**21.00 GMT-5, 22 June 2000, Genosha, NY, USA.**
ROGUE
thud
Marie landed with a practiced ease. She used her flight ability to soften the impact of her boots on the damp, moss-covered rock. Logan already landed first and crouching, assessing the situation.
She turned her head, expecting to see her son landing nearby but there is not a single sign of the kid here.
"Wade?" she asked, her voice tight.
Logan shook his head, his nostrils flaring. "Nothin'. Can't catch his scent." He straightened up, his gaze fixed on the hulking outline of the abandoned satellite relay station. "He's probably fine. He's been here before. He knew how to handle himself, lets go..."
Rogue let out a slow breath, the knot in her stomach loosening only a fraction. "I know. I just… can't help it."
"I know you worried, darlin'," Logan grunted, the closest he ever came to comforting. "But he tougher than he looks. C'mon."
They met with Cyclops and Storm near the treeline before the cave.
"Where's Wade?"
"Probably already in the base," Logan answered for them, suddenly looking up to a cave near the tower station before sighing. "That kid always dive head first before thinking anyway. He'll be fine."
The entrance was a grimace of rusted metal and shattered concrete, half-swallowed by the island's aggressive vegetation. The air that breathed from within was frigid and carried the stale scents of rust, ozone, and neglect. Stepping inside felt like entering a tomb.
They had ventured fifty feet into the cavernous main hall when Logan suddenly froze. His hand shot up, a clenched fist that brought the entire team to an instant halt.
"There's someone here," he growled.
Rogue felt it too. She clenched her own fist, ready to shoot a punch to whatever danger that lurked.
Cyclops already aimed his visor down the corridor. "Where?"
Logan's head tilted. "I don't know," he muttered. "Keep your eyes open." His gaze flicked to Cyclops.
"Wait!--"
Before Cyclops could form a protest, Logan melted into the darkness of a side passage, his form disappearing with a silence.
"Logan, no! We need to–" Cyclops called out for Logan, but alas the guy already left. "Damn it!"
Rogue held her tongue, her unease returning as she remembered her son already went in before them.
A soft scuff of a boot. Logan emerged from the same shadows, padding back toward them as if returning from a casual stroll.
Rogue squinted her eyes, there is something wrong with this 'Logan'.
"Anything?" Cyclops asked, his voice layered with suspicion.
The Logan who returned shook his head, his mouth opening to speak.
But Rogue was already moving.
It was in the subtle, wrong angle of his shoulders. The way he carried his weight. And the scent–or the lack of it. The familiar, comforting aroma of cigar smoke, worn leather, and feral wilderness that was her husband was utterly absent. In its place was nothing. A void. An emptiness that screamed imposter.
She stepped forward, her right fist, reinforced by a surge of power and with all her might punched her 'husband' out.
WHAM.
The punch connected with his jaw with a sound that cracked through the hall like a gunshot.
The thing wearing Logan's face staggered back, its features already beginning to swim and ripple.
"You are NOT Logan," Rogue snarled at 'him'.
The real Logan came from a different archway and hit the doppelgänger with his claws prompting the doppelgänger to fell immediately before kicking Logan out.
"Mystique!"
They scrambled to their feet, circling each other.
Cyclops stepped forward, hand raised to his visor, the ruby quartz glowing with building power.
Before he could shoot, a metal door suddenly suddenly shut down between them, cutting them off.
"Logan!" Rogue cried, she tried to punched the door but it seems it was thicker than it looks as Rogue punched did nothing to it..
Jaw clenched, Cyclops stepped back, the energy around his visor intensifying to a lethal crimson.
"Stand back Rogue," he ordered.
THUD.
The attack came from above.
A figure dropped from the ceiling like a missile.
He was clad in a vibrant red uniform, his skin a stark, unnatural grey.
He moved with an acrobat's unnatural grace.
A double-footed kick connected with Cyclops's chest with a sickening crunch of impact, hurling him backward through a doorway and into the darkness beyond.
