The Enchantress turned to him with a sharp movement and gave him a look of sheer malice. He wanted to shrink back, and probably did flinch. But he felt it was important to keep up an old poker-face bluff, at the present. Even if these jokers could pulverize him by doing little more than looking at him.
"Jamie," Moira warned.
"Watch your lip, kid," advised the Abomination. Both Jamies swallowed.
Baron Mordo held up his hand to halt the other two. "I'm not certain of the candidate's name. We just know you have a being here of great power, and we're going to take him back with us. Where is he?"
Moira said, hesitantly, "You mean Magneto? He's but a tiny baby now. He'd be of no use to you."
"Oh, Magneto," said Baron Mordo, waving his hand in disdain. "I don't want him. He'd never work well with us, anyway. He'd want to run it and, well... No. There's another mutant you have here, of great and protean power. Do you know of whom I speak?"
The Scotswoman's heart froze within her. There was only one of whom he could be speaking. Her son.
Mutant X.
"She looks as though she knows, Mordo," murmured the Enchantress. "Should I make her talk?"
"Only if necessary, my dear Amora," said Mordo. "Well, my dear? Show us to our mystery mutant, and who knows? We might even let you go."
Before he knew what was happening, Jamie-in-the-box was pulled out and grasped roughly by the Abomination. "Or I could just tear this kid here apart, and then the next one, and any more I find after that. What'll it be?"
"This," gasped box-Jamie.
With that, he shimmered and faded from the Abomination's grasp, and remerged with Mainbrain Jamie's body.
"Hey," said the Abomination, in surprise. "How'd he do that?"
Without reply, Mainbrain Jamie did a fadeout as well, converting himself to energy and merging with the body of another Jamie on the other end of the island. "Damn," said Mordo.
"You want I should go after him?" asked the Abomination.
"No need," said Mordo. "We've got our dear doctor here to show us what we want. Don't we, doctor?"
Moira drew a shuddering breath. "You dinna understand. He's too much for even you to handle. Power beyond even what you know. I canna do it."
"Oh? You cannot?" Mordo paused. "Well, then, let me show you what we can do to you."
She stepped back, but it made not the slightest bit of difference. Mordo raised his hand. It glowed.
The doctor immediately found herself within a Realm.
Things crawled, flapped, or ambled towards her. There were mists and horrible bursts of bright light alternating with the darkness, limning things half-seen that were better not seen at all. Murmurings and screams. Tentacles, arms, fingers reaching for her. And from the background, a pair of snake's jaws with no head to embody them, shooting forward as if magnetized, opening wide, fangs dripping venom and ready to sink them into her face-
She screamed.
Then she was back within her own reality.
Moira fell to her knees, shaking.
"That was not an illusion," Mordo assured her. "Your answer?"
She was down on her hands and knees. The Enchantress stepped forward, grabbed her by the hair, and pulled her head up to face her. "I can show you realms that would make that look like Heaven," she promised.
"Ye dinna know what ye're handlin' here," she said. "It might destroy even you."
"I see," said Mordo. "Well, then, we'll just take it ourselves. Dispatch her, Amora."
"No! No," said Moira. "I'll..."
"Yes?" Mordo squatted till his face was on a level with hers.
Moira shook her head. "I'll do it. But it'll take some time."
"Just make sure it doesn't take too long, bitch," said the Abomination.
-M-
"How. Long. Have. We. Got?"
"Not long, if what I've seen makes any sense," admitted Jamie. He was crouched with Legion under cover of an outcropping near the sea. "Your buddies are mostly out for the count. Which means it's up to you and me to find a way to get 'em back in action, and figure out a way to take 'em down."
"If. I. Can. Hail. The. Ship. We. Have. Weapons. Aboard," said Legion, pulling out a communicator.
"Do it," said Jamie.
Legion spoke into the device. Nothing happened. He shook it, tried again, with the same result. After checking its power supply to make sure nothing was awry, he turned his face towards Jamie again. "No. Use," he said. "Interference. Something. Blanketing. The. Island."
"Figures," said Jamie. "They wouldn't want us trying to ring in help."
"Then. It. Is. Up. To. Us," Legion replied.
"Yeah," Jamie said, then paused. "Yeah, it is. And you know what, Liege?"
"What. Jamie?"
"We're gonna pull it off. Now listen. Just...listen."
-M-
Minutes later, a squad of three Jamies and two Legions approached the laboratory building as stealthily as possible. If there was some sort of sensory alarm net the villains had set about the building, there was nothing they could do to counter it. So the only thing they could do was hope there wasn't.
