Muir Isle

The blurred face of a young woman with red hair was all Sean Cassidy could make out as someone gently shook him awake. He could hear a voice telling him to open his eyes and he said the first name he paired with that image.

“Terry…?”

“Thanks for thinking I look the same age as her.”

The woman’s face came into focus and Banshee found himself staring at Jean Grey-Summers. She was dressed in a red and gold outfit which included the silhouette of her namesake, the Phoenix. Jean cast her gaze to her husband, Cyclops.

“He’s coming around, Scott.”

Scott Summers wore a dark blue uniform lined with gold, covered from head to toe save for his mouth and chin. Even though he no longer needed it to hold back the concussive bursts of energy he could fire from his eyes, he still wore the silver visor with a single, ruby quartz lens. He stood over Rogue, who was also beginning to regain consciousness. Colossus had already woken up and was busy tending to his sister, Illyana, as well as his former lover, Kitty Pryde.

“Sean, do you remember what happened?” asked Jean.

He nodded. “Aye. We were bringin’ Nova here when we were attacked.”

“Who attacked you?” asked Jean.

“Those same creatures that attacked the Institute before you left,” said Colossus.

“Nova said they were sent by Amanda Mueller. Maybe one defeat wasn’t enough to get her to give up,” said Cyclops.

“Mueller’s dead. So’s her daughter,” said Banshee.

“You shut down Black Womb?” asked Cyclops.

“Not the X-Men, but Sean was involved. As was Warren’s X-Corps operation,” said Colossus.

“Would have been nice to be kept in the loop with that,” said Cyclops.

“We got held up, sorry. Didn’t really have much time t’ make a phone call,” said Banshee.

“Not that I’m ungrateful or anythin’ like that, but what’re ya’ll doin’ here?” asked Rogue. “Hank want a Plan B in case somethin’ like this happened?”

“I sensed something involving Nova and brought Scott with,” said Jean.

“So that helmet didn’t stop her powers,” said Shadowcat.

“It wasn’t her power I sensed, it was something else,” said Jean.

“My Soulsword sensed something similar,” said Magik. “She’s bonded with something primal. And very powerful.”

“Jean, can yeh shed any light on that?” asked Banshee.

The Phoenix shook her head. “All I know is Cassandra poses a danger to herself and everyone around her. Maybe even everyone on the whole planet if what I sensed is as powerful as I think.”

“There’s a Cerebra unit in the Blackbird, we should be able to use it to—” began Cyclops.

“Save your breath, we were shot down,” said Magik.

Rogue shrugged. “Don’t suppose anyone saw which way she went?”

“No need,” said Phoenix, her eyes already beginning to burn with fiery energy. “I can feel her power.”

SUPERNOVA REMNANT

Part III

By Chris Munn, Hunter Lambright, and Dino Pollard

The Xavier Institute

Hank McCoy sat in his office, adjusting his glasses as he scanned over the documents that had arrived. The story he gave the rest of the team was that Cecilia Reyes-McCoy, his wife, had gone to visit her mother. In truth, she was at the Baxter Building, undergoing tests by Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four.

Included in this packet from the Baxter Building were the results of the test as well as a hand-written note from Reed. It was Hank’s hope that Reed would be able to succeed where conventional medicine had failed. Cecilia had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Most of the tumor was removed and she went into remission.

But recently, the cancer came back. With a vengeance. And modern medicine failed to produce any concrete results. Hank just started to read through the test results conducted by Reed when there came a knock at the door.

He quickly gathered the documents back together, stuffing them into his desk drawer. “Come in.”

Forge entered the room. Behind him was a man all dressed in white, including a matching lab coat, fedora hat and surgical mask. Hank hopped over his desk and landed in front of the new arrival. He offered his large paw-like hand.

“James Bradley, I presume. My name is Hank McCoy, the Headmaster here at the Xavier Institute.”

“You can call me Doctor Nemesis, McCoy,” said the new arrival, not even bothering to acknowledge Hank’s offer of handshake.

