Uncanny X-Men

Egypt

“After becoming reacquainted with this alien technology, I was able to render the lazarus chamber operational fairly quickly. It’s been a long, demanding journey, but the fruits of my labor will be well worth it. I now prepare to lay down for this brief slumber, and when I re-emerge, I’ll again be the man I was before my… untimely demise.”

Nathaniel Essex placed the recording device on the ground, then quickly began to disrobe. He threw each piece of clothing away from him, disregarding them as things he’d have no need for when he regained his metamorphing abilities. Once fully nude, he took a deep breath and laid himself down inside the chamber.

The hard part was done; now all he had to do was rest while the machine combed through every last strand of his DNA, tore it all apart, and then put everything back together again with an infusion of the machine’s Celestial technology. It would be no time at all before he became Mr. Sinister once again.

As the machine hummed loudly, and the light shining out from underneath him became brighter and brighter, Essex closed his eyes and smiled. In the time he’d been gone from Earth, his lairs had been ruined, test subjects released, his research stolen or destroyed – everything he’d worked on during his long life – gone. He was most certainly going to have his revenge, and once restored to his former glory, there would nothing or no one who could stand in his way…

CRUEL INTENTIONS

By Ryan Krupienski

The Xavier Institute

Seconds ago, if anyone were to have asked Piotr Rasputin what just happened, he would have told them that the main house of the Xavier Institute was destroyed. He’d heard an explosion, then turned his head to see what was once a Genoshan presidential transport crash right into the mansion. The sky had lit up so bright it blinded him, and the sound likewise was deafening.

That, however, was not the scene he was now witnessing. He wasn’t sure what was happening, but his heart skipped a beat upon seeing the mansion standing before him, still completely intact; the object poised to destroy it was hovering in the air nearby, held stationary by an invisible force. Someone had stopped it just in the nick of time, and saved many lives in the process. That said, chaos still ensued all around the X-Man.

Mere moments ago, a multitude of strange, dark portals had begun opening all around the mansion, and ferocious creatures were crawling out of them. They were huge, yellow-skinned, and looked only faintly human in appearance; more than anything, they resembled spiders, minus the eight legs. There had to have been over two dozen that had arrived already, but oddly enough, they didn’t seem at all concerned with any of the X-Men or the students. They had all been filing into the mansion, as if they were on the hunt for something – or someone – very specific.

Whatever their purpose, Colossus meant to make sure they did not achieve their goal.

The steel-skinned X-Man fixed his gaze on one of the creatures and charged directly for it, causing the ground to crack and shake beneath him. The creature turned its head and watched as Colossus came for it, and was able to let out an inhuman howl before a steel fist struck it directly in the face. The blow sent the creature crashing into the wall of the mansion, and Colossus wasted no time in moving in for his next attack.

Nearby, the young woman called Husk was engaging another one of the creatures, having shed her normal skin in favor of a solid rock form. Her adrenaline was in overdrive, and she’d been more than itching for a fight for days; it was a craving that even the Danger Room wasn’t quite able to fulfill. So it gave the Southern belle great satisfaction as she began to pummel one of the nearby creatures with her jagged fists.

“What in the world ARE these things?” Husk asked as she slugged one of the creatures away. It bounced right back, however, before she could receive any sort of answer.

“I do not know, Paige, but they are incredibly resilient!” was all Colossus could offer his teammate. He struggled with one of the beasts, as a second one came up from behind him and jumped on his back.

“Colossus!” Mastermind cried out from the sidelines, frustrated that she was of little use in the fight. It was at times such as these that she wished she had some other power in her repertoire; even low-level telekinesis would be much appreciated. Luckily, as the intruders were only engaged with her teammates because they’d been provoked, none of them had moved in on Mastermind yet, giving her time to try and find out what they were, and why they’d come.

“Allow me,” came the voice of Proteus, his form now so large that it even rivaled Colossus’, as he plucked the creature from his aforementioned teammate’s back. Colossus gave the younger man an appreciative look, and Proteus proceeded to toss his opponent twenty feet away from the mansion.

As Proteus dashed off towards his foe, Husk asked curiously, “I thought he was just a shape-shifter?”

“Metamorph, dear,” Mastermind told her. “He can do a lot more than just change his appearance. And bloody hell, I can’t get inside their minds at all! It’s as if they’re just souless drones…”

“I would say that’s quite accurate!” Colossus said, as he slammed the creature he was battling into the ground. Not to be outdone, it quickly rebounded and slugged the X-Man in the gut with enough force to cause him to lose his balance for a split second. It was all the monster needed to slip away and follow its bretheren into the mansion.

“DAMN!” Husk shouted, as her opponent got the best of her as well, sending her flying through the air and crashing into Proteus just as he was rejoining the group. The last few of the creatures quickly blazed by the small group of X-Men, and it wasn’t long before they were all out of sight.

“Martinique, are you still in contact with the others?” Colossus asked.

