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Suppressing Fire, part 2
The Mission District, San Francisco, one hour ago, where Remy “Gambit” LeBeau has rescued Hope “Trance” Abbott from HAMMER, when a pink light signals the arrival of a very unusual woman - Ariel, accompanied by Onyxx. ‘Gambit, right? Cyclops sent us’, Ariel declares, adding that according to the Cuckoos, there is a casualty here. Gambit replies that he doesn’t know her, and asks if she is an X-Man. ‘The name’s Ariel and, yes, I’ve been deputized’. Gambit asks Ariel where her badge is, to which Ariel replies that it is right here in her double helix. Onyxx picks up his fellow X-student, while Gambit tells Ariel to take care of her, as she was hit by a taser as she was using her spirit-walk power, and now she cannot separate or merge. ‘She’s trapped halfway’ he explains. Walking towards Ariel’s teleportation door, Onyxx tells Gambit not to worry, as they are taking her straight back to base. ‘Exactly!’ Ariel exclaims. ‘She’s as safe as if she was in God’s pocket!’ Ariel adds, while Gambit looks dumbfounded.
An instant later, Marin County, X-Men HQ, a pink glow signals the return of Ariel and Onyxx to the X-Men’s control room, where several X-Men, students and allies - Anole, Doctor Nemesis, Madison Jeffries, Cipher, Colossus, Nightcrawler and the Stepford Cuckoos - are monitoring the situation. Phoebe of the Stepford Cuckoos announces that there is another flashpoint at the Panhandle, to which Nightcrawler exclaims that he is on to it, and teleports away. Ariel approaches another of the Stepford Cuckoos, exclaiming ‘Mission accomplished, Candy!’ The Cuckoo puts her hands on her hips and replies ‘I’m Mindee. There isn’t a Candy’ before asking where Trance is. Onyxx looks at his arms and exclaims ‘I had her right here!’ Ariel exclaims that isn’t possible and asks Onyxx when he lost her. ‘I had her when I stepped through -’ Onyxx explains, to which Ariel declares that she could be anywhere, and assures everyone that it isn’t her fault, but that it must have something to do with Trance’s ‘Ghosty power thing’ as she puts it.
Indeed, Trance falls through one of Ariel’s doorways lands on a bus shelter, before toppling to the road. ‘Somebody help -’ she calls out, when, a nearby member of HAMMER announces to his colleagues that he thinks he has a mutant trace. ‘Move in. But take it slow and careful. And keep your men on the leash this time!’ a senior HAMMER tells his officer. ‘Looks like a kid. Or - two kids, maybe. Hard to tell’ the HAMMER agent remarks as they approach Trance, her energy state half-in, half-out of her body. ‘Mutie, that’s for sure!’ another HAMMER operative mutters. While a concerned Hope remarks ’Don’t - don’t just stand there. Run! RUN!’ she screams as her power explodes around her, knocking the HAMMER agents to the ground, but enabling her to run away. One of the HAMMER operatives manages to radio to command central, announcing that he has men down and needs back-up, stat.
Meanwhile, at the Castro in San Francisco, now, Rogue, Gambit and Danger are in a commandeered HAMMER heavy armor vehicle, making their way through the danger zone that has become San Francisco. Rogue asks Mindee to keep communicating, and what she is getting. Mindee telepathically replies that Trance’s mind-signature is very close to Rogue’s location, but that it is fuzzy and keeps fading. ‘All I can say is she’s alive, but hurting - and very scared’. Gambit remarks that it could be Trance’s bio-energy is out of control, the same way her spirit-walking is. ‘I should have stayed with her’ he remarks, before Danger tells Rogue to stop this vehicle. ‘I think we might have to continue on foot from here’ Danger declares, as a huge pile up of cars, many on fire, is laid out before them.
The three make their way out of the HAMMER vehicle, and stand before the pile of cars, and Gambit suggests they go around. Rogue points out that she still has the strength of Ares, or at least some of it. ‘And Danger’s got whatever she got’ Rogue adds, staring at the pile up, she declares that she doesn’t see why this should slow them down, and begins moving cars aside with her bare hands, while Danger blasts through the middle of the flaming pile of cars.
Nearby, Trance stumbles down a street, ‘Oh God. Help me!’ she whispers. ‘I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die here’ she whispers, when suddenly, a group of civilians nearby see her. ‘Girl, you okay? You look spaced!’ one of them remarks as he walks towards her. But Trance tells him to keep away and warns him not to touch her. One woman announces that she is calling a ambulance, and begins dialing her mobile phone, but Trance tells her not to call an ambulance. ‘Call the X-Men! Tell them I’m in trouble!’ she exclaims. Clutching at her stomach, Hope exclaims ‘Trance. Tell them - Trance is in -’, she doesn’t get to finish her sentence, as her powers explode, sending a wave of energy rippling through the air. She keels over, while the civilians run away.
Nearby, Rogue is telepathically informed by Mindee that Trance should be directly ahead of them. Gambit announces that they see her, and asks Mindee to tell Cyclops that there are on scene. ‘Tell him it’s bad!’ Rogue exclaims as she looks out a window and past the rioters, to where Trance is keeled over, power flowing from her. Gambit asks if Hope is capable of this, to which Danger replies that there is nothing in her database to indicate so, which means this is new. ‘Ah’m gonna go in’ Rogue declares, walking through the energy, towards Trance. ‘And do what?’ Gambit asks. Rogue explains that she will absorb Trance’s power if she can. ‘Bring her down from this. She can’t hurt me, long as Ah got this God-strength in me’ Rogue adds, to which Gambit asks ‘What about when it fades?’. ‘Hopefully we’ll be done by then’ Rogue remarks, before telling Danger to come with her, as they make their way towards Trance. Danger tells Gambit to watch their backs and warn them if any HAMMER troops move in. ‘We don’t want surprises’ she remarks.
The heroes are unaware though that Dr Karla “Moonstone” Sofen, calling herself Ms Marvel these days, has dropped down on a nearby rooftop. Someone radios in to “Ms Marvel” asking her to report her position and status. Sofen replies that she is at Golden Gate Heights, and is just mopping up. ‘No X-Men sightings since I ran across Rogue. I’m hoping she’s still out here somewhere’ Karla remarks, while the agent she is communicating with informs her that the ground units have reported and injured mutant at 8th and Market, with three men down. ‘Not clear if it’s an ambush or just an accident’.
Several rioters on the rooftop turn to Moonstone, wielding flaming bottles and baseball bats, one of them takes a swipe at Moonstone, but she turns to her “ghost” form. Moonstone tells the person she is communicating with that she might take a look into the situation on 8th and Market, as she kicks two of the rioters over, and tosses another into the air, while one of them throws one of the flaming bottles at her - of course it passes through, and smacks one of the other rioters in the face. The command agent informs Moonstone that she doesn’t need to assess the situation, as a team has already been dispatched. ‘Un-dispatch them. I’ll take this. Could be something, could be nothing’ Moonstone remarks as she continues to deal to the rioters on the rooftop, before taking flight, leaving several burning rioters, she remarks that one thing she has learned is that the X-Men take care of their own.
A blue glow continues to engulf Trance and the area around her, while Rogue calls out to her, asking her if she can hear them. Trance looks up and sees Rogue, and exclaims that she can’t stop. ‘It’s killing meeeee!’ she screams. Rogue looks worried as Trance’s consciousness state still flickers around Trance, while Danger asks Rogue if her plan involves actually doing anything. ‘Are you blind?’ Rogue replies. ‘Look at her. Her two selves are half separated. If Ah touch her now - take away her power in the middle of the transformation - it could kill her!’ Rogue exclaims. Danger reports that the power level continues to build, and informs Rogue that it is already doing structural damage to nearby buildings. ‘Ah know that. Ah’m staying with her!’ Rogue replies, telling Danger that she still has one shot left.
Back at the X-Men HQ, Colossus and Surge stand near Cyclops and Mindee, who is hooked up to Cerebra. ‘What’s happening?’ Cyclops asks Mindee, who replies that Rogue has found Trance, but her thoughts are all scrambled and full of pain, but Rogue is talking to her.
‘Get away - before I - kill you!’ Trance pleads with Rogue, who puts her hand on Trance’s shoulder, assuring her that it will be a few minutes before that happens. ‘Ah borrowed a little slice of immortality’ Rogue explains, before telling Hope that they should talk about her. ‘When your powers first showed themselves, it was scary, right?’ Rogue asks. ‘Like a wave going through you? Something outside you, that you couldn’t control?’. As the power flows around them, Hope asks ‘What’s that got to do with -?’, to which Rogue explains that she is trying to ask her if she is scared of what she can do. ‘Scared of what happens to you when you use your powers?’ she asks.
‘Are you stupid? Of course I am!’ Trance exclaims, tears streaming down her face, so Rogue suggests that it might be that fear which is throwing Trance off now. ‘The - the taser - he hit me with -’ Trance replies, to which Rogue, hugging Trance, tells her that she knows, and remarks that it must have hurt. ‘But Ah wonder if the taser did all this. Or if it pushed you off your center of gravity. Easiest time to fall is when you’re afraid of falling. Youth throw yourself off balance’ Rogue tells Hope. ‘Rogue, I - I can’t!’ Trance exclaims. But Rogue tells Trance that she thinks she can. ‘In fact, Ah’m betting mah life on it!’ Rogue exclaims.
Nearby, Danger tells Gambit that even without computing the probability, this seems very unlikely to work. Gambit replies that he agrees, and remarks that it doesn’t look good. Noticing someone drop down nearby, Gambit declares that he thinks the odds just got longer. He and Danger turns to the new arrival - the phoney Ms Marvel. ‘Did you concerned citizens know there’s a curfew on?’ Karla asks. ‘We’re new in town!’ Gambit replies. ‘And I am not a citizen. I’m a machine. Your laws don’t apply to -’ Danger begins, but doesn’t get to finish her sentence, as Moonstone blasts her with a burst of energy, knocking her backwards. ‘Better. Couldn’t hear myself think’ Moonstone remarks, smiling.
