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| X-men 2099UG Issue #16, Volume 2 Written by Chris Lough |
| The 2099 Underground is a project whereby a group of fans are putting together a series of stories continuing from Marvel's fantastic futuristic 2099! Ignoring the ignoble and inaccurate "2099: World of Tomorrow", we're exploring what we feel is the true spirit of 2099 as envisioned by then Editor-in-Chief Joey Cavalieri. Participation is open to all. Comments about this issue should be sent to the author. Or you can visit our message board and post your thoughts on the issue. Anyone wishing to join the mailing list should do so by signing up at Yahoo! Groups. It's free and easy! Simply type in the keyword "Ghostworks" and you're good to go. |
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| The city stretched out before him as he stood there on the hilltop, the gentle breeze making the tall grass brush against his legs. The air smelled so fresh and clean, it filled his nostrils and made his head spin. The night sky was so clear and bright that it was almost like seeing things in normal daylight, but laced with a soft white glow. Tim’s eyes were as wide as saucers. He had never seen the sky like this. Or a city like this. Or anything, really, quite like this. Quiet streets, uncluttered by cars or maglev, basked under street lights. Couples strolled through, children running and laughing and zigzagging around the adults. He could clearly make out some of the people as mutants. They had disproportionate limbs or differently hued skin. Others looked completely normal. One person, in particular, glowed as brightly as the stars above were. All of them interacting as normally as could be. Forest and parks weaved in and out of collected lots of buildings. The buildings themselves were a tossed mix of different architectures. Some were light blue and looked as solid as rock, but curved and stretched into shapes in a way that played tricks with his vision, appearing to meld with the buildings around it almost imperceptibly. Some of them hugged the ground,only to rise up sharply like an animal suddenly stirred, and become a high-rise. It didn’t look like such an uncharacteristic design could even serve as a functional dwelling, but it was hard to tell, as he couldn’t get an idea of how large the buildings were from just looking at one side. They looked almost…organic. In stark contrast were other buildings that were in the usual form he was used to seeing. Processed stone and metal forming more familiar buildings. Sharp right angles and evenly spaced windows. Buildings such as these dotted the landscape and, even stranger, some of them even seemed to adopt the architectural stylings of the more organic-looking buildings. It was a jumble that seemed to unravel before his eyes. Every time he looked at it, though, it made more sense. The five of them stood together on the hilltop, facing the city, probably the motliest crew of peacekeepers ever assembled. Two years ago he was a street urchin, living off chance and trying to contain the broiling energy inside him. Now he lead the X-Men, a force for good and equality between man and mutant. A force that had resulted in Halo City, the very first mutant/human citystate. But Halo had been besieged lately by sudden riots and attacks. Evil mutants and megacorps were one thing, they were big targets, but he didn’t know how to fight against the very people he was working for. He needed a frame of reference, another place like Halo City, to learn how to solve the problem. Avalon was that place. The only place, really. A legendary colony of mutants ferried from the mutant internment camps of the Purge. A place that existed only in myth, until now. “My friends,” the Ferry Master rang out in a deep baritone. “Welcome to paradise. Welcome to Avalon.” Paradise, indeed, as if it looked like anything else. This Ferry Master was part of it. Him and the Driver, an enigmatic and mysterious man who had been instrumental in smuggling mutants to the Ferry Master and his “Final Jump”. The Final Jump was nothing more than a small room tucked inside Mt. St. Helens, but inside, mutants were teleported here. Whether by machinery or by The Ferry Master himself, he didn’t know. Gingerly, the Driver removed the golden-colored plate that served as a mask. He had no need for it anymore, no need to hide himself from the eyes of the world. Perhaps a century of service, augmented by advanced machinery along the way, was over. Pulled by strings his entire life. By his own morals, by duty, by the shadowy manipulations of others. It had left him a broken man. All of that was over now. He was…home. Tim wondered if the Driver could truly make that kind of transference in his life. Would he be able to dwell in the paradise he was instrumental in creating? “The Nitroburn…,” the Driver said. “…I can’t feel it anymore. It’s gone. Where is this place?” The Ferry Master turned to face the Driver. “No, I imagine you would not. Your Nitroburn’s service is at an end, in any case. As is yours, old friend. Are you pleased with the sanctuary you helped create?” “It is…beautiful,” the Driver finally managed. The word seemed alien to him. “It’s jarring, though, being seperated from the Nitroburn. A part of my mind is missing.” The Ferry Master smiled. “Well, I’m sure you’ll find other pursuits to fill it.” The enigmatic man turned to the others, still grinning. “Me, I believe you might have your hands full keeping your