Hitchin' A Ride (Part Four)

With literally nowhere else to go onboard a ship I had no clearance on and no idea of where to go, I sat off inside of what would serve as the briefing room, waiting for other people to show up. The staff of the ship paid me no mind as I took a seat against the wall by the door and bemoaned the loss of my phone. It had been in my pocket during the fight with Ord and had not fared as well in the fray as I had. If the ship had any kind of wi-fi I could have used, I would never know.

Hisako just kept pacing around. I didn't get it. Being scared was one thing, but panicking wasn't going to solve any of our problems. From recent personal experience, taking everything too much to heart was the worst thing we could have done. For all intents and purposes, we were along for the ride. In a situation like this, the best thing to do was to buckle up, keep your sphincter clenched, and deal with whatever came next.

"Would you sit down, already?" I eventually asked after she passed by me for what had to have been the hundredth time, "You're making me tired, for goodness sake."

Hisako took a deep breath and made a good showing of trying to mellow out, "It's fine. It's cool. The X-Men do this kind of thing all the time, right? What are we supposed to do?"

I rolled my eyes. Different settings didn't make for different circumstances, "What would we be doing if all of this was happening back on Earth?" I asked rhetorically, "We'd sit down and shut up. So-," I finished talking and patted a spot on the floor next to me.

She looked at the spot and the glared at me as though I were dumb, "There are chairs in here."

Sure enough, there were. But there was a method to my supposed madness, "Not enough for everybody that's gonna be in here later. Take one if you want to. You're just gonna get kicked out of it in like ten minutes," Meanwhile, I would have broken my spot on the floor, which no one would take, and gotten comfortable.

Hisako took a quick count of the chairs in the room and a count of how many X-Men were onboard the ship with us. Being better at math than I was, it took all of five seconds for her to realize I was right, "Why is this one of the things you actually keep proper etiquette about?" She complained, half-heartedly.

I scoffed, "I don't know what you've been watching. I do try to respect most adults around me," I argued in return, "I'm not disrespectful on purpose. I just have trouble watching the things I say."

The banter that marked our particular relationship only sidetracked her for so long. As people began to filter in, starting with Agent Brand, who barely regarded us with a look, reality set back in for Hisako, "...Why aren't you scared?" She asked.

What was I to these people, some kind of action star from the movies? I was sixteen years old! "First Pixie, now you. Why does everyone think I'm not scared when stuff happens," I grumbled, "Armor, I'm just as scared as you are right now."

"Could have fooled me."

"Well, take my word for it."

It must have been time to get started. The other X-Men slowly filtered into the room, and Mister Summers stopped when he noticed Hisako and I commiserating by the door, "Solaris, Armor, are you two alright?"

The two of us looked at each other before shrugging. What was the answer to that? 'No, take us home,' probably wouldn't go over too well, given that we were stuck there, "I guess," I said, speaking for the both of us when Hisako didn't, "Yeah. We're fine. How long it stays that way remains to be seen, but not a whole lot anyone can do about that now."

There was a bit of remorse in the way he looked at us, as though he were sorry that we had gotten sucked into this Breakworld thing, but he was the man in charge. There was only so long he could dwell on certain things when he had other lives that he was responsible for. We were on a ship that could be considered friendly, but we were in the field, far away from the relatively safe confines of the Xavier Institute as far as he was concerned.

Shit was about to get real. He knew it, and he didn't want us near it, but no one had a choice in the matter.

Agent Brand walked to the front of the room, behind a giant see-through hologram of a planet, "This is the Breakworld," She said, "The Breakworld has psychics of its own. But instead of the fancy brain games you're all mostly used to, they specialize in precognition. With it, they were able to pinpoint the cause of their destruction."

Mister Summers spoke up, "Why are we supposed to be involved? It's not like the X-Men make it a habit to travel to other planets with the express purpose of turning them inside out."

"Not since Jeanie, anyway," Mister Logan chimed in.

Agent Brand shook her head. A screen behind her brought up a profile picture of Mister Rasputin, "Not sure. The Breakworld's psychics, they call 'em the Augurs, they hunted for the X-Man destined to destroy their world, and the mighty Colossus got the nod," She looked across the display to the man in question, "I'm assuming you're as mystified by this as the rest of us, Rasputin."

A grave expression crossed Mister Rasputin's face, "No, I'm not. I have been planning to destroy the Breakworld since I was a child," He said, entirely seriously. Everyone in the room turned to look at him in shock. This was news to all of us. The uncomfortable atmosphere dragged on for a bit until he finally broke into a grin, one that was quickly erased when no one else did, "...This is why I don't make so many jokes. I never know when is good."

