There was a slight tapping on his cheek and some muffled sound. Then, the tapping grew harder, but still it was dark. Then, the tapping became a sharp slap.

Slowly, X-Treme finally came out of his drug induced sleep. At first, everything was blurry, but as his eyes began to focus, he found himself in a familiar situation.

"There we go, sleeping beauty," said a familiar masked man.

"Huh?" X-Treme asked in a daze. Looking at the source of the comment, he realised, "Deadpool?! How can that be?! I killed you!!"

"Y'see, what Domino forgot to tell you, is that I got this little power called a healing factor. It seems that, well, I heal from basically any wound inflicted on me." At that moment, two more armour clad men walked into the room.

"At last, you return, young Summers," announced Lucifer, " or would you prefer Adam X. You know, your father's been awfully worried about you."

"Wha? How did you know?"

"Your father, Emperor D'Ken. He has offered a handsome reward for your return. My people assigned me to retrieve both you, and the Emperor's rebel sister as an act of faith on our part to the Shi'Ar Imperium. But, first, I think I'll have some fun with you, before handing you back to the Shi'ar."

"You bastard!" X-Treme cried as he fought against his arm restraints.

"Now, now, don't be so touchy," another voice taunted. Immediately, X-Treme recognised the voice.

"Stark?!" he shouted, in shock, staring at an armoured man "What did you do to yourself?!"

"Ahh, young Summers, so idealistic. I honestly can't see how you would be surprised that a member of a race that hates your kind, would help you at all."

"Y' see, in return for handing you, to Lucifer here," Stark pointed to Lucifer, "He, in return, has given me this armour, and agreed to help me rid this island of you dirty mutant scum!"

"So this was all a set up? Val, the Warriors, everything?"

"Well, no, y'see Val's too idealistic to be involved." Stark replied with an unsettling calmness, "Well, too idealistic to be involved voluntarily. See actually believes the misguided notion of a peaceful coexistence between our two races. But, it was so easy to make her join us, to make her believe in this 'Warriors' project"

"YOU PIECE OF SHIT! You're lower than..." suddenly, X-Treme was cut off by a sharp punch to him.

"Just remember, to the victor goes the last laugh, and I intend on winning," Stark whispered in X-Treme's ear.

"Come, it is time," announced Lucifer. He then approached X-Treme, "and you, I will come back for later." With that the entourage followed Lucifer and exited the room.

As soon as they were gone X-Treme began to frantically pull at his chains, hoping for some kind of miracle.

(To read about D'Ken, and the state of the Shi'Ar Empire, just take a peek at the Cadre K one-shot - Benn)

(The Emperor's sister, otherwise know as Deathbird, can be found in Gen-X - Benn)

"... and that's when Commander Stark came in, and talked to some guy named Lucifer," concluded Hiro.

"Shit, this is not good." Domino replied.

"Why, do you know this Lucifer?" asked Siphon.

"Yeah, unfortunately, and if my guess is right, this has something to do with X-Treme's disappearance too."

"But why would Stark do that?" Val interrupted, "It doesn't make sense! Are you sure it was Commander Stark?"

"Yes," answered Hiro, "Firestar and Kylun were also there with me." All eyes turned to the two other members of their group, who stood silently, nodding in acknowledgement of Hiro's claims.

"Well, thanks for telling us, you guys. You did the right thing," Val told them, still unsettled by the revelation.

"Aren't we going to do something about this then?" Kylun shouted.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of it." Domino answered, before leaving the infirmary. Val was tempted to shout after her, but she knew the effort would be wasted. Quickly, Domino walked down the halls of the tower and into the room she had taken as her quarters. Taking a glance around, she spotted the closet and opened it, revealing a hefty arsenal of weapons. She then began to load herself up with firearm, bullets and explosives of all kinds, before heading towards the complex's garage in the sub-levels of the building.

Upon reaching the garage, Domino was met by a familiar figure.

"What the hell are you doing here, Siphon?"

"I could ask you the same thing" replied the teen. After a moment of silence, Siphon continued, "Honestly, do you think you're going to free him by yourself?"

"I did it before..." replied a now agitated Domino.

"Are you guys having a party in here, or something?" an unfamiliar voice, suddenly broke in. Both women looked over to see Darkhawk standing at the doorway.

"This has nothing to do with you! Either of you! Just go back and pretend nothing happened!" replied an increasingly frustrated Domino.

"Damn, why'd you have to walk so fast, Darkhawk?" puffed Firestar, followed closely by Kylun and Hiro. "Hey, what're you guys doing ?" she added, when she noticed Domino and Siphon were also in the room.

Suddenly, Domino's communicator sounded. "Yes!?" Domino barked

"I need you all to come to the conference room now! You especially, Domino! This is serious!" came Val's voice at the other end. The whole group, picking up distress in her voice, and immediately rushed to the conference room.

