On the heels of the House of M an omega level mutant from the X-Men's past awakens and reemerges with a startling secret about Professor Xavier and the "Second Genesis" of the X-Men. Edit
Background
When Corsair and Katherine Summers were kidnapped by the Shi'ar alien race their two children Scott (Cyclops) and Alexander (Havok) were left behind on Earth. At the time Katherine was pregnant with her third child. During a failed escape attempt by Christopher (Corsair), Katherine was murdered and her unborn child was cut from her womb as a punishment. The child, Gabriel, was believed to be dead. In reality D'Ken saved the child and kept it alive with advanced Shi'ar technology and artificially accelerated his aging in order make him a slave. When Gabriel became older he was sent to Earth as a slave for Eric The Red where he was able to escape. He was found by Moira MacTaggert with little memory of his past and extended an invitation to join a team of young mutants that she would train in the use of their powers. He took the name Vulcan after the Roman god. Professor X recognized Vulcan's relationship with Cyclops using his psychic powers and was able to reunite the brothers.
Later, when the original team of X-Men were sent to a remote island in the pacific ocean to investigate the signal of a powerful Mutant that was detected by Cerebro. The team was captured by the island, which turned out to be the source of the mutant signal. The island, Krakoa, held the X-Men save for Cyclops who was able to escape. From there it was originally believed that Professor X collected the all-new all-different X-Men from around the world to rescue the original team. What was not known at the time was that there was this team was not Xavier's first rescue attempt. Moira MacTaggert's team was much less skilled and experienced than the X-Men themselves and consisted of the mutants Petra, Sway, Darwin, and Vulcan. Xavier recruited Moira's team to be the next team of X-Men, and also met with the a young Emma Frost to offer a position on the team. Emma, who was not ready for the X-Men at the time refused and Xavier and Vulcan left her with the Hellfire Club. While leaving Xavier erased her memory of the encounter. With little time to spare, Xavier used his telepathy to train the team psychically, allowing them to train in the use of their powers in their minds. The duration of this training felt like it was extended, while only lasting a period of hours in the real world.
When the team, led by Vulcan, was sent to Krakoa to rescue the original X-Men they were quickly subdued by the island. Vulcan was able to survive by absorbing the powers of his teammates, buried deep in the island. When the island was shot into space by the second rescue team, Vulcan remained on it in stasis, kept alive by Darwin's powers. Because of the X-Men's heavy emotions over what had occurred Xavier used his telepathic powers to erase the memories of everyone involved, leaving no trace of recollection of the original team.
Xavier's Shame
After the events of the House of M, 90% of the world's mutants were de-powered by the Scarlet Witch. This surge of power released into the universe when the so many mutants lost their powers caused Vulcan to stir, still inside of the island which was orbiting the Earth. Realizing what had occurred Vulcan felt betrayed by Xavier. Wanting to make Xavier pay for his deception Vulcan sought to drive Xavier out (who Vulcan did not know had not been seen since M-Day). Vulcan, whose powers are now at Omega-level mutant, first killed Banshee by hitting him with a plane. He drew Cyclops and Wolverine into a cave with the image of their beloved Jean Grey, and quickly bested them in combat. Vulcan captured Cyclops and Marvel Girl and imprisoned them in the facility where Vulcans team originally trained with Cyclops. After barely escaping, Vulcan confronted the team, including Xavier, about what happened. Professor X, who had lost his powers on M-Day could not show the team what had actually transpired as Vulcan demanded. Rachel used her telepathic abilities to link the minds of the X-Men with the Professor so that he could show them what actually happened.
The team attacks Vulcan for killing Banshee, but Vulcan escaped into outer space. Vulcan, who had spent his childhood imprisoned by the Shi'ar as a slave, left for Shi'ar space to make them pay for killing his mother and for his difficult childhood. Horrified by the betrayal against both teams of X-Men, Cyclops tells Xavier that as a human he is no longer welcome at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning.
Suggest Reading
[[X-Men: Deadly Genesis:vol:18091]] #1-6
Related Storylines
House of M - The events of the Deadly Genesis are preceded by the House of M, although other than the link mentioned there is no real relationship between the stories.
Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire - The events that occur directly after the Deadly Genesis storyline, beginning with Vulcan heading into Shi'ar space to exact his revenge.
Associated Issues
Edit
Overview:
The deadly secrets in Xavier's past crawl slowly toward the light, with dark tendrils of fear seeping into the minds of his X-Men. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Cyclops and Marvel Girl are missing, and their friends’ minds are falling apart as they search for them. One long-time member of the X-Men has uncovered the secret, though—but will he arrive at the Institute in time to save his friends? Ed Brubaker and Trevor Hairsine ratchet up the suspense in this X-Men event, which also features a bonus back-up tale introducing a new mutant, written by Brubaker and drawn by Pete Woods.
Issue Summary:
1st story: Kitty calls Stack a racist, but Hank holds her back, as he has met smaller minds than Stack. He believes that the commander might not have been informed that Logan is a Canadian citizen, thus he is not under the preview of the United States military. Stack asks Beast if he ever heard of something called the Patriot Act. Kitty refuses to believe that Stack is claiming that Wolverine is a terrorist. Stack has no idea what the mutants are. All he knows is that he’s got three dead astronauts and a shuttle that crashed nowhere near Houston. Oh, and he also has Wolverine as a prisoner. Kitty thinks this is ridiculous and believes it’s time for Plan B. Suddenly, Stack completely changes his demeanor, as well as his mind. He apologizes to Kitty for the misunderstandings, then walks out of his tent and has the security guard release Wolverine. The guard is confused about it but does as ordered. While Hank and Kitty return to the Blackbird with Wolverine, Stack asks the guard if he searched the X-Men’s jet, wanting a confirmation that nobody else was with them. The soldier has and even had the Sentinel scan it out. Stack wants to know if either Hank or Kitty have telepathic powers. The soldier denies that as there isn’t any information about that on the Sentinel files. Stack finds that suspicious as it almost felt like it, and returns to his tent alone. Wolverine thinks it’s about time somebody came for him, as he almost thought he had to extract himself out. Hank jokes that a bloody escape really is the best idea under the current circumstances. Logan jokes that he behaved, as he even let the soldiers handcuff him. But he does want to know what Kitty told him to get him released. Kitty didn’t tell Stack anything, at least not something that helped. Once on the plane, Logan notices Emma sitting around, realizing what happened. As they fly away, Logan mentions that, now he knows they made the soldiers think they haven’t met the X-Men, he warns that the Sentinel has been scanning the whole time and must have spotted the mutant energy on board. Emma corrects that the Sentinel scanned just once, right after Hank and Kitty deplaned. Conveniently for Emma, these new Sentinels are armed by ordinary men whose minds she can easily take over. Logan can buy that, but wants to know how her telepathy got passed the shielding. Emma just sent her thoughts through the laser waves of the Sentinel’s own scanning devices, which is apparently a bit of a flaw in the design. That should come quite in handy. Kitty is surprised Emma mind-jumped their scanners and tells Emma she’s really scary sometimes. Emma knows that, but what she doesn’t know, and can’t seem to find out by searching through Logan’s mind, is what happened out there and where Scott and Rachel are. Logan has been wondering the exact same thing. elsewhere, at an unknown location… Rachel is confused, as the last thing she saw was Jean. Scott explains to her that she didn’t se the real Jean: that was just bait. And he thinks the man who set that trap took them down like they are first-year students. He even took out Wolverine. Rachel mentions there’s something else: Scott isn’t wearing his visor! Scott opens both his eyes wide, startled, as he wasn’t even realizing that! later, at the Xavier Institute’s Cerebra chamber… Emma tells Alex that if she can stay calm under this situation, he can too. Alex thinks it’s only natural that Emma can remain calm, because she is the ice queen. Emma tells Alex to watch it, as she bites. She puts the helmet back on and warns Hank that she isn’t reading anything. Hank wants to give it another shot, but Havok loses his patience and blasts Kitty’s control panel apart with his powers! Kitty wants to know what Alex’ problem is. Alex shouts that his brother is missing and it looks like all they are doing to solve the problem is sit on their hands. They should be out their looking for their missing teammates instead. Beast doesn’t think there is any point to that for as long as they don’t know where Scott and Rachel are. He explains that Cerebra needs a full overhaul, yet Kitty and he are trying to get her up and running on a shoestring and prayer. And Alex is only making their work more difficult by blasting it into smithereens. Hank tells him to get out. Havok understands and leaves, wondering why he did it because he could have hurt Kitty. Suddenly, he hears a voice, asking for someone to stop, as Alex will see them. Alex doesn’t want to go through this again. Alex turns around, and sees an image of Polaris complimenting Bobby on how bad he is, and grabbing her into his arms. Bobby tells Lorna that she makes him bad, joking that before he met her he was the most straight arrow at this school. Lorna agrees to give Bobby just one kiss but doesn’t want Alex to find out. They kiss. Bobby thinks Alex doesn’t appreciate Lorna and wonders if she can sneak into his room when the lights go out. Lorna smiles that she’ll see what she can do about that. The hallucination stops. Kurt walks up to Alex, asking if everything is alright. Alex angrily shouts at Kurt to leave him alone and takes off, upsetting Kurt a bit. at an unknown location… Scott wants to know more, like what the Professor was thinking at the time. Rachel corrects that it isn’t like that. It’s more like a mental footprint. There are no actual thoughts, just impressions. Scott doesn’t understand. Rachel doesn’t think it makes any sense, as the impressions are like a jumble of pride and fear and theory. All she knows for sure is that the Professor used this place for something. Scott refuses to believe that’s true. He has been with the Professor longer than anyone else and even he doesn’t know where they are. The mysterious villain shows up and corrects Scott that he does know where they are; he just doesn’t realize from down here. The villain has seen Scott upstairs, him and his friends and mentions that he was just watching them. Scott shouts that the villain is insane. The man thinks that might be true, thinking he couldn’t be otherwise right now. But, he can promise Scott one thing: he won’t lie to him. That’s fine by Scott. He wants to know who their enemy is and what he wants, and why their powers are gone. The man smiles that Scott is the insane one now. He didn’t say anything about answering questions. Scott doesn’t see the point of all this