X-Men: Sanctuary

Issue # 21

By Kyle Phoenix

Neramani: Arrival Part 1

Brooklyn, New York,

85th Precinct:

"Ok, so here's what happened. My mends came to check up on me. Protect me really. I'm like the unofficial leader of the team so they basically spend a lot of time watching out for my ass. Mutants are like that. Well, more like dedicated mends and team mates. It's like a military group, really. I was in the Marines, you know?" Paulie explained calmly in the interrogation room to the two detectives, Smits and Franz.

"And that's when you got jammed up? When your mends came down here and went mutie crazy?" Franz, pot bellied and balding, snickered.

"There were these other mutants," Paulie snapped. "Bad mutants. Evil mutants. The Brooklyn Evil Mutants."

"Ok, back up," Smits said calmly, tall, handsome, decked out in Armani. "How did these evil mutants know where to find you? Is it those gay bracelets?"

"Fucking fruity," Franz laughed. Paulie glared at both of them and was tempted to show what he could do but the X-Men had a Prime Directive or something about being nice to the cops and not showing off your powers. Besides the powered down bracelets looked like thin hospital plastic bracelets. He could walk through a metal detector without anyone suspecting what was but a thought away.

"Lots of X-Men gay?" Franz asked.

"No. Well, I don't know. Northstar is. I think Frenzy is. Ummm there was this Karma rumor and then Iceman has gone all cocksucky."

"Cocksucky?" Smits asked.

"Yeah, it's like because he can transform his whole body due to moisture control, he's all about the exploration of his identity as not just a man but as a being you know? It's like really deep if you think too hard about it, so I don't. Anyway I came back because I got a message from my family."

"Now would this be part of the Provenzano crime family?" Franz asked.

"Crime is such a harsh term. I sort of started one for a while but then it fell through when I had to go help the X-Men fill their depleted ranks of some true power. I know it's hard for you guys to understand our world but a few weeks ago we actually saved a whole planet like billions of miles away."

Both officers were silent.

Sanctuary

Australian Outback:

The first sensation was a taste of mint in his mouth. Then blinding lights from above. The lights didn't so much disturb him as the taste of mint did. He hadn't tasted anything in quite some time as he had no face. Jono sat up abruptly in the Medical Center and Cecelia smiled at him. A rare smile as she was often frowning and upset at one thing or another.

"I'm alive," Jon rasped.

Cecelia rolled her eyes to the ceiling. "And not much brighter since I saw you last. "

"The Brood? The Shi'ar?" he asked, looking around and realizing where he was. Back on Earth. "The San Madre people?"

"Dead. Saved and some banished to Earth. Safe and integrated into Sanctuary. In that order. You might notice that you have a face. I understand that the Shi'ar did some reconstructive work. Take a look," she handed him a small mirror and he took it with a trembling hand. Sure enough his lower face and chest has been restored.

"My God!" he gasped.

"Be careful, Jon. It's something to do with the neck carapace you're wearing. Over time you'll learn how to not blow your head off and use your powers. Until then I want you to keep it on and avoid sending out those psi plasmoid bursties you do. You might destroy it."

"I will. 1 will," Jon assured then looked over at the other occupied bed. Kurt was sitting up grinning at him, Jessica Drew standing at the foot of both of their beds, staring intently. For a brief second Jon got an empathic flash of concern---fear---a sense of threat and urgencyfrom her about them then she caught his eye and slammed down her psi shields. At first he was suspicious then Jon remembered how before her superheroing days, she'd been deeply steeped in espionage agencies. It was natural, he'd found, when around psis for former agents to close their thoughts off. More by reflex than anything else.

"It seems we were misplaced for some time in the conflagrating battle," Kurt grinned, fangs gleaming but eyes bright with joy at being home again. Jon found that his empathic senses were much stronger than normal, but his telepathic speech seemed somehow muted or dulled. He wanted to push it but there was a fuzziness around his telepathy, perhaps that was the carapace?

"I need the two of you back on active duty within the next twenty four hours. I've uploaded mission statuses to your room comms. There have been a few occurrences you'll need to be abreast of. Until the next team review in one month, the two of you are needed here to manage mutant student arrivals as well as Sanctuary security. It may not sound glamorous but once you read the last few weeks of activity, you'll see that I need experienced, seasoned X-Men by my side ASAP. I'll see you two tomorrow morning at the Eastern landing platform for the orientation of the first Institute arrivals. Welcome back, gentleman," with that clipped speech Jessica turned and headed out the door, IT appearing next to her as the next phase of base management began between the two of them.

