*We're entering Japanese airspace. Stand by.*

Captain America picked up the helijet's internal radio comlink and clicked it on. "Roger that. ETA?"

*Tokyo isn't far… within ten minutes, easy.*

"Alright, thanks," Captain America said, sighing as he clicked off the device and stood up. "Is everyone here ready?"

"I gotta go to the bathroom again," Toad said, sweating profusely.

"You seriously need to get your prostrate checked, mate," Pyro said.

"Shhh!" Toad whispered. "Not in front of Wanda!"

"Oh, for the love of—" the Scarlet Witch began, then stopped herself, pinching her sinuses. "We ALL know he goes to the bathroom a lot when he's nervous, Pyro. Or have you been living with a DIFFERENT Brotherhood for the past year?"

"We aren't the Brotherhood anymore, haven't you heard?" Surge grumbled.

"And that's for the mental image of Toad's prostate," Avalanche said angrily, elbowing Pyro hard in the stomach from his seat next to the redhead.

"Well…" Pyro wheezed, "…guess that's… what a fella gets for showin' concern here…"

"Alright, knock it off, all of you," Captain America, motioning quickly for silence. Everyone promptly sat at attention, with the exception of Pyro, who was still holding his side painfully.

Slowly beginning to pace in front of them, Captain America pulled out a datapad and glanced at it as he began to list off the details in front of him. "Alright, let's go over the plan again to make sure everyone gets it. As you all know, our mission objective is Tokyo… specifically, right downtown, as it seems that our target is moving north-northeast, right towards…"

Surge's mind began to drift as Captain America continued to list a bunch of boring details she didn't care about. She wondered for the umpteenth time how they had managed to get into this situation in the first place…

"What would you say," Fury smirked, "If I asked you all to join S.H.I.E.L.D. under Captain Rogers' command in lieu of getting sent to the slammer—work off your debt to society that way?"

Noriko spat at Nick Fury's feet. "I'd say you can take your offer and shove it up—"

"Now wait a minute, wait—hold on!" Toad said, waving his hands in a peaceable gesture as he hopped in between the two. "Let's, uh… let's just hear what he has to say, huh, Noriko? I mean, I been in jail. Not a fan."

"I honestly wonder if your jail could hold me," Wanda snarled at Fury, her hands beginning to crackle with hex energy. "The only reason I stayed in jail the last time was because Mystique told us to stay there."

"You forget about these things?" Nick Fury frowned, gesturing to one of the power-nullifying guns a S.H.I.E.L.D. trooper flanking him was carrying. "We've got a facility set up to hold an entire army of you Mutants. You really want to try me, here?"

"Fury, please," Captain America said, putting a hand on his commander's shoulder. "The whole aim of us coming up to this 'Brotherhood' was to iron things out peacefully. Don't egg them on."

Fury looked like he was about to quip something back, but decided against it and simply cleared his throat.

"Rogers is right," Fury continued, his tone more official now. "So, the offer still stands. Join us, or be sent to prison for… well, the actual sentence duration hasn't been determined yet, but you certainly won't be young when you get out."

Noriko thought back to her time in isolation before Mystique rescued her and shuddered. "Alright, fine. I'll listen. But I'm not going to give you long."

That seemed to tip the scales among those undecided—Wanda's hex energy dissipated from her hands, and Noriko saw the tensed arm muscles of Fred and Lance relax some.

"So," Toad said, turning around to look up at Fury and Captain America, "What kinda deal are we looking at exactly, here?"

"Well, you've already heard the gist of it," Fury said, beginning to pace back and forth on the Genoshan beach. "But I'll tell you what—as you can see, I'm not one for diplomacy. Rogers was actually the one who suggested the idea of 'rehabilitating' you two, so I'll let him answer your questions."

"'Rehabilitating?'" Lance asked, his eyes narrowing.

"I… wouldn't have used that exact term… at least here… but yes, essentially," Captain America said. "Look, I've seen all of you fight. You may not have the, er… focus… of the X-Men, but you've certainly got some untapped potential—potential that will go to waste if you're shipped off to a Mutant detention facility with the rest of the Acolytes. When you really have your heart set on a goal, you fellas really give it your all, and that's what I admire about your team, here.

"Also, as you can see, I'm a captain, but I don't have a team to command. And I'll need a team to command, given the new world I've found myself in. With Mutant threats everywhere, we'll need to find a way to contain the danger and help them, certainly before things get to… well, look around you."

"So we'll be with you… fighting other Mutants?" Pietro asked, an eyebrow raised. "Other Mutants who simply want freedom, just like us? I mean, we just want to be left alone to do our own thing—we don't want some kind of utopia, like Magneto… at least, not anymore."

"Can't say I like how this deal is lookin'," Fred piped in, crossing his massive arms.

"You won't be fighting just any other Mutants," Captain America said. "As you can see, the X-Men are certainly willing to help out when things really get heated, but they can only do so much—and they're centrally located, with most of their members still in school. All of you don't have those restrictions placed upon you anymore."

"So who WILL we be fighting?" Lance asked.

"Only Mutants who pose an imminent massive danger to others and, possibly, to themselves," Captain America explained. "Look, Fury has filled me in on what's been happening around the world. The Mutant population is increasing exponentially, and it shows no signs of stopping. The X-Men can no longer afford to meet-and-greet every Mutant signature that pops up on their 'Cerebro' machine. For those Mutants who fit our specifications—those who could cause something catastrophic to happen if they aren't stopped—THOSE will be the Mutants we'll be going after."

"And we'll be, what, killing 'em?" John asked.

"If it comes to that," Captain America sighed. "But, hopefully, it won't. Some way or another—nullifying their powers, getting them to calm down perhaps—we'll help them get acclimated to their powers if at all possible. Folks, we'll be helping Mutants."

"Huh," Toad said. "I don't know 'bout the rest'a you, but community service ain't looking like so bad an option right now… I'm in."

"Sounds good," John said. "Me too."

"Ditto here," Pietro said.

"That doesn't sound too bad," Wanda agreed.

"I don't know… I'm pretty sick of being used," Lance said.

"Look, it's either that or we go to jail," Pietro said. "I mean, I'd love to just lounge around as much as the rest of you—well, okay, maybe not as much as Blob—but honestly, compared to possible isolation and not being able to use my powers, this… this sounds pretty good."

Lance held Pietro's gaze for a moment, as if looking for something else than simply an affirmative. Finally, Lance sighed and nodded.

"Freddy, what about you?" Lance asked.

"Well, uh, I was gonna…" Fred began, his gaze making its way over to Noriko before he quickly caught himself and centered his eyes again on Lance. "I was waitin' to see what she—"

"Don't bother," Noriko said bitterly. "I'm in—but only because pretty much everyone else is. I still don't trust any of you S.H.I.E.L.D. people—not when you've got those guns."

"Well, I'll tell you what," Nick Fury said, "If at any time you're not happy with the arrangement, we'll be happy to lock you up with the rest of the Acolytes, how about that?"

*We get any closer and we'll be within striking distance of it—er—him, Captain.*

Captain America walked a few steps over to the door that led to the pilot's cockpit and knocked three times—a signal that he acknowledged the request to stop.

"So, here we go," Blob said, stretching as he and the rest of the former Brotherhood members got up. "First mission 'n all."

"Actually, if you'll remember from the briefing, it's called Mission Zero," Captain America replied as he began to unlock and pull back the side hatch on the helijet, the loud whirr of the midnight wind and rotors outside immediately making it necessary to yell to continue to be heard. "After our target!"

