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The Last Testament of Scott Summers (1st story)
 4 (2nd story)
1st story:
Scott Summers stands alone in a room facing a huge piece of ruby quartz. His mutant gift comes in three parts, he muses. First, the eyebeams. Secondly, an ability to judge angles of attack. He can see, as clear as day, the angle required to strike the ruby quartz, rebound the shot and cut his own head off. Thirdly, he has a degree of immunity to his own blasts. So he has to fire with full power and hyperfocus. Killing himself with his own powers is in fact a matter of precision and strength. He couldn’t have done it as a younger man. He’s almost proud of being able to commit suicide today.
Narration with accompanying pictures:
Perhaps it would have been different, if he’d let Wolverine take the lead at Chaparanga Beach two years ago. He fights with his gut and his gut said put Logan on that spacecraft fast. But… he doesn’t know… maybe because Ororo was watching… he took an extra five seconds, overthought. Decided to approach slow and quiet instead of fast and … well, Logan.
Crucial minutes were lost. Subject X activated what they now know to be a Ghost Box: A device that creates gates across parallel worlds. The others subdued Subject X. Cyclops took care of whatever was clawing its ways between universes in the only way he could. He destroyed it with his optic blast. And just like that they went from a potential invasion target to a full-blown threat.
It wasn’t until weeks later that they worked out what Subject X’s mission really was. And by then it was too late. His people were looking for a parallel Earth to annex and colonize. Henry assured him that once you cracked the math, looking for living space in the multiverse is far easier than looking for an Earthlike planet in outer space. Henry assured him of a lot of things. They opened Ghost Boxes all over the world and Sentinels and other threats appeared.
Turns out there’s a side effect. Time gets liquid, if you use them too often. He imagines one of the reasons for wanting a new living space was that their own parallel had become a pretty nightmarish place to live.
Westchester is full of ghosts. Literally. Walking the ruins of Xavier’s mansion he sees ghost versions of his teammates from different timeframes pass by: Storm walks down the stairs, Kitty and some students stand in the hallway.
Scott walks through the Danger Room, seeing a ghost version of Wolverine training. In his study, a ghost of Xavier sits in his wheelchair, staring outside. In the hangar, Storm and Colossus get off a Blackbird.
Most of the time, they don’t see him, Cyclops thinks. But he always knows when they are there, blaming him. Cyclops is lying in bed. The form of Emma Frost stands next to the bed, staring at him.
He can’t stand it when they look at him. At the table, a ghost of Beast sits next to him, reading a book.
What he doesn’t understand is why he was left alive. He looks outside across the ruined landscape. He isn’t worth killing. Only the good things are worth killing. They killed Jean. They killed Madelyne. And then they killed Jean again. And then they killed Emma. And the common factor? He was never worth killing. Because he did everything wrong right from the start.
He looks at a ghost version of himself, standing over what seems to be a Ghost Box. He never stopped to think. He tore off to Chaparanga without stopping and asking the real questions. What was the real nature of the triploid mutant? Who decided that in any war one side was right? All he had to do was act like the leader he was supposed to be. All he had to do was realize that he knew the enemy all along. His ghost self turns away and Scott covers his face, ashamed.
Cyclops stands in the Danger Room across the ruby quartz slab. Now he knows there’s only one thing he needs to do right. Don’t turn him away, Emma, he pleads silently and fires, managing to finally kill himself.
2nd story:
Wrapped in rags and ill-fitting clothes, Armor and a scarred Beast make their way across a ruined landscape with Hisako pushing a wheelchair in which Wolverine sits. His blanket drops and she put it over his legs again. Armor orders Henry not to wander off.
What keeps her going is writing, Hisako notes. Makes it ‘til the sun goes down, make it till they build a fire, make it till the other two got to sleep. Then she can write.
They pass a guttered car. On the bad nights, Henry writes. too. In his little notebook. He says he’s coming up with a plan. When he sleeps she looks at the notes. Just random numbers and half-remembered scraps of poetry.
The car is full of skeletons. On the worst nights, he remembers how he used to be. Usually, he starts crying. Once he attacked them. He couldn’t get through her armor so he went for Logan. The fur never grew back through that scar. Logan never even said sorry. Even laughed when he had her wrap the meat Henry had carved off him. Laughed when they cooked it for dinner the next night. “Finally, I’m useful,” he said. “We shoulda thought of this before.” Hisako flinches and looks away. That flat dead ugly meaningless laugh. The only one she ever hears now.
Logan thinks he’s been no use since the first attack when the adamantium in his leg bones got permanently bent. Five years ago. Still, it was he who got the contact four years ago. They were down to nothing but powers and their teeth in the resistance fight. But then he got the word. There was a stronghold in Montana. Around Kalispell. They figured they could hold it for eighteen months. And they were airlifting people. It was the last time she saw Logan smile and mean it.
Kitty Pryde’s back, he said, and helping people get off-world. All they have to do is make it to Kalispell. But California was overrun, and there was no transport and Logan couldn’t walk and none of them could fly. And so she made the decision to push him there. A year ago.
She doesn’t know why they haven’t seen anyone else go to Kalispell. She doesn’t know why they haven’t seen any signs of space launch.
They build a fire at night and Logan enthuses that Kitten’s smart. Really smart. She knows what’ll draw the annex squads. No way she’d do that.
So how are they getting refugees into space? Hisako asks. Could have a teleport station set up there, he suggests. No big bangs, no lightshow. So why couldn’t they teleport them out of California? she asks. He doesn’t know. Maybe it’s station-to-station, like a telephone line. All he knows is they couldn’t’ come in and get them. They had to get there. That was the deal. He’ll tell her though. Always knew the kid would come back.
The next morning, they travel on. Hisako knows it’s a trap. She doesn’t care what Logan says. She doesn’t care that he thinks Kitty Pryde is magic. She barely even remembers the girl. Some nights she hopes it’s a trap. She hopes it’s something that could actually kill Logan. She hopes it’s something that could put Henry out of his misery. Some nights, she wants them to get her too. Sometimes she just wants to be left alone.
She looks up and sees carrion bird. They used up the last of the food last night. If they don’t get there today, they start starving tomorrow and she’d die first. Then Henry. But she wouldn’t be around to see a man with the mind of a child try to understand why there’s no food and he’s dying. And then Logan Though sometimes she wonders if anything short of incineration would kill him. The one thing she’s learned in the last few years is that the universe finds a way for everything to die in the end.
They pass a ruined vehicle, a flying vehicle, one of the dead inside is clearly Colossus seemingly reaching out for something. Logan recognizes him and orders Hisako to stop pushing, but she ignores his pleading as she now pushes the wheelchair over human bones.
She knew it was a trap. She just didn’t know it was an old and abandoned trap that everyone else fell into first.
Before them is a huge crater as if of an explosion, surrounded by hundreds of skeletons.
It took them a year to get here. They just got there too late for their enemies to kill them the way they killed all the others they told to come here.
What’s happening? Henry asks confused. Wasn’t there a lady waiting to rescue them? Hisako armors up and twists Henry’s head off. Then she beats Logan unconscious.
That part was easy. Logan waking up, after she got the fire started under him, not so much. His healing factor died after seven or eight hours in the blaze. The rest of him went soon after.
The night is peaceful. There are no ghosts there, only her. And she won’t be here long. Hisako wanders off alone, waiting for death to take her.


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Xenogenesis
Night time, a forest of barren trees. A thin man is running panicked. Beneath his feet, the ground seems strangely fleshy. He jumps down. Behind him are armed men in strange body armor.
Stop. Just stop now! one of them orders. He fires his rifle and the shockwave sends the fugitive flying to the ground. Don’t! he asks, don’t make him-- Please don’t make him… Blue energy begins to crackle around him…
Another day, a bustling east-African town. Within the hospital, a frustrated woman is giving birth. Get it out of me! she shouts. That’s why they’re all here, getting the full force of her charm, the unfazed doctor replies wryly and tells her to push.
The woman shouts in pain and curses her nervous husband. She can’t believe she let him put something the size of a goat’s head inside of her. Pleadingly, he replies he didn’t know the condom would split. His father had used it for twenty years without a problem. She should have let her father use the farm tools on him like he wanted, she replies with another final scream as finally the baby is born.
What is it? What is it? the father asks anxiously. It’s a baby, you fool, the doctor replies. He has a son! the father shouts. He will teach him everything he knows! Well, that’s the first twenty-four hours of his life taken care of, the doctor addresses the serene looking baby boy. He’s a tough little man, isn’t he? Not a sound after the longest journey of his life so far. The couple look at each other happily.
Suddenly, the baby begins to crackle with electricity. Moments later, the hospital explodes.
The X-Men’s HQ in San Francisco:
Storm’s still rather basic quarters:
While she peels an apple she is conversing with her husband, the Black Panther, via video conference. Is that really her room? he asks. It looks like a cell. The current headquarters is somewhat basic, she replies. Good morning to you too, my love. early evening in Wakanda, he tells her. And he’s afraid this all is an instrument of continental diplomacy rather than the usual pathetic entreaties of a lonely husband.
Ororo reminds him that he agreed she should spend some time with X-Men. In fact, she thinks it may even have been his idea. So she’d like him to believe, he replies wryly. Seriously, a situation came to his attention this afternoon that he needs her help with. She becomes more serious as he begins to describe the problem.
