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[Assistant]
We were only Foolin’
It is a special night for the New Mutants and the youngest X-Man, Kitty Pryde, as Amalie Hogarth, principal of Salem Center High, invited them to the High School’s spring mixer. Magik teleports the excited mutants and their teacher outside the high school, where they quickly change into their formal clothes. While they change, Dani expresses dislike at having to hide who they truly are. She’s proud of who she is. She’d like to show it. Sam agrees, but reminds her of the consequences. Doug tells both of them to stop it; they’re here to have fun.
Very quickly the mutants mingle, trying to have a good time. Some are better at mingling at others. A few local kids make fun of Sam. Witnessing this, Amara is fuming, remarking that such insults should be answered in kind or blood. They’re just words and he’s heard worse, Sam replies. Besides, he figures he has the last laugh, since their favorite rockstar, Lila Cheney, is his girlfriend. If those creeps knew that, they’d just die.
He asks Amara for a dance. She hesitates, as she never learned this in Nova Roma. He reminds her she isn’t there anymore and sweeps her off. However, as they begin, the song ends. Just his luck, Sam laughs.
Kitty Pryde, in the meantime, is in a poor mood. The boy who was dancing with her before just used her to get closer to Illyana. Sourly, Kitty thinks that she’d have a better time dating her pet dragon.
Warlock and Doug watch proceedings, both Kitty’s misery and Robero flirting with a pretty local girl. Warlock is keen on watching their social interaction. Doug steps on his foot, reminding him to act human in public.
They notice Dani in trouble as she is being accosted by a local tough guy. Warlock turns into a bigger guy and warns him off. He gets the message and quickly leaves. He never realized letting Warlock watch that Bowery Boys / Bogart / Cagney triple feature would come in so handy, Doug observes wryly. My heroes Dani jokes. Warlock asks her for a dance and she thanks him, but declines.
Magneto aka “Michael Xavier” sees Dani leaving and she explains that she feels tired and is heading home. She thanks Ms. Hogarth for inviting them before she leaves. On the empty parking lot, she muses that Magneto looks as out of place here as she feels. She wonders if taking over as their headmaster is more than he bargained for.
She moans, still suffering from the noise of the party. And she hates crowds. A natural result of growing up solitary in the mountains Also she sensed the weirdest vibration in the air, like feeling a bad storm coming. What will happen will happen, she sighs. With no one in sight, she feels safe to whistle down her flying horse Brightwind.
Before she leaves, she notices a bumper sticker on a car: X-Factor – we take care of mutants the old-fashioned way – permanently!!. “Cute,” she thinks bitterly. She saw Bumper stickers like that in Colorado. Only instead of mutants they said redskins. They fly off as she muses sadly that some things and attitudes never change.
She doesn’t know that someone did see her. A slightly nerdy looking boy marvels at her. Is she like him, he wonders as he creates a small, 3-dimensional light hologram of Dani and Brightwind, though he didn’t see her properly.
Suddenly, Ms. Hogarth calls over from the other side of the parking lot, having seen a light. Larry quickly destroys the image. Ms. Hogarth introduces Larry Bodine, a recent transfer student, to Magneto. Larry reacts sullenly.
Amelie tells him she understands but he should rejoin the party in order to make some friends. At the door, they see an equally sullen Kitty, who just wants to go home. Amelie suggests she first share a dance with Larry. Why not, Kitty shrugs and draws Larry inside. She handled that well, Magneto observes, before they start discussing the vagaries of teenage behavior.
Inside, Kitty slowly begins to warm to Larry’s geeky charm as he gets her glass of punch.
At the punch bowl, some other kids tell anti mutants jokes. One jock turns to Larry and remarks that he’s such a rat-faced, geeky, little dweeb, he’s gotta be a mutie. Larry denies it vehemently and quickly leaves to bring Kitty the punch. The jock, Rick, observes that they sure hit a nerve. He suggests threatening Bodine with those professional mutant hunters, X-Factor. One of the girls, Shirley, asks Rick to give Larry a break. He tells the girl nothing’s gonna happen except getting a few laughs at Bodine’s expense. Where’s the harm?
Sometime later, as the dance winds down, the New Mutants and Kitty decide to head over to Harry’s Hidaway to continue the party a little while longer. Clearly tipsy from the spiked punch, Kitty invites Larry, whom she has warmed up to along. Larry feels the same way. As he gathers his things, he finds a note – actually a flier of X-Factor with a handwritten message: we know who you are. We know what you do and we’re gonna tell X-FACTOR, mutie!! Kitty asks him if he’s ready. Shaken, Larry hides the note and pretends nothing is wrong.
Much later at Harry’s Kitty and Larry are still dancing. Warlock remarks that he recollects strong emotional attachment between Kitty and Doug, to which Doug explains defensively that they are friends. That’s as far as it goes.
The others are at the table and Sam also remarks that Kitty and Larry seem to have hit it off. Illyana chides him that her roomie has better taste than that, causing Rahne to defend Larry whom she considers a prefect gentleman. Amara reminds Rahne that Kitty isn’t simply a girl though. Their powers set them apart. How would Larry react if he learned what they could do? That Kitty could walk through walls? He’s so high on cloud nine, he probably wouldn’t notice or care if she did, Sam comments wryly.
Larry is indeed ecstatic and nervous as hell about what he should do. Hold Kitty, kiss Kitty, what if he does anything wrong? As they sit down, he wonders of he should make her a light sculpture. That’d impress her and her friends. Or scare them. This reminds him of the X-Factor flier. Who planted it? Who knows the truth about him? Suppose Kitty hates muties?
Earth to Larry, Kitty jokes. Is he still here? Nope, just beamed up and warped away, he replies, wondering whether he should trust her. If he has a problem, she’s willing to listen, Kitty offers. That’s the spirit, Florence Prydengale, Illyna mocks. Or is it Kitty Freud? Kitty orders her to put a sock in it.
Larry tries to change the subject and begins to tell the “How many muties does it take to screw in a lightbulb” joke. Instead of laughter, he receives icy silence. Believing he told it wrong, Larry begins another mutant joke. “A mutie walks into a bar.…” Speaking of walking, it’s past time they were on their way home, Sam announces. Larry gets that they are really angry as everybody leaves. But he doesn’t understand. He holds Kitty arm, asking if he can call her. Angrily, she states that she though he was a nice kid. Her mistake. A miserable Larry is left alone. Only Rahne shoots a pitying glance at him.
Larry doesn’t feel any better after the long, bitter, miserable walk across town, his hand constantly reflexively clenching the X-Factor. Flier. “Deal with  mutants,” it says. But how? He’s reached his home. Will they take his power away? Is that possible? Or put him in jail? Kill him? What gives them the right? He has never hurt anybody! It isn’t fair. Life isn’t fair That’s what dad always says. He should know with him for a son.
He ponders on whether or not to call his parents. It’s an important trip for his folks. What does he say? Hi, I’m feeling lousy and lonely. Should he tell him what he is or clam up like usual? Angrily, he slams down the phone. He should be able to take care of himself.
He stalks to his folks’ liquor cabinet. Maybe he’d feel better drunk; he’s never done it before. He tries the brandy and spits it out, deciding it tastes awful. Walking up to his room, he berates himself for being such a wimp that he can’t even get drunk.
He enters his room where he has a light statue of a space shuttle. He tries to create a holographic image of Kitty, but can’t focus properly. His thoughts turn back to X-Factor. He feels like a criminal. He’d rather be dead than have no powers.
Outside in a tree, Wolfsbane sits, finding her suspicion proven. Larry is a mutant. She jumps down, looking forward to telling the others the next day. She knew he didn’t mean those words. But as Rahne leaves, the phone rings. “We called ‘em mutant,” comes an anonymous voice. “X-Factor’s on their way. You’re done for.”
On the following morning at Xavier’s School, the New Mutants and Kitty are clowning around while Magma uses her lava form to cook breakfast. Rahne joins them excited to share her news, but Magneto enters and interrupts her. He has an announcement to make. He has just been informed by Ms. Hogarth that Larry Bodine has committed suicide.
Later, the mutants are in a Danger Room session. Douglas and Dani in the observation booth discuss Larry. He hung himself, Doug remarks. What could be so awful to make someone do that? He doesn’t understand. Dani admits she sensed a wrongness at the dance. It must have been a valkyrie premonition of Larry’s death. She might have been able to help, but she didn’t. She’s learned painfully that she can’t save everyone.
Down in the Danger Room, Illyana evades Sunspot’s attacks via teleporting. Sunspot announces that he thinks Larry was a coward. He could not face the real world, so he ran away. Illyana clearly doesn’t care. You live, you die, it happens. His problem, not theirs.
Sunspot tries to grab here again, only for her to teleport them both to Limbo. A moment later, they return with Sunspot all trussed up thanks to Illyana’s demons. Angrily, he bursts the chains.
Warlock too muses that he’s learned that one’s lifeglow is the most precious of all things. Why would personLarry extinguish his, especially without offering energy to another to sustain him or her?
Perhaps he had no one, Amara muses as she finishes off a Sentinel. Among her people taking one’s life is no disgrace, but being among the New Mutants has taught her that there are always possibilities and that it’s the worst crime to yield to despair.
