X-Men 187: What Goes Around

Page 1-2 (Wolverine)

A Tale of Mystery and Revenge in the Mighty Marvel Fashion
Written by Myles "Nightcrawler" Corcoran
Penciled by Rebecca "Wolverine" Stevenson
Inked by Lisa "Colossus" Padol
Colored by Kris "Sprite" Keegan
Lettered by Joshua "Rachel Summers" Kronengold
Edited by Brian Rogers
Rachel Rogers, Editor in Chief

This is Wolverine, one of the X-Men. A former soldier, a former secret agent a mutant blessed with a healing factor that enhances all of his physical characteristics, and an experiment with metal-laced unbreakable bones, he’s one of the most formidable combatants alive. Though he might not be for much longer.

Just moments ago he was ambushed by two of the X-Men’s younger students, the New Mutants as part of a coordinated attack against the X-Men. The pair displayed seamless coordination and extraordinary viciousness, taking even this veteran fighter by surprise. Wolfsbane, a mutant shapeshifter, nearly ripped out his throat and Sunspot, a boy with solar-fueled super strength struck him with a three hundred pound exercise weight, used its par to pin Wolverines arms and tossed him, stunned, bleeding and bound, into an Olympic sized pool, where Wolverine promptly sank like a stone.

His assailants just left him for dead.

He has precious little time to prove them wrong.

The biggest problem is actually keeping hold of his capacity for rational thought -- though surely, even someone with a much tidier mental history than Logan's would have been momentarily flustered by this chain of events.

Exhaling, against all instinct, to get precious millimeters in which to work, to apply some fraction of leverage, betting on adamantium bones against the steel of the bar--a couple of molecules' width is all, with the water (and blood) lessening friction, to get loose.

Inch, shift, inch, shift - the mass of the bar plus his own adamantium boned weight give him halfway decent purchase and footing on the pools bottom, and 15 seconds after his exhalation the bar falls away from his arms and down his legs, letting him kick himself up to the surface for air. His training is so ingrained that he even has the presence of mind to move to the most out of view corner of the pool before raising his mouth and nose to collect some precious air rather than advertise his continued existence.

So far, so good. Step two: About that bleeding out thing... though it's making the water murky enough to provide some camouflage. There's something grimly amusing about holding one's own trachea in place.

It takes a minute for the throat to set and the various tubes and veins to reconnect. Breathing through the mouth rather than the throat is nice. There's no sound or scent of anyone nearby.

Good.

He nevertheless takes care to move slowly in getting a visual scan of the area--sight lines overlooking the pool, and any signs of additional mayhem in the vicinity. Inflicting some being tops on the agenda right now....

Seeing no one, he moves. Knowing the grounds intimately, it should be an easy matter to reconnoiter unseen, and hopefully determine the extent of the attack. He's not exactly _worried_ about the lack of general alarm, but it does suggest that maybe this wasn't an isolated incident --whatever it was.

Exiting the pool and circling to the left, taking him around the side with the library on the first floor and the New Mutants quarters on second, he can catch the sound of running water overhead. Focusing in that direction there's also a very faint soap and floral scent coming through a broken window on the second floor. Someone is taking a shower on the second floor, and something big went through that window, but from the looks of it someone has boarded it up already....

Making note of that location, he continues around the second side. The point is not only to locate potential threats, but to ascertain the mansion's level of overall activity, which would provide a clue as to the extent of the... call it a "problem." It would be nice to know how much company to expect before paying a call on his attackers.

Page 3 (Kitty)

Kitty’s scalp hurts. That’s what’s keeping her conscious. Someone is pulling her hair, and her body is at an awkward angle. She forces her eyes open and sees the painted pattern of the dining room ceiling inches away from her left eye. Glancing down she sees her thick wool skirt is stuck in the ceiling, holding up her legs and hips. Glancing up she sees that her hair is likewise embedded in the ceiling, about an inch to an inch and a half from her skull.

That hair, and her scalp, is supporting her upper body. And it hurts.

Kitty's thought balloons say: "Ooowww ... Sam tried to *kill* me ... got to get down ..."

She fumbles in a pocket of her skirt and produces a folding multi-tool. Arching her back in a futile effort to take the pressure off her scalp, she unfolds it to a three-inch blade and starts sawing at her hair.

More thought balloons: "Skirt's not made to hold my weight ... got to move fast ..."

She winces as a last few strands of hair part company with her scalp on their own, and clamps the multi-tool between her teeth, knife still extended. With the blood streaking her face from previous contact with the monitor, it's a startling image.

Taking a good grip on the skirt's waistband with one hand, she yanks the zipper loose and then grabs that side too.

Her plan was to slide out of the skirt and gently lower herself down. Instead, gravity suggests that she should plummet, and her legs swing down with too little control. Part of the skirt rips loose from the ceiling - but only part of it, and she manages to make her sock-clad feet come down on the dining-room table without too much noise. She hopes.

Fortunately for comics-code issues, she's wearing black leggings under the skirt. And also thinking: "Oooh, that drug ... can barely tell which way is *up* ... woah! got to - stay - quiet ..."

Standing on the table, she looks up at the skirt she's still holding, and thinks, "Now there's a sign of 'victim escaped' ..." With too much effort, she starts sawing through the fabric, as close to the ceiling as she can. "Wonder if I could learn to phase just one thing, or part of something? But not now, that's for sure. Sam! What is going on? Where are the others?"

With the remains of the skirt bundled under her left arm, and the multi-tool knife still in her right hand, she sits on the table in order to slide off it quietly, and pads over to the kitchen door, where she stops and listens hard.

And thinks: "I can't go outside like this and I don't dare phase right now ... but if I can get down to the basements ... nobody knows this building like I do ..."

"Lockheed!" Kitty thinks. "He's outside ... *Lockheed! Trouble! Stay away! ... See if anyone else needs help!*"

There's no sound from the kitchen. Kitty thinks: "Okay, hostile territory drill."

Crouching low to the ground, she carefully pushes the swinging door open a few inches and peers through.

Then she opens it just wide enough to slip through, and gently eases it shut again, still crouching. After a quick scan of the room, she scuttles silently across to the hall door, stopping only to extract a flashlight from a drawer.

Paused there, she thinks, "People in the foyer ... no, I need to be able to phase ... the basement for now."

She crosses the carpeted hall silently, opens the basement door, and slips through - then closes it all but a narrow crack and listens. Her thoughts: "Maybe someone out there will say something ..."

From her position in the stairs she hears a door open - the door to the professor's office - and hears Guthrie's voice, "and now, Xavier, to fulfill a promise I made to...What?"

Kitty thinks, "That's Guthrie!"

The speaking stops and she hears three people moving. There's some scuffling, like the sound of a body being dragged around, and the chime of a computer being turned on. Two people move out of the professors office, and from above there's the sound of something cloth being dropped - a heavy robe being let go? Finally there's the sound of nailed paws on hardwood stairs.

Guthrie and the two others were either communicating through hand signals or they didn't need to communicate at all.

