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Post by sunofdarkchild on Mar 15, 2024 9:27:46 GMT -5
The current state is pretty dreadful. Krakoa had its flaws, but the way they're ending it has been terrible. Between the rushing, the way Orchis is treated as a joke despite supposedly being such a huge threat, and Gerry Duggan seemingly forgetting everything he ever learned about writing it's as bad now as the dark days of the pre-Krakoa years. There's a character called Orchis? That's nuts!!! Not a character. Orchis is the name of the organization that has been opposing Krakoa since the start and created Nimrod. They crashed the X-Men's big diplomatic party, killed a bunch of humans and mutants and pinned the blame on the X-Men, basically eliminated the nation of Krakoa in an instant, and are supposedly the big bads of the entire era. But when push comes to shove, they get slaughtered like chumps and are defined by their sheer stupidity more than anything. They got special Tony Stark-made sentinels that are immune to Magneto's powers and supposedly a million times more dangerous than any other sentinel, but it turns out they are easily defeated by poking a small hole in their heads and pouring a little water in the hole. It's amazing. There's this whole plot about how Orchis has infected Magik with nano-sentinels that block her powers and are slowly killing her, and instead of doing something awesome when they're removed and she gets all her powers back she just teleports some water into the sentinel's head and then nothing but serve as a taxi for Cyclops. And that's just one example of how boring Gerry Duggan's writing is in 2024. Every issue is as devoid of creativity and imagination of that scene from the last airbender movie where 6 earthbenders can't do more than throw a small rock any 1 of them could have just picked up and thrown. It's months of nothing but this.
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Post by sunofdarkchild on Mar 15, 2024 5:01:54 GMT -5
The current state is pretty dreadful. Krakoa had its flaws, but the way they're ending it has been terrible. Between the rushing, the way Orchis is treated as a joke despite supposedly being such a huge threat, and Gerry Duggan seemingly forgetting everything he ever learned about writing it's as bad now as the dark days of the pre-Krakoa years. It's been a long time since I've seen a writer fail so badly at action, character, dialogue, and plotting all at once as Duggan is doing in the main X-Men book and Fall of the House of X right now. I can't believe the same guy who wrote Savage Avengers is writing this crap.
I liked the Krakoa era as a whole, but it has been getting worse and worse as the years progressed, to the point I can't wait for the end anymore. Here's hoping the MacKay and Simone books are a return to form.
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Post by sunofdarkchild on Mar 6, 2024 14:45:55 GMT -5
Speaking of Worf, the whole 'Worf-effect' trope may be turned on its head if you assume he became a better warrior as TNG progressed and wasn't all-that good at fighting in season 1. Instead of being the strong guy who gets beat up every week to make the villain look tough, he becomes the scrappy underdog who got back up from all his early defeats and kept training, practicing, and honing his craft until he made himself into the great Klingon warrior of late TNG and DS9.
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Post by sunofdarkchild on Mar 6, 2024 2:05:34 GMT -5
While in general I'd support the idea of Balrogs being more powerful than dragons, I find it near impossible to believe any Balrog could be anywhere near as powerful as Ancalagon the Black.
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Post by sunofdarkchild on Mar 5, 2024 15:59:01 GMT -5
Bendis is a case where his early work is far superior to his later work. Ultimate Spider-Man, Alias, Daredevil, are all truly elite runs. He tried with those street-level heroes in the 2000s. His work with teams and 'god-level' heroes has been more hit or miss, which has greatly affected the quality of his output since 2010 since he's tended to be on the latter kind of books at Marvel and DC. A lot of his runs started out strong but then fizzled out. His X-Men run was like that. It was pretty good until the Battle of the Atom event and never became consistently good again after that. But he wrote a great Magik so I give him a lot of leeway there. His Superman run started out with a lot of promise, but the decision to age Jon was kind of the death knell for it.
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Post by sunofdarkchild on Feb 27, 2024 5:15:56 GMT -5
Marina Sirtis proved she could be very ungentle in her best role.
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Post by sunofdarkchild on Feb 16, 2024 2:55:56 GMT -5
To me, the way season 2 of Strange New Worlds ended painted Pike as a bad captain because it goes against everything we've been taught makes a good starship captain since 1966. The most iconic moment of TNG was the cliffhanger where Riker did not hesitate to say 'Mr. Worf, fire' in a similar situation, proving that Shelby was wrong in her criticisms of him throughout the episode and that he was a decisive leader when push came to shove. The problem with the good Kirk in The Enemy Within and the reason he needed to reunite with his evil half is that he wasn't capable of being decisive without that darker half. The one thing that unites every captain is their ability to make the tough calls and live with the consequences. The way Pike acts in the final scene is the opposite of that.
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Post by sunofdarkchild on Feb 7, 2024 10:07:51 GMT -5
I enjoy Strange New Worlds for the most part, but I hate how they write Spock. The Chapel relationship is weird enough, but the way he's written undermines his entire character arc from TOS through Undiscovered Country. Spock is supposed to be 'more Vulcan than the Vulcans' before his friendship with Kirk and McCoy. By far my least favorite episode is the 1 where he becomes human and all of a sudden his emotions are in overdrive. If the writers bothered to do any research they'd know that Vulcans are not unemotional because of genetics, but because of learned discipline. If anything their emotions are stronger and harder to control than a human's. If they were being at all consistent with canon Spock should have had a much easier time controlling his emotions as a full human than he does normally. Spock's character and the Vulcan race have been sacrificed on the altar of comic relief.
It wasn't until the finale of season 2 that I started to think that Pike might not be a good captain. In terms of the season 1 finale, the point was that he had to accept that his time was ending and he would have to step aside fairly soon for the next generation of Starfleet commanders. He and Kirk are equal, but Pike is better suited for his time and Kirk is better suited for his time. After season 2's finale, I'm not as sure of that anymore.
Only watched season 3 of Picard because I heard such terrible things about the first 2 seasons. Season 3 coasted more on fanservice than on quality writing, especially once the changeling commander was dealt with, but it did work and I'd like to see the potential 'Legacy' series of the Enterprise G. I did think it was stupid that they expected us to believe that a galaxy-class-style ship could maneuver like an X-Wing. Maybe the point was that it was that specific model of ship that no one else could fly in that scenario and if they had a ship designed to be able to turn it wouldn't have been an issue. The actual maneuvering shown on screen wasn't that impressive to begin with and would have been child's play for the Defiant or even the Constitution Class.
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Post by sunofdarkchild on Jan 15, 2024 2:32:34 GMT -5
I've come up with a term to describe what I think has gone so wrong with comics over the years, 'Batman and Robin syndrome.'
When Batman Returns had so many gross moments surrounding the Penguin, it hurt WB's ability to sell merchandise to children based on the movie, leading to WB getting more directly involved, kicking Tim Burton out, and forcing Joel Schuelmacher to go in a more child-friendly direction. I think the Burton Batman movies are very flawed, overrated, and that Batman Forever is actually the best Batman movie and movie in general from that original 4-movie series. But this thinking of putting merchandising considerations over everything else led to Batman and Robin becoming nothing more than a 2-hour toy commercial, destroying the franchise altogether.
This kind of thinking had infected Marvel comics a decade earlier. The first example was Jean Grey's return, which ruined the Dark Phoenix Saga and the character of Cyclops and was the beginning of the 'death means nothing and everything resets to the status quo' phenomenon that has made comics not worth caring about. One of the reasons was that its easier to sell toys of a character who hasn't been dead for 5 years, regardless of whether the return was a good idea. A new editors who only looked to the past took over in the late 80s, the writers of the Fantastic 4 were forced to essentially rewrite the original FF stories from the early 60s and regress the characters. In protest, the writers created clones of the FF and had the originals fight them over whether it's better to stay stuck on the 60s forever or be allowed to grow up. Then in the early 90s they forced the X-Men to regress to an older status quo, crippling Xavier again and undoing Magneto's 50-issue redemption arc because the former sells more toys in a futuristic wheelchair and the latter sells more toys as a villain.
When Bob Harris and Dan Didio came to DC in the 2000s, they brought this ruinous attitude with them. Didio had a vendetta against one of DC's best characters at the time because he didn't like how complicated the bio at the queue line of a Six Flags rollercoaster was. He saw comics readers as a whole as having the intelligence and attention span of a six-year-old aimed to create a DC that appealed to the lowest common denominator and not anyone else, so any character who he didn't see as selling action figures to children was pushed out, killed off, or erased any time he had his way.
We saw this again in the 2010s where Marvel tried to replace the X-Men with the Inhumans because FOX had the movie rights to the mutants and so there was less merchandising potential in the X-Men, leading to one of the worst eras for both franchises in the comics. This is also why I am not excited about the new Tom Brevoot post-Krakoa X-Men era. With the expected synergy with the pointless X-Men 97 cartoon it looks like the main point of this new X-Men era will be selling toys based on the classic and marketable 90s X-Men cartoon and not story and character.
There's obviously more to it than just that, but it seems to me to be a major contributing factor in why the quality of the writing of comics has been dropping so much over the last 30 years at Marvel and 20 years at DC.
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Post by sunofdarkchild on Jan 11, 2024 8:38:52 GMT -5
Episode 2: Sentinels
"To me, my X-Men."
It was not yet 6:30 in the morning, and the sun was just beginning to rise as the X-Men filed into Professor Charles Xavier's office. Most had been hoping to be able to sleep in that day, and all but Ororo were still in their pajamas. Logan was not wearing a shirt.
"What is it, professor?" Ororo asked. They were on heightened alert, as Xavier not summon them all so early without a good reason.
"Is Magneto back?" Logan asked.
"It does not appear so, unless he is acting behind the scenes again," Xavier said. He stopped and looked at Kitty as she turned her head and covered her mouth to hide her gigantic yawn.
"Am I boring you, Kitty?"
"Oh, no sir. I'm sorry. I've just been up since one. Illyana had another nightmare."
Piotr started, his steely expression melting into one of deep concern, and Xavier nodded sadly, letting the issue drop and returning to the reason he had summoned them.
"It seems that in Magneto's absence, Mystique is attempting to reform his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. I believe I've determined which mutant criminals she will attempt to contact today. Your job will be to stop her recruitment efforts before she becomes as big a threat to human-mutant relations as Magneto, but this will require thousands of miles of traveling, so it is best that you depart as soon as possible."
Ororo nodded. "Send the names and the coordinates to the Blackbird's computer. We'll prepare to depart immediately."