“Yes. Danielle, Amara, Rahne, and Xi’an are with the students inside the mansion – these things appear to be leaving them alone too. Magneto, Phoenix, and the rest of the X-Men are all on the second sub-basement level with Nova, and they haven’t made contact yet,” Mastermind informed him. “I can’t get any sort of mental lock on them, so I’ve no idea where they’re headed.”

“Maybe they’re after one of the others?” Proteus suggested, as he and Husk regrouped with their partners. “Or Cerebro?”

“No matter, they won’t be getting anything or anyone,” Colossus declared. “We follow them inside, and we stop them.”

“Martinique!” came the call of several female voices in unison. The four X-Men turned to see the five teenagers collectively known as Fusion rushing towards them, looks of worry on each of their faces.

Mastermind acknowleged her ‘sisters’ with a nod, and asked them, “Why aren’t you all with the rest of the students?”

“Geez, so we stop the frickin’ spaceship thingie or whatever it is from blowing up the X-Mansion and this is the thanks we get…” Amelia, the ‘dumb blonde’ of the quintent, said with a huff.

“What are they, anyone know?” Alicia, known for being on edge a good portion of the time, asked.

Before either of her other two doubles could speak up, Sophia Frost interjected. “Please, will all of you shut up?” she more or less demanded of them. Sophia then turned her attention back to Mastermind. “Something’s not right here. Even we can’t get inside their minds.”

“Which brings us back to them being nothing but drones,” Mastermind told her. She then looked at each of the five blondes and said, “You all should get to safety now. We’re going in after those things.”

“Uh, guys…” Husk’s attention was to the sky, where another portal had just opened high above the mansion. “It might not be over out here just yet…”

The assembled mutants prepared themselves for another round, but strangely, no more of the creatures emerged. Instead, the portal just seemed to linger there, as if whoever had opened it had forgotten about it. Still, the X-Men didn’t back down from their battle stances, and were ready for whatever their mystery foe was going to throw at them next.

Or so they thought.

A small glowing orb suddenly dropped from the portal, seeming to fall in slow motion towards the mansion. The various X-Men’s instincts all told them the same thing, that it was some kind of bomb; the Fusion girls wasted no time in attempting to stop it with their telekinesis, but they found that effort to be of no use. The object, whatever it was, wasn’t something tangible that they could grab ahold of.

The orb seemed to hit the roof of the mansion and exploded into a million tiny particles, and a faint static spread through the area but dissipated as quickly as it had come. Much to the X-Men’s surprise and relief no physical havoc was wrecked, but the team was startled when Sophia abruptly gasped and they watched as her four other selves faded away into nothingness. Subsequently, Mastermind felt something akin to deafness wash over her, and it sent a shiver down her spine.

“Martinique? Sophia? Are you alright?” Colossus asked, looking from the brunette to the blonde.

Mastermind looked at Colossus, who was still in his steel-clad form, then to Husk, who had also retained her mutated form. She then looked at her sister, with whom she exchanged a knowing look.

“I think that thing just shut down our powers.”

Deep underground on the second sub-basement level of the Xavier Institute, the mansion’s alarm system continued to blare loudly, indicating that the premesis had been intruded by an unknown entity. Despite the chaos that had been ensuing above ground, though, nothing had yet happened for the assemblage of X-Men, their newly-awakened nemesis, and Genosha’s two heads of state; they were definitely on edge, though, considering that they had no idea what might be coming their way, not to mention…

“I’ve lost contact.”

Ever looked at Beast, his eyes wide with worry. “Something’s wrong…” The former Morlock then moved his gaze to Astrid, who wore the same look of worry on her own face.

“I can’t sense anything. Like someone shut down my telepathy,” Astrid said, looking over to Jean. “What about you, Madame President?”

Jean didn’t appreciate the sarcastic undertone of Astrid’s question, but she wasn’t about to give it a second thought. Maybe they’d chat later, though. “Me too. It’s like someone flipped a switch, and…”

Suddenly, all eyes in the room landed firmly on Cassandra Nova, who had just moments ago surrended herself – almost too easily – to the X-Men’s custody. Cassandra had pulled off many incredible stunts in the past, and it was no surprise that everyone in the room was thinking that she might be the guilty party in whatever had nullified her fellow telepaths’ abilities.

“I know what you’re all thinking…” Cassandra started to say.

“And with good reason!” Cyclops yelled as he moved in to face her. “What did you do?!”

“Nothing! I’ve lost my telepathy as well! I swear to you…!”

“Right. Next you’re gonna say you never mind-controlled us on purpose… it was all just a big misunderstanding,” Domino chimed in, also rolling her eyes.

“She actually might be telling the truth,” Ever interjected. “Just before I was cut off from Martinique, she said some weird glowing device dropped out of a portal, same kind that the creatures were coming out of. Maybe that did this to us.”

“Damn it, we need to find out where those things are headed anyway,” Domino said as she rushed to a nearby computer terminal. “Just a funny coincidence how they pop up right after you wake up from your nap, Nova.”

“Whatever they are, they may very well be after me,” Cassandra informed the X-Man. “Amanda Mueller wants me dead. This could be her doing.”

“And just why would the Black Womb wait until you’re awake to try and take you out?” Cyclops asked, scoffing at Cassandra’s suggestion. “That makes no sense at all.”

