Uncanny X-Men

An Empire Tie-In

PURPLE REIGN

By Ryan Krupienski

The Xavier Institute; Thirty minutes ago

His body was sore, he was physically and emotionally drained, and he had just about the biggest migraine he’d ever had in his life, but at the moment he didn’t care. Scott Summers had more important things on his mind, and as per the usual, he put those more important issues first. It was a skill he’d more or less perfected in his almost fifteen years as an X-Man, and it’d served him well, though also gotten him into trouble at times.

The first X-Man stood at the head of the large, oval-shaped table that sat in the middle of the War Room, and around that table sat the members of his team who weren’t currently recovering in the med-lab. He was worried about Piotr and Cameron, but that uncanny ability of his to focus was, indeed, fully intact. He was only waiting for Hank to arrive and then he’d begin.

Jubilee sat on one side of the table, her cousin Anna to her left and Domino to her right. Jubilee had said barely a word since returning home; she really didn’t even know what to say. All she could think about was Bobby, and what had truly happened to him. It seemed to her that the rest of the team was opting to believe that he was dead; no one had said any such thing, but that was certainly the impression she was getting. That just wanted to make her cry even more, but, like Scott, she was focusing on the issue at hand. Anything to prolong the time before the inevitable reality that would sink in.

Peter, Neal, Astrid, Ever, and Martinique rounded out the rest of the group, and they all waited silently but not necessarily patiently for the last arrival. They were all tired, anxious, and just a bit testy, and they wanted this over with. Neal and Astrid being the exceptions, they’d all been through worse, but that didn’t make their current situation any easier.

The door to the War Room finally slid open to the sound of hydraulics, and Henry McCoy quickly made his way inside but stopped abruptly. “My friends, we have a…” He paused, and took a deep, excited breath. “Girls, come on in.”

The X-Men watched and Jubilee’s eyes widened in shock as, one by one, Monet St. Croix, Paige Guthrie, and Clarice Ferguson filed into the room. Scott’s jaw dropped a little as well, and the three young women approached the gathering of mutants quickly, albeit tentatively.

“Oh my God…” Jubilee gasped, standing from her seat while keeping her eyes locked on her friends. “Holy shit… I knew it! I knew you were alive!”

“A miracle, indeed,” Hank said as he walked over to Scott’s side. He asked his longtime friend, “Are you doing alright?”

“Just fine, Hank,” Scott said, still in awe. “What happened? When did they get here?”

“They just appeared in the med-lab,” Hank explained. “They came through one of Clarice’s portals.”

“Hi, Mister Summers,” Paige said, waving at Scott, who nodded back at her. The blonde then turned her attention to Jubilee, who anxiously hugged each one of her former teammates – even Monet.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it’s good to see you, Lee,” Monet said, an honest smile on her face.

“Monet, Paige, Clarice, I…” Scott stopped abruptly, as the reason he’d called this meeting in the first place came back to the forefront of his mind. “Listen, we’ve sort of got an emergency. Why don’t you go with Hank, he can get you settled, and we can talk about wherever it is you’ve been later.”

“Actually, sir, we were thinking that maybe we could help,” Clarice interjected, shrugging her shoulders ever so slightly. “What’s the emergency?”

“Prison break in the Phillippines,” Domino said as she stood from her seat. “The latest one to happen since Noh-Varr started this mess up. We got an emergency transmission from Jim Rhodes, he’s requested our help. Apparently we’re the only ones he could contact.”

“How bad is it?” Martinique asked, disregarding the return of the three former members of Generation X. She knew who they were and their ties to her mother, and though she hid it well, she was rather unsettled being in the same room as four of Emma’s former students – students Emma had betrayed. Being the former White Queen’s daughter, Martinique was certainly not bound to be someone they would trust or even like.

“Pretty nasty,” Domino answered. “This place is called the Void. It was built specifically to hold superhuman criminals with mental abilities. Rhodes said the place is in absolute chaos.”

“When do we leave?” Ever asked.

“Not so fast. You and you will be staying here with me,” Hank said, looking at Astrid and then Scott, who gave the blue-furred man a surprised look. “You’re in absolutely no condition to be out in the field, Scott. Even this meeting was too much.”

Scott sighed and decided not to argue. “Alright,” he agreed. “But only because we’ve got extra help stepping in.”

“Well, to answer your question, Ever,” Domino said, “we’re leaving right now. Let’s move out, people.”

The Void

It was nothing but chaos inside the large, multi-level prison that spread, from the inside, seemed to go on forever in every direction. Especially now, with half of the walls torn apart and the only light being the dim back-up generators. It was noisy, with echoes of murderous screams and calls for help bouncing off the titanium walls, and small explosions were occurring every few minutes as well. It would have been the perfect sci-fi prison riot for moviegoers to enjoy, if only it wasn’t very, very real.

Above all the madness, surveying the action from a high-up observation balcony, was one man. He was responsible for all of this; he had the ability to bend people to his will, and right now he’d decided he wanted everyone to descend into complete and utter lunacy. Most were security forces and others were fellow escaped prisoners, but he wasn’t differentiating between the two at all. They would all bend to his will, regardless.

A crooked smile formed on the man’s dry, purple lips as he watched the events below, and he thought to himself how wonderful it would be when the dust was settled and he could parade out of here with his own mind-controlled henchmen. It’d been a while since he’d truly been able to use his abilities to their full extent, and he planned to take full advantage of the situation. He wouldn’t necessarily be able to spread his influence around the world, but he’d take it as far as superhumanly possible.

As the violet-hued man looked down at his garments and realized the prison-standard orange wasn’t working for him at all, the door to the small control center from which the observation deck extended slid open, and a strange, somewhat brutish man stepped inside. His face was imbedded within his chest cavity, and in place of his head was a rectangular-shaped device comparable in size to a box of tissues. He, too, was dressed in the standard orange garb for prisoners, though his had been modified to fit his unique figure.

The odd-looking man caught sight of his fellow inmate standing at the other end of the room and his eyes instantly widened in horror. “Zebediah Killgrave…” he gasped, now reluctant to step any farther in the room. Normally he was scared of nothing and no one, but this man was different; the Purple Man had built a reputation for being one of the most brutal and sadistic men to ever walk the earth.

“Ah, Arnim Zola,” Killgrave said, taking a few steps forward while crossing his hands behind his back. “A pleasure to see you up and about. Are you enjoying the show?”

“This is all you?” Zola asked, though he already knew the answer. For while there were many convicts with a variety of mental abilities at the Void, Killgrave was definitely one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful.

Killgrave slowly approached Arnim Zola, who could already feel an alien influence starting to wash over him. It was subtle, but it was there. He wondered then what the Purple Man would do.

“You are a brilliant scientist, yes?” Killgrave asked as he came to stop right in front of Zola.

“Yes,” Zola answered with a slight bow of his upper torso, as if to nod.

Killgrave was silent for a moment, as a thoughtful look crossed his face. He rubbed his chin with his index finger and thumb, contemplating his options. He had a fantastic opportunity now – why not make the most of it?

“I want you to build a machine for me,” Killgrave said, breaking the silence in the room.

“I… normally lend my talents to genetic engineering. It’s my specialty…” Zola told him, his words trailing off into shallow breaths. “But yes, I can build you a machine. What do you want it to do?”

“Build me a machine that will amplify my influence,” Killgrave replied. “I want to rule the world.”

