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The Blood of the Righteous
In a secluded monastery in Northern Ireland, a lonely man sits in solitude…as he has the previous night, and the night before that. Lightning crackles as a thunderstorm rages outside, seeming to reflect the turmoil in his own restless soul. In the months since he has sought refuge here among the order, he has been at peace. At peace with himself, and his tortured past. Why, then, does tonight seem different? What, he wonders, is the reason for the anxious feeling that the new life he has found here is on an inevitable collision course with his old life? He frowns, but no amount of prayer and reflection has brought the answers, so he sits and waits… for a sign. Suddenly, there is a screeching noise, and a crash. He looks up and races out of his room into the stone corridor, where other men dressed in brown robes are rushing down the corridor. ‘Brothers… that crash - what happened?’ he asks them. One of them replies that there seems to have been an accident outside, and calls the solemn man Brother Blackwood. ‘We will… take care of it’ he assures him. Another brother tells Blackwood that there is no need to concern himself, that he should just remain inside.
The brothers rush into the rain, and see across the road, where a delivery truck of some kind has swerved off the road and into a tree. One of the brothers suggests that the driver must have lost control on this horrid rain-slicked road. ‘Is he all right?’ another calls out. One of the brothers opens the door and announces that he is alive, that he seems to be relatively uninjured, but possibly in shock. He tells another brother to contact the hospital in Dublin, before calling out to the driver, asking him if he is all right. The driver replies that he is, but he banged his head on the windshield. One of the brothers asks him if he remembers what happened, and the driver replies that he works for a European distributor of American publications. ‘Y’know, Yank newspapers, magazines and the like…’ he begins, adding that he was heading for the distributor with the latest batch when his truck started sliding all over the road and smashed into the tree.
‘Now the bloody books are all over the street getting soaked! My boss is gonna tear me a new one!’ the driver points out, before asking the brothers to pardon his language, as they help him out of the truck. Brother Blackwood arrives outside, and the others tell him to go back inside, that they have this under control. But Arthur Blackwood is already beyond hearing, much less heeding, the words, as his eyes and mind are fixed upon the publications strewn at his feet - and one particular image among them - a photo of Nate Grey on the cover of the “Daily Bugle” newspaper, with the headline “Washington Square “Faith Healer” sighted in Ireland. Is Nate Grey the Second Coming?” ‘This boy… Grey… the Second Coming?’ someone asks. ‘No…’ Arthur Blackwood replies, eyes narrowed. ‘NO!’ he shouts. ‘Saints preserve us! This is what I was afraid of!’ one of the other brothers remarks. ‘What’s your friend yelling about?’ the truck driver asks.
One of the other brothers explains that Brother Blackwood came to them many months ago, his soul troubled, full of anger and intolerance. The brother reveals that Blackwood wanted a self-imposed exile from the outside, secular world, while he found inner peace, and he has not had contact with that world for some time - because he wasn’t ready to deal with it. ‘So? Just lock him up again’ the truck driver suggests. The brother tells him that it isn’t that simple, as he doesn’t just have anger, he has power - power from a source that he dares not even try to understand. Suddenly, Blackwood throws his arms into the air, ‘Hear me, my ancestors! My eyes have been closed too long! I was a fool - a coward - to believe I could hide from the evils of the world! That I could forsake my holy mission!’ he declares.
Blackwood continues, boasting that the world is still ridden with sin, with blasphemers and unbelievers. He asks for his ancestors’ forgiveness and for the might to do God’s will once again. Suddenly, he is struck by lightning. ‘Brother Blackwood?’ one of the brothers calls out, but Blackwood’s brown robe is replaced by a chain-link armor costume, with red and a white cross, a red helmet, a long purple cape, and a sword and shield. ‘No brother…Blackwood was too weak to do what needs to be done. In a burst of heavenly lightning fortified by my ancestors, I have been cleansed - purified - and armed for war against unholiness! The Crusader lives again!’ he declares. One of the brothers looks up through the rain at Blackwood and begs him to turn away from this path. ‘Brother Charles…?’ Blackwood replies.
Brother Charles tells him that this is not God’s will, that his “mission” is one of madness and intolerance, not righteousness. ‘Have a care, old man. You have meant much to me the last few months…but I will not tolerate anyone questioning my sacred duty!’ the Crusader replies, announcing that this Nate Grey, this “Faith healer” must be dealt with. Brother Charles reminds Arthur that they have made so much progress, dealing with his anger, and points out that he made a promise to God, to his wife and daughter that the Crusader was dead. ‘Will you turn you back on that promise?’ he asks. The Crusader raises his sword into the air, and energy glows around it, as he declares that he will listen to no more of their twisted words. ‘If you stand in the way of my crusade, then you are a tool of Satan and I reject you!’ he declares, adding that he will find this Nate Grey, and that he is either the Almighty himself as these tabloids claim, or he is a heathen, like that other false god, Thor. The Crusader adds that if Nate Grey is truly his Lord made flesh, then he must kneel to him. But if he is the blasphemous impostor he believes him to be, then he must die. With that, the Crusader takes off into the rainy night.
Miles away, the rain also falls over the night-draped city of London, on the Isle of Great Britain… though the weather is the last thing on the mind of this very unique young man, currently floating placidly over the Thames River in a watertight bubble of telekinetic energy. His name is Nate Grey, and although you may not know it to look at him, he is one of the most powerful, and most potentially dangerous, beings on the planet. Wearing his red and black “psychic armor” Nate is slumped over inside the telekinetic bubble, and decides that London is certainly an impressive looking city from this angle - a lot different than the nightmarish place it became on the Earth that he grew up. The young hero tells himself to face it - being raised in a world where humanity was ground down under the heel of a tyrant like Apocalypse did not leave a lot of time to appreciate the scenery. ‘So it doesn’t make any sense that I should be homesick, right? But then, not a lot in my life has made sense recently’ he thinks to himself.
Nate wonders if maybe he is just shaken by from that whole mess with Cable, Stryfe and Madelyne last week. He reminds himself that Cable and Stryfe are opposite sides of the same coin, and two different versions of what he could still become. He knows that they are all essentially from the same parentage - the same genetic template, only difference is that he was born in an alternate reality. ‘Is it my fate to end up like one of them?’ Nate asks himself. ‘Cable…a hard-hearted soldier, unable to get close to anyone…whose mission to save humanity is his very reason for existing? Stryfe… a man so driven by hatred and bitterness that his life is dedicated to causing chaos?’ He realizes that sometimes he thinks so much about things that he forgets the bottom line - that he is not going to live long enough to follow in either of their footsteps. ‘My mutant powers are still killing me a little bit every time I use them. I’ve known that a while. I’ve even learned to kinda live with it’ he tells himself.
Nate frowns and decides that perhaps the real problem is that he feels so ineffectual. He reminds himself that he swore he would use his powers to help people in the time he has left to him. ‘And what have I really accomplished? Back in New York, Threnody and I tried to help people…that whole “Miracle Worker of Washington Square Park” thing…and that ended up being a disaster’. He recalls that not long afterwards, Madelyne Pryor showed up in his life again, and he has no idea what her real agenda is. He remembers the mystery man, Ness, who claims that their destinies are somehow linked. Nate’s train of thought is interrupted when he hears a loud siren, and he turns to their direction - the bridge - realizing that it sounds like police and ambulance.
On one of the bridge towers, a young woman stands in the pouring rain, teetering on the edge of one of the platforms. What goes through the mind of a person on the brink of taking her own life? In Colleen O’Shaughnessy’s case, it is visions of all her idols - the legendary rock stars cut down in the prime of life and career - Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain. Maybe, she wonders, people will mark this night, this death and place her in that tragic firmament alongside them. Maybe and untimely end will make up for the comparable success she has yet to gain in the land of the living. She knows that it is a vain hope, though. Down below, on the bridge proper, police officers stand as the rain beats down on them, and one of them speaks through a megaphone, ‘Listen t’me, lass! Don’t jump! Just stay where ye are, and we’ll have rescue crews up there to get ye down!’ he tells her. But at this moment, she feels it is the only hope she has. Tears pour from the punk-like woman’s eyes. Nate’s telekinetic bubble hovers over the bridge now, and realizes that the girl wants to kill herself by taking a leap off London Bridge. He tells himself that he can’t float up here and watch that happen again. He sees cops and reporters on the bridge, and decides that thanks to the New York fiasco, his face, and the fact that he is a mutant, are known all over the world.
‘If I reveal my powers in public, my anonymity here is blown’ Nate realizes, deciding that it doesn’t matter. He regrets no longer having his telepathy, for if he did, he could just reach into the girl’s mind and make her stay still. Suddenly, lightning crackles and Colleen raises one foot off the platform. Ate can’t tell from his vantage point of Colleen is consciously taking a step off the bridge or if she is slipping on rain-slicked stone. But a fraction of a second later, the question becomes academic, and Colleen plummets downwards. ‘Time to stop daydreaming and move!’ Nate thinks to himself, using his telekinesis to propel himself down and match the girl’s terminal velocity, while slowing down her descent. ‘There’s two of ‘em up there!’ someone on the bridge shouts out. ‘Both falling?’ someone in the crowd asks. ‘No, one’s flying! One of them super heroes, y’think?’ another suggests. ‘Is it Captain Britain?’ someone inquires. ‘Nah, he’s still out on Muir Island, i’n’t he?’ another remarks.
‘He’s caught her!’ someone shouts out, as Nate reaches Colleen and takes her in his arms. ‘Bloody…! Who are you?’ the young punk woman asks. ‘Someone who’s seen too much death’ Nate replies. ‘Wh - what are you?’ Colleen inquires. ‘Tonight, I’m your guardian angel’ Nate explains. But Colleen snaps that she doesn’t need an bleeding guardian angel. ‘Did it look to you like I wanted to be saved?’ she asks him. She starts hitting Nate’s chest, telling him to let go of her. ‘I don’t care what kinda freak powers you have, it‘s my life! My decision! I just wanna die!’ she shouts. Nate grabs her by the wrist to prevent her hitting him again, and as the rain continues to pour down on them, he tells her that no one is dying in front of him if he can do something about it. ‘I’m just funny that way’ he tells her, before giving her a choice - she can either come with him to talk about this, or he can bring her back to those cops and she can talk to them. ‘Chose’ he asks. Colleen suggests that they can go to her flat in Sussex, and she can guide him there. ‘Won’t they know to look for you there?’ Nate asks. ‘Only if they had a clue who I am, which they don’t, I am just a nobody, after all’ Colleen replies, as they fly off through the sky.
