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Last One Out Turn Out The Lights
Look I’m sorry, but paint me unimpressed.
Flashback:The bessst! a transformed Fantomex hisses, believing he has killed his former teammates, X-Force, when actually MeMe aka Hope Summers stuck one of those hallucination pipes on his head, making him dream his victory.
Present:You escaped and blew him to hell. Yep, heard all about it. Same way I’ve heard you barely even scratched him. Have you seen the footage? He’s been zipping about out there for days, gunning for anyone who’s tougher than him to prove a point. Supersoldiers, superspies, super-anything. That’s one seriously insecure super-nemesis. And I should know. He killed me once already.
I know about the rest of it too. Like you got the gross alien guy upstairs on overwatch. Keep your enemies close, right?
Tied up in front of several screens, Mojo is forced to analyze Fantomex’s appearances, behavior and powers. Can he have a biscotti now? he wheedles. Dr. Nemesis mumbles that format is the key. Fantomex not only copied the Volga effect from Hope, he digitized it. And thanks to the glorified arcade machine he calls a brain, he’s been able to rewrite it too. Hence the annoying lack of explodo side effect. And no, Mojo may not. The biscotti is his biscotti.
I know, we relocated by a coupla thousand miles I know, you’re all twitchy, in case Pepe the powermad finds you and I know, your glorious leader has a single multifunctional solution to all these problems, by which I mean Volga.
Annoyed, Hope interrupts the radio transmission. She doesn’t care who he is, just please get to the damn point! The mystery person replies the point is that this is when they are all supposed to go after Volga together. Find a cure. The whole group finally setting aside its differences and fix the world as one. Instead, her dad went and caught him solo, while the rest of them were asleep. Off screen action sequence. That’s how #*%&%§ they are.
Somewhere else Cable and Marrow are holding Volga prisoner. Cable notes an energy spike and mocks that Volga is trying to self-destruct again. Naughty. He tortures him.
Talking to the recorder, Hope bursts out the other person said they had vital information for her. She said she’d provide a laser beam enema if they were lying. That’s a good deal. There was no mention of trash talking her team. And they totally revised the mission footage and it was a pretty awesome superhero moment, thank you very much. The voice tells her to give it a rest. She’s bitter as hell about it and they both know it.
Not another step, she decides, until she knows where these droids are leading her. And why she can’t hack their systems. And who the $%&§ she is talking to.
He’s the absorbent shoulder she’s been crying on, comes the reply. He’s the one who knows she’s spent the past three days down here, so she doesn’t have to witness Volga’s interrogation and he knows she’s just killing time waiting for her dad to switch off MeMe’s body and stop Hope sleepwalking with her powers. Why is that anyway? Is he worried for her safety or doesn’t he want her to see all the dark %$§ he gets up to? Hope isn’t sure but if he wants to know what she thinks— He tells her he knows part of her is looking forward to it. Just so she doesn’t have to watch her old man go wrong anymore. She told him yesterday. If it helps at all? The others feel it too. The wrongness.
In another part of the carrier, Domino and Psylocke spar. Light sparring, Psylocke reminds Domino as she wipes the blood from her mouth. If she can’t take the heat, duchess… Angrily, they continue.
Some of them just force it out. Masked behind anger, violence. Others like Nemesis tune it out, intellectualize it, and others like Marrow embrace it, the mystery person muses. Whatever it takes to make the problem go away.
Marrow tortures Volga while Cable demands how they can change back his daughter and solve the Fantomex problem.
What problem? Hope asks. The problem is this: they are supposed to be the *&%§ heroes! Hope tries to excuse their deeds, denying black and white morality but the other person doesn’t buy it.
Who is he? Hope demands. He chuckles that she asked him that question right here three times this week already. She keeps forgetting the answer, but not today. Today they liberated a little something from Doc Nemesis’ lab that might help him out (namely the Hypercoffee).
Poor old MeMe, he continues on a different tangent, never got a chance to even tell them her real name. She’s more a victim than anyone in this stupid place, and maybe that’s her gift. Mutated, used, bashed around, brain dead and now being overdosed on a stolen batch of quantum coffee by one of the helper bots. Hope is still piggybacking on her powers so the effect should pass straight into her, including the ability to remember those little chats of theirs. Hopefully without the fatal damage.
Fatal? Hope repeats. He can’t call them monsters, then kill that innocent woman! The voice points out she is already dead, this is just her body. Also, Hope might stop firing accusation until she knows who’s doing the killing. Now would be the time to start asking questions, by the way.
Frustrated, Hope shouts who is he? She is finally led to her destination. An injured bandaged man drags himself into her field of sight and says it’s nice to meet her. Again. Some folks call him Forget-Me-Not. But really? He’s nobody. And he’d rather be that than one of them. No offense. He asks her to help him up. There’s something else she needs to see.
In another room, an agitated Cable repeats his questions. How do they fix his daughter? How do they get Fantomex? Can’t say, the bleeding Volga groans. Violates first principle of open market. Not compromise product sanctity. Fate worse than death, da? Better off killing him, old guy.
Cable promises they got plenty more toys to play with. In the meantime, Volga turns to Marrow, reminding her she choose to let her baby die in exchange for power. Bet she hates him lots. “Give in to your anger, young Skywalker,” Marrow mocks. Give her a break. They got science crap in here she can’t even pronounce to stop him topping himself. Trying to persuade her to do it? That’s just reaching. No matter how much hatred she has for him it’s nothing to that she feels for herself. He ain’t going nowhere.
Elsewhere, Forget-Me-Not tells Hope it’s a question of legacy. What do you want to be remembered for? It’s more important than it sounds and she can take that from someone who won’t be remembered at all. Superheroes? Oh sure, call it a dumb dream. Too simple. Too neat. But it’s a dream worth having.
Meanwhile, Psylocke’s and Domino’s fight turns more brutal and Marrow and Cable are gleefully torturing Volga.
Forget-Me-Not continues that it’s basically impossible to stay decent surrounded by all this #*$§. “Ends justify the means,” “the lesser of two evils.” All those sick little excuses. So you self-distract and self-destroy until you’re too exhausted to even notice the monster you’ve become. And they don’t even realize there’s goodness here, right under their noses. He means himself? Hope splutters. Forget-Me-Not is taken aback at the thought. Her, he replies and points inside to several screens showing the others and the cleaner ‘bots. The life she stole. MeMe.
A screen shows that the system integrity is going down fast.
Forget-Me-Not’s narration:She was normal, he continues. Does Hope even know what that means? A regular girl with a regular sense of right and wrong. She was captured by Volga, forced into this box. He used her. Then the good guys showed up and used her some more. And somewhere along the way – plane explosions and trauma – her mind plumb forgot to go home. He doesn’t suppose it would have mattered much even if she could.End narration
Because Hope had already taken up residence.
Hope mutters that she didn’t realize. Forget-Me-Not assures her MeMe doesn’t blame her. That’s not even her in there. Just an echo. It grabbed a handhold in the ship’s echo systems and it’s been fading ever since. But she saved him. Got into the drones, saved his life, for no reason but that she could. Just figured it was the right thing to do. And just before she dwindled so far she couldn’t even speak anymore she told him to get Hope. She’s just some girl. Who never wore a costume, never fought for the world or a species or tribe, never pretended to be all good or all bad. Just some girl. Worth more than any of them. Just some girl, and she couldn’t give a crap about being stronger or smarter or better than anyone. Just some girl and she doesn’t rationalize right and wrong. And she’s not full of shadows and #*&% she can’t express.
Domino and Psylocke face each other. Psylocke begins to cry and doesn’t know why. Domino hugs her.
Just some girl who does not think the ends justify the means.
Volga screams then relents. He will tell the truth. There is no curing the virus. To get rid of Volga super soldier effect before it kills the subject? Hah! Only way is full psychic burnout. Strip every cell, every bone, every dream. Every scream. What is left? Nothing. So even if they can do body and soul purifying, only thing they actually cure is a pile of ash.
Dr. Nemesis joins them and agrees. This tech, it’s wrong to even call it a treatment. It’s more a surrogate nervous system, physical and psychic, all in one. A replacement form of life. Even he can’t understand it.
Cable stubbornly insists Volga could be lying and tells Nemesis to power up the Ion needles. He walks away.
Volga tells Marrow she never volunteered for the treatment, just the tests. He wanted an ex-mutant subject. So they drugged her and did the treatment anyway. They harvested her baby for weapon grade stem cells while she slept. Marrow reminds him she was aware of the risk. Why lie about that? Bad guy, he snorts. Hello?
Marrow kills him by impaling him with her bone spikes. Cable rushes to them too late. Marrow finds she feels great and hates that she’s feeling great.
Forget-Me-Not and Hope watch this. Everyone’s guilty, right? he asks. Cheer on the grimdark heroes. Except now and then there’s a mission with no outcome at all, making you wonder were you secretly cheering for the nasty #+$%& all along. Dejected, Hope asks why he brought her here. Referring to MeMe, he replies she wanted to show Hope something, to change the way she thinks. Why her? she asks, she’s just a girl. Moments later, she is horrified when she watches the video files Forget-Me-Not opened.
Five hours later, the members of X-Force have gathered around Hope’s comatose form. Cable stammers that they have come to say goodbye to MeMe, who isn’t really alive and to Hope going back to sleep. He promises her they will fix her when Nemesis interrupts him, telling him MeMe already died of some sort of chemical overdose, meaning Hope’s hologram is just a placeholder image. There’s nothing there. She is already back in her coma. Guess she didn’t feel like saying goodnight, Marrow mutters. Cable storms out.
Betsy looks pensive and Domino rudely asks what’s going on. Betsy feels that, even in her coma, Hope is angry and wonders what could have made her so.
Sitting, hidden and crying, Forget-Me-Not wishes both girls sweet dreams.