"Scott!" Storm shouted, her hands rising, the air beginning to crackle with nascent lightning.
But the grey-skinned mutant was a whirlwind.
He slammed into Storm, and they tumbled across the stone floor.
He ended up on his back, both feet planted on her torso, and with a powerful thrust, launched her upward.
She cried out as she cleared a rusted railing, crashing down onto an upper catwalk.
The attacker flipped effortlessly to his feet, brushing dust from his red suit.
A wide, manic grin split his grey face as his eyes settled on Rogue, now isolated in the center of the hall.
From the upper level, Storm's voice, strained but clear, called down a warning. "Rogue, be careful! Unus's force field is impenetrable!"
A beat of stunned silence filled the cavern.
"Unus? Seriously? His name is Unus? Does his mama really give him that name?"
Rogue didn't take her eyes off the smirking mutant, but a dry, utterly weary chuckle escaped her lips. "Ah so sorry," she said, her tone a mix of genuine apology and pure amusement, trying to hold a laugh. "Pff… Unus…"
"You DARE?!" Unus roared, his voice echoing, and launched himself at her.
Rogue was ready.
She dropped into a low crouch, his enraged charge passing harmlessly over her head.
As he landed, she pivoted, putting all her weight and a burst of super-strength into a powerful, two-handed shove against his back.
It was like trying to topple a granite monument.
An invisible, immovable wall repelled her the instant before contact.
The recoil was violent, sending a jarring shockwave up her arms and throwing her backward.
She skidded several feet across the rough stone, her palms scraping raw.
Unus turned, his smirk firmly back in place. "Your strength is useless, woman. Nothing can touch me."
Grimacing, Rogue climbed to her feet, flexing her stinging hands. "Yeah, I'm gettin' that," she muttered, her mind racing through the new, frustrating parameters of the fight.
"Ah got this Storm, got help Summers!"
"I leave it to you!"
The air around her still hummed with the ghost of Storm's power and the raw strength she now had to consciously restrain.
"Alright, sugar," she said. "You want my attention. You've got my full attention."
WADE
"Well, look at that. The A-team, right on cue."
(Do you think they'd be mad if they knew we used them as a distraction?)
/If we told them, yes. Since we didn't, it's just a good strategy on our part./
"Okay then," Wade whispered to the empty air, his voice full of glee. "Let's crawl in this bitch!"
(Phrasing!)
He dropped to his hands and knees and squeezed into the narrow opening.
The passage was tight, damp, and smelled of earth and decay, but it was a perfect fit for his smaller, skinny fourteen-year-old frame.
"While it is really frustrating that we can't really build muscle at this age, it is really convenient sometimes."
/We still a teenager, give it a couple of years!/
"To think I'll be looking forward for puberty to happen… brrr!"
(If it's mean we get out of this scrawny twink era, yes... yes we look forward to it!)
He emerged onto a narrow, rocky ledge high above a massive, definitely unnatural metal cavern.
A colossal, ring-like machine–a perversion of technology built from scavenged satellite parts and advanced circuitry–dominated the space. It hummed with a low, bone-shaking frequency, its core glowing with a sickly, pulsating green light.
At the entrance, Sabertooth came with with a scared man. Senator Robert Kelly.
(Oh! He looks like his movie counterpart! What's the actor's name? I never stay long for credits!)
/Nobody cares anyway! He was like C-rate villain anyway./
"Time to lock in boys!!!"
The man's expensive suit was rumpled, his face pale and sheen with sweat as he whimpering in Sabertooth grip.
Before them stood Magneto, a dark priest at his own altar. His arms were outstretched, welcoming his prisoner that Sabertooth brought.
"Welcome, Senator," Magneto's voice echoed. "I see you already become familiar with our good friend, Sabertooth here?"
"Who are you people? Where's Henry?"
"Mr Guyrich has been dead for some time, Senator." Magneto said as he held his hand and the metal around Senator Kelly bounded him.
