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Brother’s Keeper (1st story), So this Guy Walks up to a Fruit Whipz Counter…(2nd story)
First Story:In the Danger Room, Havok battles a Sentinel in a training sequence. Marvel Girl stands at the entrance, waiting to talk to him, and offers to come back later. Alex tells her he is almost done and completes the sequence.
Rachel nervously stammers that she needs someone to talk to. That’s what alternative timeline uncles are for, Alex tells her, and offers to take her to dinner. As they exit the Danger Room, a voice reminds Alex that the best time for Sentinel destruction is still held by Cyclops, causing Alex to curse.
At a local diner, Rachel tells her uncle how much she misses her mother, Jean Grey. As Rachel creates a small Phoenix raptor out of the candle on the table, Alex says they all miss Jean.
Not him, Rachel cries. Alex starts to defend his brother, but stops himself as he had promised Rachel he would not come to Scott’s defense.
Alex feels like he has let Rachel down, as he has hardly talk to her since she appeared from her alternate timeline. He quips that the Alex from her timeline was probably a lot older and wiser.
When Alex questions if her relationship with his counterpart was a good one, Rachel remembers a scene from her future timeline.
(flashback)As Sentinels tower overhead, a limp Havok is tethered to a beam from a destroyed building. Brainwashed as a mutant hound and bound by a leash to her keeper, a tear runs down Rachel’s face at her uncle’s demise.
(present)Rachel avoids the truth and tells Alex that he was the best uncle. Alex understands that the current situation is difficult, but she really should cut Scott some slack.
Rachel is astounded that Alex is defending his brother, especially about this. Alex quick backpedals, stammering that he’s not protecting Scott, but part of him can empathize with his sibling.
Rachel starts to think talking with Alex was a mistake, but Alex tries to explain his point of view. Their family members are like poster children for having their lives jerked around. Alex, Rachel, Scott, and Nathan have all had their lives and loved one stolen away from them at some point, but they pick up the pieces and move on.
Rachel explodes that two seconds after her mother’s death, Scott moved right on to Emma Frost. She fumes that going through a rough time does not excuse Scott from hooking up with the White Queen of the Hellfire Club.
Alex tries to interject, but there is no stopping Rachel’s tirade. She can’t believe Scott made Emma the Headmistress (emphasis on the mistress part) of the Xavier institute.
Alex thinks she is over-simplifying things but Rachel slams back that here are a few “simple” concepts. Grief, mourning, respect…where were those? Did Scott even love her mom?
Scott would have given his life for Jean’s in a heartbeat, Alex replies. He’s not defending Scott, but he thinks they can be a little more understanding. Rachel cries that nothing can justify what Scott did.
Alex quotes that “the Devil doesn’t change, the Devil changes you”. Apocalypse’s possession of Scott changed him and ripped apart his soul. Scott was possessed for months and didn’t know who he was. Everything that Jean went through with the Phoenix Force, Mastermind and her clone, Madelyne Pryor, Scott went through it right by her side.
Alex believes that Scott has never stopped grieving for her mom, not for a minute. He reminds Rachel that she knows what it’s like to have your body and soul taken over by evil and to have the power to destroy the universe. Was she able to look at anything the same after that?
Alex himself was gone a long time and when he came home, things had changed. People change and being mutants, they should know that better than anyone. He starts to tell Rachel that he understands that it can’t be easy to see her dad with someone else, but she promptly cuts him off.
Rachel yells that if Alex thinks Scott had a hard time, what about her mom? After everything she went through, Jean still came back to Scott. Glowing with rage, she wants Alex to explain to her why Scott couldn’t come back to Jean.
Noticing the shining Phoenix symbol over Rachel’s eye, Alex warns her to turn it down a bit as other restaurant patrons look on. Rachel starts to cry, wondering how everyone can just be letting this all happen.
Alex gently tells her that for as long as he knew Jean, all she wanted was for Scott to be happy. Maybe being with Emma is what makes him happy. “NO!”, Rachel cries out as she takes on her shadow form and energy crackles around her.
Returning to her normal form and sitting back down, Alex asks her if that made her feel any better. Rachel just can’t understand why he would pick Emma and if people can really change that much.
Suddenly, a group of police burst in and tell the “muties” to freeze. Rachel uses her telepathy to wipe the officers’ memories and cloak them from sight. Thoroughly confused, the police report back to dispatch and leave.
Wrapping up their conversation, Alex says Scott always does the right thing and it often causes him nothing but trouble, but maybe being with Emma is the right thing for him, right now.
Rachel sighs and says that when she asked Alex to talk to her, she really only wanted him to listen while she complained about his brother. Alex quips that he’s starting to think he’s kind of a crappy uncle.
Back at the Institute that night, Emma makes a flippant remark about a cozy family reunion as Alex and Rachel walk in. Scott chastises her as Rachel tells Alex she’ll think about what they talked about. Thanking Alex for dinner, she stalks right past Scott and Emma.
Scott tries to thank Alex for trying to talk to Rachel, but after thinking about the evening, Alex thinks it’s best if Scott doesn’t thank him.
Second Story:Sunspot and Cannonball sit on a bench in the mall. Bobby is trying to convince Sam to just walk up and ask a girl out, but Sam tries varying excuses to avoid having to approach a girl.
Bobby points out the girl at the Fruit Whipz counter and Sam supposes she’s okay. Bobby thinks the girl is “choice” and orders Sam to go talk to her. Sam is not in the mood, but Bobby insists it will be easy for a smart, good-looking guy like Sam to ask her out.
If it’s so easy to ask girls out, Sam replies, Bobby should go ask her out. Startled by how the tables have turned, Bobby quickly recovers and says he will. Sam bets his friend ten bucks that the girl will say no. Bobby counters with a wager of twenty dollars that she will accept and sets off for the Fruit Whipz stand.
Nervous and shaking, Bobby orders a large drink and strikes up a conversation with the attendant, Cheryl. After some light banter, Bobby introduces himself and asks Cheryl if she would go to a party on Saturday night with him. Cheryl thinks it was cool of Bobby to ask, but she can’t go.
Returning to the waiting Sam, Bobby proudly says Cheryl didn’t say no. Sam quips that she didn’t say yes, either but Bobby assures him that she will be going to the party with him. Sam raises the stakes to fifty dollars and Bobby agrees, thinking he knows just what to do.
Back at Xavier’s, Bobby whines to Rahne that he doesn’t know what to do. She tells him he just has to accept that Cheryl said no, but Bobby feels everything went really well with Cheryl.
Rahne can’t believe that he gleaned that much of an impression from a thirty-second conversation while the girl made him a milkshake. Trying to read in a chair nearby, Doug Ramsey tells the two of them to shush.
Bobby knows it was a short conversation, but he really felt Cheryl was into him. Rahne points out that he only talked to her to prove a point to Sam. It started out that way, Bobby replies, but he really thought this chick was cool.
Rahne thinks he should forget about it and not pester Cheryl, as she might already have a boyfriend or find Bobby creepy for asking her out again. Bobby can’t believe she would find him creepy and Doug shushes the two of them again.
Bobby sets off, determined to ask Cheryl out again, because at the very least he doesn’t want to lose fifty bucks. The wager disgusts Rahne, and Doug sighs that Bobby didn’t even ask his opinion.
Bobby heads to his room and pulls out a Playtoy magazine from under his bed. Amazed at himself for actually reading an article in the magazine, he read about how to sweep a woman off her feet.
A sudden knock on the door by Professor Xavier startles Bobby and he stuffs the magazine back under his bed. The professor has come by to tell Bobby his geology lab will be starting an hour earlier today.
Noticing Bobby’s squirming, Xavier asks him if everything is all right. Bobby starts to ask Xavier if he has ever…then changes his mind and tells him everything is fine.
That night, Bobby wanders the grounds and runs into Arty, the groundskeeper. Bobby tells him about Cheryl turning him down and Arty says that Bobby merely lost control of the situation.
Arty thinks Cheryl was playing hard to get and Bobby fell for it. Women like men who are in command, Arty explains, and that Bobby needs to be a suave, smooth-talking man of action—a tiger! If Bobby doubts his expertise, Arty assures him, all he needs to do is talk to Arty’s ex-wives.
Later, Bobby approaches the Fruit Whipz counter once again. Dressed in a dashing suit and re-introducing himself as DaCosta, Roberto DaCosta, he asks Cheryl to accompany him to a tropical island party that evening. Cheryl sounds unsure, but Bobby takes control and tells her if she declines, she will miss out on the most exciting time of her life.
Cheryl stammers that she’s not dressed for a party, but Bobby tells her she looks smashing and drags her off. They approach a stunning, sleek blue sports car and Bobby informs Cheryl this is just one of his cars.
As they take off, Bobby notices helicopters following them in the rear view mirror. He expertly speeds up as Cheryl looks on adoringly. The helicopters start to shoot at the car and Bobby pushes a red button that launches two missiles that take out the helicopters.
They come to a screeching halt in front of the Tropical Island Paradise club and Bobby and Cheryl hit the dance floor. Cheryl remarks that it’s kind of loud and Bobby takes that to mean she wants to go somewhere more private.
