Betrayal Game II #52: Days of Future Passing

Round Five:  Investigated

With the Sentinels and the Franken-Troopers defeated, the X-Men and Avengers took a breather. “Clearly it’s not safe here,” Luke Cage said. “We don’t have the infrastructure ready to protect you all. I’m afraid you’re going to have to find somewhere else to go.”
“More like you don’t want us around your baby,” Shadowcat said, scoffing.

Luke scowled. “Yeah, well if it was you, you’d do the same.”

“Well where do we go?” Rachel asked. “We could try the Baxter Building, but I heard Doctor Doom is on the Fantastic Four.”

“Er…well, only kinda,” Spider-Man chimed in.

Kid Omega turned his nose up, blood drying at the corners of his mouth. Kinda isn’t good enough. We don’t need another peni—er, ego—the size of mine around here.

“You’d think he was talking about small things,” Toad said, whipping his tongue about as a taunt.

If you want to keep that, I’d quit reminding me what I just lost, janitor, Quire threatened.

“Enough already!” Cannonball yelled. “All’a y’all have taken this too far! How many of our friends have we lost today? Y’all are cracking jokes and acting like we don’t have to bury our friends—our family! What’s wrong with you?”

Talisman did not flinch at the outburst. “Alpha Flight has died and come back so many times that it makes it hard to have an impact.”

Kid Gladiator snorted. “The glory of death in battle carries honor! Death in old age matters little if only you are left to remember it.”

Layla look to the park across from Avengers Mansion wistfully. “If only Jamie were here. He would know what to do.”

“Jamie bit the big one, but are you sure he’s your best bet?”

Layla looked around, trying to place the voice. “Down here, ya height-ist!”

“Pip?!”

“And the rest of X-Factor,” Havok said, leading the X-Factor Investigations team onto the grounds of Avengers Mansion. “We were briefly informed of what is going on. Scott and Weapon X are taking on Cyttorak in Westchester. It’s our job to keep you guys safe…well, for starters.”

“What’s the other thing?” Kitty asked, skeptical.

Rictor shifted uncomfortably. “We’re supposed to ‘detect’ what happened to Wolverine’s head. Scott said you guys told him it wasn’t with the body. Scott wants to try to reattach things, basically, maybe bring Logan back if we can.”

“You think the head is all that’s going to take?” Rachel asked.

Lorna smirked. “Compared to dying one by one, it’s better than our other options.”
“If that’s that, we’ll leave you guys to it,” Captain America said. “We just picked up on an anomaly headed toward Earth, something we need to deal with. You’re on your own.”

Lorna’s eyes fluttered at Havok. “See? Even Captain America knows when you’re being sexy and in charge.”

It happened in a flash, as soon as the Avengers disappeared inside their mansion. A siege of crows blotted out the sun, descending upon Shadowcat. She tried to face, but the crows, spiritual in nature, began to rip at her skin with their beaks. “My telepathy isn’t working!” Rachel yelled.

Kitty was gone, a spatter of blood inside a murder of crows.

“X-Force, don’t be stingy with your bullets!”

In a flash, Fantomex, Psylocke, Deadpool, Nightcrawler, and Deathlok emerged from a portal. “Alpha Flight called saying the Great Beasts were sending something after the time anomaly. The Captain Britain Corps alerted us to the same,” Psylocke said. Staring at the remnants  of Kitty Pryde, she stopped speaking.

And then it happened again. The crows descended on another of their own—this time, the boy who would grow up to either save the world or rule it. Genesis.

“Uncle Cluster, no!” Genesis cried out as Fantomex unleashed every weapon he could fit into two hands. It was not enough. Genesis disappeared and a corpse emerged from the flock.

“X-Force! X-Factor! We can’t figure out what the anomaly is if these things kill everything first!” Rachel said through tears at the loss of her best friend. “Stop this thing—NOW!”

“You heard her!” Fantomex shouted.

The crows coalesced to form another creature, one with a skull for a head. “Try. Nothing can stop Ranark the Ravager…”

That’s right! X-Force, X-Factor, and even possibly the Avengers are here to take on the spiritual mass of every crow in New England assembled in one spot and infused with mystical energy, controlled by Ranark the Ravager and fueled by the Great Beasts of the North themselves! Help X-Force and the Avengers top the crows! Side-mission:  Help X-Factor find Wolverine’s head!

