Sensational X-Men
Issue #53 – The Search – Part Three
Deep Space – X-Men Strike Team
"You must let me out of here," Shaw demanded of his granddaughter.
"I," Loa began to say and was silenced by the sounds of intense battle outside the room.
"We're not supposed to let him out. We have our orders," Spirit said looking at Loa, hating he was left behind as well.
Once the ship had been swallowed into the ship of the Others, Corsair led all the X-Men but four to engage the enemy outside the vessel and find a way to break free of their ship and to keep them off the X-Men ship. Lilandro was left behind to be ready to blast off once free and to focus his powers on keeping a mental communication link between all the X-Men. Loa and Spirit were left behind to guard Shaw, but Spirit knew it's because they didn't trust them as experienced fighters. From what they were picking up form the Psi-link, thinks were really rough out there and as much as he wanted to follow orders, he knew as well as Loa that a man who absorbed any kind of impact into his body to increase is density, strength and speed was the perfect opponent against the Others.
Heads up, one got through and is headed your way now!
"Not good," Loa said as they all received the mental warning from Lilandro.
"How do we stop it?" Spirit asked looking at Loa.
"Easy, let me out," Shaw said with a smile.
"We have no choice," Loa said knowing they needed her grandfather's help.
Calling on her powers, Loa became light and translucent as she swam through the air and approached the cell holding Shaw. Her body passed though the cell wall but she fell solid in front of her grandfather as the dampener shut down her powers, but not before the effect of her phasing through the cell wall caused it to crack and then crumble. Shaw stepped into freedom and felt his power return just as the demonic robot broke through the door. Shaw grunted in joy as the demon blasted a fiery energy at him and his body converting the energy and impact to increase its density making Shaw stronger. The Other only got a few more seconds of energy blasts off before Shaw was quickly next to it and crushing it's head with one hand and ripping the body from it with the other.
Wolverine says if you're not going to stay caged then get out there and make yourself useful, but you two are to remain inside.
"But," Spirit began to say when they felt a strange force compelling them to remain behind.
Shaw ran through the door and quickly found himself leaping from the ship to the hanger bay of the Other's ship. There were so many demonic robots flying everywhere it was hard for him to even see where the other X-Men where. Quickly Lilandro was in his head and linking him with the others. He may not have seen any of them with his eyes but in his mind he knew where each member was and how they were doing. In a matter of seconds he was being consumed by the enemy, growing madder and stronger with each blow.
Interlude
"Why don't we kill him already?" Adrianne Frost asked as glanced at the other three sitting with her on the deck of their small shuttle craft.
"I would think you would want to keep your grandfather alive," Shadow Nova said with sarcasm.
"After everything he did, relative or not, I have no feeling for the man," the White Queen said.
"What about you, he is your brother," Shinobi Shaw said as he looked over the flight controls and kept an eye on their pursuers.
"No, he is the brother of one of my part's past life. The three entities and the lives they lived before fusing and becoming me no longer exist. I have no feelings or connections to anyone associated to their past lives. The only thing I retained from them was power and a drive to see Xavier and all things X-Men dead," Shadow Nova said as she then turned to that last of their group in the room.
"As much as I would love to gut him, we need him alive as a bargaining chip. For if and when they catch up with us, he will be our few seconds to gain the upper hand and survive," Maximus Lobo, the new Romulus said as he knew his brother would be soon upon him.
"Last detection shows they have come to a stop, not sure why," Shinobi said as he wondered if his father would be part of the hunting parting.
"Doesn't matter, it will give us more time to pull ahead. There is a planet ahead, just past the asteroid belt, head that way. He needs to make a quick pit stop," Romulus said with a growl as he thought of their other passengers, another dead weight like Xavier and a loose cannon.
Containment Cells
"So what cha doing?" Deadpool asked as he watched the man in the wanna-be Mr. Sinister suit.
"When Essex experimented on me turning me into what I had become, I was able to learn more than his fashion sense from him before I killed him," Modifier, the depowered mutant once known as Calvin Rankin, the Mimic said as he took a few more samples from Deadpool and injected them into himself.
"You know they plan on killing the both of you. I no longer need my powers to know that," Charles Xavier, the depowered mutant and former leader of the X-Men said from inside his cell.