children out of trouble. The blue one looks like she’s about to start a fight.” The Driver had had to lie to the Ferry Master to get them all to Avalon. The lie seemed sound enough, they were all kind scruffy looking. And the Ferry Master didn’t know that his face was white because of skin-paint, and not mutation. “My name is Katrina,” she intoned, glaring at the Ferry Master. “And I don’t fight unless someone is looking for one.” Katrina was just as big a mystery as the Ferry Master to them. She looked almost exactly like Luna, except for the turqouise tone of her skin. Further yet, she claimed she was Luna’s sister, only recently escaped from the Theater of Pain. They both had the same mutant abilities, too, which just made things all the more confusing. “Or you’re looking for me…,” Luna muttered weakly. Katrina had laid waste to the floor they were on in an El Paso hotel, looking for them.*** And who knows what else. Katrina had been on her way to Halo City for protection from the Theater when she chanced on them in El Paso. *** X-Men 2099UG (Volume 2) #13-14 Tim immediately swung an arm under Luna as she wavered there. Luna was sick, ever since joining the X-Men she had been abstaining from feeding off the pain of others. She had gone too long between feedings and had been straining her body and her abilities. It didn’t help that she had barely slept in two days, either. It looked like the caffeine feeds he had made her drink as a last resort were wearing off. “You gonna be alright, Luna?”, he asked. “Did the teleportation muck you up?” “That was fine,” she answered, her eyelids drooped and her gaze was shiftless. “I’m just really tired.” As if that was a cue, her eyes rolled shut and her legs buckled under her. “Lun…! Geez,” he grunted, catching Luna. He was no wimp, but she was heavier than she looked. “We need to get her to a hospital,” the Driver said. “Do those exist in Avalon?” “Yes, the finest. Our doctors have mountains of knowledge on mutant physiology. One doctor in particular could probably cure anything,” the Ferry Master answered, looking at Tim and Luna. Katrina’s face seemed to take concern when the Ferry Master mentioned mutant physiology. “I will take us there immediately.” Apparently teleportation was the Ferry Master’s mutant gift. Blue strips of light wound around them faster and faster until the light enveloped each of them completely. Without a sound, they were gone. Behind the hilltop, a large blue-green orb, streaked with white clouds, sat quietly on the grey horizon. * * * She scrolled through the paperwork on her handpad. Her white lab coat whisked around her blue scrubs as she made her way down the hospital hallway. Her wavy, shoulder-length black hair was tied back in a ponytail, as it usually was at work. Revealing a studious face with perfectly smooth light brown skin, her eyes were slightly slanted, but wide and knowing. She mouthed perfunctory greetings to the people she passed as she punched up the feed from the camera in the maternity ward. The ward blinked into view. A nurse sitting quietly at the desk. Another doctor walked by the camera’s view. It was quiet down there. She punched in the number of the room her patient was in. 106. All three occupants of the room were sound asleep. The mother in the bed. The husband slumped in a chair in the corner. Their newborn baby nestled in its crib. She smiled. The woman, a noticeably red-skinned woman, had given birth this morning after a day’s worth of labor. The husband, a noticeably blue-skinned man, had stayed with her throughout the whole thing. There had been a betting pool on what color the baby would turn out to be. Nobody had won since the baby turned out to be as flesh-toned as the next human. She had known that would happen, of course, but she was barred from the office pools. She clicked the pad off as her steps brought her into the recovery ring. The nurse’s desk sat in the middle of a circle of doors. Some rooms were empty, some full. It wasn’t even into the evening yet and most of the patients were still awake. She could hear the noise from some of the rooms. Breaking the normality of the scene, a dazzle of lights suddenly appeared in front of her, intertwined with two bright blue streams of color. She knew this power signature. The Ferry Master. Her lips tightened, the Ferry Master’s presence in the hospital did not convey good news. A moment later that suspicion was confirmed as he and four others materialized. She paused, her eyes widening, these four…where had they even come from? They couldn’t have been from Avalon. She’d lived here all her life, she would have noticed four individuals as striking and…violent-looking, as these. Especially given her occupation and reputation. “Doctor,” the Ferry Master intoned gravely. “This woman requires medical attention.” He didn’t have to point out who. The white-haired, white-faced woman in the other man’s arms was obvious enough. Without hesitation, her power kicked in. As if she had known it all her life, the biological workings and structure of the woman were known to her. The secrets and quirks of her biological make-up arrayed themselves before her vision. It was hard to describe her power to someone who hadn’t lived with it. She didn’t know how it worked, but one minute she saw nothing and then the next she saw and knew it all. It was as if life itself felt it necessary to explain itself to her. It had taken some time before she learned how to control this extra sense, but in that