Subject: [gbp] Warlock and the Infinity Watch #4
Date: Sat, 6 Apr 2002 13:34:13 +0100
From: "David" <dewheatley@yahoo.com>

Warlock and the Infinity Watch: Mind - The Gathering, Part 4

Christopher Aaronson smiled as he examined the complex systems. Taking over
NORAD had been easy enough, it was now using the tools at his disposal and
he sighed. It was proving a little more complex than he had considered it to
be. Computers and machines were not really his thing, that was more the
domain of his brother Jesse, from whom he was estranged, but still kept an
eye on. Breaking the codes was not as easy as it seemed without triggering
alarms across the country. If they were going to do this properly, it needed
to seem as if it were the United States attacking Genosha and not some
terrorist cell. His people were in the halls while he did what he had to do.

He had most of the codes down, but it was the last one that was proving to
be the most difficult though he thought he had an idea of how to get past
the encryption. Stryfe's people were well trained, and Karma was of the
X-Men so he had learnt much from them while he had them in his thrall. He
sighed and focused. He knew this would be the hard part and... He held his
breath in anticipation as he suddenly figured out what he needed to do.

"Yes..." he said and then the intruder alarm went off and broke his
concentration. "NO!" he shouted in frustration and slammed his hand down on
the communications panel. "This is Bedlam," he growled in to it. "What's
going on?"

"My Lord," replied Karma. "A group of heroes have arrived."

"Avengers? X-Men? What?" said Bedlam, wanting to know whom he was facing and
then maybe he'd know how they knew so damned fast. No signals had been sent
out other than his, and that was on a secure frequency that nobody had
cracked yet.

"Neither," replied Karma. "There are only two people I recognise - Adam
Warlock and Phoenix of the X-Men."

"How curious," said Bedlam, his anger draining away at the concept of a new
group of heroes. It posed an interesting question that he had pondered -
what came first, the villain or the heroes. Did appearance heroes mean that
villains must appear, or was it that whatever happened there would always be
someone diametrically opposed, no matter the circumstances, in some kind of
cosmic balance? "Assemble the MLF," he said. "Phoenix is yours, the MLF can
handle the rest. Keep them away until the rockets fire then get us all out
of here."

"Yes, my Lord," she replied and Bedlam went back to work, searching again
for the code he had grasped and lost just moments ago.

"Rachel?" asked Adam as they arrived and Phoenix psionically scanned the
base, Tangerine creating a link between the two of them so she could see how
this kind of thing could be done with her own telepathic powers.

"Okay," said Rachel. "The base has been fully compromised, the military
units are under some kind of mind control and are acting as normal. There
are also six others here, five of which I can get vague impressions of, but
the other's mind... it's like it almost isn't there."

"It's a power the person has," stated Tangerine. "It disrupts normal
telepathic detection, scrambling the connection."

"Yes," said Rachel, in agreement. "That'd be about right. Good call."

"So there are four of us and six of them," said Battlestar. "Sounds like
fair odds, if slightly out of our favour."

"Agreed," said Warlock. "Our priority though is to stop the missiles from
being launched. The men and women here are not our enemies, so try and avoid
harming them where possible." The others nodded. "Rachel, try and keep the
soldiers from attacking us, Tangerine, I need you to create a psionic link
between us all, so we can stay in contact. Split up, and do what you can."
The nodded and then they went to work.

Adam flew through the complex, keeping an eye out for an enemy, but the
enemy soon found him instead.

"So we've been noticed," he said as two figures, a male and a female, stood
in his path. One of them, the male, had four arms and the other wore a
yellow battle suit. She stood impassively, with no obvious powers that Adam
could detect, however he knew that not all powers were obvious to the naked
eye. He touched them with the Soul Gem and determined they were under the
influence of someone else, possibly the same person who had been generating
the psychic static. "Stand aside," said Adam. "I do not want to hurt you."