They head upstairs to one of the lofts Bobby owns and Cheryl admires the artwork Bobby has painted. She notices a guitar hanging on the wall and can’t believe that he plays the guitar, too.
Bobby tells her he wrote a song about her right after she turned him down and he starts to warble the song to her. Just when Cheryl asks Bobby to kiss her, a voice booms out, asking him what in tarnation he’s doing.
Cheryl, the guitar and the loft fade away, revealing Bobby alone in the Danger Room. Sam has shut down the sequence and again asks Bobby what he is doing.
Bobby stammers that he has it all figured out now and Cheryl will never know what hit her. Sam reminds Bobby that it was just a simulation in the Danger Room, but Bobby is confident that Cheryl will accept when he takes control of the situation. Sam wonders who told him such nonsense, but Bobby tells Sam to have his fifty bucks ready.
Dressed in a suit, Bobby approaches Cheryl again at the Fruit Whipz counter, but she barely remembers him. He asks her a second time to go to the party with him but she refuses. When Bobby says he won’t take no for an answer and that she’ll miss out on the most exciting time of her life, Cheryl yells that she said NO!
Later at the party, Bobby gives Sam his fifty-dollar winnings. Sam tells Bobby he shouldn’t have tried to whitewash her with all that manly-man garbage and can’t believe this whole thing started because Bobby was trying to give him advice on meeting women.
Bobby looks towards the door and can’t believe his eyes, as Cheryl has just come in. Cheryl isn’t thrilled that this is the same party Bobby had asked her to. When Bobby starts going on about her missing out on having the time of her life, Sam interrupts him.
Sam apologizes for Bobby’s antics and tells Cheryl he really is a nice guy, that he just got some bad advice about how to treat a lady. Cheryl smiles at Sam and asks why it couldn’t have been Sam that asked her out, because he is adorable.
A stunned Bobby can’t believe Cheryl saw through his act and decides she must be a mutant who can detect lies. Rahne laughs and tells him it is women’s intuition - women don’t need a special mutant power to see through a guy’s bull%#@!!


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[Assistant]
The Healing (1st story), Pain is Necessary, Suffering is Optional (2nd story)
First Story:In the barren snowy wilderness of Nunavut, Wolverine lies sprawled on the ground, bleeding profusely.
The human body has sixteen major organs, he thinks. The brain, which sends out pain signals, whether you want it to or not. The liver, which mostly soaks up beer. The pancreas, which in Logan’s case is currently laying half out on the snow. Then there’s the heart, which he knows breaks all too easily.
Right now, Logan can feel each and every one of those organs. He came up to Nunavut to forget for a while, but an “old friend” decided to follow him. His adversary did not survive the battle, but managed to do some pretty serious damage to Logan.
A pack of arctic wolves surround him, but Logan knows they won’t make a move until he stops breathing. The pain is almost unbearable, as a normal person would be in eight kinds of shock by now. But Logan has been through this before, more times than he can count.
His healing factor is already kicking in, and Logan focuses on living until the next moment. As he waits for the endorphins to dull the pain, he utilizes a technique taught to him by an ancient Japanese sensei.
He localizes his pain and visualizes it with a familiar object. Whoa, too familiar, as an image of Sabretooth comes forth. An image of an alien Brood replaces him, which is menacing but faceless.
Using this technique, the endorphins should start to kick in but Logan cries out, sending the wolf pack running. Prostaglandins, which enhance the pain, make him curl up in the fetal position and indicate that his wound is infected.
His healing factor will take care of the infection, after which the endorphins will finally arrive. Until then, Logan needs a distraction while the wound painfully knits itself back together.
When he is around the X-Men, Logan always plays down the effect of his injuries, telling them he just shrugs off the pain once he’s healed. It’s not quite that easy and a bad wound like this will make him feel phantom pains for months.
A Tibetan monk taught him another coping mechanism, years ago, but it only works after the endorphins have kicked in. You need to conjure up a care giver…a sort of guardian angel that protects you from the pain.
Logan came up with his caregiver a long time ago and has been using it whenever something like this happens. The trouble is, in his case, his angel is the same thing he came up here to forget.
Jean Grey, the woman he loved more than anything, who never loved him back in the same way. When she died, it tore a hole right through him and he came to Nunavut to forget that pain, to forget her.
Dead or not, Jean is going to get him through this. He never kid himself, as he didn’t think he and Jean would get together, but it was comforting just having her here. In this world…this cold, cold world.
His healing complete, Logan rises from the snow. He knows he’ll be feeling the phantom pains for months, but knows he’ll be okay as long as he remembers the first rule. “You don’t have to live through this ‘til it’s over. You just have to live ‘til the next moment. And when that moment comes, you’ll live with it, too.”
Second Story:
Outside the P&G bar, the police captain approaches a couple of his officers. Wondering why he got called down for a bar fight, he asks why his men didn’t go in and handle it.
An officer says they tried that, but points to an officer with several broken limbs being put into an ambulance. The captain is incredulous that one guy did all this, but the officer explains that some bikers made a short joke and things got out of hand.
The captain thinks this guy must be a monster, but a voice replies that he’s just a drowning man who’s convinced he can keep his head above water. The captain wonders who this new arrival is and Wolverine says that he’s the guy who going to throw him a life preserver.
Logan enters the building, where several bikers lie unconscious around the bar. A small figure, Puck, sits at the bar drinking from a bottle. Logan tells Eugene he looks and smells like something he’d scrape from the bottom of his boot.
Eugene responds that it’s good to see Logan, too, and if he came to join him for a drink. Logan declines, and Eugene asks why he is here then, since he doubts Logan was just in the neighborhood.
Logan says he thought he’d check out his old stomping grounds and see if any of the old gang was around. Eugene asks if everything is just like he remembered it, but Logan replies that everything seems…smaller.
Logan gestures to one of the beaten bikers and asks if girl scouts are next, since Eugene is tussling with such a tough bunch these days. Eugene retorts that they started it and at three-foot-nothin’, barely anything is beneath him.
Logan looks at his friend and can hardly believe that the man who pulled his fat out of the fire in Tangiers has been beaten by a nine-dollar bottle of booze. Furious, Eugene screams for him to shut up and smashes his liquor bottle against the wall.
He asks why Logan isn’t out saving the world or something, since he couldn’t have actually come all the way here to tell him he has a problem with the sauce. If he did, Eugene tells him to save his breath because he is doing just fine.
Logan tells him he looks it and Eugene tears into him in a rage. He curses and yells that Logan isn’t a mind-reader and has no idea what he has been through…what he’s going through.
Logan replies that it doesn’t take a mind-reader to know Eugene is pain. Pain is life’s way of letting you know that you need to do something different. Only fools keep doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results.
What would he know about it, Eugene snarls. He’s the X-Man, Wolverine, and everyone worships him while Eugene is nothing. He has no team, no job, and the people he used to consider his friends won’t even acknowledge him.
Eugene feels like a cliché, a laughing stock, a joke. He used to enjoy helping people, but he can barely remember the person he used to be. Eugene wants to remember, but can’t because he doesn’t know how.
Logan says that is bull and Eugene cracks his knuckles, telling Logan that he’s sick of him and what could he possible know about how Eugene feels. Logan smiles at his friend and starts to tell him a story.
A man accidentally fell into a huge pit and tried for days to get out, but couldn’t. Finally, he just gave up and sat down at the bottom of the pit, waiting for death to claim him. Suddenly he looked up and saw a man staring down at him. He shouted for the man to please help him get out of this pit and the man nodded and jumped down into the pit with him. The trapped man freaked out, asking how they were supposed to get out now that they both were stuck down there. The other man just smiled and told him not to worry, as he had been down here before…and he knew the way out.
Eugene smiles at Logan and the pair head out of the bar to meet the police. Logan gives Eugene a card with a phone number of where he can find some help when he gets out of jail.
They will pull you up by the bootstraps, he tells Eugene, but staying on his feet will be up to him. Logan tells him his number is on the back and leaves a cuffed Eugene in the back of a squad car.
The captain congratulates Logan on getting Eugene to surrender and asks if he thinks Eugene will stop stumbling into the deep end of the pool. Logan replies that if he wants it bad enough, Eugene will learn to walk on water.


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Blind Love (1st story), A Wonderful Life (2nd story)
First Story:
From his fire escape, Vincent watches the building across the street, where two silhouettes embrace and disappear from view.
He hadn’t spoken the name Vincent to anyone in years. Since then, he’d been called by another name - Mesmero. He had long forgotten pathetic Vincent, who couldn’t trust anyone, believe anyone and was basically pathetic.
But now Mesmero is gone, like one of those dreams where you can fly and nothing can ever hurt you again, and Vincent is back.
Vincent is struggling to stay one link above the bottom of the food chain, stealing blankets, begging for food and scuffling with other homeless people.
Mesmero walked among the gods as homo superior. He fought alongside titans like Magneto and ruled kings and queens. Mesmero even enslaved world-eaters, as he forced the mighty Phoenix to her knees.
Vincent couldn’t enslave anyone, never mattered to anyone. He couldn’t make his father go straight or keep his mother alive.
Vincent climbs down the ladder from the fire escape and waits in the hallway in the building across the street. A man and a prostitute complete their transaction as Vincent watches.
