'This is it?' Guido Carosella a.k.a. Strong Guy asks Illyana Rasputin a.k.a. Magik as they stand next to a thick armored door. 'It isn't supposed to be here' Illyana tells her teammate. 'But it is here' Guido points out. 'It is' Illyana agrees.
Guido discovers that the door is locked, to which Illyana tells him that secret rooms are supposed to be hard to get into. An instant later, Guido rips the door from its hinges and casually drops it behind he and Illyana, who holds up her Soulsword, which glows with energy. 'Not locked anymore' Guido remarks.
As they enter the room, their fellow Corporate New Mutants follow them. Julio Richter a.k.a. Rictor looks around, while Tabby Smith a.k.a. Boom-Boom covers her face with her hand and mutters that if they were looking for the place that smells the grossest, she thinks they found it, and Rahne Sinclair a.k.a. Wolfsbane tells the others that she smells something familiar.
Magik looks at some notebooks and tells her teammates to look for anything that tells them who ran this lab or what they were doing.
'Found something!' Rictor calls out as he squats down beside a pile of empty cans of beans. 'What does this tell us, Rictor?' Guido asks. 'Whoever was in here was real gross' Rictor replies. 'Not exactly the most -' Guido begins, when suddenly, someone else appears in the room. 'You shouldn't... have come here...' he utters. 'Oh no!' Wolfsbane gasps as everyone turns to the figure.
At that moment, Hank McCoy a.k.a. Beast is hanging upside down in his lab. 'Waiting for an invitation to arrive. Going to a party where no one's still -' he sings to himself as he pours something from a test tube into a beaker.
'BEAST!' Magik shouts as she teleports into the room with her teammates. Strong Guy carries someone in his arms, and the Beast falls from the ceiling, 'Ahh! Don't sneak up on me, Illyana!' he snaps. 'We have wounded' Magik announces. 'I see. Put them anywhere, but please be careful of -' the Beast begins, as Rictor ignores him and knocks various pieces of scientific equipment from a table. 'Never mind' the Beast mutters. 'How can I help?' he asks 'Jamie Madrox is dying' Guido announces as he places the dirty, weak, Multiple Man on the table.
Two hours later, Guido holds up Madrox's iconic green and yellow t-shirt and remarks: 'Let me get this straight. Jamie Madrox was exposed to the Terrigen Mists and died'. 'Correct' the Beast replies. 'And all of his dupes died with him' Guido adds. 'Correct again' the Beast tells him. 'But here he is' Guido declares. The Beast boasts that as he is the premiere mutant scientist working in the field, he will be the first to point out that mutant science is barely a field, and adds that hopefully when this Jamie wakes up he can answer some questions.
'If he wakes up' the Beast adds, when suddenly, Madrox sits up in bed. 'Are you talking about me?' he asks them, while Guido looks at a sub sandwich and takes it over to Madrox. 'Oh, Jamie! Excellent' the Beast remarks, while Guido asks him if he is hungry and hands him the sub. 'That's not advisable in -' the Beast begins, but Jamie takes the sub and thanks Guido, adding that he guesses he died. 'I'm afraid so' the Beast tells him. 'That sucks' Jamie mutters as he bites into the sub.
The Beast then asks Jamie how he is still here – another dimension? Time travel? 'Time travel? Ummm... no. I'm the ghost of Jamie Madrox' Madrox remarks. The Beast and Guido look at each other, perplexed, which causes Jamie to laugh. 'Ha! Man, you guys... the look on your faces. No, I'm just one of Jamie Prime’s dupes' he explains.
'But why didn't you die when he died?' the Beast enquires. 'Kinda rude, Hank... I've been in that air-sealed lab for... a while' Madrox remarks, adding that he had been working on a serum that would make it so that dupes such as himself could operate more independently in case of this. 'You ran experiments on yourself?' the Beast asks. 'A few' Madrox admits. 'Interesting. Each dupe has its own attributes, correct? Each is a prominent piece of the real Jamie -' the Beast remarks. 'I am the real Jamie' Madrox interrupts. The Beast apologizes, and explains that he meant each dupe is an attribute of Jamie Prime. 'So are we to assume you are the scientific side of him?' the Beast asks.
Jamie puts on his t-shirt, 'Something like that...' he replies, admitting that his science-ing is no match for Hank’s, and that working away in that lab, he knew something was wrong, that he was getting sicker and sicker. 'But you did it. You saved me' he remarks.
