Issue+52+-+'Exiled'


 * Issue 52 - 'Exiled' **




 * Plot**

(Takes place at the same time as Age of X: Homefront, Part 1 of 4) What at first appears to be the day after the convention center attack is revealed to be ten years later. Bastienne wakes up next to her husband, Billy. Jess died at some point in the past and she’s re-married her co-worker and teammate. She also has her physical mutations, including cat ears and a tail! Billy appears to be in his mid-forties. Clearly sing his mutant ability of time control over the years has continued to age him. Mystique knocks on the door. She comes in to wake them up for breakfast. She’s lived at the school for a number of years; first to help raise her grandkids after Matt divorced Sam, but later due to being close to her daughter and as an ally of the eXalts.

Clearly much has changed in ten years. It is revealed that the group is living in the “Age of X.” Back in 2010, the rate that mutants were appearing began speeding up quickly. Instead of 1 in 10,000, the mutant population increased tenfold: 1 in 1,000 teenagers entering puberty began exhibiting mutant powers that summer. And the rate of mutant population growth only increased. By the Age of X in 2020, fully 1 out of 10 teenagers are mutants. This rapid population increase has created many problems. After one mutant’s power manifested and resulted in the destruction of Albany, NY and the deaths of 600,000, the United States government decided that the mutant problem had to be dealt with. Exonims, or Sentinel-like robots, were built to round up and quarantine mutants. Mutants saw that this would eventually lead to concentration camps and genocide. They began fighting back. With their increased numbers, Magneto was able to lead a coup and take over the United States in 2012. A few months afterward, the western part of the country (the states west of the Mississippi) seceded and became the Mutant Republic. After some initial conflict, the two new countries declared peace.

By 2020, mutants were firmly in control. Now mutants hold most positions of power. The eXalts have split into two teams: David’s Gold Team (Mustang, Bast, Blur, Medic, Mystique, Nightwind, Panzer, and Phantasma) is the premiere team that hunts down human terrorists. Dane’s Red Team (Panzer, Chi, Icegirl, Pixie, Prism, Survivor, and Swipe) is a reserve team that specializes in infiltration. Dagan is Exarch, or ruler, of the Mutant Republic. Mutants are no longer outcasts or marginalized. But the Age of X has downsides, as well. Several mutants have died, such as Jessica, Ginny, Gunther, and others. Ruth had a mental breakdown. The sudden rise in the mutant population has caused a lot of mutant on mutant violence. Every city has entire neighborhoods that have been destroyed. Many humans are homeless. Humans are now second-class citizens, and while Mac’s Unity Campaign attempts to unite mutants and humans, it is clear that many humans are struggling. On top of that, due to a recent radioactive explosion caused by a mutant’s death in the mid-west, the Mutant Republic’s food supply has dwindled and is at critical levels.

Beyond Bastienne and Billy marrying, other eXalts have seen changes. Mac was able to develop his magical talents to the point that he cured Jubilee of vampirism. They are now married. While Billy still has limited control of his time powers, he was able to rescue Meghan from her hell dimension. She and Dane are married. David also married. He and Cordelia have been together a number of years and have two small children. They do not live together, however – Cordelia is Headmistress of a new Academy M (a mutant school) in San Francisco. They split weekends with each other and share custody of the kids. It seems to work for them. Agape is a psychologist. A seemingly insane Ruth is one of her patients. Sadly, Cameron never returned, but Agape has had other relationships. Honoka’s family has moved to Half Moon Bay. Honoka has been a valued member of the eXalts for many years (especially after Hellfire Club: Tokyo was driven out of California and the group could fully trust her). Sadly, after the rise of mutants Matt and Sam separated and divorced. It’s believed he lives with the Morlocks, who have remained in hiding. Sam has grown closer with “Raven” (Mystique) as a result.

