View source for X-Men Annual 8: The Lost Sentinel Story

==Pages 1-4 (Chapter 1: Timenapped!)==
We see a close up of Kitty Pryde’s head and torso in some dark, cramped technologically defined space. She’s wearing a headpiece that has an ear unit, a microphone and a light shining up in the general direction of the viewer. She has a burned out computer circuit board disconnected on her chest, several dangling hardware connections and her hands are out of sight, past us, as she is clearly attempting to make some hardware change.
We hear a voice from the headset: “30 seconds, Pryde. I’m holding off the security software with everything I have but you have 25 seconds to get that circuit board repaired or we are dead.”

"Piece of cake," Kitty replies.

“20 seconds. Their perimeter alerts are coming back on line”

"Got it."

“10 Seconds. Preparing to abort.”

"Too late! It's done," Kitty says, looking smug.

Credits Box: X-Men Annual #8 - The Lost Sentinel Story
Penciled by Myles "Nightcrawler" Corcoran
Inked by Lisa "Colossus" Padol
Colored by Kris ”Ariel”" Keegan
Lettered by Joshua "Phoenix" Kronengold
Plus Special Guest Writer Samantha "Scarlet Witch" Mullaney

Edited by Brian Rogers
Rachel Rogers, Editor in Chief

Kitty slides herself out from under her desk, and we see Doug Ramsey at the other machine in her room. “Pretty slick, Kitty. With your hardware interface repaired the Massachusetts Academy is back to being blind to our presence. Heh. Suckers. That’s what you get for messing with the Ramsey/Pryde team, Miss Frost.”

He spins around in his chair, looking a little more serious, “The school re-upgraded their security protocols, again. Second time since you first asked for my help with them. The only places I’m sure are more secure than this are the Pentagon, the Baxter Building and Ma Bell. I’m all for helping with a little interschool rivalry but forgive me for suspecting that some serious stuff is going down in le Academe de Commonwealth.”

“So what is it? Is Frost doing a Femme Nikita on some diplomat’s kids? Is the place secretly a Skrull staging area? What?”

"Raging paranoia isn't a good enough reason?"

Before Doug can respond the computers blink out for a second, and the connection to the Hellfire Club is lost. The lights didn’t blink due to the mansions internal generators, so Kitty knows that it must have been an outside effect on the communications lines.

“What the heck?” Doug says, looking back at the computer screen. “That wasn’t a program glitch…” he’s furiously typing at the computer and not looking out the window. Looking towards him Kitty can see outside, where the late December, snow covered grounds of the mansion have been replaced with a kaleidoscopic lightshow, the sort that usually means something has gone very, very wrong.

"Well, it's sure *some* kind of glitch," Kitty says.

In the other side of the mansion Wanda is in Ilyana’s room, giving her apprentice further instruction on the fine art of resisting chthonic influences in ones spellcasting. The recent death of Iyana’s former mentor, Belasco, might make this lessons a little less crisis driven, but Ilyana has a lot of unlearning to do.

“I’m trying to follow a more natural path when working on spells, but it’s so difficult,” Ilyana complains. “Taking the paths I know already feels ‘natural’ even if it thinking that way keeps me thinking about people as being objects….”

Wanda: "Concentrate dear!"

Ilyana is balancing an arcane sphere of some sort on a tripod of mystic force projected from the fingers of her left hand.

Wanda: "Drop that now and your eyebrows will be two weeks growing back."

Ilyana recovers her poise with some effort.

Wanda: "After my brush with Cthon I was taught to think of the ease of dark magic as being like scratching an itch: all very well for a quick fix but keep doing it and soon your nails will be scraping on bone."

This colourful image breaks Ilyana's focus and even though Wanda catches the sphere the resulting fizzing bang knocks both women on their dainty backsides. This allows the two of them to notice the lightshow going on outside the window. Ilyana looks at her hands guiltily and Wanda reaches out to take her right hand, squeezing it in attempted reassurance.

Wanda: "Not your mess dear. ... Although it looks like it might be our problem."

[Peter]

Peter is on the phone, talking to either Callisto about one of the projects he started for the Morlocks. He has a smile on his face and utter innocence of how much he's enjoying her barbed banter.

"All right," he says. "I will come down and hit it for you. And if that doesn't work, we can --" He breaks off as the line goes dead. "Callisto?" he says, voice sharp with worry.

"Callisto?" His eyes catch the new view out the window. "Oh," he says, realizing that the problem is on his end. He hangs up the phone.

[Kurt]

Kurt is in the kitchen, piling remnant pieces of turkey, stuffing and other sundries on a plate. He has a sizeable chunk of streuselkuchen clenched in his mouth as he heads for the long kitchen table. The scene outside the kitchen window catches his eye and the kuchen falls from his mouth as he gapes in surprise.

[Rachel]
Rachel, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt (a band shirt; reading "Crystal Singer, one night only, with an address on Kilishandra Lane"), is looking over old photos. ‘‘Dad's parents’‘ she thinks, ‘‘I'm just not ready to talk to them, but...I'll never be ready. And they deserve to know me, and some part of me -wants- to know them. Jump in with both feet, I guess.’‘ She looks up a number on the computer station in her room, and dials.

"Hello?" a voice comes from the phone...and is immediately cut off as the window behind Rachel becomes full of multicolored lights.

‘‘Oh no,’‘ Rachel thinks, sensing the disruption, and opening up a mind-link to the other X-Men and their visitor.

‘‘X-Men, Scarlet Witch -- We're being pulled through time! I don't know when--or where--we're going!’‘

[BR: *Dad's* Parents: Dad's mom is dead and Dad's father is in space fighting in the Shi'ar civil war. Did you mean Mom's parents who are in the greater NYC area? Or Dad's grandparents (who do live in Alaska, not incredibly far from Cyclops, but who have never been shown on panel)]

Kurt drops his lunch unceremoniously on the kitchen table and telecasts to Phoenix. ‘‘Rachel, mindlink the group! Everyone, meet me in the entrance hall, now!’‘

There's a burst of sulphurous smoke and the German mutant disappears with a bamf and reappears in the entrance hallway of the school. He scans the world outside the windows anxiously, trying to make sense of what he's seeing.

Inside the lightshow there are flashes of images, and Kurt can make out the familiar shape of Sentinels attacking people and places. There are extended shots of Cyclops and the original X-Men facing down the all but unstoppable Larry Trask sentinels by outwitting them, sending them off on the fool's errand of exploring the sun, and of their first conflict with the less impressive but still powerful Bolivar Trask sentinels a few years before that. There are shots of Sentinels defeating a powerful Avengers line up, including Thor, Iron Man and Vision. There are shots of the Sentinels defeating the Fantastic Four, and of one blast vaporizing a toddler-Franklin.

We see people with Bolivar Trask - standard issue MIB types, some looking more like the science model, some carrying high tech guns - who are decommissioning a space ship (when Wanda sees this she will be able to decisively declare it a Skrull design). We see those same Trask MIBs doing some sort of excavation in a wooded area, opening up a collapsed cave mouth.

There are also flashes of Peter Corbeau working on the Starcore observatory parts in New Mexico before it launched; his loaning the X-Men the observatory's refueling shuttle to fight Stephen Lang's Sentinels on the co-opted SHIELD orbiting space station to save the Professor, Scott and Jean; Corbeau on a military destroyer on the ocean that has just taken some sort of hit; Corbeau struggling to get resolution on some scanners and once they're resolved he sees the Sentinels coming out from inside the sun....

As the other members of the group start arriving Nightcrawler positions himself on the marble ball at the base of the banister and counts people in.

Kitty arrives on foot, like a normal person - and towing a bemused Doug Ramsey. She's wearing jeans and a sweater, with her costume's utility belt buckled on over top of that. "Technology contingent reporting, Kurt," she says with a worried half-smile.

Doug is looking a little gobsmacked not just by the lightshow outside but by how calmly Kitty is taking it. When the pair hit the first floor Doug’s walk turns into a tight pivot as he keeps his eye on Kurt. He had seen Kurt many times before but never in so outré a pose, and not with his tale visible. He probably likes to think he’s doing well right until he bumps into the couch.

Ilyana begins to summon her stepping disk. Wanda says "Let's take the stairs. If this is the timestream we don't want to suddenly step off."

The two women head down the main stairs to meet up with the others.

As they descend Doug grabs Kitty’s arm, pulling her close enough to whisper to. “That’s the Scarlet Witch,” he hisses, jerking his head. “I have a poster of her in my closet. What is the Scarlet Witch doing in your school?”

Kitty stares at him perplexedly. "In your *closet*?"

Doug nods, "Inside the closet door. The rest of the wall space is taken up with bookshelves and other posters." After a second he adds, "Do you think she'll sign my copy of the Rolling Stone with the Anne Liebovitz's photo?"

Kitty knows the one - the pair are naked except for Wanda holding her cloak at a clever angle; her husband, the Vision, has his questionable bits hidden by the bedside table that he's standing intangibly inside. The cloak is more or less doubling as the sheet on the bed.

Rachel arrives in good order. She seems to have found time to change into her new costume (straps and all).

Doug’s eyes bug out of his head. Just as with Kurt he’s seen Rachel many times but not in this…er…idiom. Or with that much flesh showing.

Peter arrives in costume and metal form, derriere and all.

Doug is lucky to have his own derriere hit the couch when his knees give way. “X-Men. You’re the X-Men.” He grabs Kitty’s hand again, “Kitty, they’re the X-Men…well and the Avengers. You…you’re an X-Man too.”

Kitty is relieved that Doug doesn’t release his grip in a cringe away from her. Instead he whispers “This is so damn cool.”

*Whew,* Kitty thinks, and perches on the arm of the couch. "*So* much easier than trying to explain in words," she remarks quietly.

Rachel says, "They catch on quick these days, do they? Kurt's blue skin didn't give it away earlier?"

"Oh, did I blow our cover?" says Peter, privately noting Doug holding Kitty's hand.

Kurt raises his voice. "Sorry to get all Cyclops on us, but can we focus, please? Scarlet Witch, have you any means of contacting your team mates? I want to establish if it's the mansion that's been time shifted, the grounds or, heaven forbid, on a much larger scale." He grins at the increasingly boggled expression on Doug's face as the phrase 'time shifted' sinks in.

Wanda shakes her head, "No. Once you're in the timestream communicating back out is all but impossible."

Kurt looks like he expected that. “Next we need a perimeter sweep to establish our location and what's going on outside. Phoenix, do your telepathic senses pick up any other minds in the vicinity? I want to know who's behind this and why."

"No," Phoenix says,"I don't sense anyone inside the time bubble except those here. And while I've sent minds through the timestream, it's not something you want to do from a moving vehicle."

Kurt hops down off his perch and approaches Doug on the couch. "Mr. Ramsey," Kurt begins seriously, "I'm afraid you've been caught up in this and I'm very sorry for that. We're going to do our very best to rectify the situation and get you home. Please stick close to Kitty and follow our instructions. We don't know who or what we're facing yet and I don't want you getting hurt."

His expression softens into a grin. "Still, how bad can it be? Last week was demons and dinosaurs."

"He's not kidding," Doug says, incredulous. He stares up at Kitty. "Kitty, I figured you went to Chicago for Hanukah. You were fighting Beelzebub in the Jurassic?"

"Nothing so exotic," Ilyana chimes in, leaving Wanda's side to congregate with her age cohort. "Just an old enemy of Dante Alighieri's in the Savage Land."

Before this can go on any longer there a cloud of smoke appears by the doors to the mansion. Out of it steps a figure so powerful in his personal charisma that he manages to pull off his ridiculous hat.

"X-Men, I am Immortus, master of the time streams. I have need of your powers if we are to save humanity from destruction!"

"You could have knocked, you know," says Phoenix. "We'd have answered. We were in."

"As you may know, the Sentinels constructed by Lawrence Trask were infinitely adaptable and essentially unstoppable. Your former leader, Cyclops, tricked them into leaving the Earth to investigate the sun as its radiation in the primary driver of human mutation. The X-Men though the problem solved, but years later the second generation Sentinels returned to Earth with a new plan: the forcing of enormous solar flares that would sterilize humanity, allowing the Sentinels to take control of all future human population growth through cloning or similar measures, fulfilling their mandate to protect humans from mutation. The Avengers, including the Scarlet Witch, were barely able to defeat them. Iron Man, Hawkeye, Vision, even the mighty Thor fell under their assault."

"Humanity survived only through the advance warning of Peter Corbeau on the Starcore space station and Quicksilver arriving with the Sentinel’s creator, who captured them in a second logical conundrum - the Sentinels were convinced that their lead robot's programming parameters had changed so much that it too could be considered a mutation. Its fellows fired upon it, destroyed it, and in so doing destroyed their own central processor, shutting themselves down."*

[ED: I am not making this up. see Avengers 102-104.]

Immortus continues, "But even such a narrow-won victory would have been impossible if not for the manipulations we are about to make in the endless now. Even my vast powers do not allow me to make permanent manipulations to the timestream unaided. Only this specific cohort of humanity, with two independent time travelers and a probability manipulator to stabilize their powers, have the ability to make the subtle shifts to the past required. I had to wait, if waiting has any meaning outside of time, for this single day's confluence of events to have any hope of preserving humanity's future."

"Wait," Rachel says, "you needed this specifically -- the Scarlet Witch, Magick, and myself, plus enough X-men do do whatever you're planning. So did you arrange for us to happen to come together, or did you just find the best point in our timestream which happened to have a group violently opposed to the Sentinels and with the right powers to help you change time?"

"It is more complicated than that, Phoenix," he replies. "There were no timelines in which the Sentinels were not ultimately victorious. Seeing the issue I had to explore a set of hypothetical alternate timelines to see what changes in the Sentinels history would make any victory possible. Once this timeline was identified I had to use the Forever Crystal to create a self-perpetuating temporal loop in which the future of that timeline entered its own past to make that future possible, and then move to this point in the timeline to the critical agents who will have been the ones to make the changes needed to allow their very existence."

“Alas, even my powers have their limits,” Immortus intones with some regret. “I cannot maintain the alternate timestream in which the victory has already occurred for much longer without some internal validation. There are two crucial time nodes that must be shored up to reinforce it and give us some opportunity to contemplate next actions.”

“The Scarlet Witch must immediately lead Magik and a group chosen for stealth and technical expertise to Peter Corbeau’s technical construction site prior to Starcore’s launch. They must avoid all detection and install this unit,” an electronic unit roughly two inches long by an inch in diameter appears his hand, “into the Starcore sensor array.”

He gestures to one of the flashing images outside, of Corbeau struggling to improve resolution on his sensors. “With this subtle improvement Corbeau and his team will be able to detect the Sentinels solar activities and warn the Avengers before it is too late.”

“Select your team quickly, Scarlet Witch, keeping in mind that the second crucial node will require violent conflict, and that maintaining space for any sentient minds in this pocket might strain my technology beyond the breaking point. All here must depart until our situation is more secure.”

Kurt eyes Immortus skeptically before he turns to the Scarlet Witch. "Scarlet Witch, you're the only one with any experience of Immortus. Is he likely to be speaking the truth?"

‘‘And what choice to we have in any event?’‘ he thinks to himself.

"He usually speaks the truth, though rarely the whole truth. As to trust, it appears we have little choice."

"Immortus, the violent conflict you speak of, you mean a confrontation with the Sentinels themselves, ja? As you can see, our numbers are few. Storm, Cyclops, and Wolverine are absent. In the past even with those mighty mutants we've struggled against the Sentinels. What makes you think half our current number has a hope against them?"

"No, Nightcrawler, you will not be facing Sentinels. Many of the nodes are prior to the Sentinels creation. The actions you take now are what introduces the elements to their design that allow them to EVER be defeated, and in all of the possible timelines of human history only this collection of heroes stands any chance at all."

Kurt smiles a wry smile. "Well, it's nice to be wanted. Scarlet Witch, I recommend Kitty for any covert action, and she's our best tech. If there's an X-Man to handle installing Immortus's technology, it's her. She and Magik know each other well, and work well together as a team."

Wanda nods

"Phoenix, Colossus and I should form the second group, I suggest."

"Immortus, will Phoenix be able to keep the two groups in telepathic contact? Will we even be in the same time in the timestream?"

"No," Immortus shakes his head, "the teams will be separated not just by space but by time. If I had a decade to train Phoenix in such a use of her powers she might be able to attain short bursts of communication through the timestream but we have not decades but moments - the grains of sand that represent the barest chance of human survival are slipping away and therefore we cannot waste time with extended explanations. Brevity must be our watchword if humanity is to fulfill its glorious potential."

"But, what about --" Colossus looks at Doug Ramsey.

Wanda says, "Kitty. Would you introduce your friend?"

"Oh, right," Kitty says, pulling her hand loose and patting Doug on the shoulder. "Scarlet Witch, umm, Immortus, this is Doug Ramsey, he's a great computer programmer."

Immortus nods at Doug. Kitty catches a very brief flash in his eyes that makes it clear that he regards Doug's listed skill set as placing him somewhere between a paramecium and a bug.

Wanda looks at Doug and Kitty "As you two seem to be accustomed to working together and given that the second team looks likely to be walking into a firefight perhaps Doug should be attached to our group. Kitty, can you take charge of Immortus's device? I don't really have any pockets."

Kitty takes the devices and shoves it into her tech pack.

Wanda addresses Immortus "What exactly is it that you require my Hex powers for? It sounds like stealth is what is called for here and my probability effects are seldom exactly discreet."

"Magik's time travel power is erratic at best. Your powers are required as a stabilizing element on her abilities to insure your return to this ephemeral timeline."

"I see," Phoenix says. "And I'm to be the return ticket for our group, yes? I've never ripped the timestream open for more than one at a time before--and that last jump took a lot out of me."

"You need not open the portal on your own - instead your presence, and the probability-stabilized Magik - will act as beacons for me to facilitate your return." Immortus looks concerned, "Our time runs short - are you prepared?"

"It'd better get my kit," Kitty says abruptly, and vanishes through the ceiling on a straight-line course to her room.

Doug’s expression changes back to awestruck as the slender girl sitting next to him suddenly flits through the air, then through the ceiling, only to reappear through a wall a moment later further kitted out with a thin, ergonomically designed backpack. There’s no way Peter can miss the expression on Doug’s face as Kitty settles back down next to him, even if it vanishes the second before Kitty returns Doug’s gaze.

Nightcrawler waits for the swift return of Kitty Pryde and looks to the group. "Well, team, it's time to act. Immortus, we're ready."

==Pages 5-8 (Chapter 2: The Helioscope Hack)==
IN THIS CHAPTER: (imagine the little circles running along the side of the page showing Scarlet Witch, Magik, Ariel and Doug Ramsey)

A combination of Immortus smoke and Magik’s stepping disk carries Scarlet Witch’s team to the New Mexico desert, nighttime, year uncertain but supposedly prior to Starcore’s launch, so pre November 1973. The desert night is clear and cold, but fortunately Doug was already dressed for winter and the others are in their insulated unstable molecule costumes.

