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Deadpool Walkin’  - part 1: Our Lives in Fracture
On the Portuguese cargo ship, the Golfinho, a cloaked passenger is attacked  by some drunken sailors, who are annoyed by the passenger’s refusal to speak. They pull out a knife and move to attack him, when a second passenger, wearing a red cloak and carrying a sword, comes to his defence. With a quick cut, he cuts of the fingers of the sailor with the knife and the sailors flee. The man with the sword complaints that he should have killed them but, somehow, he has grown a conscience, which he considers very inconvenient. He removes his hood and turns out to be the Black Swan.
In Alpine Park, Alex is moping about his life, just after an attack by various assassins whose bodies are now scattered around the park. He walks up to the sole survivor. He’s about to shoot the guy, when the guy starts to cry. He lets the guy go and tells him that he’ll charge his boss normal rate for all the men he sent against Alex. He then realizes that he has somehow grown a conscience, which he considers very inconvenient. He walks to the shooting tent, where Taskmaster is practicing. Taskmaster informs him that Sandi has found a job for them. Alex thanks Taskmaster for the help and asks what he heard. Taskmaster tells him that he heard about Alex sleeping with Sandi. Seeing how Taskmaster is Sandi’s ex-boyfriend, Alex asks him how he feels about it. Taskmaster replies that he’s fine but, when pressed, kicks Alex in the chest and points both shotguns at him. Taskmaster then tells him that the assignment is low pay, but they have other reasons to do it.
Sometime later, Alex is dressed in a chauffeur’s costume and complaining to Sandi that he will not work for him, pointing at Higashi, his former enemy. Sandi explains that he’s not there as a driver, but as a bodyguard and that, in this way, they could put the feud with the Four Winds, Higashi’s criminal cartel, behind them forever. Higashi further explains that by showing everybody else that they are working together that they are no longer an enemy and this way Higashi can show that he’s in a position of strength. Alex isn’t happy (mostly because Higashi is attracted to Sandi and is taking her out on a date). Taskmaster offers to drive, but Higashi prefers Alex as the driver.
During the ride, Alex tries to sell his new idea to Higashi: smell novels for dogs, but is then distracted when Higashi is touching Sandi’s legs.
Two girls on motorcycles, both dressed in bright colors and dressed as a bunny and a kitten appear next to them. One of them waves at Alex. Alex is thinking that she’s attracted to him, but Taskmaster and Higashi suspect foul play. She then attaches something to the hood of the car. It turns out to be a stuffed puppy with grenades attached to it. Alex climbs out of the window, while Taskmaster takes the wheel. He removes the puppy-bomb, but it explodes in his hand. The second cyclist then jumps with her motorcycle and kicks Alex in the face. Alex falls from the hood of the car, but Taskmaster grabs his arm and drags him along. The first Bunny-assassin has a sword now and moves in on Alex.
Inside the car, Higashi recognizes the assassins, they work for the Northern Wind faction. Sandi asks Taskmaster to do anything, but he’s too busy driving the car and asks Sandi to move to the front.
Outside the car, the Bunny assassin’s sword cuts Alex’s face and damages his glasses. Without his glasses, the lights of the second cycle blind him, but he can still see enough to see the second assassin point a pink Uzi at him.
By now, Sandi has taken over the wheel and Taskmaster leans out of the window and shoots at the assassin. Taskmaster then hits the brakes, the shock sends Alex rolling across the street and Taskmaster leaves the car. Taskmaster helps Alex up and activates his sonic shield. The assassins both attack and the fight ensues.
Twenty minutes later, Higashi’s car arrives at the Kenichi building, dragging the two motorbikes behind it. Higashi shows Kita, the leader of the Northern Wind, the two cycles and points at the trunk, from which the two assassins giggle and complain about their injuries.
Higashi tells the others to enjoy the party, while he talks to Kita. Alex thinks how perfect Higashi would be for Sandi and tells Sandi that she should go for him. Sandi then tells Alex to look at her dress: it’s his favourite color. She assures him that she has no regrets about what they did.
That evening, they return to Sandi’s apartment, but Taskmaster notices that the door has been messed with. He opens the door and sees the Black Swan. Taskmaster immediately pulls a gun on him. Alex is confused, he has no idea who Black Swan is. However, the Swan then introduces his friend, who removes his cloak, revealing the mask of Deadpool. Sandi and Taskmaster both are astonished; they thought Alex was Deadpool. Alex says nothing, but he shoots Deadpool in the head.


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[Assistant]
Deadpool Walkin’  - part 2: Foul Brain Stew
The Rio Grande Valley, Texas: At a small church, Outlaw is sitting near the casket of her father. She thinks back to an event from her youth, where she beat up a boy of her age and she told her father that people are always calling her names. Back to the present, she tells her father that she loves him and then leaves Texas in her car.
At Sandi’s apartment, Taskmaster and Sandi are trying their best to put Deadpool’s head back together, while Sandi’s cat is licking at pieces of it. Look on at this, Alex’s thinks about what a waste of time this is. Taskmaster turns to Black Swan and keeps his gun pointed at him. Black Swan explains that it’s easier for Deadpool to heal when he has all the parts and doesn’t have to regenerate them. Taskmaster keeps both guns pointed at Black Swan, still not trusting him. Sandi asks Alex to help her take Deadpool to the bathtub, since he’s still bleeding. Alex refuses, telling her that somehow he hates Deadpool for an unknown reason. Sandi gets angry and tells him that she really cares about Deadpool, so Alex helps her reluctantly. When she leaves the bathroom, he does punch Deadpool several times in the face though.
Back in the living room, Swan explains what happened: when Deadpool came to kill him, Black Swan had just killed his partner, Nijo. Deadpool then entered, carrying a suitcase with explosives. As Deadpool starts to shout baby talk from the bathroom, Black Swan explains that he’s regrowing his memory right now. Taskmaster is sceptical, he doesn’t believe that Wilson can regrow memories. Black Swan continues to explain that the healing factor also has a mental component to it and that it can be duplicated: he proves it by cutting of his own finger and tells him that it will regrow by the end of this conversation.
Deadpool starts to shout again and Sandi and Alex run to the bathroom to see what’s happening. It turns out that Deadpool has rediscovered his genitals and is playing with them. Mentally, he is still not much further than a baby, so they both decide to leave.
Back in the living room, Alex wants to know what the mind-link between Swan and Deadpool had to do with him. Black Swan smiles and tells him that he’s Nijo’s dead body.
In the car, Swan tells everybody that Alex’ amusement park is the best place for him to restore all memories to the rightful person. Deadpool, in the back, somehow manages to get his pants of again. Swan then explains how all of Alex characteristics fit into either Swan’s or Deadpool’s personality: he has Deadpool’s healing factor and sense of humor and Black Swan’s skill with weapons, ambition, intolerance for rudeness and even outrage and scars about being thrown into a white-hot fireplace grill, explaining Alex irrational hatred of Deadpool.
They stop outside the park and Alex asks if Swan is going to swap their memories back. Swan confirms this, since all he got out of this are a taste for Radiohead and an encyclopaedic knowledge of pornographic knock-knock jokes. Alex and Sandi discuss whether Alex really wants to do this and Alex says that he’s not sure, but that he wants to lose Swan’s aspects in his mind. They kiss. Swan tells Taskmaster that they look happy, but Taskmaster doesn’t play his mind games and warns Swan that he will be watching him the whole time. Swan then admits that he couldn’t even betray them if he wanted to: he also gained Nijo’s strong sense of honor and he can’t break his word.
Outlaw returns to Sandi’s apartment and discovers Alex’s bed, slept in with underwear of both Alex and Sandi lying next to it. She immediately comes to the right conclusion.
In the park, Taskmaster is sitting in the Ferris wheel and aiming a sniper rifle at Swan, while Swan starts the procedure. Deadpool, Alex and Swan all feel incredible pain. Alex starts to feel sorry for Deadpool and wishes that they had waited until Deadpool had recovered more of his mind. Swan then informs Alex that he’s returning him his sense of honor, since it’s a nuisance to him. Sandi calls out to Taskmaster, telling him that something’s wrong.
Taskmaster tries to shoot but falls from the wheel, due to Swan’s new powers. Somehow Deadpool, Alex and Swan’s powers combined in Swan and give him the ability to use his psionic powers in other ways, including levitation and the ability to fire lightning like bursts of energy. Sandi shoots Swan, but he barely notices it. His lightning hits her and she tries to shoot herself. Alex jumps at him and starts to punch him, but a lightning bolt later Alex is down on the floor and not breathing. Sandi calls Taskmaster for help but he’s also unconscious.
Swan is about to kill Alex and tells him how good this feels when a dark figure removes something from Taskmaster’s car: two swords. Deadpool then stabs Black Swan in the back with both swords.


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Deadpool Walkin’  - part 3: A Means To An End
The first page contains an interview with Alex for American Gun and Wound’s a mercenary magazine. At the end of the interview it turns out to be a hallucination of Alex, while his real body is dying and as such gives in short the events of the last issue.
We switch to Alex waking up in the new, high-tech headquarters of Agency X. Sandi shows him around, while Taskmaster is working as a butler. She introduces him to the staff, compromised of famous super villains (Dr. Octopus, Bullseye, the Constrictor and Dr. Doom), who are worshipping Alex. She then shows him the vehicles and tells him that both the Fantastic Four and the Avengers are eagerly awaiting his help. Alex steps on board of his boat, but misses it and falls in the water. He then wakes up.
Sandi is splashing him with water. She brings him up to date on the events. Alex changes into his costume and asks her if she remembers how they saved her boyfriend a couple of days ago? Sandi tells him that Higashi is not her boyfriend. He ignores that point and tells her that Higashi still owed him a favor for that: Suddenly, several dozen gunmen coming out of hiding and begin closing in one the place where Deadpool and Swan are fighting.
Sandi tells him that he can’t order them to shoot, since they would also hit Deadpool. Alex admits that that’s right and gives the order anyway. Deadpool notices that sound of many guns being loaded and hits the floor. The men all shoot at Swan. Alex tells Sandi to find Taskmaster and leave. The bullets all fly at Swan, but he uses his new powers to repel them and he fries the brains of all the hitmen. Alex and Deadpool then team-up against Swan but they end up hitting each other. Then Outlaw enters the fight.
Sandi finds Taskmaster and Taskmaster admits to her that he has been watching soap operas and romantic movies so he could figure this out, but it didn’t help. He then tells her that he loves her. She then replies that she loves him too.
