Being in the Astral plane was freaky. In most of the cooridors which seemed to be floating in space, we fought Astral versions of the Brotherhood members. But Shadow king had one more plan for us. The cooridoors ended at a great colloseum. Where he was talking to a obviously brainwashed Professor Xavier.
Professor Xavier asked Shadow King who we were and he replied, "A group of Assassins, My Emporer. They have come to kill you."
We tried to convince Professor Xavier of the truth, but he didn't believe us, and called forth "his Champions" to fight us. Evil Astral recreations of all the X-men which he called weird names. For example he called the evil Cyclops, "Chaos Lord" or he called the evil Colossus, "Champion of Rhodes."
Well the fight was on. I don't know what part of the battle was more disturbing. Either it was the ferocity of Cyclops taking down the metal clawed beast called the "Ultimate Predator." I'm thinking it was an opportunity to release years of repressed anger. The other thing more disturbing was the effeciency with which Storm took out the Fiery astral monster Professor Xavier called the "Demoness of Pompeii." I have a lingering suspicion the X-men had been planning a strategy in case I ever turned on them.
What ever happened, I had just finished taking out the evil copy of Rogue with a fireball when the Professor finally remembered who we were. Shadow King knocked him out from behind and fled saying we would never get the professor back. He opened a portal away, and with nowhere else to go, we returned to the institute so Jean could search for the Professor using Cerebro.
Later Jubilee caught me looking up at the asteroid riddled sky.
She said, "Sorry that your return to the X-men is under such terrible conditions."
I replied, "It's because of these conditions that Mom and Dad allowed me to return. Still I've heard stories that this isn't the only world-threatening situation you've had to face."
She smirked and said, "Not by a long shot."
I asked if it would ever get better and she replied, "Magneto says humanity is evolving. I say we need to evolve to become smarter, not just become powerful. You notice that some of the brotherhood members are not so bright."
We said at the same time, "Look at Toad."
Jubilee once said, "One of the few things my parents passed down to me before they died, was this phrase, Leave the world better than you found it. If all we do is delay or minimize the extent of a human-mutant war, than our lives would be worth it."
At that moment, Beast called us down to the lab and said, "I have located Asteroid M in orbit, and have detected it is surrounded by Asteroids, and Magnetic sheilding though the sheilding has gaps in it. No human pilot can get the X-jet there, but I have a solution. I have examined the destroyed Sentinels and have found that they all have a new type of automated navigation system."
Wolverine asked, "You think this could get us to Asteroid M, Hank?"
Beast replied, "If we were to use Jean's telekinetic powers and Allison's Terrakinetic powers to move certain asteroids out of the way, sure, but the systems I pulled off of the sentinels are almost destroyed. We need an intact system. I have traced the Sentinels path, after they left here with Magneto. I believe I have located the Sentinels base."
So we are about to arrive at Sentinel central. Given that Magneto just escaped from there, it should be an interesting fight.
Later,
Magma