X-Force: X-Force Only Comm

Ororo and I are going out of town for the weekend. Don't break anything, blow anything up, or burn anything down while we're gone.

MA, schedule an appointment with Arthur Maddicks for next week. Drop a line to Lowenstein's office as well; tell him we have business to discuss.

Take North off the active roster until otherwise noted as of today. I'm sending him off to support a fact finding mission with a friend of Xavier's. He might be back tomorrow or six months from now. Doug, add his emergency contact points in Asia, South America and the Middle East to the active list, in case anything happens.

I want a rundown and contact with all our people out there. It's going to be hard because Betts and Jake might be on jobs right now, but get in touch with everyone you can. Let them know the situation and get them wired into our communications with the mansion.

Sarah, I need you to relocate to the mansion temporarily. Get together with Doug and work on a lash up between out communications systems and theirs. I'll explain at a meeting later today.

Get in touch with our people, let them know we might be out of touch, and get back here for a meeting tonight.

I'm sending her down to that resort in Playa del Carman to update our intelligence and see if she recognizes anyone from the Los Metros Cartel operating from it as a base. Strictly a look and see job, so daily check-ins only. Cammie, you're going to be running the support side on this one, with MA overseeing you. Pull out is on the 18th, unless she hits the crash button, so make sure you have two exit plans prepped.

According to Moira and Ororo, I'm only allowed a short time on this laptop before another bracing round of physio, so I'll have to make this quick.

First of all, thank you for coming to get me. I could make the point that, with the secrets in my head and suiciding not being an option, you were left in the position that you had to as part of operational security, but we all know that wasn't the case. There is going to be a time that one of our own will simply be beyond our reach... but I'm glad this wasn't the case here.

First of all, the overall network is secure. I passed over mostly old or now inactive contacts in order to perserve the whole. But I also got assets killed in order to try and send a message to you. I take full responsibility for that, and I'll be in touch about what can be down to cover some of those debts. However, the main network and our identities are largely safe. HYDRA believes us to be some kind of Hellfire Club offshoot making a powerplay in Europe.

Fortunately, even though they had me for two months, they decided to be clever in how to interrogate me for information. First, they had a couple of telepaths dive in and see if they could just rip out what they wanted. Unfortunately for them, there are parts of my mind that are particularly hostile for psionic intruders. The Gambit aspect of my memories swamped out their personalities, and I nearly escaped twice before getting caught and shutting them down for good. So, they tried drugs instead.

My blood chemistry made their drug mix useless, but I was able to fake the effects long enough to send out the information that I wanted in the order I wanted. By the time they noticed that none of their targets represented the A-list and handed me over to Rumlow for more traditional methods of presuasion, you'd picked up on my signal.

According to Moira, the injuries are numerous, but largely superficial. Rumlow hadn't quite gotten to the crippling part of the process when you arrived. They're releasing me from Muir on Wednesday, and Ororo and I are going to spend a quiet week in France resting before coming back to New York. I won't be field capable for a few more weeks, but I will be back into the office, catching up.

Again, thank you. I shouldn't be alive right now to post this, and the only reason I am is because of you all.

I'll go over all of this later today in the boardroom. But, to put everyone back up to date, Marie-Ange has returned from New Orleans where she had personal business to take care of. All the details are available in the database if you want more information. She's going to be moving into North's old office, and I'm shifting Betts' old Europe network under her for the time being. Route information from that to her from now on.

I've also extended an offer to Camilla Black. Yes, I'm aware her skill set is essentially to hit things and make them sick. She's going to have a lot of work ahead of her, so she'll be spending her days in Mark's old seat in reception while doing enough schoolwork to choke a moderately sized rhino. Doug, Amanda, both of you need to coordinate with Frost about her course of study and arrange for a place in the Brownstone. Sarah, I'm looking at an operational profile similar to yours for now, so I want you to set aside some mentoring time. She thinks she's tough. Prove otherwise to her and start building her back up. Wisdom already thinks I'm touched in the head for hiring her.

Illyana has decided to further her schooling in England for the near future. That means she's going off the network at the end of the week. Wanda has some friends keeping an eye on her, and she'll be working on a strictly freelance basis with us for the next couple of years. Frankly, we need the added credibility for our cover, and she could use a few years grinding the razor sharp edges of her in normal society.

Otherwise, we've got a fuckton of work to do and limited resources to do it with. Let's get to work.

Everyone come to the large boardroom, as soon as possible. Pete called and there's work to do.

The weekend just got extended. We're leaving the office shut until Wednesday. Go do something that doesn't involve air travel, security alarms and firearms. I know in New York, that might be a challenge, but do your best.

Everyone, conference room, now. We've got big trouble, and it's on a very short countdown.

Rather than send out a dozen e-mails, I'm going to catch everyone up here.

I talked to Pete a couple of days ago, and spent a little time in the files matching up the data. It's pretty clear that what happened to him and the other three was a combination of bad luck and bizarre consequence.

Prior to the attack, Pete had a meeting with a mutant calling himself Blaquesmith. He makes advanced technology; the kind of stuff that mucks around with physical laws and science as we know it. He had been a normal mutant until Apocalypse got to him, twisted his powers up to the nth degree, and in the process, made him look pretty inhuman. He wanted Pete to take Apocalypse all the way out. Betts, that meeting Pete mentioned wanting to follow up with us? That was this guy.

However, returning from the mansion during one of the X-Men's regular commutes, they got hit by a group of zealot mercs called the Dark Riders and Creed. Creed somehow hooked up with them after Manhattan, and it looks like the plan was to make it look like a Brotherhood attack, to send the X-Men looking for the wrong people, while the Dark Riders broke Apocalypse out of the SHIELD prison. Turns out all of us took the bait on that one.

This Blaquesmith was able to teleport them to some kind of complex, and basically decided that if Wisdom wanted the other three to live, he'd have to agree to devise a plan to take down Apocalypse, using them. You all saw the footage of that Guthrie kid's new wings; Blaquesmith makes that advanced technology at will. About the only silver lining is that he's not interested in going into business, and Pete says only he can put it all together, so we don't have to worry about anyone replicating or mass producing super soldier parts.

After they broke out Apocalypse, they went to ground in the Blue Area Mesa complex, to help him regain his strength and rebuild his forces while considering his next step. Looks like we surprised him, and Wisdom was already watching, waiting for the chance surprise Apocalypse with his special force. Once he was dead, Blaquesmith freed them all remotely, so we don't have a clue where he is.

Pete is still injured. In the first attack, he took a shot in the spine, and says Blaquesmith only fixed him enough to make him able to move. So he's stuck in a wheelchair for now, but otherwise is in good health. I talked to Moira at Muir, and she's pretty confident that with proper physical therapy, Pete could potentially gain back a lot of mobility. So he shouldn't be stuck in the chair for long. However, we're still down a man in this office, and I don't know when he's going to be back.

We need to start running down information on this Blaquesmith. I've already uploaded everything that I've gotten off Pete about what he let slip on his past, so we start there. I want a name and some possible pings on location, suppliers, contacts; anything that we can use to track this guy.