And, as it turned out, there wasn't. Jamie thanked God for the arrogance of powerful villains.
One Jamie set his hand to the palmprint device in the front door and was admitted, crossing the first two fingers on his other hand that the servos which opened the door weren't loud enough for Mordo or the others to hear. He hesitated. This was like some mission from a bad World War II movie. He had no experience whatever in pulling something like this off.
Another Jamie nudged him and whispered in his ear. "Well? What're you waiting for?"
Without a word, the first Jamie gave him a thumb's up and began to creep into the building. The others, both Jamies and Legions, followed. The building's alarm system was programmed to recognize both of them as friendlies, so there wouldn't be any horns going off or bells ringing to alert others of their presence. They did have to pass cameras, and he silently prayed that none of the three villains was watching the monitor system.
It was the work of but minutes to penetrate into the testing room where the Special Exec and the Ministers had their battle. Fascination was still paralyzed, Wardog was still on the floor, Zeitgeist was splayed against the tiles by some sort of energy web on his chest, and Cobweb was out cold as well.
But she was clutching a piece of paper in her hand.
Zeitgeist, however, was still conscious. He turned his head their way. The Legions and Jamies signalled him for silence. He complied.
None of them knew quite why the immaterialist couldn't just sink through the floor and escape, but they had a feeling the mystic energy that trapped him had something to do with it. One Jamie and one Legion grabbed a shoulder apiece and hauled him out from under it. When he was freed, their hands passed through him.
Zeitgeist smiled, and saluted them. Then he pointed towards Fascination.
The Jamie and Legion Squad surrounded her, shook her, tried to break her out of her paralytic trance. One Jamie drew back his hand to slap her, the way he'd seen heroes treat hysterical women in movies. A Legion frowned and grabbed that Jamie's wrist.
Zeitgeist took a hand in the matter, merging with Fascination for a long moment. The beauty in blue quivered, blinked, then opened her mouth in a silent scream just as Zeitgeist walked out of her. It was a blessing that she couldn't speak, at the moment. She came back to herself, momentarily, and laid hands on a Jamie's and Legion's shoulders to thank them, with a smile.
Considering her looks, Madrox had to admit he didn't mind that at all. But there were other things to be done.
Wardog would be a toughie. One Jamie apiece grabbed his arms, two Legions sat on his legs, and a third Jamie knelt on his chest, put a hand on his mouth, and slapped him roughly on the side of the head. A few more slaps had Wardog roughly stirring, growling lowly in his throat. Zeitgeist and Fascination looked at each other in concern.
The head of the Special Executive was stirring to life. His eyes popped open, and the first thing he saw was Jamie Madrox with a finger to his lips. Wardog hadn't lived through as many battles as he had by being slow on the uptake, so he subsided. The fivesome got off his body and helped him up.
That left only Cobweb, and Fascination was the first to kneel by her fallen form and try to revive her. But the Enchantress's bolt had taken too much of a toll on her. She wouldn't come around. Wardog made a cutting motion with his hand, which translated to: Leave her.
But there was the matter of the paper in her hand.
One Legion took it, unfolded it, read it, and passed it to Wardog. He scanned it and passed it to Fascination. Zeitgeist read it over her shoulder. She gave it to a Jamie, and the other two clustered around to read it. It bore few words:
Fascination - Enchantress
Zeitgeist - Abomination
Wardog - Mordo
Legion and Madrox - Mordo and whatever else
Jamie looked up angrily. He had to resist an urge to crumple the paper then and there. Cobweb had known what was about to come down before it ever came. If her warning had been more efficient, the lot of them would have been prepared. Then again, perhaps she had foreseen their defeat, and knew it would be unavoidable. Cold comfort, that.
Wardog made a jerking motion toward the door with his thumb. Time to get a move on.
He folded the paper and stuck it in his pocket. What the hell. The past didn't matter, even if it was the future. They'd sort things out later.
On the way, he split off another body and sent it to another room, hoping he'd be sneaky enough to make it.
Jamie led the way. He knew where the bad guys were going-no, make that had gone. And as he walked silently through the hall, he flashed on the fact that, believe it or not, he was involved in a bona fide superhero operation.
He didn't know if he liked that or not.
But he did know he didn't have any choice.
-M-
"Hurry it up, woman," grated Mordo.
Moira MacTaggart, at the controls of the lockdown system, didn't give him a glance. "This system takes time. We didn't design it to be easy to breach."
