Ultimate X-Men:
Issue 74
Magical: Part 2
Xavier's:
The X-Wing landed in the hanger without a sound. Lilandra's new technology was amazing compared to the last X-Wing. The group of X-Men walked out of the X-Wing one by one. Magician was the first one off and he looked rather pleased with himself as Kitty phased through the rest of the X-Men to get to the young man.
"Think you might have time for those Danger Room sessions today?" Kitty asked as she placed a hand on his shoulder. "I mean… if you were interested." Kitty sounded a little uneasy as she took her hand away from his broad shoulder.
"I could go for that." Magician said smiling. "I barely even broke a sweat during the mission."
"Show-off…" Bobby said as Rogue grabbed his arm and wrapped both of hers around his.
Phoenix and Colossus were behind Bobby and hearing the man speak made Phoenix roll his eyes. "You know… I don't even remember him in…"
"Hehehe…" Colossus giggled as he wrapped an arm around Phoenix. Phoenix narrowed his eyes and looked up at the big man.
Phoenix reached out with his mind and searched for the sensors again, this was getting ridiculous. "Ah!" Phoenix said as he pushed with his mind and felt the sensors.
"OW!" Colossus roared as he took his hand away from Phoenix.
"Sorry!" Phoenix said grinning. "At least I fixed you."
Colossus moved his arm up and down and rolled it around; he nodded at Phoenix and rubbed his head, smiling.
"Elliot and I are going to the Danger Room. Anyone want to join us?" Kitty asked smiling back at everyone as they finished filling out of the X-Wing.
Rogue took her arms away from Bobby's and wrapped them around his neck, placing her head on his shoulder. "I've got an X-Box that's suffering from neglect right now, so no." Bobby said. "I'll be taking a pass."
"What is a X-Box?" Phase asked.
"Well it sounds like a toy, Michael. Would you like to play with a box?" Charger smiled at Rogue as she teased the two boys.
"Now wait a minute… it's more than just a box!" Bobby said getting ready to drag the two future mutants away. "It's an X-Box." He smiled as he emphasized the X.
"Elliot, I'm afraid you, too, will be sitting this one out." Xavier said as he wheeled himself into the hanger with Nick Fury right behind him. "We need to talk. I think you know why."
Magician looked at the man confused. "I… I don't Professor."
Fury took a step away from Xavier and closer to Magician, he looked furious at the young man. "It's time to come clean, kid. The game is over. We're on to you."
Magician took a step back, confusion turning into worry. "Really. I don't know what you're talking about." He swallowed, blinking a couple of times.
"Elliot, we know your parents are alive." Xavier said.
"What!" Magician said, shocked.
"They're not dead, you never killed them." Xavier said wheeling himself closer to the young man. "Fury never took you into custody. He never brought you here. We know you've been using you powers to manipulate us."
Everyone around Magician looked at him slightly confused, some had worry in their eyes and one X-Man leader looked very angry at the news.
"At this point, I'd appreciate an explanation." Xavier concluded placing his hands into his lap.
"But…" Magician said spreading his arms, palms out. "But I don't…"
"Elliot… what is he talking about?" Kitty asked as she removed her hand from his shoulder and took a step back.
"I didn't smell it on you. No clue how you got past that." Logan said growling and taking a defensive position. "You out to hurt us?" He asked clenching his fist and getting ready to pop his claws.
Scott clenched his fist at his side and shook his head. He couldn't hear anymore of this, he knew something was wrong with this man and… just everything that has happened in the past couple of weeks. "I knew it!" He yelled as he released a huge blast of red energy at the man, slamming him against the wall.
"Scott!" Xavier said throwing his arms away from the blast. Xavier wasn't expecting such a violent force of rejection. "No! Stop!"
"I knew something was up!" Scott roared as he took a step closer to the man, red energy still pouring out of his eyes. "I would never let someone like you just walk onto the X-Men. You came through the door and the next second you were on the X-Wing, in costume, ready for battle." Scott finally made it to the crouching man, trembling. "I trusted your skills more than any other team member, I was confident you'd pull things off… I didn't worry at all, and I had no reason do!"
As Scott continued his voice grew louder and louder. "Why are you manipulating us?!" He screamed at the man.