The Players

Kid Omega - Kipe XXXXX XXXX
Kid Gladiator - marhawkman XXXXX X
Cannonball - UncannyScott XXXXX XXXXX X
Toad - Gibbering Fool XXXXX XXXX
Talisman - Cable XXXXX XX
Layla Miller - das_boot XXXXX XX
Phoenix - History of Paper XXXXX X
Ernst - Placebo XXXXX XXX

The Deceased

Wolverine – NPC
Beast - NPC
Angel - Drunk
Oya - Peter Luzifer
Husk - Mastermind
Shadowcat - medium13
Genesis - hotknives

Layla sat in quiet contemplation in what had been the viewing room, back when X-Factor's headquarters had been a morgue. Longshot and Strong Guy weren't too happy at being torn from a fight, but Lorna had insisted. The skeleton of Wolverine lay on the surface of the table that had once been for the bereaved to have a final look at their loved ones before they were introduced to the crematorium. The adamantium had been burned clean, between the initial assault that took Logan's life, and the fire of Quentin's Phoenix manifestation, but Layla could swear she could still see the faintest trace of blood, now stained brown, clinging to the indestructible metal.

"So, we're safe here, right?" asked Strong guy for the umpteenth time. "You sprinkled that stuff over the door ways and wrote those things on the walls to keep the crow man out?"

"Yep, sure did," said Layla in a monotone, as she stared at the now completed skeleton.

"Can you bring him back?" asked Longshot, gesturing towards the bones. "I mean, he'd be without a soul like Guido, but he'd also be without skin and organs, correct?"

"Whaddya mean, 'like Guido'?" bellowed Strong Guy. "Go do your vision reading thing ya blork."

"Please, Longshot," asked Layla. "See if you can get anything from the bones that might tell us who the killer is."

"Okay," smiled the blond-haired mutate as he entered the viewing room.

"Guido, I'm sorry," said Layla, her head hung low. "I thought that I could save you. I thought that maybe it wouldn't change things, but look what it's done!"

"Ya didn't bring me back wrong, kid," sighed Guido. "All'a this stuff, me being more impulsive an' kissing St Croix... ya don't think that maybe it's on account of me havin' nearly died (AGAIN, I might add), that I'm doing that whole 'live life to the max' thing?"

"But, Bloodbath--" began Layla.

"But nuthin'," shrugged Guido. "Longshot and Shatty-buns were made in a lab somewhere, an' shouldn't have souls, but they were effected. Maybe I'm just lucky?"

"Maybe," said Layla, trying to give Guido a smile. Lord knows, if you have to justify this to yourself in any way you can, I'm not going to stop you, Guido, but I think that maybe we both know the truth, and I'm still sorry...

Sorry, couldn't help but over-hear

Quire, you have about two seconds to get out of my head or so help me--

What? You'll rip out my tongue? You're right though, he has no soul. Then again, some philosophers believe that you're not born with a soul, but that you grow one. You brought him back from the dead with no injuries... perhaps this is his journey now? To grow his own soul? You're welcome by the way.

Quentin cut contact with her as quickly as he had assumed it in the first place. Layla had to admit, he had a point, and who better to have as an authority on spiritual matters than the freaking Phoenix?

She tried to hold it back, but as she smiled at Guido, she also let out a gentle sob.

"Aw, kid, don't go cryin' on me... I'm no good when a lady cries... think we still have some of that ice-cream you like if you need cheerin' up?" said Guido, clearly looking uncomfortable.

Layla leapt up from her chair and dived on Guido, trying her hardest to envelop him in a bear hug, although due to his massive size, her arms didn't even reach an eighth of the way around him.

"You're gonna be okay, Guido, you know that?" she asked, as she felt Strong Guy place a giant hand gingerly on her back.

"Um... No, but I'll go on the word of the girl who "knows stuff", though," he replied.

"Ahem," announced Longshot as he re-entered the room.

"What did you find?" asked Layla, jumping down to the floor.

"Nothing," replied Longshot. "Absolutely nothing."

"Impossible..." said Layla. "You can replay powerfully emotive memories, and from what I know of Wolverine, who's angry all the time, he'd have been REALLY pissed about being killed... so why can't you sense anything?"

"Could be any number of reasons, I suppose," he shrugged. "Magic maybe? Or some really powerful psychic?"

"I'm going to assume you mean Talisman or the creature living inside of Ernst" grimaced Layla, storming towards the front doors of X-Factor Investigations. "Either way, I think it's high time I had a chat with those two..."

"Man, I'm really hating this day," muttered Toad to himself as he dived into a dumpster to avoid the murderous murder of crows.

