#19 -
San Francisco was Kandi’s hometown and she really hated having to fight The Thunderbolts here, but chancellor Xavier had forced the hand of The Dark Descendants. She wasn’t about to let Xavier show her team up by burning down their hideouts. It wasn’t hard to figure out how the bastard found the locations. Magik had defected from the Descendants and joined the government stooge Thunderbolts a year ago.
She was moving through destruction towards that traitor. Kandi was armed with the Power Rod. Stealing the object from Xavier had cost her the lives of Surge and Dust. She would make sure it would be put to good use. It was capable of firing off blasts that could rip through titanium. Illyana saw her former leader from afar and laughed. The Soulsword would finally get a chance to gut that weak wench. Candy Southern led one of the most powerful superhuman terrorist groups on the planet. Yet, her only ability was low-level empathy. It pissed Magik off to no end.
Kandi dodged a rail from a broken balcony as she was running. Holding out her arm she began to lob off large neon orange discharges of energy. Magik used stepping disc after stepping disc to avoid the attacks. Illyana laughed and said, “You got to do better than that Kandi! You starting to lose your touch?”
Teleporting herself behind Kandi she swung at her with The Soulsword. Kandi blocked it with the Power Rod and punched Illyana in the gut. Magik reeled back and before she could react, Kandi kicked her in the head releasing a year’s worth of pent-up fury.
“You slut! You sold us out!” Kandi yelled as she pointed the Power Rod at Illyana’s face. Magik looked up with bloodied teeth and smiled. Southern instantly knew what was about to happen and rolled her body clear over Magik. She narrowly missed the swiping claws of Sabertooth.
Creed gave a toothy grin and said, “Babe, I’m going to love cutting you up!”
“It’ll be a cold day in hell before that happens,” Metal Master said as he descended from the air. He had once been a clone of Lord Magneto. His designated name had been Joseph and his only purpose was that of a political decoy for the ruler of San Marco. Kandi had saved him from that life and gave him purpose. He would die before he let any harm befall her.
“Run Sabes! Run!” Illyana cried out futilely. She knew that Creed’s adamantium skeleton was like silly putty to Metal Master.
Within seconds of that warning Creed was lifted into the air roaring and flailing helplessly. Metal Master looked coldly at Creed and said, “Kandi does not like to be called “babe”. If you survive please keep that in mind.”
Sabertooth’s body was flung backwards at sub-sonic speed into the nearest skyscraper. The impact shattered glass across two floors of the building and set off car alarms in a mile radius.
Kandi looked up and said, “Good job Joseph.”
A few feet away from Kandi another battle was raging between Tsunami and Black Cat. Felicia was dodging highly pressurized blasts of water from Leyu Yashida. Black Cat’s abilities gave Leyu enough “bad luck” to make her shots of water to miss. Within a few minutes Black Cat was right in front of Leyu’s face. Tsunami dodged the initial punch of Black Cat and sent a knee into the woman’s stomach.
Having the wind knocked out of her wasn’t a pleasant experience and before she could recover a powerful blast of water struck her in the side of her face. Felicia went flying into the air and went rolling across the ground and smacked into a hollowed taxi. Leyu laughed and said, “And you beat Delilah? This has got to be a joke.”
Amidst the conflicting forces of The Dark Descendants and Thunderbolts, Blink and her team teleported in without so much as an eye turning their way. From the explosion and young fires it wasn’t hard for the Exiles to make out that they had walked into a battle. Anakin could feel the anger and fear coated in the air. Grabbing Blink’s shoulder with his cybernetic hand, he said, “This is not a very safe place. I’m feeling a great deal of violent emotions.”
“Then it’s probably a good thing we have tall and scary with us” Blink said in reference to the Exiles newest member.
He was taller than all of his teammates by a foot and was carrying a circular blade in his right hand that glistened like the eyes of a hungry shark. A strange alien world was the birthplace of the muscular, wrinkled-face, yellow warrior. Breakworld was fortunate to have such a guardian.
“So Ord I bet you feel right at home in all of this?” Faith asked.
The alien gave the slayer a harsh eye. “If you’re speaking in reference to the last world, I did what was necessary. War is not where I find peace, but war finds peace through me.”
“But was decapitation Nightcrawler and Cloak necessary?” Stepstone interjected.
“They were about to kill me so yes it was entirely necessary.”
“Blink!” a voice yelled from above The Exiles. All of the reality displaced heroes looked up to see a gray figure floating above them. Clarice instantly recognized who it was. “Shiro?”
“Moonfrost to you slaughterer!” Shiro yelled a s a stream of liquid nitrogen came flying down at Blink.
Anakin stepped in front of Blink and deflected the attack away with The Force, “It seems you aren’t too popular here.”
Blink shrugged. “Wouldn’t be the first time.”
“We just got here and we’re already in battle? What an extraordinary world!” Ord said as he flung his weapon at Moonfrost. A simple blast from Shiro turned the weapon to a frozen block. Ord watched helplessly as it fell to the ground and shattered into a million pieces.
From afar Carnage saw Moonfrost and saw whom he was staring at so intensely. Carnage charged forward at the group that Blink had with her. Kletus could care less who they were because if they were with her then they were bad news. Even for someone with his nasty reputation. Carnage leaped at the person who looked the least threatening and his body slammed into that of Faith’s. The two tumbled for a moment until Faith was able to kick Kletus off of her.
