I have made the worst mistake of my life. I'm being hunted though the streets of New York City by some crazy mutie. Actually she not crazy...just very, very angry. I guess I can't blame her...I mean I did kill one of her team-mates. One she was pretty close to by the looks of it. I'm lucky to be alive, really lucky. I have a feeling my luck is going to run out very soon. This lady isn't your run of the mill mutant. She controls the weather...I mean she really controls it. Drawing lighting out of the sky...hurricane force winds...heck she even formed a full fledged snow storm about an hour ago and it's the middle of hottest May in New York's history (or at least that's what it feels like). The point is I'm really out of my league here. This lady's a sparring partner for guys like Thor or the Hulk not me. All I got going for me...I mean all I had going for me was my paste gun. The dumb thing's frozen solid from that little Arctic front she conjured up. I'm not doing to great myself...probably the only guy who's going to die of hypothermia this month. I can't feel my fingers or my toes...it's so cold...so tired...maybe if I just lie down a second. No! I've made it so far and I'm still alive. I made it to the city...I can get help in the city. This city is full of super-heroes or it used to be before that Onslaught guy killed all the good ones. The thing about super heroes is that they're always around when you don't need them like when you're robbing a bank but when you really need one, like right now they're no where to be found. I could really use the Avengers right now (if they were still alive that is). She's going to find me soon I know it. What's her name again...I should remember it, she's shouted it at me enough time...feel the fury of...Storm. Yeah that's it her name is Storm and she's trying to kill me cause I killed one of her fellow X-men. Some guy named Logan...
a little respect
I didn't mean to kill him...I'm not really a killer. Bank robbery, kidnapping...those are more my style...not that I've been that successful at them but you can't fault a guy for trying. Thing is I was just trying to get a little more respect...people treat me like some kind of a joke. Okay you caught me I was trying to kill him...but not him. I thought he was just some ordinary Joe...a nobody, kind of like me. That Bastion guy was offering a ton of money to off this guy. A ton of money that was going to buy me a really cool secret base in the heart of Manhattan (the guy who was selling it said it was an old A.I.M. base). With my new secret base I was going to form a new Frightful Four with me in charge. I wasn't going to be a lackey anymore...I was going to get the respect I deserve. Now that I think about it I probably should have asked why they were offering so much money for this job. Now I know. It's because that guy was no ordinary anything. He was some lunatic with three foot claws that grow out of his arms. A lunatic with a very powerful and vengeful friend.
I don't deserve this! I did this world a favor when I took out that psychopath. The way he came after me I figure I made this world a safer place by killing him. He was probably a mass murderer or something very close to that. Normal people like myself don't fight like savage animals...this guy did. I'm lucky to be alive but society is probably luckier that this Logan guy isn't. I should be getting a reward (actually I am...if Bastion is a man of his word). His payment will get me my secret base...I can lay low there until this all blows over. That is if I can lose this weather controlling mutie. I thought I could lose her in the maze that is New York City but so far no matter where I've gone she always seems to find me. Wait a minute...I know this neighborhood. The Beetle lives around here...I think. I hope he still lives around here. I haven't seen him around the "The Bar With No Name" lately. As a matter a fact none of the Master of Evil guys have been in the bar lately. Goliath has missed my past few poker games. Beetle will help me out if he's still here...he owes me one or is it the other way around...
Beetle's not home...hasn't been home in a while by the looks of it. His unopened mail is piled by the door...quite a few bills from the looks of it. I had to break in though the sky light window to get in here. Just because he's not here doesn't mean he can't help me. First of all I help myself to a very hot shower to warm myself up while at the same time my paste gun is warming up inside his oven. Where ever you are Beetle thank you for forgetting to turn off your power and water while you're gone. Making my way into his living room I seat myself at his computer...it takes me a whole two minutes to crack the pass word and gain access to his files. Beetle went though a phase where he kept files on all of the super heroes in New York...what their powers were...their weaknesses. I'm hoping he has something on this Storm lady...something I can use to beat her. It takes a few minutes for his computer to track her file down but when it does I'm not sure it's found the right lady. The lady I went up against didn't have the mohawk in her hair like this one does and it says here she lost her powers in a battle with some guy named Forge. This information must be old...she definitely has gotten her powers back. Wait a minute...it says here she's an X-men and if I remember right they're that group of mutant outlaws that killed the Fantastic Four and the Avengers a couple months back. Finally I did the right thing...I'm on the side of the angles in this fight.
