Issue+45+-+'My+Time+(Has+Come)'


 * Issue 45 - 'My Time (Has Come)' **




 * Plot**

The eXalts, with the aid of vampire hunters Michiyo and Blade, have destroyed the secret blood cache of the vampires. They’ve also taken a prisoner: a staked Pureblood vampire. Upon returning to the school they are surprised to hear there is a new candidate for governor: James Sangrey of the newly created Peaceful Coexistence Party. Standing behind Sangrey is Michael (“Discord”) Schwartz. What is the former eXalts foe and sometimes ally up to? Mac knows Sangrey is too late to enter the race, so what is going on? Meanwhile, protestors continue to picket the school. They have signs that say “Destroyed School: Punishment for your Sins”, “Free the Guardians!”, “Jail Mustang!”, “Enforce Prop X Now!”, “God Hates Muties”, and so on. The eXalts ignore the protestors and Sangrey so they can get information from the staked vampire. Samantha goes inside the vampire’s mind and manages to locate and disable the trigger that would erase his memories if anyone tried to access them. She then gets a large amount of information from him: the names, powers, and weaknesses of the vampire sects; information on Xarus (he’s Dracula’s son and he staked his father and assumed leadership of all the sects), and possible havens of the vampires. The vampire is then killed.

After finishing the vampire, Cameron checks the gear from the Masters of Silence and finds that the batteries are dead. He’ll have to figure out how they work or how to create more to use the equipment again. Matt reveals that, though Michiyo has left with Blade for Los Angeles, she left a package for the headmasters. Bast opens it to find a beautiful silver sword, two handguns, and silver nitrate ammunition. Lucius tells David that he’s figured out how to deactivate the ankle tracking bracelet. David also gets an e-mail from Xavier’s school: it’s Magneto. Magneto writes that he spoke to David’s mother and says they need to talk. When David calls Xavier’s and asks for Magneto, he learns from Armor that the X-Men are busy. There’s been a coup in Wakanda. The leader (and the current Black Panther), Shuri, has been kicked out by a Wakandan group called the Desturi. Many of the royal family have been taken, including Storm. Storm is under arrest and could be put to death. T’Challa has come to the X-Men for help. He believes Doctor Doom is behind the coup. Magneto is busy in meetings and can’t talk to David. When David returns to the medlab, Jess tells him that Dane took Davan for a walk – and left the school in his RV. Dane told Matt he’s visiting his mother in Kansas. David calls Ginny and tells her that Dane is on his way and to call him when Dane gets there. Ginny, thrilled to be talking to her favorite teacher, agrees.

Later on Monday night Sam and Matt return to their hotel room to avoid the noise of the school being rebuilt at all hours. They are surprised to find Valerie there. She has supplies from the Morlocks: clothing, toiletries, baby stuff, and so on. They invite Valerie inside, but she seems nervous and quickly leaves. Sam notices how Valerie looks at Matt. She asks Matt about his history with Valerie. Matt says they dated before he joined S.H.I.E.L.D., but she was more interested in him than he was in her. Besides, she wasn’t the kind of girl he wanted – he likes a girl that can build a motorcycle and race him. Cameron spends the night with Agape. Agape tells him that she surreptitiously checked some records at the hospital. There has been an increase in patients admitted to the MHU (mental health unit) – maybe due to the Lunatic Sect? Back at the school, Billy is training to try to recover all his powers after burning them out rescuing Ruth. Ruth watches him quietly.

Matt has messages for Bastienne on Tuesday. Several parents want to withdraw their students from Academy X following the collapse of the school. Bastienne calls the parents. The parents of Chelsea, Liam, and Pedro agree to let their kids remain at Academy X, but Kiah’s parents are too worried. She will not be returning after break. Bastienne also has a message from Nicholas’ parents: he got into a fight at home and may not be returning right away. Billy brings food for everyone at lunchtime. Ruth is sampling different fabrics for her wedding dress. News breaks that the Guardians are in court: they plead not guilty to all charges. The news announcer notes that Phantom has still not been found. The group is in for a surprise on Wednesday. Mac and Bastienne notice that the owner of the construction company that’s rebuilding the school has come for a visit. He argues with the foreman and departs. The foreman begins ordering all the workers to leave. When Mac and Bastienne ask what’s going on, he says that the contract has been put on hold – apparently there is no funding for the reconstruction. Mac makes some phone calls. He learns from the owner of the construction business that the insurance company has decided the rebuild of the school isn’t covered. He learns from the insurance company that some vice president cancelled the school’s contract. Bastienne realizes that vampires are probably behind this.

Bastienne calls a meeting. First she tells everyone that she recently visited Liberty from the Guardians. Liberty told her that S.H.I.E.L.D. gave her (and possibly the other Guardians) Hope. The group is worried about Melissa and asks the school lawyer to check on her. They ask if the lawyer will file paperwork to prevent S.H.I.E.L.D. from using Hope on Melissa and also to get a doctor to evaluate her. Bastienne also says that Liberty was injected with her X-gene – it wasn’t an implant. So what was implanted into Jess? Jessica reveals that she and Lucius have run tests. Their conclusion is that whatever was implanted dissolved and nanites were in her system. They can’t figure out what the nanites did. David immediately says Jessica should leave the school because she’s a threat to everyone. Jessica doesn’t want to leave, but leaves it up to Bastienne. Bastienne says that she’ll leave if Jess does. Mac says the students are gone for now, so Jess should be able to stay for a little while at least. Jess agrees, then leaves the room. Bastienne then tells everyone about the problems with the reconstruction of Academy X. The group discusses what to do. In the end, the only way they can see of rebuilding the school before students return from spring break is to ask Hellfire Club: Tokyo for help. Bastienne reluctantly agrees to call Ebon Shogun Maki Matsumodo to make a deal. On the phone, Maki says she’d be happy to meet with Bastienne. They plan to meet and discuss things over dinner. While Bastienne leaves to meet with Maki, David gets a call from Ginny that Dane arrived.

