X-Force (6th series) #49

A Naval weapons station in Seal Beach, California. A siren blares, as soldiers rush about. 'What's happened?' one of them asks. 'Security breach' another reports. 'Somebody stole -' another begins, before one of them is blasted with a surge of energy. The other soldier looks on, and raises his weapon, ready to fire – but he's too slow, and another blast strikes him. The blasts were fired by Dr. Hank McCoy a.k.a. the Beast, who wears a Krakoan battlesuit and carries a device under one arm, while firing energy blasts from the battle suit with his free hand, he leaps towards a dozen or so soldiers who open fire at him, but he doesn't slow down – and fires a grenade from the battlesuit, which detonates and burns several of the soldiers alive. The Beast runs towards a pier, as more weapons fire rages behind him. He doesn't stop, and a helmet pops up around his head as he leaps into the water beneath the pier.

At the North Pole, inside X-Force's new headquarters, the Greenhouse, Sage sits opposite Logan a.k.a. Wolverine in the mess hall and tells him that they need to talk about Beast. 'Which Beast?' Logan asks. 'I don't know what to call him. He's the old Beast, but he's also the new Beast. The newly awakened clone' Sage replies, adding that he is their prisoner, and hopefully their ally. Sage holds a cup of coffee as she explains to Logan that the Beast's mind is the weapon they have been lacking in this ongoing conflict. 'With every move Beast Prime makes, we'll ask for a responsive action' Sage tells Logan, who remarks that he is warming up to this, but is still worried. 'On the one hand, he used to be a friend. The other hand...he is who he is' Logan declares. 'The Hank we're hunting is crouched inside the Hank sitting in the other room' Logan notes.

'By that logic, an alcoholic is still crouching inside me. And Weapon X is still crouched inside you' Sage points out. She puts a hand on one of Logan's hands and reminds him they don't condemn each other for that. 'In fact, knowing about that other version of us... drives us to do better, be stronger... right?' she asks. Logan narrows his eyes and grunts in agreement, before he and Sage stand up as Sage suggests they go give the Beast a chance to prove himself. 'Bollocks!' Black Tom Cassidy exclaims as he rushes into the mess hall. 'It's Beast! He's a bad Beastie, too!' Tom declares. Logan asks him what he is talking about, to which Tom reveals that the Beast is gone, escaped, and off making troubles. 'Hell. Where the $#%& did he go?' Logan snarls.

Los Angeles, California, where the rain beats down over the City of Angels. Orchis agents are patroling the street, while another Beast, this one in a trenchcoat and wide-brimmed hat moves quickly across the rooftops. He bounds from one to another, then smiles. He leaps down to another apartment block and clings to the windowsill. He opens the window, and climbs into a darkened apartment.

Back at the Greenhouse, Sage taps away at the console in her control room, while Logan stands with his arms folded and remarks that he should have trusted his gut. 'Now we have two of those $#%& to worry about' Logan complains, while Black Tom apologizes. 'He's full of wiles. He wiled his way around me'. But Sage nervously announces that she is the one who is sorry, and that it looks like she made the wrong call. Sage reports that, at this point, the Beast has a twenty-hour lead on them, but that he left some breadcrumbs behind. Pointing at two monitors, she sees that scans spotted him at an airfield in Nova Scotia, and then in a traffic jam in Chicago. 'He's head south and west. Why?' Wolverine asks. 'And...' Sage begins. 'And what?' Wolverine asks her, before Sage utters 'Oh no. No, no, no'. She takes off her glasses as she reports that Beast Prime was just spotted in California. 'Where he stole a nuclear reactor off a naval base?' Wolverine asks, looking at the monitor. 'It's the nightmare version of what I planned... I knew one Beast would be able to figure out what the other was up to' Sage replies. She announces that now, the one is looking to reunite with the other, which means they will have two big brains working on the same deadly problem. 'Whatever the $#%& they're planning... whatever the $#%& they're building... we have to stop them'.

And, at that moment, under the ocean depths, hidden within a trench, Beast Prime is infusing some Krakoan fauna into the stolen nuclear weapon.

Later, in the Greenhouse, Sage, Logan and Tom are joined by the rest of X-Force, as Sage admits that they haven't always done this right. 'Put it another way – we're all a bunch of #&%$ ups' Logan tells her. 'And now we need to rectify some of our past mistakes' Sage reports. Logan tells the others that things have changed since X-Force kicked off – for the worse and for the better. But one thing has stayed the same. 'We've got our head' Sage declares. 'And we got our first' Logan adds as he pops his claws. 'Let's move out!' Logan announces as he leads the way into a ship. With him is his daughter/clone Laura Kinney, also called Wolverine, his former enemy Arkady Rossovich a.k.a. Omega Red, his longtime teammate Piotr Rasputin a.k.a. Colossus and X-Force mainstay Neena Thurman a.k.a. Domino. Sage heads back into another part of the complex with Tom and Quentin Quire a.k.a. Kid Omega at her side. 'time for some wet work' Logan announces. 'Roger that, boss' Domino responds.

Sage reports that she, Tom and Quentin will coordinate intelligence from the base, which doesn't impress Quentin, who motions at the jet as it leaves the Greenhouse and mutters 'That looks more fun? Do I have to stay here?' 'That work's for bruisers, not losers, mate' Tom replies as he leads Quentin into Sage's console room. 'We're in the air' Domino reports from the jet, and as she connects to the console, Sage replies 'We're on the ground'.

