Friendly Fire: Part One

by Alicia McKenzie

Friendly fire isn't.

--Askani proverb

***

"How did I let you get me into this?" Domino said through gritted teeth as she reloaded. Rising to a crouch, she fired steadily at the Mandarin's troops, emptying half the cartridge before dropping back behind the rocks for a breather. "'Let's go to China', you said. 'Take in the sights, blow some of them up. Might be fun'." She snorted. "And I trusted you. God, am I stupid. You'd think I'd have learned by now that your idea of fun means break out the Kevlar and get your affairs in order."

"Why the hell is it always my fault?" the man beside her snarled, without looking away from the detonator he was busy rewiring. A plasma blast smashed into the rock face just above their heads, showering them with dust and shrapnel. Domino ducked, but Cable just kept right on working. Straightening, she gave him a disbelieving look, but he merely coughed and waved some of the dust away. "Besides," he continued, sounding disgusted, "you didn't have to come with me. You could have stayed in Hong Kong with Hammer, or switched places with Grizzly and gone with G.W. instead." He snorted. "At least Grizzly wouldn't have bitched for the last three days straight."

"Love you too, Cable," she said balefully, and rose again to let the enemy know they were still there. One soldier made the mistake of trying to advance on their position, and Domino dropped him with a single shot. Another emerged, presumably to drag his fallen comrade back to safety. Ignoring the covering fire the others were laying down, Domino shot the second soldiers as well. She felt bad--they were mercenaries, hired guns like herself just doing their job--but she and Cable were dangerously outnumbered here. If it came down to a choice between their lives or those of the Mandarin's people--well, that wasn't much of a choice. The gunfire from across the canyon grew more intense. A bullet clipped the rock a few short inches from her face, but she didn't let the near miss interrupt her rhythm.

"You gonna be ready to use that thing anytime soon?" she shouted, emptying the rest of her cartridge. She dropped back down to reload, cursing under her breath as she saw how few full cartridges she had left. Shots whizzed over their heads, and she cursed again. They have us outnumbered about a zillion to one and he's acting like we're sitting on a beach somewhere! It had only been six months since she'd walked into that bar in Toronto and met him and Bridge for the first time, but she thought she had Cable pretty much figured out by now. His personality had two settings: cold and colder. "Running low on ammo here, Cable," she said warningly, hoping to budge him from his state of intense concentration.

"Considering the way you're wasting it, I'm not surprised," he said coldly. She glared at him for an instant, but he didn't even look up at her. "Pick your targets more carefully--make your shots count."

If they hadn't been in the middle of a firefight, she'd have made an acid comment about not needing him to teach her how to shoot. So what if he had years more experience in the business than she did? Reputation wasn't everything. She sure as hell hadn't let his intimidate her when she'd gone to him and Bridge to offer her services. But this wasn't the time to indulge herself, and she stepped firmly on her insulted pride. We can always pick this up later--and we WILL, if he doesn't stop treating me like a kid who doesn't know what she's doing!

"Eventually they're going to get it together and rush us, you know," she pointed out. "I can't figure out why they haven't done it already."

Cable actually cracked a smile. "The disk, Domino. They want the disk back intact. And the Mandarin probably wouldn't mind capturing me, either. I would think he's still a little peeved at me and G.W. about--something that happened a couple of years back."

"Oh, really?" she asked. While the two of them were still working for SHIELD? Domino wondered, even as she turned to keep up the pressure on the enemy. Another story she had yet to hear, she supposed. Neither Cable or Bridge ever talked much about their careers before they'd founded the Wild Pack. According to Hammer, their time as SHIELD agents had ended badly somehow, but that, like the rest of it, was a mystery. Even with all the research she'd done before approaching Cable and Bridge, she hadn't been able to find anything on their government work except the names of several highly classified operations and a couple of half-scathing, half-complimentary fitness reports written by Nick Fury himself. "You really get around, don't you?" she growled. "The Mandarin, the Genoshan government, Department H, Hydra--is there anyone in this world who's not got some kind of grudge against you, Cable?"