At Maki’s tower, Bastienne meets with the leader of Hellfire Club Tokyo (Ebon Branch) in the gym. She’s surprised to learn that Maki is Lady Bullseye! In Maki’s office Bastienne notices the chessboard representing Hellfire Club’s shadow war with the vampires. Two more areas of influence have fallen to the vampires – Hellfire Club: Tokyo is losing. Bastienne then says they need help rebuilding the school. Maki agrees on two conditions. First, if she is to invest in the school, she wants a seat on the Board of Trustees. If it’s not possible, she wants a return on her investment – with interest. Secondly, she wants the eXalts to help return one of the lost areas of influence to Hellfire Club: Tokyo. Bastienne reluctantly agrees. The two then eat dinner and drink. After the meal, Bastienne shares all she knows about the vampires. Maki shares some secret information: recently the vampires located and breached a Hellfire Club stronghold called The Vault. Among other equipment, they stole the group’s stockpile of Hope – thousands of doses! Bastienne returns to the school, half-drunk and upset. She tells David the news.

On Thursday Bastienne drafts a letter of resignation, assuming her deal with Hellfire Club: Tokyo could result in her ouster as headmistress. There’s news that the Californian Supreme Court has set a deadline for a verdict on Proposition X. They will render a decision by June 1st. Mac receives bad news from Doctor Strange – he’s back from a mission with the New Avengers, but his magical scrying device was not able to find Meghan’s dimension in time. She’s lost. Mac is sad, but thanks him for trying. They make a plan to talk later. Mac tells David the sad news. Bastienne then tells the staff about her deal with Maki. The group brainstorms how to wrest an influence from the vampires. They go over their options: bureaucracy, finance, health, high society, industry, media, occult, politics, or university. No one is sure how to tackle the problem. At least the reconstruction of the school finally begins again. The group is surprised on Friday when their comms turn on in receive-only mode. They listen as Matt talks to Maria Hill, who has somehow infiltrated the school. Maria tries to recruit Matt to her secret S.H.I.E.L.D. team. She needs his help tackling the problem of the violent adult mutants. Apparently the X-gene injection that creates the adult mutants comes from the stem cells of dead mutants (some dead for months or years) and is based on the techno-organic virus. It splits a sex chromosome (Y for men, an X for women) and “writes” the X-gene information on one half. It makes men violent for some reason. She’s been keeping it out of the press, but the problem is spreading (across the west coast, Weapon X in Canada, and maybe Doctor Doom) and she needs help. Matt is resistant at first, but seems interested later. Maria slips away. That night, Matt discusses the issue with Samantha. He says he’s interested; the eXalts can’t handle the adult mutant problem with everything else going on, and he thinks he can help. The rest of the group agrees it’s a good idea. David thinks having him placed in S.H.I.E.L.D. would be helpful. Matt wants to talk to the Morlocks.

Over the weekend Sam and Matt visit the Morlocks. Matt ultimately decides to take Maria Hill up on her offer. He says a tearful goodbye to Sam and the twins on Monday. Also on Monday the military trial of “Maria Hill” (an imposter) begins. Bastienne, still unsure of how to fulfill her bargain with Hellfire Club: Tokyo within the month she’s allotted, calls Michael for help. He says he’s busy with the Peaceful Coexistence Party and can’t help her. A tense few days pass. A staff meeting is called Wednesday to make a final plan to attack an area of the vampires’ influence. Cameron goes over each possibility. As he begins to dismiss finance, Ruth stands. She seems to go into some sort of altered state and speaks quietly: “The nobles are in a tower one thousand feet tall, working for their king. Wizards are casting spells to make armor for the king. The king’s monster is caged. It gives him strength.” The group deduces that the tower is a skyscraper in San Francisco. None are 1,000 feet tall, but there is a Millennium Tower (millennium = 1000). The group believes the monster may be a staked Dracula. If they free him, maybe he will get revenge on Xarus and help the eXalts! They discuss how to infiltrate the tower to free Dracula, disrupt the vampires’ hold on finance, and stop Xarus.

Cameron helps come up with a plan. Billy will call the office of one of the most powerful financial firms at the top of the tower. He’ll say they won a free lunch for the office due to leaving a business card in a drawing. This will get everyone inside. Lucius will create a device that can download all the information from the firm’s computers. The big problem is finding Dracula. They realize the only way to find him is to bring Jubilee, who can sense vampires. The plan is put into motion. The eXalts make it to the offices and Bast deploys Lucius’ device. Medic senses a magical effect: a ward? Jubilee investigates and isn’t affected, but she senses many vampires in a board room. After searching the rest of the building, the group returns to the floor. Medic somehow deactivates the magical effect. The group avoids the vampires to search the floor. Mac picks the lock of an enchanted room and discovers a number of ancient scrolls hanging inside – a magical ritual? Through another door is a morbidly obese vampire. In return for blood he boosts Vortex’s powers. Before they can learn any more from him, vampires burst in from behind!

**Next:** __Issue 46 - 'Free Falling'__ **Previous:** Issue 44 - 'At Dawn They Sleep'