Uncanny Cable and X-Force

Chapter 7: On the Warpath- Part 2

By

The Uncanny R-Man

Disclaimer- All familiar characters belong to Marvel Comics.

The skies above Egypt-

Cable's X-Force team were doing battle with one of the X-Men's oldest enemies. They were actually doing battle with Apocalypse's lackeys, but it was only a matter of time until the immortal mutant made an appearance. The team had been heading to Egypt to take down Apocalypse's Horsemen, but had been surprised by the sudden arrival of the Celestial ship that he used as his base of operations. As if things couldn't have been worse for X-Force, one of the Horsemen was Warpath's dead brother brought back to life, the one-time X-Man known as Thunderbird. The former X-Man had leapt from Apoaclypse's ship and landed on the nose of X-Force's Blackbird jet. Warpath had clambered out onto the wing of the jet in an attempt to appeal to his brother.

'John, stop this crap!' Warpath begged his brother. 'You're going to kill us all!'

'Look at you, Jimmy.' Thunderbird chuckled. 'You're all grown up, a real man now. How about you prove how much of a man you are, squirt?'

'Brother, please.' Warpath continued as he carefully crept along the side of the Blackbird. 'I don't want to fight you.'

'Guess that's why the master chose me to be War and not you, kid.' Thunderbird laughed in derision. 'I'm gonna squash you like a bug!'

With alarming speed for somebody his size, Thunderbird charged at his younger brother, sending them tumbling off the Blackbird down to the ground below.

'Jimmy!' Thornn yelled as she saw her teammate plummet down to the ground below. 'We have to help him!'

'We've got out own problems, kid.' Mystique responded as she pointed at the rest of the Horsemen standing on the deck of Apoaclypse's ship. 'It looks like that Holocaust guy's about to attack!'

Sure enough, Holocaust had aimed his arm-mounted energy cannon at the approaching Blackbird. Deadpool pushed his way to the open hatch in the side of the Blackbird.

'Now it's my time to shine!' The Merc-With-The-Mouth grinned as he pulled out his swords. 'Watch and learn, ladies!'

Deadpool leapt out of the Blackbird and prepared to battle Holocaust. Unfortunately, Holocaust grabbed him right out of the air.

'Uh… Parlay?' Deadpool offered lamely. Holocaust just glowered back at him.

'You have no idea who you are trifling with, little man.' Holocaust said as he pulled Deadpool up to eyelevel. 'I should suck the life out of you right now.

'I'm charmed, but I don't do that kind of thing on a first date.' Deadpool quipped as he lashed out at Holocaust with his swords. The Horseman Death howled in pain and clutched his face, dropping Deadpool in the process.

'Ahh! Fool!' Holocaust hissed in anger as the exo-armor that kept him alive healed around the wound. 'You will not get another chance like that!'

'Betcha all the money I have I'll kick your ass all over this fancy ship!' Deadpool retorted as he stopped fighting and started to rifle around in his belt pouches. 'Just gimmie a second here… I don't think I brought any money out with me. Do you accept Visa?'

Holocaust grabbed the Merc-With-The-Mouth by the throat.

'Erk. Guess not.' Deadpool grunted. 'How about MasterCard?'

'You are the most annoying being I have ever had the displeasure of encountering.' Holocaust sneered as he began to absorb Deadpool's life force, leaving the Merc-With-A-Mouth a desiccated corpse. Much to the Horseman's disbelief, the withered Deadpool quickly healed himself. 'What the Hell?'

'Healing factor, bitches!' Deadpool grinned as he pulled out some plastic explosive from one of his belt punches. He slapped the explosive on Holocaust's face. The villains clutched his face in an attempt to ride himself of the plastic blocking his vision, once again dropping Deadpool in the process. The Merc-With-The-Mouth pressed the detonator, setting off the explosive and blowing a gaping hole in Holocausts' exo-armor.

'Damn you!' Holocaust howled as his energy form began to dissipate through the hole in his armour. 'You will pay dearly for this!'

'So says the guy leaking out of his own suit.' Deadpool retorted.

Elsewhere on the deck of the ship, the rest of X-Force had touched down and were dealing with the remaining Horsemen.

'Been a long time, eh Bishop?' Fitzroy grinned as taunted his old enemy. 'what do you say we do a little catching up?'

'I have just the right idea to get us started.' Bishop said as he levelled his gun at Fitzroy and promptly shot him in the knee.

'Ow! What the hell?' Fitzroy howled as he fell to the deck, clutching his wounded knee. 'I thought we were going to catch up!'