He finally looked up at her, and his smile suddenly seemed rather dangerous. "A couple. According to G.W., I have this natural ability to piss people off."

"You? Never."

He gave a harsh bark of laughter and made a few last adjustments to the detonator. With a satisfied nod, he put it back together quickly. "There," he said. "That should work."

"Should?"

"Have a little faith, Domino," Cable said with an irony she didn't understand. He entered a sequence of numbers into the keypad. "Ready to go?" he asked calmly, hefting his own huge rifle with ease.

"Thought you'd never ask."

They broke from cover and headed up the trail towards the pass. She wasn't quite sure how they managed to avoid getting shot. Her luck was probably protecting her, but Cable was the one bringing up the rear. Even with how exposed they were, clambering up the slope, somehow the Mandarin's troops kept missing him. Not that she was complaining, but she somehow doubted that all of the soldiers below were such poor marksmen.

"Thirty seconds," Cable said, sounding barely winded. Despite the treacherous footing, Domino picked up the pace. She'd helped Cable place the charges around the base, and she wanted to be as far away as possible when they went off.

But they didn't go off. She heard Cable curse, but in the next moment he was urging her onwards. As they reached the pass, she paused for a moment to let him catch up with her.

"What happened?" she demanded breathlessly. "Why didn't the charges go off?"

"Again with the questions!" he said savagely, grabbing her arm and pushing her ahead of him. For some reason, he was keeping himself between her and the soldiers--why? Domino bristled at the idea that he was trying to protect her somehow. "Flonq it, just keep running!" he suddenly snapped, as if he'd heard what she was thinking.

"Where?"

"The cave! Now shut up and run!"

The cave, their fall-back position where they'd stored their supplies, was a good hour away on foot. By the time they reached it, crossing some fairly difficult terrain, the sounds of pursuit had faded away. Domino knew better than to think they weren't still being followed, though. No, what the enemy was doing now was thinking, rather than just reacting. And that made the situation even more dangerous.

"That went well," she said hoarsely as they stumbled into the cave. She went over to her pack, pulled out her canteen, and took a long drink. She offered it to Cable, who ignored her completely. He stalked around the cave, muttering under his breath in some language she didn't understand. Domino envied the amount of energy he seemed to have, but he was beginning to get on her nerves. "Would you stop that?" she demanded testily. "What happened? You cross the wrong wire or something?" It was almost alarming, to see him so unstrung. I guess the Ice Man must have a few stray emotions in there somewhere after all. Hammer'd be shocked.

He stopped pacing and gave her a killing look. "I have no idea," he grated. "Obviously I didn't compensate for the Mandarin's jamming signal--oh, flonq it all." He went over to his own pack, rooting through it. "I'll have to go back. I won't leave the job half-done."

"You're going back?" Domino exclaimed, appalled. "And do what? Set the charges off manually?" What the hell is this, some deathwish he's got? She stared at him, trying to figure out what was going through his mind. But despite his obvious anger, the look in his eyes was as guarded as ever. She'd have had better luck trying to 'read' a brick wall.

"Not manually," he said, and scowled. "Now, what did I do with that--ah!" He pulled out a strange-looking circular device and tossed it to her. She frowned as she studied it. It was heavier than it looked, made of some kind of alloy she didn't recognize. "It's a tracker--don't worry, the Mandarin's technology isn't sophisticated enough to pick up its signal. But if you have it with you, I'll be able to trace it, and catch up with you."

"Catch up with me?" she snapped, instantly wary. "And where precisely would I be going?"

"To the rendezvous," he growled. "If I can't blow the base, at the very least we have to get that disk out safely." He finally looked right at her. "This is important, Domino," he said in a level voice as he met her eyes. Unable to look away, she was struck once more by the sheer force of his personality. Most of the time he was the very definition of remote, but when he wanted, he was capable of a frightening intensity. "Whatever happens, you have to get the disk back to G.W. I know we haven't really been involving you in the details of our contracts, yet--but this job's a little different from the others."

