&&&

"Once we were a thousand separate kingdoms, spread over a hundred magic worlds. We were kings and cobblers. Wizards or woodcarvers. We had our sinners, our saints, and our blatant social climbers. And from the grandest lord to the lowliest peasant girl, we were, for the most part, strangers one to another.

It took an invasion to unite us.

Beyond the farthest shores of never, the adversary lived in a remote kingdom, ignored by other powers as his strength and ambitions grew over the long centuries. Some say he was a mere woodland sprite, while others claim he was a god thrown down from the vast heavens when his corruptions had become too great for his lofty brethren to tolerate.

Whatever his origins, he grew into a dark thing of infinite hunger. And after he'd conquered his own lands, putting each of its former kings to the sword, he turned his unquenchable appetites in our direction.

When the Emerald Kingdom fell we tisk-tisked and tut-tutted in our homes, sad for the fates of those unfortunate souls, but we weren't tempted to intervene. After all, they were always odd folks, and ever so far away. It wasn't our business.

Then the Kingdom of the Great Lion fell, and again we did nothing, because we always found the old lion to be a bit too pompous and holier-than-thou for our tastes.

And one by one, our scattered lands fell under the Adversary's dominion, swallowed up into his ever growing empire. Had we banded together early, we might have been able to stop him. By the time that we realized that he wasn't merely interested in conquering that land or those people--that he was coming after all of us--it was too late.

He'd grown too powerful.

Many of us didn't have the chance to run. Some of us survived. Too few. Alone, or in small groups, over the span of many years--or lifetimes--we hid and ran and avoided capture. We lived as outlaws and phantoms. Until we could make our way here, to this dreary mundane place: the one world the Adversary seemed to take no interest in.

And here, united by our common enemy, we learned to set aside our grudges. We forgave our many grievances, to make covenant with each other. And now, predator and prey, prince and pauper, we are all of us a single community allied in our undying memory of the Homelands, and the unshakable determination that one day we will return to win those lands free of the hated one.

Ladies and gentlemen, lift your glasses and join me, please, in drinking this toast.

'To the Homelands.'"

-Mayor King Cole of Fabletown.

(Fables by Bill Willingham)

&&&

Rahne covered her face with her hand as everything went to hell. "This is not happening this is not happening…" She groaned. "Who am I kidding? Of course it is!"

Confronted with a two- or three-story tall wolf, the X-Men took up positions to fight it.

SNIKT! "Come on doggy, time for you to get fixed!" Logan snarled as he rushed towards Bigby again. The giant black wolf didn't move. He just let Logan get closer and closer. Then—

"Raargh!" Logan bellowed as the wolf, faster than lightning, grabbed Logan's arm with his powerful jaws and bit down. Shaking his head back and forth, Bigby released him and sent Logan flying away like a rag doll. His claws bit into the trunk of a nearby tree about halfway up. But to his annoyance Logan found that he couldn't pull them out again; they were in too deep. "Aww come on!" Logan grunted as he tugged and pulled.

Storm flew above the monstrous wolf. "Let the arctic winds chill your fiery temper!" She called forth powerful gusts of wind to batter Bigby with…none of them would touch him. They all bent around him causing nothing more than a slight ruffling of his fur.

He snorted. "You don't read many fables do you? Using wind against the Big Bad Wolf? Are you crazy? I'm the freaking son of the North Wind for crying out loud! No little gust is gonna stop me! Hell, all the winds bow to my will. Now if it's a storm your after," Bigby grinned. "Prepare for the old 'Huff-and-Puff!'" Taking a deep breath, Bigby blew. A mighty gale roared forth and caught Storm up in its wake, sending her off into the trees behind the Institute too.

Rahne shook her head as the other X-Men moved in. "This is SO clichéd."

"Watcha mean furtop?" Tabby asked her. The New Mutants hadn't charged out into the field yet. Emma was keeping them back as she tried to attack Bigby's mind. So far, it didn't look like she was succeeding.

Rahne just rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, you can't get more clichéd than this! Somebody new and unknown shows up, there's a misunderstanding or no chance to give an explanation, and suddenly you have a pointless fight between two people or groups that have no reason to be fighting at all!"