"The will of King Bedlam is that you are stopped," said the four-armed
giant.

"I cannot allow that to happen," said Adam, and fired one of his energy
blasts at them, however something was awry for they moved before the blasts
could intercept, using speed that did not seem possible. He then noticed the
woman was focusing and that it was not them that were moving quickly, but
himself who was moving slowly instead. His reactions to them were slowed as
well, and he guessed the woman had some kind of powers over time. "Rachel,"
he said, requesting her aid, but her response came back as gibberish. He was
being slowed down so his thoughts were not being accepted either and unless
Rachel actively willed use of the Time Gem to interpret, she would not know.

The four armed giant beat down on him, and Adam tried to fight back, and as
strong as he was he could have held him off, however the giant had the edge
in speed and the two extra arms helped him lots. Adam was on his own.

Lemar Hoskins shook his head in bemused wonder. It had been less than two
hours since he had left the Wild Pack, with no job, no prospects and very
little chance of finding anything. Now he was fighting for no less than the
fate of the world. It had been without doubt a crazy day and it didn't look
like it was going to get better just yet.

Suddenly he sensed something wrong and on instinct turned to face whatever
was there, in time to see a young woman teleport in and he stepped back as
she tried to grab him and then vanished.

"Lucky sonuvabitch," she cursed as she reappeared and Lemar realised she'd
been trying to teleport his head off.

"No," he said. "Just better at this than you are."

"We'll see," she said and teleported again, but Lemar had gotten wise to her
tactics as well as her affect on the Space gem, which was warning him of
disruptions to space by her vanishing trick. He could also tell where
everything in the building was now that he opened his mind to its power and
potential. He used the power of the gem to see where she was going and got
out of her way, teleporting to where she had been, a plan forming in his
mind about how to play this.

"Would you like to try again?" he said, with a grin as she gave a noise in
the back of her throat in frustration at not being able to catch hold of him
and she teleported again. Lemar smiled and vanished again, knowing it was
nice not to have to hit anyone and that it would be a case of who could do
this the longest, and he knew where he was going.

Tangerine was linked to the others and when something was wrong with
Warlock, she knew she had to help him. It sounded like he was calling for
Rachel, but they couldn't tell why, they just knew he sounded as if he were
in pain and distress. She hurried to where she though she heard the sound
only to be confronted by a young woman hovering in front of her.

"I'm guessing you're not here to show me the way?" she said, reaching in to
the young woman's head. It was all a bit of a muddle, but she pulled a name
out. "Dragoness."

"Telepaths. I hate telepaths," said Dragoness and fired a bio-electric bolt
at Tangerine who tapped in to the power of the Reality gem and deflected the
bolt.

"I'm not fond of people who want to destroy the world," said Tangerine. "Now
get out of the way before I hurt you."

"We're not going to destroy, we're going to rule," said Dragoness, but
Tangerine had stopped listening and altered gravity about the woman who was
in her path. Dragoness gasped as she found herself on the floor and no
matter how hard she struggled, she couldn't get up. Tangerine shook her
head, knowing that she wouldn't be immune to the reality changes she had
wrought if she got too close and decided to find another way. Warlock would
have to cope by himself.

"Xi'an," said Phoenix.

"Rachel," said Karma.

"Been a long time."

"Not long enough," said Karma and tried to possess Rachel, with an intensity
Rachel was surprised the young woman possessed. She knew her powers had
grown and she had become stronger with her innate telepathic skills, but
this wasn't quite right, and Rachel realised that it was Karma who was
controlling the others, herself under the influence of another.

"Damn," said rachel, as she tapped in to her own formidable resources in a
psionic war. If she lost Karma would control her, if she won, Karma would be
freed of this. She had to find out more of what had happened to her and gave
a smile as she realised it would be easier if she simply created a time
bubble around them, which would give her opportunity to find out what had
happened. A psionic war to prevent control and a journey through Karma's
recent past to find out if there was still a hero and an X-Man in there.

