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[Assistant]
The Litter
A giggling Meggan flies through the halls of Braddock Manor, holding onto a photo album. Her boyfriend Captain Britain warns her to give it up before he is forced to hurt her. He chases her outside while she chides him on overreacting. Brian catches her foot and laughing they fall down.
A little later, Brian remarks that this is the first evening they’ve spent alone since Excalibur moved in. And how do they use their free time? Cleaning house. It’s a lot like loving him, she replies. If she tells him “someone’s got to do it,” he’ll push her out of this tree, he warns her.
Curious, Meggan looks at the pictures while Brian complains that was stuffed in the attic for a reason. One picture shows Brian and Betsy on their first day at preschool. He tears the album away and a picture flies out. It shows a twentyish Brian along with a brown-haired young man and a redheaded woman. Who’s his friend? Meggan asks. His name is Peter Parker comes the reply. His roommate when he studied in the States. In many ways, the man responsible for the hero he is today.
She thought that was Merlyn? Meggan asks. True, the wizard gave him a second chance at life, after saving him when his motorbike crashed. Merlyn appointed him defender of the realm, explaining he was the latest in a long line of soldiers in the interdimensional Captain Britain Corps.
Shortly thereafter, his studies in nuclear physics brought him to the United States. He scarcely had a chance to unpack before the superhero known as Spider-Man was helping Brian free Courtney Ross from the crazed assassin called Arcade. All of which was only the beginning…
Brian’s story:
… of his adventures in the United States.
Spider-Man happily takes out a few AIM agents. One and two and two, he chants. They are great! When they eventually get out of prison, they are all invited to co-star in his new exercise video. He’s thinking of calling it “a friendly neighborhood workout.”
Kill him!one of them shouts at the others. Nobody said anything about a speaking part, Spidey chides him.
Say good-bye, Bugman! one of them shouts and fires at him. Spidey dodges the shot and corrects him. The name is Spider-Man. Bug-Man s a lot taller. And wears a cape.
He finishes them off and addresses Captain Britain, who was watching the skirmish. He hopes he followed all that. From the darkness, Captain Britain emerges. Most of it, he admits. He is puzzled by this “exercise video” Spidey referred to. Isn’t he afraid such a high profile endeavour would jeopardize his secret identity? And isn’t it unlikely the intended consumer would be able to accomplish his super-powered techniques? Spidey sighs. That’s just snappy patter, he reminds Cap, meant to confuse your adversary and catch him off-guard.
Spidey ties them up and Cap flies them up. Why doesn’t he simply take them to the local authorities? He asks. Partly because the New York Police aren’t his biggest fans, comes the reply. And partly because he has a reputation to uphold.
Cap fastens the net to a lantern mast. He realizes he can be a bit dense, he tells Spider-Man, but he appreciates these nightly lessons in superhero etiquette. He is still relatively new… he breaks off, noticing that Spider-Man is gone again. His way of saying tonight’s class is dismissed. As he changes to Brian Braddock, he wonders how Spider-Man reconciles his role as costumed crime-fighter with that of normal citizen.
Present:
Meggan interrupts. She thought this story was going to be about Peter Parker? He was getting to that, Brian replies.
Brian’s story:
While he made his way to the apartment where he was staying Parker was there waiting. (Or so Brian thought. Actually, Spider-Man got there ahead of him and changed to his Parker identity). Having spent the night studying, no doubt. As Peter didn’t have the problem of a dual identity (in Brian’s opinion), it was difficult for him to grasp the need Brian had to kick back and relax at every opportunity. Translation: Brian left the apartment a pigsty.
Brian enters and catches Peter’s angry look. Glad to see he didn’t wake him, Brian states enthusiastically. What is he still doing up at this hour? Picking up after the ungrateful, slovenly houseguest he’s been forced to take in, so he stands half a chance of meeting this month’s rent, comes the bitter reply. There’s that dry American wit of his he’s so often at a loss to appreciate, Brian remarks. He sinks down into a comfy chair and pours himself a whiskey. He apologizes about the mess. If Peter knew how hectic his life has been since coming to America…
He understands more than Brian thinks, Peter replies. But it’s beside the point.  When he leaves the pad, he could spend all night giving blankets to the homeless, but that doesn’t give him the right to come back here and dump his problems on Peter. Brian agrees and takes out his checkbook. How much would it cost to have a maid come over and clean? Name a prize. It’s not about money, Peter replies in a huff. Ahh, forget it! Brian wouldn’t understand anyway. He storms out.
The next afternoon after classes in the Coffee Bean with Peter and Mary Jane things are a bit tense. Brian asks for Brandy and is told by the owner this is the Coffee Bean. They don’t have brandy.
MJ asks Brian whether it isn’t a little early in the day for imbibing. Peter agrees, but then their attention is diverted by a group of European students at the next table, acting up and making fun of the American university system. What does Empire State University have to teach them geniuses?
Peter states they are rude but they are probably uncomfortable living in another country. Homesick even. Be that as it may… Brian gets up and addresses one of them, a tall blond man, Jan. He asks him to curb his rather ethnocentric tendencies. It is the height of rudeness to speak ill of one’s host country.
He’s English, isn’t he? Jan asks and gets up to stand opposite the far smaller Brian. What does it matter? Brian asks. Is he willing to suffer a few broken bones defending the honour of the United States? Jan threatens. He doesn’t believe that will be a problem, Brian replies. Yer darn tootin’ it won’t, the owner snaps. He throws the Europeans out and tells Brian, if he weren’t a friend of Parker…
Peter tells Brian he’ll drop Mary Jane off. Fine, Brian agrees. He’ll see him later. “Later” means after several hours of wasting time in one establishment after the other (drinking beer), anxiously awaiting his nightly session with the webbed wonder.
They meet at the Empire State Building and Spidey states Cap’s late. He felt one of them should be, Cap quips. Spidey admits that he might be the least qualified person in the world to give personal advice to anyone, but since they are both on top of Manhattan in their longjohns, ready to spend the night fighting crime, in this case he might be uniquely suited to say, if there’s anything Cap might like to talk about…? Much appreciated, comes the reply, but Spider-Man wouldn’t understand.
Cap wanted to talk but how was he to supposed to complain about the complication of costumed adventuring to the hero who made it look easy? He felt like an idiot, it was only proper that he behaved like one. So he coldly replies he isn’t in the mood for a lecture. So if they could get on with this evening’s tutorial?
Spidey refuses and suggests that Cap go home and sleep off his “mood.” He’d rather not, Cap states and flies off. Spidey sulks, first willing to let him go off, but is then reminded of the hard lesson he learned from the death of his uncle Ben. This all seems so familiar because he too had trouble adjusting to his superpowers at first, his role as a hero. The difference being, his inexperience cost him Uncle Ben, the greatest man he’s ever known. He sighs and follows Cap.
A few blocks away Cap finds a few criminals trying to steal machinery from the university‘s bio-techlabs. In his inebriated state, he doesn’t even recognize them as the exchange students from the Coffee Bean. He suggests when they are done appropriating those ill-gained goods, could they lend him a hand? He’s casting an opera he’s written. He’d like to see who can wail the loudest. If that was a feeble attempt at humour, the leader replies, he‘ll notice they’re not howling with laughter. Yet.
His features begin to change, his eyes turn red and in moments they all transform into doglike beings. Now, one of them demands, Mr. Funny hero, what does he have to say for himself? Can he offer any assist with those crates? Cap mumbles. Too late to make nice, the tall one replies. He has already incurred the wrath of Dane. Aye, and of Terrier as well, a smaller one adds. Poodle, Pitbull and Basenji are also upset, the woman states. In short, he now faces the Litter!
The Litter? They are joking, too? Cap asks. Not at all, one of them assures him as he attacks. They are the brightest, most original thinkers in all of Europe. Dedicated to creating a better race through genetic engineering. Cap slaps him a way, shouting they are using dogs as a model for a better human breed? And why not? Poodle asks as more attack. Canines are trustworthy and loyal. They travel in packs and are used to inclement weather. They close in and begin to tear into him.
I’m sorry, was it my night to walk the dog? Spidey asks as he tears one of them away with his webs. How embarrassing.
But actually, Captain Britain feels embarrassed by the entire ordeal, therefore trying to prove himself. He hits Basenji too hard. She slams into a wall and transforms into her human form, lying very still. The others stop fighting and turn human as well. Spider-Man takes a closer look, deciding she needs medical attention. He orders Captain Britain to get her an ambulance. Instead though, he flees.
He wanders the city for hours, wondering how a proper gentleman like himself wound up severely hurting another human being. Even accidentally. Finally he walks up to the Parker apartment, where Peter already waits for him, with Brian’s packed bags.
He’s leaving, he tells him. He doesn’t know Brian very well. If he did, he might use the right words to get him understand he has a problem. The drinking. The mess he leaves for other people to clean up after him. The fact he doesn’t hold himself accountable for his actions. Those are symptoms of a bigger… problem. One he can’t buy his way out of or blame on someone else. Until Brian admits that to himself and decides to work though his problems, there is nothing else Peter or anyone else can do to help him. Brian leaves.
Present:
It was the last time he saw Peter Parker, but his words have stayed with him for many years. He was the first person in Brian’s life to force him to realize he had a responsibility to himself and those around him to be a better person. Although he couldn’t know it, the great power Brian had, gave him an even greater responsibility.
It began as soon as he landed at Heathrow. His lawyers saw to it that all the young woman’s hospital bills, therapy for a badly sprained back were paid in full with Braddock money. While that was still only a monetary solution, it was a first step. He knew what he was doing… and why he was doing it. Does he know what she is doing and why she s doing it? Meggan asks and kisses him.


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[Assistant]
Truth and Consequences
Rachel Summers is flying through space, or more to the point her body is, cocooned in the healing embrace of the Phoenix, after her mind and soul were shattered. The ancient celestial force is looking for answers, a reason for being. Relinquishing cosmic awareness to focus through Rachel’s primitive organic senses, it glimpses a truth. In seeing all, nothing is seen. A flawless overview of creation reveals the majesty of a grand design, but it is sterile. It ignores the subtle wonder and impossible beauty of existence.
Suddenly, a sun seems to dim as a new intense light rises on the horizon. This is no natural phenomenon, the Phoenix fears and witnesses how corrosive energy dissolves the ground moments later. Is it under attack? But then it sees a device draining the planet’s life force and now knows what it is up against. This machine belongs to Galactus, devourer of worlds!
