Back to Gatefold
Issue #3 by Cory Wiegel
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The Xavier Institute for Higher Learning and Research.
Salem Center, Westchester County, NY, U.S.A.
That late evening, a young Asian girl raced across the estate in her pink and white “Hello Kitty” pajamas at breakneck speeds. She crossed the massive green lawn on her urgent journey from the mansion to the orchards in a matter of minutes, huffing and heaving along the way. Her purpose was to communicate a matter of life and death, and so it was ironic that her journey would take her to a place where those living would visit the dead.
When she entered the orchards, she ducked under low branches and weaved past countless trees, determined to transverse the rugged terrain as fast as humanly possible. She quickly found her way onto a trail and ran down its path to her destination; a modest clearing in the woods surrounded by a white picket fence. Several headstones were scattered across the grass and, at the very end of the clearing, a tiny white church with a steeple overlooked the final resting place of the estate’s former inhabitants.
It was the sole visitor of the cemetery that she sought that night.
“Mr. Logan! Mr. Logan!” she called out desperately as she took the trail through the picket fence into the graveyard. “Wolverine!”
Standing before a large memorial at the center of the small graveyard was a short and stocky man in a brown leather jacket, blue jeans, and cowboy boots. He held a worn cowboy hat in his hands at his waist and hung his head low as if in silent prayer even as the young girl stopped several feet away.
“Hisako,” Logan grumbled, looking up slightly. “Even the dead have ears.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Logan, but Dr. McCoy is on the emergency line for you,” Hisako said, panting. She swallowed hard and continued. “He says it’s a priority alert!”
Logan closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. He opened his eyes and, without turning around, said in a low, gruff voice, “Alright. I’ll be there in a moment.”
“But Mr. Logan…!” Hisako protested.
*SNIKT!*
Hisako gasped in shock at the sound of metal being unsheathed. Three foot long adamantium blades erupted from Logan’s right fist, the exclamation point that he had left out of his previous statement.
“I said… I’ll be there in a moment, kid,” Logan repeated stiffly. Her eyes wide in disbelief, Hisako turned and took off into a run through the orchards the way she came.
Logan waited until she was gone before he raised his fist up to his eyes for what must have been the hundredth examination in recent weeks. Blood was drizzling out of the blades’ exit wounds and down the metal, slowly but surely. He loosened his fist and retracted the claws back into his hand. Three gaping flesh wounds remained where the blades had ripped through his skin.
After a moment, they slowly began to heal shut. For as long as he had known, those wounds would have healed instantly. That time was long gone.
He took his worn cowboy hat in one hand and put it on his head, adjusting it slightly as he readied himself to leave.
“Always good talkin’ with ya, Charlie,” Logan said before turning away from the tombstone and walking down the path out of the graveyard. “I’ll be seein’ ya again soon.”
Salem Center, Westchester County, NY, U.S.A.
That late evening, a young Asian girl raced across the estate in her pink and white “Hello Kitty” pajamas at breakneck speeds. She crossed the massive green lawn on her urgent journey from the mansion to the orchards in a matter of minutes, huffing and heaving along the way. Her purpose was to communicate a matter of life and death, and so it was ironic that her journey would take her to a place where those living would visit the dead.
When she entered the orchards, she ducked under low branches and weaved past countless trees, determined to transverse the rugged terrain as fast as humanly possible. She quickly found her way onto a trail and ran down its path to her destination; a modest clearing in the woods surrounded by a white picket fence. Several headstones were scattered across the grass and, at the very end of the clearing, a tiny white church with a steeple overlooked the final resting place of the estate’s former inhabitants.
It was the sole visitor of the cemetery that she sought that night.
“Mr. Logan! Mr. Logan!” she called out desperately as she took the trail through the picket fence into the graveyard. “Wolverine!”
Standing before a large memorial at the center of the small graveyard was a short and stocky man in a brown leather jacket, blue jeans, and cowboy boots. He held a worn cowboy hat in his hands at his waist and hung his head low as if in silent prayer even as the young girl stopped several feet away.
“Hisako,” Logan grumbled, looking up slightly. “Even the dead have ears.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Logan, but Dr. McCoy is on the emergency line for you,” Hisako said, panting. She swallowed hard and continued. “He says it’s a priority alert!”
Logan closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. He opened his eyes and, without turning around, said in a low, gruff voice, “Alright. I’ll be there in a moment.”
“But Mr. Logan…!” Hisako protested.
*SNIKT!*
Hisako gasped in shock at the sound of metal being unsheathed. Three foot long adamantium blades erupted from Logan’s right fist, the exclamation point that he had left out of his previous statement.
“I said… I’ll be there in a moment, kid,” Logan repeated stiffly. Her eyes wide in disbelief, Hisako turned and took off into a run through the orchards the way she came.
Logan waited until she was gone before he raised his fist up to his eyes for what must have been the hundredth examination in recent weeks. Blood was drizzling out of the blades’ exit wounds and down the metal, slowly but surely. He loosened his fist and retracted the claws back into his hand. Three gaping flesh wounds remained where the blades had ripped through his skin.
After a moment, they slowly began to heal shut. For as long as he had known, those wounds would have healed instantly. That time was long gone.
He took his worn cowboy hat in one hand and put it on his head, adjusting it slightly as he readied himself to leave.
“Always good talkin’ with ya, Charlie,” Logan said before turning away from the tombstone and walking down the path out of the graveyard. “I’ll be seein’ ya again soon.”
“FATE OF THE GENE – PART THREE”
PREVIOUSLY IN NEW X-MEN #2: Beast, Phoenix, and Iceman assembled outside of CNN Studios in the Blackbird and enacted a plan to put a stop to the Brotherhood of Mutants’ siege. Using Phoenix’s immense powers, she and Iceman raced across the Atlantic to Muir Island while Beast remained behind to alert the other X-Men. Once there, Iceman charged the security center and soundly defeated several members of the Brotherhood of Mutants, but was shattered to pieces by the sudden arrival of The Blob! When Phoenix headed to the living quarters to search for survivors and stumbled across a gruesome slaughter and a mysterious psionic entity revealed itself as the perpetrator…
# # # # #
A boisterous laugh echoed throughout the halls of Muir Island’s living quarters.
“It’s a pleasure to see you exactly where you belong,” the voice in Phoenix’s mind taunted. “Bowing down before The Grey King!”
Crimson and black psionic energy swirled quickly around the room, sparkling intensely and creating a strange aura. Despite the distraction, it only took Phoenix a moment to realize that the humming that indicated that the psionic dampeners in the walls were active was gone. It was like a weight was lifted from her mind.
She clenched her fists and narrowed her eyes as she rose to her feet, forcing the invader’s presence out of her mind as if he were a mere fleeting thought.
“Don’t’ make me laugh, Falk!” Phoenix balked. “You’re a fraction of what you once were and at best you were a rank amateur telepath!”
