In 2007, several members of the X-Men ventured into Limbo to save an innocent young girl from the clutches of a demonic tyrant. They emerged 17 years later to a world with new heroes: the Avengers. But the humans have collectively lost their memory of the plight of mutantkind.
Still, hope remained. A new team of mutants, led by some of Charles Xavier's final students, has returned to the old mansion in Westchester. The X-Men have returned. And so too have the threats they face…
In the land of Limbo, that cavernous realm of fire and chaotic magics, fiends of every shape and size were amassing before a castle. Its towers twisted in all directions, creating a terrible and hideous cap to the landscape. Its walls shuddered and rocked with the drumming and shrieking of demons going to war. The army of Belasco was readying itself for the hour of Inferno.
In a chamber at the top of his castle, the Demon King watched the fires rise. His nostrils flared as he sensed another presence in the room.
"Come out then, Dormammu. I know you're there. The walls of space and time groan in just such a way when you visit."
The orange haze outside Belasco's balcony broke into a kaleidoscope of whites and reds and yellows, as a lurid, ever-shifting face appeared.
"The Inferno…," the face began without greeting his host.
"Yes. The moment I have spent so many decades preparing for. We have only a few more rituals to cast before the veil is pierced. The days of humanity are nearing their end."
"Do not underestimate the humans," Dormammu rumbled. "Earth… is not as you last remember it."
"Oh, please! I was there not even six of their months ago. The X-Men have been reduced to children, cowering in their mud hut."
"You will listen, Lord of Limbo. I have come not to patronize you, but to warn you."
As Dormammu spoke, the sky around him darkened, and flashes of purple and green began to streak through his face. The Dark Dimension in which the Dread Lord resided was Dormammu, an extension of his very being. And it was oozing into Belasco's realm through the rift they were using to converse.
"Earth is not the fertile land of ignorant, docile mortals we once enjoyed. They are advancing, evolving, in ways we cannot discount. And there are Avengers."
"Avengers?"
"Protectors, like the mutants you once faced. But more powerful and greater in number. But there is more. They have… bested the Stones."
"I… don't follow."
"Yes… you do. Though you do not… wish to."
"The Six Singularities? There are Hell Barons who have spent millennia plotting to take just one."
"And I say to you… that One has held all Six. And that he was destroyed - by the Avengers."
Belasco looked down.
"I suppose this means the Dark Dimension will not be supporting my campaign."
"The Dark Dimension cannot support your campaign. One of these… Avengers… is a sorcerer. He is… crafty. I made him… a bargain… that prevents me from returning to Earth."
"That's not like you," Belasco said, surprised.
"These are not ordinary mortals."
"Nonetheless," Belasco muttered, "I have worked too hard to let go of my plans now. The Inferno will burn these 'Avengers' from the earth. If they make it harder, my victory will be all the more savored."
"I ask just one thing of you," Dormammu's eyes blazed. "Do what you wish with Earth. Run roughshod across it… throw open its doors to all the horrors of the multiverse. The Dark Dimension will honor your claim to it. But the Sorcerer Supreme is mine. Stephen Strange is mine."
The air around Dormammu's visage exploded with geometric shapes as his temper flared. Belasco seemed unimpressed.
"You will have Limbo's permission to pursue all your enemies on Earth. Just as soon as the Bloodstones are reunited and the Inferno has completed. Now please, let me get back to my rituals. It won't be long now."
"I… accept this offer," Dormammu's voice faded into the aether.
"I just hope you understand what you are getting yourself into…"
X-Men
INFERNO
"What makes a hero?"
Jennifer Walters was addressing a packed lecture hall at UC Berkeley. It was the third stop on a tour of universities, and she still wasn't sure she had nailed the speech yet.
"We live in an age of heroes. Super soldiers, space aliens, and yes, even Hulks. I'm aware there may be a conflict of interest here."
A laugh rolled through the crowd. Jen had never imagined being on this side of a lectern, but her recent exploits had gotten her a lot of attention. And she was probably garnering a lot more of it here, standing seven feet tall and green in a bespoke suit before these few hundred students.
"But there are those who say the age of heroes is over. The Avengers have been forced underground in the wake of the Sokovia Accords. Those who look like me, these people argue, need government supervision to make sure they're using their powers for the right purpose. And that is where the world made a mistake. Because what about heroes that aren't like me? What actually makes a hero?"
Pictures appeared on the screen behind her, of Firefighters and EMTs walking through a damaged Grand Central Station with Captain America.
