Marauders (Krakoa) (Earth-616)

Ahoy, Mutants![]

In the mutant-exclusive nation founded by Professor X and Magneto on the island of Krakoa, Emma Frost was invited to oversee their international trade relations. As the White Queen of the Hellfire Trading Company, Frost was given a seat in the Quiet Council, Krakoa's first governing body, in return for exporting Krakoan miracle drugs to the rest of the world. Hellfire was awarded a second seat on the Council for the Black King, Sebastian Shaw, ensuring he would handle the black market trade with countries that rejected Krakoan sovereignty. As a final condition, Frost demanded for a third seat for a person of her choosing.^[17] Meanwhile, Kate Pryde learned in disappointment she could not interact with Krakoan gateways for transit. Having hijacked a boat to get to the island alongside Lockheed, she was contacted by the White Queen, who offered her the chance to captain a ship to liberate mutants trapped inside hostile countries and unable to reach Krakoa by themselves. After freeing captive mutants from a rogue group of Russian agents with the help of Iceman, Storm, and Pyro, she named her crew the “Marauders” to distance the X-Men from their future illegal activities as raiders.^[6]

The Marauders sailed the oceans acting as hijackers to some and heroes to many, posing a rising interest to the U.S. Naval Intelligence. Duringone of their operations, the Marauders took control of one of the Black King's ships commanded by Batroc the Leaper. Instead of sending the cargo to its original destination, an African nation, the Black King decided to sell it to an American rich club, a much more profitable deal. Such an intervention by the Marauders attracted the Black King's hatred, which would only grow even further when Pryde was officially appointed as the Hellfire Trading Company's Red Queen. After Bishop joined the Marauders, they were given a proper ship, the Marauder, and kept performing rescue missions over the globe.^[3] Pryde and Bishop traveled to Taipei to investigate the alleged disappearance of Lim Zhao. After a risky entrance, they discovered the kidnapping allegations were a ruse orchestrated by his wife, Chen Zhao, who was an adamant mutant hater and wished to use mutants as scapegoats. After the mutant pirates revealed her lies to the public during one of her speeches, Zhao formed a secret coalition with a rising anti-mutant organization: Homines Verendi.^[9]

In the meantime, Shaw schemed to seize control of the Hellfire Company for himself. Confident that Pryde's inability to pass through the Krakoan gateways also meant that the Five would be unable to resurrect her if she died, he hired Homines Verendi to attack his own son, Shinobi, and lure Pryde out to ambush her while she was alone. After immobilizing Lockheed and dropping him into the water, Shaw wrapped Pryde in Krakoan vines that nullified her powers, sinking her into the water. Though Lockheed survived, Pryde was drowned to death.^[18] The rest of the team learned of Pryde's disappearance when they arrived with some rescued mutants to Island M, but could not find their captain there as expected. Bishop went to Madripoor,^[19] where he found Pryde's lifeless body in the Homines Verendi's possession. Joined by Iceman and the White Queen, Bishop secured her body from the Verendi, before they could autopsy the corpse.^[20] While the Five tried to create a cloned body husk for Pryde, the Marauders kept bringing mutants safely to Krakoa and fighting the threat of the Homines Verendi. After eighteen attempts, Pryde was finally revived much to the joy of everyone, except Shaw.^[21] He was then tortured by Frost, Storm, Pryde, and Lockheed for his actions against the Marauders, being blackmailed into ceasing his vile activities.^[22]

During the symbiote invasion caused by the dark lord Knull, Storm and Cyclops were infected and brainwashed. Bishop was tasked by Beast to retrieve them, but, while en route, the Marauders found themselves targeted by brutal attacks in the North Atlantic. The group unexpectedly ran into a ship whose crew was involved in human trafficking. Under Magneto's suggestion, the Marauders sent the human victims to Island M before docking at New York City to fight Knull and his lackeys.^[15] In New York City, the Marauders, accompanied by the White Knight Callisto, arrived at the old Hellfire Club Mansion, which was at the moment being plundered by Conan the Barbarian, Deadpool, and the Night Flyer. Following a brief confrontation, the Marauders were then joined by the infiltrators in a failed attempt to free Storm and Cyclops.^[23]

Madripoor's Liberators[]

Pryde traveled to Madripoor to thank the people who had taken care of Lockheed while she was gone, where she learned that the Verendi were trying to raze Lowtown in order to gentrify it. To prevent them from doing so, the Hellfire Trading Company outbid them in buying multiple properties to ensure the safety of the people, including the creation of a free hospital for the local community. Revolted with this affront, the Verendi unleashed the new Reavers, composed of people who had been maimed by mutants. In their attack, the Reavers successfully caused an international incident that led the Marauders to be banned from Madripoor.^[24] With their protectors gone, the people of Lowtown were pillaged and had their houses destroyed by the Reavers. Captain Pryde swam through the sewers to plant a secret Krakoan Gateway and allow a small team of Morlocks to sneak into the city and fight the Reavers.^[7] Shortly after that, Storm quit the team in search of new experiences.^[25]

During the Hellfire Gala, the Marauder was severely damaged by Solem when piloted by the White Bishop.^[26] The incident destabilized the Krakoan black market and, as a result, Hellfire warehouses in Ireland were raided by Shaw's criminal customers and Verendi's Reavers. Banshee asked Frost for backup in one of these warehouses, prompting Frost, Pryde and Lockheed to assist him alongside Tempo and Jumbo Carnation. Due to Tempo's efficient performance in defeating the troublemakers, Pryde offered her a place with the Marauders.^[4] When the scoundrel known as Eden Rixlo landed on Planet Arakko looking for Emma Frost, she went to Port Prometheus with the Marauders to meet him. Frost was responsible for stealing Rixlo's morphing spaceship, the Mercury. Under Shaw's suggestion, Frost and the Marauders decided to pay Rixlo for the ship, a deal he gladly accepted. However, Rixlo betrayed the Marauders by kicking them out of the Mercury in outer space alongside Frost and Shaw.^[14] Thanks to the Marauders, the group made their way back to the Mercury, seizing control of it and abandoning Rixlo on Arakko.^[27]

