Issue+56+-+'Paradox'


 * Issue 56 - 'Paradox' **




 * Plot**

While in the middle of a battle with the X-Men, the eXalts realized they were never in the future “Age of X” – they were in mental prisons created by the mysterious figure, X! After X threw herself in the way of Mustang’s attack to protect Phantasma as she used Cerebro to potentially depower all mutants, the illusion dropped. Before the X-Men could finish off the rest of the team, Nightwind teleported them back to Academy X. The team is finally back in 2010, but upon arriving back at the school they witness the most shocking sight yet – Academy X is gone! In its place is a gaping crater! What happened to Academy X, and what happened all those months while they were trapped in X’s mental prison?  Mac quickly heals everyone. They realize Billy, who had died in the Age of X, is not with them in the real world, either. David notices there is no rubble in the crater, at least. While looking themselves over, the group realizes they are wearing the same clothes they were wearing on the night of the convention center attack two months ago. Besides clothing, jewelry, and their comms, they have nothing else. Dane checks the comms to make sure they aren’t trapped. When he determines they’re safe, he tries to contact Academy X. To his surprise, Prefect Liam answers! When Dane says he’s in front of the school and it’s a crater, Liam puts him on hold. A minute later, the line goes dead. The group decides to head towards the nearby convenience store to get access to a phone.  Bastienne, Dagan, and Dane enter the store. The clerk, a young Hispanic man, recognizes them. In return for borrowing his cell phone and taking a newspaper, he asks for their autographs. They sign their autographs on the front page of a tabloid that features stories about the eXalts. Bastienne uses the phone to call the east coast school. She’s quickly put through to the X-Men. Once the X-Men realize they’re “duplicates”, they hang up. Two shoppers in the store inform the three mutants that Academy X moved to an island off the coast of San Francisco. Bastienne, Dagan, and Dane inform the rest of the group of what they learned. As they discuss what “duplicates” could mean (and who are the duplicates – the eXalts at Academy X, or them?) and what to do next, Agape notices a press vehicle is arriving. One of the shoppers in the store must have alerted the press! David tells Honoka to teleport them somewhere far away, and suggests Japan. Everyone holds hands while Honoka teleports them with her darkforce powers.  The group reappears in a sunlit shrine. They’re in Japan! The shrine is inside a walled complex beside beautiful gardens. Honoka leads them to an old, but well cared-for, Japanese home. She explains that this is her family’s estate. They can see that no one has lived there for some time, however. Honoka brings them water. The group rests and discusses what to do next. David asks Honoka to go into town to get money, food, and information. She can go to an Internet café to learn what has transpired over the two months the group “lost.” Honoka agrees. She returns an hour later with supplies and information printed from the Internet. The mutants learn that David’s alternate is in prison. James Sangrey has been elected governor of California. The Purifiers have kept up their attacks, and in one of the attacks Billy collapsed. There’s still no clue which group is the duplicate group, however. With little else to do, they get some sleep.  The next morning, Bastienne examines her body. She still has her tattoo and the scars Wolverine once gave her. What does that mean? Meanwhile, Sam joins Honoka as she makes breakfast. Honoka acknowledges that her family is gone once again (in the Age of X they were alive). Sam expresses sympathy. Honoka says that she can rejoin her husband and kids. Sam isn’t sure; if she’s the duplicate, she’ll have to make her own life. The rest of the group joins them for breakfast. They make a plan: Honoka can take them to Hellfire Club: Tokyo’s base in Tokyo. Hopefully the secret group will help the mutants run some tests to determine if they are the duplicates or not. Dagan borrows Sam’s powers. The two of them will use Sam’s mental powers to make everyone around them think they are Japanese. That way they can ride public transportation to Hellfire Club’s Tokyo headquarters.  The plan works perfectly. Nearby commuters think the eXalts are Japanese businessmen. The group makes it to Hellfire Club: Tokyo’s “front”: a Japanese bank. Honoka speaks with a manager. Thirty minutes later, they are lead to the executive elevator. At the top of the skyscraper, they are lead to an office where they are surprised to recognize the woman inside. It’s Amiko Kobayashi, or Midnight! She is Wolverine’s step-daughter and a former ally of the eXalts! She was brainwashed by Hellfire Club: Tokyo to serve as an assassin and fought the eXalts a year ago. Now she’s seemingly willingly working for the secret group. After exchanging greetings, David asks for a favor. He needs Hellfire Club: Tokyo’s laboratory facilities to perform some tests. Amiko agrees, but says it will take some time to arrange. The group is happy to wait. They are served tea. Twenty minutes later, a luxury SUV arrives to drive them to their destination. On the outskirts of Tokyo, they enter a Benetech facility. Mac is alarmed. He asks if they make Hope. Amiko says no.  