The man leaves and the hooker turns around, seeing Vincent. Her face lights up and she rushes into his arms. Her name is Glory and Vincent has fallen in love with her. She makes him feel alive again and hopefully she loves him too.
Glory offers to buy Vincent breakfast, but Vincent says she should save it so they can get out of here. Glory reminds him that is not going to happen for a bit and she wants to take her guy to breakfast.
As they walk through the park, the X-Man Rogue flies by overhead, bathed in flames. Glory is amazed and thinks Rogue is so neat. Vincent pulls Glory close and tells her there was a time when he ruled them all, that with a glance he could mesmerize them and make them his puppets.
Glory says she knows he was the best, but is interrupted as Vincent is slammed to the ground from behind.
Vincent’s assailant is Glory’s pimp, who asks if this is the guy she was telling him about who has a lot of money. Glory cries out a denial, but Vincent is heartbroken by her betrayal.
Nobody has ever loved Vincent, not unless he made them. Now he’ll never be able to make anyone do anything ever again.
The pimp stomps on Vincent’s head and demands his money. As Glory looks on, the pimp beats Vincent mercilessly with his cane. He accuses Vincent of trying to steal his girl, but Glory insists Vincent is just a friend and has no money.
Feeling tricked and betrayed, Vincent recalls that even as Mesmero he never won. He always found someway to lose, no matter who he is, and he deserves this death.He was betrayed by a robot, defeated by a goddess, and so falls Mesmero.
A loud bang interrupts his memories and he sees Glory standing over her dead pimp, a smoking gun in her hands. She asks Vincent if he’s okay and helps him to his feet. Glory cries that she told her pimp that Vincent had money, but then she found he was broke and didn’t care because she loved him.
Vincent can’t believe that she saved him and that he is loved. He tells Glory they have to get out of here and promises to take care of her and get back on top of the world. Glory hesitates, worried they don’t have enough money, but Vincent says she has to trust him.
Vincent never had to ask anyone for their trust as Mesmero-he just took it. But Glory takes his hand and gives her trust, and her heart, willingly and it’s all Vincent will ever need.
Second Story:Matt Hawkins will never forget the day he met Vicki.(flashback)A young woman is held hostage by the evil Dr. Zialus. Suddenly the side of the building is torn open and the Marvel flies in.
Dr. Zialus tells him that it is too late, as he has already activated the super magnet and the meteor is being drawn in. The Marvel orders him to unhand the young lady and Dr. Zialus cackles, as there is only time to save the city from the meteor or save the girl.
The Marvel scoops up the woman and tells her to hold on tight. He flies up and smashes the meteor with his great strength, managing to save them both.
(present)It turned out to be the most important day of his life. All his life, all he had ever wanted was to be a hero, be important. Then Vicki came along and showed him something more important than simple ambition.
They married a year later and Vicki was the only one he ever entrusted his secret to. He maintained his secret identity as Mark Hawkins, reporter for the Daily Globe, for almost forty years.
With that job, he could always be in the right place and the right time and quickly transform into the Marvel, fighting evil whenever he was needed. Some days he still regrets giving it all up, but Vicki was right.After his last scrape with Dr. Zialus and his robot army, he knew he was getting too old. It was time for both the Marvel and reporter Mark Hawkins to retire.
Then a bright, white light swept over the world and when Mark Hawkins woke up, everything was gone. His house was empty, the lights wouldn’t work and most importantly, Vicki was gone.
Mark raced to the secret entrance to the Marvel’s lair in the basement, but it was gone. As he slammed his fist into the ground, he realized his powers had vanished as well. Fearing that Dr. Zialus had finally found them, Mark had to find another way into the basement.
While digging frantically outside the house, Mark is confronted by Detectives Curtis and Ezell, who received reports of screaming at the address. They ask Mark to put the shovel down and come speak with them.
Mark cries that he is almost finished and they don’t understand, but as the detectives move to take the shovel away, he smacks Ezell across the head.
Later at the police station, the detectives have a hard time believing Mark’s story of being the Marvel. Ezell jokes that he must be really tight with Captain America. Mark realizes how his story sounds, but baiting him by making up a ridiculous-sounding super hero like that is not going to trip him up.
Mark insists that he is not crazy and needs their help finding his wife, as she is in grave danger if Dr. Zialus has discovered his secret.
The detectives find “grave danger” an interesting choice of words, considering they found Mark digging a deep hole. They ask who, besides Mark, was the last person to see his wife.
Mark hangs his head in grief. Vicki was his wife of 43 years and he would never hurt her. Their neighbor, Tom Bohan, was just over at the house yesterday and they should talk to him if they don’t believe Mark.
Detective Ezell presses Mark again as to why he was digging the hole and Mark replies that he was trying to get to his secret lair under the house. Ezell snidely remarks that hasn’t Mark ever heard of a door-that is what Ezell has going into his basement.
Mark pounds the table in frustration, insisting that it was a secret entrance that only he could activate. Ezell tells him the basement is empty, as is the rest of the house. There is no sign of a break-in and dust levels are consistent in every room, with no signs of furniture having ever been in the house.
As for his neighbor, the detective tells Mark the house next door has been empty for ten years. Mark’s own house was deemed abandoned by the town and has been in arrears for decades.
Holding his head in his hands, Mark cannot understand any of this. He was just there a few hours ago and they were getting ready to sit down for dinner. Everything was perfect…
Ezell tells Mark that he is a sick man and they are going to get him the help he needs. Mark stammers that he’s not crazy, but Curtis tells him his wife doesn’t exist. She’s just part of his “power” fantasy, a beautiful damsel he rescued that was merely another part of his delusion.
Mark has had a psychotic break, Curtis tells him, and none of this was ever real. Mark can’t believe that, and he explains that he and Vicki got married on July 14th and they still visit the old town where they met every year on their anniversary. Why can’t they understand that she is missing?
Curtis says there are no records of his marriage and there are no records for Vicki of any kind. Not a birth certificate, social security number, bank account…nothing. Curtis apologizes that Mark had to find out this way.
Two uniformed offices grab Mark to escort him away. Mark yells that they are all agents of Dr. Zialus and demands to know the whereabouts of his wife. As Mark is taken from the room, Ezell feels sorry for him as he has lost everything…his whole life was in his head.
Detective Ezell drops the assault charge against Mark and the detectives return to their desks. Everyone is crowded around the television and they head over to see what the news is about.
The report says that it appears that the mutant population has been decimated, that many individuals have lost their “x” gene and the special abilities that go along with it.
Curtis looks at Ezell and wonders if it was possible that Mark was a mutant, but Ezell says he was just a crazy old man. After all, Mark didn’t even know who Captain America was.
Months later, orderlies do their rounds at the local mental hospital. When checking on Mark in his room, the young orderly asks what his condition is. The other orderly says when Mark arrived, he was healthy but now he barely eats and never speaks to anyone, merely stares out the window day and night.
When asked if he is delusional, the older orderly says it’s hard to say. At first all Mark talked about was his wife, but after a few days he just shut down. The doctors think he made her up, that she was part of his delusion of being a super hero.
The young orderly comments that the poor man looks like he’s lost in his own little world. Meanwhile, as he stares out the window, Mark’s life is playing out inside his head, as he grabs green beans to have for dinner. Vicki calls him upstairs and he tells his sweetheart that he’s coming…


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Dying Inside (1st story), How to be an Artist (2nd story)
First story: (present)Piotr Rasputin visits the grave and statue that were created for him when he was believed dead. It is near the grave of his little sister, Illyana. As the rain pours, he thinks about how Illyana always tried to make people think she was much stronger than she was by acting tough and trying not to reveal any cracks in her steely exterior.
She never fooled anyone. They knew that inside, she was scared like the rest of them. She had people fooled, but the truth is, she was the stubborn one. Yevgeny Yevtushenko said time has a way of demonstrating that the most stubborn are the most intelligent. He was right, for no matter how impulsively bullheaded Illyana was, she always managed to find the error of her ways - like when the Morlocks were massacred in their own tunnels. Piotr will never forget how Illyana reacted.
(flashback)Piotr visits his sister in her room. She is brooding and clearly tense. Piotr tells her she has to let this go, but Illyana turns and reminds him that the Morlocks were slaughtered for simply being mutants. How can he say something like that after seeing it happen? She picks up a book and tosses it at him, but he transforms into his steely form and it bounces harmlessly off his broad chest. He tells her that they all regret what happened and their deaths weigh heavily upon everyone.
Illyana isn’t convinced. She thinks Kitty, Dani… Doug - they’re all so calm about what happened. Piotr reverts to his human form and replies that people grieve in different ways. They have to understand that death is part of the life they choose to lead. When one of them passes, it’s best to put it behind them and move on quickly. The sooner she learns that the better.
Illyana pushes her brother away, insisting that there has to be a way to bring them back. Piotr asks her not to be foolish. She’s old enough to realize that there is no coming back from death. Illyana leafs through a book and asks why not. They can make it happen. There are plenty of ancient books and manuscripts that Xavier has collected from God knows where over the years. Who knows what secrets they hold? He asks Piotr to think about it. They can do anything! They have friends who can translate these books and enemies who have achieved immortality. They could pull together and make something happen.
