SPITFIRE

by Kostmeyer

ISSUE 38
"Courage - Part One"

Cover art by Kostmeyer.

This story features SPITFIRE and related characters, which were created by Kostmeyer 2007.
Also features characters and organizations which are trademarks and copyright of MARVEL COMICS
a division of MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT GROUP, INC.
This is a work of fan-fiction and is being written for entertainment purposes only; no profit is being made by this work.
Copyright © 2007 Kostmeyer. All rights reserved.

FOR NEW READERS...

The demon invasion of Earth has been defeated, but at a terrible price. Many of Earth's most powerful defenders have been killed, including the Sorceress Supreme Clea Strange, Magneto, ruler of the mutant nation of Genosha, and Charles Xavier, founder of the X-Men. To prevent the arrival of the God-demon Chthon, Daniel Wagner had to kill his own sister, Freelove, chosen by the Horde to be the vessel of Chthon. Now, with the crisis over and the world safe, Neo-X have returned to their Westchester Mansion to pick up the pieces and decide where they go from here. Carrie Conway, the British super-hero Spitfire, killed by the Horde but magically resurrected, helped in the final battle at Wundagore Mountain and has returned to the X-Mansion with the Neo-X team.


It was always the same dream. She was running, blind with terror, sick with fear, running for her life, her enemies close behind her. Always in the dream she looks back, over her shoulder, which is why she never sees the figure looming up before her, out of the rain, blocking her path. She never sees her killer until it is too late.

It is Maaxa. It is always Maaxa. Maaxa the demon; the leader of the Horde's armies. Maaxa, who killed her before, on the streets of London, and now kills her again, every night. And Spitfire is never strong enough to stop her, never fast enough to escape. The demon raises her axe, illuminated by a sudden blinding streak of lightning, and then -

And then she always wakes.

Carrie Conway sat up in bed. Shuddering as she suppressed the urge to scream. She forced herself to focus on what was real, the ordinary, everyday things - the pictures on the wall, the bookshelf lined with unfamiliar texts on mutant rights and genetics, the dressing table, sparsely populated with borrowed cosmetics... Her breathing returned to normal and she got up, wrapping the blankets around her for warmth. During the invasion the planet becoming unnaturally, blisteringly hot as the demon dimension intruded on our own. Now that the breach had been sealed, the natural weather systems had been thrown out of balance, possibly forever, no-one really knew for sure. A thick blanket of snow lay across the lawn beneath her window, covering the baseball field which a few months ago had resounded to the sounds of laughter. The trees, their summer leaves weighed down by the snow, seemed to bow their heads, as if in mourning.

It had been three days since Carrie had arrived in the X-Mansion, transported there by the magic of the Morrigan as the Horde's headquarters in Wundagore Mountain collapsed around them. Together with Neo-X, the Hellions, and others, Spitfire had helped to save the world, defeating the Horde and their master, the Elder God Chthon. Chthon's demon army had been defeated, banished to the hell dimensions that spawned them.

And yet the cost had been high - the victory had come at a price. Anodyne, Colossus, Shadowcat, Cannonball, Lila Cheney, all were recovering from the corrupting influence of the demon Perdition, who twisted their souls to make them serve her. Psihawk and Reaver had been fused with the Horde's Chaos Engine, and had witnessed the full horror of the demon's plan as psychics and mystics died around them, giving their energies to the Horde.

Carrie turned away from the window. Thinking about the others made her ashamed - ashamed at her own weakness. It was only a dream, after all. She had been given another chance, come back from the dead. There were hundreds - thousands maybe - who hadn't been so lucky. Death had even reached the mansion. Charles Xavier, the founder of the X-Men, was gone. And so was Chastity Wagner - Freelove - killed by her own brother to prevent her reality warping powers from securing Chthon's triumph. Carrie had seen Daniel Wagner two days ago, before he left with his mother and father for the family home in Germany. She had wanted to say something to him, but there were no words, nothing that could be said. And he looked at her and she knew exactly what he was thinking. The X-Men don't die. Why did Spitfire get a second chance when his sister was dead?