Outlaw sees Swan about to kill Alex and Deadpool and she goes berserk. She shoots Swan several times, claiming the right to kill Alex herself. A lightning bolt of Swan’s powers then hits her and she falls down. Both Deadpool and Alex are now enraged and attack Swan again.Alex kicks Swan in the face and they grab Inez and move away. Deadpool and Alex discuss Swan’s weaknesses: he has limited range, he has to focus to use his shield and that he can be surprised. They meet up with Taskmaster, who shows them the secret compartment in his van, filled with weapons. Alex asks Taskmaster if he can rig an impact detonator. Taskmaster replies that he has seen it done.
Swan is standing again and he decides to kill all five his opponents. Alex checks on Inez. She’s ok, but she hasn’t forgiven him yet for cheating on her with Sandi. Alex tells her that now is not the time and that he needs three distractions. Swan is wandering through the park, telling Alex to come out, since everything that makes Alex interesting is stolen from the Black Swan. Even his fascination with Alpine Park is based on Swan’s life; Swan was raised in the Bavarian Alps.
Inez is shocked to hear that Alex is a walking corpse, but hasn’t much time to think about it. Taskmaster attacks Swan, using his sonic weapon to copy Wolverine’s claws. Swan easily blocks him and starts to copy his abilities with his mental powers. Outlaw points a gun at Swan and tells him to drop Taskmaster. Swan recognizes her and calls her Crazy Inez. Taskmaster laughs at his mistake. Outlaw punches straight through Swan’s chest and shouts at him not to call her that. Though he has a hole in his chest, Swan doesn’t seem to be bothered at all, he no longer needs a spine.
Then, Deadpool moves in and blocks Swan in a place. Swan is insulted, how dare they think that this simple move will contain him? At that moment, he sees in their minds that this is just a distraction. That’s when Alex shoots him with an explosive bullet. Alex then walks to Swan’s broken body and mindlinks to him, giving him back his memories of death. This seems to have killed Swan’s mind, but to make sure Taskmaster, Outlaw, Deadpool and Alex all shoot Swan several times.
Alex turns around and his face no longer has scars and his eyes also seem normal. He tells Outlaw that he’s no longer bothered by being an animated corpse with stolen memories. Nearby, Deadpool checks if he’s still thinking in little yellow boxes. Sandi apologises to Outlaw for sleeping with Alex, Outlaw says that it’s okay, seeing how Sandi and Taskmaster are holding hands. Taskmaster asks Alex if he can join Agency X. Alex replies that he can and concludes that Swan’s healing factor is too dangerous, so they should find a taxidermist.
Alex apologises to Deadpool for shooting him before and invites him to Agency X. Deadpool thanks but refuses and both tell the other to take care. They both turn around, promptly decide that the other did try to kill him at one point, then turn around again and attack each other. Outlaw, Taskmaster and Sandi look at the fight and walk away.


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Wolverine – Agent of Atlas (2nd story)
2nd story:
The jungles of Cuba 1958:
Logan is watching the goings-on beneath him with a pair of binoculars. Goings-on meaning that the revolutionaries, including Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, are making their plans.
Has Hendricks turned up yet? his superiors ask him via radio. No word from him, comes the reply. From what he can tell, the revolutionaries don’t have him. They’re concerned with some fly-by. The bigwigs are there though, he states, referring to Castro and Guevara. He’s downwind so he can circle around if he has to.
He’s running out of time, Logan is told. Be out of there by zero-six-hundred. All right then, he announces; he’s going in. Logan, out.
Suddenly he sniffs something and draws his gun. Think they can get the drop on him? he shouts Forget it! He knows they’re here! Behind him are FBI Agent Jimmy Woo, Gorilla Man (both with drawn guns) and Human Robot M-11 (who really doesn’t need any).
Right answer, Gorilla Man mocks. What does Professor Van Doren win? he asks Jimmy. An airlift back to the States and FBI interrogation if he can’t explain what he is doing here, comes the reply. Pardon his cynicism, Logan rejoins, but they don’t look like any of Hoover’s men he’s ever seen.
In the meantime, M-11 has extended his arm and it comes up, sneaking on Logan from behind. Logan grabs a branch above him and dodges the arm, also elegantly kicking the guns out of Jimmy’s and Gorilla Man’s hands. Jimmy responds with a kick himself and Gorilla Man smashes him against the tree trunk.
Who was he talking to on that two-way? Jimmy demands. The Yellow Claw? Why is a Chinese guy asking him, if he is friendly with the Yellow Claw? Logan retorts. Don’t get smart, Gorilla Man warns him. Logan makes a strange sound. Jimmy doesn’t notice that a strange bug has landed on his back. He explains that they have got a tip that the Yellow Claw has an operation going down here and it looks like he’s trying to get involved with the struggle.
Logan slips out of his jacket and thus Gorilla Man’s grip and jumps at Jimmy, seemingly slashing his throat. Furious, Gorilla Man slaps Logan away and M-11 fires at him. Suddenly, Jimmy orders them to stop, showing them a strange, golden beetle. Logan didn’t hurt him. It looks like was going for this but… it was on his neck and he didn’t even feel it.
Gorilla Man looks at Logan’s inert form, smoke still rising from it. Regretfully, he states that M-11 gave the guy a seat in the electric chair. Poor lug, Jimmy sighs. They should at least make his last act count for something. Over the radio, he calls Marvel Boy, telling him they’ve got something for his lab.
Sitting in his spaceship, the Silver Bullet, with the team’s final member Venus, Bob Grayson aka Marvel Boy replies, telling them to put the insect up on M-11’s sample pod and he’ll run it through the silver bullet’s mini-lab.
Do they think it’s connected to the Yellow Claw’s plot they discovered? Venus asks. He hopes so, Jimmy replies, or a man died for nothing.
Logan begins to cough and begins: As Mark Twain said… He forgets what the hell Twain said. But he ain’t dead. No way! Gorilla Man marvels. Didn’t think some schmo could live through that much juice. He’ glad he did, Jimmy tells Logan and helps him steady himself. He apologizes but M-11 used to be a killer robot. Used to be? Logan asks. He doesn’t see any of those bugs on him, does he? No, he’s clear, Jimmy replies. So can he tell them what those things are?
Part of what he’s down here checking out, comes the reply. They’ve been running out on key figures in this whole revolution shindig. And the source is somewhere out here. He’s following up a previous agency team who ‘chuted in last week. Who’s in on this? CIA? The military? Fine, don’t answer, he sighs.
Sometime later, Marvel Boy ship flies over the jungle to spook the rebel forces. They move out. From the mountains they see an energy signal. It must be Hedrick, Logan tells them. He’s still alive. He led the first team. Jimmy’s team decides to join Logan. It looks like they are on the same trail.
M-11 clears a path for them. Gorilla Man muses he’s got a hypothesis. He’s thinking these bugs are like little assassin injection – slow-acting poison. It’s a little out there, he knows. But a gorilla spouting the theory is perfectly normal, Logan replies.
In front of them stands a man. Hendricks. Figures they’d send Logan, Hendricks remarks. Are these new… agents? They are FBI, comes the reply. Where’s his team?
Over here, Hendricks tells them, leading them there. They found something of interest. Where all those bugs are coming from? Logan asks. Oh yeah, it will all become clear to him, Hendricks promises. They are going to understand everything now.
He is surrounded by a horde of bugs of different sizes, including a large one behind him. As they suddenly attack, Hendricks remarks that, if they don’t resist, the bugs will let them live. Let the small ones attach. They will feed their cortex.
 Snap out of it! Logan shouts, trying to keep off the large bugs. Jimmy shoots a smaller one off his shoulder, returning the favor from before. Look out! Logan warns as Hendricks is about to fire at Jimmy.
That moment, Marvel Boy calls in with an urgent message. That bug was structurally altered to deliver a protein sequence to a host’s brain. Meaning mind control. Don’t let one attach to them, the process is irreversible, even to his Uranian technology.
Enough for him, Jimmy decides and orders everyone to fall back but M-11. Death ray, he tells the robot and it obliterates all bugs. Better than DD.
Except he missed one thing, Logan announces and jumps towards Hendricks. He snaps his neck.
Jimmy draws his gun. Why did he do that? Logan reminds him his own man said Hendricks couldn’t be fixed. They could still have taken him back alive, Jimmy insists. Hendricks knew too many things that don’t need to get out, Logan decides. They’re on the same side, Gorilla Man remarks. Is he with the Russian?
Jimmy decides Logan is coming back for debriefing with them. Once his info checks out, he will be released. Figured he’d say something like that, Logan replies, but that’s not how his bosses like to play it. Better clear out.
He pulls a trigger and a bomb attached to M-11 explodes.
Several hours later, the Silver Bullet has not managed to find Agent Logan. Poor M-11, Venus sighs and asks Marvel Boy if he can fix him. He promises he can. He’s been meaning to overhaul him for months. He’s got some ideas for a good rebuild. His brain is intact.
Jimmy asks him to patch M-11 up good. He took out the creepiest things that the Yellow Claw has whipped up yet. He and Venus stare at the bug in he container. Permanent mind-control… just imagine what he could have done with that.
From below, Che Guevara and Fidel Castro stare up, both of them with a bug attached to their necks…


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The Dragon’s Corridor, Part 3 (1st story)
Inside America (2nd story)
1958:
The Dragon’s Corridor:
Jimmy Woo’s team of superheroes and pilot Kit Yeager find themselves in an alien landscape with corpses strewn about, looking like an ancient battlefield. The strange triangles glow here, Venus observes. Bob Grayson aka Marvel Boy flies up to one of the triangles. This is some subsection of the time and space they know, he announces. Shining his light through it, he can see several other portals on the horizon. The commies they are chasing could go through any of them.
No, Jimmy Woo announces and points towards one of the gates. It’s shaped just like the emblems. He bets it helps those agents find their way back to their bases. Gotta be livelier than this place, Ken Hale aka Gorilla Man announces as they head for the portal.
On the others side, they find themselves in the communist basis, surrounded by agents. Their prisoner is Jimmy’s love, Suwan.
Jimmy orders M-11, the human robot, to put them down. The inscrutable robot obeys the order and unleashes energy rays at some of the agents, while Jimmy kicks the gun out of the hand of the man closest to Suwan.
