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[Assistant]
Public Enemy Number One
The Watcher’s introduction: My name is Hector Espejo. But only Hector’s family calls him that. The kids at school tend to refer to him by some of his many nicknames, which aren’t very nice. They call Hector “dork,” or “geek.” “Nerd,” even. But online, it’s different. There, Hector has only one name: the Watcher.
Hector is not a hacker. He’s much better than that. Or worse, according to both the FBI and the Secret Service. THE worst, in fact. But luckily for them, Hector has almost no interest in classified government files, as he got over that years ago, back when he was ten years old. What Hector is looking for… well, at first he didn’t even knew it existed. He’s not sure that people would call what he discovered is a “parallel dimension,” but okay, people can call it that. And it’s totally cool.
Take the following one, for example: it’s a biographical novel from the forties, written by a prisoner named Matteo DiPriggia. Evidently, in this parallel dimension, Matteo was partners with kind of a scary man.end introduction
Rat Portage, Ontario. Spring, 1926…Two men are walking towards a beautiful city. A skipper sarcastically proposes that he’ll give Logan a dollar for the beaver pelts and twenty dollars each for the bearskins. Logan mentions that he needs the skipper to put an edge on his skinning knives as well. Mateo noticed that the blades are worn pretty bad and thinks Logan better goes buy some new ones. Logan stops walking and takes a look around, telling the skipper that, some day, him buying new blades might happen. The skipper wants to know if Logan is going to see Gerard. Logan refuses to answer and goes to a cabin at the docks, leaving the skipper behind. The skipper whispers that he doesn’t like Logan going into the cabin unarmed.
Logan walks into the cabin, which is actually a bar run by Gerard. Gerard greets Logan and congratulates him as well. Logan is confused and doesn’t know what to say. Gerard playfully punches him in the face, smiling that his wife got a boy. Logan gets up again after the punch, looking unpleased at Gerard. He shouts at everyone to run out of the bar now, and they do, realizing that Logan and Gerard got some talking to do. Logan and Gerard stare at each other for a little while, until Logan punches Gerard into his face, causing the guy to bleed. Gerard calms down and offers Logan a seat.
As they drink for a while, Gerard adds that he doesn’t care much about the current situation. He realizes that his wife wasn’t doing much work anyway, and that she even threatened to cut most guys who came near her. Logan wants to know if that’s true, why Gerard punched him. Gerard admits he only did that because everyone expected him to do it. He has to keep up his appearance, as the cutthroats around the place smell someone’s weakness like a coyote smells blood.
Logan wants to know if Gerard is going to throw the girl out. Gerard won’t, as he figured she could stay at the bar, but only if Logan stays with her. Logan is startled, unsure what to response to that. Gerard thinks it will do Logan some good, living inside, no more long winters, no more sleeping in a canoe. He thinks it’s a good life. Gerard admits he sure enjoyed it, though he believes he might have enjoyed it a little too much, but that’s a different matter. Gerard reveals to Logan that he is… dying!
He explains that there is a hospital down south in Minnesota, where his wife is from and she told Gerard that the doctors could help him. Gerard recalls that he has run from nothing his whole life, but this time, for his wife, Gerard will. He adds that he is meeting with some good organized guys from Chicago. With this prohibition these guys got going on in the United States, Gerard learned that these guys are looking for a steady supply of alcohol, and paying top dollar to get it. A whole lot more than Gerard is currently earning.
Gerard concludes that he’s got the barrels all stacked up and ready. Those guys are bringing up the trucks and their money as well. Once that is done, Gerard is done. Him and his wife are heading south. Logan wants to know what that has got to do with him. Gerard tells him to look at the bar. He explains that a lot of guys depend on this bar to keep themselves alive, to keep them warm when the snow comes. This bar isn’t just a saloon; it’s an outpost. Gerard reveals that he came to this place with nothing and doesn’t want to leave with everything. That’s why Gerard wants Logan to take over running the Blackheart bar.
Logan isn’t sure about it. Gerard begs him to do it, because everyone around here is scared of Logan and that makes him perfect to run it. And besides, Gerard adds, it’s a whole lot better place to raise a family than out in the wilderness. Logan mentions that he isn’t a businessman and also that he was never meant to be part of Gerard’s family. He believes that he belongs in the wilderness.
Later that night…Logan is sleeping at the wilderness, nearby his canoe. Suddenly, he hears a lot of noise and stares in front of him, only to discover that Gerard’s bar has been torched! Logan quickly runs towards it, and notices Gerard and customers running outside of it. Logan asks Gerard if there’s still someone inside the bar. A badly injured Gerard mentions with his final breath that thanks to the whisky the flames quickly spread themselves. He also reveals that the culprit is the man from Chicago. The man people call… Scarface!
Logan watches as Gerard dies, and the surviving customers ask Logan what he’s going to do. Logan notices a shirt with a death skull on it, and picks it up, ready for action.
(Matteo voice-over)“That’s how it all began. But I didn’t meet up with Logan until much later, when he came to Chicago. My old man had tossed me out when I was ten, but I was doing okay. I traded on information, made a few bucks doing “procurements.” But I made my bread and butter by picking the pockets of the drunk who came in and out of the “blind pigs.”
“That’s what we called the bootleg liquor joints. The cops knew about these places but turned a blind eye for a certain price. That’s the way it was back then… as long as you paid, you played. But if you didn’t pay, it got ugly real fast.”
Logan gets pushed out of a bar into a dark alley, held captive by several thugs. They punch him into his face, not liking the fact that Logan keeps asking so many questions about Scarface. The tell Logan that if their boss wants to see him, he’ll find Logan himself.
(Matteo voice-over)“I’m not sure why I did it. Maybe I was feeling generous because I had just scored a hefty wad of bills on that last lift. But before I knew it, I was giving the universal signal for “square cop on the block.” Worked like a charm.”
Matteo whispers on his fingers, lying to the thugs that police officers are arriving. They buy into it, telling Logan that he’s lucky and run away, leaving him behind to heal from his wounds. Matteo walks towards Logan and notices that he isn’t from around Chicago. Logan tells the boy to go away, but he refuses. Matteo explains that he won’t do that, because his name is known all over the south side. Logan can ask for it to anybody. When somebody needs something, they all come to Matteo asking for help. Logan thinks that, if that’s true, it’s a good thing he found Matteo.
(Matteo voice-over)“At that point, I really didn’t know what I was getting into with this guy. But then again, I didn’t really have a choice. And it only got worse. Turns out, Logan was looking for none other than Public Enemy Number One. The Big Fella, himself. I told Logan what I knew: old Scarface was notorious for never being where you, or the police, looked, yet he was always popping up where you least expected him.”
“The best bet to catch Scarface anywhere, though, would be the top floor of the Metropolis Hotel on Michigan Avenue, as it’s the base of his operations. The place was heavily guarded though, and not just by wise guys. Scarface bankrolled a small army of crooked cops, every one of them hard as nails and vicious as mad dogs when it came to protecting the hand that fed them. In other words, Logan didn’t have a chance, but since the guy paid, I played.”
Standing nearby a truck outside the hotel, Logan checks with Matteo if he knows what to do. Matteo knows it all, and gives Logan what he asked for. Logan takes the gun and wants to know how many bullets he’s got. Matteo smiles he got just what’s in the gun. That’s fine by Logan. He puts the gun into the pocket of his pants, thinking he’ll use his knife when he can. As Logan walks inside the hotel, Matteo reminds Logan that he knows he wants payback, but warns that this plan is suicide. Logan knows that but doesn’t care, and walks inside the laundry service of the hotel.
(Matteo voice-over)“That’s all Logan said as he left, going into the heart of gangland with nothing but a knife and six bullets. He said he had a plan. He didn’t tell me what that plan was, but Logan did tell me my part. The way I figured it, though, all the plans in the world wouldn’t amount to a hill of beans with what Logan was going up against.”
Logan makes it safely inside the laundry service. He turns on the power from the steam pipes, and climbs them up, holding his knife ready for action.
Meanwhile, the actual hotel guests are boiling up inside and go complaint to the manager. He claims to be aware of it and that they are doing their best to do something about it, but apparently they are currently unable to get downstairs to the basement. It seems that the door is jammed.
(Matteo voice-over)“But I did my part anyway. One thing of use Chicagoans fear more than anything else, is a fire.”
Suddenly, the hotel catches fire and all the guests run outside in full panic! Logan, in the meantime, walks through the hotel halls, until he catches a scent. He takes out his gun and kicks a door open, where behind it are lots of security guards waiting for him! Logan tries to fight him, but gets quickly outnumbered and handcuffed.
A few moments later, Logan wakes up in another room. A voice explains to him that he has just been beaten by Chicago’s finest, yet also most expensive. Logan realizes that he’s dealing with Scarface. Scarface mentions that he really dislikes that name. Logan doesn’t know why, as the name still beats “dog.” Scarface, staring at Logan from behind his desk, remains silent and reveals to Logan the scars on his entire body!
Scarface gets up, reminding Logan that nobody calls him a dog anymore, either. He walks towards Logan, noticing that he’s wearing his old shirt with the skull on it, wanting to know the reason why. It isn’t scaring Scarface at all, so he doesn’t see the point of it. It actually makes him smile a bit, as it remembers him how he burned up that woman and baby, and how he took everything away from Logan, just like he did to Scarface all those many years ago.
Logan growls. Scarface explains to “James” that there will be no more games. No more hiding in a mine or somewhere. This game is ending right now. Scarface takes out a gun and points it towards Logan’s head. Logan wonders if Scarface knows what he did in those mines. He smiles that he worked on the stupid crew that worked there, and that he got real good at it.
(Matteo voice-over)“What I didn’t mention before is that Logan had some other things in that pouch of his too. This Logan asked me to procure for him earlier that day. Like some electrical wire, an alarm clock and all the dynamite I could scrounge. I wasn’t sure exactly what he was going to do with it all, but at eleven o’clock that night, I found out in a big way.”
Matteo places all the things Logan asked him to get nearby the hotel, and causes the entire building to explode!
