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The X-Writers Present:
X-Factor #119 Written By Jon Bartley
Editor in Chief: Marysia

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X-Writers are a group of non-profit writers who tell their 
own tales of the X-Men and their friends. We are an 
organised group of writers and have used most of these 
characters without the owners permission (X-Men, X-
Factor and all related characters are owned by Marvel 
Comics Entertainment Group Inc.), yet we thank them for 
giving us great characters to use in our own continuity 
which is unrelated to anything Marvel has planned to do 
with them.

This issue may contain some acts such as violence that 
some would find offensive. If you are one of these people, 
then do not read on.

NOTE I: In #118, in the NEXT ISSUE text, I mistakenly 
said Fatale had no knowledge of the childish lizard in this 
issue. It should've read that she has no knowledge that the 
childish lizard is out of the lab. I'm sorry if I geared up your 
suspense falsely!

NOTE II: This storyline takes place prior to Excalibur #94.
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"The Devious: Part One -- I Am Me Only With I'm Naked"

Kyle Gibney -- called Wild Child by some -- removed 
himself from the small, red car Forge had loaned him for 
this one simple task. With his mission successful, he 
could finally let out a sigh of relief. In the passenger seat 
was a fourteen year old boy named Adam Moore, a.k.a. 
Stapple. He couldn't form an independent action. With the 
ability to staple genetic memos to peoples DNA and cause 
them to adapt, some think he may have used his power to 
regress into a mentally retarded state. The retardation, as 
far as the physicians understood, was too neat and it was 
set to do something.  What, the doctors did not know. 
Probably to form a shell around himself. Wild Child had to 
agree.

Kyle looked around his surroundings, Falls Edge in the 
Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. It was his new home, 
even if he felt strange there. He had to tell himself that it's 
okay to miss some people as long as you don't forget the 
ones you're around.

"Gibney!" A voice called out from up in the trees, ten feet 
away. It was Shard. Kyle had met her hours before he was 
given the mission; they played cards. Shard beat him, but it 
was okay.  She was a friend.

"Hey, Shard. I got something for you," he called back. 
Shard jumped from the tall branches, falling through each 
one and landed on the ground as light as a feather. Then 
she ran towards him and stopped only feet away from the 
car. She went to lift the trunk of the car but it was locked, 
so it was useless to try any more. "Not there, in the back 
seat. I think you'll like them, but let me take care of this 
guy first."

"Yeah, go on. You never told me where you were going. I 
had to ask Forge."  She shrugged. "He's very strange to be 
around. Oh yeah, we had an exercise today. It went well, 
mainly 'cause Forge built this device that he wore. It's a 
little thing, but it builds a better holo-field and I'm finding 
I've got some new powers when I'm near it."

"Like what?" Kyle took a sip from his slurpee and walked 
around the back of the car towards the passenger's side.

"Well, if I time it right, I can kinda teleport, but I have to 
start it thirty seconds before the teleport or it goes wrong. 
It takes a lot out of the device Forge built. But you should 
have been here -- Oh that's right, we were training without 
you."

Wild Child opened the passenger's side car door and took 
another sip of his drink. "Do me a favour and go get Forge. 
Oh -- and tell him that if he doesn't have any specialists to 
pick this guy out of the car, then tough. Cause I can't get 
him to budge."

*****

Along the side of one of Virginia's secondary roads, the 
childish lizard-like being known as Devious walked with 
his rubber dog, Rover. He began to squeeze it and found 
that no sound came from it. Devious had been sent by 
Random to Falls Edge with a man who had promised 
Random he would make sure Devious got there all right. A 
meeting with that man's ex-wife was something he didn't 
count on. He dropped Devious along the side of the road 
thirty minutes ago and went to do what he could to win his 
ex-wife back.

A car painted red, but losing the colour due to age, 
stopped by Devious. He kept walking and it began to honk 
it's horn at him. <HONK!> "Hey, pal. What are you doing 
in this neighbourhood? Don't you know mutants live their 
lives on the other side of this town?" the driver called, with 
the rest of his friends laughing along with him.

"No, I'm going to Falls Edge," Devious called back. "I 
don't live here.  What are you doing here?"

"We *live* here, an' quit bein' so damn smart. Didn't 
anybody teach you to respect your elders?" The driver 
pulled a pencil from the dashboard and threw it at Devious. 