Angrily, the Phoenix orders him to deactivate his device as the world bears life! Galactus, in turn, orders the Starchilde to leave. He will brook no interference. Phoenix insists it is wrong to murder a world to satisfy his appetite, however Galactus tells it he has no time for its hypocritical posturing. Angrily, Phoenix blasts the machine which causes it to release the harvest and the cosmic converter is vaporized by the explosive energy it sought to contain.
Phoenix asks Galactus’ forgiveness. It desired only to save this living orb, not the destruction of his machine. Galactus orders it to cease its prattle. He is who he is and does what he must to survive. While it, the chaosbringer of old, feigns superior morality as it parades its stolen humanity. He is weak, consumed by hunger. Its intrusion has cost him dearly and it will pay the price!
He lashes out with an energy blast, which Phoenix deflects. His obscene appetite has initiated this hostility, it reminds him. But its cause is just and it will fight him to the death!
Meanwhile, back on Earth in the caverns of Braddock Manor: Captain Britain battles Nightcrawler, who is encased in a hard light armour provided by Cerise. When Brian kicks him, Kurt grabs Cap’s leg and brings him down. He tries to follow this up with a blow to the face but Cap catches his fist and hits him in the stomach.
Kitty, Cerise, Lockheed and Meggan watch the spectacle. Meggan dislikes it. Kitty reminds her that Brian has now accepted his heritage as warrior of Otherworld and he’s prepared to enhance his brute strength with martial art techniques. But they could hurt another, Meggan fears. Kitty reminds her that the solid light suit protects Kurt and Brian’s near invulnerable.
Kurt strikes Brian, who stays down. Meggan rushes to his side. What went on? Kurt wonders while Cerise insists that the blow was well below Captain Britain’s endurance.
Brian regains consciousness but still feels weak. He apologizes. He hasn’t been sleeping lately. He can’t stop thinking about finding Sat-yr-9 and making her pay for killing Courtney. Nothing else seems to matter anymore. As if struck, Meggan turns around and icily suggests he go find her, before flying away.
Brian shouts after her to wait. Kurt suggests he let her go and give her a moment. Brian confides Meggan’s been very touchy lately. Perhaps because he has been ignoring her, Kurt suggests. No, he has just been preoccupied with trying to find Sat-yr-9. Meggan knows he loves her.
How does she know? Kurt asks. Love has to be expressed. He can understand the rage that drives him to avenge Courtney Ross. But it has become an obsession. It will consume him. He must decide is capturing Sat-yr-9 worth losing Meggan? Brian becomes pensive…
In the meantime, the battle between Phoenix and Galactus rages.
On Earth, at Broadcasting House London, residence of Britain’s top radio station, Radio One, its premier DJ Scott Wright is getting ready to leave. His boss congratulates him and Scott half-jokingly asks him to remember that when he bids to renew his contract. TV calls, he’s hot, the people love him. And who can blame them? a female chauffeur in a uniform asks. She explains she is to drive him to his 3 ‘o clock at S,T.Y. Television. Trying to flirt with her Scott follows her to the carpark where the lights are out. She leads him to the car. Again he tries to hit on her when suddenly tentacles engulf him and trap him. The chauffeur turns into a lumplike creature, explaining Mr Orpington-Smythe was not pleased that he ignored their invitation and sent them to collect Scott.
They obviously don’t know who they are dealing with, he scoffs, and turns into a giant – Micromax. They are not impressed, the lump replies. Two masked kids hit Micromax with electric blasts and Scott sinks down unconscious. No longer able to use his powers to manipulate his looks, his youthful built shape gives way to a paunch and semi-baldness.
Meanwhile, Phoenix and Galactus still fight.
On Earth, Kitty and Feron are in the caverns beneath Braddock Manor. Kitty explains that when Brian originally left the manor the Mastermind computer was still operational. She wants to find out what shut it down. She tells him to run the cables to the yellow terminal. Servile tasks are unworthy of his ability, Feron decides and refuses. He sulks that he cannot believe his guardians suggested he should remain here for this.
Kitty replies that Brother Francis wants him to be integrated into society, to live in the real world. Lord knows why Kurt agreed to take him on. She thinks it’s a big mistake. Feron agrees. Kitty gets in his face, calling him an obnoxious jerk! Those old monks pampered and protected him since he was born. The let him think he was something special. Did not her adopted family, the X-Men, nurture her in the same manner? he shoots back. Kitty gets angry, then realizes he has a point. They treated her like an equal while at the same time guiding and protecting her. She was a real brat, too! He knew it was so, Feron gloats. His mind is superior, that is why he will not soil his hands in her service. Wrong, she warns him. Move the cables or Lockheed will singe.
Sentinels! a new voice shouts. It’s Widget in his new humanoid body. Again he screams: Sentinels massing, final confrontation… mutantkind doomed! then disappears.
This is getting stupid, Kitty sighs. Feron agrees, they should begin working on this immediately. No way, Kitty warns him. She’s going to see Kurt. He is going to stay here and follow her instructions to the letter. Feron refuses. Kitty tells Lockheed if the whining punk doesn’t obey orders, scorch him. Lockheed cackles. Feron gulps.
In space, the battle still rages on.
Captain Britain and Meggan in the meantime have taken a vacation at the Braddock summer cottage on England’s south coast. The two are playing tag in the water, using their superpowers before kissing. Meggan tells Brian how happy she is. It’s been so long since they’ve been together like this. She wished they could stay for more than a week. It would be nice, he admits, but they have obligations. She asks him not to spoil it.
Brian apologizes. He truly wishes there was some other way. He wished he was an ordinary man, but he’s not. He’s Captain Britain. For years he tried to deny it and hated himself. Now he knows what he is… who he is. He’s accepted himself. Can she accept him? He’s not really different. He admits this is difficult. He’s been trying to pluck up the courage to say this for the last two days. He searches for something in his backpack, continuing that he has a duty and without it he’s half a person but he can’t conceive living without her. He asks her to sit down. What he’s trying to say … and he can understand if she declines… he kneels in front of her… is he’d be honoured if she would consent to becoming his wife. Will she marry him? He offers her a ring.
Crying happily, she hugs him and says yes. They are unaware that they are being watched by a monstrous being who cackles there won’t be a happily ever after.
In space, Galactus finally weakens and falls. Phoenix advises him to let it end and renounce his evil ways. Angrily, he tells it to spare him its hypocrisy. The stench of death clings to it no less than to him! Phoenix retorts that any destruction it has wrought pales in comparison to the stars and civilizations that died by his hand. He only does what he must to survive, Galactus insists. And for choice, he would feed on barren worlds or civilizations in decline. But what price has the universe paid to indulge the Phoenix’s vain glory? What life has perished so that it may prance and strut among lesser beings in search of admiration?
Phoenix admits that in mindless passion it destroyed a sun and the world it warmed. It acknowledges its sin. But Galactus speaks not of a single sun but of that from which it steals its power! It has no need to steal, Phoenix protests, it is the embodiment of life! It is indeed unique, he admits. Born of the void between states of being. But it is an expression of the universal lifeforce, not a well-spring. The universe is finite. In birth and death, there is transition… and in living advancement. But nothing new is created. Life but feeds on life. Phoenix is no different. It is sustained by the warmth of life’s fiery cycle, Phoenix claims. In its natural state perhaps, Galactus agrees, but it is not sufficient to maintain its activities on this plane.
He tells it to look around upon t is world it sought to save. An ancient, dying world, dead now. Victim to the titanic forces they unleashed. And he hovers near to death, his strength depleted and exhausted while Phoenix is neither weary nor hungry. Because it taps into a source of near limitless potential. The sea of life yet unborn! Who is the greater evil? The devourer of life that has run its course or it who denies existence to generations of the future?
Phoenix is horrified to learn the truth and stands in silent torment as with a gesture Galactus reconstitutes his cosmic converter and begins to feed. Like an ashamed child, caught in a lie the Phoenix flees. Galactus seems not to notice, yet deep within his ancient being is an emotion akin to sorrow mourning lost innocence. For he, above all others, has reason to know that the Phoenix can never escape the guilt that now consumes its tortured soul.
Earth, Braddock manor where the rest of Excalibur (without Cap or Meggan) have gathered. They discuss Widget who has made nine appearances to date. Each progressively clearer and more focused, possibly as they near the encounter of which he warns. They should prepare themselves, Cerise suggests. How? Kitty wonders. They don’t know what form the threat will take or where it will come from.
The phone rings and Kitty answers it. It’s a panicked Alistaire Stuart, who explains he tracked down the electronic fingerprint Colonel Fury gave them. He knows who framed Alysande… but now they are after him. He calls from a dark office.
Kitty asks where he is. In Liverpool, he replies. He’s infiltrated the headquarters of the RCX. It’s under a derelict church, Saint Oswald’s… A moment later he is hit by a clawed fist and falls down, surrounded by inhuman beings while Kitty calls out, “What’s happening?”


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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Ascension
Someone once told Rachel Summers that, at the moment of death, we relive the memory of our entire life. Rachel dismissed this myth as romantic fancy. She was wrong.
She recalls, as a newborn, her happy parents smiling down on her, grateful she had her mother’s eyes. Her mother, Marvel Girl, and the X-Men returning to her after a mission. Her mother’s burial. Professor Xavier’s death. Ahab promising to protect her, then torturing and brainwashing her. Hunting mutants as a Hound in the service of Ahab. Rebelling and injuring Ahab. Kate Pryde’s sorrowful eyes as she sends Rachel back through time with the code phrase “Dark Phoenix.”
Another life with the X-Men. Meeting her baby brother Nathan for the first time. Almost being brainwashed by Selene. Wolverine injuring her mortally rather than letting Rachel murder Selene. Spiral tricking her, capturing her and presenting her to Mojo. The Warwolves hunting her. A new happy life with Excalibur. Ahab finding her again. Battling Necrom, whom she allowed to drain her lifeforce to force him into overload.
Memory runs full circle to a final sensation of searing pain. Then nothingness. A moment of eternity passes in timeless limbo. Whatever lies beyond death’s dark veil, Rachel must wait to know. Fate has granted her a second chance.
