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The Mourning After
(flashback - New York City)
Threnody is a young woman sitting in an alleyway; hungry, tired and in tears. Adolescence has hit her hard. With her mutation comes a genetic deviation of particularly explosive proportions and, in Threnody’s case, it’s beyond her control. As she sits there, a large figure appears in the alleyway and whisks her away.
(present)
The large figure carrying her now is the same as it was then. It belongs to the Abomination, also known as former saboteur and spy Emil Blonsky. He was the mechanic of his own mutation, and long ago fell victim to his own twisted politics and pride as well as his own worst instincts. With a searing shower of glowing green gamma radiation came a metamorphosis into the creature he is today. He sees Threnody for what she is, perhaps more so than most. He knows there is no hope for mutants or monsters… no real rest for the weary, or the wicked.
Threnody wakes up after passing out and orders the ‘freak’ to let go of her. Emil carries her into his chambers underground. A sofa and framed photograph hanging on a column are the only noticeable aspects of anyone living there. Her anguish is picked up by Nate Grey, whose telepathy is his most powerful weapon. He realizes she’s still alive, and still in trouble as usual. He figures she can take care of herself, considering how she slipped away as soon as they hit the city, and the things Sinister implied about her being a deliberate plant to enable him to get to him. He thinks again. There’s no reason why he should believe Sinister so easily. He can’t take his word without hearing Threnody’s side of the story. He doesn’t want to be left alone again, not like in Paris, when Madelyne Pryor ran off without him.
Above the city, glowing in the morning sunrise, Nate cannot but help how the city still takes his breath away. Nothing compares to its beauty. There’s just so much life. He can experience it through the eyes and ears of those living in it, though it might be a little overwhelming reading so many minds at once. First things first, he needs to find Threnody. However, the city’s still in chaos following Onslaught’s devilry. The people are confused about the loss of their heroes, and in their minds it was the mutants who were the cause of this. He manages to finally lock on to Threnody and flies into the city.
(underground)
Threnody informs the Abomination that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. She’s gaining more control over her power every minute. Really? he replies. He reminds her that it didn’t seem that way when he rescued her from those mutants. He informs her that those around him still come first, though. Nothing has changed. Seated around the sofa are around a dozen people who he calls ‘The Forgotten.’ They are the unwelcome and unwanted from the streets above, and they live under his protection.
Threnody recognizes Cole and Watts, and Emil introduces her to the newest additions to his family, the twins Roust and Joust. They are two small men wearing flat caps. There are more of the Forgotten that there used to be; indicative, thinks Emil, of the way so-called civilized society treats its people. Threnody congratulates Emil on still wallowing in the sewers as he has for a long time now. Emil warns her, telling her that she can take what she needs from the scavenged goods when the others are done. Then she can leave. She is no longer welcome in their world.
Threnody puts on a brave show, but she feels deep down that something’s amiss with Emil. He isn’t the man she once knew; the man who saved her from the Marauders. She notices a leather jacket next to a photograph of a guy sporting an eye patch and a burning candle. She likes it and quickly slips it on. ‘Mourning black - just my color,’ she thinks. It’s just her size. As she becomes comfortable with the jacket, Roust and Joust see what she’s doing, and one of them attacks her. He complains that they’re Jimmy’s leathers. He was one of them, right to the end. He died in that jacket, scrounging food from the high gangs for them.
Threnody is much larger than him, and grabs him around the neck. She threatens to drag him down to the same bottomless pit, but his friends back the little fella up. One warns her that she won’t hurt them again.
Suddenly, one of the walls shatters and Nate Grey emerges through it. He tells the Forgotten that the party’s over, and he’s going home with the girl. One man suggests that they get him, but Nate reminds them that his telekinesis just sheared down through a hundred and thirty feet of dirt and rock, smashed through four more feet of solid brick and mortar and pulverized it all in mid-air right before their eyes. He asks them to take a minute to imagine what he could do to them.
His warning goes unheeded, and they attack him with clubs, spears and a shopping trolley. Once they are within a yard of him, they all stop, smashing their faces against an invisible telekinetic field. Threnody is surprised and glad that Nate has come for her, but the Abomination is less welcoming. He swipes Nate clean off the ground, and castigates Threnody for betraying them. Nate goes clean through a nearby brick wall in to the next room.
The Abomination looms large over Threnody, and he snarls at his one-time friend. He tells her that she’s led a stranger to the last lair; the only haven left to the Forgotten. He knows the price to be paid...! Thoughts go through Threnody’s head of the words Sinister recently said to her. “It’s only beginning. The boy has yet to completely trust you.” Now, those words speak louder than most.
She asks him to stop, telling Emil that they only wanted him to help them. They’ve been running from the Marauders for so long now, and they still can’t escape them. They’re everywhere now. That’s why she came down to the sewers and brought Nate Grey with her - for protection. She’s really stalling for time, hoping for a miracle, but she’s really scared. She’s terrified of ending up like Malice, or worse, maybe. Before she needs to speak again, the wall Nate was knocked through explodes and he floats through the swirling dust with his hand outstretched. “Come, girl, we’re outta here.”
The Abomination runs for him and leaps, only to be caught in a telekinetic bubble that holds him where he is. Nate then slams him back against another wall, which gives partially under his weight and the force of Nate’s thrust. Emil struggles but cannot move anything but his mouth. He says that the shrew shows her true colors to be chameleon. He guesses she’s playing Nate like she always played him. Threnody asks Nate why he’s listening to this monster. What is he waiting for? “Finish him already, finish him.” Nate apologizes to Threnody, but he isn’t finished. He places his finger on Emil’s forehead and winds his memories back a while. He wants to see the truth.
(flashback)
Emil is sitting with a few of the Forgotten. Threnody lies on an old mattress, asleep. Emil tells the others that it’s been weeks since he found her up top. She’s finally eating and drinking, and even talks between moans to some of the children. An elderly couple offers Threnody some food as she begins to wake up. The old man says the girl still won’t tell them her name, and the old woman tells Emil that she and pops have been calling her Threnody, like this banshee’s song of hers. It started off almost pretty, if he listened real close; an angel’s keening, sad but soulful. They wish they could do something for the pain she’s in.
Threnody suddenly comes to life, her eyes opening wide as if emerging from a nightmare. She screams, inadvertently killing the elderly couple. She scurries into a corner, repeating the word no over and over again.
(present)
The Forgotten were horrified then, and Emil would have killed her if not for the kids. But, that was then… this isn’t. Threnody is anxious, not knowing what Nate has learned. Emil tells him that he can’t keep denying the truth which stares him dead straight in the face. Nate turns to Threnody and asks him if it’s true what he saw in his head. Two innocents died trying to help her; vaporized by her mutant death-purge? She admits that it is true, but she swears she never meant for it to happen. Nate knows, but he just needed to hear her admit it to herself.
Nate points his finger at Emil, still helpless against the wall. He reminds Emil that there’s no way a memory can lie; anyone’s memory about anything. It’s all right there in full color, and not so black and white as Emil chooses to see it. He is well aware that Threnody hurt others in her time, with and without her powers. He’s known that since day one. But, he’s only now getting to know her, and where Emil sees another threat, he sees a scared kid, trying to understand and cope with powers beyond her control. They see the same tragedy in his memories, only they see it differently. Emil has been loosening the bricks behind him as Nate spoke, and he replies that obviously, Nate would forgive and forget. He, meanwhile, knows better!
He swipes at Nate, slapping him on the side of the head with a handful of red brick. Nate knows the creature thinks of himself as being fast for his size, but he is faster. Nate bounces into a pile of bricks and the Abomination leaps on him, pounding him into the ground. He then grabs Nate’s leg and slams him down hard, before landing punch after punch on the young mutant. He gives him a real going over whilst he taunts Nate over how Threnody appears to have run off again as soon as he looked the other way. She’s compromised the location of the lair, and left him in the dust, with the fate of the Forgotten. With Nate thoroughly beaten, the Abomination claps the dust off his hands and leaves his bedraggled body where it lies.
As he ambles away, Threnody asks Nate what just happened. Nate informs her that he used psi-projections to allow Emil to see what he wanted to see. The whole fight was a fantasy. Nate figures Emil can remain the pauper-king, defending his kingdom, protecting his poor people and his precious throne. For all Nate’s power, he is just now learning how to avoid the battles he doesn’t need to fight. Nate can’t do much more to help Emil, but he decides that he and Threnody will do no more running. They’re going to find a place to stand their ground.
(somewhere over the Atlantic)
A plane is carrying Selene, Trevor Fitzroy, Madelyne Pryor and Ella to the United States. Selene is reveling in the fact she is taking Madelyne to Manhattan. The island hasn’t seen the likes of her before. She hopes her new friend, Trevor Fitzroy, will understand why a certain Sebastian Shaw deserves to be the first to welcome her home again.


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[Assistant]
Open Case
(Washington Square Park, New York City)
It’s a beautiful day, as Nate Grey and Threnody wander through the park. Nate wonders how the people of this city can be so calm in the wake of Onslaught, but Threnody figures that it’s because they’re New Yorkers. They won’t even look twice at their leathers. Nate can guarantee they won’t. All it takes is a little telepathic twist and they’ll see exactly what they want to see. He’s hungry, and so is Threnody.