"Ow! It's not nice to throw things at people!"  Devious was 
so naive. The driver wasn't being nice. He was being 
hateful.

Shaking his head, the driver said, "Y'know, I only wanted 
to pick the trash you are up and throw it out. But I'm 
gonna do us all a favour an' get rid of you permanantly." 
With that said he pulled himself from his side of the car, 
opened his door and began to walk over to the lizard. He 
was seven feet tall, a giant to Devious. He carried a shot 
gun in his hand. The others in the car were as shocked by 
this as anyone would be. "Ready to die, mutant?" He 
punched Devious across the face with his left hand. The 
popping of his knuckles could be heard as he flexed them.

Devious was knocked backwards to the ground. A burning 
sensation stuck on his jaw as he rubbed it. A tear came to 
his eye. "Ow! Don't do that!  Someone needs to tell you it's 
not nice to hit."

"And I think I'll do just fine." The voice belonged to the 
person that would save Devious from this band of mutant-
hating humans. The woman fell from the power lines 
above. The poisoned knife that emerged from her wrist dug 
deep into the driver of the car's shoulder. Soon after that, 
he fell to the ground, joining Devious.

"Fay-towel!" Devious exclaimed, almost standing, but too 
shaky.

"Hello, Devious. Stay there and we'll go home." Fatale 
retracted the knife and looked in the way of the others in 
the car, shocked. "Pick up your friend and never bother 
this one again. He wishes only to live. Despite your 
attempts, he will. Remember his face and remember not to 
touch it.

Within minutes, the man that attacked Devious was in the 
back seat of the car and the rednecks were off down the 
road. Fatale walked over to Devious. "What are you doing 
here?"

"What are *you* doing here"

"I asked you first."

"I asked you last."

Fatale sighed at having to answer his question.  "I was 
taking care of something for Beast. Now your turn." 

"Random told me to go to Falls Edge. So I was on my 
way, when the guy driving me there went into some lady's 
house. So here I am."

"Well, Random isn't in charge of the lab, is he?"

"Uh-huh. When you an' Beast aren't there."

This was going nowhere, she thought. "Tell me what you 
know, kid."

"Okay," he said, cheerfully happy. "I woke up today and 
my head was kinda hurtin'. I needed my medicine. Random 
told me to get out of the cage and come with him. Beast 
said to Random to tell me to go away for a while.  There 
was this man that gave me this ride and here I am. He 
needed to do something."

"I'd hate to challenge the command of Beast, but -- I'll 
make sure you get there okay. Did you take your Psionic 
Amber?"

"Uh-huh. Guess what, Fay-towel?" Fatale gave Devious a 
nod with her head for him to go on. "The man gave me a 
coke." Fatale sported a small smile.  Devious' 
uncontrollable power to draw any hate or insecurity from 
within you out and dispose of it was almost a drug to 
Random and Fatale. Their lives were evil, but when they 
were around Devious they could touch the love buried 
inside without fear.

Fatale put her left hand on Devious' right shoulder and the 
two began to walk toward Falls Edge. He had been there 
before, to hide when Beast couldn't get one of his 
experiments to form. Devious loved the birds. But now, he 
would go there to play and live and only leave there to 
fight people for no apparent reason and maybe die.

*****

Outside Falls Edge stood Forge, Wild Child, Shard and 
two specialists hired to work on Stapple's case. Forge 
stood five feet from the red car and allowed the specialists 
to do their work. Wild Child stood at the same distance 
with a brown box about three feet in length and two feet in 
width in his arms. Shard stood beside him as the specialists 
walked over to the passenger side door, already open.

"Hey!" one of specialists, a doctor named Freddie 
McConfith said. "What's this?" He pulled a paper cup from 
Stapple's hands.

"That's a slurpee. He asked for it when we were at a gas 
station. That's progress, right?" Kyle said.

Both the doctors eyes shot open. "Perhaps. I'd like to get 
him inside and use the collar you suggested, Forge."

"Gibney? Is that my surprise?" Shard asked, pointing at the 
box.

As the doctor finished his sentence he almost choked on 
those words as a downpour of ice began to fill the air and 
ground.

"Let's get him in now!"

It took the doctors fifteen minutes to pull Stapple from the 
car. The guards from the South Carolina hospital had 
fastened him in a restraint to the seat so awkward, it 
seemed like months getting him out. Forge would've
done something about it, being a shaman, but he loved to 
see younger men move fast and plus, Shard wanted to see 
snow. She would have to settle for ice.

