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untitled
Flushing, Queens, Midgard:A group of panicked humans are fleeing from Frost Giants and their wild hounds. They get some unexpected help from Danielle Moonstar, who attacks the dogs with a sword. One of the Frost Giants recognizes her as the last Valkyrie and looks forward to seeing the Wild Hunt devour her. A moment later, he is hit by another giant who is possessed by her teammate Karma.
A little help here? Dani suggests and is joined by several Madrox dupes. Karma shouts that she cannot hold onto the Frost Giant’s mind much longer. Dani fells him with an energy arrow and the Madroxes take care of the other giant with Dani’s help. They tell the humans they have a camp at the ballpark, but the humans fear they won’t make it there. Leave that to them, they reply and Madrox calls Havok, telling him that they need a light show.
Standing on a roof, Havok replies he got them and begins blasting. The people are trapped in front of the gates until Havok’s blasts take the frost Giants’ hounds down. Madrox warns them that Havok is depleted and they should cover their ears. Banshee comes flying in and distracts the giants, but one of the – Koga the Diseased – takes him out.
Madrox calls Havok if his brother is up. They really don’t want to know how that guy got his name. Madrox begins to panic as Koga is almost upon them, but a second later the Frost Giant is hit by a red blast. Cyclops apologizes for being so late. He was resting.
They enter Fort Syndergaard and Dani promises they are safe. Havok welcomes the refugees. Karma adds they have over 300 refugees here and are the only thing keeping New York from completely falling to the Frost Giants. They handle supply runs and rescue missions. Havok clears the way for them to get home. The Madroxes man the walls, Banshee handles air support and Cyclops takes care of any giants they can’t handle.
Havok reminds Dani that Cyclops got shot in the head recently, and each time he uses his power they are afraid his head might explode. So, he adds pointedly, they are very judicious in asking for his help. Suddenly, he states that he doesn’t want Madrox to have the radio anymore.
Several Madroxes keep the refugees from getting close to Jamie prime, as his army is the only thing that keeps them from getting overrun. One of the refugees, a cop, apologizes. He isn’t used to this mutie stuff. Another refugee adds they really appreciate what they and the other mutants outside are doing. Other mutants? Dani asks.
Elsewhere, a Frost Giant chases after Wolfsbane and Chamber, who enter a tunnel. Instead, he is confronted by Hope Summers, who fires a big gun in his face. Unfortunately, that only makes him mad and he tears her apart. Suddenly, a car is thrown in his face. He falls and drops the corpse. Madrox tells Sunspot he shouldn’t have killed him. Whoops is the reply. Rahne gets in his face. They need a prisoner to interrogate and he keeps killing them. He defends himself that ‘whoops’ got that point across pretty clearly. When he killed Hope, he lost it. Yeah, that sucked, Chamber agrees dispassionately. Should they go find another one? He could pretend to be more upset, another Hope criticizes Chamber. So could she, he points out. Hope replies that, if her other self didn’t want to die, she should have waited for the order.
In fact, there are quite a bunch of Hopes, thanks to her copying the Madrox dupe’s power. They should get moving, the prime Hope states. The Wild Hunt are on their way. The Madrox dupe sulks that it doesn’t seem fair that she can use his power when he can’t. Hope bluntly tells him she isn’t using his power, she is borrowing Jamie Prime’s power. His presence gives her access. There is no difference between the dupe and the prime, he protests. Tell that to the dupe of her who just got torn into half, she retorts.
One of the others finds it a little unnerving Hope doesn’t seem to care about her dupes dying. She insists they aren’t really people. Then why does Jamie care so much, when his dupes die? Hope answers he is soft and it hurts like hell!
Hope notices wolftracks. The Hunt crossed this way. They find a small group of wolves. Wolfsbane tells them it has no alpha and orders them to dispatch them fast, before an alpha shows up with the whole pack.
Unfortunately, the wolves get reinforcements led by Sabretooth, who considers himself the Alpha Wolf. Him and his wolves join the fray, with Wofsbane singling out Sabretooth as a foe.
While he hits her first, she bites him in the arm and is actually about to get the upper hand. The others are not doing as well and Hope gives the order to fall back. Rahne refuses and Sunspot tries to save her. Hope warns him that they all die then. Chamber accuses her of cowardice. Hope retorts she isn’t afraid to die. She is afraid to die for no good reason. Luckily, at that moment, they are joined by Dani, Banshee, Karma and Havok.
Sabretooth and his wolves flee into a tunnel, though he threatens the X-Men are running out of places to hide. Havok shouts at him to get his “Game of Thrones cosplaying butt” back here. Dani tells him to let them go. They had luck and the element of surprise on their side. She doesn’t want to see what happens if they have neither.
Banshee flies away and Sunspot is nervous at his zombie-like state. Shan hugs him in greeting and asks what he is doing here. He explains he was in Jersey when the city was attacked. He made his way in but missed the battle. He’s been with these fools since. Roberto greets Dani and gives his condolences about the Valkyries. She promises they didn’t die in vain.
They notice that Illyana isn’t with either group. Roberto states it’s just the five of them, which makes them notice that Rahne is missing…
Indeed, Wolfsbane finds herself Sabretooth’s prisoner in his current HQ, Stark Unlimited Tower. He wakes the tied up Rahne, telling her she is in his castle, a castle without a kingdom. However, once she does her part, that should change. Rahne hisses she will never help him, so do to her what he will. He laughs and calls her unimportant, then explains she is just motivation – for her. He refers to the unconscious Magik who hangs from the ceiling in chains.
He explains that the heroes blew up the Black Bifrost Bridge, so Malekith can’t move his forces around anymore. If he could get her little Soviet goth friend to teleport Malekith’s force, that’s the kind of thing he’d give you a county for. Enchantress left behind some magical crap to help control her, but she’s a tough nut. He figured opening up her little sister in front of her might crack her. Ready to play her part?
Behind him, a voice remarks that was not their deal, or perhaps he wishes to break a promise to a god? It is Rahne’s dead, Asgardian, wolf-prince lover Hrimhari. When she doesn’t believe it, he explains all the realms came to Earth, including the realm of the dead. He left to search for her, made a few deals… and here he is. He came back for her? she asks. She doesn’t know what to say. Say she will come with them, he replies. “Them?” she asks. He shows that he has with him their equally formerly dead son Tier.


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untitled
Mirage’s small group makes it back to the fort, where Cyclops is surprised that Sunspot is amidst them, though he is glad for any help. He knows they lost Rahne on this mission but is there any sign of Illyana? They need her. When told that they are still looking, he spells out that without her they will fall.
Illyana is currently a prisoner of Sabretooth at Stark Tower. Wolfsbane, his latest prisoner, orders him to let Magik go. Her lover Hrimhari, the wolfgod, brought back from the dead by the Enchantress – and working with Sabretooth – tries to calm her and reminds her that the Enchantress allowed him and their son Tier to leave the realm of the dead to find Rahne, but only if none of them interfere in this war —Let. Her. Go! she repeats.
Sabretooth tells her to forget it. Does he think he can control her? Rahne challenges him. Then he is even dumber than he looks. Sabretooth informs her he doesn’t need her. Hrimhari brokered him a deal with the Enchantress, too… He touches the pendant hanging from Magik’s neck and explains it makes sure that she can only cast the spells he tells her to.
Hrimhari politely asks for her. Amused, Sabretooth replies that, once he breaks her, she will take him anywhere he wants to, and afterwards she will be his gift to Malekith. He’s being nice letting Hrimhari take his girl. Don’t test him!
With a scream of rage, Wolfsbane lunges at him. Sabretrooth grabs her and slams her against the window. He suggests they could settle their debt right now.
Hrimhari tears his back and announces if his love wants the witch, they will take her. Over his dead body! Sabretooth groans. Hrimhari throws him out of the window and corrects, just his mangled one.
In Manhattan, a team led by Mirage tries to follow Sabretooth’s trail. Soon they find themselves surrounded by wolves. Just as they get ready for a fight, they suddenly leave, thanks to Hrimhari. Wolves get nervous when one of their gods show up. Happily, the mutants greet Rahne and Illyana. Sunspot jokingly accuses them of showing off. In the same spirit, Illyana shoots back that they took too long to rescue them. She is told she get to show off again and teleport them to Queens. That might be a problem, she admits. They join the others as frost giants are gathering to attack and Cyclops alerts his troops.
Rahne introduces her family to Cyclops, who asks if they will fight with them. Hrimhari explains that is impossible, as they have made a vow to the Enchantress. They are simply here to see Illyana arrive safely and for Rahne to say her goodbyes. Come sunup, they will be gone.
Hours later, nighttime:They exchange information around a campfire. Dani explains they are the last human stronghold. They gathered people hiding out against the Frost Giants. Illyana asks what their last plan was. She was, Dani replies. Illyana explains that whatever curse was put upon her - referring to the necklace – it cuts off her teleportation. She is just another soldier with a sword.
He hates to be the Hulk of the conversation, Roberto interjects, but why not just smash it? Illyana figures it may be possible but is sure the Enchantress imbued the gem with defenses.
