Issue #12 by D. Golightly
May 2023 Cypher
Daken
Xorn
Morph
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"NEW BEGINNINGS"“You can wake them up now, Wipeout.”
“Yes, master.” The aged and overweight man reached out to the group of captives, even though he was still a dozen feet away. Sweat quickly formed on his wrinkled brow as he extended his mutant power into the very core of the four mutants, who had slept soundly ever since they had been abducted from their world.* * [Don’t worry, you didn’t miss anything – this happened between issues!] It took a moment, but Wipeout’s abilities enabled him to reach into the recesses of their minds and awaken them. While he prodded through their psyches, he made sure that their mutant abilities were still shut down. They were, just as he had arranged when the master had brought him through the portal to their world. This ability was his sole reason for staying alive. Otherwise, the master surely would have dispatched him already. Cypher was the first to come to full consciousness. And what he saw made him wish he hadn’t woken up. To his right he saw Daken and Xorn, each strapped into large metal x-shaped crosses against a wall. The same that he was strapped into. To his left was Morph, similarly strapped in and incapacitated. They were all starting to come around. As Cypher’s vision cleared further, he saw the overweight man in front of him…what? Shudder? Why would he be so clearly scared if they were all no threat to anyone? Cypher tried to speak and found that he couldn’t. Which terrified him. And then he saw what the overweight man must have been scared of: a bulky armor-clad figure that just seemed to tower over all of them. “Douglas, is it?” the armored man said. “I don’t think we ever were acquainted. Well, your counterpart on this world, anyway. But I have read about some of your exploits. Those that Cameron Hodge documented. But that’s a story for another time.” Cypher yanked at his restraints as the man stepped closer. But it was useless. His powers were shutdown somehow. He was bound. He was helpless. Worst of all, he was cut off from his own language, which he’d learned could manifest differently ever since his resurrection, and not even his mysterious cybernetic leg was strong enough to break him free.** ** [Check out X-Men Unlimited #50 for a little background!] “I can feel your fright,” Stryfe said. “It feels…reassuring. While I would rather enjoy pitting your enhanced abilities against my own, I think the only one of your whose powers I’m actually interested in are hers.” Lorna’s head snapped up, encircled by psychic energy generated by Stryfe as he approached. The mysterious and powerful man sneered as he came in close to the green-haired captive, his breath brushing her cheek as she struggled against his power. “Yes, I’ve been after you for some time,” Stryfe continued. “Without my Acolyte’s augmented abilities I might never have found you. But thanks to this facility, I was able to increase their power, and finally locate you on that wretched other Earth.” “You…you’re the one that’s been chasing me?” Lorna managed to say. “Across dimensional planes, yes. Your signature was hidden by that ridiculous helmet for so long, I nearly gave up. But With Timeshadow’s increased power, we were finally able to bring ourselves together, weren’t we?” Over Stryfe’s shoulder, Cypher could see several figures seemingly melt into view. The one called Wipeout took a step back to allow the newcomers a better view of their master. Cypher easily recognized them from the files he had worked his way through back at the Archive, their base of operations, which held detailed dossiers on the majority of the planet’s mutants. First there was Firefist, a fallen X-Man on their world who had pyrokinetic abilities. His gold and yellow suit looked singed in several places and most of his hair had been burned away. Beside him was Neophyte, a phase-morphing mutant that could become intangible and slip between the molecules of virtually anything. He brandished a short golden cape that was draped over one shoulder and he looked like he couldn’t wait to carve their hearts out of their chests. Finally, the one called Timeshadow, who was wearing a head-to-toe blue bodysuit stepped forward. Cypher knew the least about him, but he believed his powers were similar to his old friend Madrox, in that he could create duplicates of himself. These were temporal duplicated instead of carbon-copies, however, which meant that the mutant was working his way through various timelines at any given moment. With his vision clear, Cypher also took in their surroundings. They looked to be underground somewhere, with the stone walls held back by giant stone pillars. The ceiling was mostly