Cassandra just shrugged. “Don’t ask me to explain what goes on in that woman’s head.”

“Great, they’re headed right for us,” Domino told her teammates upon bringing up the security menu on the terminal she was at, which displayed a digital blueprint of their immediate area with a multitude of blinking red dots indicating the intruders’ location.

That became a moot point within seconds, as over a dozen of the creatures – with more following behind – suddenly burst into the room. A few stayed on the ground, while a majority started scaling the walls and spreading out on all sides. It wasn’t long before they had the group of eleven mutants surrounded, and outnumbered more than two to one.

“And whaddaya know,” Domino said as she unholstered her guns and readied herself for a fight, “here they are now…”

“I can’t hear anything.”

She tried and tried, but the result was the same as it had been for the past few minutes – Mastermind’s telepathy was gone, and thus she was cut off from the rest of the X-Men. Her sister wasn’t having any luck either, though Martinique was certainly the more visibly frustrated of the two.

“Bloody hell,” Mastermind muttered. “Damn whoever did this!”

“Y’know, just a suggestion, but maybe we ought to have separate communicators from the ones in our uniforms, so we can always stay in touch?” Husk thought aloud.

“Yes, I’ll be sure to leave that on a note in the comments box on Cyclops’ desk,” Mastermind said, rolling her eyes.

“Enough, please,” Colossus finally said, giving Martinique a look that clearly told her to calm down and be quiet. “We need to focus. Yes, your telepathy is gone. The good news is that the students have gotten to safety, and the rest of the team is together.”

“We should get inside,” Proteus suggested. “Whatever those things are here for, we need to help stop them.”

“Actually…” Husk began, her voice trailing off into silence as she noticed another portal materialize nearby. She looked around, along with her teammates, and watched as even more of the portals appaeared. There were at least ten in all, and they surrounded the team on all sides.

“…I don’t think we’re going anywhere quite yet,” Husk said, finally finishing her sentence.

Within seconds, more of the same hideous creatures started pouring out of the portals – except they weren’t headed for the mansion. Unlike the previous waves, this contingent seemed to have their attention focused solely on the small group of X-Men. The four mutants each faced a different direction, backs to each other, as more than a dozen of the intruders closed in on them.

“Oh this just sucks,” Proteus said as he adjusted his physique back to the larger state it’d been in moments ago. In particular he enlarged his fists, so much so that he started to look almost like a cartoon character.

“Says the guy who still has his powers,” Mastermind quipped. “I’ve got nothing!”

“Just stay between us, Martinique,” Colossus told his teammate as he raised his fists. “We’ll protect you.”

Mastermind quickly turned to her younger sister who, without the vast power she was used to having at her disposal, was nothing short of terrified. “Sophia, RUN! Hide!”

Sophia was almost reluctant, but didn’t have a say in the matter as her older sister shoved her towards the mansion. “I SAID GO! NOW!” And without a word of protest, Sophia ran away from the coming back as fast as she could.

It was then that the creatures struck, with half of them leaping through the air with their claws stretched out and their mouths open wide, roaring viciously to reveal the razor-sharp teeth they possessed. The others charged on the ground, kicking up dirt and dust as they dashed with lightning speed towards the enemy. The three X-Men who still had their powers braced for impact, knowing that this round was going to be much more dangerous since unlike the first time, the creatures were actually gunning for them.

Proteus made contact first, swiping at the two creatures closest two him with one of his giant fists, which he’d shaped to resemble a large mallet. The blow connected, and the two creatures went flying backwards through the air at least thirty feet away. That didn’t slow down the two others that quickly followed – one swung at Proteus with his long, sharp claws, and the youngest X-Man shifted his abdomen out of the way just in the nick of time to avoid injury. The second didn’t have any better luck, as Proteus stretched his arm outwards several feet and sent a tight, heavy fist slamming right into the creature’s face.

“Mister Fantastic, eat your heart out,” Proteus said quietly, grinning a little.

Colossus wasn’t able to avoid the wrath of the creatures’ claws, but thanks to his armored hide the blades didn’t do any harm; still, he winced slightly, as it hadn’t been all that long since Sabretooth had torn his torso open with his adamantium claws. Colossus quickly pushed the memory from his thoughts, instead focusing on the three creatures assailing him – he dodged one of their clenched fists, then grabbed and crushed it inside his own; another had wrapped its hand around Colossus’ neck, but the X-Man grabbed its wrist and with little effort tossed the creature away. Then there was the third, who slammed full-force into Colossus’ chest and knocked him backwards slightly, but not enough for him to fall.

The steel-skinned mutant came back with a vengeance and turned the attack back on the creature, ramming head-first into it.

“Christ almighty!” Mastermind cried out as one of the creatures swiped at her. She ducked down to avoid the attack, but wasn’t sure she’d be so lucky dodging the next one. Fortunately, Husk was right behind her, and used her rocky fist to back-hand the monster and put it down for the county, albeit momentarily.

“Thank you,” Mastermind said, gasping slightly.