"Now that you mention it, those 'Hero on Hero' fights 'are pretty clichéd." Tabby admitted. "They were old when the Professor was young!"

"So you mean that the wolf is on our side?" Jubilee asked as she pointed at Bigby, who was busy burying Gambit up to his neck in the ground.

"Yes." Rahne said with exaggerated patience. "What? You think that I—someone who turns into a wolf and with a heightened sense of smell—wouldn't have realized that the father of the kids I baby-sit was a giant wolf? Give me a little credit here!"

"She's gotta point." Sam admitted. "Guess we kinda jumped the gun here." A sudden crash—Colossus slamming through the wall—seemed to highlight the point.

"Ya think?" Paige asked her older brother.

"So your saying that in a little while we're gonna end up on the same side as—Bigby was it?—anyway so fighting him now really doesn't make any sense." Gilaad shrugged. "Suits me anyway. My powers don't do anything in this fight, except maybe tell me where he's been and somehow—" He winced as he saw Bigby glare his giant fangs. "—I don't think I really want to know. Besides, I'm all out of silver bullets."

"What about you Sharon?" Rahne asked her.

"Catseye not like giant wolf-dogs." She gulped.

"Understandable." Rahne allowed as Bigby snapped at the air as Rogue flew around his head.

"Let's give them another five minutes then we'll break it up." Sam sighed. "In the meantime let's have a snack."

"Shouldn't we try to break it up now?" Jamie asked, flanked by Naomi and Penny. Sam shook his head.

"Do you really want to get in the middle of them right now?" He asked as Scott fired an optic blast at Bigby's flank, doing little more than making him even madder. Jamie shook his head. "Thought not." Sam nodded. "Maybe it'll teach them a lesson about being so hot-headed and impulsive."

"One can dream I suppose." Jubilee rolled her eyes.

"Hold on a sec." Rahne called. "Come on in kids! Snack time!"

"Yay!"

The New Mutants looked on with varying expressions of confusion as half a-dozen kids ran into the Institute. "They're Bigby's kids." Rahne explained. "Come on."

&&&

About ten minutes after the New Mutants and Bigby's children came inside the bedraggled X-Men limped in. Bigby—back in his human form and look none the worse for wear—came in a minute after them.

"We decided to talk—" Scott started.

"About time." Rahne snorted, unimpressed. "Mr. Wolf was that really necessary?"

"They started it kid." Bigby shrugged. "Besides I had to see just how useful they'd be in a scrap."

"You couldn't have just watched the 6 o'clock news? We're on it at least once a week." Tabby raised an eyebrow. "Now that you guys are done beating each other up could someone please tell me why you came in the first place?"

"I came for my kids when Rahne brought them here." Bigby started. "But then I saw the news and I recognized the creep pulling Creed's strings. He's one of ours. Or was."

"Can someone please clue me in?" Kurt groaned.

"I don't know, can they?" Gilaad quipped.

"Um, that might be a private matter—" Rahne started before Bigby shook his head.

"Appreciate the thought, but the cats out of the bag now." He shrugged. "My name is Bigby Wolf. I assumed you all worked out the pun by now."

"Huh?" Bobby asked.

"Bigby. Big-Bee. Big B Wolf. Big Bad Wolf?" Rahne spelled it out for him. Bigby rolled his eyes.

"Anyway, yes, I'm the Big Bad Wolf." Bigby started again.

"The Big Bad Wolf?" Kitty blinked. "The one from all the stories? The Three Little Pigs? Little Red Riding Hood?"

"YES." Bigby growled. "Do you mind?"

"Sorry." She winced. "I just didn't remember the wolf, er, you being so big in those fables."

"Things do grow in the telling." Bigby groaned. "Anyway, yes, I am a fable: one of many living in your world. We fled our own when our own were conquered centuries ago by someone we call the Adversary. Those of us that could fled threw the magical gateways connecting the Homelands to your mundane world. We settled here, not long after this continent was discovered by Europeans."

"Okay…and?" Logan asked impatiently.

