SCIENCE & PSIONEX

Part I: The New Kids

By Chris Munn

The grandfather clock in the foyer of Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters chimed twice, signaling that 2 a.m. had arrived. No one was awake to hear the chimes, however, as the students of the school had long fallen asleep. Therefore, no one noticed the blur of a person coming from the tree line surrounding the facility.

The small figure paused at the front door long enough to swipe his arm, and in a fluid motion the door fell, cut from its hinges. The young man was already at the end of the hall before the door hit the ground.

Clarice Ferguson sat up from her bed, awakened by the large thud that rang through the halls. ‘Probably just Jubes tripping over something,’ she thought to herself as she got out of bed. Walking through the halls of the school, she felt the urge for ice cream, and knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep until she got it. She reached the kitchen and turned on the light, making her way to the freezer.

“Wanna dance, pinky chica?” a voice sang out from behind her. Not recognizing the voice, she spun and launched an energy shaft, but caught only the sight of a blue and silver blur moving around her. She grabbed her arm in pain as the ice cream bucket fell from her grasp. Blood ran from the cuts that appeared on her skin, shocking her into being fully awake.

She teleported herself out of the kitchen and into the hallway, hoping to distance herself from the intruder. Another rapid slash raked across her back, however, signaling that her attacker had anticipated her move. Her vision began to cloud over and she found her movements getting sluggish.

“What’s happening?” she muttered as she fell to her knees. She looked up to see a small man in a silver-blue body suit standing before her. Blades were protruding from his forearms, blood dripping from them.

“It’s all relative, baby,” the young man stated as he placed an uppercut to her jaw, knocking her unconscious.

Jonothon Starsmore was an insomniac, unable to sleep as a result of his mutant abilities. Obviously, the lack of a face and a gaping hole in one’s body had made it uncomfortable to rest, even though his body was now healed of his scars. He sat on his bed with his back against the wall, thinking about the events of the past few weeks. He still felt bad for what had happened between him and Paige, but was saddened more by the departure of his best friend. Angelo didn’t even say goodbye to him, and Jono’s heart hoped that when his friend returned the wounds of the past would be healed. Unbeknownst to Chamber, however, was a black mist seeping into his room from underneath his door.

The crashing sound of the front door snapped Jono out of his deep thoughts, and he sprang from his bed within moments. He opened the bedroom door, and was surprised to find himself engulfed in a black fog that made visibility impossible.

‘Bloody hell,’ he thought to himself, ‘the school is on fire!’ Those thoughts ended abruptly, however, when he spotted a yellow faceplate peering at him through the fog.

{Miss Frost!} he screamed telepathically, {there’s someone in the house!} The warning came too late, unfortunately, as the black mist completely filled up his room. He attempted to fight his way through it, focusing on the faceplate that stared menacingly at him. His vision soon caught sight of another figure in the fog, and he was startled to find that it belonged to Gayle Edgerton.

“You destroyed my life, Jono,” she said eerily, “how can you live with yourself knowing that?”

“Gayle,” he said as a wave of depression and hopelessness flowed through him, “I didn’t mean to.” Chamber fell to his knees, weeping aloud as the door to his bedroom slowly closed shut.

Paige Guthrie shot into a sitting position, her sleep interrupted by a stabbing pain in her gut. The pain was so intense that tears welled up in her eyes, and she fought to keep herself from screaming. Managing to make her way to her bedroom door, the pain grew until she could no longer hold back her cry of agony.

She threw open the door in a fit of desperation, only to find herself confronted by a strange man. His jagged, broken body looked as if it was made of glass, and she could see straight through him to the wall behind.

“Hurts, doesn’t it?” he said with icy voice, “Having your insides dance to my metabolic abilities isn’t pleasant, I’d imagine.”

“Get outta mah house,” she said weakly, attempting to employ her power by shedding to a new body. The clear man smiled, as Husk realized that the body underneath was exactly the same as the one she shed.

Deciding that the stranger must be screwing with her powers, she took the initiative and threw a punch at his crystalline face. To her surprise, her momentum carried her through his intangible body, causing her to fall to the floor behind him. He turned and grabbed her by her hair, slamming her face into the floor.

“Stupid hick,” he said as he lifted her by her hair, checking to make sure she was unconscious.

Everett Thomas was determined to bulk up, at any cost. With his mutant ability to mimic the gifts of any mutant in his vicinity, he wasn’t determined because of lack of power. What would happen if he were in a situation alone, where there were no mutants to link to? That was his reasoning for lifting weights in his room at 2 a.m., but more importantly the act helped him to snap his thoughts into focus.

It had been months since he’d taken the life of the woman he loved, the ancient girl named Gaia. He had only recently returned to the school after a leave of absence, her death weighing heavily on his soul. Upon his return, however, the one man he looked to for guidance decided to leave. Sean Cassidy, the former headmaster of Xavier’s School, had been gone for about a week to enjoy his new engagement to Moira MacTaggert. Everett couldn’t help but feel deserted, even if he was happy for the couple.

He sat the weight bar on its stand upon hearing the crash of the front door. He left his room and wandered down the hall, wondering what could have made such a noise. As he turned the corner, he saw a young woman standing a few feet away from him. Her black hair hung to her shoulders, and she was covered in a purple fishnet outfit that showcased her voluptuous body.

“Who are you? Why are you in our house?” Everett asked sternly as he made his way down the hall, tense and not knowing what to expect from the strange girl. She smiled coyly and raised her arm, releasing an energy whip from her wrist that crackled in the dark hall. Everett stopped his approach, but not before the girl’s whip was wrapped around him, trapping his arms against his sides.