'Not exactly, Jamie. I stabilized you for now, but you're not cured. I tried, Jamie. But after examining you thoroughly... I have concluded that I won't be able to stop the process of decay before you suffer catastrophic organ failure... you're decomposing, Jamie. There is nothing I can do to fix it. I'm sorry' the Beast reveals. Jamie tells Hank that he has to find the cure for this – no matter what happens – he has to. 'Jamie, I -' Hank begins. Promise me, Hank' Jamie asks. 'I promise, Jamie' Hank assures him.
Jamie wanders the halls of the Xavier Institute in Central Park, and comes to the kitchen, where Illyana is eating some cake. Jamie greets Illyana, who replies 'Hey, Jamie. You're not dead anymore?' 'Guess not. Beast cured me' Jamie tells her. Jamie pulls something from the fridge, and Illyana tells him that is Kitty's. 'She can get another' Jamie points out. Jamie starts eating the kebab and asks Illyana if she has seen Cable or Bishop or one of those time-cop guys around.
'Madrox! I heard you came back from the dead' Bishop exclaims as Madrox enters the library, where Bishop is reading. 'Yeah. You know what they say, Bishop...' Madrox responds. 'What's that?' Bishop asks. 'Oh. That I'm not dead yet' Madrox tells him. Bishop turns back to his book, then Jamie picks up a large globe of the Earth and smashes it across Bishop's head, knocking him out. Madrox reaches for a time-travel device on Bishop's belt, activates it, and disappears.
Beast is in his lab still, when an alarm sounds. He glances at the siren, but simply adjusts the earbud in his ear. 'Hank! Turn off the Oingo Boingo! We've got intruders!' Bobby Drake a.k.a. Iceman calls out as he enters the lab. The Beast looks over at Bobby and tells him that he wasn't listening to Oingo Boingo, and that there are more than enough X-Men around to deal with whatever this is. 'Suit yourself, Fuzzy' Bobby tells the Beast as he leaves his lab.
With Bobby gone, a portal opens, and a smiling Madrox walks through from it. 'Hank McCoy!' he calls out. 'My stars and garters!' the Beast exclaims. Madrox goes over to the Beast and asks him if he finished that serum yet, as it is critical. The Beast tells him that he didn't quite manage to sequence his entire genome and solve the problem of systemic mutation-based non-linear accelerated apoptosis in the last fifteen minutes. 'Wait... when are... what year is it?' Jamie asks, glancing sideways. 'Jamie, what's happening?' the Beast asks. 'I'm not -' Jamie begins, when suddenly, another Madrox lunges at him and knocks him to the ground. 'Dammit, Jamie! Stuff like this is why everyone finds you so annoying. I am so annoyed right now. Stop hitting yourself!' the Beast calls out as both Madroxes fight each other on the floor of the lab. 'You were... a mistake!' one of them calls out. 'You... are... a traitor!' the other replies.
'Oh no you don't!' one of the Madroxes declares, while asking Hank for help. 'Why should I help you?' the Beast asks. 'If he hits his head hard enough, he'll multiply. You want more of us in here?' Madrox asks, as he holds the other Madrox's head, preventing him from hitting it on the ground. The Beast picks both of them up and pulls them apart, 'Enough! I'm going to separate you and then we'll figure out what this is all about' the Beast tells them, asking them if they can both calm down. 'Yes' both Madroxes reply. 'Thank you, Hank. If you'll just give me a few minutes to -' one of the Madroxes begins. '$%#& this' the other mutters, before screaming 'NOOOOO' as the first Madrox absorbs him into himself. 'Look, I know you're going to be annoyed... but don't make that serum' Madrox tells the Beast. The Beast throws his hands to his head and tells Jamie that he is going to need him to throw him a lifeline here.
'That's valid' Jamie replies, asking Hank to bear with him, as he is fuzzy on some of this himself. 'No pun intended... puns' Jamie mutters before telling Hank to brace himself, as he announces that he is from the future. Hank pauses, frowns and folds his arms as he tells Madrox that when he spoke to him twenty minutes ago, he said he wasn't a time-traveller. 'I wasn't then. I -' Madrox begins, when suddenly a voice shouts'MADROX!', and standing in the door to Hank's lab are Magik, Guido, Warren Worthington a.k.a. Archangel and Bishop, whose head has been wrapped in bandages. 'I'm gonna kick your ass!' Bishop threatens. 'Oh, riiight. I forgot about this' Madrox mutters.
