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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Air Apparent
Chapter 1:
Brigadier Alysande Stuart of the Weird Happenings Organization, shortly WHO, is wearing her formal uniform and stands before several monitors depicting scenes of violence and destruction. She announces that three hours ago, the entire fishing village of Carrin’s Hollow was destroyed – the men, women and children were murdered by a rampaging alien android – and they were the lucky ones. Alysande reveals that the “survivors” were reduced to blobs of nerveless protoplasm by the scientist who reanimated the aforementioned android. ‘Of course, all of this is guess work. The doctor and the android are roaming the Scottish countryside just outside of Glasgow. They’re out there somewhere – and they might be the least of our problems’ Alysande announces.
Inside the flying headquarters of WHO, Alysande tells those she is addressing to listen closely, as she only has time to go over this once. She explains that as near as the Weird Happenings Organization can tell, the man responsible for all of this is Doctor Jonathan Cayre, a brilliant bio-physicist, who is the portrait of a mad scientist, complete with a deranged lab assistant – “Norm”, a Life Model Decoy, LMD robot. An image of Dr Cayre appears on a monitor, followed by that of Norm the LMD. Alysande reveals that Cayre acquired the LMD when he was working with Machinesmith in the States. She explains that years ago in America, Cayre witnessed a battle between Thor and the Herald of Galactus called Air-Walker. Although Thor threw his hammer through Air-Walker, Galactus built his androids to last, as Air-Walker came equipped with self-regenerating technology, and Cayre managed to get his hands on the smallest piece of alien debris.
‘And eventually re-created the Air-Walker, which has since gone on a rampage alone’ Kurt “Nightcrawler” Wagner of Excalibur concludes as he stands with his teammates listening to Alysande’s briefing. Kurt then asks his ally where the part of about the nerveless protoplasm comes in. He and the rest of Excalibur – Captain Britain, Phoenix, Shadowcat and Meggan – listen as Alysande replies that, as she mentioned, Cayre’s field of study is genetics, and according to his notes, he was trying to apply Galactus’ self-regenerating technology to human physiology. ‘But isn’t that like mixing apples and apples?’ Meggan asks. ‘You mean “apples and oranges”’ Kitty mumbles.
Alysande tells Excalibur that Cayre’s notes indicated he has experimented on himself, but was less than successful. She announces that he has been driven completely insane, and that his slightest touch unravels a person’s genetic structure. ‘Then Excalibur will split up. Half of us will find the android –‘ Captain Britain begins, but Alysande interrupts, telling him that if only it was that simple. She points out that Excalibur is an independent organization, and that as a field commander of WHO, she can’t tell him what to do. ‘But if I could –‘ Alysande begins, announcing that she would ask Nightrcrawler to track down the missing LMD before Borm can trigger his nuclear warhead. ‘A warhead?’ Kurt asks. Alysande continues, stating that Shadowcat would be assigned to investigate Cayre’s underground vault. ‘What would I be looking for?’ Kitty asks. Alysande informs her that she would be looking for Cayre’s prototype of Air-Walker.
Alysande explains that they need someone who could alter their own body chemistry long enough to destroy Cayre’s lab from within. ‘Someone named “Meggan”?’ the elemental asks. ‘Exactly. SHIELD lent us the hardware for this mission – it’s up to WHO to enlist the talent’ Alysande replies. ‘Then there’s the Doctor himself. Phoenix...?’ Alysande asks. Rachel grimaces and announces that she can’t wait to meet what is left of the man.
‘Which would leave Captain Britain –‘ Alysande begins, ‘- to dismantle the Air-Walker’ Captain Britain replies, gritting his teeth. He adds that since Alysande is too polite to ask, he supposes that it is up to Excalibur to volunteer.
With that, Captain Britain, Meggan and Phoenix fly out of the floating HQ, while Nightcrawler teleports alongside them and Shadowcat drops out, becoming intangible so she can float. Quietly, Alysande says to herself ‘And in England’s darkest hours...Excalibur, her mighty blade, will once more be drawn’. ‘Pardon, Brigadier?’ an officer calls out. ‘I wasn’t talking to you, Peel!’ Alysande snaps at the young officer, adding ‘But I am when I say I want you to monitor their every move!’ she adds that she wants updates every five minutes, and that if he loses track of Excalibur, he has lost his job. ‘Got it, mister?’ she declares. ‘Yes, Sir! Tracking now!’ Peel replies.
Chapter 2:
Operative: Nightcrawler
Ability: Teleporter
Location: Glasgow Galleria
Objective: Disarming nuclear warhead designated “Norm”
Perched on a beam that runs high beneath the shopping center ceiling, Kurt tells himself that he has come a long way from the circus. ‘There was a time when your biggest concern was sharing a dressing room with Gilda the Bearded Lady’ he reminds himself. ‘Years later, you’re prowling about a crowded shopping mall in Glasgow in search of a walking nuclear warhead! Suddenly, it seems petty to have complained about hair in the sink’ he decides.
Crawling down the wall, he knows he must be discreet, as alerting Norm to his presence will avail Kurt nothing. He goes into a clothing store and takes a trench coat and wide-brimmed hat to the counter. ‘Will that be all, Mr -?’ the shop assistant asks. ‘You don’t recognize me?’ Kurt asks. ‘Should I?’ the assistant enquires. ‘Nein. Good’ Kurt remarks, before stepping back out into the main part of the shopping mall, where a little boy suddenly shouts ‘Mommy, that man has a tail!’
The boy’s mother tells him not to point, as it is impolite. ‘Ain’t no man! It’s Nightcrawler’ someone calls out. ‘Britain a jerk or what?’ someone else exclaims as a crowd begins to form around Nightcrawler. Someone asks him what he is doing here, while another asks for Phoenix’s phone number. ‘Nice ta meet ya!’ someone declares, while Kurt tells the crowd ‘Would you believe, being discreet?’, as a man on the next level up stands by the railing and looks down at the crowd. It is Norm. ‘So it begins’ he mutters while frowning. He then raises a large machine gun and aims it down into the crowd. ‘Your intent is to neutralize this unit. You seek to interrogate me to gain information regarding Master Cayre’s plans! Tough luck, Nightcrawler – this unit’s not for dissecting!’ Norm shouts.
Kurt sees the machine gun pointed down at the crowd, and teleports up to the next level, ‘I must insist you dispense with the firearm’ Kurt tells Norm as he kicks his arm, causing him to aim the firing weapon away from the crowd. ‘You have realigned my arm?’ Norm asks. ‘That’s one way of putting it!’ Nightcrawler tells him, while down below, the crowd begins to realize what is going on. ‘They’re crazy!’ someone shouts, while another exclaims that they are getting out of here. ‘I have a statement I would like to make’ Norm states, before Kurt kicks him in the face. ‘That’s what snappy patter during battle is for’ Kurt tells him, smashing Norm’s glasses. Norm looks at Kurt and declares ‘You are not strong enough to defeat me’ Nervously, Kurt asks him what makes him so sure. ‘This’ Norm boasts as he moves forward and pushes Kurt backwards off the railing. Kurt lands on his feet, and removes his trench coat, while wondering why it is that during the debriefing no one ever thinks to mention things like “super strength”.
Norm drops his machine gun over the side of the railing and drops down to the ground level, announcing that the authorities will arrive momentarily, and that he will be required to shoot his way to freedom. ‘Dying in a blood bath, fruend Norm? A bit melodramatic, nein?’ Kurt ask as he teleports in front of Norm, who reaches for the machine gun. He then lunges for Kurt again, replying ‘True. But any more so than being beaten to a bloody pulp?’, to which Kurt declares that he wouldn’t know, as he dodges Norm’s advances by leaping over him, and grabbing the machine gun. ‘You’re about to find out!’ Norm warns Kurt, throwing a punch towards him, but Kurt teleports just in time. ‘Not any time soon!’ he exclaims. Kurt reappears and fires the machine gun at Norm, remarking that he isn’t a big fan of firearms, but that Norm is stronger than him. ‘And technically ... I’m not killing you ... as you are not a living being’ he points out as he makes several very quick teleports, while firing the weapon at Norm, who thrashes about, trying to grab Nightcrawler.
However, Kurt comes to a standstill when the machine gun gets hammed. Norm uses this to his advantage and moves forward, grabbing Kurt by his head, he pulls him into the air. Much of Norm’s face is now exposed for what he really is – wires, circuits and pieces of metal. He declares that he cannot disguise his appearance, and internally injured, he cannot fight his way to safety. ‘I refuse to be captured. Therefore I have activated my nuclear warhead. In thirty seconds I will build to a critical mass. Just thought you’d like to know’ he announces, half smiling. ‘Thirty seconds?’ Nightcrawler manages to utter, deciding that is plenty of time, he puts his hand on Norm’s face, and teleports. ‘Where’d they go?’ someone calls out. ‘What’s that smell?’ another asks, while someone queries where Captain Britain is, and another wonders if they have “blue light specials” in England. ‘Bluffing about the warhead?’ someone else asks.
An instant later, there is a loud BOOM and an explosion at the indoor water fountain, as a result of Norm’s detonation. Kurt is propelled by the blast, and he grabs the beam running across the top of the mall, under the ceiling. ‘If this is the explosion he made upon his wires being exposed to the water in the fountain – I can only imagine what would have happened had he achieved critical mass’ Kurt tells himself. Down below, the crowd of civilians starts calling out to him once more. ‘Right then!’ someone shouts. ‘Way to go “Crawler”!’ another declares. ‘Thank Heaven for Excalibur!’ someone gasps, while the person enquiring earlier about Phoenix’s phone number once again asks for it. ‘Love ya, fuzzy!’ someone else calls out. Kurt smiles, and as he perches himself on the beam, decides that these life and death battles have a way of putting the rest of life in perspective. ‘While I’m here...I should pick up a box of razors and send them to Gilda’ hr tells himself.
Chapter 3:
Operative: Shadowcat
Ability: Phasing power
Location: Vault, one mile below Cayre’s home
Objective: Locate and destroy prototype
‘KRREEAKT!’ a hideous alien-robot hybrid screeches in the vault, with wires and cables sticking out all over the room, Kitty exclaims ‘Oh, like I’m enjoying this?’ as she has phased herself through the hybrid’s body. ‘You snuck up on me, you demented Mr Coffee. Frying electrical circuits is a natural extension of my unnatural ability to phase through solid objects! Is it my fault it hurts?’ Kitty asks the hybrid. ‘Kreeakt!’ the hybrid calls out as its head convulses back and forth after toppling to the floor. ‘I hope Cayre saved his warranty on this prototype’ Kitty jokes, deciding that with any luck, he can trade it in for an Ultimate Nullifier or something. ‘Let’s hear it for the little from Deerfield, Illinois! It took all of twelve seconds to achieve my objective!’ Kitty smiles.
