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#2
AUG 09 |
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“May I Introduce the President” Part Two
Previously: Quicksilver is now the President of Genosha after his father passed away due to an attack by Wolverine. Pietro now has the unenviable task of trying to rebuild the country where mutants were once thought of as cattle. He has made his initial speech and opened the X-Corporation office, the first one abroad. With some of the who’s who of telepaths in his country, he now intends to track down his one major problem. They’re going to find Exodus.
Charles Xavier and Emma Frost were seated around the conference table at the top floor of the X-Corporation building, which was now going to serve as President Pietro’s equivalent to the Oval Office. They were the spearhead of the X-Men and the new positive upswing that mutant relations had taken. Xavier’s Dream was beginning to see some degree of fruition at long last, and it was beginning to seem that the hard work and dedication of his students was paying off. So many had allowed themselves to buy into Xavier’s Dream of a better world and it finally seemed like they were beginning to get some solid results from it. Even the most skeptical of mutants were beginning to believe that things were going to get better.
“We are going to need to install some sort of Cerebro unit in here. It would make this mental exercise so much easier,” Emma Frost said as she crossed her legs in her chair and stared wistfully around the large office.
Also present along with Professor X, his lover and President Maximoff was the Scarlet Witch and Rogue. Rogue still was finding it hard to adjust to the idea of the Professor being with Emma, but people could change; Rogue just wasn’t buying it quite yet. She had seen her mother try to pull that act before. “You supposed to be the hot shot telepath, honey. Shouldn’t be a problem to try and track down one man.”
Emma gave a wry smile. “Not a problem at all, Rogue. I actually have full control of my abilities.”
“Now look ya—”
Quicksilver raised up a hand for silence. “Can we focus on finding Exodus? My day isn’t full of immense blocks to allow time for cattiness.”
Xavier was not comfortable. “We are still waiting on Quentin to show up. We will need him for this if we are to find someone as powerful as Exodus.”
“Who is Quentin?” Scarlet Witch asked.
“Quentin Quire,” Emma Frost said. “He is a telepath that Xavier discovered three months ago. The boy has telepathic abilities the likes of which I haven’t seen since my darling here.”
Rogue laughed. “Ya sure that ain’t a bit of exaggerating?”
Charles looked Rogue in the eye. “No. No, it’s not.”
Rogue folded her arms across her chest and leaned back in her chair. “I’ll take your word for it, Professor.”
As she said this a young man with a pink Mohawk stepped into the room. He had two earrings dangling from each ear and a nose piercing. His white shirt was tattered and looked like it could use a couple of turns in the washer. “You should listen to him. He’s a bloody smart chap you know?”
“Look, sweetie, I’ve been working with the Professor long enough to know his level of intelligence so you might want to—”
“Rogue, please,” Charles said. “We need to get to the matter at hand.”
“Shouldn’t Rachel be here?” Rogue asked.
Emma was quickly growing ill with Rogue’s incessant need for questions. She was purposely trying to be difficult in Emma’s mind. “She’s helping the President with another problem. We have all the telepathic power we need right here.”
“Lets go ahead and find this mule. I got a tennis game with Neal in an hour and I need to warm up. That bloke has a mean arm,” Quentin said as he sat down next to Scarlet Witch.
Professor X could only imagine how Exodus would take to being called a mule and gave a slight smirk. “The three of us will need to join our mental energies together and try to find Exodus as one. Our three minds should be capable of at least giving us some hint as to where Exodus is at.”
“Oh, c’mon Professor, the three of you should be able to demolish Exodus’ pee brain,” Rogue said.
“Not with Cortez in his company,” Wanda said. “I have seen what he was able to do for my father’s abilities. I can only imagine what he can do for Exodus.”
Charles nodded at Wanda’s assessment and said, “Let’s begin.”
The three closed their eyes in unison and bowed their heads. Rogue was no telepath (at least not usually) so she wasn’t able to determine exactly what was going on, but she knew a squirrel hunt when she saw one. Exodus was playing with the wrong set of people.
Sri Lanka
Exodus looked up from his lotus position and said to the two Acolytes behind him, “They are looking for me.”
“Who? Xavier’s murderers?” Cortez asked. He and Unuscione had accompanied their leader into a pavilion for him to try and concentrate on the presence of Lord Magneto.
Carmella quickly corrected Fabian on his questions. “You say murderers as if you believe that they actually managed to kill Magneto. Do you?”
Fabian was quick to answer, a coward to the core. “Of course not! But haven’t the X-Men been responsible for the death of fellow Acolytes in the past? That is to which I was referring.”
Exodus shushed the two. “You do not need to explain yourself, Fabian. I know what your intended meaning was. Now be quiet so I can work against them.”
Them? They’re coming after us hard, Fabian thought. He knew that he shouldn’t have expected any less. Pietro wanted to establish his own empire and that meant washing away all elements of the old. They remained among some of the few mutants still loyal to Magneto and his purpose. It would make sense that Pietro and his allies in the X-Men would want them wiped off the map. They weren’t going to go down so easily, however.
