Episode 105: Psylocke Takeover!
When Peter, MJ, Quill, and Gwen woke up, they found themselves tied to chairs in the infirmary with Steve Rogers. Their PDBs were gone, and Spidermin was standing next to a dark-purple feline with big pointed ears and cold eyes. But as Peter looked closely at Spidermin's eyes, they had a slight purple hue.
"Glad to see you're finally awake," said a female British voice.
From the shadows emerged a tall woman with dark hair that had lavender-purple highlights, wearing a dark-blue skin-tight suit and thigh-length heels with a red sash tied around her waist.
"Betsy Braddock!" Steve exclaimed. "I thought you and the rest of the Hellfire Club separated."
"That we did, Captain Rogers," the dark-haired woman answered calmly. "But I managed to land a sweet gig with the Brotherhood."
"So they weren't completely defeated by the X-Men," Peter realized.
"Obviously not," Betsy said. "The X-Men merely claimed they were for the sake of their reputation as the 'saviors' of Mutant kind."
"Professor Xavier wouldn't do something that selfish!" Peter argued. "There must have been another reason."
"But more importantly, what have you done with our Marémon?" MJ demanded.
"Don't worry about that. They're perfectly safe," Betsy assured, knocking on a glass cabinet where several PDBs were placed. "And because the Spidermin was being feisty, I had my Psylocke use Mind Control on him so he wouldn't run away."
Giving Spidermin a pitied glance, Peter asked Betsy, "What does the Brotherhood want here? And how did they get in?"
"I don't know what the Brotherhood wants from this school," Betsy replied. "But what I can say is Miss Anna Marie helped us break in. She wanted so badly to be able to touch people again that my boss offered to cure her condition in exchange for her help in taking down Xavier's psychic barrier at the school's fence."
"So that's why Anna wore gloves," Gwen muttered. "And then right before we passed out, she said she was heading for the Cerebro Helmet, which Xavier uses to maintain the psychic barrier."
"Bingo!" Betsy confirmed. "Though what my boss didn't tell her is you need to have a strong mind to operate the Cerebro Helmet. Otherwise, you'll fall into a deep coma after using it."
"Then she managed to take down the psychic barrier with the Cerebro Helmet, but…." As Quill pictured what happened to Anna, he flinched in terror.
"How could you do something that horrible?" MJ snapped. "I know the Brotherhood claims they're trying to liberate Mutants, but putting one of your own kind in a coma doesn't sound like the actions of a group that cares about Mutants at all!"
Angered, Betsy made a blade made of purple energy appear out of thin air then she dashed over to MJ, pointing the blade at MJ's throat. "None of you humans have any idea what us Mutants have been through! I was kidnapped by human assassins as a girl and forced to do their bidding. Then the Hellfire Club saved me, until we found out that our leader Sebastian Shaw was secretly working for the government who were hoping to use the Hellfire Club to make Mutants look bad. But Erik Lehnsherr and his Brotherhood have promised not to compromise Mutant rights, so we can live freely without human intervention."
"And what does he plan to do?" Steve asked. "He obviously sees the X-Men as a threat, hence the Battle with the Brotherhood. Is he trying to get rid of them by breaking into the school?"
"Maybe I should silence you for good," said a voice from the shadows.
Steve and the others looked toward the door to the infirmary and saw White Wolf standing there. But he didn't have his goggles on, revealing the sullen brown-haired young man he really was.
"Bucky!" Steve cried. "Is it really you?"
Frowning, White Wolf said, "I told you, I don't know who 'Bucky' is! So I'm not sure why you think I'm him."
Taken aback, Steve said, "You don't remember? We were childhood friends, and we both participated in the Second Marémon War. Then during a mission, you fell off a cliff. I thought you were dead, but obviously…you're not."
"If White Wolf doesn't remember being Bucky, maybe he's not the real Bucky," MJ guessed. "He could be Kraven's Kamelio disguised as Bucky to fool Steve."
"Kraven isn't here," Betsy interjected. "He and Kamelio were the ones who got the X-Men's attention by making them think Erik was approaching the psychic barrier when really he was somewhere else."
"You know, for all your talk about Mutant rights you have a lousy taste in allies," Gwen remarked. "I mean, Team HYDRA literally wants to take over the world!"
"Erik calls a it necessary evil," Betsy responded. "They agreed to help us get into Xavier's school, and we agreed to help them get rid of you guys for meddling in their affairs."
White Wolf then summoned Wintersol, and the jackal-like Marémon pointed the blade-like protrusions from its paws at Steve's neck.
"Don't do this, Wintersol," Steve pleaded. "You know who I am. I found you in your pre-Matured form Bucbark in that trashcan in Yortown, and gave you to Bucky before he went off to join the army. Remember that."
"Ignore him," White Wolf ordered. "Just kill this guy and the others, so we can get out of here."
"You sure you don't want my help?" Betsy asked White Wolf. "I could take care of the girls while you deal with the boys."
"That won't be necessary," White Wolf insisted. "Just tell Erik and Ar-I that I'll be meeting up with them soon."
"Suit yourself." Betsy made her purple energy blade disappear and walk towards the exit to the infirmary. "Let's go, Psylocke, and bring the Spidermin with you."
Nodding obediently, the dark-purple feline followed Betsy while Spidermin walked beside her. Peter tried to move in his chair, but a glare from Wintersol made him stop.
MJ looked between the infirmary door and White Wolf before asking him, "Where is Ar-I?"
"He's with Erik," White Wolf answered.
"But do you know how far away he is?"
Moving toward MJ, White Wolf glared down at her. "Even if I did, what difference would that make to you?"
To be continued…