Looking down at the robot-alien hybrid, Kitty remarks that when they said Cayre was a genius, they weren’t just being polite. It boggles the mind to think he cobbled together all this technology from scraps of the original Air-Walker, as Kitty barely recognizes a simple equation of this kind of cosmic math. She stares at a monitor with some bizarre symbols on it and wonders if she can at least find “X”. ‘Bring down the variable integers...carry the three 12Y...multiply by – a carrot!?’ she exclaims, surprised. ‘Face it, Pryde. You haven’t got...a...clue...’ Kitty utters, her expression one of shock as she sees the creature reflecting in the monitor, getting to its feet. She leaps to one side just in time as the alien lunges at her, shoving its clawed hand through the monitor. ‘You’ve got this self-regenerative bit down to a science, no?’ Kitty asks. ‘KREEAKT!’ the alien screeches. ‘You said “kreeakt” earlier. Is it the only word you know or the only one you need?’ Kitty enquires, but of course gets no response.
Kitty phases into the floor. ‘Sort of like “Aloha”? It can mean “hello”... “the tide is in”... or “I’m going to eviscerate you”!’ Kitty jokes, while deciding that it is incredible, for in order to regenerate, the alien must instantly adapt to all input. ‘Look at the way he’s absorbing the computer’s circuits’ she thinks to herself, before phasing completely through the floor, joking that she hates to analyze and run, but she needs to take the Kitty Pryde Express straight down. However, as she falls into the caverns beneath, Kitty is shocked that the alien is able to follow her, phasing down through solid rock. It screeches at her once more, and Kitty asks ‘Can’t a girl get a little privacy around here?’ before dodging the creature’s claws hand as it lunges at her. She asks it if it has an “off” switch, or an owner’s manual. ‘That was close! Phased as I am, he can’t hurt me – but why take changes?’ Kitty asks herself, before telling the alien-robot that this is a stalemate, for so long as they are both phased, there is nothing he can do to her. But, the alien-robot screeches again, and lashes out – slicing his claws across Kitty’s leg, he actually cuts her.
Kitty is surprised by this, and instantly turns around and rushes down the cavern, ‘So much for the joys of trial and error. I should have figured – the same way I can hold onto people when I’m phased...similarly altered objects can have a direct effect on me!’ she tells herself, adding that the good news is she doesn’t have to spend this entire battle on the defensive. ‘I’m not a teenage mutant ninja for nothing!’ Kitty exclaims as she kicks the robot-alien in the neck, causing it to screech at her once more. ‘Then again – maybe it is all for nothing’ Kitty mutters as she rushes down the cavern some more. The creature follows her, ‘KREEAKT!’ it calls after her. ‘Rub it in’ Kitty tells it, but when the alien-robot continues to shriek ‘KREEAKT’ she tells it to shut up.
The further she gets down the cavern, Kitty realizes that it is getting hot in here, and discovers the reason up ahead – or rather, down below – another cavern, which Kitty guesses, judging by the heat and noise, it to be a subterranean river of molten lava. ‘That, or a hopelessly lost A-train’ she jokes, before phasing through the rock beneath her, she then sees the river of lava. ‘Right the first time!’ Kitty thinks to herself, while her “shadow”, the alien-robot, who has been aping her every move does the same, following Kitty through the rock, he it copies Kitty, becoming solid as she does – however before Kitty is in any imminent danger, she reaches upwards, and grabs onto a stalactite hanging from the ceiling of the cavern. The alien-robot is confused, and tries to latch onto her, ‘Sorry, this stalactite is taken’ Kitty tells it, before the prototype Air-Walker plummets into the lava with a splash. ‘Or don’t’ Kitty adds, before examining the lava as it settles down, and deciding that, self-regenerative or not, there is now way that he could have survived that. She wonders if he was the prototype that didn’t work, then what will Captain Britain face when he confronts the successful model?
Chapter 4:
Operative: Meggan
Ability: Closest designation – metamorph?
Location: Dr Cayre’s laboratory, Carrin’s Hollow
Objective: The destruction of all soft/hardware pertaining to Galactus’ pirated technology
In amongst some rubble, the elegant Meggan stares at her reflection in some glass. Her skin is now green and has scales, as she recalls that the WHO people said that by assuming the attributes of a cobra, a reptile’s venom-regenerating physiology should act as a deterrent to any biology-altering particles still active in the lab. ‘I don’t know what that means. But I hope it works’ Meggan tells herself. Entering the lab, Meggan realizes that she has to remember everything else the WHO told her – ‘I know I have to blow up the lab. I just have to attach this explosive bomb-thing’ she reminds herself as she places the bomb to the wall. Meggan then sits down at a computer console and decides that that this is the hard part – giving the computer a fever. ‘Not fever, whaty was the word...? Virus! That’s right!’ she tells herself, adding that a virus will erase all Cayre’s notes anywhere they are.
Suddenly, a voice calls out ‘We’re dealing with a regular PhD, here’, to which a robotic voice replies ‘Negative. According to files, Excalibur member Meggan possesses no formal education –‘, to which the first more human voice replies ‘Shut up, computer’, as a man in a blue costume appears, aiming a weapon at Meggan he tells her that he is not a big fan of unnecessary bloodshed – hers or his. He asks her to step away from the console so they can have a happy ending all around. ‘You’re a robot?!’ Meggan gasps. The man replies that he is only half-robot, and the rest of him is the remains of a US soldier named Eric Savin. ‘Correction: There is actually a 79 to 21% ratio of –‘ the computer begins, but Eric tells it to shut up, and reveals that somebody is paying him a lot of money for Cayre’s notes.
‘Really?’ Meggan asks, before remarking ‘I’m curious – how much does a cyborg’s soul cost?’Eric hangs his head: ‘Cheap shot, lady’ he tells Meggan, adding that the last thing he needs is career counselling from a woman whose body is covered in scales. ‘No matter how considerable that body may be’ he adds. Meggan looks concerned and tells Eric that she wished she had the time, and the words, to convince him, but that the bomb-thing is going to go off any minute. ‘Warning! Meggan is engaged in evasive action!’ the computer declares. ‘Tell me something I don’t know’ Eric replies. ‘There is not enough time to tell you everything you don’t know’ the computer states. As Meggan leaps towards Eric, he tells his computer ‘Please, less schtick and more assistance!’ as he fires at Meggan, but misses. Meggan latches herself onto Eric’s shoulders, as the computer declares ‘Warning! Meggan is astride your should-‘. ‘Computer...?’ Eric calls out. ‘Shut up?’ the computer asks. ‘Listen, Mr – ’ Meggan begins, ‘Colblood’ Eric introduces himself as. ‘Mr Coldblood, my boyfriend is really, really rich. If I promise to get him to pay you more money than these other people – would you help me destroy all the notes?’ Meggan asks.
Coldblood flips Meggan off of him and replies ‘You’re kidding right? I may be new to this cyborg for hire vocation – but I’m sure that’s one way to get kicked out of the professional mercenary’s guild’. ‘Query? Did you mean to use excessive force?’ the computer asks. ‘What are you talking about?’ Coldblood replies as he slams Meggan into the computer console, which suddenly explodes. ‘I didn’t mean for that to happen!’ Coldblood exclaims, adding that no one was supposed to get hurt – that no one was even supposed to be here. Coldblood declares that Roxxon doesn’t pay him enough to hurt innocent people. ‘How much financial payment would be required to hurt inno-‘ the computer begins, causing Coldblood to sigh.
Amongst the rubble, Meggan calls out to Coldblood, ‘Please...Cayre’s germ things turn people into a nervous platypus’ Meggan tells him, beginning to cry. ‘Nerveless protoplasm?’ Coldblood asks. ‘Yes’ Meggan tells him, adding that WHO doesn’t even know if the people are alive or dead – maybe somewhere in between. ‘Another cheap shot, lady’ Coldblood tells Meggan, remarking that she plays off his self-hatred over being half-dead, half-robot. ‘And I forsake my million dollar deal?’ he asks, adding that he is not going to flush his first merc contract down the drain just to save the world. ‘Unlikely’ the computer declares. Meggan reverts to her default human appearance, and Coldblood tells her that she may look like a bimbo, but that she is a shrewd one. ‘I don’t mean to look like a “bimbo”!’ Meggan replies, before Colblood tells her to get out of here. The computer asks Coldblood what he is doing, as he starts tearing up the console, adding to the flames already spreading.
‘What does it look like?’ Coldblood replies. ‘That you’re “going to flush our fist merc contract down the drain – just to save the world”?’ the computer replies, repeating what Coldblood early said. ‘Exactly’ Coldblood tells the computer, while Meggan remarks that she can’t leave yet, as she has t put in the virus to destroy all Cayre’s notes, before the next sixty seconds when the lab explodes. Coldblood tells her that he is on it as he starts tinkering with the exploding equipment. ‘There is no way to establish a résumé conductive to –’ the computer begins, but Coldblood tells it to shut up, and to just confirm that he splicing together the proper wires. The computer then confirms that the virus is initiated throughout the system. ‘We only have seconds to get out of –’ Meggan begins, before a car screeches into the lab. ‘Is this your car?’ Meggan enquires. ‘For a bimbo, you catch on fast’ Coldblood tells her.
As the laboratory begins to come apart around them, Meggan asks Coldblood how the car got here. Coldblood explains that he summoned it, as it came with his built-in computer. ‘Sort of like a free toaster’ he jokes as they enter the car, and speed away, just the laboratory explodes in spectacular display behind them. Meggan tells Coldblood that she is sorry he lost a million dollars because of her, but that she thinks it is better that he protected the planet from deadly germ warfare practically created by Galactus. ‘Well, sure, when you put it that way’ Coldblood replies. The moon shines down on them as Meggan looks at Coldblood and asks him if she can pay him something. ‘I mean, you’re still a mercenary, right?’ she asks. ‘Right. I’m just not a very good one’ Coldblood tells her. ‘Amen to that’ his computer agrees.