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No One Ever Told Me That Grief Felt So Like Fear
X-Force battles Fantomex, who is super-charged thanks to the Volga virus in Paris, while Marrow muses she had a herd name once: Sara. She’s gone now, her baby died and took the name with it. She’s Marrow. She’s fighting the bad man… and better believe he is winning!
They fight him in Bali.
She lost her powers, got them back in an unstable form, made of musical viruses and alien %(#%$&. She’s looking for a through-line. A way to make sense of the ups and downs. Matter of fact, she is thinking so hard, she forgets the bad man (He kills six Balinese supermen while she daydreams).
They fight him in icy Norway.
Marrow thinks that they used her child to make these new powers in her – and in others. They’ve suffered for that. God, they’ve suffered. But not the bad man. He is the last, unpunished piece of her baby’s death. He is cheating and she hates him (He kills eight Norwegian Flott-spies while she is glaring in disgust).
Beaten, they are back in the headquarters.
No one ever told her that grief feels so like fear. But it does and she is afraid now. She is afraid all the time and she’s overcompensating with rage and adrenaline and, if you want a list of side effects to go with the godawful diagnosis of paralyzing terror, it’s this: Fear kills your trust.
Um, hi, a voice calls out. Intruder! Marrow snarls and moves to attack Forget-Me-Not, who pleads he has a message from Hope. Electrified, Cable jumps up and pushes Marrow aside.
Forget-Me-Not explains how his power makes everyone forget him. He’s Hope’s friend. She laid plans before she went back into the coma.
Marrow doesn’t like it. He is too nice. Forget-Me-Not explains she just wants someone to sit with her. She is lonely. He points at Marrow and reveals that Hope wants her.
They all gather around Hope. Forget-Me-Not suggests Marrow hold her hand. She threatens that, if this is some intervention, she will eat his spleen, quietly aware that this is just her fear talking. She complies and the comatose Hope copies her gift, sprouting bone growths all over her body. She uses the bone extensions to move her body towards a computer and activate a video file.
The file shows Cable contacting Fantomex and luring him to certain places by promising X-Force will be there. Basically, Cable is siccing him on dangerous organizations of the covert community, like the French Le Bureau or the Saudi intelligence apparatus in the process.
X-Force stare shocked at this revelation. Dr. Nemesis announces it falls on him to inoculate the helplessly ignorant with the potent meds of explanation. From what they’ve seen, he’d conclude—
Marrow interrupts and shouts at Cable that he’s been baiting that bastard to hit other superspies. Using the &%#$§ bad man as his own private WMD! Y-yes, that, Nemesis agrees surprised.
Silent at first, Cable replies that mutant nation was at the bottom of the pile. Now it’s not. They’ll get no damn apology from him.
Forget-Me-Not addresses Betsy, who asks who he is. He apologizes. Orders. He pushes her toward Hope, who copies her telepathy and shows them mental images of pain and family.
Marrow figures family is giving someone trust without thought. Family’s your role model for God. They pour their trust into authority, into law. They give their faith to those with their best interests at heart. They all make pets of those they respect and they take their trust, those shepherds of men and nobody calls them out when they §$#& it up. Marrow sobs for her baby.
Cable, who wasn’t contacted, asks what happened to them. Not much, Forget-Me-Not replies. They got a little taste of what it’s like to outgrow the folks you look up to, is all. A moment regarding the fallibility of leaders. That sorta thing. Feels, Cable scoffs. Forget-Me-Not agrees and adds Hope also psychically broadcast their true location to Fantomex. All part of her plan. Her plan? Cable shouts in disbelief. He is in charge!
In response, Marrow shoves a bonespike through his brain. Some people don’t deserve children! she snaps. Been waiting to do that a while, she figures silently. It was her turn.
Dr. Nemesis mutters that Fantomex will be on his way. Marrow announces he is too strong. They are all dead. She’s making coffee.
Forget-Me-Not protests there is a plan. Who the hell is he? Dominos bursts out. He tells them all they have to do is weaken him, wear him out. Hope has a plan, if they just work together. The others aren’t interested and walk away. Wrong crowd, Marrow mutters. Forget-Me-Not pleads that they need to trust. Marrow spits on the ground in reply before she leaves.
Soon Fantomex is about to attack and Marrow observes through her disgust how similar they are, because that need to be the strongest is just another absence of trust. Misery and megalomania - weird that such different things should have the same results.
Domino fires her guns at Fantomex. Ignoring Domino’s order, Marrow attacks by herself, even as she knows her mistrustful behavior is wrong. Fantomex easily takes all three of them out and calls them cretins for being unable to cooperate.
Forget-Me-Not runs at him and attaches teleport tags to Fantomex’s shoulders. He is teleported into the lab. Forget-Me-Not grabs Hope’s arm and has it touch Fantomex, then orders Nemesis to teleport him away again. Nemesis tells Fantomex he looks pale, he should get some sun. A moment later, Fantomex is inside the sun… which doesn’t stop him either.
Nemesis tells the three on the poop deck that Fantomex will return. Having something of a breakdown, Nemesis shouts he has no idea what to do. Someone hold him! What will it take to kill this m—
Trust, a telepathic voice tells them all. That’s all. Who just talked in her brain? Domino asks. Take a lucky guess, the voice tells her. Who does she think? This is their leader speaking, Hope announces, now awake and superpowered as the Volga virus in her has been unlocked, thanks to contact with Fantomex.
Hope tries to calm Marrow, then copies Dr. Nemesis’s smartness. They need to cure Fantomex and her dad. Two heads are better than one. While the others attack Fantomex, Hope telepathically tells Marrow she is wrong. Her brokenness isn’t what causes her lack of trust. It’s the other way round.
In the lab, Nemesis and Hope are hard at work but have no idea how to find a cure.
Outside, Domino tells Psylocke and Marrow to get ready. The moment she throws this grenade, with a bit of luck, it’ll throw his concentration long enough. Psylocke worries what if she misses. She won’t. Marrow tells her she trusts her.
Domino fires her grenade and Psylocke throws Marrow in a telekinetic fastback special, her bones extended. She decides she no longer needs to talk to her baby in her head as she slices through Fantomex’s body.
She lands hard. The other two women are worried. Marrow tells them they are totally BFFs now. Let’s go dancing and make out. Domino informs them he is still alive. Skip the dancing, Marrow suggests.
Forget-Me-Not comes up running, greeted by a familiar ‘who are you.’ He tells them to take cover. Hope just sent in the cavalry.
An army of Cable clones storms the deck.


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Us vs. Them
All the Cable clones attack the power-mad Fantomex.
In the control center, Hope borrows a Psyker’s eyes to watch her father die. A lot. She decides it’s kinda lost its novelty. She staggers under the power she has now, thanks to copying Fantomex’s unlocked Volga virus. She could table-flip a glacier. She could fire eyebeams made of shadow fire and she doesn’t think that’s even real. She could do anything. Instead, she’s standing in a lab and thinking really hard about how to fix the guy who is currently slaughtering her dad. She decides it’s possible she may not be cut out for the whole grimdark super hero shtick.
Dr. Nemesis releases more Cable clones to sic them at Fantomex. Keep ‘em coming, Hope tells him while musing that one of her teammates called Fantomex “Strength for the sake of strength. The self above the all.” She could have been talking about any of them really. She could have been talking about this whole gross clusterbork of a team. She could have been talking about the whole damn world!
Hope recalls how she was dumped inside a surveillance nightmare. The aggression, the tribalism, the anger. She learned it’s all about “us vs them.”
On the poop deck, Fantomex laughs madly as he burns the Cable clones.
In the lab, Hope wrecks her brain to find a solution, while remembering Cable told them at the beginning it’s not about saving the world. It’s about keeping up with it. Keeping flag A higher than flag B. It’s about making the nation of mutantkind the strongest it could be.
No! More! Cables! Fantomex laughs, killing more Cables.
The one thing he didn’t say was that it’s the same thing Fantomex lives and breathes. The best way to be strongest is to make everyone else weaker. You raise your flag over the rest. You build your bombs, they get bigger ones. You scream your name for fear of being forgotten… left behind and everyone else screams that little bit louder too. It has to stop, Hope decides. Someone has to be the first to stop pushing.
Fantomex has reached the lab and calls her “poor little mouse.” She has copied the superduper powers of the perfect man and it has shattered her tiny brain. He was right to reject her advances.
She tells him he needs to understand that she sees him. He’s like a child. A scared little boy. Resenting the very people whose respect he craves. Fantomex no longer smiles.
In the destroyed lab, a weak voice addresses Nemesis, telling him there’s an armory. A secret panel behind the coffee machine. But he doesn’t have time, Nemesis replies. The countdown is down to a few minu—
Scared? EVA hisses at Hope. Fantomex doesn’t do scared. Tell her, darling, she tells Fantomex. They purged her once. And they can do it agai— Fantomex begins but is stopped mid-attack by the original Cable and his psimitar. He only has a few minutes before he will die of the original, cruder version of the Volga strain.
Hope watches them fight and thinks about her father, a man of duty… honor, focus. All of that stuff. She should help him. She should gift him with her attention as he crumbles. But it’s hard to care when something that is already broken falls apart. And besides, she has bigger things in mind. She recalls EVA mentioning purging her before. This virus in them cannot be cured. Even the man who developed it said so, said it would take full psychic burnout. They say a good team thinks as one. It’s the sort of stupid platitude you’d expect from the men of the Summers line. She doubts any of them would approve of this plan.
She thinks of her teammates. With this power, she can build a web out of their souls, distil their hopes and dreams to a pure cocktail of thoughts, but it’s not their hopes and dreams she wants. The numbness, the rage, the insecurity, the recklessness, the paper-thin confidence, the envy, the loneliness. The hurt. They are broken, oh God yes, but at least the know it. They are broken and she can use that.
While Cable still battles Fantomex, Hope reaches into her own chest. Nemesis tells her that her copycattery won’t last forever. She should stop whatever obscene unscience she is doing—
She takes a small black globe out of her chest and orders him to stay away from her.
