X-men 2099UG #3

Everything was hazy around her, this was how it always was. The edges of her vision were bordered with thick black clouds, the colors muted and faded. And what she could make out she couldn't seem to keep track of.

Two things were always clear, though. There were men standing behind her, holding her back, she was helpless in their grip. There was a man in front of her. He looked emboldened...but shaky. This was the pose of a man who was making his last stand but still couldn't seem to summon up the courage for that final act of defiance. She knew this man, loved this man.

There were words, always words. She couldn't make them out, they were as hazed and muffled as the vision. They grew in intensity, in harshness. And then there was action, unavoidable and unstoppable. One of the men behind her had a gun. They were all so big, these men. She was so small, a child, they towered over her. Men that were unmovable. She squirmed in their grip, she knew what was coming.

The sound of the shot dragged itself out. A cacaphanous hollow echo that could be heard, it seemed, for forever. Metallic and cold and deadly. It was one of those sounds you heard when people died. Everything went so slowly, yet faster. Gunpowder drifted unseen to the floor as a strength bloomed inside her. She was free of the men's grip. As if their hands had been shackles adorning her, breaking with a snap. Had she broken free? Had they let her go? She ran towards the man in front of her. Everything blurred, she was a streak through the air.

And then they left without another word, those men. There were tears in her eyes, but she saw clearly. This is how it went. The man moaned and clutched the wound in his stomach. His head swiveled slowly towards her as she knelt down. His eyes were pleading. They were asking for help, for a miracle, for a way to keep living, for a release from the suffering. They were telling her that he loved her. Those eyes were saying so much.

She closed her eyes to spare the man her tears, he was so weak, she couldn't let him see her devastated like this. He needed her strength, needed her love. She was the only thing he had left. Lovingly, she wrapped her arms around his head and held him. To comfort, to console, to be there.

This was the point where everything became brutally clear. The edges of black melted away, she was thrust back into the event, time ran normally again. With a shock, she she sat up straight, her eyes snapping open and her mouth hanging wide.

There was pleasure. So much of it. It was amazing, it was intense. It traveled through the man and into her, rolling and crashing, like a floodgate had been opened. A dam had burst, a barrier had exploded into nothing. The torrent flooded her, filling every inch of her. She was floating, she was sure of it. It was just so MUCH...

Under it all, she could tell, like a faint buzzing at the edge of hearing, the man was screaming. His eyes were bulging, veins on his forehead were raised, he was stiff as a board, yet shook violently. It was all she could do to hold on to him. He was screaming so loudly, why was this happening? Couldn't he be quiet for a moment? It felt so good...

When his body finally jarred itself loose from her grip, that's when she knew. The flood of pleasure had ceased, yet it lingered at the edge of knowing. It made a home inside her. She felt fabulous, like she could jump ten stories up, or burst through walls, or outrun a train.

But she knew, somehow she knew, it had come from his pain. It had torn through him like he was nothing. She had taken every iota of pleasure from him, like a parasite, all that was left for him was his pain.

She ran to him crying, cradling his head once more. She was sorry, she was so so sorry. She didn't mean to. Please come back. Please start breathing again. Say something. Say anything. Tell me I can make it better. How I can give it back. I didn't mean to take it. Tell me how. I didn't mean to. Oh I'm so so so so sorry...

That was when she woke up. Always when she woke up. When red lightning seemed to pass through her vision and she jumped out of bed snarling. Her fists clenched, her nails digging into her pale skin. Sometimes she punched a wall, or kicked over the bed. It wasn't fair. She had never meant to kill her father. It wasn't fair...

Shakti spoke calmly to Luna as she sat across the glass table from the ghost-white X-man. "How often do you have this dream?"

Luna sat on Shakti's couch, trying to stay calm, but Shakti could sense the apprehension and anxiety rolling from La Lunatica. Considering Luna's history, Shakti would have been surprised to find anything else. Luna had been raised as a Norn for the Theater of Pain. Taught to use her power in the most malicious of ways. To bring pain to thousands. She was kept as a slave, treated like a dog and collared as such for them for ten years. Maybe longer than that. For so long, Luna had indulged the animal inside her, had never held back her rage and mistrust at the world around her.

As an X-man, she was making remarkable progress towards being able to live a normal life. She was closed off towards all of them, save Tim. She was so close to being able to trust the people around her with her secrets and her thoughts, it was understandable that she would be defensive about it, given her past.

Because of that, it was quite a surprise when she had found Luna knocking on her door, asking for help.

