X-Men (6th series) #34

Dreams are real. They live, they breathe... and they die. When they can do, they break people, too. Like Charles Xavier's dream – the X-Men. Krakoa.

'No more humans' Charles Xavier utters as Karima Shapandar the Omega Sentinel stands behind him.

Today, the X-Men have fires burning across the galaxy. Nimrod's holding the equivalent of a magnifying glass to Earth's atmosphere. Krakoa is dying. The Sentinel are running amok and Xavier is collaborating with Orchis in a bid to save mutantdom and now, M.O.D.O.K.'s arrived in New York City to be the grotesque olive topping on today's $#%& sandwich. M.O.D.O.K. drops down towards a barge on a river and sings 'All play and no work makes M.O.D.O.K. a real jerk!' the mad scientist grins gleefully and cracks his knuckles. An armored Orchis agent with a large gun stands before him and informs M.O.D.O.K. that he has been guarding this tug for him, and asks if there is any word from command. 'They've gone silent after the destruction of our space station' he adds. 'I appreciate that. Let me just turn this – all the way to monster!' M.O.D.O.K. exclaims as he taps a panel on his wrist, which suddenly activates something within the Orchis agent, and he begins to transform into a grotesque, deformed being.

'What's happe-' the agent begins, before screaming. M.O.D.O.K. grins and states that usually he has to work really hard to get access to large databases of DNA, but Orchis just invited him in and gave him full access to all the human resources files of its salarymen, like this dope. 'Turns out, the artificial intelligence that had its hand up the backsides of you meat puppets didn't want to keep you around when they were done playing with you... but I do' M.O.D.O.K. reveals, boasting that today is a day for making art!

Meanwhile, at the Daily Bugle: Ben Urich broke his favorite mug in the kitchen this morning, one his late wife, Doris, gave him – he knew it was going to be a bad day. He just didn't know it would be this bad. Now, Ben and several of the Daily Bugle staff find themselves being held at gunpoint by several Orchis agents. 'So, just to be clear: You Orchis fellas want me to retract the news I've printed about you, and to convince me you're on the side of the angels, you're taking my staff hostages at gunpoint?' Ben asks, with his hands raised above his head. 'Everything we did – was for you! For humanity!' one of the Orchis agents shouts. Another of the agents reports that there is a message coming in from M.O.D.O.K. 'What's that freak want?' the angry agent aiming his gun at Ben Urich snarls. He gets his answer when he drops to his knees, writhing in agony. 'Heart attack? Is it okay if I pick up your gun?' Ben asks.

The Orchis agent begins transforming like the one on the tugboat. 'Good lord!' Ben gasps as the monstrous agent looms over him. 'Live laugh love kill!' the agent utters in a garbled manner as he lunges towards Ben, who stumbles backwards. 'Listen, pal! You're not doing much to convince me you're not a monster!' Ben declares, when suddenly,' Hiya, Mr. Urich!' a voice calls out. It's Firestar a.k.a. Angelica Jones, who flies into the Daily Bugle building by way of burning a hole in the side of the wall with her microwave energies. 'Help!' Ben calls out to Firestar who dowses the mutated Orchis agent in microwave energies. 'Yuck! What happened to this guy?' she asks. The mutated agent growls, before running to a nearby window and leaping through of it. Firestar contacts Ms. Marvel via their comm-link and warns her that the Orchis troops they are pursuing are getting the worst layoff packages in corporate history right now. 'I think the rules of engagement are changing' she adds, as the agent crashes into a car parked on the street below.

Nearby, several more deformed Orchis agents begin attacking a car, where a woman pleads for help as she attempts to protect her baby who is strapped into a babyseat in the car. 'HAAAALP ME!' she screams, when suddenly, Kamala Khan a.k.a. Ms. Marvel kicks the back window down. She apologizes to the woman and tells her to grab her kid. 'I'll keep them off you!' she exclaims as she extends both of her arms and punches the mutated agents with oversized fists. Kamala informs the woman that there are more coming this way and jokes that Orchis was kind of a major employer. As Ms. Marvel grabs onto one of the deformed agents, she utters 'Ew, gross – these things are so disgusting. It's like palming a tumor'. 'Please – I'm gonna be sick' the woman in the car complains.

'$#%& - I loved Orchis, too' a civilian mutters as they run from the deformed agents. 'Hold still, ma'am!' Ms. Marvel tells the woman as she carries her and her baby over the crowds of people after extending her legs to make herself taller. 'Is – is this the hand that you touched that thing with? PUT ME DOWN!' the woman screams. 'What else can go wrong?' Ms. Marvel mutters to herself, to which Laura Kinney a.k.a. Wolverine appears and remarks 'I'd think being an X-Man would've taught you not to ask that question' as she shoves here claws into one of the mutated Orchis agents.

Suddenly, the telepathic voice of Emma Frost can be heard, as she bids good evening to the mutants listening, and informs them that she has dispatched Wolverine to the Daily Bugle, while reporting that she brings the usual mix of hope and bad news. From where she stands on a fallen Stark Sentinel, several deformed Orchis agents make their way to her. Emma telepathically reports that they have made strides in overthrowing Orchis, but that Nimrod has remained elusive and has been joined by Charles Xavier. From where he is battling a Stark Sentinel, Everett Thomas a.k.a. Synch asks Emma what the plan is to neutralize Charles. Emma releases beams of energy from weapons attached to her wrists as she tells Synch that she must keep those cards close to her vest. 'As much as I am loathe to admit it, Xavier's talents are... considerable ' she adds, before assuring Synch that top X-Men are on the problem.