Outside, Cable orders the team to stand together. With a grin, Fantomex takes them all out easily.
Inside, Nemesis announces Cable’s started to go critical out there. The teleporter’s broken. Thinking can’t save them. The coffee machine won’t start. They need to get out of here! Shh, Hope replies. On it. And she flies outside.
Hey, mean guy, she addresses Fantomex. Have a heart! She pushes the ball into his chest, a ball full of all their losses and inadequacies. Programmed to believe himself perfect, Fantomex can’t stand it. He claws at his chest and cries to get it out. He orders EVA to fully purge it. Eva begins to protest; he cuts her off and orders her to do it. EVA complies.
Fantomex laughs that he is clean again. A moment later, he realizes that the Volga virus and with it his new powers have been purged as well. Hope copies the cure. Give it back! Fantomex shouts. He was perfect! Bollocks he was! Psylocke shouts and kicks him in the head. He can still take them, he claims, he is better than all of them. Marrow headbutts him. Forget-Me-Not makes him fall. Calling him a loser, Betsy uses her psychic knife on him.
She sliced his head in half, right? Marrow asks hopefully. Betsy disappoints her. She downsized his ego with her psychic blade. Fantomex realizes EVA is gone. She wanted him to feel what it’s like. To be imperfect. To be aware of your flaws and still have to deal with them. Cool pre-execution payback, Domino remarks as she points her gun at him. Give the bad guy a taste of humility before erasing him from the planet forever, right?
Psylocke looks at Hope, then Fantomex crouching on the ground. No, she decides. As much as she’d enjoy it. She thinks the humility part is enough.
Hope walks up to the dying Cable and tells him she doesn’t want him to think she is ungrateful for all the time and effort he spent to save her. She knows he is in a lot of pain. Still, she’d like him to pay attention now. She touches him and begins to glow. Because she’s got this one.
Two weeks later:A hospital room:Cable, who is lying in a bed, is in contact with Hope via a comm. system. Hope asks how he is feeling. It’s taking some getting used to, he admits. Woke up with two eyes. Took some time to figure out he had two hands to rub them together. She explains they “convinced” Mojo to regrow some parts before they shipped him home.
And Fantomex? he asks. Betsy’s keeping an eye on him, Hope explains. “Mostly reformed,” she says. Can’t blame a machine for being built with an error. Still a pain in the ass, mind. No lingering anger, huh? he asks surprised. That’s really… zen. Evil is only evil when someone makes a choice about it, Hope replies. That a dig? he asks.
After some silence, Hope admits it is. They got it wrong. He got it wrong. He thinks it’s about being strong. Standing up to be counted. And that sounds good in principle, sure, but you take that path and you can’t stop. Tougher, stricter, explodier. Endless #&%ing escalation. Mind your language, he admonishes her automatically. It’s not about us vs them, Hope continues. Not really. It never was. It’s about the folks who want to participate versus the folks who want to dominate.
Where is she? he asks. Doesn’t matter, she replies, just listen: She knows a lot of the things he did… it was the clones. Nemesis says maybe their moral judgment degraded with each copy. Monomania, impaired empathy, blablabla. So, y’know, there’s that. But still… she doesn’t know if she can forget that stuff. She doesn’t know if she can be… around him. Working, she means. Not for a little while. She thinks she needs to be better than that, she adds with a small voice.
After some silence Cable assures her he understands. He doesn’t resent her wanting to leave. X-Force will be here for her when she is ready to ret—
No, Hope interrupts. She doesn’t think he understands. She loves him… but he’s fired! Hope announces, surrounded by Nemesis, Forget-Me-Not, Domino, Psylocke and Marrow, her X-Force.


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[Assistant]
Hunting Ground
A gathering of masked men and women sitting around a round table. The leader, with the peacock mask, lifts a scalpel as he announces there is us and there is them. To make certain no one here is one of them, they will begin with a purity test. He cuts his finger. All it takes is a small sample of blood. Before the meeting commences, each of them must test clean. His colleague will collect the samples. And if any of them should test X-gene positive, he will scrub away the stain of them. He wishes the psionic shield around the chamber were enough to assure their privacy, he continues, as the others give blood, but they are here to discuss the declaration of mutant sovereignty and the reality of the new geopolitical situation.
One woman has not yet given a sample. The muscular guard stands next to her. Slowly, she takes off her glove, revealing unnaturally pale skin. She grabs the scalpel as he puts his hand on her shoulder. She muses that it took a lot of luck to get in here. But it’s going to take a lot more to get out. She embeds the scalpel in his hand and begins attacking the others to make her way outside. However, the guard catches her and slams her to the ground.
As he was saying, the leader repeats as the guard tears off the woman’s mask to reveal Domino. To make sure none of them are of them, they require blood.
Krakoa:Beast wanders through a jungle-like landscape, exploring the flora when he is attacked by what seems to be a monstrous hog-like creature. Fortunately, Wolverine observes them and jumps down from a tree, claws unsheathed. The creature is frightened off and flees. Beast asks Wolverine not to give chase. Logan scoffs in disbelief. Beast explains he wants to know what it is. It can’t possibly be a product of the island, because then it wouldn’t have tried to harm him. Maybe it mistook him for a threat. Wolverine helps him up and states he’s been following it for days and it left quite a few bones behind.
Beast muses that Krakoa is supposed to be a refuge. More like a salad bar, Logan replies. Every flower-filled meadow’s got a hawk or wolf or snake waiting for a taste. There’s always a predator. He points out that Beast didn’t see this thing coming because he felt sheltered. Krakoa makes everyone feel safe. And when you’re safe, you’re careless.
Elsewhere on the island, Black Tom Cassidy senses something that doesn’t belong. A moment later, Professor Xavier telepathically informs him there is a psychic disturbance on the northwest shore. Tom joins Xavier and several other mutants there. The mutants are agitated because something is coming on the sea and everyone is supposed to be using the Krakoan Gates. Tom corrects them: The rules don’t apply to Kitty Pryde and her Marauders.
Jean Grey telepathically urges Tom to hurry. The boat is full of pain! Kate Pryde tells Jean there were no gates and they got the people out on the broken boat they stole. The refugees are in even worse shape. They are victims of chemical weapons. Jean thanks her, to which Kate replies she should thank someone else… the one Xavier sent to Russia where he organized everything and tried to arrange the extraction. He’s the man she doesn’t want to see hurt anymore. She refers to her former fiancé Colossus, who is wounded, his leg mangled, even in his armored form.
Seoul International Airport:Several shady individuals separately board a flight to Honolulu. One of them is greeted in a familiar way by a member of the aircrew.
Soon the pilot informs the passengers about turbulences over the Pacific, meaning they have to divert the route.
On Krakoa, Professor X telepathically addresses Sage, reminding her it has been over a week since Cerebro lost contact with Domino. He asks her to doublecheck the system if anything turned up. Nothing though.
Xavier steps though a Krakoan portal and exits in Sokovia, where he is welcomed profusely by the country’s leader and a clapping crowd. As he is feted, Xavier expresses pleasure that the head of state has come around to signing the Krakoan treaty.
Krakoa:In the Healing Gardens, the Morlock Healer enlists Jean Grey’s help to communicate with the Russian mutants, to ask where it hurts. Probing Colossus’ mind, Jean describes the horrors he witnessed and concludes she cannot tell the Healer where it hurts, because it hurts everywhere.
The plane suddenly loses pressure. Several passengers reach for the breathing masks, only to nevertheless fall asleep, whereas a few select passengers watch them calmly and unharmed. The pilot seems to be in on it, while the copilot has been taken out as well.
The pilot addresses the awake people, who change into black fatigues, all of them having white stripes of skin. The pilot redirects course until getting to a certain point where the four awake passengers jump off, downward toward Krakoa.
On the island, Black Tom sees something coming from the sky. He alerts Sage, who tells him according to monitor activity it looks like Domino. Tom isn’t buying it. Why hasn’t she communicated? And where is she parachuting from? The moon? Sage retorts Domino could arrive by zeppelin, paper plane or catapult and she wouldn’t be surprised. Tom still doesn’t like it.
That moment, Xavier returns through one of the gates and asks what Tom doesn’t like. All the coming and going without him knowing the who and where and why. That’s what he’s come to talk about. He talks the dirt and the dirt talks back and sometimes they get a feeling like all the worms are twisting inside them. Like now.
In the sky, the group’s leader orders them to deploy the chutes and take assault formation.
On the ground, Tom continues. It’s one thing having people coming through the gates, but can they trust everyone washing up with the tide? Xavier replies that identification is Sage’s business.
The leader reminds them to stay on target.
Tom insists he wants better communication. Xavier asks if he knows that some on the Council were against Tom serving as warden. Xavier continues that he told them Tom can be trusted and assures him they can be trusted. All mutants can be trusted. They are in this together. Krakoa is not a prison.
At a campfire, Wolverine sniffs something, then sees the mercs landing.
In front of Tom and Xavier, a woman is suddenly shot. Tom orders Xavier to run.
All hell breaks loose as the solders open fire on the mutants. Tom lets the island itself fight through its link with him. Xavier runs realizing their foes have psionic blocks.
Elsewhere, Wolverine looks for one of the mercs, who shoots him several times, only to be attacked himself by Beast. He reminds Wolverine that there are indeed always predators. Marvel Girl joins them and tells them they were stupid and slow and careless. This can never happen again.
Tom attacks two mercs with the earth itself. One of them wonders how they could not see this coming. Did they really think humans would not fight back?
Jean, Beast and Wolverine race toward Xavier, who tries to calm down the merc aiming his weapon at him. Before they are close enough, he shoots Xavier down. Wolverine throws himself at the killer, while Beast tries to restrain him, telling him they need one alive to question.
From her computer, Sage calls them begging them to tell her she is wrong. Tell her it’s not true! At the X-Men’s feet, Xavier lies dead.