Inside a private room in Falls Edge, Freddie and the other 
doctor sat Stapple in a chair and began to run tests with 
Forge, Kyle and Shard in the room.

"Is that my surprise?" Shard asked a third time since Kyle 
returned.

"Shhh! The doctors are working, Shard." The young 
hologram sighed.

"Okay, other than being a little wet, Adam's fine. Let's see 
the collar."  Forge handed a yellow metal collar to the 
doctor. It had an array of buttons on the outer layer of it. 
Holding the outside of the collar carefully and squeezing 
two clamps on each side, the doctor placed the collar 
around Adam's neck. There were metal prongs about a half 
of an inch apart from one another on the inner part of the 
collar, each were pinching the skin around Adam's neck. 
After a few seconds of waiting the collar came alive with 
beeps and lights blinking. Bending down to Adam's eye 
level, Freddie said, "Adam, I'm a doctor. Please place your 
right hand on my left shoulder and push down."

Reacting without hesitation, Adam did just that. "All right, 
Adam. Let go."  Adam did so. Shocked by this test, 
Freddie stood to his normal height and turned slowly to 
Forge. "Your idea worked great, Forge. I guess his
retardation can only take place when his powers are 
working. With this in mind, I think I'll have him able to 
unstaple that retardation memo in a few days. I'd like to 
run a few more tests, though, just to explore how his
powers work."

"Fine then. I've got a little work to do today with my 
team," Forge informed him.

Forge, Kyle and Shard left the room and began to walk 
down a grey-coloured hallway. Shard pointed at the box 
once more. "*Is* that my surprise, Gibney?"

"Yes! Here it is." Kyle sat the large box on the ground and 
opened the loose flaps. Two black, furry, chow-chow 
puppies slept in one of the corners peacefully. "Their 
names are Droopy and Bytmie."

"Why Bytmie?" Shard asked, laughing.

"Because that's the first thing he did when I picked him up. 
They were the last in a litter at a gas station in North 
Carolina. I bought them for six bucks."

"Three a piece?"

"No, six a piece. By the way, you owe me six dollars and a 
new pair of shoes. These are ruined, Droopy threw up."

"That's all nice and sweet, Kyle. But I wanted to do one 
more exercise before it gets too late. This time, instead of 
you being absent from the exercise, Mystique will be." 
Forge said. He looked down the hall. "The ice has slowed a 
bit, so I think now would be a good time."

"Okay. Let me wash the smell out of these boots and get a 
glass of water and I'll be ready."

*****

In the shrubbery where the remains of the Sabretooth 
holographic exercise took place, Fatale and Devious are 
arriving at Falls Edge. They both have been here before 
and this is the place McCoy told them that they were to
stay. Devious started to play with his rubber dog, Rover. 
Fatale sat down on the ground.

"Y'know what happened on Mighty Boring Fire Rangers 
yesterday, Fay-towel?"

"No."

"The Green Fire Ranger got turneded into a White one!"

"That's nice."

"Yeah, an' everybody thought that Gordon was gonna 
bring a new Fire Ranger in. Yeah, an' -- Ow... My head..."

Fatale raised her head to look at Devious. His green skin 
was starting to look palid. The back of his head seemed to 
swell a little as well. "Oh no.  I thought you said you took 
your Psionic Amber!"

"Ow... I did. Random handed it to me."

"Did he check the bottle?"

"He asked me if I knew how much I 'posed to take. I said 
yes."

"Damn, that fool probably gave him Pepto Bismol," Fatale 
thought quietly.  "Just sit down and maybe --" As her 
words were still fresh on her lips, a psionic backlash 
emerged from the back of Devious' head. A yellow ribbon 
of energy bolted through the base of his skull and webbed 
it's way in different directions. Then a second later it 
disappeared.

Devious had changed. His eyes spoke sorrow and famine. 
Devious was no longer a child.  The swelling on the back 
of his head had been the activation of an implant of 
genetically engineered tissue attached in a complex way to 
a web of circuitry and computer chips in his brain. This 
tissue/bionic implant wasn't supposed to be activated until 
a certain date. The Psionic Amber had kept it quiescent, 
until today.

