Uncanny X-Men

 

With a hands-free flip of the switch, light filled the spacious, luxurious presidential bathroom. It was decked out in gold and marble, a space truly fit for a queen, though the red-headed woman entering the room didn’t think of herself in that manner. Far from it, in fact, though many would argue that she always had a certain air of regalness about her.

Jean Grey wasn’t royalty, but she did happen to be the leader of the world’s only sovereign mutant nation. Like any ordinary person, though, she had a morning routine that involved everything from showering to brushing her teeth to getting dressed for the day. Admittedly she had it a bit easier than the majority, having the capability to multi-task unlike most others thanks to the power of telekinesis that was at her disposal. Most women would likely envy her if they realized just how easy it was for her to do her hair.

As Jean sat down at the vanity that was built into the wall beside the sink, she slipped off her robe and moved it with her mind to hang on a nearby hook. Left only in a nighty that stopped just above her knees, Jean took a brush and began the unnecessary task of brushing her hair. It was a simple, ordinary thing she liked to indulge in each morning before thrusting herself into her work as Genosha’s president.

Sitting and looking at herself in the mirror as she combed through her red locks, Jean couldn’t helped but smile as her thoughts drifted back to the night before. It’d been another wonderful night with her husband and daughter; family dinner, followed by a Dora marathon for the baby, and topped off by a passionate session of love-making with Scott. It was the first time they’d been intimate since Jean left the Xavier Institute all those months ago, and she’d missed it so much. She was sure she’d be thinking about it all day long.

Everything seemed to be falling back in place for her with her family. She’d been very successful in her new career, but the absence of her husband and daughter had left her feeling rather empty for so long. It appeared that now she would be whole once again… her, Scott, and Rachel would be a family again. Just how it was before.

“How long do you think it’s going to last?”

Jean was startled by the voice, which she could tell instantly was broadcasting inside her mind. It was shrill and ominous, yet feminine and seductive. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but something about the voice seemed very familiar to her…

“Who’s there?” Jean asked aloud.

“I think the answer’s pretty obvious, don’t you?”

Becoming more irritated with each passing second, Jean asked again, “Who are you?”

“Look in the mirror, Jean.”

Jean moved her gaze back to the mirror before her, but only saw her own reflection staring back at her. “Is this some sort of joke?”

The former X-Man was taken aback when suddenly, her own reflection started moving indepently and looking back at her with a different set of eyes. The woman reflected in the glass was identical, save for the fact that she seemed to have a faint aura of flame around her body. Jean swallowed back a lump in her throat as she realized who the person in the mirror was supposed to be.

“You didn’t really think you’d gotten rid of me for good, did you?” The woman in the mirror smiled, then let out a small laugh.

“What the hell is going on…?” Jean concentrated and used her telepathy to scan the surrounding area. Surely this was some sort of sick prank, but there weren’t many people in the world who would be capable of doing such a thing to the woman who was arguably the most powerful telepath on the face of the planet. “Who is this? Frost – Frost, is it you?”

“Emma Frost? Jean, I’m almost insulted. She’s no match for you. Or rather, us.”

Jean locked eyes once more with the woman in the mirror, having no success in locating any outside source for the phenomenon. If someone else wasn’t doing this, there was only one alternative… one she did not like at all.

“Oh, don’t give me that look. You knew it was inevitable. Deep down inside, you knew I was always there, that I never truly went away, that I never will. We’re one and the same, no matter how hard you try to keep us apart.”

“Shut up.”

“I’m not some demon you can exorcise. I’m not a tumor that can be cut out. I am a part of you, Jean, and a very vital part at that. You’re nothing without me, and as much as I hate to admit it, I’m not much without you either.”

“Stop it… go away.”

“I have to say, it’s good to be back. I was so lonely, locked away deep inside the abyss of your psyche. And I had a hell of a time reaching the surface. But it had to be done, Jean… I had to come back to you. You need me, now more than ever.”

“Shut up.”

“And what a time to come back! Last night, when Scott was all over you… my goodness. He was quite the animal. Obviously he was celebrate the whole time you were apart. Sadly, I don’t think this little reunion going to las-”

“I SAID SHUT UP!!!”