Gorilla-Man unties her and she sinks into Jimmy’s arms, asking if he brought all the emblems. They did, he assures her and asks Venus to do an old standard. Venus begins singing it’s cold outside and all the agents are transfixed by her voice and beauty, unable to fight any longer. Jimmy as usual covers his ears, trying not to be affected.
No wonder, her uncle (Jimmy’s archenemy, the Yellow Claw) makes his men wear ear covers, Suwan states. She can’t be stopped. Ken sings along while Jimmy asks if those aren’t the Yellow Claw’s men. Suwan explains they are Soviets. Some KGB officer named Karpoc is paying for the use of the Dragon’s Corridor – what Jimmy’s team came through. She was to oversee, to ensure they travelled only for the operation agreed upon. But she wanted to see Jimmy again, so she took one of the men’s emblems.
These triangles deflect radiation in the corridor, don’t they? Marvel Boy inquires. Suwan agrees. They also show you where the doorways are.
Jimmy orders M-11 to scan for anyone approaching. So what’s the operation that the Russians needed a shortcut for? he asks Suwan. Her uncle only told her they were stealing containers from the FBI, she replies. Marvel Boy adds he got the rest from one man’s brain – he mentally shows them the parcels in the big transport.
Kit admits he has never seen a MIG like that – must be a prototype. Does Marvel Boy think this jet will go through that corridor? He guesses so, comes the reply, while Ken suggests Kit better not drool on the glass.
Jimmy wonders what the communists wanted from the Bureau. He’d think they use the corridor to raid labs or aerospace. Probably looking for Hoover’s comic books, Ken jokes.
They enter the cave where Marvel Boy has led them to see two men frozen sleeping in test-tubelike glass containers… Captain America and Bucky!
Present:
New York City, now:
The Agents of Atlas face the new Captain America. Their broken helicopter is about to fall. Only M-11s extended arms holding onto the roof of the skyscraper Cap is standing on is holding them aloof – until, of course, Cap uses his shield to pry M-11’s hands loose and they fall.
Jimmy Woo orders M-11 to grab a hold of the crane nearby. Cap jumps after them as M-11 catches hold of the construction site’s crane.
Gorilla Man warns that if he has to hurl he’s doing it on Cap. Jimmy calls for the Uranian who is resting in a part of his ship. Their clueseeding has worked. They could blow the operation by engaging too early. They need retrieval now. On his way, Bob Grayson, the former “Marvel Boy,” sends back.
Jimmy orders Ken that they need to dispose of the copter and to get Cap off it. Ken kicks Cap away. Now beat it! he shouts after him. And next time he shows a up dressed like a dead hero, say “trick or treat!” Cap hold on to the crane.
M-11 takes himself and Jimmy of the copter and Jimmy orders the Uranian to fry it.
From his ship, Bob tells them to prepare for the lift beam. Do they want the attacker brought in as well? Cap is lifted as well and tries to hold onto his line – until M-11 breaks it. Against his will, he too is lifted up to the ship.
Past:
They find the heroes in suspended animation. The support system is running on a battery and will need a new power source within three hours.
Does he think they are actually Cap and Bucky? Marvel Boy wonders. Jimmy doesn’t know but the Russkies don’t have any business keeping them. They’ve got to take the corridor back. He hopes they can find that door again.
The pilot Kit gets back into the plane. Jimmy warns him it might not be a good idea to take the jet back. He has to try, Kit replies. The Reds might be getting the jump on the US in Aero-space. He tries to figure out the systems with Bob’s help who states this is related to the portal generator. He’d bet his head band the jet is equipped to open a portal for itself. He shows Kit how to key in altitude and longitude for his destination of course.
The next moment, the base is attacked by bomber planes carpet bombing the base. M-11 carries the two tubes with the sleepers ahead and they all leave through the triangle. Bob looks back to see that Kit’s got the jet started. He cries stop as it begins to move. Those symbols… It’s him! The jet takes off and disappears in a triangle doorway!
Present:
Aboard the Uranian’s ship:
Let me out of here! Captain America, held fast by M-11, shouts, or at least make that robot stop crushing him! Jimmy orders M-11 to ease up. They just need to find out a few things. He asks the Uranian to go ahead. Bob Grayson connects them (himself, Jimmy and Ken) mentally to Cap and his recent past, but then his eyeballs roll backwards and he faints. Aw, this isn’t going to be good, is it? Ken mutters.
Captain America’s mindscape:
The next moment, Ken and Jimmy find themselves in a wartorn city, both of them dressed in Nazi uniforms. Jimmy figures they are inside Captain America’s head. But usually he can sense the world outside… That guy remembers WW II. He thinks he is the real Cap? Ken wonders. He never would have kicked him off the ‘copter, if he’d known….
He doesn’t recall being kicked by a gorilla, the real Cap announces and kicks him in the face, but they are kicking them out of France! Now the Reich is using animals! his partner Bucky exclaims. He thinks they are going crazy!
Gun drawn, Jimmy still tries to be the voice of reason. This isn’t right, they are Americans. What the hero actually hears and sees is the Red Skull explaining it will be an American who finally kills Rogers. He fires at Cap.
It can’t happen here! Bucky shouts. They can’t do this! Gorilla Man holds him back.
In reality Cap (the former Bucky) breaks free of M-11’s grip.
On the other plane, he breaks Gorilla Man’s grip, transforming from the young to the grown up Bucky. He runs to Captain America’s side, urging him to rest. He’s going to get through this. Go back under the ice. They’ll bring him out again when his country needs him most! He buries Cap under the snow.
Jimmy and Ken finally get it. Bucky. He became Captain America. Does he think that was really them whom they saw in those Russian chambers back in ‘58? Ken wonders.
They turn around, hearing a plane. Hey, those Germans didn’t have supersonic jets, Ken protests. Bucky must be damaged! No, that’s Kit, Jimmy replies. Doesn’t he remember their last FBI mission? He’s done a lot of stuff since then, Ken reminds him.
Down there. Jimmy points downwards. Where they see themselves, and the rest of their team running, M-11 carrying the capsules. Whose memory are they in? Ken wonders. It’s too complete, Jimmy states, believing this is Bob’s or rather his headband’s. It was recording everything down to atoms, they just never realized it. They witness the scene playing out again.
Marvel Boy realizes that Kit is the pilot he saw the other day. He thinks the radiation made Kit’s cells transparent. He was trying to signal Marvel Boy with the symbols on the cockpit’s window. He’s trapped in a loop, exiting and re-entering. Kit opened a portal to Edwards Air force Base, but arrived too early. The device is alternating between the coordinates.
Bob explains he can’t catch up to Kit in here. The intervals are too short and he gave the Air force the time and place that he appears today.
They’ve got to get back there, Jimmy opines. They enter the portal to San Francisco. Jimmy orders Ken and Venus to stay there with the chambers; the rest of them will take the rocket straight to Edwards…
Not her, Suwan announces. She refuses to accompany Jimmy. Her uncle, the Yellow Claw will need to know what happened. They will be together again, one day, she promises as the portal closes behind Jimmy.
The other Jimmy and Ken who watched see the scene with only Suwan left.
Ken regrets Jimmy had to go through that again. It’s okay, Jimmy tells him. He wonders what Bob was thinking about that mission.
He was thinking about links, a familiar voice announces. Between times. Between places.
They turn around to see Bob Grayson in the form he thinks of as himself half human, half Uranian. Bob adds that he knows how Temugin transported into the saucer. His metal gave him the connection. It has a red triangle like the ones they used to transverse the Dragon’s Corridor. He sees how appropriate the name is. Now that his headband processes fully, he has a complete composition scan from his examination in 1958. The cells are an extremely dense keratin, specifically reptilian… the exact structure of Mr. Lao’s scales. They are molted dragons scales, cut to focus light, so one can view the energy discharge in the corridor.
He touches both his friends. Ken informs him he is grossing him out.  Tell them about this later. He needs to wake up and let them out! Bob doesn’t understand.
Jimmy explains that his trip into the Sentry’s mind strained him and he passed out while connecting them. He thinks if Bob takes off his headband…
Is he suggesting they are trapped in a loop? Bob asks and takes off that headband.
That, moment he awakes on his ship, Ken and Jimmy next to him.
Later on the ship, Jimmy asks if Bob is sure Cap learned nothing about their operation. He never ventured outside his memories, comes the reply. Bob went into his. He’s not only in contact with the real Avengers. He’s hiding them. Perfect, Jimmy replies. Bob adds he left the information Jimmy wanted in Cap’s mind. A tractor ray drops the unconscious Captain America onto a roof. Then it’s time for the showdown.
Over Edwards Air Force Base, 1958:
The Agents’ ship is almost there. They see that the planes are almost upon Kit’s jet. Jimmy gives the order for the point not to fire on that jet. But it is too late.
Later, Jimmy’s team asks Hoover if those to sleeping men are really Captain America and Bucky. He gets the reply that the government isn’t in the habit of giving out secrets. Now, has Mr. Grayson had any luck in duplicating the effect of the Dragon’s Corridor? He might be able to get closer, if his men would return the triangles they confiscated. Not a chance of that though.
Are they saying they don’t trust them? Jimmy asks and gets the reply that they may be the darling of Eisenhower but they take too many liberties with procedure for FBI standard. He thinks they’ve come to the end of the usefulness of Department Zero.
Later, Venus pouts that you’d think at least her charm would have some effect on Hoover. Does Jimmy think they are really going to shut them down? Bob asks. Jimmy replies Hoover’s been looking for excuses ever since they started. He thinks Kit’s death finally gave him the one they needed… If he does, then America just lost its best agents…
Brooklyn, New York. Today. Cap’s place:
Cap talks to the New Avengers. They’re formidable he warns them. They were able to get inside his head, which means they know about them. Their munitions factory is on a supertanker, anchored nearby. If the sources he found were right, they can arm thousands of Osborn’s troops with tech beyond anything HAMMER has yet.
No time to waste then, Avengers, Wolverine announces. They are going out there to bring Atlas down. Cage, Spider-Man, Ronin and Ms. Marvel certainly agree.


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Taking the Fall
New York harbor, now:
Some workers on a ship of Atlas Global. When is someone coming to pick this up? one of them wonders, referring to the crates. Do they have to unload all the cargo themselves? Another worker tells him to be silent. The Master views all of their work – questioning him could get them flayed! One of his old crew merely questioned an operation and they never saw him again, a third adds.
Suddenly, the first emits a startled cry when an arrow nails his sleeve to the crate. The second shouts they are under attack. They call this an attack? Rogue Avengers leader Luke Cage announces. They need to get out more!