“Yes, well…” Hank nervously flexed his paw before using it to straighten the gold tie that complimented his dark blue suit. “I’m very pleased you accepted my invitation to join the staff here at the Institute.”

“I don’t work for you, McCoy. I came because of an intriguing situation you’ve found yourselves in, and your Indian friend—”

“Native American,” corrected Forge. “Cheyenne to be exact.”

“As if I give a damn,” said Doctor Nemesis. “Now, shall we get down to it?”

“Indeed,” said Hank. He reached over to his desk and picked up a tablet device. After entering a few commands, he brought up a map of the Institute and showed it to Nemesis and Forge. Hank pointed to a highlighted portion in one of the sub-levels. “Here is where your station will be. And up here…” He moved to another highlighted portion on the second floor of the mansion. “…is where you’ll be sleeping. Forge can show you to both.”

Nemesis nodded. “Let’s start with the lab.”

Black Womb

“Hurry up, Harkins,” said Cassandra, standing in the midst of a swirl of psionic energy that whipped around the room. Black Womb technicians hustled to try and get the proper equipment in place, surrounding her with machinery to control the vast power she struggled to hold at bay. “The Hecatomb is struggling against my control.”

Harkins adjusted his glasses, staring in disbelief at the energy output readings on the computer. “This is so far beyond the energy levels of the Mummudrai.”

“The Hecatomb was created to destroy Mummudrai, it feeds on them. It expelled Urizen from my mind,” said Cassandra. Her face tightened as she strained against the power, blood beginning to seep from her nostrils. “But now, the Hecatomb is hungry again and I’m not sure how long I can hold it back.”

Harkins focused on the machines. “With these, we can hopefully draw the creature out, capture it. A way of tethering the beast, so to speak.” He turned to the technicians. “I need full power!”

The technicians increased the levels and the lights in the facility began to dim. The Hecatomb slowly began to be drawn into the machines, its form starting to dissipate. Harkins kept his eyes on the energy levels, a smile spreading over his face.

“It’s working!”

Cassandra’s body began to convulse. She shut her eyes as she strained, wrapping her arms around her chest to try and hold herself steady, even as she hovered in mid-air. When she opened her eyes again, they were practically bursting with energy and the Hecatomb’s signature reformed around her. She screamed out with the sound of trillions of voices, shouting “NO!”

Panels blew off consoles as sparks flew. The energy Black Womb’s machines had absorbed from the Hecatomb now seeped back out, reforming around Cassandra’s figure. The ceiling of the facility burst open as the Hecatomb took a few menacing steps towards the terrified technicians. Psionic tentacles flew from her again, burrowing into the minds of the technicians.

The Hecatomb expanded, with Cassandra still serving as its nucleus. It began sucking people and objects inside, including Harkins, and they whipped around in a wide arc, circling Cassandra.

Glowing discs opened around the Hecatomb, each one revealing one of the X-Men. Upon witnessing Cassandra in the center, Colossus wasted no time. His skin transmuted into organic steel and he tore one of the consoles from the ground, throwing it towards Cassandra. The debris simply became caught up in the wake and one of the Hecatomb’s tentacles reached out towards his head. Once slithering inside, Colossus’ eyes went blank and he became a pawn to the Hecatomb’s power. He charged towards the X-Men, with Magik stepping forward. As he brought his fists down, she deflected with her sword.

“If you can hear me in there, Piotr, I hope you won’t hold this against me,” she said. “But in my defense, you are trying to kill us!”

Colossus offered no response, just attempted another strike. Magik vanished inside a stepping disc and reappeared behind him, running him through with her Soulsword. It caused no physical damage, but it was powerful enough to break the Hecatomb’s control over him. He nearly collapsed to the ground, but Rogue got to his side to steady him. He had returned to his human form and looked at his sister with a smile. “Thank you, Snowflake.”

