How far away from Earth is this? Who knows? The edge of Kree space, close to where the cataclysmic cosmic phenomenon known as the Fault once tore space open... and devastated these systems with lethal interdimensional energies. Now, these ruined planets are just a battleground. A horrific techno-organic beast rises, and a lone alien stands before him. ‘Self spent so long defeating you, Siredam. So very long... but in self’s hour of weakness, you have returned. You will not best Self!’ the alien exclaims, before he takes flight, adding ‘Even if you pursue Self... to the ends of time and space!’ And with that, he soars through the cosmos.
Meanwhile, at one end of time and space, in the city known as San Francisco, ‘Yeah, that’s dead. Really dead, Sam’ Bobby “Sunspot” DaCosta tells his friend Sam “Cannonball” Guthrie as they, Warlock and Nate Grey a.k.a. X-Man stare down at a destroyed barbeque grill. ‘That’s the deadest BBQ grill I’ve ever seen’ someone remarks. Holding up a strange device, Sam explains that he thought this fusion lance he borrowed from the Beast’s R & D might do the trick. ‘I mean... I come from a big family. Someone else always lit the grill’. You’ve just killed it, man. You’ve killed it dead’ Nate tells him, and Sam looks quite nervous as Amara “Magma” Aquilla enters the New Mutants’ backyard. ‘How’s it going out here, masters of fire?’ she asks them, smiling. ‘Amara, we –’ one of them begins, but Amara glows with flaming power and mutters’ Honestly, if you want something done right...do it yourself!’ There is a rumbling, as Magma raises a small piece of land in the backyard as if it was a volcano, which the others can use as their new BBQ. ‘Thanks for the... magmatic char-grilling mini-volcano’ Bobby calls out.
Inside, Dani Moonstar and Xi’an “Shan” Coy Manh a.k.a. Karma are preparing some food. ‘Ooops, I think Amara just shamed the boys and their fire-making abilities’ Xi’an remarks. Dani points out that the boys should have asked Amara in the first place. ‘How’s that punch coming, Doug?’ Dani calls out to Doug “Cypher” Ramsey who is sitting on a sofa stirring some punch. He doesn’t respond, so Dani throws a tomato at him. ‘Ow! Tomato?’ Doug calls out. Karma’s student Face sits in another couch, while Karma announces that she will take the rest of the salad out to the yard. Face follows her, and Dani tells Doug that he has to stop brooding. ‘But, Dani, the future where I ruled the –’ Doug begins, but Dani interrupts, assuring him that it isn’t going to happen. ‘And Shan –’ he begins, ‘She’s fine!’ Dani tells him, adding that the timeline where she got killed was reset, so Doug needs to stop being weird around her. ‘Okay, okay. But what if no one comes to our party?’ Doug asks, pointing out that it was supposed to start a half hour ago.
‘Everyone’s just fashionably late, Doug, and –’ Dani begins, when suddenly, there is a BLINK, and she announces that the first guests have arrived. Dani and Doug head out to the backyard with some food, joining the other New Mutants amongst their guests from the Jean Grey School – Wolverine, Iceman, Kitty Pryde, Blink, the Beast, Angel and Doop, as well as several Asgardians and Gus Grim. ‘Let’s get this party started!’ Dani shouts as everyone mingles with drink in hand, and Kitty starts taking photos.
Warlock stands with Bobby as they cook on an actual BBQ, while Iceman creates some more ice to fill up a drum full of drinks, ‘Well, this is a bit more like it...’ Dani tells him, before hearing the doorbell ring. The Beast talks with Volstagg who is chomping away one some meat, while Sif sits nearby, and Wolverine and Doop are deep in conversation.
Dani opens the door and greets her neighbor, the elderly Mrs Livitz, who is accompanied by Dr Stephen Strange. ‘And, more importantly, some of Mrs Livitz’s delicious prokporzhki prod’ Dr Strange announces. ‘Braised pork, potatoes, allspice, cream and paprika. It’s world-famous in this house, Doctor’ Dani smiles, as she brings Dr Strange and Mrs Livitz through to the party. As they pass through the kitchen, Nate is getting something from the refrigerator, and Mrs Livitz tells Dani ‘I so want you meeting my newphew. Him over from Latveria. Unhappy, he not in today to come. Such a handsome boy’. She then carries on out to the backhard, while Nate turns to Dani and asks if their landlord is trying to set her up. ‘Ha! I think so!’ Dani replies, before seeing a frowning Sam standing behind them. ‘Didn’t mean to interrupt you and Nate’ Sam remarks as Nate carries on back to the party. Dani tells Sam not to be dumb, that he isn’t interrupting. ‘Drink beer’ she adds, tossing him a can.
