<<< Two's Company, Three's A Crowd, [Sabertooth]

[Spiral]

May 25th
2pm
The House of Creed

---

She blinked into existence. So did they.

"Creeeeed!" She shouted. "Oh fellow partner in crime and villainy, I come bearing gifts!"

She dropped the load she was carrying. The rest of it sat outside.

She herself was decked out in much the same thing she'd been when she left. The Mansion, as usual, was in it's normal state of disarray, which was comforting. She found the old-school horror house vibe it game off entirely homey, so much so that she regularly forewent cleaning in an effort to keep the rustic "lived in, died in" air about her own quarters in the place, as well as the hack-up ramshackle room that passed for a laboratory down in the cellar.

"Come on, Vic! We got some company! Put on Coffee! And if we have any bread I should probably make sandwiches. Plus I haven't had Earth food in five days and I'll tell you their stuff is rrrank!"

For much of the outset of her life she'd lived on scavenged fruit and coconut crab. She never thought she'd find something worse until five days spent on a Skrull Interdictor Cruiser.

It was all very exciting, this recent development. After some cajoling, carooning, and general fast-talkery she'd convinced Grob'et, or "Mr. Big Hat" as she liked to call him, of her genuine value. A Geneticist of her caliber, a scientist of her caliber, and one at that with no particular attachment or endearment to her fellow man, made a perfect case for a sort of Skrull mole. Nobody really trusted her, but the information she'd shed light on about both the human genome and its inner workings had impressed even the chiefest of their chief scientists.

"And there's more where that came from." She'd reassured.

But now here she was. With her prize, or prizes, really. She headed out from the main foyer and began wandering the corridors. "Viiiic!" She whined. "Come ooooon! It's not cops, I promise. And after that last time you know I know better than to order pizza. Come on it's gonna get stolen if we leave it on the laaaaawn!"

[Sabretooth]

Little green men from outer space. Yup. Now Victor Creed really had seen everything. Either way, it didn't concern him. Whatever these Skrull wanted, they wouldn't get it. People like that never did. The ones who thought on the grandiose scale. Who aimed their goals stratospherically high. Conquer the world, subjugate humanity, create lasting peace between man and mutantkind... it was idiocy, and there were times that Victor Creed felt like he was the only one on Earth who got it.

Well, no. Spiral got it. She got that you didn't get what you wanted by aiming to change the whole world. By aiming to conquer it or engage in massive genetic cleansing on a global scale or whatever. You fomented chaos. That worked. You take the small work and you terrify people. You leave your mark. You engage in anarchy. That'll get things done.

But still... these little green men would come up against opposition. Namely - the do-gooder types that had in their numbers so many people that Creed would love to maim and maul and teach valuable lessons to. Or add to the trophy room. Either way. So he needed to see what would happen when the X-Men went up against the Skrulls. That would be interesting. Observe their reactions. See who did what, who got hurt, who got killed... watch and observe and find the patterns so he could take advantage. He could and would use this invasion to his advantage. And that thought made him smile.

The buzz of the clippers against his scalp was a sensation he'd never gotten used to, but appearances needed to be kept up. His time in prison had his hair grown out too long, and that wasn't the way to go about it. Hard to kill efficiently with hair in your eyes. Buzz it down. Keep it short. Utilitarian, really. That's what it was all about.

Creed winced as he heard Spiral's voice calling out. He sighed, and ran one last row of the clippers along his hairline, brushing out a few stray clippings with his fingers.

She was persistent. He grabbed his robe and pulled it on. It was a nice robe. Silk, the kind of thing only the richest of the rich had. It came with the house, and he liked it. He made his way down the stairs to where Spiral and her... quests were. The lingering scents... she brought people with her. He could smell it on her.

"The hell is this, kiddo? We can't keep runnin' a private organization here if you keep draggin' in strays like this."

[Spiral]

"Ohhoho..." She sauntered up to him, arms flecking stray hair from his shoulder, her face aglow with mischief and mayhem well and truly etched into every curve of her smile. "You got noooo idea."

Spiral looked back at the door excitedly. "I got curious after that little announcement they made. Sorry I didn't leave a note." She apologized, continuing, tone almost frantic. "But I went to... London? I think? Maybe it was Hong Kong. Doesn't matter. Oh, derp. New York. It was New York, the biggest ship was there. I popped on board and had a talk with this guy named Grob'et, one of these things High Lord Mucky-Mucks, and I talked him into giving me a cut of the square if I helped 'em out."

