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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Un-Ring
Flashback:
Genosha, where Wanda Maximoff the Scarlet Witch lies unconscious next to a magical symbol that she has etched into the ground, a staff created from three magical objects standing upright in the middle of the symbol. 'What's this?' a voice calls out as Wanda begins to wake. 'Hey, are you okay?' the voice calls out. A horrified Wanda tries to crawl backwards, 'Wha- what -' she begins, while someone remarks that she doesn't look okay. 'Do you think something is wrong with her? Maybe she's been in the sun too long?' another voice can be heard asking. 'No' Wanda gasps, as someone remarks that heat spoils the meat, and that would be too bad. 'No!' Wanda utters again, before she screams as a horde of mutant zombies crowd around her. 'This is...this is...this is wrong. It cannot be. It will not be. I will not allow it!' Wanda exclaims as she steps back from the horde, and surrounds herself with energy.
Later: 'You did what?' Dr Strange asks inside his Sanctum Sanctorum, turning as Wanda tells him that she did what he said – she rang a bigger bell. 'I suppose that's one way of looking at it...' Strange remarks as he turns away from Wanda, acknowledging that there might be other ways, too. Wanda hangs her head as she remarks that she doesn't understand what went wrong. 'I'd start with the idea that you thought you could resurrect sixteen million dead people' Strange replies. 'I believe that – if I may be so bold – is where things “went wrong”'. Tears in her eyes, Wanda assures Strange that her research was rigorous, and that her spell was perfect. 'Clearly' Strange responds, as he goes over to a shelf containing all sorts of strange and exotic looking bottles. 'It should have worked' Wanda declares.
'You tried to undo death, as if you – or any of us – have any power in that realm. You should have known better. But that's the thing with you, isn't it, Wanda?' Strange declares, pulling a dragon-shaped bottle from the shelf, he pours some of it into a small glass as he tells Wanda that she still doesn't understand that she cannot erase bad deeds from existence, that she cannot bury sin. 'You can only eclipse them with greater deeds'  he states, adding that, at some point, she is going to have to embrace that idea and act on it – but until then, she is going to keep doing this – creating chaos and leaving others to clean up her mess. 'So, you're going to help?' Wanda asks, while Strange looks at his empty glass. He puts it on the table and mutters that he doesn't have time for this. 'It's sixteen million zombie mutants, Stephen. Make time' Wanda replies.
Strange frowns, before raising the dragon bottle again and asks Wanda if she knows that witch in Brooklyn who has the yoga studio that is actually a front for a Vashurrnu well. 'Yes. I do. She hates you. Intensely' Wanda responds. 'Yes, I noticed' Strange replies, informing Wanda that the witch changed her number, and now he needs her new one. 'What?' Wanda asks, folding her arms. Strange explains that he needs access to the well – not the girl. 'There's no un-ringing that bell' he mumbles. 'Okay, sure' Wanda replies. 'Okay, fine' Strange remarks, pouring himself another drink from the dragon bottle, he asks Wanda to tell him exactly what she did. Wanda informs Strange that she firstly got an eye from Alak-Rah. 'Oh god' Strange utters as he gulps the drink down, and pours himself another when Wanda reveals that she took a Tri-Crown from a Chaos Godhead. 'What were you thinking?' Strange enquires as he knocks back that drink. Wanda then tells him that she focused it through a root from the World Tree. 'You're a damned fool, woman!' Strange exclaims as he pours another drink and gulps that down, too. 'WONG!' Strange then shouts, slamming his empty glass onto the table.
'Yes, Doctor?' Wong asks as he enters the room. Strange's cloak materializes around him as he apologizes to Wong, acknowledging that this has been on the books for quite some time, and that Wong is only in town for the day, but they are going to have to cancel their reservation at Le Coucou. 'I'm headed out on a suicide mission' Strange announces. 'We'll have to do is some other time' he explains. Wong tells Dr Strange that is not a problem. 'You $#%&. You're going to go without me, aren't you?' Strange asks. 'Have a nice day, Doctor' Wong smiles, before Dr Strange and Wanda disappear through a portal.
Wanda and Dr Strange appear in some ruins, where the giant spider-creature, Alak-Rah, can be seen before them. Strange explains to Wanda that they will firstly need a second void eye to counteract the first. He adds that normally, this would be quite impossible, but he is owed a long, and painful, favor from this kingdom. The spider doesn't move, as Strange takes one of its eyes. He looks at Wanda and tells her to rest assured, he will be adding this to her personal tally, and that negating the Tri-Crown is easier. Strange remarks that chaos covets order, which it seeks to corrupt, and that a Godhead of Order seeks any opportunity to impose itself on chaos. 'They will want to undo your work as much as you do' he adds. Wanda queries Strange about the root of the World Tree, pointing out that the Norsemen are steadfast, and that she doesn't think she will get by them so easily a second time.
Soon, at the World Tree, Wanda and Dr Strange combine their powers to remove a branch from the tree, as Strange tells Wanda that it is best to handle friends in a straightforward manner, which is why he brought a keg of beer to distract them – but they have to hurry. 'Why?' Wanda asks. 'By the Gods!' a voice calls out. 'You deceitful magical bastards! This is... light beer!' someone can be heard exclaiming.
Later still, Strange and Wanda are on Genosha, standing inside a mystical force field for protection, as mutant zombies claw at the force field, trying to break through it. Also inside the field, is the staff Wanda created. Strange explains that he has constructed this ethereal barrier, preventing anything dead from crossing the threshold of the island's edge. 'By ship, boat or plane...no resurrected flesh can leave Genosha' Strange announces, adding that that simply leaves the undoing of Wanda's spell. 'Thank god' Wanda utters. 'No.  Thank me, Scarlet Witch, thank me and my mighty works' Strange declares as he raises the piece of the World Tree containing the eye overhead, then he slams it into the ground, resulting in a flurry of mystical energy that rises up around him, and knocks him to the ground.
'Nothing happened' Wanda points out, while her staff continues to maintain its position. 'As we've so clearly covered in this exercise of ours... one cannot un-ring a bell' Strange remarks. Wanda helps Strange to his feet as Strange explains that he has made it so Wanda's initial spell, enabled by the artifact she made, will dissipate when the staff does. 'How long will it last?' Wanda enquires. 'This isn't science, but if I had to put a number on it... around 30 days. 30 days and then all this will be undone' Strange reports. Wanda asks what will happen if someone comes here during that time, to which Strange suggests Wanda cross her fingers, say a little prayer and hope that doesn't happen.
Today – 29 days later:
'GLOR GLOR GLOR!' the horrid plant-like creature with the huge brain cries out as it emerges from the Cotati pod, stepping its giant body out onto Genosha, it towers over the tall, ruined buildings around it. 'Watch as I vanquish this beast!' Illyana Rasputin, who has been transformed into the demonic Zombie Queen, boasts, holding both her Soulsword and the staff Wanda created. A Cotati, resurrected by her power, stands near her. 'I dunno...it's pretty big' Quentin Quire remarks as he, the Stepford Cuckoos, Sinister, Exodus, Lady Mastermind and her father Mastermind all stare up at the creature. 'I mean, that's really a bit much' a zombie eating someone's severed hand calls out. 'We could run. We really should run' Jamie Madrox the Multiple Man suggests as he stands with Lily Leymus and Edith Scutch, two of the old women from Hordeculture. Monet St Criox is still unconscious, and is strapped into Edith's hover-chair. 'No. We stay...and finish this' Warren Worthington III a.k.a. Angel calls out as he stands with the other two members of Hordeculture – Augusta Bromes and Opal Vetiver. 'If it weren't hard...I suppose everyone would do it' Kurt Wagner a.k.a. Nightctrawler comments, as he holds onto the weapon containing the chemical that opened the pod up.
On Krakoa, in his lab, Dr Hank McCoy a.k.a. the Beast thinks to himself that people who talk to themselves are secretly megalomaniacs. But he disregards that thought, as he is still concentrating on another question – one that isn't involving zombie-plant problems – he wants to know how Hordeculture were able to short circuit Krakoan biotech. He remembers looking over at Opal when she was in his lab, and how he took something from her high-tech backpack that she was wearing. He wonders if it is wrong of him to want to examine their fascinating little machines, and tells himself that stealing is always wrong – as he very well knows – in fact, it's one of the most disrespectful things someone can do. He decides that he does respect Opal as a scientist, but knows that he won't be able to respect himself in the morning if he doesn't take one more little trinket – and steals something else from her when she isn't looking.
The Beast steps through a portal onto Krakoa and remarks that no small measure of chaos is underway, so decides this is the perfect time to test the fruits of the first Krakoan act of intellectual property theft. He tells himself that the lingering question remains – have his actions needlessly shamed their great nation – or was the juice worth the moral squeeze? He holds up the device he stole and presses the large red button in the center of the device. Black energy begins to swirl around. He declares that the old ladies of Hordeculture hacked their gateways, somehow gaining control of them – and now he knows how they do it. He touches the gateway, and holds the device up to it, smiling as he declares 'And so, to answer the age-old question of whether one would rather serve in righteous heaven or rule in pragmatic hell, I'm forced to say – Dr McCoy, you just might be the devil'.
The Beast clicks the device once more, and a figure appears. 'Okay, you can come on through...' the Beast calls out, and a boy, probably in his early teens, with blond hair, steps through. 'Whoa' he utters, wearing a black and yellow costume, carrying two jetpacks on his back. 'Whoa, indeed' the Beast responds. The Beast tells the boy that he knows that when he heard what was happening over here, he wanted to come through – but he wants him to be careful, as this is no place for a reckless young man – not even one who has the mutant power to explode. 'I'll do my best to stay out of trouble, sir' the boy smiles. The boy then takes flight, 'But no promises' he calls back, waving at the Beast.