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[Assistant]
The Sword of Damocles
Krakoa:A shocked and horrified crowd of mutants stands around the corpse of Professor Xavier, who was shot moments ago. Floating, Magneto muses, if he had only been there, he could have stopped the bullet. If only Charles were made of metal, he might put him back together. If only… old friend. He raises the bloodied Cerebro helmet. This was Charles’ plan, Charles’ island, Charles’ future and will remain so… if only he returns to them. He wouldn’t want to imagine what would happen without him.
They don’t have to, Marvel Girl replies, telekinetically rising to face him. He knew this could happen. They knew this could happen. That doesn’t make seeing him down there any easier, but there is a back-up system in place. They can fix this. She thinks she can bring him back.
She thinks? Magneto repeats. He transforms the helmet into a sword. She will. She must! Jean corrects herself, that’s what she meant. He warns her that they won’t be able to hide this for long. A terrible clock has started ticking. And if they are wrong and the resurrection doesn’t work… Jean replies she knows what’s at stake.
A little later, Jean and Beast stand outside a blocked cave. Jean telekinetically frees the entrance to the hidden Cradle One. As she does so, Beast muses he doesn’t understand why Charles allowed himself to be so vulnerable. From the moment, he declared mutant sovereignty, he must have felt the sword of Damocles hovering over him. He must have known, it would one day fall. Of course, he knew, Jean replies. That’s why they are here. But Charles didn’t want to act like a king, even though he wore the crown.
She walks towards the Cerebro helmet resting on a plinth. She explains that at any time only one version of Cerebro can be live. Charles backed up the intelligence to multiple cradles throughout the island. They need Beast to bring Cerebro back online. So they can bring Charles back.
The Healing Gardens:Cecilia Reyes performs an autopsy on the assassins and lets Black Tom and Sage know what she’s learned, namely that they have oversized lungs and adrenal glands, no fingerprint and their skeletons are protected by reinforced periosteum. Each of them has an extra bone housed in their forearm, shaped like a blade, presumably meant as a weapon.
Sage summarizes they are outfitted like Reavers but are Olympic level human assassins. While Black Tom berates himself for Xavier’s death, Sage is puzzled about the white skin strips they all display.
Wolverine wants to know how many are still alive. Barely the one, is the tart reply by the Morlock Healer. No thanks to him. He tells them to keep him alive but not to make him comfortable.
Sage asks if that one has the skin graft as well. She joins them and explains that, when Black Tom first alerted her to a possible breach, she dismissed it, because the island identified the arriving party as Domino. They grafted her skin on their own.
Wolverine tells her to call Jean. She needs to get in this assassin’s head while he still has a pulse. They need to know everything he knows, including whether Domino is still alive or dead. If she’s dead, kickstart her resurrection, so they can get her final memories. Sage retorts why he doesn’t ask Jean himself. He’s going hunting, is the reply.
Seoul Incheon,International airport, South KoreaWolverine has taken out the security personnel and is accessing the computers in the tower. He learns the assassins came by air. He starts when he is surprised by another guard but, before the man can do anything, he freezes.
Wolverine announces, he’d be surprised, but he’d know that stink anywhere, Mix up some body spray and strawberry soda with a dash of locker room funk. And you get…
… Kid Omega, Quentin Quire grins. Wolverine asks if Sage sent him He doesn’t take orders, Quire demurs. He’s here because the professor finally realizes what Quentin preached all along: mutants are superior. Or at least he is. Whoever did this to the professor might as well have done it to him, Quentin continues his questionable flight of logic. So they are his to punish.
Wolverine suggests, Quentin head back to whatever Krakoan preschool he escaped from. Quentin scoffs at him and suggests he not pretend competence. What was he going to do, see if 1-2-3 worked as the password? Or maybe “cigar” or “bourbon?” He begins hacking the computer, while Wolverine demands how he knows his password. Because he can see inside his thick skull and it looks like a spent ashtray in a Depression era hobo bar, he is told. He wasn’t following here but already leaving. He has already processed the assassin’s false IDs and scoured the surveillance footage. He has spotted the license plate of the vehicle they arrived in and accessed the MOCT database. And while he did that, he went to Amazon and maxed out Wolverine’s credit card. He doesn’t have a credit card. Logan points out. He does now, Quentin grins, and a truly miserable credit score. Now follow him, if he wants to stab something
Krakoa:Beast is working on Cerebro while Jean telepathically urges him on. This is a race not only against their enemies, but also to stay united.
Outside Seoul, Quentin and Wolverine have followed the trail to a printing press. Still arguing they make their way inside, taking care of the guards. Wolverine dislikes Quentin’s mutant supremacist stance. Inside, they find what is being “printed” are not books, but human enhanced organs – even whole nervous systems. It’s an assassin factory!
Krakoa:Sage is examining the bodies, finding surprises, e.g. spools of wire instead of cartilage in the ears, making a handy tool or weapon. The teeth were filled with explosive putty. One could say they are cheating evolution, she tells Jean Grey. They aren’t supermen, but one day engineering might make them that, Jean finishes. Sage ventures that Jean is probably upset about her letting Logan go. Jean replies he should have consulted the Quiet Council, but Sage couldn’t have stopped him.
Jean tries to go into the survivor’s mind.
Looking at an almost finished but skinless body hanging from the ceiling, Kid Omega opines it must be awful, knowing you are not enough. He’d feel sorry for humans if they weren’t so disgustingly pathetic. This lab is like a chapel dedicated to their insecurity. He doesn’t notice the man opening his eyes.
Wolverine points out that he is also pissed off about Chuck, but if Xavier were here he’d slap Quentin upside the head for that kind of talk. He knows what Magneto says, but mutants ain’t gods and humans ain’t devils. He turns around to see the body grabbing Quentin.
Wolverine attacks him and slices him up while Quentin panics as his powers aren’t working. He wants t get out! Logan replies this is what they came for. He’s got fists, he’s go feet, he’s got teeth! He fights off the other bodies come to life and tells Quentin they are trying to hide something or someone -  find her!
Quentin enters the next room and in a large tube he sees Domino, being kept alive but large parts of skin on her right side are missing…


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[Assistant]
The Skeleton Key
Flashback:Domino recalls being captured and told she was a walking skeleton key for evolution by the peacock-masked leader of the mysterious cabal she was investigating, as her skin was grafted onto the agents meant to attack Krakoa.
Now, outside Seoul:Having finished off the attackers, Wolverine hopes the Krakoan “kill no human” rule doesn’t refer to those walking hamburgers. Kid Omega opines this is exactly why Krakoa will never work. Professor X has always been too kind, too generous, too optimistic about the protozoic slime that is humanity.
He stands before the tube in which Domino – partially skinned - floats. Look at what they’ve done! he states. Wolverine replies that Quentin doesn’t know everything. Is he saying that doesn’t make him angry? Quentin shouts. Domino’s been used as a platform for bio-printing! She’s been butchered! He’s pissed as hell! Wolverine replies as he smashes the glass of the tube. He carefully cradles Domino as he adds that the professor knows exactly what humans are capable of. The same as mutants. The very best and the very worst.
Domino comes awake. A moment later, both Wolverine and Quentin sway as a huge, skinless giant comes crashing in.
On Krakoa, Beast and Marvel Girl have procured the new Cerebro unit. Beast muses about bringing Charles back to life. He is not just one mutant; he is all of their lives. Will they become recklessly assured? Shouldn’t they have a healthy fear of death? Jean disagrees. When she was a kid, her family took a few road trips, Niagara Falls, Arcadia National Park… and when they got tired of driving, they’d stop at county cemeteries. Her parents would lie in the shadow of big tombstones to rest or have a snack. In the meantime, Jean and her sister ran, playing a game: who could find the oldest grave.
They walk towards a cocoon holding a clone of Charles Xavier. Jean continues she’s died more times than anyone can keep track of and maybe that’s in part because she learned from an early age that death wasn’t something to fear. It’s made her a better person and hero. Hank is suggesting that death or the fear of it rather makes people selfish. What she’s saying is that, without death, life is less about “them” and more about “us.”
She activates the Cerebro unit over the cocoon. That’s the dream of Krakoa. And they are charged with protecting it.
Xavier awakens and breaks out of the cocoon.
Seoul:Wolverine and Quentin are running chased by the monster. Quentin swears he can’t do much thanks to the power dampener. Domino weakly points to the power inhibitor around her neck. Logan grins. He announces their luck is about to change and destroys it. A moment later, Quentin’s power returns and he telekinetically takes their hunter apart.
Krakoa, the Healing Gardens:Sage urges the Healer to do whatever he can to save the one attacker left, as they have question. They both leave and somebody else secretly walks closer to the unconscious man. He presses his hand to the man’s nose and mouth asphyxiating him.
At the Krakoan Gate in Washington Square Park, Manhattan, Black Tom complains to Magneto that at every gate there are crowds and reporters gathering. Wanting to know if Xavier is dead. What would Tom have him do, Magneto asks as they return to Krakoa. Tomb blames himself for not properly defending the island. He’d like to send out a swarm of vines and strangle the lot of them, but he supposes Magneto prefers his fancy words and fancy ways. So, he’d better do something, before Black Tom does something!
Magneto steps through the gate to the crowd in Manhattan. Reporters ask if he can confirm that Xavier was assassinated and Cerebro destroyed. What does that mean for Krakoa and the mutant nation? Do the treaties still stand? It’s all right, Magneto begins.
He doesn’t need to say anything, comes another voice, as Charles Xavier walks through the Krakoan Gate. He can speak for himself, old friend.
A reporter asks how can they be sure it really is Xavier. Maybe he is a shapeshifter or an illusion. Is that question any more relevant than it was before? Xavier shoots back that, if this new geopolitical situation is going to work, they have to trust he will always be there for them.