The park is bustling and, amongst the crowd, they discover a con game going down. A table has been planted where a group of men are engaging the crowd in Three Card Monte. Threnody explains to Nate that the game appeals to the baser instincts; greed usually. A shill is working the crowd, making them believe that it’s possible to win, and a punter takes his chance. Of course, he loses. The dealer asks Nate and Threnody if they’d like to play. The shill even offers to pay for their first wager, so Nate duly obliges. The hand is dealt and he picks the card on the left. He draws the ace, which means he’s won. The sharks look at him, bemused. Soon, Nate soon wins eight in a row and is raking the money in.
A couple of joggers run past and one of them informs the team that the cops are just around the corner. The team packs up, much to the audience’s dismay. Threnody feels the chumps finally got the right idea, but Nate tells her that the cops are nowhere near. The joggers are in on the act, too. They’re just cutting their losses; a backdoor out of a losing hustle. Threnody asks how he did it. Nate explains that the money card was never far from the dealer’s thoughts, so…
Nearby, a palm reader is doing the same trick, playing on people’s naivety. She tells a punter that he’ll have four kids and be a millionaire many times over by the time he’s thirty. Before she finishes her sentence, he replies that he’s thirty-two today. “Five,” she replies. “By the time you’re thirty-five.” She asks for her six-fifty and for the next hapless punter. She spots Nate and thinks he looks interesting; an easy read even from where she’s sitting. She figures that, with a body like his, the attitude and the bristling energy, things will come easy for him. She takes him for a model. He’s had an easy life, without struggle or strife to speak of. He’s known no loss. She couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Nate feigns laughter, before turning the tables on her. He informs the crowd that the palm reader wants to be an actress - already is if you ask him. He adds that she is also a psychology student at E.S.U. and her rent is $458.62 a month for two and a half rooms. Her name is Emily O’Hare, and she has exactly $122 left to her name. “Beneath the bathroom sink in Brooklyn, in fact, hidden behind your spare box of extra-large…”
Emily interjects and asks how he could possibly know all this. Nate replies that it’s easy enough when you know how. He turns to a bench where a young woman sits alone and a guy is reading the paper. He knows that they know each other but neither realizes it. He prompts a reintroduction between the two old friends and then turns his attention to a younger man wearing a baseball cap. Nate suspects he is needier than most and ambitious to a fault. He tries delving further into his mind, but the guy calls for him to back off before shuffling away.
The crowd are amazed at Nate’s abilities and, as a passing Madelyne Pryor witnesses what’s just happened, the crowd ask Threnody what he’s called. On the spur of the moment she smiles and replies, “Nate the Great!” Suddenly, Nate is swamped with questions from people believing he is some kind of mystic. Threnody tries to act like his manager, drawing them in and suggesting they make donations. Nate grabs her hand and they take to the air. “Let’s talk,” he grins.
Down below, Madelyne Pryor is sorry to see him leave. Ella wants to get Madelyne back to the hotel. Under Selene’s instructions, they were not supposed to leave it in her absence. Madelyne informs Ella that the guy who just flew away was really Nate Grey. He’s there in New York. Ella asks who the woman was, in that case. Madelyne doesn’t know the answer to that, remaining silent as she is lost for a single, solitary moment in feelings of inexplicable loss and fury. All is not right with the world.
(meanwhile)
Trevor Fitzroy is driving a speedboat and he approaches a larger vessel. He doesn’t like this one bit. One minute, he’s working the backstreets of London chatting up a ripe piece of red meat for the taking, and the next he’s running interference for the witch of ages herself. It could have been worse, he guesses, considering the repeated unravelling condition he last left her in.
He climbs on board and is greeted by Tessa, whose hand he kisses. Tessa is unimpressed, but tells him that Sebastian Shaw is waiting for him. Sure enough, Shaw, dressed in a small green gown, is waiting and he asks Trevor why he should be at all interested in what he has to say to him. Fitzroy explains that they have a mutual problem by the name of Operation: Zero Tolerance. Ring any bells? The things these people plan to do would put Shaw’s worst nightmares to shame. Shaw replies that his nightmares might surprise even him.
Shaw knows of Fitzroy’s future pedigree, and he is sure he could tell him much of Bastion and his international task force. But, what can he do about him? Fitzroy replies, “That’s where she comes in; the one I represent…” Shaw knows of whom he speaks; his twice-failed mistress. Tessa interrupts him telepathically and informs him that the witch is aboard, in the shadows. They turn to see Selene emerge from them.
She tells Sebastian that the solution to Bastion and his gathering storm should be obvious. These are the times that will only be survived together by mutants of such means and power as they, collected within the new Inner Circle around the Black King and Queen, united as one. Shaw removes his sunglasses and tells her he is disappointed once again. Considering the results of her previous attempts, he hopes she is not suggesting what he thinks she is. Selene replies that she has an offer he cannot refuse.
(Rockefeller Center)
Nate and Threnody head for food at the Rockefeller Center’s Rainbow Room. The maitre’d takes one look at them and point blank refuses them entry, claiming the restaurant is full. Nate throws him a quick telepathic change of mind and asks him to check again. This time the maitre’d sees movie director Quentin Tarantino and model Naomi Campbell. He offers his humblest apologies and asks them to follow him. The diners are aghast, wondering if Tarantino is making a movie with her. Nate thinks these two characters must be heroes to receive such attention from the public. Threnody tells him she’ll explain later.
Soon, after a sumptuous meal, Nate says he’s impressed with the food almost as much as the company and asks where to next? Threnody replies that they need to get as far from there as possible. Nate places his hand on hers and reminds her that they can run, but they cannot hide; not from Sinister. Not as long as she wears his psi-bafflers just to survive.
Nate still cannot escape his words. The names Sinister called him echo within his mind, especially there in the bubble above the world. “Grey-spawn… Summer-seed.” Threnody understands and says that, as long as they are who they are, men like Sinister will always haunt their lives if they let them. Threnody seems almost annoyed with herself at tying Nate down now he has found so much freedom.
Nate hears a tune and asks Threnody to dance. They move to the dance floor and begin to smooch but, as the song progresses, Nate forgets his surroundings and the pair begin to literally float on air. The guests are astonished that Tarantino and Campbell are floating, and someone quickly surmises that they must be “MUTIES!”
In a second, there is blind panic, as everyone rushes for the exits. Nate calls for a time out, telekinetically halting them in their tracks. He takes Threnody and they fly through the window, leaving the guests remembering nothing about their presence there tonight. All they know is that they appear to have been fleeced of their wallets and jewels.
Outside, Threnody counts the cash, and calls them stupid. She reckons humans thinks they’re so far beneath them… who needs ‘em? Nate replies that they’re scared, and with good reason. In the face of Onslaught, even he was scared, but the humans rise above their fear anyway. That’s what they do, somehow. Nate would like to help them in any way he can. He opens Threnody’s hand with his mind and the loot falls from it, down to a family below who have fallen on hard times.
Nate tells Threnody that things need to change between them. The thievery has to stop. No more cheating and no more lying. Nate promises to learn to curb his displays of power if that’s what it takes to walk among them instead of above them. He faces Threnody as they float in mid-air, lit by the full moon. Nate asks her to understand that on his word, in his time, this was all gone. All of it was lost to Apocalypse, as if it never existed in the first place. Mutants, for all their powers and amazing abilities, they attained these heights only to tear them all down again.
Nate points to a nearby skyscraper where a man works at his desk even at this late hour. He says that mankind shoots for the sky with nothing more than the most basic of nature’s gifts as their birthright, every day and in every little way. These skyscrapers are just the beginning. Their achievements and accomplishments are astounding - too many to count and too far to see. They are the truest wonder of all, and as for Threnody, he tells her she is a miracle in the making.
Nate adds that he isn’t afraid to go back into her head again. If he could reroute her synapses, she wouldn’t need Sinister’s psi-bafflers. He leaves her with that choice. Up there, all alone, nobody else will be at risk. He could tear the bafflers away and destroy them forever. They can deal with the consequences, explosive or otherwise, together. “Or…?” asks Threnody. “Or not,” Nate replies, as he embraces Threnody and kisses her, floating next to the Statue of Liberty’s torch.


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[Assistant]
Sons of the Father (1st story)
Mindgames (2nd story)
First story :
Over the Atlantic Ocean Nate Grey is tracking the Sugarman, whom he believes to be responsible for a recent “reality ripple” over New York. As he sees another ripple, he actually enters it and finds himself back in the “Age of Apocalypse” reality. He recognizes the genetic processing plants before him, but before he can act, the ripple ends and things are back to normal. Nate however, can pinpoint the origin of the source of the ripple effect and moves in that direction at full speed.
His destination turns out to be Genosha and the mastermind behind those ripples is indeed Nate’s fellow AoA survivor, the Sugarman, who is responsible for the mutant slavery in Genosha for the past twenty years – ever since he entered this reality. The Sugarman created a “fargate”, but he needs energy to spark it and not even the life-energy of his mutate slaves, whom he kills, is enough. Sugarman’s goal is to return to the AoA at an earlier point in time, get his hands on Apocalypse’s “plague of penitence” and the antidote and use this plague to rule this world. The problem : He hasn’t been able to empower the fargate for more than brief moments – hence the “ripples”. But he already has a solution.
Armed guards enter the lab, asking him to evacuate as an unidentified force is nearing Genosha. At that moment the “force” - Nate - enters the lab. Nate easily defends himself against the guards and telekinetically frees the surviving mutates from their shackles. As he is forced to use his powers because of the attacking magistrates, the Sugarman presses a button and Nate’s immense energy powers up the gate, which Sugarman quickly jumps into. Nate is horrified and jumps in after him, ending up in the ocean.