She wakes to find herself floating in space, wondering why she isn’t dead. What happened to Necrom? “Necrorm is dead,” the voice of the Phoenix tells her.
Rachel doesn’t believe the Phoenix has an independent intelligence. It’s a force of nature! It admits it has hidden its true nature from Rachel and that it is in her. When Rachel demands it show itself, Phoenix does so, taking on Jean Grey’s form. A manifestation, Phoenix explains, this image is no truer than the flaming bird of legend inspired by the original Feron’s vision. Its true nature is without form, touching all that lives with neither feeling nor awareness. And if the universe is to be free of the cancer it has become, it must be so again!
Meanwhile back on Earth:
The Warpie team known as the Cherubim ordered Captain Britain and Meggan to accompany them to Cloud Nine. Snoop explains to Peter what happened:
Of course Cap declined and struck one of them – Quill. Fern moved onto Meggan, tying her up with her tentacles. Meggan didn’t struggle, just stared at Cap, sort of mesmerized. Quill and AC/DC both moved on Cap. As the twins tried to zap him, Cap levitated so he wasn’t grounded and bumped their heads together.
At that point, Giggles moved in, hitting Cap with strobe light. Meggan swelled up fast, making Fern struggle and head-bumped her to get free. She sped to Cap’s rescue but instead he saw his greatest fear, the Fury, and hit her as hard as he could. The illusion was only lifted when Meggan fell to the ground unconscious. A moment later, he spotted Lump. Having encountered the Cherubim in the past, he knew of his illusion powers.
He leapt at him but then fell, as though his power wasn’t working any more. Quill quickly struck him hard and put him out of his misery.
Snoop concludes his report to Peter, who asks if there is any evidence that the failure of Captain Britain’s power was brought about by genetic destabilization. Snoop explains that, during his surveillance, he recorded one earlier bout of power depletion. He also witnessed a few emotional eruptions between the targets. Mr Jordan has a video of edited highlights for spectral analysis.
Peter turns to Jordan, who explains the analysis is inconclusive and the samples their pathologists took from Captain Britain are an enigma. He could be non-terrestrial, for all they know. Nicholas is their resident genius. He might see something he’s missing. Peter declines. Nicholas is brilliant but naïve in matters of security and far too trusting of Excalibur’s good intentions.
Nearby, in one of Cloud Nine’s numerous research facilities, Nicholas tests Nightcrawler’s endurance. He is watched by Cerise, Kitty and dozens of adoring Warpie kids. The kids have to go to bed and Nicholas remarks that they love Kurt. His presence has really lifted their spirits. Kurt wishes he could do more. Nicholas agrees. He regrets the need to treat the three of them as criminals but Peter lives by the letter of the law. Hopefully their status as illegal aliens will be quickly resolved.
Kurt asks why Peter believes this genetic destabilization to be a form of enemy attack. Nicholas admits that, since they don’t know the cause, every possibility must be explored. And a large organized group of parahumans could be considered as a martial threat by any nation that has discovered their presence. Which is why Peter insists on maintaining maximum security. Their limited freedom was granted because of their willingness to assist Cloud Nine in finding a cure. Curing the parahumans is Peter’s primary concern.
Kitty pipes up, reminding Nicholas that, if his analysis is correct, Kurt is a victim of the disease too. Nicholas agrees but, as the symptoms are intermittent and this last batch of tests revealed nothing, he can say no more.
Kitty apologizes for being impatient and tired. Nicholas agrees she’s been working very hard and should rest. Kitty was wondering if she could run an exercise program in the holographic chamber. Nicholas sees no reason why not. But she has to stay with Static at all time, her designated guard, who will prevent her from using her phasing power to man an escape attempt.
Kitty asks Static what he knows about the holographic chamber, he meeps in reply. That much, huh? He’s really a wizard, Kitty agrees. She explains it exploits more than mere holograms. They are just illusions. But when synchronized with this chamber’s malleable surface and automatons, they can create the ultimate interactive roleplaying games. Meep? Static asks. He really has the IQ of a ripe courgette, doesn’t he? Kitty remarks. Meep meep, he agrees.
She puts a disc into the computer to custom an existing program to her personal specification. She calls it “the invasion of the juvenile Martian pirate Frogg.” She should warn him, it starts with a heckuva—BANG! The boom and flare distract Static, allowing Kitty to duck behind a holographic rock, while the program generates a hologram of her which Static now guards as hologram Kitty fights the Martian pirate.
Looking at her double critically, Kitty notices that her costume seems so old. She used to change costumes every other week, when she first started out. She has to give a new look some serious thought. She finds that Static’s power to neutralize her mutant ability is focused on fake Kitty, allowing her to phase. She phases downwards and plans to sneak around and find out what is really going on at Cloud Nine.
Meanwhile at Braddock Manor, Feron finds himself helpless before the challenge of preparing a microwave meal. He told Kitty he cannot cook, he grumbles to Lockheed. The brothers always prepared his meals. She promised to leave “convenience foods”. But this is not convenient nor is it food! Huffing, Lockheed holds up a list of chores of which Feron has barely done half. He knows! Feron states annoyed. His mistress remembered to leave a list of chores for him, but she forgot to leave food!
Rachel! they suddenly hear. They turn around to see the robot-like being Widget has become surrounded by coloured light phasing in. Rachel… it shouts, it – me-at ---de. R—member remember! Trust me, please – Agh! it screams again, then phases out.
That was Widget? Feron asks. Yup, Lockheed agrees. A ghost? Maybe, Lockheed states. Is he scared? Naah! Feron agrees that neither is he but there is so much work to be done outside the house. Lockheed agrees and they leave.
At Cloud Nine, Captain Britain awakes on a chair with scientists trying to draw his blood. They tell him they are doctors and order him to remain still. He has sustained a number of injuries. Of course, he shoves them aside and gets up. Peter tells him the medics are trying to help; he must control his violent temper. It has been responsible for enough tragedy today. They show him a tank in which an unconscious Meggan floats. What have they done to her? Cap demands. Not them, him, Peter corrects. He struck Meggan. Peter’s medical staff is the very best, but he’s afraid Meggan’s condition is extremely serious. She is close to death.
Brian berates himself. They are doing all they can, Peter assures him. Angrily, Brian turns around and points an accusing finger at Peter. He had the Cherubim attack him and Meggan, they tricked Cap into hitting her. Not true, Peter corrects him. The Cherubim were under orders not to fight. Captain Britain struck the first blow. He abhors violence but, if the Captain insists on indulging his passion for mindless brawling, these gentlemen, he refers to several strong Warpies that have joined them, will accommodate him. He would advise against testing their mettle. His powers are currently in decline. He doesn’t stand a chance.
Cap accuses Peter of being behind his failing powers. No, a common enemy, Peter replies. He doesn’t know who, but hopes to find out with his help. Why does he need him? Cap asks. He has enough muscle here. The RCX obviously succeeded in building its Warpie army.
Out of necessity, Peter agrees. Once the greatest threat to mankind was nuclear arms; now it is para-humans. The RCX agents have witnessed a significant increase in their population - he points to several screens showing recent British superheroes. Cap himself encountered this Dark Angel. But there are many more: Killpower, Motormouth, the Knights of Pendragon. How can their nation be secure while these forces are free to ignore the law? They must be accountable for their actions. To him? Cap asks. To the government, Peter corrects him. What has any of this to do with the loss of his powers? Brian asks. Peter explains they call it genetic destabilization. Sixty-four percent of their parahuman population has fallen victim to it. Meggan is also afflicted. That’s why his blow was so devastating to her.
Cap states Peter mentioned a common enemy. Peter explains that this new generation of parahumans is eliminating any potential opposition without warning or provocation. They are faced with a particularly ruthless foe, that is why he sent the Cherubim to alert Captain Britain to this menace and ask for his assistance. Missing Peter’s smirk, Brian asks what he should do.
Hiding in the airshaft, Kitty is horrified to see Brian has fallen for Peter’s story. She wonders what Peter’s goal is. He could have killed Excalibur easily, what does he want from them? Everything Peter says is plausible but she’s sure he’s hiding something.
Suddenly, something zaps her from behind. It’s not supposed to hurt, the Warpie apologizes as she fall down. Luke said the fazer gun would put her to sleep. Still apologizing to the unconscious girl, Ferret carries Kitty to Luke who assures Ferret the fazer gun merely stunned her. He’ll look after her. He tells Ferret to have some fun in the video arcade. Shadowcat will be among friends here. In several life-size tubes, unconscious Meggan, MicroMax, Kylun and Alistaire are already stored…
Meanwhile, Kurt worries. Kitty should have returned by now. Cyclops said that waiting while teammates take risks is the burden of leadership. He must learn to bear it. A moment later, a smiling Kitty enters, followed by Static. How was her workout? Kurt asks. Kitty whispers that it worked. She manages to lose Static and scouted around. She hates to admit it, but their suspicions were wrong. The RCX is working for the benefit of mankind in general and parahumans in particular. Everything Peter told them is true. She accessed his personal file. The guy’s a saint! Decorated war hero, renowned patriot. Champion of the common man and bastion of justice. Definitely a good guy.
Peter eavesdrops on their conversation via a screen. With a smirk, he agrees he couldn’t have said it better…
Meanwhile, in deep space, the Phoenix asks Rachel if she can forgive the pain it caused. “Of course!” Kate Pryde asked the Phoenix to give Rachel a new life in this reality, and it did. But she can never be as she was, Phoenix warns her. Its essence is bonded to Rachel’s spirit. When it departs this plane of existence, the burden of power will be Rachel’s.
Rachel asks why it can’t retain the consciousness it evolved when it returns to its natural state. Phoenix tries to explain; it cannot at the same time be immortal and experience the fleeting of human life. Moreover, its presence here is sustained with lifeforce stolen from that which she celebrates. It warns Rachel to learn of its folly: do not be seduced by the infinite potential of life unborn! Take only of its strength and accept limitation. It announces Rachel is reborn from the ashes of defeat as the one true Phoenix. The past is gone forever, cherish her future. Farewell, Phoenix.