"You two I understand. Both powerless as well as Charles being the most hated man in the mutant world for using and abusing and keeping secrets from all his X-Men Children. But me? Why would anyone want to hurt me? Plus they are intrusting me to keep an eye on you two," Deadpool rambled as he cleaned his teeth with his knife.
"Xavier is right. They peg me dead weight and you too loose a cannon to keep around. Xavier is lucky, he'll be kept alive long enough to use as bait or a distraction when the X-Men catch up to us," Modifier said as he sat feeling the effects of the final experiment on himself.
"What are you hoping to accomplish?" Xavier asked Calvin.
"A chance to escape these idiots," Modifier said as he looked at his hands and saw sharp nails growing causing him to smile.
"How you going to do that with no powers?" Deadpool asked?
"I am the Modifier and that is what I do. If this worked, which I think it did, I will have my healing factor back and with that my modified x-gene should heal and then," Modifier started to say as he opened Xavier's cell and moved right at him.
"What are you doing?" Xavier asked as he tried to back up.
"Seeing if I'll have some back up to blow this joint," Modifier said as he slashed open Xavier's throat and stood there as he and Deadpool watched to see if Benjamin Charles Xavier lived or died.
X-Men – Rescue Team
Another Part of the Galaxy
"Where are we?" Cyclops asked as the darkness made it hard to get his bearings.
"I don't know. Last I remember is being attacked and the ship going dark, and then felt a weird sensation and waking up in pitch darkness again," Forge said from somewhere in the pitch black.
"I see you are awake," a voice snorted as suddenly the lights came on and everyone grunted in pain as their eyes had to suddenly get used to the light.
Cyclops looked forward and saw a large pig-like man standing at the foot of the doorway with several guards standing around him and in the room, also pig like in features. Cyclops saw next that he was in a dungeon-like room, his arms were bound above him as he hung from the ceiling by chains. He glanced and saw hanging from all around the room in the same fashion were, a human looking Iceman, Forge, a normal skinned, graying haired Mystique, Beast, Mona MacTaggert, smooth skinned Stacy-X, hairless Sabretooth, Banshee, normal skinned Rouge, Gambit, Queen Animala and Wingblade. He realized his brother Vulcan was nowhere to be found. He looked up at the ceiling and felt a strange pain that explained what he already feared.
"Now, now, the devices attached to each of your temples keep you from using your strange gifts. You even think about using them and instant pain. After my last dealing with your kind I learned my lesson, at the price of my son," the large pig humanoid snorted.
"Where's my brother?" Cyclops demanded.
"Oh, Gabriel is being kept in a special place here on Nnamuab," the pig-like man said with a snort.
"Master Ecurb, we have confirmed, not only do you also hold the fabled Queen Animala but also one of the endangered and all but extinct creatures from Lator," a pig-like guard said making Wingblade cringe at the fate of her people.
"Ecrub? Gabriel mentioned you, what have you done with him?" Cyclops asked in a panic.
"Once I have finished torturing him to find out where the rest of his clan is, he will then have a public execution to pay for the death of my son," Ecrub, the notorious crime boss said with snorting anger as he commanded his guards to bring Animala and Wingblade and they all left the room putting the X-Men all back into darkness.
Epilogue
"What is happening to them?" a voice asked suddenly from behind him in the midst of all the screaming.
"They have reached their early teens and all their x-genes are causing their mutations, whether physical or abilities to manifest," En Sabah Nur said as he looked back at the ten year-old girl with red hair and glasses.
"You are going to help them like you promised?" The girl asked, as her leaving with him and helping convince all the siblings to come along due to the fact this man had promised to get them away from the evil Xavier and his band of Evil Mutants so he could keep them from destroying all of them as well has help her new friends.
"I told you that they are all special and they would need my help once this day came, Moira," the mutant once known as the powerful Apocalypse said.
After the Demon storm, he had managed to swap bodies with Exodus, so that he would die in his place as he, the great Apocalypse would live on. Unfortunately, before he could regroup, gather his strength again and to restart his Horseman and check on his experiment that he had entrusted the now deceased Sinister and his discovered daughter, Mystique, he was kidnapped and brought forth before the giant Majestics with Xavier and Romulus. It appeared that the weak Xavier had actually messed with his mind but had stolen and kept a lot of secrets and great power from him. None of that mattered as he found himself stripped of his powers and made normal, from head to toe.