“Don’t mention-AAAAAAHHHHH!!!” Husk screamed in pain, as one of the creatures struck her from behind. The blonde hunched forward as the pain washed over her back, and knew that her attacker had pierced through her rock-covered form. She had no choice now but to shed her skin, taking on a new form that would hopefully be more resistant to the creatures while also healing her current wounds.

Mastermind found it hard to watch as Husk turned to face her attacker, giving the brunette a front-row view of the massive claws marks on her teammate’s back. The creature roared in Husk’s face as she tore the rocky epidermis away, revealing a crystal-like substance underneath. It was mere seconds before Husk’s transformation was complete, and she quickly utilized her newfound form as she pummeled away at the creature.

“Comrades, I don’t think this is going to end anytime soon!” Colossus shouted as he continued to fend off the intruders.

“You can beat them, they just won’t stay down!” Mastermind observed, watching as several of the creatures who had been flung away through the air headed back into the fight.

“Yeah, no shit!” Proteus said, his body now twisted and contorted in so many different directions that even he wasn’t quite sure how he’d get it back to normal. He continued to dodge one set of claws after another, but things took a turn for the worse when one of the creatures lunged at his neck and sunks it teeth in.

Proteus cried out in pain, and Husk glanced over quickly and watched in horror as more of the creatures took advantage of the situation and piled on top of the young man. It was only a second later that she heard Mastermind scream as well, and turned to see that one of the creatures was holding her up by her throat.

“Colossus!” Husk called out as she punched another one of the creatures square in the face, then tried to rush over to Mastermind. “We’re losing this one!”

Colossus couldn’t even answer his teammate, as he was too concentrated on his struggle against the three creatures who were pounding their clenched fists all over him. They had figured out that they couldn’t cut him, and they probably had figured out they couldn’t truly harm him per se – but they could certainly disorient and eventually wear him out.

“MARTINIQUE!” Husk yelled, moving towards her teammate as the creature holding Mastermind brought her face in close to its shiny, metallic teeth. Husk wasn’t quite fast enough, though, and feared the worst until the creature’s body suddenly started to convulse and it howled in pain.

Mastermind was subsequently released, and watched along with Husk as an orb of electric energy flew through the air, hitting yet another one of the creatures. It had the same reaction as the first and fell quickly to the ground, unconscious or possibly even dead.

Husk helped Mastermind, who was coughing violently, to her feet as a young black-haired woman came into view. They realized she was the source of the attacks that had downed the creatures as she shot yet another blast of the energy through the air and at another one, this time one of those attacking Proteus.

“Are you okay?” the woman asked as she ran over to Husk and Mastermind, who looked at her with appreciation and also suspicion.

“Thanks,” Mastermind, her voice still weak, said. “Who the devil are you?”

“The name’s Spark,” the black-haired woman answer. “And I guess I’m here to help.”

Far below ground in the depths of the X-Men’s headquarters, the fight was equally brutal though the odds were arguably a bit more even.

Eleven mutants – seven still with their powers – were facing off against over two dozen of the creatures, and though they had more raw power at their collective disposal than their teammates above ground, the enemies they faced were proving to be just as resilient.

Domino, almost enjoying herself a bit too much, vaulted through the air and launched herself off one of the creature’s backs. She then twisted her body in mid-air and raised her arms to aim her guns at her target. She emptied several rounds into the creature, and while it did indeed roar in pain, the attack wasn’t quite enough to take it down all the way.

“Fine,” Domino said as she bounced off a nearby wall and catapulted herself back at the slightly-disoriented creature. She kicked a leg out and it connected with the beast’s jaw. “Try this on for size!”

Nearby, Cyclops was grouped with Phoenix and Cassandra, both of whom stood behind him. The creatures were fast, but Cyclops was faster – he was striking down the intruders with optic blast after optic blast, though it was a temporary defeat at best. Cyclops was using maximum force, but his attacks were only blasting the creatures away, and not through them. They were definitely as tough as they looked.

Above the trio, several of the creatures were perched on the wall and ready to drop down on the unsuspecting mutants. Phoenix was the first to notice them and cried out to her husband, “SCOTT!”

Cyclops looked up just as the creatures were raining down upon them, and in the nick of time was able to cut loose with a wide-ranged optic blast that caught all three would-be executioners in its path. The three mutants dodged out of the way as the creatures dropped from the sky and their limp bodies hit the metal floor with a loud thud.

Still, more were coming, and from all sides. Cyclops peppered the ones directly ahead of him with ‘optic bullets’ that connected at multiple points on their scaley, grotesque forms then spun around to deliver the same treatment to yet another duo of the intruders.

“They keep getting back up…” Cassandra muttered, looking on in horror at the madness all around her.

“Not when I am done with them!” came the confident, booming voice of Magneto, who hovered in the air with two of the creatures in his invisible grasp. They were writhing in pain as the Master of Magnetism tugged at the metal in their bodies, which upon closer inspection were techno-organic in nature. Magneto narrowed his eyes, and started pulling the two creatures apart. “Ah… machines.”

