"The Shadow King is loose yet again," said Professor X, facing all the members of the X-Men, in a grave tone. "Using Dylan's projection power, the Shadow King has managed to project his own personality out into reality, instead of last time, when he projected his host body outwards. He has retained all his powers, and is highly dangerous, as in this form, he can shapeshift and teleport as well. The combined abilities of Dylan and the Shadow King is immensely powerful, and is not to be underestimated."
Deciding to get on to the main part of his conference with the X-Men, Professor X paused for a while before saying, "We will have to take the Shadow King down."
"But how're we going to do that if he's sharing a body with Dylan?" Jean enquired.
"This is where I come in," Professor X said, surprising everyone, for he had never joined them on the field before. "When all of you are distracting the Shadow King, I will force Dylan's persona out of his body and into mine, and then, a psychic attack will be launched on his body, and, hopefully, the Shadow King will die, and when that happens, Dylan can go back into his own body."
Kurt raised a blue-furred, three-fingered hand into the air. "Yes, Kurt?" said Professor X. "So vere is ze Shadow King now?" Kurt asked. Sighing, the Professor said, "Like I said, the Shadow King is immensely powerful when he combines his powers with Dylan's. He has managed to make himself immune to psychic interference." Deciding to get to the point, he said, "I myself am not able to locate him."
Everyone in the conference room began to look a bit worried; if the Shadow King could protect himself from the Professor, what else could he do?
Sensing the distress level in the room, Professor X thought it was best to boost the spirits of those who sat before him. "But I have faith in all of you. You have taken the Shadow King down before; it was tough, yes, but nevertheless, you succeeded. And I know you will do so again."
Continuing with his speech, Professor X said, "the only problem now is how we find Dylan."
"We could could do it," Jean said. "If you combine your powers with mine and Betsy's we might be able to locate the Shadow King's psyche and destroy it." The Professor shook his head. "Nevertheless, Jean," he said, "even if we combine our powers together, it is still, nevertheless, a form of psychic interference. The Shadow King has shielded himself against all forms of it, so I doubt that it will work."
Ray suddenly recalled something... someone, a person from his past, a deathly pale person with yellow eyes, the very same person who had found him. He knew that they did not like to be approached by people from the surface, but this was an important situation, and the only way out was to approach them.
"I think I know some people who can help us, Professor," said Ray. "Who are they?" Professor X asked, Ray replying, "The Morlocks."
Deep down in the sewers of Bayville, Massachussetts, a group of mutants, the Morlocks, lived. These mutants, unable to live properly in society because of the physical deformities caused by their mutations, lived underground, away from the society that shunned them.
"Come on! Quickly, before anyone sees us," Wanda said, as Jean, Nightcrawler and Cannonball followed behind. The four of them were in the middle of a road at eight o'clock at night. Professor X had instructed the four of them to travel through the sewers of Bayville to find the Morlocks, and ask for their help in defeating the Shadow King, and under the bright light of a lamp post, they were in danger of being seen by other people.
Jean, Nightcrawler and Cannonball caught up with Wanda, who was standing over a manhole cover. As Wanda moved her right hand over the manhole cover, the black cover began shaking violently, and when she made a grabbing gesture with her hands, the cover shot into the air, fell to the floor and rolled to the side of the road, causing a whole lot of noise and a few lights in the nearby houses to switch on.
Jean went into the manhole first; when she had reached about three metres into the extremely large, long, vertical pipe, Wanda jumped in, and was caught in mid-air almost immediately, making her float suspended in the manhole, together with Jean. Grabbing on to Nightcrawler, Cannonball jumped into the manhole, and flew all the way down, as Nightcrawler closed his eyes in fear; holding on to Cannonball as he flew was equivalent to taking a roller coaster ride, except a lot more scarier.
Is it safe down there? Jean asked. "Yes, it is, just come down slowly, don't jump," Cannonball shouted. Responding to Cannonball's reply, Jean focused as both Wanda and her steadily floated down to the cold and wet floor of the underground sewers.
No signs of the Morlocks were found as the four X-Men walked through the damp and grimy sewer. "Can you find anyzing, Jean?" Nightcrawler asked. "I'm picking up some signals from humans, although I'm not sure if they're Morlocks," Jean replied. "Let'z go see!" Nightcrawler said in an excited whisper. "For all we know, I could be ze Morlocks!" Without awaiting a response from anybody else, Nightcrawler disappeared in a cloud of smoke and the smell of burning brimstone.
