“Reporting on a Despot” Pt. 2
Marvel Anthology Presentation
“My first Bio-Sentinels were forged out of the genetic material of Typhonus’ soldiers, Wolverine and Iceman. Why not use mutants against one another? I would do absolutely anything to preserve the mutant race!”
-Sigrid Trask
“Give me one good reason why I should believe this story you’re pulling out your ass?”
Cassandra looked into Agent Morales’ eyes and knew she believed every word. The woman just wanted to continue to have some dominance in the situation. People like her thrived off of superiority. It gave them purpose and filled in something that was missing. Such people once polluted Cassandra’s world. “If you don’t’ believe then why haven’t you left yet?”
Alisande licked her lips and clicked her heel against the ground. Cassandra kept the woman’s gaze and knew Alisande’s pride wouldn’t let her pull away. She had to admit that the flatscan’s pride was admirable. There might have been a place for her in Weapon X if she was only a mutant. Of course, The Dark Beast never minded having new subjects thrown at him. Alisande detected the increase in her smile. “This isn’t a joke Nova.”
“Most things aren’t Agent Morales and my story isn’t one of them,” Cassandra said, leaning forward. Her frail appearance made it look like her back was about to go out. She imagined if that rally happed to be the case, Agent Morales wouldn’t rush for medical personnel. The woman’s hate for her betters ran deep. “I don’t have time to waste Agent Morales. So if you don’t believe me then go. I much rather be left to my thoughts.”
“Even you have to admit that coming from an alternate reality is far-fetched.”
Cassandra laughed. “S.H.I.E.L.D. must really keep you out the loop dearie.”
“Just continue.”
=X=
The Cube
Above Trajan (Formerly Kansas City)A long, wide silver walkway led to the transport pad for The Cube. Cassandra was being escorted down it by two of Magneto’s guards, Amphibius and Chamber. She found the proximity of the guards to be immensely annoying. Amphibius smelled like stale water and Chamber’s raw psychic power frayed at the edges of her mind. “This area has been relatively quiet as of late, has it not?”
Amphibius spoke with slurred speech that came from having too long of a tongue. He sounded like someone trying to talk with a mouth full of slime. His every word repulsed Cassandra. “Outside of a few Bio-Sentinels, we haven’t seen much action. I think those who resist know The Cube is dangerous. Damaging it and risking the release of The Untouchables would be pure inanity.”
Cassandra wondered what they would think of her purpose here at this prison for the unwanted. Though she rarely spoke it, the idea of “lost” mutants never sat right with her. No mutant was without the possibility of redemption. Typhonus simply didn’t want to put the effort into it. “The Untouchables might well serve a purpose on day gentlemen. The mere fact the enemies of Typhonus refuse to attack them is a powerful lesson. Everyone has their part to play in the victory of mutanity.”
Chamber turned to stare. Cassandra had seen deer look less confused, but the boy didn’t dare attempt to read her thoughts. The last telepath who tried was still rotting outside Typhonus’ castle. “Reaper Xavier, are there plans to use The Untouchables?”
She looked up at the young mutant and nodded, “Some of them.”
“Forgive Camber and his questions. It is merely an honor to serve.”
“Nonsense Amphibius. You are both soldiers in this war. You have every right to know what actions we take in the name of our future,” Cassandra said when they finally made it to the transport pad.
The transport pad was a black circle large enough for about a dozen people to stand on. In the center of the pad she saw the familiar picture of Typhonus’ boot crushing a human skull. Seeing the emblem of the empire always inspired her. Typhonus’ purpose was true and so was her mission here. She just hoped Magneto would be able to see that.
Stepping on to the pad with her two escorts, Cassandra felt a tingle crawl across her skin as the machine hummed to life. The only way to safely and easily get on to The Cube was through properly designed teleportation points. So she knew it was only a few seconds before her molecules would be disassembled and reassembled on The Cube. She kept a stern face even as she could momentarily see Chamber breaking apart before her very eyes. A ripping sound roared in her ear and the next moment she stood in the visitor’s longue. Cassandra found it cold and lifeless.