then. The man explains that the point of any imprisonment is punishment. Scott and Rachel are there for theirs, and to witness someone else’s. The man wants Rachel to help him and that’s the only reason why she isn’t dead yet. The man leaves, hoping that Scott and Rachel don’t mind skipping breakfast, but he has some work left to do. However, before he leaves, the man mentions that Wolverine is dead. As the man is gone, Scott wonders that, if the villain thinks he killed Wolverine, he obviously doesn’t know the man. But, the man does seem to know him, so Cyclops wonders whom they are dealing with. thirty thousand feet over Nova Scotia… Sean corrects that’s just a friendly way of putting how he feels. These past few days, he feels like he has been chasing ghosts. Ghosts of all his regrets, all the things he has lost. Still, they led him somewhere. Kurt wants to know what it is Sean found out. Sean doesn’t think it’s anything good, and nothing he’d trust to any hands to deliver but his. Sean suggests he gives Kurt his flight details. As Sean talks, he doesn’t realize that he is being eavesdropped by none other than same man who took out Cyclops and Marvel Girl. later, outside the Xavier Institute… Logan doesn’t understand. Kurt thinks that something strange is happening to some of them. Perhaps it’s something otherworldly. Kurt saw an old terror brought to life yesterday, and felt hopeless in the same way like back when he was a child. Logan believes that Kurt thinks the same thing is now happening to the others. Kurt does, though nobody has mentioned it. But even he didn’t know about it until now. It’s the things he saw what makes Kurt feel so ashamed. Logan reveals to Kurt that they saw Jean before they got taken down. Kurt wonders if it’s all connected somehow and if Scott and Rachel have been taken by these… ghosts. Logan doesn’t know what he thinks right now, and can only hope Banshee has got some answers. They arrive at the airport. Banshee’s plane is about to land at the Westchester airport in about five minutes. Sean gets up from his seat and tries to find his bags, worrying another passenger because the seat-belt sign is blinking, meaning everyone has to stay in their seats. Sean suggests they look the other way just this once. Outside, Logan and Kurt notice that the pilots finally managed to let a plane arrive in time for once, joking that from now on luck might be on their side. Kurt can only hope that’s true. A kid stares through a window, noticing another plane heading towards them! Sean panics because the jet will hit them! Below, Kurt recognizes the jet as the Blackbird, wondering what it’s doing. At the plane, Sean gets into uniform realizing he has to move to save these people, though knowing he doesn’t have much of a chance at succeeding. He just hopes he can let one last scream out. Banshee proudly flies outside of his plane, right towards the Blackbird but his powers don’t bring any damage to it. The plane heads towards him at full speed, worrying Sean. On that very moment, it explodes! Kurt and Logan panic… 2nd story: "Darwin" The second important day was when Armando’s IQ tested off the charts. Even his mother, whose coldness had not changed in the four years since his father left, appeared to be thrilled. Armando remembers his mother being happy that he was like the smartest kid at his school. The principal believed that it was more than that. He told Armando he has the potential to be one of the smartest children in the country. He mentions they already had a dozen calls from private academies looking to fund his further education. His mother wanted to know if any of these schools were places where his son could stay, like live there. The principal mentioned some of the boarding schools might do that. Mrs. Munoz wanted to know if any of the schools would pay her to have her son. Armando had never seen his mom smile like that. Like he was good for something. He couldn’t know it then, but that desire to see his mother smile was what made him do so well on the test in the first place. She enrolled him in the Baltimore Academy for Advanced Education an hour north of New York City, where he spent most of the next nine years, except for the occasional holiday visit home, which became more and more occasional as the years passed. And while the teachers couldn’t have been more pleased to have a student like Armando attending their fine institution, the other students were another story. He was picked on and bullied for many years. And it was this bullying that brought about the third most important day of Armando’s life: the day he realized he could breathe under water if he wanted. While bully Jeff stuck his head in a toilet, Armando discovered his powers. He was fifteen years old and these kids had been putting him through hell for six years. So it was understandable when Armando unconsciously turned the skin on his rock-hard hands and beat the bullies unconscious for a change. They never picked on him again, and neither did anyone else. But Armando didn’t understand exactly what had happened. Even as intelligent as he was, he was not immune to denial. So the fact that he was a mutant went unknown for another year. Until the fourth day, the day he went home to visit and his mother burned down the house. Armando remembers coming from his bedroom, shouting at his mother where she was. She had fallen asleep smoking and her cigarette had rolled under the couch, smoldering for hours until the blaze took hold. Armando had no trouble seeing or breathing through the smoke, the heat of the fire had no effect on him and safely carried his mother outside. The firemen were amazed at what they saw. The boy appeared to be fireproof, somehow. His skin was slick and wet, smooth. Armando remembers driving to the hospital along with his mom. That day changed everything. Word got around about his condition, and the senior scientist at Biltmore scheduled him for secret testing. It was soon clear that something was very different about Armando’s genetic make-up. The scientists concluded that Armando was in a constant state of evolution. If he was put in a pitch-black room he develops the ability to see in the dark with total clarity in moments. If the room was filled with gas his lungs learn to process it like air. After a year of study, the scientist published a paper about Armando, who he codenamed Darwin, the Evolving Boy. And the paper’s conclusion was that Darwin was one of the most fascinating mutant subjects anyone had ever came across. Armando didn’t know what to think when he read he was a mutant. To see the word in print, knowing it was about him. It felt strange, but right. He probably shouldn’t have been surprised at his mother’s response to the news. She denied that she had given birth to a mutant. Armando tried to explain it, but instead got a slap into his face. The day he jumped off the roof of the Baltimore Academy was the fifth most important day. The day he learned that he didn’t even know how to kill himself. Without even trying when jumping, his legs grew lighter, his bones grew soft; he almost bounced when he hit the pavement. He almost laughed instead of crying when he realized he wasn’t even hurt. And strangely, he was glad to still be alive. Right as he’d jumped, he thought, “Wait. This isn’t the right thing to do.” Later that day, in the psychiatrist’s office, he read that most people who survive a suicide attempt have that same revelation. The psychiatrist enters and is glad to meet Darwin, noticing he’s having problems with adjusting. Armando agrees that’s probably the case, but he doesn’t think any psychotropic drugs are going to help him with that. The psychiatrist agrees, but has an idea that will help Darwin. He explains that there is someone who has been trying to get the school’s permission to see Armando since the Darwin paper was published. Someone who works with kids like Armando. Armando, thinking that he’ll be send to another poking scientist, refuses to go. The psychiatrist promises it isn’t anything like that and promises Armando that he is going to like the lady who wants to meet him. Besides, she’s already waiting for him in the other office, so it’s not like Armando has another choice but to go. And that fifth day, that was the day when Armando truly became Darwin. It was the day a strange lady he had never met before came along to save his life.
Temporary Air Force encampment in the Adirondacks, two hours later…
While a Sentinel uses his eye-lasers to ongoing guard the X-Men’s jet, Beast and Shadowcat have a private meeting with Commander Stack. Stack tells Kitty that what he’s telling her is that Wolverine was found at the most suspicious shuttle crash he has ever seen. So, until he is getting some satisfactory answers, Stack won’t allow Wolverine to go anywhere. Kitty understands that, but is certain they could figure out what happened there if Logan was allowed to talk to them. Stack refuses that, believing Kitty and Bigfoot, referring to Beast, will tell Wolverine what to say.
Cyclops and Marvel Girl wake up, though they are chained against panels. Scott asks Rachel if she knows where they are. Rachel, almost breathless, doesn’t know, and was hoping Scott could tell her that. Scott asks Rachel if she can use her powers to blast them free, because he can’t seem to use his. Rachel can’t use her powers either and wonders what’s wrong with her. Scott remembers that the guy who took them out said something about the electric current in Rachel’s brain.
Beast, Kitty, Emma and Havok are trying to improve the machine. Hank believes that it’s a patch job at best, but Cerebra is now reconfigured to avoid most of the damage circuitry on this end. Even if it works, Hank can’t say what the range will be. Kitty is ready and only needs to connect the last logic chip to the board. She tells Emma to give it a shot. Emma, wearing the Cerebra helmet, didn’t hear what Kitty said and asks Alex what it was. He angrily responds that Emma had to move on because they are wasting time there.
Rachel tries to say something to Scott, but has the hardest time to do it. She still can’t use her powers, but is picking up some residual psychic readings. Scott believes that means Rachel can read their captor’s thoughts and wants to know if he’s nearby. Rachel didn’t mean it like that. It’s this place she’s talking about. She can pick up the Professor’s thought patterns here, but it’s like a shadow. She suspects that the Professor was in this place, but that it was a long time ago.
On a plane, Banshee contacts Kurt. He apologizes for being late, but he just barely managed to catch this flight. Anyway, Sean has a stopover in Montreal, before being right into a commuter flight towards Westchester. Kurt wants to know if it’s true Sean found anything concerning the Professor. Sean did, but has no idea what it means. Kurt notices that Sean sounds a little frazzled.
Nightcrawler and Wolverine drive outside in Logan’s jeep. Logan wants to know what’s wrong with his friend, as Kurt looks like he’s expecting the Xavier Institute to go up in flames again any minute. Kurt isn’t afraid; it’s more like trepidation. Logan thinks Kurt must be worried about the others. Kurt admits that. He was thinking that his was an isolated incident, but now he’s started to wonder, because Havok and the others have been acting off the edge a little bit lately. And Sean said something about chasing ghosts.
In Armando Munoz’ life, there were five days that meant more to him than all the others put together. The first day was the day his father left. He walked towards his crying mother, asking if she was okay. She just wanted to be left alone. Armando was only four years old, but they had known there was something wrong with him since he was a baby. His arms were too long, his eyes were funny and had no hair anywhere. Armando remembers his mother telling him that his father left because of him. His mother’s cruelty that day never left him, but loved her anyway. Her rejection may even made him love her even more.