The Phillippines

The Blackbird landed on the small, exotic island while three very different-looking men stood and watched from near the shoreline. One was a Japanese man, dressed in a bright red costume emblazoned with fiery streaks of yellow; another was Chinese, dressed very plainly in pair of black plants and a black t-shirt; the third man stood between the two, wearing dark silver armor that covered him from head to toe, for the moment only exposing his dark, mocha-complected face. It was he who originally contacted the X-Men for help, and he was glad to see they’d finally arrived.

The ramp to the X-Men’s aircraft extended, and one by one a group of ten mutants, all dressed in similar black uniforms accented with different colors, filed out onto the beach. It was a beautiful tropical scene, one they wished they could take advantage of, but alas they hadn’t flown half-way around the world for a vacation. Duty called – what else was new?

“X-Men,” Jim Rhodes said as the team’s leader, Domino, walked up to him. “You look more and more different every time I see you.”

“Yeah, well, we like to keep everyone on their toes,” Domino quipped. She glanced at Shiro Yoshida and groaned, knowing full well what was coming next. She really wasn’t in the mood.

“It’s been six months and you still haven’t answered my question,” Shiro said, almost agitated. “Where is my sister?”

“I’m going to give you the same answer Cyclops has been giving you this whole time – we don’t know,” Domino snapped at the man. She looked back to Rhodes and asked, “What’s he doing here?” She then noticed the other Asian man and asked again, “And who’s he?”

“This is Shang-Chi, an old acquaintance. He’s here to help,” Rhodes explained. “As for Sunfire… he’s one of the few other people I could contact. We’ll need all the help we can get.”

“What exactly is going on in there?” asked Kwannon, who stepped up next to Domino.

“Several hours ago there was a – what else? – power failure at the Void,” Rhodes revealed, looking around at the various X-Men as he spoke. “As you all know, this isn’t the first superhuman prison that’s been shut down as a result of Noh-Varr’s actions. However, some of the prisoners in this particular facility pose a greater threat than most. The Void has a special sector devoted just to criminals with mental abilities… and they had some nasty ones locked up in there.”

“One of the most dangerous men in their custody is Zebediah Killgrave, who is known as the Purple Man,” Sunfire stepped in to explain, his impatience and eagerness to act glaringly obvious. “Killgrave is perhaps the most dangerous, next to a man called Yellow Claw. They both have similar mind-controlling and illusion-casting abilities.”

“How many prisoners are we talking about?” Domino asked, almost afraid to know.

“Approximately sixty,” Rhodes answered. “I know it sounds like a lot, but more than half these guys have bare-bones superhuman abilities. I downloaded their files and have been reviewing them all, and found that only a dozen of them actually pose some sort of serious threat.”

“We will have to find some way to sneak in and quietly apprehend them, one by one. The problem is, if the prisoners have taken control of the Void’s security systems, we may have some trouble getting inside undetected,” Shang-Chi added.

“Well, this is your lucky day, gentlemen – we just happen to have brought our own teleporter along,” Domino said, turning around to look at Blink. “If you can get us a look inside at a remote area, we can work on opening a portal. They’ll never know what hit ’em.”

The Xavier Institute

Henry and Astrid sat on either side of the bed of Piotr Rasputin, who was still unconscious and, according to all the tests Cecilia had run, in no hurry to wake up anytime soon. It troubled Henry and Cecilia both; Cameron had been stabilized and was being kept asleep intentionally, but Piotr’s condition was much worse. He was deep in a comatose state, most likely brought on by the shock of the vicious wounds Sabretooth had inflicted. Everything that could be was being physically done for him, but Henry feared if Piotr did not wake up soon… he might not wake up at all.

Astrid wasn’t a physician but she was a psychologist, and she knew very well how physical trauma could extend to the mind. It was she who had suggested a different approach to Piotr’s recovery, one that Henry was trepid about at first, but eventually favored. Though she did know her way around the Astral Plane quite well, she hadn’t really done this sort of thing many times before. On top of that, navigating someone’s personal mindscape wasn’t a general task – everyone’s was different.

“Thank you for being patient. I just had to call my daughter and make sure she was alright,” Astrid said as she brushed several strands of her micro-braided hair behind her ears.

“I must admit my surprise, I didn’t even know you had a daughter,” Henry told her.

Astrid laughed slightly. “Yes, I suppose not many people do. I keep my secrets well,” she joked. “Ingrid is in a boarding school, though… I’ve done so much traveling and with her father not in the picture, I thought it best that she have a stable home where she could complete her education.”

“A sensible choice, of course,” Henry said with a nod. “But you certainly don’t look old enough to have a teenager.”

“I was young when I had her,” Astrid admitted, shrugging her shoulders. “I do miss her badly. I wanted to talk to you about possibly transferring her to this school, if I do decide to stay. When we’re done here, of course.”

Henry smiled at the idea. “I think that would be splendid,” he said. He turned his gaze to Piotr, and his smile faded to a look of worry. “Are you sure you want to do this, Astrid? Are you sure you can do this?”

“I know I can try,” Astrid said, her tone more reassuring than her words. “And I know the possible consequences if I fail. So… I won’t.”

With that, Astrid took hold of Piotr’s hands, and closed her eyes.

Astrid opened her eyes, and found herself standing in the middle of a wide open field with perfectly green grass covering every inch of the ground. She saw a large red tractor in the distance, and behind it a small, quaint house. She figured this was an important place in Piotr’s past to hold such prominence in his mind. Perhaps it was where he’d grown up?

Astrid started walking towards the house, which looked more than a little run-down to her. Certainly not a place to raise children, in her mind. As she got closer to the house she could see that there was someone kneeling by the tractor, apparently doing some repairs to it. That person was a handsome, muscular young man, wearing a pair of tattered jeans and a wifebeater. He did not notice Astrid approaching until she was less than ten feet away.

Piotr was startled by the sight of Astrid and immediately jumped to his feet, unsure of what to say or do. He didn’t know who she was or what she wanted. “Can I… help you?” he asked, unsure of his words even.

“Piotr Rasputin, my name is Astrid Bloom,” Astrid told him, getting right to the point. “I’m an old friend of Henry’s. He sent me here to help you.”

“Henry…?” Piotr looked at Astrid, still confused. He didn’t know what she was talking about. “Who… is Henry?”

“I’m not surprised you’re having a spell of amnesia – you did go through a horrible trauma,” Astrid continued explaining. “You need to remember, though… that is the first part of the healing process. Sabretooth – you were fighting against him, and he tore your abdomen apart. You suffered near-fatal physical wounds, Piotr, but you’re going to be fine. I’m just here to bring you out of your coma.”

“Sabretooth, who is…?” Piotr’s confusion only amplified, until suddenly, a great realization washed over him. He knew in an instant what she was talking about, though the return of his memories so quickly was an odd sensation. The whole experience felt surreal to him now.

“There you are,” Astrid said, smiling warmly. “You just needed a minute. And see now? All better.” The hard part was over, and it had been surprisingly easier than she thought.

“Astrid, correct?” Piotr asked as he looked the woman in the eye. She nodded and he continued, “Thank you. I… I suppose I retreated to the safest place I could think of.”

“Naturally,” Astrid agreed. “But like I said, your wounds are healing. Once we set your mind in order, you should be good as new in a matter of days.” She turned to look behind her and saw that, as expected, the farmland was fading away into a white nothingness. That was the way out. “Shall we?”

