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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

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Kill or Cure, part 5 (first story)
Nick’s (second story)
Dazzler: Solo (third story)
(first story)
San Francisco, where Police have cordoned off the Bay Bridge as a drama unfolds. A newsreader announces that the bridge has been evacuated with the tailbacks now stretching right into the downtown area. ‘For an update, let’s go to Sue Martin, who’s on the scene.’ Standing at the edge of the bridge, Sue reports that the situation is tense, and tells the newsreader, David, that the bomber’s initial warning suggested that the device is attached to the bridge’s central span. The camera pans from Sue to the arch on the bridge, as Sue announces that the bomber is still up there, and threatening to detonate if anyone approaches him.
Sue reports that the X-Men have been called, and are on their way. ‘In fact I think they’re here. They’re here now!’ she announces, declaring that it is hoped the X-Men will be able to talk the terrorist down. ‘If anyone can - seeing as he’s one of their own!’ Indeed, sitting up on the arch of the bridge, slumped over, is a solemn Iceman.
A Police Officer approaches the lone X-Man who has arrived, and exclaims ‘We called the X-Men. Who are you?’ the handsome hero steps forward - ‘I’m one of them’ Bobby Drake exclaims. ‘This one!’ he reveals as he uses his mutant powers to shift from his human form into an ice form. ‘Okay. Now I’m confused’ the Officer replies, to which Bobby tells her that doesn’t matter, and that the X-Men said he could talk to her first. ‘Her?’ the Officer asks. Bobby just tells her to keep looking for the bomb, and takes to the air on an ice-sled, declaring that he will see if he can end this without anyone getting hurt.
Bobby arrives at the arch atop the bridge, and asks his apparent duplicate if there is any chance they could look like someone else for a while. ‘Talking to yourself is said to be the first sign of madness’ Bobby adds. His doppelganger shifts back into her true form - Raven “Mystique” Darkholme, who tells Bobby – calling him Robert, as she always does – that she doesn’t think they need to talk, as his options are the same as they always were. ‘Ready when you are’ Raven adds, to which Bobby tells her to give that stuff a rest. ‘Robert -’ Raven begins, but Bobby interrupts, telling her that she had her turn and that he is sick of listening.
Bobby quotes Raven: “Kill or cure” and asks her which one of them is sick, reminding her that she impersonated his ex-girlfriend, crashes a Blackbird, nearly kills dozen of people, and somehow, it is all about him. ‘Except that it’s not, is it?’ Bobby asks, switching to his human form. Mystique continues to sit on the edge of the arch, and Bobby informs her that Wolverine told him what happened when he caught up with her. ‘That’s why you’re here, right? That’s why I suddenly matter enough for you to come after me’ Bobby tells Raven. Raven replies that Wolverine told her she would die alone because she lived alone - because she never let anyone get close to her. ‘It sounded like the truth’ Raven adds.
Mystique holds up a small device and informs Bobby that it is a detonator and that it has a dead-man switch. ‘Just so you know.’ Bobby replies that he figured it would, and tells Raven to stick to the subject. ‘You know what you’re really doing?’ Bobby asks Raven. ‘All these murder attempts that leave other people’s bodies on the sidewalk, never mine? You know what they’re for?’ Bobby asks Raven, before telling her that she is trying to reinstall an earlier version of herself. ‘Mystique 1.0. The anal-retentive, OCD shape shifter. Untouchable, all-powerful’ Bobby declares. ‘But here comes the punch line!’ he adds. ‘I don’t think she ever even existed.’
‘You love Rogue. You loved Destiny. And do you know what I think?’ Bobby remarks, standing behind the silent Mystique. ‘I think you lied back in the hospital. I think you love me.’ When Mystique doesn’t reply, Bobby asks ‘What? No snappy retort? Could Bobby Drake, P.I., be onto something? I think he is, ladies and gentlemen. He’s figured it out. He’s uncovered the crime…and it’s a pity party.’ Raven closes her eyes, and remains silent. Bobby throws his arms into the air, exasperated, he mocks Raven: ‘Oh, woe is me. Life sure is hard and nobody loves me. My daughter hates me. My son is a stranger. The guy I manipulated and almost killed doesn’t want to be with me’, Bobby exclaims, before telling Mystique that it’s tough all over.
‘You’re not even that special, Raven. This stuff is standard issue. The people you love don’t always love you. Things don’t always work out the way you plan them’ Bobby tells Raven, who has begun to cry. Bobby turns his back as Raven stands up. ‘Why do I even need to tell you this? You’re, like, a hundred years old. You should know by now!’ Bobby exclaims, before Mystique snaps: ‘That’s enough, Robert!’ But Bobby doesn’t think so, and tells Raven that it’s not even close. ‘Do you ever wonder why people don’t love you?’ he asks. ‘It’s because you’re crazy!’ he exclaims.
Bobby tells Raven that she shows her feelings for Rogue by systematically ripping apart everything she cares about. ‘And when you want to make a pass at me, you do it by trying to kill me. That’s not normal!’ Bobby exclaims, to which an angry Mystique warns Iceman to shut his mouth. Bobby ices-up, and replies ‘Not a chance! We’re finally getting somewhere!’ he exclaims, before telling Raven that if her plans for kick-starting a relationship were more “take out to dinner” and less “blow up a bridge”, she might actually score from time to time. ‘But we’re past that point now. Aren’t we?’ Bobby adds, before blasting Raven with an ice-beam, freezing her hand which holds the detonator.
‘Dead-man switch means it blows if you take your finger off the plunger, right? Not gonna happen!’ Bobby exclaims. ‘Oh, Robert -’ Raven begins, but Bobby interrupts, and announces that the cavalry is coming, which means they found her bomb. ‘There’s no need to spin this out any longer. We’re done!’ Bobby replies. ‘Then you’ve made your choice. I’ll see you one more time, Robert. Just briefly’ Raven declares. Bobby tries to interrupt, but Raven continues, slowly walking towards Bobby, she tells him that she will get in close to him and finish this without any noise or complication. ‘I won’t be wearing this face, of course. Or this body. But you’ll love me. I promise you that!’ Raven boasts as she smashes her ice-covered fist into Bobby’s face.
Knocked to the ledge, Bobby braces himself so that he doesn’t fall off, and spins around ‘NO!’ he shouts as Raven steps back to the edge of the arch - then dives, backwards, from it. ‘RAVEN!!!’ Bobby screams, but it’s too late…
Later, patrol boats search the river underneath the bridge, while Iceman stands on a nearby dock, accompanied by his teammates Cyclops and the Beast. Cyclops reports that there is nothing, but points out that the current is strong here. ‘If she drowned, her body could easily be carried way out into the bay’ he points out. Bobby quickly replies that Raven didn’t drown, and that she didn’t die when she hit the water, as she is too tough for that.
The Beast asks Bobby if he still needs his professional services, to which Bobby thanks his friend, and states that he feels great, that his powers are stronger than they have ever been. ‘And I feel more confident about using them’ he adds. ‘Kill or cure. I should probably thank her’ Bobby remarks, looking at his ice-covered body. The Beast asks. Walk away, Bobby replies that he is doing better than Mystique right now.
(second story)
On a cloudy day, inside an establishment called Nick’s, which is situated on the ground floor of a two-story building, a middle-aged man sits at the bar, and exclaims ‘Nick, I just have to know… what’s your secret?.’  Holding up an empty glass, he says to Nick ‘I mean, really. If you don’t make the best Bloody Mary’s in San Fran, I don’t know who does!’ Nick, a handsome younger man wipes the bar down with a cloth and replies ‘You never quit, do you? He calls the other man Lou and tells him that he will give him a hint, but that’s it, and reveals that he puts a pinch of sugar in it.
Lou looks up from the paper that he is ready and replies that he will take what he can get, before declaring that he thinks he will switch to beer. ‘Meanwhile… how about them Niners, huh?’ he asks, looking at the sports pages of the newspaper. Nick replies ‘I know. They couldn’t even beat Arizona, for crissakes. Me, you and two of my waitresses could beat Arizona!’ Nick pours Lou a beer as Lou agrees, and remarks that Nick has only been here for a few months, so may not know this, but this was quite a formidable sports town back in the day. Nick doesn’t realize that the beer glass is overflowing with beer as he hasn’t turned the tap off. ‘Hey!’ Lou exclaims, getting Nick’s attention.
Nick apologizes to Lou and tells him that the bill is on him and not to worry about it, while clutching his head. ‘Nick… is everything all right? You look -’ Lou begins, to which Nick replies that he is fine, but he has to go, and rushes out the door. ‘Geez… I wonder what the Hell that was all about?’ Lou mutters to himself, while looking down at the front page of the paper, the headline reads: Go West Young Mutants.
Nick rushes outside, along the street, pushing past people, he races up some stairs into an upper floor, ‘Damn it. Damn it. Damn it,’ he thinks to himself as he bursts into an apartment and grabs a briefcase. He prepares to leave again, but the entrance is suddenly blocked - by the arrival of Colossus, who greets Nick - but by his other known name - Dominic. ‘Or is it “Nick” now?’ Colossus asks, adding that it doesn’t matter. Nick throws the briefcase at Colossus, as Colossus tells him that he is still just Avalanche to him now.
