Issue+60+-+'Climax'


 * Issue 60 - 'Climax' **




 * Plot**

Mistaken for clones and criminals, on the run from their allies, and without their powers, the eXalts are in trouble. They have been forced to turn to their former foes for help. They have recruited Michael “Discord” Schwartz, head of the mutant political organization known as the Peaceful Coexistence Party, to their cause. Michael also has secret connections to the Mutant Revolutionary Front (MRF), a terrorist group that has used violence and murder to further its agenda in the past. The leader of the MRF, Cougar, has agreed to assist the eXalts. Another MRF member, former Academy X student Christine “Tattoo” Cord, is also on their side. Lastly, the eXalts are joined by former Academy X student Melissa “Pixie” Gwynn as well as David’s girlfriend (and Samantha’s aunt), Cordelia Frost. But Cordelia has been revealed to be a clone under control of their enemy, Danielle Robitaille. Danielle, formerly known as X, was the one who depowered the group with Cerebra. Soon she will be able to increase the range of the powerful device and depower the entire mutant race if she is not stopped. Unfortunately, Danielle is in hiding at Academy X and is surrounded by clones of the eXalts she has created. The eXalts have no choice – it is time to invade the island of Utopia, home of Academy X, and stop Danielle before her plan comes to fruition. Cordelia, now freed from mental control, has some information about Danielle. When she was a captive, she overheard Danielle talking to herself and calling herself “Jacob.” Jacob was Danielle’s brother and an anti-mutant crusader. The group surmises that Jacob’s mind is within her as well. Cordelia also says she was using Mutant Growth Hormone (MGH) to increase her powers. Sam guesses Danielle was using Jean “Phoenix” Grey’s MGH. Sam once used the same MGH. The drug greatly boosted her telepathic and telekinetic abilities. Since Jacob Robitaille was the one that made the MGH, it all makes sense. The ragtag team discusses their options. Michael has access to telepathy blocking earpieces that also have built-in communication systems. Those will hopefully hide them from Danielle, as she is a powerful telepath. The earpieces will also hide the group from the Samantha clone and the other telepaths at the mutant school. The group agrees to use the devices even though they have the ones created by Dane. The next part of the plan is formulated: they will steal a boat from a San Francisco pier and approach Utopia under the cover of darkness. Once they are close, Pixie will be able to teleport them to a hill in the middle of the small island. At the top of the hill is a hatch that leads below Utopia. The group knows that Utopia was built upon Magneto’s former space station, Asteroid M. They hope that tunnels beneath Utopia may lead into Academy X. Tattoo, with her ability to become insubstantial and invisible, will scout ahead. Dane will disable the security. Once they are inside the school, they will locate Cerebra. Since Michael has mental powers, he should be able to use the device to restore the team’s abilities. Then they can confront Danielle and the clones and retake the school. The group waits until after ten o’clock. Students should be in their rooms and out of the way. The first part of the plan works perfectly. Pixie teleports the team to the San Francisco piers. A few bystanders notice the eXalts, but the team quickly slips away. Next they teleport upon a boat. Dane hotwires the vehicle. Samantha has trouble piloting the craft. David is able to drive the boat close to Utopia. When they’re about a mile out, Pixie can see the destination well enough by moon and starlight to teleport everyone onto the hill. There they see a hatch that leads down into the middle of the island. So far no one seems to have noticed them. Tattoo becomes insubstantial and sinks below ground. She returns and says there is some kind of airlock below them. After climbing down they will reach several corridors that branch out. The corridors lead to living quarters, bathrooms, a laboratory, a study, and even a swimming pool! Dane surmises that there must be alien technology on Asteroid M that provided gravity on the space station. The team opens the hatch and enters.  Inside the airlock are cubbies that contain space suits and other equipment for space walks. Once passing through the other airtight door, they climb down to a junction of two passageways. The metal corridors look like something out of a spaceship. It is eerily quiet. The area is dimly lit by track lighting along the floor. Agape is concerned – how is there a power source operating inside the former space station? It crashed to earth over ten years ago and has been underwater ever since! Someone or something must be living down there. The team is concerned, but they have bigger problems to deal with. Tattoo slips away to search for an underground entrance to Academy X. The rest of the team alternates north and east down empty corridors. When they reach a doorway, they can’t resist a peek. Inside are living quarters in perfect condition. There is no sign of life, however. The only sound they hear is the distant dripping of water echoing down otherwise silent hallways.  