A nice suburban house, where the Skinless Man has just finished the gruesome work of killing a couple in their bed. “Sorry, love,” he takes over the woman’s part. “While you were off in an Otherworldlian prison, things went a bit south. Little Teddy died, hit by a drunk driver. I was so distraught I married this Wally from your law practice. In fact, we were just having an afternoon bout of “how’s your father,” blissfully unaware of your return.”
He holds up the woman’s face, which he cut off, and admires its beauty When he makes his new skin, he vows, he will be sure to give it a very special place… right on his arse!
He leaves the house and addresses the shocked neighbor who is watering his lawn. No need to for the alarmed expression, he tells him as he borrows the hose to clean the bloodied face. He has a new life, new friends and recently settled out of court with his ex. Nothing quite like settling old scores…
Paris, France:
Fantomex came here to help Deadpool, of whom he had grown quite fond. Unable to find him, he instead settled for a spot of debauchery. Dressed only in boxers and his mask, he watches the wild party around him, trying very hard not to think of Elizabeth Braddock, their night together and the cruel way she dumped him the next morning. How right she was about him…
He steps onto the balcony to suddenly hear Betsy’s voice, telling him she was hoping they could talk. She admits she doesn’t know what’s going on with her. She didn‘t mean to hurt him. Yes, she did he replies. The way she feels about him so soon after losing Warren, it makes her feel like an awful person. Can they just talk? she pleads. He throws everybody out, then tells her to talk.
Does it hurt? one of the members of the Omega Clan, the young Omega Red, asks Wolverine who has bloated monstrously. His healing factor is tuning on itself. The villain gloats how this is an auto-immune disease, his super lupus was introduced and Wolverine’s healing factor began to read his joints and organs as foreign invaders to be destroyed. Inflammation runs amok! He swells with pus and spontaneous decay as his body consumes itself. He will die bloated and ridiculous, as their benefactor instructed. He continues that they willingly underwent the augmentation. To humiliate him, the way he humiliated their family.
Flashback to memory implant:
He recalls how mother tried to hide the children. Father stayed back, to defend them. His screams filled the air as mother hid them. Hidden, the three children witnessed X-Force (Wolverine, Deadpool and AoA Nightcrawler) murdering the mother as well. And they promised to God to see them pay.
End of flashback:
Wolverine weakly protest this never happened. They only recently met the elf, and he and Wade never used to run together. Not that many years back! They are being used!
Predictably, the Omega Clan doesn’t believe it. They believe the killers had been bought by pharmaceutical companies to kill their family after their father found a cure for the disease now ravaging Wolverine’s body.
Elsewhere in the complex, Deadpool works through the huge and fascinating catalogue White Sky offers.
Wolverine weakly protests X-Men don’t kill scientists. His attempt to attack fails.
Meanwhile, the Jean Grey School students are on a class trip to Genosha. Beast and Kitty inform the students how sixteen million mutants died here without warning, among the victims Kitty’s father. They are unaware that Sabretooth watches them. Kitty stresses it is important they remember the dead and work towards a world where mutants and humans live together, ensuring they never see a repeat of this atrocity.
Quentin Quire suggests a solid idea: how about not raising their very own Apocalypse? he asks and points at Evan. Kitty orders him to shut up. They don’t punish people for fear of what they may become. And even then, they still try to rehabilitate, even little monsters like Quentin!
Via Sabretooth, the new leader of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants watches them. Plan’s moving, they are golden, he announces satisfied. Grab that “little git” for the road trip!
Ready to live it up, tubby? he asks the Shadow King in his Amahl Farouk shape. Mildly, the evil telepath asks if it is wise to show such insolence to the one who provides the information currently enabling them to hatch this plan. Once the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants destroys Wolverine and outs X-Force, they will get him an award plaque, is the reply. Amused, the Shadow King asks if they are talking that name officially.
