X-FORCE ISSUE #1

" Look out!"

" NONE MAY TOUCH EXODUS!"

" JEAN!"

" MAGNETO!"

" IAN!"

Ian shot up in his bed, sweating. His dreams recently had been filled with nothing but nightmares, all of them from the horrible tragedies that had happened at the Institute over the last two years. From the time Quentin quire led a rebellion that killed many different students, including one of Emma's daughters, Sophie Cuckoo, all the way to the recent battle against sinister and the purifiers.

Ian struggled to catch his breath, gasping for air. That is until a soft hand reached up and touched his chest.

" Ian?" Noriko gently called the man's name, and he looked over at her. Her eyes were filled with worry, her hand clung to his chest as gently as she could manage. And after a moment, Ian's breathing slowed, and he began to calm down. " Is it the nightmares again?" Noriko asked.

" Yeah. I'm sorry for waking you up." Ian told the girl.

Two months had gone by since the X-men were disbanded. At first, things were rough for Ian and Noriko. They had to slum it in cheaper parts of New York just to get by.

When word got around that Ian and Noriko were struggling, Ian's mother, Sarah Sinclair, helped Ian and Noriko get an apartment.

" It's okay. I'm more worried about you. Maybe we... Maybe we should take you to a doctor?" Noriko asked the man.

" No." Ian replied. " I'm fine. Just a little stressed out still. I'm sure it's just from everything that's happened. It'll blow over in a few days." Ian told the woman.

Noriko looked skeptical at first, but Ian gave her a soft kiss on her lips and hugged her.

" Come on, I'm gonna be alright, as long as I got you, everything's gonna be alright." Ian told the girl.

Noriko relaxed, at least a little, and nodded. She hugged Ian back and sighed.

" Okay, just promise if it keeps up, you'll talk to someone." Noriko asked the man.

" I promise. If it keeps up, I'll go with you to see a therapist. Okay?" Ian replied. He shook Noriko's body and kissed the top of her head.

Noriko smiled and laughed.

" Okay, okay! Come on, let's go back to bed. We got things to do tomorrow." Noriko told the man.

" Right. Right. Come on, let's worry about that tomorrow. For now, come here." Ian laid back with Noriko resting on his chest and the two went back to sleep.

Tomorrow would be a busy day for both Ian and Noriko. See although, Sarah was able to help them get a place, they wouldn't be able to live free forever, so tomorrow Ian and Noriko were going to look for jobs.

...

The Next morning, Ian and Noriko woke up early, to get ready for the day. Thanks to Ian's mother pulling strings the duo were able to get interviews at different workplaces.

" Good luck, Noriko." Ian told the woman.

" You too, Ian." Noriko leaned up and kissed Ian on his lips and with a sigh of content, the two of them went their separate ways for the day. Over the course of the day, Noriko had many different interviews, and not a single one of them went well for the woman.

" Can you hide the gauntlets?"

" You absorb what?"

" You're too dangerous."

" Sorry, can't help you."

Noriko left the last coffee shop on her list, dejected and disappointed.

" Great, that was a total failure. Maybe Ian had better luck." Noriko groaned. She started walking back to her apartment in defeat, nothing could make the day worse.

Unfortunately, Ian was also having the same problems.

" Bah, great. Every single place on the list said no. What a waste of time. Noriko's gonna be so disappointed. Hopefully she fared better than I did." Ian exclaimed. Along the way home, Ian stopped at a small store. " I did need to grab milk. Might as well get it now." Ian groaned.

Ian wanted his stop to be quick and effortless, but as he surveyed the dairy products, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

" Hello? Can I help you sir?" Ian asked the man who had grabbed him.

" Ah yes, I do believe you can. My name is-"

" Norman Osborn. New director of Shield. Oops, Sorry. H.A.M.M.E.R! Right? The former Green Goblin." Ian spoke up.

" Ah, you've heard of me." Norman stated.

" Of course, I did. It would be hard not to recognize a man like you. The question is what do you want?" Ian asked.

