Issue+32+-+'After+the+Fire'


 * Issue 32 - 'After the Fire' **




 * Plot**

Following the passage of Proposition X, the students at Academy X have various reactions. Many are despondent, some are angry, and some are in shock. The staff reassures the kids that Prop X will never pass the courts, but their reassurances have little effect. The next day classes resume as normal. At the end of Cameron’s morning classes, Agape is waiting. She’s recovered from her ordeal after sleeping for an entire day. The two take a walk through the school grounds. She explains that Hellfire Club: Tokyo was using Cerebra to incite mutants to violence. This would turn people against mutants and lead to Prop X’s passage. She reveals her knowledge of the Inner Circle of the Crimson branch of Hellfire Club: Tokyo. The Shogun (leader) is Tomi Shishido (Gorgon). The Guji, or priest, and second in command, is an unnamed woman known as Lady Lotus. The Daimyo, or third in command, is Keniuchio Harada (Silver Samurai). The Samurai, or skilled soldiers, are Yuriko Oyama (Lady Deathstrike) and Shiro Yoshida (Sunfire), among others. The Nōmin (peasants), or foot soldiers, include Amiko Kobayashi (Midnight) and a mysterious group known as the Masters of Silence. Cameron says he’ll share the information.

In the afternoon Bastienne returns with Matt, Sam, and the twins. The students surround them, but Sam is escorted safely to her room. The school’s staff visits her. Bastienne constantly holds one of the kids. Dagan holds Kurt for a time and finds it strange (as she’s dating him in the future of her dimension). Dagan passes Kurt to Mac and says he must be good with children (for some reason?). Billy visits and Jess asks him about the new power he exhibited during the fight against Hellfire Club: Tokyo. He says he’s learned to slow time for others, causing them to react more slowly. It is similar to what future Billy (the Traveler) did when he put people into time comas. Dane brings Sam chocolate chips. That night the staff watches news coverage of a mutant protest against Proposition X in downtown San Francisco. Several of them spot Cougar in the crowd. He was the leader of the mutant gang that Christine joined. Cameron spots Christine in the crowd. There is also news that Benetech will be making Hope again. The staff argues about what to do about Benetech. Some want to attack the factories, but others think it’s a bad idea that will only lead to negative public reactions and problems with SHIELD and other authorities.

Worried about Hope, Dane asks Lucius to make more of his vaccine against the drug. He notices that Lucius has a hand in a jar. It’s the hand of Sarah “Schism” Rabinowitz. Lucius is performing tests on the hand to learn more about the techno-organic virus that revived her. He says the hand moves of its own accord. Dane says it’s okay to study it, but warns Lucius to be careful. Lucius shares that he’s figured out how the gene reader (G-Reader) works. It looks for chemicals created by the X-Gene or receptors related to them. Therefore it can find even mutants that are depowered due to Hope. Dane asks if Lucius can figure out a way to block the G-Reader’s scans, and Lucius says he’ll try. Meanwhile, after seeing Christine on the news, David asks Vincent about Christine’s whereabouts. Vincent says he heard from her a few days ago and she seems happy in Cougar’s gang. David says that Vincent needs to talk to Christine more often, but he praises Vincent for how well he’s doing in the combat club and at the school.

Later that night Bastienne attends her roller derby competition. Jessica, Cameron, and Agape root for her. Bastienne also drags Billy along to meet her teammate, Violet. At the competition there are mutant rights flags everywhere (a blue X on a yellow field). Bastienne does very well and scores the winning point at the end of the game. Afterwards, Bastienne spots Janelle in the crowd. She speaks to the former Purifier. Janelle says she’s been talking to a priest and she’s trying to forgive herself. She also asks for forgiveness because she may have shot Bastienne’s student – Toxin. Bastienne forgives her and warns her to be wary of priests, thinking of the Church of Humanity.

