Subject: [gbp] X-Force #18
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2002 11:50:50 -0000
From: "dewheatley" <dewheatley@yahoo.com>

X-Force - Snakes and Ladders, Secrets and Lies Part 5

Lydia Del Ruiz read the morning papers and shook her head. Granted it
was now the afternoon, but it was relatively quiet in the X-Force
office and her monitoring duties also included the current affairs in
other countries. It was this kind of thing that she was interested
in, for there was a report from Genosha. She'd been examining all the
reports carefully since June, before the formation of this X-Force
team, when she had seen a report about a cleric who was becoming a
voice in the country. Since then she had heard nothing in the papers
about him. Now every time an article from there ran, she would look
for something that would give her news.

Yet again there was nothing.

"Father," she said, her eyes closing as she remembered the man's
face, his voice, the tenderness of his touch. He didn't even know how
close she had come to death and with everything, as it stood there
was a great chance he never would. She scoured the report again,
looking for something that might help her see if he was okay, what he
was doing and why he had sent her away.

"This is Echo Team," came a voice over the radio and Lydia's ears
pricked up and she took a little bit more attention than she had
been. She was listening to the SHIELD communications chatter as she
had done for the past few days of monitoring, trying to find the
traitor but Echo Team was the search and retrieval team. They had
been looking for the body of Pete Wisdom for several days, using the
resources at their command to get the missing SHIELD agent found.

"Echo Team, this is Fury."

"Colonel," said the Echo Team Commander. "We have the body. Repeat,
we have the body." Lydia almost dropped her coffee in shock at the
words she had just heard. They had all agreed to act as though he was
gone, but she knew they all had the hope he was still alive. With a
body, there was little else to do but accept it - Pete Wisdom was
dead. She stifled a low moan and bowed her head. Then she lifted it
again. Just because they had found a body, it didn't mean it was his.
There were tests to be done before it was finally true and she
radioed in to Maverick who was searching the starboard side of the
Helicarrier, with the rest of the team.

Wherever Wisdom had hidden the evidence against the traitor, he'd
hidden it well.

"If Pete isn't dead, I'm going to kill him," muttered North as he sat
down in the office. The rest of the team were as exhausted as he was,
for they'd used all their skills and powers to search all of the
Helicarrier, to break in to people's files and to do what they could
to find this hidden evidence. Lydia was acting as go between for
themselves and Fury who was checking in every so often to see what
they had found. Now with appearance of the body, they'd called a
break.

"How well did you know Pete?" asked Marcus of Siryn who was sitting
there, looking at the screens.

"Well enough but not as well I should have," she answered. "He and
I... used to be lovers, but it was a long time ago."

"I take it you had a bad break up, judging from your attitudes
towards each other when you met?" said Lydia.

"Yeah," she said. "It was when I was running with my uncle Tom, also
known as Black Tom Cassidy, partner in crime with Juggernaut. Cain
was off doing something or other in the States, and I was in France,
looking for my uncle who'd been hired to retrieve an alien artefact
from a storage hold of an arm of the British Secret Service, but he'd
gone missing. I went after him, to help him but wound up gettin'
caught in Black Air's Paris facility."

"By Pete?"

"Yes," she said, realising she was opening up to these people and
also realising it felt good to get the secrets off her chest. "We
fought, and tussled and he pinned me down and... we kissed. I'd
kissed boys before, but not like this. He told me he liked me and
that my Uncle had gone back to Ireland. I thought I could drink but
he was a master and more than that it didn't seem to affect him like
it did me. I was wilder then, more reckless and we became lovers for
a few weeks. Then my Uncle called me back and Pete simply let me go,
and said we'd get together again at some point."

"You fell for that?" asked North, voicing his thoughts out loud. He
knew Pete was enough of a bastard not to bother. "Sorry," he quickly
said. "That was wrong."

"Thanks," she said. "And I didn't. We ended up rowin' and he told me
if that was how I felt then maybe I oughta 'piss off back t'Ireland
an' settle down with a nice Irish boy, if I could find one.' I
slapped him an' he simply laughed and walked away. I never saw him
again until we met up here."

"That's quite a story," said Lydia, with some thought. She still had
a crush on Pete and she was pretty sure he felt the same about her
and they had grown on each other while they were in the infirmary.
They'd been forced together by fate and she'd seen past his arrogant,
surly attitude. He just didn't like people getting too close to him,
because he privately thought they'd hurt him like he'd been hurt
before, though obviously after the relationship with Teresa.

"Aye," said Terry, reflecting on how good it had felt to be open with
her team, with her friends, and she made a decision.

"Still, Pete's older now than then," said Marcus. "Guess we're out of
options."

"Oh, for God's sake," whispered North. "Idiot..."

"Erm," said Marcus, unsure of what was being referred to. "Me or
someone else?"

"Me," said Maverick. "Pete was out of options, right?"

"Yes," said Lydia, surprised she had figure it out before as
well. "There was a traitor on the Helicarrier. It wouldn't have made
sense to keep the evidence here, especially if he thought the traitor
was Nick."

