Episode Two

'There is no way I'm gonna to die like this,' Jono declared. 'No bloody way.'

Coat and bandages whipped around him as he unleashed the energy of the furnace that roiled inside of him. The blast billowed outward, catching the chunks of falling masonry and forcing them away.

'Hey, watch where you're pointing that thing, kid,' Logan complained as he dived for cover on the floor.

'Shut your gob, Logan,' Jono retorted. 'I'm the one trying to keep a sodding building off us here.'

The floor rippled, rising up like a tidal wave and knocking Jono off of his feet.

'Think you can do something about that, old man?' Jono asked, clambering to his knees.

'Time me,' Logan growled.

He leaped over furniture as it rode the turbulent ground and somersaulted through an open window. Landing in a crouch, he sniffed the air.

'Figures,' he muttered to himself.

He raced down the street.

'Come on, Avalanche, show yourself,' he shouted.

'With pleasure.'

Avalanche soared down the street, riding a wave of rock and earth. He leaped off just as the crest of the wave struck Logan, burying the other mutant beneath it.

First one clawed fist, then another punched through the rock, the blades slicing through the debris like it was whipped cream.

'Cute trick,' Logan remarked. 'Want to see one of mine?'

'Some other time, huh, Wolverine?'

Toad dropped from the sky, hit the ground and bounced up again, feet leading the way as he collided with Logan's face. Toad spun backwards, landing on all fours beside his partner.

'Hey, Avalanche,' he said, 'time's a-wasting. Boss lady wants us back pronto.'

'Well, what are we hanging around for?' Avalanche demanded.

Toad shrugged and hopped away.

'Not so fast, tough guy,' Logan snarled. 'I ain't done with you yet.'

Avalanche stretched out his hand. His eyes rolled back his head and the ground shook. Cracks criss-crossed the pavement between him and Logan. Then a chunk of rock shot up from the ground and struck Logan in the temple.

He collapsed to the ground.

'Now you're done,' Avalanche said.

* * *

'Everett?'

The boy sprinted off ahead and Paige Guthrie gave chase. As she ran, she questioned what she was doing. Everett Thomas was dead. She had helped bury him. Whoever this was, it could not be Everett. So why was she chasing him?

None of these doubts slowed her down any.

'Everett' ducked behind the dorm building. The courts were back here and a basketball game was in progress involving a number of students. Since the Professor had gone public, the school had been flooded with new pupils, of all shapes and descriptions. Given that the use of powers was obviously acceptable in the game, the whole affair was quite chaotic to watch. Beautiful, in its own way, but quite chaotic.

Paige didn't have time to watch, however. Her quarry was already beyond the court. But how had he got over the fence so fast? More to the point, how was she going to do the same? She could always husk and then tear her way through, but she doubted the Professor would approve.

Then she spotted that Angel girl.

That kid had a serious attitude problem. Paige had tried introducing herself once and had then resolved never to go near the girl again. Guess she was about to break that promise.

Angel was airborne, the basketball clutched in her hands as she looked for someone to pass to. Paige jumped, her hand grabbing Angel by the ankle.

'Hey!' Angel began.

Paige kicked out with her legs, swinging forwards and upwards. The sole of her shoe connected with the top of the fence and Paige released Angel, propelling herself up and out of the court. The breath shot from her body as she landed badly, but she ignored it as she continued her pursuit.

A string of expletives erupted from Angel, but Paige ignored them too.

'Everett' flowed like smoke between the students wandering the campus. Paige was not so skilful and more than one student found their behind striking the ground as Paige forced them out of her way.

Her lungs burned, her legs ached, but Paige kept pounding, kept striving to go that little bit further, that little bit faster. And she was gaining. Little by little, she was actually gaining on him.

She was practically striking his heels as the boy dived into the school building.

Paige lunged right after him

and collided with Nightcrawler.

'Wie gehts?' the blue-furred mutant asked. 'What is going on here?'