"Right…" Blob hollered back, walking towards the side hatch and then stepping back a bit from the sight below. "Oh, man. That is GROSS."

"And we're going INTA that," Toad yelled, taking a peak over the side of the plane.

"Is an airdrop really necessary?" Quicksilver asked.

Captain America looked back at Pietro, one eyebrow cocked a bit angrily. "Did NONE of you listen to my briefing? Yes, we need to get to the center of this problem before he can adapt to us. Now, all of you—we're wasting time! Let's get down there and save some lives!"

"See you at the bottom, mates," Pyro smiled, firing his flamethrowers once in emphasis before jumping out of the plane, parachute on his back.

One by one, Avalanche, the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and Toad also jumped out of the plane—though the latter had to be pushed out by Surge.

"Hey, wait a minute," Surge said, looking at Blob's back. "Where's your parachute?"

"Don't need one, so long as I don't go headfirst," Blob grinned sheepishly.

"Oh, right," Surge said, smirking. Sloppily saluting to the two Mutants remaining on board, she fell out of the plane backwards towards the city below.

"See ya in a crater at the bottom," Blob yelled to Captain America before jumping out after her.

Waiting the ten seconds recommended between each jump by higher command—something that, Rogers noted, the others had completely ignored—Captain America leaped off of the plane and plummeted towards the earth, holding his shield below him.

It wasn't the impact that worried him so much as having to command this bunch of misfits for the first time in an actual battle situation…

"So, how's their attempt at rehabilitation working out for you, Rogers?" Fury said, a smirk on his face as they both walked down a hallway deep within the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier.

"I know you're wanting me to say how bad it is," Captain America replied back, "But we've just started, Fury. We need to give them time."

"You seem awfully forgiving, given how much of a boy scout you seemed to be yourself, back in the day."

"Well, I WAS a Boy Scout, back in the day—but I imagine you're referring to my actual military service," Rogers said as he returned a salute a S.H.I.E.L.D. operative who was passing by them had just made. "Look, we've had a long talk about it, and if I can forgive YOU for not un-thawing and curing me until you needed me militarily—"

"Okay, okay, point taken," Nick Fury said, putting his hands up in a sign of surrender. "Look Rogers, I get it. You're a bit suspicious of us—how much we're 'spying' on the American people, as you would say. But things have changed since your time, and once you get caught up on your history, you'll see where we're coming from."

"We'll see," Captain America sighed. "But look, the point is that I may not have had a rough childhood myself, but I know plenty of people who have—or had, I suppose. I think this 'Brotherhood' has the potential to really be something special—just give 'em time. You'll see."

Rogers opened the door in front of them only to fall back as Pietro burst out of the room at high speed, hiding behind him.

"Get out of the way!" Surge roared, her gauntlets charged up. A few smoking black splotches could easily be spotted on the walls of the room behind her, along with Pyro laughing at Toad, who was currently being hexed by Wanda.

"Stop this, RIGHT NOW!" Captain America roared.

Immediately Surge lowered her arms, the charge re-absorbed back into her gauntlets, and Wanda stopped hexing Toad long enough to look back at Captain America. Everyone—including even Quicksilver, who backed up a few steps from Rogers—had a stunned look on their face. They had never expected someone with Captain America's reputation to shout so strongly—and angrily—at anyone.

"All of you, UP! Center! NOW!" Rogers yelled as he entered the room, pointing where he expected the former Brotherhood members to be—and with a few seconds, there they were, standing straight in a line down the center of the room. Blob accidentally bumped Toad in the head with his elbow, which caused Toad to start to gripe—until a harrowing glance from Rogers shut him up immediately.

"I'll, uh, leave you to your work, Rogers," Nick Fury said, continuing to smirk as he closed the door between them and went off on his merry way.

"WHAT is the matter here?!" Captain America demanded.

"Toad was harassing me—AGAIN—so I-" Wanda began.

"Pietro kept pestering me about Hisako, and—" Noriko also spat out at the same time.

Captain America held up a hand and made a swift motion for silence, cutting off both of them. Massaging his sinuses, he continued, "I put my neck out for every. Last. One of you. I figured that you would at least afford me a little bit of respect for that by keeping yourselves in line."

After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Lance spoke up. "This IS keeping ourselves in line. You should see how we act when we're just hanging out."

"Then maybe you should change what you consider 'in line'," Rogers shot back. "Which one of you is the youngest?"

Everyone turned towards Toad, who reluctantly raised his hand. "Uh, that'd be me… sir. Captain. Whatever y' wanna be called."

"Captain," Rogers replied. "Now tell me, how old are you?"
"Seventeen… almost eighteen, if that helps."

Captain America turned to look at the rest of them. "So I presume the rest of you are at least eighteen, then?"

They all nodded.

"So. Eighteen. Adults, all of you—or essentially one, in the case of Todd, here. Could've fooled me. You know, when I was your age, I had already enlisted. We had a battle to fight. And although ours is a different kind of fight, so do you. Your adolescence is over, so act like it."

"So, what, we don't get to have no fun?" Fred asked, crestfallen.

"Going after each other is not exactly what I'd call 'fun'," Captain America said sternly. "And that's your definition of fun, then you'd better change it. Quickly.

"Now, I'm not saying that all of us have to act exactly like a military unit—we've been given a bit more leeway in that respect, particularly since our mission may require rather unorthodox methods. But we WILL act in a professional manner, and—"

"Y'know what?" Noriko said, hands on her hips as she took a step forward. "I think I'm going to put a stop to this right here."

"A stop to what?" Captain America asked.

"I fell for your act for a little while, but then I thought of something," Noriko said a little too sweetly, charging her gauntlets up. "We're listening to you, some old World War II vet who can throw a shield as a boomerang and—thanks to Wolverine—can regenerate, too. Good, that's great. But see, as I'm sure you're aware, I can move up to several hundred miles per hour, AND I can discharge lightning bolts that'll give your healing factor a serious workout. Fred could punch you through a wall—several walls—and heck, Wanda could likely take down this whole helicarrier practically by herself if she wanted to."

"Perhaps, but she'd be on it," Rogers replied through gritted teeth. "Now what, exactly, are you saying here?"

"Uh… 'Riko…" Blob warned softly.

"I'm saying that there's no reason that you should be ordering us around like this," Noriko said, shrugging off Fred's advice. "Sure, we'll follow whatever mission you have for us, but don't expect us to be your lapdogs ALL the time."

"I see," Captain America said, his face calming itself as he unhooked his shield from his back. "So you think you can beat me in a fair fight, huh? That's all you understand is the physical? I thought you were smarter than that."

"I'll ignore the insults, since I'm just going to wipe the floor with you anyway," Noriko sneered.

"I'm glad you're sure of that—that requires courage, it does," Captain America said as he fingered his shield, smiling a little. "So you're challenging me to some kind of one-on-one match, then? It ends when one is knocked out by the other?"

"If I win, you can't boss us around like this," Noriko said. "You haven't earned it."

"Alright, it's a deal then," Rogers replied, holding out his hand for Noriko to shake. "We'll set up a fight in an enclosed arena three decks below…

"BUT," Rogers continued, just as Noriko put her hand in his, "If I win… you're getting taken to the Mutant detention facility immediately. Lifetime sentence."

Noriko suddenly froze, her eyes widening in spite of herself. She quickly reasserted control over her facial features, but it was too late—Rogers had noticed it, and his smile grew a little wider.

