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The Soulsword Trilogy - part 1: Bend Sinister
Limbo, a nether-realm full of dark and deadly magicks that one cannot even begin to dream of. It is here, where the Soulsword hangs sheathed, its live steel seething with white fire. Once upon a time, it was bonded to a warrior named Illyana Rasputin, she called herself Magik and drew the sword often. Together they dealt pain and loved it. But Illyana is gone now, the blade bonded to another, another who has abandoned it. But the Soulsword always has a way of drawing attention to itself…
Muir Island, the Northwest tip of Scotland, this island is home to the British Super Hero group known as Excalibur, and Moira MacTaggert, world-renowned and respected scientist who owns the island and its research center. It has seen many different things in its time – takeovers, possessions and great battles. Nothing changes in that respect, as another fateful adventure is about to occur…
Moira MacTaggert and Nightcrawler, Excalibur’s leader make their way onto the runway strip, where Bishop of the X-Men has arrived on the transonic jet, the Blackbird, with supplies and equipment vital to the Legacy Virus experiments. Bishop tells Moira that he is privileged to serve her and the Professor in their work on the Legacy virus, but that he fails to see why a commercial courier service – or even the mail, he adds – could not bring the supplies here, he backs that up by saying his absence is not good for security. Bluntly as usual, Moira tells Bishop that she cannot rely on the Royal Mail service as they only come here once a month. Opening a crate, Moira discovers the sensor array recordings that Charles was telling her about.
On a hill, away from the Research Center, Kitty Pryde, also known as Shadowcat, just watches the world go by. She only has a day like this a few times a year, these days she calls them her “outsider moods”. Kitty had fourteen normal years before she joined the X-Men. These days return to make her see life from the ordinary person’s point of view. Kitty looks down at Douglock, Excalibur’s newest member. Kitty knows what a Douglock is – a fusion of the Techno-Organic alien Warlock, and the memories of the deceased mutant Doug Ramsey, her friend. As Douglock reaches out to touch a small bird, it flies away, and Kitty thinks to herself that sometimes he just looks like a dead boy filled with wires.
Nightcrawler teleports over to Kitty, and for once he actually startles her. Kurt Wagner asks her what is wrong, as he normally doesn’t make her jump like that. Kitty blushes at the man who is now probably her best friend and tells him she was ‘miles away, you know?’ Kurt asks her if she is having one of her “outsider days” and Kitty gets all defensive, asking Kurt who told him about that. Nightcrawler tells Shadowcat that Charles Xavier once told him, adding that he thinks Charles knows more about them all than they would care to known.
Kurt points over at Meggan, the powerful elemental and Britannic, the former Captain Britain, who are enjoying a picnic atop the Research Center’s roof. Kurt reminds Kitty that it is not hard for an “ordinary” person to look at the X-Men as freaks and monsters, but looking at Meggan and Brian, all anyone is going to see is two people in love. Kurt suggests that perhaps being an X-Man means valuing life all the more.
Kurt smiles and tells Kitty that the lecture is over, and she should cheer up, or they'll kill her! Katherine smiles and tells Kurt that he probably is her best friend, before he asks her if there was every any doubt, he tells her she has mail, and teleports Kitty back to the runway where Bishop waits.
Kitty is surprised that she got some mail, and Kurt tells her she has lots of mail. Bishop proclaims that Jubilee informed him she was going to “punch my lights out” if he failed to deliver these. In his usual monotonous voice, Bishop tells the two former X-Men that he has considered shooting Jubilee if she roller-blades past his quarters at night again. He asks Kurt what he thinks, and Kurt coughs, before Bishop tells him that was a joke. ‘Oh’ says Kurt. Bishop tells him he has been practicing. ‘Oh’ Kurt says again. Suddenly, Kitty, who had been opening some of her boxes, leaps up crying ‘New clothes!’ Kurt starts to laugh, as Bishop gets annoyed he flew halfway across the world to deliver “millinery” before asking Kurt what he is laughing at.
On another side of the world, Cairo, Egypt to be precise, where Amanda Sefton, Excalibur member known as Daytripper, is on layover between stewardessing flights. She pays the taxi driver and goes for a walk. Amanda only carries loose change in Cairo, as she knows that the local shopkeepers go crazy if a woman tries to pay for anything. A butch tourist policeman locks onto Amanda like a missile system as soon as she walks down the street. They look awful, and Amanda has seen them in action, for that reason she does not go near any beggars while there is a tourist cop in sight, as they protect tourists very well. A beggar once approached Amanda and in an instant the cop was there, and the beggar was punched across the street.
Though it kills her to do so, Amanda ignores the broken old woman huddled in the shady alley…until…’Greetings, daughter!’ Amanda twirls around at the sound of the familiar crackly voice – it is Margali! Amanda’s mother removes the cowl from her face and tells her daughter that the Winding Way, as a system of mystical empowerment has much to recommend it – save for that with each increase in ability, there follows a time of lowliness and weakness. Margali tells her daughter that she has no idea how irritating it is, before Amanda, or Jimaine, as Margali prefers to call her, sits down by her mother.
Margali proclaims that the Winding Way is supposed to teach humility, but that she has yet to find poverty very character building. Amanda tells her mother to stop talking about the Winding Way, and that it is just so good to see her again. ‘What a ridiculous coincidence’ Amanda smirks. Margali tells Amanda that coincidence is the fabric of magic, and that Amanda and her fellow “90’s sorceresses” forget that all too easily. ‘Incidentaly’ the aged sorceress adds ‘Might you do something about the thing with the gun that approaches?’
As the tourist police officer rushes towards Amanda and her mother, Amanda smiles and waves her hand telling her mother she knows this “Winding Way” stuff is all just an excuse for laziness. Margali asks Amanda where she is teleporting the policeman to and tells her that the pyramids over the way have very sharp tips. Amanda stands up and turning away from her mother, she suggests that perhaps it was not a coincidence that they met, maybe she was supposed to find her mother here? Amanda asks Margali what she wants, and turning back to face her, she gets her answer.
Margali tells Daytripper that there is a magician named Gravemoss, who stands ahead of her on the Winding Way, but he is deviant, a monster of unbelievable sickness who is in a time of empowerment. Amanda frowns as Margali goes on about the Winding Way, she knows it will one day be her turn to walk it too, but until then, Amanda wants to keep out of it as much as possible. Margali announces that Gravemoss is warping the Winding Way and resisting the next turn on the path, long enough to steal a weapon that will allow him to kill everyone who is ahead of him! By doing that, Gravemoss will be able to progress through the path to power faster than any magician in history.
Margali tells Amanda that the weapon is called the Soulsword, and that even its owner could not stop a creature like Gravemoss. The Sorceress Supreme adds that the Soulsword itself is a threat to the holder, and tells Amanda that she needs to protect the holder from both the Sword and Gravemoss, for Margali is useless….
Back on Muir Island, Meggan screams as thorns protrude from her body, distorting her appearance. Brian asks Moira what is wrong with Meggan, and in her usual dry tone, Moira asks him if she looks like a bloody mind reader. Talking to Meggan as she gets a needle ready, Moira sticks the needle into Meggan’s arm and half-joking, half-serious she says that they can all applaud her own foresight for stocking adamantium tipped syringes for super tough skins.
Meggan is unconscious now, and Moira tells Brian they need to get her out of the kitchen and into the lab before the sedative wears off, so they can find what caused the sudden convulsive attack. She adds that she is praying it is not the Legacy Virus. Kitty suddenly walks through the kitchen, carrying a full-length mirror. Moira tells Kitty that Meggan has had some kind of attack and asks her if she can take her down to the lab. Kitty does not even look at Moira and walks right past her, phasing into the next room. Moira frowns and tells Britannic that she may as well have been talking to the doorpost.
Moira and Brian leave the kitchen to the lab, taking the shapeshifting elemental with them. Meggan is tapped into nature and physically reacts to her surroundings. Something sick and poisonous hangs over Muir Island.
Meanwhile, in Kitty Pryde’s personal quarters, Kitty reads a letter from Jubilee attached to one of the boxes of clothes, when Jubilee mentions that the clothes should be her style – sensible – Kitty calls her a cow. Kitty rummages through the boxes and after taking a claw to some of the clothes, Kitty dresses in some very un-sensible clothes, out loud she thinks that Piotr never knew what he was missing out on. She thinks her new outfit needs something else and phases out of her room.
In London, the master bedroom of a very large and private mansion, a stimulant is taking effect. Four body-guard type men surround a large four-poster bed, and when one pulls aside a curtain, revealing a cloaked woman on the bed, he asks her, his mistress, if it is over. The woman moans and announces that the pain has abated for the moment, before cursing the day that she ever accepted the Soul Steel Eye. One of the men helps the mysterious woman off the bed and comments on how long it has been since the pain occurred. The woman snaps back that she had noticed, and tells the men not to fuss, as the pain was small, created by low-level activity.
Standing freely, she proclaims that the Soulsword has not been drawn, and that the sword and her eye both are made of alien metals, apparently not intended to exist in the same dimension together. She hesitates before adding that the pain will cripple her again, bedridden and comatose like she was in the days when the old holder drew the blade – which was often. Removing a brooch attached to her cloak, the woman announces that she was never strong enough to act back then, but by this episode she has been forewarned, and that her brooch contains a fleck of Soul Steel, which will act like a compass so she can track the blade with it. Ominously, she tells the men that a careful sorceress would find the sword-holder, and make sure the Soulsword is never drawn again!
Back on Muir Island, Kitty Pryde phases into Moira MacTaggert’s personal quarters. Kitty strolls around the room, and admiring a vase, which she calls ‘quaint’, she “accidentally” knocks it off the table. She walks over to the wardrobe wondering if Moira keeps any nice clothes in it, before telling herself that she will only find ‘thirty-seven identical lab coats and unitards’. Shadowcat opens the wardrobe, and to her surprise sees men’s clothes. She never figured Moira for a drag artist, before smiling and as she laughs, understands why the men’s clothes are there.