A Madrox orders them to be quiet. They are coming! Mirage orders the X-Men to battle stations and the fight begins against frost giants, Dark Elves and more creatures of mythology. Mutants and humans alike defend the fort.
Cyclops’ optic blast fells a Frost Giant. As their foes breach the wall Mirage orders for the civilians to be brought inside the stadium.
Wolfsbane want to join the battle but Hrimhari holds her back and reminds her he gave his word to the Enchantress she wouldn’t do this. People are dying! Rahne retorts. He tells her that her friends will save them and if she does this, the Enchantress will tear them apart!
Sabretooth joins the battle giving orders that nobody survives. New York falls tonight!
Sunspot tells Magik that the people are all going to die if they can’t get them out! She retorts, they are surrounded. Sunspot grabs and tears off the pendant hanging around Magik’s neck. He implores her to save them as he crushes the stone. That wasn’t so bad, he mutters. One moment later, the energies explode and tear him apart. Magik is thrown back. Karma shakes her and tells her they need her for this.
Her power restored, Magik opens a teleportation portal. When all the civilians are through, the X-Men follow.
Sabretooth grabs Magik by the throat and orders her to leave the portal open. Malekith’s armies aren’t done with the X-Men or their refugees…
Malekeith’s troops enter the portal… only to arrive in a very unfriendly looking part of Limbo: no refugees in sight, only dupes of Madrox and Hope who were playing the role and gloat that this is a one-way-trip…
Unaware of this, back on Earth, Sabretooth gloats that on the other side her friends are being slaughtered. He notices Magik’s smile. Illyana tells him to look around and explains Karma and Mirage made his army overlook all the people here. Throw in a glowing portal to Limbo, a few dupes in borrowed clothing and a general stupid enough to send his troops blindly into the unknown, and ta-da! She congratulates him and speculates on how Malekith will treat him for losing his army.
He orders his wolves against the X-Men and threatens that he may die but she will do so first! In response, Rahne tackles him, over Hrimhari and Tier’s protests.
Sabretooth wrestles her to the ground, threatening that now her family will have to go back to Hel. In her half-wolfen form, Wolfsbane tears out his throat, then spits it out disgusted.
She announces she is now the Alpha Wolf and orders the wolf army to stop. They obey. Sabretooth groans at Magik to wait. In response, she decapitates him with her sword.
Rahne apologizes to Hrimhari, who isn’t angry but sad. He made a vow to the Enchantress. Rahne broke it, so he and Tier have to return to Hel now. He hopes they will meet in the next life.
Days later, Manhattan:The Asgardian and humans won. Shan, Illyana and Rahne worry about Dani, who is staying with the dead valkyrior. Rahne despondently wonders what they are even fighting for.
A voice tells Dani she has to go now. Looking at her fallen sisters, she refuses to leave them. She is reminded the authorities will come soon. But she cannot be here when they arrive. She’s done all she can. She replies she is the last Valkyrie. It is her job to get them home to Valhalla. But she can’t do that, the other person replies. Her powers are fading. She’s losing her connection. She wonders if she can find Thor. Maybe he can help. She can return to Valhalla and rebuild. She is told she is needed here.
Crying Dani insists they are her sisters. And he is her brother. He knows, the spirit of Sunspot surrounded by the spirits of the dead valkyrior replies, but she’s already lost one family. He tells her not to lose another. They’ll meet again soon, he knows it, but for now the world still needs the X-Men.


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Way of X
Charles Xavier wakes from a nightmare in which a monstrous yet hidden figure accuses him of being a betrayer. Xavier telepathically calls Kurt Wagner aka Nightcrawler. He apologizes for the hour but sensed Kurt was awake. Nightcrawler chuckles that he is up, though not for long. He has just teleported out of a flying plane, surrounded by several young Krakoan mutants. Among them is Pixie, who is carrying Loa, and DJ, who is doing the same with Blink.
Xavier recalls that Kurt had volunteered for the Venice insertion. He tells Kurt not to let him distract him. He is pleased Nightcrawler is back in the field… he’s been too much in his own head lately. Perhaps they all have. Xavier takes up a photo of Gaby Haller, cradling their infant son David.
Kurt points out that, when people call a priest in the small hours, it usually follows a sin or precedes a death. Xavier chuckles and asks if he hasn’t heard: mutants upgraded morality and beat mortality. He’s afraid Kurt’s cassock has little to offer his conscience. No, he simply wished to offer an old friend good luck on his mission.
Kurt’s group has entered a Venetian palazzo. While he has snuck away for some solo reconnaissance, the others search the room. Inside, they find exhibits showcasing Dark Phoenix, a murderous Sabretooth and other mutant villains – or as Loa calls it, it’s every crappy thing mutants ever did. Like a museum of hate.
Pixie wonders if they should check on Nightcrawler. He is taking forever in there. DJ tells her not to be such a Wanda. He’s fine. And if not – so what? Worrying is so sapiens. Blink opines Pixie is just like that because she hasn’t had her first time yet. Defensively, Pixie retorts she doesn’t want to do it just to do it. It’s a big deal. Loa tells her not to be so serious about it. If she is about to die, just think happy thoughts. Favorite food or whatever. Get resurrected with a smile. Pixie complains that’s no help, as her favorite changes every day. Yesterday she fancied sushi, today she could murder a cheese toastie. DJ calls her chicken. He bets she thinks the Patchwork Man will get her.
Nightcrawler comes out of the shadows in the ceiling, scaring DJ. He asks him who the “Patchwork Man” is. DJ stammers it’s this creepy story the kids tell back on Krakoa about… Pixie interrupts, stating it doesn’t matter and asks if Kurt got the files. Kurt agrees. It is as they feared: the place is funded by Orchis.
He peers through the small window in a steel door. Inside the room sit men in priest robes, watching a film showing Mystique murdering a human. Nightcrawler muses that they thought they were recruiting only scientists and soldier… but a hate museum…They built a school for anti-mutant missionaries!
Sounds like Orchis got a brainwashing division, Blink states. Pixie mumbles that some people say all belief systems… That moment, a priest from one of the other rooms has discovered them and shouts Abominations and other injective. Kurt tries to shush him but too late, the priests have heard and rush outside. Got a lot of freshly washed brains en route, Blink deadpans. Kurt suggests Pixie expand their minds. Pixie uses her hallucinatory pixie dust on them making them seen angels.
DJ warns them of armed men with gas masks, meaning they are immune to the pixie dust. He calls up the Tchaikowsky playlist on his phone, allowing him to create a forcefield to keep them off.
Nightcrawler gives orders to leave - they have what they came from. They head toward Blink’s teleportation disk, but Pixie is lagging behind. You know what would really make these lads turn over a new leaf? she thinks aloud. Excited, DJ begins to film her as she steps toward one of the armed men. A little guilt, she continues. Kurt shouts at her to stop.
The soldier is more frightened than she is. He points his rifle at her face and stammers at her to stay back. Playfully, she asks she doesn’t suppose he’s got a cheese toastie about him. He fires.
Kurt screams in horror, curses him and kicks the man in the face while the kids shout, that was awesome. The priests are in shock, muttering about the blood of a saint. Blink tells Kurt they won’t be preaching against anyone now. Loa reminds him that Pixie will come back. They kicked death’s butt. They all come back. Kurt still feels that this is wrong but, when DJ asks why, he can’t give a clear reason. It just is…
The others step through Blink’s gate. She tells Kurt they’ll see him at home and suggests he lighten up. He used to be fun. Thoughtfully, he looks at one of the exhibits in the hate museum…
And a little later, the statue of Magneto commanding several missiles stands in the Krakoan tiki bar, causing Wolverine to ask if he is overcompensating for something. A jape, Magneto states, clearly unamused. Kurt apologizes but Magneto demurs. In fact, those old missiles are a testament. A testament to folly! he begins to rant to the entire bar. He is mostly ignored as he pontificates about all those years they wasted. Mutant vying with mutant, using the clumsy tools of the enemy to fight amongst themselves. Kurt tries to remind him it was a joke, but Magneto is on a roll.
He tells them to look around and see what they can do when they embrace their commonality. They have defeated death. They have shaken the world. They have built an empire of enlightenment – all within their first year. These pitiful toys are a gift… an invitation to forsake the past and embrace a brave new future, to anyone who cares enough to take it seriously. He magnetically changes the missiles into a pyramid, while he is met with polite applause.
Kurt follows him outside and demands what that was. Magneto dryly retorts it was a sermon. He rather thought that was Kurt’s area. Come to think of it, didn’t he tell Cyclops he wanted to found a mutant religion? Kurt begins he is still thinking about it. Magneto continues he considers it a fool’s errand. But preferable to these… juvenile stunts. Kurt shoots back whether it has occurred to him the juvenility may be appropriate in a land of the ever young. Or that laughter may be the antidote to horror?
Erik realizes he is talking about Crucible. It’s tonight, isn’t it? Kurt states, it is murder. Magneto is not impressed. The world’s first post-mortal society and Kurt is worried about sinning against his dusty god. As he recalls, he was something of an authority on resurrection himself. He tells Nightcrawler that his problem is he is so busy looking for snakes he can’t see Eden.