In a burst of energy, it disappears and Rachel is alone. She wonders how to get back to Earth, then finds Earth is in front of her. Phoenix brought her here. She marvels how alive and clear-minded she feels, truly free of Ahab’s and Mojo’s psychic programming and the false memories the Phoenix gave her to hide her past. Her memory and mind are her own.  For the first time in her life, she knows who she truly is! The Phoenix effect flares around her, changing her costume to the red and gold of Dark Phoenix…


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

[Assistant]
(1st story) Black Magic  (2nd story) Honey is Money
(1st story)Cerise’s dream:“Pain! Pain and fear of a thousand years of war and a thousand years to come!” On the battlefield is Cerise, fighting an ebon-skinned warrior with white hair. She finds that there is no place to run from the laughing deathmask of battle. No place is safe from his bloodthirst as he stabs her.
reality:Cerise awakes, crying out. Soon, Nightcrawler and Shadowcat enter her room. Another nightmare? Kurt asks. The same, she replies. Seventh night in a row. But this one was different. The rest of the team has gathered by now. Tonight she can feel the source of the pain, she continues. She knows the direction it is coming from now.
Phoenix protests that she can detect no power causing her to have those nightmares. And Feron has detected no mystical presence. Well, something is bothering her and they should figure out what, Kitty points out practically. A moment later, she has an idea and wonders if Cerise isn’t just dreaming about them. The black elf who is always chasing her sounds a lot like Kurt. And the double magical swords of his refer to Kylun. The creep who can fly might be Brian. Impatiently, Cerise cuts her off, announcing she will track down the source of this pain. The others may join her if they wish!
Minutes later and sixty-odd miles north of Braddock Manor, their plane gets ready to land as Cerise senses the source close by coming from a decrepit castle. The plane lands and the team gets ready to check the place out.
Cerise finds a secret passageway leading down. She lights the way and the others follow. She feels it very close by, she announces and screams the next moment, surprised by the old wizard who greets them. He wears the same purple robes she did in the dream. He introduces himself as Ghath, apologizes for scaring her and offers them tea and cookies. Soon they are all gathered as Ghath pours tea and tells his story.
He is from another dimension and has been trying to get home without bothering someone from here. Perhaps, he suggests, Cerise was disturbed by his spells because she too is from another dimension. Cerise keeps silent but is not convinced, and why are his robes so familiar, she wonders.
Suddenly, the black-skinned being with the two swords from her dreams comes crashing through the wall, shouting that, now that he has found Ghath, he will die by the hands of Khaos! Seeing Excalibur, Khaos snorts that Ghath has found minions on this plane. He is not surprised. They’ll be the first to fall before the power of Ibic! A totem at his belt begins to glow and energy bolts hit the members of Excalibur, felling them save for Cerise who shields herself, Kitty who phases and Nightcrawler who teleports out of harm’s way.
Khaos is about to attack Ghath when Nightcrawler teleports in and kicks him in the face. Khaos tries to slash him but Kurt teleports away again.
Cerise steps up to defend Ghath with an energy blast. Khaos is protected by Ibic’s teknomagical shield. He slashes at Cerise’ solid light shield, hurting her. Kurt teleports atop him again and topples Khaos. Having recovered, Captain Britain is about to hit Khaos when Khaos blinds him momentarily with bright lights and then proceeds to throw off Kurt with a judo move.
Before Khaos can kill the mage with fireballs, Phoenix telekinetically diverts them and takes away Ibic, leaving Khaos powerless as Captain Britain slugs him.
Rachel asks Ghath what is going on here. The wizard apologizes for involving them. He is not only from another plane, he is its ruler! He was deposed and teknomagically exiled to this reality by the forces of Khaos. Since he’s been trying to return home, the transdimensional assassin has apparently been sent to finish him off. He apologizes again and suggests they leave Khaos with him. Suspicious, the team thanks him but decides to take Khaos back to their home for medical care and questioning.
For a moment, Ghath’s smile lapses. However, a moment later, he smiles again and replies he’s going to return to his efforts to return home, without upsetting Cerise this time. If they require his assistance, they know where he is.
Later, 3 am at Braddock Manor. The mysterious prisoner remains unconscious but is recovering from his head injury at remarkable speed. He lies in a bed in a cell. All the members of Excalibur have gone back to sleep, save for Cerise, who sits guard outside the cell. Hours later, Khaos awakes, noting he is guarded by one of “Ghath’s minions” as he calls her.
Cerise introduces herself and explains that he is no longer at Ghath’s castle. Nor are they his minions. He interrupts her to spare him her lies. They defended Ghath, therefore they must-- Cerise continues that they just met Ghath when he arrived and they defended him simply because Khaos attacked him. However, she feels there is more to this than has been revealed so far. Khaos still doesn’t believe her. She tells him to look around. Does this look like any prison he’s ever seen? She simply wants to hear his side. He accedes, since he seems to have little to lose.
Khaos’ tale:Ghath and he are both from a place called Irth. It’s said that, before time began, the gods sprinkled silver dust from the sky in order to grant the creatures of their world teknomystical abilities. His world is rife with monsters, elves, goblins, humans… it’s ruled by teknowizards and overseen by the gods. And Irth is plagued seemingly forever with war. For centuries, the main war of Irth has been between those who live above ground in the light – humans, fair elves, half-elves… and those born of darkness below ground, dark elves such as he, goblins and dwarves.
The ongoing conflict has been the will of the gods for millennia. Those who had lived below eventually conquered the surface of the western continent Dungertheb and reformed it to suit their tastes. The humans and elves who had lived there were forced into slave labor, mining gems from Dungertheb’s rich hills.
It wasn’t long before the traitorous human leader of the Dark Ones, Ghath the Mage, was setting his sights on the eastern continent of Terr’va. Once the tactically priceless island of Ameroth was taken, Ghath knew, even Terr’va would easily be accessible and ripe for invasion.
This is the word into which Khaos was born. A Dark Elf living in Terr’va, protected from lynching only by the fact that he was being raised by Fair Elven royalty. Sometimes even that wasn’t enough to protect him and he had to use his instincts to survive. Which lay in fighting, so soon it became apparent to everyone where his true heritage and abilities lay.
When he was of age, he bade his adopted family goodbye and chose to live his life as an adventurer, a mercenary. He soon met up with other would-be fighters who became his new comrades: Longstrider, Kromm, Kamendae and Quarto. For years they fought side by side, entering deep dungeons and exploring strange lands, even confronting beings who claimed to be from the stars in the sky. All the while, they grew richer and more adept at their chosen specialties.
On one such mission, Khaos was confronted by a teknomagical artifact which revealed his true origin and purpose. He learned that he was actually born to the emperor of the Dark Elves, then spirited away by an agent of the gods to Terr’va. He is therefore heir to the two major elven thrones and charged by the gods to stop the war between them. He was shown that the strategically placed island Ameroth was the key to maintaining the peace and the main obstacle to peace would be the arch mage Ghath, who was even then taking complete control over the Dungerthebian continent.
In subsequent years, Khaos and his companions fought with more purpose than ever. They knew only he could save the world from total darkness. They eventually raised a small army and navy, then captured the island of Ameroth, claiming it as their new home. After they built the ruling castle of Nottlob on the coast, Khaos claimed leadership of both sides in the war. He then declared an unconditional ceasefire.
Only Ghath and a band of his extremist forces refused to accept the peace and attacked the island. But they were too well prepared for him. Khaos was able to capture Ghath using the power of Ibis, his teknomagical monkey statue. It was decided that Ghath was too great a threat to peace to let live and so Kamendae and Quarto devised a spell which would scatter his being across existence. Thus, despite rumors of insurgency on Dungertheb, they believed that they had finally triumphed.
However, it soon became apparent that Ghath lived… somewhere. Their best efforts finally located the mage in this world. He was wreaking his revenge on them, even though he couldn’t return. Someone had to go after him and there would be no way to get back to Irth when it was over. They found a brave volunteer and prepared him for the journey. But Gahth must have been casting some kind of scrambling spell at the time because Khaos ended up zapped here instead of the man who was supposed to go.
Present:That was seven nights ago. He was eventually able to track Ghath’s exact location using Ibic. He can never go home again but can still try to keep peace on Irth. And that’s what he was trying to do when Cerise and her friends interfered. Cerise tells him to rest. Soon the entire team will want to hear his tale. She isn’t sure of anything anymore. Cerise leaves.
Khaos concentrates and his swords come to him, disrupting the laser beams of his cell. Khaos smirks.
Minutes later, Cerise has reached Ghath’s castle. She notices that the damages from the battle have already been repaired, indicating the amount of Ghath’s magical powers. The quaint sitting room furniture and décor are gone. She sees Ghath looking younger sitting in a magical circle and attacking an image of another world.
“No!” she shouts and instinctively fires off a light blast at him which bounces off. With an evil grin, he asks if she has seen enough. He believes she has.
An hour later, Khaos flies towards Ghath’s castle, musing that he may have made enemies of the only allies he may have had on this world. He senses life behind a locked door and inside sees an unconscious Cerise. He finds it odd though that apparently Ghath spared her life which is not like him. He tries to lift the bolt that bars the door to get her out. When he touches it, magical energy makes him crash backward and fall.
Clumsily done, Ghath informs him. His accursed companions Quartro and Kamendae would never have set off such a simple trap spell. But they are not here, are they? Grinning, he grabs him by his clothes. He’ll be sure to give them his regards when he returns to Irth.
No way back, Khaos protests weakly. He has a few ideas about that, Ghath replies, and the first centers round his new friend Cerise. Her energy channelling abilities may prove to be quite valuable to his purposes while he is nothing! He tosses Khaos away. Exuding wings, Khaos breaks his fall. With Ibic, he attacks but Ghath fends off the blast with a shield.
At Braddock Manor, Kitty wakes the others. She has discovered that both Cerise and the prisoner are missing. She figures that the answers can be found at Ghath’s castle and so soon the team flies there.
Once arrived, Cap tells them to stuff the caution. Cerise’s life may be at stake and so instantly they enter to see Ghath fighting Cerise and Khaos. Cap orders them to take him down. They’ll sort everything else out later.
Ghath hits Cap with his energy staff, then Meggan. Nightcrawler now realizes who he is and kicks his staff out of his hands. Phoenix follows with a telekinetic blast which Ghath keeps away with a protective sphere. He quickly reaches out and steals Ibic, then burn a hole into the ground. With the artifact, he can finish his spell to return home.
He places Ibis into the center of the magic circle. As the heroes arrive, they see him pass through the gateway to Irth. Khaos follows, as does Cerise, so the team has no choice but to follow as well.
