"Something's inside." Jubilee said as they heard growling coming from the spacecraft.
"And it don't sound friendly." Wolverine said.
'This is not how I pictured my first time finding a spaceship.' Danny thought to himself. His ghost sense went off.
"Rogue, I think we found what set off my ghost sense the other night." Danny said.
"I didn't think it would be something like this." Rogue replied.
Valerie came in and was wide-eyed at the scene.
"I ain't waiting to find out." One reaver said as he ran towards the glowing hole. "Okay, boys, let's give E.T. a reaver's welcome!"
The reavers fired into the hole as something growled in anger.
"Sounds like E.T. wants to return the favor." Logan said.
"I don't think E.T. was a ghost." Rogue replied. She turned to Danny. "You think it could be the ghost of an alien?"
Danny shrugged. "Who knows?"
Valerie heard this exchange. "An alien ghost?" She muttered to herself.
Something started to crawl its way out of the hole.
"No." Deathstrike said.
"Whatever this thing is, I think it's time somebody shut it up!" Wolverine proclaimed.
The ghost was a green creature of energy with one eye who crawled on two legs.
"Keep back!" Jubilee fired off her pyrotechnics at it.
"You heard the kid, ugly!" One reaver said as they all shot at it. "Back off."
The ghost kept advancing toward them.
"Up the power, reavs!" One cyborg said. "It's still coming."
The creature opened its mouth as several tongues came out and wrapped themselves around the men as they glowed with energy.
The tongues retreated back to the monster's mouth as the reavers fell to the ground, motionless. But something was off; their eyes were glowing green.
"We must destroy it." Deathstrike raised her hand to attack when Logan grabbed it.
"Let me go!" She demanded. "Whatever it is guarding must be astounding."
"Your shopping will have to wait." Wolverine said as he dragged her further away from the spirit. "Let's book."
"But the others." Jubilee protested.
"Nothing you can do for them now, sugar." Rogue said sadly.
"Come on, everyone run." Danny said as he fired ecto-blasts at it, but the creature fed on them.
The extraterrestrial ghost let out a tongue to suck Danny's energy.
"Danny, no!" Jubilee jumped in the way as the tongue sapped her energy.
"No!" Danny cried. "Jubilee!"
Back at the institute, Xavier cried out at the scene he witnessed. He took off Cerebro. "Dear heaven, what have we unleashed?"
Jubilee was left on the ground, her eyes glowing green, just like the reavers.
"You're dead!" Wolverine was about to attack it when Danny stopped him.
"No time." He said as he picked up Jubilee in his arms. "Let's move."
They all started running and got to the end of a tunnel.
"Ugly still following us, Rogue?" Danny asked.
"Not yet, sugar." Rogue said.
"I've never seen a ghost like that before." Valerie commented.
"Jubilee, can you hear me?" Danny tried to shake her awake. "Come on, kid, talk to me."
Jubilee wouldn't respond.
"Just hang in there, okay?" Danny pleaded. "For me."
Wolverine angrily turned to Deathstrike. "Have a good look, Yuriko. Here's your revenge. Are you happy now?"
He then turned to Valerie. "What about you? You hurt something precious to Casper; is that good enough for you?"
Valerie lowered her head in shame. If she hadn't teamed up with that woman, none of this would have happened.
Deathstrike, however, was not ashamed of her actions. "You are the one who destroyed my father. This is on your head!"
"I don't care whose fault this is." Danny said as he saw the glow of the ghost approaching them. "Let's move if you want to live to settle it."
They all continued running, but Deathstrike wasn't going to let her grudge with Wolverine go.
"This is not over us, Wolverine!" She promised.
At a museum, Beast was admiring a painting. "Frankly, I've never been able to tell Jackson Pollock's paintings from his drop cloths. But Picasso holds a peculiar fascination for me. There's something so primal, so organic, in his work."
He turned to the woman next to him. "Don't you think? Personally, I find an eloquence in his brushstroke, equaled only by..."
"Beast." Xavier's voice sounded through his head.
"Professor?" Beast asked.
"You are needed immediately." Xavier informed him.
"Do forgive me, madam, but it appears I've neglected a most important appointment." Beast apologized as he jumped out through the skylight.
"I think we have lost the creature." Deathstrike said, only for Danny's ghost sense to go off.
"Don't bet on it." Danny said.
"And what of your men?" Rogue asked her. "Or do you care?"
"They knew the risks." Deathstrike said without guilt.