“Don’t mention it,” said Magik. “And don’t call me that again.”

The sorceress turned her attention back to the Hecatomb as Colossus and Rogue exchanged glances. “Somethin’s up her butt,” said the Southern belle.

Shadowcat dove into the Hecatomb, going intangible as she did so. It allowed her to move through the air as if she were swimming, preventing her from either getting swept up and stopping the debris from harming her. Her goal was the center of the creature, where Cassandra hovered. A claw extended from each of the gauntlets hidden beneath the sleeves of her jacket.

“This is for Logan, you bitch!”

She lunged forward, going tangible as she brought both claws towards Cassandra. But then she froze in the middle of it, staring into the inhuman eyes of the thing that possessed the frail old woman. Cassandra slightly cocked her head to the side, a curious look on her face.

The Hecatomb said, “you have a slippery mind, little kitty-cat. But do not think you are beyond our grasp as well. We are the Hecatomb, and we like your anger. It will serve us well.”

Cassandra raised her hand, setting the point of her long, crimson-painted fingernail against Shadowcat’s forehead. That finger then began to enter Kitty’s head, leaving no entrance wound but a bright light instead. Kitty could feel the Hecatomb seeping into her mind and she screamed.

“KATYA!” Colossus tried to lunge towards the Hecatomb, despite still being in human form. But Rogue held him back.

“You crazy or somethin’, no way you’re gonna stand a chance ‘gainst that thing!” she said.

“What do you suggest, simply stand still and wait for it to kill us?” asked Colossus.

“Nah, I got my own ways.” Rogue stepped away from her teammate and flew towards the Hecatomb. As she did, she removed her gloves, diving right into it. She pulled Shadowcat away and grabbed Cassandra’s wrist. This triggered Rogue’s power to absorb the traits of anyone she came into direct physical contact with.

Rogue’s mind became instantly flooded with the memories of trillions. She saw the Hecatomb tear its way across the entire galaxy, absorbing entire worlds into its collective mind. Yet she felt its insatiable hunger as well, always seeking out more and more minds to absorb into itself. Feeding on them but never truly eliminating them. Each one lived on inside the Hecatomb, adding to its ever-growing stable of power.

It was only the briefest of contact and Rogue only experienced a small fraction of the memories and power the Hecatomb possessed. But it was enough to completely overload her and she shot out from the Hecatomb like a rocket, striking the far wall.

Cyclops and Banshee stood together, combining their respective optic blasts and sonic scream in tandem to try and strike at Cassandra. But their efforts seemed to be completely wasted on the creature. Cassandra was the center of it, but there was apparently no way to separate her from the beast.

“Any idea how we can beat this thing?” asked Banshee.

“Sorry, I don’t think this kind of thing was covered in the X-Men Field Leader Manual,” said Cyclops.

“There’s a manual? Remind me t’ slap Henry later for not givin’ me a copy of me own,” said Banshee.

“Assuming there is a later,” said Cyclops. “I think the best we can do is retreat, assemble some back-up, and try to figure out what exactly it is we’re dealing with.”

“Aye, I’m with yeh on that. So the question now becomes, just how’re we gonna convince this beastie t’ let us out of here alive?”

“You’re the leader, you tell me,” said Cyclops. A chunk of debris shot out towards them and Cyclops opened the lens of his visor wide to blast it up into the atmosphere.

“Don’t take offense, boyo, but I think I preferred it when yeh were barkin’ orders instead of makin’ jokes,” said Banshee.

Scott just smiled before calling out to his wife. “Jean, we need to retreat! Think you can encase us in a TK field long enough for Illyana to teleport us out?”

Jean simply stood there, her head hanging low. She seemed to be in a trance of some sort. Cyclops went over to her, shaking her slightly. “Jean, can you hear me? What’s going on?”

Her head snapped to attention and when she opened her eyes, they burned with the flames of creation. She spread out her arms as she rose above the ground, flames surrounding her body.