smooth, looking like it had been carved out of solid rock, but occasionally there was the small outcropping that dipped into the large chamber. The chamber itself was decorated simply, with hieroglyphics carved into the walls, pillars, and floor. Just beyond where the Acolytes had stepped into view was a raised stone platform in the center of the chamber. Stryfe ripped his attention from Lorna and glared at Cypher. “You’re more alert than I expected you would be,” he said. “I can feel your mind wandering. Interesting. I would if you don’t have some kind of latent telepathy as a precursor to your omnilinguistical powers? That would stand to reason; how else would you instantly be able to absorb a language?” Stryfe stepped back, admiring the facility and his Acolytes. “Not an impressive location, to be sure. But when I stumbled upon it, and them,” he gestured to the silent mutants, “imagine my surprise at how perfectly things fell into place. Their goals of bringing their master back aligned with my own, and using this forgotten place I was able to augment their powers to get me what I most desired.” He pointed at Lorna. “Her.” To his right, Daken was furiously trying to free himself from his chains. His claws popped out of both sides, but he was too tightly lashed into place and couldn’t get the appropriate angle to cut himself free. Blood seeped down his raised arms, staining his chest red. “Ah, yes,” Stryke said. “The animal. Like your predecessor, you have no candor. I see that what was true for him is true of you. Those fantastic claws aren’t something you were born with. Your mind is more…challenging then the rest, though. Muddled. Quite a lot happening in there.” “rrrrrrrrrrr-where are we?” Cypher finally blurted out. He was panting heavily, sweat beading down his face. Saying those words had felt like he might have a heart attack, but he managed to get them out somehow. Stryfe’s head jerked back in surprise. He glanced at Wipeout and lashed out with an armored fist, back-handing him to the ground. The large mutant remained down, his arm raised in meager protection, but he dared not get back up. “Perhaps I underestimated your abilities,” Stryfe said to Cypher. “Impressive that you were able to actually speak since Wipeout here had thought you completely shut down. No matter how you did it. Your question is a good one.” Stryfe turned and extended his arms up to sweep overhead, taking in the entire chamber. “The last refuge of En Sabah Nur himself!” Whatever collected mental capacity Cypher had regained was obliterated. Apocalypse. Possibly the worst foe that the X-Men had ever faced. What did he have to do with this? “We’re miles beneath the surface in the Egypt of our world,” Stryfe continued. He paused, turning back to Cypher. “Intriguing! I hadn’t meant to tell you that. Did you make me answer your question, little mutant? Perhaps Wipeout is losing his touch. Or perhaps you’re more powerful than we realized. “No matter. It’s here that Lorna Summers’ power will finally reopen the gateway that has housed our En Sabah Nur behind a dimensional hellscape. And it shall come to pass. Timeshadow has foreseen it. Just as I was able to augment and combine the powers of Timeshadow and Neophyte to track you and pull you here, I witnessed Timeshadow’s very own visions. Apocalypse will return!” To his left, Morph was similarly trying to pull free from his chains, but it seemed like was he was having no success. Lorna had sunk down, drained, while Daken continued to thrash. The ground rumbled and from the center of the chamber, on the raised stone platform, giant slabs of rock slid apart as a metal chair with wiring covering it rose into place. With a gesture, psionic power popped Lorna’s bonds free and carried her overhead, placing her into the chair. Timeshadow and Neophyte quickly strapped her into placed while from behind Firefist lowered a helmet that looked like a bastardized Cerebro across Lorna’s brow. Wipeout came up behind her and placed his palms on either side of her face. Her eyes flashed open as her powers were reignited, but before she could act, the machine began powering up, first with a soft hum and then with a deafening cacophony of restrained power. Lorna began to scream, her eyes flitting back and forth from Cypher, to Daken, to Morph, and back again. Her own electromagnetic power began to spark, with tendrils seeping off of her forearms and reaching up to the ceiling. Stryfe basked in it all, his arms wide open as if ushering the power to come to fruition. The Acolytes stepped back, admiring a portal that was opening overhead. It mirrored the chamber, only it was upside-down, as if a mirror image of where they all stood. As the blue ridges of the portal widened, they saw a dark figure