Hours later, as darkness and rain give way to a new dawn, ‘What the…?’ Colleen utters as she wakes, to find a cup of coffee telekinetically hovering over her. ‘Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you’ Nate tells her as he holds the cup of coffee away from her, explaining that he thought that she might want a cup. ‘I think I figured out how to use the machine. Might be a little strong’ he admits. Colleen sits up in her bed and replies that strong is just fine. She adds that she did have a bit of the hard stuff last night. ‘Well that starts to explain why you pulled that stunt on the bridge’ Nate points out. Wide-eyed, Colleen asks ‘So it wasn’t a dream…you did fly up to me and break my fall’ before calling Nate “Mister Guardian Angel” and asking him if he has a name. ‘Nate. And you, Miss “Nobody”?’ Nate asks. Colleen introduces herself, and as she drinks the coffee, Nate asks her what could have been so terrible that would make her take a header off of London Bridge. ‘You…you wouldn’t understand’ Colleen replies. ‘Try me’ Nate tells her.
Colleen explains that she is a singer - actually, a bartender trying to be a singer, and that she plays in a rock band, they do punk, heavy metal, that kind of stuff. She adds that they are small time and have been playing local clubs and bars for a few years now, waiting for the big break, and for the fairy tale of the record executive in the audience to come over and sign them up to a contract. ‘Guess what, Nate? Fairy tales are exactly that’ Colleen declares, before informing Nate that she had a big argument with her parents before she left home. They wanted her to study law, while she wanted to be the next Alanis Morrissette. She explains that she told her parents she wouldn’t set foot in their home again until she was a success - and that was five years ago. ‘I haven’t seen or spoken to ‘em since’ she adds.
Nate asks Colleen if she thinks that means her parents wouldn’t feel awful if they found out she killed herself? ‘Sorry, but struggling for success doesn’t strike me as a reason to end your life’ he adds. Colleen glances out the window and explains that it is more than that, as she has mood swings. ‘This isn’t the first time I’ve felt like…ending it all’ Colleen admits. She states that a doctor friend of hers told her she had a manic depressive disorder. ‘You heard of those, right, smart lad like you?’ Colleen asks, pointing out that half the time, usually when she is up on the stage, she is on top of the world, like nothing can touch her. But the rest of the tie, when she has quiet time to think about things, she is just so low, so worthless - like last night. Colleen informs Nate that she has medication for it, but that she can’t stand what it does to her anymore, that it makes her feel numb, dead inside, so she figured the easiest thing for everybody was for her to just go away.
Nate listens intently and tells Colleen that just because something seems easy, it doesn’t make it the right decision, and asks her about her friends, the band of hers. ‘How would they feel?’ He asks her about her family, as it seems like she has given up on them, not like the other way around. Colleen replies that she has heard it all before. ‘Crikey, who’d’ve thought my guardian angel would be so full of platitudes…’ she mutters. But Nate tells Colleen that he cant believe so much of this is really about being a celebrity, being famous, and asks her if that is really so important to her. He takes her by her hands and announces that he will show her something he found in her mailbox while she was asleep. Nate holds up a copy of the “London Times”,. which has a photo of he rescuing Colleen and the headline “American Mutant Saves London Bridge Jumper”, while a second article is all about Nate, “Washington Square “Miracle Worker” Nate Grey”, and has a headshot of him.
Nate asks Colleen if it looks familiar - some bright reporter figured him out. ‘Fame isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, Colleen. I’m a walking media event. This is why I can barely show my face in public’. ‘Nate…Grey? My God…you’re…that one, aren’t you?’ Colleen gasps, wide-eyed. ‘The one who cures people…fixes minds!’ Colleen exclaims. She tells him that she figured he had to be a mutant, maybe one of those Excalibur blokes, but she didn’t make the connection. She grabs Nate by his arms and tells him that he can cure her, use his powers to give her peace of mind, wipe out her bloody depression. ‘You can make me forget I ever had these problems, right?’ she asks him. ‘Please, Nate…I’m begging you. I’ll do anything if you’ll do that for me!’ she exclaims. ‘Colleen, I…I’m sorry’ Nate begins, informing her that he can’t help her, at least not this way.
Nate tells Colleen that it is a long story, but he doesn’t have those powers anymore. He explains that there was a disturbance on the psychic plane, and it left him without his telepathy, so he can’t affect the minds of others anymore. He adds that even before that, the whole “faith healer” experience taught him that he was wrong to play God with his powers that way, as real strength has to come from within. Colleen scowls and declares ‘That’s a real cock-and-bull story, isn’t it, then? I suppose I’m just not worth wasting your precious powers on, right? Well, fine!’ She turns away from him and tells Nate to have fun hiding himself from the world, as she will take care of herself. Colleen then storms out of her apartment and slams the door behind Nate, who calls out to her, asking her to wait. He hangs his head and tells himself that it could have gone better. ‘For all I know, she’s gonna go try to kill herself again!’ Nate decides that he has to find Colleen, before the wrong people find out he is here.
Meantime, at a roadside newsstand, an elderly newsagent looks up as a tall shadow descends over him, ‘Er… can I help ye, Sir?’ he asks nervously. The Crusader looks down at the newsagent and announces that he would peruse these publications. ‘Be my guest. Uh…is that a real sword?’ the old man replies. The Crusader raises his sword overhead and clenches one of the newspapers, ‘So he is near…in London! The vision of my sainted ancestors have guided my steps well!’ the Crusader declares, adding that still this stripling flaunts his powers, his imagined divinity. ‘With dying breath he shall repent for this effrontery!’ The Crusader tells the newsagent that tomorrow, these headlines will sing of Nate Grey’s public execution by the Crusader. The Crusader drops the newspaper and storms off, while the old man calls out to him ‘Yer filmin’ a new Monty Python film, roit? Shouldn’t you have a dead chicken with ye? Where’s the cameras?’ he asks, before deciding that the bloke seemed serious - about as serious as you can get in that daft costume anyway. ‘I sure wouldn’t wanna be the poor tosser he’s mad at!’ the old man declares.
Hours later, Nate Grey is finding that downtown London is a good place for the right kind of person to blend into the crowd - a fortuitous thing if you’re trying to stay hidden…but frustrating if you’re trying to find someone. He walks down a busy street, sunglasses over his eyes and a trench coat covering his psychic armor, he tells himself that he has bee searching bars and clubs all night, and there is still no trace of Colleen. He thought for sure form what she told him that she might look for friends in one of these places. He wishes that he still had his telepathy, this could have been so easy. Nate wonders how normal humans deal with being mind blind every day of their lives. ‘To them, it must seem like I’ve lost some cool super-power…to me, it’s like one of my senses is just… gone. And I have no idea how much longer I have until somebody blows my cover’ he realizes.
Nate walks past some punks, and one of them points at Nate, while asking her friend what he thinks of that look. ‘Little too U2 circa 1989, luv’ the punk with colorful hair responds. Nate enters another pub, deciding that it can’t hurt to try one more. He approaches the bar and asks ‘Excuse me? Has anyone seen a girl with -’ but he is interrupted by a man who tells him to hush, as they have just interrupted the match for this news report. Nate looks up to the television, which shows an image of the Crusader standing on a rooftop, as the announcer reports ‘…bizarrely garbed individual appeared in the center of London’s Picadilly Circus, issuing a challenge to the American mutant Nate Grey…who was sighted just last night over London Bridge rescuing a still-unidentified jumper’. The patron sitting at the bar turns back to Nate, ‘Hmmp, what d’you make o’ that, lads?’ he asks. ‘How about you, mate? Y’gonna order a drink or just stand there looking - pretty?’ but the drunk patron gets no response, as Nate has gone. ‘Huh. Bloke musta forgot his ID’ he decides.
At that moment, police officers surround the Crusader, while a crowd of civilians has gathered around to watch. ‘I’m not tellin’ you again, mate - I don’t care if you’re on a mission from God, or just an escapee from the looney bin, put the sword down and let’s discuss this like civilized folks, a’right?’ one of the police officers calls out. ‘Who are you to dare mock me…to stand in the way of my mission?’ the Crusader respond. The police officer points out that he is an officer of the law. ‘And you are causing a public disturbance’ he remarks, aiming his pistol at the Crusader. The Crusader replies that he recognizes no law save that of Heaven itself, and warns the officers that if they oppose him, they are tools of the Devil and they too must be smitten by the Sword of Righteousness.
The Crusader blocks their gunfire with his sword, ‘I warned you, mate!’ one of the officers calls out. ‘And I - have warned you!’ the Crusader declares as he lunges forward, slicing a car hood off, and knocking the police officers aside. The Crusader holds his sword overhead, and explains that it is no ordinary blade that he wields. ‘As I have destroyed your conveyance, now I shall -’ he begins, before a voice calls out ‘Hold it right there, lunatic!’ and the Crusader looks up, to see X-Man hovering before him. ‘If it’s me you’re looking for, then here I am!’ Nate declares, adding ‘You’ll have to forgive me if I have no clue as to why! I’ve never seen you before in my life!’ ‘No clue? So it is as I suspected!’ the Crusader replies, announcing that his Lord would never feign ignorance of him or his mission. ‘You are a pretender… a blasphemer…and thus, you have sealed your doom!’ he declares.