Suddenly, Nightcrawler teleports up behind Avalanche, and Beast bursts through a window. Colossus and Beast try to grab Avalanche, but the former member of various incarnations of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants strikes back with a seismic energy blast, knocking the X-Men over. Avalanche turns and runs towards the door – which suddenly slams shut, by Wolverine, who was hiding behind the door. ‘Aw, c’mon now. Ya ain’t going anywhere, are ya, Dom? Party’s just started!’ Wolverine snarls. Avalanche backs into the room, while the four X-Men close in on him. Wolverine tells Avalanche that he made a smart move hiding out here in San Francisco. ‘A fella like you could use his powers here if need be and no one would be any the wiser. Just another notch on the ol’ Richter scale!’
Avalanche replies that he hasn’t had a need to use his powers, that he has been as clean as a whistle. ‘I run my bar, and that’s it’ Avalanche declares. ‘We know’ Wolverine replies. ‘You know? Then what are you -?’ Avalanche begins to ask, before Wolverine interrupts, telling him to spare them all the innocent “babe in the woods” routine. Wolverine remarks, before agreeing that Avalanche may have been clean the last few months, ‘But what about all that stuff you did before? That supposed to be swept under the rug cause you’re slinging buy-backs at happy-hour now?’ Wolverine asks, before popping his claws and telling Avalanche that, in the old days, he knows full well how this would have gone. ‘I’d be here doing my talking with my claws instead of my mouth!’
Wolverine presses his claws into Avalanche’s throat and exclaims ‘But now here’s the thing… this ain’t the old days no more. There ain’t too many of us left now.’ Avalanche looks slightly concerned as Wolverine continues: ‘And because of that, it means we gotta throw the old rulebook out the window. It means, providing ya do keep your yer nose clean just like you’ve been doing…you’re getting a pass.’ Wolverine sheathes his claws, while his teammates stand around him. Wolverine smirks as he tells Avalanche that, is he does eventually get any bright ideas about putting on funny underwear and getting back into the game, then the X-Men will be stopping by Nick’s for more than Bloody Mary’s.
Wolverine announces that he thinks they are done here, ‘Sorry about the mess’ he tells Avalanche, waving as he, Beast, Colossus and Nightcrawler exit the apartment. Avalanche looks around at the destruction the X-Men caused, before beginning to clean up ‘Sorry about the mess, he says’ Avalanche mutters. ‘@#$%ing X-Men!’
(third story)
‘I can’t tell what’s worse. That he’s wearing that old tee at all. Or that he’s wearing it for irony points’ Alison “Dazzler” Blaire thinks to herself as she sits in her seat aboard an airplane, watching the steward take people’s tickets, while wearing a t-shirt with a illustration of her old “disco” style outfit and hair on it. She wonders if the steward doesn’t recognize her. ‘Maybe I should get extensions’ Dazzler wonders. ‘Maybe I should shave it all off. Maybe I just…oh, I don’t know.’ As the sun shines in the sky, the airplane takes off, Ali thinks ‘Goodbye rainy old England and hello slightly-less rainy San Francisco. And a life of subsisting on cheap mission burritos while I scramble to make rent. I’m as broke as I’ve been in a decade. Last of my money went on this ticket.’
Dazzler’s mind flips backwards to recent events, about how newspaper reviews said things like “In another plagiarific moment the budget-brand mutant Madonna moves to England.” ‘That got old quick. I had to get out’ Ali thinks to herself, recalling how her manager was not pleased. ‘We raced to see if he could quit before I could sack him. He won.’ And now, Dazzler is between labels, with no representation and barely a sequined catsuit to her name. ‘Maybe I’m finished. At least it’s my finished’ she decides. ‘And if the future’s up in business class, I’m kinda glad that it hasn’t got a place for this burnt-out old disco diva.’
Sitting up ahead, Dazzler sees Man Mountain Marko, a small-time, big-guy super crook who has gone legit, turning his talents to bellowing at audiences all across Europe, now taking it to the U.S., to explore the ever-lucrative lowest common denominator. ‘Favorite lyrical subject? As far as I can make out, how super heroines’ faces feel when they break beneath your knuckles.’ Empty liquor bottles lie on the table in front of Marko and on the airplane floor, where a stewardess is busy sweeping up the mess. ‘So, good at beating girls, less good at hitting notes. Doesn’t need to. He’s just an exciting threat, that thug-chic thing gone meta’ Ali cannot recall if she has ever disliked someone more.
‘I’m sorry, Sir, but the airline’s policies…’ the stewardess begins after Man Mountain Marko asked her for another drink. ‘Hey! I’m Marko. I’m Man Mountain Marko. If I want a drink, you get me a drink!’ he exclaims. Another passenger sits up behind Marko and tells him to calm down, pointing out that they will be in San Francisco soon. Marko shoves the other passenger backwards, telling him that he doesn’t want “soon”, he wants now. ‘And nobody says “no” to me and walks away!’ he boasts.
Suddenly, Dazzler appears, ‘Hey, big guy. Sorry to butt in, but from one performer to another – you only get to be unreasonably brutal to stage-invaders now’ she tells him, suggesting that they just sit back and catch up with some movies. ‘Sit down, girl. Marko will be breaking your legs next,’ Marko replies, scowling. ‘Marky – babe! How did I know you wouldn’t go with the Pixar option?’ Ali replies, before casting her dazzling light powers upon him, while thinking that, with a big boy like this threatening someone, she would normally go straight for the laser. ‘But I spent all my charge last night. I wanted that last show to be as apocaly-tastic as I felt. That dull drone of the plane is only enough for a flare’ Ali realizes, leaving old-school super hero flair to try and finish it.
After Marko smacks the stewardess in the face, Ali kicks Marko in the back, before deciding ‘Oh, what the Hell. An encore’, and she unleashes more dazzling light on him. ‘Marko ain’t that easy, girl’ Marko exclaims, taking the stewardess as a hostage, he asks ‘Who’s in charge now?’ Dazzler tells Marko that she knows how this works. ‘You’re the star. You make the rules’ she remarks. ‘Yeah, I do… sing for me’ Marko orders. ‘You kid, yes?’ Ali replies to which Marko proceeds to break the stewardess’ arm.
Shocked, Dazzler begins to sing before she realizes it. She doesn’t even know what she sings – something to play for time. ‘A Capella with an audience other than a showerhead? It’s been a while’ Ali tells herself, as she notices the other passengers are all staring at her. Ali begins quietly, the song a threat. ‘Don’t you dare hurt her, Marko’ Ali stares at Marko, unable to maintain the flare, she turns to the stewardess. ‘You don’t deserve this. It’ll be okay.’ Dazzler sings, sings for the stewardess.
Colorful lights fill the cabin of the airplane, and Dazzler thinks that everyone else here is just eavesdropping, while she sings for the stewardess. However, part of Dazzler knows that this is the most attentive audience she has had in years. It is a part she barely remembers – the better, biggest part of her is with the music. ‘The music’ she thinks to herself. ‘It fills me and completes me, makes me feel connected with everyone and everything. I don’t want the song to end. I never want the song to end’ she tells herself, while the other passengers continue to watch her.
The final chorus rises Ali up before her like a tombstone. She cannot see a future beyond it – but Ali doesn’t care – she just sings. Marko begins to sing, mocking her, but Dazzler doesn’t think he hit’s a single note, and it doesn’t put her off. ‘We could be falling, screaming from the sky and it wouldn’t put me off’ Dazz decides, before she suddenly stops singing, and clutches her head. ‘Always liked that one’ Marko mutters, rubbing his head, while still holding onto the stewardess. ‘Yeah, me too. So, Marko… you going to let my captive audience go?’ Ali asks. ‘What do you think?’ Marko replies. ‘I’m leaning towards… no?’ Ali asks, to which Marko frowns.
‘Yeah. Thought so!’ Dazzler declares as she casts forth a burst of sold light, smacking Marko in the face, and knocking him out. Dazz tells herself that she could never do anything with her own voice, but other people’s is a different story, and although Man Mountain Marko cannot sing, he makes a laser-ific holler. The stewardess is free and rushes to safety.
The passenger that Marko smacked over earlier steps forward and tells Dazzler that he had no idea she could still do that. ‘No, I got through M-Day intact’ Ali replies. ‘Not the powers. I meant the singing’ the man explains. ‘Thanks’ Ali replies cautiously. The man tells Dazzler that she was amazing, and reveals that he has a friend who runs a club in San Francisco. He tells her that his request is probably way out of left field, and asks how she would feel about some kind of residency - a show for a week for a month or something. ‘Just you, a stage and an audience,’ he tells her, asking if that is the sort of thing she is interested in. ‘Yeah. I think it is’ Dazzler replies, as the flight continues towards San Fran.


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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Quitting Time
Nightcrawler. Mutant teleporter. Member of the X-Men... for another minute, or so.
"Scott," Nightcrawler says pensively one morning at the breakfast table, "I'm quitting the X-Men." Shocked, Scott Summers freezes in place, leaving his spoon suspended over his cereal bowl. The milk spills out and plops back into the dish. He asks Kurt if everything is all right. "Yes. And no," Kurt tells him. "The X-Men don't need me." Cyclops starts in with a sympathetic appeal, but Kurt interrupts him mid-sentence. There’s no point in pretending the team needs him; they have a stronger teleporter in Pixie anyway. It's not the strategy that concerns him, Cyclops insists. Kurt says it doesn't matter. Since he is not teaching at the school either, he sees no reason why they need him to stay. Besides, he would not feel comfortable with the X-Men depending on him right now.