Wolverine! I killed some guy named Wolverine. I expanded her file to look at her team-mates and this guy Wolverine looks just like that Logan fellow I killed. Adamantium claws...they looked more like bone to me. Geez...I hope the entire team of X-men don't come after me (X-men...what a stupid name...Frightful Four now there's a name). This Nightcrawler guy looks like he came straight out of one of my nightmares. Not to mention that Beetle has "red flagged" the entire team. "Red flagged" means a hero he wouldn't go after no matter how much he was paid. Look at this, he called this the guy I killed "a highly trained borderline psychopath". Who the heck trained this guy? Enough browsing lets see what he has on this lady that's hunting me though the city. It doesn't say any thing about a tracking ability...so how is she able to find me then? I've hidden like five times already but every time she seems to track me down. Weaknesses...says here the island of Genosia is developing a collar that will nullify mutant powers such as hers. That solves every thing I'll just run over there and pick one up...thanks a lot Beetle. Wait he believes she may suffer from extreme claustrophobia. That she freaks out when she's been buried by rubble. This is no help what so ever. Number one Beetle I'd freak out if I was buried by rubble...that doesn't make me claustrophobic, I just don't like being crushed under a ton of concrete. Number two I don't want this lady to in your words "freak out" any where close to me. I turn the computer off and make my way to the oven to retrieve my gun. Twenty minutes on low heat equals one thawed out paste gun...wait why does my costume have a little blinking light on it.
Stupid...stupid. What was I thinking. You would think after all the times I've fought Spider-man with those little spider tracers of his...you would think that I'd remember to check my costume for tracking devices. She must of tagged me with one when we first fought...before I ran for my life. I crush it into little pieces beneath my feet as I struggle into my costume. The winds picking up outside...she's almost here...she is here! Hovering a few meters outside the large picture window in front of me is the scariest sight I've ever seen in my life. A mini cyclone rages around her... lighting races across both her hands...She's going to kill me. She must be thinking the same thing because she says one word before unloading a lighting bolt into my chest. The one word she screams at me is "DIE!"
This hurts to much for me to be dead. the lighting burst sent me across the living room crashing into the large mirror/wall at the back of the room. I'm still alive, the body armor that covers my chest stopped her lighting bolt from tearing me in two. The Tinker does incredible work. I'll have to tell him about this...assuming of course I survive this. As it is I only got a few dozen broken ribs...lucky me. I do my best to pretend to be dead...hey it works on bears don't it. Maybe she'll just go away. She's not! She's moving in for the kill. I have one shot at this. Maybe I can kill her the same way I got that Logan guy. Catch her full in the face with my paste gun...engulf her entire head cutting off her air supply like I did to Wolverine. It worked on him...why not her? I come alive blasting the perfect shot straight at her head. Why didn't I think of this attack before? She'd be dying right now except for one thing. The paste never reaches her...a wall of wind stops it dead and sends it flying right back at me. This is so gross. It's not sticking to my armor...I've got that coated with a non-stick solvent but it's coating my entire face...my hands. Lucky for me I shut my eyes and mouth before it hit so I can still see and breath...somehow I don't feel very lucky.