"What's going on?!" Kitty yelled taking a step back from the scene. "Why did you attack him?! What did he do?!" Kitty was getting hysterical and shaking her head back and forth, trying to take everything in at once.
Half the team looked like they were getting ready to rip the man's head off; the other half couldn't wrap their head around what was happening.
"He's already making them forget. We've got to put him down… now!" Fury shouted as he pulled out a gun that he had hidden in his jacket pocket.
"Don't even think about it." Xavier said as Fury placed the gun back in his pocket. Hear me, X-Men! Xavier mindspoke to everyone in the room. Elliot is trying to control you. He has been manipulating us. Engage him, keep him off-balance… I will try and block his powers with my own… to shut him down.
After Xavier ended his mind speech everyone powered up, some still looking confused, but something about them was different. It was as if a fog had finally lifted and they finally understood what was happening.
"We're on it, Charlie…" Wolverine said finally popping his claws. "With the kid gloves on… for now."
"You heard the Professor – keep him occupied but don't hurt him." Cyclops yelled. As one, all the mutants that could throw some sort of power at Magician, did. "No!" He yelled as he waved his hands at the power disappeared or was deflected. "I don't want to hurt you!"
Phoenix floated into the air, a fire bird forming around him. His eyes were alight with fire as he watched the scene unfold. He watched as all the X-Men charged forward to attack the man and then something hit him, where was Wild Child.
"Wild Child?" Phoenix asked as he floated further into the air, acting like if he called her she would come. "Wild Child?" He yelled out over the roar of the battle.
A blast shook the entire room and the force of it forced Xavier into Fury and both the men fell to the floor. Wolverine jumped on the Professor to get to Magician who had moved the two men to block the rest of the X-Men from himself.
Wolverine growled as he lunged into the man, but he moved out of the way, just missing a metal claw by a few inches. "Charlie's down, kids. He can't shut down pretty boy's brain! We're going to have to do this the hard way." He roared as he spun around and tried to claw the man again.
"You're making me do this! I don't want to do this!" Magician whined as he kept dodging the man's claws. "This is the last think in the world I want to do!"
"Then stop trying to erase our minds and tell us why you're doing this!" Scott roared as he sent another blast of red energy to Magician who diverted to and made the energy hit Rogue and Bobby. "If we stop fighting you… you make us forget you ever lied to us. We can't let that happen!
Westchester General Hospital:
"All right." The nurse said as she entered the room that belong to Dazzler. The woman closed the door behind her and looked down at the papers, not realizing that the curtain around Dazzler's bed had been pulled. "It's time to change your sheets. I know how much you love that."
The woman looked up and gasped at the curtain. "God Lord, that scared the crap out of me…" She looked at the curtain curiously and reached for it. "I wonder who pulled this out?"
"Well, anyways… if I can—" She dropped the bed sheets she was carrying when she saw that Dazzler was no longer in her bed. "Oh my!" She quickly turned around and rushed out of the room. "Get the doctor… get the police!" She said frantically as people rushed passed he to the room down that hall. "We've got a messing patient!"
She reached out for a blond man who was rushing in the same direction as the other people and he looked at her. "Can't." He said pulling himself away and rushing down the hall. "Code Blue… it's the other mutant."
The nurse rushed out of the room and almost ran down the hall towards the noise. He peeked inside to see the pink skinned woman thrashing on the bed, she couldn't tell if she was awaken and trying to get away or if she was suffering from something eternal.
"Dr. Ferkson!" One of the male nurses's yelled as he rushed in. "She seems to be convulsing, but we don't know why!"
"This is one with the bullet wound to the head?" The doctor asked as he pulled on some gloves that another nurse handed him.
"Yes!"
"We might have missed something during the operation…" He placed his hand across the bullet wound. "There seems to be swelling… this doesn't look good… We have to get her to surgery!" As one, all three nurses rushed Blink out of the room and ran her down the hall, leaving the four nurses shaking her head.
"The other mutant is missing…" She whispered as she watched all four people turn a corner.
Back at the Mansion:
Storm flew past Phase and Charger as they were blown back and sent bolts of lightning towards Magician who yelled as he tried to miss all of them, somehow the boy managed.
"Let's see if you can cast a spell to grow your face back!" Wolverine said as he jumped at the man just as he landed from the last lightning bolt.