Nate is close to drowning as some force pulls him up in the air – up above the Niagara Falls. Nate is being held suspended in the air – held by Magneto, who addresses him by his name.
Unsure, Nate briefly shuts off Magneto’s energy, leading to a painful feedback for him. Magneto blusters, but is interrupted by an amused voice from a hooded man – a man who reveals himself as Forge. Nate is overjoyed and hugs his old mentor, whom he believed dead, but then he realizes that Forge still has two healthy eyes instead of a bionic replacement and understands that he has entered the AoA timeline at an earlier point. Nate wants to tell Forge of all the horrors that await them. Forge interrupts him – he knows all that – Nate already told him the last time.
Meanwhile, in a facility above the Niagara falls, Sugarman, who has been here for several weeks, is experimenting with his strain of the plague on some poor victims, mainly one Calvin Rankin, who dies horribly as a result. Despite having all the test results he needs, he intends to do the same to his next prisoner – Jason Wyngarde.
In the meantime Forge and Nate huddle around a campfire while Magneto is already asleep. Apparently a future Nate had already visited Forge previously in the AoA and told him, what would happen on this adventure. As Nate presses him for more information, Forge remains tight-lipped. Their discussion turns to Magneto, whom Nate distrusts. He’s aware that Magneto is a hero here, but on the other Earth he is a hated terrorist. Was he always just the lesser of two evils, Nate wonders, alluding to the Onslaught disaster that cost the other Earth its heroes, thanks to Magnus and Xavier. Forge disagrees. Future-Nate told him that the other world never became the horror that is the AoA only thanks to Xavier. Nate asks, whether future-Nate also said how this raid was going to end. Forge doesn’t answer, but says, they’ll move at dawn, as their inside man will expect them then.
By now Sugarman has prepped Jason. The sensor probe boring into Jason’s speech-centers renders him incapable of speech. One of Sugarman’s aides, however is acting furtively.
Nate psi-scans the area, confirming that he is indeed in the AoA. He wonders, which world is really his home and what he is looking for. If he’s stuck in the AoA, he’d lose Threnody and Madelyne, but would at least have his friends back and be able to find Theresa somewhere. Besides this is only the dawning of the AoA, he might still be able to prevent some of the horrors to come.
Sugarman enjoys Jason’s obvious suffering as his body breaks down. The aide, wondering how he could have missed the point when Sugarman infected Jason, attacks Sugarman and reveals himself as the X-Man Morph. He then realizes, the whole scene was just a ruse by Jason, who tried to get the aide/Morph to help him – Sugarman wasn’t yet able to infect him. Morph frees Jason, but they find themselves surrounded by armed guards.
Luckily the cavalry arrives at that moment in the form of Nate, Magneto and Forge in an armed techno-chair. Morph called them in with his emergency signal, before he blew his cover. Morph hands Jason a gun, which he gleefully uses against the guards. Forge in the meantime notices that Sugarman is getting away and he is not running towards the exit. He orders Magneto to take out the mainframes and powercables and asks Nate to clear a path to Sugarman. As the two of them communicate via telepathy, Forge worries, that Nate might get an inkling of what he is planning to do. Sugarman shoots at Forge injuring his eye. As Forge unleashes an electric blast against him, he worries, that they won’t be able to alter time and that Sugarman will win, no matter what. Forge orders Nate to psilink him with Sugarman and realizes his plan. Sugarman intends to release a deadlier waterborne strain of the penitence virus to determine its efficiency, before taking it with him to the other reality. He orders Nate up and tells him the virus is in the Falls already mixed into the water. Magneto angrily shouts that Nate cannot do this alone. He can’t help him Forge replies and there’s something else he has to do. Nate struggles, then telepathically focuses on the individual microbes of the virus and then telekinetically culls them, and contains them. The strain starts showing as he starts to bleed out of his nose and ears.
In the meantime Magneto, following Forge’s instructions, adds the components of the techno-chair to Sugarman’s fargate. He’s not happy, however. While he doesn’t know as much as Forge or Nate about the situation, he doesn’t want to send Nate back. With his power they could win the war against Apocalypse. Forge replies that this isn’t right, as their world is only a shadow of that other world.
Nate enters, the trapped virus in tow. Magneto encases the tk forcefield holding the virus in metal and takes the load of Nate. Forge asks him to take the whole mess to a cold enough height, where the virus will die. Which leaves Forge to his machinations, Magneto concludes and glares at him, before leaving. As far as he’s concerned Forge has just condemned the world. Forge sadly realizes that this will be the final wedge between them. Only if he goes back, Nate replies. Which he must, Forge urges. Nate disagrees. He feels he can save this world, if he stays. If Forge doesn’t care about this world, why did he even bother sending Magneto to destroy the virus ? Because Magneto would have tried to stop him, Forge replies. He believes that the other world is the true reality, that deserves protecting. There’s hope over there. That place is the AoA saved, Forge explains while dragging the unconscious Sugarman to the gate. The remnants of M’Kraan energy in him unlock the door, but Nate still has to charge it. Nate is stubborn. He wants to stay with Forge.
And he won’t have leave, the returning Magneto replies and kills Forge. Furiously, predictably, Nate disintegrates Magneto, thus charging the fargate – he realizes that this scene was only an illusion by Mastermind, Magneto wasn’t there and Forge – still alive and well – urges him, that if he needs him, he’ll find him on the other side. He’ll find all his friends there, changed perhaps, but for the better. This little failsafe was actually planned by the future Nate, who knew that his past self would not want to leave. Almost dragged through the gate, Nate begs Forge to come with him. But who would be there for the younger Nate later in the AoA, Forge replies.
Back in New York City on the rooftops, Nate is still reeling from the experience. The city is starting to become his home, Nate realizes as he subconsciously chose it for his point of re-entry. Sugarman, he assumes, is back hiding in Genosha, and the real Forge has to be somewhere, too, and Nate vows to find him one day.
Second story :
On the yacht of Sebastian Shaw, his chief aide, the telepath Tessa is disturbed by the recent arrival of Selene, who has suggested to restart the Hellfire club’s Inner Circle. Even more bothersome is Selene’s companion, the mysterious Madelyne Pryor, whom Selene picked up in Paris. After a cursory mind-probe Tessa is sure that there is more to Madelyne than meets the eye. Sure, that Madelyne is asleep, Tessa silently enters both her cabin and her mind.
Tessa finds Maddie’s psi-scape peaceful at first. Surrounded by clouds, those suddenly give way to, shadow versions of the X-Men (Havok, Jean Grey, Cyclops, Storm and Wolverine) who shout that she shouldn’t have come here. Tessa tells them to stay back, they aren’t real. Everything’s real, they answer and combine into one distorted figure, before exploding. With the X–Men gone, Tessa figures, she’s reached a deeper level of Madelyne’s subconscious. There, surrounded by warm colors, she sees a newborn, that is picked up by Maddie. Mother and child are blissfully happy together, until Jean Grey and Cyclops show up, demanding that Madelyne let go of their son. Jean telekinetically takes the baby over Maddie’s protests and the three disappear. Tessa tries to console the crying Maddie, telling her, they’ll find her child. But Maddie lashes out at Tessa now focussing all her rage on her.
Both of them are back in reality with Madelyne awake and out for blood. How dare Tessa invade her mind, she demands and threatens dire consequences. Suddenly Madelyne displays telekinetic powers, mentally throwing objects at Tessa. Tessa switches the battle field to the astral plane believing she can win as she has seen Madelyne’s weaknesses, but Maddie proves to be a powerful telepath and holds herself.
Meanwhile at Xavier’s Jean Grey is roused from her sleep by the fight. She feels a disturbance on the psionic plane, but cannot pinpoint it.
Madelyne is winning as she has better resources than Tessa and subdues her, mocking her as a weakling. Back in reality, Maddie decides to kill Tessa for that violation. She intends to suffocate her telekinetically, but eventually decides against it, as even a seemingly natural death would rouse Shaw’s suspicion. Maddie erases Tessa’s memory of that night and leaves her asleep on the deck.
Alone, she muses that this event has its good sides. She finally has her repressed powers and memories back. She knows, what the X-Men and especially Mr. Sinister did to her, and they will all pay.


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Crash Course
(New York City)
Nate has a lot on his mind, but for the time being he is content to lounge around, aimlessly watching television. He flicks through the channels, not really focusing on anything in particular. He is still settling into this world, and at present he is doing so with Threnody in a long-vacant apartment. He has a lot of unanswered questions about the young woman, and her offer to take him out to see some new hotspots cannot raise much enthusiasm. Threnody is a little frustrated by his apparent lethargy, and heads out by herself, asking him to call her when he figures it out.
Nate watches her leave. This is hard for him. The only thing worse that what he knows about her connection to Mister Sinister is what he doesn’t know. He could follow her easily enough, and she’d never know, but that’s not what he wants. For all he knows, Sinister planned their relationship all along - another attempt to manipulate him and his genetics. But, he does have real feelings for Threnody. He just doesn’t know what to do with them anymore.
(flashback)
Earlier, they had chatted after moving in to the apartment. He asked her outright if she was still working for the mad doctor - keeping tabs on him until he was ready to take another shot. He figured that it could be something more subtle than that. Maybe he was exerting some kind of indirect control, possibly through the neuro-locks that kept her powers in check. Was she a pawn or a player?
She hugged him, and asked if it really mattered. Did he need all the answers right away? Nate didn’t have time for games, and Threnody realized he needed to know the truth. She allowed him inside her head to take a brief telepathic glimpse. He discovered that she didn’t know the truth herself, which confirmed what he suspected all along.