Soon, the boy exclaims 'Ah!' as he comes to a battleground, where Selene, Quentin Quire and one of the Stepford Cuckoos can be seen keeping a horde of mutant zombies at bay. 'There you are' the boy smiles as he sees someone below, and flies down to where the mutant zombie called Explodey Boy is chewing on an arm. 'Hey. How's it going?' the boy asks as he drops to the ground. Explodey Boy looks up at him and remarks 'Weird. It's like looking in a mirror'. The blond boy tells him that he wishes he could say the same. 'You... do not look well' he points out. Explodey Boy admits that he is a mess, that he is barely holding it together. He stands up and walks alongside the living version of himself, who remarks that he almost made that joke, but he is working on some new life philosophies, and one o them is “Sure, it's funny...but is it mean?” The zombie version of Explodey Boy asks how that is working out for him, and the living version admits that it is tough – in fact, he's barely holding it together.
The zombie asks his alive double if he wants to see something gross. 'No' the living Expodey Boy replies. But his zombie double ignores that and opens his mouth, vomiting up a torrent of revolting gunk. The alive Explodey Boy jumps backwards so none of the vomit hits him, and tells his zombie counterpart that this is why he shouldn't eat people. 'That actually wasn't meat, it was plants so it's actually the opposite of what you're saying because I'm -' the zombie begins, before interrupting himself, 'Never mind' he mumbles. He then sits down and asks the alive version og himself 'So how are you... me?' he asks. Explodey Boy sits down next to the zombie and removes his jetpack, admitting that it is a little tricky.
They watch the transformed Magik fight the creature, as Explodey Boy informs his zombie self thatr he has been dead a little while, well, they have, but specifically his body. 'Somehow you got brought back – we're working out how – but even though you did get brought back, you're not really us... because you're dead' the alive Explodey Boy explains. 'But I don't feel dead' the zombie replies, while picking at his ear – which falls off. 'That's the spirit. Live the lie' the alive version of Explodey Boy tells his dead seld. 'Okay, so why aren't you dead?' the zombie asks as he throws his ear away. Explodey Boy tells the zombie version that the long answer is some kinda interesting stuff wrapped in a bunch of other not-so-interesting nonsense. 'Short answers is mutants conquered death and I was resurrected' he reveals.
'Resurrected like me?' the zombie asks. The alive Explodey Boy looks at his dead self and doesn't answer. 'So not like me' the zombie realizes, looking away. 'This sucks' he adds. The alive Explodey Boy informs his zombie self that it gets worse, as sooner or later they are going to figure out how to undo this whole undead mutant zombie thing. 'So...' his voice trails off. 'So' the zombie agrees. 'Yeah' Explodey Boy adds. The zombie pauses, before asking 'Well, are we okay?' Explodey Boy puts a hand on the zombie's shoulder and tells him that they are doing real good. 'What about Mom and Dad?' the zombie enquires. Explodey Boy grins as he reveals that he is actually talking to his parents, and that there is another thing that happened where mutants figured out how to cure some diseases, so he hooked Dad up and now his arthritis is gone. 'You should've seen the look on his face' Explodey Boy adds.
The zombie version of Explodey Boy asks if things are all better with the family, to which the alive Explodey Boy replies 'I wouldn't go that far, but... we're talking. So it's a start'. 'That's nice. I'd like to have seen that' the zombie remarks. 'Yeah. Oh, here's something you'd like...' the alive Explodey Boy begins. 'We had our first kiss' he grins. 'Really?' the shocked zombie gasps, throwing his hands to his head. 'Really' Explodey Boy tells him. The zombie asks 'Who was it?' and the alive Explodey Boy tells him: 'That's the amazing part. You know Arachnidor? That girl with the mutant power to smell like spiders?' he asks. 'Shut up' the zombie remarks, putting his hand on his counterpart's shoulder. 'I know' Explodey Boy agrees. 'She is way out of our -' the zombie begins. 'I know' Explodey Boy says again.
The zombie pauses, before asking Explodey Boy 'Well?' to which Explodey Boy asks 'Well, what?' and the zombie exclaims 'How was it?' But the alive Explodey Boy laughs and tells his dead self that he knows they never kiss and tell. 'I will eat your face right now if you don't tell me' the zombie responds. 'Okay. Okay. In a word? Amazing. Totally amazing' Explodey Boy smiles. 'Wow. That's so great' the zombie replies. Explodey Boy then adds that it was a little too great. 'I got too excited. I blew us both up!' he exclaims, throwing his arms into the air. 'Seriously?' the zombie asks. 'No, man. Come on. I was very cool about it. You'd have been proud' Explodey Boy smiles, before the zombie asks what happened – whether it worked out and if they are dating. 'We are not. Turns out we don't like spiders' Explodey Boy reveals. 'Really?' the zombie asks. 'Yeah. Not a fan. But that was a really good day' Explodey Boy remarks.
The zombie asks if they are really doing okay, and Explodey Boy tells him that they are. 'And everything's going to be all right?' the zombie enquires. 'It feels that way' Explodey Boy remarks. The zombie pauses, before asking 'So what about me?' Explodey Boy reminds him that this is definitely going to end, and tells him that he doesn't have to do anything. 'We can just hang out...' he suggests. '... watch these idiots beat the hell out of one another' he adds as they watch Magik try to strike the Cotati giant with her Soulsword. But the zombie gets to his feet and tells the alive version of himself that he isn't going out like that, and asks for the jetpack. The zombie puts the jetpack on his back, 'Hey. We kissed Arachnidor' he remarks. 'Yes, we did' Explodey Boy confirms as he stands up. 'See you later. Or never again. Either way it shakes out, thanks man' the zombie smiles as he turns back to his alive counterpart, then flies off into the air. 'No problem...' Explodey Boy replies as he watches the zombie version of himself depart. '...now go blow some $#%& up' he adds.
Magik flies in front of the giant Cotati creature and holds the staff towards it's face. The creature's mouth is wide open, as the zombie Explodey Boy closes his eyes, 'Open wide' he calls out as he flies into the creature's mouth – and an instant later, there is a massive explosion, which destroys the Cotati giant, covering everyone on the ground below in green gunk. 'Ugh!' one of the Cuckoos complains, while Nightcrawler tries to scrape some out of his ears. One of the Cuckoos looks around and points out that the planet people are dying. She assumes that they were linked to the giant plant monster. 'And after it was destroyed, they -' she begins, before Magik, still transformed into the Zombie Queen, drops back down, standing over the Cotati bodies, she declares 'Not destroyed... vanquished. Leaving me as the paramount power on this island'.
'Illyana, you should probably -' Angel starts to say, but Illyana raises a hand and interrupts him: 'Silence, slave!' she exclaims. She boasts that she has dominion here now, on this world and all infernal realms she sees fit to claim – all that she sees is hers. The Zombie Queen turns to the mutant zombies and tells them to understand that she is mistress here, and they are her slaves. 'You are my slave' she adds, pointing at an unamused Exodus. 'And you. And you' she adds, motioning to Sinister and Quentin Quire. As the time passed since Strange's spell was cast reaches 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds, Illyana leans into Nightcrawler and declares 'And you, you dashing, blue demon boy, you will serve me most of all, for I find your appearance to be -' but she is suddenly interrupted as the spell activates, destroying the staff, it begins to change Illyana back into her regular human form. The mutant zombies, too, begin to crumble to dust, and Illyana falls to the ground. 'Woof. Had a little moment there' she remarks.
'Well... that's got to be a bit embarrassing' the Beast tells her. 'I regret nothing' Magik replies, while Madrox exclaims 'Look. The old ladies are making a run for it'. Angel and Beast look over to where Hordeculture are escapring on the hoverchair. 'You want me to...?' Angel begins, but Nightcrawler tells him that today they get a free pass. 'Plus, I stole their tech. So... let's just take the win' the Beast smirks. Monet is awake now, and rubbing her head she asks 'So... home?' to which Nightcrawler looks up at the sky and replies 'Yeah'.
The Beast thinks to himself that Genosha are the ruins of what could have been, but that mutants have become something more doesn't erase that it came at a price. Explodey Boy collects his jetpack from the rubble, and the Beast acknowledges that there will always be a price. While Hordeculture work in their lab, testing and devising, the Beast tells himself that there is no way to avoid it – this is simply their story – over and over again. It ends how it ends. It's done – and then you get on with it...and keep on living. He looks at the equipment he stole from Hordeculture, and realizes that there are some who can't live with it... and some who won’t.
And, elsewhere, the Scarlet Witch sits near a fireplace, reading a book, while a tear streams down her face.


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

[Assistant]
The Sword is Drawn
Kitty Pryde tosses and turns around in her bed, unable to fall asleep. A slice of oblivion to take the pain away is all she wants. But because she hurts – her mind replaying the X-Men’s final moments – she can’t. She’d cry. If she had any tears left.
Kitty’s nightmare:Suddenly hands grab her, dragging her out of bed. They put on her costume, make up her face, ask for autographs and finally shove her outside the door on stage. That moment, all her anger vanishes for before her she sees the X-Men.
It’s a set with the X-mansion in the background (owned by Mojo’s New World Pictures). Professor X sits in the director’s chair announcing time is money and telling everyone to get ready. He can’t keep his actors waiting for ever. Those include Colossus, smoking a cigar and playing cards with some co-workers. Havok is going over his lines. Rogue is reading and tanning. Storm, in a gown, is smoking a cigarette, Longshot and Dazzler are necking while Wolverine, reading a book on Japanese flower arrangement, is getting his nails done.
