"First Battle"

Elena felt a wave of relief wash over her as soon as she got outside. She went up to the "cab" James Proudstar was in. "I got it," she said with a smile. "I knew you could," he said grinning at her in the mirror as he hit the gas. They were about three miles from town when the tire blew. Elena was thrown against the seats, and bashed about as the car started a wild skid. She would have screamed except that she was to petrified. The car finally stopped, and she sat there feeling dizzy. "J-James?" she asked in a trembling voice. She looked over the seat and saw that he was lying unconscious, with his face pressed to the steering wheel. She pushed the door open and collapsed on the ground outside the car. She felt her forehead, and her fingers came away bloody. She opened the drivers door. Warpath was alive, but she didn't think she should move him. "He must have been hit really hard to knock him out like that," she muttered to herself.

"Looks like one of 'em is still up and about," laughed a harsh voice. "Between you, Strobe, and little Skids you couldn't even get them both!" Wildsides voice let them know that he found this incredibly amusing. "I don't recognize this mutant," said Rusty. "She must be new," said Strobe as they started down to the wreck." "She might not even be a mutant," said Skids. Wildside laughed. Skids glared at him. "If she's a flatscan we'll just kill her," said Strobe.

Elena felt a strange tingling on the back of her head. She whirled around, and the world blurred. She almost collapsed dizzily. 'Your head tingles from the accident you twit' she thought. When her vision cleared she saw a group of brightly dressed individuals approaching her rapidly. The skidded along the ground incredibly fast. "Mutants! Just what I need," she groaned. Her left wrist hurt, it was probably sprained. Pretty much everything hurt actually. She wasn't going to be able to do much and she was outnumbered. 'Instead of a sixth sense, luck should have been my powers' she thought to herself. There weren't any guns in the taxi. The government facility would have found those. She had read the file on the MLF that she had been given, but she didn't really know these mutants. She had never fought any mutants before. "And if I don't stop whining to myself I won't get anywhere anyway," she told herself angrily.

"Lookie what we have here! A pretty little girl stranded. Maybe we should give her a lift," called out Wildside. The MLF surrounded her. "The one in the car isn't moving," said Rusty. "Awww! Her widdle friend got hurt!" He laughed. "I love it when we get to hurt you little goody-goody traitors!" "I didn't betray anyone you phsyco!" yelled Elena at Wildside. "You have betrayed mutant kind. They oppress us and you and your new friends fight so that they can continue to do so," yelled Strobe angrily. "You're new to the group. Perhaps you don't know all that much about them. They are the secretive type," said Skids reasonably. "Our leader wants us to survive and help others survive in the cruel world humans wish to create. "You don't have to attempt to fight us," said Forearm. "I'm sure you can become a survivor too." "Ha! We don't even know for sure if the girl is a mutant!" yelled Wildside. "Besides, she has already allied herself with X-Force," said Strobe. "Well than come and get me!" growled Elena. Strobe held up an arm to stop Wildside from doing just that. "First we need the information you took out of that little installation for us," she said. Elena didn't say anything. She knew her situation was hopeless. She glanced over at Warpath. He was still out. "Your friend can't help you," said Forearm. "Fine!" she yelled. She turned and leapt onto the hood of the car and started to run. Her tactic allowed her to escape Rusty's grasp. "Skids, stop the brat!" yelled Strobe. "Chill!" yelled Skids. She formed a frictionless forcefield at Elena's feet, and the young mutant soon found herself on the ground. She couldn't gain purchase on anything so she couldn't get up again either. "I'll take the little runner out of action," said Wildside with a grin. His powers affected people in a terrible way. He could make people see and feel things that weren't really there. Elena didn't know this though. She had only skimmed the file on the MLF. She felt and saw red ants crawling all over her. The shrill shriek she let out made Wildside laugh.