Luna had been having vivid dreams of her past. Things she had forgotten. Things she somehow remembered now. They came to her in the dreams, and one scene played itself over and over again. She couldn't stand it anymore, she had said, so she came to the one person she could marginally trust to help her: Shakti.

"When did this particular dream start?", Shakti asked, still somewhat reeling from scanning Luna's mind and seeing the dream. Shakti didn't want to think about what other horrors might reside in Luna's head.

"A few days after the Exodus battle," Luna answered.

"Can you give an exact date?", Shakti asked, there was something interesting about the timing of Luna's dreams, she had been reading about other cases...

"No, just...it wasn't too long after it."

"Hmmm..."

Luna tensed. "What is it?"

"Oh. Nothing important. It's just that there's been an abundance of psychological cases lately. Repressed memories resurfacing, mostly. I've talked to several psychiatrists in Halo..."

"The psychic energy, or something like that?", Luna wondered.

"That's my thought, both Exodus and Dust had psychic power on the level of demi-gods and they were throwing it around this city like it was water. There's still a residue of it in the city," Shakti informed Luna. "It's entirely possible that the power those two wielded affected the minds of the citizens here."

"Do you feel it?"

"I don't feel it as much, it's something of a buzzing when I use my powers. Some mild interference, but it's gotten to the point where it's easier to cut through."

"So...," Luna said. "Is what you're doing safe? The probing you're doing, I mean? I've never had the clearest memory. Don't you think we should wait until it all settles down some more?"

Shakti leaned forward. "Please, Luna, I know your apprehensive about this, but I won't hurt you. I have full control over my powers. I know what I'm doing."

Luna's eyes narrowed. "There's something you're not saying."

Shakti almost sighed. Luna simply had to trust her. "Yes. I'm not sure I'm powerful enough to pierce your memory."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. To put it simply, your head's a mess. You've got memories of your past, I know they're there, but they're buried so deeply I can't reach them. And then there are other things...barriers and walls I came up against. I'm not sure if you put them up yourself or if they're artificial."

Luna became almost melancholy for a moment. "Neither do I."

"If I'm going to help you, if we're going to sort your memories out, I need to get some help."

Luna immediately drew back, becoming defensive. Her tone became harsh. "That's out of the question. I came to you, Haddad. Only to you. No strangers."

Shakti remained calm. "She's not a stranger, at least not to me. I've known this woman for more than ten years. She's the only one with the power to help you."

"I'm supposed to trust this woman simply on your word?"

"You've allowed me to enter your mind simply on my own word," Shakti countered. Giving Luna a frank look.

Luna growled quietly before speaking. "Fine."

It was twenty minutes before Rachel arrived at Shakti's apartment, looking determined. In that time, Shakti filled Luna in on Rachel's abilities. About Rachel's staggering telepathic powers, about how Rachel had to constantly struggle to keep them in control. How Rachel would never hurt a fly, especially since Shakti would be the one guiding Rachel through Luna's mind. Rachel lacked the precise control needed for the task, but she had the power. Only together, Shakti said, could they help Luna.

Luna took one look at Rachel and seemed to relax. Whatever threat Luna had imagined, she obviously hadn't expected the most powerful telepath in Halo City to be a woman who was more than 70 years old.

Shakti got up to make introductions, Luna stood as well. "Luna, this is Rachel. Rachel, this is Luna."

Rachel knew what Luna looked like from various newscasts and photos of the X-men, but being next to this muscled, fiercely-tempered, pale-white Amazon of a woman was something else. Luna seemed to command fear and respect. Rachel had to try very hard to remember that she wasn't prey, and that Luna was no longer a hunter.

Luna nodded at Rachel, scanning her sharply with the magenta pools that were her eyes. Rachel struggled to find her voice. "It's, um, nice to meet you," Rachel stammered.

Shakti spoke to Rachel telepathically. "You don't have to be scared of her, Rachel. She's not going to hurt you. She needs your help."

Rachel returned her response telepathically. "I'm not scared, Shakti. I'm flamin' terrified." Shakti gave Rachel a brief look of surprise. Rachel smiled weakly.

"When are we going to start?", Luna asked, sitting back down.

Shakti led Rachel over to the couch opposite Luna. "We can start immediately," she said as they both sat down. "It would be best, I think, if you laid down, Luna."

A wary edge was in Luna's tone. "Why?"

"I want you relaxed for this. I want us all relaxed for this," Shakti hastened to add. Luna was being paranoid enough as it was. "We'll all need our complete attention on the task."

