Issue+78+-+'My+Way'


 * Issue 78 - 'My Way' **




 * Plot**

After being mind-controlled by the Kree alien artificial intelligence known as “Plex”, the staff of Academy X wakes to find themselves in the computer room of Asteroid M. Their last memory is just before they were controlled – Sam and Liam first thing in the morning, David was turned by Liam, Bastienne was turned by Sam, and so on. David blasts Liam, thinking he’s still in danger. Evan quickly interrupts the scene to say he has successfully influenced Plex. The teachers ask him to explain. He says that he was able to contact Plex through his technopathy and convinced him to end his psychic control of the students and staff. He can’t control Plex (yet?), but he can persuade him. He says it’s hard to explain – Plex has multiple personalities (such as a soldier, diplomat, scientist, and so on), though they are more different “sides” of one person. He was able to “talk” to the diplomat who agreed to stop the mind control. David realizes he’s lost several hours and talks to the nearby students (Bobby Joe and Shadae) about his missing time. Bastienne says she needs to check on the kids upstairs and quickly heads for the space station’s exit. Carom attempts to engage Plex in conversation and asks if they can talk. Plex, who takes things literally, says they are already talking. Plex says he won’t mind control them again (something it calls the “omni wave”) and only did so because he felt threatened. The first few times the Academy X staff visited Asteroid M they damaged the station or blasted his containment unit. Carom apologizes for David (who flips him off), then asks if they can explore Asteroid M and potentially move in. Plex says no – it’s Plex’s home. They seem to be at a détente for now, so Carom opens a portal back to the War Room in the Academy X basement and the students and staff depart. Upon returning to the War Room the staff makes several discoveries. Carom notices square-shaped indentations on Alice’s temples. What did Plex do to her while she was mind-controlled? He asks Sam to mentally scan her and Dagan to run medical tests. Sam doesn’t find any mental presences and Dagan’s scans don’t turn up anything. Meanwhile, Matt goes to the security console to check on the kids. Bastienne is rounding them up and making sure everyone is accounted for, but Matt realizes that Agape was freed. She had been held prisoner in the Danger Room while going through withdrawal from drinking a vampire’s blood. Video surveillance shows that she was freed by a mind-controlled Dagan (who returned her powers). Agape was heading towards New Genosha when the mind control broke and then she created an ice slide back to San Francisco. The group reconvenes back in the War Room except for Sam, who begins using Cerebra to find Agape. Liam arrives in the meeting room after checking on Jasmine. He says one of the students tried to turn his daughter, but the woman in Jasmine’s mind (who calls herself “Shura”) blocked Plex’s control. Bastienne is glad to hear Shura protected her. The headmistress then says she gave the kids the rest of the day off and postponed homework so they could process what they’d been through. Glob Herman and Wicked were also possessed and are recovering. Sam joins the rest of the staff to report that she’s found Agape – she’s walking down a San Francisco street a few blocks from Union Square. Mac opens a portal to the popular destination and David, Dagan, and Sam accompany him in search of the Academy X Trustee. When several tourists recognize the eXalts, Dagan borrows Sam’s telepathy to make everyone in the area think they look like Asian tourists instead. Sam scans the area for Agape, but in a city of millions it’s hard to find her. They hurry to the area where Sam last saw her while using Cerebra. She scans again but has no luck. Dagan drops their disguise to try it herself, but also fails. With the disguise dropped, several passersby notice the eXalts (even in civilian clothes). A few shout insults at David while others take pictures or ask for autographs. David creates a light platform and raises them up in the air. One young man jumps on the platform, but David lowers him safely to the ground. Workers in the office building next to the platform take pictures or hurry away, afraid the appearance of the eXalts foretells disaster. Back at Academy X, Carom warns Alice that Plex did something to her. Alice wonders if she should go to the hospital, but Carom doesn’t think so. The eXalts return from San Francisco having failed to find Agape. Carom pushes Sam to use Cerebra again to find her, but Sam is hesitant – the machine is taxing and using it a second time would be a strain. David agrees – he’s not willing to risk Sam’s brain to find Agape. Carom warns that Agape could be turned into a vampire, but in the end they decide to try again in the morning after Sam has rested. Carom is also worried about what Plex did to Alice – the alien AI is a threat and should be destroyed. Suddenly Alice’s eyes glow green and she speaks with a deeper voice. Through Alice, Plex says that the Academy X staff is threatening its existence once more and it will have to act. Sam is quick to mollify the entity. She asks what Plex wants. Does it want to return to the Kree? Plex says no. It knows that it