Via Sanguinis: Riptide's Tale

by Phil Hartman

1/1/2000: Somewhere in the Bronx:

Bleech. What a rundown neighborhood.

Ah well. They can't all be Rigas ...

Riga, Latvia. I miss the old town. Time was when a mutant could grow up a fisherman and just use his powers to amuse the rubes.

Then, of course, I met the Cajun.

Don't misunderstand me I wasn't a nice person even then. But I wasn't a homicidal maniac like I am now.

Oh, who am I kidding ? That bad salmon left a nasty infection in my brain, and I went bad. Either that, or I'm making all this up ...

... what's it to you, anyhow ?

***

"Well ?"

"I always deliver, Miss Mahn," the oddly-hunched-over black-market geneticist smiled, opening two genetanks with a ripple of fingers across a keyboard.

Xi'an Coy Mahn held her breath, rubbing her close-cropped pink-dyed hair as she watched the pods' occupants stretch and yawn.

"Shan ... ?"

"Leong ! Nga ! You're normal again !" Karma exclaimed, rushing forward to hug her siblings. She wrapped the kids in towels and turned to the doctor as they dried themselves off.

"Doctor Azol, how can I ever repay you ?" the telepath smiled.

"You already have, my dear," the doctor nodded politely. "By trading a sample of your genetic matrix for your siblings' cure, I have enough research material to last me ... oh, several lifetimes -"

The Mahns cried out as shuriken ripped through the doctor, revealing a misshapen, purple and orange-costumed monstrosity.

"ARNIM ZOLA !?" Karma gasped, shielding the twins with her body as the door shredded and fell inward.

"Zola's the least of your problems, dear," a mocking voice cackled from the doorway. "A psi-shield won't stop me."

The twins cried out again, their voices dimmed by the howl of winds and screams.

***

"HE WHAT !?"

Domino looked at the pale, shrunken Charles Xavier as she and the rest of X-Force stood scattered around the X-Mansion's War Room.

"Somehow, Cable deaged into Nathan Summers," Xavier sighed. "Scalphunter took him to Sinister, Polaris was possessed once more by Malice and killed Magneto -"

"My father is DEAD !?"

The mutants turned, nodding grimly, as the Fantastic Four, the Scarlet Witch, Cyclops and Phoenix appeared through a glowing doorway.

"We borrowed one of Agatha Harkness's remaining amulets to cut our transit time," Scott said, watching as Jean tried to comfort Wanda. "The Skrull craft Jean and I used to get to Colorado was starting to act oddly."

"We've still managed to refine Cerebro's scans to follow the Marauders' teleport signature," Kitty called from the comsuite. "There's been another spike - this time in the Bronx. And one in the Himalayas."

"The Himalayas ? What'd be there ?" Sam Guthrie asked tightly.

Wanda looked up tearfully and said, "Attilan."

"Attilan !? But I thought the Inhumans destroyed it to escape the Russians !" Johnny Storm exclaimed.

"Crystal got in touch with Pietro, who relayed a message to me - the Royal Family decided it was better to teleport Attilan back to the Himalayas rather than risk defeat by the Russians," Wanda sighed. Her eyes went wide as she added, "A Marauder went to the Himalayas - LUNA !"

"Dear God," Xavier shuddered. "It would fit the pattern the rest of the assaults have taken on: Marauders acting alone, kidnapping the children or relatives of superhumans. But why ?"

"What excuse has Sinister ever needed for evil, Charles ?" Jean said icily. "Our children are in danger. We can't waste time -"

"'Our' children, sister dearest ?"

Scott repressed a groan at the raw rage which seeped up his rapport with Jean as the air started to shimmer. ~Jean, please ...~ he thought over the link.

~WHAT is SHE doing here !?~ Jean thought, fury tinging the link with red fire.

"I have EVERY right to be here, Jean," Madelyne Pryor growled, materializing completely. "I made one mistake, and Nathan is still paying for it. I have every right to try and redeem myself."

"Even when ya keep throwin' 'em away, 'ma'am' ?" Sam said in a bitter tone. Tabitha Smith looked at her boyfriend with surprise, but he squeezed her hand and smiled sadly.

"Sorry, Tab, but ah ain't in a very givin' mood when Cable's in danger," Cannonball whispered. "'Specially when his own ma tried t'kill him."

"Point taken, Guthrie," Madelyne sighed. She allowed herself a wry smile at the look of consternation which flashed across Sam's face and continued, "We don't have time for this past crap. Either we move now to find the kids or Sinister will do God knows what to them."

"My mother said Harpoon told her Sinister was at the 'standing faces,'" Jean pondered aloud. "What could that refer ... statues ?"

"Sinister prefers out of the way bases - Nebraska, Hawaii, places we can't get to easily," Kitty said, typing furiously on the holotank keyboard. "If we cross-reference - standing faces ! Of COURSE !"

She typed even faster, adding, "Out of the way, standing faces - giant stone faces - and it's never been really settled in modern times. Where else could he be ?"

The mutants and Fantastic Four nodded grimly as the holotank's globe morphed, contracting into a display of a specific portion of the eastern Pacific.

"Easter Island," Xavier said. "Scott -"

"Sir ... what I said before, about doing this alone -I was wrong," Scott said gently. "I -"

"F'rget it, Slim," Logan grunted, entering the room with the rest of the X-Men. "We got us some rugrats t'rescue, 'member ?"

Scott repressed a smirk as the X-Men, Fantastic Four and the Scarlet Witch raced for the hangar bay. "I hate when he gets the last word," he grinned to Jean.

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