THE REVENGE OF CHEN YU

Part I: Oh, To Be In England

By David Wheatley

Author’s Note: This issue is set after events in Uncanny X-Men #12

I’ve been here before. Or at least something similar. Someone sends me a ticket for a concert from an old friend. Kind of a surprise as we haven’t spoken for a while.

I like surprises, so I get on the plane – first class, no less – and fly to England. The ticket is for the Last Night of the Proms, the climax of two months worth of concerts of classical music.

It’s a big deal, and tickets are hard to come by, especially at this late stage. It’s been a while since I went to a concert, so I put on my penguin suit and head off to the Prom. Last Night’s usually a fun affair, so I’m hoping that there aren’t any interruptions like there usually are.

My friend ain’t about. Can’t see him anywhere, and the scents around don’t reveal much. To be honest I wasn’t expectin’ him to be. Letter didn’t have his scent, though it did have one that was kind o’ familiar. Couldn’t place it though.

Halfway through I’m expectin’ a phoney messenger to come out and say that my friend needs help. Doesn’t happen and I sit through the rest of the concert. It’s a good night. Decent stuff is played, and played well. Elgar, Holst, Vaughan Williams, Henry Wood. Lots o’ clapping, cheering and people havin’ a blast.

I enjoy myself, but I’m kind o’ wondering what’s the point. Why invite me all the way over here, just to give me a night off. I wonder if it’s a trap for the X-Men, but they can handle it. They always do. After the concert ends I make my way outside, where there’s a car waitin’ for me. Driver has my name on the card anyway.

“Mister Logan?”

“I know you, bub?”

“Mister Destine apologises he couldn’t make it tonight but he has sent the car to take you Ravenscroft.”

Adam’s scent is in the car, and this man seems to know his stuff, but Adam and his family have this big secrecy policy, the Relative Strangers Protocols, or something like that. Anyway, I’ve nothing better to do tonight, and it’s been a while since I was in London last, so what the heck? Can’t help the feeling I’ve seen this before though…

“Excellent,” said Chen Yu, with a smile. The television cameras of the BBC had shown where Weapon X had been the entire evening, and that the trap had been set. The Last Night was always televised as the whole Proms season was a BBC event and Logan was not exactly inconspicuous. “You see, Destine, everything is working as I predicted.”

“Logan will never fall for a trap like this,” said Adam, unable to break free of the mystic bonds that encased him and prevented him from moving.

“No, he won’t,” said Chen Yu, with a cruel smile. “He’ll walk in to it with his eyes open. However he isn’t the man he was. The adamantium that protected his bones is gone, and his healing factor has been reduced in stature.”

“What?” asked Adam. The last time they had met, Logan’s healing factor was almost instantaneous. Logan had told him he had been run over by a car, his internal injuries almost fatal and that in seconds he was up and running.

“Weapon X had to reject an attempt to bond adamantium to his bones once more, which regressed him to such a feral state he almost lost his humanity. However his healing factor kicked in, restoring him to a more normal stature at the cost of the rapid healing he had almost had.”

Adam understood now. The adamantium had restricted his healing factor artificially, and now it was restricted naturally, Logan using force of will to retain his humanity by using his primary power.

“So you understand,” said Chen Yu. “This time he cannot stop me, and finally you will be the eternal sacrifice to the Crimson Dawn!”

The car ride seems to be takin’ forever. I never thought Ravenscroft was this far from London. I think it’s about time this little game came to it’s conclusion.

~SCHLUKT!~

“Would you mind not using that middle claw?” says the driver, with the left and right claws straddling his neck.

“Stop the car, bub.”

“Yessir,” said the driver and the car comes to a gentle halt.

“Get out.” He complies without a word and I climb in to the front. “Yer lucky I’m in a good mood.” He nods and I drive off. At a guess I’d say either Adam’s in trouble, I’m in trouble or we both are. Odds are good it’s both of us. I was being driven down this road for a purpose.

May as well find out why.

The mountain is a mess. Nina and the Hand did a real number on the Chaste and now they are almost gone. Only Stick remains, as a shade. A shade without voice.

However this is where I am at peace. Since the death of Mac, my life has had no real purpose. The Chaste are gone, I’ve lost all the friends I knew. I can’t return to New York.

The mountain is all I have left. The Hand have conquered it, destroyed it. They won’t return. They’ve all won and I have lost. My name is Elektra and I am alone, except not totally…

My sai flies from my hand barely missing the small aborigine who sits behind me. I’ve met him before.

“Gateway.” As always he says nothing, but it is not a surprise he is here. He is connected to the Chaste somehow. “Why are you here?” I ask but he starts to spin his bullroarer and space/time warps.

“Elektra…”

“Stick?” I can see his shade form, solid and alive as he can be for a dead man.

“Chaste not… gone totally. Gateway’s powers… allowing us talk. You must seek out Logan. He must be put on the Path.”

“He’s fallen?” Logan fell from the Path before, after the failure of the second adamantium bonding.

“No, but unless… you aid him, he will never walk it… and this will never happen.” He starts to fade out.

“What do you mean?” but by the time my words are out he is gone. His words have a dire meaning, that I can sense. Logan once again needs my aid. Maybe, in some way, I need his. Perhaps we need each other, in a way that only destiny can understand.

Gateway is creating a portal. I believe it leads to Logan. I take the chance, retrieving my sai from the floor as I go.

There’s a house in front of me. It looks kind o’ familiar, but the scent ain’t. This doesn’t look right. Luckily, I’m wearing my work suit under my DJ. You never know when you’ll need it, and this is becoming more a Wolverine caper with every passing minute.