(present)
Threnody doesn’t understand the extent of their roles in each other’s lives, or Sinister’s part in them any more than Nate does. He needs her more and more, but he can’t trust her. Of course, considering the way in which he’s lived since coming into this world, ducking and hiding for the most part, he’s not so sure if that’s her fault, or his. With his mind concentrating on other things, Nate doesn’t register a large man carrying a gun on his back outside his apartment.
(Liberty Island)
Madelyne Pryor is destined to be the Hellfire Club’s new Black Rook. The Inner Circle is reforming. At its heart is Sebastian Shaw with the loyal Tessa at his side. Seeking the rank of Black Queen once again is Selene. With her is her current consort, Trevor Fitzroy. Madelyne is to face the Red Rook in battle. Her name is Scribe. As the two women prepare, she asks Madelyne what she’s waiting for. Madelyne replies that she’s never felt better than she feels now; never more jazzed by a place or a presence.
Scribe removes her cloak as Madelyne moves in to attack. Instead of grabbing Scribe, Madelyne passes right through her as if she was a ghost. Selene tells Shaw that she’s a little disappointed in his choice of rook. She doesn’t look like she has a drop of life in her. Madelyne will be so disappointed. Shaw replies that she’s being presumptuous as always. He had good reason to bail Scribe out of jail after the London debacle. She is not without her charms.
Madelyne turns to see Scribe moving towards her, claws at the ready. She strikes. Fitzroy thinks that Scribe is untouchable and far too fast for Madelyne. They have to do something. He powers up his bio-armor, but Selene just smiles. She knows Madelyne doesn’t need their help. Madelyne kicks off her own cloak and licks the blood from her cherry red lips. She charges at Scribe, who flips acrobatically over her head. Scribe admits that Madelyne’s quicker than she looks, and undoubtedly stronger, but speed and strength are nothing compared to skill of wit and will. She grabs Madelyne’s hair and yanks it back hard.
Trevor Fitzroy realizes that Scribe will go for her throat and wants to end it. Sebastian Shaw warns Fitzroy not to force him to stop him. Fitzroy complains that there’s something going on with that freak of his; something inside her, something else… Scribe’s ferociousness scares Madelyne, and it evokes a fear in her beyond anything she’s ever known. This fear suddenly stokes flames of passion and betrayal; burning embers of another, earlier life, unloved, into a roaring raging fire to end all fires.
Madelyne plunges her hand into Scribe’s chest. She then pulls out the body-jumping Mountjoy, causing Scribe a great deal of pain. It’s the first time Mountjoy has been torn free of his unwilling host without warning or consent. Selene smiles, asking Sebastian if he’s stacking the decks these days. Two big bad mutants against… “Our newest rook,” adds Shaw, completing her sentence for her.
Meanwhile, back in SoHo, the mystery figure has climbed the walls of Nate’s apartment and entered quietly. Nate stirs as the large shadow creeps up his bed and he sits up with a start. “Who…?” he asks. The shadow belongs to Bishop, and he asks Nate to think of him as his conscience. Nate replies that a spot-scan reading is totally clean. There’s no psi-signature at all, anywhere in the room. But how? Bishop tells him he is impressed he picked him up at all, considering the training and technology brought to bear to insure otherwise.
Bishop asks Nate to sit down as they need to talk, but Nate asks him to get lost. “Artificial psi-shields won’t protect you from a T.K. shove halfway up…” Bishop interrupts, replying that he has a few other tricks up his sleeve, including the mutant power to echo any and all kinetic energies, with a vengeance. Nate’s telekinetic shove is reflected back at him and he is sent flying across the room. Nate is on his feet in a second and charges at the big man. He sends them both crashing through the window.
Nate suddenly realizes that there are people below, and there’s an awful lot of shattered glass in freefall. Bishop tells him to sweep the glass and metal together, but Nate doesn’t think he can do that without tearing Bishop to shreds in the process. He can retrieve the shrapnel shard by shard, but it takes a lot more focus that the big scale stuff. He figures it’s every man for himself. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Rogue swoops in and collects them both. Even Bishop seems surprised to see her.
Rogue lands on a roof and puts the two men down. She berates Bishop. This is exactly why she asked him to wait for her before making contact. Bishop begins to apologize, but she reminds him that this isn’t his future where mutants battle mutants in the street just to survive - not yet at least. And the X-Men aren’t cops. This X.S.E zest of his in the wake of the professor’s loss just doesn’t wash here.
Bishop acknowledges his mistake. He saw no risk to anyone. He was simply scouting ahead of their rendezvous as agreed. “Scouting?” Nate remarks. “Sneaking is more like it. Snooping if you prefer, into my life and my apartment.” Bishop figures the person paying the rent might take issue with him thinking it’s his apartment. Rogue informs him that his Washington Square appearances attracted attention. Nate deduces that Bishop must be the one he sensed watching him yesterday. Rogue adds that Bishop is the one most concerned about him.
Bishop tells Nate that he knows the world he comes from. He lived in it too, in his own time. He’s lived through worse, even, in his own time. He adds that he sympathizes with his doubts and his very real fear of failure, but he can’t accept them as an excuse. He feels Nate has no sense of responsibility towards this Earth. Nate disagrees, asking him how he gets off thinking he knows how he feels or what he’s trying to do here; helping people in the park. Maybe if Bishop tried talking to him instead of about him…
Rogue suggests they step back inside where they’ll attract less attention, but Nate says no. X-people really annoy him, and they don’t get it either. He’s not one of Saint Xavier’s precious little students or fawning acolytes. He never will be. He thought that maybe they had come to some kind of understanding after the Onslaught nightmare. Rogue assures him that they have, but they never agreed to ignore each other’s existence and pretend they didn’t care. They were worried. “About me, or the rest of the world,” replies Nate.
Rogue wishes he’d stop lumping them all together, like one unit with one agenda. That’s not what the X-Men are about and never has been, she explains. They’re family sure enough, with some mutual goals, but it’s also about having someone to help pick up the pieces. She grabs Bishop and takes to the air, asking Nate to come and see them at the mansion sometime. “You might even like it. Trust me.”
Nate phases himself through the roof and into his apartment. To him, trust is the problem; his problem, and he’s the only one who can do anything about it. But, he doesn’t have to do it alone anymore. As he lands, he senses some kind of weird energy pressure. Suddenly, something awfully familiar washes over him, and his world will never be the same again. “It c-can’t be. It can’t be…”


[User]
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[Assistant]
First Noel
(Empire State hospital, Manhattan, Christmas Day)
Threnody strolls through the terminal cancer ward, using her mutant power to siphon the energy from the dying; a strange form of euthanasia. As the nursing staff rush to their stations, a glum-looking Threnody wishes them a Merry Christmas.
(Forest Hills, Queens)
Peter Parker and Mary Jane are being treated to presents from Aunt Anna. Among the presents, Peter receives a hideously bright yellow shirt with a flower pattern, whilst Mary Jane gets a teardrop and a new star for the tree. MJ feels it’s nice to have the family together, now, when they need them the most. Peter feels the same way. He doesn’t know what he’d do without MJ. Between his class schedule, his work for the Daily Bugle and his web-swinging, he can’t do this alone anymore. Never could, he guesses. ‘Aunt May’ helped him see that for himself last night. Something about the dream he had, so soon after Nate Grey’s visit…
His spider-sense begins to tingle, as he senses something in his neighbors’ garage. He wanders off and takes a look down there, and instinctively leaps to the ceiling when he comes across Nate Grey. Something is different about him. He looks feral and grins insanely. He whispers Peter’s name before doubling over in pain. He asks Peter to help him, but as Peter drops to the ground, Nate asks him not to touch him. He can’t fight the bloodlust… not that close. He then apologizes to Peter and says he shouldn’t have come back, but it started last night after dinner at his place.
(flashback)
Nate explains that he was on his way home, thinking about the evening he’d just spent with Peter’s family, when something hit him out of nowhere. It came hard and fast. It was blue and red and all teeth. It sure wasn’t Santa Claus.
(present)
Peter knows exactly who it is - Morbius: the Living Vampire. He doesn’t think it makes any sense. Michael Morbius began as a very human bio-chemist, attempting to treat his own rare blood condition with the plasma of a vampire bat. The cure turned out to be worse than the disease. He’s not supernatural, he adds, and his bite isn’t supposed to create other vampires. Nate figures his own telepathic abilities are probably to blame, in that case. It hardly matters, though - he’s infected.
Peter assures him he’s there to help. Nate may have started as just another photo opportunity, but he’s turned out to have much more in common than Peter expected. Nate gave him a gift last night, and he’ll never be able to thank him for that. He won’t walk away now.
Nate looks up and tells Peter that he needs Threnody. Peter asks where she is. Nate admits that he doesn’t know. His powers and perceptions are changing subtly, and her psi-bafflers seem to be blocking his tele-sweeps. Peter suggests that he try calling out to her, like he called out to him. His little mindtouch was nothing like his normal telepathy. It was something very different. Nate says that came from somewhere deeper, and much darker.
(meanwhile)
On board the boat, Madelyne Pryor knows that the truth is out there. She recalls her fight with Tessa, and thinks about how it ended prematurely, before she could get to the heart of her memories. She remembers her time with the X-Men all too well now, and her cruel joke of a marriage to Scott Summers before the miraculous return of Jean Grey. She remembers the theft of her son from her arms, but there’s something else, something even worse…
Sebastian Shaw appears behind her and places a cloak around her shoulders. He asks Madelyne what her mistress, Selene, will say when she discovers that she returned without her. She replies that Selene was merely her introduction. She and her little toady, Fitzroy, hardly need to share every intimate detail of their lives. She brushes her fingers against Shaw’s cheek, and using a little of her power, removes his scar as if it were never there.
