Issue+62+-+'Anger'


 * Issue 62 - 'Anger' **




 * Plot**

On Sunday afternoon at Academy X news beaks that there’s been explosion at the Los Angeles branch of X-Corporation. Young Lucius (or Prism) is the first to know due to the Google alert he set up on his phone. He activates his comm and lets the other staff know about the attack. Dane is interrupted while playing with Davan outside. The former headmaster contacts the security room to get more information. Gunther says he’s watching the news. There’s an explosion near the top of the building and there’s a lot of smoke – but it looks like there are flashes inside the building. Is an attack ongoing?  The eXalts gather in the hangar. David (Mustang), Dane (Panzer), Mac (Mystic), and Billy (Blur) arrive quickly. Lucius (Prism), Cameron (Vortex), and Quentin (Kid Omega) ask if they can go along, as well. As team leader, Mustang allows Prism, Glimmer, and Vortex to accompany them, but not Kid Omega – he isn’t trusted yet. Dagan (Glimmer) was at the school visiting her boyfriend, Julian, and she goes along. Samanatha (Phantasma) can’t go due to her delicate pregnancy. Bastienne (Bast), a former eXalts member, has quit the team and does not rejoin. She tells Mustang that he should grab Rafé in San Francisco. He decides there isn’t time. Mystic tells the group he can teleport them to the scene of the attack – he’s been practicing his abilities over break and he’s increased the range of his teleportation. The group agrees. Mystic opens a portal to the lobby of X-Corporation: Los Angeles. The team can immediately hear screams from people on the other side – and then a confused office worker comes through! Bastienne calms the man while Samantha contacts the student staff mentally to bring the students inside just in case. Ethan and Mercy are relaxing near a pick-up baseball game when junior prefect Ginny tells everyone to head inside for a drill. Meanwhile, the eXalts go through Mystic’s portal.  On the other side of the portal, X-Corporation employees are running through the lobby to escape the building. First responders have just arrived and are trying to enter the building. Mustang asks a police officer for a situation report. Apparently the attack was on the forty-third or forty-fourth floor. Mustang orders the flyers (he, Glimmer, and Vortex) to approach from outside while Mystic opens a portal on the 43rd floor for the non-flyers (Mystic, Panzer, Blur, and Prism). Mystic surprises the others by saying he can fly as well. Panzer, Blur, and Prism step through the portal while the others fly off.  Smoke and flames greet those that go through the portal. Blur and Prism start coughing uncontrollably, though Panzer doesn’t need to breathe in his armored form. Panzer slaps his hands together, creating a blast of air that temporarily clears the smoke from the area. It appears that there was an explosion in a conference room at one end of the floor. There are many people down – either unconscious, dead, or dying. Many injured have burn marks from energy weapons, but the fighting seems to be over. Panzer tells Blur to grab a fire extinguisher to put out the flames. Prism checks out the injured. He leaves illusory flags over those that need the most immediate attention. One of the downed people looks familiar to him – it’s a classmate of his from Xavier’s! Panzer hurries to the conference room where he finds Heather “Lifeguard” Cameron, head of X-Corporation: Los Angeles. She’s alive, but barely. Without immediate aid she’ll die soon. Panzer tells Mystic to teleport in immediately as his healing is needed.  Outside, the flyers are approaching the hole in the building created by the explosion. The billowing wall of smoke is making it difficult to get inside. Mystic can teleport, but he can’t create a portal while flying. Mustang creates a light platform so Mystic can land to create a portal. The flyers then teleport inside. Mystic kneels at Heather’s side and uses his own energy to heal her. She’s barely conscious, but she manages a smile and says, “My hero…” before passing out. The other eXalts begin assisting the injured. Mystic opens a portal to the lobby so the team can help those to the first responders below. Panzer personally helps the former Xavier’s student Prism noticed earlier. It’s Thomas “Duplicate” Booth, former prefect of Xavier’s and Academy X. He says his other half is “gone” (he has the mutant ability to create a replica of himself). While he’s in shock, he manages to tell Panzer that “they” changed from human to robot during the attack and then back to human afterward.  Mustang tells Glimmer to scan everyone in the building to see if she can find any of the attackers (as Glimmer is “borrowing” Samantha’s telepathic abilities). Glimmer locates one in the western stairwell. He’s difficult to read, but she can tell he was one of the attackers. He’s a member of the anti-mutant faith called the Church of Humanity that has been injected with nanites that allow his leader to turn him into a biosentinel Purifier, or a machine designed for hunting mutants. She can tell that he’s headed towards a rendezvous point along with other members of his team. Prism creates an illusion of a police S.W.A.T. team outside the western exit to the building to stall the enemy long enough for the other eXalts to get there. Vortex flies down and gets a visual on the enemy as he escapes the building. Prism has the S.W.A.T. leader order the man to stop – at which point he shifts back into his biosentinel form and attacks the illusion! Vortex opens fire and is soon joined by Mustang and Glimmer. The three soon take out the Purifier.  