The Crusader hurls the motor from the car towards Nate, ‘Are you insane? I’ve never made any such -’ Nate calls out, before realizing that the Crusader tore the engine from the car with his bare hands, so it looks like he is not just dealing with an everyday nutcase here. Nate uses his telekinesis to reduce the car motor to its component molecules and disperse it away from the crowd. He wishes that he knew what has set this guy off. The Crusader tells Nate that his powers are impressive, and though he does not know from what unholy source they are derived, they will avail him naught against a true soldier of Heaven. Nate is too slow to fly backwards as the Crusader leaps at him, and slams into the young mutant, his shield pushing through Nate’s telekinetic force field, and Nate falls back into an office building, shattering the window.
The Crusader follows, and pins Nate to the ground. The Crusader holds his sword close to Nate and tells him to make peace with whatever false deities he deems holy, as his final judgment is at hand. ‘What is this about? Who are you?’ Nate calls out to his foe. The Crusader explains that he is this age’s crusader against sacrilege and immorality. ‘I am the appointed executioner of false prophets and charlatans such as yourself’ he boasts. Some office workers look on, as the Crusader starts to strangle Nate, who wonders what this is all about. He decides that this is unreal, for even with his reduced powers, he should be able to shatter the Crusader’s sword to pieces with a thought, and psi-blast him halfway to Belfast. The Crusader asks Nate if he wants to know more, and reveals that years ago, on the night he was expelled from the seminary by short-sighted complacent fools, he had a vision.
The Crusader continues, explaining that it wasn’t a vision, but an epiphany, as the ghosts of his ancestors appeared to him and bestowed upon him their legacy - these weapons and this armor - and charged him with carrying on their holy wars in this corrupt, modern era. He announces that as long as his faith I strong, his power is limitless, his weapons impregnable. ‘Against that you have no hope!’ he tells Nate, when, suddenly, a car is telekinetically flung into the office, and slams into the Crusader’s back. Nate drops to the ground as the Crusader is pushed forward. ‘Maybe not - but I can still use my TK to hurl that police car over here…and give myself some room to breath’ Nate points out. The Crusader curses Nate, ‘Like every tool of Satan, you fight without honor!’ he exclaims as he tries to get to his feet.
Nate starts to telekinetically lift various objects around him and replies ‘Yeah? I didn’t see much honor in terrorizing innocent bystanders to lure me here, either’, while telling the Crusader that he guesses he has the right to decide when the end justifies the means, too. Nate tells the Crusader that if he wants a fair, one-on-one fight, he has got it. Nate uses the objects - shrapnel, actually, to telekinetically form his won sword, and he stands ready to combat the Crusader, who tells him that neither his youthful bravado not his devilish powers impress him. The Crusader moves forward, sword raised overhead and declares that Nate has made a fatal mistake, boasting that he was a master swordsman years before he became the Crusader. ‘The charming personality came with the change, though, right?’ Nate jokes. ‘Arrogant pup! Your brash challenge has signed your death warrant!’ the Crusader booms. The Crusader brings his sword down against Nate’s telekinetic sword, ‘Have at thee!’ he calls out, as Nate proves no match. ‘Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time’ Nate thinks to himself as he ducks the Crusader’s sword.
Outside, the wide-eyed crowd has increased in number by one, as Colleen, who was nursing a pint of Murphy’s Stout in one of her favorite uptown haunts when she saw the news, joins the crowd gathered outside. She is not sure if she was drawn to the battle by sheer, morbid curiosity, like the majority of this throng, or genuine concern for the young man who just last night saved her from a certain death she claimed to crave. A police line has been erected between the crowd and the building where Nate fights the Crusader. Colleen rushes towards it, despite being told that she cannot go any further. But to the crowd’s surprise, Colleen leaps over the police barricade. ‘Somebody get after her!’ a voice calls out. ‘Heh…right on, babe’ a punk tells Colleen.
Back inside, ‘Hah! Your weapon of evil shatters against my holy shield!’ the Crusader declares, before he kicks Nate backwards, boasting that the strength of his faith will outmatch any unearthly power that Nate an bring to bear. ‘Now…we shall end this!’ the Crusader exclaims. Nate didn’t want to believe the Crusader, but realizes that he is right - he is just getting stronger, while Nate is starting to feel drained and weak. Nate looks up from the ground as the Crusader raises his sword overhead once more, ‘Nate Grey, you have blasphemed against the Almighty. I beseech you, at least face your death with dignity. Do you repent?’ the Crusader asks. ‘Get… stuffed’ Nate replies. ‘So be it! Let that foolery be your epitaph!’ the Crusader warns Nate, as he brings his sword down, but Nate ducks just in time, however the Crusader’s sword slices right through a building support beam.
A whole section of the ceiling is starting to come down, and Nate sees someone in the building - ‘Colleen?’ he calls out, while, an inner voice seems to whisper to Colleen O’Shaugnessy as rubble falls down around her: ‘Here is death, it taunts…certain and final. And this time you’re absolved of any responsibility. This time, death is rushing toward you, instead of you rushing toward it. This time, all you have to do…is stand there. This is what you want…isn’t it?’ And with that, a tear falls from Colleen’s eye. The Crusader looks confused, ‘What deviltry? You aim your beam past me?’ he asks Nate, whose psi-beam indeed moves past the Crusader, ‘That’s right, maniac… to prevent your “holy quest” from claiming an innocent life!’ Nate calls out, as a telekinetic shield suddenly appears over Colleen, protecting her from the rubble and dispersing it at the same time.
The Crusader looks on, shocked. ‘That girl…not much older than my daughter!’ he gasps. He goes over to Colleen and crouches down beside her, asking her to forgive him. ‘I did not see you! Are you injured?’ he asks. Nate flies towards them, ‘Not so sure of your cause now, are you, Crusader? Well, that’s fine with me… ‘cause I’ve never been more convinced of my own!’ Nate calls out, hovering over the Crusader, Nate states that he never claimed to be his god or anyone else’s - and he never wanted the notoriety that his powers brought him. He points out that at least he used those powers selflessly, to try to help people. ‘You’re the one who comes wrapped in all the holier-than-thou trappings…and all you want to use your powers to do is kill, destroy, shed blood!’ Nate exclaims.
Nate tells the Crusader that he is a hypocrite, and a bigger blasphemer than he could ever hope to be. ‘And I’ve had more than enough of you!’ Nate adds, as he crushes the Crusader with a telekinetic charge. ‘No…my weapons…armor…gone! My strength…ebb…!’ the Crusader utters. He collapses to the floor, muttering that his ancestors have abandoned him. ‘Forgive me, Lord…forgive…your servant…’. Colleen is quiet, before asking ‘So…um… what’s his deal, then?’ X-Man flies over to her and tells her that he is no longer a threat, and that he will tell her the rest later. Nate tells Colleen to come on, as the cops will be storming in here when they realize the fight is over.
Nate takes Colleen in his arms and he takes flight, telling her that he doesn’t think either of them wants to be here when they arrive. ‘Y’saved my life’ Colleen remarks. ‘Twice, actually. But who’s counting?’ Nate replies, adding ‘You’re welcome, by the way’ as he flies over the city.
Shortly, as both physical and emotional wrecking begins to be sorted through, the Crusader - Arthur Blackwood - is once again wearing his brown robe, and is in police custody outside the building. ‘So you say you know this man, father?’ one of the officers asks Brother Charles, who confirms that he does, and implores the officer to release him into the custody of his order. ‘A conventional institution could not hold him, and would not help him. He needs guidance’ Brother Charles explains. One of the police offers replies that it is not their decision to make, as there are legal channels to deal with. ‘Then I shall deal with them’ Brother Charles assures the officer. Blackwood hangs his head and tells Brother Charles that he is sorry, that he was wrong and he will face whatever punishment that awaits. ‘I only beg your forgiveness…and God’s’. Brother Charles hugs Blackwood, and reminds him that forgiving is a large part of God’s job. He assures him that he will pull through this, if he has the strength and the faith.
On a rooftop, Nate and Colleen set down. Nate tells Colleen that she has to get to a hospital, and points out that he has to leave. He adds that noticed that Colleen’s arms as the rubble was falling - that she was trying to shield herself. Colleen replies that she supposes she really wasn’t ready to die - that when she was staring it in the face, when it wasn’t on her terms. ‘Especially when you - a stranger - were willing to risk yer own life in that battle to save mine’. Colleen thanks Nate for saving her life - twice, and kisses him on his cheek. Colleen tells Nate not to worry about her, as she is going to be okay, that she is going to keep working for her dream - because if this day has shown anything, it is that for good or ill, a little faith can go a long way. With that, Nate takes flight and leaves.


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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Skyfall
‘Getting there’, the heroic young mutant, Nate Grey a.k.a. X-Man thinks to himself as he telekinetically flies through a storm. Rain pours down around him, while he tells himself that after everything that happened in Latveria that could have happened to the rest of the planet, thanks to him, he really thought that his solo side-trip to London might have done him some good, but he was wrong, as usual. Nate decides that he needs something solid now, secure - the Dublin ground beneath his feet again, a few helpings of Mrs MacAleer’s ham-n-cabbage - and Maddie. ‘Madelyne Pryor. She’s been there for me, whenever, wherever I needed her…since the moment I first fell to this Earth’. A lightning bolt crackles ahead of the young hero, causing him to dart backwards, while thinking ‘Then there’s Ness. I’m not sure what it is exactly, but something about him reminds me of -’ he loses his train of thought as a huge crashing noise booms overhead.
Nate clutches his ears, and decides that it was unlike any thunder he has ever heard, and looking down, Nate sees a stream of pink energy moving towards the ground below. ‘And that ain’t lightning!’ Nate realizes as the pink energy strikes a building in the city below. He decides that something, or someone, has just hit the ground, hard, and flies towards the area where the crash took place. Recalling how he fell to Earth, Nate lands on the ground and decides that this is worse, staring at the rubble before him, he reminds himself that he didn’t bring two tons of machinery on top of himself when he arrived. Examining his surroundings, he realizes that this old sports car facility has been abandoned for years, according to the Macs, so he needn’t worry about any other victims, at least, while his telekinesis makes it easy enough to clear the rubble at ground-zero.
