NOTE: This takes place one week prior to the events of Astonishing X-Men

Location Unknown
Two Years Ago

His throat was raw from screaming, as cry after anguished cry ripped from him like a banshee.

“Sir, should I gag the subject?”

He had no idea how long he had been a captive, held against his will since his capture by the men with their darts dipped in drugs. When he woke he was strapped to the table, his wings lashed and affixed to studs in the concrete floor and a ruby quartz blindfold wrapped around his eyes. He’d known nothing but the table and the pain since he’d awakened, and the torture was driving him mad.

“No need, Mr. Fellows,” the gravelly yet succinct voice answered, each word articulated to an almost ludicrous extent, “I find the noises it makes to be rather soothing.”

That voice, that was the man responsible for his current situation, the one giving the orders to the others. When he spoke the rest snapped to his direction, cutting and probing and injecting him with foreign substances that made his blood boil beneath his skin. They’d bathed and shaved him while he’d been unconscious, robbing him of the beard he’d allowed all manner of insects to nest within. How dare they rob him of his grime, when that was the only possession he had left in this world?

The subject’s name was Calvin Rankin, but to the world at large—those who remembered him, though that number was most likely few and far between—he was known by a moniker much more apt.

“The Mimic,” the voice said aloud, responding to the thoughts skittering around in Calvin’s brain. “Your telepathy is only working one way at the moment, my friend, projecting your thoughts for me to hear while denying you access to my own. But if you’d like, I will grant you your unspoken request. I suppose it would be the polite thing to do since you will have no memory of this event once we are finished.”

The butchers stopped their work, ordered to halt by a single hand gesture from their leader. “You have been brought here against your will, Mr. Rankin, for a very important purpose. I am a doctor, one that has spent the better part of his life studying and investigating mutation in the genes of homo superior. During such an investigation, I was led to discover you—a discovery that has changed the way I shall approach my dilemma.”

Calvin strained against his bonds, his incredible strength weakened by the drugs and torture, sapping him of the ability to free himself. Still he tried, though…oh, how he tried.

“You see my dear boy, you are different from your mutant brethren,” the voice continued to explain, “a truly unique being, even amongst such a unique species. Most mutants are born with an X-gene that activates during puberty, granting them their incredible gifts. But you, you were never meant to be a mutant at all, were you? You possessed the X-gene as a carrier, one who would pass on mutation to your children as a genetic inheritance. So what made your X-gene change from latent to active, I wondered? Was it the massive dose of radiation that was exposed to you as a young adult? Perhaps.”

Sweat ran down his body from every pore, pooling on the table beneath him. Why was there no ice, and why was he so bloody hot?

“Even more interesting,” the voice still continued on, “is your mutation itself. An ‘ability’ that allows you to copy the gifts of other mutants – the potential that your body possesses for power knows no boundaries, even with your unconsciously self-imposed limitations, copying only five abilities at a time.”

He was going to die, please God, if he was going to die then at least let him take this bastard out with him.

“So I wonder, Calvin,” the voice said as the doctors began to stir again, preparing their instruments, “how to best use what I have discovered? A way to activate the latent X-gene that nearly every homo sapien possesses coupled with a way to appropriate the ability of every mutant on Earth?”

“We’re ready to begin again, Doctor Palance,” the man called Fellows said.

“This is where it all starts, Mr. Rankin,” the voice said before being drown out by the Mimic’s screams, “the beginning of the Pandemic…”

DISORIENTATION

Part I

By Chris Munn

The Xavier Institute for Higher Learning
Present Day

“Welcome to your freshman year at the X-Academy, Megan Gwynn,” the pink-haired Welsh girl with the wings of a fairy said to herself as she entered the auditorium, “hope you survive the experience…”