They have reached a cliff and Magneto flies onward, meaning Kurt can’t follow, even though the conversation isn’t over, as far as he is concerned. He is addressed by a black woman with a cane and unnaturally elongated limbs. Shyly, she tells him she is Lost. Figuring she is a new arrival, he asks if she could wait one… She interrupts: they say he is one of the kindly ones. She just wants to belong. She’s Lost. Not sure what she wants, he tells her it can be overwhelming. He points to a blue building and tells her it’s the welcome hall. People there will help her. He doesn’t let her finish and he assures her that she has nothing to fear here and teleports away, unaware that someone has watched the exchange.
Evening. Kurt watches from a tree as children are gathered around a campfire to listen to Exodus’ tales. He tells them that tonight belongs to Crucible where they restore to grace those who were scourged by the Great Pretender. He asks who can name her. Who can name the hated one? One over-eager child shouts it’s the Patchwork Man. Confused, Exodus replies it was the Scarlet Witch and begins to describe what she did.
However, one of the children interrupts that he heard the Patchwork Man makes you cut off your own face. Exodus asks who the Patchwork Man is. The kids reply that he lives in the shadows and has funny hair. And he makes you do “hurty” things. They continue telling things he does, both ridiculous and scary. Exodus tries to bring them back on track.
Kurt hears a noise above him and attacks the person teleporting them both away. Angrily, the other person warns him he has one chance to remove his grubby trotters from his exquisitely sterile coat or he shall dedicate a full third of his intellect to reducing him to forgotten quantum smear!
Kurt recognizes Dr. Nemesis, then screams a moment later when he sees that mushrooms are growing from the scientist’s head. What happened to his head? he shouts. Science, is the reply.
Snottily, he continues that they are content to accept a wonderland of herbaceous teleportation and life-extending floricultures, but perish the thought of showing any respect to the genius who cultivated the damn things.
Kurt asks if he created the medicines. And now he is… Growing consciousness-altering mushrooms out of his cerebellum, Nemesis finishes. It seemed the obvious step, hence his following Nightcrawler. He thinks individuals with an air of bewildered pointlessness make the best volunteers. Kurt denies being bewildered. Pointing at Kurt’s rosary, Nemesis retorts that he’s been fiddling with this superstitious dross like a violinist on the deck of the Titanic. He means, the leather-wearing types have locked horns with more gods than he’s endured suboptimal lattes. Why is it the only one of whom they have seen no trace is the one Nightcrawler continues to honor? Has he considered this may be why he continues to honor him? Kurt retorts.
Spare him the gnomic bromide, Nemesis scoffs. Alien life, metaphysical entities and the overthrow of mortality itself. What does a credulous little believer do when all the big questions have been answered? He supposes they find better questions, Kurt muses.
That’s more like it, Nemesis agrees and asks if he is familiar with the Dunbar Number. Of course not, he answers himself. The theory proposes that there’s a limit to how many relationships every human can maintain. About 150 or so, in fact. Beyond that, just to keep the peace, societies require abstractions. He plucks a mushroom from his head. Shared ideas. Things that have no reality unless a majority chooses to act as if they do. Laws, currencies, social rituals, figureheads for good or evil… Or mythology, Kurt continues. He knows the theory.
Somewhat taken aback, Nemesis remarks that, in the absence of a truly remarkable mind-expander to rapture them all out of this pigsty of a dimension, he’d pinned his hopes on Kurt. He heard he was working on something unifying… Holding his rosary, Kurt asks what if he has no shared ideas? What if he can find no social rituals? Theoretically speaking, Nemesis muses. Violent societal collapse, but don’t worry, the likeliest outcome is the strongest will invent rituals of their own. For better or worse…
They have reached the Crucible arena where one such ritual is underway as Magneto battles the woman called Lost. Under assault by several flying sharp metal objects, she falls. Magneto orders her up. He attacks her again and announces there are no free passes to paradise. It was her bad luck to be depowered. Today they offer the gift of resurrection, the gift of mutantdom. But it is a gift they cannot simply give. She must take it.
When she is back on her feet, he attacks again. She looks up and sees Kurt. She shouts she wanted him to do it. They said he is one of the kindly ones. She wanted him to end the pain! Why did he send her away?
Magneto orders her to get up. Nightcrawler teleports at Magneto and shouts at him to stop it. She’s not a fighter. All he is doing is hurting her.
The woman manages to stand. She is lost, she announces. Magneto commends her. He sees her. Today she is lesser. Today she does not belong. But she is a fighter. Tomorrow they shall meet as kin. He shapes metal into a sword and hurls it at her, killing her.
Magneto turns to Nightcrawler, who is still on the ground. Nothing hurts more than a life of submission, he lectures him. As he dares say he knows, he adds sotto voce.
Dr. Nemesis helps Kurt up, remarking Magneto cut him down worse than her. He expects Nightcrawler must feel extremely dejected. Perhaps he could assist him in an experimental toadstool-- Kurt replies that it isn’t Magneto that bothers him but the audience that cheers at the violence.
The next morning at the Arbor Magna:Resurrections are under way. Kurt sits some distance away from the proceedings as the Five do their work watched by an adoring crowd. Xavier mentally contacts him and notes he is troubled. Xavier admits he wouldn’t feel different in his shoes. The air of religiosity around their young resurrectionists would make him uncomfortable too, if he were a man of faith. To what do they owe the visit? he asks. The polite fictions of telepaths, Kurt mocks, aware that Xavier knows the answer. Xavier agrees but adds that fictions will have currency in their brave new world - polite or otherwise. Let’s see if they can’t do something about all that guilt. He joins the Five and completes the resurrection of a newly empowered Lost.
Dr. Nemesis explains her power as gravitational neutrality – hence the ectomorphism. She must have been in agony without her powers.
Magneto begins a speech to welcome her back before feeling nauseous. He vomits. Xavier explains she is causing gravitational disorientation of the inner ear, before he also succumbs to nausea. So do the others apart from Dr. Nemesis who self-evolved some bio-gyroscopes in his twenties and Kurt who has excellent balance. Lost apologizes profusely. She can’t switch it off. Desperate, she runs away.
Kurt wants to stop her but Xavier tells him she wants to be alone. And he still has business here. He refers to the other resurrection, Pixie, who is welcomed by the other teenagers who tell her how cool her death scene was. Pixie is unsure as she believes she sees something monstrous in the shadows but it turns out to be just Kurt. He welcomes her back and offers her the cheese toastie she craved before her death. Pixie apologizes but she can just think about sushi right now. She leaves with her friends chasing sushi.
Xavier reminds Kurt that they come back the way they were when Cerebro recorded them, not as they were when they died. But they are the same people. Penny for his thoughts? Why pay for what he can take? is the bitter reply. Xavier asks him to indulge him. Sometimes the power is in the saying.
Kurt asks when he last walked in his garden. There is wonder and hope, yes, but also there is vice and violence and death. Cheap death. They cannot all be off playing the hero and they cannot all be like the Five – indispensable. The problem is that he can give no good reason why mutants shouldn’t behave as they do, even at their most savage. He can find no moral flaw in these merging cultures. But he can feel it. Something terrible. Waiting out there for the cracks to appear. Catholic paranoia? He suggests jokingly.
Xavier doesn’t think so. He heard him propose some manner of mutant faith. Kurt sighs. He wishes he had told nobody. Inspiration has been… elusive. Xavier suggests he focus on something else for a while. Kurt figures this has to do with yesterday’s brain call. What on earth could be so bad that even Professor X has to sweettalk a disciple? He could just snap his fingers.
Xavier admits he detected something. A presence. It is extremely adept at hiding from him. Suspiciously so. Its actions are marked by surges of negative emotion. Fear, anger misery. He suspects it is preying on them. Dreams, nightmares. Moments of weakness. Cerebro is quite certain it is an omega level mutant. Kurt adds that now the children speak of a Patchwork Man. He admits a candidate does come somewhat to mind.
Xavier hasn’t shared this with anyone else. Will Kurt help him? If it is who he thinks it is, he doesn’t want to involve the council. They’d send some clumsy team forcing him to react. There’s just so much he doesn’t know about him. He has dedicated his life to causes that leave no room for family. He cannot deny he has bene an abysmal father. Kurt asks why he doesn’t send anyone else. Xavier replies Kurt understands people in away Charles never could. He’s one of the kindly ones.
Kurt takes some time to consider. He prays and goes to bed, where his slumber is disturbed by a monstrous shape.
Awake, he returns to Westchester’s graveyard, the grave of Ruth Aldine aka Blindfold and puts a flower on her headstone. A tragedy, eh? a voice comments. Of course, the real question is what would scare a precog enough that she topped herself. He noticed they are not in a hurry to resurrect people like her on their creepy wee island. Bit suspicious, that, no seers to see.