She peeled off her sweat soaked pyjamas and got into the shower, letting the steaming hot water massage her aching body. Her injuries had been severe - overwhelming her body's superhuman healing factor. She had collapsed when she'd arrived at the mansion, but after two days medical care in the Neo-X infirmary she was back on her feet and looking like her old self again. The bruises were gone, the cuts had healed. She traced her fingers across the faint lines of scars almost completely faded. And yet...

And yet there was still a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach that she had first felt when Maaxa dumped her, helpless and bleeding, onto the street, the feeling that came with the knowledge that she had failed, that her power hadn't been enough, and that she was going to die. Now she was alive - but the fear was still with her. And the memory of the axe slicing down through her outstretched arm as she raised it to defend herself, shearing through flesh and bone and then down into her chest...

"You'll never be free of me, Spitfire." Maaxa said, looming out of the steam, her red eyes glowing with their own malicious light. Carrie turned too quickly, feet slipped on the wet tiles and fell, tangled in the shower curtain which tore away from its rail.

"No!" Carrie whispered, pushing herself back against the wall. "No! It can't be! You're dead! You're dead!"

Maaxa raised her axe high above her head.

* * *

Jade Logan and Katya Rasputin were walking along the corridor, on their way down to breakfast, when they heard the scream. Jade - Anodyne - suddenly let out an abrupt cry and staggered against the wall. Katya turned to help her friend, but the other girl waved her back.

"Don't worry about me! It's Spitfire!" she said. "Merciful heavens - she's in agony!"

Katya turned and broke into a run. She knew what had happened. Anodyne was an empath, capable of receiving, and experiencing the emotional impulses around her and of projecting her own emotions onto others. Something had happened in Spitfire's room and Jade Logan had picked up the empathic resonance. Arriving at the guest room, Valence reached out and phased the door into an insubstantial state, allowing her to pass through and into the room without breaking her stride.

It was difficult at first to see what had happened. The door to the en suite bathroom was open, and clouds of steam were billowing out. Then Carrie screamed again, and putting aside all caution, Valence advanced into the mist. As she went she could see that the wash basin had been shattered and water was fountaining out of the broken pipes, forming a pool that was slowly spreading across the floor. Spitfire was lying, huddled in the corner of the room, wrapped in the torn shower curtain. Her eyes were open, but she didn't seem to recognise her.

"My God, she's hysterical!" Valence said, unsure of what to do. Then, Jade, pale but once more in control of her self, appeared in the doorway. Valence stepped aside. "Can't you do something to help her?"

Anodyne knelt beside Carrie and spoke softly, her voice tranquil and soothing. "Shh." She whispered. "You are not alone here. You are among friends. Let me share your burden." Tears streamed unchecked across Jade Logan's face as she reached out with her empathic powers and drew the other girl's pain into her self. A lifetime of meditation and discipline enabled her to deal with the raw emotion that had paralysed Carrie, and having conquered it, Jade drew upon her own inner clam and shared it with the terrified girl. Sobbing, Carrie's head fell forwards and Jade put her arms around her and held her close.

* * *

"Hey, don't worry about it." Warren Worthington said, setting a mug of strong black coffee down on the kitchen table in front of Carrie. "You had a nightmare. Hardly surprising when you consider what you went through."

"It wasn't a nightmare." Carrie said firmly. It was easy to believe, here, in the sunlit kitchen, that she had just imagined it. And yet it had been so real. "She was here." She said with determination. Maaxa was here!"

"That's impossible." Katya Rasputin said, sliding onto the bench next to Jade, on the opposite side of the table from Carrie. "Maaxa is dead - you saw her crumble to dust when you took the magic axe away from her."

"The axe IS Maaxa." Carrie said. "We should never have left Wundagore without looking for it. Someone must have picked it up - that's all it takes. Then the axe takes over its new carrier and it all happens again."