Chapter 5:
Operative: Phoenix
Ability: Celestial Avatar
Location: Clover’s Pub, Clover Corner, twelve miles up the coast of Carrin’s Hollow
Objective: Apprehend Dr Jonathan Cayre
Rachel stands on some stairs and addresses the men in the pub: ‘The three of you who know how to read a newspaper might recognize me as a member of Excalibur. The rest of you will have to take it on faith when I say you don’t want to annoy me. Now, I’ll ask you again. Where is Dr Cayre?’ she demands. The drunken men look at her and one shouts out ‘Wot’s that – yer lookin’ t’play “doctor”? I’m yer man!’, while someone else boasts that she will need a strapping young buck like him. ‘Pick me! Pick me!’ another exclaims. ‘I’ll give ya a physical! It’ll start with me-’ one of the men calls out, before someone else shushes him. The bartender tells Rachel that they don’t want any trouble. ‘Good. Neither do I’ Rachel replies, before suggesting that everyone have a drink, on her. Using her power, she causes all the barrels of beer to burst their taps, and beer spills out into the pub.
‘It feels like a fire hose!’ one of the patrons remarks as they are pushed back by the force of the beer, while someone else exclaims that it is a waste of perfectly good brew. Rachel informs everyone that the WHO techs traced Cayre here, but for some reason, she can’t get a psionic grip on him. ‘So, for the last time...where are you hiding Dr Cayre?’ she asks once again. Instantly, all the men point to a booth in the corner, shrouded in darkness, although the silhouette of a large figure is seen slumped over the table. The figure lumbers out of the booth – ‘Hello Phoenix’ the seriously deformed Dr Cayre calls out, asking her to forgive him for his appearance, he remarks that it seems he is not half the man he once was. ‘Maybe I’m more. Maybe I’m less. Maybe less is more – more or less!’ he mutters, adding ‘Who knew Galactus’ self-regenerating technology wasn’t compatible with human physiology? Live and learn, I suppose’.
Alarmed, Rachel orders everyone out, while Dr Cayre tells her that they were only protecting him out of fear, before explaining that the same experiment that killed him automatically resurrected him – only to kill him again, and resurrect him yet again. ‘Only to kill me and resurrect me and kill me and – you get the idea’ he tells Rachel, remarking that as in touch as he is with himself, he has complete control over his own molecules. ‘Let me demonstrate’ he begins, as he clasps his hands together, creating an explosion which sends residue out over the remaining humans, turning them into goo. Rachel throws a shield up around herself, while the humans cry out in pain. ‘You killed all those people – just as you did in Carrin’s Hollow!’ Rachael declares angrily. Dr Cayre mutters that “kill” is such a judgmental term, and that he prefers to think of it as having helped them achieve a higher state of consciousness. He moves towards her, and suggests that if she learned to let her guard down, he is sure she would enjoy it.
Rachel edges backwards, with her telekinetic force field still up, however Dr Cayre starts to literally move through the force field. Rachel tells herself that it does make sense, in a freaked out sort of way, as Galactus’ power is para-cosmic, so even this watered-down, home-made fraction of his science can affect her. However, Dr Cayre pulls back from the force field, and Rachel asks him what is wrong. ‘Out of breath?’ she enquires. Dr Cayre slowly replies ‘Apparently...but give me...a moment...and we’ll try again’. Rachel suggests they try something more fair, and using her telekinetic power, lifts up a pool table, and slams it down on him. ‘What do you say to a game of pool?’ she asks as Dr Cayre’s body splatters under the weight of the table. ‘That should knock the wind out of him’ Rachel decides, but two seconds later, Dr Cayre starts to slither out from under the table.
‘I prefer chess myself’ Dr Cayre tells Rachel, admitting that he can’t imagine his ability to ooze out from under a chess board will be much of an advantage. He grins at Rachel and tells her that if she will excuse him, he must be going. ‘Going where?’ Rachel asks. ‘Anywhere I please’ Cayre replies, as he starts to lumber up a staircase, pointing out that their abilities cancel each other out, and he has an entire world to terrorize. ‘And you can’t stop me!’ he declares. Rachel looks worried, but she knows Dr Cayre is right, so her only choice is to fire up the Phoenix power, and hurl his molecules from one end of the universe to the other. But as she powers up, Rachel remembers something Professor X used to tell her – “Murder is for the unimaginative”. She tells the Professor, wherever he is, that she is sorry, but doesn’t see any other way. However, as she stands on some broken glass, Rachel has an idea.
‘Cayre! Any physical contact we make has an adverse effect on both of us! You could probably fry my force-field after a while’ Rachel tells him, before announcing that glass is an entirely different matter. She telekinetically pulls all the broken glass, and glasses and lampshades in the pub before Dr Cayre can make it out the door. ‘A waste of time! Even if the glass shards kill me – I’ll only resurrect myself!’ Cayre replies. ‘Who said anything about killing you?’ Rachel replies, as she uses the power of the Phoenix for forge the glass into an airtight chrysalis, trapping him. ‘But, I can’t breathe! I’ll...’ Dr Cayre utters. Rachel stands in front of him, tells him that he will die – and resurrect, but that at least all his molecules are in one place. Several WHO technicians arrive in the pub and start to move the trapped Cayre, as Rachel tells him that, with any luck, they will be able to cure him someday. Looking down at the dead men in the pub, Rachel adds that someday after that, Cayre might be able to forgive himself for all he has done. ‘I know I never will’ she adds.
Chapter 6:
Designate: Captain Britain
Location: The evacuated village of Mollenshire
Abilities: Superhuman physical attributes
Objective: Nothing short of the total annihilation of rampant Air-Walker
Captain Britain stands behind a house, while the steel-cold Air Walker hovers in the air above, flaming wings sprouting from his alien-robot body. Captain Britain runs through his head some possible phrases to get Air-Walker’s attention, such as “All right, Air-Walker – stop where you are”, or “Cease and desist, you mechanical monstrosity”, and “This is going to hurt you more than –” but decides that one is too cliché. Brian wonders how he starts this off, deciding that in Finishing School, he must have been absent the day they covered “Initiating Confrontations with Former Heralds of Galactus”. However, up above, Air Walker starts using his abilities to destroy buildings in the village with single blasts of energy and shouts ‘Stand forth, human! It is senseless to conceal yourself from one possessed of the power cosmic!’
Air-Walker declares that on every civilized world throughout the trackless void of space, cowering is considered an unmanly act. As the house he was standing behind is splintered into nothingness, Captain Britain replies that he was hardly cowering, simply planning. Air-Walker appears to grin and asks if they should get this over with, as he has a world to conquer. ‘Not this world, Air-Walker! Not in this lifetime!’ Captain Britain boasts as he flies towards the robot-alien. ‘As I suspected. No mere human can penetrate my barrier of pollutants and inert gasses’ Air-Walker announces, as Captain Britain slams against him. ‘Like hitting a stone wall’ Brian thinks to himself. Air-Walker folds his arms across his chest and states that twice before he has walked the Earth, and as many times as the semblance of life has been stripped from his immortal coil, it shall not happen again. Air-Walker then carries on through the air – literally walking across it, while Captain Britain falls back to the ground. ‘Not from lack of trying’ he mumbles, as he slams into a building.
But, an instant later, Captain Britain bursts up through the rubble of the building, and slams his fist into Air-Walker’s lower back. ‘Perfect! I came up beneath your barrier!’ Captain Britain calls out, while thinking to himself ‘Great strategy – wish IO could take credit for it. I “lucked out”!’, as Air-Walker warns him that he will pay for this effrontery and that only a coward would strike from behind. ‘A coward, or a mere mortal who realizes he’s totally outclassed’ Brian thinks to himself. As Air-Walker fumbles through the air, Brian knows that he has to press his advantage, and flies after Air-Walker, who tells him that he surely must jest, ‘You have no “advantage”!’ he exclaims, as Air-Walker composes himself, and comes to a screeching halt through the air, announcing that his self-regeneration is complete, down to the fire cloak that adds as a cosmic collector. Brian looks worries, ‘He halted mid-air! There’s no time to stop!’ he thinks to himself, as he slams into Air-Walker, who wraps his arms around him, and declares that one he has crushed Captain Britain’s life from him, his skin will serve him well. ‘Then I shall claim this planet in his name – and await the return of my sacred liege!’ Air-Walker boasts.
Captain Britain knows that he only has one chance, and struggling under the pressure of Air-Walker, he recalls that his “fire cloak” wings collect cosmic energy. So he attempts to reach around Air-Walker’s back and grabs hold of the wings. Brian encourages himself to hold on, as the energy pulses in his hands. ‘I pity you, human! As I pity all who shall know the wrath of the Air-Walker!’ the alien-robot boasts, but Captain Britain manages to cross the flaming wings, hoping that it will create a cosmic feedback loop. It works, as Air-Walker’s mouth opens wide, and energy bursts within him. He releases Captain Britain from his hold, and Brian is able to breathe again. ‘Time for one last gasp before I die’ Brian tells himself, clutching his head he looks concerned, and an instant later, Air-Walker explodes in a brilliant mixture of yellow and pink cosmic energies – but Captain America, and the village below are fine. ‘Just as I theorized – the explosion took place on a cosmic level – while the minutia was unaffected. A perfectly sound scientific theory’ Brian thinks to himself, smiling as he takes flight, still in disbelief that the theory actually worked.
Chapter 7:
Meanwhile, in Excalibur’s Lighthouse, Kitty’s faithful dragon Lockheed stands ever vigilant. He is perched on the edge of a table in a living room, and looks up as he hears a loud KBUMP and someone whispering ‘Shhh!’ Standing atop the steps leading up the rock-face to the Lighthouse, someone asks ‘Why “shhh”? Excalibur is on a mission for WHO – there’s no one here to hear a “KBUMP”! Or, maybe me even saying “Why, shhh”!’ someone calls out. Two men dressed in black have a green box between them, that has crashed into the concrete platform at the top of the steps. ‘Shut up, you idiot! We only learned an hour ago that the premises are vacant. They may return any moment!’ the shorter man declares. The taller man calls his colleague Styman, and points out that if they find them here, they will know they were trying to bug their home, and then they would tell Brigadier Stuart. ‘And we’d be kicked out of the WHO! That, Krieger – is why we’re doing it on the sly’ Styman explains. He explains that once they have reaped the benefits, Brigadier Stuart will be forced to acknowledge their collective genius. ‘But we have to strike now, while no one’s home’ he points out. While, inside, Lockheed grins wickedly.
Standing at the front door, Styman asks Krieger if he has a sonic lock-pick, and reaching into his bag, Krieger replies ‘Yes, of course! Absolutely! Pos...itive...ly. Probably. More than likely’ his voice gets quieter, before assuring Styman that it is here somewhere. Suddenly, the door opens with a prolonged creaking. Krieger peers into the Lighthouse, ‘Styman?’ he asks nervously. Wide-eyed, Styman suggests that it must be automated, and adds that, at least it is opened. ‘At least!’ Krieger mutters as he starts to run away. ‘Krieger! Get back here, you moron!’ Styman calls out, while Lockheed has his tail wrapped around the inside handle of the door. ‘I’m not a moron!’ Krieger calls back, announcing that he is a coward.
