Chapter 198
Xavier's voice filled the chamber, calm but iron-clad.
"We must move swiftly. The rescue team cannot be thinned. Nightcrawler, Kitty—you will remain behind."
Kitty shot up in protest, eyes blazing. "That's not fair! I'm not a kid anymore, I can—"
Xavier cut her gently but firmly. "Katherine, this is not a matter of trust. You are young. Too young for what waits below. And Nightcrawler will use the image inducer to impersonate Admiral Samadar. If someone comes seeking him, they must believe he is still here."
Kurt tapped his inducer, the shimmer of Samadar's tall form appearing briefly. He sighed. "Ja, I suppose it falls to me to play actor again. Perhaps I should have brought a cape."
Logan smirked. "A cape won't save you if this goes sideways, elf. Keep that fake admiral in line."
But all eyes shifted when Xavier added, "The rescue team will be Logan, Cyclops, Colossus, Storm, Corsair… and myself."
Cyclops nearly dropped his visor. "You're going with us?"
"Yes," Xavier said, his gaze unwavering. "Lilandra is my partner, my responsibility. I will not remain behind while her fate is decided."
Storm's lips parted as if to argue, but the resolve in his eyes stopped her. Colossus looked down, uncomfortable, but finally said, "If this is your decision, Professor… we follow."
Logan crossed his arms, growling low. "Fine, wheels. But you stay sharp. Out there, hesitation'll kill faster than a bullet."
---
Earth.
From the hilltop, the team stared at the half-finished skyscraper looming like a skeletal giant. Its windows were hollow sockets, steel beams bare to the night.
"That's it," Corsair rasped, hand tightening on his blaster. "Deathbird's nest."
Logan inhaled, letting the scents flow into him. Smoke. Oil. Sweat. And beneath it… something wrong. A writhing musk of rot and hunger.
'Not just Deathbird. Something nastier crawlin' in there.'
Cyclops adjusted his visor. "Standard entry. Colossus, take point. Storm, cover our flanks. Logan—"
"I know," Logan muttered, baring claws with a metallic snikt. "I go sniff ahead. Don't lag behind."
The ambush came fast.
Chittering filled the air as insectoid horrors poured from the shadows, their bodies slick and armored, eyes glowing with alien malice. Brood.
Storm's lightning lit the unfinished halls like daylight, bolts striking into swarms, frying carapaces in white-hot bursts. Colossus swung steel fists, smashing through walls and Brood alike, each punch shaking the scaffolding.
Logan tore into them, his senses guiding every slash. One lunged from above—he smelled the hunger a breath before, spun, and gutted it mid-air. Its ichor sprayed across his face.
"Ugly bastards!" Logan snarled, kicking another into rebar. "They stink worse than Wendigo's breath!"
Cyclops fired precise beams, carving through clusters, every optic blast exploding bodies apart. But the swarm pressed harder, relentless.
Corsair fought like a man possessed, blaster screaming, cutting through wings and chitin. But then a Brood unleashed a piercing psychic shriek.
Corsair froze, eyes wide in agony. His vision warped. Where Cyclops stood, he saw another face—D'ken, Shi'ar emperor, the man who killed his wife.
"You!" Corsair roared, his voice breaking. "You took Anne from me! I'll kill you!"
His blaster aimed straight at Cyclops.
Scott's heart stuttered. He could dodge. He could blast Corsair back. But he didn't.
'He's my father… damn it, he's my father.'
"Corsair! It's me!" Scott shouted, holding ground even as the barrel trembled inches from his chest. "I'm your son, not him!"
Corsair's eyes were wild, foam at his lips. "LIAR! DIE, DKEN!"
The trigger clicked—
—and then a psychic shockwave rippled through the room.
"Enough!" Xavier's voice boomed in their minds, shattering the Brood's hold. Corsair collapsed to his knees, gasping as clarity returned, the blaster clattering to the ground.
Scott stood frozen, fists clenched. His chest rose and fell, but he hadn't fired. He hadn't defended himself.
Xavier wheeled into the room, face pale, sweat dripping. "I reached him in time…" His sentence broke into a scream, sharp and guttural, his head snapping back. His body convulsed.
Logan's nose flared. "Professor—what the hell just happened?"
But already he could smell it—Xavier's mind had brushed against something vast, dark, watching.
The Brood screeched, recoiling. Their queen's psychic tether had been severed. The X-Men pressed the attack with renewed fury. Logan leapt, carving through the last of them. Storm struck Deathbird with a crackling bolt, forcing her to one knee.
"Yield, Deathbird!" Storm commanded.
But Deathbird only sneered, slamming her gauntlet on a panel. The entire skyscraper groaned—metal shifting, beams folding inward.
Colossus's eyes widened. "It is moving!"
The building shuddered, engines blazing to life. It wasn't a building at all—it was a disguised spacecraft.
"Fall back!" Cyclops shouted.
The X-Men scrambled with the rescued Lilandra as the structure began to collapse around them. Deathbird, wings flaring, fled into the ship's core. Logan lunged after her, but the ground split, flames roaring, cutting him off.
"Damn it! She's gettin' away!"
They regrouped outside, smoke and fire in the air. Storm carried the unconscious Xavier, his breathing shallow, his pulse weak.
"Xavier!" Lilandra cried, rushing to his side as the Shi'ar communicator was thrust into her hand. "Hold on, my love—please, hold on!"
The sky above shimmered as Shi'ar teleportation light bathed them.
And then they were gone.