"Calm down Carrie." Anodyne interrupted softly. "First of all we had no choice about coming back. We were all teleported here by the Morrigan before the mountain collapsed, and none of us were in any condition to look. You can't blame yourself for that."

"But-!"

"Secondly, wherever the axe is, it's buried under a thousand tons of rock. No-one could possibly have reached it." Jade persisted. "And finally the entire mountain has been cordoned off by SHIELD agents, keeping strangers away and searching through the debris. They've been briefed about the dangers of the axe and can safely dispose of it if they do find it."

"That all makes sense, but I tell you I saw her! She's here, somewhere." Carrie said. Then she smiled. "I know I must sound like I'm crazy, and you have no reason to believe me, but..."

"You helped us fight the Horde, Carrie." Warren said, reaching across the table and taking Carrie's hand. "You have every right to be here, and every right to be taken seriously. Don't worry. We'll look into it."

"Thanks." Carrie looked up at him and smiled. Warren had been raised as an X-Man, brought up with a confidence in himself and his abilities that was magnetic. It was no accident that he led the Neo-X team. "I feel better." She said. And she meant it. Warren, Jade and Katya got up to leave.

"Professor McCoy is working down in his lab - we'll see what he has to say about it." Katya added, as she closed the door behind her. The three friends walked on in silence for a while, before she spoke again. "Well, what do you think?"

"Her emotional response is genuine." Jade sighed. "She believes what she's saying, and she's terrified."

"But is it real?"

Jade lowered her head, sadly.

"That's what I thought." Katya Rasputin said. "This is the last thing we need. We should be out looking for my brother, not..."

Suddenly an explosion shook the building and threw them forward onto their faces. Warren recovered first, and raced back down the corridor. The kitchen was gone, a scorched and blackened crater, surrounded by a ring of melted snow and shattered glass. Amid the wrecked furniture and broken crockery, Carrie Conway knelt, her clothing annihilated and her body steaming from the force of the power blast she had just caused.

"Didn't you see her?" She said. "She was here! She was here again!" Warren hesitated as the girls arrived behind him. "Help me!" Carrie said. "What's happening to me?"

* * *

"How much longer do I have to stay in this thing?" Richard McCoy shouted across the floor of the laboratory. The scientist, recently transformed into a human juggernaut by Dr Strange's magic, had been precariously balanced for the last twenty minutes on a platform specially constructed and reinforced to bear his gigantic, impossibly muscled frame, while mechanical scanning machines wheeled and circled around him. Used to being on the other side of the experiment, gathering the data instead of being studied, Richard's patience was almost at an end.

"Not much longer, my boy!" Professor Henry McCoy, Beast of the X-Men, was hanging from the roof by his feet, a clipboard in one hand and a pen in the other. Suddenly he dropped, twisted effortlessly in mid air, and landed lightly beside his son. "Just one more set of computations, and I think we'll really have something."

Richard groaned. "Alright, but this is definitely the last. This thing doesn't feel very safe..."

"Hi Doc!" Valence called out as she and Jade opened the laboratory door. "How is all the mad scientist stuff going?"

"Oh, very well! Very well!" Beast said, grinning at the new arrivals. "We're trying to find out whether Richard's transformation is permanent or temporary, since Stephen Strange is comatose at present, and no-one else seems to know what he actually did."

"It had better be temporary!" Richard shouted from the platform. "I can't touch anything without breaking it. No wonder the previous Juggernaut was angry all the time."

"Patience my boy, patience!" the Beast protested. "The more data we gather, the more chance we have of effecting a cure for your...ah... condition. Anyway," he said, turning to the two girls. "What can I do for you two?"

"It's Spitfire." Katya said. "Something's really wrong with her. We've all been through a lot in the last few weeks, but she... well, she's been having nightmares, but now she's seeing things. She's destroyed two rooms already trying to fight off demons that aren't there..."

"We are worried for her." Jade added.

"If you're really concerned about what Miss Conway is capable of, then might I suggest you continue your investigations in an arena in which we can explore her more destructive tendencies with a greater degree of safety?"

"You mean, the Danger Room?"

