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Start Again
Sunset:Nightcrawler and Shadowcat (and Lockheed) wake up - still in their night clothes – outside in an unknown area. A knocked out armed man lies next to them. They have no idea what’s going on.Suddenly, a hologram of Irene Adler aka Destiny appears and addresses them. She tells them she needs their help: her partner Mystique has gone mad over the death of their foster daughter Rogue and she blames Forge for Rogue’s death. She wants him dead. Destiny warned her that was a mistake, capable of shattering the foreseeable future, but Mystique doesn’t care. Irene could not stop her, now they must! she pleads before the hologram fades away.Kurt checks the man. He is unconscious but alive. Mystique is getting careless, Kitty opines.Kurt wonders about the logistics of finding them, then getting them here (and their costumes as well). Clearly, working for the government has given Mystique and Destiny access to surprising resources. He takes out his costume and suggests Kitty get changed as well. Kitty forcefully replies she almost died in that outfit. No way is she ever putting it on again! Agreeing, Lockheed burns her costume.Is he serious about doing what Destiny asks? she wonders. Kurt reminds her they are heroes, as were their friends. If the X-Men’s sacrifice is to have any meaning, they must hold fast to the same ideals. Sometimes being a hero sucks, Kitty pouts, then orders Lockheed to scout the area.That moment, a shorthaired woman – Blindside – attacks Kurt and hits him in the face. She calls her boss Hardcase but believes those two will not be much trouble. Shadowcat distracts Blindside with her phasing power and Lockheed returns and spits fire at her.Kurt orders Kitty to stay focused so he can touch her, grabs her and teleports them away.Blindside contacts her boss Hardcase in the chalet, telling him they disappeared without a trace. Shotgun is down as well, referring to the guard. They will need Lifeline to check him out. Hardcase warns her to stay alert and assures her back-up is on the way.He orders Warhawk and Ranger to deal with the dragon. Longbow is to head to the roof. As soon as Timebomb flushes out the intruders, Longbow will take them out. Hardcase reminds the Harriers they were hired by a national security advisor to protect Forge, but nobody is to use lethal force without his say so. Blindside’s foe sounds like the X-Man Nightcrawler. He wants them and the dragon taken alive.Somewhere outside, after his teleportation jump, Kurt feels awful. Kitty is worse off; she can barely stay cohesive. She complains she wants to go home. Soon, he comforts her. He tells her to stay and Lockheed to guard her. He will be back soon. She reminds him they both nearly died fighting the Marauders. They are in this together!Suddenly, Timebomb fires his bombs at them from inside the house. Lockheed flies off to look for the attacker. He doesn’t know that the Harriers have him in the crosshairs but, before Longbow shoots him the flier, Warhawk attacks Lockheed physically in the air.Somehow, on the ground, Kitty feels Lockheed’s pain and screams in agony.In the chalet, Forge hears her scream. He recognizes her voice and berates himself for being responsible for this.Kurt grabs the almost unconscious Kitty and teleports them to a hideout, however he realizes her natural state is now to be intangible. He can barely hold on to her. He lays her down on air, hoping Earth’s rotation won’t move her and merge her with the ground or a tree. He realizes that to help Kitty he has to get rid of the guards, then deal with Mystique.The still airborne Warhawk tells her teammates that she has an unconscious dragon and asks what she should do. She has done enough! Nightcrawler retorts as he teleports onto her back. Teleporting in and out he sabotages her flying gear, then teleports her into the ocean.He teleports himself and Lockheed back to the floating and unconscious Kitty’s side, completely exhausted from the strain, clearly hurting.Nearby, Blindside finds the unconscious but relatively unhurt Warhawk and tells Hardcase that the X-Men seem to be playing as nice as he wants them to. That moment, Kurt appears and takes her out as well.Floodlights from the roof find him and Longbow and Timebomb fire at him. Kurt dodges their shots. Hardcase wonders why he is running instead of teleporting. Kurt makes his way up the roof, where he takes out Piston. He is so fast that the other two Harriers shoot Piston instead.Meanwhile, Kitty slowly awakes.Kurt teleports further up the roof and manages to take out the two snipers but leaves himself open for being beaten by Battleaxe. He throttles hm with his tail and the two of them fall through the glass roof window into the chalet.Battleaxe nevertheless grabs Kurt by the waist and Kurt realizes he cannot teleport anymore.That moment, Forge comes downstairs. He tells the Harriers this is Nightcrawler of the X-Men and orders them to stop. While Battleaxe and Kurt keep on fighting, Hardcase tries to steer Forge away. He reminds him they are here to protect him.That moment, Kitty phases through Battleaxe, somehow hurting him and demands they all behave.Forge suddenly draws a gun and trains it on Hardcase, ordering him to stop this and call his team off.Kurt jumps in front of Hardcase and Kitty joins him, phasing through the man’s body.Kurt addresses “Forge” as Mystique and asks her to stop. If she means to kill this man, she has to go through him. Mystique shifts to her true form and scoffs that he wouldn’t be able to dodge her bullet in his state, and Kitty doesn’t look much better. She bets she can’t keep them intangible for much longer. The moment she skips, Mystique will shoot and he will die.He tells her to do it and goads her what she is waiting for. Rogue is dead. For that, they all grieve. They all want vengeance. But walking this path will likely destroy everything she values. It will leave Destiny alone. Is that really what she wants?Exhausted, he suddenly stumbles and falls. Mystique drops her gun and crouches next to him. She asks what is happening. Fight finally caught up to him, he mutters. What does she care? She calls both him and Kitty idiots. Kurt muses this may be for the last time. Even if they recover, their superhero days are done.Mystique asks why he fought if he knew the risk. Kurt explains that he and Logan have talked of her, of how Logan knew her as a hero. Now she leads Freedom Force, a team of heroes. He hoped she would react as that. She hasn’t killed Forge, has she?She admits that she thought she wanted to… turned out she was bluffing. She has changed. In many ways, she hates it, but she can’t go back to what she was. Rogue’s choice to be a hero – turns out it’s infectious. She’s becoming as crazy as her… as him.That moment, the real Forge comes down, berating Mystique for not killing him. It’s what they both wanted! Hasn’t he heard? she retorts. She’s a hero! Death is what he deserves, but that’s far too easy. She knew Ororo. She loved him, which means he has forfeited the right to act like a coward. Now is the chance to prove himself worthy of that love and sacrifice. Save Nightcrawler and the brat! Make them whole again, and she will consider them even.Kurt asks why. Perhaps one day she will tell him. Until then, consider it a courtesy of a nascent hero. Forge promises to do his best.Sometime later on Muir Isle:Forge’s therapy worked. They are both restored, if not yet fully fit, with one big exception: Kitty points out being intangible now seems to be her permanent state. She wonders where they go from here. Wherever they want, he replies but senses something more is on her mind. She reveals that, since returning to Muir, she has been having these weird dreams about Rachel. She wonders what they mean…


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The Eight Circle
The setting is bizarre.At the head of a lavish dinner table, Mr. Sinister welcomes his guests to an evening of fine dining and finer conversation. He raises his glass to Professor X, Moira MacTaggert, Magneto, Hank McCoy (strangely not mutated and in his original uniform) and a young woman in a turn-of-the-century gown.Sinister announces this table has hosted Abraham Lincoln and Adolf Hitler, Albert Einstein and Babe Ruth. Conversations have ranged from the Theory of Relativity to Josh Gison’s home run power. This evening, they will discuss the devolution of Homo sapiens and the evolution of Homo superior.Hank remarks that Sinister says that as if they are binary determinations. As he pours wine for himself and Moira, Xavier replies that questions have been raised regarding when the branching of one species becomes its own species. Moira continues that the answer is when those branched species produce their own offspring. For now, mutant progeny born to human parents is statistically minuscule. And humans fight to ensure it will remain that way, Magneto states grimly. For mutantkind to have a future, they must ascertain their reign over planet.The woman in the gown – Amanda Muller aka the Black Womb – scoffs. Max or Erik, or whatever he is calling himself this week, can they please eat, before they conquer the world?Sinister thinks to himself they need to know how important that moment can be. What an incredible opportunity they have before them. But can they overcome their differences?Hank praises the food and asks if Magneto is going to keep the helmet on during dinner. Magneto raises the helmet. He admits it does smell good. When they subjugate the humans, they will keep their recipes.Amanda asks Sinister if he believes the challenges posed by mutant ascendancy will be resolved before dessert. He replies that, when looking around this table, even she must admit the possibilities are limitless.What the others don’t know is that they are in a tesseract fold in Sinister’s underground lab beneath the orphanage in Nebraska. Mr. Sinister raises his glass and announces factors outside his control leave them just three hours to set the human race on a unified path to evolutionary glory. Shall they proceed?Two hours and fifty-eight minutes later:Sinister is stuck full of cutlery and throttled by candleholder, hinting that someone with magnetic powers got rather mad at him. On the other side of the room, Beast, now in his mutated furry state, is also tied to the wall. Magneto calls Sinister nothing but a human with pretensions to power. Xavier tris to calm him, and Amanda observes amused that didn’t go as planned, though certainly as expected.Sinister stretches his arm to knock the helmet off Magneto’s head and shouts at Xavier to act. Xaiver telepathically paralyzes Magneto.Sinister caustically remarks he would worry his telepathy had turned Magneto’s brains to mush, had years of stupidity and futility not already done that. Xavier angrily replies it was abhorrent of him to describe experimentation on mutants as breaking eggs to make an omelet. Sinister admits that, considering Magneto’s tragic past, he probably should not have said that. But they all carry a burden of tragedy, don’t they? It informs why they do what they do, Moira agrees.Amanda retorts she believes many of them do what they do in search of tragedy, and would Nathaniel care to explain that? She points at Magneto, whose face is literally liquefying. Moira recalls Sinister said they had three hours to solve the problem. Because that’s how long their clone bodies would remain viable!They are clones? Hank asks horrified, while Magneto turns to dust. Sinister asks how else could Xavier walk or Amanda be young and beautiful? He has had these dinners with countess combinations of minds he