Poor guy. Stay in your lane.

Agent Brand was not amused, "Great. Let's skip to why you're here," She said dryly.

"Because you kidnapped us?" Dr. McCoy supplied oh-so-helpfully.

"We're not past that yet?"

"It was four hours ago," Miss Pryde jumped in.

Agent Brand ignored the facts, at least in that department, "The moment the Augurs pinpointed Rasputin, an armada was sent towards Earth. On the way to his cell, Ord broke free and contacted the Breakworld. That armada is now headed towards us."

By now, Mister Summers had his fill of sitting and stood resting his hands on the back of his chair, "Just like you planned," He said, after taking his time to think through everything that had occurred since we'd been onboard, "I wondered why you were so specific about giving our coordinates earlier. Not like any of us would know where we were."

Agent Brand nodded, "I needed to draw them away from Earth. Now the best way to keep them from blowing this ship into fragments is to get to the Breakworld before they can. At our current speed, we should just make it."

Dr. McCoy sounded a mite nettled at what he was hearing, "This plan seems overwhelmingly flawed, Agent Brand. Refuge in the lion's mouth? Won't every living soul on Breakworld be looking to put Peter down?"

"You think I haven't thought of that, Cookie Monster?" She shot back, "When are you guys gonna figure out that this is bigger than all of you."

The door to the room slid open revealing Miss Frost, leaning against the doorway. Wherever Mister Summers had taken her earlier, she didn't look much better, "When you figure out who you're dealing with, you silly bint," She slowly walked into the room before nearly collapsing into the chair that Mister Summers had vacated, "Sorry I'm late. I think I picked up the gist of it on the way. Although Agent Brand did forget to mention that she's terrified."

"Not of you," Agent Brand quickly asserted, "The Breakworld is governed by one principle: domination. By violence, war, extermination..." She shifted images on the screen. It changed to some big, ugly guy with sharp teeth and a similar appearance to Ord. His ornate, royal red armor made him look rather important, "Powerlord Kruun, of the Open Hand. The global ruler of the Breakworld. His rise to power did not, as you've probably guessed, involve an electoral college."

Mister Logan raised an eyebrow, "And he's what you're afraid of?" He asked. True, the guy looked like a rough customer, but no more so than anyone else the X-Men had to deal with.

Agent Brand let out a laugh, "Oh, how I wish," The next image was of a small satellite off to the side from Breakworld, "Somewhere, possibly here on their smallest moon, the Breakworlders have built a failsafe. A missile. We're fairly certain this thing could crack the Earth in half."

"Funderful," I muttered before raised my hand to try and get someone's attention without interrupting. Something had been eating at me for a while. Eventually enough people started looking at me that it stopped the conversation, "Uh, yo? I got a question."

I felt like a kid in school. Agent Brand's sigh before she responded didn't help, "Yes, kid? What is it? Make it quick."

"I was just thinking," I started to say, ignoring the 'oh no' from Hisako, "If that prophecy is right, and Miss Pryde's boyfriend is the reason this Breakworld place gets destroyed…" I trailed off because I didn't know how to put it without sounding awful, "…It's just, he was already dead when Ord found him, so why the fuck did you let him bring him back to life? Wouldn't leaving him dead have just solved the problem? No offense," I added, looking over at the man I'd been speaking of.

I didn't mean to, but my question put a stop to the briefing. The room went dead silent for a bit. Even Mister Rasputin had to admit I had a point, "No-no, that is... actually really good question," He said.

Agent Brand seemed miffed to have to answer the question of some kid, especially because it had nothing to do with the mission. Yet, it was a question everyone else was curious about. I could tell they were all happy that I asked, so they could stooge it off to some teenager being concerned with something irrelevant and remain professional. Whatever. I would fall on that grenade for the sake of curiosity.

Brand scowled at me. I just shrugged innocently. I felt it was a perfectly reasonable thing to ask, given that it was clear S.W.O.R.D didn't give a damn about us, "We didn't know Ord was going to bring him back. And by the time we did, and by the time we knew Rasputin was the one in the prophecy, he was back, and you all weren't giving him up. Which leads us to here. Happy?"

It was directed at me, an attempt to unnerve me with her military sternness. She failed, "No. Not really. I got teleported onto a spaceship, and I'm getting ready to fight a whole planet full of Ord. Why the fuck would I be happy about this?" My smart-aleck answer got Miss Frost to smirk and Mister Logan to snicker. Small victories.

"Solaris, watch your mouth," Miss Pryde admonished me in the most insincere tone I'd ever heard her use… and it was for my cursing. Not for my talking shit. So it was officially agreed that we all didn't like this lady. Cool.