Megan held her notebook tight to her chest as she walked down the steps, eyes darting across the rows of seats where groups of fellow mutant students sat in self-inclusive clusters and talked loudly amongst themselves. She could hardly hear herself as her thoughts were drowned out by the dull roar of one hundred and fifty teenagers all talking at once, and for the millionth time today Megan questioned whether or not she should be one of them. She wasn’t one of the students whose parents were still blissfully unaware of her mutant genes, living under the pretense that their child was shipping off to an exclusive boarding school for college prep – that option vanished the day the wings sprouted from her back and her eyes changed color to red pupils on black. Her parents still loved her, thankfully, but the rest of her small town in Wales wasn’t quite so accepting. So when the handsome man with the red sunglasses came to her home and offered her a place to learn about herself, her parents did the only thing they could have done under the circumstances—they let their little girl go out into the big bad world.

“Hey, watch it, fish!” So lost in thought as she was, Megan nearly stumbled on the steps as the massive boy made of jagged rock lumbered past her, scaring her half to death. Her Hannah Montana notebook fell to the floor, and she scrambled down to pick it up before the rock monster stomped on it.

“Santo, don’t be a dick,” the shiny red-haired metal girl said to the monster as she bent down to help Megan up to her feet. “Sorry about that,” she said before another boy, this one quite normal looking despite being clothed in black from head to toe, placed a gloved hand on her shoulder.

“C’mon, Cess,” he said, prompting her to turn down the steps with him, not giving Megan even a second glance, “we better grab our seats.”

“Sophomores,” another girl’s voice said from behind Megan, “think they own this school.”

Megan turned around, careful to not smack the girl in the face with her butterfly wings. “My name’s Alani,” the girl said, “you a freshman?”

Megan nodded, unable to keep from staring at the odd purple markings on Alani’s face and arms. “Yeah,” Megan finally answered, “my name’s Megan Gwynn and I’m a freshman and those guys were okay, don’t worry about me, oh except that rock monster, I don’t think I like him very much how very rude and oh god am I rambling? people tell me I ramble when I’m nervous, oh! not that I’m nervous now, though! I swear I’m not this is just all a little much…to take…in…”

Megan’s last few words trailed off as she saw Alani attempting to stifle a giggle. “It’s okay,” Megan’s first new friend said, “I feel sorta the same, I’m a freshman, too. Come on; let’s grab a seat before we have to sit up front like a couple of nerds.”

Megan happily followed as Alani weaved through the stadium rows toward two of their fellow students. “Guys, this is Megan,” Alani said to the boys, “another newbie, same as us.”

“Hey there,” the green-skinned reptilian boy greeted with a huge smile on his face, “I’m Victor. Nice to meet you, love the wings.”

The werewolf, however, merely grunted whilst pulling his feet up to his chest in the seat, not even giving the new girl a sideways glance. “And this furry punk-ass is Nick, don’t let his anti-social personality get you down,” Vic said as he nudged his wolfen friend with the tip of his elbow.

“Any idea when they’re supposed to start this thing?” Alani asked as she sat down next to Victor. Megan followed suit and sat herself down, content to stay silent amongst what she hoped would be her newest set of friends.

“Did you see that chick’s pink hair? What, she think she’s Psylocke or something? Like she could replace the hottest X-Chick ever, y’know?” The walking pile of gravel named Santo Vaccaro pushed his way up to the back of the auditorium, his flippant comment passing ignored by his two companions, as the majority of his flippant comments always seemed to pass by them. “Outta the way, losers!” he commanded before trying to sit down in the back row, only to find the seat was too narrow for his massive body. With a grunt and a sigh he grabbed the arm rests off two of the seats and pulled them loose, tossing them back over his shoulder to eventually collide hard with some other student’s skull. Satisfied, he fell down into the seat, causing impact fractures in the steel that very nearly caused the whole row to collapse.

“I thought she looked adorable,” Cessily Kincaid, her liquid metal skin acting as a mirror for everyone she passed, finally responded as she took a seat next to Santo, “her wings are beautiful.”