respects, and each time he learns something new.A red energy doorway appears and he walks through it into a lab.Yet, each time, it ends in a desperate struggle to watch them all eke out one more moment of existence. But still he learns, for isn’t the way they handle death as vital as the way they handle life? Moira and Hank follow. Hank is like a child in a toystore, announcing it’s like every genetic lab on Earth donated their equipment.They look through Sinister’s database for their genome sequences, hoping to use that knowledge to override their genetic degradation.Xavier turns to Amanda and asks why she doesn’t help. Because she accepts that she is not Amanda Mueller, is the reply. She is a construct, though with enough free will that she refuses to accept being a mouse in Nathaniel’s maze. Even as his body begins to melt, Xavier enters her mind to see if there is any helpful intel. Horrified, he sees she has always known. As he falls apart, he asks why she didn’t ever do more.Sinister tuts. How does she keep her secrets when he made her to reveal them? Amanda retorts that Klein and Ullsperger discovered that stubbornness is genetic.While at the Max Planck Institute he believes, adds Beast, who is mutating further and looking into a microscope. Did the two of them know Max personally? This is not good, he states a moment later. Moira adds their lymphoid tissues were designed to collapse, a cascade across the thymus and lymph nodes, leading to catastrophic cellular degradation. Angrily, Moira berates Sinister for giving them life, only to take it away again. Why did he do that? For the conversation, of course, he replies. They were just a means to an end, and it appears the end is near.The building shakes. Sinister switches on a screen showing the real X-Men – Beast, Psylocke and Gambit – attacking the base.Sinister explains that the doorways between folded space are being closed. If they sever the interspatial umbilical passage connecting them, he may be lost here forever! Moira orders him to worry about the integrity of this tesseract while they worry about staying alive.Moira and Hank consider several scientific solutions while Sinister tries to create a stasis field around the lab.Beast injects Mora with resequencing nanites, then has her step in front of a scanner. He believes the nanites are working but the next moment she crumbles to dust. Beast, now looking like his catlike version, apologizes while Sinister notices the tesseract is collapsing on itself. They have to complete the stasis field or the lab will be crushed!Amanda mocks suddenly he is talking in the plural. Hank attacks Sinister angry about playing with their lives, wasting all that knowledge. The he too crumbles to dust.That was unfortunate, Sinister grants. Disgusted, Amanda, now a crone, tells him the truth always is. She calls him a fool. He reminds her she was his pupil over a century ago. She retorts that, in all the time he focused on playing mad scientist, she focused on the destination, not the journey. She lights a screen showing him a formula, which is then replaced by an image of himself battling X-Factor. He realizes this is from his spatially phased cameras. Is a clone of him battling them? Amanda calls him a half-wit – the real Sinister is in Hawaii, battling X-Factor. His cloning vats are incubated in pairs. There were six of them at dinner tonight: Xavier and Magneto, Moira and Beast and Amanda and him.Clone Sinister realizes his true self is frittering away time and opportunity, while the data Amanda retrieved is buried in Black Womb’s files only she knows how to access. This could be everything - the destiny of Homo sapiens and superior. He can translate the binary code but what does it mean? he asks Amanda. What is Homo unitus? She chides him this is what he should have been striving toward all along… the inevitability of their evolution. What the real Amanda has tried but failed to achieve over many decades. As she dies, her last words are that it requires more than he is capable of. It requires hope.He doesn’t understand, until he solves the code realizing the destiny is for mutant and human to become one again. He tries to send the data somewhere the real Essex will find, but he doesn’t know if the message will ever reach him. He spends his last minutes regretting the life of the real Nathaniel Essex, who only sought power instead of meaning…


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X-Men Noir
The city at dark. A dirigible flies over the cityscape. Near a bridge leading to the abandoned Welfare Pen, one detective, Peter Magnus, demands a mint from the other, Fred Dukes. No, Dukes tells him. This his first murder, right? he adds. So? Peter asks as the two detectives join the uniformed colleagues at the Welfare Pen. He still wants a mint. Trust him, Dukes assures him.
The waiting cops ask if the Chief give Dukes another rookie to ruin. Pretty soon, a whole generation of detectives are all gonna be walking funny. You’re a funny guy, Kelly, Dukes replies. Kelly’s wife tells him so practically every night.
That the mermaid? he asks, referring to a mutilated corpse of a redheaded woman. Couple a white shirts running down a stray schizo found her round ten, Kelly replies. The loony bin is the only welfare left on Welfare Island once they shut down the old penitentiary here.
His dad made his shield on the Welfare Pen raid, Dukes tells the rookie Peter who stares at the corpse mesmerized. Did he know that? Course not, Dukes continues. He barely got three years in. He’s not even technically alive.
Dukes asks the others to flip the corpse over. They gasp at the grisly sight and Peter vomits. As he gets up again, Dukes hands him a mint. See, he tells him, he would have just wasted it. See, as this is Peter’s maiden voyage and all, he tells the sharp-faced, white-haired young man, he should do the honors.
Straightening himself, Peter begins his report: Victim is Caucasian, female, red hair, early twenties. Bloating suggests extended submersion. Extensive slash marks along upper torso… in groups of three. Same pattern on the face, but… worse. Deeper. I.D. won’t be easy. Nose missing. Eyes missing. Upper lip… missing.
That him? a uniformed cop asks Dukes, referring to Peter, the track star? Their very own crown prince, live and in the flesh, Dukes replies. He’s sorry, the rookie remarks, looking up, but is anyone actually going to write this down? What? Dukes asks. He means all that stuff he’s been saying? Why should he?
With the tip of his shoe he points to an X-shaped tattoo at the woman’s hip and remarks that this tells him all he needs to know. He’s going to have the rook type up and file his report, but they already know what it says. The X-Men? one of the others asks. He’s afraid that this heinous crime appears to be yet another addition to their long list of evil deeds, Dukes agrees. Yeah somebody might actually want to think of catching them or something, Kelly remarks sourly. He’ll let him know how that goes, won’t he? Dukes replies with an evil grin.
As they ride up the elevator, Dukes tells Peter that, back when he was young and stupid like him, they didn’t have this elevator to take them from the middle of the bridge down to the island. Transferring a boatload of bums from the Tombs to the Welfare Pen in the middle of January… boy, the wind off that river would cut right through you.
The younger man interrupts him. What are “X-Men?” Oh, so he didn’t get his college degree in everything? Dukes retorts. Fred, the other man begins. All right, all right, he amends. Her ink means she did time at this reform school in Westchester, run by a real head case, Xavier. Screwy shrink was actually teaching the juvies how to be better criminals instead of reforming them.
What? Peter asks. Yeah, Albany wasn’t too crazy about it either, Dukes continues, but they didn’t find about it till one of the students did a really bad impression of a birdie off a roof. Now Xavier’s in Riker’s until the D.A. can figure out what the hell to charge him with. And the X-Men? In the wind. Freelance operators, pulling jobs all over town. Any one of them got a sheet longer than some twice their age. The skirt was their grifter – name of Jean Grey. No point wasting taxpayer money figuring out which of her gangland boyfriends finally got bored with her.
But… Peter begins to protest. Fred interrupts him. He is Peter’s partner, so let him look out for him. Jean Grey ain’t the kind a citizen Peter’s father would want them expending limited departmental resources on. The chief’s a big fan of… what do you call it… eugenics. He takes any classes on that in Princeton? A few, Peter replies hesitatingly and Fred explains that eugenics say your criminal element, it’s all, you know, hereditary… bad “racial hygiene” and all that. And there’s nothing you or he or any cop can do except contain it. Keep it away from them regular Joes. It’s like that old saying, “You can’t fight city hall?” Well. That’s a crock, especially in this town. No, the one thing you really can’t fight is nature. And there’s no point to really even try.
Peter looks up and above them in the shadows of the bridge’s girders he might see a moving shadow…
Dirigibles fly above the city at night and music is played at the Creole Club as the singer croons a love song.
Have I ever heard of Jean Grey? the Club’s owner Remy LeBeau asks in reply to the question of a well-dressed young man with a moustache, one Thomas Halloway. Viens ici mec, he asks him, let him show Tommy something. He shows him a picture of Grey hanging in the office with the note “do not give chips to this girl.” He wants all his people to know this putain, LeBeau exclaims. He catches her three times in his place, each time running a different scam. It’s like she can control men’s minds, for true. Got her claws into one of his croupiers. Had this couyon running a slug. Tommy know what a slug is?
flashback:
Thomas Halloway’s mind races back to when he was a boy. Jail. One of the inmates, Orville, “the Gentleman” Whitwell. Telling him sweetest blackjack grift is the slug. But the dealer’s got to be in on it, see? You bribe the guy to lead his shoe with cards in a specific order, so you know just what’s coming, see?
Present:
Sure, Halloway replies tight-lipped he knows the slug. Go play! Remy remarks admiringly. What doesn’t Tommy know? Where Grey’s partners are, comes the reply. These “X-Men.” And Remy knows everyone. Ahh, not the X-Men, Remy admits. Much as he’d like to. He’s still out eight large thanks to them. He’d like his man Bishop to show them some gratitude. They take Tommy for along walk off a short pier, too? No, Remy knows him, he replies as he turns his head and leaves. Just looking for the next big thrill. Oh, to be young, rich and bored, Remy laughs and waves him goodbye. Bon soir.
Outside, he sees a beautiful brunette, dressed in red, standing next to a car. Suddenly, he shouts a warning as a man is about to hit her with a wrench. He steps between the woman and her would-be-attacker, who warns him off. Tommy quickly disarms him and presses him against the car. It’s Remy’s guard, Bishop. Sorry, Tommy apologizes, but a black belt holds up these fancy pants.
Isn’t Bishop Remy’s muscles? the brunette asks. That he is, Tommy agrees. She wouldn’t happen to be in arrears to Harlem’s favorite Cajun, would she? She lost count after she passed ten large, she replies nonchalantly. And he still lets her in? he asks. There are advantages to being the chief of detectives’ daughter, comes the reply. Not if that’s how M. LeBeau feels forced to collect, Tommy points out. The woman, Wanda Magnus, takes his arm and offers to buy him a drink.