Meanwhile across town, Kitty secretly enters the Bodines’ home, finding it neat but not very lived in. She needs to know if her behavior drove Larry over the edge. She phases up to his room and is in for a surprise: a solid light hologram of Challenger. She touches it and it is destroyed, disintegrated. Acting without thought destroyed it. Like Larry. And for a time she cries, then sits silent and sad. Then cries some more.
Curled up in his armchair, she finds a note, an ad flier for X-Factor. She finds Larry’s writing on the back: They’re coming to get me! Where can I go? What can I do? What’s the point if I can’t create? Why do they hate me? What have I done? I’m alone. Nothing left. No way out. I’m sorry.
Oh, Larry, she sighs. She’s sorry too. They never knew he was a mutant. She did, Rahne states and reveals herself. She followed him home last night. Turning to her transitional form, she explains that Larry seemed so sad and hurt. What he said to them was stupid and cruel, but she sensed he had a good heart. She meant to tell the others, but everyone was in bed when she returned and she fell asleep and in the morning it was too late.
It’s not her fault, Kitty replies to Rahne. He was scared, boxed in. If anyone’s responsible, it-s the people who sent him this. Rahne saw what he could have done. All that beauty lost forever. What a waste.
Rahne smells the perpetrators’ scent on the paper and sincerely vows to bring them to justice. She howls and, outside the house, Larry’s parents have just arrived hear it. The mother wants to go away, but her husband tells her they must face this. Their son is dead.
The trail leads Rahne to the Salem Center mall. Day collapses into night and her rage grows. It wasn’t so long ago that she was hunted across the highlands of her native Scotland. She’d done no harm, yet these people whom she’d known her entire life sought her death. Because she was different and therefore to them a creature of evil. Thanks to her guardian, Moira MacTaggart, she escaped to join the New Mutants. And find the friendship and family she’d always yearned for. Larry Bodine wasn’t so lucky. Her fate could have been his. Or his fate, hers.
Rahne’s ultrakeen senses in her transitional form lead her to her quarry, the four kids sitting in the mall’s café. “Her prey,” Rahne growls. One of the boys hears her. Some dog, one of the girl replies. Who cares? It was a werewolf, the second boy deadpans. Come to rip their hearts out. Is he satisfied? No less than they deserve. Roger tells Dina not to get mental. How should they know Bodine would freak like that? Diana screams that she warned them. Peter retorts that they didn’t even know the freak. And besides he really was a mutie, so where’s the harm? That kind’s better off dead. Simone tells him he’s sick.
Rahne gets ready to attack. Is she sure she wants to go through with this? a voice asks. Kitty, Dani and Sam have found her. Rahne demands that they pay for killing Larry. Dani tells her she knows how she feels. She shares Rahne’s thoughts. That’s how they found her. But she should really listen to those kids. They’re paying, even though some of them haven’t realized it yet and they’ll continue to for the rest of their lives. Killing them would put an end to their punishment. These are just words! Rahne shouts. She needs to do something. They all do, Kitty agrees. They can’t bring Larry back, but maybe they can ensure he didn’t die for nothing.
The next day at Larry’s memorial in Salem Center High School. Behind the stage, Sam, Magneto and Dani have accompanied Kitty. “What is she going to say?” Sam asks. Kitty admits she doesn’t know. In their own way, they are as scared as Larry. They want to be accepted, lead normal lives, but how can they if they keep hiding behind masks and secret identities and the walls of their school? Dani and Sam promise her they’ll back her all the way, even if she has to tell the world who they really are. That’s the point, Kitty tells them. They have each other to lean on. Larry was alone.
Like she is now, she thinks as she steps up the podium, every student’s eye on her. She wishes she could just phase right through the podium, but she hasn’t got the right to endanger her fellow X-Men and New Mutants. She’s terrified. As she puts on her glasses for the first time, she wonders how she looks.
She begins to speak, explaining that some of them may know her, most don’t. She speaks because she knew Larry Bodine best. But that isn’t saying much. She hardly knew him at all. If she had, maybe they wouldn’t be at this memorial.
Who was he then that they gather to mourn him? Who is she? A four-eyed, flat-chested brat, chick, brain, hebe, stuck up, Xavier’s snob freak. She doesn’t like the words. She could use nicer; she’s heard worse. All of them have. They hear them so often, so casually that maybe they’ve forgotten the power they have to hurt. Nigger, spic, wop, slope, faggot, mutie. The list is so long and so cruel. They’re labels, put-downs. And they hurt. But usually they laugh them off or with back with words or fists or suffer in silence.
Trouble was when somebody labeled Larry Bodine a mutie, they hit home. Because he was. His power created beauty, that’s it. He did with light and color what Mozart did with music. And he wanted nothing more than to be accepted by his peers. And possibly even be liked. Isn’t that what any of them really want? To have friends? Not to be alone? If they are lucky they have someone to turn to. Larry didn’t. He thought if people knew the truth, they’d stop seeing him and only see the label. So he hid the truth and lived in terror of being discovered. He even joined in when others put mutants down. What matter the cost to his soul if it made his life a little better. That’s the tragedy, their shame.
She urges them to think of what they say. Imagine it being said about them. Try to be on the receiving end. If they are to learn anything from Larry’s death, it should be this. They want to know who she is? She’s Katherine Pryde. That’s the only thing that matters. The rest are just labels.


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[Assistant]
Ashes of the Heart
Four lost New Mutants, Sunspot, Magma, Karma and Wolfsbane, disbelieving stand in ruins in front of waned posters that announce most of their teammates and the X-Men have been terminated.
Illyana screwed up royally, Sunspot announces. He’s searched all over. They are the only ones there. Rahne can’t even pick up a hint of a familiar scent. Or a human one. They better face facts. The others are lost in space and time. And so are they!
Karma adds that Illyana was trying to teleport them home and in a sense she has. That’s the ruin of Xavier’s school!
Elsewhere, a computer announces that mutant intruders have been found in the forbidden zone. While the four wonder what happened, Sentinels identify them and three of them suddenly show up in front of the youngsters, intent on killing them.
Karma orders everyone to scatter. Wolfsbane quickly moves her aside before the Sentinel’s blast can kill her. Shan realize painfully that her power can do nothing here and she orders Rahne to save herself.
However, before the robot can kill the two girls, they see a familiar shape in the air. And, moments later, Cannonball propels through the Sentinel, destroying it.
Magma and Sunspot make short work of the second Sentinel whereas the third again is after Wolfsbane and Karma. Rahne tries to run and dodge it as fast as she can, but one of its giant steps wipe out her whole lead. Suddenly, a familiar voice orders them to hit the deck. It’s Dani Moonstar holding a big plasma rifle and riding on Brightwind. She fires at the Sentinel, managing to damage it and Magma finishes it off.
Canonball picks Sunspot and Magma up without a decent greeting while Mirage orders the other two girls to climb up behind her on Brightwind. If they are not long gone and undercover before the Sentinels scramble their tag team, they are dead!
Meanwhile in the present, Magneto, helped by some flying robot constructs, spends his time literally cleaning up the New Mutants’ mess in their rooms. Danielle is the worst, he remarks. Not filth, but clutter. She spent most of her life alone in the Rocky Mountains, he muses, that made her extremely self-reliant, but she still isn’t altogether comfortable with civilization or used to dealing with people. The last is a trait he shares.
On her desk he notices an unfinished letter to her parents. Should he send it as it is? Or leave it, so she can finish it when she returns?
Suddenly, one of his flying constructs sounds an intruder alert. They tangle up the intruder, Stevie Hunter. She doesn’t even listen to Magneto’s apology and angrily asks why he is scaring her like this. She is a member of this school’s faculty she reminds him. She was associated with it and Charles Xavier long before he took over as headmaster. She has every right to be there! And every right to be angry, he agrees and apologizes again.
Somewhat mollified, she asks what these critters are. He calls them widgets. Remote units he tinkered together. Animated by a broadcast beam generation of his natural magnetic power. This is a huge estate and he cannot be everywhere at the same time. They help him keep the house in order and maintain security.
In a school without students, that seems a lot of effort to no good purpose, she remarks. He replies the New Mutants will return. Is he sure? Stevie asks. He hopes, he… believes.
Is that important to him, she asks. Whatever promise he made to Charles, it died with the kids. His obligation is fulfilled. True, he assumed the duties because of a promise made to an old friend. But since then he has come to know the children and care for them. They have come to mean too much to him to abandon them.
In the future, the Sentinels in their headquarters scan for the mutants to no avail. But they are sure they have to leave their refuge sooner or later and then they will be eliminated.
The mutants have been brought to the heart of a mountain. Sam explains that a long time ago Larry Trask built this place when he recreated the Sentinels and turned them loose against the X-Men. After came Steven Lang with pretty much the same notion. When Lang died his “Project Armageddon” went into the dumpster too. The base was abandoned, pretty much forgotten. They figured it was wicked touch, turning it into their secret hideout.
Much like Edgar Allen Poe’s Purloined Letter, Dani adds while cleaning Brightwind. The prize that’s sought but never found, because it’s in plain sight, where nobody thinks to look.
Shan shivers with cold, the others look around and Magma heats up to provide some warmth. Cannonball admits the place used to be comfier when more of them used it. Just he and Dani left now. They’re used to living rough. Helps keep their edge sharp.