After long minutes of walking, Bast hears a sucking sound. It’s similar to a boot being pulled out of thick mud. Cougar spots a shadowy figure in the distance that disappears behind a corner. David has had enough. He orders Cougar and Mac to investigate. Cougar is eager for action. The feral mutant charges down the corridor and disappears behind the corner. Mac hurries to catch up. Sounds of grunting escalate to Cougar’s desperate screams of terror. Mac rounds the corner to see three slimy figures attached to the leader of the MRF. One is on his back. One is wrapped around his waist. The last is dragging behind him while holding onto one leg. All three have latched on and are drinking blood. They’re Atlantean, or underwater vampires! Cougar runs past Mac, screaming. Mac can see another dozen or more vampires approaching. Their large red eyes are faintly visible in the darkness. Mac follows Cougar back to the group. Meanwhile, other Atlantean vampires are running towards the group from the opposite direction. Tattoo returns from her scouting mission. She directs the group to run along a third route towards Academy X. Cougar shakes the vampires free and flees with the others. The vampires are right behind them!  Tattoo leads them to an intersection of two corridors that she says is right under Academy X. She says the escape tunnel from the Danger Room is above them. Cougar, terrified of the approaching vampires, needs no urging. He rips a metal ceiling panel free to reveal rock. He frantically digs with his claws until a passageway becomes visible above. It’s the tunnel to the Danger Room! Meanwhile, Samantha and Agape have lagged behind. Mac creates a portal in front of them to help them escape. Honoka surprises everyone when she goes through the portal and attacks the nearest vampires, buying Sam and Agape time to flee. Honoka barely avoids the grasping hands of the aquatic undead and dives through the portal before it closes. Next Mac creates a portal just below the Danger Room. Dane is using a handheld computer and attempting to hack Academy X’s security system as quickly as he can – but the vampires are approaching! He tells everyone to go ahead. At the last minute, he breaks through the school’s defenses and shuts down the cameras and alarms. The rest of the team climbs into the Danger Room and closes the hatch behind them. They’re momentarily safe from the vampires, but Dane has been left behind!  David wants to go back for Dane, but Cougar says there’s no way he’s going down there. The rest of the team is forced to agree. Since most of them are without their powers, they would be overwhelmed by the large numbers of undead before they could save Dane. All they can do is try to get their powers back and hope they can rescue Dane afterward. David sends Tattoo to scout and report back as soon as she’s found Cerebra. She becomes invisible and runs through the nearest wall. The rest of the team can only wait. A few minutes later a faint sound can be heard from below. Bast and Cougar identify it as scratching. The vampires are clawing through the rock below. Soon they will break through the hatch and enter the school! David and Sam wonder if they might provide a good distraction. Mac and Billy disagree – they don’t want to let vampires into the school where they might harm the students. The team can’t afford to wait for Tattoo. Dagan sets the Danger Room security to activate in five minutes. Hopefully the room’s training program will stall the monsters. The group heads into the basement hallway. On the left are the boiler room, storage room, medical lab, and war room. The hangar and Lucius’ lab are on the right. Sam wonders if her daughter might be in the medlab. After Alexandra Nova ended her possession of the baby, she probably left a comatose child behind. David agrees there might be someone in the lab. He decides to check the nearest room – the boiler room – first.  Upon opening the boiler room door, the group is met by a gruesome sight. The room is filled with dozens of dead bodies. The horrible smell of death and decay fills the area. Agape realizes the bodies are all the same person: a fifty-something Caucasian woman with graying hair. The bodies must be clones of Danielle. She has clearly been cloned dozens of times. Mac wonders if each clone’s body broke down faster than the one before it. The team is ready to leave behind the horrific scene when Billy notices the machine at the back of the room – it’s Cerebra! David tells Melissa to teleport the dead bodies to Limbo. Everyone feels better once they’re all gone. Cordelia notices Cerebra’s wires extend behind the device. Someone is back there! David tells Cougar and Mac to check it out. The two men sneak through the dimly-lit room to find Danielle (or her most recent clone) hooked up to the machine! Mac is able to drain her to unconsciousness before she notices them. He carefully pulls off the helmet and she collapses to the ground. Now’s their chance! Michael nervously puts the device’s helmet on. His eyes go wide. Cerebra’s lights begin blinking wildly. Red blinking lights suddenly illuminate the room. Using Cerebra has set off the school’s alarms – the clones will be coming for them any moment!  