Piotr found his little sister in the kitchen, using a canteen to pour herself a large 'cup' of coffee.
"That much coffee will stunt your growth, little snowflake."
Illyana took a large chug and wiped her mouth. "Kitty says that's a myth."
"I never drank coffee when I was your age, and look at me."
Illyana had to tilt her head pretty far up to look into her brother's eyes. Piotr was more than a full foot taller than her. He was in his X-Men uniform, an outfit of tight red spandex with a yellow center just like the yellow parts of the New Mutants' uniforms. The sides were cut out to show off his large muscles, which were impressive even when he was not transformed into his metallic form. The large, sharply-pointed should pads further emphasized his massive size.
"You're going on a mission?" she asked. It was very unlikely he would be in the kitchen in his costume if all the X-Men had planned for the day was training in the Danger Room.
"Da. I wanted to see you before I left. I heard you're having nightmares again."
Illyana put her canteen down and looked down and to the side. "They never stopped."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't want you to worry."
Piotr sighed. "Sometimes I wish I'd never heard of Charles Xavier or the X-Men."
"Don't say that!" Illyana responded quickly. "Look at all the people you've saved. You've even helped save the world!"
Piotr put his hand under Illyana's chin and looked at her with the saddest smile she had ever seen.
"I didn't join the X-Men to save strangers or the world. I did it to protect you."
Illyana's jaw dropped slightly and she blinked several times as she took a step back.
"What?" she asked in a voice that was little more than a whisper.
There was a cough from the kitchen entrance, and they turned to see Wolverine standing there in full costume. The mostly yellow spandex would have looked comical on anyone else, especially someone as short as he was, but the feral nature of his bearing and posture made the garish outfit seem threatening. Perhaps more than anyone else in the X-Men, he looked like a character from one of Kitty's comic books.
"We gotta go now, Pete," he said in his gruff voice.
Piotr gave a reluctant nod and with a final sad look at his sister, turned to head toward what promised to be a pivotal battle.
"I love Saturdays!" Roberto said happily. "No classes for two whole days."
"But we still have plenty of homework to do," Xuân pointed out.
"I'll tell you what," Roberto replied. "If we get all our homework out of the way this morning, can we call go to Salem Center Mall and see an afternoon matinée?"
"Why?" Dani asked. "I'm all for going to the mall, but there's nothing worth seeing at the movies right now."
Roberto smiled and held out his phone, which showed what was playing at the local movie theater. "Nothing current, but it so happens that they're showing E.T."
"Ohh, I've never seen tha,'" Rahne said.
"You really love anything 80s, don't ya, 'Berto?" Sam asked. As the tallest of them, he had the easiest time getting the breakfast and bowls down from the high cabinets.
Xuân shook her head and smiled. It was quickly becoming apparent that Roberto would usually get what he wanted thanks to his undeniable charm. And so far, he had never asked for anything unreasonable or which was only for him and not the entire group.
"All right. I'll talk to Stevie about taking us into town again if we all finish our homework before lunch."
In the end, their weekend homework took only a few hours, though Rahne needed some help from Dani and Sam from Roberto. Stevie was happy to take them out again.
Before leaving, Stevie went to the X-Men's wing of the mansion and knocked on the door to the room Kitty and Illyana shared. Inside, Illyana was working on a Russian-language math textbook.
"Hey," Stevie said. "I'm taking the New Mutants to the mall to see a movie. You want to come with us?"
Illyana shook her head.
"You sure? Charles is going to be holed up with Cerebro all day to monitor the X-Men. You'll be all alone."
"Maybe next time. I've got a lot of catching up to do today."
Stevie nodded sadly. "All right, next time."
When Stevie was gone, Illyana stood up and looked out the bedroom window. She watched with a regretful look as the teenagers excitedly got into the passenger seats of Stevie's car and drove off.
The New Mutants waited as Stevie bought the tickets. They were approached by a group of three other teenagers, all dressed in leather jackets.
The middle one, a boy with long brown hair, almost a mullet, spoke first. "You guys new in town? How come we ain't seen you at school?"
"We're students at Xaviers," Roberto explained.
"Really?" the other boy asked. "That's a change. Since when do you elite types mingle with us common folk?"
"What's that supposed to mean, Hombre?" Roberto said angrily. Sam grabbed his arm and told him to "relax."
"You simmer down too, willya Frank?" said the girl to his left. She had black hair which was cut short, though not as short as Rahne's. "You're acting like a jerk."
She turned to Rahne and said: "My name's Diana, but everyone calls me Di. We go to Central High."
"How d'you do? I'm Rahne Sinclair."
"'Rain.' I like it, but I love your hair. I wish I could get mine to look like that. Are you punk?"
"I'm Scotts," Rahne said.
"Really?" Frank asked. "The rest of you are foreign too?"
"Not quite," Roberto said, his good humor restored. "Sam and Dani are from the states. I'm Brazilian, and Xuân is Vietnamese. We're international terrorists."
"Roberto!" Xuân admonished him.
The exchange was watched on a monitor that was tied into the mall's security footage.
"The boy thinks he's making a joke, but he's closer to the truth than he realizes," said Henry Gyrich. "He and his fellow mutants pose as grave a threat to the United States and the world as any madman with a gun or a bomb."
Gyrich's companion, Sebastian Shaw, was a hard-looking man who wore his curly black hair in a style reminiscent of colonial or revolutionary times in the 18th Century.
"Do you believe Henry, as some of these so-called 'evil mutants' have boasted, that Homo Superior will eventually supplant Homo Sapiens, making humanity their slaves?" he asked.
"That is a danger, certainly," Gyrich answered, "but the boy unwittingly outlined the parameters of our immediate problem. Five children from four different countries, all of whom are mutants!"
"They're popping up like flies all over the world," he explained. "Suppose the Iranians or the North Koreans have a trained cadre of super-powered soldiers? Can you imagine what that would do to the balance of power? The smallest nation on Earth, provided it had the right mix of mutants, could bring the United States to her knees."
Gyrich glared behind his sunglasses. "We still have no idea how mutants are created, what DNA sequences trigger which powers. If we are to survive, we must have those answers, and it is my mission to provide them."
"What do you think Xavier is up to in gathering mutant children from around the world?" Shaw asked.
"That's another question which needs answering," Gyrich said. "The da Costa boy is what led us to Xavier's school in the first place. His family is among the most famous in Brazil, and his powers first manifested in a public setting, so many in his home country know he is a mutant. We've been monitoring the school and its inhabitants ever since."
"I know the boy's father, Emmanuel da Costa" Shaw revealed. "Like me, he is a member of the Hellfire Club. An ambitious man, but a good friend to have." He looked down in thought as he considered the implications of having the elder da Costa as a member of his organization.
Gyrich led Shaw deeper into the underground facility, into a large room designed to hold massive machines meant to combat dangerous mutants.
"Forgive me, Henry, but this equipment hardly seems necessary to deal with five children."
"They may look formidable," Gyrich said, "but in my book it's the results that count."
Shaw pointed at the machines. "You'll use these against Xavier's students?"
"Don't be absurd!" Gyrich said loudly, losing his composure a little for the first time. "My directive from the President is to keep this project completely under wraps. My hope is to never use them at all, and if I do, it'll be against adults, actual villains."
"A special team of agents should be enough to bring those kids in," he explained. "We're establishing a facility for the containment and examination of mutants. They'll be taken there. The movie will give us enough time to get our men in position to take them in."
Shaw looked away and smirked, as if he had his own plan in mind.
In a farm in Lake Baikal, Siberia, Piotr Rasputin gathered bundles of hay together with father. The son was not only much younger, but much bigger and stronger than the middle-aged Nikolai, and carried three bundles for every one his father carried.
After the bundles were loaded on their wagon, Nikolai looked back and smiled. His youngest child, a tiny blonde girl no more than four years old, often came into the fields after she came home from her preschool to watch the end of their work day because she wanted to be near her big brother. She kept out of the way, never made a nuisance of herself, and was always ready with a hug for her father and brother when they were done, so they never discouraged this behavior.
This time, the little one had been distracted by a bright orange butterfly that had landed on her finger and sat down facing away from them as she held the insect in front of her face.
A shape appeared in the corner of his vision, and Nikolai's eyes widened in terror. Their neighbor's tractor had crossed into their field at full speed without a driver, apparently having been set in motion by accident, and was bearing straight for his daughter. The little girl, focused entirely on her new friend, did not notice the approaching danger.
"Piotr, your sister!" he yelled. Piotr turned and saw immediately what had concerned his father. He ran forward, screaming "ILLYANA!" as his body changed. His skin hardened into a silvery organic steel.
With his strength increased, Piotr ran faster than he was capable of in his human form and quickly reached his sister, shocking her by snatching her off the ground. Her tiny figure seemed to disappear into his massive arms.
The tractor was too close now to get out of the way, so Piotr turned and let it smash headlong into his back, his sister completely protected by his steel body. The large machine broke apart upon impact, pieces of debris flying in every direction but forward. It stopped, the entire front half crushed and mangled.
Piotr stood up, completely unharmed except for a few tears in the back of his shirt. His sister looked shocked, as if the fear from what had just happened had not yet registered. Piotr expected her to start crying, but instead she put her head on his shoulder and hugged him tightly. She even smiled.
A voice seemed to ring through the air. "Piotr Rasputin, I wish to talk with you."
He looked around. "Who is there? Is this voice in my head?"
He saw two men approaching. One was bald and in a wheelchair. The other had a short beard and wore a long trench coat. The latter Piotr was familiar with.
"Mr. Vahzin?"
"Yes, today is the day you get the answers I promised you months ago. This is Charles Xavier. He is the 'guardian angel' I spoke of who made the government forget your family."
"You saved your sister's life. That was very impressive," Xavier said. "By now you know that you are different and special Piotr. That is because you are a mutant."
The little girl looked confused, as all of the men were speaking English, a language in which she did not know a single word.
Xavier continued: "You are part of the next step in human evolution, born with powers far beyond anything you could imagine."
"Why are you telling me these things?"
"He has a proposition for you, Piotr," Vahzin said.
"You must understand, the world is changing," Xavier explained. "More and more mutants are appearing every day. Humanity fears and hates what it does not understand. You and your family will always be in danger."
"Then I will protect them," Piotr declared.
"Of that I have no doubt," Xavier responded. "But you can do so much more. I'm putting together a team of mutants to become heroes, to show the world that they have nothing to fear from us, and I want you to join it."