‘Look, I didn’t want to be in the way. You and Nate –’ Sam begins, but Dani tells him that she knows she and Nate may be awkward. ‘But you and me, Sam Guthrie, we’ll always be you and me’ she smiles. ‘Friends forever’ she adds, remarking that all this bounding around in time has shown her that friendship is the one lasting commodity. ‘Okay?’ she asks, kissing Sam on the cheek. ‘Heh. Absolutely’ Sam replies, while the doorbell rings once more. Blink goes to answer it, and she turns back to Dani, ‘It’s for you’ she calls out. Dani goes over to the door, and finds three ghoulish warriors standing at the door. ‘Brun! Gondul! Kara! Welcome!’ Dani calls out. ‘We hope we’re not overdressed’ one of them replies, all three of them wearing their warrior armor. Dani shows them in to the party, while Hogun stands near Cannonball and Magma and remarks ‘The Disir? What in Odin’s name are we going to feed them?’
Doug is sitting on a sofa by himself, until Gus sits down in an armchair next to him. Gus greets him ‘Dani’s asked you to chat to me, hasn’t she, Mr Grim?’ Doug enquires. ‘Only if you want to’ Gus replies. Doug leans back on the couch and replies that he seems to be second-guessing everything, that he sees every action in terms of what effect it will have on the future. Gus tells Doug that the future is unwritten, and the bad version of him has been erased. ‘Use your powers on yourself. Read yourself. You’ll see there’s no harm there anymore’ he adds, before the doorbell rings once more.
Sunspot answers it, and shouts ‘YOU!?’ while charging a solar-powered punch as Mephisto stands in the doorway. Magma sees this and tells Bobby that it is okay, and to let him in. She hands Bobby a bowl of food and asks him to go pass these around while she deals with Mephisto. Holding a bottle of wine and a bunch of flowers that appear to be on fire, Mephisto tells Magma that he has brought this bottle of claret from the sea chest of the Marie Celeste, and this bunch of flaming blooms from the Third Circle. Mephisto smiles and tells Amara that he really wants things to work out between them. But, Amara tells Mephisto that she doesn’t think that is going to be possible, as she saw the real him – and his illusions of happiness don’t work on her anymore. ‘What if I don’t want it to be over?’ Mephisto asks. ‘Then I’ll have a word with my friends the Disir’ Amara warns him, pointing to the ghoulish Asgardians. ‘Ahhh...laters!’ Mephisto exclaims as he vanishes in a burst of flame. ‘Did he hurt you?’ Sunspot asks, rushing towards Magma, who tells him to calm down, and turns around, kissing the surprised Bobby on the lips. ‘You’re a big, incurable romantic fool, Roberto! Let’s go dance’ Magma tells him ‘Okay!’ Bobby smiles.
As the party continues outside, Moonstar looks somewhat frustrated. ‘Penny for your thoughts?’ Wolverine asks her as he slices a bottle cap off his beer with one of his adamantium claws. ‘Oh, just that my team is split in two. The X-Men have never been in a sadder state, Logan’ Dani tells him, before asking what they are to do now, after all that has happened. After Scott...’ her voice trails off, before Wolverine tells Dani that they will do what they always do – what they do best. He adds that Cyclops was on the money with Dani’s team, that he believed in her – real world, real problems, real business to tidy up.
Bobby and Amara enter the backyard holding hands, Dr Strange accompanies Mrs Livitz around, while Sif stands with the Disir, and Blink, Nate and Sam sit on a rug on the ground, and Warlock cooks on the BBQ. ‘Look around, Moonstar. Xavier’s dream of human / mutant integration. Keep going. You’re doing the right thing’ he tells her, tossing her a can of beer.
Smiling, Warlock holds up a sausage and exclaims ‘Self / Friends? Who wants a burnt wiener?’, when suddenly, he falls back as techno-organic energy flutters around him, as Warlock convulses, everyone sees this. ‘What’s happening?’ someone calls out. ‘Are we under attack?’ another asks as Warlock is then pulled away. Everyone stands ready, while Dani shouts ‘Something grabbed Warlock and carried him off! Doctor Strange, can you trace him?’ she asks, and Dr Strange reports that Warlock has been taken to a deserted warehouse on the Bayside Waterfront.