He peaked over the edge and watched the ensuing battle. Kid Gladiator and Cannonball were wantonly blasting through clusters of crows, raining blood and feathers down upon everybody. Teh Kid he could understand, but Sam, he was just becoming more and more reckless since he saw his sister killed.

Meanwhile, he'd lost sight of Quire, Layla and the wrinkly kid.

"Bang bang! Bang bang bang!" laughed Deadpool nearby, "like shooting fish in a barrel! Black feathered flying fish in a gigantic airy barrel!" then he caught sight of Toad, "hey Frog Man, enjoying the show?! Come out and join the party!"

Beyond Deadpool, Mort saw Ranark  hurling Ms Marvel through a wall and gutting Daredevil. What could he do?

"I'm good here thanks!"




Edited by Gibbering Fool - 05-Feb-2012 at 3:38am

Kubark was getting bored of smashing crows.  He'd quickly lost count of how many he'd destroyed and still they were everywhere.  But after seeing Sylvie teleport back to the base he had an idea.  He quickly flew down to grab her and pulled her over to Doctor Strange.

As the spirit crows began to assault the heroes Talisman tried to simply command them to stop. Her ability to control the creatures, however, was outmatched by the Great Beast and she was unable. She soon noticed though that when they were slain by her allies the control of the beasts was broken. A large portion of the birds had been slain and now she embued their lifeless forms with spirit energy and reanimated them into zombie crows under her own control. She turned them on Ranark and devoured him with his own weapon.

But the people she had suspected her turned out to be innocent. She still suspected one of the adults, perhaps the former villain Toad, yet the choices were being narrowed down and she had to think that perhaps the power of young Quentin Quire had driven him mad...

Toad
Quentin Quire

Round Six:  Burn Away What Doesn’t Work

Dr. Strange looked at Kid Gladiator, perplexed by the girl he had been brought. “Sylvie Rushton? The fake Enchantress? What use is she to me?”

“It is my belief that the most underused among us have some kind of inherent power that you can use to save us,” Kid Gladiator responded.

Strange stared at the girl. “Perhaps if I tweak your powers, we can blow the center out of Ranark and his crows.”

“Blow his head off. Got it,” Sylvie said. She snapped her fingers.

Strange shuddered as brain matter and Mohawk splattered all over him. “What did you do, girl?!”

Her eyes wide, Sylvie looked aside shiftily. “Ooooh, you said Ranark, not Kubark. My bad.”

Strange grabbed the girl by her shoulders. “Do you realize what you’ve done?!”

“Before anything, we need to locate its center, and we can’t do that without the power of the Phoenix. If we can burn away crows with a raptor…” Cannonball suggested.

“Get them back here!” Deadpool pouted. “I wanted to see the Lady Gaga concert, too, but they went off without asking.”

“They went back for Wolverine’s skull, you moron.”

The new voice came from above, parachuting out of a Warlock-shaped plane as she sent an arrow through three crows, skewering them. Dani Moonstar was quickly joined by the rest of the New Mutants. “Scott sent us. We’re his ‘loose ends’ team, and we’re here to make sure you guys don’t become just that.”

“Then go! Take care of that!” Fantomex shouted. “Find the others and Wolverine! If we can correct this, then maybe… maybe… I don’t know, just do it!”

“Fantomex admitting he doesn’t know something?” Rachel asked. “Now you know it’s bad.”
***************************************************
Dropping out of the Warlock-jet, the New Mutants and remaining X-Men joined Layla, Omega, and the X-Factor agents that accompanied them on the mansion grounds, trying their hardest to ignore the sounds of a Cyttorak-powered Shaw still pulverizing the X-Men a mile and a half away. “So you found it?”

“Yeah, whole lot of good it does us,” Polaris said. “What does it matter?”

“My theory? Of all of us, Wolverine could tell when someone’s mannerisms changed, even if it was the same person across time,” Dani explained. “It’s our job to figure out how to piece him back together again.

“And it’s our job to make sure that never happens. PHOENIX!”

The mansion grounds lit up as the Shi’ar Death Commandos touched down. Krait flew at Cannonball, knowing that only his field could disrupt that of the invulnerable mutant.

“Ya missed me!” Sam yelled gleefully, but suddenly he gasped as he found himself staring at his legs. His lower half of his body was separated. Krait had bisected him. Sam passed away as Krait swung back by, carting his legs elsewhere so that his Eternal healing factor could not kick in.