meantime, she had absorbed enough knowledge to make her more experienced than any doctor in Avalon. Things progressed naturally from there. Now, all anyone ever called her was “Doctor”. What her mutant power revealed was startling. Briskly, she turned to an aide that was passing by. “Get a gurney for this woman,” she motioned to Luna. “And prep the emergency ward.” The Doctor’s vision slid to the identical blue woman with the strangers. Her eyes went wide. “Two beds, full complement of equipment.” She had seen a lot of things in her life. But never THAT. * * * The Doctor switched off the scanning equipment and looked up at the three of them. “Do you want the good news first or the bad news?”, she offered. Tim rose from his position, crouched at Luna’s bedside, and gave a startled look. “Uh…bad news, I suppose.” Always bad news first, he had long since decided. While you mentally tried to circumvent the bad news, all of a sudden the good news would come along to help you. “You’re in luck, it’s all bad news,” the Doctor said dryly. The Driver gave her a disapproving look, her bedside manner needed work. The Ferry Master’s face remained expressionless. She continued, “First things first, though, I suppose you should know this, at least. Lunatica and Katrina here…they’re not sisters.” Katrina rose angrily from the contoured medical bed. Anger flashed across Luna’s tired face. Tim was similiarly displeased. “I knew it,” he accused softly. “At least not in the traditional sense,” the Doctor continued. “They are both almost exact genetic twins.” “Clones?”, Tim asked, surprised, his anger subsided. “In the sense that they began with the same genetic structure. Most of that is still apparent, but there are several striking differences. First off…” “Excuse me, Doctor, I am sorry to interrupt you,” the Ferry Master spoke up. “But I have business elsewhere in Avalon that needs attention. I wanted to see these two,” he gestured to Luna and Katrina. “To proper medical care. However,” he turned to the Driver and Tim. “I will be happy to speak to you later in the day. You can direct them towards the Circle later, Doctor?” The Doctor nodded. “I will, Ferry Master. Have a pleasant day.” The Ferry Master smiled and nodded before he disappeared in a twine of blue light and sparkle. As he did, Tim turned his head to the Driver. “Pleasant DAY?”, he stressed, clearly recalling the clear night sky that had greeted them a short while ago. Maybe Avalon existed in small segments all over the world. Segments connected by teleporters that gave the semblance of a gathered city. That didn’t make sense. He had seen the city stretched out before him. Or was that simply an illusion? “I should address La Lunatica’s condition first, I think,” the Doctor chimed in. “Her exhaustion is much the same as a particularly harsh drug withdrawal. The way you described her abilities to me, that she amplifies and feeds off negative emotions, is all too literal. She can survive without feeding, I believe. But the hunger she feels will never go away, and her ability to function in the outside world would be severely impaired.” “There’s no other way? You can’t do anything?”, Tim asked, crestfallen. “If we could somehow rewrite her genetic code, certainly. However, the addiction to feeding off emotions is on a cellular level and she would never be healthy without doing so. It would be as if you stopped eating protein,” the Doctor answered. “Then…,” what would they do, was the unspoken statement rolling around in Tim’s mind. He didn’t want Luna to live the life of an invalid. But doing otherwise…what would the X-Men think of her then? Would she still be able to live with the life and the family that she had found for the first time in her life? What if he let her feed off him? Could he? Did he love her that much? What kind of relationship was THAT? “Katrina’s condition is even stranger and more worrisome,” the Doctor said. “You seem to be undertaking some sort of cellular metamorphosis,” she said to Katrina. “Your genetic structure suggests something more than a simple X-factor gene. Both of yours, do, actually***, but Lunatica’s genetic code is a wonderland of stability compared to yours, Katrina.” *** Hinted at slyly allll the way back in X-Men 2099UG #4 (Volume 2) “I know,” Katrina said, annoyed. “I can feel it inside me, building up to release. I can fight it, but it’s like fighting the fact that you’re about to be born. Isn’t there anything you can do about it? Why am I affected by this and she isn’t?” “I don’t know,” the Doctor said. “However, I think we can help you, at least.” Katrina features softened at those words, if only for a moment. Hope threatened to creep inside her stony façade and she didn’t dare let it. Not until this was all over. Until the monster she knew was lurking inside her was dead. * * * The Circle, to put it mildly, the Doctor had said, was where the Ferry Master lived. Located in the very epicenter of Avalon, the structure was a perfect dome surrounded by a wide expanse of open space. Not a single thing existed in this space around the dome, setting it far apart from the fluidity of the rest of Avalon’s architecture. From far away there didn’t appear to be any windows or entryways of any kind. The dome and the circular expanse around it seemed to be constructed of a blue-green metallic material with an uneven grid of neon lines that would glow and disappear as they caught the light. The Circle seemed to be always pulsating and active because of