Given their membership, they are too good for the title, if anything, the leader replies. And if they are not enough to warrant the title, soon they will have their very own Apocalypse. And then they’ll see how old Logan likes it when they are the ones preemptively killing their foes…
In the White Sky Showroom, Nightcrawler suffers from his energy being turned inward by the Omegas.
Wolverine tries to telepathically call Psylocke, telling her they need her and Fantomex, but there is no reply. He realizes they are alone and haven’t got much longer. He claws up his body to release the poison. The fat and ooze and blood drains downwards and drenches Deadpool just as he has found what he needed on the computer.
In Paris, Fantomex and Betsy’s talk advanced beyond talking and has now returned to it. What next? he asks. Will she remember she hates him and say something horrible? No, but she does have a surprise. She orders him to close his eyes. He jokes that, if this is what he thinks it is, he’ll need five minutes before he is of any use to her again.
He leans back, eyes closed, while she rummages in her purse to get a gun. He muses that he remembers the first time he saw her… she had thee amazing pure violet eyes. Which is why he found it odd that her eyes suddenly had specks of yellow. He also points a gun at her.
Impatiently, Mystique turns to her true form, firing. She misses. Fantomex tackles her.
In Manhattan, the real Betsy Braddock heads up to her Manhattan apartment, wondering if she was too cruel to Fantomex. But she did enjoy it. After all his selfishness, he deserved a small dose of the nightmare her life has become.
It’s about to get worse as she enters the apartment to find Professor Xavier and Warren Worthington sitting there. Warren explains Xavier returned his memories. He remembers everything. He remembers how she helped kill that boy. He remembers that she killed him.
Xavier psychically restrains Betsy and explains he has no confidence in her decision making abilities. This squad of killers, how long did they think they could conceal it from him? He has been lied to by many of his students. He has seen many fall to darkness. But this… he’s never been so ashamed.
After learning of X-Force, he approached Betsy’s brothers. They were sure she could be redeemed. Her time in Otherworld was an opportunity they devised to show him. Jamie created the Goat Monk scenario for Betsy to earn her redemption. A test she failed when she chose to kill her own brother!
Warren gently adds it’s not her fault. Torn from her natural body and life… Corrupted, killed and resurrected so many times, she isn’t even a full person anymore…
Betsy sobs they are right. She got out! She quit! Xavier insists there is only one way for her. He must erase her mind, erase the mistake she has become, rewind her to who she was before the Siege Perilous. He orders her to relax. When she wakes, the past few years will be gone, and their Betsy will be returned to them.
Telepathically, Psylocke lashes out at them. She is gone! she announces forcefully. She jumps out of the window and flees. However right they may be, she refuses to be a puppet anymore, to let the men in her life dictate who she can be.
She falls and finds her brother Jamie standing in front of her. Angel catches up with her and kicks her, assuring her Xavier’s option is the only one. Jamie hits her as well. She can’t outrun her past, he tells her. “We murderers all pay in the end.”
The Sky White Showroom. The AoA Kurt Wagner vows he will not die here at the hand of fools. Not when they are still out there. The dead bodies of his friends and family demand revenge. They will not rest if he dies now. He tries to remember her blood, her room, her closed casket. It was light. Far too light to have housed her body. How much of her was missing? Eaten? He tells himself to leave. This isn’t his fight. Jump the hell away! Overcome by his weakness, he vomits, while one of the Omegas orders him to beg like their mother begged.
That moment, a powered armored red figure shows up, calling himself Alpha Atomic. Prattling nonsense and firing away, he distracts the Omega Clan long enough for Wolverine and Deadpool to grab Nightcrawler whom Logan orders to teleport them to the Blackbird, even as they are discovered.
Kurt moans it is too far and without a visual he could ‘port them into a solid object. Dead by one or the other, Wade replies and tells him to do it. Kurt complies and they make the jump.
Aboard the Blackbird Deadpool hooks Kurt up to the med station. Wolverine tries to reach Betsy and Fantomex to tell them they are in danger. But Fantomex is busy battling Mystique and Psylocke is convinced she deserves to die.