Seoul:Quentin telepathically suppresses Domino’ pain and telekinetically give her back use of her limbs, but he admits he cannot access her memories. The pain and narcotics have made a mess of her brain. No #/&%, Domino replies. She is living a mess right now. She wishes she could tell them everything, but she can’t. She feels like she has gone through a blender. Everything’s a scramble. Logan calms her. He’s been there. She’ll find her way with calm and rest.
Dom recalls Xavier sent her to investigate shell companies with ties to anti-mutant politicians and business leaders. She can’t remember much, but she remembers a man with a peacock mask. Wolverine suggests they head back in to find more intel. Domino warns that isn’t a good idea. A moment later, there is an explosion inside. Lucky guess, she explains.
Later at the Pointe:Around a round table are gathered Magneto, Wolverine, Domino (wearing some healing plantmatter over her flayed areas), Kid Omega, Sage, Marvel Girl and Beast. Xavier stands some distance away, looking at the waterfall.
Jean asks Magneto what they told the journalists. Nothing, he replies. Nothing about the assassination or resurrection? she insists. Nothing, he repeats.
Wolverine asks why they are gathered here. To talk about nothing. They are there to talk about denial, Magneto replies. Deniable operations, Xavier clarifies. He was hoping they were beyond this, but their foes - whoever they are - are operating from the shadow, so they must respond in kind. He turns to Beast, Marvel Girl and Sage. They studied their enemy and determined they are trying to catch up with mutantkind, bioengineering themselves into weapons. He turns to the others. They chased them and spilled their blood like hunters. The left hand turns a page, the right hand makes a fist. That seems right to him. That feels like a force for good. “To me, my X-Force.”
Elsewhere, the man with the peacock mask states that Xavier is back and hunting for them. This is not the time to be quiet but to be loud. To funnel money into xenophobic gangs, churches, think tanks. And, of course, they will hunt mutants for their experiments. Every country has a shadow agency, Weapon X among them. Xavier made sure every one of them was found and disbanded. But, just as the mutants have come together, the shadows have gathered here. And where shadows gather, there is darkness. They are one and they are many. They are XENO!


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Blood Economics
Xavier’s Pharmaceutical Distribution Site, off the Eastern Seaboard:During a bad storm, men in black come from the ocean, infiltrate the site and take out the Jaimie Madrox dupes staffing the site.
On Krakoa, the Quiet Council is convened. The resurrected Professor X discusses the recent attack on them that caused a dozen deaths, his included. He is glad this happened because it strengthened their own unity, but questions regarding their vulnerability have arisen. He himself wants to answer these questions by telling a story of the gods:
Xavier’s narration:Everyone knows Hercules for his strength, But did they know he spent his early years in hiding? Living among mortals for fear of being killed by those who were jealous of him? Of course, he didn’t fit in on the earthly plane. And when his true nature was revealed to him, he hoped to become immortal and achieve divinity. So began the twelve labors… a gauntlet of adventures the demigod would have to survive. Probably this sounds familiar, but here is what they do not know: Hercules would have perished if not for his half-sister Athena. The goddess of wisdom. She scared away the Stymphalian Birds. She returned the Golden Apples of Hesperides. She saved Hercules from the madness and escorted him out of Hades. He had the muscle but she had the mind.
Marvel Girl, Beast and Sage are looking at the attacked pharmaceutical company. Jean telepathically shows them via her interview with Madrox prime what happened. Watching the psionic replication, Beast muses, the attackers are expertly efficient, same as the crew that attacked Krakoa and assassinated the professor. But not the same weapons. And their tactical gear is brand name. The assassins were outfitted with custom-manufactured tech. Sage asks if he thinks they are not the same group. Beast admits he doesn’t know, though he would prefer one threat to two, given that they have no new leads on the assault on the island.
The chopper flew in from a western heading. How far offshore are they? Beast asks. New York is sixteen miles away, but Sage suggests the chopper came from a ship. They planned for the storm to cover them, but they couldn’t have fared well in high winds and their scuba gear could only accommodate a short distance.
They know already that they stole a shipment of petals. Sage suggests they were really after data. They used the hub to access Krakoa’s central intelligence, and she sees transfers of large sums of money.
Later, at a Quiet Council meeting:A bored Shaw announces that Xavier gets shot. But he gets resurrected. Xavier gets robbed, but he’s a billionaire They’ll probably all veto. Ask Apocalypse to know for sure, but this hardly seems like the end of the world to him.
Apocalypse stonily replies that an assault on Xavier is an assault on all of them. Just as an assault on Sebastian Shaw is an assault on all of them. Shaw asks for his suggestion then. Send out a sandstorm and a thousand beetles to take their revenge? Storm stresses this is the Quiet Council and suggests Shaw shut up.
Apocalypse pronounces the humans are not worthy. When you let someone who is not worthy have a taste of power, they will gluttonously and poisonously seek out more.
Mr. Sinister cheerfully suggests they hunt them down and kill them. It’s as simple as that. No, it’s not! Marvel Girl declares. She saw Charles die! They can make jokes or deny it, but she knows for 24 hours they felt the same panic and grief she did.
She projects telepathic images of what they have learned since of the factory-made soldier. And there is a masked council - probably a little like this one - trying to undermine everything they have built. She warns them not to assume they are invulnerable.
Exodus deduces the enemy has their council and their soldiers. He assumes they are here to formalize the same. Who are their soldiers?
Charles begins that X-Force has had many iterations. Magneto adds this is a nation. So X-Force is not a team or a militia but a… Mystique interrupts: …a mutant CIA! How very gross of him.
Nightcrawler interjects that, if they are talking a mutant CIA, they have to talk about its moral compass. Mystique grins. If they are talking about a CIA, there is no moral compass except for nationalism. Bring on the blood and blackmail. Charles protests it is more complicated. Storm suggests they stop arguing semantics. The humans are after them, so they need to fight back.
Domino announces that, if Athena is their CIA, then Hercules is their Delta Force. So they’ve gathered their intelligence, now they need the arms!
So soon, Domino, Wolverine and Quentin pay Forge a visit at the armory. He hears Forge’s got some toys for them to play with, Logan challenges him. Forge retorts that, if they are looking for stuffed animals and wiffle balls, they came to the wrong place, but if they want to be outfitted with the very best in blades, bullets and bombs he’s got them covered.
Wolverine and Forge using his bionic hand press arms. Forge remarks that they should find it reassuring; his tech always wins. Logan feints, then threatens him with the claws of his left hand. Not always.
What are they up against? Forge asks. Heavy firepower, Domino replies. They treated her like a lab experiment, carving her up and she wants to return the favor. Forge is sorry that happened to her but assures her they will be sorrier. He demonstrates a gauntlet, a hybrid of Krakoan organics and his usual tech, a gun with renewable ammo that can also bet turned into a blade. It’s versatile - anything you want it to be. He demonstrates by having it turn into ropes that tie up Quentin, who orders Forge to let him go, calling him a lowly mechanic. Forge adds it’s neuro-responsive and hands the device to Domino. He wishes her good luck. Not that she needs it. He asks Quentin what he needs and gets a huffy reply that he already is the ultimate weapon and needs no accessories. Having lost interest, Forge turns away, leaving Quentin a bit insulted.
Wolverine looks at some fluid metal in a vat. That what he thinks it is? Punchbowl of Adamantium, Forge agrees. There for whenever they got to put him together. Wolverine has an idea but, before he can tell Forge, Sage orders X-Force to suit up and head to the gate hub. Sensors indicate another heist is underway.
The Pointe:Sage and Beast had examined all of Xavier’s businesses. Minutes ago, the surveillance went dark on a facility outside San Francisco. Beast introduces Greenspace, a clean energy startup that experiments with Krakoan tech. The staff are human allies, many of the Xavier scholars from Stanford. If they die, there is no coming back.
Wolverine, Domino and Kid Omega race for the Krakoan gate that is to take them to the heart of the facility which is currently under attack.
In the meantime in San Francisco, the Xeno agents fire upon the helpless staff members and use explosives. They press a button.
Krakoa:Domino is the last to enter the gate. She looks around and finds she was not transported and is still on Krakoa. A moment later, she realizes what this means.
On the other side: The detonation destroyed the gate and tore apart Wolverine and Quentin. Pleased, the attackers note the threat has been nullified. Time to empty the pockets of those so-called gods…


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[Assistant]
Necessary Force
Greenspace, a clean energy research facility.Silicon Valley, California:On the ground lie the upper halves of Wolverine and Kid Omega, who were cut apart when the Krakoan Gate they were walking though was destroyed. The facility was boobytrapped by mercs working for XENO.
On Krakoa, Sage desperately tries to reach Wolverine and Quentin via comm. Dying, Wolverine groans “Dom” and begs her to hurry.
On the Krakoan side, Domino sees the rest of the bodies on her side of the gate and asks him to hold on. She promises she will come and take them out.
She asks Sage for another way out. Sage informs her the closest gate will take her ten miles from her desired location. She suggests another means of transport. Domino asks for Gateway and Sage warns her he isn’t any easier to reach. Domino tells her to call Black Tom and let him handle it. Tom animates part of the island to inform Gateway, who is meditating on a mountain, of the situation. Gateway turns his back on him until Tom kicks him off the mountaintop, forcing Gateway to teleport.
Krakoa:Domino keeps on talking to Wolverine via the comm, asking whether he can hear her or not. She announces she’s been down on her luck lately. Does he know she was a few inches and seconds away from that gate cleaving her body in half? But her power has felt watered down lately.
She tries to drag Wolverine’s body and curses about his weight (thanks to the adamantium in his body). She continues that her luck seems lesser somehow. Like a rabbit foot with the fur off.
That moment, Forge appears, wearing an organic armor, and joins her. He heard they were down a few soldiers. His bioskeleton helps carry Wolverine.
