Everyone knew her as Rogue.
She had been born Anna Marie Raven, the only daughter of a hippie couple from the bayous of southern Mississippi. A runaway due to being raised by a very strict maternal aunt after her parents' deaths, she had been cursed — as she saw it — with the ability to absorb the memories, powers and life-force of anyone she touched.
What had happened to poor Cody Robbins had traumatised the young girl for life.
Though that hadn't come close to comparing to what happened to her recently concerning the former U.S. Air Force officer known more publicly as Ms. Marvel.
Because of that, she was now viewed as one of the most dangerous beings alive.
Not that her being part of the Brotherhood had done her any favours.
And she was — despite her understandable haphephobia when it came to coming into skin-to-skin contact with anyone — determined to do her best for her adopted mother.
All of her adopted mother's friends — especially Aunt Irene — were in currently in lockup and going to be incarcerated somewhere quite secure even by American standards. Thus, the only way to get them out was to ambush the convoy between Los Angeles and Vandenburg Air Force Base, where a S.H.I.E.L.D. transport was waiting for them.
Because of its remoteness and geographic features — a valley where U.S. Highway 101 turned north away from the Pacific Ocean to wind through the Santa Ynex Mountains to head towards Vandenburg — the area around Sweet Valley was the perfect place for such an ambush. It was on the direct route Raven Darkhölme — Mystique — had learned would be used by the United States Marshals to transport the others of the Brotherhood into the hands of Nick Fury's organisation. It was a small enough town so that, if trouble did flare, it wouldn't cause much too much trouble…not that Rogue or her adopted mother really cared for the normal humans who sought to persecute and kill their kind. Besides, launching an ambush in the middle of a town full of defenceless people would make the federal marshals and the soldiers guarding the others of the Brotherhood hesitate in shooting back in fear of accidentally hitting a bystander.
Best of all, there were no metahumans anywhere close by to interfere.
It was perfect.
Unfortunately…
"ROGUE!"
Smiling at herself at being able to hit and knock over the truck holding the others — the impact force would ensure whatever restraints were holding Destiny, the Blob, Pyro and Avalanche down would fail — Rogue perked on hearing that outraged scream. She then spun around before her brown eyes locked in on a blonde fury racing at her…and then her jaw exploded with pain as a savage kick sent her flying high into the sky!
As the young Mississippian was sent soaring away, Trebuchet spun on Cyclotron. "Lila! Keep the others in chains! Fry 'em if you have to! I'll deal with the thief!"
And with that, she was racing into the sky after the stunned Rogue. Cyclotron watched her go, and then she smiled. "Have fun, Amy!" she called back before she soared down to rip off the driver's side door of the capsized truck. "You alright?!"
"Thanks, lady…SHIT! LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU!"
A bolt of energy slammed into Cyclotron's back, causing her to jolt. Before the attacking Mystique — who had disguised herself as one of the soldiers who had been assigned from Fort Irwin to help in the transport of the others to Vandenburg — could try to bear her weapon on the others, a bolt of burning energy came her way from the daughter of Sweet Valley's second richest family. "FRY, VILLAIN!" Cyclotron snarled.
Note to self! she then mentally added as the bolt of energy nearly burned Mystique to her bones. Stop sounding so pompous when in costume!
As the screaming Mystique — who had NOT expected a girl with force-blast powers to be here guarding her people — dropped to the ground to try to smother the hot flames tearing at her skin and clothes, Cyclotron then moved to pull the marshal out of the cab. "Get to cover! This is a fight scene now, Marshal! MOVE!" she barked.
"Want some help?!" a voice then asked.
Cyclotron turned…and then smiled. "Cimasa!" she gasped in delight on instantly recognising the psychedelic pattern on the older woman's jumpsuit. "You from town?!"
"'Course! Came here from the Shady Lady after remembering what happened to me and my sister thanks to Ataru!" the matter-transformer said…
…before the main hull of the truck exploded outward at the point where Rogue had hit it with all her Kree-powered might, revealing a very large fist and arm. Before the grinning Blob could move to climb out of the hole he just made, Cyclotron levelled her hands on the Texan. "Stay right where you are, Mister Dukes. Unless you wish to be turned into a big fat steer steak," she warned as her hands glowed.