Floating above the lounge’s doorway was Magneto, garbed in his black and red. Cassandra always found him devastatingly regal, but even more so now. His long, silver hair flowed freely down his back and he had the eyes of a king. The commanded you to look at him with respect or bow. Cassandra did the former. “It is good to see you Erik. I am sorry it was on such notice.”
“Lord Typhonus told me of your coming. That’s all the notice I need.” Magneto looked over her at Chamber and Amphibius. “You may return to your duties.”
When they were alone, he descended to the ground not sparing her a smile. “Why are you here Cassandra?”
She knew that it was not the time to mention her purpose. Magneto would have to be softened a bit. “I get the impression you rather I not be here?”
“For a number of reasons.” Magneto scowled and Cassandra wondered if he had any love for her left at all.
=X=
Proklyatyi Holding Center
Alisande for the first time laughed and Cassandra followed suit by being offended for the first time. “Is there something funny Agent Morales?”
“Even you have got to realize the irony of that!” Alisande wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. “Some sick version of Charles Xavier being in love with Magneto? The universe does have a sense of humor.”
Cassandra started to imagine ways that she could tear the puny woman’s mind apart. She mocked one of the few things that Cassandra cared about. “Your elementary view of the multiverse is to be expected. Humans grasp little beyond basic math.”
That snapped Alisande out of her moment. Cassandra continued talking before she found chance to respond. “Magneto and I had been married. We decided to end it shortly before The Cube was built.”
“Surprised a ‘Reaper’ could find time for marriage.”
“Magneto once was a Reaper. We were Typhonus’ first,” Cassandra said, radiating pride.
“Let me guess. He fouled up and got made warden.”
“Never. He volunteered for the job.”
Alisande perked up. “Why?”
“Because his daughter was the first Untouchable.”
=X=
The CubeMagneto and Cassandra floated through the halls of The Cube, him by his magnetism and her by telekinesis. She made sure to keep a safe distance away from him. Too much past history existed between them and she didn’t want to imply anything. The time they shared was long gone. She could only hope a few embers still burned to help her accomplish her task.
As they moved through the halls, she took notice of some of the names engraved into the white cell doors. Husk. Charcoal. Empath. All of them had proven to meet two criteria for imprisonment at The Cube; powerful and totally unstable. Cassandra remembered working with Empath years ago. She only wished that Typhonus provided her with more time. The young mutant would have truly been a force of nature. Armies would have collapsed at his mere thought.
“I know why you have come Cassandra. Games like yours are better reserved for children. You want one of them. Do you deny it?” Magneto’s words were cold and lifeless. Cassandra felt like he was reaching out and slapping her with them. Ironically, it had always been her who did more of that.
“I want Grey.”
Three simple words that stopped Magneto in his tracks, “Are you insane? That girl is as dangerous s as Wanda.”
It was Cassandra’s turn to be cold. “So you finally deem her dangerous?”
All the metal around them began to rattle. “That was never my argument. She could have been trained.”
“Her powers threatened reality itself!” Cassandra strained.
“Is that why you have always fought so hard to keep mutants from coming here?”
Cassandra sighed. It was a weight she always carried. Magneto would never forgive her and she couldn’t forgive herself. “Let me have Grey, Erik. Let me do for her what I couldn’t do for Wanda.”
Magneto looked down the hell where Grey was held. “Tell me one thing. What’s the mission?”
“The elimination of The Brotherhood. Typhonus has finally decided to end this war.”
He turned on her, all compassion drained from his face. “Good. She’ll probably die and you will too.”
=X=
Proklyatyi Holding Center
“Those were the last words he ever spoke to me,” Cassandra said, trying to fight back the fact they still stung till this day. Losing Magneto was one of the great failures of her life. Her ambition blinded her to him and in the end; her ambition was all she was left with. In this hollow, new world it was all she could find to care about.