Whatever else was going on, Rhane is now in wolf form inside the foyer!

Kitty thinks, "That's Guthrie, and two more, and Rhane. Too many ... Rhane might scent me!"

Page 4 (Colossus)

This is not the first time Colossus has been coated in molten magma – the first was in the Savage Land, and a few months back he had been heated white hot by Pyro. Still, he could have done without the reminder. It’s not so much painful as a growing discomfort which, if left long enough, will render him unable to move and eventually he’ll melt.

A surprise attack by the New Mutant Cannonball sent him flying from the mansion, where cannonball’s partner Magma was waiting with a deep, lava filled pit that she had closed over him. Colossus is alone, in the dark, overheating, with no air and little idea which direction is up. It might take him hours to die if he cannot find a way to escape.

After thinking for a few seconds Colossus swings his arms through the magma, which, thick as it is, is not able to immobilize someone of his strength. His hands slam together with impressive force, sending a shockwave through the red hot liquid. The result of that is both a slight space for him to move more easily and a clear indication of which way is up as the shockwave breaks up the lose packed earth and rock that had been heaped above him.

With that knowledge his situation has improved. Swimming through the magma isn't easy, but it is possible, and once he reaches the 'ceiling' Colossus digs his hands into the rock and earth and being pulling it down and himself up. Again, it's more like swimming than climbing, and it is not a rapid process, but eventually he is able to push his head up through the loose packed earth and into the air.

Its twilight - clearly this has taken him at least an hour - but there's no evidence that he was spotted. He can see lights on in the house's library from this angle.

A slow circuit around the outside of the house reveals first that someone has already blocked up the hole Cannonball made with his body through the New Mutants hall window. There are lights on in the library, the front foyer, his room, Kitty's room and the Professor's office. There is blood in the pool.

He stops at the pool, at least long enough to see if there's someone in it, given the blood.

Given the lateness in the year the automatic time on the pool lights has been shut off - another few days and the pool would have been closed up for the season - but Colossus can make out a shape at the bottom of the pool (which might be roughly the right size for a child- or a wolf- but he just can't tell for sure) and see the water splashed around one of the ladders indicating that someone climbed out of it.

"It could be a trap," thinks Colossus. "But -- someone might be hurt."

Colossus slips into the water just as Kurt does his circuit of the back of the manor. By the time he gets out, his teammate has moved in the opposite direction. Colossus drops to the bottom instantly, only to discover that the shape is, oddly enough, a bench weight bent in half.

Colossus picks it up. While he's not the kind of person who can tell from a broken twig how many people are up ahead and whose horse threw a shoe, he can put together blood in the pool and a twisted bench weight to guess that he wasn't the only one under attack. He gets out of the pool carefully, after checking as best he can to see that no one's watching him, and tries to follow the water trail that started at the ladder.

The trail peters out fairly rapidly, but it lasts long enough to let Colossus know that whoever it was who got out of the pool, they went around to the Library/New Mutants wing of the mansion. By the time Colossus follows the trail there he can see that the ad hoc repairs to his exit point from the manor have been disturbed - someone or something moved the plywood from that window.

Colossus examines the area around the plywood and the window then moves up to check the interior of the library. There's no sign of movement in there, so he continues around the house again to the front foyer. Again, the lights are on but there's no sign of movement.

Wait...what's that?

Page 5 (Nightcrawler)

Lying on the floor of the Professor's study Nightcrawler struggles to stay conscious as an unknown drug courses through his system. As the mist descends before his vision he teleports, desperate to get away.

The scene shifts to the roof of the mansion as Nightcrawler *bamfs* into view with an agonized expression on his face. He falls fifteen feet to the top of the roof, landing with a thud on his hands and knees. With the last of his strength he pulls himself forward under the shadow of ventilation intake and disappears into darkness.

Kurt slides in and out of consciousness, pulled back to his body by the pain of the bruises from the fall plus the chill as the last Saturday afternoon in October embrowned itself moment by moment. Eventually he manages to hold on to awareness, but he has no idea how long he's been up here - only that it's nigh unto dark.

Kurt listens carefully to his surroundings before making an attempt to move. He gingerly rises to a crouching position, mindful to keep himself in shadow. He thinks "I have to find the others. Am I the only one alive?"

Nightcrawler moves stiffly but carefully across the mansion roof, avoiding any skylights or making a silhouette against the sky. Looking out over the grounds he scans as best he can in the twilight, hoping to catch a glimpse of activity.

There's no sign of any movement or activity outside the house. In the dim light the pool water looks cloudy but that might just be in the angle.

"Ach, how long have I been unconscious? Who knows what has happened to the Professor and the others."

The blue-furred mutant moves to the edge of the roof and peeks over, hoping to see which rooms below, if any, are occupied from the lights within. If he spots any sign of life (lighting, movement, sound), he'll sneak down the wall to the top of the window and try to peek inside.

On the X-Men's side of the mansion the lights are on in Kitty and Peter's rooms on the second floor, but nothing else in that wing. Moving around the back there's no lights on in the Professors second floor chambers, but the light in his study is still blazing one floor down, as are the lights in his sitting room. On the New Mutants side of the manor there is a light on in what he _thinks_ is Rhane's room, and a shattered window at the end of the second floor hall that has already been plywooded over. No lights in the library. Around the front of the building there are lights on in the main foyer and stairwell.

Nightcrawler pauses on the edge of the roof above Xavier's study, listening intently. He rehearses in his memory the locations of cameras and other security equipment he knows are placed around the building and grounds.

Screwing up his courage, he is just about to slip over the parapet when the roof's trap door opens. Backlit from the attic light are Amara and Rhane in her wolf form. She's sniffing the air.

"Honored teacher Wagner?" Amara says in a tremulous voice, "Are you up here? The Professor is missing, you are missing...Honored teacher Wolverine is searching the grounds and asked us to look up here." The pair are walking slowly around while she talks, heading in his general direction. "Honored teacher, can you hear me?"

Clearly the pair cannot make out his indigo-furred form in the darkness.

Feeling the wind in his face, blowing his scent away from girls, he slips over the roof's overhang and holds position to watch the two younger mutants, ready to port away at the first sign of trouble. Kurt's spooked, and wants some evidence before trusting the girl who brought Professor Xavier and him poisoned hot chocolate.

The pair move cautiously along the mildly slanted roofline, neither overly skilled at this, but the wolf quickly locates the spot where Kurt fell onto the roof, and follow that to where he had hidden himself.

"Honored teacher?" Amara asks again, "I think Rhane is trying to tell me you were here." She turns to the wolf "I hope he hasn't fallen off the roof...."

The pair work their way around the rooftop, following the scent trail that Kurt left earlier, with Amara repeatedly calling out for him and looking over the roof's edge, presumably looking for his body down below.

This goes on for several minutes, and they are approaching Kurt's position.

Page 6 (Wolverine)

That done, and with an eye on the sinking level of light, he moves in toward the building with professional precision.

