On a little table in the corner, Caliban's stinky supper sits. It looks putrid. It's...unclear, based on looking at it, as to exactly what it is... But of course, Caliban's a perennial Morlock. And down there, they get used to eating a lot of foods that would make the MRD want to put a VERY big price on all of the Morlocks' heads.

In the albino buff, Caliban comes out of the shower. He can't see EVA...but right now, he's pretty sure she's infected herself with a video virus, just to keep her sensors from having to behold Caliban's hideous albino-buff image.

Without dressing, Caliban sits, takes up his box of revolting food, and eats it with chopsticks. Part of every bite struggles for life, as he eats it. Luckily, whatever's in each bite is all covered in some kind of thick revolting sauce, so anyone watching wouldn't be able to tell what it is.

Just behind Caliban, the floor is clear. He can't tell...somehow...but there's a trap door in the floor.

As his back is turned, the door opens a crack. Inside, a pair of robotic eyes look around, surveying the room. They're not EVA's eyes...which is good for Caliban's image, but VERY bad for the security of the Petersen Lodge.

The trap door closes. Caliban slows his chewing, and turns his head, thinking he's sensed something. He looks around. Nothing stirs. He shrugs, turns back around, and keeps eating his... Whatever it is. For all I can tell, he got the recipe from Mephisto.

In Caliban's blindness, the trap door opens again. Through its crack, a lynx kit surfaces. He lights a shuck through the Petersen Lodge, and vanishes.


In the hallways, three halls converge. One at a time, Cannonball, Warpath, and Wisdom all come down one. They all meet where the ways converge.

Wisdom pockets his keys. "Alright," he tells them. "This place is locked up, and we, Caliban, and Fantomex are the only five guys in here."

They all nod, and look around. For the short moment it lasts, they embrace the cool feel of how secure this place feels...

It's all shattered, when the piano in the sitting room starts playing. Initially, though, Guthrie forgets his purpose, and reacts to the music with admiration. As the music picks up tempo, he mindlessly does a little dance, embraced with Wisdom. For the both of them, it's a happy moment...as weird as Wisdom still finds the average "Kaintuck Yank"...which is what Guthrie would be, if not for his mutant gene.

There's a rumor going around that Guthrie is one of the ten Externals... But right now, Wisdom doesn't know what to believe...

Just in time, Proudstar interrupts them. "Hey! If we're the only ones here, who's playing the piano!"

At this, Guthrie shouts in fear, stops dancing, and backs against the wall.

"Well," Wisdom suggests, "how do we know it's not Caliban...or Sept?"

Proudstar shakes his head at the thought of Caliban...but does call, twice, to see if it's Sept. The piano keeps playing; no one answers. Now, the X-Force has officially switched to a Code Yellow.

"Fall in," Wisdom whispers, leading the three of them into the sitting room. They all follow...with Guthrie bringing up the rear.

In the sitting room, the piano plays. Its top is up. Alas, if anyone's sitting at the bench, the X-Force can't tell, from this angle. The front is turned away from the doorway they stand in.

At this, Guthrie trembles. "Shit! There's nobody there!"

Wisdom lights up the fire knives in his fingers, and takes the lead again, while circling the piano. Proudstar draws both of his vibranium Bowie knives, and follows. Guthrie gives his feet and hands some thermo-chemical energy, and levitates after the two of them.

Bravely, the three mutants assemble just behind the piano bench. Guthrie lands, and turns off his Cannonball fire. He appears to gape in terror, at the sight of what dares play the piano on the X-Force's watch...

It's the lynx kit. He's walking back and forth across the piano keys...making music just by doing that, as incredulous as that sounds. OTOH, the kit could be a mutant... But then, if the kit was a mutant, how come Caliban didn't smell him coming in...aside from the fact that his meal's stench could've dampened a bloodhound's sense of smell?

Wisdom sighs, and dampens the flames of his fingertips. Proudstar sighs, and sheathes both of his Bowie knives.

"Ah," Guthrie says, beaming down at the lynx kit. "It's a Kitten on the Keys, isn't it?"

Proudstar and Wisdom both study Guthrie...

Guthrie shrugs. "I'm a Kentucky backwoods boy. A lot of my older relatives still listen to that kind of music. Shit, some of them probably still think that the damned president is still Teddy Roosevelt." He studies them. "The real one; not Teddy Brewster, from Arsenic and Old Lace."

Wisdom only scoffs and shakes his head. Proudstar grins.


From the ceiling in his quarters, Caliban now hangs upside-down, while trapped inside a power-dampening net. He's been gagged. His captors have done him the honor of forcing a pair of black boxers on him, thus hiding his more hideous-looking parts.

With that done, the Brand robot MX39147 now opens the trap door in the floor. Once again, she's shapeshifted into Delphine Courtney for the occasion...just as she was when she and the rest of Omega Flight first fought the Alpha Flight. This time, she opens it all the way.

From it, several temporal duplicates of the mutant Flashback surface. One is of him when he'll be fifty-five. The second is of him when he'll be forty-four. The third is of him when he was twenty-two. And the omega of this pack is of him when he was eleven; young, but still physically mature enough to do military work. The present version of Flashback...Gardner Monroe at a very ripe and prime thirty-three, brings up the rear of that train.

Kyle Gibney, the Wild Child, brings up the rear. His powers are comparable to those of the Wolverine's and the Sabretooth's. Hence, Caliban gapes, and struggles within his bonds, when he senses this. His powers might have been dampened, but he can still detect the smallest of the traces of the Wild Child's X-gene. Now, Caliban knows that it was Wild Child, not Sabretooth or Daken, that he smelled outside the perimeter, as the X-Force was first fortifying the lodge...

Flashback studies Caliban...and scoffs. "Shit, Gibney. He can still smell you even when he's bound in the latest anti-mutant netting from Trask Industries!"

"No time for that," MX39147 whispers. "Let's move in!"

With her robotic body's tech, she opens the door to what was once Caliban's very-secure quarters. One by one, the temporal duplicates of Flashback move out...and then move in, towards the center of the lodge.

As the last one leaves, the lynx kit runs back into the room. As Gibney closes the trap door in the floor, he picks up this kit, and cuddles him in his hands. Clearly, the kit and Wild Child know each other.

Hence, the "Kitten on the Keys" act was to distract the main forces of the X-Force, as the Omega Flight tackled Caliban in his own barracks. Now, for Omega Flight, that's one down, and four to go. After that, there's a lot of loot in this lodge they could all steal. And they all SO want to...