Piotr assures her that there is no ‘maybe’ when dealing with death. Death is finality, and she must accept that. They have friends, admittedly, who have been lucky enough to return from the darkness beyond, but this is not one of those times. The Morlocks who died will not be so lucky. Illyana begins to create a stepping disc and asks why everything has to be so black and white with him. Piotr replies that it’s because he knows there is never any hope to be found in the grey area in between.
Illyana says she will prove him wrong. She will find a way to resurrect them. “You’ve taken this childish outburst far enough, Illyana. It’s time you…” Piotr doesn’t finish his sentence as Illyana has a moment of clarity. Something he has said has triggered a thought process that Piotr is unable to stop. She disappears through a disc with a parting warning from her brother, that by playing with time she can destroy everything. As she vanishes, Piotr wonders what on Earth she is thinking.
Illyana appears in Limbo where she controls space and time. She summons her soulsword, figuring that she can go back and set things straight. However, when she does, the first thing she sees is a Morlock hanging from the ceiling with a harpoon though their chest. More follow, killed in a variety of horrible ways. She sees Scalphunter pointing a weapon at a Morlock who appears to be terrified. She still thinks that she can save them, as Scalphunter pulls the trigger, killing the unfortunate Morlock. Illyana slumps to the floor, realizing that her foray into the past was foolish, just like her brother said.
Piotr is lying on the bed, but isn’t asleep. Illyana’s disc appears beside him and he sits up. Illyana stands there with tears streaming from her eyes. “They’re dead. I have to let them go now,” she cries. She throws herself at her brother and puts her arms around his neck. She tells him that he was right. There is no coming back. No matter what they can do with their powers, they have to let them rest in peace. She then apologizes for acting like she did. Piotr hugs her and apologizes himself for treating her like the child he once remembered.
Illyana says she doesn’t want to die. She doesn’t want him to leave her. She doesn’t know what she’d do without him. Piotr asks her not to fear. She will always be there for her. She asks him to promise, and promise he does.
(present)Piotr looks at his own statue and then at Illyana’s, which stands behind his own. He repeats her words to himself, and apologizes for taking so long to visit her and pay his respects. He didn’t know what to do. He was so confused – first the shock, then the guilt. It was all so overwhelming. He kneels before her statue and thinks himself foolish for talking to her about the finality of death and telling her there was no coming back. He looks at his hands and asks her to look at him now, kneeling before her grave, in the flesh and breathing again, while she remains locked in death’s cold embrace. He clenches his fists and says it’s not fair. He runs his fingers across her engraved name and tells her that he would do anything to get her back. Anything. She has no idea how sorry he is that he could not keep his promise. Even in death he has left her alone. He bows his head. “Forgive me.”
Second story: Piotr Rasputin is in art class, thinking about the painter Matisse and how he tended to play it safe in his work. Piotr does, however, appreciate Matisse’s courage in expressing the unexpected and having the conviction to break new ground. This bravery is what he hopes to find as he looks at the blank canvas before him. His instructor has asked him to submit a piece to a gallery showcase the coming Friday night. He has no idea what to draw.
His fellow pupils don’t appear to be having the same problems. Milos, a Warhol look-alike, is so inspired that he has decided to help Piotr find his muse, too. He busies himself with a fellow pupil’s sketch, which, although technically wonderful, isn’t challenging enough for his liking. He feels that to grow as an artiste, you must discover your darker side. True creation is pain and torment, he remarks. Maybe a refresher will open their eyes. Milos asks Piotr to stop for a second and consider his upbringing in Siberia. Piotr closes his eyes and thinks back to his homeland.
Piotr is hardly sentimental about the bleak landscape of the Ust-Ordynski. It was empty and unpleasing to the eye. However, beauty was present under the grey snow, and above it was his loving family who accepted his steel skin rather than hate and fear what he’d become. It was where he first began to draw. Surrounded by wasteland he dreamed of paradise. His ability to discover beauty amidst the unattractive inspired his artistic passions. So, Siberia was hard, but it wasn’t where his suffering began. That happened when he arrived in ‘beautiful’ America.
The years he has spent in America, marred by loss and heartbreak, are always fresh in his mind. How he expresses that pain across a canvas is the challenge he faces today. Where better to find inspiration than a museum. Piotr wanders around, looking at the paintings that line its walls. He immerses himself in centuries of art, and is shocked by what he sees. Is art indeed torment? he wonders. The museum reads like a timeline of pain, terrible beauty and agony in every stroke. Is this the beauty Milos sees? Can this be art?
Piotr makes his way to an Egyptian exhibition and notes that objects like the sarcophagi, which are inlaid with gold and jewels, exhibit beauty that distracts from… and conceals… the hideous truth within. It masks suffering in a beautiful façade, or even glorifies it. Piotr then wanders into another hall where he stands before a suit of armor; its steel skin reflecting his own as he changes into his metallic form. He touches the armor, thinking how terrible and elegant it is at the same time. Ages ago, this armor advanced on battlefields as a brutal instrument of death. Now, in a museum, it is considered high art.
Piotr wonders if this is what bothers him. He isn’t so different from these knights, encased in armor and balanced between art and destruction. So which is he? Is he Peter Rasputin, gentle artist and creator of beauty, or Colossus – instrument of suffering, advancing on battlefields of his own? Does he use his armor to hide his pain or does he use it to glorify his violence? Is he a knight or a poet? These and other questions pass through his mind as he looks through a sketchbook removed from his rucksack.
As Colossus, he is designed to inflict and absorb a lifetime of suffering, yet he has no desire to create more; pencilled, painted or otherwise. Perhaps the reason he draws is to distract himself from the pain inside his soul, like the terrible corpse inside the beautiful sarcophagus. So, he thinks, then what? Does he follow Milos’ advice and pour the pain and hardship he’s experienced into every sketch, or should he continue what he’s always done and enhance the beauty hidden beneath his armor? Beauty or ugliness? Which will he offer his muse?
(Friday)Piotr’s finished work is hanging on a wall in the gallery. It is a bearded knight, standing beside a leafless tree with a tractor standing alone in the field behind him. Milos offers a criticism to anyone who will listen. At this moment the people enduring his outpouring are Wolverine and Cyclops. Milos feels that Piotr’s work is typical of him – bland. A hallmark attempt at angst and torment. He wonders what is so disturbing about the painting. Logan replies that he’s no critic, but isn’t there something to be said about a knight with no battle to fight? Scott understands. The character has no sense of purpose.
Milos disagrees, and calls it a pretty knight on a pretty canvas. There’s nothing challenging about it. Kitty Pryde thinks it’s sad. She tells Milos that it’s as the saying goes - beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Milos walks off, feeling like he’s surrounded by clichés and amateurs.
Piotr doesn’t think Milos understands his work. Milos thinks that true art comes from terrible images - depictions of pain and suffering, but all his life Piotr has known such agonies in one form or another. Sometimes they hide themselves in the beauty he yearns for. Like the sarcophagi, like Illyana and like Kitty. Attractive vessels hiding grim truths within. He creates beauty in the hope of escaping the pain. He attempts, like his brother knights, to use beauty to combat darkness.
Piotr’s pain is always there, no matter how much beauty he creates to balance it. It will always be there, hiding beneath the surface. Hiding beneath his armor. Hiding inside his artist’s heart.


[User]
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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
untitled
The PEAK:One hour ago, a cloaked AIM extraction team broke in and kidnapped three mutants. Wolverine gateways onto the station and literally drops after the AIM ship (no spacesuit or anything). He lands on the vessel. Through a window, he sees the AIM agents in their usual yellow bodysuits. He slices the ship open and very soon the AIM agents from that room are helplessly floating in space.He gets in and walks through an airlock, until he reaches a computer. He hates computers. Nevertheless, he uses it to get intel. He sees a map of the plan which includes abducting the mutants and getting them to an AIM dreadnaught.As if on cue, the dreadnought appears and docks the smaller vessel.Suddenly, a grimace appears on the screen, identifying itself as a MODOK AI, which announces the mission objectives: infiltrate SWORD station the PEAK.Little late to the party, Logan mutters. The question is why. The AI replies, acquire specific mutant samples (alive) for use in Project TUNDRA. Acquire dummy mutant sample (dead or alive) for misdirection. It’s okay if he is confused, the AI patronizes him. Even if they explained, he wouldn’t understand it. Yes, Wolverine, it is talking to him.What the hell? Wolverine swears. Does he think it can’t see him? the AI continues. Does he think this ship is not alive? And does he really think it wouldn’t sacrifice the ship for science? Because he’d be wrong!As Wolverine realizes this is not good, the AI initiates the self-destruct sequence.As it counts down, Wolverine runs and finds the AIM agents currently delivering the three mutants in containers to the dreadnought. However, he is on the wrong side of the door. As the countdown reaches one, the vessel is destroyed.Caught in the explosion, as he clings to the dreadnought’s hull, Wolverine recalls how much he hates computers.