The first floor only has light in the front foyer, the Professor's work room and his offices. There is activity in the front foyer and the Professor's office. The second floor has lights in two rooms – Peter’s and Kitty’s. By the time he circles back around there are lights on in the Library under the New Mutants rooms, and whoever was showering has stopped.

A moment of lingering at the library window reveals Wolfsbane and Magma just inside the doorway. They are in the room just long enough for the wolf to walk in a small circle sniffing the air, and then they exit.

Looking for someone? For one of the others? Did anyone else get away...? He very much wants to know where the Professor is. He's off to toward the broken second-floor window, in expectation of breaking it again. Quietly if possible, but if not, let the chips fall where they may.

The entry to the house through the broken window is flawless, pushing the tacked down plywood out of the way, slithering in and returning it to its original position, just in time for Colossus to not see him enter.

The lights are on in the hall, and the scent combination is interesting. Whoever was taking the shower - a couple of sniffs confirms that it was the Sinclair girl - was doing a serious soaping and scent covering, as well as gargling with mouthwash. She left the bathroom and went directly out to the foyer stairs. Wolverine can make out the pile of pink terrycloth that must be her bathrobe. From that direction there's an astringent smell as well, some sort of industrial cleaner. That's likely been applied to the place where Logan recently bled all over the floor.

The smell of the cleaner is enough to block out other scents from that direction. There doesn't appear to be anyone else on the second floor.

Huh. Why cover up the scents like that?

The elevator starts.

All right. If it's one of them, we sort this out now. If it's not, we see how far the crazy has spread.

His preparedness turns out to be unnecessary - the elevator doesn't stop on this floor, instead continuing to the attic. He hears someone pull down the stairs to the roof. That of course raises the question of what any of them are doing in the attic--or on the roof--at this hour. Back out the window and up to find out....

Page 7 (Rachel)

Speyter Devil Cove overlooks Breakstone Lake at the edge on the property of Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. A few moments ago an unexpected earthquake pushed Rachel Summers in.

"Air -- I need air!" Rachel reaches for the nearest source of air (on the surface) and grabs for it, pulling it down to a bubble around her. Having never worked with moving gasses before the air is slick under her mind. The first effort yields nothing as the wind-driven waves shatter the air sphere just as she gets it below the surface, and each precious bubble flits away from her even as the cooling rock on her back drags her down.

Darkness begins to close in around her vision as she tries again, cupping the gasses with her mind and pulling them gently down – a race between the approaching bubble and the closing darkness until the sphere fills the whole of her vision, then wraps around her head. Her first desperate gasp produces a coughing fit as she spits up the water already inside her lungs, and she nearly loses the bubble again. Her airways free she breaths deep again and again.

Down in the dark of the lake, weighted down by the rock on her back and the water that has permeated every article of her clothing, Rachel has no idea how long she’s been down, how long her air bubble will last her, or how long before the cold of the autumn water saps the last of her strength.

With a little bit of breathing room, Rachel pulls off the jacket, then, holding onto it to prevent herself from rising prematurely, checks for minds on the surface before, if the coast is clear, heading for the surface of the water.

There's nary a thought in her immediate vicinity. Whoever or whatever attacked her is long gone. She surfaces quietly, keeping to the shadows of the breakwater, and sees that the sun is nearly set.

"Are the others all right," Rachel thinks, "I can't--I won't lose them again." She tries to locate and/or make contact with those of her teammates she knows best.

While doing so she runs towards the manor, then checks herself and heads to the air shed and the high speed access tunnel from the hanger to the sub-basement. If there’s some attack going on her years of experience as a subversive tell her to always go in through the secret door.

Page 8-10 (Kitty, Rachel and Colossus)

Kitty carefully pulls the door the rest of the way shut, turns her back to it, and presses the flashlight against the palm of her hand before turning it on. Muffling all but a fraction of its light this way, she starts down the stairs at the slow pace her drugged state will allow.

Her thoughts say: "They have the Professor! I've got to find out what's happening ..."

Using the wall to support herself she's able to navigate the stairs and make it across the darkened basement to the computer room without incident. The access terminal comes on with a chime, but she has the foresight to muffle the speaker with her palm.

"Good thing I left my 'invisible tap' in place," Kitty thinks, working by the light of the computer screen alone. "Okay, security system ...let's see the foyer .."

The image of the foyer shows the following: no sign of anyone in the room proper. The door to the professor's study is still open, and there's motion inside. There's a pile of fabric - pink and white - at the top of the stairs.

A flashing light on the console lets her know that someone is trying to break through security on the Professor's computer.

That's where she hears a voice in her head. Not the Professor. Rachel?!

Kate? Sorry--Kitty?

Rachel? Her mind feels ... muzzy. And frightened. And partly focused on something besides communication. Are you all right?

I've got burns; they'll heal, but I got attacked by one of the students; lava Rachel picks the name and image out of Kitty's thoughts before she can verbalize a response. Yeah, probably Magma; I didn't get a good look at her, but it's not like it's a common signature.

What happened to you?

Rachel reaches the air operations hut, and is easily able to get the high speed transport to whisk her back to the house. She’s also able to grab a dry flight jacket (choices, choices – one of the regular ones or Kurt’s vintage WWI German biplane pilot leather jacket and cap?) to replace her lost one, and also some chemical warming packs to do something about the rest of her.

Rachel, grabs the first jacket that strikes her eye--a vintage leather jacket and the cap near it. Wincing slightly, she shrugs into it as her transport takes her to the mansion.

Sam and Roberto have the Professor in his study, drugged, I'll bet, Kitty reports. Rhane was with them before ...

I see them. Something must have happened to the New Mutants; maybe they were replaced or subborned?

Or mind-controlled, Kitty adds.

The transport whirrs to a stop at back at the mansion. Once there it would be a moment in the transport to get to Kitty’s location, but Rachel’s telepathy is picking up something very strange, oily and unpleasant coming from the gymnasium.

Inside the Professor’s study she can see Guthrie, DaCosta and the Professor, that last being laid out on the couch with one sleeve rolled up. A spent syringe is on the table nearby. Guthrie is keeping watch on the door, while DaCosta is the one ineffectually jabbing at the computer.

She sees DaCosta give up and look around and under the desk until he finds the computer’s casing. Kitty knows that this exists only as a side thought – a place to put floppy disks and hook up speakers – while the computers real memory and processing is done by the mainframe, and apparently DaCosta comes to the same decision, leaving the thing alone.

Some decision having been reached Guthire lifts the Professor’s unconscious form, then puts him back down before both head out the door leading from Xavier’s chambers outside to the pool area. They’re moving with some eye to stealth.

Er...I think I have an idea of what happened to the New Mutants, Rachel sends to Kitty, There's something--probably not human--disgusting in the gym

... Gym? Kitty has a moment's trouble processing this. Let's see what the camera shows ...

Drat. No signal

From his position at the windows to the foyer Colossus is looking into the house, trying to see what’s been happening. While its not an ideal view he can see through the open door into the lower level of the Professor’s chambers. Inside there he can now make out the distinctive pair of the tall, lanky Sam Guthrie and the short, athletic Roberto DaCosta. They are heading for the door that leads from the Professor’s chambers onto the pool patio on the opposite side of the building.