'I'm not an idiot, Fitzroy.' Bishop retorted as he aimed his weapon at his nemesis' head. 'You should have had the decency to stay dead.'

'Yeah, well you know what I'm like.' Fitzroy grinned as he grabbed Bishop's leg. 'Decency isn't exactly my strong point.'

Bishop instantly felt himself grow week as Fitzroy began to absorb his life force. He was the Horseman Famine after all.

'You were talking about not being an idiot?' Fitzroy grinned as he got to his feet. 'I'm Famine remember? It makes a change to have somebody else absorb your energy for a change, doesn't it?'

'Go to Hell.' Bishop spat back before coupling over in pain.

'Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't quite catch that.' Fitzroy laughed, cupping an hand over his ear. 'Did you say something?' The Horseman Pestilence then felt a pair of guns pressed against the back of his head. It was Sage and Mystique.

'Ah, ladies…' Fitzroy chuckled as he gave the two women a charming smile. 'Would you care to negotiate?' Sage and Mystique didn't respond as they both shot the villain in the head.

'About time too.' Mystique grimace din disgust. 'That guy was seriously starting to piss me off. That haircut alone should have been reason enough to kill him.'

Elsewhere, Thornn and Marrow were left to deal with Caliban, now the Horseman known as Pestilence.

'We gotta be careful with that guy.' Marrow recommended to her teammate. 'One touch and we get infected. I don't know about you, but I don't wanna end my days hacking up blood.'

'There's got to be some way to convince him.' Thornn responded. 'Caliban's a nice guy, right? Apocalypse must have done something to his mind. The poor guy's been brainwashed so many times that he's bound not to know what's going on.'

'Sympathy can wait.' Marrow countered as he prepare two bone daggers. 'We've got a fight to finish!'

'WHO DISTURBS MY SLUMBER?'

Both teams of combatants stopped fighting at the sound of the booming voice. The whir of an elevator alerted everybody to the arrival of Apocalypse. Far from being the all-powerful immortal mutant that X-Force knew him to be, Apocalypse was wizened and weak.

'Hey look, it's Mumm-Ra the Ever-Living.' Deadpool joked.

Apocalypse ignored the Merc-With-The-Mouth's jokes and regarded Cable and the others.

'Why have you interrupted my rest, Askani'son?' Apocalypse asked. 'Have to come to kill a weakened man?'

'It's not like you to beg for mercy.' Cable stated. 'You must be getting soft in your old age.'

'Soft? Weak?' Apocalypse scoffed. 'You have no idea of my powers, but do not wish to show you my strength as of yet. Leave us and I will allow my Horsemen to let you live.'

'Look around you, Apocalypse.' Domino chipped in. 'we neat your Horsemen. They're all dead, or at least in the process of dying.'

'You think that I would choose weaklings to be my Horsemen?' Apocalypse laughed at the thought. 'It will take a lot more then bullets to destroy my Horsemen!' As if to support his comments, the seemingly slain Fitzroy got up to his feet and grabbed Mystique by the throat, having already healed from the bullet wounds to the brain.

'Give me the word, Master and I will suck the life right out of her.' Fitzroy hissed angrily.

'You will leave them be.' Apocalypse ordered his Horseman. 'They are not to be harmed.' Fitzroy did as he was told and released Mystique.

'But Thunderbird said you sent them to kill us.' A confused Thornn said.

'They were not acting on my orders.' Apocalypse explained. 'They will be suitably punished for this discrepancy.'

'Hey, what happened to Jimmy?' Thornn asked as she looked around. 'The last time I saw him, his brother tackled him off the Blackbird.'

Back down on the ground-

Warpath dusted himself off and got up to his feet just in time to see Cable and the rest of the team levitate down to greet him. Apparently, his brother had come off worse after they had plummeted to the ground.

'So, did we win?' The Apache mutant asked. 'We have to get John back to the mansion so Jean and the others can fix Apocalypse's brainwashing.

Unfortunately, Thunderbird's form began to fade away as Apocalypse and the other Horsemen teleported away. Warpath pounded the ground with an anguished yell.

'No! We have to get after them! They have my brother, dammit!'

'Jimmy, I'm sorry.' Cable shook his head sadly. 'We'll have to find a way to get your brother back another day.'

'Apocalypse is going to pay for doing this to my brother.' Warpath grimaced angrily. 'I'm gonna rip his stinking heart out!'

TBC…

Next: Right On

Sage discovers that Cameron Hodge and the mutant-hating organization known as the Right are stockpiling weapons to wipe out mutants. Will X-Force be able to stop Hodge before he kills all the mutants? Tune in next time to find out!