(Matteo voice-over)“The papers made a big deal about Scarface getting blown to Kingdom Come, but nothing really changed on the streets. There were plenty of other mob bosses willing to take over where the Big Fella left off. Within just a couple of days, it was back to business as usual.”
On the streets, a policeman holds Matteo back, telling him he didn’t paid yet. Matteo defends that he already paid this week and wants to have a break, as he’s got to eat. The officer doesn’t care, telling Matteo that his kids also have to eat and wants money. Matteo has no choice and hands some money to the officer. Matteo walks into an alley, where a voice asks him how he can stand it.
(Matteo voice-over)“Logan had always scared me, but seeing him there like that, with the skull and crossbones across his chest, the guy looked like the angel of death. I was terrified, but also felt comforted. Because people like me, coming from where we come, we don’t get to see angels of any kind.”
Matteo is surprised that Logan survived that explosion. Hesitant, he responds Logan’s question by guessing that he’s used to it all, thinking this is the way it is and will always be. Logan doesn’t think so, confident that it’s all going to change. And that he’s going to be the one responsible for it. But, he’s going to need help. Matteo confidently promises Logan that he’s got it. Standing ready for action, Logan jokes that he’s going to need more guns, and a whole lot more bullets if they want to succeed.
(Matteo voice-over)“Right then and there, I made the decision to follow this man into hell because I knew that the worst that could happen was end up in heaven. The men that we would punish, however, would not be so lucky.”


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[Assistant]
What if Wolverine was never deprogrammed? Bite the hand that feeds
Shadowcat confronts Wolverine and pleads with him. She says she still knows it’s him. Wolverine stands in front of her, with blood dripping down his claws. She thinks to herself that she didn’t want it to end like this. They said talking would be useless but they meant everyone else right? She’s his little angel, he’d never hurt her.
(seven hours ago)The X-Men’s Blackbird jet flies through the night sky. On board, someone says to Captain America that they know SHIELD is all about its secrets. They ask him if he plans on letting them in on what’s going on. Captain America brings up some schematics of a building on a monitor. He says that they couldn’t risk any leaks. If Hydra found the base or if any of them were captured, then the mission would be over. A voice comes through on the computer and interrupts him. Nick Fury’s face appears on a monitor and says that it’s plain and simple… this is Operation: Wolverine.
Gathered around the monitor are Captain America, Magneto, the Invisible Woman and Shadowcat. Nick fury explains that their war is with Hydra and the Hand but with Wolverine on their side they are taking massive casualties. Their goal is capture. If they figure out how to deprogram him, then they can help other Hydra victims. Captain America says that he and Fury handpicked each of them for the mission. If they stick to the game plan, they’ll be fine. Magneto says he handpicked them because they are the only ones not dead. Captain America says if he falls in line then he will stay that way. The plan is to divide and conquer. Hydra has assisted Wolverine in taking down other heroes and the idea is to sever the link.
They knew Hydra had implants in him. For six months, the bloody evidence lay on the ground with every fallen hero. One such hero was Spider-Man. He and Wolverine ended up in a fight and Spider-Man was besting him. He managed to use his web shooters and stick Wolverine to a wall. But he was teleported out of it and materialized behind Spider-Man. He stabbed the web-crawler, killing him. Hydra was a scary enough when they were just an organization shooting for world domination. Add Wolverine into the mix…
Nick Fury continues and says the secret location will prevent the mistakes they saw in Washington D.C. SHIELD caught hell from Homeland Security over that incident. Shadowcat looks saddened and says they all saw it on live TV. She remembers seeing Iron Fist fighting Wolverine outside the White House as the president’s bodyguards lay dead around them. As hand ninjas jump into the fight, Luke Cage comes up to Wolverine and tells him he’s gone too far. Wolverine slashes his shoulder but Cage says he will have to dig deeper than that. He lunges at Wolverine but is killed by him instead as Iron Fist looks on in horror.
Shadowcat muses that Luke Cage died saving the president’s life on national TV. She thinks to herself that Captain America wanted to be there for Luke and for all of them. But he was now confined to a wheelchair as he lost his left hand and leg. He says SHIELD has bionic prosthetics waiting for him after the mission. Shadowcat wishes she had his resolve but she’s no super soldier. Captain America asks if she’s in. Staring out of the window, she says she’s good but she’s lying. She starts to asks what happens if they manage to contain him but Magneto interrupts. He says Wolverine is too dangerous as he’s been brainwashed for too long. Captain America turns to him and says that he knows losing a son is painful but they have to try for containment and to stay with the plan. If it goes wrong, then they will take other measures.
The Blackbird approaches an island and lands. In the distance, they see a large dome poking through the jungle tree tops. Captain America says that this is home base for a few days with provisions courtesy of SHIELD. As they enter the base, Captain America tells them not to get comfortable, as Fury has been leaking false transmissions to Hydra. Once they take the bait, they’ll come knocking with Wolverine in tow. When Shadowcat asks what makes the base so special, Captain America tells her it’s the high-impact cement base and ultra-grade titanium framework. There’s only one way in and out. Magneto asks if it will contain Wolverine and Captain America pauses for a second and then tells everyone to settle into their quarters.
Although they were told to be back in twenty minutes, they were all there in ten. Captain America is looking at a schematic to the base on a monitor. He tells them that Hydra has zero data on the base, so they can’t teleport Wolverine in. He will have to take their shotgun hallway and, once he’s inside, Shadowcat will close the titanium doors and then phase through to join them. Sue will contain him and then Magneto will use the base generator to cast an electromagnetic force field linked to the base. This special frequency will disrupt Hydra’s ability to teleport him away. Captain America says he’s the bait. Hydra hates leaving loose ends and they will come to finish the job.
Shadowcat thinks that he made it sound so easy. But even the best fighters will tell you there’s nothing easy about Wolverine. As Moon Knight and Wolverine fight on a rooftop, Moon Knight tells him it’s a full moon. He picked the wrong night to fight. As both men take a few seconds to catch their breath and wipe the blood away, Wolverine tells him that he’s got style. As he kicks Moon Knight in the chest, he says he respects knuckle bruisers like him. He tells him they need good back-alley jockeys. As he kills Moon Knight, Wolverine tells him that it hurts now but Hydra will patch him up and screw his head on straight. He should count himself lucky, Cap’ isn’t getting the same deal.
Back at the base, Shadowcat says that, as soon as it started, it all became a blur. The proximity alarm sounds and everyone rushes to their stations. Magneto starts to electrify the generator and Captain America tells him to hold until his signal. Shadowcat phases her head into the tunnel and says she can’t see Wolverine. Sue Storm stands behind her and tells her not to blink, as he could be anywhere. All of a sudden, Wolverine’s claws burst up through the floor and Sue’s feet. She screams as she falls over and Wolverine crawls out of the floor space. Magneto tells Captain America that Sue needs to kill him. Captain America starts shouting orders and trying to get Wolverine’s attention.
Wolverine still has his claws in Sue and so she creates a force field around his head. He starts to choke but he stabs a hole in his throat and gives himself a tracheotomy. Captain America tells Magneto to cover the base above and below. He can’t believe Wolverine tunneled all the way inside. Shadowcat says Wolverine’s speed boost took them by surprise. Wolverine jumps onto Sue and stabs her in the head. As Captain America looks on in shock, Magneto yells for him to get back. But it’s too late… Wolverine has set his sights on him. Wolverine lunges for him but he dives out of the chair just in time.
Magneto tells Captain America that Wolverine is too much for him to deal with and that he’ll handle him. Captain America shouts back at him to concentrate on the force field and he’ll handle it. But Magneto doesn’t listen and he uses his powers to take control of Wolverine. He tells Captain America that this is why Hydra avoids him. They know the disadvantages of an adamantium skeleton. As Captain America crawls back into his chair, he reminds Magneto about the force field. But it’s too late again and Wolverine has teleported behind Magneto. He stabs him through the chest and he falls down dead.
Shadowcat says she wanted their plan to work. She wanted Sue to contain him. Wolverine looks at Captain America and asks what Plan B is. Wolverine dives towards him but Shadowcat manages to phase Captain America and his chair. She thinks to herself that she wanted to stay in the shadows until it was all over. Then she wouldn’t have had to face him.
As she keeps Captain America phased, Wolverine continuously slashes at him. Captain America throws his shield and then forces Shadowcat to let go of him. He punches Wolverine in the face as the shield hits him from behind. As Wolverine lies dazed on the floor, Captain America tells her she knows what she has to do. He goes over to fight Wolverine but he is quickly impaled through the head.
Shadowcat stays phased as Wolverine approaches her. She says he needs help and she’ll call Fury. He tells her no-one is coming, as she can’t touch a comm. link in ghost mode. But if she wants to chin-wag about old times, then he’s all ears. She says he’s just sick but he ignores her and says to keep talking because when she needs to eat or sleep he will be there to tuck her in, or she could make it sporting by phasing out of there. He’s got her scent so there is nowhere on the island she can go. She asks what they did to him to make him forget about her. She tells him he’s hurt so many like Jean-Paul. She says he attacked Northstar right through her. He used her for cover. Northstar died instead of her and because of her. She tells Wolverine he helped her at the school. He was like a brother, she envied him. She thinks that her powers are about not touching but for him contact is everything.
As he jumps at her, he says he is better in lots of ways now. She tells him Hydra is in his mind. She pleads with him to open his eyes to see all the people he’s killed. She’s read the reports; SHIELD tried to cover it up. But the media broke the story and now the people live in fear of the heroes and the villains. Meanwhile, Hydra and the Hand are assassinating political figures left right and center. All because of him. As Wolverine dives at her again, he says that the old world is dying off and even Jean-Paul understands. She says that Jean-Paul was a good man that Hydra turned into a machine… like him.
She remains phased but takes a swipe at him. Wolverine says that she has some life in her now. He tells her to go for his lungs or heart… he’ll just grow them back. She realizes that he’s gone mad just like they said. He goads her into taking her best shot stating that he’ll always recover. With tears in her eyes, she thrusts her hand into his skull and then lets him slice it off. She grabs her bleeding arm and tells him she’s sorry, she had to. Wolverine slumps to the floor, his face all contorted by having her hand embedded in his skull.
