[Episode 254421] [Episode 254421]Somewhere in far-northern Alberta (local time: breakfast)…
"So what the hell's the problem, Prof?! If these kids have woken up to their powers, all the better!" A laugh. "I LIKE prey that fights back!"
"Oh, really?" Professor André Thorton stated as he glared at Victor Creed deep within the newly established Weapon Plus base located deep within Wood Buffalo National Park south of the border with the Northwest Territories. "Would you like the idea of fighting a meta who could wipe out your very own mutation with just a TOUCH, Mister Creed? Won't be able to heal yourself the next time you fight Logan, would you?" As the man known as Sabretooth balked on hearing that, the director of the Weapon Plus project then added, "Or how about confronting a woman who could arm-wrestle Superman into submission? One blow from her fist would pulverize every bone in your body! There's a woman out there who could warp REALITY itself like it was silly-putty! And another one who could alter the very time-line to the point where you NEVER WOULD EXIST! And deep down, their battle-lust is something that makes YOU look like a SPOILED CHILD in comparison!" As Sabretooth snarled on being called a "child," the elderly maternal cousin of James Howlett AKA Logan AKA Wolverine added, "Battles on Yiziba could devastate CONTINENTS if they got out of control! Do you want THAT?!"
"How did you learn of these things, Comrade Professor?" Arkady Grigoriovič, the Russian-born white-skinned mutant known as Omega Red, then demanded.
"Major Raeburn told me of that world before she retired from active duty and left Earth to go teach fellow Jewel Warriors how to use their weapons, Gospòdin Grigoriovič," the man born Truett Hudson stated. "A fortunate thing, especially now that Wyszynski has become one of that race after he was targeted by the Omega Directive. The legends and prophecies surrounding the rise of Destructo are most worrisome."
"Hey! Personally, if you ask me, the more the merrier!" Wade Wilson, the nigh-immortal mercenary and assassin known as Deadpool, then stated. "'Sides, all Ataru was doing was helping pretty girls get superhuman powers. It's a really unsafe world out there, Prof! The man was doing good! Wouldn't you agree to that, Yuriko-chan?!"
"In a way, Wade-san, I would," Ōyama Yuriko — Deathstrike — stated. "Ataru-kun's actions were — while quite childish given his lack of proper parental supervision — honourable. He meant no harm. That you actually joined forces with those pathetic wand-wizards from England under that Voldemort fool to suppress Ataru-kun's knowledge before he faced the Oni girl was BEYOND stupid! What if he had LOST the Tag Race?!"
"The Oni weren't here to invade Earth. Miss Redet was ultimately fighting to lose," the professor stated as he gazed on the figure floating inside the stasis tube in the middle of the small laboratory that had been set up underground in the woods within an abandoned coal mine. "And ultimately, moving against Moroboshi and his allies was the proper thing. If only Wyszynski hadn't interfered like he did…!"
"So what's this 'Omega Directive' thing anyway, Prof?" Sabretooth asked.
"Ebony meson radiation poisoning," the leader of Weapon Plus replied. "What the Dire Wraiths who live amongst us would call the 'Wraith Plague' is a version of the affliction. As Major Raeburn spends most of her time off-planet these days — and truthfully, it's not her responsibility to deal with this — she's not around to help decrystalise the meson in victims and render them safe. Thus, there's simply no choice but to terminate the victims with mercy. Wyszynski would have been terminated as such hadn't the Yizibajohei recruiting agent known as the Shepherd got in the way."
"So what are you doing with Banner here?" Deadpool wondered.
A smirk. "Since we now have to deal with many more metahumans — metas that can't be controlled — we need to create more agents to keep them under control if not eliminate them when they become too much of a problem," Thorton answered. "I've studied this one's case for years. A benign mutation which — once gamma radiation got involved — created one of the most unstoppable forces on the planet." He then smiled. "A pity two of Moroboshi's friends — the ones called the Academician and Prodigy — nearly ruined this creature when they gave Banner the ability to control his powers as the Hulk and transforming to and from such a state. We'll just have to undo it."