Several eXalt allies remain close. While Lucius is no longer a teacher at the school, he has joined Dane’s Red Team. He has learned to better cope with his autism. Daniel (“Survivor”) Robitaille is the history teacher at Cordelia’s school. At some point Joni was brought back to life. She is a mutant rights lawyer. Melissa has joined Mutantes Sans Fronteries, an outreach group to troubled countries around the world. She’s able to teleport back and forth as necessary. Thornn is also once again alive. She works for X-Corporation Los Angeles. The mutant group seeks to solve many pressing problems in the Age of X, such as mutant violence and rebuilding food levels.

The passage of ten years has changed all of the eXalts. For example, as Sam helps make breakfast for the school, it is revealed she is an excellent cook. Raven reveals that she called her grandkids before breakfast. Alex and Kurt are adjusting to their second year at Xavier’s school on the east coast school and are looking forward to sixth grade. They’ve been assigned to teams for the first time: they’re both Hellions and will study under Emma Frost (their grandmother)! It’s part of a mutant exchange between the two schools. Davan, Kurt, and Alex are at the east coast school, and a few children of the X-Men are at Academy X. The children of the X-Men include Peter Rasputin (Piotr’s son), James Hudson (Wolverine’s son), and Ruby Summers (Scott and Emma’s daughter). Mac and Jubilee come into the kitchen to see how breakfast is coming. Jubilee snacks on the chocolate chips for the pancakes. They help bring out the meal. In the dining room, David and Cordelia have just entered with their two small kids. Samantha uses her telekinesis to play with them. Others then enter. Dane and Meghan come downstairs. Honoka arrives from visiting her family overnight. Bastienne and Billy finally arrive, but Bastienne goes for a run instead of having breakfast.

The staff mingles with the kids a bit before eating. Mac checks on his son (a sophomore named Aiden). Aiden is eating with his boyfriend, Lex (Cameron’s son, a freshman). They are illegitimate children from their pasts. During breakfast, Dane and David’s smart phones go off simultaneously: as eXalts team leaders, they have an urgent private message from Havok. Havok (Alex Summers – Cyclops’ younger brother) is Dagan’s husband and defense minister. The two men, now clearly good friends, call Havok from the headmasters’ office. Havok tells them some grim news: the Mutant Republic’s food stockpile was attacked by the human resistance and was destroyed. Now not only do they not have enough food to export to the east coast (which is already rationing) – they don’t have enough to feed their own citizens. Rationing will soon begin. Havok tells the eXalts team leaders to have their team on high alert. Tensions were already running high between the two mutant countries, but now Havok is worried about open conflict when Dagan breaks the news to Magneto that food exports must stop. Havok asks the two men to keep the information limited to their teammates, and they agree.

David uses his comm to send a quick notice to the eXalts on both the Gold and Red teams: be alert. Daniel, who is nearby in San Jose, is concerned. He asks if he can come to Academy X to hear the full story. He soon arrives. Daniel is conversing with David and Dane when Agape arrives. She says she has some disturbing information and asks if Dane can call a full staff meeting. Dane agrees. Those attending the staff meeting are Academy X staff Bastienne, Billy, Dane, David, Honoka, Jubilee, Mac, Raven, and Samantha as well as guests Agape, Cordelia, Daniel, and Meghan. In the meeting Agape reveals that she had a psychiatric session with Ruth that morning. She feels she has to break patient confidentiality because Ruth was especially lucid and related a disturbing vision. She saw a clock tick down to three minutes until midnight. Then a king and a queen went to war and everyone died. The group guesses that the king and queen are Magneto and Dagan, and the vision involves war between the New United States and the Mutant Republic. In such a war between extremely powerful mutants, it is indeed likely that the war could kill everyone in the two countries – if not the world.

