Dazzler stood beside Valdana in the interrogation room, opposite a now conscious Hask who was cuffed and seated at the table. Her mutant team and a sprinkling of S.W.O.R.D. soldiers filled the room. Dazzler was glad to be one of the interrogators this time, and glad that Valdana had agreed to let her assist in the questioning.
“You were caught on camera arriving with this shipment and then forwarding it to Sanderson Holdings on Earth,” Valdana said to Hask, showing him the footage on her tablet. “There’s no denying it.”
“I didn’t know what was inside,” Hask said. His eyes were brown and spotted with reflections of the white room around him, and the stubble across his cheeks made his gaunt face appear gray. “I was just asked to forward it.”
“Who asked you to send it?” Valdana asked.
“Shaw.”
“Where did it come from?” Dazzler asked. “This new dimension of his?”
Hask nodded.
“What is he doing with all the scientific equipment he’s shipping there?” Valdana asked, slowing her pacing before the table.
“I don’t know.”
“But you’ve been there, right?” Dazzler asked. “To the new dimension? So, you’ve seen it.”
Again, Hask nodded. “I’ve been there several times. I run his errands,” he explained. “I escort his shipments. And I don’t ask questions.”
“But it’s your job to ask questions,” Dazzler said. “You’re an undercover agent. It’s literally your job to get intel on things like mysterious shipments.”
“It’s my job to fly under the radar and not get caught,” Hask told her. “These things take time. Someone like Sebastian Shaw doesn’t give his trust away easily, you know.”
Dazzler stared at him for a moment. “If you’re so innocent in all of this, then why did you run when you saw us? Why did you shoot at us?”
“Because four mutants were at my door, in uniforms I knew weren’t theirs. What did you expect me to do?”
“Not run. And not shoot at us.”
Hask shrugged. “I guess it’s the hazards of being an undercover agent. You learn not to trust anyone.”
“Oh, I hear that,” Dazzler smiled. “And that’s exactly the reason why I don’t buy what you’re saying now.” She placed her hands on the table and leaned toward him. “That’s exactly why I don’t trust you. You knew what was in that shipment, and you knew what Shaw was up to, and that’s why you didn’t report it to Commander Valdana. So, save yourself a long prison sentence by cooperating and telling us what you know.”
“I’ve already told you. I don’t know.” He stared at her with a glimmer of defiance in his eyes.
“But you somehow knew we were mutants,” Sage said from where she stood at the back of the room, arms folded. “Despite none of us having any outward traits to identify us as such.”
“Word gets around,” Hask said. “I heard there were uninvited mutant women on the station. I put two and two together.”
“What’s the scientific equipment for?” Dazzler asked. “Is he mass-producing MGH in the other dimension and shipping it back to this one?”
Hask shrugged, disinterested.
“Why didn’t you report the shipment to Acting Commander Valdana?” Dazzler asked, leaning on the table.
“I report to my superiors at A.R.M.O.R.,” he said.
“You’re also supposed to report to me,” Valdana said firmly. “That was the deal, to let you operate from Alpha Flight. This is S.W.O.R.D. territory, and we have the right to know what’s happening on our turf.”
“I forwarded a shipment, so what?” Hask was getting angry now.
“Your superior at A.R.M.O.R. tells me you didn’t report this to him either,” Valdana said, “so that’s three organizations you’ve upset now, Hask. S.H.I.E.L.D., S.W.O.R.D. and A.R.M.O.R.”
“Do you realize who you’re messing with?” Dazzler asked.
“Do you realize who you’re messing with?” Hask shot back, burning with defiance.
“Tell us what you know!” Dazzler demanded.
Hask rolled his eyes now, like she was a dumb blonde bimbo, who wasn’t worth his time.
And if there was one thing that could set her light energy on fire today, it was that.
“Did you just roll your eyes at me?” She leaned forward on the table again. “Did you forget what just happened in the elevator shaft? Did Sage knock some memory loss into you?”
“Shaw is a powerful mutant,” Hask said. “More powerful than any of you. He’s untouchable. Whatever you throw at him, he’ll just fire it back at you. You won’t win.”
“Yeah, well, we can throw things too,” Valdana said.
