Issue+66+-+'Unease'


 * Issue 66 - 'Unease' **




 * Plot**

In the aftermath of the battle in Death Valley the giants and demons are gone – but so is Billy. He sacrificed himself to prevent Dagan from being pulled through to Muspelheim, but he was pulled through instead. Amidst the smoking remnants of the portal, Dane asks Amanda if she can open a portal to Muspelheim so they can get Billy back. She says she doesn’t know how. Sinmara (or, as they know her, Meghan) “borrowed” Amanda’s powers and somehow learned how to open portals not just to other areas on Earth but also to other dimensions. As the eXalts discuss what to do next, Ethan and Mercy grapple with the memories they shared while borrowing each other’s powers during the battle. Ethan gains the memory or Mercy kissing Robin on the cheek at Academy X and Mercy gains Ethan’s memories of “visiting” their step-father John in Sacramento. Dane and Cameron look at the damaged Blackbird. Part of the flying apparatus was melted by the fire giants’ attack, but it should only take a few hours to fix. Mac creates a portal for the group to get back to Academy X while Dane and Cameron remain behind to finish fixing the jet. Back at Academy X, Mac and Amanda use Doctor’s Strange’s tomes to study portals. They can’t figure out a way to open a portal. Amanda tells Mac that she’s going to seek out Dr. Strange in hopes that he can teach her to utilize her powers to open dimensional gateways. Following the disappearance of Ask and Embla (or Líf and Lífþrasir) and the battle at the portal to Muspelheim, Lucius researches Ragnarök to see if the event is still approaching or if the eXalts averted it by closing the portal. He finds Ragnarök can be averted (and has been a few times recently), but he’s not sure if it’s been averted yet. David interrupts Lucius’ research to ask how he’s doing. He also asks if Lucius wants to go home – back to his dimension and time. Lucius says that going back would create a mess back in his dimension and he’s happy here. He’s enjoying the puzzles of researching portals, Ragnarök, and so on. Bastienne calls Emma to let her know about Billy’s disappearance. After a few snarky comments she expresses her condolences and says Billy was one of the few teachers there she liked. Mac then stops by to tell Bastienne that Amanda will be leaving to find Dr. Strange. He tells the rest of the staff later. Mac finds Ethan in his room, exhausted. Ethan and the other student staff volunteered their energy so Dagan could heal everyone after the battle. Ethan isn’t in the mood to talk, but Mac wants answers on how and why he went to Sacramento. Ethan says he had to visit someone. Mac says if he’s going to commit to being an eXalt and a prefect he can’t slip away without telling anyone. Ethan says he understands. Bastienne visits Ruth to tell her about Billy’s disappearance. She’s calmly working on paperwork for Utopia. As Bastienne guessed, Ruth already knew about Billy. She’s strangely calm as she tells the headmistress that he will be back. Bastienne asks her not to leave, but Ruth says she’ll be leaving soon – but not that soon. Samantha visits David with baby Jessica. David is amazed at how quickly Jessica is growing. Even though it’s only been two weeks since she was born, she’s the size of a two-month old. Samantha is glad to see that David seems to be under control despite his recent loss of control of his powers. As the week goes on, Dane and Lucius work on research related to the dimensional breaches. Dane continues work on a device that will detect not only dimensional openings but which dimension is on the other side. He’s opening a rift to Muspelheim will open and he’ll be able to find it. Lucius continues to try to find any kind of connections between the dimensional openings that will allow him to predict where future openings might be found, but his research doesn’t go anywhere. In addition, the ash cloud from the eruption of Mt. Aso in Japan weeks ago has reached the west coast of the United States. A persistent “dry fog” reddens and dims the sunlight to the point where sunspots are visible to the naked eye. Neither wind nor rainfall disperses the fog. Scientists claim it’s a stratospheric sulfate aerosol veil. Beyond not being able to see the moon or stars, temperatures plummet and it even snows at the top of nearby mountains. Throughout the week many eXalts or eXalts allies go through changes. Lucius becomes team advisor of the Ardents following Billy’s disappearance. Team leader Taz soon annoys him with her rapid-fire questions. Ethan and Mercy are still adjusting to their new roles as prefects. They choose to work security shifts together so Mercy won’t have to answer the phone. They also have new roommates: Ethan is now rooming with senior male prefect Julian and Mercy is rooming with senior female prefect Tierra. Ethan and Julian get along fine, though Ethan notices he sometimes disappears for hours at a time. Mercy gets along better with her new roommate than Wendy, her old one. Tierra is laid back and not as needy. Rafé calls Bastienne from the treatment center in southern California where Georgie is receiving counseling for her recent breakdown. He’s pleased to tell her that she’s made a sudden dramatic turn for the better. Treatment will continue, but he had to share the good news. Over the weekend, Samantha and Matt visit the Morlocks in San Francisco. They are warmly welcomed. Samantha