Agent Brand could sense that this entire briefing hadn't done much to sway any of the X-Men to sympathize, so she went with flat-out laying her cards on the table, "The Earth can't mount an attack on a superior military force, and we can't defend against theirs," She said with a sigh, "I don't know why they've fixated on Rasputin. Luck of the draw, maybe. But I didn't kidnap you all for shits and giggles, or even for the time I'll buy. I did it because right now, I need superheroes."

There it was. This was a 'save the world' situation. Being that we (more like 'they', as in the X-Men) were in the business of saving Earth on a regular basis, there was next to no choice in the matter.

I looked around the room and saw that everyone was set on going forward. Of course they were. Saving the day was what these people did.

Satisfied that no one was taking her to task any further, she continued with the briefing, "Plan A is we land before they find us, find this missile, and disable it. Then we can figure out why-."

"Agent Brand!" One of the S.W.O.R.D. underlings cried out from his place at the controls, "They're here!"

Several fast-moving ships came at our ship from behind, and they came in firing torpedos, every one that hit the hull making us shake where we stood.

This seemed to catch her off-guard, "Already?" She said in shock before shaking it off and getting back to business, "Okay then. Time to the Breakworld?"

"14 minutes to clean orbit."

"Time until the ship is shredded?"

"A lot less."

"Get the Splinter up for thrust," She ordered before turning to us, "All of you, hold on tight," An expensive, speedy, high-tech escape vessel rocketed out of the front of the ship, making a break for the planet below. We weren't on it. We remained on the shredded excuse for a spacecraft that had been bombarded in the first place, "Prettiest ship in the fleet," She said with a grin as the enemy fire tapered off and began to focus on the swift-moving vessel that had broken off from us.

Dr. McCoy watched it go with a frown on his face, "Not to be picky, Agent Brand. But if this 'Splinter' is such a wonderful ship, shouldn't we be in it?"

Agent Brand shook her head and made her way for the door, "No way that thing lands undetected. The best those men can hope for is capture."

Wow. Sending out the tiny, faster ship had bought us a moment, but our ship was still burning and falling apart. Pretty callous outlook when it came to the S.W.O.R.D. guys manning the Splinter, though.

Mister Logan kept his eyes on her back as she moved past him for the exit, "You tell them that?" He asked.

Agent Brand didn't turn back. I had to at least give her credit. The woman didn't flinch, "They're soldiers. They bought us a few minutes, as ordered. Let's not waste them," She said, leading us out of the briefing room to a preparation bay, "Come with me. We'll get the rest of you suited up."

True enough, there were uniforms that looked a lot like the gear the X-Men wore waiting for us. I found myself amongst the others wearing the yellow and black. It was odd. Not the actual material. It felt a lot like the training squad suits that we wore. More like, what it meant felt odd.

Then again, I was probably looking too much into it. This was a desperate situation. It was the only reason those clothes were so much as touching my skin at this point.

I looked over at Hisako who looked like she was having thoughts like mine. Her uniform had sleeves a tad too big for her, because it had originally been for Miss Pryde. They'd gotten together a uniform for Mister Summers, but he already came dressed for the job, so it fell to me. It was a good thing I was just about the same size as him.

I had a uniform on that made me a dead ringer for the X-Men, an earwig in that could translate alien languages, and a breather behind my teeth to keep outside air purified.

"We rendezvous at the glowing red dot. The GPS maps should guide you, but if you lose 'em, you're looking for Attur-Hei."

Dr. McCoy said, testing the effectiveness of his translator, "Palace of the Corpse?" The rest of us caught that as well.

Agent Brand checked her weapons while the rest of us who needed to finished getting dressed, "It's a tomb. Got dug up recently. Our source in the Breakworld says it might tie in to the Rasputin prophecy."

"You guys have a source?" Mister Summers asked.

"Not now," Agent Brand said, waving off any further explanations, "We get on the world, find out how Rasputin's supposed to be a threat, visibly nullify that threat, and take out the missile they've got pointed at the Earth. Questions can wait until we're on-world."

Mister Rasputin held to that request for five seconds, "Why haven't you killed me?" He blurted out, getting Miss Pryde to pull at his arm. It might have been a 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth' kind of situation, "It's the simplest solution. I believe you are a fan of those."

Miss Pryde looked my way and gestured to Mister Rasputin. I shrugged apologetically. As I'd asked the question earlier, I was kind of responsible for putting the thought in his head. I didn't think it would persist, though.

