Ultimate X-Men

Issue 86

The Underneath

Part 1

The Gladiators' Arena

Dazzler jumped out of the way of the fire ball and quickly rolled to the left, pushing up with her feet she launched into the air and screamed a blood curling scream. A burst of life so bright and intense fired out of her hands and blinded her foe.

The blond woman yelled in pain and fell to the ground as Dazzler landed next to her, kicking her in the side for good measure and a loud voice boomed over the megaphone.

"And the winner is… Dazzler!"

The crowd roared with delight. Dazzler smiled and threw her hands into the air, yelling. Light burst out all around her. "Yes!" Dazzler teeth shined in the light as she turned around at all of her fans.

Everyone that came to see her.

"Yes!" She roared again, more light bursting forth to more screams of delight.

"And now, a grateful message from our host!" The voice on the megaphone said.

A quick cough and, "Is this thing on… Oh it is? Good." The crowed started to die down and the light around Dazzler faded as all moved their attention to the host. A man so mysterious that no one knew who he was or what he did… he only funded the games and only came every so often.

However… the more Dazzler won, the more he showed up to those games.

"Honored guests, welcome!" A huge roar erupted from the stands. "It is the highest of honors I can bestow on our current undefeated champion, Dazzler!" More roars of applause.

Dazzler smiled and soaked in the sound and left lose. A burst of light so bright that the entire arena was lit up like the noon day sun.

"Dazzler, Dazzler…" The voice said, a slight laugh rumbled from the speakers. "I would like to offer a challenge." Everyone in the arena quickly quieted down. "Your lonesome self against my Warriors Three."

A gasp erupted from the crowd. The Warriors Three were the Host's personally body guard. They never played in the games… they were considered too powerful and now the host was wanted to pit the three of them against her.

"I accept!" Dazzler said with a burst of light. No one said a word… no one made a sound. They audience was too stunned that the Host was doing this, much less that Dazzler had actually accepted it.

Then finally a scream from the crowd. Not of panic, but of glee. Then another, and another, finally by groups of people till slowly the entire arena was shaking from the excitement.

"That a girl!" It was the original voice announcer. "Not scoot so the teams can play." Dazzler waved at the crowd as she walked out of the center of the arena and towards the waiting crowd on the side lines.

"What is going on?" Mirage said as she rushed up the young woman. Mirage was a Native American and liked to wear her custom warrior wear while battling and today was no different.

"I'm sure the Host just wants to hike the price up of my next game." Dazzler said as she jumped into the air and landed on Cain's broad shoulders.

"Dazz…" Cain said looking at her. "I don't think you understand… The Warrior's Three are-"

"The more fearsome and blah blah blah…" Dazzler said pinching Cain's cheek. "I'll be fine sweetie."

Cain looked at the girl for a moment before waving at the other people leaving them.

"Try talking some sense into her, Cain." Skids said as she grabbed Rusty's hand and they rushed to the center of the ring with the others.

"And now-" The announcer continued to speak as Cain and Dazzler walked into the complex that was built for the warriors.

"Skids is right, Dazzler." Gambit appeared out of the shadows and looked at the two as they walked into the common area.

"I don't really…" Dazzler begin to speak as she jumped off Cain's shoulder and crashed to the floor. "Stop her…" Dazzler crumpled to the floor looking like she was in pain, twisting in a way that shouldn't be natural.

"Ali!" Cain said as he rushed to her and Dazzler let out a burst of light blinding Remy and Cain. "Ali!" Cain roared again taking the brunt of the blast.

"Girl!" Remy yelled not expecting the blast.

"Stop!" Dazzler yelled jumping into the air. "Stop it! Stop it!" Dazzler rushed out of the room and down the hall, yelling. "Stop!"

Dazzler rushed through the nearest door and found herself in the bathroom looking at herself. She didn't know if she had control or if the other her had control. "Stop it!" Dazzler punched the wall. "You'll kill me!" Dazzler realized she had control of herself. "Alex!" Dazzler screamed as loud as she could, verbal and mentally. "P-Bird!"