"If nothing is done, mutants will be hounded, persecuted, even put into camps. Both humans and mutants will live in constant fear of each other. The most gifted will be turned into weapons, while the rest suffer."
"I do not know," Piotr said.
"If not for yourself, then for your sister," Xavier said. "Illyana too could have the X-gene that distinguishes mutants from regular humans. Please, help me create a world where children like her do not need to grow up in fear."
Piotr stiffened, this point of Xavier's resonating with him, and he looked at the toddler in his arms with the tenderness of a loving older brother. Before he could respond, he and all the other characters faded away. The fields disappeared, leaving only the Danger Room.
Illyana stood motionless in the middle of the room, just behind where the holographic recreation of her brother had been standing seconds earlier. Her eyes and mouth were as wide as could be. She had not understood a word of what had been said at the time and had completely forgotten the presence of the two who recruited her older brother.
"You shouldn't be in here alone," came the voice of Charlse Xavier. The X-Men's mentor was wheeling himself into the Danger Room.
Illyana trembled as he approached, her head not moving to face him.
"It's all your fault," she said softly. "You took Piotr away. You made me into a target."
Xavier winced at her words. He tried to reach for her hand. "Illyana, I-"
"Stay away from me!" she snapped, finally moving as she pulled her hand away. Xavier recoiled, not just from her accusation. There was a growly rasp underneath her voice he had never heard before. Something about it made what few hairs he had on the back of his neck stand up, and for a moment he understood what Logan had meant when he spoke of a 'primal fear.'
Illyana stormed out of the Danger Room, leaving Xavier to stare sadly after her.
Rahne sniffled as they walked out of the theater.
"It's ok to cry, Rahne," Stevie said. "Most people do."
"Och, Miss Hunter, it was so beautiful. I was so happy when the wee bairn was rescued."
"That's th' whole idea," Sam said.
"Did you really think E.T. was real?" Roberto asked. "It was just a puppet. Better than the CGI they use today, but still…"
"But he was so life-like!" Rahne exclaimed. "I'm sorry. I'm being such a silly. It's just, I've ne'er been to a cinema before. It was like magic!"
"You're really sheltered, aren't ya," Frank said.
"I told you to be nice, Frank," Diana admonished him.
"You guys want to get some ice cream?" Frank asked them.
"We'd love to," Xuân said.
Stevie smiled. "You kids enjoy yourselves. I need to use the restroom after all that popcorn and soda."
The kids headed for the ice cream store as Stevie went in the opposite direction. Things were going as well as could be expected. Their biggest concern had been Dani's powers activating inadvertently. Charles had determined that the times she accidentally manifested someone's fear when she was feeling nervous or anxious herself. Dani had decided to take a mild anti-anxiety medication from time to time so she would not have to live as a recluse while her teammates enjoyed themselves. And she did seem to be doing better.
Stevie's mind was focused on her young charges. Otherwise she would have noticed the maintenance closet door opening as she passed it and turned her head just enough to see the arms which reached out grabbed her, pulling her into the dark closet.
She struggled to scream against the hand now covering her mouth as the door closed, leaving her and her captor in total darkness.
"Stop struggling, Miss Hunter, I mean you no harm," came the voice behind her. It was string and rough, not cruel. "My name is Michael Rossi. I'm here as a friend, to both you and your students."
"I'll let you go if you promise to behave yourself and not scream. The children are in danger, and we don't have much time. Will you trust me?" Rossi said.
Stevie nodded, and he let her go. Her hand reached for her purse, where she had mace ready for emergencies, but she did not grab it just yet.
"Good. First, I think you'd better call Xavier. I'll let him know exactly what's going on."
The door to Illyana's room was locked when Xavier approached it. Inside, she lay on her bed, covering her head with her pillow.
Xavier knocked on the door. "Illyana?" He tried to stand up, but his legs failed him again and he collapsed back into his wheelchair.
He turned the wheelchair ninety degrees so he could lean against the door as he spoke. "I know you're upset right now."
Illyana pulled the pillow tighter over her ear.
"The truth is," Xavier continued, "you're right to blame me for what happened to you."
At these words, Illyana opened her eyes in surprise.
"What happened to you, that was my greatest failure." Xavier's voice cracked a little during the second half of that sentence, and trembled as he continued. "Jean Grey and John Proudstar, they were adults. They understood the risks they took and made their own decisions."
"You never had that chance. You were just a child. You still are just a child. You had every right to trust that I would keep you safe, and I didn't. Nothing I do can ever make up for the fact that you've suffered so much just because your brother is an X-Man.
He fought back tears. "Now, I want to help you get through this, but in order to do that, you have to want my help."
Illyana lowered the pillow and raised her head to look at the door. Her face had morphed from furious to sad.
"So please, when you calm down, just talk to me. You don't have to suffer alone."
Xavier looked down. His cell phone was vibrating in his pocket. He took it out, and saw that Stevie Hunter was calling him.
Most of the kids ordered plain flavors like chocolate and vanilla, while Roberto ordered pistachio.
"We're actually new at the school," Roberto explained. "I kind of get where you're coming from with that 'elite' talk. Some of the older students at Xavier's can be a little stuck up."
Frank's face scrunched up in disgust as four men in suits entered the ice cream shop. The three in front wore dark sunglasses, while the one in back was imposingly tall and broad like a wall.
"Head's up, cops," he said.
The men stopped at their table and the one in front flashed a badge. "Federal agents," he said. "Miss Manh, Miss Lonestar, Miss Sinclair, Mister da Costa, and Mister Guthrie, if you'll come with us, please."
Xuân noticed immediately that the agent's tone was one of command, not a question. "Is something the matter, officer? Are we under arrest?"
"Just routine," the officer said simply.
"Hey," Frank said angrily, "what're you hasslin' them for? They've just seen a movie and got some ice cream. Leave 'em alone!"
The agent glared at him. "You've got a big mouth, bot. Learn to keep it closed before it gets you into trouble."
"You don't scare me."
"Your mistake. Miss Manh, shall we go?"
"What about our teacher, Miss Hunter?" Roberto demanded.
"You can call her from headquarters," the agent assured him.
Roberto stood up. "I say we wait for her!"
Xuân put her hand on Roberto's to stop him from acting rashly. "Mon ami, let us not make a scene."
Roberto looked at her and nodded, realizing her intention to avoid a fight in the ice cream shop where innocent bystanders could be hurt.
"Fine," she said to the agent. "We'll go with you."
The agents led them to the mall's parking lot. The entire time, they wondered if they were making a big mistake in going along with the agents, Xuân most of all. She was very familiar with how corrupt so-called government law enforcement could be.
They were meters away from the agents' vehicles when Michael Rossi and Stevie appeared behind them. The former held a strange-looking gun and yelled "freeze!"
"Scatter, kids!" Stevie yelled at them.
"What th-!" Sam exclaimed.
Three of the agents drew their handguns, one of them screaming "ambush!" Meanwhile, the leader pulled out a walkie-talkie.
"Whoever they are, drop them hard!" he commanded before contacting his superiors. "Base – Team Seven, trouble! Potential emergency situation! Initiate contingency plan Beta!"
The three armed agents opened fire, forcing Rossi and Stevie to take cover behind a parked car. Rossi peaked over the trunk and fired his own weapon, an energy gun that struck the largest of the agents, the easiest target, and stunned him into unconsciousness.
"Run, kids!" he yelled. "I'll keep these bozos occupied!"
But he was still outnumbered three to one and quickly had to take cover again. The lead agent had drawn his own gun now and they were fighting smarter, with only one agent firing at a time to ensure there were never any gaps in their attack while one of them needed to reload that Rossi could take advantage of.
Rahne transformed into her wolf form and leaped on the closest agent, growling to scare him rather than biting him. Seeing this, the lead agent leapt into his car and turned on the engine with astonishing speed. He pressed the accelerator and attempted to run Rahne and his subordinate over.
Roberto transformed as well and stepped between Rahne and the approaching vehicle. He slammed his fist into the front of the car, pulverizing the engine and bringing it to a halt.
The last agent pointed his gun at Roberto's back, but his pupils suddenly disappeared and he dropped his weapon, now under Xuân's complete control.
With all of the agents taken down, Rossi and Stevie stepped out of cover.
"What've we done?" Sam asked. "Stevie, these guys are from the government!"
"That's all right son, so am I," Rossi assured him.
"Bullshit!" the agents' leader spat.
"Pretty strong language for someone from an outfit that's technically illegal," Rossi responded. "We've got a lot to talk about when Xavier gets here."
Dani looked to the side in frustration. The entire time, she had been trying to use her power to manifest the agents' fears, but nothing had happened.
They looked up as a strange rumbling sound filled the parking lot, and the leader smiled.
The ceiling suddenly collapsed, raining concrete down on them, as a hand the size of a full-grown man broke through the parking lot's structure.
"SENTINELS!" Rossie screamed.
The teens leaped to the ground to get out of the way of the debris and gaped as they looked up again. Through the new hole in the ceiling, they saw a large robot, maybe thirty feet tall. It was mostly grey with a few places of dull blue, and roughly human-shaped.
"Contact established, situation evaluated," the Sentinel said in an emotionless, computerized voice. "Contingency plan Beta now operational. Objective: capture of target mutants."
Rossi turned his gun to its highest setting. "Get out of here!" he yelled at the New Mutants. "They shouldn't follow you into the mall!"
He fired at the robot. This did not cause any visible harm, but it had the desired effect.
"Armed human is primary threat," the Sentinel said. "Initiating appropriate response."
"These things usually hunt in packs!" Rossi said as the Sentinel reached for him. A compartment in its palm opened, releasing a green gas that caused Rossi to cough and then collapse.
"No!" Sam yelled. He had intentionally kept out of the fight with the agents, as his power would likely kill anyone he hit with his current level of control. But against a giant robot he felt no such compunctions, and he blasted off, striking the Sentinel in the equivalent of its stomach and lifting it off of the parking lot roof.
Two more Sentinels were standing next to on the roof, proving Rossi right.
"Observation, Sentinel Lambda-Four has been unsuccessful in its attempt to secure its objectives," one of the robots said.
The first Sentinel fell to the ground outside the mall. Sam had punched a large hole in the metal skin of its torso, but its functions seemed completely unaffected.
"Negative data in memory banks regarding this mutant," it said.
"Key sensors to full record mode," the third Sentinel said. "Absorb all pertinent data regarding targets for future reference."