"Firefighters, for example. Heroes, all of them, right? Maybe they can't lift up a bus, or outrun a jet plane, but they are lauded for their courage nonetheless. If any politician proposed a 'Firefighter Registration Act' they would be laughed out of their career.
"But let's say a firefighter becomes enhanced, or someone joins a fire department after developing an ability that helps them combat fires. Or say, perhaps, a large green independent attorney whose powers have nothing to do with her day job that she has no intention of quitting? They would be required by the original text of the Accords to register themself with the federal government or risk imprisonment. This registry was supposed to be about accountability. But instead, it is about fear."
The audience murmured as some newsreel began playing on the screen. Many of the incidents had made the rounds on social media.
"In the first four years of the Accords there were seventeen recorded incidents in this country alone of violence towards registered enhanced individuals - registration that was supposedly confidential. A gross violation of civil liberties that I can only interpret as a means to discourage these individuals from using their powers. Ladies and gentlemen, I believe in accountability. The Avengers existed because there were - and still are - people with power in this universe who do not use it for good. On paper, the Accords should have worked with the Avengers against a common enemy. But they were designed specifically to make the Avengers our enemies."
She shook her head.
"Of course, I speak of a relatively small issue. The main purpose of the Walters Amendment was to shield ordinary enhanced individuals from state persecution. The road ahead of us now is dismantling the spirit of Accords, the sentiment which brought them about in the first place. Captain America cared about people, and knew he had the ability to help them when others could not. If we discourage that, what happens next?"
Jen held out her green hand.
"Could I really turn away from a burning building if I knew I could run in and save someone?"
It was a warm day in San Francisco, even for October. In fact, it was sweltering. Passerby grumbled about the unseasonable weather as they made their way to their jobs. One man could hardly believe his luck. Not only was he on track to be fifteen minutes late to work during an audit, but-
"Achoo!"
On top of everything, he had a head cold.
"Gesundheit," a voice said behind him.
"Ah, thanks," the man said, turning around. "This damn change of weather is Hell on my… allergies?"
But there was no one behind him. Just an old payphone, covered in stickers.
"Strange," he thought, continuing to sniffle as he went about his way...
The autumn colors were at their peak around the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. Many of the students were away from the mansion attending their regular schools. Those whose circumstances allowed it (or required it) could opt into staying at the school for a fall program.
Ororo Munroe felt the breeze through her white mane of hair as she worked. Naturally attuned to the elements, she often revelled in the wind and rain. Currently, however, her attention was on the earth.
"Good morning, Professor."
It was a modest stone, for the person buried beneath it; Charles Xavier, who in life supplied the school both its name and its sprawling grounds. Like everyone else at the school, Professor Xavier was a mutant - a human with an unusual sequence of genes on their 23rd chromosome that gave them special powers. Mutants were not well understood by the world at large, and what they didn't understand, they hated and feared. To that end, Charles turned his ancestral home into a place where mutants could ready themselves to meet the world. He started off small, joined only by Ororo and their now-estranged friend Eric. Soon followed the X-Men, a response team for mutants in danger. Gradually the school had blossomed into this large, lovely place bristling with life. He may not have lived to see his dream become a reality, but it was certainly still going strong.
"Morning, Storm," came a voice behind her.
"You're up early, Anna. Keeping out of trouble, I hope?"
"No, no trouble," the girl said, nervously brushing aside the white streak in her hair. A veteran mutant, Ororo had been intimidating new students since the school first opened.
"What are you up to?"
"Planting chrysanthemums. Xavier's stone should be taken care of all times of the year."
"He was a really cool guy, wasn't he? You, my brother, everyone really. They all talk about him."
Anna Marie Wagner was the younger sister of Kurt Wagner; "Nightcrawler" of the X-Men before the school shut down for the first time. She was a reminder of how much time had passed while Ororo was away.
"He was one of the best men I knew," Storm smiled sadly.
"I wasn't here when he passed, you recall. So I must do what I can in the present to honor him."
"My mom says people who die, we should treat them like they're only resting. It's our job to make sure they rest easy."
With a roar, a sleek black aircraft sailed over the building. It hovered in place before dropping through a hole concealed beneath the tennis courts.
"Your mother has an interesting philosophy. But profound. I do think Charles is resting easy, knowing the capable people carrying on in his place."
"Coffee…" Kitty Pryde mumbled.
Far below the school, in the high-tech training area the X-Men called the Danger Room, Joshua Foley was winding down a simulation when the headmistress shambled into the booth.