It all started many months back when Hydra had seized control over
Madripoor, where Karma had been living in her late uncle's property with her
brother and sister, helping them get over what Spiral had done to them in
her Body Shoppe. Wolverine and the Juggernaut had been involved in a fight
with the Hand and had ultimately given total control of Madripoor to Hydra,
who had later lost it when Logan had returned. Knowing that the children
would be a weapon that Hydra would use, Karma had sent them in to the Mutant
Underground set up by Charles Xavier long a go, but before she could use it
herself, she had been captured by the Viper, who she knew from way back from
her time as a New Mutant.

Viper had used her to experiment, and try and release the innate potential
of her mind. It had resulted in two things - the power of Karma raging out
of control and madness to the young woman's mind, similar to the one she had
dealt with in her brother Tran many years ago. Viper had hired a specialist
to control her new toy, a man named Aaronson, who had the ability to create
a mental static and, in effect, cause minds to short-circuit. However he was
also a terrorist in his own right and went by the name Bedlam. He saw the
potential of Karma for creating a kingdom of his own and christened himself
King Bedlam, his powers keeping her powers under her control and her body
and soul under his.

They were lovers, though Rachel could not tell if that was willingly, and
then she realised the problem she faced. To free her from Bedlam would mean
her powers raging out of control and the madness that had swallowed her
brother would claim her. To not free her meant that they would keep her in
the thrall of the insane Bedlam. Rachel felt she owed the young woman too
much not to find a way to resolve this. There was but one choice, and she
encased the in a static time bubble, freezing time around Karma so that she
was in stasis, but her powers still affected people.

"I'll find a way to fix this," she promised the young girl, seeing the
hatred in her eyes and then she heard a call - Warlock, or someone who
sounded like him. It sounded wrong, as if his thoughts were... "Out of synch
with time." She flew to where Warlock was beign beaten by Forearm. She knew
of him in talking to the X-Men and the other was called Tempo, and that was
the cause of Warlock's distress.

"I don't think so," she said ad using the Time gem she reversed the field
Tempo was generating. Warlock was himself again and was able to focus on
Forearm who was now slowing down. Warlock looked at him.

"I am sorry," he said and hit him with a soul blast, focusing his innate
cosmic power through the Soul gem and the beam that was released hit Forearm
and sent him sprawling, while Phoenix simply decked Tempo whose powers were
having no effect on her.

"What did you do to him?" she asked.

"I hit him with a soul blast. It shows them the truth within themselves
and... well, you see the results. A karmic blast would not have worked as
he's under the influence of another."

"I know," said Rachel. "Adam, I know the source, but I need your aid."

"How?"

"Give Karma the Mind gem. She's been used and broken and used again, and
without it, her only choice is a life of physical and mental abuse. She's
never deserved that."

"I will see what I can do. I cannot give the Mind Gem away that easily, or
to anyone who is unworthy..." Rachel led the way, nodding her agreement, but
she had to try.

Wendell Vaughan awoke to find himself surrounded by trees. Oak tress, to be
exact, and he knew he was back on Earth because there were no oak trees on
any other planet like there were back home.

"Thank God," he said and looked at himself. His clothes were ragged and he
realised how tired he was. His whole body ached and he could barely stand.
He shook his head, trying to clear it and then tried to take to the sky.

Except he couldn't. His mouth went dry and he looked at the Quantum Bands
that hung on his wrists like strange designer bracelets. And that was about
the value they had now. No cosmic awareness, no powers, no ability to create
objects from the cosmic yellow plasma. He was normal now, no powers, no
special skills, nothing and he realise how empty that made him feel. The
Protector of the Universe was gone, and now the Universe was defenceless.
The energy should be regenerating he thought, after a moment. They were
conduits in to the power cosmic, and that was limitless - so why did he have
nothing? He wondered if the bands were broken and he knew of the problems
that had occurred with the previous bearers of the bands before he became
Quasar. If there was something wrong with them, then perhaps using them was
the last thing he should try. However he knew he needed to find someone who
could help - the Avengers, or Doc Strange or somebody with experience in
this kind of thing.