Apocalypse was sure he was going to die until the X-Men has won the day and once again he had survived. En Sabah Nur had also learned that Mystique was actually his daughter which made the X-Men Rouge and Nightcrawler his hears, grandchildren. He cared less about any of that, what he cared about was his experiment had worked and Mystique had given birth to eight children, all from different fathers and genetic code giving them each a potential of different abilities and power sets. If this worked and the children survived, the next step was to use his daughter to any kind of mutant he wanted with any ability he chooses. Too bad Sinister and his idea were dead as he could now continue with it and take all the credit.
Of course, he knew it would be hard to continue on with the X-Man having their hands on these special babies so he used his connection with Sinister and that he placed into the code of the babies to be able to influence them to discover where they came from and to make them think the X-Men were evil and out to kill them. It also helped to have Moira who he had convinced and used to help persuade the quickly aging babies. He now had them and was well ahead of the X-Men when the children suddenly reached thirteen and all their powers began to manifest at once. He landed on a remote planet and had found a great scientist and used his help and lab to get all eight children in status tubes. All they could do was wait. Once this process was done, those that survived would be aged to sixteen, their mutation and or mutant abilities would be fully manifested and their personalities will be ready to be influenced for good or evil. This would then give Apocalypse one year to influence the children to give themselves completely over to him and to develop a serum that they needed to keep them from dying and to advance to their final speed age of adulthood and his perfect mutant army.
"How's the serum coming doctor?" Apocalypse asked as a strange insect looking humanoid stepped into the room.
"I am doing my best. Hopefully once they have mutated I can continue further research with their new modified DNA," the doctor responded.
"And the other thing?" Apocalypse asked.
"If one of them survive with a power set similar to what we need, I can infuse it with the life form, sacrificing it to give you a new body with your abilities back," the doctor answered causing Apocalypse to glance at the oblivious Moira and smile.
X-Calibur
Homecoming – Part Three
"Kurt Betsy Shamrock, Sunfire, Emerald Dragon and Purple Fury
Inside the Pocket World of Abyss
"They just won't stop coming," Sunfire said as he poured out his fire power causing Darkpires to puff into dark ash instantly at its touch.
"Well, you better keep fighting if we are to get this over with and take a much needed honeymoon," Psylocke said as she used her purple Psi-generated swords to sever the heads of any Darkpire that got close to her.
"Well, we just have to buy Kurt and his son enough time to find Cerise," Shamrock said as she used her green energy to generate a sword and shield to battle the Darkpires while Emerald Dragon did the same with his green fiery breath.
"Cerise!" Nightcrawler screamed as he ran forward following his son who became a ball of purple energy to light and guide the way.
"Kurt?" A weak voice called out.
"Cerise, where are you?" Nightcrawler asked as he vanished and reappeared all over looking for the woman he loved.
"Kurt?" Cerise asked again, barely able to speak.
"I'm right here," Nightcrawler said as he saw Cerise in a cell, vanished and reappeared inside her cell.
"Am I dreaming? Is it really you?" Cerise asked looking up into the eyes of the man she thought she would never see again.
"Yes it's me and we're getting you out of here," Nightcrawler said as he hugged her, vanished and reappeared outside the cell.
"Mom!" Purple Fury screamed as he took solid form again, but kept a slight purple glow.
"Kurt, our son," Cerise tried to talk.
"We got him back. Now save your strength, it's time to go home," Nightcrawler said as they quickly made their way back to their friends.
"You found her," Shamrock exclaimed with joy as she sent a pulsing burst of energy out of her body.
"Good to see you," Cerise said with a smile as she saw Shamrock alive and well, she felt as if this had to be a dream.
"Gather everything quickly," Abyss said as he appeared, wrapped each member of X-Calibur and then folded them into himself as he vanished and then unraveled letting everyone out inside the Med Unit of Braddock Manor.
"You guys did it," Meggan said with joy as she rushed over to hug Nightcrawler and Cerise.
"Yes, were all finally home. Now to get some rest," Nightcrawler said as he carried Cerise to a medical bed so she could be checked out and get some needed rest.
"Yes, because tomorrow is going to be a new day for X-Calibur," Betsy said as her brother nodded.
Next: Issue #54 – The Search – Part Four & X-Calibur: New Day