"A fire-user, eh?!" a voice with a noticeable Australian accent then said as Pyro leapt out of the hole his friend had made, and then he lashed out with his own powers, helped with the flame-throwers he had mounted on his back. "TRY THIS!"
A jet of fire lashed out at Cyclotron, who stood her ground. As the flames moulded into a giant clawed hand to snare her, both the soldier and the marshal who had been controlling the truck drew their weapons to help defend their new friend, the transformed Lila Fowler smiled. "You call that 'hot,' Mister Allerdyce?" She then raised her hands as they glowed with energy. "LET ME SHOW YOU 'HOT!'"
A storm of energy lashed out to literally inundate Pyro, who screamed out as the input of energy overwhelmed his senses. "PYRO!" Blob screamed out before he bounded out of the truck, thus allowing the wounded Avalanche and Destiny to get into the open and free. "STUPID BITCH! I'LL STOMP YA INTA ROADKILL!" he roared, charging.
Cyclotron pushed off with her feet to soar clear of his grasping arms. "Sorry, Dukes! You're simply not my type!" she teased as her eyes took in the measure of the two other people who had now got free thanks to Trebuchet's current opponent.
"Cuttin' in!" a new voice yelled out…
…as a flesh and black blur came out of NOWHERE to slam into the Blob, sending him FLYING several dozen metres to crash into the highway well aft of the final police car in the convoy! Said blur then formed into a girl with silver hair and grey eyes, now in a leather vest tied down with chains on the front to show off a considerable amount of teenage cleavage, leather form-fitting rider's pants tucked into silver buccaneer boots, and arm straps with silver bands on them.
"Dominatrix!" Cyclotron and Cimasa gasped together.
"I was having wonderful nookie time with my girl when this ruckus started," the Mistress of Pain and Pleasure, the Dominatrix, snarled. "Now I get a fight scene! Must be living right finally!" And with a mad laugh, she was off.
"Oh, bloody hell…!" the wounded Avalanche — his broken arms were in casts — moaned out as he watched the woman born Molly Hecht race off after the Blob. "We're dropped into bloody Hero High! Where the hell are we?!"
"You're all young Ataru's friends…!"
Silence.
"WHAT did you just say, Ms. Alder?" Cyclotron coldly asked as she levelled her hand at Destiny, they now glowing with the infernal power she possessed.
Seeing that the elder member of the Brotherhood was about to literally get cooked alive, Avalanche grunted as he tried to reach out into the earth below…
…and then screamed out as a bolt of energy slammed into him, causing his whole BODY to transform into solid rock! "No you don't, buddy!" Cimasa stated.
"Thank you, Cimasa," Cyclotron stated. "Now, what's this about Ataru, Ms. Alder?"
The woman born Irene Alder shuddered…
Way over the Santa Barbara Channel, south of Sweet Valley…
"What the heck…what hit me…?"
"I did, bitch!"
Rogue — whose mind was still somewhat out of it after being slammed in the jaw by a place-kick from whoever had hit her — shook her head before she turned…
…to gaze on a girl about her age floating nearby, dressed in a brown jumpsuit with grey highlights and a silver-lined grey siege engine insignia over her left breast. "Who are you?!" the Mississippian then snarled as she cocked her fist.
"I'm the girl that's gonna get Ms. Marvel's revenge for what you did to her, bitch!" Trebuchet snarled before she lunged at her opponent.
Rogue gasped at the other girl's burst of speed, and then cried out as a punch landed HARD into her stomach, forcing the air out of her. As the natural-born meta folded in on herself, the Californian-born adopted Yizibajohei kneed her HARD in the jaw, snapping her head up to the other girl's eye level…and then an elbow slammed into her temple, knocking her head sideways to stagger her. Trebuchet then spun around to deliver a roundhouse kick to her opponent's other temple to snap Rogue's head back over…
…and then the woman born Amy Sutton HEADBUTTED her!