Amara criticizes this place is as dank and dark as a tomb. Maybe that’s what it is, judging by what they’ve seen of the world outside, Roberto remarks. Sam spoke of “us.” Who were they? Whatever happened to them? No one they know, Sam replies evasively. Sentinels nailed most. The rest are… safe…
He’ll believe it when he sees it, Roberto replies glumly. They ask him, nowhere is safe. Perhaps nowhen either. These robots are nothing compared to Magus. The laws of his mad Technarch society require that son duel father to the death for his right to live. Warlock tried to run. Magus wouldn’t let him. He followed Warlock to Earth…
… and the New Mutants into Limbo when Illyana teleported the lot of them away from his ambush in Manhattan, Sam completes his sentence. They ran again, back to Medieval Scotland, where they met and saved Robert the Bruce. Roberto wanted to stay. But they decided they couldn’t. They left. Which is when things got really screwy.
How does he know this? Bobby asks surprised. How does he think? Sam replies. He’s older and greyer but still Sam Guthrie. That caper is part of his memory. That is how he and Dani knew they were in trouble. He remembered the ambush from when he was a New Mutant.
What happened? Bobby asks. How, why did everything go wrong? Beats him, Sam admits. Anything bad in the world all of a sudden got blamed on mutants.
Sam’s narration accompanied by pictures:
America’s enemies had mutant spies and saboteurs, so people said, wrecking the American economy and defense. The draught of ‘86 was their fault and the winter of ‘90 and the great ‘quake. They were responsible for the decline in morale. They were a sign of God’s displeasure and so on. Be funny if it weren’t so tragic.
Finally, the government took action. ´They called on the sanctioned superteams: Freedom Force, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, to take out the outlaw outfits and characters. Bad guys would go to prison, the rest into protective custody which was prison by another name.
He guesses, given the tenor of the times, the other heroes thought this was for the best. The feds reactivated the Sentinels, supposedly to help out. Then came the double-cross. Sentinels went after all enhanced power beings and they didn’t take any prisoners. They told the world they were the guardians of the nation, charged with preserving the purity of the human gene pool. They’ve been fighting and killing each other ever since.
Present:
Rahne walks up to Dani who is still brushing Brightwind. Not turning around, Dani orders her to leave her be. Are they not still friends? Rahne asks. That was a different Danielle Moonstar, who lived in gentler days, comes the reply. She’s not her. That’s daft, Rahne insists. Angrily, Dani turns around and shouts at her, calling Rahne a foolish child. Hasn’t she heard a word Sam said?! To her, Rahne is dead! Dani held her in her arms, after the Sentinels struck her down. She was covered in Rahne’s blood. She felt the last beat of her heart, heard the last thought from her mind. She fought death for Rahne and lost! She won’t go through that again!
Rahne runs away, horrified. Hard lesson, Sam shrugs. Had to be learned. Of their generation of superbeings, he and Dani are pretty much it. All that’s left. They’ve buried friends, lovers, family. This is almost like a video game, no matter how hard they fight, they can’t win. Best they can manage is to hold their own. Trouble is, robots don’t get tired. They don’t get distracted. They never quit. So he guesses they will.
They’ve been gathering every mutant they could find from across the whole world and evacuating them on his girlfriend Lila Cheney’s Dyson Sphere on the other side of the galaxy. Whether on that artificial world or some other real one, they’ll resettle and start over.
Just cut and run, has that become the favorite solution to everything? Sunspot scoffs. If they stay, the war will gut the planet and nothing will be left for nobody, Sam retorts. That what he wants? He probably is right though. They are taking the coward’s road. But they don’t see any alternative. And they feel they’ve earned the right.
What about them, Karma asks. Without Illyana to take them home, they are trapped out of their proper time and lives. Where do they belong, where should they go?
Before Sam answers, the worldwide video net goes on. The Sentinels are making a broadcast. The Sentinels announce the capture of Lila Cheney, who is held at Manhattan prime facility pending final disposition of outstanding terminal sequence.
It’s a set-up, Sam states. Fact Lila’s still alive and that the Sentinels are telling them about it means they are using her as bait. What will they do? Roberto asks. Lila’s their teleporter, Sam replies. They need her to get them on and off the Dyson Sphere. She’s also the woman he loves. He won’t abandon her. He’s glad some things haven’t hanged, Roberto states, and the mutants offer their help.
Manhattan over the years has changed, now belonging solely to the Sentinels. Suddenly, streets buckle, worn and derelict structures collapse. An earthquake, upper-medium in the Richter scale. There were no pre-shocks, no warning of any tectonic activity. But then the tremor isn’t a wholly natural event. The crustal flaw, the potential was there, but nothing would have happened, had Magma not given the ground a shove.
With the earthquake as diversion Mirage, Karma (dressed in body armor) and Wolfsbane fly on Brightwind (passing the ruins of the Marvel building). Wolfsbane sets off to find Lila’s scent. Dani orders Karma to stay with Brightwind. She gives her a plasma rifle and orders her to fly top cover for Sam and Sunspot. She’ll go with Wolfsbane.
Why? Rahne asks. Working together like they did in the old days, won’t that be painful for her? Rahne asks. It’ll be hard for both of them, Dani replies, but it’s better.
Meanwhile Cannonball (having learned to control his rocket blast’s sound) carries Sunspot. “Stealth-Sam,” Bobby thinks, what a concept.
That moment, they are hit by an energy blast. Sam drops Roberto while he is out of control. Roberto sees the Sentinel who caught Sam; it is painted to resemble Captain America. It is ignoring Sunspot in favor of Cannonall. Sunspot hits the derelict ruin behind the Sentinel and it drops on the Sentinel.
Sam warns him the fight isn’t over. That’s a modular Sentinel, he explains. The limbs, head and torso are all capable of independent operation. Big deal, Roberto replies and fends off the attacking arm with a girder. However, the other arm attacks him from behind. Instinctively, he rolls with the attack, while the first arm captures him with a net.
Sorry he had to learn the hard way, Cannonball tells him as he clobbers the hand. He adds that the pieces keep coming at you from every side till the target’s worn down and overwhelmed. And they learn from each encounter, so you can’t beat them the same way twice.
Behind him, Karma on Brightwind shouts and fires at another Sentinel part. Sunspot’s injured but tells himself to get over it. When he was star striker for the Vilat School Thunderbolts, he played when he was hurt. This is no different. He kicks the remaining hand over to Sam, who smashes it into the ground.
Meanwhile, Wolfsbane and Mirage have infiltrated the Sentinels’ HQ, hidden by the cloaker fields built into Mirage’s uniform. They find Lila hanging captured in an energy net, flanked by two guarding Sentinels. Dani is suspicious at the Sentinels displaying her so openly. She smells a trap, but can’t see it.
She orders Rahne to grab Lila while she provides cover fire. Rahne quickly evades the Sentinels’ grip but wonders why the last robot is just standing there. Using her senses, she drops the Sentinel and orders Dani to ignore it. Lila is her target. She begs her to trust her as she used to in happier days: Shoot Lila!
Dani does so, and “Lila” is revealed a Sentinel using a cloaking device to appear as Lila. Whereas the real Lila is hidden in the other Sentinel shell. Rahne gets ready to escape with the exhausted Lila. No need for that the teleporter tells her and teleports them to Dani’s side. She apologizes for getting careless with the last jaunt, then teleports the three of them away before more Sentinels can attack.
They all meet up. What happens next? Amara asks. Hasn’t she guessed? Rahne asks pointedly. The others go to Lila’s world to join those they rescued while the New Mutants get left behind. She saw the truth in Dani’s thoughts when she was too busy fighting to hide them from her. They never meant to take the New Mutants with them. No, Sam replies simply.
The New Mutants are horrified and angry, feeling betrayed. Sam tells them they don’t understand. If they come with them, they won’t return to their proper time. They have to leave the mutants here, where Illyana can find them. So she can bring them safely home. That way the historical pattern is preserved. Change the past, who knows how it will affect the future, their present.
The past already has been changed, Rahne argues. Sam told them he knew where to find them and save them from the Sentinels, because he remembers being rescued, but he wasn’t with them. How can he remember something that in their timestream never happened? Suppose Illyana doesn’t come for them, Karma adds, what then?
She has to! Dani shouts in desperation. Abandoning Earth isn’t salvation, all they are doing is buying themselves time! The Sentinels won’t stop here. They will come after them. It may take years, even centuries. But they will come. Even if they destroy the Earth, nova the sun, they couldn’t stop them. The present is finished and the future as well. Their only hope lies in the past. They can change what was, but only if they stay!
And so they stay behind, wondering whether they did the right thing. Sunspot announces he is glad they are staying. He wants this chance to fight and try to make a better world. He is through with running, no matter how sensible. Better by far to risk everything and even perish in a noble cause.
Shan isn’t so certain. She has known death and war almost her whole life. She hoped in America she would at last know a little peace. Instead, she has stumbled into another war that may already have claimed the lives of her brother and sister.
Rahne hugs her, promising they are all right. They have to hope. Sunspot suggests they better get moving before the Sentinels find them.
Amara first lights up and creates a huge volcano in Manhattan as a little something for the Sentinels to remember them by.


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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Ashes of the Soul
A city whose towers reach high for the sky. Streets with futuristic vehicles. And skating along the highways on a mission are Doug Ramsey, riding atop Warlock, who’s in the form of a skateboard. Once upon a time, this used to be New York. Now it’s simply called the City. The boys are cruising uptown where the “good” people live. Fantastic fairy tale towers gleaming five miles high. Linked by a spider-web network of skyways, this is the future and, at first glance, it is a dream come true.