Rikers Island:
Tommy introduces himself as Thomas Halloway, a reporter of the Daily Bugle. He thanks the prisoner, Charles Xavier politely for taking the time to speak with him. He somehow managed to clear a spot in his schedule, comes the wry reply. Is that the Bugle he’s reading? Xavier asks, referring to the pulp magazine Tommy is holding. It’s certainly changed since the laws time he saw it. This? No, Tommy replies and shows him the Science Fiction magazine. On the cover is a blond SF hero, the hero of the story “the Sentinels” by Bolivar Trask.
Is Xavier familiar with the work of Mr. Trask? Tommy asks He is quite a visionary. An anthropologist before turning author. Mr. Trask suggests a future in which some humans have evolved fantastic powers and patrol the skies, protecting the rights of the “norms” who worship and love them.
How… imaginative, Xavier remarks, rifling through the mag. He hears Xavier knows from imaginative, Tommy points out. Who told him that? Xavier asks mildly.
Tommy begins to quote from an article:
The mutual cooperation derived from mankind’s sociability allowed humanity to quit the forests and veldts for concrete jungles of its own construction.
But after tens of thousands of years, this man-made eco-system has produced a more perfect predator, with skills expertly adapted to thrive within that system.
Indistinguishable from the dominant species, unencumbered by the constraints of sociability, uniquely endowed to manipulate members of society by preying upon their outmoded empathy… this is the sociopath.
That we have characterized sociopathy as “mental illness” until now is hardly surprising. No doubt the Neanderthal saw the prominent chin and sharply rising forehead of Cro-Magnon man as some kind of physical deformity as well.
My aim here is to demonstrate that, far from suffering from any “personality disorder” the sociopath, on the contrary represents the next step in human behavioral evolution.
Conclusions and recommendations on the diagnosis and treatment of adolescent sociopaths by Charles Xavier, Ph.D.
Heady stuff, Tommy concludes. The American Psychiatric Association certainly thought so, Xavier agrees. They expelled him after he wrote it. They also refused to publish it in their journal. How did he get his hands on it? he is multi-talented Tommy replies tight-lipped.
He’s sure, Xavier agrees. What kind of article did he say he was writing again? He didn’t, Tommy replies. It’s on one of his former students, Jean Grey. She was found murdered recently. He heard. Most tragic, Xavier replies. The police seem to think one of Xavier’s “X-Men” did it. They must have their reasons, Xavier replies non-commitally. They are the police, after all.
He imagines it must be rather flattering to have his students name themselves after him, Tommy begins another tack. He must be quite the teachers. He is the only person who understood them, Xavier replies. Who even tried to understand them. The only way he could get them to open up to him was allow them to be what they truly are. And are they killers? Tommy asks. Are they capable of killing one of their own? And does he know where he might be able to find them?
Visiting hours are over, the warden suddenly announces. But the clock says… Tommy begins to protest. The professor has special hours, comes the reply.
They shake hands as Xavier wishes him luck. He can’t imagine an article on his former students will win him many prizes. Why his clearly intense interest? A young woman was gutted and washed up on Welfare Island, Tommy replies. No friends. No family. And the cops treat her like something they have to scrape off their shoes. He doesn’t care who she was or what she’s done… he can’t live in a world that lets that happen. Ah, a crusader, Xavier remarks. He should watch himself if he finds his X-Men then. They eat people like him for breakfast. He reminds him to take his pulp magazine with him and hands it over.
Outside, Tommy looks at it. Xavier has scribbled Find Marie Rankin on it.
Fred Dukes, in the meantime, has taken his rookie partner Peter Magnus to Fagan’s. Is this his first beer at a cop bar, Your highness? Annoyed, Peter reminds him just because it is first day in homicide doesn’t make him twelve years old. So he says, Duke laughs. And they have forty minutes left on their shift, Peter points out as they walk inside. Fred chooses to ignore him and is happily greeted by the other patrons. Pay this riffraff no mind, your highness, he tells Peter. Tonight they are tipping back with the king.
He leads Peter down the stairs. Peter hears someone in agony moaning: Stop… Listen… I already said “yes,” for God’s sake. The voice comes from a man tied to a chair. He’s surrounded by three men standing. The one talking to him is a white-haired man in a purple suit whom Peter knows only to well. That’s his problem right there, isn’t it Blackie? the man states. God’s standing right in front of him. And he doesn’t give a &%%$. He hits the prisoner in the face.
The man who led Fred and Peter down explains that Master Cassidy of the Bronx is a guest of the Chief tonight. God ol’ Blackie, Fred laughs. King of the Leprechauns. One last time, so it sticks, the Chief continues. Move your numbers and your dope out of Norwood. On to Tremont. The people of Norwood are good respectable people. While Tremont sits in the path of twenty city bulldozers. No one cares if it’s infested with rats in its twilight years. If he has to tell him again, he will send Blackie to Irish Hell. He won’t like Irish Hell. There’s no whiskey, and all the women hit back..
Hey chief, Fred announces and points at Peter; look what the cat dragged in. He’s waited for this a long time, Peter’s father, the chief commissioner, tells him. Peter’s finally ready to learn how they contain crime in this town. Laws only work on law-abiding people. For the criminal element, there is the Brotherhood. And he can’t tell him how important it is to him to finally welcome his own son as a member.
Horrified, Peter runs up the stairs. Maybe he should just let him run, Fred suggests. Maybe running is all he is good for. Magnus tells him to shut the &%$ up. Yes, Sir, comes the muted reply.
Tom aka the Angel quietly breaks into the former Xavier’s school. He recalls how back in jail inmate Horace “Harlem Houdini” Hobbs taught him about lockpicking. Ain’t no two locks the same, Hobbs told him. When you got your pick all up in there, feeling for the pin, you gotta be real sensitive like… like you’re with your lady, and you’re using your tongue on her… He apologizes for the inappropriate remark, as Tommy is a little too young for that.
Present:
Tommy carefully picks the lock and enters the office where he takes out the file of Anne Marie Rankin. He is impressed by the picture. He steps outside, into the hallway. One of the doors bears the inscription “Danger - Training in progress.”
He enters a training room which includes among other things a training gym and a shooting range.
Suddenly, a monkeylike man attacks him from above, though Tommy manages to evade him. A young man grabs him from behind and holds a blade to his throat. Now now, ladies Tom remarks, let’s not get their panties in a twist. He’s the Angel. And he’s on their side.
He gets rid of the young man with a judo throw and shouts he’s trying to find out who killed Jean when the first man jumps at his back.
A third man with red glasses points a gun at him. Hasn’t he heard? They are the X-Men. Nobody’s on their side.


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[Assistant]
X-Men Noir
The Angel’s memories:
Young Tommy is sitting in the “cell” of Sean Cassidy. Sean is wearing everyday clothes instead of prison garb, was being massaged and manicured and on the whole treated more like the guest of a luxury resort than a prisoner. He tells Tommy to learn this lesson good now. ‘Cause it’s the only one he’s ever gonna need.
Suddenly, someone brings in a homing pigeon. What’s all this then? Sean asks annoyed. Can’t he see he’s meeting with his closest advisor? He reads the message and orders everyone back into their cells with their stripes on. The commissioner’s coming for one of his “surprise” inspections just after lunchtime. And Tommy had best get back to his Da.
Sean goes down on eyelevel to Tommy. But if he takes anything away from their time together, take this: This whole world’s is nothing but one stinking grift. The key is making sure youget the last trick.
Present:
The Angel ducks as Cyclops fires his shot. He only gets this one warning shot, Cyclops states. Who is he really? And why is he dressed like a &%$&? Iceman adds. Hank, calling him Bobby, tells him to be quiet. What did he theorize about Jean? Bobby shouts at him not to call him that in front of others. He’s Iceman! Iceman! Tranquilize yourself, Hank warns him.
They already know who killed Jean, Cyclops reminds Beast. It was Magnus. It’s always Magnus. When Prof X wouldn’t make them work for the Brotherhood, Magnus killed Warren to get X thrown in jail. And when they kept hitting his places and his friends, he killed Jean to frame them.
He’s inclined to agree, Angel states. Their chief of detectives has long used this town as his own personal blank check for far too long. And he’s taken more from him than they can possibly imagine. But with the three of them he may have just the gun he needs to take Magnus down. So what do they say to an alliance?
At the home of Sebastian Shaw, the Hellfire Club, house number 666, decorated with stained glass windows depicting the seven deadly sins, said Shaw is enraged. They’ve stolen everything that wasn’t nailed down, he tells the chief of detectives. If Magnus can’t catch those “X-Men,” he’ll be more than happy to appoint a chief of detectives who can!
Can he be completely sure, it was the X-Men? Magnus asks. That’s not funny, Shaw replies, looking at a model of the city (by Moses Magnum) where someone has left a scratched X-symbol. Nor has he heard an update on the Unuscione situation lately. That would be because there isn’t one, comes the reply. The Brotherhood has been too busy moving Blackie Cassidy’s mick hold into Tremont. Shaw isn’t interested in Tremont. He needs Lincoln Square for his center of the performing arts. And only Unuscione stands in the way.
They call him “Unus the Untouchable” for a reason, Magnus reminds him. Excuses, he is only excuses and bile! Shaw shouts. He wonders. How long did it take him to get that accent out of his voice? That guttural Transian drawl that made the clerk at Ellis Island hear “Magnus” instead of “Magnisky.” The willpower that must have taken, a single father, raising twins all by himself. Yet still he found time for diction lessons. Because he knew a genuine American accent would be the only thing that might separate him from every other worthless piece of immigrant trash that washes up on the shores.
Sixteen months, Magnus replies. It took him sixteen months, give or take. Cherish the product of all that hard work, Shaw tells him For it is the only thing he has he didn’t get from him!