‘If you were thinking, chere, you wouldn’t have come here!’ Gambit tells Moonstone, the two then lunge towards each other, with Gambit throwing several kinetically charged playing cards at Moonstone - but they pass through her intangible form, enabling Moonstone to smack Gambit hard in the face. ‘And then there was one!’ Moonstone declares as she strides towards Rogue. Rogue sees her enemy approaching, and tells Trance that she will just be a minute. ‘Don’t leave me!’ Trance pleads, but Rogue assures her that she is not going far.
‘This girl might die if you don’t let me help her!’ Rogue tells Moonstone as the two stand a few feet away from each other, Trance’s power still ranging around them. ‘That’d be a shame’ Moonstone replies uncaringly. ‘All i need is a few minutes to -’ Rogue begins, but Moonstone interrupts. ‘Sorry. I’m sort of on the clock, here’ she replies as she punches Rogue in the face - only to discovers that it had no effect - Rogue still stands. Rogue then catches the startled Moonstone off guard, and slams her into the HAMMER vehicle with such force, that it knocks the vehicle down the street, which then topples over, sending Moonstone flying back even further.
Moonstone gets up: ‘So you stole yourself some muscle. Big deal!’ she exclaims, before Rogue lunges at her, smacking her in the face, but Moonstone goes intangible and reminds Rogue that she read her file. ‘It’s not going to last’ Moonstone declares, kneeing Rogue in the stomach, Moonstone declares that the last big push just about drained Rogue’s newly acquired power. ‘Sweet! Now we can pick up where we left off - before you dropped a roof on me!’ Karla exclaims, uppercutting Rogue in the face.
Nearby, Trance concentrates hard, and tells herself that she is not afraid, trying to return her state to normal, pushing her consciousness back into her body - and eventually, it works! Hope looks surprised, while Moonstone, unaware of the sudden development, gets her arm around Rogue’s neck and remarks that this has been fun. ‘And I didn’t even like you until tonight’ Moonstone tells Rogue, who can barely breathe. Suddenly, ‘Leave her alone!’ Trance shouts as she shoves Moonstone aside, releasing Rogue.
Moonstone gathers herself and turns to Trance, telling her that she should have kept her head down. ‘I wasn’t going to bother with you’ Moonstone adds. ‘You attack one mutant you attack us all!’ Trance exclaims. ‘Very moving. And there are what, a couple dozen of you?’ Moonstone mocks. ‘One of you or all of you, doesn’t change the odds all that much’ Moonstone adds, while Trance lunges at her again, only to pass through her. ‘You Can’t touch me unless I want you to, by the way’ Karla informs Hope. ‘No? Well maybe Hope Abbott can’t. But it looks like Trance can!’ Trance exclaims as she releases her other self, the two ghostly forms now fighting. ‘Stupid girl…’ Moonstone mutters, while Rogue calls out to Gambit, telling him that Moonstone is solid, and to hit her now.
Gambit declares that it is his pleasure, and casts several kinetically charged playing cards at Moonstone - which slam into her, knocking her back. Trance returns to her default form, while Gambit helps Danger up and Rogue communicates with Mindee, asking her to bring them home. Mindee replies that Pixie is on her way, and on cue, Pixie appears, and wraps Rogue, Gambit, Trance and Danger in her teleportation spell, and they vanish, leaving Moonstone to radio back to command, falsely telling them that the situation was nothing - that the injured mutant is no longer in the area, Karla obviously not wanting to admit to being beaten.
Shortly, Marin County, X-Men HQ, Cyclops and Rogue are in the infirmary, where Trance is recovering from her ordeal. ‘Nobody died. I’d call that a result’ Cyclops remarks, before telling Rogue that Trance seems to be fine, and Danger has reconfigured and rebooted herself. ’You took the hardest knocks of anyone’ he tells Rogue. ’Yeah. Thanks for reminding me’ Rogue replies, while Cyclops remarks that Rogue took the hit and kept on going. ’Didn’t have a choice’ Rogue replies, to which Cyclops tells her that there is always a choice, and the one she made must not have been easy. ’What’s easy these days?’ Rogue asks. ’This haven you built is falling apart before the pain even had time to dry’ Rogue tells Cyclops, who replies that they will find - or make - another. Rogue asks Cyclops if that means he has a plan, to which Cyclops replies ’It means they took their best shot. Not it’s time for us to take ours…’.


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Devil at the Crossroads, part 1(First story)<br>Gambit, Something like an Afterword…Something like a Prologue (Second story)
First Story:
The remains of the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters, long-time home and headquarters to the Uncanny X-Men and myriads of X-students. Today though, a construction crew is busying about, levelling land and erecting structures. ‘Left a little…little more…okay, you got it’ someone calls out to a crane operator who is lowering some material. ‘So this was, what, a school?’ one of the construction workers asks. ‘A #$&%ing zoo, the way I hear it. Bunch of weirdos. Homo something-or-other’ another construction worker explains. ‘Sexuals?’ the first asks. ‘Nah, sapiens, I think it was. They moved out to San Francisco’ the second worker replies. ‘Whole ‘nother world out there, man’ the first remarks. ‘Oh yeah’ the second agrees.
Suddenly, another construction worker shouts at someone to kill the power, exclaiming that he thinks they have a gas leak, as a gas-like cloud appears. Someone points out that the gas pipe is ‘Way down there’, and that it doesn’t even smell like gas. ‘More like - I dunno - like something died out here’. One of them asks if they should down tools, when suddenly, Marius St Croix a.k.a. Emplate emerges from the cloud! ‘My professional opinion?’ he exclaims ‘I think it will make very little difference!’ and with that, he begins a rampage through the construction workers: ‘Animals!’ he exclaims. ‘Worthless, pointless animals!’. ‘What are you even for?’ he declares as he bashes one of their heads into a bundle of sheets of wood.
Suddenly, he spots the Xavier School for Youngsters sign in a pile of rubble, and picks it up. ‘Nothing. Nothing in the larder. Hah! They’re gone. Long gone’ he realizes, before returning to the gas-like cloud, declaring ‘Nut we’ll find them, won’t we? Oh yes. Oh yes’, as he leaves behind him a trail of bloody bodies.
Meanwhile, off the coast of San Francisco lies Asteroid M, the former headquarters of Magneto, now known as Utopia, home to the X-Men and the myriad of other mutants residing on it. Currently, construction is in full swing as the mutants go about setting their new home. At that moment, Warpath takes a break from work to look out over the goings-ons from a ridge, while near one of the main buildings, two of the X-students are involved in a slight altercation: ‘Seriously? I’d stomp all over you, Keller!’ Rockslide boasts to Hellion, who asks ‘Then what’s stopping you? Pick a time!’. Behind them, Colossus carries a massive steel beam, while the Stepford Cuckoos, Onyxx and Pixie go about their business. Mercury walks over to Anole and Surge and tells them that Jeffries wants the boxes taken to the lab.
‘They seem to be coping pretty well with all this, don’t they?’ Cyclops remarks to Rogue as they walk through the bustling grounds. ‘After what they’ve already been through? They’re seasoned, Scott’ Rogue replies, adding that even the youngest of them is not a child anymore. ‘But that’s just the point, isn’t it, Rogue?’ Cyclops asks as Gentle and Ernst walk past them. ‘You don’t grow up all at once’ Cyclops declares. ‘They’ve fought life and death battles, but their personalities - and their powers - are still forming. Someone has to help them through that’. Rogue asks why she has the feeling this is a job interview, to which Cyclops tells her that she knows him. ‘What do you think?’ he asks. ‘You’re asking me what Ah think?’ Rogue exclaims.
Rogue reminds Cyclops that they last time they had a talk like this, she came out of it a team leader. ‘Now you’re saying Ah can’t be a soldier any more. But Ah’m good enough to be a nurse’ she tells him. Cyclops replies that he doesn’t think a nurse is quite what he wants. ‘No? What then?’ Rogue asks. ‘A counselor, maybe. A therapist. And a trouble-shooter’ Cyclops replies, telling Rogue that her powers put her in a unique position, as she can absorb other people’s powers and use them. ‘Often in ways they don’t use them’ Cyclops points out, explaining to Rogue that can be very valuable to some of the young mutants - mutants who don’t necessarily know how their powers work. ‘They need someone who’s been there. And you’re the patron saint of been there’ Cyclops adds.
‘Why does this just feel like a delicate way of sidelining me?’ Rogue asks, to which Cyclops tells her to look around. ‘Do you think I have the luxury of sidelining anyone? We need everyone we have!’ he points out, adding that they also need everyone to be something other than a soldier. ‘This would be the other thing you do’ he tells her. Annoyed, Rogue tells Cyclops bluntly that she think he is still punishing her for the decisions she made as team leader. ‘But you know what? Ah do care about those kids, so…Ah’ll think about it. Best I can say right now’ she tells him as she walks away. ‘Best I can ask for’ Cyclops replies.
Meanwhile, in one of the laboratories, former Alpha Flight member and now member of the X-Club, the science team Madison Jeffries asks Danger to put her tongue out and say ‘Aaaaah’. Danger asks Jeffries what purpose that would serve while as she lies back on an upright table. ‘Umm - none, probably. It’s just that you scare the living hell out of me’ Madison explains, explaining that he understands machines, he can read them, right to the core, bend them to any shape he likes, but she is different. Danger tells Jeffries that she doesn’t need him to “read” her, all she wants is for him to verify data throughput and response lag. ‘Providing an independent benchmark for my own diagnostics’ she adds.