Kitty wonders if she has lost her mind. Or maybe found an answer to her heartfelt prayers. She cries with happiness. The X-Men are alive. She knew that it had to be a mistake, that they would beat the reaper. But what’s with the movie studio? Why is Professor Xavier playing director? She turns to Psylocke. Since when did the X-Men decide to go to Hollywood?
However, she is horrified when she sees her British teammate’s beautiful face. Where her eyes should be there are only empty sockets. They are magic people, Betsy Braddock replies with a smile. Where else would they belong but a magic town.
Workers ask her to keep quiet as they put devices onto her eye sockets. A moment later, eyes have been placed in there. Horrified, Kitty stumbles backward and falls over Rogue’s chair.
Kitty is astounded to find she is touching Rogue skin to skin but Rogue isn’t absorbing her powers. Rogue snorts to give her a break. None of that guff works, till the director gives the word. What is she talking about? Kitty asks.
Haughtily Storm reminds her she is supposed to be a professional. She could at least act the part. Part? She isn’t acting, Kitty protests. Why are the rest of them so different? Perhaps because they know the difference between roles and reality, Storm replies.
“Action!” Xavier shouts. That moment, the X-Men’s outfits transform into their costumes and they are in their roles, getting ready to attack some unseen foe. Calling her “kitten,” Ororo orders Kitty to hurry along or she’ll be left behind.
Kitty finds that she can phase again. This is sick, she shouts How could she dream something so cruel and why can’t she break out of it? She forgets that dreams are sometimes windows to other realities, someone tells her.
It’s her lost teammate Rachel Summers aka Phoenix, dressed in a red version of her Hound costume. And waking doesn’t always make things better, Rachel calmly continues. She doesn’t understand, Kitty protests. This has to be a dream, yet everything feels so real. And the X-Men, more puppets than people… travesties of the heroes she remembers. When the reality no longer exists, Rachel continues, exploiters can take the legend and make it whatever they want, good or bad.
Director Xavier has noticed Rachel. She’s not in this production, he shouts. She had her chance at stardom, “baby Phoenix,” and blew it. When her teammates needed her most, she ran out on them.
Her mistake, her shame, Rachel replies as the Phoenix raptor flares up around her. But now she has a chance to make amends.
The X-Men come running. As Phoenix tries to take off, Xavier shouts nobody leaves without his permission. Chains weigh her down and each of the X-Men grabs one of the chain ends.
Kitty protests, telling them to stop. They are tearing her apart! She’s their friend! If she stays or goes, it should be of her free choice! She touches Rachel, allowing her to phase through the chains. Rachel thanks her as she flies away, promising Kitty may be seeing her sooner than she thinks.
That was very naughty, Xavier tells Kitty, while the X-Men look at her angrily. And he’s sure she knows what happens to naughty little girls. Warwolves, manifest yourselves and teach the brat a lesson!
Silver wolf-like beings come out of the X-Men’s stretching mouths, shedding them off like old skins and attack Kitty who once again can’t phase.
Reality:Horrified, Kitty wakes up. Still scared she phases out of her room, the house. She is back on Muir Isle where she belongs. But if that was the dream, then reality is still the same awful...
She gasps as she sees the sun rise over the ocean, for in the sunrise she sees the Phoenix effect. Now what the heck does that mean? she wonders. The freaky afterimage of a very freaky dream or a harbinger of something worse? Rachel disappeared months ago. She hasn’t even thought of her in ages and feels pretty lousy about that but she feels lousier about that dream. Is she really so sick inside to imagine her dearest friends as slaves of one of the team’s most disgusting foes, is she so angry and resentful that they are gone and she got left behind?
She phases back to her room. Her dragon Lockheed is happy to see her. She tries to scratch his shoulders, but phases through him. She forgot for a moment that her natural state is now to be phased. To become solid she has to concentrate as hard as she can. She manages but realizes it won’t last long. She picks up pictures from the ground. She fell asleep with them in her arms. One shows her and Professor Xavier when she just joined the school, the other is a teamshot from right before everything fell apart (showing her, Rachel, Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Rogue, Nightcrawler and Colossus). Xavier is now gone across the universe and the X-Men are dead! Again she cries, with Lockheed trying in vain to comfort her.
At around the same time: The Celtic Sea off the west coast of England:Meggan had been swimming alone, when the dolphin pod popped up and asked her to play. She shapeshifted to become more like them and played, losing all track of time, until she sees the sunrise and the firebird in it. She tells the dolphins farewell and flies to the lighthouse she shares with her lover Captain Britain, hoping he won’t be angry.
She flies inside, calling out to him. She lands in the living room which is a mess. A battle? Meggan wonders. But upstairs was untouched. The lighthouse is undamaged, no sign of intruders.
She stumbles over photos on the ground, all showing Brian’s sister Betsy at different stages of her life, from her childhood with Brian to her model career to her life as an X-Man. Meggan then notes the TV is on. The latest news from America is shown. The mutant superhero team known as the X-Men has been slain in Dallas, Texas, among the fatalities the English mutant Psylocke.
Meggan cries out in grief. She finally finds Brian sitting in the cellar drinking. This is terrible! she cries out. No, comes with the costume, he slurs. Crying, he asks her to look at him. Captain Britain, some hero. Couldn’t even save his own sister!
Kneeling in front of him, Meggan reminds Brian that Betsy and the X-Men were half a world away. How could he possibly have known she was in danger? That’s the point! he cries. What use is he if he doesn’t know such things? She was a grown woman, Meggan reminds him. She chose her life. She’s responsible for her decisions and her deeds. He’s not to blame.
Enraged, he tosses his helmet at the table and bottle. The devil she says! he cries. What does she know about anything? She never had a family, never lost anyone she cared for! He orders her to go away. He doesn’t want her sympathy. He only wants to be left alone, he adds in a small voice.
Crying and apologizing, Meggan flies up to their bedroom and curls up on the bed, feeling whatever she does and says is wrong. She does understand and care. Betsy was gentle and kind to her. She was her friend. She misses her, too. Maybe though he doesn’t care anymore about Meggan. At that, though, she momentarily loses all her beauty and literally wilts. The moment passes and she shifts back, telling herself to stop it. He’s lashing out because he’s in pain, same as she used to be. He got her past that awful time. Now she must return the favour.
She sits to write a note, though she cannot write. It shows their lighthouse with the words “Meggan go” and an arrow showing a house with an X above it and a cat sitting next to it. Only one place to go for proper advice, she decides and takes off.
Meanwhile, in the Muir Isle gymnasium, Nightcrawler is training in his own special way. His robot foes number half a dozen, wearing fedoras and are armed with swords as he is.
Have at thee, foul recreants! Nightcrawler orders with a grin. Numberless they may be, still they are no match for one with the heart and soul of a true musketeer. Ah, noble D’Artagnan, valiant Cyrano, Scaramouche and Captain Blood, if only they could see him!
However, that moment, one of his many foes cuts him. Nightcrawler instinctively teleports away and downward, chiding himself for that dumb move. He teleported instinctively when he was injured. But now he feels weak as a baby, and his foes are coming down for him!
Where are his quips now? he thinks bitterly as he tries to get up to reach the control panel.
The next moment, the panel short-circuits as Kitty phases inside. The robots all fall down.
Kurt thanks her as she lifts him up. After making sure he’s okay, she angrily demands what the heck he was playing at there? Testing himself, comes the reply.
A full bore combat exercise, she summarizes, with the safety interlocks disconnected, so soon after his release from hospital? Is he crazy? Lucky for him, the back-up alarms sounded in the house the minute he started!
He had to learn if he had lost his edge, he answers evasively as he grabs a jacket.
Doesn’t it matter if in the process he loses his life? she presses, Does he feel left out because the rest of the X-Men got killed and the two of them didn’t? She keeps on after him as he walks out. Does he figure on this being the perfect way to catch up to them?
She has no right to say such things! he demands. He has no right to give her a cause!, Kitty shouts back.
Chastised, Kurt admits she’s right. When he awoke from his coma he was so… happy to be alive. She cannot imagine! All he remembered was the pain of being wounded, and the next thing he knew he was here in Moira MacTaggert’s research facility and it was months later. And he thought he’d had a taste of death, but survived… he beat the reaper. His time will come, but not today. He wanted to share that joy with those he loved best – Kitty and Peter and Logan and Ororo, with all the X-Men, only he couldn’t because they were dead.
She knows how he feels, Kitty replies. And then last night, Kurt continues, he had this… dream… Say what? Kitty exclaims.
He never had the like, Kurt confides. When it was done he felt ashamed, almost physically ill. He was in a movie studio with twisted decadent version of the X-Men as the cast and Herr Professor Xavier the director and Rachel was there too. Kitty chimes in, some kind of prisoner and he helped her escape? Ja, Kurt agrees, only he was left behind to behold the X-Men transform into monsters. The prof called them Warwolves, Kitty recalls.
She also then, Kurt states unsurprised. If they both had the same experience, maybe it wasn’t a dream, Kitty muses. Ray’s a telepath… maybe she was trying to send a message. Question is, why now after staying out of touch so long. And what does it all mean?
They enter the house. Probably some new and transcendent disaster, Kurt states. That isn’t funny, she chides him, shouldn’t they do something about it? Kurt reminds her of their crippled state. Doesn’t means they stop being X-Men she replies.
A moment later, there’s a knock on the door. She asks him to duck out of sight and opens it. She’s in for a big surprise. Before her stands a giant, light-blue, alien woman, very reminiscent of a sentient Hippopotamus, who greets them jovially. The thin reptilian being clinging to her shoulders calls her “mother” and warns her that two paraforms are present.