step into view on the other side, looking up at them. “En Sabah Nur,” Stryfe muttered. He looked eagerly upward. “Yes! My machinations will finally come true! With this appropriated technology and this powerhouse mutant channeling her energies into it, I will rip the mind of the mighty Apocalypse into my own, and with it, his power! Power enough to topple the human race!” At this, the Acolytes hesitated. They glanced between each other, confused at the words of their champion. Wipeout cautiously stepped forward, and with one more quick look at this fellow companions, asked, “Rip our lord’s mind into your own, Master Stryfe?” Stryfe, without taking his own eyes off of the slowly widening transdimensional gap in the ceiling, said, “Begone, you fool!” Psionic energy lashed out, striking Wipeout in the chest and throwing him back against the stone wall. Firefist rushed forward, his attention split between the widening portal and the mutant master he had trusted. His clenched fists burned with pyrokinetic power, strong enough to melt steel with a touch. “What you doing?” Firefist demanded. “You said you would bring Apocalypse to us!” “And so I shall,” Stryfe replied. “I’ll absorb his mind, the essence of his knowledge and power, and I’ll become stronger than he ever was!” “Traitor!” Firefist screamed and he lunged forward, pressing his palms against Stryfe’s chestplate. Stryfe roared, smashing his forearms against Firefist’s head, crushing his skull between his armored limbs. The pyrokinetic limply collapsed at his feet, blood rushing from his ears and nose. Neophtye phased a hand down through Lorna’s restraints, partially solidifying, causing them to snap apart. She freed herself and tried to stand up, but the helmet held her in place still, seemingly held to her with her own magnetic powers, which still lashed upward to feed the growing portal. As Stryfe rushed the stone platform to confront Neophyte, Cypher felt something at his sides. He was shocked to see one of Timeshadow’s duplicates loosening the chains to his left, and then looked at his right as another duplicate freed her other arm. Seeing beyond them, more duplicates were likewise freeing the rest of the Mutant Response Team. Daken crashed to the floor, weakened from blood loss. Morph started pulling at the restraints around his legs once his arms were free. Cypher stepped off of the cross, nearly toppling over, but a Timeshadow steadied him. “I…I don’t even understand that the hell is going on,” Cypher said. “We’ve been monitoring your dimension, looking for her,” Timeshadow said as he helped Cypher up. “Stryfe gathered us, tricked us into finding your Xorn. Lorna Summers single-handedly killed most of the mutant-haters on this planet before escaping to yours. Stryfe knew that she was the key to bringing back Apocalypse.” “Not bring back,” another Timeshadow said. The first Timeshadow shook his head. “Right. Not bring back. He tricked us.” “Tricked all of us,” the second Timeshadow said. “We have to stop him!” Morph shouted as he approached. He flexed his chest and arms as if calling his power to the surface, but nothing happened. He was still the same, chalk-white figure. “Dammit! He’s killing Xorn!” Cypher looked up and Lorna was indeed screaming in both terror and pain. Beside her, Stryfe held Neophyte in a psionic bubble and with a sudden tearing motion with his hands, ripped the phasing mutant into two. His psionics had somehow latched onto Neophyte’s core being, despite his phasing abilities, and been the end of him. “He’ll kill us all,” Timeshadow said. He turned to Cypher. “You have to help us!” “I…I’ll do what I can,” was all the pseudo-leader of the team could manage to say. A hand gripped Cypher on the shoulder and an entire world suddenly opened up before him. Words, intentions, rhetoric, body movements…it was all suddenly and welcoming open before him once again. The shock of his returned powers made him catch his breath and he looked back to see Wipeout grasping his shoulder, using him like a crutch. “We have been betrayed,” Wipeout said. He coughed and blood mixed with spittle splashed onto his chin. “Stop that madman!” Wipeout sunk to one knee, but not before extending his hands in the direction of Morph and Daken. He fell back, unconscious just as the other two mutants stood more upright, as if one’s will had transferred into the others. “I’m back, baby!” Morph said, elated. He hopped into the air and quickly shifted into a green dragon, one of his favorite forms to take. His wingspan flapped up and out, propelling him toward the stone ceiling. After a quick somersault, he did a nosedive for Daken, who was ready for him. The assassin’s healing factor was restored and he was itching to get his vengeance. He jumped straight