The Enchantress stepped beside her, with a hand that glowed dangerously red. "I could breach it easily with the power in this one hand. Would you care to feel it, mortal?"
The Scotswoman took a breath, then said, "Let me do it my way, and you'll be able to manage him. Maybe. If you don't, you're going to be facing a demon even you'll have trouble handling."
"I doubt that," said the Asgardian.
"She has a point, Amora," Mordo noted. "Stand back and let her work. But if she doesn't perform..." He didn't finish the sentence.
The Abomination, leaning against a wall with his arms crossed, said, "What's so hotshot about this guy they've got in there, Baron? How can he stack up to us, power-wise? Hell, we could take over the whole planet right about now."
The Baron favored him with a knowing smile. "The sources I consulted indicated that this being is a mutant with the power to warp reality. If we can bend him to our will, and I'm assured that between the Enchantress and myself, we can, then we will have a weapon that even Strange's band, the Avengers, and the Fantastic Four put together cannot counter. It will make for a glorious conquest, Emil. And after this realm, there are a number of dimensions to fall before our wake."
"Asgard among them," said the Enchantress.
"Yes, my dear. Especially Asgard."
"I agreed to this only to get a chance to destroy my creation, the Valkyrie," she continued. "If this being is the asset you say he is, then perhaps we finally will have the weapon to topple the Realm Eternal. If not, I will leave the three of you flat."
Moira shuddered. Only one lock remained. Her son, Mutant X, remained dormant. There was no telling how long he would remain so once he reached the open air. If the God in whom she believed as a child was present, she hoped He would hear her prayers now...
"Hey, Bar-on!"
The four within turned almost as one in reaction.
That was about all they had time to do before they were swamped by an onrushing mob of multiplying Madroxes and Legions. Among them were three other fighting-mad Special Executives. The press of bodies was so great that even Mordo, the Enchantress, and the Abomination were staggered for a moment.
Several Jamies grabbed Moira and got her under cover.
Then the battle was on.
The Abomination roared and tried to crush two Madroxes in his arms, but two other Jamies retracted the two within their bodies. His great green arms swept out, trying to smash, trying to pulp, but the green-suited youths and the squat alien replicates ducked under his grasp. Hugging the ground, one Jamie said, desperately, "Zeitgeist..."
And a black-clad being with a grim expression passed through as many intervening bodies as he had to in order to reach the rampaging green man, enter his body, and turn his power on full force.
The Abomination grasped his own throat. "What in hell?" he gasped. "AhhhhAHHHHHH..."
Jamie knew what it felt like, only not to the degree that the Abomination was experiencing it. It felt like being turned into a Popsicle from the inside out.
The gamma-powered Goliath staggered, smashing into equipment, setting off sparks, demolishing whatever was within his path. It took almost half a minute, an eternity where Zeitgeist was concerned. But, in the end, the great green behemoth tottered to the floor and lay there, insensate...out cold.
Zeitgeist emerged from his foe's body, with a tight smile of triumph.
"Way to go, Big Black," said a Jamie, and tried to high-five him but only had his hand pass through Zeitgeist's.
The Enchantress was blasting about her with her powerbolts, scattering combatants and leaving burning flooring wherever she struck. She snarled like a panther, and Jamie, watching her, was reminded of Maleficient in SLEEPING BEAUTY. Not a reassuring image. He had no desire for her to suddenly turn into a dragon.
Her hand glowed with power, and, before the targeted Jamie could move out of the way, she loosed a shot of mystic energy at him. There was no time to duck or run.
But there was time for one Legion to interpose his body before the Jamie's, and take the hit...
...and fall, burning, to the floor, with vacant eyes.
"LEGION!" screamed at least two of the Jamies. The other replicates of both human and alien turned in shock to the sight.
Another Legion was dead.
A Legion taken from only an hour in the future.
The Enchantress smiled, and had time to give off a brief cackle.
That was before Fascination leaped over the back of two other Legions, plowed into her, drug her down regardless of her power, stared fiercely into her eyes, and grabbed her blonde-tressed head with both hands.
She channeled every bit of mind-blasting energy directly from her hands into the Enchantress's brain.
If the sorceress had even two seconds more, she might have been able to destroy her foe.
But as it was, the Enchantress's eyes went from tool-hard sharpness, to surprise, to vagueness, to focusing on nothing at all. Nothing anyone with normal senses could perceive, anyway.
Even an Asgardian can become totally disconnected. And the Enchantress was.
