Extraordinary X-Men Annual #1

1^st story:
Half past two.
Storm sits in her office in X-Haven and checks her watch.

Two agents of the British government are in contact via holograph comm. Annoyed, one of them remarks that, if she has somewhere important to be, don’t let them keep her.

Storm replies acidly that as they have roughly forty minutes before the Terrigen Mist rolls over one of their superpowered prisons, where two mutants are currently held and who will most likely die if they come into contact with the cloud. It might be a good idea to keep an eye on the time. But if they are telling her that the British government won’t do anything to help, she guesses it isn’t important.

One of the men announces that the British government hasn’t officially recognized the Terrigen Mist as harmful to mutants. The other man adds if they moved those mutants now, it would set a dangerous precedent, and right now the politics of that are awfully tricky.

So, they’d rather let them die than be politically inconvenient, Storm summarizes. One of the men replies forcefully that they are prisoners! They made their decision! They can suffer the consequences! Storm retorts that Ramrod and Ruckus were each sentenced to thirteen years of prison, not death. The men reply, they cannot do anything.

Storm telepathically contacts Marvel Girl, telling her the situation.

Jean is in Forge’s workshop with Forge, Nightcrawler and Magik. She replies, then they will move to Plan B.

Jean contacts Old Man Logan, who is currently relaxing with a cigar. This had better be good, he warns her. She tells him they need him to break into a prison. He admits that’s pretty good. After being fully informed, he changes his mind. This is a bad idea. Jean snaps, they don’t have any other option, so deal with it!

Jean quickly explains what they are up against: they estimate the Terrigen Cloud will reach the prison in less than forty minutes. There are cameras everywhere, and the nullifiers make the prison a power-free zone, but only inside the prison walls.

So how do they do this? Nightcrawler can teleport in, but then what?

Forge explains he can loop the camera. But the nullifiers have tight safeguards. They’ll know if he is tampering with them and shut everything down. Magik suggests, what if he just shuts them down for a few seconds? Enough time to get out but short enough to appear like a blip. He agrees.

Magik suggests that they cut the nullifiers at exactly ten minutes past three, X-Haven time. That should give them enough time to find them, before the cloud hits. Nightcrawler just needs to teleport out in that five-second-window.

Kur points out, the guards and prisoners will try to stop them. Not if they don’t see them, Jean stresses. She will be outside and psychically cloak them.

Forge warns her this will take all her concentration and suggests Illyana should stay outside too to keep an eye on her. Nightcrawler’s going to need back-up inside as well. Logan asks if he can’t send “Iceboy.” Illyana teases that he is getting scared in his old age. Not scared, just lazy, he retorts.

Forge shows them holo images of the men they intend to save: Ruckus and Ramrod, former Nasty Boys, currently serving time for an attempted bank robbery. Are those two worth risking an international incident over? Logan asks. Jean asks if he has a better plan. Yeah, forget this and get on with their day.

Illyana warns, he has a point. If they get caught breaking prisoners out of a British prison, they will come after them hard. Then let’s not get caught, Jean replies stubbornly.

One teleportation jump later outside Bellmont Prison in Kent:
Forge hacks the prison’s cameras and puts them on a loop, then works on hacking the nullifiers. Jean orders everyone to synchronize watches: 3:10 is their out.

She gets as close to the outer wall as possible, while Nightcraler teleports himself and Logan in.

Inside, there is an unexpected riot. Logan tells Kurt to walk on. The others shouldn’t be able to notice them. However, Kurt gets mistakenly hit by a rioter. Logan drags him on, sighing he knew this was a bad idea.

Finally, he finds Ruckus’ cell. He tells him they need to find Ramrod and get out. What happened here? Ruckus explains one of the guards mentioned the Terrigen Cloud and everybody panicked. He follows Logan.

But Ramrod’s cell is empty. Where else could he be? Logan demands. Ruckus suggests he has a DIY distillery on the other side of the prison. The alcohol is probably hiding his scent. Unfortunately, they have to make their way through the riot. So, as the minutes pass, Logan leads the way while Storm in her office still urges the officials to do the right thing.

Logan, Ruckus and the unconscious Nightcrawler have gotten past the riot, but in front of them are an army of armed prison guards with shields. Even though they can’t see Logan and the others, there is no way for the group to get past them.

Jean sends to Logan she knows what he is thinking and asks him to find another way. Logan swears, then hits and elbows his way through the guards without using his claws on them, only on their shields. The men are confused as they can’t see what is attacking them.