"And what about Valerie?" Danny asked. "You were going to drag her into your little scheme."
"She is a thief." Deathstrike brushed off. "And she had to pay for it."
"You're the one that stole from Axion Labs." Valerie shot back. "I came back to return some rightful property."
"Is that why you came to New York?" Danny asked.
Valerie nodded. "It was then that my sensors picked up that thing. I teamed up with her because she said she would help me destroy it."
"She lied." Wolverine said.
Valerie looked down. "I know that now."
Danny looked down at Jubilee. "What did that thing do to her? Jubilee's body looks okay, but there's nobody home. It's like she got her soul sucked out."
Rogue shivered. "Oh, poor Jubilee."
"Worry about your whelp later." Deathstrike interrupted them. "Right now, we must get out of here!"
She went to leave when Logan stopped her.
"Nobody's going anywhere until we figure out what to do about that thing."
"Release me, Wolverine, while you still can." She commanded.
"Forget it, sister." Wolverine refused. "If that monster reaches the surface, it'll have eight million victims to snack on." He let out his claws. "We got to make sure that doesn't happen!"
Deathstrike slapped his hand away. "To save normal humans? Why? They all hate you!"
"That ain't the point." Wolverine replied.
"No?" Deathstrike laughed. "You give your life for those who mock you? Animal, mistake of nature, mutant."
Wolverine glared at her. "It's my life."
The wall next to them melted as the ghost crawled through and stared at them.
"What's happening to that thing?" Rogue asked, wondering why it wasn't attacking.
On top of the ghost's head, some of the energy took the form of Jubilee's head.
"Danny, Wolverine, help me." She begged before she disappeared.
Deathstrike was perplexed. "What is it?"
"Hang on, Jubilee." Danny said. "We'll save you."
"But how?" Rogue asked.
Scott and Jean were at a table outside a fancy restaurant.
"You know, Jean, there have been times lately when I thought we'd never be together again like this." Scott confessed.
"I know what you mean, Scott." Jean replied. "If Sinister had succeeded..."
"But he didn't." Scott assured her. "And now, at last, there's just the two of us."
Xavier's voice appeared in their heads.
"Cyclops, Jean, you are needed immediately."
"You were saying?" Jean joked.
Scott turned to a nearby waiter. "Sorry to do this to you, Sidney, but I think you better pack our dinner to go. Again."
The group was running away from the ghost.
"Leave the child." Deathstrike said to Danny. "There is nothing more you can do for her."
"Never!" Danny cried.
"X-Men don't abandon their own!" Wolverine added.
Deathstrike narrowed her eyes. "Are you implying that..."
She was cut off by the sound of her reavers.
"Lady Deathstrike, don't leave us." One cried.
"Yuriko!" Another voiced. "Please, help us!"
"They are all inside!" Deathstrike said in sadness before it turned to rage. "Animal!" She was about to charge at it when Rogue grabbed her.
"Not so fast, lady." She said. "Don't do something you might regret."
Valerie fired her ecto weapons at it, but it had no effect. She then blasted the ceiling, causing it to come down and separate them from the ghost.
"What good will that do?" Deathstrike said to her. "It burns through walls!"
"But it will give us time to figure out a plan." Rogue said.
"I've got a plan." Danny said. He handed Jubilee over to Rogue. "Rogue, take Jubilee and get out of here."
"Say what?" Rogue was nonplussed.
"We'll keep that ghost busy while you get Jubilee to safety." Danny said. "Please, keep my sister safe."
Rogue sighed as Danny gave her his puppy-dog eyes. She could never say no to those. "Alright, I'll do it." She took Jubilee in her arms. "Just don't come back to me as a full ghost."
"I won't." Danny promised. "Now get going."
"I'll be back, Danny." Rogue said as she left.
"If we're still alive, we'll welcome the company." Wolverine quipped.
"It is coming, Logan!" Deathstrike told him.
"I'm ready." Wolverine pulled out his claws.
"Same here." Danny joined in.
"Me too." Valerie aimed her weapons at the rubble.
The wreckage started glowing before it disappeared.
"Is it still there?" Deathstrike asked.
"There's only one way to find out." Danny said as he phased them through to the other side, only to find a hole in the floor.
"Cute." Wolverine remarked. "Real cute. He could be miles from here." The wall then started to glow. "Or maybe not."
The creature burst out and growled at the four.
Deathstrike realized that they were cornered. "We're trapped!"
Wolverine stood his ground. "I'm never trapped!"