The group is ushered into a research laboratory where blood can be drawn and tests can be performed. As they move through the middle of the room, Bastienne notices something isn’t right. The lab technicians seem awfully fit and muscled for scientists. On top of that, they aren’t really paying attention to their work station. When one of them begins pulling out what looks like a hand-held tranquilizer gun, Bastienne warns the group over their mental link: it’s an ambush – and they’re using Hope rounds!  Bast tackles the nearest guard and smashes his gun against a lab table, destroying it. Mustang quickly puts up a light wall to protect the group from being “Hoped”, but Bast is outside! The rest of the guards open fire. The Hope rounds bounce off the wall harmlessly. Outside the wall Bast is nearly hit by a Hope dart. Fortunately Phantasma deflects it away with her telekinesis. Medic uses his magic teleportation power to open a portal next to Bast and pull her behind the wall to safety. Amiko is inside the wall, however, and her katana attack badly wounds Panzer before he can shift into his armored form. Nightwind attempts to use her darkforce teleportation to help the team escape, but she finds teleportation powers are blocked! Medic’s power only worked because it was a magic power and not a mutant power. The teleportation nullifier then drops for a split second: the other eXalts appear!  The other versions of Bast, Glimmer, Icegirl, Medic, Nightwind, Panzer, and Phantasma teleport into the lab! The other Mustang isn’t with them (as he’s in prison), but Surf has joined the team. The other Bast leaps over Mustang’s light wall and attacks Mustang, injuring him. The other Medic also teleports inside the wall and drains Phantasma, exhausting her. Surf creates an ice slide to fly above the wall and attack Mustang. He’s staggered, but manages to concentrate on the wall enough to keep it up. Icegirl and Nightwind attack Amiko, but she dodges their strikes. Meanwhile, the other Panzer punches a hole in the wall. Panzer retaliates by firing a thunderclap through the hole, slightly injuring his doppelganger and knocking out two guards. Three nearby guards shoot their Hope rounds into the hole, but they bounce off Panzer’s armored skin. The other Icegirl flies above the wall and blasts Mustang, knocking him unconscious. The wall drops! The Hellfire guards fire their Hope rounds. Several miss. Darts bounce off Glimmer’s force field and Panzer’s armor. Phantasma tries to deflect a dart heading right for her, but she’s too slow. At the last moment, Bast jumps in the way. She’s hit – and loses her powers! Nightwind is also hit and loses her mutant abilities!  Glimmer concentrates hard and manages to re-establish the light wall; it’s the first time she’s used that part of Mustang’s power suite! But Panzer is outside the wall! Bast calls out to Surf and asks if she can trust them if they surrender. Surf says she can’t guarantee their safety. When Bast stops fighting, Surf has an opening. She chooses not to attack! The fight continues. Icegirl wounds Amiko. Nightwind proves she’s formidable even without her darkforce sword and uses her martial arts training to also injure Amiko. Phantasma pulls Panzer back inside the wall with her telekinesis. Medic drains the other Bast, knocking her unconscious. He then pushes the limits on his teleportation power and teleports everyone within ten feet – but this includes Amiko, the unconscious alternate Bast, and the alternate Panzer and alternate Medic.  Medic may have extended the range of who he could teleport, but he wasn’t able to increase the distance of the teleport itself. The group finds themselves in the parking lot outside Benetech. It will surely be only moments before the alternate eXalts find them! And he’s accidentally brought along four enemies. Though alternate Bast is unconscious, Amiko, alternate Panzer and alternate Medic attack! Panzer attacks his alternate, knocking him out with one blow. Nightwind finishes off the wounded Amiko. Phantasma slams the alternate Medic to the ground, rendering him unconscious. The battle is momentarily won, but they still need to get away! Medic revives Mustang. The team leader uses his light construct power to lift everyone into the air to escape. At that moment, Bast jumps off the platform – she wants to remain behind! Mustang tells Phantasma to pull her back. Bast can’t escape Phantasma’s telekinesis. She’s pulled back onto the platform against her protests. She and Mustang argue, but it’s too late. The platform is too high; without her mutant powers, she wouldn’t survive the jump. The group disappears into the city streets and escapes.  