In that instant, ALIEN thoughts exploded deep within Anna Marie Raven's mind!
A horrified scream then boomed over the waters of the channel…
Back on U.S. Highway 101…
Everyone perked on hearing that faint shriek. "ROGUE!" Destiny cried out.
"Oh, Amy, you moron! You let her TOUCH you, didn't you?!" Cyclotron snarled.
"Go after her!" Cimasa stated. "I'll keep an eye on the old lady!"
"Right!" And with that, the Living Nuclear Reaction raced off…
Nearby, a badly-burned Mystique groaned as she tried to pick herself off the ground. "Anna…" she gasped as she tried to get back to her feet.
"Stay still for a moment, Ms. Darkhölme," a strange voice then called out…
…before a torrent of foam covered the blue-skinned shape-shifter from head to toe. "Nice one!" Lightmage then stated as the Academician came up to inspect her work.
"That should keep her in place until we get a new containment field," the woman born Elizabeth Wakefield stated before she smiled at her classmate.
"Indeed," the man born Winston Egbert mused with a nod…
Over the Santa Barbara Channel…
As Rogue dropped towards the choppy waters of the Pacific, her mind was ablaze with a mad storm of images, thoughts, emotions and knowledge.
What…was she…? the Mississippian gasped…
The images…
The memories…
Dear sweet Lord, the MEMORIES!
Too much…
Simply too much…!
It was just TOO MUCH!
WHAT THE HELL WAS SHE?!
Before she could fall into the ocean, Trebuchet grabbed her by one foot, then spun around like a shot-put thrower about to launch his projectile at the pitch. Rogue — on realising she was in the grasp of a being that was WAY stronger than her — cried out in fright as Trebuchet poured it on, becoming a spinning hurricane that began to buff the waters below, creating mini-tidal waves that surged out both to sea and towards distant Los Angeles. Then, at the very moment she was about to break the sound barrier, the woman born Amy Sutton let go…sending the hapless Rogue rocketing into the sky at the speed of an intercontinental ballistic missile!
"HAPPY LANDINGS, BITCH!" Trebuchet screamed out…
Approaching Sweet Valley from the east…
"Um, Stretch!"
"What?!"
"Amy's kinda goin' ballistic on one of Mystique's pals!"
Mister Fantastic looked back at his university classmate; the Fantasticar was now about ten minutes out of Sweet Valley. "Who, Ben?!"
"That Southern kid Rogue; the kid that took Carol Danvers' powers away!" the Thing called back. "Amy just put her through a whirlpool spin an' sent her flyin'!"
"Oh, man!" Johnny Storm (the Human Torch) moaned out. "Blastaar was tougher than Ms. Marvel…and he nearly got his limbs ripped off by Amy's shot-put spin! If Rogue survives that, she's the luckiest girl on the whole planet!"
"You don't suppose Amy was a fan of Carol's, do you?" Susan Storm-Richards (the Invisible Woman) then wondered as she gazed on her husband.
"Possibly!" the leader of the team said as he tapped a control on his console. "Mister Fantastic to Captain America. Steve, can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear, Reed," the leader of the Avengers signalled back from the Quinjet that was about five minutes behind the Fantasticar. "What's Trebuchet doing?!"
"It's called her shot-put spin, Steve. As her name implies, Trebuchet has the ability to use her strength to toss anything well over a hundred tonnes at hypersonic speeds in atmosphere…and hyperluminal speeds in deep space. Rogue just got a taste of it."
"Oh, my Lord…!" Captain America moaned.
"Methinks the Lady Trebuchet be a little TOO passionate when it comes to battle against villains!" Thor then mused; he was aboard the Quinjet in lieu of using Mjölnir to take him to California. "While poor Carol's fate at the hands of young Rogue was most regrettable, the poor young lass born in the southern states of this land has no control over her powers! Why would the Lady Trebuchet be so vicious with her, friend Reed?!"
