Chapter 19- VIP on the Plane

Unknown- inside a Ranosa Cartel Cargo Plane, 2008- March- 21 (Morning?)

Thomas "Tom" Samuel Eamon Cassidy (Black Tom)

The plane ride was both long and uncomfortable, especially with the handcuffs on. Tom looked over at the teenage girl sitting beside him. She had a black eye, but she was alive, and currently, that was all that mattered.

Turk, a man he would once called a friend, exited the cockpit and approached the man who had been staring daggers at him the entire plane ride. “The pilot said we’re coming on approach boss.”

‘Correction, probably one of two, given the others don’t talk to the pilot either.’ Tom thought to himself, and then he wondered. ‘I wonder if the pilot was one of my crew too?’

“Good. Once we get him inside the manor, and then can really get started on him, eventually his secrets will be ours.” Mr. Dagger-stare stated. Before he pulled out a rag and wiped the blood off of his palm and knuckles. He was Miguel Ranosa, and up an up-and-coming underboss in his family cartel. At least he was, until his Cassidy Clan started competing and underselling him in the same drug trade.

Tom then leaned over, and spit out the mouthful of blood that had leaked into his mouth again. They had punched and slapped him enough that his inner cheeks were open and bleeding slowly. He knew that they were in this business much longer than he had been, but Tom never thought that they would literally send a large plane with a dozen men after his little crew, no matter how much product he could produce.

'They are going to be so pissed when they learn there is no secret, only the luck of being born a mutant.' He thought to himself as he tried to right his posture.

Then one of the men looking out the window hit another, and pointed outside of the plane. The second man then walked up to Miguel and whispered. "Boss, got a problem." Mr. Dagger stares, looked away from him enough to look at his man, then the man added. "A giant is attacking the island estate."

Then both Mr. Dagger stares and Turk moved over to the windows on the far side of the plane to confirm what the man reported.

So Tom leaned over to his niece and nudged her knee with his, and then he whispered. “You awake lass?” She grunted an affirmative like he taught her, the lesson of don’t speak amongst your enemies. “Good, because there seems to be a commotion going on where we’re landing and we might be able to get away in the confusion.”

As he added the second bit, Miguel shouted at the turncoat Turk. “Go tell the pilot to skip the island, and make way for the main base in Mexico.”

Yet his old buddy told Mr. Dagger stare the best news Tom heard since the fucker betrayed them. “We can’t, the pilot said that we will be lucky to have enough fuel to land, let alone go someplace else.”

"Shit," Miguel swore, before walking over to him, and poked him in the chest, and asked. "Who the fuck did you call you shit-stain? Who's down there to help you?"

Black Tom smiled a bloody smile, before honestly saying. “Who the fuck was I going to call, huh, you killed my entire crew? Save that fucking traitor.”

“What about her?” Turk asked him. When everyone looked at him, he added. “You always called her your niece, meaning you got a brother out there somewhere.”

The cartel underboss pulled Tom to his feet, not that Tom was willing to stand for the fuckers. “Where is your brother? Is he the giant out there killing my men?”

The Scotsman started laughing hysterically in the drug leader's face before admitting. "Fuck no. He is a cop and he is out there fighting people like you and me. I have no idea who this giant is, that is fucking your shit up."

Then the plane jerked hard, and everyone was thrown forward. Tom stayed on the ground, unable to use his arms or hands, but everyone else quickly tried to get to their feet. Then a pair of high-pitched screams came out from the cockpit, when a flash of light could be seen from the seam of the door separating it from the rest of the plane.

Most of the cartel’s gunmen were already on their feet, but Mr. Dagger stare wasn’t yet, as he instead stared at the bands of yellow energy that seemed to be holding the plane in the air. “What in the virgin mother’s name is going on?” The cartel underboss asked while he climbed to his feet.

Then even Tom was shocked as a pair of hands made from the yellow energy appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the wheel locking the plane’s side door shut. As it finally hit him the identity of the people fucking with the cartel, and who it was personally that had captured the plane.

A deep belly laugh, erupted from Tom as he rolled onto his hands, he had to take a couple of deep breaths as the cartel personally looked around completely confused. So Black Tom spelled it out for them how completely fucked they were.

“Oh my, did you step into it now Ranosa!” Tom shouted before doing another round of laughing.

“What do you mean? Do you know who is out there? Who is it that is attacking us?” Mr. Dagger stares asked as he clearly was starting to freak out at the mystery.

"That's the fucking Brotherhood out there, you poor sod. And Exodus the manipulator of Light himself that has your plane in a stranglehold. You are so completely fucked!" Black Tom told them.