The Grey King’s psionic body scowled, but before he could respond Phoenix waved a dismissive hand in his direction. He looked shocked before he recoiled and cried out, his psionic scream becoming a distant echo as the energy he was composed of exploded into the air and dissipated in a flash. The flowing stream of psionic energy slowly disappeared with him, leaving the air with no indication of his presence.
Phoenix clenched her fists at her sides and looked around the room with her eyes. She continued to expand her telepathic scan outwards. The psionic dampeners destroyed, the only sound she heard was the continued panting and clacking of Wolfsbane’s claws as she continued to run in circles.
The silence was eerie, but Phoenix wasn’t one to be tricked.
Another boisterous laugh echoed throughout the building as The Grey King’s presence returned. This time Phoenix was able to detect him all around him.
“ARRRT!” Wolfsbane barked out suddenly and Phoenix shot a look to her as she collapsed to the ground, watching the young woman collapse in her lupine form. Before she could call out to him to show himself, she felt a shift in the air and spun around to see Proteus in his golden energy form rise into the air, limp and lifeless.
The Grey King’s voice bellowed throughout the room.
“You may be right about me not being the man I once was, Mrs. Summers… or should is it simply Ms. Grey again?” he asked, his haunting laughter following. Phoenix grit her teeth. “Know this. In death, I have become so much more…”
Phoenix kept her eyes on Proteus, preparing for The Grey King’s next move. Proteus’s limp head suddenly lifted up, eyes glowing brightly. It was then a low, painful moan dragged out of the throat of a man from behind her. Phoenix looked over her shoulder in surprise as one of the corpses in the hallway behind her began to rise to his feet unsteadily.
It was the security officer who had shot himself through the head. His irises were pitch-white and his skin was a pale gray. His movements were unstable, but had become re-animated, zombified. Simultaneously, the bodies of a female researcher in a white lab coat, another man in plaid boxers and a white tank top, and an overweight maintenance man in an orange jumpsuit rose to their feet, assuming a similar appearance and unsteady, staggering movements.
The Grey King’s crimson and black psionic energy took hold of their forms and lifted them through the air, dragging them past Phoenix and into the center of the room. Proteus became a flaccid energy form and was sucked away from his position in a golden swirl, wrapping around the four re-animated corpses and being absorbed into their bodies. A blinding yellow light flashed throughout the room, forcing Phoenix to squint and shield her eyes for a moment.
When she looked back, she found herself horrified. The bodies had been transformed into the ghostly images of four new individuals.
One was a large white blob of raw psionic power accented with pink and purple energy. Another was a clean shaven young man with flowing long white hair, resembling the mutant terrorist Erik Lensherr, Magneto. Beside him was a young boy with brown hair and a white stripe through his shortly cropped hair. And the final was a thin teenager with bushy auburn hair and a similarly colored goatee.
They were Proteus, Joseph, Charlie, and Kevin, respectively.
“You son of a bitch…” Phoenix whispered through bated breath. She screamed, “What have you done?!”
“Poor Kevin’s mind was a little… crowded…“ The Grey King’s voice echoed. “I think he’s much more comfortable like this, don’t you?”
“You’ve fractured his consciousness!!!” Phoenix shot back.
The Grey King’s laughter bellowed once more. On his command, the four figures shot through the air at her, murder in their eyes.
Phoenix fell into a battle stance as she was surrounded. She had to think fast. The Grey King had taken control of Kevin Prime and utilized his reality warping powers to create these doppelgangers of the various personas he had once assumed in the past. Each was a fractured piece of his consciousness and destroying them just to get to The Grey King could prove fatal to Kevin Prime, as well.
And that was exactly how The Grey King wanted it.
Proteus rushed her first with a massive fist drawn back to strike. She raised a telekinetic shield at him and flexed it outwards, repelling him away from her. The psionic blob slammed into the wall of the panic room, leaving a body sized dent in the steel. Kevin flanked her and lunged at her after the assault, hands out to strangle. She spun around on a heel and struck him with a fist carried by her telekinetic powers, striking him down hard.
Joseph surrounded himself with a magnetic field and expanded it outwards, gripping and ripping the metal components from the psionic dampening machinery. He spun the metal around at incredible speeds and flung them, spinning through the air, at Phoenix. She doubled back and erected a telekinetic shield to block the onslaught of debris and shrapnel when Charlie leapt on her back and put her in a chokehold.
Gagging, she reached back and grabbed the boy by the head, sending a weak telepathic pulse through his consciousness. Charlie let out a youth wail, and Proteus, Joseph, and Kevin cried out in their own unique voices as a telepathic backlash hit them as well. Charlie released his grip on Phoenix, but she kept her grip on his and used her telekinetic might to pull him over her head and fling him into Joseph. The propulsion was powerful enough to strike and knock Joseph to the ground.
Her theory on what The Grey King had done was correct. All four individuals were indeed fractured manifestations of Kevin Prime’s consciousness and as such they were all connected. Hurting one undoubtedly hurt the other and they were all merely shadows of their original incarnations. They would fall easy and so would The Grey King by association, but she had to do her best to minimize the damage to Kevin Prime’s psyche. That would mean reuniting them all.
A gunshot rang out from behind Phoenix while she was lost in strategizing. She instinctively released a telekinetic wave in all directions, but the deflection merely bent the bullet away from her torso to her deflection and it grazed her arm instead. Phoenix gasped as pain rang out through her limb and she dropped to a knee, shooting a glance over her shoulder.
Kevin was behind her, arm outstretched with a pistol aimed right at her head. He opened, but she caused his arm to jerk up with her telekinesis and he fire rapidly into the ceiling. It was then a massive psionic fist struck her from behind and sent her into the ground. She groaned from the blow and tried to roll with it, ending up flat on her back.
Proteus was standing over her with another fist poised to strike. Phoenix reached out with her telekinesis and took hold of the blow, pushing it back against Proteus’s will. It was then Kevin rushed to fallen form and brought the barrel of the gun back down on her, pulling the trigger. Phoenix’s eyes went wide, but a resounding clip signified that magazine of the gun was empty. Without missing a beat, Kevin flipped the gun over in his hand and prepared to strike her with it as if the handle was a hammer while she struggled to push back Proteus.
That moment was better than any other to try dismantling the doppelgangers.
Before Kevin could strike, she reached out with her mind to grip the persona’s while she released a powerful telekinetic thrust, throwing Proteus’s across the room. The massive psionic body crashed into the panic room’s wall as Joseph and Charlie began to recover from her attacks, readying to return to the fray. Kevin, meanwhile, froze in place as if he were struggling to breathe.
Phoenix kept her hold on Kevin while she rolled to her stomach and shuffled to her feet, trying her best to block out the pain in her arm and the blood escaping her body. This aspect of Kevin Prime’s consciousness, like the others, was buried deeply into the recently deceased body of Muir Island’s staff. Uprooting it was like removing a plant from soil… only she had to make sure she used a desert spoon and a scalpel instead of a shovel and a hoe.