*****

A few minutes earlier, in the same battlefield X-Factor had 
trained in hours ago, they formed once again for another 
exercise. This time the roster for the training session was 
different. Forge still remained with one of the plasma guns 
he had been loaned by Cable. The other one had been 
destroyed by Polaris. (See X-Factor #118, Jon.) Polaris 
was eager to see how she would perform in battle without 
Mystique. She knew the answer: very well. Shard still 
participated, this time with only her plasmatic powers. Wild 
Child joined them this time as Raven sat out.

"Now remember, Mystique. You sit out this one out. No 
interfering until the exercise is over," Forge stated. Raven 
nodded. Forge inserted the chip that stabilised Shard's 
holo-field into the lower portion of his thumb on his 
artificial hand. He quietly clicked a switch activating the 
hologram.  It was a convincing replication of the Blob. The 
ground trembled underneath his footsteps as he came 
toward X-Factor, five feet away.

"Oh boy, my favourite," Polaris attested. She was the first 
with the wise cracks and the first with an attack. A bolt of 
magnetic energy jumped from her hands and hit the Blob. 
He hardly even laughed.

Mystique sat back on a small flight of steps and smiled at 
their tactics. Shard's eyes began to bounce around in her 
head, looking for a point to jump in. Blob stopped, so she 
took advantage. She had seen him absorb Lorna's blast, so 
Shard shot a blast at the monster's feet. The blast knocked 
him off his feet and on his rear. He threw a fit like an 
infant.

"Nothing can hurt Blob, girlie!" the hologram yelled. The 
Blob rose to his feet.

"Then you may call me Nothing," said Wild Child, diving 
from a tree he had moments before jumped into. He landed 
on Blob's back as the behemoth tossed his arms. There was 
a pressure point in the human, and mutant, back that could 
bring any man to his feet. Kyle was assuming that Blob had 
it as well. He pulled his right fist back and pounded one 
into Blob's back.  It hardly phased him, but Wild Child had 
hit him hard enough to bring him to his knees. Again the 
ground suffered.

Forge, five feet away from them both, began to speak in 
tongues. He had been a shaman before he was a mutant. 
He couldn't deny it. It was as easy as walking to him. Kyle 
and the others couldn't understand a single word he recited, 
but they knew Forge knew it well. Two large grey stems, 
an inch thick, rose from the ground and coiled themselves 
around Blob's wrists. As the large, obese hologram 
struggled with the stems, Forge began another spell.

This one was a little familiar to Kyle. He could only 
understand two words: 'sky' and 'god' or 'above'. Kyle 
didn't need an invitation or a warning. He jumped from 
Blob's back and rolled over to Shard, whose holo-field was
sparkling. A thundering piece of lightning struck down 
from the east of Falls Edge. It seemed to direct itself for 
the Blob, no matter how the temptations of it's origin 
swayed it to go another way. The lightning hit him hard in 
the back. After it settled into his clothing, quiet steam rose
from the burned clothing.

Forge nodded to Lorna and attempted the spell again. 
When the lightning stuck, this time, Lorna lashed out a 
magnetic wind and caught it. The lightning was a part of 
her now, under her control. The lightning rolled into her 
hand and Lorna pulled the mighty force of it back.

What was seen next was nothing short of a re-examination 
of Lorna Dane, Polaris', powers. She launched the lightning 
from her palm, still hanging onto it with her magnetic 
powers. Lorna was actually pumping it with magnetic fuel, 
keeping it full as she directed it toward the Blob's neck.
The fact that this was a hologram passed into her head of 
course, she would have held back had it been the real Blob.

With seconds turning to minutes, Lorna let the lightning go 
and allowed it to finish it's course through Fred J. Dukes' 
holographic image. Blob fell to the ground.

"X-Factor --," Forge began. "I believe that we've learned 
something from this exercise. And it is that -- " The 
shaman was cut off by a devious growling jumping into the 
battlefield.

"Another one, Forge?!" Shard complained.

"No, this isn't a hologram. We're under attack." He turned 
to the steps and to Mystique. "Mystique, exercise is over, 
Get on your feet!"

Raven sat back and changed her image into the glorious 
vision of Ororo Munroe, Storm of the X-Men. She sported 
a grin and then said, "Why Forge, with the Blob hologram 
still active and me not supposed to interfere, I think I really 
should sit this one out."