Another Acolyte moved through the jungle brush and walked up behind Fabian. Vindaloo was from this region of the world so dealing with the humidity and exotic wildlife was of little worry to him. He whispered in Fabian’s ear, “I think we may have a problem.”
“Make it quick,” Fabian said.
Vindaloo bit back what he really wanted to say to Cortez. He often found himself bristling under Fabian’s arrogance, but what he had to say was more important than that. “Remnants of the Tamil Tigers, pissed off at the world, are headed our way. One of the locals informed them of our presence apparently.”
“Then our response will be simple. We will annihilate them.”
Charles, Emma and Quentin all looked up and their faces were covered with sweat. Emma was massaging her forehead as she said, “Damn it. That was harder than I expected.”
“Did you find him?” Quicksilver asked.
Quentin groaned from the migraine shrieking through his body. “Only got one lousy clue: he’s in the jungle.”
Pietro slammed his hands on the table. “You are supposed to be some of the best and that was all you could find?”
“Exodus was being backed up by the powers of Cortez. When encountering his mind we were presented with a unique challenge,” Charles said as he straightened himself out enough to look Pietro dead in the eye. “Exodus had created a psionic web which was drawing us in. We could have kept pressing further and eventually broke through, but—”
“—by that time all of our minds would have broke along with his,” Emma finished. Her tone was not as conciliatory as her lover’s. “When you take a walk on our side then you can tell us what we should and should not find…Mr. President.”
Pietro narrowed his eyes and said, “And what do you expect me to do with just the jungle as a starting point? Do you realize how much of the world is jungle?”
“It’s betta than nuthin, fastie,” Rogue interrupted. “You got people and can start searching.”
“The Avengers can help as well,” Wanda said.
Pietro shook his head quickly. “No, that will not be necessary Wanda. I will not starting turning to the Avengers in every crisis that this country faces. Genosha’s defenders are X-Factor and that is who I will use to track down Exodus. Using The Avengers will make the countries of the world perceive me as weak. I will not stand for that.”
“Pietro, the Avengers have just as much reason to detain Exodus as Genosha does. I will not let your pride hinder that madman’s capture,” Wanda said. She knew that her brother wanted to show the world that Genosha was a new place, but acting foolish was not the way to do it. Exodus had fought the X-Men and Avengers on his own before. With a team behind him, he was even more of a threat.
Xavier felt as if a compromise could be found. “Wanda, would you be willing to allow X-Factor to attempt to track down Exodus first before calling in your team to help?”
“Only if Pietro allows you to be the judge of when I need to be called,” Wanda replied.
The President shrugged. “I suppose I can do that because X-Factor will find Exodus. Of this I am certain.”
“You better believe we will,” Quentin said as he rose up from his seat. “Now if you blokes will excuse me, I got a tennis match to get to.”
Rachel sat down and placed her hands squarely on her knees. She was breathing hard. “I haven’t had to do anything like that in a while. Talk about a mind trip.”
Sage put a hand on Rachel’s shoulder and said, “I appreciate your assistance. We needed to have Proto-Goblin neutralized before we could place him in the field. Otherwise, he would just be too mentally unstable.”
“No problem,” Rachel said still trying to process everything that she had seen in Proto-Goblin’s mind. She had seen the minds of Hounds and felt how tortured they were, but that was nothing compared to Adder’s agony. What Osborn had done to him was monstrous. Rachel was beginning to wonder why Pietro would have ever taken in such a creature in the first place.
Sage felt Rachel’s thoughts, but made no comment on them. Tessa did not want to seem as if she was invading the woman’s privacy. Telepathy was something that Sage was getting use to again; for a large chunk of her life, she had been taught to turn the power inward on herself to be protected from even the most powerful of psychic probes. Now she had no reason to do that anymore.
Looking down at the still strapped Proto-Goblin, Sage said, “He looks peaceful. My calculations show that we shouldn’t have to do this again for at least another two years unless there is some sort of traumatic event.”
“Then I hope your calculations are wrong and it’s not for much longer,” Rachel said as she stood up from the chair and was about to walk out the door. “I think I’m going to go now.”
Before she could make it, a platinum blonde with a body to kill for stepped into Sage’s observatory. Both women cut their eyes at her and she smiled daggers back at them. Throwing her hair back and posing like a supermodel, Emma said, “Hello ladies. Fancy I find you here.”
“Shouldn’t you be with the Professor?” Rachel asked. “It might do you some good to stay around people who actually like you.”
Emma kept the same fake smile and said, “Oh Rachel, all that bottled up anger. You and your father should think about taking some classes.”
“Do you have anything that borders constructive to say, Emma? Otherwise I will have to ask you to leave,” Sage said in her usual cold, robotic tone. It was her lack of cattiness that infuriated Emma more than anything else.