"It's been rough on her keeping all the pieces together. Don't mind her attitude, she's got a lot of weight on her shoulders managing one of the biggest possible terrorist targets on Earth," Cecelia explained as she went back to her desk and checked the schematics for a fully operational medical center that would have to be up and running in a few days. Kitty has a team running down some mutant hunters in Melbourne, I think it is, and Warren's squad is in Europe about to tangle with the Hellfire Club again or some vampires or something. It's been busy as hell getting the whole facility ready to receive an estimated one hundred thousand mutants over the next year."

"A hundred thousand!" Kurt was surprised.

"Yup. It seems Xavier has had this concept in mind for years and a laundry list of folks ready to participate. We'll be the next Genosha in under three years by conservative estimates. A small portion are students, the rest are the infrastructure of a city, of a nation. Welcome to Mutant City 101."

"Why be conservative?" Alex smiled brightly as he strolled in. "Sanctuary was constructed to bridge the gap between human and mutant civilization in a very realistic way. I just came in to say hi to two of our returning heroes. We've had a few injuries but the team is raring and ready to go."

"There's no one here," Cecelia pointed out. "There is no here raring to go anywhere. Even the Juggernaut was called back to the Institute in New York. There was a lot of shit in New York that you guys missed. A lot of people died there. The news says the estimate is close to two hundred and fifty thousand missing. Check the mission files, it was bad."

"Yes, it was. Very bad. Ah. Well, carry on then," Alex nodded and left a holographic image of IT's floating head appearing next to him as he left.

"Does everyone get a little head when they leave a room?" Kurt asked.

"Don't look at me, I'm not giving out head," Cecelia grinned.

"I have a pretty big head," Jon observed in the handheld mirror.

"I do hope we're all talking about the same thing," Kurt snickered.

Sydney, Australia:

Kitty hunched her shoulders in closer, the raincoat bare protection against the torrential downpour that had been over the city for the past few hours. The fact that she'd failed as mission leader, several times in her own estimation, didn't help the dreary day look any better. The fact that they'd lost John Riedl and Blackguard in Melbourne after the commandos team had attacked them with their bigger ship, still irked her. But she was glad that John had found a way to escape, to get to this capital city. He probably hadn't suspected that while she'd phased him, she'd also phased into his body a subcutaneous tracker in case they were separated. While she had faith in her squad to stop Blackguard, she wasn't sure they'd be able to quickly convince John to trust them so she'd prepared for his escape. Properly focused he was as powerful a mutant as Quantum, who had taken his leave of Madripoor which left her with another bitter taste in her mouth.

Without slowing down she phased into a building and then walked on air up through several apartments, careful that none of the residents saw her until she came upon a front door. She'd purposefully chosen not to phase inside, wanting to show some respect. She knocked on the door, listened to the shuffling inside and then was a little surprised as the door swung open.

John half grinned at her but it was a tired smile. "I thought you were my food I'm having delivered."

"Can I come in, John?"

He waved her into the small apartment and she stepped in, hitting a small pad in her pocket that signaled the hovering Avery that she'd found him and that all was fine, so far.

"I hope none of your friends got hurt in Melbourne?" John said as he sat down on the couch. He looked worn out, like he was tired of running but not desperate. Simply exhausted. She knew the feeling.

"I'm glad you got away from Blackguard. How did you get away?"

"I found some railroad tracks. It's a bit of a secret use of my powers but I can skate along grounded electrical fields. Takes a lot out of me and I have to watch out for trains and such but for a quick burst I can cover a hundred miles in a short span. Also once I figured out that they were tracking my brain wave energy I made some alterations to that."

Kitty nodded in understanding. "Drugs? That's why you're so calm."

"Yes. It takes a lot of drugs to keep my brainwaves down to normal level and I have to refrain from use of my powers but thanks to a bit of fast research at the local hospital I think I can maintain this for awhile."

"Ok, then what? Spend your whole life doped up to avoid whatever reason Blackguard wants you for? Men like him, men committed to their missions, find their

prey eventually. I found you."

"A telepath?" John asked.

"A tracker inside your body. I can be sneaky", she smiled.