Overview:
What happens when the skeletons in your closet finally break down the door and come looking for you? The X-MEN are about to find out! In the wake of the tragic events of House of M, the mutant community is in turmoil, and the X-MEN are bearing the brunt of this New World Order. Amidst the chaos, a new enemy awakens, one whose very existence will haunt the founding members of the X-Men like nothing has before. Who is this new threat? How is he tied to Professor X’s darkest secret? Cyclops, Wolverine and the others must find out soon, before they and those closest to them go mad! X-MEN: DEADLY GENESIS, by Wizard Top Ten creators Ed Brubaker and Trevor Hairsine, is a mysterious blend of horror and super-heroics, as well as a celebration of the 30th anniversary of GIANT SIZE X-MEN #1 that will have X-Men fans talking for years to come!
Issue Summary:
1st story: Beast looks out of a window at the Xavier Institute and doesn’t like what he sees. Cyclops, standing next to him, isn’t surprised by that: they are looking at a Sentinel just… hovering above the yard. None of the team likes it. But Hank wasn’t talking about that, although he has to admit the idea of being under government surveillance by Sentinels doesn’t thrill him either. Scott wants to know what Hank is talking about. Hank was referring to energy. He explains that all life… plant, insect, animal, human and mutant, at most basic levels its been discovered that it’s all about energy. And, Hank adds, every study has shown that genetic mutants have every specific signatures, more powerful energy signatures that is. Scott doesn’t see the point of all that. Hank asks Scott to think about it. Last week, there were over a million mutants across the entire planet and, now, all but a comparative handful of them appear to be nothing more than human. So, as a scientist, Beast is simply wondering where all that energy went. Meanwhile, in outer space… Mission control is worried, as they haven’t had contact for three days now. But none of the astronauts respond. As communication closes down, an asteroid covered in energy approaches the shuttle and hits one of the astronauts. The man gets up again and the energy now floats all over his body! He gets up and simply knows that it can’t be just him. He floats over to another astronaut and notices that his face has been completely ruined! The man, Peterson, starts touching the man and, at that very moment, a green light suddenly appears. The mission control overhears the man talking and demands to know what’s going on, but then everybody starts screaming! The man’s eyes glow proudly. He goes back inside the shuttle, where he discovers that the mission was space exploration. Devastated to find himself in the 21st century, the man furiously screams and unleashes an amount of energy! The Xavier Institute… Peter tells Kurt he can’t just assume that the Professor is dead. They start walking away together. Kurt certainly prefers not to think that, but he can’t understand why they haven’t discovered if that is the case or not. Peter is confident that they will find Xavier in due time. Kurt asks Peter if he remembers what if felt like when they first met the Professor. Of course Peter remembers. Kurt admits that ever since the day Xavier left the team, he can’t stop thinking about the day when Charles rescued him from that angry mob. Kurt now realizes Charles saved him in more ways than he can count and more specifically taught him that he wasn’t the monster those angry people told Kurt he was. Kurt feels sad about Xavier missing. Peter tries to cheer Kurt up by reminding him that Emma has been doing nothing else recently than trying to locate Xavier with Cerebra. In the Cerebra room, Emma tries to convince Kitty that she doesn’t need assistance, as she is quite familiar with Cerebra’s inner workings. She also jokingly suggests that she and Lockheed go play with the Sentinel outside. Kitty would prefer playing with a dead machine like that, but she thinks finding Xavier is more important. Lockheed spits fire on the Cerebra helmet turning Emma a bit angry. She tells Kitty to get the dragon away from her, as she needs to concentrate. Kitty smiles that it’s Emma’s own pheromones agitating Lockheed, so she needs to stop exuding them. Emma asks Kitty to wait as she’s picking something up! Emma opens a map and a beam is heading straight towards the Earth! She explains that this is one off the charts, at least Omega level but it’s moving too fast. Emma suddenly gets an electric shock and is knocked out. Kitty takes a closer look at the viewing screen and recognizes the Prospect shuttle crashing down! Kitty goes to find Cyclops and Beast and they rush Emma to the infirmary. Kitty still doesn’t know what happened back at Cerebra; it must have been an overload or something. Hank states that Emma seems stable, but he won’t know for sure how serious it is until he gets a C.T. But, since Hank knows that Emma is tough, he worries more about what could have brought damage upon Cerebra. Scott asks Kitty about the signals Emma told Kitty she was receiving. Kitty is still feels dizzy because of them, and informs Scott about the space shuttle burning through the atmosphere. But she doesn’t think it makes any sense, as Kitty knows NASA is situated in Houston. And the shuttle was about to crash somewhere in upstate New York. Scott quickly gathers a team and rushes to the X-plane. Wolverine demands to know what the rush is, as the Maple Leafs were down one in the second. Once they’re in the plane, Scott explains that, if Kitty is right, the mutant Cerebra found was falling to Earth in a government-owned space shuttle. So, either they get them before the government does, or they try to investigate this while sneaking around the military. Logan doesn’t think that’s out of the question. Scott agrees, but the way things have been going lately he would prefer not to. Rachel wonders if there’s a chance it might be the Professor. Scott believes there’s always that chance, but tells Rachel he’ll be counting on her to pick up Charles’ thought patterns once they get close. If it isn’t the Professor, Scott wants to know who else could be that powerful. As the plane goes up, Logan reminds Scott that, first, they’ve got that Sentinel to deal with. Scott claims they’ve got that problem under control, thanks to something he and Hank thought up. He flies the plane right towards the Sentinel. Logan doesn’t have a problem attacking it but that doesn’t seem like Scott’s style. Scott flies right past the Sentinel’s face and then moves at full speed away, but the Sentinel engages and still follows the X-Men. Scott explains that won’t be for long, as they are almost out of the Sentinel’s visual range, and that it’s now just following their heart signature. The plane gets out of the Sentinel’s visual and Scott moves to the next phase of his plan. He unleashes five diversion missiles, which are designed to perfectly duplicate the X-Men’s heart signatures, and are all going in different directions for five miles until they self-destruct. Logan is impressed. Scott explains that it’s just a modified anti-missile defense, but on a larger scale for a larger enemy. Now, it’s time for them to head upstate. Back at the Xavier Institute, Kitty is at the bathroom, washing her face, sarcastically thanking the White Queen for the migraine. Somebody walks over to her, making Kitty freak out as she sees… a zombie?! She screams, but a hand gently touches her shoulder and tries to calm Kitty down… It’s Colossus! Kitty calms down, telling Peter she thinks she saw something, but it must have been residual effects from Emma’s attack or something. She hugs Peter, who thinks Kitty just needs some rest and wants to bring her to her room. Kurt is walking through the woods behind the school. An owl passes by, which is weird as its barely sunset. He thinks that’s a bad omen. Kurt thinks he must be going crazy. Ignoring that, he continues his walk, but finds himself welcomed by… an angry mob?! Kurt recognizes them: it’s the same angry, German mob that tried to kill him all those years ago! They start chasing Kurt, but he teleports away, wondering what that was all about. But the mob catches up on him and start pounding Kurt with their torches, sticks and stones. Kurt feels the pain, but a few moments later, the mob simply… stops? What was that all about? Elsewhere, the X-Men attack team is getting in close. Logan believes the military must have scrambled search teams by now. Rachel explains that, according from the mental scan she took from Kitty, Cerebra was estimating impact right around the place they are at now, namely in the Adirondacks, somewhere north of Lake Placid. They scout the area for a while, until Logan spots something just above the tree line. And he doesn’t think that the Professor was responsible for the crash. Everyone stares out of the windows and see a giant arm merging from the grounds, crushing the shuttle! Rachel warns Scott that she’s picking something up but it’s hard to get a lock on. It’s strange but she thinks someone’s in the shuttle. Logan thinks they are dealing with an omega-plus mutant, and no way that’s the Professor. He thinks they have to check this out. Scott takes the plane down. Muir Island… Sean understands, but he just misses her. Hank thinks they might have some good news on their end, as Logan and Scott are onto something. Sean wants to be kept informed, as it would be nice to get out of the lab. Sean suddenly notices a female figure standing outside in the pouring rain, and she looks like… Moira?! Freaking out, Sean rushes outside but once there, the woman has already disappeared. the Adirondack mountain hills… Rachel rushes after her mom. Scott and Logan try to hold her back but Rachel doesn’t listen. Wolverine snikts his claws open and warns Scott that they aren’t dealing with Jean, but he already knew that. A man, whose face is covered in shadows, appears, holding an unconscious Rachel by her throat! Cyclops and Logan initiate an attack. Muir Island… the Adirondack Mountains… Scott is down but Logan is almost recovered. Logan wants to kill the man, but he doesn’t think that’s going to happen. He puts Logan on fire once more, rendering him unconscious again. The man walks over to Rachel again, recognizing her wearing a Marvel Girl uniform… but it’s not like any he has ever seen before. Scott gets up and orders the man to leave Rachel alone, with the man glad that at least Scott hasn’t changed. Scott wants to know why the man knows his name, but then he faints again. The man is surprised that Scott doesn’t remember him. He starts dragging Scott away, thinking they have found a use for Rachel after all. A few moments later, Wolverine wakes up, naked, outside in the woods. A voice shouts at him not to move, and Logan finds himself surrounded by an army helicopter and a Sentinel! 