Inside the parking lot, Stevie was attempting to move Rossi. "You heard the man, we've got to move!" she said.
"You guys get him to safety," Roberto said. "I'm going to help Sam!"
"Roberto, stop!" Xuân yelled as he ran off. "You have no idea what you're dealing with!"
"Neither do these robots – HEY!"
Roberto was forced to stop in his tracks as a giant hand crashed through the wall in front of him. A second later, another hand burst into the parking lot from behind him. He made a three-hundred-sixty degree turn and, seeing no other way out, transformed again and leapt through the wall.
He landed hard on the ground after a two-story fall, but suffered no injuries more serious than a few bruises.
"Target da Costa unharmed," the Sentinel said as it climbed down from the parking lot and stood to its full height. "Evident byproduct of enhanced strength is increased physical resilience."
Roberto sprang back to his feet at the robot's mention of his last name. Now that he was outside, he could feel his strength growing as he began to absorb the sunlight.
The Sentinel stood over him, blocking the sun. "Bioscans indicate target has insufficient strength to damage this unit. Minimal defense required."
Roberto scowled and grabbed the Sentinel's foot. He had realized the fatal flaw in these mechanical monstrosities' programming. They always spoke before taking action.
"Maybe," he said through gritted teeth, "but you don't know that strength of human will and determination!"
With a scream echoed by the muscles of his arms, shoulders, and back, Roberto lifted the Sentinel's leg off of the ground and threw the robot into the air.
"No! I threw it the wrong way! Towards the mall!"
The Sentinel's head crashed through the wall of the mall, panicking dozens of shoppers and sending them fleeing and screaming. Miraculously, no one was hurt by the collision, but Roberto knew he had to end this quickly if the lack of casualties was to be sustained.
He climbed onto the Sentinel before it could rise and wrapped his arms as far around its massive head as he could.. His fingers dub into the metal casing, creating handholds he used to tear the head from its body.
The Sentinel's limbs collapsed and it ceased moving with the disconnection of its head.
Not far away, the first Sentinel seemed distracted by the loss of its fellow mutant-hunting robot.
"Sentinel Lambda-one-nine completely dysfunctional. Remaining units still executing primary operational directive."
Sam attempted to take advantage of this disruption, but the Sentinel had learned from his first attack. As he blasted towards it, a torrent of ice was released from the robot's eyes, enveloping him and freezing him in place.
"Target Guthrie neutralized by frigi-beam," the Sentinel said, grabbing the frozen teenager out of the air. "Returning to base."
Rockets activated on the bottom of the Sentinel's feet, slowly pushing its large frame upwards. Once it had achieved sufficient thrust, the robot took off, carrying Sam into the sky.
"LOOK!" Rahne yelled, pointing at the sky. They had moved to a walkway connecting the mall and parking lot with windows that provided them a good view of the action. "It's got Sam! What do we do?"
"If he's unconscious, Rahne, nothing, I fear," Xuân said gravely. Her pupils disappeared as she activated her power.
Hundreds of feet above them, the frozen suddenly took off like a rocket, his blasting completely overpowering the Sentinel's booster rockets.
Xuân's control of her own body diminished whenever she controlled the mind of another person. Now that she was in Sam's mind while he was frozen, her body experienced a sympathetic freezing and stiffened as if she was encased in ice as well.
The last Sentinel noticed them and fired an enormous energy blast from its hand, destroying much of the walkway between Xuân and Rahne. With the destruction of one of its companions, the robot's self-preservation functions had permitted it to use more lethal force to subdue its targets.
"Xuân's no' reacting! She's a sitting duck for tha' monster!" Rahne yelled.
Stevie was huddled with Rossi and Dani in a nearby corner. The man who would be their savior was stirring, beginning to recover from the knockout gas.
"Rahne, get back to the garage," he ordered. "Get the head agent back here. If your friend possesses him, she can have him order the Sentinels off."
"But then who'll protect Xuân?" she screamed. Ignoring Rossi's orders, she transformed and leapt across the gap to be by Xuân's side.
"Rahne, don't!" Dani yelled. "God dammit! My powers are useless against robots!" she complained.
"But not humans," Rossi said. "You go and see if you can scare the lead agent up here."
As Dani left, Roberto arrived.
"I got one, Stevie!" he yelled happily. "Did you see, I ripped its head clean off!"
"We've been busy, but great job, kiddo," Stevie responded. "Think you can go for a hat trick?"
The Sentinel approached, turning its head between Xuân and Rahne on the one hand, and Roberto, Rossi, and Stevie on the other.
"Target Manh in semi-catatonic state. Target Sinclair's powers represent no threat. Critical threat level represented by target da Costa after destruction of unit Lambda one-nine. Self-preservation program requires he receive primary response."
Rossi grinned grimly as he finally regained his feet. "Looks like you got their attention, kiddo. I hope you've got a couple more tricks, because Sentinels learn from their mistakes. You can never beat them the same way twice."
"'Fraid I can't even do the first trick again," Roberto said with an equally grim smile. "I can barely lift my arms after what I had to do to beat the last one."
The four agents had been initially pleased to see the Sentinels. But when Roberto had destroyed one of the robots, they began to feel that discretion was the better part of valor. Unfortunately for them, their vehicles had been destroyed, the first by Roberto and the second by the falling concrete caused by the Sentinel's first appearance.
Dani found them attempting to escape the parking lot on foot. "Oh no you don't!" she yelled.
As they approached the exit, the doorway disappeared, replaced by the image of the leader's greatest fear.
A large cloud appeared in front of them, rising towards the ceiling like an enormous mushroom. The agents all screamed and dropped to the floor, covering their heads as more and more mushroom clouds surrounded them.
The leader looked up first despite this being the representation of his fears, and his screams took on an even more horrifying quality than Dani had thought possible. The skin on his hand seemed to be on fire and was melting away, leaving only bone behind. All of the agents, oblivious to the lack of pain of the fact that they were still alive, were convinced that their bodies were being destroyed by the heat and radiation of multiple nuclear bombs.
When the fight was over, Dani would throw up all of the popcorn and ice cream she had eaten that day.
Now miles above the Earth, the friction of Sam's flight finally melted all of the ice covering him. At this distance, Xuân had already lost control of Sam and he had continued upwards because his power did not deactivate until he had fully regained his senses.
"Holy cow!" he screamed as he looked down, not understanding how he had gotten so high. He was still in the Sentinel's hand, but his main concern was how cold and hard to breathe it was at that height.
The Sentinel itself was in bad shape, its systems stressed to the breaking point by the unexpected flight.
With a deep breath, Sam blasted free of its grip and into its midsection again, hurtling it towards the ground with his full strength.
Now that he was blasting down instead of up, the force of gravity increased Sam's speed exponentially as he and the Sentinel hurtled towards the ground, pieces of the machine breaking off as they plummeted.
Their descent was seen from the ground, and Xuân reached out to possess Sam one more time, directing his to land where she wanted.
With a spectacular explosion, Sam collided the Sentinel he had been fighting with the last Sentinel, obliterating both robots with a single strike.
Xavier arrived at the mall at about the same time as the police and quickly got to work altering the memories of all those present who had seen the super-powered teenagers in action. Within minutes, all anyone would remember was that giant robots had attacked the mall before destroying themselves. Rossi assured them that any security footage would be dealt with by his people in a similar manner, ensuring there would be no evidence of the New Mutants' role in the incident.
The agents who had attempted to capture the teens were not as lucky. The leader surrendered himself to the police as soon as they arrived.
"My name is John Oglive," he told them repeatedly. "I am attached to the National Security Council. My superior is Henry Peter Gyrich. I summoned the Sentinels."
"He's been confessing nonstop since we got here, Captain," the arresting officer told his superior. "He can't get him to shut up."
"Take him and his men downtown, but don't book 'em just yet," the captain said. "Not till I've checked with Washington. I've got a feeling that the more we learn about this, the less we'll like."
Nearby, in Xavier's car, Rossi told Xuân to let Oglive go.
With his sunglasses on, none of the police noticed that Oglive had had no pupils for so long or when his pupils returned. He was shocked to find himself under arrest.
"What is this? Why am I handcuffed?" he demanded.
"Cuzz you're under arrest, ya dummy!" the first policeman said.
"Release me at once! I'm a federal agent!"
"You're a loon is what you are," the captain said. "Get him out of here!"
Xuân was not happy with what she had been forced to do. "Is he a criminal?" she asked.
"Are you?" Rossi replied. "He was prepared to send you to a prison camp just because of how you were born."
"Do two wrongs then make a right?"
"I'm not your enemy," Xuân."
"My apologies, M'sieu, but you do not act like a friend."
Xavier smiled. "The idealism of youth. Hopefully we will soon be able to live in a world where such moral compromises are not necessary."
"I see your point," Rossi agreed.
"I thank you, truly," Xavier said. "I had no idea the American government had discovered my school's secret, or that they'd take such action even before any significant mutant attack."
"Fear is governing the thinking of many in the defense establishment," Rossi explained. "A fear strong enough to make some of us forget the Constitution."
"What does that mean, Professor?" Xuân asked.
Xavier gave her a serious look. "It means we are in more danger than I had realized, and that all mutants in this country are imperiled. I have long feared that someone like Magneto may trigger a war between humans and mutants, but the humans may be readying to start such a war on their own."
"This is still America," Rossi assured him. "Those who would take such extreme actions are still a small minority, and the more the real leaders of the military and Congress learns of their activities, the more they will be brought back in line."
"I hope so," Xavier said sadly. "For all our sakes, I sincerely hope so."
After letting Rossi go, Xavier and Stevie drove the New Mutants back to the mansion. The professor expanded his awareness as he drove, ensuring that no more government agents were watching them within a mile radius.
Once they arrived, he gathered them in his office.
"I am so sorry this happened. I never wanted you to see real-world combat, and never dreamed it would happen so soon.
"However," he smiled, "you fought very well. To defeat even one Sentinel is a true accomplishment, let alone three. And while there was no small amount of luck involved, you did this with minimal civilian casualties. Even the X-Men do not always succeed in that."
"That's cause we're the best," Roberto said, and they all grinned.
"Don't get too conceited," Xavier said. "There was quite a bit of property damage. But you performed beyond my expectations in an unexpected situation, and I am very proud."
As the New Mutants left the office, they passed a figure who stood unseen in the shadows. Xavier was aware of her presence not through his telepathy, but through a strange chill he felt.