The distinct advantage of controlling heat instead of fire as Rusty did, allowed Strobe to melt the metal of the car James Proudstar was in therefore sealing him inside without the risk of the car exploding. Too much heat would set off the gas, it was true. But it was still safer than Rusty's flames. "Now when the Apache comes too it'll take him awhile to get to his friends," she said sounding pleased. "Do we get to destroy the little facility now?" asked Wildside impatiently. "Yes, Zero took the evidence to Stryfe. We are cleared to strike and destroy." Strobe was incredibly pleased to have been trusted to lead this mission. "What about her?" Forearm asked, referring to the dark little mutant they had captured and Wildside had terrorized. Elena was unconscious now. "A member of X-Force is inside the facility," said Skids. "I am aware of that," snapped Strobe. "We'll take her to ensure that no mutant fights against us," she said with a grin. "I'll carry her," offered Forearm. Strobe frowned. He was the only one with hands to spare though, so she agreed. "Let's go have fun," she said with a wicked grin.

Alarms were sounding. Sam hadn't heard any alarms within the facility before. Something was up. He hoped that it didn't mean that Elena had been caught. Surely she had made it to X-Force by now... "What's going on?" he called to Renee who was running down the hall in his direction. "Brian! They say the facility is under attack!" she gasped to catch her breath. "I heard that it's mutants! They grabbed the others and put some sort of collars on them. I got scared and ran!" Sam was suddenly glad he hadn't stayed in his room and had wandered around the 'safe' areas of the facility. He also knew that X-Force wouldn't be attacking the facility. That meant that this was major trouble. MLF trouble. "Where is Melissa?" "Your girlfriend? I'm not sure." He didn't bother to correct her. Melissa was probably with the MLF. He should have seen it. It was no use berating himself over it now. "Let's go," he grabbed her hand and started running. Hopefully the government soldiers would be too busy with the MLF to go after their missing test subjects.

"What's going on?" asked Renee in a shaky voice. "A mutant extremist group is attacking the facility because this project was set up so the government could use mutant powers for military purposes." "W-what? How do you know this, Brian?" He sighed as he rummaged through medical equipment for something she could use to defend herself. "I'm the member of a group that wants to fight for mutant rights while keeping in mind that humans have rights too. We've fought this group before." "You're part of the reason I had to leave my town and come here! People like you and those others who are always stirring up trouble!" She looked about two seconds away from bolting. "We are trying to keep humans from hurting mutants and vice-versa. We have to stop the government from using mutants and we also have to stop those other mutants from killing the humans that work here. You can help me, Renee."

Renee was scared. She watched the mutants attacking the soldiers from a dark corner. They were so powerful! And merciless. Several soldiers were clutching their heads and screaming. Some already lay on the floor dead. One mutant blasted panels and controls with fire. A blonde girl seemed to be keeping some invisible shield between him and the soldiers bullets. The one with four arms was ripping chunks of machine out of the walls and hurling it at the men with guns. The other members of the group were simply killing people. These mutants made her hate the fact that she was a mutant. She had run away from Brian, or Sam as he said his real name was. She had run right into this chaos. Suddenly there was a commotion behind her. Brian, no Sam came blasting around the corner, propelled through the air by an orange glowing energy that surrounded him. He knocked the soldiers and the other mutants apart. "Stop this at once!" he commanded in a loud voice. "Or what, Cannonball?" jeered the redhead in the metallic costume. "Your friends aren't going to get here until it's too late for you," cackled a wild-haired man who looked completely insane.

He couldn't take them all down by himself. Still talking had distracted them. He slammed Wildside into a wall knocking him out. He was the most dangerous to him, because if he lost his concentration he'd drop his blast field. "You don't want to do that!" shrieked Strobe. He turned toward her ready to deal her the same hand. "Forearm will choke the life out of your little friend if you don't drop the blast field now!" He glanced over to where Forearm was and now he did indeed hold someone he knew between his powerful arms. Elena. She was unconscious. He landed and dropped the field. Strobe seared him with her powers. "Don't kill him!" yelled a familiar voice. Skids was with the MLF, he thought just before Strobe kicked him in the head and knocked him out.