'I was chasing' Paige panted. 'Didn't you see?'

'Paige,' Kurt said, 'I have seen no-one else but you.'

'But I was right behind him,' Paige insisted. 'You must have seen him.'

Kurt just looked at her blankly.

Paige buried her head in her hands.

'I must be losing my mind,' she complained.

'Another long afternoon in the library?' Kurt asked.

'Yeah.' Paige nodded.

'I admire your desire to always keep pushing yourself,' Kurt told her, 'but even the greatest of brains needs to take a break once in a while.'

'Yeah, I guess,' Paige admitted. 'Maybe I'll go and lie down for a bit.'

Paige turned to leave. Then she spotted Everett out of the corner of her eye. She was about to say something when Kurt turned and walked through the figure. Paige's mouth fell open in shock and she blinked. When she opened her eyes, Everett was gone.

'Oh God, now I'm hallucinating,' she moaned.

Kurt paused.

'Did you say something, Paige?' he asked.

'Ghosts,' Paige whispered. 'I'm seeing ghosts.'

'Sorry?'

'Nothing,' Paige replied hastily. 'I'll see you around, 'kay.'

She practically ran to her room.

* * *

In less time than it takes to blink, Jean-Paul swept his arm down and knocked the knife from his sister's hand.

'I do not know who you are,' he declared, 'but you are not Jeanne-Marie. I refuse to believe that my sister is dead.'

'How can you deny the evidence of your own eyes, brother dear?' Aurora asked. She reached out and caressed his cheek with her hand. 'Some things are simply out of your control.'

Jean-Paul grabbed her by the wrist and forced her hand away.

'You are not my sister,' he repeated. 'I deny you.'

'Please, Jean-Paul,' Aurora cried. 'You're hurting me.'

'I'll do worse than that if you don't tell me who you are and what is going on here,' Jean-Paul snapped.

'I've already told you,' Aurora insisted. 'I'm your sister's ghost.'

'Liar!' Jean-Paul screamed.

His hand closed around empty air and the image of Aurora faded away before his eyes.

'Calique,' he muttered softly. 'What magic is this?'

He glanced around the station concourse. The phantoms he had noticed before were no longer visible. All around him people were moving as if waking from a trance, those that hadn't already fallen victim to whatever had been going on here.

There was a buzzing noise in his ear.

'Northstar,' Warren's voice called, 'come in please. Are you okay?'

'Would it be a great disappointment to you if I were to say yes?' Jean-Paul asked.

'Cut the crap, Jean-Paul,' Warren snapped. 'What were you thinking rushing off like that?'

'I was trying to save lives,' Jean-Paul retorted as he scanned the concourse. 'I thought that was what you wanted, Angel-man.'

'Whatever,' Warren replied. 'You're damn lucky to be alive. Listen, Bobby's been speaking to the Paris survivors and we think we know what's going on. Seems these people are being attacked by the ghosts of dead loved ones.'

'Yes, I had actually worked that out for myself,' Jean-Paul said, 'but you input is as valuable as ever.'

There was something going on over the far side of the station. Jean-Paul strained his eyes to make it out.

'What we don't know,' Warren was saying, 'is what's causing it.'

There was a figure bundled up in an overcoat and scarf running from the station. Jean-Paul had noticed him before, standing off to one side, watching all that was going on.

'I think I may be a step ahead of you on that one too,' he told Warren.

'Jean-Paul, don't!' Warren snapped. 'We're on our way. Don't do anything until we've arrived.'

'I'm sorry, Worthington,' Jean-Paul said. 'I didn't quite catch that.'

The guy in the overcoat was already outside when Northstar took to the air. He was running across a bridge spanning a main road. He could see the river in the distance, the London Eye peeking over the tops of nearby buildings.

He had barely taken two more steps when Northstar overtook him.

'Hold it right there,' Jean-Paul said, blocking the man's escape. 'You and I need to have a little talk.'

The man raised a hand and a ghostly image of Aurora shimmered between the two of them. It disappeared almost as soon as it had formed, however.