Once they’re through there Peter is sure that he could quietly slip into the house through the front door.

Colossus moves quietly to see where the pair is going.

He slips in through the foyer door and moves quickly to the professor’s doorway, keeping himself out of sight of the two boys. Once there he peeks around and sees that they are barely in sight, in the shadows the house casts on the patio, apparently waiting for something.

More importantly, he can see Professor Xavier lying unconscious on the couch.

Seconds after the boys leave the room Kitty sees Colossus slip in through the front door into the foyer, and from there to the door to the professor's rooms. Clearly he's trying to not be noticed.

They're going outside, leaving the Prof! Kitty tells Rachel excitedly. ... And now Peter's sneaked in, he's at the door ... Can you reach him?

I hope so, I'm not that far away

Peter, can you hear me?

Yes.

Kitty has you up on the monitors; have you seen any trace of Logan or Nightcrawler?

No, but... Peter continues to follow the boys, while thinking, I am sorry, but... you did just arrive. How do we know that this isn't your doing?

Kitty interposes: Because if she wanted us dead, I bet we would be.

...You don't. This world has too many telepaths and worse--you never know. But if I wanted to do something like this, I'd start with the X-men, not the New Mutants. I'm going to investigate the gym; whatever's in there, it might be at the heart of this.

Once Colossus feels that he's got time enough he slips through the door into the Professors room, ducking away from the outside door to avoid being observed. Inside the room he finds the Professor unconscious on the couch.

Outside he can barely make out the boys, who have stopped waiting for whatever it was they were waiting for - they change position slightly before Cannonball picks up Sunspot by the arms and takes off straight up.

Rachel heads for the gym, telekinetically making sure the door is unlocked before opening it.

The TK proves necessary, and inside the gym is a scene out of a nightmare: scores of flying demons of all shapes and sizes are circling the room; at the center of that path is a glowing pentagram made from a reddish liquid that is floating a few inches above the floor. The floor itself contains some red staining, and after a second Rachel realizes that the pentagram is made from a pool of blood that had levitated off the floor and shaped itself into the arcane sigil.

Floating above the pentagram is a prone female figure with red skin and small nubs of horns protruding from her forehead. She is wearing the clothes she saw a blond student wearing this morning. The figure is sprawled, limbs askew and occasionally twitching, eyes closed, eyelids fluttering, and there is sliver red fire running across her skin.

The demons all turn to look at her. And hiss. The room is filled with their oily telepathic residue that, at this proximity, is sending pure fear pouring down Rachel’s spine.

Rachel shouts, trying to reach all familiar minds on the campus, Oh #@(/(!, the gym is full of demons! She sends a bank of lockers flying across the room in time to swat the first wave of demons that attack her out of the air, but there are still more coming. "The demon girl," she thinks, "her clothes are the same as that odd blonde student--the one with a mind shield! Is the pentacle the source of the demons or protection against them?"

The bank of lockers hits the demons, but the creatures immediately explode into smoke. After a few seconds the smoke starts to re-form....

Page 11-12 (Wolverine and Nightcrawler)

Slipping back out the window, Wolverine climbs up to the roofline. Unfortunately the wind is at his back, but he's able to hear two things moving on the roof - one human, one lupine.

Kurt calls out Amara's name before he teleports to a chimney behind the students and watches their reactions. This places him past one of the roof’s peaks, and to his great relief he sees Wolverine lever himself silently onto the roof from the wall below.

[Reactions? Likely non-verbal – you guys are well practiced at this…]

The moment Amara hears his voice the takes several steps in that direction, “Honored teacher! Are you injured? Are you stuck? Can I assist?”

Before she can move too close to Nightcrawler’s supposed position she and Rhane jerk their heads up simultaneously as the scent from behind the roof peak hits the wolf’s nose. Both spin, seeing an ominous silhouette: Wolverine, coming up over the roof and Nightcrawler crouched atop the nearby chimney, his tail visible in the dim moonlight.

"Hi kids. Looking for somebody?"

Immensely relieved at the appearance of Wolverine, Nightcrawler can't resist calling out 'Peekaboo!' from behind the chimney. His next move really depends on the kids' responses.

"Do Cho De!" yells Amara, right before she ignites and launches a magma blast at Wolverine. Well prepared for just this eventuality, he dodges it easily.

Aware of Magma's burning exterior and his still-fresh bumps and bruises, Nightcrawler makes a rapid port-grab-port-drop-port manoeuvre. With a whispered prayer, Kurt disappears with a *bamf* and materialises behind Wolfsbane. "Pardon me, fraulein," he apologises as he grapples her and 'ports again.

The pair materialize over Magma, where Nightcralwer drops the shapeshifted girl and vanishes again. The wolf collides with her teammate, knocking the pair of them over, where Magma scrambles madly to regain her footing before she falls off the edge, barely succeeding. Wolfsbane makes no effort to save herself; indeed, she can't, her system in shock from the strain of the unexpected teleport, her sense of smell overloaded by the unfamiliar reek of brimstone, her fur partially alight from contact with magma's super-heated form. Fortunately the unplanned rolling down the rooftop puts the fire out, but she's still stunned even as she goes over the edge, falling a story and a half into the heavy bushes below with a loud "yelp".

Magma looks more unbalanced than hurt, but in trying to regain her balance she's wide open for a shot from Wolverine. Wolverine slides down from the roof peak, slamming his foot into Magma's right ankle and, using her as a break, bounces up from the slide to catch her under the jaw with a solid uppercut. She staggers under the blows, loses her footing and drops off the roof

Logan can't help to notice that the girl's reactions are faster, a little more formal and a little more Asian than she had displayed in the past. "Vo Thuat?" he thinks. It's not enough to really help her against him, mind you, but it is noticeable. He looks over the edge and sees the ground literally swallow her up.

Just after Logan's attack he and Nightcrawler feel in their head Oh #@(/(!, the gym is full of demons! from Rachel

"Oooookay. Let's get on over there, then, and stop messing around." That moment of distraction is just enough for him to get clipped by a combo from Cannonball and Sunspot: the flying boy rockets up the side of the house holding Sunspot, sharing his invulnerability field, and Sunsopt lashes out with a precisely timed kick to Wolverine's jaw as they fly by. The result is Wolverine being hit with 10 tons of force moving at an extra 90 miles and hour. He's staggered backwards and nearly loses his balance.

Colossus throws the weight at Cannonball, hoping to knock him out of the sky. The bent weight hurtles through the air just as Cannonball's flight arcs around for another pass at the men on the roof. It catches both boys completely off guard, shattering Cannonballs concentration and his invulnerability field. Both plummet down to the ground where, again, the earth swallows them up. Seconds later all three New Mutants reappear as the earth heaves them upwards under Magma's direction. The girl is looking seriously the worse for wear but both boys are relatively fresh.

Wolverine recovers himself, draws back a few steps up the roof and launches himself downward and over the edge, toward Cannonball. (And the ground, but worry about that later.)