Nate uses his telekinesis to toss some of the machinery and rubble aside, but decides that there is too much to sift through, and it might take too much time. He wishes he still had his telepathy, as he would be able to scan for some sign of life - he goes wide-eyed when, after moving some rubble, discovers a woman with golden skin with some tattoos down the right side of her body and bluish-gray hair, her costume torn, seemingly unconscious. ‘She’s… so… unbelievably…’ Nate thinks to himself, when the woman suddenly opens her eyes, ‘Alive?’ Nate gasps. The woman spins around and gets up, and Nate tells himself that she is fast too, even if she can barely crawl yet in her condition. The woman backs up against a wall, and starts waving a hand about. While Nate looks around, believing he spotted some traces of armor in the wreckage around the woman. He supposes that took the brunt of the initial impact, but notices that the whole place is starting to spark and smoke. He tells the woman not to be afraid, and introduces himself as Nate Grey.
The woman gazes past Nate, as three large figures appear behind him. ‘I’m just trying to…’ Nate begins, before realizing the woman has been gesturing behind him, and he looks up, seeing three large black bug-like aliens behind him, one of whom says something in its native alien tongue, before activating some sort of translation system, ‘Pursuit confirmed’ it then declares, adding ‘Stolen frequency-alternator destroyed upon rogue entry into this unauthorized dimensional plane’. ‘Thief targeted and -’ the alien starts to say, before Nate flies up to its face, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you talking about? “Targeted”? Who - what - are you three…who is she?’ he asks. One of the other large bug-like aliens states ‘With no encounter-suit to electromagnetically anchor her to this plane, the Doctor will automatically return to the quantum-mines…’
And another bug alien adds ‘…in precisely 39 hours, 12 minutes, and 14 seconds when her artificially-accelerated vibrational-rate returns to normal again’. ‘Unless…’ another of the aliens begins, but Nate releases some telekinetic energy, ‘Unless what, freak?’ he demands, ordering the alien to talk to him, to tell him who they are and what is going on down here. ‘We are hunters’ one of the other aliens replies. ‘And she is the hunted’ the other remarks, as they both fire energy at Nate, knocking him about. ‘You’re morons!’ Nate retorts, as he gathers himself and blocks their attack with a telekinetic force-field. One of the aliens instructs the others to cease fire, as another states that the interloper’s mentally-generated shields and the hunters’ reinforced carapaces are both impregnable to weapons-emissions. ‘Convert to manual desist-and-detain’ another alien declares, extending its pincers to try and grab Nate. ‘Too late, pest! Firing weapons in a contained space…? Even I know better than that!’ Nate adds, as the alien’s claw is cut off, and Nate flies towards the woman, as the factory around them starts to explode.
‘YAAAHOOEY!’ Nate shouts as he and the alien woman, surrounded by a telekinetic bubble, fly across the city, towards open space. ‘Ah, c’mon, girl…I still have no clue where you’re running from and no real idea what to do about it next -’ he tells her, before crash landing on hillside, they both roll down the slopes, the rain still pouring down over them. ‘But even you gotta admit…that was a blast!’ Nate exclaims as he reaches out for the alien woman, taking her by the hand. Nate declares that those big, bad bugs-in-black were definitely surprised by the explosive reaction to their barrage. He wonders if there is some fundamental difference between the physics of this plane and theirs. They run along the meadow now, over some slopes, as Nate announces that it is still best to grab as much distance as possible now, while they can, just in case. But, after a time, Nate comes to a stand-still, he needs to catch his breath.
More lightning crackles in the darkened sky, while the alien woman turns as if she is going to make a run for it. Nate asks her where she is going, pointing out that she is injured, exhausted and totally lost and alone. ‘Whatever those things back there are, they’re obviously dangerous - deadly - and you can’t…you…that’s why you’re walking away, isn’t it? To protect me?’ Nate calls out. The alien woman waves goodbye, but Nate flies over to her and picks her up, ‘Forget that, fancy-face! Far as I can tell, you don’t know squat about this world - and I’m your best defense against everything out there now. Everything’ he tells her. Surrounding himself and the alien woman in a telekinetic bubble once more, they fly away, as Nate remarks that all this rain, well, they are in Ireland. ‘Get used to it -’ he begins, before a beam of energy strikes him in the leg, and the bubble starts to fall towards another hillside.
Meanwhile, in Dublin, the rain pours down there, also, as a man with long hair is perched on a rooftop in the city. Lightning crackles over him as he thinks that Dublin is truly magnificent, old and new, tradition and progression, side-by-side - so many people, so many stories, so much history, still intact. ‘Almost…palpable to one like myself - with eyes to see, ears to hear - but there are no such others living here on the outside. Not for millennia now’ the man thinks to himself, recalling that he gave up home and haven to save all from the worst that Nate Grey could be. He knows he can never return to the nest again, that this is his new world now, just the tip of his new world, whether he likes it or not - and he can’t even begin to imagine where to start.
Suddenly… ‘Well done, “Ness”…you’ve wormed your way into Nate’s life enough to earn a room at MacAleers’ b’n’b at least’ Madelyne Pryor remarks as she hovers in the air around Ness. Her pink cloak flowing behind her in the wind, she adds that it is too bad Ness drove their mutual pal out of town at the same time. ‘Hiding in the shadows, Madelyne…as usual?’ Ness replies, without turning to see her. ‘What, no startled leap backwards…no shocked misstep from your precarious perch…? Not even a hackle raised in fear?’ Madelyne asks. ‘You knew I was here all along?’ Madelyne realizes. Ness replies that he knows Madelyne doesn’t like to be alone too long, nor does she like to let the boy out of her sight at all, if she can help it. ‘Neither do you, I’ve noticed’ Madelyne replies, before pointing out that Ness just lost him, anyway.
Madelyne suggests to Ness that he try a little honesty with him, and to drop the air of mystery and all that. ‘Worked for me, after all…like a charm’ Madelyne remarks, while Ness drinks some rain that falls into his hand. Ness announces that he is hellbent to join Grey at a moment of the collective destiny, that he abandoned a wife and lost a cousin, forever. ‘Knowing any more would endanger you both now…and it is none of your business’ Ness points out, before telling Madelyne that the real question still remains: ‘what exactly are you?’ before Ness suddenly vanishes, leaving Madelyne hovering in the rain.
At that moment, ‘What…what is she doing…’ Nate asks himself, as the alien woman leans down and kisses him. ‘Oh. Just sharing air - splitting her oxygen supply with the needy’ Nate realizes. Recalling how Maddie had to do the same for him at the edge of the atmosphere a few weeks ago. The alien woman goes wide-eyed, and pulls away. ‘But not like Maddie, that’s for sure. Nothing like Maddie’ Nate thinks to himself, while telling his strange companion that the last thing he remembers is getting pegged from below trying to steer them into the softer bog lands to cushion their landing, then passing out. He supposes that the hunters were close enough to see them come down, and realizes that the alien woman must have kept he and her hidden underwater until they passed by, despite the added risk to herself in staying behind. ‘Wow’ Nate utters.
At the same time, one of the bug-like aliens reports that they have lost visual contact. ‘Field-carapaces damaged by unexpected energy-eruption, unsuitable for present terrain. Land search inadequate’ one of the aliens announces, before authorizing mega-hunter protocol. The aliens then start to combine.
‘Doctor. They called you “Doctor”, didn’t they?’ Nate asks as the alien woman looks at his wounded leg inside a cave. ‘Laser-wound self-cauterized, from what I can see, and caking mud will help - no doubt about it…but we can’t hang here long, Doc’ Nate remarks. The alien wipes her face with a cloth as Nate tells her that there has to be someplace safe for her, someplace they have to reach before the thirty-nine hours are up. He adds that without his telepathy, he has no way to know where or what that place is yet, or how much time they have already lost. Nate clutches his head and starts to stumble, before indeed collapsing to his knees. ‘And look at you… you definitely don’t have the same glow you were sporting when I first found you… looks like your body’s losing some sort of battle’ Nate remarks, before he falls backwards.
‘Trust me, I can relate’ he tells the alien, informing her that he is burning out on his own power, so much power, he doesn’t expect to see twenty-one. ‘Be surprised what I can do actually…when I put my mind to it’ Nate admits, while the alien goes over to him and leans down. ‘So tired just now, though…little weak from blood loss…’ he tells her. ‘That why we / me stayed’ the alien declares. Nate goes wide-eyed, ‘You…you can speak?’ he gasps. ‘You talk, me talk’ the alien tells him. ‘Sure, sure - whatever’ Nate tells her, before asking her what her name is. ‘You talk, I talk’ the alien replies. ‘Okay, right - right - got it’ Nate mutters, while the alien wipes his face with the cloth, as Nate tells her that he has to call her something, something that speaks to her touch, so soft, her light, her appearance in his life here, now - out of nowhere. ‘Almost like some sort of fallen -’ he begins, before the alien states ‘Sylph’.
‘Pretty - like those air-elementals from the fairy tales Forge used to spin around the campfire back home…’ Nate recalls, before taking Sylph by her hand and telling her that she is shivering now. Nate knows that if he could peek into his her head, this language would be way behind them already, and he would know exactly where she needed to go, precisely how long they have to get there, and he would know how close the hunters re. ‘Not to worry, Nate Grey…hunters good keepers, not finders’ Sylph smiles. ‘A joke…?’ Nate replies, before they laugh, and Nate utters ‘Wow’ as Sylph drops into his arms. But she pulls back, ‘Don’t…please don’t pull away yet…you’re still shivering…trembling…we’re both hurt…’ Nate tells her. ‘You talk, Nate Grey… I listen. Please’ Sylph asks, as she puts her head on Nate’s shoulder. Nate replies that it feels like he has lots to say all of a sudden, a lot to share - about being a stranger in a strange land.
At that moment, the rain continues to beat down as the alien hunters, in their combined form, fly towards a village, and crash into a building. There is a computer in one room, and the aliens shove a pincer into the hard-drive.