Kevin Ford moved past his two friends and sat on Santo’s opposite side, his gloved hands shoved deep into his pockets and the collar of his jacket turned up to cover his neck. Sitting on his side opposite Santo and Cessily was the fourth member of their clique, an Afghani girl covered head to toe in a traditional Muslim cloak and burka. “Hello, Kevin,” she greeted.

“Hey, Sooraya,” Kevin replied softly, “sorry we’re late. Santo was too busy ridiculing every new student we encountered, took us all morning just to get here.”

“Suck it, Ford,” Santo said gruffly, “without Julian here our crew’s missing its much-needed ‘snobbish asshole’ requirement. You should all be thanking me for stepping up and stuff.”

“I still can’t believe he left like that,” Cessily commented, referring to the former leader of their squad, Julian Keller, who had left the school under a shroud of secrecy.

“Hey, look at it this way,” Santo said as he motioned a thumb in the direction of another section of the auditorium occupied by two young girls, “at least Ms. Moonstar took that loser Foley with her. Maybe Julian can kick his ass or something while they’re gone.”

“He just left without even saying goodbye,” the blonde-haired angel named Laurie Collins said, sniffing and on the verge of tears. “I thought Josh and I had something special, he was the one who was there when Julian broke up with me, and now he’s just gone. How could Ms. Moonstar do this to us?”

Sitting on either side of Laurie were two of her closest friends; David Alleyne tried to comfort the saddened girl with a hand on her shoulder, while his girlfriend Noriko Ashida held Laurie’s hand inside her own. “Dani wouldn’t tell us what was going on,” David said, “but I’m pretty sure it was Josh’s choice to go with her. It wasn’t her fault.”

“But its not fair,” Laurie replied, this team unable to contain her tears, “he’s left me all alone and I don’t know what to do!”

“Aw, geeze, Laurie,” Noriko said as she, too began to cry and noticed even David beginning to tear up, “I’m sorry, but you gotta turn your pheromones down, you’re broadcasting your emotions too loudly again.”

“Sniff, sorry, Nori,” Laurie said as she tried to compose herself, decreasing the output of her emotion-controlling pheromones to a respectable level, “I just hurt and hurt and I’m afraid the hurting won’t ever stop.”

“Of course it will,” David said, “just give it some time.”

“Yeah,” Nori agreed, “or just grab the first cute boy you see and stick your tongue down his throat. I hear that’s a great remedy for heartache.”

And with that, finally, Laurie cracked a smile.

“Attention students,” a voice boomed throughout the auditorium, prompting all of the teenagers to turn their attention toward the stage and the large blue-furred and dapper Beast that stood at the podium. “For those of you who are just joining us, my name is Henry McCoy, and I’ll be your Headmaster this year. Returning students may wonder why Mr. Summers isn’t up here addressing you, and you can all be rest assured that the ever-popular Cyclops has taken a leave of absence from the Institute after last semester’s hectic schedule caused him to break down like a little girl and weep for his mother.”

Beast paused to chuckle. “I’m going to pay for that remark, so I hope you all got at least a tiny laugh out of it.”

While Hank McCoy continued with his introductory speech, the eyes and ears of all the students were focused intently on him – all the students but one. Sitting alone in the far upper corner of the auditorium, the young man with the red wings allowed his eyes to drift through the crowd of teens, taking in the faces of each student as he passed them by. He didn’t want to be there, didn’t want to be yet another member of his family to go through high school as a freak. His brother and sister had blazed this trail before him, and the last thing he wanted was to follow in their footsteps despite what his mom had insisted. “C’mon,” he whispered, “ah dare you to give me a reason to stay.”

He momentarily lost his breath when his eyes fell on the pretty blonde on the far side of the arena, immediately noticing the streaks on her face from where she’d recently been crying. Unbelievably, Joshua Guthrie was stricken, and he couldn’t stifle the smile creeping onto his lips. “Ask and ye shall receive…”

“Just think,” he said as he ran his fingers across the photograph that was framed and mounted on the office wall, “ah remember when our largest student body couldn’t even hit double digits. Now ah look at this place and all ah can wonder is where the hell are they all gonna sleep.”