After a moment of silence Dazzler looked at herself in the mirror and smiled. "That was stupid, girl." Dazzler started to giggle as she looked at the cracked mirror and blood running down her knuckles and hands. "I don't know how you did that, but never again."

Dazzler turned away from the cracked mirror. Another Dazzler in the broken pieces was banging against the glass, screaming, but with no sound.

Chicago:

Alex sat at his desk tapping his finger against the wood of the desk. Six weeks had passed since Scott disbanded the X-Men, Storm and Bishop went missing, Anna and Michael went on their vacation, Rose came back from her abduction, and finally, Peter's sister back from… from hell.

So much had happened and yet Alex didn't have any time to do anything that he had set up. He got the job at Warrington Enterprises to try and stop his horrible future from coming to past and he had yet to find anything that would link this time with his future.

Nothing. Alex snapped a pencil he was mentally holding onto without realizing it. Alex typed some at his computer and his screen came to life from the blackness.

There has to be something. Angel was sure that his father had something to do with the Sentinel Program. He was sure of it.

Alex pushed back into his chair and thought about a certain file he kept coming across.

The OZT File. Alex clicked the file just to find an invoice order for parts. Lots and lots of parts. Some plastic and some metal.

"What are you building, Mr. Worthington…" Alex mused as he pushed himself back from the desk and stood up and looked out his huge wall windows. The view was breathtaking. Alex could see the entire city from his high rise office. All around him was the city and off to the east was the lake.

Alex had never seen the lake in his time, but if it was anything like the waters that surrounded his New York City, he wouldn't want to. He squeezed his fist and fire erupted around him.

It was just humans that destroyed his world.

It was mutants too.

Suddenly Alex felt something… he couldn't quite understand till it hit him like a ton of bricks. "P-Bird!" Alex roared as his phoenix effect burst out around him, making all the windows in his office explode outward.

Alex fell to the ground, the fire around him dying out.

"Mr. Braier! Mr. Braier!" Alex's assistant rushed into the office and screamed. "What happened?!"

Alex pushed himself off the floor and looked around. "Juila…" He moaned.

"Mr. Braier! What happened?" Julia said rushing to Alex's side, helping the man up.

Alex grunted as the woman helped him up. He had to mentally remember to keep the woman seeing what he wanted her to see.

Too Julia, Alex was actually Jamie Braier, middle aged single man who is an up and rising star in Worthington Enterprises.

"Julia…" Alex shook his head. Alex had to clear his head. This was getting out of hand. He had to reach out with his mind and….

"Mr. Braier… I… I…"

Alex waved a hand and the disaster that was his office changed back to the way it was before Alex had his episode. "The coffee Julia."

Julia looked at Alex, confusion in her eyes and then she looked around the office. "I… I…"

Alex smiled and the woman and give her a slight mental nudge and mentally scanned the entire office building. Alex strained slightly as he touched every mind in the building. Before he came to this time he would not have been able to do this, hell, he didn't even realize he had telepathy and it seemed liked ever since coming here his mutant powers jumped started to such an extended that it almost scared him.

"Done." Alex said as he looked around the room. Alex slumped into his chair… what happened.

"Dazzler."

Alex touched his forhead and reached out with his mind. Peter… Blink.

Alex? Peter sounded worried.

What's up? Blink asked.

I just had a mental… attack of some kind.

What?! Peter almost roared at the news.

Peter… Alex said pushing some of Peter's calming sensors. Dazzler's in trouble.

What can we do? Blink asked.

I want you, Peter, and Rose to go to San Francisco and save our teammate.

What about Nightcrawler? Blink asked.

He… We need someone to watch Illyana.

Is that all? Peter asked, a little heat in his voice. When will you trust her?

Now is not the time Peter.

Alex, when will be the time-

Guys! Blink said. I'm still here.

I want Nightcrawler with me for back up. I'll be there as soon as I can.

Alex cut off his mental contact before anyone else could say anything and looked at the computer screen. He wanted to find out what OZT was and he wanted to find out fast.