Jeffries answers Danger’s question by telling her that her data throughput is breathtaking at 17 terabytes per pico-second - like a truckload of Einstein’s. He adds that her scanning range is too wide for anything else in this room to measure and that she can probably hear flu viruses sneeze. ‘Not quite. But I can perceive well into the sub-normal and super-normal dimensional envelopes’ Danger remarks, before revealing that is where they are currently being observed from. ‘Observed?’ Jeffries asks. ‘I believe so’ Danger replies. ‘From another dimension?’ Jeffries adds, to which Danger explains that it is not exactly another dimension, but from a liminal space adjacent to this one, by something roughly humanoid in body plan.
‘Emma? Freaky little blonde girls? Anyone? Twanging the psionic bush-wire here. Can anyone hear me?’ Jeffries calls out. ‘What is it, Mr Jeffries?’ one of the Stepford Cuckoos responds, telepathically. ‘Fox. Henhouse. Advise Cyclops, soonest’ Jeffries replies while looking around nervously. ‘How very concise. Consider him advised’ one of the girls replies, before asking Jeffries if he is sure he wants to raise an alarm, as they are not sensing anything. Suddenly, Emplate materializes beside Jeffries, startling the Canadian mutant, before smacking him across the lab. ‘Leave him be. Now!’ Danger exclaims as she blasts Emplate with energies generated through her body.
But Emplate comes up behind her, and slashes his hand through Danger’s circuitry as he declares ‘You’re new. I don’t know you. And I don’t think I can use you. You don’t even look edible!’. Jeffries uses his powers to transmute the diagnostics rig, turning it into a weapon, he forces the diagnostics rig to push scanning lasers and microwave emitters past safeties and to target anything that has a pulse, except him. But Emplate continues to hack away at Danger, and as the diagnostics rig prepares to shoot him, he spins around, using Danger’s body as a shield to protect himself. ‘Can’t get me with that old trick!’ he exclaims, dropping Danger’s unmoving body to the ground.
Jeffries begins to run from the lab, but Emplate declares that he has fought their best and brightest to a standstill, and calls Jeffries a puling worm. Mutants whose powers moved mountains, and stopped the sun in its course. ‘You - what can you do?’ Emplate asks as he materializes in front of the fleeing Jeffries and grabs him by the throat. ‘Ah. Yes. Interesting’ Emplate remarks as Jeffries falls to the ground. Suddenly though, ‘EMPLATE!’ a voice booms. The villain spins around, still holding onto Jeffries, and sees Cyclops, Wolverine, Colossus, Angel, the White Queen, Nightcrawler, Warpath and Pixie approaching him. ‘You picked a bad day to visit!’ Cyclops exclaims. ‘X-Men - take him down!’.
Colossus moves in to punch Emplate, only to find the villain pass right through him. ‘I don’t need to fight you, Cyclops. Not while I can drop half a heartbeat our of phase with your baseline reality’ he declares. ‘But if I have to fight you -’ he begins, while letting one of Cyclops’ optic blasts phase through him, ‘- I’d do it like this!’ he concludes as he materializes behind Cyclops and wraps his arms around his neck, causing Cyclops’ optic blast to go out of control and tear through the lab, knocking Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Angel backwards.
Warpath runs towards Emplate as someone calls out ‘Warpath! While he’s got Scott -’, but Warpath interrupts: ‘ - then he’s solid. I’m not stupid’, and he reaches Emplate before the villain can phase out, smashing him away from Cyclops. Nightcrawler teleports over to Emplate, remarking that if Emplate is solid, they can attack him. He urges the X-Men to rally, while Emplate mutters that he has always hated Germans, and uppercuts Nightcrawler hard. Pixie flutters near Emplate, who grabs her by the neck and remarks ‘Psychotropic epidermal secretion. Wonderful. Youth is wasted on the young. And so is power!’
At that moment, Cyclops has gathered himself enough that he can release a streamlined optic blast at Emplate’s hand, freeing Pixie from the villain’s grasp. ‘Should’ve learned to keep your hands to yourself, bub. Here. Let me help!’ Wolverine exclaims as he lunges at Emplate, claws ready, but Wolverine passes through Emplate who begins phasing back to the side-line reality. ‘I believe not. I’ll let you pass, Sir. And bid you good day’ he declares as Wolverine crashes into some equipment. As Angel helps a weary Jeffries up, the mutants gather together, and Cyclops announces that there will be a full meeting in the dome. ‘Inform the others. We deal with this now!’ he exclaims.
Shortly, in the dome, Cyclops, the White Queen and Danger address the myriad mutants on Utopia. ‘We let this happen once. We do not let it happen again. First order of business - know your enemy’ Cyclops announces, before asking Danger to show them. Danger states that Emplate is the brother of Monet St Croix, and like her, he is a mutant. ‘Unlike her, he is also a predator who feeds on mutants’. Danger emits a projection of Emplate from her form as she explains that Emplate has secondary mouths in the palms of his hands which allow him to leech bone marrow from mutant victims. She adds that the first time Emplate engaged the X-Men, it became apparent that by that same process he could sample and replicate the power of mutants on whom he fed.
Danger continues, revealing that it takes Emplate a great amount of effort to stay phased with their reality, and sliding back out of phase makes him invulnerable to any physical attack. Danger explains that Emplate lived for years in a pocket dimension with the mutant Penance, on whose diamond body he was able to feed indefinitely. Danger adds that Penance’s escape precipitated Emplate’s first attack on the X-Men. Cyclops declares that he will keep this short, and tells everyone that they are not to go anywhere alone, that they must stay in sight of others at all times and in psychic contact with the Stepford Cuckoos or Psylocke until they find out what Emplate came here for. ‘And you report anything our of the ordinary directly to me. Thanks people, that’s all’ he concludes.
As everyone begins to leave the dome, Jeffries and fellow X-Club member Doctor Nemesis approach Cyclops, who tells them that leaves the question of how they bar the door to someone who can slide between dimensions. Doctor Nemesis replies that, in theory, luminal dampeners would be easy to construct, remarking that all dimensional travel works by tweaking quantum effects. ‘Lock down your electronics and the curtains between dimensions become rock walls’ he adds. ‘What about a dragnet?’ Jeffries asks, to which Doctor Nemesis tells him to explain. ‘Mutate the valence to force different dimensional intersects’ Jeffries replies, adding that instead of bouncing off, Emplate will get caught in a holding cycle.
‘Sounds good’ Cyclops tells him. ‘It does, doesn’t it?’ Jeffries replies, before Cyclops tells the men to get to work, and that they can use Danger for the brute force computations. When Jeffries and Doctor Nemesis leave the dome, the White Queen quotes Cyclops: ‘”Until we find out what he came here for”?’, telling her lover that Emplate feeds on mutants and he must have been starving ever since M-Day. ‘True. So perhaps he just came here to snack. That’s working hypothesis one’ Cyclops replies, before reminding the White Queen that Emplate sampled Jeffries’ powers in the room where there computer records are stored. ‘We drove him off, but he’s taken the advantage. We need to take it back’.
As numerous mutants make their way from the dome, three in particular are feeling vocal about the current situation - Avalanche! Dragoness! Toad! Avalanche walks beside Dragoness as he remarks ‘You know this always happens. The X-Men offer you a safe haven, but it’s like they live on this big painted target’. Toad mumbles that it beats HAMMER and house arrest, to which Dragoness remarks that she feels really nostalgic for last week. ‘Life was so much simpler then’ she adds, semi-sarcastically.
The X-student called Indra leaves the dome alone however, and makes his way over to some ruins, where he sits on the steps, forlorn. Moments later, Rogue approaches him. Indra tells Rogue that he was looking for some privacy. ‘Is that too much to ask?’. Rogue tells Indra that he heard what Cyclops said. ‘Even a little privacy could be a lethal dose right now’ Rogue tells him. ‘Then I’ll de bead. It’s my choice, right?’ Indra replies. ‘Right. But that won’t get you what you want’ Rogue tells him. ‘With respect - how would you know what I want?’ Indra asks. Rogue reminds the young mutant that she was inside the head of the man he fought. ‘Ah think Ah can guess what’s on your mind’ she tells him.
Indra tells Rogue that he doesn’t think she can know what he means, and points out that he has seen her fight, and that it comes so naturally to her. ‘You can’t understand how ashamed I feel right now’. Rogue replies that Indra’s family are Jains, so he believes all life is sacred. ‘Can’t crush a bug, even. Still less a human being’. ‘Yes. That is Ahisma, the first duty’ Indra replies, to which Rogue reveals that she knows the second duty is Satya - bearing witness to the truth, and remarks ‘You’d be dead if you hadn’t fought back. And your death would be on that man’s soul. Didn’t your small sin stop a bigger one?’
‘It doesn’t work like that!’ Indra exclaims, to which Rogue replies that she knows, and that she isn’t saying it’s okay to let that violence out. ‘Only your heart can answer that question’ she tells him. Putting a gloved hand on Indra’s shoulder, Rogue tells him that the world’s the place where they go to test their beliefs, and that it doesn’t stop. ‘That’s what this is. A test you went through. A test you’re still going through’. Rogue turns and walks away, leaving Indra on the step as she tells him that nobody within a square mile of here thinks he failed it, and informs him that she will be right outside, close enough so she is within air shot. ‘You stay as long as you need to’ she tells him.
Meanwhile, nowhere, a lighthouse on a rock floats through the side-dimension as Emplate’s lackey, DOA exclaims ‘Jeez, boss. They messed you up good, didn’t they?’. Emplate asks DOA if that is amusement in his voice, to which the small being replies ‘Nope. Couldn’t possibly be. Concern, maybe. Compassion. Unquestioning devotion’. Emplate tells DOA to be silent, as he dips his leech-hands into a vial of plasma, while remarking that it is true he endured some rough treatment at the X-Men’s hands, it is also true that he failed to find the one he was looking for. ‘My sweet Penance. My cornucopia, my ever-brimming banquet. She is no longer of their number’ he reveals. ‘But one door closes, as they say - and we smash our way in through the window!’, and with that comment, a image of the X-student Bling appears in Emplate’s eyes….