"Come in, Illyana. I was hoping you'd be ready to talk."
The young Russian entered the office with a sheepish expression, holding her arm like she was ashamed.
"I just wanted to apologize … for my outburst earlier."
"You have nothing to apologize for," Xavier assured her, "besides using the Danger Room without permission."
"I just … I guess I'm just looking to find some kind of meaning in what happened," she said. "But the truth is there is no meaning. A bad man just did a very bad thing, and that's all there is to it."
She looked down and her voice dropped to a whisper. "And that's so hard to accept."
Xavier moved his wheelchair closer to her. "Meaning in such tragedies isn't something you find by searching. It's something you create for yourself, by looking in here," he said, touching his heart.
Illyana looked at him, and her expression was so pained he was certain she was about to cry. But her eyes remained dry.
"I'm so scared, all the time," she said. "I'm afraid to open my eyes in the morning, because I don't know where I'll be. I'm scared every time I open a door and see what's on the other side … because I know he's still out there."
Xavier started and his eyebrows jumped up. A lump formed in his throat, forcing him to fight it down before he could respond.
"There is no shame in being afraid. Given what you've been through you have every right to be scared. Admitting your fears is a brave act, and it is the first and hardest step in overcoming those fears."
He took her hand. Unlike earlier, she did not pull away. "And if he does return, we'll be ready. This time, we will protect you, I promise."
Illyana gave him a weak smile and shook her head sadly, and Xavier felt his heart break.
Sebastian Shaw poured two glasses of wine and handed one to his companion.
"So it was a success?" Emma Frost asked. She was dressed in a white suit that cost more than most people made in a year. Everything about her, from her almost white blonde hair, to her perfect eyelashes, cheeks, and figure screamed 'femme fatale,' and practically every word out of her mouth was spoken seductively.
"Better than I dared hope," Shaw said. "Xavier chose his new pupils well. Not a single one was captured, and they destroyed all of the Sentinels quicker than expected. They will make excellent additions."
"Moreover, this proof that the government is after them will make them paranoid. When Xavier is dealt with, they will have no choice but to join our Hellfire Club when we offer them protection."
"Don't get too ahead of yourself," Emma warned him. "Defeating Xavier and the X-Men will be no easy task. We may need to have these children on our side before we can strike at the adults."
"If it comes to that, I'm sure you'll be more than up to the challenge," Shaw said. "Either way, they and their power will be ours."
They brought their glasses together.
"To the Hellfire Club!"
It was very late when the X-Men returned from their mission. Most went straight to bed, while Logan stayed up to get a can of beer from the fridge.
Piotr had just changed from his costume into a pajamas when there was a knock on his door.
"It's Illyana," came the voice of his sister.
Any fatigue Piotr felt after a full day of flying and fighting disappeared as he rushed to open the door. To his shock, Illyana leapt into his arms as soon as there was nothing between them.
"Please, can you hold me?" she asked softly in Russian. "Like you use to when I was little."
He laughed a little and answered in their native language. "Compared to me, you are still very small, little snowflake." He carried her to the couch he kept in his room in lieu of a chair which was not large enough for him and sat down.
Illyana leaned her head against his shoulder. "I always felt safest when I was in your arms."
"I can't say that I always felt safe when holding you. The first time I did so you grabbed my nose. I didn't know babies that young could even do that. You were always pulling my nose or my ears or my hair."
"Snowflake?" he asked when she did not respond. He moved some of her hair away from her face and smiled.
Kitty could not remember a time when she had ever felt so tired. The lack of sleep the night before combined with the aftereffects of the adrenalin of combat had left her exhausted. But she was not ready for sleep just yet. Something was missing.
That something arrived in Piotr's arms. He carried the sleeping Illyana from his room to hers. Kitty's jaw dropped as she took a closer look and saw her roommate's face.
For the first time in what had seemed like a lifetime to either of them, Illyana was sleeping with a smile on her face.
Kitty got out of the way so Piotr could put his sister in her bed. As he pulled the blanket over her, Kitty picked up the bampf doll and put it in Illyana's arms.
When Illyana was tucked in, Piotr bent down and kissed her on the cheek.
"Pleasant dreams, little snowflake."
Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
Wake me up when September ends
Like my father's come to pass
Seven years has gone so fast
Wake me up when September ends
Here comes the rain again
Falling from the stars
Drenched in my pain again
Becoming who we are
As my memory rests
But never forgets what I lost
Wake me up when September ends
Wake Me Up When September Ends – Green Day
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Post by sunofdarkchild on Jan 1, 2024 8:18:24 GMT -5
Magik and the New Mutants Season 1
Episode 1: The New Class
"To me, my New Mutants."
The telepathic call rang out through the mansion which constituted Professor Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Heads turned in the direction from which the call was issued, and immediately all of the students stopped what they were doing and began to head towards the mansion's lower levels.
The man who had made the call, Charles Xavier himself, was sitting in his wheelchair in an advanced control room. He frowned as he stared at the seat that stood in front of the controls for the Danger Room. He was the only person who did not use that seat when overseeing a session in the X-Men's training facility.
This was a time for new beginnings, Xavier thought to himself as he put his hands on the sides of his wheelchair and began to push himself to his feet. With great effort, he stood up, taking a deep breath as he focused on his next task, walking the short distance to the other chair.
Xavier slowly lifted his right foot, and immediately collapsed to the floor with a cry of pain.
"Professor!" yelled the control room's only other occupant, a blonde teenage girl.
The girl bent down and helped Xavier up. The professor looked forlornly at the chair he had attempted to reach, so close, and yet so far away, before slumping back into his wheelchair with a sad sigh.
"Thank you, Illyana."
Though a student at the school, Illyana Rasputin was the only resident of the mansion who was not a member of either the senior team, the X-Men, or the new student team, the New Mutants.
"I don't understand," Illyana told her teacher. "I thought your legs were supposed to be fully healed."
Xavier nodded. "They are. My problem is psychosomatic. Ever since my original injury, I have used my psychic powers to block out the pain. But because of this, my body does not realize that it has been healed, and any attempt at walking will cause the very pain I did not let myself feel all those years ago."
He looked at Illyana. "Let this be a lesson for you, child. Do not repeat my mistake. Do not attempt to drown out your pain. The result will be that it will be much worse when you do finally feel it."
Xavier turned his attention to the Danger Room as the New Mutants began to enter the training facility.
Xuân Cao Mạnh, Sam Guthrie, Daniel Moonstar, Kitty Pryde, Roberto Da Costa, and Rahne Sinclair lined up in their new blue and yellow uniforms and grinned at each other. All except for Kitty, who crossed her arms and pouted at the control room.
Xavier spoke into a small microphone. "Welcome to the Danger Room. For most of you, this is your first time here. This facility is designed to be a safe place for you to practice using your powers, so if the need arises you will be prepared for any eventuality."
He pressed a button, and a series of obstacles appeared throughout the danger room.
"Your first exercise is a simple one. Avoid the obstacles and make it to the exit. Who wants to go first?"
"I will," Roberto declared confidently. He was a strong, handsome young man of Afro-Latina descent with a smile that made girls swoon. With a flex of his arms, he powered up, his body becoming covered in an aura that was at once black and glowing. It was an effect that earned him the mutant moniker Sunspot.
As Roberto stepped forward, a portion of the wall flipped open, revealing a large robot standing in Roberto's way.
"Is this the best you can do, Professor?" Roberto scoffed. He drew his right arm back and threw a punch at the robot, only for his arm to sink into the metallic surface.
"Hey, what's going on?" he yelled. "I can't get my arm out!"
Roberto's teammates shared a laugh at his expense, and in the control room, Illyana covered her mouth to hide her smile. Only Xavier was not amused by Roberto's failure.
"Rahne, would you like to go next?"
Rahne was the youngest member of the team. She had extremely short red hair and spoke in a thick Scottish accent. At Xavier's command, she transformed into a large red wolf known as Wolfsbane.
She proceeded slowly and cautiously, sniffing along the ground for any sign of danger. Her enhanced animal senses gave her a heads-up on any threat, allowing her to avoid most of the obstacles.
However, she was unprepared for a trap door to open up beneath her, causing her to fall into a deep pit and fail the test.
"Sam, you're up."
Sam Guthrie was the tallest of the New Mutants by far. He was a skinny blonde with a thick Kentucky accent.
Sam bent down as if he was preparing for a 100-meter sprint and blasted off. This power earned him the name Cannonball. While he used it, he was virtually invulnerable.
Unfortunately, Sam did not know how to maneuver while blasting, and the first obstacle knocked him off course. He began to bounce around the danger room, ping-ponging off of the various obstacles like a pinball until he finally, unceremoniously, collided with the floor almost exactly where he started.
"Professor," Dani called out, "how are Shan and I supposed to do this? Our powers are mental. They won't work on machines."
"You are correct, Danielle," Xavier answered. "However, your powers are not the be-all and end-all. To demonstrate, Kitty will run the course without the use of her powers."
Kitty Pryde was a brown and curly-haired Jewish girl from Chicago. With a roll of her eyes, she stepped forward and began the test.
Kitty faced all of the obstacles that had stumped Roberto, Rahne, and Sam, from robots to trap doors. But she deftly avoided each one, moving quickly, never staying still for even an instant, until finally, she was on the other side.
Most of the team clapped, but Roberto crossed his arms and hmphed derisively. "Sure. It's easy when your power is nothing can touch you."
Kitty matched Roberto's derisive expression. "It's because I'm a real X-Man, not an X-baby like the rest of you."
Xavier buried his face in his palm as the argument broke out below.
"What'd you call us?" Roberto demanded.
"Ah'm older'n you," Sam declared.
"Do you have any idea what we've been through?" Xuân asked.
An image of Xavier's head appeared in the air between them.
"Enough!" he declared telepathically.
"Kitty, it is true that your time in the X-Men has given you an experience your classmates lack. But they are still your peers, and you will treat them with respect."
"And when are you going to treat me with the respect I deserve?" Kitty demanded.
"Right now, you have not earned it," Xavier said as his image disappeared from their minds.
The New Mutants exited their locker rooms in their civilian clothes, Kitty storming ahead of them in a fit of rage.
Illyana quickly followed after her.
"Professor Xavier is a jerk!" Kitty said loudly.
"It isn't fair!" she complained to Illyana. "I earned my place in the X-Men! They all say so! So why does he keep treating me like a child?"