They enter the Lighthouse and start to look around at all the fascinating objects. ‘This place is a warehouse of weirdness! No wonder Excalibur turned down WHO’s official request to thoroughly examine their home’ Styman decides. Lockheed is perched on a table, standing very still, as if he were a statue, while Krieger remarks that he is sure it had nothing to do with it being none of their business. ‘Don’t go getting all moral on me, Krieger! I’m telling you, we’ll be heroes once we reveal the truth about Excalibur...whatever that is’. Styman bends over as he examines a sword in a stone and tells Krieger to look around for a spot to place the bugs. ‘Remember, the best place to hide something is often right out in the open’ he tells Kreiger, and, as if on cue, Lockheed leans forward and bites Styman on his rear, causing the susprised WHO agent to leap into the air, ‘YEARGH!’ he screams. Krieger goes over to him: ‘Did you say Yeargh”?’ he asks, remarking that he has seen it written, but never heard anyone actually use it in conversation.
‘What possessed you to do that?’ Styman asks. ‘Do what? I didn’t do any-’ Krieger begins, before noticing that the sword in the stone statue that Styman was looking at has disappeared. ‘It’s gone! But that’s impossible!’ he exclaims – and an instant later, it is dropped on his foot. He screams ‘YEARGH!’ and falls backwards against the table, toppling it onto Styman. ‘See! You said it yourse-’ Styman begins, while Krieger demands to be let out of here, as it is haunted. ‘There’s no such thing as a haunted hou –’ Styman begins, as the men crash about, trying to escape. ‘Watch here you’re going!’ one of them declares. ‘Where I’m going is home. My home. My unhaunted home!’ Krieger exclaims, while Lockheed flies upstairs, and into a closet. ‘You’re a WHO agent’ Styman tells Krieger, adding that he knows for every odd occurrence there is a perfectly reasonable explanation.
Suddenly, both men look horrified, as an orange glow appears over them. ‘Explain that!’ Krieger gasps. ‘P-p-perfectly r-r-reasonable exp-p-planation...’ Styman replies nervously, as a Captain Britain costume floats before them, surrounded by flames, and a terrible howling noise resonates around them. ‘It’s a ghost!’ one of them men shouts as they races out of the Lighthouse, and onto the rocks by the water below. ‘There’s another word you read a lot, but never really get used to’ Krieger remarks as Styman screams ‘AAAAIIIEE!’ ahead of him.
Lockheed emerges from the Captain Britain costume, his flame subsiding, he laughs, before falling onto the floor in a fit of hysterics. However, he sees several feet standing at the front door – Excalibur has returned home. ‘Who was the last one out this morning?’ Captain Britain asks. ‘That was me, but I’m sure I closed the door’ Nightcrawler replies. ‘Hmmp...’ Captain Britain remarks. Lockheed panics, and picks up the Captain Britain uniform, flying back upstairs, while Nightcrawler suggests ‘A strong wind, perhaps?
Epilogue:
Excalibur are gathered in one of the living areas, as Kitty asks Brian to explain to her again why he felt that by destroying the universe on a cosmic level he would leave the rest of the world intact. ‘I didn’t say that! I said the explosion would have no effect on a non-cosmic level’ Brian explains. ‘Why is it when I almost destroy the universe everyone gets upset?’ Rachel mutters. ‘I hardly destroyed the universe’ Brian frowns. ‘But not for lack of trying’ Kurt grins, while Meggan exclaims that if Brian wanted to destroy the universe he would have. ‘So there’ she adds. ‘Maybe I should have destroyed the universe!’ Brian suggests, throwing his arms into the air. ‘Or, this house, at the very least!’ he jokes, and Meggan, Kitty, Rachel, Kurt and Lockheed burst into laughter.


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

[Assistant]
Colin the Barbarian
This is E’erath, one of an infinity of alternate Earths, each on a different vibrational plane of the omniverse. In this reality, an evil empire has ended in bloody rebellion. The deposed tyrant Necrom gloats at the macabre irony of his revenge on the rebel leaders, the people’s champions, Kylun and the witch princess Sat’neen, now locked in combat with E’erath’s former defenders, this world’s version of Excalibur (Spider-Man, Thor, the Black Knight and a Captain).
Decades ago, this other Excalibur tried to end Necrom’s reign of terror, but failed and paid the ultimate price and in death were forced into Necrom’s service.
During the battle, Sat’neen realizes that the zombies are not obedient slaves but mindless shells, animated by Necrom’s will. So she drops her own guard to attack the tyrant and, even though he manages to erect a defensive shield, his concentration is broken and the cadaverous Excalibur crumbles. Thwarted again, Necrom unleashes the full force of his sorcerous might. Sat’neen draws on her own considerable abilities, but they are not enough. She is hit and sinks down in Kylun’s arms. Kylun throws a sword at the sorcerer and hits him. He screams… and falls.
As Kylun’ cradles Sat’neen’s broken body, he feels her spirit in his. The essence of all that they are merges and in a final tragic communion they bid each other farewell. Then the last vestige of Satneen’s lifeforce fades, leaving Kylun with a gaping vacuum at the center of his being. This void suddenly fills with blood-crazed rage as he turns to see that Necrom still lives and, supported by a demon creature, is being led away into the haunted edifice known as the Tower that Crosses Time. No one has set foot in this place in twenty thousand years, but Kylun follows Necrom racing up the stairs. The door slams in front of him.
Moments later, Kylun crashes through it and ends up in Excalibur’s bathroom where Nightcrawler is just brushing his teeth.
Kylun recalls another legend of an omen that heralded the enslavement of Eer’ath. In the very hour, Sat’neen’s mother, Queen Aish’a, was dethroned by Necrom, a blue demon emerged from the Tower that Crosses Time, spat out an alien curse, then vanished in a burst of flaming brimstone.
Eager to kill, Kylun strikes like quicksilver. Brutally, he attacks and tries to decapitate Nightcrawler with one of his mystic twin blades. Both of them are surprised to find it doesn’t work. At all. For the blades’ creator, Zz’ria, enchanted the weapons to make sure the blades could never harm one of true virtue and pure spirit.
Kylun sheathes his blades, asking a question in the language of E’erath. What is going on? Kurt replies puzzled. He speaks English! Kylun exclaims. Who is he and what is this place? Nightcrawler introduces himself and explains this is Excalibur’s lighthouse, England, wisely adding planet Earth. England, Kylun repeats, at which point Widget makes his entrance. They instantly recognize each other. Colin friend safe – Oh gosh oh golly oh wow! Widget exclaims.
Germany, the Black Forest. Rachel and Meggan have reached a dead end in their search for Meggan’s parents, a quest that has led them the length of Europe’s chain of itinerant gypsy camps. The travellers were positive that they had seen a caravan with British registration plates here, but the girls find nothing. Rachel informs Meg that she has scanned the area and can’t detect another mind for another five miles.
Suddenly, lightning illuminates the silhouette of a nearby castle. Welcome to spook central, Rachel laughs. And Meggan agrees that it’s like something out of an old horror film. All they need now is Dracula and Frakenstein’s mon-- She cannot finish her sentence before, behind them, exactly those two shows up.
The monster hits Rachel with a club, while Meggan’s features flow as she shapeshifts into a ferocious form. However, before she can attack, the vampire’s eyes glow and, due to her empathic nature, Meggan quickly succumbs.
The vampire orders her to reveal her true self. Totally mesmerized, Meggan obeys but, as she has no idea of what her true form is, she submits to the desires and emotions around her and turns into the Goblin Princess. Delightful, the vampire purrs. She has powers, yet she is soft as clay to his will.
Not fair, the monster protests. He found her first. Addressing the monster as brother, the vampire warns him that his control over the power is greater. If he crosses him, he will die like their father. He may take the other. They turn around but Rachel is gone.
Find her, the vampire orders. Looking for me? Rachel asks calmly as she steps out of the trees. The monster attacks wildly, but this time Rachel is prepared and slugs him. In response, the vampire turns into a giant bat, ordering her to bow before him or die. Rachel just slugs him, scoffing that his pathetic illusions don’t work on her. He falls and changes into his true form, that of an old man (as does his brother).
Rachel shakes Meggan awake and she returns to her ordinary form. Rachel explains that the monsters were based on the mental images they formed when they saw the lightning lit up the ruined castle. Weird is that neither of these old codgers possesses any organic or technological means of generating illusions or of evading her telepathic scan.
Meggan tells her to look, she found the caravan. But Meggan senses something else, lights. She ignores Rachel’s warning and opens the caravan’s door. Inside there is an old chained creature, crouching, begging them for help.
Back at the Excalibur mushroom, Nightcrawler, changing into his costume, asks Kylun for his story. Reacquainting himself with Widget, Kylun tells him his true name is Colin McKay. He’s from this Earth, Edinburgh to be precise. When he was seven, the crime queen Vixen heard of his mutant powers and had him kidnapped. But her men were overconfident and he managed to escape
Kylun’s story:
Colin hid in a derelict factory. He was scared and lonely until Widget magically appeared. He made the boy laugh. They played games and, despite his hunger and fear, Colin felt safe. But then the Vixen’s henchmen tracked him to the factory and his capture seemed inevitable. Then, as if by miracle, Widget created a doorway and when Colin stepped through it he stood on the ice plains of Ee’rath.
The locals regarded the boy’s arrival as a good omen and so they took him to the exiled royal household. Queen Ai’sha placed him in care of her counselor, the mystic Zz’ria and he trained the boy to be a warrior. When he came of age, he chose the image of Widget as his totem and pledged his heart to the Queen’s daughter, the princess Sat’neen. They were so happy… but it was not destined to last.
Necrom was fearful of the growing strength of the exiled Queen’s army, so he launched a cowardly attack on their settlement. It was a massacre. Queen Ai’sha, Zz’ria and thousands of royal supporters died. Hundreds more, including Sat’neen, were imprisoned. Kylun was badly wounded and left for dead. But he survived to rally a new army. Nightcrawler already knows the rest.
Present:
He needs to find Necrom. All in good time, Kurt replies and shows him the miniaturized demon he and the Technet caught recently. Kylun recalls as he recognizes it as the slave creature of Necrom’s. Not a statue, Kurt explains. The real thing. Chinadoll reduced it to a petrified miniature ten days ago.