" I've heard your looking for a new job, and I'd like to offer you an olive branch.": Norman told the man.

" How did you know that?" Ian asked. " Are you following me?"

" No. No. Actually, I heard from your mother. Your mother has some impressive contacts, especially in Stark Industries and Oscorp. And I mean I would be lying if I said I haven't been following your career with the X-men." Norman told the man.

Ian eyed Norman suspiciously.

" What do you want?" Ian asked again.

" I want you to come work for H.A.M.M.E.R, as part of our New Avengers program. More specifically as part of our hero initiative, where we train young men and women like yourself to become the heroes of tomorrow. You'd obviously get a hefty salary and benefits I'm sure you would enjoy. Health care, Dental, Etc. Everything would be personally taken care of by Oscorp. Though that would mean you would need to abide by the nations hero registration law and register your name, alias, and powers with the government. A small safety precaution. I'm sure you understand." Norman explained.

Ian listened to his offer carefully. And yes, while it sounded like a good deal, Ian knew all too well than to trust anything this man had to say. Especially with his whole hostile Takeover of Shield and his past as the Green Goblin.

" So, what do you say?" Norman asked. " Do we have a deal?" Norman extended his hand to Ian and waited for the young man to either accept or deny his deal.

" I appreciate the offer. But I'm going to have to turn you down. Frankly I don't trust you, and the fact that you've been watching me is even more concerning. And I will never register to a government run by you. You stay out of my way, and I'll stay out of yours. I think that's a fair trade off, right? " Ian replied.

" Well, that's just fine. In case you change your mind, however, please take my card." Norman spoke. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a card and handed it to Ian, the card had his name, business address, and his number on it. His personal number.

" Right, well thank you and have a good day." Ian told the man. He then left without saying another word.

Once Ian was gone, a man in a black suit approached Norman.

" Should we take him out sir?" The man asked.

" No, Bullseye, you and Moonstone would only get yourselves killed. Besides, he obviously wants no problems with me, and I don't want any with him." Norman explained to the assassin.

" What about Sentry? Couldn't he handle it?" Bullseye asked.

" No, brute forcing the situation would only make him a deadlier force to deal with. We'll leave him alone for the time being. We have to deal with Thor and his Asgardians first and foremost. They're beginning to become a problem. And besides, there are other candidates for the initiative program. We'll just take our time and see where things go." Norman explained to the man. " Come on, let's go."

......

An hour later.

" Hey babe! I'm home!" Ian exclaimed. He walked into the apartment and plopped down on the couch. He was exhausted. Not physically, but very much mentally.

Noriko came into the living room with a towel wrapped around her waist and her blue hair wrapped up in a towel.

" Hey, how did the search go?" She asked.

" A whole lot'a notta." Ian replied. " You?"

Noriko walked over to Ian and plopped down on his lap.

" Same." Noriko replied. " Not one of the shops in the town wanted a girl who could accidentally blow them up." Noriko explained.

" I see, well. That sucks." Ian groaned.

" What do we do now?" Noriko asked the man.

" We try again, tomorrow. And if push comes to shove, we could always ask for a little help from mom. I'm sure she wouldn't mind asking her boss for us. I'm sure he could use the protection." Ian told the woman.

" Who is her boss? I mean I know she works for some corporation, but I don't think you ever told me who they were." Noriko asked.

" Oh, she works for Stark Industries." Ian replied.

" What? She works for Tony Stark, and you just now tell me?" Noriko shouted.

" What? It's not like I ever met the guy." Ian stated. " Besides, I didn't want my mother risking her job for us."

" But it's better than nothing. And besides like you said before, we can't always depend on your mom for help." Noriko argued.

" Yeah, that's true, I guess. How about this. Tomorrow, I'll call mom and see if she can maybe get me a meeting with Tony. I'll show him what I can do and see if I can get a job working at Stark industries. That sound good to you?" Ian asked.