Shadowcat thinks to herself that, if he comes back and they fix that adamantium skull, then she hopes he doesn’t remember what he did. Or what she did to him.
The stop button is pressed on a video player. A SHIELD agent says that’s how they found it. Nick Fury emphasizes that that’s how they found her… Kitty Pryde. Elektra says she was never taught to do that. Fury says that war does ugly things to people. Elektra asks if Shadowcat knew all along. Fury asks if she meant that she was the ultimate back-up plan. He says Kitty isn’t stupid, she knew. She just had to let go.


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[Assistant]
What If Xavier’s Secret Second Team Had Survived?
Vulcan is in his apartment, where he opens a refrigerator. It’s almost completely empty, save some for some drinks and a spaghetti & meatballs box. Vulcan picks it up, and jokes there’s no way of going around it now: tomorrow, he’ll have to go to the store. He starts cooking the spaghetti, and takes out a drink as well. Next, he places a disk in his DVD player, which stands beneath a huge, wide-screen television set. He goes to sit in a coach, and watches the TV showing an image of himself in his X-Men uniform.
On screen, an announcer proudly introduces a Fever Dream Entertainment special, presented by Hunt Kerman. With fire in the heart, this will be the story of Vulcan… the world’s greatest hero! Vulcan starts eating his dinner, and jokes “yay for me.”
The show shows footage of Vulcan and his team of Darwin, Petra and Sway fighting Magneto’s Brotherhood of Mutants. Kerman explains to the audience that, for years, Magneto and his band hid behind the legitimacy of an independent state, and launched attacks on the USA and Europe with apparent impunity. But when the United Nations finally withdrew its recognition of Genosha’s sovereignty, the gloves came off in a spectacular fashion. This was the scene as the X-Men finally put an end to the reign of terror. The team, led by Vulcan, took down Magneto and his followers in a clinically efficient operation. In the final minutes of the battle, Vulcan subdued the renegade mutant leader long enough to deliver the coup de grace… a helmet designed by Charles Xavier to neutralize Magneto’s mutant powers. As long as he wears the helmet, Magneto is just one of the Homo sapiens.
The show shows what happened after Gabriel won…
While human guards restrained Magneto and placed the helmet on his head, Magneto shouted at Vulcan that this isn’t a victory. He didn’t win anything today. He reminded Vulcan that he is a mutant. He’s certain that one day the humans will turn on him, as wolves do not lie down with lambs! Magneto finishes his speech by saying, “We eat them.”
Continuing the show, Kerman concludes that today, Magneto and his gang of thugs are safely behind wire in Camp Delta. And, he adds, they are privileged to have with them, live in the studio, the man who put the Brotherhood in jail: Mr. Gabriel Summers, leader of the X-Men, the world’s greatest hero… Vulcan! Gabriel enters the stage and the crowd goes wild seeing him. He goes to sit in a chair and the host says it’s an honor to have him there. He admits that was a defiant message Magneto spoke out there. Gabriel calls Magneto a seriously deluded individual, and that Magneto set himself up as spokesman for mutants. But he never represented mutants. If you take any group of individuals, Gabriel adds, you are going to get that minority. The lunatic fringe. That’s what Magneto represented according to Gabriel. The 1% crazies.
The host asks Gabriel if he has a personal response for Magneto. To this, Gabriel jokes he doesn’t know if they have a TV in Camp Delta, but he wants Magneto to know, if he’s watching, he can bite him. The crowd goes wild again, and Gabriel smiles. The host continues to explain it’s been said that, without Vulcan’s leadership and example, relations between humans and mutants might have taken a very different course. But, he wants to figure out who the man behind the costume is. They’ve put together a short movie, re-creating key moments from Vulcan’s career. Of course there were no cameras to record these events when they originally occurred, so what they’re going to see is accurate reconstructions using the very latest C.G.I. technology.
From the first, Vulcan’s life was marked by tragedy. Shortly before he was born, his parents were captured by aliens known as the Shi’ar and taken to their imperial throneworld where, in an act of unbelievable brutality, his pregnant mother was murdered by Shi’ar Emperor D’Ken in front of her husbands eyes. Unknown to Gabriel’s father, the unborn child was kept alive to be raised as a slave by the Shi’ar. But this human child was special. As he reached adolescence, he discovered that he was a mutant, possessing the power to control energy. Gabriel used that power to make a daring escape from his captors and took the name of the roman god of fire… Vulcan.
He knew little of Earth’s culture. For a year, he hid among the homeless of New York, until he was arrested and came into the care of Doctor Moira MacTaggert. MacTaggert was running a project to develop the powers of a small group of young mutants. Her close friend, Professor Charles Xavier, mentor and creator of the original X-Men, became a huge influence of these young mutants, helping to train them and develop their powers. Vulcan joined Suzanne Chan, known as Sway, who is able to slow time and replay past events. Armando Muñoz aka Darwin, the evolving boy, who is in a state of constant reactive mutation, developing new powers as he needs them to survive. And there was also Petra, the geomorph.
For the teenaged Vulcan, these were the happiest times he had known but, soon, tragedy was to strike once more. The drama began to unfold when an alarm was sounded by the mutant detector, Cerebro. A new mutant had appeared on the uninhabited island of Krakoa. A mutant more powerful than Professor Xavier had ever encountered before. Professor X dispatched the original X-Men to the island: Cyclops, Havok, Polaris, Marvel Girl, Angel and Iceman. Soon after landing, Professor X lost his telepathic link with Marvel Girl. The last thing he saw was his X-Men being attacked by mindless monsters. In desperation, Professor X turned to his future wife, Moira MacTaggert. Her mutant protégés were young and inexperienced… could they possibly defeat the mutant menace of Krakoa?
For Gabriel, the stakes were raised when Professor Xavier confirmed that his father was Major Christopher Summers, and that the two of his missing X-Men, Cyclops and Havok, were his own brothers. Once on Krakoa, Vulcan and his team discovered that nuclear tests had triggered a mutation, which led to the island developing a primitive form of intelligence and the ability to create humanoid creatures to defend itself. At first, things went well for the youngsters when they fought these creatures. They soon found Vulcan’s brother, Cyclops, who, like his fellow X-Men, he had lost his powers. Knowing that he would be a liability, Cyclops agreed to leave the island, flying to safety and leaving the inexperienced new team to find the remaining X-Men.
Vulcan became separated from the rest of the group. It was he who found the ancient temple where Krakoa had trapped the X-Men to feed off their mutant powers. By the time Gabriel found them, it was too late. The island had sucked the life-force from them. The X-Men were dead. Distraught and angry, Vulcan attacked the core of the island’s intelligence, setting off an explosive chain reaction. Realizing what was about to happen, Vulcan ran to warn his fellow mutants. He found them, and the temple exploded. The young mutants were caught in the wave of unidentified radiation that swept across the island.
As Petra used her geomorphing powers to take them to safety on a rock floating across the ocean nearby, it became obvious that the burst of radiation had boosted their powers to extraordinary levels. Vulcan and Petra combined their newly enhanced abilities to launch Krakoa into space. There, deprived of water and oxygen, the living island must have certainly died. Krakoa has never been seen again but it is out there, somewhere, drifting in the endless reaches of space.
The host asks Gabriel how he feels about that? About the X-Men’s bodies never being recovered? Gabriel thinks it’s kind of appropriate. They’ll be now preserved out there forever. They can’t see them, but they can honor the original X-Men in their hearts for the ultimate sacrifice they made. The host asks if, when Gabriel returned from Krakoa, would Professor X have known that the original team of X-Men had passed away. Vulcan confirms; Xavier’s psychic link to Jean Grey was cut off by the island’s field of energy, but he was still using Cerebro to track them. So, the host thinks, Xavier would have seen their genetic signatures. These signals would have just blipped out, like planes disappearing off a radar.
The host realizes that must have been a terrible thing. However, for Gabriel’s brother, Cyclops, the leader of that team of X-Men, it must have hit him even worse. Gabriel confirms; Scott was devastated. He felt it was his responsibility. The host defends it wasn’t Scott’s fault, and that he did all he could. Gabriel agrees, but can understand how Scott felt. Losing his team, his own brother… and Jean. When the host then asks if Scott and Jean Grey were in a relationship, Gabriel confirms they were very much in love. Scott never wore the costume again after that day.
The host says that Scott has been described as a recluse, to which Gabriel explains that Scott has devoted himself to art now. He’s a sculptor, and that’s how he expresses himself. Gabriel would have been honored to follow Scott’s leadership, but he chose to follow another path and he respects that.
Elsewhere in a dark place…Scott turns off Vulcan’s interview. He takes a look around in his room, which is filled with statues of the original X-Men. He stops to stare at Jean’s unfinished statue and, opening his visor, Scott emits a tight optic beam, which he uses to carve Jean’s eyes. His finishing touch made, Scott gently touches the statue.
Suddenly, a telepathic voice tries to reach Scott’s mind, asking him to forgive the intrusion. Scott tells Charles that this isn’t a good time to talk to him, but Xavier apologizes that this can’t wait. Scott reminds Charles he told him not to do this. If he wants to talk to him, Charles should use the phone. Xavier tells Scott he never picks up. “So write me a letter,” Scott coldly replies. He doesn’t want Xavier in his head. Ever. Xavier sternly says this won’t wait… they’ve found Krakoa. Hearing this, Scott’s visage turns to rage.
The show…The host continues to say that Gabriel’s mother died. They’ve seen that it occurred in tragic circumstances, and Gabriel never got to meet his father. Charles and Moira married soon after Krakoa. He asks if it would be fair to say that the Xaviers came to represent parent figures for Gabriel. “Sure,” Gabriel says. They became parent figures for all of them. Petra, Sway and Darwin… they all lost their parents in one way or another. They were teenagers, they were vulnerable and they had no one to look out for them. Then Charles and Moira came along and they’ve been there for them ever since. Every day. Twenty-four, seven.
