The X-Writers Present:

X-Factor #121
Storyteller: Jon Bartley
Editor: Marysia

X-Writers are a group of non-profit e-mail storytellers that use
Marvel-owned characters in their stories. X-Factor and all related
characters are copyright Marvel Comics Entertainment Group, Inc. They have
been used without permission.

"The Devious: The Finale -- Is This Seat Taken?"

Alex Summers awoke from his semi-comatose state to find his hands, arms and
feet were bound in metallic bonds on a wall. He quickly glanced down at his
chest. 'Whew!' he thought. He was wearing his containment suit, so he
didn't need to worry about hurting anyone by accident. Then, he looked
around. Vials, computers, syringes the size of eight-inch knifes, and the
most troubling of all, the limp body of an unknown mutant on the ground. He
began to wonder, 'Maybe this is the one time I need my full powers.' He
began to twist in his bonds. Something was preventing him from using his
powers on command. Havok cleared his throat. "Man..." There was a blinking
light at his side, on a metal panel. It was green and had a pattern to it's
flashing. "Is that... my heartbeat?" Alex laid his head back and tried to
relax. He inhaled and began to attempt to slow his heartbeat to the point
where no machine, no matter how powerful, could detect it. With his eyes
closed, there was no way of seeing the light or if it was blinking.

"What the hell are you doing, Alex?" Havok thought to himself. "What, is
this going to get you any -- " He heard a snapping sound and his body fell
from the restraints to the ground. His knees hit the hard floor with a
thump. His hands hit the floor as well. Alex proceeded to steady his
breathing and heartbeat. "Well, now... Time to get to the bottom of
this." The blonde haired young man looked at the limp body in front of him.
"Yeah. You probably know more than the walls and I've spent who knows how
long with them."

*****

Inside a New York diner, Kyle Gibney and Raven Darkholme are finishing up
their breakfast. Kyle scoots his empty bowl of 'Apples Johns' to the centre
of the table and stares at Raven from across the table. "I have to ask you
a question. I hate silence when I'm eating. I'm going ask you something and
I want a straight answer."

"Ask any question you want. Whether I answer it is debatable." Raven said.

"Okay. One thing about your life... anything! What would you change?"

"My relationship with my son, Kurt, maybe. He's a man I know through
others' eyes. But I can't imagine what he'd be have turned out like if
anything was changed in my life with him. I guess I should be lucky to have
him talking to me, eh?" 'After all,' she thought, 'I had Rogue, treated her
like a daughter, and at times our relationship seems little better than
what I have with Kurt.' She glanced at Kyle through her eyelashes and
wished Irene were still alive. No matter how much time passed she never
stopped wishing her long-time companion were still there for her.

"I guess so. I'd change my occupation."

"Come again?"

"My job. When you're born into mutancy, people expect the stereotypical
life you have to lead. I have to become a super-hero, *because* I am a
mutant. I'd change that just to prove to people that I'm good at other
things, but being where I am has it's ups as well as it's downs. I get to
kick a little ass now and then. I guess it's in my blood."

Mystique nodded. "I know. I'd change to being a good guy in a second just
to prove a point, but I can't deny who I really am. But it appears that
being who I am deems me to be the government's prisoner." 'Yet my prison is
everywhere,' she thought. 'I can't escape from what I am now, even with my
powers.' "They just control what I do and use me to their advantage.
Well... I can't complain. Being used is kind of flattering."

One of the waitresses walked over to the table and laid a plate of eggs in
front of Wild Child. "Oh yeah? How is that?" he asked, filling his mouth
with the eggs.

"Take this mission... Sending me on this mission shows that Forge still
cares." she said, wearing one of her famous smiles that only she can make.
"But right when they think they've got you under their foot, locked inside
their palm. You surprise them."

"Do you think that you should be telling me all this? I mean, I'm kind of
one of the good guys, although I wear one of those, 'against the main-
stream, but not' ways."

"Yes, but who's going to tell? Just because I've said that -- Little
bastards..."

Kyle lifted his head from his plate with egg dropping out onto the plate
and wearing a shocked look on his face. "Who?" he said, mumbled.