Luna slowly scooched back and swung her feet up onto the couch. "I thought you said this wouldn't be a difficult task for you."

"Not the most difficult, no, but linking to Rachel and channeling my control and will through her - and holding it while I probe your mind - is not something I do daily. Or weekly. Or monthly. Or at all. Concentration would be prudent for all those involved."

Luna nodded and laid down. Rachel and Shakti leaned back on the couch, making themselves comfortable. Shakti hadn't said it, but she wanted Luna laying down in case a memory triggered any violent reflexes. That glass table was brand new.

Shakti reached out with her sixth sense, her mild telepathic abilities, the blessing of her mutant gene. Of late she had found herself dabbling more in the telepathic aspects of it. Usually she preferred merely to fiddle with the motor control centers of the brain. It was quick, easy, and there was much less chance of doing permanent injury to someone.

There hadn't been much use for that lately, though. Seeing the world through the eyes of her mind, she connected with Rachel's presence. Shakti was at a loss to explain exactly how she knew how to do that. It was almost too simple, Rachel was simply there, and it only took a thought to link their consciousness. For something that had the potential to completely destroy someone, it was frightfully easy.

Shakti navigated through the power that regularly erupted inside Rachel's mind, grabbing hold of it here and there. Dragging it along behind her somewhat, making it her own. Rachel still kept a tight boundary on it, even after all these years. Rachel's strength seemed to fill Shakti, was she getting bigger? Or did it just feel that way?

Shakti sought out Luna's mind. It appeared before her instantly. Not that she could see it. But she could feel it with her mind. It was hard, closed, like it had contracted in on itself. It was covered in a shell of amazing self-discipline and intelligence. It was almost orderly inside, if you ignored the holes. There were places that felt like an endless void. A barrier? Or something else? Had the memories that might have once been there been completely burned from her? Other places it was a mess. A jumble of raw new memories and thoughts. Like a wound that had been opened and continually picked apart. Underneath it all was emotion, the red hot sun that was Luna's anima. It was powerful. It was tightly wound, ready to burst and cover everything.

Shakti could have spent days exploring Luna's mind, but she digressed. She had a task to accomplish.

Shakti was seeing everything through her mind's eye. In an instant, the dream that had been plaguing Luna materialized around her. She was in the memory itself, seeing what Luna saw. She had already done this once before, but she had never been able to enter the memory. She had seen it as Luna dreamed it every night. Now though, it was clear and orderly, like they were recreating it holographically. Shakti knew she had Rachel's power to thank for this.

Beside her Luna appeared, called by Shakti. She needed to see this.

Luna looked around, surprised. "This is the dream..."

"This is the memory," Shakti corrected. "In its entirety. We're inside your head, Luna, we will be able to see every aspect from here."

Luna turned to Shakti. "How am I inside my own head when I'm laying down on your couch looking at the ceiling?"

"I summoned you, your...awareness...is the best way I can describe it. It's as if I was to take a vidscreen and show you a recording of the memory. Except this is a complete environment."

"Can we be hurt here?"

"No, we cannot interact with it. At least not the way you're thinking. Perhaps one day you will convince yourself that it happened a different way. The memory will be different then. Or maybe I will rewrite it, or erase it from your mind completely. If I was so inclined to do that."

Luna frowned. "So how do I know that this memory is even real?"

"Does it feel real?"

Luna's voice became noticeably quieter. "Yes. Too much so."

"I'll be honest, there's no way for me to tell if this memory is real or not. There's no test we can conduct to find something like that out. But usually a mind knows if a memory is real or not. There are self-defense mechanisms. Something in the memory doesn't fit with another memory. Something seems suspicious. Ultimately it comes down to feeling and circumstance. If someone did manufacture this memory, what for? And why was it jarred loose while, presumably, so many other memories weren't?"

"It's alright, Shakti," Luna said. "You don't have to explain it to me. I think I just wanted to pretend for a moment that this never happened." Luna looked ahead whle she spoke. Before them was the scene. Three men were by the office's door, one of them holding back a small girl. A thin man, in his 50's it looked like, was across the room from them, standing behind his desk. He looked shocked, affronted. The single window in the room, a wide rectangle beside the desk, showed a clear blue sky outside. One story buildings were below, dotting the brown rolling plains outside. They were on the edge of some city.

"Why aren't they moving?", Luna asked.

"I'm holding the memory frozen. Luna...who are these people?"

"That one is my father," Luna said, pointing to the man behind the desk. Her face betrayed no emotion, but Shakti could tell she was struggling to keep something back. Tears? That didn't seem likely. It was hard to tell with Luna, though.