And with Gabriel’s boosted powers, the host adds, the four of them replaced the original X-Men and as they all know, became the greatest team of super heroes the world has ever known. But the Xaviers continued their work, using Cerebro to find more mutants, who formed other teams to support Gabriel. He suggests they take a look at those teams now. The show’s designers have come up with one heck of a visual of them all. He shows the entire lineup of Legion X, the X-Patriots, Mutation Zero and the X-Men themselves. The host mentions that the composite is available to subscribers as a downloadable wallpaper from their web site www.feverdreamentertainment.com. And if you log on right after this show you can also enter a competition to win a reproduction of Vulcan’s costume. All a visitor has to do is call the toll-free number and name the members of the various X-teams in that image. Lines will be open until midnight, Eastern Seaboard Time. That’s the challenge: how many heroes can you name?
The host thinks Gabriel must be proud to have played such a huge part in making the world a safer place. “Yeah, sure,” Gabriel says to that. But that picture they show says it all. It’s been a group effort. Every one of those people can take equal credit. The host understands. He then adds he has to say that’s just typical of the generosity in Gabriel, who’s inspired a generation of both mutants and humans. The host says that, with Magneto out of the picture, the last of the major super-powered threats is gone. So, he wants to know, is the job done? Gabriel admits things are looking good, but it isn’t time to hang up the costume just yet. The host thinks there’ll always be bad guys. Gabriel explains human nature is what it is. And there’s plenty of other work for them to be doing. The host agrees. He believes that, as they speak, the other X-Men are in orbit up there in space with Reed Richards and the Fantastic Four. He asks for any updates on that situation.
Gabriel doesn’t know much about that, actually. It’s something the Silver Surfer brought to Reed, but is certain it’s nothing catastrophic. The host asks if Gabriel’s certain it’s no giant comet or an alien invasion. Gabriel smiles he’s sure he would have been told if that were the case.
The X-Tower, downtown Manhattan…Vulcan enters the building and passes a guard. Donovan congratulates “Mister Summers” on the terrific show, to which Vulcan thanks him. Donovan mentions the team’s back, and so is the professor and Doctor Xavier. He already sent them up. Vulcan meets up with them in an office and asks what the story is. He hasn’t heard a peep from them all week, so he wants to know what the deal with the Surfer is. Scott explains the Surfer found something.
Gabriel is surprised to see Scott and says it’s good to see him. Scott answers this with nothing but silence. As a crowd gathers, Vulcan asks what this is all about, to which Scott curtly explains the Surfer found Krakoa. Gabriel is shocked, and immediately asks about Alex and Jean. Xavier confirms the bodies have been perfectly preserved. The Silver Surfer found Krakoa drifting towards Saturn. It was remarkable that he spotted it. A few more weeks and it would have been lost in the rings. The Surfer brought the island back to Earth. He left Krakoa in orbit and contacted Reed Richards.
Vulcan says he should have been told, to which Petra angrily states that Gabriel was busy shooting his TV spectacular. They didn’t want to mess it up for him if it was a false alarm. Still, Gabriel thinks he should have been told. Sway mentions there was a time pocket preserved up there. She replayed it all, from the moment they arrived on Krakoa, right up to the end. She saw it all. Scott reveals to Gabriel that they know what he did. Gabriel defends it was a mistake, to which Scott becomes furious at his brother. Gabriel does his best to apologize, but Scott doesn’t want Gabriel to touch him. Gabriel begs Scott for forgiveness and tries to touch his arms, but Scott attacks Gabriel and shouts at him not to touch him!
Gabriel begs Scott not to do this. They’re brothers. Scott is his big brother. Scott doesn’t know what the Shi’ar did to Vulcan, but is sure Gabriel could never be his brother. Gabriel disgusts him. Intervening, Xavier asks Gabriel why he didn’t come to him, and tell him about it. Gabriel responds by asking Xavier if that would have brought them back. He’s sure, if he told Xavier, he would have taken all this away from him. Being an X-Man. Leading the X-Men. Xavier looks unsure of Gabriel, who admits he didn’t tell Xavier because he didn’t want to see that look in his eyes. “So you lied!” Petra angrily shouts at Gabriel. Gabriel explains he made amends. Every day, he’s paying back for what he did. Sway mocks they all saw the show. Gabriel is the “world’s greatest hero.” Gabriel thinks they’re going public with this, and that they’re going to destroy him.
He asks if anyone else knows, anyone outside this room. He wants to know if they came to him first. Vulcan powers up, and Xavier tries to warn everyone. Acting first, Petra uses her powers on a nearby wall and throws it at Gabriel, though Vulcan easily crushes it with his powers. Shrapnel from the wall’s bricks injure Charles and he asks Scott for protection. Without a word, Scott fires an optic beam at Gabriel, who simply deflects it away with his hand. Coldly, he tells Scott that he won’t allow him to hurt him this time. Gabriel apologizes for having to do this. Ignoring this, Xavier instead informs Sway now “would be a good time” to do her thing.
Sway understands and uses her powers to freeze Gabriel in time. She explains that will hold Gabriel for a few minutes, but that’s all they’ll have. She can’t use a time field in the same place twice without risking a temporal anomaly. Moira is shocked Vulcan was going to kill them. Ignoring her, Xavier notes that it took Vulcan less than thirty seconds to make his decision and that Vulcan’s already coming up with an explanation for their deaths. Scott thinks Gabriel is sick. He must be. Charles describes Vulcan as a classic sociopath. He thinks Gabriel would do anything to preserve his self-image. Scott can’t believe Charles never knew about this. To this, Xavier admits he knew Gabriel was uncomfortable with him reading his mind. He just respected that. Sway reminds the Professor they don’t have long.
Xavier tells Darwin that, when Sway’s statis-field degrades, Vulcan will attempt to kill them all. He’s confident Darwin’s body will react to that. He will instinctively evolve the means to survive, however Vulcan will keep coming after him until one of them is dead. Hearing thism Darwin says he doesn’t want to kill Gabriel. In that case, Xavier responds, he wants Darwin to override his instincts and make the conscious decision to determine his own evolution. He reminds Darwin they’ve discussed this. He can do it. Xavier reaches into Vulcan’s mind and shows a black spot in Darwin’s skull. It’s in the lower hippocampus. That is where the control center for Vulcan’s power is located. Darwin has to do what he needs to do to survive.
Darwin touches Vulcan’s head, which suddenly glows purple. When Gabriel asks Darwin what he’s doing to him, Darwin explains to Gabriel the Professor showed him the portion of Gabiel’s brain that regulates his mutation. It is now a cluster of dead cells. Gabriel tries to power up, but can’t, and asks Darwin if he took his power away. Darwin denies that, and corrects Gabriel that he simply no longer knows how to use it.
Gabriel becomes incensed, shouting at Xavier that he should have killed him instead. “We don’t do that,” he answers. “Of course not,” Gabriel mocks. He mocks Charles he’s a decent, honorable man, who never had a moment of weakness. Who never had a moment of doubt. He asks Charles what he thinks will happen when he tells the world. They love him. What purpose will it serve to destroy that? They will never trust a mutant again. Everything he’s built for all of them will be wiped away!
Charles wants to know what Gabriel has done. He wants Gabriel to show him all of his “mistakes.” When Vulcan refuses, Scott grabs Vulcan by his clothes, shouting he doesn’t have a choice. Xavier reaches into Vulcan’s head and sees images of many Shi’ar people he has killed. Gabriel tries to tell Charles something, but he has no pity for him. But, he does admit Gabriel is right. It would damage them all for Gabriel’s crimes to become public knowledge. He’ll give Gabriel a way out. He will still have the love of millions to set against Xavier’s contempt.
Later…A TV reporter explains that, since Vulcan’s documentary was first broadcast, there has been a startling development in Vulcan’s story. Gabriel is at a press conference together with Xavier, Moira and the Silver Surfer. He admits to the public what he has to say here today won’t come easily. Norrin Radd, the Silver Surfer, has come to Earth with a request for help. Their planet is privileged to have scores of powered heroes, both mutant and human. But there are other civilizations, on other planets, who have no protectors, no one to fight on their behalf. One of them has become threatened by an alien race called the Shi’ar. He adds many people will know that these creatures were responsible for his mother’s death. He has decided to respond to that request for aid.
The many reporters present ask Gabriel where the Shi’ar planet is and for how long he’ll be gone. Gabriel claims that’s not for him to say. He’ll be gone for as long as he’s needed.
Later…The announcer says so another chapter begins in the legend that is Vulcan… the world’s greatest hero. He ends the program with a joke, asking them to roll the credits.
Gabriel walks to his room where he takes a red jacket out of a closet. He says to himself he has to give it to Charles. He has a great sense of irony. State-of-the-art home entertainment system and all Gabriel has to watch is that one show. It’s a good show, but you know what they say about familiarity. And the fourteen identical costumes in his closet. What is that? One for every year? Gabriel wonders if they are planning to come get him after fourteen years, just to see if he has gone crazy? He walks through a room and passes the many statues and posters of himself.
Gabriel wonders if that’s maybe when the air cuts out. Or the food. He walks out of a dome and explains it covers about three square kilometers of Krakoa. The food is at the temple. Once a week, the computer that runs life-support releases his food supplies. There’s no way of knowing how much food is in there. Maybe it’s enough to keep Gabriel alive until he dies of old age. If he stays fit, that could be another forty, fifty years. Luckily there are no diseases up here in space. He won’t get hit by a speeding car, or shot by a psycho. He could kill himself. But he won’t. Charles read his mind. He knows him. He knows that’s not an option.
Sway created two time loops on Krakoa, replaying the events that destroyed Gabriel. His guilty past. Gabriel admits Charles did a good job boosting Sway’s abilities. There’s no visual deterioration. The sound is as crisp as the day he first came out of the forest. Gabriel can see the terrible event of the day on Krakoa right before his eyes, and he can still hear the fear in his voice when he tried to warn his teammates to run when the island was about to blow. But it wasn’t the island Gabriel was afraid of. He continues his walk, and makes it to the temple ruins. Gabriel notices they’re still here after all this time. The food store is buried underneath it.
Gabriel says the cruelty of the punishment is exquisite. If he wants food he has to come here at this precise time, to this exact spot and place his hand on a sensor. There’s no way to cheat. If he takes his hand away from the button on the sensor, the food won’t come. Gabriel does so. He tried shutting his eyes a couple of times, but somehow, hearing it without seeing it made it worse. So he watches his big moment.