"What's this all about, Cooper?" asked a concerned Domino.

"This," she answered, pointing at the large screen behind her. The group stared up at the screen, and saw the reason for Valerie's troubled tone. Stark, along with Lucifer and his minions were almost upon them.

*BOOM!*

The building shook suddenly. "What the hell was that?!" shouted Domino.

Switching to a different camera, he found the source. As Nemesis and his group of mutants had infiltrated the building, wreaking havoc.

"Bow down before my power, or feel the wrath of Nemesis, gene traitors!" they saw him proclaim, while cutting down the opposition.

Immediately, Kylun and Darkhawk ran down to confront Nemesis.

Just as Nemesis finished draining another victim, a blast of sonic energy flew directly towards his head. At the last possible moment, the blast was cancelled out by another blast of bio-energy. Stunned, Kylun stared in awe as Nemesis turned to face him.

"You dare to attack me from behind?" Then, from behind, another explosion erupted. When the dust settled, Stark stood, with a triumphant grin, beneath his mask. But that was short lived, as he was hit by a force blast from Darkhawk and then by the falling body of Eric the Red. It was at this point that pandemonium broke out. Bodies flew left and right, energy bolts knocking holes into walls and all out chaos.

Amidst the chaos, Zealot has his sights set on Kylun, longing for a rematch. As Kylun slashed away at his attackers, a slab of earth rose up, dispatching the rest of his assailants. Immediately, Kylun knew who it was.

"Aye, so we meet again," Kylun addressed Zealot.

"This time, you're not going to walk away," Zealot replied. The ground shook, and the dual began.

First, Kylun charged at Zealot, with all his speed. Zealot, in response, created spikes of earth in front of his would opponent. However, that was to little avail, as Kylun unleashed a blast from his sword tearing apart the spikes. In response, Zealot erected a wall of dirt, to impede the fast approaching swordsman. However, the thud he expected never came. Instead, there was a loud cry from above, as the sword came down towards his head. Zealot quickly rolled out of the way, barely missing the sword's edge by inches. Kylun then charged at Zealot again, this time with an even more increased speed, backed Zealot into a corner.

Just as Kylun went in for the kill, the earth shook, and a crevice began to open up underneath him. Realising what was happening, Kylun, in an act of desperation, sprinted as fast as he could, and before Zealot knew what was happening, cold steel had cut through his body. Immediately, the rumbling stopped.

Suddenly, a beam of energy whizzed by Kylun's face, singing the hair on his face. Frightened, he quickly, turned to see Eric the Red falling to the earth with a knife imbedded into his chest.

"X-Treme!" he shouted with joy.

"What the hell happened here?!" X-Treme shouted back.

"I dunno, everyone just kinda decided they wanted to attack us today, I guess..."

"Well that's just great!" he mumbled sarcastically.

Meanwhile, Firestar narrowly dodged a bio bolt from Threnody. In retaliation, Firestar fired a burst of her own Plasma energy, causing an explosion on the floor. Smiling, Firestar turned to help her friends when a sudden pain knocked her out of the sky.

"Never underestimate a prelate, gene traitor," Threnody said coldly, moving in for the kill. Suddenly, a burst of immense heat ran through her legs. By the time, the burst was over, Threnody's legs were nothing but charred sticks.

"Well, you should never underestimate a Warrior either," Firestar replied.

In the halls of the of the massive tower, the clashing of metal rang throughout. The battle between Commander Stark and Darkhawk had progressed for quite some time, yet neither one could gain the upper hand.

"Give it up, Darkhawk. Join us, join the winning side! You're not one of them! You're a human, just like me!"

"NO! I'm not like you! I'm don't betray my friends!" Out of rage, he lunged at Stark. However, being the more experienced fighter, Stark easily dodged the blow, and followed with a knee to the midsection. Then, as he came down for the finishing blow, a grappling claw wrapped around his foot, and knocked him to the floor. Both combatants quickly rose to their feet, to square off once again, powering up their energy attacks.

For what seemed like an eternity, both men stood their ground, not giving away anything to the other. Then, it came, Stark unleashed a repulsor blast that would normally level a building. Responding quickly, Darkhawk unleashed his own force blast, meeting Stark's blast with full force.

Domino stood behind the wall, waiting for the proper moment to strike.

"C'mon Beatrice, you can't hide forever," Deadpool taunted. Hearing a slight noise, he turned and fired.

"My, my, aren't we a bit excited today?" Domino's voice echoed.