up with his arm extended, which Morph gripped tightly between green claws, yanking him upward at a fast pace. “This is, what, the second time we’ve been captured and chained up?” Morph asked. “Third,” Daken replied. “Shit. Maybe we’re not actually good at this, you know?” Without waiting for a reply, Morph dropped Daken directly on top of Stryfe. The assassin roared as he jammed his claws into the back of Stryfe’s neck…or at least he tried. Sensing their approach, Stryfe swiftly pivoted aside and Daken slammed into a psionic shield that was raised at the last second, his claws screeching down the front of the pink energy. Morph dropped straight down, putting his full mass against the shield, causing Stryfe to stumble back. He collided with the Cerebro-esque chair, but nothing was dislodged and Lorna’s power continued to uncontrollably pour into the portal. Above then, Apocalypse watched with interest. “Shut her down!” Cypher ordered Wipeout. Even without his powers, the intent was clear. “You can shut down her power, right? You could stop everything! Do it already!” A Timeshadow duplicate helped Wipeout to toward the maelstrom up on the stone platform. He reached for Xorn, but as his hand extended, a psionic shield smashed against him, snapping his neck. Stryfe rose up above them all, halfway between the chair and the portal, extending his arms up to aid his mind in flowing outward. “Ultimate knowledge of a thousand years of conquering the world,” Stryfe said. “It will be mine!” On the other side of the portal, Apocalypse lashed out in pain as the buffed psionics from Stryfe penetrated the portal and his mind. The ancient mutant, felled by few, dropped to one knee and gripped his head in agony. “When your war with the Shadow King of this dimension locked you away into an alternate plane,” Stryfe said, “the world changed. There was a vacuum, made all the more apparent when Lorna Summers killed every mutant enemy the world over. My time to rise and take vengeance is now! Give me your knowledge, your power, the strength to finally defeat the entire Summers family!” “Your mistake,” Apocalypse said, “was assuming that I was powerless while trapped here.” The pink psionic energy streaming from Stryfe suddenly looped back into him, shattering his helmet. The powerful mutant fell to his knees, screaming in agony. Apocalypse stood over him, looking up through the portal, and he began to laugh manically. “If it is power you want,” Apocalypse said, “then it is power you. Shall. HAVE!” The loop thickened, puncturing Stryfe’s psyche like it was as novice a mind as a newborn babe. For all of this power, Stryfe was still nothing compared to the arch-foe of the X-Men, X-Factor, and X-Force. Not even when one was trapped behind a dimensional barrier. The loop finally stopped and Stryfe slumped forward, his eyes completely white. Cypher wasn’t quite sure from his angle, but it looked like the irises had been erased somehow. Morph approached the chair, shouting, “We aren’t out of the woods yet! This thing is still running strong!” Daken sprung up onto the platform, his claws extended, and lashed out at the wiring. The helmet ripped free and Lorna slid down into Morph’s arms, but the portal over their heads was still enlarging. “We need to find the off switch,” Morph said, “or we’ll just be trading fire for a genocidal frying pan!” “Timeshadow,” Apocalypse’s deep, resonating voice said above them. “I forgive you for falling for this usurper’s claims. You have been fooled, my loyal Acolyte, but fear not, for my return is at hand. Stop those who would oppose me, and you shall become my new lead Horseman! Free me from this hellscape, this Limbo!” Morph, Xorn, Daken, and Cypher were suddenly surrounded by a dozen Timeshadow duplicates, all of them sneering at the team. There was a moment’s hesitation, and then all hell broke loose. “I don’t even understand what the hell we’re in the middle of!” Morph screeched as he shifted his free arm into a medieval shield to try and deflect two Timeshadow duplicates. “One second, we were in the Canadian wilderness, and the next, we’re getting ganged up on by a Batroc lookalike!” Daken ducked under a feeble strike from a Timeshadow, lashing out with his claws to disembowel it in return. The temporal double stumbled back into two others before it vanished in a twisted cloud of non-reality. Between berserker slashes, Daken said, “I shot Professor Power in the face, Department H had us cornered, the guy with the bucket on his head showed up, knocked us out, and now we’re fighting off the literal Apocalypse in another dimension.”