"Still not really a morning person, Miss Pryde?" Foley adjusted the glove he always wore on his left hand.
"Not really any kind of person without my caffeine."
Kitty had been granted control of the school a little over a year ago, when Charles Xavier passed. It was quite a shock to her, but she was making it work. Kurt Wagner, her partner in training the X-Men, was holding a carton of coffee cups. Alongside him was a small purple dragon.
"First set is finishing up just now. The students are on their break. Care for a pick-me-up?"
"Thanks, Kurt," Kitty took a cup. She shook her head back and forth to clear some of her drowsiness.
"Feels better already."
Nightcrawler, as jovial as he was blue, smiled warmly.
"Always a pleasure being of service."
"And I'm sure you helped him get the order right, eh, Lockheed?"
She scratched the dragon behind his horns, earning a gentle coo.
They heard a moan, and a blonde girl with long, straight bangs entered.
"Coffee…" the blonde droned as she shuffled towards Kurt.
"Welcome back, Illyana. Rough night?"
"Stakeouts with Dani are usually rough. She has this… bottomless well of energy that really pisses me off after 1 AM."
"And she's gonna put an arrow in your hindquarters if she sees you with a beverage in the Danger Room terminal," Joshua smirked.
"I come from Hell, remember? I think I can take the risk."
Seventeen years ago, Illyana was spirited away to a nightmarish realm by the Demon King Belasco. The incident stranded several members of the X-Men in his "Limbo," ultimately driving the team apart and the mutant race into hiding. Belasco coveted her innocent young soul, breaking it to pieces for a dark ritual. Until she and Storm escaped. Over the summer both Illyana and her tormentor returned to the school, but she beat him back and reclaimed some of her soul to boot. She later joined up with Polaris' new team of mutants as the X-Man Magik. Kitty was just happy to have her old friend back in her life.
"Well, once we're all coffee'd up, what say we go a few rounds?" Kitty asked. "We'll have Josh queue up something challenging for us and the kids."
Illyana made a wide yawn.
"Anything to get my blood moving. Let's go."
Down in the Danger Room itself, the X-Men were training. Five teenage mutants selected by the Professor in his final days to continue the legacy of the school after he passed. They came from different places, but in the last year they had become a real team. Friends, perhaps even.
"You see Jubilee's story yesterday?" Cessily asked. "She's in Hawaii."
"What?" Chris exclaimed, shooting the metallic girl a look, "Man, some people get all the luck. We need a vacation."
"It's not really a vacation," Rachel said. "She has family down there."
"It's Hawaii, Rachel," Chris shook his head. "You could send me to a dentist there. It would still be a vacation."
"It would be nice to take another field trip," Cessily said, "but Miss Pryde has been pretty on edge about leaving the school unprotected since Belasco attacked over the Summer."
"Our last 'field trip' was to Mister Sinister's murder island," Laura said. "Maybe we should count ourselves lucky to have this holodeck thing to sightsee in."
"Something has to give eventually," Chris shrugged. "Simulating a place in here only gets you so far. I'd almost take the murder island at his point."
"It would be really nice this time of year," Hisako grinned. "The abandoned laboratories, the old human statue fields. Your selfies would make the triplets jealous."
Chris didn't follow the Cuckoo Sisters on anything. As far as he understood it the three identical blondes were basically clones of Emma Frost, the reformed supervillain who taught the Advanced Class below the primary X-Men roster. They vaguely terrified him, and that was before they used their telepathic powers.
"Well we wouldn't want that."
"Good morning, team," Kitty came through the wall with Illyana in tow. Her intangibility could be passed onto others if they maintained contact.
"Sorry I'm late, but I see we're just about ready for round two?"
"You got something harder for us today, Professor?" Laura asked, cracking her knuckles.
"We can do something a little spicier today. I think Josh knows the drill at this point.
"Mind if Illyana joins us today?"
"Works," Hisako shrugged.
"Sounds like fun," Rachel nodded.
"Cool. Fire her up, Elixir."
Joshua put in the cartridge. The white void of the Danger Room darkened, and a vast nighttime cityscape materialized. Each towering building was framed in a different shade of neon.
"Oh, this one's a little intense," Cessily whispered.
"Pretty colors, though," Rachel said.
"It's always colors with you, isn't it, Summers?" Laura rolled her eyes. She clenched her fists and a pair of metal blades emerged from her knuckles.