The Magnus home; a picture of Mount Wundagore in Transia is hanging in the den. Lying on the couch, cradling a bottle, Peter Magnus hears muffled voices from outside. A woman, his sister Wanda, telling someone take his shoes off first before walking up the stars. They creak and her brother and father are asleep. She walks up ahead, telling her beau to keep it in his pants just half a minute longer. Her father has a private stash of twelve-year-old special reserve that he absolutely must…
Wanda, Peter addresses her and she exclaims startled. Was he waiting for her? she accuses him and then asks if that is Daddy’s bourbon? Their father is a criminal, he states. A common criminal. She knows, Wanda tells him and kisses his forehead and takes the bottle. Isn’t it wonderful? She leaves.
The X-Men have joined the Angel at the old Welfare Pen. He lives there voluntarily? Bobby Drake asks. He sick in the head or something? It’d explain the outfit…
They follow Angel who explains that he grew up here. His father was a warden. He couldn’t find a more proprietary place to raise him? Hank asks. Well, he wouldn’t’ say he raised him, Tom muses. They pass a stairway and a shadow momentarily appears. Bobby believes he sees something for a moment, but then it’s gone. Cyclops remarks that now he can see why “Angel” took such an interest in Jean. She practically washed up on his doorstep.
Now that he mentions it, Tom replies, where were Cyclops and his merry men, the night Jean was killed? They never should have trusted that fruit, Bobby shouts angrily. He’s gonna turn them over to the Brotherhood… Cyclops orders him to shut up. It’s a reasonable enough question. Seeing as how they’re going to be “partners” and all…
Cyclops explains that they were casing this hoity-toity S&M joint for rich weirdoes. Sebastian Shaw’s place. The Hellfire Club. Jean sweet-talked the security plans out of the doorman. She stayed behind in their hotel on the East Side. She doesn’t pull jobs directly. Strictly prepwork. When they got back, she was gone.
He stops, seeing the photos of a corpse. Are these crimescene photos from where they found Jean? he asks. Where did he get these? He’s multiltalented, Tom replies and takes up the file of Anne-Marie Rankin. Shaw… he muses. Didn’t the mayor make him chair of the city’s council of Parks and Parkways? A more precision-worded assessment would be that Shaw made the mayor, Hank corrects and the D.A. And their dear chief Magnus.
Tom listens to the Rankin file by Xavier:
Note for file: Rankin, Marie. Special case, referred by Chief of Detectives Magnus. Doctor Charles Xavier, lead alienist. Patient is to inherit Rankin Chemicals Fortune, yet was picked up shoplifting from Saks Fifth Avenue a fifteen-dollar handbag she could easily afford. Juvenile record shows this is the seventh such petty arrest for Ms. Rankin, though each time the charges were squashed by her guardian, a lady lawyer, Raven Darkholme.
Counselor Dakholme seems to think this time an introduction to the criminal justice system might teach her charge to choose better friends. Chief Magnus believes it is significant that Ms. Rankin was caught with common street urchins each time she was arrested. Indeed, when patient was brought to me, she evidenced the coarseness of the slums in her language and dress. I paired her in “Danger Room” drills with a succession of my more advanced patients. Around Mr. Worthington, she lost her vulgar bravado and mimicked his flights of fancy, even showing some skill, like he, as an artist. Then around Mr. McCoy she became very serious and studious and spoke to a variety of topics from current politics to botany, surprising even him. She even “absorbed” his less attractive qualities, such as a penchant for using large words he doesn’t quite understand the meaning of.
Hey! Hank protests.
These transformations manifest themselves within just a few moments of meeting a new person. I’ve never seen a patient so instantly and effortlessly blend in with her surroundings. Could she be what I’ve been searching for almost eight years. The “missing link” to prove all my theories. The next state of evolution in sociopathy?
Angel stops the tape. He looks at a newspaper with an article about a suicide scandal at an upstate reform school “referring to the death of Warren Worthington.
Angel suggests the three X-Men lay low he while Magnus has APB’s out on anyone with an “X” tattoo. He’s got to step out for a bit. He thinks he knows where Marie is. So who gives a&%§? Iceman asks After Magnus tossed Warren off the roof, the stuck-up little &%%§% took off while the rest of them stuck together. Right, Cyclops? he asks. Xavier thinks she is in grave danger, Angel points out. But they have no cogitation as to where to even begin scrutinizing for her whereabouts, Hank begins, she has no friends, no family. No, of course she doesn’t Tom agrees. Didn’t they hear the tape? She has somebody’s else’s.
At Riker’s Island Magnus visits Xavier. He hates talking to Charles in this place, he states. He much preferred it when they were on the same side. So did he, Xavier replies. Before he realizes which side Magnus was actually on. That hurts, Magnus replies with a smirk. Hasn’t he treated Charles well? As best as a lawman can treat a con all of the newspapers call a Professor of Crime. Got him a nice cushy prison job, didn’t he? In the visitors’ reception area, isn’t it? Now it’s time for some gratitude.
He shows Charles a snapshot. See this man? He is a very bad man. His name is Angelo Unuscione. Every pusher, numbers runner and pre-pubescent whore uptown calls him “master.” To everyone else he is “Unus the Untouchable.” He only lets a select few near him. Those he trusts. People from his old neighborhood, family etc. His one weakness? Women. He needs her. Marie. Charles’ perfect student. She can transform herself into one of “his” people. It’s the only way to get close to him.
He doesn’t know where she is, Charles replies. Maybe not, Magnus points out, but he’s sure Charles has theories. He never lacks for those. Now they can’t beat the address out of Charles They have already proven that. But the thing is… he will find her eventually. He is the Chief of Detectives, after all. And when he  does… if Charles has made him have to work for it… well. He wouldn’t want another student to end like Jean, would he? P>
Evening. A young woman enters an exclusive building. A simply smashing day, wouldn’t he say? she greets the doorman. He would if she would, he replies, addressing her as Ms. Worthington.
A little later, a police car pulls up. Fred Dukes and a colleague alight. The colleague needles Fred that after one shift with him Magnus Junior is putting in a transfer to Staten Island. Lad’s smarter than he looks.  Go §$%”% yourself, Dukes replies diplomatically. The doorman Horace states he has to cal up to the penthouse to let the lady know they are coming. Fred holds back his hand. No, he doesn’t.
Up in the penthouse, someone addresses Marie who is looking at a painting and she shrieks in fear. Who is he? How did he get in here? And that is not her name! He doesn’t have time to argue with her, the Angel replies. They are about to have company. Exiting the elevator, the police announce their entrance and that she is under arrest for fraud. Instead, the Angel attacks.
Flashback:
A lesson from Tommy’s past, told to him by Cain “Juggernaut” Marko. “Somebody comes at you,” the giant told him, “big, cut, drunk, hopped-up, pissed-off, crazier than Lizzy Borden and with a bigger axe – it don’t matter, Tommy. All you do is, when the guy comes toward you, you step forward and greet him.”
(present)
And Tom does just that, managing to make Dukes lose a tooth in the process. With a line and grappler, Angel manages and to get himself and Marie to the roof. Now where to? she asks him angrily. No way she’s jumping – Angel grabs her and jumps to the next rooftop. Dukes colleague follows and jumps after them, but doesn’t reach his goal. He can barely hold on to the roof. Please, he begs the Angel who drags him up by his tie, then disappears.
Up on the roof of Pryor Airlines, Marie, a pretty young brunette with a white streak of hair babbles that she’s never seen anything so selfless. She wants to be good, she does! This is about Jean, right? She’ll tell him whatever he wants to know.
The Worthingtons left their penthouse for the south of France after Warren killed himself, Angel starts. She passed herself of as what, a sister? Daughter? Cousin, Marie admits. She forged a letter saying she could stay there in Mrs Worthington’s hand. She copied it from a Christmas card in Warren’s things. She just had to get away from that damn school – the eternal pissing match between Magnus and the professor…
What about Jean? Tom asks. She… told her things, Marie begins, the way girls do. Cyclops… he wasn’t the only one she was with. There was a fence she used… this old bootlegger. Down in Chinatown. He was another. She’ll tell him where. But first he has to make sure she’s safe. From the Brotherhood or the X-Men? he asks. There’s a difference? comes the cynical reply.
The Magnus residence. Wanda, is that you? Peter Magnus asks as he sees someone walk down the stairs. Did she see his cab out there? He’s staying with a Princeton chum out on the island until he can find a place on Staten. What’s wrong? he asks, noticing she’s sniffling. She tells him to go away. He looks at her closely, seeing she is crying and roughed up. Who did that to her? he demands. Remy LeBeau, Wanda admits. He says… he can’t let her… keep making a fool of him… No matter who her father is. He says unless she comes up with ten large… well, he knows what he said, she laughs weakly. Peter is a prig, not an idiot.
Poor, poor Peter. She pities him. She completely corrupted herself and the world sucked her down anyway. So what hope is there for him? She steps out and he looks after her flabbergasted.
Elsewhere, Chinatown; Cyclops enters a bar. Get up, he orders a patron and repeats his order more forcefully. Get up, you sick bastard! He wanted to believe that not even he could be such an animal. Then he saw the police photos. Slash marks, in groups of three. He draws his gun. That’d be him signing his work. Why, did she wise up and leave him? She finally get sick of waiting for him to evolve?
Logan, the man at the counter, gets up, claws extending from his right hand. Listen up, bub. From where I come from… them’s fightin’ words.


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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
X-Men Noir
Cyclops flies at Logan, hitting his shoulder while Logan slashes Scott’s face with his claw-like knives. He slaps the gun out of Cyke’s hands but he has another one hidden up his sleeve. Again, the two have a standoff.
That moment, Angel breaks through the skylight. He kicks Logan in the face. He thought he told them X’s to stay put, he tells Cyclops sharply. Did he? comes the reply. He don’t hear orders so good. He points his weapon at the helpless Logan. Angel decks him.
Much obliged, bub, Logan thanks him as he gets up, holding his smarting face. Guess he’s lucky the circus is in town. Angel studies his weapon. Though, Logan continues, if he says he was responsible for Jean Grey getting dead too, it’s a shame they can’t be friends no more.
No, Angel decides. He finds it hard to believe a man with any nautical experience would dump a body just north of Welfare Island, knowing that, in the Hell Gate where the East and Harlem Rivers meet, it would just get spit right out again. He’s done a little bootlegging himself, maybe? Logan asks.