Wolverine's fist connects with Guthrie's jaw at the end of the fall, and the boy drops like a marionette whose strings have been cut. Wolverine hits the ground with a roll and comes up unharmed.

Nightcrawler 'ports near to de Costa, placing the young Brazillian between Magma and himself. Hoping to get the boy off balance, he says, "Calm down, boy, isn't it time you kids were in bed?" His tail wags admonishingly at the New Mutant.

The boy tosses a well-coordinated punch and hits only smoke, then twists to launch a second with similar effect, and when the mocking blue face appears again he lashes out again with a blow that grazes Magma's shoulder. With his strength, however, a graze is more than sufficient to send the girl spinning. She manages a couple staggering steps and then collapses.

Worse still for DaCosta, that irate flurry of blows spells the end of his stored solar energy and his power sputters out.

Again, Wolverine can see the evidence of a different sort of formal training in the New Mutant, definitely something of South Asian origin.

Before anyone else can act, Sunspot falls to his knees with a groan. He looks seriously confused.

Page 13 (Aside – Storm)

A taxi pulls up to a field outside of Dallas, and Storm hops out, tossing the driver a billfold with money in it.

She checks her watch, “I hate leaving Forge like that, with just a note – especially since his ‘escape package; for me did contain what he promised… and if it contains anything else, well, it’ll go fro a nice ride in that taxi.”

She checks the sky, her first real exposure to the grandeur of nature since the incident, “Once I could have flown home on my own,” she wipes a tear off her cheek, ‘But now I have to rely on help from my friends. And there she is….

The Fantastic Four’s distinctive ‘flying bathtub’ arcs across the sky, coming down within a few feet of Storm. Susan Richards, the Invisible Woman, is at the controls. “Ororo, I hope I was fast enough. Reed and the others are in the Midwest with the fantasticar dealing with some alien menace, so this was all I had.”*

[ED This takes place while the FF is fighting Terminus in Fantastic Four #269]

“I just got here myself, Susan,” Storm replies, moving to climb into one of the car’s other three detachable compartments only to find it occupied by a tow-headed child, curled up under a blanket.

“Couldn’t get a sitter,” Mrs. Richards replies to her look before handing her a jacket. “The car is warm enough most of the time but you’ll likely still need this.”

Storm takes it and climbs in, looking again at the adorable little tyke before turning her gaze to her pilot, who meets it for a second before taking the craft smoothly back into the air and starting their journey north.

There’s a long silence before both women say at the same time “what happened?”

This leads to a confused laugh before Susan’s face gets serious. ‘”I lost the baby. Radiation bursts from some extreme mutation. We’d had problems with Franklin’s birth as well, but Reed was able to work those out. This time we weren’t so lucky.”

Storm nods slowly, then says, ‘I was hit by an experimental anti-Wraith weapon that also works on mutants. It stripped me of my powers. Forge, the person who built it is trying to figure out how to reverse the effects.”

Susan’s voice is kind, ‘Do you think Reed…?”

“Perhaps,” Ororo answers the unspoken question, “but I think that curing me is also important for Forge. I feel a strange obligation to let him try first.”

Susan looks like she doesn’t quite understand, but changes the topic rather than press the issue. “This attack on the X-Men, do you think it’s connected to the weapon?”

Storm shakes her head, “No. If that were the case Rhane would have sounded more like she was in shock, or worried. Her voice instead sounded coldly satisfied, as if she were involved in the attack. No, I’m afraid that the professor’s new students have been controlled somehow.”

Susan’s looks thoughtful, as if weighing something, and then turns back to the controls, “well, we’ll find out soon enough.”

Page 14-16 (Everyone)

Kitty replies, Demons? Oh no ...

Inside the gymnasium. "Ok, whatver that pentagram is, I don't think it's on our side." Rachel looks at a pile of towels, and they attack the pentagram, trying to absorb the blood and break up the pentagram.

The towels combust into flame as they touch the blood, falling as black-grey ash.

The reforming demons grab hold of Rachel, or more precisely her telekinetic shield, lifting and hurling her out of the door. She takes no damage from this but the door slams ominously shut after her abrupt departure.

Rachel sends, There's a demon girl -- I think one of the students -- tranced out and floating above a pentacle made of burning blood in the gym. And lots of demons in there two; I hit them with something but they just reformed. I think whatever's going on in there needs to be disrupted; any ideas? I suppose I could try to move the girl

"Disrupting is what we do best. No need to beat up on the kids if what's controlling them is in there."

Kitty turns away from the computer without comment, making her still-dizzy way toward the door, and from there down to the gym.

"Hey Kurt, can we make this quick?"

Kurt shakes his head regretfully. "Ach no, Wolverine. I dare not. The professor and I were poisoned, and my head is still all in fog."

Kurt eyes the downed teenagers. "It doesn't sit well with me to leave the kids but Rachel sounds like we can't wait. We'd best get moving."

"I will carry them to the infirmary and meet you in the gymnasium," says Peter. "Also... where is Danielle?" he asks, having all too good a guess about which student is in the pentacle.

He starts picking up New Mutants, as Rachel can relay any reply to his question.

"See you there. Let's go, then," Logan says, and heads toward the action.

Roberto, while still confused about where he is and what's going on, takes orders well enough to be able to help rouse Rhane, who is likewise befuddled. Rhane is still in wolf form because as a human she'd be stark naked. They're able to limp their way back to the infirmary with Colossus carrying Sam and Amara.

Once there the quartet finds Dani Moonstar in the bed next to Rogue. She's unconscious with a heck of a goose egg on her head.

Dani? Rhane thinks at her through the mindlink that Dani shares with animals. This is insufficient to rouse her, so Rhane moves behind a screen and returns to human form.

"I canno' raise her, but I've been able to 'afore," she says as she dons a hospital gown. "Will she be alrigh'?"

"And where's Ilyana?" Roberto asks Colossus. Both children are looking their age, 'Berto's normal bluster gone in his confusion and concern for his friends.

"I will get her," says Peter. "Let Danielle rest for now. Watch over her and Sam and Amara."

His thought balloon reads, "They need to have something to do, and they need to know we still trust them."

Back at the gymnasium

"Right. No more Ms. Nice," Rachel thinks, gathers herself, and lights up with a red-orange blaze as she tears the doors of the gymnasium off their hinges and sends them flying across the room.

Instants after the doors fly off a hoard of demons - hopping, flying, lumbering - rampage out at her. The flying ones circle her, buzzing, chirping and reeking of a foul stench, blocking her vision and testing her defenses, going up in smoke against her telekinetic shields until the larger ones arrive.

Rachel drops to the ground, as the doors -- still under her control, fly back through the corridor, sweeping the air right above her. The doors swing through the flying horde, dispersing it for a moment either by reducing the demons to clouds of smoke or forcing them to move out of the way.