Piotr nodded, and began to follow Astrid towards the light. He stopped dead in his tracks, however, upon hearing the desperate plea of a young girl behind him.

“PIOTR! PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE ME!”

He turned around and as soon as he caught sight of the source of the voice, his eyes widened in shock. He knew it couldn’t be real, but just seeing her was enough to get to him.

“Illyana…”

The Phillippines

War Machine, Sunfire, Shang-Chi, and the X-Men stood around in a circle, all their eyes fixed on a holographic projection displaying the layout of the Void. There were many possible ways they could go in, but there were still many uncertainties. The situation inside was almost a complete mystery to them, and they weren’t sure exactly what they’d be up against. All they were truly certain of was that utter chaos awaited them.

Standing slightly within the circle, his right arm lifted as it served to project the holographic display, was War Machine. The light from the projection gleamed off his armor as his eyes moved from one point to another on the schematics, which revealed several stories of the prison to be underground. There were four places marked with a red dot, and two others marked with green ones.

“As you can see this place is a lot bigger than it looks from the outside,” War Machine said. “It reaches almost a mile underground. The four red spots represent the safest places for us to enter through; the green spots are our mission objectives.”

“Which are what, exactly?” Neal asked, curious.

“We’ve got to restore power, number one. Number two – we have to reactivate the power dampening field.”

“But if we do that, won’t we lose our powers as well, Mister Rhodes?” Monet pointed out.

War Machine nodded. “Yes,” he answered. “Which is why we’re going to snatch up eight of the anti-dampening devices that will allow you to use your mutant abilities even after the device is reactivated.”

“This so feels like a chapter out of a crappy video game…” Jubilee muttered softly.

“Okay, well, now we have to decide who does what,” Domino proclaimed, placing a hand on her hip. “Who’s the best electrician?”

“Most likely myself,” War Machine said. “A telepath to watch my back would help.”

“Okay, Mastermind, you’re with him,” Domino said, earning a bored looked from the young woman. “I’ll go after this dampening device, then… I hate to admit it, but I’m better off in the shadows for this one. I’m not fully healed yet.”

“And the rest of us keep the bad guys distracted, then?” Kwannon half-suggested, half-asked.

“What about Killgrave?” Sunfire questioned. “He could pose a serious threat. We should focus on not just distracting him, but taking him down. We do not know how long it will take for you to complete your missions.”

“Look for him, but be careful,” War Machine cautioned. He looked at Ever and continued, “You’re a telepath too, right?”

Ever nodded. “Right.”

“As am I,” Monet informed the former Avenger. “If the rest of us do separate, each squad should have one.”

“Sunfire, you take Ever, Neal, Blink, and Husk. Kwannon, take Jubilee, Monet, and Shang-Chi. Peter, you’re coming with me,” Domino decided. “Any questions?”

“Not anymore,” Monet quipped.

“Now to get inside,” War Machine said, looking over at Blink. “Are you ready?”

As she stepped up to the armored man Blink replied, “As I’ll ever be.”

Arnim Zola was busy tearing the machine before him apart while at the same time putting it back together, unaware that the Purple Man had just strolled into the room behind him. It was a cold, dark space – metal grates for the floor, barren walls, and tubing and circuitry flowing every which way. Before the power failure it had been home to the machine that dampened all superhuman abilities inside the Void’s walls; now, even in its unfinished state, it was something completely different.

“How goes your project, Mister Zola?” the Purple Man asked as he walked towards the man with his hands clasped firmly in front of him.

Zola did not turn from his work but answered, “Oh, it goes well. I feel… rejuvenated. I haven’t had the opportunity to play like this in ages…”

“I’m glad you are enjoying yourself,” Purple Man said, sounding almost uninterested. His tone perked up a bit as he then queried, “What is the estimated time of completion for this project?”

“Oh, it will be only a matter of hours… even sooner, though I want to make sure all things are properly wired and configured,” Zola told him.

Purple Man nodded, while at the same time seeming a bit annoyed that he’d have to wait longer to see his machine completed. He’d become a very patient man over time, however, and he knew that good things came to those who waited. A few more hours wouldn’t hurt.

“Carry on then,” Purple Man said. “I’ll be back shortly.”

As his ‘boss’ exited the room, Arnim Zola suddenly felt a sort of shift in his mind… as if an influence that was there was starting to wane a little. He knew what it was – Killgrave had been subtly controlling his mind, which was why he’d inexplicably begun building this machine for him. He was Arnim Zola, he didn’t work for anyone but himself, but this situation was different. Even with a fluctuating influence, the Purple Man still had Zola right where he wanted him.

Zola continued to slave away at the various wires laid out before him, and he muttered to himself, “Blast him… this won’t be a permanent situation… no sir. Mister Killgrave, I will find away out of your grasp and then when I finish this machine, you’ll be the first I destroy…”

Inside one of the guard stations, out of the way of the bulletproof window that allowed one to see into the room, a bright pink portal burst into existence, and four individuals quickly poured out of it. Sunfire, Ever, Husk, and Neal stood silently and waited for a moment while the chaos outside the room registered with them. After a few seconds the portal’s source, Blink, stepped through, and she closed the gateway behind her. She too heard the ruckus outside the room and her heart skipped a beat for a split second; she hadn’t been in a real fight in ages and hoped she wasn’t rusty.

Peering carefully through the glass from a distance, Sunfire could see that the walls were torn apart, fires were burning in random spots, and motionless bodies were strewn all about the floor. To describe the scene as ‘not a pretty sight’ would indeed be an understatement, the Japanese mutant thought.

“Okay, I’m in contact with Martinique and Monet… they’ve reached their destinations as well. Same with Domino,” Ever informed his teammates. “We should be good to go.”

“Ah’ve been waiting to do a nice round of butt-kicking,” Husk commented.

“There will be plenty of that to satisfy you, young woman,” Sunfire told her. “Just be…”

The wall in front of the five mutants exploded with a deafening blast, and glass and metal went flying everywhere. Ever erected a telekinetic shield just in time to protect himself and the others from harm, but mere seconds later the smoke cleared and the team saw the source of the attack. Before them stood two massive, muscular men dressed in a sort of bondage gear, one holding an axe and the other holding a wrecking ball. In front of them stood a beautiful blonde in a simple black bodysuit, holding a pistol in each hand.

“Well I would garner a guess you blokes weren’t locked up here with the rest of us,” the blonde said in a thick accent that sounded more Australian than anything. “Which means you must be here to get in our way.”

“You would be correct in that assessment!” Sunfire yelled as he began hurling fireballs in the prisoners’ direction. The blonde easily dodged the attacks but the two men stood their ground, seemingly absorbing the flames. It was at that moment that Sunfire knew this wasn’t going to be easy… but, he wouldn’t have had it any other way.

The rest of the mutants wasted no time in charging at the behemoths, though at first they had little effect. Sunfire’s blasts of flame continued to have no effect, and Neal’s powers being similar were in the same boat. The two men decided to keep at it, however, and occupied one of the hulking prisoners with a constant barrage of their respective powers.

Husk tore off a layer of her skin, revealing thick titanium, as she charged at the other overgrown man. She didn’t show it but was nervous, however she knew she had to keep it together, as too much was at stake. She swung one of her fists at her enemy and discovered that it had little impact. The massive gentlemen grunted and laughed, then swatted Husk away like little more than a fly. Before she crashed into one of the walls, Ever caught her with his telekinesis, while also slightly pushing back the assailant.

“Thanks,” Husk said with a grateful smile.