Jean lashed out and tore not only the mirror but the entire vanity apart, shattering it into a million tiny particles. She couldn’t stand to hear the woman speak anymore, and she hoped more than anything that her actions would make it stop. Jean looked back at where the mirror had been, and stared intently for a moment, waiting for her to come back. Or perhaps ‘dreading’ was a more appropriate word.

“Don’t worry… we can pick up where we left off later. Have a good day, Jean.”

Flustered, Jean let out a despaired sigh, and demanded to know, “Who are you?”

“Fine, you don’t want to say it… I will. It’s me, Jean. It’s Phoenix.”

GHOSTS OF FUTURE PAST

By Ryan Krupienski

The Xavier Institute

“How are you feeling today, Piotr?”

The question came from the woman named Astrid Bloom, who was sitting comfortably in a brown leather chair, legs crossed, with a notepad and pen in hand. Her query was targeted at the tall, muscular man sitting on the nearby leather couch, who had a confused, if not somewhat agigated, expression on his face.

“Please tell me why I’m here, Astrid?” Piotr Rasputin, the mutant otherwise known as Colossus, asked in response.

Astrid huffed, though she’d already been advised that she’d encounter some resistance in getting her ‘patient’ to participate in the counseling session she’d set up. Since coming to the Xavier mansion not long ago, she’d managed to settle in rather easily, and had shortly thereafter made it her mission to put her knowledge and experience as a licensed psychologist to good use to help her newfound comrades. Starting with the man in the room with her at the moment.

“Piotr, you’ve had a rather traumatic time recently, wouldn’t you agree?” Astrid began, her gaze firmly trained on the Russian. “First, you almost die from having your chest torn open… then you go into a deep coma and shuttle yourself back ten plus years to your past… and now, your long-dead sister is suddenly alive and well with no sensible explanation. I just thought that maybe you’d want to talk about it is all.”

“With all due respect,” Piotr said as he started to stand up, “I don’t need to be, as they say, ‘shrunk’. Your concern is noted and appreciated, but this isn’t necessary. So if you’ll excuse me, I need to be getting back to my students.”

“Henry took the liberty of clearing your schedule today so we could have this meeting,” Astrid informed him. “So, why don’t you sit down and take advantage of this opportunity?”

“Henry? Why…?” Piotr asked, as he hesitantly sat back down.

“He agreed with me that perhaps you needed to talk to someone and get some things off your chest. Truthfully, all of your teammates could probably use a chat with a ‘shrink’ – as they say – but you top the list,” Astrid replied. “So, out with it then. How are you feeling, Piotr?”

Piotr looked at Astrid, then looked away and around the room aimlessly for a moment. Where to begin? He didn’t know. He didn’t even know Astrid that well, and wasn’t quite sure he felt comfortable confiding in her. Or maybe that was the whole point? To talk to someone he didn’t know, who didn’t know him, who could listen and perhaps offer a fresh new perspective for him to consider. It wasn’t unconventional by any means, and considering that his schedule was cleared for the day…

“I’m sorry, I’ve… never really done this before,” Piotr admitted before letting out a sigh.

“I thought as much. As Colossus, you’re defined by your metal skin and superhuman strength; as Piotr Rasputin, you’re defined by a different kind of strength. The ‘gentle giant’, the big brother… the shoulder for others to lean on, so to speak.” Astrid pushed her glasses up further a bit and continued, “Simply put, I gather that you internalize anything that could be construed as weakness – fear, sadness, and the like. These are not the types of things you talk about even to people you consider to be close friends.”

“Not often, no,” Piotr confirmed.

“Well, contrary to what some believe, it is not weak to confront our fears, our insecurities, our pain. I wholly believe in the saying, ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’. Bottling up these negative feelings, though… ignoring them, letting them fester… that can eventually lead to a sort of spiritual death.”

“I think I see your point,” Piotr said with a slight chuckle.

“Sorry,” Astrid said, a small grin forming on her face. “Sometimes I can get carried away with my little ‘lectures’. Why don’t we get right to the point, shall we? Let’s start with the injuries you sustained from your fight with Sabretooth.”

“Completely healed. Obviously, as I’ve already been back out in the field,” Piotr said.

“How did it make you feel, though? To have your supposedly impenetrable skin torn open so easily?”

“It… actually wasn’t the first time that happened.”

“Oh?” Astrid’s curiosity piqued, she said, “Tell me about the first time, then.”