Forge's eyes sparked with anger. He quickly turned to his 
attacker, with the fact that Raven was going to be no help 
in this battle. He could -- no -- would kill her. His attacker 
was a rather short mutant with claws on the tips of each 
finger and thumb. He also had a layer of green skin, rough 
and jagged. And his name, though Forge didn't know this 
and wouldn't for quite some time, was Devious and for the 
first time in his life he was living up to his name.

"X-Factor, this is no hologram. He can hurt you! No close 
attacks unless you have no choice!" Forge yelled. Devious 
ran to Shard with his arms extended and blood dripping 
from his nails. Fatale's blood. As his arms fell through 
Shard's holo-field she began to conduct static and faded. 
Damn, Forge thought silently, my device isn't working. 
That beast must be doing something!

Polaris, hovering above Devious, still had a little bit of a 
buzz left from the lightning in her magnetic shield. She 
unleashed the small, yet effective, fury of it's core. As it hit 
the back of Devious' head, a large, and unseen before by 
anyone, psionic backlash hit Lorna's shield, piercing it with 
it's mighty strength. As Lorna began to descend through 
the air the only thought she could form was: "I hit some-
thing metal."

"Gotcha!" Wild Child exclaimed as he caught Polaris in his 
arms. "I don't care what Forge says. That was close 
*enough*!" Kyle jumped from behind the creature and 
swiped his left hand with his claws pointed at the base of
Devious' skull. As he pulled away, he noticed circuitry on 
his claws.  "Hey Forge! I think he's made of metal."

"No," Polaris attested, bringing herself into the air and 
safely away from Devious. "There's only a small portion of 
metal. Inside his brain. Forge, can you tell what it is?"

The growls of Devious' muttering made too much noise for 
Forge to hear.  Devious began to chant one single word 
that the shaman could understand quite well. "Summers... 
Summers... Summers..."

Lorna lowered her shield and lowered herself to the 
ground. "Summers? If you're looking for Alex, you won't 
find him here. And I'll make sure you never find him!" 
Devious waved his left arm at her, swiping the skin on her
right cheek slightly. In doing this, his eyes bulged and the 
chip in the back of his head processed two claims. The 
first: "Dane, Lorna.  Summers relation." The other was: 
"Proceed." With these two claims running around in his 
head faster and faster with each passing thought, Devious 
picked himself up and ran across the battlefield, where 
Blob still lay on the ground, until he was out of sight.

"Lorna! Are you --"

"I'm all right, Kyle. It hardly drew blood. I wonder what 
that was all about."

Forge didn't even hear Kyle's words of care. His first act of 
business was Raven. "What the hell kind of stunt was that 
back there?!"

Morphing back into her own form. "As I see it, with the 
Blob still in active mode and you, Forge, telling me not to 
join in battle until the exercise is over, I'm completely and 
thoroughly following your orders."

"Did I *order* you to change into Storm while you were 
'following orders'?"

"I was amusing myself. Calm down." The Blob hologram 
shut down. "See, now I may join in. Oh, there's nothing 
left." She sarcastically noted.

*****

In the shrubbery, Fatale spoke into a communicator, 
"Random...."

*****

"... what are you talking about with this, "Devious is 
active?"" McCoy spoke with his face lit up on Random's 
computer screen. Random had just called him. "I'm not 
sure I understand how this happened, Random."

"You told me to get rid of him. I did by taking him to Falls 
Edge. As you told me to always do. Fatale tells me that I 
neglected to give Devious his Psionic Amber and --"

"You didn't do that. Tell me you didn't. You have Havok's 
stink all over you! He'll kill you! I'm returning to the lab in 
a scheduled three days. If that comes to pass and nothing 
goes wrong here, you'd better not be anywhere near the 
lab."

The screen went blank and so did Random.

To Be Continued...

NEXT ISSUE: Devious attacks others with an odd 
connection to Scott and Alex. Wild Child and Mystique 
begin an investigation of the lizard's trail of crimes.  
Stapple's therapy continues. Shard gets a yo-yo! Plus: Val's
papers for Spoor's delivery to the U.S. come through and 
Sydney and Astra attack her department! All in X-Factor 
#120, "The Devious: Part Two -- The Trail Of The 
Sentry"!

--
*Marysia* | The Original Holy |  "Just love me, fear
 Keeper of the  |   Virgin of the   | me, do as I say and I
Labyrinth Flame | Church of Xbooks  |  will be your slave."
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 Editor in Chief of x-writers at majordomo@minuteman com
  Back issues and info at http://minuteman.com/x-writers