“No problem,” Ever replied.

The two rushed back in as the giant engulfed Blink with his shadow. As he was about to pummel the pink-skinned young woman with his fists, Blink instead tossed a couple of energy shards at him that threw him off balance. His body seemed to fade out for a split-second, and he stumbled backwards from the shock of the attack. It was only mere seconds however before he regained his composure and stormed back towards the mutants.

“Clarice, Ah think you’re gonna need about ten of those things to really put a dent in him!” Husk exclaimed as she lunged and pushed her teammate out of the way.

Ever stepped up and with as much energy as he could muster without losing control, he held the large man at bay with his telekinesis. He attempted to enter the man’s mind, but found it was completely blocked, probably due to the strange leather-like helmet he wore over his head. He turned to see that Sunfire and Neal had surrounded the other man in a circle of flame and plasma, but it didn’t seem to be doing any good. They were going to really have to step up their game.

“Ever, step back,” Blink said as she approached the X-Man with Husk at her side. She held several energy daggers in each of her hands and prepared to toss them at the large man. “Time to displace this guy…”

Just as the shards left her hands, all five of the mutants felt an odd presence fill their minds, effectively clouding their senses. Ever recovered quickly but his teammates did not fair so well. He did what he could to fight against the attack, though he needed to know exactly where it was coming from.

“Hmm, you must be a telepath,” the blonde woman said as she came back into view. “But your friends aren’t doing too well. All that static pulsing through their minds… I’m making the world a blur to them. My boys are still standing though, and you can’t take them both on.”

“Try me,” Ever told her, bracing himself for the conflict.

The two gargantuans came up behind the blonde and stood still for a moment. “Get rid of him,” she told the men. “Your Snow Queen demands it!”

Kwannon, Jubilee, Monet, and Shang-Chi made their way through the devastation that surrounded them, looking for any signs of life in the area. They could hear fighting and explosions in the far distance but it seemed that the fight had come and gone from the area they were in.

“I thought we were supposed to be teleported to an area where the prisoners were so we could round them up,” Shang-Chi commented as he looked about the place. “There is nothing here but dead bodies.”

“Hey, give Clarice a break… she just got back from the dead,” Jubilee said sarcastically, almost choking on the last word. She was trying her hardest not to think of Bobby; she couldn’t afford to lose it, not now. There would be time to cry and ask questions after they got this mission over with. Besides, she really felt like kicking some ass.

For Monet, Jubilee’s comment brought memories of Wonderland back to the forefront of her mind. Her former teammate was only joking but Blink, Husk, and Monet really had died, and later on were literally resurrected. Monet was still trying to make sense of it, and was especially uncertain of how – or if – they were going to explain it to the X-Men.

“Well all we can do is scout the area, follow the sounds until we get where we need to be,” Kwannon told them. “We just have to be ready for anything.”

As the group continued to walk, Shang-Chi heard a low moaning sound and stopped abruptly. The other stopped as well, watching as he walked over to one of the dead guards lying on the ground.

“What is it?” Kwannon asked, walking over to Shang-Chi, who knelt down beside the guard.

The guard moaned again, barely, and Shang-Chi said, “That. This man is alive.”

Monet furrowed her brow in confusion. “Are you sure?” she asked. “I don’t sense any thoughts in the is immediate area except for the four of us.”

The guard, dressed in navy blue body armor, suddenly sat up and his eyes flew open. Shang-Chi and his allies were taken aback, especially since they could see the extent of the guard’s injuries – he had a large gash on his neck, and it looked as if he’d been impaled through the abdomen with a large object.

“Still not picking up his thoughts?” Kwannon asked as she turned to Monet.

“No… I’m not…” Monet trailed off, a puzzled look on her face.

Shang-Chi held the guard’s back to support him and said, “Relax, we are here to help. Can you speak? What is your name?”

“Um… guys…” came Jubilee’s voice from mere feet away.

The guard turned and looked at Shang-Chi, but did not say anything. Instead he just took continuous deep, raspy breaths and started to stand up. Shang-Chi tried to keep him still but the guard resisted.

“You are severely injured, you shouldn’t…” Shang-Chi was cut off by a loud grunt from the guard, who proceeded to stand up straight and face the Master of Kung-Fu.

“Umm… hello… guys?” Jubilee called again, but the other three were too captivated with the badly wounded guard who now seemed to be perfectly fine.

“What in the world?” Kwannon gasped.

Shang-Chi looked the guard straight in the face and it was at that moment that he noticed a faint yellow haze in the man’s eyes. He wondered if the guard had some sort of superhuman powers, or if there might be something else going on.

“HEY!” Jubilee yelled out once more. “You guys might wanna turn around and look at this! We have some Resident Evil bullshit going on here!”

Kwannon turned around and a look of horror washed over her face as she saw what Jubilee was talking about – literally dozens of dead men, all guards at the prison judging from their armor, were now up and walking, and coming right at them. Realizing what was happening, she quickly turned back to the guard near Shang-Chi and immediately struck him down.

Shang-Chi looked at Kwannon in disbelief but before he could say anything she motioned for him to look behind him. He immediately understood, as he saw the living dead coming for him and his teammates.

“I suppose someone in here has the ability to reanimate dead tissue,” Monet commented as she took a battle stance alongside her teammates.

“Either that or there is a sorcerer on the premises,” Shang-Chi said. “I know of men who can raise the dead through magic.”

“Whatever the case, their minds are blank – they’re empty shells,” Monet informed her team. “So we know what that means.”

“No holding back,” Kwannon confirmed. She retrieved a compact, staff-like item from her uniform and opened it, revealing a long, double-bladed lance. “Shall we?”

Far away from any of the action, Domino and Proteus carefully made their way through the bowels of the prison. It seemed to be an endless maze of corridors and they all looked the same, fashioned with dark metal walls and grated floors, but that was probably the point to make passing through harder for people who didn’t belong there. Domino knew they weren’t far, however; Blink hadn’t teleported them right to where they needed to be, but she had gotten them pretty darn close.

“How’s your arm?” Proteus asked as he and his leader continued walking.

“Sore but useable,” Domino told him. “You’re lucky you didn’t get beat up like I did. You holding up okay otherwise, though?”

Proteus shrugged. “Yeah… I guess. Just worried about Cameron. I can’t believe Sabretooth took his arm off… what kind of sick person does that?”

“Victor Creed does,” Domino replied with a disgusted sigh. “He’s beyond homicidal.”

“Majorly,” Proteus said. “So, like, do you think this Noh-Varr guy is gonna win? Do you think there’s really gonna be an invasion?”

“Nah, the Avengers or Fantastic Four or someone will probably kick his ass,” Domino informed her young teammate. “He’s small potatoes compared to a lot of baddies before him. He did really mess things up by shutting down all these prisons, however. Have to give him props for that little stroke of genius.”

The two X-Men rounded another corner and arrived at a hub of sorts, with three separate hallway passages and several closed doors surrounding a large, gated chasm in the middle of the area. Domino and Proteus walked forward and looked down into the shaft, but all they could see was blackness. Perhaps the facility went much deeper underground than anyone realize, they thought.

“Well, let’s see…” Domino started to say, looking at the myriad of different doors. “You know, it’d make my life a whole lot easier if they labeled these rooms. Is that too much to ask?”

“Guess we’ll have to try each one,” Proteus said.