Back on Utopia, Bling frowns as she and Onnyxx watch Hellion and Rockslide prepare to battle. ‘You know, guys, the legend of your dumbness has spread far and wife - but something tells me that this will be the day that lives on when you’re both dead’. ‘Rock!’ Rockslide exclaims ‘Paper!’ Hellion declares at the same moment as they play “rock, paper, scissors”. Rockslide wonders why he went for rock, as that is so obvious, while Bling mutters ‘Which, admittedly, might not be all that long’. Hellion surrounds himself in a telekinetic force field as he tells Rockslide that the rules are simple: ‘I break you. And you repair yourself. First one to run out of juice loses’.
‘Okay. But is someone gonna say ready, steady -’ Rockslide begins, while Hellion shouts ‘Go!’ and begins to picks pieces off Rockslide with his telekinesis. ‘Very cute. Game on!’ Rockslide snarls. Bling begins to walk away and Onyxx asks her if she isn’t going to watch. ‘Please. Testosterone breaks me out in hives. It’s like an allergy’ she replies, to which Onyxx reminds her that Cyclops said not to be alone. Bling replies that she will stay in sight, explaining that she wants to check out the amphitheatre. ‘It’s kind of cool’ she remarks as she stands on top of it, before gazing out into the ocean and noticing a floating house. ‘You think that counts as - out of the ordinary?’ Bling asks herself, before she becomes fixated by the floating lighthouse, and watches it move towards Utopia.
‘This - doesn’t look entirely safe, boss!’ DOA remarks, to which Emplate tells him that nothing the ever do is “safe”. ‘In the midst of life we are -’ he begins, to which DOA interrupts: ‘- arbitrarily sliced and diced?’ he asks. ‘all too often, yes’ Emplate answers, before remarking that they have not yet fully merged with this dimensional plane, so they have no weight or mass or inertia. He boasts that they move by virtue of his power as he adjusts the angle at which their two realities intersect. ‘Therefore, I say - full speed ahead!’
‘No way. No freaking way!’ Bling exclaims as the lighthouse suddenly vanishes. ‘Okay. So where did -’ she begins to ask, only to feel a shadow loom over her. She spins around and finds that she is now standing on the lighthouse’s platform! Suddenly, Bling is sucked into a darkness, and moments later, falls on to a dinning table, lined with candles. ‘Ah, excellent. Dinner is served!’ Emplate remarks as he and a grinning DOA sit at the end of the table, and Bling stares at them in horror.
Second Story:
Alcatraz, HAMMER’s West Coast headquarters. He dead of night. Someone leaps across a courtyard and onto the side of a building. Inside, HAMMER agents go about their business, while one of them asks ‘So tell me, Input. Did we win, or didn’t we?’. Input tells his colleague, called Hijack, that he heard the official version. ‘Yeah. Question stands’ Hijack replies. Input remarks that from where he is standing, it was a dead draw. ‘Some of the muties were playing both sides against the middle. They took their chance and got away clean’. Input adds that they didn’t get their hands on the Omega Machine though. ‘So that’s a score for the home team’ he remarks. Hijack motions to the Omega Machine and asks ‘This is it? Some big easy chair?’
Input explains that it is called the Omega Machine and that he wouldn’t mind a spin in it himself one of these days. ‘Not gonna happen, man. I mean you’re like me, right? Initiative B-list’ Hijack exclaims, adding that the Omega Machine is being taken apart tomorrow so it can be shipped out. ‘That’s about our weight’ he tells his colleague. Hijack adds that they are never going to get any action. ‘That ain’t the way the world works’, unaware however that Gambit has snuck into the room. ‘Believe me, mes amis - Cyclops wouldn’t be Cyclops if he missed a trick like that!’. Hijack and Input turn around, only to find Gambit leaping towards them, and his feet in their faces. ‘So tonight is your night!’ Gambit tells them.
‘Hah! Which one are you? The one with the laser beam eyes, right?’ Hijack asks. Charging several playing cards with kinetic energy, Gambit jokes ‘Now you hurt my feelings’ He smiles as he exclaims that he is the handsome one, and throws the cards in their direction, but before the cards can strike, Hijack takes hold of them with telekinetic powers. ‘Oh, this is too good to be true!’ he exclaims, revealing his telekinesis, he declares that stuff that is already moving he can tell it where to move. ‘That’s why they call me Hijack!’ he declares as he forces the cards to return in the direction they came from - but Gambit leaps upwards, dodging the attack.
‘Really? They ought to call you Telegraph! Cause that seems to be what you’re best at’ Gambit exclaims as he drops back down and touches Hijack’s armor, charging it up. ‘My - my armor. Awww -!’ Hijack mutters, as his armor explodes, ripping through his chest. Gambit turns to Input and tells him that they don’t have to fight, and that he just wants the machine. ‘If you walk away, I won’t come after you’ he assures him. Input replies that he is guarding the machine. ‘So I’m going to have to pass on that one’ he exclaims as he appears in front of Gambit and smacks him in the chest. Input punches Gambit in the face, and Gambit realizes that Input is a teleporter. ‘Me? No. That’s not what I do’ Input corrects Gambit. ‘Guess again!’ he suggests as he appears beside him once more and grabs Gambit by the throat and throws him to the floor.
Standing over Gambit, Input reveals that he has telepathy. ‘Not as good as your Emma Frost, but good enough’ he adds, He explains that he possesses no mind control of post-hypnotic commands. ‘Just a little nudge here and a little whisper there. Fox on your brain, cover my tracks. So wherever I turn up - I always come as a surprise!’ he boasts as he kicks Gambit in the face. Input remarks that Gambit’s mind is a mess. ‘Scar tissue. Broken memory tracks. Obsessive guilt’. He tells Gambit that he is probably doing him a favor, when suddenly, he finds something interesting in Gambit’s mind, and pauses.
Gambit runs towards Input as the latter remarks that Gambit has something growing in his hind-brain. ‘Doesn’t look altogether human’ he adds, before Gambit crashes into a wall as Input moves out of the way, remarking that there is a little cluster of retooled cells. ‘Autonomous. Asleep and dreaming in the dark down there. About someone named…Apocalypse?’. Gambit goes wide-eyed at the mention of Apocalypse’s name, and Input wonders what it would take to wake it up. ‘No!’ Gambit exclaims, readying some playing cards. ‘Probably not much more than a push’ Input supposes, while Gambit exclaims ‘Don’t -’, but it’s too late, as his kinetic energy around the playing cards die out, and his face turns black. ‘You - you fool! Get out of here!’ Gambit exclaims.
‘Nice try’ Input tells him, to which Gambit exclaims ‘Than you got to take what’s coming to you, homme’. Gambit exclaims as he throws the playing cards at Input, who exclaims ‘How did you know where I -?’ before screaming as the cards strike him, and he becomes engulfed by the blackness. ‘Stop it! I surrender! Make it stop!’ Input calls out, but Gambit replies that he doesn’t know how, and with that, Input vanishes, leaving behind only the playing card. Kinetic energy bursts through the blackness, and Gambit returns to normal. A telepathic call by the Stepford Cuckoo Phoebe informs Gambit that there are more guards coming his way, and that Cyclops wants him to finish the job and get out of there.
Eyeing up the Omega Machine, Gambit asks Phoebe to tell Cyclops he is on his way. He approaches the Omega Machine and charges it with kinetic energy. It explodes moments later, and Gambit runs from the blast.


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Devil at the Crossroads, part 2
Nowhere. Now, in the sideline reality belonging to the villainous Emplate. A lighthouse floats on a piece of rock, while a dragon rests on another chunk of rock, and transparent squid-like beings float through the strangely colored sky. ‘Don’t be afraid, my dear. There’s nothing here that need frighten you. Except for agony, enslavement and eventual death’ Emplate tells the X-student known as Bling after she landed on his dinning table. With his lackey, DOA at his side, Emplate tells Bling that since she will ensure these things in the service of his survival and comfort they are all most necessary, right and fitting.
‘You touch me, face-ache, and you’re gonna lose some limbs and organs you might be needing later!’ the ever-aggressive Bling snaps back. Emplate tells her to show some respect, and orders DOA to subdue and prepare her. ‘Pleasure’ DOA replies, to which Bling declares that she warned them, and releases diamond hard shards from her form, which burst towards Emplate and DOA like daggers. DOA is struck by several of them, and declares ’Subduing detail reporting unfit for duty, boss!’, while Emplate phases so the shards pass through, and he tells Bling that she has a fascinating mutant power, the ability to produce diamond shards from her own bone marrow.
Bling begins to run from her tormentor, who follows her like a spectre. ‘You remind me of someone I used to be very close to. My dear Penance. How empty this house has seemed since she left’ Emplate remarks as Bling runs up some rickety old stairs - only for Emplate to materialize at the top of the stairs, telling the surprised Bling that he has hopes for her, and reaches out to her with his leech-like hands, telling her that she will fill the void very nicely.
Meanwhile, on Utopia, the island home of the Uncanny X-Men and their myriad associates. Several of whom, including Cyclops, Danger, Angel, Madison Jeffries, Doctor Nemesis and the Stepford Cuckoos have gathered in the amphitheatre, where Cyclops declares that he is not interested in panic or speculation, and asks Hellion and Onyxx to tell him what they saw. With Rockslide standing behind them, the young mutants begin to explain: ’It was  - there was this house!’ Hellion exclaims. ’Yeah. Like a really old house’ Onyxx adds, while Hellion explains that it came out of nowhere, moving really fast. Onyxx declares that it chased Bling across those rocks. ’It swallowed her!’ Hellion exclaims. ’Yeah. Like that’ Onyxx adds. ’Emplate again?’ Cyclops wonders, to which Danger tells him that it seems likely, and that the dimensional valences are full of residual turbulence. ‘Something did come through here’ she tells him.