"Those 'little boys' at the counter." The shape-shifter lowered her voice.
"Can't you hear them?"

"Of course, but causing a scene here is only going to get us kicked out,
leaving me with an empty stomach and I'm hungry." He looked to his left
where four young men sat laughing and joking. Kyle heard the remarks on
their appearance coming from them and it only made him wish he had brought
some sort of image inducer. Then Raven wouldn't have to worry about being
made fun of for her blue skin, but again, blue skin shouldn't matter any
more than red hair and she could always have shifted to a less conspicuous
form. There were also remarks about her carrying guns, they'd be less quick
to talk if they were aware of quite how many weapons she had concealed
about her person. Perhaps it was her being a woman. Kyle turned around.
"Though they do need their asses kicked, big time." A very faint scraping
sound could be heard coming from underneath the table. Wild Child looked
down and saw the toe of Mystique's left foot dragging a small dagger back
and aiming it at the feet of the men.

"Don't even think about it, woman. And don't think I'm not going to tell
Forge and Val about it if your inhibitor doesn't stop you causing
problems."

"Kyle, it was just an accident. I unknowingly pulled my foot back with the
dagger under my toe and kicked due to a spasm in my ankle. Anyway you look
at it, it comes out to make me look good. I'm a good improviser." The
dagger continued to drag. And the men still laughed. They didn't know and
Kyle thought to himself, 'Hey, what harm would it do to give them a little
prick on the foot?' The dagger wasn't even that big. 'Wait a minute, what
was he saying? It might not cause much damage but it would certainly cause
a confrontation. But it looked like that was coming anyway.'

"What are you looking at?" one of the men said angrily.

"Nothing. Literally." Mystique managed to say hiding the dagger from
the mens' eyes.

"Shut up bitch! Or I'll kick your ass just like I kicked that little
green-skinned idiot the other day." To everyone in the diner, that remark
didn't seem out of the ordinary, but to Wild Child, the mentioning of a
green-skinned 'idiot' and the group of mens' publicly known hatred for
mutants was the best piece of information in their search, so it was a
gamble but...

"Hey," Kyle got up from his seat and walked slowly over to the men. "Did
you say you attacked a mutant with green skin?"

"Yeah, he was pretty dumb, too."

"By chance, was this mutant attacking people?"

"No, I just went to him and... No, he wasn't."

"You two talking 'bout that mutie that attacked Madchen?" the cashier
asked.

"Yeah," Kyle answered half ashamed he nearly raised his voice to the young
man. But Wild Child couldn't help thinking that he was lying.

"She's having it tough these days. I mean, a few years back this guy with
blonde hair saved her and her daughter, Alice, from these crazy men. Then a
few months later, the guy says he never saved her. Alice even changed her
name to Alex in tribute to him. I tell ya, this one's too much for her."

Alex. This was piecing together almost by itself. Alex... the Summers
muttering done by the creature that attacked X-Factor... now this.... Kyle
could smell something different on the cashier, something not right. He
dismissed it.

Suddenly a scrapping entered his ears. Mystique... 'Okay' he thought.
'Let's just get this over with... "I'm so sorry for her..." Kyle could
hear himself saying the words to the young man as he lowered his head to
view the wound he expected to see on his foot. Yet his eyes stopped much
sooner than the ankle, foot, toe, whatever he thought would be injured.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!" The boy screamed. Wild Child eyed the small dagger as it sat
sticking out of the crotch of the boy's jeans. Though Kyle had no tele-
pathic abilities, he could sense the smiling and chuckling going on
inside Raven's mind. The blonde-haired tracker reached down sensing that
this situation was less serious than the boy's screams let on to be. He
pulled the knife from the boy's jeans. Nothing.

"Quit hollering! Look, no blood." The boy's eyes were both shocked and
relieved. Maybe a little more of the latter. The owner, cashier, cook and
everyone in the diner could've killed Mystique. But none of their eyes or
thoughts mattered now. Kyle's ears caught something in the background of
the kitchen, coming from the radio.

