Garrison Kane (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
xp_dominion) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
xp_journal2022-01-23 11:56 pm
xp_dominion) wrote in xp_journal2022-01-23 11:56 pm
Entry tags:
Back (Mostly)
I’m awake. And, well, I’m alive. I’m told both things are considered news. A lot has happened in the almost six months since I’ve been gone. I owe everyone an explanation at the very least.
In August, a joint team of X-Men/X-Force went to California in order to investigate a pipeline of demonic infused weapons being shipped to the Cartels. During the mission, we discovered that the Maggia Don in charge – De Costa – was actually a Hell Lord named Olivier. During the fight to escape, Abigail Brand was slashed by his claws. He did the same to me as I stayed back to try and buy some time for us to get out. But when the portal closed, he suddenly stopped fighting. Started talking about how much he was going to enjoy me as his thrall and how useful I could be. I couldn’t actually beat him, so I went along with the control idea. I figured I’d play along for awhile and then as soon as I had an opportunity, I could escape and call for help.
So I got to enjoy some time as Olivier’s guest. I’ll spare you the details, but it’s pretty much all the degradation, abuse, torture and rape you can imagine. Olivier had a collection of thralls as toys. And Olivier liked to play with his toys. I’ll leave it at that.
After a few days (I think. Hell Lords can control time dilation in their realms. A day can seem like a week and vice versa), Brand reported to Olivier. She actually was controlled by him. The really dangerous thing about his kind of control is that if you’re smart, ambitious and cunning, you will remain exactly as smart, ambitious and cunning as always, but it is completely directed towards Olivier’s agenda. And Brand is extremely smart, ambitious and cunning.
Olivier controlled Brand because he wanted access to SWORD as a pipeline for his weapons. Turns out, he’s a pretty limited thinker. Brand had a larger picture in mind. That went she dropped the bomb about bomb that she had heard rumours about a possible illegal mutant hunting weapons development program based on The Sentinels within the Pentagon. She had deployed some resources to check it over the last few months and was starting to get real intel back. Her idea was to convince the people behind the current program that their conventional weapons platform was inadequate and for those in authority who didn’t know about the program to be certain they need it, no matter how illegal it is. Once that happened, the key would be to present Olivier’s weapons as the answer. Instead of the weapons that turned out to be ineffective, they’d now have an unstoppable edge over their targets. And instead of making millions running an illegal pipeline into Mexico, Olivier would make billions as a valued defense contractor, with his entire illegal operation protected by the government.
Brand’s idea was the best way to accomplish this was to bring the Brotherhood into the picture. If we could coordinate their attacks while groups like the Avengers weren’t available, we could ratchet up the threat level. The only way to make that work was to get someone into the Brotherhood, and that someone was me. Brand had a line on a Brotherhood safehouse. I’d get captured, convincing them that Xavier had information about the Sentinels and said not to react until we had more information, because he didn’t want to upset his relationship with the government. I wasn’t willing to go along with it, so the X-Men hung me out to dry on a mission and believed me to be dead. It’s the kind of lie that works directly into Erik’ beliefs about Charles’ shortcomings.
However, once in with the Brotherhood, the only way to protect my cover was to make sure that there was no contact with any in the mansion and there was no hint that anyone had any reason beyond blind optimism to think I was alive. The Brotherhood took me in but didn’t trust me, especially at the start. I’ll outline where the Brotherhood is at later, but their intelligence is significantly better than we thought, and with Mystique and Mastermind involved, it’s impossible to know who was truly who and when any situation is safe. If for even the slightest minute they had any credible reason to think I wasn’t shooting straight dice with them, I would have been killed immediately. I couldn’t escape before, and with the Sentinels, Olivier and now the Brotherhood involve, all running would do is leave the threats just as imminent, but without any way to try and counter them.
The only person that I could get in touch with safely was Amanda. For those who aren’t aware, Amanda and I share a bond that doesn’t actually exist. Amanda was close to the guy who founded X-Force before the world ended. His name was Pete Wisdom, and he was a highly experienced British intelligence agent. He was also trained by my father. My dad wasn’t around when I was a kid, but Pete was. The closest thing to an uncle to me and later, to her. Pete had an emergency series of drop points in case he ever disappeared. Call it stupidity or dumb hope, but for the last seven years, we occasionally check them. With her powers and the network, she was the only one I could reach without any risk of discovery. She was also the only one who could find a way to defeat Olivier.
I’d like to be perfectly clear. Amanda kept this secret from everyone at my request. I’m the one at fault for that.
When we got the location of the first facility, Magneto gave me the order. I’d be leading the mission, and the plan was to make sure that it would draw the X-Men in to defend the centre. The Brotherhood wanted to show the world that they couldn’t count on the X-Men to protect them, and Olivier wanted the exact same thing. And they wanted to test whether or not I still had any loyalty to the X-Men.
