Orchis Safe Site XII:
Selene surprises a group of armed and armored Orchis agents. Shaw had asked her to investigate what happened to his men on Krakoa. She made him say “please.”
They all ran, rather than spend another second on the island, she purrs. That seems rather strange - not like professional murderers at all. She walks up to one of them seductively and begins to caress his face. Instead of using telepathy, though, she drains his life essence and with it his memories.
When the others attack, she absorbs them as well, considering them little more than a snack.
Once she is done, an annoyed Shaw joins her and asks if she had to kill all of them. No, she didn’t, she replies, but she thought if she wasn’t meant to eat people, they would be less delicious. That was the problem with his little island, she lectures him. Thinking a mutant law was enough to wrap them all in. She doesn’t want to live in a happy paradise. She doesn’t want to be freed from her oh-so-terrible curse. She wants to eat people!
Unimpressed (or at least pretending to be), Shaw retorts that he bets her act got yawns even back in Carthage. What’s going on? No fingerprints or psychic tampering she can see, Selene reports. In other words: someone who is very good indeed. Xavier, Shaw announces and decides that is good. Xavier they can deal with.
Soon, they are back on Shaw’s ship, some distance away from Krakoa. Stark Sentinels hover in the air around the island. Shaw activates psi-blockers and asks Selene to test them. Selene orders the men to throw themselves into the water and forget to breathe. Since they don’t, they assume Shaw’s blockers work. Where did he get them from? Selene asks. Shaw replies that he built them. In disbelief, she scoffs, when was the last time he built something? He built Krakoa! Shaw grandstands, and now he is going to sell it for parts! No room for sentiment in business. Krakoa is a grave. Someone has to rob it. Who is grandstanding now? she laughs.
Selene turns to the agents and warns them to secure the External Gate for her. Those bones are of her fraternity; secure it for the glory of Selene. Shaw adds the warning that Xavier is on the island and has some telekinetic powers now. Try not to kill him.
As the men leave, Selene observes that she is not sure whether not killing mutants is Orchis’ position. Shaw claims that Xavier’s brain is a resource. Is money all he thinks about? she sighs. Shaw retorts that she is the telepath. She knows what else he is thinking about. With a grin, she agrees, and agrees that she does look fantastic!
Selene thinks of Xavier suffering dramatically on his island, very Ozymandias, king of kings. She wonders if she should burst his bubble and tell him this wasn’t an Orchis plot. The mutants were meant to end up on Mars.
Where the lost mutants are is an unknown place, an endless desert. They stand looking up on a cliffside to Exodus, who is using his telekinesis to create rain. He strains but succeeds and they gather the water. He instructs them to drink, but not too much. They have a long march ahead to the promised land.
Some mutants exclaim that it’s a miracle. Destiny glumly points out that it is water vapor gathered from miles around. Hope retorts, they are drinking in a desert. It feels like a miracle to her. She asks Exodus how long he can keep this up. He replies that he and Hope can take turns, as she can copy his gift. They will carry each other, as Hope carries the ungrateful Destiny. They will survive until the promised land.
Has he really had a vision of the promised land? Destiny asks pointedly. Exodus isn’t sure, but that is the nature of faith. Destiny groans and Hope points out, they have to give the people something! Everyone needs hope. She muses that her name makes things difficult or egotistical. Exodus replies that her name is important as the messiah. They cannot forget what it means or forget her. They abandon her or what her name represents, and they have nothing!
Destiny writes down the situation in her journal.
They barely have water and the little they have they owe to thanks to Exodus and Hope, no food except what a few mutants can generate, no shelter.
Not all who went through the gates are here, including the rest of the Five. Hope and Exodus do telepathic forays at night.
Evening time:
A tree-like mutant named Phil made a jar of glucose and asks his friend Kafka, a young black boy with wings, if he wants to march with him. Kafka replies he is on patrol – meaning he will fly wobbly a few hundred meters at a time and look out for “monsters.”
Kafka flies off, not convinced of the presence of any threats or anything at all. He is in for a surprise when he sees what looks like a feral Wolverine, attacking an injured Mother Righteous. Panicked, he flies back to the camp, shouting he is coming for them. He lands hard in front of Hope and Exodus and, moments later, several feral Wolverines are attacking.
This is a time of testing, Exodus decides and Hope replies, then *#$% pass! Exodus telekinetically lifts the Wolverines in the air and detonates them. Regenerate from that! Hope gloats. Nice work!
Nice work? Kafka protests. They are dying out here! They are not made for this! He can barely fly! He got stabbed a bit! he babbles, then realizes he is standing up to an eight-foot-angel. Don’t pop him! he pleads. Exodus tells him mildly, he only pops beasts, not mutants.
She is glad he didn’t. She owes this little fella, comes a new voice, that of Mother Righteous. She explains that, if not for Kafka’s distraction, Wolverine would have gotten through her shield. Her magic isn’t working great, wherever they are. Good to see friendly faces. She saw the lights in the distance and was heading this way, when he jumped at her like a killer rabbit. Recognizing the accent, Destiny asks if it is Mother Righteous. The one and only, Mother Righteous replies and observes Destiny is looking a bit wobbly. Destiny replies she cannot see from here. But, even before, Mother Righteous was always a hole, a gap…. She has a huge secret.
She is right, Mother Righteous admits, before revealing she is a mutant. She heard the voice of baldy and walked through the nearest portal. Now she is wherever this is.
Hope announces that the other four members of The Five went through the portal with them. They must be somewhere out there and they can’t find them. Suspicious, Exodus asks why they didn’t know she was a mutant. Mother Righteous points out that she’s seen how they treated the Scarlet Witch. She is a witch and as scarlet as it gets. And her mutant bit has never been a big part of her. She learned magic on her lonesome - her mutant gift never did much and was not reliable.
Destiny asks Hope to see what her gift is. Hope scans Mother Righteous and finds that her gift is diffuse, like Legion’s gift, just microscopic. Many gifts, none of them solid. Maybe she has huge potential? she suggests. That would be nice, Mother Righteous simpers. A British working-class girl done good. She could be Margaret Thatcher, except not evil.
Exodus welcomes her and offers to seal her wounds, then she can join their march. She suggests they do it at her place. It’s been pretty lonesome - a whole city just for her. Or they could go to wherever their base is. Where is their city anyway?
Nighttime, and Selene and Shaw have sent another team to Krakoa, this time equipped with anti-psionics.
For Selene, this is about the External Gate, which Apocalypse magically created by killing and transforming her fellow Externals. Her goal is to free them. While they will owe her, she also does it for sentimental reasons. Across twenty thousand years, the few faces who stick around get feelings attached.
When Xavier realizes the men are protected against his telepathy, he reveals his recently developed telekinesis. A little later, the men lie dead and torn apart on the ground.
Back on Krakoa:
Xavier sits back on the beach. No more, he vows.
Elsewhere:
Mother Righteous leads the mutants to her “city,” the verdant growing Atlantic Krakoa. Happily, they all walk there, though Exodus, despite his smiles, believes this doesn’t’ mean the test is over. An oasis is of the desert. And the desert is a place of testing and revelation. As in finding out where they are and how to get home? Hope suggests. Roll on the testing! Logan stabbed her once, back when the Avengers and X-Men were at war. It was awful but she handled it then and she can handle it again!
Exodus warns her to be careful. The testing has barely begun. The Logans are dogs, but far from the greatest threat. She shouldn’t forget, the desert is also the home of Satan!
And somewhere a Wolverine joins his master - Apocalypse who is holding another chained prisoner – Jean Grey…