How can that be? Kylun wonders. Necrom and his creature passed through the door to his world seconds before he did. Kurt explains that time is not consistent across the dimensional planes of the multiverse. Kylun lived on Ee’rath for over twenty years, whereas barely a year passed in this reality since he left and Necrom and his creature arrived here over a month ago. Bodybag witnessed their materialization but they dismissed it as one of the unusual phenomena that plague their lives.
A month, Kylun repeats horrified. Necrom could be anywhere. Kurt promises they won’t rest until they find him. One of their number, Joyboy, disappeared as well after they defeated Necrom’s slave. He is lost if Necrom has him and, if he plans to establish an empire there, he is merely the first. Nobody is safe, Kylun threatens.
Back in Germany, Rachel advises caution. Something is very wrong there. She can see the thing, but it is invisible to her psychic probe. It must be an illusion. Meggan disagrees, claiming he is kind and beautiful. Beautiful? Rachel repeats in disbelief. The lights, Meggan replies smiling.
The old creature explains that Rachel hasn’t Meggan’s purity. The spirit plane is denied to her, but it is within his power to let her perceive its wonder. Behold the Alshra. The caravan’s dark interior dissolves in a kaleidoscope of pulsating color, as the world’s familiar spectrum of dull light gives birth to unseen horizons of shimmering life force. And Rachel sees the Phoenix force threaded through every cell of her mutant body, the terrifying potential undiminished by its current dormant state.
She catches a look of Meggan, a very different Meggan. Unable to express what she sees in words, Rachel forges a telepathic link between them to allow Meggan to see herself as a more elfin, lithe shape, wondrously aglow with black eyes. But she didn’t shapeshift, Meggan marvels.
The creature explains that this is Meggan’s true aspect. The Alshra is truth. To perceive it is the prize at her quest’s end. Meggan doesn’t understand. The creature continues that she is not destined to find her parents at this time. She followed a false trail. Madam Zelda told her of a magical creature thought to be hidden in a gypsy caravan. She assumed this referred to Meggan’s past, while in truth it grew from a whispered rumor of his presence.
A fairly amazing coincidence, Rachel remarks. Not so. They are pawns of fate and others who hope to manipulate the frame of live, the creature replies cryptically. He means they’ve been used, Rachel realizes. But by whom?
Their future holds the answer he replies, but let them come as they will or the lessons of the present will be lost. They have both learned much of themselves and each other on the road to this moment. He asks Meggan to draw strength from her new wisdom and accept her uniqueness.
He tells Rachel that she began this quest to help her friend find her family, identity and past, things Rachel believed she herself would never regain. But through her unselfish act she has found herself. The confused fragments of her past begin to form order from chaos. Soon, her memory will be complete.
How does he know so much about them? Rachel wonders. When the old men attacked them, they used his powers, he explains. To his eternal shame, he saw all they saw and shared in all they did. He is of the Neuri, an ancient race possessed of powerful magic. In the centuries past, they retreated from the realms of man, returning only to satisfy their occasional curiosity.
The Neuri’s tale:
So it was seventy years ago. He discovered a gypsy caravan snowbound… the family trapped within, starving. He freed them, but his kindness was repaid with treachery as the father, a minor sorcerer, shot him in the back. He bound the Neuri in mystical chains that compelled him to obey his captor’s every command. Thankfully, the family’s own greed prevented them from using his powers with any success. Jealousy corrupted them. Father slew wife, son slew father, brother slew brother, till only the two outside remained.
 Present:
The Neuri apologizes for growing weak. He cannot maintain their presence in the Alshra. And the spirit plane fades. He’s dying, isn’t he? Meggan observes. The Neuri agrees and asks them to let him gaze upon open sky one last time. After they take him outside, he gazes at the sky, thanks them and turns to dust.
After some consideration, Meggan turns back to her default form. When Rachel asks why, Meggan replies she wanted to know what she really looked like. She’s used to this form, Meggan explains. It’s how everyone is used to seeing her but, more importantly, it’s how she chooses to be.
Now she’d like to get home as soon as possible. Rachel agrees, but Meggan will have to carry her. She can’t fly without activating the Phoenix force. Resisting using it is really tough, but from what the Neuri said, it’s paying off. Her memory has started to heal
As they fly off, the gypsy brother angrily stare after them, now merely two powerless old men.
Back at the Excalibur mushroom, strange clucking sounds coming from one room make them believe they are under attack. The Technet, Kurt and Kylun race toward the source of that noise to find Widget trying to grow himself a mechanical body. He’s still very clumsy, for example one leg is shorter than the other. Ferro is amused by Widget’s plight, causing Kylun to threaten him. Nobody makes fun of his friend!
Kurt explains they are merely relieved this was a false alarm. They have little cause to laugh these days. They never know what is going to happen next.
As if on cue there is a booming noise and a red flash and a creature dressed in an insect-like armor has appeared, and addresses them in a strange language.
“On ho no,” this is where he came in, Kurt mutters.


[Assistant]
Come One and All to the Bug-eyed Monster Ball
Barely a minute ago, laughter echoed through the Excalibur lighthouse basement as the Technet ridiculed Widget’s first crude attempt to sprout a body. Then, a violent explosion shattered the cellar door and a menacing shape appeared amid the devastation. Now the deafening roar of battle fills the air as the Technet attack it.
Kylun asks Kurt if he knows what that thing is, to which Nightcrawler replies that its arrival is as startling as Kylun’s. Kylun points out that it is fighting defensively – deflecting the Technet’s attack without inflicting any harm on them. Kurt agrees. They could have tried to communicate with it if the Technet had not responded so quickly to the apparent threat. But the only thing that will stop this from escalating now is a miracle. And, if the sudden appearance of a flock of tiny flying hybrid dragons with dragonfly wings and insect eyes can be considered a miracle, Nightcrawler’s prayer is answered.
Surprised, everybody stops and a happy Numbers informs them that he is a Daddy. “Dragon the love mother is.” The happy couple appears with their offspring and Lockheed wearing a midwife’s uniform. The Technet’s reactions alternate between surprise, congratulations and the remark that they’ve got a fight going on here.
Nightcrawler uses this opportunity to intercede, remarking he believes the creature is friendly. He turns to the newcomer, apologizing for his companions’ aggression. They assumed his explosive arrival was an attack.
The creature replies in a strange language, which slowly morphs to English. Then the stranger apologizes, for the means of arrival was beyond her control. She desires no further conflict. She takes off her helmet to reveal the face of a human woman. Only the multicoloured hair and the style it is worn in are outlandish.
She introduces herself as Cerise, warrior of the Ghrand Jhar. Genestock of Subruki, Zarstok and Kuli Ka. Hers is the power to generate malleable energy fields of coherent light force that obey her will. Nightcrawler introduces the gang to her. Taking a look at the diverse lifeforms, Cerise asks which of them is the dominant species of the world. Man, human beings, Kurt replies. Which of them conforms to this specification? Kurt takes a look around the room, and remarks that, of all the varied lifeforms in this room, Cerise looks the most human.
Otherworld:
Captain Britain, who has elected to stay (still in his pyjama pants), walks across a courtyard and is addressed by an old retired Captain who asks him if he can tempt him with a game of chess. Brian thanks him but declines. He’s never been into playing games. Just like his father, the old Captain chuckles. Now Brian’s curiosity is awakened and he sits down opposite the old man.
He knew his dad? Very well, the old man recalls. He was a great man. A true champion of Otherworld. He didn’t know of his double life until after he died, Brian muses. He still finds it hard to believe. He means, he was just an ordinary dad. Richer than most, of course, and very successful as a computer scientist, but in every other way, well, he seemed unremarkable. And so he was, the old man admits. But he achieved remarkable feats.
He hasn’t lived up to his example, Brian admits bitterly. When he became Captain Britain, he tried to do what was right, but everything got so complicated… and since Excalibur formed, he’s made a real mess of things. He’s been a clumsy halfwit. Which is what he was intended to be, the old man chuckles.
What? Brian asks irritated. The old man takes up a pawn and explains that, as Captain designate 616, he is allowed the illusion of free will, but he is no more than a pawn. He knows Merlyn used him in the past, Brian points out, but Roma is running things now. Does he truly believe she is less a manipulator than her father? the old man interrupts. Roma engineered the events that led to the formation of Excalibur. She knew Brian was a loner and a threat to the group’s bonding. So, she jinxed him to curtail his individuality, to force him to work with the team. Whenever he tried to operate independently, this “blunder factor” would fog his perceptions and dull his coordination. And the harder he tried, the more humiliating his failure.
Angrily, Brian stands up. How does he know all this? The same way he knew Brian would pass by there today, comes the not helpful reply. Brian gets ready to stalk off. Thanks for the chat and all that but he’s not ready to subscribe to any conspiracy theory. He’s not that paranoid… yet.
The old man asks him to listen. For the memory of his father. He asks him to consider the chain of events that led to the formation of Excalibur. Nightcrawler and Shadowcat, both injured, were left to convalesce on Muir island while their teammates, the X-Men, were – until recently – believed to have died in the service of none other than Roma. And Brian’s sister, Betsy’s allegiance to the X-Men bound his destiny to theirs, sowing the seeds of future friendships. All very convenient, eh?
Told with flashback images:
The strategy to unite the components began when Roma caused an image of the Phoenix effect to appear around the rising sun. Meggan witnessed that manifestation and, after Brian rejected her – his rage born of drunken grief – she was inspired by the vision to fly to Muir Island. She arrived just as Gatecrasher’s Technet materialized in pursuit of Phoenix. Yet Phoenix was still a prisoner in Mojo’s dimension at that time. Coincidence?
Roma had ensured that the bounty hunters would be drawn to the island. She had given Shadowcat and Nightcrawler a shared dream. It concentrated the psychic residue of Phoenix’s rapport with her friends, rekindling the smouldering embers into a blazing telepathic beacon.
With predictable heavy-handedness, Gatecrasher took Shadowcat and Meggan as unnecessary hostages, thus ensuring that Nightcrawler would flee to enlist Captain Britain’s aid.
Around the same time, Phoenix arrived in London, hotly pursued by Mojo’s Warwolves. After a brief taste of freedom, Phoenix walked into an ambush by the Technet, which oh so coincidentally occurred at precisely the location where the Warwolves had laid their trap. Cap and Nightcrawler joined the ensuing melee, freed the others and together won the day. Excalibur was born.