"We're still getting paid, right?" she asked, only half-jokingly. He sighed.

"Yeah--well, you and Theo and Hammer are, at least. Look," he continued hurriedly, "this isn't really important right now, Domino. Getting that disk out is."

She scowled, starting to get rather suspicious. "Don't tell me this is some kind of personal mission." There was a betraying flicker in his eyes, and she cursed. "Damn it, Cable, this isn't what I signed up for!"

His expression hardened. "Maybe not, but when you joined the Pack you promised to follow orders." She straightened at the rebuke, glaring at him. "For you and Grizz and Hammer, this mission isn't any different from the last one, or the one before that. Any--motivations G.W. and I have are our business, not yours. Your job is to get that disk out. Clear?" He didn't look away until she gave a reluctant nod.

"What are you planning to do, if you're not going to set off the charges manually?" she asked quietly as he loaded up on extra ammo.

He gave her a faint smile. "You and Grizz aren't the only mutants in the Pack, Domino."

"WHAT?"

"Don't look so surprised," he grumbled. "Thought for sure you'd have noticed by now, considering how observant you are." She raised an eyebrow at the back-handed compliment. "I try to be discreet, but I do slip up occasionally."

She shook her head. "Wow. What do you--I mean, what kind of a mutant ability do you have?"

"I'm a low-level telepath and telekinetic. Hopefully I'll be able to telekinetically trip the mechanism in the charges from enough of a distance away that I won't blow myself into the next life." He looked almost embarassed. "Maybe I should have tried that first, but I--I don't like using my powers. Not to mention how much harder the EM field the Mandarin's putting out is going to make things--"

Domino felt uneasy, and not just because of the obvious risks of the plan. "You're telling me you read minds?" she asked, hoping she hadn't heard that part right.

He stopped and looked down at her, a curious expression on his face. "Not easily and not particularly well most of the time, but yes," he admitted gently. "But I don't use my telepathy actively unless I'm forced to. Of course, there are some people who think so loudly that I can't help but hear them. Like you. I can't tell you how many times you've given me a headache in the last six months." At first she thought it was a joke, but realized almost instantly that he was dead serious.

"Sorry," she muttered, not really meaning it. The idea of being around someone who could read her thoughts made part of her want to shriek and run away as fast as she could. There was things in her past that she didn't want anyone else to know, and the idea of someone knowing her thoughts, her nightmares--invading my privacy, a particularly paranoid part of her whispered.

"I have never invaded your privacy," he said, his voice strangely rough. She met his eyes, seeing what almost seemed like a flicker of hurt there. But it was gone so quickly that she convinced herself she must have imagined it. "If you'd exercise a little discipline and keep your thoughts to yourself, rather than hurling them at me, there wouldn't be a problem. I can't shut off my telepathy, Domino. Oath, there are times I've wanted to, believe me. Most of the time it's nothing but a burden and a liability in this line of work."

She felt a little ashamed of herself. Why would he want to go rooting in your mind, anyways? asked a sarcastic voice readily identifiable as her conscience. It's not like it's a particularly pleasant place to visit, Domino. His revelation certainly explained a lot, though. No wonder he's so antisocial. Must be hard to like people if you know what they're thinking, she reflected bleakly. "So," she said, clearing her throat. "You're going to go back, blow the base, and then head for the rendezvous?" she asked, wanting to make sure she had this clear.

He didn't call her on her obvious attempt to change the subject. "Pretty much," he said, transferring all but a minimum of supplies and the extra charges from his pack to hers. "I'll stay under cover until dark--they won't be expecting either of us to double back after that much time. If they've removed the charges, though, I'll have to reset them. So I'm not sure when I'll be able to catch up with you. Just keep heading towards the rendezvous, and watch out for any stray patrols."

He slung his own pack over his shoulder and turned to leave the cave. Only then did he seem to notice that she wasn't moving. "Domino?" he asked, sounding impatient.