“He’s referring to Shaw’s mutant powers,” Sage said. “He has the ability to absorb kinetic energy and metabolize it to enhance his own physical strength, speed, and stamina. He is hard to beat given those circumstances.”
“There’s a way to beat every mutant,” Valdana said. “There has to be.”
“Good luck with that,” Hask said.
Rachel stepped forward. “We’re running out of time. You tried it your way, now let’s try mine.” She walked slowly around to stand behind Hask, her eyes turning white as she did. Unnerved, the A.R.M.O.R. agent tried to look around at her. Rachel stood, fingers to her temple, as she attempted to break into his mind.
Hask suddenly pushed his chair back into Rachel, but Polaris swiftly thrust out her hand and scraped the metal chair back to the table, holding it there.
“We’re not done with you yet!” Polaris spat.
Hask struggled, pulling at his cuffed hands, gritting his teeth, and shaking his head and torso about, trying to fight off Rachel’s attack.
“Sage,” Dazzler said. “Hold him.” Breaking into his mind made her uncomfortable, but with everything at stake, she knew it was necessary, given he was hiding vital information.
Sage moved to Hask and caught him in a headlock, but still he struggled.
“You might want to put your sun visor on those shades,” Dazzler warned her. Sage quickly tapped the side of her glasses, sending the mirrored lenses to black, as Dazzler pooled her stored light energy into her eyes. She leaned forward and began to pour her soft, hypnotic light into his eyes, distracting him, so that Rachel could pull what they needed from his mind. Hask squeezed his eyes closed, swiping his cuffed hands out at Dazzler, but Polaris quickly pinned those cuffed hands to the table, with her free hand, while Sage took her fingers and forced his eyelids open. Dazzler aimed her hypnotic light into his eyes, and his body began to fall limp and peaceful, while Rachel remained a ball of concentration, whitened eyes moving back and forth as she searched for what they needed to know.
Rachel suddenly dropped her hands from her temples and stepped back, concern clear on her face.
Dazzler stopped the flow of her light energy and stared at her. “What is it?” she asked as Sage released Hask from the headlock, and Polaris lowered her hands.
“Shaw’s planning to finish what the Scarlet Witch started,” Rachel whispered. “He wants to wipe out all remaining mutants for his own supremacy. He’s calling it S-Day.”
Polaris’s face paled as she stepped forward. “Does… Does that mean our fathers are already dead?”
Rachel shook her head. “I don’t know. I didn’t see them.” She looked at Dazzler. “Or yours.”
Dazzler’s mind spun as though it raced away on its own pair of rollerblades. “That’s why he’s producing the MGH?” she said, breaking the stunned silence in the room. “He’s going to jack up human soldiers to help him, use it to boost his own abilities, so he can take us all out?”
Rachel nodded. “He’s hiding in his new dimension and planning it all out.” She looked back at Hask. “What’s the N.E.A.?”
Hask glanced at her, concern washing over him. “If I tell you, he’ll kill me.”
“If you don’t tell us, he’ll kill us all!” Dazzler said.
“No.” Hask shook his head. “Just you mutants.”
Anger flashed through Dazzler, and light surged from her eyes again, this time a bright, harsh kind of flare. Hask groaned and squeezed his eyes shut as tears of pain fled down his cheeks. She pulled the light back from her eyes.
“Tell us!” Dazzler demanded.
Hask whimpered and stalled, blinking, so Dazzler flared her lights again, and he winced in pain.
“All right! All right!” he said. “It’s the New Earth Alliance,” he panted, as tears continued to run down his cheeks. “It’s a secret society of humans who want mutants gone. They’ve made Shaw their leader.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Polaris said, brow furrowed in anger. “He’s a mutant.”
“The N.E.A. figures they can handle one of you, especially if that mutant helps rid them of all the others. He has money, he has connections, and he’s feeding them the MGH, which makes them feel safe.”
“Why would Shaw want to destroy other mutants?” Valdana asked them.
“Like Rachel said,” Sage told her. “For his own supremacy. He thrives on power. He wants to take out his competition.”
“When are they planning to kill the rest of us?” Dazzler asked, her voice deathly serious.
Hask shrugged. “As soon as they can. He’s going to simultaneously pick you off one by one. He’s not stupid enough to give you time to prepare a defense and start a war with all of you at once.”