Present:
Furious, Brian begins to understand why Saturnyne sent Gatecrasher to capture Phoenix, yet ignored her when they met at the Hub and why Cringebottom arrived at the precise instant Excalibur had been defeated by the Technet. Gatecrasher was never meant to be successful. She was just an obstacle to prevent the Warwolves from capturing Rachel and a catalyst to bring the members of Excalibur together.
Precisely, the old man agrees. But why? Brian asks. Only Roma knows that, comes the reply. Then he’ll ask her, Brian promises and flies up to the Starlight Citadel. The old man slowly changes shape, becoming thinner and taller. Oh what a tangled web we weave.
Earth 616, the Excalibur lighthouse:
Cerise describes, accompanied by pink light effects, how she was travelling through hyperspace from her own world Shaskofrugnon to the Phlegmnon rim frontier. She had grown bored with the comfortable routine of their society and sought adventure. But as she passed through the Quasion field of Tryar, fierce turbulences struck her. She burnt out her transit suit’s drive unit trying to resist, but the vortex was too strong. She was sucked in – completely out of control and crashed here.
Nightcrawler assumes she must have been pulled very far off course. He has encountered many alien races, but none has used technology such as hers. Cerise has no idea where she is in relation to her homeworld in space and time. Still it looks like she could have a lot of fun here, she remarks, watching Widget who begins munching at the remnants of Excalibur’s old train.
Suddenly, her transit suit sensors detect a space time disruption outside the lighthouse. Everyone races outside to see a new team of aliens have materialized. Nightcrawler (who does not recognize them as Captain Britain’s sometime allies / foes the Special Executive) mutters that this is getting silly.
On Otherworld in Roma’s Starlight Citadel, the guardians in front of Roma’s rooms sternly order Captain Britain to leave. He has not been summoned to audience. Or what? Cap asks. We will make you, an overzealous guard responds, trying to grab his arms. He was hoping they’d try, Brian smirks, first headbutting the guard behind him, then the one in front if him, before making short works of the rest of them.
One of them has enough wits about him to alert the Omniversal Majestrix Opal Luna Saturnyne in her private chambers. Saturnyne is just busy with a tête-à-tête with another guard. Hearing what is going on, she gets dressed. He’ll wait, her lover offers. No, she informs him coolly. She will send for him, if she wishes to see him again.
In the Starlight Citadel, a guard informs Roma that they can’t hold Brian, who is just making his way towards them. Roma thanks the guard and tells him to return to his post. She will speak with the Captain.
Angrily, Cap addresses Roma, who is looking at a chessboard with figures representing the things that are going on in Excalibur’s lives. Brian asks what’s going on. He thought he could trust her, but she’s playing the same twisted games as her father. She only does what circumstances demand of her, she replies cryptically.
So why did she put a jinx on him then, Brian challenges. Roma explains that Merlyn bestowed powers on Brian’s father that live on in him; he is the strongest of the Captain Britain Corps and by nature he is a loner. If she had not restrained his strength, it would have split Excalibur.
Why did she want Excalibur to exist? Brian asks. They are five individually whose combined might can challenge the gathering forces of evil, comes the reply. Which are? Brian asks. She does not know, Roma admits. Very convenient, Brian mocks. She speaks the truth, Roma assures him. Her father began this gambit before he died. Merlyn isn’t dead, Brian protests. Excalibur met him very recently.
Now it’s Roma’s turn to become agitated. Nonsense, she insists. Brian attended Merlyn’s funeral. The entire Corps and all of Otherworld bore witness. More manipulation, Brian replies. Merlyn told him he faked his death.
Roma is puzzled. She is sure her father is dead, yet she can sense Brian is telling the truth or at least what he perceives to be the truth. She orders him to recall events, so she can share his memory.
Brian’s narration accompanied by his memories:
Brian recalls Nightcrawler and Meggan training in the jungle gym and he congratulated them on their initiative toward teamwork and…
Brian interrupts himself. That’s crazy. He’s always been against any regimen of training routine. He looks at the Meggan from his memory, who seems more seductive somehow. He admits that she’s all… wrong. What happened next? Roma prods.
Brian continues that Meggan went berserk. She seemed to be possessed by a demon. Kurt called Alistaire Stuart of the Weird Happenings Organization.
The memory shifts, showing Alistaire arguing with his superior. Brian makes fun on the “fat ogre in pajamas.” He can’t be real… and how can it be in his memory? He wasn’t there!
Roma asks him to continue. These anomalies may yet betray the manipulator’s hand.
Alistaire led them to this old guy called Myrd, an expert on demonic possession. Then they went to Braddock Manor, to consult his father’s computer. Again Brian is mystified. Emma Collins welcomed them, but she’s dead. The Braddock computer is wrong too. The Mastermind computer isn’t a normal computer system, but a living mass of organic circuitry. Roma prods him to continue.
Myrd led them all in a weird exorcism and they cured Meggan. Then Myrd revealed himself as Merlyn. Or at last one of his guises (that of the kindly old wizard). He apologized for deceiving them, said that everything had a purpose, even if it was beyond their understanding. Then he vanished.
Present:br>
That was not her father, Roma decides darkly. Merlyn was never so caring. Nor so willing to explain his actions. It was all wrong, Brian recalls puzzled. He must have dreamt it. No, Roma replies. He did experience the events in reality. Some agency of considerable powers toyed with him.
Why? he asks. Roma turns to her chessboard. For a reason yet unknown, she ventures, or perhaps to show that they are more powerful than she by being able to manipulate him who is under her protection without her knowledge. She sounds afraid, Brian remarks.
The cue for Saturnyne to enter with a very big gun. She orders him to step back from the Omniversal Guardian or she will vaporize what little brain he posses.
Angrily, Roma orders her to lower her weapon. She exceeds her authority. Confused, Saturnyne obeys. Brian deforms the barrel of her weapon and tells her to do as she’s told and keep quiet. He’s talking to her boss.
He tells Roma that he didn’t choose to be Captain Britain. But he’s never avoided the responsibility. If she wants him or Excalibur to help, just ask them. They’ll do what they can, but don’t treat them like mindless pawns. He forcefully kicks the chessboard, destroying it. Merlyn was the great deceiver, he states. Let his twisted schemes die with him.
Changing her tack, Saturnyne purrs that she didn’t realize he could be so forceful. She touches his chest playfully. She’s misjudged him. Yes, she has, he replies and turns away from her. Now if Roma wouldn’t mind removing her “blunder jinx,” he’d like to go home.
Back on Earth 616, Wardog (of the Special Executive) and Numbers (of the Technet) are holding a discussion in some strange alien language while Nightcrawler, Kylun and Cerise just watch helplessly. Eventually, Numbers and Wardog come to an agreement and shake hands (paws/whatever).
What was that all about? Kurt asks and an excited Thug explains that Numbers negotiated them a contract with these intergalactic mercenaries. Saturnyne exiled the Technet. But they are no longer Technet. Now they are able to go home. When are they leaving? Right away, comes the reply. What about Joyboy? Kurt asks. Thug explains they’d really like to find him but they haven’t got the time. Their employers want them to leave immediately. Their psychic predicts a 98.73 percent probability that this Earth will cease to exist in the next seventy-eight hours. Shouting a goodbye and thanks at Nightcrawler, the aliens (as well as the Dragon and her new brood) teleport away. Seventy-eight hours Kurt repeats stunned.
A moment later, Meggan carrying Rachel lands. Relieved, he hugs them. Meggan asks for Brian and Kurt explains he hasn’t returned from Otherworld yet. Shooting an unsure glance at Cerise, Rachel suggests Kurt introduce them to their new friends. Cerise introduces herself as Cerise, warrior of the Ghrand Jhar. Genestock of Subruki, Zarstock and Kuli Ka. Hers is the power to generate malleable energy fields of coherent light-force that obey her will. Sounds impressive, Rachel concedes. Kylun introduces himself, but becomes hesitant when Rachel asks about his powers.
That moment, Brian teleports in. He and Meggan immediately kiss passionately. Next, Brian greets Kurt, hesitatingly and asks about his leg. He admits he was a fool and asks for Kurt’s forgiveness. With a grin, Kurt shakes his hand and remarks that he can forgive him for a suitably large amount of money.
Cerise and Kylun introduce themselves to Brian as well. Again, Brian asks about Kylun’s powers. Enough of this, Kylun replies and suggests they go find Necrom. Necrom? Meggan, Rachel and Brian ask. A lot has happened while they have been away, Kurt tries to explain. Invisible demons… alien visitation and predictions of the imminent destruction of Earth. It’s a long story. Yes…? the three of them ask. And Kurt begins with the day Alistaire Stuart called by and asked Kitty to go with him to Ireland…
Meanwhile in Ireland, County Sligo. In the shadow of Ben Bulben Mountain, an archaeological team working on what is considered to be the oldest burial site in Europe puzzles over its latest finding, the readings of a state-of-the-art ground-penetrating-radar-unit. 200 meters beneath this excavation, there is a chamber, a perfect cube, ten meters high, wide and across. It has no connecting passage to the surface or any other subterranean cavern. That’s unbelievable, Alistaire exclaims. No, what’s unbelievable, Kitty retorts, is that there is a body of roughly human proportions inside the chamber and it’s moving around…


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

[Assistant]
Winner Loses All
The members of Excalibur stare at the magical hologram of the grinning visage of Necrom, who has just uttered his ultimatum to Rachel. Her choice is simple: relinquish the Phoenix to him or watch her friends die as he compresses the multiverse of all alternative Earths into a singularity.
Nightcrawler touches Rachel’s shoulder, warning her not to let Necrom goad her. He cannot access the Phoenix, while she keeps it in a dormant state. She knows, Rachel replies hesitatingly, but she can’t let them die…
Enough talk! Kylun announces and jumps at the hologram in the fire, swords drawn. If he has to die, he will die fighting! He hits the appearance with his magical blades and they disrupt the projection, actually causing Necrom pain.
Rachel announces that it’s her fault Necrom acquired the potential to control the Phoenix force and now she’s going to have to fight him for it. Nightcrawler disagrees. If Necrom really were powerful enough to warp reality, why has he not made a direct attack? He thinks the villain is bluffing.
Then what’s causing the sudden increase in cross-time images around them? Brian reminds him as he critically stares at an Iron Fist-like Captain fighting ninjas. More cross-time mirages pass, as Kurt insists that Necrom is toying with them. They should take the fight to him! Can Rachel get a fix on him? Rachel apologizes. Something is disrupting her telepathy. Feron gets in her face: if she were truly worthy to host the Phoenix, she would see as he does. Kitty orders him to back off and tell them what he sees.
