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J. Holtham (writer), Sean Damien Hill (penciler, “Bishop's World”), Victor Nava (inker, “Bishop's World”), Alberto Foche (artist, Krakoa), Espen Grundertjern (colorist), Virtual Calligraphy's Travis Lanham (letterer), Tom Muller & Jay Bowen (designers), Ken Lashley & Juan Fernandez (cover artists), Cory Smith & Rachelle Rosenberg (variant cover artists); Sarah Spadaccini (production), Anita Okoye & Drew Baumgartner (assistant editors), Sarah Brunstad & Mark Basso (editors) Jordan D. White (senior editor), C.B. Cebulski (editor-in-chief)
In another reality, Bishop has found himself under attack by the Human Liberation Front, who has bombed the Tucker Clinic, where this world's Heather Tucker, a human, and her father undertake genetic research. Bishop tries to encourage this reality's version of himself to help him fight the Human Liberation Front, but this world's Bishop refuses, as he sees himself as nothing more than a teacher. This world's X-Men soon arrive to help defend the Clinic – and when this world's Moira MacTaggert, a member of the Human Liberation Front, detonates a bomb, time begins to stand still, courtesy of Heather Tucker – Tempo – who had taken the place of this world's version of herself in an attempt to save her father from meeting the same fate he met back on her world. Bishop tries to reason with Tempo and explain that she can't change what happened, nor can she intefere with this world – but Tempo is distressed and when this world's version of her father is in grave danger and near death, she unleashes another time-flux. Meanwhile, on Earth-616, Magik informs Mirage that she thinks they have a problem when she is unable to locate Bishop and his War College. Three of the War College students, Armor, Surge and Aura Charles, along with Wrongslide, are trapped in the caverns beneath Krakoa. They have made their way into another tunnel where the Strucker Twins are currently burrowing their way with Orchis machinery into Krakoa's Pit. Amass and Cam Long are being held captive. Wrongslide and the War College students soon launch their attack on the Strucker Twins, and steal the gauntlets which prevent the Blightswill from blocking their powers. Surge takes out the soldiers burrowing towards the Pit, while Wrongslide takes down several other Orchis agents. With Amass and Cam Long free, Armor and Aura Charles join the fight, and rejoin the fight – which ends abruptly when the Orchis machinery finally breaks open the Pit.
(Earth-616)
Krakoa, where Illyana Rasputin a.k.a. Magik is on the hunt for someone. She searches the shores of Krakoa, but nothing. The forest. Nothing. The Green Lagoon, where the Blob is reading something behind the bar. Nothing. She is getting increasingly frustrated, too. Eventually, Magik goes to vist Dani Moonstar, who is in the Alpha House, home of the senior New Mutants at the Akademos Habitat, reading. 'So, Dani...' Illyana calls out. 'What?' Dani asks, looking up from her book. 'We might have a problem' Magik announces.
(in Bishop's World, Earth-63)
'Now this is something I recognize. A fight' Lucas Bishop, lost in this world as he searches for Heather Tucker. He dodges some explosion behind him as he aims a weapon at the four members of the Human Liberation Front – Moira MacTaggert, Feilong, Simon Trask and Tony Stark – who have invaded the Tucker Clinic. 'It's time for humanity to rise up!' Simon Trask calls out. 'Death to mutants!' Moira MacTaggert shrieks as she fires energy blasts from the armor that she wears. 'Good to know not everything is hunky-dory in this timeline' Bishop thinks to himself.
An elderly man wearing a lab coat appears and dodges some weaponsfire as he calls out to Heather, asking her where she is. Bishop sees him, and realizes that Heather's father is alive in this world. 'He died in ours...' Bishop recalls. Heather Tucker appears, hiding behind some rubble with this world's Lucas Bishop. 'Dad! Stay back!' Heather calls out. Bishop realizes that if he can reach Heather, then maybe he can fix this, but he will need some help. 'Lucas!' he calls out to this world's verions of himself. 'What?' Lucas asks. 'FIGHT BACK!' Bishop shouts at him. 'I'm a teacher!' Lucas points out. Bishop moves closer to Heather and Lucas, and remarks 'You're a mutant, aren't you? Then...be a mutant' Bishop tells him. 'I'm not you' an anxious Lucas points out as he cowers behind the rubble. 'I don't live like this. I don't know how you do' he adds. 'Because I have to' Bishop snaps.