this. Tim and the Driver made their way towards the dome at the request of the Ferry Master himself. The Doctor was doing all she could for Katrina, and Luna was too weak to go anywhere. They both had been mulling over nothing, Tim in a defeated stupor, the Driver in a listless stumbling. The Driver had barely spoken upon arriving at Avalon. A message from the Ferry Master had come through to break the monotony. Whoever could make it was to see him at The Circle. The walk there had been almost reverential, as Tim got his first good look at Avalon. It was surreal. Everything was PERFECT. Happiness oozed from this place. Peacefulness, contentness…you could sense it. There was a noticeable lack of…the only thing Tim could think to call it was tension. Oh sure, there was a sign here or there that not everyone’s life here was perfect, but for all intents and purposes, it seemed like humanity had finally suceeded in creating utopia. He had to know how it was done. If the X-Men could make Halo City like this it could very well usher in a new era for humanity. And everything was so CLEAN here. The air was clear and cool and Tim drank it into his lungs in large gulps. The trees and florae were natural, strong, and healthy. Even the pulsating plate of the ciruclar expanse under them was bereft of scuffs or litter. There was so much to this place that was so alien to the world he knew. The mystery of Avalon gnawed at him, he had to know the secret. Now that he had seen that the world could be perfect, he had to know how. The Driver didn’t seem to be enjoying himself. He didn’t seem to be much of anything now. Walking alongside Tim silently, his head somewhat lowered to the ground, the Driver himself looked defeated. The thought came to Tim that the Driver seemed somewhat like a veteran come home from a long and costly war. How was he supposed to relax back into a peaceful, normal life after what he had seen? Tim had not tried to initiate conversation throughout the walk, too enamored of their surroundings. But now… “So,” Tim spoke up. “What’s in store for the next phase of the Driver’s life?” The Driver raised his head for a moment, not responding. “Nothing. Truly nothing,” he finally said, and left it at that. Tim furrowed his brow in concern, “You can’t enjoy the paradise you created?” The Driver was quick to respond to this. “No more than I can enjoy the hundreds I murdered.” It was Tim’s turn to be silent. An old cliché popped into his head. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Tim winced at how appropriate the grisly phrase was to the Driver. “I suppose you’re wondering whether or not your actions made any difference at all in the long run.” “That is one of many things I am…wondering, yes.” “Maybe we should visit the nursery at the hospital and ask that of all the new moms and dads there,” Tim said, it was the only comforting thing he could think of to say. “The people in the Accelerator are gone, but the lives you saved create more life to fill that empty space.” The Driver merely grunted. After a few moments of silence, Tim spoke up again. “What’s your name?” The question seemed appropriate, and perhaps it would start the Driver on thinking about his new life. The Driver seemed taken back by the question at first. He stuttered and tripped over the name, as if it was an old guitar that need retuning. “M…Mathias,” he recalled. “Daniel Mathias.” “It just seemed like it was time, you know?”, Tim explained. “Can’t call you ‘The Driver’ forever.” The dome rose five stories and curved out of site above them as they neared it. “There doesn’t appear to be…,” Tim said, as they walked towards the dome wall. Interrupted by the sudden dissolution of a rectangle of the wall. “…a door.” From what they could see, the inside of the dome was well lit. Tim couldn’t make out any familiar markings or furnishings, though. He was cautious stepping across the threshold all the same. As they both entered, the inside opened before their eyes. They were in some sort of grand hall leading further into the dome. There were still no furnishings or hangings, but the blue-green metallic material was no longer present. Instead the walls seemed to give off a translucent milky glow that came and went. The walls looked so soft that Tim was afraid they would tear and shred if he so much as touched them. It was what he imagined the passageway to heaven looked like. Abruptly Tim decided to try the same energy-sensing ability he had used at the Alchemax school. He was curious. Where was the power for all this coming from? What WAS it, exactly? Magic? He had encountered magic before, it didn’t scare him. Simple electricity? Something else entirely? He was surprised to find himself…hungering for it. The more he looked at the light the more he wanted to fill himself with it. He switched senses. The light exploded in his eyes. The energy was everywhere around him. The translucent material WAS the conductor. Why weren’t they feeling it? Why couldn’t HE feel it? It just didn’t make any sense. Tim quickly withdrew from sensing the energy around him. A tapping on the shoulder from the Driver interrupted his transition. He looked over at the Dri…Daniel. He was nodded towards the doorway they had just come in. Tim’s eyes widened as he turned to face the doorway. The wall there was completely clear, the doorway was seemingly gone, not that it would have mattered. The scene before them rippled gently, like looking at the world through the gas from a stove. Tim turned