Cage orders Spider-Man to make his homies here stick around. So ordered, Spidey webs them up. They know Osborn will probably just spring these guys tomorrow, right? he informs his teammates Cage, the new Captain America, Ronin, Wolverine and Ms Marvel. Then they’ll bust them again. As long as it takes! Cap shouts while Ms. Marvel announces she will get the others.
So let’s see what they are bringing Os-bum, Wolverine announces and slices open a crate. Inside they find sophisticated anti-tech weaponry.
Captain America explains that while he was connected to the one with the spacesuit he saw a whole factory for these things. A mobile factory, Ronin wonders. This Atlas group must have serious reserves.
Can he see one of those? Spider-Man asks. Ms. Marvel returns with two more imprisoned workers. Anyone want to web them up for her? She means you, Ronin helpfully explains to Spidey, who is fascinated by the weaponry and begins to examine its inner workings.
While he complies, Cage summarizes that their foes have some robot and a gorilla. Shouldn’t be hard. Cap warns them he got the impression of others as well. Some red-haired woman. He doesn’t know what she does. The other woman he recognized from the news around Hulk’s invasion. She’s an Atlantean-human like Namor. With all the power you’d expect.
Osborn’s people, in the meantime, have seen the Avengers and decide to call Osborn.
Jimmy Woo’s Agents of Atlas are also observing the Avengers. So far everything is going as planned. All workers are evacuated except for the ones the Avengers caught. They busted their thugs, Ken Hale aka Gorilla Man summarizes. There was no reforming those guys, Jimmy Woo (aka Master Woo, new head of the Atlas Foundation) adds. Jail is best for them. Not bad, Ken commends him. He’s got all the pieces in place.
Except for Bob, Jimmy refers to the Uranian, once though no longer known as Marvel Boy. He’s too wiped out from yesterday. Where’s his silk… Here, evil master, Venus remarks teasingly as she hands Jimmy the Chinese tunic he wears as head of the Atlas Foundation.
Jimmy’s stand-in, Temugin, son of the Mandarin, remarks that he sees no point in this ruse. All of this artifice to let themselves be beaten… Is the point to make Atlas look weak? Why doesn’t he go in the back and channel his chi some more, Ken suggests unkindly.
Jimmy explains the point. It is to not deliver on the weaponry that Osborn wanted for HAMMER, and to have a plausible reason. They’ve developed a relationship with Osborn that he believes and it’s yielded some good information.
Never has he fought with less than his all, Temugin protests. He was caught unaware last night but he has spent the day in meditation and is ready to engage an army. He is free to fight at full capacity, Jimmy informs him. Any less would blow the operation. But with Bob out, he is going to be a key player today. He must follow Jimmy’s plan.
Ken critically looks at the non moving M-11. Only variable he is concerned about is ol’ death ray here, he announces. Now he gets that Jimmy said no killing, right? He directly addresses the robot. He’s down with the plan as outlined? He’s going to follow Jimmy’s lead? No reaction from the robot. Well he’s glad they got that cleared up, Ken remarks annoyed.
A crashing noise. Their cue, Jimmy announces. Showtime, agents!
The Avengers have entered the place through the wall Ms. Marvel compares the place with Stark Defense, while Wolverine snarls it’s full of stuff to hunt them down with.
Captain America points toward one end of the room, stating that most of the weapon cargo still seems to be stored over there. They are just in time! Cap and Ronin check the computers.
Anyone bring a bomb? Wolverine asks. Carol suggests she could ignite the fuel tanks. She’d hate to pollute the bay though. Spider-Man looks around pensively.
The only thing going down the bay today is them, comes the threat. Jimmy, in his Master Woo role and surrounded by the other Agents, informs them they are interfering with the operations of the Atlas Empire. Prepare to pay for your transgressions. He calls the runt with the claws, Gorilla Man announces. Bring it, Kong, Wolverine snarls as the Avengers attack. The Avengers charge as well with Jimmy barking orders.
Unexpectedly, though, Spider-Man keeps both teams apart by creating a web between them. He tells his team to wait and places himself between both groups. Everyone stop! he orders the Avengers.
Woo continues his role as evil emperor warning him that he will not be spared by surrendering. Spidey tells him: Give it up, evil mastermind guy. I’m not falling for it. The fact Woo and the Agents haven’t already pressed their advantage backs him up.
Is it a trap? Ms. Marvel asks. No. that’s it, Spidey explains. His senses aren’t tingling. And he examined one of these guns outside. They are junk! There’s no power cell or anything to make them a threat. HAMMER just ordered a bunch of replicas for their bookcases? He turns to his team. Remember how they kept coming across dirt on Atlas and their gunrunning? He doesn’t think global crime clubs get where they do by letting so much leak out.
That “Bob” guy was in Cap’s head, right? He could have found Cap, where he lived, why didn’t they put their buddy Norman onto the Avengers? How hard would it have been to plant this info in Cap’s head? He knows it seemed like a stray thought Cap got a glimpse of… but was it?
So, is he saying they want the Avengers to destroy this factory and run them in? Wolverine asks. If they wanted to attack them, they could have done it with the element of surprise when the Avengers were sitting ducks, Spider-Man points out.
At Temugin’s urging, Jimmy decides to come clear. Is he sure? Ken asks.
In the meantime, M-11 is running a voice analysis of Wolverine’s voice, comparing it with a foe they ran across in Cuba in 1958…
Too bad Bob isn’t here, Jimmy remarks. It would be much easier to just show them… the Atlas Foundation used to be run by the Yellow Claw. He died recently. Jimmy didn’t realize it but he’d always planned on Jimmy becoming the next leader.
M-11, in the meantime, has come to the conclusion that Wolverine is indeed Agent Logan from that mission in the past. The man who attached a bomb to M-11 and damaged him. He reacts accordingly, firing his death ray at Wolverine.
All hell breaks loose as M-11 almost obliterates Wolverine’s arm. The next moment, Captain America orders the Avengers to attack the Agents. He charges at Master Woo, Ronin takes on Temugin, Cage on M-11, Namora on Ms. Marvel and she actually manages to pin Carol down, something not many can do.
Good thing strength isn’t all she has, Carol observes and uses an energy blast to blow Namora through the wall.
Cage angrily grapples with the human robot. No one fries off his boy’s arm! he shouts. The next moment, the robot almost electrocutes him, only to go after the injured Wolverine again. Cap tosses his shield at the robot’s head.
Venus runs off towards a certain panel in the wall.
Woo does his best against Ronin but is about to take a bad hit, when Temugin steps between them and stops Ronin’s attack with a kick. Away from Master Woo, he orders. Does he play his part well, he asks Jimmy sardonically. He does, Jimmy replies and silently urges Venus to wrap this up.
Cap angrily attacks Temugin, demanding the one who was in his head. Gorilla Man threatens Spidey who webbed him up. He bets he is the four hundred pound gorilla in every argument, Spidey jokes. But he’s gotta see about his sneaky friend…
Ms. Marvel keeps on pounding Namora. Just say enough and she’ll stop, she tells her. They don’t have that word in Atlantis, the proud Sea Queen shouts back. Better learn it, Carol suggests as she hits Namora with a girder.
She falls back hard. But the fight has damaged a water pipe, the contents of which now pour on Namora. Ah shoot, Carol swears. She really likes sea water, huh? Yes, Namora replies curtly, before slugging Carol through the roof.
Spidey, in the meantime, has found Venus and prevents her from accessing the control panels. He starts webbing her. Venus begs him not to do it, then turns on her power. Immediately, he falls under her spell, apologizes and begins to pull the webbing off her. The battle still continues until Venus starts to sing. The Avengers are transfixed by her song.
Ah, hell, he didn’t get to pound anyone, Ken pouts. Jimmy reminds his team to make sure they’ve all got their dragon scales and orders Temugin to open the portal.
He turns to the Avengers, once again slipping into the role of Master Woo, while Ken gathers up M-11. They have destroyed but one Atlas operation. They have no idea what they are up against. He will not forget this setback. They will meet again, he vows as they phase out.
The Avengers slowly awake from their trance, realizing the ship is going down.
In the Dragon’s Corridor, Jimmy asks Temugin if he knows the way to the San Francisco portal. Of course, he scoffs. He knows nearly all the doorways of the Dragon’s Corridor.
They look back. Kind of weird after years of having masterminds pull that escape, to do it to someone else, Ken observes. The irony isn’t lost to him, Jimmy replies.
The Avengers evacuate. Cage figures the Atlas people were trying to cheat Osborn. All he cares about is for once it’s a nice clear victory, Ronin sighs. Oh, don’t worry, Spider-Man promises as he takes pictures. The papers will make them out as terrorists. Aw, come one, Cage protests. He still has to eat, Spidey replies.
A little later, the Agents are talking to Osborn who remarks that he can’t pay on goods not delivered. Perhaps they will be able to work out a new project at a later date.
Woo promises his first priority is to exact vengeance on the saboteurs. They will speak again.
With that done, Ken remarks he’d like to take a break from acting like he doesn’t want to bite Osborn’s face off. She enjoyed hitting Ms. Marvel though, Namora muses. Jimmy remarks that the Uranian got something key out of Osborn’s head. A weak spot? Namora asks. Something they can exploit? Perhaps, he admits. Osborn meets with a secret cabal of powerful people. They seem to be sharing information and plans that concern the entire world. And one of them is Namora’s cousin, Namor…


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untitled
At the Jean Grey School, Doop has just given himself a crash course in speaking English and proposed to Kitty Pryde. As far as he is concerned, the only thing that isn’t settled is their honeymoon destination.
Kitty gently tells him she won’t marry him. Dejected, Doop drops the ring. He understands; she is too good for him. He turns away and mutters “Mama was right” in Doopspeak. That wasn’t what she meant! Kitty shouts.
When he crawls into a hole, she jumps after him into Doopspace, where the events in the real world seem to be all watchable at the same time. Doop hopefully asks if she changed his mind. She hasn’t but the reason is not her being too good for him. Doop offers to convert to Judaism, but Kitty tells him that would be too weird.
He welcomes her to the Marginalia, the world that begins where the story stops, and offers to show her some of his favorite places. They don’t have the time, she shouts. They have to find Jean and Scott and get them to their own time. He points out he thinks she doesn’t want to send them back and time is different here. They are between moments. Listen!
