Ultimate X-Men:

Issue 48

The Tempest Part 3

"I'm bored!" Iceman said as he slammed an ice rod through one of the monsters that Xavier had created with the danger room. "Why are we playing with these lame Alien rip-offs, when we could be looking for whichever whackjob is out there killing other mutants?" He groaned as he turned around and threw a few ice balls towards another charging creature.

Up in the observation deck Xavier and Blink were watching the group train below. Blink sat in a chair next to the older man and looked bored too, but she didn't say anything, she just sat there waiting for Charles to talk to her. A part of Xavier was grateful that the woman didn't say anything. That she and her team were working with him instead of butting heads with him.

But of course a part of him was upset that he was happy about that. Xavier knew he was getting old, he just didn't want to quite accept it just yet.

"Blink, I understand your boredom, but I know you all have excellent trained skills. Furthermore, I can't really think of anything to train your abilities without using real objects." He held up at hand before she could say anything thing and he pushed a button. "And Iceman, you are not hunting for Sinister with your elder classmates precisely because of the flip attitude with which you approach these exercises."

Blink waited for the professor to look at her before she said anything. "Well professor, when you have trained in a war zone much of your life, you tend to pick some things about your powers." He nodded and went back to watching the rest of the X-Men fighting the battle simulator. "Besides, I can learn just by watching how the X-Men move. You would be surprised at how much you can learn, really." Blink said as her eyes glowed a soft pink and she leaned forward watching everybody work.

"Professor," Iceman said sliding over to help his fellow class mate, Rogue. "If you had let me go into the city, this psycho would already be in deep freeze." Iceman shot a powerful blast of ice towards the creature and it froze, solid.

Rouge was being held by one of the tentacles of the creature as Bobby slid past her, shooting more ice out of his hands and laughing. "Forget the cold shoulder, Bobby. If ah got my hands on that guy, I'd drain every last drop of life from his hide."

"Rogue, if we murdered Sinister, how would we be any better than –" Angel said as he flew past the two and slammed his feet into the one holding onto Rogue.

"Oh, please." Rogue said as she landed on her feet when the creature let her go. "You don't believe that line do you Wings?"

"This coming from the chick who used to work for Magneto?" Kitty said as she phased past two of the monsters trying to attack her. When she completely phased through the creatures she sent her foot towards the heads of the closest creature and sent it flying away from her.

"That ain't fair, Kitty." Rogue hissed as she punched one of the creatures coming towards her. "I was just a dumb kid back then. Besides, even Magneto never hurt his own kind…"

Phase ran through a group of the monsters to get where the girls where and quickly went solid as he sent his fist to the closest enemy, punching it with all his might. Phase quickly turned around phased through an oncoming monster and turned around, going solid once again and punching. "You would be surprised at what Magneto can do, child."

Charger was right behind the man kicking and punching whatever tried to make its way to the two mutants. "Chill Phase, they don't know how ruthless Magneto can be… In our time…" Charged feel to the ground and picked up a medium size rock, she quickly charged it with enger and hurled it towards a creature that was coming towards her.

With a burst of energy the rock exploded next to the creature and it was down.

"Player's standby: Callsign Dazzler entering Danger Room." The computer voiced over the speakers. Without another word from anyone, the woman, Dazzler appeared in the center of the fighting.

"Look out nerds! Ali Blair is back from the party!" She screamed as light burst from her hands.

The simulation came to a stop as the monsters disappeared and everyone gathered around her.

"Man, I forgot that we started accepting losers on the team…" Iceman said looking at the drunk girl laying on the ground.

"She smells… horrible." Rogue said covering her noise.

"Wicked." Charged said with a sick amusement in her eyes.

Phase, Angle, and Shadowcat just looked at the woman as she puked over herself and they all took a step back.


In the city, the X-Men landed their X-jet on one of the taller buildings in the area. They each, one by one walked out of the jet.

"I think we should get a bigger jet." Phoenix said as he walked off the platform and looked out over the city. "Wow." He said as he walked towards the edge of the building. Never before had he seen the city look like this, and never before had he seen so many people in one spot. This was… amazing.

"I know. It's what I said when I first came here the other day." Wild Child said as she walked up behind Phoenix. The others slowly walked up around them.

