Onslaught Island.

Jean Grey took a long drag of her cigarette. She looked Kitty Pryde over. The youth had a sleek, form-fitting spandex combat suit on. It was blood-red to match the uniform of her partner Wolverine.

"Kitty, we have a mission for you and Logan..."

Frank Castle stopped in the darkest alley he could find and panted heavily. Frank- aka the Punisher- was the leader of a division of the Right, a radical anti-mutant force. Onslaught hunted the members of the Right more fervently than the members of the Human Resistance Movement. It was for one reason: the Right acted out more violently than the HRM.

The psionic High Lord Onslaught had then dispatched an assasin to eliminate the leader of his cell of the Right. Specifically, him. The assasin had attacked Castle during a meeting of the Right and slaughtered all of his lieutenants. Castle had emptied an entire clip into the assasin's stomach, but the man had seemed invincible. So Frank ran.

The only reason Castle had stopped was because he had heard the assasin's footsteps stop. He assumed it was safe. He had made an incorrect asumption.

"Hey bub," called a voice from above him, accompanied by a sharp snikt. "Thought you could run? No one escapes from Wolverine!"

Jean took another drag of putrid smoke as she handed Kitty the mission specifics.

"That habit will kill you," Kitty said without looking up.

"So will dancing with heavy machinery, but I haven't given up that habit quite yet." Jean glanced at her copy of the mission specifics. "Target's Emma Frost and her 'Cabal.' They were originally on our side, but for some reason their allegiances changed." Jean looked at Kitty. "Get into their meeting place, find out why they switched sides, and then..." Jean ran her finger across her throat. "Got it?"

"Sure," Kitty replied.

In a panic, the Punisher drew an automatic pistol from his side holster and emptied the clip into Wolverine's skull. The berserker laughed at Castle and sliced the gun's barrel into small shards of shrapnel. The wounds had already began to knit. Punisher's jaw dropped as he stumbled backwards.

"Im-impossible!"

"I'm a mutie," Wolverine growled. "I can do anything."

"Where's Logan?" Jean asked, leaning back in her chair.

"Personal favor for Onslaught," Kitty replied, still memorizing the mission specifics. "A cell of the Right seemed to piss the High Lord off."

"Ouch, bad move," Jean said.

"You're telling me," Kitty laughed.

Castle screamed as Wolverine sliced his middle finger off. The feral mutant laughed at the flatscan. Such low pain tolerance.

"First, your fingers," Logan explained, "then your toes. Then, your...other... extremities." Castle's eyes widened in horror.

"The Right will get you for this," Castle stammered.

"They'll probably be glad to get rid of a wuss like you," Wolverine replied, cutting off Castle's ring finger. Castle screamed again.

"Wimp."

"Logan, this is Kitty," squwaked Logan's comlink.

"Talk to me babe," Logan replied cutting off Castle's little finger and moving to his other hand.

"We got a mission to run," Kitty said. "Traitors to the cause. Sounds like you're having fun with that weasely little Righter."

"Yup," Logan replied. "Meetcha at the citadel in, say, half an hour?"

"You got yerself a date," Kitty replied, cutting off the transmission.

"I'm sorry to cut our playdate short," Logan said, slicing through Castle's hand in one slash, his feet in another, and slicing his nose and ears off in a third. "Bye, bye, wuss boy," Logan growled, punching his claws into Castle's solar plexus.

"Who do these traitors think they are?" Wolverine growled. He had read the mission breifing, twice. He now waited outside the bathroom for the girl that was practically his daughter get out of the shower in their shared quarters.

"The Cabal," Kitty said, turning off the shower and grabbing a towel, "a mixture of mutants, meta humans, and flatscans. Emma Frost, Cain Marko, Jan Van Dyne, Dane Whitman, Flint Marko, Dwayne Turner, Rick Jones, Nick Fury, and maybe one or two others. Should be an easy target." Kitty pulled on her combat suit, not bothering with undergarments, and strode out of the bathroom.

"Sounds like it," Logan growled. "Buncha whimperin' sissies, if you ask me."

"From the sounds of it, they're pretty good," Kitty said, zipping her suit up to just above the bust line, and fixing the two long locks of her hair. "After all, you think just about every flatscan or mutie outside of the Prelates are sissies."

"I do not," Logan grunted.

"Scott Summers."

"That whimperin' littl-" Logan stopped short. His shoulders sunk. "Okay, you win."