After a couple of seconds of hesitation, Noriko quickly backed away from Rogers and stepped back into line, her gaze not lifting from the floor.

"Lesson number one," Captain America addressed the former Brotherhood, "Be as sure as you can of any outcome before you engage in a conflict.

"Now, get out of here and get suited up. You've all got your first training session in fifteen."

Pyro had already cleared a large intersection of the fleshy techno-organic mass that was quickly enveloping the area before the rest touched down.

"Ah, fire—the universal weakness!" Pyro laughed as he torched a large tentacle that suddenly grew out of a nearby building, attempting to flank him.

"This is nuts!" Quicksilver said, looking anxious and jittery as a mob of several Japanese citizens fled past them, seeking shelter from the ever-expanding mass of flesh, metal teeth, and tentacles. "It looks even worse on the ground! Where's the Captain?"

"Touchin' down in the next intersection over," said Toad, pointing west as he landed on the ground, quickly disengaging his parachute.

"There's too much of… ick... this 'Zero' stuff in the way!" Quicksilver said.

"You big baby," the Scarlet Witch said, hexing a large section of the techno-organic mass in between them and where the figures of Blob and Captain America were plummeting towards. "You're fast enough. It's not even going to be able to react to you running over it in time."

"But what if it's sticky?" Quicksilver moaned. "It looks kinda sticky."

"Fine, I'LL do it," Surge said, charging up her gauntlets and channeling the electricity into her legs. "Atleastthenifit'sstickyI'lljustshockitaway."

As soon as Blob and Captain America impacted the next intersection over with one particularly loud boom and a significantly quieter clang—the impacts destroying any technorganic matter right underneath them both—Surge immediately began to blaze a trail down the street, the technorganic mass recoiling from the bolts shooting out from her overcharged form. As soon as she reached the intersection, however, she turned back, "mowing" the technorganic flesh covering the street and providing a passage for Pyro and the others to high-tail it over to Blob and the Captain. She was going back and forth far too quickly for the flesh to re-grow over the street in time.

After about a dozen runs back-and-forth down the street, the other former Brotherhood members had finally caught up with the two who hadn't bothered to use parachutes.

"Alright, so now we get to the center of this thing?" Avalanche asked Captain America.

"Right," Rogers replied, pointing towards a skyscraper two blocks away. "According to our scanners just before the airdrop, he's in there."

"How can you tell?" Pyro asked sarcastically.

The entire skyscraper was only vaguely recognizable as a skyscraper because of its outline—it actually looked like some sort of nightmarish demonic tower made of flesh. Across the entire yellowish-pink fleshy structure were scattered bits of technorganic metal, along with monstrous eyes, tentacles, and teeth pockmarked all over the place. The entire mass seemed to breathe in and out as one, the eyes shifting focus rapidly from one object to another. A wholly alien cry erupted from a haphazardly-formed mouth as a large tentacle suddenly erupted from the skyscraper, wrapping itself around a news helicopter that had apparently gotten just a little too close.

As the team watched in horror, the tentacle contracted very quickly, the helicopter buckling under such pressure and igniting in a fireball. The giant technorganic mass let out another shiver and shriek as the tentacle fell off, burned to a crisp, falling down with the helicopter carcass to the ground a couple of dozen floors below.

No sooner had the tentacle fallen off, however, than another took its place on the skyscraper. Indeed, the technorganic mass was quickly expanding, creeping over everything—they were currently on the edge of it, and only because of Surge's earlier electricity-laced laps up and down the street. They all had noticed uneasily that it had nearly surrounded them, now. Luckily, the overly-daring—and now dead—news team was by far the exception—most of the regular citizens in the area who hadn't been killed early on had evacuated the area, which left the S.H.I.E.L.D. team the only group of people within a mile of the nightmarish skyscraper.

"What kind of mutation IS this?!" Surge asked.

"I hope that's a rhetorical question," Captain America said through gritted teeth, "because I just explained it all to you on our ride here. I don't have time to go through it again."

"Yeah… right," Surge said, glaring at her superior for a moment before her gaze shifted back to the fleshy tower.

"So, let's get this done," Captain America commanded—and, with a wave of his arm, the team ran headlong towards the skyscraper.

Avalanche cringed as the giant mechanical tentacle came at him, the scissor claw at the front of it snapping, almost as if it anticipated his imminent demise.

"Will you quit lockin' up?" Blob yelled, diving in front of his teammate and taking the scissor claw in the chest—the metal claw noisily cracking and fragmenting as it tried to penetrate Blob's flesh. "I can't be here every time, y'know!"

"And I can't help it if my powers are useless up here!" Avalanche shot back as Blob yanked the mechanical tentacle out of the distant wall and ripped it in half, wires sparking everywhere as he threw it to Surge, who quickly absorbed the remaining energy in it before continuing her assault on the holographic dome in the middle of the room.

*Dome energy at fifty percent,* came Captain Rogers' voice over the simulation room's intercom. *Keep it up, team, you're doing great.*

"Well, now y'know what it feels like t' be me," Toad half-joked, hopping out in front of Avalanche and turning in mid-air, planting his feet on the side of an incoming robot and jumping backwards, the force from his legs launching the robot towards the energy dome that Pyro, Wanda, and Surge were attacking. Flying back almost a dozen feet, the robot hit the energy dome and promptly exploded, Pyro narrowily ducking out of the way as a particularly large piece of shrapnel shot his way.

*Good improvisation, Toad,* Captain America said over the intercom. *Turning the enemy's own resources against them—but look out for unexpected consequences. You almost got Pyro, there.*

"Uh… yeah, sorry," Toad grinned towards Pyro, who merely glared back before standing back up and firing up his flamethrowers again to focus on the energy dome.

"That's 'useless'?" Avalanche said, cocking an eyebrow.

"Yeah, well, sometimes I even surprise m'self," Toad shrugged. "Wait… did you just compliment me?"

"Shut up," Avalanche spat back before pointing towards Wanda. "Blob, incoming spider droid— Quicksilver's busy with the others. Get on it!"

"Gotcha," Blob said, running over to keep the incoming S.H.I.E.L.D. robot from attacking the Scarlet Witch's backside.

*Dome energy at twenty-five percent,* Rogers' voice came on again. *You're almost there!*

"This is so friggin' retarded," Avalanche said as he felt a humanoid robot lay a hand on his left shoulder. Before the robot could do anything more, however, Avalanche grabbed it by the arm and, with a grunt of effort, threw it over his shoulder. "We're on a helicarrier. How do they expect me to work up here without any ground to use my powers on?"

"Hey, say what y'want, these S.H.I.E.L.D. 'Danger Room' sessions 're giving me a workout," Toad said as he hopped around, dodging a few incoming strikes by a couple of multi-legged mechanical robots—the spider droids—before lashing out with his tongue, grabbing one, and throwing it at another. Slurping his tongue back into his mouth, he continued, "Don't think I've ever felt more fit."

"'Fit'? Over the past six weeks you've developed an actual gut for the first time since I've known you."

"Yeah, well, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s donuts are awesome, what can I say?" Toad shrugged. "I guess, er, 'fired up' would be a better word."

"C'mon, we're almost there!" Quicksilver yelled as he zoomed by them, sending two other spider droids flying with the high-velocity winds generated by his speed. "Time for a final push!"

"Push with what?" Avalanche said—right before Quicksilver deposited a deactivated spider droid in his hands.