back to the Driver. “So…impressions?”, he finally managed to get out. The Driver cocked his head to the side. “It’s very impressive.” “Shockin’ right,” Tim stated as they continued along the hallway once more. Soon enough it opened up into a large circular chamber, this had more of a structure to it. There was a dais at the far end of the same material the walls around them were, but several rows of chairs were arrayed before it. It looked like a meeting hall of sorts. The chamber was two stories tall, with two sets of stairs running up the sides of each side of the circular meeting hall to what was presumably a balcony. “Up the stairs, I guess,” Tim said. “Unless he wants to use the backstage entrance or something.” Tim’s attempt at humor fell flat. They were close to the top of the stairs, the balcony that ringed the chamber coming into view when the Driver spoke up. “It appears that the Ferry Master’s private chambers consist of everything above this hall. I assume that this functions as a sort of town meeting square.” “This is the closest thing they have to a city hall, you mean?”, Tim asked. The Driver nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense. Where to n…oh wow.” As Tim looked around the balcony he noticed that he could see the hall they had just walked through. “Geez, I can see through the ceiling of the hall we were just in. I have definitely got to get one of these for Halo.” “I believe this balcony serves as seating for mutants of a more unfamiliar physical structure,” the Driver continued. “There is a gap in the light there. It stands to reason that is a lift of some sort to the Ferry Master’s level.” “Sounds good to me,” Tim responded, making his way bouyantly towards it. This light show was great, he bet Avalon had really fun city meetings. * * * “This is a mild sedative, Katrina,” the Doctor said as she pressed the hypospray up against Katrina’s carotid artery. It released with a familiar hiss. “It is best if your body is relaxed for this.” Katrina felt her muscles slacken and relax, as if someone had taken all the air from them. She was nestled firmly in a cushioned bed of sorts, more a sarcophagus really, that stuck out from an enormous machine. “What is this going to do?” “We call this the stasis,” the Doctor responded. “It’s main function is to freeze the workings of the body so as to make surgery easier. In your case, though, we are going to use it for observation. Your genetic structure is under an intense metamorphosis. This will help me get a handle on the root of the problem. It’s much like taking a picture from the inside.” “Is it going to hurt?”, Katrina asked, her blood thudding gently in her ears. She didn’t think she could move if she tried. “It’s going to be practically instantaneous for you. You will not be aware of the time from the point we activate the stasis to the point you exit. It will be like you blinked and an hour went by.” She took a breath and mumbled, “Huh. Interesting.” “Try to relax now,” the Doctor said as she pressed a button. The sarcophagus slid gently into the massive aperture of the stasis chamber. Katrina stared upward at the gentle blue light around her as the chamber door closed. Abruptly there was a low hum and a sudden flash. The door opened immediately and the sarcophagus slid out. Katrina was puzzled, was the shockin’ thing broken? She spoke up as she slid back out of the chamber. “Is the stasis broken?” The Doctor smiled as she came over to the sarcophagus. “That was an interesting two hours,” she sighed. “I have good news and bad news. Which do you want first?” * * * The lift did indeed go to the Ferry Master’s level, a level of the dome that Tim, while he had enjoyed the entire cosmic scheme of the lower chambers, was glad to see were of normal opacity. Actually, the Ferry Master seemed to like a featureless, bluish lavender tone to his walls. The lift opened up in what seemed to be the middle of a wide hallway. Too wide to suit the living chambers of a single person. Maybe the Ferry Master was anticipating growing very fat in his old age, Tim idly mused. “Very sparse,” the Driver noted as they stepped out of the lift and into the hallway, which stretched and curved out of sight to their left and right. Almost immediately they heard footsteps. The Ferry Master appeared gradually around the corner. “You have come quickly. Excellent.” He clapped his hands together. “I have something of importance to impart to you both.” “Yeah,” Tim responded. “I have more than a few questions for you…” The Ferry Master smiled. “I’m sure. Walk with me. Let’s see what gaps I can fill in. Avalon must be quite daunting for you both. I’m sure you never expected such benign opulence, Driver.” “No,” the Driver spoke. “…but do not think I’m displeased. Though I’m admittedly curious as well.” The Ferry Master simply nodded, still smiling. “I owe you the entire explanation, Driver. And I have a request of your offspring, as well.” Offspring? Oh, right, Tim thought. He was supposed to be the Driver’s son. What did the Ferry Master want from him, though? Was he to be The Driver: The Next Generation, or some such oddness? “Walk with me,” the Ferry Master continued. “I can give you the grand tour, if you’d like.” Tim and the Driver fell into step with the Ferry Master as he continued on past them. “So…Ferry Master,” Tim began as they walked the curve of the hallway. “Have you been…in charge…of Avalon from the very beginning?” “Yes. Though, and perhaps this comes off egotistically