Glimmer scans the area but can’t find any more enemies. She confesses that they’re difficult to read mentally, however, and since they’re in human form they’re impossible to visually identify. Hundreds of X-Corporation employees are escaping the building and blending into crowds that have gathered around the scene. The eXalts aren’t sure what to do. Meanwhile, Bastienne gets a phone call at Academy X. It’s George Hinton, a contact her clone made at the Unity of the Holy Cross. The faith was once part of the now-defunct Humanity Now! coalition (an organization of anti-mutant faiths and organizations) and George is a bishop of the church. Bastienne takes the call. George says he received a strange call “for his pet kitty” and he thinks the information must be for her. The text lists a series of numbers he doesn’t understand, however. Bastienne thanks him, then calls Mustang. As Mustang reads the numbers aloud, Prism realizes they must be coordinates. He pulls out his tablet and enters the numbers. They give the location of a park only blocks away. Mustang orders Blur to run Mystic to the site. The two speed past the crowds and reach the site of the coordinates. It’s a skate park. It’s full of people fleeing the scene of the attack and young people with skateboards watching the burning building with interest. Mystic opens a portal back to the rest of the group and they come through. Glimmer once again tries to scan the area, but she can’t find any enemies. Prism creates illusory barriers to block off the area and rampaging rhinos to scare people away. Suddenly, seemingly random members of the crowd turn into biosentinels and attack!  Blur charges the nearest Purifier – but then he’s startled by a burst of black smoke. Ethan and Mercy have appeared! The two Academy X students are in shock. They had just been herded into the school cafeteria when they were surrounded by a black cloud, only to find themselves transported into the middle of a battle! Blur tells them to get down while he attacks the biosentinel. Mystic surprises the team when he chants in a language no one understands and unleashes a fiery purple breath that damages another biosentinel. He then chants again and splits into five separate forms! Prism generates an illusory wall between the eXalts and a group of Purifiers. Vortex creates an obscuring cloud of debris around himself. He then flies around the wall and engages two Purifiers on top of a skateboard ramp. Glimmer misses one foe. Panzer and Mustang attack two biosentinels, injuring them. A Purifier attempts to blast Mercy, but Ethan knocks her out of the way and takes the hit. His mutant power absorbs most of the attack, but he’s injured. Meanwhile, a biosentinel appears behind Prism that looks different from the others. He seems to be the leader. He unleashes a powerful blast at Prism and nearly drops him. Mystic tries to drain the leader, but in his biosentinel form he is immune to the attack. The leader then grabs Ethan. His fingertips seem to be exuding liquid metal. When his fingertips piece Ethan’s skin, he injects the metal into Ethan. Ethan feels like there are insects moving under his skin. He doubles over, but nothing else happens. Mercy flies into a rage upon seeing her brother hurt. She grabs the Purifier leader. His metallic armor begins to melt away. Even his skin underneath is flayed! He pulls away from the girl’s disintegrating touch, but he’s badly hurt. Glimmer senses that the leader has the mind of Jacob Robitaille, the group’s former foe! Blur speeds in and lands a solid attack, knocking Jacob unconscious.  As soon as Jacob collapses, the other biosentinels revert to their human forms. They are disoriented. Panzer stamps in Jacob’s head, killing him. There could be more mental clones of him out there, however. Mustang begins questioning the Purifiers. They give their names, but they seem to have no memory of their time as biosentinels. Mystic drains several of them to get enough energy to heal his teammates. As a S.H.I.E.L.D. team arrives, Vortex turns into his air form to avoid the authorities (as he’s still wanted for attempted murder). Agent Brown thanks Mustang for the eXalts’ help, then asks if they are registered mutants. When Mustang says no, Agent Brown says they’d better leave before there’s trouble. Mystic opens a portal back to Academy X and the team leaves. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Back at the school, Mercy speaks for the first time when she stammers, “What happened?!” David wants to know the same thing. Quentin walks in and says they have no idea. David asks Jess to check out Ethan to make sure he’s okay after he was seemingly injected with nanites. Jessica runs tests in the medical lab. She believes he was injected with nanites, but Old Lucius was the one who knew how to remove them. Young Lucius says he’ll check Old Lucius’ notes. He finds the older version of himself in his bedroom next to the lab. Old Lucius tells Young Lucius how to filter the nanites from Ethan. He also says that he’s modified the security camera in the lab so no one will know he’s there. Young Lucius notices that Old Lucius has been performing genetic experiences. Old Lucius says he believes that all humans have a potential X-gene, but only some activate. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">David calls for a staff meeting to discuss the Purifier attack on X-Corporation: Los Angeles. Lucius does some quick internet research on the Purifiers they questioned at the scene. They all live in the greater Los Angeles area. The only link that connects them is that they all attend different branches of the Church of Humanity. Dane theorizes that someone from the church – perhaps Jacob – recruited them to become Purifiers. The group decides to do more research, as they’re not sure what else they can do now. Mac and Bastienne discuss whether Ethan and Mercy deserve codenames, but they decide to wait for now. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Over the next week the residents of Academy X work on various projects. Dane spends time in the lab trying to understand the device that Old Lucius created that trapped Young Lucius in this reality. Samantha is feeling better and spends time with the Hellions. Quentin has been acting as team advisor. Quentin says he’d like to meet her daughter, Alex, as he can tell she’s powerful. Samantha asks Julian how he’s doing and he admits he’s been having nightmares, but he’s okay. He’s also adjusting to his missing hands. Dane and David talk to Cordelia about the possibility of saving her through turning her into a vampire. Cordelia appreciates their help, but she says she doesn’t want to live on as a vampire or a robot. Ethan goes through the process of having Jacob’s nanites filtered from his bloodstream with Mercy by his side. Mac contacts Heather Cameron and learns that 38 people died. She asks if he’ll come visit soon. The group learns that Xavier’s school is suffering from an outbreak of a virulent flu. Worst of all, those that get sick lose their mutant abilities! They are under quarantine. Lastly, Academy X Board of Trustees member Sunfire asks to visit on Saturday. The headmasters agree. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Sunfire, or Shiro Yashida, arrives Saturday afternoon in a yacht filled with Japanese guards in suits. He bows to Dane and greets him as Mister President. He also greets the two headmasters, Mac and Bast. Shiro is then given a tour of the school. He seems to look down on the meager facilities. Dane mentions they could use more money, as Scott and Emma have elected not to donate funds to the school this year. Shiro says he has a proposal. In a closed-door meeting, he tells the President of Utopia and the two headmasters that Hellfire Club: Tokyo is willing to provide financial assistance if they agree to the group’s plan. They’d like to open a bank on the northwestern part of the island. They’d need permission to build the bank’s headquarters and other buildings for housing of employees and support. In return, they’d offer 3% of the bank’s profits to Utopia or $1 million dollars, whichever is higher. They’re also willing to offer the million dollars up front. Dane negotiates. He wants Hellfire Club: Tokyo to help with the Atlantean vampire problem under the school. Shiro agrees. He says they have two weeks to decide on the deal. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Dane calls a legislative meeting that includes Mac (as Secretary of State), Bastienne (as Secretary of the Interior), and Ruth (as Secretary of the Treasury). The three discuss the possibility of accepting Hellfire Club: Tokyo’s proposal. Dane is interested but concerned. Mac feels that they’d be giving too much power and influence to Hellfire Club: Tokyo, and that with their economic power on the island they’d end up controlling Utopia. Ruth says little other than that they can probably negotiate for more. The four mutants decide to call a full Academy X staff meeting to get more feedback. Many in the staff are concerned. They want to look for alternatives to get funding for the country and the school, such as selling a Hope cure, selling captured vampires for research, asking other countries if they want to open a bank, telling Scott and Emma that they’ll accept Hellfire Club: Tokyo’s offer if they don’t contribute money, and even using Quentin to commit insider trading. They decide to use the two weeks to see if they can find other options. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">At the beginning of the next week the group is surprised when Glob Herman returns. He had disappeared to another reality on the night when everyone had visions or visitors. He thought he’d only been gone for less than a minute, but weeks had gone by while he was gone. He says he was at Academy M in the past hanging out with his friends playing video games. Matt says that there has been a spike in missing persons cases around the country and that there are odd stories of long-lost people returning. Cameron takes Ethan and Mercy into the Danger Room for some training. He puts the Danger Room on a non-lethal setting. Mercy melts one Danger Room wall and turns another into gas. Ethan absorbs energy from a robot attack. He realizes he doesn’t need to breathe when he’s surrounded by a cloud of sleeping gas. Ethan and Mercy also attend Paragons team meetings. While Mercy remains quiet, Ethan gets to know his fellow teammates and begins to make friends with some of them. They’re still upset over Chelsea’s suicide. Ethan realizes they’re hiding something from him and his sister, however, but he isn’t sure what it is. Cameron spends more time with the Paragons, as their team advisor, Adhra, is still missing. Cameron also works on building furniture from driftwood to possibly sell at the pier. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">In the week before Dane needs to give Shiro an answer about the bank, the President of Utopia learns that his bank accounts have been shut down. After investigating, he learns that a terrorist organization from the Middle East deposited a large amount of money into one account and the bank was forced to freeze the accounts while an investigation was performed. Mac and David believe Hellfire Club: Tokyo could be trying to force Dane to agree to their proposal. Dane soon receives a phone call from “Jane”, however. She’s the pink-haired vampire he owes a favor. He blew her off once and now she wants to collect. Meanwhile, David works with the student staff team. They practice sparring and working together as a super group. David also tries to find another way to get rid of the vampires besides asking Hellfire Club: Toyko for help. He asks Jamie Simon, a sophomore that can control animals, for help. Jamie doesn’t have the range to help, but he does have worrisome news: he found animals on Utopia that were drained of blood. News breaks that Governor James Sangrey of California is using the recent Purifier attack on X-Corporation: Los Angeles as an excuse to label the Church of Humanity a terrorist organization and hate group. He’s attempting to shut down the church, but it’s causing him a lot of bad press. On the Nothing Can Stop the Blog! website, many posters wonder if the new adult mutants are violent like the adult mutants from a year ago. This theory loses steam, however, as the number of crimes committed by the new mutants decreases. It seems the new mutants are behaving themselves – at least for now. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Bastienne asks Mac if he wants to accompany her to a Unity of the Holy Cross service on Sunday. She wants to talk to her contact, Bishop George Hinton, and see if he knows any more. Mac has been taking an interest in Mercy and Ethan. He often talks to them after his economics class, though Mercy hasn’t been communicative. Meanhile, Ethan talks to David about doing some additional training on the side. He wants to keep it a secret from his sister. He’s been working on holding the energy he absorbs for longer periods of time. He can hold the energy for about an hour now. Lucius investigates Hellfire Club: Tokyo and uncovers many companies they control, including the Trion holding company, Akane Fusion, the Pacific Trading Company, and Benetech. S.H.I.E.L.D. pushes for an inspection of Academy X and Utopia once again, but once again Dane puts them off. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">On Saturday Shiro returns. Dane negotiates with the trustee. In the end they agree to terms. Shiro will take care of the vampires. The bank’s contract will be renegotiated in ten years. For the first year, Utopia will get 5% of the bank’s profits or $10 million, whichever is higher. They will get the $10 million dollars up front. In subsequent years they will get 5% of profits or $5 million dollars, whoever is higher, with the $5 million up front in January. The following Monday there is a frightening event: Cordelia has a heart attack. While Jess is able to save her life, she’s not hopeful. Her heart is weak and it won’t be long now. Dane decides to forward her medical file to Hellfire Club: Tokyo and ask for help in return for a favor. David speaks to Alex Stone, Samantha and Matt’s daughter. He says he knows she can understand him and he wants her to help Cordelia. Alex doesn’t reply. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Then, on Friday, the school’s proximity sensors go off. Matt warns everyone over comms that there is an intruder on the island. Samantha is with her twins, Kurt and Alex. Alex suddenly says, “She’s here.” David is with the student super team. He sees a yellow blur, and suddenly the student staff are knocked out. Appearing before David is Blitz, the member of the Guardians that killed his protégé, Joni, and the man he sent to a hell dimension called Limbo as punishment. Blitz vows revenge against David. David creates a light platform to move the student staff to safety. Blitz shows he can run on air and grabs Ginny’s throat. He threatens to kill her. David fires a lethal blast of light at Blitz. The former Guardian doesn’t even try to evade. The light blast burns a hole right through him. He drops, dead. Meanwhile, Alex turns to her mother and says, “She’s free.” What does she mean?...
 * Next:** Issue 63 - 'Bargaining'
 * Previous:** Issue 61 - 'Denial'