Within a second, Toad had another deactivated droid in his hands, and so did Quicksilver.

"With these," Quicksilver said, stopping beside them. "I've figured out something with these things—that red eye in the center of the body? It fires lasers. But they aren't being used yet because… well, because we're not at a high enough 'level', I guess."

"So how does—" Avalanche began, but was interrupted by a slightly over-eager Quicksilver.

"SO, as you can see I've taken the tops off of these things. See the tiny pressure plate a little behind the eye? Press it aaand…"

Quicksilver did just that, and a small red laser beam suddenly shot out at the dome.

"Woah!" Toad exclaimed. "Ah man, now I want my own littl' spider droid… I think I'd call mine Charlotte."

"Just shut up and fire the things at the dome so we can finish this," Avalanche grumbled, and the three of them did just that.

Just as they were expecting, the additional assault—combined with the hex, fire, and electrical attacks that were being fired at the dome—finally punched through the energy structure, hitting a sensor at the center of it which promptly exploded in a small shower of sparks. The lights in the room suddenly turned red and, with a buzzer sound, all of the still-active robots and defenses in the room promptly shut down.

A few moments later, the sole door to the room slid open and in walked Captain America and Nick Fury.

"Good job, team," Captain America smiled. "You've accomplished the objective and shut down the dome despite the opposition."

"Why is Fury here?" Pyro questioned. "I haven't seen 'em since we first got 'ere. Was he… watchin' us?"

"Fury's a busy man," Captain America replied. "And yes, he was watching you during this training session, though he has watched a couple of times previously. I didn't tell you that he'd be here because I didn't want you to act any differently."

"I have to admit, having watching you all, I couldn't help but be a little impressed this time," Fury said, taking the ever-present toothpick out of his mouth. "There was an actual plan, and you all stuck to it. Having Pyro, Surge, and the Scarlet Witch focus on taking down the dome while the rest of you kept them safe from the attacking drones might've been a simplistic strategy, but it worked. Using the enemy's own weaponry against it was also a good tactic. You still have a ways to go, to be sure, but… Cap, you've got the go-ahead. The funding has been approved."

"Go-ahead?" Avalanche asked. "Go-ahead for what?"

"I think you'll like it," Captain America said, smiling. Gesturing with one of his arms, he continued, "Follow me."

"Through here!" Captain America yelled, sending his shield crashing through a glass door in front of them.

Obediently, the rest of the team followed him into the office building he opened for them, Surge zapping a couple of technorganic tendrils that started to come out of the street at them. Pyro, meanwhile, forming up the rear of the group, toasted a large double-pupiled eyeball on the opposite side of the road that seemed to be tracking them before he backed up into the building.

"Uh," Toad said, nervously looking at the creaking walls around them, "Y'think it's wise to be INSIDE one 'a these structures with, uh… whatever this 'Zero' guy is now covering the outside of it? He could send it all crashin' down on us at any moment…"

"He's too unfocused to do that," Captain America replied, breathing heavily—as they all were from the advance. The office building they had taken shelter in was just across the street from the horrendous tower that was their destination. "Did you see how it—he—reacted when he lashed out at the news helicopter? He was surprised that the helicopter exploded, and that it burned him. He's clearly at an animal-level intellect right now, perhaps even lower…. That's the weakness we need to exploit right now."

"Well, he's still focused enough to recognize US as the enemy!" Quicksilver said in a tone approaching that of a shriek, pointing towards the technorganic flesh creeping in through the sides of the door.

"On it—I'll keep 'im back, mates," Pyro said, flamethrowers igniting briefly as he 'cleaned off' the sides of the entryway they had smashed through.

"Alright, everyone—once we've all caught our breath, we're assaulting the tower," Captain Rogers said. "Get ready, and stick to the plan."

"Uh…. what plan?" Surge mumbled, her gaze refusing to meet Rogers'.

Captain America looked at her unbelievingly for a minute before sputtering out, "Didn't you—"

"NO! Okay?! I didn't listen! I was daydreaming!" Surge yelled back, a little too defensively. "Your briefing was so friggin' dull and… and monotone-ish! Now, are you going to harp on me about this forever or are you actually going to tell me what I'm supposed to do?!"

Captain America merely glared at Surge for a moment before opening his mouth—only to be cut off by Blob.

"Look, it's no big deal, alright?" Blob told Captain Rogers, gesturing for him to calm down. "Just, uh… tell her the part that she'll be doing, that way you don't hafta go through it all again."

"Fine," Captain America replied, visibly calming himself before continuing. "Surge, do you at least remember what our target's capable of?"

"Yeah, I think I remember it now," Surge said. "This 'Zero' guy, his mind kinda is his body. He turned into a bunch of techno-fleshy stuff when his mutation kicked in, from what the few survivors said… so whatever he wills his body to do, it does—whether that's grow tentacles, continue to expand, whatever."

"Right," Rogers nodded. "But as we've seen, he's confused now—I don't know how much control he had over his powers at the beginning, but he's 'expanded' far too much. He's not thinking straight and he's just mindlessly expanding now, killing anything that he deems unfriendly—which is pretty much anything alive. So our objective is to get to the center of 'him', activate the power-nullifying bombs we each have, and get him thinking straight again—hopefully, he'll come with us willingly. If this IS actually what he wants to do when his higher-order thought processes start working again—destroy downtown Tokyo, then, well… we'll have no choice to resort to more drastic measures."

"Don't sugarcoat it," Wanda replied, crossing her arms. "We'll be killing him."

"IF it comes to that," Rogers shot back. "But I don't think it will."

"Man, it's times like this I wish one'a you guys had psychic powers," Toad mumbled. "Not me, 'a course. All that mind readin', I can't imagine that... but you could just reach in there, an'—"

"Anyways," Rogers continued, turning back towards Surge, "You—along with Quicksilver and Toad—will be our distraction team. Keep moving, hit him, and then move again. Keep his focus split as much as possible, and away from Pyro and I. Toad, Quicksilver—are your guns ready?"

"Locked 'n loaded," Toad grinned, reaching behind his back and pulling out a laser pistol, cocking it. "MAN, I always wanted to say that."

"Let's get going, then!" Quicksilver said, looking around nervously as the building shook and dust started to fall from the ceiling. "He's not giving us much longer in here!"

"Alright, then!" Captain America shouted. "X-Force, move out!"

"Alright, then," Captain America shouted. "Let's see what you've all picked out."

All of the former Brotherhood members came out of their dressing rooms—some more slowly than others.

"A sleeveless gray shirt, Fred, along with the same old pants and boots? THAT'S your costume? Really?" Pietro said, cocking an eyebrow.

"Hey, it fits, don't it?" Blob said defensively. "My jacket's been chafing me a little lately."

"That's because you're even fatter than you were when you were fitted for your Brotherhood getup."

"Yeah, well, that was years ago!" Blob said. "At least I don't look like someone cut me in half with a hacksaw and then glued me back together."

"It's a LIGHTNING BOLT," Quicksilver said, pointing to the jagged line on his new uniform running diagonally from the top of his left shoulder to the right shoulder of his waist. Above the jagged line his uniform was pale blue, while below it the color abruptly changed to a darker, duller blue. The white that had been on his former uniform was completely gone, as were the shoulder and knee guards—although the soles were a bit rough for traction, it looked like the entire suit was one piece. "It's figurative—you know, for speed. And artistic. Not that I'd expect you to understand what either of those words mean…"

"Hey, leave him alone," Surge replied, her eyes narrowing as she stepped out of her own dressing room. "At least he's not a copycat… a lightning bolt, on someone whose power is super speed. Jealous of me much?"