Kitty puts on a leather jacket, proclaiming that dead men’s clothes suit her just fine. She begins to mess up the wardrobe, wondering what else she will find, before coming across several containers of cigarettes. Kitty mocks Moira before lighting one and starts to smoke it, when suddenly, Moira enters her room! Moira storms in and tells Kitty that she has been acting strangely all day, before reminding her that she cannot violate her personal quarters and asking her to put the cigarette out and take off Joe’s jacket before coming down to the med-lab and helping her.
Kitty starts to walk across the room before telling Moira she guessed right when she thought it was her dead husband’s jacket. Kitty tells Moira that she cannot let anything go, reminding her that she keeps her dead son’s genetic make-up on disc, and dead husbands clothes in the wardrobe. Kitty calls Moira ‘Pathetic’ before asking her where she got the cigarettes from.
Moira bites her tongue before politely telling Kitty, not that it was any of her business, that she gave up years ago, but kept them around in case of loss of will. Moira raises her voice and tells Kitty that it is a loss of her temper that she should be worrying about at the moment. Kitty tells Moira that she must have mistaken her for someone who cares. Moira makes her hands into fists before ordering Kitty out of her room before she does something they will both regret.  ‘Scary’ laughs Kitty as she burns the cigarette into Moira’s arm.
Moira lets out a cry before pulling away, then as Kitty laughs, Moira turns back around and slaps Kitty. Moira is no pushover when it comes to unarmed combat, but neither is Kitty, who retaliates by punching Moira, knocking her across the room.
Stunned, Moira lay on the ground while staring up at Kitty, as the young mutant pulls from her stomach, the glowing Soulsword!
Moira starts to get up off the ground, but Kitty blocks her way, and with the Soulsword in her hand, she tells Moira that she is going to have to kill her!
A level below, Nightcrawler leaves the med-lab, but hears a crash above him. He sighs before complaining that a team leader’s work is never done and teleporting up. Kurt does it instinctively, but his power does not work instantly, as the law of physics will not allow matter to cease to exist, and Kurt spends a fraction of a second in an adjacent, little-known dimension.
Sometimes, however, an instant, can feel like an eternity, and sometimes, a man of magic can make it that way. His name is Gravemoss, speaker to the dead, and possessor of the living – currently, possessor of Kurt Wagner, as Nightcrawler can do nothing when the sorcerer enters his body.


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The Soulsword Trilogy - part 2: Dark Adapted Eye
Kitty Pryde smiles as she holds the Soulsword over the wounded Dr. Moira MacTaggert. Years ago, the same sword drove Kitty’s best friend, Illyana Rasputin, insane. Illyana was rescued by her friends, but she still died anyway, from a deadly virus. Illyana died, and the Soulsword vanished, at least, so everyone thought. Wearing the mysterious eldritch armor that often accompanies the Soulsword, Kitty to tells Moira to stop squealing and adds that getting a headache will not stop her from killing.
With fear in her voice and eyes, the world’s most respected pro-mutant human pleads with Kitty, telling her that it is the Soulsword twisting her, as it did Illyana. Annoyed, Kitty asks Moira if she cannot shut up, before threatening to cut her tongue out to get a moments peace.
Suddenly, Nightcrawler teleports in and in a calming tone tells Kitty that she does not want to do what she is about to do, before asking her to give him the sword. In a mocking tone Kitty says ‘oh, joy, it’s the monkey’. In body, that maybe true – but what Kitty “Shadowcat” Pryde does not know, is that Kurt’s body has been taken over by a very powerful sorcerer named Gravemoss, who desperately wants the Soulsword.
At that moment, Meggan, who has been temporarily returned to normal, walks past Moira’s quarters, calling out to the Doctor. As she steps into the room, the empath asks what is happening before Kitty raises her voice and announces that “what’s happening” is that she is getting fed up, and proclaims that she is going to have to kill them all. As if on cue, Britain’s most famous super hero, Brian Braddock, a.k.a. the former Captain Britain, now known as “Britannic” smashes through the wall of Doctor MacTaggert’s quarters and grabs Shadowcat from behind.
The two struggle and as Kitty phases herself half into Brain’s body, he hits the back of her neck, rendering her unconscious. With that, the Soulsword falls to the ground. As Brian tends to Kitty, he tells her unconscious body that he has killed people before, and that it is not good.
Despite what Kitty just put her through, the ever-resilient Moira fusses over her, asking Brian what he did to her. Britannic tells Moira that there is a nerve cluster under the base of the skull, which is a useful place to attack if you want to render someone out-cold. Moira manages a small smile and asks Brian if he knows he almost sounds pleased with himself, before asking what happened to the ‘Shakespearean speech and ego on steroids’ that he bought back from his trip through the Time Stream.
Within Kurt’s body, Gravemoss smiles and realizes that everyone is ignoring the sword, and that he could just reach out for it… Brian admits that it is taking him a while to adjust to his experiences, and that if he sounds pleased with himself then it is just because he got something right for a change. Moira asks Brian how he knew about the nerve cluster, and Brian tells her that everyone seems to forget he was a physicist with an eclectic background before he became Captain Britain. He tells Moira that he does not know enough biology to do her job, but gets by.
He asks if they are going to the med-lab and “Nightcrawler” tells the others he will bring the Soulsword. Moira replies that she knows Charles will want to look at it, but as Gravemoss reaches for the Soulsword, it slips from his grip and returns into Kitty’s body, the same way it came out – through her stomach. Brian alerts Moira to it, and she figures that the sword is part of Kitty now. As the Soulsword returns to Kitty, Meggan has another attack, her skin shifts and eyes bulge, distorting her serene appearance. Moira gives her usual ‘Och’ before wondering what else could go wrong today, as “Nightcrawler” folds his arms and wags his tail crossly.
Meggan is taken to the medical lab, it was her elemental nature which reacted again to the foul nature of Gravemoss. Outside however, all around Muir Island, the atmosphere begins to have its own convulsions, as thick black rain clouds come from no where hang like a blanket over Muir Island as the sea starts to shake. A storm is coming – and it is going to be a killer!
Meanwhile, in London, the mysterious sorceress known as Shrill is helped back to consciousness by her male servants. Shrill announces that the Soulsword must have been sheathed, before proclaiming that the friction created by the Soul Steel existing in the same dimension – the Sword and her Eye – will not occur again. Shrill gets to her feet and holding up her brooch, she reminds her attendants that the fleck of Soul Steel in her brooch is so microscopic that it cannot harm her, but as “like” calls to “like” when the Sword was unsheathed, the brooch reacted, and traced it.
Shrill’s brooch glows eerily and a small pink light hovers above a map seen in the brooch, pointing to Scotland. The henchmen look shocked as one of them reminds Shrill that in Scotland, they still paint themselves blue and hunt their own food there. He asks her what will happen if one of the jocks decide that she looks edible. Shrill looks to the ground and tells her men that it is unlikely, but regarding the dangers of ending up in a cauldron filled with haggis and thistles, she decides to travel to Scotland immediately, and starts to cast a teleportation spell. She reminds the men that she has spent years in agony thanks to the constant usage of the Soulsword, before proclaiming that she will not succumb to that half-life again. She adds defiantly that if she cannot destroy the Soulsword – then she will destroy its holder!
Back on Muir Island, the storm still grows, as the Gravemoss-possessed Nightcrawler hangs by his tail from a branch jutting out of one side of a cliff leading to the sea. Gravemoss tells himself that he knew there had to be a blind spot between the research Station’s security camera’s and the rocky cliffs. He complains that he is sick of the preening spandex clowns saying “Ku-urt” and staring at him, so he is hiding and dreaming about eating their eyes. As Gravemoss licks his lips wickedly, he knows he is wasting time, and reminds himself that being on the Winding Way he only has a limited amount of time before spending a period of time powerless, at which point the body he possess will reject him. “Kurt” starts to climb up the rocky cliff side before deciding that if he is to kill everyone ahead of him on the Winding Way, he must capture the Soulsword very soon.
Suddenly, pink bubbles appear lighting up the intense darkness that currently stands over Muir Island. Gravemoss realizes it is a teleport signature, and as a beautiful young woman materializes on a ledge near him he searches through Nightcrawler’s memory to figure out who it is. Gravemoss is not impressed – it is Excalibur member Amanda “Daytripper” Sefton, a sorceress, who is currently romantically involved with Nightcrawler – the body he has possessed. Through the raindrops, Amanda smiles and greets whom she thinks it Kurt, before asking her what he is doing out in the cold.
Wit his eyes glowing yellow, “Nightcrawler” stares down at Amanda and tells her that he likes it in the cold, before asking her bluntly what she is doing on Muir Island. ‘Pleased to see you too!’ Amanda snaps back at “Kurt” before he leaps down off the rock he was on and apologizes, saying his mind was elsewhere. He asks Amanda how she is, and hugging herself closer into her costume Amanda replies that she is annoyed and has had warmer receptions from airline passengers while stewardessing.
Before “Kurt” can say anything, Amanda quickly adds that she is not even here to see him, before “Kurt” sweeps Amanda off her feet, asking her if he doesn’t like him anymore. Amanda laughs before telling him he has cold hands. The possessed Kurt just replies that he has cold hands but a warm heart. Amanda laughs again before telling her foster brother that she is here to see Kitty, as she believes she may be in some trouble, which Amanda thinks she can help out with. Using a move he picked up from Britannic, Gravemoss hits Amanda under the base of her head, telling her that they cannot have that, and adding that he is going to have to dump her, before tossing Amanda off the cliff, to the sharp rocks below in the rough sea.