Later, Nate wakes and finds that it is morning already. He looks out of the cave, to where the sun is rising over the water before him. He doesn’t feel exactly one hundred percent yet, before wondering where Sylph is, although he soon sees her, standing outside the cave, holding herself as she watches the sunrise. Nate tells himself that Sylph is just trying to keep warm in the sun, taking it all in for the very first time, and walks towards her. ‘Awesome, isn’t it?’ Nate calls out. He puts his jacket around Sylph and tells her that there is so much more he can’t wait to show her, to really share with her. ‘I know this won’t be enough to stop the cold, nothing seems to be enough yet, but -’ Nate begins, before Sylph turns to Nate’s wound, and Nate tells her that it is healing nicely, thanks to her mud-and-herb packs, specifically, and he is controlling the bleeding telekinetically. Nate adds that it s taking a considerable amount of conscious effort on his part, seriously limiting the rest of his psionic. Nate informs Sylph that he figured it out, during the night, what to do next. ‘If you need to be magnetically anchored here, to this Earth, somehow - and the hunters said as much themselves - then I know where we have to go now’.
In the village, ‘What the h-’ a man gasps as he enters the office and finds it ransacked. ‘No idea, boss…office was as quiet as a church mouse when I left last night, same as always…’ a blonde woman announces. The boss tells her not to touch anything, and reports that he is calling the Garda. Turning to a computer, the blonde woman tells her boss that he should do that, and that he might want to suggest they start their search in the vicinity of 77 N latitude, 102.3 W longitude - in the heart of the Arctic Circle, which is the co-ordinates showing on the computer.
At that moment, Nate and Sylph have arrived in the Arctic Circle. ‘C’mon, girl, c’mon can’t stop now. We’re running out of time’ Nate tells Sylph as he helps her along, trudging through the snow, a telekinetic shield around them. Nate had no problem holding them together and getting them north until the weather god bad, then badder, finally demanding telekinetic shields. He realizes that there is nothing of Sylph’s glow left now, and at the rate he is going, the amount of power he is expending - externally and internally - without resting, refueling, neither of them will make it much further. Suddenly, Sylph goes wide-eyed, ‘Here…we / me here Nate Grey…your North Pole’ Sylph announces. ‘Magnetic North, actually’ Nate explains, adding that it is the single most concentrated focus of magnetic force on Earth, strong enough to exert its pill on every directional compass on the planet.
Nate tells Sylph that he thinks it is also the only possible hope they have of stabilizing her current vibrational-rate naturally, organically, and permanently in synch with his plane’s, before it is too late. The snow stops falling around them, and Nate remarks that it is weird, like the calm at the eye of the storm and wonders if it is some bizarre side-effect of the magnetic-field here, when suddenly, ‘Mega-hunter protocols effected / effective! Quarry and accessory sighted / targeted!’ the combined alien, in their “mega hunter” form starts firing at Nate and Sylph, who screams ‘AMBUSH!’, while Nate declares that he knew it - if the aliens came all this way to hide under the ice and wait for her, then they must be on the right track.
The mega-hunter traps Sylph in some sort of energy, ‘Quarry contained. Neutralizing’ the alien states, while Nate calls out to her, Sylph tells him to run like they planned, to go deeper into the magne-zone. Nate starts to run, before the alien realizes that it has actually trapped Nate Grey. ‘Error! Delay. Error! Delay. Accessory telekinetically disguised as quarry’ the alien states, before tossing Nate aside, it starts to pursue Sylph, who is running as fast as she can. The alien re-engages pursuit, and tells the Doctor that she will not escape. ‘We’ll see about that, sucker’ Nate declares as he stands behind the alien, remarking that their little diversion already bought the real Sylph enough time to draw the alien into the zone, and put him in the position he wants to be - as he unleashes a powerful telekinetic blast, striking the alien, who convulses, and throws its limbs about, striking Sylph in the process.
‘Small minded fool! There is no back or front to the Mega-Hunter!’ the alien exclaims, boasting ‘Me / we are all weapon!’ The alien declares as it starts firing at Nate, who is taken by surprise, but starts to fly up, as the alien falls forward, ‘Not enough to take me down, tin men, not by a long shot!’ Nate declares. ‘No, please…’ the alien calls out, as the alien is revealed to be simply armor, and from the bug-like armor, Nate pulls humanoid aliens like Sylph, but male. ‘There are only moments left until the vibrational-charge wears off…and I can’t be here in the condensed-field, unprotected - magnetically anchored to this dimension - when it happens…or I’ll never return home!’ one of the aliens informs Nate. ‘That’s the idea, blood-sport’ Nate replies, readying a punch, packed with telekinetic fury, he adds ‘Unless you agree to forget about Sylph, once and for all - to allow her to stay here and -’, but one of the other aliens instructs Nate to release the Commander, and points out that the Doctor is already theirs, as he and his teammate have captured Sylph.
One of the aliens explains that the Doctor is a criminal, a convict escapee from the prison-world labour camps she was rightfully sentenced to - one of the most dangerous in their universe, the bloodiest mass-murderer of all. He adds that she is a vivisectionist who killed thousands, tens of thousands. ‘Ridiculous!’ Nate calls out. ‘She’s couldn’t’ he tells the aliens as he reaches out to Sylph, but when their hands touch, ‘Couldn’t possibly…lie to me?’ Nate asks Sylph. Sylph tells Nate that he has to understand, that she killed thousands of dying people, experimenting on a cure for a plague that was killing millions. ‘And I never lied to you’ she adds. ‘Never’. Nate announces that he doesn’t understand, and doesn’t care what Sylph’s motives for murder are, how she justifies them or rationalizes them, but he won’t shelter her from the justice she deserves now - he won’t keep her here in the safety-zone.
The Commander goes over to the hunters and tells them that the Doctor is fluctuating, as expected, that the vibrational-shift begins already. ‘Prepare for full transition’ the Commander announces, as he, the hunters and Sylph start to fade. ‘But I won’t abandon you either. Not now…not ever. I’m going with you!’ Nate calls out to Sylph as he rushes over and wraps his arms around her. Nate adds that here, outside the zone, he can almost feel his magnetic bio-rhythms synching up with hers. Nate tells Sylph that he is well aware of all he is giving up here, all he is leaving behind on this mudball - the feelings he has for Maddie, the hope of somehow, someday, seeing Threnody again. He will miss it  all. ‘Believe me. But I promise you, Sylph… I’ll never, ever regret it’. They all vanish, then, suddenly, Nate falls to the snow.
‘NOOOO!’ Nate screams, ‘No! No! No! Her prison world - the labour-camps - so horrible, shimmering into view around me…like nothing I could have imagined. So shocked I let  go of Sylph’s hand for a moment - broke contact physically instantly snapping back to his own speed, and back to here - with no way to find Sylph in all of reality, no place to even start. Nate starts to cry, and tells himself ‘Alone. Again. Just like her…’


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

[Assistant]
War of the Mutants: part 2: New Blood
Nate lands on the freeway, demanding to know from Emma Frost from where she knows the Dark Beast. Emma explains that the Dark Beast is merely an acquaintance from her childhood, and nothing more. She then adds that the Dark Beast was just an image she found in Nate’s mind, which she powered up, hoping to lure Nate to her and convince him to join her school. Gaia, standing between Emma and Nate, is confused by all this.
Nate gets furious, and shouts at Emma that she violated his mind. Nate flies up again, and telekinetically multiplies himself! Nate is angry with Frost for going through his precious memories, and thinks that she is as evil as the Dark Beast himself. Emma easily sees through Nate’s tricks with her “superior mind” and decides she best demonstrates her powers. She telepathically destroys all of Nate’s illusions, which make him feel a great deal of pain. Gaia is startled.
Emma wants to try a mental projection, but Nate refuses to give in and lashes out all of his powers, and destroys the entire landscape! Emma asks Gaia to go stand behind her, as she’ll release Nate… for now. Nate recovers, but is bleeding badly. Emma thinks that Nate has been overexerting himself, flying across the Atlantic Ocean overnight, alone, just to find her. This makes Nate even angrier, and shouts at Emma to stay out his head.
Nate explains that he was just hanging out at his home, at least the closest thing Nate finally had as a home, and was minding his own business. He went to sit in the clouds and remembered the sound of a soft voice. He tried to forget it, but it wouldn’t go away, no matter how hard Nate tried. Nate remembered that he had lost Sylph, and had to return her back to who knows what dimension for her crimes against her people. Nate was almost ready to tell Maddie about it. He explains to Emma that Madelyne Pryor has been there for him from almost the moment he first arrived on this world.
But recently, Nate and Maddie had gotten some company, in the form of someone called Ness. He explains that Ness saved all of their lives back in Stryfe’s pyramid, and even stopped Nate himself from going ballistic and taking half the planet with him. But Nate wasn’t ready to go personal just yet but, naturally, he wasn’t running away either. He was already heading back to Macaleer’s B&B, back to the only friends and family Nate now knows, when a sharp psi-bolt hit him.
Nate thinks he might not even have felt the bolt, if Emma hadn’t tweaked such an intense image of the Dark Beast along the way. Nate explains that the Dark Beast is a fellow refugee of his fallen planet, and the mad doctor Nate has sworn to destroy someday, along with any other who would corrupt the world. Once Nate discovered from where the bolt came, it was easy for him to track Emma down.
Emma thinks it’s impossible that Nate’s telepathy truly is something from the past like he believes. Nate asks Emma to spare him the speech, as it isn’t working - as neither is, Nate smiles, Emma’s psi-spell. Emma notices that the landscape is back to normal and that Nate’s nose isn’t bleeding any more: he has broken through her illusion! Nate admits that he might still be a stranger to this world, but he knows what real pain is. Nate attacks again and uses his powers to split the ground beneath them into two! Emma is ready for a battle, but Gaia stops them.
