"And just where," Arclight said icily, "have YOU been?"

For a long moment Vertigo stood frozen in terror, unable to think of a word in defense. Then, slowly, it dawned upon her that Arclight should simply have chopped her down from behind -- there was no "Marauder code of honor" when it came to killing. Especially in the case of a traitor. Especially when it came to the hot-tempered Arclight.

Of course. She thinks I'm my other self! The one Misfire just dragged off! She doesn't know--!

With that realization she finally found her tongue, and the paper crinkling in her hands gave her an out. "Who cares how long it took? You wanna eat or what?" she retorted boldly, hefting the bags of junkfood and shaking them in a rattle of loose fries. "I appreciate the...concern...but there's no one following me. I made sure of that -- s'why I'm a bit late, okay? Everything's cool."

Arclight scowled at her but then turned on one heel, stalking away towards the heart of the park. Breathing a sigh of relief, Vertigo hesitantly followed, dragging her feet and casting a longing glance over her shoulder towards the leaf-shrouded lights of the city. So much for getting out of the Marauders, she sighed inwardly. At least I know now that Sinister's not going to get rid of me any time soon...

No. That's not true. The minute he figures out that I'm the one that got away, not his new-and-improved version...or if the others figure it out first... She gulped hard at the thought. I don't know which would be worse...

"What's with the rags?" Arclight's sharp voice cut into her thoughts. With a start, Vertigo glanced down at the patchwork of castoffs she was wearing over her leotard for warmth and camouflage. Shit! Of COURSE the other Vertigo hadn't been walking around looking like a bag lady! Good thing I washed up, at least...no way to explain away the smell...

"Oh, this...? Just some old junk I picked up in an alley. I, uh, didn't want to walk into the restaurant in just my costume," she replied quickly, pleased at her own rapid thinking. Fear of imminent death tended to sharpen her mind right up, it seemed!

Arclight glanced back at her without breaking her long stride. Her expression was hard to read in the starlight. "Oh? Seems like a lot of effort for a load of mcburgers."

Vertigo shrugged carelessly as they reached the Marauders' temporary encampment -- the others were indistinct shapes lounging around a childrens' wooden fort. "Ah well, it's best to be careful -- there's someone in the area looking for us, you know..."

She could have bitten her tongue off but it was too late.

"How do you know that?" Scalphunter. He loomed seemingly out of nowhere, a massive weapon of some sort cradled in his broad sure callused hands. Vertigo had to fight the suicidal impulse to simply drop the bags and run.

Think FAST, girl...

"The, th, there was some old wino back in the alley where I found these clothes," she blurted, fleetingly wishing that she believed in something so she could pray to it. "He recognized me, or at least my costume. Said that some guy named--" what was that name Misfire had mentioned? "--uh, Carlton had been showing pictures of us around the neighborhood. That's how he, the bum I mean, that's how he knew who I was."

Scalphunter narrowed his eyes. "Mmm. And the bum--?"

"Dead now, of course," she said promptly. "Where do you think I got the clothes?"

For a moment she didn't think he'd bought it. Then the team leader hrumphed thoughtfully, deep in his throat "Why didn't you report directly back with this information?"

He bought it! Her fight-or-flight tension drained away and she actually managed a genuine grin. "And show up without the food? Mike 'n' Rip would kill me."

"Speaking of," Riptide drawled behind her, "where the hell IS Blockbuster?"

This time her backup was exactly where she'd expected it to be, and Misfire allowed herself a broad smug grin. In retrospect, sitting stubbornly on her ass for two days and refusing to release any details of her encounter with the Marauder Vertigo until she was assured of full cooperation from the Program's human secondary agents had been a good idea after all.

The back doors of the van were swinging open even as she approached. Without the slightest hesitation, she dumped the woman's limp body into the orderlies' waiting arms; as she turned away they were already strapping down and sedating their new acquisition. Misfire, however, was more interested in heading towards the front of the plain gray vehicle. She rapped on the driver's side door with one knuckle, and a moment later a neatly-groomed young man poked his head out of the open window. "Yes'm?" he asked politely.

Respect. God, she loved it. It was the one thing she'd never had in her previous life as Vertigo, and certainly something she didn't get in the "mental hospital" safehouse where they usually insisted on keeping her between missions. Oh, they were polite enough, and painfully cautious of her abilities even when she was wearing an inhibitor collar, but that wasn't the same...

She beamed up at the driver, a genuine smile which gave her wide blue eyes a momentary shimmer of false innocence. "Hey, Tran. Anything from HQ or are they going to pull us in now?" Though she had a special personal interest in capturing Vertigo, it wouldn't be altogether unpleasant to finally get the chance to see if she could, indeed, now take down any of the other Marauders...

Tran shook his head. He looked surprisingly young and fresh-faced to be an agent, but she knew better: he'd been on one of her previous "outings" as a sniper. A good one. Program agents, mutant or human, were few in number and so they often had to double up in their duties. "I think you've about wrapped this one up, ma'am. I'm all for clearing out before her buddies show up."

"EX-buddies, remember, they want her ass worse than we do for running out on them...but yeah, you're basically right. They're probably around somewhere and it'd get pretty messy if they dropped in on us." Misfire moved forward, planning to round the front of the truck and claim shotgun, but then someone called her name from the back of the vehicle.

"Misfire, ma'am? Er...we could use your help..." One of the orderlies, if she remembered right. He sounded terrified but controlled -- not in immediate danger but far out of his depth. Without pausing to wonder what was going on she was already striding back there, bracing herself for anything, her power surging through her head like a tide and bringing a metallic taste to the back of her throat...