Phoenix’s eyes powered up. Though Quentin held the Force, she hated the Commandos for slaughtering the Greys. “DIE!” she screamed, flying into a telekinetic fury.

I’ve got this one! Kid Omega thought, flying upward, but he was met by a new, female Blackcloak with the anti-Phoenix staff. In his arrogance, Quentin thought he was invincible. Instead, he was met by a threat that was more than capable of grounding him—for good. The anti-Phoenix symbol burned right through him, shredding his telekinetic cocoon.

Blackcloak hissed. “When the Phoenix is what does not work, it is we who burn it away.”

“Fight, New Mutants! Avenge Sam!” Dani shouted.

So the fray began anew…

Defeat the Death Commandos! Find a way to piece together Wolverine skull and body. What will it take to bring him back? The answer is the key to the game! With Pixie, Shatterstar, Polaris, Havok, and the New Mutants on your side, will even they be enough?

The Players

Toad - Gibbering Fool XXXXX XXXXX X
Talisman - Cable XXXXX XXXXX
Layla Miller - das_boot XXXXX XXX
Phoenix - History of Paper XXXXX XX
Ernst - Placebo XXXXX XXXXX X

The Deceased

Wolverine – NPC
Beast - NPC
Angel - Drunk
Oya - Peter Luzifer
Husk - Mastermind
Shadowcat - medium13
Genesis - hotknives
Cannonball - UncannyScott
Kid Omega - Kipe
Kid Gladiator - marhawkman

"Cassandra Nova," grimaced Layla, staring Ernst down. "I've heard about you. Heard how to take you down, too."

Ernst smiled at her, and was about to say something patronising when she was smacked across the face with Shard's rifle.

"Guess the troops are turning on you, huh?" grinned Layla, as Polaris entered the room, via a Havok-blasted hole in the wall. Cloak turned and started casting a spell, but Monet flew down through the skylight and clocked him across the jaw, knocking him out cold.

"How?" asked Ernst.

"Telepathy," grinned Layla. "Not mine, but that of my dear team-mate Monet, of course. Since you already took the most powerful psychic out of play, I'd guess that they're somehow a threat to your plan to kill us all, Ernst."

"Well, Rachel would be more powerful than me, technically," replied Monet. "And don't think this means that I like you, Layla. I just happen to like creepy little girls with the faces of old ladies even less. Especially when they've killed people."

"You really think that Ernst is the killer?" asked Talisman.

"She's ONE suspect," replied Layla, coldly. "I heard you magic-types aren't too keen on the Phoenix Force either. Maybe you should go outside and fight off the Shi'Ar. Earth-based magic is more likely to keep them off balance long enough for us to pull this off. Besides, we don't need Rachel turning this into a grudge match. She's one of the few people still alive that I feel like I can trust..."

Layla turned away from Talisman, and ventured into the room that stored the remains of Wolverine. Lorna followed her, the green-haired woman grimacing as she looked on the remains of the supposedly unkillable mutant.

"This needs to be sorted out, and now," said Layla quietly. "Monet, can you bring Rachel here? I think we might need her power."

"You can't POSSIBLY be thinking about using your power on--" began Monet, before being cut off by Havok.

"St. Croix, just get your ass out there and grab Rachel, okay?" he said, concentric rings of energy flowing from him.

With a mock salute, swiftly followed by an obscene gesture, Monet flew out of the headquarters of X-Factor Investigations.

"Okay, Lorna," began Layla. "I know you don't know me too well, but here's the deal; I can bring the dead back to life, but they're kind of missing their soul. Ish. But I think that might just be temporary. I need you here to help me bring Wolverine back, and then restrain him if he tries to gut us all like fish, okay? Oh, but before that, you need to use your powers to magnetically fuse his spinal column back to the base of his skull, okey dokey?"

"I thought Wolverine said that you knew stuff?" asked Lorna. "And what do you mean, 'without a soul-ish'? They either have one, or they don't!"

"You rang?" said Rachel, as she entered the room, practically boiling over with anger and psychic energy.

"Yes," replied Layla. "I'm bringing Wolverine back to life. Lorna's going to help, and so are you... Rachel, I need you to use your psychic time power to bring the mind of Logan from the second before he died into his body. And also, you need to telekinetically create a few things too."

Rachel raised her eyebrow in suspicion. "A few things? Like what?"

"Oh, nothing too major," replied Layla. "Clothes, mostly. I think I can live without seeing Wolverine naked. Oh, and maybe some skin, muscles and organs too. Yeah, that'd be pretty spiffy. But only if my power doesn't work right."