"Is it different when you come from?" Jean asked standing close to Cyclops and Nightcrawler.

Phoenix turned his face to her and nodded. His shoulder length reddish hair blew away from his face as he said, "Yeah… most of the city is abandoned, and what people do live there its only because they are not allowed to leave. Just the last part of the war, New York was turned into a camp controlled by the X'ers."

"X'ers?" Colossus asked?

"Team, we don't have time for this right now. We have are mission. Everyone clear?" Cyclops said, his voice sounding ruff, but also sounding a little disappointed. "When we get back we can continue the conversation."

Everyone nodded. "Jean's uploaded the visual of Sinister she got from the Beaubier kid's memories directly into all of our occipital lobes. Contact the Professor if you spot anything. Sinister's got some kind of hypnotic stare, so do not engage him alone."

We a final nod from everyone, Nightcrawler took hold of Wild Child and Jean then winked at Cyclops before he teleported them away.

"Come on." Tempest said as he floated into the air and began to fly away. Storm took a hold of Wolverine and quickly followed. Cyclops waved a hand and Colossus nodded. Phoenix winked at the big man while walking past and smiled. Colossus blushed a horrible red color before quickly following.


Nightcrawler and his two female mutants reappeared on top of another building in the area overlooking the rest of the city.

"If there is a man alive whose buttons are easier to push then your boyfriend's, I have yet to meet him." Nightcrawler said letting go of his two friends and smiling a very devilish smile.

"You're dating him?" Wild Child said popping her claws and squatting on her knees, sniffing at the air and looking over the edge of the building.

"Yes, and don't be too hard on him guys. After what happened to Beast, I can't blame Scott for being a little… uptight." Jean said looking down at her feet. Something about Wild Child reminded her of Wolverine, well besides the obvious stuff that was.

Wild Child got to her feet and walked around the roof making her way back to the two talking mutants who know moved on to talking about how many mutants where in the Harlem area.

"Hey!" A man's voice yelled at the three mutants.

Wild Child pointed her claws at the boy. "Who are you?" She asked calmly, the same calm that Wolverine acted before he was about to "off" someone.

"I have been waiting for you cowards to show yourselves on my turf!" The kid said. The teenager had no physical body that the three mutants could make out, just a blackish glowing yellow form.

Almost like a sunspot.

The teenager pointed his hand at the three and a burst of flame shot out of his hand and landed near them. Kurt jumped into the air as Jean jumped back; the only one who didn't move was Wild Child.

Worried for her friend and new teammate, Jean held up her hand and fire appeared in it. A same type of flame appeared in her eyes as well.

"Ashes." She said in an even calmer voice then Wolverine could muster up. Wild Child watched as the Phoenix flame enveloped around her. The power she was pulling from the universe was immense, but it wasn't meant to kill. Wild Child knew this as her eyes widened. She could not believe what she was staring at, this was the same type of energy that Alex used… almost down to the exactly degree of the flames.

"How?" She said finally taking a step back from the flame bird.

The boy flew back with the force of the blast as his power was slowly drained from him. "Who are you?"

"Who are you?" Jean asked as the flame bird slowly started to die around her and she walked up to the young man.

"My name is Roberto DaCosta, neighborhood watch! I have been on patrol ever since you hell creatures started putting holes in mutants like me."

Nigthcrawler walked closer to the depowered mutant and put a hand out to him, hoping to calm his nerves. "We are looking for the same killer as you!" He said looking at the young man and finally taking his hand back when Roberto never took it. Wild Child shook her head, realizing that this was not the time or place to be looking at Jean with an open mouth. She decided to walk over to Roberto and pull him off wither he liked it or not.

Jean rolled her eyes at the young mutant. "We are the X-Men."

"I've heard of your little club." Roberto said as he pushed himself away from Wild Child. "So you have finally decided to climb down from your ivory tower and grace us "second-class" muties with your presence?"

"How dare you!" Wild Child growled as she took a few steps forward. Nightcrawler held a hand out to stop the girl and Jean moved to block her from Roberto's path.

"We just want to help." Jean said.

"Really? Where was your help when some ignorant bigots torched my apartment because of what that cabrao Magneto did to the President?"