Reality:Young Iceman calls for Kitty and steps into the room she was in before. He only finds the rotten ring and wonders if he missed something.
The Marginalia:In the Marginalia, Doop has led Kitty to his favorite restaurant Chateau du Armpit Hair. After dinner, he takes her to the Cinema of Emptiness, which really only shows an empty screen. Kitty points out she likes a little action in her movies. So he takes her to the dance floor to tango and regal her with a tale about Queen Victoria’s underwear. Afterwards, they go to a shooting stall. Kitty tells him it’s been fun to be irrational, but she needs to go back. Doop wants to show her one last thing, something very serious.
Kitty sees footage of herself talking to Rachel, feeling something is very wrong. She protests his filming them is creepy. He tells her to watch the close-up of her face where she discusses the original X-Men being sent back again. They all know what’s waiting for them. It sucks!
Why is he showing her this? Kitty asks. To remind her of what she really thinks. She agrees it should be the kids’ decision, but it’s complicated. She must be strong enough to stand up to complications, Doop tells her. She is an X-Man. Siding with the X-Men is the rational thing to do. She must find the courage to be… irrational. Irrational enough to stand up for what she believes in. She hesitates. He looks closer into her eyes. Irrational enough to lose her heart to a small green creature with a love of film, long walking and fine dining. His eyes become mesmerizing. She pulls herself free. Is he trying to put some weird kind of alien love spell on her? She means his love eyes? Doop asks. It’s the way he shows deep affection. She orders him to take her back right now.
Back at the Jean Grey School, the three Ice-men (including the Ice-hulk from the future) are together. Young Iceman asks his adult counterpart if he gave Kitty this ring. Why would he give her something like that? he scoffs. Young Iceman tells him she dropped it outside McCoy’s lab. What if someone else gave it to her? They both agree that person would have to be seriously weird. They see Kitty entering with Doop. Nah, they both decide.
Xorn has revealed herself to the present X-Men as future Jean Grey, who cannot take off her helmet for long because of her growing powers. Future Kate Pryde promises her they’ll send the original X-Men back to the past.
He get all that? Kitty asks Doop. Did she say something? Rachel asks. Just clearing her throat, Kitty claims.
In his own language, Doop wonders what would Ingmar do?
Near Big Sur, California:Young Jean and Scott have run away and are now reluctantly stealing some clothes to blend in. Scott falls, dragging down a sheet from the clothing line behind which Jean was changing. Doop secretly films all this.
Later he shows it to Kitty, who tells him this is wrong making home movies. He shows her the important bit, Scott telling Jean he’d hoped Professor K would help them but she is just like the others, after all.
Kitty tells him to shut it off. Doesn’t he think she feels bad enough already? Then do something, Doop tells her.
Someone enters looking for Kitty. It’s Rachel, who suggests they scrounge something to eat. Rachel notices a weird smell, Kitty agrees, Doop disappears into the margins.
Rachel takes the food containers from the fridge, only Kitty sees Doop peering at her from the fridge. She asks Rachel if the others are right about the kids. Doop disappears, content.
In his own room, Doop manipulates an image of Kitty who tells him he was right. She loves him. “Let’s nuzzle each other untilour noses develop blisters.”
He erases what young Cyclops said about Kitty. Suddenly an alarm goes off, screaming Bobby probably isn’t going to like this.
Elsewhere, Kitty and Rachel are in a flying car on their way to find Scott and Jean. Bobby probably isn’t going to like this, Rachel points out. That’s Bobby’s problem, Kitty retorts. Rachel remarks that she thought Kitty liked him. That he was fun and uncomplicated. Kitty muses things may have gotten more complicated. How? Rachel asks. It’s like he’s put a spell on her. She can’t stop thinking about him. And wishes she could. Who? Rachel scoffs. Has she been seeing Pete Wisdom again? If only it were that simple, Kitty sighs. Rachel announces they’ve arrived.
They see the X-Men of the present and future have surrounded Jean and Scott. As they fly the flying car at the Ice-Hulk, Doop happily films the scene, after which he then climbs through the marginalia to save time. He arrives later when future Kate Pryde cheers her Jean to give her younger self a lesson she won’t forget.
Kitty and Rachel conspire to attack future Kate, who angrily shouts at them she knows they are planning something. Doop grabs Kate and takes her into the Marginalia.
The Marginalia:Kate is initially confused and, while she is trying to play along, Doop soon realizes she has no idea what he is talking about, doesn’t even know who he is. When he confronts her, she angrily shows her true face, that of Raze, and stabs Doop with his claws. Doop realizes the other future X-Men could be impostors as well. This might become a little confusing.


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untitled
Doop watches as Kate Pryde from the future berates Kitty and Rachel for letting young Jean and Scott get away. Suddenly, the two young women find Kate is gone and Doop, alone with Kate, finds she isn’t really future Kitty but the shape-shifting Raze.
Rachel figures maybe she is hiding somewhere, daring them to get away. That is just something sneaky future Kitty would do. She can’t blame her for how she turns out, Kitty remarks. Who can she blame? Rachel retorts. How does she end up like that? Kitty has no idea. Rachel feels Kitty is keeping something back. She is acting distant recently and all this weird talk about Bobby… Kitty sighs she wouldn’t believe it. She looks at the hole into which Doop disappeared. She is not sure she believes it herself.
In the Marginalia:Raze recognizes Doop. His old man had a real thing for him. He stabs him. Get him back to reality or he’ll puncture him like a balloon. Green slime bursts from the wound and hits Raze in the face. Doop identifies him. How does he know that? Raze asks. Doop replies he has no idea. His mind is full of such information. For example, he knows what Richard Burton said to Liz Taylor on their wedding night. He said…
“Smart-assed green monster! I’m going to tear you to pieces!” Raze shrieks. Close but not quiet, Doop points out.
Raze attacks and Doop dodges. He may be a smart-assed green monster but he’s their smart-assed green monster! a newcomer announces. It’s Tike Alicar aka the Anarchist. He tells Doop he heard the distress call. U-Go Girl would have come too but she’s tired. Raze tells him to back off. The Anarchist replies that he and Doop used to be teammates in X-Statix, so he can back of himself. He blasts Raze with chemical charges from his explosive sweat.
Doop and Tike fistbump. Doop thanks him and asks him to guard Raze, while he informs the X-Men about the impostors from the future. Tike is impressed he now speaks English.
As Doop is about to disappear, Raze shouts that, if Doop tells, Raze will tell the X-Men a terrible truth about Doop’s mother. Doop returns, curious. Raze warns him the whole world will learn it. Tike believes he is bluffing. Ain’t nothing he knows about Doop’s mother can be that bad, but Doop begins to sweat profusely. Tike doesn’t know his mother…
In reality, Kitty and Rachel discuss matters when “Kate” returns, telling them they’ll go nowhere. She was watching their pathetic escape attempts from the shadows. Kitty asks her if she doesn’t remember being Kitty. If she does remember, she’ll know how much Kitty is despising what she will turn into. How ashamed she is. Shame is a luxury they can no longer afford, “Kate” tells her.
The Marginalia:In a broken down neighborhood with street names like Misery Mile and Shame Mansions, the Anarchist is looking for Doop and finally finds him lying drunk in a back alley, drunk on lemonade. Doop begs him not to let Raze get away with it. Helping Doop up, Tike asks what he is doing with himself. He’s been wondering about his mother’s secret, Doop admits. Tike tells him to confront her. Doop admits he’s scared. Tike tells him he has to stop running and face up to her, and orders him to repeat that. Doop finally shouts the sentence. Right on! Tike tells him. Now go find his mama.
Reality:The Ice-Hulk attacks young Cyclops. While the others are distracted, Doop kidnaps adult Iceman to the Marginalia.
The Marginalia:They are both falling in whiteness. What’s going on? Iceman bursts out. He was so going to take out the Ice-Hulk. He’s sure he was, Doop agrees. Iceman informs him if anyone does sarcasm here it’s him, and since when is Doop speaking English? Since he proposed marriage to Kitty, Doop informs him. No, she would have told him, Iceman bursts out. He would have done his famous Doop impersonation and-- He recalls the stinky ring. That was him? He’s been saving it for the right person, Doop reveals cheerfully.
Iceman angrily blasts him. Kitty is his girl! Kitty might have something to say about that, Doop points out and dodges the iceblast. Iceman finds himself alone, surrounded by masses of ice.
Reality:Cyclops and Cyclops battle side by side. Rachel still muses about the future Kitty. She had one in her timeline, and she was nothing like that.
Suddenly, Doop grabs Kitty and pulls her into the Marginalia. She warns him that she will never marry him. Because she still clings to the tatters of her previous relationship, he states. This has nothing to do with Bobby! she replies.
The two of them and Bobby end up somewhere else. Bobby asks her about Doop’s proposal and Kitty dodges the question. So how did she react? he demands. How does he think? Kitty snaps. He has no idea right now. He’s got no idea what’s going on in her mind lately. Why should she tell him about a marriage proposal when she can’t even be bothered to inform him she’s broken rank and is siding with Jean and Scott?
Forcing them suddenly seemed wrong, Kitty explains. Not the point, he retorts. She should have told him what she was going to do. He should have supported her! she retorts. She should have trusted him, then maybe he would have! Maybe she can’t trust him, Kitty snaps. Maybe she should have stuck with Colossus, he retorts.
Doop gloats. Did he say something? Kitty demands. Just clearing his throat, he claims. He’s enjoying this, she shouts. He wants Bobby and her to break up! He simply wants to make her see they aren’t right for each other, he explains. She’d already reached that decision, Kitty snaps. She had? Bobby interjects. Kitty turns away. His works is done, Doop decides, grabs Iceman and takes him back to reality through a hole. Come back for her! Kitty shouts.
Back in reality:Wolverine shouts for someone to control the Ice-Hulk. He won’t have this turn into a brawl. There are children present. Doop takes Iceman back, telling him his presence won’t be missed.
Doop returns for Kitty. She orders him to take her back and adds what he did was mean and unnecessary. She wants to go back to Utopia, but doesn’t trust her future self with Rachel. She tries to do it on her own by using her phasing power.
Doop warns her that this needs practice. She might end up in the men’s urinal in the White House or worse. Angrily, she tells him none of his nasty tricks are going to work. No matter what happens with her and Bobby, she is not going to marry Doop.
He knows. This is not why he’s doing this. He has to face something and that will probably kill him. He couldn’t stand the idea of her wasting herself on Bobby. She is worth so much more. Mollified she asks what he has to face.