Since he puts money into Mutantes sans Frontieres and MSF now funds the X-Men it’s really MSF territory and so it’s tricky. But he would want her view of the situation on the ground to be the primary one. And he thinks it’s X-Men business. She knows what east Africa can be like about news. The reports he’s getting are three weeks old. Something’s happening in Mbangawi…
Soon, Ororo – dressed in two towels – has gathered Cyclops, Beast, Armor, Wolverine and Emma Frost into the kitchen, all of them still very tired as she describes the situation in Mbangawi, more precisely a village name Karere. They are experiencing a spate of what are being described as mutant births.
Now Henry is paying attention and asks for details. Spotty, she replies. It’s not a part of the world where information moves very well. One child is reported to have incinerated what passes for a hospital in Karere. Stories of boneless babies born with speech. Babies who are literally difficult to see, who vibrate and are partially insubstantial. Babies who hang in the air like balloons. Babies who vomit acid.
Armor looks shocked, and the others attentive. Ororo continues that the birthrate is way above what it should be and even assuming fifty percent of these reports are confused, people there are not equipped to deal with this kind of thing. They need help and the situation demands investigation.
What are the odds of one African town having mutant births? Scott wonders. Henry corrects him. First point: Africa is not a country. Two: they cannot possibly be mutants! The X-gene powers up at puberty, not birth. So this is something else. That alone makes it worth their time.
Logan protests that he doesn’t see what makes it their business. The same thing that always makes it their business, Ororo replies. That no one else cares! This ain’t on them, he insists. Cyclops decides curtly that they go in. But not in costume and not like soldiers. Field gear only. Let’s try not to scare these people. He tells Henry to get on the line to Warren and Paige to see if they can get a Mutantes Sans Frontieres team in there.
While the others leave, he asks Ororo to stay. He turns away as if preparing what to say. Not being completely stupid, he knows that Africa is a continent, not a country. That said, he thinks they are going to be following her lead a lot here. He knows she was born in New York City, doesn’t he? she replies wryly. To a Kenyan princess and an African-American photographer, and she spent the best part of ten years in the Serengeti being worshipped as a raingoddess, he continues undeterred. She was joking, Ororo points out. He knew that. He also recognizes… He rehearsed that in his head first, didn’t he? she asks with a smile…
While he also recognizes, Scott continues that the Serengeti too, isn’t Africa, he’s leading two white Americans, a white Canadian, a Japanese girl and a white woman of indeterminate ancestry who speaks in a fake English accent into an African country. So if she doesn’t mind a little more consultation than usual… He’ll consult her? She may faint, Ororo replies. She’s been spending too much time with Emma, he accuses her. Doesn’t that accent of hers…bother him? she asks. No, he replies with a smile. That smile may have been too much information.
The team gets ready and meets in the hangar. All of them are wearing khaki pants and shirts styled like the original X-Men uniforms and baseball caps with an X-logo. Save for Emma, of course, who is wearing a white tight microdress with thigh-high boots in what could be considered a similar style. How come they all have to wear Scott’s GI Joe uniform of the week and Emma gets to wear what she likes? Logan protests. If he were sleeping with the leader of the pack, she’s sure he could wear whatever he wanted, Emma informs him. Presumably a fresh animal skin of some kind. Cyclops comforts Wolverine with the hope that there’s beer on the plane.
Aboard the plane, Armor teases Logan that he’s drinking already. Shaddap! He tells her gruffly. What’s his problem? Hisako asks. Never known a trip to that part of the world that didn’t go bad the second his feet touched the dirt, comes the reply. How so? she asks.
He calls up a holographic map and shows her the surrounding countries. Rwanda to the west. Genocide, corruptions, journalists being disappeared. Burundi to the southwest. Cold war, child soldiers, one of the poorest countries on Earth. Uganda to the north. A million and a half people are refugees in their own country. The army abducts little girls for “wives.” Tanzania to the east. Massive drugs gateway. One in ten people have HIV. All that on either side and Mbangawi’s even got to deal with pirates on Lake Victoria. Mbangawi is like craphouse central!
Emma, who’s been listening in, joins the conversation. It could be worse, she points out. They installed a new leader a few years ago. Educated at Eton, no less. Dr. Joshua N’Dingi. Doctor Crocodile, Logan uses his nickname. ’S what they call him, he explains to Hisako. Burned up in a car accident in England. Got a permanent half-mask where the skingrafts didn’t take and what did take looks kinda scaly.
He’s done wonders for the country, apparently, Emma points out. Yeah? Where is he today, then? Logan asks. Far as they can determine he has to leave the country for a month of every year for medical maintenance. He would have just left when this whole thing started. Convenient, Logan replies.
Let’s get on the ground and see what’s happening before they decide to apportion blame, Emma suggests. Why wait? Wolverine shoots back. African heads of state are all the same. Put ‘em in power and they all go nuts. Nelson Mandela? Emma points out mildly as she moves in closer. Armor makes a gagging noise at being threatened by Emma’s breasts.
Logan turns to her. Let him tell her something about Nelson Mandela. He ran a guerilla war—which means he ran kill teams. Civilians died. What do they call that kind of person in the United States? A terrorist? Hisako replies, hesitating. Don’t sound so surprised, he replies. Give the man credit. He copped to it himself. “I do not deny that I have planned sabotage. I planned it as a result of a calm ad sober assessment of the political situation.” Ain’t no saints in Africa, is all he’s saying. Know how Mandela got caught in the end? No, but he’s going to tell her, Armor fears. The CIA told the South African security forces where he was.
Taking away his cap, Emma announces that she does so enjoy Mr. Logan’s little history lessons. He’d actually make a good teacher. If he could get over his alarming predilection for making students wee themselves in the Danger Room.
Sitting in the front, Cyclops tells Storm not to listen to Logan. She always listens to Logan, she replies surprisingly. He’s wiser than Scott ever wants to admit. Scott should know better. So should he, Cyclops retorts. Last time they were out, Scott talked about Zimbabwe, Ororo reminds him, and he was right, too! Robert Mugabe. “Let me be a Hitler tenfold”, he said and then actually grew himself a Hitler moustache. Scott would be shocked at some of the reports T’Challa and she get from there. Not the sort of thing that makes the western news services.
This is going to be very close to home for her in a lot of ways, she confides. The Serengeti’s on the other side of Lake Victoria from Mbangawi. She’ll almost be able to-- Scott interrupts her, telling her to look out of the window to her right. She looks out in surprise and wonder to see the Serengeti below her.
He took the long way round, Scott explains. Looped over Narok, so he could come back the other way and give her a good long look. Ororo thanks him and takes his hand.
What’s all this then, Emma shouts mock-scandalized and orders Ororo to unhand her property at once. Grinning, Ororo tells her to shush and pulls her to the window. Just look at this with her. Hmm, Emma announces critically. No shops, no room service within a thousand miles, no hotels that haven’t been fashioned from twigs and elephant dung… no, she just doesn’t see the appeal.
Soon the plane lands. Okay, Scott reminds them. Mutantes Sans Frontiers have their team here. The idea is to get a sitrep from them and then decide what their first move is. Scott tells the others disembark first. Beast explains that their main concern is eliminating the possibility of some mutagen in the environment. Any number of things could be affecting the birth rate, and God only knows what may be lurking in the water table, if not the food chain itself. Not to mention… guns.
What about guns? Scott asks, bringing up the rear along with Ororo. Guns can’t… “Oh,” he mouths a moment later, as he steps out of the plane and sees they are surrounded by young soldiers with guns pointed at them. So, he’s thinking this’d be a good time to consult with Ororo about African things.


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[Assistant]
Untitled
All right, Cyclops announces as he and his team of X-Men just exited their plane, to find themselves surrounded by nervous soldiers. He doesn’t have time for this. Wide tackle, then disarm them from the flanks. The top limit is broken bones. He doesn’t need any dead kids today. On three. Two!
He fires his optic blast at the soldiers, followed by his teammates who also attack. Idiot boys, Storm chides the soldiers while throwing lighting. A short while later it’s over.
She could have helped, Cyclops chides Emma Frost. And deny their friends their exercise? she smiles Shall they just get on with this? The X-Men walk through the village of Karere toward the hospital. Suddenly Scott begins to swear. Emma suggests he smile. He’s come to help and they are oh so glad to see him!
The hospital where the Mutantes Sans Frontieres field doctors are is one again surrounded by armed soldiers. This is madness, Storm announces seething. Emma states she thinks these people want to leave now. The soldiers stare as if hypnotized and drop their weapons. Next, they drop their pants. Then they walk off.  Emma plays innocent She didn’t do anything She just gave them a hard stare and they shuffled off like good little soldiers. Don’t look at her like that, she tells Cyclops, then gives the departing soldiers a wave and a wicked grin.
The doctor who called out to them introduces herself as Helene St. Just and explains the soldiers arrived ten minutes after they got here. They were supposed to have a clear run at this but she thinks they were lied to quite extensively.
How does it look? Scott asks, eyes cast down. Helene admits she’s never seen anything like it. They need to see for themselves. Hank introduces himself and asks do they not have a hospital or clinic. This looks more like a village hall. A hospital of sorts, she replies. It burned down. A child exploded.
She leads them inside where her co-workers are trying to care for the children. Helene continues that the biggest problem is language. The local dialect is obscure, the people here have a little English, a smattering of French but it’s not enough… Emma? Scott asks and Emma kisses the surprised Helene. This is a 48-hour-download of the local language. She’ll give it to all her people. See if they can’t get on equal footing with the inhabitants. She smiles, satisfied while the doctor looks after her in astonishment.