Shaw is surprised, but Madelyne tells him it’s a promise of what they might accomplish together – one on one. Shaw isn’t quite convinced yet, but he’s willing to see more. Watching them disappear back inside the boat from the deck is Tessa. She knows that Shaw will be convinced, even if it destroys them all.
(the Lower East Side, New York)
Inside yet another abandoned tenement block, Threnody is still wandering. She tries to kid herself that she’s doing these people a favor, but knows she’s lying to herself. The hospital was a feeding frenzy: this place is a dessert. The homeless, poor and addicted sit around, almost oblivious to her presence as she siphons energies from them. She hasn’t eaten any real food in a couple of weeks, yet she’s feeling stronger and stronger the longer she spends among this slow, lingering decay. She feels that this is where she belongs now.
She questions why she feels like this. What is she doing? As soon as she starts to get close to someone like Nate and has any kind of normal relationship, she runs. Nate was just beginning to trust her, just like she wanted. She lowers her head as she figures it’s just what Sinister wanted. She leaps from the tenement’s window and lands in the alley below. Threnody wonders if she’s running from Nate or Sinister now. Protecting Nate from the mad doctor’s schemes and scalpels, or herself? Picking herself up, she wanders back towards the street, asking herself if it really matters anymore. Does he even miss her? Unseen, she is watched from the shadows by Michael Morbius.
(later)
Peter Parker is in his Spidey costume and swinging through New York City. Nate is flying beside him, using his telekinesis to keep up. Nate can sense a woman on the street below. He finds himself using senses he doesn’t normally utilize, thanks to the bite from Morbius. Spidey thinks he’s got the best of both worlds now. His own powers and Morb’s perceptions.
He asks Nate if that means he’s eradicating his taint, or if his body is learning to live with it. Nate replies, after mentioning Peter’s real name by mistake, that he was considering something else entirely. Spidey says that if Nate can’t trace Threnody’s thoughts and he’s not getting any answer from his psionic hotline, what exactly are they following to find her? The dying, replies Nate; the scent of the dying… all the way to those long dead.
(St. Raymond’s Cemetery, The Bronx)
Threnody visits the grave of Judith Jacobs, her mother, and begins speaking to her. She admits that she’s in trouble. She ran from Sinister once and for all, but she’s not really sure how far she’s got. There’s this boy she likes, but her mother probably wouldn’t. But, she continues, she hoped he could help change things for her. She even started to think that maybe she and Nate might be able to turn things around for each other. He’s got his own troubles too. Then, she went and screwed everything up… again.
Michael Morbius appears at her side and squats on the gravestone. His pallid features make his red eyes stand out even more as he whispers, “Yesss, you are the one. The one on his mind. Practically in his blood. In my blood now, under my skin.” Threnody warns him to back off, far and fast, if he knows what’s good for him. Morbius informs her that feeding from her Nate Grey turned out to be quite the enlightening experience; almost a symbiosis of sorts. He can sense that Nate didn’t know half of what Threnody is about. He doesn’t see the overwhelming hunger; the unceasing, unquenchable thirst. He had no appetite for it, like they do.
As he speaks, he finds a web thwapping onto his face, courtesy of the Wallcrawler. Two birds with one stone, comments Nate. He thanks Spidey for bringing him to the graveyard so quickly, but Spidey replies that it was a no-brainer. For a while, not all that long ago, he felt like he knew more dead people than living ones, and he’s not about to let Morbius add another innocent victim to his list.
Inexplicably, Threnody turns to them and releases a discharge of her explosive plasma, which narrowly misses Spidey. “Get away from him!” she screams. Morbius asks her not to hold back on his account. The Spider is all hers. Threnody continues to fire at Spidey, but his reflexes and spider-sense keep him from harm. He then webs her arms up and pulls, only for the agile mutant to flip over his head and smack him down with another discharge of plasma.
Unreal, thinks Nate, as he struggles to combat Morbius’ hold over him. Morbius can sense that Nate is almost his. He decides to finish him off and attacks, claws at the ready. He can sense a wellspring of mutant power ebbing closer and closer to the surface. Nate speaks out loud, asking when will they all learn that they can’t just sneak up on a telepath, twice?! He hammers a telekinetic blast into Morbius’ body, hurling him right across the graveyard.
Morbius decides that fleeing is the best option, and takes off. Nate knows that Morbius understands that it’s just a matter of time before his body fights off his influence completely. He wishes to follow, but Threnody asks him not to and Spidey agrees with her. Nate should take care of her, whilst he takes care of Morbius. He asks Nate to call out if he needs his help. Nate turns to Threnody and says that the same is true for her. She could have asked for help, anytime, anywhere.
Threnody assures him that he can’t understand but, for one brief moment there, she wasn’t alone. She finally found someone who shared the same lonely lust for death. She swears she didn’t want Morbius, but she sure needed him tonight. Nate disagrees. He tells her that she thought a soulless vampire was all she deserved. She thought she wasn’t worth any better. She walked the shadows between darkness and light for so long, she couldn’t see her way out again. So, she got in deeper, but if she could only see herself the way he sees her…
He knew that Morbius would come for her, like a moth to a flame. He knew that he would feel what he feels for her, burning in his veins. He was worried about her, about them both. He admits that he’s missed her. He was afraid that she would respond just the way she did, and now that he’s found her, and seen her face-to-face in this way, with these powers…
Nate then informs Threnody that he knows everything now. In this close proximity, her thoughts are like an open book. He knows all her dirty little secrets about where she’s been since she left him, what she’s been doing and to whom. He begins to float away. He knows that she preyed on the sick and the suffering… only those on the edges already, but he knows it’s still wrong. He also knows that she came to this graveyard because it was the only place she could think of with no one left to hurt. He knows she doesn’t want to be where she is, but she needs to decide to come back to him on her own, or he can’t help her.
Threnody slumps against her mother’s grave. Soon, a shadow falls over her hand and a voice from behind startles her. She looks around, and sees a woman wearing all black; her flowing red hair fluttering in the breeze. She says she’s looking for someone she believes passed through there recently. Tall, good-looking, white streak in his hair, built to kill… “Who?” asks Threnody. “Ring any bells?” asks Madelyne Pryor.


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[Assistant]
Down to Earth
(present)
Nate Grey is in a small sailing boat off Muir Island. He finds it strange returning to the island, considering how things went the last time. He needs to understand what is happening with his power. He’d hoped it was pure exhaustion at first - maybe even the shock of discovering that he somehow recreated Madelyne Pryor out of thin air. Whatever it is, it’s been a week now and nothing’s changed. His own psionic power might finally be killing him.
His old friend, Forge, had warned him of this possibility, and Moira MacTaggert herself insisted he’d never see the age of twenty-one, but he’s not prepared for death. He wants Moira to prove that is no longer the case. Nate wonders whether, if he could find this reality’s Forge, he would help him. As he scales the rocks leading to the island’s high plateau, leaving the sailing boat behind, he thinks about how he never imagined it would be so hard without his telekinesis. It was all he could do, with the assistance of his passive telepathy, to stow away on Swiss trade routes to the British Isles and find prime hiding spots in choice cargo holds. Still, he doesn’t like returning to Muir Island, especially under these circumstances. But, as his friend Peter told him just a few days ago, he’s running out of options.
(a few days ago)
Nate wanders through the Daily Bugle’s busy offices, not registering two people talking about a Jane Doe being found at the cemetery. Unknown to Nate, Threnody died there, and the journalists aren’t sure whether if she died as a result of a bizarre explosion or not. The autopsy should determine the cause. Nate calls out for Peter, and Peter quickly ushers him away from interested parties. He knows right away that Nate isn’t really there in the office with him, but he plays it cool. He’s psi-projecting himself from halfway around the world to New York City.
The two men walk out to the roof where Peter sits on top of the Bugle sign. Peter warns him about doing this. It’s one thing for the latest legend of the week to drop in for a photo shoot, but it’s another thing for an apparent mutant to drop by in his astral form for an intimate tête-à-tête. Peter reminds him that some people don’t like mutants, but Nate explains that this is why he took the elevator instead of just appearing by his side. He learns fast.
Nate explains that he didn’t have much choice. His body is in Switzerland, alone in the Alps. With his telekinetics burnt out, he can’t get to New York any other way. Peter presumes that he must have come to him for help because he might see this as an initial symptom of his illness. He tells Nate that he’s honored, but this is out of Spider-Man’s field of expertise, and way too critical to ignore. “The next obvious choice has to be the X…” Nate cuts him off before he can finish the sentence. Peter says that he needs to ask the right people for advice, and Nate knows he’s talking about Moira MacTaggert, as he can read Peter’s thoughts. He explains that he’s met her before, but…
Nate then realizes that Peter is right. Nate might have some serious reservations. He wasn’t exactly a welcome guest last time; although he acknowledges that he didn’t exactly act like one. However, he figures he can take a dose of Moira over the X-Men anytime.
(present)
His boat has gotten him in under Excalibur’s radar this time, and he figures the boat will be safe in the cove until he needs to return to the mainland. Once he reaches the top of the cliff and pulls himself onto safe ground, he overhears Nightcrawler and Amanda Sefton talking. Kurt is dressed in tartan, acting out the Scottish nobleman role. Nate tweaks their perceptions in order to screen him from their basic senses. He needs to find Moira, and doesn’t need Excalibur on his back.
