"You realize what we're asking you to do?
"Yes."
"You also realize that we are hiring you from the Institute simply because we can't handle the M.L.F. on our own?"
"Yes."
"Very good. You may start immediately, Miss Gryaznova."
"Gryphon... call me Gryphon..."
Strobe rubbed her temples gently. She had a headache that simply refused to go away, and the constant bickering between Wildside and Avalanche wasn't helping. The bucket-head simply refused to let Wildside slide for inviting the girl to join the team.
"We should just kill her and be done with it," Avalanche said quietly to Strobe, trying to hide his words from Amazon, who was standing in the far corner of the room. "She has absolutely no use to us whatsoever."
"Wildside seems to think differently," Strobe replied, sighing. Here we go again. "We could use the extra muscle on the team anyway, Avalanche. Since we lost Forearm, we've been lacking in the strength department."
Avalanche shook his head in frustration. "Its too big of a risk, Strobe. We can't act like the X-Men forever." Looking across the room, Avalanche caught the young woman looking at him. Amazon smiled; Avalanche forced a smile in return. "This is going to fail miserably."
"We'll see," Strobe replied, glancing over at Phantazia. The white-haired woman had her mask off, and looked very pale. Disregarding the woman's looks, Strobe returned her attention to Avalanche. "This is a nice place the Vanisher has here."
"Hrm," Avalanche replied, not really listening.
The Vanisher entered the room, carrying a small tray of food. Suddenly, the bald man stopped dead in his tracks and looked around, confused.
Strobe stood up and crossed to where the Vanisher was standing. "What is it?" she asked, trying to figure out what was wrong with her teammate.
"Do you hear that?"
Strobe strained her ears, but couldn't hear anything. Then, almost imperceptibly, she heard a noise like the firing of jet engines. "Yeah, I hear it now. But what--?"
Without warning, the wall of the room exploded inward, showering Strobe, the Vanisher, and Avalanche with bits of debris. Amazon took a step back, looking astonished, and watched as a hideous-looking woman entered the room.
Wildside rushed into the room, followed closely by Feral and Spoor. "What the hell is this?" Wildside cursed, ducking out of the way as a laser bolt flew past. The woman didn't say anything, and soon the battle was joined. "Who are you, woman? What do you want?"
"My name is unimportant," Gryphon said, walking toward Wildside. She swung at him with one closed fist, but the feral leader of the M.L.F. was able to duck out of the way. Another fist crashed into his face, sending him reeling backwards. "I'm here to kill you all in the name of humanity."
"Oh great," Spoor sneered, leaping onto Gryphon's back. He raked at the woman with his claws, but couldn't seem to penetrate her dense skin. "Let me guess, you're with those F.O.H. morons, right?"
Gryphon responded by reaching back and grabbing Spoor by the rough of his neck. Howling, Spoor was lifted off of Gryphon's back and tossed into a nearby wall. Snarling, Spoor quickly got to his feet.
The Vanisher popped in behind Gryphon and grabbed a hold of her, wrapping his hands around her upper arms. With amazing speed, Vanisher popped in and out of space, teleporting a dozen times in less than ten seconds. He returned to the original spot, exhausted, and was amazed to see that Gryphon was unfazed by the attack.
"Is that all?" Gryphon asked, smiling thinly.
"Hardly," Avalanche piped in, reaching out with his powers. The ground under Gryphon's feet heaved, and the woman was temporarily thrown off balance. Feral shot in and tackled Gryphon from behind, sending them both crashing to the floor.
Gryphon pushed herself up, slinging Feral off in the process. The orange-furred woman rolled across the floor, but was on her feet again in a few seconds. Glancing to her left, Feral saw Phantazia leaning up against a wall, her mask slightly askew. "Get with it, Phantazia! We've got butt to kick!"
Nodding weakly, Phantazia pushed herself away from the wall and straightened her mask. Slowly walking forward, Phantazia watched as Feral darted back in, wrapped her tail around Gryphon's legs, and brought the woman crashing to the ground.
Amazon grew to fifteen feet and brought her massive fist crashing down on Gryphon, pushing the villain through the floor. Pushing with all of her might, Amazon held Gryphon down underneath her palm.
"Now," Wildside said, crouching down next to Gryphon. "What say you tell ol' papa Wildside why you attacked us? Especially since we outnumber you..."
Gryphon chuckled from underneath Amazon's palm. "You think that I am alone?" Gryphon's chuckles soon turned into a full-scale gale of laughter. Five people rushed in through the hole Gryphon had made, wearing high-tech armor. They opened up with their lasers, blasting anything and everything in sight.
A laser bolt caught Amazon in the arm. The young woman retracted her arm in pain, allowing Gryphon to get to her feet. Lashing out, Gryphon cracked Amazon across the face, sending the giant woman crashing to the ground.
