Issue+73+-+'Wake+Me+Up+When+September+Ends'


 * Issue 73 - 'Wake Me Up When September Ends' **




 * Plot**

While David leads an expedition to Asteroid M beneath Academy X, students are enjoying freedom on a Sunday afternoon. Suddenly Etta (Cameron’s niece) has a vision of impending danger. The student staff begins ushering the students into the school. Moments later, the basketball court begins to open and three androids emerge from the hangar below. They immediately charge towards the pool and target Robin. The lead android says in a robotic voice, “Eliminate the Skrull!” At the same time, a portal opens on the basketball court. David and Liam step out, followed by Mac. Carom teleports nearby. But before the eXalts can react, the androids are already on the attack. The lead android extends wires from its body with MRI-like pads at the end. They latch onto Robin’s forehead, shocking the Head Boy into unconsciousness. Mercy and Ethan move to assist. The battle has begun! Mustang puts a wall made of light around Robin. In the security room, Bast tells Alice she’s needed to help the kids. Bast grabs onto the blonde and shadow steps to the school’s back entrance. Alice holds the door open for the kids running into the building while Bast appears in one of the androids’ shadows. Carom teleports next to Robin, grabs the boy, and teleports to the school’s medical lab in the basement. The eXalts launch their attack, but the androids evade or are protected by their tough metal frames. One android injects a wire into Primal and shocks him. Another android does the same to Bast. Ethan and Mercy (Subsume and Sublime), join the attack, but they do little damage. P’Ythri, the freshman that’s a demon from Muspelheim, sends a gout of hellfire at an android. He hits, but the attack has no effect – it’s armor is too strong! P’Ythri finally flees. Glimmer emerges from the school and lands next to two androids. She assumes her light armor form and distracts them. Next Bast rips the wires out of the android next to her with a savage swipe, but the attack doesn’t even slow the construct down. They’re not stunned even after taking massive damage! Primal channels the strength of a crocodile and punches an android, damaging the frame. They’re wearing the foes down! Carom uses his portals to deflect one android’s attack back at itself. But then the other two androids send electricity through the wires connected to Primal and Bast, injuring Primal and stunning Bast. Mustang sees his teammate hurt. Wind begins whipping around him and his force field glows a brighter blue. Then he hears a voice inside his head: it offers to give him the power to blast the androids away and protect the mutant students. Mustang is tempted, but he ignores the voice. He then calls out to Bast to get back into the fight. Bast shakes off her injuries and attacks the android again. This time, with the help of Subsume and Sublime’s disintegrating blasts, she finishes off the android. But the other two aren’t out of the fight yet. Mystic hits one with his acid breath. Phantasma follows up by ripping it apart with her telekinesis. The last android attacks Bast from behind, targeting the back of her head. The blow is about to connect when a force field appears out of nowhere. Bast immediately knows what happened: inside the school, Gabe took the damage for her! A sudden commotion indoors confirms her suspicion. Glimmer hits the android with a light blast. Then, before Mystic can finish it off, the robot seems to rip apart on its own. The eXalts turn to see Evan, the clone of Apocalypse, in the window. He’s destroyed it with his telekinesis! The battle is over. In the aftermath, David asks Carom to teleport to the Danger Room to see if anything else came out of the hatch to Asteroid M. It’s all clear. Upstairs, Sam asks Evan about destroying the last android. Evan says he saw it was about to hit one of his professors and he had to do something. Destroying the android was easier than he thought it would be. Sam says the important thing is that he stays safe. Meanwhile, Bastienne checks on Gabriel to see how he’s doing after he absorbed the attack that would have hit her. The freshman healer with tentacles, Craig, has already healed him. Bastienne is startled to see that Gabe’s hair has grown several inches, he has fuzzy blonde hair on his face, and his fingernails are much longer. Craig apparently heals by speeding up recovery time – by aging the patient! Gabe feels fine, otherwise. He says he didn’t want to lose anyone else (thinking of his sister, Jessica, who recently died). Bastienne says she understands, but tells him not to do that again. Liam checks on his daughter, Jasmine. She was safe inside the school, but Liam notices that due to the stress of watching the battle, she accidentally grew the houseplants around her. After watching her father miss several times during the fight, Jasmine tells her father that he needs more training. Liam agrees and says he’s training with Professor Noel. Sam mentally contacts Matt (who’s returned to the security room with the kids). She asks if the building is secure. Matt checks the cameras in the Danger Room. Only the androids came out of Asteroid M. Mac organizes a search of the whole school anyway. First he checks on Robin. After healing