At The Start: Part One
Lorna Dane just didn't have very good luck with men. The first man to abandon her in her life was her father. Of course her mother was included in that, but Lorna was left with no model of the man for her to marry. If indeed little girls ended up marrying their fathers. Then there came Iceman and he was quite the wake-up call for a young Lorna. Bobby was sweet in his usually goofy manner and though he would never admit it, he was a hopeless romantic. Despite that, he wasn't the man she wanted and then she found herself in the arms of Alex Summers. He was so very different from Bobby, but that only made Lorna want him all the more. It had been an up and down relationship, but she would do anything to defend it.
And that was exactly why she was on this makeshift time traveling vehicle while her lover lay unconscious outside. One of their teammates, Greystone, had decided to return to his future timeline, but the machine he built was simply suicide. Lorna had entered the vessel to calm him down.
"Greystone you have got to calm down. This is insane!"
The mutant gave Lorna a rabid look and continued punching at buttons and nodes. Polaris could easily use her powers to rip the machine apart, but that wouldn't knock any sense into him. She needed to talk him down.
"You have a home here Greystone. We all care about you."
Greystone snarled at Polaris. "I hate this world! It only serves to show me the stupidity of those before me."
The XUE member tapped the final button and warning alarms blared as the ship began to take off. Lorna cursed under her breath and was about to turn the ship into scrap metal.
That was when it exploded…
Literally a world away…"Bobby! Help Jubilee. She's surrounded!" Polaris shouted above the torrent of laser fire from The Trask Force, which her magnetic field was deflecting. The X-Men had fought against Bolivar Trask and his mutant hunting cyborgs numerous times. They even thought they had sent Bolivar to the grave on a few occasions, but he had always proven to be persistent in his cause.
"I'm on it baby!" Iceman said as he slid by over Lorna's head. She knew that she was the only one he would be that laid back on the field with. Even his best friend, Toad, got the leader treatment when they ran into a fight. Honestly, she was surprised he was being so nonchalant about this scrap. Here they were in downtown Chicago fighting The Trask Force, yet he wasn't screaming at M about property damage. He must just be in a mighty damn good mood.
M piledrived through the gold and silver clad Trask Force cyborgs that were attacking Lorna. They were only momentarily thrown off though and they quickly repositioned themselves in the air. Their arm guns were pointed at M and their large cybernetic eyes glowed green. Monet was easily one of the X-Men's most powerful members and easily the powerhouse of the Gold team. As cyborgs fired their guns, Lorna couldn't help but to smile. Her liquid metal body would render the blasts completely ineffective. Did Bolivar ever learn anything?
"Aren't they beautiful?" Bolivar asked as he appeared behind Lorna. His fingers were glowing white and he dove his hands into Polaris' shield. They slipped through and cracked her field like glass. Lorna let loose a blood curdling scream as she suffered a terrible magnetic backlash. She began to tumble to the earth…
"She going to be alright Professor?"
Was that Bobby? Why was he here? Did he say Professor?
"Bolivar gave her a bit of a hit, but she'll be fine."
Xavier? Did he mean Trask? What the hell is going on?
"I told M to cover her. That girl has been a pain ever since we fought Xorn."
Okay that was Bobby's voice, but definitely not Bobby. That sounded more like Alex or Cyclops. Something is wrong.
"Sometimes Robert I swear you've become as cold as the ice you control. Your wife is hurt and your want to discuss battle tactics."
"Wife!" Lorna shouted as she arose from the hospital bed, much to the surprise of Iceman and Professor X. "Am I at the Mansion? What happened to Greystone?"
Iceman and Xavier exchanged an awkward glance and Bobby said, "You got tagged pretty good by Bolivar. I got your out of there quick as I could."
"And we all know Bobby goes entirely too fast on his ice slides," Xavier said as he put his mouth to an intercom speaker next to a light switch close to the infirmary's exit. "Everyone, Polaris is up and no worse for wear. Come visit her."
It was then that Lorna noticed an important detail. "Professor! You're walking. Did I miss something?"
Charles looked at Polaris' perked up eyebrows. He responded low and slow. "Nothing I've noticed recently."
"Ummm…baby maybe Trask hit you a little harder than we thought," Iceman said.
Lorna hopped off the bed and pointed a finger at Iceman. "Look. I'm not your baby and you're going to tell me what's going on here before I go postal! Where's Forge? Where's Havok?"
Iceman's eyes narrowed. "Why do you want to know about that piece of trash?"
Lorna placed her hands on her hips. "Look, I know the two of you may not be the best of friends, but-
"Have you lost your mind Lorna? He murdered my parents! Of course we aren't the best of friends!"
"I think we may need to keep you in observation," Xavier said. "Just to be sure no extensive damage has been done."
A green magnetic force field erected around Dane as she shouted, "This is crazy! Alex hasn't killed anybody. Someone is going to tell what's going on. Now!"
The door to the infirmary slid back to reveal Magneto, Scarlet Witch, and Shaman. All of their uniforms were different from what Lorna remembered. Magneto had the same helmet but down the middle of his torso was a purple chest plate which connected with a purple belt. The plate still exposed his ribs. Besides for the red cape and purple wristbands, the rest of his uniform was black.
Scarlet Witch had no cape and none of her usual head garments. She was wearing fingerless gloves that extend to her forearm and a strapless belly shirt. Her leather pants were red like the rest of her attire.
