Issue+31+-+'In+the+Court+of+the+Crimson+King'

**Plot**
 * Issue 31 - 'In the Court of the Crimson King' **

There is confusion and disorder at Academy X after the dead students are killed a second time. The school’s power, communication, and defense systems are slowly brought on-line following Maya's attack. The first communication they receive on their land line. It is the Head Girl of Xavier’s school. She confirms that their dead have risen as well. And, worse, there is news from the X-Men team at Genosha, where Selene has raised all 16 million dead mutants. The away team that faced Selene was forced to retreat, but not without a casualty – Kurt (“Nightcrawler”) is dead! Tragically, had Bobby had his full mutant power, Kurt might have lived. Upon hearing the news, Samantha’s water breaks. Bastienne quickly finds Amanda. She asks Amanda to teleport a group (Samantha, Matt, Bastienne, and Mac) to the hospital. Sam can’t use a traditional hospital, however, so Amanda teleports the group to a subway station close to Morlock territory. Once there Matt leads the group down a tunnel and bangs a message into the pipes. A group of Morlocks soon appears and brings Sam to their community. Sam is helped into a ragged tent with a stained mattress. The midwife arrives and helps her with the labor.

Meanwhile, at the school, Ashley and Vincent team up to liquefy the remains of the dead students with lava. Dondre then helps bury them. When the satellite connection is re-established, those at the school learn that zombies have risen across the state. The former site of Academy M, in particular, is overrun with undead mutants since the students were buried there following the Purifier attack in June. David and Dane’s first impulse is to let SHIELD handle it, but David runs into Cordelia. She has sensed her former students and she says she has to go help them. David agrees to take her. He informs Dane, whose powers have still yet to return. Cameron, who was sitting at Maya’s grave, volunteers to go as well. The three mutants fly to the scene (with David carrying Cordelia). It becomes apparent that there are two types of risen: those who are still sentient, like the students who rose at Academy X, and those who are mindless. At Academy M, David attempts to assist Cordelia by helping her focus as she calms the risen mutants. They remain high above on David’s light platform. Cameron begins shooting the zombies exhibiting mutant powers. This soon draws their attention.

The undead Academy M students begin attacking. Cameron and David recognize two former Academy X students: Roger and Biff. A few resurrected mutants have blaster abilities. Another has the ability to snare with spider webbing. He grabs Cordelia with his webs and yanks her to the ground. David flies down and pulls her free, but the dead mutant’s next volley once again drags her down. Several zombies begin tearing her apart. David tries to pull her free by creating a light lasso around her, but fails. Cameron flies by and grabs her, ripping her free from the grasp of a half-dozen zombies and the webbing pinning her to the ground. The three, overwhelmed by the numbers of zombies and dead mutants, make their escape.

At Academy X, Dane has asked Dondre and Billy to create a trench around the school in case of zombie attack. Dondre digs with his tunneling ability and Billy speeds him up. Dane learns from news coverage that the mindless zombies are humans who used MGH. They had enough mutant DNA in their bloodstream to rise, but not enough to be sentient. He also learns that the three burial sites where MGH-using humans were buried are the big problem areas. SHIELD is handling two, but the team sent to Academy M was killed. David and Cameron return with an unconscious Cordelia. Jessica treats her. David and Dane discuss the zombie problem and agree they need to do something. Dane attempts to use the nullifying power from the MGH he was injected with. He finds that it’s worn off. He is able to armor up once more. They decide they need more reinforcements. Amanda teleports to the Morlock cavern to recruit Mac and Bastienne. David, Dane, Billy, Bastienne, Mac, and Cameron travel back to the former Academy M grounds on one of David’s light platforms. They finish off the mass of dead mutants and zombies there, then help with cleaning up the remaining zombies in San Francisco.

By dawn of the next day, San Francisco is under control. Los Angeles saw heavier losses without as large of a SHIELD presence to respond. An MGH-using superhero team assists, as does a team of young superheroes. San Diego, the other city with a large MGH-using populace, is defended by the large military presence from the fort outside the city. The eXalts return to the school, exhausted. They have little time to rest, however, as Santo informs the group that there are two visitors at the gate: Michael (“Discord”) and St. John (“Pyro”). Once let inside, Michael requests a meeting with the eXalts and a telepath from the school. The group assembles, except for Bastienne (who had Amanda teleport her back to Sam’s side) and Sam (still in labor). They grab Liam and ask him to help. Michael explains that, following the dissolution of Academy M, he was invited to join the Inner Circle of Hellfire Club: Los Angeles. He was invited due to his family’s wealth and his status as a mutant. St. John also joined, though his rank was that of a pawn. Michael says that the Inner Circle of Hellfire Club: Tokyo was, in fact, the mysterious Board of Trustees of Academy M. The ebon branch – the more conservative of the two – favored using monetary influence and training young mutants as their weapons of choice. Once that failed due to the Purifier attack, the crimson branch of the club took over. They favored more aggressive tactics: in this case, funding the pro-Prop X efforts to create mutant/human civil war and using Cerebra to locate and assassinate the Inner Circle of Hellfire Club: Los Angeles.

