"What am I gonna do?"
That was the thought that Cain Marko quietly mumbled to himself as he downed the pitcher of beer he had been staring into for the last hour.
Yesterday, he had met a young woman named Sachi Yama. She was the lawyer for the construction firm that Cain had recently been hired by.
They first met after Cain had stopped the villain called Polar Bear from further injuring more workers after he had collapsed the building on the site Cain was working on. Sachi was amazed at how Cain had stopped the villain with one punch, and they talked at length about the troubles the company faced. Cain had agreed to act as a security guard for the company, patrolling their construction sites to ensure that what had happened yesterday with Polar Bear did not happen again.
(last issue - Eric)
Cain found himself stricken by this young woman - he couldn't take his eyes off her throughout their entire conversation. This left him with somewhat of a dilemma, though, as he found himself torn between his new-found feelings towards Sachi, and his feelings for Amber...
Amber Hunt - member of a superteam called the eXiles in a parallel dimension. During his time there, Cain and Amber had fallen in love. The unstoppable Juggernaut had found the one thing that could stop him - love - and he welcomed it with open arms. After such a brief time together, Cain had been separated from Amber when another villain from this universe, the former M.L.F. member called Reaper, had used a specially-modified scythe to teleport Cain back from that parallel Earth to this one.
(back in All New eXiles #5 - Eric)
Cain still intended to make the Reaper pay for betraying him like that, but knew that unless the other eXiles could make it to this Earth, that collecting on that debt would be virtually impossible. The eXiles couldn't cross dimension, because of a ravenous creature that lived inbetween worlds - a creature that fed off the life energies of eXiles - which meant he'd never see Amber again...
(as seen in the All New eXiles vs X-Men #0 One-Shot - Eric)
But still, he had the nagging feeling that if he allowed himself to fall in love with another, he'd be betraying Amber... but there was something about Sachi, something he couldn't shake off. It was these conflicting emotions that had taken him here, to this run-down old bar, and where he'd immersed himself in beer in the hopes of mulling this dilemma out.
Cain stood up and headed to the bar to order himself another drink. Being a slow day, the bartender immediately pulled him a beer, which Cain paid for, then turned to return to his table when he ran straight into another man standing behind him. The beer he was holding splashed up onto both men.
Cain wiped the beer off his face with one hand, as his other hand grabbed the front of the top the other man was wearing.
"Watch where yer goin, buddy!" Cain growled, and then realised who he had grabbed.
Grabbing the front of Cain's top, the Blob replied "Why don't you watch where yer goin'!"
"What're you doin' here, Dukes?"
"I'm here t'be by myself, Marko... and I can't do that when you're here!"
"Last time I checked it was a free country, Dukes - I can drink anywhere I wanna!"
"Not here ya ain't!" replied the Blob, his temper rising.
"Oh yeah?" replied Cain, his temper also at breaking point, "And what're ya gonna do..."
Before Cain could finish his threat, he found himself on the receiving end of a blow struck by the Blob. He crashed into the jukebox, scattering compact discs and causing the box itself to spark and fizz in its' death-throes. Cain immediately summoned his crimson armour, picked himself up out of the tangled remains, and charged headlong at the Blob.
Fred Dukes, a.k.a. the Blob, simply stood his ground, for he was a mutant, possessed of the power to lower the gravity surrounding him, making him immoveable. The Juggernaut, on the other hand, was an unstoppable force, thanks to the powers granted him by the Ruby of Cyttorak, once he set on a path, nothing could stand in his way.
Just what does happen when an unstoppable force meets an immoveable object?
Cain charged at the Blob, raising back a massive fist and struck at Dukes with all his might. The Blob absorbed Cain's blow, enveloping Cain's fist within the flesh of his stomach with a *SPLUCK* noise.
"Hah! Seems yer not as 'unstoppable' as ya'd like ta think y'are!" boasted the Blob.
Cain gritted his teeth, "We'll see about that, Dukes!" he shouted, and went to wrench his fist free from the Blob's flesh, but try as he might, he could not pull his hand free.
"Aw crap... leggo will ya?!"
"I am..." grunted the Blob, as he concentrated on releasing Cain's fist, "but nothin's happenin'!"
Cain summoned up all his strength, planted his feet firmly on the ground, and with a mighty effort he heaved.
"Can't... get... free..." grunted Cain, as he twisted and turned his arm.
"*ARGH!*" cried the Blob, "Cut it out! That hurts!"
"Well, you try it!" grimaced Cain.
"Okay," replied the Blob. Concentrating, the Blob willed with all his power to release the grip he had on the Juggernaut's fist.
"*GRAAH!*" shouted the Juggernaut, "Yer tearin' my arm off!"