"What?" Wild Child said calming down.

"Where was your help when my friend Angelo was beaten within an inch of his life simple because the texture of his skin?"

Wild Child looked from the teenager to the people she called X-Men, people that she believed where legends in her time because of all the good that they did. X-Men because Angel, her mentor had told her that they were X-Men.

Could he be wrong? Could she? What could that mean for her?

Everyone looked down at their feet. Wild Child quickly recovered and shot daggers at the man who was walking towards the door off the roof. "No, we have learned to live just fine without your charity. Whatever you're offering now is much too little, much too late." Roberto said as he walked through the open door and slammed it shut behind him.

"Man…" Jean said.

Nightcrawler didn't say anything and Wild Child just spit at the closing door.

"Doesn't he know WE can't do everything? Why should I help someone who doesn't help themselves?" Wild Child said as she turned away from the door. She was upset, but at the same time, she knew that the X-Men couldn't save everyone… but still something gnawed at the back of her mind.

Jean and Nightcrawler smiled at their new teammate and then put hands around her.

"It will be okay girl, it will be okay." Jean said.


Somewhere in Midtown:

"Kill them all!" A man scream in Russian as the ten men behind him pulled up their guns and opened fire.

"HEY!" Phoenix yelled as he placed a reddish shield in front of himself. Colossus smiled down at the young man.

"Whoops." He said, and with just a hint of red in his metal checks.

Cyclops rolled his eyes, although no one could of known that a scolded the two. "If you two love birds are done!" He shot a red beam of energy out of his eyes and smacked two of the shooting men back into the wall. "Colossus, I thought you said these guys where your friends!"

Colossus huffed as he walked into the streaming spry of bullets and blocked them from Phoenix. Phoenix hurled a ball of red energy at a group of men now that his concentration was no longer on defending.

"They were!" Colossus yelled as he slammed his metal fist into a surprised young man. "But Russian arms dealers are infamously bad tempered!" He growled as he spun and took out another three shooters.

"And here I was thinking it was all Russians…" Phoenix said as he picked up a man who decided the bullets were not working and wanted to use the butt of his gun on the back of Colossus head.

"Spasibo…" Colossus growled, but with a hint of a laugh as he lunged at one of the last men and grabbed him by the shirt. "Except when it comes to money, that is. Here, their love is unwavering." The man Colossus picked up started to shake, and not from Colossus's angry fist. "They would happily sell an unregistered .45 to some lunatic, and not lose a wink of sleep when he starts murdering young men and women with it!" Colossus finished with a roar.

Phoenix had started piling up the men as Colossus threw them over his shoulder or just beat them into submission behind the big metal men and he sat on them, knee's crossed, left elbow resting on a knee. "Hey Ruskie, I think we may have a problem."

"Huh?" Colossus said still holding the man and looking behind him at Phoenix. He smiled when he saw the sight, Phoenix sitting on top of eight men, all glowing red with his power. Phoenix pointed with his chin to in front of the big metal guy.

"You are wrong Rasputin." A tall bald man was holding Cyclops in the crook of his elbow, a very big gun pointed at his head. Colossus dropped the man and growled just as loud as before.

The man's eyes went wide as Colossus let him go, but before he could move, the reddish power that Phoenix was controlling enveloped him. He couldn't even scream as he slowly floated past Colossus and to the group of eight men. "Let's stay quite now and see how these… men… work things out."

The man holding the gun to Cyclops head didn't even blink an eye, in fact he almost smiled. "We stopped selling .45s years ago. There is much more profit to be made in a nice TEC-9 like the one your boyfriend here is modeling."

"Let him go!" Colossus said taking a step toward his teammate.

"Stop!" The man yelled as he held on tighter to Cyclops, who grunted. "These X-people took my most valuable muscle from me, so it's only fair that I take something from them."

"No!" Colossus yelled putting both hands in the air. He stole a quick look at Phoenix who seemed to be off in his own world. Colossus quickly wrote it off as he trying to concentrate on the nine men he was controlling. "Leaving the Mafia was my decision! If you have to kill someone, kill me!"