"Uh... what?" asked Rachel. "Slow down there, Layla..."

"No time," replied Layla, placing her hands on Wolverine's chest. "We're doing this now!"

Layla felt her power erupt from inside of her as Lorna secured Wolverine's spine to his skull. She'd never attempted a resurrection like this before, and she was pleasantly surprised as she realised that she could feel tissue growing underneath her hands-- and then tried not to vomit as she realised that it was EXPOSED tissue that she'd just been touching.

"Oh god," cried out Rachel, clutching her head in her hands. "It burns, it burns, it--"

Rachel stopped talking and began to let out an inhuman scream.

"RACHEL!" cried out Lorna, reaching out to her friend.

"LORNA, DON'T YOU f**kING DARE LOSE FOCUS NOW, DO YOU HEAR ME?" screamed Layla. "She's been the Phoenix for crying out loud! Rachel can pull through this and survive, she's not really in pain or on fire, she's just feeling Logan's final moments and--"

There was a flash of light and Layla felt a wave of energy wash over her, gently at first, but then suddenly it surged strongly enough to knock her off her feet, along with Lorna, Rachel and Alex.

"NO!" cried out Layla. "We were so close!"

"Close... to... what...?" came a familiar gruff sounding voice from the coroner's table. "An' why'm I naked an' on a slab?"

"Rachel, we did it!" whispered Layla excitedly, before turning to Logan. "Wolverine, who killed you? Tell us and we can end all of this!"

"Killed me?" asked the Canadian mutant. "What're you talkin' about, Miller?"

"But... But I thought..." stammered Layla.

"I couldn't do it," replied Rachel. "I tried to pull him back just as he was attacked, but the pain... the burning... I couldn't stand it, not without the Phoenix Force. I was in too much pain to focus properly, and I think I just panicked and went back too far... maybe an hour before he was killed... I'm sorry, Layla."

"Dammit..." muttered Layla, before turning back to Rachel. "In that case, make him a uniform. These Commandos killed Quentin. That's all the kids from the Institute dead now. We're going to avenge them."

"I'm pretty sure I'm meant to be leader here," said Alex.

"Oh hush, you know it makes sense," scolded Polaris.

"Someone killed the kids?" growled Logan. "And the same person killed me? Well, now I'm pissed off..."

"Let's go, team," said Layla, marching towards the battle between the heroes and the Death Commandos. I'll be sure to avenge you, Quentin...

As the heroes regrouped around each other during the raging battle, they eyed Talisman suspiciously. Did the outsider come to destroy the mutants? Why? She smiled a wicked smile. "So you've figured it out," she said with a snicker. "I'm guilty."

One minute she was deciding how to fight the battle and the next she was suddenly in a great void. Soon Elizabeth Twoyoungmen realized she had been shunted into an astral projection of her own mind. She heard in a distance her own voice speaking of guilt and letting out a laugh. But the laugh sounded like it was right behind her...

Cassandra Nova stood before Talisman. "Fool! You've released me from my tomb and now I will repay you with your destruction!"

"Give me control of my mind!" screamed Talisman as she fired magical energy at Cassandra. But the blast deflected off the psionic shielding that protected the astral form of Nova. Talisman was out of options and her own friends would soon kill her after her admission of guilt. Nova was laughing as she began to grow larger, her own mind crowding out that which remained of Elizabeth.

Quickly Talisman reached into her Sacree bag that she had inherited from her father and from countless generations of shamans that existed to protect the world. Nova laughed. "There is nothing you can pull from your bag of tricks that can stop me!" Talisman pulled out...the bottom of the bag.

"What the?!" said a shocked Nova.

"When I fully pull this bag inside out, and we will both be drawn inside of it. There is no power on this earth that will get us out," Talisman said. But she hesitated, because she could feel another presence behind her.

Rachel Grey had come to visit. "What are you doing Elizabeth? I could tell you weren't yourself," she said.

"Tell them I'm innocent, Rachel. This is the only way! Now get out!" With the last of her remaining mystical energy, she forced Rachel out of her mind and pulled the bag inside out as Nova let out a scream.
OOC: Disregard the bold above. I'm actually innocent...




Edited by Cable - 09-Feb-2012 at 1:19pm

Round Seven: Game Over - Start New Game? Y/N

With another series of blasts, Hypnernova almost sliced Layla Miller in half. She should have seen this coming, but nothing had been clear to her, not since Jamie’s death. She had known how it was supposed to be and then—nothing.