Cyclops turns to Doctor Nemesis and Madison Jeffries, and asks them how the firewall is coming along. Jeffries replies that they are working on it, but they are not yet there. ‘Is there any way we can follow her?’ Cyclops asks. Doctor Nemesis reveals that eventually they can jam a crowbar into the dimensional breach and pry it open again. Doctor Nemesis explains that they would be building the crowbar from scratch and they would need to pinpoint exactly where the breach occurred. Suddenly, Trance points upwards and exclaims ‘It’s right over there, Dr Nemesis. Look!’
Cyclops walks over to Trance and asks her if she can see something. ‘You mean you can’t? There’s a hole in the air!’ Trance reveals. ‘Show me’ Cyclops tells her, as the young mutant releases her “trance” form, and announces that it can go right through the hole. Doctor Nemesis announces that he is seeing a pattern here, and reminds Trance how she fell through Ariel’s teleport gate in San Francisco. ‘Your body is developing a new repertoire of reactions to spatial warps and energy fields’ he explains. ‘And that’s a good thing, right?’ Trance asks. ‘Possibly. These new abilities might not be stable or lasting’ Doctor Nemesis tells her, to which Trance exclaims that she has them now and can go through the hole and find Bling.
Cyclops apologizes to Trance and tells her that is not an option. Trance assures him she would be careful and points out that nothing would be able to touch her. ‘Point stands. You’re neither trained nor equipped for what you might have to deal with’ Cyclops tells her, when suddenly, Rogue appears. ‘Sounds like solid sense to me. So suppose Ah go instead!’ she declares. Cyclops asks Rogue to explain, to which Rogue explains she will borrow Trance’s powers and go through the gate to find Bling, if she can. She points out that if she can’t find Bling, when the powers fade she will probably just snap back to wherever her body is. Cyclops turns to Doctor Nemesis and Jeffries and asks them how long it is before they can get him that crowbar.
The former Alphan replies that they don’t have the equipment, or the math. ‘We’d be inventing an entirely new branch of physics!’ he adds, to which Doctor Nemesis remarks ‘So probably at least an hour and a half’. Cyclops turns back to Rogue and tells her to do it, but that she must stay linked to him via the Cuckoos the whole time she is there. ‘If we have to go in after you, I want to know what we’re walking into’ he remarks. Rogue approaches Trance and asks her if she is okay with her using her powers for a little while. ‘I’d rather go myself’ Trance replies, pointing out that Bling is her friend. Rogue replies that she knows, but this is just the best out of a whole mess of bad options. ‘Then - yeah. Okay;’ Trance tells her, before Rogue takes her hand and begins to absorb her powers.
Back in Emplate’s sideline reality, Bling wakes to find herself in a dank dungeon. Holding herself, she realizes that there are no wounds, and wonders why then she feels like she has been put though a blender. ‘What did he do to me?’ she asks, before noticing markings on a wall - scratches as if someone had been keeping track do the time they were kept in the prison - ‘Oh. Not good’ Bling remarks when she sees just how many markings there are.
Elsewhere in the lighthouse, Emplate announces ‘It’s done. For now’ as he enters a room full of cages, where DOA is playing with a rat. ‘Good to hear, boss! And the kid panned out okay?’ DOA asks. ‘She survived, if that’s what you mean. If she can regenerate, as Penance did, she’ll last me a long time’ Emplate replies. Emplate announces that he can feel his tormentors hovering and declares that he will have to feed again if he is to survive their touch.
DOA asks Emplate if he is good for now, and remarks that this would be a perfect time for him to take that leave he has got coming. ‘Leave? You worthless piece of -’ Emplate begins as he picks DOA up by his neck. ‘Joke, boss! Just a joke!’ DOA assures Emplate, who reminds him that he is the only servant he has left, from the hordes who used to wait upon his every whim. ‘It’s been so long - I can barely remember how the others tasted’ Emplate declares as he drops DOA to the ground and walks away.
Back on Utopia, Rogue announces that she has taken as much power from Trance as she can. ‘Ah don’t want to hurt her too much’ Rogue remarks, before Trance passes out. Rogue places Trance on the ground, while someone declares ‘Uh…I thought you could control your power now’. Rogue replies that she can control how much she takes and when she takes it, but it doesn’t mean it is a pleasant experience for the one she is taking it from. Rogue herself kneels on the ground as she announces she is going to try for a separation. ‘Wish me luck!’ she exclaims, before her own trance form emerges from her body, just like Trance’s power. Smiling, Rogue’s trance form exclaims that she was about to say “strike one”, but she supposes it worked.
Cyclops asks her if she sees Emplate’s door, to which Rogue replies that she sees a whole lot of things: patterns of energy in the air, in the ground, heart signatures and emotional auras. ‘In some ways, Trance sees the world more vividly than Logan does’ Rogue announces. ‘The door, Rogue. We don’t know how long we’ve got!’ Cyclops reminds her. Gazing upwards, Rogue announces that she sees it, right in front of her. Cyclops tells Rogue not to take any chances and to retreat at the first sign of trouble. He also tells her to give him a running commentary on everything she sees. ‘You got it, Scott. Ah’ll be in touch!’ Rogue exclaims as he trance form enters the sideline reality. ‘Assuming our bush phone works where Ah’m going’ she adds.
Moments later, Rogue gazes around the strange new surroundings and through telepathic connection, Cyclops asks her to tell him what she sees. As one of the transparent squid-like creatures wraps its tentacles around a large dragon, Rogue exclaims that she would be happy to, if she had any idea, and suggests the Cuckoos patch Cyclops in so he can look through her eyes. ‘This place is way off the map!’ Rogue declares. Floating through the realm, Rogue announces that she can navigate here, but that there is no sign of Bling, or anyone else either.
Soon, she comes across a large grey sphere overhead. ‘Are you seeing this?’ Rogue asks Cyclops, who replies that it looks like a planet or a moon. ‘Copy that. So maybe this is where the locals hang out’ Rogue suggests, before flying into it. ‘Maybe not’ she announces, adding that it is smaller and closer than it looked, and that space is all twisted. Suddenly serpent-like demons appear, and Rogue screams. ‘Talk to me, Rogue. Tell me what happened!’ Cyclops tells her, and as she leaps out of their way, Rogue replies nothing happened and that she just got a shock, before announcing that she has just sighted the enemy, as the lighthouse is floating nearby. Cyclops tells Rogue to watch her back. ‘If you can see them, they can see you too’ he warns her. But Rogue points out that they cannot touch her, and that she has Trance’s sting. ‘Which means I can touch them - real hard’.
Inside the lighthouse, the door to Bling’s cell opens with a creak. Blink looks up from where she is huddled against the stone wall: ‘You got the wrong floor, man. Plastic surgery is up on the mezzanine’ she tells Emplate, who reminds Bling that she should show more respect. ‘Since your survival is nobody’s gift but mine’. ‘My survival? Where have you been living? When the X-Men get here, they’re gonna redecorate you and your stupid house!’ Bling boasts, to which Emplate tells her that the X-Men don’t have his address. ‘No?’ Bling asks. ‘No’ Emplate tells her. ‘Abandon hope, all you who yada yada?’ she mocks. ‘Exactly’ Emplate declares. Bling smirks as she tells Emplate that he is right where he belongs then.
Bling wearily gets to her feet as Emplate tells her that she speaks of things she cannot possibly understand. ‘Hey, “things I don’t understand” are my best subject. Try me!’ Bling replies, to which Emplate reveals that he was exiled here by those who should have loved him best. ‘Those I trusted, insofar as I trusted anyone’. Bling replies that this doesn’t explain why he is still here. ‘Or did you just fall in love with the place?’ she asks him. ‘My freedom of movement is limited’ Emplate explains. ‘Poor sweet baby’ Bling mocks, before asking ‘Limited how, exactly?’
Emplate lunges at Bling and shoves her against the wall as he grabs her throat, ‘You’re hoping to learn something that you can use against me. Do you think I’m a fool?’ he declares. ‘No. I think you don’t care what I find out, because - I’m just a kid - and you’re a twisted genius!’. Emplate releases his grasp and declares that Bling is right. ‘It matters not one iota what you know. ‘Exactly’ Bling tells him as she rubs her throat, before asking him what the deal is. ‘The deal is eternal torment’ Emplate tells her. ‘Wow. That must really suck’ Bling exclaims. ‘And that’s why I need you’ Emplate replies, before placing a hand over her mouth, leeching her energies. ‘To give me the strength to bear what must be borne’ Emplate declares as he drops Bling to the floor and leaves the dungeon.
Emplate makes his way down a decaying corridor, and enters a room, where he stands on a strange platform. ‘Come, then. Come on’ he declares, before throwing his hands upwards: ‘Feast - and be damned!’ he exclaims, before a strange light is seen - and someone screams.
Meanwhile, Rogue’s trance form enters the lighthouse, and gazes around, telling Cyclops that the place looks real quiet. Cyclops asks something, but Rogue cannot hear him properly, and tells him that there is some kind of interference. Hoping he still might be able to hear her, Rogue tells Cyclops that the place looks like Victor Frankenstein did the interior design. A bathtub filled with some sort of plasma and tubes coming out of is just one of the strange objects in the room, Rogue announces that she thinks it might be Emplate’s bedroom. Rogue sees a photo frame on the wall, containing a photo of the St Croix family. ‘Picture of himself as a kid. Either Marius St Croix has got himself a sentimental side - or else a grudge that’s still eating away at him after all this time’ Rogue remarks.