The four mercenaries who had been hired by Weapon Plus to help capture Robert Bruce Banner — who had actually been living in a cabin in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia after he had been given the chance to control the raging beast inside him; this made sure he wouldn't be harassed by American authorities even after a more civil Hulk had helped out with some natural disasters across America years ago — exchanged knowing looks. They had been lucky; if Banner had been in his giant green body, he would have been next to impossible to take down. And to try to UNDO whatever was done by the two Terrans-turned-Yizibajohei — only Deadpool knew their names as he visited Yiziba once by accident two years ago and wound up in the Academician's very large lab when young Mihama Chiyo was doing a project with Elizabeth Wakefield — that had tamed the Hulk had a whole host of dangers. Especially given what normally happened when the transformation from mild-mannered nuclear physicist to rampaging monster occurred.
"Your funeral, Prof," Deadpool warned…
The young woman in black moved through the forest with purpose, ignoring the animals who — on sensing what she was — quickly got out of her way. She ignored them, of course; yes, her touch could let her kill next to anything that lived anywhere in the universe, but she preferred her meals prepared in a proper restaurant or at home, not over a campfire. A strange quirk for a woman who was shy of turning seventeen years old, yet in the several years since she had received her Gift, had racked a body-count that would — were it more publicly known — make the Joker green with envy.
Then again, someone like the man born Jack Napier simply had no CLASS!
After all, what elegance was there in using a modified chemical warfare compound that made people literally LAUGH to death?
If you had to kill, do it with style…
…or even better, do it in such a way that would leave people guessing what had actually happened to the target.
Like the Killing Curse in a way.
Thinking of that normally-lethal spell known to magicals across the planet, the woman born Margo Black could only smirk as her smoky blue eyes focused on the hidden trap door leading into the new Weapon Plus base buried underground; it had been disguised as a collapsed mine entrance. She had learned from Nexus that the chances were very good that magicals had been involved in the memory-suppression of the one man she did love with all her heart and soul to make him more "normal" in the eyes of that Oni girl who presumed she was fit to be his life-mate. The Academician and Rampage — her old "friends" from Sweet Valley, Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield — had got their memories restored thanks to a mere Finite Incantatem from Albus Dumbledore just after Ataru had recovered thanks to the interference of Doctor Destructo. Since the MIB used a special form of hypnotic neuraliser technology to change memories and since Dire Wraith magic was all meson-based, it only left those anal-retentive fools who were the first true society of metahumans on Earth…yet had become so SAME over the years.
Slaughtering the whole lot would actually improve the human gene pool immensely.
As the current incarnation of the Herald of the Final Darkness, Doctor Death, came to a halt before the fallen rocks of the hidden base entrance — smirking in delight as she scanned the scene with her eyes to pick out the place where she could open the door and go right inside — she felt a surge of chilly delight flood her heart.
Oh, yes…
She was in the mood to kill a few people right now…
Forcing HER to forget the man SHE loved for a WHOLE YEAR?
As the British so eloquently put it, that was NOT cricket!
Noting the hidden switch — it was a noticeable sliver of wood — the Doctor reached over to tug it, causing the switch to flip. The rocks — all of whom were glued together in such a way that people would notice this up close — all parted like a pair of doors opening to the outside. Noting there was no guard at this entrance, the assassin could only shake her head. Sloppy, the Long Island native mused to herself. But then again, idiot heels like this always are arrogant morons.
With that, she headed inside…
Deep within the base…
"A moment of your time, Wade-san."
Deadpool perked, and then he smiled under his mask as he gazed on Deathstrike. "What can a humble merc like me do for you, Yuriko-chan?" he answered in flawless Japanese.