Dusting off her left shoulder, Faith complained, “This will be the third time in a month that I’ve fought one of you.”
Carnage’s curiosity piqued at that comment. He was sure that he had destroyed all of Department K’s symbiote clones. It had been months since Kaine confirmed that for him. So just what was this girl talking about?
“You’ve seen other symbiotes?” Carnage asked.
Faith rolled her eyes and replied, “Seen and killed. Any other questions?’
Kletus grinned as his fingertips extended into long claws. With a lick of his lips he said, “How would you like to be cut?”
That smile reminded Faith too much of the woman that had slain Xander. The slayer ran headlong into battle with Carnage. He swiped at her with one hand and she narrowly dodged it. Angrily, she delivered a strong punch to his gut and a well-placed uppercut followed. Canage’s body was lifted into the air from the blow and he skidded along the ground. Faith removed two stakes from her black jacket and pounced on Carnage. While he was still dazed she stabbed the two stakes into the palms of his hands. Carnage let out a painful roar.
“That should keep those claws safe,” Faith said.
Carnage smiled again. Tendrils rose up from his chest and legs to entrap her. It didn’t take long before Faith found herself swallowed by a mass of tendrils. Hey didn’t feel anywhere near as slimy as they looked, but they weren’t any less fearsome. Faith had faced the very depths of Hell though so a few nasty extensions weren’t going to get the best of her.
Faith’s cries for assistance were muffled and her strength didn’t seem to do a damn thing to the vines. Frustration was beginning to set in when Carnage did the unexpected by having spikes burst forth from the tendrils. The slayer’s body was torn asunder and her bright red blood glistened against the backdrop of Carnage’s crimson and black.
She didn’t let out a deathcry, but Anakin felt the fire of her soul scream and blaze away. The Jedi had been busy deflecting the attacks of Moonfrost while Blink and Ord attacked him directly. He had never even noticed that Faith had gotten herself into a combat situation. Another team member had been lost and anguish rushed through Anakin’s body.
Newfound power overcame the young Jedi as his eyes turned pitch black and a glowing red aura surrounded his body. With a wave of his hand, Moonfrost was sent rocketing skyward at a speed to make jets envious. Then with complete calm he turned his attention to Carnage.
“Murderer! Your life is now forfeit and in my hands,” Anakin exclaimed as he marched towards the symbiote.
Licking his lips Carnage said, “Her blood is oh so sweet!”
Skywalker’s eyes became menacing slits as Carnage suddenly found himself suspended in mid-air. Anakin floated up to meet Carnage face to face. The Jedi leaned in towards the symbiote and whispered, “I hope this hurts!”
As the Jedi floated back down to the ground the screams of Carnage grew louder and louder. He was being crushed from the inside out and all of San Francisco heard it. There wasn’t a doubt that Carnage was being made to suffer as much as possible.
“Stop this Anakin!” Blink yelled as she teleported behind him.
Anakin looked back with hateful eyes. “Why should I? He murdered Faith in cold blood!”
Mesmero of the Thunderbolts saw his teammate’s death and knew Blink’s new allies would need to be dealt with carefully. He could hardly believe that she was still alive. Shaw said that she died on the Moon and Shaw was thorough in his body examinations. Maybe the Kree or something found her.
Positioning himself fifty feet away from the arguing Exiles, he reached out with his powers of mind control. He didn’t even have a chance to get a good foot hold before the fearsome stare of Anakin Skywalker was turned on him. A great pain tore through his chest and he fell to the ground lifeless.
Blink saw Anakin had killed someone else and said, “That’s enough! You could be wrecking the mission for all you know!”
Turning her back on Anakin she saw a bloody Ord with the head of what looked like Stepstone. Blink quickly scanned the city and saw Stepstone in lock step with the sai wielding Infectia of The Dark Descendants.
“Ord you have to go and lob someone’s head off again?”
“It was done in the heat of battle. My battle instincts are ingrained to my being. I’m not quite as gentle as you,” Ord reminded.
Blink kept her reply to herself and turned her attention back to Anakin, who had seemingly powered down. His eyes had returned to normal and the red aura was no longer around his body. He was hunched over on the ground and breathing heavily.
“Are you alright?” Blink asked.
“Don’t worry about me. We’ve got company!”
Belladona and Stepstone were running towards Blink and behind them, on the horizon, were helicopters armed to the teeth. Clarice looked behind her and saw more copters moving in. They were being surrounded and there was no sign of the opposing teams who had ripped this city apart in the first place. With clenched fists of anger Blink said, “Everyone form up on me! We’re about to have some major problems.”
“As if we didn’t before?” Belladona asked.
“You pick a good time to be a smart ass,” Stepstone groaned.
Along with the copters, soldiers were converging on the Exiles. They were all at least eight feet tall and bulging with muscles. All of them had guns big enough to blow the Statue of Liberty’s head clean off. Vibranium lined their dense red body armor and an eagle was plastered on their chest plates. Hundreds of them were surrounding them. Blink didn’t like the situation in the least. She had worked herself out of worse problems though. This would time wouldn’t be different.
Then a large voice boomed across the city. “SEBASTIAN SHAW, DIRECTOR OF SHIELD, ORDERS YOU TO STAND DOWN!”
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