This is something of a shock for Kitty, since she wasn't wearing her costume when she left the manor.

It's also yet another shock for Doug, who looks over to Kitty and instead sees Ariel in her dark blue bodysuit and light tunic with magenta-and-gray swirls. "Woah."

He then looks at Ilyana, who has instinctively summoned her soulsword in case there was any threat on their arrival. The swords aura of fear hits him and takes a step backwards, trips and scrambles away to get some cover. The noise is soft, but doubtless travels far in the still night air.

They’re a short distance away from a scientific base, and the distinctive Starcore/United Nations logo is visible at one of the gates. The gate is guarded by military personnel, and the team can make out some patrols, all two men with a dog. There are three major buildings that Kitty quickly theorizes are the scientific offices and computer banks, the manufacturing facility and the construction floor, two smaller ones (staff housing and commissary, best guess) and a Quonset hut that is clearly the motor pool with several flatbed trucks next to it.

There’s a small community of 10-12 tents a short distance away from the gates.

Wanda encourages the younger people into some decent cover. "Ariel. What do you need to get your bearings here? Once we have an idea which way we are heading I can provide some distraction on the other side of the installation. As an Avenger I can probably talk my way into most areas but if they call Cap for confirmation it could get messy. Your presence would be more difficult to explain." Looking at Magik "Especially the sword."

Magik looks sheepish and the blade disappears again. "Sorry. Sorry Doug."

"Yeah, um, no problem," Doug tries to recover his dignity. "I'm just not used to time travel, I guess."

Ariel is already ducking behind some hardy desert shrubs, pulling Doug with her. She dips into her backpack and then puts a pair of apparently milspec night-vision binocs to her eyes. ‘‘Good thing I modified these so much,’‘ she thinks, as the reader sees a nice clear binocular-framed view of the buildings.

"I expect the big middle one, with all the extra A/C units on it, is where the main computers are," Ariel reports in a whisper. "To the right, I think that's where they're building the device."

"I could try to make a stepping disk into there, but having no idea what the layout is like it might drop us into a room full of people," Magik says. "Ariel, is there a roof entrance or a back door you can see? I can aim for that...."

"Nothing much on the roof, and there's lights over all the doors," Ariel replies, then gives her friend an amused look. "Remember, I'm the girl that Wolverine says takes all fun out of bein' sneaky," she says, fishing in her backpack for a pair of the short-range encrypted headsets she put together a while back.

"If this is going to be easy, I'll phase in, find the plans, pick a good spot to hide the device, and phase out without anyone noticing," she says, handing one of the headsets to the Scarlet Witch. "If it's not going to be easy - and why would Immortus send all three of us if t is? - I'll phase in to scout, and then tell you why it's not going to be easy. Okay?"

Wanda nods, taking the headset. Ariel takes off, being careful not to silhouette herself against the moon, then flits through a window in the computer center. She remembers from her reading on Starcore that this was one of the first projects to use CAD programs almost exclusively - in an interview Corbeau complained that this actually used up more paper since people would keep printing out their own copies of the materials and then shredding them - so finding paper blueprints for the device will be trickier than finding the electronic copies.

We have a tight five panel here of Ariel's scouting: she stalks through the computer center, finds a computer where the text is encrypted gibberish, dives through the floor to avoid someone, come up through the floor wall in the manufacturing plant and then we see her head coming up through the floor next to what she has identified as the sensor array.

And then she's in a shadowy spot, communicating back to the rest of the group.

In a whisper, Ariel says into her mike, "Okay, we'll definitely need something to distract all the scientists in here.

"I found some computer access, but - can you ask Doug if he'll help with the encryption?"

She pauses, listening for trouble as well as to the reply.

"Also," Ariel adds, "I think somebody else might be sneaking around in here."

"Have you seen any sign of evac alarms? We may need to get the scientists out of there for more reasons than one if there is any likelihood of conflict."

Half-smiling, Ariel tells her, "I could always pull a fire alarm!"

Doug stares at Scarlet Witch in something like amazement when Wanda stands to her full height, raises her arms over her head with her hands together and focuses her concentration on the issue at hand. (Naturally the wind has kicked up a little so her cape is fluttering wildly behind her - it's very much a classic Scarlet Witch pin up shot; her stance is stunning/ moderately terrifying but not full on, porno spine contortions. Doug’s eyes goggle.)

As the light flares around her hands everyone hears the emergency klaxons start going off in every building simultaneously.

Ilyana gives a low whistle, "Well, that got their attention."

There's a momentary pause at the sound in the compound before the security starts ushering everyone out to the edge of the compound with speed - whatever the klaxons mean, it's something really bad - and the people in the tents outside are scrambling out of their tents to see what's going on. It looks like the inevitable conflict between irate protesters and the confused, defensive scientists will keep almost everyone occupied for some time.

Ariel takes the chaos as an opportunity and flies back to the computer lab, using as much cover as possible. She reaches the quiet, secluded spot she'd found before and sends the signal back to the others.

Magik gestures for Doug to get closer to her and Scarlet Witch - till now Doug had been keeping his distance in awkward fan-boy shyness - and summons a stepping disk. In less than a second the four are back together near Kitty.

Being with Kitty in the computer room seems to stabilize Doug a bit, "Can I have the communicator?" he asks Scarlet Witch with a little more confidence in his voice. One he has it he slides into the seat in front of the terminal and turns his attention to the computer.

"You do this a lot, Pryde?" he asks through the communicator.

"Often enough," Ariel responds, and disappears again.

Wanda calls after her, "Watch your back Ariel! Magik's only a step away if company turns up."

Scarlet Witch turns to Doug "Try not to use names over the coms. I'm sure we'd all like to leave behind as few souvenirs as possible."

"Sorry," Doug says, somewhat abashed. "I'm new at this."

He looks back at the computer, "Ariel, this is..." he pauses for a minute, settles on his hacker handle, "Cypher. I'm accessing the system now."

"Good," comes the response from the headset.

Wanda looks up at the Universe "Now. Did someone say something about cameras?"

She spots it and waves her hand. The camera lens develops a higher than normal dust and oil content so that any shorts of the room will be extremely fizzy. Then the image on the screen somewhere distant starts to roll.

Ariel again uses all possible cover to return to the construction zone. Once there, she pauses to locate the security cameras and consider their relationship to the unit's access panels. "I'm at the capsule, Cypher," she whispers into her mike.

The sensor array is fairly well complete - call it 75 to 80% done. As long as it's not active there's no chance of your phasing power disrupting it. Imagine it as a big, folded up thing that, when active, will unfurl to the length of a tractor trailer truck but right now it's no bigger than the cab, and even that has some airy space to it.

The room is empty other than her, and she's pretty sure she has avoided all of the cameras. As stated, the array is more or less in the center of the room.

Back at the computer terminal Doug is typing away. "It's amazing they got this thing into space with machines this primitive..." he says.

"Primitive?" Ilyana asks him as she looks over his shoulder.

"Sure. A simple application of Moore's law says that the machines we have now, er, then, are 64 times more powerful than this. Even though it's state of the art now the art...has...changed... Ariel, I'm in. I'm looking at the cad schematic for the array. I think you'll need to attach it under and behind the central processing core. Assuming it's folded up look under the longest of the three extendable sensor arms. You should be able to see a seven by eleven inch box with six cables, two red, two black, two blue, entering one wall of the box and three green cables existing the other opposite side. Let me know when you see it."

While he's waiting for Kitty's response he turns to Scarlet Witch, "So, is Immortus always like that?"

Wanda: I have found his ability to be simultaneously both autocratic and enigmatic profoundly irritating in the past. However, I am starting to find it reassuring. If he offers explanations or apologies then you know something has gone horribly wrong. His must be an utterly alien way of perceiving reality. I am surprised he can deal with mayflies like us at all.

Doug contemplates this. "He just seemed so...warlike."

Before Scarlet Witch can respond to Doug's curious statement she sees the door to the electrical closet behind them silently swing open. A figure moves out from behind it quickly and quietly, aiming a length of PVC wrapped pipe at the back of Ilyana's head.

[Meanwhile, back at the fabrication plant]
Ariel studies the sensor array, lips pursed thoughtfully. ‘‘Looks awfully cramped to phase into and out of safely,’‘ she thinks to herself. ‘‘Guess I'll have to get in the old-fashioned way.’‘

She picks an angle, moves herself quickly right up next to the thing, and then becomes tangible again to start working her way into the area near the longest sensor arm.

After a few seconds she has her head and shoulders in the right place, lying on her back under the machine. It takes her several minutes of concentrated searching to find what Cypher is talking about but find it she does. "Got it, Cypher. What next?"

"Unscrew the top of the box, it's the master sensor junction box and should do for what Immortus is talking about. There's enough room inside there for you to be able to take out the primary circuit board, attach the item to the processor and reinstall the...What! Hey!"

There's a clatter and the line breaks up in static with the sound of a scuffle coming through it.

‘‘Drat,’‘ Ariel thinks, twisting the top of the box and fishing a small headlamp out of one of her belt pouches at the same time. ‘‘Scarlet Witch is there, Ilyana's there ... it'll be _fine._’‘

A moment later she's peering inside the box with the headlamp, evaluating the contents ... and listening hard to whatever's coming over the radio.

[In the computer lab]
Wanda's response to this ambush one honed by more than a decade of adventuring: light flares around her hand and an unexpected buildup of lactic acid inside the tech's thigh causes an acute and debilitating cramp. He drops the pipe, clutches his leg with both hands and crashes to the floor. Given his momentum his now ungainly body crashes into Magik, who in turn pushes Cypher's chair forward and sends Doug out of it for a second - no harm done save for Doug losing the comm unit, which skitters across the floor.

"What...Hey!" Doug yells as he and Ilyana look back at their putative assailant. Neither has any chance of recognizing the man, but Wanda can, and does - she's met both him and his rampaging alter ego more than once in her time with the Avengers.... Bruce Banner is lying on the floor in front of her, confused and in pain. Wanda can see Magik is getting ready to summon her soulsword as a basic defensive measure.

The soulsword with its fear-generating aura.

And that would make things just about as bad as they could get.

*..#*. Doug isn't sure but he didn't hear Scarlet Witch say a very bad word. Surely not.

“Magik ... stand! ... down!” Wanda puts so much emphasis into this she practically hisses. “No weapons! Hear me girl! ... Cypher, get back on that com. Tell Ariel what I am saying.

Wanda kneels close to Bruce Banner and mustering all her feminine solicitude than can be divorced from vamping - not easy in this outfit - and prepares to unhex her hex. ”Be still Dr. Banner, let me do something for the pain. Please.”

Both kids freeze and, facing a very focused and irate Avenger, immediately do what they're told. Ilyana holds down Doug's shoulder to keep him in his seat as she scrambles to pick up the com link and hand it to him. They are very conspicuously not getting in the way of whatever it is Scarlet Witch is doing.

"Wanda...what..." Bruce stiffens a little at the sight Wanda's hex energy signature but calms immediately when it’s clear that this was her removing the pain in his leg. "Thanks. What are you doing here? Who are these kids?"

Wanda can see the green tinge disappear from Dr. Banner's eyes as he talks.

"I'm not sure how much I should tell you. Even the Avengers can make mistakes and sometimes we have to go to extraordinary lengths to fix them. What brings you here and why did you attack my pupil?"

Bruce nods, a little confused but accepting. "OK. There have been the protests, and I was afraid...I've seen some for Dr. Corbeau's research, and I think it would be possible for Starcore, if finished, to use solar energy to rid me of the gamma radiation*. So I sneaked in to confirm my suspicions, and when I saw that other girl breaking into the place, well, most of the protesters are pretty young. I jumped to conclusions when I saw them breaking into the computer."

[*ED: for the record, Starcore first appeared in Incredible Hulk #148, and was used to do just what Bruce is suggesting.]

Doug has the comlink back in his ear, "Ariel, we're back on line. Scarlet Witch is talking to that techie you saw earlier. Apparently he's someone she knows named Doctor Bannner... oh my god..." Doug looks back at Bruce and blanches, the name falling into place with the realization that he just came very close to dying.

*Whew,* Ariel thinks to herself. Aloud (but quietly), she just says, "Almost done here. Meet back on the hillside?"

Doug responds, "Affirmative. I'm logging off.'

He turns back to Wanda, "Ariel's finished. She's meeting us on the hillside and I've returned the computer to its original configuration."

"Ready to go whenever," Magik adds.

"Can I, er, hitch a lift?" Banner asks Wanda. "I'm afraid that after these alarms they're going to tighten up security so my getting out might be a little harder than my getting in."

He gives Wanda a long, intense look and she can see something fall into place in his expression. "Time travel?" Apparently even someone as occasionally socially inept at Bruce banner knows not to make the statement "you look old" to a woman.

[BR: space for Wanda to respond, but I don't suspect they'll be any issue with making room on the stepping disk for Dr. Banner.]

One stepping disk later....

On the hillside the now quintet can hear the klaxons turning off and see the site return to normal after the computer glitch.

"I'm glad this didn't get any worse," Banner says to them. He looks at Magik, "Thanks for being so understanding, and I'm sorry I misjudged you. Good luck with whatever you're doing."

Saying his goodbyes Dr. Banner turns and walks into the desert, starting yet another phase in his lonely search for a cure to his unique condition.

At that moment Ilyana feels Immortus' temporal attention on her and turns to Wanda, "OK, Mr. Big Hat it telling me it's time to go." She summons a stepping disk, it's normal silver infused with Starlet Witch's hex signature, and the four disappear from the hilltop, as if they were never there.

==Pages 9-12 (Chapter 3: Future Writ in Stone)==
IN THIS CHAPTER: (imagine the little circles running along the side of the page showing Nightcrawler, Colossus and Phoenix)
Back inside the X-Mansion Nightcrawler, Colossus and Phoenix have just witnessed the departure of the other team.

Immortus gestures and a new lightshow appears, one that Nightcrawler had not seen outside: a meteor heads down towards New York, and then changes path in mid fight, crashing into the Hudson north of the George Washington Bridge. The meteor, now displaying four limbs along with its stony exterior and large high tech rocket pack on its ‘back’ climbs out of the river into Inwood Hill Park in the early morning light and begins a lumbering trip south.

“This figure is not an alien,” Immortus informs them. “Inside that rocky exoskeleton a petty human criminal who has stolen advanced alien technologies to make his transportation pack. These technologies are salvaged by the agents of Bolivar Trask and are key to the development of the Sentinels self-improvement capabilities. Without these technologies the Sentinels become marginally less formidable, giving time for Quicksilver to arrive with Lawrence Trask before the Avengers are defeated.”

“You must make sure those technologies are completely destroyed before Trask’s forces can capture them,” Immortus informs them. “The man inside the stone armor is a canny opponent, so be on your guard.”

"Where will you be during all of this?" Peter's question is addressed to Immortus.

“Here, maintaining the stability of this bubble of reality just outside your fragile timestream. In my time you will be gone but seconds, indeed I risk an overlap with you returning before you depart, for every instant spent in idle chatter or wasted breath is a precious resource that can never be recovered.”

Nightcrawler shares a significant look [*] with the other two X-Men and says to Immortus. "We're going to need explosives. Back in a moment." He 'ports away for several ticks of the clock before returning with a snugly fitting black backpack. He gestures with a thumb to the pack. "These should destroy the alien tech beyond any hope of retrieval. Shall we go?"

[MC: * - a placeholder for a future flashback as needed.]

Immortus waves his hand the X-Men vanish from the mansion, reappearing at Spring Creek Park in the morning light. At this hour the park is empty, and even the nearby highway is sparsely populated, perfect for a battle that might cause considerable collateral damage. The stone form is already on shore and looking directly at the X-Men as they appear. There's no missing their costumed super-humany-ness and it lumbers towards them immediately.

‘‘No point in subtlety now. Kurt, I'm going to try to attract its attention’‘ Phoenix brings up her shields at full power, and levitates well out of easy melee range, and then reaches out with her mind to some nearby trash cans, continually accellerating them until the slam into the stone form.

The missiles fly as a blur of speed into the stone behemoth. Some chips of rock break free but not enough to say you had a major effect. The 'head' rears up to look at her but apparently whoever is driving the thing realizes she's out of range and there is no retaliatory strike.

‘‘We need to get through that rocky hide! Phoenix, can you get behind it and see if there are any weak spot there?’‘

‘‘Colossus, we have to hold that thing here and stop it from getting into more populated areas. Can you knock it off its feet?’‘

Nightcrawler then looks round, trying to assess the number of civilians in the area and how best to get them out of here. He ports from car to car, crying a warning and encouraging people to get the hell out of here.

The few people in the area readily flee when the blue demonic form appears before them in a cloud of smoke and yells for them to run for their lives. Within seconds the visible area is empty save for the combatants.

Kurt grimaces at the creature's advance and 'ports back closer to the other two X-Men.

The creature stops its forward lumbering a short distance away from Colossus, pauses for a second as if evaluating courses of action, and then hits him; the attack does no damage to Colossus but does imbed him about a foot into the sod. Peter notes that the behemoth deliberately hit him at a downward angle and was likely holding back.

Colossus frees his legs and hits back. Hard. The blow is partially blocked by the things thick arm, but that feels more like an accident on its part than intentional. Hunks of stone fly off from the limb but it's clearly still working.

Phoenix picks up the dumpster and sends it in to attack the suit, then while it's distracted by that, attempts to fly around close behind it and see if it has any weak spots (or any places that are really good places to place explosives).

The dumpster slams hard into the side of the stone suit, throwing off more chips and flakes of stone as shrapnel – as well as loose garbage - everywhere. Phoenix then tries to propel herself in flight, to dive behind it, but loses concentration when the creature rears up suddenly, its arms and legs uncurling more than she expected, and she see one arm coming up to slap her down. Instead of flying she drops like a, well, stone, falling under the incoming strike and hitting the ground with a graceful tumble that would have done Kate proud. She springs back to her feet, undamaged, shields intact, at the behemoth eyes her.

Nightcrawler teleports to the shoreline and scoops up an armful of smelly tidal mud. "Ach, I'm going to have to dryclean my costume after this."

BAMF! He disappears and reappears on the back of the creature and tries to smear the mud over the eye-spots of their rocky opponent. "Here's mud in your eye, herr monstrum. Where's Sean Cassidy when you need a toast?"

The mud sticks nicely to the crevices in the rock, forming at least a temporary blindfold over the eyeports. The creature makes a swipe at the assailant on its back but Kurt is gone long before the ponderous arm could connect.

Taking advantage of the creature having reared up to hit Phoenix, Colossus moves forward and hammers the back of the thing's 'knee'. There is a further chipping of stone and while it doesn't look like Colossus has done any real damage it the knee does buckle, causing the thing to fall flat onto the ground.