"We're stuck!" wailed the Blob, as he stopped attempting to release Cain's arm.
"Just flamin' great!" muttered Cain, "Whadda we do now?!"
The Blob thought about it for a moment, turned to the bartender and said, "Two pitchers o' beer, an' make it snappy!"
"Comin' right up!" replied the bartender, and as he poured their drinks he thought to himself, 'Now that's what I call a sticky situation!' Suppressing a grin at his joke, he handed the pair their pitchers of beer.
"May as well make yerself comfortable," the Blob said to the Juggernaut, "we're in fer a long night!"
Minutes passed, though to the two semi-villains it seemed like hours. They had thrown back and forth ideas on how to free themselves from the rather embarassing situation they found themselves in, but to no avail.
"I'm just glad those damn X-Men aren't around ta see us like this..." grumbled the Juggernaut.
"Tell me about it!" the Blob sighed. A few brief moments passed, along with a few silent curses, before the Blob spoke again. "Can't even play any tunes..."
"Yeah, well yer the one who knocked me into the jukebox!" snapped Cain.
"Sorry about that," apologised the Blob, "I just wasn't in th' mood fer any company..."
"I know the feeling..."
"So anyway, whaddya here fer?"
"Needed a few drinks to clear my head," replied Cain.
"A woman?" asked the Blob.
"Ain't it always?" the Bartender chimed in, but glares from both the Blob and the Juggernaut soon had him returning to cleaning glasses in silence.
"Huh, me too!" the Blob confessed.
"You? Stressin' over a woman?" blurted Cain.
"Yeah, a woman!" replied the Blob, somewhat stung, "Some of 'em like us big ya know!"
"True..." Cain replied resolutely. "Would I know 'em?"
"Probably not... her name's Bertha, an' she's with some team of losers called the Lightning Rods or somethin'..."
"Never heard of 'em..."
"Yeah, no wonder - I wouldn't be caught dead on a team with someone named Flatman!"
"This comin' from a guy that hung with the Toad?" grinned Cain.
"Ha! Ya got a point there!"
Draining their beers, which were almost automatically refilled by a very nervous bartender, the pair sat in silence as they mulled over their respective problems. Once again, the Blob started up the conversation.
"So what's your woman problems?"
"Ahhh, you don't wanna know..." Cain said, staring into his beer.
"Try me!" prompted Dukes.
"Whaddya wanna know for anyway, it ain't like we're best of buds..."
"You got anything better to do with us stuck here like this?"
"Good point..." mumbled Cain. Taking a deep breath, he told the Blob about his current woes - about Amber and about Sachi, and about how he was torn between them. Once he had finished, he took another swig of his beer, and shifted his position slightly, as the arm that was stuck inside the folds of the Blob's flesh was beginning to cramp up.
"Sounds pretty familiar," replied the Blob, "I've got a new interest too... and she's sorta interested in me. The whole Brotherhood thing kind of freaks her out though, especially the Toad!"
This gained a chuckle from the Juggernaut. The Blob grinned, and continued, "But then there's my ex-wife to worry about..."
"You were married?" Cain asked, astonished.
"Well I wasn't always an evil mutant ya know," retorted Dukes, "back before I hooked up with Magneto I was settled down... we even planned on having kids! But then I hooked up with Mags, and that was it for her..."
(waaaay back in Uncanny X-Men #4 - Eric)
"Ya got divorced?"
"Yeah, but I still have feelings for her... and now that I ain't with Magneto anymore she's changed her opinion of me a bit... so much so I might still have a chance..."
"But then there's your new girl... sounds familiar!" Cain said, as he drained another pitcher, which was quickly refilled.
"Yeah..." mumbled the Blob, as he also finished his drink and got another instant refill.
Cain shifted once more, to stop his arm from cramping, when all of a sudden, his hand popped free.
"What the...?" he uttered, flexing his arm to awaken the stiffened muscles.
The Blob just shrugged and said, "I dunno... might've been the fact we're relaxed, and that we've had a few pitchers o' beer..."
"I'll be damned!" laughed Cain, and the Blob joined in.
"You know Marko, yer not half bad," observed the Blob.
"You ain't such a bad guy yerself, Dukes," replied Cain, still flexing his arm.
Apologies were exchanged, and hands shaken, as the two new found friends, now free from the embarassing situation they were in moments before, continued to talk throughout the night, ensuring that at least one bartender would be rethinking his career choice come the morning.
In Juggernaut #10: The Juggernaut takes another step on his road to redemption - and this one's a doozy! At long last, Cain Marko and his step-brother, one Charles Francis Xavier, meet to discuss their differences! But will the meeting end in resolution, or disaster, as first the Juggernaut must get past the Uncanny X-Men!