"That's only because," he replied while turning around the corner of the wall, "I love you so much." All of a sudden, a gun shot was heard, followed by a bullet flying by Deadpool's head. He turned immediately, and fired off a shot of his own at Domino. Barely able to gain her footing, she slipped, as the bullet flew through the air, knocking the gun out of her hand.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, even with your luck altering and everything, and you still missed me. That X-Treme must be making you soft." In response, Domino threw a bomb at Deadpool. Naturally, Deadpool ran to avoid the explosive, but that was exactly what Domino had anticipated, and dove to grab her gun, while a smoke screen covered her. Realising that he had been fooled, Deadpool ran in a rage, firing off his gun through the smoke, hoping to hit Domino.

Behind covers once again, Domino tried to formulate a plan on how she would defeat her adversary. 'Damn,' she thought to herself, 'if I'd known he'd react like this, I would've used a real grenade! Alrighty then.'

She took a deep breath, and threw the grenade around the covers. After the explosion, Domino pulled herself around the corner, ready for anything. Everything except what she saw. There was nothing as far as she could see. "Did I obliterate him?" she pondered, "It couldn't be that easy!" Then, from the corner of her eye, she saw him. From her side, he had her in his sites. Seeing no other option, she turned and fired. She watched, as Deadpool fell backwards hard, but her delight was short lived as she felt a searing pain flow throughout her body. "Shit," she whispered, looking down at her wound.

Slowly, Deadpool got up with gun in hand. "You know you can't kill me!" shouted Deadpool hysterically, "With my healing factor, I'm as good as immortal!" As he got nearer, a beeping sound began, followed by an explosion that threw Deadpool back to the wall.

With all her strength, Domino struggled to her feet and trudged over to Deadpool's body. As Deadpool regained consciousness, he found the barrel of Domino's gun on his forehead.

"Try healing from this," Domino spat coldly, without remorse, as she pulled the trigger.

Back in the halls...

Stark and Darkhawk both strained, using each ounce of their energy to put an end to the deadlock.

"You'll never win, old man! They won't let you, I won't let you!" Darkhawk huffed.

"You forget," Stark replied, "old age and treachery always over come youth and skill. Especially when the youth has no skill!" Suddenly, a sharp pain pierced Darkhawk's chest. In shock, Darkhawk looked down, to see Lucifer's hand sticking out of his chest.

"Hmph! Pathetic," Lucifer snorted and threw the limp body to the floor. "Let us hurry and defeat these inferior beings, and move on with it." Lucifer, with Stark left to cause more carnage.

From the other end of the hall, Darkhawk heard footsteps approaching. As the person got nearer, the footsteps began to sound like thunder, pounding in his ears. With blood flowing from his body, he looked up to make out a vague, feminine figure.

"DARKHAWK!!!" the figure screamed in distress and ran quickly to the fallen body.

"Siphon..." he managed, "it's good to see a friendly face..."

"What happened to you?!"

"That guy...Lucifer caught me by surprise..."

"Omigod! We gotta get you to the infirmary!"

Darkhawk quickly grabbed her hand, and shook his head weakly. "It's no use...you and I both know there's no way I'd make it."

"I'm not gonna let you die like this!" she sobbed, refusing to accept what they both knew to be true.

"Heh," he coughed in pain, "you know...we've known each other all this time...and I don't think I've ever told you my name...it's Chris..." and then his body fell lifeless. Unable to fathom what she had just experienced, Siphon just cried uncontrollably with the corpse of his fallen friend in her arms.

Nemesis stealthily made his way to the lobby, taking in all of the chaos. As he got closer to the lobby, he heard a soft sobbing.

"Lord Nemesis!" a weak voice beckoned. Nemesis turned to find that it was Threnody, laying on a pile of rubble, next to the wall. Gently, he went down to examine her.

"Lord Nemesis," she sobbed, "I-I-I'm sorry, I have failed you..."

"Don't worry, everything will be all right," he replied, with a strange detachment. He reached down to her face and caressed it. Suddenly, Threnody felt an unbearable chill spread throughout her body. She could do nothing but stare, as the man she 'loved' drained her life force away. As Nemesis drained her life away, he began to flow with energy. "YES! I FEEL THE POWER!" Then, it was over, Threnody's body fell dead, and Nemesis casually dropped her face, to the ground, as if it were nothing.

At that very same moment, X-Treme entered the lobby.

"Nemesis, I assume?" X-Treme asked with mock courtesy.

"X-Treme?! But how?!" shouted a new voice, startling the other occupants of the enormous lobby. "How'd you get out of those chains! I made extra precautions to make sure you wouldn't escape!"

"I guess it must've been..." suddenly, three throwing knives appeared between his fingers, "Magic!" he finished with a sly grin on his face.

The three warriors all stared each other down, waiting for another to make a move. The tension mounted.

"NEMESIS!" Kylun screamed, charging like a madman.