I try to run...stagger is a better word for what I'm doing. I make it a few feet before that wind of hers lifts me off my feet and flying out the shattered picture window. I'm in free fall...in case you didn't know Beetle's place is a pent-house suite on the thirty-six floor of an apartment building. Thirty-six stories straight down to the pavement and me with out my jet pack. This is going to really hurt. I'm at about the twentieth floor when he saves me. Spider-man...my new favorite hero! On one of those neato web lines of his he swung by and caught me in mid-air. Not an easy feat by any means...I weigh close to 275 LB's wearing this armor of mine. He makes one of his stupid jokes...something like next time remember to tie the bungee cord to my ankles before I jump...I can't really hear that well though the wall of pain. He caught me around the ribs...did I mention that they were broken. If they weren't broken before, they are now. I collapse in a heap on the roof top we land on screaming in pain. Spider-man looks concerned...why shouldn't he...it's not every day you see a member of your rouge gallery beaten within an inch of his life. He moves to pick me up...get me to a hospital he says...that's when she lands on the roof top a few yards away. That Storm lady again telling Spider-man to back away. He goes to talk to her...tell her killing is wrong...when she attacks him. Or at least she trys to...he just leaps away from her lighting bolt attack and then...I wish I could tell you but that's when I decided to pass out.
I guess Spider-man won. I wake up in a hospital room...ribs bandage up. I feel awful! The television's on...it looks like I missed quite the battle. It's all over the evening news. The mutant outlaw Storm verses New York's own friendly neighborhood Spider-man. Spider-man managed to take her down with some help from that new team of goodie two shoes the Thunderbolts. She's in police custody heading to the Vault. Tons of property damage from the looks of it. I begin looking around the room that's when I notice the package sitting beside my bed. It's addressed to me. I open it slowly half expecting it to explode. Money! Tons of money and a note. It says "Congratulations on a job well done...welcome to the big leagues...Bastion". I did it I finally made it. I beat my first super-hero. I'm going to get the respect I deserve. Who says the bad guys never win? I just did...big time!
The mutant scum Jubilee had been crying. Not that she would admit it to Bastion, who had just walked into the room. Bastion recognized a broken will when he saw one. She had put up a good fight but the hanging body strung up like a puppet in front of her was too much. Her mentor...her tougher than hell Wolvie hung on display for her.
"Oh no...the terror named Wolverine has come to rescue his brave little side kick Jubilee...what ever shall I do?" mocked Bastion before turning to Jubilee with a smile. "It looks like your knight in shining armor is dead my little friend."
"I'm not your little friend...I hate you...I'm going to kill you!" cried Jubilee before crying out in pain when the manacles around her wrists delivered a violent shock when she tried to use her powers.
"Not very likely...your one little glimmer of hope...the one chance you might of had is hanging dead in front of you. The one X-man who I truly feared...the only one who could've done what it takes to stop me is dead...I win!" gloated Bastion before turning to leave.
"The X-men will stop you..." whimpered Jubilee to the departing Bastion. "That's the fifteenth time you've made that statement...your faith in them is admirable but misplaced...the X-men are dead...I've seen how this game turns out...they lose and when the final X-man breaths their final breath than so shall you." stated Bastion and then he was gone.
The tiny mosquito was the tenth one that had bitten Bastion in the space of the last forty-eight hours. This was not that unusual...except for three things. Number one most mosquitoes were not tiny robots...the last ten that had drawn blood from Bastion were. Number two mosquitoes could not survive in the hot desert surrounding the old Hulk-buster base Operation Zero Tolerance called home...these ones did. Number three most mosquitoes did not fly the three hundred miles to the secret labs of Mr. Sinister...these ones did.
Finally his little robotics servants had gathered a large enough blood sample to enable him to run tests. Mr. Sinister loaded the small sample into his vast computer. It took well over five hours for his computers to match the D.N.A. and discover both parents of the man know as Bastion. Apocalypse was right...this man was from the future...he had not been born yet and there in lied his weakness. All he had to do was kill these two X-men on the screen in front of him and Bastion would never be born. He would never exist to order the killing of Scott Summers and Jean Grey and disrupt Mr. Sinister's great experiment. The fool Bastion had altered the time stream so changes made in the past could effect the future. Bastion's days were numbered. Mr. Sinister began to laugh...something he had not done in a very long time...
The End?