With only seconds before enemies arrive, the team moves to tactical positions. Mustang and Glimmer climb atop the washers and driers with their ranged weapons. Since they still have their powers, Cougar and Medic stand on either side of Discord to protect him while he uses Cerebra. Icegirl stands in front of Cordelia with her compound bow. Bast, Blur and Nightwind take the front line, as they are effective even without their powers. Pixie is also up front. Phantasma, not much of a fighter without her mutant powers, hangs back to try to stay out of the fighting. As they finish taking defensive positions, a burst of darkforce energy heralds the arrival of their foes. Nightwind’s clone has arrived with the clones of Bast, Glimmer, Medic, Panzer, and Phantasma. Also joining the group are Surf, Hellion, and Sorceress. The battle begins! Cougar decides the best defense is a good offense and attacks Dane’s clone. His claws rip into the Vibranium armor and stun the mutant. Icegirl and Mustang fire arrows at the clones, but miss. Bast and Blur team up on Medic’s clone, staggering him. Nightwind finishes off Medic’s clone with her martial arts training. Their healer is down! The Academy X staff launches a counter-attack. Surf fires an ice blast at Cougar, injuring him. Glimmer’s clone attacks the real Glimmer, but misses. Panzer’s clone is still stunned and doesn’t attack. Hellion fires his cybernetic hands at Medic, injuring him. Sorceress displays the ability to use telekinesis when she injures Mustang. But then Cordelia manipulates the other Bast’s emotions, putting her into a berserker rage. Bast’s clone attacks the nearest person – her own teammate, Panzer’s clone! Her savage attack staggers him. Glimmer fires a stun gun at Panzer’s clone to finish him off, but his armor protects him. Pixie flies over Sam’s clone and inserts a soul dagger into the clone’s head. The magical weapon should dispel any mental control. It works! Sam’s clone suddenly notices Cerebra in the room and realizes she’s being mentally manipulated. The real Sam calls out to her, telling her to stop the fighting. The others don’t listen, however…  Suddenly a Danger Room robot bursts into the room. Lucius has taken control of the robot! It fires a missile at the eXalts, but something goes wrong. The missile careens into the wall, causing a huge explosion. The store room is in flames, and the wall into the medical lab has also collapsed. Everyone can hear the screams of young children. More than one baby is in the lab, and they’re hurt! Bast runs into the medical lab to find baby Kurt unhurt but screaming. Baby Alex is comatose and slightly injured. Agape’s clone is there and is knocked out, but she’ll live. The real concern is baby Davan. The young boy has a piece of shrapnel in his neck and is bleeding profusely. He’ll soon die! When Bast screams for help, Medic teleports beside her and carefully heals the baby. He’s okay, but the wound has left a nasty scar that won’t heal. Pixie uses the distraction to insert her soul dagger into Surf’s head. Jessica can now see that she has also been mentally manipulated. She cries out, telling everyone to stop the fighting. She then erects an ice wall to block any reinforcements from arriving. Out of nowhere, Sorceress uses her telekinetic abilities to slam Phantasma’s clone and Jess into the wall, knocking them unconscious. It’s now clear that she’s not really Amanda – she’s actually Danielle in another body! At that moment, Discord succeeds in using Cerebra. A wave of energy washes over the eXalts, and their powers return!  The group focuses fire on Danielle in Sorceress’ body, but her force field is too strong. Suddenly, Jubilee emerges from the shadows! The vampire surprises everyone when she moves to Sorceress’ side and fires a gun at Danielle’s host at point blank range. Sorceress collapses. Jubilee’s eyes momentarily become yellow and she winks at Phantasma. It’s not really Jubilee – it’s Mystique! And with Danielle unconscious, her mental manipulation ends. The Academy X staff can see Cerebra and realize they were under telepathic control. The fighting ends, except for Hellion, who has to be knocked out.  Dane’s clone demands answers. He can tell he was being manipulated by whoever was inside Amanda, but he still has many questions. David says there’s no time; the real Dane is under the school and needs to be rescued! Dane’s clone agrees to send a team to retrieve the real Dane, but in the meantime they need to talk. The real Mac and Bastienne help the wounded alongside the clones of Samantha and Dane. They explain what really happened over the past few months. Sam’s clone is shocked. She says her body is breaking down and even the medicine provided by Hank McCoy is only slowing the process. She’s three months pregnant and she’s worried about her baby. Mac and Bastienne agree to help however they can. Meanwhile, the clones of Mac and Bastienne help in the medical lab while talking to David and the real Samantha. Mac’s clone is shocked to find out that his powers are magical in origin and not due to a mutation. David says they will try to help find a cure for whatever is causing their bodies to break down. The two groups agree to work together.  