X-Men ISSUE #6

" Wrong answer, Bub." Logan told Telford. He used one of his claws and cut a gash on the man's nose. " Try again."

" What the hell is wrong with you?!" Telford asked as he clutched his bloody nose. " I'm telling you the truth. I don't have the virus!"

" Then who does?!" Logan asked again.

" If I tell you, you'll think I'm crazy or lying!" Telford told the man.

" Try me." Logan replied.

" Alright! Alright.... When I got to the lab everything was going fine. But-"

" Who was it?!" Logan asked the man. He was being impatient and wanted Telford to hurry his explanation along.

" The Marauders. Sabertooth, Harpoon, Vertigo, Scrambler... There were others, too. I couldn't make them out though. I don't know where they came from or how they found me... But they were out for blood. For my blood. So, I vanished and dropped the vial."

" Sure, why the hell not? Everyone else is coming back from the dead, why not Sabertooth? It's not like I cut his head off or anything." Logan complained.

" No... It's not sabertooth. It's a clone." Warren spoke up. " We've seen this before with Sinister, remember? He's got clone farms of the marauders. After he died, they must have hatched or something." Warren explained. " They're not real."

" Well, real or not. They're still a problem that we're gonna have to deal with. A big problem." Ian stated.

Logan grunted.

" Alright, here's how it is. Crybaby here teleports us in. We get the virus, we destroy it, and anything else we find in there. We burn it to the damn ground." Logan stated.

" Wait... Teleport? You're not talking about me, are you?" Telford asked the man.

Logan simply looked at him and grinned.

Telford wasn't gonna like the answer.

.......

With no other choice in the matter, The Vanisher suited up alongside the rest of X-Force.

The Vanisher teleported the team inside the smelting plant in Japan.

" Fine! Now you're on your own." Vanisher told the team.

" This doesn't look like a lab, dead man." Logan told Telford.

" What is this place?" Warren asked.

" Some factory, I don't know. They gave me the blueprints, not a lecture on how mister sinister picks his real estate. The lab is in the center of the complex." Telford explained.

" Good. You can go first." Logan told the man.

" Uh, I don't think Professor Xavier would be approve of this." Telford spoke.

" Tell me about." Logan snarkily replied and shoved Telford forward.

Telford begrudgingly took the lead and led X-Force through the old smelting plant, taking them down through the lower floors and into Sinister's old lab.

" I shouldn't be here." Josh stated. " I told him, I didn't want to be here."

" Don't worry, kiddo. I'm sure everything will be fine." Domino told the boy to ease his worry. " So... Who thinks we're all about to die?" She then asked. " I only mention it because Vanisher did say he dropped the vial with the virus in it. What if it broke?"

" Then we're all about to have a bad day." Logan told the woman. " How many?"

" Fourteen targets... But identical scents are present. There could be more." Laura told the man.

" Great, Dom open it up." Logan ordered.

Domino smiled.

" Logan, you say the most romantic things to me." Domino raised her gun and fired a small explosive from the barrel, blowing open the shutter doors in front of the group. " Any inspirational words?"

" Sure. If you die, take one of them with you." Logan exclaimed.

The Clones of the Marauders came pouring out of the hole in the wall, multiple sabertooths, harpoons, vertigos, and more.

While the rest of X-Force did battle with the clones, Ian hung back and protected Josh and Telford.

" Just stay behind me, Josh." Ian told the boy.

" What about me?" Telford asked the man.

" Try not kill yourself. God forbid it'll make me happy." Ian told the man.

" Now, that's just mean. What do you do anyway, punk?" Telford asked the man.

A clone of Sabertooth and Harpoon lunged at Telford.

Ian caught the clone's arm right before it could reach Telford's face. Ian placed his hand on the sabertooths stomach and then fired a blast, that reduced him and the Harpoon clone to ashes.

When the dust cleared, Ian looked back at Telford and smirked.

" Well, no one likes a show off." He mumbled under his breath. " If you're so good, why don't you just kill these guys?"

" Because I don't want to accidentally destroy the vial and kill us all." Ian told the man.

He was being cautious. He could easily level the entire lab, but if he wasn't careful, he could accidentally release the virus, and if he did, Josh would probably be the only one who could save them, so Ian was guarding Josh.

" Besides, the others have pretty much taken care of all the clones already." Ian stated.

" Got it!" Domino yelled out.

" See, everything's fine, Telford. You get to live another day." Ian told the man.

" Alright, let's get out of-" Before Domino could finish her sentence the wall in front of her exploded and a group of men using machines, stepped inside.

" Get the virus!" The leader yelled out.

" You were saying?" Telford asked the man.

" Oh, shut up." Ian told the man.

The machines, started opening fire on the team. Ian moved out in front of the others and started using his body to block the bullets coming at them.

" Vanisher! Get us out, now!" Logan yelled to the man, in the middle of his sentence, he caught a bullet to the side of his head.

" Sure thing." Vanisher replied. He then vanished from his spot, leaving the rest of the team behind.

" VANISHER!" Logan yelled out.

" I'll kill them all." Ian stated.

" No, you idiot. Not with the virus still kicking around. Where the fucked did it go?!" Logan yelled out.

" I've got visual on the prize. Let's kill this gene-trash and get out of- HEaaaaaargH!" The Right soldier reached his hand out to grab the virus, but before he could grab it, Laura cut his hand to pieces and snatched the virus for herself.

" Laura! Behind you!" Josh yelled to the woman.