In a flash of lightning, Hypnernova was smashed to the ground at the hands of Mjolnir. The Avengers arrived on the scene just as X-Force bodyslid in, the Extinction Team arrived by Pixie-portal, and X-Factor came in through one of Shatterstar’s gateways.

“Take. Them. Down!” Cyclops yelled, just as Captain America’s voice screamed, “Avengers Assemble!” Guido sheepishly looked around. “It’s clobberin’ time?”

In seconds, the Death Commandos were dispatched.

“Thank the Askani, you’re here, Dad,” Rachel said, grabbing her father as the action settled.

Cyclops held her back. “Not yet, Rachel. We’re not done here yet. We’ve figured out who did this.” He gestured to the newly-revived Wolverine. “Emma pulled it out of Logan’s head the split-second his brain came back online, but before his psi-shields did.”

He looked at Toad. “We suspected you, Mortimer, because we didn’t think tigers could change their stripes.” He sighed. “We were wrong.”

Talisman was next. “Ranark’s appearance and your inability to act as a magical stopper around him gave us pause, but I’m afraid you’re not the killer either.”

Ernst looked to the ground. “You. You’ve done terrible things. We found Hisako brain-dead. Cassandra Nova, you won’t be let off the hook for your crimes. However… you are not the killer we’ve been looking for…isn’t that right, Layla?”

Layla’s eyes widened. “Me? What do you mean?”

“It shoulda been obvious, darlin’.” Logan popped his claws as he walked forward. “Emma caught me up. All this about preventin’ a future from happening and that action leading to all o’ this? Makes sense, right?”

Layla shrugged. “I still don’t get it.”

“S’called the Butterfly Effect, ain’t that right?”

Cyclops nodded. “We sensed the presence too late in the game. Emma, Cassandra—untether future-Layla’s mind.”

At once, Ernst and Emma peeled at the layers that held future-Layla’s mind from that of her present self. She shrieked as her psyche, only in control for the death of Wolverine and hiding out ever since, was flung forward into her future.

“Oh god,” Layla said, throwing up. “I…I did all of this, didn’t I?”

“Why did they pick you, girl?” Logan asked.

“Because—because I think future me knew stuff. I knew what had happened, the full story, more than any of them did because of all that knowledge from before. So I knew more about the past than anyone. I could…I’m speaking like I’m her. I’m going to be sick again…” Layla shuddered, dry heaving for a moment.

She started crying. “I used me. This is all my fault…”

“Good news. You won’t be going anywhere,” Captain America said. “A lot of good men and women and children died today, Layla. And we know your body did it, even if your mind didn’t. I think you can find a way to serve your penance.”

BLAM!

Fantomex looked down the barrel of his gun as Layla fell to the ground.

“YOU MONSTER!” Cyclops yelled. Thor raised his hammer and Cap his shield. Wolverine’s claws popped further out as he snarled.

“In a moment, the timeline will rearrange itself so that Layla never came back. I’m the only me in the multiverse.  If Layla is dead in my present, she is not alive in my future to come back.”

“I don’t…understand.”

“I don’t expect you to,” Fantomex said.

Cyclops nodded. “What are we talking about?”

Fantomex sighed. “An unknown assailant was forced to relocate his/her mind to the past in order to temporarily remove Wolverine from the board. His lack of presence prevented the ire of the Phoenix as Jean chose him knowing that you were happy with Emma. This lack of worldwide destruction prevented Shaw from getting loose and cutting a deal with Cyttorak, leading to a Sentinel strike on the Jean Grey School. As soon as these things don’t happen, said unknown assailant will put Wolverine’s head back with his body and allow him to live again. Everyone wins, and a terrible future doesn’t happen—and the only reason it doesn’t break into an alternate timeline is because I am involved as a temporal anomaly that only exists in one reality.”

Captain America looked at Cyclops. “Makes sense to me.”

“Good,” Kitty said. “Because I’m famished.”

“Dibs on the potato salad!” Cannonball shouted.

“You guys want in?” Kitty said to Cyclops and Captain America. “With Logan on vacation, we could use some hands in the kitchen.”

Kid Omega stood back in the background as he watched from afar. It’s coming.

I know, Future Quentin thought back at the entity. And as soon as it’s gone, I can put Wolverine back together. It’s too bad, what happened to Layla Miller. She would have been hot stuff in the future, if I had to guess…

THE END

P.S. You missed the point of the post, haha.