X-Men Earth: Yet Another Doomsday

“So. I am very aware of what you might be thinking right about now as you look around the room at who your teammates are.” Henry McCoy often had a speech to give as a greeting instead of simply saying hello. Even more often, he would be hanging upside down from the ceiling while he talked. “I imagine you are asking yourselves whether we have quite arbitrarily selected your names out of a hat.”

“Well I’ll be, Hank! You telepathic, now, too?” Bobby asked, and as could be expected, he was the only one leaning back on his chair. Casual and informal as ever.

Hank was hanging down above the large circular table around which they were sat, in the middle of them all. He adjusted his glasses and showed his wide, large-toothed grin.

“Not quite yet, Iceman. And stick with our codenames from here on out, will you? Rest assured that this team has been assembled quite carefully and intently to cover every sort of tactical situation that we can come to encounter. Or that we could imagine encountering, in any case. After all, our missions will be involving stakes of the most serious, probably dramatic variety.”

“Hey, I’m not gonna complain about being in an all-women squad,” said Bobby, the Iceman, managing to wink in every direction even though he winked but once.

“Same,” said Xi’an, Karma, smiling suggestively. She was sitting up straight with hands on her legs.

“Guys, can we not make this awkward?” Asked Hisako, Armor, with her hands resting comfortably on the table.

“I hear that,” added the Phoenix -- Rachel Summers to better narrow that one down. She was sitting cross-legged on the chair, with her arms crossed on top of them. She was tapping an impatient finger on her forearm. “I don’t like seeing the kids here.”

“Hey,” Hisako protested, but Beast cut her off.

“My dear, Armor is virtually untouchable by anything living in the universe, let alone on our earth. And the same can be said about Dust.” He nodded kindly towards the niqāb wearing young woman, Sooraya. Her eyes blinked in gratitude. “They are very far from the position of first-year juniors, but nor should they be sent into dangerous missions on their own. Every one of us started somewhere.”

“And every one of us ended up dealing with tragedy,” Rachel argued.

Ororo Monroe opened her eyes to face the reluctant telepath, meeting her with an implacable expression. Being the leader, all eyes turned on her, and she was ready for it. Accustomed even, at that point.

“They have already started somewhere, and dealt with tragedy. They have proven themselves across several encounters. They are on the team. We will make sure nothing happens to them, and they will make sure nothing happens to us, and together, we will make sure nothing happens to our world. We are to be called X-Men Earth, and we are an essential part of a joint project between mutants and humans, headed by the X-Men and the Avengers. X-Men Earth will deal with situations that put the planet in danger, preferably before they happen.”

“That would be nice,” said Amara, Magma, with a scoff. “And we already have a mission?”

“Yes, we do,” Ororo said with a nod. “Beast, if you would continue. And try to stay on subject.” Then, she closed her eyes.

Karma and Phoenix for telepathy and telekinesis. Magma and Storm for unbridled powerful control over nature. Armor and Dust together for the perfect defense. And Iceman as the ever-dependable super-power that can adapt to any situation and need. Also, for the first time ever, they would have a dedicated operator working communications and support, which was Beast. Not just their team, but every X-men out there on the field would be supported by Beast. That meant he wouldn’t be seeing action for the foreseeable future, which would allow Henry to be a more reliable teacher, which in Ororo’s opinion, was his greatest responsibility. Certainly his best use.

“K.I.A. We do not yet know what it stands for --”

“Killed in Action!” Bobby said at once. He looked pleased with himself as Beast slowly spun to face him, and glanced over his glasses, or rather, under.

Awkwardly, Beast cleared his throat, electing to ignore the silly guess. “We know enough about them to be particularly concerned,” he simply continued, as the youngest of the girls giggled silently at the mishap. “We know they are the unholy alliance between remnants of a major A.I.M cell and what was left of the Eastern quadrant of Hydra after the last S.H.I.E.L.D cleanup. We know they have nuclear warheads in their possession, and we have ascertained the location of several stocks of them. Our first strike should go without incident, by which I mean we will catch them off-guard. Once we have revealed our knowledge and intentions, however, we should expect the succeeding strikes to become increasingly more difficult.”

Bobby whistled. “Nukes being stockpiled by suicidal maniacs. Nice,” he said sarcastically. “Known Intelligent Assets?”

“A.I.M? Hydra?” Rachel asked with a frown, ignoring Bobby. “This sounds like Avengers business.”

“It’s Earth business, my dear, which makes it ours. Rest assured, however, that Avengers Earth will be doing their part. It is our collaborative goal to disarm the entire organization completely in the next twenty-four hours, and should the opportunity present itself, dismantle the whole business while we’re at it. So they can’t try again.”

Ororo noticed silence settling as all paused to take in the scale and risk of the mission.

“Killing Is Awesome?” Bobby suggested.

Xi’an spared a glance before ignoring him. “We do not know what they’re planning to do with the bombs?”

“Indeed we do not,” Henry admitted.

“How many places are we hitting?” Rachel asked.

“Five,” said Ororo, opening her eyes again, and summoning their attention. “And we are leaving right now. I will tell you what we know of their defenses and explain our plan of attack in the time we have between assaults. As far as this mission is concerned, we cannot be pulling punches, and we cannot be taking risks. This means that, regrettably, there will be some tolerance for the loss of life.”

Sooraya shuffled somewhat. “You mean…we are supposed to kill them?” she asked, worried.

Bobby slapped the table. “Killed In Accident!” he proclaimed.

“Iceman, please. It is a possibility, Dust,” Ororo said, not without compassion. “As always, X-Men avoid taking life as much as we can. But that is what it means to bear this responsibility, sometimes. If the situation is dire, and your life is on the line, or worst, the life of another, you need to be able to do what you have to do.”

It wasn’t something Charles would be very appreciative of, but Charles was an idealist beyond anything Ororo had ever seen, or would ever see again. She was much more of a realist, so she turned her white eyes to Dust.

“Is that a problem? I can guarantee that you will not need to do it, but I cannot guarantee that you will not see it happen.”

“I…”

“I have to say, this honesty is very refreshing,” Rachel pointed out, with a bit of compassion.

Storm nodded. “This team will have no lies,” Ororo stated, as a demand. “And no secrets. They always end up dividing us and ultimately leading to the worst possible results. I do not want us to fail the mission, or each other. I can promise you that I have no intention for us to go about committing unwanted murder. It would make me supremely happy to complete every mission with zero causalities, and this one is no exception. That alone would be the best statement we can make regarding our efficacy. But this mission, as Beast said, is inordinately difficult and extremely risky.”

“Yes,” Sooraya agreed, breathing deeply. “Yes, you are right. We have to succeed. It will be my honor to do my part.”

Ororo smiled at her.

“Known Idiots and Assholes – no, wait. Can you have and in acronyms?”

With a bit of effort, Ororo prolonged her smile to everyone around the table as if Bobby had said nothing at all.

“Let us go, then. We shall show these despicable men that the time when they were allowed to carry out such plans is behind us.”

“Hey now, what if they’re women?” Bobby asked, and they all turned evil eyes towards him. “I’m just saying! Pretty sexist to assume they’re all evil men, isn’t it?”

“Shut up, Bobby” said three of them in a chorus, while the rest giggled.

Bobby pouted and crossed his arms. “Well. This is starting out just great,” he complained. “I thought we were supposed to use codenames, too…”