"I'm thinking that she might be one of Carol's fans, Thor," Mister Fantastic stated. "Since she is Yizibajohei, she most likely got her powers thanks to Moroboshi Ataru; she never confirmed this any way with us, by the way. But since she seemed to go back to 'normal' ever since three months PRIOR to the Tag Race with the Oni…!"
"When her memories came back, so came back her admiration of Carol," the Beast cut in. "And when she recalled what happened to Carol thanks to Rogue…"
"Oh, my word!" the Invisible Woman stated. "Can we call Ataru and ask him to come calm her down?! Trebuchet always liked the man who helped her get her powers!"
"Already here, Mrs. Richards."
She gasped, and then looked right and up…
…to see Ataru sitting cross-legged on a rock being propelled through the air by Terra, with Shadow Weaver floating beside her. Rampage was already charging ahead; the four had just teleported in over the skies of southern California from Yiziba. "Hey, kid!" the Thing called out. "Can you calm her down?! She's really good when it's clobberin' time, but with the way she goes at people…!"
A laugh. "I've already asked Rampage to pass on some news."
"What news is that?!" Mister Fantastic asked.
Ataru winked as he pulled a notebook from under his tunic. The leader of the Fantastic Four literally stretched his neck over to take a good look, and then he blinked…
Over the Santa Barbara Channel…
"Yeah, bitch…come to Mama…I got something very special for you!"
As Trebuchet cracked her knuckles as she waited for the small dot high in the skies to come falling towards her, she didn't notice a woman in blue-and-white come up behind her. "Hey, Amy!" a familiar voice called out, which hadn't made the woman born Amy Sutton react. "Before you hit her, there's something you need to know."
"Don't bother me, Jess!" Trebuchet snarled. "I'm giving a beat-down…!"
It hit her.
"Jess…?" the Shot-put Siren of the South gasped before she turned…
…before her eyes took in the details of the current incarnation of the Charging Belle of the Heavens…and then gaped. "JESS!" she squealed out as she hugged Rampage before she glared at her. "WHEN WERE YOU GOING TO TELL ME THIS?!"
A sigh. "Well, before we got up the nerve TO tell you, you moved to New York City!" the woman born Jessica Wakefield answered. "But we told Ataru…!"
A laugh. "So THAT'S why he came after me!"
"Yeah! I saw what you did to that creep Blastaar! That was class!"
"Hey, it was NOTHING compared to what you did off Sumatra!"
"Well, I'M glad Ataru got to you, too, Jessica!"
Rampage spun around…and then squealed as she embraced Cyclotron. "LILA!" the younger Wakefield sister cried out as she gave the Living Nuclear Reaction a look. "Damn! Ataru told me he got to twenty-one people in Sweet Valley — Amy included! — but I never thought he'd get to you! How did he make you get a Gift?!"
"That is a tale, Jess!" the daughter of Sweet Valley's second-richest family stated.
"HELP MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE…!"
Trebuchet blinked, and then she smirked. "Oh, goody…!"
"She's in the Book."
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
And then…
"The…Book?" Trebuchet squeaked as she and Cyclotron gaped at Rampage.
Rampage nodded. "In the P.G.T.N.H. list."
A gulp. "Is Ataru mad at me?"
"If you let her be hurt, it's no nookie for a month."
Trebuchet gulped. "No…nookie…for a MONTH…?"
"Yep."
A sigh…and then the former New Yorker snared the falling Rogue by an arm out of the sky before she could splash into the Pacific. "You're lucky!" she snarled at the Mississippian, who wilted under that cold blue-eyed stare.
"C'mon…we'll take her to Liz's lab," Rampage then said.
"Liz?!" Trebuchet asked…before she gaped. "She's…?!"
"Yep. Kinda fits her, too! Oh, by the way, the Avengers and the Fantastic Four are coming here right now to help out, too! Including Professor Richards, Doctor McCoy and Mister Stark!" Rampage then smirked. "When they step into Liz's lab…!"
Trebuchet snickered as Cyclotron laughed; the inventive genius of Reed Richards and Tony Stark was well-known to all the American-based Terrans-turned-Yizibajohei. "Johnny Storm will worship the ground she walks on for a MONTH!"