On Thursday David has another visit with Cordelia. She is flipping through the photo album given to the school by Michael (Discord). She is looking at the photographs of her former students. David asks how she’s doing and she says she’s doing better. She says she’s ready to see her former students again and agrees to attend the recognition ceremony scheduled for Saturday. Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Jubilee. Jubilee will be Sam’s substitute teacher for the remainder of the term. The kids are excited to see her but Dane and Bastienne avoid her. Mac has a conversation with her and the two agree to have dinner soon to get to know one another. Then Dane receives a phone call from the school’s private investigator, Lindsay McCabe. Lindsay has discovered that the leader of the loosely-connected Church of Humanity is Simon Trask (brother of Bollivar Trask, inventor of the Sentinels). She placed a GPS device on his car and tracked his movements. When he ventured into Chinatown, she followed and watched from a distance. He met with an Asian gentlemen in a restaurant. The Asian man asked about Reaver technology (Trask said there was no more to give). Lindsay investigated the Asian man and discovered that he is an employee of Trion, the holding company that owns Benetech (creator of Hope). Through further digging she found that Trion is owned by Akane Fusion, a Japanese power company. She provided Dane with information on Akane Fusion.

That evening several students visited Sam, including Amanda and Liam. Amanda was sad about the loss of the Wand of Watoomb but vowed to practice her magic more. Liam said that Sam’s daughter, Alex, had strong telepathic abilities – especially for a baby! Alex was a very quiet baby, while Kurt was noisier and needier. Next came Thursday night’s scheduled staff meeting. Cameron shared the information about Hellfire Club: Tokyo that he learned from Agape. Dane shared the information he learned from Lindsay. The staff also decided to regroup at midnight to listen in on the sophomores. They had planned a secret meeting with Aurelie from Xavier’s school via a holographic projector (or someone who seemed to be Aurelie!). The meeting began at exactly midnight as the staff listened in. Aurelie asked about the dead students rising at Academy X. She also asked about Cordelia and the Hellfire Club. Lastly, she asked if anything important was happening at the school. At the end of the meeting they scheduled another in ten days time.

During the week Dane, Lucius, and David had been fixing the jet. They finished in time to attend Kurt’s funeral on Friday. Bastienne, Jessica, Mac, Samantha, Matt, Cameron, Billy, Jubilee, and David attended. Lucius and Dane remained at the school. At the wake many of the X-Men spoke of their beloved friend. Bobby, Warren, Xavier, Hank, Scott, Piotr, Ororo, and Emma all had moments to share. Logan said that Kurt was his best friend because he always treated him like a man, not a freak. Following the wake, the staff of Academy X had a chance to speak to several X-Men, past and present. Bastienne noticed a man in the shadows: the X-Men’s newest member, Magneto! She and Erik made small talk. He doted on Sam’s daughter, Alex, as Bastienne held her. Sam soon walked over with baby Kurt. Erik held the children. Matt then arrived and wanted to be introduced, protective of Sam and the twins. Following this, Bastienne said goodbye to Nightcrawler. On her way to a seat she ran into Scott and Emma. Emma entirely ignored her, while Scott looked unhappy and managed to thank her for coming because Kurt would have wanted her there. Bastienne ran off in tears. Jessica followed her. Sam ran into Emma, who had terse but kind words for her before leaving abruptly. Sam then spoke to Professor X, who greeted her warmly. Sam explained her concerns about Alex’s evident telepathic abilities, but Xavier told her not to worry. He said Mystique had two children and they both turned out to be great people, and he was sure Alex would as well. Sam also briefly spoke to Nightcrawler’s sister, Amanda.

Across the room, David and Scott exchanged pleasantries. David then spoke to Magneto. Erik admitted he knew David’s mother, Bonnie. She was a member of an early team of his Brotherhood of Mutants. Erik said he’d received a letter from Bonnie recently. David then found Logan in the garage drinking beer. He told Wolverine that the eXalts had just crossed paths with Amiko, his adopted daughter. She was brainwashed by Hellfire Club: Tokyo. Wolverine swore and said he’d deal with it. He sped off on his motorcycle. David was then approached by Hisako (Armor). She said that Academy X’s student, Kevin (Wither) was Selene’s lieutenant on Necrosha. Sadly, he was killed. Meanwhile, Mac and Cameron kept to themselves. Cameron spotted two former Academy X students: Aaron and Zachary. They spoke briefly. Following the funeral David flew to his parents’ nearby home. He confronted his mother about his fears of being Magneto’s son. She told him not to ask her about that, but she did confirm that they dated shortly before she’d married his father. David took DNA samples of his parents via their toothbrushes. He visited with his lawyer aunt (Linda) and his father. At Academy X that night, Bastienne texted Georgie and asked her to tell their mother that she loves her and that she’s sorry. When Bastienne wouldn’t explain what was going on, Rafé checked in on her.