“Seems to me you deserved it. But I also don’t think you cared. You were trying to climb your way to the top.”
Foolish girl, Cassandra thought. “Of course I was. Power is all that mattered on my world. And it’s all that matters here.”
“That’s exactly why I don’t trust your kind. All your people care about is how to become more powerful.”
“You would have fit right in with Graydon Creed and his ilk. They too feared the inevitable.”
Alisande didn’t seem shaken by the comment. “If it’s all so inevitable then why lock your own people up? Sounds to me you’re just as threatened by each other as humans are.”
“Typhonus used his tools. Even those who gave him pause.”
=X=
Keep Xavier (The War Room)
Typhonus’ hologram hovered in the air, looking down at the floating metal box housing a beautiful redhead. “I never believed he would allow you to have her. Your tongue is indeed skilled Cassandra.”
“It was not easy Lord Typhonus.”
Her master had always allowed Magneto total autonomy over The Cube, believing those mutants to be too tempting a tool. Even to himself. “Be careful Reaper. Use Gray how you must and be done with her. I will not have an Untouchable ruining my victory.”
“She won’t Typhonus. She’ll help secure it.”
Typhonus gave her a curt nod and his hologram disappeared. Cassandra sat down in a seat and took a deep breath. The time with Erik was more intense than she bargained for. Before she could really gather her thoughts, the members of Weapon X came rushing in. They looked at the floating stasis cube like they witnessed a horrible legend in the flesh.
“Jaysis that gives me the creeps,” Maggot said, barely wanting to get close.
Astral shivered. “I can feel her, even now.”
Nova ran a hand along the top of the chamber. “So I guess this is what Kick experiments produce.”
“Even before then, she was extremely powerful,” Cassandra said. “But she can be controlled.”
“Yea, but for how long?” Maggot asked.
Nova spoke curtly. “As long as the mission requires.”
Emplate paid no attention to the new arrival. “The next phase of your plan has been implemented.”
“Excellent! Did they seem to believe the information?”
“That remains to be seen, but all of Psylocke’s access codes were used to transmit it. Now we just wait and see,” Emplate said.
Blob chewed loudly on a turkey leg. “Care to fill me in?”
“We’re going to be paying a little visit to Nero’s Court,” Cassandra said with a devious grin. “We have a breakout to stage.
Maggot pointed at Grey’s containment unit. “And we’re keeping that crazy B here?”
She could tell from their facial expressions that the rest of Weapon X agreed with him. “Are my powers in doubt? Do I seem incapable of keeping this woman subdued?”
None of them spoke for a few minutes, until Nova stepped up. “We trust ya. Most us owe ya our lives. We don’t trust her.”
Cassandra understood their trepidation, but she felt slighted at the same time. Had she not proven her prowess in battles past? Was she not a Reaper of Typhonus?” “Trust me now then. I can contain Grey.”
Maggot folded his arms across his chest and bit his bottom lip. “So… Nero’s Court huh? Delilah know we coming?”
Blob chuckled. “If she knew we were coming, wouldn’t come a hundred miles of it. She none too fond of us.”
The problems Cassandra had with Delilah went back to a battle against The Human Liberation Front years ago. She held Cassandra responsible for the loss of her unit. Things had been tense between them even since. Delilah was more likely to cooperate with an m-grounder than Cassandra. The plan hinged on believability and Delilah’s ignorance would play into that. Besides, it brought her some small bit of pleasure to imagine Delilah in a panic.
“Delilah will know what she needs to know when she needs to know it,” Cassandra said. “Prepare the plane. We have a lot of ground to cover.”
“Yes, commander,” Famine said.
Waiting in the War Room, Cassandra stood there until she could feel her soldiers in the hangar bay. She patted Grey’s containment unit and walked out. Turning a few corners and floating down a few flights of stairs, Cassandra made her way to the infirmary. Sixteen beds lined it, but only one was occupied. The young man had been its occupant for years.