Suddenly, Kevin’s appearance fluctuated in a golden aura. His image faded away as that aspect of Kevin Prime’s persona was downloaded into Phoenix’s brain staff member’s corpse replaced him and shook violently before collapsing to the floor.
There was another shift in the area and the X-Man spun around to see Joseph and Charlie rushing up on her. She threw both open palms at them and tensed her fingers, and they slid to a stop and began to struggle in place as her telekinetic grip took hold over them. Proteus was recovering when she raised Joseph and Charlie into the air, beginning the same process she had just performed on Kevin simultaneously.
“NO!” The Grey King’s voice roared through Proteus’s body. Her brow beading with sweat, Phoenix gritted her teeth and simply gave Proteus a crooked grin.
Joseph and Charlie’s projections began to fluctuate much like Kevin’s had, ultimately replaced by the mutilated corpses of staff that their personas had been anchored to. With the other two fractures downloaded into her mind, the lifeless bodies collapsed to the ground and Phoenix turned her attention to Proteus.
“It’s over, Falk,” Phoenix declared. “Release the last of Kevin’s mind or I’ll rip it from your cold, dead psyche!”
The Grey King, through Proteus’s form, stared defiantly at Phoenix. After a moment, the psionic monstrosity grinned uncharacteristically.
“Some other time,” he said.
Phoenix’s eyes went wide and she rushed towards Proteus, but he looked up and the psionic energy began to drain away from its body before she could reach out to him. Crimson and black psionic energies mixed with the white, purple, and pink energies. The swirl of energies shot into the ceiling and dissipated, leaving nothing but the corpse of the overweight maintenance man behind. The body went limp, collapsing and sprawling out over the ground.
The Grey King trumped her. He downloaded the last fracture of Kevin Prime’s mind into his own and fled, taking his reality warping powers with him. It was those very powers that Phoenix would need to harness to reassemble Kevin Prime’s body, but she couldn’t sense The Grey King any longer. He was long gone.
Okay, think, Red! Phoenix said to herself, going over the situation in her head. Unless she was able to upload Kevin Prime’s consciousness to a suitable body in the next few moments, he would either be lost to the ether or permanently stored in her mind. However, without the aspects of his mind and body that made up the Proteus doppelganger, the man he had become would be gone.
That would have to be figured out at another time, Phoenix decided. Her eyes darted around the room and fell on the corpse that had been utilized to create the Joseph doppelganger. Between the three fractures that she possessed, the longest living and most well-adapted of the personas Kevin Prime had adopted would have to be that of the former X-Man. Heaven help her for desecrating the remains of one of Muir Island’s staff members to save a life, but she had to duplicate the process that The Grey King had used if there would ever be a chance of restoring Kevin Prime.
# # # # #
Lightning cascaded across the storm clouds high above Muir Island, briefly illuminating the security building in a series of flashes through the gaping hole in its roof. The booming cackle accompanying the lightning was followed by the laughter of The Blob, who bellowed deeply from his bulbous stomach on which he laid spread out on a scattered pile of once sentient ice, snow, and water.
He spread his arms and legs out while on his bulbous stomach, as if he was making a snow angel in the remains of their enemy.
“Whatcha waitin’ on, Suvik?” the veteran Brotherhood lieutenant said between patronizing chuckles. “C’mawn in. The water’s just fine!”
Senyaka stood up from the ground and put a hand to his head, groaning in irritation. Being handily defeated by a sole X-Man in a five-on-one fight was aggravating, but being rescued by Fredrick Dukes was downright infuriating.
Mercury began pulling himself together, as well, and inched his oozy form up from the ground onto his half-formed legs. In moments, he was collected and whole again, joining Senyaka beside The Blob.
“On your feet, Dukes! We’re not finished here yet.”
Before The Blob could quip in response, a high-pitched, electronic humming noise caught the trio’s attention.
“Oh, trust me,” a man’s voice insisted. “I think you’ve done all you’re going to do here today.”
Their heads shot in the direction of the voice just in time for a ball of white force energy to strike a very shocked Mercury, causing him to splatter into liquid metal all over the place once more. A second volley struck Senyaka before he could react, sending him rocketing onto his back with an agonizing battle cry.
Growling lowly, The Blob scrambled off of his belly in an attempt to rise to his feet and meet the challenge of their new foe.
Standing clear on the other side of the building wielding the bulky energy rifle was a tall, muscular Native American man in a navy tank top, black cargo pants, and combat boots. His dark skin was covered in blood, sweat, and dirt, and his long black hair was unkempt save for the navy headband he wore across his forehead.
He was Tom Corsi, head-of-security on Muir Island, and he charged up another blast and took aim again, this time firing a volley at The Blob’s torso. The powerful ball of energy struck his shoulder and exploded, sending him off balance, but only for a moment. The Blob steadily regained his composure and summoned all of his might to charge forward, letting out a roar.
Tom stood his ground and charged the energy rifle for another shot, firing and striking his target in the lower torso. It didn’t even phase the half-ton mutant, who at even a brisk jog had become an unstoppable force that swung his arms into the desks and debris in his path. Tom’s eyes narrowed and he quickly charged another shot and fired, then charged and fired again, and again for the third time in a row.
The volleys struck The Blob in quick succession, but each shot became even more benign as his momentum grew. Frantic as The Blob closed the distance between them, Tom charged his energy rifle a fourth time, but this time a beeping sensor and a loud vibration resounded from the gun.
He had attempted to charge and re-charge too quickly and it had overheated!
Tom shot a quick look at the gun and then up to The Blob’s oncoming form, eyes widened in shock. He threw the rifle to the ground and attempted to dodge out of the way of the impact when suddenly the floor underneath The Blob became hard and slippery, causing his legs to slide out from under him. The Blob yelped in surprise as he crashed down on his side and went into a tumbling roll across the floor a short distance before violently crashing into the building’s north wall.
Having succeeded in dodging out of the way of his opponent, Tom shoulder rolled into a squat, one hand holding him upright while another hand moved to the energy pistol at his hip. Trailing The Blob’s path was a large sheet of ice that stretched back to the puddle of ice, snow, and water that The Blob was indulging himself in only moments ago. Two hands of ice began to form and emerge from the puddle, growing into arms and then a head and torso.
The ice body’s face was wracked with turmoil and appeared to be struggling immensely, until the formation of its body was complete, wherein the body appeared to take a deep breath and then start into a charge across the sheet of ice.
Iceman had reformed himself from being shattered and not a moment to soon.
He slid across the sheet of ice at breakneck speeds towards The Blob, who was still stunned and confused over his initial crash. Reaching the end of the sheet, Iceman leapt through the air and landed on top of the toppled villain. He squatted on The Blob’s chest and quickly shoved his palms over his face, creating large clouds of steam to pump into the terrorist’s mouth and nostrils.