"It's kind of my style," Hisako said, shooting upwards as a suit of translucent red armor surrounded her body.
"A citywide curfew is in effect," a voiceover echoed through the streets. "All civilians are ordered to disperse and return to their homes."
Heedless of the voice, a throng of loud people rounded the corner carrying signs and waving torches. They sounded angry.
Further down the street on the opposite side, Illyana could see a line of riot police, clear plastic shields in hand, waiting to meet the protesters.
"Let's get to work, X-Men," Kitty shouted.
Hisako used her higher vantage point to scope out the scene.
"Rachel, can you maybe get the cooler heads around here to group up further back? Let's get the rowdiest bunch all in one place."
"I'll see what I can do, Armor."
Rachel's eyes flashed pink as she tapped into the psychic power she inherited from her mother. It wasn't a 1:1 translation, using her telepathy on simulated humans. But protestors and cops alike retreated further back into their side of the street. A large enough number of people remained; however, that it could cause real trouble if things got out of hand.
"I'm standing by in case we get injuries," Chris reported.
"Copy, Triage," Laura said from higher up the building. "I'm flanking the police line in case anybody in blue tries anything cute. Wolverine out."
Illyana, Cessily, and Kitty took a position between the advancing lines, ready for the thick of it.
"Those signs are all gibberish. What were these people protesting?" Illyana asked.
"This is a composite of multiple scenes of civil unrest Xavier gathered through the years," Kitty said.
"There's a very real possibility that demonstrations involving mutants or mutant rights will get violent, but the practical applications of this exercise are universal."
"So who's side are we on?"
"Nobody's. De-escalation is the name of the game. Protect the protestors, it's their right to be here; but minimize casualties in general."
One of the police officers lobbed a tear gas grenade over the line of shields.
"Hey!"
Cessily's body turned fluid, snaking up and enveloping the projectile so that it detonated harmlessly inside her. The gas dispersed from her hands as she landed.
"I know you guys have a job to do, but that's no excuse to throw things!"
"Disperse, civilians!" An officer barked. "We will not ask again."
The remaining protestors and police were beginning to clash with one another. Kitty jostled with the protestors as they collided with plastic barriers.
"Phoenix? I'm going to need an evac soon if this keeps up."
Rachel floated into the air with her telekinesis.
"I'll be ready."
Illyana dashes upwards on tiny discs of energy that appeared below her feet - one of several magic spells she had learned in Limbo.
"Here's a tip, you guys," she said as she conjured up a smokescreen.
"Police are civilians, too. You aren't enlisted. But you can look that up when you go home after… after..."
Her head swam as a creeping, icy pain overflowed her senses. She collapsed, eyes twitching as quick, erratic breaths fled her lungs.
Kitty saw Illyana go down and nearly lost her footing amidst the crowd.
"Yana? Oh my god."
The police did not take advantage of the girl's fall - in fact, they started to stack up on each other in an attempt to get away. Tendrils of darkness were emerging from her body. She was beginning to change!
Kitty phased into the ground and retreated a few yards outside the protest. She had seen this creature - the Darkchilde - once before, when Belasco held full sway over Illyana's soul. They always knew he would return for it some day…
"Miss Pryde!" Hisako shouted, running over.
"Armor, get the others and move them back two blocks. Do not engage, and please don't fight me on that. Remember, Illyana is still in that thing somewhere."
With a puff of smoke, Kurt appeared behind her.
"It's happening, isn't it Katzchen?"
The computer-controlled protestors scattered as the Darkchilde rose from a crouching position in the middle of the street. It made a terrible roar, and began lumbering towards Kurt and Kitty.
"Kurt, go into my office and call the number on the card at the top of my left-hand drawer."
"What about you?"
Kitty closed her eyes and held out her hand. A blue sword flashed into existence between her fingers.
"I'll think of something."
Illyana found herself somewhere she hadn't seen in years. It was a cramped college dorm, adorned with strand lights and a few rock and roll posters. There were two beds, one on either side of the air conditioner. The window in the dormer box beyond opened up to pure blackness outside, but it was otherwise identical. It was her own room, from junior year of college. And seated on the bed opposite hers was her dark counterpart, the Darkchilde. She looked just like Illyana, if Illyana dressed as a vampire for Halloween. Her raven hair was pulled back in a ponytail, horns on full display. She had replaced the black robes she wore in their last encounter with a set of matched pajamas. They had little bats on them. She looked up at Illyana through blood red eyes and smiled.
"Welcome back, Yana."