Meanwhile, in the med-lab of the Muir Island medical center, where bad jokes shore up failing morale, Dr. Rory Campbell is assisting Moira and her dear friend and colleague Professor Charles Xavier, founder of the X-Men and the worlds most powerful telepath in their research against the Legacy Virus. Rory announces that Meggan has stabilized again as Moira drinks some of her infamous coffee next to Charles, as they tend to Kitty. Charles tells Moira that for as long as he has known her she always drinks coffee like ‘a hippo with a cleft palate’ and asks her if she must make noises.
Her face bruised from the injuries sustained at Shadowcat’s hands, Moira tells Xavier that he should try to sip anything around a whack to the lip such as she got, before asking him how Kitty ended up with Illyana’s sword. Charles, with his own cup of coffee, starts to hover across the room in his hover-chair, telling Moira he has some ideas, before complimenting Rory on his contacts on the mainland, as the coffee is excellent. Dr. Campbell replies that it was money well spent, considering the instant muck Moira makes was putting holes in his kidneys.
Moira walks over to Charles and defending herself, she tells Charles that for cheap coffee, it is good, before reminding Charles that she gave him a thermos full of it to take back with to the States with him last time he was here. At a computer, Xavier tells Moira that Jubilee still uses it to oil her roller-skates with. Moving on, he motions Moira to the computer screen, where he is examining the sensor array readings Bishop delivered earlier in the day.
One of the screens shows a young Illyana Rasputin lying in her deathbed and Moira and Charles become saddened. As they watch the recordings, Charles reminisces, saying that these were recorded when his ignorance caused a little girl to die. Moira tells Charles that if it was ignorance then they must share it equally. The Doctor steps away from the screen and hiding her tears, she reminds Charles that she is now paying the price for her penance. Charles cuts his former fiancee off before she works herself up into hysterics trying to apologize, but Moira cuts him off, asking her to tell him why he is making her watch the tape.
Shadowcat appears next to the de-aged Illyana on the screen as Charles reminds Moira that the child Illyana spent time in Limbo and returned as a young woman and that while there, she gained the Soulsword. When Illyana was reverted to a child, the Soulsword just seemed to disappear and was never seen again.
As the images of Kitty and Illyana become blurry colors, Charles tells Moira that in Illyana’s last few hours he set up devices to record every detail – air samples; heat output; cell degradation – anything that may have held a clue to the Legacy Virus. As the video enters a later stage, it shows Illyana entering the final stage of infection. Charles believes that there is magic in this time frame, and that somewhere across the dimension, the dormant Soulsword was bound to Illyana’s best friend – Kitty Pryde!
Examining the recordings, Moira realizes that the devices recorded an energy transfer, too low on the electromagnetic band to register on any other instruments. The transfer was totally invisible and shockless, which means Kitty would not have felt a thing. Xavier agrees before reminding Moira and informing Rory that the Soulsword had corrupting influence on Illyana, and guesses that even in its dormant state the blade had damaged Kitty’s mind. Rory asks if they could separate Kitty from the blade, before stopping himself, realizing that it is magic, before suggesting that if they could detect and quantify it, it becomes science – suddenly, the fire alarm sounds, Moira checks the sensors, which place it in Douglock’s quarters before the three rush to investigate.
“Nightcrawler” stands over Douglock’s burning circuitry as Excalibur’ newest team member tries his best to isolate the thermal activity. Covering his true reason for being present, “Kurt” tells the Professor and the Doctor’s as they enter the room that he heard the alarm and teleported there. He asks what is happening to Douglock as Rory Campbell uses an extinguisher on the alien boy. Crossly, Rory tells Kurt that he could have done something sooner to help Douglock, as the heat is now too intense for the fire-retardant foam.
Rory wonders if he can get closer to Douglock, before noticing that Douglock sounds almost human being in such pain. “Kurt” licks his lips, as Gravemoss within him says that he hopes so, as igniting an occult blaze inside Douglock was not easy. As the flames slowly subside thanks to the foam, Moira kneels by Douglock and in a panic wonders how she should treat him, what with him being machine, not to mention that she cannot even touch him thanks to the Transmode Virus Douglock carries with him as it would infect her with the smallest amount of contact.
As Britannic enters the room, Gravemoss moves to the back, realizing that Charles Xavier is a telepath and if he reads his mind, then he will know that Kurt isn’t really himself. Brain stands over Douglock now too and after proclaiming that he has had a small amount of contact with techno-organics, this is way out of his league however. Rory decides that this is all too insane as Xavier recalls Douglock saying “Systems crash” which to him suggests he is currently in a coma, which may have paralyzed the Transmode virus. Grinning, “Nightcrawler” says that he has an idea.
Back in the med-lab, Kitty rubs her sore neck as she sits up and realizes where she is. She wonders where everyone else is before remembering what just happened. Kitty is scared as she recalls the Soulsword coming out of her, hurting Moira and smoking. She looks across the med-lab to see Meggan on another bed, but she cannot remember doing anything to her. Kitty clutches her stomach as she realizes that Illyana must have bonded the Sword to her before she died. Talking to Illyana, Kitty tells her she was stronger than she is and asks how she is supposed to cope with the weapon if it poisoned its owner.
Kitty gets off the bed and complains that she never wanted this “dumped” on her, not to mention that the Soulsword will just leech out her humanity as it did Illyana – Kitty stops complaining and realizes that it was not Illyana’s fault. Kitty apologizes to Illyana recalling their friendship before drawing from her stomach again the Soulsword, deciding that looking at it may help her think it through. Kitty adjusts to the weird feeling the Sword creates when it is pulled from her body before hearing a scream in the back of the med-lab.
Kitty turns around and asks who is hiding in the shadows, when Shrill steps into the dim light. Shrill, powering up introduces herself and proclaims that every time the sword is drawn she is reduced to this, or even worse. She tells Kitty that she once tried to obtain the Soulsword from a previous holder, the demon known as Darkoth, adding that while she failed, the demon still regrets having met her. Shrill realizes Kitty is not evil, just ignorant, which she proclaims makes what she has to do difficult, but not impossible.
Shrill announces that she knows not how to destroy the blade, only its holder! As Kitty stands open-mouthed, Shrill asks her to not make a sound, as the silence makes it easier. Suddenly, “Nightcrawler” teleports in, telling Kitty that he will protect her, he just asks for the Sword.
Kitty can tell, by the obvious demented state Nightcrawler appears to be in, that he is not himself, as Shrill tells Kitty that she has to do what she is about to do, Kitty clutches the sword and wonders where the others are. Meggan is tranquilized, Moira, Xavier, Britannic, Rory and Douglock are all sprawled out injured on the floor, and Amanda is probably dead. Kitty Pryde is all alone.


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Dream Nails - part 1
Hidden away, deep within a laboratory, held in tanks, creatures are captive. They find it dark and cold. The air does not have enough oxygen in it, leaving them weak and sluggish. One of them has developed an infection around the metal valve sunk in its back from which fluids are siphoned from its body for inspection. This one in particular think that while he and his crew are in captivity, it is not too bad, they cannot help but laugh when they remember the look on a soldiers face when it bit through his containment suit.
Muir Island now, off Scotland, and yes, it is as cold as it looks. Pete Wisdom is not a morning person. And with just a towel wrapped around his waist he shuffles around the Research Center at such an ungodly hour out of necessity – because no one else is awake to tell him not to smoke. He sits at a computer console with a cup of coffee and tells himself to do something constructive this morning. He tells the computer to connect to the answering machine at his London flat. Pete swallows a mouthful of coffee and tells the computer to remind him never to drink MacTaggert’s rotten coffee again…not unless I'm looking for a suicide method anyway.
The computer has connected to Pete’s London phone line and he tells the computer to play back all messages, but to dump any from Scicluna, as he does not want to hear anything from her at this time in the morning. Wisdom, its Raquel. Where have you been all these weeks? You still owe me twenty quid – Pete, it’s Culley. I’ve really fallen for it this time and I  need a favor. Medical attention. The private kind. So private that our mutual employer really doesn’t need to be told right? I’m at the usual place,  help me. Pete drinks more of Moira’s dreaded coffee.
Soon, Wisdom has approached Brian “Britannic” Braddock while he is working on something and Britain’s premiere super hero asks Wisdom if he has this straight: he wants to borrow the Midnight Runner, go to London in it, but he doesn’t know when he will be able to return it. Tell me another, says Brian. Wisdom replies that he is serious, to which Brian remarks he was afraid of that, and suggests to Wisdom that he go and play in traffic. Wisdom tells Brian that if there were any traffic up here in the frozen North then it would be all right, he could hitch a lift, but there isn't so the Runner is the only quick way to London.
Brian asks Wisdom if he could actually fly the aircraft, to which Wisdom sheepishly remarks to Brian that he was hoping he could talk him in to taking him down. Motioning to the work he is doing, Brian tells him that there is no chance, as he has to get all of this together for Rory. Brian just finishes telling Wisdom that it looks like he is out of luck when someone says I’ll fly him down.
Entering the room, Kitty smiles after her comment and asks Brian as long as it is okay with him, for she knows how to fly the Midnight Runner, and she is not busy, and he seems pretty desperate. Brian agrees about the desperate part, and Wisdom informs them that a mate of his is in trouble. Brian agrees that Kitty can take him down, and Wisdom rushes from the room, thanking Brian as he tells Kitty to change out of her X-uniform, as he doesn’t want to walk around London with her looking like that.
Calling to Wisdom before he leaves the room, Brian asks him to pick up some coffee while they are in London as they have run out of Rory’s good stuff. With Wisdom gone, Brian turns to Kitty and asks her why she is flying Wisdom to London, especially as she cannot stand him. Kitty glances at Brian and tells him that Wisdom wants to help a friend, so they should not stand in his way, while thinking to herself that she still does not trust him and wants to keep an eye on him.
Meanwhile, Moira enters the Comm Room and coughs at all the cigarette smoke floating about. Moira exclaims that she will have to rig the sprinkler system so that it registers cigarette heat. The world famous scientist sits at a seat and tells the computer to give her a secure direct line to Charles Xavier at the Xavier Institute and to interface with the housekeeping mainframe to filter the air into the room.