"Whatever you do to me, you'll make me right. Every word I've spoken will be confirmed. Just let me go!" Senator Kelly said, fearing for his life.
"Are you a God-fearing man, Senator? It's such a strange phrase. I've always thought of God as a teacher. As a bringer of light, wisdom and understanding. You see, I think what you really are afraid of is me. Me and my kind. The brotherhood of mutants. It's not so surprising, really. Mankind has
always feared what it doesn't understand. Well, don't fear God, Senator, and certainly don't fear me."
Magneto stopped before activating his machine.
"But, not any more."
"What do you intend to do with me!"
"Let's just say God works too slowly."
"You're a madman!" Kelly shouted, his voice strained against the energy field slowly enveloping him.
"Am I?" Magneto replied with a pained smirk. "Welcome to the brotherhood, Senator..."
The machine's hum intensified, the green light focusing into a searing beam dome that enveloped Kelly. The Senator arched his back, a silent scream of agony on his face as the transformative energy coursed through him.
"SHOWTIME BABY!" Wade muttered from his perch.
Slung across his back was the hockey sticks he stole from the manor's gym. In one fluid motion, he drew it, took aim, and threw it like a javelin.
The wooden stick sailed through the air in a perfect arc.
Its target wasn't Magneto, but the ball that emits energy beams dome.
His action made Magneto collapse to the floor, gasping and shuddering from the failed procedure to turn the senator mutant.
"Well, technically he is already half turned?"
/It's depend on the writer now./
Magneto staggered back a step, the psychic feedback from the abrupt shutdown rattling his concentration. His head snapped up, his eyes blazing with fury as they locked onto the small figure on the ledge.
"WHO'S THERE!"
"IT'S BRITNEY, BITCH!"
"You! How–" Magneto balked. "Sabertooth! Stop him!"
"Deadpool," Sabertooth snarled, his voice like grinding gravel. "We thought you were already dead."
Wade did a perfect, showy backflip off the ledge, landing lightly between the two powerful mutants. He tilted his head, genuinely puzzled. "Wait, you guys actually thought I was dead? Seriously? I thought you guys were smarter than that? I am not even deliberately making it a secret! I even took few extra jobs after you guys!"
"Who the hell cares! Our mission is more important than dealing small brats like you!"
Wade gestured wildly at Sabertooth. "Wait? Really? But your fucking house cat attacked my family yesterday, you senile oldman! You even tried to kidnap my mom and dad!"
"Family?" Magneto repeated, his brow furrowing in genuine bewilderment. "Who's trying to kidnap your family! We only wanted some old acquaintance! And that certainly wasn't you!"
"Wait? You didn't know? Then why–Oh! You wanted my mother!"
"ROGUE IS YOUR MOTHER!?!?"
"Yeah, I know, shocking right? I didn't know what she saw on my dad either…"
Wade ignored Magneto's cries and pointed an accusing finger at Sabertooth while holding a giggle. "And it seems you couldn't even wash off my artwork, Unc!"
He gestured triumphantly at the faint, but still visible, pen-drawn obscenities that still marred Sabertooth's beard and jawline.
Sabertooth's hand flew to his face, his eyes widening with dawning, humiliated rage. "That was you?" he roared, the sound echoing through the cavern.
"Of course! Who else has the artistic talent and the sheer fucking gall?"
That was the final straw.
With a roar that promised evisceration, Sabertooth lunged.
Wade met his charge, his own claws–just the bone without the coating, he wasn't an idiot–SNIKTing out.
He wouldn't risk Magneto turning his own metal against him.
As the two became a blur of slashing claws and feral snarls, a scuffle from the corner of his eye caught Wade's attention.
Senator Kelly, seizing the opportunity, was scrambling on his hands and knees toward a dark tunnel exit.
Magneto noticed too. "The Senator!" he barked, his attention torn from the brawl. He began to move, his power gathering to drag Kelly back, but Wade deliberately maneuvered the fight, using Sabertooth's massive body as a living shield.
"YOU SHALL NOT PASS!"
"FUCK!"