Suddenly there was a noise coming from one of the passageways and both X-Men turned their attention in its direction. They couldn’t see anything, as after a few feet in the view became very dark, but a split second later they heard it again. Domino retrieved her guns from her holsters and handed one to Proteus.

“Be ready,” she whispered to him, looking around for any signs of another person. She figured they’d have an encounter of some sort, though with her luck she was hoping that they’d be able to get this done easily.

After a few more moments the sound was gone and there was still no sign of anyone else. Domino lowered her weapon and looked at her teammate. “Maybe just some ambient noise from the upper lev-”

Before Domino could finish her sentence she was struck from behind and sent flying through the air and down into the pit in the middle of the room. Proteus was mortified and cried out the woman’s name, but to no avail. He was then attacked by the same individual who took out Domino and fell to the ground flat on his back. His attacker came into view and placed a heavy foot on Proteus’ chest.

“Who are you?!” Proteus yelled at the man, who had light blue skin and white hair. “If she’s dead, I swear I’ll…”

“Silence, boy,” the man said, doubling the pressure of his hold on the X-Man. “I am Kel-Von of the Kree empire, and you, human, are about to join your friend in death.”

The Astral Plane

Piotr Rasputin stared in awe at the young blonde girl standing across from him, a look of worry and sadness on her face. He knew deep down that this was not real, that she was not real… but he couldn’t help but be drawn into the vision of his baby sister, alive and well and beautiful as ever.

“Piotr, please!” Illyana pleaded, clutching a Bamf doll tightly in her arms. “Please don’t leave me behind!”

“Illyana!” Piotr exclaimed, and he ran over and scooped the girl into his arms. Tears streamed from his eyes as he clutched his sister tightly, and she returned the favor with a kiss on his cheek.

Astrid stood nearby in the meantime and watched the reunion, though she knew it was all just a part of Piotr’s coma. She wanted to get this over with, as she didn’t want to risk Piotr not being able to wake up again, but she decided to remain silent just long enough for him to enjoy this moment.

“Illyana… my snowflake… how did you get here?” Piotr asked his sister as he gently set her back on the ground and kneeled down to her level.

“I went through the light, Piotr,” Illyana told him, seeming anxious. “I was alone, I was locked away. But then they saved me! And then I went to the light, and hoped to find you. And I did!” She stopped for a moment to catch her breath, then she asked, “Can we go home now?”

Piotr looked at his sister, confused, as the realization came back to him that this wasn’t actually real. However, he couldn’t figure out exactly what was going on. Why was this vision of his sister telling such a story?

“Illyana… what do you mean? Where did you go?” Piotr asked her, gently stroking her cheek.

The girl simply answered, “Wonderland.”

“Piotr, I’m sorry, but time is of the essence… we should go,” Astrid said as she came up behind the X-Man.

“Wait, my sister…” Piotr started to say.

“She’s not real,” Astrid said softly, looking at Illyana then at Piotr. “She’s a beautiful girl, and I’m sorry she is no longer with you… but we need to put your mind back in place. You need to heal.”

“No! Piotr! You can’t leave without me!” Illyana cried, clutching her brother’s arm. “Take me with you!”

Piotr swallowed back a lump in his throat and held back his tears the best he could. All he could think about now was his sister dying from the Legacy Virus all those years ago, and how much he’d missed her since then. This experience now was a blessing, but also a reminder of the pain he thought he’d already worked through.

“Let her go,” Astrid said, motioning for Piotr to stand up. “I know this is hard, but it’s not real. It’s your mind trying to take care of you. It is a beautiful thing… but it’s not real.”

“I am real! I am! I am I am I am!!!” Illyana screamed. “I am real! I am not sick anymore! I escaped from the bad place! I want to go home! Please, Piotr, please! I want to go with you!”

“Illyana… I am sorry…” Piotr barely managed to say. “Goodbye, little sister…”

“NO!”

Before Astrid or Piotr could say or do anything else, the entire landscape of Piotr’s mind was engulfed in a blinding white light.

The Void

“Ha! It is done!” Arnim Zola proclaimed as he switched the power on for his newly finished machine. Though the rest of the facility was powered down, he’d managed to piece together a small, independent superconductor to restore power to the room he was in, something brilliant by most people’s standards but child’s play to a megalomaniac such as himself.

The machine stood tall in the center of the room, with all kinds of tubes and coils flowing into it from every direction. At the center was a spherical object that glowed intensely with a bright purple haze, and a small headpiece sat on a hook, presumably for its intended operator to wear. Zola would not need such a thing to use the device, however, as he had instead created a wireless link between himself and the contraption.

Just then the Purple Man waltzed into the room, and was delighted to see that the project he’d requested was finished. “Mister Zola,” he said as he walked up to his former fellow inmate, “you even made it purple. How thoughtful.”

“It is done, exactly what you wanted,” Zola told him, his tone suggesting a wicked glee. “This machine will allow you to spread your influence far, far beyond the walls of this prison.”

Purple Man nodded, acknowledging his approval, and took into his hands the headset. He placed it on his head and instantly could feel a great power surging through him; he hadn’t even begun doing anything yet but already he could feel the expanse of the machine’s reach. It was incredible, a sensation unlike anything he’d ever felt before.

“It is time to spread fear in this world,” the Purple Man said, an evil smile forming on his face. “Be ready, Mister Zola.”

“Oh, I am anticipating it, ‘sir’,” Zola cackled under his breath.

As the Purple Man activated the machine and began expanding his influence more and more, he suddenly felt a sharp, painful jolt of energy course through his body. He yelled out in pain and felt to his knees, but Zola made sure that the headpiece remained securely fastened on the man’s head.

“Foolish boy! Your power is not as great as you thought, I guess?” Arnim Zola bellowed. “You think that I take orders from anyone? I will admit that you had me for a short time… but you should have known better. I am no one’s puppet. Now it’s your turn to bow to me!”

Zola turned a knob on the machine that apparently amplified it even more, and the Purple Man cried out once more. Zola just laughed and said, “Be afraid, Mister Killgrave! Bevery afraid!”

Ever had managed to keep the two gigantic men at bay with his telekinesis but the woman calling herself the Snow Queen was really giving him a headache, literally. He was successfully keeping her out of his own mind but trying to also free his teammates was proving to be a challenge. He wasn’t quite used to multi-tasking so much with his powers yet, and was afraid to let loose any further for fear of losing control.

“Oh why bother, mate? You can’t win! But with your power… what a team we could make, right?” Snow Queen said, standing right outside the teke barrier Ever had erected around himself. “What say you drop this shield… and just give up.”

“Not a chance!” Ever yelled, and he pushed the blonde away with his telekinesis. Her two ‘henchmen’ were not standing far away either, and were proving very difficult to hold; they had to weigh at least a ton each.

“Oh come on… come on…” Ever kept saying to himself, struggling to find the balance he needed to defeat his opponents. “Don’t be a loser… be an X-Man…”

As the Snow Queen started making her way back towards Ever, she was suddenly struck by a great sense of fear and anxiety; one look at her two lackeys told her the same was happening to them. The blonde had no choice but to release her hold on the X-Men, though the sensation seemed to overtake them all as well.

Ever started to panic as the new intrusion made itself known, but oddly enough he had an easier time keeping this attack at bay. He wasted no time in erecting barriers in his teammates’ minds, and hoped that they would be enough to keep them alert and focused.