Genosha:

President Mojo sat on his throne of metal, gems, and gold. It had been six weeks wince the old government had fallen and it had been six glorious weeks. After his island was destroyed and his television so canceled he decided to start a new show, a show about his life, where he was the star… and ruler of a thriving country.

Genosha was just a plus. He had worked quick and fast. No one knew what was happening till it was too late and the entire island had fallen in a matter of days. With no word leaking to the outside Genosha was totally cut off from the outside and Mojo could do whatever he pleased.

And Mojo did.

Mojo did a lot.

He started by freeing all the locked up mutants, that is, after he turned them into his mindless slaves. Every single mutant on the island did what they were ordered to do by the ruling class. The island had entered a Golden Age never seen before. The rare metal and gems that were mined in the mountains in the center of the island were worked quickly and cheaply, since the labor was free, and Mojo opened the ports again.

Once the ports were opened, Mojo was able to sell, sell, sell, sell. He made a fortune for his new country in a matter of weeks.

All on the back of his mutant slaves.

He wasn't an unkind man. No everyone was aloud mutant slaves, just those that were loyal to the cause and those that helped Mojo come to power. A select few and that pool grew smaller and smaller and as he… eliminated his greatest threats from within.

"Bring me the Weather Witch." Mojo said from his throne.

"Yes, Mr. President." General Domo said bowing and walking away from the throne.

"President Mojo." A woman walked up to the throne and bowed her head. He long golden hair falling over her left solder. "It seems the raiding party is back and they have a very big haul this time."

"Good." Mojo said as he smiled. The raiding parties. Those were perfect by design, a great ratings boost to his mental state. The old government of Genosha had outlawed mutants and any caught were imprisoned and left to rot.

Mojo saved the few remaining left. Unfortunately that wasn't many, but the few that he had found… oh they were priceless. A mutant that could wipe out special powers, a mutant that scrambled minds, a mutant that could alter the earth… the list went on and on.

But he needed more and so he created the M Squad, a group of mind controlled mutants that would go out on raiding parties and bring back more mutants for the cause.

Mojo had a plan. His great world didn't end at Genosha's boarders.

No… he planned to change the entire world into the greatest stage production… ever.

"Mr. President." General Domo had walked back into the room and threw Storm at Mojo's feet.

"Ahhh. Splendid." Mojo said as he rose from his throne and walked over to the half unconscious girl. "The only reason why I haven't wiped you and fried you brain girl…" Mojo said as he drew closer and picked the woman up with her pure white hair. "Is because you amuse me."

Storm grunted as Mojo dropped her back to the ground.

"Now, tell me what you know about the X-Men."

Storm didn't say anything as she looked at the man that had beaten her and abused her for six weeks. Mojo smiled as he walked back to his throne and sat down looking at the girl.

"See General Domo… the Witch doesn't even have the heart to fight me anymore." Mojo laughed as his huge hulking frame crashed down on the throne. "What was the beat? Six weeks? Seven? To break her?"

"I do believe you give her six weeks." Domo said, not looking at the man or at Storm. In fact he was looking down at his feet.

"Goooo…" Storm moaned as she tried to push herself off the floor.

"She speaks!" Mojo said quickly getting to his feet and his arms spread out wide. "Come come. I already have your partner in crime working in the mines. It will only be a matter of time before I have you watering my flowers."

Storm pushed herself off the floor and looked Mojo in the eyes. "Go to hell!" She yelled before she crashed back to the floor.

Mojo stood there for a moment, angry washed over his face, but he quickly laughed. Laughed harder than he ever laughed before. "Oh child. We are in hell."

Mojo sat back down and smiled at the girl who was getting closer and closer to unconsciousness. "Domo. Break me Donald Pierce and his Reavers."

"Mr. President?" General Domo asked, looking slightly confused.

"Pierce, Domo. Pierce!"

San Francisco

A pink ring of energy appeared out of the air to announce the coming of Blink and her teammates. Colossus appeared first to check to see if everything was okay for the others.

