X-Men (6th series) #19

Krakoa, where four mutants have gathered near a gateway in a dark forest. 'That's my pitch. What do you big brains think?' Forge asks. 'I think you and Monet will probably just die, Forge' David Alleyne a.k.a. Prodigy replies. 'Yeah, same' the woman called Sage agrees. 'I told you' Monet remarks to Forge. Both Monet and Forge are wearing the special Krakoan battlesuit, while Forge tells Sage and Prodigy that this gate has not shorted out, and that the other side of the gate still exists, even after Knowhere descended into a black hole. Sage tells Forge to hang on, and remarks that Knowhere disappeared before Krakoa was revealed. 'So how do we have a gate on it?' Prodigy asks. 'Well spotted' Forge smiles, before revealing that after he heard Knowhere went through a wormhole in one of his daily X-Force briefings, he reached out to a buddy, and Cable bounced them back in time to put a gate onto Knowhere before it took a trip into the black hole. Forge reveals that the planter was self-dissolving, as he wanted to make sure that nobody saw them or heard them – because he has had enough time paradoxes to last a lifetime.

Forge and Monet put their helmets on and Forge tells everyone that this is the weird part – this is the other side of the gate to wherever Knowhere went, and it is still active. 'Wish us luck' Monet remarks. 'Bye' Prodigy calls out. 'So long, see you folks at the Arbor Magna' Sage adds. Forge and Monet turn and walk into the portal, while Prodigy mutters to Sage: 'They call us here to get our expert opinion, and yet...' to which Sage points out 'Yeah, that's Forge... smartest idiot on the planet'.

Forge and Monet are shunted through space and time. 'I can't feel my body!' one of them calls out, and the other confirms that they are numb, too. Suddenly, 'What the hell? Do you see that woman on that rock?' Monet asks as she glances towards an asteroid where a woman with a green cape can be seen holding her hands above her head. 'What? No. I see me and I'm with a woman?' Forge responds as he sees himself and an unknown woman surrounded by a bright light. 'Oh, please. I don't want to hear that' Monet snaps, before they look at the rock again, and Forge wonders if he sees a dwarf, before telling Monet that this might be their brains misfiring, or that they might be traveling backward in time. 'This, uh... might've been a mistake' Forge admits. 'YOU THINK?' Monet exclaims.

Meantime, a stepping disc opens near a spaceship which has landed on an outer rim world. The X-Men step out onto the alien landscape and Jean Grey tells her teammates to keep their heads up, and that if there is a hell, then this is it. She reports that Corsair's distress call came from this outer rim world, and that the Brood are everywhere. 'I need to find my father. The rest of you -' Scott Summers a.k.a. Cyclops begins, to which Everett Thomas a.k.a. Synch interrupts him and declares that he and Talon are sticking with him, referring to Laura Kinney, who stands beside him. Cyclops thanks Synch and the three of them rush towards the nearby ship. Cyclops turns back to Angelica Jones a.k.a. Firestar and tells her that she is air support, that she and Bobbty Drake a.k.a. Iceman are to help any locals with the infestation. 'And don't hold back. It's the Brood. They deserve no quarter' he exclaims. 'Understood' Firestar responds.

Jean turns to Illyana Rasputin a.k.a. Magik and suggests that they find Broo, as this shouldn't be happening now that he is the monarch of his entire species. 'I'd hate to think that little dude broke bad' Magik replies as she opens a stepping disc around herself and Jean.

Firestar and Iceman move quickly through the air towards an area where the Brood are attacking some aliens. 'Wait a second – that little nerdy bug fella is the leader of these monsters?' Firestar asks. 'Yep. Not a very good one from the looks of things' Iceman replies, before they land and Firestar unleashes a furious microwave energy attack at one of the creatures, suggesting that they draw the attention away from the locals, while adding that she can't say she is crazy about giant bugs. Iceman buries one of the Brood in a mountain of ice and admits that the Brood still scare him. He informs Firestar that something happened to him when he helped terraform Arakko – he shed a lot of his old fears, but he thinks he'll hate and fear these ugly things forever. With that, he pours a surge of ice into one of the Brood's mouths, and turns it into a deadly spiked weapon, which pierces through the Brood's head.