They all blinked and didn't want to believe, and yet the dismembered hands still unlocked the plane's side hatch. The metal clink of the door unlocking completely, awoke the cartel underboss, as he ordered. “To hell with this, kill them. Kill them all… Fucking mutants.”

Hearing that, Tom was a touch surprised when one of the cartel gunmen drew a pistol and shot Turk in the back of the head.

‘You deserved worse, you fucking turncoat.’ Tom thought, but did nothing else as the world slowed around him, as the still smoking gun shifted to be aimed at him. ‘If this be the last thing…’ he started to think before shouting a battle cry from the past twenty years. “Mutant and Proud!”

Yet as the man pulled the trigger, a teenage redhead leaped from her seat, handcuffs only on only one of her wrists, as she grabbed the gunman's arm and bit deep into the meat of the man's arm.

While the other gunmen also drew guns and weapons, Tom didn't see it. Instead, he stared in surprise at his niece's actions, and how the bitten man both punched her in the head, freeing his arm before he also elbowed her in the face.

However, as the man brought his gun to bear on the fourteen-year-old girl, the cartel gun thug didn't notice the sword of yellow light materialize first behind and then through his chest. The thug looked at the blade sticking out of his chest for a second, before the blade of light tore up and out of the man, his arms dragging his bisected chest into two separate pieces.

Everyone had to adjust their stance when the plane hit the ground, and in the next moment the hatch pulled into the plane and a man followed the now-opening door. His skin burned red like terrible sunburn, his eyes glowing in their sockets, and his black costume clung firmly to his muscular body.

“Exodus…” Miguel Ranosa muttered in fear.

Then the hands floated up beside him and in a couple seconds reformed into shortswords, which spun in place beside him awaiting his order to kill.

“Go ahead, raise those guns. You will be dead, before the second shot… and I will still be here.” Exodus challenged them.

“Why?” The cartel underboss asked.

The mutant powerhouse smirked and he repeated the man’s question. “’Why?’ I will answer your question, with another question, when you sell your… stock. Do you give your customers a discount or a surcharge for the mutants that you sell them?”

“You misunderstand sir. I don’t handle the selling of the people I move. That's my cousin's business.” Mr. Dagger stare said in his defense.

Tom started to laugh at the underboss. Then he heard Tessa move, he couldn’t see where to, but he hoped she was smart enough to keep her head down. Because he knew that a man like Miguel wasn’t one to back down, even if it was the smartest thing to do.

And sure enough, Tom was proven right, when the underboss ordered. "Do it."

Tess somehow crawled to Tom, and he told her, before the shooting started.  "You look at me, lass. You look at me." If his hands weren't cuffed he would hold the young woman's face so she wouldn't see what was going on around her. Then the guns fired and beside his young niece's face, all the minor crime boss saw was flashes of bright light passed the girl’s head.

 

St. Justus Islands- Ranosa Cartel Mansion, 2008- March- 21 (Noon)

Exodus-                     

One of his extra sights had followed Mystique as she cut, gunned, and killed her way through the few remaining retreating members of the drug lord's staff. His actual eyes watched a heartwarming scene of a daughter treating the wounds of the man that he had rescued from the cargo plane. Not that they were actually father and daughter, but rather uncle and niece.

Mind you his ears worsened the scene for him, as he heard Juggernaut chug bottle after bottle of tequila from the mansion. The large man coughed after he pulled his latest conquered bottle from his mouth and then belch loudly, before tossing the empty towards the small crater of broken glass that he had already created.

“That was actually fun, and honestly I think all of the gunfire massaged my lower back for me. Because it isn’t as stiff as it was like before.” Juggernaut announced to them. Then he grabbed and opened another fresh bottle from the cabinet that Exodus had brought out for him.

He had kept his second extra sight patrolling, between the enemy and Toad down by the docks, and sure enough, he and Broxx did kill a couple of the guards as they snuck into the mansion to steal some nick-nacks, but then they ditched long before the battle concluded.

The knight had to admit that he was a touched surprised when saw that the horned boy stomped the sidewalk and the concrete shot out like a spear at the armed criminals. ‘I wonder if Nath’aniel could give that man some pointers too.’ Exodus pondered.

“So what are you Brotherhood boyos doing after this?” The Scotsman asked them as he worked his wrists to get feeling in them again.

The large man immediately stopped drinking to correct the thin man. “I ain’t a lackey to them, I had a debt, and I paid it off." The now freedman nodded in understanding.

