After the battle ended, the X-Men set about aiding the injured Misfits and Sky High students. General Hawk also arrived to take a personal look at the situation. And to mend some bridges with Xavier.
"I don't know how to thank you, things were certainly looking bleak." Roadblock said to Xavier. "If you hadn't come, we'd all have been up the creek!"
"Yeah, thanks Professor!" Cover Girl added. "But what were you doing here anyway?"
"Funny story." Logan said. "Remember that woman who called right after the Halloween episode wanting to close down the school?" He pointed at Principal Powers.
"What?" Low Light blinked.
"We did not think that the Xavier Institute was a safe place for the students." Principal Powers said sheepishly.
"Yeah, like Sky High is such a safe haven." Logan drawled.
"Sky High has a number of alumni who have, shall we say, alter egos who have considerable influence. We had come with the students to persuade Principal Powers that the Institute deserved to remain open and did not warrant any 'oversight' from Sky High." Xavier explained.
"I admit." Principal Powers said. "I was wrong."
"No harm was done." Xavier told her. "After all, you are hardly the first person to presume to judge how I run my school." General Hawk flinched as Xavier glanced in his direction.
"Yes," Hawk coughed. "About that…I guess I haven't always been as dedicated to the idea of mutual respect as I made myself out to be, have I?"
"No." Hank said, "You haven't."
"Still, I believe I have my own share of apologizing to do." Xavier said. "And in any event, this turn of events may have been for the best." He indicated the aid the X-Men were giving to the Misfits and the fraternization underway between them.
"Okay, so we know what you were doing here." Spirit said. "And I can guess about the Commander and Jetstream. But what about them?" He said, pointing to the Incredibles.
"It's Founder's Day." Principal Powers said simply.
"That's nice, but what does that have to do with—" Blind Master started before it sunk in.
"Wait a minute. The INCREDIBLES, founded Sky High?" General Hawk asked. Mr. Incredible grinned.
"Come with me." He said as he and Principal Powers led the adult X-Men and Misfit Handlers into the school. Principal Powers escorted them to a room marked "Sewage Overflow Containment."
She unlocked the door and opened it. The Joes and X-Men held their breath but the room was empty, save for a secret number pad. Principal Powers entered a few numbers and then the entire room slid down an elevator shaft, much to the amazement of the Joes and X-Men.
"Follow me." Principal Powers said as she escorted them through a hallway. "This is the heart of Sky High. Here," she said, indicating rooms full of books, computers, and filing cabinets. "We keep tabs on all super-powered individuals in history. And with the master computer we have a—near—complete listing of all super-powered individuals, constantly updated with new entries." She said. "It's how Sky High manages to keep track of the various heroes and villains out there."
"I suspect this was no small reason for the Hellions' attack." Hank mused.
"Incredible." Storm said.
"That's my name." Mr. Incredible smiled. "Don't wear it out."
"Would you believe he's been wanting to make that joke for years?" Elastigirl drawled.
"But why did you create Sky High?" Hank asked the Incredibles.
"For that." Mr. Incredible sighed as he showed them through another door. "We have to show you The Crypt."
"Crypt?" Cover Girl repeated. "What do you mean by—oh." The next room was full of life-sized holographic images of heroes. Dead heroes.
"After the supers returned we needed to find a way to rebuild our numbers following Syndrome's Purges." Mr. Incredible explained, looking sadly at the faces of fallen comrades. The Joes and X-Men could only stare at the holograms, each one of a late hero in full regalia, along with their name and secret identity; like Blue Beetle I (Dan Garret) or Flash I (Barry Allen). There were a lot more of course.
Apogee, Blazestone, Blitzerman, Downburst, Dynaguy, Fironic, Gamma Jack, Gazerbeam, Hypershock, Macroburst, Meta-Man, The Phylange, Plasmabolt, Psycwave, Splashdown, Stormicide, Stratogale, Thunderhead, Tradewind, Universal Man, Vectress…
It was a very large room.
"Charles…" Storm said, pointing at one hologram. "Look." Xavier did. His jaw dropped.
"Thunderbird…" He gasped, looking at the holographic representation of his fallen instructor. Xavier lowered his eyes.
Mr. Incredible laid a hand on his shoulder. "We know mutants haven't gotten the treatment they deserve for fighting against fiends like Apocalypse or Magneto…or Proteus. But here, we know a hero when we see one."
"Thank you." Xavier swallowed. "This would've meant a lot to him."
"So…" General Hawk continued after a respectful pause. "Sky High was created to find and train the next generation of superheroes?" Mr. Incredible nodded.
"In fact our youngest son Jack was one of the earliest students of Sky High." Elastigirl said. "And his children too. And you've met his grandson, Will."
"Will Stronghold?" Roadblock asked. "But wouldn't that make you—"
"Will's great-grandmother?" Elastigirl smiled. "Yup. Turns out we're a pretty long-lived lot."