"After centuries of being cutoff from the Homelands, the Adversary sent a force into New York City to destroy us." Bigby grunted. "We smashed them."

"How come we never heard of any battle in the city?" Jean asked.

"Because we took steps to ensure that no one would see or recall anything." Bigby snorted. "We've become past-masters at hiding ourselves from you mundys."

"That's Mundanes." Rahne translated for the confused looking X-Men. "Non-Fables."

"Not long after the attempted invasion of Fabletown, we struck back at the Empire." Bigby snorted. "I went back into the Homelands and destroyed the Empire's main military resource. We took the opportunity to offer the chance for peace with the Adversary—who we found out to be Gepetto the woodcarver—" Remy let out a bark of laughter. Bigby whirled on him. "You got something to say bub?"

"Gepetto? Your arch-enemy is an old-man who makes wooden puppets?" Remy laughed. "You hommes must be pretty pathetic." Bigby grabbed him by the collar of his coat and slammed him against the wall.

"We're not your Disney fairy tales." Bigby snarled as he turned into a wolf-man form. "And I'm sure I could take all day to laugh at the fact that one of your primary enemies is a deranged man whose mad because mummy and daddy didn't love him enough when he was a kid. But the fact doesn't change that the troops, dragons, goblins, and wooden-soldiers in the Empire's—in Gepetto's—service has slaughtered, pillaged, burned, enslaved, and raped its way across the Homelands." Bigby shoved him hard before reverting back to his human state and continued. "Not long ago he sent one of his minions here to act as his emissary. In a cruel, calculated move he sent an ex-member of Fabletown and wanted serial killer: Hansel; The Empire's Inquisitor."

"Hansel? What happened to Gretel?" Kurt asked.

"He murdered her centuries ago." Bigby said bluntly.

"You're right, these aren't your usual Disney stories." Hank winced. Bigby explained.

"Ever since he burned the Black Forest Witch in her own oven he had an obsession with witches and magic. He saw himself as God's tool to eradicate witchcraft. He and his sister fled to this world too, but was horrified to discover the Black Forest Witch was here ahead of them."

"But she was burned up in her oven! All the stories say that!" Jean protested. Bigby snorted.

"Fables are a tough breed. And don't dismiss Frau Totenkinder's—the Black Forest witch's real name—strength. She might be one of the most powerful witches in your world. But because of the Amensty—the founding document of Fabletown—he couldn't burn her as he wanted to. The Amnesty forgives all debts and grudges from the Homelands; they're legally washed away as if they never existed. It's the only thing that keeps all of us from turning on one another.

So when Hansel couldn't kill her or any of the other witches or sorcerers among us Fables, he decided to journey out during your own witch-hunts in Europe. He killed hundreds, maybe thousands of supposed witches and devil-possessed people in Europe before returning to America when the Salem Trials broke out. He stopped by Fabletown to visit Gretel; who had been taking magic lessons under Frau Totenkinder. The next thing we knew, Hansel was bringing her body into the main office talking about a 'horrible accident' where his sister had broken her neck. We kicked Hansel out for good not long afterwards and he made his way back to the Homelands and into the Adversary's service."

"And now this guy is associating with Creed and Stryker…" Rogue mused. "Question is: why?"

"I've been keeping an eye on Hansel ever since he showed up here." Bigby said. "He's also been meeting with other people besides Stryker, like Jon Castaway and the Huntsman."

"Who're they?" Hank asked.

"They're leaders of two anti-magic groups called the Quarrymen and the Huntsclan. They're stated purpose is to exterminate all magical creatures and beings on Earth." Bigby reported. "He's brought them together with Stryker's Purity organization in a coalition. They intend to link up their fight against magical beings with Creed's FOH. They haven't exposed the magical world yet…but they intend to. Did you hear where Creed said he'd be meeting some new allies during his news conference?"

"Corner of Bullfinch and Kipling Street." Emma recalled.

"That's right in the middle of Fabletown." Bigby told them. "And if—when—the magical world is exposed we can expect a blowback as bad as what mutants faced when they were exposed. And then…"

"Everything snowballs and hits the fan." Logan finished. "Crap."