Another man joins them to treat Logan’s injuries. He’s multi-talented, the Angel replies. And those Japanese neko de – referring to Logan’s weapons – can be bought in a dozen curio shops upstairs on Mott Street. What he came here to ask Captain Logan was: Anyone else know about his relationship with Jean Grey? Anyone who would know enough to set him up like that? Other than his first mate Eugene here? Logan asks No. Great so he’s a suspect now, eh? Eugene remarks.
He’s not the cops, Angel clarifies. He doesn’t have suspects. Every crime is just the visible corner of a much larger picture. Once all the parts get filled in, there are no suspects. Just the guilty.
What about junior here? Logan suggests about Scott. He strikes him as the “crime of passion” type. Unlikely, Angel decides. He just found out tonight that Jean was more than selling Logan swag to smuggle. Will he be alright? Eh, the captain’s suffered worse from better, Eugene states. True that, Logan agrees and downs a drink. But thanks all the same, mystery man. He owes him one.
In front of Remy LeBeau’s club:
It’s raining. A drenched, disheveled Peter Magnus enters. Ah, Monsieur Magnus Le Petit. Bon Soir, Remy LeBeau greets him. His sincerest apologies he had to get rough with his sister. But he must know better than he that’s the only language that putain understands, oui? He suggests Peter tell his father comes up with all the money, all is forgiven. They all have to answer to Unus the Untouchable in the end, don’t they?
Peter draws his gun and shoots him point-blank. A panic starts as Peter is overwhelmed. Standing pensively in the background is Tom Halloway.
A little later, the Chief of Detectives visits his son in a cell. Jesus, Peter, he exclaims angrily. If he was going to shoot Remy, did he have to do it in front of three hundred witnesses? If Peter had shot the mayor, he might have been able to get him off on probation. But Remy &%$§ LeBeau? He strikes him. How could he be so stupid?!
Peter replies that’s just what he thought when he saw his father beating on that mick gangster in the basement of Fagan’s. “How could I be so stupid?” For studying for his criminology finals instead of attending the Olympics qualifier. For giving the valedictory address at the academy when all the other cadets already thought he was a brownnose. For accepting his detective’s shield a full three years before anyone else and getting no respect ‘cause every flatfoot knew who got it for him. That’s when he should have been thinking it. “Why am I being so &%$§ stupid for trying so hard to be just like the old man? How can I be like a guy when I don’t even know who he is?
That’s it, Magnus replies, let it all out. Feel better now? Peter knows how he got his shield? He pounded a beat for almost a decade and had to take the sergeant’s exam four times because he couldn’t recite the counties in Ireland his grandparents came from. Then he gets pulled into a raid the Commissioner of Correction is making on Welfare Island.
Magnus’ story:
Seems the spineless milksop who ran the joint… Christ, what was his name? Hallow? Hathaway? He let Sean Cassidy – Blackie’s cousin – run it like a resort hotel. Cassidy controlled the heroin trade in this pen and, through his profits, controlled the guard and warden. The commissioner had tried surprise raids before but, as they learned later, Sean had riddled headquarters with tipsters who kept him updated on the Department’s movements through messenger pigeons of all things. Cassidy kept coops up on the prison roof. But the commissioner kept trying raids, hoping to get lucky.
Finally on the one, Magnus goes on, it looked like they had. He immediately spotted his chance to shine. When he spotted Cassidy, he went after him. He wasn’t trying to escape. He wanted to know why his early warning system had failed. They weren’t lucky catching him red-handed. Turns out hey had an Angel on their side.
The pigeons were dead, poisoned. Holding a bottle of rat poison was a young boy. Calling him “Tommy,” Cassidy blurted out he had just left him downstairs. How did he do that?
Magnus shot Cassidy from behind while the boy watched. Taking out Sean Cassidy meant the mick brass couldn’t deny him his promotion. But what really go him that day was that poor bastard warden. The geniuses who took him into custody decided to lock him in the infirmary during the raid with all those sharp, shiny scalpels. He killed himself. He remembers looking at his file and thinking he’s a widower like him with twins. Just like him. Twins who are now orphans because their father let himself get played by system he couldn’t control.
Present:
He swore he would never let that happen to Peter and Wanda. He would be the one doing the playing. After that he made himself useful to the right people.
So he did it all for his children, huh? Peter asks mockingly. God, he couldn’t think of a bigger cliché?
For a moment, he says nothing. Then, Magnus continues he can probably get Peter out of jail. The Chief of Detectives can do that much for his son. But on the streets or in Sing Sing, it’s pretty much the same to Remy’s friends. He knows, Peter replies. There is one man who can help him, Erik continues. Sebastian Shaw. But he won’t do it for free, Peter states. No, comes the reply. He’ll want Unus the Untouchable. Quick, clean, then Peter is out. Out of the country, so it can never be traced back to either of them.
Peter decides he wants to go to Transia. He wants to see Mount Wundagore. He wants to be someplace real. Magnus laughs. Why does Peter think he left? But no matter. Wundagore it is. And in exchange, what Peter has to do is simple. Wyngarde’s already worked it out. Unus is booked on the Friday 5:00 pm airship to Central City out of Empire State. And he’s seen Peter’s marksmanship scores from the academy. He hands him a gun.
The Angel’s apartment. They got him, he enthuses to Marie. The city may not be able to touch him, but FBI Director Duncan owes him some favors. They’ll have the leverage they need to force him to tell them what he did to Jean. This will all be over soon. Not too soon, she hopes, Marie replies. She’s grown to rather like his house. She had no idea vigilantism paid so well.
The Angel changes out of his costume as he tells her he received a sizable inheritance from his adoptive parents. And what would they say seeing him leaping across rooftops dressed like that, she wonders. The costume. She thinks it’s odd? he asks. Doesn’t he? He thinks it’s a focus. He points at a pulp magazine lying on the nightstand. When they were younger, his brother got him hooked on those pulp stories. Futuristic tales of a time when people would be better. They did better things. And Robert… he said… the future won’t become unless we become it. When he puts this on… he feels like he’s what comes next. He’s something better than what he is. Does that make any sense?
No, she replies. But she wants it to. He wants it, so she wants it. Make me better, she pleads, and they kiss and embrace.
Later that night, a man opens a grave on Potter’s Field.
The next day at the top of the Empire State Building is Unus, surrounded by two bodyguards. Another man wants to enter the elevator and is shoved aside by them. Mr. Unuscione likes his privacy he is told.
In a car downstairs, a cop informs Magnus that Unuscione and his muscle went inside. Any luck with the nut with the cape? he asks. He wishes, Dukes replies, and quickly adds he ran down that other thing. The reporter who talked to Professor X. They got his name off the Riker’s visitor list, but the Daily Bugle says they never had a scribbler named Thomas Halloway. What did he say? Magnus asks agitated. He wonders. Could it be?
Unus enters the elevator. Unbeknownst to them, Beast jumps onto the cabin while Iceman makes sure the elevator power is “iced.”
The light goes off within the cabin, there are screams of pain as the muscles are taken out. Beast addresses Unus, telling him he is with the X-Men. If he wishes to remain respiratory, he’d best come with him.
The dirigible (of Pryor Airlines) is approaching deck D. Suddenly, a shot (courtesy of Cyclops) is fired at the camera a woman is holding. There’s a panic and the people clear the deck.
Below in the car, Magnus hears the news that multiple gunshots are reported on the Empire State Building airship platform. Multiple shots? he wonders.
Above, Peter looks down from the dirigible through a pair of binoculars, wondering what is going on down there.
A small plane flies above the dirigible and Angel jumps down from it.  He kicks in the dirigible’s window and decks Peter. He informs him that Unus is being smuggled safely out of the building and he’s placing him under citizen’s arrest. Peter fires his gun. The Angel jumps and, moments later, the airship explodes.


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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
X-Men Noir
The airship explodes and Angel barely manages to make his getaway. He dives through a window and lands on the ground, exhausted.
Below, Fred Dukes cries out in horror at the explosion, then screams again as something lands on the car. Chief Magnus gets out of the car, asking what the hell that was. He’s sorry, Fred says simply as Magnus sees the body of his son Peter. He’s so sorry…
Within the building, Iceman and Beast are trying to get away from the cops. Shooting ensues. Hank buys Iceman a getaway, sacrificing himself for his friend.
Bobby reaches the car with Unus. Panicked, he tells Cyclops that he thinks Hank is… Cyclops stays calm. Angel joins them. That went well, huh? Cyclops comments and starts the car.
The cops tell the chief the X-Men got Unus, and that the bloody caped acrobat was with them too. Magnus tells them he knows where they are going. Take him to the Hellfire Club!
At the Hellfire Club, Shaw is enjoying himself with two ladies and is extremely cross when Magnus enters. He orders him to get out now, or has he finally got tired of the badge Shaw bought him?
Magnus shoots him and the women. Uh Chief? Dukes asks, unsure. Magnus orders him to torch this place. The flames from Empire State will reach this block eventually anyway. He orders Wyngarde to take out all the Council of Parks and Parkways’ files. Then, only the Brotherhood will know what land to buy and sell back to the city. That was his mistake. He never quite escaped another man’s system. But all that changes. After tonight, this city will be his. And the only loose end that needs tying up… is Unus.
In a bar in Chinatown, Captain Logan looks at a picture of Jean Grey. His first mate, Eugene, tells him to sober up. Mr. Xorn’s pigeon coop on the roof brought them a message from their mustachioed angel. Says he wants to cash in that little favor Logan said he owed him.
On Welfare Island, Unus, Angel and the surviving X-Men talk. Magnus will have their pictures posted on every bridge, ferry and tunnel out of the city. So they’ll have to smuggle him out to DC all the way. FBI director Fred Duncan is expecting Unus. And he better not disappoint.
Oh he won’t, Unus assures them. Just so they understand each other, he’s only dropping a dime on Shaw and Magnus. No real crooks. Man’s gotta have his standards. Brotherhood’s gone too far this time. Gotta remind them… everybody… why he’s untouchable. They been forcing hoods into neighborhoods the Council of Parks and Parkways wants to redevelop. That lowers the property values and drives out local families. Shaw’s companies then buy up the land for nothing and sell it to the city or a huge profit. They tried to bring him in up front last year. He got plenty on their racket to put them all away.