The two were relaxing in the former's guest quarters, protected by security barriers and special defensive screens from being observed by any of the others currently at this location. There were only about fifty people at this base working under André Thorton. Beyond that man and several other scientists, the staff were mostly either ex-Friends of Humanity thugs or former American armed forces personnel who had been promised good pay to do security work for what they knew was something that — while technically illegal in both America and Canada — would be of vital importance to the human race as a whole. You could tell who had once been part of Graydon Creed's organisation; they were the ones who sneered at Sabretooth or Omega Red every chance they could. Having watched that, Deadpool had been tempted to shout out that the leader of the Friends of Humanity, Graydon Creed, was Sabretooth's very own SON. Sadly, Victor Creed had told the Merc with a Mouth to hold off on it. "We'll gut 'em when we get paid and this is all over with, Wade," the hunter-killer advised him.
"I need your opinion on something," the woman born Ōyama Yuriko stated. "You went to this Yiziba planet, did you not? Sometime before Ataru-kun's memories were changed?"
"Yep. About two years ago. Met up with the Academician and Prodigy at the former's lab outside their largest city. Most amount of toys a geek could ever ask for." A chuckle as the nearly-immortal mercenary then pulled up a device shaped like a box. "Here's one of Accy's PAAs; Personal Administrative Assistants. They're like the Mother Boxes people from New Genesis or Apokolips use all the time. You can move from here to Yiziba and back in the blink of an eye." A sigh. "Damn! I should'a guessed something weird was going on when Lizzie and Chiyo-chan started acting normal. That whole Tag Race thing with Ataru and the Oni was a dead giveaway…"
"So are they as dangerous as Thorton-san states they are?"
"Nah! They're party-animals deep down. You see, there aren't any 'normal' people on Yiziba and there hasn't been for two thousand years. Everyone has a metahuman power there, all free of charge and gifted thanks to the Great Crystal of Power that's buried under the planet's crust. Sometimes the powers are awesome; Accy's sister was Rampage, the girl that took out that typhoon that was about to hit Indonesia four years ago. Or Trebuchet; she's the one that beat the crap out of Blastaar in New York a year after that. Sometimes, the powers are minor. Sometimes, they're just plain WEIRD! But everyone has a power. And because of it, all the stuff we'd see as normal just can't exist there. There's no need for money. Since banks could be broken into all the time, the first incarnations of Accy and her pals in the Circle of Thought made sure all the basic needs like food and all that were provided for by automated services two thousand big ones ago. They don't want to have governments ruin their lives; that's what kinda started the whole 'Dawn of Power' thing since they had dictatorships on the planet that made what Hitler did look quite tame in comparison. In the end, it was the ultimate People Power revolution!" A laugh. "And when it was all over and all the bodies had fallen, the few left in charge kinda had to do something to put a control on it…so they turned it into one big freakin' GAME SHOW! Ain't that something?!"
Deathstrike gaped at him…and then she laughed. "Ah! I understand now! That sort of insanity would certainly NOT please our narrow-minded employer, ne?"
"Of course not! Hard to suppress metas when EVERYONE'S a meta!"
More laughter filled the room…
A gargled breath escaped the poor guard that had just been seized by the throat as necrotic energies flooded her body and began literally melting her skin. As the many smells of a person dying filled the air, Doctor Death could only smirk. She had got lucky; she had discovered the rooms where the small base's security guards were allowed to rest and had chanced upon the only female member of the group when she had just got out of the shower after a hard day's work on the job.
Her last one, of course.
"Doubt your relatives will get any compensation for your death, dearie," the Long Island native said as her blue eyes glowed with the power that made her the Emissary of the Final Darkness. "But don't worry about it; I doubt your relatives — if they would ever wish to admit kinship to a prejudiced bitch like you — will miss you that much."
As a final breath escaped the dying guard — a former member of the Friends of Humanity — the professional killer shuddered as a brief flood of memories and knowledge seeped into her mind to be processed by her own soul before it was dispersed.
Images of a brown-haired, brown-eyed, very slender man flashed through her mind.
That made Doctor Death smile.
"As agreed, Professor Banner," the woman born Margo Black stated.