him, the young half-Skrull boy says he felt a mental presence in his mind when the wires from the android attached to his head. The mental presence seemed to be reading his mind, and he could feel its hatred of Skrulls. Sam uses Cerebra to search the school but doesn’t find any foreign presences. When she tries to scan Asteroid M, she can’t sense any minds but finds it difficult to read much down there. After the search of the school, the Academy X staff holds an impromptu meeting. Carom suggests they go back into Asteroid M immediately. David says he wants to wait a week, but he compromises and says they’ll go in after classes on Monday. Mac says one of the freshmen (Kai) has the power of technopathy and could learn how to use the keypads in Asteroid M. The other staff don’t like the idea of using a student, and Mac agrees. Dagan says she can borrow his abilities, however. Following the meeting Mac pulls David aside. He says he noticed the wind whipping around David during the battle and how his force field began glowing a brighter blue. David promises he’ll tell Mac if anything else strange happens to him, but it’s a lie because he doesn’t tell Mac about the voice he heard in his mind during the battle. After dinner the students attend team meetings. Ruth reports that most Ardents are fine, though Madison is in a fight with her father. The Corsairs and Excelsiors are working on their proposals (inter-team competitions and a Halloween party). Liam says Shadae and Glenn are fighting because Shadae’s sugary sweat has attracted the bees around Glenn, and she’s upset that they’ve been chasing her. Dagan says she had to shut down a conversation praising the MRF in her team meeting. In the Hellions meeting, Etta tells Sam that she’s had occasional visions farther in the future. One involved a solar eclipse, but that shouldn’t happen for many years. Does it mean something? Lastly, Carom listens in as the Paragons discuss recruiting other students to Hellfire Club: Tokyo internships or jobs. Hikaru, a Corsair, is interested. There may be others. Monday begins with the normal routine: combat club, breakfast, morning classes, lunch, and afternoon classes. After the school day is over, David begins the second expedition to Asteroid M. Bastienne mans the security room while David, Sam, Mac, Carom, Liam, and Dagan head into the former space station. Once inside, Sam tries to telepathically scan inside the base but finds her abilities are dampened. Could something or someone be blocking her? They head to the door to the east that Liam had failed to open. Behind the door he can faintly hear electronic noises. Dagan is able to operate the key pad. But while she knows how to use it, she doesn’t know the code to open the door. Between Sam’s telekinesis and Liam’s spirit strength, they rip the door open. Inside is dim green light coming from the back of the room. Closer to them they see rows upon rows of pillars covered in dimly lit yellow symbols. Mac and Liam don’t think they are magical runes, but it doesn’t look like any language they’ve ever seen. David approaches a pillar and touches a symbol. It beeps faintly and then glows brighter. Dagan follows his lead and touches another symbol. Through the technopathy she borrowed from Kai, she realizes the pillar connects to the ship’s computer. But then there’s a loud grinding noise. The back wall retracts and the green glow gets even brighter. When the wall fully retracts, it reveals a giant fishbow-looking enclosure with a giant green head inside! In a gravelly voice, the giant head demands to know what the interlopers are doing in its home. David asks if the head knows that it is no longer in space. The head says it controls the ships sensors and knows it’s below the school. It’s had control of the ship since the system rebooted (once the water was drained from the station). It again says they’re inside its home. Liam says it’s their home. The head turns its attention to Liam. Suddenly Liam’s body goes rigid and he collapse to the floor. The head says it knows all about the school from what it learned from their “Skrull pet.” Sam tries to mentally contact the head. She’s successful! She learns the head is some sort of artificial intelligence or possibly a machine/flesh hybrid. Its name is Plex. Sam can’t dig deeper, as Plex has powerful telepathic powers of its own and is blocking her. Meanwhile, Mac says they want to be friends with the head. Plex asks what they have to offer. When Mac asks what Plex needs, Plex says all it needs is time. As they converse, David and Carom whisper about what to do. David wonders if Carom can teleport Plex away. Carom thinks Plex is too large to do so. Suddenly Plex turns its attention to David and Carom. It says it senses their hostile thoughts. David responds by blasting the head. A force field seemingly appears out of thin air to block the blast. Plex roars in anger, and grinding noises are heard behind them. Due to channeling the spirit of the cat, Liam hears the sound of helicopter blades in the distance. They will soon be under attack! Mac opens a portal to the Danger Room and the others escape (while Carom teleports himself to safety). Back in the Danger Room, Mac asks if David was in control of himself when he attacked Plex. In response, David punches Mac in the