Scott shrugs. If Kurt feels he needs some time off, of course he can take it. He asks Kurt where he intends to go. In response, Kurt presents an invitation he received in the mail and hands it to Scott. He reads it incredulously. “You are cordially invited to the opening of The Nightcrawler Museum,” it reads. Scott notices the location of the museum—Winzeldorf, Germany—and recalls the name from memory. It was in Winzeldorf that Nightcrawler performed with a circus as a trapeze artist. Kurt confirms this, adding that although he does not know the true intention behind the invitation, he can hardly think of a more appealing offer at this time in his life—considering how irrelevant he has felt lately.
"This sounds like a trap!" Cyclops shouts. At the very least, he asks that Kurt take one of the X-Men with him to investigate. Kurt folds his arms and glares at Scott with a defensive look written plainly across his face. While he appreciates Scott's certainty that no one would think so well of him, he reminds him that he, unlike so many of the X-Men, does not maintain a rogues' gallery of enemies nursing personal vendettas. Put simply, he must go to Winzeldorf to gain some perspective—and to step out of the shadow that has fallen over him. He plans on leaving that night, once he finishes packing. Cyclops asks if he can gather everyone to say goodbye. Kurt tells him that would be nice.
As he climbs into the cab that takes him out of the lives of the X-Men, Kurt gives his friends a forlorn, half-hearted goodbye wave.
Sometime later, Kurt Wagner arrives to his hometown in Germany. Winzeldorf: The Home of Nightcrawler! boasts the hand-crafted sign that now adorns the entrance to the village. Kurt looks at it—specifically the smiling wooden caricature of himself that sits atop the sign—and shrugs. "That looks nothing like me." Looking toward the quaint village, Kurt sees surprisingly little activity in the streets and wonders if he is early for the party. As he walks further into town, he passes by a disappointed-looking woman wearing a set of pointed, blue costume ears. Next to her stands a sign that once displayed the price of entry: 15 Euros. That price has been scratched out and replaced with a discounted rate: 5 Euros. Kurt realizes he's not early to the party at all, but late.
After walking down the cobblestone street, passing by broken windows and curious villagers in the process, Kurt arrives at the town square. To his surprise, he finds a water fountain in the center of the plaza carved in his likeness. The statue stands proudly on the backs of four chiseled men, who hold him up in a rather Atlas-like manner. "Oh. I almost feel bad, standing on them like that," Nightcrawler says to himself. He smirks. "But I'll take it!"
With excitement, Kurt darts toward the doors of the museum, pushes them open, and shouts "Hello, Winzeldorf!" at the visitors inside. Surprisingly, he finds the museum completely unpopulated—save for the wide array of Nightcrawler memorabilia it contains. He looks at the shrine in awe. Suspended above the main viewing room is the head of a Sentinel. Kurt walks around the room, spotting several other relics from his past he never thought he would see again. "I really hope this is a replica," he says when he sees the living gateway Widget. As he passes by a shrine of pictures from his circus days, Kurt cannot help but feel strange at the memories these images spur; he honestly has a hard time remembering what it was like to be that happy.
"You!" someone shouts from across the museum. Kurt turns and sees a mousy, pleasant-looking girl in a green, turtle-necked sweater and purple skirt. She drops her cup of coffee and her freckled face goes slack. She can't believe it's him! She introduces herself to Mr. Nightcrawler as Mara Keller—his biggest fan. Kurt doesn't challenge her title.
Now embarrassed, Mara hopes Kurt does not think her crazy for collecting all this stuff and opening a museum. Kurt seems surprised she opened the museum all by herself. Still embarrassed, Mara asks him not to be scared of her. Kurt laughs; normally he is the one who does the scaring! He actually feels honored and impressed that she created this tribute to his legacy. He just has one question: why him? "When I was at university—in the States—you saved me," Mara says, adjusting her glasses. "From an alien invasion or something. I never really found out what was happening.” She pauses. “Besides, I was a sociology major. What else was I going to do?"
Suddenly, two gruff, bearded men burst in the door, allowing a gust of wind to blow some crunchy autumn leaves inside. "Hey! Beast! You've come back!" they shout in German. Nightcrawler smiles. They must be confused, he says; Beast is a friend of his. He understands the confusion, though. Beast is also blue, after all. In fact, Kurt is surprised they don't get confused more often. Ignoring—and possibly not even understanding—these sarcastic barbs, the irate villagers get in Kurt's face and ask if he plans to kill the monster, or eat his table scraps. Kurt looks at him with confusion. What monster? The monster they summoned him to defeat, the villager shouts! Since Nightcrawler is supposedly some big hero now, they have a monster for him to fight before it kills again!
Kurt cranes his neck toward Mara and asks if this is true. She thinks so; she saw the creature a few weeks earlier, running toward the woods. Not that, Nightcrawler says; did she truly invite him to Winzeldorf to take care of a pest problem? He berates himself for having such an inflated ego. Mara apologizes for luring him there on such dishonest terms. Admittedly, she did want him to see the museum! She actually thought he would never want to come see it. Conversely, the villagers didn't think Nightcrawler would come if they asked, so they struck a bargain. Kurt admits the villagers were right; he would not have come had he known the true circumstances.
One of the villagers now tells Nightcrawler than another child—a young girl—has gone missing. Mara adds that this monster, which they have dubbed the Vielfras, has also killed a man, and possibly his teenage son as well. Kurt looks at her in disbelief. Can't they get their facts straight? He reminds Mara that these same people once thought he was a monster and tried to kill him as well! For all Kurt knows, this monster is just an innocent, scared kid like he was!
Suddenly, a huge, roaring, crimson-skinned demon comes crashing through the glass ceiling. Instinctively, Kurt grabs hold of Mara and teleports her up to the balcony and out of harm's way. He tells her to stay there. Mara swoons upon realizing she just teleported. Kurt then runs back down the stairs and confronts the monster. "Well, so much for proving them wrong," he says. The snarling demon asks if Kurt is the hero of which the villagers speak. "Well I certainly was not last time," Kurt says, "but I think you are putting me in a much better light." While grabbing hold of the demon's horns, Kurt notices the two men from the village running for the exit. He asks if they might like to help. The men continue out the door, adding that if either one of the fighters die, the entire village is better off.
Nightcrawler teleports above the demon's head and strikes at the back of its neck with his knee. The monster howls in pain. Nightcrawler follows up this attack with an elbow to the monster's face, noting that he would appreciate it if he did not destroy the entire museum before he got the chance to give it a thorough look. Unexpectedly, the monster recovers, grabs Kurt by the neck, and tells him to go ahead and take a better look, then. He hurls Nightcrawler headlong across the room and into a glass display case. Luckily for Nightcrawler, this display case happened to house two swords. Picking them up, he charges back toward the monster, ready to duel. They exchange blows. The demon blocks the attacks with his horns and spiked bone fragments jutting from his elbows. Kurt successfully parries each of the demon's counter-attacks. "And here I was worried I'd be rust—" be begins to say. Suddenly, the demon scores a blow in the form of an uppercut, sending Nightcrawler soaring across the room. However, Kurt recovers in mid-air and teleports. He reappears behind the monster's back and holds him at sword-point. "That was rude. I was in mid-quip," Kurt says. He then drives the sword forward, impaling the monster in the left shoulder.
The Vielfras lets out an anguished cry of pain, then charges for the exit. As it leaves, Nightcrawler cannot help but note its impressive prowess in battle. He takes a look around the museum and sees it is now in shambles. Kurt blames himself for ruining everything! At this point, Mara Keller comes running back down the stares and asks Kurt if he's kidding or something; his fight with the demon was the most amazing thing she has ever seen! Hanging his head, Kurt claims he should have gotten the monster outside right away. "Trust me," Mara says to him. "In a town of torch-wielding xenophobes, I took out plenty of insurance before putting your face anywhere near this place." Even so, Kurt promises to help her make any repairs she needs and replace anything he broke.
Mara tells him to be careful about what he promises; she might just show up at his house and take anything she likes! Something about his expression reveals to Mara that he intends to go after the monster. She asks if that is the case, to which Kurt replies he must. The monster, whatever it is, is dangerous. Mara makes him promise to return. If he doesn't, Kurt says, she can have all of his stuff. In a puff of purple smoke, Nightcrawler vanishes. His sudden disappearance initially startles Mara, but once she settles down, she basks in sulfuric smell of his brimstone stench and takes a big, adoring whiff.
After a seemingly endless series of teleports through the woods, Nightcrawler finally happens upon an isolated campfire. He slinks into the shadows and closes the rest of the distance on foot. If the Vielfras does indeed have the missing child, Kurt only hopes he reaches her before something horrible happens. Unfortunately, when he reaches the his campfire, he sees the large demon tearing into some recently cooked flesh, while a skull and ribcage continue roasting on the spit. Kurt watches in horror, certain he arrived too late.