Nighttime. Marie tries to leave Tom Halloway’s home when she is expected by Magnus and his men. Where is it? he asks. The tunnel from here to Welfare Island? She claims she doesn’t know. Come now, he tells her. Her guardian angel made the mistake of purchasing this, Mr. Cassidy’s, former house in his real name: Halloway. Do not make him do what he would very much like to do to her. Downstairs, she finally relents. She’ll show him.
She shows him the tunnel behind the shelves. The commissioner never did figure out how Sean smuggled his heroin into prison… After her, he tells her and leads her down.
Captain Logan’s ship, the Mariko is steering for the docks.
On Welfare Island, Angel tells Cyclops they can wait for Logan on the dock.
Magnus leads Marie to Welfare Pen, followed by his men. He holds her fast. Suddenly, Marie bites him and shouts a warning to Tommy. Magnus’ men fire and Unus is hit. Iceman garrottes a cop and is shot by the other.
The cop sees Angel and hesitates. Angel saved his life recently. Just get outta here, he tells him. Then they’re even. We’re not, Cyclops rejoins and shoots him from behind. Only he and Angel are left standing.
Meanwhile, Marie has run up to the roof, followed by Magnus. They’re like little children, he swears as he runs up the spiral staircase, playing at murder. Charles should have given her to the Brotherhood, like he asked. They could have used her. In their hands, her innate talents could have achieved so much. And then he really could have taken her to school. He’s reached the roof.
Yeah, teach me, daddy! Marie shouts as she hits him with a brick. Teach me! Teach me! Teach me! All her life she wanted to be just like him!
That moment, the Angel joins them. Marie calms down. Thank God, he’s all right, she announces. She knows how this must look, but he understands she was defending herself, right? She… “absorbed” Magnus’ murderous tendencies! He knows what she’s like!
Yes, he agrees. Professor X tried to tell them. “Indistinguishable from the dominant species… unencumbered by the constraints of sociability… uniquely endowed to manipulate members of society by preying upon their outmoded empathy… this is the sociopath.”
How can he say such things about her? she demands hurt. After all they’ve meant to each other.
Nothing means anything to her, comes the reply. Not Cyclops. Not Captain Logan. Not Tommy. Certainly not Anne-Marie Rankin. She begs his pardon, she states coldly. She is-- Stop, just stop, he tells her.
Narration and flashback:
He went to the city Potter’s Field on Bart Island. He dug up Jean. They say your hair keeps growing after you die; that’s not true. What really happens is that, as the flesh loses moisture, the scalp shrinks around the roots, revealing what is beneath the hair she dyed red – namely brown hair with a white streak.
Present:
She was a little too quick to set them on the path to Captain Logan. A little too distraught at the prospect of seeing the other X-men again. They might have seen through her deception. But he suspected, he thinks Professor X did too. Not too many people practice writing their own signature over and over and over again.
She just had to fool this lady lawyer Darkholme, who had minimal contact with Marie over the years, anyway. Fool her long enough for her to sign over that big fat trust fund to her once “Anne-Marie” turned twenty-one. That must have been quite an opportunity for someone like her. Impersonating someone with no fixed personality. The perfect con.
Jean points her gun at Angel. She told Marie she wanted her to become like Jean more thoroughly than she had ever been anyone else before. She told her it would be an honor. That it would be neat. She was pathetic! So desperate for attention. The very thought of her makes her want to puke! She didn’t even get it when Jean took the claws to her while the boys were out casing the Hellfire Club. Totally uncomprehending. Totally trusting. That’s what was in her eyes. Even as Jean gouged them out.
She laughs. Professor X is a fool He wanted her to say she was like Marie. Ooh, ooh, poor me, Daddy touched my /&%$ one too many times, and now I’m all screwed up. He never did get it. Nothing happened to her. Nothing perverted her. This. Is. Me This is what I am. Warren couldn’t handle it. That lovesick sap. He couldn’t live in the same world with something like her, once he understood what she was. Can he? she mocks the Angel. He wanted to know what comes next. She is. Not good, not evil. Born of the two, but not quite either. A species of one.. She doesn’t’ want to be studied or exploited, Xavier or Magnus that’s no choice. No choice at all.
But now she has the money to be free of all of it. To stop her, Tommy is going to have to kill her and they both know he doesn’t have it in him. So she guesses this is goodbye. Let’s pretend it’s been fun, huh?
He reaches for her. Jean, his name is Robert. And she has no idea what’s in him. He begins to throttle her. He’s spent his whole adult life teaching his brother the world is what they make of it. That they can overcome their baser natures. They can! He won’t let her take that from him.
She fires the gun at him. He moans. She is not taking his Tommy from him!
Locked in the mockery of an embrace, they tumble and fall from the roof to their death.
Memories:
Sean Cassidy saying: If you take anything away from our time together, Tommy, take this: This whole wide world is nothing but a stinking grift. The key is making sure you get the last trick.
Present:
Tom Halloway, the other Angel, tells Cyclops he’s sorry. He didn’t want him to find out… this way. Cyclops takes of his glasses, revealing one normal eye and a red glass eye with an X-symbol. Scott. His name is Scott. Looks like the Angel… lost someone too.
He was adopted by a well-off family, a good family, Tommy explains. Robert wasn’t. He wanted to keep up the old game they used to play on the inmates, tricking people into thinking there was only one of them… He’s afraid he lost him a long time ago.
A boat is waiting for them. What the hell? Captain Logan shouts at them. We picking somebody up or what?
You coming? Tommy asks Scott. He hears Madripoor is nice this time of the year. Scott looks back one moment and then follows.


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Bend over! Warden Emma Frost orders Tommy Halloway as she puts on  gloves. She could at least buy him flowers first, Tommy jokes. Droll, comes the curt reply. She warns him not to lose or break his cup. He will not get another.
He is brought to a chair and tied down. A man with a tattoo needle begins. Frost explains that she studied in Harvard under Professor Charles Xavier. She believes he is familiar with his work.
Emma continues that Xavier teaches that sociopathy is humanity’s next evolutionary advance. But she has taken his theories into a slightly different direction. She believes sociopathy is communicable. That is why those extraordinary convicts must be incarcerated here, away from the rest of America’s prison population. She cannot allow their disease to spread to the other prisoners, those of low moral character, most susceptible to it.
If he should be transferred to another institution those in authority must know he poses maximum risk.
While she’s been talking, the tattoo artist has stenciled the letter M over Tommy’s right eye.
Emma continues that Genosha Bay penitentiary was built by Quaker missionaries. The idea was to isolate prisoners from each other, so they could contemplate the gravity of their sins. Hence the term “penitentiary;” root word: “penance” from the Latin paenitentia meaning “deep regret.”
She does, however, not care if they regret what they’ve done or not. They cannot be rehabilitated. The devil in them is biology and cannot be exorcized. She will keep them isolated, though not for their own good, but society’s.
Tommy is led to his solitary cell. He is told he will have no contact with other prisoners. And almost none with the staff. He is not allowed writing materials. Or to receive visitors or communication from the outside. A guard will let him out in his own private exercise yard for an hour a day, weather permitting. And thus she has described the last remaining days of his life.
Does he have any questions? No, Tommy replies and warns her he will be seeing her soon. Oh? she asks mildly curious. Is he thinking of getting out of here? He knows he is, he replies with a smile. And he already knows how. She wouldn’t bet on it, is Frost’s reply.
Night time at the prison… In her elegantly decorated apartment, Emma Frost, dressed in a silk nightgown, is getting ready for bed. So, Tommy asks with a smirk. Cain Marko. Who killed him?
How did he get out of his cell? Emma shouts. That’s not important right now, he replies. Cain Marko is. Almost frightened, she replies she doesn’t know who that is. Tommy reminds her that Cain’s body is in her morgue. He’s just come from there. Somebody did quite a number on him. And don’t expect him to believe in that Juggernaut nonsense. Did he tell her where the gem was before he died? What gem? she asks confused. He is talking in riddles.
She orders him to go back to his cell. Let’s start with this, Tommy replies. Cain didn’t have the mark over his eye. He wasn’t a prisoner here? Emma admits they allow the army base that’s also on the island to use their facilities like the morgue. When they need it.
Without telling her? Isn’t she the warden, Tommy asks. They are the military, she reminds him. Now tell her how he got out! No time, he replies and takes the radio cable. He’s got to go send a message. She is staying put. He begins to tie her to the chair. Wait, she asks him. Tighter. Please.
Tommy sneaks outside into the courtyard, unaware that someone is crawling down the wall. The masked man suddenly kicks him in the back. Tom hits back, only to be almost sliced by a woman with a knife. She hits him. He manages to throw her into the masked man.
“Be seeing you!” he announces and is almost out, when he runs right into a very tall, muscular man. As he’s being beaten up he realizes guards are watching from the tower, but none of them steps in to stop the beating.
Nearby in the harbor. Eugene Judd remarks that Halloway is six hours late now. He was supposed to radio for a rendezvous after he escaped, whether he found out where the gem was or not. What could they do? he asks the drunk Captain Logan, who lies sprawled on the floor. They should agree with him this was an incredibly stupid plan to begin with, Logan suggests. Eugene replies he’ll radio Cyclops in New York, eh? Maybe he’ll have some bright ideas. And he’ll like be sober, he adds in a quieter tone.
Tommy awakes tied to a chair in darkness. Suddenly garishly bright lights are switched on and he screams. They meet again, Professor Xavier states, or is this the first time? He’s not sure if the one time he met him, it was Thomas or his twin brother Robert. His condolences on his loss, by the way.
He introduces the young woman in red behind him. Ms. Magnus, daughter of the late chief of detectives back in New York. And he’s met his new X-Men, if he’ll forgive the narcissistic phrase. Extraordinary criminals one and all, from around the globe, captured on American soil and imprisoned here. Genosha Bay really is the most fascinating place for study. A giant stone Petri dish of depravity.