"When you phased us? Ok. I can see that. I can even sense it in me now. The drugs make focusing harder. So now what? Asylum with the X-Men?"

"In a way. And maybe another option as well. It will require that you let our doctor give you something to boost your metabolism so that you broadcast your

brainwaves again."

"To draw Blackguard in?"

"Were you really busy with your pizza delivery tonight? Why not spice up the evening?"

"It was Chinese and I can't see how I have a choice."

The front door flew open and Blackguard walked in. John was sitting on the couch, his arm still tied with a belt and a syringe nearby.

"Using drugs to dull your brainwaves so we couldn't track you? But your signal flashed bright and clear a few minutes ago. Why?" Blackguard asked.

"Two reasons. One, I don't want to be on the run for the rest of my life. Two, I want the money you promised me. Take me to your leader, as it were," John said as he stood up and the two men left the apartment. Several minutes later, Kitty phased out of the closet holding John who was groggy.

"Did it work?"

"Sabine was a perfect double of you and your quick broadcast allowed Blackguard to find you and then I injected you and knocked you out. As far as he's concerned he has you. Now we get to bust up his real plan before anyone gets hurt."

"Oh goody," John said weakly as she phased them back through the wall.

China, Somewhere:

Nemesis sat bound.

Her head still attached.

He'd used his mento ring to intensify the illusion of torture constantly upon her. No matter how much she knew it wasn't real she still shrieked and cried everytime, howling as fingers were shattered, muscles ripped from her flesh. The point was these respite periods, shorter each time. So that she would come to crave not being affected by his ring and tell him what he wanted to know. What he had no right to know.

She had prepared herself for war at the hands of her true foe but never these fools who called themselves villains. Their greatest power was not playing the way the supposed heroes did. Nemesis had ceased being a hero when she'd left her reality, her time to come to this Prime Reality to save not just the billions on this Earth but the trillions on all Earths.

She looked around, her breathing ragged, knowing the Mandarin would be back soon. But she had abilities beyond her fighting, beyond her mystical talents (that were useless with all of the counter wards around her body). It also didn't hurt that she was a mutant as well. A glowing light disc appeared at the far end of the room under the sword itself and then a moment later it reappeared in the same space but this time with a split second regression into the past. She focused and repeated the same maneuver a dozen times until the sword itself occupied the same space in the same second and then she activated it. The mystical explosion sent her flying backwards over her chair, more flash and force than true destructive power. But enough to shatter the chair and nee her hands. She quickly traced a sigil on the floor and it shattered whatever wards the Mandarin had set around her chair. With a hand up, her sword appeared in it just as the first force blast from the Mandarin smashed down upon her. Her sword blocked most of it but she still skidded across the polished wood floor.

"Nemesis, 1 know enough of your plans to change the time stream to expose you to your teammates. Consider that," with those clipped words came a flash of dark force energy that snapped across the room and grabbed her like tendrils. She slashed her sword through them but they instantly reattached themselves.

She knew that she had one last option and now that she thought about it, she could see quite a few uses. She focused on the spot across the room where she'd created the stepping discs under her sword and re-focused again. Drawing her vision back through time for several minutes so that her sword was there again but this time, she altered the disc itself so that the sword appeared first upright then she brought it closer and closer and closer to her.

The Mandarin turned and tried to blast the flashing sword that was actually hurling towards him, end over end, as she made it reappear in time and space dozens of times until it flew and landed in his back. He grunted in pain long enough for a disc to appear around her. The Mandarin shrieked angrily and dove at her, grasping her throat as she began to vanish.

"I will come for you!" he raged and Nemesis grinned then drove the sword in her hand into his chest. With a quick swipe of her sword, she slashed off his left hand, grasping it and the five rings it held.

"No!" he shrieked, blood spurting allover the both of them. "I will come for you!" he roared again.

"I expect you will. When you get better," she grinned as he lost his grip and she vanished, with his left hand.

Above the Indian Ocean:

"This so not good," Kitty said to Peter as they watched the large airborne gunship that Blackguard had his commandoes and Sabine on. It was completely circular, almost three stories high and over a hundred feet wide, brilliant red with a sharp metal protruding point. It seemed to be using some sort of gyro based system to maintain flight as an outer shell on the circumference spun in one direction to generate the anti-gravity field it used to fly.