"I have very good hearing, you know," the Vielfras suddenly says while finishing up a piece of roasted flesh. He turns to Nightcrawler and tells him he should not have come. As he wraps his claws around Nightcrawler's neck, he tells him that at the very least he should have brought swords, as he is not strong enough to take him down. Kurt groans. He tells the Vielfras that he only came to save the child, but sees that he was too late. "Child?" the demon asks. Just then, Kurt teleports out of his grip and reappears high up in the air. He doesn't have to be stronger than the Vielfras, he says as he dives at the monster; he just has to be smarter.
Nightcrawler levels the monster with a well-placed punch. As it crashes to the ground, Kurt admits he understands why it would want to take out its aggression on the close-minded people of the village. What he could never understand, however, is how he could have done such an awful thing to a small child. What could she have possibly done to deserve that? The Vielfras picks himself up and, rubbing his head, asks what he means about a child. Kurt narrows his eyes. "The child you captured. That you killed," he says. The Vielfras strikes back at Kurt with a tree branch and insists he never killed anyone! If that's the case, Kurt asks, then why does he keep attacking? He cracks the monster over the back of the head with a makeshift club.
"You're here to kill me, aren't you?" the downed Vielfras asks. "I didn't want to give you the chance." It explains how it heard rumors in the village of an American superhero coming to kill him. That is Nightcrawler, isn't it? At first, Kurt sneers at this notion, but then realizes the perception is entirely correct. However, he informs the Vielfras that he does not kill people, so the rumor was not as grave as it seemed. Regardless, he asks the monster what it was eating just now if it was not the child he supposedly didn't kill. Exasperated, the Vielfras explains he was eating a deer—or what was left of one, anyway. He even offers Kurt a portion. Kurt tells him he wants answers, not food.
He asks the Vielfras who—or what—he is, specifically if he is a mutant. Bowing his head, the Vielfras gives his name: Henrik Weber. "And I was just a sixteen-year-old kid," he adds, until he got involved with some Gypsies. Kurt knows all about Gypsies.
Moving on, Henrik explains how he fell for a beautiful Gypsy girl named Trista. He thinks he loved her, but he wanted more than she would offer. So, he found a girl at a dance who gave to him the physical satisfaction he desired—but never thought how it would make Trista feel. Unfortunately, he found out exactly how Trista would feel when she caught him in the act.
 After he regained his senses, Henrik went to Trista's place to apologize, but she would not see him. Her grandmother did, however. She confronted Henrik outside their camp and marked his forehead with blood. Although Henrik didn't understand what the words she chanted meant, he got the message loud and clear—or so he thought. It was not until he woke up as a creature resembling the Devil himself that he understood the gravity of this curse. Henrik was admittedly terrified. His father—who was in no condition to deal with this either—was even more terrified. He died of a heart attack upon seeing the monster in his son's room. When Henrik carried his father's lifeless body out of his room, the villagers assumed he had killed him, and drove him out of the city limits. They never gave him a chance to explain what happened. Henrik tried to find Trista, but her family had already moved on, leaving him permanently transformed. Worse, whenever he gets near the villagers to explain himself, they try to kill him! Now, his life is ruined simply because he messed up at love. He acknowledges that he made a stupid mistake. However, he also acknowledges that he is only sixteen; he hoped to have more time to figure things out. With tears in his eyes, he turns to Nightcrawler and asks if it gets any easier.
"What? Love?" Kurt asks. "I...I joined the priesthood. That is not generally a choice made by those who have 'figured out' women."
Suddenly, from behind, a baritone voice commands the demons to come out of the woods. If they come willingly, they will receive a quick death; they might not like the alternative. Kurt and Henrik turn around and gasp at the sight of an angry, torch-and-pitchfork-wielding mob from the village. Immediately, Kurt springs into action. He teleports into the middle of the mob and begins dispatching angry villagers and neutralizing their weapons using his martial arts. He would love to sit down with them and talk this out, Nightcrawler tells them, but he's had enough experience to realize that is not an option.
A bullet rips through his left shoulder. Nightcrawler gasps, coughing up a stream of blood in the process, and falls to the ground, completely defenseless. A shotgun-wielding villager stands proudly over his body. As they encircle him and prepare to deliver the coup de grace, the enraged Henrik leaps at the mob and challenges them to a fight. It's him they want, Henrik says, gesturing toward himself. He flails violently at the members of the lynch mob, choking some, cracking others over the head, and smashing the faces of others into trees. He holds an old man up with one hand and prepares to claw off his face with the other when Nightcrawler stands up and asks him to stop. Henrik, snarling, asks why he should. "Because—this is it. What you are doing," Kurt begins, "...you will never be Henrik again. Not to anyone in this land. Not to yourself. You will only be this creature. This Vielfras." Henrik insists the villagers left him no other choice, but Kurt rebukes him. In life, one always has a choice; Kurt knows from personal experience. When one looks like they do—or like so many other mutants who have faced persecution—one must be better than the rest, just to come out even. "And it isn't fair," Kurt adds. "And it isn't easy. The only other option is that you become exactly the monster they think you are."
As Kurt's words sink in, Henrik lets the old man go and hangs his head in shame. At that moment, the old man's granddaughter—the little girl who initially went missing—appears from behind a tree, the tears evident in her eyes. Kurt realizes he must get the little girl and her grandfather out of the area before they get hurt in the violence. Grabbing hold of them, he takes them via teleportation to the edge of the woods and lets them go. While the two frightened family members embrace, Kurt heads back to Henrik's campfire pit. "That would have been hard enough without getting shot," he says. "I've still got to get back there. Before—"
CRA-KOOOM! The sound of a gunshot rips through the quiet night air. By the time Nightcrawler makes it back to the campfire, he finds Henrik lying face down in a pool of blood, with the recently fired shotgun still gripped in his hand. Kurt gasps. Why did he do this? He still had a choice! "I pray I did not make you feel otherwise," Kurt says. "And I pray...I pray to God he take you now. And you may be at peace."
"Sorry, friend. But this boy is coming with me," a voice says. Nightcrawler turns and, to his utter horror, beholds the demon Mephisto. Grinning deviously, Mephisto tells Nightcrawler he would say he's looking well—but he hates lying. Even though he has met Mephisto before, Kurt is quite shocked to see him. Was this entire ordeal simply a way for him to get revenge on Kurt for refusing his earlier offer? Is he trying to teach Kurt some sort of lesson because he wouldn’t take his side in his demon war? Mephisto tells him not to be so arrogant; this was never about him. He has spent a great deal of time in this village over the years, Mephisto says. It only takes a small catalyst to unleash such fear, hatred, and simmering violence. In this case, the catalyst was merely whispering to a pretty young friend to come play in the woods. Mephisto hardly thinks it is his fault the worst parts of these fallen men got the best of them. “Though I will own the result,” he adds, leaning uncomfortably close to Nightcrawler. “Twelve blood-thirsty souls spilled out—and I drank them all.”
Kurt asks Mephisto why he brought him into this. “To show you,” Mephisto says. “To show you exactly how you are going to end up. Feared. Hated. And alone.” Kurt averts his eyes, catching sight of the lifeless face of Henrik. Mephisto redraws his attention. He reminds Kurt he is a demon; even his mutant friends will never truly understand what that entails—if they can ever completely trust him. He asks Nightcrawler if he feels that irresistible pull downward. He can only fight what he is for so long.
Nightcrawler tells Mephisto he is wrong. Ironically, by coming to Winzeldorf, Kurt saw his past enshrined, and saw the obstacles he overcame embodied by Henrik. These things made him realize he is truly proud of the person he has become and the choices he has made. Although what happened today truly qualifies as tragedy, it did at least serve to remind Kurt that he is no longer like Henrik. “Well don’t feel too proud,” Mephisto says as he turns to leave. “That’s a deadly sin, you know.” He leaves Kurt standing alone, over a pile of dead bodies, while the campfire burns out of control behind him and envelopes the forest.
Back at the Nightcrawler Museum, Mara is sweeping up the shattered glass when Kurt returns and asks for a bandage—and perhaps some antiseptic. He’s bleeding, Mara gasps! Kurt informs her he was shot. She wonders how he can just stand there, and insists he see a doctor. One gets used to these things, Kurt says. He takes this opportunity to extend his thanks to Mara. She doesn’t know what he means. For all this, Kurt answers, gesturing toward the museum. Although Mara insists there is no need to thank her, Kurt is persistent, and he takes her in his arms. “Now, I’ve got a fire we need to put out,” he says. He gives her a deep kiss.
A week later, back in San Francisco, the X-Men struggle to subdue Grotesk and his horde of Lava Men. Cyclops repels them with his optic blasts, while Emma, in her diamond form, surprisingly finds herself overpowered. Things are starting to look desperate for the X-Men. Suddenly, Nightcrawler teleports into the middle of the battle and immediately begins to fight. Cyclops asks what he’s doing. Kurt tells him he’s just pitching in, and then asks for a sit-rep. Their opponent, Cyclops explains, is Grotesk, the last surviving member of a race destroyed by humans. Kurt remembers hearing about him, but is confused; didn’t Grotesk die?