I engineered the ambush. Start to finish. I needed them to believe. Mainly because as Amanda’s research went further and further, it was clear that the key to bringing Olivier down was Magneto. His key vulnerabilities were directly aligned with Magneto’s powers. Olivier’s only vulnerability are silver and ‘cold iron’; two things that Magneto is capable of pulling out of goddamn rain water and potting soil if he needs to.
Bringing down the facility was step one. Step two was the second facility Brand not only had found, but also had a resource in undercover. Olivier and Brand were sure that a second destroyed facility would be enough to push them to his weapons. I was able to get Olivier’s DNA to the undercover resource to load his signature into the targeting system being developed at the lab. The spy was supposed to be killed in the attack, but I was able to get the information over to X-Force in order to extract the agent ahead of time.
Once that information hit, it killed any chance of it remaining within the Pentagon. The Joint Chiefs would be embarrassed enough to investigate as hard and thoroughly as possible. I also assumed that those incharge of the program would have a backup plan, While Olivier and Brand were stunned how the agent had survived the assault by the Brotherhood, finding about that Trask had escaped and found another source of financing meant that they could still approach them to offer the weapons. They’d lost the chance for the legitimacy of the government but selling the Sentinels to other countries still meant hundreds of millions of dollars.
Once they got up and running, they engineered a meeting with Olivier and to use the weapons in their prototypes. Once they got ready to do a field test, that was the time to point Magneto and the Brotherhood at them, and once they engaged, point the X-Men there to make an ambush of their own while destroying this new iteration of the Sentinel project. When the Sentinels came online in order to try and counter the attacking Brotherhood, they also targeted Olivier and his men. That gave Magneto the opportunity to hurt him hard enough to make him retreat back to his realm. Amanda found a ritual that allowed us to destroy the bridge that linked it to Earth. Getting out cost me my omni-skin, but Olivier is now trapped.
I’m sorry for what happened. I know that many of you were hurt in the ambush. And that having to let believe that I was killed months ago also hurt people. I take full responsibility for what happened. If you don’t trust me any more, or if you don’t want me serving next to you on the X-Men, just let senior staff know and we’ll make arrangements.
In August, a joint team of X-Men/X-Force went to California in order to investigate a pipeline of demonic infused weapons being shipped to the Cartels. During the mission, we discovered that the Maggia Don in charge – De Costa – was actually a Hell Lord named Olivier. During the fight to escape, Abigail Brand was slashed by his claws. He did the same to me as I stayed back to try and buy some time for us to get out. But when the portal closed, he suddenly stopped fighting. Started talking about how much he was going to enjoy me as his thrall and how useful I could be. I couldn’t actually beat him, so I went along with the control idea. I figured I’d play along for awhile and then as soon as I had an opportunity, I could escape and call for help.
So I got to enjoy some time as Olivier’s guest. I’ll spare you the details, but it’s pretty much all the degradation, abuse, torture and rape you can imagine. Olivier had a collection of thralls as toys. And Olivier liked to play with his toys. I’ll leave it at that.
After a few days (I think. Hell Lords can control time dilation in their realms. A day can seem like a week and vice versa), Brand reported to Olivier. She actually was controlled by him. The really dangerous thing about his kind of control is that if you’re smart, ambitious and cunning, you will remain exactly as smart, ambitious and cunning as always, but it is completely directed towards Olivier’s agenda. And Brand is extremely smart, ambitious and cunning.
Olivier controlled Brand because he wanted access to SWORD as a pipeline for his weapons. Turns out, he’s a pretty limited thinker. Brand had a larger picture in mind. That went she dropped the bomb about bomb that she had heard rumours about a possible illegal mutant hunting weapons development program based on The Sentinels within the Pentagon. She had deployed some resources to check it over the last few months and was starting to get real intel back. Her idea was to convince the people behind the current program that their conventional weapons platform was inadequate and for those in authority who didn’t know about the program to be certain they need it, no matter how illegal it is. Once that happened, the key would be to present Olivier’s weapons as the answer. Instead of the weapons that turned out to be ineffective, they’d now have an unstoppable edge over their targets. And instead of making millions running an illegal pipeline into Mexico, Olivier would make billions as a valued defense contractor, with his entire illegal operation protected by the government.
Brand’s idea was the best way to accomplish this was to bring the Brotherhood into the picture. If we could coordinate their attacks while groups like the Avengers weren’t available, we could ratchet up the threat level. The only way to make that work was to get someone into the Brotherhood, and that someone was me. Brand had a line on a Brotherhood safehouse. I’d get captured, convincing them that Xavier had information about the Sentinels and said not to react until we had more information, because he didn’t want to upset his relationship with the government. I wasn’t willing to go along with it, so the X-Men hung me out to dry on a mission and believed me to be dead. It’s the kind of lie that works directly into Erik’ beliefs about Charles’ shortcomings.