Michael believed that he was still alive because Hellfire Club: Tokyo was not aware of him. He asked for the eXalts’ help to strike Hellfire Club: Tokyo before it was too late. Unfortunately, the rest of Hellfire Club: Los Angeles’ Inner Circle was either dead or missing. But Michael had one advantage: before being assassinated, one member of LA’s Inner Circle had a precognitive vision of where Hellfire Club:Tokyo was hiding Cerebra. Liam went into Michael’s head to locate the vision the telepath had shared with Michael, then Liam shared it with the rest of the eXalts. It was a dream of a crimson dragon rising from a storm-tossed sea beyond a pier with two pylons – one marked with the number 9, the other with the number 4. Dane realized it may be referring to one of San Francisco’s piers, and Cameron deduced it might be pier 94. A little investigation showed that there was a likely warehouse there that could be used as a hideout.

The group sought out Amanda to teleport to the Morlock cavern to recruit Bastienne, but they found Amanda in a comatose state. Worse, the Wand of Watoomb was broken into two pieces! Jessica treated Amanda and Santo called Dr. Strange, only to learn from Wong that the doctor was also comatose! Melissa, too weak of a magic-user to be similarly affected, teleported Christian to the Morlock tunnels to defend Sam. Bastienne returned and joined the assault team for the attack on pier 94. The team was comprised of Mustang, Panzer, Medic, Bast, Vortex, Blur, Discord, and Pyro. They shook off their fatigue by draining willing students. They then took the school van to the pier in order to make a more subtle approach than flying. Once at the pier, Bast teleported closer to perform reconnaissance, but the windows of the warehouse were blacked out and she couldn’t see anything. Unfortunately, a security camera was pointed at her and she quickly teleported away. The group in the van drove quickly to the entrance. There Dane burst inside to find a normal manufacturing operation. The group wondered if they were in the right place, but then Bast caught the scent of someone familiar: Agape, who had been kidnapped by Hellfire Club: Tokyo!

Bast followed the scent to a back room and Dane burst in once more. Inside they saw two dozen Hellfire Club guards with Noh masks and several Japanese superheroes and villains: Silver Samurai, Lady Deathstrike, Sunfire, and Amiko Kobayashi (“Midnight”). In the back of the room was a cage holding Agape; There was also the Cerebra unit guarded by Gorgon and a mysterious older woman. Once the group burst inside, Gorgon teleported away with the woman and the Cerebra unit by using a device on his wrist. Bast teleported into Agape’s cell and attempted to free her, but Agape revealed her brainwashing by attacking Bast! The Hellfire Club guards revealed they were all mutants when they began blasting with various energy attacks. Sunfire took out Mustang with his first attack. Blur attacked Lady Deathstrike and used a new power to put her into a slowed state. He was then stabbed by Midnight, however, and taken out of the fight. Things seemed dire, but then Discord controlled Sunfire to knock out half of the Hellfire Club guards. Pyro used his flamethrower to knock down several more. Dane threw the Silver Samurai off to the horizon. Medic and Vortex teamed up to take out Lady Deathstrike and Midnight. Medic revived his downed allies. Sunfire shook off Discord's mental control to see that the fight was lost. He activated the device on his wrist, which teleported himself, Lady Deathstrike, and Midnight to safety. Only Agape and the guards remained, but they were quickly finished.

The group brought an unconscious Agape back to Academy X. There they learned that Selene and her technarch transmode techno-organic virus had been defeated through the teamwork of the X-Men (Cyclops, Emma, Wolverine, Warpath, Armor, and Beast), X-Force (Cable, Deadpool, Domino, Elixir, Fantomex, Psylocke, Wolfsbane, and X-23), and the Brotherhood of Mutants (Magneto, Mystique, Crucible, Blob, Toad, Avalanche, Probe, and Sabretooth). The dead mutants had been put back to rest. And Sam’s twins are born: blue-skinned Kurt and fair-skinned Alexandra (“Alex”). The next night, Colonel Steve Rogers gave a stirring anti-Prop X speech, but on Election Day the controversial ballot proposal passed anyway, 55-45. The group was demoralized by the passage, as well as Nightcrawler’s death, but there was one last shock: Magneto has joined the X-Men…

**Next:** Issue 32 - 'After the Fire' **Previous:** Issue 30 - 'Rise Me Up From Down Below'