From its prone position it kicks backwards with that leg, catching Peter square in the chest. This time it's not holding back (or maybe it's just that the creature? Suit? Has stronger legs) as Peter feels this one, even as the blow knocks him back onto his keister.

Nightcrawler scans the area for what he's looking for. His eyes light happily on a steel railing, part of the safety barriers of the nearby highway.

‘‘Colossus, Phoenix! The stony carapace is its weakness. We need to focus our attacks on just one weak spot. Phoenix, drive that steel railing into one of its joints. Colossus, once Phoenix has our makeshift chisel in place you must strike. The beast is the anvil. You can be our hammer!’‘

‘‘Once we've breached its rocky hide I can get an explosive charge inside and hopefully disable it.’‘

Nightcrawler unslings his backpack and begins feverishly preparing the timer and explosives.

The wind is kicking up a little bit, sending garbage freed from the dumpster by Phoenix’ last attack tumbling around the park. Kurt has to fumble a bit with the explosives as the detritus from what must have been a child’s Raiders of the Lost Arc-themed birthday party flutters around him. There’s a brief moment where he loses track of one of the detonators, finds it again, fishes out a Pepsi cup that had blown inside the backpack, shoves that detonator into his narrow costume pocket to get it out of the way and finally completes the explosive device.

Phoenix reaches out with her mind and grabs onto a pylon, sharpening it's tip to a point, and then sending it into the suit's left shoulder. She also opens up her shields, hoping to get a better idea of what whoever is in the suit is thinking, since their actions have, thus far, been rather erratic.

The crude spear finds its mark, embedding itself in the stone at the desired point [BR: good roll!]

Her mental shields drop some and the only mind in the immediate area she's not in contact with starts to echo in her thoughts.

‘‘There, I focused the dust dispersal fields. That ought to clear the eyeports!’‘ Phoenix hears from inside just as a bright light flares from the suits 'eyes', scattering the river mud Nightcrawler had so liberally applied to them. ‘‘Sacre Bleu! it worked’‘

‘‘Who _are_ these people?’‘ the suit's driver continues, ‘‘Were they waiting for me? Are they the authorities? A SHIELD strike team that tracked my descent? Or did I just get really lucky?"

The stone behemoth levers itself upright. Both of its front limbs are clearly suffering from some damage. ‘‘Whoever they are, I need to make sure they keep hitting me!’‘

With that the creature takes a swing at Colossus. The stone paw connects, knocking Peter through the air where he lands inside a nearby tree.

‘‘Merde! I didn't mean to knock him away! He's my best hope!’‘

‘‘I don't understand what I'm picking up from this guy's mind,’‘ Phoenix sends across the link, ‘‘It's like he -wants- us to destroy the suit!’‘

Presuming Colossus doesn't hear the thoughts, he jumps back in and hits, preferably where the spear hit, or near enough, given. Nightcrawler said to focus on one spot.

Colossus leaps out of the tree and brings both hands down in an overarm strike on the pylon, driving it through the stone creature's shoulder in its entirety, cleaving off a huge hunk of stone and revealing a dull brown/grey metallic endoskeleton underneath. Even that has been partially damaged - they can see a small breach in the metal deep into the shoulder heading into the main body, sowing sparking cables and leaking some kind of fluid.

Nightcrawler signals. ‘‘Phoenix! Can you get more from it, or him, whatever the creature is? We have to stop this thing before it makes for the airport.’‘

He thinks to himself: ‘‘Dear lord, I don't want to blow a man to smithereens. Who ... or what is inside that thing?’‘

‘‘I'll talk to him--I think it's a him.’‘

Phoenix sends to the man in the suit: ‘‘Why do you want to be hit? What do you mean, he's your best hope?’‘

‘‘Sacre Bleu!’‘ The man thinks, but then recovers. ‘‘One of you is a mind reader?’‘

‘‘The suit was not built with an exit capacity; I needed that to make it sturdy enough to survive the trip. I need someone to break me out of here. Whoever he is, he's strong enough to do it.’‘

‘‘So you need to lose a fight to get out of your suit? That is a 'brilliant' plan given that you expected to be chased. So how do we make sure we don't accidentally kill you?’‘

‘‘You made do with the items at hand, mademoiselle.’‘ She can feel her sarcasm being effortlessly deflected by his Gallic self-regard. ‘‘My original plan had been to land somewhere solid and isolated, mountains, preferably where my impact would shatter the suit. Alas, I mistimed my entry and the metro area offered no such targets. Rather than create a swath of destruction I aimed for the bay and planned to walk into the city. I was very lucky to find you.’‘

‘‘As for not killing me, I'm...the suit is highly resilient. I shouldn't worry about that.’‘

‘‘Kurt, he's pretty confident that he's nigh-invulnerable. Whoever the occupant is, I wouldn't worry too much about accidentally killing him.’‘

‘‘Thanks Phoenix. On his own head be it. Stand clear!’‘

Nightcrawler teleports onto the rocky figure and plants the charges, trying to direct the blast under the carapace to crack it loose. He flicks the timer on the detonator forward a few seconds before he 'ports away. We get a one-two-three split frame pause before the explosion rips through the already damaged frame of the thing.

KA-BLAM! The rocky carapace - and therefore pretty much the whole creature - is blown into a pile of picturesque rubble, and everyone can see grey-blue smoke coming from the otherwise still intact rocket pack.

For several seconds the rubble doesn't move, and there's no sign of the cocksure occupant. Then there's a slight shift in some of the rocks.

‘‘Could one of you help me out of here? Now that I'm back on Earth I'd like to get back to my apartment and pick up some pants....’‘

Colossus easily clears the rubble away. The man extends his right hand from inside an air pocket in the rubble. Colossus helps him out, but keeps a firm grip on the man so that he's not going anywhere. After all, Nightcrawler might have some questions for him, and there's the small matter of the actual job.

The man is Caucasian, broadly built, sporting black hair and a thin moustache. He's wearing blue gloves, boots and trunks but is otherwise unclothed. He doesn't appear to care that Peter isn't letting go of his hand.

"Thank you, Paul Duval at your service. Could I trouble one of you for cab fare into the city?"

Rachel looks at Paul, and the still existent rocket pack ‘‘Someone want to pony up a fare? I don't know how much it costs now -- this guy is a criminal, but I'd rather have him out of here before his pursuit got here, and it would be nice if he didn't know why we were here.’‘ She's also keeping a light touch on his mind, just in case things are about to change--the guy -is- a crook who implied that he was night invulnerable, after all.

Nightcrawler pulls a twenty from his miraculously appearing pockets. "It's a small price to pay. Let's get this verdammt rocket pack destroyed and get out of here."

Via Rachel's telepathic link Kurt adds ‘‘I don't like the idea of just letting him go, but we can't get ourselves tangled in events in the past. The less impact we have here the better. Colossus, you crush the rocket pack. Phoenix you pick it up and dump it in the bay. I can't imagine the salt water will leave much tech unharmed after a sufficiently long dunking.’‘

Kurt tosses the crumpled twenty dollar bill in Duval's direction, still keeping an eye on him for funny business.

"Merci," Duval smiles, then glances (as best he can) at Colossus waiting for the big guy to let him go so he can grab the bill and depart. Phoenix can sense his thoughts again wondering who his rescuers are and what they were doing here - as well as mild indignation at being manhandled by Colossus - but at the moment there's no sense of treachery. He just wants to get the money and get back to his apartment.

Colossus releases him and stomps the rocket pack hard, then picks it up and crushes it for good measure.

Duval picks up the bill with as much dignity as he can muster (and being both French and someone comfortable walking around in that outfit he can muster quite a bit), then watches with a bemused expression as Colossus flattens and then rolls the last remaining piece of his space adventure into a small ball.

"If I may ask, who are you people? You have me at a disadvantage. Some sort of anti-alien defense unit?"

"New Jersey Avengers," Nightcrawler replies with a straight face. "Now if you'll excuse us, we've got places to be."

"And times," he adds under his breath.

Thinking to himself: ‘‘I wonder if we're changing the time line by letting Duval go? Who knows what he might do next?’‘

At that thought Rachel feels Immortus' temporal attention on her, and the three heroes vanish from the park.

==Pages 13-14 (Chapter 4: Between the ticks of the clock)==
Inside the X-Mansion Immortus waits. He is watching the heroes’ actions in a sort of fast forward in holograms floating in the air. “They have spirit and cunning, and fight well,” he thinks, “Almost as well as the Avengers. I dislike having to deceive them, but the fog is ever part of my milieu and this unique moment in history is the only opportunity I have affect these critical changes.”
Seeing the two teams at the cusps of completing their missions he goes on, “They have likely done enough to resolve the issue. Should I step back and see how the timeline unfolds?” he stops, clenching one fist “Nay, to do so now would be a retreat, a failure of certainty in my actions and that, more than anything, could spell doom for my cause…and alter the course of all of history!”

He waves his hand and the holograms disappear, even as the two teams of X-Men materialize inside the mansions foyer. Nightcralwer is quickly able to see that everyone is safe and sound and that the trip through the timesteam didn’t bring along the mud caking his costume.

Everyone can feel Phoenix’s telepathic presence a few seconds after their arrival.

“Congratulations, mutants,” Immortus intones. “Your actions have sufficiently stabilized the timestream as to provide use with a few additional moments for you to discuss the critical next steps. This is still an impossibly precarious situation even if you were to fail in your next missions the human race has a chance, the barest whisper of a chance, for survival.”

‘‘There's *more*?’‘ Ariel remarks silently.

Nightcrawler echoes the thought. ‘‘I hope Immortus doesn't have a shopping list of chronal adversaries. I'd rather collect bubblegum cards.’‘

He waves his hand and two images appear, both of which Kurt recalls from the lightshow outside. The first is people with Bolivar Trask - standard issue MIB types, some looking more like the science model, some carrying high tech guns - who are decommissioning a space ship that Wanda readily identifies of Skrull design. The second is Corbeau on a military destroyer on the ocean that has just taken some sort of hit.

“These are two of the three temporal nodes whose correction must occur to insure the timeline’s proper flow,” Immortus informs them. “In the first Bolivar Trasks men are able to scavenge the artificial intelligence systems from an interstellar craft piloted by the greatest warrior of the Skrull Empire, a ship he abandoned in one of his ongoing attempts to attain the greatest victory of any Skrull warrior – the defeat of the Fantastic Four. Despite the barriers of communication and technology the insights Trask’s men are able to glean from the advanced alien technology serve to remove myriad design faults in the Sentinel’s logic structures, so that the rhetorical gambits perpetrated on the Sentinels in our timeline will not prove the gateway to victory.”

“In order to prevent this scavenging with minimal disruption to the timeline you must prevent the ship from reaching Earth. My technologies can place your team on the Skrull ship en route, from where you might take the pilot by surprise and disable the ship. The loss of a single one of his futile missions against Fantastic Four will go all but unnoticed by history compared to the damage that his arrival and the subsequent loss of his ship would generate to the delicate web of time.”

The hologram shift during this to show a picture of the pilot: a tall, highly muscular, broad-shouldered Skrull in his people’s traditional black and purple military garb. Wanda, at least, immediately identifies him as the Super-Skrull.

“The Fourth Node,” Immortus continues, gesturing to the image of Peter Corbeau on the seagoing vessel, “is the fate of Peter Corbeau. Presented here at one of the most triumphant periods of his storied life, Corbeau has just completed the negotiations with the various European and Soviet space agencies, his passion for his singular project ultimately swaying even the most Luddite of legislators to accede to his requests and support the funding of the Starcore station. Always a fan of the open sea Corbeau has selected an unfortunate method of transportation back to North America, as this vessel is in the path of an irate member of the Atlantean nobility run amok, an ersatz world conqueror whose petulant violence dooms the vessel and with it Peter Corbeau.”

“Even with Corbeau’s loss Starcore will still be constructed, dedicated to his memory, but bereft of his particular genius the modifications made in the previous node will still provide a partial and delayed transmission to the Avengers, reducing their chances of victory in the final conflict with the Trask Sentinels. To save Peter Corbeau, and through him all of human evolution, you must defeat or delay the aforesaid Atlantean before he encounters Corbeau’s vessel.”

The image shifts, just as the previous one had, to display this temporal node’s adversary: Namor, the Sub-Mariner.

Immortus turns to Nightcrawler and Scarlet Witch, “The safest route for my chronal engines is for your team to again divide its forces and simultaneously affect changes in both nodes. I can, with risk, find the energy to allow these challenges to be faced in sequence so that all of you might be present at each event. Choose quickly, Mutants, for even with the advantages your actions have purchased for us time is still our most precious resource, and not one to be squandered.”

"Very well, Immortus. We will attempt to divert Namor and the Super Skrull from their timelines."

"Colossus, I suspect while you are our greatest asset against Namor you also sink remarkably well. The sea is not the place for you, my Russian friend. You're facing the Super Skrull. Conversely, Phoenix you can not only fly but levitate others with your telekinesis. Let's hope that the Atlantean proves a fish out of water, literally."

"In both cases we don't have to defeat our opponent to win. We have to disable the Skrull and delay the Atlantean. Kitty, I think your technical expertise may be invaluable against the Skrull ship's systems, so you're with Colossus against the Skrull. Magik works well with you both, so she's with you, and Doug... you stick with Kitty and keep your head down, lad."

"That leaves Scarlet Witch, Phoenix and I to tackle Namor and save Paul Corbeau."

Nightcrawler pauses for a moment, gathering his thoughts. His face is lined with worry.

"I'm open to alternative suggestions how we array our forces. Scarlet Witch, have you anything to add?"

Wanda: This Namor is an imposing figure. Very ... individual ... dress sense.

Rachel frowns. "I'm still not used to concentrating on other things while lifting myself, but I think I'm ready to start. But...doesn't the Scarlet Witch have to be deployed with Magick? I believe they need to be together in order to reliably return from their trip.

Immortus nods, "This was correct, initially, but as the timelines stabilize our flexibility grows. If you are not going to strain the fabric of time by taking these actions in sequence I will be able to provide sufficient controls for Nightcrawler's plan to move forward. However, one time traveler must be with each team."

"Speaking of time travel -- Immortus, I have to wonder; you've clearly been manipulating time in order to set this whole thing up. So how exactly did I manage to get from my original timeline -- in which Ilynna Rasputin grew up normally and mother never went mad or died -- into this one, in which things went differently before I ever interfered?"

Immortus stops and stares at her for a moment, then says "my ways are complex and subtle, young traveler, and too complicated to explain now. Rest assured that when this is completed you and I will have a chance to speak more fully."

Via her telepathy Rachel hears Doug think - not project, but merely think with some certainty, ‘‘He's lying. Her question caught him totally flat footed.’‘

‘‘How can you tell?’‘

‘‘Um, I don't know.’‘ Doug replies. ‘‘But...it's obvious, isn't it? His stance, that little squint he just did. Everything else he's said has been so sure, so...rehearsed. But you blindsided him and he had to deliver a flat-out, unprepared lie.’‘

He goes on ‘‘He has been _acting_ all calm and scholarly but you just made him _react_ and he got...combative. I don't know how else to put it. ‘‘

Wanda: ‘‘Immortus would probably rather die than say the words 'I don't know". Still, interesting to actually catch him in a lie. Well done …Cypher.’‘

‘‘We must be on guard, team. Immortus clearly has more to his plans than magnanimously saving the future from the Sentinels. We may be trapped by his time powers, but perhaps Magik, Phoenix and Scarlet Witch can work something together to give us an edge there with the stepping disks when the crunch comes.’‘

Wanda: ‘‘It strikes me as a remarkable coincidence that Immortus should drop our team to Starcore on the exact date that Bruce Banner happened to be reconnoitering the installation. Perhaps there is some pattern to these not-at-all random encounters?’‘

Nightcrawler then speaks aloud, his face impassive. "Very well, I'm happier keeping the team together if I can. We'll deal with one problem at a time, Immortus. Heads it's Super Skrull, tails it's Namor?"

==Pages 15-22 (Chapter 5: Lost in Space)==
Immortus pauses for a second and then says “The Skrull ship poses a larger threat to the timeline as a whole, and so must be of primary import. I will situate you within a secluded spot on his carrier.”
The mists of time rise again and the seven mutants find themselves inside a cramped space, most likely a storage hold of some sort. This space is already larger than the ship they saw in the temporal image, which was a one-man vessel no larger than a conventional sedan. Through the Scarlet Witch’s extensive experience with the Skrulls and space flight in general they are reassured that they are in the correct place – the Skrulls will park larger vessels inside the solar system and visit planets via the smaller shuttles so as to minimize their chance of detection thus improve the utility of their natural shape shifting abilities. This is not to say that she knows the specific layout of the ship, but it does mean that Immortus statement that they would be able to engage the Super-Skrull on his ship now makes sense.

Doug sighs to Kitty and Ilyana, “I feel like Arthur Dent – I get onto my very first spaceship and it’s a dump.”

Kitty grins nervously. "As far as I know, the Skrull don't do poetry."

While the ship doesn’t hit Vogon levels of unpleasantness Doug is not far wrong: the ship, at least this part of it, is not built for comfort. In addition to ‘cramped’, claustrophobic, arid and battleship-grey are all perfectly reasonable descriptors of the space. One might venture so far as ‘Frank Lloyd Wrightian’ – at least in regards to ceiling right – which leaves Colossus dangerously close to banging his head with every step.

Colossus moves very, very carefully.

“Scarlet Witch?” Doug adds a little hesitantly; he’s clearly still a bit unnerved about talking to the Avenger, “Immortus lied to us again before we left. He said this was the more important node but I don’t think that’s what he really thought.”

"Why would he send us to a less important node?" says Colossus. "If he is telling the truth about the basic situation, it does not seem to make sense."

"Good question," Phoenix says,

Illyana says "Maybe the other node as worse side effects? Or this node has better ones?" with a shudder she adds "Or maybe he wouldn't mind if Corbeau is dead?"

Nightcrawler says "We're not going to let that happen. Peter Corbeau is a friend to the X-Men and aided us countless times."

Phoenix adds "What I want to know is why he sent you off before giving us our briefing. There was no reason he had to; time travel doesn't work that way. I'm going to implant the memory of what he said -- and what happened; maybe you'll notice something I didn't."

Following the Professor's recent examples Phoenix begins to unspool her memories into the other team's minds. Nothing in particular jumps out at the X-Men but Scarlet Witch recognizes their opponent. After a few seconds of thought she's able to place him - it's the Grey Gargoyle. After he landed in Jamaica Bay the Gargoyle made his way into Manhattan on a rampage. The Avengers, aided by the fearless vigilante Daredevil, eventually managed to destroy stone exoskeleton, but afterwards the Gargoyle leapt from the rubble petrified most of the team. Falcon was able to escape, track the Gargoyle to his final destination - his apartment, where he was looking for his advanced chemistry supply to further boost his power - and delay the Gargoyle until the petrification wore off and the Avengers were able to subdue him*.