The Jean Grey School:Doop sees Magik teleporting herself and the young Beast and Iceman and grabs a bit of her magic. Bergman! he exclaims, then begins his own Doopish magic: that which was joined to me, be joined to me again.
Energy flares and an angry voice demands why he teleported her here. She never wanted to see his silly face again. He’s a grown Doop. It’s about time he faced her, he replies bravely. What’s this? Finally, the imbecile learns English? a huge female angry Doop remarks. He replies to his mother that he needs to know the truth. So tell him!


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untitled
Karolinska Hospital, Sweden, 1957:The hospital room of film director Ingmar Bergman:Bergman sits at a desk, doodling into the margins of the script of The Seventh Seal and looking for a word. Dobby… Dobey… Doob…… Doof. Dr. Oop. Doop! he decides.
Outside the Jean Grey school, now:Mama Doop turns away, but Doop pulls at her shyly, demanding she talk to him. Angrily, she calls him a little spud face and demands to know why he pulled her across the Margins. He stammers something about Raze. “Speak up, you little green turd!” Doop asks what dirty secret Raze knows about her.
There’s only one dirty secret that matters! she shouts. Papa Doop left them. He abandoned them both! She slaps him. Doesn’t he remember? And Doop remembers…
Flashback:He was young in the deep Marginalia. Like most creatures here, the Doop family were marginal characters born from dreams or wild imaginings. But in the case of the Doops, they were the product of the fertile imagination of famous Swedish film producer Ingmar Bergman. At least this was the creation myth Doop was fed. From an early age, he was told that he ruined his parents’ marriage. He supposed this had to be true but, as far as he could remember, his folks never seemed to have much time for each other.
Doop hadn’t meant to split his parents asunder. He was an inquisitive child and wanted to see his roots for himself. So one day, he travelled to the real world beyond the margins. For a number of continuity reasons, Doop had always been forbidden to do this. He tried to enter the hospital but Papa Doop angrily dragged him away. He was so mad that he packed his imaginary novels and left, never to be seen again. Mama Doop didn’t like being a single parent and took it out violently on Doop.
Present:The same person she still blames.
Mama Doop slaps him. They were Romeo and Juliet! she shouts, Adam and Eve, Abelard and Heloise— Shut up! Doop orders. How dare he tell his mother to— she fumes and tries to hit him again but he holds her fist away and orders her to get over his father leaving. It’s been years. Stop blaming him for the depressing Swedish crime drama her life turned into. Taken aback, she stammers she never blamed him. She made his childhood a Max von Sydow nightmare, he accuses her. The beatings, the guilt, the face paint! But maybe Papa didn’t go because of him. Maybe Doop was just a wild strawberry! Maybe it was her he wanted to leave. Furious again, she calls him an evil child. Unimpressed, he asks what guilty secret may Raze know about her.
Reality:The Jean Grey School:In the lab Kitty looks up and asks: Doop?
In another part of the school, Rachel Grey also senses Doop. With Wolverine distracted, Raze, his son from the future, impales him with his claws.
Doop senses Logan is in trouble. Mama Doop throttles him and snarls that animal won’t help him. He summoned her and forced her to remember what she tried so hard to forget. Now he’s going to suffer, just as she suffered. He remembers how she suffered, doesn’t he?
Doop’s memories:He remembers the green buzz of excitement when he found the camera in the Marginal junk store. He remembers his decision to forget Mama and Papa Doop and the crushing guilt. He remembers his resolution that day. He’d be the chronicler of his world. The Bergman of the Margins.
In the deepest, farthest Marginalia reside echoes or ghosts of the living or once living. It’s here that Doop made his name, redefining the documentary film medium. Specializing in daring biographies. He thought these ghosts had almost chased his guilt and traumas away, until one day he met a remarkable man, C.G. Jung.
The psychoanalyst informed Doop that he believes the documentaries are helping him. But he’s seen them. They are dark. They are introspective. Doop has been horribly infected by European cinema. He needs to broaden his horizons, he needs a little sun. Has he ever been to California?
True, there was the messy affair on the casting couch. But after that Doop’s remarkable career took off. Mr. Sensitive, U-Go Girl, the Anarchist and the others. X-Statix. But unlike other members of that ill-fated, golden team, Doop wasn’t in it for the sex or the money. Or even the fame. For Doop, his entire time in X-Statix was therapy, pure and simple.
As the team’s fame grew, Doom’s mental health seemed to improve. He started to forget about Mama Doop and his guilt. He became an artist. Stills from his films hung in all the chic galleries. Beautiful women and men threw themselves at him. He ignored the question, whether he was male, female, straight, gay. The truth is he was Doop. And the therapy seemed to be working. A little loving can go a long way.
Until X-Statix ended. Its stars either dying or faking their own deaths and retiring to the deep hinterlands of the Marginalia. To a place where they could live with the dead, the imagined and the never quite born. Once more Doop found himself in the Slough of Despond (one of the most lugubrious bars in the Margins).
Present:Mama Doop grins, he even considered suicide, a grave sin among the Marginals. How did she know that? he wonders. She can see right into his fat green head. He told himself he needed a new obsession and he found one.
Kitty Pryde, Doop mutters. Inappropriate! his mother judges. Unobtainable. He tried to ruin her life like he ruined his parents’ life. Horrified, Doop insists they had something. In the restaurant, he felt a frisson. Mama Doop grins nastily, pointing out a beautiful human girl like that could never love a sexually confused blob monster like him. He has made a fool of himself. But he can’t admit it. He wants to know what their secret is? He can’t handle the truth!
Doop stammeringly insists he wants the truth. All right, potato head, she grins. He asked for it…
In another part of the Margins, the Anarchist and U-Go-Girl are sharing a hot tub. Tike regales the bored looking Edi with the tale of how he told the president, he doesn’t care if he is a brother, he can’t wear—
Doop splashes into the tub and speaks his name in his own language, then disappears. Edie orders Tike to go. She is wasted.
Two minutes later elsewhere, Doop is horrified, believing everything he held dear and believed to be nonsense, while his mother laughs and tells him he can’t run from the truth. Doop tears open a hole in the wall and disappears through it.
Elsewhere a hysterical Doop tells himself it can’t be so. But it is, another voice replies in Doopspeak. Doop suddenly finds himself surrounded by dozens of doppelgangers who mock him. Leave him alone! he cries.
Finally, he is found by Tike, who announces he got his distress call. What is going on with his green ass? Bergman, Doop replies sadly. Tike doesn’t know what he means but tells him to pull his green ass together. It’s one thing him and U-Go Girl having their bath time interrupted. But a mental breakdown on this scale in the margins… That can be dangerous. It’s been known to infect the real world.
The Jean Grey School:A panicked Rachel shouts at the injured Wolverine to stay with her, moments after he has been stabbed by Raze. Suddenly, the Doop personas rush into the room. Wolverine wonders if he is already dead. Rachel tells him this is really happening. This is all wrong! Xavier groans. Jubilee asks why there are so many Doops and Raze snarls he should have killed the little freak when he had the chance.
What the hell is he doing here? Logan suddenly snarls. Ain’t he supposed to be dead? he asks Tike Alicar aka the Anarchist. Something like that, Tike replies. He needs Logan’s help. He’s probably the only one he will listen to. It’s about Doop. You don’t say, Logan deadpans.
In the Marginalia, watched by some more doppelgangers Doop just keeps on repeating Bergman… Seventh Seal.
The Anarchist brings over Wolverine, who asks Doop what is wrong with him. Doop admits what he learned. He was not created by Ingmar Bergman. In fact, an orderly scribbled into the margins of the script of The Seventh Seal. Bergman did not make him.
Who told him this? Logan asks. Mama Doop, he is told. Where is the old bat now? Doop supposes there’s one place she might visit. It’d be like sticking the knife into him. And doesn’t he know how that feels, Logan mumbles. Any chance Doop can fix him up with something to stop him bleeding to death?
Sometime later, the Anarchist opens an entrance to Karolinska Hospital in Sweden. Logan declines Tike’s offer to accompany him but admits he’s missed them crazy bastards. Maybe it’s time X-Statix made a comeback. And maybe they will, Tike smiles. Maybe they will.
Logan enters a certain hospital room to find Mama Doop. What does he want? she snarls. One way or another, they are going to sort out the thing between her and his buddy Doop, he tells her. They can have a friendly discussion or they can get nasty. He unsheathes his claws. He guesses she knows which one he’d prefer.


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

[Assistant]
untitled
Karolinska Hospital, Sweden:People run outside in a panic as inside an infuriated Mama Doop throws Wolverine against the wall. He snarls that this is how she treated his buddy Doop. This is the full extent of her maternal instinct. She hits him again and snarls she heard he had enough trouble with his own child. So keep his feral hairy snout out of Mama Doop’s mess. She kicks him.
His child? he groans defiantly. Which one? Now she’s getting him angry. He attacks, claws extended.
High time, someone clipped his nails, she observes and decks him, holds him up and brandishes a giant pair of scissors. In response, Logan bites her. Next he uses his claws on her and demands what gives with her and Doop?
In Doopland beyond the Marginalia, Doop is floored by the inflow of doppelgangers, his strange personas. He tries to shoo them away and is afraid that his breakdown can affect more than his marginal life.
Suddenly, the Doop personas exit at the Jean Grey School, much to the surprise of the X-Men and the future Brotherhood. Maybe they are from the future too, Jubilee suggests. Maybe in the future they are all Doop. Clawing at one Doop, Raze scoffs that is the most ridiculous thing he has ever heard. Any more ridiculous than him pretending to be future Kitty and stabbing Logan? Rachel snaps. Maybe he’ll stab her too, Raze hisses.
Bling! casts him away but is then telepathically attacked by the future Xavier. He orders everyone to be quiet and tries to find a logical explanation. Perhaps some glitch with the spatio-time continuum…
Rachel turns around but where Logan lay a moment ago now there is only a pool of blood.