The Blob violently began shaking and swatting his hands, but Iceman held his ground and continued pumping the steam over The Blob’s head and upper torso. In mere moments he took a deafening gasp and collapsed under Iceman, unconscious. Sure that he had been genuinely subdued, Iceman allowed the swimming sensation and weakened feeling in his body to overtake him.
He drew back his hands as his body loosened up and he collapsed with eyes closed, rolling off of The Blob and falling onto the ground with a loud thud. A shimmer washed over his body and his body reverted to its flesh and bone state. He was barely conscious himself when Tom slowly approached him and looked down at him.
“Drake? Iceman?” Tom said, kneeling down to him. Bobby groggily opened his eyes and looked up to Tom with a wry smirk.
“Tom,” he muttered exhaustedly. “Hey. No need to fear, the cavalry’s here.”
Muir Island’s head-of-security hung his low and shook it half-heartedly. “Rest easy. Far as I can tell, the building’s secure for the moment.”
Bobby grunted to himself and leaned up on his elbows.
“That’s good, but don’t worry about me,” he said, betraying his haggard demeanor and wracked nerves. Tom eyed him suspiciously. “Seriously, man. I just need a moment to get my bearings straight.”
Before Tom could object, white noise came from Senyaka’s radio drawing their attention.
{{ This is Avalanche breaking radio silence. The X-Men are on the island and are targeting our operation. Finish off the rest of the island’s staff, then regroup and storm the server room. Destroy it by any means necessary and get outta here! }}
Tom and Bobby looked to each other, knowing their break was over. Bobby reached a hand out and Tom stood up and took it, helping him to his feet as he transformed back into his ice state.
“Alright. You heard the man,” Iceman said. “We don’t have much time. Let’s get the security team together and move out!”
Tom sighed, shaking his head.
“I don’t know how to tell you this, Drake,” he began somberly. “But you’re lookin’ at what’s left of the security team.”
# # # # #
Phoenix had acted quickly. She reached out to the staff member’s corpse with her telekinesis and began to manipulate the matter that composed its body. Patching up its wounds and healing atrophy to it was the first step in the preparation process. It was fortunate that the bodies surrounding her had not been deceased for long or else the process may not have been possible. With the body prepped, she caused it to explode in a flash of telekinetic fire, burning away what it once was while she uploaded the remnants of Kevin Prime’s consciousness.
When the flames had finished consuming the body, they flickered away quickly and revealed the living, breathing body of a youthful Erik Lensherr. As a telepath, the Phoenix was gifted with a detailed memory and an acute attention to detail, so the result was as close in appearance to the former X-Man as possible.
It took only moments for the process of rebirth to be complete.
Joseph’s eyes snapped open and he sat up sharply, gasping for air. Phoenix moved to his side and put her hands on his shoulders to steady him. He frantically looked about and turned to her, seemingly shocked back to the living.
“J-J-Jean?” Joseph muttered, unnerved and trying to process what had happened. “What are you… what happ… happ…?” he stammered, then looked over his body. “I’m… back the way I was…”
“Calm down, Kevin,” Phoenix said quietly, trying to ease. “There was an emergency, but everything’s okay for now. Just breathe and try your best to remember what had happened on your own. It may take a moment, but you should be fine.”
He looked to her and felt uneasy at being called Kevin, but he did as he told and took deep, deliberate breaths. She needed him to take stock of who he was.
A part of him was gone. His body felt different, but nostalgically familiar. Memories that he knew were supposed to be there were foggy or absent altogether. The power that coursed through him before was gone and his senses were heightened in strange ways. But he was starting to remember…
It was then Wolfsbane stirred on the ground slightly and moaned, her eyes flickering. Her body slowly began transforming from its lupine back into its human state, to that of a young petite woman with red hair. She was awaking.
Phoenix glanced to her, then turned back to Joseph. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
He nodded to her and she stood up, rushing over to Rahne as she looked around from on the ground. She knelt at her side and put a hand on her arm.
“Rahne?” Phoenix asked. “Are you okay?”
Rahne sat up on her side, one hand holding her up while another moved to her head. She nodded slowly and then looked up to the woman speaking to her.
“Aye, Jean,” she said with her Scottish accent. “How did ye get here? What happened?”
“I was hoping you could tell me,” Phoenix confessed.
Rahne took a breath and tried to remember.
“I remember waking up an’ the island was under attack,” she began, trying to remember through the fog. “I fought… a woman who had come for me an’ then had this urge t’ run. I knew I had to go find my mum and help before they reached her. When I got here I must have been ambushed because I just… blacked out…”
Phoenix took in the information carefully. Joseph then stood and approached the two from behind, still uneasy in his reborn body.
“It was Mastermind and the Brotherhood who ambushed you,” he explained, gritting his teeth. “I woke up just like you, found the island under attack, and followed the sounds of the Brotherhood. I tried to help, but they… overwhelmed me…”
Joseph seemed to trail off and look away from them, seemingly disturbed by what had happened to him. Phoenix tried to keep him talking.
“Do you remember anything else?” she asked.
He paused for a moment and then looked back to the two women. “The server room. They said they were doing something with the computers.”
Phoenix nodded her head and closed her eyes. She attempted to reach out to the server room to determine what the status of its staff was and if any of the Brotherhood of Mutants had reached them. What she sensed caused her eyes to shoot open in a horrific shock.
“Jean?” Rahne said, concerned. “What is it?”
Phoenix’s eyes lit up in telekinetic flames.
“He’s here.”
Joseph and Rahne exchanged uneasy glasses. Before either Wolfsbane could ask who she was talking about, a fiery raptor manifested around Phoenix’s body and she leapt into the air, flying out of the room and down the hallway back towards the entrance of the building at escalating speeds.
# # # # #
Wrapped in telekinetic flames and driven by pure adrenaline, Phoenix shot through the corridors of the living-quarters wing of the compound like a rocket. She reached the entrance of the building and dropped to her feet, looking frantically from left to right over the island’s facilities.
He was nearby. She knew it, but she couldn’t detect where precisely.
Then she heard it in the distance. To the north! The server building!
Through the downpour of hard rain that crashed over her body and the violent winds that whipped her hair about, she heard the sound of a helicopter’s propellers in full operation. It had to be him.
Phoenix took off into a run towards the north end of the compound and leapt into the air, telekinetic flames propelling her in the form of a fiery raptor. She closed in on the helicopter quickly just as it was beginning to lift from the rain soaked grounds outside of the server building, but fell just short of reaching it.
The travel from Washington, D.C. to Muir Island, combined with the battle with The Grey King and reorganizing Kevin MacTaggert’s fractured psyche, had taken its toll on her. Her telekinetic flames flickered and she dropped to the ground, stumbling on her feet and nearly falling over. She huffed and heaved, then swallowed hard and tried to reactivate her powers. Telekinetic flames flickered off of her body, but she knew she was drained for the moment.
The helicopter was in full lift at the point and began to ascend, and the sight only made Phoenix even more desperate to reach it. She groaned, exasperated, and broke into a full sprint towards the helicopter. Her faint connection with him grew marginally stronger as she grew closer to the helicopter, serving to fuel her resolve to reach him. However, when she came upon the building, the helicopter had ascended too high to possibly notice her on the ground.