"Wolverine!" Scott yelled at the man as he sent a blast of red energy towards him and knocking him off of Magician. "Have you gone crazy? What are you doing?" He asked frantically.
"He's messing with your mind, Slim." Wolverine said getting to his feet and holding his left arm. "He's the bad guy, Summers!" Logan let go of his hand and rolled it, nodding, he charged back towards the boy. "He's been trickin' us all!"
"What?" Scott sounded confused as he shook his head back and forth.
Charger and Phase slowly got to their feet from being blown back from the first blast, Rogue looking rather dizzy and Iceman looking sick. "That's his power, boss man…" Phase said as he threw a fist at Magician.
"The boy is going to get it from me." Charger moaned as she reached for some metal screws in her pocket.
"You brought this on yourselves." Magician yelled as he dodged ice spikes from Iceman and went for Rogue, grabbing her by the neck. She gasped as the two flew back a few feet and Magician began to squeeze.
"Oh, and how was it supposed to go?" Kitty asked phasing through people to get to the man. "You make me break up with my –" Kitty's eyes went wide as Rogue flew toward her, she phased as the woman flew right through her and into a wall.
"Sorry Rogue!" Kitty said as she took a few steps away from the unconscious woman. Kitty turned her attention back to Magician and he was smiling at her. She looked up and saw what he had done. The man had created a huge rock over her head and it began to fall down.
"Wait… I can't phase!" Kitty yelled as the rock crashed down on her.
"Kitty!" Colossus roared from the sidelines.
"She'll be fine… I don't want to kill you; I just want to make you stop fighting me!" Magician said as he dodged another bolt of lightning and red energy beams.
Colossus roared as he charged toward Magician. Not knowing what to do, Magician threw his hands up forming a rocky type of shield around him. Colossus smashed into it, turning it to dust, sending the man skidding backwards.
"This isn't going to be easy, is it?" Magician said standing up and brushing the dust away from him. "You're going to make me hurt you, aren't you?"
Wolverine charged at the man. "We're going to make you try." He yelled as he lunged with his claws. Magician turned around to see Wolverine coming and the claws landed right across his right shoulder. The man screamed in pain as he fell backwards a few steps.
"I can rip the Adamantium from your bones, Wolverine." Magician said, healing his right shoulder. "Just surrender. Really… I'm trying my headrest. I'm an asset! You don't need to do this. I'm no villain…"
Phoenix who was still in the air, watching the scene play out below watched as Cyclops threw some words back. Phoenix wasn't paying attention, he was searching for someone. He had quite searching for Wild Child in the Mansion and decided that he would use his mind.
He reached out… Touching everyone and everything has he went. Never before had he felt so connected to the world around him. Then he felt someone, not the girl he was looking for, but another presence, like himself… in fact almost identical.
Who are you… It asked in his mind, the voice sounded scared, but also sounded as if it was demanding an answer.
I am you, young one. He said back… or was it him; it almost felt like it was coming from within him, and not Alex himself. You will awaken soon… and all my plans will ripen.
You can… cannot command me! The voice spat back, gaining confidence.
You are young. Alex's voice laughed at it. He could feel the anger pouring out of the other voice. You will become great one day… The voice paused, thinking. If you can beat them… It.
What are you talking about?" It asked.
The goblins are an omen, young one… They will –
"ENOUGH!" Magician roared as he threw out his hands and a yellow blast of energy poured out around everyone. He had screamed so loud that he brought Phoenix out of his mind trance. Magician also must have forgotten about the young man, because nothing was effect him like it was everyone else.
"Ever since I found out I was a mutant I idolized you." Magician said as his eyes turned golden and more energy was poured into the effort of turning the entire room into a jail.
Phoenix watched as everything around the X-Men turned to liquid and started and twisting around them. As it twisted it began solid and the X-Men were trapped, more and more liquid was pouring over and around them as they tried to move.
"I just wanted to be one of you… I just wanted to be an X-Man!" He roared as he began to float into the air, more power than Phoenix would have liked to admit that the tiny man had.
"You couldn't just leave it alone… you had to interfere with my plans. It could have been perfect! But now I have to kill you all."