The Anarchist has brought Wolverine to the Marginalia. Logan tells Doop he looks like crap. Doop mumbles ‘not Bergman. The margins in the screenplay. Seventh Seal. Not Bergman’s. He got that earlier, Logan replies. He had a long good talk with Doop’s Ma. What did she say? What did Mama say? a hysterical Doop pleads. She took a little persuading but finally she spilled everything. He might want to sit down…
In the real world, there are still far too many Doops at the Jean Grey School. Rachel demands of young Xavier what he has done with Logan. None of this should be happening, Xavier decides. It’s all gone wrong. Maybe when young Iceman and Beast travelled into their future they did something. Something to make a mockery out of the present. If Rachel hadn’t let those X-Men go, they mightn’t be in that situation! he shouts. And if he weren’t so pigheaded, he’d see this wasn’t her fault! Bling! shouts back. Xavier warns her not to push it. Rachel is distracted, wondering if Kitty and the others are getting a Doop show too.
Meanwhile in the lab, the answer is yes, definitely. Kitty admits she might know where the problem is coming from. That’s easy, Iceman opines. Doop is infecting them with his weirdness.
Kitty tries to phase into the Marginalia. Iceman wants to accompany her but she refuses. The future Xorn tries to stop Kitty but Iceman tells her off and gives Kitty the chance to leave.
Beyond the Margins, the Anarchist is back in U-Go-Girl’s tub room. Idie wants to know what Logan said to Doop. He didnt stay for that. Figured it was private. But he did hear laughter as he was leaving. Hysterical. Tinged with sadness.
Maybe they didn’t take enough notice of Doop when they were all in X-Statix, Edie muses. He was just the potato guy who did the filming. Right, Tike agrees. They were all too busy being them to notice.
Edie asks if Tike is pushing his feet between her legs, which he denies. Suddenly, Kitty Pryde emerges from the bubble bath. This is not supposed to be happening! she shouts.
Elsewhere, a now calmer Doop hopes he hasn’t upset Kitty. Logan assures him she’s tough. Doop asks how he is feeling. Logan replies the goop he put on the wound ain’t as effective as his healing factor but it is working. Doop takes his hand and takes him to the next panel, namely the Jean Grey School.
Logan apologizes for bringing him such shocking news. It was shocking, Doop agrees, but it makes a kind of sense too. He’d like Logan to do a last thing for him. Insert the miniature Doop into his ear. It’ll help him forget what he must, so he might integrate back into the story.
Inside the school, the Doops are shrinking and fly into the mutants’ ears. Moments later, they forget the strange events. Rachel tries to recall things and just remembers Logan is missing. He shows up announcing he was about to kick Xavier’s ass. Try it! Xavier goads. A moment later, “Kate” turns to Raze and impales Logan (again).
Doop returns to Edie’s place, where he finds Kitty. She hugs him and asks what’s with all the crazy Doops. He had a melt-down, but then Logan helped him recover. He found out something that put his mind at rest. About Mama Doop. For so many years, she blamed Doop and Doop blamed himself for making Papa Doop abandon them. But the truth is a bit more… doopish. Papa Doop never abandoned them. His Papa was his Mama. His Mama was his Papa. That’s why he never saw his parents at the same time. They are a family of asexually reproducing hermaphrodites? Kitty muses. Doop always thought he was the only boy-girl in the family. Which meant more guilt and shame. Of course, under the circumstances, they must withdraw the proposal of marriage. Which might be a relief to her.
Actually, she might have come around a bit. She was really touched by what he said about marrying Bobby. How she’s worth so much more than that. That’s why she’s doing this.
Suddenly, Kitty kisses him. Afterwards, she suggests they go back to Doopspace. They are not getting married but she loved experiencing that crazy place. She loved how it made her feel. Why shouldn’t she enjoy Doop life for a while? Who needs X-Men life? Friends betraying you! Others getting possessed by cosmic forces! Future her. Past her. Present her. She asks him to take her away from it all.
Surprisingly, Doop replies she doesn’t really want that. Sure she does! she shouts. She likes weird things. She just kissed him, didn’t she? It was the weirdest kiss she ever had (he tastes like spicy peanut butter), but she guesses she could get used to that.
Doop smiles and informs her she just wants to avoid making the toughest decision of her life. Admit it. He means whether she should leave the school and the people she loves and take the original X-Men to Cyclops. Admit it.
She can’t do it anymore, she replies. She gave everything to that school but it’s not her place anymore. She’s not sure she can do that. He tells her this whole journey has been about showing her she can do that. Really? She thought it was about a marriage proposal and a stinky meat engagement ring.
Putting on a Bogart style hat and a trench coat, he tells her they were just props. He could have used a bowl of oranges and a job offer. Besides, he likes living in the Marginalia. And if he was with her, he would no longer be in the margins but the main story. He props up her chin: Chin up kid, they’ll always have the restaurant of hairy armpits. He walks away into the margins and Kitty begins to forget.
Sometime later at the Jean Grey School, Kitty tells the other X-Men, she can’t do it anymore. She has given everything to this school! From the margins, Doop proudly films the scene.
That was the story of Doop and Kitty Pryde. A story of time travel and roots and love. And no, it didn’t end in marriage or even love. Doop went back to the margins. And Kitty, she left the X-Men. And for now, that suits them both just fine.


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

[Assistant]
untitled
In a high-tech laboratory, surrounded by various instruments and monitors, two men in lab coats review data on a clipboard. That’s superb, the scientist with the clipboard proclaims. An excellent day’s work, doesn’t he think? Absolutely, sir, the second scientist agrees. Now, the first continues, tomorrow is also going to be a big day. The second begins to ask if he means what he thinks he means, but the second interrupts with a confirmation, noting that he believes so. They’re finally ready to begin vivisection.
Weakly, a voice mutters “Hoffman,” the scientist’s name. Just so he knows… when they get out of this… they’ll kill Hoffman themself.  In reply, Hoffman smiles that he knows how they feel, but please know that although they are suffering… he swears it’s for the greater good. With a smile, Hoffman then offers a “good night.” Hanging on an X-shaped metal cross, their limbs strapped to the cross’s four corners, the bound prisoner replies “Drop dead.” Ignoring the insult, the two scientists depart, one asking the other if he wants to grab an espresso. Starbucks is still open. Absolutely, the other replies.
(meanwhile, elsewhere)
In a darkened, spacious room, Gambit lowers himself via a line. Mentally reminding himself to be careful, he twists and turns his body past security lasers. Eventually, Gambit positions himself upside down, right next to object of his attentions: a small statue standing upon a marble pedestal. Perfect, Gambit notes to himself. Now to get the mystic shielding… Chant the spell that should remove it from what’s holding it in place. And then he…
Suddenly, the lights of the room come on, surprising Gambit. Uhm… hello, Gambit remarks to the new arrival. Nice evening. Watching from the doorway next to the light switch, Wolverine replies yeah, terrific. With that, he steps forward, earning a warning from Gambit regarding the alarm. It’s shut off, Wolverine informs him. The owner turned it off once he arrived. Unsheathing his claws, Wolverine then slices the cable holding Gambit, who unceremoniously drops to the ground. Come on, idiot, he tells Gambit.
They can’t, Gambit protests. That statue is a doorway t’another dimension! Doesn’t he understand? Yeah, he gets it, Wolverine rejoins. With the right spell, it can summon an evil demon that could lay waste to the entire world. When Gambit then agrees, Wolverine interjects that it’s not his. It was bought and paid for, fair and square. He can’t just steal it. Gambit begins to disagree, but Wolverine emphatically reiterates that he can’t. It poses no immediate threat, he continues. The spells that activates it have been lost for three thousand years. Again, Gambit tries to protest, but Wolverine remains adamant, instructing Gambit to come with him. Now. He’s not screwing around.
As they approach the X-jet outside, Wolverine explains that the owner’s security system was designed by Tony Stark. It picked up on his entry in no time. Stark found out and summoned him while he was still putting his rig together. That’s embarrassing, Gambit bemoans. Should have brought a more efficient rig. What was he thinking? Wolverine asks. There’s this. And Rogue told him all about all that nonsense he was involved in with that girl, Janelle… Joelle, Gambit corrects. Whatever, Wolverine rejoins.
Changing subjects as they approach the jet’s ramp, Wolverine points at Gambit and reminds him that he has responsibilities to the students. He’s supposed to be a damned teacher. Weakly, Gambit begins to remark that he is, but Wolverine interjects whenever he’s around, which lately is never. Plus, now he’s running the Thieves’ Guild. Asked how did he know that, Wolverine replies that he knows everything. Get in the plane, he tells Gambit, and be grateful no one’s pressing charges. As they walk up the ramp into the jet, Gambit warns Wolverine that, if an interdimensional demon ends the world, he’s not to blame him. Noted, Wolverine replies. They’re going back to the school.
Sometime later, Gambit finds himself in a drinking establishment, thinking back to the entire exchange with Wolverine. He talked to him like he was a child. The whole way. A damned child. Returning his mind to the present, Gambit stands at the establishment’s bar, with the rest of the room in ruins. Various other patrons lie unconscious around the room with the center of the room hosting a smoldering fire. Taking another drink, Gambit asks the rest of the bar if anyone else wants to say that New Orleans had Katrina comin’ because of its ungodly beliefs? Anybody? ‘Cause it may’ve been some years back but they got a long memory.
Finishing his drink, Gambit asks the barkeep if he can have another, whatever it is he was just having. When a voice announces that he wants coffee, Gambit begins to protest but halts when he sees who spoke. Standing before him is Polaris, clad in a tight-fitting, yellow costume with grey trim. On her face she wears yellow lenses resembling sunglasses but without visible rims. Hello, Remy, she tells him.
Gambit quickly embraces his Polaris, noting how good it is to see her. After she agrees, Gambit pauses a moment, asking her if she isn’t supposed to be insane. He means, there was word that she caused a bit of a hullabaloo at a bar not long ago. She had a bad day, Polaris quips in reply, to which Gambit agrees that they all have those. Changing subjects, Polaris suggests that they get outta there and find a coffee shop.
In short order, the two find themselves in a booth in Starbucks. Declaring it much better, Polaris gets to her point and asks Gambit what did Logan tell him. Studying the menu as he does so, Gambit replies that if he wants to stay with the X-Men, then his thieving sidelines are done. That he has to cancel all contact with the Thieves Guild. That he walk th’ straight and narrow from now on. Asked how that makes him feel, Gambit asks back why she’s asking. What’s going on that she’s not telling him? Rather than reply immediately, Polaris takes a drink from her tea mug. After putting it down, Polaris still doesn’t reply to Gambit’s question, but rather informs him that she’d like him to take a ride with her. Asked where, she tells him Virginia. What’s in Virginia, Gambit asks, aside from colonial settlements and refugees from Washington DC? One day to find out, Polaris tells him.