Gaia admits she doesn’t understand what’s going on between Nate and Emma and what she’s being accused of, but reminds Emma that their friends have been captured by Gene Nation, who left her for dead and apparently had some sort of mission. Emma asks Gaia to go start her car. She explains to Nate that Gaia’s friends are kids, her students, who are also mutants and in grave danger. Emma deals with Nate that, if he helps save the members of Generation X, she’ll tell him everything she knows about the Dark Beast.
Nate agrees, but would have helped the kids no matter what, and makes Emma understand that she will come clean with him. He wants to go warn his friends in Dublin first, but Emma warns Nate that it’s now or never, since the lives of children are at stake. She admits that she doesn’t know any more about Ness that Nate does but, she from what she has picked up from Nate’s mind, Emma is fully confident that Madelyne can take care of herself.
Meanwhile, Madelyne arrives in Ness’ bedroom. He is sleeping, and Maddie has a knife hanging over his head! Ness wakes up, and knows that Madelyne is there. He gets up, but… Maddie is nowhere to be seen! However, she telepathically contacts him. She knows that Ness knows about her, but still…
At the same time, Nate and Gaia are in the sewers, talking to each other. Nate explains that New York still takes his breath away, as there is so much possibility around each corner. However, it just doesn’t feel like home anymore, especially not after his public outing. Gaia understands, as, after being trapped on a rock for 600 years, this Earth isn’t exactly what she’s used to either. That’s why she agreed to hang out at the Massachusetts Academy, hoping to get a little perspective and learn the big picture, but now she has discovered that Nate lives it every day.
Emma cuts in, as she has found the psi-tags of their captured friends. But, they end up behind a gigantic, thick and closed door. Nate senses that Emma isn’t telling them everything, and wants to know what. She hesitates, but explains that she swore that this would never happen again. She remembers how her former students died and thinks that Banshee should be there, but he has gone AWOL in the hour of need, and once again Emma feels like she has been betrayed by someone she thought she could trust.
She stops talking, not thinking that waiting is going to help any more, as they already lost the element of surprise. Suddenly, the huge door transforms into purple, attacking heads! Emma uses her psychic powers on them, and defeats the heads. Nate and Gaia want to know what those things were. Emma has no idea, but thinks they are down for a few hours at least. She enters their heads, and picks up from their minds that they are created by Membrain, and has been telepathically relaying everything they said to their master.
Nate powers up and tries to destroy the door, but with no such luck. Emma thinks it’s psi-shielded, and unbreachable by either psionic or physical attacks. Emma suspects that the Dark Beast probably has all sorts of defenses against Nate, but realizes that he doesn’t know Gaia. Instead of focusing her powers on the door itself, Gaia tele-morphs the walls around it, and breaks them apart! However, the bricks fall down and almost hit Gaia. Luckily, Nate quickly reacts and rescues Gaia, angry with Emma for this. Emma asks Nate not to complain, as she was confident that he had it covered.
However, as they go inside the big hole, they find the members of Generation X… trapped in a gigantic machine! And it looks like they are being painfully experimented upon. Emma recalls that Gaia is a low-level empath, and can feel the other kids’ pain, and warns Nate to get her out of there before it’s too late. Gaia hears a noise behind the machine but, before she can warn Emma and Nate, she gets hit by a blast!
Wynter steps forward, and introduces the rest of Gene Nation to Emma and Nate. Nate orders Emma to go check on Gaia, while he’ll hold Gene Nation back. She goes too, and warns Nate that Gaia is okay. Emma mentions that Gaia’s already breathing again, but needs a few more minutes to fully recover. Nate thinks that won’t work, since Gene Nation is getting through the barrier he had created around them. Suddenly, a big blast breaks through, and Nate discovers that both Emma and Gaia are gone! Gene Nation smiles and is ready to kill Nate, now that he’s alone.
Emma has made it to the machine and cuts M loose. She thinks that Nate ran away, and left them behind. Suddenly, a voice warns Emma that she knows looks can be deceiving. It’s Nate, and he has used his powers to make everyone believe he’s invisible, and knocks out Vessel. The other villains quickly regroup and Hemingway attacks Nate next. However, with a powerful punch, Nate knocks him out while Emma frees Synch.
Integer notices a opening in the battle, and hits Nate on his head. Hemingway recovers, and grows bigger until he is able to grab Nate in his fist. Hemingway wants to finish Nate off, but then gets hit! Generation X is together again and ready for a rematch! Jubilee mocks that she noticed she was the last one to be released from the machine, and thinks that being a former X-Man doesn’t count any more these days. Husk jokingly agrees, while Skin stretches his arms and hits Hemingway. Once released, Nate notices how young and wild the kids of Generation X are. He now realizes why Gaia is so proud of them. Nate joins the battle, and says that he loves these kids!
After a few minutes of battle, Hemingway finally falls down. Celebrating their victory, Jubilee and Chamber don’t notice Fever Pitch sneaking up on them, and hits them in the back! The other members of Gene Nation step forward as well and Wynter warns the kids that, with them barely recovered from their boss’ experiments, it’ll be easy for them to defeat them. Jubilee notices that Wynter’s voice sounds robotic. Nate agrees, and recognizes something familiar on it as well, but can’t pinpoint it.
Nate flies up and notices that he can’t see Emma anymore. Fever Pitch tries to hit Chamber, but Paige notices it and catches the bullet! Jono calls out to her, but Paige replies that she’s all right, thanks to her husked steel skin. Iron Maiden notices Paige, and starts slashing her! Paige faints. M helps her friend out, recognizing that Iron Maiden’s razor-sharp body reminds her of the time she was trapped in the body of Penance. M remembers her twin sisters, who are now forever lost so that she may live. M gathers all of her strength, and knocks out Iron Maiden!
Opsidian merges from the shadows, and grabs M in his arms. She can’t feel anything anymore, except him. Nate faces Integer, who keeps talking in computer numbers. Nate fails to make contact with his adversary, telekinetically or otherwise. However, he notices the machines and other equipment around him, and destroys them with his powers, causing Integer to be caught in the blasts! Wynter warns his troops to finish off Nate quickly, before he ruins his experiments. Nate sneaks up behind Wynter, and wants to know what the villain means when he says “his experiments.”
Meanwhile, Gaia notices Fever Pitch sneaking up on Chamber again, and tries to warn him. But Fever Pitch notices Gaia instead, and throws fire at her! Everett notices and catches the bullet! Luckily Everett isn’t hurt, as he has synched pyro-resistant clothing straight from Husk herself. The flames bounce of Everett’s body, and take out Opsidian instead!
Nate notices that Integer has survived the blasts and is trying to sneak up on Everett. Integer merges from the ground below Synch. He claims to be unimpressed, and tries to synch Integer’s powers but, after doing that, Everett can only talk in the same computer voice Integer does! Fever Pitch has had about enough from Nate’s warnings all the time, and hits him.
Wynter notices that Nate has fallen and warns his troops that, with the most powerful now fallen, they must quickly execute the rest before it’s too late. He opens fire upon Gaia and Chamber, who are able just barely to dodge the bullets. Nate finally recognizes Wynter’s voice! And he suspects that Emma did it earlier, and must have reached his hidden lair by now, and that’s why she must be gone. Nate wants to go after her, but Fever Pitch goes to stand between him, not allowing this.
Nate has had enough of the fighting, and uses his telekinetic powers against Fever Pitch. He fights back, and the battle results into a big ball of fire! Nate comes up with a great idea, and transforms his clothes into a psi-armor! He powers up and knocks out Fever Pitch, explaining that he came up with the armor a short time ago. Nate knows that the armor isn’t of much use in group battles while he has to worry about others, but it’s pretty handy when he’s fighting one-on-one!
The armor absorbs all of Fever Pitch’s flames and he collapses. Gaia and Chamber gather around Wynter, wanting to take him out now. Nate lands, telling Gaia not to do that, as he wants her to go find Emma. Gaia doesn’t want to leave, thinking that Jono won’t have enough power to take out Wynter alone. Nate confirms that, but Gaia and Jono have been fighting long enough for the others to recover. And he’s correct. The other kids of Generation X stand up and quickly surround a panicking Wynter, and destroy its body!
Meanwhile, Emma is in the Dark Beast’s control room, and holds him telepathically hostage by his neck. The Dark Beast congratulates Emma on her victory, but has noticed that her timing isn’t what it used to be. He hated having to abandon Wynter so abruptly, just at the moment he was getting into his virtual program, but he must admit to be a little surprised by Emma’s sudden appearance here. The Beast assumes that when Emma first did the… work… on his head, when he first landed completely disoriented in this new world, must have included some sort of psi-beacon.
Emma admits that and mentions that she installed a psi-shield as well, since she had the chance to do it. She just wanted to be prepared, should she ever need to find him again. Nate flies in, and carries Gaia in his arms. He knew that the Dark Beast was behind all this. Gaia begs Emma not to kill the Beast, and informs Emma that everyone is safe. The Dark Beast tells Emma that she heard the kids. He mentions that he started out feeling guilty over his past actions, much like Emma herself. But when he needed fresh genetic stock, he could hardly resist when he discovered Generation X.
Gaia is confused, and wants to know whom the Dark Beast thinks he knows on the team. Nate isn’t certain. Emma makes a telepathic link between her and Nate, and asks him to listen. She wants to cut him out of this last dance because she wants to kill the Dark Beast by herself! She suggests that it’s best that Nate helps get Gaia and the other kids safely outside. Nate doesn’t see a problem with that, if they are finished there. But he still wants some answers. Gaia, too, and shows Emma… an egg!
Emma panics. Gaia explains that they found the thing along with traces of others just like it, outside another locked door, but they couldn’t stop to take them. Emma freaks out, and puts more powers behind her telepathic grip, and shouts that she recognizes the thing as… a Brood egg!
Emma holds the Dark Beast tighter, and can’t believe that he would actually bring the most dangerous alien species to Earth. The Dark Beast doesn’t care, since it isn’t his world. He sees it as just another lab. Emma threatens that there’s only a dozen of artificial psi-screens left to punch through. She doesn’t care who else is watching them anymore, and is ready to finish it. The Dark Beast doesn’t agree. He presses a button, and explains that the tunnels are booby-trapped and are about to explode!