Good God! Henry exclaims as he looks at a baby with translucent skin. He isn’t the worst, Helene replies. There are children with tentacles, burning children, one seems to be a pterodactyl skeleton, another consists only of a blue torso and a huge mouth with sharp teeth. Henry looks at them and begins to cry.
Wiping away the tear, he asks Cyclops to send Wolverine and Armor across to get the larger of his two field kits. He may need to borrow him, Emma and Storm momentarily. He raises his arms and asks the Mutantes sans Frontieres staff for their attention. He introduces himself and announces he will be taking command of their expedition. They will all be able to speak and hear the local language so they can precisely collect facts and case notes. Emma immediately begins kissing the staff members to upload the language. Henry continues that he wants full examination of every child in this building and he wants to see their charts afterwards. It is imperative that they begin this investigation with as complete a database as possible. He thanks them. And Emma continues kissing.
Scott remarks this looks like a room full of mutants to him. Henry agrees. Except it cannot possibly be. Not without a radical change in mutant pathology that does not happen overnight. This is something else.
Scott walks outside to see Ororo talking to some local women. She tells him she will be right with him. Respectfully, he keeps his distance. Ororo tries to comfort one of the women who is crying silently and hugs her.
A little later, she joins Scott. As they walk through the village, Ororo explains these people have been scared too long. This has been happening for months and they’ve received no support at all from their government. They have next to no contact with the outside world. They have no coping mechanism at all.
Scott replies he doesn’t want to sound, you know… but did she get anything useful from them? Taken aback, she reminds him this isn’t just another mission. This is these people’s babies!! He gets that, Scott assures her, he really does. But he looks in that hall and he sees nothing but mutant babies. And Henry assures him they can’t be mutants. He hears him. But at this point they are essentially a finite and dying race. And all these scientists assure him that the working X-gene can potentially once more be born into people. But no one knows what that’s going to look like. Why do they assume it’ll be the same as before, with it switching on at puberty? He sees a room full of mutant babies and he wants to throw a ring of steel around this village. That’s his instinct. So he needs facts. His head needs to win over his gut here. She’s got her own concerns here and he respects that but he has a job.
He always did have an astonishing skill of making life too difficult for himself, Ororo remarks wryly. All she has for him is a timeframe and, well, in America she’d call it an urban legend. They explain this to themselves by saying the devil lives outside the village.
Beast fiddles around at a device asks to borrow Armor for a moment. He takes a trancutaneous electronic nerve control device. A ray gun that makes you feel numb, Hisako translates. He uses it on a baby but has Armor fend off the pain of the needle. Does he know what is happening yet? she asks. He has a few ideas, but not enough information to choose between them yet. He would delight in being a TV medico who can sniff at person and correctly deduce that they ate particles of exotic matter in their sushi three months ago. But that’s not really how science works.
Hmm. He looks at the result. He’d hoped for better news. Something in his box just pinged, Logan tells him. Looking at it, Beast exclaims that’s just not fair. Is it broken? Hisako asks. Just the opposite, he replies. Get Scott!
Scott and Ororo arrive. Henry explains his radiation detector just took a hit. There’s radiation here? Ororo asks. Carrying a baby, Emma joins them and asks what kind of radiation. And she doesn’t believe one of his usual hyperextended lectures is appropriate right now. These children are not mutants, he explains. There’s no X-gene. Just a mess of chromosomal damage.
She’s… holding a baby, Scott states non-plussed. Full marks, Mr. Summers, she replies. Save any further comment for a time when she can beat him in private.
Henry goes on to explain he set this detector to eliminate certain environmental factors that may have caused such a vicious mutation over a period of months. However, one highly unlikely factor has just showed itself. Something very akin to a radiation signature they encountered very recently. Ghost Box radiation.
The others look shocked. Another annex attempt? one asks. Ghost Boxes are radioactive? Are those bastards hiding out there? Henry states he has no further answers for them. All he can tell them is that a few particles with a signature very like an open Ghost Box are whizzing around in the immediate area. It may not mean another annex attempt. What else could it mean? Scott asks. They don’t have a great deal of data in transuniversal travel, Henry admits. Perhaps any jump between parallels generates Ghost Box particles. There is another possibility he’s tangentially aware of but it’s not a good one.
Something drops in the room and suddenly they are all blinded. It’s a flash grenade. Cyclops orders Wolverine to secure the door. That would be pointless, comes the voice of a newcomer, a tall African man, wearing a military uniform. His left arm is cybernetic and the left part of his face is horribly scarred. They won’t be staying, he continues. He suggests they move very slowly. Mutants are notoriously hard to kill. Field doctors somewhat easier. His name is Joshua N’Dingi. They will now be so kind as to return to their vehicle and leave his country. It is their choice whether they’ll be carrying corpses or not.
The X-Men regain their eyesight to see all the field doctors are being threatened with weapons by N’Dingi’s soldiers.
Wolverine unsheathes his claws. You don’t give me choices. I give you choices! he snarls. Fine, comes N’Dingi’s reply. He chooses death. What now?
Henry tries to be the voice of reason and reminds him he is brandishing firearms in a room with children. They’re not children, he replies with a feral grin. They’re Warpies. He orders his soldiers to escort those people back to their vehicles. Then execute all the babies.


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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Untitled
Joshua N’dingi aka Doctor Crocodile has just had his soldiers take the personnel of Mutantes Sans Frontieres hostage and intends to kill the strangely mutated babies of Karere. That was the wrong move, Scott Summer announces. In the last sixty seconds, N’dingi has proven himself intelligent and ruthless and worth a degree of respect. But that was a mistake. There are fewer MSF people here than there are babies. There’s not one of them who wouldn’t lay down their life for a defenseless baby. It’s easy math. They die. The X-Men kill N’dingi and his men. The babies live. And it was his first wrong move.
Really? N’dingi asks, mildly interested. What was his second wrong move? Listening to him while Emma Frost was clearing her eyesight and then assuming mental control of his men, Cyclops replies, and indeed, Emma forced all the soldiers to aim the guns at themselves (usually by obscenely putting them in their mouths). He sees, N’dingi replies coldly. Summers is a little more professional than he’s been led to believe. Very good. Now it’s their turn to listen to him.
Once, he worked for the British government, for that department that’s now referred to as MI:13, paranormal intelligence. There was a thing that happened to Britain, many years ago. In his department, it was known as the “Jaspers Warp”.
Beast swears, exclaiming he was hoping he’d been wrong. Mutagenic radiation severely damaged the environment in the aftermath of the Warp, N’dingi continues. It affected the unborn. The births were xenogenetic. Beast has to explain the word. Offspring radically different from the parents. Originating from a foreign substance introduced into the organism.
They termed them “Warpies,” N’dingi continues They were forced to take these babies into their care for their own good. One night a collection went… very badly wrong.
N’dingi’s narration:
His partners… one was an engineer, the other more in line of a social engineer. It was their job to handle the parents. He dealt with the kids. He was very fond of kids. He was very young.
A younger Joshua N’dingi, dressed in a white three part suit, walked up the stairs to the child’s room. The little boy was standing on his bed, glowing. “Hey you,” Joshua tried to address him and calm him, promising it was okay. However, the child began to cry hysterically and exploded in Joshua’s face.
He awoke on an operating table. His colleagues had to invent new medical procedures to save his life. He was lucky that he was in high level employment with access to exotic medical technologies.
Present:
He left Britain. His father died and he considered himself lucky that he never got to see his new face. He returned home. M’Bangwi was a monarchy. He inherited the duty to protect the people of this country. He’s sure they can conceive of wishing to protect one’s people from this. Perhaps Queen Ororo of Wakanda has been taught a little about duty. One hopes her and the king don’t just sit around counting their vibranium money all day.
All he’s hearing is him talking about killing children, Cyclops points out. Very few Warpies live to maturity, N’dingi explains. As a rule, the longer they live, the more pain they experience. Also, some of them explode, he reminds him with a mirthless smirk. He doesn’t find him amusing, Scott announces. He is not amused, N’dingi replies. He doesn’t have the capability to fight a new Jaspers Warp. He does however have the capability to protect his people from their own sick children. It is not a job he relishes, but it is the job he was born into.
Beast points out they are here under the auspices of Mutantes Sans Frontieres. They can care for these children. All of them? N’dingi scoffs. With more being born all the time? And what happens when they inevitably get bored of aiding an African country? Or when some distracting event happens on American soil and they all have to run and punch someone and MSF medical aid is required? He accusingly points at Henry. What happens when they give his people hope and they fail and the parents learn of their child’s slow agonized death via an email from San Francisco? His way is brutal. It is painful. He will be hated. But their children will die swiftly. And his people will be evacuated from this place and it will be sealed off, so this cannot happen again.
African leaders, Wolverine scoffs. And what would he know of African leaders? N’dingi asks without turning around. He has read all the tribal records of M’bangwi. He knows all about Mr. Logan’s educational trips to Africa. He imagines it’s easy to disrespect African leaders when you are complicit in CIA strikes against three of them. Does it make it easier to romanticize his mercenary past by deciding everyone is as corrupt as he is? N’dingi has judged men and has killed them, but he has never done so for money or for pleasure. He defies Logan to say the same.