The man laughed as he started to move the gun. Colossus noticed Cyclops twitch just a bit and mouth the words okay. Then the slim man cocked his head. "Cyclops, what are you…"

Without warning Cyclops let lose a huge beam of red energy from his eyes headed straight towards Colossus. The poor man had no time to react, he closed his eyes at the beam hit him. Colossus winched at the attack but didn't feel anything; he barely even felt the energy beam near him. Opening his eyes Colossus noticed that the beam of energy shot back at Cyclops and the man and the beam him the older man square in the head.

With a grunt the man fell, limped to the floor. Just as his head hit the floor the reddish energy surrounded Phoenix and the men he was holding disappeared and they flopped on the ground.

"Well, that was interesting." Phoenix said getting to his feet as he shook the dust off his hands.

Colossus stood stunned looking at the man lying on the floor. "Amazing! How did you know the optic blast would ricochet off of my organic steel?"

Cyclops rubbed his neck as he walked towards the door, ignoring the question that was asked to him. Colossus's eyes went wide, "You did know it would ricochet?" Still no answer from the man and Colossus whirled around to face Phoenix who was standing right behind him. "He knew, right?" Colossus voice went to a level that Phoenix had no idea he could reach.

Phoenix smiled at the man and put his arms around one of the big man's arm and looked up at him. "Come on big boy." And Phoenix pulled a stunned Colossus out of the room and through the door.


Storm and Wolverine were walking next to each other as Tempest was walking a few steps behind them. He looked up at the street corner when the people in front of him stopped. "St Marks…" Tempest said.

He looked out over the crowd and noticed all the people walking about. He was nervous with all the bodies around him. He grew up around this area, but it looked so different in this time, the time before, everything happened. Stealing a quick glance at the two mutants in front of him he still couldn't believe that he was here… that he was here and now!

"Yo! Temp! Come on!" Wolverine called. Tempest looked around and noticed that the two had crossed the street as he was daydreaming. He waved at them and ran crossing the street, watching for cars.

As Tempest ran up to the two he overheard the last of what Wolverine was saying to Storm, "…yourself a dumb haircut and start dressing like street trash?"

"Oh…" Storm said as she raised her eyes to look at Tempest as he walked up next to her. Tempest gave her a sad smile and nodded at the two mutants. Storm sent a sad smile back and Wolverine just nodded, continuing his little speech.

"You're not the first person life ever stomped on. Take a look around." Wolverine said as he gestured with his chin at a group of teenagers who looked the same age as Storm. Tempest placed a big hand on her shoulder and smiled at her.

Wolverine went on with his lecture, but Tempest toned him out, he didn't care one way or another for their simple view on life. He looked around the street, something seemed off. He didn't know what time he came from or how far he came back. You tend not to care about time when you are fighting for your life on a day to day basis.

It was the sign… A tattoo joint. Growing up on this street he never noticed that before… he could have sworn it was a…

"Hold up. I wanna make a quick stop." Tempest made a sour face at the man and Storm out right giggled.

"Really? Ink. At a time like this?" Storm said as she coughed when Wolverine growled at the two of them.

"I saw a word written on Sinister's arm in that mug shot Jeanie zapped into our heads. Looks like the lettering they did here."

Storm looked at the man with narrowed eyes. On the other side of Wolverine Tempest looked him up and down.

"What do you know about tattoos?" Storm asked as Tempest smiled.

"That's… that's another story… Come on, I figure we can get some leads from their client list." Wolverine said as he made his way up the stairs. Conner quickly followed behind the man, he wanted to go in, something about this building reminded him of his past… or future… or… Well, he knew it from somewhere.

"Isn't that stuff confidential?" Storm asked before she started to make her way up the stairs. Wolverine growled again and just waved the girl to follow him. The three mutants walked into the opened door and looked around. Storm almost gagged at the stench and Tempest looked around at the room in disgust.

"Yeah?" A man said with a face full of metal without look up from his magazine. The three entered the building and Wolverine pointed at Tempest and then pointed to the back of the building. Tempest nodded and walked to the back without saying anything. Wolverine pointed at Storm and she wondered off to the side room to check for anybody.

"Hello!" The man said looking up from the magazine with a hint of annoyance in his voice. Wolverine just smiled at the man as he locked the doon and took a step to the man.