*** *** [Not actually a bad summary of last issue] “Oh,” Morph replied. “When you put it like that…” Apocalypse increased his size and cautiously reached up toward the portal, which had finally stopped growing. It was more than wide enough for him to pull himself through now. The blue and violet energy from Xorn ripped and sparked around the rim of the dimensional opening, but it remained somewhat stable. “Stop!” Cypher commanded a pair of approaching Timeshadows, and his mutant ability gave them pause. He was accessing the language centers of their brains and changing the way information was processed. It drained him to use his powers this way, but it was new, and it was working. The Timeshadows looked confused, like someone was babbling at them incoherently. They glanced at each other, which gave Cypher just enough time to somersault forward and spring upward, driving both heels into each of their chins. He recovered quickly and was on top of them in an instant, knocking them out with haymakers and causing them to evaporate like the other defeated Timeshadows. Cypher looked straight up to see Apocalypse testing the integrity of the portal. It shimmered as he touched it, and while it was translucent, it didn’t appear as if he could yet burst through into their plane of existence. “Morph!” Cypher shouted. “Is she in any condition to undo what she did?” Morph had slipped off the edge of the platform with Lorna in his arms and was crouching down against the side of it. He ran his fingers through her short, green hair and gently patted her cheek. “C’mon, Lorna,” he said. “We could really use some of that juice right about now.” “Give it up,” a Timeshadow said to Cypher as three more flanked him. “You don’t even have a home to get back to anyway.” “What are you talking about?” Cypher asked as he ducked under one striking Timeshadow and slammed his fist into another. “That hideout of yours? The Archive I think you called it? We torched it right before we picked you up in Canada. Well, Neophyte did anyway. Stryfe told him to do it awhile ago, but we had to wait for just the right time.”**** **** [That order was given way back in X-Factor #2] “You…what?” The closest Timeshadow clasped his fists together and dropped them right into the back of Cypher’s neck, bringing him to his knees, which another Timeshadow stepped up in front of him, saying, “All those books and files your government had stored there? They all went up in flames. No more repository on mutantkind. No more safe house.” Cypher jumped up, ramming the top of his head into the Timeshadow’s nose behind him, breaking it instantly. Without hesitation he clutched the fabric of the Timeshadow’s costume behind him and yanked him over his shoulder, smashing him into the other duplicate. Another two quick strikes and they were both smoke like the rest. But there were more. Countless more. Seemingly everywhere. And the Archive was gone. Cypher’s only semblance of a home, now up in smoke, if the villainous mutant was to be believed. And he was, thanks to Cypher’s power. He knew that the truth had been spoken to him. “Lorna!” Cypher shouted. “Wake UP!” Lorna’s eyes flashed open, her electromagnetic powers rippling off of her once more. Morph dropped her and uncontrollably was pushed back, his costume singed from the sudden outburst. Her arm extended from where she lay beside the platform, Xorn tried to electromagnetically grasp the rim of the portal to try and force it shut. On the other side, Apocalypse had managed to push his hand through. The lumbering upside-down mutant looked like he was straining, but his hand was slowly shoving through between dimensions. He would be through completely in just a few minutes. “I can’t do it!” Xorn called out. Sweat was already beading on her forehead. “It’s too much! He’s keeping it open!” Daken appeared at her side. “What if we strapped you back into that chair?” he asked. “Are you crazy?” Morph interjected, but before he could make a stronger argument, his body twisted and contorted until he was a massive bear, complete with fur and fangs. Now three times his normal size, Morph rose onto his hind legs and smashed down on top of two oncoming Timeshadows. Looking at the remnants of the chair, Xorn said, “No. It’s been too damaged. But…but maybe if I can tap into its reserves it will give me a boost.” Tendrils of slashing purple energy wafted off of Xorn’s left arm, reaching for the decimated chair she had been strapped into mere moments ago. The wiring running beneath the chair still held current, current that her powers could easily detect and perhaps even absorb to amplify her awesome strength, which was just falling short of what she needed. A Timeshadow leapt off of the platform right for her. She reacted by rolling to her side and the tendrils of energy went wild, striking out at whatever metal objects they could connect with. In the stone chamber, there weren’t many, but there were a few metal items, such Daken’s claws slicing into the Timeshadow near her. And also Cypher’s bizarre technorganic leg that had appeared upon his resurrection.