"Maybe because you're acting like one?" Illyana answered.
"Not you too! I thought you'd be on my side, at least."
Illyana looked down uncomfortably as she struggled to find the words to explain herself.
"I guess … I just don't understand … why someone would want to grow up … before they have to."
Kitty stopped in her tracks and took a deep, horrified breath.
"Oh my gosh. I-I'm so sorry, Illyana. I didn't mean-"
"What's done is done," Illyana said. "Wishing and griping won't change it. All you're doing is making everybody miserable."
"Why don't we go to the arcade? That'll cheer me up," Kitty suggested.
"But we've got dance lessons next," Illyana observed.
"I think the X-bay – sigh – the New Mutants and I need some space right now. Come on. I'm sure I can get Doug to join us."
The New Mutants met Stevie Hunter in front of the mansion. Stevie was an African American woman who had once held dreams of competing in the Olympics before a leg injury ended her gymnastics career. She ran a dancing school in town and was one of Charles Xavier's closest human allies who knew most of his secrets.
"Where're Kitty and Illyana?" Stevie asked.
"Her royal highness thinks she's too good for us," Roberto explained, making Stevie scowl.
They got into Stevie's van so she could drive them into town for dance class.
"What's her problem, anyway?" Dani asked.
"She's been through a lot with the X-Men," Stevie explained.
"We've been through a lot too!" Roberto said angrily.
Roberto had lost his girlfriend Juliana days after his mutant power manifested. A group of mutant haters had attempted to kill Roberto, and Juliana jumped in front of him, taking a bullet that had been meant for him.
Sam had been forced to leave school to work in the mines when his father suddenly died. His powers manifested during a cave-in which had nearly buried him and his coworkers alive.
Rahne was an orphan who was raised by a fanatical minister before he attempted to kill her when her powers manifested, claiming she was possessed by a demon.
Dani's parents had been killed by a bear, and shortly before her arrival, her grandfather had been beaten to death by mutant-hunters looking for her.
Xuân was a refugee from a war-torn nation who had recently come to America with her little brother and sister.
"Are you at least getting along with Illyana?" Stevie asked.
"We're not fighting with her, at least," Xuân answered. "But she never talks to us."
"There's something off about her," Roberto said.
"Is she a mutant like us, Stevie?" Sam asked.
"If she was, she'd be doing the same exercises in the Danger Room with the rest of you," Stevie answered.
Neither Stevie nor her passengers noticed another car hidden in the woods just off the road as they drove by.
The car pulled out onto the road and began to follow Stevie's vehicle.
"Alert headquarters that they're heading towards Salem Center," the driver told his passenger.
The passenger picked up a speaker: "Lookout one to Wideawake – status report: Vehicle registered to Stevie Hunter proceeding down Graymalkin Lane. Five occupants besides Hunter – all young people, presumably Xavier's new students. Unable to confirm identities without jeopardizing our cover. Request instructions."
A man with red hair and sunglasses appeared on a monitor in front of the passenger seat.
"Maintain discreet surveillance. Additional units will join you in town," their superior said.
"What then, Mr. Gyrich," the passenger asked. "Do we arrest them?"
"Let me make myself clear, until you receive orders to the contrary, you and your team will do nothing to alarm these children or their teachers," Gyrich said angrily. "Should that policy change, you will be notified. Wideawake out."
Xavier wheeled himself into his study, where the senior members of the X-Men had gathered.
"Are you ok, Professor?" asked the furry blue mutant Kurt Wagner, who was also known as Nightcrawler. "You seem even more stressed than usual today."
"Yes, acclimating the new students is proving difficult, and Kitty isn't making it any easier," Xavier explained.
"What did you expect?" asked Logan, who was also known as Wolverine. "The kid was in the majors, and you demoted her all the way down to high school varsity. In her shoes, I'd be throwing a tantrum too."
"Allowing Kitty to be part of the X-Men was a mistake," Xavier declared. "Now that we have more students her own age, we have an opportunity to correct that mistake. I won't have children risking their lives unnecessarily."
"You did not summon us to rehash arguments about Kitty's place on our team," said the X-Men's leader, Ororo Munroe, who was also known as Storm.
Xavier nodded. "That is correct. I asked you here to discuss Illyana's situation."
The X-Men all exchanged troubled looks, and the last member, the large Russian mutant Piotr Rasputin, also known as Colossus, glared at the professor.
"We agreed that we would observe her in case of trouble, but otherwise she would be welcome here without question," Ororo recalled.
"That was when it was just the X-Men living here," Xavier said. "Now that there are other children here, I believe it would be prudent to reexamine the risks of having her around."
Piotr slammed his fist against the wall. "If you kick out my sister, then you will have to kick me out as well," he declared.
"Don't get ahead of yourself, Petey," Logan said. "Chuck's got a point. The girl's dangerous."
Piotr walked over to Logan and glared down daggers at him. The massive Russian towered over the diminutive Canadian.
"How dare you…" Piotr said under his breath.
"What do you mean, Logan?" Xavier asked.
"Just what I said. She's dangerous," Logan said, seemingly unfazed by Piotr.
"Could you explain why?" Ororo asked.
Logan shook his head. "'Fraid not. It's a feeling I get whenever she's around. She scares me a lot more than you do when you try to be intimidating, Petey. It's a primal fear. I've only ever experienced it two other times – when we fought Magneto and with Jean when she was at her worst."
Everyone flinched collectively at the mention of Jean Grey at her worst.
"You don't really think …" Kurt began.
"If I thought she meant us harm, I'd have already taken care of her myself," Logan said. "Being dangerous doesn't mean she's not trustworthy."
"Logan's animal instincts are almost always right," Ororo observed. "If he says Illyana is dangerous, then we have to assume she is."
"Stop it!" Piotr yelled. "We should be helping her, not treating her like a threat!"
"I agree," Kurt said. "We should do everything in our power to help her. But we can't be blind to the possibility that she's a trojan horse."
Xavier sighed. "Hopefully being around more children her own age will help her open up more."
Stevie drove the five to her studio in Salem Center, where she taught her dancing classes. They changed clothes again at the locker rooms and entered the dance classroom. Dani stopped in the doorway.
They were not the only ones there. Four other teenagers had arrived before them, a brown-haired boy and girl who looked like twins, a pretty blonde girl with curly blonde hair, and a red-headed boy with large glasses.
"You must be the new class at Xavier's," the blonde said with a sweet smile.
"Indeed we are," Roberto responded. He stepped forward with his own winning smile, confident in the way his tight dancing clothes highlighted his muscular and athletic figure. "I'm Roberto. This is Sam, Dani, Rahne, and Xi'an."
"Xuân," the Asian girl corrected him.
"Right. Sorry. I'll get it eventually. And you are?" he asked the blonde.
"Tandy," she answered. "These are Mike and Mindy, and Peter. We go to the School of the Holy Child."
"Nice," Roberto said. "I went to a private Catholic school as well when I lived in Brazil."
As the two groups of teenagers began to mingle Stevie turned to Dani, who had gone pale and not moved from the doorway. "What's wrong?" she asked softly.
"I didn't realize there'd be other kids here," Dani said, "normal kids."
"Charles thinks you should have more opportunities to meet and interact with other kids," Stevie explained. "But if it makes you feel uncomfortable…"
Dani nodded. "It does."
Professor Xavier was waiting at the mansion's main entrance when Kitty and Illyana returned from the arcade. Kitty had known there was no point in attempting to sneak past the most powerful telepath on Earth, so she did not try.
"Playing hooky? And here I thought your antics couldn't get more childish," he admonished them. "First me, then your new classmates, now you disrespect Ms. Hunter. I'm very disappointed in the both of you."
Turning to Illyana, he said: "You are going to help Ororo and Kurt prepare dinner, and then you are going to help your brother with the dishes. They're already waiting for you in the kitchen."
Illyana nodded silently and went off, giving Kitty an annoyed look.
"It wasn't her fault, Professor," Kitty explained. "I made her come with me."
"If you insist on being a bad influence, then there are going to be consequences for following your example," Xavier stated. "If this happens again, I am going to seriously consider moving you two to different rooms."
"No!" Kitty begged. "I promise, it won't happen again. Just let us stay roommates."
Xavier nodded. "Very well. See that you don't give me any more reason to reconsider this arrangement."
The New Mutants' return to the mansion in Stevie Hunter's car was recorded by a long-distance camera hundreds of meters from the entrance, far enough to avoid being detected by any telepaths who were not specifically looking for spies, it was hoped.
The live feed was received on a large screen in a command and control room underneath the Pentagon, watched by Henry Peter Gyrich.
Gyrich, with his expensive suit and dark glasses he wore even indoors, was as stereotypical as a government agent could get. Were it not for his bright red hair, which he kept short, he would easily blend into any room and become practically invisible.
As the head of the recently-created Commission of Superhuman Activities, Gyrich oversaw the military and clandestine aspects of the American government's response to the mutant issue. The fact that mutant powers usually manifested at puberty was an unfortunate complication in his eyes, as it meant that any policy would have to take mutant children into account, the one thing that he feared could lead to public backlash against attempts to contain the mutant threat.
"What the hell is Xavier doing?" he asked under his breath.
One of the technicians working at a console with another screen turned to look up at him. "Sir?"
"Nothing, Robert. Get back to work."
Gyrich turned to his assistant, a serious-looking woman standing in the corner behind him. "Get me Sebastian Shaw," he instructed her.
At the end of dinner, Nightcrawler cleared the table by performing a series of acrobatic feats, grabbing and stacking the glass plates with his feet and tail while balancing on one hand before leaping all the way to the kitchen sink without dropping or chipping a single one. This display, reminiscent of his past as a circus performer, delighted most of the teens. Even Illyana cracked a smile, while the others laughed. Except for Rahne.
"Tis no' right," she said to herself in her thick Scottish accent, "to break bread with and laugh at a demon."
Sam excused himself from the table first and went straight to his room, where he took out his cell-phone. This was a new iPhone, given to him by Professor Xavier, and was by far the most expensive thing he had ever owned.
"Hi, Ma," he said into the device, "I'm doing great, actually. Ah didn't realize how much Ah missed being in school while Ah was working in the mines. Ah do feel kind of weird being here, though. It's a very exclusive school, and there aren't that many students. But on the plus side, Ah can get a lot of one on one time with the Professor or the other teachers if Ah need any help with anything. Ah'm starting to think Ah might actually be able to go to college in a couple of years. How're things back home? Did you get the check Professor sent?"