Suddenly, they are followed by a pair of cops – here called administrators – in a car with an X-symbol. Both of them wear helmets and slinkier versions of the New Mutants outfit. They shout at Doug to stop. No can do, Doug shouts back while wondering whether they can swipe the uniform design. They fire at Doug and he asks Warlock to pour on the speed. Warlock blows a raspberry at the cops while Doug asks him to manifest a shield just in case. Suddenly, he reaches a road block. The cops anticipate the imminent capture, ticked off that Doug is wearing an Arbitrator’s uniform.
However, things turn out differently as Warlock shifts from a board to a flier and takes off The Arbitrators lose control of their vehicle and go off the road. On Doug’s order, Warlock saves them and their car and puts them down on the road. Maybe next time they should drive more carefully, Doug suggests.
The Arbitrators announce they are grateful, but they can’t just let them fly off. How are they gonna stop them? Doug asks. Check out the wall. They left a little something for uptown to remember them by. He sure hopes they get the message, said message being Humans are people too!
Xavier’s Mansion is now a museum called Heroes Plaza, a memorial to those who lost their lives in the great was so that Homo sapiens superior, mutantkind, could achieve its destiny as true masters of the Earth.
A guide announces that this was home to the two teams founded by Charles Xavier, the X-Men and the New Mutants. After Xavier was murdered at the hands of federal troops, the mantle of mutant leadership passed to his best friend and colleague, Magneto, the father of their society.
Among the statues of the fallen heroes is one of Danielle Moonstar. The true Dani, disguised with a cap and a jacket, critically stares at the statue, wishing she looked half as good in reality. She muses on how weird it is reading how you died. Weirder still, knowing it can’t happen unless Illyana shows up to return the four of them to their proper time. If that happens, should they let history take it proper course or try to change things? And if they do, who’s to say things won’t get worse than in this particular future?
Sam joins her, asking if she is ok. Sure, she replies sarcastically. They’ve lost half their team, may be trapped in the wrong time, in a utopia for people like them. What could be better? She’d always hoped that they’d all live happily ever after to a ripe old age. These plaques tell them most of them didn’t. She’d rather not have known.
Maybe that’s part of getting older, Sam suggests. Facing up to unpleasant truths kids get to hide from. Weirdest thing to him is that most everyone they’ve seen uptown is a mutant. Right, Dani replies bitterly. Everyone not wearing a slave tag. They are only human, and that’s less than nothing. Let’s roll, she orders. They have work to do.
A little later, she sneaks out of a hospital, loaded with stole supplies meant for the humans downtown. However, she is grabbed by two Arbitrators, who try to arrest her. As she struggles her jacket comes loose. Seeing her uniform underneath gives them pause, allowing her to use her spirit forms, manifesting their desires. That gives her enough time to run away to a hoverglider with Sam at the wheel. They race downtown but she finds she lost the medicine along with her jacket.
Uptown is breathtaking, a thing of beauty. Downtown is old. The basement, musty and dusty, forgotten and ignored. Streets shrouded in perpetual shadow, lined by the ruins of once proud skyscrapers, whose tallest towers don’t even come near to the lowest levels of uptown. Sam and Dani are about to land when they hear sirens. Arbitrators race by above them, clearly not interested in them but someone else. Sam wonders. In all the time they’ve been here, he’s never seen any Arbs downtown. He wonders what they are after.
The answer is two mutant children of human parents. The mother cries for her children to be returned, while her husband tries to hold her back, telling her this is for the best. As the Arbitrators jump into the flightcar with the kids, he promises that the parents’ stipend will be increased. She doesn’t want their bloodmoney, she wants her kids, the mother shouts and tries to reach for them. The arb swats her aside, making her fall to her death, or she would. But Cannonball flies up to reach her but, before he can, another being leaving a rainbow streak of light behind her in the sky and catches the woman.
Isn’t that a trademark of one of the Power Pack kids? Dani wonders. Yeah, the older girl, Julie Sam recalls. The Power girl catches the mother while Sam destroys several skycars, throwing the arbitrators into the last flying car. As a result, the car is overcrowded and the engines are straining. Sam suggests they lighten the load by handing over the prisoners. One Arbitrator warns him that he is interfering with officers of the law. Ain’t his law, Sam shoots back. Wouldn’t care if it was, cause it stinks! Now return those children or he’ll take them. The Arbitrators shout after him he will pay for this.
Sam returns the kids. While the mother is happy the father points out accusingly the cops will be back and they’ll find them, no matter where they run or hide. Sam reminds him he saved his family. He is not their enemy.
An elderly woman in a Power Pack costume tells him they can’t help it. To them, despite Sam’s kindness, he is one of the oppressors. Julie? he asks. She’s Katie Power, she corrects him, Julie’s younger sister. And he’s Sam Guthrie isn’t he? She hasn’t seen him in ages. Interesting how he hasn’t changed a bit. She flies off and Sam follows as Katie suggests he come with her and tells her his story. She loves stores.
The father glares after them. That stipend was just what he and Merisa needed, to find a decent place, decent clothes, decent food, to finally make something of their lives. It was their chance, too, not only the kids’ and they ruined it.
Uptown in the office of the Chief Arbitrators, the officers report the incidents of resistance. They were all caused by young people, ultra-powered mutants, mixing vandalism with petty theft.
He was that age once himself, the Chief Arbitrator states, and was too often tripped by his hot-headed nature. But he learned to control himself, the woman at his side, his partner states. Usually the hard way and at a fearful cost, he replies.
He asks the commander to visage the perpetrators. As the commander’s features flow like mercury, showing the faces of Sam, Dani, Doug, Warlock, Katie and the father, the Chief Arbitrator’s eyes narrow as he recognizes them. The elderly woman the commander adds is the renegade Kate Power. They’ve been after her for years, but never caught her.
Small wonder, replies his chief. She survived the Sentinels and was a hero of their revolution, until she turned against it. The last face is the sub whose children were the object of today’s culling raid. He’s provided them with a lead to the agitators’ whereabouts. A special strike force has already been assembled. The chief decides that he and his lady will accompany them. They must deal with this personally.
Meanwhile, miles below. Sam and Doug pass out supplies to the kids while Warlock entertains them with his grimaces. Dani and Kate watch. Dani grimly announces it’s like coming home to the reservation. If they weren’t here, the adults would have driven away the kids long ago. For all their efforts, this only takes care of today. What of tomorrow?
She talks as though she already knows the answer, Kate observes. She possesses the deathsight, Dani explains, the Valkyrie gift of sensing those about to die. Too many of these children will. Kate agrees. Malnutrition makes them weak and disease, abetted by poor sanitation and virtually nonexistent medical facilities does the rest. Or they are killed. Or they kill themselves. Dying is easy downtown. The community spectator sport.
But why? Dani demands angrily. There must be scores of mutants uptown whose powers could make a real difference. Easily, Kate agrees. But most of them simply don’t care. Why should they? a newcomer asks. Most of their friends and family don’t consider the people here even people, less than animals. They are the true humans and the subs merely their brutish subhuman forebears.
The three newcomers are teenagers dressed in a mix of New Mutants and Powerpack uniforms. The speaker is a handsome boy with angel wings. The kids immediately run to the newcomers like they are familiar. Kate introduces them as New Mutant Bratpack, named for her truest friends and companions of youth who fought most and hardest of all to defend the innocent, the helpless, the children.
The flyer introduces himself to a flattered Dani as Archangel and he admits that she’s lots prettier in person than her statue makes her out to be. While introductions are made, Kate talks about the great war. Out of that nightmare came downtown. Non-superpowered beings were still needed for the most menial and degrading tasks, but they were completely excluded from all other aspects of life uptown. As uptown grew higher, the gulf between societies became an abyss. These young ruffians are her attempt to bridge that gap.
Suddenly, there is an attack. The food truck becomes the victim of a controlled volcanic eruption. Arbitrators attack. Kate tries to run interference, allowing her kids to flee and Dani observes she seems to possess all the Power Pack’s abilities.
As Kate swings around for another attack, an Arb’s gun takes her out, so the New Mutants join the fray, with Dani shouting after the boys that they can’t go plowing into them half-cocked, the arbs have powers too!
However, another volvanic blast almost takes out Warlock. Cypher orders Warlock to merge with him, despite the risk to Doug. Cannonball is taken out by an adult Sunspot who tells Dani and Cypher two lives for their surrender. Dani yields.
Flashback:
It is spring. The fields are full of wildflowers. The young boy has never seen so many colors and the air is heady with their scent. A hawk circles lazily overhead, and he can hear a lark singing close by. He wants to lie in that field and listen to the buzzy bees go about their business and watch the clouds flow majestically by, their beauty inspiring his imagination to cast him higher than any bird, to the furthest reaches of space and time.
He laughs in wonderment and true joy, a strange and alien sound amidst the stifled sobs and prayers around him and papa’s hands tightens gently on his shoulder. Be brave, his father tells him. Show them you are not afraid. And the soldiers’ guns chatter, bullets fly. He hears screams. His family are hit. Death rushes towards him. His mind burns. Power he never dreamed existed comes alive, reaches out, the bullets meant for him seeming to move in slow motion. The simplest of matters to use this strange new ability to move them aside ,make them miss.