"No one." Storm said as she walked back into the room, Wolverine looked to the back of the building as Tempest came back into view and he too shook his head. Wolverine's smile widened as he grabbed the man by his shirt and threw him into one of the chairs in the center of the room.

"Get bent, freak!" He yelled as Wolverine jumped next to the guy trying to climb out of the chair. Wolverine pushed him back and popped his claws out of his knuckles.

"I wonder if we can add anymore hole into that head of yours?" Wolverine said, his claws inching closer to the man's face.

"You don't scare me! What you gonna do with those… pierce me?" The man said with a laugh. "Take a look at my face… "bub.""

Tempest took a step forward but Storm held out her hand. "Let me handle this." She said, lighting starting to form around her eyes.

The man laughed again. "The Weather Witch? I saw you on Dateline, girly. You going to make me all… wet." He said with a sneer as Storm held a hand under his chin and lightning danced across her fingers and just touched his skin.

"Have you ever heard of ball lighting?" She asked as the tetrads of lighting formed into a ball of pure energy. The man yelled. Tempest tried to block out what the woman was doing. He was surprised the girl knew as much as she did. From what he understood they had not been doing this… X-Men, thing for very long, but he was surprised what they had to go through, never before had he thought about all the things… then it hit him!

He stole a quick glance around the room and right under the man and Storm stood a trap door. He use to hide here when he was a child! It was…

"Come on, he spilled." Wolverine said placing a hand on the young man's shoulder. Tempest stared at the man and realized that spilling information was not the only thing he had done.

Tempest turned to go, but Wolverine stopped him

"You okay kid?" Wolverine asked, concern actually entering his voice.

"Hm?" Tempest asked, looking down at the short man.

"Come on, Tempe-" Wolverine started but was stopped by Tempest.

"Conner… call me Conner, Jam- Logan." Tempest said walking past the man and running to catch up with Storm.

Wolverine stood where he was, eyes going wide. Not much can surprise Wolverine, but it sounded like Tempest, no Conner, was about to call Logan… James… only a few people knew that name. Another question for another time, he had to find this Sinister before he shoot anyone else.

Ten minutes later the three were walking around an empty apartment. It seemed that nobody lived here, just used it as space. Wolverine pointed at the two younger X-Men and then pointed at the back room. They nodded not saying anything as they walked away.

Wolverine sniffed the air and popped his claws; no one had been here in hours it seemed. He walked over to a desk and shifted through some papers when he heard a scream.

"Ororo!" Wolverine yelled and ran into the next room.

Wolverine burst into the room seeing Tempest on his knees and Storm holding a hand to her mouth, from screaming or laughing, Wolverine couldn't tell.

"Ro, are you –"

"Im… I'm fine…" She gained control over herself and pointed at Tempest. "He's the one that screamed." She almost laughed again, but held it in better this time.

"I… I didn't scream… it… I was…"

"What is going on?" Wolverine asked sliding his claws back into his hands.

"That." Storm said pointing at a manikin wearing a blue outfit and blue cape. It had a huge red A on its waist.

"It's…" Tempest swallowed hard and closed his eyes. Wolverine stopped listening as he looked around the room and narrowed his eyes as he walked over to the far left wall.

"Wolverine?" Tempest asked as Wolverine shook his head.

"Man, this guy must really be lonely…" Storm said pushing the manikin over.

"No…" Wolverine whispered.

"What?" Storm said as she turned to look at Tempest who was starting at Wolverine.

"We have to get back to Xavier's!" Wolverine said turning around and looking at the two younger mutants.

"But –" Storm began, but was stopped by Wolverine popping his claws and growling.

"The creep ain't in Manhattan anymore!" Storm finally got a look at what Wolverine was looking at.

"No…" She said as she stared at the wall. It was covered with pictures of the X-Men and other mutants. Four of the pictures had huge red X's going through them, the four dead mutants from last night. The others were of the mutants that were left at the mansion, minus those of the future X-Men.

"It was a trap!" Tempest said as he quickly flew into the air and made his way out of the building.

Wolverine and Storm look at the young man's retreating form and quickly followed.

To be continued.