In the meantime, elsewhere, the XENO soldiers have reached the top of the landing and begin collecting. Their leader warns them to be gentle with the organic tech. Anything Krakoan they are after. One of them muses that the way the muties came charging at them the moment they came here, means they were ready for them. Not ready enough, the other gloats. The first man insists that they need to hurry the hell up. The second man points out the mutants have no gate and they will be out in five minutes, so…
Suddenly he is impaled from behind by claws -- courtesy of Wolverine’s upper body. The first man fires his entire ammo at him, until their leader orders him to stop. He is dead. The man reminds her that’s what she said before. He’s got to be dead!
That moment, Gateway teleports in Forge and Domino, who snarls they can kill them again and again, but the mutants will keep coming back to kill them more!
Beast and Sage watch the scene from Krakoa. Beast reminds the team of the chopper overhead. He orders them to neutralize the threat but remember the laws of the Quiet Council. Official X-Force missions may be exempt, but they can’t question corpses. They need enemy intelligence.
Domino runs towards their Forge and asks Forge if the mitten he made her is neuro-responsive. He tells her it will be anything she wants it to be. Domino concentrates and her thoughts shape it into a shield to deflect the bullets fired at her. When the men try to evacuate to the chopper, she reshapes the glove into vines to entangle them, while Forge goes looking for the rest of Wolverine’s body.
Domino captures several men and begins to work out her anger over her torture on them, somewhat to Beast’s concern. He reminds her they need someone alive.
Forge, in the meantime, has found Wolverine’s upper part. He could make a short joke, he observes. Call him half-pint maybe, but he’s too damn nice. He slams the two body halves together and tells him to heal.
In the chopper, the pilot tries to reach his comrades over comm but no one replies. Suddenly, Gateway sits in his cockpit, smiling evilly. A moment later, the chopper crashes and Gateway is elsewhere.
Wolverine asks Forge to let him down so he can fight, but gets ignored as Forge flies them upward.
Domino tells the mercs’ leader that, before she dies, she wants her to see the hurt in her face and swallow her pain. Then she shoots her.
The other man drops his weapon, gets down on his knees and surrenders. Beast calls Domino and urges her to let him live. They need him alive! Domino walks towards the man, organic claws from her glove unsheathed. She announces this guy isn’t human. He is a lab-built nothing, a smear of DNA. Doesn’t matter if he dies because he knows nothing.
The man panics and shouts that’s not true. His name is Bill. He lives in a beachside condo and has a rescue dog named Rufus who is waiting for him. He numerates his likes and dislikes and promises he is as real as she is. He doesn’t know what happened to her but he swears he has nothing to do with it. He’s done plenty of bad things but not that!
Sunset Cliffs, Krakoa:Later:Domino is sitting on the cliffs. A healed Logan dressed in a Hawaiian shirt joins her and asks how she is holding up. She returns the question. Feels like a piece of &/(+, but he will be all right with time. What about the wounds up here? She points at his head. Those don’t heal quite as good, he admits. Looking at his bottle, he adds that whiskey helps numb what needs numbing. She takes the bottle and asks about Quentin. He’s baking in the oven right now, is the reply, but will be back in no time. He suggests they enjoy the quiet while they can.
In the meantime, the captured merc Bill pleads if he can call his neighbor, so someone feeds his dog Rufus. Unimpressed, Beast tears back his head, reminding him that he killed and maimed people with no qualm, and now he is worried about a dog? He reiterates the points made, Bill’s claim that they were doing this for the money, without any political agenda. Beast states it hard to believe that any attack on the mutant nation right now is not political. Why not? Bill retorts, they are the one percent! They are not at the bottom anymore, they are at the top! The top get targeted. Get used to it!
Beast asks Marvel Girl to join them. She reads the mind of their prisoner. He is not lying, she announces, but not telling the whole truth either. They were transferring funds, but they were also selling what they stole. The petals. the organic batteries. She demands the name of the buyer. Bill groans in pain and admits he doesn’t know his name, but he had a peacock tattoo…


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Intelligence
Nighttime, the jungle of Terra Verde:Making their way through the forest are Domino, Marvel Girl and Kid Omega, led by Wolverine.
Via comm, they are connected with Beast and Sage, who informs them that they should arrive at the target another klick northwest. Wolverine sniffs and disagrees. The target’s on them. Sage warns them to proceed with caution, and the mission never happened, so don’t leave behind witnesses!
The fight begins.
Sitting next to Sage, Beast silently muses that X-Force is a dark orchestra. Some of them are in the spotlight of the melody like Quentin Quire and his psychic weapons or Domino, while others harmonize in the background, like Sage. Some serve a necessary function by mindlessly beating drums and crashing cymbals, like Wolverine, and there are those as versatile as a cello, able to play melody or harmony, like Jean Grey. And he is their conductor. Some of his… musicians would deny it, but he considers it a fact. He is the mind. He is the conscience. He unifies them, shapes their missions, interprets their needs and controls their pacing. He is in charge of interpreting all data for Krakoa. That means he controls all information. And if that information is damaging to mutantkind, he arranges the clean-up…
Yesterday:The Presidential Palace in Terra Verde:A very special guest is welcomed. Professor X (accompanied by Black Tom Cassidy) visits for the signing of a treaty to acknowledge Krakoa between Terra Verde and Krakoa. President Manuel Cocom hopes Xavier sympathizes with the delay in signing the treaty. They are a proud country. Shaking his hand, Xavier assures him there is humility in joining them but no shame. The president replies that many of his countrymen would disagree. His son puts his arm on his shoulder and tells him it’s time.
Black Tom grimly tells Xavier he doesn’t trust matters. He’s got the creeping flesh. Xavier is certain everything will be fine. But Black Tom is single-minded on not letting anything happen to Xavier again. His job may be defending Krakoa, but there is no Krakoa without Xavier.
The president begins his speech to his citizens. He promised them change. He admits this is not the change he was thinking of, but he is doing this for the greater good of Terra Verde.
He is interrupted as tentacles grab him coming from a young man in the audience. Grimly, he states there will be no deal. The mutants aren’t in charge, and neither is he. Black Tom orders Xavier to get down.
The man has turned into a green monster, dragging the president toward him. He changes his hand into a knife. The president asks what he is. The future of Terra Verde, is the reply. Two more members of the audience change shape. Black Tom gets in front of Xavier, ready to fight them to the death, if necessary.
Krakoa, later:The Pointe:Beast asks what happened then. Black Tom replies that they pissed off, as he told them to. Beast summarizes that President Cocom suffered only mild injuries and Xavier none. Black Tom believes he scared them away. Sage interrupts them: President Cocom has announced there will be no treaty with Krakoa.
Beast asks her to cross-reference all video footage from the ceremony. He muses that Cocom has faced many assassination attempts since taking office. Something makes this one different. Tom insists that he was the difference.
Sage quickly hacks several phones and finds out that the goal of the attack was abducting Cocom’s son…
Terra Verde:The presidential residence, the east wing:Guard stand outside the president’s suite. Inside, a doctor stitches Cocom’s injuries. The doctor tells him to rest and opens the door to find Beast standing outside, having taken out the guards. He hits the doctor who falls unconscious. The president cries for help and runs toward the balcony, but Marvel Girl comes flying in from there. She assures him they are here to help.
Beast grabs Cocom, who shouts that they will kill his son if he is seen talking to them. They won’t talk, Jean replies and enters his mind. She informs Beast that the kidnappers are telefloronic scientists. They’ve been infected by their work and are no longer themselves.  President Cocom believes they’ve been driven mad, taken over by a hostile botanical intelligence. It’s the 21st century equivalent of developing an atomic weapon, even as your scientists are dying of nuclear poisoning.
Marvel Girl asks what Beast is thinking. He tells her they strike tonight. The situation is more perilous than he had originally realizes. He asks her to wipe the memories of everyone, while he gathers the field team. But not Cocom? Jean asks. As Beast jumps outside, he tells he wants him to remember, so he will be in their debt…
Now:On Krakoa, Beast muses that the telefloronics are not merely the dark mirror to some of their Krakoan tech. He believes the infected hosts are the organic equivalent of an Omega Sentinel. Which would in theory give way to another version of the omega cycle. Which could, in theory, lead to the extinction of mutantkind…
On Terra Verde, Domino shoots one of the creatures with her organic gun. Marvel Girl telekinetically keeps another one off her back. Kid Omega takes out even more.
With the fight over, the others move on, but Beast telepathically tells Jean to wait and reminds her not to leave any witnesses behind. The telefloronics are capable of healing their hosts. What happened to “kill no human?” she retorts angrily. He calls it a worthless moral quandary. There is a point when a cyborg becomes more robot than human, yes? It’s called an omega sentinel.
One telefloronic begins to recover as they talk.
Beast continues that these creatures are at the same dangerous juncture. He begins to describe what will happen should they replicate.
Jean telekinetically takes the creature apart. Beast thanks her and she snaps at him not to *+&% patronize her! She joins the others, who have reached a pyramid-like structure at the top of which stands the kidnapping victim, Hadwin Cocom. When Jean reaches him, he also turns into one of the telefloronics.
Later:Hadwin is tied to a table. Beast summarizes to himself that Hadwin had staged his own abduction to force his father’s hand. He believed Terra Verde was almost there. They had almost perfected the coding of the telefloronics. And, when they did, their country would go from the middle of nowhere to the center of everything. When humans realized they not only had an alternative to Krakoa but also a way to weaponize their bodies, they would no longer recognize mutant sovereignty.
Beast believes Hadwin was right, which is why he had his lab destroyed and his fellow revolutionaries burnt to ashes. Keeping what he is doing from the rest of the team, he had offered to interrogate Hadwin and neutralize the telefloronics, before returning him to Terra Verde. He considers this not a lie but an omission of a larger truth. He has studied the telefloronic source code and reprogrammed cells to recognize dendrites and axons as an infection. They begin to work on Hadwin as they basically eat his mind. Beast decides no one will know what he has done or question Hadwin’s condition.