She jumped in the air. "They totally bought it! And then they took some of my blood and stuff but all that's really just the boring stuff. You gotta see this." She said, grabbing his big paw of a hand by two of her own sleight ones and playfully pulling him towards the door. "C'mon ya big lug, it's nutso!"

She pulled him down the main corridor to the creaky old doors leading out to the front of the building, and, with gusto, she flung them both wide open.

"Surprise!"

Out on the lawn, decked in similar garb down to the tee, helmet and fur-linned boots and all, lounged Spiral. Thirty of her, all in the process of stacking complex-looking equipment, equipment that included weaponry, armor, rations, and training gear. "I'da been back sooner but we had to run them all through a crash course in using my worldbending."

She waved her hands excitedly. "Everybody! This is Victor!"

They all looked on in unison and smiled wide, waving. "Hi Victor!" Came the chorus line.

The real one, she looked to Victor, crazed glee in her eyes. "Aren't they awesome!?"

[Sabretooth]

"You... popped on board... the alien space ship," Creed repeated slowly, head canted to the left. "Yeah, that probably was somethin' ya might'a wanted to consult me about. Or at least inform me of."

But the more she spoke... a truce? She had forged a truce with the Skrulls? Why did he get the feeling that he was just about to be royally fucked over? What was it that made him feel like she'd gone and sold him out to the little green men for... for what? What could he possibly offer the little green men? He was off the grid. He was in no position to infiltrate any storied organizations, important global governments, and honestly, if they wanted someone like him to off particular targets, all they needed was the cash and he'd do it.

But still he did not have a good feeling about this. And then the door opened. And he was struck speechless. Thirty of them. Thirty Spirals, all working with... stuff.

He slapped himself in the cheek. Clearly he hadn't woken up yet and this was just some really bizarre dream. That had to be it. Nope. No, wait. He wasn't waking up. Holy crap.

"So.. so I'm gettin' this straight... you struck a deal with the aliens, gave 'em yer blood, an' you got... this in exchange," he gestured out to the crew.

"An army of you," he smirked. This was chaos. This was anarchy. With this... they could take jobs anywhere in the world, at any time, and rake in the profits. Shake things up. Leave a mark on this world unlike any other.

"So gimme the rundown, darlin'. Tell me 'bout the equipment, tell me 'bout all the yous... tell me what they told you. Every bit of info we can get, that's power in our hands, whether these Skrulls win or lose."

He placed his right hand on Spiral's shoulder, a firm pat that showed no signs of gentleness, but wasn't rough or painful either.

"Good work, kiddo. We're gonna make our mark on this world yet, just you wait an' see."

[Spiral]

She stepped down onto the lawn, expecting Victor to follow her, and she pulled the helmet from her head, tossing it away. The headgear vanished from thin air, landing on the headform in her room downstairs.

"So I figured hey, I know stuff about people, more than most, really. I know how to trigger genetic plagues if you've got the guff for it, the moolah or resources or whatever. I know stuff like that and I sure as heck know I could make them better at hiding."

She moved through a cluster of them unpacking some of the crates, one full of odd looking rifles. "Hey hey! Not out here! What if the Candadian Fuzz flies over? We don't need Major Mapleleaf seeing all this junk!"

The three Spirals stood fast and saluted, three arms apiece. "Sir, yes sir!"

She got in one of there faces, puffed out her bottom lip. "Set it all up in that old barn out back. You know how to move stuff, so move it!"

She turned to look at them.

"All of ya! Get this junk set up somewhere not right in the front yard!"

She turned then to Sabertooth, brushing more stray hair off his shirt like a perfectionist, smoothing his shirt out as she shrank away a bit, landing a trio of quick pats on his shoulder. "I'll pay more rent."

She turned back as they all blinked away, grabbing one of the guns before it vanished. "They need a little bit of training but its nothing I can't accomplish, they're super smart like super tacks. I mean, considering they had only the best model to build on."

There was a slight hitch in the plan, though, at least on the Skrull end of things. That didn't matter right now though.

"I take them, fight a few battles, and they leave us alone. Plus, and this, this is the reeeal kicker." She moved to the two trunks that remained. "Guess what this?"