'You've already tried that trick,' Jean-Paul said. 'And I wouldn't try any of my other dear departed colleagues, if I were you. People in Alpha Flight have an annoying tendency to come back from the dead. However, I would like to thank you for confirming what I had up until now only suspected, that you are the one responsible for these atrocities. So, are you going to come quietly, or is this going to get messy. And, given that you decided to make this personal, I'm hoping it's that latter.'

'Me too.'

Jean-Paul spun to face the new voice.

The Blob was standing on the far side of the bridge.

'Surprise, canuck,' he said.

Then he brought his foot down, hard, and the bridge collapsed.

* * *

'What happened to you?' Jono asked as Logan re-entered the ruined building.

'Ran into an old friend,' Logan replied.

Jono looked him up and down.

'Literally?' he asked.

'Funny,' Logan said. 'Now how about earning your keep and helping me search this place.'

'Well, that shouldn't be too difficult,' Jono commented. 'It's not like there's much of this place left to search. So what are we looking for anyway.'

'Files, documents,' Logan grunted, 'anything that'll tell us why Andrei was so keen to see me. And why Toad and Avalanche were so keen to see him.'

'Avalanche?' Jono said. 'Again?'

'Guess some people never learn,' Logan remarked. 'Now, are you gonna get your hands dirty or just back-talk?'

'Well, I was thinking that maybe Iokay, I'm searching, I'm searching.'

* * *

'What the hell were you thinking?' Mimic snapped at Blob. 'You almost killed the very person we're here to collect.'

Mimic's wings beat lazily as he kept aloft, the mystery mutant cradled in his arms.

'Hey, you caught him, right,' Blob said, 'so what's the harm. 'Sides, we're one less X-freak now.'

'You think?' Jean-Paul tapped Blob on the shoulder. 'Trust me, it's very difficult to surprise people with super fast reactions. Everyone else moves as if in slow motion. And you, my friend, well you might as well not be moving at all.'

'Well what're you going to do about it, Frenchie?' Blob demanded. 'Hit me? I'm the Blob, man. Nothing can hurt me.'

'Allow me to test that theory,' Jean-Paul said and he landed a punch right between the Blob's eyes. Blob was right, a single punch from Northstar could not hurt him and Jean-Paul knew this. Which was why he punched him seventy-two times in the space of one second.

Blob's eyes crossed and he tumbled backwards, off of the bridge. He fell into the middle of the road, the ground cratering under him. A car collided with him and its front crumpled upon impact.

'You know,' Mimic said, 'for taking the wind out of that guy's sails I'm almost tempted to let you live. Almost.'

Beams of ruby light shot out from Mimic's eyes towards Jean-Paul. The blast tore a large chunk out of the ground were the X-Man had been standing milliseconds before.

'You'll have to hit me first,' Jean-Paul said, 'and I'm not planning on holding still for you.'

'Really?' Mimic asked. 'We'll see about that.'

'What do you' Jean-Paul tried to take to the air and found he couldn't move.

'It's called telekinesis,' Mimic explained. 'One of the advantages of having all of the powers of the original X-Men. Say goodnight now, Gracie.'

Mimic unleashed another optic blast and this time Jean-Paul did not, could not, dodge.

* * *

'This what you're looking for?' Jono asked, proudly holding up a file.

'What is it?' Logan asked without looking up.

'How should I know?' Jono retorted. 'I don't read Russian.'

'All right, all right,' Logan muttered. 'Give it here.' He thumbed through the pages. 'Yeah, this is the stuff, all right. Seems the KGB had their own interest in mutants.'

'Let me guess, it wasn't philanthropic,' Jono remarked.

'Got that right,' Logan agreed. 'Seems our friends here were after some kind of mutant assassin. And I'd say they found it. A seven year-old with the power to manifest images lifted from the target's subconscious and use them to kill. Subject K-32.'

'K-32?' Jono repeated. 'Doesn't he even warrant a name?'