but it’s the truth, I am reponsible for so much more. Avalon would not exist without me,” the Ferry Master answered. “Oh. So there’s no one above you? See, I always thought th…,” Tim caught himself. “…my father was the end of the line, as far as Avalon was concerned. I thought he was in charge, you know? So you’re the creator, so to speak?” “Precisely,” the Ferry Master said. “It was I, actually, who appealed to your father’s noble nature all those many years ago.” “It was hard to refuse the offer, Ferry Master,” the Driver spoke up. “Down you come in a dazzle of light, during humanity’s darkest hour, and say you can save the mutants. Bring them to the safest haven they will ever know. It was practically divine.” “Ah, but I could have been a charlatan, a ruse, a mole to flush out traitors,” the Ferry Master offered. “I had to take the chance. I figured that if you were a phony then the world would go on without one more mutant sympathizer. We all had everything and nothing to lose back then.” “Lucky I was the real thing, then, eh?”, the Ferry Master laughed. Tim listened to them both as they hallway continued to curve onwards. To their left the wall was becoming a large, floor-to-ceiling, clear viewport. As they walked, the city of Avalon slowly came into view before them. As was the case on the hilltop of their arrival, he could look down on most of the city. The odd fluidic buildings and street layout scrolled into view, the night’s starscape shining brightly down from above. The Driver and Ferry Master weren’t paying attention, their heads remaining forward. A highrise popped up here and there. A flying mutant zipped by in the background. Then, on the skyline…Tim’s mouth opened in surprise. “Ferry Master,” Tim interrupted. “…where are we?” The Ferry Master looked over him, unconcerned. “Avalon, of course.” Tim pointed out the window. “Then what is that?” The Ferry Master and the Driver turned. The Driver’s mouth popped open to match Tim’s. The Ferry Master chuckled like someone who had just pulled off a really big prank. “That’s Earth, of course.” * * * “The bad news,” Katrina answered. “The bad news is that I don’t believe we can stop your body’s mutation,” the Doctor answered as she helped Katrina pull herself from the sarcophagus. “If we were to deconstruct you down to the very molecule, we still would not be able to separate your transformation from the non-affected cells.” Katrina grunted, she figured as much. “So what’s the good news?” “Your sister, Luna, may be your salvation. At the basic level, you two are genetically alike. Once your body chemistry stabilizes, it may be possible to devolve you back to the form you currently. We could apply her genetic structure to you, layer it over, so to speak.” “Once my chemistry stabilizes…,” Katrina whispered to herself. “I would have to let the transformation take place?” The Doctor nodded. “Yes, I’m afraid. Any genetic layering we would attempt now would most likely be tainted by the transformation. Though while you were in stasis I was able to extrapolate the final result of those transformations.” The Doctor pulled up a monitor screen. Instantly, Katrina’s eyes filled with a harsh mixture of anger and fear. “If it’s any consolation, your new form will be incredibly impervious to harm or disease. Though I can’t say I like the aesthetics of it much, I…” The Doctor jerked back as Katrina plunged her fist into the monitor screen, a flash of sparks and electricity poured out as the monitor went dead. Smoke rose from the hole Katrina had made. “No…,” she growled. “I’ll die first.” * * * “Make yourselves comfortable, please,” the Ferry Master motioned to the variety of upholstery in the room. They’d walked to the Ferry Master’s living quarters and were currently standing in what he liked to call “his aviary”. “I like to watch over Avalon and the Earth from my little pen up here,” he had explained. “Like a mother bird.” The room was small, but roomy enough for perhaps a dozen to lounge comfortably. Tim sat down on a couch that faced the wall-sized window that faced…well…the planet he THOUGHT he was on. “Would either of you like some tea? I have leaves from a valley of circlewoods high up in Tibet. One of a kind. I doubt you’d still find any on Earth,” the Ferry Master offered. Tim and The Driver both declined, wondering what a circlewood was. “Very well,” the Ferry Master continued. He paused for a moment, staring at both of them. “You are all very unique, you know.” He nodded at Tim. “You and your sisters are the first mutants to be admitted into Avalon for decades now. And quite possibly the last ever.” “Why did you close the doors to such a paradise here?”, the Driver asked, understandably curious. “Practical reasons. Avalon is only so large, for one. And more importantly, if a utopia was continually offered to mutantkind, and mutantkind only, long after the years of the Purge, then it would do nothing but damage the relations between the two races. Mutants would no longer care about their planet, after all, they have a hidden wonderland they can hide in. Humans would grow resentful of Avalon. No, it was better that the gates were closed once the darkness ended. Leaving them open would have driven more of a schism between man and mutant.” “Is this all…well, first off,” Tim spoke up. “Where in the shock are we?” “I think that would be obvious. Where else would you have a bird’s eye view of the Earth?”, the Ferry Master answered. Tim looked flabbergasted, he suspected the