“Death cannot hold Grotesk!” the armored villain says. His minions resurrected his indomitable spirit, which Grotesk houses in his impenetrable, mystic armor. Emma explains to Kurt that Pixie already tried to teleport inside the protective field but nearly died because of the magical feedback. Kurt supposes it’s a good thing that his own powers do not require magic. He teleports into Grotesk’s supposedly impenetrable force field, clutches the villain’s helmet, and twists it off his head. To the collective surprise of Nightcrawler and the X-Men, Grotesk’s head twists off as well! As they watch, slack-jawed, the head dissipates into a cloud of mystical pink smoke and drifts away.
Kurt’s eyes widen in disbelief. Emma says she wouldn’t have cared either way. Armor wonders why villains reveal so much about themselves in the first place. Cyclops, however, pats Nightcrawler on the back and asks if he is back for good. Kurt smirks. “I should say so,” he says.


[Assistant]
untitled
Elliott Bay, Seattle:The headquarters of the Autolycus Corporation:It’s a rainy night and the complex is heavily guarded. One guard’s shift is over as his colleague arrives. Once the first man is gone, however, the new guard changes shape, revealing himself to be Raze of the future Brotherhood of Mutants.
Raze scales the wall, jumps over the barbed wire atop and is inside the complex. He lets some blackbirds out of his bag and the building’s lasers are trained on them while he runs towards the building. He taps in the correct security code and takes on the form of Dr. Gregory Sale for the facial ID. He is let in but grabbed by metal tentacles a moment later. Sampled DNA on keypad does not match face or voice ID, a mechanical voice announces. Security protocols engaged.
A little later, the real Gregory Sale asks a security man named Beacham who their prisoner is. He should be asking what, is the reply. Beacham tells him to look into the cell. When they captured him, he looked like Dr. Sale, then he took on Beacham’s shape.
Noticing he’s watched, Raze turns into an innocent little girl. Beacham explains he can change body mass and core temperature.
Who is he? Sale addresses Raze. An innocent little child all alone in the great big world, Raze (still in little girl form) replies. Who is he under the hologram cloak or whatever? Sale scoffs. He’ll show them. Any minute now, is the reply.
Dr. Sale is impressed his prisoner got that far. But she never would have made it all the way inside. The little girl points out she is all the way inside.
Sale warns her she is inside an electrified field of half a million volts. Not to mention six inches of glass. The girl smirks. Tonight, March 8th, 11:09 pm which is about thirty second from now. It’s in the history books. Tropical storm Malcolm hits the eastern seaboard a whole lot harder than expected.
And how did it get into the history books before it happened? Sale demands. Her history books go a whole lot further, the “girl” smirks. That’s where she read about him.
The lights go out. The back-up generator kicks in moments later and the cell is empty. The shapeshifting Raze hangs from the ceiling. Let him show them who he really is… He unsheathes his claws and massacres the guards, leaving only Dr. Sale. That’s who he is. And he knows all about Sale’s wonderful invention. In fact, that’s why he’s here. He’d like to borrow it…
Alarms clamor, sirens scream. The start of another day at the Jean Grey School. X-Men and students look out of the windows to see a jumbo jet heading for the school. Rachel Grey announces that she senses nothing from the pilots or the passengers. The kids wonder whether this is an attack.
Storm flies upward and orders Rachel to mindlink the X-Men. Nightcrawler teleports himself and Wolverine into the cockpit which they find empty.
They inform the others and try to bring the plane down safely. However, the engines are dead. Rachel tells them to get ready. Storm creates a tornado to slow the jet down and Iceman changes its direction with his ice slides. The plane lands hard a short distance in front of the students.
Rachel scans and announces there isn’t anyone alive in there. Kid Gladiator tears off the door. Instead of dead bodies, they simply see nobody aboard. Quite the locked room mystery, Beast muses. Rachel fears it’s worse than that and asks him to fire up Cerebra.
Later, in the Cerebra chamber, Storm wonders what’s wrong. If anything, the mutant lights can be seen even more clearly. Rachel asks Beast to tell them.
He wants to believe this is a malfunction. Cerebra picks out mutants from the larger mass of baseline humans. You could think of mutants as the signal and everybody else as the noise. Interference. But now there isn’t any interference, that’s why the signals are so clear. While what he is implying sinks in, he suggests they verify by sight before they panic.
Nightcrawler teleports them to Times Square. Machines, cars everything is there, just not the people who operate them. Can they now panic? Iceman asks. Beast announces as far as he can tell the whole world is like this. If this was a planet-wide attack, shouldn’t there be more damage? Wolverine wonders. Iceman points out the fires and car crashes. Wolverine corrects him that these are side effects of people disappearing.
They still try to wrap their minds around what happened, hoping the people aren’t dead. Iceman wonders: Cyclops keeps talking about a mutant revolution. They don’t think— Storm protests, Scott is many things. And a killer is one of them, Wolverine interrupts. But this? Storm continues. Nobody sane would depopulate the planet. Beast suggests the quickest way to find out is probably ask them.
Not too far away stand Cyclops’ team of X-Men, as well as the young original X-Men. The two groups face each other and cool greetings are exchanged. Wolverine asks if this is a coincidence. Did they just decide to catch a show while they were in town? Hardly, Cyclops replies. They’ve been to a dozen world capitals. All the same. They came here to ask the other X-Men if they know more than they do and suggest a common front.
Storm asks where Magneto is. He is no longer with them, comes the non-reply. Which way is their common front facing? Wolverine asks. Do they see this as a threat or an opportunity? Does he think he‘d condone something like this? Cyclops snaps. He’s not saying he did this, Logan replies. Just that he might not be in a hurry to put it right.
So because he doesn’t share his perspective he has to be a mass murderer? Cyclops shouts. Wolverine killed more people than the Black Death! Yeah, but he doesn’t do that stuff and then climbs back on his pulpit, Logan insists. He knows what he is.
He didn’t come here to fight him or prove his innocence, Scott retorts. Reaching for his visor, he warns if he has to choose between the two…
Enough! a voice from above booms and for good measure a car lands between them separating them. Above floats Magneto along with his children, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. Magneto announces this is unseemly and there is work to be done.
Soon back at the Jean Grey School:Some students repair the damage from the plane landing and the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver wait outside while inside a group of X-Men from both sides, as well as Magneto, have gathered to discuss the issue.
Magneto explains as far as he can tell the eradication of the human race occurred in an instant at 8:32:17 this morning. The surge in electromagnetic activity was like a solar flare, only more powerful. And was he in the vicinity at the time? Iceman demands.
Magneto points out his vicinity is the entire world. They are dealing with an entity or agency that can wield energies on a planetary scale. He would offer as possible suspects the Phoenix, Galactus and the High Evolutionary. What about his daughter? Gambit asks. This is not how Wanda’s powers manifest, Magneto retorts.
Beast reminds him she has been responsible for a genocide before, which is why she is not welcome at the table. She shouldn’t even be allowed within the school grounds, Rachel adds. Magneto tells them his children and he are there to offer an alliance not a new target. He makes and breaks alliances very readily, Emma points out. He adapts to circumstances he retorts.
Beast looks at his tablet then interrupts. They made a mistake, he announces. They were looking for a haystack with a machine that calibrates for needles. He conferred with his past self. Between them, they reset Cerebra’s data buffer search algorithms. They told her to filter out mutants. In Southern New Mexico is a light. The last human left. Think that might be significant? Magik points out it might be a trap. Cyclops figures they got to go in either way. And since trust is in short supply there, they’ll all wish to be represented, Magneto points out. So who gets to be the X-Men today?
A little later, a Blackbird flies towards New Mexico. Aboard are Storm, Wolverine, adult Cyclops, Emma Frost, adult Beast, Magneto and Marvel Girl. The rest get to stay behind to protect the students.
Beast identifies the place as La Jornado del Muerto. The site of the first nuclear test. Now there’s a pleasant omen. Humanity always did excel at thinning out its own numbers, Magneto opines. Beast doesn’t want to hear it. Storm reminds them there is hope. Isn’t that why they are here? Magneto remarks he is here to protect mutantkind. If that includes restoring humanity, fine, but it’s not his first priority.
Wolverine tells them to stay on task as they land and see a man tied to a stake in the desert. Jean can’t read anyone else around. Emma asks for access to Jean’s power. She reads only the man but faintly like he’s wearing a mind-shield. After making sure the others defer to him in leadership matters, Cyclops orders they go in but the jet stays on autopilot with the engines hot.
They walk towards the man. Jean kneels down next to him and reveals it’s not a mind-shield. His thoughts are broken up because he’s dying from exposure and thirst. At least that’s what it looks like to her inexperienced eye. Magneto asks for a medical kit. Emma figures it’s too late.
The man groans, he made him! Cyclops tells him not to talk and asks Emma if she can get anything from his surface thoughts. Emma reads he is Dr. Gregory Sale, a physicist. He owns the Autolycus Corporation. That’s tied into what he’s afraid of. Three nights ago, his people caught an intruder.
Jean chides her she is going in too far. She is hurting him! Emma retorts he’s dying. He’s thinking of a face. She sees a memory of Raze telling Sale evolution works in stops and starts. It’s their turn now. It’s not personal.
Dear God! Emma burst out. It was that bizarre lovechild of Mystique and Wolverine! His name is Raze, Wolverine adds and swears the next moment when a tower bursts from the ground.