would only be a servant if it returned to the Kree Empire. Sam asks if they can use space in Asteroid M. Utopia will soon be welcoming mutant refugees and they need additional housing. After Genosha, where millions of mutants were killed, mutants need a safe haven. Plex is unwilling to share its home, but is willing to live in peace with Utopia if it is not threatened. The group agrees. In order to make sure they keep up their end of the bargain, Plex leaves a peace of itself inside Alice. Carom teleports Alice back to their room to let her rest. He returns and asks the group if he should send her somewhere far away, like Japan, to get her away from Plex’s influence. David says it’s a bad idea. They don’t know the range on Plex’s control and it’s better to keep her on Utopia where they can keep an eye on her. The conversation turns back to Agape. Mac wonders if, once they find Agape, they should put a tracker on her so she can lead them to her vampiric master. The group thinks it’s too risky – Agape could be turned into a vampire. An enemy with Agape’s mutant abilities and vampiric powers combined would be dangerous. They decide to stick to the original plan. On Tuesday morning Sam once again uses Cerebra to locate Agape. She finds her on a San Francisco pier getting on a small fishing boat. Through her mental contact with Agape, Sam overhears the crew members discussing the risks of taking Agape to Utopia. Sam relates this news to the group. David suggests they intercept the boat when it’s halfway to Utopia. Sam agrees, and soon the eXalts are flying over the ocean on one of David’s light platforms heading for the boat. At the boat, Sam flies down to speak to Agape alone. Agape explains that her vampire master’s influence was broken due to Plex’s mind control. She “awoke” on Utopia and wanted to get away, since the Academy X staff had imprisoned her in the basement. But she later felt Sam’s mental presence as she was heading towards a friend’s apartment and realized they were tracking her through Cerebra. She figured the eXalts would come after her, so she decided to come clean with them so she could move on with her life. She has information to share but wants to tell the whole group at once. David sends Mac, Bastienne, Liam and Dagan back to Utopia, then creates a light platform over the ocean so Agape can speak to David, Sam and Carom. Agape re-tells the story of the last day, then shares some news about the vampires. Her master is known as “Kazimir” (a powerful vampire Carom has heard rumors of). He is a member of the Lunatic Sect and controls much of the blood supply in San Francisco. They met weekly at O’Grady’s, the bar near her apartment. She once overheard a phone conversation where Kazimir discussed fighting between two vampiric sects: the Invictus in San Francisco (who rejected Dracula) and the Ordo Dracul in Los Angeles (who worship Dracula). David brags that the eXalts freed Dracula. Agape says both sects are fighting Hellfire Club: Tokyo for control of areas of influence such as finance, media, police, etc. She does have one lead: she’s seen Kazimir’s car and knows its license plate number. David thanks her for the information, then asks her what she wants to do next. Agape says she just wants her own life away from mutants and vampires, but keep getting dragged in. David says she can’t escape her mutant ties. In the end, Agape agrees to spend time at Xavier’s on the east coast to get away from Kazimir and his servants. She agrees to check in daily at first, then weekly, and finally she will be on her own. Carom teleports her to New York City, then rides the commuter rail with her to Salem Center so he can teleport to Xavier’s in the future if needed. At the student staff meeting that night, the head boy, head girl, and prefects relate how the students are a bit freaked about due to Plex’s mind control, especially the freshmen. They’re otherwise okay. Wednesday is a chaotic day as several students take the school’s ferry to San Francisco to take flights home for Thanksgiving. About a third of the kids remain: those that are wards of the school or live too far from home to return for the holiday (or foreigners that don’t celebrate the holiday). Carom teleports Bastienne and Gabriel to Los Angeles so they can attend the Lisowski Thanksgiving in Long Beach. David enjoys spending time with Davan while Bastienne is gone. The rest of the staff makes a huge Thanksgiving meal for the students. News breaks that evening of a mutant death in Los Angeles. Her body was mutilated. It seems Phantom has struck again! Matt is recalled by his secret S.H.I.E.L.D. team to hunt for the insane man. Meanwhile, Mac once again works on a ritual to locate N’Kantu, the Living Mummy. Hopefully the monster has knowledge about the Egyptian artifacts used by Sekhmet. On Friday he completes the ritual – but fails once again. He begins research on the red scarab instead. Also on Friday night, Bastienne attends services at the Santa Muerte church in Oakland. She learns the church is planning a huge gathering of all followers in Los Angeles in a few weeks. Could something sinister be going on? Lastly, there is news of an MRF bombing in Los Angeles following the return of the X-Killer. Once again they called ahead so the building would be cleared, but the next