"Which means we've been looking in the wrong places," said
Terry. "But where?"

"His comms are clean, but then again he probably cleaned them
himself," said Lydia.

"It would have to have been sent to someone he'd trust with his
life," said North. "Which narrows it down."

"So what do you want us t'do, boss?" asked Terry.

"Okay," said Maverick, quickly thinking. "Lydia, put in some calls to
his family in the UK, see what they've got. Try his sister Romany.
Siryn, contact Alistaire Stuart at the Weird Happenings Organisation,
and if he doesn't know get a number for Brian Braddock."

"Dave," said Siryn. "I was thinking I should call the X-Men. See if
they've heard anything."

"Why would he send it there?" asked North, not following her logic.

"Because o' the Wolverine connection," she said. "If anything
happened to us, they'd be the only ones who could clear him."

"Good thinking," said North. "You do that. Marcus, you call
Alistaire. I'll go meet with Fury and see what's going on with the
body they pulled I don't know about you, but I want to see it. Oh and
Lydia?"

"The family don't know, so don't tell them," she said. "Gotcha." The
team went to work.

"Open wide," said a guard and Pete opened his mouth as the guard
spoon-fed him some kind of vitamin mixture. It kept him alive and his
body whole, but it wasn't tasty and it still left him hungry. He took
it, glowering at the man who fed him it, but the was ignored. He had
no choice and there was nothing he could do to escape. The only thing
that kept him going was the fact that when he was free he was going
to kick the shit out of each and everyone of the Hydra goons who got
in his way.

Jessica was then subjected to the same humiliation, fed as if she was
a baby and Pete saw the same kind of anger in her eyes as well. As he
swallowed the mixture after swilling it around his mouth he reflected
on the young woman with him. She was formerly known as Spider-Woman,
and had been a private investigator working out of Madripoor. She'd
crossed Viper and she'd been taken when Hydra had abandoned the
island. However there was more than that.

She came from the same part of London he did, though her upbringing
had been better than his own. She had the same kind of attitude he
had, and she like his sense of humour as well. He quite liked her,
but then again they were allies by default as they were trapped
together and they'd nothing better to do than tell their life stories
before the Shadow King had them both fixed.

He wanted them to be part of his X-Men, he'd told them. Which implied
that they didn't have a choice, and more than that there would be
others. The stuff with Wolverine made him a certainty for the team
and that had made Pete wonder about it all. Was the Shadow King
creating them as some kind of pastiche of a team he had battled, or
the original team of Xavier's band? Or was Farouk simply putting
together the best he could get his hands on, and what was his goal?
It worried him that he didn't know the answers and when he found out
it would be too late for them all.

It also didn't look good for the rest of X-Force either, trapped on
the Helicarrier working for Fury and thinking him to be dead. They
were being set up for a fall of some kind, and if they didn't find
the evidence against Fury then they'd be screwed. The game plan had
gone to pot and it looked as if he'd played his cards too early. He
tried his bonds in frustration again as soon as their feeder had left
them.

"Glad to see you're still trying," said Jessica.

"Don't have much of my powers anyway," said Pete, wishing he could
get his hot knives going. He'd figured out that Farouk had obviously
cut him off from that aspect of his brain, but he also knew that
these bonds wouldn't hold up to the hot knives it that was the
case. "Won't make much of an X-Man that's for damn sure." He gave a
weak grin but Jessica didn't respond to it. In fact she seemed to
fade before his eyes and visibly sag back in to herself

"We're going to die, aren't we?" she said after a moment. "When he
alters our heads, then makes us one of his people, that's going to be
it?"

"Yeah," said Wisdom, realising there was no point in lying to
her. "Pretty much. His psionic thing is probably reversible by a
skilled enough telepath, but you've seen him as well as I have." He
referred to Arnim Zola, who had visited them several times and Pete
was still sore in places from the last visit. "Hell, we've both felt
what he was doing to us" The self styled master geneticist had
prodded and poked them, tested them for suitability and, more
worryingly, alteration. "It's bad enough the bastards Nazi's survived
in one shape or another, let alone actually living this long."

"If by some miracle we escape, I'll kill Zola myself," she said,
shivering at the memories of the way that he'd touched her. It had
been more than pure science to him and they'd all known it, but had
been powerless to stop him.

"Yeah," said Pete, gladdened at her change of heart. She'd been here
longer than he had and he could see it was getting to her, that
Farouk was breaking her resolve. It was a slow process but the cracks
were starting to show. "Soon as I get my powers back," he said and
she nodded, but said nothing. He sighed and wished he had a cigarette.

Of everything else that was going on, that really was torture.

"Terry?"

"Hey, Sam," said Siryn as she called the Xavier Institute. "How are
things going?"

"Fair enough. We've a good team together, but those that knew him
best are still feeling the effects of the death of Warlock. Again. We
lost Warlock, then Doug then they came back and we just lost them
again. I keep thinking about it, Terry, it just doesn't make sense."