[*ED: see Avengers 190-191; All of the above is of course visible in a short series of flashback panels.]

‘‘But this was just two years ago...” Wanda adds, “the Sentinel's solar flare plot was five years _before_ that!’‘

Wanda: "I am doubly suspicious of why Immortus split the group the way he did. I know he said he needed my power to synch with Illyana's to get us back but why? Was it more imperative to keep me away from the other fight so there could be no Avengers element present in Grey Gargoyle's defeat?"

Nightcrawler asks Phoenix, "Can you share the experiences of Kitty and the others from the Starcore site? This whole set-up is fishier than Namor's speedos."

Phoenix nods, “I can try.”

Kitty feels the phantom touch of a telepathic probe in her mind, much as when the professor roots around. With Xavier there’s the sense that he’s letting you know he’s there just out of politeness. With Phoenix the touch is a little more overt, less practiced. In a moment Phoenix, Colossus and Nightcrawler are able to experience the events at the Starcore facility first hand. Unfortunately there’s nothing in those events that triggers any new insight concerning Immortus plans.

Mixed with the basic facts is Kitty's worry about whether any of this is really a good idea ... whether Doug will be all right through this ... pride at his quick handling of the hacking task ... and then a serious jolt of alarm when his transmission is unexpectedly interrupted and she briefly struggles with an impulse to go flying to his/the team's rescue. And then, as she tries to focus while listening hard for news over the headset, the emotion carries along with it the thought, ‘‘Wow. I really care that much? I wonder ... ouch! Pay attention, Ariel!’‘ Her relief when he comes back online is also palpable.

Back in real time, Kitty looks mortified as she realizes all that got through Phoenix's information-transfer.

Peter thinks, a little sadly, "Perhaps it is for the best." As he is in his metal form, he does not actually blush when he realizes that got through as well, but he does try to find some neutral place to look at.

"But that's" Phoenix thinks, looking at Kitty, Doug, and Peter sadly, "no, I'm being foolish. Doug...I don't think he lived past the attack on the mansion, in my timeline; maybe what he has with Kitty will be even sweeter. I shouldn't mourn anything from that future...well, Franklin, but even there..." She flashes back to child-Franklin saying it will be all right. "I don't believe I'm being homesick for a terrible future. Still, what they had..it was good. Would have been.Maybe still will, but...that's not the direction they're going in now."

Perhaps to change the topic Nightcrawler turn to Rachel, "Phoenix, we may have to confront Immortus directly. Do you think you'll be able to read his thoughts when we next meet? We need more pieces of this puzzle."

"He's thousands if not millions of years old. I can try, but I doubt I'll get anything and it might throw me for a loop. And that's assuming he's not got a mind shield."

Nightcrawler asks "Wanda, have you control enough of your hex power to disable the artificial gravity in a small area? We could infer the location of the engines from the acceleration of any loose object."

Scarlet Witch focuses her concentration and, in defiance of all logic, the space around the team loses gravity for a few seconds. Keeping a close eye on the contents of the room Nightcrawler can make out a distinct movement towards what he immediately starts to see as the ‘aft’ of the ship, as well as a little bit up. Clearly they’re below the ship’s midline and he can infer that they’ll have to move up one level as well as head backwards.

As the gravity returns a few things in the room shift position and one long, flat box slips from its perch and slides to the floor. Behind that Kitty is able to spy a junction box that, if Skrull ships are anything like Shi’ar ones, would be an entrance point to the ship’s computers.

Wanda asks "Phoenix, can you sense if there is anyone else on board or how many?"

Then adds telepathically ‘‘My apologies Rachel but is this before or after the trial of Dark Phoenix? If after we might want to be careful how we throw that codename around.’‘

‘‘I don't know’‘ Rachel sends ‘‘but I'm pretty obviously not my mother. So hopefully we can talk our way out of any trouble that gets us into--plus if we're only going to run into Skrulls it probably doesn't make much of a difference.’‘ Rachel guardedly opens up her mind, looking for any other signs of life.

Phoenix probes to the best of her ability and but can feel nothing other than her companions and the presence of alien-ness.

Phoenix shakes her head. "There's something out there, but I can't get any details; whatever it is is alien enough to make it hard to read."

While this conversation goes on, Ariel has pounced on the apparent junction box, hauled out tools, and handed her portable computer to Doug to boot up. "With a little work, we can get a basic ship plan through this," she says.

"Gut," Kurt encourages Aerial and her young companion. "We must get moving. I don't need Wolverine to tell me not to hang around in hostile territory waiting for the guards to show up."

"This thing is awesome..." Doug says, running his hands over the collapsible keyboard and monitor unit that is clearly at least a decade ahead of his time. "You built this?"

Kitty has no problems opening the junction box, only slightly more finding the information line and a few seconds of worry before she finds the right gear to set up a wireless connection to from the ships engines to her laptop.

"Ummmm," Doug says, looking at the interpreted displays on the computer, "This isn't a code, it's an alien language. How are we supposed to work through this?"

"Arial, if you have a wireless connection to the ship's network we should get moving. Engines first, and you can look for the shuttle bay as the opportunity presents itself."

Phoenix, keep up the scans as best you can. I want to know the Skrull are coming before they spot us. I'll take the ceiling route. Everyone else, keep behind Colossus as we progress and keep your eyes and ears peeled."

The group sets off - Ariel phasing them in two groups through the door into the hallway rather than risking any sign of their presence by cycling the door - and Nightcralwer takes point a distance ahead on the ceiling. Colossus is behind him, with Phoenix in the rear, her shields up but at a non-incandescent level. The hallway is dimly lit in blues and violets, but the lighting is uniform, so Kurt doesn't have much by way of shadows. Combine that with the low ceiling and his unique physiology isn't providing him with its usual benefits, but he's still moderately well concealed.

Fortunately the hallway is wider than it is tall, so Scarlet Witch and Magik can walk abreast behind Colossus, followed by Ariel and Cypher, who continue to poke at the computer while walking. The Skrulls seem to prefer ramps in their ships over elevators, so the group is able to navigate to what they think is the next level up without interacting with any of the ships systems - aided by Nightcrawler's innate sense for sneaking around and Phoenix's hard won experience with such maneuvers and the group makes good time to what should be the engine room, as indicated by the baseline thrum coming through the floorboards.

Phoenix can feel the walls close around her, the dim light, the oppression, and it's all too familiar to her for the time spent in the mixed high tech and crumbling underground, both literal and metaphorical, of her youth. Before that can go anywhere she feels the pressure of Mr. Ramsey's thoughts and passes them along to the group.

‘‘OK,’‘ Doug sends, ‘‘I have a schematic up; their programming code is pretty logical when you think about it. This has to be the engine room, and this big space here has to be the hanger bay. I think that's up one more floor and over to the right, er, starboard.’‘

Kitty, looking over his shoulder, can't read any part of it but feels comfortable with his assessment of the schematic. She also sees a graphic running alongside the image that looks...organic. Speech modulations? Biometrics? Maybe they could call it up for more detail though there would still be a language barrier.

"Right," Kurt says in a low voice. "We have to deal with both the engines and the shuttles. If we strike at the engines, there's a chance we might trigger a ship evacuation that would cause all the shuttles to launch in short order. We're going to have to see the hangar bay and determine if we can seal the hangar doors to stop that happening."

"Doug, is there anything on the schematic showing us the number of shuttles or launch tubes? I want to know how thinly spread we might be if we tackled both the engines and shuttle bay at once."

The young hacker pokes at the keyboard a few times then answers "Yes, see right here? There are two shuttles on the ship, and both are rigged for remote summoning. I guess so that if the shuttle he landed with gets blown up the second one can be summed to pick him up."

"Much as I dislike splitting our numbers, I think it might be best to tackle both the engine room and the shuttle bay at the same time, to minimize the Skrulls' response times."

Nightcrawler begins dividing their forces. "Colossus, I think your strength will be needed in the engine room, and Kitty, your phasing will help disrupt things there too. Doug, stick with Kitty. I'll run point to force any Skrull we meet to keep their heads down.

"Scarlet Witch, your hex power may jinx the automated hangar systems. Magik, stick with the Scarlet Witch. Phoenix, you protect Wanda and Ilyana in the shuttle bay, and smash what you can with your telekinesis. Keep everyone in contact telepathically as best you can."

Phoenix smiles. "Remember who my early foes were; I think I can do a good deal better than smashing things. But sounds good."

They arrange a rendezvous point and a fall-back position, and any other clever spec-ops stuff, of course.

Magik adds, "Once we get to the shuttle bay I'll be able to stepping disk the two groups back together; that ought to save time."

Nightcrawler watches the trio of women leave for the hanger bay – Phoenix having given Doug’s schematic no more than a glance – with some trepidation. Then he turns his attention to the engine room door.

Again Ariel is able to bring the quartet through with no problems, and as soon as they’re in the room Nightcrawler disappears. The place is blessedly larger than the other rooms, two stories high above them, and this level is lofted over another story below them, lacking a railing over the pit to the engine core like any good evil alien space ship. It takes him just a few minutes of scouting to see that the engines are entirely automated and the room is empty save for himself and his companions.

Compared to the ultraviolet austerity of the hallways the engine room is a riot of color and technology – the engine core emits harsh white light with red and orange swirling through it, and the large free standing machinery casts deep shadows into the room’s non-Euclidian corners. There are small air grates and access panels in odd places that could lead anywhere and carry anything. One of the machines surrounded by small black dancing globes of energy, while others hum in a tuneless cacophony that hovers right at the edge of human hearing, punctuated by an occasional “ping!”

Ariel is quickly able to spot several processing cores that her powers would likely wreak havoc on, as well as a several places where obvious adjustments would throw cause no end of problem – presuming this design is anything like the Shi’ar engines she’s worked on in the past. She can also spot places, most of them obscured from the entry way, where Colossus’ strength could quickly cripple the drive without making anything go boom.

Colossus, on the other hand, has plenty enough experience to see things that would break catastrophically when he punched them. In some cases the spots he sees and the spots Ariel sees overlap, and in some cases the things would indeed go boom rather spectacularly.

“OK, this is more like a spaceship,” Cypher says before he hunkers himself down in what is hopefully a secure spot, “Ariel, I’m going to try to make sense of that ongoing data feed. Huh. It just stopped. Let me scroll back to the start of it and see if it makes any sense.”

Colossus finds things he can smash, maybe coincidentally things that aren't that near the others. In particular, things that aren't that near, oh, Ariel and Cypher, in case they, er, want to have a technical discussion without interruption or extra awkwardness, yes.

Peter makes his way around the catwalk, reaching a more secluded spot by following conduits from the drive core to a point where some sort of energy converter/enhancer/absorber/little black Kirby dot* generator is located. He's got a pretty good guess that smashing this would take down many of the ship's drive systems.

[*ED: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirby_krackle]

Before he can act on this Nightcrawler steps out from the shadows, "Colossus, wait." The team leader approaches him and, in a shocking moment, light purple beams shoot from his eyes into Colossus' eyes! Peter feels his will being stripped away, replaced by the simple desire to do this figure's bidding. Said figure's form flows like water into the larger, greener shape of the Super Skrull!

"Now that my Super-Hypnosis* has you docile, I command you to tell me from which planet you and your companions originated!"

[ED: No, really, he has Super-Hypnosis; see FF 18 if you don't believe me.]

"Earth," says Peter

"Interesting," the Super Skrull says. "I was not aware that your pale blue globe had additional defenders of your power, especially not ones who could intercept my mission before it unfolds. Still, I relish the challenge, a warrior's appetizer to the feast conquest to follow. You earthlings are not to be allowed to damage my craft. See to it that these engines are defended, Colossus. Use all means necessary."

Colossus sees the Super-Skrull stretch upward, the mimicked ductility of Mr. Fantastic allowing him to exit the room via one of the air ducts, even as he fades from sight.

Nightcrawler takes up position as high as possible, scanning the obvious access points. He realises that the Super Skrull can turn invisible so he's extra alert for motion of incidental objects, distortions of the light etc., without really expecting to be able to spot anything. He works his way along the ceiling, avoiding anything that looks like it might vent super-heated steam, radiation or a horde of Skrull, while trying to get a handle on the layout and tactical possibilities of the bits of machinery and equipment that might lying around.

Kurt, like Kitty, is familiar with spaceship technology, and after confirming they are alone he is able to locate several points where a quick manipulation of obvious controls might vent aforementioned super-heated steam, radiation or even be manipulated into a crude energy cannon of drive energy. If the Skrulls do arrive, he feels oriented enough to give them what for.

Back at the entranceway, Ariel looks at Doug, "Wait, why did it stop?"

"I dunno. Let me see what I can do with it."

Ariel uses her ability to fly to move up toward some objects that are not accessible from the ground, intending to start by passing through some points that probably can't take the interference - but won't blow up the ship.

"It's a voice recording...I think it's the Super-Skrull's logbook. Listen to this.," Doug says as he turns up the computer's volume, subjecting Kitty to unintelligible alien gibberish.

"That's awesome, Cypher," she says, "except I don't know Skrull."

"But...it's not..." Doug shakes his head, "I can understand it. I'll translate: Warriors Log: sensors on the transwarp drive detected a mass increase in the ship; a mewling engineer might find a technical reason for this, but my warrior's instinct suggests darker motives - that one of the emperor's enemies has placed saboteurs on the ship so that they might discredit his plans for the subjugation of the Fantastic Four and conquest of the Earth. The Ixill"

Doug stops, "I think that’s something like assassins..."

Then goes on "likely were hiding in one of the storage areas in small shapes. I shall start my search there."

Doug looks up at Ariel, concerned, "I think he knows we're here. He's looking for us."

"Uh-oh," she says.

"Let me scroll to the end," Doug says, "My tactical surmise was correct: they are approaching the engine room. Very well...I shall show them how a Skrull warrior fights - Observe, Infiltrate, Act, Overwhelm - and I shall do so as only I, the Super-Skrull can!"

‘‘Observe?’‘ Ariel thinks, looking hastily around from her position closer to the ceiling.

Doug scrambles up from his seated position, "This is bad. This is really, really bad." He moves to one of the tech consoles, "let me see if there are internal scanners or something..."

Ariel sees Colossus come around the corner. Doug does not - the big man is out of Cypher's line of sight and the teen is focused on the computer console. Colossus grabs Doug by his jacket and casually hurls him across the room. The arc takes Doug up into the second level and will lead him to slam into the far wall and either slide back down onto the catwalk away from the computer terminals or, at worst case, bounce off the wall, off the railing-free and fall another story into a pile of pointy warp drive parts.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" Doug yells as he goes flying.

*Gasp!* Ariel says as Doug is hoisted, and... takes off at high speed from her position over the room. She catches Doug up in her arms seconds before he would have hit the wall and the pair instead pass through it, leaving no sign of their passage.

"AAAAAAa... Whew! Thanks."

"No problem," Ariel says, having learned rescue etiquette from tough guys (TM).

Nightcrawler scrambles over the ceiling in the direction of the sound. He looks down at his metallic friend, then scans the area for hidden opponents.

“Colossus! Where's Kitty? Did you hear Doug scream? Where's he gone?"

‘‘Phoenix, we've got a problem,’‘ he tele-sends. ‘‘Kitty and Doug are missing, we may have been rumbled.’‘

‘‘Phoenix?’‘ Ariel says silently. ‘‘Can you check on Peter? Something's wrong. Not to mention that the Super-Skrull knows we're here.’‘

The response back isn't so much a coherent thought as a jumble of emotional confusion - something really strange is happening with the other group and none of these X-Men can sort out what it is. In addition, they could not hear each other.

"He was injured," says Colossus. "So Kitty brought him to safety. You should make sure they are all right. I will look after things here."

At that the telepathic link goes dead.

Still unsuspecting, Kurt approaches his Russian friend, a look of confusion and concern on his face.

"That way," says Peter, pointing. Presuming Kurt turns to look that's when Peter hits him.

Ariel has just dropped Doug off in an out of the way crawlspace and turned to look back and see Peter's arm coming up for the punch,

"Kurt, Look out!" she yells

Alerted by Aerial's timely warning Nightcrawler has barely enough time to drop below Colossus's punch, and it whistles over his head. Nightcrawler 'ports away and up to the ceiling to cling, surprised, to some crazy pipework.

"Colossus! Peter! What is wrong with you? Holy Mother, you nearly took my head off."

Kurt looks round, trying to locate Kitty and Doug to reassure himself that Doug didn't find himself on the receiving end of one of Peter's piledriving blows.

He sees Kitty, and past her can make out a shape he figures is Doug

‘‘I need Phoenix here to get through to him.’‘ Nightcrawler thinks, but the space in his mind the redheaded telepath occupied only moments ago is filled with an ominous silence.

‘‘ Ach...’‘ Now he has to stop Colossus with what he has on him - the remaining the explosive charges, a canister of "scent-be-gone" from the Massachusetts Academy raid and a paper Indian Jones fedora that blew into his pack during the fight with the Grey Gargoyle.

Colossus slams his hands together, creating a thunderclap of noise that echoes around the confined area.

Doug screams - the sound overwhelmed by the echoes - and passes out.

Kitty, shocked by the sound searing through her skull, turns solid and drops on top of one of the electronics banks, stunned but out of sight.

Kurt is also shocked by the noise - worse in its own way than the sonic scrambler he'd faced in the danger room - and falls from the ceiling to the catwalk. Only his intensive acrobatic training keeps the fall from damaging him.

Nightcrawler reels from the shock of the clap. ‘‘Must keep moving. If Peter gets me I'm finished’‘ Jerkily he scrambles, trying to get to his feet. He staggers to his feet. [only to face into Colossus's fist?]

Colossus follows up by punching his fellow X-Man. He’s thinking “Must. Protect. Engines."

Kitty is still barely conscious when she feels Rachel's telepathic link reconnect, jarring her back to consciousness. Unfortunately what's coming through the link makes no sense...

‘‘Kate! The "Super Skrull's" powers are made by a cosmic ray generator! Can you find out where it is and shut it off? I don't know that we can beat him while he still has his powers!’‘

Shaking her head to clear the cobwebs Kitty looks down at a scene that also makes very little sense.

‘‘Wha?’‘ Kitty responds, trying to process both what she's seeing and what she's hearing, with mixed results. ‘‘We don't need to beat him, we just need to damage stuff and then Immortus will get us out of here!’‘

Unfortunately before she can get a response the telepathic link drops again, overwhelmed by some massive shock to Rachel's psyche. During this mental burst Kitty gets a quick flash of what's being going on from Rachel's perspective - the tunnels, a SHIELD installation, Franklin's presence and sudden demise. It's the reverse of Rachel's earlier error now Kitty is the one sharing an uncomfortable intimacy with the telepath.

Hanging by his thick fingertips from the catwalk, Nightcrawler pleads with Colossus.

"Peter! What are you doing? We're your friends. Your friends!"