Wildside's eyes grew wide with anger. "I really hate it when that happens." he murmered, rushing toward one of the armored people. A massive blast of electricity a few inches from his face stopped the leader of the M.L.F. in his tracks. Looking over, he saw a very confused and weak Phantazia staring at him. "What is WRONG with you?"
The momentary distraction allowed one of the armored men to hit Wildside with a laser bolt. The white-haired mutant stumbled backward, holding the spot on his chest where the bolt hit. After a few moments, he took his hand away to find that the wound had closed.
The rest of his team was faring no better. Strobe was laying on the ground holding her head, while Feral was struggling with a large net. Spoor was holding his own, but barely. Wildside watched as Gryphon came up behind Spoor and punched him in the spine.
"Dammit," Wildside spat, looking one of the armored soldiers right in the eye. "Vanisher, get us out of here, NOW!"
Vanisher nodded, and in an instant the entire M.L.F. was gone.
Gryphon looked around her at the destroyed room, shaking her head. Teleporters...
"We have them onscreen again, ma'am," one of the soldiers said, holding up his arm. Across his armored forearm was a small screen, with a small cluster of dots showing on it. "They're...in the Flats, ma'am."
"Give them time to think that we've lost them," Gryphon said. "Then we hit them hard and fast...they won't even have time to think once we've got them again."
The soldier simply nodded, glancing again at his screen.
"...all we ever do is run away!"
Wildside glared at Spoor, who continued to rant and rave despite the white-haired mutant's stare. Spittle flying from his lips, Spoor paced back and forth across the room. The team had ended up in an abandoned club in Cleveland's Flats, which happened to be another of the Vanisher's myriad hiding places.
"When S.H.I.E.L.D.
attacks, what do we do? We run away!" Spoor spat, his eyes briefly meeting Wildside's. "When the world's ugliest woman attacks, what do we do? We RUN! I'm sick and tired of running away!" Spoor crossed the room and got right in Wildside's face. "It seems to me that the only leading y'do is to lead the team away from a fight!"
(Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate - Eric)
"Shut your mouth," interrupted Feral. Her eyes wide with fury, the young, furry mutant stepped closer to Spoor. Angrily, Spoor turned to face her, his attention diverted away from Wildside. "Like you could do any better."
Amazon stood off to the side, watching the confrontation with awe. The trio of her teammates seemed awfully angry at each other, which is strange. 'Are the X-Men like this sometimes?', Amazon wondered to herself. Sam never mentioned anything about the X-Men arguing like this...
Spoor roared with anger and lashed out, slapping Feral across the face. The orange-furred mutant fell backwards, while the remainder of the M.L.F. looked on in shock.
"I could do ten times better," Spoor spat, leaning over Feral.
With blinding speed, Wildside jumped on top of Spoor and began raking the mutant with his claws. Spoor cried out in pain, whirling around in an attempt to get Wildside off of his back.
Feral stuck out her foot, tripping Spoor up. Spoor crashed to the floor, eyes wide with surprise. Wildside was on top of him in a heartbeat, once again lashing out with his claws.
Strobe looked over to see the horrified look on Amazon's face, and realized with alarm that the young woman was beginning to realize that they weren't exactly like the X-Men. Rushing over, Strobe lifted Wildside off of Spoor, allowing Spoor to get in a few cheap shots. Avalanche was suddenly there, though, to hold Spoor down and away from the M.L.F.'s leader.
"If you ever hit her again," Wildside roared, kicking in Strobe's arms, "I swear to God I'll kill you! You hear me?" The white-haired mutant suddenly squirmed out of Strobe's grasp, but the Vanisher was there to hold him back. "Do you HEAR ME?!?"
"I hear ye," Spoor said, struggling against Avalanche's grip. With all of his might, Spoor tore free from Avalanche's grasp and got to his feet, glaring at Wildside. "But ye don't have to worry 'bout it. I'm gone." The hairy mutant began walking toward the door, bristling.
Wildside shrugged the Vanisher off, his mouth twisted in a sneer. "If I see you again, I'll kill you," said Wildside simply, watching as Spoor vanished into the daylight. The door slammed shut behind him, leaving the room in utter silence.
Amazon stared at Wildside, who soon turned his attention to the newest member of the M.L.F. Breaking into a wide grin, Wildside shrugged his shoulders. "Things like this happen every once in a while," Wildside said, his eyes flickering towards Feral. "Remember, it took Wolverine a while to overcome his feral nature. I'm just...not as good as holding it in as he is."
Nodding, Amazon smiled slightly. Her mind was filled with doubts and confusion. Was he comparing himself to Wolverine?
"Anyway," Wildside continued, ignoring the confused look on Amazon's face.
"Lets get comfortable. Looks like we'll be staying here for a while."
In M.L.F. #7: Gryphon vs the M.L.F., round two! The team gets a new, unexpected member... who is it? Plus: a bomb goes off in the middle of Cleveland... and the M.L.F. is blamed!