"Now we've ferreted out the X-Forcer. Let's just blow the whole place up and get out of here," said Wildside gripping his bleeding head. He wanted to get home and torture the stupid boy who dared slam him into a wall. Before Strobe could respond the puny soldiers of the facility dragged out a bunch of collared kids. "Members of the Mutant Liberation Front, surrender to us now or these mutants will die!" yelled one of the humans. "Oh puleeze!" said Strobe. "Such tactics won't work with us. These mutants have relatively little in the way of power and will serve our cause better as martyrs." She turned to Rusty. "Blow the gas lines," she ordered. He opened his mouth, but she glared at him. The soldiers were shooting like mad, but Skids had a shield up to protect them. "You'll blow it with us still in here you crazy witch? I don't think my shield will save us from the blast," said Skids. "Fine," Strobe said acidly. "We get out and then blow it. Forearm take the little X-Forcers. Rusty, and Wildside clear a path through these pathetic humans."

They hadn't gone more than a few feet when a great shaking started. Strobe was knocked off her feet and knicked by a bullet. "Skids what the heck is going on?" she screamed. The facility was crumbling as the shaking grew. They had damaged the building quite a bit getting in and now walls were falling. Skids had to extend the shield above them to keep a section of the roof from falling on them. The soldiers seemed to have gotten their hands on laser weapons and weren't delaying in finding the gaps in the shield. If Strobe had to summon Zero or Locus to get them out before the structure was destroyed, Stryfe would be pissed. It was such a nuisance that they had to weaken the interior before they could blow it up from outside. They needed to get in to destroy the seal off protocols and all the safeties that would prevent total destruction from the outside. "I am what's is going on you murdering bastardos!" yelled a voice.

Rictor was standing in near the entrance to the building. It seems he collapsed the entrance behind him too. "Get out of the way or Cannonball and the other one are dead." "I don't care!" he screamed, a vibro wave knocking Strobe to the floor. The roof caved in behind them, blocking off the soldiers and their guns. "Your earthquake will kill the humans and other mutants in the building for us," sneered Wildside. "If you and the other MLF scum die with them it'll be fine by me!! I'll have my revenge for what you did in Genosha and the murder of Rahne." Skids was struggling to keep the roof from collapsing on all of them. She had been on the strike to Genosha. She didn't know that Rahne was there. But when she got in the way of their strike she had been killed. Cannonball and Elena were thrown against the wall. Forearm advanced on Rictor, and with him Rusty and Wildside. Wildside was already using his powers, but Rictor in his rage didn't seem affected by them. "All I have to do is hold out longer than Skids forcefield and then we all die," gasped out Rictor. "Strobe get us out of here!" screamed Skids. The roof was to heavy. Her forcefield had nowhere to slide all that mass to and it was giving away. Reluctantly, Strobe hit the call switch on her belt. Wildside, Forearm, and Rusty gathered around her and Skids. "Looks like you die and accomplish our mission for us," said Strobe as they were teleported out. "NOOO!!!" was Rictor's agonized scream as they vanished. The roof fell. He stopped all the shaking, but it was too late.

X-Force got there seconds after the whole building collapsed. Warpath had gotten out of the sealed car as fast as he could and got the others, but it was too late. Cable had joined them and looked furious. "Rescue will be here any second. We better find Sam and Elena fast. We'll catch hell for this failure," he said grimly. "I have a scent," growled Feral. Warpath pulled up stones where Feral indicated and found Sam buried on top of Elena. "It looks bad," he said, handing the body of his relatively new friend to Cable. "He'll live," was Cable's grim response. The light in that fierce man's eyes made them all wonder what he'd do to them for this failure. Domino was scowling fiercely too. Elena was breathing and in slightly better shape than Cannonball. "I scent something else here," hissed Feral, standing several feet away. "Hurry it up, we have no time." Warpath worked as fast as he could. He pulled a young latin looking man out of the wreckage. "Rictor!" exclaimed Boomer. Cable swore. "We have to get out now. We can figure out what happened later." "What about...?" Siryn started to ask but trailed off. Cable had no intention of seeing if there were other survivors. If they were caught, they would be held to blame for this. Then who knew what would happen. As it was, they were in a load of trouble. They loaded into the PACRAT and were barely out of there before the rescue teams and government vehicles arrived.

Next: Consequences.