Pulling a chair to her, Cassandra sat down and gently gripped the young man’s hand. “Angel, you should be seeing this. You should be at my side. I miss you. So does Nova. He just had a hard time coming down here after Jubilee.”
She always came to see Angel when her thoughts were muddled. “Things are finally beginning to fall into place for us. Typhonus has finally found the means to victory and I’m glad. Humanity has plagued us too long, but the others aren’t sure if I’m doing the right thing by using Grey. But it has to be done. We use the weapons available to us.”
All her power and this was all she could for him; keep him company. Every attempt to pull Angel out of his coma proved unsuccessful. Whatever Postman had done to him, it still remained effective. Cassandra would leave that particular Brotherhood member for Nova to finish off. The two of them had been best friend that kill as his.
Looking up from Angel’s bed, Cassandra said, “Please come in Famine. I was just visiting.”
The slight woman walked in timidly. “The plane is ready commander. We’re ready to leave at your order.”
“Do you believe in me Famine?”
“Of course commander. We all do.”
Cassandra sighed. “So did Angel, Avalanche, and Jubilee.”
Famine stiffened. “They knew the risks. We’re fighting for our future. I know no worthier cause to fight for.”
=X=
Proklyatyi Holding Center
Alisande rolled her eyes. “Oh please. Survival? You and your Typhonus were nothing but homicidal dictators.”
“At some point, all war becomes about survival. If we lost then Tony Stark, Graydon Creed and the others would wipe mutantkind from the face of the planet.”
Cassandra could see the idea interested Agent Morales. “Too bad we don’t have any individuals with that sort of determination.”
Smiling, Cassandra said, “There’s you Agent Morales.”
The idea of being complicit in genocide seemed to unnerve even the bigoted Alisande. Cassandra knew the woman didn’t have the will to back up her talk. “You hate us don’t you, Agent Morales? Wouldn’t it be easier to pile all our corpses on Genosha and be done with it?”
Alisande frowned. “That’s’ what mutants do. You deal exclusively in death and misery. You bring it like a plague everywhere you go.”
“Perhaps we do. But we had very excellent teachers.”
Cassandra savored watching Alisande suck back her anger and get away from the current topic. “What was Nero’s Court?”
“The largest POW camp in Typhonus’ empire. At its peak it held ten thousand prisoners, mostly human.”
“I’m surprised your Typhonus kept human alive.”
Cassandra shrugged. “Mostly for genetic fodder. We did sometimes grow bored.”
“Maybe I was wrong,” Alisande snapped. “They should have just nuked your kind to oblivion.”
Hate flowed from her every word. Cassandra imagined it choking her, leaving behind a raging corpse. What she wouldn’t’ give for her powers at this moment. She would have dug up every hateful moment in the flatscan’s pathetic life and smother her with it. The cunt deserved little less.
“Should I continue or have you heard enough?”
=X=
Nero’s Court (Formerly Ft. Bragg, NC)For the past three days, Weapon X waited outside of the enormous prison looking for signs of an attack. The minute an attack occurred, they would spring into action. Their presence would help to solidify Cassandra’s double deception. Upon seeing Weapon X, The Brotherhood would believe they’ve walked into a trap. This would be their primary thought so the idea of Cassandra’s real purpose wouldn’t cross their mind. They would lead her right to their headquarters in The Wasteland.
“Delilah runs a tight ship,” Famine said, pulling away a pair of sleek, high focus binoculars. “She just shot a guard in the head.”
“Waste of valuable resources,” Cassandra replied. Delilah always had a temper to put Exodus to shame. Many dreaded being under her command for that reason. That anger was just one more element that would help solidify her plan.
Maggot bit a candy bar in one hand and drunk from a beer in the other. Both were extreme luxuries given that most of Typhonus’ food stores consisted of whole grains and dried meats. “Who put the stick up that woman’s ass anyway?”
“She takes her job seriously. I see little wrong with that,” Emplate said, pacing around the copse they chose to set ground at. Cassandra could see how he would find sympathetic traits in Delilah. The two both lacked humor and approached their work from a brutal perspective.