Indeed, Warlock crash lands into the warehouse, ‘What is this? Who assaulted Self?’ he calls out, before a large fist punches him down. Warlock manages to get to his feet, and sees the techno-organic being standing over him – Tyro? Is that you? Speak to Self! What has happened?’ Warlock demands. ‘Warlock! Warlock!’ the transformed Tyro calls out, before suddenly, ‘Self’s Siredam! Self’s Siredam is back in control!’ Warlock exclaims as he is infected. ‘Self cannot fight it!’ Warlock cries, before Tyro, though Siredam, explains to Warlock that it was after Warlock left, that he carried on working in the Kree worlds, curing the Technarchy plague, but then a huge war happened, and the great hole known as the Fault was closed. Such energies struck Tyro and hurt him, and he was left for dead. It was then that Tyro’s Siredam woke out of dormancy and was able to retake control of his body, so with no control, Tyro came looking for Warlock, because he is the only being who can help Tyro. ‘And Siredam will not allow that!’ he declares, slamming Warlock against a wall.
Tyro / Siredam then punches Warlock to the ground, ‘You will perish before Tyro is freed!’ he threatens. Suddenly, ‘Not on our watch’ a voice calls out, as Blink teleports the New Mutants, Wolverine, Angel, Dr Strange and the Asgardians into the warehouse. ‘You picked the wrong party to crash, freak!’ Dani exclaims. The New Mutants know what is at stake, for Tyro is another being of Warlock’s race, a techno-organic creature. Like Warlock, and like every other member of the race, Tyro has a Siredam, a ruthless and destructive parent organism that seeks to annihilate its offspring. Warlock helped Tyro suppress his Siredam, locking it deep inside Tyro’s core, but the malevolent force is regaining control. The Siredam will consume Tyro, take over his form completely... and then unleash its wrath on the human race – unless it is stopped.
The heroes engage the Siredam / Tyro, with Dani telling everyone to keep it distracted, as they have to get to Warlock. Blink teleports herself, Dani and Cypher to Warlock, ‘Self / Friends!’ Warlock calls out. Cypher wraps his arms around his friend and assures him that they will get him out of here. Warlock explains that Tyro is battling his own self, his own Siredam. ‘Self / Friend Doug must help him!’ Warlock urges. ‘There’s no stopping this thing!’ Sunspot exclaims as he and Cannonball battle side-by-side.
Doug tells Blink that he needs a fast ride, as the creature is fighting itself and he knows exactly how that feels. ‘Where to?’ Blink asks, before teleporting Cypher onto Tyro’s head. ‘Close enough to make contact’ Doug explains, and he starts pulling at wires on Tyro, remarking that he needs to be close enough to interface with one of the Siredam’s sensory antennae, as he needs to connect Transmode Virus to Transmode Virus, and rewrite. He does so, and the Siredam convulses, before falling to the ground. ‘I gotcha, Doug!’ Cannonball calls out as he blasts down and picks Cypher up, preventing him from being crushed by the Siredam. ‘Did you... kill it, Doug?’ Cannonball asks.
Cypher replies that he is done with that, and that he just used the experience of fighting his future self to help Tyro overcome his patriarch. ‘His Transmode is purged. He’s in control again. Good thing I speak the same language. The Technarchy Code’ Doug adds. Tyro returns to his default size and looks at Doug and Warlock as he says ‘Self / Friend Doug saved Self!’ Doug tells him not to mention it. ‘Another piece of unfinished business finished’ Dani smiles, before telling Doug that was amazing, and suggests they get the party restarted.
Shortly, back at the New Mutants’ home, balloons have been let loose as the party is once again underway. ‘See, Doug? You couldn’t have done that if you hadn’t been through all you’ve been through’ Magma points out while she and Sunspot holds hands. ‘Yes, Self / Friend./ Remade through trauma. Stronger. Better. Like the New Mutants’ Warlock adds. And, as Cannonball, Moonstar, Sunspot, Magma, Warlock, Cypher, X-Man and Blink stand together, they all put their hands in together, as Dani declares ‘Here’s to business... never finished’.