Her victory, such as it is, is short lived as a cyclopean monstrosity thunders out of the gymnasium and through the rest of the horde, snagging her telekinetic shield with both hands and lifting it, and her, off the floor, before hurling her away. Her attempts to halt her passage telekinetically only slow her somewhat, meaning that rather than crash through the wall she rebounds off of it, bouncing back into the pool.

Once again today, she's drenched. At least this water is heated.

By the time she resurfaces the demons are flowing back into the gymnasium in a rush, the last few holding the now dented doors, which they slam into mangled place behind them.

Given their conditions it takes Nightcrawler and Wolverine nearly a minute to get from the patio down to the gymnasium. As they get there they see an equally shaky Kitty - now sporting a short haircut not unlike the one she wore in issue 183 - approaching Rachel from the other direction.

The others arrive once she's had a chance to extricate herself from the water, but Kurt can't help but notice that she's wearing his vintage jacket and she's gotten it very wet.

"Ach, mein lovely jacket. Also, demons. Himmel!"

"Sorry," Rachel says to Kurt, "I had to put something on after I got dunked earlier." She switches to telepathy so Peter can also hear. We just need to work together to get inside and disrupt whatever they're doing -- if it weren't disruptable, they wouldn't be so focused on keeping people out of the room. But I'm not sure how; I can try to move the demon girl, or I can try to throw water at the burning blood, or maybe there's something in there I haven't seen. But the demons are hard to keep down; they just reform after you beat them.

Plan? Kitty asks the others, looking desperately worried.

I think I've got an idea, Rachel sends. Nightcrawler, stand ready to teleport that demon girl off the pentacle, right after I bring down the doors. Everyone else can run inteference.

Kitty adds, Just bring her to me out here.

Its at this point that Lockheed flies into the room, looks at the sopping wet Rachel and gives a little "hss-hss-hss" that could very well be a laugh.

"Heh", Rachel gives, not unwilling to laugh at herself.

Rachel's eyes turn bright orange, and the characteristic Phoenix halo appears around her. "All right then. Those demons are holding a party on our lawn; let's crash it," she says, her voice gaining overtones from the power she's raising, right before she stares at the doors. The battered, much abused doors collapse into metal balls, then chart a course through the demons right in front of the demon girl, parting around her to hit the end of the gym.

Neither of the metal spheres strike any of the demons, but they do result in a moderately clear passage through the room.

In that instant Nightcralwer disappears and Wolverine charges into the creatures to draw their attention. In this he is profoundly successful, reducing two of the creatures to smoke in seconds before turning his attention to the cyclopean monstrosity, which has the ill grace to likewise transform into noxious gas before its body can hit the ground with a satisfying thud.

Likewise Lockheed flits into the room, performing an almost contemptuous circuit through the flying demons that attracts several of them to chase. Once there are four or five clustered on his tail the dragon does a sudden wingover and roasts them with a blast of fiery breath.

Nightcralwer, meanwhile, appears next to the pentagram in a moment of relative calm, and there learns that there is no “demon girl” but instead Ilyana, looking relatively normal – at least for someone floating in a pentagram of burning blood. If the strange appearance was real it was apparently temporary. Before he can grab her to teleport away he notices that a nasty bruise on her shoulder, visible through her torn sweater, is rapidly fading….

Nightcrawler mutters a profoundly heartfelt prayer to the Virgin and bounds forward to grasp Ilyana.

With a blink of an eye he disappears and reappears beside Rachel. "Special delivery, one..." Kurt starts to say when he's interrupted by a gut-wrenching scream from Ilyana, who sits bolt upright, screams again, grabbing her abdomen and collapses into a ball.

Page 17 (Aside - Storm)

The Fantastic Four's "Flying Bathtub" lowers itself into the woods outside the house, drawn in that transparent way that makes it clear that it's invisible. Once it lands in a concealed spot it becomes visible again and Storm moves to get out. Ste puts a hand on her arm.

"Stay here. I'll scout."

"I am perfectly capable of defending myself, Susan," Storm replies.

"I know. That's why I trust you here with my child. But I'm the Invisible Woman. Reconnaissance is what I do." She hands Storm an earpiece and while attaching one to her own ear that has a cable that she attaches to her neck. "This is comm gear that lets me subvocalize so I don't reveal myself. I'll let you know what I find. In the equipment box to your left there's a small stun pistol Reed designed. It's got eight shots and no recoil, so don't treat it like a firearm."

Susan Storm Richards slips silently out of the vehicle and vanishes. Storm hears through the headset "Going silent until I have something to say"

Storm sits and seethes, knowing full well that Susan is right. She looks over and sees Franklin, still sleeping under the blanket, and commits herself to keeping watch.

"Ororo, it's Susan. There's a med kit in the back compartment. Grab that and Franklin and come into Charles' rooms past the pool."

"What's happening?" Storm replies as she grabs the medkit.

"There was some kind of fight outside, but I found Charles drugged in his room. No sign of any bodies, and based on the sounds I think everything's happening downstairs. It should be safe for you and Franklin to come in and take care of Charles while I head downstairs."

Storm offers up a brief prayer of gratitude before waking the sleeping child, who, to his credit, has had this happen to him a lot.

"Miss 'Roro…" he murmurs when he sees her, "where's mommy? What happened to your hair?"

"I cut it," Storm smiles at him. "Your mother is inside. Let's go find her."

The two move as quietly as Franklin's small legs allow. Once inside Franklin runs to his mother as Storm runs to the professor.

"There was some barbiturates in the hot chocolate would be my guess," Susan tells her. "Then someone injected him with something to make sure he stayed out. I don't think he's in any immediate danger. Franklin, can you sit down with one of Professor Xavier's atlases and some water until I get back."

"Do they have pretty colors on the maps?" Franklin asks as he clambers into a chair.

Susan nods as she hands him a few wide folios she'd pulled from the professor's shelves, "He loves maps," she tells Storm. "He likes to find all the places he's been on them, like Wakanda and Latveria."

Storm smiles, "I'll keep an eye on him. Go see what's downstairs."

Susan disappears again and Storm starts trying to assist the Professor.

Page 18 (Everyone)

In the instant Ilayana wakes, the demons disappear, leaving behind nothing, not even the stench.

"Kitty? Peter" she whimpers.

"Here," Kitty says, kneeling to put her arms around the girl.

"He was here!" she whispers into her friends shoulder, "He was here! I was dying and he appeared and laughed at me, and said that I couldn't escape him by killing myself!"

She starts sobbing again, than whimpers from the pain of that, and Kitty can see that Ilyana's abdomen is a mass a bruises.

Rachel finally gets a good look at the "demon girl". "Ilyana? Why aren't you six? Since when is Ilyana Rasputin a teenager?"

Kurt parses what Ilyana has said and fears the worse. "Dying? Child, what happened?"

She looks up at Kurt, eyes red with tears, "'Berto hit me. He whacked my and Dani's heads together. When I fell down he started kicking me." Oddly, she seems calmed by talking about this brutal assault than she was a second ago talking about whoever 'he' is.

Kurt, being a trained EMT, knows full well that if Sunspot were to kick an undefending normal girl like Ilyana he'd likely liquify some of her intestines, or stave in her ribcage, or both. But all he can see are bruises, and inside the pentagram he saw one of those healing.