She then moved to get dressed in the guard's uniform…
Minutes later…
Deadpool's danger-sense perked. "Hey, wait a minute," he then said as he looked around his quarters, his eyes narrow. "We got us a visitor."
Deathstrike tensed as she felt her cybernetic claws extend. "Who?"
A slight sniff of the air. "Oh, man…I never thought I'd ever meet this one!"
"Who?!" the Yakuza oyabun's daughter demanded.
A smirk under the mask. "Doctor Death."
Deathstrike's eyes went wide…
Elsewhere in the complex…
"Damn! That STINKS!"
"What happened here, Creed?!"
Sabretooth sniffed the air — though he was trying NOT to gag as the stench of fast-rotting flesh was about to overwhelm his hypersensitive nose — around the main work laboratory, which was now filled with people who just got a very terminal bout of DEAD! "Someone's here," the American hunter-killer snarled. "Hey!" he then called out. "Whoever you are, I can smell you! Nice work, by the way!"
"Thank you, Mister Creed," a polite woman's voice then called out from nearby.
Sabretooth and Omega Red spun around to look…
…as a moaning scientist — his face now a melted mass of disintegrating flesh and exposed bone — slipped out of the grip of what looked like the lone female member of the base's security guard force. Both metahumans were quick to see the differences, though; this woman was younger, had blonde hair, blue eyes and curious rune-like tattoos on her cheeks. As the Russian-born killer backed away on sensing that this girl's powers were quite like his own, the American-born hunter-killer snarled. "Much that I don't mind you killin' these creeps, I was hoping to have a good time rapin' that FOH bitch on the security team!" he said as he licked his lips.
"Amazing that they don't realise their founder is your son," Doctor Death replied as she pulled off the baseball cap she had been wearing, allowing her uniform to melt back into her black, rune-covered jumpsuit with protective rune-covered cape. "A pity I intend to kill him as well as soon as I get down to Genosha. Idiots like him had no place on a planet that is about to experience its own Dawn of Power…and with the amount of so-called 'mutates' living there now, ready to be rescued and transplanted to Yiziba, it should make sure as few people as possible bother Ataru."
Sabretooth balked. "What?! Why do you want that scrawny kid for?! You got me!"
Omega Red moaned. "You idiot…!"
Doctor Death didn't look impressed. "Sorry. Not my type."
With that, she turned away…which made the hunter-killer snarl in anticipation. "C'mon back here, honey! I won't bite…much!" he cackled, and then he lunged.
The woman born Margo Black smirked…and then her hand shot out to snare him by the arm. As Sabretooth yelped on feeling the younger girl's strength, he then cried out as SOMETHING seemed to melt right into his skin. "Down, kitty!" the Herald of the Final Collapse then purred, her blue eyes sparkling with madness. "As I said, you're not my type. Behave and you'll walk out of here on your own two legs. Don't…!"
He gargled; he could FEEL that horrid numbness that indicated some form of necrosis was active in his body. "S-s-sure thing, honey…!" he sputtered out.
She let go…and the numbness began to fade as his healing factor kicked in to repair the wounded flesh. "Good boy," Doctor Death stated before she smiled at the blond, white-skinned Russian nearby. "Gospòdin Grigoriovič! How are you today?!"
A smirk. "I am well, Gospožá Black. I would assume Akadémik Banner hired you?"
"Huh?!" Sabretooth gasped, inwardly surprised that the Banner geek had actually hired a professional KILLER of all things to come bail him out.
The woman named Margo Black. "He did. And speaking of which…"
She headed to a communications station and pulled out her own PAA; it was one of the newer models Elizabeth Wakefield had created. Tapping a control on the device, she then called out, "Nexus? It's Doctor Death. Did you get into those files?"
"Does a shark swim in chum?" the amused voice of Nexus called back.
"What's Weapon Plus' financial status?"
"Oh, neat little nest egg of about three billion dollars, Margo. Where to?"