The real Dane is rescued by the others. He’s lost a lot of blood, but he’s okay. When Michael returned everyone’s powers, Dane entered his armored form and regenerated. And now that everyone’s back, it’s time for reunions. Mac finds the real Jubilee staked in a closet. Jubilee feels a bit strange about being with his clone all this time, but she’s mostly unfazed. Besides, this kind of thing happened all the time when she was an X-Man. Bastienne and Jess reunite. Jess feels guilty because she was with Bast’s clone all this time. Bast admits she feels the same way because she was married to Billy in the Age of X. Sam and Matt also spend time together. Sam shares information about her past few months in a mental link with her husband. Matt is shocked. He can’t believe his little girl, Alex, is Cassandra Nova’s “daughter.” He’s also worried about what will happen to Sam’s clone’s baby. Elsewhere, Billy and Ruth have a joyful reunion. Meanwhile, David talks to Cordelia’s clone about finding the original. They agree to search to see if she’s really dead, as Danielle claimed. Later Sam finds Honoka to thank her for all the help she’s given. Honoka says she was only doing her job. She applied to work at Academy X because she truly wanted to be there. She does admit, however, that she sent a message to Maki while the group was in Lone Pine. Sam says she understands. Sam also has a conversation with Mystique before her father leaves. She thanks Mystique for her help. Mystique says not to thank her; she was ready to join either side. The mutant spy has a piece of information for her daughter, though: she noticed that a student had special access to the basement, even though she isn’t a prefect or Head Girl. It’s the new transfer student, Stephanie. Sam says she’ll look into it. Then Mystique says to take her of her grandchildren and slips away. Only later does Sam realize that Mystique took Danielle’s MGH…  There’s also aftermath of the battle to deal with. It turns out that Academy X student Gunther was able to sense Tattoo, even though she was insubstantial and invisible. He knocked her out. At the same time Tattoo awakens, the group discovers that Michael has not left the Cerebra unit. When they check on him, they find that he’s a vegetable. His brain was essentially “fried” by using Cerebra to re-activate latent mutants. Sam enters his mind but finds there’s nothing she can do for him. The group decides to see if Xavier can help when he returns. Cougar and Tattoo leave at this point. Sam then goes into Amanda’s body and removes Danielle’s mind. Danielle apparently had the mutant ability to absorb minds and then copy them into others’ bodies. It also explains why she was talking to herself and calling herself Jacob – whenever she absorbed a mind, a piece of that mind stayed inside her. No wonder she’d been in a mental asylum! Meanwhile, David records an image of himself holding a newspaper that declared him dead. He sends the image to the Nothing Can Stop the Blog! website. Soon it is posted and the word spreads that David is alive. David calls the school’s lawyer, Evangeline Whedon. She believes it will be easy enough to pin David’s crimes on his “clone”. He’ll be a free man again. Lastly, Mac decides it’s time for a change. Based on what he now knows about himself, he takes the name William Strange and the code name Mystic. By this point it’s early in the morning. The group decides it might be best if the students and public are unaware that the Academy X staff were actually clones. Since the clones will be dying sometime soon anyway, it’s best for the students to believe that their teachers and staff were the “real deal” all along. To avoid suspicion, everyone beds down in the basement for the night. A few hours later Sam is surprised to be awoken by Daisy “Quake” Johnson, West Coast Commander of S.H.I.E.L.D.! Daisy says she removed the others, but left Cordelia and the other Sam so her mother could say goodbye. Sam is shocked to realize that Alexandra Nova, her “daughter”, is possessing Daisy! Alex must have made it back to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters in the body of the helicopter pilot she possessed. Once there, she possessed Daisy. Then a realization comes to Sam: Alex has destroyed the other clones. She checks and sees it’s true; Alex used Daisy’s seismic abilities to tear apart their bodies at the molecular level, leaving only ash. Sam pleads with Alex to leave the other two clones alone. The other Sam is pregnant with Matt’s child, and Cordelia’s clone may be the only Cordelia left if Danielle truly killed the original. Alex doesn’t understand why they’d keep the copies, but agrees. Alex then admits the last few months have greatly drained her. She reenters baby Alex’s body, waking the child from its seeming coma. Daisy’s body falls unconscious.  