"Hey, I had the lightning bolt on my costume long before we even HEARD of you," Quicksilver said. "It was just… y'know, a different layout."

"Well, see, with me, I actually went with something to help differentiate us better," Surge smirked. "Since that's important when we're both running hundreds of miles an hour."

Although Surge had kept her signature "style" combination of baggy pants with a somewhat tight sleeved top that stopped at her midriff, the light electric blue was now a secondary accent color, only really making itself known in her hair and shoes, with her gauntlets still the same silver design. Both her pants and top were now almost entirely black, with irregular jagged white electric "streaks" running down the sides of the arms and the legs.

"Nice," Fred grinned, giving Surge a thumbs up.

"I don't know, I don't see any need to reinvent the wheel, mates," Pyro shrugged.

"Wait a second… John, you got blue eyes?" Toad asked.

"A' course I do. What, y' never noticed before?"

"I guess not. Just… I can't recall ever seein' ya without your goggles on."

"They fogged up too easily," Pyro said, shrugging again. Indeed, his new costume was nearly identical to his old one, only with a little more red on the chest and one major change—his head was now completely unadorned. He also wore a red bandanna around his neck. "I got control of m' powers enough where I don't need eyeguards anymore. No fear of blowback from the fires I create."

"So then what's the bandanna for?" Quicksilver asked.

"Because Australia, mate," Pyro laughed. "Because Australia."

"I agree with Pyro," Wanda said. "I already picked my costume once, and I was fine with it. No need to change anything just because we're working for S.H.I.E.L.D. now."

"Then what's with all th' extra belts?" Toad asked, pointing to the three small belts Wanda had wrapped around each of her legs, along with two larger belts around her midsection. The guards on her lower legs were also gone, but otherwise her outfit was unchanged. "Because it fits the look," Wanda said, her eyes narrowing. "And I see YOU'VE added another belt. Because of your ponch."

Toad's outfit was still mostly dark green, but the light green "ridges" along the sides were now gone, along with the "hunchback" padding along his upper back. In its place were gray shoulder guards, as well as guards around his elbows and knees, sturdier brown boots—and two belts around his stomach.

"Oh, hehheh," Toad said, grinning as his cheeks flushed a little. "Well, y'know, gotta keep a sleek figure for ya, babycakes…"

"Toad, I swear—" Wanda began, hex fields appearing around her eyes as she stomped towards him.

"Hey hey now, no more hexin', Captain America said!" Toad interrupted, putting his hands up in front of him defensively.

"If you continue to hit on your teammate, I WILL allow it once and a while," Captain America said, his tone serious but a slight smirk present on his face. "Still, I'm glad that you've used our facilities to customize your new uniforms to your liking. We need to cut the ties people may mentally have with you as the Brotherhood of Bayville—to help build up a good reputation once again. These new uniforms will help to do that—to help them see you as a sign that help is on the way."

"Good," Avalanche said as he stepped out of his dressing room—the last one of them to do so. "Then I think I made the right decisions—my new uniform hopefully does just that."

"Dang, you went all out, Lance," Blob exclaimed.

Indeed, Avalanche's new uniform had almost nothing in common with his old one—the gray shoulder, lower arm, and lower leg guards were still present, but the main color of his uniform was a dark blue, with some dull red trim. In addition, he had a rather wide gray belt around his waist and black fingerless gloves on his hands. Visually the costume also had slimmer appearance, as it was sleeveless and the "bowl" around his head had been replaced with clear eye guards similar in style to what Pyro had worn.

"Yeah, well, I was getting tired of my old uniform anyway," Avalanche said. "Too bulky, and I don't get headaches anymore after using my powers—at least not to the extent I was when I first started using 'em. So I figured enough with the bowl-head."

"Good, 'cause it looked stupid," Quicksilver said.

"Shut up," Avalanche said, elbowing Quicksilver in the stomach.

"What?! I was AGREEING with y— agh…"

"I SAID shut up," Avalanche said a bit more forcefully as he elbowed Quicksilver again, harder this time. "So, Captain America—why all the new uniforms now? I mean, custom outfits aren't exactly cheap, and we've been here for six weeks now."

"Well, as you heard Fury say, the funding has been approved from high-up," Captain America smiled, hands behind his back as he uncharacteristically leaned back and forth on his ankles in an almost giddy, secretive manner. "You all are officially a team—an official strike force—under S.H.I.E.L.D. command now."

The reaction amongst the former Brotherhood seemed split—Toad, Blob, Pyro, and Quicksilver seemed to perk up at the suggestion, while Surge and Avalanche frowned a little at the idea. Wanda seemed nonplussed.

"So we weren't before?" Wanda asked.

"It was a bit of experiment," Rogers admitted. "I had managed to convince Fury to set aside a bit of space, time, and money for all of you to prove yourselves, and you have. Now the full budget for this team has been released—hence the new uniforms. Congratulations—I'm glad my feelings about you were well-placed."

"If you're expecting a 'thank you', I'd think again," Surge said, crossing her arms. "It was either do this or go to jail. I—and the rest of us—picked the lesser of two evils."

"Well, I'll say it, then," Toad said. "THANK YOU! I hate jail."

"Yeah, same here," Quicksilver added, with Pyro nodding vigorously. Blob started to nod, but then abruptly stopped himself after glancing at Surge, who had simply buried her head in her hands and mumbled something unintelligible.

"So we're officially S.H.I.E.L.D.'s lackeys now instead of Mystique's," Avalanche shrugged. "Whatever."

"Well, hopefully we'll see more eye-to-eye as time passes," Captain America said.

"So, what's our name?" Toad asked.

"I'm sorry?"
"Y'know, our team name," Toad reiterated, and everyone looked at him oddly. "Oh come on, there is NO WAY I was the only one thinkin' about this… I got like a million ideas…"

"I was kinda fond of the Brotherhood anyways," Pyro asked.

"Excepting that you have two females on your team," Wanda said, crossing her arms.

"No, see, now you're missing the point," Pyro explained. "The term 'brotherhood' encompasses both gend—ah, nevermind…"

"Regardless, the 'Brotherhood' is out," Captain America replied. "As I said before, it needs to be obvious that you all are… well, not using your powers for the same ends that you were before."

"What about just the B-hood?" Toad asked.

Avalanche just rolled his eyes.

"B-team?" Toad suggested.

"Too derivative," Quicksilver said. "Plus it implies that we're the second choice."

"…Ain't we?"

Quicksilver merely glared at Toad in response.

"Okay, okay…. somethin' different, somethin' different… hey, going offa Captain America's whole 'theme' here… what about 'Freedom Force'?"

Everyone groaned.

"Even I think that sounds a little too corny," Captain America smirked.

"Though I like the 'force' in that… gives our name a bit of a punch," Quicksilver said, looking thoughtful. "How does 'X-Force' strike everyone?"

"Hey, wasn't that already used?" Blob asked. "By Wolverine and some 'a those other people."

"Yeah, and the whole 'X' thing makes us seem like Xavier's toadies," Toad replied. "Ah… I realize I prob'bly shouldn't use that expression in a negative way, but, uh…"

"X-Force was a very 'black ops' sort of team, from what I've read from the S.H.I.E.L.D. archives," Captain America said. "We won't be doing those kind of operations."