Piotr leaned back a bit to get comfortable as he began, “It was years ago, not very long after I first joined the team. We were fighting alien creatures called the Brood, who at the time were working with one of our former teammates, Deathbird.”

“And what happened?”

“Acid. I was hit in the chest with acid, and then I was impaled on Deathbird’s javelin.”

“My God,” Astrid said, “I can only imagine how painful that was…”

“Astrid,” Piotr interrupted, “I appreciate that you want to help. But I don’t see where all this talk about me not being quite so ‘invincible’ is really going. I know I can be hurt – I am not made of adamantium, after all.”

“Well, that’s good you don’t have a Hercules complex, then,” Astrid joked. “But this topic is actually a lead-in to what I really wanted to get at – your sister, Illyana.”

Illyana. She’d been at the forefront of Piotr’s mind ever since her miraculous return from the dead a few weeks ago. It had happened so fast, and so unexpectedly, but it was nothing short of a dream come true for Piotr. He’d watched for years as his family slowly dwindled away… first his older brother Mikhail to suicide, then his parents were assassinated, and finally Illyana succumbed to the Legacy Virus. That had been the last straw, a heartbreak so terrible that Piotr thought he’d never recover from it.

“All of us here, we have all suffered great pain and loss as a result of the work that we do. But losing my little sister…” Piotr paused to take a deep breath before continuing, “Losing Illyana to that disease was unbearable.”

“You could fight giant robots, masters of magnetism, even survive being stabbed through the chest, but you couldn’t save your sister from the Legacy Virus,” Astrid said. “You could save people all over the world who hated you time and again, but you couldn’t save the one person you loved more than anyone else.”

“You took the words right out of my mouth,” Piotr said. “Or my mind, as it may be.”

“I don’t enter anyone’s mind without their permission,” Astrid assured him, “but when I ventured into your’s to bring you out of your coma I did inadvertantly encounter some of your thoughts and memories. Henry filled me in briefly on your history as well.”

“I am sorry, I did not mean to imply that you trespassed into my mind,” Piotr said, offering an apologetic look. “You are right, though. That is how I felt when I was not able to save my sister. I was so distraught, I even ended up betraying my friends. I joined Magneto and his Acolytes.”

“You were angry with them?” Astrid asked.

“I was angry at Professor Xavier, initially, but deep down I suppose I was really angry at myself. I felt… pathetic. What good were my mutant abilities if I couldn’t save one little girl?”

“Now you see where I was going earlier,” Astrid told him, and the two exchanged a knowing look. “But anyway, you obviously came to realize that it wasn’t your fault that your sister died. There was nothing you could have done.”

“It took me a very long time to make peace with that fact.”

“And now, suddenly, Illyana is alive. Strange, perhaps unexplainable circumstances… how does that make you feel?”

“There is only one emotion I dare have, and that is happiness,” Piotr told her as he moved to sit up straight once more, getting almost defensive. “Illyana has come back to me. She is alive, and she is healthy. Nothing else matters.”

“You’re not wondering how it’s possible, though? Not curious to find out what happened to her for all the years you thought she was gone?”

“There is an expression in this country. ‘Curiosity killed the cat’,” Piotr said.

“You’re afraid that trying to find out more about your sister’s return would put you in danger?” Astrid inquired. “How so?”

“Not me, but Illyana,” Piotr explained. “I have been blessed, and I will not see it taken away because I could not simply be content that my sister is alive.”

Astrid understood immediately where Piotr was coming from, and why he’d suddenly gotten so defensive. She didn’t agree with him, as she wasn’t the superstitious type, but she couldn’t blame the man for being cautious. Nor could she say for sure that she’d act any differently if she were in his same position. However, there was still much work to do; they’d gotten off to a good start, but Astrid couldn’t help but feel that they’d only just begun to scratch the surface.

“We really do have so much more to talk about, Piotr,” Astrid said. “I better order us some lunch.”

Genosha

Chris Bradley chased after the small red-headed girl who was running about wildly several feet in front of him. Rachel Summers was at that age where she wasn’t content being quiet or taking it slow; there was a whole world out there for her to explore. Chris counted himself as being lucky having once been able to see Rachel on a daily basis when he still lived at the Xavier Institute, and although less than a year had passed since he last saw her, he couldn’t believe how much she’d grown in that time.