"And that one is me", Luna continued, pointing to the girl being held back by the three men.

Shakti was surprised. "Is this how it was? Your skin is..."

"I looked like everyone else back then, before my power manifested itself and I turned into what I am now. It took a year for my skin to reach this shade of white," Luna said, staring intently at the vision of her younger self. The girl's brown hair was long and shaggy, as unkempt as it was on Luna now. She was short, presumably not having reached her growth spurt yet. She couldn't have been more than twelve or thirteen at that point.

"Your hair and skin. You're Caucasian, but you're dad over there is clearly Hispanic," Shakti pointed to the man behind the desk. He had light brown skin and short black hair. He was a businessman, it seemed. A tailored gray suit on and red tie.

"He's not my real father, I don't know who that is...," Luna trailed off, an old suspicion creeping into her head again. Brimstone Love claimed to be her father, had flaunted it before her when the X-men infiltrated the Slaughterhouse***. Tormented her with it during her captivity. She didn't believe it, not even to this day. How could such a monster like that have offspring? It didn't seem possible. She never came from something so evil. She had a happy childhood. Security. Protection. A loving father...until that day at least.

*** X-men 2099 #25 (regular series)

"You were adopted?"

"When I was three," Luna nodded. "He's the only father I've ever known though. He was a good man." Luna blinked away a sudden tear. Where had that come from?

"He was a businessman...," Shakti said, encouraging Luna to continue.

"He had run afoul of this young upstart. My dad ran the city's water company. This was down in Mexico. The city was nestled below the mountains, next to the lake that the runoff from mountain emptied into. There were several rivers that ran off from this lake. The lake itself was enormous..."

Abruptly, their surroundings shifted. The office vanished and a lake that stretched out almost to the horizon was in front of them. Behind it, a mountain range ran, curving to the right as the far tip of the lake bended with it, out of sight. It must have been at least three miles across.

Luna looked to Shakti, "Did you do that?"

"No, that was you, you're recalling how it looked."

Luna stared at the lake for a bit before continuing. "Anyway, the plains below the mountain were rich farmland. The city was well positioned between the lake, mountains, and plains. It was a prosperous place."

"It seems so, is this southern or northern Mexico?"

"Southwestern, the Pacific ocean is beyond those mountains," Luna informed Shakti, pointing over the mountain range. "Because of the water, though, more often than not the plains were flooded and whole crops lost. Four dams were built on the four largest rivers that stemmed from the lake and mountains. The city's water company had control of them."

"Then how would your father have competitors?"

"In the late 50's the city had to auction off the dams to fill the treasury. They had had several bad harvests and no rain for the longest time. All but one of the dams went to local businesses with small community interests. Five years after that those three sold the dams back to the city in interest of keeping the city's resources out of outside hands."

"What about the fourth?"

"My father had bought that one privately. He had to relinquished control of it, though, to take a position with the newly reformed city water company. A small outside business from the north put in the highest bid for the dam. The city couldn't afford to service all four dams yet, so they allowed the sale. It was their mistake, the new owner would withhold water services to various parts of the city and the plains until he got whatever he wanted. Tax breaks, police protection, whatever."

"How do you know all this?"

The scene shifted back to the office again. Luna paused before continuing. "After he was shot, I looked into it. My father never brought home his business with him. So I had no idea what kind of problems he was having."

Shakti calmly studied the scene once more. "Were you visiting your father that day, and happened to be there?"

"Yes. I had...I had gotten...something happened in school. I can't recall, something exciting happened in school, or I got good grades, or something like that. I couldn't wait to tell him. Even when the secretary told me not to go into his office, I just ran past her..."

"Oh."

Luna nodded to the three men. "Those thugs were as far as I got. I suppose I should be thankful they left me alone after they were done with him."

"But you still had to watch your father get shot. That wasn't the worst of it, was it?"

"No," Luna's tone was quiet again. "They hadn't given him a fatal wound, it was a warning shot. Father was blocking their attempt to buy out another of the dams from the city. Typical intimidation."

"Luna," Shakti put a hand on Luna's arm. "We don't have to go any farther if you don't want to..."

"No, I want it out in the open, I don't want it bothering me when I sleep anymore," Luna said almost angrily.

"I know what happened already, though. The emotional shock triggered your powers. You accidentally fed on your father..."

"I KILLED him!", Luna yelled suddenly. "And I enjoyed every second of it!"