"Bingo."

&&&

"Um are you all right?" Amira asked Ronnie Rocker as the ghost shook his head and climbed to his feet. She would've offered him her hand but since he was a ghost it probably wouldn't have done much.

"Yeah, I mean what's it gonna do? Kill me?" Ronnie scoffed before turning back to the fight. "Hmm…Ember's tougher than I thought."

"Kid Big Mouth seems up to the challenge." Amira noted. Ronnie chuckled. "True. But I can't figure out just what the point of this all is? Why is she even here?"

"Don't look at me. Ask her." Amira snorted as she jerked her thumb at Ember as she smacked Kid Razor upside the head with her guitar.

"I think not." Ronnie winced. "She's one tough cookie."

"This feels like it's been going on for hours!" Kyle complained as the two battlers went back and forth.

"Yeah, it's like an Allman Brothers concert!" Ace agreed.

"What's her story anyway?" Kim asked as she walked over, along with the Misfits, and the other Teen Titan team.

"Well, Ember McLain was musician in her hometown." Ronnie started to explain. "A good one too. She was called in for all the best gigs and parties. But it got in the way of a relationship she was having and it ended. Badly. So when she was vulnerable a self-proclaimed fan put the moves on her…" Ronnie's face twisted in disgust. "When she tried to say no, he took what he wanted from her and killed her."

"You mean he—"Danny started. Ronnie nodded. "That sick, evil—!" He looked disgusted and clenched his fingers into a fist.

"I know, I know." Ronnie sighed. "After she died…before she could become the rock-star she was destined to be…everyone forgot about her. That's when her ghost returned, determined to make everyone love her again, to make sure that everyone remembered her name."

"That's awful." Amira winced. Ronnie looked at her.

"It gets worse. While her spirit is wandering around causing trouble, her body is out there too. It's—" At that second, Danny accidentally activated the Fenton Thermos and sucked Ronnie inside it.

"Oops." Danny winced. "Sorry."

"Oh for the love of—am I going to get to finish a single sentence today?" Ronnie seethed from inside the thermos.

Up above, Kid Razor had gotten the upper-hand on Ember. "Call it quits you ghostly hag!" Razor said as he blasted her again. "There's only one Kid of Rock!"

"Then allow me to introduce my backup from beyond." Ember grinned. From behind Kid Razor was knocked out of the sky by a loud, ghostly wail. With his heightened senses, it was absolute torture! He dropped his guitar in order to cover his ears for all the good it did them.

"Who is that?" Althea shouted above the din. Kim raised her Kimmunicator, specially updated to scan images and compare them to InterPol and Justice League files.

"It's Silver Banshee!" Kim shouted back. "We better do something fast because that scream of hers is deadly!"

"Then will someone please shut her up?" Amira yelled. Darkstar squinted and fired an optic blast at Silver Banshee's back, cutting her wail off. Kid Razor groaned as he unplugged his ears. The others did too.

"Thank you!" Wanda sighed gratefully as she looked at Craig Starr. Amira caught that look.

"Hey!"

"Sorry."

Ember looked at a point behind them all and smiled. "Okay my ghostly gang we've done what we've came for! Now let's jet!" Ember and Silver Banshee flew off into the distance, faster than anyone could follow.

On the ground, the H.I.V.E. Five and the Hellions awoke as if from a daze. When they spotted the Misfits and two teams of Titans, they decided to leave. Ebon and Kyd Wykkyd used their powers to transport them—and Punk Rocket—back to the Massachusetts Academy. "Okay, does someone want to explain what that was all about?" Lance demanded. "Why just run like that?"

"I don't know, but I have a feeling I won't like the answer." Althea replied.

&&&

In the middle of Wisconsin, Ember and Silver Banshee made their reports to their boss. "You did excellent." The half ghost Vlad Plasmius grinned. "Keeping those pests distracted long enough for the Gentleman Ghost here," He nodded at the other ghost in the room. "To get the prize!"

"Which was?" Ember asked. Vlad stroked the cover.

"Something that'll hold the key to ultimate power." His fingers drifted along the title. The Necronomicon.

&&&