She sees a peepshow machine in the room, and remarks that she knows she should probably just walk away at this point. ‘But Ah never was any good at that part’ she admits as she approaches the peepshow and places her eyes up to the viewer:
Your enemies plot your downfall! is the introduction, before Rogue sees a scene playing out, in black and white, between Cyclops, Jeffries and Doctor Nemesis: ‘So, this is it? You’ve isolated the dimensional signature?’ Cyclops asks. ‘We can talk to you, stripling, or we can work. The choice is yours’ Doctor Nemesis remarks, to which Cyclops declares that he needs to know what he can expect from him. ‘Unfailing industry and a cheerful, almost child-like disposition. Yes, we’ve got a match to Emplate’s dimension’. Madison adds that they are only guessing as to how his powers work, and if they are wrong, the device will be worse than useless. Cyclops exclaims that they need a plan B, as he puts a hand on the device. ‘Define your terms. Or else remove your hands’ Doctor Nemesis tells him. ‘I want to be able to break through and get Rogue and Bling back. And failing that, I want -’.
‘Looking for something, missy?’ DOA asks as he enters the room. ‘How about that now. The ghost of Rogue. Crazy thing. I didn’t even know you were sick!’ DOA declares to which Rogue exclaims ‘Ah’ll show you sick, you sleazy little glove puppet!’, and proceeds to blast him with Trance’s sting - only it fizzles out before hitting him. ‘Wow! I’m impressed. You stole yourself another mutant power. And it must be all of 25 or 30 watts!’ DOA jokes, before supposing that he cannot touch Rogue either. ‘So we got an impasse here, unless - now what was it the boss said? Oh yeah. I remember. In case of ghosts - break glass!’ With that, DOA reaches into his pocket and pulls three egg-like objects - before dropping them on the ground. The objects shatter, and three demons with large pincers emerge.
DOA explains that they discovered them in the Vespertine Miasma. ‘They got themselves a whole bloody ecosystem down there!’ he remarks, before telling Rogue that these creatures are what you’d call the top carnivores. One of them lashes out at Rogue with its pincers - ‘Oh no!’ Rogue gasps, as the attack appears to have injured her arm. Rogue begins to run from the creatures, while DOA claps his hands and smiles: ‘Man, if only Gen-X were here! This would be just like old times!’


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Devil at the Crossroads, part 3
‘Scott, Ah don’t know if you can still here me. Ah lost you, a ways back. But Ah’m thinking real loud, in case the Cuckoos are picking this up’ Rogue thinks to herself as her “Trance” form floats through the decaying lighthouse in the side-dimension where the villain Emplate exists. Rogue announces that she found Emplate’s house and got inside. ‘That part wasn’t even hard’ she adds, before remarking that Trance’s powers are holding, so she is still a ghost, more or less. ‘Trouble is - so are the guard dogs!’ Rogue exclaims as the demons that have been chasing her enter the room she is hiding in.
Crouched behind some sort of strange object, Rogue gets a surprise when the object states in a robotic voice ‘Declination? Bearing? Distance?’. The object repeats itself, as Rogue quietly tells it to keep its voice down. The object repeats itself, while Rogue exclaims that she cannot talk right now. ‘These creatures -’ she begins, but the strange object repeats itself again and again, before speaking more urgently and loudly. ‘Oh no!’ Rogue gasps as the deadly creatures find her hiding in the middle of the room. One of the creatures lunges through the strange object, causing Rogue to leap backwards, and float through the floor.
The creature nips Rogue, drawing blood, which appears yellow in the “Trance” form, and Rogue thinks to herself that if she could make Trance’s sting work then she would have a chance against the creatures. ‘But everything works differently here’ she tells herself, before finally evading the creature that nipped her, knowing that she has to stay on the move and hope the creatures lose interest. ‘Some chance’ she tells herself as she floats downwards through the lighthouse, leaving a trail of yellow plasma-blood in her wake.
Suddenly, Rogue finds herself floating into the dungeon - where the X-Men Student Bling is being held prisoner. ‘Rogue? Is that you?’ the slightly confused Bling asks, before standing up and exclaiming ‘Oh, man, am I glad to see you! Even if you’re blue and glowy!’ Bling asks Rogue to get her loose quickly before Emplate comes back. But Rogue replies that she can’t do that. ‘Oh no! No way!’ Bling exclaims as her hands pass through Rogue’s arm when she reaches out to her. ‘Ah can’t set you free’ Rogue remarks, before Bling asks where the rest of the rescue party is. ‘Where are the big hitters? I want Wolverine and Colossus!’ she shouts. Rogue dives through the dungeon floor, telling Bling that she will be back soon and will figure out a way to free her. ‘No! Don’t leave me, Rogue! Don’t -’ Bling exclaims, before screaming as the creatures enter the dungeon and follow Rogue through the dungeon floor.
‘Can’t fight. Can’t hide’ Rogue thinks to herself as she continues to pass through rooms in the lighthouse. ‘Sure can’t run forever’ Rogue tells herself as she glances back and sees the creatures very close to her, and she wonders how she is getting out of this one.
Meanwhile, on Utopia, home to the Uncanny X-Men and most of the world’s remaining mutants. ‘Who did this? Who ordered this? Answer me!’ Gambit exclaims as he marches through a gathering of X-Men and friends, including Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Surge. Gambit finds Cyclops, who tells Gambit that nobody ordered it, that Rogue volunteered. ‘But you allowed it, Cyclops?’ Gambit snaps, standing over the motionless bodies of Rogue and Trance. ‘It was her or Trance’ Cyclops explains, adding that Emplate took Bling and closed the gate behind him, and only Trance could see where the gate was. Cyclops adds that as it turned out, in her Trance form, she could pass through to Emplate’s pocket dimension, but Rogue offered to take Trance’s place.
‘Rogue using Trance’s powers? What happens when they fade?’ Gambit asks angrily. ‘Her two selves will merge again - either there or here’ Cyclops replies, to which Gambit exclaims ‘So you sent her in blind not even knowing whether she can get back. You - you -’, but he cannot finish his sentence. Instead, his eyes flash red, and he turns away, while Cyclops declares that he doesn’t need to justify himself to him. Cyclops adds that Rogue makes her own choices, before seeing something wrong with Gambit and asking him ‘What’s wrong, man?’. Gambit replies that nothing is wrong, but doesn’t look at Cyclops. He leaves the gathering of mutants by declaring that if Rogue is hurt, then he and Cyclops will talk again. ‘Count on it’ Gambit exclaims.
Stumbling down the side of a hill, Gambit’s face turns black, his hair white and his eyes flash red - the appearance he had as the Horseman of Apocalypse known as Death! He leans against a building to steady himself, while the memory of being chained in Apocalypse’s laboratory flashes through his mind, as the uber-villain told him ‘The creature that emerges from that machine will not be the one that entered’. Gambit pulls a playing card from his utility belt and throws it - but it doesn’t do much, as if his powers had changed along with his appearance.
Elsewhere on Utopia, in the laboratory complex assigned to the X-Club, where the three primary members - Doctor Nemesis, Dr Kavita Rao and the former Alphan Madison Jeffries, are busy going about their latest work, while the former Fallen Angel, the pink-haired, fashion doyenne Ariel sits on a chair nearby. Doctor Nemesis tells Madison that he thinks they are ready, to which Kavita asks Doctor Rao what definition of “ready” they are using here. ‘Is it the one where you flick the switch of an untested machine that could fold most of reality down to the size and thickness of a passport photo?’ Kavita asks. ‘Yes’ Doctor Nemesis replies casually as he presses a control. ‘Good. So long as I’m clear’ Kavita mutters.
‘Listen, do you guys need me or not?’ a very bored Ariel asks, leaning on some equipment. ‘Because I’ve got important things to do involving nail varnish and daytime TV’ she announces. Doctor Nemesis calls her “girlie” and tells her to open one of her doors from here back to the mainland. ‘Yeah? Why exactly?’ Ariel asks. ‘To see if we can shorten your leash’ Doctor Nemesis replies as he presses a button, a glowing light appears overhead. Doctor Nemesis announces that it is a liminal dragnet and when it is turned on all spatial and dimensional distortions should be a lot harder to maintain in its vicinity. He adds that he is engaging level one.
‘Clear back to the mainland, huh? That’s what, like, five miles?’ Ariel asks, standing up, she tells the others that she has done five thousand miles. ‘I’ve read your file, Ariel’ Doctor Nemesis remarks, before telling her that whenever she is ready. ‘Okay. Watch my dust’ Ariel exclaims as she opens a door - only to be seeing an exact replica of what is behind her. ‘That - wasn’t five miles, was it?’ Ariel asks. Doctor Nemesis tells her that it was seven point two meters in the wrong direction. ‘People, we’re in business’ he exclaims. ‘Peachy’ Ariel mutters, before folding her arms and exclaiming ‘Incidentally, why did nobody tell me that this jacket needs a belt?’
Back in the pocket dimension, Rogue flies through the outer wall of the lighthouse, screaming, she darts various floating objects in the open space, while telling herself that she probably has got about the same chance as a spit on a griddle, but that she remembers something Destiny said to her back in Caldecott. ‘If you got a pack of dogs snapping at your heels - take a road that runs by a bear’s den’. Rogue flies swiftly through the openness, while other strange and wondrous creatures suddenly emerge - creatures that begin to attack the ones chasing Rogue. Rogue looks back and sees that one of them is still pursuing her, so she flies towards a large mucky creature, which her pursuer then gets stuck as Rogue flies for safety. ‘Made it!’ Rogue exclaims, and with a stern face, she flies back towards the lighthouse. ‘Seconds out. Ah’m coming for you, Marius St. Croix!’ she declares.