However, once in with the Brotherhood, the only way to protect my cover was to make sure that there was no contact with any in the mansion and there was no hint that anyone had any reason beyond blind optimism to think I was alive. The Brotherhood took me in but didn’t trust me, especially at the start. I’ll outline where the Brotherhood is at later, but their intelligence is significantly better than we thought, and with Mystique and Mastermind involved, it’s impossible to know who was truly who and when any situation is safe. If for even the slightest minute they had any credible reason to think I wasn’t shooting straight dice with them, I would have been killed immediately. I couldn’t escape before, and with the Sentinels, Olivier and now the Brotherhood involve, all running would do is leave the threats just as imminent, but without any way to try and counter them.
The only person that I could get in touch with safely was Amanda. For those who aren’t aware, Amanda and I share a bond that doesn’t actually exist. Amanda was close to the guy who founded X-Force before the world ended. His name was Pete Wisdom, and he was a highly experienced British intelligence agent. He was also trained by my father. My dad wasn’t around when I was a kid, but Pete was. The closest thing to an uncle to me and later, to her. Pete had an emergency series of drop points in case he ever disappeared. Call it stupidity or dumb hope, but for the last seven years, we occasionally check them. With her powers and the network, she was the only one I could reach without any risk of discovery. She was also the only one who could find a way to defeat Olivier.
I’d like to be perfectly clear. Amanda kept this secret from everyone at my request. I’m the one at fault for that.
When we got the location of the first facility, Magneto gave me the order. I’d be leading the mission, and the plan was to make sure that it would draw the X-Men in to defend the centre. The Brotherhood wanted to show the world that they couldn’t count on the X-Men to protect them, and Olivier wanted the exact same thing. And they wanted to test whether or not I still had any loyalty to the X-Men.
I engineered the ambush. Start to finish. I needed them to believe. Mainly because as Amanda’s research went further and further, it was clear that the key to bringing Olivier down was Magneto. His key vulnerabilities were directly aligned with Magneto’s powers. Olivier’s only vulnerability are silver and ‘cold iron’; two things that Magneto is capable of pulling out of goddamn rain water and potting soil if he needs to.
Bringing down the facility was step one. Step two was the second facility Brand not only had found, but also had a resource in undercover. Olivier and Brand were sure that a second destroyed facility would be enough to push them to his weapons. I was able to get Olivier’s DNA to the undercover resource to load his signature into the targeting system being developed at the lab. The spy was supposed to be killed in the attack, but I was able to get the information over to X-Force in order to extract the agent ahead of time.
Once that information hit, it killed any chance of it remaining within the Pentagon. The Joint Chiefs would be embarrassed enough to investigate as hard and thoroughly as possible. I also assumed that those incharge of the program would have a backup plan, While Olivier and Brand were stunned how the agent had survived the assault by the Brotherhood, finding about that Trask had escaped and found another source of financing meant that they could still approach them to offer the weapons. They’d lost the chance for the legitimacy of the government but selling the Sentinels to other countries still meant hundreds of millions of dollars.
Once they got up and running, they engineered a meeting with Olivier and to use the weapons in their prototypes. Once they got ready to do a field test, that was the time to point Magneto and the Brotherhood at them, and once they engaged, point the X-Men there to make an ambush of their own while destroying this new iteration of the Sentinel project. When the Sentinels came online in order to try and counter the attacking Brotherhood, they also targeted Olivier and his men. That gave Magneto the opportunity to hurt him hard enough to make him retreat back to his realm. Amanda found a ritual that allowed us to destroy the bridge that linked it to Earth. Getting out cost me my omni-skin, but Olivier is now trapped.
I’m sorry for what happened. I know that many of you were hurt in the ambush. And that having to let believe that I was killed months ago also hurt people. I take full responsibility for what happened. If you don’t trust me any more, or if you don’t want me serving next to you on the X-Men, just let senior staff know and we’ll make arrangements.
no subject
I’m not saying I don’t believe you. I just need to know more.
no subject
As for proof, look at the mission results. The Brotherhood has had three members arrested and we have a wealth of new information from his time with them. The Sentinel project is dead in the water. Olivier and his demonic weapons are gone. That's all Kane's doing. And if that isn't enough for you, then, yes, you also have my word. If that's not enough... actually, I don't care if that's not enough.
no subject
I’m allowed to ask questions of a person who almost cost me an eye.
Good to know it was for something but I’m still scarred for life, so maybe have a little more respect for those of us that are trying to be as fair as we can be right now.
no subject
You mean you weren't being hostile with this? After everything he'd already said and the fact that he's not under lockdown somewhere? I'm so sorry I misunderstood - you were actually being fair and I totally got it wrong.
As for your scarring, re-read the second paragraph of Gar's post. Then maybe understand why I'm maybe a wee bit defensive.
no subject
(Seriously tho, Gar. I’m glad you’re alive. I’ll stop by later when you’re up for company?)
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glad you're back. NOW GO TO THERAPY
no subject
I am glad that you were able to survive, and hope that you are able to find healing from it.
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