"That doesn't make you a monster, Luna, you couldn't help it. You didn't know...," Shakti was trying to be comforting to Luna, to make her see reason, to get her to stop blaming herself. But it was like trying to tell a train to stop.

"What if I did know? What if I kept on feeding on him after I realized what was happening?"

"Did you?"

Luna seemed to calm down, she didn't speak for a moment. "I don't know. I can't know. I just don't remember. It doesn't feel like it, but what if I did? If my body knew what it was doing and didn't care, it just kept taking..."

"You loved your father, didn't you?"

"Yes."

"And you know that you would never have done anything like that to him. That you were only trying to comfort him, to bring him back."

"...yes."

"Shouldn't that answer your questions?"

Luna paused, looking at the scene again. "The answer can't be that easy."

"Maybe it just is, Luna. Maybe you just can't accept it and that's why you struggle with the memory. Why it continues to resurface. As long as you reject what you're trying to tell yourself, you will continue to be haunted by this. You can't repress this memory forever."

The scene faded as Luna stared at it, her expression unreadable. She said nothing. "There are still some things I can't remember," she finally said.

"Your life after this?"

"No, I remember that clearly. I ran away. I was going back to an orphanage anyway. Father had no wife and no kids. That's why he adopted me all those years ago. I was confused about my powers, about what had happened. There were so many emotions and I didn't know how to process them. I became a street thief and urchin. I headed north. Somewhere along the line the Theater of Pain found me, practically salivating at my mutant abilities, and raised me to be a Norn. I grew up in the Splatterpits..."

"Wait. Do you hear that?", Shakti said, interrupting Luna.

Luna cocked her head. "Hear wha...yeah, I hear it. It's my Protectorate combadge."

"Looks like the session is ended, then," Shakti said. "Thank you for trusting me, Luna."

"Thank you for not betraying that trust," Luna responded. "When we leave...here...will it hurt?"

"It will be disorienting, yes, but there is no pain," Shakti answered.

"Keep this between you and Rachel," Luna added as a last thought. "I'd rather people not know about this."

"Not even, Tim?", Shakti asked.

"That's for me to decide."

*     *     *

"Stop right there!", Krystalin yelled at the man in front of her.

The small man just grinned at her. He was kind of short, only a few inches above five feet, Krystalin was assuming. She practically towered over him. And yet he was grinning. She didn't need this.

It had started when she had been shopping for some window curtains for her apartment. She was down at the Haloplex Mall, quietly browsing, trying to keep the store holo-attendant from asking her AGAIN if she needed help. No thank you, just looking. Yes, I know about the sale. Yes, thank you. Yes. THANK. YOU.

She had been leaving the store when she heard the crash, it was the sound of about a hundred panes of glass shattering. Someone had actually dived through the roof! The shards had rained down on the customers, Krystalin didn't have time to erect a shield to deflect the glass. Through the mess, though, she could clearly make out the culprit. A small man who seemed to have some sort of force field around him.

The man turned around to face Krystalin, a look of wonder on his face. "Hey! Wow! I didn't have to go very far to find one of you people, did I?" Immediately he ran forward, the force field rammed into her, sending her sailing backwards onto the floor. Glass dug and cut into her back. Krystalin cried out.

Krystalin had a split second to think as the man barreled towards her again. Probably, she presumed, to crush or suffocate her with the force field. Raising her hands, she let fly a barrage of tiny crystal shards. A thin stream of crystalline needles, like pure shrapnel, shot from her hands. They impacted against the man's force field, spilling off it...as water?

The man stopped in his tracks, laughing at the surprised look on Krystalin's face. Wincing, she took the opportunity to get back on her feet. There was glass everywhere, and now the floor was wet. Krystalin felt a stabbing pain below her right shoulderblade and fumbled her hand back around. There was a large piece of glass stuck there.

"Water! Hah!", the man laughed. "You got lucky, twist. It coulda been hydrochloric acid, or siestadrene gas, maybe even kitty litter. That happened once."

Krystalin clutched her right shoulder, every time she moved her arm, the bone scraped against the glass. It was insanely painful. "What...are you talking about?"

"I'm more than just a force field and a pretty face, my X-sweetie. I'm the Randomizer. Random for short," the man answered.

Holding her right shoulder, her wrist covering the badge on her right breast, she tapped it twice softly. Twice was the emergency Protectorate signal, she hoped she had been inconspicuous about it. Gritting her teeth, she faced Random. "Your code name sucks," she said as a thick crystal sheath enveloped Random and the space his force field occupied. She added to the sheath, making it as heavy as she could. Let's see him get his way out of that.