The tongues came for them as Deathstrike and Logan shredded them with their claws. Danny and Valerie simply blasted them away.
"Get back!" Wolverine said as he cut off another tongue.
"We can hurt it!" Valerie said as she kept firing.
Deathstrike agreed. "We can..." One tongue ended up grabbing her. This distracted Valerie, who was also grabbed by a tongue.
"Valerie!" Danny was worried about her, even though she tried to kill him. All thanks to his hero complex.
Wolverine had Deathstrike in his arms. "No! Yuriko, can you hear me?"
"Help me, Logan!" Deathstrike's soul spoke from inside the ghost.
"No!" Logan howled.
"Help me, Danny!" Valerie's soul also said.
"Come on, you piece of gutter trash." Wolverien challenged the ghost. "Just try to suck me in! I hope you gag."
It moved closer to the two before it was blasted by Scott's optic blast.
Danny and Wolverine saw Rogue, Cyclops, Jean, Beast, Gambit, and the professor come up to them.
"Hey, look who I found coming to join the party." Rogue said.
"Rogue filled us in on the details." Xavier said as he held Jubilee.
"Why'd you bring her back here?" Danny asked Xavier.
"She's as safe with us here as anywhere." Xavier said.
"And now she's got company." Wolverine said, referring to Deathstrike and Valerie.
"And they are?" Xavier prompted.
"An old friend." Logan pointed to Deathstrike. "She wants me dead."
"Why am I not surprised?" Scott said before pointing at Valerie. "And her?"
"She's an acquaintance of mine; she used to want me dead." Danny said. "But now, I don't exactly know."
Their attention was drawn to the returning ghost.
"Is that it?" Jean asked.
"I hope it's not his little brother." Rogue cracked.
"Maybe I can read its mind." Jean closed her eyes as she connected her mind to the ghost. Get some idea..."
"Jean, no!" Xavier tried to warn her as Jean screamed in pain before she disconnected her mind.
Cyclops came up to her side. "Jean, you alright? What are we up against?"
"A ghost that we think might have also been an alien." Danny answered.
"I'm fine, Scott." Jean said. "That creature's mind, it's so repellant, it was almost more than I could bear."
"You miserable piece of slime!" Scott aimed his visor at the ghost.
"Cyclops! No!" Danny tackled him as Scott's blast missed.
"Are you crazy?" Cyclops scolded Danny. "Why didn't you let me destroy it?"
"Because Jubilee's soul is in there along with theirs." Danny pointed to Valerie and Deathstrike. We gotta be careful how we attack it."
"And where is this grotesquery's supposed space vehicle?" Beast asked.
"Down that way." Danny pointed down the tunnel.
"Do you believe it to be an actual spacecraft?" Beast asked him.
"Well, it's got weird writing on it and had a life-sucking cloud with an attitude inside." Wolverine said.
"Hey, ghosts are real, so who says aliens can't be?" Danny brought up. "Go check the spaceship out."
"I think perhaps I will." Beast swung on the sewer pipes toward his destination.
"Beast, wait for me." Xavier followed him, with Valerie, Jubilee, and Deathstrike on his chair. "If this is what I've been sensing, I am certain that it is alien, supernatural, and dangerous."
"And what do the rest of us do?" Jean asked.
"We go bust a ghost." Rogue said. "That monster made it topside, and this city's gonna be his buffet."
"That's not gonna happen." Danny said determinedly.
Beast and Xavier were examining the glowing hole in the spacecraft.
"Evidently, Wolverine was quite in earnest, professor." Beast said.
Xavier nodded. "Yes, I've been sensing something so alien that I was beginning to doubt my own mind."
"It appears safe to enter." Beast observed.
"Then, let's have a look." Xavier entered the ship with Beast.
"Fascinating!" Beast complimented the technology.
Xavier peered around the ship. "There must be something we can use against the creature, some bit of information."
Beast walked up to a shattered glass sphere. "This shattered sphere appears to be some sort of containment vessel." He then saw some writing on the glass. "Oh! And what's this? More of Wolverine's weird writing. Ah, my kingdom for a Rosetta Stone."
Xavier looked at the writing. "So strange and yet so familiar. It's like..." He placed his hand on it when he got electrocuted.
"Professor, are you alright?" Beast shook him. "Speak to me!"
"I..." Xavier opened his eyes. "I feel fine, Beast. As if my eyes had been truly opened for the very first time." He looked at the writing as the word danger appeared over it in his mind. "That writing! I knew it! It was a warning about the creature."