She grows wear of endlessly repeating herself, she announces. Don’t call her mother! “Yes, mother,” he replies. She sighs. If he weren’t so infernally useful…
She introduces herself to Kitty and Kurt as Gatecrasher and reaches out her hand going straight through the phased Kitty’s face. Could they please inform the master or mistress of this domicile of her presence. Would she mind taking her hand out of her face?! Kitty snarls. Terrestrial paraforms come in such stimulatingly spirited variety, Gatecrasher remarks. It never fails to amaze. Kitty remarks that this is Dr. MacTaggert’s house and island and she is away right now, if she’d care to leave a number or address…. Regrettably, time is pressing and delays cannot be countenanced.
The lizard warns her that an intruder is arriving. A moment later, Meggan flies in through the window, greeting Kitty, who quickly introduces her to Nightcrawler as Captain Britain’s girlfriend (which doesn’t help much, as he doesn’t know Captain Britain).
Meggan makes an angry face as she sees Gatecrasher, calling her “hippopotamus.” Gatecrasher greets he as “swanling.” Meggan warns her to leave Brian alone. Gatecrasher assures her she has no interest in her dear Captain.
So why is she here? Kitty reminds her. Believing Kitty is talking to her, Meggan states she needs to talk with her, it’s important.
Gatecrasher activates a psyche-com crystal and the hologram of a regal blonde woman appears who introduces herself as Opal Luna Saturnyne, Omniversal Majestrix, responsible for the maintenance of order and reality in this sector of creation.
Unglaublich! Kurt exclaims, certainly taken by her beauty while Meggan scoffs that she never understood what Brian saw in her. Boy, she can, darn it, Kitty remarks sadly.
The Saturnyne hologram continues that Gatecrasher’s Technet are her duly authorized agents responsible for the apprehension of this threat to reality. The picture changes to show Rachel Summers aka Phoenix. Saturnyne continues that Phoenix is believed to be en route to Sol III, the planet Earth. She hereby charges and requires that the inhabitants thereof offer all appropriate assistance in this endeavour.
What does she want with Rachel? Kitty asks. Gatecrasher mildly lectures her that Saturnyne neglected to take them into her confidence and to be honest one simply doesn’t subject the Omniversal Majestrix to that sort of examination. Her responsibility is merely to capture the fugitive and deliver her.
Angrily, Kitty calls her a stinking bounty hunter and a blimp. She doesn’t know her! And she sure as heck doesn’t know her (referring to Saturnyne) but Rachel’s an X-Man, and until she knows the score, nobody takes her!
Her loyalty is touching but sadly misplaced. Suddenly, the room is lit up by a teleportation effect and eight more diverse aliens appear to surround the three heroes. Gatecrasher informs them the Technet by nature abhor violence but if provoked they’ll happily indulge in whatever level of physical confrontation they desire!
Sounds like fighting words to him, Nightcrawler decides and the mutants choose their foes. Kitty boasts they can’t catch what they can’t touch, as she phases through Gatecrasher. She is mistaken, though, as Scatterbrain takes out her mind and Kitty falls unconscious. A strange reptile, Bodybag, covers Meggan with a transparent paralysing membrane and then swallows her.
Ladies first, Gatecrasher announces as she takes Kurt into her grasp; now it’s his turn.
He teleports away. No scanning anywhere, the lizard announces. Bodybag gathers up Kitty. Gatecrasher decides they’ll keep the girls as bargaining chips and be on their merry way.
Elsewhere, Rachel Summers, still in chains, falls fleeing through nothingness / everything, until transcendence gives way to reality. She lands in a cake and finds herself surrounded by bizarre figures, from Frankenstein and barbarians to characters from Alice in Wonderland.
The crowd don’t know what to make of her and Rachel is disoriented by the many thoughts she senses. She realizes this is a stage set and wonders if all her pain was for nothing. Has she not escaped at all? Is she back where she started?
Where’s her invite? the Mad Hatter demands. She can’t crash their gala without one. Angrily, she announces she has nothing to do with their party. Popped out of nowhere, one of the guests insists. Is she a mutie then? another asks.
Rachel begins to fly away and the guests hold onto her chains. Panicked, she shouts at them to let her leave!
Suddenly, a light flashes and the Warwolves come attacking. Rachel manages to break loose in the confusion. She realizes Mojo has sent the Warwolves after her. She attempts a telekinetic blast to find they are immune to it. She cannot get a firm grasp on them. Joke’s on her, one of them announces as he jumps on her. Rachel reminds him that while her mind powers can’t clobber him directly, there is no reason she cannot use every other object in the room. And proves it by hitting him with plates of food, followed by tumbling the other Warwolves with the furniture.
However, she loses sight of one Warwolf, which slashes across her back. She turns around, snarling that he doesn’t have the slightest notion what he is up against. His master used those chains to bind her, only fair they serve the same purpose for him. Telekinetically, she ties the Warwolf up and moves him by moving the chains, smashing him into the wall.
She’s managed to create a hole and sees a way out. Just to make sure she clobbers the Warwolves again with two barrels, then runs outside (a potter on the wall announcing a Fancy Dress benefit – which apparently was the party Rachel crashed). And finally she realizes this is no longer one of Mojo’s settings – this is Earth – London more specifically.
The Warwolves gather their wits and follow Rachel to the astonished comments of the bystanders. Rachel runs down a tube station. She manages to get aboard a train and the door closes in front of the Warwolf. He protests that this is unethical behaviour. She was under contract. Mojo made her star of stars. She was his slave! Rachel shouts back as the train begins moving.
The Wolf holds fast to the train and smashes inside the compartment. The Phoenix effect flares around Rachel as she smashes the train and repels the Warwolf. “She’s free!” she announces, and no one’s ever going to cage her again! The Warwolf is thrown back by her telekinetic attack, lands on the third rail and fries. Her only regret, Rachel shouts, is that it was the Warwolf that was fried and not its bloat of a boss. Someday, though, she swears it will be his turn.
She becomes aware of the thoughts in the carriage. The people are pressed to the other side. She senses fear. With good reason, she thinks.
In the meantime, the other Warwolves surround their fallen comrade and howl.
Elsewhere, atop a tower in London stand the Technet. Yap informs Gatecrasher he senses the Starchilde.
Meanwhile, back at a certain lighthouse, a stranger has arrived and disgusted declares the place is a mess. He drags the Captain who is still in a drunken stupor to the doorway and throws him into the water. Should he fail to resurface, he figures sourly, based on what he just has seen, no great loss!
Captain Britain awakes in the water and flies inside, figuring someone tried to kill him. Hardly that, comes the acerbic reply as Nightcrawler busies himself making coffee. He was doing well enough on that score by himself. What’s the meaning of this? Captain Britain demands. Simple, Kurt replies. He needs him awake and sober and he’s not in a mood to be polite about it. That’s the explanation. If he wishes an apology, earn it!
Over coffee, Nightcrawler relates the day’s events. By the time he returned to the house after teleporting away Gatecrasher was long gone. With both Kitty and Meggan. Kurt dug up their file on Captain Britain and spent the rest of the day getting there. He cannot take on the Technet alone. He needs his help. Quite right, very sensible, Brian replies sarcastically. Get on it directly.
Angrily, Kurt remarks he’s wondering if he’s made a mistake. What’s wrong with him? Friends are in danger, among them the girl he supposedly loves. Doesn’t that matter, doesn’t he care?
‘Course he does, Brian whines, it’s just what’s the point? Save them now, watch them sacrifice themselves later. They are supposed to be heroes but they never really make things better. They have no lasting effect on people or the world.
The devil he says! Kurt hisses and slams him against the wall. When he says he is a “hero,” he means it in jest. He hasn’t the right to truly call himself one. And Cap has even less. All he is is a man, trying to live life as best he knows how and be true to what he was taught. Those beliefs got his sister killed, Brian states. Ja, and his dearest friends with her, Kurt reminds him. His “family.” Sometimes all he yearns for more than anything is to have been given the chance, the privilege, of standing with the X-Men and sharing their fate. It isn’t fair they are dead. It is far worse that he remains alive to grieve for them because the pain is more than he can endure! But he is alive and he must remain true to himself, to their memory. He lets Brian go. If that is more than he can handle… he is sorry to have troubled him. He turns away.
He doesn’t understand! Brian calls after him. He doesn’t know what it’s like to actually die!
But does he have even the slightest idea what it’s like to truly live? is Kurt’s parting shot. He has no right to judge him! Brian snarls after him as the memories resurface. Lying broken and bloody, more ragdoll than man. Watching the executioner’s hand rise, so afraid! And then waking up, reborn, whole but never healed. Knowing death must come again. Haunted by the certainty that this time will truly be the end. Terrified by the fear that it won’t! Brian cries in agony as he relives the memory of his death and rebirth.
A London street. Rachel has managed to scrounge a fringed leather jacket to hide her costume. She wonders what to do, where to go. She’s the prodigal girl who ran out on the X-Men when they needed her most. She betrayed their trust. Serve her right if they slam the door in her face.
She stands before a shop window of a fantasy shop, inside are several articles on King Arthur. She decides there is no sense in moping. The X-Men are her family. She has nowhere else to go. Mirrored in the window, she suddenly sees faces behind her.
She’s run them quite a naughty race, Gatecrasher announces. But it’s over. She orders Bodybag to do the honours. The large reptile instantly covers Rachel with neural-toxin, paralyzing her and swallowing her. She then reappears in an opaque prison sack on his back (two bags already full with Meggan and Kitty).
Gatecrasher announces that now they have their prize they can dispense with the other two prisoners And no, that does not mean dinner. They’ll leave them here. She so loves it when a caper comes together.