More Brood close in on the Amazing Friends, and Firestar tells Iceman that for her entire life she has been told to “slow down” and “watch out” and “don't exert too much power” which she agrees makes perfect sense when you can main someone with a careless move like she can – but that it also feels good to be able to cut loose with the X-Men. Firestar creates a wall of flame which seems to stop the Brood in their tracks – until one of them attempts to leap over the wall, so Firestar increases the wall's size, and burns the Brood alive. With the Brood is in this area taken care of, they had off again, and as Firestar flies alongside Iceman on his ice-sled, she asks him if he thinks the name is sexist and whether it should be changed. 'I'll tell you what I tell everyone when they ask me that...go and see what Jean thinks' Iceman answers.

Magik and Jean arrive at another area of the planet, and Jean tells Magik that she thinks they are in trouble. They're in some sort of lab, and Magik agrees, noting that Broo would never treat his scientific gear like this. Jean projects her thoughts and reaches out to other telepaths, apologizing for the mass communication, she explains that she needs help locating Broo. 'I'm reading' Emma Frost responds, while Kwannon reveals that she can't pick him up. The Stepford Cuckoos then reveal that they just scanned the mind of a mutant who saw Broo two days ago – in Port Prometheus. Jean informs Magik that Broo is not on Earth, and asks her to teleport to Arakko.

At that moment, Cyclops leads the way through the seemingly abandoned spaceship. 'Maybe it's because I've walked into enough traps in my day -' Synch begins, while Cyclops interrupts him, telling him that he agrees, and notes that it is too quiet for a Brood. Talon pops her claws and and declares that it is waiting in the dark, and now it knows they know, and it is preparing to attack. 'Filthy vermin' Cyclops remarks as he opens fire, blasting an optic beam of energy down a corridor, lighting the spaceship up and revealing a large Brood looming over them in the shadows. The optic blast strikes the Brood, slicing it in two, before Talon informs Cyclops that she smells huis father, that he is on  the other side of the bulkhead. Talon shoves her claws into the bulkhead and suggests to Scott that he steel himself – because Corsair is in a bad way.

Talon kicks the panel of the bulkhead down, and Christopher Summers a.k.a. Corsair is revealed, lying on the floor, heavily pregnant and writhing in pain. 'Oh, god!' Synch gasps, while Cyclops rushes over to his father. 'What can I say...I thought there ought to be one more Summers brother before I catch the last ship out' Corsair jokes. A Brood suddenly appears in the now open bulkhead, trapping the X-Men inside the room with Corsair. 'The welcoming committee is here, and they got us right where they wanted us – in a kill zone' Synch calls out. 'Like when we were separated from Darwin' Talon recalls. Synced to Jean Grey's powers, Synch attmepts to decapitate the Brood with telekinesis – but his plan doesn't work. Talon rushes in front of Scott and holds her claws out towards Corsair, asking Scott to let her do what must be done. 'Wait – what? We're not giving up on my father' Scott exclaiming. 'Magik will be back soon, and -' he starts to say, while Corsair raises a hand and takes Scott's hand, uttering that he can feel there is no more time.

Talon crouches beside Corsair and tells he and Scott to relax, and reveals that this is not the first foreign body she has surgically removed. Talon then tells Synch that Corsair needs Jean's gifts. 'I know' Synch replies as he walks over to them and asks Cyclops to keep the Brood off of them. You two are gonna...just remove the Brood?' Cyclops asks. Synch smiles and tells Cyclops not to worry, because after five centuries together in the Vault, most of the time when they were playing doctor...they were actually playing doctor. Talon uses her claws to make cuts in Corsair's chest, instructing Synch to keep Corsair's mind detached, as they have no other way to sedate him. Synch confirms that he is doing that, and that he is also using Jean's telekinesis to massage Corsair's heart. 'He's arresting. We need the parasite out now!' Synch exclaims. 'I'm going as fast as I can' Talon responds as she pulls back Corsair's stomach and the Brood can be seen. 'I've got it in a choke hold – I'm the only thing keeping it from popping out with a hat and a cane' Synch declares.

