#10 - Ma'heo'o Towdah
"Stark Invasion, Day Five, Part Three"

By Gary Dreslinski

“Ni him hin o zi” Katherine Pryde looked across the control room with a smile as Dani Moonstar approached, looking like she was trying to find an excuse to smile.

Kitty gave her one, “náohkêsáa'oné'seómepêhévetsêhésto'anéhe”

The Tsitsistas mutant shook her head with a laugh, “I don’t know, you speak Tsitsistas well enough,” she replied, pausing for a half moment before setting her features back to neutral, “ What do you make of our situation?”

Kitty’s face went back to business and quickly as her friend had done. Charles Xavier had taught them both that lesson. There was time to relax with the people you cared about, and there was time to get things done. When you had the chance to do both, that was a special time. This was not a special time. Anything but.

“The Stark have been infected, their invasion is crumpling around their ears… but far too many people have died to bring us to this point. Tony Stark is down, and the bad guys will probably be making a run at him. If they can find him that is.”

Dani nodded, “Scrambling our teams to cover separate locations was a good idea. Act like we’re actively guarding one place, and they’ll hit that place. Act like we’re guarding several… and the resources they had have to split up as well. How many squads of X-Men are out there anyway?”

“We’re coordinating the efforts of 6 different squads other than our own, including active members of Invaders Inc. That’s why I asked for you to come here. We need to keep on top of… oh no…”

“What?” Dani tried to look over her shoulder at the monitor.

“They’re hitting your guys hard just on their way into Denver.”

“Where?”

“Some place called… no, um… it must be well outside of a town, in the middle of nowhere… because there doesn’t seem to be…”

Dani stared at her for a moment, reaching out to touch her shoulder. She stood there, as Kitty struggled for words, knowing that she had seen the specter of death hanging over the Thunderbolts for quite some time. They wouldn’t get to Denver, or Boulder, or anywhere else they would be scrambled to over the course of the afternoon. She knew that without looking. They were pinned down in Sand Creek, Colorado. A sigh escaped her. It was the way things worked. The more you tried to escape it, the more the world pushed it back into your face.

“Is there anyone else close?”

Kitty stared back at her for a moment, breaking off from frantically searching the database. “There does seem to be an ace in the hole that just might work. But I can’t guarantee…”

Dani Moonstar looked past her at the screen. As Mach-II Abe Jenkins had done his best to turn over a new leaf. The Stark seemed to be doing their level best to leave nothing more of him than could be hid under a leaf. She had been a New Mutant, a member of X-Force and SHIELD - she was a Thunderbolt. The team didn’t matter, there was no way she was going to let them go down fighting without a chance… no way… “Use it.” she declared, her mind running through the maneuvers as she watched the icon marked “Jolt” being surrounded by Stark.

Bamf

And bamf… bamfbamfbamf the sound echoed in the dark as the stench of brimstone rose into the air. Kurt Wagner,. Nightcrawler continued to teleport from place to place, wherever he was needed. The Stark had to believe that they were defending Tony Stark’s hospital. Who knew - they might actually be doing that. It was a double blind. Neither side knew if what they were killing and dying for was worth the cost.

It had to be though. Which was the point, you had to give your all - or risk that you were the one who let the Stark have their pyrrhic victory. They had too many victories as it was in the war. Denying them the ability to finish off their target… that would be the best of possible worlds. No, that wasn’t true. The Stark never coming in the first place - that would be the best. Too many people were wounded. Too many good people were dead.

Kurt couldn’t think about them long though, every second he wasn’t focused on fighting was one second closer to joining them.

“Do you have a God?” They had asked him. He had been there in one of the very first encounters. They still asked the question, but there was something else in their voice now. Not just cold and emotionless anymore. They sounded angry, they had met their God, tried to destroy him - and failed. This was their last chance to make their lives worth living, by destroying that which was the foundation of their being.

He had answered then with the first thing that came to mind. A fall-back. He had a God, and He would protect. He acted then like he had never doubted, despite the fact that it seemed sometimes as if he were doubting every time something went wrong. In that moment, he had been firm in who he was…and who he wanted to be. He had been the old Nightcrawler. Maybe he still was…

But he felt echoes of thoughts still… as Madcap was fighting against the Stark elsewhere, citing text and verse, his belief completely unwavering. He felt the resolve - and knew the comfort the garish clad hero felt in his heart. He still remembered it pulsing through his own veins when they had been more directly connected. He knew how that felt, and how far he still needed to go before he could ever feel that way in his own heart.

He lashed out with his fists, and feet, with his swords at everything that came close…a blur of midnight blue that was one place and then another before the Stark could defend themselves. Every one of them that went down was a question that he could only answer with force.

He ripped the head off a Stark, and kept moving. It was war. They were killing people… innocent people. They had come to Earth with the goal of destroying everything. Some days it seemed like they were coming close.

His team was pinned down in some hole called Sand Creek. Eric Josten had been pinned down before. As Power Man, as Goliath, as Atlas - he had been through some pretty impossible situations and found a way out. It was what you did as a villain, you found a way to make things work out for you. It was what you did when you were a hero. The difference, he found, was that being a hero meant that the universe usually let things bounce your way.

Things had certainly worked out for him. Dallas Riordan was back in his life, and fighting at his side as Citizen V. He tried not to think about their time apart, he tried not to think of anything but the fighting…

But he could still see the burning V-Glider. He could still see the wreckage that was the Squadjet the Thunderbolts had taken as their own.

Things worked out for heroes. Things would work out for him. All he had to do was to get from point A to point B and try not to think… things were working out. He was back with Dallas. She was at his side, in his arms… he smashed his way through to a clear spot… he needed to sit down, to rest, to think… but the others were still fighting… he could hear them. Any time now there would be reinforcements. Or maybe there wouldn’t be.