Herr Wagner started out in the circus before becoming the top second story man in Europe. Don’t let comrade Rasputin’s size fool you. It’s his artistic talent the Bolsheviks wanted to ship him to Siberia for – he’s an expert forger of artworks and official documents. And Ororo’s skills at thievery are so renowned even at her delicate age, that she is literally worshiped by the footpads of Cairo.
And now Xavier has him. He’s no sociopath, Tommy replies. Can he be so sure? Xavier asks. It has a nasty habit of running in families. And his brother Robert… tsk, tsk. Killed a girl, did he not? One of Xavier’s psychotic students, Tommy snarls, in self-defense! He can’t help him if he throws up these barriers, Xavier laments.
Why bother helping him? Tommy demands. His student, Warden Frost, doesn’t believe sociopathy is curable. That she does not, Xavier agrees. Then why does she let him study here? What better way to be proven right than to watch your old teacher fail? Xavier explains. Emma does not let him use her beautiful prison for free, however. She would like him to find out how Halloway got out of his cell. He’s multi-talented comes the reply. Xavier advises him to tell the truth. Or he’ll torture him? Tommy asks. They teach him that in Harvard?
Please, Xavier scoffs. He’s a scientist and a humanitarian. He won’t lay a finger on him. And in a week, Halloway will be begging to tell him. Welcome to Project Wideawake, Mister Halloway. Xavier is wheeled out and they all leave. The garish lights remain.
Day breaks as Tommy sings: Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling.
Sweating, he asks if Professor X thinks this impresses him? He has studied Vipassana meditation in Ceylon… so this… this is like a vacation…  As his head sinks down the lights flare on again.
A day passes. Anne Marie… he’s sorry Tommy mutters. He should’ve… should’ve saved her.
Suddenly, someone switches off the lights. Thanks, he mutters, he could use a break. The lack of sleep is one thing. But the heat and the glare is… Hey! he shouts and cries for help as he is being waterboarded. Where is the gem? someone demands. Where is the goddamn gem of Cyttorak?
He awakes again to see Professor Xavier in front of him who informs him he spent seventy-two hours without sleep. Has he started hallucinating yet? Stop, it’s been a week, Tommy corrects him. He’s been counting. He’s been here a week. Hasn’t he?
He’s barely lasted a weekend, Xavier informs him. He better tell him how he escaped. The membrane between sanity and madness is so very thin and fragile. And irreparable. He doesn’t want to end up like Robert, does he?
Angrily, Tommy orders him not to talk about Robert. He wasn’t a schizo. He had his problems, but he was a helluvalot smarter than Xavier. ‘Cause he knows what? He overplayed his hand. He knows he hasn’t the gem yet— But suddenly there is no more Xavier, just the glare of the lights.
Baldy’s got a point, a new voice arises. Tommy won’t last much longer. And the only one who can get him out of here is he, Robert tells him. All right, Tommy agrees, Robert wins. What did he have in mind?


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[Assistant]
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Tommy Halloway is still subjected to sleep deprivation torture. Through his haze, he hears Xavier claiming he sympathizes with him. He’s had brother problems of his own. His father died when he was a boy and his mother married a man… Kurt Marko. Classic sociopath, Xavier continues. Charming, vicious, manipulative for its own sake. He named his own son Cain, for God’s sake! Can he imagine what kind of man does that?
“Cain is his…” Tommy weakly begins.
Xavier continues. Marko made quite a show of preferring Charles to his biological offspring (while secretly berating Charles when nobody would hear it). And Cain… well Tommy knows him. Believe it or not, in his youth Charles could almost hold himself against him. Once when they were teenagers they were standing at the top of the grand staircase struggling, and well… he sees the results, the wheelchair-bound professor remarks.
When they were much younger, Cain and Charles managed to understand what their father was doing to them. They ran away from home. Fled to a lighthouse not far from their Westchester manse on the Hudson… terribly bucolic, he knows. But the keeper’s widow took pity on them and kept them safe for the weekend until she felt compelled to notify their mother to bring them home. His memories of that time are among his fondest.
He wants to be Thomas’ beacon. His sanctuary. But first Thomas needs to open to him. Tell him about his late brother. How did Robert get to be… the way he was? And how did Thomas get out of his cell?
Still, Tommy stays silent. Impenetrable by sentiment and reason, Xavier sighs. A pity. He wheels outside. As long as he denies Xavier answers, he denies Thomas sleep here in Project: Wideawake. And his years as a teacher of youth have left him with infinite patience. The door closes behind him. Lighthouse… Tommy mutters.
The door opens again and a slim female stands within the glare, exclaiming: Tommy! Oh, my God! She crouches down next to him and apologizes for not coming sooner, but it wasn’t safe. Wanda Magnus kisses him and explains that Xavier has sent his horrid X-Men off to the mainland on some errand, so she is here at last. To see him trussed up like some kind of an animal! It was all she could do to not tell Xavier she had let him out of his cell in the first place. That they have been working together all along. Just so she wouldn’t have to see him suffer! Roughly, Tommy tells her to stop her blubbering. Then his suffering will end!
Soon, he beats up the guard outside with unusual viciousness, as he belts him for watching from their tower as the big Russian squeezed the life out of him. Wanda tries to interrupt him. He orders her to kill the water works.
He phones a relieved Eugene Judd, who tells him they were just about ready to give up and sail back to Madripoor and take their chances. If they had done that, he would have found them, Halloway warns. And they would have regretted it. The drunk Logan comments “and then he woke up.”
Halloway states he’s making his way to the rendezvous point in No Man’s Land between the prison and the army base now. Meet him there. What about the gem? Judd asks. Did he figure out where it is? One thing at a time, Halloway orders.
Wanda hesitatingly tells him they need to get him to the boat as soon as possible, calling him “Tommy.” He needs some sleep. He’s gone over a week without it and he’s acting… Well—she’s worried about him. If she calls him that one more time he’ll knock her teeth out, he warns her. And stop trying to put him to bed like an infant! He’s got one eye on her at all times. And call him by his real name now. He’s Robert. Wanda just stares at him.
Suddenly, he tells her to wait. He wants to check one thing out first. He looks at the army base’s hangar. What do they have that could be that big? What does that have to do with them? Wanda asks. Nothing to worry her pretty little head about, he replies condescendingly.
Later, they meet aboard the boat, Blackbird. Angrily, Logan demands who the skirt is. Ballast for all he cares, Halloway replies She’s coming aboard. His boat, his rules, Logan retorts. He’ll leave them both here if—
Halloway gives in. She’s Wanda Magnus. She’s owed him ever since he saved her from Remy LeBeau’s muscle in Harlem. And she knows who’s really responsible for her father’s death.
Sounds like she’s another share they gotta split their take with he never bothered telling them about, Logan states. They are supposed to be partners! That means he pulls his “man of mystery” routine with the rubes, not with him! He got any more surprises, he better unwrap them now, or he’s heading back to Havana to reacquaint himself with rum-running.
Wanda hesitantly states they don’t know where the gem is exactly, but they know where to start looking.
At a lighthouse, Scott Summers speaks to the lighthouse keeper Mrs. MacTaggert, a bitter elderly woman, who states that Cain told her in his telegram someone would be stopping by, one of his gutless cronies. He said they’d have a little something for her too. Like when she hid him and his Little Lord Fauntleroy step-brother from their demon father. Cain had to swipe quite a bit from his mother’s purse to cover her risk.
Cain didn’t say boo about any payment to her, Scott points out. And she should know well enough by now that he’s not a man to be trifled with. Don’t give her that, she spits back. Cain knows she never lifted a finger for the likes of him without grease and she ain’t about to stop—now that the purses have gotten bigger!
A peerless example of Scottish womanhood, Cyclops, alone at a nightclub, later judges. One, she squeezed the C-note out of him, which they are throwing in with him, for their fair highland lass at last confessed Marko telegrammed her from Madripoor. Said he was shipping her something on a tub flying Singapore colors he wanted her to sit on. He must have been expecting a double-cross too.
He remarks the Blackbird is taking her sweet time chuggin’ to New York harbor by way of the Cape of Good Hope. They just gotta keep checking the papers till they announce… their ship has come in.
He asks Logan and Judd where Tommy is. This was his tip. He thought he’d want to hear this. He means the whack job they picked up in Genosha? Logan asks. Don’t know what that egg is… but he ain’t Tommy, Eugene finishes. Coolly Cyclops asks if they are sure. Too bad. He likes him a lot better that way.
In the meantime, at the practice of Dr. Cornelius, Halloway is having his M-tattoo removed, refusing any anaesthetics. Each cut of the knife reminds him of the pain he must repay in kind!
Cornelius remarks he has never seen such a tattoo before except in newsreels. He knows a reporter or two who would pay top dollar to chat with a man with firsthand knowledge of Genosha Bay. And a doctor or one who wouldn’t mind extra consideration to keep that same information out of the hands of the FBI. Tommy takes up a scalpel and asks him if he feels special just because he can handle a knife? If he keeps running his mouth he’ll find out how common that skill is.
Later, as he leaves with Wanda, he calls Cornelius a repulsive little worm. At least now he can’t be marked as an escapee right away, Wanda points out. Now all they need is to wait for the Blackbird to put into port, Halloway states. Then, while he makes sure the others are distracted, they are going to steal the gem for themselves. What is he saying? Wanda asks. By we he means she, he clarifies. One of her shady girlfriends she used to run with when she spent every night flushing LeBeau’s booze down her gullet and money down his tables. He’d do it himself. He’s the only one he’d really trust to, but he’ll have his hands full with One-eye, the drunk and the midget.
Logan reads the shipping news and informs the rest of the group the ship will come today. Time to get what’s theirs!
Nighttime and the four men secretly enter the port. They steal the shipping manifest and learn where the parcels from Madripoor are. But, when they reach the hold, they are in for a surprise. Xavier’s new X-Men have already opened the container with the gem.
Nightcrawler immediately attacks Cyclops, quoting Bible phrases in German. Eugene wants to help and doesn’t notice Ororo behind him with a knife. Luckily, Logan has his back as he slices her with his claws, calling this irony.