“Actually, I need to speak to you,” Emma replied before zooming her vision in on Rachel. “In private.”
Rachel looked to Sage for confirmation and she nodded. Turning back to Emma for one last mean glare, she said, “I’ll make sure to pass that class suggestion along to the Professor.”
Emma waited until she was out of the room and gave a long, exasperated sigh. “These X-Men are going to be the reason my hair turns gray.”
“You act as if they don’t have every reason to hate you,” Sage said as she sat down at her computer console to begin the cooling down process for Proto-Goblin. “Need I run through the gamut of things you have done to them.”
“And have I not worked tirelessly to prove I’m not the same person anymore?” Emma asked.
Sage adjusted her red sunglasses slightly and said, “You haven’t told them everything and they know it. If you want their trust then you need to come clean on every little detail.”
Emma sat down in the chair that Rachel had been in and felt the urge to ask if Sage was losing her mind. Her days in the Hellfire Club were filled with secrets that she had absolutely no intention of ever letting see the light of day. Things were finally starting to look right for her and if smothering her past meant having to deal with the scorn of a few mutants then so be it. She wasn’t about to stop her power climb in the X-Men hierarchy, not just so she would be liked in any event.
“I don’t know what little details you could possibly be speaking of, Tessa, but I am sure you haven’t divulged to them all of your scrupulous activities while in the Club. You were just the perfect little spy weren’t you? Charles says that you could handle Wolverine in combat. You could have taken us down at any moment.”
Sage laughed. “My mind is like a computer. Photographic reflexes and memory are inherent in that so yes, I could have taken all of you out and I have exact memory of every thing we ALL did in the Club. Like your rendezvous with the Kingpin, for instance?”
Emma rolled her eyes. “Can you do me a favor and never bring that up again? Knowing he was rich and powerful only helped the sex a smidgeon.”
“Why are you here, Frost? I don’t have time for small talk.”
Letting the abrasive comment roll off of her, Emma said, “I want to talk to you about something called X-Force.”
Polaris walked along the beach and watched Davis Cameron surf the waves with youthful exuberance. She was glad to be able to get away from the Presidential affairs and Davis’ invitation to the beach had been a welcome one for Lorna. X-Factor’s training wasn’t set to officially be underway for another week so she had time yet before she had to be a hard ass.
“Looks like he’s having fun out there,” Songbird said as she walked alongside Polaris. The two had only met a few months ago, but they found they had much in common. Both women had dealt with their fair share of manipulation and came out stronger for it. Melissa discovered that hers wasn’t quite as violating as Lorna’s and that honestly made reconciling her past with Zemo easier. There was a bit of guilt on Melissa’s part for using someone else’s misery to alleviate her past.
“Davis is a good guy and I’m glad we found him. His teleportational skills are exceptional,” Polaris said.
“I hope you’re not going to do that with all of us,” Songbird said.
Lorna was taken aback. “What do you mean?”
“Break us all down like that. In strategic terms.”
Lorna laughed at being called out. “Sorry about that. It’s just a bad habit I picked up from an ex.”
“Havok is the leader of the team, but that doesn’t mean I trust him entirely,” Emma said as she wrapped up her explanation of X-Force.
“So what exactly is it that you’re doing to want me to do?” Sage asked.
Emma smiled. “I’m just asking you to do what you do best. Be a spy.”
There was an insult in there, but Sage refused to latch on to it. “It would be hard for me to explain my absences to Pietro.”
“I’ve already talked with the President. He thinks you’re doing undercover work of another sort. You should know me by now, Tessa – I always cover my bases.”
It was that fact that made Sage hesitant. Emma did indeed cover her bases and she was always playing four or five angles. Tessa wasn’t sure if she was just another piece being moved on a chessboard or if she was the opening move. Either way, she knew there was always twelve other things going behind any one detail that Frost gave you. Even when you were playing on the same side she was, it seemed.
“I came to Genosha to do something different with my life. What makes you think I want to be a spy again, let alone YOUR spy? I don’t trust you, Emma, and according to every memory I have in my mind I am completely justified in that assessment.”
Emma sat back in the chair unfazed and said, “You are loyal to Charles, aren’t you? If Havok was to go rogue and start doing his own thing, imagine the heartbreak Charles would be in. He would lose all hope in the goodness of his X-Men. Is your pride worth that, Tessa?”
Sage’s expression was as cold as her skin was pale. “Blackmail…always a nice option to play, Emma. I’m not doing this for you, I’m doing it for Charles, but trust me on this, Emma: if you cross the line I will bury you so deep that not even an archaeologist will be able to find your corpse.”
Emma laughed and stood up, completely satisfied. “There is something else I need to talk to you about. It involves Pietro and his Genosha Compact.”
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To Be Continued...
Next: In X-Factor #3: What is the Genosha Compact and what interest does Emma have in it? Also, who is Medea and what is her connection to Moses Magnum?
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