"The Danger Room!" Beast repeated with a grin. Suddenly a thunderous crash erupted from the other end of the room as the scanning platform finally surrendered to the inevitable and disintegrated under the Juggernaut's weight. Richard McCoy sprawled in a heap on the floor, glared up at his father. Beast shrugged. "Maybe we should put you in there too..."

* * *

"They think I'm going mad." Carrie said. "And god knows, maybe they're right."

"Don't say that." Kate said. "They don't know you. If you say there are people in your room, then there are people in your room."

"It's so good to hear your voice Kate." Carrie said, leaning back against the wood panelling in the hallway and tilting her head to hold the receiver between her ear and shoulder. "I wish they would hurry up and fix the communications satellites, so we could talk properly on the vid-phone. Funny this old technology is still working when everything else has failed."

"There are a lot of other priorities at the moment I guess. London is in a terrible state Carrie - some homes are still without power and water, buildings knocked down, roads blocked off... but what are we talking about this for - what happened to you? There were loads of crazy rumours flying around. Some people said you were dead, Haller said he saw you hitting the demons with weird green lights - no-one knows what really happened."

"Some other time, yeah? I don't really want to talk about it right now."

"Fine. But you haven't heard our news! Gary is back! We got rescued from the hospital by a guy in a cape - blonde hair - must have been a friend of yours we were thinking - and just as he vanished, Gary woke up! Isn't that fantastic! And we had this big party to celebrate the fact we were still alive and Buckingham got wrecked and shot himself in the foot trying to light a cigarette with his gun, and I think Nick is sleeping with Elise, but you already guessed that, and..." she paused for breath. "Carrie when are you coming back?"

"Soon." Carrie said. "As soon as I sort out what's happening to me here. And they're having a memorial service in a few days. They've asked me to stay for that, so I feel like I ought to."

"You must." Kate said. "Is Psihawk there?"

"You're too old for him! Let it go!" Carrie smiled. "Listen, could you do me a favour?"

"Sure, anything."

"Call my parents for me - tell them I'm OK. I don't think I can face that at the moment."

There was a few seconds silence from the other end of the lie. "It's bad, isn't it." Kate said, finally.

"I'll be fine." Carrie said, trying to keep her voice even. "I have to go. Take care of yourselves." She hung up before Kate could reply and closed her eyes. When she opened them, Jade Logan was approaching her along the hallway. The younger girl was smiling.

"Come with me." She said. "I have a surprise for you!"

* * *

"This is so cool!" Carrie Conway grinned broadly. "I mean, the real Danger Room! I can't believe I'm really here!"

"Well you better start believing Carrie!" Warren Worthington's voice through a hidden loudspeaker: "Because in exactly twenty seconds anything could happen!"

"I'm ready!" Spitfire stood in the exact centre of the room, hardly daring to breathe as she waited for the training session to begin. The Danger Room was as much a part of the X-Men legend as Cyclops and Jean Grey, and yet here she was, about to take part in a real Danger Room training program - right out of the stories that she'd been hearing ever since she was a kid. And as if that wasn't enough, Jade had even presented her with a blue and gold training uniform, with a red and black X buckle on the belt. Carrie fought to suppress her grin. This was serious. After this morning's embarrassment, this was her chance to show the Neo-X team what she could do.

In the observation deck, Jade, Warren and Katya watched as Beast dextrously manipulated the computer, typing with his fingers and toes and doing the work of two men in half the time. Leaning through the doorway, which was too narrow to fully admit him, Richard McCoy watched his father as he entered the familiar codes that would start the programme. It was a basic training session, not utilising the full Shi'ar holographic technology, in which mechanical traps and devices would deploy from the walls in a random pattern, to be defeated or dodged.

"We shouldn't have given her the uniform." Katya whispered to Psihawk. "She might think we want her to join or something."