"*zzt!* ... mutant who started his killing spree in Virginia has been
sighted moving back to that area. FBI is alerting the government team..."
Kyle and Mystique had to be going.

"Hey! You two!" the owner yelled. The possibility of getting out without
causing a scene of some sort was impossible now. "I don't want to see you
two in here again. I thought you could contain yourselves."

"I told you it was a bad idea, Kyle," Raven began to accuse, "I only thank
god that I missed that poor boy's 'friends'." 

'Liar,' Wild Child thought.

"Alright, that's it." The owner yelled as he began to move for the phone.
"I was going to let you go if you would leave, but you're doing nothing
except causing more trouble."

"Get yourself and your things, Raven."

Later... outside the diner, after making a telephone call to Falls Edge and
specifically, Forge, Kyle hung the phone up with a slam, not from the call
itself, but Mystique's behaviour and how easily she was able to cause
trouble even with her inhibitor. Of course, that device's mission in life
was to stop her from using her mutant power and to contain her, but
Darkholme was smart. She didn't need her powers to be a menace.

"What's wrong, Mister Gibney?" Raven said with a smile.

"Oh nothing. I've got to get you back to the compound before I do anything
else. That cashier in there bothered me. She had lies smelling all over
her."

"No," she began with her voice slightly changed. "I can take the car... or
get back to Falls Edge by myself. Just do what you have to d--"

"No, no, no. I don't even know why I even consider trusting you. You're
just being yourself. And no inhibitor is going to ever change that."

"Really... I can get back. I'll even lock myself up if... Just do what you
have to do."

He really did want to follow this up while it was fresh. "Aw shit, here's
the keys."

*****

In Washington DC, inside the office of Henry Gyrich, two bodyguards and an
unknown man to these offices stepped inside. The unknown man was about five
feet tall and aged well to around thirty-five. His name had been John
Peter, but now it was Jefferson Meaney.

"Sit down, Mr. Meaney." Gyrich invited. Meaney sat in the blue chair
opposite Gyrich's desk quickly and began to twiddle his fingers.

"Thank you for makin' time for me. I mean, you *are* a busy man. But I
guess I'll tell you why I called. I work in this junk yard in New York. I
don't do it for the money, y'see. The money I bring that pays for the bills
comes from the PooShoo. I created it. I just work at the junk yard, cause I
can see my dad more that way. Anyway, I was working one day and noticed
that there was a man in black hanging from a pole, which is odd, if you
aren't used to that. There're people around him, so I assumed that they
were taking care of it. Then one day I came home for lunch and the news was
doing a piece on your Ex-Factor team. Is that right? Well, anyway... One of
the members looked like that guy on the pole. I was calling some of my
friends, bragging that I saw one of the members. Now, in the past few days,
my life and my family's life has been threatened. When I called the police,
they directed me to your number. Imagine my surprise when they tell me the
man I saw hanging from that pole has been missing for quite some time."

Gyrich would've smiled. He would have called Val Cooper. He would have
fired on this in some way or another, but Mr. Meaney had bodyguards to
protect him. These bodyguards looked like the kind that, given the chance,
would've killed Dahmer if he was on their watch. They looked like the kind
that follow the rule: "You don't mess with kids or women."

"Alrighty then! I'm placing a few more people on the job of protecting you
and your family. Over the phone you said something about that pole. There
was something strange going on in that area."

"Yes, something like a spaceship."

"Thank you for coming down here..."

*****

A final magnetic blast strikes deep into the already mangled metal of the
test Sentinel. The frame falls apart and the whole robot collapses to the
ground in a large crash. It took the remaining members of X-Factor on the
outer perimeter of Falls Edge two minutes to destroy it. Lorna Dane was
having an off day.

"*schyk!* Lorna, you were told to test it, not destroy it." Forge called
from inside Falls Edge.

"I did test it." she called back. "The piece of crap is no good. Tell Val
to do better. Though the damned thing did make me break a sweat." Polaris
turned from yelling at Forge and looked at Shard, the holographic member of
X-Factor. Shard was still in a pose to take the Sentinel down from behind.