While fleeing, Dane checks his alternate’s pockets. He takes his wallet and communications device. He notices he has two arms – the reattached arm is still vibranium even in human form! Agape takes everything Amiko is carrying. The group tosses everything off the platform that could be used to track them: comms, the phone Amiko gave them, and so on. Mac uses his power to keep the captives unconscious. Sam then uses her telepathy to try to read their minds. She can’t break into the other Bastienne’s mind, but she’s able to read the other Dane’s and other Mac’s minds. She learns the alternate eXalts believe that the group are duplicates created by the Purifiers. The other eXalts believe they’re dangerous because they recently tried to use Cerebro to depower all mutants. When the group approached Amiko, the Japanese woman called Wolverine to warn him. Wolverine then told the eXalts. Honoka teleported them to Japan where they set up their ambush. Sam also learns that the other eXalts are afflicted with hemolytic anemia as a side effect of being cloned – or being used to create clones. And at that moment, the captives begin to disappear! Sam realizes the eXalts (or, more likely, their X-Men allies) are using Cerebro to track them. Then a teleporter is snatching the captives away! Sam uses her mental powers to hide the group from Cerebro. But they have to keep moving! After Dane quickly uses his alternate’s ATM card to withdraw thousands of dollars, Sam and David team up to fly the group across the Atlantic Ocean. Medic supplies energy from other eXalts and they fly through the night back to the United States west coast.  The group has several problems: two members (Bast and Honoka) have been afflicted with Hope and lost their mutant powers. They also need more information and a place to hide. They come up with a plan: first they fly to Los Angeles. They eventually track down a vampire and kidnap him. The vampire blood will be needed to create a Hope cure. Dane comes up with the idea of hiding in the abandoned Benetech secret laboratory on Mt. Whitney. After disarming the security system, they go inside to find enough laboratory equipment for their needs. Over the next two days, Sam and Dagan take turns using mental powers to block Cerebro. Mac and Dane create a Hope cure. Honoka takes the cure right away, but Bastienne holds onto the cure without taking it. Mac runs tests on the group to see if they’re afflicted with hemolytic anemia like their alternates. The tests come back negative. They’re still not sure if this means they’re clones or not. As they discuss the possible implications, there’s a knock at the door. Someone else is inside the complex!  Dane armors up and opens the door. Waiting outside the lab is Academy X junior Hana Kim! The team is surprised – how did Hana find them, and why is she there? Hana has the mutant ability to erase memories, specifically memories of her. She can make other people forget she even exists! Did she use her powers to sneak away? Bastienne asks if she’s actually X, their foe from the Age of X. Hana says she’s the opposite: in the Age of X, she was Shura! She also says that Sam is her mother. The group is confused. How did she take over Hana? Is she Cassandra Nova? Hana smiles and says no. She reveals she’s actually Cassandra Nova’s daughter!  Hana, or Alex (as she prefers to be called), explains that Cassandra Nova once possessed Samantha before the mummudrai was banished to Limbo. At the time Sam was pregnant. Cassandra Nova left a piece of her psyche behind in Sam’s unborn daughter. This piece became Alex. Alex had to destroy Sam’s daughter’s nascent mind in order to possess the fetus. The process is the closest thing the mummudrai have to reproduction. She’s been Alex’s daughter ever since! It explains how Alex was able to activate Cameron’s secondary mutation and why she’s such a powerful telepath. Alex then gives the group a gift: she transfers the alternate eXalts memories into the eXalts. Bastienne now remembers everything that’s happened to her alternate over the past two months, David remembers everything that’s happened to his alternate over the past two months, and so on.  The group is stunned by the flood of memories. Sam realizes her alternate is pregnant! Bastienne relates how Jubilee lost control of her vampire nature and attacked her during a Purifier strike. Everyone is in shock that the alternate Billy died from his hemolytic anemia. Alex Nova tells the group that she needs their help: the other eXalts are the clones. X kidnapped a mutant that worked for Michael and the Peaceful Coexistence Party that could clone bodies. After the eXalts were cloned, X copied their memories into the bodies. The bodies won’t last, however; that’s why they have hemolytic anemia. But the clones believe they are the true Academy X staff members. Alex wants them gone, as they are under the influence of X. X is hiding somewhere on Utopia and manipulating the cloned eXalts. They must be stopped! And the first thing they need to do is find the real Billy… <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">**Previous (Storyline):** Issue 55 - 'Explosive
 * Next (Issue/Storyline):** __Issue 57 - 'Extremist'__
 * Previous (Issue):** Age of X: Homefront, Part 4 of 4