“Rachel, come here!” Chris called out, still chasing the child through the private outdoor gardens on the grounds of Genosha’s city hall. The former X-Man was close to getting frustrated, but still having a good time nonetheless.

Rachel ignored the young man, and continued to run amok, yelling incoherently all the while. She came to a sudden stop when something on the ground caught her eye, giving Chris the perfect opening to come up behind her and quickly scoop her up into his arms.

“GOTCHA!” he said, and the little girl laughed and smile as he twirled her around a few times. “Geez, you are freaking hyper, you know that?”

“Bop!” Rachel said as she looked Chris square in the eye. “Bop!”

“Bop?” Chris repeated, wondering what she meant. She’d also managed to develop a small vocabulary during the past few months, but he’d only been reunited with her a week ago, so he was still figuring it out.

“She wants to jump on something… couch, trampoline, whatever,” came another man’s voice, and Chris turned with Rachel in his arms to see the girl’s father, Scott Summers, walking towards them. “It’s her new favorite thing.”

“Is that so?” Chris said, addressing the comment to the girl, who giggled again then looked at her father.

“Daddy!” she said as she reached out her arms towards her father. Scott walked up and took his daughter from the younger man.

“Hey, baby,” Scott said, giving Rachel a kiss on the forehead. He turned back to Chris and asked, “Not driving you too nuts, is she?”

“Not at all,” Chris answered, grinning. “It’s been great having her around, actually. Nice distraction from everything else. For Jean, too, I’m sure.”

“Speaking of Jean, she seemed a bit on edge this morning. Is there something going on I should know about?” Scott questioned.

Chris shrugged his shoulders. “I haven’t even seen her today. I don’t know… I mean, maybe it’s just everything with the U.N. I know her and Magneto are getting fed up with their constant inquiries into every little thing they do.”

“I can understand. They come to her, ask her to take this job, yet it’s almost like they don’t trust her to do it,” Scott added. “She’s brought it up a few times. I can tell it’s frustrating her.”

Chris didn’t respond, just nodded in agreement, and then came the awkward silence. Maybe not awkward on Scott’s end, but on Chris’ absolutely; after all, here Chris was with the man who was married to the woman he’d secretly coveted for quite some time. He always wondered how Scott would react – would he laugh at the thought of a ‘boy’ pining after his wife, or would Scott want to beat the crap out of him?

“So, um,” Chris began, deciding to get the conversation going again, “how long do you think you’ll be staying?”

“Not really sure,” Scott answered. “I’ve been trying not to think about it, really. I just know there’s no way that Jean will step down and come home.”

“Did you ask her?”

“I don’t have to, Chris… I know what this all means to her. It’s bigger than the two of us, and it’s important. For everyone.”

“Could have sworn I counted three of you,” Chris pointed out, as Rachel looked at him, laughed, then hid her face in an attempt to start a game of peek-a-boo. “So why don’t you just come live here? You could all be together again, be a family.”

“Not that simple… I can’t just walk out on the X-Men,” Scott told him. “Not yet, anyway.”

Chris knew full well that Scott and Jean would be parting ways again soon, but perhaps he’d just needed to hear it, to be reassured; a part of him yearned so much for some sort of chance with Jean, but he knew it was highly unlikely, and very much impossible with Scott still in the picture. On the other hand, he didn’t want to see their family split apart, but it was clearly the greatest of all obstacles standing in his way.

“I just want Jean to be happy,” Chris declared. “Whatever it takes to make that happen, you know?”

“I know. Me too,” Scott said with a nod. “And I appreciate you looking out for her. I’m still not used to the fact that she’s working with Magneto of all people, but I feel better knowing that she’s got friends like you and Alison around.”

“It’s great to be a part of this,” Chris told him. “I may not be much more than a glorified assistant for right now, but I still feel like I’m doing something worthwhile.”

“You are. And trust me, you stick with Jean… you can learn a lot. She’s amazing.”

‘Tell me something I didn’t already know,’ Chris thought to himself, letting out a sigh. “Yeah, she is. And I’m not going anywhere.”

Chris looked down at his watch and noticed the time – Jean and Magneto would be getting out of their conference soon. “I better get on my way… duty calls.”

“I guess I’ll see you later then,” Scott said.

“Yeah,” Chris said as he started to walk away, “later.”