"From what I can ascertain from the my scanning of them, Blackguard's ship radiates a null field. It is invisible to all conventional scanners as well as the Shi'ar ones on Neramani. I'm able to track it because of the attack on Melbourne, I launched a small tracker onto it's outer hull," Peter explained to the X-Men crowded in the front cabin.

"Ok, when are our missions ever "good"?" Cecelia asked. "This is definitely some international bullshit we're about to get into. You know that, right? We gonna die like poked pig bitches."

"Someone's been watching Oz again on DVD," Marrow grinned leaning over to look out the view screen.

"I like Oz," Sunspot defended as he checked the computer sensors again. "We are most definitely exactly forty thousand feet above the nation of Neramani. Our cloaking shields are keeping us hidden from both Blackguard's sensors and Neramani's. I'm proud to say that the Avery's systems from the alternate dimension Shi'ar force is quite superior to the Shi'ar tech below us."

"They were abandoned to this world," Peter interjected. "I would assume that Canaan gave them basic technology, considerably higher than Earth's, yet still lower than advanced Shi'ar tech."

Kitty checked her instrument panel again. "That's good to know for the future but the question is what does Blackguard intend to do?"

"I think I know," John Riedl answered from the back cabin looking out the window.

"Don't be shy, speak up," Cecelia invited.

John hesitated for a moment then spoke. "I can see energy patterns. I can see this large glowing mass below us."

"The Shi'ar force field," Sunspot clarified. '"No one can get in unless they allow."

John shook his head, pointing at several energy measurement waves on the computer screens. "Actually, I think if! really tried I could. I think I could pierce the Neramani shield by manipulating electromagnetic waves. It's theoretical but I've had a lot of time to consider my powers. I don't think I could shut it down but maybe get my body or a few bodies through."

"To what end?" Peter asked. "Blackguard, I mean. Exactly why would he go to all of this trouble?"

"Steal technology. Kill Lilandra. Those would be my top two guesses. Someone didn't hire him to kidnap John, they hired him to breach Neramani and John was just the key he needed," Sunspot answered. "No matter the treaties brokered and set, there are nations on this planet that would kill anyone or destroy anything to possess Neramani's resource's---they've radically upset the world socially, spiritually and economically. Even Israel isn't this disruptive to the fabric of Earth itself."

"I'm sorry, I understand that girlfriend got drop kicked here like a bastard stepchild but this whole Neramani thing will always be a problem. They aren't even human!" Cecelia said angrily. "How dare they come here and use up all of our resources!"

There was a hush in the cabin and then Kitty spoke evenly to her teammate. "You could replace Shi'ar with Black or Jew or homosexual or mutant there, Spike."

"And suddenly cause I'm brown I can't access racism and prejudice like every other human being? Bluntly, I'm afraid of white folks insanity and on top of that we now have interstellar white folk? You think that shit ain't gonna hit the fan quick, fast and messy?" Spike chuckled darkly.

"They are our friends," Sunspot pointed out.

"Not the last time I met them," Spike grumbled. "Oh, wait, you weren't there when they were shooting at us."

John interrupted with a firm clearing of his throat. "Kitty, I can flux the ship's shields to allow us to pass through too but I can't guarantee we'll be able to get back out. It constantly remodulates it's integral frequency to allow harmless energy, like sunlight in but repels dangerous energies. I can get us through."

"So it's a one way trip if we don't have permission?" Kitty said aloud and he nodded. "There are so many ships and satellites watching Neramani, rumors that the SHIELD hellicarrier is cloaked somewhere nearby as protection that they probably haven't picked up Blackguard yet. I'm worried that when they make their move, Sabine's powers won't allow him to imitate you any further, John and it will cost him his life."

"Kitty, this is crossing into an international incident. Do we have the authority to get involved in this?" Cecelia asked. "Neramani has requested that all visits be formal in nature but Blackguard's attack has got to be sponsored by some world government."

"I agree, Spike," Sunspot said. "But if we just float up here and don't try to prevent whatever's his goals are, then we'll be at fault. And aren't the X-Men suppose to be personally responsible to Neramani in the event of just such an emergency?"

There was silence and then Kitty nodded. "Peter, plot us a course through their shield on full cloak and hold a stabilized position so we can see where Blackguard is likely to come through. We might have to help Sabine get Blackguard through. Let's try and stay close enough to open a space through the portal when they try to come through."

