Issue 30
Written by Mick and Jason Trenner

 

They came like a furious storm and we were not ready for them. The entire team rushed to meet their untimely demise and their wasn’t a bloody thing I could do about it. My name is Jonathan Starsmore, but for a long time my mates called me Chamber and this is the story of Martian Invasion from my perspective. I was one of the lucky ones who managed to escape the tripods and Skorpmen’s attack. Maybe it was because of my bionuclear energies that I now had full control of thanks to Weapon-X or maybe because of my limited psionic abilities. Whatever the case I found that the threat was very real. I hulled ass past all the box units that headed towards the skorpmen behind me, as I was not foolish enough to barrel into a fight I knew I could not win. The odds were just not in our favor. I must have crossed a bunch of intersections before I found one of the labs that had been sealed off from the team. It contained many mutants who were still be experimented upon by the scientists of the program. I was supposed to be on an undercover assignment for the X-Men not in the middle of War of the Worlds. When in the hell is reality going to slap me across the face and tell me this is not happening. I looked at the tubes containing the mutants and I felt sick.  The horrible things they did to them had such gore that I nearly blew a hole in the floor in my pitiful attempt to vomit. Yet one of them wasn't disgusting it was...Cecila? What is a member of the X-Men doing like this? Can’t we bloody take care of our own anymore? I remember hearing about Cecila from Paige who is an X-Man now. She mentioned her a few times especially the part about her saving Cyclops. I better get her out of here as I probably could not live with myself if she died in this madness. As focused my energies to melt the glass that held her naked form inside out of the corner of my eye I saw another naked woman with a slug on the other side of it. Once I got Cecila in my arms, I walked over to and took a good look at the girl. She was young from what I could tell and dark hair. I freed her as well and I started to get the hell out of dodge when I felt a presence call out to me. It begged me to free it. When I followed its psionic trail, it led me to the slug that had been beside the girl. I was grossed out for a moment, but then I remembered what it felt like to be ugly and frightening people. I freed the little bugger and it crawled on my back. I then made my way through the director’s secret escape route. He was too overconfident that had me under his thrall. I was one stringing him around like a puppet to learn all of his secrets. The escape route was an underground transit system that ran for miles underground before stopping at a secret hanger where two transport planes wait. The thing is one of planes is a booby trap that only the original director knew which one was the real one. Lucky for me I know that our dear departed Director Jackson picked the wrong plane.

 

During the journey to the hanger, Cecila and the girl came to their senses, which in a way was a good thing. Of course, the girl apparently had adamantium claws and happened to be very strong. Stronger then I expected her to be.  I also noticed the marks from the IV’s and crap that were in her were gone so apparently she heals quickly. It took me a bit to use my telepathy to calm her down and convince her that we are friends. For Cecila she just turned a shade of red, as I believe she was embarrassed to be naked in front of two people she did not know. Me I am used to naked chicks having seen Husk go through shedding so many times. I looked through the subway car to see if I could find them some clothes, but all I could find is two SHIELD jumpsuits whatever the hell they are doing here I have no idea.

 

When the subway car stopped, I was the first one out encase any of those green freaks made it this far. To my surprise, they had and they were not alone. It looked like Madison Jeffries had gone bonkers as he was soaking up all the metal in the joint to form a gigantic armor with all the trimmings. He started using his new armor to kill Martians and humans alike before stomping our way. The mad look in his eyes told me that he was not going to hold back and if I was to save us I was going to have to let loose. Suddenly the young white girl with the dark hair lunged at Madison with claws extended. She was like a wild animal clawing and slashing at his armor in an animalistic fury that I had only heard about Wolverine going through. I believe she told me through our limited chat that the Director called her X-23, but Aurora called her Lauren. Watching her try to tear Madison out of his armor was like watching the Hulk on TV trying to smash the Sandman. Every time she would tear up a piece of the armor, it would heal because of Madison’s power. That is when I decided to step in and let loose a blast that cut the armor in two. Sending both pieces falling to opposite ends of the hanger. I then grabbed Cecila’s hand as she was using her powers to deflect some of Skorpmen’s blasts and headed for the plane. I saw Lauren following behind apparently she had other instincts besides the animalistic ones which told her we need to get out of here.