There was a hospital in Denver to protect after all. They had been caught off-guard by the attack that drove them from the sky. They had been caught off guard and the Squadjet had… Melissa Gold, Songbird… her face in the console… screaming as they hit…

They were heroes. Things worked out for heroes. He knew that. Dallas knew that. Her eyes were still open… she was still breathing… he had grown to his full gigantic height… she fit in the palm of his hand, like a broken toy.

He couldn’t think about that. He had to stay focused, he had to get them out. He heard Ultra Girl let out a bestial snarl. Erik had kept his distance from her before. She was new, she wasn’t “one of the team”, but instead another government agent attached to the team. Now he stayed away from her for another reason. What was behind her eyes was what he felt in his heart… where he wanted to go, if only he would allow himself to go there. To let go of hope, and just let go… Dallas was gasping for air. He couldn’t let go. He had to get her someplace safe first. He had to be her hero.

Vidar Odinson stood in front of the doors of the emergency room. One God. One staff against what was left of the Stark worth fighting. He stood, with a smile on his face, and bade them forward.

One God against the Godless.

“They can’t be all that bad,” Felicia Hardy remembered saying what seemed like months ago. After all, the Stark wanted to remove the notion of God from the world. Without the crutch, what would mankind be able to achieve, relying on each other, confident in their own morality and that each second they did nothing to improve their lives was another one wasted. Life was meant to be enjoyed.

The Stark didn’t believe that though. It hadn’t taken her long to realize that much. If nothing else, seeing the footage of what was left of the Great Lakes Avengers had taught her that much. She had battled them, alongside the rest of the Sentinels of Liberty, from town to town, defending local places of worship.

Now though they had been pulled off that duty to protect one man - Tony Stark. She had smiled at that, wondering if they would be trying so hard to save him if he wasn’t a rich white guy. But it was really a silly question. Only a rich white guy would ever be capable of pissing off an entire race of aliens just by continuing to draw breath.

Dance out of the way of a blast, and if it hit another Stark in the process… that was their bad luck. Or rather, hers at work. Connect with a punch that hits the right wire coming out of the head to shut down the cerebral functions, that was just a lucky shot. She did it over and over again, wondering how long she would be able to keep it up.

The squads certainly weren’t endless… not like they had seemed during parts of the invasion. But they were big enough.

She got a blur out of the corner of her eye. Stark? No. Moved too quickly.

She had spent too long one step ahead of the law to fail to recognize a professional at work. Someone was out there, someone who didn’t want to be seen. As a former cat burglar, she understood that all too well herself. As someone who had done her best to keep her hands more or less clean over the years since she turned over a new leaf… other than a few jobs here and there to keep her skills sharp, she appreciated the grace it took to keep out of sight. In the middle of a battle though, she wished she knew exactly where a potential ally was going to pop up.

Was it one of the others… she reached out but didn’t feel any of them. Jesse Black Crow was doing something though, calling on some powers to help drive back the Stark. With any luck, it would work.

Luck was what she had going for her after all.

The Stark looked startled, and then started to fall back. She pressed forward a bit, but not too far. It was all about maintaining a defensive position.

Something came out from the side. She turned and saw the figure come out from the shadows, she saw someone, then she saw the gun. She closed her eyes, willing luck to save her… and finding none.

Felicia Hardy dropped to the ground, with a single bullet through her skull. Her killer stood over the body for a moment, before unloading a second one through a spot just to the right… two precise matching holes, just to be sure.

The killer looked at her for a moment, muttered the words “Justice is Served” and turned and vanished back into the shadows.

This wasn’t how things were supposed to go. As Meteorite, Karla Sofen had seen the future of the Thunderbolts, and it wasn’t to die in the middle of some spot in the middle of nowhere. They were part of a government agency… it had taken far too long for her own tastes, but the possibilities for advancing her own goals with such a tool were limitless.

Now though, she wasn’t thinking of herself. Dani Moonstar was on her headset screaming at her to get the team out, but looking around there wasn't much of a team left. Atlas had gone off carrying Dallas. Mach-II was down, she had seen him fall from the sky but hadn’t been able to find anything more than a broken face plate.

She had found Jolt’s body hacked to pieces, but with the blasted remains of Stark scattered around her. From the looks of things, she had taken them down with her. The little girl who just wanted to be a hero had gone down like one.

Ultra Girl still fighting… somewhere. Karla still heard her snarls in the distance… but that was about it.

She had stopped for a moment when she found Jolt’s arm in the wreckage. But then a Stark had attacked and she had to phase right through it to safety. Charcoal, there wasn’t much left to identify, but she was pretty sure it was him.

At least Melissa had died quickly. That was more than she could say for some of the others.

She accessed the situation… and through the headset to the ground, stomping on it. Damn the government. Damn the Stark… damn them all. She phased back into the ground, she decided that she just wasn’t going to look anymore.

Looking meant that she would have to care. That she would have to acknowledge.

Damn them all.

The word came down. Tony Stark was going to make it. There had been some… complications due to his exposure to the virus the Stark had been infected with. But he was going to be ok.

Kitty stared at Dani. Dani looked right past her.

None of the teams had actually been guarding Tony Stark. The operation had taken place in a secure SHIELD facility outside of Baltimore.

Dani stood back up from where she had been kneeling on the floor, reached behind her back, forming a arrow with her mind out of thin air, and shot it with the force of her will into the center of the main monitor. She shook her head and walked out of the command post.

Kitty stared after her for a moment, wondering where the reinforcements had been. She had called… but She had never answered… there would be a reckoning for that.

Kitty walked over to where Dani had been kneeling, an empty pit in herself that Felicia should have filled… and dropped to her knees. “Adonoi forgive.”

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