Ferry Master was getting a big kick out of being obtuse with them. “How come no one has noticed a city on the moon? Alchemax has a lunar project, for shock’s sake, I know that much. And what about the temperature, and the atmosphere, and…is there a force field or something around the place?” “The technology that keeps Avalon, and all of the Blue Area, hidden is far more complicated and advanced for even me to explain clearly. I think it would be better if you accepted it as some sort of invisible magic and moved onward.” The Driver cocked his head in puzzlement. “Blue Area?” “The Blue Area of the Moon,” the Ferry Master began as if he had explained this a hundred times before. “First of all, you must know that humans began developing fantastic powers much much earlier than recorded history dictates. Hundreds of years before mutantkind began poking its head among humanity there were…us.” “There’ve been mutants for hundreds of years?”, Tim interrupted. “Then why all the recent stink about them? I mean…recent compared to the evolution of humanity.” “I assure you that humanity back then made their opinions harshly known as well. It’s why we were forced to leave the planet. It was quite a jarring moment in our history. The planet was swarming with indigenous, powerless, humanity and there we were, our minds and bodies so far advanced. We didn’t belong there, on the humans’ world. We were Inhumans, to put it succinctly.” “You ARE a mutant, then? For a few moments I thought…with all this technology and stuff…you weren’t even from this solar system,” Tim spoke. “I am an Inhuman,” the Ferry Master responded. “That is what we have named ourselves.” “You still haven’t explained about the Blue Area…,” the Driver intervened. “Yes, right. The Blue Area, despite not being blue at all, is the only habitable area on the moon. It was created by…an alien,” he paused. “Simply for convenience, we believe, but as we left the planet all that long ago, we saw it as almost a predestined land for us. We had been mistakenly deposited on the planet, was our belief. The Blue Area was our true home, as it has been for countless years.” The Ferry Master paused again, before adding, “Well, not countless.” It was beginning to come together for Tim. “So you had the perfect hiding spot once the Purge came…so you can see what’s going on down on the planet?” “Of course. I in particular was most interested in the evolution in mutantkind. I was fascinated in the progress humanity was making towards becoming…us. Then things turned for the worse and atrocity fell. We had no choice but to help. I, with my galactic scale teleportation abilities and already grown interest in humanity, was the perfect candidate to spearhead the Avalon project. Down on Earth I found the Driver and M.U.S.E. And you know the history from there.” “You’ll forgive me if I say this is all really weird,” Tim said after a bit. “More so than the glowing walls and alien architecture and all that. So mutantkind has always had a big brother watching over it?” The Ferry Master laughed. “I guess you could say that.” “Well…it’s still weird.” * * * Luna awoke in the hospital bed feeling better than she had in what seemed like a long time. The hunger was still there, she immediately noted, she could sense it all through her. For an instant her hands twitched reflexively, hands that had touched countless others in the past and fed on their emotions like leeches. Amplified every feeling of pain, anger, or regret and left her victims gibbering and raw. Even the only man she had ever allowed herself to love, aside from her father, she remembered. Her real father. She winced at the memory.*** ***All the way back in X-Men 2099UG #3 (Volume 2). Where it was revealed that the first time Luna’s powers manifested they were instrumental in pushing her father over the brink of death. Immediately she pushed it all aside. She would get nowhere by dwelling on bad memories. Unfortunately, they were all her life seemed to consist of. She shifted her train of thought towards the situation at hand. They were in Avalon. She had collapsed on the hillside, she remembered. The hunger had finally overtook her. She supposed she was in a hospital now, from the looks of it. Everyone was gone, though. Tim, the Driver, that goofy-looking Ferry Master, and Katrina. Katrina, her new “sister”, if that was even true. It seemed likely, and Luna found it surprisingly easy to accept. They looked alike, they acted alike, they had the same abilities, they probably thought alike, too. Considering that both their lives had been consumed by the Theater of Pain until very recently. The Theater of Pain, everything always seemed to come back to that. The Theater had found her after she accidentally killed her father, the first time she encountered Tim proved to be the escape she had sought for years. Brimstone Love himself claimed to be her true father. And now this business with a sister. Luna wondered if Brimstone had taunted Katrina with the same accusations. She had a strong suspicion that it would have been that way. Why exempt Katrina from such a claim when it would bring her pain as well? Where was everyone, anyway? Outside? Were visiting hours over? Where was Tim and Katrina? It seemed unlikely that either of them would leave her side. For a moment Luna felt an odd twing of jealousy. Katrina was just like her, what if Tim and Katrina started to get…she abandoned the thought. Katrina, for all her similarities, didn’t seem to have any remote