 

Jeffries was already on his way to putting himself back together so we didn’t have much time before he started attacking us again. I let Cecila and Lauren go in front of me while I blasted that bucket bolts he was in to another pile of pieces. As I climbed in, I felt the plane taking off which left me curious as to who was flying the plane. When I made it to cockpit Lauren was flying and with such remarkable skill. I climbed in the co-pilot seat and programmed in our charted course. Odd though for some reason the mansion was not showing on the navigational sensors. I wonder what could have caused such a thing. Then I suddenly had a feeling it was the same thing that attacked Weapon X. The plane lurched as we flew out of the hanger because of Jeffries blasts plus the weird bombs those blimey ships where dropping were making our trip a bit bumpy. Which is why we had to kick the damn plane into a higher gear. I figured if the mansion is not responding then there most be something wrong. How ironic it was that feeling I had was right. The same thing that attacked Weapon-X had attacked the mansion. Of course, I did not find this out till later. I am getting way ahead of myself now. We must have flown until we were almost out of fuel when I suddenly saw Gateway behind me. I thought I had lost my marbles, but he was there and he was trying to tell me something in his own way, but for some reason I could not understand him. I felt a hand on my shoulder and Cecila asked me who the hell, I was talking to and when I looked, I noticed there was no one their.

 

 

It had maybe a few minutes after I saw Gateway and Cecila’s intrusion that I realized that going to the mansion was a bad idea. I changed our heading as I felt Gateway was trying to draw us to him for some reason. We flew for a bit more when a portal opened and we crash-landed into a clearing. When we got out a black barrier was behind us and we had no clue as to why. That is when things went to hell as Madison came out of the portal behind us and crashed into our wrecked plane. I had my energies primed and ready in case he was planning on attacking. Of course, when an optic blast knocked Madison on his ass I knew that everything was going to be fine, as I had assumed it came from one of two people.  It seems it was the person I least expected. Calvin Rankin whose powers allow him to mimic the abilities, skills, and knowledge of any super powered being he meets. Beast used to say that Synch was analogous to Mimic, but at least Synch had a much better personality then the one Calvin has. From what Calvin told us, he was now walking the straight and narrow. Trying to help people as much as he could with the abilities of the original X-Men that he permanently mimicked. The area we crashed out side of was just outside of London and apparently their had been some damage done to city that was being taken care of by X-Corp London. I was shocked to find Marrow here as the last place I saw her was attacking a Weapon-X compound. From what Calvin told me most of the new Gene Nation was wiped out and only Marrow survived the trip here. It seemed that she was always destined to lose the people around her. Calvin told me that Marrow and I was the only other people beside him who know of the Martian invasion and every one else was in the dark. We were taken to X-Corp London’s main headquarters to be debriefed on what kind of stuff to expect behind the barrier and some of the new twists that exist because of the barrier. I half expected to learn what happened to the rest of the X-Men, but Calvin did not know. All we knew is that their last contact had been before the barrier went up. There has not been any contact since then. As for Madison, he is being contained by X-Corp until they can figure out what to do with him.

 

I must have spent a couple of hours that night in the shower and thinking about what the hell is going in the world. I keep thinking about a lot of things, about Paige, about my former fellow Gen-Xers, and my life. If it has amounted to anything, it has to be the fact that I could have done something to save the mutants that were being killed by Weapon-X. Looking at the bright blue moon through the pink tinted reflection of the barrier brings about memories of times when I was a kid and I used to stare at it. Its bright majesty calling out to me like it was begging for a friend. I think I miss those times the most before I got brought into the war of coexistence. As I lay on my bed I realized that the first thing I should do tomorrow is see that if any of the X-Men made it beyond the barrier. Maybe I could find Paige and try to work things out between us. Of course, I would have to deal with that bloody angel first. I do not know what she sees in him. He is just a rich boy with blonde locks and a million dollar smile. I am the one she originally wanted, but my damned pride got in the way. If I could just stop seeing red every time I think about them together maybe, I could get some sleep. I started to turn over when I heard a rustling at my door.

 

“Who’s there?” I asked

 

I then heard the thoughts of Lauren as she quietly walked into my room

 

“Can’t…sleep…. nightmares and so much pain….”

 

“Its alright girl no one is going to harm you anymore I promise.”