Trying not to show how much this whole thing bothered her, she glowered at him and got up, lifting her pack. "This is nuts, Cable. We barely got out of that base, and you're going to go back in? By yourself?" When he didn't answer her, she growled. "I used to think Bridge was joking when he said you were borderline suicidal half the time." His expression grew faintly amused, and she cursed, pshing past him to the mouth of the cave. She lingered for a moment, listening, but all she could hear was the wind, and it wasn't strong enough to be masking sounds of pursuit.

Cable came up beside her, laying a hand on her shoulder. She eyed him suspiciously. He wasn't big on physical contact, she'd noticed. Except when it's his fist in someone's face.

"I don't need to be reassured, Cable," she said sarcastically. "I'm not a child." She pulled away. "I'll see you--when I see you," she said in a brittle voice, and walked away.

Before she'd gone ten steps, her conscience had pointed out how petulant she was being. Maybe I'm an action junkie and can't stand to be left out, but that was no reason to leave without saying--

But as she turned around, he was nowhere to be seen. Her grip on her gun tightened, and she went back to the cave cautiously. "Cable?" she called, peering in. He wasn't there. Turning around in a slow circle, she couldn't spot him anywhere. And the wind had died down, leaving an eerie silence in its wake.

"Damn," she muttered. "Gives the term 'disappearing act' a whole new meaning." Shaking her head, she turned to go, but then paused for a moment. "Good luck, Nathan," she said quietly, hoping that wherever he was, he would hear her.

***

Domino pushed wet hair out of her face, cursing as she looked up at the darkening sky. "Damned rain," she muttered. "I hate rain. I hate this place." The terrain had changed as she'd gotten down into the valley, from bare rock to forest, and the forest was just getting thicker. Unlike Cable, who on their way through here two days ago had walked along with a look of what had seemed almost like dreamy contentment in his eyes, Domino didn't like trees. You never knew what was going to be hiding behind them.

She'd barely avoided three patrols in the last four hours. The fact that the Mandarin seemed to know which way they'd come concerned her, but the soldiers themselves didn't seem to be too enthusiastic about searching. Sloppy, she thought scathingly. Not that she would prefer them to be meticulous, but as a fellow professional, she couldn't help but look down on them just a bit for it.

This wasn't working. She was trying to keep her mind off Cable, back there at the base, and she couldn't. He crept into her thoughts no matter what she did. Be honest, Domino, she told herself harshly. It had been happening a lot lately. She didn't know precisely why, and it was beginning to irritate her.

The insane thing was, Cable was probably the one member of the Wild Pack she'd gotten to know the least over the last six months. She and Grizzly had hit it off instantly; beneath it all, Theo was a big soft-hearted sentimentalist. She'd won Hammer over eventually, although his scathing comments about 'little girls with oversized guns' had been a little hard to take at first. Even Bridge had opened up a few times, usually over a beer. All of them had shared something of themselves with her, and she'd reciprocated as much as she dared. People in their line of work always had secrets, it was part of the job description. But she knew about Hammer's family, about Grizzly's fly-fishing obsession and Bridge's ambitions beyond the Wild Pack. They knew things about her, too, although she'd been careful about what she'd told them. Little things, mostly--her taste in music, her hobbies, a few of her more lurid adventures over the last few years. Nothing too personal or difficult, but some emotional involvement was neccessary for a good working relationship. And she did hope to be working with these men for a long time to come.

But every time she'd tried to draw Cable out of that shell of his, to get to know him even a little better, she'd failed. Most times he'd just brushed off her questions, changing the subject, but once or twice, when she'd pushed a little too hard, he'd given her that basilisk glare of his, and told her in no uncertain terms to butt out. She'd even tried to get him drunk, to see if that would loosen his tongue. But he'd only withdrawn even further in the face of her careful questioning, to the point where he was next door to catatonic. Eventually Bridge had broken it up, put Cable to bed, and told her that if she ever did it again, he'd break her neck.