An image of Professor Charles Xavier appears on the computer screen and he wishes Moira a good morning. Moira tells Charles that it is Midday in Scotland and she is still not awake, yet at 7am in Westchester he looks as fresh as a daisy. Ye make me sick, Charles Xavier. No, Moira. It’s your coffee that makes you sick, Charles replies. Moira just smiles and tells Charles that it is all a conspiracy.
Speaking of which, I’ve been thinking a lot about the Legacy Virus information that was leaked to the media out of my computers. Moira tells Charles that everyone has been running around with theories and suspects, but during the horrible business with the Phalanx, and when Charles destroyed his computer facilities…they forgot something. Charles asks Moira to continue, and Moira reminds Xavier that at the time, his computers at Westchester, and her computers on Muir were connected by a satellite link. Charles remembers, for they were pooling Legacy Virus data, but thinks that security was maintained at both ends.
Moira agrees, until Charles wipes his own database to prevent the Phalanx getting to it, which would also have taken out his security suites, and hackers could have tapped into the up-link after that and straight into Moira’s computers. Ah, is all Charles can say. Ah yourself, replies Moira before telling Charles that their computers were wide open after that, long enough for at least for someone to get in and set up a link with them.
So it could be anyone, remarks Charles before asking Moira about this Wisdom character. Moira informs Charles that Wisdom would not have been able to manage it as he was not on the Station long enough, however his employers, the British Intelligence group Black Air, Moira does not trust Wisdom, nor Black Air. She informs Charles that Black Air has replaced the Weird Happenings Organization set up to observe paranormal events, but she thinks they have their own agendas.
Onboard the Midnight Runner, Wisdom asks Kitty if she has Heathrow airport on the radio yet. Kitty hands Wisdom a headset and tells him that they are within range so he can talk to them himself as she wants to concentrate on the flying, especially as the Runner has pulled to the right since it took the hit in Genosha. Wisdom connects to Heathrow and with a reference “Pizza Connection” asks them to respond by the book. The operator replies that they are booked and tells Wisdom to proceed to hangar 254 via runway 4A.
Kitty tells Wisdom that he was very professional and Wisdom informs her that Black Air maintains a couple of secret hangars at Heathrow under the cover of “Pizza Connection”. Tossing the headset aside, Wisdom tells her that it is the single perk of the intelligence community – free parking. As Kitty takes the aircraft down for landing, she asks him what his friend does and how he knows him. Wisdom replies that Culley is also from Black Air, and is one of the few people that he actually likes. He adds that he and Culley have been out of touch for a time so he doesn’t know where he is working now, but gets the impression that he has fallen afoul of the employer.
Sometime later, Pryde and Wisdom are in a taxi as the driver weaves through the London traffic. In the back seat, Wisdom tells Kitty that she does not have to come along, to which Kitty asks why she should have to wait at the Runner while he gets to run around London. Wisdom tells Kitty that this is none of her business and that she will either get bored or in the way. I might be able to help you know, Kitty snaps back. Wisdom tells her that he doubts that, and Kitty smiles, telling Wisdom that they will find out, because she is not letting him out of her sight. Wisdom starts to take out a cigarette when the taxi driver tells him that he cannot smoke in here. Marvelous, Wisdom mutters.
Walking through a less-than-prestigious part of town, Kitty sarcastically remarks that it is a charming place. Wisdom tells her that if she does not like it then she should go shopping. No, no, Soho is just so elegant, Kitty replies before asking Wisdom if his friend lives here when they come to an apartment building. Wisdom informs her that it is actually Culley’s bolt hole and that he is the only other person who knows about it. Entering the building, Wisdom tells Kitty that it is like Culley’s mother, he runs back to it whenever something has gone wrong.
Kitty coughs and remarks that it smells like something has died in here. Don’t say that, replies Wisdom. He comes to Culley’s door, except it is locked. Wisdom uses his “hot knives” without thinking, and manages to get the door open. He remembers that he never actually told Culley he was a mutant, and calls to him as they enter the room. Kitty tells Wisdom that she could have phased through instead of causing all this damage to the door, but as they walk further into the room she stops talking and just says oh. The room has files scattered all over the floor, they spend some time searching for Culley. Scrawled across a wall is “I’m losing my body” and Wisdom curses himself for arriving to late.
Back on Muir Island, Brian informs Rory Campbell that he is finished, and asks him what he thinks. Admiring the room, Rory replies that it is phenomenal and just what he needed. Brain hands Rory the control unit, informing him that he just presses the button once to seal the doors and twice for the laser web. Brian remarks that it is the weirdest psychiatric tool he has ever seen, but that it is close enough to what Rory asked for.
Rory activates the laser web, and all around them pink laser beams spill through the room. Brian tells Rory that the lasers are hidden behind holographic sections of the wall and are computer guided. The lasers are on low power now, but if the computers detect a hostile action in the room, the lasers will home in on the hostile and power up. Rory smiles and tells Brian that it is perfect. Brian, somewhat hesitantly, tells Rory that he knows Muir Island used to be used to rehabilitate “bad” mutants, but that he does not see how this will help anybody.
Rory informs Brian that there is a mutant in the holding cells that is a serial murderer. He declares that serial murderers are control freaks and when he is locked up it makes him think he is controlling all of them because they are scared enough to lock him up – but in this room, this pen, he has no control. Rory smiles as he says that it is a start towards a cure for the serial murderer. Brian is somewhat unconvinced when Douglock arrives at the door, bringing in Rory’s new patient. Douglock introduces the unkempt mutant as Spoor and asks What is a butt and why does Spoor keep offering to kill mine?
Back in Soho, Wisdom lights a cigarette for a woman who informs him, with a very heavy accent, that she saw Culley come in looking horrible, all sweaty and coughing and she thought he was going to pop his clogs outside the club, all the bleedin’ publicity we need, know what I mean?Wisdom gets back into the car where Kitty is and she asks him if he would like to translate what the woman said for the American broad. Wisdom tells Kitty that there is a rule of thumb – if there is a missing consonant at the start of a word, add an H, if it is at the end, add a G, and if you are going to “pop your clogs” it means you are going to die.
Kitty examines the papers that Culley had littered through his apartment and tells Wisdom that she doesn’t know what to make of them all, but the designs remind her of crop circles and the writing seems almost religious. Wisdom reveals that Culley was an atheist and wonders why he would waste his time scribbling out reams of it. The car stops and when they get out Wisdom leads Kitty to a pub, as she asks why they are stopping here. Wisdom tells her that they are going to find out where Culley was working, and that the first round is on her.
Inside the bar, two men greet Wisdom, one of them telling him it is good to see him and asks him to sit down with them. Another man asks Pete if he should find his girlfriend a seta. Wisdom greets the men – Doyle and Pitman – and introduces them to Kitty, as the confused one in MI6, which is like her CIA and the fat ugly one is in the MI5. He points to an older man, Jardine and tells Kitty that he is with Criminal Intelligence. Wisdom adds that this pub is the favored watering hole of the British Intelligence community. The place is full of spies? asks Kitty.
Wisdom tells the men that he is trying to find Ed Culley and asks them what the word through the grapevine is. Pitman asks if Black Air didn’t send Culley to an air base in the midlands. Doyle reveals that the base’s codename is Dream Nails and that Culley was the security chief and the place had a weird file cover. Everyone gets up from the table and someone tells Wisdom that Culley is dead, and that he is in the Black Air morgue in Whitehall.
Back on Muir Island, in the medlab, Moira leads Nightcrawler, Douglock and the elemental faire Meggan through a giant computerized human chromosome, the structure in which their genes hang. This particular one however contains the “X” gene that makes mutants. Motioning to part of the chromosome she points out the Legacy Virus, at least a basic version of it that they first encountered. Since then Hank McCoy has isolated two other strains, but Moira wants to keep this simple.
She tells the heroes that originally the virus only seemed to attack mutants, only making its entry into their body through the “X” gene, where it corrupted the “X” gene and from their began to affect the metabolism and the control center for mutant abilities. Moira reminds them that in most cases, the victims of the Legacy Virus were consumed by their own wildly accelerating powers.
Looking around, Kurt asks if they are no closer to a cure, for he knows that the example Moira is showing them are what Phoenix and Cyclops brought back from the future. Moira tells Kurt that he is correct, but things have begun to change and she motions to a base line human chromosome, where the “X” gene is clearly missing. However, as she points out, in this instance, the Legacy Virus is simply bonding itself onto the chemical branch where the “X” gene would plug in.
Moira reveals that this is her chromosomal structure and that it is what has happened to her. Kurt thanks Moira and tells her that it has all become clearer to him. Moira replies that she wishes it was clearer for her – why would it target a human? Why hasn’t it infected more? There are so many questions, and all Moira hears is the ticking of a time bomb in her genes that will eat her alive when it blows. ‘Just ticking away, ticking away…’
At the Black Air morgue, Wisdom and Kitty are shown Culley’s body, the doctor tells Wisdom he has looked better, except for the time they all went on a bender in Reykjavik. Wisdom is taken aback at the state of his friend’s body and asks the doctor, Stamford, if he remembers he had to give Culley CPR after the tequila session. He asks Stamford what it was that Culley died of. Stamford informs Wisdom that they do now know, but that he is not contagious. Stamford tells Wisdom tat Scicluna wants the case to be left alone, to call it natural causes and bury him. Wisdom looks at Stamford and tells him that if anyone asks, they were never there.
Pete and Kitty leave the building, Pete confused, and Kitty asks him if Scicluna is his boss at Black Air. Wisdom replies that she is, but doesn’t understand how one can get infected with a disease that no one has ever heard of at an air base. He thinks it must have something to do with Black Air, as Culley did not want them near him – suddenly his cigarette snaps in half – a bullet flies through it.