Dramatically, N’dingi throws his hands in the air in an exaggerated gesture of surrender. So they have won, clever mutants! Kill them or jail them, take the babies to their shining land across the sea and curse the backwards tribesmen! Perhaps he’ll lodge a complaint with the United Nations, just for fun. They all know how closely African nations are listened to.
No, Beast announces. No? N’Dingi repeats surprised. No, Beast now gets in his face. They are not leaving until they have discovered the source of the radiation causing these terrible problems. It is conceivable that someone is using a device called a Ghost Box. If so, this could be an invasion attempt. An invasion from a parallel Earth will affect a little more than just this town, or just this country. Are N’dingi’s troops capable of resisting a beachhead from another world?
If he bombs out the region from the air, it will be less of an issue, comes the reply. He can’t be that stupid, Henry announces. N’dingi points out the world is riddled with holes into multiversal structure. The chances of this being caused by a Ghost Box are—coincidental, Beast agrees. But does he really believe in coincidences?
The discussion is interrupted when they hear gunfire. He tells Emma to release his men and she complies. N’dingi orders his soldiers outside and to take defensive positions to protect the townspeople. Cyclops orders Wolverine to back them up. Guy’s a &%$&! Wolverine points out. So is he, Cyclops remarks.
A captain comes running to report. Something’s moving in the tree line, something strange. Define, N’dingi orders. Can’t, he admits Everything was rippling around it like a heatwave. There was this sound, this beating sound, pulsing. When he thought it was going to emerge from the trees he opened fire.
Ororo recalls that the townspeople told her about something living in the woods. A devil. If they are looking for a cause for this effect… Can he have control of the mission back? Cyclops asks Beast. Indubitably, Henry agrees, feeling suffused with manly power is honestly terrible for his blood pressure. Cyclops addresses Doctor Crocodile, offering help: let the X-Men find out what is going on in there before he takes action. N’dingi accepts. Cyclops orders Wolverine, Beast and Storm into the forest. Whatever that was, he wants it tracked and quantified. No direct contact unless he gives the word. Emma is to patch them in telepathically. Try to do it without licking them, Spoilsport she sulks.
N’dingi orders two soldier, Nagenda and Musere, to accompany the X-Men, radio only when they have a target in sights. Cyclops begins to protest. N’dingi interrupts. These men are highly skilled in bushcraft. The X-Men would be heard by a competent soldier before his men were even seen. They go! Try to keep u, eh? Wolverine tells the soldiers as the X-Men take the point.
Wolverine decides they ought to head north. He informs Emma that there is definitely something in there with them and it definitely is not from around here.
A sole barefoot man is running panicked. Beast and Wolverine have his scent. Flying above the trees, Storm is he first to see the man. Storm and Beast catch up with him while Wolverine cuts off his way, claws drawn. Frightened the man drops to the ground. Storm promises it’s all right, they are here to help him. She offers her hand and tells him to come back to the village with them. Show the people they needn’t be afraid of him. Then they’ll give him the help he needs.
That moment, N’dingi’s soldiers have caught up and fire at the young man. Storm angrily sweeps them off their feet with her winds. The young man stares at his injury in disbelief, then falls down. Ororo runs to his side. Beast tells Emma to get MSF medics to their location They have a gunshot victim and he may feed these two idiot soldiers to Logan!
Looking at the injured man whom Storm cradles Logan surmises the bullet went in and out. Beast tries to calm him. They have aid on the way. He asks for his name. Jim Jaspers, the young man replies and begs them not to let him die here.
“The Jaspers Warp” that the good doctor mentioned? Beast states. A massive space-time attack perpetrated by a mutant named Sir James Jaspers. One of the aftereffects of which was babies with exotic birth defects… “Warpies…”
But this aint that guy, right? Wolverine asks. Not the original James Jaspers, Beast agrees. But they got Warpies and they got a Jaspers is what he’s saying, so…
This can wait, Storm announces. He’s just a boy. She promises they will not let him die. They’ll solve everything else in due course. He’s safe now. Jim thanks her. He didn’t think anyone would ever say that to him again. He was so scared of having to leave and what that would cause… Oh no! he exclaims a moment later. Furies!
A glowing box appears. That weird flat metal smell, Logan announces. If that ain’t a Ghost Box, it’s damn well close enough. Doctor Crocodile might want to send his army in after all, eh?
Shapes step out of the box, a horde of heavily armed Furies…


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Untitled
Storm flies up carrying the injured boy, Jim Jaspers. She tells her teammates, Wolverine and Beast, that she is taking him out of this. They deal with that. Try diplomacy first, please, but the issue is containing them. She is referring to the strange Fury-like armed beings that appeared in chase for the boy.
Does he want to try diplomacy or does he want him to? Wolverine asks Beast. He doesn’t think he’s ever seen him stab someone diplomatically before. He does believe, however, that he’s quite sick of people pointing guns at him today, Beast retorts.
“Halt!” the alien soldiers order, scanning them. Infestation, they decide. Extreme sanction! They fire their weapons.The two X-Men dodge them, Beast by jumping up and using the trees. While he draws their fire, Wolverine sneaks up from behind and claws the first Fury apart. Beast jumps atop another one.
Another, Fury manages to impale Wolverine with a huge knife it has formed of its arm. Beast tries to run to help but is hit by another Fury.
Wolverine swears at the Fury that tries to behead him but finds Adamantium bones a little too hard. Not gonna be as easy as that, Wolverine figures. It opens fire at him and Wolverine’s body is riddled with bullet holes.
However, before the Fury can finish him off, it and several others are fired at, first by Cyclops’ optic blast, then by artillery. This is his country, Doctor Crocodile announces. And those are his X-Men Cyclops states.
Back in the village, Emma now tries to mentally reach the semi-conscious young man, telling him to relax and let her in. They’ve come for him, he mutters. They’ve come for him and’ll kill all of them too!
Outside, the Furies begin to reform. Cyclops tells the Doctor to have his men stand back a moment and brace. He then orders Storm to strike the one with the arm regeneration. One strike, human-lethal. Let’s find out exactly what they are dealing with here.
Furies! Jim shouts to Emma who tells him to stop. She doesn’t understand! he replies panicked.
Storm strikes the Fury as Cyclops orders… nothing happens. Yeah, okay, he figures. He tells Storm and Armor to get Beast and Wolverine to cover. And then it’s containment and as much damage as they can inflict. N’Dingi orders his soldiers to protect the X-Men until they get their wounded clear. Then concentrate on terminating these… things. These things that he has only ever read about in reports.
Flashback:
Doctor Crocodile thinks back on his past when he was younger and working for the RCX in Great Britain, before his accident. He read reports about this world’s James Jaspers and the horror that was the Fury…
End flashback
In the village, the boy still urges Emma that she doesn’t understand! They are Furies! They were grown to kill people like him. People like her! They have to go! They have to run! They have to hope they don’t see them! Show her, Emma orders.
She looks into his mind and sees a mass grave of murdered superhumans, watched over by the Furies.
Horrified, she withdraws and the boy still begs they have to run.
Outside in the jungle the soldiers are being massacred by the Furies. Armor carries Wolverine away, telling him he looks like crap. She’s a joy to have around, he mutters weakly. She urges him to concentrate on healing. She’ll get him clear. How long does he thinks these wounds will need to close up? She is unaware of a Fury following her.
Her friends are already dead! Jaspers tells Emma.
The Fury grabs Hisako’s armor and some of its spikes begin to penetrate the psychic armor. Hisako screams. Wolverine goes ballistic and tears it apart. Good God, Doctor Crocodile mutters at the slaughter. More Furies fire at Wolverine together.
Even Emma can hear it. What was that? she asks. Ultimate sanction cannon, Jaspers tells her and again pleads to leave. She looked into his mind. She knows that even winning is losing! Emma pushes him back onto the bed. If he tries to move again, she’s going to break his neck and give his corpse to his little playmates out there, she informs him.
She telepathically addresses Scott, informing him they are fighting a surgical strike force designed entirely to kill superhumans. They wiped out superhumans on their parallel world. Except for their little friend who is a reality jumper, a living ghost box. He escaped and was silly enough to try to go home again. A living Ghost Box, Scott repeats. Emma agrees. His very arrival here threw off enough radiation to mutate all these babies in the womb. And she imagines no one here has been tested for cancer yet.
She mentioned he teleported to another parallel world. He was taken in by a superhuman group who killed a Fury team. They sent in another six hundred and turned that world into a wet rock. And if he jumps out of here they’ll get a strong dose of radiation.
So even winning is losing, Cyclops realizes in the battle. They need to move the playing field! Storm retorts they need to keep them right here! They are all that stands between them and the villagers. And the villagers are between them and the boy they are hunting.
Cyclops orders her to get Logan all the way out of the combat theater and then get an aerial position. Storm strikes the Furies with lightning and drags Logan up, swearing at his stupid heavy skeleton. One Fury gathers and absorbs the lightning and sends it back at her…


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Untitled
On the battlefield, Cyclops (protecting an unconscious Storm and Wolverine) and soldiers are fighting Furies. Emma telepathically contacts him and informs him he needs to leave one of the Furies alive. She might want to talk to these things about leaving one of them alive, Cyclops retorts.