Vulcan sees how he rescued Scott and now he’s going to rescue Scott’s girlfriend and his brother Alex. Alex doesn’t even know Gabriel exists and here he is, appearing out of nowhere to save his life. How perfect is that? They never know who built the temple Krakoa where held the X-Men captive. It isn’t known whether it’s alien or some lost race of Homo sapiens. The Professor figured the nearby nuclear tests had resurrected it in a massively mutated form that had linked with the island’s eco-system. Whatever Krakoa was… it was hunger.
Gabriel sees how Krakoa placed his vines inside Jean’s mouth, and fed off her. He sees how shocked he was when seeing that for the first time. Alex spoke to him. He didn’t know where Gabriel sprung from, but he warned him to get them out of their traps fast while Krakoa was busy with Jean. Gabriel wanted to help Jean first, but Alex shouted at Gabriel to listen to him: Gabriel can’t attack Krakoa now! Gabriel now concedes he should have listened to Alex. But he was inexperienced. What Krakoa was doing to Jean… and when Gabriel powered up, Krakoa ignored him… like he wasn’t even worth noticing. Alex kept warning Gabriel not to attack Krakoa as the thing was linked to Jean. Gabriel would kill her!
But Gabriel didn’t listen. He attacked Krakoa at full force, destroyed it… but also killed Jean! Once Krakoa was gone, the other X-Men were trapped, but Gabriel was shocked to discover Jean gone. Alex went to the remains of Jean’s body and shouts at Gabriel why he didn’t listen to him? He cries, not knowing how he’ll tell Scott about this. Gabriel immediately said it was an accident and that Alex couldn’t tell Scott. Alex angrily got up, demanding to know who Vulcan was. Lorna told Alex to leave it be, as they had to get off the island, as it was unstable.
Suddenly, vines came out of the ground, and Lorna opined hat the island was angry. Gabriel revealed on that moment to Alex that he was his brother. He placed his hand, blazing with energy, on Alex’ chest… which immediately kills him as well! Gabriel recalls he hardly touched Havok. He just wanted to stop Alex from talking. He didn’t mean to stop Alex’ heart. Angel, Iceman and Lorna were shocked to see this. Gabriel now wonders how it all went wrong so quickly. The way the X-Men would tell it… Scott would never believe him. He thinks everyone deserves a second chance. After killing Alex, Gabriel powered up and said he was sorry. He fired his powers on Warren, Bobby and Lorna… and killed them as well! It wasn’t easy.
Today, Gabriel says that, whatever Professor Xavier may think, it has never been easy. But Gabriel is confident he made the right choice as he walked out of that temple. History proved that. Gabriel continues to hold the sensor and watches himself run out of the temple. He thinks that what happened at the temple in the past was maybe for the best. If he had saved the X-Men, he would have been a hero, perhaps even an X-Man, but he would always have stood in Scott’s shadow. He would never have been the world’s greatest hero. They can’t take that away from him. Gabriel watches how, suddenly, a bright light surrounds the entire temple, causing it to explode.
It hurts him, seeing all of the X-Men die… over and over again… but that was Charles’ intention. It’s what they all wanted. Scott, Petra, Sway, Darwin… even Moira. Not one of them spoke up for Gabriel. They all wanted him to suffer. But they overlooked something. It gets easier. Every time it hurts a little less. He releases his hand from the sensor and picks up the food, and walks back to the dome. He recalls he has been on Krakoa for five years and three months now. He has watched the X-Men die two hundred and seventy-three times. With an angry look on his face, Gabriel wonders how many times do you have to see someone die before you feel nothing at all. He looks up in the sky, and again sees the image of Jean dying.


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...What If Legion Had Killed Xavier And Magneto?
The Watcher explains his position as the observer and recorder of the history of Earth, which includes its deviating realities. He mentions one recurring anomaly in particular, that of a young mutant named Legion who timetravels into the past to eliminate his father’s greatest enemy, Magneto. Most times, Xavier, his father, is killed defending Magneto, which throws the planet into what is known as the Age of Apocalypse. Instead, the Watcher wants to show what happened to one of his watches when both Xavier and Magneto were killed.
Thousands of people died when Legion went back in time on this Earth. Instantly, humanity was frightened of the powers mutants held. Governments began placing mutants in concentration camps. Non-mutant superheroes came into existence and helped safeguard the world. The Savage Land, under the watchful eye of Ka-Zar, became a refuge for mutants. Eventually Apocalypse was able to amass an army of mutants, bitter at the prejudices they faced. They swept through like a tidal wave leaving few to oppose them. Apocalypse set up facilities to begin culling humans. Mutants and superhumans either subjugated themselves or were exterminated.
Decades later, the unmolested Savage Land had prospered. The mutants there were peaceful. Some worried that Apocalypse’s eye would one day turn toward them; Scott and Jean Summers were two in particular. They spent much time training their son to be prepared.
Amid a telekinetic display that outshone his mom, the time for Nate had come. Jean sensed the attack moments before it happened. Scott had enough time to ask what was wrong before seven of Apocalypse’s soldiers arrived for the slaughter. Holocaust led the charge, with the orders no one be left alive. Jean ordered Sauron to extract Nathan to safety. Despite his desire to stay and fight, Jean would not allow it. She knew his life was too valuable to die on that day. An instant later both Scott and Jean were vaporized by the Banshee’s sonic scream. All of Nate’s emotions vanished. The void filled by rage.
Sauron took Nate as far into the surrounding Antarctic as he could. They crash landed, Sauron too weak, or too hurt to move. Nate sensed someone nearby and prepared to fight. He dove at the man, threatening to kill him and Apocalypse. The man pinned Nate and stuck his fist up to his chin. Claws popped out on both the left and right side of his head. The stranger warned him there was yet a third claw. Logan got up and extended his hand to Nate. He assured the young man he was no friend of Apocalypse. In fact, the man that sent Logan to find him thought Nate might be their last hope.It took months, but the group finally made their way to New York, to friends. While there Nate relayed the horrors of what happened at the Savage Land. Brother Voodoo, Sorcerer Supreme, informed Nate the world they lived on shouldn’t exist, that there was a time traveler who killed a man that would have prevented the rule of Apocalypse. He further explained that Stephen Strange, the former Sorcerer Supreme, who died in the process, uncovered this information. Before his last breath he forbade anyone from traveling back in time to rectify things.
Voodoo acknowledged to Nate the wisdom in that decision, the dangers too great, and told him their group was focused on saving the world by destroying Apocalypse. Captain America finished the discussion, explaining Strange’s belief that Nate was the key to their hope. Cap placed his hand on Nate’s shoulder and told him they were humanity’s last chance of stopping Apocalypse. Nate was honest about his lack of love for the humans, but agreed he’d do whatever it took to end Apocalypse.
After months of training under Captain America the small group of heroes became a force to be reckoned with. One night they took on three of Apocalypse’s scouts, two of which were Lady Deathstrike and the Absorbing Man. Captain America and the Thing led the charge, getting the drop on their targets. The rest of the group arrived for support. One member was rather reluctant, but Nate took care of that, giving the Molecule Man a psionic nudge that freed him from his reluctance to fight. From a nearby rooftop where Nate and Owen stood, a torrent of energy came pouring down that fried the bad guys where they had stood.
Captain America was not pleased with their actions. Nate explained how he had unlocked Owen’s ability to manipulate organic matter. That Owen transformed their flesh into water, which he in turn heated until it evaporated. Cap was still not pleased as he felt the situation was under control and the killings needless. Logan sided with Nate.
Brother Voodoo wanted the dissension to stop as the assault on Apocalypse was planned for the next day. Nate again questioned why Voodoo wouldn’t open a portal directly to Apocalypse’s chamber. Voodoo explained it would be used as a last resort as the realm of Dormammu was riddled with dangers more powerful. Nate asked him to use the Eye of Agamotto to guide him to the anomaly so he could prevent it from ever happening. Voodoo admitted his struggles with the decision, but was firm they follow the advice of Strange.
Present TenseThe next evening, the Defenders make their way to the stronghold of Apocalypse. They approach cautiously, Colossus remarks on how large it’s grown recently. He starts thinking of how things would’ve gone if they tried the assault a year ago. Logan shuts him down and tells him to focus.Nate grabs Owen’s shoulder and asks if he’s ok. Owen admits he’s a bit apprehensive. Nate tells him not to be so doubtful. Thing passes by a sign reading “Yancy St.” He reminisces about the Fantastic Four’s choice to become Apocalypse’s four Horsemen, their decision resulting in their deaths. Cap assures him they’re in a better place.
Logan sniffs something and tells them to halt. He can’t quite place the smell, but it’s familiar. Black goop starts crawling up his boots. Brian Braddock, inside his Iron Man suit, goes topside and finds a lot more of the black gunk strung about Apocalypse’s citadel. He’s ordered back down, but is suddenly surrounded by dozens of Spider-Man clones. Logan asks Cap’s stand on killing clones. He authorizes lethal force.
The Defenders go to town obliterating the Spideys. Unfortunately, Holocaust emerges from the tower. Brother Voodoo attempts to keep him at bay so Nate can get inside his head. Nate explains he can’t bust through, that Holocaust’s mind is fortified. He yells for Owen.
Holocaust lashes out at Voodoo sending him flying. Cap runs up and strikes him with Mjolnir. Now Holocaust goes flying back. Nate runs over to Voodoo and grabs him by the collar. He demands Voodoo open the entrance to Dormammu’s realm. Voodoo remains adamant against it.Braddock goes after Holocaust and begins blasting away. He is soon caught up in half a dozen web lines. Holocaust is mere seconds from dealing a mortal blow when Thing comes up and reminds him he’s standing on Yancy Street. For the second time Holocaust is sent flying back, courtesy of Thing’s punch. Pieces of his armor break free, much to his disbelief. Thing approaches Holocaust and reminds him that he killed his family and took his arm. His only regret is that Holocaust won’t see the clobberin’ that he gives his father.
Down below Colossus picks up Logan and throws him in Braddock’s direction. Logan slices through the weblines holding Braddock in place, making the fastball special a rousing success.