"Geez, Lor. I guess I should just disappear and quit slowing you down, eh?"
Shard complained.

"I'm sorry, Shard," Lorna began, "It's just that I'm feeling new levels of
my power like a child tasting her first piece of chocolate and it seems
wasted sitting within me. I'll try to not pull any more 'Cyclops'es, okay?"

"Thanks, I know how uncomfortable it is to be around someone who is lacking
a body and actually give respect to me. But I guess it's understanda  --"
The young woman, dead in a sense of it, known as Shard, yet is hardly that
in form and all other aspects, begins to spark, a result of her holo-field
being compromised by an incoming threat passing through her. The threat
passes through her with a little difficulty, but that ends before it
starts. The threat has a name and Lorna and Shard know it via Forge's
informative speech earlier today. It is Devious. Lorna, Forge and Shard
shouldn't know it, but they do. More than the beast's creator will be angry
when the day is over.

Devious smacks into Lorna hard, pushing her to the ground. Polaris notices
a small piece of fear in his eyes and her only question about it can't even
form. Devious has green skin, sharp fingertip claws and a mutant power
that is taking away Lorna's hate for him.

"Lorna to Forge!" she yells. Her communicator is lying on the ground next
to her, not out of reach, but she's a little bit into something. A magnetic
wave emerges from Lorna's chest and throws Devious off of her. It was weak,
but points aren't being tallied today. "Shard, what the heck are you...?
Shard? Where -- Oh, shit!" Devious was coming back. 'A shield would be a
good idea, Lor,' Polaris thought to herself. Magnetic shields are very
tricky, not for their structure or how one who controls magnetic energy
would build one. But they are tricky because it's rather awkward moving
inside the kind of shield, a globe, Lorna wants to make.

Since this is true, a shield surrounding Lorna would be foolish. Devious
would just claw until Polaris tired and he didn't seem to be getting
fatigued. So, the logical and ethical option would be to surround Devious
in a globe. Lorna pulled most of the energies she had stored in her cells
when throwing Devious off and thickened them into a small globe around
Devious, until she could find a great supply of metal to hold him with. He
became angry.

"Let's calm down now, okay. I don't have to kill you. On the other hand,
you would be more than happy to kill me, wouldn't you? Stay still until I
figure out one of two things... Why the hell are you so angry at me? And
who took your action figures away?" He still fought himself and the globe.
"Ahhh... you're probably one of those mutants that blame me and X-Factor
for betraying mutant-kind. Either that or you just like to pick a random
mutant and attack them." In finishing the accusatory statement, Lorna eyed
Devious coldly as his eyes frowned and his whole frame changed as well. Not
his outward frame, but the inner one. He was a childish little boy again
and for all his remorse, for all the things he could say, right now it
didn't matter to Lorna. If Devious had spoken up, it would be a lost plea
in the wind, a fearful apology and plea to Polaris to spare his life.
Devious would just be a killer in the electric chair fearing death. Death's
knuckles had actually been scrapping at the young man's bedroom of life.
And Lorna was going to open the door....

*****

Hours later, in McCoy's lab, Random returned to a lab full of dead bodies,
some at his hand, some not. Every vial of blood was spilt, every machine
was destroyed, there were no active sparks to show the destruction. Only
one figure was alive and that figure didn't like what she was going to have
to do. Random's cold frame viewed the scene and could only say one thing.
"Devious..." The lizard was lying on the ground in a puddle of blood and
computer chips.

"Very good, Random. Now would you like to know who killed him?" Fatale said
walking over to Random.

"Who?"

"You did, though it was Alex Summers' hand striking the final blow. Here's
what I know. Polaris played a big part in his demise, Marshall. He returned
to his childish state just as she had a grip on his throat. Due to his
mutant power, she let him go with her hate gone and stripped from her.
Devious did the only thing he knew when her hate returned. He came home.
Too bad the young lad returned to his hating state when he came in contact
with Summers. You know what to do..."