“Erik – behind you!” Phoenix called out, instinctively raising a hand as if she still had her telekinesis. She did not have her power, however, and her warning came too late – one of the creatures rammed Magneto in the back with such force that it knocked the man out cold. Cyclops quickly blasted it away, and followed behind his wife as she rushed over to check on her Vice President.

Cassandra tried to keep close but saw more of the intruders closing in around her, and they came within two feet of her until suddenly a large double-sided lance, glowing brightly with energy, slashed through several of them. Kwannon was nothing if not merciless as she sliced through a fourth, then flipped her body and used her feet to clutch a fifth’s neck and attempt to twist it. Luck was not on her side, as the attack seemed to do little more than aggravate the creature even more.

Suddenly there was a blur of blue in the air, and a voice along with it yelling, “Down, boy!” Beast pummeled both fists into the back of the creature’s neck, then used that same neck to catapult himself through the air towards another one creeping up behind Cassandra. He curled up into a ball and slammed directly into it.

“Stay behind me!” Cecilia Reyes ordered, extending her psioplasmic force field from her body to create a large barrier in front of her. Behind her stood Ever and Astrid Bloom, the other two telepaths who been depowered – and hence rendered ‘useless’ in the current fight.

Cecilia allowed herself a quick glance across the room, checking to make sure that her husband was okay. He was teaming up with Kwannon to keep the creatures away from Cassandra, who . Cecilia then turned to her right to see Shiva fending off a multitude of the intruders, and so far he seemed to be the only one whose powers were having any real effect on them.

The young Indian man’s entire body seemed to glow with a fiery heat, concentrated mostly around his hands. He shot a blast of solar plasma at one of the creatures, and it roared as its skin charred black. Shiva repeated the attack on another one of the beasts with the same effect, but didn’t notice a third come at him from behind and it was able to claw him across the back.

“AAAHHH!” Shiva cried out, and then he fell to his knees.

Cecilia came to his rescue, extending her force field to swat the creature away and into another of its brethern. With Ever and Astrid close behind, the doctor ran over to Shiva and pulled him into the protective coccoon she’d created.

“Whoa there, just take it easy,” Cecilia told her teammate as she helped him to his feet. He stumbled a little, but was able to regain enough composure to stand. She started to examine the wound and said, “He got you pretty good.”

“I-I’m fine,” Shiva said, wincing at the stinging pain.

Ever quickly came over and took Shiva’s arm over the back of his neck and put his arm around his teammate’s waist to help keep him up. “Relax, I got you,” he said.

“I need to treat this, ASAP,” Cecilia said, not phased in the least by the bloody scars. She’d seen much worse during her years as a doctor. “We don’t know what these things are, what their claws are laced with… you could be infected.”

“Pardon my interruption, but I think our teammates aren’t doing so well,” Astrid suddenly chimed in, and the other three X-Men looked over to see that all of the creatures had moved over to the other side of the room. They hadn’t been able to break through Cecilia’s force field, but then again it didn’t seem like they’d exerted much effort in trying. Clearly, they weren’t here for the X-Men as a whole, but rather for…

“Me,” Cassandra said from her position alongside Phoenix, who was kneeling down next to an unconscious Magneto. They were all huddled up against a wall, with Cyclops, Domino, Kwannon, and Beast doing their best to fend the creatures off. “They really are here for me.”

“No, really?” came Domino’s sarcastic reply, as she roundhouse-kicked one of the intruders in the face then proceeded to empty a few rounds into its chest. As with the previous times, the attack didn’t do much; instead they almost seemed to absorb the bullets.

“We need a new strategy, Bea,” Cyclops said from nearby, yet another optic blast escaping his eyes and slamming into one of the creatures. “We’re not having any effect. It seemed like Magneto could hurt them, but just our luck… he’s down.”

“Yeah, speaking of luck,” Domino said, “it almost looks like my power might be out of commission, too.”

“EVERYBODY, GET CLOSE!” Cecilia shouted as she along with Ever, Astrid, and Shiva, all still safely encased inside her force field, approached their teammates. The other mutants did as they were told, and upon Beast and Kwannon each tossing a few of the creatures away, there was enough distance between the the X-Men and their foes for Cecilia to extend her force field to cover the entire group.

“That should buy us at least a few minutes,” Cecilia said, watching as the creatures crawled around on the outside of her barrier, pounding on it in an effort to break through. Cecilia’s powers were strong, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to keep the force field up for long. Not covering so many people, and certainly not with the creatures constantly barraging it.

Beast quickly bounded over to Shiva, and examined his wounds just as Cecilia had moments ago. “This looks like it could be infected,” he told the younger man.

The blue-furred man’s wife nodded in agreement. “Same thing I said, Hank,” she told him. “Looks like Magneto’s out cold… not to mention those of you who don’t even haveany powers.”

“And our powers aren’t even doing much,” Kwannon said. “We knock them down, but they get right back up.”

“I can hurt them,” Shiva announced, bringing all eyes to him. “I burned a hole through two of them, and they haven’t gotten back up.”

“Except you’re badly injured,” Cecilia said, almost scolding him. “So don’t even think of going all macho on me, okay hombre?”

