MV1 #73 OCTOBER Year 3

"Sinister Developments Part One: Shattered Lives!"

What Has Gone Before: The Phalanx had fallen, but not before erasing temporal anomalies from the timeline and costing the X-Men some casualties, most seriously Jean Grey, whom Wolverine had been forced to nearly kill to free her from the Phalanx influence. The X-Men had realigned as three groups: X-Men Gold, based in Westchester, X-Men Blue, based on Muir Island, and X-Men Red, based in Australia. They maintained near-instantaneous communication and transportation through the help of the mysterious Australian mutant Gateway. For close to a month, the three teams have worked in concert very effectively. All good things must come to an end...

Fusion, the leader of the fledgling mutant group known as X-Treme, generated an energy field around the beer can he was holding, popping it open with a satisfying hiss. He raised it in mock toast to his comrades, sitting around the table with him. The other five members of the team grinned and raised their drinks as well.

"Our first mission was a huge success," he said. "I talked to Sinister a few minutes ago and he was very pleased. The X-Men will treat us as allies now."

This elicited a great laughter from the others. "And when they've taken us in, when they're counting on us to bail them out...we'll finish them off."

"Not a bad plan," came the throaty voice from the doorway. The X-Treme turned, powering up weapons and mutant abilities, but relaxed slightly when they saw Scalphunter, a member of Sinister's Marauders walking casually into their meeting room.

"Scalp! Thought you were in jail, man!" Archer said.

"Sort of," Scalphunter said. In the blink of an eye, weapons components flew from his bodysuit and assembled themselves into an automatic weapon. He opened fire on the X-Treme, armor-piercing bullets tearing through the ones who were susceptible to gunfire. Marine ducked down behind his chair, the first few rounds bouncing off his hard-armored shell. Fusion had transformed instinctively into his energy form, and the bullets burned through him with no tangible effect. The others didn't fare anywhere near as well, dying in the first barrage.

Marine produced two automatic pistols and opened fire on Scalphunter, going for head shots to avoid the man's armored costume. Scalphunter dropped, blood pouring from the many wounds in his head.

Fusion stood there, looking around in horror. He could only imagine that Mr. Sinister had found out that he had been working on the side for the Hellfire Club and the White Queen. If that was the case...

"Fusion! What happened? Why did he...?"

"I don't know, Marine. Grab your gear and let's go. I don't know why Sinister turned on us, but let's go before he sends the reinforcements."

Archer coughed on the floor. "Guys? Don't...leave me...I'm still alive."

Fusion cursed. Archer was the most loyal to Sinister of the bunch, and the least likely to appreciate their change of allegiance when Fusion revealed it. But Marine wouldn't leave him behind. In fact, he was already moving to pick him up.

"Let's go, let's go!" Fusion yelled. "Sinister set up this whole base, remember? I just wish I knew what happened..."

In the midst of the abandoned fairgrounds, Mystique glared at the assembled X-Men. Behind her stood the Toad, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Blob, Avalanche, and Pyro. Two generations of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

"Brotherhood...take them."

Cyclops didn't wait for the order. He fired an optic blast directly at Scarlet Witch, knocking her down and out before her hex powers could enter the fight. The rest of the team followed his lead. Gambit charged and threw a set of cards at the Brotherhood, only to watch Quicksilver interrupt them and redirect them into the rundown ferris wheel behind them. He heard the creaking and turned to see the massive wood and metal structure tumbling down toward the X-Men.

Peter Rasputin crackled with energy as his body transformed into organic steel. Flexing his enormous muscles, he caught the wheel and threw it into the air, sending it careening into the rollercoaster and causing that structure to collapse as well.

"Nice catch, Peter!" Shadowcat yelled as she phased through Pyro's burst of flame.

The Toad hopped over to Rogue, leering at her. "Come to me, my lovely," he said. She recoiled, wanting to hit him, but with her Ms. Marvel powers gone*, there wasn't much she could do. (*See upcoming issues of the Avengers!)

Fortunately for her, there was something Gambit could do. He fired a charged playing card off at Toad, striking the mutant directly in the rear and sending him skyward with yelp.

"Chere, how could you not be attracted to such a clearly sensitive soul?" Gambit joked.

"He's sensitive in that part of his body at least," Rogue answered, chuckling. "Thanks for the save, though."

"Don't get cocky!" Cyclops yelled as Avalanche unleashed a wave of earth-shattering energy at the two X-Men. Gambit jumped out of the way, but Rogue wasn't quick enough, and she was carried up and over, crashing into one of the midway booths and landing in a pile of stuffed animals.

Cyclops fired at Avalanche, but the Greek mutant hit the deck and Cyclops' blast impacted harmlessly on a pile of rubble.

Blob, meanwhile, had reached his target, Colossus. He took a swing at the metal mutant, and Colossus put up his hand to catch the blubbery mutant's fist.

"You caught me off-guard once, Blob. You will not do so again."

Still holding one of Blob's fists, Colossus smacked him in the face with his free hand. The Blob flinched as the impact hit him, but then grinned back at Colossus.