Her eyes went wide as the crystal covering abruptly turned to sand. What exactly did "Random" mean, anyway? The new sand dune shifted and the man emerged from it, still inside his force field.

"Freeze, get down on the ground!", a mall security guard screamed at Random, his gun pointed at him.

"Get out of here! You can't handle him, call the Guardians!", Krystalin said, ordering him to call the city's new police force. Krystalin wasn't sure if this was in their jurisdiction, but she could sure use their help.

"You do your job, lady, I'll do mine," the security guard said gruffly. He turned back to Random. "I gave you a warning already, kook. You brought this on yourself." The security guard fired a laser shot at Random. It hit the force field...turning into a small piece of ice.

Random kicked the piece of ice across the floor, smiling at the surprised look on the guard's face. "Surprised? I don't blame you. Let me show how this force field of mine works." As Random walked towards the guard, he started firing one bolt after the other. They all turned into different substances as they impacted against Random's force field. Chips of wood, plastic, shafts of copper, salt, puddles of slime. Every bolt was randomly turned into something else. Krystalin was beginning to understand.

"This force field, see, it turns things that hit it into other things. I can't control what any of it changes into. It's all random." Random's force field touched the security guard's leg slightly, instantly it turned to glass. The security guard screamed. "Get it? Random!"

"No!" Krystalin limped towards Random, unable to catch him. She kept her distance, not wanting to suffer the same fate as the security guard. "Someone call an ambulance for him!", she yelled to bystanders. They all immediately ran off, probably more in fright then concern for the guard.

"I'm gonna have fun here, there's so much to run through, so much to change," Random said to Krystalin.

"You'll be stopped," she threatened, still backing away slowly.

"Maybe when I go to sleep. If I'm still here by then. I get around. What would you like to be turned into? Maybe if you wish real hard my force field will listen." Random began to walk quickly towards Krystalin, across the walkway that seperated each side of the mall store fronts. Out of the corner of her eye, Krystalin could see people running away below on the first floor.

Suddenly the air flashed in front of her, thick green-tinted beams of energy shot upwards from the floor. They sliced through the rock and plastic and tile, debris flying up everywhere. The energy beams cut through the walkway completely. She knew that energy signature. Krystalin put up her hands to shield herself from it all as the walkway tilted downward with a loud groan of snapping metal and rock. Random yelped as he slid downward out of sight.

Krystalin ran over to the bannister and looked down at the first floor. Tim was down there, fully charged with energy, and throwing energy beams wildly at Random. The air was thick with electricity, Krystalin's hair was beginning to lift.

Tim was putting on quite a show of force, but Krystalin could tell that it wasn't working against Random. His force field was holding, the energy beams being transformed into various things. Around them the lights flickered on and off, finally dying. Tim wasn't going to stay charged too much longer, she had to think of something.

"Krystalin, your back..." Krystalin turned around suddenly as Luna spoke.

"Luna! You scared me. I'm back?"

"No, your backside, it's all torn and bleeding."

"I know," Krystalin winced again. "I'm definitely feeling it. How bad is it?"

"Bad. You should get out of here before the wounds become infected."

"I can't leave Tim and you to fight this guy alone," Krystalin said.

Luna looked over the balcony, the glow of Tim and the yellow tint of Random's force field lit up both their faces. "Him? A guy with a force field? We can take care of him."

"No, wait!", Krystalin warned as Luna jumped the bannister and dropped eleven feet to the ground, she landed gracefully, her body taut and ready for a fight.

"Stay back, lover," Luna called out to Tim. "I'm going to find out what makes this guy tick." Instantly, Luna reared back and drove a piledriver punch into the force field. The sound of the impact echoed off the walls. Followed immediately by the sound of Luna screaming. Her hand was...carbonized, it crumbled away as she clutched the stump.

"Luna!", Tim and Krystalin screamed in unison. Random got up from where the force of the punch had thrown him. He was laughing, always laughing.

Tim ran over to Luna, full of concern. The electrical energy left his body, the way he looked normally returning. "Tim! Watch your back!", Krystalin yelled from above. Random was on the move again.

Angrily, Tim turned around and blew an enormous crater in the ground in front of Random. The hole kept growing as Tim poured more energy into it, he began to plow a circle around Random, intending to entrap him. The air vibrated with the force of the energy Tim was throwing out. In all her time with the X-men, Krystalin had never seen him sustain that kind of power level for that long. It was intense, he must have been getting his power from elsewhere. Krystalin could imagine buildings for blocks around the mall suddenly blacking out.