“SCOOOOTTTTTTT!!” Phoenix cried out through the combined forces of the elements and the helicopter’s engines and propellers. The helicopter continued its ascent and then banked north, going against the winds and over the server building, disappearing from her view.
Phoenix collapsed onto her hands and knees, breaking down into tears. She was too late. She had been powerless to reach him, to stop him, and now he was gone.
# # # # #
Antarctica.
On the southernmost continent of the world, several thousand miles away from the conflict ravaging Muir Island’s Research Center, was a baron and desolate ice desert underlying the South Pole. Much of the continent, in fact, was little more than just that with no permanent residents other than wildlife to speak of.
That is why the towering citadel, composed of stone and steel architecture the likes few have ever seen, rested unseen and undisturbed within the coldest, windiest, and harshest environment in the world.
Deep within the bowels of the monstrous citadel was some of the most advanced technology known to the world, earthly and alien technology once commanded by the master of magnetism and most notorious mutant terrorist, Magneto. He was presently the dictator of the island nation, Genosha, ruling over his mutant brethren, and so the citadel was abandoned.
And so was his dream to unify mutants around the world so that they may rise up against their oppressors and carve out their rightful place in the world.
That cause now belonged to another man, younger but charismatic and powerful nonetheless. He was in his thirties with striking blonde hair and a dark tan, attired in loose fitting white robes with golden trimming. In an elegant throne the likes of which was known only by royalty, he sat tapping his fingers intently on the armrest as he studied the images before him.
Holographic projections in the shape of large monitors encircled him, each displaying live images from world news stations, security feeds, and personal headsets worn by those at his command on Muir Island.
Unbeknownst to the world, and betraying his almost divine appearance, he commanded what was currently one of the world’s most powerful terrorist organizations: The Brotherhood of Mutants. Their current mission was so far a rousing success, but it was reaching its apex with the arrival of the X-Men, and so he decided that it was time to put on the finishing touches.
“Francis,” he finally called out to his manservant. A thin and middle aged man appeared from the shadows, hands firmly placed behind his back.
“Yes, sir?” Francis replied obediently.
After a moment of contemplation, Deus grinned and said, “Activate it.”
TO BE CONTINUED...
NEXT ISSUE: Battered and bruised one round into the fight, Phoenix and Iceman are joined by Tom Corsi, Wolfsbane, and Joseph to put an end to the Brotherhood of Mutants’ siege! But will they be enough…? Plus, just what is Deus activating?!
# # # # #
MAKE WAY FOR… NEWMANIAM!
Feedback is as feedback does.
Any love, hate, or meager shrugs can be sent to [email protected]!
Hey, could you believe it? Two issues in two weeks. Not too shabby, huh? I’ll try my best to keep them coming! Thanks for all of the feedback and support on last issue. I’m glad everyone enjoys the story thus far. I should have a couple more coming soon enough… Keep in touch!
- Cory Wiegel
November 7, 2010
# # # # #
A boisterous laugh echoed throughout the halls of Muir Island’s living quarters.
“It’s a pleasure to see you exactly where you belong,” the voice in Phoenix’s mind taunted. “Bowing down before The Grey King!”
Crimson and black psionic energy swirled quickly around the room, sparkling intensely and creating a strange aura. Despite the distraction, it only took Phoenix a moment to realize that the humming that indicated that the psionic dampeners in the walls were active was gone. It was like a weight was lifted from her mind.
She clenched her fists and narrowed her eyes as she rose to her feet, forcing the invader’s presence out of her mind as if he were a mere fleeting thought.
“Don’t’ make me laugh, Falk!” Phoenix balked. “You’re a fraction of what you once were and at best you were a rank amateur telepath!”
The Grey King’s psionic body scowled, but before he could respond Phoenix waved a dismissive hand in his direction. He looked shocked before he recoiled and cried out, his psionic scream becoming a distant echo as the energy he was composed of exploded into the air and dissipated in a flash. The flowing stream of psionic energy slowly disappeared with him, leaving the air with no indication of his presence.
Phoenix clenched her fists at her sides and looked around the room with her eyes. She continued to expand her telepathic scan outwards. The psionic dampeners destroyed, the only sound she heard was the continued panting and clacking of Wolfsbane’s claws as she continued to run in circles.
The silence was eerie, but Phoenix wasn’t one to be tricked.
Another boisterous laugh echoed throughout the building as The Grey King’s presence returned. This time Phoenix was able to detect him all around him.
“ARRRT!” Wolfsbane barked out suddenly and Phoenix shot a look to her as she collapsed to the ground, watching the young woman collapse in her lupine form. Before she could call out to him to show himself, she felt a shift in the air and spun around to see Proteus in his golden energy form rise into the air, limp and lifeless.
The Grey King’s voice bellowed throughout the room.
“You may be right about me not being the man I once was, Mrs. Summers… or should is it simply Ms. Grey again?” he asked, his haunting laughter following. Phoenix grit her teeth. “Know this. In death, I have become so much more…”
Phoenix kept her eyes on Proteus, preparing for The Grey King’s next move. Proteus’s limp head suddenly lifted up, eyes glowing brightly. It was then a low, painful moan dragged out of the throat of a man from behind her. Phoenix looked over her shoulder in surprise as one of the corpses in the hallway behind her began to rise to his feet unsteadily.
It was the security officer who had shot himself through the head. His irises were pitch-white and his skin was a pale gray. His movements were unstable, but had become re-animated, zombified. Simultaneously, the bodies of a female researcher in a white lab coat, another man in plaid boxers and a white tank top, and an overweight maintenance man in an orange jumpsuit rose to their feet, assuming a similar appearance and unsteady, staggering movements.
The Grey King’s crimson and black psionic energy took hold of their forms and lifted them through the air, dragging them past Phoenix and into the center of the room. Proteus became a flaccid energy form and was sucked away from his position in a golden swirl, wrapping around the four re-animated corpses and being absorbed into their bodies. A blinding yellow light flashed throughout the room, forcing Phoenix to squint and shield her eyes for a moment.
When she looked back, she found herself horrified. The bodies had been transformed into the ghostly images of four new individuals.
One was a large white blob of raw psionic power accented with pink and purple energy. Another was a clean shaven young man with flowing long white hair, resembling the mutant terrorist Erik Lensherr, Magneto. Beside him was a young boy with brown hair and a white stripe through his shortly cropped hair. And the final was a thin teenager with bushy auburn hair and a similarly colored goatee.
They were Proteus, Joseph, Charlie, and Kevin, respectively.
“You son of a bitch…” Phoenix whispered through bated breath. She screamed, “What have you done?!”
“Poor Kevin’s mind was a little… crowded…“ The Grey King’s voice echoed. “I think he’s much more comfortable like this, don’t you?”