Gaia begs Emma to help them get out, realizing she’s the only chance they’ve got. Emma agrees and releases the Beast, but swears to take her revenge should he have let the Brood touch the kids. The Dark Beast laughs and, without saying anything more, he adds that he doesn’t care, and vanishes! They were dealing with a hologram!
Emma is confused, as she felt the Dark Beast’s pulls and everything. Through a microphone, he explains that those are the wonders of hard light, done right. Emma realizes that the entire plot was just to break her again, and transform her back into the little girl when she and the Dark Beast first met, and when he first used her. The Dark Beast explains that mutation is evolution, and that he has just began to evolve. He promises that, the next time they’ll meet, Emma won’t even recognize him.
Emma, Nate and Gaia run away and, finding the other kids, warn them to run away, now! The tunnels around them start to collapse, and Nate warns the kids to hold their breaths. Water falls over them, but they are all right! Nate has concentrated his psychic powers to create a transport bubble, and brings them all out safely.
Some time later, everyone is back at the Massachusetts Academy. Jubilee and Everett are sitting on the roof together. Jubilee thinks that Nate likes her, but is worried about Everett, who hasn’t said anything since he turned back to normal after absorbing Integer. Everett replies that he’s fine and that Jubilee doesn’t need to worry about him. Meanwhile, Skin tries to explain the uniforms to the human girl students and jokes that they were playing paint ball, which got a little out of control.
Nate still doesn’t buy Emma story. He thinks that, if that was it, if the psi-beacon really was all Emma had on the Dark Beast, he wants her to use it again to find him. Emma stops Nate and notices other students staring at her. She telepathically warns them that “X-Files” is soon on TV, and that she’s certain that they don’t want to miss that. The students go back inside.
Nate just wants to know where the Dark Beast really is right now. Emma is afraid that it was all a one-shot time. She’s certain that, now that the Dark Beast knows about the psi-beacons in his head, she’s certain that he has already found a way to suppress them somehow. Emma remembers about Banshee missing and warns the kids to search every inch of the campus, right now! They do as told, and start searching.
Nate is confused that Emma just rescued these kids from the operating tables mere seconds ago and was about to kill the Dark Beast – and now they just forgive her for that. They are convinced that this meeting with Emma’s “old friend” was a coincidence. Emma doesn’t think so, but knows that the kids will live with it, and live because of it. She knows from each member of Generation X what they can and cannot do, and that’s why Emma did what she had to do. She asks Nate if he understands what has to be done, and if he’ll forgive her.
Nate tells Emma to spare the seduction routine and just to leave him if she doesn’t have anything else to offer. Emma replies that she didn’t say that. She enters Nate’s mind, and gives him everything she saw on the Dark Beast’s viewing screens, and Nate now knows the locations of many hidden and secret locations. Emma knows that there’re plenty of places Nate can start, once he’s rested a little, and suggests that he stays.
Nate tells Emma that she can deny it all she wants, but he is confident that she does have a history with the Dark Beast, and Nate isn’t certain what Emma would have done if he and Gaia hadn’t stopped her. And Nate can’t live like that anymore and doesn’t have to.
Suddenly, a green teleportation beam lands! It’s Madelyne! She came as soon as she got the message from Mrs. Mac, and couldn’t wait to find out what was happening to Nate. And she does mean “what.” Emma notices that Maddie can teleport and jokes that now she understands why Nate is interested in Maddie. Nate tells Maddie that they can leave, but have to make one quick stop first before they can go home again.
Later that night, someone has a lock on Nate while he’s eating dinner! Gauntlet-4 reports to his boss that he’s got Nate locked and is ready, as they have found the big one…


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Manhattan, where Spider-Man has just captured a criminal and wrapped him tightly in webbing, leaving him suspended mid-air: ‘Warm enough now, chuckles? Next time you get chilly after dark, just skip past the fur warehouse and come straight to me… save us all a lot of trouble!’ Spider-Man tells the criminal, unaware that a psychic projection of his friend Nate Grey floats behind him, and Nate thinks to himself ‘Spidey doesn’t need me’.
Nate’s psychic projection moves on, to an apartment where his companions Jam, Bux, Marita and the boy Roust are staying. ‘And fade out on the chorus, J?’ Roust asks Jam as he plays the guitar. ‘But kick it up a quarter-beat on the way’ Jam replies as she sits at a table and writes notes. Marita and Bux are in the kitchen preparing a meal, singing along. Nate decides that they are better off without him, and the same goes for the rest of New York. ‘And they’d agree, I’m sure. Don’t need my telepathy back to know that. After the way I failed ‘em all…’.
‘A mistake, Nate… in the revisiting, particularly’ Madelyne Pryor tells Nate from inside his apartment. ‘When I finally caught up to you, slumming with that “White Witch”, I was no more anxious than you were to rush straight back to Dublin’. Madelyne continues, as Nate stands nearby, ‘Still, when you asked me to teleport us here first…’ Nate explains that he needed a break, after running around with Generation X, and running into the Dark Beast again. ‘After losing…’ his voice trails off. ‘Sylph. You told me all right’ Madelyne mutters, before asking Nate how he thought a long weekend in his old loft, where he used to live with Threnody - where he was abandoned by Threnody - ‘Don’t know what I was thinking, okay?’ Nate replies, interrupting Madelyne, before asking her to take them back to Ireland, as there is obviously nothing left here for him anymore. A green glow surrounds Nate and Madelyne as the vanish, when, from out of the shadows, ‘Natey…? Here again? Right here in my home - our home… with my murderer?’ Threnody snarls as she steps from the shadows, looking furious.
Meantime, ‘Where, Mr MacAleer… where is Nate Grey? One minute and counting, whiskers - one last chance to tell us - before we drag it out of your wife… permanently’ a female soldier inside a suit of armor tells Mr MacAleer as another soldier in the armor holds him back, and Mrs MacAleer has collapsed to her knees. Others in the building are kept back by more people in the strange armor. ‘Ye can…ye can’t be serious…’ Mrs MacAleer calls out. ‘Ye’re daring to threaten me wife - meself - here, in our house….’ Mr MacAleer exclaims. ‘In front of our boarders?’ Mrs MacAleer adds, while Mr MacAleer warns the intruders that the Garda will feed them all to the army as scrap metal. A man not wearing the armor announces ‘Won’t happen, I’m afraid. Better to disabuse all of you, right here and now, of any notion that help is on the way’.
He continues, stating that, as planned, this entire operation has been smoke screened in red tape since the moment his people established a perimiter - effectively cutting local law enforcement out of the loop. ‘Strikesquad: Gauntlet answers to a…higher authority’ he claims. Another member of the Strikesquad: Gauntlet continues the countdown, while up above, the enigmatic Ness has placed himself between the floorboards, and looks at the situation below through a small hole in the wood. He realizes that this is the same psi-ops he crossed paths with up north, but the armor has improved, although not the attitude. Ness sees that the dark-haired female is ready to sonically tear out the information that they are after, and there is no way he can crash the “party” without getting everyone killed. He has been through every inch of this house, and still he has got nothing, except the knowledge that one of those toy-soldiers is not what he or she appears to be - one of them acted on their own last time, outside the chain of command, to protect and preserve an innocent mind.
‘It doesn’t have to be like this, Mac’ one of the men inside the armor calls out. ‘Breda…’ MacAleer utters to his wife. ‘…not a word about the boy, Conor…’ Breda tells her husband. ‘Not a word to bullies and invaders - not here on our soil - not ever again!’ she screams. ‘Aye!’ ‘Ye’ve no right…!’ ‘Our land…!’ ‘Begone!’ the boarders start to chant. Ness tells himself that he will have to trust that their secret sympathizer will come through again, when it comes down to it. ‘Three. Two’ the countdown gets closer, as the commander of the Strikesquad: Gauntlet announces ‘On my mark, G-2, and not a second before’, while Ness adds ‘Long as nobody does anything stupid, first’, when, suddenly, Nate and Madelyne materialize in the room. ‘Cheers, everyone’ Nate calls out. ‘Grey’s here - now, now - take him down!’ one of the women inside the Strikesquad: Gauntlet armor cries out as she begins to fire at Nate and Madelyne.
‘What am I? Chopped liver?’ Madelyne mutters, but Nate tells her that, thanks to his telekinetic shield, she isn’t, as he creates one that protects them both from the energy fire. Nate instructs Madelyne to stay behind him so they can figure out how to stop these maniacs. ‘No, wait - wait! We’ve got civilians in the line of fire here, exposed to ricochets…do something, commander! Fast!’ one of the women inside the armor calls out. ‘Disengage, Gauntlet - G-1, G-2 - disengage immediately!’ the commander orders. ‘Yeah, yeah. I hear y’, Scanlon’ the man in the armor replies, before pointing out that Vise has just cranked up the volume again, as the other woman indeed increases the power of her weapons. ‘Run, Conor…run while we can -’ Breda calls out, before Conor screams ‘Nooo!’ as a shard of metal of glass is flung into Breda’s arm.
‘Enough already! When waiting for the right moment is no longer an option…’ Ness calls out as he drops through the ceiling, and lands between Nate and Madelyne and the members of Strikesquad: Gauntlet. Scanlon tells G-2 to stand down, while Ness concludes that the only option is to do what is right for the moment. Nate tells Bess that he was starting to worry about him, while Scanlon declares ‘The mystery man himself, finally’. Scanlon announces that reconnaissance placed him on the scene long before the rest of the squad arrived. ‘So we knew you had to be on-premises somewhere…but both you and the red-head back there - are secondary targets, at most’ he adds, stating that the real threat has always been the alpha-psi code-named X - Nate Grey.