There’s a long queue, Kurt replies and is told he is as credulous as ever. How did he know he would be here? Kurt is blinded by the light but replies he knew they were close. Love rarely perishes with the flesh. The other muses that’s why he sent Kurt. His father was never one for empathy. Kurt groans he is hurting him. The other apologizes Kurt doesn’t deserve to be caught in this… he is one of the kindly ones. But he is far too late.
Floating in the air, Legion announces the bastards are already inheriting the Earth…


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Let Us Prey
David Haller is (at least his astral form) scanning Nightcrawler’s mind. Clearly in pain, Kurt addresses him as Legion and asks him to stop. David in return reminds him he dislikes that name. He probes further and finds something in Kurt’s mind. Kurt stammers they know about the Patchwork Man. Whatever this is, they can figure it out…
His father thinks he’s the Patchwork Man? David realizes. Course he does, he mutters cynically. He turns to Kurt, warning him about a wee bit of psychic surgery. He wishes he could say this won’t hurt…
Nightcrawler screams in pain and suddenly can’t see Legion anymore. David is now inside his mind and is somewhat surprised by the swashbuckler scenery. He had expected something a bit more churchy. He looks down on a ship, where all sailors are Kurt, and calls him a seriously conflicted fella. If it’s any consolation, he thinks it’s not entirely his fault. He pries something loose from the figurehead, then exits Kurt’s head to show him the symbol. It’s a sign someone’s been playing silly buggers in his subconscious. Who? Kurt asks.
Favor for a favor, David smirks. He can’t astral project forever. His body is about ten minutes from causing an extremely nasty accident. He’d hate to tear reality in half without meaning to. Kurt owes him. He leaves some coordinates in Nightcrawler’s mind and suggests he better get to Krakoa and get some muscle. Better yet, fetch some brains. He disappears.
Krakoa:In the Green Lagoon tiki bar sits a bored-looking Fabian Cortez, while Dazzler is on stage. Sitting down next to him, Dr. Nemesis remarks that he knows that expression: when a sentient being is sitting around listening to this aural leprosy in the middle of the day, one infers things are not going well in his life. He doesn’t like Dazzler? Cortez asks without looking up. Nemesis rhetorically asks, does he enjoy being stabbed repeatedly in his parietal lobe by the specious wordfarts of a weaponized human disco ball? No, he does not. Cortez admits, he liked the one she did with the Inuit throat singing and the electric bagpipes. Nemesis concludes he is in a worse state than he originally thought.
Dazzler finishes her set and announces she is doing a set at the Hellfire Gala that night.
Cortez reveals that he got fired. That idiotic space station – he was basically the one holding it together. He saved them all. And what does he get for his trouble? Replaced. Humiliated! Now he can’t even get an invite to the gala. Nemesis interrupts that he doesn’t care. He just wants to exploit him to test experimental psychedelics. He finds pathetic people reliably incautious.
Dazzler sits down at the bar and suggests he not peddle that junk here. He might say the same of her fatuous harpy screeching, he replies haughtily. He’ll have her know he is conducting important science with Mr.… Mr.… Dazzler introduces Fabian Cortez. As in the fanatic who worshipped Magneto? Nemesis bursts out. Cortez is surprised that Dazzler knows his name while Nemesis continues, ranting as he describes Cortez like an energy drink with a man bun who murdered dozens of perfectly productive people in the name of his insane quasi-religious ambitions. Cortez weakly protests he never hurt people. Just humans. He sips his wine.
That moment, Nightcrawler teleports in. He asks Dr. Nemesis if he has had dealings with David Haller. Yes, of course, Nemesis replies. Actually, he spent a year keeping him sedated while cataloguing his dangerous mental disfunctions, but David never so much as thanked him for… Kurt interrupts him and states he is coming with him. Wait.
At a table in the Green Lagoon sit Loa and Pixie, who seems somewhat bored while Loa gushes about Mercury’s Gala outfit, making it pretty clear that she is crushing on her. She asks Pixie if she can ask Mercury to come to the gala with them, strictly platonic, not as her… she stammers. Her date, Pixie grins.
Kurt comes running toward them and tells Pixie he needs her help. He begins dragging her. Pixie reminds him he can teleport crazy far himself these days. He doesn’t need… It’s not teleporting, he begins, then stops when the long-limbed woman who calls herself Lost enters the bar. She addresses him. He interrupts, stating that he would like to talk to her. It’s just…
That moment, Legion telepathically reminds him that it’s urgent. Kurt apologizes for having to run out on her and promises they will talk. He teleports away.
Cortez snaps at her nastily. As a result, Lost loses control over her gravity power, leading to everyone nearby projectile-vomiting.
Rhub-al-Klali,Saudi Arabia:Nightcrawler, Pixie and Dr. Nemesis end up in a desert outside a high-tech vessel with a large hole in the wall and several dead people lying on the ground. Nemesis explains it’s an Orchis facility. Inside, David Haller’s astral form explains: As for what happened - he did. They are a wee bit late… They are doing the Scottish accent again, are they, Nemesis groans. What fun.
Pixie greets him shyly. David glares at Kurt and tells him well played. He is a better pragmatist than a priest. Crazy old Legion eh? All that power, but he’s lost control more often than the Hulk tore his pants. Makes sense to bring a lass with a magic dagger in her soul. Just in case.
Pixie wants to express her condolences about Blindfold’s death. Turning away, David asks her not to talk about Ruth. He’s not in the right headspace. He points toward a brain being kept in a device, his brain, all that’s left of him. And they kicked him out of that too. A favor for a favor.
Kurt begins to realize what this is about. He asks Nemesis to stay outside and monitor, while he and Pixie are entering David’s head, where his different personalities are slaughtering each other.
Dr. Nemesis warns the others that David’s internal energies are at overwhelming capacity. There have been several discharges already. Hence the crispy-fried scientists. They’ll only get stronger.
Looking at his brain, David tells Kurt he doesn’t even know how those buggers got him. Kidnapped, cloned… All he remembers is Ruth’s voice in the dark: “inevitable.” Then he was in there, his brain – the same old circus. Oh, he got things running smoothly but he kept wondering. Did she mean him? Is he inevitable? He’s died more times than he can count. He erased himself from history – just to show the crappy universe nobody rules him except him. Always came back, like it or not. Always playing second fiddle to the voices in his head. Always defined by the sickness, not the strength. Always bloody Legion instead of David. Well, the Orchis bastards took that away, too. Used their drugs and their machines to lock him back out. And for what? To see what happens when the animals get run of the zoo? So bloody what? Why bother? … Anomie, Dr. Nemesis replies.
In David’s head, Nightcrawler and Pixie have been fighting off the personalities. Now they are on the run. Kurt asks for clarification.
Dr. Nemesis explains his theory: David’s mind is a notional reality populated by an infinite supply of autonomous beings representing different powers. As long as David is in charge, he can pacify them. Use them, but if he’s not around… Anomie: the derangement of the infinite. It’s a hypothetical decay affecting society with no limit. Meaninglessness begets alienation. Desire leads to sadism and self-destruction. Before you know it, your neighbor is eating your face, and you’re too busy pouring anthrax into the water supply to care.
Pixie and Kurt realize Orchis are using Legion’s brain to simulate Krakoa and its collapse. Inevitable, David announces gloomily. Inevitable it may be, fast it is not, Nemesis corrects him. Those Orchis maniacs got impatient. They introduced some invasive exotic to speed up the fall in David’s mindscape.
A device mows through the streets chasing them. Pixie destroys it with her souldagger but the destruction of David’s brain does not stop. It’s too late for that. David warns them the next discharge will be a bloody world one. There is only one way to stop this. The science of homicide? Nemesis asks agitated, offering to do it. He has an oscillating liquefaction revolver he has been itching to use. Kurt announces he will do it. A favor for a favor. Pixie tells him he doesn’t have to, referring to his faith.
Kurt addresses David: He doesn’t like being called Legion. Did he know a Nightcrawler is a type of worm? It’s blue and it’s disgusting. Not a clever insult, but it’s one he heard many times as a child. So, he took it and he made it his. David is not his flaws. And if destroying a lump of empty meat will help him to start afresh? To rule himself? Perhaps there are sins worth sinning. He asks the others to get out then aims the gun at David’s brain. He begins to pray, “Father, forgive me for…” then decides never mind and fires.
Krakoa is engulfed by silence that everybody notices. As one, the Five begin a new resurrection task together. Sensing that something extraordinary is going on others join them to watch, including the Xorn brothers and Magneto and Xavier, who decides that David is too unstable. He could tear everything they built down. He is sorry, but he won’t install David’s consciousness in a new body. Not until he is sure it’s safe!
What he doesn’t count on is David doing it himself. Xavier stammers his name. All right, Dad? Legion asks and points at his Cerebro helmet. He looks like a crap astronaut. Xavier is speechless.
He apologizes, but they are about to… David waves him off. The Hellfire Gala, he knows. Showing off to the world. Always something more important, eh? Don’t let David keep him.
Xavier asks him to promise… While creating himself some pants David replies he won’t embarrass him. Shiny new brain. It takes a while before the voices get loud. But do him a favor. He smirks. Call him Legion.