“As for us, we are gathering up our missing allies before returning to our new base," Exodus told the man flatly, as he paid more attention with his now free extra sight, going over the grounds and taking stock of the supplies that remained intact.

Juggernaut then pointed at him, and asked. “You know I recall that the plan originally called for three of you to be here, but it was only you and the blue woman, so where is the third?”

The knight had recalled that as well, but when he went to remind Copycat, she then used rather offensive words at him while refusing to join them, so instead of repeating it he explained. “By the time we were set to leave, she had cooled down and remembered that she was mad at us, so she told us to go without her.”

‘On top of that Deadpool had woken up, but wasn’t talking to her or anyone yet, so it’s possible she was worried about him.’ Exodus thought but didn’t say to them.

The skinny man with the greying beard and hair laughed and then said. “Now don’t take this the wrong way Tess, my dear, but laddy, women are crazy. When they’re not making your head spin is when you should worry.”

Clearly, the young redhead did take it the wrong way, as she looked away, from her 'uncle' and crossed her arms. Of course, the man's statement just made the giant laugh in agreement.

‘There are still four freezers and a pair of working fridges inside the main house. Although how would we keep the food from spoiling, it may take the better part of a week to get to the Citadel in that large, loud, and slow plane. And that’s with no delays.’ Exodus thought as he scouted the supplies.

“So what are the chances you all can give me and lass the plane or at least a ride back to the UK?” The rather talkative Scotsman asked him.

“None. The plane was the prize that justified this battle." The knight told him flatly. As he did, he conjured hands of light to open cabinets and fridges to see if there was anything that would have the shelf life they needed. Seeing a dozen loaves of bread, gave them enough food to make the trip and then some. So he added. "But we can get you to Genosha, and you may be able to get yourself home from there.”

“What or where is a Genosha?” The teen Tess asked him.

Juggernaut answered for him after he burped. "It's an island about the size of this one, but instead of some drug lord, it's run by a mutant queen… where all mutants are welcome, so long as they don't bring trouble with them."

"Well, that excludes me and lass, because we are nothing but magnets for trouble.” The uncle admits to them with a smile. After a moment of silence, the talkative Scotsman turns and asks Juggernaut. "And you big guy, what be your plans if you're not with them?

"My first thoughts was to go to the States and do a little banking. But now that you ask, I think I may stay right here." The large mutant admits before draining the half-drunk bottle in his hand.

“That’s not a good idea you know. You have to know that the Ranosas will send more men to find out what happened here. Especially to get the money inside the house’s basement and their product in the barns.” The teenager reminds Juggernaut.

The light manipulator was surprised to hear the young girl understood so much about this crime base.

Juggernaut laughed before saying. “That’s the point. I already walked from Europe to Genosha, it wasn't as fun as I thought it would be. And I can't fit inside of that dinky plane there. And the Black Queen's men had already taken the yacht that was here. So all I can do is hope that these Ranosas people have another, or better yet a bigger boat, for me to take from them.”

“You plan to wage a war with an international drug cartel?” Exodus asked the giant.

“No… I plan to bully an international drug cartel. Ha ha ha.” Juggernaut admitted.

“Well then boyo I think I will be joining ya. Exodus, you mind getting the lass back into civilization?” The Scotsman states while pointing a finger at the redhead.

“Genosha only takes in mutants.” The knight warned the middle-aged man.

While at the same time the giant complained. “Who says I need your help?”

"Her ma, pa, and me are all mutants, so the odds are good that she is too, but she is just a late bloomer. As for help, I can see that you have enough strength to take me or any of us out. But power isn’t all about strength." The uncle states, before picking up a broken piece of wood, Exodus frowned when he saw a red pulse leave the Scotsman's hands, and a second later a ray of heat exited from the tip of the table leg.

Two blasts later, and before anyone could react, the blasts of heat had unlocked and knocked off Juggernaut's helmet off of his head. The giant then angrily got to his feet, but because of all of the booze he had already drunk, so he swayed and fell back onto his ass.

The Scotsman, then walked over and picked up the helmet, and offered it to the still angry larger man. “My point laddy, even the strongest man can be taken out by what they least expect. And besides, you paid off your debt, but I still have my own. The Ranosas took out my crew. And they need to answer for that.”

Juggernaut looked the man in the eye for a moment before he laughed for a bit, then he admitted. “I like you old timer. What’s your name?”

The Scotsman smiled, but Exodus noticed that he let out a held breath too, before saying. “Tomas Cassidy. But my friends call me Black Tom.”