Uncanny X-Men #456

Publisher
Marvel
Year
2005
Month
4
LastChanged
1/27/2024 8:19:09 AM
World's End

One Ice!
On Ice: Worlds End,
Summary

  Creatures observe the X-Men, their scanners warning of bio-hazard, and they approach stealthily. Suddenly, they are hit with a snow burst, blinding them and their scanners. Actually, Rachel noticed them and is telepathically interrupting their sensory perceptions, a trick she learned from Emma. She reads their minds and says they're Hauk'ka, evolved from dinosaurs, and they fought Logan, but neither they nor X-23 knows where he is now, and he isn't answering Rachel's psi-calls. The Hauk'ka realize the X-Men are still there although they can't see them, and they call for backup.

  Betsy is shackled on the X-Jet; she doesn't blame the X-Men for taking precautions, and she's happy to be on the Blackbird and in a standard uniform, like coming home. She lets her mind wander.

  On the psi-plane, she sees her own mind as a fortress: she's been a warrior her whole life, and she weeps, though warriors don't weep. Some things seem strange among the familiar; her own face in a reflection is switches from her original to that of Kwannon. She knows who she is but isn't sure what she's become. She senses something wrong, and on the horizon she sees St. William's Tower appear. It's an old Roman fortress, her favorite place to play growing up, and the foundation of her "spiritual sanctum." She hadn't realized it was missing. She rushes upstairs, psi-blade drawn, and hears laughter. The floor caves in below her; she sees ruins, shards of what was once her telepathy, and a photo of herself as a child with her brothers Brian and Jamie. The photo shifts: her Asian form appears, and mad Jamie speaks, saying she won't miss what she doesn't remember. She notes her mad brother, whom she worshipped as a child, has the power to shape reality itself.

  The psi-plane shatters, and she hears something approaching the jet. She wishes the X-Men had left her with a radio. The X-Men hear it, too: dinosaurs, driven by three costumed Hauk'ka. Kaidan, a telepath, sees that the X-Men have cloaked themselves from his fellows, and he syncs with them; they immediately attack the X-Men. Ororo orders X-23 to run for it, and Kurt ports away with her. Lucas blasts a dinosaur; Raina kicks him down. Ororo brings lightning to short out the "waldoes" (cybernetics) attached to the dinosaurs, so Masado, who has pterodactyl-like wings, smacks her.

  Rachel tries to form a plan; she is surprised to learn Kaidan, and then he uses his power on her, claiming to reveal her true heritage, and she sees herself as a Hauk'ka. Naming her "R'Chel," he has her attack Ororo. She senses something alien in Rachel's thoughts and fights her with a blizzard, so powerful it starts to destroy Logan's jet.

  Kurt ports to rescue X-23 from the winds; he tells her to go find Betsy, for help; she wants to fight, but he tells her not to just react, but to think beyond the moment. Kurt ports to Ororo, warning her the storm is building exponentially; she says Rachel's mind been taken and wonders how that could happen so easily. Now Rachel's trying to get her mind, and Ororo can't win without killing; Kurt asks if she can stop, and she admits she doesn't want to, so he teleports with her, knocking her out and letting the storm dissipate. Masado thanks him by kicking him unconscious.

  Kaidan warns that Ororo is dangerous; Masado scoffs at the understatement, saying she and Rachel could have defeated them all. The X-Men are to be treated as captives, not meat, but when they realize X-23 is missing, they send a force to eliminate her, while the others depart through a portal.

  X-23 gets to the jet and slashes the shackles off Betsy. They can't fly off, because the Hauk'ka would shoot them down; when they try to run for it, X-23 is blasted. Betsy gladly attacks the Hauk'ka, her psi-blade stunning them all and destroying their weapons. It's a brief fight, and X-23 wakes to find the Hauk'ka gone. Betsy jokes that she was hungry, but really she imprisoned them in the jet. She has their equipment and uses it to open a portal, through which she and X-23 jump.