"Okay, hear me out," Quicksilver replied, putting his hands in front of him defensively. "First off, why should we let Xavier monopolize the letter 'X', huh? Just 'cause his name starts with it? All Mutants have the X-gene, so the 'X' lets people know we're a Mutant strike force. Second, the first X-Force is long gone, right? And it was a pretty secretive thing, too. Heck, NONE of us knew about it until we got the info second-hand from Xavier while most of us were en route to Genosha. So beyond a few people, nobody's heard of it before…"

"The man's makin' sense," Pyro admitted. "Hafta say, I like the sound of 'X-Force'. Like X-Men, but more… well, more forceful."

"Yeah, like we ain't afraid to kick butt!" Blob exclaimed.

"Sounds fine by me, so long as we decide on something and quit talking about something this trivial," the Scarlet Witch shrugged.

"Alright, show of hands," Captain America said. "Who votes for X-Force?"

Toad, Pyro, Blob, Wanda, and Avalanche all raised their hands. Surge was simply leaning in a corner, not making eye contact with anyone.

"Hrrrm," Captain America said in response. "Well, it's not my first choice, but it's the best I've seen presented. I hope Fury doesn't react too negatively to it."

"Well, then dress it up a bit," Quicksilver said. "What have I heard the papers call Mutants a lot of times…. 'uncanny', right? So tell Fury we're the Uncanny X-Force. Totally different from the first iteration."

"Well, we'll see if it works," Captain America shrugged. "Until then, you're all dismissed. Congratulations again… X-Force."

"We'll see if this works…" Captain America mumbled hopefully to himself as the entire team ran out of the crumbling office building and towards the skyscraper currently encompassed by the Mutant calling himself Zero. "Pyro, let's go!"

"On it, Cap!" Pyro said, firing his throwers at the two tentacles coming towards them as Captain America threw his shield, the circular path of it sending it slicing clean through several smaller tentacles that were beginning to form out of the doors in front of them.

"Surge, Quicksilver!" Captain America called out.

"Already gone," Quicksilver said as both he and Surge sped up opposite sides of two adjoining buildings, shooting either laser or electrical blasts at the tower of flesh as they did so. Tentacles attempted to intercept them, but were far too slow. This only became worse as they began to target the various exposed eyes, eliminating Zero's eyesight in places around the building faster than the insane Mutant could grow new ones. A frustrated roar emanated from two of the building's deformed mouths.

"Hey, big 'n ugly!" Toad called out, blasting the building with his gun as he hopped around on one side of it, nimbly dodging any tentacles that clumsily went in his direction. "Your mother was a… well… somethin' really, really ugly! Man, I gotta work on my taunts…"

"It's working!" Rogers pointed out to the others. "Look at the tentacles—they're moving much more slowly than they were before. Zero can't focus on everywhere at once! Avalanche, you're up—get us up as far as we can, and with minimal damage to the surrounding buildings, please!"

"FINALLY, I get to use my powers!" Avalanche said, relishing as he slammed a foot into the ground, a huge chasm shooting out towards the building and beginning to surround it.

The ground began to quiver underneath the building and then, with a grunt from Avalanche, began to collapse, the chasm opening up and beginning to swallow the skyscraper.

There was a brief loud squelching sound as the fleshy film covering most of the ground separated from that around the skyscraper. Almost immediately, the technorganic matter that was suddenly separated from its connection with the "center" began to wither up into a black, powdery substance, no Mutant mind able to control or sustain its existence any longer.

"Well, that solves the problem for the rest of the city!" the Scarlet Witch yelled, struggling to be heard over the sound of the ground continuing to give out underneath the skyscraper—and to keep her footing as the area around it buckled and rippled from Lance's efforts.

"What floor… do you need?" Avalanche grunted, veins bulging at the sides of his forehead he manipulating the earth at an ever-deeper distance into collapsing underneath the tower.

Captain America held up a small scanner directly in between him and the skyscraper. "Judging from where the Mutant signature's emanation is the strongest, it looks like he's about… twenty floors up from ground level right now… near the top."

"Of course he is," Avalanche groaned, the tower continuing to collapse into the square pit in front of them—but its rate beginning to slow. "Don't know if I can keep this up… that long."

"Then just get us as close as you can," Captain America stated, putting a strong hand on Avalanche's shoulder to steady him as the latter began to waver slightly, sweat pouring down his brow now.

After the skyscraper sunk about ten more floors, the localized quakes finally came to a stop and Avalanche collapsed to the cracked street asphalt, gasping for breath, his head beet red.

"I can't… can't do it anymore…" Avalanche said weakly. "Too much of it to keep compressing it all…"

"You've done your best, son, that's all that matters—and you got us pretty darn close," Captain America said. "We'll make it the rest of the way. Scarlet Witch, Blob—help make our way in! Toad—keep an eye on Avalanche!"

"Got it!" All three of them responded almost simultaneously.

With the ground settling back down, tentacles of technorganic flesh almost immediately began to reach out to the surrounding buildings, Zero trying to extend his reach again.

"Surge, Quicksilver—" Captain America began, turning on his comlink.

*We've got it!* came Quicksilver's voice back over the link—and indeed, they could see black and blue shapes running all around the shortened skyscraper again, hitting it every now and again. *Now that the ground's stable again… go, go!*

With some visible effort, Wanda projected her hex energy over a large section of the side of the skyscraper facing the rest of them. The technorganic flesh almost immediately either retracted away or began to pop and boil, leaving off a horrid stench as some sort of pus-like fluid began to slough off the hexed area.

"Think I'm gonna be sick…" Pyro mumbled, putting his bandana over his mouth.

"Don't worry, she's accomplished what she needed to!" Captain America said, and nodded at Blob who, with a roar, charged at the middle of the "exposed" part of the skyscraper, crashing into it and making a large entrance for Captain America and Pyro, who quickly followed in behind him.

"Careful!" Blob yelled, wincing slightly as part of the ceiling of the room they had just entered came down on him. "I don't think this place is stable no more!"

"Zero needs this place to stay together almost as much as we do—at least for the moment," Captain America replied, covering his own mouth with a hand given all the building debris in the air. "Especially with his mind spread so thin, he won't think logically—it won't occur to him to simply crush us here. No, he'll focus on spreading and keeping the remainder of the tower stable. Pyro—let's find some stairs and get up there!"

"Gotcha," Pyro said through his bandanna, focusing an intense blast of flames on the technorganic matter, blasting it off the nearest cracked door frame—and, as soon as it had receded away for a moment, they both went through.

"There!" Captain America said, pointing towards an emergency staircase in front of them. The steps were cracked and warped, but—just like he had thought—any places that looked seriously unstable had been propped up with Zero's own technorganic matter, the Mutant's spread-out, simple mind not wanting to endure any more "hurt" for the time being.

"Right, I'll light the way," Pyro said, who couldn't help but cackle slightly as he fried a couple of incoming tentacles.

As they began their way up ten flights of stairs, the constant firing of Pyro's flamethrowers and throwing of Captain America's shield at any incoming tentacles quickly became almost routine, allowing Pyro's thoughts to drift—however slightly—back to earlier that day…

Pyro and the rest of the "uncanny" X-Force were startled as Captain America suddenly entered what had been dubbed their "recreation room"—essentially an entertainment room, with a television, couches, a video game system, and the like—the metal door slamming shut behind him rather loudly.