“Trouble!” Yap announces before a moment later the Warwolves attack. While her team is already fighting Gatecrasher angrily tells the Warwolves they are interfering with duly authorized representatives—O bother! she snarls the next moment when one Warwolf has managed to kill one of her employees, Ferro. She never should have kept him on the payroll after his warranty expired. She blasts the Warwolf with a phaser. Does it have the slightest notion how infernally difficult it is to find good help? For good measure, she stamps on the Warwolf, while Yap hides in a hole.
Almost invisible in the shadows, Nightcrawler watches the fight, hovering on a streetlamp. Almost a shame to interfere but the prisoners might get hit in the crossfire. Nice thing about Rachel, she broadcasts such a powerful and distinctive biopattern that the portable Cerebro sensor pack he brought from Muir Isle led him right to her. He figured Gatecrasher would catch up sooner or later. Pity he didn’t have a chance to warn Rachel, but this is his chance to make amends.
He jumps onto Bodybag’s head, then dodges the Warwolf he was fighting in such a way that its claws slice through the top of the prison sacks atop Bodybags back – just as Kurt planned. The three girls are free. Meggan and Kitty are totally limp thanks to some narcotic, but Rachel is mostly conscious.
Still dodging the Warwolf, Kurt shouts he needs a hand. Rachel moans the Warwolves are immune to her psi-powers. Just what he needed to hear!
Gatecrasher tears the Warwolf away. Pissed off now, she intends to tear Kurt apart herself!
He strongly suggests she restrain herself, a newcomer suddenly announces. An angry Captain Britain is floating above them. Gatecrasher reminds him the Technet have seen him in action. Thug hits him in the back with a Warwolf, announcing they were not impressed.
As he crashes into a shop window, Cap curses himself for posturing. Thug follows.
Gatecrasher orders Ringtoss to capture their quarry. He manifests energy bands from his head binding Rachel fast. Kitty who has awakened figures she may be able to disrupt them by phasing. But as Kitty lungs forward Joyboy takes her fondest desire, to become solid once more, and makes it rude reality by turning her grossly overweight.
China Doll touches a Warwolf and shrinks it. Meggan awakes and sees Cap in trouble. She tries to run to his side but, when a tentacle of Waxwork touches her body, it loses all its firmness.
Seeing her plight, Cap is distracted. A momentary thing that Scatterbrain turns into an eternity as her touch fires all his neural synapses at once.
Still fighting, Warwolves, Nightcrawler realizes they are being slaughtered, because unlike the Technet they are not functioning as a team. He tosses the Warwolf into Ringtoss. Once free, Rachel takes out Joyboy, thus restoring Kitty.
Nightcrawler kicks Chinadoll into Gatecrasher and she inadvertently shrinks her boss. Kitty uses all her concentration to turn solid and hits Gatecrasher. The Technet teleport away and the Warwolves have disappeared in the sewer.
The relieved Captain Britain and Meggan hug each other and kiss, while Kurt asks how Kitty is. Rachel looks around at the destruction they left, including the broken shop window with the Arthuriana. One thing about them X-Men types, she muses, one can always tell where they’ve been. If not from the mess, then from the faces of innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire. And yet…
She doesn’t finish her thought as Kitty hopefully asks if it is really her. Warts and all, she replies with a shy smile… a bit worse for wear, she is afraid. They believed her dead, Kurt remarks. They forget she is Phoenix. If she dies it’s only to be reborn, hopefully better and brighter than before. Crying, the three friends hug.
Another night after the mess has been tied up and explanations to the proper authorities have been made. Atop the Scots highlands, the five heroes sit around a campfire and exchange stories.
Kitty tells of her first time in the Danger Room. Professor Xavier spent weeks programming her initial session and she walked through it with eyes closed.
Kurt shares how Wolverine challenged him to walk down the main street of Salem Center undisguised, in his natural shape. She’d have loved to see that! Kitty gushes. It was an experience he admits. And those were the days.
Rachel’s turn, he tells her. Any memories of the X-Men she’d like to share? Not the kind they mean, she replies sombrely. The facts in her head, they’re so jumbled up she doesn’t know anymore what is real and what isn’t. What actually happened and what’s a lie. But that doesn’t matter. Because the clutter doesn’t affect her emotional reality, perhaps because the Phoenix by nature relates better to feelings than to rationality. She knows who she is, who she cares for, who she doesn’t - that’s what matters. The rest she can take or leave.
Speaking of leaving, Brian uses the segue, it’s awfully late. He and Meggan intend to leave. Is that it? Rachel asks agitated Pack up, call things quits and go their separate ways?
They accomplished what they set out to do, Brian reminds her. Now while he deals with the Warwolves the rest of them can go on with their lives. What about those lives, how are they supposed to live them? she presses. What does she mean? he asks. She speaks about Charles Xavier’s dream of a world where all Earths’ children, mutant and otherwise, live together in peace and harmony. Where people are judged for who they are, not what they look like or how they’ve been born. That’s why he created the X-Men, to exemplify that dream. Should they give up because the X-Men are dead?
Kitty reminds Kurt of the dream they had when this caper began. In it, Rachel said to her “when the reality no longer exists, exploiters can take the legend and make it whatever they want… good or bad.”
Are they suggesting they take the X-Men’s place? Kurt asks Rachel. Nobody can do that, Rachel replies, looking into the fire. But King Arthur had a dream too… She shapes the flames to form the shape of King Arthur… Of a world where might served right, instead of subjugating it. His Knights of the Round Table were the agents of that dream and his sword Excalibur the symbol of it. Arthur died, the table was destroyed, his knights mostly slain – yet the dream survived. They became a legend and the sword the means of keeping the legend alive and vital through the ages.
The X-Men thought enough of Professor Xavier’s dream to offer up their lives. Is it so much to ask that they preserve it? The sword Excalibur represented hope. It was a light in the darkness of fear and ignorance and hate. Do they want – have the right – to snuff it out? She’s run her whole life. She can’t remember a time when she wasn’t afraid. She let people tell her what to do – it’s easier that way. Saves you from having to take responsibility for anything. Well, she’s tired of running. She wants to take a stand. Because if she doesn’t, then maybe she better let the Warwolves carry her back to the make believe slaveworld where she belongs. A world of illusion and artifice where whatever sells best gets the glory, whether it’s lie or truth.
With a smile Kurt assures her he stands for truth and stands by her. Meggan too walks toward Rachel. Her life sounds so much like her own, she explains to Captain Britain. She won’t have anyone else endure such horror. She likes this dream. It’s worth fighting for. Kitty too joins them as does Captain Britain, even though he seems to be a little more doubtful than the others.


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[Assistant]
Still Crazy After All These Years
Frasier’s Bank, Thameside, London. Courtney Ross wistfully looks at a snapshot showing a younger Courtney kissing Captain Britain with wild abandon. One Pound a kiss for cancer relief. She’d bought out the entire roll, a month’s wages worth of tickets.  In his arms, she didn’t care. So young she was. So easily satisfied. Not long after, Brian disappeared. Courtney assumed he’d been slain by one of his many supervillain foes. She grieved and got on with her life.
She stretches and muses about her role as “Ice queen” of the banking world when, suddenly, she sees strange reflections on the surface of her metal table. She turns around to find the Crazy Gang, five strange beings looking like twisted characters from the Lewis Carroll books. Lovely, lovely, he daresay they found their Alice, the Jester announces. “Orv wif her head” the Red Queen predictably orders as the Executioner tries to hit Courtney with his pike.
Dodging the blow, Courtney figures that Captain Britain returns to her life and again she is an easy target. And she’s not even his girlfriend anymore. She shoves the Executioner into the desk but the Queen jumps on her back. Courtney grabs around for any weapon and finds some perfume. She sprays into the Queen’s eyes, which does the trick.
Nervously, the Knave notes she’s winning. That’s not supposed to happen! The Jester had better hit her. Why he? the other being asks. The Knave points out that the Jester is weak. He won’t hurt her. Angrily, the Jester retorts that he is not weak. He’s the brains! He should be in charge. The Boss is in charge, the Knave argues, he will kill her after they bring her to him. If they kill her first, he will not be pleased!
That makes two of them, Courtney mutters and throws the queen into her two teammates. She makes a run for it but in front of her, blocking her way, is the last member of the Crazy Gang, Tweedledope, in a carriage drawn by rats. The wheels are adorned with knives, making it impossible to run past them. Courtney throws her shoes at the rats, which part away from the middle, then runs over Tweedledope and finally makes her way outside.
At nighttime, the street is deserted apart from a police car. Courtney gets inside asking for help to find the drivers are Arcade and his assistant Miss Locke. Arcade happily informs her that the Crazies are working for him and she needn’t worry her pretty little self about his calling Captain Britain to come to her rescue. That’s the whole point of the exercise! Miss Locke zaps her.
The next day, in a city on the West Coast of England. Brian Braddock has set up accounts for all members of Excalibur – and at his old girlfriend’s bank, Kitty observes as she draws some money from an ATM machine, still missing her credit cards. She enters the clothing shop, asking Rachel Summers in the cabin if she’s gorgeous, or what! Wearing a grey business suit, a sullen Rachel informs her it’s definitely “or what.” Is she kidding? Kitty (who wears something similarly conservative) asks. She looks great! She urges her friend to at least give it a try. Brian has a point. The way Rachel normally dresses, it’s hard to keep a low profile for herself or the team.
Sifting through some ridiculously old-fashioned blouses, Kitty suggests one. With an evil smile, Rachel telekinetically changes Kitty’s outfit. Suddenly she’s dressed in a skintight leather minidress, much like something Phoenix would wear, who smugly informs Kitty that turnabout is fair play. While Kitty waffles between sulking and being impressed by the spectacle she is making, she and Rachel attempt to pay at the cashier. However, the cashier asks if this is some kind of joke when she looks at the notes. The notes are different from normal British currency, showing the head of the Cray Gang’s Red Queen instead of Queen Elizabeth II.