The Beast smiled as he reclined back in the leather desk chair. “Try being one of it’s first students,” he commented, “I certainly know how you feel.”

Samuel Guthrie continued his study of the photograph, a picture taken during his days as one of the New Mutants, the third class of students taught at the Institute back when it was just a “school for gifted youngsters”. “So many of us in this photo ain’t here today,” he commented sadly, “Doug, Warlock—at least Illyana’s back, though ah still haven’t heard a good explanation as to how.”

“You’ll know as soon as we figure it out ourselves,” McCoy admitted. The former X-Man and Avenger known as Cannonball turned away from the photo, taking Hank’s gesturing offer of the seat in front of the desk. “It’s been awhile since we’ve seen you, Sam. Anything the X-Men can do for you?”

“Well, you could say ah’m kinda at a crossroads right now,” the Kentuckian answered. “Ah quit the Avengers, even gave up mah spot on the roster to Nightcrawler, all so’s ah could investigate the X-Corps. Ah’m there a whole five minutes before Worthington shuts the group down permanently, which ah’m hoping was just a coincidence…”

“So, what,” Beast interjected, “are you wanting back with the X-Men?”

Sam hesitated before answering, rubbing his eyes with a pair of fingers. “Honestly, Hank, ah don’t rightly know. Don’t get me wrong, ah’m immensely proud of my time with y’all, but ah can’t help but feel like the superhero thing just ain’t what ah’m looking for anymore.”

“I’m not going to lie, Sam,” McCoy said, “having you back with the team would be an incredible asset for us, not just because of your power and skills. You were an Avenger, one of the very few mutants to actually achieve a semblance of public acceptance.”

“And that’s a big reason why ah want nothing to do with it,” Sam interrupted, “ah don’t want to be the X-Men’s walking public relations stunt.”

Beast sighed before standing from his chair. “Whatever you decide, Sam, you’re welcome here in any capacity you’d feel comfortable in. You’re part of our family, that will never change.”

“Ah appreciate that, Hank, ah really do,” Sam said as he took McCoy’s hand in a firm grip, “ah’ll let you know as soon as ah make a decision.”

“You know there’s someone here you might want to talk to,” Henry mentioned as Cannonball approached the door.

“Ah thought Paige was away from the campus right now?” he asked, turning to look at the X-Man over his shoulder.

“She is,” McCoy clarified, “I meant your brother.”

The doorbell to the Xavier Institute had been chiming for about thirty seconds, the finger pressing it down to keep the ringing continuous. Most of the students who wandered by the foyer looked around each other in nervous confusion, the majority of them freshmen who didn’t feel it to be their place to answer the school’s front door. So they simply stared at the entrance, waiting for someone to step forward before a teacher arrived to ask them why they were just standing there slack-jawed.

“Oh, I’ll get it!” the fourteen-year-old Hope Abbott announced as she bounced down the front staircase. Had the girl, so filled with innocence and youthful exuberance, thought for a moment she would have used her mutant ability to astral project her consciousness through the wall to see if the caller was friend, foe, or stranger. But again, innocent and exuberant, two qualities that would hopefully defend her blatant stupidity in a world that hated and feared her.

“Hello?” she asked as she threw open the door. The man standing on the porch was withered, a skeleton in a white lab coat whose skin was coated in sweat and jaundice. He collapsed into the school’s doorway without saying a word, toppling Hope down to the floor with him. “Ew! Help, get him off me!” she screamed. Finally stirred to action, several of her fellow students rushed to her aid; David Alleyne and the flame-headed Ben Hammil pulled the sick doctor further into the foyer while Cessily Kincaid and Noriko Ashida helped Hope to her feet.

“It’s coming,” the stranger hissed as he clutched onto David’s shirt, pulling the African American boy closer to his putrid face, “the pandemic is nearly here. I’m…so…sorry!”