"We've got our first mission, team," Captain America declared, walking towards the television set where Toad and Pyro had been playing a fighting video game.

"And… BRUTAL EXECUTION!" Todd shouted, standing up triumphantly and letting the controller hit the floor. "BAM, bu-oy! Who's the greatest?!"

"I was distracted by—" John began.

"Uh-uh, no excuses! Your winning streak had to end some—'EY!" Toad shouted as Captain America went over and hit the power button on the console. "It was saving the progress! You NEVER turn off a console when—"

"I can't believe you actually play something that… disgustingly violent," Captain Rogers said over his shoulder as he took the television's remote control and switched feeds, the display changing to a geographical map of Japan. "But regardless, we've got more important things to worry about. Time is of the essence here, and lives are at stake."

"Ain't they always?" Toad complained.

"This is your first real mission," Captain America said, crossing his arms. "I would think you'd be eager to show Fury that you're not just leeching resources from S.H.I.E.L.D."

"So what's the problem?" Wanda asked, putting down the book she had been reading.

"A new Mutant signature has emerged, in downtown Tokyo, Japan," Rogers replied, and with a click of his remote, the map displayed on the large television screen zoomed in on the relevant city, moving along with Captain America's speech as he continued… John was certain Rogers had practiced it at least once before, and couldn't help but smirk at the thought of it.

"Now, to answer your next question, 'so what'…." Captain America continued, "This individual is apparently very powerful, but doesn't yet know how to control his powers. His name is Kenji Uedo, a rather renowned artist in Tokyo."

"Uedo… yeah, I think I remember him," Noriko said off-handedly from her relaxed position on one of the couches, her attention more on how itchy one of her gauntlets was than on Rogers' actual speech. "Some weird artist or something. Rotten meat sculptures, 'paintings' that look like someone just took a couple buckets of paint and threw them across a canvas. Never was interested in his stuff. He's been all over the world on tours, though—speaks a lot of different languages."

"Yes, I already said he was an artist," Captain Rogers said, "But thank you for the info on his ability to speak many languages… that means we may not necessarily need you to speak to him personally."

Noriko merely shrugged and took off her left gauntlet, rapidly itching at the skin around the wrist, not bothering to look up at Captain America as he continued.

"Anyways, Uedo apparently underwent his… transformation… during one of his self-imposed sabbaticals in his apartment on the outskirts of Tokyo. Because of this, no one managed to notice that he wasn't himself until it was too late. As far as we can determine, Uedo's powers are incredibly unique. It appears he can shape his body—which has taken on a partially mechanical form—into anything his mind desires."

"So, what, he's a shapeshifter like Mystique?" Pietro asked.

"In a sense—but he can't reform his body mass to look like anything other than a techno-organic mass. What's more, he isn't confined to a particular mass like Mystique was—he's expanding and growing, and quite rapidly as well. From the reports we've been getting, tentacles burst from his main mass—which doesn't look even remotely humanoid anymore—grow outwards, and then are 'filled in' as his mass continues to extend. Repeat this ad infinitum."

"Oh, so he's like that Blob thing," Toad said. "Aw, don't look at me like that, Freddy—ya KNOW what I'm talkin' 'bout. The movie monster, not you."

"Close enough, but he apparently doesn't need food to continue growing," Rogers said.

"I can see how this could quickly become a problem," Wanda commented.

"So why is he doing this?" John asked. "I mean, mate's a bit of an oddball, sure, but he doesn't seem like the type to just start killin' everybody."

"Well, we can't be sure without asking him directly," Captain America answered. "From the few that have talked with him and survived—shortly after his mutation was first discovered—his viewpoint of life has turned incredibly negative for some reason. Insists on calling himself 'Zero'—he always was a nihilist, from reading his records and looking at his art, but nothing like this. Any conversations with him after a few initial attempts have been met with no response at all. Whatever his reasons for starting this, he appears to either not even want to talk to anyone anymore or is incapable of doing so, perhaps because of the rate at which his body is growing."

"So how big are we talkin'?" Fred questioned.

"As of when I put this presentation together? About a city block," Captain Rogers said grimly. "But after reaching his current size, he's focusing more on moving than expanding—and he's going straight towards downtown Tokyo, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. The current leading theory is that he's heading towards an art exhibit of his on display in a tower there now, as that's the only possible thing of interest we can hypothesize he'd going in that general direction for."

"So what's the plan?" John asked. "And, since everyone else is thinkin' it—why aren't the X-Men there by now?"

"Fury tells me the X-Men are currently busy with a… 'situation' involving one of their teammates. As for the plan, well, it'll evolve as the situation changes, but we're planning to leave in fifteen, so you'll need to suit up quickly as soon as this briefing is over. We'll be taking a plane over wherever Zero might be currently stationed, and then we'll be airdropping in. Blob and I will simply be jumping, but the rest of you, of course, will be using parachutes…"

"Pyro! To your right!" Captain America yelled.

"Right… got it!" Pyro said, scorching an incoming tentacle to ashes.

"Alright… we're here," Captain America panted as they finished running up the steps of the horrific stairwell to the floor they needed to get off on. Turning on his comlink, he continued, "This is it, everyone. Activate your bombs—and remember that they'll nullify your powers too, so be ready."

Various confirmations came over the comlink—except for Blob's.

"Blob? Blob, report!" Captain America yelled into his comlink.

Still nothing.

"Aw, no… we really gotta hurry," Pyro said, flaming down the technorganic flesh covering the doorway in front of them, then pressing open on the door latch to allow Captain America to follow him in.

What was inside that room struck them both speechless, despite both of them being prepared for the worst.

The large room was—or, rather had been—Kenji's art gallery, but nearly all of the paintings had been broken into pieces or ripped off from the walls. A large, bulbous mass of technorganic flesh was in the center of the room, an uncountable number of tentacles shooting off of it into every conceivable corner and niche of the room. As Pyro flared up his flamethrowers more to make the room brighter, they could see—just barely—a vaguely humanoid form crouching inside of the bulbous membrane mass, in a fetal position.

"Okay, now I REALLY think I'm gonna hurl…" Pyro choked. "Guy looks like he's in a womb of his own making…"

Immediately, every tentacle in the near vicinity of the two Mutants turned on them, a shriek coming from a large mouth on one end of the fleshy mass in the center of the room. There wasn't any time for Pyro or Captain America to even react—within a second, both of them are entangled by numerous tentacles, which began thickening and growing over them, threatening to suffocate them.

"Good thing… these bombs are on a timer…" Captain America managed to gasp out before his head was overcome by the expanding technorganic mass.

Two seconds later, there was a soft beep from within the two flesh cocoons that had enveloped the Mutants, and a purple flash went off. Immediately the bulbous mass shrieked, and nearly everything in the room disintegrated into the same black powdery substance—except for the humanoid crouched in the middle of the formerly bulbous mass, which quickly turned into what looked like a pile of ashes.

"That… was close," Pyro breathed, wiping the black dust off of him.

"Be careful," Captain America said, standing up delicately as parts of the metal structure groaned. "Now that Zero's no longer got a hold on this structure, we're not sure how stable it is any more."

*Hey, all bombs detonated out here,* Toad's voice came in over the comlink. *You guys alright?*

"Yes, we are," Captain America replied back. "What about Blob?"