Delilah’s work ethic had never been the problem for Cassandra. It was the woman’s overreaction to any event that didn’t go her way. The childishness of such an attitude never ceased to amaze her. She was still baffled how Typhonus even determined that Delilah was the right person to run Nero’s Court.
“I’m starting to think The Brotherhood suspect us,” Astral said, picking at the dirt.
Nova moved in front of her, his shadow casting down. “Patience flower petal. It only been five days. Da Brotherhood got plenty obstacles ta push past. Sabra take her territory might serious and Darkstar’s border patrol is noting ta sneeze at. So don’t fret yet chere.”
Astral stood up and the two stared at each other for a moment. Cassandra saw in their eyes what had once been in hers and Magneto’s. But her powers allowed her to sense the thoughts that created hesitation. Nova felt like he betrayed a lover and Astral felt like she dishonored a friend. The feelings were strong, but grief kept them at bay.
Maggot saw what this commander had and he nudged Blob in the arm playfully. The two shared a low snicker, but it came to a halt with a hard glance from Cassandra. Turning her attention back to Nero’s court, she scanned the minds of those wouldn’t wouldn’t be able to feel her presence. Thoughts filtered thought her mind as she searched for any signs of trouble. Delilah and most of her guards could detect telepathic intrusion, so they had to be left alone.
“Anything commander?” Astral asked, walking up beside Cassandra.
She answered with a shake of her head. “No, not yet. The prisoners aren’t exactly pleasant but nothing unusual.”
Abruptly, a loud rip tore through the sky and a pink, circular portal opened in the air. A large, floating airship of steel, guns and missiles came roaring out of it, directly over Nero’s Court. Every member of Weapon X glued their attention to the massive vessel. It was easily the side of the broke Statue of Liberty. An ironic compassion for Cassandra.
Maggot stood there, gaped mouth. “Is that—
“Yes child. It’s a Helicarrier.”
Nova frowned. “I think we got more than we bargained for.”
“If I only I had more raw materials available to me, I could truly forge an army. The Iron Knights would be able to crush Typhonus and his damn Reapers. But I’m an innovator and I learn how to make due with what I have.”
-Tony Stark
NEXT ISSUE: The Helicarrier attacks Nero’s Court and Weapon X goes up against a Brotherhood squadron.
Supplemental Info
This isn’t necessarily information that you need to understand the story, but it will certainly help to enrich the experience if you choose to read it.
High Evolutionary- The only person to ever survive a direct battle with Typhonus, High Evolutionary is leader of The Brotherhood. He once believed the man to be a kindred spirit, but now gives his all to end his tyranny. His technology and mind have allowed humanity to survive much longer than they would have otherwise.
Sigrid Trask- Creator of the Bio-Sentinels, Sigrid hates mutants for murdering her family. Her fanaticism is only enhanced by the fact her two cousins serve Reapers. Rumor is that Sigrid ahs even started to alter herself.
Gwen Stacy- She was trained by her father and uncle to be a fight and she does them proud as leader of The Human Liberation Front. Her soldiers have run some of the most successful operations against Typhonus outside of The Brotherhood. She doesn’t necessarily hate mutants though as her husband is one.
Tony Stark- When Typhonus began his war against the world, Stark Industries was crushed in one of the first strikes. Tony took what information he could and retreated to Europe. There he created a series of armored warriors called The Iron Knights that work as an auxiliary to The Human Liberation Front.
Winston Frost- Winston is the head of what fear may be the last European government. The European Union under his leadership has managed to stave off a large invasion from Typhonus while providing The Jigoku and HYDRA with weapons necessary to fight campaigns in Asia. His greatest shame is that his four children are mutants and work for Typhonus.
Graydon Creed- Leader of the fringe human resistance group, Freedom Now. Graydon’s group believes in any using any tactics whatsoever to stop Typhonus and rid the world of mutantkind. Some of their scientists are working on a biological weapon simply called Legacy.