Suddenly, Wolfsbane appears, looking for Kitty Pryde. She sniffs the air, not able to identify something being carried in the wind. Luckily for Nate, she doesn’t pick up on his presence and she bounds up the rocks to where Kurt and Amanda are. She is excited as she has something planned for the evening.
Nate approaches the main building and enters via Pete Wisdom’s wide-open bedroom window. Once he’s inside, Kitty makes a sudden appearance, phasing through the wall wearing only a towel following a shower. She fails to notice Nate, and informs Pete that breakfast is warm and waiting. If not for Nate’s psi-screens, she would have spotted him straight away.
He continues making his way through the complex and finds himself at Moira’s lab. The team is becoming concerned for her. Recently, she discovered she was the first non-mutant carrier of the Legacy Virus, and she’s been holed up in her lab a lot ever since. Nate knows that she might not help him, but he has nothing to lose. He opens the door, only to be faced with Moira MacTaggert, plugged into a series of hi-tech cables and machinery and aiming a laser-sighted gun right at him. She explains that her cyber helmet that shields her from his psi-tricks has been tracking him ever since he set foot on Muir Island. “Talk fast.”
(Soon, Falls Edge, Virginia)
Moira puts in a call to Falls Edge, X-Factor’s headquarters, but Val Cooper picks up instead. She apologizes, saying there’s been an accident. X-Factor is dead. Moira tells Nate she’s sorry, but it appears Forge is dead, along with the rest of his team. Nate, munching on a plate of food, thinks it hardly matters. It’s not like he knew him or anything, and there’s no way he could live up to his expectations. He also doesn’t really believe her, as he can sense this world’s Forge out there somewhere, though he doesn’t know exactly where. He figures Moira is either wrong or simply lying to his face. He can’t tell for certain as long as she’s wearing the helmet.
Moira names a few of her friends who have been lost to her recently, and figures now more than ever they should focus on those left to them. She asks Nate if it’s normal for him to be consuming so much food. If not, when did this appetite start? Recently? After the episode he described with Madelyne Pryor, she wonders if it could be related to her siphoning his power. Nate replies that he’s never really paid much attention to his eating. He’s never related it to his psionic power, or lack of… until now.
Moira thinks it’s the first of the changes to come. Mortality has a way of forcing you to re-examine each and every step you once took for granted. She reckons that what he’s described to her has Earth-shattering implications. The Phoenix entity itself, at the height of its cosmic grandeur, could hardly have created life like that. However, they shouldn’t jump to any conclusions until they have all the facts.
Nate wanders around Moira’s lab while she runs some tests, looking at the costumes and armors that have been collected over the years. He feels that Moira’s bedside manner leaves him cold, but then he doesn’t make it easy for her. Considering her own problems and the fact that he did sorta blow the place up last time he passed through, he’ll let it slide. Moira finishes her tests and she informs Nate that her initial data confirms what she’s been claiming all along. His T.K. negative, but…
(meanwhile, in a forgotten tunnel below New York City)
Dark Beast runs his long fingernails over a map of Muir Island. “X marks the spot, kiddies,” he exclaims. Havok asks, “How can you know, doppelganger. How can you be sure he’s even there?” Dark Beast replies that his name’s McCoy, Doctor McCoy, or Dark Beast if he’d prefer. Havok replies that he knew Hank McCoy, and he is no Hank McCoy. Dark Beast says that Alex talks as if his world’s Beast is already dead. Alex replies that he is, to him.
Dark Beast asks Alex to trust him. He’s kept track of this ‘X-Man’ since the moment he fell to this plane from his own. His is the kind of power you can never let out of your sight. If they’re truly serious about getting his new little frat off the ground; if they really mean to take Xavier’s dream to the next step, to build a world where man and mutant can live together in peace no matter who gets hurt doing it, then Nate Grey is exactly what they need. “Who we need,” replies Alex. Dark Beast reckons it’s just a matter of how you put it. On that note, he warns them not to mention his name at all, before Havok and Fatale teleport away.
(Muir Island)
Moira turns away, and Nate asks her to complete the sentence. He doesn’t want her to keep secrets and treat him like he can’t handle it. Moira then turns quickly and aims a gun at him, firing immediately. Nate leaps away from the blasts and runs for cover. Moira grabs the gun with both hands and follows him around the room, blasting constantly. She then pursues him through the complex until she comes to a dead end. She realizes at the last moment that he must be above her and, as she looks up, Nate lands on her, knocking her helmet off. She is now sensitive to his psi-powers, but she managed to hit him point blank in the chest with the gun.
He then checks himself and discovers that there is no damage. Moira explains that the gun was set to stun. She was trying to be convincing, making him believe that she was a real threat, dangerous enough for him to need his telekinesis. She wanted to get past his conscious mind to his baser instincts. Despite this, his telekinetic powers didn’t return. They’re gone.
She activates a large holographic display, showing the correlation between his psi-patterns then, and now. The test readings they ran last time compared with the current ones show that nothing has changed. There is no loss of range and no indications of diminished capacities at all. There is, however, a new sub-frequency riding through it all. She hasn’t had the time to identify the source, but she has good reason to suspect that Nate is actually suppressing his own powers. Nate thinks he should have known. He’s his own worst enemy once again. “Or your own best friend,” replies Moira.
Nate makes his way outside the complex to the edge of the cliff, maintaining telepathic contact with Moira as he walks. Moira believes this might be a symptom of his circuit-breaker systems shifting into overdrive, trying to protect his body from his mind. Nate knows that this means that Moira can’t help him do anything about it. He has one last question for her, however. He asks what if his telekinesis had reawakened with his fear, that deep dark instinct for self-preservation she was so determined to stoke. Moira replies that she’s getting to know him, and she trusted his better nature. Nate’s glad they didn’t get a chance to test that one.
As he adds that Moira couldn’t quite spark the ember she found, or fan that flame, Havok and Fatale appear beside him, and Alex tells him that they can. They can start a fire to end all fires. They can help each other. Nate is surprised by their appearance, but picks up no hostile thoughts from either. He does feel like he has some connection with the man, though. Alex introduces them as Havok and Fatale, though Nate can call them The Brotherhood!


[User]
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[Assistant]
Blood Brothers
(Canada)
An armored vehicle moves through the rugged but beautiful Canadian wilderness. Inside is a young woman, who has been manipulated for far too long now; another political prisoner, lost between the cracks. Well aware of the increasing heat on mutants worldwide, especially from Operation: Zero Tolerance in the United States, Canada’s Department H saw this as the last opportunity to slip her out of their psychiatric hospital and back into the shadows, minus the usual media circus.
Department H has been covertly acquiring (kidnapping) all their ex-assets for months now, while the Canadian parliament turns a blind eye to their rogue defense agency’s operations… again. It was known by the Brotherhood that they would be using their own guards, called Silencers, to guard the vehicle. They sport electro-stat armor, stolen straight from Mac Hudson’s Guardian suit designs.
Inside, Aurora sits on a comfortable chair with her legs up against her chest. She is struggling to speak as the doctor informs her that she gives him no choice. As long as she refuses to swallow the pills as prescribed, he is forced to administer her medication via s syringe. She says her brother’s name, barely able to get the words out. The doctor adds that, in her condition, especially considering her particular history with Department H and her conscious command of the blistering mutant power at her fingertips, someone could get seriously dead. The new Department H is her last chance.
Monitoring the situation from outside, Nate Grey asks Havok just how he knows all about this classified security transfer. He replies that they have someone on the inside looking out for them. As the doctor prepares to give Aurora the jab, he hears a low rumbling sound, just before the vehicle’s brakes lock on hard. He is sent flying, just as the Silencer standing nearby shape-shifts into the form of Fatale. She asks Aurora to hang on. The ride’s gonna get a lot rougher.
In front of the transport, an avalanche of rocks blocks the entrance to a tunnel. The Silencers go into action. Numbers’ two and four are directed to close the skies and protect the payload. Number’s one and three try and minimize the impact by blasting some of the rocks ahead of them. The vehicle stops just short of the blocked tunnel entrance but, as soon as they are stationery, Havok blasts the Silencers from behind. Havok is no longer with X-Factor or the X-Men. He now belongs to the Brotherhood, forever. Nate Grey has no such ties.
Alex asks Nate if he’s in or not. Nate wishes to see for himself what’s going on inside the transport car. He uses his telepathy to reach inside Aurora’s mind. He finds her younger than he thought, terrified, confused and somewhat familiar. He also determines that she isn’t alone in her head. Alex asks him what’s going on. Nate replies that the doc’s down, fighting off a dose off his own medicine he thinks. He then informs Alex that the Silencer inside has transformed into Fatale. “Your man on the inside’s a metamorph!?” Alex replies that she’s a mutant. She’s Brotherhood.
Outside the vehicle, the Silencers retaliate. Nate cannot fight as his telekinesis has gone, so he projects an image of himself to keep them occupied whilst Havok deals with them. Alex again asks if he’s in, but Nate is still not sure he wishes to waste his gift, and run the risk of speeding up his final burnout in the name of this so-called Brotherhood. But, the girl inside the train was so much like Threnody…
Havok lives up to his name, taking down Silencers with his plasma blasts. One last defender remains, and he warns Havok to point his gauntlet at himself. He holds a canister of lethal gas over the roof hatch, threatening to kill those inside. “Lethal gas?” asks Nate, telepathically. “That is truly sick!” He appears beside the Silencer and grabs his hand. He can’t believe he would kill everyone just to keep one scared mutant from getting away. He uses his other hand to deliver a solid backhand to the Silencer’s face, hurting it in the process. The Silencer goes down and Nate picks up his left gauntlet. He figures that it might be finally time to start looking at some of the alternatives staring him in the face.