He is falling with his family into blessed eternal oblivion. Shot like them. Killed like them. Horrified, he claws out of the mass grave, his formerly black hair now white.
Magneto awakes. His memories are still vivid, every detail etched with acid. His power first manifested itself that morning. It saved him. Why couldn’t it do the same for his loved ones? He gets up to pour himself a drink. Sometimes, he wishes that he hadn’t struggled so hard.
Xavier’s school is empty with the New Mutants gone. Is he a fool for believing they are not dead and will some day return? Probably. Is his dream a harbinger of mutantkind’s eventual fate? Possibly. But will they be the victims or the executioners? He senses he has reached a crossroads. The Hellfire Club has invited him to join their Lords Cardinal as their White King. The idea is preposterous. They are villains, among the school’s deadliest foes. But then, so once was he. If they stand alone, they could be destroyed. If he accepts the alliance… they could be destroyed. Enraged he throws the glass against the mirror. The choice, the responsibility is his, but he doesn’t know what to do!
In the future, the New Mutants and Kate are stuck in a paralysis field. As two beings enter, Dani remarks they are about to meet the head honchos of this rathole. One of the Arbitrators warns her to watch her tongue. The Chief Arbitrator remarks that Danielle has called him far worse in her day, occasionally with good reason.
Shocked, the mutants recognize the Chief Arbitrators as adult versions of Roberto and Amara. Angrily, Dani shouts No! If they are in charge here, they have changed, because the Sunspot and Magma they knew would never be part of such a cruel and repressive society. Easy to condemn, he shoots back, when she doesn’t know what she is talking about.
There was a war, he reminisces. The bloodiest and most terrible in human history. If Magneto hadn’t forged an alliance between Xavier’s School and the Hellfire Club, mutantkind would have been exterminated. Sam refuses to believe that. Roberto doesn’t care. After the victory, many wanted the surviving humans to suffer the fate they’d planned for mutants, but the Lords Cardinal decided instead to be merciful. They provided them a place to live. Mutants built this city for themselves, why should they share the fruits of their power and labor?
If he has to ask, then there’s no point in telling him, Sam replies. They have downtown; if they live in squalor it’s by their choice, Roberto replies. They could prosper, if they wanted. But they’d rather despoil their homes and then blame mutants for their misery. What about their goons trying to kidnap little kids? Sam asks. Amara speaks up, explaining this was a “culling search.” Genetic scans determine those among the subs’ progeny with a strong mutant potential. They are fostered to homes uptown where their potential can be realized to its fullest extent. This is their way of maintaining the spirit and reality of Xavier’s school.
Nobody was ever kidnapped into Xavier’s! Doug shouts. As he recalls, Mr. Nobody, Roberto replies amused, Cannonball snatched Doug out of his home the night Warlock arrived. He wasn’t given much of a choice. They dragged Doug right into the team. Speaking of Warlock, where is he?
Beats him, Doug replies. Probably scared stiff and hiding from his dad, Magus. That’s why they are in this mess. Magus wants ‘Lock dead and he’s willing to go to any length to get him. Does Roberto remember? Or didn’t that happen in his past?
Meanwhile, unnoticed under Cypher’s feet, Warlock extrudes a molecule-thick strand and destroys a powercable beneath the floor. With the forcefield disrupted the mutant break out and fight.
But reinforcements show up. Kate destroys the window and intends to cover them while they flee. Dani refuses. They are strangers here; they wouldn’t know where to begin Kate’s work. She should leave and finish the job she started. Reluctantly, Kate leaves while the others are overpowered.
Roberto angrily accuses Dani of arrogance and stupidity. What right do they have to judge their society? They argue and Dani threatens what she’ll do him, once she gets her hands on his younger self. In their era, this future hasn’t happened yet. It can still be changed. And she’ll make sure it is.
Roberto and Amara decide that their psis will modify the New Mutants’ thoughts and beliefs, to bring me into harmony with their community. They’ll be able to live peaceful, productive, happy lives among them. And if they are returned to where they belong, they’ll believe this is the way human society should be. This may seem a horrible fate but, when it’s done, they’ll thank them for it.


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

[Assistant]
Father’s Day!
Illyana Rasputin, partially covered in armor, desperately holds off a horde of demons with her back to a rock, brandishing her Soulsword. Time has no meaning in Limbo, so she has no idea how long she’s been fighting. It feels like an eternity. Perhaps it is.
Once she was absolute ruler here. Things have changed. A new order has arisen in Limbo, determined to cast her out or destroy her. She’s taken a terrible toll but, fast as she strikes down her foes, a score rises to take their place They look like her demons, creatures of living flesh and blood but they are not, for the Magus has infected them with the Transmode virus.
One of the demons touches her leg, infecting her in turn. She slashes her Soulsword through her leg. The magical weapon purges the contamination from her body, but her leg is now covered by eldritch armor, just like her left arm and shoulder. She wishes she knew where it came from and what it will mean when her whole body is covered. Perhaps this is where she finds out.
The next moment, she chokes out You! when she realizes who the rebellion’s leader is: her former right hand demon S’ym. Gloating, he tells her Magus made him an offer he couldn’t refuse, to hold the throne he always served. He informs her that he is now a techno-organic being, transforming whomever he touches as they do to whomever they touch. With each step, S’ym makes her realm more and more his. Sooner or later, it will be her turn. Unless she follows Belasco’s example – like daddy, like daughter – and runs away.
Illyana raises her sword. Belasco may have raised her and taught her the black arts, but he is no more her father than the man who sired her, she shouts. If anyone has earned that title, it’s Charles Xavier, and he wouldn’t run from anything!
Magik stabs her Soulsword, capable of disrupting any magical spell or entity, into the ground. Limbo is a realm forged and shaped by magic, so the very fabric of this unreal reality is suddenly, violently torn asunder.
Somewhere in this universe, a fringeworld, somewhere in the middle of nowhere. People come here to buy and sell anything and everything. There’s one city, a sprawling appendage to the much larger starport and that consists mostly of a bazaar which is always open and always busy. Of course, the real actions occurs in more intimate surroundings, in this case a bar called M’n’dens.
At the counter sits Charles Xavier, who informs his compatriots of the Starjammers, Corsair and Binary aka Carol Danvers, both dressed in hooded cloaks that there are no bounty hunters or officials of the law after them here.
Pleasant change for once, Corsair mutters and points out a middle-aged man dressed in a version of Scottish Clan clothing to Carol. He’s the owner of this place and nothing moves this rock without his knowledge or permission. If anyone has what they need… And if he doesn’t or turns them down? Carol asks. Ship won’t go much farther without major repairs, Chris Summers reminds her. They don’t make them and soon, they re done.
Corsair addresses the man, Haggard, who instantly recognizes them and remarks that the imperium wants them badly. Warrants all over. Biggest bounty anyone’s ever heard of. He of a mind to collect? Corsair asks challengingly. Not… today, comes the reply.
Some distance away at the counter Xavier tells his lover Lilandra that this room is covered by psi-dampers. He can maintain a passive scan to warn themselves and Corsair of any attack, but any attempt to probe deeper will set off alarms and some very nasty defenses. Lilandra states that Haggad is a careful man. That is why he has survived so long. They Starjammers should profit from his example.
She notes that she now counts herself as a member of that group. The expatriate empress assumes the role of a pirate and rebel? She’s almost tempted to let her sister keep the throne she stole from her.
She notices Xavier is withdrawn and asks what the matter is. He admits that he was thinking of the New Mutants. He knows he left them in good hands, but in a very real sense they are his children. He can’t help worrying.
She reminds him that she promised they will someday return him to Earth. That seems more and more like a dream, he sighs, a holy grail he’s lost like Lancelot did. Never to find again. There are times he feels like he’d pay any price, make any sacrifice to go home, and yet… there are far worse fates than exile with the woman he loves. He supposes he can only hope and pray he’s made he right decision leaving Magneto as headmaster of his school and accept the happiness he has rather than constantly yearn for what might never…
Startled, he interrupts his own sentence as he notices a familiar thoughtflash. Impossible! he shouts. He tells Lilandra to stay here. He’ll be back as soon as he can.
He runs through the bar, following the familiar thought pattern, surprised that she is far more afraid than angry. Uncharacteristic. He’d have expected the reverse. He finds the one he looks for, Illyana Rasputin in the bazaar on an auction block, about to be sold off. When Illyana angrily protests, the auctioneer shoots her with a minimal shockpulse of pleasure which immediately subdues her.
Xavier steps up, announcing she is not for sale. He is her patron. The auctioneer reacts with anger. Nobody gives him order on his stage. He shoots Xavier with the same weapon, pain this time instead of pleasure. Xavier realizes the weapon acts on the nervous system, but it can only affect him if he allows it. Despite the agony, he slugs the auctioneer. He cradles Illyana and lifts her up, but cybernetic police units capture the two of them with tentacles.
Luckily, that moment Binary makes her entrance and shoots them, making a most decided stand against slavery. As she is joined by Corsair, she asks if anyone else wants to give them an argument on that score. As the auctioneer recognizes them as Starjammers, he surprisingly does not. More policemen come and the Starjammers are teleported up to their skimmer hidden in a cave on the planet in answer to Corsair’s emergency signal.
