Cutter brought his hand down, a blade protruding from his palm. Banshee raised his own arm, taking the cut on his uniform instead. He grabbed Cutter’s hand and as the young mutant tried to strike with spikes protruding from the knuckles of his free hand, Banshee avoided that strike as well.

“Sorry laddie,” he said as he delivered a headbutt to Cutter. “I’ve had enough of that.”

He kicked Cutter in the chest, knocking him back and was about to finish up with a sonic scream. But as he opened his mouth, the moisture inside his throat rapidly evaporated, leaving him hoarse. Porous smiled at the effect his powers had on the X-Man.

“Think we’re gonna let some flatscan lapdogs tell us what to do?” asked Porous.

Forge slapped together the last bit of machinery on his gun and took aim. “Son, you don’t know who the hell you’re dealing with.” He pulled the trigger and Porous fell instantly from the blast. The moisture he had sucked out of the X-Men’s bodies rapidly returned to them. “I was doing this back when you were in diapers, kid.”

Dervish’s hands pulsed, the cyclonic kinetic energy housed in them building even more. She watched as a teleportation disc was formed right next to Magik. “I’ll have that thing spun around so much, you won’t know where you’re going!”

Magik raised the Soulsword and grinned. “Who said it was for me?”

“Huh?” Dervish looked up and saw another stepping disc and Shadowcat rapidly descended from it, her boot striking Dervish in the chin. In a swift move, Shadowcat had her katana drawn, slashing at Dervish, who was able to use her powers at close range to deflect the blows. Shadowcat thrusted forward with the blade and Dervish shut her eyes as it pierced her body. Then she realized she felt nothing.

Dervish looked down and saw the blade harmlessly sticking out of her body, still held by the X-Man. No wound, no blood, not even a scratch. “What the hell?”

“Just kidding,” said Shadowcat, removing the sword and then solidifying as her elbow shattered Dervish’s nose. A roundhouse kick followed to take the young female mutant down.

Cutter was the only one left and he found himself staring down Shiva. Neal Shaara held his hands clasped together with the index fingers pointing out, like a gun. He aimed at Cutter, burning plasma energy forming at his fingertips. Cutter had no way of looking into Neal’s eyes, no way of reading him through the red lenses of Shiva’s sunglasses.

“It’s over,” said Shiva. “Your friends are down and it’s now five against one. You can either surrender or I can fire a focused solar laser right through your head. I can promise you it’s hot enough to completely liquify your brain. So what’s it gonna be, kid?”

“Rather die than surrender to fascists like you X-Men,” said Cutter. “Go on, class warrior. Take your best shot!”

“Fine by me,” said Shiva and the laser built up even more power. Before he could fire it, Forge took aim with a non-lethal blaster and knocked Cutter clean out from behind. Forge walked over to the mutant and poked him with the tip of his gun.

“He’s down.” Forge looked at Shiva. “Nice bluff, kid. Despite his tough guy talk, looked like he was ready to piss himself. Gave me just the distraction I needed.”

“Who said I was bluffing?” asked Shiva.

“Come again?” asked Forge.

“You heard me, I said I wasn’t bluffing,” said Shiva. “The guy was a threat to his own kind. I was willing to do whatever was necessary.”

“That’s not how we operate,” said Shadowcat.

“Perhaps it’s something you should consider,” said Magik.

“We’ll save the ethical debate for another time,” said Banshee. “I’ve got a message from Peter. Looks like the action’s goin’ down.”

STATELESS

Part III

By Chris Munn, Hunter Lambright, and Dino Pollard

What had started as a peaceful gathering was quickly turning violent. Erg’s speech about class warfare had appealed to many in the crowd, stoking their own fears. And now, they were looking for someone to turn their anger on. “We’re not alone here,” he said. “Here, we’ve got people who wanna keep things as they are! They think everything’s fine!”

Erg pointed into the crowd, at the figures of Rogue and Colossus. “Look over there! Two of the X-Men! Foot soldiers of the flatscan elite! They live in their fancy mansion and run their overpriced private school. They’ve got friends in the Avengers and even Congress! Think these people wanna represent you when they’re livin’ fat off your backs?”