On Saturday it was time for the ceremony to recognize the students that helped against the dead Academy X students that had risen. Christian and Vincent were honored and kept their Academy M codenames (Radian for Christian and Redneck for Vincent). Gunther was honored and chose the codename Phantasm. Ashley was honored and chose the codename Pele, for the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes. Cordelia attended and most of her former students were happy to see her. Early in the next week Dr. Strange appeared in a flash of light during dinner. He conversed with the staff and Amanda. He told the group that he was no longer the Sorcerer Supreme (that title now belonged to Doctor Voodoo). He said he had to turn over his powerful artifacts. This included the Wand of Watoomb, which he’d hidden with Amanda. Unfortunately, the wand was broken (due to the events of Necrosha) and the Crystal of Kadavus didn’t have the power to recharge it. Therefore he left the broken wand with Amanda. He told Bastienne that Will and Bruce were okay and under the care of skilled guardians. He then left to conduct other business. That same day Dane was surprised by his sister, Ginny, when he learned that their mother’s house had been foreclosed. They discussed the problem and admitted that she would probably have to sell all her land to keep the house itself. She’d have to find a job because their father hasn’t been heard from in years. Meanwhile, David found Jessica to inquire about Bastienne. He noticed that Bastienne had been acting down lately and was worried about her. Jessica assured him that Bastienne would be okay, but she needed time to deal with her guilt. Bastienne blamed herself for Kurt’s death because Bobby could have saved Kurt if he’d had his full power, and Bastienne wouldn’t let Bobby take Agape’s power.

On Saturday, a week after the recognition ceremony, Dane received a phone call from Maria Hill. They shared intelligence (Dane gave information about Hellfire Club: Tokyo and Simon Trask; Maria told Dane about Cougar’s gang members and about the recent death of a high-profile Los Angeles mutant and recent Purifier deaths). Maria also admitted that, due to Proposition X’s passage, she turned over SHIELD’s mutant files to the state authorities. Later on Saturday was a mutant rights rally. The headmasters agreed that it wouldn’t be safe for students to attend, but David, Cameron, and Billy went into San Francisco to watch the event. The crowd was rowdy and angry, but a heavy SHIELD presence (and the helicarrier) kept things in line. Then there was news of a train derailment nearby. The train hit an apartment building and there was a large fire. Since SHIELD wouldn’t arrive in time, Dane decided to help. He alerted David and the others at the rally, and they also hurried to the scene. Sam decided it was time to get back in action and rejoined the eXalts.

At the scene of the train derailment, firemen couldn’t get close. Blur tried to pull passengers from the burning train, but the heat kept him at bay. Bast teleported into the burning building to save several people. Glimmer (Dagan) tried to decouple the burning locomotive from the passenger car, but failed. Panzer broke the locomotive free and threw it a safe distance away before it exploded. Phantasma pulled several people from the rubble. Chi (Joni) held the rubble at bay to allow Medic to help others to safety. Mustang used his light constructs to keep falling debris from hurting bystanders below. Vortex used his air control to deprive the fires of oxygen. He was interrupted by an attack from one of Cougar’s gang members: Brimstone! Brimstone was a former Academy M student, and the most powerful at the former school (according to Cordelia). Brimstone hurt Vortex badly, but Vortex responded with a powerful counterattack that drove the mutant off. Meanwhile, Christine (Tattoo), Academy X’s dropout, surprised Chi. Panzer hurried over. Even with her phasing touch, Tattoo couldn’t hurt Panzer, and she ran off. Then Glimmer suddenly cried out and collapsed. Medic tried to assist, but there was nothing physically wrong with her. In the end, the eXalts saved many and received some good publicity, but what is wrong with Dagan, and why were Cougar’s men stopping them from assisting in the disaster?

**Next:** Issue 33 - 'Crossfire' **Previous:** Issue 31 - 'In the Court of the Crimson King'