Magneto tells him he has a project underway, something earth-shaking. Several other omegas are involved. He would welcome his partici… David cuts him off with a simple “no.” He doesn’t trust him. Xavier protests that Magneto is one of their m… He doesn’t trust him either, David bluntly tells his father. Not yet. There are secrets here – secrets and shadows. He can smell the first on both of them. And the second? Seems to him, Kurt is the only one even looking.
He takes Kurt in a semi-headlock. He’s been in Kurt’s head. It’s chockful of questions, but he is not pretending he’s got the answer - that he trusts.
He turns away from his father staying at Kurt’s side. He tells them to plan their fireworks and get drunk, have a giggle. If they need him to pick up the pieces, that’s no bother. Go build their empire. He’ll be here helping Captain Earthwork with the hearts and minds. He grins at Kurt. Favor for a favor.
They step outside Arbor Magna. Nightcrawler appreciates the vote of confidence, but he has no idea what he is doing. David retorts he can see the picture in Kurt’s mind of the outfit he is going to war that night. Seems to him he knows exactly what he is doing. He’s been watching this place. They let their council make three laws. That tells you, most of them are prepared to play fair, or pretend to. He’s not saying the laws are right. But they are a start.
Kurt muses it sounds like David thinks Krakoa needs police more than priests. David smiles. He doesn’t think there is a word yet for what Krakoa needs, but he’s pretty sure Kurt’s it.
Kurt asks about the poisonous coin David found in his head. He’s thinking Orchis already took what they learned from Legion and used it on them. He is thinking they have introduced this invasive exotic. The snowball is already rolling. Does he know who the Patchwork Man is?
Yes, he does, David grimly admits. He can sense him clear as day. And here’s a good reason he won’t tell his dad or Magneto. Parents don’t always think straight when it comes to their heirs. It’s bloody Onslaught…


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

[Assistant]
Joy of X
The Hellfire Gala is under way: As the evening continues, Kurt Wagner seeks out different people and becomes increasingly drunk, as he has a lot on his mind. First, he elucidates Pixie on the failures of their community and bemoans his own failure at creating a mutant religion. Later, he tris to lecture an equally drunk Nanny that their three laws are the key. She agrees enthusiastically and Mr. Sinister calls for someone to get their Moses a coffee.
Later still, he talks about the first law - make more mutants - to Dazzler. Annoyed, she orders him to let go of her microphone and asks if he is a hook-up app now.
He hints at the dark things in the shadows to Loa and Mercury and spills his drink over them when he is almost run over by Beast.
Later he talks with Northstar’s husband Kyle Jinadu, who points out that the first law is somewhat heteronormative and hints that Meggan Braddock may be pregnant, as she hasn’t touched any alcohol. Enthusiastically, Kurt congratulates a startled Meggan, while claiming he is completely over her.
Later still, he shouts about having visions and fears it is Onslaught, until Kate Pryde reminds him, it is just the psychic fireworks. She orders him to lay off the gin before he says something he will regret. He protests he will save them all before falling asleep, missing the empty dance floor where Magneto and the Scarlet Witch share a dance.
The morning after:Kurt awakes, the only one left at the gala and groans what an idiot he is. He calls Dr. Nemesis via comm who assumes he is after a hangover cure. A moment later, Nemesis shouts “be silent, you screeching harpy!” at Dazzler, who sits at a table close by humming while she is composing. Nemesis continues that Kurt is not the only one who is suffering. He spent all night monitoring omega level showboaters sloppily terraforming Mars. It’s lucky he put his krakoffee in quantum entanglement with Wolverine’s liver or he might be showing signs of over-caffeination.
When he hears the magic word, Nightcrawler teleports in and grabs the coffee cup, greedily downing its contents.
David Haller chooses that moment to telepathically contact Kurt and remarks Nemesis isn’t the only one who heard about Kurt’s performance. Tongues are wagging but nobody knows what he was actually talking about. Kurt admits he couldn’t spoil the gala… by revealing that they are haunted by an all-powerful astral parasite, David continues his sentence. He tells him to leave Onslaught to him. Stick to the plan and focus on the laws. They need people feeling like they are all in it together, and this Mars crap hasn’t helped at all. The usual A-listers doing big secret +*&%, while everyone else twiddles their thumbs. Does he know what David has learned over and over? Neglected energy has a nasty way of going kabloom. David is hovering in the air over the after-after party on Arakko, flanked by the Xorn brothers.
On Krakoa, Kurt thinks aloud: the first law… Make more mutants… where do you start? Dr. Nemesis is full of helpful thoughts regarding artificial creation of mutant babies, deriding sex. There’s nothing magic about making love, he tells Nightcrawler, but Kurt’s attention is focused on a hooded figure talking to a young couple.
Meanwhile on Arakko, Pixie has asked Legion for help regarding her friends Loa and Mercury. Pixie explains that Loa can sort of shred things by touching them and she can’t control it very well when she gets over-excited… The two young women sits some distance away from each other and David notices that Mercury’s right arm has been shredded. Pixie reminds him that she was a friend of Blindfold who told her that she and David had a special way of being intimate inside their heads.
On Krakoa, Kurt tries to confront the hooded figure, asking what they are handing out. When the figure runs away, Kurt tackles them, to find it is his old teammate Stacy X. He realizes she has been handing out contraceptives. Stacy points out last night was the biggest party mutantkind ever threw. Attended by hundreds of young mutants, whose role models dress in fetish gear. He better believe she was handing out contraceptives! Kurt begins to stutter and she tells him not to start. She heard he was getting less Catholic, not more! It’s nothing to do with that, he replies. It’s the first law: make more mutants. So he’s what - the sex sheriff? she asks as she leads him to her home. He’ll never take her alive, “copper,” Stacy jokes.
What is this place? he asks as they enter. Inside, couples are making out in giant flowers. They call it the Bower; it’s for folks who are lonely or frustrated or sad. The ones the dramatic pose types never much notice - the ones who haven’t figured out yet where they fit into paradise.
Kurt accuses her of using her powers of seduction on people. Unimpressed, Stacy tells him to simmer down. She can’t make anyone do what they don’t want. It’s just a nudge of encouragement. Some couples just talk. Other hold each other for hours. Some go at it like bunnies then never see each other again. They all leave happier than when they arrived.
Kurt accuses her of having built a brothel in the garden of Eden. In response, Stacy slugs him and calls him a tiny-minded piece of crap. Kurt apologizes, but these people need support, not this. Does he know how many religions got a history of temple sex? she lectures him. Pretty much all of them. Most cultures knew there is nothing more sacred or healing than intimacy. Sapiens forgot. She didn’t. She touches his arm and teases him when he blushes. How can he unite mutants if he forgot their first law? he states. They are told to multiply not surrender to empty desire. She asks him to follow her.
Elsewhere, Loa asks how she is supposed to relax with Legion and Pixie watching. Mercury asks them to turn around. They are attracting a damn audience. She refers to the Xorn brothers floating some distance behind Legion. David tells them the way this works there is nothing to be ashamed of. No secrets, no lies, no shame. Ruth always said it was like the idea of who you are mixing with somebody else. Bloody amazing, she said. He asks if they are sure. Mercury hesitates but Loa announces she’ll try anything once.
Pixie thanks David for doing this. She didn’t think he’d come. Seems like small potatoes for him. He shrugs. Good people deserve good things. ‘Sides community like this? Small potatoes can grow awful big.
He links Loa and Mercury telepathically, telling Pixie that, if it’s anything like Ruth and him, it’s like a million getting-to-know-you dates in one moment. It’s like blurring together. No boundaries. Sharing everything. However, the two girls begin to groan in pain. Legion decides to go look. Pixie protests at this breach of privacy. He tells her that’s Sapiens thinking. Mutants help mutants!
They enter their minds. Pixie fears Loa and Mercury are sharing too much. David replies that’s how Ruth and he did it. Pixie protests it’s going too fast. They shouldn’t have to share every ugly thought. Why can’t they stop? There is something ugly inside of them.
Legion makes them awake and they attack each other. The force inside them laughs and the two girls turn away from each other in disgust.
Opportunistic predation, Legion figures. Pixie asks if he used her friends’ awkward psychic hook-up as bait for a monster. He shrugs; better they get the full picture right away. Meanwhile, how does she fancy a wee hunt? He thinks he can track this beastie…
Back at Stacy’s place, Nightcrawler sees a creche where several mutant babies are resting in flowerbeds. Stacy explains she found the first one abandoned while walking one day. Lucky for her, plenty of the folk who visit the Bower have time and love to spare. She’s flourished. She guessed word got round. They average one a week. Some are left outside. Couple got teleported in. The twins at the back? Their parents just dropped them off like laundry. Kurt stammers. Stacy tells him he wanted folks to make more mutants… here they are. She muses, there are some couples doing it traditionally. And maybe someday the Council approves an adoption service. When they are done annexing planets and selling drugs, she mutters. Till then? Here’s his first law in action. She tells him it’s not babies they need. It’s folks who give a damn about other folks!