Back in the field hospital, Jim Jaspers again begs Emma to let him leave. To jump parallel universes again? She inquires. When he agrees, she angrily reminds him that he will irradiate the area again. He does get that, yes? If she lets him jump out of there, he’s going to poison these people all over again! He apologizes but, if he goes, the Furies will follow him, he assures her. If the X-Men kill them, they’ll come back in the thousands! Panicked, he shoves Emma aside and tries to run away.
Emma wipes her mouth. She did not give him permission to touch her. Her eyes glow threateningly. If he ever disobeys her again, she’ll tear his brain open and make it so he can remember nothing of his life but screaming! She is not like the others. She is not his friend! She will feed him to whatever’s out there feet first if it suits her! She overloads his brain and he falls unconscious. Unfortunately, she has a better and far more dangerous idea. “Fall into a nice warm coma for mistress!”She contacts Cyclops.
In the meantime, Armor has knocked a Fury down and Cyclops downs a second one. Emma reminds him she needs one alive if they are to have a prayer of solving this without bringing down something so ugly that even Henry may not have a word for it.
Cyclops orders everyone to form up on him and shouts for Beast. Doc Crocodile orders his panicked men to reassemble behind the X-Men. Pull it together! he shouts. In New York City, this is a typical lunchtime experience and they are twittering like hens!
A Fury grabs one of the men and Doc Crocodile attacks it, muttering he hates having to do this. He impales the Fury and saves his soldier. Cyclops shouts at him they need one alive. Why? he asks. These are Furies. Either they live or the Furies do. Cyclops explains that if they all die or one escapes… Wait, how many were there?
One Fury is escaping through the jungle, hurrying towards the teleportation platform when Beast kicks it in the back. He doesn’t think so…
He tackles it down and destroys its eyes, poking around it until it blasts him. The Fury gets back up and points its weapon at him. Go on, do it! Beast challenges it. Even in death, he’s going to be smarter and more handsome than it can even comprehend!
Suddenly, Wolverine destroys it, telling Henry Cyclops is going to give him grief. He wants one of these things alive and unharmed. So Henry better tell Summers it slipped and fell on his claws or something, eh? What on Earth does he want one alive for? Henry asks.
Henry telepathically calls Emma, who tells him she’s a little busy just this second. She strides out of the hospital. She is about to be a proper little X-Man and do something quite remarkably stupid…
A Fury heads towards her. That’s it, Emma taunts, come to Auntie Emma... Scott orders her to change to diamond form but Emma declines, because that would mean losing her psychic abilities which would rather defeat the point of this absurd enterprise…
“No!” N’Dingi shouts as the Fury runs towards Emma who goads it to come along. She forbids them from firing at it. All white people are insane! Doctor Crocodile curses. Closer, Emma tells it. The Fury draws its gun on her.
What is she doing? Armor asks. Getting herself killed, Storm observes. And yet putting herself between the Fury and a lot of people she has never met. So perhaps they can ask for two miracles in a row and hope she survives whatever she’s scheming.
Okay, maybe not close enough to shoot her, Emma decides. Luckily, Doc Crocodile tackles the Fury, hitting it wildly. Stay down!, he orders, he said stay down and he’s the damn president. Whole and intact please, Emma reminds him and thanks him for saving her life and therefore the world. Allow her to take over…
She gets inside the Fury’s mind. In a doctor’s outfit, she begins a spot of psychic surgery, telling the Fury it’s really very lucky it doesn’t have a mouth to scream out of. Screaming amuses her so much that she may slip with the tools and then it would be sorry. Say Aaah! Here comes its new reality. Sweating, she finishes.
The other X-Men come closer and Scott catches her as she falls. Emma thanks him; he is always such a useful hunk of meat. The Fury turns around and walks away. Emma explains that it can’t perceive any of them now. Synthetic memories from a fictional future are dripping into its cortex. She tells them all to let it go. Just let it go? N’dingi asks. She’s just managed the most brilliant piece of mind surgery he’ll ever witness and if he can’t find her a nice shiny medal, at least keep his voice down, Emma snarks. It’s going home with a new set of memories regarding the last thirty minutes or so. It now believes that it emerged here and found the Jaspers boy. It thinks it witnessed the Jaspers boy, mortally wounded, jump to another parallel, taking its brethren with him. Unable to follow, it can only returns to its masters with the following report: “fellow Furies lost in the spacetime manifold. Jaspers gone and dying and nothing here worth coming back for, ever…”
The Fury leaves through the gate, observed by Beast and the injured Wolverine, who’d ask for a beer but he’s got so many holes in him it would all fall out when he poured it in.
Nevertheless, later in the village of Karere with the injured treated and bandaged, Wolverine gets his much deserved beer. He doesn’t believe he begged beer off those poor villagers, Beast scoffs. He didn’t beg for it, Logan assures him. He sold Henry to them for it. Nice blue rug.
Dr. Crocodile tells Ororo it is a peculiar honor meeting her. Technically, they are both heads of state and he should be interested to meet her on that basis alone. But he heard the stories of the wind goddess of the Serengeti just like everyone else in the countries surrounding Lake Victoria. It’s not every day one speaks to a mythical figure whose very name makes children smile. Taking her hands, he assures her it is a pleasure to make her acquaintance. Surprised, Ororo thanks him.
N’dingi turns to Cyclops. If he made secure building available outside the capital, would he extend the service of Mutantes sans Frontieres to these people? He can’t allow them to live here until he gets strong advice both on the radiation and possible sterilization processes. Scott gives his word and shakes his hand. Doc Crocodile thanks him and asks to see the alternate world Jaspers. He met “their” Jim Jaspers once. He’d be interested in getting a longer look at this one. Emma, who is tanning, tells them he is still asleep in there. Look all they like. She is going to stay here and quietly expire. Her head feels like it’s had Germans on holiday in it.
They enter the room where Jaspers is slumbering. N’dingi observes: So much pain caused, so much trouble caused… by a boy. Why is he asleep? Scott explains that Emma knocked him out. He was panicking and on the verge of jumping again. He probably had no idea his multiversal travels left a radiation footprint. Jumped around to see what there was to see, came back to his home to discover he’d irradiated his homesite. The Furies were onto him. Yes, N’dingi replies after taking a long look at Japers.
Before the two X-Men can react, he draws his gun and shoots Jaspers. They react in horror. It is his burden to weigh and rule justice, he announces. How is murdering a child in his sleep just? Storm demands. It is not, he replies neither is allowing a human dirty bomb to wander around undefused in the midst of his people. He will attempt to contain the Warpies given their promised aid, but he will not permit an adolescent to hold the health of his people at his mercy. And now he has to arrange for the villagers to be taken to the city, not knowing if they’ll ever be allowed to come home. And no one will care. It’s not Chernobyl. It’s not an oil spill or a hurricane. It’s just a village in Africa. Everyone wants to save the world, you see, but nobody really cares about M’bangawi. No one but him. Goodbye, Windrider.
He walks out, leaving behind the two shocked heroes.


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The Red Supremacy: Chapter 1 - We Will All Be Dead Tomorrow
Los Angeles: ‘Man, they’ve really let LA go. Permitting one’s lawn to get this overgrown in man-eating vegetation is really breaking a social contract’ Tony “Iron Man” Stark remarks as he flies through the skies above Los Angeles alongside several other Avengers including Thor, the Vision, Shiro “Sunfire” Yoshida, Janet van Dyne a.k.a. the Wasp, and Sam Wilson, formerly the Falcon, now the new Captain America. ‘Bit of an improvement, actually’ Captain America remarks, while the Vision reports that he is detecting sentience and rage from all plants in the region. ‘Assume anything green is your enemy, Avengers’ the Vision states. ‘Even kale?’ the Wasp enquires. ‘Especially kale’ Captain America remarks. ‘What of Doc Green?’ Thor asks as he lands on the Quinjet, which, Clint “Hawkeye” Barton, Natasha Romanoff a.k.a. the Black Widow and Dr Bruce Banner a.k.a. the Hulk are flying in.
‘I’m a carnivore - just green on the outside - I don’t even acknowledge vegetables’ the Hulk responds to Thor’s comment. ‘This is going to wreak havoc on the current season of “Real Housewives”’ the Black Widow mutters. ‘So, Black Widow votes to leave things as they are’ Hawkeye jokes.
As the Avengers descend, Captain America asks Iron Man if they have any idea who did this. Plants and foliage cover buildings and the ground, as Iron Man replies ‘Well, geez, let’s see, Cap… an abundance of plant life consuming the world of man, probably in some sort of symbolic bid at revenge…’ Iron Man adds that he is guessing this is the work of Pollution Man or Johnny Tree-Hater. ‘Yeah, or maybe Ivan the Industrialist. You know, somebody who really hates plants’ Iron Man adds. The Vision tells Iron Man that he appreciates the thought he has put into unravelling this mystery, but believes he might be a smidgen off base.
Iron Man tells the android Avenger that he is all ears. ‘And no one says “smidgen” anymore’ Iron Man adds. ‘Yes, well, perhaps the individual behind this doesn’t hate trees at all, but is quite partial to them. Potentially someone such as -’ the Vision begins, as a voice shouts ‘PLANTMAN!’ and the leafy villain leaps towards the Avengers, with vines reaching out to grab them, Plantman exclaims that he will suffer mankind’s putrid corruption no longer. ‘Oh, right - duh. Cancel my appearance on “Jeopardy”’ Iron Man jokes. ‘Witness the price of your decadence, Tony Stark - the great polluter!’ Plantman calls out as Iron Man steadies himself mid-air before the Plantman. ‘Fact-check Friday - I have an exemplary clean energy record. Not that I need to explain myself to you - but my PR guy Chip isn’t here and he likes me to maintain a certain image’ Iron Man jokes. ‘While the world rots, the great Iron Man fixates on his vanity!’ Plantman exclaims. ‘Wow, that was Chip’s exact advice’ Iron Man jokes as he fires a repulsor ray at Plantman.