Eugene holds a gun to Kurt Wagner’s head, telling him if he moves a muscle he will cure his craziness in the most effective but messiest way.
Piotr Rasputin grabs Logan and throws him down into the water, remarking he abhors violence. A pity he is so good at it.
Wagner gets free of Eugene, shouting it’s blasphemy to touch the holy servant of--
Does a kick count as touch? Halloway asks as he kicks him in the face. In German, he addresses Kurt, telling him it is clear that he is yet another fine product of Professor Xavier’s expert psychological counseling. It’s unfathomable how Cyclops turned out so well!
He dodges Wagner’s attacks, telling him this is their second meeting and their last. Unfortunately for Wagner, since the last time they met, he has reaped the benefits of Professor X’s treatment too!
Having finished him, he shouts at Cyclops to get the gem. Rasputin remarks it is not often gets to crush a man’s ribcage twice a week. Very quickly, he lies on the ground. He wanted to do that, Logan pouts. Aw no, he mutters a moment later. Cyclops stands before them, gem in one hand, gun pointed at them in the other. Why the long faces? he asks. He did as they asked him to. He got the gem. He got them. “Let’s go see Xavier.”


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Cyclops has the gem of Cyttorak in one hand and a gun in the other, a gun which he points at his partners. “Let’s go see Xavier,” he announces.
Elsewhere, Wanda Magnus is waiting in a limo. A slim brunette joins her. She get it? Wanda asks. She get it? the girls asks.She get it? Does a bear /&$& in the woods? Does Wanda’s father suck%’%* in hell as they speak? She walks through %$§’ walls!
Yeah, okay, Wanda interrupts Kitty with an annoyed smile. She got it. Question is, once Tommy or whatever he’s calling himself these days is done screwing over Logan and company, are they next on the “Get #$&§” list?
Hey, there’s one surefire way to guard against that, Kitty suggests. “&%$# over others as they would &%$’ over you.” Her horoscope says that every single goddamn morni—What? Wanda interrupts her over a sound. She refers to a whupping noise coming from a helicopter above them, a chopper into which Cyclops has forced his former partners.
“Hey, Cyke,” Logan threatens he’s gonna be the one that gets him. Just thought he’d like to know. Look at him, he’s trembling here, Cyclops replies, at the sight of pure distilled money in his hands. Reminds him of the old days, boosting jewelers on 47th street with his brothers, Alex and Gabe.
Has he always been loyal to Xavier first? Halloway asks. He never asked him not to be loyal to Xavier, that he can recall, Scott shoots back, calling him “Tommy.” He’s Robert, comes the reply. Whatever. Xavier’s school for delinquents taught him more techniques, made him a better shot and earned him more scratch than he ever could have outside. And even more important than that, he has friends in high places.
Outside, a huge ship carried by dirigibles hovers close by. Brought aboard, they ask what this place is. The Army Air Force calls it a “Dirig-Carrier” Xavier explains. At his side another man welcomes them to ONE, the Office of National Emergency.
Who the hell is he? Logan demands and Halloway explains he is Senator Robert Kelly, Republican, of New York. Chair of the Judiciary Committee. The pencilneck trying to keep the feds from closing down Genosha Bay? Logan asks. The one and same, Halloway agrees, and he now recognizes Kelly’s voice from when he was water-boarding him back on Genosha. What does the Senator care about their score? Logan asks confused. If he could string more than three sober hours together, he might be able to follow, Xavier replies. To everyone else, it is obvious…
Halloway continues that this is who they were working for all along, for ONE. Through Cain, that is. Xavier knew his brother’s familiarity with the Far East and Madripoor especially made him perfect for the job. But Cain knew Xavier pretty well too, didn’t he? He knew he was working for some bad guys. After he hired them to steal the gem from the natives he double-crossed them. Rather than show up with the gem in hand, he sent it to New York on a slow boat from China. And until he got paid he wasn’t going to tell Xavier which one. Didn’t turn out to be the wisest tactic.
The G-Men got a little physical with him. Cain tried to make a run for it. Except once he arrived on Genosha Bay he was hooded like everyone else. He didn’t entirely understand where he was being held until he found  out the hard way and fell from the carrier to his death. No wonder his body was found in an open field looking like it had been crushed by some mythical “juggernaut.” How is he doing so far?
Passably, Xavier replies. He has an overly romantic view of his brother though. Cain was the one double-crossing Xavier. Holding out on the location of the gem until he tripled his fee. His budget is already strained as it is, training the next generation of soldiers for ONE. Science’s atomic engines of destruction will render traditional warfare not just obsolete but unwinnable. Trained, directed antisocial personalities like his “X-Men” make ideal operatives in the coming shadow struggle with the Bolsheviks. His dear brother wasn’t just defying Charles by refusing to tell him where the gem was. He was defying America!
He couldn’t give a rat’s &%$ about America, Logan snorts. What does this have to do with the gem? With the gem itself? Halloway asks. Nothing, really. More what the gem represents. When Prince Baran of Madripoor gets it back he can either magnanimously return it to the autonomous tribal regions in return for greater political influence there or he can hold the gem hostage for the same. Genosha Bay has become a political flashpoint thanks to the Congressional hearings. ONE needs to transfer its training facility to a new, even more secret extraterritorial location. Prince Baran could provide the land to the USA if they bring him the gem.
Slight snag in their plan though; while their X-Men thought they were keeping him busy, an associate of his snuck into the hold and switched the real gem for a most sensitive copy. He takes out a tuning fork and makes a high sound.
Are they supposed to be impressed? Cyclops snorts, and is one moment later, when the vibrations shatter the gem in his hand. Now he has the gem, Halloway shouts. If they want it back they’d better find him and be ready to deal! He drops his coat, jumps outside and floats downward with his costume.
Is he just gonna leave them here?! Logan calls after him. He is directing his appeals to the ether, Xavier tells him. They left Thomas Halloway behind on Genosha Bay. Under extreme duress he retreated from his altruistic façade behind a more extreme personality. He donned the behavioral “costume” of his more violent, more sociopathic and much more deceased brother Robert. On the point, he thinks, they should ask themselves which twin really died back on Welfare Island in the fight against Detective Magnus months ago. Yeah? Logan asks. They’ll see about that. They’ll just flamin’ see…
The Angel lands in the apartment where he meets Wanda, praising her for pulling off her part without a hitch. He notices her hesitation and she admits they may be having a problem. But he’s got to believe it’s not her fault. Angrily he grabs her and replies he’ll decide what is and isn’t her fault. Now tell him what she’s done and screwed up before he rips her head off!
When Kitty and she brought the gem home, they saw a crack in it. It’s a fake too, glass. Cain must have hidden the real one somewhere else.
Angrily swearing, Robert accuses her and Kitty of having hidden the original. They are trying to cheat him! As he goes for Wanda’s throat, Kitty comes of hiding and kicks him in the stomach. He knew it, he announces, hiding in the walls, like a rat! Kitty insults him crudely and tries to hit him. But now he is prepared, dodges her blows and kicks and finally takes her down.
Suddenly, he is calm again and explains that now Kitty has been flushed out and down Wanda needn’t worry about the gem. That is the original, even with the crack. The original is glass? she asks incredulous. Sure, he replies, what the hell are Madripoor tribesmen going to do with a quote-unquote precious stone in the middle of the jungle? The gem’s only true value is in its religious and political significance. Looked like glass to him when he first laid eyes on it in Madripoor but he saw no reason to advertise it. But then he knew that all along, didn’t he, professor? Though he stalled long enough for him to get here.
Xavier comes in and remarks that one day he will learn to stop underestimating Halloway. He doesn’t really care about the gem or Senator Kelly’s attempt to woo prince Baran, does he? Halloway asks This is about him. Xavier was trying to draw him out. Wanda was working for Xavier all along.
Wanda tries to deny it and is cut short. Xavier explains that Halloway’s altruism makes him as much of a deviant as the anti-social tendencies of a criminal. After their initial encounter he realized there could be a whole new pathology at work here – “heropathy” His connection to Xavier’s half-brother was something he could exploit.
Did Cain have help, going over the side of the Dirigi-carrier? Angel asks pointedly. That’s for him to know, Xavier replies. Cain was a true brute. The most use anyone ever got out if him was as a blunt instrument or in this case, bait. He can learn as much – if not more - by studying angels as demons.
But Mr. Halloway disappointed him. His hypothesis was that he was a compulsive hero and nothing Xavier could do would change that fundamental nature. Instead…  he corrupted much faster than he could have imagined. Oh, he means him turning into Robert? Angel asks. Well, about that… He was faking.
“FBI, don’t move!” two newcomers announce and point their weapons at Xavier. Tommy, and it is Tommy, states that they heard Xavier confess to the murder of Cain Marko, formerly of Madripoor. That woman, Wanda Magnus, is his accomplice. Miss Pryde over there on the floor has six outstanding warrants in three jurisdictions. In order to reduce his parole violation, he imagines Professor X will want to sing to director Duncan about a secret illegal federal agency competing with the Bureau. But now, if they’ll excuse him, he as a promise to keep! He exits through the window.
Genosha Bay prison where warden Emma Frost is giving new prisoners Logan and Judd her spiel. They will have no contact with other prisoners. And almost none with the staff. They are not allowed writing materials. Or to receive visitors from the outside world. A guard will let them out in their own private exercise yard for an hour a day, weather permitting. Thus has she described the last remaining days of their life as foreign criminals interred here in Genosha Bay penitentiary. And, she must say, Captain Logan looks sunnier than most upon hearing her do it.
Oh, it’s nothin’, he tells her. He gotta kinda… providence watching over him. So has every con who ever crawled in here, thinking he was going to slither out, she replies wryly. Yeah, ‘cept he got a better reason than most to believe in his. His Angel did everything he could to bring in the murderers of a guy who trained him to fight, a guy whose last act of friendship was to betray him. He got reason to have faith in him. Faith he’s never gonna forget about him and Judd. So good luck, keeping them here ‘s all he’s saying. Good flaming luck. She’s gonna need it.
And not too far away, his Angel is flying.