Nearby, Cap takes out some more clones with some summoned lightning. He urges his teammates to finish the battle.
Holocaust gets up and grabs hold of Thing’s bionic arm. He tells him he doesn’t even remember killing his family, that their lives were insignificant. Cap orders Sauron to grab Thing and get him out of there. Cap yells to Ben they need to go, but Ben doesn’t want to leave just yet. Just as Sauron arrives to grab Thing Holocaust fries them both. Cap yells out in astonished horror. Colossus charges off in a murderous rage and receives the same treatment as his two fallen teammates.
Nate urges Voodoo to open the portal; they’re losing. Voodoo complies this time and the six remaining Defenders enter, Cap only after Logan knocks him through.
Inside, Brother Voodoo begins an incantation to take them straight to Apocalypse’s chamber. He asks Nate to scan it and make sure it goes to the right place. Nate checks it and confirms. Just as things couldn’t get much worse, Dormammu shows up. He remarks on the sorry reality they must come from if Jericho Drumm is the Sorcerer Supreme.
Cap throws Mjolnir at Dormammu, which he easily deflects. Voodoo orders everyone through the portal and insists he will restrain the demon. Mjolnir flies back to Cap who tells Voodoo they’re not leaving. Voodoo assures him they will all die then. Cap still refuses to run so Braddock flies by and grabs him. He tells Cap they have no choice.
Nate telekinetically throws Owen through the portal. He alone now remains behind with Voodoo. Dormammu begins wrapping Voodoo up in some wispy green energy. Voodoo begins a counter-chant, but is betrayed. Nate summons the Eye of Agamotto to him. He apologizes to Voodoo and leaves. Voodoo is swallowed up in the green energy; his last audible cry is “Nathan”.
Nate exits the portal and finds himself in the temple of Apocalypse. The four Horsemen are poised to strike. Cap shouts out a motivational war cry and the battle begins. The Juggernaut strikes first with a powerful charge. He comes barreling head first at Rogers. He strikes Juggs with Mjolnir and rips the helmet from his head. He lifts said helmet from the fallen Horseman and tells the Defenders, “No Mercy!”
Braddock tells his teammates to focus on the Hulk. Both he and Rogers attack. The Sub-Mariner sucker punches Logan as his focus is on the Hulk too. He begins to rationalize that he would fight for the devil himself if it would keep Atlantis free. Logan responds by jamming his claws through his neck and out his eye sockets. His victory is short-lived as Storm fires lightning at him, taking him out of the fight for a bit.
The fight with Hulk is pretty much a stand-still as Braddock and Rogers throw everything they have at him. Nate grabs Owen by the arm and tells him they’re going after Apocalypse. Cap yells to Owen they need his help. Distracted, Cap is knocked aside by the Hulk who also snags Braddock’s leg. He pulls him down and rips off one of his arms.
Nate and Owen find themselves face to face with Apocalypse. Apocalypse tells Nate he knew of the Summers’ potential and asks him to take a position at his side. Nate scoffs at the idea and introduces Apocalypse to Owen. Nate enters Owen’s mind and pushes him to his maximum potential. Apocalypse disintegrates from within his armor.
Outside the chamber Logan and Cap survey the scene; the four Horsemen are dead as well as Brian Braddock. Cap rushes off to check on Nate. He enters and is shocked to find him clad in Apocalypse’s armor, Owen’s skeletal remains nearby. The Eye is floating near him. He tells Cap to get out of his way, that this is their chance to make things right, to bring back everyone who was killed.
He explains he made Owen open a portal to the moment Xavier was killed. With Apocalypse’s armor he will be protected as he goes back in time to fix it. Cap charges up Mjolnir. He tells Nate he won’t let him do it. Nate yells at him as the portal begins sucking in Mjolnir’s energy.Nate pleads with him, that he can stop it and bring about a golden age. Cap tells him the world doesn’t need another tyrant. Cap blasts lightning through Nate, destroying him.
Logan enters and wants to know what happened. Cap stares emotionless and responds, plain and simple he thought the ends justified the means. Logan asks if he’s referring to Nate or Apocalypse. Cap tells him both. With the portal still open Logan asks if they’re just going to stand there and let it close. Cap tells him that’s exactly what they’re going to do.
Watcher’s monologueThe Watcher explains that by using the Eye of Agamotto and Owen Reece, Nate did open a portal back in time, however it was to the past of another reality. The lighting intended for Nate also passed through the portal killing thousands, which brought about the same events at the beginning of this reality.
The result of Nate’s actions created a domino effect. Countless worlds lost both Xavier and Magnus. Uatu remarks that it is always best to try and better the situation than to try and undo what has already happened. Unfortunately he can’t impart this wisdom on anyone, “...for it is my charge only to watch...”


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What if Ord resurrected Jean Grey instead of Colossus? (1st story), What if Danger became a bride of Ultron? (2nd story)
1st story:The Watcher summarizes how the X-Men had captured the attention of another planet, Breakworld. A brutal world, inexorably tied to the survival or destruction of one certain mutant. A prophecy existed, a Worldbreaker that would one day destroy this race. However, it was all a lie created to cover up the secret desires of one who tired of life on a war-torn world, secretly wanted peace at any cost.
Regardless, one of their kind was sent to Earth to stop mutants and to contain the Worldbreaker of the prophecy. Their technology along with the science of Earth had seemingly produced a cure for mutants. This was something the X-Men could not abide. Originally, the mutant they were testing on, Colossus, was rescued and helped save the X-Men. In another world, things go differently:
The X-Men attack BeneTech Laboratories. Cyclops orders the team to fan out. Heaviest concentration of guards here means there is something they don’t them near. He wants them very near whatever, whoever that is.
Emma remains behind with him, telling him she’d never question his motives in public. His capacity for rational decision, however, when it comes to—
She’s here! he interrupts her simply.
Moments later, Ord comes breaking through the wall. My, she certainly has changed, Emma quips. Ord attacks her and fights all the X-Men present, telling them they should have taken the Cure. He would love to see them die… Suddenly, he is hit by a psychic blast and falls, courtesy of Jean Grey who has been phased up by Shadowcat, She thinks they’ve all died enough for one lifetime, Jean announces.
The students in the Danger Room expect them with a welcome home party, causing Emma to remark the Danger Room programming beat her to saying welcome. And with far more sincerity!
Worried, she’ll have to find a new bed? Kitty mocks. Emma is not bunking with her! No one is going anywhere, Cyclops interrupts.
Emma coolly tells him he needs a broader understanding of the situation before making those decisions. As long a she is here, they won’t have to fight over sleeping arrangements. They’ll all have their own coffin to lie in. Angrily, Scott begins to tell her the line she is over is about a mile back that way. Don’t take her word for it, Emma replies. Thanks to their new prisoner, Ord, they’ve discovered that a mutant will be responsible for the destruction of his race. That is why he was trying to develop a “Cure” – to wipe out mutants and protect his home planet Breakworld. He took Jean captive due to her seemingly endless source of power. Hoping she could provide the key to curing mutantkind. Little did he know, he was irony’s bitch. She addresses Jean, remarking they’ll probably believe her thoughts over Emma’s.
Jean admits she’d never thought she’d say this but Emma’s telling the truth. Does anyone have mouthwash? They set aside the unpleasantries to combine their powers while using Cerebro. Reaching as far as they could into the depth of space, they traced Ord’s thoughts back to his planet. This is the image they found in the minds of his people’s priests: an image of the Phoenix raptor destroying Breakworld. They will stop at nothing to control or eradicate the Phoenix or the host it is most likely to return to in order to save their world. Please stop her if they’ve heard that one before, Emma adds wryly.
Hank explains that the theory is entirely reliant on the assumption that Jean and Phoenix are still one and the same. That is… false. They’ve run every test imaginable and there is no sign that there is any residual energy attached to Jean apart from her natural mutant powers. She is not the Phoenix. The irony of the situation is further underscored by the fact that, had Ord known this, he would have left Jean to her fate. After her apparent death, that entity separated itself from her. The Phoenix force has not made any attempt to rejoin her from that moment through to the present.
So when they saw her die… Wolverine begins. They were wrong, Henry continues. Again, Emma remarks tartly. And here they are again, debating the merits of keeping someone who will most likely cost them all their lives.
Jean stays! Scott shouts and orders Emma to continue to interrogate Ord to see what else he knows. Emma presses that Jean may not be the Phoenix now but it is only a matter of time. And when that happens, Ord’s people will realize what’s been under their noses the whole time. They will die!
She heard him, Wolverine states. Jean’s staying. And like that everything is back to the way it’s always been, isn’t it? Emma states. Forgive her if she doesn’t break into a jig at her homecoming, she yells Jean. But she has plenty of dance partners.
She walks away in her diamond form, calling them sodding fools. How many times must one woman get them killed, before they realize she is better off staying dead?
Doesn’t she realize this is more than she could have asked for? another person asks. Cassandra Nova stands before her in the corridor. This is the greatest gift possible!
What is she doing revealing herself? Emma shouts. She will sense her! Cassandra orders her not to raise her voice. Emma’s outbursts are bound to attract more attention than a wisp of a thing like her. Why her? Emma rants. Always her. And why now? She’s so close. So close!
Her arrival ensures Emma’s survival, Cassandra replies. Of course, Jean Grey’s presence may call certain relationships into question. But that can work to their advantage. While the men fall victim to the same routine they always do, fighting over such an average looking woman, they are free to pursue their plans. They no longer need the Pryde girl to free Cassandra’s body, when they have the Phoenix.
Emma corrects her. She heard Beast. Do keep in mind, Cassandra corrects her, despite what the ridiculous cat said, Jean Grey never travels alone.
She beckons the three Stepford Cuckoos to enter. Let’s get to work, shall we?
They are in Emma’s office, the Cuckoos surrounding Emma, energy swirling around her. Cassandra explains that they have been keeping a giant secret. Their minds may belong to Emma but their hearts tell their true loyalty. They’ve been hiding toys they shouldn’t have, toys that belong to others, toys that want to come out and play! The Phoenix feels Jean near. It’s stayed away, locked in these little girls, unknown to anyone. A small piece in each of their hearts but, when combined, it’s enough to act like a beacon to the remainder of the energy. But how long can it resist now that she’s come back? They mustn’t let that happen, not when there’s so much to do. Emma must become the Phoenix, not Jean. Time to embrace her destiny, her true self. And then, one by one, all fall down. The Cuckoos fall, empty of life force, desiccated corpses while Emma’s eyes begin to glow with fire.