Feron tells them that Necrom stands on the cliff top overlooking this very lighthouse. What else does he know? Kurt demands. Is it the multiverse converging that has caused Brian to grow so large? He neither knows nor cares, comes the rude reply. He is sworn to destroy the evil one who defiled the Phoenix. He will face him on his own, he announces and flies off over a bunch of robots.
Kylun announces he will protect the boy and follows, seemingly getting into an explosion. Cerise calms Kurt that the mirages have no physical effects on them. The exploding robots are followed by a motorway full of exotic cars. The interfaces are intensifying, Kitty observes, growing more complete.
Cerise announces that Kylun and Feron are safe. They appeared to vanish because they left the area of localized stability created by the fourth-dimensional pulse she’s been monitoring. It’s more focused now. She can confirm Widget is not responsible, Rachel is generating the temporal field. Rachel protests. She’s a telepath. Even with the Phoenix force she cannot manipulate time. That’s not true, Kitty reminds her. While Rachel was in the future she exchanged Kitty’s consciousness with an older version of hers. And somehow she’s moved herself back through time. Of course… she remembers now.
Rachel’s memories:
They tried to change their present by altering the past. Mutantkind was doomed. Project Nimrod had perfected a more efficient Sentinel. The X-Men and all the others were dead. It was down to Rachel and Kate – the adult Kitty of her future. They bluffed their way inside into the top secret cyber-robotics complex. They reached the project nerve center before their cover was blown.
Kate tells Rachel that, once the door seals, she is to telekinetically scramble their locks. Their foes will have to blast their way inside. Then what? Rachel asks. The lab is shielded against Kate’s phasing power. They are trapped. She is anyway, Kate replies. She knew that from the start. This is where they part company. Rachel protests she won’t leave Kate. Who said she had a choice? Kate asks and says the codephrase Dark Phoenix.
Something clicks inside Rachel. She feels a surge of power, vast, primal, yet strangely familiar. Then she wakes up in the present, with her memory scrambled.
Present:
Rachel assumes Kate must have programmed her with a post-hypnotic command, but why the phrase “Dark Phoenix?” She can’t remember… it’s all so vague!
Kitty tells her to take it easy. She’s beginning to remember. Keeping the Phoenix force dormant has allowed her memory to heal. Maybe it’s restoring some time manipulation power too.
They cannot worry about that now, Kurt decides. They must proceed on the assumption that even if Necrom is not the cause of their situation, he knows enough to take advantage of it. And they must stay together. They cannot risk further confusion. Cerise suggests she can transport the whole group to the surface in a sphere of solid light and proceeds to do so. Kurt tells her to just blast her way to the cellar above. Big Brian would never make it through the doorway.
Meanwhile, outside the Excalibur mushroom/lighthouse, Kylun orders Feron to slow down. He must be wary of Necrom’s power. Even now, the sky is corrupted as the multiverse convergence spreads. Feron orders him to let him go. He isn’t afraid. Because he doesn’t know what Necrom is capable of! Kylun snarls. He enslaved his world, drained the lifeforce from the people… and slew his lover, Sat’neen, comes Necrom’s voice from a cliff towering above them. Is he ready to join his witch queen in death?
Feron fires a mystic blast at him. Is that his best, spawn of Feron? Necrom laughs as he easily holds the blast off and responds with a far more powerful one of his own which Feron can barely deflect.
Meanwhile, a helicopter closes in on the lighthouse, carrying Micromax, Commander Dai Thomas and psychic Aemilia Witherspoon, who warns them that the end of the world may have begun.
Micromax orders the pilot to hold the position and jumps down on Necrom. While he falls, he increases his size and density until he achieves the mass and velocity of a small meteor. The force of the impact drives Necrom into the ground.
Inside the tower, the others heard the noise and felt a tremor, wondering what’s going on. Kitty tries to check the situation out and tries to phase outside but can’t.
Outside, Micromax wakes up after passing out briefly. Triumphantly, he tells himself he did what the Mediators couldn’t – he killed Necrom! No fool, Necrom hisses as he rises again, now furious. He merely caused him pain!
Before Necrom can torture him, Cerise drags Micromax back. Kylun wants to attack but Necrom flies off, announcing that the convergence enters its final phase. He must confront the Phoenix host.
Inside, Kitty is puzzled. She can phase through everything within the lighthouse, but not through the exterior wall. Captain Britain suggests it has something to do with the unique state of the lighthouse. Captain UK told him it exists on every plane of reality simultaneously.
Rachel decides they are wasting time. They should have followed Cerise. Kurt tells her to be patient. They know too little to be able to ignore any clue. Meggan shapeshifts to her true form and explains it’s coming out of the wall. She explains she shifted to see the lights better. The old Neuri called it the Alshra, the spirit plane. She can see lifeforce. Lots of it. It’s all flowing into Brian. The energy matrix that powers all the Captains, he realizes. The convergence must be concentrating the power. And he’s soaking it up. That’s why he’s grown so large.
Meggan adds there is something else, but it’s hard to explain. Kurt asks if Rachel can mindlink them, so he can see through Meggan’s eyes. Rachel apologizes. The static is getting worse.
Alistaire suggests she could bypass the static if Kitty phased them together. He means so that Kurt, Rachel and Meggan’s nervous systems make contact. She can’t phase three people into each other, Kitty protests. Well, it was just an idea, he admits disappointed. And well worth a try, Kurt announces. This reality warp is violating the usual laws of physics. Perhaps they can too.
Kitty phases inside Rachel, enabling Rachel to mindlink with her. It works as they phase into Kurt, then Meggan. This is easy, Kitty realizes. Although they are not so much phased, as merged.
Kurt – or the merged personality – announces that he can see it now: this is why Excalibur was formed. They each possess a unique ability that under the right circumstances combine to form an entity which is greater than the sum of the individuals. Kitty, a phaser, to merge them physically while Rachel links their minds: Kurt a teleporter with an instinctive ability to navigate the complex layers of reality and Meggan who can manipulate her form, the energy it contains… and the energy Brian contains. He is the powerhouse.
But why? he asks To do what? The merged being phases into Captain Britain. To halt the convergence, comes the reply. He’ll understand when they merge. And he does. The energy matrix is the cause. It’s collapsing, the merged being announces to Alistaire, and as it shrinks, it is drawing all the plan of reality together.
Brian… err guys, Alistaire replies, this is all too neat. It can’t be coincidence. Excalibur replies he is right, they know they are being manipulated but the convergence is spreading with geometric precision. They can stop it if they act immediately.
What about Necrom? Alistaire asks. Kylun runs in, shouting that Necrom has entered the lighthouse through the observation dome. He belongs to Kylun!
Excalibur continues that Rachel’s ability to generate a fourth-dimensional pulse will allow them to adjust their temporal frequency and rise through the multiverse. They wish Alistaire goodbye and are gone.
Cerise, Micromax and Feron enter. Cerise asks about Excalibur. He doesn’t really know, Alistaire admits. This is all way over his head.
Without understanding the how and why – like a musician composing a tune by feeling and instinct, Excalibur redirect power absorbed from the matrix back into the energy lattices, stimulating the contracting filaments to a new growth on every plane. And, although all the alternate Earths in the multiverse exist in the same physical space separated only by tiny variations of their vibrational frequency, Excalibur moves so rapidly from one plane to the next, they appear to be passing through a tube that switches from their Earth – Earth 616 – to the fabled realm of Otherworld.
In Otherworld, in Roma’s Starlight Citadel Merlyn has returned five years after his own funeral to reveal that his death was merely a ploy in a cosmic game. Agitated, his daughter Roma demands to know why he deceived her. Could he not trust her?
As he puts a chess piece representing Roma on the chessboard, her father replies that trust was not the issue. It was essential that Necrom should believe he was dead. Who is Necrom? she asks. The sorcerer supreme of his race, Merlyn replies. He was Necrom’s student, so too was the original Feron, the forbear of that hybrid upstart who now bears his name.
Flashback:
It was Necrom who revealed to them the energy created by exchange of exotic particles at every dimensional interface, the doorways between worlds. And when a series of interfaces across the multiverse were aligned, the localized energy fields merged to create an energy matrix of awesome powers. But the alignments were too brief and infrequent to be harnessed. Still, Necrom coveted the power and he was not to be denied.
So it was they travelled to Earth 616 – the prime Earth - to the location of an imminent alignment. The interface was marked with a tower, erected to an elder god by a race that was ancient when Atlantis was young.
Feron played a crucial role in Necrom’s scheme. Decades of meditation and pious asceticism had allowed him to communicate with a celestial elemental, now know as the Phoenix. At the moment of alignment, Feron called down the Phoenix avatar to project the essence of the tower through the multiverse so that it existed in every plane of reality simultaneously like a cosmic lynchpin treaded through the multiverse.
But Necrom had deceived them. The creation of an energy matrix was merely the first phase in a gambit to compress the alternate realities into a singularity. The energy released by this destructive insanity would have empowered Necrom with the power of a god, had he not made one fatal miscalculation. Feron – sustained by the Phoenix – resisted Necrom’s mighty will. As they fought, Merlyn leapt into the seething cauldron of the energy matrix and was swept across the multiverse as he struggled to tame its fury.
Necrom could have easily killed gentle Feron, but instead tore out the portion of the Phoenix force that bonded his student to the avatar, ensuring both would endure great suffering. In agonized confusion, the Phoenix fled to the stars. Necrom bound the stolen Phoenix force with a portion of his own life essence and left it to incubate in a corpse. The creation of the Anti-Phoenix was Necrom’s first play in this current gambit. Then, he vanished into the multiverse.
Feron spent the rest of his life, awaiting the rise of the Anti-Phoenix, hoping to atone for the pain he had caused the Phoenix. His final act was to place his power in the Earth to be claimed by his heir.
In the meantime, Merlyn had mastered the energy matrix and established Otherworld. But always Necrom eluded him, so he created the Captain Britain Corps to patrol the Multiverse and began a counter gambit.
Present:
Was all this deception really necessary, Roma asks critically. Could he not have repaired the energy matrix? To do so would have exposed him to an attack from Necrom, Merlyn replies. He had to guard himself. Necrom is a powerful opponent. So he hid, Roma states accusingly. Feigning death while others defended his empire. Should he concern himself with the fat of a few mortals? he asks with a thin-lipped smirk. He is Merlyn. And now the game is nearly done. The threat that Necrom posrd is almost neutralized. He has proved his supremacy!