Agent Brand stared down the big Russian man, "I don't like prophecies. I don't like anyone telling me how my life's gonna play out," She said, "These Augurs have a pretty good track record, though. The Breakworlders believe you'll destroy them. They think the Earth is a threat, and are therefore a threat to the Earth," Finishing her maintenance on her handgun, she cocked it, "So we convince them the prophecy is wrong, or we make damn sure it comes true."

So either we blow up their planet, or they blow up ours. Hopefully, it wouldn't come to that. None of this seemed like it was going to end peacefully.

One of Brand's S.W.O.R.D underlings ran into the room, "Two bruteships are circling back. Less than a minute."

"Time to go, boys and girls," Agent Brand said, a bit more urgency in her body language than I'd seen up to that point, "We've got two vessels. Split up."

She headed one way into one escape pod with Dr. McCoy, Miss Frost and Mister Summers, while Mister Logan, Miss Pryde, Mister Rasputin, and Hisako got into the other. It was then I realized that I was going to be the odd man out.

So, like an idiot, I stood hesitating between stepping into one pod or the other. Of all the things to waste time hesitating about, "Wait. I-I-I, who do I-?"

Thank God for Dr. McCoy. The big blue beast of a man took mercy on me and yanked me into the escape pod with him, "Come. This way, my boy."

Not my finest moment, and I was supposed to be the leader of my squad of would-be X-Men back at school. If Hisako had seen that, then relayed it to the others later, I would have never lived it down. I just sat down, strapped in and kept my eyes down so no one looked at me. Not that they did. There were more important things to worry about than my little lapse of thought, but as a teenager, the entire universe of course revolved around me.

...And the entire universe wanted to kill me. Our escape pod shot out from the spaceship, and, well, I never actually got into that pressure machine we used during Field Day, but if I had, it probably would have felt similar.

I was stuck to my chair, unable to move my head or even my fingers. The pressure on my eyes was unbelievable. It was the nastiest head rush of my life, and every part of my body started to hurt. All I could do was shut my eyes and yell.

"Stop screaming, Mister Marcher. You're fine now."

All of a sudden, instead of being in a dark, tightly crammed escape shuttle, feeling like my body was about to pull apart and compact in on itself at the same time, we were in a Victorian-inspired parlor, sitting around a table with tea. I patted myself down. The pain was gone, "...What the hell?"

Everyone else just sat there drinking as though I were the one who was odd for questioning all of it. And then I remembered who I'd been in the shuttle with.

Miss Frost. A psychic. Conjuring up some mental fantasy world was just mental calisthenics to her. Bringing the rest of us in though?

I looked over to the side when I saw Dr. McCoy offer me a cup and saucer. I took it, even though I didn't want it. I wasn't really a tea kind of guy, "Thank you," I said, before looking around at everyone else. Hisako said I'd been acting way too cool about everything, but this was another level – having a tea party while we were hurtling through a planet's atmosphere, "Uh, is all of this okay?"

Miss Frost looked up from where she'd been lounging in a chair, "It's just a projection, Mister Marcher. No harm whatsoever. You can't feel anything regarding the outside world any longer can you?" She asked with a smirk.

Dr. McCoy let out a hum of agreement while taking a sip of his tea, "It's very thoughtful of you, Emma," He said once he'd swallowed.

The headmistress in white seemed very pleased with herself, which, considering the alternative of me nearly blacking out until whenever we landed, was justified, "Well, Good Lord, why should we endure all that centrifugal nonsense? Two lumps, dear," She said offhandedly to Mister Summers as he poured her drink, "We can all live in the now once we're on solid ground."

"I just want to make sure you're not overdoing it, honey," Mister Summers said before jerking his head over to me, "Also, Bellamy probably thinks he should know if he's about to die."

Yes. Kind of important, that.

"No one's going to die," Agent Brand said to me as if it was a certainty, "Proximity sensors will hit the jets miles before we land. The nav package is tiny, but it should drop us within a ten-click radius of the target. The first thing you learn on an op, kid, always have a back door."

Being around so many calm customers started to mellow me out as well. And the atmosphere was definitely helping, "Oh. Cool. I guess I'll just... roll with the punches and relax?"

"That would be for the best, darling," Miss Frost said, "There will be plenty of opportunities for you to lose all semblance of composure once we land, I'm sure."

I looked down at my cup of mentally conjured tea, hoping that it had the answers to my existence within its murky brown waves. It did look like the real deal.

I looked around at the battle-hardened heroes and intergalactic operatives. I had to measure up to that somehow, "...I was just supposed to play video games this weekend," I muttered into my drink before taking a sip.

Yep. Even hurtling through the dead of space inside of a psychic projection, tea was still gross.