“Hank, do you think we could trap them in here?” Cyclops asked, turning to face his old friend. “At least until we have the right kind of firepower to stop them.”

“The room can be placed in a lockdown mode which would make it extremely difficult, though not quite impossible, for even the strongest person to escape,” Beast explained. “Though considering their resilience, and the sheer number of them, I don’t know how long it’d hold.”

“And I don’t know how much longer I can hold them off!” Cecilia exclaimed, as the power she was exerting to keep her force field was beginning to physically exhaust her. “We need a plan, and quick!”

“Doctor McCoy, exactly how strong would this room be in the lockdown mode?” Shiva asked.

The Beast shrugged, thought for a moment, and then answered, “Strong enough to contain a small atom bomb, I suppose. The room would be destroyed, naturally, but it would stop the damage from extending outside of its perimeter-”

“Alright, everyone out,” Shiva said, interrupting the eldest X-Man. “I’m going supernova.”

“Neal, no!” Domino interjected. “You’re too weak!”

“And you’re too late to argue,” Shiva said as he moved away from Ever to stand on his own. His body had begun to glow furiously with red-hot solar plasma. He continued, “I won’t be able to stop it now. You all have to leave.”

“Damn it, Neal!” Cyclops yelled, visibly frustrated; he knew he couldn’t argue now, though. The X-Men’s leader glanced around at all those assembled and said, “Hank, you grab Magneto. Everyone – OUT!”

“Stay close to me!” Cecilia said, and the mutants obeyed as the group made its way towards the room’s exit on the opposite wall. She followed behind her husband, who bounded ahead with Magneto draped over his shoulder towards a control panel next to the door.

“First things first,” Beast said as he tapped several controls, and suddenly the two large containment units in the room that were occupied were sucked down below the metal surface. A few more keys were pressed, and the lockdown sequence was activated.

[LOCKDOWN INITIATED. LOCKDOWN IN FIFTEEN SECONDS,] a computerized voice blared through the room.

“Go, go, go!” Beast said, ushering his teammates through the fast-closing door. Once most of them were through, Beast followed behind his wife, and behind him was Cassandra.

[LOCKDOWN IN SEVEN SECONDS,] the voice said again.

“Henry,” Cassandra said, grabbing the Beast’s arm to stop him. He turned to watch as she stepped back into the room and just before the door closed between them, she said, “I’m so sorry for everything.”

Before the institute’s headmaster could move to pull the old woman out, the door closed, and it was too late. Shiva noticed this and his eyes went wide with horror, realizing that Cassandra was now trapped inside with him.

“What are you doing?!” he yelled at her as she ran over to him. “Are you insane? You’re going to die!”

“It’s me they want, so it’s me they’re going to get!” Cassandra proclaimed, as the swarm of creatures closed in on her and Shiva. “I’m not afraid anymore.”

Try as he might, Shiva wasn’t able to contain his power any longer, and he let out a raging battle cry as he unleashed every last ounce of energy that’d been building up inside of him. Within seconds, every inch of the room was engulfed in bright light and scorching-hot solar plasma.

“LAST ONE!”

Husk shouted the two words, exhaustion evident in her voice, as she tossed one of the creatures in the direction of Spark. The former X-Man took her cue and unleashed a bolt of electricity on the beast, and it howled as its body convulsed in mid-air. It dropped to the ground and, like all its kind scattered in the immediate area, wouldn’t be getting up anytime soon.

Husk let out a sigh of relief as she could finally stop fighting. It hadn’t been all that long, really, but the battle had been so intense that it practically drained her of every last ounce of energy she had. She could tell that Mastermind was likewise exhausted and still shaken from her near-death experience.

Colossus walked up to the three women, who were now close together, and cradled a barely-conscious Proteus in his arms. Husk gasped and Mastermind had to turn away as they noticed the severe wound one of the creatures had inflicted on the young shapeshifter when it took a chunk out of his neck. It had stopped bleeding, at least, but painful had to be an understatement for how it must have felt.

“He needs medical attention, quickly,” Colossus, who was still in his steel form, said.

“My powers aren’t back yet, so I don’t know what the situation inside is,” Mastermind told her teammates. “Let’s just hope that no more of those portals open up.”

“The coast looks clear, but if another wave comes, I think we can take ’em,” Spark chimed in, and upon speaking all attention suddenly fell on her.

“What did you say your name was again?” Mastermind asked, eyeing the new arrival with caution.

“Spark, but my real name’s Angela Tobin. I used to be an X-Man not all that long ago,” Spark explained.

“I have heard Scott mention your name before,” Colossus said. “Not that we are unappreciative of your assistance, but what brings you back to the mansion?”

“Cyclops was the one who called me back, actually,” Spark answered. “He asked me to rejoin the team.”

If a pin dropped, it’d be audible – that was how silent the former containment room was in the aftermath of Shiva’s devastating power display. All but a few of the many lights were destroyed, and the walls, ceiling, and floor had been partially melted and were cooling back down in an odd, jagged shape. Where there were once computers, burnt chunks of metal were sprawled on the ground.