Outside, Forge runs toward Jean and Magik, informing them the wind has changed and the cloud is moving faster than expected. They send the intel to Storm, who tells them to do what they need to do - just get them out.

Inside, the group finally reach Ramrod and tell him the plan. However, Nightcrawler is still unconscious and can’t get them out. Ramrod holds a container of his rotgut to Kurt’s nose causing him to actually wake up. Kurt tries to teleport them out, but his powers don’t work. They have missed their window.

Outside, Forge wonders where they are. Jean fears they can’t stay here much longer.

Logan orders everyone to run. Ramrod and Ruckus bicker about whose fault this is. Logan tells them to shut up and the new plan. Everyone thinks this as loud as they can. “This” being an order to Marvel Girl to open the west wall.

Jean complies and the four run out. Jean returns the bricks to their place, and Magik teleports the group away. Jean sends to Storm they are all safe.

Once they have learned of Ramrod and Ruckus’ disappearance, the British politicians accuse Storm of being behind this. She points out she was with them the whole time and ends the conversation.

The others are back at X-Haven and Jean wonders why she has brought two bricks with them. She thought she had put the wall back together properly. Logan heads for a drink and Magik makes sure that Ruckus and Ramrod are still imprisoned - this time in even smaller cells.

At Bellmont, the guards wonder what happened and why two bricks of the wall are missing.

2^nd story:
An empty lot in Yancy Street, two geniuses at work: the X-Men’s Forge and the reluctant Inhuman girl Lunella Lafayette.

Luna informs him it’s no big deal what she is currently doing. It’s just rocket science. She’s welding a panel and hits his finger. She told him to hold still! she chastises him and tells him to use his other hand instead.

Forge crushes the panel with his bionic hand and tells her this is not how you do rocket science! Fire control needs to account for variables. The thruster won’t compensate engineering-wise! All she is doing is getting nowhere fast! He has experience in those things!

They are sitting in an empty lot in Yancy Street. Lunella’s self-made rocket stands some distance away. Forge predicts that thing will never fly.

Lunella doesn’t reply, then grabs some more junk. They doing this or what? He assures her they are. When he discovered her work on Terrigen, he was blown away. She’s taken the research in directions no one else has, and she says the hypotheses are based on reverse engineering of ancient Kree technology?

Impatiently, Lunella reminds him, as she said on the subreddit, she’s planning an expedition to the ruins of Attilan in the Blue Area of the Moon. Forge reminds her that he could he could get an X-Men jet modified for spaceflight. Her moon rocket will get them there just fine! she snaps. She has no time for distractions. Forge sighs, noting that the Blackbird is supersonic. For the last time, she snaps, she is doing this her way!

They work on the rocket proper. No time is what he is worried about, Forge continues. The Terrigen cloud is unpredictable. It can land without warning. He doesn’t have to tell her, she replies. She knows it kills mutants. But she is no mutant, he continues. She is Inhuman, exposure to Terrigen would trigger a transformation. It did, she reveals. She was trapped the last time the Terrigen Cloud hit New York. And made her a super engineer? he reckons. That is his supergift.

No, she replies forcefully. She was always smart. She switches brains with a red Tyrannosaurus rex she teleported here from what she thinks was an alternate past. Basically, it’s the worst. She has no control over it. He better hope it doesn’t happen when she flies them to the moon!

He warns her that variables can change at any time. You are what you are. She’d better accept that. Says you! she pouts. She just wants to get on with her life. Terrigen can’t hurt her anymore, but perhaps she can revert her Terrigenesis. Maybe not. Maybe she just saves someone else. Forge reminds her she has already saved a lot of lives. He supports her ideas, even though flying in that thing may not be the best idea she’s ever had. It’s called the Moon Rocket! she interjects.

He repeats, she should take her time. This moon rocket isn’t anywhere close to flight ready. The holographic cloaking mechanism seems to keep the locals away. Maybe they should sleep on it and come back tomorrow.

That moment, the sensors in Lunella’s Terrigen warning system go off. The Terrigen Cloud is here. As they run, Forge tells her she will be okay, but she worries about him. The Terrigen will kill him! He tells her it’s not her fault and asks her to finish the moon rocket and never stop looking for a cure. This gives her an idea. She drags them both to the moon rocket. He fears she will kill them both but follows nevertheless.

Lunella ignores his misgivings and presses the start button.

Take off works. Lunella grins. She always wanted to fly to the moon in a rocket ship she built herself. She doesn’t think this thing will fly to the moon? he worries. It won’t even fly to Brooklyn, she admits, but the variables changed. They’ll escape the poison cloud and keep her new friend safe...