David freed himself from the man’s grip only because he’d passed into unconsciousness. David looked back at Nori, who was holding onto the shaking Hope Abbott, and the two exchanged worried looks.

Ben scratched the back of his fiery scalp as the kids waited on their instructors to arrive. “Uh, what the hell is a pandemic?”

Later That Evening

“Do you want the bad news or the even worse news first?”

Colossus erupted into a fit of coughs before he could answer McCoy’s flippant question, prompting a worried expression on the face of his friend, Kitty Pryde. Once his fit was finished, Beast simply nodded his head and directed them toward a hospital bed wrapped in a plastic containment shell. “I didn’t get much out of this one before he died,” Henry said as the three senior X-Men gathered around the stranger’s body, “but his name was Percy Fellows and he’d been infected with a virus the likes of which I’ve never seen in nature.”

“So you’re thinking someone intentionally infected him and sent him to our door?” Kitty asked, already knowing the answer.

“It’s nasty and most certainly bio-engineered,” Beast answered. “Now, I’m not a virologist, but I’ve been around the block a few times when it comes to this sort of thing. I spent years of my life studying Stryfe’s Legacy Virus, and it frightens me to say that what this man died from isn’t all that dissimilar. This man wasn’t just a victim; he was an active carrier for a virus that seems to be highly contagious. In fact, I would estimate that every person in the building is now infected.”

“Hank,” Kitty asked worriedly, “did you just tell me that every one of us is going to die tonight?”

“No, but I had you scared for a moment, didn’t I?” Beast replied. “The virus changes when it enters a mutant’s immune system; we’ll all be sick and possibly delirious for the next twenty-four hours, but no one will die from the contagion.”

“I’m confused,” Colossus admitted, “why would an enemy send a non-lethal illness as an attack?”

“The only man that knew the answer to that question,” Beast replied, “is lying dead on the table behind you.”

Laurie Collins felt a shiver run down her spine, forcing her to wrap her white and gold jacket closer to her body. She’d hoped that a walk through the campus grounds would take her mind off of the boy she’d so foolishly given her heart to, but not even the beauty of the twinkling stars above could keep her thoughts from turning toward him. Josh Foley, with his shimmering golden skin and boyish charm, had crippled her—an irony she couldn’t help but admire, considering Josh’s mutation had made him a healer. Any illness, any ailment, could disappear with his golden touch, but Laurie feared nothing would be able to heal the pain she was feeling now.

“Excuse me,” the boy’s voice said from behind her, causing her to jump in surprise. Josh Guthrie raised his hands to show he meant no harm as Laurie took several startled steps back away from him. “Ah’m sorry, ah didn’t mean to scare you!” Josh felt his own heart begin to race in his chest, a surge of adrenaline making him want to fly as far away as he could get, even if he didn’t understand why.

“No, no, it’s okay,” Laurie said as she took a deep breath and calmed down. Thankfully, Josh’s own heart rate also started to slow, the feeling of panic subsiding. “I don’t think we’ve met, have we? I’m Laurie Collins.”

“No, we haven’t,” Josh said, smiling at the beautiful girl, “ah just saw you walking by yourself and decided it wasn’t right for such a pretty girl to look so sad.”

Laurie smiled in return. “Sweet. Corny, but sweet.”

“Mah name’s Josh,” he said as he extended his hand in a gesture of friendship.

“Josh?” Laurie asked, cursing the coincidence of this boy having the same name as the one she was trying to forget.

“Whoa,” Josh said, taking back his hand to wipe a sudden burst of water from his eyes, “ah’m sorry, ah dunno what’s wrong with me. It’s like this wave of, I dunno, sadness just washed over me or something.”

“Oh, no,” Laurie said as she stepped closer to the Guthrie boy, putting a concerned hand on his bare arm, “that’s my fault, I’m sorry! My powers, I’m what Doctor McCoy called a ‘projecting empath’, I manipulate the emotions of people around me. Though lately its been totally by accident, causing people to feel what I’m feeling only a whole lot stronger.”