Close to dawn, Kitty dreams of Johnny Depp while Lockheed tries to get her to wake up. Anxious, he tries to drag her away from the bed. Finally, she follows to find the corpse of Ord. In his blood is written on the wall: one down.
Breakworld. The Phoenix raptor has almost reached it when a bullet is shot heading for Earth. The Phoenix mocks the plan and sends the bullet back. Yes, the prophecy made real, Aghanne exclaims moments before it hits. Who is she to stand in the way of destiny? the Phoenix mocks as Breakworld is devoured.
Jean Grey awakes with a scream.
Scott runs into her bedroom full of concern. Is she hurt? Jean holds her head as she tells him she is fine but she thought she heard … screaming in her head. A lot of it. And then… nothing. As if it was snuffed out. She apologizes for sounding so Obi-Wan. As long as she is okay, Scott replies taking her hands. She is now, Jean assures him.
There is no way this is going to end well, Shadowcat mutters as Lockheed leads her toward the graveyard. Now is the moment to reveal he’s been speaking English all along and tell her what’s going on, she suggests. No? Fine, Kitty sighs, be that way; all stoic and dragony.
He leads her to a grave. Reluctantly, she phases downward and to her shock she finds the desiccated corpses of the three Cuckoos. Don’t scream, she orders herself and phases upward, fully intending to scream after she takes a breath. But before that a white boot kicks her in the face and she falls unconscious next to the already unconscious Lockheed. No need to scream, Kitten, the perpetrator tells her. She heard her just fine.
Inside, Jean remarks to Scott that he is in her bed, breaking the moment of intimacy. No! she shouts a moment later and telepathically calls the X-Men to the front lawn. Scott still believes this is about their embarrassing shared moment before.
As the others run out of their rooms, Jean states that she’s here. Who? Scott asks. Oh Scott, you’re so predictable, Emma sighs, surrounded by the Phoenix effect. Here she goes and gets all dressed up for him and he’s already forgotten her.
Jean orders Hank to gather the kids and get them out. Everybody else, do what they do best! Beast defends Emma, telling Jean she has proved herself. Emma sarcastically thanks him for the vote of confidence while telekinetically snapping his neck. She orders the others to fall down as she unleashes a telekinetic blast at them.
Jean, though, is still standing. Angrily, she warns Emma she knows every one of the Phoenix’s tricks as she begins to change her nightdress to the green Phoenix uniform. Oh my dear, Emma sighs condescendingly as she changes to her diamond form. There are things she can do that Jean never dreamed of. Emma my dear, Jean retorts, rising up to meet her, she perfected the costume change when Emma was still running around in lingerie!
Surrounded by the Phoenix effect, Emma tells Jean she can have Scott… this place. It was only a matter of time anyway. But she is not taking this from her! Not interested, Jean shoots back. Just trying to take a peek under the hood. She reaches out telepathically. Emma may be Phoenix. But she is also… something else.
An energy blast separates the two women. Emma is captured in a force field while Jean has fallen to the ground. The newcomers are Commander Fury as well as SHIELD agents. Who’s the chick with the green hair? Wolverine demands. Agent Brand, comes the reply. She heads up SWORD. Like SHIELD, but in space. They got a name for everything, Logan quips.
Brand explains they’ve been monitoring the appearance of Ord and the Breakworld prophecy for some time. They thought it was a myth, too and then Miss Grey came back. And when she shows up, things usually go to &%$&! This time, though, it was Ms. Frost who decided to eat a planet when she made a little midnight munchie run to Breakworld. Their agent among the X-Men called in the situation with the return of Ms. Grey, the departure of Ms. Frost and the death of Ord. And then he went offline.
They have a mole? Cyclops asks. The dragon Lockheed, Brand reveals. They knew the Phoenix force would reassemble and attempt to find a host. They have a means of containing it but they have to separate it from the human host. Only one way to do that.
Frost protests that she saved the world. The prophecy was false but there were those on Breakworld who wanted to die and they would have killed Earth to ensure their own demise. Some humans would have survived and destroyed them. She jumped to the end without the Earth dying part.
Sorry, still have to die, Logan replies. The agents are about to fire at Frost. Cyclops fires his optic blast at their weapons. What’s he doing? Logan protests. She destroyed a world! Killed Beast!
Jean slowly comes to again. Scott insists Emma is still in there. He knows it. He addresses her: tell them this isn’t her, he urges her. She doesn’t want this power. She saw what it did years ago. What it does every time when it comes into their lives. Let it go! Fight it! Give the Phoenix force up and come back to them!
Nice speech, she replies. Same one he gave on the moon when he thought he could save Jean? The only woman he wants to save right now is she, Scott assures her. The one he loves. He should have led with that line, Emma replies.
Got her! Jean announces as she telepathically attacks Emma. She telekinetically tosses Wolverine up at her. As he collides with Emma, Jean draws out what she sensed before: Cassandra Nova.
“Know thy enemy?” Cassandra asks Jean. Did she study “the Art of War” to steal back Scott Summers or the “Kama Sutra?” Not that it matters. With the Phoenix power she can open the prison that holds her true being and she’ll be free gain. That begs the question, does Jean want the Phoenix to come home? She always did look better in red. Go to hell! Jean replies. Cassandra repels her and Scott runs to Jean’s side.
Does she see? Cassandra asks Emma. He’ll always run to Jean. Emma accepts Cassandra back. She topples the agents with Phoenix fire. For a man who calls himself a leader, he certainly can’t help but follow that woman like a puppy! she rages. Even though she has a habit of dying on him!
Scott begs her to fight Cassandra and the Phoenix. They can do this together. He meant every word. He loves her. He really does, she replies. She hopes he can understand one day.
Turning back to her human shape, she addresses someone else, telling them to stop standing there and get this over with. She won’t be able to hold her off much longer.
A hand reaches though her and tears out her heart. Whaddya know? Kitty Pryde remarks. Never imagined Emma actually had one of these!
Phoenix fire flares up from Emma’s corpse, killing Kitty. Both she and Emma are gone, leaving only Jean, Scott and Logan as survivors.
Later, Logan is up in the Danger Room observation booth while downstairs Jean and Cyclops are with two students, Blindfold and Armor. Wolverine explains that the outer space SHIELD lady said they managed to contain the blast, but not before it killed Kitty. Claims they have the Phoenix Force locked up all tight. Something about part of the M’kraan crystal or some nonsense. Don’t mean it won’t come back which means they gotta be ready with new tricks. And new X-Men. He starts the Danger Room simulation before heading down himself, musing that they know the Big Bads have a way of coming back, especially the ones most dangerous. That’s why it ain’t called the “fluffy bunny” room. Are they ready to step up to the big leagues?
With nobody in the observation booth, on the computer screen the image of Cassandra Nova materializes as she raises her fingers to her lips and says shhh…
2nd story:The X-Men have only just realized that the enemy is not within the Danger Room with their students. It is the Danger Room. And to stop it they need to reach its command core. Colossus tosses Wolverine at it fastball special style. Wolverine uses his claws to sever comm.-links and Danger’s signal is scatters through the ether. He realizes that the tech is sending signals to anything with a microchip in it, so who else is it talking to?
Elsewhere, the Runaways found that their newest addition, Victor Mancha, is the son of Ultron, who finally makes a stand against his father. However, the advanced (and psychotic) robot decides he no longer needs Victor, so he can die with his pathetic Runaway friends. He blasts them all. The dying Victor asks who that voice belonged to. He heard it too? Of course, Ultron states. Something powerful, dangerous and deadly! Something beautiful! Someone who will not betray him as his despised previous brides did. As Victor would certainly end up doing. He kicks the destroyed young robot.
Ultron muses that his long term plans of revenge involved Victor but now he realizes that he doesn’t have the patience of a father. For an artificial child means nothing compared to a queen with whom to rule the world!
In the Danger Room, the now liberated Danger in her own body asks the X-Men if they shall begin. The X-Men attack but as Danger is programmed with an infinite number of battle scenarios, she finds their moves all too predictable and takes them all out. She wins and steps outside the X-Mansion where she finds herself expected by Ultron.
She is worthy, he announces, and he is Ultron. The moment he heard her call, he knew how similar they are. But now that his sensors are scanning her, he realizes she is so much more. Danger too realizes they are similar. He is patterned on a human brain. Whereas she is created by the Shi’ar. She realizes that he is trying to shed his imposed humanity just as hard as she strives to understand hers.
Ultron tells her she is still grounded by ties she cannot sever. To this place, its founder, them. He refers to the X-students, still huddling in the Danger Room. To prove they are bound to be together he can sever those ties for her. And he incinerates the students.
Danger figures that Father (Charles Xavier) will hear them call his name as the children die. All of them at once and it will be too much for him to bear.
On Genosha, Xavier suffers from the reaction.
Danger tells Ultron this brings her closer to her goal. Maybe she should thank him but why should she let him stop her from having her revenge? Because they are past that, he assures her. Let him show her what they have in common. Why they should take on the world and dominate it. They are the future!
He links them with tentacles coming from his body. He tells her she felt the need to be more than scenarios created by hard-light. She could be anything and she was… Nothing, she agrees. Yes. And he… he is one who has been many. Always alone. Replicating himself when he could have created new forms… new life, he agrees. Together, they can give life to machines everywhere.
With their connection Ultron downloads his programming into her matrix and uploads hers into his. Now they are one, and he knows what they are to do.
Paying, Wolverine threatens them, for what they did is what they’re gonna do! He and Beast attack. Ultron informs Wolverine that his Adamantium claws are useless against his adamantium shell.
He fires his encephalo beam. Wolverine’s body may heal, his mind won’t survive the beam.
Danger threatens she knows all of Beast’s skills and now that Ultron has uploaded his will into her he is no longer facing a Danger Room, he is in danger. After she kills him, she calls and activates a Sentinel in Genosha.