Not far away is Excalibur’s lighthouse, where Nightcrawler is currently installing his jungle gym in the cellar. Meggan, dressed only in a bikini, joins him. “Guten morgen, fraulein Meggan,” Kurt greets her. “Wo bist du?” Meggan asks what the point of this is. In reply, he literally sweeps her off her feet and does his acrobatics. Suddenly, he throws her away, intending to rescue her after some spectacular somersaulting. Meggan instead hovers behind him. He’s got some nerve, she chides him. That took no nerve at all, he assures her. This takes nerve! He begins to tickle her. Both of them fall down laughing. Hovering over him, Meggan calls him a beast. He’s much more charming and cuter, Kurt assures her.
Meggan is worried because he teleported. That’s hard for him now, is he all right? It was worth it to bring the spark to her eyes. Meggan begins to shapeshift, turning into a female version of him. Her face comes closer to his; they almost touch when Brian calls from upstairs that Rachel and Kitty are home. There’s trouble! Feeling guilty, Meggan flies upstairs and Kurt berates himself for trying to charm Captain Britain’s lady.
Meggan joins Brian and the returning girls upstairs. Brian asks Kitty if her new looks is what she meant by “trouble.” Diplomatically Meggan adds she thinks that both girls look lovely. Great, that’s both bimbos heard from, Kitty thinks uncharitably, and tells them this is serious. She thinks Arcade has kidnapped their banker, Brian’s friend, Courtney Ross.
Furious, Brian flexes his muscles (so much so that the buttons pop off his shirt). Meggan asks who he is and what that means. Arcade is a lunatic assassin for hire, he explains, fists clenched. He traps his victims in his twisted version of an amusement park called Murderworld and uses the funfair rides and attractions to kill them. They met during his first incarnation as Captain Britain. Then as now, Arcade used Courtney as bait to get him but Cap beat him. He’s the kind who bears a grudge. He should have realized that sooner or later he’d want to even the score.
Agitated, Meggan silently worries that Brian still cares for Courtney. Nightcrawler has joined the group and chimes in that the X-Men have fought him as well. Brian takes off his shirt and gets ready to fly away to get Arcade but Nightcrawer orders Phoenix to stop him. As she does, Brian curses them both. Kurt chides him that none of them can afford to go off half-cocked. Courtney may be the bait but Arcade wants them. Why else send a message? By the way, he thought this address was a secret. Brian explains he told Courtney. Arcade must have forced it out of her. Meggan wonders whether he told her anything else. Brian and Courtney used to be lovers. Did they only talk?
Kitty points to the bank notes, realizing there is a pattern. Each denomination shows pictures of Courtney’s suffering of different threats, being attacked by a killer white rabbit, about to be run over by a train… but the reverse of all bills is the same, showing an old derelict industrial site. This might be where he is holding Courtney. Or where he wants them to look, Kurt muses.
Strangeways, said property, formerly the pride of north England, responsible for forging the steel that made the ships that kept this island safe and the cities and railways that helped make it great. But the company is bankrupt. Now the Genoshans do it cheaper. And then some loony Yank bought the place and means to build an amusement park that’ll supposedly outdo Disneyland. The “loony Yank” part at least is right…
Courtney Ross wakes up, dressed in a skimpy white rabbit outfit and tied to a wheelchair. Arcade’s grinning face hovers above her, telling her to rise and shine. After all, she doesn’t want to miss a minute of the last day of her life. Trey trey gauche, doesn’t she think? What she thinks isn’t printable, Courtney retorts. Arcade sarcastically apologizes for the way the new help extended the invitation. But he’s sure she’ll bear with his Crazy Gang. What does she think of the new place? Like the people, it’s state of the art. He confesses the years have been kind to her. Who’d ever have thought that gawky college cherub would turn into such a fine figure of a woman? It’s almost a shame to kill her… “Then don’t!” she replies simply.
He can’t do that, he replies while the screens behind him show scenes of past battles between Arcade and the X-Men, Captain Britain and Spider-Man. This caper ain’t business. It’s personal. She and Cap and the X-Men are pretty near the only ones who ever beat Murderworld. And he can’t be the best if they are better! Pardon him a moment. Time to check up on a previous guest. Definitely business. She can consider him her warm-up act. The screens now show a man, also dressed in a bunny outfit, looking even more ridiculous. He stands on a stage in front of several monsters trying in vain to entertain them with his jokes. They boo and hiss at him and finally he literally gets the boot as a giant boot comes from above and squishes him to the cheers of the audience.
Courtney tells the laughing Arcade this is as obscene as is he. All he had to do was make them laugh, he tells her, same as her. He tells her, she is the damsel in distress, the poppet in peril and when her precious Captain Britain and his pals rush to the rescue he’ll nail them.
Suppose they don’t? she asks. In her shoes, he’d pray they hurry! he retorts and shoves her down a doorway entitled “doorway to destiny.” She falls and lands on the same stage the man was on. “Jokes!” the crowd demands. Get stuffed! she tells them. They throw knives as her and she quickly changes her mind.
Elsewhere, the midnight special train races from Scotland to London. Alone in the first class carriage are Dr. Moira MacTaggert and her self-appointed bodyguard, Callisto. Moira notes Cal is edgy. She replies she’s taking her cue from Moira. Moira explains she has made mediscans of Excalibur. There are anomalies about Phoenix’s file she wants cleared up.
As the train is about to pass a tunnel, it instead disappears, courtesy of Widget and another of his gates.
In Arcade’s command center, he juggles some balls, bored, waiting for the heroes to finally come, while Miss Locke stares transfixed at the screen showing how Courtney is doing. Bored, Arcade asks if she’s gone splat yet. “See for yourself”, Miss Locke suggests. He looks at her surprised that his dragon lady is smiling. Soon, he understands why. Courtney has the crowd in stitches. “The Ice Queen” is actually funny.
Outside, the Crazy Gang are waiting, obedient to their new boss in the hope they will finally become big time criminals. By standing about? the Knave asks. That makes no sense. That’s because he isn’t a big brain and extreme genius, the Jester retorts. He understands perfectly! However, he comes up empty when the Knave asks him to explain.
Excalibur, in the meantime, is hiding in the rubble behind them. Rachel can’t find out much with telepathy: they have utterly basic role-directed though patterns. In their own way, totally alien to theirs. To comprehend them she’d literally have to become one of them.
If they can’t telepathically pry Courtney’s whereabouts from them, Cap sees no reason to play stealthy any longer and swoops downward, lifting the Crazies up and flying into a warehouse with them where he starts hitting. The others are not happy. Cap’s too used to playing solo and that kind of strength and arrogance is dangerous.
Tweedelope attaches the device he created to Cap’s back There’s a flaring light and the two have changed minds. Cap’s body stands there like a drooling moron, then he grabs the Tweedlope body with Cap’s mind inside and swats him away right into Meggan.
Kurt helps her up and they wonder why Brian uses his powers so carelessly, not aware of the bodyswap. “Cap” holding the device as well, as the Knave and the Jester come running out. “Cap” uses the device to switch Meggan and Nightcrawler with his two teammates. The Jester is happy in his agile new body while the metallic Knave is disguted with his new shapeshifting, malleable flesh.
Kitty tries to warn Rachel but “Cap” flies up towards her and uses the device. Before she can make a move to defend herself, she hears a scream, a cry from her baby brother Nathan, Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor’s son, calling for help.
That moment, the device overwhelms her, her power engulfs the electronic Executioner and it explodes. Arcade, however, is sure it’ll work out while Miss Locke reminds him he underestimated Miss Ross as well. Arcade tells her to make herself useful and scan for Shadowcat and Phoenix.
No need for the latter though. Empty-eyed Rachel takes up the Executioner’s robe and scythe, apparently completely subsumed into his role.
Arcade opens a trapdoor beneath Courtney to move her to the main event in Murderworld. While the Crazy Gang, in their new bodies, take their prisoners inside Arcade, on a screen warns Kitty he hasn’t forgotten her…


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[Assistant]
Excalibur’s New York Adventure
It’s the day after Excalibur helped to save New York City from Inferno. At the Plaza Hotel, where the team is staying, Brian Braddock, wearing a pair of striped pajama bottoms, runs into the common room of his shared suite calling out Meggan’s name. She’s missing, and apparently, so is the rest of the team.
Getting a grip on himself, Brian realizes that it is broad daylight and he’s slept later than he thought. He goes over to a full length mirror in the room and sees that each of his teammates has left a note. Nightcrawler’s gone to California to recover the X-Men’s ‘old stratojet.’ Kurt refers to his mission as a ‘milk run’ and mentions that Meggan was still there when he left. Shadowcat’s gone to Westchester to the Xavier Institute to get some of her things. And Phoenix has gone off to visit her baby brother.
There isn’t a note from Meggan though, and Brian wonders why until he remembers that she’s ‘barely literate.’ He thinks she might have been too embarrassed to attempt a note and thinks to himself that he should maybe do something to help her with that.
Brian tries to convince himself that Meggan is a grown woman and a super-being and can take care of herself in the city. But he’s still worried. He doesn’t want to look foolish by raising a false alarm or to act like he’s ‘her keeper.’ Considering between going after her or sticking around and having a whiskey to settle his nerves, he decides he’d rather ‘play the fool than the drunk.’