"Sorry, Russkie. You ain't got nothing I can't handle! Haw!"

Quicksilver rushed up to Cyclops and grabbed his head, too fast for Cyclops to react. His optic blast, aimed at taking out Mystique before she could shapeshift and lose herself in the combat, instead hit solidly on Colossus, making him lose his grip. Blob reacted by running away from Colossus, toward the still-stunned Rogue.

"Dogpile!"

While Gambit closed with Mystique and knocked her out with his bo staff, Shadowcat was running desperately toward the Blob, who was advancing on Rogue. She had gone from looking stunned to staring in terror as she saw the massive mutant bearing down on her.

C'mon Kitty, move it or lose it, Pryde thought to herself. She leaped into the air just as Blob did and phased through him. Sparks flew from his mouth, arms and eyes, and he crashed harmlessly into the booth next to Rogue. Blob sat in a heap, electricity arcing across his limp body.

"Foul, Kitty," came a male voice from the air. "You're out."

"What do yah expect?" Rogue shouted into the air. "This isn't a fair exercise for me, I 've got nobody to use mah powers on!"

"Untrue, Rogue," the voice answered. "Kitty, you're out, Rogue, there's at least one opponent your powers will work on."

Rogue looked around at the battlefield, as Quicksilver, Toad, Avalanche and Pyro fought with Cyclops, Gambit and Colossus.

She grinned as she realized which opponent she could handle, then charged bravely into the midst of it. Pyro aimed a burst of flame at her, but Colossus stepped into the line of fire and absorbed the flame against his silver steel body.

Rogue rushed straight toward the Toad, and at the last second saw the smirk cross Quicksilver's face. He wasn't prepared when she grabbed him and planted a kiss full on the lips.

"Nice of yah to stop by, Pietro! Hope yah don't mind if I borrow these powers!"

Using Quicksilver's speed, Rogue made quick work of the Toad, while Colossus and Cyclops combined to knock down Avalanche. Gambit dodged gouts of flame to get in close and charge Pyro's flame tanks with kinetic energy, causing them to go up in a spectacular explosion.

Cyclops fired an optic blast that bounced off two arcade booths and hit a hidden spot on an unseen wall. The carnival and their adversaries, save the unconscious Quicksilver, dissipated, leaving only the silver walls of the Danger Room.

In the observation booth, Alex Summers clapped, smiling at his brother through the glass.

"Bozhe Moi! I swear these machines are getting stronger!" Colossus griped.

"Maybe you haven't been eating your Wheaties, Pete," Kitty joked, punching him lightly in the shoulder.

Gambit sidled his way over to Rogue. Quietly, he murmured to her, "You alright, chere? You lookin' a bit nervous with all dis weaponry flying around and you so unprotected."

"Ah'm all right, Remy," she said. "Ah'm just still not used to it. Ah wish Scott would let me outta these sessions. Lord knows ah'm gettin' plenty of other trainin' with controllin' what powers ah got left."

With that, she reached out and touched his cheek. Only for a moment, before flinching away. He looked surprised when the contact of bare skin didn't transfer his psyche and powers.

"Ah can only manage a second or two, but Kitty's been helpin' me," she said, smiling. "Ah think...ah think I might finally be gettin' some control."

"Well when you do, chere, we gon celebrate," Gambit said, winking at her.

The others had slowly filtered out of the room to hit the showers, leaving only Rogue and Gambit standing alone. She leaned over and whispered in his ear, grinning.

"Why do yah think ah'm so excited about gettin' control, Remy?"

Cyclops and Havok walked along the grass in front of Xavier Mansion.

"So how do we stack up with the Blue Team, Alex?"

"Not bad, Scott, not bad. Of course, my team is better trained."

The two of them laughed. They had in the past had a less-than-friendly sibling rivalry at times, but since both of them had been leading teams of their own for a month, and working together frequently, they had developed a very close relationship, and a friendly rivalry rather than a sometimes bitter one.

"How did you get Pietro here to help out?"

"Crystal talked him into it," Alex answered. "When I designed this scenario for your team, I realized I had to have something for Rogue, and it was him or Wanda. And Wanda's pretty hard to get a hold of, these days."

"So I know that's not what you stopped in for," Scott said. "What can I do for you?"

"Nothing like that, Scott. I'm not here on X-Men business."

"Do you and Lorna have an announcement?" Scott asked hopefully.

Alex cast his eyes downward. "No...nothing like that either. We're getting along okay, but we're still not quite comfortable with each other...and we're definitely not ready for that kind of step yet. But I am here on something related. I came to ask how Jean was doing?"

Scott grimaced. "Better. You know we found her in the ruins of the Phalanx core, nearly gutted from what Wolverine did to her..."

"He did what he had to, Scott..."

"I know. I try not to blame him, but Alex, that's one of the reasons I wanted him with your team. Whatever his reasons, he stabbed the woman I loved...almost mortally wounded her.* Anyway...physically, she's in pretty good shape, but she can't use her powers at all. Even using our mindlink gives her a headache, and when she tried using her telekinesis for a light workout, she caused internal bleeding. It's going to take time." (*See X-Men #72 – Randy)

"So, still on injured reserve," Alex said.