Moments later, they are on Irth, on the island of Ameroth, as Khaos informs them, under what’s left of his ruling castle of Nottlob. Where did Ghath go? Cerise demands but Feron points out there is a group of warriors attacking them. However, these warriors turn out to be Khaos’ allies. Again, Cerise asks for Ghath.
Kamedae explains that their remaining forces were about to mount a defense against naval assault by Gath and his legions. He’s been preparing this strike for months. Khaos protests that they followed him straight through the portal and he only left Irth a week ago. For him perhaps, Kamendae replies, but for them seven months passed in his absence. Time must flow at different speeds between their worlds and Ghath must have used Teknomagic to exaggerate that difference to fall ahead of them in the timestream.
He points to the coast in the west where Ghath’s armada approaches. Khaos draws his swords, vowing to fight!
A fight is exactly what Ghath and his evil minions had expected. However, they could not have been prepared for whatever now faces them. Phoenix, who can turn arrows back upon the archer; Nightcrawler and Kylun, natural swashbucklers of the highest caliber. The immaterial Shadowcat, with the ability to sink ships by turning part of their hulls intangible; the sorcerer Feron, who flings magical spells never before seen on this world; Cerise and Meggan, firing bolts of pure energy; the nearly invulnerable powerhouse Captain Britain; and Khaos, who has eyes and swords only for Ghath.
Finally, those two archenemies face each other as the armada is lost. Ghath still boasts but doesn’t stand a chance against Khaos. And so, an hour later, the fighting is over and Khaos thanks the heroes. He explains his men can handle what’s left of the fleet. Ghath will be back somehow but they will prepare for him. He swears that peace will reign on Irth. He thanks Excalibur, especially Cerise. Without them, they couldn’t have triumphed. He praises them as heroes and explains that getting from Irth to Earth is no problem; just the reverse was considered impossible until Ghath did it. He bids them farewell and suddenly Cerise kisses him, much to his surprise and Nightcrawler’s displeasure.
Kitty jokes to Rachel that Cerise seems to have a thing for Darkelves… Or for Excalibur, Rachel retorts, explaining that every dimension has an Excalibur and she believes Khaos himself is this world’s version. Lip massage, Cerise explains to the confused Khaos. She wanted to apologize for not trusting him and say goodbye. He thanks her and asks the wizards to begin the spell to transport them back.
There is a blinding flash and Excalibur is back on Earth… and so is Khaos! Even in death, he mocks him, Khaos spits. Ghath’s original scramble spell must have still been partially in effect. It sent him here again. And he has no idea how Ghath opened the portal back to Irth. He’s no sorcerer. So, once again he is trapped on their world, this time probably forever!
Cerise invites him to join Excalibur. He thanks her but it isn’t that simple. There’s more at stake here than his contentment. He was created to preserve the peace on his world. Without him, Irth could degenerate back into endless war. Perhaps he and Ibic can piece together the spell to open the portal. She understands that, doesn’t she? Peace demands that he return home somehow. He flies away and the team looks after him.
(2nd story)The members of the Technet find themselves in a strange situation: A muscular barbarian with a helmet that covers his whole face has Numbers, the most harmless member of the group, in a headlock, demanding to know where the rest of the Technet are. Numbers whines that he is only an accountant.
The rest of the team has reached them, though, and Gatecrasher orders the stranger to pick on someone his own body density. Ferro attacks him with his two knives but is tossed away by the stranger. Ready to listen to reason? He asks. He needs to hire them. His princess Flavia has sent him to retrieve the honeycomb nectar, but it is only produced in another dimension which he cannot reach.
Gatecrasher points out they don’t work without substantial pay, but Yap points out that, if they ask for money, he will strangle Numbers and without him they won’t be able to figure out Form 1040. It is close to April fifteenth, she admits and tells the stranger he has himself a deal. Point them towards the right dimension and they’ll find him his nectar.
They teleport away and land in a strange landscape. Small clouds float around them which Ferro recognizes as pollen… worse, ones which are affecting his allergies. They realize that everything in the place is huge in comparison to them.
They find a wall of combs the size of drainpipes. They step inside and find themselves walking in the nectar. Gatecrasher orders Bodybag to store some of this nectar in one of his membranes. Chinadoll suggests they hurry, because where a giant honeycomb is, there are bound to be giant bees… which have just found them (roughly six thousand of them).
Chinadoll uses her power to shrink them down and the bees bump into another and pass on the shrinking effect like a chain reaction, which means they still have to contend with a normal sized swarm of very angry bees that attack them and rooted to the spot by the nectar they cannot teleport away.
Waxwork uses his power to make the honeycomb lose its rigidity. They fall but can finally flee from the bee swarm and, even better, teleport away.
Soon, the Technet present the nectar to the barbarian and get Numbers back. A moment later, a radiant woman teleports in.
The barbarian kneels down and gives her the honeycomb nectar, asking her to keep her part of the bargain and free him from the wretched iron mask. She does so and tells him the nectar is for him. It’s the only cure in the pandimensional multiverse for that skin condition of his. She smears the nectar on his pimples, which instantly disappear. Now they can be married, she explains. She couldn’t stand the sight of him before. Did she really think his acne would improve behind that sweaty iron mask? he asks and then inquires about the next locked part of his anatomy, the iron belt. That can come off after he drops a few pounds, she informs him.
He loves happy endings, Yap announces, while Gatecrasher wonders if they couldn’t have saved a little of that goo to treat the bee stings…


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

[Assistant]
Back to the Present
The future, 2013:
A middle-aged woman hangs imprisoned in a device with Sentinel technology. Kate Pryde, female, mutant phaser, Ahab informs the rest. Arrested with other members of the outlaw X-Men organization: 10.7.2005. Found guilty of numerous counts of terrorism and violating the genetic purity act of 1994. Sentenced to life, imprisonment in the South Bronx mutant internment center: 10.8.2005. Escaped nine days ago. Five of her accomplices were terminated. But the sixth, Rachel Summers, is still free.
Another man, Professor Quinn, tells Ahab (who is crippled and sitting in a floating chair) that he understands his animosity. Ahab was lucky to survive Summers’ attack. He doesn’t want Quinn’s concern, Ahab snaps. He wants that harlot, Summers! Quinn promises she will be Ahab’s to do with as he wishes, when they find her.
Ahab has told them all he can. Summers was his prototype for his Hound program. She inherited telepathy and telekinesis from her mother. Quinn adds that files recovered from Xavier’s mansion indicated a further potential, the ability to project her consciousness through space and time. But not her physical body, Ahab stresses. Then how does he explain this surveillance video? Quinn asks. It was recorded when Pryde and Summers sabotaged cyber-robotics project Nimrod.
He shows Ahab the video of Kate and Rachel infiltrating the project. Quinn points out the sound and image distortion. Systems analysis suggests it was caused by a temporal flux emanating from Summers. It effectively stops them from hearing what the women are saying. And then Rachel vanished, the resulting energy pulse almost totally wiped out security transmissions. It may have activated the Nimrod prototype - they can only guess at its true potential, for though it successfully immobilized Kate Pryde, she had already detonated a bomb in the reactor plant, vaporizing the entire complex.
Only Kate Pryde survived. Even her phasing power could not fully protect her from a nuclear detonation. She has terminal radiation poisoning. They have interrogated her with a full mind-scan but it was unproductive. As a student of Xavier, she has unbreachable psychic shields.
Another scientist informs Quinn that the circuit check is completed. Ten minutes to optimum power surge. Commence countdown! he orders.
The suspect Rachel Summers has travelled back in time to change a significant event in the past in an attempt to alter the present. Is that possible? Ahab asks. Quinn replies the Hierarchy accepts the logic of anticipating such an attack. Physical examination of Pryde revealed residual temporal anomalies from exposure to Summers’ time warp. They hope to use the residue to recreate the time warp.
They begin the process. Quinn worries that Pryde’s inhibitor collar may be arcing. Pryde may be able to phase. Another scientist points out she is as good as dead.
But she knows that. Through senses ravaged by inhuman pain, Kate is dimly aware that her power returns and with it the chance to protect Rachel’s freedom. With the last vestige of strength, she phases, disrupting delicate circuitry.
For a moment, the temporal portal flares out of control, then it implodes, tearing savagely through the fabric of space and time. The post and future knot in a tangled instant without order. Then, at the center of ragged moments, a focus appears. Wounded time heals…
and two years later, in 2015, in the place of Kate Pryde  the new metallic form of Widget appears. Status report? a metallic voice announces. Program parameters exceeded. Speculation: Psycho-cybernetic temporal fusion… Request external confirmation…
Quinn, now wearing a containment suit, wonders who it is speaking to. It doesn’t seem to be aware of their presence. The Sentinels have no idea what it is. The entity absorbs all scan wave lengths. Quinn adds the chamber has been a temporal hot spot since Kate Pryde and Monitor Unit Five disappeared. Stability returned with this entity three hours ago.
Suddenly, Ahab, now master of the hounds, teleports in, announcing this is not Quinn’s affair. He is the guardian of time. Quinn criticizes his vendetta against Rachel Summers and reminds Ahab he is the authority of this laboratory. Ahab reveals that, since last they met, he encountered Summers not in their past but in that of a parallel dimension. She was marshalling an army of mutants to attack them. He believes this entity to be a probe to test their defenses.
Ahab orders a Sentinel to remove the entity to his pantemporal nexus. The Sentinel complies. Suddenly, Widget looks disturbed, shouting he is being used to find Rachel. It won’t betray… Rachel must be free! It creates a temporal flux and disappears.
Ahab notes it mentioned Summers’ name. He knew she was behind this and that they would meet again. When he has finished with her this time, she will beg him to kill her, he vows.
Earth, the present, where Excalibur has just returned to Braddock Manor after their adventure in Cloud Nine. Kitty asks the newly returned Rachel why she is so glum. She thought she’d be glad to be home. Rachel reminds her she only knows the lighthouse as their home. She’s never been here before. So much has changed while she was gone.
Kitty agrees. She finds it hard to keep up. Kurt and Kylun’s costumes got shredded and Silkworm made them new ones. She should have had him work on her. She’s been thinking about a new look. Now that Rachel has a new costume, Kitty is the only founding member who still has her original gear. It’s bad for her image!