Scanlon states that Grey’s power levels are immeasurable by their standards, and that he is a danger to this world, that much they do no. ‘And you’re not even of this world’ Scanlon adds. Conor MacAleer starts to panic, and reminds everyone that his wife has taken shrapnel in the leg and that she is building heavily, slipping into shock already. ‘You heard the man, Maddie’ Nate calls out, instructing her to teleport the Macs to the nearest hospital, while he takes care of business here. Madelyne starts to open a portal to teleport through, and tells Nate that she hates this. ‘You know that - abandoning you in the middle of a war-zone again - but arguing about it got you blindsided in Latveria, a couple of weeks ago, so…just promise to save the big one for me’ Madelyne tells him before she and the MacAleers vanish. ‘No can do, Red - THESE SUCKERS ARE ALL MINE!’ Nate shouts as he bursts forth, full of rage.
‘And they’re all -’ Nate begins, before a burst of power slams against a force field. ‘Done…?’ one of the Strikesquad: Gauntlet soldiers asks, adding that even their old armors were externally psi-sheened. Another points out that they are functionally engineered to effectively deflect any and all psionic assaults. ‘Both telepathic and telekinetic’ the third declares. ‘Can’t say the same for the architecture, apparently’ one of them remarks, as the building begins to creak. ‘Uh-oh’ one of the boarders mutters, looking up. ‘Get out of here, you two - now!’ Ness exclaims as he pushes the boarders aside - just as the floor above collapses on him. Scanlon gets in and grabs Ness, ‘Too late’ he tells him, suggesting that he shouldn’t be dishing out advice that he is too stupid to follow. ‘You keep breathing now as long as you keep talking…and only as long’ Scanlon instructs Ness, before asking him who is he, to Nate Grey, exactly, what his connection is to the alpha-target, what it is he can tell them about Grey that they don’t know, and what will stop him the fastest, with the least amount of casualties.
Scanlon has his arm wrapped around Ness’s neck, and Ness watches as Nate unleashes his powers against the armored soldiers. Ness sees the boarders escape, and points out that he has already bought enough time for the last of the hostages to get clear. ‘But the particulars of your questions speak to a more immediate concern, I see…your hit squad is clearly better armored against the boy than armed. He can’t touch them, true enough…but they can’t harm him, either’. Nate darts about as the soldiers fire their weapons at him, but he is protected by his telekinetic shield. ‘Nice try, Grey. Your spandex spider-pal set us up like that once, used our own weapons against us - but we’ve upgraded, sport. We’re all gauntlet-proof now!’ the male soldier boasts, as the weapons of one of his comrades do nothing to harm him.
‘Guess we are, G-man. But in case you weren’t paying attention earlier - the ceiling isn’t’ Nate replies, as it collapses around them. ‘You’r point…?’ one of the Strikesquad members asks. Ness tells Scanlon that he suspects that Nate is distracting the big guns with home-grown guerrilla tactics, and catching them off-guard in the fallout. ‘You expected it to bring the house down…? Actually prepared for it?’ Scanlon asks as he struggles to get his breath after being caught up in the collapse. Ness replies that he expected something, prepared for anything, and braced for the worst. ‘Now it’s your turn to share, Scanlon. Starting from the top…what kind of resources are we up against here? Who’s funding this so-called strike force - and who’s determined to see Nate Grey dead?’ Ness demands.
‘That’s an easy one, Ness… but you won’t like the answer, believe me’ Scanlon replies, while the three Strikesquad: Gauntlet operatives continue to fire at Nate. ‘Full-field volleys aren’t making a dent! If we can’t find some crack in his defenses…we’ll make one!’ one of the operatives declares, while another calls out ‘Quick-link gauntlet targeting systems - auto-focus a concentrated barrage of exposed kill zone A22 - and give him all we got, together…same place, same time!’ they shout. ‘By the ones who came before! If what you say is true, Scanlon…’ Ness utters, before calling out to Nate and telling him that the tin men are the least of his problems. ‘It’s not listening’ Scanlon remarks as the floor around them collapses. Ness grabs Scanlon, and holds onto the floorboards that remain in place. ‘He’s scared and angry, commander…just like you’ Ness points out. The Strikesquad: Gauntlet members hover in the air, while Ness explains that Nate’s rage tears at the very earth beneath their feet. ‘So you are in no position to anger me now, as well’.
‘Good one, Sparky, if we were gravity-bound. But we can fly, remember?’ one of the Strikesquad members declares. ‘My mistake’ Nate frowns, blood tricking from his nose. ‘But now that you mention flying…’ he begins, while Ness calls out to him, telling him to stop, that they have both got to leave here immediately. Outside, a group of civilians has gathered. ‘Party at the Macs?’ one of them asks. ‘Without a word to neighbors and friends?’ another enquires A third tells the others that it is just what he has been saying since the Macs started taking in strangers - ‘There goes the neighborhood!’ he adds before the rooftop suddenly lifts off the boarding house. Furniture and other belongings start to float up into the sky, as Scanlon, still being held up by Ness, explains that they are looking at a momentary negation of localized gravimetric fields here, a gravity-free zone, effectively, where everything is hurled straight out into space by the sheer centrifugal force of the planet’s rotation.
The civilians outside start to run away from the half-demolished boarding house, while Scanlon announces that all Gauntlet personnel are electro-anchored to the larger magnetic-matrix of the glove itself, still grounded. ‘You expected him to blow the house up…’ Ness realizes, looking down at Scanlon, who tells him that they had reason to believe he could. He continues, revealing that form what they were able to piece together up north, after the fact they theorized that Grey employed just such a strategy against the Great Bests themselves, shortly before they were sidetracked by Ness’s interference, so he maintained his grip during the eruption, just now, locking Ness down to Earth with him, only to even the score for earlier. ‘Look again, commander. From where I’m hanging - seems more like coming full-circle’ Ness replies.
Up above, one of the Strikesquad Gauntlet members grabs Nate by his wrist, and Nate looks concerned. ‘Wrong, Ness’ Scanlon calls out, explaining that with Grey virtually exhausted from that stunt and finally secured in the grasp of both G-1 and G-2, G-3 is free to see to the safety of her commanding officer, as per protocol. ‘Gotcha, Sir!’ G-3 calls out as she reaches out and pulls Scanlon from Ness’s grip. She adds that co-combatants are set in her sights as well, unable to evade, completely unarmed - and totally defenseless. ‘And no longer a threat, G-3’ Scanlon instructs her. He addresses her as Fontaine, and tells her that following procedure, to the letter, that means all available power returns to the mission-imperative again - the neutralization, without prejudice, of alpha-psi, X. ‘Not much meet here, after all, Barone. But don’t forget to make a wish…’ one of the Strikesquad operatives jokes as they hold Nate’s arm, and the other holds a leg.
Suddenly: ‘Sorry to cut in, Tank-Tops’ a voice calls out, it’s Madelyne who has re-materialized in front of Nate, who is surprised to see her. ‘But this one’s with me…and we’ve got some catching up to do’ Madelyne declares as she teleports Nate to safety. ‘Timing couldn’t be better, Red’ Nate tells Madelyne, adding that he tried everything he knows, everything that has ever worked. ‘And they anticipated every move’ Ness points out as he climbs out of the large hole in the ground. Ness remarks that Nate hasn’t tried anything new, and tells him not to just think bigger, but to think better.
However, as the smoke starts to clear, one of the Strikesquad: Gauntlet operatives appears, ‘Smoke won’t hide you for long, punk. System-sensors are already zeroing in on your heat-signature…’ they calls out. Annoyed, Nate turns to Madelyne and yells her to get him into the oversized armor. First Barone’s, then - ‘Without me? Who says I can even do that, teleport another person without going along for the ride?’ Madelyne asks. ‘C’mon, M, who says you cant?’ Nate replies, while Ness has climbed onto the back of G-2, and holds one of her weapons back, telling her that her partner’s diversion mighty have well been enough for this ambush to succeed, if he hadn’t been wary of her, particularly since the moment this battle began, of her exceptionally anxious, electronically-amplified panting down their backs. ‘And the whine of your dangerously overcharging armor!’ he adds as he punches the armored soldier, causing her to fall over.
Madelyne tells Nate to forget about it, that she won’t take a chance with his life like that. ‘But…if I am actually able to do what you believe I can do - then there’s no real reason I can’t just port these GI jokers straight out into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean instead, without me’ Madelyne suggests. She starts to open a portal, but before she can, one of the Strikesquad operatives blasts her with their weapon, sending her careening backwards. Nate flies after her and catches her, explaining that the energy backlash interrupted the teleport, knocking her for a major loop. ‘Both of you from the looks of it’ Nate adds when he sees Ness, who frowns and announces that he would not have recommended such a course of action, knowing what they do of their armor’s apparent ability to repel all psionic, but Madelyne is obviously much more than a mere psionic force.
One of the Strikesquad: Gauntlet operatives then notices a crack. ‘My psi-shielding’s actually…cracked?’ they gasp, before Nate announces that finally he has all the opening he needs. Energy courses around him, and the rest of the boarding house collapses. The male Strikesquad member’s armor is partially destroyed, while Ness tells Nate that he didn’t realize he still had that in him. Emerging from the rubble with Madelyne, Nate replies that he didn’t, either, but he was just so mad at that “Joe-Bot” that he has afraid of what he’d done to Madelyne. ‘Nothing you haven’t done wonders for already, Nate’ Madelyne replies, before pointing out that Barone is done, his armor is compromised beyond repair. ‘But you look even worse now’ she adds. ‘and the phat ladies ain’t sung yet!’ one of the female Strikesquad members shouts, while Scanlon tells Nate that there is nowhere to run anymore, nowhere to hide.
Nate, Madelyne and Ness look around at the destruction of the boarding house, ‘Everything they had here…just gone’ Nate utters. ‘Again. Forever’. Suddenly, the trio look shocked, as they are surrounded by even more members of Strikesquad: Gauntlet, and Ness declares that this is what he was trying to tell Nate what he learned earlier, that Scanlon admitted to answering to a mutli-national pan-governmental agency. ‘They’ve got the whole world on their side…’.