“Oh God… what’s goin’ on…?” Husk asked as she and Blink help each other to their feet. “Ah felt all fogged up and now Ah’m on the verge of bein’ terrified…”

“Do not let it control you!” Sunfire told his team. “It is Killgrave. This is his ability, to spread fear.”

“I’m keeping him at bay the best I can!” Ever said. “This thing… it’s everywhere…”

“What about the others? Any word?” Neal asked. He felt sick to his stomach but, as he did during his days in the military, ignored it.

“Monet? Martinique?” Ever asked out loud. {Where are you?}

Kwannon, Jubilee, Monet, and Shang-Chi were battling their way through the hordes of undead when the wave of fear hit them, though it had little impact; Monet had previously fortified their minds with her telepathy, and the guards had no emotions as they were only empty shells. However, the Purple Man’s influence was still making its presence known.

“Oh… wow… do you feel that?” Jubilee asked Kwannon as she and cousin stood fighting back-to-back. Kwannon struck down two of the zombies with one strike of her lance while Jubilee blasted away several more with a cluster of neon-colored explosions.

At first Kwannon didn’t understand what Jubilee meant but then felt a slight tug at her mind, as if something was trying to drag her spirits down. “Yes… I do… it’s faint, but it’s there.”

“Everyone, Ever and his team are alright, but that man, the Purple Man is trying to control us all… I am fighting him the best I can,” Monet told her allies.

Shang-Chi was nearby and focused solely on bringing down the undead guards, he did not even hear the words being spoken. He tore through the men one after another, becoming angrier with each strike; it was bad enough that these men had been murdered in cold blood by the inmates, now one of them was using their corpses as weapons. In his eyes it was the ultimate desecration of the human body.

The zombies moved incredibly fast and were very strong, though their bodies were fragile. Shang-Chi easily maneuvered around them, flipping over one and kicking it away then dipping low to the ground and sweeping four more off their feet. He showed the former guards no mercy and made sure that each blow would take the creatures down permanently, though that was in some ways a fruitless effort as many of them seemed to rise again after a few minutes.

Kwannon charged at the men with her lance out in front of her and impaled several of them on the weapon’s blade. She wasted no time in swinging the lance above her head and taking down several more of the monstrosities. As she hit them more and more she only wished she could be doing these things to the one responsible for the chaos.

“Fire in the hole!” Jubilee yelled out as a beam of colorful energy shot out from her hands and tore through half a dozen of the zombies. Their bodies crumbled into nothing and she followed up with another round of energy blasts. She only wished that Sabretooth and Mystique were in the line of fire as well.

Monet was stubborn and arrogant, so much so that she wouldn’t let show the fact that she was really having to try to keep her and her teammates protected now. The Purple Man’s influence was growing stronger by the moment and she was doing all she could to focus. She did what she could to push such thoughts from her mind and instead used her superhuman strength to pummel a group of the zombies that were all around her.

Monet grabbed one of the men and shot up into the air, then changed course and darted straight at the ground into a cluster of the undead. The end result was a half dozen of the creatures incapacitated with more to take their place.

{Ever, I don’t know how much longer I can hold on!}

As Proteus struggled to get free from the Kree man standing over him, he suddenly found it an easy task as the alien grasped his head in pain and a mortified look crossed his face. Proteus jumped to his feet but suddenly found himself incredibly terrified; Domino was dead and he was all alone, and he had no idea what to do. His breathing began to pick up a faster pace as he slowly backed himself away from Kel-Von.

“Human scum!” the Kree shouted. “You are not to be trusted, not one of you! Noh-Varr should have planned better…”

An angry howl escaped Kel-Von as he threw his head back, and Proteus figured that perhaps the sudden anxiety and fear was affecting everyone, not just the ‘good guys’. The young X-Man was still practically too terrified to move, however, and had no idea how he could handle this situation.

Kel-Von seemed to almost regain his composure in a split second and then set his sights on Proteus once more. The Kree began to advance and Proteus could feel his heart about to beat out of his chest, however just in the nick of time the feeling seemed to subside and he regained enough emotional balance to think rationally.

{Peter, I’ve got you covered but I can’t stop this guy… be careful!}

Proteus felt better knowing that Ever was watching his back and was able to dodge out of the way just as Kel-Von swung at him. From what he knew about the Kree, they were more than twice as strong than the average human, which didn’t do Proteus any favors, but he’d have to try and take the alien down.

“Give up, human,” Kel-Von said as he again came at the mutant, but to no avail.

“I think you’re the first person who’s tried to kill me because I’m ‘human’,” Proteus quipped. “And hey… do you Kree guys have your junk in the same place as us humans?”

Proteus didn’t wait for Kel-Von to respond to that question and instead gave the blue-skinned man a swift kick right in the groin area. He got his answer when Kel-Von keeled over in pain and shouted several words in what must have been the Kree language.

“Guess so!” came a female voice, and Proteus was shocked and relieved to see Domino pulling herself up and over the gate surrounding the chasm in the center of the room. “Good thinking.”

“You’re alive!” Proteus exclaimed; he was so elated he could almost hug the woman.

“I’m lucky, remember?” Domino told him. She then turned her gaze to Kel-Von, who was still trying to recover from Proteus’ very unpleasant strike. “Allow me to finish this.”

Domino took the butt of her gun and bashed it against the back of Kel-Von’s head, and the alien fell unconscious instantly. For good measure, she followed up with a swift, hard kick in the abdomen.

“There,” Domino said. She turned her attention back to Proteus and asked him, “Are you okay?”

“I am now, but… do you feel that? I think it’s that guy, the Purple Man… trying to get to all of us,” Proteus surmised.

{Domino, he’s right,} Ever spoke into both of the X-Men’s minds. {We’re running out of time. Monet and I can’t protect us all for long.}

Domino tapped the comm-link on her uniform and said, “Rhodes, you there? How’re you guys doing?”

There was silence for a minute and Domino began to think the worst, but finally War Machine came through over the connection. “Domino, things have escalated too much as this point. We need to stop Killgrave. Now.”

“Meaning?”

“Change of plans.”

“Okay,” Domino said, “I’m listening…”

The Snow Queen had no idea what was suddenly going on, though she knew that one of her fellow inmates was probably to blame. Not that she really minded, but it was quite a pain to try and keep the spreading influence at bay. Her powers not only allowed her to create ‘static’ in other minds but also allowed her to create that static in her own mind as a defense mechanism. However, she could only do that for so long before the side effects began to take a toll on her.

She decided that it wasn’t worth it to try and take on the superheroes anymore, as her main objective had to be to escape. Once she was out of this place, she could go back to her usual business and try and rebuild her life. She’d been in captivity for so long, she ended up losing track of the time. She wondered how the world had changed in the past few years.

As the blonde made her way through the facility she continued to push the Purple Man’s influence from her mind and focus on getting to one of the exits. She wasn’t exactly sure she was going the right way but she was going up, and going up would eventually take her to the surface.

She started to hear great commotion in the distance and it seemed to get closer and closer. As she passed through an observation deck she looked out below and saw that more of the superheroes – or whatever they were – were engaged with what looked to be the dead bodies of the Void prison guards. It was certainly a sight to behold and she wondered who was behind this stroke of genius.

Snow Queen shrugged the events off and instead took off running again, but slowed down once more as a figure came into view ahead of her. It was a man from what she could tell, but other than that his features were shrouded in darkness.

“Going somewhere?” the man said as she got closer, and his voice was enough to send chills up her spine. He exuded great power, more so than the apparent fear and anxiety spreading through the prison.