"Would that be a bad thing?" Warren said. "She's strong. She really came through for us at Wundagore, and we need all the help we can get right now." He saw Katya's expression darken and patted her gently on the arm. "Don't worry. I know now isn't the time to make any big decisions. I won't say anything to her without asking the others first." He turned back to the control console and lifted the microphone from its stand. "OK, Spitfire - lets see what you've got!"

The first attack came, unexpectedly, not from the sides but from below. The floor dropped away, revealing a pitfall trap beneath her feet. Carrie took flight, straight into the path of a barrage of mini-missiles which tore through the air towards her. Waiting until they were almost on her Carrie dodged aside at the last moment, but the missiles altered their course and pursued her as she flew the length of the room.

"Good reflexes." Beast noted, checking the telemetry that was flickering across one of the many screens in front of him. "Unusual in one of these 'strong types' - usually they take the hits and assume that they're tough enough to ride it out."

Jade noticed Katya was scowling.

Inside the Danger Room, A panel swung back from the wall and a bulky flame-thrower projected into the room, spouting a white hot stream of napalm towards the girl. Carrie's first instinct was to veer away, but remembering the missiles homing in on her, she held her course until the last possible second, then sheered away inches from the flames.

"Nice try!" Warren's voice over the loudspeaker again: "but you'll have to think faster. The missiles aren't heat seekers - they're locked onto your genetic code."

True to his word the missiles looped away from the flames and followed, gradually eating up the distance between them. Carrie, looking over her shoulder, failed to spot the metal columns shooting out of the floor to bar her way. She smashed into them at high speed, hit the floor and rolled, landing in a tangled heap among the twisted metal rods.

"Oh my stars and garters." Beast said, reaching for the switch that would abort the programme. "Computer - cancel..."

"No wait!" Warren interrupted the command. "She's not finished yet! Besides, with the updated safety protocols, it's impossible for her to get hurt in there."

Spitfire was already on her feet, lifting one of the steel pillars as the missiles closed in. The bar must have weighed several tonnes, but she swung in over her head and then launched it at the lead missile. The resulting explosion caught the remaining rockets setting off a chain reaction.

"I can admit it. I may have been a little hasty" Beast acknowledged.

Carrie had little time to congratulate herself, as a new opponent entered the arena. A robot - a gigantic figure, with a cannon for a head and massive arms that terminated in lethal buzz saws. As Carrie retreated away from the mechanical gladiator, the head cannon fired, the high explosive shell striking the floor where Spitfire had been seconds earlier. A cloud of black smoke rose from the crater, and the robot advanced, sweeping its arms wildly as it searched for the girl, hiding somewhere beyond the smoke.

But Carrie wasn't hiding. Pouring on the speed she flew straight at the robot, narrowly avoiding the upwards sweep of its deadly arms she crashed into its torso, hitting it full force. The robot seemed to shrug off the impact, reeling back a pace but otherwise undamaged. Carrie circled its head, flying at top speed.

"That's good strategy." Warren observed. "She's trying to make it strike at her with the saw blades, so when it misses it will take itself out."

"Pity it won't work." Valence said.

Again, Jade noticed the change in her friend and drew Katya aside at the rear of the Viewing deck. "Katya, is something troubling you?" she asked.

"We don't need another strong flyer on the team." Valence whispered. "We have Nik. We don't need a replacement."

"No-one said anything about replacing Nik." Jade said, surprised.

"Not yet they haven't. Warren can't keep his eyes off her - have you noticed?" Katya stuck her chest forward and fluttered her eyelashes. "Please, help me!" she said, in a pretty good impression of Carrie's English accent. "I'm so scared and vulnerable!"

Jade's face twitched as she tried to stifle a smile. "Katya! That's cruel!"

The Russian realised that Jade was fighting to hold back a fit of the giggles and pursued her mercilessly. "Help me Warren!" she said in her Spitfire-voice "I keep falling out of my clothes!"

The two girls collapsed against each other laughing. Warren turned round in his seat, took in the scene and shook his head, deciding he was better off not knowing.

"It's good to see you smile again." Jade said finally.

"We haven't had much to smile about have we?" Katya said. "And you know I don't really mean it. I like her. Really I do."