A short jaunt to a private airfield, they find a private jet awaiting them and minutes afterward they are airborne. Nice little jet, Gambit remarks, handing his empty cup back to the comely flight attendant. Not the Blackbird, he then adds, but not bad. Asking her what the logo is on the side, Polaris explains that it’s for Serval Industries, a rising corporation. Inquisitively repeating that word “serval,” Gambit asks if that isn’t like a cat or something. Taking a sip from her own cup, Polaris corrects that it’s a midsize African cat, actually. She’s not sure how they picked that for the symbol, but go figure…
Her free hand to her earpiece, the flight attendant excitedly reports to “Miss Dane” that the pilot says that they have a problem, out the port window! Polaris asks “really?” and glances out the window, after which she nonchalantly adds that, yes, she sees. Quickly approaching their position, she sees a surface to air missile, about which she instructs the flight attendant not to worry about it. A moment later, Polaris snaps her fingers and the missile explodes a safe distance from the aircraft.
Incredulous, Gambit is still looking out of the window as he asks who the hell fired the missile. Told an enemy, most likely, the still-shocked Gambit asks if Serval has missile-firing enemies? Serval has all kinds of enemies, she informs him. Asked by him what they do for a living, Polaris replies that Serval is into a variety of things, ranging from owning a major internet search engine to weapons manufacture. That’s what pays the bills. But at the end of the day, they specialize in helping people. Calling him “Remy” for emphasis, she swears to God, she’s been researching them nonstop and, as far as she can determine, that’s what they do. And there are some individuals who have a problem with that.
Shortly thereafter, Gambit gets his first glimpse of the sprawling corporate campus of Serval Industries as their jet approaches. It’s impressive, he thinks to himself, he’ll give them that. He’s still in awe as they approach the front entrance, where Polaris is greeted by surname by a security guard wearing an earpiece and opaque-black rimless glasses, who then asks how she is this fine day. Addressing him as “Teddy,” she replies that she’s fine and asks about him. Couldn’t be better he answers, at which point he asks who Gambit is. Introducing him as Remy Etienne LeBeau, also known as Gambit, she then adds that, with any luck, he’ll be working there. As she then signs them both in at the front desk, Polaris then introduces Gambit to Teddy. He feels safer already, Gambit quips, still taking in the massive lobby.
Suddenly a short, bald man slams into Gambit on his way into the building. They both exchange apologies, after which the man continues on his way. Glancing at him suspiciously, Polaris says Gambit’s given name. However, when he tries to act innocent, she repeats it with greater emphasis, after which Gambit gives a guilty smile and calls after the man. Holding the short man’s wallet, he asks if he lost something. Quickly, the man returns, and guesses that he must have dropped it. Must have, Gambit replies sheepishly. After the man is out of earshot, Polaris chastises Gambit, who counters that he was just tryin’ t’keep his skills sharp. Where’s the harm? That harm is, she counters back, that he’s just not to life people’s wallets. Fine, fine, he replies.
A few steps away, they enter transparent, sapphire-colored tube and stand on a platform within. When Polaris speaks “top floor,” a computer voice replies “yes, Miss Dane” and the platform rises up the tub. Talking elevators, Gambit notes. How very Star Trek. He should see the transporter room, she replies. Asked seriously, Polaris replies with a “mebbee.”
At the top floor, the doors slide open to a room which a wide-eyed Gambit immediately proclaims very nice. Within, an Asian woman clad in a cream pantsuit with a double-breasted jacket with a Serval Industries logo thanks “Mr. LeBeau” and asks if she may be the first to welcome him… to X-Factor. Her name is Linda Kwan, she continues, and, frankly, this place was her idea. Prompted by Gambit, Linda replies elaborates that she was part of a committee, admittedly. Then asked if she is a scientist or super hero, Linda quickly replies no, she’s in public relations. Her job is to make Serval Industries look good to the public.
In the middle of the spacious room, which seems to be half office, half lounge, Gambit plops himself down on a round, lobby-style couch. And X-Factor, he begins, is going to help her do that? She knows that the name’s taken, right? By Jamie Madrox? Actually, a voice interjects, startling Gambit from behind. Not anymore. With this, the black, business-suited newcomer greets Linda and Lorna by given name, offering them a good morning, to which Lorna replies with “Harrison” and Linda with “Mr. Snow.”
Rising from the couch, Gambit offers his hand, surmising that the newcomer would be “Harrison Snow.” Quite so, Snow replies, taking Gambit’s hand in greeting. He’s the CEO and president of Serval Industries. When Gambit replies that he’s heard of him, Snow rejoins that of course he has and then asks Gambit if he can call him Remy. Told sure, Snow continues. He’s sure Gambit has heard of him because Gambit’s a thief, and he has a lot of things worth stealing. So, that makes him of interest to him. When Gambit replies that he supposes so, Harrison places a hand on Gambit’s shoulder and smiles slightly. The news media calls him the next Tony Stark, he continues, thanks to his talent for weapons manufacturing. Which he thinks is rather presumptuous because the Tony Stark they have already have is doing just fine. Plus, he’s not really a weapons enthusiast, despite their profitability. But go tell the press what to do.
In any event, Snow continues as he turns to the bar to pour himself a drink, they bought the rights to the company name from Mr. Madrox. Papers were signed yesterday, in fact. Should be enough money for him to live quite well on his farm. Confused, Gambit repeats “his farm” but Snow ignores. They want him for X-Factor, Snow tells him, gesturing at Gambit. Well, more accurately, Lorna wants him and he’s inclined to go with her recommendations. Taking a sip from his drink, Snow then adds that, in fact, the timing couldn’t be better, because they have an assignment for him.
Wait, hold up, Gambit interjects. He doesn’t even understand what this X-Factor is… This, Snow smiles slightly, regarding his glass, would be the first corporate super hero team. Countries have them. The United Nation does. Why not a corporation? Why not a team dedicated to serving the desires of a company whose main business is helping others? Furrowing his brow as he regards his would-be employer, Gambit asks if Serval is that company. He means, and he shouldn’t take this wrong, but how does he know Serval is not evil? To this, Harrison Snow offers a maniacal “bwwwaahahahaa.” Remy, Snow then continues, returning to something more sensible, he has attended Harvard University. He edited the Lampoon. What evil person edits the Harvard Lampoon? Looking now more sheepish than distrusting, Gambit admits that he’s still a little… He means, perhaps he should talk to someone…
How about an Avenger? Snow asks. Taken aback, Polaris begins to ask what he means, but finds her answer arrived before question. Appearing out of nowhere, Quicksilver appears in his classic costume and announces that Harrison Snow means him. Pietro?!? Polaris explains. What’s he… what… She… Sensing her questions, Snow explains that Quicksilver showed up while she was out bringing in Remy. Putting his arm around his shoulder, Snow continues that Quicksilver tracked her there when he got her out of police custody. He was concerned about her. It’s kind of sweet, actually.
Unconvinced, Polaris tells Harrison that Pietro may be a lot of things, but “kind of sweet” isn’t one of them. Pointing an accusatory finger at her, Quicksilver replies that he doesn’t think she gets to lecture him, considering the last time she saw him, she tried to shoot him. When she counters that she was drunk, he points out that most people fall down when they get drunk, not open fire on their half-brother. Interjecting, Gambit opines that if more people had him for a half-brother that might change. No one asked him, Quicksilver replies, giving Gambit a scowling look. He knows, Gambit rejoins, innocently blowing dirt from beneath his fingernails. Just felt like saying it.
Turning her back to them both, Polaris begins to walk away, explaining that Quicksilver can see she’s fine now. Not drinking any more. So why not go back to the Avengers? Haltingly, Quicksilver replies that they had a bit of a falling out. Glancing back, Polaris asks what kind of falling out. They figure out he’s evil yet? Lowering his eyes, Quicksilver replies that he’s not evil, all right? Stop accusing him! They simply had a disagreement and he doesn’t want to discuss it any further. He wanted to volunteer to join her organization. Sensing that this is not to be, Quicksilver then adds a “fine” and begins to walk to the elevator tube. He’ll be on his way. Sorry to bother them.
As he reaches it, Polaris tells him to wait. It’s… If he really wants to come on board, she then tells him, then… you know… sure… A short distance away, Gambit bluntly announces that Quicksilver’s spying on them for the Avengers. When Quicksilver emphatically replies that he’s not, Gambit offers a “whatever” and turns to Harrison Snow. Calling him “Harry,” he asks the Serval CEO, out of curiosity, what’s this “mission?”
Snow thanks Gambit for asking and then explains that it involves a Doctor Terrance Hoffman, a noted biologist. Apparently, he’s embarked in some rather hazardous directions. According to their sources, he’s come under the employ of a rather secret organization. They’re not sure which one, although they’re thinking it may be a division of Advanced Idea Mechanics. In any event, they are busily obtaining for Doctor Hoffman something to research: mutants, as it turns out. They’re not sure what the nature of his research is, but as a company they have a problem with experiments being conducted on kidnapped victims. So they thought they would provide them with the location and let them do the rest.
Soon thereafter, night has fallen in the secluded, wooded surrounding the research facility in question. Through the woods, a speedster races trough the foliage. Within the facility, two armed AIM soldiers stand guard. One asks the other if the other heard something. Before the second replies, one is taken down by the speed of Quicksilver while the other is knocked off his feet by one of Gambit’s charged playing cards. When the two report their status, Polaris, flying high above, commends their good work. With any luck, she tells them, they’re in and out in five minutes tops.
As the three make their way through the facility, Gambit is still not sure he buys any of this. A convenient assignment to help rescue mutants? What does the corporation get out of this? He asked Snow, he recalls, but Snow just blew it off with a convivial “we just want to help people, Remy. Is that so terrible?” Which it’s not, of course, Gambit admits. It’s still leaving him wondering, though. Then again, he’s done far worse things on far less motivation. Might as well see this through, at least for now.
Deeper in the facility, a man in surgical garb and holding a scalpel tells his patient that he wishes he’d reconsider allowing him to knock him out. Weakly, a voice instructs him to go to hell. They wants his death screams to ring in their ears forever.
Suddenly, a figure bursts into the operating room, calling for Doctor Hoffman and informing him that they’re under attack! Some mutants, he thinks. Pulling down his face mask, the surgeon smiles and announces “how excellent!” New samples are coming right to him! Did she hear that, Fatale? he asks his patient, who is hanging on an X-shaped metal cross, her limbs strapped to the cross’ four corners. She’s about to have company.