interest in Tim. Luna pulled herself upright to have a look around. The hunger and the weakness were still there, but muted, as if she had finally had a proper rest. Luna wondered what medication was swimming through her bloodstream at the moment. There had to be something for her to feel this…centered…after so long. The door to the room opened and Katrina stalked in. “You’re up,” Katrina said succinctly. “So what do you think of this ‘Avalon’? Not much fun is it?” “No,” Luna answered absently. “Where are the others?” “Your beau and that Driver fellow went to something called The Circle to talk with that Ferry Master and his weird helmet,” Katrina answered as she sat down on the bed next to Luna. For a moment neither of them spoke as Katrina stared at her. “So…are you alright?” “I feel better,” Luna answered. “What about you?” Luna recalled the first time Katrina had explained her motives to them. She wanted Luna’s help, there was a monster lurking inside her. Something like that. “Not good. At all. I don’t know, maybe Halo City will be of better help...” “How do you know I’m your sister?”, Luna asked abruptly. “He told me.” The “he” hung in the air between them. They both knew what she meant. “He made sure I was never far from him during my entire…time…there. Always made a point of telling me I was ‘the one’. That I would grow so strong it would make him proud. That I would accomplish more than you, ‘my sister’, ever would.” “He never mentioned a sister to me. Just that I would never escape the Theater since it was…” It was Katrina’s turn to interrupt. “…in your blood? Yeah. Imagine my surprise when I escaped and saw your face on the news.” “Must have been horrible,” Luna answered. “Confirming everything he said to you.” “Sort of. You escaped, though. Made a life for yourself and even got back at the Theater.” “Brimstone is still alive, though,” Luna added. “We’re not done yet.” Katrina smirked. “He could barely handle you and your friends. How’s he going to stand up to the two of us?” Luna couldn’t quite share her optimism, phony or not, at the moment. She didn’t have to respond, though, as someone strange entered the room at that moment. “Ah, you’re up,” the unfamiliar woman said as the door closed behind her. “How are you feeling?” “You’re the doctor, then?”, Luna asked. “With a capital D,” the Doctor responded. “So, what’s the story then, doctor?”, Luna asked. “To put it succinctly, you are both hopelessly incurable. And your sister likes to break expensive equipment,” the Doctor said with a disapproving look at Katrina. “Just a computer screen,” Katrina explained to Luna. “What do you mean incurable?”, Luna asked. After a moment she added, “Is she really my sister?” “Better. She’s your genetic twin. Although her genetic structure is currently in a state of metabolic flux while yours remains stable.” “I’m changing into something,” Katrina simplified, again. “And when it’s all done and through, the only way I’ll be normal again is if you donate your genetic code as a template to rebuild mine.” Luna didn’t ask what the Doctor meant about Luna herself being hopelessly incurable. She knew already. There was no way they were going to be able to separate the hunger from her. “Changing? What are you changing into?”, Luna asked instead. Katrina told her. Luna’s face went ashen. “We have to leave Avalon. Or put you under sedation. Something. Right now.” The Doctor practically scoffed at Luna’s remarks. “We’ve already tried that. Her cells continue to metabolize even in suspended animation, somehow. And why would you want to leave Avalon? Where is there to go?” “What? What do you mean by that?”, Luna asked. “Well, assuming you could leave, which is impossible, where would you go?”, the Doctor asked. “We’ve seen the pictures, you just CAME from there, the Earth is an apocalyptic wreck.” Katrina and Luna exchanged puzzled looks. Apocalyptic wreck? * * * On a hilltop on the outskirts of Avalon a sudden blaze erupted in mid air. Out from it stepped a hundred sinister shadows, with one silhouette outsizing them all. As quickly as it came, the fire vanished. Brimstone Love’s demonic face curved into a wicked smile as he looked out across Avalon. “They’ve hidden it extraordinarily well,” he mused aloud. So well that he would never have found it if he had not long ago planted the tracker inside Katrina. Though it had taken long enough to simply trace the signal this far, and this remote. “Go,” he spoke to the hundred norns, controllers, and assorted soldiers arrayed in front of him. Bring me the inhabitants of Avalon. Alive. Feel free to kill the city. Find the Ascendant and her new allies.” Without a word, they set off. His smile grew even wider. * * * A sudden flash erupted in the city. One that could be seen clearly from the window of the Ferry Master’s aviary. Shocked, the Ferry Master turned around to see. One of the buildings was completely engulfed in flame. Where once serenity dwelled was now a burning chaos. “What in the…,” he whispered as Tim and the Driver drew up behind him. Wordlessly, the Ferry Master drew up a closer view of the building. The entire window became a viewscreen suddenly, magnifying onto the scene of the burning building. Tim swore loudly. “Oh my god…,” Tim continued. “That’s a Controller.” “What?”, both the Driver and the Ferry Master spoke. “The Theater of Pain. They’ve found Avalon.” NEXT ISSUE: Everything! Shield your eyes ‘cause there’s lots of plot threads coming together! And one heck of a showdown! |