'Stay down, mutant! You're outnumbered!' Simon Trask calls out as he flies towards Lucas, only to get knocked out of the air when Lucas finally acts, and fires a blast of energy to defend himself. 'I've never...never blast anyone' Lucas utters in shock, looking at his glowing hand. Suddenly, 'Not on our watch, Stark!' Cyclops exclaims as he arrives on scene, teleported into the Tucker Clinic with Marvel Girl, Beast, Wolverine and Archangel, thanks to Nightcrawler. 'Y'all just don't learn, do you?' Beast asks as he leaps up to Tony Stark. Archangel and Nightcrawler follow him, while Wolverine attacks Feilong, and Cyclops turns his attention on Moira MacTaggert. 'No one wants ti to be like this. No one' Cyclops tells her. 'Those are fine words, Scott. But they mean nothing' Moira responds as she touches a panel on her armor. Cyclops realizes that this is a bomb, but as he tries to warn everyone, he's too late – Moira explodes and everything goes white, while someone can be heard calling out to Heather.
In the tunnels beneath Krakoa, 'Shh...' Hisako Ichiki utters from the darkness as she, Aura Charles, Wrongslide and Noriko Ashida hide in a tunnel and observe Orchis personnel using a large drill nearby. 'There they are' Surge remarks as they see Cam Long and Amass being held captive, under the watch of an Orchis soldier, while Andreas and Andrea von Strucker the Fenris Twins supervise the goings on. Surge notes that the machine is still digging, and that Cam and Amass look okay. Armor asks the others what the plan is, and Aura notes that the bracelets that the Strucker twins are wearing protect them from the Blightswill. 'Okay. Get the bracelets. Get Cam and Amass. Kick butt' Surge decides.
'I still can't get their taste out of my mouth, Andrea' Andreas complains to his sister as he look over at Amass and Cam. He aims a weapon at Amass and suggests that they should kill them both for offending him. But his sister tells him he is being shortsighted, and proposes to toss them into the Pit once they reach it, and let the monsters have their way. Andrea puts a hand on her brother's shoulder and tells him that Bishop and his crew of idiots can then take the blame of breaching the Pit. 'Fine. As long as they die painfully. And I get to watch' Andreas replies. Cam quietly asks Amass if he heard that, to which Amass replies 'Yep'. 'Not great' Cam utters.
'How much longer?' Andreas calls out to one of the Orchis operatives inside the drill. 'Should be any second now. If the coordinates are right' the agent adds. 'They're right!' Andrea snaps, when suddenly, there is a rumbling, and the tunnel begins to collapse. 'Cave in!' Andrea shouts as she and Andreas dodge the falling rocks. 'You fool! Don't collapse the tunnel on us!' Andrea exclaims, before the Orchis agent informs her that the readings say everything is stable. 'Andrea...' Andreas calls out as he turns and sees Wrongslide, looming over him. 'Miss us?' Wrongslide asks. 'Kill them!' Andrea shouts as she, Andreas and the Orchis agents open fire at Wrongslide. 'Where's the rest of them?' Andrea asks. 'Right here'... head's up!' Armor calls out as Aura flies her into the tunnel, and then drops her towards Andreas, where Armor shoves her knee into Andreas' head, knocking him backwards. Surge appears and grabs the distracted Andreas, yanking the bracelet from his wrist and putting it on her own arm, which returns her powers.