“You’ve fractured his consciousness!!!” Phoenix shot back.
The Grey King’s laughter bellowed once more. On his command, the four figures shot through the air at her, murder in their eyes.
Phoenix fell into a battle stance as she was surrounded. She had to think fast. The Grey King had taken control of Kevin Prime and utilized his reality warping powers to create these doppelgangers of the various personas he had once assumed in the past. Each was a fractured piece of his consciousness and destroying them just to get to The Grey King could prove fatal to Kevin Prime, as well.
And that was exactly how The Grey King wanted it.
Proteus rushed her first with a massive fist drawn back to strike. She raised a telekinetic shield at him and flexed it outwards, repelling him away from her. The psionic blob slammed into the wall of the panic room, leaving a body sized dent in the steel. Kevin flanked her and lunged at her after the assault, hands out to strangle. She spun around on a heel and struck him with a fist carried by her telekinetic powers, striking him down hard.
Joseph surrounded himself with a magnetic field and expanded it outwards, gripping and ripping the metal components from the psionic dampening machinery. He spun the metal around at incredible speeds and flung them, spinning through the air, at Phoenix. She doubled back and erected a telekinetic shield to block the onslaught of debris and shrapnel when Charlie leapt on her back and put her in a chokehold.
Gagging, she reached back and grabbed the boy by the head, sending a weak telepathic pulse through his consciousness. Charlie let out a youth wail, and Proteus, Joseph, and Kevin cried out in their own unique voices as a telepathic backlash hit them as well. Charlie released his grip on Phoenix, but she kept her grip on his and used her telekinetic might to pull him over her head and fling him into Joseph. The propulsion was powerful enough to strike and knock Joseph to the ground.
Her theory on what The Grey King had done was correct. All four individuals were indeed fractured manifestations of Kevin Prime’s consciousness and as such they were all connected. Hurting one undoubtedly hurt the other and they were all merely shadows of their original incarnations. They would fall easy and so would The Grey King by association, but she had to do her best to minimize the damage to Kevin Prime’s psyche. That would mean reuniting them all.
A gunshot rang out from behind Phoenix while she was lost in strategizing. She instinctively released a telekinetic wave in all directions, but the deflection merely bent the bullet away from her torso to her deflection and it grazed her arm instead. Phoenix gasped as pain rang out through her limb and she dropped to a knee, shooting a glance over her shoulder.
Kevin was behind her, arm outstretched with a pistol aimed right at her head. He opened, but she caused his arm to jerk up with her telekinesis and he fire rapidly into the ceiling. It was then a massive psionic fist struck her from behind and sent her into the ground. She groaned from the blow and tried to roll with it, ending up flat on her back.
Proteus was standing over her with another fist poised to strike. Phoenix reached out with her telekinesis and took hold of the blow, pushing it back against Proteus’s will. It was then Kevin rushed to fallen form and brought the barrel of the gun back down on her, pulling the trigger. Phoenix’s eyes went wide, but a resounding clip signified that magazine of the gun was empty. Without missing a beat, Kevin flipped the gun over in his hand and prepared to strike her with it as if the handle was a hammer while she struggled to push back Proteus.
That moment was better than any other to try dismantling the doppelgangers.
Before Kevin could strike, she reached out with her mind to grip the persona’s while she released a powerful telekinetic thrust, throwing Proteus’s across the room. The massive psionic body crashed into the panic room’s wall as Joseph and Charlie began to recover from her attacks, readying to return to the fray. Kevin, meanwhile, froze in place as if he were struggling to breathe.
Phoenix kept her hold on Kevin while she rolled to her stomach and shuffled to her feet, trying her best to block out the pain in her arm and the blood escaping her body. This aspect of Kevin Prime’s consciousness, like the others, was buried deeply into the recently deceased body of Muir Island’s staff. Uprooting it was like removing a plant from soil… only she had to make sure she used a desert spoon and a scalpel instead of a shovel and a hoe.
Suddenly, Kevin’s appearance fluctuated in a golden aura. His image faded away as that aspect of Kevin Prime’s persona was downloaded into Phoenix’s brain staff member’s corpse replaced him and shook violently before collapsing to the floor.
There was another shift in the area and the X-Man spun around to see Joseph and Charlie rushing up on her. She threw both open palms at them and tensed her fingers, and they slid to a stop and began to struggle in place as her telekinetic grip took hold over them. Proteus was recovering when she raised Joseph and Charlie into the air, beginning the same process she had just performed on Kevin simultaneously.
“NO!” The Grey King’s voice roared through Proteus’s body. Her brow beading with sweat, Phoenix gritted her teeth and simply gave Proteus a crooked grin.
Joseph and Charlie’s projections began to fluctuate much like Kevin’s had, ultimately replaced by the mutilated corpses of staff that their personas had been anchored to. With the other two fractures downloaded into her mind, the lifeless bodies collapsed to the ground and Phoenix turned her attention to Proteus.
“It’s over, Falk,” Phoenix declared. “Release the last of Kevin’s mind or I’ll rip it from your cold, dead psyche!”
The Grey King, through Proteus’s form, stared defiantly at Phoenix. After a moment, the psionic monstrosity grinned uncharacteristically.
“Some other time,” he said.
Phoenix’s eyes went wide and she rushed towards Proteus, but he looked up and the psionic energy began to drain away from its body before she could reach out to him. Crimson and black psionic energies mixed with the white, purple, and pink energies. The swirl of energies shot into the ceiling and dissipated, leaving nothing but the corpse of the overweight maintenance man behind. The body went limp, collapsing and sprawling out over the ground.
The Grey King trumped her. He downloaded the last fracture of Kevin Prime’s mind into his own and fled, taking his reality warping powers with him. It was those very powers that Phoenix would need to harness to reassemble Kevin Prime’s body, but she couldn’t sense The Grey King any longer. He was long gone.
Okay, think, Red! Phoenix said to herself, going over the situation in her head. Unless she was able to upload Kevin Prime’s consciousness to a suitable body in the next few moments, he would either be lost to the ether or permanently stored in her mind. However, without the aspects of his mind and body that made up the Proteus doppelganger, the man he had become would be gone.
That would have to be figured out at another time, Phoenix decided. Her eyes darted around the room and fell on the corpse that had been utilized to create the Joseph doppelganger. Between the three fractures that she possessed, the longest living and most well-adapted of the personas Kevin Prime had adopted would have to be that of the former X-Man. Heaven help her for desecrating the remains of one of Muir Island’s staff members to save a life, but she had to duplicate the process that The Grey King had used if there would ever be a chance of restoring Kevin Prime.
# # # # #
Lightning cascaded across the storm clouds high above Muir Island, briefly illuminating the security building in a series of flashes through the gaping hole in its roof. The booming cackle accompanying the lightning was followed by the laughter of The Blob, who bellowed deeply from his bulbous stomach on which he laid spread out on a scattered pile of once sentient ice, snow, and water.