“I’m getting out of here,” Snow Queen told the man as she was about to start moving again. “If you’ll excuse me…”

“You have great power inside of you,” the man said as he stepped out of the shadows, fully revealing himself. He was of Asian descent, and had yellow-hued skin and a thin, black mustache. “It just needs to be… cultivated.”

“I beg your pardon?” Snow Queen asked, creeped out by the man but intrigued at the same time. “Who are you?”

“Like you, I was a prisoner here, but no more,” the man began to tell her. “This prison can no longer hold one such as I. I wield powers you could not comprehend. The power of magic. The power to raise the dead to do my bidding.”

Snow Queen’s eyes widened in surprise as she said, “That was your doing? Who are you?”

“I am called Yellow Claw,” the man replied, “and I have a proposition for you.”

Sunfire and his team began to feel overwhelmed as several more former inmates joined in the attack on them. Most of them were stark raving mad now thanks to the Purple Man and were just attacking anyone at random, but several were still focused enough to go after just the X-Men. However they wouldn’t be able to take much more, especially if more and more inmates were going to be headed their way.

“Damn it, why has no one turned the power back on yet? At the very least we could throw some of these miscreants back into their cells!” Sunfire yells as he soars through the air, tossing several fireballs at his opponents on the ground.

{They’re working on it! We’ve got to hang in there!} came Ever’s voice in all of his teammates’ heads. {There’s been a change of plans.}

Sunfire wanted answers and started to say, “What…?”

Suddenly, one of blink’s portals opened and out came Domino and Proteus, who quickly started aiding their teammates in their fight. Seconds later, a second portal opened and Kwannon’s team poured out.

“This is the plan, condense everyone in one area? Imbeciles!” Sunfire shouted.

“Maybe you should stop being a stubborn SOB for a minute and just trust us,” came War Machine’s voice as he zipped through the air near Sunfire and laid down a barrage of repulser rays on the inmates.

War Machine then lowered himself to the ground and swept through the prisoners, taking several more down, and left the rest for his allies to finish off. With all of them collected together as they were, it was only a matter of time before the X-Men and friends finished off the last of the villains in the area.

“That’s part one,” War Machine said as he and Sunfire both lowered themselves to the ground. “Would you care to hear part two?”

“We’ve found exactly where Killgrave is and if we can just take him out quickly then this should be over. Blink, you ready?” Domino said as she approached the pink-skinned young woman.

“Yep,” Blink replied. “Just show me where.”

{Right here.}

Blink nodded and immediately opened a portal in front of her. In an instant she, War Machine, and Ever jumped into it, and disappeared into thin air. The portal closed, leaving the rest of the team behind.

“You people never cease to amaze me with your…”

“Sunfire, shut the fuck up,” Domino told the man, “and just wait.”

Arnim Zola had been watching on with delight for a while now at the sight before him – the Purple Man on his knees, crying out in pain, while also unleashing a wave of fear upon the world. It hadn’t gotten too far yet but Zola was upping the output of the machine every few minutes, and it wouldn’t be long before he had the entire region in his grasp. In a few more hours the influence would be able to stretch across the world.

Zola devious smile quickly turned upside down, however, as he saw a pink teleportation portal open up at the other end of the room. He knew instantly that the opposition was here, but he wasn’t going to give up without a fight.

Blink stepped out first, followed by War Machine and Ever. The portal closed just as quickly as the Purple Man’s powers started to take a massive toll on the three heroes, being in such close proximity and all, but Ever did his best to keep the man’s influence at bay. War Machine locked his eyes on Arnim Zola and immediately aimed his repulser weapons at the odd-looking man.

“One move, I dare you,” War Machine said, and Zola simply glares at the armored hero. “Okay, let’s turn this thing off…”

“That machine is the only thing keeping him under my control! His powers have been amplified immensely… if you shut it down, he’ll tear us all apart!” Zola exclaimed.

“Then we’ll just incapacitate him first, I suppose,” War Machine said. “Someone care to do the honors?”

“One time-displacing dagger coming right up,” Blink said as a bright pink energy shard formed in her hand.

“NO!” Arnim Zola yelled out, and he blasted at the three heroes while lunging for the power to his machine. He decided he’d rather have Killgrave take him out than a band of do-gooders.

The machine was powered down and the Purple Man rose to his feet, angrier than he had ever been in his life. He had to give Zola credit for trying, but he had to have known that it wouldn’t last. He let loose with every last ounce of power he had, and it was too much for even Ever to fight back. While the four heroes sunk to their knees in pain, the Purple Man approached Zola, who was quivering on the ground like a frightened child.

“I am not going to kill you, instead I am going to make sure you are full of the most potent fear for the rest of your pathetic life…”

{Ever, collect yourself! We can stop Killgrave but we have to do it now!}

Ever fought intensely against the Purple Man’s influence and suddenly found it easier as he felt himself ‘join’ telepathically with Monet and Mastermind, a sensation not unlike holding hands in the physical world. For the moment they all had to let their teammates be; if they didn’t focus all their power to put the Purple Man down, they wouldn’t be able to win.

“Ah, you try to stop me… little telepaths,” the Purple Man said, looking aimlessly around the room as he felt the three mutants start to penetrate his mind. “I have power you can’t dream of. You children should not play such games.”

{This is… impossible…}

{Bloody hell! Ever, we’re just low-level telepaths but you can do this… cut loose, damn you! There’s no time to think!}

{Martinique I can’t, I could kill everybody!}

{JUST BLOODY DO IT!}

Seeing no other choice, Ever obeyed Mastermind’s command and opened himself up completely. He cringed as he felt the full force of his telepathic abilities surge through his mind, a sensation he’d only felt once before in his life. It was terrifying, but at no other time did he feel so free, so confident, so… powerful.

Ever lifted himself into the air with his telekinesis and the Purple Man watched in shock as the X-Man approached him, engulfed in a glowing field of static energy.

{Your sideshow’s over, psycho.}

The Purple Man gasped as he felt Ever’s mind overtake his own, and immediately the fear he was spreading all around him faded away. Ever was relieved but started to panic as he felt his telepathy continue to amplify itself; just as he feared, he was truly losing control.

He could feel it – all of his teammates, they were free from the Purple Man but now they had him to contend with. He couldn’t stop it. He wanted to scream, as he was unwillingly attacking them all. They were all in pain, and he was trying as best he could to contain it… but could he? And if so, how?

He didn’t want it to end like this. If his own power consumed him, so be it, but he wouldn’t let it take everyone around him as well. He did all he could to concentrate the power on himself; he imagined it caving in on him, like a collapsing star in a sense, except it wouldn’t consume those around him. He could kill himself to spare his friends.

Ever couldn’t tell if it was working or not, as he was in too much anguish over his near total lack of control. He was bound and determined to keep at it – focus was the name of the game. And then suddenly…

Suddenly, the struggle was over. His pain was gone. He was powered down. He was somewhere else though… the Astral Plane. He didn’t know how or why he had been whisked away to this place, or how he’d suddenly regained control over his abilities. It almost felt as if someone else had done it for him.

Darkness surrounded him in every direction, and he couldn’t see anything at all. He tried to will himself back to reality but something, or someone, was preventing that. It was then that a vision appeared before him – a set of large, blood red eyes, teething with energy. There were suddenly several pairs of the eyes, surrounding him, all staring directly at him.