More bullets are fired and Pete realizes that it is a hit, so he shoves Kitty out of the way. Kitty phases instinctively so that the bullets just pass right through her, and she sees men using silencers firing at her – if Pete hadn’t pushed her out of the way she would not have known about them until after she was dead. Pete thinks that Kitty has got guts, and is bright too for she worked out the sniper’s position without missing a beat.
Kitty, trained in the art of the ninja by her friend Wolverine, takes down one of her opponents, and as for the one who sneaks up behind her, Wisdom uses his “hot knives” on him. Kitty kicks him out of the way and tells Wisdom that he didn’t need to do that, as she was intangible. Wisdom apologizes and remarks that it was a force of habit.
Wisdom starts to look through the mans pockets for ID’s as he thinks that for as far as hits go it was not very professional – he pulls out an ID card as Kitty asks who they were and why they were shooting at them. Wisdom replies that he can make a guess – as they are Black Air operatives!


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Baby, I Love You
Muir Island Research Center, off the coast of Scotland, the sunsets over the water and Excalibur teammates and new lovers, Kitty „Shadowcat" Pryde and Pete Wisdom sit on a window ledge, gazing out at the dying sun. ‘I fancy a drink’ says Pete. Kitty, eyes still on the sunset mumbles that she wouldn't mind one too, before commenting on how beautiful the sunsets are. Wisdom tells her that he will show her the sunsets in Essex one-day, that they are the best in the world. Getting back to Wisdom’s suggestion about the drink, Kitty says that a bar would be a good excuse to get out for the night, before mentioning everyone could use that.
Wisdom frowns and asks Kitty if it would be such a good idea for all of them to go, considering the two of them have just got back from London a couple of days ago, and if anything the others are all edgier than ever around him. He pauses before saying ‘Now that you an’ me are, you know…’ Kitty leans over to Wisdom and whispers in his ear that she thinks it is a great idea and she is going to go see if Meggan and Brian want to come. Knowing she will stir trouble, Kitty tells Wisdom to go see if Moira wants to come. Pete turns away, and complains, telling Kitty that Dr. MacTaggert hates him.
Wisdom complies anyway, calling out to the world famous Dr. Moira MacTaggert, who crossly snaps back that she smells cigarettes. Wisdom flicks the cigarette as he mocks Moira under his breath before entering the medlab where Moira stands over Dr. Rory Campbell, sedated and lying on a bed. Wisdom tells Moira he has put his cigarette out and she replies that she would hope so, smoking in the presence of a sick man. Wisdom tells Moira that Rory doesn’t look too sick, just sedated.
Looking down at Rory, Moira informs Wisdom that sedating Rory was the only way to stop him from screaming after the laser web amputated his leg. Moira turns back to Wisdom and tells him that she already has enough to worry about with the Legacy Virus and now Wisdom comes into her lab smelling of cigarettes – Wisdom frowns before raising his voice and pointing a finger at Moira, simply asking her if she wants to come down to the pub with them all. Moira suddenly smiles before mentioning how long it has been since she had a drink, and could do with one right about now. Walking away, Wisdom asks Moira if she knows of a decent local place. Moira informs Wisdom that there is a nice pub on Kinross Land over the water, before asking what she should do about Rory. Wisdom tells her that Rory Campbell will not get far on foot if that is what she means.
Kitty pops her head into the living quarters of Brian Braddock a.k.a. Britannic and his lover and teammate, the empathic Meggan. Kitty apologizes, realizing their quarters are off-limits in the evenings – Meggan cuts Kitty off, informing her that they were just reading the Sunday paper together. Getting to the point, Kitty asks if they fancy a night out. Brian likes the sound of that idea, before asking where they are going. Kitty smiles and tells the two founding members of Excalibur that Wisdom wants to out for a drink, so she guesses a bar on the mainland.
Brian tells Meggan that he cannot remember the last time he went to a pub, Meggan grins and tells him that there was the one in Glasgow, which he smashed to matchsticks. Brian reminds Meggan that the police asked him to smash it up, so it doesn’t count. He turns to Kitty and tells her that she is on, adding that they can take the Midnight Runner, for it has an auto pilot they can use to bring them home. Kitty laughs and asks Brian if he drunkproofed the plane. Giggling, Meggan turns to Brian and jokingly tells him after all this time together she never knew he was a lager lout.
Brian goes along with the joke and tells Meggan that he may take to wearing a string vest and talking about football soon. Meggan turns back to Kitty and tells her not to sneak off, mentioning her and Wisdom getting close. Kitty and Meggan get close and Kitty begins whispering in the empath’s ear. Brian frowns and resigns to the fact that he is never going to find out what the two young women are talking about, so it is pointless to even ask.
In one of the corridors, Douglock is instructing Rahne Sinclair, Moira MacTaggert’s foster daughter also known as Wolfsbane who moved to Muir Island after learning Moira contracted the Legacy Virus how to use the interface panels which are touch-sensitive. Rahne informs Douglock that she has seen Lady Moira talking to them. Kitty walks over to the youngsters and asks Doug if he remembers what a pub is. With a precise recollection, the young alien describes a pub as a place where one drinks fermented poisons before sitting on unconscious humans.
Kitty looks to the side, amused before telling Douglock that they will skip the last part, but are going out tonight and asks them if they want to come. Rahne Sinclair makes a feeble protest, asking Kitty if she means „pubs" as in place where men drink and women get pregnant. Rahne shouts the last word out before Kitty tells Rahne that she knows she heard a lot about „sin" from Reverend Craig while she was growing up, but asks her to think about this – ‘Jesus drank wine’. Rahne frowns and tells Kitty that it was a cheap shot. ‘Ain’t it though?’ Kitty smirks before telling the youngsters she will meet them at the hangar in half an hour.
In his quarters, Kurt Wagner glumly sits at the table, as his foster sister Amanda Sefton sits awkwardly on the other side. Neither of them speaking. Kitty Pryde suddenly phases up beside her two old friends and pulls them together asking if they are interested in a night out. Unimpressed, Amanda asks where they would be going, when Kitty tells her to a pub, the powerful sorceress codenamed „Daytripper" suddenly brightens up and admits that she could use a night out, before getting up and going to get changed. With Amanda out of the room, Kitty tells Kurt that she and Pete want to talk to him about something. Kurt narrows his eyes and informs Kitty that if it is about Wisdom then they had better make it in public.
Soon, the powerful transonic jet, the Midnight Runner, glides from Muir Island to the mainland. Inside the jet, Moira proclaims that she shouldn’t be going out, but should be working and watching Rory. Piloting the jet, Kitty tells Moira that she is not trying to be funny, but Rory isn’t going to miss them. Brian asks Moira what use she is going to be to anyone if she works herself into exhaustion, before proclaiming that they can all use this night out.
Still in his uniform, Kurt mentions that he shouldn’t be doing this, as he doesn’t have an image inducer with him and that everyone will see him and run the team out of town with pitchforks and torches. Moira tells Kurt that that doesn’t seem like him talking, and that it is not true, as the place they are going to was owned by her own father, until he gave the freehold to his manager and his family. Moira announces that the same people are still there, that they are good people who do not care how one looks.
Sitting across from her foster mother, Wolfsbane is shocked at this revelation and to confirm what she thinks she heard, she asks if her father, Lord Kinross, owned a „drinking establishment". Moira doesn’t answer, instead, she tells Kitty not to worry about stealthing the plane, for the people here are plain folk who don’t worry about how people arrive, though may think it rude if they park on their cars.
Once the Midnight Runner has landed, the nine heroes make their way to the pub, The Chalk & Cheese and Meggan comments on how much of a lovely night it is, what with the stars out – ‘The smell of booze wafting across the car park, reminds me of my childhood’ says Wisdom, cutting the empath off. Brian sarcastically tells Wisdom he had a nice childhood, though it does explain a lot.
Moira turns to her daughter and informs her that she can leave any time she wishes to, as the auto pilot is set, and the Midnight Runner will come back for everyone else, before asking her to try and enjoy herself and reminding her that despite what Wisdom thinks, this is not about drunken debauchery, but about having fun with good friends. Moira suggests Rahne think of it as a homecoming party and to keep an open mind. Wolfsbane smiles sheepishly and says that she will try. Nightcrawler tells Rahne not to judge everyone and to do, as Douglock would say – „Just observe them. Join in if you feel comfortable, prepared, informed".
Walking in to the pub, Moira smiles as she smells it, proclaiming that it still smells the same, before admitting that when she was a child she would sneak in and just sit, smelling the various rustic smells… Moira trails off as blond woman behind the bar asks the motley bunch what they would like. Wisdom leads the way to the counter asking for a scotch ‘to season me guts’. Kitty tells her boyfriend he is disgusting as the barmaid asks him if he wants ice.
Wisdom tries to make a joke until Moira rushes to the counter upon realizing who the blond woman is, Her name is Annie Crossan and Moira smiles as she grabs Annie, who also smiles upon seeing ‘Auntie Moira!’ Wisdom mumbles to himself about how he knew everyone here was related, before an elderly man walks out from the back, arms outstretched, he greets Moira and Moira informs him that he looks good for his age. They hug as Kitty places an order and Wisdom calls Nightcrawler over.
Wisdom tells Kurt that he will buy him a pint, assuring him that they probably have a German brand, ‘Dinkel something’ ‘Dinkel Acker?’ suggests Kurt before mentioning how long it has been since he had some. Wisdom tells Annie Crossan the Kurt will ‘Have one of them Dinky things’ and as Annie prepares something before bringing it over to Kurt, the leader of Excalibur thinks to himself „Here we go" as Annie lays her eyes upon him. Amanda, standing behind her brother, smiles as Annie Crossan says ‘Och, man. It’s supposed to turn cold, and nae blue fur’s gauny keep the chill out, Have a whiskey with it’.