"Kylun! No!" X-Treme warned, but it was already too late. With uncanny speed, Nemesis reacted firing a blast square into Kylun's chest sending the young man flying all the way back across the room. The body fell lifelessly to the floor, landing with a sickening thud.

"no." X-Treme thought, and threw his knives at Nemesis. Nemesis dodged the knives with ease, and prepared to fire a blast back , but at the last moment, was interrupted by another energy blast. This time, from Lucifer.

This gave X-Treme enough time to slide next to Kylun's body. Realising that there was no pulse in Kylun's body, tears began to stream from his eyes. Slowly, he picked up the sword of his fallen comrade and rose to his feet.

Meanwhile, Nemesis barely escaped a burst of plasma, only to see a large metallic fist fly at his face. Putting up his guard and preparing for the worst, Nemesis was ready to take a blow, when both men were forced to jump back, by a knife flying in between them. Both Nemesis and Lucifer looked to see a look of intensity, that sent chills through both men's spines. Suddenly, two more knives flew at the two men. Both dove out of the way.

Lucifer quickly got up again, only to see X-Treme in mid-air, with the sword raised overheard. Realising that X-Treme was coming down too quickly, he had no choice but to raise his arm and brace for impact. Immediately, X-Treme jumped up into the air again, just in time to dodge the bolt from Nemesis. However, Lucifer, not being able to see, because of the screen created by X-Treme was hit square in the chest and fell over like a rock.

"Looks like you and me now, gene traitor!" Nemesis bellowed, as Lucifer fell lifeless.

X-Treme gave him no reply and just rushed him, with his advanced Shi'ar speed. Nemesis, attempting to repel his attacker. X-Treme, even with his Shi'ar blood coursing through his body, wasn't able to weave through the erratic bursts of energy from Nemesis and ran for cover.

"Damnit! How do I always get myself into these jams?" X-Treme thought to himself. "At least if Domino was here, we could use a smoke screen or something, but now?" He looked down at his last set of knives. "Oh what the hell, why not?" Waiting for the right moment, X-Treme sprinted out from the covers and threw his knives at Nemesis. However, they all missed their mark, each knife, whizzing by his face.

"Is that all you've got?! Pitiful!" Nemesis spat, "I think it's time for this to end then."

'FUCK! How could I miss?!' his mind screamed. 'Okay...guess I don't have a choice now...gotta try it!' Tightly, X-Treme closed his eyes, concentrating with all his will, to light Nemesis on fire. However, there was still nothing. In frustration he opened his eyes, "Damnit! This isn't working!" picked up a rock and hurled it at Nemesis.

Nemesis, overconfident, failed to see the rock coming and was hit square in the nose. His nose began to drip slightly.

"Oh shit...I hit him!" thought a stunned X-Treme.

"YOU FUCKING BASTARD! NOW YOU'RE REALLY GOING TO PAY!" Suddenly, his nose began to get warm. Then, it got warmer, the heat spread throughout his body. "What the...!?!"

Before Nemesis could finish, his body lit on fire. Slowly, a burning corpse fell to the ground, and eventually turned to ashes.

"AAAAAHHHHH!" Nemesis screamed as the energy pent up within his body seeped out through the laceration.

'Glad that's finally over with...' X-Treme thought with a sigh. All of a sudden, a hand metallic hand reached for him. Instinctively, X-Treme turned to see Lucifer's fist smash into his face, sending him flying several meters away.

"Now then..." Lucifer sauntered over towards X-Treme's fallen body, "It's time for you to come back and help me with my experiment." As he bent down to pick up the body, X-Treme's eyes shot open and Lucifer's feet were swept from under him.

With sword in hand, X-Treme plunged it deep into Lucifer's chest. "AAAH!" he screams before letting out a sigh of relief. "It seems like I w-was...r-right about you...you have great potential...P-Prince Adam..." with that, Lucifer's eyes closed, letting out a final breath.

With a sigh of relief, Adam X fell to his knees.

"Adam?" X-Treme turned to see Domino standing in the doorway, with a hand over her wound.

"Are you okay?" he asked, as he ran to her side.

"Didn't go through anything too important," she smiled.

"That's good," he replied, returning her smile.

"By the way, you seen Stark?"

"Now that you mention it...not since...no..." They both scanned the area, but there was no sign of Stark at all.

"Damn bastard," she began. But she was soon cut off by a set of lips on hers. A bit surprised, Domino decided to go with the feeling and the couple embraced.

For better or worse, they had won this war. Stark could be dealt with another day. Now, there is nothing more than their embrace. The war rages on outside, but that can remain for another day.

THE END

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Well, it's finally over. It's been a lot of fun doing this title even though my constant procrastination has made the Warriors consistantly late, every month. So, to anyone who stuck with this title, I'd like to give you a heartfelt thank you.

-Adrian