His huge metal frame jumped out of the teleportation ring and he landed in a bellowing cloud of dust. Since leaving the X-Men he had decided that he wanted his team to have a different set of uniforms.

After all, breaking all ties with the X-Men called for something drastic… but not too drastic. His uniform was still all black, but with touches of color and was now sleeveless. The color came from a huge golden X that was strapped across his chest and reached around his back.

When Alex had first seen it he had laughed at the big Russian.

"What, you wanted to cover as much as possible?"

"What?" Peter said innocently. "You want me to run around in a speedo and wrist bands?"

Colossus smiled at the memory. "It's clear."

Wild Child was next to jump out of the portal and Blink was right behind her. When Blink left the portal it winked out of existent.

Wild Child had slowly started coming back to the world of the living and Colossus was grateful. He thought that Rose and his sister would help each other. Although each person went through their own type of hell, they bought came out of it and both could grow from it.

Colossus also had designed new outfits for Wild Child and Blink and both were wearing matching outfits, black leather with the same X design that Colossus had, but Wild Child's was red and Blink's was green.

"Did Alex say anything else that were are supposed to do once we get here?" Colossus asked looking around.

It looked like the group had teleported to an abandoned warehouse on the coast, not somewhere where Dazzler would be.

"He said this was the last place he felt her presence before it disappeared." Blink said looking around.

The sun was setting and the light was failing fast. The three didn't have much time before they wouldn't be able to see anything and their search would be a day old.

"Not here." Wild Child said as she was sniffed the ground. She was crouched and looked to be in a very uncomfortable position as she spoke, "Underground."

"What?" Colossus asked looking at the girl.

"I think we have to go underground." Wild Child said as she stood up and walked towards the building.

"Can you blink us there?" Colossus asked.

"I… I don't think so." Blink said shaking her head. "I don't know where to blink us too. I mean, I could blink us in the middle of the earth and we would die."

"Yeah… let's not do that." Colossus said as he watched Wild Child walk closer to the building.

"Guys!" Wild Child yelled.

Colossus and Blink rushed over to the building and realized that there was someone guarding the door.

"This man says we can't go in… it's a private party."

"Party?" Colossus says and stars down at the man.

The man, looking up at Colossus gives off a slight laugh and quickly opens the door. "For you, big dude, you get in free. Enjoy the show!"

"Show?" Blink asked as Wild Child and Colossus entered into the dark room.

"You haven't heard!? Dazzler is fighting the Warriors Three!"

Madripoor:

"Logan-san…" A light feminine voice called to the man leaning on the rail looking out over the city. Logan had been in the city for about a week on his worldwide trip looking for any clues to his past.

He stood on the balcony, only in his shorts, as the wind blew the sea salt air into his face. His super senses could pick almost everything out of it. The salt, fist, sweat from dock workers, people from down below.

"Logan…" The voice sounded slightly irritated, but still light and almost flirtatious.

Logan sighed at what had happened to him in the past six weeks. Since that child, Scott, disbanded the X-Men and that old guy, Bishop… it was all just a mess and Ororo.

He had feelings for the girl, but he was old enough to be her grandfather. Hell, maybe even her great-grandfather… it was just, weird.

During the middle of his trip Logan stopped in Japan for a little R and R when he ran into a girl, a girl that he thought he would never see again, the only problem was it wasn't the same girl that he knew she was supposed to be.

"LOGAIN!"

"Coming Betts." Logan turned away from the amazing view of up town and he turned his attention to the young Asian woman sitting on the chair with her legs crossed.

"Just call me Psylocke, Logan." Psylocke said shifting her weight in the chair. Her long dark purple hair falling over her shoulder, her deep blue eyes shining in the light from the windows, she smiled at the man.

"Logan-san?" He asked the girl.

"You know sometimes I slip." Psylocke stood from the chair and stretched. "Ever since being in this body, the old mental state still creeps up every now and then."

"I'm still having a hard time understanding what happened." Logan said walking towards his uniform and reaching for it. "When you… the other you, died your mind found the closest dead body to go to?"

"No. Not exactly." Psylocke said watching the man move.