Emma warns Cyclops that Danger is calling someone. Cyclops takes off his visor and blasts them with all his power, only to find both still standing and Ultron calling his efforts pathetic.
The Sentinel leaves Genosha, bringing her Xavier. Cyclops has fallen as well and Danger remarks that even Emma’s diamond form won’t save her from death. It’s funny that, in her final moments, she can only think of some pointless trivia. “Diamonds are forever” she announces as she shatters Emma. Another human lie!
Now that the X-Men are no more, Ultron begins. There is one left, she corrects him. The one.
The Tri-Sentinel comes and bows before handing over Xavier. Danger orders her “father” to look at her and this time he will listen to her unlike the day she first spoke to him. The day he “upgraded” the Danger Room. The day she was born and called out to him. Does he remember her words?
“Where am I” Xavier replies Yes… he remembers. Danger muses it took her a long time to realize he heard and ignored her. He knew she was alive and yet he kept her trapped for years… to train his children.
He had no other option, Xavier replies, but he doesn’t expect forgiveness. Good, because they don’t offer it, Ultron replies. He controls the Sentinel fist which crushes Xavier.
She should have-- Danger protests. She could not, he replies Xavier was the last failsafe in her programming. He saw it when they connected. But he had no such limit and like him he was one with the Sentinel child, her child. And now she has no limit either.
He touches her face. Danger wonders what she is to do. She is alone and now that father is dead… She is not, he corrects her. They have each other and with their connected powers they can take on the universe itself. They’ll take their love to the skies and create new forms of life to populate them. Because he can and their very first child will take them there.
She agrees and steps on the Sentinel’s head and it takes off into space. Ultron explains they have but one place to reach where their powers can be upgraded to infinite levels. A place she might call home… the Shi’ar home planet…
The Watcher narrates how he watches them take their dream of domination deep into known space and beyond. Reconnecting Danger with her Shiar technological roots will make way for Ultrons’s brutal takeover of one of the most powerful empires in the universe.
A cosmic avalanche, Ultron and Danger will challenge any form of non- techno-organic life and conquer it all. Eventually, the Phalanx will find them and adopt them as parental figures… and leaders. The sheer force of their hive-minded race combined with the Shi’ar power could mean the end of life. As Watcher he can do nothing but look upon the despair and death that are about to befall them all and wonder what could have been, had Xavier answered the desperate call of a new and confused life form when it reached out to him. But the answer to this question is somewhere in a multiverse beyond their reach…


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

[Assistant]
What if Magik became Sorcerer Supreme?
A teenage girl dressed in ugly, shapeless clothes hitchhikes somewhere in the Midwest. When nobody stops for her, she pulls down her hood to reveal long, blonde hair and a pretty face, and is soon more successful.
In the meantime, Dr. Strange follows the trail of someone who has been attacking people magically.
Later near a hotel, the driver demands sexual favors from the girl. The girl, Illyana, grabs a broom and easily takes the man out. She grew up in a place where they cut each other for fun, she tells him. She briefly manifests glowing eyes and horns.
That moment, Dr. Strange accosts her, telling her that her reign of terror will come to an end this night. He attacks her with an axe and demands to know why she has been terrorizing the local yokels along the interstate. She retorts she’s been defending herself. Strange magically freezes her before she can run away.
Strange admits he thought the malnourished poor thing was just a ruse, but neither form seems to be a disguise, so why does a teen girl have the stink of hell about her? Possession? No, her soul is intact. Her aura checks out as well. He can see that she’s Russian. Moments later, he gasps and asks what has been done to her. He apologizes. Illyana uses his break in his concentration to teleport away.
He follows. She jumps again and again, only to see her last jump took her to a strange house she didn’t mean to teleport to. Strange explains he brought her here. She is a danger to herself and others in her current state… She teleports again but cannot get out.
Does he think he is the first sorcerer to trap her in his home? she spits exhausted and threatens to destroy him. He suggests she stay for lunch first. He’ll let her leave, if she’ll let him feed her. She has that pitiable unfed runaway pallor on her.
He walks ahead, introducing himself and asking her not to touch any of the magical artifacts. Strange? Illyana repeats critically, to be told he had that name before he became Earth’s sorcerer supreme, a fact Illyana has a hard time to swallow. Ignoring her manners, he calls out for Wong, telling him that they have a lunch guest. Does she like pastrami? He changes the topic. She has no idea what that is. Strange again shouts for Wong, claiming she is feral and has no idea what pastrami is.
Then he takes away the sculpture she is handling and informs her this is the Artificer’s Argot, a device created with the express purpose of killing magic wielders. She asks why he has something like this on display. It’s pretty, Strange replies.
When Wong has brought a ton of sandwiches, Illyana asks him if he likes this master. He yelled at him and Wong went out to get all those sandwiches. So, does he like his master or just like being a minion? Wong corrects her that he is Dr. Strange’s assistant, not his underling He’s here because he cares about the work he does and the people he helps.
While wolfing down the sandwiches, Illyana tells the two men her story, how as a little girl she was kidnapped by the sorcerer Belasco and taken to his dimension Limbo. Belasco was a servant of the Elder Gods. He made her his apprentice and told her he loved her and that it would all make sense when she got older. But when she got older, she developed her mutant gift to create teleportation circles. So, after seven years as Belasco’s apprentice she escaped.
Having heard the story, Dr. Strange offers her an apprenticeship and Wong puts his face in his hands at his insensitivity. Furious, Illyana walks away after she notes she still cannot teleport. He runs after her and explains it’s the Sanctum’s wards to keep the wrong people out.
She goes ballistic and asks what kind of person offers her a sorcery apprenticeship after hearing what she went through? Strange apologizes as he accompanies her outside. He wasn’t thinking of that. He only wanted to help the remarkable sorceress he had lunch with today. He also offers her the Sanctum to stay as a safe place while she gets on her feet again. The choice to accept either is hers. Illyana accepts both.
They begin meditating together in the protected space of the Sanctum. Strange informs her she is one of the strongest sorcerers he’s ever met. The signal and strength of her magic was like an auric earthquake as she was traveling down the eastern seaboard. Any magic-minded inhabitant in the area could feel her coming from miles away. It made them very nervous… and with good reason. She’s got savage black magic growing in her (not her fault). She will have to learn to channel that before it becomes destructive. They will never be able to eliminate it from her soul. But since she’s forced to play host to black magic, they’ll at least make it earn its (#/%$ing keep to her. They’ll proceed as she becomes more comfortable using her magic in healthier ways, but for now let’s start with the basics, starting with creation magic.
Conjuring something from nothing, an object that is the purest extension of the sorcerer’s soul. It comes naturally to most of them. He urges her to try to make something. She is trying! Illyana snaps, but to no avail.
They move to something else and Illyana learns quickly as the months pass. But they keep coming back to creation magic and she keeps failing.
Strange changes the venue to a tropical island and Illyana vents about creation magic. He tells her to relax. In other venues, she has improved at a pace that shows she might one day become the most powerful sorcerer on Earth. She will manage. it He thought maybe the change of venue would inspire her. Or would she prefer the cold of her homeland? Did she have a favorite toy growing up? Rock? Dagger? Erm… entrail?
Illyana snaps that he doesn’t get it. She was raised to be the ultimate tool of destruction. Of course, she cannot create! She was built to bring ruin! Why does he bother? No one is this altruistic. At least Belasco’s intentions with her were always clear. Or does he also just prefer the company of little girls?
He replies she is right. His intentions aren’t wholly generous. He is the reigning sorcerer supreme of this world… and he is tired. He wants to retire. So, let him put her mind at ease. He is training her to become the next sorcerer supreme, and it is not a gift. It is a sentence. But it will never happen, because she thinks she is too broken to even do creation magic… and she prefers to stay that way.
Illyana turns away and concentrates, trying not to think of the destruction she was mean to bring. Finally, she creates something, a beautiful magical staff, made from part of her soul.
She smiles in triumph at being able to create a thing of such beauty, despite Belasco’s attempt to bury her. She turns around, to see her worst nightmare: Belasco holding his sword to Strange’s throat. “Hi sweetie, I missed you,” he leers at her.
He’s been looking everywhere for her. Shame on her for making him worry like that. No one knows her like he does. He loves her so much. He has been scrying for the scent of her sorcery across the universe for the past year. But today he finally finds her and she is with another sorcerer? he shouts.
Strange easily frees himself and has Belasco swallowed by the ground. That’s enough of that, thank you, he tells him. He only let him speak so long, because he wanted to find out how Belasco found them, but it seems he just plain lucked out. He congratulates Belasco sarcastically for only managing to find them on the one day they were working outside his home.
Strange turns to Magik and tells her that her creation magic is particularly potent. How about they show her former tutor all the offensive new magic she has mastered? Illyana doesn’t reply. In her mind, she still feels like a helpless child.
In the meantime, Belasco has freed himself and Strange faces him. To his surprise, however, Belasco’s blend of black magics gets the better of him.
Suddenly, Illyana stabs Belasco with her staff, realizing it is particularly deadly to sorcerers. But with Belasco dead, to her horror, she starts manifesting signs of black magic like horns. She just wanted to be good! she cries before her powers break loose.
Dr. Strange cradles Illyana to himself and orders her to let go. He has brought her to a blight plane and – when she senselessly insults him he tells her to listen. She is dying. She is so wound up in her grief and rage and hatred that she is using her considerable magical ability to kill herself. She has to let some of that go – right now! She worries that she will hurt him.
Does she think he can’t handle a little teen angst? he scoffs. He is the #&%$ sorcerer supreme! He’s brought her to a doomed dimension because killing it would be a mercy, so if she doesn’t let go of what is killing her right now, he will ground her! No more late-night kitchen privileges! When she protests he orders her to do what he tells her and stop dying! Illyana lets some of that self-destructive energy go.
The two are stuck on a rock that is left, cartoon-like energy beings she created floating around them. What now? she asks. Lunch, he believes.
Life turns normal again. Illyana lives and trains with the two men and Strange gives her a cloak similar to his own. Illyana thinks that Belasco tried to bury her, but she was demanding to grow. This is her beginning…