2nd story: "Petra" Petra is confident that her secrets are the kind that would get her killed. She has seen it on TV, the hate crimes on people like her. And she has seen other scary things right above her, in the New York City sky, like the patrolling Sentinels. While taking the subway, Petra thinks that it seems like, every day, she is given reminders of how much this world hates her. She believes that, if she wasn’t scared, she would be a fool. And Petra’s parents may have unknowingly raised a freak, she thinks, but they did not raise a fool. And thinking that, Petra suddenly misses her parents even more than usual. She was the first of her family to be born in America, her parents and older brother having immigrated from Denmark when her mother was pregnant. They were an instant American family. A house in the suburbs, two cars, two kids, one dog. Until the rockslide that killed everyone but Petra on a camping trip after her thirteenth birthday. She could never explain how she had escaped without a scratch. And she certainly wasn’t going to tell the police that, when she saw her brother torn by a jagged boulder, it appeared for a moment like the entire mountainside was at her command. And Petra was still lost in confusion when, after weeks in the custody of child protective services, she was placed in a foster home in New Jersey. But Petra disliked foster care. There were five kids sharing her bedroom, even boys. And Petra disliked her foster parents even more. The wife was old and bitter and smoked all the time. The house always smelled like it was going to give all the other kids there cancer at any moment. Her husband was nicer, but Petra knew why. She had seen men like him before, always with the looks and need to touch someone. The husband tried to touch Petra one day when they took all the kids into New York’s Central Park, but, before the man could, he sank into the ground up to his knees! It was like the earth just grabbed him. The man knew Petra was a mutant and had such an angry look in his eyes. Petra just ran away, knowing that was the right thing to do. And that night, she curled up on the cold floor of a cave in Central Park and she cried so hard, because she knew the husband was right and that meant she had killed her own family. Or at the very least, that she could have saved them but didn’t do it. Petra cried a lot for a while, until she learned how to keep it inside. She learned how to survive, as she didn’t have a choice. She knew there were homeless people living in Central Park, where many were still afraid to wander at nights. But a lot of these people ended up frequently arrested. Petra couldn’t have that. She couldn’t go to juvenile hall, or back to foster care. So she had found a solution, thanks to her abilities. The rocks moved aside for her, and then sealed themselves behind her. They molded themselves like clay however Petra wished. It wasn’t the worst home a runaway kid in New York City could wish for. And as the years passed, Petra did survive, though it wasn’t always easy. She panhandled and when she had to, stole things. But she didn’t do what some of the other kids did and was proud for that. Petra didn’t even do drugs but didn’t have a lot of friends either. She was too scared to have friends, fearing they might found out about her. When Petra was sixteen, and had experimented with her abilities a lot more, Petra had a breakthrough that made her life a lot easier, at least for a little while. She found a peace of coal, real hard coal, and could turn it into diamond! A shady pawnbroker in the East Village gave Petra more money for it than she expected. She went to a motel that didn’t ask questions, rented a room for an hour and took her first shower in two years. It was heaven. She used this trick a few times over the next year. And she learned how to make the diamonds smaller, so they would be less suspicious. But something went wrong. At the place Petra was earlier, the clerk had told her he had to call the owner but Petra knew that was a lie. He was calling the police. Somehow, she had been discovered. She is so close now to her secret home in the rocks, the only place that feels close to safe to her, but then the police found her. She fought the police but it was of no use. An electrical shock from one of their weapons knocked her out, and Petra feared that she was dead. Except, she wasn’t. She wakes up a few days later in a holding pen somewhere. Petra thought she was in prison by the look of her green outfit. Until one day, a nice lady comes and leads her to the showers. Petra remembers asking the woman if she had to go to jail, but the woman denied. There was someone here to see her. Petra feared she was in trouble. The nice woman smiled that Petra should be in trouble, but whoever these people are got all the charges dropped. Petra was being released into their custody, as there was some deal with the court, and the nice woman thought these people were going to help Petra. She guessed they’ve got a soft spot for people like Petra. Petra faked not knowing what the woman was talking about but she knew the truth. Petra panicked. Someone is coming to get her, knowing she is a mutant. Who would want to help her? Now, Petra is really scared.
Red energy covers a part of the Earth. The space shuttle called Prospect has been destroyed and its mission control tries to contact the astronauts, but they are all dead. Two sit in the shuttle's cockpit, while another spacewalks, his faceplate shattered.
Nightcrawler is looking at an old picture from when he just joined the second team of X-Men. Colossus notices that and jokes that Kurt must be feeling nostalgic. Kurt believes that it would be difficult if he didn’t feel that way, as so much has changed since those early days. And it just occurred to him that this is one of the few times all of them have been together again since that day. At least, the ones that are still among the living.
At the one time-glorious mutant research center, Banshee answers a video call from Beast. Sean sadly has to report that he has come up with nothing so far, other than a lot of painful memories. He even slept in his and Moira’s old bed last night, and her pillow still smells like her hair. Hank apologizes to Sean for putting him through this, but they thought Moira’s files might give them a clue where the Professor might have gone. And if anyone would know about Xavier’s secrets, it would have been Moira.
Logan wants to know what’s going on. Scott thought that this was a random opening in the rock face, but it looks more like some sort of tunnel. Rachel senses that something is wrong. She can feel her, but it’s faint and wrong, like she’s just out of her reach. A female voice calls out to Scott. He thinks it’s… Jean?! Logan doesn’t want to go through this again. Jean, wearing her old Marvel Girl uniform, begs for help and starts fading away.
Sean thinks he’s really seeing Moira’s spirit, though it’s weeping and takes off. Sean follows her to a house, but he thinks he must be losing his mind. He makes it to an old stockroom and Moira’s spirit fades away. Sean notices important notes from Xavier, thinking this is what Moira wanted him to see.
The X-Men’s enemy puts Wolverine on fire! The man mentions that he was going to be gentle like he was with Rachel, as he just shut her brain down for a few minutes. But Scott and Logan are getting on his nerves, so that’s why he attacks them. He pushes them both out of his way but Scott soon gets up again, and attacks with an optic blast. The man steps aside and asks Scott if he ever wondered what his blasts felt like. The man mentions he can arrange that and ricochets the blast back to Scott and Logan!
Petra walks alone through some dark alleys. She thinks she’s always scared but can’t remember when that started. She puts up a strong front, and no one messes with her much anymore, but she’s still scared. Two men follow her. Like all the other kids on the streets, Petra has her own secrets, except there aren’t many people left anymore with secrets like hers. She attacks the men following her and makes the ground under their feet swallow them!
Overview:
What is the hidden chapter of Giant Size X-Men #1 -- the missing pieces of the
story that neither the readers nor the X-Men ever knew about?
The shocking
truth begins to be revealed this issue! Professor X's secret shame is brought to
light and his students and friends have a hard time believing it. And you'll
never believe the true identity of the mysterious mutant who's been plaguing the
X-Men. PLUS: Another extra 8-page story by Brubaker and Woods!
Issue Summary:
1st Story:
Years ago…
Moira MacTaggert panics when the Professor wakes her up telepathically. He’s pulling up outside her house as they speak. Moira wants to know what’s wrong, as it’s in the middle of the night. Charles knows that, but he couldn’t wait any longer. He tips his cab driver and Moira welcomes Charles into her home, not wanting her to catch his death in the pouring rain. But right now, Charles thinks he deserves to die. Moira demands to know what’s going on, since she hasn’t seen Charles like this ever since he and Erik had a falling out.
Charles admits he made a terrible mistake and doesn’t know how he could have made it happen. Disappointed, he explains that he has lost his X-Men. They are missing and it’s all his fault. Moira tries to calm Xavier down, asking how that could happen. Xavier explains that the X-Men were on a mission. He didn’t think it was that dangerous, at least not more than usual. But now he realizes he should have monitored them more closely. He was working in the Danger Room at the time when, suddenly, his link to Jean cut out. He had never experienced anything like it. It was like someone cut a string into his mind, that he didn’t knew had been holding everything together. And now, he needs Moira’s help to save them.
Present time…
Beast and Wolverine are watching Moira’s video-tape they received from Banshee. Moira revealed to them what happened years ago. She didn’t knew what other choice she had but to help Xavier. Beast finds this disturbing. Wolverine thinks that’s an understatement. Hank defends he’s just being succinct, because honestly, he’s not sure what to think. Kurt reveals himself, realizing that Moira was talking about the Krakoa incident.
Hank is surprised that Kurt was there the whole time they listened to the tape. Kurt admits that, as he wanted to know what was so important Sean felt he needed to hand-deliver it to them. Wolverine thinks it’s just more bad news. And they already killed the messenger away. Beast wants to know what further information is on that tape that’s worth killing someone for. Logan thinks there’s only one way to find that out, namely by keep watching the tape until its end.
Years ago…
Sitting in her kitchen, Xavier is ready to use his telepathic powers on Moira so she can see what happened to the X-Men. But he warns her the experience can be disorienting. Moira is confident she’ll survive it, as she has felt disoriented before. She just wants to learn what happened. Xavier shows her the battle the X-Men had against Krakoa, the living island.
Cyclops warns Iceman to run away, telling him to stop using his powers on the creature, realizing it can’t be hurt by them. Krakoa punches Bobby out of his way! Moira panics. Cyclops fires his optic blast against Krakoa’s creatures, and wants to hear from Jean where Angel is. Warren finds himself attacked by birds that are under Krakoa’s influence. He cries out to help from Havok and Scott, as he needs ground support. Krakoa slams Angel down as well. Moira feels his pain.
Krakoa captures Jean. Cyclops tries to rescue her, but it’s no use. Jean warns that she can’t touch Krakoa as it has no mind. There’s something weird about it. Krakoa roars, and attacks Cyclops as well.
Xavier stops the communication. Moira wants to know what that was, as it felt weird. Xavier thinks it probably felt like a nightmare. Moira admits that. Xavier explains that those were the last mental images he got before he lost his link with Jean, and that Krakoa now has his X-Men captured. Moira asks Charles if he’s certain his students aren’t dead. Cerebro told him that the X-Men are still alive, but still on that island. Moira wants to know what she can to do help. Charles is afraid there is no good way to put what he’s about to say, but… he needs Moira’s students.
Present time, at an unknown location…
Cyclops and Rachel have been released from the walls they were trapped on, but unconscious. Rachel wakes up, and is surprised they are actually free. She tries to wake Scott up and tells him it’s time to go. Rachel thinks their captor must be asleep or something. Scott doesn’t understand. Rachel thinks the guy doesn’t know what he’s doing, or can fully control his powers yet. Scott wants to know how Rachel could possibly know that.