"Jack's son—the Commander—who inherited by super-strength, decided to give himself a new name in order to start a whole new legacy." Mr. Incredible said.
"Incre—amazing," Low Light said, catching himself. "But will Sky High recover from this?"
Principal Powers nodded. "Without a doubt. We may have to adjust our curriculum to…compensate for some of the deficiencies this attack showed, but no students were fatally injured and neither was the school. Sky High will carry on."
"Then there is still one last thing I have to do." Xavier said. "Where is Althea?"
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"You ought to consider yourself lucky." Nurse Spex told Althea as she checked her over in nurse's office of Sky High. "You've got a hard head."
"I come by it honestly." Althea said, jerking her thumb at her father. "How're the triplets?"
"…Physically? They'll be okay. Brittany still shaken up, though." Nurse Spex said, clucking her tongue. "Terrible thing, doing that to children. What kind of monster does that?"
"…Yeah." Althea said to herself, deeply troubled. "What kind of monster?" She shook her head. "How's everyone else?"
"Thanks to that healer of yours, they'll be back saving citizens in no time." Nurse Spex smiled. "We really appreciate the help you've given us."
"It's the last we can do. Considering we led them to you." Althea groaned. "First the Xavier Institute, now Sky High!"
"Oh nonsense." Nurse Spex said. "We brought you here ourselves, remember? And as for the other…you have a visitor." The door opened to reveal a familiar face.
"Professor Xavier?" Althea asked in surprise, unsure of why Xavier would come to see her.
"Hello Althea." Xavier said warmly. "Are you well?"
"Thanks to you guys showing up." Althea said. "How'd you get here anyway?"
"We actually arrived before you. It's a long story." Xavier said, nodding to Nurse Spex that he wanted to speak to Althea alone. After she left, Xavier continued. "I felt I needed to talk to you when I learned that you have a…prior history with the Hellion Red Nova."
"I did." Althea said, her mouth flattening out into a thin line. "But after what Vladimir did to Trinity he better I hope I never get my hands on him again…"
"That's actually what I wished to talk to you about." Xavier sighed. "I think you ought to know that what happened during the battle was not his own fault. Nor, do I suspect, was much of what has occurred over the last few months."
"What do you mean?" Althea asked, leaning forward intently.
"I sensed a powerful psychic backlash during the battle when Trinity attacked." Xavier said. "The telepathic blocks Emma Frosts placed in her Hellions were destroyed and I managed to probe Mr. Tubarov's mind. There are signs of…tampering."
" 'Tampering'…" Althea echoed. "Frost." She said, not a question. Xavier nodded. "She's been brainwashing him?" Althea guessed. Xavier sighed.
"Not quite. The truth is far more…complicated."
"It usually is." Althea noted dryly.
" 'Brainwashing' usually implies rewriting or completely altering the subject's mind." Xavier explained. "However it seldom succeeds completely or permanently. I refer you to Magneto's repeated efforts to control Wanda, for instance." Althea nodded. "What Emma did was far more…subtle."
"Meaning…?"
"Meaning Emma used a sort of telepathic suggestion to influence Mr. Tubarov." Xavier said. "It is hard to describe to a non-telepath. In essence it is a sort of recurring telepathic impulse that encourages certain thoughts and emotions while discouraging certain lines of thought…often masking itself as a recurring head-ache."
"It can suppress certain memories, while continually bringing others to the surface, manipulating attitudes and thoughts in a way that is virtually undetectable to all but the most skilled of telepaths."
"That would explain why Vlad didn't recognize me." Althea said. "Frost's been messing with his memories…and playing up his resentment over the fall of the Soviet Union too, I'll bet."
"That is only part of what was done to him." Xavier said gravely. "Emma also implanted a completely new persona into Mr. Tubarov's mind."
"What?"
"Mr. Tubarov's own identity was supplemented with the creation of another, hidden identity linked to his own: Only one driven by rage and far more powerful than his normal self. His true self became a shell program of sorts, to hide the hidden "core" identity. Unfortunately Trinity's psychic damaged Emma's conditioning and that, in his anger, he managed to unleash the core identity without being truly conscious of it.
"And that's why he went as berserk as a Tamaranean with PMS?" Althea asked.
"In essence." Xavier coughed at the comparison.
"Great." Althea groaned. "How do we stop it?"
"There is a chance that the implanted identity can be removed through a sort of 'telepathic surgery.' However it is a long, delicate operation that I simply cannot do the next time the Hellions attack. And it has to be done soon."
"What do you mean?" Althe asked, dreading the answer.
"From what I managed to sense when the implanted personality emerged, the core identity will continue to expand its influence over Mr. Tubarov's real identity until it consumes it entirely. The possibility cannot be discounted that this would kill Mr. Tubarov after a—I'm afraid—quite long period of insanity and instability."
"Oh my god…" Althea groaned.
Hiding outside the door, Trinity gaped in horror at what they heard.
"What've we done?" They whimpered.