In the middle of the meeting David calls Magneto, but he receives a notice that the President of the New United States is in a meeting. He leaves an urgent message asking for a call back as soon as possible. The group then decides to check with other precognitive mutants. Of the three they reach, two have sensed general death and destruction (not rare in a world full of mutants), but the third has seen more specific doom. He foresaw a white explosion causing the ground to crack and split. Everyone is now quite alarmed. There is little they can do at the moment, however. At midnight David receives a phone call from Magneto. He is quite terse. He listens to David’s concerns about Ruth’s vision, but dismisses her as mentally ill. He also theorizes that the destruction could be somewhere other than North America – many countries have seen such destruction since the increase in the mutant population. Regardless, he says he will think it over. David ends the call by saying, “Thank you, father.”

Two weeks pass at Academy X. Tensions remain high between the two mutant countries. On the Saturday after Havok’s emergency call, the Academy X staff plus a visiting Daniel are at lunch when one of their students appears out of nowhere. It’s Shura, a young freshman who has no control over her ghostly form. She often disappears for long stretches. This time, when she appears, she has an urgent message for the group: “Wake up!” Before the staff can figure out what she means, she fades again. Immediately afterward, Dane and David receive another phone call from Havok. They can hear explosions and gunfire on his end of the line: the capital is under attack! Havok’s line goes dead! Mac quickly creates a portal and the eXalts rush to help.

The eXalts Gold Team (Mustang, Bast, Blur, Medic, Mystique, Nightwind, Panzer, Phantasma) plus Survivor arrive to find X-Force, Magneto’s secret police, attempting to assassinate Dagan! X-Force includes Archangel, Deadpool, Domino, Fantomex, Psylocke, Wolverine, and X-23. Havok is already down. Blur speeds in and pulls him to safety. Bast shadow steps behind Psylocke and stuns her with a nasty claw attack. With her probability control, Domino fires a well-aimed shot that immediately drops Bast. Mustang bypasses the rest of the battle to interpose himself between Archangel and Glimmer. One powerful light blast stuns the winged mutant. Survivor’s thrown soul dagger finishes him off. Wolverine charges Mustang and badly injures the eXalts team leader. Phantasma stuns Psylocke before the telepath can recover. Panzer bursts through a wall, surprising Domino. He grapples her and nearly knocks her out. Medic teleports next to Dagan in order to bring her to safety, but she refuses. Deadpool then shoots Dagan, knocking her out.

The battle turns against X-Force. Nightwind grabs Wolverine and teleports away. When she returns she’s badly hurt, but Wolverine is stranded in Japan! Now that Dagan is unconscious, Medic teleports her to safety nearby and heals her. Fantomex follows, however, and shoots Medic. The healer is stunned. But Fantomex is soon the only foe left conscious. While X-23’s attack nearly drops Phantasma, Blur and Survivor team up to knock out Wolverine’s clone. Mystique’s well-aimed shots finish off Psylocke. Medic is able to convince Glimmer to flee. At that point, Fantomex realizes the battle is lost. He uses a teleportation device on his wrist to teleport the entire X-Force team away.

Following the battle Dagan swears that the assassination attempt was an act of war by the New United States. Thinking of Ruth’s prophecy, Dane and David attempt to calm the Exarch down. They can’t afford to provoke a war that could lead to everyone’s deaths. Dagan slowly calms and listens to her fathers. She said she can’t ignore the attack, however – it would make her look weak. Havok, who has been revived, suggests another tactic: he has recently been able to track trace gamma radiation to a secret lair in the southwest. It has to be the Hulk – he’s found the Avengers! The eXalts believe they might make good allies against Magneto, or at the very least they need to be stopped, since they were the ones who destroyed the food stockpile. Defeating the Avengers would also be a good way to show strength to Magneto. Everyone agrees on this course of action. The eXalts return to Academy X in order to plan the mission. When they reach the War Room, however, there is a blinding flash of light – suddenly each of the eXalts has the memories of their former selves from 2010. They’ve forgotten everything else. What caused the flash of light? And how will the eXalts adjust to the Age of X?

**Next (Issue):** Age of X: Homefront, Part 1 of 4 **Next (Storyline):** __Issue 53 - 'Six'__ **Previous (Issue/Storyline):** Issue 51 - 'Remix'