He decides to give Havok a hand, literally, by destroying the link between the engine and transport cars and the storage cars using the gauntlet. He then psi-jacks the operating crew, causing them to jump ship, and then slips inside the driver’s seat. Havok then uses his power to clear the debris in order to get the vehicle away from there. Nate taps a few buttons on the control panel, having learned how to drive it, and use the gauntlet from the sleeping Silencer’s head. Next stop…
(New York City)
In the SoHo area, Nate’s loft-apartment remains empty. Threnody never returned but something is there, waiting.
(dawn)
In a section of tunnels and tracks far below the streets of Manhattan, Fatale is in conversation with Dark Beast. She informs him that the operation worked like a charm and Nate Grey doesn’t suspect anything. He never will as long as McCoy stays behind the two-way glass. She and Havok never gave him a real reason to read their minds. McCoy comments that Nate now has a moral reluctance to use his powers. He didn’t learn that back home.
They look below to where Nate and Alex are breaking into the transport’s storage hold. The door is ripped off and a bright light emanates from within. Aurora walks gingerly through the opening. She is weak. “Don’t… don’t hurt me anymore…” she whispers as she collapses into Nate’s arms. He asks Alex who she is. Fatale informs him that her name is Aurora. Now that he looks again, Nate recognizes her from his own reality. Fatale explains that her name is Jeanne-Marie Beaubier. She’s sick, real sick, and still coming down from the drugs Department H pumped into her.
Nate says that Fatale was in the transport with Aurora when they ambushed it. How did she get back here, unless… Alex interjects and informs Nate that they all have their roles to play. He explains that this is what the Brotherhood is all about. Fatale just teleported ahead of them to prep the treatments, and start working up the rehab program for Jeanne-Marie.
“O-kay,” replies Nate, and asks why Fatale didn’t bring Aurora with her then? Why didn’t she just do that in the first place, if she was all they were after? Alex replies that they all have their limits. Jeanne-Marie is in good hands now. They have people, like he mentioned, such as doctors and professionals who can help her, and him. Everyone needs a little help from their friends. Considering that these same resources are responsible for providing Nate with his own private meditation chamber, what more could he really ask for?
Nate enters his chamber and places a helmet on his head. The helmet is linked by an array of cables and wires. He starts to relax. Moira MacTaggert is supposed to be the world’s leading expert on mutant bio-physics, and she’s convinced that Nate is stifling his own powers. However, she didn’t offer any solution so the Brotherhood stepped in with a suggestion. The thrumming, throbbing alpha-sonics, keyed to his unique signature, begin to work their magic, digging their way through his thoughts and riding the rhythmic pulse of strobing lights, diving deeper through his fear; his fear of life… He focuses his mind and slowly but surely he begins to levitate from his chair.
(six hours later, two door down)
Aurora is recovering in bed from her ordeal at the hands of Department H. Fatale is sitting on her bed, offering her the hard sell. She offers to contact her brother, Northstar, if she likes. Aurora doesn’t want that just yet. Nate knocks and enters. Fatale isn’t happy that he is there, what with Aurora’s relative state of undress. Aurora is happy to see him, saying she owes him according to Fatale. Nate replies that he wishes he could take the credit, but it was the pure Brotherhood all the way. She remembers Nate catching her when she passed out. Fatale says that’s what they do: work together, mutant with mutant.
Nate agrees, and tells her that the group seems a little more proactive than the usual crop he keeps bumping to, such as Xavier’s endless circle of clowns and all. Fatale grabs him and ushers him out of the room, telling him it looks like he’s seen enough. He should give the girl some space right now and some time to think. There are decisions to be made.
Nate goes for a wander through the labyrinth of tunnels. He’s made a decision of his own. Back on his own world he ran with a troupe of freedom-fighters for almost a year, and an underground lifestyle comes easily to him. Maybe it’s his resistance to the X-Men and their ilk, he presumes. Their code of honor and soft-touch approach is at odds with what he has seen, living through the worst of possibilities.
He then comes across a secret vault, guarded by a heavy-duty door. He figures that he’s wandered pretty far off-track and reckons the others don’t even know about this place. He doesn’t like to rely on a stolen soldier’s glove to bypass something like the door code he’s presented with. He hopes the Brotherhood can lead him to access his telekinetics fully again. He tampers with the access screen and the door slides open. Inside, stacked high all around the room, are boxes of CS-9.
Nate quickly heads back to Havok and Fatale. He accuses her of teleporting the storage-car back there instead of the girl - its entire cargo of toxic gas Alex asks him to hang on. First, he asks, who wants to know? Friend or foe? Brotherhood, or just another rebel without a cause? Nate says that Fatale’s power should have been used to recover the primary objective, and that Alex should know that. It was, replies Alex, but such a window of opportunity for a clean CS-9 extraction had to be their first priority. The reasons would be more obvious if Nate understood more about it. They’d have found other ways of reaching Jeanne-Marie, if necessary.
Nate is annoyed that Alex never told him. Alex replies that he was never asked. He says Nate knew all about the deadly gas before they’d finished, and just decided not to dwell on the dirty little details, like who was going to do what with the mess he tried to leave behind. In his opinion, not everyone wants all the truth, all the time. As he turns to leave, Nate places his hand on Alex’s shoulder and tells him that he does. He demands it.
He faces Alex and connects their minds together. He isn’t pussy-footing about, and tells him that his mind has been ravaged in its time, and repeatedly stretched to breaking point. But, he determines that Alex truly believes in everything he stands for now. There’s no brainwashing or demonic possession, nothing. Aside from some well-placed psi-screens, apparently buried deep, Xavier’s signature from the feel of ‘em, he can see that Alex is hiding something else. Some other involvement in the Brotherhood?
He reckons it won’t take a second to punch through, but Alex asks him not to bother. He’s got nothing to hide anymore. The walls are finally down so he can step right in and see for himself. Nate’s eyes widen as he sees something he never thought he’d see again. “It c-can’t be…” he exclaims. Alex asks him to meet the true secret of his success – his sudden ability to access his telekinesis. Nate points behind Alex and says he’s right behind him - the black beast of his Earth, death doctor of the Apocalypse! Dark Beast grins and welcomes Nate to his world.


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[Assistant]
Dance With the Devil
Nate Grey accepted an offer by Havok’s Brotherhood to help him regain his lost telekinesis. In exchange, Nate volunteered to help them rescue Aurora Beaubier from the clutches of Department H. However, what the Brotherhood really wanted was a toxic gas called CS-9, or Coldsnap, that was being transported along with Aurora. Nate feels used, and he isn’t too happy about it.
He sits with his head down among a swirl of green gas. All around him there are the dead and the dying. The Brotherhood looks on from a raised area. Nate raises his head and turns to them. “Never again!” he growls through gritted teeth. He doesn’t want to see a weapon like that used against humanity ever again. The dead and the dying fade away. They were simply psi-illusions created by Nate.
He tells Dark Beast that he won’t allow another Earth to be poisoned by him and his unholy alliances. Dark Beast replies that he’s right about that. The CS-9 is nothing more than a catalytic pathogen engineered to accelerate the growth of existing micro-organisms such as bacteria and molds. It does so far more rapidly than a host’s immune system can keep up. It kills on contact. Once activated by exposure to oxygen, though, the gas itself has an extremely limited survival window making it eminently controllable, and equally untraceable. Dark Beast describes the CS-9 as the perfect little soldier.
Nate reminds him that human beings aren’t just another source of genetic fodder for his twisted science trips. This Earth is a whole new world. They’ve been given a second chance; one he feels Dark Beast doesn’t deserve. Why should he waste it on trusting him? Sensing Nate’s increasing anger, Fatale readies herself to step in on Dark Beast’s behalf, but Havok asks her to hold off. He asks Nate if he would rather trust someone like Department H to keep the CS-9. They were prepared to use it, whilst they have no intention of doing so, not if they don’t have to. They can create a balance of power in other ways instead through people like themselves, like Nate and like Aurora, who have good reason to fear the worst of all worlds.
Nate asks where Aurora is, adding that Dark Beast, or ‘The Butcher Beast’ as he calls him, vivisected countless mutants on their homeworld. He wonders what he’s doing to Aurora. Fatale replies that she’s right where Nate left her and getting better by the minute. She’s getting the therapy she needs instead of the one-way ticket back to Department H. Alex adds that she’s very, very ill, and the Dark Beast is the one who’s helping her… like he’s helping him.
From what Alex has heard, he thinks the Dark Beast is the only one on this world who has helped him. Moira MacTaggert and the X-Men have been found lacking, where Dark Beast has succeeded. Nate, who has by now levitated himself, is still furious and he blows a hole in the wall with his gauntlet. Nate asks him not to run off, but Nate has to see Aurora for himself. He makes his way to where she is resting and tells her that they’re hitting the road, now! She sits up, revealing a little more than Nate was expecting. “I’m all yours, hero,” she yawns. Nate is speechless and he tosses her some clothes, asking her to get dressed.
Aurora stands and asks what the hurry is. Doesn’t he see anything he likes? Nate repeats his order. He informs her that the electro-stat gauntlet he stole from her escorts yesterday is running dry. He wants to leave before the Brotherhood finds out what they’re doing. As he touches her, she drops to her knees and begins to shake. She pleads with him to get away from her and scrambles to her bed where she repeats her brother’s name.