A sudden thought crosses Kurt's mind. ‘‘Verdammt! What if this is the Super Skrull? What has he done with Peter?’‘

As the huge metallic figure approaches, Nightcrawler decides and lets go of the catwalk, falling a short distance before teleporting away, anywhere out of reach.

Kurt quickly primes some of the explosives to damage the ships drive and teleports to do that. Hopefully this being behind Peter will be enough to give him the time he needs. He lands on top of the obviously important Kirby Dot generator...

The second after he materializes Colossus spins - clearly anticipating Kurt's maneuver - and snags the blue furry mutant. Again he opts to toss a threat away from the engine, hurling him towards he far bulkhead with dangerous speed.

In mid-flight Nightcrawler spins around - showing a pair of empty hands. "Boo." He then disappears. Colossus spins to see the explosive charge on the delicate machinery.

2...1...

BOOM

The explosion itself isn't enough to hurt Peter, or even to force him back a step, but the unnatural energies pouring off of the device pummels him - his tunic catches fire and there's a pain that sets his metallic nerves humming from the electromagnetic shock

The explosion snaps Kitty out of the mindlink's after effects. There's a yellow-red, harsh arclight blasting across the room, along with twisting streams of small black spheres that if you squint might be photonegatives of double helixes. Colossus is bathes in the light, facing the source of it, while there is no sigh of Nightcralwer. Doug has scrambled backwards in his hiding place, clutching Kitty's laptop like a talisman.

Kitty scrambles to her feet, going intangible again. "Piotr Nikolaievitch!" she shouts, fists clenched. "Has turning your brains into steel finally made them stop working? Stop and *think* about what you are doing!"

Nightcrawler assesses the damage to the engines, and scan the room for signs of movement. Kurt's still aware that the Super Skrull may be invisibly at hand. He'll try a tentative telepathic call to Rachel, worried about the other team. ‘‘Rachel? Are you there? What's going on in the shuttle bay?’‘

His call is met with silence.

The destruction of the Kirby Drive regulator was critical to the functioning of the ships warp systems but it's open placement in the room suggests that it's something that was regularly tweaked and likely easily replaced with a spare (if the ship has one). Even as he's looking over the scenario he sees the computers flashing something in Skrull on their screens and there's the insistent beeping of a warning system. After a few seconds the energy coming off the regulator stops as an automatic system kicks in to prevent any further damage.

From his position he can see Doug, who is waving to get someone's attention.

Doug whispers while pointing at the screen of Kitty's computer "FTL systems just went down. We're somewhere in the Kuiper belt. I can't do anything to stop the auto-repair functions but from what I can see until that part is replaced we're dead in space."

Colossus moves to block the engines as best he can. He can't hit an absent Nightcrawler, and Kitty'll just phase. So, he tries what he imagines is logic.

"Katya, the engines must be protected! We know we cannot believe Immortus. I had to stop Doug! I am sorry I hurt him -- I know how important he is to you. But, we must protect the engines.

A stepping disk appears on the catwalk by the door containing the prone figures of Phoenix and Magik. "Scarlet Witch is fighting the Super-Skrull!" she shouts "She needs our help..." He voice trails off as she looks at the scene around her.

Meanwhile…

Phoenix is able to lead her team through the cramped maze of passages in the direction of the hanger deck. All the old skills are coming back, and she’s virtually certain that they’re avoiding detection as they move through the corridors lit with indigo phosphorescence. Of course virtually certain isn’t the same thing as 100 percent certain, but Franklin’s precognitive gifts combined with her telepathy should make them impossible for anyone, human or robot, to sneak up on the four of them. She’s not entirely sure about the new women she’s with but Uncle Peter vouched for them so best not to worry about it.

In less time than she expected they were across the city and at their target: a hanger bay holding shuttles to that can take people to the Sentinel’s heli-carrier. Cypher’s map was right on the money….

But wait, hadn’t Cypher been killed and replaced by a Lang issue Sentinel? Or was that just one of Franklin’s dreams?

Magik gives Scarlet Witch’s sleeve a tug and, once she has her attention, gives her a slight head motion towards Rachel. Phoenix has broken out into a sweat, but the temperature is only about 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

Wanda takes time to make sure nobody is standing neatly framed in the hopefully soon to be open doorway.

No, that was definitely Cypher. Must have been one of Franklin's dreams where he was replaced. Phoenix reaches out with her mind into the locking mechanism, feeling out where it connects together, the safeguards and physical interconnects, giving herself time to analyze the mechanism before she moves the entire thing in several ways at once, turning the safeguards back upon themselves and routing themselves past the mechanism while unlocking it and partially dismantling it and, finally, opening the doors through sheer telekinetic power once they're disconnected from their drivers.

Wanda: *Very good. Anyone inside Phoenix?*

Phoenix doesn't feel any thoughts, and she sees Franklin put his hand to his temple, clearly calling on his ESPer senses to check the room. He gives her a reassuring shake of the head, confirming her impressions.

Wanda: *If there is no immediate response let us take a sidelong look in and have Magik pick a teleport spot inside the hangar with good cover and move in that way. Then the open door becomes the focus of any attention and we can strike from behind if need be. What do you say Phoenix?*

‘‘It's all clear,’‘ Phoenix sends. ‘‘It's a good idea; you two teleport in; we'll sneak in the front.’‘

Before Wanda has a chance to do any pronoun parsing Magik summons a stepping disk and whisks the two women into the hangar. Her chosen spot is in an out of the way corner that still affords a view of the room. This space is larger than the corridors, standing some two Skrull stories high, or roughly 15 feet. Scarlet Witch can make out the two shuttlecrafts as well as a station designed for someone to stand upright and, most likely, manipulate the hangar doors to the outside. There are lines on the floor that correspond to ones on the ceiling that, in her experience, as places for force fields to hold in the air to parts or all of the hanger during launches.

The room is eerily silent.

Outside Franklin motions for Phoenix to enter, his eyes having that intense look that she imagines his father had...that she knows his father has...wait, when did she meet Reed Richards...? He gestures again ‘‘Come on Rae, don't get distracted!’‘

*Right, sorry’‘, Phoenix spares another glance at Franklin and moves in carefully, trying to make sure she can spot any dangers before they spot her. "Should be able to break into one of these shuttles and take it over, easy peasy," she thinks, as long as we haven't missed anything. She looks at Franklin, feeling fiercely protective.

Franklin slips in after her, sprinting across the room to reach the shuttles at the same time Phoenix does. There's a brief gallant gesture for her to do the honors while he keeps watch. She also spots a very quick non gallant moment in his eyes when he looks at her ‘‘Like the new costume, Rae.’‘ he adds with a mental wolf whistle.

Rachel sends a warm smile back. ‘‘Thought you'd have liked it. Er, I mean, that you would like it. It's been a long day.’‘

The shuttle door opens easily under her telekinesis, but the inside is a bewildering array of technology - neither Sentinel tech nor the SHIELD engineering that she expected to find here. In addition something is interfering with her telepathy: her connection with Uncle Peter just got...fuzzy. Maybe it's something to do with the strange tech?

‘‘Uncle Peter?’‘ Rachel makes an attempt to pierce whatever's in the way, but doesn't push too hard or panic, as it's entirely possible that something dropped a psi-screen between her and Peter, and it's possible it's alarmed to catch someone trying to break through it. The mission, after all, comes first.

Unfortunately she can't get any traction on his thoughts through whatever this fuzziness is, especially with the other issues she's facing, like the incomprehensible tech facing her.

‘‘What -is- all this stuff? These guys are a lot more advanced than we were expecting.’‘ Still, the basic parameters of the mission are clear -- disable all but one shuttle, then take the final one to the heli-carrier. ‘‘Franklin, help the others get the other shuttle working; I don't think I can do anything to this one aside from take it apart.’‘ She takes a moment, just examining what she can about how the shuttle works, consulting with Franklin where she can, before attempting to render the shuttle non-functional by bending every single low-tolerance instrument and device in it slightly out of true.

Franklin mentally looks over her shoulder at what she's doing. ‘‘I've seen this before. My dad worked on it, but I can't place where. Give it the usual twist and it should be fine.’‘

A concentrated focus of her power makes a silent, subtle alteration to the whole of the machine. It will take off, but it won't fly for long...

Across the room Scarlet Witch has a decision to make: something seems...off with Phoenix, though she hardly knows the woman well enough to judge. As far as the actual mission she could target a general hex on the shuttles to make them somehow non-operative, or do something to the hangar to make it more difficult to use. The most likely outcome of either might well involve something blowing up - difficult since Phoenix seems to have abandoned the 'crush things telekinetically' plan for something more subtle - but with concentration and time she too could focus on a more subtle outcome.

‘‘This does not feel right. I don't think we have time for subtle. Magik, stand behind me. We may need a fast exit.’‘

A battery shorts out inside the shuttle that Phoenix is not occupying, causing a hiss, spit, and explosion of flames from the vehicle's side. Seconds after that occurs the faint glow of force field walls slide upward and downward from the demarcations on the floor, separating the now-burning shuttlecraft from the rest of the hangar.

Meanwhile...

The Super Skrull, having made his way through the air ducts back to the main hallway, stays invisible as he stretches through the ship. "One of the girls - Kitty, he called her - can walk through walls. Their blue-furred leader had vanished by the time I had followed them into the engine room, and I saw no sign of him. The others didn't seem concerned by his absence and he and said he would stay with them. Can he too turn invisible? Or did he vanish to elsewhere in the ship? Still Colossus was clearly the main threat, and he has been turned to my ship's defense."

His powers of elongation let him quickly catch up with the women at the hangar bay just as Scarlet Witch and Magik disappear from the hallway. "By the Emperor! The girl is a teleporter! The other women have powers as well - 'hex', 'telepathy' and 'telekinesis'. Not words the damnable scientists thought to teach me in humanity's barbaric tongue. While I plan to openly confront and humiliate the Fantastic Four here I should follow the dictates."

"Observe." Once Phoenix is through the door the Super Skrull moves to it and looks into the room. "She is at the shuttles. Sabotage? And where are the other two?"

He silently slips in, stretching up to get a better view, "There, in the corner! Were I any other than who the Emperor had made me their positioning would have been perfect to spot my approach. The women are canny. Let me play a hunch, however. The blue human disappeared, did he not? And the girl is a teleporter, so perhaps he is too."

Stretching over and around the room the Super Skrull settles himself behind Scarlet Witch and Magik. Again adopting Nightcrawler's form he drops the invisibility and steps out of the shadows.

"Wanda, Ilyana," Nightcrawler asks them as he approaches, "how is the plan going?"

Wanda sees Kurt approaching and something is...off. It takes a second for her to realize that there's a lack of brimstone in the air, and while the figure looks like Kurt he doesn't have the same stance or walk that she remembers Herr Wagner displaying. Given who they're up against it's not difficult for her to figure out who she's really dealing with.

Wanda: "Hi lover" she smirks, beckoning him over "it's not good. She's gone right off the deep end. Perhaps we can stop her together?" She ostentatiously gathers force - all light and no real substance - round one hand while building something more focused and dangerous behind it.

Phoenix hears the thoughts being transmitted through her between her new teammates seconds before the one in red does...something that makes the other shuttle explode. That has to have set off alarms! Sentinels could be here at any moment.

That's when she 'hears' another thought stream... ‘‘Phoenix, we've got a problem,’‘ Nightcrawler tele-sends. ‘‘Kitty and Doug are missing, we may have been rumbled.’‘

Nightcrawler? But he's dead!

‘‘Phoenix?’‘ Kate says silently. ‘‘Can you check on Peter? Something's wrong. Not to mention that the Super-Skrull knows we're here.’‘

Super-Skrull? This makes no sense; I thought we were after Sentinels, but Kurt and Doug alive, Kate being called Kitty, this crazy technology and the Super-Skrull, and was that Alice--but definitely not Wonderland; this is all wrong!

‘‘Skrulls? That's it!’‘ Franklin says, ‘‘These are Skrull shuttles! They're working with the Sentinels! They're taking the place of people they don't know are dead!’‘

Nightcrawler approaches Scarlet Witch, "Off the deep end?" He seems confused by the idiom, then sees Phoenix getting up out of the apparently undamaged shuttle clutching her head in pain and confusion. "Combat Stress. Yes, let us stop her together."

The panel is drawn so that the reader can see the scarlet energy building up in the hand behind Wanda's back, as well as the flames flickering around "Nightcrawler's" hand behind his back.

"Wanda...?" Magik says tentatively, in the tone normally reserved for people who have just learned that the serial killer is inside the house, when she sees the flames.

Wanda: *Too subtle in my 'heads up' - Date-n sange! Does she think Kurt and I are lovers now. ... Eep! ... Hmmmmm?!*

Then the quick draw: the Witch's proper Hex goes off just as Super Skrull raises his arm to fry her with a flame blast! Before his arm is in position his other hand flies to his head as the hex does something really nasty to the inside of his skull.

It's not enough to stop him completely: he flails out, his form melting back to Skrull shape, and the flame blast misses Wanda by a foot. Even at that remove it's only her instinctive hex protections that keep her from getting seriously scorched. In his stunned state the blast rakes across the room, swinging towards the confused Phoenix.

"Rachel!" Magik yells and the spell she was preparing lances out, a magical shield against hellfire (and other incendiaries) forming between Phoenix and the Super Skrull, blunting the damage from the crippling to just painful.

Inside Phoenix's confused mindscape, the scene is very different: as the flame blast approached her in her confused, vulnerable state Franklin yells "Rachel!" and leaps between her and the Super- Skrull. Before her eyes he is reduced to ashes even as he saves her life.

Phoenix is suddenly surrounded with the flames that give her the name. "You killed him! Just like that, you alien -Sentinel-!" The last word is hurled out like a curse, as this moment merges with the moment Franklin was first taken from her. There is no subtlety to her attack, no trick, and no mercy as Phoenix brings her full telekinetic power to bear on the one she saw destroy her love, trying to tear him apart.

Wanda pushes Magik towards a safe spot in the corner and then dives for cover, putting the 'undamaged' shuttle between her and the upcoming conflagration. She looks to see Phoenix floating five feet in the air, surrounded by an incandescent bird of prey, A pair of telekinetic claws have latched on to the Super Skrull and are pulling him apart, his unnaturally ductile body being stretched in a painful contortion with his hand and one arm being pulled in one direction and his legs in another. Phoenix's features are pure rage, and her advantage is in the shocking force of her attack.

"Raaaaaaagh!" the primal grunt of pain comes from the Skrull.

However, the Super-Skrull is too canny an opponent to be so easily undone - his free arm stretches around the chamber and, assuming the girth and rocky exterior of the Thing's, slams into Phoenix's shields from behind. Taken by surprise by the attacks unexpected angle Phoenix is forced to take a step forward and refocus her concentration on her shields. They wobble but are intact.

The momentary loss of concentration lets the Skrull stretch himself out of her telekinetic grip. He stays airborne, however, his body now wreathed in the Human Torch's flames.

"You took me by surprise, Human, but didn't account for the full breadth of my powers! Let me show them to you - I who am more powerful than all of your planet's greatest defenders combined!"

Before he has a chance to capitalize on his seizing the initiative Scarlet Witch acts, striking two birds with one stone - her hex causes the warp coil containment system of the Skrull shuttle, already weakened by Phoenix' earlier tampering, to shatter entirely, unleashing a wave of radiation into the Skrull's side.

"Ugh!"

The force fields surrounding this shuttle also slide into place, containing the radiation and, conveniently, giving Scarlet Witch a bit of extra protection since she's now sealed away from the rest of the combatants.

Ilyana, wisely, says crouched in the corner, biding her time for the right enchantment or when a stepping disk might do the most good. The panel shows her crouching behind a piece of equipment with the light of the actual and telekinetic flames etching dual shadows of her and her cover onto the wall.

"I could summon my soulsword but... I really don't want to see how he reacts to something he's afraid of."

"You killed Franklin, you bucket of bolts -- all the power in the universe won't save you!" Phoenix's firey halo reaches out talons to grab the distracted Super-Skrull and send him flying across the room to slam into the wall, which immediately starts to melt given its contact with his flaming corona. Her anger also lashes out mentally, but her attack is blunted - perhaps by the Skrull's alien mind - and does nothing more than deliver a mild shock.

Her target, rather than fighting against her pin, pushes back into it, melting his way through the wall, out of the hangar and out of sight. Seconds later Scarlet Witch sees the ceiling over Phoenix bubble as the Super-Skrull flies in from overhead, melting a second hole in the hangar. Twin gouts of flame precede him, carrying not just their heat but the molten metal, both of which rain down on Phoenix's shields. Nothing touches her but the temperature around her spikes to blast furnace levels, searing her eyes and lungs.

Wanda stares at the flaming bird effect and waits for her opportunity to strike. When she sees him enter there isn't time to warn Phoenix before he's there but her prepared hex is ready, creating a highly improbably sphere of temporary vacuum around him. His flames are snuffed like a child's birthday candle and he plummets to the floor. His body is too pliant for this to hurt him but he has again lost the initiative in his battle with Phoenix.

"*!" he yells when his flames are snuffed, or would if he weren't in a vacuum, but once he's fallen out of the sphere he turns his head towards Wanda's hiding place.

"I have learned, human, what the word 'Hex' means, and I have had enough of it!" Both hands lash outward, again developing the size and orange exterior of Benjamin J Grimm's hands, and slam into the force field surrounding the shuttlecraft. The field collapses instantly under strain that it was never designed to withstand. The monstrous lumpy orange paws continue, striking the breached shuttlecraft and toppling it backwards onto Scarlet Witch's position. She is clearly crushed by the mass of metal.

"Ha! With the power of the empire's cosmic ray projector I am more powerful than any of the Fantastic Four, or any of Earth's new defenders!" He looks back at Phoenix "and now you shall fall as your friend has!"

Magik breathes a sigh of relief from her position as she helps Scarlet Witch back up to a crouch in her hiding place behind the storage crates. "I wasn't sure I'd made that stepping disk in time," she whispers. "He's so powerful - what can we do?"

In Phoenix's confused mind, she struggles to come up with a strategy. The alien shapeshifting Lang-era Sentinel has admitted his powers are externally generated, probably by some device aboard this craft, but there's no way to know where it is, much less shut it off, except...

Rachel makes contact with Kitty's mind ‘‘Kate! The "Super Skrull's" powers are made by a cosmic ray generator! Can you find out where it is and shut it off? I don't know that we can beat him while he still has his powers!’‘

"So you're a Sentinel, built with the ability to channel cosmic rays! But you're not the only thing that can channel the cosmos." Again, Phoenix sends her mind against his, hoping to halt his relentless attack and gain her vengeance.

‘‘Wha?’‘ Kitty responds, trying to process both what she's seeing and what she's hearing, with mixed results. ‘‘We don't need to beat him, we just need to damage stuff and then Immortus will get us out of here!’‘

Unfortunately Rachel has no time to respond

Phoenix psionic attack temporarily overwhelms his defenses even as his rocky hands - stretched to match the size of her body - are swinging up to catch her in a devastating clap. The attacks land simultaneously, and Phoenix feels her shields collapse under the strike, sending a blinding pain through her skull. Instinct alone keeps her TK active enough to cushion her fall.