Aboard Ch’od reminds them that a certain someone promised him on “scout’s honor,” whatever that is, to this once stay out of trouble. It wasn’t his fault, Corsair protests. Brought home souvenir? Hepzibah asks Charles. A rescue, Xavier replies. A… family matter. He did not mean to involve the Starjammers. He’s one of them, Raza reminds him. His every decision and act “involves” them.
Angrily, Corsair turns to Xavier and demands to know what this was about. That stunt of his may have botched their deal with Haggard. It sure as sin blew their cover! Lilandra orders him to hold his tongue. Charles had good reason. Corsair shouts back at her, reminding her that she is not Majestrix Shi’ar anymore.
Xavier explains that this is one of his students from Earth. Surprised, Chris Summers asks how she got here. He assumes she used her mutant power to teleport. Whatever, she needs immediate medical attention.
Sikorsky raises Illyana in a hover field and announces his preliminary bioscan shows that her hurts are mostly superficial. Prognosis hopeful. More than one can say for the rest of them, Corsair mutters.
The ship computer Waldo addresses Corsair, asking if he got him anything. Nothing, comes the reply. He orders Waldo to reinforce their screen. And be ready to lift the Skimmer at a moment’s notice. Word will spread. Even if the Imperial fleet hears nothing, bounty hunters are certain to.
Later, in the Starskimmer’s infirmary, Illyana awakes panicked, still believing she is on the auction block. Xavier calms her. When she realizes it’s him, she hugs him joyfully. Lilandra feels some pangs at this as she sees how happy Illyana and Charles are. She is sure she will lose him again to the students he loves. The life that gives his existence meaning and purpose. She could go back with him, Carol suggests. Duty rules her life as much as his, Lilandra replies. If she leaves her sister on the throne, the Shi’ar will revert to their aggressive, warlike ways. Blood will run between the stars and worlds without number will burn. She cannon leave while she has breath to stop Deathbird anymore than Charles will now stay.
Later, still at the dinner table, Illyana happily babbles. She enthuses how wonderful it is to see the Professor is really okay, as they only had Magneto’s word for it. She interrupts herself. Corsair wouldn’t know yet: he’s a granddad! Scott and Madelyne had a baby boy. She doesn’t know his name yet. They’re treating it like a state secret or something. His teammates congratulate Corsair and Charles states the world seems to have been very busy in his absence. You bet! Illyana agrees. Last she looked, the Mets were in the first place by miles. She hopes they go all the way and win the World Series! A little confused at this conversation, Corsair pardons his ignorance, as he’s been out of touch for a while… but who are these “Mets?”
Xavier returns the conversation to more serious matters. How is Magneto coping with his new responsibilities? Is all well at home? She wishes, Illyana replies sobered and relates how the Marauders massacred the Morlocks. When the X-Men tried to help, they got cut to pieces too.
The New Mutants were told to stay behind. But then, Karma was worried about her younger siblings, so Illyana teleported her to her apartment. The kids were gone. A booby-trap had been left in their place. A bomb. Illyana barely got them out. The other New Mutants came looking for them. In the tunnels, they were ambushed by Warlock’s father, Magus. He wanted his son’s life and theirs because they’d befriended Warlock.
Illyana teleported them to Limbo, figuring Magus couldn’t follow. But he did. He tore her realm apart. It felt like her body was being ripped to pieces. Inside her head, she couldn’t stop screaming.
They ran through time. First to the past, then the future but, along the way, they got separated down two different timestreams. She couldn’t help the others; she was too busy fighting for her life, because Magus had turned her demons in Limbo against her. She fought them as hard and long as she could. But it was no use. She hit limits. They had none. She was alone. They were an army. She figured better death than becoming Magus’s creature. She used her Soulsword and all her power to wipe Limbo clear of his influence. Her last thought was of the professor.
Only, she didn’t die. She hugs him, telling him how she found herself on this crazy world, where none of her powers would work and she thought she was done for. She was so scared until he came. Crying, she tells him she knows she screwed up. What they did was stupid and she’s sorry, but each time it seemed the right thing to do. They figured they had no alternative. She breaks down crying.
When she’s calmed down a bit, Lilandra asks what this means. What he always feared, Xavier replies, a covert war for mutant supremacy. From the images he perceives in Illyana’s memories, these Marauder are also mutants whose goal is apparently world domination.
Carol points out that she thought he couldn’t read Illyana’s mind. Charles realizes she is right. In the past, he couldn’t, but her daemonic psi-blocks are gone. Does that mean she is finally free of the sorcerer Belasco’s influence? Lilandra wonders. He wishes that were so, Xavier admits, but fears it isn’t. It is more as though Illyana’s psyche has been split in half, much as she says Limbo was. This Illyana Rasputin may be more pleasant and indeed more normal seeming than Magik, but it is only part of her being. A shadow of her true self.
She figured this was too good to be true, Illyana sighs. She hoped she’d simply gotten better, cast the dark, magical side of her out when she blasted loose from Limbo. Is that what she wants? Xavier asks. It’s what everyone else wants, she replies. Her brother, Peter, would be overjoyed to see her like this. And she really wants him to be happy, except that she misses her magic so. She’s afraid of it, but she needs it. Right now she’s human again; the girl she would have been, if not for Belasco, only she feels empty, more dead than alive. Xavier hugs her.
Later still, with Xavier and Illyana dressed in more practical outfits and Liladra in battle armor, the three of them and Binary are ready to go to Limbo. Xavier explains to Corsair he has to make the attempt. Via Limbo, Illyana can travel to any point in time and space. Her own control is wildly haphazard, but now that he can access her thoughts, he believes he can direct her to pinpoint accuracy. Somewhere, somewhen, out there are the rest of his students. If the merest chance exists, to save them, he must take it.
They may not even get out of the gate, Corsair points out. If Illyana’s ploy worked and Limbo is destroyed she’s stuck here. Or if anything goes wrong, they could end up dead anyway. There’s no guarantee the Starjammer will still be here when they return. Would he rather he abandon the children? Xavier asks sternly. He’s simply laying out the odds, comes the reply.
There’s no need to worry, Illyana chimes in. With the prof guiding her, she can bring them back in a heartbeat or three. With that, she teleports them away. Corsair has little time to worry as suddenly something hits the hull. Waldo informs him they may have a problem. As far as his sensors can determine, this planet is being torn apart!
The others have arrived in Limbo to find it a lovely landscape instead of the nightmare realm they were expecting. Illyana realizes the Soulsword did this. Cleansed the land, made Limbo what it should have been, before Belasco got his scummy claws into it. After she threw Belasco out and took over, she tried to make things better, but every spell she cast had a dark twist to it. No matter how hard she tried, they all went wrong. Because she used black magic, the evil nature of the power itself tainted her enchantments. But now the shadow’s gone. She’s not sure whether to laugh or cry. If her land has a last chance to be healed and whole, maybe so does she? Only does she want it? she wonders silently.
Not her land, a techno-organic S’ym announces. Never again hers. Limbo belongs to S’ym and through S’ym the Lord Magus!
Is that so? Binary asks and blast him only to find S’ym absorbs the energy of the plasma bolt. Illyana asks Xavier to help. S’ym mocks that only she can counter his power. He is about to attack Xavier.
Illyana grabs her Soulsword and with it her magical power, manifesting  armor, and horns. She attacks S’ym to defend Xavier. He realizes that with her arcane might she reclaimed the transcendent evil that goes with it. Yet she did it to save him.
Illyana attacks S’ym but he split his body apart before her Soulword can cut him. If even a molecule of him remains, he can reconstitute himself, he tells her, and by his presence alone infect Limbo with the Technarch transmode virus. Her Soulsword can keep him a bay, but only if it remains here. The moment she removes it, the moment she uses her sorcery, he is free. The more of Limbo Sy’m transmodes, the weaker she becomes. And should all Limbo be transmoded, she’ll never be able to teleport again. Her magic will be gone and her mutant power as well.
He transforms into a dragon and flies off. Illyana shouts threats after him, vowing this realm is and will remain hers. Is she going to abandon them? Lilandra asks Charles. He doesn’t know, as he can no longer read her mind. If she doesn’t go after, S’ym she is lost, she realizes. If she does, her teammates are. What should she choose? she asks Xavier. That s for her alone to say, he replies. She decides they find the mutants first, then afterwards it will be Sy’m’s turn. She places the Soulsword back into the ground and teleports them away.
A world that’s a utopia for mutants and hell for ordinary humans. Cannonball, Mirage, Cypher and Warlock are prisoners here in a room with a hypnotic field that saps their willpower, making them more accepting of their fate.
The older Amara and Roberto enter the room. Amara assures them it isn’t like they are about to be executed. No, Dani snarls back, brainwashed, by two people who used to be their teammates. This is for their own good, Roberto assures her. That’s what the government told her Cheyenne ancestors, she replies, when they promised that the treaties would last for as long as the grass grew and the fish swam. She figures he is about as trustworthy.
And they, Roberto replies, are a threat to all they’ve built. A society built on prejudice and discrimination ain’t much to be proud of, Sam points out. He has no right to judge, Roberto retorts, especially since he has no idea what he is talking about. They’ve only seen taken out of context bits of their society. The re-education process will show them the whole, teach them what every child here learns from birth, so they’ll be able to accept it for what they are. They’ll fit in here. They’ll be happy.