Rachel explains she’s still getting pieces from when he was in his head. She knows this guy didn’t used to be so powerful. Something happened to him, which bumped up way past the Omega level, but she is certain he isn’t ready for it yet. And he’s finally starting to make some mistakes. They walk up flight of stairs, on which Cyclops’ visor hangs on. Rachel hands it back to him and he puts it on. She feels she’s slowly starting to get her powers back and is confident Scott should get them back soon enough as well.
Scott can’t wait for that to happen, as he hasn’t felt this helpless since… he stops talking when he notices something. He takes a look at the room they arrive in, and notices he has been in this place before! Rachel remembers that’s what the guy said too. She wants to know where they are, but Scott isn’t sure. He has been into this place before, but it was such a long time ago. Scott points to a door and thinks they have to go through that. She asks Rachel who their enemy is, since she has been into his head.
Rachel explains that she told Scott about their foes’ mental link with the Professor, and there’s something else. It’s a bit weird to say. She asks Scott if he’s sure he has never seen this guy before. Scott is positively sure. Rachel thinks that’s weird, because she thinks their captor used to be a member of the X-Men!
Xavier’s…
Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Beast continue watching Moira’s tape. Moira reveals that her students weren’t exactly that. They were just a few kids she was trying to help. And in return, they helped her genetic research. Charles had met them all, of course. He helps devise their training sessions. One of the students was named Sway. She had the power to control time.
Years ago…
Moira and Xavier help Sway in her training session at the Danger Room. Moira tells Suzanne she’s doing a good job so far. Now, she wants her to try to stop only the big projectiles and dodge the smaller ones. Sway promises she’ll try it, but she’s feeling pretty tapped-out. Moira is confident she can do it. She fires the projectiles, and Suzanne successfully concludes the exercise.
Sway’s mutant powers allowed her to slow down or even stop time in minute radiuses, but her control wasn’t very advanced. She could also replay the recent past in short bursts. She could see events that happened before walk by like phantoms.
A girl more advanced than Sway, due to her living on the streets for years, was the runaway named Petra. During her training session, Petra used her rock powers to destroy some robots. She smiles and tells Moira she’ll have to do better than that if she wants to defeat her. Moira doesn’t think that will be a problem, and has a wall come out of the floor and causes Petra to lose balance!
Moira explains that Petra was a geo-morph with amazing potential. She once saw Petra turn a piece of rock coal into a diamond. She could make rocks and earth dance to the beat of her drum, which was practically a second nature by the time they had originally met.
There was also Darwin, the evolving boy. Even Charles was amazed by this one. They throw hot lava on the boy, and nothing seemed to harm him. Darwin smiled that it just felt like a warm breeze to him. Moira explains that Darwin could be put in total darkness and his eyes learn how to see in it. He can be put underwater and he grows actual, functioning gills. Darwin is even fireproof when he needs to be. Charles admits that Darwin’s potential is like he’s in a state of continually reactive mutation. He believes that if Darwin could control it all at will, the possibilities would be endless.
Finally, there was the boy who called himself Kid Vulcan. He was an energy manipulator with great potential. The boy was an odd one and a bit rougher than the rest. Moira knew little of Vulcan’s life before he came to him, but suspected he lived much in it in fear. From the first time she met him though, Charles showed more interest in Vulcan than all the others combined.
Charles asks Moira about Kid Vulcan’s background, suspecting he’s an orphan as well. Moira can’t be sure about that, as Vulcan never talks much about his past to her. All he wants to do is learn how to use his mutant abilities. She thinks he has been hurt a lot of times in his young life. He’s got that way around him. Charles thinks Moira is right about that. He wants to know his real name. Moira reveals that the only other name Vulcan has given to her is Gabriel. But he prefers to be called Kid Vulcan, or simply Vulcan. Charles thinks Gabriel named himself after Vulcan, the Roman god of fire. Moira confirms. She reveals that the only thing Gabriel had with him when people found him was a book on the mythology of Ancient Rome, which looked like it had been read for a hundred times.
Present time, Xavier’s…
Kurt, Logan and Hank aren’t sure what to think. Moira admits that, today, she doesn’t know what she was thinking in those days. This man she loved was asking her to let these kids risk their lives the same way he had let his own students do. All she could respond was “it’s up to them.”
Years ago…
Xavier has gathered Darwin, Petra, Suzanne and Vulcan around him. He introduces himself, in case they have forgotten his name. Gabriel remembers that Xavier is from the X-Men. Xavier confirms that. He also mentions that he’s here because both he and the X-Men need their help. Darwin wants to know how they could possibly help the X-Men. Xavier explains to the young students that the X-Men are missing, and he needs help in order to save them. He won’t lie and admits that the mission will be dangerous. But Charles promises he will be with them, inside their heads, helping them the whole time. And if the students agree to help, they’ll get a crash course in the use of their powers beyond anything they’ve been through so far, which will start as soon as possible.
Petra asks if this mission will make them X-Men. Charles confirms that. And, he adds, if the students help him, they would be showing courage to prove the honor they deserve. Gabriel agrees that he and the other students will help. Moira wants to discuss things first, but Gabriel’s mind is made up. Things don’t need to be discussed, as the Professor is asking them to become X-Men. They will be glad to do it. Petra, Suzanne and Darwin agree.
Present time, Xavier’s…
Moira explains that the problem was that time was in short supply. So, once Charles got his new students to his school, he gave them the basic black-and-gold X-Men uniforms and started the crash course.
Years ago…
Xavier explains that he placed everyone in Mindscape. This is the only way to prepare the students quickly enough. While only a few hours will pass in the real world, this team will experience months of intensive Danger Room training created solely by his thoughts. Moira wants to know if any of the students know that none of this is real. Charles denies that, thinking there’s no point in telling it to them. It would only have them doubt what he was teaching them.
Moira doesn’t know how Xavier can do this. Xavier explains that this is something he has been testing for a few years now. He explains that the thought is far more elastic than real time, and the key was studying in real time. In a dream, years can pass in mere seconds.
Moira didn’t mean that. She wanted to know how Charles can risk these children’s lives like this. She reminds Charles that she has known him for a long time now, but she never understood how he puts children in harm’s way the way he does. Charles explains that these students won’t be children for long and he defends they need to be prepared. He believes that the world doesn’t want them, and unless the kids are prepared to stand and fight against that, they will die.
Moira notices that Charles is talking like Erik now. Charles admits that his old friend isn’t wrong about everything. He explains that all of these mutant children are the future. And if he can help them mold in becoming good people, to become good examples for the ones that come after them, he’ll do it. Moira wants to know what Charles is going to do if the kids don’t want to become “examples.” Charles doesn’t think the kids have that luxury, and defends that living in denial won’t help them or the world. Moira asks if the X-Men will help the world. Charles admits that. And they will also help the world understand what mutantkind is all about.
Vulcan, Darwin, Petra and Suzanne all learn how to work together, not realizing the time that is passing. As they grow closer to another, they also learn a bit more about the X-Men they’ve got to rescue. After the proper training, Xavier gives his new students the proper uniforms. Gabriel smiles and is happy about them, asking if they’ve get to meet the Fantastic Four as well. Darwin isn’t so sure about the costumes though, because they don’t leave much to the imagination.
Present time, Xavier’s…
Moira reveals that, before she had time to question it, her charges had become Charles’. She began to believe they had always been. Before they left, Charles took Kid Vulcan to his side. Moire thought at first they were going over the mission one last time, while she talked courage into the others. The students were proud to fly into action in her jet, as they were X-Men now. Moira admits that if she had known then what the kids were getting themselves into, she wouldn’t have let them. The video of the tape goes blurry.
Wolverine asks Beast why that’s happening. Beast reminds Logan that he already told him the tape got damaged and he salvaged everything he could. He feels lucky they already got as much as they did. Kurt doesn’t feel so lucky after everything they just heard. Hank guesses not. But he does think it’s clear that Logan and Kurt weren’t the first new mutants the Professor sent to rescue the original team. Logan wants to know why they have never heard from these kids before. Kurt thinks the more important question is: what happened to them?
At an unknown location…
Rachel finds a sign behind some leaves, which reads “Muir-MacTaggert Research Department?!” Rachel asks Scott if Moira ever run a facility in the States. Scott hesitates. He thinks so, remembering he met Moira for the first time when they found Alex. She helped the Professor do some tests on him. Scott remembers this place. This was where they run those tests. Xavier even helped Moira design it. Scott recalls that the place even isn’t that far from the school, just a few hours. And Scott remembers coming here with the Professor, but can’t remember for what. He wants to know why he can’t remember.
A voice reveals to Scott he can’t remember because the Professor doesn’t want him to. It’s Vulcan! He reveals that this is the place where he and Scott first met each other, before they saved him from Krakoa. Scott recognizes Vulcan but doesn’t understand what he’s saying. Vulcan claims that Scott’s mentor, old Charles Xavier, didn’t want Scott to know he had sacrificed the live of his long-lost baby brother! So, the good Professor messed with Scott’s head, like he has done with so many people. And on that moment, Scott and all of the other X-Men left Vulcan and his friends for dead!
2nd story: "Kid Vulcan"
For the last few weeks, Gabriel has been having the same kind of dream he has every night: bad dreams. They feel like missing fragments of his life that are coming back to him, but because the dreams are in his head, they don’t feel like they are making much sense. He remembers a cold steel womb he floated in when he was a baby, and the face of a scientist checking on him. And every night, when the pincers reach for him, Gabriel gets filled with fear, and wakes up screaming!
And once Gabriel is awake, other missing pieces begin falling into their place. He remembers scattered details of his early lives, things that have been buried into his mind for many years now. He remembers being a servant, which was more like acting like a slave. And he remembers the many other people that lived with him during those days, in a place that looks like either a fortress or a mansion. Some of these people, Gabriel remembers, had strange hair, which almost look like feathers.