[Assistant]
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The small AIM vessel is destroyed in the explosion and Wolverine is heavily injured as well, but nonetheless he holds onto the hull of the dreadnought for dear life. He manages to claw his way inside.An AIM agent inside fires at him but Wolverine just slaps him aside. He isn’t in the mood, he announcers. He hesitates as he reaches three elevators, then hits the AIM agent who tried to sneak up on him.He points at a box next to the right door and asks for the code. The AIM agent scoffs, he doesn’t even know what that is, then gives him the code: 4290.As Wolverine enters the code, he replies it feels ten degrees colder than the rest of the room, so he’s got a pretty good idea. Indeed, it is a cooler. Inside is a sixpack with a warning by Ted not to drink it, unless you are Ted.As Logan downs one beer, he asks who Ted is. The AIM agent replies Ted was on the transfer ship and got sucked into space when Wolverine boarded it.Oh, then they drink to the loving memory of Ted, Wolverine grins. “So long, Ted, thanks for the memories!”He asks the AIM agent if he wants one. The man curses him out and calls him murderous, mutant scum. Unimpressed, Logan downs the beer. He tosses the can away and remarks he can do better than that. AIM broke into their home, abducted his friends, blew him up… and then he shot him. So, which one of these elevator shafts leads to his friends? The AIM agent refuses to tell. Logan hits the screen of his hood and repeats his question. Do your worst! the AIM agent challenges.Logan hits and repeats the question several times, until the screen is broken, then he starts hitting his face. Again, the man replies they are in hell, and he hopes Wolverine will join them.One blow later, he states he’ll talk. He doesn’t believe him, Wolverine replies and hits him again.Several blows later, the man announces it is the middle shaft. Another two blows for good measure and Wolverine tells him now he has done his good deed of the day.He kicks in the door to the middle shaft, looks down and jumps, downs another beer on the way down and hits the ground hard.In front of him, he sees what looks like the glowing face of a MODOK. He realizes the AIM guy lied to him.Further upward, the AIM guy chuckles.


[User]
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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
untitled
Wolverine jumps down an elevator shaft but, instead of finding one of his abducted friends, he lands on the ground next to a hole which contains a huge MODOK mainframe. It informs him it cannot be bargained with and he has ensured his inevitable and painful demise. Emptying another beer can, Wolverine wonders what it is with talking robots The MODOK mainframe asks if he is ready to die. Every damn day, Wolverine replies, but why is AIM so interested in kidnapping mutants?MODOK replies that forecasts predict AIM will not survive the next five years without engaging in Project Tundra. Project Tundra demands biological resources. Project Tundra must succeed for AIM to survive. Therefore, AIM must have biological resources. Wolverine decides to cut to the heart of the matter, unsheathes his claws and attacks with a scream of rage.MODOK chides that it is a holographic facsimile of a physical entity. A familiar face to put him at ease as the interface. It is this ship. Its mainframe is redundant, self-healing circuitry and organic memory cores. What is his plan for success? It mocks, is he going to slice the one hundred billion unique connections that make up its being? Seems to be just the plan.It warns him it will take about seventeen years to succeed. Wolverine continues slashing and it complains it has lost the memory of its first genocide. And his plan to replace all “beekeepers” with automatons. It screams in horror as its copies of the original Star Wars, which are no longer available in stores or streaming, are destroyed. It is prepared to negotiate.Wolverine ignores it and keeps cutting. Fine, a peace offering then, it hopes he will choke on it! The MODOK mainframe opens a hatch in the ground and Logan falls. He lands in a corridor right in front of two AIM goons with one of the caskets containing one of the missing mutants.Wolverine kicks their asses and opens the container. Isn’t he a sight for sore eyes, he informs Nightcrawler. When he asks what happened, Logan summarizes how AIM attacked the PEAK, knocked everyone out and abducted him and two other mutants for some weird science experiment. He hands him the data file he took from one of the goons.Kurt announces the other two mutants have been brought to other bases, one in Antarctica, the other in New Zealand. Instead of splitting up, they decide to work together to get the mutants, one after the other. Kurt thanks him for rescuing him. He can thank him by buying him a drink later, now let’s go finish the rescue mission. Kurt teleports them away.


[User]
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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
untitled
Under the surface of Antarctica: The AIM base Reckoning is holding one mutant captive, but help is one teleportational jump away. Nightcrawler teleports himself and Wolverine inside the base. Not aware they are next to the edge, Wolverine takes a wrong step and falls again. Kurt catches him midfall and they both land at the bottom.Kurt considers this a rather ominous start to the mission. Looking at a door, he asks if they dare walk through the proverbial threshold, eager for more adventure. Logan sniffs and holds him back - there is a large group of AIM “beekeepers” with guns aimed at them on the other side of the door. They should go around, he announces. Kurt teleports them to another room. Logan sniffs again. Does something smell off? Kurt asks as Logan smells an AIM agent on the toilet.Five minutes later, deep inside their base, they fight their way through the “beekeepers.” Nightcrawler admits this is not going as smoothly as he’d hoped.The AIM agent on the toilet didn’t warn them there would be much resistance further down. Logan is tired of these guys lying to him. At least he stuffed the guy into the toilet, head first.The two X-Men continue fighting and moving downward. As a fresh group of “beekeepers” comes at them, Nightcrawler sees the hibernation capsule containing their kidnapped mutant. Wolverine tells him to go ahead. He will keep them busy. As he does so, Nightcrawler teleports next to the capsule, opens it… and out comes a very angry Chamber.He shouts he has been awake for four hours, trapped in that tube. He unleashes his psychic energy, killing their foes.Calmer, he apologizes for his temper. He nervously asks Kurt if he is okay. He is fine, comes the unsure response, but he isn’t sure about him. He refers to Wolverine who also got hit by Chamber’s psychic energy. Somewhat fried, Wolverine growls, then orders Kurt to get them to the next base, so they can finish this mission. He wants to get home and get rid of this bacon smell.Kurt complies but, by the time they reach the New Zealand base, it has been evacuated. The last missing mutant – Husk – remains in possession of AIM…


[User]
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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Taking the Fall
1st story:
Utopia:
Namor returns to its shores to find the meditating Stepford Cuckoos and an (as usual) anxious Pixie. She tells him the island feels a mite more level now. Yes, Namor agrees. Dr. Nemesis has temporarily fixed the buoyancy engine. Now, if there are no more islands he needs to support, he’ll be returning… what are the Cuckoos doing? he asks. Monitoring the X-Men, Pixie explains. Some thieves broke into Graymalkin and stole some mindcore of Cerebra. They have infiltrated a hidden city beneath San Francisco, the Cuckoos announce.
He expects Summers and Frost have this well in hand, Namor remarks, not really interested. Pixie assures him they took a great deal of mutants with them. The Cuckoos address Namor. One of the thieves is an Atlantean-hybrid like him. Namor realizes this can mean only one thing…
In the hidden city of the Atlas Empire, miles beneath San Francisco, the X-Men have just arrived and are soon embroiled in a battle with the hundred of warriors of Atlas.
Cyclops gives orders for his X-Men to split the ranks, while Jimmy Woo orders the Atlas Empire to use non-lethal force.
As Namora beats Psylocke, Archangel calls out to her, asking what’s going on? It’s an emergency, she tries to explain but the next moment Angel is electrocuted by M-11. Namora tells him not to, but is fired at by Storm and Dagger.
Cyclops orders she absolutely has to go down and calls out for Iceman, who freezes her. M-11 blasts him in turn, causing Wolverine to attack the robot, telling himself it can’t be the same damn robot! He’s going down to so many pieces this time, he’ll never be put back together.
Flying at him with a rocket pack, Ken Hale aka Gorilla Man drags him off M-11. He’d love to put the two of them in a vault and watch them just tear each other down and rebuild all day. That wouldn’t get old…
Wolverine threatens the claws will go through him even easier. Yeah, if he can move his arms, comes the reply. He s strong but he ain’t gorilla strong. Ken holds fast to Wolverine’s arms and headbutts him. He puts him down, and M-11 puts a giant Buddha head on him. They just need a little more time…
In Utopia’s medi-center, Professor X is still resting. A doctor asks if he is all right. Scott took all of them, he replies… an army of Mongols. He hears the Cuckoos. There is battle underground. The doctor tells him to rest. Scott and the others will take care of it.
Logan is down, Xavier replies. Psylocke is down. The sea-woman has been frozen, the Cuckoos tell him. Where are they looking? he asks. Sharing the rapport, he sees Beast, then recognizes Gorilla Man and someone is using Cerebra. He is coming, he thinks, Cerebra...
A monk tries to get Beast to release “General Hale.” Beast both recognizes the name and Gorilla Man’s smell. He thinks he’d remember someone looking like him, Hale retorts. Both Beast and Gorilla Man suddenly slump down unconscious.
Jimmy Woo orders Iceman to throw an icewall over his people. A thick one. Dude, he thinks he’s forgetting which team he is on, Bobby Drake replies. He’s serious, Jimmy insists and points above them. Holy—Bobby exclaims as Atlas’ dragon ally Mister Lao spits fire at them, demanding to know who dares invade them?
Emma orders Storm to get it. Storm tries to fire lightning at Lao but fears she is just making the dragon madder.  Nightcrawler fires a weapon at him and Iceman is being worn down. Can Scott shut that mouth with a look? he asks. He can’t hear him, Emma replies. He just passed out the same time as Atlas’ leader.