He spread his arms and legs out while on his bulbous stomach, as if he was making a snow angel in the remains of their enemy.
“Whatcha waitin’ on, Suvik?” the veteran Brotherhood lieutenant said between patronizing chuckles. “C’mawn in. The water’s just fine!”
Senyaka stood up from the ground and put a hand to his head, groaning in irritation. Being handily defeated by a sole X-Man in a five-on-one fight was aggravating, but being rescued by Fredrick Dukes was downright infuriating.
Mercury began pulling himself together, as well, and inched his oozy form up from the ground onto his half-formed legs. In moments, he was collected and whole again, joining Senyaka beside The Blob.
“On your feet, Dukes! We’re not finished here yet.”
Before The Blob could quip in response, a high-pitched, electronic humming noise caught the trio’s attention.
“Oh, trust me,” a man’s voice insisted. “I think you’ve done all you’re going to do here today.”
Their heads shot in the direction of the voice just in time for a ball of white force energy to strike a very shocked Mercury, causing him to splatter into liquid metal all over the place once more. A second volley struck Senyaka before he could react, sending him rocketing onto his back with an agonizing battle cry.
Growling lowly, The Blob scrambled off of his belly in an attempt to rise to his feet and meet the challenge of their new foe.
Standing clear on the other side of the building wielding the bulky energy rifle was a tall, muscular Native American man in a navy tank top, black cargo pants, and combat boots. His dark skin was covered in blood, sweat, and dirt, and his long black hair was unkempt save for the navy headband he wore across his forehead.
He was Tom Corsi, head-of-security on Muir Island, and he charged up another blast and took aim again, this time firing a volley at The Blob’s torso. The powerful ball of energy struck his shoulder and exploded, sending him off balance, but only for a moment. The Blob steadily regained his composure and summoned all of his might to charge forward, letting out a roar.
Tom stood his ground and charged the energy rifle for another shot, firing and striking his target in the lower torso. It didn’t even phase the half-ton mutant, who at even a brisk jog had become an unstoppable force that swung his arms into the desks and debris in his path. Tom’s eyes narrowed and he quickly charged another shot and fired, then charged and fired again, and again for the third time in a row.
The volleys struck The Blob in quick succession, but each shot became even more benign as his momentum grew. Frantic as The Blob closed the distance between them, Tom charged his energy rifle a fourth time, but this time a beeping sensor and a loud vibration resounded from the gun.
He had attempted to charge and re-charge too quickly and it had overheated!
Tom shot a quick look at the gun and then up to The Blob’s oncoming form, eyes widened in shock. He threw the rifle to the ground and attempted to dodge out of the way of the impact when suddenly the floor underneath The Blob became hard and slippery, causing his legs to slide out from under him. The Blob yelped in surprise as he crashed down on his side and went into a tumbling roll across the floor a short distance before violently crashing into the building’s north wall.
Having succeeded in dodging out of the way of his opponent, Tom shoulder rolled into a squat, one hand holding him upright while another hand moved to the energy pistol at his hip. Trailing The Blob’s path was a large sheet of ice that stretched back to the puddle of ice, snow, and water that The Blob was indulging himself in only moments ago. Two hands of ice began to form and emerge from the puddle, growing into arms and then a head and torso.
The ice body’s face was wracked with turmoil and appeared to be struggling immensely, until the formation of its body was complete, wherein the body appeared to take a deep breath and then start into a charge across the sheet of ice.
Iceman had reformed himself from being shattered and not a moment to soon.
He slid across the sheet of ice at breakneck speeds towards The Blob, who was still stunned and confused over his initial crash. Reaching the end of the sheet, Iceman leapt through the air and landed on top of the toppled villain. He squatted on The Blob’s chest and quickly shoved his palms over his face, creating large clouds of steam to pump into the terrorist’s mouth and nostrils.
The Blob violently began shaking and swatting his hands, but Iceman held his ground and continued pumping the steam over The Blob’s head and upper torso. In mere moments he took a deafening gasp and collapsed under Iceman, unconscious. Sure that he had been genuinely subdued, Iceman allowed the swimming sensation and weakened feeling in his body to overtake him.
He drew back his hands as his body loosened up and he collapsed with eyes closed, rolling off of The Blob and falling onto the ground with a loud thud. A shimmer washed over his body and his body reverted to its flesh and bone state. He was barely conscious himself when Tom slowly approached him and looked down at him.
“Drake? Iceman?” Tom said, kneeling down to him. Bobby groggily opened his eyes and looked up to Tom with a wry smirk.
“Tom,” he muttered exhaustedly. “Hey. No need to fear, the cavalry’s here.”
Muir Island’s head-of-security hung his low and shook it half-heartedly. “Rest easy. Far as I can tell, the building’s secure for the moment.”
Bobby grunted to himself and leaned up on his elbows.
“That’s good, but don’t worry about me,” he said, betraying his haggard demeanor and wracked nerves. Tom eyed him suspiciously. “Seriously, man. I just need a moment to get my bearings straight.”
Before Tom could object, white noise came from Senyaka’s radio drawing their attention.
{{ This is Avalanche breaking radio silence. The X-Men are on the island and are targeting our operation. Finish off the rest of the island’s staff, then regroup and storm the server room. Destroy it by any means necessary and get outta here! }}
Tom and Bobby looked to each other, knowing their break was over. Bobby reached a hand out and Tom stood up and took it, helping him to his feet as he transformed back into his ice state.
“Alright. You heard the man,” Iceman said. “We don’t have much time. Let’s get the security team together and move out!”
Tom sighed, shaking his head.
“I don’t know how to tell you this, Drake,” he began somberly. “But you’re lookin’ at what’s left of the security team.”
# # # # #
Phoenix had acted quickly. She reached out to the staff member’s corpse with her telekinesis and began to manipulate the matter that composed its body. Patching up its wounds and healing atrophy to it was the first step in the preparation process. It was fortunate that the bodies surrounding her had not been deceased for long or else the process may not have been possible. With the body prepped, she caused it to explode in a flash of telekinetic fire, burning away what it once was while she uploaded the remnants of Kevin Prime’s consciousness.
When the flames had finished consuming the body, they flickered away quickly and revealed the living, breathing body of a youthful Erik Lensherr. As a telepath, the Phoenix was gifted with a detailed memory and an acute attention to detail, so the result was as close in appearance to the former X-Man as possible.
It took only moments for the process of rebirth to be complete.
Joseph’s eyes snapped open and he sat up sharply, gasping for air. Phoenix moved to his side and put her hands on his shoulders to steady him. He frantically looked about and turned to her, seemingly shocked back to the living.
“J-J-Jean?” Joseph muttered, unnerved and trying to process what had happened. “What are you… what happ… happ…?” he stammered, then looked over his body. “I’m… back the way I was…”
“Calm down, Kevin,” Phoenix said quietly, trying to ease. “There was an emergency, but everything’s okay for now. Just breathe and try your best to remember what had happened on your own. It may take a moment, but you should be fine.”