However, all the damage was worth it, as amongst the ruins lied the bodies – or what remained of them – of the creatures that had invaded the mansion. Most of them were nothing more than charred husks after being collectively wiped out.

In the midst of all the devastation was the man who had caused it, struggling to get to his feet. Shiva had drained himself completely, and it had temporarily knocked him out, but he’d gotten the job done. The creatures were defeated, and…

Cassandra. He suddenly remembered that she’d foolishly locked herself in the room with him; there was no way she could have survived.

Shiva frantically looked around for any sign of the older woman’s remains, doing his best to peer through the smoke that blanketed the room. Combined with the very dim light, it made it very difficult to see anything clearly.

“Nova?” Shiva called out, his voice shaking ever so slightly. He coughed upon inhaling some smoke, and called out again, “Nova?”

His heart skipped a beat upon hearing a faint moan, one that clearly belonged to a woman. He looked down at the ground near his feet, and saw that Cassandra was still in one piece. Somehow, some way… she’d survived.

Just as Shiva knelt down to assist Cassandra, what had once been the door to the containment room was blown off its hinges, and the rookie X-Man could see the faint outline of several individuals in the distance. They came closer, and within seconds he was able to see Cyclops, Beast, and Domino coming towards him.

“Neal, are you all right?” Cyclops asked.

“I’m fine. A little tired, but…” Shiva winced in pain as the stinging sensation from the wounds on his back returned. It was a sharp and very intense kind of pain, so overpowering that he suddenly found it difficult to move.

“Take it easy,” Cyclops said as he moved in to help his teammate. As he did so, he caught sight of Cassandra, who was beginning to get to her feet. Puzzled, he asked, “How did she survive…?”

“Why did she run back inside is the question I’d like to ask,” Beast said as he helped Cassandra to her feet. “What were you thinking?!”

“They wanted me, Henry,” Cassandra said, her voice weak. As she surveyed the damage around her, shock registered on her face; she didn’t understand how she was still in one piece, let alone breathing.

“So you sacrifice yourself as a matter of principle?” Beast asked. “Clearly, Neal was able to stop them. You didn’t need to throw yourself back into the midst of danger.”

“They were starting to follow me on the way out of the room,” Cassandra told him. “They weren’t going to stop until they had me. So I stayed.”

“And not a scratch on you,” Domino said, cocking one of her eyebrows. “How’s that possible?”

Cassandra shrugged. “Perhaps my telekinesis kicked in at just the right moment… I’m not sure…”

“We can figure this out later. Right now, we need to get Neal to the medical bay,” Cyclops said.

Cassandra turned to look at Shiva, and the two locked eyes. She smiled, and placed a hand on his shoulder. “You have magnificent power, my boy.”

Shiva didn’t know how to react to Cassandra, so he just remained silent as Cyclops began more or less carrying him out of the room. Cecilia was waiting as they approached the doorway, and the three started on their way towards the medical bay, leaving Beast and Domino alone with Cassandra.

“I assume your surrender before this debacle still stands,” Beast said, his eyes fixed firmly on the bald woman.

Cassandra nodded. “Yes. I have no desire to fight, nor do I have any intentions of harming you… I willingly give myself over to your custody.”

“That’s a good girl,” Domino said, her voice thick with sarcasm.

“Very well. Off to the Z’noxx Chamber, then.” Beast motioned for Cassandra to start walking, and he and Domino followed directly behind.

“I know I haven’t the right to ask for anything, Henry,” Cassandra said as the three got closer to the doorway, “but I wish to speak to my brother.”

Beast stopped dead in his tracks, realizing that Cassandra didn’t know. He exchanged a somber look with Domino, and they both knew how their prisoner would react.

“Cassandra,” Beast said as the older woman slowed to a stop and turned to face him, “I’m sorry, but that’s not possible.”

A puzzled look washed over Cassandra’s face. “I understand that he wouldn’t want to see me, but… you say that with such finality. Is something wrong?”

“A lot has happened during your… sabatical,” Beast said. “I’m sorry, Cassandra, but your brother is gone. Charles is dead.”

Location Unknown

Things were not going as planned.

A handsome blond man, wearing a white lab coat over dress pants and a button-down shirt, stood before a monitor that had, until moments ago, displayed a video feed of the events taking place inside the Xavier Institute. He’d been watching everything unfold thanks to ocular implants inside the creations he had dispatched, but then in a split second everything onscreen had turned to static.

He sighed, and turned away from the computers. He supposed that he couldn’t be too disappointed, as it had all happened so suddenly – he never expected that Cassandra would wake up so soon, if at all. Admittedly, he should have waited and fine-tuned an action plan… though on the other hand…

“I’m sorry the mission failed, sir,” a second man, clad from head to toe in a gray bodysuit, said as he entered the small, dimly-lit room. “We didn’t realize how susceptible to elemental abilities the Slipskulls would-”

The blond man turned to look at the one in the bodysuit. “It’s okay,” he said. “There’s always next time.”

“What do you want me to do now, sir?”