Fascination smashed her foe's head roughly against the floor. She didn't seem to mind. She didn't even seem to notice.
That left only Baron Mordo, and he was proving formidable indeed. A spell of repulsion had scattered the Jamies and Legions away from him in a circle. Now he stood, with both hands raised, his forefingers and pinkies pointing as his middle and third fingers were bent inward, and the rhyming chant he offered didn't promise anything good for those he was facing. There were invocations of Satannish and Cyttorak. There was an oath by the Twelve Moons of Munnopor.
But before he could get to asking Dormammu for a favor to cap it off, Mordo was faced by a lycanthropic figure who shouldered through the press and came on like a juggernaut. He aimed one hand at him and let fly a spellbolt.
Wardog caught it on his metal arm and it spattered off, like grease on a skillet. "I've heard cold iron is a pretty good charm against magicians," he said. "And I guess steel doesn't do too badly, either."
With that, he leaped inside Mordo's circle of protection, grabbed him, got behind him, and had the magician's neck in the crook of his artificial limb. He squeezed until Mordru cried out.
"Wherever you send me, you're going, too," swore Wardog. "And you'll never live to see it. Care to try?"
Mordo gasped in pain.
"I said, CARE TO TRY?"
"No! No, I-I surrender!"
"Better," said Wardog. "But not good enough."
"What? What do you want?"
"I want a favor," Wardog asserted.
"Are you insane?"
The leader of the Executive squeezed a little harder, and Mordru fell silent.
"You see that little man over there? The one your woman just killed?" Wardog pointed with his free arm. A host of Legions and Jamies were clustered about the body of the slain Legion.
"I, I see him, yes," said Mordo.
"We've been trying to copy the lad in green's duplication power into our boy, so that he can clone himself a new body before he dies. Now, you've just complicated things. Tell me you can do it for us, or so help me, I'll..."
"I can try! I can try!"
"One trick, mate, and you're flipping dead."
"Let me, let me gesture. Let me speak."
Wardog gave him a cautionary squeeze. "I'd better like what I hear you say."
There was a silence in the room. Mordo carefully raised his hands, made the magician's sign with both of them, and pointed one towards a Jamie and the other towards a standing Legion.
Then he spoke.
"Let my left hand take from one, power,
And unto the other give.
Through my right hand, deal salvation,
And let the bearer live.
In the name of the great Vishanti, so let it be."
There was a sharp and brilliant ray of power lancing from his left hand into the body of the targeted Jamie and one from his right into the form of the designated Legion. The stricken Jamie gasped, feeling something within him, undefinable but definitely there, taken, halved, and passed along a mystical tunnel, away from him.
If it was enough to save Legion, it would be worth it.
The small alien quivered as he was struck, but stood his ground. Even Moira MacTaggart was up to see it, and she dared not voice her hopes.
Finally, the rays faded from Mordo's hands. Wardog still held him tightly. To Legion, the wolfman said, "Try it. Not teleporting, but copying."
The Legion-self placed both hands to his temples, as his surviving selves gathered round to see what was to come.
Two seconds later, there were two Legions in the midst of their circle.
This was followed by five, six, and, finally, twelve Legions. The eyes of all his brethren went wide, and all their mouths dropped open. But none, as yet, spoke.
At last, Wardog said, "All right, that's enough. You've proved your point. Legion...looks like you're saved."
Several of the encircling Legions embraced their new-duplicate brethren. Several tossed their other-selves in the air. Most all of them were cheering, or weeping. Two of them still stood beside the corpse of the slain Legion-self. Moira broke into applause. Zeitgeist and Fascination grinned in exaltation.
And Jamie Madrox pumped his fist in the air and yelled, "Right on, little guy!"
Mordru began to mutter underneath his breath. "By the Seven Rings of Raggador...by the Wondrous Wand of Watoomb..."
Then he yelped as the nearest Jamie poked two fingers in his eyes.
Wardog went and smashed Mordo's head against a wall, which rendered him non compos sorcerous, or the equivalent thereof. He let their foe fall into a heap, with disdain.
"One of me got the message through to the Avengers on the communicator," said Jamie. "They'll be here soon to take these guys in hand."
"We'll have to check you both out, Legion and yourself, to make sure he didn't pull any tricks on us," said Wardog.
"What if he did?"
The Executive gave him an appraising look. "Then I'll do something to him."
"Um. Okay," said Jamie.