This may be cruel but wouldn’t it also be cruel to inform President Cocom that his son is a traitor or doom Terra Verde’s economy? Returning Hadwin to his father, feebleminded but alive, has assured that President Cocom will blame the nationalists and be grateful to mutants. He will sign the treaty, thereby giving his people access to Krakoan medicine and saving millions.
He is unaware that, alone in his room, Hadwin turns back into his telefloronic form and secretly leaves his room.


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X of Swords – chapter 4
“Killing is a truth. A sword is a piece of art. And killing an enemy with a sword is the truest art.But every time you walk away the victor, your sword should feel heavier with the weight of a lost soul. This is the burden of the sharpest steel.”- Silver Samurai
Flashback:Japan:In his search for the swordsmith Muramasa, Wolverine has reached a yomi temple that celebrates the underworld. But it’s become something more than a place of prayer. It’s become a marriage of two worlds. A gateway to hell. He had spent the last 24 hours talking to every last friend and enemy in Japan. He didn’t believe what they’d told him - not until he saw it himself.
As he stands above the corpse in a pentagram, he realizes it is true. He had always known Muramasa as a madman of honor. What made him serve the dark? How has he become the swordsmith and servant and sacrifice of… the Hand!
Wolverine smells something and unsheathes his claws. As if on cue, Hand ninjas surround him. Wolverine attacks them. When he tears down one mask, he sees a demonic corpse-like visage beneath and again he wonders what Muramasa got himself mixed up in. Wolverine fights his way down to hell and falls after them.
Now:Muramasa notes Logan is disappointed in him. But the Hand threatened to destroy his ancestral village if he didn’t help them build their arsenal. He helped them for the same reason Logan fights for Krakoa. To protect the home they love. He didn’t know that, once he’d finished their armory above, they would require his services below…
The Hand once worshipped the Beast from the distance of a shrine and a prayer. Now they are one. Forged into a new kind of weapon. Did he know that tamashagane is the metal used by Japanese swordsmiths?
Wolverine lands in a lava pit. Muramasa stands in front of it working his forge. Wolverine, reduced to a skeleton, drags himself ashore.
Muramasa continues explaining how he produces his swords and that the process requires unbearable heat. There is no better forge than hell, because there is no greater blast furnace than hell.
Demons attack Wolverine.
Muramasa finishes hammering the blade and muses that he can at least take comfort in the knowledge there will never be a better blade. He has long been considered the greatest swordsmith in the world, but now he is the greats swordsmith in all the worlds. He takes up the still glowing blade. He must make haste, it is almost time for the ceremony.
Wolverine is thrown into a cell. Left to himself he slowly begins to heal. There is someone else in the cell though. He is certainly glad they found each other, Solem observes, even if the accommodations are somewhat substandard. He is curious about him, especially his ability to regenerate. Is he unkillable then? The two of them were clearly meant for each other… as best friends or worst enemies…
Solem offers that, while Wolverine heals, he will tell him how he got here. Like everything about him it is fascinating…
Solem’s narration:His quest began on the Blind Island off the coast of Arakko. He was charged with seeking out the Muramasa Blade, a name that meant nothing to him, so he traveled to the Oracle of Arakko. The blind old woman warned him there would be a cost. He replied that she was banished thanks to her sister Morta zang. He presented a head and asked if her head would suffice as payment.
The old seer cackled displaying a tongue with an eye in it. Finally, she answered that Muramasa was dead but there was still a way to find him. She pointed to his blade, the Hellblade. Anyone bit by it would go straight to hell. There he would find Muramasa.
Solem mused his ego was far too big to consider suicide. She told him the sword is a key to hell. He put the sword into the wall and a doorway appeared. The Oracle warned him that there he would find a mutant made of metal who would serve as his guide to Muramasa.
Now:So here they are, Solem finishes his story. So take him to his sword, little man.
Wolverine gasps, finally healed. Solem asks what he has to say, now that he has his tongue. He’d say “go to hell,” is the pithy reply, but they are already there. Logan gets up, unsheathes his claws and replies Solem ain’t the only one hunting for a Muramasa blade. Mockingly, Solem asks if the unkillable champion of Krakoa will face the unbeatable champion of Arakko. He loves the idea, even if he dislikes the terms of engagement.
Logan tries to slice through the bars, to no avail. Forged with hellfire, Solem explains. Logan suggests he just kill Solem now. He slices him… to no avail. Adamatium enforced, Solem smirks. His skin? How is that possible? Wolverine wonders. Think of it like a microfibrous version of chainmail. He can touch it if he likes.
To make matters worse, Solem actually managed to pilfer the cell key. Shall they be on their way then? Muramasa is waiting.
They leave the cell and make their way to the hellforge. Wolverine senses Muramasa isn’t far. Solem summarizes that the Hand has enslaved Muramasa. Logan explains the Hand have always worshipped the Beast. But they have leveled up. He ripped the mask off one ninja. He looked less like a man and more like a skull with two candles inside. Possessed. The lines are dissolving everywhere then, Solem muses. Krakoa is Arakko and Arakko is Krakoa. The Hand is the Beast and the Beast is the Hand. Marriage is in the air…
They look down where, indeed, flanked by a demonic crowd, a couple stands in front of the throne of the Beast. It is the union of the Beast’s red left hand and right hand.
The Beast orders the presentation of the swords and Muramasa brings two blades. He offers them to the couple, telling them he put his very soul into them.
Wolverine realizes that, with two Muramasa swords, he and Solem don’t have to kill each other for the blade. Way ahead of him, Solem has already taken out two guards, so that he and Wolverine can wear their uniforms as disguise.
As the Beast talks about the happy union of his daughter and the groom, Solem announces he has something for the happy couple. He throws his sword into the groom’s face and then takes his blade. The bride / widow attacks and actually manages to cut the surprised Solem. Wolverine holds her back and explains that Muramasa blades can cut through Adamantium.
The Beast grabs Wolverine, while Solem cuts down the bride and takes the second blade. He muses that he could leave Wolverine to his fate but he is feeling generous, seeing as how Wolverine helped him get so far. And so, he does.
Why would he help him? Wolverine demands. He’s a good, fair, generous person, is the cheerful reply. So, wanna buy a blade? What does he want for it? Wolverine asks through clenched teeth.
Sometime later, Wolverine returns to Krakoa with his Muramasa sword. He joins Magik in the Corvuls glade, waiting for the rest of the sword fighters and ruminating that this sword came with a price. Only time will tell if it was worth it…


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X of Swords – chapter 14
The floating gardens of Roma Regina:Magik is displeased when she is paired in a battle with giant rhyming alligator Pogg ur-Pogg again. Worse, Saturnyne demands that they battle unarmed.
Pogg-ur-Pogg grabs Illyana, ready to swallow her whole. She announces she has learned something about him since last they fought. He isn’t interested and swallows her whole. But suddenly he begins to feel sickly and finally vomits her back up, as well as a small being Magik is holding. Undeterred, she announces she learned the word “pogg” means sword in Arakki. His alligator pyjamas are one big sword. A moment later she kicks his ass.Arakko 5 – Krakoa 3
The contest continues with battles deadly… and rather silly.Captain Avalon, Cable and War are being tortured.Arakko gets the point.Both sides have to roll giant rock balls up a hill. Magik loses hers. Another point for Arakko.
A battle against undersea monsters goes to Arakko again.
A contest on who can consume the most disgusting food – for once Krakoa wins (presumably thanks to Cable).
A dance-off between both sides. While Cypher displays a lot of enthusiasm, Wolverine refuses to take part. Another point for Arakko.
A search in an Escher-style labyrinth again goes to Arakko.
Magik and Gorgon gather a point for Krakoa by solving a puzzle.
Despite Storm’s style, Wolverine messes up a fashion show – yet another point for Arakko.
Krakoa loses yet another point when Magik and Cable try to figure out a map to find something.Arakko 12 Krakoa 5
Captain Avalon walks through the Crooked Market holding a flower in his hand. From the fog steps Saturnyne. She knows he is sad, but part of him must be pleased, Captain Britain… He snaps at her not to call him that. She points out the title he coveted is now his. He walks away. She is sure he will come around eventually. And if sympathy doesn’t work, fury will. Several Furies stand behind her.
Soon, Captain Avalon and Redroot are ready for their contest: a race through the Crooked Market. Its master Mad Jim Jaspers tells them they can find anything in the Crooked Market if they look hard enough – even a finishing line. He fires the start gun and they run, or more to the point Captain Avalon runs; Redroot can only move slowly.
Cap turns back to gloat, not noticing the Furies in front of him until they attack him. He figures Saturnyne sent them against him as he struggles. Redroot walks past them and gloats in turn. She assures him she is rooting for him.
Anger gives Cap enough strength to free himself momentarily and he shouts for Saturnyne, claiming he knows she rigged this and every contest.
Redroot is distracted and doesn’t notice that her movement pushes a small glass ornament off a stall and it shatters. She walks on. Jaspers makes a note of the damage remarking ominously that everything in the Crooked Market has a cost.
Still struggling against the Furies Brian rages on that Saturnyne broke Betsy into a thousand pieces. He’ll break anything she throws his way! The Furies overwhelm him and Redroot reaches the finishing line. Saturnyne congratulates her. Redroot is surprised. She has never won anything before.Arakko 13 – Krakoa 5
Jaspers intervenes, announcing there is the matter of her debt. He informs her she shattered a rare crystal idol of Bombu. Crafted from the salt of an Oobagonian princess’ tears. Embarrassed, she asks how much it cost. It was priceless, Jaspers replies with a grin.
A Fury blasts Captain Avalon. Saturnyne orders them gone. It’s over then? he asks. The race is, she agrees, but he still has a challenge ahead of him. Poor Redroot is discovering now that this realm has a cost.
As she speaks, Japers miniaturizes Redroot and captures her in a glass orb like the one she broke.