“For now, we just wait. Formulate a better plan, build better soldiers. In the meantime, though…” The blond man tapped a few keys on the console before him, and images of the various X-Men came onscreen. He fixed his gaze on one in particular. “I’m very interested in this young man… Neal, I believe they called him…”

Egypt

The soft humming sound that filled the large, ancient chamber quickly died away as the machine resting at the room’s center powered down. The light that had been seeping through the small space between the body and the cover of the machine also faded away, and slowly but surely the contraption opened to reveal the man inside – a very different man from the one who’d originally laid down inside of it.

Nathaniel Essex’s eyes fluttered a bit, then shot open as the man came fully to. He didn’t know exactly how long he’d been under, but that wasn’t important; it only mattered that it was done. Going in, part of him had feared that it wouldn’t work, but now he knew – even without looking in the mirror or trying to use his power – he knew it’d worked. He could feel it.

Essex quickly sat up and stepped out of the chamber, still fully nude. He looked down at his bare form and his lips curled into a sinister smile as he realized that his skin was back to its chalky-white color. “Fantastic,” he said aloud, noticing that his voice had regained its deep baritone and somewhat metallic quality.

With little to no effort, Essex tapped into his newly-restored abilities and willed his body to be covered in a dark blue armor. He was immediately covered from the neck down, followed by the familiar shredded cape he’d sported through the years also materializing. With his visage restored to its proper state, Essex reached to the ground and retrieved the recording device he’d brought with him.

“The procedure was a success – I have been reborn,” Essex boasted ever so calmly upon pressing the record button on the device. “It’s been mere minutes since I awoke, and already I feel like my old self. Thus far, my metamorphing abilities are all that I’ve utilized, though I’m certain the others are in perfect working order. I’ll now be testing that theory – a teleport back to my lab…”

“You truly think it is that easy?”

A chill ran down Essex’s spine at the sound of the deep, booming voice, and he looked all around the room for its source. Upon doing a complete circle and gazing around the entire chamber, though, he found that nobody else was there. Perhaps he was still a bit disoriented from the transformation and just thought he heard something.

“Hmm… nothing,” he mused softly.

“Far from ‘nothing’, Essex,” came the voice again. “You are as arrogant as ever, I see.”

Essex almost jumped that time, not just at hearing the voice again but also at recognizing it. It was unmistakeable, and it belonged to the only man who could instill any sense of fear in him. Could it truly be, though? No, it couldn’t, because this man was…

“Dead,” Essex said, still not able to see who the voice belonged to. “You’re dead.”

“So were you, old friend, but look at you now,” the voice replied. “Brought back to life, your power restored… the power I bestowed upon you.”

“NO!” Essex shouted, becoming more and more agitated. “This is simply a side effect… a hallucination. It will wear off…”

Suddenly, the owner of the voice materialized out of thin air before Essex, and the white-skinned man stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes widened in shock, and then he gasped. This wasn’t happening – it couldn’t be happening.

The much larger man, his arms firmly crossed, stared at Essex and asked, “Do you still believe that I am a figment of your imagination?”

“This can’t be…” Essex muttered, his emotions caught between fear and maddening anger. “You can’t be…”

“You should know better than most, Sinister,” the man said, “that Apocalypse never truly dies.”

NEXT, IN UNCANNY X-MEN 2007 ANNUAL: It’s decision time – will Scott Summers and Jean Grey reunite for good, or has their marriage run its course? And what role will the newly-resurfaced Phoenix Force play in determining the outcome? Plus: Cassandra is forced to confront her past misdeeds, and Husk gets a very special visitor!

Author’s Notes
This is out a wee bit later than I had hoped, but I’ll admit that it took me longer because of all the action. Actions scenes are definitely one of my weak points, but hey… I got through it!

One thing I feel I need to address is all of the plots and subplots that have been running through this series. I know that there has been SO much going on, so many little things happening here and there, and then… *poof* it’s gone. Namely, Illyana’s return (she hasn’t even been seen since the 2005 annual), the mysterious ‘Tentacle Man’ from the end of the 2005 annual, Sabretooth and Mesmero rescuing X-23… and now, Sinister and Cassandra’s would-be terminator will be joining that group. Or so it seems.

I have set everything in motion for a reason, and while it may take me a while to get back into the thick of some plots, rest assured I’m not just throwing random crap in for fun. I am always thinking longterm, so I tend to shift focus and leave some things for down the line. So, a rundown: Illyana – look for her in issue #57, with some big things in store for her in the near future. X-23’s story will be continuing in Jubilee’s solo series; the ‘Tentacle Man’ and friends will be revealed soon enough; Sinister is actually going to be moving on to the pages of X-Corps for a while (he has a big story down the line in UXM, though); and as for the mystery man who wants Cassandra dead, well – he’ll be back in the very near future as well.

I know there are also a ton of mutants running around, almost too many to keep track of. That issue will be dealt with very soon as well. There is a method to my madness – you’ll see 🙂

So, next up will be the 2007 Annual, which I am planning for release in September. Maybe if I’m lucky I’ll also get #57 out in September as well. We’ll just see what happens. Thanks for reading!

~Ryan
8/30/2007

 

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