The Xavier Institute

Deep within the X-Men’s inner sanctum, on the second sub-basement level, Hank McCoy had been at work all day and night in his laboratory. It’d been this way for the past several days; an important project that needed attention was the reason he’d given his teammates, and while it was technically true, Hank wasn’t being completely forthcoming. However, not having a reputation as one for keeping secrets, he encountered basically no further inquiries from anyone and luckily had been left alone to do his work.

He felt bad, as this meant he’d been somewhat neglecting his students, seeing as how he was the Xavier Institute’s headmaster. Luckily, Dani Moonstar had proven time and again that she was more than capable of taking the reigns when Hank was away or otherwise occupied. It gave the blue-furred man a great sense of security to know that if the day ever came where he and his wife moved away from the mansion, the school would be left in good hands.

With machines buzzing about in the background, Hank stood before a large monitor which showed a live image of the man known as Forge. Hank and Forge were former teammates and longtime friends, and more than that, they were both men of science. Hank had diplomas in nearly every field of scientific study, and Forge was gifted with the mutant ability to build pretty much any kind of machine that his mind could conceive of. They possessed formidable brilliance individually, but they had come to discover over the years that next to nothing was impossible when they put their heads together.

Too bad for them they had to keep their latest collaboration to themselves.

“I just have to say it again, Hank – I don’t like this. At all.”

“Nor do I, my friend,” Hank said as he let out a sigh. “There is just no other choice. We inadvertantly created this mess, and we have a responsibility to rectify it as best we can.”

Forge shook his head. “I just fear what will happen if this gets out. We know full well the consequences…”

“It’s the right thing to do, Forge. We made a grave error all those years ago, and this is our chance to try and make it right.”

“So be it. I just hope I never have to say I told you so,” Forge replied. “Anyway, I have all the specs drafted and ready to go, transmitting now. If you have any trouble with the implants, let me know. I can bodyslide over there for a quick hour to help if need be.”

“So wonderful of Cable to share with us, hmm?” Hank mused. “I’ll let you know how everything goes, my friend. Thank you again. I couldn’t have done any of this without you.”

“Don’t mention it. Literally. Forge out.”

The monitor went blank for a moment, then switched over to a screen showing that a file download was in progress. Hank watched the screen, anticipating the completion of the transmission, but his focus shifted when he heard the door to his lab open with a soft swishing sound. Following that was the sound of heels clicking against the metal floor, then a woman’s voice.

“Hank, for real,” said Cecilia Reyes-McCoy, dressed in a flattering but modest black dress, as she walked up to her husband and wrapped her arms around one of his much larger ones. “You need to take a break from whatever it is you’ve been doing in here.”

“You look radiant, my dear,” Hank said, smiling as he admired his wife. “Going out for a girls’ night, I presume?”

“Actually, I was hoping for an ‘us’ night,” Cecilia answered. “It’s been a minute since we’ve gone out to dinner, you know.”

Hank smiled, and leaned in to give his wife a peck on the cheek. “You don’t know how wonderful that sounds…”

Cecilia crossed her arms. “Oh, here we go. I already know what’s next.”

“…But,” Hank continued, picking up where he left off, “I just have so much going on at the moment. This work is too important for me to take a break.”

“What, you’re conjuring up world peace in a bottle?” Cecilia joked, visibly frustrated. “Come on, Hank. I don’t think the world’s gonna end if you go out to dinner with your wife.”

The computer beside Hank let out a series of beeps, and he turned his head to see that the download from Forge was complete. He moved to face the machine and pressed several buttons on the keypad, looking amazed and excited as he scanned over the information contained in the files.

“Good God… you’d think I married Reed Richards…” Cecilia muttered under her breath. She huffed, placed a hand on her hip, and fixed her gaze on Hank. Maybe if she stared long and hard enough, he’d cave.

Hank turned back to his wife, a guilty expression on his face – guilt not so much for skipping out on dinner, but for knowing that he couldn’t divulge any of what he was working on to her. He wanted to so desperately, but he knew it wouldn’t be a good idea. “Cecilia…”

“Look, Hank, I know your work is important to you. You have students to teach, and all kinds of scientific breakthroughs going down on a daily basis. I get it. My work at the hospital is important to me too, and I know how easy it is to get lost in it all… but come on…” Cecilia’s expression had now turned from one of annoyance to one of pleading. “I’m your wife. And I just want us to spend some time together.”