Kurt nods, and disappears to the infirmary, grabbing a first aid kit and blankets off the nearest bed. He reappears beside Ilyana.

In his best bedside manner, he tries to sooth her as he set about checking her vitals and administering first aid. "Ilyana, I'm going to check you over. Peter is here, and we'll get you to the infirmary shortly. Just relax, and you'll be fine."

He nods approvingly at Kitty. "Kitty, stay by her side, it helps."

"Ilyana!" Peter crouches down beside her, trying not to crowd the two girls (but not worrying about whether Kitty has to deal with him -- then again, I doubt Kitty's worrying about that either, just now). "Just relax. Everything is over for now."

His sister looks both grateful and fearful, and is trying to hold on to both Peter and Kitty's hands with one of hers, since the other arm hurts to move.

Kurt finishes his preliminary investigation and finds that while Ilyana is bruised there is nothing worse than that - her pupils are dilating normally, no sign of concussion, no bleeding, there's no evidence of broken bones, her abdomen feels normal (though that could still sue some time in the scanner for a double check) - and she should be fine in a week or so. Based on her description of the assault this is plainly impossible.

Kitty thinks, to herself only, Wait, so Belasco healed her?

At this point both Rachel and Logan become aware that there is someone else in the room. Rachel is able to feel an unknown mind's presence - it's got a strong will and hard to pick up surface thoughts - while Logan catches Susan Richards' familiar scent mixed into the chlorine.

"An intruder," Rachel thinks, her balance shifting into a more defensive, if still standing stance.

Logan catches Rachel's change in attitude and flashes her a hand signal.

"A friend...well, we'll see, then," she thinks, but relaxes. "It's safe," she calls out. "The New Mutants are...not attacking any more, and the demons are gone. Although...the demons aren't responsible for the attack. So something else was controlling the New Mutants."

A blond woman materializes about two yards away from the group, "Happy to hear everything's safe, albeit a little confusing. " She nods to Wolverine - the only one she knows who isn't absorbed with Ilayna.

Based on her sudden appearance and her distinctive costume Kitty is able to quickly discern - even with her attention clearly more focused on her friend - that this is Susan Richards, the Invisible Woman, of the Fantastic Four.

Rachel is also familiar with that profile, having seen it thousands of times inside the locket that was Franklin's only possession from his life before the camps.

A tear leaks out of Rachel's eyes before she bites down on her emotions. "Franklin's gone. I can't. No," she thinks.

"Kurt, you like a force field stretcher to move your charge to the infirmary with the other students? Ororo is upstairs looking after the Professor and I'm sure she'd like to know what's been going on."

"Ja, Frau Richards, that would be most helpful. Take it easy, Ilyana. We're going to move you to the infirmary."

Kurt moves around to the end of the stretcher by Ilyana's head. "Peter, why don't you and Kitty walk alongside? I'm sure Ilyana would appreciate that."

Peter nods, worried enough to forget the awkwardness (at least until he catches Kitty's glance or fails to do so because she's deliberately Not Catching his).

To all appearances, Kitty is too worried and distracted to really notice that Peter is even there.

"Thank you." Kurt nods to Susan Richards. "I believe we're ready to go."

Page 19 (Aside)

On the outskirts of Salem Center, New York we spy a luxurious limousine parked in an inconspicuous spot – since the town is both rural and a distant, wealthy suburb of New York City its presence, while it might be noted, would never be remembered.

Inside the limo is one Sebastian Shaw, sitting in the rear facing seat. We see him talking to someone who is in the front facing seat and therefore the parts of that figure that are off camera are deep in shadow.

“Well?” Shaw asks

“I suspect two deaths, but the majority, at least survived, and I was unable to affect the capture of Pryde, Wagner or Xavier. They proved more…resilient then I had expected.”

Shaw smiles, “Yes, they do that. And without the deaths the X-Men the odds of the New Mutants being adrift and forced to accept Ms. Frost’s gracious offer of training with the Hellions are gone as well. There goes a sizable investment of time and opportunity.”

He holds up his hand, “Now don’t bristle at that. I’m simply stating a fact. It’s also a fact that if I blackballed everyone who failed to kill the X-Men the Hellfire Club’s inner circle would cease to exist.

“If nothing else you’ve sown considerable confusion and, I dare say it, fear into the school with no trail back to our organization. Even if he does suspect you or the White Queen, Xavier will have to spend considerable concentration maintaining psychic wards to prevent you from trying again, weakening him. And who knows, maybe some of them actually are dead.”

Shaw taps his cane twice on the wall behind him, and the limo pulls away from the curb to being the drive back to the city. He looks again at his guest, “And you could repeat this, correct?”

“Of course,” the figure replies. “Miss Frost was kind enough to give me more than a week to familiarize myself with their minds. I can control any or all of them at a sizable difference with no strain and complete access to their mannerisms, muscle memory and speech patterns. Unless Xavier is in a few feet of them, or constantly scanning, no one could ever suspect.”

“Perfect,” Shaw says. “Only one matter remains: your drug smuggling organization. It’s unseemly. Club members are not common criminals. I’d need to see it disbanded.”

“Already done,” the figure says, pouring a glass of brandy from the limo’s bar. “I have constructed a suitably byzantine corporate structure that will protect all of the legitimate assets when my uncle turns states evidence. It’s a shame he’ll commit suicide shortly thereafter, but I don’t think witness protection would suit him.”

The figure takes a drink, and for a moment we can see short, bowl-cut black hair. “To be honest, I don’t understand why he continued with the smuggling given how lucrative the Pacific real estate and construction markets are.”

“Excellent,” Shaw says with a smile, pouring himself a brandy as well. “In that case let me make a preliminary welcome to you as the Hellfire Clubs new Black Queen!”

There’s a bark of laughter from the figure, who leans into the light and is revealed as Xi’an Coy Mahn, aka Karma, albeit returned to her original short, masculine, utilitarian haircut and dressed in a well tailored suit, again with a masculine cut. “I think not. I’ve neither the figure nor the inclination to wear a corset and thigh boots, Shaw. No, Donald Pierce’s vacated position as the White Bishop* will serve me quite nicely.

[*ED: Pierce was “disciplined” by the club after the e vents in Marvel Graphic Novel #4: The New Mutants]

“Fair enough, Coy Mahn,” Sebastian replies, and the pair tap glasses and toast to their new partnership.

Page 20-22 (everyone)

With an assurance from Kurt that Ilyana is safe – and better served by being sedated and immobile for the time being – the team, along with Susan Richards, are able to approach the Professor’s quarters for a debrief with Storm, their returned leader. Before they even enter the room they see good news in the form of Professor Xavier sitting up next to Storm.

A few steps further and a small blond thunderbolt jumps off a chair and heads straight for Nightcrawler. “Mister Kurt! Franklin says happily, “Can you toss me from the ceiling again?”

Rachel breaks down crying, tears gushing out of her eyes and wailing.