Rachel replies it’s not the image. Look at Kurt and Cerise. Kitty agrees they look pretty intense. But they hardly know each other. It can’t be serious. Because they fell in love so quickly? Rachel chides her that she is too young to be a cynic. They should all live in the moment. It could be their last.
Brian asks Meggan to wait. She explains she wants to accompany Kylun to Sat’neen’s grave. He asks her to stay. They need to talk. Meggan is clearly uncomfortable with this. He points out she’s been avoiding him. Has he done something wrong? It’s her, she replies. Does she have second thoughts about marrying him? he wonders. Meggan replies she loves him, but she has always been able to see the Matrix energy that gives him his powers. It’s beautiful. When he lost his powers, it went away and she realized it had attracted her to him.
They are more than how they look! Brian insists. Are they? she asks. She made herself look this way for him! She returns to the monstrous hybrid shape she spent most of her life in. Would he love her if she still looked like this? Would he really? Brian looks down, unable to answer.
Kitty and Rachel see the two arguing but figure they will work it out. That moment, Feron spies Kitty and shouts at her for leaving him to stay in his haunted edifice. Not that he was scared of the Widget spectre’s ranting, he adds. ”Yess’e wos,” Lockheed tattles.
Seeing Rachel, Feron angrily berates her for stealing his inheritance, then notes the Phoenix is gone. It returned to the stars, Rachel replies. The power should still be his, he argues. Rachel points out the Phoenix didn’t see it that way. She couldn’t give up the power if she wanted, and she doesn’t! She needs it to get back to the future. To get them back to the future, Kitty corrects her. Rachel tells her that her innate power can project her astral self through time, but it takes the Phoenix force to carry her body. The force is in short supply. She’ll need it when she gets to her Earth. She can’t afford to take passengers.
2015 – The chamber of the Sentinel Hierarchy:
Ahab stands before the Master Mold, demanding help to chase Summers. He is told that the Sentinel prime directive is to ensure the genetic purity of the human species. They will continue purification in tangential timelines when this Earth is purged.
Ahab protests they can’t wait. Summers could attack at any time! The Master Mold informs him that they don’t have the current unit capacity. The Sentinel forces are committed to combat the Soviet Super Soldiers, Asian Alliance megarobots plus pockets of resistance in Europe and South America. Their immediate strategy is defence. The entity’s energy signature is registered. Their orbital monitors are realigned to intercept further temporal trespasses. Immediate response is assured. Stage one Nimrod Project, estimate production capacity in 45.7 days. Functional mobilization in 160 days. Stage two; Sentinel colonies stationed in all tangential timelines. Stage three: all mutantkind will be eradicated.
In the present at Braddock Manor, Rachel informs her teammates of her plan. Kate Pryde sent her back in time to give her a second chance at life. But she can’t live here in comfortable security while her world is still suffering. What can she do on her own? Kitty points out. She is Phoenix, she has to try, Rachel replies. Kitty asks her to take them along. Even if she could, she wouldn’t, Rachel replies. It’s too risky. She just came to say goodbye. Travelling in time is like diving into a vast ocean. You can’t navigate, you are swept along the tide of destiny.
Kurt asks her to accept her life here and stay. It’s too late, she is committed, she announces and begins to glow. Suddenly, she screams in pain as she seems to merge with Widget.
2015 AD:
A wasteland in Britain: Rachel must be free! Widget keeps repeating to the confusion of the British heroes who have discovered it. A man in an Iron Man-like suit referred to as Arthur, asks their telepath Tangerine to scan it. Killpower wants to blow it away but Dark Angel replies it isn’t a robot. She can sense a biogenetic aura. Tangerine senses fear, love sadness and a consuming thought: to protect someone named Rachel, but she cannot read its mind. It’s fragmented… diffuse. She senses another mind inside. Dark Angel warns her back. The aura is intensifying.
Suddenly, Widget flares with energy and looks around questioningly. Tangerine senses another human soul inside, albeit in shock. Sentinels! Widget begins to chant. A moment later, Sentinels teleport in, only Gamma and Delta class luckily, along with a few hounds. Killpower shoots the first one.
They are just Ahab’s retinue, Grace reveals as she tackles a Hound. She figures they aren’t the target. One Sentinel identifies the heroes as six members of the RCX. They are not equipped to fight them, Ahab decides and orders it to send trackers to discover the temporal portal.
While the others keep fighting, Tangerine makes contact with the mind inside the probe, finding Kate Pryde. She sees Kate’s memories, her husband, children and finds all dead. Only Rachel survived. Can’t hide, Kate replies. Sentinels like a virus… adapting… spreading. They know where Rachel is. She must warn Rachel!
It begins to teleport away. With Albion’s attention on Widget, Ahab kills him and swats aside Tangerine. Ahab closes in on the probe which shouts it’s her, Kate! Rachel must trust her! That moment, the Sentinel notes it is a multi-dimension presence bridging space time. Kate feels unendurable pain.
In the present, a timequake shakes the heroes as they are torn out of their time. Kurt tells Rachel to stop. She is tearing the manor apart. She shouts it isn’t her; she hadn’t begun the time warp. She had just projected her mind. She sensed Kate’s presence. When she touched her mind, she woke up.
That moment, Widget appears shouting it’s her, Kate Pryde! Please trust her! Widget / Kate is dragged back by the Sentinels. Kate’s last words to them are ”Sentinels massing …final confrontation! Mutantkind doomed!”
Through the interface Ahab sees Rachel and orders the sentinels to stabilize the interface.
Tangerine awakes to notice some kind of timewarp. She realizes Ahab is using Kate to create a doorway to Rachel. She senses his hatred. She decides an enemy of the Sentinels is an ally to her group and attacks Ahab’s brain.
Rachel sees Ahab.
Kate / Widget tries to warn Tangerine of the trackers.
Cerise announces the interface is stable. Kitty jumps to the other side and phases Tangerine to protect her from the flying trackers.
Widget / Kate shouts a warning as Ahab gets ready too harpoon Kitty, boasting her phasing power will not protect her from the peerless power of his energy harpoon. Rachel slams him telekinetically, melting his bionic hands. He doesn’t know the meaning of peerless power, she retorts.
Not again! he moans, looking at the stumps. The Sentinels call for a tactical retreat, but not before the trackers secure the primary targets: Widget / Kate and Rachel. Together with them, they teleport out, leaving the rest of Excalibur stranded.
Kitty asks Tangerine if they can help them find Rachel and Widget. Tangerine explains that is impossible. They were teleported straight to Sentinel HQ Where is it? How do they get there?
Arthur warns them they’d have to be insane to go there. The Sentinels dominate this Earth. There are millions of them, each learning from the others’ experiences. Each capable of overwhelming any foe.
They have encountered Sentinels before, Kurt announces. Then they must know their friends are lost, Arthur states grimly. Kurt refuses to give up hope. Besides they need their power to return home. They are stranded, so their choice is simple: they either defeat the Sentinels - or die trying!


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Days of Futures Yet to Come
Narration by Tangerine:
In her mind’s eye, she can see how it began. Camelot communications detected a transmission trace and sounded the Yellow Alert. Radio silence was established too late. They’d got a whiff like hungry sharks, scenting blood they came. Red alert was sounded, everyone was running, non-combatants to the deep bunker, defense to the surface door.
Outside crashing metallic footfalls approach. The door begins to buckle. Air laden with the acrid stench of hot oil and ozone rushes in as two foot thick steel plates shred like paper. Its ragged shriek rises, a shrill note amid a cacophony of grinding gears and screaming servo motors.
Sentinels. Omega class. For an instant, the flower of Camelot stand transfixed by the terror they feel. But only for an instant. The heroes attack but knowing neither death nor fear, the Sentinels surge forward in passionless obedience to a soulless program.
They exterminate all resistance: Union Jack, Motormouth, the Darkguard. Britain’s greatest champions slaughtered. Death’s Head stood at the center of the carnage. His near invulnerable form a symbol of Camelot’s resolve. In the moment he died that resolve failed.
Breeze of Pendragon’s Knights raced into the fray in an attempt to rally the splintering defense. But even her superspeed could not hold off the Sentinels’ onslaught.
Though beaten and broken, the defenders continued the fight. They knew the battle was lost, but preferred death to capture. Without thought, without conscience, the killing machines obliged. Those in the deep bunkers surrendered. They were transported to the HIVE in an energy sphere. The main force of Omegas was diverted to assist Ahab to kill the others. They thought they were so clever, driving away Ahab. But he only had a few Gamma and Delta Sentinels with him. The Omegas were all at Camelot. Killing their friends! Tangerine cries.
The Present.
Dark Angel and Arthur try to comfort her while she moans that they should have been there. Arthur sensibly points out they couldn’t have helped. They would have been massacred as well.
Nightcrawler announces he does not wish to intrude on their mourning but, if the Sentinels wear searching for them, it is logical they will follow their trail. Killpower, who has lost his partner Motormouth, calls him a coward. They are not running! They stand and fight! He hits Nightcrawler.
Captain Britain holds him back, pointing out they are in too much trouble to waste time fighting each other. Arthur apologizes. Killpower is a trifle impulsive.
Cap introduces Excalibur. Arthur muses that they had a Captain Britain and Meggan here too but they and their children were killed when the Sentinels destroyed Braddock Manor. But the only Excalibur here is Arthur’s gun named in days of youthful optimism. His comrades are Grace, Killpower, Tangerine and Dark Angel. He calls himself Arthur but his real name is— As he takes off his helmet, Nightcrawler recognizes him as an older version of Nigel Orpington-Smythe, head of the Resources Control Executive.
Resistance Coordination Executive, Arthur corrects him and notes by Kurt’s tone that he doesn’t know him as an ally. Was he a villain in Excalibur’s time? Diplomatically, Kurt replies he was a man of destiny in search of purpose. Arthur understands. Before the rise of the Sentinels, he longed for battles, so that he might prove himself a hero. Now that he has seen the reality of war, he yearns only for peace.
Kurt calls him a wise man. Arthur replies glumly that a wise man would have anticipated the Sentinels’ attack on Camelot. It took four years to build this complex. He was so confident of their army’s prowess. They were preparing to launch an attack on the Sentinels. Another dream turned to dust.