One of the vines snaps away at Captain America, who hovers over it, shield ready, before he calls out to the Wasp, telling her to ear-blast the Plantman, as a destroyed equilibrium is their best chance to shut down Seymour’s little shop of horrors. He then tells Thor that there are people in the buildings nearby, so he needs to hack the plants off before the buildings collapse. ‘Thor will not clean weeds while there is battle to be had! If you desire gardening done - do it yourself, little bird’ Thor responds, as he clutches the axe Jarnbjorn in one hand. Captain America replies that he recognizes Thor isn’t smart enough to understand his tactics, but that is why Thor doesn’t lead the Avengers. ‘Thor punches big stuff and does as he’s instructed -’ Captain America begins, before he is knocked back through the air when Thor tosses the axe at him. ‘Right on one count’ Thor remarks, as he hears a voice inside his mind: ‘He doesn’t respect you’.
Iron Man, the Wasp and Vision look on, confused. ‘Okay - what?’ Iron Man asks. The Vision frowns as he hears a voice in his head - ‘He imperils you all to placate his pride’. ‘Egotistical fool’ the Vision mutters. ‘I have had enough’ he declares as he flies to the Quinjet, as Thor’s axe finds it way back to him. ‘Bah! I fear you not, Hollow Man made of tin -’ Thor begins before the Vision drops down on him, forcing him through the wing of the Quinjet, ‘You have forgotten whom you are speaking to’ the Vision remarks, as they fall to the ground.
A fire spreads in the Quinjet, ‘Was that Thor?’ Hawkeye shouts. ‘Are you blind and deaf?’ the Hulk asks. ‘Idiot - we’re going down! Eject - so I can kill you with my own hands!’ the Black Widow exclaims. Nearby, Sunfire hears ‘You’ve betrayed yourself long enough!’ in his mind and he fires a blast of flame at the Wasp. ‘I will suffer you fascists no longer!’ he shouts, as Captain America hears ‘He usurps your authority’ and throws his shield towards the Vision, declaring that he doesn’t need a robot doing his fighting.
‘Are you people insane? While you primates fight each other, I’ve called forth a tsunami of sweet green!’ Plantman calls out, as vines extend around the Vision and Captain America, he boasts that he will overwhelm the squalid cities of men, saving the unsullied plant life. ‘Man, I hate to do this right in the middle - but I’m going to have to raincheck the shrubbery rant’ Iron Man jokes as he flies towards Plantman and fires several close-range blasts at him, causing the Plantman’s vines that are suspending him in the air to break, and the Plantman plummets towards the ground - until Iron Man catches him. ‘Okay, bad guy’s down ad hopeless so is whatever rage pheromone he’s been emitting, because, frankly, I’m a little tired of all the hero-on-hero action around here. Whadda ya say, Avengers? I trust everyone is feeling a smidgen more Assemble-y?’ Iron Man asks, when suddenly, he notices the Hulk barreling towards him. ‘Oh. I’ve made a huge mistake’ Iron Man realizes.
‘YOU DID THIS TO ME!’ the Hulk shouts as he stomps Iron Man into the ground. ‘You know the truth now - he’s the one who cursed you to this existence’ the voice inside the Hulk’s mind calls out. Iron Man’s systems tell him that armor integrity has been compromised. Tony realizes that with the Hulk still very angry, it cannot be Plantman’s pheromones, and it is not affecting him, which leaves telepathy. Suddenly, Iron Man is very glad for those nightmares that led to him installing a telepathic inhibitor. ‘You think I’m going to forget what you did?’ the Hulk asks as he holds Iron Man up by his head. ‘Just one sec, Hulk… okay, duplicate telepathic frequency, invert, and we should have a -’ Iron Man begins, before his system tells him that the armor integrity has been compromised. ‘Everything, all of my pain - this is your fault, Stark!’ the Hulk roars as he starts to squash Iron Man’s armor.
Iron Man tells himself to ignore the rage monster and find the perfect inverted frequency. ‘Collapse is -’ Iron Man’s system tells him, as Iron Man adds ‘-save the day’ and a large burst of energy spills out over the area, along with a blinding flash of energy. ‘How we feeling, buddy? A smidgen less irritated? I mean, I know it’s relative…’ Iron Man asks the Hulk, who looks slightly confused, ‘I… I’m…’ he begins, still holding Iron Man up by his head, before dropping him to the ground, and telling him that he is sorry. ‘Wow. Sorry even? Okay, my brilliant telepathic inverter definitely worked’ Iron Man points out as the other Avengers all gather around him. ‘For telepathy to affect me, it would have to be incredibly powerful’ the Vision points out.
‘Tony, you there?’ a voice asks over the communication system. ‘Yeah, Steve, I’m here. Boy, you really missed some fun’ Iron Man responds. ‘Downside of being a senior citizen, I’m afraid. But, hey, look on the upside - cheap bus fare’ Tony adds, before Steve tells him to listen. ‘We’re dealing with -’ he begins, as Tony replies ‘A telepathic broadcast, I know’. He adds that he is already planting a disruptor to blanket the area until they find its source. ‘Not, it’s not just Los Angeles…’ Steve replies from Avengers Mansion where he and his adopted son Ian “Nomad“ Rogers, stand before a series of monitors, each depicting events of violence throughout the world. ‘What?’ Tony asks. Steve informs him that one minute ago, every city on Earth erupted in hate riots. ‘The only time I’ve seen telepathy remotely this powerful…’ he begins, before uttering ‘Dear God…’ and his voice trails off. ‘What? Who is the mystery contestant, Steve?’ Tony asks. ‘The one person with this much hate and the power to spread it… get back here as soon as you can.
(Havok’s dream)
Alex “Havok” Summers is not face down in the mud of a Genoshan re-education camp. His face has been restored. He is in bed with Janet. Their daughter, Katie, snuck in during the night. ‘Rascal’ he thinks to himself, how Katie always kicks the covers off and wakes him up. ‘Magnus - what did you do?’ Katie utters. Alex looks over to her, between he and Janet, and tells her ‘Nothing, angel - you’re dreaming. We’re not there. Magneto isn’t our problem’. But a voice calls out ‘He was my problem, Havok… another thing left unfinished’. ‘PROFESSOR X!’ Havok gasps at seeing the Professor’s ghost, the top of his head removed. ‘Rise, Alex. You are needed’ the Professor declares. ‘Do not allow his hatred to be my legacy, please…’ he adds. ‘Katie -?’ Havok shouts, spinning around, to find his daughter gone. ‘She never existed’ the Wasp remarks without turning around. But suddenly, she looks up - only it is the Red Skull’s face that Havok sees on her body. ‘The monsters took her from you. But I’ll stop them - and you’ll help me. I see in your heart you welcome the cleansing’ the Red Skull declares.
(Reality)
‘Open your eyes’ the Red Skull’s thoughts order, as reality snaps back like steel cable - no bed, no Janet, no Katie - Genosha - the Red Skull’s re-education camps. A fire rages through several of the buildings in the camp, and rain beats down. Havok’s injured body lies in a pool of mud, he knows that the Red Skull is turning the mutants here into an army, wiping their minds. ‘A war you never wanted any part of. What did you give up to protect these cattle?’ the Red Skull asks. Havok is fighting to unite two sides that didn’t want to be united - and he gave up everything to protect them. ‘what will be the cost next time?’ the Red Skull asks. ‘I’ve let them exploit me for too long, but now I know -’ Havok thinks to himself. ‘The Red Skull is right’ is the thought projected into his mind. ‘Only one way through it… let the hate set me free’ Havok decides.
Havok knows that he failed to stop the Red Skull from taking Xavier’s gifts, failed to unite the Avengers and the X-Men in time to hunt him down - failed to stop Magneto from killing the Red Skull - and now it is up to him - he has to kill them both.
At that moment, the Red Skull - now the Red Onslaught, his massive form stands over the prison. Tentacles connected to his back thrash about. Horns extend from his head and he fires optic blasts at Rogue, who dodges them mid-air. Wanda Maximoff a.k.a. the Scarlet Witch levitates up towards the Red Onslaught and casts a hex sphere, while Erik Lensherr a.k.a. Magneto raises dozens of metal pillars in an attempt to use them against the massive Red Onslaught. ‘Behold the legacy of your bloodlust, Magneto! In killing me, you have released all that stirred within me - such glorious liberation!’ The Red Onslaught boasts that he will finally see his world achieved - the new master face that will tear down this world and draw forth the Reich Eternal.
‘Now! Strike with everything you have! I know this animal well and if we do not kill Red Onslaught right now -’ Magneto begins, while the Red Onslaught turns his optic blasts towards Wanda, who deflects them with a hex sphere. ‘Such luminous things - so concerned for the world! So concerned for the poor, helpless humans!’ the Red Onslaught declares.