face! Or he would have, if Carom didn’t create portals to deflect the attack back at David. As David stumbles backward, Mac creates duplicates of himself for protection. Sam and Dagan cry out, telling David to stop. But David suddenly unleashes a light blast that splits into five, targeting Mac and each of his duplicates. Mac and the duplicates duck, evading the attack. Carom deflects one of the blasts back at David, stunning him. David quickly shakes off the stun. Liam attempts to grab David from behind, but even with the strength of a bear David is able to shake him off. Mac takes the opening to drain David. The tactic works – David collapses to the floor, unconscious. Everyone is in shock. What is going on? It’s clear David was possessed – most likely by Runak! They quickly take him to the medical lab a few doors down and discuss what to do. Dagan suggests securing David with the medical lab’s restraints, but the others wonder if they’ll hold if Runak is in control when he wakes. Sam uses Cerebra to scan David’s unconscious minds and detects Runak’s presence there. Carom suggests asking S.H.I.E.L.D. for help, but the other suspect S.H.I.E.L.D. will take him into custody if they learn Runak is still inside him. Carom doesn’t think that’s a bad thing. The rest of the staff wants to figure out the problem on their own. They decide to wait and see for now. After everyone else has left, Mac asks Sam to scan him as well. He says he’s had visions since he used the empowered staff as one of the Mighty in the battle in Oklahoma. He’s worried there might be a mental presence inside his head, as well. Sam scans him and is certain there’s no other presence in there. The visions must be an after-effect of using such powerful magic during the battle. But Sam sees something else, too: a memory of his ex-girlfriend, Krystal, and the knowledge that Krystal is raising Mac’s illegitimate child! Sam is surprised that the child she met in the Age of X is real. The next morning David wakes in the medical lab to find Magneto’s old helmet on his head. Dagan put it there in hopes it could keep Runak out. David explains it won’t help because Runak is already inside his head. He hands the helmet back to Dagan and tells her to hide it. He says he’s himself, and Dagan releases him from the restraints. They go to breakfast. The others are alarmed to see David, but he says he’s okay. He apologizes to Mac for attacking him. The group discusses how to get Runak out of David’s head. Seth, the human sophomore mage, was able to trap Alex Nova’s mind in an object while under Quentin Quire’s control. Perhaps he could bind Runak? Sam’s concern is that Seth might get the wrong mind, trapping David instead. That would leave Runak in control of David’s body! The group decides there’s not much they can do for now. David will just have to keep control. David begins having even worse nightmares. Runak seems more powerful inside his head now. It seems the more he gives into Runak, the more powerful he becomes. Mac contacts his father, Doctor Strange, and reaches his manservant, Wong. Wong says Doctor Strange is on Defenders business, tracking Nul, Breaker of Worlds. He’s in another dimension but he’ll let the former Sorcerer Supreme know about David as soon as he returns. At the staff meeting on Thursday, the group discusses the Asteroid M expedition. Through research, they’ve realized that Plex looks very similar to the Supreme Intelligence, leader of all Kree. Clearly Plex can’t be the Supreme Intelligence, but the similarity can’t be a coincidence. Sam says they need to talk to S.W.O.R.D. (S.H.I.E.L.D.’s sister organization that handles alien affairs). She knows Hank McCoy (AKA Beast) at the east coast school has a connection to S.W.O.R.D. Director Abigail Brand. After convincing one of Xavier’s students to put her through to Hank, Sam convinces a reluctant Hank to help her. Hank says he’ll let “Abby” know Sam wants to talk to her, but it might take a while. Sam thanks him for his assistance. Later that night Bastienne and Liam take one of the boats to San Francisco. She wants to check out the new Santa Muerte cult in the city. Liam was able to find the location of the shrine through his private investigator contacts. They take Jessica’s car to the former abandoned storefront in Oakland. Outside the church, four Hispanic parishioners are talking over cigarettes. When Liam says they’re curious about the church, they happily lead them inside to meet “Mama,” the church leader. Inside the church they see around twenty people praying, quietly talking, or helping clean the shrine. Mama (whose real name is Cynthia) is talking to two faithful who are asking for help for their sick child. The free clinic doctor couldn’t help and they need a specialist. Mama says she knows people who might be able to help and they’ll talk again tomorrow night. The Hispanic group then introduces Liam and Bastienne to the woman. Cynthia greets them warmly. She says she was a member of the church in Los Angeles. When they expanded to the San Franciso area, she volunteered to help because she knew about the problems in the city, such as attacks by various groups, poverty, and so on. While Liam continues to talk to Cynthia, Bast notices a woman standing in the doorway behind the altar. She approaches the