Meanwhile, back in Los Angeles, the past Beast lurks through the dark apartment – when suddenly, someone tackles him. There is a skirmish as body tumbles over body, until the Beast is knocked back by a surge of energy. 'That was a warning shot!' they shout at the Beast, as numerous objects in the room and torn apart as a result of the blast. 'I consider myself a good pacifist, but I just can't tolerate you breaking into my home!' a voice calls out from within the shadows. 'Please!' the past Beast exclaims. 'Don't you recognize me, my friend?' the Beast asks, before a lightswitch is flicked – and Simon Williams a.k.a. Wonder Man looks down, shocked, at the site before him. 'It's me...it's Beast!' the past Beast utters. 'Hank? But...what are you doing here?' Simon asks. 'What's wrong?' he queries as he crouches beside his longtime friend.

The Beast removes his glasses and wipes his eyes as he sniffs and calling Simon his “dearest friend” tells him that everything is wrong, but that he feels so much better being here with him. “Dearest...friend?” Simon quotes, confused. The Beast puts his glasses back on and asks Simon why he looks at him like he is a stranger. 'It's just... it's been so long' Simon responds. 'Has it? For me, it feels like no time at all. Why did we grow apart?' the Beast asks. Simon frowns as he explains that he tried to stay in touch. 'But you had...ambitions' he points out, before telling the Beast that he doesn't understand the way he is talking to him, before adding that he had assumed that Hank was dead – or exiled. 'In a way, I was dead. This version of my anyway' Hank responds. But Simon still doesn't understand, and the Beast takes his hand, telling him that he is just beginning to understand himself, before announcing that he desperately needs Simon's help.

Off the Californian coast, Beast Prime continues to connect Krakoan fauna with the nuclear device he stole. The device appears much larger now. He announces that he has decided to leave a record of his current plans, that he does this for posterity, because his accomplishments will undoubtedly be studied in the years to come. 'I trust that history will show that my policies, though unpopular at the time, were in fact correct and necessary...for the greater good of mutantkind' he declares. He adds that a record if also necessary because he is about to attempt something rather risky, and his listeners need to know what he is about to do, in case he should be killed or compromised. Beast thinks about those mutants who were not killed by Orchis, the ones who were exiled to Arakko nee Mars. He knows that Orchis had hoped these mutants would destroy themselves in a civil war – but that didn't happen, and the Brotherhood of Arakko united. Beast thinks about Orchis' Plan B, where they occupied Phobos, a moon of Arakko as a base from which they could surveil and police the mutants. But that didn't happen either, as Genesis led a violent uprising. So now, naturally, Orchis has developed Plan C – kill all mutants.

Back in Los Angeles, the Beast sits at Simon's desk and taps away at his laptop. 'This computer is entirely inadequate' the Beast remarks, to which Simon tells him that it is all he, a struggling actor, can afford. Simon hands the Beast a hot drink, as the Beast asks him 'But what of your research and missions as Wonder Man?' Simon explains that he is doing the pacifist thing these days. 'The pacifist... thing? Oh, my stars and garters' the Beast utters. He turns his attention back to the laptop and explains that as he traveled, he picked his brain, while also scanning and collating data from library computers and internet cafes. 'If I was a war criminal – hunted by Orchis and X-Force alike – where would I go?' the Beast remarks, as several maps appear on the laptop screen. The Beast notes that Namor is currently imprisoned, which he thinks is an interesting turn of events, he would take to the uncharted sea. 'My algorithmic queries and dark-and deep-web scrapes revealed that this... other Beast... has been active off the California coast, stealing materials' the Beast announces. 'Including, most recently, a nuclear reactor' the Beast reveals. 'That sounds, um, terrifying' Simon responds. 'Indeed, my friend. Which is why we must leap into action!' the Beast declares, getting to his feet. 'Am I going? I don't really like to punch people anymore. I mean, unless I absolutely have to' Simon says.

A short time later, at a small dock, 'We shouldn't be stealing this boat' Simon tells Hank as they climb into a speedboat. 'Don't be such a fuddy-duddy, Simon. We must act with haste!' Hank exclaims as he drives the boat out into the ocean, declaring that they are men and mutants of action, after all. 'We have to stop me to save me!' Hank exclaims. 'Run that sentence by me one more time?' Simon asks. The Beast explains that X-Force plans to kill him – Black Tom as much as said so. 'But if I stop me – the other me, this Machiavellian madman – then I will prove myself a worthy ally and friend once more! My fellow mutants need me in these dire times!' Hank declares, while, up above, X-Force's jet arrives on scene, and Domino contacts Sage, informing her that the dock security camera is a positive match. 'We've got eyes on the target' she announces, before asking how they should proceed. 'Reminder that there's nuclear energy on the table. I say we move fast and hit hard' Wolverine suggests.

'Sage? Sage? Do you copy? Sage?' Domino calls out when she gets no response. 'I'm thinking, damn it' Sage snaps from back within her control room. She takes her glasses off and wipes her eyes, while Quentin utters 'I don't need to remind you that I'm a genius' and boasts that he has done the ethical and political calculations of a thousand think tanks in the past ten seconds. 'This is an easy one. He's a knock-off clone. We made a mistake bringing him back. Toss him in the wastebasket' Quentin suggests. Sage puts her glasses back on and instructs the field team to fire at will. 'Eliminate the Beast' she announces.

At that moment, in the ocean depths, 'There. Isn't it beautiful?' the Beast asks as he looks at the modified nuclear device. Fish swim by as he announces that with this Black Hole Gun, modeled after Forge's design, he will take Arakko off the map. He boasts that the mutants will be crushed into a cosmic vault for safekeeping – and then he can begin his work against the humans in earnest!