However, she knew that wouldn't last, that Luna had to get to the hospital - and so did she. Tim would have to hold Random off. Maybe he could do it. Maybe. Random seemed scared by the waves of fury Tim seemed to be throwing at him.

Setting her teeth, she created a pole from the second floor to the first. She let go of her right arm and let it hang limply at her side. It hurt so much, but not as much as she knew this would...

Krystalin slid down the makeshift crystal pole, clutching it as tight as she could. It felt like knives were stabbing her from the inside. The sensation shot up her back a million times over. She groaned, her teeth clenched. It would be over soon, it would be over soon, it would be over soon...

She hit the floor and immediately crouched next to Luna, who also had her teeth clenched and her eyebrows scrunched together. She was weathering the pain as best she could. "We gotta get out of here, Luna," Krystalin spoke. "Can you walk? I can't carry you."

Luna nodded briefly and got to her feet. "What about, Tim?" The words came out between sharp breaths.

"He'll have to do without us this time. Sham and the Guardians should be here soon. He won't be alone for long."

With that said, the two made their way slowly away from the battle. As they neared the mall exit, Sham came running in, she stopped in front of them, out of breath. "What's going on guys? I came here as fast I...friggin' shock! What happened to your hand, Luna?"

"It's gone, Sham," Krystalin answered quickly. "We both have to get to the hospital. Tim's inside, we're up against someone who has a force field. Anything that touches it gets turned into something else. The effect is random but still...stay away from it."

"I gotta help you guys, you're injured really bad...," Sham went on.

"No! We'll be fine! Get in there and help Tim before he ends up this way," Krystalin scolded.

"Right. Right. Okay," Sham said, running off into the mall.

They made their way slowly outside, Luna muttered weakly. "Shoulda brought Shakti..."

*     *     *

Sham skidded to a halt before she ran right into his force field. Random turned around. "Who's this? Another X-man? Where'd the other two go? Gone to lick their wounds, no doubt."

"What?", Sham said. This guy was a little unbalanced.

"One of them lost a hand fighting me," Random came towards Sham. "Want a matching set? You could start a new teenage fad. You can't be more than sixteen."

"If only," Sham said. "Then you'd never live down how you get your ass handed to you by a sixteen year old."

"And you've got spunk! I like an opponent with spunk. It makes the fight so much more fun. I hardly remember I'm on the clock."

"You're what?", Sham said as she jumped back from Random's sudden forward thrust. A sudden blast of energy plowed into the back of his force field just then. Tim wasn't out of the fight. The energy transfigured into wet, mixed concrete as it hit Random's force field.

Nimbly, Sham dodged past Random and ran to Tim. She jumped over deep gouges in the floor and various debris scattered. The ground was wet, too. It was an incredible mess. All the lights were out. The only illumination coming from the skylights far above.

"Tim!", Sham yelled as she slid up to him, she made her tone quieter. "Don't move, don't talk, let me try something."

"What?", Tim asked, wondering.

"Shut up!"

Surprisingly, Tim did. He was out of tricks, she realized. He was hoping she had something. Her stomach filled with dread, things were more dangerous than she thought.

"What are you doing over there?", Random yelled. "Come over and play! It'll be fun! We can play rock, paper, scissors! You'll turn into one of them, and I'll try and guess which one you'll end up as!"

Immediately, Tim and Sham got up and faced Random defiantly. "Do you have any idea what my power is?", Sham said.

"No, but I was hoping you'd show me before I turned you into oatmeal," Random continued forward.

Sham smiled. "Excellent. You're gonna bite it, man. Ready, Tim?" Suddenly Tim and Sham ran straight for Random. Random paused, clearly not expecting a charge. Before he could react though, they were on him.

"WOOHAH!", Sham whooped as she made contact with Random's force field. She vaporized into smoke instantly. Tim did the same thing, dissolving into a shower of sparks. Random was surprised.

"Well, that offensive didn't work out too well, did it? Unless her power was to turn into smoke." Random reached a hand through the wafting smoke that used to be Sham. "Nah."

He turned around and surveyed the destruction. "So they were the X-men? I suppose I should track the other two down now. Finish the job off," he said, talking to himself. "Quite a mess though." He looked up where the walkway used to be, it still hung limply from thin strut supports. "And such terrible craftsmanship. I'll never feel safe in a shopping megaplex again." Relaxed, his force field vanished.