On board of the Mercury, sailing to Madripoor, the Marauders were attacked by Fin Fang Foom, who wished to acquire their whiskey cargo. The threat was stopped by Iceman.^[11] On Madripoor, the Marauders Red Bishop and Pyro, impersonating arms dealers, tried to fool the Verendi with a deal concerning a fleet of old S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. The Verendi saw through the ruse when the real dealers arrived on the scene, leading to a final battle between the Verendi and the Marauders for the vast amount of money the Marauders had acquired. After the victorious fight, Pyro decided to leave the Marauders to go on a book tour, while Iceman shared his need for a vacation. The Red Queen and the Red Bishop, as the remaining Marauders, expressed their intention to carry on their adventures as pirates with a new crew.^[16]

Threshold[]

Captain Pryde decided to focus on rescuing mutants, distancing the Marauders from the Hellfire Trading Company's medicine affairs. With Bishop's help, a new crew was partially assembled with the addition of the telepath Psylocke and the chronomancer Tempo. The Marauders were joined by Aurora and Somnus in order to recover Daken, who had gone missing while doing work for X-Factor Investigations. Daken was found in Westchester, where the sadist Brimstone Love publicly brutalized him. In the name of his Theater of Pain, Brimstone Love spread a narrative for humans and mutants about Krakoa being a failed initiative based on segregation, which inherently contradicted Charles Xavier's original dream of racial coexistence. The Marauders were able to save Daken, but Brimstone Love managed to escape. Back to Krakoa, the Mercury was revamped as the New Marauder, ready to host a new crew of mutant rescuers.^[2]

In one of their missions, the Marauders saved Fever Pitch from an angry mob in Wyoming.^[28] Pryde had the Marauders specifically interested in mutant-related crisis over the globe. After Nature Girl's X-Men brutally attacked workers on a oil rig in the Arctic Ocean, she had an emergency response team assembled by Bishop to help the victims. Magik teleported these Marauders to the site as they wore X-Men uniforms in order to remedy the bad impression Nature Girl had conveyed about mutants. Wind Dancer, Brutha Nature, Birdy, Triage and Alchemist composed the team.^[29]

In order to aid their mission, Frost gifted Pryde with the Kara Katuça, a mysterium artifact that contained a treasure map that would guide the Marauders' new adventures.^[2] Following the mapped indications, Pryde reached a hidden region of Krakoa that housed Cassandra Nova. Nova revealed to Pryde that the note referred to prehistoric mutants who struggled for their lives in Shi'ar space. For her knowledge, Nova joined the Marauders in their quest to liberate mutants who had been imprisoned by the Shi'ar for millennia. As the crew sailed for space,^[28] they were intercepted by Erik the Red of the Kin Crimson, who wanted to prevent the truth about the first generation of mutants from being made public.^[30] The Marauders escaped, getting into contact with Empress Xandra to expose the nature of their mission. Xandra accompanied them to the Krag prison-planet where Kin Crimson betrayed and assassinated her.^[31] Captain Pryde was killed in action as they fought back. Upon learning through Chronicle about the origins of the mutants they wished to save, the Threshold, the Marauders embarked on a trip to the past to collect Shi'ar timedrivers that stored locked Thresholders. Through Krag's pandimensional portals they arrived on Avalon, when it was beomg ravaged by Nemesis.^[32][33] The Marauders furtively secured the storage device while Nova combated Nemesis. Having accomplished their goal, the Marauders returned to present-day Krakoa,^[34] where they were psychologically evaluated by Birdy to cope with the pain inflicted by their recent crises.^[35]

Being resurrected on Krakoa in time for the second Krakoan Hellfire Gala, Captain Pryde was introduced to Cerebra, a time traveler from the future^[34] whose genome-recording and mind-storage abilities posited an alternative way to access the timedriver that stored the Thresholders. She was able to send the Thresholders to resurrection in Arbor Magna. The Marauders welcomed Theia, Crave and Amass to Krakoa. The trio asked for help in their war against bacterial opponents. Captain Pryde accepted to help, but Cassandra Nova alerted them about ttheir certain demise since the enemies of the Thresholders were the X-Men's past adversaries Sublime and Arkea.^[36] In the past, the Marauders met the thriving mutant society of Thresholders. Another hidden enemy in the past was Stryfe^[37] Cassandra Nova's infectious mind incapacitated Sublime and Arkea, effectively protecting Threshold. Before returning to the present, however, Pryde decided to abandon the treacherous Cassandra Nova in the past.^[38] Back to their timeline, the Marauders resumed their mission. Daken was able to finish Brimstone Love and his Theater of Pain. Moreover, Pryde used the genomic material in the ruins of Genosha to paradoxically give rise to Threshold.^[39] Afterwards, the Marauders presumably disbanded following the tragic events of the third Hellfire Gala, which culminated with Pryde assuming the assassin ninja identity of Shadowkat and the very collapse of Krakoa.^[40][41]

Gregor Smerdyakov's boost fruits^[28]

New Marauder; formerly Kitty Hawk, Marauder