Domino sighed, remembering how sharp Cable had been with her the morning after. A week had passed before he would speak to her in a civil manner, and nearly the same amount of time before Bridge would speak to her, period. It wouldn't bother her so much if it was just reticence on Cable's part. After all, it took her a while to warm up to new people, too. But it hadn't taken her long to figure out that Hammer and Grizzly knew about as little about Cable as she did. That didn't seem to bother Grizz, but Domino wasn't sure how Hammer managed to keep his raging suspicion to himself. I guess he probably doesn't, Domino thought darkly. Not with Cable being a telepath. She felt a stab of sympathy for Nathan. It must be hard, to know that someone you're working with doesn't trust you as far as he can throw you.

Bridge knew more, obviously. She was beginning to suspect that he knew a lot more, just from the way that he shut down every time that she tried to talk to him about Cable, as if she'd stepped on taboo ground. What was he protecting? Just Cable's privacy, or was there more to the story? Domino scowled. She didn't like enigmas. If there was one thing her first teacher had taught her, it was not to trust an unknown quantity at her back.

But her instincts told her she could trust Cable. Whatever he was hiding, whatever secrets were locked beneath that cold mask, she honestly didn't think it posed any threat to her or the rest of the Pack. No, she'd lay money that it was something to do with his past--painful memories, maybe, that he didn't want to face, or some kind of emotional trauma that prevented him from really bonding with anyone. She'd seen that same self-contained bleakness on the faces of some of the veterans of the combat pits in Madripoor, men and women who'd became deadened to the blood and death, who'd been through so much that they didn't dare let themselves feel. And if it's something like that, something in his past, maybe that's why Bridge is so protective. She felt a little envious of their friendship, really. The two of them were a legend in the field, although they'd only been freelancing for a few years. Some days, she wasn't sure how she, a relative novice, had mustered the audacity to approach them in the first place--or why they hadn't laughed in her face. Well, Bridge had laughed in her face, she reflected wryly. And then regretted it two seconds later. Maybe the sheer idiocy she'd shown in picking a fight with him had been the deciding factor. You had to be a little crazy to suceed in this business, after all.

It was really getting dark, she noticed, shocked at the amount of time she'd been walking, lost in thought. Easy way to get yourself killed, Domino, she told herself scathingly. Through the trees, she could see the sun, barely visible through the clouds as it dropped below the horizon. Anytime now, Cable, she thought tensely. Blow the damned base and get your ass out of there. With that big an explosion, she would certainly hear it, even at this distance.

But it was only after another full hour, by which time the sky was pitch-black, that she heard the distant thunder of a massive explosion. She couldn't see the flash from here, on the other side of the mountain, but the echo was almost deafening. Gritting her teeth, she kept going, as quickly as she dared in the darkness. Eventually she heard aircraft in the distance, fanning out in a search pattern.

Damn! Cable had been fairly sure that the base they'd penetrated hadn't been the Mandarin's only installation around here, and from the looks of it, he'd been right. She fought the urge to turn around and go back for him. He'd be furious with her if she did--but he had to be in trouble. If the base had blown with the jamming field still active, that would have made it quite obvious that to the Mandarin that he was dealing with someone with the ability to blow the charges using a non-electronic method. And if he and Cable have tangled before, he might know about Cable's abilities. But they'd blown the surveillance system before they'd gone in--

Never take anything for granted, darlin', echoed a familiar gravelly voice in her mind, and Domino flinched. Too true. If Cable's little gadget hadn't taken out all the cameras, if some of the surviving soldiers they'd fought had recognized them--it could mean that the Mandarin knew exactly who'd come in after the disk. And if he's got that big of a grudge against Cable, he's not going to stop until he catches him. Damn it, she didn't care how good Cable was, or thought he was. Alone against odds like that, no one to watch his back--it was suicide.

But she had her orders. Cable wanted her to get to the rendezvous and get the disk out. What was on it, that was worth this much? And what was this mission about in the first place? Domino decided grimly that she wasn't going to let them keep her out of the loop anymore. If they wanted her in the Pack, they were going to have to treat her as an equal partner. And that meant letting her in on all the details of the contracts they took. Probationary period be damned, she thought bleakly. If I haven't proven myself by now, they're the ones who haven't been paying attention.