Gabriel remembers one of these people, an older woman, being very kind to him. But he can’t remember her name. It was this woman who snuck him the book that he read over and over again, after lights-out, the book about the myths of ancient Rome where he eventually found his name. It’s only these new memories that make the fear he feels each night bearable.
Gabriel wanders through Moira’s research center, and gets approached by her. Moira jokes that he’s apparently becoming an insomniac, since she finds him awake again. Gabriel jokes that he maybe is becoming an insomniac, and would be glad to become one with the kinds of dreams he’s having. Moira apologizes, as she thought Xavier’s help would help him or else she wouldn’t have allowed it. Gabriel admits that’s okay, since he wanted the help. And at least bad memories are better than having none. Moira asks Gabriel if he’s remembering anything specific, or all just shattered pieces.
But even though he trusts Dr. MacTaggert, Gabriel lies. He claims he remembers nothing but bits and pieces. He lies because this night, for the first time, he remembers the day his mutant powers manifested themselves. And this is not a memory he plans on sharing with anyone. Because on that day, Gabriel accidentally used his powers to kill Dai’andral, the woman that had been so kind to him! When getting back to bed, Gabriel remembers the old woman’s name.
There are a few other flashes of that day, with none of them being pleasant, as he kept using his powers to kill some Shi’Ar guards. And the next thing Gabriel remembers, is that he finds himself in a forest, carrying the only thing he cares about him, and finds himself running for his life. And then, it’s a year later, and he’s living in a sewer in New York City until police officers find him. And he remembers trying really hard not to hurt them. And then, it’s another month later, and he’s put into a room and introduced to Moira. She offered help.
Gabriel felt something about this woman. From the moment they met, he knew he could trust her. And she never asked too many questions, which he likes. After getting a personal training uniform, Gabriel tests his powers in her lab. Not long after that, Gabriel meets Moira’s friend, Professor Xavier, a guy from the X-Men. Gabriel and the other kids at Moira’s research facility have all heard of the X-Men, and seen their exploits on TV. Gabriel learned that the X-Men are mutant super heroes. The rest of the world may not always agree with that statement, but Gabe and his friends know what they are all about, since they saw them fighting against horrors such as the Sentinels.
Professor Xavier takes a special interest in Gabriel. He helped him control his powers, and his fire skills can now merge through his eyes and not only from his hands. But the nightmares start almost immediately. Xavier admits to Gabriel that he knows this is unpleasant, but he wants him to understand that things have happened to him that his mind locked away. And, until they know what those things are, until Gabriel lets them go, he may never have complete control over his mutant abilities.
Gabriel senses that there’s more behind the Professor’s reasons for waiting to get into his head, but he doesn’t push it. Gabriel realizes that Xavier wants him to master his powers, and Gabriel remembers that the day before that conversation, Xavier brought one of the X-Men over to meet him. It was their leader, Cyclops. Gabriel was fairly impressed to meet Scott Summers. Scott was happy too, as the Professor had told him Gabriel is really something to see in action.
And what was even better than meeting Cyclops, Gabriel got to train with him for an hour. It was the biggest rush of his entire life, sparring with the leader of the X-Men. There was even one moment where Gabe had such control of his powers that he turned Cyclops’ optic beam away from its target. Even Cyclops seemed shocked by that. Scott asks Gabe how he could do that. Gabe explained that he just sort of felt the beam with his mind and twisted it. It’s like putting your hand in front of a light and making a shadow puppet.
Later, after Cyclops left, Gabe heard Dr. MacTaggert and the Professor talk. Moira thought that Xavier was pushing him too hard. Xavier thought he could be the judge of that. He defended that Gabriel is stronger than Moira thinks he is, having great potential to be one of the strongest manipulators of Earth. Moira thought there is more to it than that. She knows Charles has been interested in Gabe since he met him, more than any of her other fosters. Xavier admits there’s more, but he’s not sure what it is just yet. He thinks his age is wrong, somehow. But he does know one thing: if Gabriel is given the proper training, and learns proper control about his powers, Gabriel could soon be ready to join the X-Men, assuming he wants that.
That’s all Gabriel could think about that night, until his dreams woke him, and he remembered the day he escaped his masters, whoever they were. But Moira and the Professor can never know about that day and how badly he lost control. Not now, with so much ahead of him. Gabriel smiles that, one day, he could become Kid Vulcan of the X-Men.
Overview:
Everything that could go wrong has and now the X-Men are caught between a bizarre and powerful villain and the U.S. government. Cyclops and Marvel Girl remain in the hands of this mysterious new threat, and elsewhere, in the wreckage of a disaster, Professor X's long-held secret finally begins to come to light. The white-hot creative team of Ed Brubaker and Trevor Hairsine continue to put the X-Men through the wringer in this special 30th Anniversary event, which also features a back-up tale written by Brubaker and drawn by Pete Woods.
Issue Summary:
1st story: Beast jumps out of his room and starts climbing the roof, ignoring Logan. Logan orders Hank to listen to him, trying to explain that the Blackbird didn’t just explode on its own but that another plane rammed into it. Hank realizes Logan is talking about the Blackbird. Logan confirms, believing they are in deep trouble. Hank makes it to the roof, and notices that several Sentinels have arrived. They order all mutants present at the school that, by order of the Office of National Emergency, the school is under lockdown as from now on and that nobody is allowed to leave. Hank immediately jumps back down, wanting to warn Emma so they can handle this. He asks for a confirmation that the Blackbird rammed onto the plane Sean was in. Logan confirms, mentioning that also about a hundred people must have been aboard his plane as well. He can only hope Scott and Rachel weren’t there as well. Hank tells Logan he’s got to find out about that, and also whatever it was that Sean was bringing with him. He promises they’ll mourn Banshee later, but right now they’ve got to find the info he died for. Kurt and Logan walk back to their truck. Logan explains that people are still putting out the fire of the explosion, but knows that they are both the best bet to deal with this thing. He wishes Hank good luck. Kurt wants to know what’s going on. Logan explains to him that they are all in deep trouble and better suit up, as they’ve got work to do. at an unknown location… The mysterious villain reveals himself, sarcastically mocking that his effects are probably wearing off because he is being careless. He takes off his hood, and reveals his face with burning yellow eyes. He uses his powers and releases Rachel. The man claims that Rachel is feeling just the way he wants her to feel, and nothing more. Scott angrily warns the man to leave Rachel alone. The man promises he won’t do that, reminding Scott that he told her he needs the girl. Scott defends that Rachel is just a kid. The man angrily defends that they were all children once. He orders Scott to shut up this instant, or else he will hurt Rachel. Scott does, but doesn’t like it. The man grabs Rachel’s hand. He warns Rachel not to try anything, so they might get through this. He touches her face and uses his powers on her. Xavier’s… The commander mentions that he’s here on behalf of O*N*E*, so he warns Emma to better behave a little. Emma refuses to be treated like a criminal with no rights. Beast tries to calm her down but fails. The commander angrily shouts that the X-Men’s plane just killed about a hundred people. Emma knows that since one of their best friends got caught in the explosion too. While Emma and the commander keep fighting, Havok chooses to leave. He enters a room, and overhears someone asking Xavier what he means. Charles claims that he has known it from since the moment they met, that Corsair was Major Christopher Summers. Alex opens the door, and can actually see... the Professor and his dad?! Corsair wants to know how Xavier could possibly have known that. Xavier explains that Corsair’s thoughts practically shouted at him, but his cerebral structure is also so similar to Scott’s that Corsair had to be closely related to him. Corsair doesn’t understand the word “cerebral structure.” Xavier explains it’s like the DNA of someone’s thought patterns, but he doesn’t think that’s important right now. Havok demands to know what’s going on. He angrily shouts to get out of his head, but nobody seems to listen. Xavier continues to claim that it’s important that both Scott and Alex can’t know Corsair is their father, believing they’ve both already been through much already and doesn’t want to see them hurt any further. Corsair understands that, defending that he just thought both his sons had been killed. On that very moment, the ghost forms fade away into nothingness. Polaris approaches Alex, asking if he’s alright. She heard him screaming, having thought he was in a fight or something. Alex wants to know if he’s seeing the real Lorna. Lorna thinks so, wanting to know why she wouldn’t be. Alex thinks that must mean Lorna hasn’t seen any ghosts. He can only hope the others are as lucky. Unfortunately, they aren’t. Iceman believes he’s being chased by angry pterodactyl. Colossus freaks out when he thinks he’s seeing soldiers, who claim to have orders to take the “little girl” to the Red Room so they can study her. at an unknown location… Xavier’s… All of the soldiers leave. Kitty is still startled the soldiers just barged in like that. Emma feels lucky they didn’t all get dragged away handcuffed. Beast compliments Kitty on the paperwork, wanting to know if it’s real. Kitty confirms, explaining that after she heard Logan, Scott and Rachel got ripped out of the Blackbird like that yesterday by an unknown enemy now probably has the plane, so she thought this was the smartest move to make. Looking at Emma to make his point, Hank thinks it’s a good thing at least somebody is holding a clear head. Emma admits her mistake, claiming she’s a little on edge. Beast defends that everyone is at right now. Emma corrects that it’s differently with her, because she feels like someone is crawling and creeping around in the darkest corners of her thoughts. She doesn’t understand how, but she is aware that somebody has been digging through those dark thoughts for the past hour, and Emma believes it’s Rachel. the airport… Kurt finds it amazing that the cockpit survived the explosion so intact. Logan they’ve got Banshee’s doing to thank for that, who probably used his supersonic scream in an attempt to stop the attack. Logan wants to go into the remains though, to make sure Cyclops and Rachel aren’t burned up in there like everyone else is. Kurt doesn’t think that’s possible since the entire place is filled with soldiers. Logan snikts out his claws, promising he’ll take care of it by distracting the soldiers a bit. He quickly takes off, leaving Kurt behind. Wolverine finds two lonely soldiers. One of them admits he’s finds this place to be a little creepy. On that very moment, Logan jumps out of the shadows and tackles them down. The other troops hear the battle noises, and rush to their comrades’ aid. But Kurt has noticed all of this and teleports in, dropping the soldiers off elsewhere. A few moments later, Logan meets up with Kurt, who is already sitting in the remains of the cockpit. Kurt notices that Logan actually got hurt in the battle, but he claims it’s nothing serious and that he only has punctured lungs, which should heal in about a minute. He asks if Kurt found any sign of Scott and Rachel. Kurt didn’t, but he already suspects that the plane was controlled by a remote. And he has also find Banshee’s corpse. It looks like Sean crashed right through the windshield, which must have felt like being hit by brick wall at a hundred kilometers. Kurt is still startled that all this happened to their friend. at an unknown location… the airport… at an unknown location… She also felt something else. When their captor was in Rachel’s head, she got in his a little too. She knows what she discovered doesn’t’ make any sense, but she found out that the man had a severed mental link to the Professor. It’s an old one, but it was still there. And Rachel suspects that their captor knew the Professor and, what’s even worse, she suspects that he was trained with him! Xavier’s… On the recording, Moira angrily calls Xavier a bastard, hating the fact that he’s doing it again. He came to her asking for help, to save his X-Men when they went missing. The tape gets blurred a while. On that moment, Moira starts to cry. She hates the fact that she gave Charles her own, and they were just children. The noise gets blurry again. She concludes that Xavier got them all killed! 