso-fareast-language:IT">Spoilers: None
Genre: Crime
T
here was only one way to describe what had happened in the Liberty palace, and it was carnage. Mutilated bodies were scattered all around the places, naked limbs cut, such a mess Wisdom wasn’t even sure he could actually say if there was any actual victimology or if the deceased ones had been chosen by chance and chance only.
He kneed in front of one torso, legs cut and bloody right at his side, and studied carefully the remains; he counted something like ten cadavers, more or less, he couldn’t be sure; the only thing he was sure of was that there was a mixture of genres, age and races. There was no apparent connection, but only a deeper investigation would have provided answers, such as there was a link between them. Did they know each other? Had they been taken in a same place? He didn’t know.
The scientific team was busy all around him, collecting everything but not the body parts; still looking at a limb, this time belonging maybe to a young girl or a rather petite woman, he overheard the medical examiner saying something about the limbs being cut with something that resembled a surgical instrument, but not with the necessary knowledge. Or maybe there was knowledge on the killer’s part, but the was inexperience in the actual killing in what seemed cold blood; the Korean man said also something about the victim killed over a short amount of time, maybe just few days, and about the lack of hemorrhage from the tissues, so either they had been killed before being cut or the killed had dried them first.
God helped him, he really hoped it wasn’t some junkie vampire recently sired and unable to control the thirst.
“I think you could relax, there aren’t bites on their neck. Not that I can see, at least.” His touch unconsciously lingered on a neck as he heard the voice, and he turned, facing Dani Moonstar, the native-American as proud as ever of her heritage, and the woman who had just talked, Chris Stark, as impeccable as always in what he assumed was a brand Armani. “And, by the way, it’s a Valentino.”
Moonstar shot her a death glare, freezing the woman on the spot, not giving a damn about age - she was younger- and status- Chris used to be a so-called hero longer than she did.
No further words were needed.
He reached her, and tried to shake hands with the dark-haired girl, but Dani stubbornly refused to, pretending she wasn’t paying attention to him, focusing on her surroundings instead; he knew, though, the truth, and the truth was that Dani never liked him, not even when he was team-leader; now that he was back with the British intelligence, it looked like things had just deteriorated more.
He pretended he didn’t mind, even if he did. He just reserved a little bit of respect, considering that he had faked his own death to protect Moonstar and her team-mates, and that to ensure their safety he had gone far enough to kill his only family left, Romany. Didn’t matter she had lost her mind, she was still family, and the fact she was using and abusing his own people and innocents hoping to make the world a better place didn’t mean he wanted to see her dead.
“Your people, I need them to leave. The lesser we are, the better it is” Moonstar said, standing in the middle of the room, cold and sure, determined, hands joined like in a prayer.
He did as he was told, and joined Chris at the other side of the room, immediately feeling it, in the back of his mind, the tale-tale sensation of his mind being on display no more, secured form any kind of psychic attack, Moonstar’s as well; his eyebrows reached his hairline, and not for the first time since he had received the call that morning he wondered if what Moonstar had told him she was going to do was even possible.
Sensing his thoughts, or maybe just knowing him and what people tended to assume, Moonstar answered his silent question as the air was suddenly filled by static electricity. “My mutant gift allows me to connect with humans’ minds and project their own fears, and there’s nothing humans fear more than death itself…”
“I know what your powers are, and I know they need a living human being to make the connection. These people are dead, how do you think you’ll be able to feel their greatest fear?”
“You seem to forget that I’m not any mutant. I may serve humankind and my people, but remember that I serve Odin and Hela as well, as one of the Valkyries, and as a servant of the Goddess of Death, I’m connected to the last moments of these human beings, so that I could see if they were worthy enough to enter Valhalla. “
(Right, sometimes he forgot that Dani Moonstar was the only Native-American who also happened to be an Asgardian Valkyrie.)