She kicked a small panel at the base of one, and it opened wide, revealing a matte metal substance. "That right there, it's called Shulr, fresh from the Skrull Homeworld. And this one?" She kicked it open too revealing contents that nearly glowed in the sun. "They call that Frosk."

She gave him a winning smile. "Know what Shulr and Frosk are? We call one Vibranium, and the other Gold."

[Sabretooth]

Right eyebrow raised, Victor Creed followed along, giving cautious glances to all the Spirals at work. There were some devices that he didn't have much of a guess as to their function. But the funky, alien weapons? He knew a weapon when he saw it. Guns were guns were guns. They had a handle, a trigger, and a barrel. Everything else was extra. But the concept remained the same. Pull trigger, fire weapon, target fall down go boom.

"Rent ain't an issue, darlin'. You keep contributin' to the pool, you get your share, I get mine, we accrue some business expenses, make a profit. Gotta love capitalism," he glanced around, shaking his head. "Ya know we weren't never gonna grow as a business without some employees."

He glanced around again, as the Spirals got to work transferring the cargo from one area to the next. To anyone else, this would be weird as hell. But to a Weapon X experiment? He'd seen weirder. X-1 to X-22, for example. That shit was weird.

"Good. And this stuff can give us an edge if things go sour. Meanwhile, contract from that Silvermane guy went off without a hitch. Salvatore Maroni - guy was a big duck hunter. Shame he hadda have a run-in with a bear. Such a shame," he chuckled. That was one of the fun parts of this job. With his particular physical assets it was easy to vary up the kills. Make it up close and personal and nobody would ever think anything other than 'he must have been killed by a wild animal'. But he knew knives, he knew guns, sniper rifles, garrottes, or the tried-and-trued method of 'nobody will ever find the body'.

But then Spiral showed off more of her treasures. The gold was nice. They had plenty of capital from the gangland hits, drug cartels, etc. Always looking for ways to make people disappear. But the other...

"You shittin' me? Vibranium? Yer tellin' me we got ourselves a reliable source of vibranium," Creed could hardly believe it. Gold was one thing. but vibranium... that stuff you either got from Wakanda (and let's face it, you're not getting anything from Wakanda unless you're in Wakanda) or... well, that was it. You either got it from Wakanda or you didn't get it. Period.

"Kiddo, when was the last time I told ya I loved you?" Creed laughed, ruffling up Spiral's hair playfully. Yeah, this was the best investment he'd ever made.

[Spiral]

"I think a week ago when I brought back that load of Jump and you said we could make a killing off of whatever I didn't need for the lab."

She wasn't really concerned with the money, not like she should have been. That Gold was here, for a purpose. Of course she'd split it with him, it was only fair. He let her live here, of course. But her half? Of course it was going somewhere special for something special. A bit of independent entrepreneurial adventure on her part.

"That reminds me. I need to go shopping soon for my palace." She walked up to the two chest and leaned on them both vanishing in oddly bright spirals of light. "We have to be judicious though, because I don't know how 'steady' an inflow of it this is, plus I have plans for my new toys that might clash pretty whole-handedly with the aliens' plans once all this silly Independence Day War of the Worlds Plan B From Outer Space stuff is over."

"I got a lead on that bank with my daddy's money, too." She said, snapping her fingers in sudden realization. "Every little bit counts, and I am the heir-apparent to his empire, you know."

She grumbled.

"Moreso than the others."

She poked Victor on the arm and the two of them were suddenly out back, in that old barn where the thirty green-tinted copies were busy at work. She looked up at Victor with a smile, just fishing for more approval before looking to one of them.

"You! I name thee Betty! What is best in life?"

Betty dropped what she was doing and stood strong. "Crush your enemies! See them driven before you!"

"AND HEAR THE LAMENTATIONS OF THE WOMEN!" The rest all cried out in unison.

Spiral chortled and wiped a laughing tear from her eye. "Auugh that's never gonna get old."

[Sabretooth]

"Right, right," Creed nodded his head. The lab was just another thing he was willing to put up with in order to keep the clone happy. To keep her here. It wasn't particularly something he was comfortable with, though. Flashes of memory. Vivisection, experimental drug trials, the good ol' "See how many bullets Creed can take" games... at least... he thought he remembered that. Hard to tell what was real and what was false sometimes. What he really experienced and what was implanted from those bastards at Weapon X. Was he really the Grassy Knoll shooter? Were he and the runt a part of the Bay of Pigs? World War II? Did he really storm Normandy?