On Earth 616, where the Excalibur lighthouse stands amid a shifting landscape of alien mirage, Kylun is startled by another crosstime phantom. A moment later, a familiar voice calls him, his beloved Sat’neen. It can’t be! he exclaims. She died!
She gently corrects him that she was only sorely wounded. Her mystic prowess restored her vigor. Is she not the witchqueen of Ee’rath? She walks toward him, assuring him she understands his hesitation, but she is real. She can touch him. She hugs him. He assures her he loves her more than life itself, not seeing that she transforms back to her corpse self, not seeing the greedy hand behind his back, reaching for him. And, he continues, he will not permit her mortal remains to be possessed by this diseased vermin. With this, he strikes Necrom with his blade, actually causing him pain.
Kylun mocks that Necrom cannot be as powerful as he claims to be or wouldn’t need to resort to such a desperate ploy. He has strength enough to kill him, the villain hisses. Necrom threatens that he will soon possess the Phoenix. Its human host must release the power if the convergence is to be halted. But it has stopped, Kylun corrects him. The crosstime phantoms are no more. This cannot be! Necrom swears, the Phoenix is still dormant! His senses reach out and he realizes that it has risen though the multiverse and he must follow. Kylun shouts after him that Necrom must fight him and is ignored. Kylun is left, cradling the remains of his beloved.
Excalibur have finished and have arrived in the last tower, apparently their job is done, even if it all seems a bit anti-climactic. All this muscle and they didn’t get to hit anyone.
Kitty orders them to split up as the circumstances that allowed them to merge are fading fast. So they split and leave the tower. As they see Roma’s starlight citadel in the sky, they realize they are in Otherworld.
Cap tries to get his still bloated form through the doorway and suggests asking Roma why he still hasn’t returned to normal size. Perhaps the crisis isn’t over yet, Kurt suggests. Of course it isn’t, Rachel reminds them they haven’t beaten Necrom yet.
Cue for the villain to arrive. He warns them he will still be triumphant. More bluff, Kitty calls out. No, he will have the Phoenix, he assures them. He orders Rachel to fight him or watch as he drains the life force from her friends.
Rachel accepts. She always knew it would come to this. Kurt tries to hold her back, but telekinetically she stops him from using a nerve pinch on her. She thanks him for caring enough to try. There must be another way, he pleads. She tells them Necrom is desperate. He’s hurt. Dying. He has nothing to lose. And he’s an energy vampire. He needs only make physical contact to kill. He’s bound to get at least one of them… she couldn’t live with that.
But she might destroy her memory forever, Kitty points out. Their future is more important than her past, Rachel assures her. She is Phoenix! she shouts as she accesses the Phoenix force. She’s accepted the power and now it’s time to prove she is worthy of it! With a single thought, Rachel is transformed as the cosmic avatar she hosts erupts from its psychic confines.
In the same searing instant, she bids her friends a telepathic farewell, so they share the moment of glorious elation that is engulfed by a sick emptiness as the surging celestial force shatters their teammate’s memory into a mist of splintered reminiscence.
Still, Rachel ignores her loss. Her mind is focused on the present… on the battle she must fight. She telekinetically blasts Necrom, who calls her an overconfident fool. He slams her to the ground. Using Phoenix energy himself, he tells her the moment she drew on the Phoenix she allowed him to draw on its potential and, although he possesses only a fraction of its essence, he knows how to utilizes this.
Utilize this! Captain Britain tells him as he slams him away. Necrom gets ready to kill the members of Excalibur, giving Rachel the strength to rejoin the battle. She has no desire to see friends die again. Her blast actually hurts Necrom. He lashes out in rage.
Rachel realizes that he’s completely out of control, intoxicated with power. Even though he’s firing wildly, he’ll eventually hit the others. She grabs him with her Phoenix wings and flies the two of them away through a stargate leading to a long dead area of the universe. She silently wonders how she created the gate and was it her or the Phoenix? Either way, it’s giving her an advantage.
She slams the completely disoriented Necrom down and slams thousand tons of fossilized city on him. Confident of her victory, Rachel swoops down through the airless void. There is no sound or movement, yet some other sense alerts her to danger. And, although she halts her descent, scant seconds before the planet’s surface is vaporized, she cannot avoid the irresistible jet of magma that Necrom directs at her.
She flies away, sensing something broken inside her. She can taste blood. She realizes she underestimated her foe. As she flies though the cosmos, he follows. She decides to let him believe she’s running to hide among these asteroids. She telekinetically redirects their momentum and lets them hit him. Is that her best effort? he mocks. She wields the Phoenix like a clumsy tool!
A moment later, Rachel is horrified to see him throwing moons at her. Suddenly, she feels herself growing heavier and pulled as the gas planet’s gravity increases. She breaks free, realizing Necrom ignited the planet and turned it into a sun, just to incinerate her.
Necrom follows, announcing she cannot keep running. Has he not shown her she cannot stand against his superior skill? She’s a quick learner, Rachel retorts and tells him to eat solar flare as she steers the sun’s energy against him. Enraged by her mocking he devastates the entire solar system.
She cannot channel that level of power, Rachel realizes. And she doesn’t think Necrom can either. Or he would make a direct attack, instead of striking at her through their surroundings. He’s still manipulating her.
She flies directly him and physically hits him. Necrom mocks that her primitive instincts betray her. Like a beast sensing defeat, she resorts to futile physical attack and in doing so has delivered the Phoenix to him. All he needs do is drain her life force and the Phoenix essence that is bound to it will follow.
And he begins to drain her. But actually that’s what Rachel counted on. He realizes something goes wrong as the power becomes too much. The Phoenix isn’t power itself, but it has the ability to tap into the elemental forces of the universe and they are near infinite. Rachel knew Necrom wanted it all, so she willed the Phoenix to give it to him. And Necrom explodes into a cloud of discorporated atoms that are blown into infinity as the Phoenix reunited with its stolen essence flares in majestic celebration.
When the dazzling brilliance fades, a new harmony spreads through the tortured ether and nothing remains to mark the battle except the debris of a shattered solar system and a frail human form. For long instants, it hangs lifelessly in the cold dark vacuum. Then, with a searing flash it vanishes… to reappear on Otherworld.
The others run to Rachel, who, while physically undamaged, seems to be comatose. Kitty wonders why suddenly she is wearing the original green Phoenix costume instead of her own.
Suddenly, Roma appears, announcing that she has returned their friend to them, but she is afraid she has no knowledge of what ails her. The Phoenix guards her from Roma’s perceptions.
What the devil is going on? Cap demands. Necrom is dead, the power play is over, comes the reply. Another person begins to appear next to Roma. With just one casualty. A most excellent conclusion, Merlyn announces. He had anticipated that Necrom would kill at least two of Excalibur’s number. It surprised him that Rachel Summers should sacrifice so much in the name of friendship. Still, every gambit has its rogue element.
Roma looks down at his words, apparently ashamed, while Cap cries out angrily that he is alive. Most assuredly, Merlyn replies with a smirk. His death was a ploy. An immortal does not simply die of old age. He require a period of anonymity. His daughter was a more than adequate caretaker in his absence. Roma silently glares.
He continues how gently she nurtured the formation of their group, honing their crude powers with subtle persuasion such as the cross-time-caper. During that affair, they were all acclimatized to the ravages of unprotected cross-time transit, while Rachel was unconsciously exercising her temporal control. A clever ploy, capably executed, but not fully successful, which is why he required to do a small level of fine-tuning. So it was he who masqueraded as Myrd, Brian shouts accusingly.
Yes, Merlyn agrees, the possession incident was necessary to prepare their psyches for the recent merge. The event was pure fantasy played out in the subconscious mind of Alistaire Stuart.
He changes shape to the small old man Myrd. It amused him to play a role. He was Myrd and… he changes again… “wise old” Merlyn of legend… another change… and later on Otherworld an old chess player.
Enraged, Kurt calls him a smug swine. What gave him the right to use them? His power, Merlyn replies unphazed and the threat Necrom posed to his energy matrix.
While he speaks, Roma, Meggan and Captain Britain exchange meaningful looks. Necrom would have misused the power, had he gained control of it, Merlyn continues.
Meggan grips Brian’s hugely enlarged hand and begins to absorb the excess matrix energy that bloats his giant form. As Brian shrinks back to normal proportions, Meggan metabolizes the enormous power, then discharges it as a tightly focused beam of devastating force into a single square centimeter at the base of the tower wall. A minute crack appears. It expands rapidly, growing numerous branches that spread into a splintering web. And across every plane of reality the tower in all its diverse forms disintegrates.
Merlyn scowls. They have destroyed everything! Without the tower the alignment will pass. The energy matrix will fade. They knew that, Captain Britain explains. He implanted in them the knowledge needed to protect his primate power source. That same knowledge showed them how to destroy it.
With a curse, energy glinting around Merlyn’s outstretched arms, he gets ready to retaliate. But Roma steps between him and Excalibur and calmly orders “no”.
Merlyn’s energy disperses. Impatient, he turns around telling her she is right. Those fools are not worth the energy it would take to put them out of his misery. And energy will be scarce without the matrix. He disappears.
Kitty announces she doesn’t trust that sleazebag. Kurt agrees. They haven’t heard the last from him. Her father is her concern, Roma replies. Now they must return home. She gestures and they appear in front of Braddock Manor.
This isn’t home, Brian states instinctively. It is if the want a comfy bed for the night, come the voice of Alistaire Stuart who explains that their lighthouse went kabloeey. How did he get here? Kurt asks. They are all here, Alistaire explains, all who were at the lighthouse. They had a warning to get clear. Actually it was more like an irresistible impulse. So thy piled into the plane and came here. What form did this warning take? Kurt asks.
While Brian gently picks up Rachel, Meggan explains that Roma warned everyone in or near a tower on all the alternate earths. She didn’t want anyone hurt when Meggan blew up the tower. She means Roma made her destroy the tower? Kurt asks agitated. She is still manipulating them? No, she asked, Meggan replies. It was their choice, Brian agrees. Roma knew Merlyn had to be stopped so she gave them the means to stop him. That’s why he retained the matrix power he had absorbed.
Roma explained her plan to Meggan and he via telepathy, as Kurt argued with Merlyn. But she left the choice to them. How can he be so sure? Kurt asks Brian as he follows him. Roma had trusted her father, but he had lied to her, Brian replies. She regretted what she had done to them. He wishes he had his faith, Kurt sighs.
Brian believes they can trust Roma. She wanted them to have a fresh start as free agents. The manipulations are over. They’re nobody’s pawns now. And as he says that they cross the checkered ground of the patio looking very much like a chessboard…