" That sounds great. And I'll go out looking again tomorrow. But for now, I'm so tired." Noriko groaned. " Carry me to bed?"

Ian couldn't help but laugh at the woman pouting in his arms.

" Alright, let's go little baby." Ian joked. He lifted Noriko up into his arms and carried her to the bedroom.

......

A few hours later, well into the dark of night, Ian awoke from his slumber. He didn't have another nightmare, but instead, he felt a presence in his home. He quietly slipped out of bed and opened the bedroom door and stepped out. He first checked the guest room to the right, making sure no one was inside, before closing and locking the door behind him.

" We're in the living room." Ian heard a familiar voice speak up.

Ian sighed and hung his head. Of course, why would he expect to be able to live a normal life.

Ian walked towards the living room and just glared at the man in front of him.

" Been quite a bit. Good to see you're doing alright, Ian."

" What do you want Scott?" Ian asked the man straight up.

" How's Noriko?" Scott asked the man, ignoring his previous question.

" She's fine now. It was hard at first when you threw us out on the streets. But Noriko's used to be homeless. I really depended on her quite a bit for a while. But thankfully I had family that could help out. Not like you really care." Ian told the man. " So, get to the point, why are you here?" Ian asked again.

" I'll cut straight to the point then. X-Force." Scott stated.

" What about it? I thought we were disbanded after what happened at Muir Island." Ian asked the man.

" You were, but I'm calling you back into action." Scott replied. " Things are changing for our people. For better or worse. And there's still one very glaring problem in the world. A problem that needs to be taken care of." Scott explained. " The Purifiers need to be taken care of. Permanently. Their leader Matthew Risman, marched into a shield base and told the agents there he wanted to confess his sins. But it turns out he was just there to commit more of them. Apparently, Risman had a Purifier on the inside. Less than an hour after he turned himself in, he and his men killed sixteen shield agents. William Stryker and his Purifiers killed more students in a single night than we ever lost in all the years since the Xavier's institute was first opened. But Stryker and his Purifiers have always targeted Mutants. Xavier, the X-Men, the student, the baby... For Risman to attack humans... To stage an assault on a shield facility... This is an escalation in his actions like nothing we've ever seen before. Now, it seems likely that the Purifiers have several high-ranking members inside the government, which is why Shield ignored the Purifiers attack on the mansion. This also explains why they didn't act on the attack at the hospital in Alaska." Scott explained. " But this is something Shield can't ignore, no matter how many men the Purifiers have on the inside."

" Okay. So, why'd he, do it?" Ian asked.

" Risman was after something. Something so important, he risked everything to get it..." Cyclops explained to the man. " And I want you to find out what and stop him."

" Well, that sounds good and all. But we don't have a team. And If Logan's not gonna be running things, then I don't want to be involved. Besides, as you can clearly see, I have things to deal with here." Ian explained to the man.

" You don't think you were the first person I came to do you?" Scott asked. " You do have a team. Rahne for example." Scott pointed to the woman and Ian's eyes nearly popped out of his head.

" Why is she here?" Ian asked the man.

" She's not the only one, Logan, Warpath, X-23-Ugh!" As soon as the words finished leaving Scott's mouth, Ian slugged him right in the jaw.

" How dare you, you son of a bitch. Logan and James are one thing. They know how to choose for themselves. But Laura's different. She's special. She's struggled with making decisions alone her entire life. This world was all she knew. That's why Logan brought her to the institute. So, she could be something other than a killer. And you have the gall to bring her right back into it? And you didn't stop there, you also brought Rahne into this." Ian berated the man as quietly as he could, but very aggressively. He tried his best not to wake Noriko up, knowing she would immediately jump on the wagon with Scott, if it meant going after the Purifiers.

Scott rubbed his mouth and wiped the blood away before standing back up.

" I'll have you know both Laura and Rahne came to me with this. They wanted to be a part of this and I'm not going to stop them. If you don't want to go after the Purifiers, then that's fine. But they do. And I'm sure Nori-"

Ian stopped Scott from speaking, grabbing him by his throat and slamming him down on his couch.