Iceman too passes out but the X-Men are protected from Lao’s fury by a forcefield. Lao orders the robot M-11to drop his shield.
Emma suggests they press the attack but avoid the robot. No! Namor, brought by Pixie, announces loudly and commands both groups to cease the battle. They do the smart thing. Emma remarks he still has the loudest voice. Namor replies that he will not watch two groups to whom he is bound fight senselessly. He will resolve this dispute. Thatis Namor, right? Dagger asks incredulous.
Lao agrees that the Golden Horde will respect their Atlantean ally. He orders Atlas to stand down.
Namor asks what brought this on. Emma explains that Atlas stole the Cerebra unit’s core and the X-Men tracked them back here. It’s an entire city beneath San Francisco. Of course it is, Namor replies. It is the Atlas Empire. Please pardon the rest of them for their ignorance, Emma states sarcastically.
Namor looks at the unconscious Jimmy Woo. If he needed Cerebra he had a good reason. Is he hurt? He could pretend to worry about Scott as well, Emma states. But no. She doesn’t think so. She can’t exert her mind in her diamond form, but she thinks there is psychic energy at work. Thy are active… on another plane…
Elsewhere, in what seems to be the past of the original X-Men:
Cyclops cradles the dead Marvel Girl. Namora (in her original costume) informs him that she did not touch her. But she is here to see Jimmy Woo’s team Department Zero. She orders him to surrender.
She killed her! Cyclops shouts and unleashes his optic blast at her. Namora cracks her head on the rock behind her. Ken is shocked. Jimmy Woo draws his gun. He’s got a clear shot.
Iceman tries to ice up Namora. Cyclops sees Jimmy drawing his gun. They both fire at the same time and are both hit. Hank and Ken shout out in horror.
Angel, in the meantime, brings down Marvel Boy (the Uranian’s past identity). Gorilla Man grabs Angel and frees Bob who thanks him. Ken swiftly swirls Angel around, hitting Hank. What happened to Jimmy? Marvel Boy asks. Cyclops broke his neck, Ken replies. Angel and Beast, in the meantime, find Cyclops dead.
Marvel Boy begins to thaw the ice around Namora but remarks M-11 might be faster.
Angel tries to wake up Iceman while Hank cries out for the Professor. Marvel Boy tells Gorilla Man to get Venus and Ken muses she’s not here.
Angel warns Hank to get ready. They are thawing out Namora and she hits hard. Does he know her? Beast asks. Bobby angrily remarks he doesn’t have to tell them she hits hard. She killed Jean!
Marvel Boy eggs on Namora, but Beast steps between both teams. No, Jean was… Jean’s been dead. And Venus wasn’t with them, Gorilla Man recalls. They were looking for her. None of this is right. Have they been drugged? Namora wonders.
Beast states he believes some phenomenon is at play. When they got here, Atlas had monsters with them that are gone now. He’s right, Ken Hale recalls, but they were fighting them. This is like a dream. Things keep changing.
But Cyclops is dead, Iceman protests. No, he’s not, Cyclops tells him. That was weird. He was floating outside his body. Same for Jimmy Woo.
Bobby insists Atlas is tricking them but Angel doesn’t think so. And he’s starting to remember that he and Namora worked together. When the Hulk came back to Earth, Namora recalls. But she doesn’t work with them yet.
Ken is confused. This is messing with him. He knows in the fifties Jimmy asked Namora to join their secret fed team and she didn’t. She found them M-11 instead. He’s been destroyed but he should be rebuilding himself, shouldn’t he? Namora wonders. No, he can’t do that yet, Ken replies. This is the 50ies, but it can’t be because there weren’t any X-Men yet.
This ain’t the 50ies, Iceman remarks sourly. That’s what he’s saying, Beast states. If only the professor would come back into contact, he’s sure he could unwrap this. Bob can! Jimmy believes. Something like this happened to them before, does he remember? When the Yellow Claw used that gas, Marvel Boy recalls. No, when Captain America came after them, Gorilla Man interjects. Bob connected them and passed out. They all got stuck in his mind… it’s coming back to him. He really doesn’t know what they are talking about, Bob remarks. It’s his headband, Jimmy explains. It glows when he uses his mental powers. He said it was alien technology that wasn’t fully functional in 1958. Now it lets him connect other people’s minds, create dream worlds.
It’s a psychic amplifier, Beast adds. He may be able to contact Charles Xavier for them. Cyclops is uncertain. Can he help? Marvel Boy asks. Xavier is the king of this head stuff, Angel insists. Beast asks Marvel Boy to make him broadcast telepathically. He’ll call for him. Jimmy asks him to give it a shot. Bob asks Beast to call. And he does.
Xavier replies that he hears them and, a moment later, his astral form a ppears. Is he well? Beast asks. He thinks not, Xavier replies. He believes he is slipping in and out of consciousness. The Chuckster walks among us, Iceman announces.
Beast and Xavier call this scene a memory. Ken Hale too remembers. The X-kids came to Africa looking for their professor a long time ago. Xavier was trapped in that temple.
Wow, he had forgotten that, Angel admits. This reality is built of their common memories, Hank realizes.
Xavier explains he was scanning to find the person using Cerebra but the circuit pulled him in too. Bob is the one causing it. He is trying to use Cerebra, but it’s not working right. He believes the mistake was leaving the head band on. The two technologies are not compatible. Damn, why does everything have to get weird with him? Ken sighs.
The background disappears and the Agents and X-Men take on their present forms. Xavier explains that the Uranian’s mind is somewhat alien and he doesn’t have the protocol to use Cerebra. Jimmy Woo explains that their teammate Venus has been taken and Bob’s scans couldn’t find her. Their intel showed that the X-Men had a mental amplifier that could.
Namora adds that they didn’t know if the X-Men would let them use it and there was not time for diplomacy. Not really an apology, Cyclops remarks, but if she’s anything like Namor he won’t expect one.
Then it may surprise him what he senses now, Xavier remarks. Namor has arrived and stopped the battle. He had better get back now to rest. He will share this with their collected people. He wishes the Agents good luck in finding their friend. Jimmy thanks him. They’ll need it!
They wake up. As Namor, Namora Jimmy and Cyclops talk, Pixie is astonished by the turn of matters. A few minutes ago they were a massive threat to mutantkind and now they are all cool and helping them? She hasn’t been with the X-Men long, has she? Iceman asks. A couple more years, the fish woman will be teaching at the school.
Jimmy apologizes. The decision to go after Cerebra was his. He should have asked. It’s not like the X-Men have never gone off half-cocked, Cyclops admits. They are in a hurry to find their friend.
Emma Frost gives the Uranian one-time access to Cerebra, The Uranian gets online and picks up impressions of where Venus was taken.
She was on one of her solo patrols around the city, stopping gang violence. Someone posing as a riding policeman used chloroform. Something strange about this. Like the data is shifting… it doesn’t read as human.
She’s still alive, he announces. She’s been taken to the Adirondirack Mountains in New York. He has the precise location. Great, Jimmy calls the team.
Namora thanks her cousin, Namor, for his help. They share a smouldering look. He knew his princess wouldn’t act without good reason, he replies. Good luck finding Venus. Another sad look and Namora leaves.
Jimmy Woo and Cyclops shake hands. Jimmy offers Atlas’ help, should they ever want it. That’s good to know, Scott replies. Most people don’t like to be affiliated with the X-Men. The agents are drawn upward to the Uranian’s saucer as Jimmy states it won’t hurt their rep.
Cyclops orders the X-Men to get out and Cloak to open a vortex.
“Hey!” Wolverine shouts, still buried under the Buddha. Somebody better get that damn thing offa him!
2nd story:
The order is given to burn a mark on the chained Venus’ face with a hot branding iron. The satyr is ordered to mar her stolen beauty, but he hesitates. She looks just like his goddess, he replies. He cannot mar perfection. His mistress has commanded him, but she didn’t say the face. To blemish any part of her is to ruin a masterpiece. He finally brands Venus on her lower back. He orders water to be brought to cool off the brand. The flames rise, promising now she will know of his betrayal.
The Satyr tells Venus that the mistress of his temple is coming. She must pay heed. None of them may gaze upon the face of the goddess Aphrodite.
The goddess appears and gives the order to release Venus’ binds, so that she may answer to her. She notices he did not mark her face, but isn’t surprised. He could not bear to see Aphrodite’s image scarred, even on an impostor.
With her gag off, Venus finally exclaims Ow.  Aphrodite orders her centaurs to leave. She will speak with the poseur alone. She will not risk them becoming enthralled by her voice. Of course, were she here in flesh there would be no contest whom they would follow.
She doesn’t want them to follow her, Venus exclaims. She is not trying to impersonate Aphrodite. Yet she uses her Roman name, the goddess states. That’s what people called her, Venus explains, when she became aware. She understands now that she was… is… a Siren. Sirens have no will of their own, Aphrodite corrects her. How came she to walk the Earth?