She was right, and Hank knew it. As much as he was anticipating the next phase of his latest project, he knew full well he’d been distant lately. He made a snap decision right then and there – dinner it was.

“I’m sorry for even thinking about turning you down,” Hank said as he moved in to embrace the woman he loved. “You’re absolutely right.”

“Did someone just flip a switch in your head or what?” Cecilia asked him, right as he planted a tender kiss on her lips.

“Something like that,” Hank told her.

Before either one of them could say or do anything else, a nearby computer started beeping rapidly, followed by an alert appearing on the monitor. Curious, Hank stepped over to the machine and pressed a few keys to see what was going on. His eyes widened with horror as a look of panic washed over his face.

“Hank?” Cecilia said, noticing her husband’s sudden change of demeanor. She walked up next to him and asked, “What is it? What’s wrong?”

Hank swallowed back a lump in his throat as he turned to look at his wife. “We might have a problem… a big one…”

Genosha

“IDIOTS!”

Jean Grey, mad as hell, shouted the word upon entering her office alongside her Vice President, and slammed the door shut behind her with her telekinesis. Erik Lensherr, though he more than shared Jean’s sentiments, was able to keep his emotions in check; he was actually very surprised to see Jean so visibly angry – of the two of them, she was usually the calm and collected one. He didn’t know what it was, but he had a sneaking suspicion that something else was going on with his colleague.

“Who the hell do they think they are, Erik?” Jean asked, lifting a hand to her face to rub her forehead. “What is it going to take to get them to leave us alone?”

“Sadly, I suspect the only way they’ll stop viewing us as a threat is if every last mutant on this island were to lose their powers,” Erik told her, remaining stoic as he stared out of the large office window overlooking the city. “I am not surprised by their behavior.”

“Well I’m sick of it. We’ve complied with every single one of their demands, but this is going too far,” Jean said, her voice slightly shaky. “What are we going to do?”

{It’s incomprehensible why you still play their games, Jean. You have the power to destroy them all.}

{Stay out of my head, damn it!}

{You are on such a downward spiral, Jean. Don’t keep fighting me – we need to come back together, as one. Then we can fix everything. Starting with those fools at the United Nations.}

{I’m not listening to you. GO AWAY!}

{Face it, Jean – you NEED me. And the longer you deny me, the harder you fight to keep such an integral part of yourself buried, the worse things around you are going to become. But together… together we can do what needs to be done.}

{LEAVE ME ALONE!}

Upon telepathically shouting the last statement at the entity in her head, Jean accidentally used her telekinesis to wipe every last item off of her desk in one fell swoop. The act caught Erik off guard, and he quickly made his way to Jean’s side. He gently placed a hand on her shoulder, a genuine look of concern on his face.

“Jean,” Erik said, “are you alright?”

Before the former X-Man could respond, the door to the office opened, and in strode Genosha’s so-called First Gentleman. Scott immediately could tell Jean was upset, and rushed over to her and took her in his arms. She clutched her husband tightly, as a single tear streamed out of her eye.

“It’s okay, I’m here,” Scott told his wife. “Everything’s okay.”

Jean took a deep breath and pulled away from Scott enough to make eye contact. “No, not really.”

Scott looked from Jean to Erik, and asked, “What happened?”

“We had our weekly conference with Alda Huxley a short while ago,” Erik began to explain. “To say it didn’t go well would be an understatement.”

“The U.N. wants us to deport almost fifteen thousand people, Scott!” Jean exclaimed. “Only alpha level or higher, especially ones with potentially destructive abilities.”

“Apparently the security council is concerned with the high concentration of powerful mutants in Genosha,” Erik continued. “They feel that it poses too great a risk, should we ever rise up against them.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Scott said, shaking his head.

“It’s more than ridiculous… it’s disgusting!” Jean proclaimed, moving away from her husband and starting to pace around the room. “This country stands for something – coming here means a new beginning, a chance at a real life, for so many people who have been persecuted in their home country. We get hundreds of people immigrating on a daily basis… they don’t care about putting on a uniform and fighting, they don’t care about humans versus mutants… they just want to find a safe place to call home. And now those… those… monsters want us to strip people of their citizenship and kick them out!”