Hask’s words haunted Dazzler. Her chest felt hollow. “Do you know if Magneto, Cyclops, and Judge Carter are dead?”
Hask shook his head. “I never saw them.”
“Where is this new dimension,” Dazzler asked, “and how do we get there?”
Sage raised her hand for quiet, then turned back to Hask. “Who or what is in this new dimension? Does he have an army of MGH soldiers there?”
Hask shook his head. “No. I only ever saw a skeleton crew guarding the dock.”
“Can you get us in there,” Dazzler asked, “to this new dimension?”
Hask’s mind turned over, analyzing his options, but soon his face showed signs of relenting. He knew it was over and there was no other way out for him. “I can show you the way there, but I can’t guarantee he won’t kick you straight out again.”
“Let us worry about that,” Dazzler said.
Valdana stepped forward. “I think you should proceed with caution, Blaire. We don’t know if we can trust him.”
“I’m cooperating,” Hask said quickly. “I know I’m caught. I get it. If I cooperate, you’ll go easy on the punishment, right?” He looked desperately at Valdana.
“You say you’re cooperating.” She analyzed him. “But I guess we won’t know until this is over, will we?”
“How long does it take to get to this new dimension?” Polaris asked him.
“Not long. But we’d need to hurry,” he said. “I was due to escort a new shipment of supplies there. If I don’t turn up or I’m late, he’ll become suspicious.”
“How soon?” Dazzler asked.
“Two hours.”
“Two hours!” Sage said.
“If I make my regular run there, Shaw won’t be suspicious,” Hask said. “But we’ll need to leave within the next twenty minutes.”
“If you’re going in, we need time to prepare a tactical offense,” Valdana said to Dazzler.
“We don’t have time,” Dazzler said. “We can’t let him do this run alone. He’ll warn Shaw.”
“She’s right,” Polaris said. “If Shaw finds out about us and our fathers are still alive in this dimension, he’ll kill them.”
Dazzler felt a slash of emotion across her chest. A slash of hope. Could they still be alive? Could she let herself believe it?
Sage looked at Hask. “How many soldiers are there? You said there’s a skeleton crew, how many exactly?”
“M- maybe ten, twelve.” He shrugged. “I- I never counted.”
“Can you draw me a floor plan of Shaw’s operations?” Sage said. “What does this dimension look like once inside?”
“He’s on a station like this one when you enter the portal. I only saw part of it. Only the dock.”
“We need more information,” Valdana said firmly to Dazzler.
“We need to stop Shaw before he amasses any more MGH or attacks more mutants,” Dazzler said. “We need to stop this clandestine war before he gains more ground.”
“We need to tell Frost,” Sage said. “Get reinforcements.”
“Are you positive she’s not in this with Shaw?” Dazzler asked.
Sage gave her a confident look. “There’s no way she’d want to wipe out her fellow mutants.”
“But it’ll take too long for her to get here,” Polaris said.
“She knows Shaw better than anyone,” Sage said. “We need to act smart!”
“We are,” Dazzler said, the enormity of the situation washing over her. “Right now, Shaw doesn’t know about us, so we have the element of surprise. But our window is small. We have to move, now. We can’t wait for her.”
Valdana relented with a sigh. “If you’re going in, I’m sending S.W.O.R.D. and AR.M.O.R. soldiers with you.” An alert sounded on her tablet. She looked at it, then showed Dazzler security footage from the dock. A bright light was flaring the lens, and once it receded, she saw a man walking along the dock with several soldiers following him.
“Who’s that?” Dazzler asked. “And what was that bright light?”
“That’s the A.R.M.O.R. team,” Valdana told her. “That’s how they travel. They dimension hop. I arranged for the unit to come when I spoke with Hask’s commander.”
“Well, tell them to get ready, because we’re going in,” Dazzler said, then looked back at Hask. “If you’re lying to us…” She flared her light energy through her eyes and fingertips again in warning.
Then, she looked back at her team. “Let’s prepare.”
•••
Emma Frost stood in the abandoned warehouse with Maria Hill by her side, as they faced Rosenthorpe.
“Where’s my lawyer?” he demanded.
“Cell service is really bad in this area,” Hill said plainly. “I’m sorry about that.”