As he walks out onto his room’s balcony, Brian can’t help feeling something is wrong. Though he can’t be sure if the problem is with him or with Meggan. Since Captain Britain’s uniform was destroyed the previous day when demons from Limbo took over the city, he wears ‘gym togs’ that were given to him by the hotel. He realizes that they are a poor substitute. As Brian leaps from the hotel balcony and flies off he reflects that he’s going to have a difficult time finding one person among the millions in the city, assuming that Meggan’s even there.
City-dwellers walking the street below react to the flying person with distinct New York accents. “Look, upunnasky! It’s a boid! A plane! It’s a guy!” Clark Kent, in a blue suit and tie, walks with Lois Lane among the crowd and also reacts to the super hero. He says, “It’s almost as though you can’t turn around without bumping into some hero or other!” Lois tells him to “Be real! If you’ve seen one hyperthyroid, egomaniacal exhibitionist in skintights – you’ve seen ‘em all!”
Meggan is on Coney Island, an amusement park located in Brooklyn where the subway trains end and whose glory days are long past. She sits on the peaceful, beautiful beach that is still there, but her mind is far away recalling the events of the past few days. She remembers Excalibur flying over the Atlantic from their lighthouse home to arrive in Manhattan where Inferno brought out the ‘demon in her soul.’ She turned on her teammates and became the Goblin Princess, enslaving Captain Britain and making him attack Shadowcat. And when she attacked Kitty herself, Kitty stabbed her with Illyana’s Soulsword. She feels as though she died.
On the beach near the pier, Meggan rocks back and forth on her toes, hunched over, sobbing and thinking about how much she hurts, how awful she feels. She feels guilty about what she did to her teammates, especially Brian, and wonders how he can still love her. She also wonders how the others can still trust her and how she can trust herself. She questions her nature, is she evil or just the reflection of other’s desires? Meggan is startled by a group of people who spot her under the pier. She doesn’t want them to see her and considers running. But she doesn’t know who to turn to and she decides that she deserves whatever harm they may have in store for her.
The people turn out to be a group of five teenage girls who decide to comfort Meggan. They want to know what she’s doing hiding in the dark. They see that she is crying and assume that someone’s hurt her. Maybe ‘Luis an’ his Rocketeers.’ They consider calling the cops but Meggan doesn’t want the police involved. As Carmen, one of the girls, sits close to her, Meggan’s skin transforms to match her darker skin tone to fit in with this group better. Meggan tries to apologize but the girls don’t let her. As they walk her off the beach there is constant chatter as they discuss her accent and consider whether or not she was mugged on the way home from the gym. On the way up the steps to the boardwalk, the group introduce themselves, inform Meggan that right now what she needs are friends, and offer to buy her some ‘decent clothes.’ Ones that ‘won’t give the boys ideas.’
Meanwhile, at the ruins of the Xavier Institute, the New Mutants survey the damage. Cannonball flies overhead and observes that the place has been “smashed t’ bits.” Sunspot, who is powered up and lifting a large chunk of rock on his shoulder replies, “Quick on the uptake, Cannonball… as ever.” Wolfsbane, in partial wolf form tells him to stop being mean. Mirage, in the background, brushes her winged horse Brightwind. Warlock has transformed his arm into a crane, and the small form of Illyana is visible in the background.
Wolfsbane is thinking out loud about how the Institute was their home and where will they go now when she senses an intruder. She does a backflip and transforms into full wolf form as Shadowcat rises out of the rubble in intangible form. She says she’s hardly an intruder and comments, ‘how quickly some forget.’ Warlock confirms her status as friend and the New Mutants gather around to greet her. Rahne transforms back into the form of a girl and apologizes for ‘snarling.’ Kitty tells her it’s okay, considering the circumstances. And then adds that from the looks of the place, the X-Men could have been there since that brand of destruction is ‘pretty much their style.’ She asks if the ‘X-babies’ are ‘having fun stripping the carcass.’
Roberto tells her that is uncalled for, the mansion was their home too. Kitty replies “Mine long before you lot showed, bub.” Sam joins in and asks her if she thinks that all of this is their fault. Kitty says that the mansion’s destruction may not be, but they should have listened to their headmaster, Magneto. She also accuses them of pretending to be X-Men. Sam tells her to back off and reminds her that Dani and he are both older than she is. Kitty tells them that they don’t act older and as they’re both supposed to be the leaders, they should ‘know better.’ Roberto tells her that the mansion was only a house and can be rebuilt. Kitty says that Doug Ramsey can’t be resurrected and Rahne, dissolving in tears, tells her that it was her, Rahne’s, fault that Douglas died and as she runs away adds that if she had been a truer teammate then Illyana might not have become the Darkchilde. Seven year old Illyana breaks in to shout, in Russian, for Kitty to stop being mean to Rahne and to say that because of Rahne, she is herself again. She remembers that Kitty used to tell her stories and that she thought that Kitty was her friend, but really, she isn’t. She runs off to where Rahne is standing, alone in the distance. Kitty tells little Illyana to wait, she didn’t know…
Dani steps in then, telling Kitty that they’ve all lost something precious with the house, but that Sunspot is right and it can be rebuilt. She reminds Kitty that what is important is Xavier’s Dream, the one the X-Men and the New Mutants are fighting for. She adds that the people they care for are still there. Kitty adds, “Some of ‘em anyway.” Mirage asks Kitty if she wants them back, Doug and Illyana, as she remembers them. She forms two illusions of the missing friends, side-by-side with just a gesture of her hand. She says they are “As real as life, as true as mind and heart and soul can make them…for as long as you wish.” Kitty reaches out her hands to the two and they speak. Doug says, “Slap five, Pryde. What’s the program?” And Illyana says, “Kiddo, we’ve got to stop meeting like this. Ain’t healthy.” Kitty agrees that it isn’t. She is shaking as she tells Dani to please break her spell, and ‘let ‘em go.’
Dani tries to console Kitty by telling her that Illyana chose to sacrifice herself. Kitty thinks that she should have been there, since she was Illyana’s best friend. Dani tells her that Illyana won a second chance at a happy childhood, like she wanted. Does Kitty begrudge her? Kitty says that she doesn’t and adds that she had a look at the underground complex of the mansion and it ‘checks out fine.’ The self-repair systems will fix the place up and it will be as good as new. She mentions that Moira MacTaggert is ‘executrix’ of the estate and wants to know if they are going to relocate to Scotland, with Moira. Dani says they’ve been invited to stay with X-factor and tells Kitty that she is more than welcome to join them. Kitty, tearing up, tells her that she appreciates it, but it wouldn’t feel right. Dani puts a hand on her shoulder as Kitty goes on to say that the X-Men were her team, but they are dead and her friends in the New Mutants were Doug and Illyana. She knows what happened to Illyana is for the best, “It’s a miracle happy ending she more than deserves.” And she ends emphatically, as she turns to hug Dani, “But she was my best friend…and I miss her so much!”
Brian Braddock, meanwhile, is flying over Manhattan. He thinks that this way of searching for Meggan is ‘fruitless,’ but can’t think of a better way. He also still thinks that something is wrong, and is starting to feel tired when he hears the sound of gunshots from below and spots a robbery. He’s happy at the chance for action and descends in front of the getaway car just before it runs down a mother and her young son who are crossing the street. Brian is able to stop the car, crushing in the front end as it collides with him, but unexpectedly is thrown through a shop window himself, nearly avoiding the two people he just saved.
The police arrive to arrest the bad guys and take care of the situation. The boy’s mother mentions that she’s never been saved by a superhero before and the officer replies that it “Happens alla time onna midtown beat.” But, usually, the super-types wear ‘tougher outfits.’ Brian thinks to himself that he is unhurt but that the impact from a mere car shouldn’t have thrown him. Just then the little boy observes that Brian has lost his pants. Brian blushes and the helpful cop lends him a blanket that he asks him to return because it’s city property and points him to a sporting goods store.
Brian emerges from the store with new ‘gym togs’ and wonders why everyone is staring at him as this costume isn’t any tighter than his old uniform. He thinks how fortunate it is that he brought his wallet with him. As Brian raises his arms to fly back to the hotel, because it is starting to rain, he realizes that nothing is happening, he’s unable to take off. While he’s distracted a whistling thief with a tie and hat picks his back pocket, making off with the wallet. The same police officer as before helps out again by stopping a taxi. He doesn’t blame Brian for being tired after the hit he took from the car. The cop introduces Brian to the cabbie as a ‘sooperheroic whatchamacallit what ain’t doing so great,’ and they hold up New York traffic as they talk.
Meggan, meanwhile, is in Chinatown, a part of the city where it isn’t raining. She’s still with the teenage girls and is wearing new clothes, a short skirt, pink striped top and blue jacket. Some of the girls comment that Meggan looks great and Monique comments that “Now nobody’ll look twice at any of us!” Meggan tells them that they’ve been kind and Carmen tells her that “gals gotta stick together.” Meggan wonders what is wrong with her, and debates to herself how she ought to be feeling. She feels the friends she’s found are ‘lovely,’ so why shouldn’t she do what they want. As she thinks that maybe she wants something different she berates herself as a ‘selfish cow’ for thinking of herself instead of how she should repay their generosity. Meggan wishes that Kurt were there to help her understand what all of her ‘strange feelings’ mean. The other girls become excited because they are approaching the movie theatre, an opportunity for movies, boys, popcorn, and soda.
As Meggan stands outside the theatre she remembers that it was in a cinema that she, as the Goblin Princess, tortured Brian during the Inferno Crisis. As she stands outside, not wanting to go in, she’s afraid that the Inferno isn’t over and she might change again. Just then she does change, shifting to pale skin, slanted eyes and long blue-black hair. She is grabbed at the elbow from behind by a young man with similar coloring who she at first thinks is an attacker. But soon she sees that he is flattering her and offering to escort her to the street fair. Meggan immediately acquiesces to his desires and they ‘delight’ the crowd as well as themselves by dancing and twirling together ‘with a vengeance.’