*I thought he was gonna get suffocated, as he had gotten completely encased in that icky flesh stuff… but nah, I see him now. He's gaspin' for breath, but he's conscious.*

Both of them breathed a sigh of relief as they walked slowly up to Zero, who was still in the same fetal position they had seen him in earlier, unmoving. Without his powers activated, Zero's overall form was very humanoid—except for his hands, which were gone. In their place were a few small tentacles hanging off of each of his elbows. He was completely hairless, though some metal wires hanging off the back of his head resembled it slightly. The rest of his body was spotted through with metal bits, wires, and hinges, but he didn't seem to be changing his shape or mass any more.

"Kenji," Captain America said softly, kneeling down next to Zero's prone form.

In a move almost too quick for the eye to follow, Kenji immediately leapt up from his fetal state, eyes snapping open, and tackled Rogers, sending them both to the floor.

"The name…is ZERO now," Kenji hissed, clutching his hand-tentacles around Rogers' throat, but was surprised when he saw that the tentacles weren't lengthening around their target and backed off just as suddenly, looking at his "hands" questioningly.

"What… what have you done?" Zero asked, his question an odd mixture of relief and uncertainty.

"We've nullified your powers—at least for the moment," Captain America said, regaining his footing, though both he and Pyro were still in a battle-ready stance should Zero leap at them again. "We thought that having your mind spread out over such a large…body… was stretching it too thin. So we merely allowed you to think clearly again."

"Yes… yes, thank you," Zero said, his yellow-and-black eyes darting back and forth, as if he was searching his thoughts for something. "But… it is only a temporary fix… it will not work for long."

"It can," Captain America replied, "if you let us help you."

Zero chuckled dryly. "I think I am beyond anyone's help. When my… when my powers manifested, my mind, I think… BECAME my body. The separation… is not there anymore. It is… maddening."

"How so?" Captain America asked empathetically.

"I was an ARTIST, don't you get it?!" Zero said, his voice rising. "My mind was my most beautiful instrument! What I saw in my mind, the thoughts, the concepts… I was gifted in that I could transmit them to canvas easily… But now, as my mind IS my body… are the two… any different? When my hands changed into these… these things, I became incapable of expressing myself on paper, and so at first, before anyone else even found me after the change, I had tried to simply create hands… but I couldn't. I couldn't 'sculpt' my body into something with that fine of a function. So then I tried to sculpt my body itself into the creations I had visualized in my mind. Although that was… slightly better, I couldn't get rid of this… this horrid look to my flesh now. In pure rage, I lashed out at the first person who disturbed me. I… I think I killed him… and beyond simply being angry and destroying… things, I can't remember anything beyond that…"

"Son, I understand art was such a large part of your life…" Captain America began.

"Do not start with 'son'," Zero snorted. "I know enough of English to know when I'm being talked down to. And you know nothing. Art was not a large part of my life, it WAS my life! I have no close friends, I had… severe disagreements with my family and disowned them… my art was all I had left. And that is why I chose the name 'Zero'. Because without my artistic ability, I am nothing."

Zero began to weep angrily, black, oil-like tears running down his face. Captain America awkwardly put his hand on Zero's shoulder, but looked to Pyro hopefully, saying with a glance, I'm not the best at this whole "consoling" thing. Do you have any idea what to say to him? We're running out of time…

"Oh come on, there," Pyro said. "Y'know, mate, when I first got my powers, unlike you, I loved 'em. I love burnin' stuff, after all. But I found that I was subconsciously setting everythin' around me on fire. An oven comes on in the same room I'm in, and before I know it, there's a jet 'a flame shootin' out of the oven. It… it burned down my ma's apartment… and, well, injured m' ma quite a bit herself. But then Mag—er, someone came and taught me how to control my powers. And now I'm running around, firing off big balls 'a flaming awesome whenever I wanna! You just gotta have patience, mate. You'll get it in time."

"Easy for you to say," Zero seethed, looking at Pyro through his oily, angry tears. "At least you look normal, you still have hands… how can I control something like this?!"

"Hold up a minute," Pyro said, looking at where Zero's tears had splattered down onto the canvas of a destroyed piece of art at Kenji's feet. "That stuff you're weepin' looks an awful lot like…"

Zero looked down at the black splatters on the canvas, his gaze widening suddenly. "It… it couldn't be…"

Kenji took one of his tentacles and wiped the black tears around carefully, manipulating it as best he could.

"It's the right consistency, the right texture… dear god… I'm crying ink!"

Zero suddenly stood up, putting both of his tentacle-fists in the air, screaming, "I'm crying INK!"

"….I don't understand," Captain America said a few moments after Zero had suddenly dropped down to the floor again, dabbling hastily with his tentacles and spreading the tear splatters around. "How does this make you…?"

"…Happy?" Kenji grinned. "Relieved? Everything is clicking together—everything makes sense! Don't you see, don't you get it?! No longer is my mind art—my mind and my body are one now! I no longer see art, I AM art! Not only that, but the very lifeblood of my art is produced by suffering—the only universal constant for us all!"

Rogers didn't try to bother arguing that last bit, but simply nodded, showing Zero a happy expression even though he and Pyro briefly shared an odd glance at each other.

"Well, Zero—"

"—Kenji," the formerly morose Mutant corrected.

"Well, Kenji," Captain America happily amended, "I'm glad that you've managed to find the good side in all this. I have a place in mind that can help you correct this… but we need to get out of here. Without your powers keeping this tower stable, I'm not sure how long it'll last."

Kenji merely wiped the tears from his eyes and stood up. "Lead the way."

"Well, that went well."

"Well?" Wanda questioned. "A city block was essentially leveled, dozens of people killed…"

"Yeah, but we weren't," Toad shot back. "And neither was Zero, who's in the back, under that power-nullifying radiation emitter thing, who's gonna be transferred to some S.H.I.E.L.D. facility until he can control his powers. Heck, Cap even got Xavier on the phone and he agreed to hold a couple of sessions with this Kenji guy. About as happy of an endin' as we can expect, really. Particularly for us."

"I'll give you that," Lance said. "And I finally got to use my powers… though maybe a bit TOO much, I've got a roaring headache…"

"Well, good thing we went in prepared," Fred said. "Those little Mutant-bombs… they friggin' saved my life, turned all that junk around me into dust, kept me from gettin' suffocated. This 'planning ahead' stuff actually works."

"And the accolades!" Pietro jumped in. "Did you hear those people coming in, cheering for us before our helijet came to pick us up? They were actually cheering… for us! Because of something we intentionally did!"

"So, what, you're all X-Men now?" Noriko said sardonically.

A chorus of various strong negative responses battered Noriko back.

"We ain't helpin' people, we're helpin' Mutants, mate, just like Cap said!" Pyro exclaimed. "Feels…kinda good, actually."

"Yeah, well, good thing 'Cap' is in the back of the jet talking with Kenji now, or he'd probably take offense to that," Noriko replied, turning her head to look back out the side window at the distant Japanese shoreline disappearing over the morning horizon.

"Hey, guy's a good leader," Toad admitted. "He might be a bit of a goody two-shoes, but that same part 'a his personality led him to take us in in the first place, so…"

"Yeah, I dunno, guys," Pietro said. "I think… I think this might be a good place for us to stay… instead of always on the run from the X-Men or the police, just doing these special missions, helping out other Mutants… I think we made the right decision. Better this than jail, definitely."

Everyone else in the former Brotherhood nodded their agreement to varying extents—except for Noriko, who was still looking out one of the helijet's side windows.

"Yep," Toad said. "I could get used to this."

The End
 

Back to Beastbot's Fanfiction Index