Onwards, following landmarks she could barely recognize in the dark. She didn't dare use a light, not when she could hear vehicles and voices in the distance. It started to get to her after a while. Anger, worry and uneasiness weren't the best combination of emotions for a situation like this. She eased her death-grip on her rifle, scolding herself for being so jumpy. He would be fine. If only a quarter of the stories that other mercenaries told about him and Bridge were true, they'd been in far worse situations than this and come out intact.

But he's not WITH Bridge, pointed out a nagging voice. He's alone. And are you sure that the disk is really what was on his mind when he sent you away? Maybe he was just being chauvinistic. Maybe he doesn't trust you--

The voice fell silent as Domino froze, hearing some sort of vehicle approaching. She ducked behind some bushes, listening tensely to figure out which direction the sound was coming from. East, she soon realized. From the direction of the base. And it was getting closer. Don't tell me they're following that damned tracker Cable gave me? she thought indignantly. If they were, she was going to track Cable down and spare the Mandarin's soldiers the bother of killing him. Sending me off with a goddamned homing device--is he trying to get me killed? It was far more palatable than the alternative, that her pursuers had picked up her trail. Considering who had taught her to cover her tracks, she was in deep shit indeed if they were that good.

The vehicle came closer and then stopped, the sound of the engine dying. Domino froze, and then cursed under her breath as a floodlight was switched on, bright enough to illuminate this entire part of the forest and destroy her night vision. The bushes weren't thick enough to conceal her, and she dove frantically behind a tree as gunfire came her way from the vehicle.

She returned fire, but with the light blazing right at her, she missed entirely. Think, damn it! she told herself harshly. Take out the light--that'll blind them as well as you. And in that sort of situation, she had an edge. She listened carefully as they continued to fire at her. Six, maybe seven, she decided, her heart hammering. Luck, don't fail me now-- Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes for a moment, slipping into that curious state of simultaneous relaxation and concentration that allowed her probability-altering ability to work at its best.

Then, flicking her weapon over to automatic, she broke from cover, firing as she ran. Her shots hit the light, shattering it, and the forest was plunged into darkness again. Trusting her ability, she kept firing, hearing cries of pain as her shots connected. By the time she had reached the next tree over, no one on the other side was still firing. Had she gotten them all? As she caught her breath, she heard low, gutteral cursing. One of them was still alive, then. Domino raised an eyebrow at some of the names he called her.

His mother ought to have washed his mouth out with soap. She turned, leaping out from behind the tree and firing. The soldier screamed and fell, and Domino blinked, trying to readjust her vision as she started over to where the bodies lay. She didn't love to kill by any means, but there was something so--seductive about letting her mutant ability guide her movements. Losing herself in a dance of grace and speed and purpose--she took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. She knew she was on a dangerous adrenalin high, and part of her wanted nothing more than to be presented with another opponent, to continue the dance for just a few more measures--

Abruptly, there was a flash of light to her left, a deeper gold than the bright halogen floodlight. Domino whirled and fired before her mind could even register the difference.

#Dom--!#

Two shots rang out and silenced Cable's voice in her mind before she could even take her finger off the trigger. The light died. She heard his body hit the ground. He didn't cry out, of course. The part of her that wasn't frozen in shock and horror wasn't particularly surprised.

Her knees trembling so badly that she wasn't positive they'd hold her, she made her way unsteadily towards where she'd seen the light. She tripped over something, nearly falling. With shaking hands, she pulled her flashlight off her belt and switched it on. The bodies she found were all wearing the drab camoflauge of the Mandarin's forces. All but one, a black-clad form that tried feebly to rise and failed.

With a strangled gasp, she ran over and dropped to her knees beside him. "Cable--Nathan--oh, shit--" She played the light over him. He had a hand clasped tightly to his right side, and she felt sick as she saw the blood seeping out from between his fingers.

He blinked at her. In the harsh glow of the flashlight, his face was ashen. "R-Remind me not--to ever get you really pissed off at me," he said weakly.

to be continued...

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