X-Men: Red (2nd series) #16

1^st story:
Space: a shuttle is on its way to Arakko. At the controls are the X-Men’s old friend, Dr. Peter Corbeau, and the mutants’ new friend NASA scientist Dr. Craig Marshall.

Corbeau jokingly asks, if, when he joined NASA, Craig ever pictured himself ferrying mercenaries to a war on Mars. Arakko, he corrects himself. Craig glumly replies that he never saw this coming. Everything he’d ever theorized about growing crops on a terraformed world… thanks to Ororo and the X-Men he got to do it. And he thought that was all he came to do. Just science. Like, if things got crazy, he’d just grab a shuttle home. He wouldn’t pick a side. it was still Mars to him then, but now… it’s Arakko. And Arakko has a way of making things personal!

Further back in the shuttle sit Craig’s adopted Arakkii kids, Looloo and Kobb, as well as Weaponless Szen and the mercenaries Blackjack O’Hare and the Prince of Power. The Prince is trying to make conversation with the kids by announcing he heard their home was destroyed and everyone they loved killed. But take heart: the Prince of Power knows how they feel: His planet was likewise annihilated in battle with a fearsome villain! Granted, he did the annihilating, he adds sheepishly, but they say it’s the thought that counts, he adds more happily. And as he’d given it no thought at all, it therefore doesn’t co…

His partner Blackjack O’ Hare admonishes him to shut up, they are just kids!

Weaponless, Szen studies the scene and asks if he has something to draw with. He has a marker.  As she draws, she explains that painting truth is her mutant gift. She finishes a drawing and shows it to Kobb. She tells him she knows how he feels. She hopes that this helps him in his fight. Kobb stares at the picture, fascinated, then begins to both smile and cry. He thanks her, speaking for the first time in months.

Craig enters, hearing he missed Kobb’s first words. He tells them that they got word from Peepers and are changing course for the Keep. They won’t make it to Port Prometheus today. Why not? Looloo asks, to be told there is no Port Prometheus anymore.

On Arakko, Port Prometheus is burning at the hands of War, while the inhabitants try to flee in panic. Her siblings stand next to her. Famine congratulates her but wonders if that funeral pyre is earned. Isn’t it meant for warriors? All he sees in the flames are traders and diplomats. Is he offended by her methods? War demands. It will not do, he shakes his head, but have no fear, he will correct her error…

Inside the burning backroom of the Red Lagoon, Kobak Never-Held shouts where the others are. Syzya of the Smoke teleports in to tell him the others are already gone. Word is to get to the far riverbank and regroup.

Kobak asks her to help him look for survivors, but she has another mission first: to get something that Roberto kept here for safeguarding, something Ororo entrusted the Night Seats with.

She opens a secret safe to take out an unassuming small box – the Uranos Trigger. After Judgment Day, the Eternals, as a gesture of reparation, had given the device to the mutants. If used, Uranos the Undying would, for one hour, fight for the person who released him, killing everything in his way. Syzia touches it and an unexpected telepathic contact with Uranos is formed.

The frightening Eternal sits in his cell in the Exclusion. Sooner than he thought, he observes. He addresses her by name and tells her the rules. If she says the word, one hour of killing begins.

Kobak gently shakes Syzia to break contact. He tells her they need to leave. He asks what that weapon is. Death that walks, she replies and teleports them away.

In the skies, Sunspot transports Fisher King / Xilo and describes how his team were attacked and overran, when their foes came through the gate. He blames himself for not seeing this coming or seeing the Hellfire Gala coming. Exhausted, he asks where Storm is. Somewhere in the smoke and the demons, Fisher replies and reminds him he doesn’t know where his daughter Khora is either. They focus and save who they can.

Not enough! Roberto mutters, sounding for once very much like his friend Nova, as he fears it won’t be enough and every death here is on him.

In Port Prometheus, Nova is busy trying to control the fires, when some civilians shout at him to look at the sky.

Famine reveals his power, which is control over water. He creates a giant image of himself made of water, which then floods the city, sweeping everything away.

A moment later, Famine is hit by lightning.

Hovering in the sky, Storm coldly thanks him for showing her who he is and what mercy to him brings. She warns there will be no more. War angrily agrees. Who is Storm to challenge them? She is a pawn of the powerless, while they are children of Arakko’s greatest power. Kings and queens of the world! They are the true omegas! They know their worth!

She blasts fire at Storm, who counters her attack with wind and ice. She reminds War that they didn’t side with their mother, but the Annihilation helm. So, she knows their worth, too. And battle between omega level mutants is not a matter of power but versatility.

A whirlwind surrounds War, cutting off her air, as Storm announces she is weather. She is pressure and temperature and wind. She is many things. War is one thing, fire. What is she when the fire leaves?