“There’s got to be something you can do,” Scott said. “What kind of timetable did they give you?”

“They’ve already given us a list, and they want us to begin immediately,” Erik informed the other man. “Which means we have to find some way to stall this until we can come up with another way to address their… concerns.”

Scott turned back to his wife, and realized just how upset she really was. Erik was certainly angry as well, but Jean seemed ten times more stressed out. Knowing her as well as he did – especially knowing her to be able to deal with any situation with a level head – he deduced that something else was wrong. Maybe something that wasn’t necessarily any of Magneto’s business.

{Jean, tell me… what’s wrong?}

{You know what’s wrong, Scott.}

{There’s something else. I can tell.}

{It’s nothing. I just haven’t been feeling well today, that’s all.}

Jean wasn’t going to budge, at least right now, but Scott would just have to try again later. For the time being, all he could do was be there for his wife.

“Well, if you two are done with your telepathic chat, perhaps we should get to work,” Erik told them. Looking at Scott he added, “It would probably be a great benefit for you to join us.”

Before the discussion could go further, Jean’s demeanor almost immediately shifted from upset to curious, and the two men in the room took notice. Jean could feel a sort of rumbling in the distance, something familiar but not anything that she could quite put her finger on. She concentrated, trying to hone in on what it could possibly be…

“Jean?” Erik asked. “What it is?”

“I feel something… a disturbance on the Astral Plane…” She closed her eyes and trailed off into silence for a moment, with Scott and Erik waiting for her to say something, anything. They both hoped that nothing was wrong – the last thing any of them needed today was more trouble.

Suddenly Jean’s eyes shot open, and a terrified expression washed over her face. With wide eyes she looked from Erik to Scott, and let out a gasp.

“She’s awake!”

Hank and Cecilia stood before an open containment unit and stared at its former occupant, as several other X-Men – namely Domino, Shiva, and Kwannon – came rushing into the room. They stopped dead in their tracks alongside the married couple as they realized what was going on, and a wave of mixed negative emotions swept over them all.

“Oh my stars and garters…” was all Domino could say, trying futily to lighten the mood.

“That’s my line, you know,” Hank quipped, but not for a second did he take his eyes off the woman levitating in the air before him. He was in too much shock.

“How long has it been?” the woman asked, looking from one mortified face to another. “How long have I been asleep?”

“Not long enough!” Kwannon yelled out, her anger boiling to the surface as she recounted her time under the woman’s mental control.

“Please, listen…”

“Nothing you can say that’s going to change anything,” Domino interrupted. “Stand down or we’ll take you down, Cassandra.”

“My dear,” Cassandra Nova said, a blank expression on her face, “is that any way to welcome back your beloved Professor X?”

NEXT ISSUE: Cassandra is awake – and all hell breaks loose!

Author’s Notes

I’M BACK!

I’m sure that many people thought this issue would never see the light of day, and quite frankly, I was one of them. It’s been a ridiculously long time since I released an issue, and a while ago I came to a point where I thought I might actually never get back to writing this series. Luckily, things turned out differently and now we’re up and running once more.

There’s been a lot going on that’s gotten in the way of me being able to dedicate a lot of time to Marvel Omega in general; I started working full time again last September (retail management no less – pure chaos during the holidays), plus I’ve had a lot of family commitments. Then there’s the writer’s block, which really seems to rear its ugly head on a pretty regular basis for me. So many times when I actually had a chance to sit down and try and write, I would find myself at a loss for words. Drove me nuts.

Anyway, I know one of the biggest complaints that people tend to have with my issues is the sometimes total lack of action – such as in this issue. What can I say, I am just all about the drama 😉 That is something I am working on, as I do want a better balance and more action and excitement, which the next few issues will have plenty of. How can they not, now that Cassandra is back??

Big things are about to happen, and as always I promise surprises a-plenty. I still have more than a few tricks up my sleeve! And I’m excited to be back – I have a renewed excitement for this series and these characters that will hopefully last for a long time to come.

The next issue is already in ‘post-production’ as I write this, so plan on seeing it sometime later this month. The issue after that is also in the works as well, so expect that (perhaps along with #57) in June. I would love to say I will be able to keep going bi-weekly, but I don’t want to jinx myself. I’m just going to go with the flow and do my best. Thanks for reading!

~Ryan

 

 

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