Third Story:
Scott Summers sits in his office at the Xavier Institute. He reviews a message sent from his brother Alex who left the X-Men to pursue the youngest Summers brother Gabriel AKA Vulcan. Havok tells Cyclops that they fought with Vulcan but it wasn’t enough and during the battle, their father Corsair was killed. Scott leaves his office only to find Logan in the corridor outside. Logan comments that Cyclops is working late and Scott merely replies that there’s a lot to do. Wolverine asks if he needs help and Cyclops politely declines.
The next day, Logan is running through the woods behind the school. Running alongside him is a young buck. Suddenly, Logan stops running and sniffs at the air. He pops his claws as Cyclops emerges from the trees with a jagged knife. Wolverine asks what he was thinking and points out that he could have killed him! Cyclops coolly replies “I knew you wouldn’t” and Logan says that he’s either “…braver than I thought or dumber.”
He asks what Scott is doing there and he makes some excuse about fresh tactics and brushing up on his survival skills. Logan points out that the combination of Scott’s cologne, tight and noisy boots and the way he’s leaving tracks and scaring the wildlife are less than stealthy. Not to mention the glowing visor. Scott clearly gets an idea from this.
A few minutes later, Logan has helped Scott to cover his scent and take a more stealthy approach to being in the wild. Logan asks if anyone else knows he’s out there. Scott replies “I don’t want to be found.” He goes on to explain that he wants a little solitude and a break from being the leader, teacher and politician and to just be for a while. Wolverine points out that Prof. Xavier was all those things. Scott says that that was before he lied to them. He lied to Scott about his long-lost brother. Scott describes Charles as “just one more disappointment in a line of crap fathers”. Logan tells him to cut it out and that Xavier’s dream is real and is what unites them.
Scott spies the buck and bolts out from cover, his knife drawn. He tells Logan “We’re just heartbeats away from extinction… the dream is over!” as he plunges his knife into the deer.
The deer is startled but then bolts away. Scott is bewildered and wonders how it survived his assault. He looks at his blade and sees that it has been cut in half. He looks accusingly at Logan who tells him that he doesn’t come out here to kill. He explains to Cyclops that this is how he calms himself and the longer he’s out there, the more human he feels. He asks “You didn’t come out here for tactics, did you?”
Scott replies that he did and then reluctantly admits that he also came there to let loose a bit. Logan asks bluntly if he was letting loose on Xavier or maybe his dad. Scott grabs Logan by the shirt and shoves him against a tree. “What do you know about it!?!” he barks and Wolverine replies that he knows plenty about both loss and betrayal. He tells Scott that this is about the two of them: his “failed fathers”.
Scott says that his father, Corsair never came back to them…even after he learned that he and Alex were still alive on Earth. He asks Logan how he could just leave them. Logan suggests that Corsair may have had his reasons and reminds Scott that by the time he learned that his sons were alive, Corsair had a new life. Scott replies coldly “Life is responsibility”. Logan looks him dead in the eye and tells him that the deer he tried to knife isn’t the only wounded animal in these woods and that it’s not Xavier who is his problem. Scott can’t take any more and unleashes his optic blast, demolishing a nearby tree as he screams “ENOUGH!” He turns and walks away.
Late that night, he returns to his office and sits down to record a message to send to his brother Alex who is in space with the Starjammers. He begins the message, “Hi Alex. I’d like to talk about dad.”
Fourth Story:
CSIS Headquarters, the home of Canada’s newest super team, Omega Flight, where, suddenly, Johnny Walker a.k.a. the team’s leader, the handsome USAgent smashes the unstable Michael Pointer a.k.a. the new Guardian, right in the face. ‘Come on, Guardian! This all ya got?’ Johnny asks as he climbs up the wall, then swings onto an overhanging bar to kick Pointer in the face, exclaiming ‘Hawkeye could kick yer butt fer cripes sake!’.
The battle is being monitored by Agent Brown and various CSIS scientists as Johnny smashes Pointer with his trusty shield. Agent Brown watches intently and asks the scientists to give him a reading on the suit. One of the scientists replies that the suit is functioning at optimal efficiency and that they show no signs of anomalous readings of any kind. ‘Hell, I bet Jarvis’d gimme a better fight!’ Walker taunts Pointer.
Agent Brown remarks that Pointer is holding back, and as Pointer unleashes a blast of electro-magnetic energy, Walker dodges it easily, ‘Yer a complete joke!’ Johnny then tosses his shield at Pointer which shoves him into the wall as Johnny exclaims that even Jarvis’ mother could take Pointer on. ‘She’s probably a tough old bird, actually’ Walker mumbles. Walker stands over Pointer’s weary body as Michael asks ‘Who’s Jarvis?’ while blood drips out of various points on his face.
‘Someone who’s made outta a lot sterner stuff than you!’ Walker replies before slamming his shield into Pointer’s face. ‘Course, that ain’t saying much, is it?’ Johnny adds as he walks away from Pointer’s fallen body. Agent Brown frowns and tells one of the scientists to increase Pointer’s power, remarking that he needs a boost in confidence. Indeed, Pointer is able to stand up, and electromagnetic energy ebbs and flows around him as he wearily tells Walker that he isn’t done yet.