"Not today." Phoenix said hovering over the group of X-Men. As one they all turned up to see that Phoenix had gotten rid of the fire bird and now had fire flowing from his body, as if a wind was taking it away and more was being produced.
"Before I kill you, though..." Phoenix said, floating down, closer to the ground. "You have an answer my question."
Magician looked worried, for the first time this entire battle and tried to throw up a hand, but nothing happened, in fact, his hand didn't even come up.
"Where is Wild Child!" Phoenix said through a voice that was not his own, but something that felt dark and twisted. Fire spread away from his mouth like the rest of his body as he reached out a hand and slowly curled the fingers into a fist.
Magician lifted as Phoenix's hand did and his arms went to his throat as Phoenix's fingers curled in the fist. "Please…" He gasped through gulps of air.
Phoenix hovered closer to the man, glaring at him. "I can't hear you, Elliot." He mused as the boy finished floating to just a mere few feet away from Phoenix.
Magician narrowed his eyes as he took his hands away from his throat and waved his hands. Phoenix eyes seemed to glaze over as Magician flew to the floor, in a crouching position, coughing as he took huge gulps of air.
"That wasn't very nice." Elliot glared as he jumped away from a blast of cosmic fire. "It seems that I might have touched a nerve."
"I would never let you touch me." Phoenix spat as he hurled another blast of cosmic fire at the man, who quickly jumped out of the way.
"Let's even the odds…" Magician said as he jumped away from another blast and waved his hands.
Phoenix turned around as he heard a blast from behind him and saw the Brotherhood of mutants all crash into him. "What?" He shouted as he flew to the floor as Multiple Man, Toad, and Blob came crashing around him.
The X-Men and Fury who were trapped watched as the two mutants were battling each other and then the group of Brotherhood mutants crashed into the room. Colossus wiggled back and forth, trying to break free to save the man that he loved as the others watched in horror.
Wolverine looked impressed by how the teenager was handling himself, also thinking why he hadn't fought like this before. Then he realized that he and the rest of the X-Men really didn't know that much about this future team of X-Men.
"So the Brotherhood attacking us in New York… that was…" Rogue asked looking at the others that were around her.
"It wasn't really them…" Iceman said in disbelief. "What else is this guy capable of?
"Almost…" Colossus said as he grunted and twisted in place. "…free… If I could… just…"
Magician watched the scene unfold and noticed what Colossus was doing. He placed a hand to his head to concentrate and waved his other hand. "Did someone say they weren't in enough pain?!"
Colossus began to yell as the metal around him twisted and grew tighter. The rest of the X-Men looked away and tried to not listen to the grinding metal.
Phoenix laid on the ground his hands above him in a protective stance as the Blob tried to crush him with his weight. "He's… too heavy…" Phoenix moaned as his eyes began to roll to the back of his head.
Something snapped in Phoenix and power began to surge all around him. The man that was son top of him began to laugh; "Son, I'm the Blob, if I don't-"
"Shut up!" Phoenix yelled as yellow energy burst from around him and the Blob shot off the young man and up into the air, flying out of the building and up into the upper atmosphere.
The rest of the group was no longer trapped in their metal cages, but floating through the air.
"What in the hell?" Wolverine said as he floated upset down in the air.
"Phoenix?" Colossus asked, all the pain that he had felt was gone.
"What are you doing?" Magician asked as he waved a hand and fell out of the air, landing on his feet and charging towards Phoenix.
The rest of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants disappeared as Elliot grew closer to the young mutant who seemed to be stunned.
"Alex!" Peter roared, "Wake up!"
"It's time to finish this." Phoenix's eyes snapped open and he raised his hands as he began to glow pink and red. All the mutants around him fell to the ground.
Everyone's eyes were on Phoenix. No one knew what to do or that fact that Phoenix had basically just changed the outcome of this battle
"I'm tired of having things done for me." Magician said as he snapped his fingers, yellow energy forming around his hands. "I think it's time I got my hands dirty."
Wolverine glared at the man as he took two huge steps toward him and slashed with his metal claws. "Phoenix, stay back! I got this!" Wolverine glared at anyone to question him.
All the X-Men gasped as Wolverine slashed at the man's throat and blood splutter out across Wolverine's face.
"Logan!" Xavier said, trying to reach the man, but he seemed to be in a rage.