Nightcrawler is stunned at how easy Annie handled him before accepting both the dinkel and the whiskey and thanking Wisdom. Kitty Pryde turns to Wolfsbane handing her a drink. Rahne tells Kitty that she didn’t need to do that, as Kitty tells her not to panic and just try it. Using her heightened senses, Rahne cautiously sniffs the drink, and announces that it doesn’t seem poisonous. The youngest member of Excalibur brings the glass to her mouth, and says that she can spit it out, before announcing that it is good, even though she doesn’t recognize the flavor. Kitty runs her hands through Rahne’s hair and tells the wolf-girl that the drink is nectarine juice and completely non-alcoholic, before asking her if she though that they were going to force-feed her Wisdom’s whiskey. Rahne isn't interested in what Kitty has to say, just in sipping more of the drink.
The group collectively known as Excalibur gather around at a table. Moira sits at the head of the table, with a full glass in her hand, and several empty ones in front of her. To her left its Wisdom, smoking, several shot glasses in front of him and Kitty Pryde sitting right next to him. Wolfsbane sits uncomfortably next to Kitty, arms folded and staring at Douglock. Nightcrawler looks equally as glum sitting at the end of the row. Amanda Sefton, as elegantly as always, sits at the end of the table with a glass of most likely a very lady-like drink in front of her. Douglock sits rigidly across from Rahne, and finally Meggan leans into Brian, who is drinking straight out of the bottle.
Time passes slowly and easily, marked only by the clink of glass and the smoke wafting up the rafters. The heroes’ muscles and minds begin to unwind as they begin to relax for the first time in months. It is hard to unload tension when one has woken up with it for so long, but Moira seems to be doing just fine, and in a language no one can really understand, she asks Kitty and Wisdom what is going on between them. The members of Excalibur look a little concerned as they ask Moira what she is going on about, until the Nobel winning scientist apologizes, revealing her accent always gets thicker after a beer or two, before repeating her question more coherently.
Wisdom and Kitty glance nervously at each other, before both taking a big sip of their drinks. Kitty smiles and proclaims to her teammates and friends that they really like each other, Wisdom interrupts, reiterating the ‘really like’, before Kitty adds that since he has quit Black Air, Wisdom adds that he hates them, before Kitty announces she wants Pete to stay with Excalibur so that they can be together. Wisdom sternly adds that if anyone doesn’t like it – everyone falls silent and they all just look at Kitty and Wisdom. Always one to speak her mind (unless the topic is about her mother, her destiny or her relationships) Amanda breaks the silence by announcing she think it is really nice. Rather drunk, Moira adds, over and over again, that she agrees, before proclaiming she thinks she is going to cry.
Another hour or two pass and Wisdom gets up from the table, announcing he has to go and ‘water the daisies’. Kitty tells him she saw a jukebox on the other side of the bar and asks him to come and find her. Soon after, in the men’s bathroom, Brian and Kurt block Wisdom’s way. Wisdom asks if there is a queue, but Kurt gets to the point and tells Wisdom to ‘Shut up and listen’. Brian tells Wisdom that under his foul exterior he is half-decent. Kurt adds that he will let him remain with the team, but if he ever hurts Kitty – Brian cuts Kurt off and tells Wisdom that he will rip off his head, and Kurt remarks that he will spend days mocking it and drawing pictures on it before teleporting it to the North sea. Brian suggests they get back to their table, as Wisdom announces his sudden urge to go to the bathroom has left him. Brian and Kurt just look at Wisdom as if he is strange…
…Wisdom joins Kurt and Brian in the „lets look at people like they are strange" category as they walk out to the main bar and see Moira, Amanda, Meggan and even Rahne singing loudly and dancing on top of their table. Moira and Amanda share a smile as Douglock observes them, noting what the „Can-Can" is before mentioning the stress analysis of the very old table upon which the women are dancing. Wisdom, Braddock and Wagner just look on until Wisdom suggests another round, which Kurt agrees to.
Wisdom goes to see Kitty at the jukebox and upon sifting through the songs held in it, the come across „Baby, I love you" by the Ramones. Douglock approaches Brian and admits that he still does not understand why he drinks alcoholic beverages. Brian smiles and tells Douglock not to tell anyone else, but he is drinking a non-alcoholic drink, though he used to drink alcohol all the time. Brian reveals that he misses alcohol sometime.
Douglock tells Brian that it is the congener chemicals in the drink that carry the taste, but they also create the „hangovers". Brian doesn’t appear to be listening as Douglock continues talking about what alcohol does to a person – blood vessels dilate, fat content of the liver alters, nerve fibers receive a reduced vitamin intake, the brain shrinks. Brian cuts Douglock off and abruptly tells him that with anything that is tempting it has a powerful downside before adding that if he can find a real answer to his question, he is a better man than he. Douglock just gawks at Brian until everyone’s attention is turned to the bar, where Moira is having issues.
With her accent thick and words slurred thanks to the high amount of alcohol she has consumed, Moira verbally assaults Jack Crossan, as he announced the bar closed, Moira wants another drink. Rahne rushes over and asks her mother if she is all right. As Moira slumps down on a chair Jack reveals that Moira has been an ugly drunk since she was thirteen. He asks Moira to tell Rahne what happened when she drank all of her father’s scotch. Moira replies that Jack dangled her in the river and told her he would put her out to sea if she did it again.
Rahne reveals that she cannot understand how Moira is so ill with the Legacy Virus, yet is drinking so much. She asks Moira if she thought it would make her feel better, before telling her she is smarter than that. Head resting on the bar, Moira asks if she is really, before admitting that she wanted to feel nothing, but to escape the truth; no pain no uncertainty, but now all she feels is sick to her stomach. Jack Crossan tells Moira that she will be all right and asks her to come back soon, but only after having a meal before she drinks.
Outside the pub, the heroes gather beneath the star-studded sky, and the various couples all make out; Wisdom and Kitty; Brian and Meggan and even Kurt and Amanda. Douglock looks on intrigued as Moira covers Rahne’s eyes, telling her not to look and that it is filthy. Inside the plane, Meggan warns Moira that if she throws up in the back of Brian’s plane, he will stay there until she cleans it up. Amanda makes a „Mmmm" sound as if she is half-asleep and asks Kurt if the night out was worth it. Kurt agrees, before stating that as team-leader he orders that they all go out once a month whether they need it or not.
Everyone laughs as they exit the Midnight Runner and make way towards their bedrooms. Someone makes a joke about Bed-Ford-Shire and everyone joins in with something to say. Pete Wisdom and Kitty Pryde fall behind the others, and sitting down on the grass, Pete says ‘I’ve fallen, Pryde’. Kitty tells him that his pride fell years ago, Wisdom adds like his morals, Kitty says she noticed, before they get closer…what they don’t see however, is Kitty’s former boyfriend, the steel-skinned Colossus standing on the dock watching them.


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The Spire
Wearing a flesh-colored swimming cap, the wheelchair-bound Pete Wisdom exits the Muir Isle Medical Research Center, doing an impression of Professor Charles Xavier (or is it Captain Picard?). With a cigarette dangling from his mouth, Pete says ‘To me my X-Men! I sense danger! Make it so! Somebody get me a drink!’ Standing behind her boyfriend, Kitty Pryde mumbles about how ashamed she is, before telling Pete that as far as Charles Xavier impressions go his stunk. Pulling off the swimming cap as the couple approach Nightcrawler and Meggan, the latter somewhat amused at Wisdom’s performance, Pete defends himself by saying he has only seen Xavier on the television.
The elemental Meggan asks Pete if he is feeling better, while Excalibur’s mutant leader, Kurt “Nightcrawler” Wagner cries blasphemy. Replying to Meggan, Wisdom remarks that he feels like he was just hit in the head by a ‘bloody great Russian’. Seriously, Wisdom tells his teammates that ‘MacTaggert knows her stuff’ as aside from a mild headache and a tightness in his chest, he is much better. Kitty leans onto Pete and tells him that if he quit smoking that the tightness may go away too. ‘I know, I know…’ Pete mumbles as Dr. Moira MacTaggert, brilliant scientist and owner of Muir Isle makes her presence known.
Moira calls out to Wisdom, asking him what he is doing with her swimming cap. Kitty turns to Pete and seems confused, as Pete told her he stole it from Kurt’s room. Nightcrawler looks somewhat annoyed by this lie, but Pete just jokes as he tells Kitty he thought he had stolen it from Kurt’s room, though it being from Moira’s room explains the pink frilly dressing gowns. Moira stands in front of Wisdom’s wheelchair and looking him in the eyes she sternly tells him ‘It’s more medical tests for you!’ Pushing Pete away from the three founding and longest serving members of Excalibur Moira tells Pete that she is going to refrigerate the probes first. Pete scowls as he asks her if that is going to be worse than the places she actually takes his temperature from.
Looking away from Kitty, Kurt says that they are not laughing, Meggan mumbles something as Kitty puts her hands on her hips and says it is not funny at all. Kurt turns back to Kitty and Meggan and tells them that he must depart also, as Hank McCoy is expecting a call from him, and with a bamf Kurt is gone. Meggan asks Kitty if she wants to go for a walk, quite prepared to go anywhere to escape the brimstone stench of Kurt’s teleportation signature.
Walking along the cliff side of Muir Isle, Kitty asks Meggan where Brian is. Meggan informs the young American that her boyfriend is working on the Midnight Flit, the medical plane he promised Moira, and changing the subject, Meggan asks Kitty how Pete really is. Kitty replies that she thinks he misses London as he keeps moaning about the lack of pollution in the air here, though they might fly down once he is better. Meggan tells Kitty that if they do, she needs some new textbooks and also that she has been thinking about a new uniform. Kitty seems a little surprised at this, and is about to mention something when her attention is drawn elsewhere, to the edge of the cliff where another of Excalibur is standing.
It is Rahne Sinclair, sometimes known as Wolfsbane, and in addition to being Excalibur’s newest member, she is Moira MacTaggert’s foster daughter. Kitty asks the former New Mutant what she is doing, and as Kitty and Meggan walk over to her, Rahne informs the senior team members that she thought she saw something like a fire or an explosion over on the mainland, which is why she did a partial shapeshift to sharpen her eyesight.