Sam nearly dropped his phone. "It was how much? That's more than Ah made in three months in the mines. Ah don't think Ah implied we needed that much."
Kitty was woken up in the middle of the night by a sound from the bed next to hers. In her groggy state, it took her a few moments to recognize the sound of Illyana's voice.
"Nyet…nyet…" the other girl said, repeating the Russian word for "no" in her sleep as she tossed and turned.
Kitty arose and walked over to the other bed, stepping over a 'bampf,' a doll made to look like Nightcrawler.
"Ostanavlivat'sya!" Illyana screamed as Kitty approached, her mouth wide with terror. Her voice softened as she suddenly switched to English, saying "Please … stop …"
"Illyana?" Kitty said, putting her hand on the other girl's shoulder. The Russian girl shook with terror, and Kitty spoke louder. "Illyana, wake up!"
With a high-pitched scream, Illyana's eyes burst open and her hand shot out with lightning speed at the person standing over her. Kitty reacted on instinct, using her phasing power to save herself from serious injury as Illyana's flat hand passed through her neck nail-first like a dagger.
"Whoa!" she exclaimed.
Illyana blinked. "K-Kitty?" she stammered, slowly retracting her hand.
"Yeah. It's me."
Illyana seemed to want to look around the dark room, but her head merely shook in fear. "W-where-where am I?"
"You're home," Kitty assured her. She bent down, picked up the bamf doll, and handed it to Illyana. The other girl grabbed the doll and hugged it close as she sat up. She trembled and took deep, loud breaths as she buried her face in the doll.
Kitty wrapped Illyana in her blanket and then sat down to wrap her arms around the other girl.
'Shhh…" she said in a soft, comforting tone. "Everything's all right. You're safe."
Tears began to flow down Kitty's cheeks as she hugged Illyana like a mother cradling her child. "I promise, I won't let anything happen to you."
Some of the mansion's residents got up early, while others slept in. Dani was one of the late risers. While she had not woken up screaming in the middle of the night, she slept fitfully, beset by bad dreams.
As she washed up, Dani thought she heard a growling behind her. In the side of the bathroom mirror, she saw reflected in the window a pair of large, non-human ears. With a gasp, she spun around, but nothing but the morning sun could be seen in the window.
She found her teammates in the rec room, along with Illyana. Roberto was questioning the young Russian.
"So what, you just live here because your brother's an X-Man?" Illyana nodded, but looked confused at this line of questioning. "So, do you not have any powers?"
"What does it matter if I do or don't?"
Roberto threw up his hands. "I'm just asking."
Xuân was the first to notice Dani's arrival, and how troubled the Cheyenne looked. She approached in order to ask Dani what was wrong when an image appeared between them.
"Ma Mere! Ma Pere!" Xuân screamed in French at the image of herself in better days with her entire family. "C'est Impossible!"
The image of the happy family with two sets of twins, one in their teens and the other at preschool age, was replaced by the family screaming as the father was shot down in front of them.
"Stop this!" Xuân yelled at Dani. By now, everyone else in the rec room had stopped what they were doing to watch what was unfolding. The images had changed again, this time to the family attempting to flee their homeland on a boat, only to be stopped by pirates. What happened next, her mother did not survive, and for a while Xuân had wished she had not survived either.
"MONSTER!" Xuân screamed, leaping through the image and tackling Dani to the ground.
"I-I'm sorry!" Dani pleaded. "I didn't mean-"
"Liar!" Xuân accused, her fingers wrapping around Dani's throat. "I thought you were my friend, but you reveal my shame for the whole world to see!"
Two pairs of arms grabbed Xuân by the shoulders and Roberto and Illyana both lifted her off of Dani.
"Stop it! You'll kill her!" Roberto warned.
"Let go of me!" Xuân yelled. The pupils of her eyes disappeared as she activated her mutant power. A second later, Roberto's pupil's disappeared as well, and he loosened his grip and released her, his body no longer under his control.
Xuân turned her head to the left to glare at Ilyana. "Let me go," she said again.
"Not until you calm down," Illyana insisted.
Xuân's jaw dropped, and she took several deep breaths. Her eyes and Roberto's returned to normal as she deactivated her power.
"All right, I'm calm now," she said. Illyana let her go.
Dani struggled to get back on her feet. "I'm so sorry!" she said again. "It was an accident," she attempted to explain. But Xuân was not listening. Her attention had been completely refocused on Illyana.
"Dani! Xuân!" came the disembodied voice of Professor Xavier. "See me in my office right now!"
Both girls complied, leaving the others to stare after them.
"That was quick thinking," Sam told Roberto. "If you and Illyana hadn't been there…"
Roberto looked grave. "Xuân was ready to kill Dani, and with her powers she could kill us all with ease if she wanted to." He shook his head. "Hardly an auspicious beginning for the school, is it?"
Xuân and Dani had never been to a principal's office before. Dani had been homeschooled until now, and Xuân's schooling had been cut short by war. Neither had any idea what to expect.
"I wish I could say that I'd never had one student attack another," Xavier said, "but unfortunately, such things have happened with the X-Men before. Usually, though, it was because the attacker was under mind control or in some other way possessed."
Xuân looked to the side. "I see now that I overreacted. But to have my very soul laid bare like that is more than could bare."
"I know, I'm sorry," Dani said again. "I just – I can't always control it. That's why I didn't want to go have dance classes with other kids yesterday."
"Do these moments where your control lapses occur when you're upset?" Xavier asked. "When you're angry or anxious?"
Dani nodded. "Yes."
"You must be mindful of these feelings, then, and come to me or another member of the staff any time you feel that you are in danger of using your powers unintentionally."
"Your powers are a gift," Xavier explained. "They are not something to be feared. But they are dangerous if not respected, and can cause great harm. Being mutants means you will have to grow up sooner than other children your age and learn responsibility to control these powers. It is not fair, but it is the cost of being a mutant."
"I know," Dani said. "I'll do better, I promise."
"Very well. And Xuân? Dani has already apologized three times for this unfortunate accident. Do you have anything to say to her?"
Xuân sighed. "I'm sorry I attacked you and tried to choke you."
"No problem, I might've done the same thing, in your position," Dani said. "Can we forgive each other and go back to being friends?"
"Give me a little bit of time," Xuân said. "The pain's still fresh right now."
"I guess that's all I can ask," Dani said. "I think it'd be best if I was alone for a while. I also need time to calm down so this doesn't happen again with someone else."
Xavier nodded. "You are excused. I don't think any punishment is necessary this time. You are both showing maturity in admitting fault and coming to an understanding over this incident."
Dani left, but Xuân lingered at the doorway.
"Xuân? Is there something else you wanted to say?"
She turned back to him. "Who exactly is Illyana?"
A change seemed to come over Xavier, and she knew immediately that she had broached a topic that was distressing to him.
After a few moments, he said: "Just as you want others to respect your privacy, you should respect theirs."
The X-Men were preparing to depart for their latest mission in the Blackbird, their custom hypersonic jet based on the Lockheed SR-71 spy plane, when Xavier's face appeared on a monitor next to the pilot's seat.
"What is it, Professor?" Storm asked.
"You have a stowaway onboard," Xavier said.
"Kitty," Wolverine said.
"I'll find her," Nightcrawler said, teleporting away in a poof of black smoke to search the aircraft's compartments.
Xavier had his arms crossed when Nightcrawler brought Kitty to him.
"What do you have to say for yourself, young lady?"
"I was just trying to be with my team," she insisted.
Xavier glared daggers at her. "I have a lecture to give. We will discuss this when I return. Your antics have made me late and delayed the X-Men's departure on an important mission, and I am most displeased."
Dani was sobbing in her room when she heard a knock on the door. She looked confused for a moment.
"Rahne, is that you?" she asked, going to open the door.
In the doorway was a familiar red-furred wolf. The wolf barked happily and leapt onto Dani, licking the tears off of her cheeks.
"Hey, cut it out!" Dani yelled, but her sobs had turned to laughter.
Rahne transformed back into herself and got off of Dani. "How'd ye know it was me?"
"I'm not completely sure," Dani said. "I've always had this connection with animals. Maybe it's part of my mutant power, but I don't know. I guess it extends to you when you're in wolf form. It was like I could sense you there."
"Wow, that's neat."
Kitty was back with the New Mutants after her attempt to stow away aboard the Blackbird. With the X-Men and Xavier gone, it fell once again to Stevie to look after them.
"I want to punch something," Kitty said angrily.
"So what else is new?" Roberto asked sarcastically.
"I think you could all stand to work off some excess energy," Stevie said. "Does anyone object to using the Danger Room?"
They all gathered once again in the Danger Room, wearing their blue and yellow uniforms just as they had the previous morning. Even Dani had joined them for this session.
Illyana stood behind Stevie, who entered the program in the control room. It was Kitty who had chosen the specific program they would fight against.
The walls, floor, and ceiling of the Danger Room disappeared as the program initialized, becoming replaced by small, easter European town. Floating in front of them was an imposing-looking man in a red costume, cape, and helmet.
"Who dares challenge the Master of Magnetism and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants?" Magneto demanded. Behind him appeared five more mutants.
Blob was enormous in every way, and appeared to be one hundred percent fat. Toad, on the other hand, was shockingly small, all the more so with how he crouched menacingly. Mastermind looked plain in comparison to all of his peers, with a simple face and build and no costume beyond a large brown coat.
The red-haired Scarlett Witch and white-haired Quicksilver wore the flashiest and most colorful costumes after Magneto. Twins, they stood near each other, and alone of the villains did not seem eager for a fight.
Roberto transformed and put his right fist into his left palm. "The New Mutants are gonna cream your so-called 'brotherhood.'"
"Let us see if you can live up to your boasts," Magneto said. "Brotherhood, attack!"
Quicksilver moved first, running so fast none of the New Mutants had a chance to react. The wind from his passing knocked all but Kitty and Roberto over, the former using her phasing power to let the wind pass through her, while the latter withstood it through his own strength.
The Blob approached Roberto, seeing as he had stood up to Quicksilver's initial move. "Go on, hit me," the large villain said.
Roberto complied, not hearing Xuân's scream for him to stop, plunging his powerful fist into the Blob's round stomach.
"Oh, not again!" Roberto yelled as his hand was absorbed into the Blob's flesh. "That's disgusting!"
The Blob inhaled and popped his stomach out, sending Roberto flying.