 

I moved over and let her climb into the bed with me and wrapped my arms around her. I feel so attached to her like an older brother would have a younger sister. The girl has been through so much from what I can see in her worn expressions and sad blue eyes.

 

I must have held her all night before I finally dozed off. When I awoke, she was gone and I was a literal mess. I had no sense of what time it was nor where my clothes where. I guess I was so worried about her and thinking of Paige last night, that sleep became unimportant. I finally found a pair of clothes that Calvin had scrounged up for me. Apparently technology on this side of the barrier is kind of waning. As in some places, it will work others it will not. Nobody knew what was the cause of it and it seemed no one cared. As long as the important equipment worked, I guess no one had a real problem with what effect the barrier had on the machines. I cleaned myself up and shaved before going down stairs. I also made sure to check Lauren’s room to see if she was all right. When I looked in, she was sitting cross-legged on the bed trying to read a magazine of some sort. I wonder how much of her life she had missed while being apart of the project’s experiments? Did she ever learn to read and write, did she have any experience playing softball, did she ever get taken horseback riding with her mum and dad? How much did those monsters take away from her and is their any way that she can recapture any of those moments I ask myself. If god is listening, I pray that he helps me help this girl regain what she has lost. I wiped a tear from my eye and headed down stairs. Calvin was sitting down at a round meeting table with Marrow sitting beside him running her hand down his leg. I guess Cal really does have a lot of Wolverine in him, as women do not last long before being conquered by the best at what he does. I decided to sit in-between Cecila and McFadden. From what I heard about McFadden is that he is the handler of the Irish super team the Kinsmen.

 

“Okay I know your wondering why I called this meeting together. Well I would like to point our newest members of clan hell Marrow, Chamber, Cecila Reyes, and um…”

 

“Lauren is her name mate.”

 

“Yes Lauren. Chamber as his two friends came through the barrier yesterday and from what he has told us it maybe a while before the US can help us in removing the barrier.”

 

“What the hell? Why are those daft fools waiting for lad? Can’t they see what we are going through?”

 

“They are well aware of what we are going through, but right now their attention is devoted elsewhere.”

 

I knew Mimic wanted to keep mum about the invasion. In fact it was quite hard to keep quiet, but we had to put up a brave face otherwise the people inside the barrier would give up hope. Yet I think McFadden is not going to take this lightly. He seems to be getting riled up.

 

“Well the Kinsmen won’t be letting any body down you can bet your ass on that. We have maintained peace in our sectors as have the Pendragons, but Calvin here has hardly kept much peace in his.”

 

“It hurts my efforts that I am understaffed McFadden and the fact that I have been recovering from being controlled by Onslaught. Its not easy channeling the power of every mutant in the world and having your intelligence reduced to an animal’s level.”

 

“Oh bullshit we all know you loved being Xavier’s boy when he was trounced up with that power he took from good ole Magneto. I bet you been wantin’ to take over the world yourself too.”

 

Watching these two bicker started reminding me of the old days when I with my team and in the same way I got sick of it then I am getting sick of it now. I walked out of the room as Calvin’s eyes brimmed ready for an optic blast. I must have made it a few yards before Cecila walked up beside me.

 

“Are you okay?”

 

“Yes just a bit bummed about everything that’s going on.”

 

“You think Calvin will lose his cool?”

 

“If he is anything like the people he copies he should be able to control himself unless he is a hundred percent like Wolverine. Then if I were McFadden I would start running.”

 

“So…what are you planning on doing now?”

 

“Well Lauren needs some one to look after her and I gotta a feeling that they’re maybe other survivors out there. So I am going to search for them and hopefully I will find the person I am looking for.”

 

“No chance in you staying?”

 

The way Cecila was looking into my eyes it seemed as though she was just as lost as Lauren was. She has nowhere to go and no one to turn to. As much as I would like to do the right thing, I cannot help but think about leaving.  I know Paige is out there she has to be. Ah what I am doing. Wrapping myself up in a fantasy again. Paige told me she was with Warren now. I guess I just have to accept that. Perhaps here I can do some good and help where I can.

 

“I guess it would not hurt to stay and I think Lauren likes it here any ways.”

 

The way that Cecila’s eyes light up it made me feel more confident about tomorrow and where I stand. I just hope that whatever happens next that I am…. we are ready for it.