Rogue flies towards Wanda and tells her that if she is so damned almighty, then she should do something. ‘Useless cow!’ Rogue adds. ‘You’re letting his hate take you, Rogue - you have to fight it!’ Wanda urges. ‘It is not my hate that you feel - it is that within Rogue set free’ the Red Onslaught points out. ‘Aim it all at him! Attack!’ Wanda calls out as she and Rogue, imbued with the energies of Wonder Man, prepare to strike Red Onslaught - but they come to a halt just before his face as the Red Onslaught asks ’Tell me, Wanda, before your father crushed my skull - what were you thinking? You could have stopped him - but you didn’t’ he points out, before calling out ‘Open your mind’ into their thoughts. ‘The harsh lessons of your life have created a calloused pragmatist. Lost children, divorce, madness - yet here you are, fighting the same fight, expecting different results’ the Red Onslaught remarks.
‘Let me in’ he urges Wanda, remarking that she sees mankind as her responsibility, and tells her that if she truly cared for them, she should help him create a better word. ‘One without this ceaseless superhuman conflict’ he suggests. ’Give yourself freely’ he urges both Wanda and Rogue, extending a hypnotic gaze out over them, both heroes reply ’I give myself to you’. Suddenly, the Red Onslaught cries out in agony, as several of the large metal beams are shoved into his chest. ‘You Nazis spewed the same filth during your last war - and this one will end no differently’ Magneto points out as he hovers nearby. ‘You - you damn murdering hypocrite!’ Havok exclaims as he rushes towards Magneto. ‘You’re just like him, Magneto! I’ve seen firsthand what you do with power’ Havok adds, reminding Magneto that he hunted his family like dogs.
Havok releases a surge of energy that knocks Magneto out of the air and into one of the buildings. ‘My God… the world has gone mad’ Magneto utters as he looks at someone in the room. ‘God’s got nothing to go with this. Or anything, really. Because, you know, he’s not real. Which I know because he lets this sort of thing happen’ Quentin Quire mutters as he is shackled hands and feet to a wall, alongside Scott “Cyclops” Summers and the mutant boy called Genesis. ‘Quentin Quire, Cyclops… the child Apocalypse’ Magneto utters. ‘Genesis, if you don’t mind!’ the boy protests. ‘Erik… what the hell is going on out there? Where are we?’ Cyclops demands. Magneto uses his power to free the others from the shackles and announces that they are in the Red Skull’s mutant re-education camp. ‘Xavier’s worst fears come true. But that isn’t the worst of it - the ghoulish fiend stole Charles’s corpse - used him - took his gifts’ Magneto reveals, adding that they have bonded and now they have given birth to a Red Onslaught.
‘Where is he?’ Cyclops asks. Magneto doesn’t answer, instead he tells Cyclops that there will be time for fighting once they have evacuated the captives of this God-forsaken - ‘WHERE IS RED SKULL?’ Cyclops shouts. ‘He’s dead! Didn’t Magneto tell you? He killed the Skull… JUST LIKE YOU KILLED XAVIER!’ Havok roars as he rushes into the room and blasts his older brother up through a skylight. They land on the ground outside, and Havok starts punching Cyclops. ‘This is your fault, Scott! You’re Magneto’s true disciple!’ Angrily, Havok declares that Cyclops created the perfect recipe for hate. ‘You don’t care what it costs the rest -’ he begins, before a blast of energy knocks him backwards off of his brother. The energy was fired from Genesis, who walks through the rain and tells the Summers brothers ‘If you love Xavier, if you fight for his memory - why don’t you do a single thing he taught you?’
Genesis reminds the Summers brothers that they were supposed to lead the fight for cohabitation, but all he has seen since Xavier died is lines drawn in the sand, and people screaming at each other over nothing. ‘This isn’t what he’d want - especially from you tw-’ Genesis begins, before there is a loud SHLUKK ‘Ugh -’ he gasps, before looking down to his chest, where a large harpoon has been lodged. ‘Don’t matter much what Xavier’d have wanted, boy - he’s dead -’ a voice calls out. It’s Ahab, and he readies another harpoon, declaring ‘Trust me, ol’ Ahab has hunted them throughout history - I know a thing or two. And all these two ever did was pay his “teachings” lip service. Talking’s easy, ain’t it, boys? Running your gobs!’ Ahab declares. ‘EVAN!’ Cyclops exclaims, rushing over to Genesis. Ahab prepares to throw the second harpoon, ‘The peaceful road’s just too damn hard, isn’t that right? Must be, because when push comes to shove - you pull your guns like all the rest’.
Avengers Tower: Steve Rogers stands with several of the gathered Avengers - Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye, the Vision, the Wasp, the Hulk and Sunfire. He reports that he is sending Spider-Man and a team to stop the rioting here in Midtown, and that international heroes are fighting all over to hold things together, but it is a stopgap. ‘The world is crumbling’ he declares. Sam Wilson informs Steve that nearly every nuclear power on the Earth is preparing to deploy warheads. ‘We have to do something’ he urges. Iron Man announces that he is keeping the hate broadcast blocked here, but explains that it would take him days to replicate it worldwide. ‘There might not be a world in a couple of days, Tony’ Sam remarks. ‘Well, that’s a rosy appraisal, Captain Optimism’ Iron Man replies, adding that he is scouring the Earth for the source - once a big enough burst emerges, then they will have the Skull’s location, but that in the meantime, they have deployed everyone they could grab to keep the peace, so they wait here ready to move the second they find the source.
The Wasp walks away from the group, and goes to sit on a sofa. ‘Hey, Jan. You okay?’ Tony asks her as he goes over to her. Jan informs him that Alex has been missing in action for days, and she can’t help but think something terrible has happened to him. ‘Havok’s tough as nails. Bet he’s fine’ Tony replies. ‘Why do we do this? Destroy our own lives in this endless battle?’ Jan asks. ‘Saving Earth, mostly. I like having a place to live. Been to outer space. Didn’t love it’ Iron Man replies, before asking Janet why she has the horrible introspection now. ‘It’s… we haven’t really told anyone… Alex and I had a daughter… in the future. Katie. After his mother’ Jan reveals. ‘Had…?’ Tony replies. Jan begins to cry as she reveals that Katie was erased, taken by Kang, so they could save everyone else’s children. ‘My God, Janet’ Tony utters. ‘Why keep doing this… when it costs us so much?’ Jan asks.
Back on Genosha: ‘There they are - the incantations inside of you, sweet Wanda! The equations of reality etched into your subconscious!’ the Red Onslaught exclaims, telepathically instructing Wanda to open herself to him. ‘I am yours, my love - my truth’ Wanda replies. ‘Submit to me’ the Red Onslaught tells her. ‘I have’ Wanda assures him. ‘We are one’ the Red Onslaught declares, as energy seeps from Wanda’s hands. ‘Your loathing is mine’ Wanda announces. She narrows her eyes, which glow with energy and the Red Onslaught tells her to fulfil his desires, to peel away the flimsy parchment of this false world. ‘Yes… an onslaught against this waking lie!’ Wanda shouts as a wave of crimson energy pours fort from her, engulfing everything in front of her.
Rogue find herself in a new reality - a Nazi nightmare - the end of everything she loves. She hears his cackling laugh in her head. ‘He wants me to - I was right to fear her’ Rogue decides, referring to Wanda. ‘Watch her do it again. She is dangerous - you let this happen’ the Red Onslaught tells Rogue as she hovers over the Nazi facility beneath her. ‘NO!’ Rogue shouts, as the Red Onslaught tells her that she will lose, that history will be rewritten She realizes that his mind is everywhere and there is only one way out. ‘All that will be remembered of the X-Men and the Avengers - is they failed to prevent it from happening’ the Red Onslaught declares. ‘Unless we do’ Rogue tells him as she flies over and punches him in the face, striking hard with the ionic energy she now controls. ‘Imbecile! What are you -?’ the Red Onslaught calls out. ‘Just making a little contact - using mah god-given mutant abilities to absorb the psyche of whoever I touch’ Rogue replies.
There is blackness for a million miles, an eternity of anguish - screams - cherished memories of thousands of victims - and the brightest star she has ever seen - a gentle soul fighting the Skull’s legacy of brutality. ‘There isn’t much time left for me’ a psychic voice calls out. Rogue sees the one man in the world who ever inspired her - gave her hope. ‘And this cannot be my legacy’ Professor Charles Xavier tells Rogue. ‘Sir, all I’ve wanted is for you to see the world the way you dreamed it… I tried to hard…’ her voice trails off, as Charles tells Rogue that she alone must face the most dangerous enemy mankind has ever known. He explains that Onslaught is not a living creature, but the embodiment of pure hatred given form. ‘Do not hesitate - whatever must be done - this nightmare must be ended’ Charles announces, apologizing to Rogue for it falling to her. ‘Sorry I couldn’t stop him. The task seems impossible, but of all my students…I cannot imagine one more capable’ Charles concludes.
Reality shifts back, and Rogue is still hovering near the Red Onslaught. ‘His evil permeates’ she thinks to herself, as the Red Onslaught psychically announces that together, they will enslave these wretches, the mutants and their ilk will serve their masters. Rogue falters, her skin slightly changes after touching the Red Skull, who tells her ‘You will not take her from me! You will not stand in the way of the Reich Eternal!’ Rogue tries to encourage herself, ‘C’mon, girl, Charles gave you some small piece of himself - use it - block Red Skull’s mind - and get her away from him!’ she tells herself, as the Red Onslaught shouts ‘Now, Witch - finish it!’ the Scarlet Witch appears to be in agony as she attempts to conjure the rest of the spell - but suddenly, ‘You dare?’ the Red Onslaught asks as Rogue swoops down and grabs Wanda, pulling her away from the Red Onslaught. ‘Fraid so!’ Rogue calls back, before she and Wanda land in the mud.