Nate realizes that this is the real Jeanne-Marie Beaubier - scared and terrified of life. But, the flip side of her personality, Aurora, is in her head as well, with a passion for the life Jeanne-Marie is afraid of. He knows that she is mentally unstable, and he’s done more than enough damage already. If the Brotherhood’s actually doing something for her; anything at all, then this might just be the best place for her after all.
He leaves her alone and heads through the tunnels along a railway track. He figures that he must find her brother, and hopes he’s a better man than the Northstar he crossed paths with on his homeworld. He recalls their meeting.
(flashback to the Age of Apocalypse)
Nate had just escaped from the pens with a little help. He made his way along a railway track to the light. He’ll never forget that moment. Sunlight was glinting off rusting metals and broken glass, sparking rainbows of color in every direction. This was his first chance for freedom. He hadn’t even begun to take in the sounds and smells before Northstar and Aurora were upon him.
They were Sinister’s elite. Northstar delivered a punch to the side of his head, but Nate recovered and blasted them with a telekinetic bolt. However, Prelate Havok was also on hand, and he floored Nate with a plasma blast. Without knowing exactly why, Nate’s mind cast an image of himself for Havok to see. It portrayed him lying at the side of the road. Alex drove on by believing Nate was dead. Nate was just beginning to understand what his mind was capable of when he was desperate enough.
(present)
Nate emerges from the tunnel to find Havok waiting for him. He knew Nate would consider leaving, and he intends to try and stop him. He thinks he knows Nate well and just wants him to listen. He explains that Xavier’s toy soldiers are all about policing mutants and protecting humanity from the worst homo superior has to offer. His question to Nate is, what’s wrong with mutants fighting for mutants, defending them from the worst of humanity? Nate replies that these are just words. He says he should try the truth, and calls him Uncle Alex.
Alex is surprised that Nate knows, and figures he must have read his mind hours ago. Why hasn’t he said anything until now? Nate tells him that family hasn’t exactly worked for him, in any form. Alex thinks this is something else they have in common. He repeats his request for him to join the Brotherhood, but Nate still reckons he’s lying; to him, to the others, and even to himself. He tells Alex that he may have started out doing this for all the right reasons, but he’s losing it day by day. He can’t tell if Alex is doing this because of his history and because of what has happened to him over the years - being manipulated and mind controlled so often, or just the company he keeps. But, he adds, he’s driven by something very different now, and he has witnessed his darker side. He’s seen it in action, so Alex should be able to imagine why he’s not too keen on leaving him with the soulless beast and a vault full of Coldsnap. His question to Alex is, what’s the difference between his Brotherhood and everyday down-in-the-gutter terrorism? “You Nate,” replies Alex, “You could be.”
Alex returns to the hideaway, leaving Nate to ponder why this is happening again. A group of mutants, almost the same mutants that gathered together in his world, with no respect for life and no compunctions about death, stockpiling weapons for a war to end all wars? He can’t just stand by and let it happen again. Fatale appears behind him and grabs him around the shoulders, asking if he’s lonely. Nate turns and Fatale tells him he felt it. He still feels it. They kiss tenderly, whilst half a world away, Sebastian Shaw and Madelyne Pryor are doing likewise.
(Hong Kong)
The Hellfire Club is toasting Madelyne’s inclusion into the Inner Circle. Tessa is drinking champagne but isn’t joining in with the frivolity. Neither is Trevor Fitzroy, something Sebastian puts down to him entertaining ideas about Madelyne himself. Madelyne is more concerned with Selene. She brought her into the fold to help her secure her own position as Black Queen. Sebastian Shaw isn’t interested in party politics this evening. The rest of Hong Kong society cannot fail to recognize Madelyne as his consort from this day forward.
Selene makes telepathic contact with both Tessa and Fitzroy, away from Madelyne’s prying mind. She wants them to do everything they can to separate Shaw and Pryor, or their newfound union will jeopardize all they are trying to accomplish, forever.
(New York)
Dark Beast is at the computer controls in his lab. Nate enters the lab and asks if he can really help. McCoy asks if he’s made the decision to stay. Did Fatale’s charms win him over? Nate asks again, and McCoy asks if he’s frustrated. Does his pesky little psi-proof lab keep him from tearing the answer out of his skull himself? McCoy doesn’t find this a problem. He has visual aids. He brings up a recording of Nate in the chamber receiving his treatment.
McCoy explains that there’s a very thin line between telekinesis and telepathy; only artificially defined distinctions which quite possibly were created by Nate himself in his case. His ability to fly again is empirical proof of that, even if his sensors registered no significant change in his telemorphic fields. Maybe, he continues, his self-levitation is an illusion powerful enough to deceive everyone including himself. If so, then what’s the difference between his thoughts and their reality?
Nate thinks back to Madelyne and how he unknowingly recreated her. He asks McCoy if he can really help Aurora. He insists that he can. Multiple personality disorders are eminently treatable. Nate smashes him in the face with his gauntlet and warns him that he’d better, or he’ll be back. Once he’s departed, Nate walks to the storage room where the CS-9 is being kept. Havok and Fatale pursue him as the alarms sound, but he locks himself inside the room, narrowly avoiding Fatale’s daggers as he does so.
Nate looks at the boxes of gas stacked high all around him. Outside, Fatale calls for him to give it up. He’s trapped with no food or air. He’s going nowhere. Nate realizes there’s no way to escape with the canisters and his gauntlet’s nearly dead. There’s just enough power for one last surge. A powerful blast knocks the room’s door off its hinges. Havok and Fatale discover Nate inside surrounded by escaping gas, recumbent and seemingly unconscious or dead!


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Breeding Ground
Stan Lee tells an untold story from Nate Grey’s past…
flashback:
In an abandoned orphanage in Omaha, Nebraska that serves as his secret laboratory, Nathaniel Essex AKA Mr. Sinister uses the opportunity of a tempest and the ensuing energy chaos – a chance to proceed to the next phase of his secret project without alerting the highlord’s North American energy grid manger to this most personal of projects – to spend time on his secret project to which he has been diverting precious resources. With time and two unwitting contributions from two very special mutant donors – theoretically resulting in the ultimate genetic coupling of their kind – his ambitions were realized.
A matrix chamber opens and an approximately six-year old boy steps out. Sinister examines the boy and is satisfied with his general development. When the child shivers from the cold, Sinister gives him a gown (that looks like a pair of polka dot pajamas), while planning to alter his thermo-tide sequences to make up for this.
Sinister also muses that the child needs a name to hang his identity on: He decides to name him “Grey” after his “mother” and “Nathan” after himself. The mutant pure Summers bloodline contributed his Y-chromosome, but for all intents Sinister is his father.
As a transmission is incoming, Sinister orders young Nathan to get out of sight behind him. The transmission is from the Dark Beast – Sinister’s colleague – who has noticed a slight transmission delay, due to the energy Sinister diverted. Sinister feigns ignorance and puts him off. As he turns around, he realizes that Nathan has disappeared. He cries out his name.
Young Nathan, is in the meantime, is exploring the building. Accelerated aging is not easy on the body. His body lies still for weeks, his mind dormant while his cells are artificially induced to mature at a far more rapid rate than normal. So each awakening is a rebirth. An opportunity to discover, to explore the boundaries of his expanding world, to test the limits of his growing body.
Entering a classroom, he catches psychic echoes from the past, where he sees several boys clowning around, among them a young Scott Summers. The others mock his brain damage. Children grew up here, Nathan senses, were used here.
Sinister enters the room, but Nathan has left again. He shouts out Nathan’s name. The echo reflects his shout, calling back “Nathaniel” – Sinister’s name. Sinister angrily throws a fit, warning Nathan, who suddenly turns up behind Sinster – all innocence – and apologizes, explaining that he got lost.
Apparently trying to impress on Nathan why obedience is important, Sinister shows the child on several screens the horror of life on the outside in Apocalypse’s world. They witness humans being shipped to a “processing plant.” The screen shows a young girl with a plush animal being manhandled by Infinites. While Sinister is still ranting, Nathan suddenly transports them to those gene-pens.
Sinister places himself between Nathan and the Infinites, but then realizes that Nathan only transported their astral forms – they cannot be seen, nor can they touch anything. Nathan, however, proves that idea wrong, as he grabs one of the Infinites by his belt, asking him to stop his attack.
Sinister worries that Nate´s TP powers are kicking in too soon and realizes that, to bring them back to the lab, he only needs to trigger an alpha-interference frequency already keyed to the high end of Nathan’s brainwave patterns, a failsafe contingency. And so they snap back to reality.
Nathan angrily demands, why he did that. Sinister wonders about Nathan’s reaction, but he also notices the child’s fascination with the stuffed toy the girl possessed. Sinister quickly programs one of his devices to create a teddy for Nate and the boy is mollified, happy with his new toy.
The night has ended and Sinister puts Nathan back into his nutrient bath, to be released when he has grown stronger and older. He wishes him a good night, and Nathan telepathically answers in kind – in spite of the PSI-disruptors in the lab.
Despite his satisfaction about Nathan’s growing power, Sinister realizes that the boy will be too powerful as eventually he might want to become independent. He needs control. He trusts that the boy will eventually burn out after having fulfilled his goal to kill Apocalypse but he needs another failsafe and plans to add it as a further DNA subprogram.
And if all goes as planned, this little time bomb will explode before young Nathan ever reaches critical mass…