"We'll find Nik." Anodyne squeezed Katya's hand. "I promise."

Inside the Danger Room, Carrie swooped closer to the mechanoid, and could hear the low pitched whine that signified an increase of power to its main cannon. As the noise built in intensity Carrie suddenly halted her circular flight and hung in the air, presenting herself as an easy target.

"What's she doing?" Beast's hands again moved involuntarily towards the computer to cancel the programme.

Suddenly, just as the machine was about to fire, Carrie swept forwards, gripped the muzzle of the cannon and twisted the barrel upwards. The robot fired, and the explosive shell ripped its head to pieces from the inside. Carrie was hurled upwards by the force of the blast, struck the ceiling and then hovered, looking down to see the decapitated behemoth take two creaking strides and then topple forwards into the pitfall trap. The training session was over. Smiling, Carrie drifted to the ground, confident she had proven herself at last.

"That was impressive." Warren said. "Nice moves!"

Katya looked significantly at Jade and adopted her Spitfire impression again. Jade shuddered with desperately suppressed laughter.

"What?" Warren said. "What is it?"

"Nothing!" Katya said innocently.

But as Spitfire landed the other side of the training arena, a figure materialised - A holographic opponent generated by the Danger Room's hard-light projectors. Carrie's face drained of colour as she recognised the woman who approached her - a tall woman in golden armour, a woman with glowing red eyes and a double bladed battle-axe.

"Oh God!" Spitfire said.

"What's happening?" Beast said. "This isn't part of the basic programme!"

The three Neo-X members crowded to the window beside him.

"Cancel it, quickly!" Katya said, her face suddenly pale. "Look at her!"

Inside the arena Carrie was shivering convulsively as the demon drew closer. Simply standing there - fighting the urge to run - took all of her willpower, all the strength she could muster. She repeated to herself over and over again: "This is not real! This is not real! This is not real..."

"Are you so sure?" Maaxa said, grinning. "Do you want to bet your life on that?" She swung the axe high above her head and lunged forwards with a terrifying battle-cry. Carrie's nerve gave and she twisted away and ran, heading towards the access door. Maaxa followed with slow, relentless strides, laughing. The familiar feelings of the terrible dream hammered into Carrie who stumbled and fell beside the door.

"Cancel it!" Warren repeated.

"I don't know where it's coming from!" Henry McCoy's fingers were skimming across the keyboard as he searched through directory after directory.

Spitfire was hammering on the door. "Get me out of here!" she screamed. "Get me out!"

"She thinks it's real!" Jade reeled as the full force of Carrie's fear overwhelmed her empathic senses. Behind her Richard McCoy had already pulled himself out of the doorway of the viewing booth and was pounding down the stairs towards the Danger Room's access door. "Professor McCoy, you have to stop this now!"

"I need to find the core file!" Beast protested

"It's one of mine!" Valence said, suddenly. The others turned and looked at her with astonished faces. "Well, what are you waiting for?" Katya said. "Turn it off! Code 332-M"

Spitfire turned away from the unyielding door as Maaxa's shadow fell across her. Sobbing, she slid down the wall. It was inevitable. It was like London, like the dream... she wasn't fast enough - wasn't strong enough... it was happening again... The axe fell...

The programme halted and Maaxa evaporated into nothingness. The security lock on the door shut down with an audible and solid clatter and Richard McCoy reached in through the door, scooping her up in his massive arms.

"What the hell was that?" Warren demanded, as the Beast left the viewing room to check on the girl.

"What are you looking at me for?" Valence protested. "You can't think that I would-"

"What possible reason could you have for creating a Maaxa simulation?" Warren interrupted.

"I was trying to help her." Katya said defensively. "I thought that she might be able to overcome her fears if she could confront them. Jade, you were there when Professor McCoy suggested we test Spitfire's limitations in a safe environment. But I didn't activate the programme, honestly I didn't!"

"Well someone did." Warren said.