Sam wakes everyone up and tells them what’s happened. There is a lot of shock and some anger over what Alex has done, but there’s nothing they can do about it now. Sam’s clone decides they need to save her baby immediately. She could have a heart attack at any time and lose the baby. Sam asks Mac for help teleporting the baby into her body. Mac isn’t sure how to do so, but he receives help from Melissa and Amanda (as the Head Girl, unlike the other students, knows what’s really going on). In the end, the spell is successful. The real Sam is pregnant again! But there is a complication. The shock of losing the baby is too much for Sam’s clone’s body. She goes into cardiac arrest and dies. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Meanwhile, Bastienne is checking on Davan to see how he’s doing. She’s surprised to realize the scar he received from his injury is the same scar Michael has! Michael and Davan even have the same eye and hair color. When she tells everyone her suspicion, the group decides to run DNA tests to check. It’s confirmed. Michael and Davan are the same person! How is that possible? Sam and Bastienne later have a conversation with the recent transfer student, Stephanie. She admits she created clones for Danielle. Before that she was the one who made clones of MRF members for Michael as part of his convention center plan. The MRF agents cloned were wanted by the authorities. Since they “died” in the Purifier attack, it was an effective way to fake their deaths. Stephanie asks if she can leave – after all, she’s 19 and already graduated high school! The headmasters agree and she departs. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Another student is found to be missing. No one has seen Julian since the fight in the basement! Liam brings the concern to Bastienne the next morning. After a thorough search, no one can find him. Then the group remembers how he kept fighting after Danielle’s mental control ended, and they realize Danielle put Jacob’s mind in Julian’s body – and now he’s free! Dagan is upset. Even though it was her clone that had been dating the powerful telekinetic, she had feelings for Julian, and she wants to find him. There’s nothing they can at the moment, however. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Later Bastienne receives an alarming phone call from her sister, Georgie. Georgie was with her fiancé, Rafé, in San Francisco on X-Corporation business. When she woke up, she discovered her body was changing. Bastienne checks the news. It turns out dozens of people in San Francisco with latent mutant abilities had their mutations activate last night. Michael’s effect must have extended into the nearby city. Bastienne’s sister had a latent X-gene, and now she’s a mutant, too! <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The last few weeks of school seem relatively normal after the tempestuous past months. David and Cordelia’s clone search for the original Cordelia. They find her body in an abandoned Purifier facility in southern California. Danielle’s boast was true: Cordelia’s clone is the only Cordelia now. David vows to do everything he can to save her, even if that means turning her into a vampire. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Once students have left for the school year, Maki Matsumodo, Shogun of Hellfire Club: Tokyo and a Trustee of the Academy X Board of Trustees, visits the school. She requests a meeting with the entire staff in the War Room. She has some news. First of all, another trustee has left the board. Warren Worthington III, also known as Angel, never agreed with the move to Utopia. He sold his interest in the board to a fellow X-Man: Shiro “Sunfire” Yoshida. The group suspects that Hellfire Club: Tokyo is extending its control over the school. Dane asks if Maki can reattach the arm that was attached to his clone. After the clone died, the arm remained, and he’d like it back. Maki agrees. Then Maki has another announcement. She says she’s stepping down as Shogun of Hellfire Club: Tokyo in order to pursue “other projects.” Her replacement will be none other than Academy X teacher, Honoka “Nightwind” Ogawa! The group is surprised. Honoka apparently knew about this already. She says she looks forward to working with them as Shogun, but she’ll have to step down as teacher. It seems the school has an opening… <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Soon enough it is Christmas. After all the chaos of the previous semester, it’s nice to end the term on a positive note. Billy and Ruth finally have their long-delayed wedding. It is a beautiful ceremony and everyone attends. Perhaps it is a good omen for things to come. Who knows what the future will bring? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> **Next:** Issue 61 - 'Denial'
 * Previous:** Issue 59 - 'Exposed'