participates in a christening ceremony and gives baby Jessica the Morlock name of “Sapphire.” Over the weekend there are additional reports of crimes committed by adult mutants in San Francisco. Once they arrive back at the school, Matt asks Sam if she’s ready to use Cerebra to find Alex. Samantha agrees. Sam and Matt notify the Academy X staff that she’ll be using the potentially dangerous psychic device. Lucius, Mac, and Cameron come downstairs to watch. Lucius fixes the problem with the missing code and powers up the machine. Samantha gets inside and puts on the helmet. She’s apprehensive, but Cerebra works. She begins by scanning the school. Her first surprise is finding Old Lucius nearby in the basement. Samantha also notices that Ethan and Mercy look the same when viewed through Cerebra, similar to how Leong and Nga (the psychic twins) appear. As she expands her scan to all of Utopia, she sees that the security forces at the New Genosha site are all mutants. Then she hears a voice whispering at the edge of her consciousness, pleading to her for its freedom. Samantha realizes it’s Michael – his consciousness is trapped in Cerebra! Samantha decides she has to try to use Cerebra to put Michael’s consciousness back in his body. Outside Cerebra, Matt, Lucius, Mac, and Cameron are surprised to see Samantha’s body go rigid, then begin shaking. Matt asks Lucius if he should pull of the helmet. Lucius has no idea how Cerebra works, but he says it’s better to never interrupt psychic connections. Her life signs are stable, though her heart rate is elevated. Inside Cerebra, Samantha has made contact with Michael’s comatose body at Xavier’s school. She’s able to reunite his mind and body. She then contacts Xavier and asks him to check on Michael. Xavier is concerned because Samantha never extensively used Cerebra in the past. After talking mentally for a time, Samantha returns to her original task: looking for Alex. A scan of Utopia and the San Francisco area turns up nothing: she can’t sense Alex on the island or even a shard of Alex’s consciousness in the Bay Area. Down the hall in the basement, the group hears the sound of a baby crying. Dane leaves the technology lab to go across to the medical lab. Dagan is inside holding baby Alex. Alex is no longer brain dead – she’s awake! Dagan has no idea how it happened. She was filling out paperwork when the baby just started crying out of nowhere. Dane carries the baby to the room with Cerebra. At the same time, Samantha takes off the Cerebra helmet. She is shocked to see Alex conscious. She realizes she must have somehow “jump-started” Alex’s consciousness. With Alex Nova no longer inside the baby, she was able to bring the original Alex’s consciousness back. The baby is now truly Alex Stone, not Alex Nova! The group celebrates Alex’s return. During the next week, news breaks that Wonder Man is responding to scenes where monsters have come through dimensional breaches. It seems he is no longer raiding Purifier safe houses. The seniors continue their Danger Room training. Dane and Lucius work together on a device to detect portal energies, but it’s slow going. On Friday, Evangeline contacts David to let him know she’s finished the exploratory part of his trial. She’s assemble all the evidence she needs. She asks him if he’d like to review the evidence before the trial, and David says yes. Evangeline forwards him videos taken from the island’s security cameras as well as transcripts of interviews. After David gets off the phone with Evangeline, he hears a rustling sound from the door. He gets up to find that senior Paragon Morgan has slipped her twenty page paper on the history of the Hellfire Club to today under his door. Dane checks the Academy X Board of Trustees online forum to find that the board has approved the hiring of a new teacher to replace Billy. They are now putting out a call for applications. Dane then stops by Julian’s room to find Ethan there alone. Ethan says that Julian is probably with Dagan. Dane knocks on the door of Dagan’s room to find that the two are in a compromising position. Julian leaves the room to talk to Dane in the hallway. Dane says S.H.I.E.L.D. is bugging him for an answer. They want S.H.I.E.L.D. telepaths to confirm that Julian was possessed by Danielle Robitaille when he killed twelve S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Dane says he wouldn’t make Julian go to the Triskelion and would instead have S.H.I.E.L.D. come to Academy X. While Julian is at first hesitant to undergo the telepaths’ screening, he agrees on the condition that Dagan is in the room. Dane then asks Cameron about turning himself into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody to face the charge of attempted murder. Cameron agrees to do so at the end of the school year. On Sunday Liam suddenly disappears. While some students had temporarily disappeared due to the dimensional breaches, Liam doesn’t return quickly – or at all… On Sunday night the seniors choose their code names. Amanda had already chosen the code name “Sorceress” before her departure due to being Head Girl. “Taz” chooses the code name “Pep” while Carlos picks “Brujo.” Gunther chose “Phantasma” long ago due to being Head Boy; likewise, Julian has been “Hellion” for some time now. Jordan and Reuben officially choose their Academy M code names: “Gloom” and “Tantra”, respectively. Kenji picks “Zero” while Laurie chooses “Transsonic.” Leong Coy Manh and Nga Coy Manh had already selected “Template” for both of them after proving themselves to be worthy. Morgan picks “Haunt” while Sofia chooses “Spawn.” As prefect, Tierra was already “Vibe” and Wicked decides her code name will also be “Wicked.” Over the next week, David continues training the student staff as their own super team. Ethan and Mercy attempt to combine their powers to make them more powerful. They find they can assist each other (and Mercy is better at it than Ethan), but they can’t truly combine their powers – or at least, not yet. Samantha calls the east coast school and speaks to Scott. She asks how Michael is doing after months in a coma-like state. Scott says he’s doing pretty well. He’s under quarantine like the rest of the school in case he’s a carrier for the power-dampening flu, but he isn’t showing any symptoms and he has his powers. He’s apparently eager to rejoin Governor Sangrey in Sacramento and he’s displeased with how his followers have been running the Peaceful Coexistence Party in his absence. Samantha also talks to David about becoming an eXalt again, and David enthusiastically agrees. The two begin working on tactics training so Samantha will be ready if she has to command the team in the field again. In the middle of the week, Agent Owen from S.H.I.E.L.D. arrives with three S.H.I.E.L.D. telepaths. Dane is surprised to find that Agent Owen has visited the school a couple of times over the past few weeks with Bastienne’s permission. Dane and Dagan supervise as Julian is scanned by the telepaths. Agent Owen is apparently satisfied that Julian is not responsible for the deaths of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. He reminds Dane that he’s expecting Cameron to turn himself in at the end of the school year. Dane also recalls that S.H.I.E.L.D. has one of Sinmara’s children in custody. At the next staff meeting Bastienne says she’s stepping down as a legislator of Utopia and Secretary of the Interior. Samantha has volunteered to take the positions. The staff members hold a vote, which includes students who are wards of the state that have turned 18. Reuben is tempted to run for the position as a joke, but in the end Sam is elected. The group then discusses some important issues related to the Secretary of the Interior: mutants seeking asylum and housing. The issue of mutant asylum is tabled until they have housing for any new residents and a plan for how to handle them (background checks, employment, etc.). Dane again pushes the idea of building a hotel-like complex to address their housing needs. The project will take all of Utopia’s money after providing for Academy X, however, and the group puts off the decision for now. On Saturday afternoon Mercy and Ethan are taking a shift in the security room when they receive a phone call from a man who identifies himself as simply “Eric.” He asks to speak to a headmaster. They forward the call to Bastienne but listen in on the line. Bastienne realizes the man is Erik Lehnsherr, or Magneto. Magneto says that he’ll be visiting the school later that day. The headmistress agrees. She then contacts David and lets him know that he’s coming. David is surprised as he thought Magneto was under quarantine at the east coast school. He worries that Magneto could be a carrier for the power-dampening flu. When Mercy and Ethan see a figure in white flying towards Utopia on the security cameras and alert the eXalts, David flies out to meet him. Cameron, who was spending time on the island off the northeast shore of Utopia, gets there first. Magneto greets Cameron cordially, then requests the chance to speak to David privately. David arrives and creates a floating room where they can talk. Magneto says he was following reports from Academy X and he’s concerned following the deaths of David’s lover, Cordelia, and best friend, Jessica. He also heard how David had lost control of his powers temporarily. He knows David was on a dangerous path previously and he wants to make sure David is okay. David reassures Magneto that he’s in control and he’s back on the right path. Magneto says he has a gift for his son – a mysterious package. David opens it and is surprised to find what is inside. He thanks his father. Magneto says David can contact him whenever he’s in need, then departs. That night Mercy and Robin have another date and watch Ghostbusters. Robin admits that he’s always admired Mercy – she doesn’t care what others think. She doesn’t speak unless she wants to, she colors her hair however she likes, and she doesn’t seem to mind what her peers think about her. On the other hand, he’s always worried about what others think of him and he was revealed when he learned how to shapeshift so he could hide his green skin. Meanwhile, Dane receives a phone call from an unlisted number. It’s his vampire contact, “Jane.” After some flirting, Jane says she’s ready to collect her favor and in return she’ll take care of the paperwork that tied up his bank accounts. She’s become aware that Hellfire Club: Tokyo is installing the servers that will be used by their new bank. She wants Dane to get to the servers and make a copy of the security protocols. Dane agrees. Jane says she’ll contact him in a week. Dane also works on other projects. He tests the ocean water around Utopia for selenium and finds the selenium levels are normal. Only the water in Asteroid M is tainted. The