-M-
As it transpired, the Avengers made their first visit shortly thereafter to Muir Island, were briefly introduced to all present, and took their foemen in hand. Thor promised to take care of the Enchantress and Abomination himself. Mordo, they said, would be turned over to Doctor Strange. Moondragon obligingly blanked from the threesome's mind all knowledge of Mutant X, and even of Jamie, Moira, and the Executive. Then they left, villains in tow.
Legion's dead self was buried on Muir Island with Wardog conducting the memorial service. Jamie, a black suit over his containment outfit, was slightly unnerved, sitting next to the being whose body was in the coffin before them. But he reached out and comforted the little man, who seemed to appreciate it.
Moira got a bounty of data on mutation from a future-tech perspective, just as Wardog had promised, plus some equipment that couldn't have been designed on Earth for another few decades. She was glad Wardog included instruction manuals with them, and, with a translation key, figured it would only take her about three years or so to really get up to speed on them.
After all that, the Executive members assembled on the grassy sward outside Moira's installation to phase back to the ship. Many congratulations were made, including silent ones from Fascination, and untouchable ones from Zeitgeist. Wardog pumped both Moira's and Jamie's hands with his living arm. To Jamie, he said, "If you're ever interested in the mercenary trade when you grow up, lad, look us up. You showed some promise."
"Uh, thanks," said Jamie. "How would I look you up?"
"There's always a way," Wardog assured him.
Legion was the last to approach him. Wardog moved away, and all present, including Jamie, wondered what the little replicator would manage to say. Looking up into Jamie's eyes, he spoke. "Your. Power. Saved. My. Life. It. Is. Within. Me. We. Are. Brothers."
It took several seconds before Jamie could speak, himself. But when he did, for once he said the right thing.
"We're more than brothers, Legion. We're friends. Always."
The little alien and the Terran mutant embraced, and all present cheered. After a long moment, Wardog said, "Time to go, Legion."
Reluctantly, Jamie released Legion and stepped away. "Liege, you...you take care of yourself. Okay? Really. Take care of yourself."
Standing with his partners, Legion said, "And. You. Jamie. Take. Care. Of. Your. Selves."
Jamie took several breaths. Moira stepped up to squeeze his hand, sympathetically. His eyes flitted from the face of Legion, to Wardog, to Fascination, to Zeitgeist, and, finally, to Cobweb, who gave him a knowing look. On impulse, he called to her.
"Hey, Miss Cobweb. Got any predictions for me?"
She smiled lightly. "Of course. You will be-busy."
"Oh. Thanks."
The five Executives shimmered as the phasing effect began. Legion spoke one last time.
"Farewell. Jamie. My. Friend."
Then the five of them faded from view, and were gone.
"That's it, then?" said Jamie after a moment. "They're gone?"
"Looks as though," said Moira. "An' I can't say I'm not sorry ta see it, though I did enjoy them when they were here."
"Yeah," said Jamie. "I could have done without the super-villains, though."
"Couldn't we all," Moira agreed. "And y'know, Jamie, Wardog had a point. Ya did show a bit of promise there. In the fight, I mean."
"Well, heck," he said. "Didn't have a whole lotta choice, Moira. If the Execs hadn't been there, we'd've been meat."
"And if you and Legion hadn'a been there, the Execs and yours truly would'a been haggis, as well. D'ye not consider that, too, Jamie?"
"Maybe," he said. "If you say so."
"And I do. I say more besides that, Jamie."
"What else, Moira?"
"I say, get outen your good suit and back inta yer workin' clothes. We've got inmates ta tend, and sorcerors or not, I'm thrashed if I'll neglect my duties. Or allow you to neglect yours. Do I hear a 'Yes, ma'am' on that?"
He grinned and saluted. "Yes, ma'am!"
"A little less sauciness next time, but that'll do. Go wi' ya now, Jamie. I'll meet ya in the holding room. And if'n yer longer than twenty minutes, I'll come lookin' for ya. Be off."
Jamie Madrox, in one lone body, started the hike towards the lab building. Moira stood there, hands on hips, watching him go. If only, she thought. If only I'd had a lad like him, instead of what I ended up with. But ya never get choices like that in this world. Not who to have. Only whom to befriend.
And the lad was shaping up into someone she was proud to befriend. Not that it was going to make any difference in his workload, of course. She'd see to that.
In a minute, Moira took one last look at the grave of Legion, then started back to the holding rooms. She began to sing "Annie Laurie" as she walked.
Looked like it was going to be a nice week, after all.
****
This one's for JB, because she asked for it. And why not?
**************************