Xavier went to the ship's computer. "Hurry and help the others, Hank. I must learn more." He typed in some commands on the keyboard as the alien symbols appeared on the screen.
Beast was curious about Xavier's knowledge. "What happened?" He turned to leave before giving Xavier a worried glance. "Professor?"
Xavier didn't respond, so Beast left the ship.
"You sure that monster came this way, Danny?" Rogue asked as they were exploring the sewers.
Danny was holding Valerie's tracker, which he snagged before Xavier took her. "Believe me, this tracker doesn't lie."
Jean stopped as Xavier contacted her telepathically. "What, professor?" She asked in her mind. She heard Xavier's explanation before she responded. "Yes, I understand. I'll warn the others immediately."
"Guys, I got news." Jean said to them. "That spacecraft was an alien prison ship designed to hold this energy-absorbed ghost, called a Spirit Drinker, captive in deep space forever."
"So what's it doing here?" Rogue asked.
Jean didn't have an answer for that. "Who knows? Maybe it was knocked off course."
"How did the professor learn all this?" Scott inquired.
Jean didn't know how to explain it. "That's the odd thing. He doesn't know."
They heard the Spirit Drinker's growls.
"It's moving toward the surface." Danny pointed out.
The Spirit Drinker burst into the subway as people panicked. A train hit the emergency breaks so it wouldn't crash into it as all the passengers fled.
"Look, there it is!" Scott pointed out as the X-Men ran towards it.
"But how do we stop it?" Rogue asked.
"Nothing affects it." Danny explained. "My ghost energy just feeds it, and Jubilee's inside."
"Well, whatever we do, we'd better do it quickly." Jean closed her eyes. "I sense the captive spirits inside the creature have begun to grow weaker. If we don't find a way to free them soon, I'm afraid it may be too late."
This only made Danny feel worse, as he heard a familiar voice in his head.
"I just have to run out the clock until your entire life falls apart."
"How are we gonna beat this thing when we can't even get close to it?" Rogue exclaimed. "We'll just end up feeding it with our spiritual energy."
Danny's eyes widened. "That's the answer!" He turned to the others. "I've got a plan, guys."
He started to fire his ghost ray at the Spirit Drinker as it absorbed the energy.
"Hungry, big guy?" Danny bantered. "Why don't you have some seconds?" He kept on giving the ghost his energy as it started to expand.
"Come on, now." Danny taunted. "You can't leave until you finish everything on your plate."
The Spirit Drinker was crying out in pain. This was too much energy.
"You're almost finished." Danny said. "You've just got to finish your vegetables."
The Spirit Drinker couldn't take anymore as it exploded. Letting the souls it captured return to their bodies.
"I don't believe it." Rogue said in awe.
"What about Jubilee?" Danny said.
"What do you think?" Her voice came from behind him.
Danny brought her into a hug, happy to have her back. "I'm so glad you're okay, Jubilee."
"Congratulations, Danny." Xavier praised.
"I was so worried about you!" Jubilee said to him.
"We seem to be short one Spirit Drinker." Beast pointed out.
"Yeah. Bad case of overeating." Wolverine said before turning to Deathstrike. "So where does that leave us, Yuriko? Still planning my funeral?"
"Today I owe you my life, Logan." Deathstrike said. "But that changes nothing between us. When I am strong enough, you will see me again." She then walked away, leaving the X-Men in peace.
"Yuriko." Wolverine murmured quietly.
"I owe you my life too, Danny." Valerie shook his hand. "I'm sorry for everything I've done to you. I shouldn't have blamed you for all the bad things in my life, nor should I have attacked you. Can you forgive me?"
Danny smiled. "I forgive you."
"I guess this is goodbye, then." Valerie said. "Take care." She then left by the subway stairs to return home.
"You too." Danny said, happy to have made peace with an old foe.
Rogue sighed in relief, happy that there was no more competition.
The X-Men were currently exploring the spacecraft, much to Danny's delight.
"The reavers escaped, but I bet it'll be a while before they can repair their cybernetics." Cyclops said to the professor.
"I am deeply thankful you're all safe, my X-Men." Xavier said to his students.
Jubilee got hopeful. "Then it's all over, right?"
Danny shook his head. "Nothing is ever truly over."
Xavier frowned. "I only wish that were true, child. But when I touched that alien craft, I felt things, sensed things I have never known before. Saw terrible visions of beings with ruthless, unimaginable power. But I fear this was only the beginning."