{It is not your time.}

The deep, booming voice dissipated just as quickly as it came, and the eyes faded into nothingness. With that, Ever’s path to return to his body was also unblocked, and he took it.

Nanoseconds later, Ever found himself back in the physical world. He didn’t know what to make of what had just happened, but was relieved when he saw Blink and War Machine on their feet, looking none the worse for wear.

“All I have to say is – ouch,” War Machine joked. “I’m glad you found the off switch.”

“Sorry,” Ever said, shaking his head in confusion. “I… I hated doing that. But…” He turned and saw that the Purple Man was out of commission. “It got the job done.”

“Kill you all… kill you all…” Arnim Zola was surprisingly still awake, sitting on the ground and leaning against one of the walls. He held a small device in his hand that looked like a remote control. As he pressed one of the buttons he mumbled, “Kill all the monsters… you’ll all be blasted to bits…”

“Oh… shit,” Ever said after a quick look inside Zola’s jumbled mind. “He just activated the self-destruct sequence.”

“Blink!” War Machine said. “Portal, now, please!”

As the young woman complied Ever spoke to the rest of his teammates telepathically. {Everybody hang on… we’re getting out of here!}

The Xavier Institute; One hour later

Henry McCoy sat at the main console of the comm-link in the War Room talking to Domino, who’s visage appeared on the large monitor before him. He was relieved when he received the call from his teammates; he would never admit it, but he had truly started to worry that something had happened to them.

“So in a nutshell, the prison went ‘boom’ thanks to Arnim Zola, but we all got out alive and well,” Domino informed him. “SHIELD came in and is cleaning up. I’m assuming that’s a good sign if they’re out and about again?”

“You would be correct, Beatrice,” Henry replied. “I just received word that Noh-Varr is gone and the Kree fleet has changed course. No alien invasions today.”

“So now I can take a nice, long bubble bath and just relax… excellent,” Domino half-exclaimed. “Well we’re en route, should be home in an hour. We’ll see you then.”

The comm-link was deactivated and Henry rose from his seat. Just as he was making his way towards the door, there was a beep over the intercom and a familiar voice called out to him.

“Henry, please come to the medical bay… something’s happened.”

“Astrid?” Henry said. “What is it? Did something go wrong?”

“Just… please. Hurry.”

The medical bay was divided into separate sections, and had several private rooms to accomodate multiple patients. Cameron Dalin was one of those patients, and it was only too convenient that he was resting in a room all by himself with no one else in sight.

It made it positively easy for him to be removed.

A ghostly figure materialized in the room and moved over to Cameron’s bedside. He overall looked fine, except for the fact that he was missing an arm, but that could be fixed. However, he was no longer safe here… being in the condition he was in and having sustained the damage he did, it would only be a matter of time before the X-Men discovered the truth.

“Sorry buddy, but you can kiss the Xavier Institute goodbye,” the ‘ghost’, a woman, whispered softly to him. She placed her hands on his chest and almost instantaneously, the two of them vanished into thin air.

Henry arrived in Piotr’s room in the medical bay and was stopped dead in his tracks by the sight he saw. Astrid was sitting by Piotr’s bedside and was fine, and Piotr was awake and seemed to be doing fine. In fact, he was better than fine – he had the biggest smile on his face that Henry had ever seen. And rightfully so…

“Henry,” Astrid said as she approached the blue-furred man, “I… I don’t know how this happened…”

“Stars and garters,” Henry said as he approached Piotr’s bed and focused on the individual sitting on his lap. “This day has been full of surprises…”

The little blonde girl looked at Henry and smiled warmly, and waved with one of her small hands. “Hello, Doctor McCoy! I am so happy to see you!”

“Is it not a miracle, Hank?” Piotr asked.

“That would be an understatement,” Henry said, looking at Piotr then at the little girl. “Welcome back, Illyana.”

Cold.

He felt cold. All around him. He thought he might be frozen solid, but when he opened his eyes, he saw that he was… somewhere. Somewhere he didn’t know. All he could around him was ice and snow.

He slowly got to his feet, and looked at himself. He was naked for some odd reason, but even more inexplicable than that… his skin… he noticed it was pure white. He couldn’t remember anything, except… people don’t have white skin. Maybe it was from all the snow?

He looked around again and saw nothing. Just a blizzard all around him, and at least a foot of snow on the ground. There weren’t even any trees. How did he get here? Where is here? Who is he?

His head started to hurt and all he could think to do was walk. Maybe if he walked, he could remember something. If he was lucky.

The white-skinned man started moving along in the snow when he felt his foot hit something. It wasn’t a block of ice; it was soft. Freezing cold, but soft. The man looked down, and he saw two outlines in the snow. He looked a little closer, and saw that there were two other people in the snow.

He couldn’t make out what they looked like very well, just that there was one man and one woman. The man had normal skin and hair, but the woman had an odd pink tint to her complexion. They too were both naked, but it didn’t seem like they were waking up anytime soon. He decided that maybe he could wake them, or if they won’t wake up, he could carry them. He didn’t know who they were, he didn’t even know if they were alive… but it was something. Maybe they could tell him who he was.

As he reached to first take hold of the woman, he felt an odd sensation in his arm, almost as if something was moving inside of it. He witnessed as a large bulge moved about in his arm, and he started to panic; what was happening to him?

Suddenly there was a wide gap that opened right by his wrist and he howled in pain as his skin tore. He didn’t know what was going on, he only knew that he wanted it to stop. Maybe it would just better if he laid down and gave up?

The slit in his wrist became wider and to the man’s shock and horror, a thick, fleshy tentacle emerged from the opening. It writhed around as if it had a mind of its own, and all the man could do was stare at it. What was he? Why was this happening? And suddenly a very simple yet profound revelation dawned upon him… he didn’t know how or why he knew, he just did. He didn’t know how or why he was apparently alive, but… he just was.

Once upon a time, he died…

NEXT, IN UNCANNY X-MEN #51: More changes are on the horizon for the mutants as the team mourns Iceman’s passing.

Author’s Notes
Holy hell.

Yes, I am exhausted after writing this thing… it was a monster. Took me long enough! I did intend to have this finished for an October release but, well, there were several real life matters to attend to. And of course this is the 2005 annual… yet here we are in 2006 🙂 My bad! At least it’s done, though, right?

Obviously there are some… controversial things that happened in this issue. Like me breaking my “dead is dead” rule that I have so strictly enforced and vowed I would never break. However, the ending of Chris Munn’s latest Generation X run really made for a perfect excuse to bring some guys and gals back to the land of the living. Trust me when I say that none of this was gratuitous and each character’s return will serve a purpose. And of course I’ll be exploring just what the heck happened to get all these people back to the land of the living – particularly Illyana.

Backtracking just a little, well, it did take me a long time to finish this annual, much longer than I wanted. I agonized over this because after getting a very short way into it… I just clammed up. Couldn’t write anymore. In some ways I had to force myself to finish it. So, I do admit that this is probably not my best work, especially when compared to my recent issues. I had to get it done, though – I had to get it out of the way, because I am just so excited to start writing the upcoming new issues.

This is starting year eight for me on this series. Eight years! It is crazy to think it has been that long. I’m still here, though, and I have lots of stories left to tell, starting with the fallout from “Past Tense”. There is a lot about to go on and I’ll guarantee that at least half of it you won’t see coming!

Look for issue #51 in the near future. I am hoping I will have it ready for this month but if not it will definitely be finished for February.

Thanks for reading!

~Ryan
01/15/06

 

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