Doctor Death smirked. "Equal six-way split, Cass. Myself and Professor Banner for two. Gospòdin Grigoriovič, Misters Creed and Wilson and Ōyama-san for the other four." She then winked at Omega Red and Sabretooth. "After all, they gave up their time to assist these stupid norms in their suppression of natural-borns and fate-gifted. They deserve to have their time properly compensated, don't you agree?"
"Nice. By the way, would you find out who financed these idiots?"
"About to do that, my dear. I'll call you soon."
"Done."
The link was cut. "To believe that Banner-hakase was so…forward-thinking," a strange voice then called out from nearby. "Your reputation is known, young lady."
Doctor Death smirked. "You were raised in a loving family environment, Yuriko-san. Hello, Wade," she then said in literate Japanese as Deadpool and Deathstrike came out from a side hallway. "I never had that luxury after my real parents were killed and I was separated from my sister. Ataru-kun pulled me out of that. But it doesn't mean I'm going to be a goody two-shoes like some of the others he's targeted."
"You're like Terra, in other words," Omega Red stated in Japanese, though his was accented. "You enjoy doing your work, but you're not like the Joker."
"Always wondered why Bats doesn't gut the jerk!" Sabretooth muttered.
"Hey, the guy doesn't want to betray his promise to his parents," Deadpool stated.
A nod. "Hai. Wayne-san's oath is an honourable one. He can't be asked to betray that even if Napier-san pushes it like he does." Deathstrike then smirked at the youngest mercenary in the room. "So I assume you wish to know where Thorton-san is?"
"Don't worry, Yuriko-san; I can sense him," Doctor Death stated. "So what exactly are you going to do with five hundred million dollars, Wade?" she then teased in English as she headed out of the control room for the private laboratory holding Bruce Banner.
Deadpool jolted, and then he sighed. "Ah! Ain't she sweet, guys?!"
"I like her!" Omega Red stated. "Shall we see the Doctor operate, comrades?"
"Yeah, I wanna check this out," Sabretooth mused, smirking…
Minutes later…
The door swooshed open. "I wish not to be disturbed…" Thorton stated…
…before a sharp pain exploded over the front of his neck as a slender stiletto ripped open his throat, tearing open the jugular veins and carotid arteries as well as the trachea. As the scientist croaked out in shock, a hand landed on his bald head, instantly flooding him with energy. As he collapsed to the ground — though no blood was flowing — a slender teenage girl in a black jumpsuit and cape with glowing runes all over her stepped into his field of vision. "I apologise, Mister Hudson. While part of me does understand why you're doing this, the other part of me finds it quite revolting that you simply can't enjoy watching the wonderful evolution of the human animal to a higher form of being. And now that I've touched you, I am learning so many things…" Here, Doctor Death then smirked. "Including who helped you and your friends do what you did to someone I love and care for. Which is good for me."
She then cocked her fist…
…and then smashed it into the tube holding Bruce Banner in place. As the liquid drained out, nearly drowning André Thorton as it flooded over him, the Herald of the Final Darkness then moved to smash away more of the glass so she could get at her current employer. "After all, we weren't doing anything like some others have done over the years," she stated as she moved to gently pull off the breathing mask over the unconscious scientist's face. "Yes, people like Tara and I kill people for a living…but we're mercenaries. It's part of the job description. You pay for a service, you get the service. As for the goody two-shoes types like dear sweet Elizabeth and her oh-so-annoying sister, they normally involved themselves in handling natural disasters and the like. Or alien invasions, like Amy Sutton did to Blastaar.
"And then you in Weapon Plus had to get into the way…not to mention the Searrs Foundation, the Death Eaters, the Dire Wraiths and all the others who can't appreciate what is happening to the human herd as a whole, Mister Thorton."
Doctor Death's eyes glowed. "You stole PREY from me. So I'm preying on you!"
And with that, she gestured with her hand…
…which made Thorton croak out as her powers began to eat away at him, the blood now exploding from his shredded arteries and veins. "Very nice," Sabretooth then mused as he and his friends relaxed by the doorway into the lab. "You got a real killer touch there, sweetie. We ought to hunt together sometime."