“You can’t keep me here.”
“It’s not just mutants who can disappear, it seems.” Emma gave him a cold smile.
“So, why do we have this guy?” Hill asked her.
“He received a shipment of MGH that has since vanished from his warehouse,” Emma said.
“And how do you know this?” Hill asked.
“A little birdy told me,” Emma said.
“She broke into my warehouse. You should be arresting her!” Rosenthorpe said bitterly.
“I didn’t do anything, Mr Rosenthorpe,” Emma said. “The only guilty party here is you. So, tell us, what did you do with the MGH?”
Rosenthorpe refused to respond.
“You told me in your car that you had distributed it far and wide,” Emma continued. “Where and to whom?”
Rosenthorpe stared at her with hateful eyes but remained tight-lipped.
“How does this connect to Cassandra Walsh?” Bennett asked.
“Walsh owns The Gilded Arrow, the bar that Magneto disappeared from. The same bar that both Judge Blaire and the senator’s aide, Mr Squires, were members of. The same bar that Mr Rosenthorpe is a member of.”
“It’s a crime to be a member of a bar?” Rosenthorpe asked.
“No, but it is to be a part of an organized crime syndicate that includes the owner of that bar. Was The Gilded Arrow your meeting place?”
“Organized crime? Where’s your evidence?”
Emma gave a laugh. “You’re singing a very different tune to the one you sang before in your car, Mr Rosenthorpe. What’s changed?”
“If I don’t return to work, I will be reported missing. If that happens there will be consequences.”
“For whom?” Hill asked, folding her arms.
Rosenthorpe didn’t answer but fixed his murderous eyes on Emma again.
“Where is Sebastian Shaw?” Emma asked.
“Who?” Rosenthorpe asked.
“What’s Shaw got to do with this?” Hill asked in surprise, unfolding her arms.
“Cassandra Walsh is Shaw’s associate,” Emma told her. “Shaw appears to be missing like the others. Either he’s a victim or he’s involved. Knowing Shaw like I do, I’d wager he’s involved.”
“In distributing the MGH?” Bennett asked.
Emma looked at Rosenthorpe. “That’s for Mr Rosenthorpe to confirm.”
“You will all be prosecuted for this,” Rosenthorpe said. “I have powerful friends. Very powerful friends.”
Emma leaned down to him. “So do I.”
“Not for long,” Rosenthorpe said menacingly.
“What does that mean?” Hill asked.
Rosenthorpe turned his glare to Hill. “It means we’re everywhere, in all places, at all times, and you are all dead people walking.”
Hill gave a surprised laugh. “I’m sorry, did you just threaten me?”
“I think he did.” Bennett smiled in amusement.
Rosenthorpe looked away from them and stared straight ahead. “Now’s the time to stand your ground for the New Earth Alliance, soldiers.”
Hill’s brow furrowed as she exchanged a glance with Bennett. A shiver ran down Emma’s spine. She immediately thrust her mind outward like a spaceship’s radar, searching for any asteroids that posed a threat.
And she found them.
One of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents suddenly turned his weapon on her and fired. Another agent aimed at Hill and Bennett.
The bullets from the first weapon ricocheted off Emma’s diamond form, then she swiftly stepped in front of Hill and Bennett and blocked those from the second weapon, too. Hill and Bennett dropped low, pulling their weapons, using Emma as a shield, as the remaining loyal S.H.I.E.L.D. agents took cover. Emma thrust her mind out again, hitting the attackers with such swift force that they were instantly incapacitated, dropping their weapons and falling to the ground.
Silence descended over the warehouse as Hill’s and Bennett’s heavy breathing could be heard. They swung their weapons around, searching for more threats.
“Anyone else?” Hill challenged.
“Everyone, drop your weapons! Now! Everyone!” Bennett barked. Their agents did so, raising their hands in the air.
“You can come out from mommy’s skirts now,” Emma said to Hill and Bennett still cowering behind her.
Hill shot Emma an unimpressed glance as she and Bennett swiftly got to their feet and moved toward the traitorous agents, kicking their weapons out of the way.
Emma, now back in her human form, approached Rosenthorpe.
“What’s the New Earth Alliance?”
Rosenthorpe smiled smugly at her. “Your end.”