Venus’s story:
A few hundred years ago, she attacked a ship from China and a magician on board dealt with her. He gave her a will of her own, what you would think is a wonderful gift, but with it came the horrible awareness of what she had done. She couldn’t process all those deaths. She wandered the Mediterranean out of her mind until she was taken in by a convent. She lived there for years, healing. When she left again she still felt the desire to sing and affected everyone around her. People assumed she was Venus returned. It was a much better history, so she accepted it.
present:
The goddess begins to understand. Venus then joined Atlas, a powerful group of mortals. This is how the goddess Hera found her for Aphrodite. Hera? Venus asks, then assures the goddess she is not trying to convince anyone she is her. Aphrodite isn’t even using the name Venus, it seems. Besides she is a goddess, why would she even care?
Why? the goddess asks enraged and grabs her. Does she know where a god’s power comes from? It comes from belief. They need to be worshipped. Her stone fist closes on her captive. She used to influence the world. Wars were started because of her. The greatest heroes were born because she made their parents mate. Her temples were filled with orgies celebrating her. The Greeks poured their lifeforce into her and her kind. To them, they were the universe.
A closed celestial sphere but they were curious and learned of the wider world. Even with Scylla and Charybdis, the gods could not rein them in. Their people grew influenced by other gods, other philosophies and the gods became myth.
All she has left is her beauty and immortality, and thanks to Hera she may even lose that!
Please, it’s hot, Venus begs. Aphrodite doesn’t care. If she dies, it is Venus they will know as Aphrodite, lowly thrall to a monster. The elder deity of the deep, Phorcys, made the sirens in Aphrodite’s image. Venus is a mere copy…
Her rant is interrupted when an energy ray blasts her stone arm. Venus’ teammates have arrived. Jimmy orders M-11 to hit her again. Why does this happen to all her statues? Aphrodite sighs. Namora destroys the rest.
Gorilla Man apologizes for being late. They had to fight a lot of X-Men. Relieved, Venus hugs him. Jimmy asks her what the lowdown is. She literally angered the gods, comes the reply. Get her out of here, she will tell them.
Manhattan, the Olympus Group Tower, Aphrodite looks in the scrying pool. Does Venus thinks this is over? Venus bears her mark now. She can find her anywhere. Or she can send others to her. Yes, in fact… She runs from her past and she could bring it to her. She bets Phorcys wonders where his feeding girl is after all these years, “Venus, prepare to meet your maker!”


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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
The Making of a Man
Years ago, it seemed a simpler time back then. The choices clearer, the consequences more easily determined. Although they have been together a fair while, and gone through quite a gamut of adventures, the X-Men are still learning about one another, their characters, their history, their capabilities. True, they had their share of victories, in some cases against considerable odds. But the death of Jean Grey not so long ago, like that of Thunderbird before her, is a constant reminder of the ultimate price that could be demanded of them. Logan is determined there not be another.
The Adirondack Mountains: ‘Have any trouble finding the place, Elf?’ Wolverine a.k.a. Logan asks his friend and teammate Kurt “Nightcrawler” Wagner. ‘You left a good trail, my friend’ Kurt replies from where he is perched in a tree above Wolverine. He asks his friend why the summons, and Logan explains that he has been watching the youngsters and that he figures it is time to see if they are up to snuff. Kurt back flips out of the tree and replies: ‘No offense, Logan, but I’m just as much a “youngster” as Piotr’. Logan tells Kurt that he is young in body, but old in spirit. ‘Today’s about him. You’ll get yours later’ Logan adds. Kurt frowns and asks why that makes him feel very nervous. ‘Haven’t a clue’ Logan grins.
Kurt asks Logan what he has in mind. Logan explains that he is setting up a challenge for Petey. Suddenly, Ororo “Storm” Munroe drops down from above, ‘Against the Hulk? Logan, is that wise?’ she asks her friend. Logan points out that it is a more real test than going at it in the Danger Room, and adds that Colossus won’t hurt the Hulk, and he doubts that the Hulk will even dent Petey’s armor. Kurt frowns and tells Wolverine that whatever happens, they cannot put their friend in danger. ‘Kinda late for that, don’cha think?’ Wolverine points out. ‘Logan, I think we need to remind Kurt of who we are - by donning our uniforms as X-Men…we have chosen to place our lives at risk’ Storm declares. ‘All the more reason to think before we act’ Nightcrawler remarks, adding that in the case of Piotr, he agrees with both of them - ‘I am far more worried about him hurting his adversary’.
‘Trust me, Elf, that’ll be the day’ Wolverine remarks. Storm smiles and tells Wolverine that she will take that bet. ‘Consider that part of the test - to see how well we all cope. But I figure we’ll tag along, to keep a watchful eye on things’ Wolverine smiles back. Storm asks how they get started, and Wolverine announces that that little detail, he has already set in motion.
Elsewhere in the vast expanse of the Adirondack Mountains, Piotr “Colossus” Rasputin, in his armored form, has come to a stop, atop a ridge, looking out over more hills, forest and a river, gleaming under the sun. Most people think of New York in terms of the city. What they forget is that a fairly short drive north, a couple of hours, max, can put you deep into a mountain wilderness, mile after mile of virgin forest, where casual human contact is as rare today as it was when this part of the continent was still the frontier. For Colossus, this country is unlike any he has known. Back in Russia, home for him was the Ust-Ordynski Collective, still named as if it was in the Soviet era, richly productive farmland that stayed relatively flat for as far as the eye could see. Perhaps that is why two of the things he has come to love the most since joining the X-Men are access to the ocean and to these mountains.
Out here on his own, literally miles from “anywhere” he can hike in his armored for, which gives him more speed, more strength, more endurance. There is so much to see and he wants to reach out to it all. His swimming still leaves something to be desired, but hiking through this seemingly never-ending wilderness is a delight he never tires of, and it provides an opportunity to exercise his drawing hand - and to think. He sits down in some long grass and starts to sketch as he sees a mother grizzly bear playing with her two cubs. ‘It seemed like such a simple question, when Professor Xavier asked me to join the X-Men. Such an easy choice to make. Since then, I have seen - and done - so much. We X-Men stand in defense of the world. But is that all I will ever be -?’ Colossus thinks to himself, when suddenly, ‘I do not believe this’ he calls out, as he shifts to his human form, smiles and waves at someone approaching him.
‘Kitty! What are you two doing here?’ Piotr smiles at Kitty Pryde a.k.a. Ariel and her pet dragon, Lockheed. With a backpack over her shoulders, Kitty tells Piotr that they heard he was on a stroll through the woods and figured he would like some company. ‘Okay, so maybe I also wanted to show Lockheed the neighborhood. So sue me’ Kitty smiles, before asking Peter if he minds some company, and if they can tag along. Piotr asks Kitty if the question should be “can we keep up”, and calling her “Katya” assures her that he meant that as a joke. ‘Come on along’ he tells her, so Kitty sets out alongside Piotr, her form dwarfed by his, even if he isn’t carrying a large pack on his back. Examining her surroundings as Lockheed flies alongside, Kitty tells Piotr that this is so different from back home outside Chicago. Piotr replies that, in that, they are very much alike - explaining that the Steppes surrounding the Ust-Ordynski Collective are very much like the Great Plains, except, of course, they don’t have the Cubs.
‘Don’t you dare make fun! One day, buster, mark my words, my hometown team’ll win!’ Kitty declares. ‘It’s good to dream’ Piotr replies. The two of them have perhaps a moment for their laughter, then it seems like the world comes crashing down upon their young heads. Of course it isn’t really the world. It’s actually something far more dangerous. Or rather, someone. His real name is Robert Bruce Banner. But most people in the world know of this green-skinned behemoth only as the Incredible Hulk. Colossus slams into the ground, and Kitty phases just in time, while Lockheed is tossed about in the air as the massive Hulk drops down onto them.
Colossus, taken by surprise, hammered by the giant’s arrival, drops his backpack and gets to his feet, quickly shifting to his armored form, His reaction is immediate and instinctive, as he moves forward and punches the Hulk in the face, believing this to be an unprovoked attack by a creature he knows of solely as a monster. Unfortunately, the Hulk only gets angry. The Hulk roars, and clenches his fists. ‘This is not good. All I’ve done is make him angry!’ Piotr realizes. Colossus ducks as the Hulk punches forward, ‘I do not want to let him hit me’ Piotr thinks to himself, before punching the Hulk in the stomach, realizing that the harder he hits his foe, the less he seems to notice. Suddenly, the Hulk manages to punch Colossus backwards, ‘OW!’ Colossus shouts, before quickly returning to punch the Hulk in the face, ‘I have never fought anyone like this’ he tells himself, while realizing that none of his punches seem to have any effect. He grabs the Hulk by the neck and lands some punches on his face, before shoving his elbow into the Hulk’s neck, he wonders if the creature has no weaknesses.
Colossus is about to elbow the Hulk again, but the Hulk grabs his arm. ‘This is so not good’ Piotr thinks to himself. ‘Puny tin man attacks Hulk’ the Hulk grumbles, before smacking Colossus through the air, sending him careening towards a boulder, which is shattered as Colossus slams into it. ‘Hulk will smash puny tin man!’ the Hulk booms.Suddenly, Kitty appears over Colossus, ‘First things first, buster - the big guy’s organic steel, not tin!’ she exclaims, adding that she kinda likes him the way he is, although a few less kilos of mass right about now would definitely be appreciated, and as the Hulk lands before them, Kitty phases herself and Colossus part way into the ground. ‘Hulk does not fight girls!’ the Hulk booms, while Lockheed starts circling overhead, and Kitty calls out to her pet, asking him what he thinks he is doing, as the Hulk can’t hurt them while she is phasing. ‘What is little dragon doing?’ the Hulk asks, before Lockheed suddenly roars, and flames pour from his mouth down onto the Hulk.