"They're not better'n us though," Kitty said. He drew her finger across Logan's pectorals. "Let's rock and roll."

Logan grinned and popped his claws. "Let's."

"Average brownstone," Logan declared around his macrobinoculars. "No detectable force-fields, but I can smell one."

"I can probably hack or phase through it," Kitty said. "I thought you said it was undetectable."

"T' all o' you without my amazin' sense o' smell," Wolverine grinned. He held the macrobinoculars back up to his eyes. "No guards, but th' windows look like they might be shielded. Signs o' energy weapons on th' grounds." Wolverine looked Kitty, grinning. "Looks like fun."

"Oh yeah."

Rick Jones hated his life. Ever since Emma Frost had recruited him for the Cabal because the Hellfire Club had been slaughtered by Black Air six months ago he'd been miserable. It didn't make sense to Rick. Why had he been recruited for the replacement Hellfire? He didn't have any superpowers or anything.

A sudden wail filled his ears. Rick sat up and looked at his status board. He cursed several times, then keyed the building's intercom.

"The security field is down and we have two intruders on the grounds. They look like Prelates."

(For more on that read Children of the Atom - Tony)

Wolverine tore into the feeble defenses that the Cabal had set up. The lasers had torn and charred flesh, but his healing facter took care of that quickly. He just kept the lasers distracted until Kitty phased through them, screwing their circuts all to hell.

Wolvine and Shadowcat worked their way to the door of the brownstone. Logan grinned and ripped the door in two. He kicked the halves in and strode into the lobby.

"Knock, knock," he called. "We're here for some payback!"

Wolverine was caught unaware by the cascade of sand that suddenly dumped on his head. He tried to hold his breath, but couldn't get air through the sand. He suddenly felt a hand around his ankle, and the sand passing through him. Shadowcat pulled him through the sand.

"Thanks luv," he gulped.

"Looks like you couldn't take the runt, Flint," a voice boomed. Wolverine spun to see a large crimson colored form across the hall. The sand took the form of a tall, muscular man.

"He's got help," the sand guy said.

"Yeah," the juggernaut of a man across the hall replied. "I think Whitman's got her."

"Whit-who?" Logan growled, spinning to see Shadowcat being ran through by an energy blade. She screamed and collapsed, unconscious.

"You dirty son of a bitch!" Logan growled. "I'm goin' t' kill you."

"You better worry about the Juggernaut," the crimson clad man boomed. "I can actually take you."

"Wouldn't count on it bub," Wolverine replied. "I'm th' best there is at what I do. And what I do isn't very nice."

Juggernaut charged Wolverine, bellowing. Logan lept into the air but was met by a wall of sand. Choking on it, Logan fell right into the arms of Juggernaut.

"Hey runt," Juggernaut said. "You ever felt a piledriver from a guy who can bench press a tractor?" He smiled at Logan. "You wanna?" Juggernaut raised Wolverine above his head and slammed him into the floor. Wolverine was driven through the tile, through a basement and two or three sub-basements, and into the sewer below.

"Excellent work Cain," called a female voice from the top of the staircase. Juggernaut turned to face Emma Frost.

"All for you baby," Cain said, picking Emma up and kissing her fiercely. He let her down, and she smiled.

"See you later tonight," Emma teased. She looked into the shadows where Shadowcat had disappeared. "Bring out your prisoner, Black Knight." Dane Whitman brought Kitty Pryde into the light and laid her on the ground in front of Emma.

"She's yours milady," he said.

"I have a reward for you as well," Emma cooed seductively, tracing his chin. She turned her attention to Shadowcat. She stimulated the sleep center of Pryde's brain and woke her. "Good morning Prelate," Emma said. "Welcome to the Cabal. I hope you survive the experience." Emma stood and strode away from her. She stopped next to a man in the shadows at the base of the stairs.

"Fury, lock her up well, remember her powers," she said, then strode to her private quarters.

The sewers of Onslaught Island raged around Wolverine. He fumbled for a hold, then popped his claws into a wall. He pulled himself onto a small ledge and shook the sewage off. He held his claws up into the light. He teeth were bared in a feral growl.

"Okay suckers- you've taken yer best shot," he roared, "now, IT'S MY TURN!!!"

In Wolverine & Shadowcat #02: Wolverine works his way through the Cabal's headquarters with vengance on his mind. What will happen to the poor sap he finds with Shadowcat? Let's just say that it's going to be really bloody next month!