Meggan smiles and stepping in front of Kitty and Rahne tries her own way of seeing what is on the mainland. Stretching her arms out to either side of her, elemental energies swirl around the blond super hero as she informs her teammates that she and Moira have been doing some testing of her powers, trying to get a handle on what she can and cannot do. Meggan proclaims that they know she is an empathic shapeshifter, sensitive to the way people see her. Meggan remarks that Moira thinks she may grow out of that, before informing the girls that nothing is as interesting as the elemental aspect of her powers.
Meggan informs her teammates that she can actually see and hear the workings of all natural forces, even electromagnetics, which she adds means she could see psychic communications. Meggan guesses that she can “throw” her eyesight across the water and she does it! Meggan can see into a woodland of dark and old trees – and fire! Fire leaping around and torching everything, suddenly there is a detonation and a scream, and Meggan quickly pulls out, her eyesight zapping from the mainland back to her.
Wolfsbane remarks that she can see the detonation, to which Meggan adds that it is fire, but it has an electromagnetic basis. Meggan says that Moira taught her how to see the difference by showing her scan records of Rachel Summers using her powers and that she can tell the fire was started psychically. Kitty asks ‘by who?’ to which Meggan replies that she is left with images of tears and anguish, but nothing definite. Meggan states that she does not read minds, but can almost brush them with her fingertips. Kitty suggests to the other young women that they go have a quick look, asking Meggan if she can get them over there. Somewhat hesitantly, Meggan replies that she can if she wants, but that they should probably tell the others first. Kitty tells Meggan that they should just go check it out, as she has a commlink on if they run into trouble.
 Meggan grabs onto Rahne and Kitty, and using her super strength flies them across the water. Rahne mumbles that it does not feel very secure as Kitty watches Meggan out of the corner of her eye – she had forgotten the best thing about Meggan, the fact that there is nobody else in the world who enjoys their powers as much as Meggan.
It takes only seconds to get to the mainland and an eye blink to get to the woods in Kinross – where a figure within the firestorm can just be made out. Hovering above the fire, Kitty asks Meggan to drop her and she will phase in, otherwise they won’t be able to get close enough. Elemental energies beginning to swirl again, Meggan asks if she can show off again, and she does. Meggan reaches out with her power and literally speaks to the flame, and the fire begins to reverse its actions, the hot edges vanish and the blaze is sucked into the Earth. All Meggan did was tell the fire to go away.
The fire obeys the elemental empath, and leaves only a circular column at its core, and the girl who bathed the firestorm. As the three heroines land on the ground, Kitty compliments Meggan, adding that she never fully understood what she could do until now. Meggan thanks her teammate before asking what their next move is. Rahne suggests that the girl is a local girl, like she is, and thinks that if she reverts to her human form, and goes and talks to the girl, it will be less of a shock than either of the others.
As the former New Mutant approaches the girl in the fire, Rahne supposes that she is about fourteen years old – the perfect age for mutant powers to emerge. Rahne crouches by the crying redhead and introduces herself before asking the girl her name. In between tears, the girl tells Rahne that her name is Bridgit Shane. Rahne realizes by Bridgit’s accent that she is not local and mentions this to the girl. Bridgit looks at Rahne and reveals that she and her family moved to Kinross from Edinburgh six years ago. Pausing, Bridgit warns Rahne to stay away, informing her that she is a mutant.
Calmly, Rahne tells Bridgit that she too is a mutant, and motions to the “X” on her uniform, explaining that it means she is working towards a co-existence. Bridgit seems a little taken aback and asks Rahne if she is not ashamed to wear a badge like that, adding that when she found out she was a mutant, she wanted to hide it, and that she would still be hiding if someone hadn’t found out.
Tears still streaming from her eyes, Bridgit reveals that it was the Reverend in Kinross, who saw her lighting candles in church without a match. Bridgit explains that the Reverend locked her in the church with him and told her she was the “spawn of Satan” and that she has now disgraced her parents, and that he would do whatever it took to drive her from the town – from the Earth if he could! A coldness sweeps over Rahne, for she knows who Bridgit is talking about – Reverend Craig! Bridgit adds that she walked out to the woods, and everything caught up with her, she released the fire. She cries some more, saying that she is scared and wants to go home.
Sometime later, Meggan, Rahne and Kitty arrive in the town of Kinross, a village dominated by the church and its huge dark spire, a spire you can see from anywhere in the village, a spire that casts a dark shadow over the people of the town. The three brightly-garbed young women pick up a lot of eye-tracks from the villagers as they walk through the center of town. Firmly, Rahne proclaims that she doesn’t care, and that they can look all the want, for Rahne Sinclair has lived in the shadow of the spire for as long as she can remember. As several drab old men watch the young women, Rahne states that she isn't embarrassed and tells Meggan and Kitty that they shouldn’t be embarrassed either.
Rahne, Kitty and Meggan arrive out front of the church, Rahne starts to open the door. Kitty grabs Rahne by the arm to stop her entering, saying that she knows she is angry, and asks if this is the right time. Rahne tells Kitty that she is definitely angry, but that there will never be a right time, only now. Concerned for Rahne, Meggan sympathetically asks her if she is ready, to which Rahne tells her that Reverend Craig has been dogging her dreams forever, and she wont let him do it to anyone else, informing her that Reverend Craig had her hunted when she was only fourteen years old. As Rahne pushes the old church door open, she says that she is long past being ready.
Rahne walks through the center of the church, its silence a huge and crushing thing. The windows filter out the light of day, the darkness within the church barely broken by a weak row of candles. The door slams behind Rahne, it sounds like thunder and alerts the Reverend to another presence in the church. The aging man turns around, and upon seeing who has entered his church shouts ‘Get yourself from the house of God!’ Rahne ignores him and stands before him at the altar, her anger glowing she tells him that has a much right to be here as he does.
Calling Rahne the “Devil Child” Craig tells her she has no right, and that her very presence poisons the Lord’s kindness. Rahne asks Craig if that is what he told his newest target, Bridgit Shane. Rahne asks Craig if called her a “Devil Child” when her mutantcy manifested, and if he promised to kill her with the Lord’s “kindness”. The unenlightened Reverend raises a fist and tells Rahne that they should have burned her when they had the chance.
Wolfsbane takes a seat on one of the pews and tells Craig that perhaps he should have, what for all those years she spent as his ward, never questioning all the thoughts he filled her head with, perhaps Craig should have burned her – before she met Moira MacTaggert! Rahne tells him that Moira never filled her with thoughts, but showed her how to find information for herself. Rahne tells Craig that he offered nothing but indoctrination, but Rahne found for herself education. Rahne tells Craig that Bridgit Shane is a mutant, like she, and nothing to do with the Devil.
Changing the subject somewhat, Rahne informs Reverend Craig that in all the time she has been away, he has still been in her nightmares. But Rahne has the upper hand, and tells Craig that there was one thing that scared him about her – the fact that she has information – she knows about him! Rahne speaks fast and furious now, telling Craig that there is a big world outside this little town that he doesn’t care about, and why should he? After all, he rules this town as if he were God. Rahne tells him that there is information if you know how to find it, and she has been to places where you can access information through keyboards and phone lines – and has used them!
Craig is silent as Rahne tells him she knows he has not always been in Kinross, that he started his ministry at the Port in Ullapool – which is where he met her mother! ‘A dock workers’ whore’ Craig calls Rahne’s mother. Rahne narrows her eyes and tells Craig that is simply what he says about her, before telling Craig she knows he made her mother his “special project”. But she was a wild one who danced on table tops in late night bars. Rahne remembers the other night, how she, Moira, Meggan and Amanda Sefton danced on a table at a bar, and she smiles inside, thinking that perhaps she is like her mother.
Rahne tells Craig that she knows he was determined to “save” her mothers soul ‘with all that fire and brimstone you do so well’, that he prayed over her sweaty and determined, until she betrayed him by falling pregnant with Rahne. Rahne’s eyes become sad as she reveals her mother died in childbirth, and somehow Reverend Craig became her guardian. Rahne asks Craig why that was, why he would bother with such a woman, unless…Rahne tells Craig what he already knows, that he was quickly pulled out of Ullapool by the church and relocated here to Kinross, a considerable distance away.
Rahne asks Craig why that was, and why he hates her so much, and Bridgit Shane too, who, Rahne adds, also has red hair like she and her mother. As Craig drops to his knees, Rahne asks him if he is weeping, and whether or not he will tell Bridgit’s parents that he made some dreadful mistakes. Rahne tells him that his specter has hung over her for years, and that she has dreamt of his fiery torches for too long. ‘This is my fiery torch’ Rahne tells him, ‘I know about you!’
Reverend Craig cries as he looks up at Rahne Sinclair and tells her he hopes God strikes her down. The brave Rahne turns and leaves the church, the candles burn down as she goes, and Reverend Craig is left alone in an empty building.


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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

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Counterfire
Aboard the Moonlight Flit, Nightcrawler and Meggan, were almost back at Muir Island. They had traveled to America to pick up their old friend Alistaire Stuart, who was in desperate need of their help. Now however, the three friends find themselves at the mercy of several Black Air helicopters who had located them, and set the Moonlight Flit alight. Being a mere medical vessel, the Moonlight Flit is unarmed and without defenses. Inside the craft Alistaire begins to panic, thinking they will all die. Nightcrawler tells him not to dig their graves until they are lying down.
Nightcrawler tells Meggan that the Flit is set to auto-hover, and they are going to have to take the Black Air helicopters down the old-fashioned way. Meggan asks Kurt what his plan is. Nightcrawler tells her to take to the air and 'do something‘ when she sees the first chopper go down. That said, Kurt teleports across the water into the first helicopter he saw. Inside the cockpit, he knocks the two piloting Black Air agents out. Kurt makes sure that both of them are wearing a lifejacket, while Meggan takes flight, hoping that Nightcrawler remembers that he himself has no lifejacket on, just before the helicopter plunges into the water.