Saturnyne continues that the damage Brian alone caused is incalculable. He’ll be thrown in Jaspers’ debtor’s oubliette. Unless… She makes a show of thinking hard. Unless what? He asks impatiently. Unless he asks for her help, she smirks and touches his cheek.
In Roma, Regina Roma challenges Magik to solve a riddle. She is to spell her answer: “A white rabbit pulled out of a black top hat and a spell cast by a wizard and the very lifeforce of Saturnyne. What am I?” That’s an easy one, Illyana grins. Magic, spelled with k. Incorrect, she is told.Arakko 14 – Krakoa 5
Another contest. In the dark, Wolverine and the White Sword face themselves in a mirror each. They will observe the faces of all they have killed. The first one to look away loses. After some time, Wolverine begins to cry silently… and loses.Arakko: 15 – Krakoa: 5
Another realm where Magik, Wolverine and Gorgon are supposed to resist the sirens. Before Saturnyne can even finish her explanation of the rules, Gorgon runs towards the sirens.Arakko: 16 – Krakoa: 5
Merlyn’s realm. War and Captain Avalon: the one wins who kills a cute black kitten first. Brian tries to keep War from doing it but apparently in vain, as soon it’s:Arakko: 17 – Krakoa: 5
Sevalith: Storm lies on the ground, still suffering from the aftereffects of Blightswill. Death reminds her she asked him to dance once. Now it is his turn. He reaches out his hand. Death is asking her to dance. She groans something is wrong with her. As he helps her up he tells her she is nervous, and how could she not be in a place as Sevaltih?
Storm is disgusted by the smell of the dead. The undead, Death corrects her. The vampires of Sevalith are the audience, Saturnyne sits on a throne behind them.
Storm realizes that, due to the Blightswill, she can’t fight. She can barely stand. Death kisses her hand and tells her she must. Unless she forfeits. No *&%$ way! is the reply. Then the dance begins, he announces and aims at her with his sword. Storm dodges the blow and kicks him in the side. As she draws Skybreaker, she feels more than poisoned. She feels vacant. Her powers are gone. She barely blocks his blow with her sword.
Death tells her that, as sick as she is, Death will be welcome kiss. Storm attacks, announcing it’s not her powers that make her powerful… and Skybreaker shatters his blade to bits.
Annoyed, Death decides this has gone on long enough. He is tired of dancing. Now look upon the last face that all life sees, he orders. He takes off his Anubis-shaped helmet to reveal his deadly face. Storm looks away and holds Skybreaker in front of her face, making him see his mirror image, an effect that clearly hurts him.
She is tired of dancing too, Storm announces. She then runs at him with covered eyes and impales him with Skybreaker. She kicks him down, and immediately the vampires of Sevalith rush into the arena to tear him apart. Storm walks away and tells them to have a taste.
“One day whatever you won will belong to someone else. Whatever you build will be broken. Whatever you love will die. So today you might as well lie and screw and steal and murder and scream with abandon, don’t you think? Because tomorrow knows no mercy.”- Solem


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The Secret Garden
Mykines:7:40 PMGuests are arriving at the Hellfire Gala and X-Force is in charge of security. Kid Omega is the guard outside. When Sage asks him via comm to report, he informs her he’s getting some hot, delicious, juicy gossip. Sage reminds him they assured their guests that psychic scans would be used sparingly. She warns him not to risk the very purpose of the Hellfire Gala, to engender trust and broker peace and agreements between Krakoa and other nations.
He pouts she is no fun but, a moment later he shouts, “not another step” and telekinetically prepares to stop Iron Man, who is flying in under his own power instead of using a Krakoan gate. Nor does he wear a Krakoan flower, Quentin protests, noting that the flower has a unique I.D. Stark interrupts that he knows what it does and that’s why he is not wearing it. He opens his faceplate and tells Quentin to get a good look. It’s the outside of this beautiful head that he’ll be staring at tonight. He knows what he is thinking: “Where did Iron Manan get those psi-dampeners?” Quentin icily insists on a full mental pat-down. Glaring at him over his sunglasses, Stark replies he knows Quentin fancies himself some kind of genius. But, compared to Stark, he hasn’t made it out of elementary school. So don’t think for a second, he is taking orders from him.
Quentin checks and announces the telepathic dampeners built into his sunglasses are a cut above what he used against Red Skull. Good to see he is learning. Now if he will kindly remove them, Tony? That’s Mr. Stark to him, Iron Man shoots back. And only he knows what’s inside this brain: A Fort Knox worth of intel that Quentin is not going to get his sticky fingers on. Doesn’t he have other guests to worry about? Three dozen people walked past in the time he has been obsessing over him. He’s only occupying one percent of his mind, Quentin scoffs.
Sage orders him to let Stark go. They are both the same kind of difficult. Beast joins her at her station and asks who is being difficult. Who does he think? Say no more, Beast chuckles. How are they doing otherwise? Working her screens, she replies, “so far so good.”
She contacts Wolverine to request an update from the shoreside perimeter. He is there with some Shi’ar who have brought a batch of logic diamonds Emma asked for. Her brother Christian is delivering them to the cradles on Krakoa by way of the Marauder.
Sage asks him to remain a presence shoreside. That’s their greatest vulnerability. He’s happy to stay away from the fake smiles and perfume bombs, but he sure misses the open bar. Domino joins the conversation and suggests they all hoist a few at the Green Lagoon when they wrap.
She addresses Sage: She has a contingent of ambassadors on the main level. She has questioned them because they were acting funny.
The ambassadors she is referring to are from Terra Verde. They grin empty-eyed, not doing anything. Beast interrupts the communication and tells Domino not to worry about them. They are standing by. Awaiting instructions. Given what happened there, Terra Verde hardly seems like a diplomatic model, Domino protests. Beast reminds her bluntly that she is a field agent. He’ll take care of intelligence. Trust him, he knows exactly what he is doing.
Domino steps away and sarcastically thanks him for the reminder of her place in the X-Force hierarchy. She reminds him in turn he should not forget they are lucky to have her or he might get hurt.
As Beast leaves, Sage informs Domino that, when her voice dropped several octaves, she switched her to a private channel. He has left, so she may continue insulting him. Domino asks how she is doing. Sage replies, all dressed up and no place to go. Any chance she can sneak away? Dom suggests. Maybe for the fireworks? It’s fine, Sage replies. This is what she does. She sits. She sits for a living. She’s not missing anything, Domino blatantly lies as she looks down at the hosts and guests mingling and enjoying themselves.
Later, 8:35 pm:Beast mingles and smoothly introduces the Terra Verdans to the Saudi delegation to convince them of the benefits of entering a treaty with Krakoa. From across the room, Xavier telepathically asks him what he is doing. Beast reminds him he didn’t want to know and he hasn’t let him down yet, has he? Not yet, Xavier admits. Emma Frost has also become curious.
Beast admits to himself that he made a mistake with Terra Verde, but the mistake was corrected. When Jean, Black Tom and Sage combined their powers, they wrested control of the telefloronics that had taken over the Terra Verde population. Terra Verde is now flourishing. There is no crime, poverty or hunger. Krakoa takes care of them. Some may call it a banana republic. He calls it a docile garden… and they are doing some serious landscaping.
He is unaware that the Terra Verde ambassadors infect others they touch with telefloronics.
While mingling at the party, Beast asks Sage via comm how they are doing. He is unaware that Emma Frost is nearby. Sage replies that the garden is growing, but she thought the plan was to only bug nations that border Terra Verde. That was the plan, yes, Beast agrees, but they are not doing anything wrong; their actions are ultimately altruistic.
Emma, who was clearly eavesdropping, walks off in a huff.
Beast figures if his actions were done by God instead of a mutant, everybody would be grateful.
9:31 pm:Outside, on the beach:Wolverine smells something and sees movement in the water. He waits, claws unsheathed. Sage asks if she should send Domino as back-up.
You gotta be kidding him! Wolverine swears when he sees the intruder is Deadpool, equipped with a life ring, swimmies and a harpoon. He greets Logan with “hi, sweetie.” He heard they made the mistake of not inviting him. Logan shouts he can’t be here and tries to attack, but Deadpool shoots him with a web gun while announcing that hurts his feelings. Is he really this stupid? Wolverine wonders. Deadpool points out he is a mutant. He is no mutant! Logan shoots back. An honorary mutant then, Deadpool insists. Which means, he is allowed to get *&%§faced at mutant parties. He makes for the party.
Logan frees himself and runs after him. This is a diplomatic summit not a party! he shouts and tackles him, which Deadpool consider erotic. He starts beating Wolverine, while continuing the sexual innuendo.
When Sage fails to raise Wolverine over comm, she sends Domino to him. That moment, Emma appears behind Sage, asking her if something is wrong.
En route, Domino suggests that Sage get Kid Omega on stand-by.
Wolverine hits Deadpool while warning him off. Does he know what’s awesome about two guys with healing factor fighting? Deadpool asks… as he draws his weapon and shoots Wolverine in the face. No holds barred.
Deadpool wants to run toward the party but Domino lands on him. She fires at him with her organic glove and warns him not to &%$§ with X-Force then turns to Logan and asks if he is okay. Ain’t he always? he replies.
Elsewhere, Sage is taken aback at Emma’s presence. Emma felt it was unfair she was missing on all the fun and hands her a glass of champagne. They toast. To her, Emma announces, and cheers to their colonial rule on Terra Verde. Sage spits out her champagne. Emma tells her it is not her fault, but she really should know better. This jeopardizes more than one night - it puts their entire nation at risk. If anybody learns what they’ve done, they’d be done. She orders for Sage to arrange to have the ambassadors escorted off the island immediately and without incident. And decommission her fungal spy network.
Sage gets to work but warns Emma this is impossible. Is she trying to negotiate? Emma asks. It’s Beast who will answer to the Quiet Council. Sage replies her floronic coding has been corrupted. They’ve been hacked.
In a washroom, one ambassador washes his hands, then turns into a telefloronic monster.