Random turned around to walk towards the exit when the flash filled his vision. It was as bright as the sun, like a star had decided to fall from the heavens and situate itself in his eyes. A shock went through his entire body. Something hit him. There was a brief flash of pain and then nothing. Random flumped down to the floor unconscious.

Sham and Tim stood over him, Tim's hand was smoking. "Do I talk all the time like that?", Sham asked Tim.

"Sometimes."

"Oh, honestly, really?"

Tim smiled. "Well, I don't know, I usually ignore everything you say."

Sham put her hands on her hips and frowned. "Now that's not very funny. And not an effective way to make me feel like a valuable member of the Protectorate."

"You're a member of the Protectorate? I thought you were our mascot."

"Hey!"

"Well why are you dressed so funny?", Tim continued to tease.

Sham's voice became serious. "Okay, enough."

"Okay."

"What should we do with this jerk?"

As if in response, ten Guardians rushed into the area, their firearms at the ready and their faces alert. Guardian Chief Croix was with them.

"Son of a...," Chief Croix muttered, surveying the damage. "Did you guys do all this?"

"Some of it," Tim said dismissively. "But we were trying to stop this guy." Tim kicked Random's limp body with his boot. "He shattered a security guard's leg and Luna lost a hand."

"Luna? La Lunatica, right?", Chief Croix asked. "Where is she?"

"Her and Krystalin were wounded pretty bad. They're at the hospital right now, hopefully," Sham answered.

"Which is where we should be, Chief, if you don't mind," Tim said.

The Chief sighed. Look at this mess! If they only had waited for the Guardians. He had nothing against mutants, but why did they feel the need to tear everything to pieces when they fought? Wasn't the Exodus fight enough for them? "I suppose. I'll have questions though."

"We'll be happy to answer them, Chief," Tim said, walking past them. "Thank you." The chief grunted unhappily in reply.

"So when did the illusion start?", Tim asked as they made their way to the exit.

"When I told you to shut up," Sham said grinning. "How about a thanks for me for saving your life?"

"Er...thanks. You know I'm thankful, Sham," Tim responded.

"I know. I just like raggin' on ya about it."

"Who do you think sent him?", Tim asked, changing the subject.

"Yeah, those were some weirdly ominous things he was saying there. I couldn't imagine who would send hired mutants after us, though. Maybe the Theater of Pain?"

"It doesn't seem like the Theater's style, somehow. They'd send Norns, or other somesuch minions. And it wouldn't be so public."

"We can find out later when he's in a cell and pumped full of inhibitors," Sham said.

Tim sighed. "Now when did that happen?"

"When did what happen?"

"When did WE have to start imprisoning mutants?"

*     *     *

Alex Moss looked up at the towering, gleaming spires of Halo City. This was the city. This was THE city. Mutants and humans living together in peace. Singing songs hand in hand. Baking pies for each other. Occasionally destroying large tracts of land. It was supposed to be paradise. An epitome of equality in a long-jaded corporate world.

Alex Moss, like most well-educated people, didn't buy into that for a second. And it had superheroes watching over it all. Real honest superheroes! It was crazy. But it was a large kind of crazy. An interconnected and bustling kind of crazy. A pool of craziness that he could dive straight into and be lost in.

They would look for him, he knew, his former employers, his former captors. The Hellfire Club never let anyone leave without their say. But they wouldn't look here, they were busy here and Alex Moss would, of course, be a complete shockin' idiot to reside in the very city that the Hellfire Club soon hoped to own lock, stock, and barrel. What was Alex Moss thinking? Really.

He knew this all with a finality that he didn't really deserve. Alex was a mutant, too, he could see the future. He knew he was coming here before he had ever thought of hiding here. Had decided to come here simply because of that. Funny how that worked. Not a ha-ha funny. More of a thank-god-I'm-not-dead-yet funny.

And so Alex Moss wandered about the outskirts of Halo City's streets, reveling in his garaunteed safety. Things were looking up for him. No more servitude under Alexander Shaw, no more worrying hourly about his life, no more guilt that the information he provided helped make the world a little more desperate and unlivable. Let the world run on without Alex Moss for a good long while. He was going to get some needed rest. Mull on his options. Look for advice from the future. Drink a decent cup of coffee on a regular basis.

And then he was going to start running again. Unless the Hellfire Club was somehow taken completely down.

But honestly, how likely was that?

Next Issue: The Hellfire Club! Book! X-Nation! Victor Ten Eagles! Gavin Rentaro! The X-men try to find the culprit behind the recent murders in Halo City as events heat up in Alaska.