Meggan’s power is elemental in nature, she has the ability to draw energies from the Earth itself, by reaching out to the basic forces of it, and speaking to them. In this instance, she makes the electromagnetic field of another helicopter‘s electronic hardware simply go away. If she wanted to she could have taken the electromagnetic field away from the pilots themselves. But Meggan is not a killer.
A gun form a third helicopter turns towards where Nightcrawler is, in the ocean. Kurt teleports, unfortunately for him, his powers work best in straight lines. Straight horizontal lines, not vertical, as they are less reliable, and hurt. However, he makes it back to the Moonlight Flit, though just barely, as he hangs on the edge of the access hatch. He calls out to Meggan who tells him she will be right there – until she is fired at. Turning mid-air to the chopper that just fired at her, she says to the pilot ‘Don’t you shoot at me’. If they want to play with fire, she will show them fire. She lights up the propellants that fire the helicopter bullets, so that the pilots can “see them better”. Of course that results in an explosion of that chopper. Turning to the last helicopter, Meggan tells them not to look so smug. She tells the pilots that she has taken the guns off the others, and she will do worse to them, if they don’t jump out of their helicopter right now. The pilots comply with Meggan’s request, and jump from their chopper into the ocean below.
Flying over to Nightcrawler Meggan asks him if he saw her. She was very “Sigourney Weaver“ she thought. She asks Kurt if they can go home now. He answers that as soon as his arms shrink back to their normal lengths they can. And to think – in his circus days he thrived on daring acts like this!
In London, Excalibur’s cloaked Midnight Runner slides across the waters. Inside the ship, Kitty, piloting the aircraft, asks Brian if he still wants to do this. Brian tells her that if Shinobi Shaw and the New York Hellfire Club cannot unravel what is going on in the London Chapter, then it must be serious, and well worth his time. Especially if Mountjoy has infiltrated them, as Shaw believes. And the files say Mountjoy kills like any of them breathe. Sitting quietly, up until now, Rahne “Wolfsbane” Sinclair reminds her teammates that Shinobi is not to be trusted. Kitty agrees, before opening the drophatch. Before jumping out, Brian tells his friends he will be careful, and to make sure Meggan gets the note he wrote her, as this all happened to quickly for them to say goodbye.
Brian flies towards the ground, using his powers of Captain Britain, who he once was, a fusion of wild genes and old magic. But Brian gave up the names and costumes and wars. All he wanted to do was build things. In the distance he can hear the deep hammerings of war, and he fears it. Brian lands in the streets of London and walks to his destination – the Hellfire Club.  He knocks on the door.
Muir Island. The techno-organic Douglock stands infused to the ground beneath him, starring up at the sun. As Dr. Moira MacTaggert walks up to him, he says to her ‘I’ve begun something’. Surprised and a little wary, Moira tells him he used a contraction – something he has never done before. He tells Moira that since his creation, he has wanted a reconciled position between his dual identities: the mechanical logic of the alien Phalanx, and the template of the deceased New Mutant, Doug Ramsey. Douglock believes that he should never have fought for the reconciliation, as you cannot force order on something as chaotic as personality, which is formed by random events and linkages.
Smiling, Moira tells Douglock, though not wishing to alarm him, that he has ‘taken root a bit’, as wires and techno-organic material from his feet is merged with the ground. Douglock knows, and is happy. He wanted to know if he could feel what Meggan feels, in her elemental talent…the pulse of Earth itself. Douglock tells Moira that he has set his brain to access and link various experiences and ideas, at complete random, just to see what happens. He believes it was quite a paradigm to come to that conclusion, that like people he should just “see what happens”. In the end, he will either come out with an integrated personality, or not. Moira’s smile has turned to a frown, but Douglock tells her not to worry, everything will be fine, he just wants to watch the sun go down.
Moira MacTaggert is a doctor, and dislikes trusting to a self-diagnosis. She doesn’t like it at all. Still she heads back towards her lab complex, when suddenly Pete Wisdom suddenly startles her. She asks him what he is doing creeping around? Armed with a fire extinguisher, he tells her to be quiet, as he is hunting flying rats. Lockheed? Moira says everyone is going mad. As Pete approaches Lockheed, he tries to coax him out, by telling the dragon he has a “present” for him, in return for Lockheed giving him back his cigarettes. ‘Stupid looking son of a drug-crazed anteater’ Pete calls him. Holding packets of cigarettes, Lockheed tells Wisdom that he will never take him alive.
Deep beneath London, wallowing in the sewer-water, the Black Air agent known as Scratch is highly over-qualified for what he is doing at the moment. However, Scratch is the liaison between the Hellfire Club and Black Air, which means he is the only agent of Black Air with the correct clearance to see what he is seeing here under London. In fact, what he is seeing is centuries old and hasn’t been seen since it was built. Both the Hellfire Club and Black Air need what is inside. As Scratch looks at the ancient door in front of him, marked with a demonic skull, he wonders if what is inside wants to come out.
Inside the London Hellfire Club, gazing around the foyer, Brian remarks on how impressive it is. A diminutive man asks Brian if he may be of any service. Brian tells the butler that he demands an immediate audience with the Inner Circle. He tells the butler that he is not interested in protocol or correctness, and that he is heir by right to the position of Black Bishop. The butler understands. He introduces himself as Rutledge, manservant to the Inner Circle. Rutledge asks Brian to follow him, and tells Brian that he knew his father, Sir James Braddock. Brian is surprised, and asks Rutledge how he knew who he was. Rutledge tells Brian that his family has a genetic disposition towards photographic memory, and that they have served the Hellfire Club for generations. Sir James was one of Rutledge’s favorite people here. Rutledge tells Brian to enter, and simply make his petition, before wishing him good luck. Brian thanks the butler, and hopes that they will talk again.
Entering a large chamber of the Inner Circle’s, Brian introduces himself, and states who his father was. He now claims his father‘s seat as Bishop of the Inner Circle, by right of ancestry. The Black Queen is impressed with Brian’s approach, done the old way, very direct. She introduces herself and bids him forward. Addressing the Kings, Red and Black, Brian asks them if the court hears him on this. The Red King tells him they do, and the Black King, cigarette in hand, remarks how very good it is to have a Braddock in the Circle again.
A loud outcry is heard, and the Red Bishop steps up to speak. He tells Brian that he will not countenance this insult. He says that the balance of Red and Black here is already to thick, and that there should only be one color in rule. He challenges Brian to a duel for the sole Bishopric of the Hellfire Club. ‘Red Bishop?’ Brian asks. The Red Bishop tells Brian that he spits in the milk of Brian’s mother. Looking embarrassed with the Red Bishop, Ms. Steed, the Black Queen tells Brian that they changed the opposing color from White to Red, to distance themselves from the “coarse” American branch of the Club.
The Red Bishop tells Brian that he will kill him a thousand times over for he is cruel and mighty -–but is knocked out when Brian raises his fist and shoves him away, asking him to be quiet. Ms. Steed tells Brian he is now Black Bishop, and welcomes him to the club. As she sets about to bring him up to date on the latest business, Brian wonders to himself, which of them is possessed by Mountjoy.
Muir Island, nighttime. Nightcrawler, Moira, Kitty, Meggan, Colossus, Wisdom, Wolfsbane, and Lockheed stand around the kitchen, listening to the Alistaire Stuart’s story. As Moira gives him a shoulder massage, he tells the heroes that he doesn’t even know how long he has been running for. It all happened so fast. He reminds them of how the Weird Happenings Organization had taken guardianship of the Warpies, the children mutated by the Reality Warp, which occurred in the Eighties. While he worked with the Warpies, helped them recover, he paid less and less attention to the administration and politics around the W.H.O. He never even noticed Black Air.
Alistaire tells Excalibur that Black Air started out as a secret Ministry of Defense unit, charged with recovery of unusual artifacts that could be interpolated into weapons design. Eventually, Black Air took over W.H.O.’s role to observe and deal with paranormal occurrences. Black Air was backed by a government vote  - a vote bought by the Hellfire Club. Standing next to Wisdom, Kitty, not wanting to say what Alistaire said isn’t true, after all, she has known him for years, asks Wisdom, who used to work for Black Air, how much he knows of this to be true. Wisdom tells everyone that he wasn’t around at the beginning, but Alistaire’s story sure explains a couple of things.
Meggan asks Alistaire why he ran. After all, they helped him free the Warpies, and knew he was happy teaching them. Alistaire finally looks up from having his head in his hands. Tired and unshaven he tells Meggan and the others that Black Air killed and dissected the Warpies in the name of “Research”. And that is what Black Air is amassing all of those things for. They may say that they are taking them out of unsafe hands, and putting them in storage, but along with the London Hellfire Club, they have plans for them. The Hellfire Club used to be made up of the ruling class, and Black Air will make the current Club the ruling class again. Black Air will keep the status quo going in the background, keep the country dull and mediocre and in pain, the way it is now. The Inner Circle will feed off the lifeblood of the country in private. “Shadow Rulers” that even the Prime Minister wont know about. Alistaire tells everyone he saw the plans, that is why Black Air wants him dead – and they want Excalibur dead too!
It is well and truly nighttime now. Still standing outside, Douglock watches, with new eyes, the stars, and the night sky – things he hasn’t taken much notice of before. He is becoming one person. However, a single thing nags at his wildly randomizing logic center. One star is growing bigger, and darker. As it approaches Muir Island, he makes out the shape of it. It is not a star, but a jetplane. His random state-of-mind cannot make sense of it, confusing him. Suddenly, the planes engine howls, and a flash of silver darts from it…and stabs right through Douglock. As he  is uprooted from the ground, and towed along behind the plane, attached by the spear, Douglock‘s heart breaks.