The other New Mutants rose to their feet. Sam blasted towards Quicksilver, hoping for some payback. But the speedster moved out of the way at the last second. Sam, unable to stop himself or turn crashed headfirst into a building, causing the entire structure to fall on him.
"Did no one read up the Brotherhood?" Xuân yelled! "We're playing right into their hands!"
The scene shifted again, reality rippling as if the universe had turned to water, and when the world appeared solid again, everyone was standing in a different position.
"It's Mastermind!" Xuân yelled at her teammates. "He's using his illusion powers to confuse us! Wolfsbane! Transform and smell where he his and take him out!"
Rahne complied, turning into a wolf and sniffing. Her nose led her to what appeared to be Roberto, but smelled nothing like her friend. 'Roberto' suddenly screamed and cowered with his hands over his head as an apparition of Magneto appeared above him, electricity dancing around the Master of Magnetism as he glared with a frightening rage as his subordinate.
His concentration broken, Mastermind's illusions disappeared, revealing him where 'Roberto had just been. Rahne leapt upon him and transformed into her intermediate form to quickly dispatch him from the fight.
Turning back into a human, she looked at Dani. The Cheyenne had known where their enemy was from Rahne, just as she had sensed Rahne's presence earlier.
One of their opponents was down, but four more remained before they could face the real threat, Magneto.
Roberto was busy digging Sam out of the rubble. Sam was thankfully invulnerable while blasting, and so was uninjured from collision and collapse. Blob, having already had some success with Roberto, approached the Brazilian again.
"Go ahead, hit me again," he taunted.
"With pleasure," Roberto said. But instead of winding up his fist like before, this time he brought both of his hands together above his head and slammed them to the ground, creating a shockwave and causing the ground to crack beneath the Blob's feet. The Blob lost his footing and fell on his back with a massive thud. He hit his head and was rendered unconscious.
Toad had attempted to leap into the fray as soon as Quicksilver had launched his initial attack, but his first target, Kitty, was too fast for him to catch. She dodged each lunch of his while constantly taunting him.
"You're the worst villain ever, you know that, Toad? You don't even deserve to be called a supervillain!"
"Shut up!" Toad yelled, leaping at her once more. This time, Kitty phased to dodge, disappearing into the ground as he landed on top of her. Toad had no time to wonder what had just happened as Kitty reappeared behind him, grabbing him and wrestling him to the ground, where she promptly took him out of the fight.
With just the twins left to deal with, Xuân's eyes turned white as she possessed the Scarlett Witch, who began to gesture at her brother, causing him to trip and fall mid-stride.
Xuân then turned the Scarlett Witch's powers on their enemies' leader. Magneto and his most powerful underling were locked in a clash of energies, but the Master of Magnetism had the advantage, being far more experienced with his own powers than Xuân was with her puppet's.
"Cannonball, now!" she yelled.
Sam got behind Magneto and blasted off, striking the arch-villain from behind with his full force. Ordinarily, Magneto would have had a magnetic shield around him protecting him from all physical attacks, but with his attention focused on his duel with the Scarlett Witch, Sam had an opening in which to strike.
"Yes!" Roberto cheered as Stevie turned the Danger Room off. He high-fived Sam. "We won! We beat Magneto!"
"Don't get too proud of yourselves," Kitty said. "That was the easiest setting. Against the real thing, you all wouldn't have lasted ten seconds."
"Give us a break!" Roberto said. "For our first time, that was really good!"
"I'm afraid she has a point," Xuân said. "We were sloppy and careless, and most of us haven't done any research on the X-Men's fights with the Brotherhood. If our opponents had the capacity to act with more intelligence and teamwork, we wouldn't have stood a chance."
Stevie activated the loudspeaker in the control room. "Xuân is correct. But that's the point of the Danger Room. Here it is safe to make mistakes. What's important is that you learn from your mistakes so that you can do better in the real world. I'm sure the Professor will be pleased with your performances for your first time, but there is always room for improvement, even for the most experienced X-Men."
Xavier was indeed pleased when he returned and examined the results of the New Mutants' first Danger Room session as a team.
"I will be giving you all written evaluations of your performances later tonight, as individuals and as a team," he told them. "This has given me a greater understanding of what areas we need to work on."
"Professor," Roberto asked, "are we being trained be join the X-Men someday?"
"Not necessarily," Xavier said. "While I do want you to be trained in combat and to work as a team, that is for your own defense and well-being, not so that you can become X-Men when you grow up. What you do with your lives is up to you, and I will be just as happy if you find a calling other than joining the X-Men."
He turned to Kitty. "Come to my office, now. It's time we talked."
Kitty sat down on the opposite side of Xavier's desk.
"I've tolerated your behavior up to a certain point because it was understandable that you were angry," Xavier said. "But now this has gone too far. I do not normally use such terms, but you need to get over the fact that you are not on the X-Men anymore."
"I'm not getting over it anytime soon."
"I was going to make you the leader of the New Mutants, given your greater experience with the X-Men. But there is no chance of that happening if you continue to make them hate you."
"I don't want to be the New Mutants' leader! I want to be an X-Man!"
"Why?" he demanded. "Why are you so determined to risk your life instead of taking this opportunity to be with other kids your own age? Why is it so damn important to you that you remain an X-Man that you can't wait until you turn 18?"
"Because of what happened to Illyana!" Kitty screamed.
Xavier closed his eyes and sighed sadly. "What happened wasn't your fault," he said softly.
"Don't give me that. I've gone through the scenario in the Danger Room a hundred times. If I'd been a little faster, a little stronger, a little smarter, I could have saved her."
Kitty choked back a sob. "I could have saved her, and I didn't. That's on me."
She continued: "I also grew up a lot that day. I learned that when we're less than perfect when we make mistakes, real people suffer. So I've stopped treating it like a joke. I've given 110% to my training, so the next time a little girl needs saving, I won't fail again."
"If you were kicking me off the team as punishment for failure, I could live with that. But to do it like this, to tell me to just wait until I'm 18 after everything that's happened, it tells me that what I learned from this failure doesn't matter. My failure to save Illyana doesn't matter because of my age. But it has to matter. I need it to matter."
Xavier looked down in thought for several minutes. "I understand," he said at last.
"This is against my better judgment, and it may be a mistake, but I am going to trust that you are as grown up as you claim to be. However, there are conditions. This childish feud you have with the New Mutants must end. You will treat them with respect and as your peers. If I hear the word 'X-babies' or anything of the sort, you are off the X-Men again."
Kitty nodded excitedly. "Sure. I can do that."
"And you must keep your grades up. At the first sign being an X-Man is affecting your GPA, you're off the team. That means no more playing hooky without my explicit permission."
"Understood. Thank you, Professor. I promise I won't let you down."
Xavier gathered the New Mutants in his office that evening to give them their evaluations. Kitty was not with them this time, having been moved back to the mansion's other team.
"Based on your performances today," Xavier said, "I have decided that Xuân will be your team leader for now."
Xuân looked surprised and flustered. She did not believe her teacher could put such trust in her so soon after her attack against Dani.
"Are you sure sir?" she asked.
Xavier nodded. "I am quite sure. You should be, as well."
She looked around and her teammates. "What does everyone else think?"
Roberto smiled and raised his hands, clapping for her. The other New Mutants quickly joined in, giving their new leader a round of applause. Xuân looked to Dani, who was clapping and smiling as widely as anyone else.
She let herself have a small smile as well. "Ok. If you all think I can do it, I guess I'll be the leader."
"This calls for a celebration!" Roberto declared.
"I'm an X-Man again!" Kitty told Illyana. "Isn't it great?"
"Sure," Illyana said, not sharing Kitty's enthusiasm.
"I gotta go find your brother and the rest of the team. They'll be thrilled!"
As Kitty ran off, Illyana saw Roberto leading the New Mutants towards the front entrance.
"In honor of our new leader" he said, "we're going to the most expensive restaurant in town. It's all on me."
He phoned the restaurant to confirm there were available seats and then an Uber to take them. They talked excitedly amongst themselves, mostly congratulating Xuân and telling what a great leader she'd be. Xuân and Dani laughed together, their earlier feud forgiven and forgotten.
None of them noticed Illyana standing nearby or offered to take her with them. She watched silently as they exited the mansion at the Uber's arrival, moving one foot forward to follow before stopping herself.
When they were gone, Illyana turned around and went up the stairs to her room. After closing the door, she reached into her shirt and pulled out the necklace she always wore, but which no one ever saw.
Attached to the necklace was a palm-sized circular golden locket. She opened the locket and stared at the carving inside.
A blue pentagram was carved into the bottom part of the locket, surrounded by symbols in a pattern few on Earth could understand. At the five points of the star were small, circular grooves. In three of these grooves sat bright red stones, perfectly sized. The three stones glowed brightly like there was an electric light inside the locket.
Illyana's look turned into a glare as she stared at the inside of the locket. The room itself seemed to darken in response to her mood, until at last, she closed the locket, and the lights returned to normal.
I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don't know where it goes
But it's home to me, and I walk alone
I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Where the city sleeps
And I'm the only one, and I walk alone
I walk alone, I walk alone
I walk alone, I walk a-
My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes, I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then, I walk alone
Boulevard of Broken Dreams – Green Day
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Post by sunofdarkchild on Dec 31, 2023 9:48:30 GMT -5
It just goes to show how incredible Hayden and Ewan are at lightsaber fighting - outside of the Kenobi series - that even a well-done animation is slower than they were in real life.
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Post by sunofdarkchild on Dec 21, 2023 11:30:58 GMT -5
An analysis of why Theoden is such an amazing character. As a kid, I obviously preferred Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli. But as an adult, when I come back to the movies, it is Theoden's story that moves me the most, along with Sam.
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Post by sunofdarkchild on Dec 14, 2023 5:21:14 GMT -5
I'm putting Gotham Knights, The Spoiler Cut on indefinite hiatus.
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Post by sunofdarkchild on Dec 13, 2023 8:49:43 GMT -5
Are people here enjoying the 'Gotham Knights, Spoiler Cut' story I've been posting here? classiccomics.org/thread/8330/gotham-knights-spoiler-cutI'm not sure whether I should continue given how much work and how long it takes to write the equivalent of a 40-minute episode each time and how little engagement I've been getting. It doesn't surprise me that Gotham Knights has such a small fanbase that its fanfic readership is practically nonexistent, but there are other stories I could be working on instead that would garner more response for much less work.
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