'You name your knife and fork?' Logan asked. 'Sorry, bad example. Point is, this kid was just a tool to them, not a real person at all.'

'How do you suppose the kid reacted to that?'

'Badly, according to this,' Logan replied. 'Started to develop psychotic tendencies so in the end they locked him up. For nineteen years.'

'And now he's loose,' Jono deduced.

'And able to act out all those sick little fantasies he's been nursing for the past couple of decades.'

'This is bad, right,' Jono said. 'I mean, really bad.'

'It gets worse,' Logan continued. 'Looks like the Brotherhood is after him and if they get access to a killing machine with that much power'

'Well, what are we hanging about here for?' Jono asked.

'My thoughts exactly, kid.'

* * *

The blast catapulted Jean-Paul backwards and straight into Warren's arms.

'I've got you,' Warren muttered as he flew back up to the Blackbird.

'But who's got you?' Mimic asked as he swooped after the mutants.

Then he felt his wings becoming heavier. And colder.

'That would be me,' Bobby declared, standing at the open hatch of the Blackbird.

Finally, the build-up of ice on Mimic's wings became too much and he began plummeting to the ground. He threw his cargo into the air, then snagged the edge of the ruined bridge with his toes as he fell past. He swung himself beneath it and somersaulted up and around so that he landed safely on his feet, arms outstretched to catch the falling Russian mutant.

'You know, this guy's got moves,' Bobby remarked as Warren strapped Jean-Paul's unconscious body into a seat.

'Yeah? Well, he's not the only one.'

Warren leaped from the plane, wings folded behind him so that he fell like a stone. Mimic launched a barrage of optic blasts in his direction, but he was too slow and Warren falling too fast.

Then Warren unfurled his wings, breaking his fall suddenly. His flight path levelled out and he led the way with his fists, which connected sharply with Mimic's jaw.

'Care to go another round?' Warren laughed as he banked beneath the bridge ready for another pass.

He cried out in pain as a massive hand clamped around his ankle, shattering bone.

'Going somewhere, bird-boy?' the Blob asked.

'Hey fatso,' Bobby called, 'pick on somebody your own size. If you can find somebody that is.'

'II...' The Blob's eyes started to glaze over.

'Feel that, Blobbo,' Bobby continued. 'That's me cooling your brain so that things are happening even slower in there than usual. Bummer, right?'

'Truer words never spoken, Snowcone,' Toad remarked as he hopped from one wall to another. His tongue whipped from his mouth and wrapped itself around Bobby's waist before yanking him from the aircraft.

'Gross,' Bobby said, examining the slime-drenched tongue encircling him. 'No tongues on the first date.'

He clamped both hands around the green flesh and concentrated. A wave of ice swept down the tongue and struck Toad, who bounded away in pain. Released, gravity decided to take hold of Bobby so he quickly whipped up an ice ramp he could use to slide to the ground.

'Quit playing around, Blob,' Avalanche scolded his enormous team-member who was waving Archangel about like a rag-doll. 'We've got what we came for so let's move out.'

'Aw, you're no fun,' Blob whined as he threw Warren to one side.

'Yeah, Avalanche,' Bobby agreed as he shifted from flesh to his ice form, 'we're just getting to the good part.'

'You can say that again,' Avalanche replied and he extended his hand in the direction of the Blackbird. The plane began to vibrate, slowly at first, but soon it was shaking itself apart. The engines gave out under the strain and the Blackbird tipped forward in a nosedive.

'Northstar!' Bobby shouted as the plane fell.

He braced himself with his legs apart and closed his eyes, focussing his power and picturing in his mind the effect he wanted to create.

'You'd damn well better thank me for this when to wake up,' he muttered through clenched teeth.

When he opened his eyes again, the Blackbird had stooped falling. It was trapped like a fly in amber in the mountain of ice Bobby had created in the middle of the street.

But the Brotherhood was gone. And they had Subject K-32 with them.