She then tossed the dazed Rouge over her shoulder before they flew off…
Minutes later, on U.S. Highway 101…
"Hello, everyone! As you can see, we got it all under control."
Captain America blinked as he took in the scene around him. A tipped-over truck with a smashed-open side. Mystique now encased in some sort of solidified foam that hid some VERY nasty burns on her dark blue skin. Pyro also encased in the same type of foam; by the looks of it, he took a direct blast straight in the gut by whatever had hurt the Brotherhood's leader. Avalance actually BEING solid granite instead of moving it with his geo-kinesis. An unconscious Rogue being examined by Moroboshi Ataru on a slab of rock no doubt formed by Terra, a dazed look on her face. Destiny under the guard of a girl in a wildly-coloured uniform with short brown hair, looking somewhat older than the average run of metas that clearly all hailed from the town of Sweet Valley.
The leader of which — if there was such a leader — was the Academician, who was monitoring things using a tricorder-like device as she scanned the prisoners.
And yet…
"Where's Blob, miss?" the Star-Spangled Soldier asked.
"Oh, Molly's still playing with him, Captain Rogers," Ataru supplied.
The Sweet Valley natives all blinked. "Molly?" Trebuchet asked. "You mean…MOLLY HECHT?! The cocaine-smoker?! The girl that nearly poisoned Regina Morrow?!"
"She's the Dominatrix," Ataru provided.
Silence.
"Ataru…we really got to have a talk!" Rampage then stated.
"Do you wish to steal Gina's lover from her?"
More silence.
"You mean…Regina Morrow and Molly Hecht…are LOVERS?!" Cyclotron demanded.
"Well, you know how much the Dominatrix likes pain, don't you?" Ataru asked.
"We know! What about it?!" Lightmage asked.
"Regina is Manacle."
Still more silence.
"Regina…is…Manacle?" Cimasa eeped.
Ataru nodded. "Hey, either which way, she got her deafness cured!"
The classmates to the younger daughter of the Morrow family all considered that, and then the Academician shook her head. "I never would think Regina would be that type."
"Um…what type, Elizabeth?" Mister Fantastic asked; everyone was gathered close together to allow the Yizibajohei's personal distortion fields to mask their private conversation with each other, thus allowing the Avengers and the Fantastic Four to officially meet the metas of Sweet Valley and their friends.
"Professor, what do the words 'dominatrix' and 'manacle' imply?"
He looked confused for a second, and then he hummed. "Oh…!"
"MOLLY!"
"Her Highness approaches," Lightmage declared as people turned…
…to gaze on the Queen of Traps, Manacle — born Regina Morrow, the daughter of Sweet Valley's third richest family after the Patmans and the Fowlers — storming up from the centre of town, a MOST displeased look on her face. Marching in determination past her classmates, the statuesque brunette came to a stop about five metres down before she put her fists to her hips. "DEAR!" she snarled. "ARE YOU FINISHED?!"
The Dominatrix jerked on hearing that, and then she turned to stare in pale-faced embarrassment at her lover. "Um…s-s-sorry, honey…!" she eeped.
"Is he dead?" Manacle demanded.
The woman born Molly Hecht — the only daughter of a broken marriage who had attracted Ataru's attention three years before, when she began falling into the deep pit drugs forced new users into, to become the Pain Mistress — turned to gaze on her current punching bag. Which made even hardened members of the Avengers like Thor blanch on seeing the battered, broken — yet still standing! — form of the Blob. "Well, he doesn't want to move, Gina!" the Dominatrix then stated. "He's being rude!"
Manacle sighed. "Well, what do you expect from most men, anyway?"
She then reached out with her psychokinesis…which made the Blob — who prided himself on his power to become the literal immovable object — scream out as he was effortlessly yanked OFF the ground to be thrown into the air. On seeing that, the Dominatrix grinned as she cocked her fist…and then let go with an uppercut that sent the moaning Blob — now with a broken jaw! — flipping head over heels into the ground off U.S. Highway 101. On seeing that, all the Sweet Valley cops whooped in delight as they applauded the former bad girl of the junior class of Sweet Valley High School, which made the Dominatrix flush before she bowed to them.