“Well, I reckon that explains some things, then,” Josh said with a laugh, “ah thought ah was just nervous about approaching you. What’s your mutant name, Laurie?”

Laurie blushed, this time cautiously keeping her pheromones tightly under control. “Wallflower; what’s yours, Josh?”

Guthrie took a step back and allowed the crimson-feathered wings on his back to extend to their full length. Laurie gasped, having not noticed the wings under the pale moonlight. “Icarus,” he answered, “ah wanted to go with Archangel, but it’s already been taken.”

Before the conversation could progress any further, the two teens were interrupted by the distinctive roar of another mutant’s power. “You better go, Laurie,” Josh said before closing his eyes and releasing a sigh, “my big brother’s on his way.”

Cannonball landed a moment later, the roar of his blasting field cutting off as his boots touched down on the grass. Laurie waved goodbye as she started to walk away, but Josh hadn’t noticed, his attention turned toward his older brother. She watched as she walked back toward the school, wondering why Josh’s attitude had changed so drastically in the presence of his sibling.

“So, little bro,” Sam started the admittedly awkward conversation, “how come ah had to find out from the Beast that you were enrolling here?”

“I dunno,” Josh spat back, crossing his arms over his chest as he sounded the words, “maybe if the big shot Avenger ever came home to see his family you could’ve helped Mom make the decision. Certainly wasn’t my idea to come here, that’s for sure.”

“Where’s this hostility coming from, Jay?” Sam asked, confusion quickly turning to anger. “You too good to go to the same school as me and your sister? Ah thought you’d be proud of me!”

“Ah don’t want the same life as you and Paige,” Josh exclaimed, “and I never wanted to be a mutant at all!”

With that startling declaration, Josh’s wings began to beat, lifting him swiftly into the air and away from his bewildered older sibling. Samuel could have easily chased after his brother, but he didn’t. In truth, he had no idea what to say to him if he caught him.

Several Hours Later

Twelve hours after the first case of infection was discovered, the Xavier Institute was locked down. Ninety percent of the residents, students and staff alike, were entombed in their bedrooms, driven to helplessness by the debilitating sickness. Even Doctor McCoy could barely stand, though he remained still in his medical lab, working on his study of the virus. However, even under such hellish conditions, there was still life stirring in the nearly silent campus.

Inexplicably, the school’s freshman class had remained uninfected by the rapidly spreading viral outbreak. While some remained in their rooms despite being at full health, afraid of what might happen if they left the security of their beds, an adventurous few had gathered in the common room for a discussion. The lights remained off, only the flickering of the room’s fireplace was providing illumination. Unfortunately, that was their downfall.

On the hill facing the south side of the Institute stood a woman sheathed in silver, her jet-black hair falling in wisps across her tanned face. Her vision zoomed closer, magnifying the school’s edifice, and in the bay windows of the common room she spied the small gathering of students grouped around the fireplace. “Come in, Doctor Palance,” the woman said aloud, her voice transmitted electronically to her master’s location, “defenses have been neutralized and the staff have been incapacitated. However, it appears that the virus has left some mutants unaffected. Please advise.”

“That was expected,” the doctor’s voice answered, “the virus was tailored only for the systems of mutants known to be residents, any newcomers would unfortunately remain uninfected. But the mutants still active are mere children, freshmen students that have only one day’s worth of experience. With the staff neutralized you can proceed without fear of any major struggles.”

“Affirmative,” the machine-woman said, “information on our targets has been uploaded to our hunters’ brains. We anticipate no casualties, stand by for extraction.”

“Remember, dear,” Palance advised, “no deaths, not even the adults. I may still have use for them later.”

“Yes, sir,” she replied, “sending in the Plague Dogs…”

“You dorks should’ve seen it! Kevin was totally puking his guts up, it was gnarly,” Rockslide said from the center of the room. “Apparently everyone’s come down with like mutant flu or mutie-pox or something.”