Nearby: ‘What a sad mess for you, Alex - such pain! Did he tell you all that he sacrificed his own daughter? Not too different from you, eh, Magnus?’ Ahab asks as he blocks one of Cyclops’s optic blasts. ‘Silence this cur!’ Magneto exclaims, before Ahab strikes Cyclops in the face with one of the harpoons, knocking Scott back. ‘How it must haunt you, Alex - wondering if Kang has Katie still. Is she safe?’ Ahab remarks. ‘Did she disappear with the rest of Planet X?’ Ahab asks. ‘Ahab, you son of a bitch! I’ll kill you!’ Havok shouts as he starts to release energy towards Ahab, who reveals that the part that makes him happiest, is seeing Havok go to his grave never knowing the truth. He throws a harpoon towards Havok, ‘ALEX!’ Cyclops shouts as he leaps between Alex and the harpoon, which strikes him in the shoulder. Quentin Quire lies in a pool of blood, and Genesis’s body lies motionless with the harpoon lodged in it still, as Magneto stands over Havok and Cyclops. Ahab looms towards them, another harpoon ready, ‘Ah, you had to mess with the perfect stage I’d set. It doesn’t matter. They know what you’ve done, Alex -’ Ahab begins, while Cyclops cries thanks to the pain of the harpoon lodged in his shoulder. ‘And those kind of sins cast long shadows’ Ahab points out.
Sheltered behind a brick wall, Rogue and Wanda are slumped over in the rain. ‘C’mon, we have to go - have to take him down -’ Rogue tells Wanda, who replies that she can’t do this anymore. ‘All I ever wanted was to raise my children in a world that felt secure and promising. And now I have neither. My family shattered… I’ve only ever created chaos’ Wanda declares, covering her eyes as she begins to cry. Rogue tells Wanda to stop, and assures her that none of it was her doing, that she has suffered more hatred than Rogue has seen anyone endure. ‘But the persecution never brought you down’ Rogue points out. She reminds Wanda that she pushed through it, fought to show people who she truly is. ‘I’ve seen who you truly are. I know that with you by my side - we can take this bastard down’ Rogue declares. ‘Yeah?’ Wanda smiles softly.
Suddenly: ‘Let’s put it to the test, you trash!’ the Red Onslaught exclaims as he appears above the building Wanda and Rogue seek shelter behind. ‘Move!’ Rogue shouts, before a loud noise can be heard in the air above, and a voice calls out ‘Did those two forget to show you their Avengers ID cards?’ It is Iron Man, who adds ‘Entitles the holder to an army of Earth’s Mightiest in moments of dread’. He flies towards the Red Onslaught, through the rain and over the flaming buildings, with Thor, Captain America, the Vision and Hawkeye on a sky-cycle flying behind him. ‘Complimentary on birthdays’ Hawkeye jokes, while Captain America remarks that he guesses giant, omnipotent Red Skulls with the power of a god can’t be bothered to read the small print. ‘What do we do to people who don’t read the small time, Odinson? Hawkeye asks Thor. ‘They pay a penalty!’ Thor declares as he flies towards the Red Onslaught, axe at the ready - he slices off one of the Red Onslaught’s horns. ‘To be fair, I don’t think it’s either lady’s birthday’ Captain America remarks, to which Hawkeye announces that he is willing to bend the rules for his ol’ pal, the Red Skull. ‘Guess I’m feeling sassy’ Hawkeye jokes as he fires an arrow, which explodes in front of the Red Skull’s face.
Back on the ground, Havok looks on as Ahab stands over Cyclops, harpoon in hand, ready to shove it into Cyclops’s body. ‘You know, I’ve exterminated a whole lotta mutants in my career. And it can start to get a little repetitive - but I never get tired of killing a Summers’ Ahab announces. ‘Just something about you people’ he adds. ‘Such contempt for the Summers clan - clearly you haven’t seen their Family Variety Hour Special, Ahab. It’s quite heart-warming’ Kurt “Nightcrawler” Wagner exclaims as he teleports in along with Ororo “Storm” Munroe and Piotr Rasputin a.k.a. Colossus. Nightcrawler kicks Ahab in the head, before Storm blasts Ahab with a bolt of lightning and jokes that Cable does a spectacular mime routine and Rachel does face painting. ‘Da, and Corsair’s spaceman spiff dance? Fabulous!’ Colossus exclaims as he slams his fists into Ahab. ‘They came’ Cyclops utters as Havok helps him up. ‘Of course we did. You’re X-Men. This isn’t work. This is family’ Nightcrawler announces, while Colossus stands over Ahab’s fallen body.
The rain continues to pour down, as Magneto gathers near the other mutants, and Storm asks ‘Can we all come together once more as X-Men? For Charles?’ Havok turns to his brother, ‘Scott?’ he asks. ‘We’re dysfunctional… but the X-Men will always come together in crisis. I’m here, Alex. No matter what’ Cyclops announces, smiling and putting a hand on Alex’s shoulder. Alex smiles back, as do Ororo, Kurt and Piotr. But Alex points up to Red Onslaught and remarks ‘That’s an awful big “what”. Even with all of us together - we’re not enough to stop that’ he declares. Storm fires a blast of lightning at the outer wall surrounding the camp, and turning to Alex she tells him ‘That was always your problem, Alex - you never had any faith that help was coming’.
And as the dust settles, members of the Avengers, X-Men and several other heroes rush through into the camp. Present and accounted for are Luke Cage, Queen Medusa of the Inhumans, Sam Alexander the new Nova, Danny “Iron Fist” Rand, the Hulk, Susan Storm-Richards a.k.a. the Invisible Woman, Kitty Pryde, Warren Worthington III a.k.a. Angel, Dr Henry McCoy a.k.a. the Beast, Bobby “Iceman” Drake, Roberto “Sunspot” DaCosta, the latest Hyperion, Sam “Cannonball” Guthrie, Dr Stephen Strange, Betsy “Psylocke” Braddock, and Jean Grey from the past. ‘X-Men and Avengers - I’d tell you to assemble but that’d be showing favoritism, so - let’s crack some SKULL!’ the Beast shouts as he leads the charge into the camp. ‘One for good measure!’ Iron Fist declares as he punches the still downed Ahab. ‘Nice’ Luke Cage tells his friend.
‘Why do I feel like I got the less exciting entrance?’ Iceman asks as he slides past Storm and the others on an ice-sled. ‘Yours was just fine, Bobby’ Storm assures him. ‘Says the lady who got bragging rights to saving the contrarian Summers brothers’ Iceman mutters. ‘Nice to see you too, Iceman’ Havok calls out. The Red Onslaught looks down, ‘Ah, the mighty Avengers slumming it with filthy mutants…’ he calls out. ‘Man, that’s some classic Nazi racism business. I’ve never stormed a beach or beaten a big Nazi - ‘ Captain America remarks as he hovers before the Red Onslaught, the Vision and Iron Man alongside him. ‘Every Captain America should do at least one’ Iron Man tells the former Falcon, before asking the Red Skull if he is having trouble with the mind-zapping. ‘Uncle Stark’s wacky blue explosion put a sad face on things’ Iron Man tells him. ‘Sadder anyway’ Captain America points out. ‘Telepathy is a real neat power if it works’ Iron Man adds, explaining that it is all just frequencies. ‘Broadcast the counter-frequency and, well… no more telepathy. There’s a technological solution for everything’ Iron Man announces.
‘Indeed there is, Herr Stark’ the Red Onslaught responds, before asking him if he ever stopped to wonder why he would create such a device - some part of him, deeply afraid of something he had done? ‘Those amazing Civil War files you gathered on all of your companions’ vulnerabilities - every power, every weakness. All laid bare before me’ the Red Onslaught announces, while Iron Man’s helmet peels back, and Tony looks forlorn. ‘Ah, a flicker of recollection - you erased them from your mind. But, interestingly, some part of you chose to keep the information hidden deep down’ Red Onslaught reveals. ‘That’s a lie. That data…’ Iron Man begins, as the Red Onslaught’s tentacles thrash about, and he raises his fists, lightning crackles in the sky, ‘Was given to me!’ he shouts. ‘It troubled you that they didn’t know your true greatness. What you could do to them if you wanted - should they forget their place!’ the Red Onslaught calls out, while the heroes stand and hover around him.
The Red Onslaught’s huge face looms over Iron Man, ‘Poor Tony - so afraid of being seen as average. Such a deep thirst for acknowledgement - entitlement to his rightful place in this world. Working late into the night, it took little telepathic influence to get you to build your machines for me - so eager to display your brilliance’ the Red Onslaught announces. He asks Tony if he remembers, overjoyed weaponize his dirty little secrets for him. ‘No!’ Iron Man exclaims, as memories floor his mind. The Red Onslaught tells Iron Man that now the world will see the fruit of his labours. ‘Egotist!’ he calls him. ‘See the true hatred within you given form - two adamantium Stark Sentinels. Programmed by your close friend - TO KILL YOU ALL!’ the Red Onslaught shouts as the two new variety of Sentinel descend through the rain and loom over the heroes….