But that was then, this was now. And the now was what was important.
"Right, well, let's let the little green men think we're on their side fer now. Anything ya need me to do to help keep the illusion up, tell me. It's a good plan and it'll get us closer to what we're lookin' fer."

The possibility of getting their hands on this "Mojo's" assets, though... that had some real viability to it. Some real potential. Creed found himself curious about the man. Curious about what possible connections he could have had with Creed's own origins. There were too many similarities between the operation this "Mojo" ran and the Weapon X project. Either by enhancing or creating super soldiers for assassination purposes? There was a connection there. There had to be. And any leavings Mojo had left behind... that could give Creed the edge to be the top dog of the Weapon X leftovers. To learn more about his potential enemies and wipe them all off the map.

And then - there they were. In the barn with the legion hard at work. It was surreal. To see them all, to see so many of her. And the value of it all - to possibly send a Spiral anywhere in the world at any time to take care of any job...

His right eyebrow lifted as she led her brigade in a chant of some sort. Familiar, sure, but he didn't know for sure what it really was. Some movie or cartoon or something.

"You are some kinda crazy, kiddo," he chuckled, folding his arms at his chest and shaking his head.

"No matter what, don't lose that. The world needs more of yer kind a' crazy."

[Spiral]

Creed was right, so very right.

But it wasn't so general, not so concentric around her madness. Her mind, already working thousands of angles around this situation, nay, this opportunity, took a tangential slide into her own personal philosophies. The smile faded from her face and she looked somewhat forlornly amongst her new troupe of resources before she gave Sabertooth a grave look. Perhaps the gravest one he'd ever seen her give.

"Of course I'm crazy. Humanity's touted and treasured 'sanity' is just the denial of the chaos inherent in the nature of existence. There's no place for sanity in this mad universe. X-Men, SHIELD, they're the the aliens here, with their morals and their inhibitions. It's disgusting, and it's a perversion of the freedoms they've been given, a sleight to the divinity latent in their very being."

Momentary passion subsided and she realized that her fists were balled, clenched and shaking, white-knuckled in their grip.

The storm faded from her face, then, replaced by a steadily growing look of good-natured adventure.

"I'll give them a day to set up, then I'll send them out on some test runs."

She looked at him. "Your basement is awesome, and I'm sure you need it for other things. I want to set something up off-site for my new lab."

She looked off into the nowhere. "I poked my nose around a few places. Real Estate is a problem when you're on international watch lists but, well, thats why I have this lil fallback, right?"

She traced patterns through the air that only she could see, and the air before them began to undulate with bent light, a scene unfolding in a circle before them, a window into elsewhere in the world.

"It's in Africa, right in the middle of "No Oil, No Interest" Land. I can shack up here and work there. Plus there'll be less of a chance that something blows up your house... not that I'd ever make a mistake, being a God."

She motioned to the less-than-savory populace scurrying about on the other side of the portal.

"There is the matter of the current residency though."

[Sabretooth]

Creed smirked and nodded his head. Yeah. She was the right kind of crazy. Just what he needed. A thirst for violence, one programmed into her from conception, but a fierce intelligence alongside it. A creativity that was unhindered by moral inclinations. One that can get jobs done as they were needed when they were needed. And if she decided to turn on him? Well. Wouldn't be the first time a beautiful woman left him. Probably wouldn't be the last. That was why he never put too much stock into personal relationships. It was about right now, and right now the two of them had a mutually beneficial setup.

"Test runs," he repeated, nodding his head. "Well, we do have a couple a' outstanding contracts ta finish up. A witness elimination job in Frankfurt, cartel in Mexico City wants to send a message to its rivals, Roxxon Oil's caught wind of a corporate spy they wanna get rid of... easy stuff."

Creed watched with mild curiosity as Spiral summoned up an image of an off-site location she had shown interest in. He nodded his head, lower lip pursed slightly.

"Sounds good. All ya gotta worry 'bout out there is the Wakandans. 'Specially if you're gonna be workin' with vibranium out there. Panther and his people get mighty protective over that stuff, an' they will not hesitate to come fuck yer shit up if they think for a moment that you got a hold a' somethin' that should be theirs."

He narrowed his eyes some as she suggested the one problem with the current site.

"Mebbe that would be a nice test run..." he smirked. "You ever led a battalion into war, sweetheart?"