The shock more or less shatters her mental control, leading to a lot of telepathic bleed through her link with Kate.

Phoenix reels in pain, the feedback of her shields' collapse shooting through her. "Can't stop now...I have...to avenge...Franklin," she thinks.

While Phoenix has enough presence of mind to keep herself from harm's way in that fashion, Scarlet Witch sees the Super Skrull's face contort in pain from the psionic attack, his knees buckle and he hurls himself away, fading into transparency as he does so. He can't have gone far....

Wanda whispers to Illyana "Magik, grab Rachel and get back to Nightcrawler's position. We're done here. Use the sword to buy you time - I don't really want to see what he is afraid of but you only need a few seconds. Then get Kurt to come back for me, or you if there is no other option. I can't hold him long." *Gunoi! Invisible, lethal aliens!*

She glances at the hangar doors and starts carefully crafting a hex. ‘‘If Super Skrull hasn't got the sense to retreat and find some headache pills she'll see which one of us fights best in vacuum. Well actually which one of us has two teleporters on the team to pick them up. ... ‘‘

Ilyana sprints from cover and dives towards Phoenix, who is still lying stunned on the floor. Both vanish into the stepping disk that appears under them as soon as Magik is close enough.

Wanda is, to all appearances, all alone inside the hangar bay. The only sounds are the hum of the still running force field containing the shuttle that caught fire and the sizzling drip, drip, drip of molten metal falling from the hole in the roof. Then a slight grunt, a scrape of boot on metal and nothing.

Super-Skrull is awake here, somewhere. Of her escape plan there is no sign.

‘‘‘‘‘‘
Nightcrawler calls out. "Leave the engines, we have to save Wanda from the Super Skrull. When we face him, spread out, let Colossus take the brunt of his attack and the rest of us hit him as hard as we can.

Phoenix levitates herself back to her feet - well, actually a few inches in the air - still glowing with universal fire. The shock of the attack, Kitty's response to her telepathic call and the sudden dislocation to the engine room has severed her flashback. She can feel the energy of the cosmos humming through her and everything is so much...easier.

There's no effort at all in re-instituting the telepathic link with those present, immediately sharing everything that happened to both groups. During the second that her allies are processing that she walls off the Skrull's hypnotic command inside Peter's head so that the alien can't easily expand upon it.

Finally a probe out to Wanda

From her position Wanda sees the Super-Skrull reappear near the hangar bay doors He looks minimally discomfited from their earlier conflict.

"Resume transmission: As you can see my emperor the humans have several powerful defenders. The have fled from my initial assault after the death of one of their number, as I had planned. Doubtless they have reconnected with their teammates, where they will be staving off the assault of one of their own under the influence of my own matchless super-hypnotism! Now to fall upon them and deliver the final crushing..."

Having listened to this blowhard long enough the Scarlet Witch steps forward (so she is standing next to one of the safety hooks) and raises her arm to unleash her prepared hex.

"Boo!"

The Skrull has just enough time to say "You!?!?" before all the safety interlocks misfire, causing the hangar bay doors to glide open at a stately pace. Once even a crack appears air begins rushing from the room - indeed from much of the ship due to the holes in the hangar - dragging anything not nailed down with it. The Super-Skrull flies away from the hangar doors towards the opening even as Scarlet Witch clings to the hitch with all her strength! The alien warrior slams into the floor to ceiling force field that contains the first shuttle Wanda ignited earlier, and his pliable arms wrap around it in a desperate bid to keep from being sucked into space!

‘‘Wanda?’‘

‘‘Rachel!!! Now would be a good time!’‘

No sooner asked than implemented, there's the white light of one of Magik's stepping disks and the X-Men appear. Colossus sets himself as a shield between the Super-Skrull and the rest of the group, but quickly sees that Skrull is hot uet in a position to attack. Phoenix immediately reaches out and snags the Scarlet Witch with her telekinesis, drawing her inside the bubble of air that she's holding in place despite the ever widening Hangar Bay doors.

Rachel grabs Phoenix hand the moment she's safely in the air bubble

Wanda returns Rachel's grip with a surprising firmness bespeaking her concern for the child. She might not understand what went on in the hangar earlier but she could not fail to notice Rachel's trauma and distress ...and ...erm ... reality issues. She does not release the safety bolt with her other hand. I am not sure she can make herself just yet.

‘‘Sorry about my weird behavior there -- another flashback,’‘ Rachel sends, along with a slightly toned down version of the Rachelvision version of events. ‘‘Experiencing Franklin's death again was...not good; I couldn't be sure whether the Super Skrull was a monster or a Sentinel.’‘

Nightcralwer glances at the women "Magik, be ready to shift us out of here. Wanda, are you hurt?"

"I'm fine Kurt. Good to see you!"

"Right. Peter...Tally-Ho!"

Nightcrawler and Colossus disappear from the bubble in a cloud of smoke and with a BAMF of imploding air, reappearing in the hangar bay in line with the Skrull's position. The pair are quickly sucked along with the air flow, with Colossus slamming hard into the alien warrior, who was just regaining his feet by using the flat emergency force field as a floor. The two imposing figures face off at an impossible right angle to the floor, standing in apparently empty space under the pull of the relentless force of hard vacuum.

The Skrull moved first, and fast. "You are strong, human, but no warrior!" he scoffs* as he lands a solid Thing-handed, Human-Torch ablaze uppercut into Colossus, followed by an equally abusive blow into Peter's midriff despite the Russian's attempt to block. "No better than a stock private in the Skrull army! Pathetic." A third blow lands, driving Colossus down to one knee. With each punch the flames are sucked off in streamers from the Skrull's hands forming trails of flame into the void.

Having waiting for the precise moment that the Super Skrull's defenses dropped Colossus lunges out with a powerful blow right to the Skrull's sternum. His opponent sees the move with enough time to adopt the Thing's rocky hide at the point of impact but clearly underestimated Colossus strength as he is forced back a couple of staggering steps. He nearly steps off the end of the force field, overbalancing for a second before he stretches his body against the wind to put more of his mass on the correct side of his center of gravity.

"Close, but not good enough!" he yells over the wind. He gives Peter a contemptuous look, then sees that Peter is looking "up" from their odd position. He spares a glance....

Intangible and thus unaffected by the air flow*, Ariel scouts for a largish loose object - that equipment-moving sled looks perfect - makes it intangible too, and maneuvers it directly upwind of the Skrull and the opening doors.

The Super-Skrull is struck right at the point where his body is elongated to save him from overbalancing, and the whole of his is tangled in the equipment sled. It rips him from his perch during his instant of dawning revelation, yanking him out the three quarters open hangar bay doors and into the inky blackness. The ship, while no longer moving with speed, is still drifting forward and the Skrull is very quickly lost to sight.

Magik concentrates on using her powers as she never has before and a trio of stepping disks appear at once - one for her, Scarlet Witch and Phoenix, one for Nightcralwer and Colossus and one for Ariel - offering the whole group safe passage back to the engine room. There Doug is waiting, sitting in a ventilation duct from which he cannot readily get down, working on the computer. "Oh good," he says.

Ariel flies up to retrieve him.

Nightcrawler does a head count and lets out a relieved sigh. ‘‘I don't how long we've got before Immortus snatches us back through the time-stream. There's something very fishy going on here and I don't like it. Has anyone else wondered what exactly all our changing the timeline is going to achieve for Immortus? If he actually *is* Immortus.’‘

Wanda ‘‘This is NOT the time Immortus said he was sending us to. This Super Skrull had not met the Fantastic Four in combat, or even heard of other super powered foes he might meet. His imitation of the Thing's powers was not such as could be possible if he had encountered him in the flesh. I think we have thwarted the first attack on Earth not the later one. Indeed Phoenix, Ariel, have you sensed anything in the tech here that feels like Sentinel tech? It all looks much more alien on the surface at least. If this Immortus is lying to us on this scale perhaps he is not Immortus at all, or at least not yet.’‘

Doug adds ‘‘I translated that data stream - the Super Skrull was transmitting more or less live feed video and audio back to the Emperor. It's pretty clear from what he was saying that this was his first trip to Earth, and that the Skrulls figured if he could take out he FF that there wouldn't be any other resistance. Plus, the Emperor just got a life transmission of you guys kicking his best warrior out an airlock after crippling his ship. That _has_ to have messed up the timeline.’‘

Then, more shyly, ‘‘UM, Ms. Maximoff, what do you mean by 'not yet'?’‘

Wanda explains. ‘‘Immortus's personal history is a tangled one, even compared to people like us. He became Immortus, a guardian of the timelines, but he was born a scientist in the 30th century: a descendant of Dr Doom I believe. He timetravelled to the past and lived as an ancient pharoah. Both the Fantastic Four and the Avengers faced him there. He managed to travel forwards in time again but also sideways, where he made himself into an armoured, super-powered figure, the 'Scarlet Sentry' I think. The Avengers faced him again and won. They managed to return him to his own timestream where he became Kang the Conqueror and turned his Earth into his Empire. However his Earth was a dying planet so he made several sorties into more favourable points in history. He has a particular hatred for the Avengers, possibly because we have thwarted him so often. ‘‘

She mentally shrugs and then continues ‘‘We don't know how, why or when but eventually Kang abandons his dreams of conquest and retires to Limbo to become a scholar and time stream guardian. This means that Immortus and Kang keep encountering each other. I cannot imagine but that he would despise this future amendment.’‘

Ilyana says ‘‘So that's why Doug felt he was more warlike! But what was he really trying to do?’‘

Phoenix sifts through her compatriots memories and helps correlate them, sharing the key memories among the group. ‘‘The key seems to be in what each thing we did impacted the Avengers, and to a lesser degree the Fantastic Four, or would have had we not interfered. We stopped the Super Skrull before he could reach Earth; that means he can't besmirch their reputations -- but it also means they can't attain the status they did after they defeated him and redeemed their reputation.’‘

The Scarlet Witch adds ‘‘Perhaps he seeks to thwart his becoming Immortus, but more likely he's trying to directly remove the Avengers and Fantastic Four from his path. He's tried to avoid us before - attacking the 19th century rather than the 20th for example - to trying to weaken or eliminate Earth's defenders this way is in character.’‘

Almost unwillingly, Kitty puts in, ‘‘What do you s'pose will happen if the Super Skrull shows up on Earth imitating *our* powers?’‘

Phoenix and Magik can feel the tug of 'Immortus' power pulling the group back into the timestream. Before Phoenix can muster any resistance (assuming she wants to) the emotional high needed to maintain her connection to the whole of the spacetime continuum falters and her powers drop back down to their nature levels, carrying with it a bone wearying exhaustion. It's all she can do to hold on to the team's telepathic link.

==Pages 23-26 (Chapter 6: Backward, turn backward, O time, in your flight)==
The group reappears in the X-Mansion's manor, where 'Immortus' immediately begins speaking. His adopted long windedness helps them here, giving them a chance to recover as he speaks.

"I am impressed with the potency of your puissance, X-Men; perhaps you erred on the side of more force than less but there can be no doubt that the Super-Skrull's mission has been effectively scuttled. The alien warrior managed to save himself, as his kind always do, by more luck and stubbornness than actual skill..." a temporal image appears in the air showing the Super-Skrull, anchored on the supply shed floating away from the ship, mirroring the powers of Mr. Fantastic to reach back to the drifting space ship. The X-men see his body slowly expanding under that same Reed-Richard's mimicry to resist the decompessive effects of the void as his fingers pry their way into one of the airlocks with a combination of pliability and super-strength. Once inside he manually closes the airlock door and collapses in exhaustion as the atmosphere returns.

"The Skrull is no engineer and will, at best, be able to limp to a spaceport to effect repairs. Since the scheduled encounter with the Fantastic Four left him in much the same straits, - albeit imprisoned inside a makeshift rocket - the timeline is secure."

'Immortus' dismisses the image with a wave of his hand, "Now, on to the fourth of the five nodes...."

By this point the X-Men have recovered their breath and had a chance to telepathically plan.

Wanda: ‘‘Be careful. Kang usually fights with superior technology but he has used mind control in the past. Whatever else he is, he is a formidable intelligence.’‘

"Are you sure?" says Peter, hoping to draw either a retort or a monologue to the effect that of course Kang / Immortus is sure, thus distracting him while the Nightcrawler-Approved Anti-Immortus Plan is Implemented! (TM)

"Of course I am certain, lest you allow the unaltered flow of time to spell the death of Peter Corbeau, and through that risk the Avengers failure in their mission...." 'Immortus' voice trails off as he sees the X-Men reposition themselves. Unguessable years of combat experience tell him that something is amiss and raises a hand towards the heroes.

Whatever he was planning it is too late, as the telescoping waldo that Nightcrawler had earlier rigged from Danger Room parts has slid silently into position, hammering the faux Lord of Time with high decibel sound in a tightly focused cone. The man spins, a firearm of obvious lethality appearing in his hand as he does so, even as he staggers back a step under the barrage. He raises his pistol when Phoenix's telekinesis triggers the second half of the assault - a dazzling light blast with the same overwhelming focus. This has the side effect of stripping away the holographic disguise, revealing not Immortus but Kang, the Conqueror! His pistol goes off wildly, but rather than spray across the room the projectiles arc to correct their targeting. By the tenth or eleventh round the curve is enough to strike Kurt's ad hoc weapon - passing through Ariel along with Cypher and Magik, who are under her ephemeral aegis - shattering the device and stopping the sensory bombardment.

Even still Kang is left defenseless for a second. Taking advantage of their deceiver's discomfort, the mighty Colossus steps forward and punches Kang. The green and purple armored figure flies across the room, slamming into and through the foyer's central staircase. The edifice teeters for a moment before a flare of scarlet light sends it collapsing down on top of the would-be conqueror even as he attempts to rise.

There is barely a second of silence before the rubble erupts and Kang stands, the dust and debris from the onslaught tracing the outline of his force field. One hand is holding his pistol but the other points at the X-Men as he yells "Enough! Clever as your ambush was my sonic baffles and polarized lenses diminished it to the point of being ineffectual. Now that you have served my needs by your own time travel signatures masking my battlefield manipulations from my future self I can dispense with this charade - and you!"

The time travel tug pulls the X-men out of space and time again, dumping them unceremoniously in a woodland copse. Not far away is a collapsed cave entrance, with a young man in a letterman jacket staring at it.

"That could've gone better," Ariel remarks. For the moment, she keeps hanging on to Cypher and Magik, until she sees what's what.

Kurt recognizes the place twice over: once from the deceptive time scenes that preceded Kang's arrival, where a group of Trask's thugs and scientists had excavated the cave mouth and were pulling materials from within, and more personally from his war ranging games of tag with Logan. This spot is in South Salem, not far from the mansion.

The student starts at the X-men's arrival and then screams - staring at his hands which are turning a deep blue.

‘‘Oh no...’‘ Rachel thinks. ‘‘Not him! Not here! Not now!’‘

‘‘I can't deal with this now,’‘ Phoenix sends, trying to tight-beam it enough that Calvin cannot read her transmission even with a copy of her powers. ‘‘This is the Mimic -- Calvin Rankin. Magick, can you send us away? He can't copy our powers if we're not nearby.’‘

Magik, who had been staring at the man contorting on in dealing with the growth of new vertebrae and a tail, is shocked into action and quickly creates a stepping disk that whisks the group away. They're now standing on the school's property on the far side of the hill that will someday hold the blackbird. Right now the hills' main function is that it puts the X-Men out of sight of the old manor, and quite possibly the old X-Men.

"First place I could think of" Magik says." I hope this is OK. Now what?"

"I'm thinking," Phoenix says, "that I may need some time to recover. After that, though...we need to make sure this whole thing doesn't happen. We'll need to interfere before Kang can send us back the first time -- get our past selves enough information and help to be able to not fall into the trap -and- be able to defeat Kang once his plan is revealed."

"Well," Ariel says, "we could just walk over the hill and tell Professor Xavier about it ... assuming he hasn't already noticed we're here."

Nightcrawler speaks up telepathically. ‘‘Right. We're in the same boat Kang or whoever he is tried to sink the Avengers in. Much as I hate leaving Scott and the others to face the Mimic without so much as a warning, if we get involved in the original team's timeline we could cause the X-Men to cease to exist. Or to never have been!’‘

‘‘But the villain has underestimated us. We're not without our own resources, including a couple of time travelers. Magik, Rachel, what do you need to get us back to our own timeline? Is there any way we can get the jump on Kang and arrive unexpectedly?’‘

Wanda: ‘‘Can we strike Kang before we went on our first mission for him? Or would that be too much of a paradox?’‘

Phoenix sends, ‘‘I think a paradox is what we want here; the entire point is to change the timeline so that these events never happened. That said--the smallest change, which might be best, is for me to package up our recent memories into Cipher's mind and send his mind back to when we were first confronting "Immortus". If he can then attract my attention, I'll be able to unpack the memories and we can attack Kang armed with the information we have now before the first intervention.

‘‘I'm suspicious of the other idea precisely because it comes from ideas Kang gave us, but it's also possible that the Scarlet Witch could stabilize Magick's powers enough that she could jump us physically back to the same time, thus allowing both versions of our team to fight Kang. There's a risk there, though, both that we're relying on Kang's ideas and that our time duplicates (ourselves, once the change was effected) might remain after the change, but doubling the team's powers would certainly be effective against Kang.’‘

Nightcrawler grins. ‘‘Phoenix, that's either genius or madness. We don't have the luxury to split hairs. Mr. Ramsey, are you up to the job?’‘

‘‘I think he is,’‘ sends Colossus.

‘‘I guess so...’‘* Doug says, giving Peter a grateful glance. He then looks at Kitty. ‘‘Yes, yes I can do this.’‘

Once Rachel feels recovered enough she has Doug lie down on the ground and takes his head in her hands. The initial psychic contact accomplished she again hears Franklin's advice on the theory of time travel and how to go about breaching the time stream. Slow gentle breaths, building up her strength, and just before the push she feels a surge of doubt well up in Mr. Ramsey.

‘‘Wait, why does it have to be me?’‘The adrenaline spike accompanying this throws their matched mindscapes off and Phoenix has to stop the process.

‘‘because you’re the only one who hasn’t been trained to resist this sort of thing,’‘ Phoenix tells him.

The rest of the heroes are unaware of this, Phoenix having dropped the telepathic link for keeping the totality of her awareness on this risky maneuver. They only see Doug twitch once then return to stillness.

"How long does this take?" Magik asks, her voice a whisper.

Then the group hears voices coming over the hill. "All I'm saying Mr. Drake is that on a neurobiological level your ongoing infatuation with the Helenesque Miss Zelda is entirely in keeping with previous observable behavior, though on a psychoanalytical level might be disadvantageous."