"But right now, I'll settle for knowing where I am," said Quasar. There was
nothing but trees, and he wondered which way was west. He closed his eyes,
took a guess and pointed. He opened them and decided to walk that way for as
long as he could, realising how he'd used the power to keep himself going.

He didn't have that luxury now.

Bedlam knew from the lack of reporting that his people were doing that they
had been defeated and that the heroes would be coming his way soon enough,
but it was too late. He had what he needed and he decided to teach these
people a valuable lesson in life and fired the rockets towards Genosha. In
minutes, Genosha would be nothing but rubble and the biggest war in
mankind's history would begin. Then he sensed her coming.

"So you are the legendary Phoenix," he said. "I've wondered for a long time
if we would ever meet and pit my skills against your own."

"I'm not Phoenix," said Tangerine. "Guess you need to do a bit more
research."

"You're too late," said Bedlam. "I've done what I set out to do and the
endgame will begin. You cannot stop me."

"Want a... cookie... telephone... rosebud..." Tangerine started to stammer,
trying to focus, but she didn't know what she was focusing on. She knew she
had soething to do and that it needed to be done and...

"Yes," smirked Bedlam. "I expect you do. You will make a fine addition to my
legion."

"Fix her, now," said a new voice and Bedlam turned to see a tall balck man
standing there, holding a shield.

"Who the hell are you?" said Bedlam, looking about to see how the man
appeared from nowhere.

"Name's Battlestar," he said and lunged at Bedlam who moved out of the way,
but Lemar grabbed him anyhow, seeming to be in the right place at the right
time in Beldam's opinion.

"Forget him," said another voice. "He's mine." Battlestar looked to see a
young Asian woman there and she seized control of Bedlam

"Lemar," said Adam. "I need you to us on the rockets that have been fired.
We are too late to prevent that, but you'll have to try and grab them with
your gem."

"I'll try," said Lemar and focused, reaching out to the rockets, but they
were moving too fast and he couldn't keep a lock on them.

"Let me," said Rachel, sensing his problems and reached to herself, stopping
them in mid air as she had done to Karma earlier. "Better?" she asked.

"Much," said Lemar and used his powers to teleport the weapons in to the
sun, where they would be harmless. Their attention was turned back to
Bedlam, who was in a corner sobbing at what he had tried to do, his powers
gone and his sane mind now back in control.

"He won't harm anyone again," said Karma, a satisfaction in her eyes. Rachel
looked at Adam, who examined the woman again with the Soul gem. He had leant
it to her before so they could end this, but he could tell that Rachel felt
she was a candidate for the possession of the gem. Her soul was pure and
there was a devotion and nobility within her, but there was also a darkness
that had been unleashed and he wondered if she was right to bear the gem. It
was possible that she could go either way and the he wondered. He had chosen
Moondragon to bear the gem previously, and she was no worse than that.

The woman's past of being sued gave her an insight in to what was going on
and the Mind gem would heighten her awareness of the thoughts, feelings and
emotions of others in a way that it hadn't before.

"Xi'an Coy Manh," he said. "We need to talk."

Wendell Vaughan could see lights in the distance, could hear voices and
stumbled towards the small piece of civilisation, barely reaching the end of
the tree line, and passing out as he did. The people having the party
stopped and looked over to the man who had collapsed on their lawn and two
of them hurried over.

"Oh my," said one of them. "Walter..."

"I see him, Sam. Adam! Come quickly!" shouted the other

"What is it, Walter?"

"This man's an Avenger. Quasar, I think."

"It's been too quite," sighed Adam Destine as he came over. "Make this man
comfortable. I'll make some calls..."