The RCX, Camelot, Cloud Nine, Arthur, Peter… Captain Britain wonders if this is the future, even of an alternate timeline, how can it parallel their own time so closely? An enigma for another time, Kurt suggests.
Kitty reminds them of Rachel. Arthur warns them an attack on Sentinel HQ would be suicide. Surely this devastation proves that. Kurt retorts it proves a direct attack is their only option. They have to destroy the Sentinels’ guiding intelligence. And for that they need to reach the headquarters. Sentinels are logical. They analyze and react. They do not anticipate. They have no imagination. That is why they needed human advisors like Ahab. He believes this blind spot will allow them to pass through their defenses in their own Trojan horse. He points at the ruined Sentinel…
Manhattan, the Hive, the Hierarchy:
Here the Mastermold takes in the latest reports by lower Sentinels that response action has been initiated and Ahab is getting his limbs replaced. Four divisions of Omega units were assigned to apprehend the eight fugitives who accompanied Rachel Summers through the timeportal rift.
The Mastermold announces that the Nimrod Sentinels will achieve mobilization in 159.23 days. It is essential to ascertain the location and nature of the tangential infestation by that date. He orders the units to report to G9 and and download the temporal rift analysis.
Next, the Mastermold orders G7 to concentrate on analyzing the entity. Mind probes will be ineffective against Summers’ psychic defenses. She will be interrogated by Houndsmaster Ahab.
In her stasis cage, Rachel berates herself for her stupidity. Instead of saving the world, she got herself caught. And the fishbowl, she is in generates the same force field Ahab used on her before. She wonders if she could overload it with the Phoenix Force, but fears that’s what the Sentinels want. For her to burn herself out, fighting her own power. But if she doesn’t resist, she may be able to tap into the field and drain it.
What about Kate? Rachel wonders, looking at the unmoving Widget. Is her mind really in there? She tries to retrieve the psychic bond she shares with her. Instead of a mindscape, she is surrounded by electronic force impulses which nevertheless feel like Kate. She calls for her and Kate answers.
She explains the Sentinels were experimenting on her. She was torn apart in the time warp. The Sentinel monitor unit evolved to survive in the time warp. Somehow it absorbed Kate and a lot of other stuff. It’s hard to think. It’s difficult to stay focused. That was Cringebottom and Bert’s doing, Rachel figures.
Kate thought she was dreaming until the crystal anchored her to this plane. Kate decides it was wrong to try and hide Rachel from the Sentinels. Her disappearance revealed the existence of alternate realities to the Sentinels, of new mutant populations to terminate. They are like a virus infecting the multiverse. They must stop them from spreading.
Meanwhile, a reprogrammed Sentinel carries his “prisoners,” Grace, Dark Angel and Killpower, in an energy bubble towards the Sentinel headquarters in New York. The heroes wonder if this will fool the Sentinels. After all, half its head is missing. Dark Angel explains that severely damaged Sentinel units can still function and the static spectrum she is generating will block any scanners. Hopefully. They’ll see three parahumans ripe for dissection in the custody of a damaged Omega, Killpower announces and wishes he had his gun.
Unseen are the other heroes hidden by Cerise, who is carrying the whole mess. Arthur points out their real problem will be when they encounter Sentinels. Kylun’s vocal mimicry should get them through, Nightcrawler decides.
Kitty joins them, dressed in leather, shades and carrying a big gun. She thinks she’s found her new image, she remarks. What is she playing at? Kurt demands. Not playing, she replies. The two of them aren’t heavy hitters like Cyclops, Havok or Storm. They need weapons. She helped Killpower stash a load in the left leg. If Rachel’s been hurt, she wants to be able to inflict a lot of damage on those clockwork killers.
Not far away, Brian tells Meggan he’s been thinking about what she said. He doesn’t have any answers. He wishes he did. He wishes he could say something clever, something romantic and wonderful. But he’s never been very good with words. He only knows he loves her. He can’t say how things would be if things were different. They are who they are. She agrees but is confused. She asks him to hold her.
Tangerine warns of an approaching Sentinel patrol. Kurt tells Kylun it’s showtime.
A Sentinel patrol approaches them asking the Sentinel why it is here without authorization. Kylun imitates the Sentinel voice and explains that one of the mutant captives is responsible for the lack of radio communication. The other Sentinel asks it to respond again. Kurt shushes Kylun. Believing the Omega to malfunction, the other Sentinel decides to escort it to the Hive.
Inside the Hive, Rachel taps into the forcefield and soaks up its power. She breaks the containment field to the surprise of the Sentinels, which weren’t aware of her Phoenix Force.
Rachel frees Kate / Widget and orders her to get them out. Those research units are no challenge but she doesn’t want to waste power fighting drones. She’s going to need it all to take on the Hierarchy!
Kate teleports them inside the Hierarchy, which immediately fires energy at them. Rachel protects them both pretending this takes more out of her than it does, while she secretly forces a link with the Hierarchy’s electronic brain.
Excalibur’s Sentinel has arrived and they notice the whole Hive is in an uproar. Tangerine informs them Kate and Rachel are taking on the Hierarchy. Then this is where they want to be, Kurt decides and asks Kitty to get the others from the bubble.
The other Sentinels notice the captives are gone. Suddenly, the Sentinel strikes the two guarding him through the head. Kurt asks cerise to take them to Rachel.
In the Hierarchy’s chamber, Rachel is still busy with the link. Kate warns her of the horde of Sentinels approaching. Rachel tells her Kurt and the others are nearby, about to make a dramatic entrance.
They use their Sentinel as a projectile against the other robots. In quick order, Cerise contracts her forcefield around her friends, Kitty phases them and Killpower detonates his grenade, turning the Sentinel into a bomb.
Rachel warns them of doing the same to the Hierarchy. If they destroy it now, the Sentinels will regroup, evolve a new Hierarchy and establish a new Hive. The only way to stop them all is to attack the core program. She warns her friends they are outnumbered a thousand to one, but the Sentinels won’t fire energy weapons in here, so they may be able to buy her some time.
They’ll give it a shot! Kitty replies and they fire their energy powers or weapons at the Sentinels. Tangerine is overwhelmed with fear. This is just like the slaughter of Camelot! There are too many Sentinels! They can’t stop them all – they are all going to die! Cerise orders her to pick up a weapon and die fighting.
Phoenix, in the meantime, has broken through the Hierarchy’s last psionic shield. She and Kate are linked with the psybertronic brain. Rachel cannot comprehend what she is seeing, but Kate can.
In the meantime, the battle continues. Nightcrawler saves Feron’s life, while Cap pushes Meggan’s out of harm’s way, just as she is about to be skewered. He is ready to take the brunt of the attack. But the Sentinel stops moving, they all do.
A smiling Rachel announces that she and Kate reprogrammed the Sentinels through their link with the Hierarchy. Every last one, all over the world. They’ve won!
In the shadows, Ahab seethes when he hears that. Summers is the architect of his pain. Long he has dreamed of breaking her to his will. But if it not to be, he will not let her live. He throws his energy lance at her… but a Sentinel catches it. First directive: Protect all life! it announces. All life Rachel stresses. Homo sapiens, Homo superior, even bigoted cyborgs. Ahab is on his own now. The Sentinels are good guys now. Ahab vows to kill her and teleports away.
Kitty points out Rachel could have stopped him. He is nothing without the Sentinels, Rachel replies and she isn’t interested in revenge. It’s never been about revenge! She wanted to change time. Bring back her parents. But she knows that’s not possible. They are products of their past. Change it and they cease to be what they are. She knows that now. The last thing the Phoenix said to her was “The past is forever gone, cherish your future.”
Arthur tells her she has given this world a future to cherish. Rachel warns him the peace still has to be won. Will she help them? Arthur asks. That’s their destiny, she replies. She doesn’t belong here anymore. Turning to Excalibur, she announces that she has a new home, a new family and a new future. She loves happy endings! Kitty agrees.


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Blight and Fog
(Flashback, prior to Excalibur (first series) #46)
A world burns – and a lone warrior cried silently. The native people of this planet had prized peace above all else, for it seemed the best way to live together. It was – until the Shi’ar Galactic Empire arrived. Her name is Cerise, and she kneels by the body of a porpoise-like being in the middle of the fire-ravaged ruling city of the planet. She recalls that the people – the children – were cut down like wheat. She wonders if this is for the common good, if it is what she is.
Someone approaches her from behind and asks her what it is she is doing sitting down. He asks her if she thinks that just because it is her first assignment aboard an recruitment vessel of the Ghrand Jhar that she can slack off? Cerise turns and faces her commanding officer – Captain C’Efn – and declares that it was her understanding their ship was on a conversion mission and that their goal was to recruit members of the outer regions throughout the Shi’ar Empire through enlightenment – C’Efn cuts her off, laughing.
C’Efn grins wickedly and tells Cerise that they are converting these savages to the ways of the Shi’ar – and he guarantees that whoever survives will only be too happy to join the Empire. C’Efn offers Cerise some advice, telling her not to get too attached to the natives and that it will not pay for the Shi’ar Empire to perceive her as useless, before obliterating the young body in front of Cerise.
C’Efn asks Cerise if she is still a little weakened and orders her to beam back aboard the recruitment ship, declaring she is obviously not ready for this, before telling her next time, that she better be.
(Present)
Cerise reveals that it was at that moment she realized she had to do something – anything – to stop that warship from cutting a light-year-wide swath of death across the universe, all in the name of the Shi’ar Empire – and that it is exactly what she did.
A guard kicks Cerise to the floor of the processing center and reminds her that she has already had her trial, so he doesn’t care what her story is. Dressed in brown prisoner clothing, Cerise is helped up by an elderly green-skinned woman as the guard informs them they are about to be “flushed”. Cerise asks what “flushed” means, and the elderly alien reveals that it means transported, that they are about to leave the “comfort” of the processing center to arrive on below on Krag, the rock within a world where they will spend the rest of their lives.
Many distant parsecs away, the spaceship known as the “Starjammer” jettisons its waste products before getting underway, the ships crew unaware of the would-be passengers arriving in a most unconventional manner.
A “bamf” marks the arrival of Kurt “Nightcrawler” Wagner, leader of the British super hero team Excalibur. Clinging to his tail is his teammate, the handsome Scott Wright a.k.a. Micromax, who has used his size-changing power to make himself small. Kurt suddenly realizes that teleporting here from the prison planet to the space station to the garbage chute may not have been the greatest idea, but that they had no choice, for they had to get the Starjammers to help them rescue Cerise.