"Afraid so. But she's feeling okay with it. Tell you the truth, I think she's kind of enjoying the time off. She keeps talking about extracurricular activities, and trying to get me to take a vacation."

Alex grinned. "You'd think after this much time, she'd know you better."

They both laughed, and then Alex said, "Although...my team is pretty self-sufficient. I could maybe get Ororo or Logan to fill in as leader, take over Gold for a while..."

"Now you're trying to take my team, huh?" Scott grinned at his brother. "It's okay, Alex. Maybe I'll take you up on it in a little while, but for now, I'm fine and so's Jean."

"Okay," Alex said, shaking his brother's hand. "Then I guess I'll be heading back."

They stared at the ground in front of them. Alex asked, "Does it ever freak you out how Gateway just knows when we want a portal?"

Scott chuckled, but then a worried expression crossed his face, as the portal still didn't appear. He relaxed when, a few moments later, a point of light appeared and started to open into a circle of light. "Ah, there it is. For a second I thought something was wrong."

Inside the circle, the two men could see flashes of light, and they heard the distinctive sound of gunfire, smelled smoke and burnt ozone. They heard someone yell, "Nightcrawler, go! We're right behind you!"

The blue-furred mutant known alternately as Kurt Wagner or Nightcrawler dove out of the portal and landed on the grass. His fur was scorched in places, and a number of tiny bleeding wounds covered his arms and chest.

The portal closed, leaving the Summers brothers staring down as the wounded and barely breathing Nightcrawler. Alex picked him up and started rushing toward the infirmary in the mansion. Cyclops chased after him, yelling into his communicator. "X-Men, this is Cyclops! Assemble in the foyer, we may be under attack!"

Senator John Ervin stepped down off the podium and into his private office. He smiled and hugged his campaign manager, a man in his forties with dark black hair and a trimmed beard.

"I've got to hand it to you, Mr. Essex. Every move we made was the right one. I didn't think I had a shot in hell of getting re-elected. But we're up in the polls, and my opponent looked like he was ready to cry in frustration during that debate. You're a miracle worker."

Essex smiled, in that distant way he had. "There's one more thing, John. One more thing that will really push you over the edge."

"Yeah, what's that? You're going to have me rescue a bus full of nuns from a near-accident?"

"Nothing quite so dramatic...but we are going to reveal your extracurricular activities," Essex said.

"...what?" Ervin was quiet; he couldn't believe what he had just heard.

"I know, you're worried about the anti-mutant sentiment. But you're already popular, and it's going to come out sooner or later. Better to bring it out when we can control it, make it a positive and not a negative. You've been acting as a hero in your spare time, Senator. Regardless of where your powers come from, that's still a good thing, as long as we can spin it that way."

Half an hour later, the assembled X-Men stood around Nightcrawler's bed, listening to the wounded leader of X-Men Red Team telling them about the attack.

"The Professor had brought Generation X to the Muir Island facility to test their powers...a sort of field trip. Just after they arrived, our proximity sensors were tripped. The team went out to investigate, and suddenly we were under attack."

"Who was it, Nightcrawler?" Scott asked.

"The Marauders. We tried to fight them off, and when it seemed clear that we couldn't win, we tried to get Gateway to open a portal. He opened it and I dove through, but something hit me. That's the last thing I remember. Did everyone else get off the island?"

Havok put his hand on Nightcrawler's shoulder. "The portal closed right after you came through, and we haven't been able to get any more open. We think something might have happened to Gateway. We haven't been able to get through to the Australian base."

The room grew silent. Everyone knew that Havok's team was stationed with Gateway in Australia, and if something had happened to him...

"This doesn't make any sense," Kitty said. "Most of the Marauders are dead, and the ones who aren't are in the Vault."

"I know, Kazchen," Nightcrawler answered. "But these were the Marauders. Of that you can be sure."

There were a few moments of silence, as the assembled mutants reflected on their past conflicts with the Marauders. The deaths, the battles...the Marauders had been some of their most dangerous foes, and the X-Men had thought they were gone for good.

"So," Gambit said, "What do we do now?"

LETTERS

Welcome to the first installment of Reese & Lander's X-Men. We hope, of course, that this phrase will soon be mentioned in the same breath with "Byrne & Claremont's X-Men." OK, maybe not. But since the X-Men were the first superhero comic I collected (I started with the Secret Wars II tie-in), I have a special place in my heart for the team. I also am thrilled to be working with Barry Reese, who has written some of my favorite fanfiction for MV1. This is the guy who made Force Works a great title...Force Works. Just imagine what he can do with Marvel's mutants.

So let us know what you think, we'd love to be just flooded with mail! You can e-mail me at rwlander@snapjudgments.com or Barry at c_r6196@hotmail.com. Or, ideally, you can mail one of us and cc: the other, since this is a team effort all the way. Oh, and if you like this, you might check out our other titles – The Vault, New Warriors, Web of Spider-Man for me and Seekers, Moon Knight, and Fist of Khonshu for Barry.

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