bomb could be lethal… On Saturday additional pro-MRF graffiti is fond at the school. Carom asks around and discovers that Patrick, Hunter, and Wendy are the students that have espoused sympathy for the MRF. He pulls Patrick into a classroom and asks the senior what he knows about the mutant revolutionary group. Patrick says he doesn’t know any MRF members or any Academy X students in contact with them, but knows Academy X graduate Christine has joined. It seems Patrick doesn’t have any additional information for him. Meanwhile, Liam continues to train Glob Herman and Liam to be police officers. Bastienne spends time with Sam and the kids during the day as Matt is still in Los Angeles. She spends time with Liam that night. Liam’s police contacts come through for him on Sunday. He learns that the license plate Agape saw was unregistered in the system, but police cars in San Francisco use license scanners that should find it eventually. Sam continues her periodic scans for her daughter, Alex, who was sealed away by Seth (under Quentin Quire’s control) months ago. She doesn’t find her daughter, but she senses something familiar – it’s the shard of Alex in Jasmine’s mind. Mac finishes his research on Sunday when he finds information about the red scarab pulled from his torso by Sekhmet in one of Doctor Strange’s tomes. It seems the Ruby Scarab grants enhanced strength and durability, flight, the ability to create mystic energy blasts, form shields, teleport, and drain life energy from others on contact. Its energies were sufficient to teleport the entire city of Cairo to a dimensional nexus (or aleph), while leaving inhabitants on Earth, unharmed. He realizes the artifact’s powers are very similar to his own – was he created instead of born? On Sunday night there is a ceremony granting Evan a codename. He chooses “Genesis.” At team meetings on Sunday night Ruth reports that Madison came back from Thanksgiving with her father upset once again. Among the Corsairs, there are rumblings that Gabriel has been keeping to himself a lot. From the Excelsiors, there is news that Robin’s headaches have stopped. The Exemplars are talking about the pro-MRF graffiti, while the Hellions are impressed by Evan’s power. The Paragons want to know if Carom has received permission for them to take a field trip to New Genosha. He says he’ll ask soon. On Sunday night Carom has another visit from his Hellfire Club: Tokyo contact in his dream. They want the shadow vampire that broke into their bank on Utopia found as soon as possible. When he awakes from the dream he sees green light coming from the other room. He finds Alice “zoned out” and realizes Plex was possessing her. He says, “Plex, this wasn’t part of the deal!” Plex takes over his girlfriend again and says it was only checking in. On Monday night Mac is interrupted in his research to find a ritual to create an amulet to protect Carom from his mother’s influence by news from the Secret Avengers: two death cults in South America and Asia have disappeared recently. Could it be connected to Sekhmet? Then, on Tuesday, Matt calls the school. S.H.I.E.L.D. used a powerful mutant as bait to bring Phantom out of hiding. When Phantom attempted to kill the decoy, they managed to hit one of Phantom’s duplicates with Hope rounds. He’s in custody and Matt wants to know if the eXalts would like to speak to him before he’s brought to the Triskelion. Sam, Dagan, Mac and Carom go. They find Phantom tied to a chair and wearing power-dampening handcuffs. He’s no longer wearing his black mask. He’s clearly been Hope’d. Mac wonders if they allow the duplicate to rejoin with the others if the Hope effect will knock out main Phantom’s powers. The S.H.I.E.L.D. telepath on the scene warns Sam that’s he’s crazy and difficult to read. Sam mentally contacts him anyway. It’s difficult to make sense of the insane man’s thoughts, but she finds what she expected: Phantom was sent to Los Angels by Sekhmet to collect more powers. Dagan goes into Phantom’s mind in an attempt to dig deeper. She suddenly passes out! Sam scans Dagan’s mind to find out what happened and is shocked by what she finds: there are several Alex fragments inside her! When Phantom killed several mutants in San Francisco with Alex shards inside them, they combined inside his mind. Now they’re in Dagan! Meanwhile, one of the Capekiller agents on the scene pulls Mac aside to talk to him. He wants to know if it’s true mutants are emigrating to Utopia. Mac confirms the news. They’re hoping to help mutants that are in dangerous situations. The Capekiller says it’s ironic that Mac would try to help a kid, then punches Mac. While Mac is doubled over in pain, the Capekiller puts power dampening cuffs on Mac. Mac realizes it’s his cousin, Agent McAllister! Since his magic doesn’t come from his X-gene, he teleports back to the rest of the group and says one of the Capekillers attacked him. Matt races around the corner to find Agent McAllister flying off in the Capekiller armor. One well-placed shots takes out the jetpack and drops Agent McAllister. Matt takes him into custody. Mac has Sam grab the keys to the power dampening handcuffs. They hide the cuffs to take them back to Utopia. Matt asks Mac if he’d like to be present for the interrogation of Agent McAllister. Mac agrees. During the