The figures crest the hill before anyone can do more than look up - they have time to see the surprised look on Bobby Drake's face. "What the?!? Stow the two dollar vocabulary, Hank! We got company!"

The younger man's face turns pure white in seconds as a layer of ice appears over his body "And it's the Scarlet Witch! Warn the others the Brotherhood's here! I'll hold them off!" He fires a blast of snow and ice that coats her head to toe, rendering her immobile but not damaging her through her insulated costume.

"Yikes!" Ariel says, and grabs hold of Phoenix and Doug, taking all three of them out of the realm of potential injury.

The trio zip intangibly away from the right, deeper into the woods where they have cover and distance from a potential battle.

"Hold down the fort, Iceman," Hank McCoy yells, tossing his hat and coat to one side. "While it appears some of the nefarious Witch's current compatriots are capable of ephemeral locomotion at a rapid pace our own athletic marvel is not to be outdone!"

He bounds and sprints back towards the mansion at high speed.

Nightcrawler disappears in a cloud of sulphurous smoke to appear closer to the mansion, hopefully in the path of Hank McCoy.

Kurt calls from a branch overhanging the path. "Hank! Beast! Stop, we mean no harm. Allow us to explain our presence here. We're mutants who need your help, not a fight!"

Beast stops his forward charge, instead leaping into the tree and snagging Nightcrawler in a tackle hold that sends both of them flying from the branches to the ground, where Beast tumbles the both of them so that it ends with him standing and pressing Nightcrawler against the wall of the mansion. Kurt quickly realizes that Hank is trying to restrain rather than injure him (when Hank tries to injure people it tends to hurt a lot more).

"Forgive me if I hesitate in providing you my boundless confidence when you arrive with a self-proclaimed Evil Mutant in tow, but I admit you have my attention," Beast says, holding tight to the blue furry mutant. "Pray, elucidate."

Wanda attempts a hex to thaw out her face and weaken her ice shell. She does not think that breaking totally free would help her team-mates convince the original X-men of their bona fides so will not bust out of her cocoon unless it becomes necessary. On the more than off-chance that a telepath is listening she holds the facts of the date of her proper time and her Avengers status nice and clear in the forefront of her mind. ... And watches.

The crimson light of her powers is muted by the snow covering her, making her actions all but unnoticeable - Wanda is confident that the ice sheath will shatter the moment she tries to move.

[Magik] Ilyana steps between Iceman and the immobile Scarlet Witch, her hands glowing with arcane energy, "Hey, that's my teacher you're messing with, mister!" She's clearly trying to draw Iceman's attention, though it's not clear exactly what she's got in mind.

Iceman "Then that tells me everything I need to know about you, sister!" Iceman responds, again firing a blast of encasing ice and snow. The attack never reaches Magik as Colossus interposes himself and starts walking up the hill towards the youngest X-Man. Even as the ice builds up in front of him Colossus sets his feet and continues his inexorable stride up the hill, shattering or tossing aside the ever expanding glacier until he is within a yard of a somewhat startled looking Bobby Drake.

'''Gulp''' Says Iceman.

"She is _my_ sister. Not yours. And you know nothing about her."

"Wanda Maximoff may have been misguided in the past, but only God judges man, Beast. Strange as it seems to you now, the Scarlet Witch can reform and does."

Nightcrawler slowly lowers himself to the ground with his tail unwinding from the branch. "We're mutants like you, but thrown out of time and out of joint into our past by a would-be time-travelling conqueror. We need your help -- you, Scott and the others -- to set right the tangled timeline."

He raises his hands slowly, offering no threat. "Hank. In your future I know you. We fight side by side against Magneto..."

A look of great sadness comes over Kurt's face as he remembers the fight in Magneto's Antarctic base. "Please, Hank, talk to Bobby. Give us the chance to explain ourselves."

Hank's eyes search Kurt's face as he's talking, and then Kurt feels the larger man's grip loosen. "All right. You have acceptance within a single standard deviation. Let me go get Scott."

He turns his head and yells "Bobby, stand down!"

The young man facing Colossus lowers his hands and his look of concern is replaced with a defensive swagger, a sort of "you're lucky my friend is pulling you off of me because any second now I was about to cut loose" that typifies high school playgrounds across the country.

"Roger Wilco, Hank. No problem."

After Wanda has extricated herself from the ice sheath she and the X-Men find themselves in the mansion alongside four of the original five students: Hank McCoy, Robert Drake, Warren Worthington III and Scott Summers. She can feel the mistrust and caution in the room, and hear Warren whisper to Hank "I wish Jean hadn't driven the Professor into the city. He'd be able to clear this up in an instant."

"True. Especially concerning...her." Hank is surreptitiously looking at Rachel.

Wanda is also a keen enough student of human nature to see that Bobby is eyeing Ilyana, especially as her uniform's cut is tighter than the ones Jean wears. Plus, she's just about his age, not obviously with someone (as Ariel is with Cypher) or wearing outfits that make him feel guilty just by looking at her.

Scott ignores this by-play behind them and gives the future X-Men a once over curiously devoid of emotion - he is stone faced, and made harder to read by the deep red glasses blocking any view of his eyes. After a second he speaks, "Hank tells me you're mutant heroes from the future. Based on the young lady's outfit I'd guess you're connected to the school, and based on how Scarlet Witch looks I'd say it's about 20 years ahead."

Up until this point Wanda has been on her very best behavior. Saying little. Smiling quietly. Listening. Sitting still. Small movements ... that sort of thing. At Scott's statement/gybe/gaffe her smile widens a little and has a slight edge. Wanda gets up and, still slowly, begins to move about the room. Idly touching things. Listening to the conversation behind her. She does *nothing* at all naughty, even though she would very much like to hex Scott's tenderer places up but good. Instead she takes a small revenge: making sure Scott or Bobby will just have to check what she was up to and hopefully waste a good hour or so of their lives checking for non-existent bugs or sabotage.

He looks at Nightcrawler, "Professor Xavier says we never turn away a mutant asking for help. So tell me what's going on and we'll see what we can do."

Kurt lays out the story, with some insertions by the others. Bobby looks distracted, Warren suspicious, Hank thoughtful as he works out the physics and Scott remains stone faced.

"We just encountered the Sentinels a few weeks back. You're saying they return, and become so dangerous that Kang's story sounded reasonable?" Scott shakes his head. "I wish I couldn't believe that, but I can. Why don't you all rest here, gather your thoughts and we'll suit up to help."

Rachel approaches her father-to-be. "Hi, so. I know this is a little hard to believe."

Scott looks at her, his features still inscrutable "A little. But I'm also more up on the news than Hank and Bobby, so I know that Scarlet Witch and her brother have already joined the Avengers. And I know that the Avengers have fought someone named Kang. That part holds together. And I guess your team leader," he looks over at Nightcrawler, "just has an honest face."

He looks back at her, and the inability to read anything in his eyes and next to nothing in his face is truly disconcerting. "Have you done this before? Have we met? You look very familiar."

Rachel smiles. "When I'm not wearing a costume, my name is Rachel Summers. That might give you a clue."

Scott raises an eyebrow. "I don't recall having any sisters, Miss Summers. I think you need to explain."

"I'm not from 12 years in the future," Rachel says, "or at least, not originally. I jumped back from 20 years after that -- in a future that...well, let's say that it's a good thing that that particular future can't happen, though something as worse certainly can. "In that future, I was your daughter. Yours and Jean's."

Scott stares at her. "That's...that's not terribly likely."

"Scott, it does not behoove you to be deliberately obtuse," adds Hank McCoy as he returns to the room in costume, stepping in to give Scott a look. "While she clearly didn't inherent any of your social rectitude or Jean's demure fashion sense the more morphological aspects of her heredity are obvious."

Hank turns to Rachel, totally ignoring the look that Scott is giving him. "Forgive my rudeness, Miss Summers, but your father than be difficult to move sometimes. I am afraid I haven't two decades worth of birthday presents for you on hand, but I promise to make it up to you."

"Hank Do. You. Mind?" Scott says coldly.

"Not at all, not at all, places to go, pleasure to meet you Miss Summers," Beast says as he moves away.

"Daughter. Jean and I have a daughter?" Scott says to Rachel, clearly scrutinizing her.

Rachel blushes. "Well, in some future. Yes. I...don't always dress like this." She concentrates for a moment and reshapes her costume to be somewhat more modest, if still in the same basic design.

[BR: er, a modest Bondage Gladiator?]

"I would hope not. Otherwise the fashion of the future is much stranger than '2001' led me suspect," Scott cracks a very small smile, the smile of her father from her childhood.

Rachel grins.  "Much stranger, and much more familiar as well.    It's...it's  good to see you, Daddy."  She hugs him.

His return hug is initially tentative, then surprisingly fierce, as if he could assure his future with Jean if he could just hold Rachel tight enough.

Bobby Drake had run out of the room at Cyclops first statement and comes back wearing his X-Men uniform. He casually approaches Magik. Ariel and Cypher. "So, uh, sorry about the 'sister' thing. You're mutants too? That's cool."

Kitty nods and smiles, trying to imitate Logan's typical insouciance (without the gruffness). "I'm Ariel. I am - am going to be? - one of the X-Men. Magik's supposed to still be in training, and Cypher -" She pauses to look at Doug. "Well ..."

"Just joined, apparently," Doug adds, keeping things as light as Kitty does. He's sitting close to Kitty, though whether it's a subtle possessiveness of her towards the on-the-make Bobby or just because she's his lifeline to this strange world is hard to tell.

Magik flips her long blond hair over her ear and smiles at Bobby. "Yeah, the school's a lot bigger in the future. More students, from all over the world. And the trainee group that I'm has two girls for every boy." She leans forward a little , "It's a shame you're not there...."

Bobby nods and turns a light shade of pink.

Ariel doesn't *quite* roll her eyes. "One of the girls can turn into a wolf," she says mischievously. "You wouldn't *believe* how much she sheds ..."

"The X-Men have a werewolf?" Bobby asks incredulously.

"Naaah. We're the New Mutants, not the X-Men" Ilyana tells him, smiling. "And the she's not even the strangest one."

As Ilyana vamps Doug whispers in Kitty's ear, "Who can turn into a wolf? I have a lot of catching up to do."

"Rhane," she whispers back. "Don't tell her I said that about the shedding!"

"Huh. I would have figured Dani." Doug says. "I see it doesn't pay to guess."

While they've been whispering Ilyana has continued her merciless flirting with Bobby, laying her hand on his arm, "That ice is really impressive," she tell him.

"Well, I um, it just comes naturally, but I do train at it a lot..." he stammers back, clearly completely out of his element to have so forward a girl paying attention to him.

"It shows," she all but purrs back.

[BR: at this point she is officially just being mean.]

Warren, swallowing a very quick sour look at the revelations occurring across the room, heads over to Nightcrawler. By the time he's there his casual smile is back in place, "Speaking as one mutant to another that's a pretty distinctive mutation. I'm able to get by with strapping my wings down under my shirt. How do you do it?"

Nightcrawler smiles, showing brilliant white teeth in an indigo face. "Ach, it has not always been easy. Herr Professor provided me with an image inducer to disguise myself in public but eventually I grew to believe in myself and my right to be as I am. Not everyone agrees, unfortunately." His smile turns rueful.

"It's not all roses in your future obviously, but the X-Men, the group you all built between you, save lives and make the world a better place - for mutants and humankind. I am proud to call myself an X-Man."

Warren looks abashed, "Well, me too. I wish circumstances were different now, that I could do what you do, not have to strap these things down all the time. Not have to hide. I'd like to know that in your future I've got that right."

Beast, having gone to a safe remove from Scott and Rachel, approaches Wanda and Peter.

"Miss Maximoff, please accept my apologies for not remembering your recent acceptance into the Avengers. I feel the heel. And you sir," he says addressing Peter, "possess a singularly impressive mutation. Is that iron?"

Peter shakes his head, "The Professor says it's osmium steel. Thank you for stopping to listen. If we had all continued to fight, someone might have been hurt, and we are all on the same side. Even if things are... a little confusing."

Wanda: her smile relaxes into something more genuine "Thank you Hank. It has been a while since I have been associated with any group other than the Avengers. It was almost nostalgic. Luckily this costume has vastly superior insulating properties to my original one." glances down at herself "so I was spared any ... embarrassment. In any case I am glad to have been spared the dilemma of having possibly to strike at a teammate." She reaches towards him, tentatively brushing the back of his now non-furry, non-blue hand and her smile becomes more rueful.

Hank is clearly a little surprised, but not upset, by the casual intimacy. "Young Robert can be a little hot headed, and insecure for all that he might have the most powerful mutation among us. I should know better than to go with his instincts." Hank smiles. "Osmium steel, you say? That's astounding, but makes sense given your inherent flexibility. I don't want to think about what the Professor had to do to get a sample for analysis." He gives an exaggerated shudder.

"He didn't take a sample. He ran tests. I... am not sure... if it is possible to take a sample. It might revert once removed."

Hank gives another exaggerated-for-effect shudder. "Now there is a mental image that will stay with me tonight. You're Russian, aren't you? I can't place the accent. Northern Caucuses?"

"Russian, yes. The Lake Baikal area of Siberia."

Hank nods, “Pretty country, so I’ve heard. So the X-Men are able to recruit mutants from Russia in the future. That’s good news for everyone, I think.”

Then he gets an odd look on his face and turns back to Wanda, “Wait a minute… I’m an Avenger?!?”

==Pages 24-31 (Chapter 7: X to the Third)==
We see Kitty Pryde’s room in the mansion, with Doug Ramsey at a computer and Kitty Prude under a desk, her head and shoulders buried in computer parts.

Doug says “30 seconds, Pryde. I’m holding off the security software with everything I have but you have 25 seconds to get that circuit board repaired or we are dead.”

"Piece of cake," Kitty replies through his headset

“20 seconds. Their perimeter alerts are coming back on line”

"Got it."

“10 Seconds. Preparing to abort.”

"Too late! It's done," Kitty says, looking smug.

Kitty slides herself out from under her desk, and we see Doug Ramsey at the other machine in her room. “Pretty slick, Kitty. With your hardware interface repaired...” and with that he collapses out of his chair.

“Doug!” Kitty yells, but before she can act her friend is pulling himself back to his feet.

“Ariel, Kitty, we have to warn the rest of the X-Men! It’s not Immortus! It’s Kang!”  He shakes his head, gets a grip, and Kitty sees his expression change to one of deep thought.

"What's not who?"   Plus an equally startled thought bubble: *Did he just say 'X-Men'??*

‘‘Phoenix! Please tell me you can hear me! It’s Doug Ramsey. In a few seconds the mansion is going to get pulled out of the time flow and Immortus is going to show up asking for help. But it’s not really Immortus, and we have to stop his plan before it starts. The future you just sent my mind back to now to warn you!’‘

Phoenix picks up on the thought deliberately projected, as suprised as she is to find that it's Kitty's sort-of boyfriend.  ‘‘Doug?  That's...’‘ Phoenix refrains from sending her skepticism, as she reads through Doug's memories and sees the truth of his thoughts.  ‘‘Right.’‘  She opens up a telepathic channel to the rest of those on the base, including the Scarlet Witch (and Ilyanna, if there aren't big mucking shields in the way). ‘‘We're about to have a visitor, X-Men and guests -- one under extremely false pretenses!’‘ she says, followed by a digest of future-Doug's relevant memories.

"And if that doesn't --" Colossus breaks off his conversation, then says, "I need to punch someone, Callisto. I'll call you back."

In the kitchen, Kurt puts down his sandwich, 'ports to his room and grabs three sabers before disappearing again.

While the X-Men are digesting this Doug’s warnings comes true – the kaleidoscopic lightshow begins outside as the manor is pulled from the timestream. They know from Doug’s warning that Immortus is due to show up in just a few moments.

Inside his time machine we see a shot of Kang's back as he dons his helmet. "Now to activate the image generator and get those unsuspecting dupes to weaken the Avengers for me. Bereft of government support, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Starfox, Moondragon or even a sufficient impetus to stay together as anything more than an ad hoc team I shall be able to brush them aside. Soon the 20th century will be mine!"

He activates his illusion generator, assuming the visage of his hated future self, and steps through the time smoke into the mansions lobby.

"X-Men, I am Immortus, master of the time streams. I have need of your powers if we are to save humanity..."

We switch angle to see what he's seeing, which is the X-Men, the X-Men and the X-Men (along with two Scarlet Witches) ready for battle!

Magik A is to the far right with Iceman, Magik B is to the far left with her soulsword out and magical armor on. Angel is, not surprisingly, overhead to the left; Beast is clinging to the wall overhead far right. The Nightcrawlers, as team leaders, are starting front and center, with Cyclops just to their left. Nightcrawler B is to the right, pointing two swords at Kang. Nightcrawler A also has a sword, and is the one with the word balloon on the two page spread.]

Phoenix A is floating to the left, hovering just over Nightcrawler A's left shoulder.

Phoenix B (with a somewhat more modest bondage gladiator costume) is floating to the right, hovering just over Nightcrawler B's right shoulder.

Both Phoenixes have their auras up -- the auroras mingling in the center, so it looks almost as much like a single phoenix aura as two separate ones.

Scarlet Witch A is standing back from the fisticuffs zone towards the Mansion doors on the same side of the hall as the nice big gun that we used last time so as to be out any line of fire. Scarlet Witch is staying closer to Ilyana in a repeat of the protective/mentorly urges she had the first time round. This is the Witch who is going for the gun.

The slightly more battered looking Nightcrawler says "Herr Kang, time travel is a double-edged sword, ja?" just as the combined force of 16 pissed of mutants hits him like the proverbial.

A pair of telekinetic bolts and an optic blast slam into the startled time traveler, forcing him back a step and again shredding the Immortus illusion.

"Agh!" Kang shouts, "You dare? You dare play time games with me?!?" A weapon materializes in his hand and he fires directly at the paired Nightcrawlers in the center of the room.

Both men disappear in clouds of smoke before the beam can hit them. We see a couple of quick panels of Kurt materializing in the armory, where he grabs the nearest detonator and a slab of explosive. He meets himself doing the same thing. "Ach, Kurt, we are so predictable!" He grins. Othertime Kurt replies with an appreciative look up and down. "Ja, but oh so handsome, nicht wahr?"

They depart with a double *bamf*

Working with the close coordination for which these two were famous Beast snatches a carpet from the balcony floor and dives towards Kang, snagging it around his force field. While it looks like this will, at most, provide a momentary visual blockage Angel swoops down around the room to get momentum and accepts the edges of the carpet from Beast as he zooms by. With a forceful flap of his wings just when the carpet reaches tension he yanks the spherical bundle into the air then initiates a sudden turn, slamming the sphere into the wall, then another wall, and then lobbing it into the air where it hangs in an arc.