Kurt sees Lost entering and cuddling the kids. Stacy corrects him her name is Marinette. She met her in New Orleans a few years back, living on the street. Lost her powers during Wandageddon. Constant pain. Scared of every damn thing. Traumatized. Here she is tall and perfect in mutant paradise, with more reason than anyone to go wild and be selfish, but this is what she wants to do. She tells them stories. That gravity thing she got that makes folks puke? Doesn’t bother the little ones. The bones in their ears aren’t formed yet. Kurt asks if she never told who hurt her. Stacy demurs.
That moment, outside the window, Frenzy kicks the ass of Fabian Cortez, who apparently tried to come on to her with some weird Magneto fetish. Lost sees him and flattens him with her power. Furious, Cortez tries to throttle her.
Fearing for the stability of the building, Stacy asks Nightcrawler to teleport Lost out of here. Instead, Pixie teleports in Legion and the Xorn brothers.
“Out you come, twinkle toes!” Legion orders. “As you wish,” comes the reply as the spectre of Onslaught rises from Lost and psychically lashes out at them. Pixie saves the day with her Pixie dust, putting Lost to sleep and everything goes back to normal. When Cortez wants to know what’s going on, one of the Xorn brothers order him to go away.
Kurt asks Legion if he saw where Onslaught went. David explains it covered its tracks this time. What and who? Pixie asks and Legion and Kurt decide they need alcohol.
Soon they are all sitting at the bar of the Green Lagoon, next to Dr. Nemesis while Dazzler is performing. Stacy gently mocks them as heroes. Give it up for the procreation police. Kurt asks her how Lost is. Sleeping, she replies, dreaming, which is what they have been doing, if they think they can fix things with their silly baby boom.
Dazzler finishes her set and Stacy mutters how great she is. Of course she is a fan, Nemesis scoffs. Kurt asks what Krakoa needs if not reproduction. Connections, she replies, while gently using her power on Dr. Nemesis. She turns to Kurt and explains the sexy stuff takes care of itself. They need ways of softening the barriers. Making mutants feel like they are all in the same story. Pixie protests you can’t just force people together. They need secrets. They need to belong to themselves as well as the big stuff. It’s about risk, Stacy replies, about daring things even though it hurts when they go wrong. She watches Dr. Nemesis get up.
She tells Kurt she knows they are prepping for a fight. It doesn’t come down to how tough they are. Win or lose, it comes down to the same thing. Someone tries something new.
Nemesis steps toward Dazzler, who tells him she is tired and could do without another rant. He apologizes for being boorish and nervously asks her for a dance. With a smile, she accepts.


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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Heirs and Graces
Lost’s narration:In the bleakest of the drought days, the Allclan came together. The Bear Clan salted game, the dynasties of Beetle and Bee gathered nectar… and the great jeweled birds brought water for all. Still, there was suffering. For though all had toiled, though all agreed that the bounties must be shared, it remained a time of hunger. And Brother Tiger could not countenance such indignity. He made little secret of it. He broke the spines of Father Pea and Mother Humm and sucked up the marrow from their bones. Their child he spared and called it mercy.
She fled, more in loneliness than woe, for none dared condemn the killer. He was fed, after all. He was strong. In the burning fields, the hatchling bore trial beyond measure, her wings broken, her feathers torn out. Only the grudge sustained her, until there came a day that the rains returned and the fruit and the flocks, and the Allclan strengthened as never before. It was at this time that the child returned as well, demanding judgment and condemnation of the violation of peace at its most fragile. To ignore the past is to doom the future.
The elders traded glances. Brother Tiger picked his teeth and the fire priest stood. No, he said. They must begin afresh. They must forgive all sins and trespasses. Only by looking ahead in innocence can the Allclan flourish.
And the hatchling hung her head and could not join the cheering. Because forgiveness could not unbreak her wings.End of narration
Arakko:A puzzled Legion and Nightcrawler have listened to Lost’s narration, increasingly confused. Is that it? David asks. Kurt carefully reminds Lost that in the Bower she was triggered by Fabian Cortez. Is he the tiger in the story? And she is the hatchling? After some hesitation she just replies that she is Lost.
There’s their second law, Legion sends to Nightcrawler. “Murder no man.” If Cortez did kill her parents… then it was long before Krakoa and its laws, Kurt finishes the thought. Legion points out that the Council makes exceptions, reminding Kurt of Sabretooth who was sent to the Pit for crimes committed before the laws were made.
So much for dad’s mutant paradise being above judges and jail, David sighs. He suggests Kurt use that. He is still looking for a big idea for his not-a-religion? Big show trial, David suggests. Nobody would be unhappy to see Manbun McWeaselface burn. Wouldn’t be the first civilization to gather behind vengeful laws.
Kurt refuses. They have to be better than that. He apologizes to Lost but they made a decision when they joined this society. To wipe the slate clean. To judge only in the context of their new world, not the one they left behind. He also apologizes for bringing her to Mars, but the lower gravity softens the effect of her powers until she can control them.
David awkwardly offers it was a nice story. She could do something with that talent. He’s wrong, Lost replies. It’s not a story. Not yet. Stories must have endings. She walks away.
What does he think? Kurt asks. After making a joke, David tells him she is full of pain. She is so broken, most of the time she can barely string a sentence together. When she started that story, she was like a different person. She won’t heal until she gets closure. If he goes delving into her head, he will make things worse.
Kurt notices the volcano behind them showing signs of eruption. Olympus Mons, comes a voice from behind him. It’s Dust stepping through a Krakoan Gate. She adds, it’s the largest volcano in the solar system. It’s been erupting since the omegas terraformed Mars. Nobody seems to care. Pointedly, she asks Kurt why he is there. Didn’t she hear he got drunk and announced he was going to save them all. Something religious, she expects. It’s not really a religion per se, Kurt mumbles.
David interrupts and asks why she is out here. Clean-up duty, she replies. The volcano wasn’t the only thing the Omegas botched. They forgot the tides.
Looking up, David points out that the Martian moons are tiny. Too small to affect the water. Who said anything about water? Sooraya retorts, as a dust cloud nears them. While handling the dust with her powers, she explains that thanks to the disturbances there are gigatons of dust stirred up by the moons. The storm follows Phobos like a puppy. She asks them to excuse her. She has a cloud to wrestle.
She’s quite something, David admits, then walks toward the gate. He is working another angle on the Onslaught thing. He has an appointment. He thinks perhaps he does too, Kurt replies and also steps through a gate.
He ends up in Manhattan, Central Park and is treated to a bad sight: Gorgon groaning in pain and a crowd watching while nearby Fabian Cortez sips his coffee nonchalantly. He strongly advises Kurt to stay back. Sage said he was looking for him. He supposes either a council summons or a sermon. The answer is #&% no! He thought he better take a step. Preemptive retaliation, if he likes.
Poor Gorgon, Cortez continues, eyes that turn people to stone, mind like a nuke, sword like devil’s breath… then he dies in Otherworld and comes back as what? A halfwit child?
Kurt mumbles that nobody knows why the resurrection process went wrong. Disinterested, Cortez agrees. Poses all kinds of problems for the god-bothering types, he bets. Funny, isn’t it. Souls, God, the afterlife, it’s all sapien thinking. But these people don’t give a damn. They see a freak. Some fear him, some envy him… but it’s all ugly in the end.
All Cortez did was boost Gorgon’s telepathy a little. Can he imagine? Eight million pissy New Yorkers all complaining in his brain. He can’t block it out. Best guess? He panics and tears off that mask. Everybody dies.
Kurt reminds him of the law ‘kill no man.’ Cortez points out he isn’t triggering Gorgon and he will not do the killing. Nobody else is going to stop him, he says pointedly to Kurt.
Krakoa, the Green Lagoon:The other patrons look curiously at a special meeting between Charles Xavier and his estranged son, David. David asks if Xavier brought what he asked and Xavier hands him a Krakoan gate seed. Can he ask what it is for? David refuses. He adds Xavier is too invested in this place. He can’t feel what’s bubbling under the surface. Empathy was never his thing.
David doesn’t like him very much, does he? Xavier asks his son. David retorts that it’s worse. He loves him. He just doesn’t know why. Xavier takes off his Cerebro helmet. Calling David “son,” he asks how he really is. Cynically, David assumes he wants to know if he is on the verge of going nuts and destroying the universe. No, but cheers for the concern. He points to the Xorn brothers, adding they are helping. Xavier asks if they are teaching David calming meditation. No, they reply, they are ready to vaporize David, should he lose control. At his request. Xavier looks horrified. “I rule me,” David stresses. Whatever the cost.
Xavier changes the subject. Before David came back, he started sensing something. They are poisoning minds. Mapping up all the negative stuff, David agrees. Xavier thought it was David. Is it? Charles demands. For pity’s sake, no! David shouts. Xavier apologizes. It’s infecting them, can he feel it? The listlessness… the paranoia. All around them, the other patrons begin to show exactly those symptoms.
His people… their people… just want sensation. The bloodier the better. He built a paradise… but this thing is slipping in the cracks, exploiting every question…
David agrees, and yet Xavier can’t see it. Tricking him was the first thing it ever learned. Xavier demands to know who it is. He needs to fight it. David tells him it’s not up to Xavier to fight it. In fact, he is literally the worst candidates. It knows everything about him already. It is filling this room with hate and rage, and if Xavier tries anything…. If he even thinks its name? It will snap.