Magneto warns this device is broadcasting on the same frequencies he sensed this morning. He and Cyclops attack it. Something blips and the device and X-Men disappear, leaving Sale and the jet behind…
Back at the Jean Grey School, several students of both schools are bored. Kid Gladiator suggests a game, but the others consider that in poor taste. Kid Gladiator explains this will take their minds off the problems. Is he thinking baseball? Triage asks. Actually, he is thinking a series of duels, but then gives in.
Idie Okonkwo announces she’ll mark out a diamond at the far end of the lawn. She can’t, Broo replies. Idie misunderstands, announcing she’ll ask Ms. Grey. The lawn is now the locus of a hyper-dimensional portal, he explains.
Several people begin to materialize and Kid Gladiator fears they are being invaded. Stay behind him! He confronts the exotic looking people and tells them that’s far enough. One step farther and they are going to die so bloody, even the gods will look away.
Before an argument begins, Rachel joins them, along with Northstar and Magik. She explains that Cerebra reveals they are all mutants. She asks the strangers who they are and what they want. The speaker introduces himself as Stonewall of New Amsterdam in the Orange Republic of the Americas. He wants what was promised to him: Sanctuary. At this word, they all kneel down before Rachel, who admits she did not see that coming.
The others find themselves cast literally into nothingness. Before they die of exposure or lack of air, Marvel Girl creates a telekinetic bubble around them, gathering the air and creating some pressure. Emma explains that telepathically to the others. She warns them that Jean is straining and to do something fast.
As the device was teleported along with them, Scott asks Beast if he can operate it and send them back. He’d need to inspect its workings and he has neither time nor insides. Magneto helps there, carefully opening the device according to Beast’s orders.
After some time, he thinks he’s figured it out and hopes a certain action will cause the reverse action, but they need power. He asks Magneto to ionize the air enabling, Storm to create electricity for the device. Moments later, they are teleported back to the desert.
Wolverine and Cyclops figure that, since they were trapped and not the whole school, their foe wanted the fighters out of the way. They find that Sale died while they crossed over and wonder why he didn’t cross over along with them.
Rachel contacts them and asks them to hurry back. Beast asks her to send Magik. Their transport is down.
In the meantime, the others have created a tent city on the school grounds and do their best to help the other-dimensional refugees.
The senior X-Men have gathered again to discuss matters. Cyclops wonders where all the refugees came from. Pretty much everywhere but here, Rachel replies, alternate dimensions. Most of them are mutants from anti-mutant governments and coalitions. A mysterious stranger opened a gate and told them there was safety on the other side. They were desperate enough to try it out.
The gate is one-way and Beast figures if more keep coming they are looking at a humanitarian crisis in the making. Magneto suggests their foe wants that to tie their resources down. So the disappearance of humans was the first step in a bigger plan, Cyclops summarizes.
Can he remind them of what else is going on? Wolverine interjects. According to Emma, one of the last thing that dead guy Sale saw was Wolverine’s son, Raze, who is ruthless, dangerous as hell and wants mutants to wage war on humans. Something he’s happy to use his future knowledge to achieve.
Magneto wonders why Sale was chosen to draw them in. Beast did some analogous research (as the Internet is down). He had Nightcrawler pull most of the newspapers archived in the Salem Center library. Sale was the CEO of a company that specialized in in cutting edge technologies, the Autolycus Corporation. Over the last two years, he filed more than two hundred patents, some he would call game-changing.
The removal of the human race is certainly that. Magneto agrees. Storm accuses him of being coldblooded. He apologizes. He’ll put on a sadder face then.
Cyclops suggests they follow the Autolycus lead. And so, sometime later in Elliot Bay, Seattle, Nightcrawler teleports into a deserted compound. He finds the place has weeds growing and broken windows, signs it was deserted some time ago. Furniture and equipment have all been stripped out. Cyclops orders him home. Suddenly, a voice tells Nightcrawler he should know mother liked HIM best. He is hit by a blast. Raze stands over him, surrounded by other-dimensional counterparts of many mutant villains.
Soon, Marvel Girl informs the others she has lost contact to Nightcrawler. So someone set an ambush in an empty factory, Rachel summarizes. Magneto points out he merely set the appearance of an empty factory and Beast concurs. It would take months for the place to fall into such disrepair and Autolycus was a working factory until five days ago. Ergo the look was either a fake or illusion.
Cyclops suggests they go there in force. Storm points out that they know nothing of their foes. She suggests a plan B and asks for a word in private with Cyclops.
In the factory, Mystique asks Raze if he knows they are coming. Of course, he replies, or he would have let Nightcrawler leave without noticing anything. And if he didn’t want to talk he’d have killed him.
Magik teleports in a small group of X-Men (Storm, Cyclops, Beast, Wolverine, Magneto, Emma Frost and Marvel Girl). Raze orders Mystique not to let them see her.
He steps forward to greet the X-Men. Cyclops threatens what will happen if he won’t free Nightcrawler. Raze reveals he has Nightcrawler rigged to die five different ways. He will let him go after they hear him out. Cyclops retorts with an ultimatum of his own: There is an iron-rich asteroid hovering three miles up. Magneto and Psylocke are keeping it there. For now. Raze says or does anything they don’t like, he’ll get a mile-wide headache.
Raze tells them to look around. These machines are keeping the gate on their school grounds open. A second one is here and more on every landmass in the world. This is the largest resettlement project ever attempted. All the persecuted mutants of every variant Earth will now make their homes on this one.
He killed billions to make room for them, Wolverine points out. Omelet, eggs, breakage, Raze shrugs. Logan hits him in the stomach and remarks Raze didn’t say there was a motion trigger. Raze warns him what will happen to Nightcrawler if he does that again. In which case, he will lose his bargaining chip, Wolverine retorts and orders him to talk.
Actually, he was at the ‘any questions’ stage, Raze quips as he gets up. If there is anything they are not getting, ask him. Otherwise they are done.
Storm summarizes that he is planning to repopulate the world with persecuted mutants from other realities. What about the man staked in the desert? What was he for? Raze explains Sale invented the dimensional gate. All those other patents were tech he stole from other realities. Which is why he named the company after the god of thieves.
Storm asks why he brought Sale to their attention. Because they had to see this and understand. Otherwise, they’d think there was something they could do.
Cyclops threatens that they will shut him down. And he’s supposed to be the tactical genius, Raze mocks and tells him to think this through for a second. And they should meet his Brotherhood of Mutants, in case they miscalculated the odds. He snaps his fingers and tell Mastermind to drop his illusion and they see a group of alternate members of the Brotherhood of Mutants as well as this world’s Mystique. Fight him and the X-Men will lose and everybody will lose as the world will be empty. Do they want that?
On his mark, Cyclops orders the X-Men. Wolverine gets ready to attack without any order when Magneto tells them not to. This is the greatest good for the greatest number. Raze has presented them with a fait accompli. As of now the mutant refugees are his primary concern.
He can’t condone this! Wolverine shouts. He doesn’t, Magneto shrugs, but the choice is between a depopulated wasteland and a mutant republic. Is it really a surprise that he chooses the latter?
Raze grins and tells them the door is over there. Cyclops realizes there is nothing they can do now. Storm protests. Wolverine gets ready to attack, threatening he is not leaving without Nightcrawler. Raze angrily replies he is in no position to make demands. Magneto announces there is no more need for hostages. Raze switches off the traps and agrees, telling them to stay out of his way.
Wolverine frees Nightcrawler. Mystique tells him she wouldn’t have consented to Kurt’s death. Logan replies she talks to him now she’ll start a war.
As they teleport away, Cyclops threatens this isn’t over. Raze retorts he has faith in them. The X-Men always do the right thing. After all they’ve run through all the other options.
Back at the Jean Grey School, the X-Men ascertain that Raze’s claims are true. Cyclops decides to do nothing at the moment, causing Wolverine to express his disgust. Cyclops explains Cerebra shows twenty-thousand mutants clustered at more than 100 locations. The population of this camp here is pushing three thousand and they still keep coming. So Raze gets away with mass murder because he changed the facts on the ground? Wolverine demands. Is that what he said? Cyclops shoots back. It’s what he heard, Wolverine retorts.
Beast interjects that it’s not about Raze and admits Cyclops is not wrong. Those lights represent a new planetary population that can’t be sent home. And they have to be helped, integrated. Go after Raze, by all means, but don’t imagine it will change this.
Iceman joins them, announcing a problem in tent city. Someone got their rations stolen and now it looks like two populations going to war. Cyclops and Storm rush after him. Wolverine asks Beast if he isn’t going to help. Of course he is, Hank replies. He just though he’d never see this day. The X-Men going down losing without even making a fight of it. He doesn’t think they are fighters anymore, Logan replies grimly. In this brave new world, they are going to be peacekeepers. And outside, the X-Men try to disperse the conflict.
Elsewhere, walking between some trailers, Raze and Mystique discuss the situation. Mystique is skeptical of his claim that he is her and Wolverine’s son, while he tells her to look at the evidence: his powers he inherited from both of them. The shape shifting makes the rest moot, she points out. He can look like anything he chooses. He tells her his connection to Logan is not one he is proud of.