And the fire is extinguished, leaving a blackened husk.

Death addresses Storm, telling her he still senses a spark of life in both his siblings. Ther is still mercy in her. She is not death. And he is. He challenges her to their last dance.

Unnoticed by either of them, Pestilence nocks an arrow and aims it.

Storm tells Death that her people are dead and dying. Children are dead and dying. Does he think his rules still apply? They have to, he replies after a moment. Or what was this for?

Pestilence interjects that rules are made by the winner and loosens her arrow at Storm.

Instead, it hits Nova who flies in front of Storm. The young hero falls, the blackness of Pestilence’s illnesses already breaking out all over his body. Storm hurries to his side and promises to fly him out of here.

Death grabs her hand and warns that the plague spreads by touch and kills by pain. Only he can survive it. He turns to his sister and accuses her of interfering. She tells him to grow up. He’d have lost again out of his misplaced puppy love. These rules and customs are meant to serve them. She is the enemy! And on Arakko, they destroy the enemy – no matter who they are. Yes, Death repeats. No matter who they are. He takes off his helmet and shows his deadly face to his sister. Pestilence crumbles to dust.

As he puts the helmet on again, Storm carefully addresses him. He interrupts that Pestilence interfered. That was a challenge by insult. And she said such things meant nothing… She was wrong! She has to be.

Syzya teleports in and Storm asks about the evacuation status. Clearly shaken, she replies that some got out and luckily the enemy is taking prisoners. The few who can still fight are retreating to the Morrowlands. She hands Storm the small cube and explains Storm has to decide. She is the Seat of Loss. And Syzya can’t listen to him anymore.

Once Storm holds the cube, telepathic contact with Uranos is established. Uranos curtly greets her and announces that he has been watching the situation, so he won’t preamble. As he told Syzya, release him and in his hour of freedom he will end their war by ending every single life on the planet that is not of their faction. The trigger is in Storm’s hands. Choose!

The Autumn Lands, now a molten desert of lava:
A gateway grows and A and his daemon companion step through. A observes that, under the dead rock, the sun is caged. A useful ingredient. And with the Storm coming to meet them, for where else can she turn? Yes, here, A decides. Here they will remake the world.

2^nd story:

Sunspot is researching a string of disappearances at the Brazilian coast. He has travelled to a place called the Isle of Snakes, where allegedly demon snakes guard a pirate treasure. With him he has brought the perfect back-up: Lara dos Santos aka Shark-Girl. She comes up from the water with two bodies, telling him she found more bodies among the shipwrecks. The place is giving her the creeps.

They study the bodies but see no snakebites. He teases Iara by pointing out she has fast healing and can control animals. She retorts she can control marine life, not snakes. She points out that one of the men’s neck is busted, the other’s is pulverized. Plus, she can smell heavy chemicals on them. The Brazilian Navy reported the fishermen were killed by snake venom. But she is picking up concentrated doses of industrial toxins. It makes her think that…

A moment later, she screams, as a huge snake has bitten her on the ankle. She tosses the snake away and asks what the plan is. Sunspot asks if she is okay and needs a hospital, but she shrugs it off. Fast healing, remember? He tells her she will search the water, he the air. Not much of a plan, she shrugs and warns him of a snake coming for him. It’s just a prank though.

She jumps into the water and he flies above her. Lara muses that the tides and currents are weird, like someone’s redirecting the waterflow underground. She figures there is an underground cave system, and whatever poisoned those men comes from there.

He follows her and they find an entrance flanked by giant carved snakes. They enter and Roberto wonders if the legend about the treasure guarded by snakes could be true.

Inside, they see the missing fishers, surrounded by armed people in green uniforms. On a ledge stands their leader, who tells the prisoners that they are here to serve the serpent god.

Sunspot figures that is probably King Cobra’s nephew, Piet Voorhees. He explains the Serpent Society works like an evil cult.

The cultists force the fishermen to drink from a chalice. Sharkgirl smells jararaca venom and the chemicals she smelled before. Before their eyes the men are transforming into lizard beings. Sharkgirl runs to attack the guards.

From what hellish realm came this demon? King Cobra Jr. demands. The official name is Refice, Sunspot remarks as he hits him and, the way they see it, he is the demon here!

Sharkgirl tries to hold on to her humanity while she battles, trying not to eat the cultists. Sunspot uses his solar heat to weaken King Cobra and beats him.

On the ground, King Cobra protests that those men were poachers, after the snake venom. He protected the island. Unimpressed, Sharkgirl points out he was poisoning these guys.

A little later, Sunspot announces that he will take the cultists to the authorities, but Vorhees was right that the island needs to be protected. Lara replies that there are better ways to do that. And, the next night, the two of them scare several poachers away, making sure that they learn that monsters protect the island.