He’s got to go. Thanks for this. David gets up. Xavier pleads that those people are his responsibility. David retorts they are their own responsibility. Can’t he just trust his people? Can he not trust him? There is too much at stake, Xavier decides and demands a name. or he will take it himself— he lashes out, possessed by Onslaught, and all around them the other patrons attack each other.
David asks the Xorn brothers to help him. They psychically attack and only skeletons are let of everyone else, including Xavier. Better tell the resurrection crew to cancel their dinner plans, eh? David sighs. Gonna be a busy night.
In New York, the tortured Gorgon tears off his blindfold over Nightcrawler’s warning cries. Stop him! Kurt shouts at Cortez, who replies smoothly that that is precisely what he is doing. Gorgon’s telepathy is still maxed out, sure, but he is shutting down those eyes. For now. So, let’s talk about his options, shall they? Nightcrawler can knock out or kill Cortez and watch as ever last flatscan gets turn to stone. Or go and kill innocent Gorgon. But who knows what will get resurrected this time… Either way, he’s afraid it’s murder in the biblical sense. Or three: Kurt could stand in front of Gorgon and get petrified. That would probably scare off everyone else. Of course, suicide is blasphemy in that little religion of his, unless he doesn’t really see it as self-destruction at all. He will come back, after all. Go ride the resurrection rodeo. He’s sure Nightcrawler’s god won’t be jealous. What is he trying to prove? Nightcrawler seethes.
In the meantime, more bystanders have gathered to watch Gorgon.
Who says he is trying to prove anything? Cortez grins. Maybe he just likes watching flatscans die or maybe some holy wars need help getting started.
“There is always another way, you inexcusable little worm!” Kurt mutters. He teleports away and into the air to fall into an icecream stand that has been build up nearby. As he tries to extricate himself from the icecream, he does several pratfalls, causing the crowd to laugh. And that laughter gets projected to Gorgon, who calms down and reattaches his blindfold.
Kurt teleports back to Cortez, telling him he was right, the joke was on him. Cortez begs him not to take him to the Quiet Council. They will put him in the Hole! He whines about the unfairness. Gorgon has killed more people than him. Kurt tells him to shut up as he drags him through a portal. He is not taking him to the Council. He will face what no villain has ever withstood - a meaningful conversation!
On Mars, Xorn and Zorn watch as David puts a Krakoan seed into his head, intending to build a refuge for mutants or, as he calls it, a temple.


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[Assistant]
The Fall
Krakoa, Arbor Magna:Betrayer! a voice hisses at Charles Xavier. Before he can realize who it is, he breaks out of his cocoon and is welcomed back to life by Emma Frost. She hands him a robe and tells him no rest for the wicked. They need his help - 63 dead, mostly beta and gamma priority. And whereas she is not one for gossip, she cannot help noticing that the children are acting a bit particular.
Several of the resurrected teenagers are talking about an idea they got while coming around. They should hold a party. They agree on calling it Cruciball.
Xavier asks Emma who killed all these people. Ah, Emma sighs.
A little later on Arakko (formerly Mars), David Haller is floating in the air, focusing his telepathy. Xavier is greeted by the Xorn brothers, who flank David. They tell Xavier to keep his brain and hands to himself. They are guarding David while he builds. Builds what? Xavier asks. They don’t know. They don’t think he knows. Can he hear him? Charles asks. Thy assume he can but don’t know if he will listen. From what they can tell, all but a fraction of his psyche is active on the astral plane. The remainder is trying to broadcast. They don’t know to whom. He takes his privacy seriously.
David is trying to reach Nightcrawler telepathically. It’s Onslaught, he sends. He is stronger. David can feel him.
At the same time, Xavier tries to talk to David, telling him he needs to hear a few home truths. This disruptive attitude, it can’t go on. He knows David thinks him cold…
David continues sending that there is a weak spot. Onslaught keeps slithering through minds, leaving a spoor. But there is a core somewhere… an anchor. Is he listening? he sends at the same time, as a frustrated Xavier asks if David is listening.
Kurt is currently busy at the Outcast Gate at the foot of Mount Olympus, trying to keep Lost and Fabian Cortez from killing each other.
David sighs. Is he still pissing about with those two? There are bigger fish to fry…
Lost throws Cortez into the air, shouting he destroyed her life. He throws a knife at her, shouting, he doesn’t care!
Kurt teleports between them to grab the knife and orders them to stop. He brought them together to reconcile, not kill each other.
Cortez drops to the ground. When is he going to get it through in sanctimonious skull: Dying doesn’t matter! They resume their attacks on each other. Of course it &%$& does! Kurt shouts. It has to. Or living doesn’t matter either, he mutters.
Xavier continues his monologue at David, telling him he is unstable. Does he blame David for that? Of course not. But it’s a fact. The damage he has caused. Could cause… Krakoa has to be Xavier’s first priority. “Respect this sacred land,” that’s the law. He can’t stop David from coming back to Earth, but he is asking him not to… it would disappoint him. Exasperated, he groans why he is even bothering. David isn’t listening.
David sends to Kurt that he told him to focus on the Laws. He was wrong. He admits to not being great when it comes to people. Sometimes he treats people like things and then is surprised when they break. He feels compassion and guilt for meddling with Loa and Mercury. Of course, it went to hell. Worst part, that’s his father’s way. Cutting corners and shrugging at the trauma, long as he gets what he wants. They have to be better than that. He asks Kurt to help him be better than that. He doesn’t feel, not the way Kurt does - he is one of the kindly ones. He orders him to stop bloody thinking and start bloody acting.
Enough! Kurt shouts and drags Cortez and Lost away. He teleports them high into the sky and then drops them. He then teleports after them in short jumps, telling them they are ten kilometers above Mars and falling to their deaths. Lost’s gravity powers will slow her descent and that of everyone else she chooses but… but Cortez switched off her powers. An impasse, Kurt states, they are thinking it doesn’t matter. They will get resurrected anyway, but he is a member of the Quiet Council and he is sick to his heart of what is happening to his people. There are millions awaiting the gift of life they think so meaningless and he will see to it that Cortez will go to the back of the queue.
Cortez sputters that he can’t do that. Kurt shouts “respect this sacred land” doesn’t refer to a spot of dirt. They are the sacred land. When you diminish other mutants… harm them without consent you are breaking the law and Nightcrawler. Will. Judge.
Cortez finally admits to Lost that he is twisted up inside. He needs help. A start, Kurt remarks and asks Lost to tell Cortez what his actions have cost her.
Lost stammers that, when her parents died, she was taken in by an organization that did things to her…
No! Onslaught sends taking over them both. No telling tales! he orders. Kurt protests horrified as Cortez boosts Lost’s power too far. When he has boosted her to death, he protests this isn’t him doing it. The horrible consequences soon become clear as Lost’s power has caused Phobos to fall towards Mars.
SWORD alerts everyone on Mars / Arakko - They have ten minutes to get off-planet. After that they are dead! Time enough for the Krakoans present to use the gates. While help is offered to the Arakki they are decidedly unimpressed by the danger.
A crying Charles Xavier touches Legion’s face, as he mutters “my poor boy. I’m so sorry.”
Still in trance, Legion informs Nightcrawler he has caught a glimpse from his father’s mind. He’ll oppose David’s resurrection, if he dies here. Another tick on the ‘get therapy’ chart. But it’s worse than that. The shadow is in Xavier too. Onslaught gets into them during resurrection. He thinks Onslaught is eating the offcuts. The wee bits of lost life… lost experience… between when you get recorded and when you die. He eats those parts and leaves part of himself to fill the gap.
“Cheese toastie,” Kurt, now on the ground with Cortez, mutters recalling, Pixie’s forgotten food craving before her first death and resurrection.
A hysterical Cortez shouts at him to stop muttering and get him to a gate. He can’t leave him here. That’s murder! No, Kurt replies. What’s murder is leaving those people to die. Cortez snaps, it’s a */&%ing moon. He can’t preach it back into orbit. Kurt orders Cortez to boost him as far as he can. Understanding, Cortez calls him insane. He whines it will go wrong and he will kill them. Then they all will say Cortez killed that woman put him into the Pit. It’s not fair! All he wanted was for people to think he was important or *§$% like him. Is that so wrong?
Kurt interrupts his rant. How can he hope for the love of his people when he so plainly despises himself? Fabian breaks off and looks down. Respect this sacred land, he whispers and boosts Nightcrawler.
As Kurt gets overloaded with energy, he mutters that he can now see how they win. He sees how they flourish. The path, the way. But he won’t remember it. He orders Cortez to get to safety and remember what he told him. When he is brought back, it is up to Fabian to remind him. Does he understand? He of all the people will be the messenger! He need say only one thing to him. The rest he will put together. The Spark. That is what he must tell him when he has walked though death. The unseen spark in all things!