Why not let them make that decision for themselves? Doug asks. Because the choice is not what’s important, comes the voice of Professor Xavier, as Illyana teleports them here, only their conversion. As so often, so sadly happens, the best and most noble of reasons inspire the most heinous of atrocities.
He addresses Roberto, telling him by their lights this may seem a necessary act, but all his eloquent rationalization will no make it right. He thought he taught him better.
The Professor was killed, Roberto replies, mutantkind was nearly exterminated. It’s hard to hold onto a dream when you’re fighting for survival. That is when you must do so hardest of all! Comes the reply. He thinks they’ve done pretty well, Roberto insists. He knows, Xavier replies. Therein lies the tragedy of his life and this future. Farewell. Illyana teleports them all away.
Same place, a different future, where the Sentinels rule. Said Sentinels are about to attack their friends, making a last stand, when suddenly Binary arrives and takes out the Sentinels, aided spectacularly by Cannonball. Doug joins with Warlock to help too.
Happily, the other mutants greet Professor X, but the two groups of mutants stare at each other awkwardly, wondering whether their friends will become the future versions they have seen. More Sentinels show up and Illyana teleports them away to what they think is safety on the Starskimmer.
Instead, the first thing they see on the Starskimmer’s screen is a burning horizon, courtesy of Magus who demands Warlock or worlds without number will fall before his righteous wrath, as this one has. Aware of his son’s presence on the ship, he orders him to stand forth and meet his fate.
Ch’od points out that Magus’ power scales are way beyond the capacity of their defensive screens.
Warlock gets ready to sacrifice himself. Doug tells him not to give up. He reminds him that they defied Magus. He won’t let them get away with that. They either beat him or die with Warlock. Warlock turns to Xavier, asking what to do. Xavier replies that the Maguswar is what is evil here. It is responsible for this planet’s destruction. it must be changed. But that is something, he fears, only Warlock can accomplish.
Outside, Magus’ voice booms that he grows weary of waiting. Perhaps they require further persuasion. He uses tentacles to breach the hull, intent on infecting them with the transmode virus.
Xavier orders Magma outside to get into direct contact with the planetary surface. Magma raises and cools a pillar of molten rock to create an islet upon which to stand. He asks her to sense the world far below. Amara senses its dying agony. Xavier tells her to give that pain voice and hold back nothing.
As streamers of raw fire erupt from Magma’s hands, she also shifts the tectonic balance of the ocean floor, slamming a fissure right onto the part of Magus’ body that’s attacking the Starskimmer. He bellows more in surprise than actual pain.
Xavier orders Magik to teleport to the sea bottom. Illyana complies and teleports a section of the trapped body away. Magus screams in agony and the tentacles on the ship dissolve.
Outside, Cannonball gets Magma away to save her from Magus. Magma orders Sam to put her down again. The Starskimmer fires at Magus to no avail as the plasma weapons only replenish him. Amara explains that her powers are the only thing keeping the planetary cores alive and the world itself intact. Sam doesn’t believe she is strong enough. Xavier replies she will be once he augments her power with his own. Reluctantly, Sam returns her to her islet again.
Aboard the Starskimmer, Sunspot admits he feels so useless. What good is his strength here? Xavier reminds him that not everyone in a team is essential to the resolution of every conflict. He’s done his part in the past and no doubt will again. For the present, he should practice patience, hard though it may be. Roberto thinks that Xavier speaks as a father should. As his real father almost never does, though he would give his soul to have him do so.
Turning into a helicopter, Warlock flies off to confront his father by himself. He is firing at his father, willing to kill Magus. His father slaps him aside, commending his effort, but it is futile.
Sunspot catches Warlock, whose lifeglow is almost extinguished. Doug shouts there has to be an answer. Magus has to have a vulnerable spot. Xavier ells him to think about who and what their foe is – therein lies the key he seeks. Gimme a break! Douglas thinks. They’re staring death in the face and the prof is acting like they are in class. That moment, he has an idea.
Xavier reads his mind, then tells Mirage to strike the first blow by confronting Magus with his terror. She tried that before, Dani replies. But his strength is way out of her league. He busted her illusion instantly. Xavier promises to augment her power as he did Magma’s.
Doug tries to rouse the injured Warlock. Again, he uses his life-energy to jumpstart Warlock. Warlock warns him. He needs too much energy. Doug would die! Carol draws Doug away. No need to kill himself to recharge Warlock when her starbolts can do it better and more easily. Doug calls himself a dunce. He should have thought of her right off.
Warlock is again restored, while outside Magus rages. He threatens to kill the mutants as well. Magma finds she cannot hold out much longer. That moment, a giant Warlock confronts his surprised father. Actually, a spirit form, thanks to Mirage.
Xavier shares his powers with Karma as well and allows her to possess Magus. He stands frozen while Doug and Warlock merged fly up to his head and probe into his primary genetic structure. Merged, even in thought, as Douglock, they decipher his genetic formula.
That moment, Karma breaks down and Magus realizes that Warlock has soulmerged with a bioform. He fires at Douglock but their selfdefense systems deal with it. Magus then whips up some giant-sized antibodies. Luckily, the boys get some help, courtesy of Binary and Sunspot.
They become more and more and Douglock panics. He asks Xavier for help. However, Xavier refuses or Cypher will always depend on him. He tells Doug that the key is within himself. Be calm and have confidence in his own abilities and courage. The boys obey and read Magus’ genetic code. Magus is like Warlock and Warlock is a part of him. The key is knowing himself. Doug acts and Magus screams in pain. Binary and Sunspot leave. Magus seems to explode and soon Warlock and Doug join the others.
Team supreme, Doug laughs. They don’t mess around. Such modesty Sunspot mocks. Is it over? Have they killed Magus? Doug explains he couldn’t kill, not even him. What did he do then? Corsair asks. Doug explains it was essentially a problem in software engineering. They tapped into the primary genetic code that controlled Magus’ shapeshifting ability. Then he defined the very nature of Magus’ reality. He wrote a regression program, then bounced him back to the Techarch royal crèche as a baby. It will be a while before he grows up and, by then, he’ll have a grown-up Warlock, plus the New Mutants, to keep him in line.
If they survive the futures they saw, Mirage thinks. If they come to pass. Warlock states Doug is in error. By referring to him and Magus as offspring and sire. That description is biologically accurate but self would not have survived so long, much less triumphed, had he not learned so much from interacting with the New Mutants and especially Xavier. He requests the honor of considering Xavier his true sire of his soul and spirit. Calling Warlock dear son, Xavier hugs him and replies the honor is his.


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

[Assistant]
Teacher’s Choice
Xavier’s mansion is deserted. Both teams, New Mutants and X-Men, are gone. Even the headmaster, Magneto, once the school’s greatest foe, has left.
The New Mutants are currently with the Starjammers, their ship drifting among the detritus of a ravaged world, orbiting a star so far from Earth that it cannot be seen. The Starjammers are busy, trying to repair the ship. While they can still fly, any fight would be a lost cause.
Xavier, in the meantime, initiates a psiprobe, reading all of his students’ minds, so he can learn what happened to them in the recent past.
The mindscape:
He returns with them to the recent past, to the sprawling secret Morlock Tunnels. Mutants who were massacred. His students’ minds are crammed with scattershot vile, violent images of the dead. The New Mutants cannot believe their eyes. They don’t want to. Neither does their teacher.
Things get worse. Memories backtrack farther to reveal the X-Men returning from the Morlock Tunnels with the massacre’s pitifully few survivors. Not event the X-Men escaped unscathed. Half their number may not recover. The assassins are mutants as well, a band called Marauders. No, Xavier moans.
Further back still. Worse yet. More than he can bear. The New Mutants watch TV, a new show which stars X-Factor’s public relations director Cameron Hodge. A picture shows the mutant hunters whom Xavier recognizes as his original five students. That madness Xavier cannot believe and he breaks off. He covers his face, praying this isn’t true.
Lilandra hugs him and tries to offer comfort. For a time, there is silence, then he turns away. When asked what he saw, he replies, horror beyond comprehension and tells her. How could those five become the foes of the very people he brought them together to protect? he asks, looking at the still sleeping New Mutants.
What will he do? Lilandra asks. He has no choice, comes the reply. He must return to Earth with the New Mutants. There is silence between the two of them, following that announcement.
Earth: The late season hurricane caught everyone by surprise, moving up the coast faster than expected, with more power than any storm in recent years. Worse, the conjunction of moon and wind and tide is creating a record storm surge that threatens to overwhelm the coastal communities. At Leesford, the breakwater failed at sunset. Five thousand people, cut off from safety by flooded highways, watch the waves sweep ever closer, certain none will see tomorrow’s dawn. When the derelict liner rears out of the water, not a soul realizes they are witnessing their salvation.
Aboard the wreck stands Storm, holding fast and enjoying the ride. She challenges the winds to do their worst, she cares not. She ruled them once and shall do so again. As she laughs with wild madcap abandon, energy flashes from the back to pull the great relic ever faster toward the waiting rocks.
Ashore Magneto grins as exultantly as his companion. Under his onslaught steel tears like paper. In a twinkling, the ship is no more while he transports Storm ashore aboard one sheet of steel. He uses the rest of the fabric to create a new, stronger breakwater.