"That won't be a problem," Peter said and with a casual thought, the Aerie changed course and dipped down towards the shield and Blackguard's ship. Peter's eyebrows rose in surprise. "I'm picking up odd readings. The mass of Blackguard's ship isn't what it should be. It's too small. But there's a lot of photon energy though-a hologram that's not a ship at all! It looks like it's on an energy extensionenergy leash from something higher in the atmosphere! I'm running a full scan, linking into world satellites and I'm getting another image!""

Kitty leaned forward to look out the cockpit window just as electricity raced through the air around her. She whirled around in time to see John erupting with energy and her teammates in varying stages of agony. She had instantly gone out of phase so while she could feel light shocks from the erupting energy, she wasn't in pain.

"Now!" John screamed to no one and a moment later the proximity alarms went off and a tremendous thud slammed on to the top of the Aerie. Kitty crouched down, the Aerie ceiling deeply dented in some places but more importantly, she noticed on the monitors that a large ship had slammed down on top of them and was using it's thrust to push down towards Neramani's field. They were hurtling through the force field and now towards the continent miles below at close to a thousand miles per hour.

"We needed two things to get through," John said in a twisted, husky voice, energy rippling from him, crippling the X-Men. "This ship and this mutant, John!"

"Who are you?" Kitty demanded.

"Oh, that's right we never met. But your people know me. Especially Storm and Polaris. I am Malice!" the being possessing John cackled and laughed hysterically. Kitty watched in mute horror as a ghostly image of a feminine face appeared on John's and his shirt flew open revealing the tell tale cameo collar of the mutant possessor. "The New Marauders have come to take Neramani!"

Brooklyn, New York:

Northstar sailed through a dozen streets in less than a minute then returned to a rooftop where M and Sunspot were waiting.

"Still no sign of Paulie nor his mutant goomba friends?" M asked, peevishly.

"No. It seems that whatever that illusionist transsexual is using is blocking her--­his---their teammate's presences as well," Northstar reported angrily.

A few feet away a swirl of mist appeared and Iceman coalesced. "I've been moving through as much moisture as possible I could throughout the neighborhood. Nothing so far though I did overhear a lot of rumors about the mutants making a move to take over the major crime families."

"Paulie shut off his comm link and I think he's found a way to create a psi shield with his bracelets or the psi may' be blanketing me on purpose to block out our finding him before they do," M observed in disgust, looking out over the buildings and then the people milling below. "What would they want the swaggering buffoon for? They didn't know about the bracelets he's stolen to have viable powers. Is his invulnerability mutation enough to make him so valuable to them?"

"No, I would say that we're on the brink of an all out war with the crime families and Paulie once tried to take them allover when he was first recruited into the X-Men," Northstar explained.

"Dear God. You realize this is going to sound insane but I think they were trying to recruit Paulie. I think Paulie got offered what he's always wanted!" M gasped.

"To head the New York crime families?" Iceman gasped. "That little bastard!"

"Would Paulie betray us---himself to be a crime lord?" Northstar sighed. "Just when we thought he was someone we could just eventually hope would walk upright in form and thought."

China, Somewhere:

Nemesis tumbled out of a stepping disc, her body still wracked with pain from her tortures but she felt as if she had succeeded in something greater than survival. She hadn't expected to confront someone who knew the possibilities she possessed for a few years yet but caught unaware and injured she'd triumphed. For all of her travels through the world and beyond, she was still relatively young. Young to the violence and survival

instincts she was learning to mirror from the identity of the true Nemesis. Perhaps there was hope for her after all.

A shadow fell across her and she looked up into the visage of the flaming man. "You heard me?" she whispered in awe.

"Once you were outside of his wards, I was able to track you again. I was extremely worried about you, my dear."

"We don't have much time if humans like the Mandarin are beginning to sense a shift in the Nexus."

"Yes, you must make your way back to Sanctuary. The film between Here and There is becoming ever thinner. I will arrive soon. Prepare them. Prepare her for her mission. She mustn't be endangered by these trivial missions the X-Men embark upon, she has a world to save."

"And Xavier?"

"He senses the time has come, he has put the pieces into play and will approach her for a mission of the utmost importance, a mission that will take her away from all she knows and holds dear."

"Good luck, Joshua," Nemesis whispered as she took off her mask and wrapped her body in her cloak. It was a late at night, she would walk awhile, find shelter for the rest of the evening then call her teammates. Hell was coming.