“Get ready, big guy,” said Rogue.

Colossus’ skin had already transformed into organic steel. He could feel the crowd closing in on them and he spun, his metal fist slamming against Litterbug’s head. He grabbed Litterbug by the mutant’s outer shell and pulled back for another strike, but Litterbug countered with a blow to Colossus’ abdomen.

“Not gonna be >hrk< that easy, X-Man!” Litterbug struck again and moved in to start pummeling the Russian mutant. “We’re >hrk< sick of you fascists!”

Colossus took the beatings, blow after blow pummeling his metal form. As Litterbug went for another strike, Colossus sidestepped and grabbed Litterbug by his outer shell. He used Litterbug as leverage to push himself up and then bring his elbow down on the Morlock’s head like a jackhammer.

Bliss’ tongue shot out of her mouth, her second head reaching towards Rogue. The X-Man removed her glove and gripped Bliss’ tongue, absorbing her ability. Bliss fell to the ground and Tar Baby tried to attack next. Rogue opened her mouth and replicated Bliss’ ability, a miniature head flying out attached to her tongue. Tar Baby tried to avoid the new ability, but the tongue wrapped around him and the head bit into his side, releasing the sedative Bliss secreted as well as triggering another power absorption. Rogue’s skin took on a tar-like substance and she used a combination of Tar Baby and Bliss’ abilities to try and do her best to keep the rest of the crowd at bay.

As Colossus finished off with Litterbug, he looked up after hearing the sound of an explosion. Rogue hovered above the ground, her attention also drawn. “Sounds like things are heatin’ up.”

The riot continued to explode out of control, with both those mutants who fell under the influence of Erg’s speech and those who were either human or human-tolerant mutants turning on each other. In the midst of the battle, a bright, blue light appeared and the crowd backed off. The light expanded into a large disc with five silhouettes hidden by its luminescence. As quickly as it had appeared, the light vanished, and the silhouettes stood revealed as the Astonishing X-Men.

“Looks like Peter wasn’t kidding when he said the shit hit the fan,” said Forge.

“Don’t think he used those words,” said Shadowcat.

“Sue me, I was being creative.”

“X-MEN!”

The team scrambled as Hemingway charged forward, his mass increasing during his approach. When he was within striking range, he threw his massive fist forward, the bone protrusion striking the spot where the X-Men had once been.

Eldritch energy coalesced around Magik’s fist, expanding into the form of her Soulsword. She jumped at Hemingway and swiped the blade across his back. He roared in pain but was otherwise undamaged. Magik landed on her feet and the sword crackled with mystic energy, her mystic armor beginning to appear around her body. Hemingway struck with one of his spikes, but Magik sliced it off with the Soulsword. As he looked at the stump in shock, Magik moved closer, her armored form capable of delivering a powerful uppercut that sent Hemingway flying back.

Vessel stalked through the crowd, grabbing the head of a human and twisting it so that the neck broke. He fed off the soul of the human, enhancing his own strength and size and he grinned at Banshee as he approached. Sean emitted a high-frequency pitch which carried him into the air to avoid Vessel’s blow. He opened his mouth wide, generating a powerful sonic boom that rocked not only Vessel back, but the other mutants who had been cheering him on.

Shadowcat phased through the elongated limbs a mutant resident had been attempting to strangle her with. Forge meanwhile stood nearby, a blaster in each hand and Shiva hovered in the air, trying to offer assistance where he could.

“This is getting insane,” said Shiva. “How could these people get riled up so fast?”

“They couldn’t,” said Shadowcat. “Not without some help.”

“You know something we don’t, Kitty?” asked Forge.

“Peter told me about the first time he went up against Gene Nation and gave me a pretty good run-down of them. One of them is Reverb, he can project his emotions into his environment. I think that’s what’s causing everyone to go crazy.”

“Okay, so how are we going to—ARGH!” Shiva’s back arched forward and he collapsed to the ground. Forge and Shadowcat were also similarly brought to their knees extremely quickly, their heads pounding with pain.

Shiva slowly looked up when he felt someone standing over and saw a former teammate staring down at him, grinning madly. “Ever?” he asked. “What are you doing?”