*****

Just a few miles out of Falls Edge in a town that wishes to remain unknown,
Lorna Dane piles her purchases on the counter of the All-Nite Q-Mart. The
store is small, yes, but at this time of night, 12:56 to be exact, the
store is quite peaceful. Only a handful of shoppers are out and most of
them are, 'Minding my own business, just minding my own business...'

The employee of the Q-Mart looks at Lorna and says exactly what he is
thinking. "Gee, Lor, let me guess... You've got something on your mind."

"You're right on the dot, George. What was it that gave it away, the men's
shaver or the box of nappies?" Polaris says, slumping over the counter in
exhaustion.

"Neither, really. I think both of those along with the copy of 'Nekkid
Chicks N Guns' pretty much made me wonder. You look like crap... Are the
Family Of Evil Mutants in town or something? Oh I'm sorry... Any kind of
messages from Alex?"

"No... Any guy that doesn't call after being away for so long I've given up
on... Unless he's bleeding to death in which case I'll give him the extra
few days. But... there's this little boyish mutant about 11 or so, my best
guess. He's been running around killing people. I was discluded from the
investigation due to the fact the mutant was muttering the last name of my
lover. Something might turn up and the mutant's body might not. Team
rules... but earlier, he came back to where he attacked X-Factor and I
don't know really what happened. Bet your money that I will soon. I let him
go..."

George sighed. "Looks like you have it tough these days. I hope something
turns up, cause you just look like -- What's all those mumps on your arm?"

"What? These?" Lorna lifted up her sweater sleeve further and saw a chain
of bumps all over her arms of different sizes. "Whoa... I never noticed
them before. I don't know, I get rashes when I'm stressed out. Just don't
worry about it."

George finished scanning her items and yelled out a price to her so high,
Lorna could've sworn her wallet had just had an heart attack. "You have the
money. If not, I'll just have you owe me."

"No, I've got it. Okay. Here's the cash. I'll see you later in the week
then, okay?" They both nodded as George slipped her purchases into a large
bag and handed it to her. They exchanged nods once more and she exited the
Q-Mart.

The walk out into the parking lot was a quiet one. Not quiet in that there
was noise in the darkness, but there was enough quietness that it was
almost depressing. With everything going on her life, Lorna was really
ready to hit something or someone. Her elevation in powers, Alex gone, this
rash. Boy, it was itching.

The young Miss Dane slipped her key into the hole of the locked car and
turned. When she opened the door, a strange air hit her. Something wasn't
right either out of the car or inside. She dismissed the thought in shaking
her head. Tossing the bag into the passenger seat, Lorna jumped into the
driver's seat and prepared to start the engine.

"I'd sit for while if I were you. A stranger talking to you when you think
you're all alone in your car is more than enough shock to deal with while
you're on the road." A voice called from the back seat, directly behind
Lorna. The figure expected Polaris to jump, but that was only the kind of
thing that happened in the movies.

Lorna sat back in her seat and closed the car door. "Who are you? And what
kind of information do you, as a government official, know? Hmm...?"

"Shut up. Let me talk without you talking okay. I think you know me as
Random. Suiting name, I think."

"Rand --"


"I said, shut up. You killed someone to day in a way that makes me boil
inside. His name was Devious."

"I know -- "

"Shut u -- What? That bitch... He possessed only one real mutant power,
the ability to draw hate from someone and store it in very large storage
cell within his own body. He was a friend of mine and drew most of my hate
away. There were only two things that that boy needed: One was a childhood,
which I gave as much of as I could. Two, was a drug to help him suppress
that hate in his cells. It's called psionic amber. I don't know anything
other than the fact it did something in his mind and cells. What I can't
say. If I understand it right, and I'm pretty sure I've been misinformed,
then this boy was programmed to kill someone in the Summers family through
me. Once his hate was triggered by not receiving the psionic amber, then a
list of names would be displayed in his mind by a device in his brain.
Well, to save you the boredom I got when I heard it, this list of names had
to be killed so he could be."

"What?!"