"How does Genosha sound to you, Mister Creed?" Doctor Death said as she pulled out the intravenous feeds that were in both of Banner's arms.
The hunter-killer jerked. "Man! That's ambitious!"
A wink. "Well, isn't it a pity that I can't be scanned for an active metagene! And they don't ever consider looking for charged meson atoms inside people's bodies!"
Hearing that, Sabretooth smirked. "Named the time and place, kiddo!"
"I might join you in that, Gospožá Black," Omega Red stated. "What they do to mutants there is nekul'túrnyj in the extreme. It needs to be stopped."
"That it will, Gospòdin Gregoriovič," the young killer stated before she pressed a fingertip into Bruce Banner's chest, her flesh glowing slightly.
A gargled scream escaped the slender man before his eyes began to glow a very ugly green shade. As Doctor Death backed away from Banner, he then collapsed on himself for a second…before a painful yet quite awe-inspiring transformation occurred. Within three seconds, the incredible Hulk then roared.
"HULK SMASH!"
"That's too retro, Professor," Doctor Death then teased.
The gamma radiation-afflicted metamorph and one of the strongest beings alive on Earth today blinked, and then he moaned. "Damn! I always do that!" he muttered out in a growling voice that belied both his considerable intelligence and the frightful power he had at his command. "So where am I?" he then asked as he looked around.
"Wood Buffalo National Park south of the Northwest Territories border with Alberta," the woman born Margo Black stated. "A hidden Weapon Plus laboratory that was set up on the sly by the Searrs Foundation. It appears they were also involved in blanking out Ataru's memories to make him more pliable when the Oni came to invade last year."
The Hulk jolted before his eyes dangerously narrowed. "I see…"
"Hey, Doc! Can I ask you something?!"
He then gazed on Deadpool. "You may ask," the transform scientist then purred in a voice that made the other mercenaries nearby quake in their boots.
"Why did you hire Margo here?!" the man born Wade Wilson then asked as he indicated the Herald of the Final Darkness. "I mean, yeah, you'd want to be rescued, but you have a ton of friends who could help out! The Defenders, the Avengers, the…!"
"No, Mister Wilson, I have no friends amongst those groups."
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
And then…
"I…do not understand, Banner-hakase," Deathstrike stated.
"It's quite simple, my dear," the Hulk stated, an ironic smile crossing his face. "Before the Academician and Prodigy fixed my mind up and united my soul back together again, I was perhaps one of the most dangerous threats humanity has ever known. In a way, I can guess why this man here…" — he indicated the rotting corpse of André Thorton — "…wanted to find some way to control me. I have always sought ways to control that side of me. Because of that, certain 'friends' — Reed Richards, Charles Xavier and Stephen Strange to name three — were coming to the point where they felt that removing me from Earth would be the wisest thing to do. Intellectually, I would agree with that…but they decided to try to do it behind my back."
"You're KIDDING me…!" Sabretooth declared.
"No, I don't kid about that, Creed," the Hulk warned. "Fortunately, the interference of two of the ladies whom Moroboshi Ataru helped get metahuman powers derailed the Illuminati's plans against me. For the time being. So I decided that I wanted to have an ace in the hole. And the ace is this lovely young lady here." He waved to Doctor Death. "I told her she can do whatever she wants to people that try to hurt me, chain me or force me off the planet. Saves me all the work of smashing them all."
Hearing that, the other mercenaries blinked, and then they all roared with laughter. "Well, all is done and we are all five hundred million dollars richer, Akadémik Banner," Omega Red then stated as he moved to leave. "Have a good life, comrade."
"You as well, Gospòdin Gregoriovič," the Hulk stated.
The others all nodded as they headed out of the room, leaving the Ohio-born transformed scientist alone with the young killer from Long Island. "Breakfast?" Doctor Death then proposed.
"That sounds like a capital idea, Margo," the Hulk stated.
"The Edmonton Mall?"
A smirk. "Not too far away. For me, that is."
And as they headed out of the laboratory, we now…
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