After waiting for around a minute, Nightcrawler still had not returned. "Do you think I should contact him?" Jean asked. "You'd better," Cannonball said. "I'm getting worried. He could be in danger." Placing an index finger on each temple, Jean concentrated on telepathically communicating to Nightcrawler. The process seemed a lot tedious than usual; Jean could tell that Nightcrawler was in trouble.
Kurt! Jean said. Are you okay? A faint reply was just perceivable by Jean. Apparently, I've found ze Morlocks, Nightcrawler replied. Good, now come back, we're getting worried, Jean continued. I'm... in need of some loosening, Nightcrawler said. To put it simple, I'm in trouble.
"Kurt's in trouble," Jean said, taking her fingers off her temples. "Follow me, I think I know where he is," and Jean ran off, Cannonball and Wanda following closely behind.
When the three X-Men finally found Nightcrawler, a sight beheld them. A little girl with a hand almost as large as her head, her brown hair done in two pigtails, a man with skin as pale as the newly dead, a woman with an eyepatch over her right eye (her other eye was black) and a man whose skin had a greenish tinge and looked remarkably birdlike stood around Nightcrawler, who seemed to be stuck in an awkward position that made him look as if he were halfway through a jump.
The woman with the eyepatch over her eye walked in front of all the others. "Why did you come down here from the surface world?" she asked. "There's a crisis up there," Cannonball started. "Well, at least in the mutant community, that is," Wanda added in. Cannonball continued, "Well, anyway, a powerful mutant known as the Shadow King has taken over the body of an X-Man. We know of someone, a Morlock, who can help."
"How do you know of us?" The same woman spoke.
"Ray told us," Jean said. "Ray?" The woman said, surprised. "Do you mean Berzerker?" "Yes, we do," Jean said. "Ray told us that there was somebody amongst the Morlocks who could help us locate the Shadow King." "Why would people of the surface call for us now?" The bird-resembling man said spitefully. "First, we are shunned by society to the extent that we had to resort to hiding down here. Now, only when you decide to make use of us, do you call us back!"
"That's not our intention!" Jean argued. "We never thought of tha-" "To put things straight," the bird-faced man cut Jean off, "we don't believe you. We've had enough of the surface people's tricks." "Leave us alone!" the little girl shouted. The woman with the eyepatch just stood there, not sure what to do. "Come on, Callisto, let's go," the bird-faced man said to her. Slowly, Callisto began to join the other Morlocks in a walk away from the X-Men. All except the man with exceptionally pale skin were almost out of sight. The little girl, realising that he was missing, ran back and used her normal hand to tug at his shirt, saying, "Uncle Caliban, let's go!"
All the X-Men looked surprised. "You're Caliban?" Nightcrawler said. Looking at the X-Men, the pale man, who had been revealed to be Caliban, said, "Yes, I am. I've sensed a powerful mutant in Bayville for the past month, even more powerful than you." Caliban gestured at Jean. "I think that that very same mutant is the one who was taken over by the Shadow King, for I sense two people in him." "So, will you help us to defeat the Shadow King?" Cannonball asked. "I will," Caliban said. By this time, all the other Morlocks had gathered around him. "I know what it feels to be chastised by the society. I do not want you to feel as though you have been abandoned, the way society abandoned us."
"So, you will help us?" Nightcrawler said, still trapped in that uncomfortable pose. Caliban looked at him, and nodded sombrely. "But, Caliban!" the bird-faced man said. "Don't you remember how he kicked you of of your own home?" "That was all in the past, Scaleface," Caliban said, and Scaleface knew he had said something he was not supposed to. "Don't mention that." Expertly masked sadness was in Caliban's eyes. "That's enough, Scaleface," Callisto said sternly. She knew the topic of Caliban being kicked out of his home by his father was taboo. "Callisto," Caliban said, "let's help these surface people fight the Shadow King." After a few moments of thinking, Callisto nodded her head.
Wanda looked right into Nightcrawler's eyes and blinked; crackling blue energy whose movements mimicked that of electricity ran all over his body, and his limbs began to move. Soon, he regained his movement, and was able to walk raher quickly, but was still rather stiff in his shoulders.
Both the X-Men and the Morlocks walked to the manhole from which they entered; Cannonball held on to Caliban, who held on to Scaleface as he flew upwards to the surface world with superhuman speed, Jean flew up at her normal pace, levitating the little girl and Wanda with her as well, and Nightcrawler held on to Callisto's hand as they disappeared in a puff of black smoke.