"Things just happen like that, Sam," she said. "Listen, we've a
problem, and I need to talk to you."

"How can we help SHIELD?"

"Have any of the team received an email from Pete Wisdom? It'd be a
massive file, probably encrypted or protected in some way."

"Not that I know of. Why?"

"Because..." she hesitated. "We think whatever's in those files is
what he was killed for."

"Whoa," said Sam. "He's dead?"

"We think so. They've just found his body, or what we think is his
body. People like Pete..."

"Don't die that easy," said Sam a trace of sadness in his
voice. "I'll find out for you, and let you know. So who's in charge
of X-Force now?"

"Maverick," replied Terry, then she took a deep breath, knowing she
needed to o this. "Listen Sam, while you're here, I have to tell you
something else as well. Something you're not going to like."

"That why you're using the secure line?"

"Yeah," she said. "It's about me, when I was away after the fight
between us an' the Hellions. After Feral... hurt me, y'know?"

"What is it?" asked Cannonball, concerned for his friend.

"It's... I lost my voice. I lost m'powers. I lost nearly everything
and I had to leave t'get myself together and when I cam back I was
fine. I told ye it was a natural healing process. It wasn't. I was
fixed up."

"Fixed?" said Sam, concerned at where this was going.

"I was approached by a doctor. Nathaniel Essex."

"You mean Sinister?" exclaimed Sam, his mouth open in horror. Teresa
nodded and Sam took a step back. "Why? How?"

"He fitted me with a serum cultured from my own blood which inhibits
trauma. It repairs major damage t'me body, somehow cloning missing or
damaged parts o' my body. He said he did it because he felt he owed
us. I dinnae believe him, but I just wanted my powers back, I didn't
want to go back to being less than I was.  I said yes, he fixed me up
and I came back to you guys."

"Terry," Sam started but trailed off. "Ah don't know what you want me
to say."

"You don't have to say anything," she said. "I just had to tell you.
I also have to tell you that when I returned to the Institute, to X-
Force, I held back on my powers deliberately, so you wouldn't
guess... I feel responsible. If I hadn't, maybe we'd never have lost
Bobby and the others to Magneto."

"It'd have happened anyway." Sam spoke with a trace of regret. "We
met up with them a while back. I'll tell you about it the next time
Ah see you."

"I'm sorry," she said.

"Give us time to accept it, Terry," he said. "It's going to take some
getting used to, but what's done is done. I'll see what I can find
out about Pete for you as well." Terry nodded and Sam closed the
channel.

She felt better, but not much and she took some solace in the fact
she'd done the right thing. She turned and saw Maverick standing
there and she gasped.

"David, I..."

"Don't," he said. "Is this the thing you've been keeping from us,
about what happened between you and Pete?"

"Yes," she said. "I panicked and he slapped em, and I told him it
all. He didn't want to tell you until I'd told the X-Men first. They
had a right to know."

"Agree with him there. Fine, we'll leave it for now, but you'll have
to tell the others. I'm going to find them now. Fury says we can see
the body after the tests are done, which should be sometime tomorrow."

"Okay," said Terry and nodded but before she could say anything
Maverick turned and left.

It was late in the afternoon the next day, when X-Force met at the
time agreed by Fury and Maverick to view the body. Tests had been run
on it, DNA taken, dental records, retinal scans, the lot and the
results made available to the team. It was confirmed that this was
the body of Pete Wisdom and they had to totally accept the truth - he
was dead. To make things worse, the people they'd contacted had drawn
blanks. They'd not received anything from Pete Wisdom and that left a
much larger list of people than they'd hoped for.

"We're running late for the viewing of the body," said Lydia,
checking her watch.

"I know," said Maverick. "I don't like this." He knocked on the
medical bay counter again and the assistant looked up. "Why is the
Colonel keeping us waiting?"

"There was something that took priority," said the assistant. "He'll
let you know when he's ready for you." Maverick sighed and took his
seat again, knowing he was getting nothing further. He looked to
Marcus who was getting nothing from his mental scans of the room
inside. Raven shook his head and North closed his eyes. Terry's eyes
fixed on the door, not wanting to see him dead, because it did mean
he was truly gone. He'd been her first, and it was something she
didn't want to face.

The door opened and the team stood, Lydia using her crutches to
stand. The Colonel came out and closed the door behind him.

"Sorry ta keep yer waitin'," he said. "But there was somethin' that
came up, of importance to ya all. As yer know, X-Force is SHIELD's
mutant strike force an' that means we keep you supplied with mutants
to complete the ranks. Agents Aerella and Dionny were good subs, but
not what we need on the team, though I will be able to use them
elsewhere. You need a replacement for Wisdom now that it's confirmed
he's dead. I have just the person you need. While lacking in Pete's
contacts, the agent is every bit as good a fighter as he is, better
in fact. The skills you've lost from Pete's spy days are more than
made up for now." He opened the door to the medical bay. "Come
through." The figure came through the door and stood before them,
much to the surprise of the rest of the team.

"I'd like you to meet your new team member - Katherine Pryde."