pumping equipment will be arriving next week, which will allow them to clear the tunnels. The next week brings Evangeline’s trial against David. Evangeline presents the evidence and shows the case both for and against David. To David’s credit, he was defending the unconscious student staff members and Blitz had threatened to kill them. Working against David is that he could have used nonlethal attacks to take out Blitz and he choose not to. She gives David a chance to defend himself. David doesn’t attempt to be persuasive – he simply lays out his case according to the evidence. Evangeline is concerned that he shows so little remorse for the loss of a human life. She says she understands that in some ways his actions were justifiable, but she must impose some penalty. In lieu of a multi-year prison sentence, she imposes probation. If David gets into any future legal problems, he would face the revocation of his probation and possible jail time. Also during the week Dane sneaks to the New Genosha construction site. He demonstrates the new ability to shift his features into a new form and soon appears to be a Japanese security officer. He’s able to enter the bank building unmolested and steals the security information Jane needs. On Saturday Sam and Matt go on a date in California. They take their motorcycles out for a ride while Bastienne watches all three Stone children (Jessica, Kurt, and Alex). Bastienne is amazed that Jessica seems nearly a half year old already. Dane watches Davan and realizes that he still seems to have Cordelia’s mutant powers. Whenever he’s upset, everyone around him is upset. When he’s happy, he’s relaxing to be around. Dane experiments with Davan taking another mutant’s powers, but it seems like Davan now has Cordelia’s powers permanently – or at least for now. That night, Mac visits Bastienne with a laptop full of pictures and videos of Jessica. He notices Bastienne’s sleeping pills and antidepressants. He finds Bastienne on the balcony smoking. He decides not to give her the laptop and instead gives her a bottle of wine he brought. Bastienne confides to Mac that Cassandra Nova gave her the chance to save Jessica in exchange for Nova’s freedom, but Bastienne declined and let Jessica die. Late that night Dane heads into San Francisco to meet Jane. At midnight they meet at a deserted pier near empty warehouses. Jane checks out the files on Dane’s flash drive, then promises to end the red tape preventing him from accessing his bank accounts. She offers to take him out for a bit of fun and he accepts. They go to a club in downtown San Francisco and end up in a back room where they fool around. When Jane tries to drink his blood she discovers that he’s made of metal now. Disappointed, she leaves to find someone else to feed upon before sunrise. Dane heads back to Academy X. As students prepare for finals, Dane finds time to work with students on farming. He hopes to provide as much food for the residents of Utopia as he can. The continuing reddish fog from the eruption of Mt. Aso has made it difficult, however. Temperatures are well below normal and his crops aren’t growing well. On Tuesday evening, Mercy and Ethan are in the security room when they notice that a man in a boat has ripped the steel netting around the island to make his way to Utopia. They are surprised to see he is wearing a horned helmet. When Matt is summoned, he says he knows the man. Matt notifies the eXalts that their old ally, Vidar, has returned. Vidar is the Norse god of vengeance and was temporarily bound to Academy X student and Head Boy Gunther. The eXalts meet Vidar on the shore. He says he is glad to see them and asks if there will be a feast in his honor. Lucius sends up fireworks to welcome him and Vidar is pleased. At dinner, he tells them some troubling news: Baldur is dead and Loki is to blame. The god of mischief has been imprisoned for his deed, but not before Gullinkambi, the golden cock, crowed. It announced to the gods that Ragnarök is approaching. Vidar says it could yet be forestalled, but if the time comes he hopes the eXalts will fight at his side. They agree. That night, after Vidar leaves, news breaks that Steve Rogers was injured trying to stop a riot in New York City. In addition, Tony Stark’s company Stark Resilient has pledged to rebuild Asgard above Broxton, Oklahoma, and will provide over 5,000 jobs to the area. In the staff meeting Wednesday night, Ruth has a vision of a red-skinned woman wielding a hammer with a serpent wrapped around her. The eXalts are unable to decipher the woman’s identity. There is also a lot of troubling news on the Nothing Can Stop the Blog! website: there were several mass suicides at the same time earlier in the day, the Asgardians left earth, and more. Then, later that night, NASA detects eight lights in the sky. Meteors crash onto Earth all over the world. One of them destroys a neighborhood in San Francisco. Several buildings have collapsed or are on fire. David calls S.H.I.E.L.D. to see if they need assistance and Agent Owens responds with a definitive yes. Dane says he can't go due to the fires in the neighborhood, as his new form doesn't tolerate heat well. Bastienne volunteers to go. It will also be Sam's first mission since she's returned to the eXalts. David tells her to "suit up!" The eXalts jump in the Blackbird and hurry to the scene...
 * Next:** Issue 67 - 'Worry'
 * Previous:** Issue 65 - 'Acceptance'