2nd story:"Sway" At the crime scene, while news reporter takes some pictures of the drama, Detective Walters approaches Suzanne, wanting to know if he can ask her some questions. In shock, Suzanne can only say something about her having stopped the bullets. Walters simply reports that Suzanne was still in shock. After all, she had just watched her parents gunned down at on the streets of New York’s Chinatown. She was caught in the crossfire of gang-warfare that she would never understand. Suzanne just wanted to go to Barnard College and move to the East Coast. This trip was supposed to be about that, to show her parents the College and the dorms, to show them that she was being safe around here. Instead, they got killed when visiting a restaurant. Walters walks over to Mac, asking what he discovered about the incident. Mac just concluded that none of it makes any sense. There are bullet holes everywhere, as he’s counting about a hundred discharged rounds, but Suzanne doesn’t even have a single scratch on herself. Walters walks back towards her, wanting to know how that could happen. Still in shock, Suzanne keeps saying that she stopped the bullets. Suzanne doesn’t exactly understand what she had done. She hadn’t stopped the bullets, but instead stopped time in a small radius. There was an explosion of gunfire and screams, and suddenly she made all of that stop. She ran through the path of the bullets that stood still in the air. But whatever she had done, it hadn’t lasted long, as her parents ended up death and the criminals got away. The police put Suzanne in a hospital for eighty-four hours for observation. But there was nothing to observe, as the girl just cried herself to sleep. When she gets out of the room, the police tell her they are working on leads to find her parent’s killers, but the tones in their voices don’t sound much promising. Walters claimed that people in Chinatown don’t talk to the police much. After that moment, Suzanne is out on the streets on her own. She was in the city that killed her parents, not knowing what to do. She wanders the streets at first, but eventually finds herself back at the spot of the murder. She stands there, wondering about what she had done to have herself survive the incident. It seems impossible. And just as suddenly as she had stopped time, the other part of Suzanne’s mutant abilities reveal themselves to her. She is seeing it all happening again. She can see her walking the streets happily with her parents, but also, she can see the killers again. They are like phantoms, acting out the past, but it feels so real. Just like the real killers, these phantoms escaped down the street. But this time, Suzanne runs after them. She passed other ghosts, other moments in time on these streets, and she begins to understand what is happening. Somehow, she is held sway over time. She lowed it down during the shooting, and now she was making it replay itself. Suzanne follows the killers right to the front door of their hideout. And in real time, she can see them inside their house, celebrating their victory with their lovers. Suzanne runs to a phone booth and contacts Walters. However, once the police arrive, the killers don’t give up easily. Both the officers and the killers open fire, but Suzanne holds the killers’ bullets down with her powers. She explains to Walters that she stopped the bullets in time so they weren’t going to hurt his men. She’s glad that she can make bullets stop hurting anyone ever again. After the fight and the killers arrested, Suzanne explains at the police station how she survived the attack on her parents. She believes that, if she didn’t have this ability, the men who killed her parents were probably never caught. Walters understands. He asks Suzanne to wait for a while, claiming he needs to make a phone call. Suzanne does, as she doesn’t worry about the detective’s motives, as he has nice eyes in her opinion. Not much later, a woman arrives for her. Suzanne is introduced to Moira MacTaggert. Moira explains that she would like to help Suzanne because she’s a mutant. Suzanne already suspected that. Moira adds that she and a good friend of hers work with mutants. A fair amount of them, actually. Moira asks Suzanne if she ever heard of the X-Men.
Wolverine contacts Beast, who can hardly believe what just happened. Wolverine explains to Hank that a plane exploded, right over the runway of the airport he and Nightcrawler are standing. The whole airport is a disaster right now, as the plane has put almost everything on fire. Logan also mentions to Hank that Banshee got caught in the blast and is most likely dead. Hank is startled. He asks Logan to hold on, as he can hear something going on outside the school. Logan warns Hank to listen to him, as he’s got exactly two minutes to hide everything he doesn’t want to show to the cops, who will probably show up at the school any minute now.
Cyclops and Rachel are still hold captive. Rachel can feel that something is wrong. Scott doesn’t understand what she means by that. Rachel doesn’t know for sure either, but she thinks whatever their mysterious opponent did to her is wearing off. She’s starting to think better. Scott wants to know if Rachel’s telepathy is returning so she can contact Emma. Unfortunately, she can’t.
Lots of soldiers have arrived at the school and hold everyone at gunpoint. Beast tries to explain that their plane was hijacked, but the commander doesn’t really believe that, thinking that nobody is able to steal a plane right under a group of super powered mutant’s noses. Emma claims that’s exactly what they’ve been trying to find out before the soldiers came bursting in.
The man is still touching Rachel’s head, causing her to feel bad, using his powers and her telepathy to make the X-Men see the ghosts. Cyclops doesn’t understand what’s going on, but orders the man to stop hurting Rachel.
Beast suggests that they just talk calmly about this, since they aren’t going anywhere. The commander sarcastically states that’s true, as he’s already looking his culprits right into the face. Kitty interrupts, thinking she realizes what the mistake is. She thinks the commander probably didn’t get briefed about the report she sent to his boss about the missing Blackbird, as soon as she found out yesterday morning. While an unbelievable commander takes a closer look at the report, which seems to be in order, Emma continues to call him names. Beast holds her back, defending that everyone is in a state of shock currently, but suggests that they’ll help wherever they can to find the real culprit.
Nightcrawler teleports both himself and Logan nearby the plane wrecks. Logan can’t smell anything due to the fumes and flames. Kurt sees this as a true tragedy, and he isn’t even talking about what happened to Sean. Logan tells him to be quiet, as he hears something. They go hide behind a big piece of the wreck, and notice security soldiers scouting. Logan also notices something else: the cockpit of the Blackbird!
The mysterious villain stops using his powers on Marvel Girl. He smirks, complimenting Rachel that she might even give the original Marvel Girl some competition after all. Rachel is furious that her mind was raped like that and is ready to attack the man. But he quickly uses his powers on Rachel again, knocking her out. Cyclops angrily shouts at the man to stop it as he promised he wouldn’t hurt her. The man smiles that Rachel started it so he didn’t have much of a choice. And it’s not like Rachel is helpless… at least not in normal circumstances. He chains Rachel against the wall again, and asks Scott to remind her that he’s almost done with her, warning that Rachel might want to try and stay on his good side.
More soldiers have arrived and are still looking for Logan and Kurt, but fail to find them. Their boss refuses to hear any more bad news and wants the mutants found immediately. The soldiers understand and continue the search. Kurt overhears the conversation, and teleports himself and Logan into safety. They teleport several more times around the plane wrecks, and search through it, but don’t find any clues about Scott or Rachel’s whereabouts. P> Kurt warns that it’s going to be day light soon, and he fears that the info Sean was bringing with him will be also unfortunately lost thanks to the explosion. Logan doesn’t think so, as he just found something. Kurt goes to take a closer look, and finds a briefcase labeled “Muir Island.”
Rachel wakes up again and asks Scott what happened. Cyclops explains that Rachel attacked their captor, and smiles that he didn’t suspect that, considering Rachel’s condition. He proudly declares that Jean would have done the very same thing. Rachel’s head hurts, and explains that their captor used her powers for something to dig through the thoughts of the other X-Men, almost as if he was looking for something. She thinks he was looking for the Professor, like where he is.
Wolverine asks Beast if he managed to find something on the tape that was in the briefcase he and Kurt found. Hank mentions he will in a minute. He had to clean it up a little bit since the tape was in a pretty bad shape. He also feels lucky that the tape was in one of Moira’s old project briefcases, and explains that those cases were meant to carry sensitive equipment and were impact resistant. Logan just wants to know if they will see what Moira recorded or not. Hank explains that he pieced together the tape fragments with his computer and digitally scanned them to the time code, so he wants to give it a try. He turns on the volume of the tape, so they can hear what Moira has to say.
The police would report the killed victims as David and Emily Chan, both at age 47. They were both naturalized citizens, originally from Hong Kong, having lived in California for the past twenty years. The miraculous survivor of the assault was their 17-year old daughter, Suzanne.
Overview:
It’s the penultimate issue of the most shocking X-Men mini-series of the
century! Cyclops has learned the horrible truth of the identity of his captor,
just as the X-Men have uncovered the pieces of Professor X’s long-held secret
shame. Now they’ll battle through Sentinels and other machinations to meet their
new enemy face-to-face, in the one place they hope to find Charles Xavier,
assuming he survived the House of M. Also featuring a back up story that details
the first time Emma Frost met Professor X.