woman and realizes she has pink hair – it’s Jane, the vampire that helped them in Los Angeles months ago! The two talk. Jane says she knows Dane is gone, but perhaps she and Bastienne could go out for coffee sometime. Bast says she knows Jane doesn’t drink coffee, but Jane says she still gets thirsty – and she’d make it worth Bastienne’s time. Bastienne says she’ll think about it. Jane says she knows where to find her, and slips away. Bastienne and Liam head home. The weekend passes uneventfully. Bastienne babysits for the Stone children so Sam and Matt can go out on a date. Carom teleports Alice to London to see a show. Liam approaches Mac about training mutants to act as law enforcement on Utopia. They agree to go forward with the plan. On Sunday, Jasmine tells her father that she had her recurring dream again. It was a lucid dream where she had a conversation with a bald woman, but she can’t remember the details of the talk. Liam recalls how Jasmine had little control over her powers when they first manifested and was quite anxious about it. But then she seemed very calm for a few months and the recurring dreams began when she returned to acting like herself. He mentions his concerns to Bastienne after training on Sunday. Bastienne is alarmed – could the bald woman be Cassandra Nova? She suggests they tell Sam. On Tuesday afternoon Bastienne checks the Nothing Can Stop the Blog! website. Beyond information about what the superhero teams are up to, some gossip about new eXalts Carom and Liam, and a Prop X update, one news post jumps out at her. The mutant serial killer, dubbed the X-Killer, has struck again. This time it was a member of Governor Sangrey’s staff – former Academy X student Thomas “Duplicate” Booth! Thomas had the ability to split himself into two. He was in town as Sangrey’s liaison to the X-Killer investigation. Bast finds Liam and Sam and shares the news. They are all upset to hear that Thomas is dead. But Sam and Liam had another appointment: it’s time to scan Jasmine. Sam mentally contacts the girl to find out more about her dreams. She senses a familiar presence: her daughter, Alexandra Nova! It’s a very faint presence, however. Sam mentally contacts Liam (who is surprised by the voice in his head) to explain the situation. Alex once influenced all the newly-activated mutants in San Francisco to keep them calm and orderly. Apparently Jasmine was one of those mutants! She doesn’t think Jasmine is in any immediate danger, but they agree to keep an eye on her. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Sam then heads to the security room to talk to Matt. She tells him about Alex’s presence inside Jasmine. There are probably fragments of Alex inside all the activated mutants in San Francisco. Could they grow to take over the hosts? They don’t have any answers. Matt has news, too. After Thomas’ death, Sangrey pulled S.H.I.E.L.D. off the X-Killer investigation and will be appointing his own independent investigator. But S.H.I.E.L.D. isn’t done looking into the case. They’ve activated S.H.I.E.L.D. Team 6 and asked Matt and Maria Hill to do their own investigation. Matt will be meeting Maria later that night, but he’d also like Sam’s help in the investigation. She agrees. Liam runs into Sam outside the security room. He wonders if Sam can check the X-Killer’s victims to see if Alex’s presence was in their minds also. Sam can’t do so, but she thinks of another that probably could – Academy X graduate Wicked. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">On Friday night Bastienne decides to return to the Santa Muerte shrine for their Friday night services. Curious about her expedition, Carom follows. He teleports to the pier to watch her approach, then ports from rooftop to rooftop as she drives to the shine. He enters behind her and watches the service from the back. Cynthia emerges from the back room in ceremonial dress, including black and white makeup that make her look like a grim reaper-like figure. Even with the makeup, Carom thinks she looks familiar – then he realizes she looks just like his mother as he last saw her years ago! She doesn’t seem to have aged a day! Could she be a vampire? After the ceremony, Bastienne waits until Cynthia re-emerges from her room in the back. Now out of makeup, she’s free to talk to the parishioners. As Bastienne talks to her about voodoo and its similarities to Santa Muerte, Carom sneaks outside. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Once outside, Carom heads to the back entrance to the building. Through the keyhole in the door, he sees Cynthia’s apartment. He creates a portal and teleports inside. He’s shocked to see he’s not alone. In one corner of the apartment is a small shrine to Santa Muerte. Kneeling before the shrine is a naked man wearing only a black, skull-like mask. He is talking quietly to himself and striking his back with a barbed whip. Blood oozes from several gashes. Carom is repulsed and prepares to leave, but the man must have heard something. He turns and is startled to see Carom. Before Carom can react, the man slowly fades from sight. He’s gone invisible! Disturbed by the scene, Carom teleports back to Utopia. But what does it all mean?
 * Next:** __Issue 74 - 'Don't Fear the Reaper'__
 * Previous:** Issue 72 - 'A New Machine'