Shaman was wearing a black leather jacket that was unzipped. He didn't have a shirt, so a chiseled body was revealed. A blue headband stood out against his pitch-black hair. His wristbands were the same color as were the trimmings on his black pants.
Twoyoungmen was the first to say something to the distraught Polaris. "Lorna, what are you doing?"
"Now Alpha Flight is here. Great, who's next? The Avengers?" Lorna asked as metal throughout the room began to shake. If she didn't get answers soon she'd barrel her way to the surface. Someone was screwing with her.
Magneto laughed gently. "I assure you my dear that The Avengers will not be assisting us X-Men with anything anytime soon. Surely you remember laying Ares flat on his back."
"No I don't! That's never even happened," Lorna replied as a new dread settled in the pit of her stomach. What if Greystone had somehow landed in the past and altered it? That would explain this very strange and awkward situation.
Magneto looked over grimly to his best friend, Charles Xavier, and he knew instantly that they both shared the same fear. Polaris had been part of the group of X-men that first encountered Mr. Sinister. Lorna and Legion had been captured by the mad scientist and were subjected to his sick experiments. They X-Men rescued their two teammates, but the damage had been done. Polaris was implanted with a symbiotic life form that heightened her powers, but fractured her personality. The life form couldn't be removed and Lorna was sent into treatments with Exodus. They had believed her cured.
"Lorna, can we please be rational about this? I'm sure whatever the problem is that we can talk it out," Wanda said.
Honestly, Polaris didn't have the slightest clue what to do. The Scarlet Witch's idea wasn't exactly a bad one. "Ok we talk, but the shield stays up. Is that understood?"
"Forgive me my dear, but that's not acceptable," Magneto said as eh held up a flat palm and sent Lorna's shield into a frenzy. The energy turned back on Lorna and she fell to the ground twitching and unconscious. She didn't scream though and in that moment Magneto felt like he was looking at someone entirely different from the little girl he had always known. He couldn't quite understand the feeling.
Bobby rushed to Lorna's side and placed her back on the bed. "Was that really necessary Magneto? We could have talked her down. Professor X was making progress."
"I don't doubt that, but our machinery is too sensitive and her powers were affecting them. I had to do something."
"Agreed. My technopathy was screaming. She hasn't damaged anything I can't fix though," Xavier, the Mansion's resident mechanic said. He was the world's most experienced technopath and built all the various supplies in the X-Men's arsenal.
Iceman kissed Lorna on the forehead. "Any idea what's wrong with her? Just the fact she asked for Havok-
"Charles and myself were thinking the same thing," Magneto interjected. "The personality problems may be returning."
"And we don't have a single telepath," Bobby sighed.
That reminded Xavier of his friend's most recent mission. "How did the search for David go? Any clues?"
"Legion has been in various places throughout North Africa, but we could not pinpoint him," Magneto answered.
Xavier hung his head low. "I know David is going after his grandmother. Damn him for being so stubborn."
His son was a powerful mutant, but he was stepping into a battle he couldn't fight alone. David was going to need help, but whether he accepted it or not was a different matter altogether. That bull-headedness came from Gabrielle. Maybe she could help him find David…if she wouldn't hang up every time he called.
"Legion's powerful enough to handle himself. We need to focus on Lorna here. We need a telepath," Wanda said.
"What about Susan Storm?" Shaman asked. The leader of the Fantastic Four was one of the world's most powerful telepaths and one of the few who didn't hold animosity of some sort towards the X-Men.
"We might have to give Four Towers a call. Hopefully she's not in Atlantis," Iceman replied.
"You mean after you almost turned the place into a Popsicle," Wanda snickered.
A Little Later
Lorna woke up feeling her hand enwrapped in that of Robert Drake. She looked at him with bewildered eyes and he said, "I'm sorry Magneto had to hurt you like that, but you were causing potential damage to multimillion dollar equipment."
Polaris snatched her hand away from Bobby and said, "You never told me where Alex or the rest of X-Factor was."
"Trying to find Havok or any of Sinister's lot is a near impossible task. As for Moonstar's team, they're probably blowing up some factory in China or something," Iceman said trying to mask the hurt he felt at his wife pulling away from him.
Looking at him allowed Lorna to see the pained expression and she could tell he was being genuine. "I'm sorry I have been so rude to all of you. This is just really confusing."
"That's why the Professor is calling Susan Storm."
"What the hell can the Invisible Woman do?"
Iceman wanted to reach out and take Lorna's hand again, but he stopped himself. "Invisible Woman huh? Pretty sure she's always gone by Psi-Storm. Kinda playing on her name."
"See! That's what I'm talking about! None of this makes sense. It's not supposed to be like this."
The two soon found themselves accompanied by Magneto, who said to Lorna, "My apologies for having to harm you, but you were posing a threat to operations here."
"You have no idea how hilarious that sounds to me."
"Polaris I must ask you something," Magneto said. He paused to wait for Lorna to respond, but he received silence. So he continued on. "Where do you think you are?"
"Not home. That much I know. Something…no everything here is wrong," Lorna said as she buried her face in her hands. "He must have went back and changed things."
"Who? What are you talking about baby?"
"She's talking about time travel. Aren't you Lorna?"
NEXT ISSUE: Enter the Fantastic Four