It’s time to go to work.

~SCHLUKT~

Just in time, there’s ninja’s descending from the trees. They’ve a fighting style I’ve never seen, yet is familiar to me. What is going on here?

They’re good, but I’m the best. Or at least I used to be. These guys prove that to be a lie right here and now.

I’m getting’ a good kickin’ here and there’s very little I can do. There’s too many and it seems like magic…

Now I know where I’ve seen this before, and this caper just got a whole lot more problematic, if I survive this. And that ain’t lookin’ too likely.

“KEE-YA!”

The voice comes from nowhere, yet instantly familiar. What’s she’s doin’ here I don’t know, but I’m sure glad she arrived.

“Hey, darlin’.”

“Logan. I heard you were in trouble.”

“Got that right, Elektra.” There’s no more time for talkin’. We got work to do and all of a sudden the fight is goin’ against them.

“WHAT!?” shouted Chen Yu. “Who is this Elektra, and where did she come from?”

“I guess Logan has friends in high places,” said Adam with a knowing smile.

“Bah,” said Chen Yu and with a gesture he revealed what he could about the woman dressed in red. “So, she is a renegade. One who has escaped the fate of the Hand. Well, well, well. Perhaps this is not a problem after all.”

Adam smiled. He knew who she was. He knew where she had come from. He knew that everything was going the way it was planned. After all it had been a very long time in the making. He just hoped that after all this time, the plan actually worked.

Gomurr the Ancient, Proctor of the Crimson Dawn, was troubled by what was going on. The Dawn had not reacted like this in years. The last time it had almost been the end of everything.

The Crimson Dragons had been bad, Kuragari even worse. This beat those in to a cocked hat.

“Surely it isn’t time already?” he asked. Then the Dawn began to pulse with a darkness that he had only seen once before. “Or maybe it is. Damn, I don’t know if we’re ready for this.” He adjusted his hat and then cast a calling spell. “Gateway, where are you? GATEWAY!”

“Nice work,” Logan says to me. It’s been a while since we fought together.

“I needed the work out. It’s been a while.”

“I was sorry to hear about Mac.”

There’s such tenderness and understanding in his eyes. More empathy than sympathy.

“Thank you. Logan, I’ve been sent by Stick to help you. Stick and Gateway.”

“Gateway? It’s been months since anyone heard from him.”

“Logan, the Chaste are almost gone. The mountain has been ruined and the Path is only walked by a select few. Between the Kingpin and the Hand, my life has been stripped of everything I held dear.”

“I don’t know if it means much, darlin’, but ya still got me.”

“It means the world. I’m not alone anymore. Did you see the style these ninja’s fought with?”

“It was reminiscent o’ the Hand, but different. Almost demonic. I ever tell you ’bout the Undercloaks?

“No, but I know the name. They are a part of Hand mysticism.”

“Yeah, well, that much I know. And I know why. I’m remembering, Elektra. I’m remembering the real truth of the Undercloaks and the Hand. It’s time to take the fight to Chen Yu!”

That name strikes me. I know that name, and suddenly I am afraid. Wolverine is already heading in to battle. Not only do I follow, but I’m being drawn. The dead souls of the Hand are calling me.

Adam Destine reflected on the predicament he now faced. He had been spending a quiet night at home in Ravenscroft when he had received the message from Logan. Or what had eventually turned out to be Chen Yu.

He had been invited to watch the Chicago Bears play the Miami Dolphins, as Logan had been given free tickets at the opening of his new bar. Adam had thought it strange as he hadn’t heard from Logan since the whole Synraith affair.

“It’s obviously a trap,” said Newton, the smartest of his children. There was nothing he couldn’t design, build, or do. He was very rarely at home, seeing as how he was leader of several worlds and hero of many more.

“Yes,” said Adam. “I know.”

“Do you need our help?” Newton had asked, knowing that the family’s assortment of powers would be helpful.

“No,” said Adam. “Though I thank you for your concern. Being totally invulnerable and unable to die does have some advantages.”

“Just because you’ll live forever doesn’t mean you can’t die,” reminded Newton.

“I’ll bear that in mind,” he had replied and made his way for Heathrow airport. Needless to say he hadn’t made it. How he’d been captured he wasn’t quite sure, but the taxi had seemed to travel through a dimensional portal of some kind, and somehow he had lost consciousness. The only thing he could think of was a magic on a level with of his beloved djinn, but not powerful enough to kill him.

When he’d awoke he had seen the face of an old adversary, Chen Yu, and he knew that the time was now. It was just a question of making sure everyone else knew and so Chen Yu would fall forever. The plan was flawless.

Except it hadn’t counted on Logan’s injuries or his loss of the adamantium. Had it been that way when it played out before? He didn’t think so, unless things were changing already, in which case the plan had failed and all was lost.

Chen Yu could see the doubt in his eyes, worth more to the sorcerer than any other victory. He couldn’t help but gloat.

“And so it begins,” smiled Chen Yu. “Gomurr will fall, Weapon X will die, Elektra will join me as my consort, the Crimson Dawn will be mine, and you Adam Destine will make it possible. There are none left to stop me this time!”

Never a truer word was spoken, thought Adam, hoping that this would all work out, and thinking back to the basis of the whole plan…

NEXT ISSUE: Flashback time! Weapon X and Adam Destine go one on one with Chen Yu and the Hand. The untold story mentioned in X-Men & ClanDestine is finally revealed. And yes, a flashback does mean you will read ~SNIKT~!