She closed her eyes, and there she saw him; he was alone, and his bloody eyes told a story of craziness and bloodlust, but, as Chris had assumed, he wasn’t a vampire. He looked like an hybrid, a mixture of machine and human, a scalpel were a hand was supposed to be, and if the signs on his body were evidence of any kind, he had been made by the same hands who had created Deathstrike; he was young, too, and his eyes were also desperate, there were tears as he soaked himself in the blood from the creatures he was killing.
“He has been created, and then abandoned because he was considered trash by his creator. But he awoke and he was all alone, and didn’t know who or what he was any longer, didn’t know what had happened to him. he hoped he could find again his humanity by feeding with human blood, and despite failing every time, he keeps trying, and keeps killing. “ Dani said, lowering her hands at her sides, tears leaving her eyes. It wasn’t just the fear of the victims she saw, but the one of the “monster” as well.
“Cerebra recorded Deathstrike’s signature last time we met her. “ Chris started, the micro-computer implanted on her bracelet transmitting images so quickly he didn’t actually understand them. “I’ll send the data over to the Stark-tech satellites hoping to find something that could mirror it or be close to the source code she possess. If he is still in London, we’ll find him, and if he left, he’ll no be able to contain his bloodlust.
But he wasn’t listening to her. he suddenly felt sick with the smell of blood and decay, and couldn’t stand the place any longer. he walked away, because he already knew the murderer, he just needed to find him, and the two mutants inside were already working on it.
“Are you completely sure about what you are saying?” he asks her as he drives, Chris at his side with on holo-map of the city of London shining in the dark of the night, green lines and dots coming from the bracelet at her wrist, the latest technological gem by the Stark-tech department.
She huffs, rolling her eyes in annoyance, hearing the question for the impromptu time. “Yes, Cerebra and Friday picked up the signal, a magnetic impulse beating in time with a cerebral electric wave. Deathstrike and her people are unique that way.” She didn’t add the obvious “and I’m never wrong”, even if it’s the case; he is already bothered by this case, mass crimes tend to do that to Wisdom, and she didn’t want to make it worse. It wouldn’t be right, not when the reason he hated so much investigating mass crimes is that his own mother had died because of one. “Stop, it’s here.”
He left the car, and immediately Special Forces followed Shim at arm’s length, guns ready to shot. They can’t risk anything, not with such a fragile psyche in the game, not when their enemy is a living weapon of mass destruction without any kind of control- the most modern weapon of mass destruction.
They silently broke in, like they were in stealth mode, wondering, not for the first time, if one of the technological augmentation the young boy received by the dimensions-traveler Spiral was the ability to detect other, and here he was, just like Cerebra told them. And here he was, soaked in blood, once again surrounded by dead bodies, bodies destroyed beyond recognition.
There were tears in his eyes, tears of madness, tears of anger. For himself, for the ones who did this to him? they didn’t know, and probably neither did the boy. He just knew one thing: he was disgusted by himself. Disgusted because he craved violence and death and blood, and because he hated having those cravings commanding his very being.
He couldn’t stand it. And so, in what used to be an heartbeat when he still had one, in his last and only moment of humanity, of lucidity, he took a decision.
He attacked them, weapons ready to kill, but with no intention of killing at all, but that, his “enemies” they didn’t know. all they saw was a menace ready to destroy their existences, ready to erase the lives they had. And they couldn’t have it.
Time of death was 2.45 PM, Greenwich Time, due to multiple gunshots.
London never saw similar deaths again, and the body - at least, what was left of his human body - was buried as a John Doe on State Money; nobody reclaimed the lost boy, and they never found what his name used to be.
And Spiral was still at large, using innocents to transform in death machines for her master’s enthusiasm, just like he had thought, and no one seeemd able to stop her, not once and for all. he would have to think about it, Wisdom mused, one day, he would have to do it, and do it on his own, because he ahd a way of dealing with things, and people tended to not appreciate his methods.