Two alien mutants thank Raze for saving them. They saw so many of their friends murdered by the Purity squads. The woman gives him a small statue as a gift and Raze seems to be touched. When they are gone, he throws it away and asks why she helps him if she doesn’t believe him. She tells him what he achieved is incredible. Insane and appalling in many ways but incredible. Insane? he frowns. What would he call it? He cut the Gordian knot of human-mutant relations. But he did it by taking the humans out of the equation, by committing genocide.
Possibly, they are arguing about semantics, he replies and confides something else. Even as he is talking, they are eavesdropped on by Eva Bell. Raze notices her and grabs her with an extended arm. Mystique grabs a knife, intent on killing her. Eva freezes time in a time bubble and calls for help.
An alternate Blob hits the ground, making her stumble, but suddenly she is gone, thanks to Northstar’s super-speed.
Back in the infirmary, Eva informs the X-Men leaders about Raze’s secret. The humans aren’t dead, more like pending. When Wolverine presses for more info, Beast lays down the law: his patient needs stitches and some rest.
Cyclops announces this changes everything. If humanity is in some kind of virtual storage, they have to retrieve them. Even if that means going to war with Raze and the Brotherhood. Especially if it means that, Logan stresses. Storm points out Sale’s technology is the key but, if Raze couldn’t master it, she doubts they will do much better. Logan asks if they can reverse-engineer the device they brought with them from New Mexico. Storm explains Hank said the lightning destroyed half its circuits.
Why don’t they ask Sale? Cyclops suggests after some thinking. Storm points out he’s dead. That doesn’t have to be a deal-breaker, Scott continues and soon asks his student Christopher Muse aka Triage for help. The boy refuses, overwhelmed. Nobody could do that! Cyclops reminds him he brought him back from the dead in Phoenix. Triage believes he was still breathing. He was either dead or dying, Cyclops replies. And Christopher’s powers reversed that. This goes beyond mere healing. He manipulates the life force. Christopher admits he doesn’t want his power to work like that. He wants to be Dr. Feelgood, not Herbert West, Re-Animator. Scott stresses the importance and Christopher replies he needs some minutes to psych himself up.
Soon Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine and Triage join Beast in the morgue. So they are grave robbers now? Hank asks cuttingly. He’s asking in the interest if accuracy. He likes to keep his resume up to date. Cyclops tells him to do the math: his conscience against seven billion lives. Seems like a pretty straight forward equation to him. The end justifies the means? Beast scoffs. They need this information to save countless lives. Except he just counted them, is the belligerent reply.
Christopher speaks up that this should be his choice. He has to do it and maybe it’s the best out of a lot of bad ideas. Good for him, Beast tells him. There’s a place for him in today’s X-Men, compromising morals one at a time.
Can they just get this done? Wolverine asks. Of course they can, he is told. He will be waiting outside in the hallway.
Nervously, Triage begins the process and explains it feels different. When he’s healing someone, he can feel things working like electricity but here there isn’t any— and then Gregory Sale opens his eyes.
Slowly, the animated corpse gets up. Cyclops announces they’d like to ask him a few questions.
Storm steps outside and tells Beast that they need him in here. He’s made his feelings on this very clear, he replies stubbornly. She retorts that Sale is talking now and they can’t even frame the questions they need to ask. They can’t do it without him.
Does she remember what it was like not to make these compromises? he asks. To have a moral code they could actually put in the school prospects? She learned to pick pockets right after she learned to walk, Ororo reminds him. Nobody blames her for what she had to do to survive, he amends. This is about survival, too, Storm stresses. The human race’s. And just this once, Scott is right.
So Beast joins them and soon they listen to Sale’s explanations. The dimension gate can be set to select by genetic markers. It operates in two stages. Abstraction to virtual holding space. And then return from space to target destination. They can bring them back, Beast translates if they don’t mind a few million casualties. When the others don’t understand, he clarifies. Everybody who was in a car when they were dimensionally shifted will come back with the same momentum but the car won’t be there. The passengers in all those downed planes come back mid-air and so on. It’s going to be bloody, whatever happens.
There has to be something they can do, Wolverine insists. If they had a million years or were gods, yes, Beast replies. Oh and he forgot to mention the hard part. None of this works unless they get to Sale’s original rig. They’ve got to get through Raze and the Brotherhood. Anyone else seeing that as part of the good news? Logan snarls, or is it just him?
Elsewhere, Magneto looks down at the refugee camp where the Brotherhood resides. Mystique addresses him, asking if he isn’t a little jealous. He’s given his whole life to promoting the interests of the mutant race. Then Raze comes along and literally gives them the whole world in a single day.
Magneto announces that he admires his achievements but has some reservations regarding the methods. Because he didn’t play nicely with the Homo sapiens? Mystique mocks. Of course not, is the reply. Because of his death wish. There were a thousand ways of putting the Autolycus gates in the service of mutantkind. Most did not involve provoking open war with the X-Men. Mystique reminds him the X-Men crawled out of here with their tails between their legs. Magneto is sure this isn’t the end of the matter. All plans have built-in flaws. In this case, the flaw is Raze. He’s desperate for the X-Men to fight him. He’ll do anything it takes to make that happen. Why attract the X-Men’s attention with an apparent act of genocide? And why stop short of completing the act, thus raising the stakes as high as they can go?
She doesn’t see any sign of— Mystique begins when an urgent telepathic message by the X-Men to all the Brotherhood interrupts her. The X-Men tell them to come out or they’ll come in.
There are many things that can cause a man to court self-destruction, Magneto points out as a parting shot. An overly dominant parent, for example. She snaps at him not to push his luck.
Mystique tells Raze to let the X-Men come to him. He replies then it’ll look like he ducked the challenge. Those mutants out here are only just learning about the world. They need to see who runs it.
Mystique exclaims Magneto was right. He wanted this all along! He wants the world to belong to the mutant race, he retorts, and the mutant race to acknowledge who their true saviors are. Is he naive to assume that can only be achieved via a massacre?
Raze calls the Brotherhood and soon they five X-Men past and present. Let’s show the X-Men their place in this new world, he announces. Under it.
He addresses the X-Men directly, musing when they left they seemed to know they were beaten. If that slipped their minds somehow they’ll be happy to remind them.
Cannonball announces they’ll fight Raze if they have to but that’s not why they came.
So what do they want? Raze plays dumb. He already knows, Storm replies. If he gives them access to Sale’s machine, they can bring back the human race from the virtual state Raze left them in.
And start the whole tedious cycle again, he replies. They oppress mutants. Mutants oppress humans and on and on.
Peaceful existence is hard but worth striving for, Storm insists. Personally, he just finds it kind of dull, he decides.
Wolverine unsheathes his claws. They are not asking, just announcing they are coming through. If Raze is too stupid to get out of the way, that’s up to him.
Clearly having waited for this, Raze unsheathes his claws as well. Wolverine is his, Raze announces. The rest is negotiable.
The Brotherhood attack. Storm faces Magneto who expresses his regret it had to come to this. Her lightning won’t touch him. She’s aware of that, she replies as she hits him in the face, and she’s not sorry at all! Tasting blood, he announces he thinks they are done with bland courtesies. He raises metal shards and hurls them at her.
A disgusted Siena Blaze attacks Cyclops and asks if they have no ethnic pride. She drops him. Unus repels Rogue and Cannonball recalling that the X-Men on his world died early.
Wolverine and Raze go at each other. His friends are getting torn apart, Raze mocks. Must feel like old times. He talks too much, Logan snarls. He does a lot of things too much, Raze retorts, growing two extra pairs of arms with which he pummels Wolverine. Too much is kind of his comfort zone.
Still falling, Cyclops shouts to Jean or Emma for help. Nightcrawler teleports up, chiding him they are all working very hard. He shouldn’t be relaxing here. So drop him somewhere useful, Scott suggests. Kurt brings him in position to blast Raze. He’s welcome, Cyclops tell Wolverine. For what? Logan shouts. They are still about a million miles from even. And the fight’s not over. He goes for Blob, while Cyclops blasts Phantazia into Unus.
In the meantime, Magik has teleported the Sale zombie, both Beasts and Triage into the factory. She is going to the fight now, she announces. What if they need her in a hurry? Triage asks. Try not to, she smirks and teleports away.
What now? Triage wonders. Now Dr. Sale tells them how it’s done, young Beast remarks He tells them how it’s done, Sale repeats slowly. And they save the day, grown Beast adds. Or fail, young Beast points out. And nobody is left alive to tell them “I told you so,” grown Beast points out.
Outside, Lorelei reaches out with her persuasion power and asks Psylocke to drop a mountain on the X-Men. Psylocke telekinetically slams her into a wall and suggests she grab a little self-respect. That super hypnosis thing is not cute. It’s creepy! Unsurprised, she asks Jean if she disconnected her auditory cortex as she kicks an alternate Quicksilver. Little bit, Jean admits and tells her she lip-reads well. Next time ask first, Betsy tells her. She did ask, but Betsy didn’t hear.
Inside the factory, the Hanks begin fixing matters with the recalcitrant Sale’s help.
Outside, the battle continues. Iceman tells the beaten Raze to tell his Brotherhood to stop but he remains stubborn. Moments later, Iceman is shot by Mystique. With a smile, she tells him it’s good to see him again. She doesn’t have to be part of this, he pleads. She shoots off his head and tells him not to spoil the moment.