"Guk!" Magician tried to say something as he put a hand around his throat, blood running over his fingers. With his other hand he pointed it at Wolverine and the metal around him and below him began to spin and twirl around him. Wolverine shouted as he raised about five feet in the air and the metal solidified at his waist.
Magician spread his arms out as the blood at his throat stopped pouring out and swords appeared in his fist.
"Swords?" Wolverine laughed. "It won't help."
Magician lunged at him and attacked with the swords, he tried to say something and Wolverine smiled. "Yes, I know, tell me all about it." Wolverine mused as he blocked and broke one of the swords.
Magician drew closer to Wolverine as he tried to plunge the sword into the man's chest, Wolverine smiled as the boy did exactly what he wanted.
"Logan!" Phoenix yelled throwing up a hand. "No!" But it was too late; Wolverine plunged both his claws into the man's chest and twisted.
The man screamed as the world around everyone turned red.
When the red light disappeared everyone that was in the room was now sitting in the center of the room. The room was completely restored and everyone looked around confused.
"So, uh… what happened?" Iceman asked looking around, legs crossed under him. "I mean, did that all really happen or not?"
"It happened." Wolverine said standing up. "He's dead—"
"Sit down!" Phoenix roared as he waved a hand at the man. "He was the only one who knew about Wild Child."
"Chill, P-Bird." Logan said as he tried to get up but he couldn't move. "We were attacked a few weeks back… I think Magician made us forget when—" Logan stopped as he shot up and was face to face with the boy.
"We will find the girl." Logan promised. Phoenix let him go and he landed on the ground, hard, but standing up.
After the rest of the group realized nothing else was going to happen they slowly got to their feet. All looked as if they had been through hell and back. Wolverine looked around and huffed, "At least we don't have a mess to clean up."
"I'm going to check on Jean." Scott said in a rush as he walked towards the door. Before he could near it though it slid open and Jean was standing in the doorway.
"I tried to blast through it, but I couldn't access my powers."
"Magician…" Scott said wrapping his arms around the girl and smiled over her shoulder. "He thought you were the threat."
Colossus picked Xavier up and looked over at Phoenix as the man approached him. Something about him had changed, Colossus noted. But his feelings for the young man hadn't changed in the least. "Is it over, Professor?" Colossus asked as he placed the man into the wheel chair that Fury pulled up. "Where did he go?"
"Gone…" Xavier said looking down at his feet as he moved himself in the chair. "I don't sense so much as an afterthought of him. It's as though he never existed."
"But how?" Jean asked as she and Scott walked up to the man. "Is that even possible?"
"Possible?" Xavier looked at his X-Men as they piled around him. "I think we've discovered today that what is possible is far beyond anything we could ever have imagined. There is a lot to learn from this incident." Xavier took a breath as he placed his hands on the wheels of the chair and turned to get a better look at his X-Men and more importantly Phoenix.
Phoenix had done so much in this battle and he had so much power… Xavier was starting to worry about the young man. What is he was truly the Phoenix.
What would they do if that kind of power was unleashed into the world?
All the X-Men started to group around in their little clicks that Xavier noted they were forming. "Mutant powers are a gift, I truly believe that. But Magician has proven to us that our understanding of the limits of mutant ability is… well, none.
"Left unchecked, Elliot Boggs could have unwillingly caused the deaths of us all… or hundreds if not thousands, of people. We have to be prepared to do what must be done in the event of such mutants manifesting." Xavier concluded.
"I'll send a team over to scan the area—there must be a trace of him here… something to indicate he existed." Fury said looking confused at what happened to him. "Something for his parents to bury."
Magician wasn't evil, or so they thought, he a time he was one of them. One of the X-Men. But… what he did was unforgivable.
He was still a mutant, a human. He still deserved the respect of dying in a battle that may not have been under his control.
The Next Day:
Kitty sat in the front yard, her knees pulled up to her chest. She cocked her head and her brown flew around her face as the wind blew. She was thinking about what had happened the past couple of weeks. She couldn't remember the last time she had seen Spider-Man, or the last time she felt happy, if you didn't include the fact that Elliot was manipulating her.
"I never really would have hurt any of you, you know." A voice behind Kitty said.