He looked to her and felt uneasy at being called Kevin, but he did as he told and took deep, deliberate breaths. She needed him to take stock of who he was.
A part of him was gone. His body felt different, but nostalgically familiar. Memories that he knew were supposed to be there were foggy or absent altogether. The power that coursed through him before was gone and his senses were heightened in strange ways. But he was starting to remember…
It was then Wolfsbane stirred on the ground slightly and moaned, her eyes flickering. Her body slowly began transforming from its lupine back into its human state, to that of a young petite woman with red hair. She was awaking.
Phoenix glanced to her, then turned back to Joseph. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
He nodded to her and she stood up, rushing over to Rahne as she looked around from on the ground. She knelt at her side and put a hand on her arm.
“Rahne?” Phoenix asked. “Are you okay?”
Rahne sat up on her side, one hand holding her up while another moved to her head. She nodded slowly and then looked up to the woman speaking to her.
“Aye, Jean,” she said with her Scottish accent. “How did ye get here? What happened?”
“I was hoping you could tell me,” Phoenix confessed.
Rahne took a breath and tried to remember.
“I remember waking up an’ the island was under attack,” she began, trying to remember through the fog. “I fought… a woman who had come for me an’ then had this urge t’ run. I knew I had to go find my mum and help before they reached her. When I got here I must have been ambushed because I just… blacked out…”
Phoenix took in the information carefully. Joseph then stood and approached the two from behind, still uneasy in his reborn body.
“It was Mastermind and the Brotherhood who ambushed you,” he explained, gritting his teeth. “I woke up just like you, found the island under attack, and followed the sounds of the Brotherhood. I tried to help, but they… overwhelmed me…”
Joseph seemed to trail off and look away from them, seemingly disturbed by what had happened to him. Phoenix tried to keep him talking.
“Do you remember anything else?” she asked.
He paused for a moment and then looked back to the two women. “The server room. They said they were doing something with the computers.”
Phoenix nodded her head and closed her eyes. She attempted to reach out to the server room to determine what the status of its staff was and if any of the Brotherhood of Mutants had reached them. What she sensed caused her eyes to shoot open in a horrific shock.
“Jean?” Rahne said, concerned. “What is it?”
Phoenix’s eyes lit up in telekinetic flames.
“He’s here.”
Joseph and Rahne exchanged uneasy glasses. Before either Wolfsbane could ask who she was talking about, a fiery raptor manifested around Phoenix’s body and she leapt into the air, flying out of the room and down the hallway back towards the entrance of the building at escalating speeds.
# # # # #
Wrapped in telekinetic flames and driven by pure adrenaline, Phoenix shot through the corridors of the living-quarters wing of the compound like a rocket. She reached the entrance of the building and dropped to her feet, looking frantically from left to right over the island’s facilities.
He was nearby. She knew it, but she couldn’t detect where precisely.
Then she heard it in the distance. To the north! The server building!
Through the downpour of hard rain that crashed over her body and the violent winds that whipped her hair about, she heard the sound of a helicopter’s propellers in full operation. It had to be him.
Phoenix took off into a run towards the north end of the compound and leapt into the air, telekinetic flames propelling her in the form of a fiery raptor. She closed in on the helicopter quickly just as it was beginning to lift from the rain soaked grounds outside of the server building, but fell just short of reaching it.
The travel from Washington, D.C. to Muir Island, combined with the battle with The Grey King and reorganizing Kevin MacTaggert’s fractured psyche, had taken its toll on her. Her telekinetic flames flickered and she dropped to the ground, stumbling on her feet and nearly falling over. She huffed and heaved, then swallowed hard and tried to reactivate her powers. Telekinetic flames flickered off of her body, but she knew she was drained for the moment.
The helicopter was in full lift at the point and began to ascend, and the sight only made Phoenix even more desperate to reach it. She groaned, exasperated, and broke into a full sprint towards the helicopter. Her faint connection with him grew marginally stronger as she grew closer to the helicopter, serving to fuel her resolve to reach him. However, when she came upon the building, the helicopter had ascended too high to possibly notice her on the ground.
“SCOOOOTTTTTTT!!” Phoenix cried out through the combined forces of the elements and the helicopter’s engines and propellers. The helicopter continued its ascent and then banked north, going against the winds and over the server building, disappearing from her view.
Phoenix collapsed onto her hands and knees, breaking down into tears. She was too late. She had been powerless to reach him, to stop him, and now he was gone.
# # # # #
Antarctica.
On the southernmost continent of the world, several thousand miles away from the conflict ravaging Muir Island’s Research Center, was a baron and desolate ice desert underlying the South Pole. Much of the continent, in fact, was little more than just that with no permanent residents other than wildlife to speak of.
That is why the towering citadel, composed of stone and steel architecture the likes few have ever seen, rested unseen and undisturbed within the coldest, windiest, and harshest environment in the world.
Deep within the bowels of the monstrous citadel was some of the most advanced technology known to the world, earthly and alien technology once commanded by the master of magnetism and most notorious mutant terrorist, Magneto. He was presently the dictator of the island nation, Genosha, ruling over his mutant brethren, and so the citadel was abandoned.
And so was his dream to unify mutants around the world so that they may rise up against their oppressors and carve out their rightful place in the world.
That cause now belonged to another man, younger but charismatic and powerful nonetheless. He was in his thirties with striking blonde hair and a dark tan, attired in loose fitting white robes with golden trimming. In an elegant throne the likes of which was known only by royalty, he sat tapping his fingers intently on the armrest as he studied the images before him.
Holographic projections in the shape of large monitors encircled him, each displaying live images from world news stations, security feeds, and personal headsets worn by those at his command on Muir Island.
Unbeknownst to the world, and betraying his almost divine appearance, he commanded what was currently one of the world’s most powerful terrorist organizations: The Brotherhood of Mutants. Their current mission was so far a rousing success, but it was reaching its apex with the arrival of the X-Men, and so he decided that it was time to put on the finishing touches.
“Francis,” he finally called out to his manservant. A thin and middle aged man appeared from the shadows, hands firmly placed behind his back.
“Yes, sir?” Francis replied obediently.
After a moment of contemplation, Deus grinned and said, “Activate it.”
TO BE CONTINUED...
NEXT ISSUE: Battered and bruised one round into the fight, Phoenix and Iceman are joined by Tom Corsi, Wolfsbane, and Joseph to put an end to the Brotherhood of Mutants’ siege! But will they be enough…? Plus, just what is Deus activating?!
# # # # #
MAKE WAY FOR… NEWMANIAM!
Feedback is as feedback does.
Any love, hate, or meager shrugs can be sent to [email protected]!
Hey, could you believe it? Two issues in two weeks. Not too shabby, huh? I’ll try my best to keep them coming! Thanks for all of the feedback and support on last issue. I’m glad everyone enjoys the story thus far. I should have a couple more coming soon enough… Keep in touch!
- Cory Wiegel
November 7, 2010