Inside the lighthouse, DOA approaches Emplate, apologizing for breaking in on his private moment, before announcing that they had a visitor. ‘I told you - never come in here!’ Emplate declares. DOA replies that he never did - until now. ‘But I think the X-Men are onto us’ he announces, revealing to Emplate that Rogue just walked through the front door bold as brass. ‘Well actually it was the wall she walked through, but -’ DOA remarks, before Emplate angrily grabs him by the throat and exclaims ‘Rogue? Rogue is here?’. Lifted off the ground, DOA assures Emplate that she has been dealt with, as his sicced the vespertines on her and then she exited. ‘But she won’t be alone’ Emplate declares as he drops DOA back to the floor.
DOA exclaims that she might be alone, and points out that they don’t even know how she found them. Emplate remarks that it is not likely Rogue did it alone, which he thinks is a pity. He adds that he thought he had found a soul mate in little Bling. ‘A staff on which I could lean for some time to come’. Emplate leaves the room and DOA follows him into the corridor, asking what they are going to do now. Emplate replies that he is going to consume her - as much as he can. ‘Drop her body into the void, in case they’re tracking her, and move the house to some other part of this hell-hole’ Emplate adds. ‘Alas. Alas. It’s all to do again’ he mutters.
Rogue suddenly passes through the outer wall of the lighthouse, and enters a corridor, though she struggled doing so and realizes that it was harder then before, and therefore she thinks she is running out of time. ‘Declination? Bearing? Distance?’ the strange object announces as it senses Rogue in the room. ‘You again?’ Rogue exclaims. ‘Not again. Me. Always. Move. Always. Destination? Bearing? Distance?’ the object states. ‘Take us home!’ Rogue exclaims. ‘That’s not a bearing’ the object responds. ‘Back to the X-Men’ Rogue declares. ‘The X-Men are not a bearing’ the strange contraption responds. A frustrated Rogue asks it to tell her the last orders it got. ‘We’ll work from that’ she suggests.
Back on Utopia, ‘There, you see?’ Doctor Nemesis remarks, pointing to the liminal dragnet. ‘It’s lines on a graph, Nemesis. Some context would be nice’ Cyclops replies, while Jeffries and Kavita go about their work nearby. ‘Good God, boy, it’s a fractal pressure point. A place where dimensional torque has left stress marks on reality!’ Doctor Nemesis exclaims. ‘Fine. That’s what it is. What does it mean?’ Cyclops asks. Doctor Nemesis replies that it means they know the angle of the intersection between Emplate’s dimension and theirs. ‘The vector of his approach. The dragnet is ready to use, so if he comes back -’ Doctor Nemesis begins, before Cyclops receives a telepathic call from the Stepford Cuckoos. Cyclops tells them to go ahead, and the girls remind him that he said to let him know if anything changed. ‘You’ve re-established contact with Rogue?’ Cyclops asks. The girls reply that they haven’t, that Rogue is still out of range. ‘Then what?’ Cyclops asks. ‘It’s Hope. Trance. She’s waking up’, the Cuckoos announce.
There is a massive THOOOM as the door to the dungeon in Emplate’s castle opens. ‘Wow. Is it that time again already?’ the wide-eyed Bling asks, semi-sarcastically. Emplate stands before Bling and claims that he takes no pleasure in her pain. ‘Sure don’t lose much sleep over it, though, do you?’ Bling retorts as she gets off the floor. ‘Of course not. It’s concomitant to my own survival’ Emplate replies, before informing Bling that some good news is that he has come to put her out of her misery much, much earlier than he had anticipated. ‘Out - out of my -? You mean you’re gonna kill me?’ a frightened Bling asks. ‘Yes’ Emplate replies as he stands before her, with DOA at his side. ‘By doing the - the Dracula thing again?’ Bling asks. ‘Exactly’ Emplate tells her. ‘Is there any point in me begging?’ Bling asks. ‘None’ Emplate declares. ‘Or offering you some kind of deal?’ Bling asks. Emplate tells her that her marrow, life energy and life are the only things he wants.
His leech-like hands extend towards her, and Emplate tells Bling that it will hurt less if she doesn’t struggle. ‘Surrender your will’ he tells her, adding that the energy will flow without hindrance from her to him, like flood water through a dam. ‘It will be over very quickly’ Emplate assures Bling, who shouts ‘Okay. Come and get it!’. With that, Bling releases sharp bolts of her power, exclaiming that the “it” is the mother and father of all smack downs. Emplate is knocked backwards, and lands on the dungeon floor, while Bling exclaims ‘Sucker punch, face-ache. Amazing, huh?’ before exclaiming that there is nothing up her sleeve. ‘Oh, wait. Yeah, there is. There’s an X-Man!’ Bling declares as Rogue’s “Trance” form appears once more.
Emplate gets up off the floor, ‘Rogue!’ he exclaims, before remarking that DOA said she was dead. ‘And you took his word for it? Always ask for receipts, shugah!’ Rogue exclaims, before unleashing Trance’s bio-sting on DOA, telling him that she will bounce him off every wall in the room. Bling also blasts DOA, while Emplate remarks that Rogue strikes him with borrowed fire. Rogue remarks that she finally figured out how to use Trance’s bio-sting, before asking Emplate if he wants some more, ’Or are you going to offer us ladies a ride home?’.  ‘I’m going to eat you both alive and decorate my house with your intestines!’ Emplate snarls.
Rogue continues unleashing the bio-sting, but it begins to pass through Emplate, who tells Rogue that she took him by surprise. ‘But nothing touches me except with my consent’ he declares. Emplate then punches Rogue in the face, telling her that she reminds him of his sister. ‘So sure you’re the cleverest one in the room, even while you’re ignoring the obvious’. Emplate announces that he can control his density, which means he can match it to Rogue’s. Bling makes a move to aid Rogue, but DOA steps in front of her: ‘Ixnay, girlie. This ain’t a tag match!’ he exclaims, while Emplate’s leech hands extend to Rogue’s face, ‘You used to kiss your enemies when you took their powers, didn’t you, Rogue? Consider this my homage…’.


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

[Assistant]
Devil at the Crossroads, part 4 (First Story)<br>A Girl Called Hope, part 3(Second Story)
First Story:
Utopia, home to the Uncanny X-Men and their myriad allies, where right now, Mindee, Celeste and Phoebe - the Stepford Cuckoos - stand over the motionless body of their teammate Trance. The telepathic girls inform Cyclops that there is increased activity in both hemisphere’s of Trance’s brain, especially in her reticular and limbic cortexes. ‘She’ll wake in the next few minutes’ they announce. In the X-Club laboratory, Cyclops stands near Doctor Nemesis and Ariel and remarks that when Trance wakes, the effects of Rogue’s touch will have worn off. ‘If that’s true on Rogue’s side, too, she could be in real trouble’ Cyclops adds, before asking the Cuckoos what Rogue’s status is.
The Cuckoos reply that Rogue hasn’t moved and that her astral form has not returned either. ‘We’ve got no hint of a psionic trace on her’ they add. While Madison Jeffries and Kavita Rao go about their business, Cyclops tells the girls to keep searching, before asking Doctor Nemesis if the machine is ready to go. Doctor Nemesis replies that he believes it is and remarks that they should be able to throw a liminal dragnet over anything that arrives here in Utopia from an adjacent dimension. ‘In theory, tearing it to pieces’ Doctor Nemesis adds. Cyclops orders him to activate the dragnet at the first sign of Emplate or his house. He adds that Bling is ninety percent diamond and Rogue is effectively a ghost right now, so it is going to take a lot to hurt either of them.
At that moment, in Emplate’s dimension, Rogue’s “Trance” form finds herself getting leeched by the vampiric mutant, while his lackey, DOA, keeps Bling occupied. ‘Stupid girl. To come into my house. To challenge me. When you know I can meet you on any plane - ghost, solid, or in-between’ Emplate declares as his hand covers Rogue’s mouth, leeching her. He tells her that she will now feed him, as so many other mutants have. ‘And Ah will endure. Just as - just as Ah have -’ he exclaims oddly, before going wide-eyed and asking Rogue what she is doing to him. ‘What’s happening? Why am Ah -’ he asks while Rogue wraps her hands onto his arm.
Rogue then reveals her hands to now have leech like abilities stolen from Emplate, and she extends a hand to his throat, where she wraps it around his neck, despite his protests. ‘Cuts both ways Emplate! You get mah powers and Ah get yours!’ Rogue exclaims as she breaks free from Emplate’s grasp. Emplate cowers before her, ‘Don’t touch me!’ he exclaims while Rogue hovers before him and remarks that it looks like a stalemate. ‘Stalemate? You’re injured and failing. You can barely cope with the power you took from me. I only have to wait until you collapse. Or fade away completely’ Emplate retorts.
‘All out of power. All our of time. Can you even get back to your own body, Rogue?’ Emplate asks. ‘Or will you just flicker out like a candle flame?’. Emplate moves towards Bling and exclaims that, either way, Rogue will get to watch as he devours Bling, whom she came here to protect. ‘Shugah - Ah don’t think so!’ rogue exclaims, when suddenly, there is a loud SKRAK as the lighthouse shudders, and Rogue, Bling, Emplate and DOA find themselves thrust into the air. ‘Did we forget to pay the gravity bill?’ DOA jokes, while Emplate asks Rogue what she has done. ‘You got your compass creature well trained, Emplate’ Rogue replies. ‘He knows what to expect if he doesn’t jump to it and do what he’s told. So ah gave him a new heading. Ah told him to shoot for Utopia’. Rogue adds that she maybe should have warned him not to hit anything that was lying in the way.
A wide-eyed Emplate looks horrified, as he gazes through a hole in the wall and sees the lighthouse and his small floating island breaking up against the glass moon that it hit. ‘No!’ Emplate exclaims, while DOA remarks that he normally just covers the cracks with Beatles posters, but that this time they could need something more load-bearing. ‘You cretinous dwarf! The house is irrelevant! But the glass moon - you know what lives in there. If it’s damaged where we hit it -’ Emplate exclaims as the glass moon begins to crack. He turns to Rogue, ‘You don’t know what you’ve done!’ he shouts, to which Rogue replies that she knows exactly what she has done as she saw what is in there. ‘Looks like the neighborhood just went all to Hell, Marius. So it’s Utopia or -’ Rogue begins, before she fades away, much to Bling’s horror.