Kitty turned around and saw the tall muscular teenager known as Elliot standing behind her. She didn't know where the man came from and almost screamed, but she seemed to have lost her voice.
"Thing is, I didn't plan this. I didn't even know I was a mutant until they brought me here—until Xavier and Jean told me." Elliot drew closer to the girl, hands in his pockets. "Close as I can figure it, my powers are that reality warps around me… to provide me with whatever I want."
Kitty couldn't get to her feet and just pushed herself away from the young man, still not able to say anything. "I saw the X-Men on TV… and I was on the team before I knew I even wanted to be there…
"I didn't want my parents to die, but that was the easiest way, I think, for me to accept my surroundings and be brought to this Mansion… to Xavier. Of course, they're not really dead. Which is a relief…" Elliot took another step to the girl who had stopped moving and took a seat next to here.
"I'm still trying to figure out exactly how things worked out… what I did and what I didn't do… what I was in control of and what I wasn't. It's my desire that controls it." He crossed his legs under him and placed his elbows on his knees. "I wanted to be on the team, so the Brotherhood attacked while the team was split.
"I had no idea about Wild Child and I made all of you forget about her… I thought you were cute and suddenly you were flirting with me… The only person who wasn't truly affected was…"
"Me." Phoenix said as he walked out of the forest and stared at the two mutants standing in front of him.
"Thank you." Elliot said as he stood back up and took a step closer to Alex. He looked back and saw that Kitty was in the same place she was in before he had started talking to her.
"I thought I had told you to leave." Phoenix said crossing his arms at his chest.
"I just wanted to tell someone what really happened… why I acted the way I did."
"She won't remember…" Phoenix said glancing at Kitty and then back at Elliot. "I won't let her."
Elliot looked at the man and then shook his head. "Do they even know who you really are?" He asked.
"He doesn't even know who he is… yet."
Elliot looked at Phoenix and didn't realize what the man was talking about.
"You will disappear until I have need of you." Phoenix said, not asking a question, but telling the man what was expected of him. "You're not exactly a mutant… Something is happening in this time that is grand and perfect."
Elliot looked at the man, confused. "I'm not a mutant?"
"You are, but your mutant ability is to control magic…" Phoenix smiled at him. "The primal force of the earth itself, Chaos Magic, it is coming back and you are not the first to be effected by this, nor will you be the last." His smiled deepened as the light around the three mutants slowly faded.
"Kitty?" Scott asked coming around a group of tree's looking for the woman.
Phoenix turned to see where the man as coming from and waved a hand in the direction of Elliot, who disappeared in a flash of light. Phoenix then faded into the forest and disappeared as well.
Later:
Logan sat in his room, with a beer in one hand and a small golden ring in the other. He took a drink and then looked at the ring closer. This was the only think to his past, this and the girl. He had to find Rose, for Phoenix and himself. The girl said that she was his daughter, the test that he and Xavier had done months earlier said the same thing, but computers could be fixed to lie…
Not that the Professor would lie, but someone would and could lie to him. He sniffed the air around him and looked out the window. Someone was out there. He groaned as he closed the window and walked away from.
That man was not his son and Wolverine knew the truth about that, no matter how well Sabertooth thought his lying skills were.
Not tonight, another night. Now he just needed to grab some X-Men and go look for the girl.
Peter walked down the hall and made a B-line to Alex's room. The young man had a lot to explain to him and Peter decided that he was not going to leave until Alex told him everything.
As Peter turned the corner and bumped into Kurt. "Sorry, man." Peter said as he held a hand out to grab the man from falling. Kurt pushed his hand away as his tail twirled and he caught his balance.
Peter looked at the man and noticed that he had a backpack on that was crammed full of stuff. "Kurt, what's all that for? Are you going camping?"
"I have nothing to say to you." Kurt spat, taking two steps backward, tail swishing wildly in the air.
"Don't take that tone with me, you little pointy ear smurf." Peter said glaring down at the man. "
"I have had enough!" Kurt yelled as he lunged at the man and teleported at the last minute.
Peter turned into his metal form as the yellow dust and brimstone washed over him. He sighed as he realized that what he said was true. He was over trying to please the man and Alex had been right.
He turned around to head towards Alex's room once more, smiling and forgetting why he wanted to be there in the first place.
The End.