***** Its origin was still unknown, with Cypher not even having recollection of losing his leg as part of his death. But to his shock, it began to glow once Xorn’s tendril accidentally connected with it. ***** [You did read X-Men Unlimited #50, right? Otherwise you’re probably confused!] “What’s happening?” Cypher said. “I feel…no, I hear something. Someone!” His technorganic leg began to elongate, growing thinner as it somehow stretched and wove its way up onto the platform. The different components of the appendage were sliding back and forth as it stretched, until a slot opened to reveal an eye. Then another with part of a mouth. Then a third slot with another eye. “10011011,” the mouth said in a screeching voice. “100111Friend! FriendDoug!” Cypher’s eyes went wide as his leg finally detached completely, leaving him to stumble onto the cold stone ground. But being up righted wasn’t what had started him; it was that he recognized the voice. “Warlock?” he whispered, then louder, “Warlock!” The body of his once deceased friend, an alien remnant of a technology-based lifeform and race called the Phalanx, miraculously reconstituted itself before their very eyes. Even the Timeshadow duplicates paused in their assault as the bizarre sight unfolded in front of them. “FriendDoug!” Warlock said as his black and yellow cybernetic body fully reformed. He stood near ten feet tall, with lanky arms and legs touching the ground to support himself. “And other FriendMutants. Where is this one? This one finds itself in danger. FriendDoug: is there danger?” Xorn’s eyes flashed. “Doug! We need to close the portal NOW!” Cypher tried to sit up, saying, “Warlock! How…why… I don’t know how you’re here right now, buddy, but I am really glad to see you. We’ll get this figured out, but right now, can you help?” Warlock twisted his neck 180 degrees, bending the cybernetic body easily, as if it were rubber. He looked up directly into Apocalypse’s face, mere inches from the tips of the villains fingers as they were pushing through the portal. The technorganic creature screeched and his eyes bugged out comically, like he was suddenly in a cartoon. “Nononono!” Warlock warbled. His neck twisted around again to look at Cypher. “FriendDoug will be killed! Again! Nonono! This one cannot let that happen.” A stream of blackened cybernetic material shot out of Warlock’s back, grabbing onto the rim of the portal and merging with it. The tar-like composition of his extended body congealed as it touched the blue and violet energy, sliding and bubbling as it combined. Within seconds the color had been completely taken over by Warlock’s outstretched body and the sparks resonating shifted from blue to gold. Apocalypse roared as his hand was forced back into the Limbo dimension. He clasped his smoking fingers and glared up at the portal, screaming his anger. He reached out again, but a surge of golden power from the Warlock-infused portal slapped him down. Morph, again back in humanoid form, helped Cypher up. Warlock extended his neck so that his crazed cybernetic face was close to the pair of them. “Oh,” Warlock said. “Hello FriendKevin! Forgive this one, as he did not see you at first. I am glad FriendKevin is still working with the X-Men!” “Hey, Warlock,” Morph said with a grunt. “Shut that thing down so we can get home and have a beer.” “FriendKevin is so funny! Do you not remember that this one cannot imbibe alcohol?” “He’s right, though, buddy,” Cypher said. “Can you help wrap this thing up for us? For me?” A look of sadness overcame Warlock’s features. “This one is sorry, FriendDoug. Truly this one is.” “What?” Cypher asked, but he already knew the answer. Warlock retracted his neck and twisted his body around so that it faced the portal. He began to stretch into the line connecting his back to the portal, thinning himself out. Just before he was completely merged with the rim of the portal, his face reformed, saying, “Goodbye, FriendDoug. Again. This one is glad that you are alive.” Now completely absorbed into the portal’s rim, Warlock’s body began to spin furiously. Golden energy crackled as Apocalypse screamed from the other side, but to no avail. He was forever trapped in whatever Limbo this dimension’s Shadow King had cast him into. The image of En Sabah Nur faded away into white light. “Warlock!” Cypher shouted. “It’s done, Doug,” Morph said. “He did it. We’re safe.” A wet thump from the other side of the platform caught their attention and they saw the last Timeshadow, the original, slump over dead. Daken stood over him, his claws retracting, panting