“Oh, I’m not Ever.” His voice was two in unison, one of them Ever’s the other belonging to someone else. “I’m just riding around in his meat suit for a bit.”

Magik appeared behind “Ever” and drove her Soulsword into him. Ever’s body collapsed, but the gelatinous form of Sack remained standing. Shiva got back to his feet and unleashed a burst of energy powerful enough to knock Sack out of the fight.

“What’s the word, lads?” asked Banshee, descending to the rest of the team.

“’Cat’s got a theory one of the Gene Nationals is psychically riling up the crowd,” said Forge.

“Reverb, I’d considered that as well,” said Banshee. “Kitty, can yeh find him?”

Shadowcat responded with a nod. “I’ll take care of it. It’s just a matter of weeding through the crowd.”

“I’ll try to help as well, I’ve gone up against him before,” said Banshee. “He’ll be somewhere safe, but still close by.”

“And the rest of us?” asked Forge.

“Keep doin’ what yeh’ve been doin’, try and rendezvous with Peter and Rogue.”

Erg stood back with a smile on his face and his arms crossed. He watched the chaos unfold around him with pleasure. This was the beginning of a new revolution. No more integration, no more high and mighty mutants telling them what to do. This was a new kind of revolution—class warfare had been raged on both humans and mutants at the top.

Erg failed to notice a figure approach in a heavy cloak until Masque had pounced on him, tackling him to the ground. “I’ve gotta thank you for paving the way for all this, Erg. Who would’ve thought a nobody like you could be so useful? But now, I’m going to take over your little revolution. It’s pretty obvious you don’t know what the hell you’re doing here.”

Masque reached a hand for Erg’s forehead, just above his eyepatch. The skin on Erg’s brow starting to droop and slack and Masque smiled as he did it. “What would happen if I welded that eye of yours shut, huh? Let’s see how tough you are with those powers when you’ve gotta punch through your own skin to use them!”

“Try again, moron,” said Erg as the electricity burst from his eye and wracked Masque’s body with convulsions. “The patch doesn’t keep anything in. Should’ve acted quicker instead of gloating.”

Erg kicked Masque’s unconscious body in the ribcage. “Really Masque, all this time trying to play your little games and it’s got you nowhere. What made you think this time would be any different?”

He spat on the Morlock’s body and turned away. “You always thought small, Masque. The world’s done with your kind of ideas. Time for something new and different.”

Reverb sat crouched in an alley near the center of the square, his hand pressed against the ground. He channeled his psychic energies into the ground, projecting feelings of fear and anger onto the crowd and the general area. If he had a mouth, he would have smiled at the way he was able to so easily manipulate these people against each other.

A high-pitched wail caused Reverb to fall back and cover his ears. Banshee descended from the air and Reverb turned to run but stopped when he saw the form of Shadowcat rise from the ground in front of him.

“Evenin’ Reverb, been an age, me boyo,” said Banshee.

“You don’t understand! This isn’t my idea, it was all Erg’s!” said Reverb.

“Right, Erg forced yeh to use your powers an’ drive a crowd to madness. It was all against your will.”

“Please you have to—”

Shadowcat executed a roundhouse kick to the back of Reverb’s head, causing him to slump forward and fall into Sean’s arms. “Oh shut up already,” she said.

Erg stood erect, watching as the crowd appeared to start calming their rage. “No, no, this isn’t right! You’ve got to keep it up! You’ve got to keep fighting! This is just the beginning! We’re on the verge of a revolution!”

A bone dagger flew past Erg’s ear. He jumped to the defensive, his eye crackling with energy. Marrow appeared from the darkness, holding a bone dagger in each hand. Erg’s eyes widened in shock.

“Marrow? I thought you were dead.”

“I got better,” said Marrow. “So, you’re trying to start a little revolution here, huh? A new kind of revolution, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right. We’re—UGH!”

Erg winced as a razor-sharp bone dagger thrown by Marrow became lodged in his shoulder. “Don’t interrupt,” she said. “What you’re doing, you’re doing with a group Icreated. You’re stealin’ somethin’ that belonged to me an’ makin’ it your own. What, did y’think you were the first one who thought up some sort of class uprisin’?”