Another one of the right soldiers approached Laura, and slammed its mechanical arm into her stomach, tearing it open.

" What the hell just happened?" The Man asked.

" Oh God, the virus." Domino muttered.

" It's... It's."

" It's Inside of her." Logan yelled.

" Laura?" Ian called out to the woman.

She stood there silently, in shock, small tears forming in the corner of her eyes.

Ian turned back to the Right soldiers.

" DIE!" Ian punched a hole through the man's metal suit and drove his hand through the man's skull. " Laura? Hang on!" Ian told the girl.

Laura coughed up a glob of blood and collapsed, momentarily, on her knees.

" No, our mission is to destroy the virus." Laura stated. She got to her feet and started running back towards the smelting room.

" Kill the girl! We'll take the body back to hodge!" One of the soldiers yelled out.

" Like Hell you will!" Ian exclaimed.

He raised his hand into the air, as bullets bounced off his skin, and chucked a spinning saw of energy at the soldiers that cut cleanly through their suits of armor, cutting them in half. He then turned around and flew straight after Laura.

" Laura!" Ian chased Laura straight back into the smelting chamber.

Laura stopped and turned around, just for a moment to see Ian one more time. She was preparing to end her life and the virus once and for all.

" Laura, what are you doing?!" Ian asked the girl.

" I am going to destroy the virus." Laura told the man.

" By killing yourself?!"

" Yes." Laura responded and then fell backwards towards the molten iron.

Ian lunged forward, towards the edge of the platform, and just barely was he able to grab ahold of Laura's arm.

" Caught ya!" Ian exclaimed.

" No! You're risking the lives of every mutant on the planet. Let me go!" Laura told the man.

" What about your life, Laura?" Ian asked the girl.

" If you do not let me, go, I will cut your arm off." Laura told the man.

" Try it! You think those flimsy little claws of yours can cut through my arms? You couldn't hurt me if you tried. I think that's what you've always been afraid of. Well not with me." Ian told the girl. He took a look at Laura's face, the sadness, and then Ian had a thought. " But.... That's not what's wrong. Is it? Laura.... I think I get it. I think I know why you're doing this.... But I don't care what they said. I never did. Clone or not. You've always been real. At least to me you are. Laura, I don't know what I mean to you, but I know what you mean to me. Damnit, I love you Laura. Now, I've lost many of my friends. And I swore to myself I would never let another person I cared about die. So, please Laura. Stop fighting me. Just let me help." Ian told the girl.

Laura looked up at Ian, and slowly her claws inched back inside her hand.

" I couldn't have said it better myself." Josh spoke. He crouched down next to Ian and grabbed Laura's arm.

" Josh what are you-?" Ian was asking.

Suddenly a bright light emitted from Josh's hand.

" I can feel it... The Virus. It's not the original.... God, it's worse in some ways... Your system is fighting it, Laura.... I can help... We can burn it out." Josh explained.

The light from his hand grew brighter and brighter.

" I... It's gone, Josh. You did.... Josh?" Laura spoke.

" Used too much... Power.... Ughhh!" Josh suddenly passed out and slipped over the edge and fell towards the pit.

" Oh, shit!" Ian jumped down, with Laura still in his hand and caught, Josh. Though unfortunately for Laura, her skin could not withstand the molten metal and heat, and she suffered burns as she hit the side of the tank. " Fuck, Laura are you okay?!" Ian asked as he pulled the two mutants to safety.

" I'm fine." Laura replied. She had suffered from the burns, but her healing factor kicked in and slowly she started to return to normal.

........

Not to long after, the rest of X-Force caught up with the group.

" Damnit, Laura, what the hell?!" Logan asked the girl.

" The virus is destroyed." Laura told the man.

" She was gonna jump into a vat of Molten metal. I saved her." Ian stated.

" She doesn't look saved kid." Domino replied.

" Elixir, ran out of power when he cured me, fell into the Vat. Ian jumped down to catch him, but I caught fire when I hit the side of the vat." Laura explained.

" I said I was sorry." Ian muttered.

" What now?" Warren asked Logan.

" Now, we're gonna blow this place to hell and then I'm gonna find Vanisher and cut his fucking head off!" Logan exclaimed.

The members of X-Force quickly departed from the facility, leaving Ian behind alone to make sure the facility was destroyed.

With one powerful blast to the plant's power core, the entire building went up in flames, resulting in an explosion so powerful the nearby cities in Japan tremored violently.

.........

Afterwards, Logan and the others tracked down the Vanisher and together they used the man to return to Angel's aerie in Colorado.

" And if you ever do that again, I will!" Logan was saying to the tied up Vanisher.

" What the hell happened to you?" Domino asked Warpath, her question cut Logan off, and made him look towards the man, who was covered in dust, dirt, and cuts.

" He dug up, Johnny.... My brother. He took my whole tribe." James told the woman.

" Who did?" Logan asked.

" Eli Bard." James replied.

Logan could see it in his eyes. The look of a man on a quest for revenge. He knew that James was ready to do whatever it took to find the man who stole his clan's bodies. But Warpath wouldn't be the only one with problems.

Ian came jumping out of the second-floor window, breathing heavily and angered.

" What the hell?!" Logan bellowed.

" What are you doing?" Warren asked the man.

" She's gone! RAHNE"S GONE!!!" Ian exclaimed.

Logan grunted.

" Oh, hell." He knew things were about to get bad. If they weren't before, they were now.