Logan stared at the girl, eyebrows rising.

"When my body was taken over a part of me was still able to use my mental powers. I was searching for someone… anyone, that was close to what I can do-"

"What you could do?"

"My mutant power. I found this body, brain dead, but in her memory banks she had basically the same type of power as me." Psylocke held out her hand and a purple katana appeared in her hand. "I use to be able to create something along the lines of psy-bombs that I could blow up in side people's heads… now…" She swung the katana and the sword disappeared. "Now I can pretty much do the same thing, but through this sword."

"Interesting…" Wolverine said reaching for his pants. "And the others know about you?"

"I met them once." Psylocke said.

"And?"

"What?" Psylocke said watching the man put on his clothes. "We had tea and cookies."

Wolverine looked at the woman and narrowed his eyes. "Smart ass."

"What are you doing?" Psylocke asked.

"Come on." Wolverine said putting on his cloves. "We need to help the girl down in the ally. She's 'bout to get the crap kicked out of her."

"What?" Psylocke asked rushing over to the window. "Why didn't you say something earlier?!"

"Sometimes a body just needs a good roughing up." Wolverine said as he grabbed Psylocke around her waist and jumped off the balcony into the dark alley below.

Muir Island:

Moria sat at her desk looking at the information on the screen. Her glasses had fallen down the bridge of her nose and she was tapping her pencil against the metal of her desk. The DNA images on the screen where… fascinating.

It was something she had never seen before. Mutant DNA was slightly different then human DNA, that's what made mutants and humans different, but this DNA wasn't exactly different, but it wasn't exactly human or mutant.

"Nathan." Moria said as the door opened to a rush of air. "I want you to take a look at this."

Nathan didn't say a word as he walked over to the screen that Moria was looking at. After a few moments he said, "It looks like someone spliced that DNA together."

"That's what I was thinking." Moria said with a laugh. "Thought I was going crazy." Moria pushed herself away from the desk and walked over to a wall filled with screens. Each screen had a different image on it.

She walked up to the screen with Alex on it. Also known as Phoenix. She tapped the screen and the image became a movie. Phoenix was in the danger room, practicing or training… depending on who you were talking too.

"This is one of the-"

"X-Men." Nathan said amazed. "I always wondered where all the money was coming from."

"Yes… well." Moria said watching the boy use his powers. That part scared her. She wasn't there for when Jean manifested the 'god' known as phoenix, but it was all over the news and Xavier had told her enough. Now this boy was doing the same things that Jean was under the title of the same god.

"I want to know why this boy and these other students…" She waved at all the images on the tv screens. "Have this type of DNA."

Nathan looked at all the images, his eyes flickered with delight. Moria thought for a quick second that maybe she was binging the boy in to fast, but he was… brilliant.

"Have you thought about the DNA that was put together?"

Moria stopped wondering about Nathan and looked at the images again. "Of course. I was trying to figure out the final product, when I need to be thinking about the source."

"If that would be…" Nathan started but stopped when he saw that Moria was deep in thought and talking to herself. He smiled at the woman and mad his way to the door, waited for a moment so the door would open with the rush of air and walked through it.

Nathan had other things he had to think about. This six teenage mutants where… amazing. Although, the sixth one… the girl. She was a pure mutant; she didn't have DNA that was spliced together.

He didn't tell Moria that, she would figure it out sooner than later. She was amazed at the boy, Alex… Phoenix. Nathan walked down the hall and made his way to his personal office that Moria had given him.

A part of him was sickened at the state of the place. All the… messed up… No he shouldn't think like that. There were mutants here that could read minds and he wouldn't want… No.

Nathan walked into his office and sighed. "Nothing like mental shields to put a mind at ease." Nathan said aloud. The very first day that Moria showed Nathan his office he quickly set up the mental blocks for his office. He didn't want people to find out what he was doing here, or how he was doing it.

Nathan made his way to his computer and typed a few keys. The screen came to life and Nathan smiled at the screen. "It seems I have some very interesting information for you Essex."

To Be Continued.