“What do you know about it?” asked Erg. “What do you know about anything? You abandoned your people so you could live in a fancy mansion with the rest of the X-Men!”

“You had your chance to join ’em an’ you said no, so don’t gimme that crap,” said Marrow. “But if you think I’m gonna stand by an’ let you take what’s mine, you got a lotto learn!”

Erg unleashed an energy blast which Marrow nimbly dodged. She threw another bone dagger in the process, burying it in Erg’s thigh. Marrow tackled him, pinning him face-down and reached behind her back. She pulled out another bone shard and held it to his throat.

An energy blast knocked her from Erg’s back and she felt burns on her body. Shiva hovered a few feet away, keeping his hands trained on her. Before Erg could get up, Rogue pinned him down again, holding his head on the ground. “You’ve had a busy day, sugah. Time to rest up.”

“Marrow, wish I could say it’s good to see you,” said Shadowcat.

“You wanna be next, Kitty-cat?” asked Marrow.

“I’d say we’ve all had our fair share of excitement today,” said Banshee, stepping up to Marrow. “Are yeh gonna behave so we can chat, Sarah?”

“You got two minutes, Irish. Make ’em good.”

“We appreciate yeh lending a hand with Erg here. But killing him won’t solve a thing.”

“Won’t know ’til you’ve tried,” she said.

“He’s coming back with us. An’ we’d like t’ know more about why you’re back as well,” said Banshee.

“Last thing I remember was fightin’ for my life, then wakin’ up in the snow. That’s all yer gonna get outta me. And I’m not goin’ anywhere with you. Neither are these posers.”

“She’s right.”

Sean looked over his shoulder and saw Ever approaching, leaning on Colossus for support. “Gene Nation is our responsibility. Mine and Marrow’s. It’s up to us to fix the damage that was done here.”

“Not sure if that’s such a good idea, boyo,” said Banshee.

“It’s not your call, sir,” said Ever. “It’s mine. I think we can make things right here. If Marrow’s willing to work with me.”

“It beats goin’ back with the spandex crew,” said Marrow.

“Fine,” said Sean. “But we’ll be keepin’ an eye on yeh, lass.”

“Goes both ways, Irish,” said Marrow. “You X-types step outta line, stop doin’ the job you’re supposed to be doin’, then I’ll be back.”

Later

Banshee stood from a rooftop, overlooking the clean-up of the city square. Many of the people who fell under Reverb’s thrall had now attempted to make amends for what they had done. Erg and the rest of Gene Nation had been rounded up. Masque, however, had gotten away after Marrow made her grand entrance.

But what disturbed him the most was Marrow’s return. His former students, then Magik, now her. More and more dead mutants were popping up out of the woodwork and it made Sean curious as to what was behind it. He didn’t believe in coincidences.

“Enjoying the view?” asked Shiva, descending from the air and landing at Sean’s side.

“We got lucky today,” said Sean. “This could’ve been much worse. Even without Reverb, Erg was pretty convincing to a lot of people. Alex’s team has everyone—mutants and humans—riled up. The X-Corps fiasco didn’t help. The X-Men—the real X-Men—we’ve been too complacent lately. We need t’ take action.”

“I’m going to start doing just that—by staying here,” said Neal.

Sean looked to his new charge. “What? But why?”

“Ever since my parents exiled me, I’ve put my life on hold. Trying to find other things to distract me, prevent me from dealing with things,” said Neal. “I was a cop in India and I want to get back to that. I’ve already spoken with the police department here in Valle Soleada and they said they’d love to have me stay on with them. And besides, Ever could use a hand keeping an eye on Marrow.”

“I’m sorry to see yeh go, lad. You’ve been a great asset to the team,” said Sean. “But I can tell they’ll have their work cut out for them in here. And they could use a man like you.”

The prison transport left, with power dampening collars clamped on the necks of the members of Gene Nation. Once the doors had closed on the transport to take them to a superhuman penitentiary, Tar Baby turned to Erg.

“So what’s next, boss?” he asked.

“It ain’t over,” said Erg. “That bitch made me look like an idiot. And she hasn’t heard the last of the real Gene Nation.”

NEXT: SuperNova Remnant