Cortez, Xavier and Dust head for the Krakoan gate.Kurt teleports to Phobos and teleports away with the moon, dying on it.
He did it, Cortez mutters reverently.
Arbor Magna:Kurt awakes from darkness, with Xavier informing him he died by his own hand. He is horrified to hear he committed a sin but Lost quickly assures him he saved millions of lives. He is confused to see her well. He tries to remember. He wanted to bring her and Cortez together… restorative justice. He was thinking about the three laws and… What happened next? Where is Cortez?
That’s where things get a little complicated, Xavier replies and asks him to follow him to the Healing Gardens, where Cortez lies catatonic. Xavier opines that all that effort switched his brain off. They tried everything they can think of. Healer suggests to euthanize and resurrect him. It would be the simplest option.
Xavier reminds them that Cortez was fired from his post and he seems to be partially responsible for the disaster on Mars. They can’t prioritize the disruptive elements. Not with so many other names on the list. He sighs. It is an overused axiom, but you can’t save them all.
And unseen, Onslaught walks among them…


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[Assistant]
- untitled -
The Director sits alone in his office, writing down his thoughts in his status report. He thinks back to a few months back, when he was a joke. Because of his disfigured face, people started to giggle when he left a room, and also he was banished to a back office so that the others would not have to look at him the whole day. Still, he dared to propose the renewal of one of the most controversial military projects ever – the Weapon X program. Many people have seen the possibilities of utilizing mutants for mankind’s benefit, but it was he who managed to bring back the Weapon X projects and the Director now wonders who’s the joke on now. All have been surprised by the fast progress he has made, and the Director thinks about the scientists who were responsible for the first Weapon X program that included Victor Creed, David North and Logan. He asks himself what the original staff would think of the renewed project, but he is sure that after a while they would understand that one has to take the good with the bad when recruiting agents and accept each one for their own eccentricities.
The Director thinks about Kane, who is currently being rebuild in the base’s labs. The Director knows that Kane is the most capable and loyal agent he has, yet living in the shadow of others for his entire life has given him a severe inferiority complex, which was further fuelled by his recent defeat by Deadpool. This has led to Kane being obsessed with constant improvement by any means. The Director values Kane so much that he decides to give his ego a boost by granting him a promotion, hoping that this will help him to overcome his own demons.
Sauron is the next agent that the Director thinks of. Not only does he lack Kane’s qualities, but he also finds his nature far too reckless. The Director is well aware of Sauron’s late night jaunts into town, during which he satisfies his hunger for energy by draining and killing some of the locals. Although the Director doesn’t think that this is a problem so far, he notes to himself that Sauron needs to be observed. Actually at the same time, Sauron is once more quenching his thirst by killing a young couple on their date.
The Director thinks of another problematic case – Mesmero. Though he has so far behaved himself, Mesmero is well aware of the fact that the Program’s upgrade makes him one of the most powerful mutants on earth. His overwhelming arrogance often leads to him abusing his powers to get whatever his heart desires. Sooner or later, they might be forced to power Mesmero down a bit. In a bar, Mesmero approaches two couples and uses his hypnotic abilities to make the girls love him while the guys are starting to fight each other.
The Director is at a loss when it comes to evaluating Wild Child. As off recently, he behaves rather strangely and he has the same insecurity issues as Kane does, though he deals with them in a perplexing manner. Wild Child rarely associates with the other operatives and instead spends countless hours alone. Indeed Kyle is sitting alone in a dark, empty room. He catches a rat and eats it alive. Actually the Director wanted Wild Child to play a large role in Aurora’s upcoming recruitment, but now he is not so sure anymore and even wonders if there is really a place for Wild Child within the Weapon X Program at all.
However the Director thinks that the problems of these four agents are minor ones in the grand scheme of things, and actually nothing compared to the major issues the project had involving three other possible recruits – Wolverine, Deadpool and Sabretooth. The renewed Weapon X program had no better luck in taming Experiment X , or Wolverine, that the original project. At first things looked promising as they were able to control Logan though some of his old implants, they even had him kill for them, but in the end, Wolverine broke free of their control. The Director did not take this particular failure well; he knows that he should not allow personal issues to come into play, however how can dealing with a man who brutally disfigured him years ago become not personal. Surely they will go after Wolverine again in due time.
Deadpool was a walking powder keg just waiting to explode in the Director’s face. He was recruited with the return of what he wanted most, his face. Deadpool proved to be a trying experience, as the Director puts it mildly, but it was not until they targeted his former paramour and ex-Weapon X agent Copycat, that Deadpool’s situation needed to be addressed. For Deadpool’s betrayal, he was terminated. What troubles the Director most about this episode is not the death of this agent, on the contrary, he even enjoyed that, but he later discovered that Deadpool’s recruitment was intended to distract him from the actions of the man who brought him in, Sabretooth.
Looking at a photo of Victor Creed, the Director thinks that Sabretooth was a productive agent in good standing, which is why he was caught so unaware when he hacked into the compound’s computer systems using the Director’s own access codes to abuse Weapon X’s funds and technology in an effort to wreck Wolverine’s life. Not only did Creed target those closest to Logan, but he almost succeeded in killing Wolverine himself. The Director knows that he underestimated the power of Sabretooth’s feud with Wolverine, but in fact not as much as he underestimated Sabretooth himself. As he is burning Creed’s picture with his cigarette, the Director thinks that the worst part is that Sabretooth escaped with copies of Weapon X’s most sensitive files, containing information on both current and potential agents, which covers almost every known mutant on the planet. What Sabretooth plans to do with this information is anybody’s guess, but it makes finding and dealing with Sabretooth priority #1. Elsewhere Sabretooth is lying in bed, a beautiful female next to him. Yet the female is dead, and with an evil grin Sabretooth picks up the aforementioned disks as he prepares to leave.
Priority #2 is something of an internal nature, namely Agent Brent Jackson. His insubordination of late has known no bounds, so the Director saw himself forced to suspend and incarcerate Jackson. Yet he now gives command that Jackson is released. The Director thinks to himself why he returns him to active duty, while actually he would love nothing better to be rid of Jackson and his overly smug attitude. Although it pains him to say it, the truth is the Director needs Jackson. He is one of the most devious men he ever met and he has a keen eye for such qualities in others. Though he would never admit it to him, Jackson was right about Sabretooth from the start and this kind of insight makes Jackson both invaluable and extremely untrustworthy, which is why the Director will be watching his back.
Thankfully neither Jackson or any of the other set-backs have derailed what the Director has accomplished so far, and the time has come to implement the next phase, starting with an aggressive recruitment campaign, a draft. The Director walks into the next room, that is filled with dozens of video screens showing many super heroes and villains. He wonders where to start. Earlier on people might have thought that Weapon X was relegated to the ranks of villainy, that they would never be able to approach the members of the X-men, the Fantastic Four or the Avengers, but if he has learned one thing during his brief stint as Weapon X Director, it’s that today’s enemy may very well prove to be tomorrow’s ally. Sometimes it’s just a matter of knowing where to find the right time and place and being there with a wide open helping hand.
(flashback, some time ago)X-Force are conducting tryouts for possible new members. One of the participants is a young man named Washout. He gets rejected and when he sadly leaves the building, a black limousine stops next to him. A voice from inside asks him how he fared, and Washout says that he was laughed at. The man inside the car explains that people often laugh at what they don’t understand. Washout does not believe him. To him it seemed, the understood quite well, but they didn’t want a guy on their team who can do nothing else but make little spurts of water when he touches things. The man in the limo says that however he would want him on his team, and that Washout is actually better than X-Force deserves, as he hasn’t realized his full potential yet. Washout doesn’t know what to say, and the man, who turns out to be the Director, steps out of the car and offers him the new life, Washout has always dreamed of. Washout is shocked to see the disfigured face and turns away, stating that his life ain’t that bad that he got to get “into strange cars with confetti-faced wackos.” However the Director mentions that his life isn’t that great; he got no family, no friends and he works as a waiter – to sum it up, he is a loser. Once more he offers him to join and finally prove them all wrong, after all what does he really have to lose ?
(present)Washout has been upgraded by the Weapon X scientists and he admits that he feels like a whole new man. The Director asks him to try out his new powers, and as he concentrates, Washout’s entire body turns to water. He then discovers that in this liquid state he can take any shape and is amazed. However Agent Jackson makes a lame comment about him. The Director agrees that Jackson has a point and again Washout fails to see the bigger picture. Jackson calls in one of the soldiers that work for the project, and once he comes in, the Director tells Washout that the human body is mostly composed of water and that he should focus on that and bring it to the surface. Washout does as told, and the soldier screams in pain as many bubbles erupt beneath his skin until he finally his entire upper body explodes. Washout is proud and the Director congratulates him on the task well done.
In his office, the Director finishes his status report with his thoughts about Washout. Of course the new recruit won’t be as thrilled when he learns that the upgrade will ultimately wind up dehydrating Washout himself. Chances are, he will be dead within a year. However even when he will finally discover, Washout should not let it get him down. He is just guilty of doing what so many others have done before him – he underestimated the Weapon X program and soon the whole world will learn that this is a mistake.