“We’re not leaving. Not before we finish what we came to do.”

“Jean, are yeh nuts?” asked Banshee. “There’s no way we can—”

“That’s what you think,” she said and flew towards the Hecatomb. Cassandra just watched her intently, her lips forming into a smirk of superiority.

“You think you can challenge us? You are not beyond our grasp either. You pretend at being a god, but you are nothing compared to our power.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” said the Phoenix. “The Phoenix exists to create and destroy, a symbol of rebirth. It burns away what doesn’t work, what is out of place. And that includes you.”

“Try it, little firebird.”

“If you insist,” said the Phoenix.

The room brightened as the Phoenix’s wings extended from Jean’s arms. They wrapped around the Hecatomb and the screech of a bird of prey rang out. The Hecatomb cried with the voices of trillions, screaming in agonizing pain as it began to burn away into the ether.

“You will not succeed! She will die, too! You cannot save this one!”

“It’s a risk I have to take,” said the Phoenix.

The Phoenix triggered a massive explosion of psionic flames that simply passed harmlessly over everyone gathered. The only effect it had on them was briefly blinding them. Once their eyes refocused, they saw the Phoenix hovering alone in the center of the room. There was no sign of either Cassandra Nova or Adam Harkins.

Jean lowered to the ground but once her feet touched, the Phoenix effect vanished and she stumbled, nearly collapsing. Cyclops and Banshee were there to steady her and she reached a hand to her temple as if she were suffering from a massive headache.

“Maybe we should just farm out missions to yeh more often, lass,” said Banshee.

“I don’t think I’ve got something like that in me again,” said Jean.

“It was some display of power,” said Magik. “Makes someone suspicious given your past.”

“Watch your mouth!” barked Cyclops.

“Helluva way t’ thank someone f’r savin’ your life,” said Rogue.

“Quiet, all of you,” said Colossus. He had been inspecting the room since the light cleared. “There’s no sign of Cassandra. What happened to her?”

“Probably burned up along with the Hecatomb,” said Shadowcat. “And good riddance at that.” She looked down at her claws. “Only regret is I didn’t stick the knife in myself.”

“There was someone else here, too,” said Magik. “A man, he was trapped inside the Hecatomb with Cassandra.”

“I saw him, too,” said Jean. “I sensed something from him…he seemed to have a lot of knowledge of Black Womb.”

“Maybe he was Mueller’s successor,” said Banshee.

“So this mean Black Womb’s shut down, too?” asked Rogue.

“We thought they were before, but apparently we were wrong,” said Cyclops. “I’m not sure how long it’ll take before we’re able to shut all of their operations down. Or exactly how quickly it is before they choose a new successor.”

The Xavier Institute
Sub-Levels

Several overhead ceiling lights turned on all at once with a gentle hum. The laboratory was large, with several computers, a workbench against one wall beneath tools that were both of this world and alien, powerful microscopes, chemicals, just about everything one would need.

Forge led Doctor Nemesis inside the room, gesturing towards it. “Here’s where you’ll be working. I trust this should be sufficient?”

Doctor Nemesis idly wandered around the lab, his hands linked behind his back. He nodded appreciatively at the various equipment he found. “This should do.”

“Good,” said Forge. “If you like, I can show you to your quarters next.”

“If it’s all the same, I’m the sort of man who likes to dive right into things,” said Doctor Nemesis. “There’s quite a lot of work to do and I’d prefer to get started immediately.”

Forge nodded. “I’m the same way myself. My workshop is just down the hall and around the corner, I’ll be in there if you need anything.”

“Thank you.”

Doctor Nemesis waited until Forge left the room. He then paused for another few moments. He had kept track of Forge’s strolling speed and mentally calculated just how long it would take the Maker to get out of sight. Once the requisite amount of time passed, Doctor Nemesis left his lab.

When McCoy showed him the map of the Institute, Nemesis quickly committed everything to memory. Including the detention area. He made his way there now, going down to the lowest sub-level and entering a corridor full of empty cells. Only one was occupied.