When she reached the open van door three steps later, however, she stopped in her tracks both physically and mentally.

"--the hell--?!"

One of the orderlies, a woman, was pressed up against on the other side of the door. She looked frightened but unharmed. A quick glance confirmed that the second medic was still safely inside the van, as was Vertigo's insensate body.

Misfire stood perfectly still, staring up at the intruder in disbelief, unconsciously poised for a fight for her life. Consciously, she wasn't sure what to think. She hadn't seen him for years. And as it was now apparant that he was making no move to rescue his captive teammate, she had no idea what he wanted -- none at all.

It was the female orderly who broke the taut silence in a shaky voice. "He, uh, he says that he wants to defect."

Huh?!?

"He"...was Blockbuster.

"Yeah, I've been thinkin'," the huge Marauder rumbled almost genially. He was eying Misfire carefully from head to toe; his gaze then lingered thoughtfully on her shoulder-cropped hair. The scrutiny made her fight the urge to fidget.

"If YOU could leave, why not me?" he continued. "I mean, sure, I have nuthin' against Sinister, but when I signed up it wasn't f'r life or nuthin'. An' I'm startin' ta see that that's what HE thinks. He thinks he owns me. Well, that ain't how I work. I've done this kinda merc work before. An' I know a sour job when I see it. I'm out before he decides ta scrap the whole Marauder thing. An' unlike with you, there's not a damn thing they can do to stop me once they find out. Haw! I'd like ta see 'em try."

Under his words, Misfire was thinking furiously. "If you could leave"...? I didn't leave, I was arrested! Kidnapped! Didn't they know that? I thought Sinister knew everything! What is he talking about...? Does he think I'm HER? Well then, if so, who does he think SHE is--?

She decided to piece it together later, when they were safely away from the Marauders. Speaking of... "Where are the rest of the team?"

"No worries, they're all still back at the camp. I jus' was followin' Maelstrom here--"

Misfire couldn't help shooting a sidelong glance at their green-and-silver-haired prisoner. MAELSTROM?! What the blue FUCK is going on here?

He was still speaking over her inner confusion. "An' when you showed up, well..." He spread his hammy hands in a shrug. "Eh, I missed you, kid. Think yer new employer c'n find room for a muscleman?"

"I'm sure," she said. And suddenly she was surprised to find that she was genuinely glad to see him -- and not on the other side of a battle, either. Not the mention the fact that my superiors will be ecstatic! They don't get many willing recruits on the mutant side; they'll probably treat him like a king, the lucky bastard.

She relaxed and grinned and gestured courteously to the van, when the orderlies had already anticipated her and were wedging themselves and their "patient" up against one wall of the interior. "Hop on in, buddy ol' pal."

Scalphunter was furious. Arclight was beyond fury. Scrambler and Harpoon were thoughtfully silent and Riptide...well, he didn't seem to care, really. But after searching for three hours, the facts were crystal clear: Blockbuster had walked out of the park and simply...vanished.

Which meant that the mission had to be aborted. Immediately.

Frankly, Vertigo was more than happy to be taken off of the trail. After all, it would have been awkward to have to accompany the team on a wild goosechase in search of herself! Not to mention that it would have been only a matter of time before someone caught on to the fact that she wasn't who she was supposed to be -- someone, she now gathered, who looked and thought just like her but was now going under the name of "Maelstrom." And who, though of course she couldn't ask for details, was definitely a few levels above her predecessor in terms of power. Arclight had been surly but almost polite to her during the search, and twice -- twice! -- Scalphunter had actually dropped back to Vertigo's side and asked her opinion.

Vertigo shook her head. I wonder what "Maelstrom" was capable of? What DID she do to Arclight?

"And why," she added bitterly under her breath, "didn't Sinister do whatever he did to her -- to ME -- years ago?"

The long ride home in the back of the rented van had been spent in an unnervingly taut silence. Vertigo wasn't one hundred percent sure WHY they were being forced back to base just because Mike had wandered off...but everyone else seemed to be taking their orders for granted, so of course she couldn't ask. What she WAS sure of was that the Marauders had been very much looking forward to taking her down...hard.

She swallowed with a dry throat as the van finally pulled to a halt, jostling her shoulder-to-shoulder with people who would cheerfully rip her to bloody scraps the instant they figured out who she really was.

It's only a matter of time now -- minutes maybe, she thought, biting her lip nervously as Harpoon shoved the back doors open and climbed down. Sinister won't be fooled for a moment.

Schooling her features into the same expression of disgruntled disinterest as the others, she jumped out of the van, almost stepping on Scrambler's heels. The van was parked in a vaulted stone chamber, dimly lit from an unseen source and crisscrossed with watery ditches which smelled like clean rainwater rather than sewage. With a sinking sensation she recognized their surroundings: they were back at Sinister's main lair -- at least, the one he preferred this year.

She was the the second-to-last Marauder out of the vehicle. The instant Riptide's feet hit concrete Sinister was there, appearing almost out of nowhere, his arms folded and a glower darkening his normally impassive expression. He was obviously not bothering to wait for his assassins to drag their feet into his inner sanctum for the usual debriefing.

Vertigo sternly quelled the urge to cross her fingers. This is NOT good...

"Blockbuster," their master said slowly, deliberately, almost as if bemused. "How on God's green earth did you bloodcrazed fools manage to misplace BLOCKBUSTER?"

NEXT: I would NOT want to be a Marauder right now. If Vertigo can get through Sinister's initial team interrogation, can she really expect to escape detection for long? She's really cornered, folks, but there might be a slim chance of a way out...if she's brave enough and smart enough to take it. Errr..."brave"? "Smart"? Vertigo--?! Uh oh.