‘Yer done, kid’ Walker replies, not even looking at Pointer, who is now smirking, ‘I said, I’m not done yet, USAgent’ Pointer exclaims. Johnny turns around, just in time to raise his shield as the energies slam into him. Agent Brown demands a reading, to which one of the scientists replies that power levels are up by 27% and rising. Brown smirks, ‘Excellent…now, lets show that loud-mouthed @!#$ what we’ve got’ he remarks, referring of course to USAgent.
‘Is this stern enough for you, Agent?’ Pointer asks. Walker just grits his teeth as he continues to hold his shield up, blocking Pointer’s attack, before he tosses his shield at Pointer, ‘Yeah…not bad, kid’ Walker replies as his shield smacks into Pointer’s side, causing Pointer to fall to the ground. ‘Yer finally showing some intestinal fortitude!’ Walker remarks before he elbows Pointer in the face adding that it is too bad Pointer wasn’t showing more of that when Xorn possessed him. ‘Maybe then ya could have stopped him from killing Alpha Flight…and destroying yer own…’ Johnny’s voice trails off as he notices something strange begin to happen.
One of the scientists asks what Walker is doing. ‘Is he out of his mind?’. Agent Brown replies that Walker is testing Pointer. ‘And, yes, he’s out of his mind’. Another scientist reports that Pointer’s power is still increasing, nearing the 40% mark. ‘Maybe then you could have been something!’ USAgent tells Pointer, bringing his foot down towards Pointer’s face, but Pointer grabs Walker’s boot, ‘Wrong thing to say!’ he snaps back. ‘But I think you knew that!’ he grins, power flowing from his eyes as he holds Walker above him.
A figure standing in the shadows of another laboratory orders the scientists in that lab to stand down on the donor transfer, as Pointer shoves Walker back across the training room. ‘You’re testing me? Pushing me, USAgent? Is that what you’re doing? Is that what you want?’ Pointer asks. The mysterious figure then orders the power transfer to continue, Pointer exclaims to Walker ‘Well, all right then…if that’s what you want…then that’s what you’ll get!’ With that, several super powered beings suddenly emerge alongside a glowing Pointer. ‘Holy!’ gasps Walker as he is knocked to the ground and a hideous creature grabs his leg with one of its tentacles.
Agent Brown demands to know what is going on down in the combat training area, while another scientists announces that Pointer’s power levels are spiking 80%. Agent Brown is confused, exclaiming that he didn’t authorize any additional power increases. ‘Where’s he drawing that power from?’ he asks, to which another scientist replies that the increased power is not coming from within the Collective. ‘What the Hell are you talking about?’ Agent Brown asks. The scientist explains that the power is not coming from Pointer, but being drawn from somewhere else.
‘Shut him down! Shut him down right now!’ demands Agent Brown furiously, but one of the scientists replies that they cant as their access to the Guardian suit has been locked out. ‘That’s impossible! By who?’ Agent Brown replies. ‘Unknown, Sir’ the scientist replies. Brown exclaims that they have to get Walker out of there and asks to be linked to USAgent’s communicator. Brown’s request is actioned, and almost instantly, Brown’s voice can be heard by Walker, shouting ‘Get the Hell out of there! Now!’ But with Pointer’s hand firmly around his throat, Walker replies ‘Gee - why didn’t I think of that? Must be why they pay you the big bucks, Brown’.
One of the scientists suddenly tells Brown that they are registering at least seven new and unknown power signatures, to which Walker exclaims ‘What did you say?’ as Pointer tosses him in the air while remembering something his friend and teammate, Julia “Arachne” Carpenter recently informed him, getting Johnny down to a safe location one night not long ago, Julia informed him that she saw six or seven new prisoners being transferred to the CSIS facility, except when she checked the manifests, there was nothing about the prisoners on them.
Suddenly, with increased strength, Pointer tosses Walker into a wall, causing it to crack. ‘How’s this for “intestinal fortitude”?’ Pointer mocks. Walker recalls another meeting, this time with his other teammate, Walter “Sasquatch” Langkowski, who informed Johnny that, honestly, he doesn’t know how the new Guardian’s battle suit works, as Reed Richards designed it, so it’s a bit out of his league, but what he does know is that it is basically a modulator, a regulator to be more specific, and that it controls the amount of energy Pointer can release. ‘Or absorbs. That right?’ Walker asked. Sasquatch replied that he supposes so.
The image of the criminal Raptore can be seen behind Pointer as he races towards the fallen USAgent, ‘My God…’ a wide-eyed and disturbed Johnny whispers as he sees this, and more recent events flash through his mind, to when he met with Iron Man and asked ‘How about that Raptore loser? Dinosaur guy?’ A blank Iron Man replied that he would have to check the manifests of criminals returned to the States from Canada. When Iron Man left, Arachne and her lover the Shroud, who had been listening in, joined up with USAgent, and reminded him that Iron Man has instant access to any manifests, but has no clue as to who Raptore was.
Later, USAgent asked Julia to check on all the prisoners that Omega Flight had been corralling and to look into Raptore and see where he might be. Now though, Johnny knows, as a deranged Pointer, teeth suddenly bared sharp and his hands like claws begin tearing into him like a savage beast. Blood splashes into the air from USAgent, who begins trying to tell Pointer that he is being fed these energies, that he is being used - then Walker screams….