Wright mutters as he holds on to Kurt’s tail for his life, that for once he agrees with him. Kurt tries to hold on to the wall, but can only barely. The doors to the garbage chute begin to close – however Kurt’s tail – with Micromax on it – are floating on the other side of them. Wright tells Kurt to pull his tail in. Nightcrawler replies that he is trying, but Wright tells him to try harder – and just before the door slams shut, Micromax is brought into safety.
As Scott returns to his regular size, Kurt mumbles that the Starjammers will detect them entering the ship through the garbage ship, for he saw it in a movie once. ‘Great’ mutters Wright before asking Kurt how he can believe Cerise is innocent when she freely admitted to be guilty of the Shi’ar charges brought against her. Kurt reminds Scott that he is a mutant and therefore should know he cannot always take things at face value.
Meanwhile, on Earth, specifically Braddock Manor in England, the home of the motley Excalibur crew, where one troubled woman has lost the love of her life and sense of self. Her name is Meggan, as an elemental she is one of Excalibur’s most powerful, but erratic, members. After losing Brian Braddock, Meggan has removed herself from reality by becoming one with a waterfall and the stream. Meggan’s fellow-founding teammate, Kitty “Shadowcat” Pryde sits on a nearby rock and asks Meggan to talk to her.
Kitty declares that she knows what it is like to lose someone, but that the first thing you learn is that you have to move on. Kitty tells Meggan that she is still herself and cannot define herself by her relationship with someone else. Meggan of course doesn’t respond, but Kitty again tells her that Brian isn't here but that she has to get on with her life. Kitty frowns and asks Meggan if she can even hear her, but when Meggan doesn’t answer, Kitty gets mad and shouts at her, telling her to snap out of it – causing Kitty to lose both her temper and her control of her mutant phasing power, so she slips into the stream.
The young magician, Feron appears nearby, holding an umbrella over his head as he hovers cross-legged by the waterfall. He mocks Kitty before suggesting that he should make the next attempt to reach Meggan. Kitty shakes the water off herself and tells Feron that he has a nice idea but that he is missing the point. Kitty declares that it doesn’t matter what she or anyone else says to Meggan, for they are not who she needs to speak to right now. She starts to march back towards the Manor exclaiming that since Brian Braddock is not going to stop by for a chat she is going to find a towel. Feron asks Meggan if what Kitty said is true – that she needs to speak with Captain Britain, and grins, asking why no one said so sooner.
Back in space, at the processing center near the entrance to the pan-dimensional prison Krag, located beneath the planet’s surface. Cloaked in the standard prisoner-robes, Excalibur members Kylun and Rachel Summers have secretly entered the queue to be transported to the prison, and Kylun points out Cerise, ahead of them in the queue. Rachel reminds Colin McKay that they do not want to draw attention to themselves, especially as they went to all the trouble of stealing the robes. They watch as Cerise is transported below, and Rachel is annoyed they are too late.
Kylun urges Rachel to stay calm, reminding her they will do more good if they maintain there cover. A guard tells the two to stop talking before asking for their paper work. Rachel sees the concern on Kylun’s face, so she telepathically tells him not to worry, as she saw this in a movie once. Using her telepathy, Rachel tells the guard that he does not need to see their papers, for everything is fine and they are free to proceed. The guard is less-than-impressed and tells Rachel that they may not proceed. He asks her again for her papers before telling her he will tear them off her.
Kylun suggests to Rachel Summers that the guards are protected by mental manipulation, when suddenly the guard rips Rachel’s robe from her, declaring he has had enough of – he doesn’t finish his sentence, for he falls to the ground and everyone around him creeps backwards at the sight of her Phoenix costume. ‘The symbol! Do you see it?’ ‘Gods below – it’s the Phoenix!’ Rachel frowns and tells Kylun he may be right, ‘or they just don’t get HBO out here’.
Meanwhile, above the planet Krag is the “Starjammer” spaceship, home of the aptly-named Starjammers. Right now, the Starjammers are engaged in a debate with the Empress Lilandra Nermani of the Shi’ar Empire. Corsair tells her that she is being unreasonable and reminds her that Professor Xavier has vouched for the integrity of Cerise. Lilandra tells Corsair not to try that button with her and declares that it would not matter if Charles were personally appealing on Cerise’s behalf. Lilandra raises her voice through the holographic-projection-intercom and declares she will not re-try Cerise for the heinous crime she has committed.
Hepzibah tells Lilandra that she is using the Starjammers like pet dogs, but Corsair cuts her off, and tells Lilandra that if she will not cast some light on the very questionable conviction Cerise is on and to give him some idea as to why Cerise would be sop content to accept it, then he will ask her himself. Lilandra points at Corsair and tells him not to overstep himself, for she has enough to worry about right now without his meddling. Lilandra reminds Corsair that they have an alliance and suggests he does not make her forget that, before fading from view.
Raza tells Corsair that they are standing by for his orders and asks what they are to be. Corsair raises his gun and shoots a panel on the wall, declaring ‘this’ is his order. The panel breaks away, revealing Nightcrawler and Wright hidden behind it. ‘Oh. Uh, hello!’ exclaims Kurt. ‘Stowaway’s! declares Raza, as Corsair asks Kurt if he enjoyed the trip. Nightcrawler teleports over to where Corsair is and asks him if he also believes that Cerise is innocent. Corsair exclaims that he is not so sure, before marching away and telling his team to prepare to beam down, for they are going to find out the truth, no matter what the cost.
Back on the prison planet, a riot has broken out, as Rachel, Kylun, the guards and other prisoners have all engaged in battle. The guards squabble over who is going to claim Phoenix as their own, the prisoners trying to capture her also, for everyone wants the bounty on her head. Rachel apologizes to Colin for dropping their cover. As Rachel knocks out a prisoner, she declares that she doesn’t want to hurt them, as they are probably as innocent as Cerise. Kylun exclaims that his swords will separate good from evil, and suspects that there is plenty to be separated.
Suddenly, Rachel’s telepathy picks up a strange thought-pattern from the transport platform, but before she can act upon it further, everyone is frozen still in time. An amphibious alien walks up to Rachel and Kylun warns her to be careful as the alien is reaching for her face. The alien touches Rachel on the chin before announcing that she is not the Phoenix, merely wearing her dread garments, but does not fill them. Rachel is about to do something to the alien when everyone around her is freed from their suspended animation.
Rachel wonders what happened, Kylun suggests they no longer considered her worth fighting over. Someone tells Rachel not to worry, for there are those who would gladly die to behold her shining visage. Rachel turns and sees that it is Raza, who along with the other Starjammers, Nightcrawler and Micromax have arrived at the processing station. They apologize for their delay, before Kylun asks the question – ‘now what?’ Nightcrawler exclaims that he can only speak for himself, but he is going through the transporter to find Cerise, and then is going to bring her home, kicking and screaming if necessary.
Below the surface of the planet Krag, a tempestuous climate gives reason for Cerise to tell the elderly Cryan to huddle closer to her, for the ionic winds can freeze skin off. ‘I’m not really the cold-blooded assassin everyone here seems to think’ Cerise mutters. Cryan thanks Cerise and huddles closer, causing other prisoners to mock them. A reptilian alien points to the ‘puerile alien and the venerable primate’ huddled against the ‘acrimonious zephyrs’. He makes a joke before calling to Cerise and Cryan, informing them that they are not listening with their ‘respective auricular apparatus’.
Cerise and Cryan ignore him, causing him to go up to them and furiously tell Cryan that he will not be disregarded with such impunity. He grabs Cryan at the shoulder, causing her to scream – until Cerise kicks the reptilian to the ground. Someone rushes to the alien’s aid, but upon reaching him points out that he is dead – that Cerise killed him. Cerise narrows her eyes and reminds everyone that he made the decision to attack Cryan, not she. She tells the others to back off, or else they will be next. The aliens back off and tell Cerise that the body is hers. ‘Great, that is just what we need right now – a maniacal Lizard’s dead body’ mutters Cerise, not knowing that the strange mind detected by Rachel Summers sometime earlier is actually watching her.
At the processing station, Excalibur and the Starjammers confront the person in control of transporting people to Krag. With various weapons pointed at him he folds his arms and not-too-impressed he asks if this is the part where he screams “No don’t kill me, I'm too young to die?” Kylun tells the alien that it may be if he does not improve his attitude and start working the controls. ‘Yes! Itchy trigger fingers is mine, big-ears!’ exclaims Hepzibah as she holds her gun to the man’s head.
The transporter chief declares that he does not need their threats and tells everyone that if they want to beam down to an inescapable hellhole then who is he to stop them? He ushers the eight onto the platform that will send them down, muttering to ‘Miss Skunk’ that she ought to watch where she is throwing those ear comments she has been making.
Corsair stops Kurt and tells him that before they go down, he thinks there is something he and everyone else should know before they make the trip. Corsair orders the chief to call up the evidence against the prisoner Cerise – ‘or I’ll blow another hole in your head’. ‘Again wit the threats!’ mutters the transporter chief before pulling Cerise’s file on screen. Nightcrawler and other others watch in horror at a recorded message made by Cerise, in which she confesses to taking full responsibility to the death of every crew member aboard the encruitment ship.
Cerise exclaims that perhaps no one will ever fully understand what she is about to do or why, but that she knows she is right and hopes that someday the universe will find it in its heart to forgive her. Corsair reveals to everyone as they watch the encruitment ship explode that it was the final transmission and only record of what happened to that ship. He declares that Cerise was tried in absentia for treason against the Empire, for everyone assumed she had died with the rest of her crew – until a few days ago when her Shi’ar bio-implant registered her existence in Earth’s atmosphere.
Kurt asks Corsair if he thinks this changes the way he feels about Cerise and the situation she is in, because it doesn’t. He exclaims that He knows Cerise and therefore knows she must have had a reason to do what she did, and that no one but Cerise will be able to tell him differently. As Excalibur and the Starjammers are transported to Krag, Kurt exclaims that he will not stop until he has found Cerise. No matter where she is, no matter what stands in his way.
On Krag, lightening strikes and rain pours down as Cerise keeps the elderly Cryan company – unaware that the ferocious Fang is ready to attack her.