Issue Summary:
1st story: Now… Meanwhile, Vulcan claims that he is telling Scott the truth. A startled Scott finds that hard to believe. He thinks that he wasn’t freed from Krakoa: the island let him go so he would bring more mutants to it. Vulcan can’t believe that his big brother is serious. Scott warns Vulcan to stop calling him that. Vulcan sarcastically smiles and asks Scott if he’s certain about what he said. He reminds Scott that he himself just said that Professor X brought him there, but that he doesn’t remember when, or what happened on that day, and asks Scott if that’s normal to him. Scott doesn’t answer. Vulcan thought so. He replies that it isn’t normal, and is confident that the Professor wanted to see the two of them together. Scott is confident the Professor would never do such a horrible thing. Vulcan finds it amazing that Scott is still fighting against it. He tells him to stop doing that, and that he doesn’t seem to want to remember it all. Scott believes that this is another of Vulcan’s trick, like the one with Jean he tried out earlier. Vulcan doesn’t like to disappoint Scott, but… he hesitates. He smiles that it’s still early, and heads towards the skies. He has noticed that a Sentinel arrived. Briggs orders them all to stand down, but Vulcan of course ignores that warning. The Sentinels fires a pulsar blast, but Vulcan easily uses his powers to stop the blast and attacks the Sentinel with his energy powers. Briggs is amazed by the potential and sends the visual records back to the base. Cyclops asks Rachel if her powers have returned yet. They have, but not completely. Scott tells her to head back to the Institute, as it’s only two hundred miles northeast away from her. Rachel has to move now, now that Vulcan is distracted fighting that Sentinel. Rachel is surprised that Scott seems to remember those things now. Scott admits that he is starting to remember things, at least some of it. Briggs’ Sentinel loses its power and shields, and goes down! Rachel refuses to leave Scott behind, but he orders her to fly away right now, because he has to stay behind and find out the truth. Rachel doesn’t like the plan, but does as told and takes off. Scott angrily rushes towards Vulcan, shouting that he didn’t have to do that. Vulcan can’t believe his ears, as Scott appears to be friends with the Sentinels now. Scott defends that there is still a man inside the machine, but Vulcan doesn’t care. Briggs quickly opens the hatch from the Sentinel, and takes out his gun, ready to fire at Vulcan. However, Vulcan quickly releases a blast on the soldier, and kills Briggs! Scott becomes even more upset and tackles his brother, shouting that he didn’t have to do that. Vulcan defends that he actually had to do that. He tells Scott not to claim that he knows who he is, since that’s insulting because Scott doesn’t even seem to remember him. Vulcan grabs Scott by his throat, and tells him not to think that he’ll allow his powers to return. Vulcan claims that Rachel having hers back was part of his plan, as she’ll bring more audience to the show. Scott wants to know what plan Vulcan is talking about. Vulcan wants to go and find Professor X. His link with Xavier is severed, and none of the X-Men seem to know where he is. So, as Vulcan takes off with Scott, he believes that it’s time the good Professor finds them. Meanwhile, in Wales, Great Britain… Xavier’s… Beast notices how distracted Emma looks and asks what’s wrong with her. Emma believes that she recognizes the attacker and knows him from somewhere, but can’t seem to remember from when and where. Kurt doesn’t think going to the disaster zone won’t do much good anyway, since it’s unlikely their missing friends or new enemy are still going to be there. Bobby still wants to go, as there might be a message from Scott or something. Kitty phases into the room and has found some useful information. She has researched the property that the Sentinel attacked, and the facility is currently owned by Professor X, who inherited it from Moira. However, a long time ago, it was run by both Charles and Moira, and, very briefly, also by Karl Lykos. Beast believes that this is where Charles and Lykos began their mutant genome project. Kitty agrees, adding that when Lykos went his own way, Moira continued to work there, at least when she wasn’t on Muir Island. Logan believes that the facility is where Charles went to that night to get help, and that their new enemy is one of the kids Moira was helping on the tape they just listened to. But, now it turns out that the kid didn’t die like the tape wanted them to believe. Kurt believes that their foe isn’t dead… or at least, not anymore. He believes that now they have to figure out where their adversary is heading to, now that their presence has been made public. A battle damaged Rachel finally arrives home, and mentions to the others that she knows where Vulcan is taking Scott, and what his plan is. Muir Island… Scott demands to know who Vulcan truly is. Vulcan defends that he needed to create a spectacle to gain the Professor’s attention. Scott is disgusted that Vulcan killed people just to gain someone’s attention. He is disgusted because Vulcan claims he was once an X-Man. He could never be his brother. Meanwhile, nearby, a boat arrives, and the same man from the pub arrives ashore. Vulcan’s mood changes when he hears Scott claim they can’t be related. Vulcan reveals that he didn’t know it at first either, but the Professor showed it to him by unlocking it from deep within his mind, and helped him discover who he really was. Vulcan also reveals to Scott that the people who raised him named him Gabriel, but also that those people weren’t from Earth. Vulcan believes that he was a slave to those people, just like many others were. Scott still doesn’t buy it, believing that the Professor would have told him this. Vulcan believes that the Professor probably did tell Scott about this. After all, he told Vulcan about it right before they left to Krakoa. The Professor wanted Vulcan to know what the risk was, and what he might lose. Unbeknownst to either Cyclops or Vulcan, the mysterious man from the boat gets closer and closer to them. Scott refuses to believe that the Professor would first tell him about his brother, and later on make him forget about it. Vulcan wants to know why Scott fights against this, since he remembered Moira’s lab. As Scott angrily refuses to believe it, Vulcan tells Scott to look behind him then, as he can ask it to the Professor by himself! A familiar looking voice is glad to find out that Scott is all right. Scott can’t believe it… it’s Professor Xavier, and… he’s walking again?! Xavier confirms this and reveals that, when the world was remade, it appears the same thing happened to his body. Vulcan doesn’t want to go through this reunion right now, shouting at the Professor that he didn’t came here to see Scott. The Professor claims that he actually did, but that he also came there for Gabriel, because he’s making a terrible mistake. Charles admits that he knows that, because he knows all too much about making mistakes. Even as Scott finds it hard to believe that the Professor and Gabriel know each other, the other X-Men arrive in their plane. Vulcan wants to kill them all, but Charles begs him not to do that, since this isn’t the X-Men’s fault. Gabriel shouts that he would kill the X-Men not for himself, but only to harm Charles. Suddenly, Nightcrawler teleports himself and Wolverine on the ground. Xavier tries to stop Logan from attacking, but the X-Man doesn’t hear him and fights anyway. However, Vulcan fires a blast on the two X-Men, taking them down. Scott begs Vulcan to leave them alone, and the Professor asks Vulcan not to take out his revenge on anyone else but him, since he is the man he’s angry at. Vulcan uses his powers to grab Xavier by his throat, and promises that he will most certainly do that. The other X-Men then arrive, and Havok orders Vulcan to put the Professor right now. Or else, Beast continues, they’ll make him do it. Vulcan won’t do that… but he is ready to make a deal. He promises not to snap Xavier’s neck until he does what Gabriel wants him to do. He wants to hear the truth. The Professor agrees to spill it. Charles shamefully apologizes to both Scott and Alex. Gabriel isn’t the liar there – He is. Vulcan really is their brother, but it’s a whole complicated story. Gabriel angrily tells Xavier to show it to the X-Men, like the way he showed his team everything he wanted them to see. Charles wishes that he could, but, Wanda Maximoff, he assumes, gave him back the use of his legs somehow. He also guesses that she wanted to show him what being a cripple is really all about: he isn’t a mutant anymore! 2nd story: "What Emma doesn't know" While performing dances on stage, Emma thinks to herself that Denny the Bouncer is a creep, but that at least her interactions with him provide some small amusement. Nothing else seems to do that for her. It’s been not more than a month since she took this job. The men that come to see her are easily enough to please, which makes her job easy as well. However, tonight, though Emma doesn’t know it yet, things are about to change. Charles and Moira enter the club, and approach Emma
Three hours earlier, at the analysis center of the Office of National Emergence…
Scientists have been analyzing the video footage, which was seized from the Westchester airport disaster, and they have found someone who was watching the whole thing happen, high above the ground.
Briggs makes it to the disaster zone and gets a clear shot on Vulcan’s energy signal. However, Briggs is still two miles away from the mysterious mutant, and it looks like the two missing X-Men are with him as well.
A mysterious man in a long trench coat watches the news in a pub. The reporter mentions the disaster at the Westchester Airport, and how a “mutant terrorist” is responsible for the attack and murder of the plane’s pilot and passengers, plus the destruction of a United States’ Sentinel. They also show a picture of Vulcan. The man asks for another beer, and tells the bartender to keep the change, as it looks like he won’t be needing it. Later, the same man walks away.
The X-Men are watching the news as well. Bobby has noticed Scott in trouble and wants to go help him, but Logan reminds Bobby that he wouldn’t do anything rather than do that. However, he has noticed that the villain also killed a man controlling a Sentinel, and they can’t have any more bad influence with the government than they already have. So, the X-Men can’t just go in there without doing some thinking first.
Vulcan and Scott land on the island. When Scott wants to know what they are doing to her Vulcan explains that they’ll wait for Professor X to arrive. Scott defends that he and the X-Men have been trying to find the Professor for weeks, and have looked here, but didn’t found anything. Vulcan knows that, since Sean had been sent to the island and found something. He mentions that Banshee is dead now, and Scott can’t believe his ears. Vulcan defends that Banshee truly died, but that he went out the way of a true X-Man. Scott is filled with rage, now that he knows Sean is gone. Vulcan warns Scott not to act like an idiot, since they both know he won’t be able to even touch him.
A long time ago, at the Hellfire Club…
Emma walks into the Club. An employee, Denny, warns her that she’s late and that her makeup needs work. Emma doesn’t care about what Denny thinks. Denny defends that Emma should care, because Shaw told him to keep an eye on her. Emma is certain that Shaw didn’t tell Denny to use his hands while doing that, and threatens the guy that, if he ever touches her again, she’ll make him regret it. Denny isn’t impressed by the threat, and orders Emma to get to work as she’s got gentlemen to entertain.