Seven minutes later, Madrox sits in a chair in a living room, while Beast, Magik, Bishop, Guido and Archangel stand around him. They have been joined by Kitty Pryde and Kurt Wagner a.k.a. Nightcrawler. 'Why should we believe anything you say?' Bishop asks. 'C'mon, you know me. I'm an X-Man... sorta' Madrox replies. 'Ya knocked Bishop out and robbed him' Guido points out. 'You're seriously still mad about that?' Madrox asks. 'It was ten minutes ago' Bishop frowns. 'Felt like longer' Madrox mutters. Hank then tells him that if he is from the future, that means he must have already made the serum that saved him, otherwise, he wouldn't be able to come back here and tell him not to make it – because he would be dead now. 'I... no... but... what if... well, maybe I should be' Madrox replies as he tries to make sense of the Beast's comments.
Madrox then tells the X-Men that they have to believe him, that something terrible is coming. 'I came back to now to try and stop it' Madrox explains.
Suddenly, the alarm sounds. 'This again?' Madrox asks, while Kitty tells everyone that is the close-perimeter alarm. 'That alarm sounds different from the other one? I can't hear a difference' Madrox mutters, while Kitty reports that the first team couldn't find anything, but something is definitely approaching the compound. Everyone turns to Madrox, who asks 'What?' and Magik asks him what is coming for them. 'This? I don't know what that is. This isn't my thing' Madrox declares, when suddenly, a window smashes inwards as Deadpool leaps through. He lands on the grround, and from gauntlets on his arms, manifests energy claws. He growls, then leaps towards the X-Men. 'Who the hell is this guy?' Magik asks. 'Let's ask him after' Bishop suggests.
Archangel and Guido move forward, but Archangel doesn't get very far, as someone shoots him in the neck, and he falls to the ground. 'Okay, now who the hell is that guy?' someone calls out as a man wearing armor, carrying a large gun and with some sort of techno-organic arm stands over Archangel. 'Wait. He didn't shoot to kill Warren. He's holding back' the Beast tells Bishop, grabbing Bishop's gun before he opens fire on this new arrival – but as the mysterious arrival opens fire on Beast and Bishop, they drop behind a sofa for cover. 'My bad' Beast mutters. Iceman, Wolfsbane and Ororo Munroe a.k.a. Storm enter the living room and get involved in the battle. Iceman and Nightcrawler move towards the new arrival dressed like Deadpool, while the new arrival with the techno-organic arm reaches out and grabs Guido, so Kitty and Wolfsbane lunge towards him. 'Maybe we can all calm down?' Madrox asks, holding his head up with a hand.
Suddenly, another new arrival appears above everyone, he is bearded and wears a large black cloak, as he addresses the X-Men and announces that they did not come to fight. 'But if we must...' he begins, before going wide-eyed, and gritting his teeth as if he is in pain, he moans, as a being with green skin emerges from within his cloak, 'Oh, no...' someone utters, as the Hulk, wearing a black tank top with the yellow symbols that Madrox wears. 'YARRGH!' the Hulk roars. '$%&# me. They brought a Hulk' someone mutters, as the Hulk slams Guido to the ground, 'I'm sorry, you've left me no choice but to smash you' he explains. The man with the armor and weapons who resembles Cable continues to open fire, while Magik attacks the being with the cloak. 'Cute lighsaber, Darth Mall Goth' the man in the cloak jokes. The man dressed like Deadpoool pushes past Iceman and Kitty Pryde and reaches out for Jubilee who has entered the room.
Madrox continues to sit in the chair, 'No. This isn't right. Everyone stop...' he utters, but no one listens to him, as they continue to battle. 'STOP!' Madrox shouts as he stands up, and this time he gets everyone's attention, as they all turn to him. The four new arrivals group together, and Madrox turns to them, asking them what they are doing here. 'We came because you are going to need our help' the one in the cloak declares, pointing at Madrox. 'How do you know that?' Madrox asks. 'Because we're you, dumbass!' the one in the cloak replies, pulling back his hood and revealing his face, which has a familiar M stamped across one eye, as the man in the Deapdool costume pulls his mask off, revealing Madrox's face, too....