Mystique helps up Raze as she explains Iceman will grow a new head in five minutes. Time for Plan B. They can beat them, he insists stubbornly. Not without backup, Mystique replies and tells him to do it. Fine, but only to be done with this mindless brawl. Raze calls for other-dimensional Mastermind.
Northstar races towards whom he believes to be Wolverine, announcing they need his help against Unus. “Wolverine” hits him before assuming his form as Mastermind. He asks Rate what he wants. What does he think he wants? Raze snaps. His company? Oh, well, Mastermind shrugs, but he’ll need his other face for that. He assumes the more handsome look of Jason Wyngarde. She is particular about that. He shouts out to someone to save her darling Jason from the monsters. Ideally in a way that involves a great amount of violence and bloodshed.
Cyclops, Wolverine and Rachel react with horror, Jean with curiosity as Dark Phoenix manifests in the sky. Smiling darkly, she tells the X-Men the Phoenix does not forget her friends. Or forgive her enemies.
Is that really her? Wolverine asks and steps toward her. If it is, she can fight this. She did once before. She tells him to hush. When the X-Men chose to hurt her beloved Jason, they became her enemies. And the enemies of Phoenix burn. With a gesture, she waves him away.
Cyclops orders the others to do what they can to take her down or this is over. Storm attacks with lightning, which Phoenix deflects with a shield. Amused, she asks if there are tears in Storm’s eyes. Ororo admits they are for Jean. Every time they think her torment is over— Phoenix assures her she isn’t tormented and hits her with a fiery blast. Heavily burned, Storm falls and is caught by Nightcrawler, who calls out for Triage.
Inside the factory, Triage tells young Hank that the other Hank and the dead guy say they are finished here. Seeing the Phoenix outside, holding herself against all attacks, young Hank agrees grimly.
Outside, a smugly grinning Raze and Mystique watch the battle. Magneto lands next to them and asks where Raze found her. The same place he found all of his Brotherhood. A parallel Earth. Took a long while but looks like it was worth it. Magneto calls him a fool. There is no taming the Phoenix Force. He doesn’t want to tame her, Raze retorts. He’s happy to see her cut loose. Something worse than a fool then, Magneto decides. He’s built his strategy on something he can’t control. And that’s no strategy at all.
Making short work of the X-Men, Phoenix calls to Wyngarde she is coming. And if a million X-Men throw themselves between them, she’ll walk through every one of them.
Jean Grey stands in her way and suggests a million is a big scary number. Let’s count to one, then stop and get their breath back. Not amused, Phoenix asks what this is and demands she take her face off. Jean explains this is a sanity check. She’s trying to hurt and kill her friends. What does that tell her about her state of mind right now?
Phoenix refuses to believe she is her. She wishes that were true, Jean exclaims, but they can read each other’s thoughts. Phoenix calls her a filthy little liar. Lashing out with her power, she shouts at Jean just to die. However, she and the others find that the blast didn’t touch Jean, apparently the Phoenix Force has other ideas. Angrily, Phoenix shouts at the raptor to stay away from Marvel Girl.
Raze orders Mastermind to get her to finish the X-Men. Wyngarde tries to get Phoenix’s attention. Ignoring him, Phoenix tells Marvel Girl it won’t do any good to resist. It wants them both.
Losing his cool, Mastermind shouts at her to do as she is told. In response, she incinerates him.
Inside the factory, young Beast asks what that is. Older Hank tells him the Phoenix just took Jean. Again.
But the plan stands, young Hank insists. This is the only chance they have to bring back the humans. They are beyond that his older self replies, fiddling with the controls. There’s no point in bringing them back just to see them burn. Help him change these settings quickly!
Outside, Raze shouts for Mastermind to tell him what’s going on. Magneto calmly informs him there is no point. Mastermind can’t answer him. He’s just been eaten by the law of unintended consequences.
Jean, Dark Phoenix and the Phoenix Force are in a rapport, wondering why they are two. Or are they three? Or one? It’s all the same. Just them now anyway. Nothing can intrude on that. Jean tries to assert herself: they are not the same. She doesn’t want to hurt anyone. Her other self is different. She doesn’t seem to mind death that much. She speaks that language pretty well.
Death is just a station on the way, she is told. Why should they care what path they take when their final destination is so glorious? What is their destination? Jean asks. Fire and life, she is told. That burns and lives the brighter when all that’s old and imperfect is burned away. And they, referring to the others, are imperfect. Every one of them: just listen.
And Jean is privy to the others’ thoughts: Cyclops regretting the harm he did when he had her. And what if this is their best shot. No more humans… Magneto caught between the scales of hurt and hope. Raze focused only on himself. Storm hurting for Jean, Beast trying to figure out their chances. Triage doubting his courage.
They are all just themselves, Jean decides. All just people. And she agrees. Here— now, it is nowhere near good enough.
As one the two address the Brotherhood and X-Men both. Their little world is so near death already. Has none of them the courage to administer the final—
Inside the factory, all is set. Beast tells Sale all is on him now. God help them if he lets them down. And suddenly all mutants on Earth disappear.
Sale alone is left and recalls what Beast told him. Namely that he was going to drop everyone with an X-gene into that virtual holding space, leaving only Sale behind. He’ll need to refine the search algorithm to bring the two Beasts back. They will then sort this out and return everyone else.
Sale begins to work giving the order to execute security procedure “crash and burn.” The device explodes. Nobody owns him, mutants, he spits, nobody.
All the mutants end up in the virtual holding space. Young Beast tells everyone to shut up and listen, then asks Jean to get them some oxygen. The stuff they brought with them won’t last five breaths. The Phoenixes demand where they are, then take the answer from young Beast’s mind.
He explains that the dimension shunt sent them all into virtual storage just like Earth’s human population but the two Beasts built in a failsafe. If the physical integrity of the shunt was threatened, they’d be dropped out of storage into this place.
Why here? the two Jeans ask. Because it’s not Earth, he replies. They were hoping a timeout might clarify what’s at stake. Which is? Phoenix asks. Life, he replies. Right now, the Earth is a tomb the size of a planet. All the cities built with such hope. Falling back into ruin. Chaos out of order. Triumph of entropy. Oh, there will be upsides. The forests will grow back. The ice caps will reform, the carbon in the atmosphere gets reabsorbed. And maybe a new sentient species will spring up in a few billion years or so. Or maybe not. The odds aren’t great and the sun might burn out before that happens. In the meantime, one undead man sits in a warehouse and listens to the sound of his own body rotting. That’s what they’ve come to. That’s what the future holds. Unless Phoenix does something about it. Because life is supposed to be its big thing, right? Its raison d’etre. It might be time to put up or shut up.
The Jeans reply that the Phoenix builds by sweeping away the old with cleansing fire. Which is easy if fire is what you are made of, Hank replies, but the easy option is getting old.
Phoenix doesn’t reply and Jean begins to cry. Raze urges an attack while they are distracted. Magneto warns him off.
Dark Phoenix finally announces they have decided. It is better that the world should live and know itself. For that, sentient beings are needed. So they will restore them. They will return to where they were at the point of interruption, so far as this is possible. But where that would mean death, they will make adjustments. To altitude, depth, velocity, friction… Whatever aspects of the physical world might cause them harm in their return. They will wake up, as if from a dream.
They didn’t mention them, Cyclops points out. Yes, they did, comes the reply. They said that all things would be as they were before. Mutants will be returned to their various points of origin, just as humans were.
Magneto protests, causing Phoenix displeasure. Nevertheless, he wants to speak. Raze promised the refugees a new world. If they send them back, they will send them to their death! Phoenix admits to seeing no other solution. Magneto suggests Phoenix make a world for them here in all the emptiness. Phoenix cuts him off. They will consider his argument.
They then return the mutants to the site of the battle. Raze shouts this is a travesty. Phoenix doesn’t belong here either! Set that right too and let them figure out things themselves!
The two Jeans step apart. One of them belongs. The other does not. They acknowledge his points. As he must acknowledge theirs. The other dimensional Phoenix telekinetically draws Raze to her as she announces she must return home and reflect on what occurred here. And with a crackle of lightning, both of them disappear.
Can it really be that easy? Wolverine wonders. That felt easy to him? Angel protests. He’s never gonna cut it as an X-Man!
Cyclops helps Marvel Girl up and asks if she is okay. Not even a little bit, she replies. Being part of that thing— she felt like God! And at the same time, she was a drop of water trying to hold itself together in an ocean. He reminds her she did hold herself together. She is not sure. He points out the Phoenix showed mercy and compassion. Two things that aren’t in its usual repertoire. Jean saved them today. And if he needed a reason for the original X-Men being here, he got it today.
Magneto announces he’ll leave. Wolverine seethes that he’s got a lot to answer for. So do others, Storm interjects, and this is the wrong time for a reckoning. Standing before his team, Cyclops retorts that he will be ready when that day comes. He’s not hiding from them. Like he could, Wolverine scoffs.
All right, they call it a day then. Back off and pretend this never happened. Easy to say, Jean mutters. Storm addresses Beast, who stares at the Autolycus ruins. There’s technology in there that could change the world forever. Maybe he’ll stay and watch it burn. Just to be sure. Then they all go back to their corners, don’t they? And wait for the next round.