"Maybe I should have talked to her first, but Warren you must see that she loses it every time she even thinks about the Horde." Katya persisted. "We have enemies all around us. If she gets scared every time she catches sight of her shadow like that - if she can't cut it in the Danger Room, then she has no business being here."

A sharp inhalation of breath called their attention to the doorway, where Carrie Conway, pale from her ordeal was standing now, flanked by Richard and Henry McCoy, and some of the other residents of the mansion who had arrived for their own scheduled time in the Danger Room. Without a word Carrie turned and pushed past the line of mutants, past Kismet, Sirocco, Dante and out into the corridor.

"Carrie wait!" Valence shouted after her; then realising it was useless, fell back into her chair. "Can I screw anything else up today? I should go after her..."

"I don't think she'll want to hear what you have to say, for now at least." Beast said, glowering at the young Russian. "Richard can go check on her. The rest of you are long overdue your own training session."

* * *

Carrie ran on, through the hallways of the X-Mansion. There were pounding footfalls behind her - Maaxa - it had to be - always Maaxa. Was Valence right? Was she really going mad? Was it all in her head? A figure loomed up in front of her - a woman - glittering gold. Carrie fell forwards onto her face and screamed.

"Are you alright?" asked the golden figure in a pleasant southern accent. Carrie looked up. It wasn't Maaxa at all. It was a robot, a slender, feminine robot, its plain, mechanical face etched with concern. Carrie groaned, wishing the earth would open up and swallow her. "Are you alright?" the robot repeated.

"Other than crippling embarrassment, yes." Carrie said, accepting the hand the robot offered and allowing it to pull her to her feet. "You're Samantha Guthrie, aren't you? Cannonball's kid."

Joyride nodded. "Yes. I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself before, but Daddy and Richard only just finished repairing my 'Box' unit."

Carrie smiled at the careless, everyday way the girl spoke. She knew, from conversations with the others that Joyride's real body - as opposed to the robotic 'Box unit' she was currently using, was crippled with a degenerative disease - a disease that she faced each day with unflinching courage. That was real bravery, she thought. "Pleased to meet you, Sam." she said. "I'm Carrie."

"Is everyone alright? I heard a scream!" Juggernaut pounded up to them, bracing himself against both walls to slow his progress.

"We're fine." Joyride said, waving.

"My fault." Carrie said. "I think I've managed to humiliate myself in front of all of the mansion's residents now, but there's no harm done."

"What are you talking about?" Richard McCoy said, with evident concern. "You're bleeding!"

"What, this? This is nothing." Carrie said, looking down at the front of her training suit, where a broad, but not deep gash could be seen across her right shoulder. "I Just got caught by that hologram's axe before they shut the programme down. It's nothing!" she repeated, as McCoy seemed genuinely disturbed. "Really! I've had worse!"

"It's not that." Richard McCoy said, his voice faint. "Being cut shouldn't be possible in the Danger Room. There were accidents in the past, but with the new Shi'ar system..." his voice trailed off. Suddenly he started to run, back the way he had come. Carrie and Joyride exchanged puzzled glances and gave chase.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Carrie shouted after him.

"Somebody has shut down the safety protocols in the Danger Room!" McCoy bellowed back over his shoulder. "And the others have just gone inside!"

* * *

Alone in the Observation Deck, Beast watched through the viewing window as the mutants split into two opposing teams: Psihawk, Valence and Dante against Anodyne, Kismet and Sirocco. He leaned back in the chair and cracked his knuckles, smiling with anticipation at what promised to be an interesting session.

"Asteroid M, I think!" he said, typing in the command that would summon up a holographic environment for the teams to battle over. As he touched the keyboard, there was a sharp electric crack, and all of the screens in the room cut out. All save one.

"Not today, Professor McCoy!" Arcadia Locke smiled from the remaining screen. "Today I'm running this little show."

Inside the Danger Room, the familiar surroundings began to warp, and change, and Arcadia Locke's laughter, soft and deadly, filled the air. "Time to die, Neo-X... Time to die!"


TO BE CONTINUED...

Issue 37

Issue 39