“Raven Darkholme,” said Nemesis, rapping on the unbreakable glass.

Mystique looked up from her book and eyed the man curiously. “And who are you?”

“I’m a very important man, that’s who,” he said. “In fact, I’d say it’d be in the best interests of your health if you would answer all my questions with nothing less than one hundred per cent truthfulness.”

“Questions about what?” asked Mystique.

“Let’s start with a simple one,” said Nemesis. “What exactly did Irene Adler tell you about the mutant afterlife?”

War Room

Hank sat at the round table with Sean, Scott and Jean. They had just finished recounting the events involving Cassandra and Black Womb. Hank seemed visibly distressed by the news and remained silent for a few moments.

“That’s a shame,” he finally said.

“Black Womb’s been crippled, a potential threat has been eliminated, and we saved the world,” said Scott. “I don’t think we share the same definition of the word ‘shame,’ Hank.”

“I believed Cassandra,” said Hank. “I believed she truly did mean to reform. And from what little we know of this Hecatomb creature, perhaps it had been controlling her when she first attacked us just as it had been doing so now.”

“I don’t think so,” said Jean. “There was a different presence to Cassandra this time around compared to last. But I do agree there’s more to her rampage than we understand.”

“I’m more curious about why we weren’t told about what happened with the X-Corps, or why you didn’t let us know Cassandra was being relocated to Muir in the first place,” said Scott. “We could have avoided a lot of trouble by keeping her locked up in the Z’Noxx Chamber.”

“With all due respect, yeh weren’t here to object, Scotty,” said Sean.

“That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be consulted. Cassandra damaged us more than anyone ever has. We had a right to know what was going—”

“I made a call, Scott. I felt after Black Womb attacked the Institute once to get to Cassandra, there was too great a risk of that happening again.” Hank clasped his paws together. “I understand this may be difficult for you since you’re used to being in charge, but I’m the Headmaster now. You gave me that responsibility, remember? And I will do what I feel is best for this school and these students. If I have to ask your approval every time I make a decision, why did you appoint me in the first place? And for the record, the phone works both ways.”

Scott nodded in understanding. “I’m sorry, you’re right. I overreacted.”

“It’s okay,” said Hank. “I’m sure you have a lot on your own plate at the moment. It can’t be a picnic, running a country.”

“I think, at least temporarily, Scott and I should stay here,” said Jean.

“Are you sure?” asked Scott. “But with everything back in Genosha…”

“I’m sure,” said Jean. “I’m getting the sense our presence will be needed here, very soon.”

“Of course, I’d be glad to have you back,” said Hank.

“Not completely,” said Scott. “Consider this a visit. We’re not ready to become full members of the team again and I definitely have no interest taking my old job back, either as leader or as Headmaster.”

“Think I speak for all of us when I say we’d be happy to have yeh,” said Banshee.

Morocco
A Few Weeks Later

A tourist wandered through the open-air market, wearing a summer business suit and a wide-brimmed hat. She glanced through the various stands, until she came to an intersection and then she turned. Entering one of the cafés, she took a seat. A few moments later, an Arab man came to meet her. He took a seat across. She had never seen him before, but she still recognized him nonetheless.

“I have to admit, I was suspicious when I received your message,” said the man. “Cassandra.”

She removed her hat, revealing a completely bald head. “I thought it best we meet again where we first did, many years ago. It was because of you that I learned to develop my powers. But you left me before I could learn everything, before I could dominate Urizen.”

“I apologize for that,” he said. “I found myself imprisoned. It was only recently I managed to secure my release. But I sense you are different. No longer the rage-driven creature you once were.”

“I’ve discovered a balance in my life and for once, I’m in full control of my emotions and my powers,” said Cassandra. “How about you, Amahl?”

Amahl Farouk simply smiled. “Oh trust me, my dear. I am always in control.”

NEXT: X, Lies & Videotape