Utopia, where Rogue sits up, and the Stepford Cuckoos, Hellion and Onyxx gather around as their teammate Trance rouses also. ‘What happened? Didn’t it work?’ Trance asks, rubbing her head. Rogue tells Trance that it worked fine, to which Trance asks where Bling is. Rogue replies that Bling is on her way, before telling the Cuckoos to inform Cyclops that they have incoming and that it is probably going to be a messy landing.
In the crumbling lighthouse, Emplate approaches the strange object - the compass - and orders it to come to a dead stop. ‘Accept new -’ he begins, but it’s too late, as the lighthouse is thrust into reality, right above Utopia. Hellion, Rockslide, Anole and Match all look up at the lighthouse, while one of the Cuckoos exclaims ‘He’s here’ and asks Rogue how she knew. Rogue explains that she nudged the steering wheel. ‘Game on, Mindee. Send up the flare’ Rogue exclaims.
Mindee contacts Cyclops, who replies that they see it, and asks Jeffries if he has a lock on it. ‘Air tight’ the former Alphan replies. ‘Then let’s show Marius St Croix what makes the X-Men such a hard target’ Cyclops declares, as Jeffries presses the control, and the lighthouse gets frazzled.
Inside the lighthouse, DOA looks out a window and tells Emplate that they need a little more height and a little less solidity. Emplate replies that they have found some way of holding them in this reality. ‘A sheet anchor. We’re out of control’ he remarks. ‘That chokes’ DOA replies, before telling Emplate that it has been real, and that he will cherish the happy memories. ‘But I think this is my stop’ he adds as the lighthouse crashes down onto Utopia. Rogue, Match and the others standing nearby cover their faces from all the dust and rubble that is sent flying into the air.
‘He’s down. And out’ Jeffries announces, to which Cyclops tells him to keep the field at full strength as long as he can. ‘He’s not ghosting out of this one’ Cyclops declares.
In amongst the rubble, Emplate finds Bling. ‘Child’ he exclaims, telling her that this is sweet providence and that he is too heavy, too solid. ‘But with your help, I’ll be gone before the X-Men get here’. ‘Stay away from me!’ Bling exclaims, lying in the rubble as Emplate approaches her, hands outstretched. ‘One last taste. Then I’ll scrape this dimension off my feet’ Emplate declares.
Nearby, Iceman, Psylocke, Cannonball and Warpath rush towards the crash-site, ‘This way. I can smell him!’ Warpath exclaims. ‘No disrespect to your tracking skills, James. But we can all smell him’ Iceman exclaims. Suddenly, Rogue steps in front of them and tells them to wait. ‘What do you mean, wait? I owe this guy some lumps’ Warpath exclaims, holding a large knife. Rogue tells Warpath that what he owes Emplate is nothing compared to what Bling owes him. ‘We don’t move until she’s done’ Rogue orders.
‘What has your life been up to this point?’ Emplate asks Bling. ‘Ugly, outcast, without friends or worth. You shouldn’t fear the peace I offer you, Roxanne. You should welcome it’ Emplate exclaims. ‘Who said I was afraid?’ Bling asks, before telling Emplate that he doesn’t look nearly so creepy in broad daylight. ‘Just old, and sick’. She tells Emplate that if anyone should be looking for an assisted suicide, it should be him. ‘Close your eyes. It will be over before you know it’ Emplate tells Bling as he places his hands on either side of her head. ‘No’ Bling exclaims, ‘It’s over right now!’ and with that, she releases diamond hard shards and a fury at Emplate, knocking the villain backwards.
‘Now he’s ours’ Rogue tells the others. ‘Now there isn’t any point’ Warpath remarks, while a shocked Trance asks if Bling killed Emplate. Rogue walks over to Emplate’s fallen body and remarks that she is not sure he can be killed. ‘But we’d better not take any chances’ she points out as she kicks Emplate hard in the head.
In the X-Club laboratory, Doctor Nemesis announces that the field is reaching its stable limit, and that he could compress it around Emplate, probably kill him, but Utopia would take some damage in the process. ‘Or else?’ Cyclops asks. ‘Or else we spit him back. Your choice’ Doctor Nemesis replies.
The side-line reality, Emplate is thrust back into it, and lands in some gunk. ‘I won’t forget this indignity, X-Men!’ he shouts as he gathers himself. ‘You’ll weep blood before I’m - before I’m through with -’ he begins, before realizing that countless slug-like creatures with large mouths filled with sharp teeth are swarming in around him. He screams as they move in to devour him.
Later, the sun sets over Utopia, several of the X-Men Students have gathered near the water tower, some including Rockslide, Hellion, Graymalkin, Indra and Match are playing a game of volleyball with Cannonball, while Surge, Mercury, Anole, Trance, Dust, Loa, Pixie and Armor gather around Bling, as Surge asks her what happened to her in there, and what the other dimension was like. ‘Well, you know. It had its upside’ Bling replies. ‘Like what? Wasn’t this guy planning to eat you alive or something?’ Mercury asks.
‘Yeah. That was the bad part’ Bling explains, remarking that having Rogue come riding in to the rescue and sweep her up into her womanly arms was kind of hot. ‘God, you are such a slut!’ Trance exclaims. Bling admits that she was never so scared in her life, and that it was like some of her parents’ parties, back when she was a kid. ‘You knew anything could happen, and not in a good way’. The volleyball bounces off Rockslide and into the air, so Pixie flies up to get it while Trance remarks that comparison was actually scarier. ‘Agreed. All in favor of changing the subject?’ someone else suggests.
Elsewhere on Utopia, Cyclops and Rogue meet down near the waters edge. ‘So. Now that you’ve had a chance to think about it…’ Cyclops remarks, to which Rogue sarcastically replies ‘Right. It’s been a real quiet day, and Ah used it to reflect on your generous offer. When Ah wasn’t meditating on zen parables’. Cyclops asks Rogue if she has heard any good ones lately, to which Rogue replies ‘An upstart monk picked a fight with Bankei the zen master. He said Bankei could never make him obedient or respectful. Bankei commanded the monk to breathe’.
Rogue proceeds to tell Cyclops that he has a way of doing that - asking people to do what they can’t not do. ‘These kids need as many guardian angels as they can get’ she adds. Cyclops asks her if she will take the job, before exclaiming ‘Excellent!’ and suggesting they hit Wolverine’s room. ‘What for?’ Rogue asks. As they walk back to base, Cyclops tells Rogue that they need to make a toast and that on an island which has spent the last five years at the bottom of the ocean, Wolverine’s room is the one place he can guarantee they can steal some beer from.
Elsewhere, Gambit looks at the ace of diamonds playing card, hard. Suddenly, the card goes black - and it’s as if he is looking into a mirror - only the reflection is his Horseman of Apocalypse appearance. ‘Who are you?’ Gambit asks. ‘Who do you think I am?’ comes the response. ‘Part of me. Something that woke up inside me when I lay down in Apocalypse’s machine’ Gambit replies. ‘Well - yes and no’ is the cryptic response.
Second Story:
The ice begins to crack under Hope Summers as she and Cable walk across and expanse of ice. Cable tells Hope to be careful and not to rush. ‘Keep your balance’ he adds. Hope asks if they can’t find some other way to cross. ‘There’s gotta be a bridge around here somewh - are you even listening to me?’ she exclaims when she notices Cable’s attention is focused elsewhere. Cable tells Hope to shush, when a pack of wolves surrounds them. ‘Oh #$^*’ Hope exclaims, before telling Cable to shoot them already. As the wolves move in closer, Cable replies that he can’t, as he only has two bullets left. ‘You’ve got grenades’ Hope points out, but Cable tells her that they would burst the ice beneath them. ‘What about your mutant powers? Your teleki-whatever?’ Hope asks, to which Cable explains that would burst the ice also.
Cable hands Hope a gun and tells her to sit down. ‘On the ice? What’s so good about mutant powers if you never use them?’ Hope protests. Cable reminds Hope that they have encountered these wolves before. ‘They’re robots, remember’. Hope replies that she remembers, to which Cable remarks that machines operate logically, so they will expend their resources according to their size and weight. ‘Yeah. So?’ Hope asks. ‘So’ Cable tells her as he pushes her across the ice. Hope lets out a scream, before realizing what Cable means, as he is a big guy, and four of the robot wolves go after him, leaving two for her, which she immediately shoots in the head with the weapon - one bullet for each robot.
The robots fall to the ice, smoke pouring from their heads, while Hope thinks to herself ‘Two wolves. Two bullets. Just like he’d planned’. Hope watches Cable, without any bullets, two of the robot wolves lunge at him. ‘And power he couldn’t even use’ Hope tells herself as Cable grabs the two robot wolves by the throat. ‘Watch out!’ Hope exclaims as the other two wolves approach him from behind. Cable turns around and throws the two in his hands at the other two, the impact causes the ice to break, and all four fall into the icy cold water beneath.
Suddenly, one of the robots that Hope shot gets up and growls at her. Hope thinks to herself that she has a gun, but no bullets. A wide-eyed Cable calls out to Hope, telling her that he is coming so not to move. Hope thinks to herself that she doesn’t have any powers yet, and if just a defenceless little girl. She tells herself that Cable couldn’t use his powers either, and throws the gun down at the ice, just in front of the robot wolf. Hope tells herself that maybe she doesn’t even need powers as the robot wolf stops growling as it sinks into the icy cold water. ‘Good job, solider’ Cable tells Hope as he walks over to her. They turn and continue their trek, with Hope remarking that she still thinks Cable should have used the grenades.