"Molly! Home!" Manacle commanded.
The other girl eeped. "Yes, honey!"
They then headed back into town, the Dominatrix looking very sheepish as Manacle led her off. The female heroes from New York — atop the Invisible Woman, there was the Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff), the Wasp (Janet van Dyne), the Black Widow (Natalia Romanova) and Mockingbird (Barbara Morse-Barton) — watched them go, and then exchanged knowing looks. "That girl's got her whipped but GOOD!" the Russian-born ex-assassin and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent mused as she nodded to the couple walking away.
The other women laughed. "Um, Captain?" a voice then called out.
Captain America looked over. "Yes, Marshal?"
The flustered federal marshal who was in charge of the Brotherhood's movement to Vandenburg came up to the leader of the Avengers. "Much that I'm glad these kids jumped in when they did, we still have to move these mutants to…!"
"Excuse me!"
That was an older man in the uniform of the Sweet Valley Police Department. "What?!" the marshal demanded…before he owlishly blinked as a ticket was handed to him.
"Violation of the town ordnance against the use of words that promote hate-crimes on a known ethnic group!" the older local cop stated. "Fifty dollars. Pay it at the bank or town hall!" He then turned to tip his cap to the Academician before heading off.
The others watched him go, and then Ataru gazed at Rampage. "How do you say it, Jess?" he asked before pressing a shiatsu point on Rogue's back. "Too retro?"
"Damn straight it's too retro!" the Charging Belle of the Heavens stated.
"Oh, my stars and garters…" the Beast breathed out.
"You can say that again, young Henry," Destiny stated, though she was smiling…
After a quick call to the S.H.I.E.L.D. team at Vandenburg to make the necessary arrangements, the captured members of the Brotherhood — save for Rogue — were all teleported to the missile launch facility for eventual transfer to their permanent place of incarceration. Of course, given the massive wounds that three of the group had suffered at the hands of Cyclotron and the Dominatrix — atop what Avalanche had endured in the battle with the Avengers sometime ago — they would be spending time in the prison hospital being restored to a semblance of health first.
And while the government authorities wanted to take Mystique's adopted daughter with them for time in prison, the Academician argued — with Captain America's and Mister Fantastic's support — that thanks to Rogue's brief contact with Trebuchet's mind, it would be inhumane to allow her to continue to suffer from the bombardment of memories and life experiences spanning TWO MILLENNIA while enduring prison time. To that end, the woman born Anna Marie Raven would be remanded into the custody of the metas of Sweet Valley on the promise that she would be made to behave herself from now on.
Once Lightmage and Shadow Weaver used their magic to clean up the mess that was made of the wrecked special transport truck — which was restored to perfect condition — and the roadway, everyone then got out of the way as the convoy headed off to Vandenburg at a more sedate pace. "While I like battle as much as any other warrior, I must confess to feeling great satisfaction that so little damage was caused," Thor mused.
"It is a change of pace," the Wasp stated.
"We best not get used to it," Captain America warned.
"Oh, definitely not," Hawkeye (Clint Barton) stated as he collapsed his compound bow and moved to stow it away. "So what do we do now? Head back to New York?"
"Well, since it's just dawn here now, why don't you all join us for breakfast?" the Academician then proposed. "Ataru, what time is it back in your cabin?"
"About dusk," Ataru answered. "Why don't you take them to your lab, Liz?"
He gave her a knowing look. The woman born Elizabeth Wakefield hummed, and then she sighed. "Well, we could give Anna a good examination there. Perhaps find some way to restore Captain Danvers' powers back to her. Alright, we'll head over."
"Which lab, Liz?" Trebuchet then asked. "You got one at the house?"
"No, it's too small and crowded for this mob."
And with that, the Academician tapped a control on her belt, which whisked everyone away from Earth and on a journey of three hundred light-years while we…
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