'Thanks for the neat bracelet. Oh, it's good to have my powers back' Surge grins as her hands glow with energy – which she then blasts at Andreas, knocking him backwards once more. Surge turns her attention on the Orchis operative on the drill machine and blasts them next, while Wrongslide smacks several of the Orchis agents over. 'I got you. I got you' Aura tells Cam as she frees them. 'They want to open the Pit!' Cam calls out, to which Armor assures them that they know this, while she frees Amass. 'We should have killed them all' Andrea decides as she helps Andreas up. 'Let's fix that mistake' Andreas proposes as the Fenris Twins clasp hands and create a blast of energy, which they aim at Wrongslide. 'Little help, Cam?' Armor asks as she slides across across the ground and kicks Andrea, attempting to knock her over, while Cam leaps across and grabs the bracelet from Andrea's wrist. They toss it up to Aura, who catches it, then drops it down to Armor. 'Sniveling child...' Andrea begins, before Armor grins: 'Fascist sez what?' she asks as she places the braclet on her wrist, and her powers return, she is surrounded by a large exo-skeleton armor, and uses her enhanced form to punch Andrea. 'Whaaaaat?' Andrea asks.
Andreas fires his weapon at Aura, who dodges the weaponsfire, as Andreas look over to his sister, then goes over to help her up. 'Maybe you should stay down...or better yet... get off our island!' Surge exclaims as she, Armor, Aura, Cam, Amass and Wrongslide regroup and stand over the Fenris Twins. 'Make us!' Andreas snaps, when suddenly, one of the Orchis agents operating the drill machine reports that they have broken through. 'Look out! Aura exclaims as the end of the tunnel begins to shatter, and light shines through. The mutants look on, concerned, 'Oh god' Cam gasps, while the Fenris Twins grin and Andrea tells the mutants that they are too late. 'We've opened the Pit of Krakoa!' Andreas boasts. 'Oh no...' Cam utters again as everyone looks down towards the Pit, concerned.
(Earth-63)
There is whiteness, nothing all around – until Bishop realizes that he isn't dead. None of them are. Not yet – and he knows why. He turns and sees everyone frozen around him. This world's X-Men. The Human Liberation Front. The explosion. Somebody has stopped time. He knew that Heather would reveal who she really is eventually, and walks over to where she is craddling this world's version of her father. Bishop knows that Heather couldn't help herself, she wouldn't let her father die – not again. Bishop crouches down nearby and calls out to Heather, who looks up and tells Bishop that she tried to save him. That she lost him before, but tried to save him here. 'Some things can't be fixed' Bishop points out, to which Heather tells him that she just needs more time, just a little more time. But Bishop reminds Heather that this isn't their world, or their time. 'NO! I WANT MORE TIME!' Heather screams, tears streaming down her face, deciding that she can fix this. 'If I just use my powers -' she begins, when suddenly, 'Not again..NOOOOO!' Bishop calls out as he begins to fade away.
Bishop
Tempo
Amass, Armor, Aura Charles, Cam Long, Surge IV (all War College)
Wrongslide
Magik, Dani Moonstar
Blob
Andreas & Andrea von Strucker
Orchis soldiers
Lucas Bishop
Professor X
Dr. Tucker
Feilong, Dr. Moira MacTaggert, Tony Stark, Simon Trask (all Human Liberation Front)
Archangel, Beast, Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Nightcrawler, Wolverine (all X-Men)
This issue includes the opening remarks of Dr. Heather Tucker from the U.S. House Oversight Committee testimony, promoting the work of the Tucker Clinic.
In Earth-616, Tempo's father was slaim by Wildside when the Mutant Liberation Front launched an attack on the Tucker Clinic, which had developed a pre-natal test to identify in utero the likelihood of a baby being born a mutant. Tempo contacted her father to warn him of the impending attack by the Mutant Liberation Front, and held back during the battle when X-Factor arrived. This occurred in X-Factor (1st series) #78. However it was never confirmed at the time that Dr. Tucker was Heather's father, simply assumed, given their last name was the same. This issue finally confirms the familial connection.
This issue includes a “screenshot” of a series of text messages between the Human Liberation Front on Earth-63.
By the time of this issue Sabretooth and the other mutants in the Pit have already escaped and are having adventures away from Krakoa in Sabretooth & the Exiles #1-5.