" You will stay away from her; do you understand me? If you ever get the idea to bring Noriko in on this, I will kill you myself." Ian exclaimed. " And that's not a threat. It's a promise, and I don't care who I have to kill to get to you, Emma, any telepath, or any of the other X-men. Nothing in this world will save you from my wrath. You want Risman dead? Fine. Let me and Logan handle things. But that's it then we're done, and you never come near me or my family again. Do you understand?" Ian asked.

He was squeezing Scott's throat so hard, that the man couldn't find a way to breathe, let alone answer him.

" Do you understand? Shake your head yes or no!" Ian exclaimed.

Scott nodded and Ian released his grip.

" Alright, now get out." Ian told the man. He pointed to the door and demanded that Scott leave immediately. He then turned and looked at Rahne. " Rahne, I gotta know. Why do you want to do this? You hate violence. I know you do. You hate killing. I've seen you cringe at the sight of blood before, I know this isn't like you. What's going on?" Ian asked the woman.

" I have something that I need tae take care of." Rahne replied.

" What? What is it? What could be so important that you'd be willing to do what we're about to do? To take this road?" Ian asked the woman.

" It's none of yuir business, Ian." Rahne replied.

" Rahne, please. I'm begging you, stay out of this. If you're worried about something or someone, then tell me. If Scott's forcing you to come, or maybe you're trying to save someone, then please tell me. I promise you; I would do anything. If you wanted someone saved.... Or if you needed someone killed then please, trust me. I will take care of it. Rahne please, you're a new mutant. You're a hero, Rahne. You're not like me, you're not Logan. You have a choice, Rahne. You have a choice to be something better. Someone better. Just talk to me." Ian begged the woman to reconsider her choices. Of all the things in the world the last thing he wanted for Rahne to become a part of his world. Ian was a killer, he knew that. He was no hero, and he didn't care. If killing his enemies meant that his friends could live in peace, then so be it. But he didn't want that life for Rahne. Not her. Especially not her.

Ian approached the woman and grabbed both of her hands and squeezed them.

For the love of God, Ian didn't want to see Rahne get hurt. He loved Noriko dearly, but Rahne, she would always have a special place in Ian's heart. No matter what happened or who he was with, he would always love Rahne. Just like he still very much loves Rachel.

" Ian, I know what I'm getting maself into. I know what it is that we are going tae do." Rahne told the man.

" Do you. Do you really?" Ian asked.

" I do." Rahne replied.

" Rahne, please." Ian begged once more. Although it became painfully clear really quick that Rahne was not going to back down. " Will you at least tell me what's so important, that you feel the need to do this?" Ian asked.

" Ma father, Reverend Craig. I don' know what. But I know he's involved somehow. I... I want tae save my father. Ian, I have tae save him." Rahne told the man. " I'm sorrey. I know ye want tae protect me. But I can't let anything happen to him. Even after everything he's done tae me. He's still ma dad." Rahne spoke.

Ian closed his eyes and nodded.

He hated it so badly, but he understood it.

" Rahne, promise me you won't do anything reckless." Ian spoke.

" Ian."

" Promise me! That if things get bad, you'll get yourself out of there." Ian asked the woman.

" I will." Rahne told the man.

" Okay." Ian replied.

" You're suits in the bag. You'll meet at the coordinates tomorrow night with the others. Welcome to the team Ian." Rahne told the man. She gave Ian a hug and then quickly departed along with Scott.

Ian looked at the door and then to the bag on the couch. He opened it and inside was a single suit, the colors were Black and Gray. The front and back of the top were all black, and the sides under the arms were Gray. The pants were all black and so were the combat boots. He had two long forearm covers that were both black and a black mask that had glowing red eye sockets. The mask covered his eyes and his nose, but that was it. Everything else was exposed.

Ian stared down at the suit and simply thought to himself, what was he going to do. Nothing is ever simple.

Not in this life.