The Hulk screams in agony. ‘It burns! It burns!’ he cries as he turns and rushes away, but in the process, the Hulk smacks Lockheed with his fist. Lockheed falls to the ground and Kitty and Colossus rush towards him. ‘Oh my God! That monster hit him so hard!’ Kitty cries out. Lockheed is lying so still, so she can’t tell if anything is broken. Tears streaming down her face, Kitty touches Lockheed, ‘C’mon, little dragon, open your eyes, give me a sign you’re okay!’ Kitty pleads. ‘Professor X - why aren’t you there? I’m mentally telling as loud as I can - why won’t you answer my mayday, we need help!’ Kitty exclaims.Colossus puts a hand on Kitty, while thinking to himself that all he has learned, all his skill, and that monster took him down with a single slap. He decides that he is no good to Katya here, and tells her to stay with her dragon. ‘I’ll be back’ Colossus assures her as he takes off.
Nightcrawler, Storm and Wolverine are high up in a tree, and Nightcrawler reports that they are in a “cellular dead zone”, that he is unable to contact the Professor. ‘Do you think I should teleport -’ he begins, but Wolverine tells him that this is the world they choose to live in, and asks whether he thinks any of their enemies will play any nicer. ‘The Brood damn near killed us all, remember?’ Wolverine tells his friends. ‘Logan, she’s a child!’ Storm declares as she starts to take flighty. ‘She’s an X-Man, ‘Ro. By her own choice!’ Wolverine replies. ‘So am I - and I choose to go to her aid’ Storm announces. ‘What about us, Logan?’ Kurt asks. Logan tells him that they will go check up on Colossus.
Rushing through the forest, Colossus wonders if he should call in help, but worries that the Hulk might attack someone else or escape, before help gets here. He realizes that the problem is that he does not know very much about the Hulk, except that he is not a mutant, and he is incredibly strong. ‘More so I think even than me’. He notices something up ahead, and realizes that it is the Hulk, that he hasn’t gone far at all. Colossus thought he would have to follow the Hulk for miles, but as the Hulk is kneeling at the river, putting water over his body, Colossus realizes that Lockheed’s fire must have hurt him. Deciding that the Hulk looks so disorientated and weak, Colossus doesn’t think he can go through with defeating him, but realizes he will never have a better chance to finish this, and lunges at him, both men topple into the water.
The Hulk stands up and looms over Colossus, who realizes that perhaps the Hulk is not as weak as he thought, as he is reacting fast. However, his moves all seem instinctive, and Colossus dodges a punch, deciding that the Hulk’s strength is so great that he needs no finesse. Colossus tells himself to use the skills that he has been taught by Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Storm, for perhaps that will make a difference. He drops down and kicks out a leg, tripping the Hulk up, causing him to fall over with a huge splash. ‘Use your assets, they tell me - take the terrain… combine it with your skill…and your strength…not simply how to hit your adversary, but how hard’ Piotr thinks to himself as kicks the Hulk in the chest when the Hulk attempts to get up, falling back, creating another huge splash.
The Hulk is stunned, and Colossus starts to drag him up, grabbing the Hulk by his legs, Colossus knows that what matters most is keeping up the pressure, and he starts to swing the Hulk around and around, ‘I cannot give him even an instant to recover’ Piotr thinks to himself as he releases the Hulk, sending him flying backwards through the air, crashing into a cliff-face nearby. ‘Have I done enough? Is the creature beaten?’ Colossus wonders as he rushes over to check. ‘Is this battle over? Looking at him now, I suddenly wonder - is this a battle that should have even started?’ Colossus wonders, looking upon the motionless Hulk, his body embedded into the rocks. Piotr asks himself if the Hulk really attacked them, or if the threat was solely in his mind. ‘The product of my own fears, and insecurities, my need to prove myself?’
Colossus tells himself that he was running solely on instinct, but wonders what if his instinct was wrong. Suddenly, the Hulk opens his eyes, ‘Did puny human think a few punches would finish Hulk? Bet now, puny human will have to think again!’ the Hulk roars, before punching Colossus into the air. ‘Will I never learn? I slacken my guard for an instant - and see what happens?’ Colossus tells himself that things just go from bad to worse, as he lands not in mud, but in quicksand. He swiftly moves his body so that his head is above the quicksand, but he is still sinking. Colossus switches to his human form, and sees that the Hulk looms over him. ‘Has he come to gloat- or just watch me die?’ Colossus wonders, while telling the Hulk to stay back, as the ground here is not safe.
‘I bet that confused him. Serves me right, what’s happening to me. I attacked Hulk without thinking’ Piotr tells himself. ‘This is the least I can do… to try to make amends’. He is almost consumed by the quicksand and decides that it is time to take his last breath. His head is gone, and with his body now completely submerged, thinks that he should switch to his Colossus form, the weight can pull him down, and once he reaches the bottom, can try to dig through the solid ground to make his way back to open air. ‘By then, with luck, the Hulk should be -’ Colossus thinks to himself, before realizing that something is happening, someone has grabbed hold of him - and indeed, a green arm reaches down into the quicksand, and the Hulk pulls Colossus free. ‘He’s coming to my rescue!’ Piotr tells himself.
The Hulk drops Colossus to the ground, and Piotr asks himself ‘What have I done? I call myself an X-Man, yet I violate one of our most fundamental rules - think before you act’. He admits that he jumped to conclusions, and that it almost brought about disaster. ‘It is the Hulk who is supposed to be brainless, what then is my excuse?’ He reminds himself of the line he always hears: “With great power, comes great responsibility”. He knows that one careless mistake can have unimaginable consequences, and turns to the Hulk, seeing that something is happening to him - the Hulk reverts to his human form, Dr Bruce Banner. ‘Can one good deed perhaps inspire another? From such a beginning, who knows what might come’ Piotr thinks to himself, smiling, he and Bruce shake hands, as Bruce introduces himself and asks Piotr if he is okay.
‘Ororo - there they are!’ Kitty calls out as she, Storm and Lockheed arrive on scene. ‘Will you look at that - they’re both in human form!’ Storm points out, while Piotr looks at his friends, admitting that he had forgotten they would most likely follow his trail. Colossus shifts to his steel form and holds a hand out, ‘My friends, please hear me out - the Hulk is no threat - he is a man!’ Colossus declares. Lockheed prepares to release more fire, while Kitty holds him, and tells Colossus that it is easy for him to say, as he didn’t see the poor dragon’s bumps and bruises. Kitty then tells Lockheed to scale back the fireworks. ‘Trust me, tovarish, Banner has his share as well. But he has no friends to offer sympathy and care’ Piotr tells his friends. He turns to Banner and tells him that he is sorry for all that has happened.
Colossus continues, informing Banner that his friends and he carry food in their packs. ‘Perhaps you would care to share a meal with us? And take some rest?’ he offers. ‘That, my friends, is the best offer I’ve had all day’ Bruce smiles as Wolverine and Nightcrawler arrive.
And so, after a pleasant night, Bruce and Colossus shake hands, as Bruce sets off into the sunrise. ‘Peter, you gave him your pack, all your clothes and stuff’ Kitty points out. ‘He needs them more than I, Katya’ Piotr tells her. ‘And if he has to change into the Hulk? What then?’ Kitty asks. ‘Perhaps he can take them with him. At least it’s a start’ Colossus tells her. He asks ‘Just because we all possess super-powers, does that mean we always have to use them? Sometimes, Katya, the thing we have to learn is when to turn away from violence’. He tells Kitty to think about it a moment, and asks her if when he is seen as Colossus, whether she, and other people, judge him by his face or by his deeds. ‘How do you judge yourself - really?’ Colossus asks.
He smiles at his friends and tells everyone that they have to try to be better than that, otherwise, why else are they here, among the X-Men? Nightcrawler tells Storm that Colossus makes a very good point. Storm replies that she suspects that is very much why Logan set this up - to allow Piotr the opportunity to come to such realization himself. ‘Both men, I suspect, did very well’ Storm adds, while Nightcrawler holds up some cash and remarks that Logan lost the bet. ‘He merely lost money, Kurt’ Storm explains, adding that Logan is now explaining it to them. Kurt looks and sees Logan talking to Colossus and Kitty, and observes that Colossus is taking it well, but that Kitty doesn’t look at all pleased.
‘Logan knew the risk’ Storm reminds Kurt, adding that as far as this confrontation is concerned between the X-Men and the Hulk, in terms of how their youngsters behaved and how it ended, she actually believes that in all the ways that truly matter, Logan won. They see Colossus crouches down and talk to Kitty, then Kitty leaps into the air as Colossus spins around and punches Wolverine to the ground. Logan sits up and rubs his head, while Colossus reaches down to help him up, and Storm smiles at a frowning Nightcrawler, who hands her his cash.