There's an absolutely glorious moment where the sphere is at apogee and it resembles, just for a second, a crude piñata.

The twinned Phoenixes, minds linked, attempt a two pronged assault on the self-styled conqueror - one trying to telekinetically upset his defenses and the other trying to disrupt his mind.

Unfortunately the force field proves resistant to even telekinetic manipulation, and her attempts at subtle manipulation of his armor splash against it. Phoenix two plunges ahead, a lance of mental energy piercing into his brain. She feels that she made contact, but Kang's battle hardened will holds firm, shrugging off the attack..

‘‘Admirable Phoenix, but Kang will not yield!’‘ She feels him activate two switches in his armor - the first causes a shimmering where Kang first appeared. A twelve foot high humanoid shape, apparently made of ice, definitely wielding a large club, appears in the shape.

With the second switch the psionic screamer goes off. To everyone inside the X-Men's mindlink it feels like a sharp pressure between their eyes. To both Phoenixes it feels like someone is applying a cheese grater to her cerebral cortex. The hours more experienced of the two Rachel Summers manages to keep a psilink going between herself, Cyclops and the two Colossui as per the plan, but the other can do nothing other than scream.

"You just hurt my daughter, Kang" Cyclops says through gritted teeth. "Big. Mistake."

The optic blast hits the field at the perfect angle, driving it across the room like a cue ball heading for a break, directly between the paired steel figures.

‘‘Colossus, Now!"‘‘

Linked through the painful telepathy both Colossi swing into the sphere that is already being battered by Cyclops' intense optic blast. The force field crumbles under the assault. The battered carpet droops around the figure who, to his credit, is in a crouch and armed rather than tumbling about. Some sort of entropic field around his body is disintegrating the carpet, leaving Kang unencumbered but visible, and visibly ready for combat.

The Ariels appear, aiming to phasing straight through the Colossi and then straight through Kang at high speed - then stop on a dime to hover intangibly at their opponent's back, batons at the ready. Kang hurls himself to the ground the instant that the Ariel's start to move, throwing off their attack run. "Too predictable by half, child," he tells her coldly as he leaps back to his feet. Kang lobs a small grenade into the space between the mirror image teenagers. It explodes with no apparent effect, but within seconds Kitty feels the toxins claw at the back of her throat and burn her lungs.

‘‘Yikes!* both girls think as they dive through the floor to escape the gas before they pass out.

"After you, Kurt," "With pleasure." The twin furry elves 'port in close behind Kang, trying to attach short fuse explosives to weak spots on his armour.

An interior shot of Kang's faceplate showing a "proximity detector" light flashing. He spins and fires at a Nightcrawler appearing behind him, grazing that Kurt with a plasma beam. The blast, while barely touching him, sends him flying across the room and sends the short fused plastique flying from his hands. There's a painful sounding thump but the agile mutant had already recovered enough to roll with the fall, insanely tumbling *up* the wall and disappearing into the shadows.

That's when a second Nightcrawler appears, slapping his explosive onto the back of Kang's neck. Kang turns and fires at the now gone second Nightcrawler, who has materialized midair in the path of the flying explosive. He snags it with one hand, vanishes again and punches the frustrated Kang in the back of the knees, leaving the ticking explosive behind.

BOOM!

The simultaneous explosions knock Kang to the ground, but every else is more or less shielded by the pair of Colossus who contain the blasts.

"TEMPUS IS HERE, MASTER!" Booms the apparently icy figure as it stands to its full height, brandishing his club.

Any thought that Kang is finished as quickly dispelled as he pulls himself up to fire again on Nightcrawler, who has reappeared next to the giant. Just as he pulls the trigger a reddish flash envelops the gun, which jerks in his hand. It lays down a beam of plasma across Tempus' body, from his left leg up to his right shoulder, before smoking and exploding.

"RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAA" yells Tempus as he is struck by the blast.

That exploding gun again develops a reddish aura and the ionized plasma and metallic shards it produces aim with unnatural accuracy towards Kang's face. Fortunately for him his suit's automatic shielding (while clearly the worse for wear) is enough to protect his vision from any dire effects.

The Magik wearing her eldritch battle armor dives forward towards the currently disarmed Kang, her sword delivering a sweeping blow as she changes past him.

Wanda: ""Ilyana! No!"

Battered as he is he avoids her attack with distressing ease. Another gun materializes in his hand, "You expect that pitiful externalized fear to bother me? Or for me to not respond because you're a child?"
The tight thin whine of the molecular disruptor cuts through the battle din even as a silvery portal appears between Kang and his target.

"Actually, we counted on both of those," says the second Magik standing next to Iceman. The portal's twin appears behind Kang and the redirected energy blast rips into him.
 
Wanda: "Oh! Clever, CLEVER child!"

Down on one knee, his clothing in remnants around his armor, Kang yells "Tempus, act you oaf!"
The icy giant grows again, his head reaching the ceiling of the room, "my form may feel pain, but I cannot die, Gnats! But you can!"

He raises his enormous club, preparing his attack.

"Uh oh," Cyclops says. "X-Men, defense gamma!"

The huge club swings across the room with the potential of crushing everyone. Both Colossi are struck and tossed backward past Iceman, their attempt the shield the rest of the group by blunting the attack with their massive forms buying the others the barest seconds to act.

Time enough as Angel swoops down and catches one the stunned but still floating Phoenix and drives her towards the corner. Beast leaps from his current position, bounces off a wall and catches up a Wanda Maximoff in each arm.

"Forgive my impudence, but I can't let a fellow Avenger get squished!" he tells her as he too leaps the three of them into the corner past Iceman.

With everyone behind him who could be the youngest original X-Man throws up a massive ice wall between him and the onrushing club. Pouring on more and more frozen water into the space as fast as possible. The ice dome shudders but holds, buying the team a moment to regroup.

Phoenix can feel her father's thoughts in her mind, and the adult him really is very little different from this version in a crisis ‘‘Rachel, get me in touch with Nightcrawler.’‘

Even in her current state she can do so, and Kurt feels the young Scott's presence in his mind ‘‘Nightcrawler, my team can keep Tempus busy while you finish things with Kang, but you've got to get your team coordinated! Lets show him what it really means to fight the X-Men!’‘

Kurt responds ‘‘Magik! Stepping disks for both our teams and Kang to the Danger Room, now! Doug, be ready to execute the plan as soon as we arrive.’‘

Outside the dome Kang has a gun in each hand, pointing one each at each of the Nightcrawlers. "A valiant try, Nightcrawler. Just not good enough."

Before he can fire...

Cyclops braces himself and fires a wide angle beam into the ice shield, lifting it off the ground and propelling it forward like a battering ram into Tempus, pinning the giant into an through the wall into the dining room with the force of his beam.

Kang pulls the trigger in any event, and the missiles rocket through the space towards Kurt. Stepping disks materialize under Kang and both Nightcrawlers, whisking them away but leaving the missiles in place. Said missiles, linked onto Kurts bio-aura, now have nowhere to go...

The X-Men (lacking the Ariels) and Kang are now in a shattered landscape, very much the collapse of ancient Greco-Roman empire, statues broken off at their base, half standing temples, Doric columns freestanding around the scene. Immortus stands atop a long stairwell amidst the rubble, looking down on his past self with haughty disdain. "The twinned Phoenixes' telepathy has pierced the veil of history to inform me of your machinations, Kang. It is always so disheartening to see the foolishness of my own youth...."

"Now," the elder Phoenix says, "Let's see how hard you are without as many of your fancy toys."  Her eyes flash deep red, and she throws a psi-bolt at Kang, right before the less modestly dressed Phoenix, her aura again merged with the older one, picks up Kang and sends him flying hard at

The psi bolt strikes deep into Kang's momentarily confused brain, playing up his emotional hatred of his self. "Ugh!" he grunts as he loses his balance for just a second.

In that second Phoenix grabs him and sends him hurtling across the ruins, shattering a column with his body,

She adds "Immortus, take this trash away," and sends Kang at Immortus.

Immortus raises a hand and something grabs Kang away from Phoenix, catching him in a floating stasis field created in the space enclosed by an extant marble arch. At the speed he was moving this must have been like slamming into a brick wall.

"Eeerrr...Ugh....NO!" Kang yells, "It will not end like this!" Energy explodes off of his armor, shattering the stasis field. He drops to the ground inside the arch.

The caryatid columns that make up the base of the arch both move, revealing themselves to be camouflaged Ariels, who step forward and attack. Kang does his best to dodge but with the suddenness of the flanking maneuver he cannot avoid them both - Ariel A plunges her hands into Kang's armor, which shuts down, going from being protection to impediment in a split second. [BR: 3 karma for one of the Ariels to hit, and 1 Karma to get the needed Red Result with a single hit.]

Kang staggers forward and draws the sword from his hip. If nothing else, blades will still work... he just needs a moment to reboot his armor.

"A sword, Kang? It's not even our birthday," says one of the Nightcrawlers as the two 'port, stab, and 'port again in quick succession, trying to pierce Kang's armour's weak points, and to disarm him if the armour proves too resilient. They aim primarily to keep Kang off balance to let the big guns take their shots at him unimpeded.

Nightcralwer A, holding three blades, launches a flurry of attacks against Kang that the conqueror does a creditable job defending himself against... until Kurt tosses all three swords in the air and disappears. Nightcrawler B appears overhead, snags the swords and continues the assault, driving one home through a weak point in Kang's armor's knee articulation. The knee seizes up as Kang tries to riposte only to have Kurt gone again, the three blades airborne in an impossible juggling routine where Kurt re-arms his future self who is now behind his opponent. Kang spins to face him and loses the sword to a perfectly executed disarm by an opponent who is no longer there.

Kang is disarmed, monstrously off balance and obviously extremely angry.

In that state Colossus punches him. The bone crunching impact sends Kang straight to the floor, lying at an awkward (bit not fatal) angle.

There is a brief moment of "well now what?" since Kang's collapse didn't immediately realign the time flow.

‘‘Tempus jut disappeared,’‘ Cyclops informs Phoenix. ‘‘And I don't think it was because Warren threw Kang's Nightcrawler-seeking missiles at him. Is everything under control?’‘

‘‘Pretty much,’‘ Phoenix responds, ‘‘Kang's knocked out, but I'm not sure what happens next.  Dad...’‘

In that moment of quiet another Kang, wearing slightly different armor, materializes in the room.  He immediately holds up his hands to forestall any attacks. "Peace, X-Men. I have no desire to fight you. In fact, I'm here to apologize."

He looks down in disgust at his unconscious doppelganger. "This pathetic, duplicitous image of myself is one too far gone on the road to becoming Immortus, as my destiny demanded. Relying on manipulation, deceit and treachery to defeat the Avengers, to be so timid as to see them unmade rather than face them directly, too afraid to even face the thought of Immortus detecting his scheming, he is mere months away from that mantle himself. I regret that you were drawn into his convoluted time trap."

"I cannot even be certain that he would honorably return you the time stream once he resumes consciousness, so I am stepping in to see to that."

A small device appears in his hand. There is a sliver of light into the original Kang, a tight, high pitched whine and the original Kang fades into oblivion. "Now that I am free of the need to become him* he is of no further use to me. And so, X-Men, Scarlet Witch adieu."

[*ED: see the events of the Avengers Forever limited series - which I can reference here despite it being 15 years in the Marvel publishing future from our start date since Kang is a time traveler.]

Kurt A grasps Kurt B by the hand and shakes his alter-self's hand firmly. "It has been a honour to fight along side you. All of you," he adds more loudly to address all assembled. "Thank you, X-Men, past, present, and future!"

Rachel lets her aura die down, and with some effort, divides herself back into two people again.  ‘‘Dad...it was lovely to see you again.  Even if...you won't remember this the next time we meet’‘

The whole scene shifts, and the X-Men, Scarlet Witch, Magik and Doug Ramsey materialize in the undestroyed lobby of the mansion. Their memories of the recent events are intact but there is no evidence that any of it actually occurred save for 10 hours passing on the clock, the whole of the day being caught in a self-sealing time loop. Just seconds after* they arrive the air shimmers with the light of a Shi'ar transporter beam and Professor X appears with the rest of the New Mutants. All are in costume (the Prof has abandoned the totally ridiculous yellow outfit with the black X suspenders in favor of a standard X-Men uniform, thank God) and looks like they have been through one heck of a day.

"What the?!?" say Magik and Cannonball say simultaneously, with overlapping word balloons.

[*ED: in fact, in the New Mutants annual from which Xavier and the kids are returning they are show arriving first with the X-Men appearing a second later, just an FYI.]

The Time Twisting End!

==Back Up Story (Wolverine and Nick Fury)==
The scene is the New York apartment of Nick Fury in all of its Silver-Age glory. The panels move slowly across the apartment – letting the GM show off his deep love for Steranko’s architectural design – showing it to be empty and illuminated only by the city lights through the window, while we see two different colored narrative boxes in communication
Xavier: You might be wondering why we’re meeting here….

Logan: Nope. Ya don’t want the others knowing what I’m up to in case Frost or someone from the SHIELD ESPer unit wanders by. Which means I’m doin’ something sneaky, which is fine by me. Did Honcho’s crew need some backup tailing Wideawake and Gyrich or is it something else?

Xavier: Exactly, and no, Mr. MacDonald and the rest of Team America are performing their assignment admirably. This has to do with something Rachel and Kitty said recently concerning our public relations – that we as a team, in addition to mutants in general, need to do better at that, and that we do act as heroes, even if we are not recognized as such.

Xavier: Minorities succeed via individual relationships which can influence institutions and form the foundation for future gains. Effecting mass consciousness changes in the face of demagogues can be a Sisyphean task without that foundation.

Logan: I ain’t sayin’ your wrong, Chuck, but where are you going with this?

Xavier: We need to clear Rogue of the murder charge against her. I suspect that in so doing we can open positive relationships with a well-positioned individual and get the X-Men’s general heroism more widely recognized.

Logan: Yer’ talking about Fury. He and I didn’t part on the best of terms last time.

Xavier: But you have _terms_ with him. And he is a fair-minded man.

Logan: He’s a hard-assed pragmatist is what you mean. But yah, he’ll be must more interesting in finding who really snuffed his man than being used by the Hellfire Club.

Xavier: and he’ll definitely want to know about the Hellfire Club’s infiltration.

Logan: Which will certainly get Shaw’s knickers in a bunch. Alright, I’ll do my best. But ya gotta let me do it my way.

By this point the panels have moved through the entire apartment and in the last one the reader can just barely make out Wolverine hunkered down in the shadows next to the window curtain.

Outside the apartment we see Fury approaching: he’s dressed in slacks, an oxford shirt with a thin tie, and a sport coat tailored so one can’t see the shoulder holster. He’s carrying a black briefcase in one hand, a brown paper bag in the shape of something from the liquor store in the other and looks like any other weary NYC office worker on his way home save for the eye patch and perpetual 5 o’clock shadow. He suddenly stops, eyes his door warily and takes a single step back.

We cut back to a close up of Logan’s face, mostly his eyes, narrowed.

Logan: Did he catch something?

The door opens and Fury enters the room, dropping his briefcase and casually flipping the switch to turn on the lights.

Logan: No, we’re still good. Wait, what’s that scent?

Fury suddenly lobs the bottle of bourbon, draws his gun and fires at the bottle in mid-air, coating much of the front hall with a thin layer of highly aromatic alcohol. As part of the same motion he dives forward, rolls and come up to a crouch behind a chair.

Logan: Gaaah! Can’t smell a flamin’ thing!

Fury takes aim in Wolverine’s general direction and opens fire, the needle gun on full auto. Wolverine avoids it easily enough but has to abandon his nominal cover to do so – it’s clear the shots were just to flush him out. Whatever Fury had planned as a follow up to that minor victory proves useless as Wolverine is much faster than his size would indicate, closing the gap between the two men before Fury can change his aim.

With a flash of admantium claws the needle gun falls into pieces. Fury pivots, driving his left elbow into Wolverine’s eyesocket before completing the spin by grabbing his opponents head from behind and throwing him to the ground.

Logan: Nose stuffed full of bourbon and half blinded in a few seconds. Fury ain’t lost none of his moves.

Wolverine’s left hand stays his fall, preventing a broken nose, and he manages to turn the fall into a rightward roll that sets up a kick into Fury’s knee. As the super-spy is temporarily off balance Wolverine catches him between the legs with another kick then, as Fury as thrown toward him, grabs the man’s lapels from his prone position and lobs him across the room.

Logan: ‘Course I ain’t lost none of mine either.

Wolverine jumps up and dives towards Fury before the other man can regain his feet or pull out another gun. He’s just about to land on him when he sees that the fall ripped part of Fury’s face open, revealing the circuitry underneath.

Another close up of Wolverine’s eyes.

Logan: Life Model Decoy. That’s what I smelled before the bourbon.

Same close up, but now a small red dot is visible inside one eye.

Wolverine hears a “Tap, Tap” and looks up. Hanging outside the window via some high tech rappelling gear is Nick Fury, pointing a decidedly unfriendly looking gun with a laser sight at him through the glass. Fury points to the earpiece now hanging around his head just as the phone in his apartment rings.

Wolverine picks up the phone.

“Evening, Weapon X. Social call?”

“I go by Wolverine these days, and yeah, more or less.”

“Ya got my attention. And you owe me a bottle of bourbon.”

Wolverine smiles, “There’s a six pack of Canadian Lager in your fridge, and a box of cigars, for while we talk.”

“Cubans. I recognized the scent. Now cut the first date crap and tell me why you’re in my apartment.”

“Rogue.”

“She’s working with your crew now? That’s what Sitwell passed along. And that she’s innocent as a spring lamb.”

Wolverine snorts, “She ain’t that. She trashed your heli-carrier, sure enough, but she didn’t kill your man. Think about it Fury, why would Rogue, of all people, just shoot him?”

Fury nods, “I’d wondered about that. It didn’t seem her style. You guys got Rossi? He could clear this up.”

Wolverine shakes his head, “He’s gone to ground and I’m inclined to let him. Man plays dead for five years I reckon he gets used to it. Talked to him, though. He says you got a mole in SHIELD, working for the Hellfire Club. You know ‘em?”

Fury nods again, scowling. “Well ain’t that a flaming kick in the teeth. Rossi was a stand-up guy, and if he’s right that connects a couple’a dots.”

“Thought it might. The girl’s in a rough way right now, no condition to talk, but I got some ideas on that. If I promise to bring her round here for you to chat with once she’s able will you to dig out the mole? ‘Cause I guarantee you that if you do that you’ll find you’re shooter.”

Fury continues to scowl. “I’m gonna dig out any mole regardless, but I’ll hold you to the rest of it and tone down the hunt for her till then. I’m taking you at your word here because of what happened in Hanoi, Wolverine. Don’t disappoint me.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Wolverine replies and hangs up.

He turns to go and hears the tapping at the window again. He looks back. Fury has created a patch of fogged glass on which he has written LEAVE THE CIGARS.