from the exertion of taking out several dozen opponents in record time. Xorn pulled herself up onto the platform next to them. She placed a hand on Cypher’s shoulder, saying, “I’m sorry, Doug.” Cypher shook his head, rejecting the concept of what he had just seen. “No,” he said. “This isn’t right. How was he even here? None of this makes sense!” “Maybe it doesn’t have to,” Lorna said. She looked Doug in the eye. “Maybe we just have to accept his last gift to us. He saved us.” “I don’t think that was his last gift,” Daken said as he approached. “Look.” The portal had shifted again. What they had once seen Apocalypse trying to break free from an otherworldly prison, they now saw what looked like the front lawn of Xavier’s mansion. They were shocked for a moment, until the portal opened wider and they felt a cool breeze rush through. Cypher could even feel the heat of the sunlight from the other side hitting his face, vastly different from the cold, stone chamber they were standing in. Before they could say another word, the portal stretched out over all of them and took them all away. ##### THREE DAYS LATER “How are you holding up, Doug?” Cypher looked up from his book to see Alex Summers, Havok, walk into the medical bay. He didn’t feel much like talking, even if he was happy to be back in their home dimension. But he could tell from Alex’s body language that he wasn’t going to be able to avoid the conversation, so he slid a bookmark into place and set the volume down on his lap. It tapped against the top of his newly constructed metal leg. It was truly state of the art, designed by Forge himself, and built by Beast. But it wasn’t technorganic. It wasn’t any real kind of replacement for what he had actually lost. “Fine,” he replied. “I guess.” Which was true enough. The team had been in the basement floors of the mansion for the last few days, both recovering and working through their international concerns. It had taken the full weight of the X-Factor Sanction Enforcement agency to clear them of problems with the Canadian government. “I just got off the phone with Abigail Brand,” Alex said. He sat down on the medical bed next to Cypher. “The Mutant Response Team has been dissolved. But the good news is that Department H won’t be hunting you down anymore.” “That’s what it took to get them off our backs, huh?” Alex nodded. “Afraid so. No more team; no more charges. Honestly, I think it’s because Abigail agreed not to press their Professor Power connection any further.” Cypher nodded, but remained silent. He looked down at his book, not even really needing to read it since he could absorb most of the language just by touching it, but he enjoyed reading. He enjoyed the weight of the book in his hands. The feel and smell of the paper. “Not sure what to do with Daken,” Alex continued. “Or Morph, actually. He’s annoying as hell when he doesn’t have a mission to occupy him. I could let Madripor issue their warrants against Daken and extradite him. But that would probably just lead to a lot of dead people.” “What about Lorna?” Alex sighed. Xorn, the Lorna Summers from the same dimension they had just fled, hadn’t been to visit Cypher in the medical bay since his new prosthetic leg had been finished. “She’s gone,” Alex replied. “She left in the middle of the night and Cerebro can’t find her. No one can, not while she’s wearing her helmet. I think that’s how she wants it anyway. She’s been through a lot and nearly being used by Stryfe…well, she deserves some peace. So, I won’t be looking for her.” “So, what’s next?” Alex stood up. “That’s up to you, Doug. When we first started this whole adventure, I told you I would help get to the bottom of what happened to you. We have theories about the Resurrection Wave, and Beast now thinks that it just hit you differently because you had been buried with Warlock’s cremated body.”****** ****** [You’ll have to read the end of the classic X-Tinction Agenda storyline for that one!] “That’s why he was…a part of me?” “It’s possible. Look, Doug, I’m really sorry about everything that’s happened to you, but you have a chance at a fresh start. Again. Not many people get a second chance, and this is kind of your third. We’ll support you in whatever direction you decide to take things.” Cypher pulled in a deep breath and held it, then let it out slowly. The team was done. He was under no obligation to continue down the path that Charles Xavier had set for so many of them. He could literally do anything he wanted. So, what was it that he wanted the most? He smiled, thinking of all the times he had helped people. From the mutants under Mesmero’s control, to the unwitting science experiments being leveraged by Professor Power. “I have a proposition for you, Alex.” EN |