questioning, McAllister simply says that Mac is a monster, but won’t elaborate. Matt asks Mac if he should make him talk with a truth serum-like compound. It’s not a pleasant experience, but he’d open up. Mac reluctantly agrees. Agent McAllister then tells the story of going home to his aunt’s apartment after school. It was a rare occurrence because his aunt was often at the hospital for cancer treatments. When he arrived at the apartment early he was shocked to find that his aunt was casting some sort of spell over his two or three year old cousin. There was a pentagram and blood and other ritual components. As he watched, his aunt injected a red bug-like object into his cousin’s body. Mac isn’t a normal kid – he’s some kind of monster! Later that day Sam scans Dagan mentally once more. Due to the several fragments of Alex combined, her daughter’s mental presence is stronger in Dagan than in Jasmine. But it’s still weak. Dagan hasn’t felt another mental presence in her mind, though she still has telepathy and telekinesis even after “releasing” Sam’s powers. Sam goes into Dagan’s mind to talk to Alex. She finds herself in the Stone nursery. Alex is sitting in a toddler chair while Sam sits in the nursing chair. Alex calmly greets her mother. Sam asks what Alex wants. Alex says she feels incomplete and simply wants to collect herself. She says she’s tired and abruptly ends the mental conversation. On Wednesday Mac completes the ritual to create Carom’s amulet and succeeds! He returns to his work to find a ritual to find N’Kantu. On Thursday Matt calls to check in. He’s still looking for the main Phantom. Sam asks what Matt thinks she should do about Alex. Should she transfer the shards of Alex’s mind from Dagan into herself? Matt thinks it’s a bad idea because then the fragment of Alex might have access to Sam’s telepathy and get even stronger, potentially possessing Sam herself. At the staff meeting that night, the group discusses the Alex situation. Carom thinks they should find a way to destroy the Alex fragments. The others are uncomfortable about the idea, but aren’t sure what to do. David says they can wait and see, or add the fragments of Alex’s mind to Jasmine. Liam and Bastienne think that’s a bad idea. Dagan says she’s okay “hosting” Alex – after all, it’s her “cousin” (as she calls Sam her aunt) and it’s like donating an organ. She’s willing to help Alex. The group also discusses the Santa Muerte gathering coming up in a few weeks. Is Sekhmet involved? Could she have been behind the disappearing cults around the world, and is she intending to gather the Sante Muerte cult to Aleph to add to her followers? They decide there’s not much to do now. As the meeting breaks up, there are comments about Bastienne and Liam’s relationship. Apparently there are rumors around school. One of the student staff members seems to have seen Bastienne make a trip to or from Liam’s room late at night and shared the information. It could be Gabe – he’s been distant from Bastienne recently and once had a crush on her. Heather Cameron, Academy X Trustee and X-Corporation: Los Angeles CEO visits Academy X on Friday. She read about the Plex situation and is looking for an update. After a tour, she pulls Mac aside. She says she knows he has a lot on his plate as the President of Utopia, Academy X Headmaster, eXalt, and reserve Avengers member. She asks him to let her help. In the end he agrees to let her look over the visa applications for Utopia. She has a greater ability to vet the applications to make sure the mutants are safe and really need help, as they claim. That night Mac once again fails the ritual to find N’Kantu. But there’s news from Liam: one of the police cars in San Francisco used license plate scanning technology to find the car belonging to Agape’s former vampiric master, Kazimir! The police officer says the car is in a parking lot for the Transamerica Pyramid. Sam orders the eXalts to respond. They pick up Academy X graduate and vampire hunter Vince as backup first. As the group assesses the scene, Carom uses his new thermal scope to observe the people entering the building. Among the late night financial workers, Carom notices three people with body temperatures around room temperature. They are accompanied by two “normal” people each. Are they vampires flanked by familiar bodyguards? There is discussion about what to do next – do they really want to head into a situation with several vampires, including the powerful vampire known as Kazimir? Bastienne thinks it’s a bad idea to wipe them out, as it could start another war with the vampires. David wonders if it has to be a fight. After all, all they want is the shadow vampire that entered Hellfire Club: Tokyo’s Utopia bank. Couldn’t they talk with the vampires and offer them something they want, like blood? Carom thinks that’s a bad plan – the vampires are dangerous and need to be killed. Vince agrees, but is willing to go along with Sam’s orders. In the end the group decides to enter and open a line of dialogue with the vampires. Carom gets frustrated and says he’ll be no part of that plan. He storms off and says he'll watch the perimeter. The rest of the group approaches the pyramid. Are they walking into a trap?
 * Next:** __Issue 79 - 'Black Hole Sun'__
 * Previous:** Issue 77 - 'Fix You'