“Nearly everyone on campus gets sick,” Victor sighed, “and Santo, out of everyone, stays healthy. There’s no justice, maybe not even a God.”

“Bite me, Toad,” Rockslide replied, “I’m made of freaking granite, what am I gonna do, throw up gravel?”

“It’s not our fault that Santo and I don’t have human biology anymore,” Cessily said, coming to her friend’s defense for reasons she couldn’t quite fathom herself, “how fair is it to us that the only other students that didn’t get sick were the freshmen?”

Megan and Alani sat on the couch, content to sit back and laugh at their classmate’s incessant bickering. The only other student present was Nicholas Gleason, the appropriately named Wolf Cub, who sat perched in the bay window to look out at the moon. “Guys, something’s wrong,” he said with a growl, “something that smells really bad. And there’s, like, big dogs or something roaming around outside.”

“Then why don’t you join ’em,” Rockslide taunted, “maybe you could sniff each others’ butts or something gross?”

“Wow,” Vic shook his head, “I really, honestly think I hate you. Is it possible to hate someone after just one day?”

“Oh shit!” Nick shouted as he jumped off the window ledge. “Incoming!”

Following on heels, four creatures smashed through the common room’s bay windows, exploding a torrent of glass shrapnel into the assembly of students. The four beasts landed on the floor, the lead animal letting out a guttural roar, and began sniffing the air. The students backpedaled, the girls shrieking at the sight of what appeared to be four monstrous dogs whose skin had been stripped away, leaving bloody knots of muscle and tissue exposed to the air. “Plague Dogs!” the lead monster shouted. “You have your targets! Get to work!”

With that command, the four canines bounded across the room, ignoring the students that had huddled into the corner. “Holy crap, did you freaking see that?” Santo asked in astonishment once the beasts had entered the school.

“Oh no,” Megan announced, “the X-Men are all sick! Those doggies are going to kill them in their sleep!”

“Then we have to stop them,” Victor decided, “c’mon, we’re all that’s left standing!”

“Not for long, children,” a woman said from the smashed window. Her name was Karima Shapandar, and she was the pinnacle of anti-mutant technology.

The Omega Sentinel.

On the third floor of the dormitories, Laurie Collins walked slowly down the hall. She’d been told to stay in her room, and in all truth she was so sick she could barely stand up let alone walk. But her roommate Nori had disobeyed and gone to take care of her boyfriend David, both of them just as sick as her, and she just wasn’t able to handle being sick, heartbroken, and alone all on the same night. So she’d knocked on a few doors and asked around until she found out what room her new friend was staying.

She knocked twice, and when no answer came she checked the door handle to find it unlocked. She slowly pushed open the door to the darkened room and cautiously stepped inside. “Josh?” she asked, and in reply a sickly moan came from the bed in the far corner of the room.

“Laurie?” Josh asked, nearly blind from the fever, as she came and sat on the edge of his bed.

“Hi, Josh,” she said as she ran her fingers through his wet red hair, “I didn’t want to be by myself. My mom always took care of me when I was sick, so I guess I’m kind of a baby about it. You don’t mind do you?”

Josh managed a weak smile. “Not at all,” he answered, “misery loves company.”

Laurie moved up to sit beside him, placing his head in her lap. She was feeling sick, sure, but why was Josh so much worse than her or anybody else?

“Did you just hear a window break?” Josh asked from where he was laying.

Suddenly, the door to the room burst open as a monstrous Plague Dog exploded into the room, a snarl escaping past its ravenous fangs. “Look at this,” it grunted as it pounced onto the two defenseless children, “two targets for the price of one…”

NEXT: The students of Xavier continue their “Disorientation” as the Omega Sentinel and her Plague Dogs put their plan into completion! What does the mysterious Doctor Palance want with the kids on his shopping list, and will any of the X-Men be able to save them when they’re too busy praying to the porcelain god?

Oh, and be sure to check out the rest of the X-Men: Reckoning event happening all this month!