A fair evening’s work, Storm congratulates him. It is satisfying every now and then to truly do some good. To help ordinary people. Except, Magneto replies, if those same people knew that mutants were responsible they’d probably blast their handiwork to bits.
Storm accuses him of being too cynical and he rejoins that she is far too trusting. They are both what their pasts have made them, for better or worse. And what they are determines what will be. The Hellfire Club is one of the X-Men’s deadliest foes. Yet they have invited him to join their Lords Cardinal as the White King. He reshapes another piece of metal into a devil’s pitchfork.
Will he accept? Ororo asks. He admits he doesn’t know. Storm points out it would neutralize the Club as a threat to them. And an alliance would further protect the school from the Marauders. Perhaps Magneto might even prove a beneficial, positive influence on the White Queen’s students, the Hellions.
She wants him to accept? he asks in disbelief. The Hellfire Club is privy to the secrets of every government on Earth, she reminds him. His presence among the Lords Cardinal will permit the X-Men access to them. That will prove an invaluable asset once they execute Plan Omega. Logical, Magneto admits. He wishes he were convinced.
He reshapes the trident into the helmet he wore as a villain. If he steps once more into the shadows, no matter how noble his motives, what prevents him from reverting to his old ways? She has faith in him, she replies simply. More he suspects than he has in himself, he replies gloomily.
In deep space, the New Mutants are helping the Starjammers repair their damaged ship. Guided by Doug Ramsey, Warlock processes raw asteroid material and uses it to patch up a hole in the hull. Cannonball (giddy at the thought of being in space like in his science fiction books) transports a module into the cargo breach while Magma seals another breach with her powers, careful not to burn her spacesuit in the process.
On the bridge, Lilandra, Hepzibah and Raza are also busy with repairs. Lilandra is tortured by the thought that, as soon as the repairs are over, Charles will leave with his students and she will never see him again.
Hepzibah criticizes that they wouldn’t be in this mad place if they had stayed with their true calling. Raza orders her to give it a rest. Hepzibah snorts that Raza is defending featherhead –referring to Lilandra – whether she’s wrong or right, because they are bloodkin. They are privateers, she continues, freebooters, not rebels in a hopeless cause. Would she rather see her sister on the throne? Lilandra asks angrily. She is not called “Deathbird” for nothing.
Couldn’t care less, Hepzibah replies. Imperium has ruler it deserves. If Lilandra wants throne, only proves she’s as crazed as sister. Rotluck been theirs full measure, since she joined…
The next moment, Lilandra decks her. While Hepzibah lies on the ground in surprise, Lilandra announces she is done with her sniping and her hate. She had no part in the destruction of Hepzibah’s world. Hepizbah is ready to fight back. Raza holds her back, ordering they both keep their peace. Lilandra orders Hepzibah to hate her, if she must, for what she is, not for what she thinks Lilandra represents.
That moment, an intercom hologram projection of Wolfsbane appears. Agitated, the young girl asks for the professor. There’s trouble. Xavier, Dani and Karma join Rahne who is standing in front of Illyana’s room. She explains that she was chatting with Illyana, talking about how good it would be to return home, even though they’d have to travel through Illyana’s realm of Limbo to get there, when all of a sudden Illyana got terribly upset and locked herself in her room. Now she refuses to answer.
Xavier tries to mentally reach out to Illyana, who cowers in a corner of her room. She shouts at him to get out of her head and leave her alone or she’ll teleport to Limbo and leave them all behind!
Dani is surprised. She’s never heard Illyana panicked. Or hysterical. This is bad. She thinks Magik is serious. Xavier tells Karma he will give her entry to Illyana’s mind, so she can possess the other girl and make her unlock the door. Dani protests, demanding they find a better way. Xavier overrules her protest and Karma obeys.
A moment later, the possessed Illyana opens her door. Dani demands Xavier and Karma let her go now. Xavier first wants to know what prompted Illyana to have that outburst. Possessed, Illyana admits she doesn’t want to go back to Limbo. The dark side of herself is there, the part of her that is evil. Here, on the Starjammer she’s free, the girl she could have been, should have been. She wants to stay and be normal and happy. Is that so much to ask?
Satisfied? Dani demands angrily as she hugs Illyana. Did he get his lousy pound of flesh? Xavier warns her not to take that tone with him. Illyana snaps out of it, and realizes what has been done to her. Hurt, she turns to Dani who asks Xavier if his answers were worth the pain? He realizes that she is right. He tries to explain himself. But as he begins, he senses something.
Telepathically, he orders Cannonball to return to the ship and informs Hepzibah to ignite main engines and activate defense shields. Hepzibah obeys, not knowing why. A moment later, there is a nuclear detonation. Binary drags Amara and Sam inside. The Starjammers realize that their attackers are a Shi’ar hunter group that was cloaked. Fortunately, they couldn’t hide their thoughts from Xavier. He sensed the commander’s order to fire.
He orders Hepzibah to turn fast left. Be nice if they could shoot back, Ch’od observes wryly. With what? Corsair asks. Their guns were wrecked in the last fight. Xavier informs them the Shi’ar are attempting an englobement maneuver, and tells Hepziah to stop the ship, then a reverse course. They cut their course close to scramble their foes’ sensors.
Elsewhere, the New Mutants are shaken across the ship. On the bridge, Xavier is mentally projecting a tactical overview for the others to see. They are staying ahead of the Shi’ar barely and all thanks to him. Without him, they are done, Corsair states. Xavier replies that Corsair heard what’s occurring back on Earth. He’s needed there desperately. And yet, he thinks, he owes the Starjammers his life. The ship gets hit again.
Lilandra suggest they could delay his return until after the Starjammer is out of danger. Suppose they don’t escape? Xavier replies. The New Mutants are children. Above all else, their lives must be safeguarded. What about the children of this galaxy? Lilandra asks. He saw the thoughts of their hunters. How many more will suffer, if her sister is allowed free flight? The Starjammers are the only check on her mad ambitious dreams. Whichever path he chooses, he realizes, he loses.
Later, in the cargo bay, he has collected the New Mutants and Binary who asks if he is going with them or what? Xavier still has to think. Which need is paramount. His heart pulls him one way, his conscience another. The New Mutants seem to be in good hands with Magneto. And yet, is even he equal to those tasks?
He interrupts his train of thought to tell Hepzibah to start another evasion maneuver. He realizes what he has to do. He is staying. Sam states he understands. Xavier hopes Illyana will be able to return for him at some later date. In the meanwhile, her power will teleport them home.
Illyana refuses. She can’t go back to Limbo without him to give her strength. She pleads with him not to make her. Strictly, he replies he hasn’t got the time or inclination to argue the matter. He knows this will be hard for her, but also necessary. Karma will ensure it is done. Shan possesses Illyana and makes Magik teleport them away. Sam promises they will be waiting for him.
Okay, chum, he saved his kids, now do he same for them, Binary reminds him.
At Xavier’s School, Illyana swears at her friends, keeping them a bay with her Soulsword. Her friends, she snarls, hah! Her demon S’ym is more honest than them and he’s out to kill her! Sam asks her to put her sword away. She warns him to keep his distance and not push her. They made her little better than a puppet. She’ll never forgive them for that. And when she gets back from Limbo, she’s going to make them pay! With that she’s gone.
She’s mad, Sam states redundantly. Wouldn’t he be if he’d been used like that, Dani asks. School feels empty, Sam states. He wonders how long they’ve been gone and what’s happened since. They’ll find out soon enough, Roberto replies and tells them all to cheer up. They’re home, they’re okay. Even Magik, once she’s calmed down. Their school is still intact, how bad could things be?
At the Manhattan’s Hellfire Club, Magneto has dressed in the regalia of the White King and admits he feel like a fool. It isn’t so much the clothes, but what bothers him is what they and tonight’s ceremony represent.
Storm reminds him that, during WW II, America and Great Britain allied with communist Russia against a common foe, Nazi Germany. What they do here is much the same. It does not mean the X-Men and Xavier’s school subscribe to the Hellfire Club’s policies or intend being corrupted by them. They are not supplicants, but equals. Magneto tears off the finery. Then they can accept them as themselves.
Soon, Storm and Magneto, in his uniform, join the other Lords Cardinal, the White Queen, Selene, Shaw and his assistant Tessa. Shaw announces there is a reason for their garb. It symbolizes a rejection of the structures and false morality of this modern age and their allegiance to the ways of a rougher more vital era when a man, or a woman, was limited solely by his wits, his strength, his courage, his ambition. Nothing was beyond the reach of those willing to pay the prize. As the White King, he is meant to exemplify those beliefs.
He is what he is, Magneto replies, as is Storm. Take them or leave them. Frost takes Magneto’s hand as Shaw welcomes Magneto and Storm jointly to the throne of the White King, last of the Four Lords Cardinal who rule the Hellfire Club. Long may they reign!
Silently, Shaw tells them to enjoy their independence while it lasts. But as Black King, he swears the day will come when they’ll bond themselves to hellfire in spirit as well as flesh, with all their heroic hearts and souls.
Selene, in the meantime, makes no secret of her amusement. As if the Black Queen wasn’t rival enough for Shaw, now he has these two to content with. Perhaps they will destroy each other and leave the final triumph to her.
For better or worse, Magneto thinks, this unholy alliance is forged. And only the fates know if it will save them or prove their total destruction.