Meanwhile, on the west U.S. coast, at an advanced aerospace research facility known as ‘Skunk Works,’ that is part of the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, experimental plane designers admire a suped up version of “Kelly” Johnson’s original SR-71 Blackbird design. They discuss how no one ‘corporate, government, or military,’ knows anything about the plane and they can’t wait to take it apart. Especially since the owner has requested its return and they have to work fast.
Nightcrawler, who overhears them talking as he teleports inside the jet, thinks to himself that the ‘owner’ is no longer willing to wait. He also thinks about how difficult it is for him to teleport these days. His heart’s beating too fast, as if he’d just run ‘a score of wind sprints.’ He decides that his new limit is to ‘jaunt’ only once a day. He also thinks that this is a cross he will have to learn to bear, as there has been no sign of improvement despite him being physically in ‘excellent’ condition. Kurt preps the X-Men’s old Blackbird, starts the engines, and to the surprise of those standing below, takes off. He thinks to himself that he feels ‘foolish’ taking the plane because it is “essentially [his] own property.” He wishes that it could be with the X-Men, but since they are dead, “Excalibur will have to do.”
Back in New York, New York, Brian is still driving around the city with his cabbie, looking for Meggan. He gets stuck in traffic, encounters mimes and gets in a shouting match with a sidewalk Evangelist. He experiences frustration as everywhere he looks he gets no leads. It’s hard to hear above the noises of the city and the bars that he searches can’t help him out. By the end of the day he is tired and rather tactlessly asks a question of a policewoman from the backseat of the cab. Not having had the best of days herself, Officer Barbi McAllister arrests him for soliciting. She gets him out of the car as admiring ladies watch and the cabbie steps out of the car to shout that she can’t do that because the man’s a ‘sooperhero.’
With his hands behind his head, Brian tries to convince the officer that he really is looking for his missing ‘lady friend,’ and that he really is a superhero. She’s doubtful because he isn’t in costume. He says he had an accident. She asks him to prove that he really has powers, saying she’s never met a superhero before. He offers to lift up the cab. The cabbie worries that Brian will break something, and Brian assures him that the cab will be fine. He tries and tries, but in front of the officer and the gathered crowd, he can’t budge it. In the background Spiderman and Dr. Octopus fight above their heads, unnoticed. The crowd disperses and the officer doesn’t believe him. Brian wonders what happened to his powers, first his flight disappeared and now his strength. The cab says aloud that Brian is a ‘looney.’ Brian refuses to be bested by a ‘lifeless hunk of metal’ and makes the supreme effort to lift the cab. He does so, impressing the cabbie, but by then everyone else is gone except for a little dog who is shown piddling on Brian’s leg.
Meanwhile, Meggan and her dance partner are walking arm and arm from the street fair. Meggan mentions that she has never enjoyed herself more and her new friend tells her that’s because she’s with him. Away from the crowd, he pushes Meggan up against a door and when she asks him what he is doing he tells her that they ’made beautiful music out there’ and now they can do even better. Meggan protests and he tells her not to fight him, that he knows what she wants better than she does herself. Meggan repeats his last thought to herself as they kiss. The young man keeps pushing Meggan to go farther and she continues to say no. He tells her that it’s his job to do the thinking and that she’ll be ‘lots happier’ if she’d just follow his lead. Meggan starts to buy that at first, thinking that it’s a lot easier to just obey and that she does want to be happy. As she wonders to herself why it is so hard to just be herself, she transforms into the Goblin Princess and very assertively tells him ‘no!’ Terrified, the boy runs away yelling that Meggan is ‘a crazy woman, a witch!’ As Meggan is left there she wonders to herself that if the only thing she can do to protect herself is manifest her most foul nature, then maybe the price of standing up is too high.
At this time, ‘high above the eastern seaboard’ X-Factor’s sentient skyship flies above the clouds. Baby Nathan Christopher Charles is in his crib. Jean Grey, leaning over the bars, tells him how lucky he is because after all he’s been through he’s escaped unscathed. Jean, who is wearing a sweater that says Xavier School over her red and yellow costume, tells the child that he may be her clone’s baby and not hers, but she feels him in her mind, so in a way, maybe he is hers. “What a concept,” she thinks to herself and she picks Nathan Christopher up and, with her back to the window, places him against her shoulder so that only he can see outside. Nathan Christopher notices someone outside the ship.
As Jean wonders to herself if she is up to the job of motherhood, Rachel sits on some nearby clouds. She’s wearing her red spiked Phoenix costume and her short hair is yellow fire. She is telekinetically juggling small comets composed of that same yellow fire to amuse her little brother. She seems to be enjoying herself very much and isn’t hiding her facial tattoos. She makes faces for her brother as she talks to him telepathically, calling him ‘NC’ and reminding him that their ‘mom’ doesn’t know that she exists, so they should keep that a secret. And they should especially do so because Jean’s been through a lot lately. Jean turns around and Rachel drops out of sight, thinking to herself, “Down elevator express!”
Jean looks out of the window thinking to herself that she has this strange feeling of being watched, but there is no one there. She thinks that if anything hostile was in the area the ship would have sounded the alarm. She thinks the clouds are ‘really lovely’ but also that they make great hiding places. Just as she wonders if she should ask the ship to run a scan, Nathan Christopher spits up on her (or something similar disgusting), and she says aloud, “Oh Baby, how could you!”
Rachel, observing the events from her position lying on a cloud, thinks to herself that that kind of behavior, “Comes naturally to the little rugrats,” and that they look “indecently pleased every time.” She is glad that she doesn’t have to smell the mess or clean up after it. She telepathically thanks NC for the ‘distraction’ and tells him to remember that they are psi-bonded. If he needs her all he has to do is ‘holler’. She tells him to take care in the meantime.
At a basketball court at the corner of Sixth Avenue and West Fourth, in Greenwich Village, four men play basketball. Meggan, who is wearing the same outfit she acquired in the city but has transformed her skin and hair to blend in with the mostly black players and onlookers, thinks to herself that they ‘play magnificently’ and that she ‘could watch for hours.’ She admires the game because it is a test of skill and strength and stamina. One of the players, Spin, hurts his ankle. Meggan comes out on the court and offers to carry the large, muscular man off it. As she does so the other three players look on in disbelief and Spin tells them that his ankle is sprained, he’s out of the game.
Spin’s teammate, Marty, is told he knows the rules, if he doesn’t finish the game he forfeits. Meggan offers to take his partner’s place. There is some protest from Marty, who doesn’t want to ‘turn this into a joke,’ but Spin says that it is okay with him if she subs for him. As an onlooker admirers Meggan, now wearing her usual orange bodysuit as she ‘struts the court,’ he questions aloud to Spin, ‘but can she play?’ Meggan informs everyone that she has seen the game ‘often on the television.’ The onlooker says, “Bad news, Spin. You guys are doomed!”
As the game starts Brian’s cab drives by the court. The cabbie is asking his fare if he wants to check out the ‘outer boroughs.’ Looking frustrated, Brian replies that he doesn’t know and mentions that maybe he should go back to the hotel, in case Meggan left a message. The cabbie reacts aloud as he sees a ‘lady’ slam-dunk the ball on the court. Brian looks and thinks that the skin may be ‘all wrong,’ but the clothes are Meggan’s. Yelling her name, Brian exits the cab and runs up to the gathered crowd where he begs them to ‘clear a path.’ As no one ‘in this infernal metropolis’ listens, he feels there is no other recourse than to fly above them. As his powers are still weak, Brian has a wobbly take-off and hopes to himself as he concentrates all of his strength of will, that he doesn’t ‘crush anyone underneath.’ Meggan sees him and calls out his name. She flies up to join him and they embrace and kiss above the watching crowd.
As Meggan and Brian drive off in the cab, Meggan tells her love all about the ‘glorious time’ that she had that day in the city. She’s confident and smiling as she relates to him of all the places she went, all the friends she made, and all the cotton candy she ate. Brian sits with his arms folded and tells her that he’s been looking for her all day. He tells her that he was ‘worried sick.’ Meggan questions why he would have a reason to worry. She’s a grown woman and with her powers is ‘perfectly capable of defending herself.’ Brian tells her that powers are the point, something’s going on with his. He’s ‘growing weaker by the hour’ and he’s afraid that she’s affected to.
Brian tells Meggan to look at herself, because ‘those aren’t your features.’ Meggan, who’s still wearing the face and body of a beautiful and strong looking African American woman, tells him, “It’s my face, Brian, they must be my features.” But, she agrees with him, she has been shape-shifting a lot that day, intentionally and not. She wonders if it’s significant that she stabilized with her current look.
Meggan changes the subject back to the basketball game, telling Brian that he should have seen the whole thing. She says she was doing so well, not using her powers and “playing those men on their physical terms.” And she won! She tells him that she didn’t know she could do that, stand up for herself, as herself and she never dreamed that it would feel so good!
The cabbie jumps in to tell them that their ride is over and that it is time to ‘pay the tab, meter plus tip.’ This is where Brian realizes that his wallet is missing. He tells the cabbie it must have been stolen. The cabbie replies that he should have guessed it ‘a sooper hero sob story.’ He tells Brian to ‘geddaddahere.’ And calls him a stiff. Meggan offers him $80 worth of twenties and asks if that will suffice. He tells her, “Anytime!” As Meggan exits the cab she mentions that that was her share of her winnings from the game. As she walks back into the hotel, reverting to her more usual figure, she says, “Allow me this once my sweet, darling Brian, to save you!” Brian is left in the cab looking a confounded and maybe a little embarrassed for himself.