Cyclops looks over and suggests to his teammates that perhaps they should wait, but Talon tells him that if they wait then Corsair dies. She instructs Synch to not let Corsair wake, and to be ready to clamp down on that bleeder. Some blood splashes against a wall, while Synch tells Cyclops that he knows that this is hard, but that he needs him to put his head on a swivel, as he is looking in the wrong direction. 'Oh, $#!&' Cyclops exclaims as he spins around and unleashes an optic blast at two Brood scampering towards him. 'It's out!' Talon declares as she begins to pull the Brood from Corsair's stomach. 'You keep Corsair alive, and I'll -' Talon begins, before the Brood hisses at her and bites down on her arm. 'OW!' Talon excaims, while Synch grabs the Brood in a telekinetic field. 'So much for kid gloves for a newborn' Talon snarls. 'See you in hell' she adds as she slices her claws through the Brood, severing it into several pieces.

Synch turns his attention back to Corsair, using Jean's telepathy to keep Corsair's mind at peace, while noting that Corsair's body is a mess, so he is using the telekinesis to hold him together until they can medevac him. 'We sure coulda used that trick in the Vault' Talon smiles. Synch explains that syncing from muscle memory was not in his bag of tricks until he returned. Cyclops goes over to the others and tells them that they are extraordinary. 'Think nothing of it, young man' Talon responds. Synch suggests that they get out of here, and levitates Corsair off the ship floor, while Cyclops contacts Iceman and informs them that they are headed their way. 'It's gonna be a gauntlet' Talon adds.

Cyclops, Talon and Synch rush down the corridor, with Corsair being carried telekinetically behind them. Synch reports that he would conjure up a stepping disc with Magik's power but that he doesn't want to do two things at once when one of them is holding Cyclops' old man's guts together. 'All good' Cyclops responds, and adds that before this is over, they are going to need to get aggressive on the Brood. 'I think it's time we took care of this problem once and for all' Cyclops adds as he blasts an optic beam ahead at a Brood which looms over them. 'I didn't survive the Vault to become an exterminator' Talon jokes as she decapitates another Brood, while Cyclops fires another optic beam and notes that stomping them one at a time is inefficient, and that he thinks there must be a circuit of mutants that can do the job in one fell swoop. They make their way out of the spaceship and Cyclops projects his thoughts to Jean, asking her if she can hear him, but when he gets no response, he realizes she must be out of range.

The X-Men discover the bodies of several Brood and more who have been frozen to death, and Cyclops remarks that Iceman and Firestar have been busy. 'And we hardly made a dent' Iceman calls out as he and Firestar drop down from above. 'I'd heard the Brood were aggressive, but this is ridiculous' Firestar remarks. 'We'll wear ourselves down fighting them forever' Cyclops begins, before alerting Iceman to some Brood which rush towards them. 'Once ice fort coming up' Iceman responds as he covers the X-Men in a dome of ice. Iceman then asks Synch if he can get them a stepping disc out of here, but Synch hesitates, and Talon reveals that Synch is rapidly aging every time he reaches for a power that is not within arm's length. 'Oh. That sounds bad' Firestar utters. Cyclops frowns and remarks that he thought something as up with Synch. 'I was going to say “I could use Illyana's powers, but right now, I'm still holding together a bunch of Corsair”' Synch responds. Synch adds that Talon's isn't wrong, and that he still would do it in an emergency, but that he is worried he would kill Corsair. 'This is a nightmare' Talon adds, when suddenly, Corsair utters 'Yes, a nightmare...I was bait for the trap you're in...that we're all in... but... we're not dead yet'.

Meantime, in Knowhere, currently located in unknown space. The Krakoan portal glows as two figures step through it. 'I feel weird' Monet remarks. Forge does, too, and they then notice two bodies also wearing Krakoan armor, lying on the floor in front of them. 'I suppose if the station was full when -' Monet starts to say, before Forge turns one of the bodies over, and is shocked to see his own face staring back up at him. 'It's me!' he gasps. 'I'm gonna freak out if I turn the other one over and it's my face...ugh. That is my ass' Monet declares, not even needing to turn the other body over. 'Are we %*!% dead?' Monet asks, but Forge tells her that he doesn't feel dead. He checks the bodies and assures Monet that they are alive, but that it is as if their consciousnesses have been ejected. 'So let's go with we're “kinda alive” for now'. Suddenly, Monet notices something: 'Forge... you'd better come this way' she calls out as she stands before some sort of blurry glow. 'Wow' Forge utters. 'You ever see an area of space that looks like this?' Monet asks. 'No. Nobody has...at least from our universe' Forge replies as they stare into the strange blur which Knowhere floats within.