"He's gone, and dead, and he never was, he's never coming back," she blubs.

Susan, Storm and the professor all look at Rachel with shocked expressions. "What? Who?" Mrs. Richards exclaims in surprise.

Franklin looks up at Rachel, his blue eyes piercing through her. "Her name is Miss Rachel, Mommy. Can you tell her it will be fine?"

"Please don't cry Miss Rachel. It will all work out."

Kurt moves quietly to Rachel's side and puts an arm tentatively about her shoulders.

"Ach, lieben. It will be well, Rachel. Little by little, it will be well."

He offers a handkerchief and a reassuring grin.

Rachel manages, with effort, to get control of herself, and cleans her tears off her face (and Kurt's flight jacket) with Kurt's handkerchief. She looks at Franklin with one part suspicion, one part wonder, and one part banked affection. "Franklin? Are you...is some part of you -my- Franklin?"

Franklin just stares at her with those piercing, blue, timeless eyes.

Susan looks again at Rachel, clearly trying to piece recent events together and not having all the pieces. She extend her hand "Hello, I'm Susan Richards. I don't think we've met."

Rachel takes Susan's hand, and smiles. "No, we haven't. I'm Rachel Summers. It's complicated, but in the future...an alternate future, now, and in a sense, always I think...I was in love with your son. He was a few years older than me, then." A few connections meet up in Rachel's mind, and she adds "I'm sorry about your droid."

She looks at her again, studying her, then smiles. "You're the one who dismantled HUBERT? Reed just took it as an opportunity to install some upgrades."

"OK. Right," Susan shakes her hand, "I think I should be used to this sort of thing by now... I think you should come over for a longer talk with my husband and me."

'''''*

Once the immediate oddity with Rachel is resolved Storm moves to Kitty, giving her a fierce hug. It's clear from the hitch in her voice that she's hiding a deeply emotional response. "I see you cut your hair. I am so very glad to see you well."

Kitty's eyes widen, and suddenly she's crying against Storm's shoulder. "Aaaah! My hair!!!"

"What happened?" She asks to her friends.

"If I may?" the Professor interrupts, "I have the feeling that everyone has different information from different viewpoints, and that we're facing multiple different mysteries. With your permission I think we'd be best served with a perceptional memory gestalt of the events this evening."

"Fine with me. 'Mystery' is kinda understating it." Logan prefers things straightforward.

Peter nods.

Kurt looks to the Professor, then Rachel and finally back to the Professor. "Herr Professor, be gentle, ja? It has been... a hard night, no?"

The X-Men all feel the light touch of Xavier's telepathic probe as he draws memories out of their minds and re-arranges them to form an accurate chronology which is then shared, devoid of any physical pain, or any private thoughts or emotions that aren't strictly relevant to the events, back with his students. The first few seconds are profoundly disorienting as the students have to accommodate multiple viewpoints, and, thanks to Wolverine, different levels of sensory acuity, but not painful.

"Ok," Rachel says, "I think it's very clear that the sequence was Magma taking me out from a distance and Ilyana getting attacked -- then the team split up and drugged the professor, coordinating their attacks to attack the rest of the team nearly simultaneously. Around that point is when the demons came to heal Ilyana for their own reasons.”

“Professor, have you looked at the Mutant's minds? Do they have any trace of what happened or why? Between the early attacks on you and me -- and on Ilyana, who is immune or resistant to telepathy, it seems like they were trying to eliminate our telepathic defenses before turning the team on the rest of us. They may think I'm dead."

[BR: OK, a lot of NPC chatter here. Feel free to break in where appropriate.]

The Professor nods, “I have, shortly after I awoke. They have no memory of the assault. But I don’t think Ilyana was a target per se – Danielle was. She and Rhane share a psychic rapport while Rhane is in her wolf form. Our attacker would have had to incapacitate Danielle prior to the assault on Wolverine lest she rouse an alarm, just as I had to be eliminated through subterfuge and you through an ambush at a distance.”

Wolverine chimes in as well. "Those kids were showing way more combat savvy than they should have been, never mind timing it tight enough to give even yours truly a bit of a hard time. Magma was speaking Vietnamese there, and fighting like one, too. Not going too far out on a limb to say mind control, and how many Vietnamese mind controllers do we know? Karma's supposed to be dead, but...."

“Indeed.” The Professor agrees. “That’s what I’ve let the New Mutants think. I would have felt her death had she passed on, but I knew that if they suspected she was alive they would have hurled themselves into danger entirely unprepared. The act of controlling, indeed possessing someone, as if the host’s mind was shut of during the event, is a rather singular power. She’s clearly involved. But why? And those four students were the ones, aside from Kitty, who were held by the White Queen for the weeks that we were on the Beyonder’s world. That seems too much a coincidence.

Storm says, ‘But controlling four minds at once? Xian never displayed such power.”

Much to everyone’s surprise Susan Richards breaks in, “Her brother did. When the Fantastic Four first met Karma she had possessed Spider Man in a bid to get back her siblings from her uncle and brother, Tran. We were present at the attempt and after the understandable confusion the five of us tracked down Tran, her uncle and the children. Tran psychically incapacitated his sister, then possessed all four of us, at once, and used us to try to kill Spider-Man.”

Susan shudders for a second, and then continues, “he would have succeeded but Xian regained consciousness and engaged her brother in a psychic duel. She…disintegrated him somehow, and then, by her account, absorbed the remnants of his psyche into herself.”*

[*ED: see Marvel team Up #100 for more information on this classic tale]

“She was as powerful as him, if not more so. Not to brag, but the FF are skilled at resisting mind control – if Tran could control the four of us, I’m sure that Xian could control four teenagers.”

Kitty, much more collected now and sitting on a chair, says, "So, was she deceiving us all the time she was here? Or has something happened to change her?"

The Professor nods, "The latter, I suspect. All of the New Mutants were extensively scanned before I brought them into the school and I found no evidence of malice inside Xian. I'm afraid now that her brothers influence might have been too well integrated into her psyche to be detectable."

He glances around the room before continuing "However, in the days prior to her disappearance, Danielle Moonstar had been kidnapped by Viper - whom you encountered again in Japan last year. While I was pursing one path for rescuing her the New Mutants took up her rescue on their own, attempting to learn Viper's location from Xian's uncle, who has criminal connections on the west coast. His price for this information was a year of Xian's service, and according to the New Mutants she agreed out of concern for her friend*. It's likely this decision served as the wedge that allowed the remnants of her brother's psyche to take over."

"So... we need to find her and rescue her from her brother," says Peter. "And the New Mutants need to be protected. Is it time to tell them what happened?"

"Exactly, and ascertain whether Ms. Frost was involved with this as well. Undoing Tran's influence might be incredibly difficult if he's as deeply integrated as I fear. Until we do that, however. I will have to divert some of my powers into defending the New Mutants from future assaults." The professor looks at Rachel, "Rachel, I'll have to show you how to do that."

"As for the New Mutants, I'll handle the explanations."

Next Issue: Charles Xavier Goes To War