"Devious received a cut in his lifeline every time he injured someone
connected to that list of names, that list of the Summers family. You see,
his creator wanted that Summers person to feel remorse for killing Devious
when I came to that person and claimed his life in the name of vengeance.
Devious was always and unwillingly absorbing hate from any nearby source.
He died for that hate. My only mission ahead now to make sure that McCo --
*" As Random finished his last sentence, he was gone. His body was long
there. It was as if the power of the maker himself reached down from the
heavens and stole him. For what reason, unknown...

"Random...?"

*****

Somewhere far away...

The large room within a filthy mansion somewhere in North America began to
expand as the lights cut on. A figure walks across the room, pulling sheets
off the furniture. Small action figures and other assorted childhood toys
remain caked in filth. Just as he remembered.... in some form or another.

A burst of unknown energy explodes several feet above him. And Random falls
from the energy as it settles in the air. He hits the floor hard.

"What?! Where am I?" Random demands.

"Now hold on one minute," the figure raises his voice slightly. "I won't
have you shouting in my mother's home. Lower your voice. It's your social
duty to think of others before you explode into behaviour that it so
disruptive. Now... I wasn't expecting you until tomorrow night, but you
*are* here. I feel that I'm not being a good host already. I should've
padded the floor with mattresses. This has never been reliable or on time
before."

"What am I doing here?" Random stood up.

"Not much... I'm here to spoil you rotten until you become of use to....
someone. You already are of use, but unlike There, I believe there is a
time and place for everything. Would you like Coca Cola or Pepsi?"

"Neither... you -- You look familiar to me."

"Well, I should. I take that back. This body should be familiar to you. You
know it is as Multiple Man. But the mind and power that controls this dead
body is very alien to you, I think. I'm known throughout Europe as the
Imposter."

"That guy that dresses up like old, dead rock stars."

"I don't 'dress up'. I take dead bodies and use them... to do whatever I
want to. Sit down and I'll tell you all about me, my mother, and oddly
enough, you...."

*****

Epilogue: New York --

 Kyle Gibney squats on top of a cardboard-manufacturing building and waits
for his prey. His days with X-Factor are giving him the chance to grow.
Forge wasn't hounding him about things like others have and that was good.
Sometimes you can't answer a question if you can't understand it. But in
the night air, he is going to be doing the asking.

 His prey was just ahead. A man walked out of the building on the opposite
side of the street to Wild Child. The door behind him still open. It
would be foolish to attack until hope was just out of reach for the man.

 There! He steps onto the side walk!

 Wild Child jumped from his seat on the building and smacked hard into
the man, who was innocently walking out of his home. The two men bounced
and rolled halfway into an alleyway. Kyle stood up.

 "Why did you lie to me today?"

 "What?"

 "I was in a diner today. You were the cashier. And when I asked you about
the green-skinned mutant that was attacking people across the country, you
lied to me. Well.... you didn't lie, but you were holding something from me
when you very well knew I wanted to know it."

 "I... There was no point in bring it --"

 "Tell me... I'm a bad mood."

 "It's just... aw shit.... We got a call the other day just before
Madchen's diner was attacked. There was a woman that told us not to do
anything if an attack was made within the vicinity."

 "Damn.... No cops. You didn't call the police?"

 "Everyone in the diner was kind-of scared..."

 "What threats were made on you?"

 "N-N-None... that I can think of."

 "So, you had reason to believe that someone was going to be harmed within
the neighbourhood? No threats were made, so your lives weren't placed in
any danger..."

 "Yeah... but you don't understand!"

 Wild Child's chest and shoulders lowered. "No... I understand too well.
Your ranking in society is clear to all but you. You are free. If freedom
means that you sit quietly while your fellow americans are killed and you
know that their lives are placed in danger, then.... You sicken me... You
sicken me..."

The End....

Next: X-Factor makes trip to Muir Isle to pick up Spoor and bring him to
the U.S.!
-- 
       *Marysia*         | "Some fruitloop waving around the 2nd law of
 Keeper of the Labyrinth Flame |    of Thermodynamics like it's a signed
  and Holy Virgin of Scotland  | confession from God isn't going to convince
 http:\\minuteman.com\x-writers|    me evolution is a hoax."   Vermillion