“Oh, baby,” she moaned as she pulled Everett toward her, “such a strong boy.” She brought him up to her face and kissed him passionately on the lips, sending a surge of energy through his body. The sensation was euphoric, stunning Synch with waves of unbridled pleasure. Eventually, his body could take no more and he slipped into unconsciousness.

“Was it good for you?” she asked as the whip dematerialized, letting him fall to the floor.

The young Algerian girl named Monet St. Croix was not in a pleasant mood. In the past month she had discovered not only that her powers were completely different than what she believed them to be, but that her boyfriend Alex was dying from radiation poisoning as a result of his powers. Alex’s discovery had caused him to leave the school… and to leave her all alone. His departure had caused the bitterness to dam up inside her, reverting her back to the ‘ice-cold bitch’ that everyone thought she was upon meeting her. Alex had been her contact to the world, and without him she felt lost. Atop of all these emotions, someone had forced her out of slumber by making a loud noise.

She stormed out of her room, determined to make sure the culprit regretted disturbing her sleep. She entered the foyer and ran straight into one of her teammates.

“Why don’t ya watch where you’re going?” Jubilee cried out as Monet helped her off the floor.

“Shut up, Jubilation,” Monet stated coldly. She pointed behind Jubilee, toward an odd-looking man with long, dirty, blonde hair. His clothes were ragged, and his glasses only had one lens, which covered the glazed expression on his face.

Monet activated her telepathic abilities, in an attempt to scan the stranger’s thoughts. Her eyes shot open suddenly, causing her to recoil back in terror. With a fluid motion, she grabbed Jubilee by her nightshirt and lifted her into the air.

“Whoa!” Jubilee yelled.

“It’s for your safety!” Monet yelled as she hurled Jubilee through the air and out a window. Monet backed away from the stranger, as a grim smile crept over his face. Monet fell with her back against the wall, a scream leaving her mouth until her voice trailed off into nothing.

“What, exactly, did you do to her?” the small man with the wrist blades asked as he and the rest of his compatriots gathered around Monet. Her eyes were open, but it was obvious that she was in no capacity to struggle.

“I simply convinced her that she was the approximate age of one0hundred and three, senility claiming her and transforming her into a vegetable in a matter of moments. It’s an equation I had been wanting to try for a while,” he replied in a steady manner.

“Gather ’em up,” the transparent man said, “quicker we’re outta here, the better.”

{Get up.}

Jubilee’s eyes fluttered as she slowly regained consciousness. She was lying in a bush on the outskirts of the school’s landscape, her resulting destination at Monet’s hand.

{Get up, Jubilee.}

The young girl fought her way out of the massive bush, eventually landing on her side against the wet grass. She looked forward to see two white heel-toed shoes standing in front of her.

“Where were you?” Lee asked as she stood, facing Emma Frost, her headmistress.

“The others are gone, and I was… preoccupied,” she replied sternly.

“The others are GONE?” Jubilee asked in surprise. “How can the whole team just disappear?” she questioned as she made a poofing gesture with her hands.

“Calm yourself,” Emma responded as her blonde hair blew in the wind, “I know where they’ve been taken. One of the perks of being a telepath.”

“Well that’s good,” Jubilee stated as she brushed leaves off of her nightshirt, “so get on the horn to the X-Men and let them go bust some chops.”

“Afraid I can’t do that,” Emma replied with a smirk, “we’re going to have to save them ourselves.”

“Where am I?” a groggy Blink asked as she fought her way back to consciousness. She raised her head, realizing that she was shackled to a wall by large gauntlets on her hands and feet.

“Welcome to the waking world,” Monet responded. She was shackled along with Blink, as were the rest of Generation X in – of all ways – alphabetical order by their codenames. They had been dressed in their uniforms, obviously while they had been knocked out.

“Indeed!” a voice came from in front of them. A man in a lab coat stood, with the infiltrators that attacked the school placed behind him. “My name is Walter Rosen, and now that all of you are awake I’d like to welcome you to the facilities of Gene Tech.”

“What the hell do you want with us?” Synch asked defiantly.

“I’m getting to that,” Rosen responded with a stammer, “but first I’d like to formally introduce you to the people that brought you here. Mutants, meet Psionex!” he said while pointing to the fierce looking ensemble flanking him.

“First up is Impulse,” he stated about the short man with the wrist blades, “who is able to react at the speed of thought to any situation.”

“This is Pretty Persuasion,” he continued as the exotically dressed girl winked at the mutants, “who is able to enhance the pleasure center of one’s brain through her psionic whips.”

“Next is Mathemaniac,” he said about the strange man with glasses, “who, for lack of a better explanation, is a math-telepath… able to psionically influence others through complex computations.”

“Ms. Guthrie,” Rosen said, “I apologize for the brutality of Coronary.” He pointed to the crystalline figure; “He has the ability to control not only his metabolic conditions, but those of others as well.”

“Finally,” he stated as he introduced the swirling mist form that had previously engulfed Chamber, whose only form of coherence was the gold mask that adorned her face, “we come to Asylum, whose Darkforce ability turns ones fears and inner lies against them.”

“Okay braniac,” Monet chimed in, “what does all this have to do with us?”

Rosen turned away from his prisoners and motioned Psionex away, closing the door behind them and leaving him alone with Generation X.

“It’s really simple, actually,” he responded to Monet’s inquiry. “Psionex, though extremely powerful, are not the most stable individuals in the world. They were created in hopes of giving Gene Tech their own super-human force to combat the growing threat of industrial terrorism, but the plan has been met with failure due to their… lack of morals, I guess you could say.”

“Answer Monet’s question,” Synch demanded.

“Why are you here, mutants?” Rosen finally revealed. “You’re to be their replacements.”

NEXT ISSUE: It’s Jubilee vs. Psionex – and the winner gets to keep Generation X!