Elsewhere, in an Orchis facility, severed bodies line the corridor towards a lab, where Kate Pryde a.k.a. Shadowkat asks someone sitting in a chair if they can hear her. 'Blink if you can heart me' she then tells them after getting no answer. Suddenly, the person in the chair asks 'Kitty?' Kate tells them that they are correct, and informs them that they are in an Orchis facility. 'I need you to do everything I say... okay, Caliban?' Kate asks the grey-skinned mutant who smiles as he looks up at his longtime friend. 'Hello again, Katherine Pryde' Caliban utters, before revealing that the last thing he remember is Professor Xavier ordering him to march through a gate, but that he was too far from one, and didn't make it before the gates slammed closed. As a deformed Orchis agent races up behind Kate, she slices it in half with one quick flick of here blade, and tells Caliban that a lost has happened since, and that the resistance is striking back.

Caliban stands up and asks if he was being experimented on, and queries what happened to the Orchis guards. Kate leads Caliban out of the facility and informs him that it turns out if you live by the M.O.D.O.K. then you die by the M.O.D.O.K. She asks Caliban if his powers are working, or whether Orchis hindered them. 'Why, Kate?' Caliban asks. Kate points at Caliban and informs him that he is going to lead her to Xavier – and then she is going to put him down. 'No. Charles would never help them' Caliban frowns. Kate explains to Caliban that he has been on ice for a while, and reveals that Charles stopped them from fighting and winning the night of the Gala, and now, Charles has thrown in with Nimrod on another tragic scheme.

Back in New York City, Angelica Jones a.k.a. Firestar flies towards the barge, carrying Ms. Marvel and Wolverine with her. Ms Marvel reports that M.O.D.O.K.'s signal is getting stronger. 'Show me what needs to get cooked, and I'll cook' Firestar responds. She adds that she joined Orchis to pretend and kick ass, and she is all out of pretending. 'M.O.D.O.K. living on a cute little tugobat was not on my World War Orchis card' Wolverine jokes, before Firestar drops her and Ms. Marvel down onto the dock. Ms. Marvel notes that the tugobat is unmoored from the dock, and asks whether maritime law applies. 'Come out, you Easter Island head freak!' Firestar calls out. 'Go away, the girl is right. Maritime law dictates that -' M.O.D.O.K. responds from within the barge, but Firestar doesn't care, and uses her powers to blow the barge up. 'I love the smell of napalmed M.O.D.O.K. in the morning!' she snaps, while M.O.D.O.K. screams as he is blown into the air. 'Wow' Wolverine utters.

But M.O.D.O.K. is relentless, and fires back with a psi-blast, while remarking that he has to hand it to the mutants – they are very hard to kill. 'But Captain M.O.D.O.K.'s never really put his back into it – until now!' Firestar flies after M.O.D.O.K. and declares 'A “machine designed only for killing” doesn't deserve to live!' She fires a blast of microwave energy which catches M.O.D.O.K.'s head. 'That's not my name!' the villain complains before he screams as he realizes he is on fire. 'Found a gas can on the pier' Ms. Marvel calls out casually as she hurls it towards M.O.D.O.K., who boasts that he fireproofed himself years ago – he screams again as the gas canister explodes, and declares that Firestar's microwaves hurt. Suddenly, M.O.D.O.K. looks over and sees Synch flying towards him. 'Uh-oh' the villain mutters, before Synch strikes him with a powerful magnetic punch, borrowed from Polaris.

'Nice punch... but you cannot kill me... I self repair' M.O.D.O.K. boasts, as his mechanics indeed begin to start to repair. 'My hate for you burns bright' he states as he fires another psi-blast towards the mutants, which Wolverine blocks with her claws, sending the blast in other directions. 'You know why you've lived this long? 'Cause you've been fighting the Avengers and Captain America. You only fought the X-Men once' Wolverine tells him. 'Better than you have tried' M.O.D.O.K. grins through his hideously deformed face. Wolverine just laughs and tells Synch to “load Polaris”. 'Got you' Synch responds as he uses Polaris' power to hurl Wolverine towards M.O.D.O.K. 'Happy landings' Synch remarks. His heart skips loudly – Wolverine hears it. But they both ignore it.

'Shush' Wolverine tells M.O.D.O.K. as she slashes him across his face. 'Hang on!' Synch calls out as he flies towards Wolverine to catch her. 'I'm hanging!' she tells him, before Synch catches her. M.O.D.O.K. plummets to the dock, and Ms. Marvel starts punching him with her enlarged fists. 'She's so cute' Wolverine jokes. 'Yeah. We need her. To keep us in the light' Synch replies, before announcing that there is one more of M.O.D.O.K.'s monstrosities beneath them. 'Allow me' Wolverine replies as the creature leaps onto the dock, and Wolverine easily slices through it. Wolverine retracts her claws, and tells Synch that she doesn't want this to be weird between them. 'So lemme just say... I'm sorry for your loss, Ev'. Synch hovers above the dock and tells Laura that he appreciates that. Synch continues, stating that he knows that woman is gone, that she gave her life so many of these people could have a shot at a fraction of happiness that the two of them had. 'She sacrificed herself for me to escape the Vault, and then she saved millions. I just want to be worthy of both her sacrifices' Synch announces as he flies away from Wolverine.

Back at Little Tokyo, rain beats down on Shadowkat as she looks over and tells Caliban that he is not doing much to dissuade her from the notion that he aided and abetted the enemy. 'Why? Because I won't gleefully help you kill a fellow mutant? Don't make me say it again. I can't help you find Xavier knowing what you'll do when you find him' Caliban states. He then turns his back on Shadowkat and tells her that he is not sorry. 'Killing anyone, even a traitor, is wrong'. 'COWARD!' Shadowkat screams. 'I should have left you locked away in that lab to rot!' Shadowkat pulls down her mask and begins to sob. 'Oh god' she mutters, before a voice can be heard telling Caliban that it is okay, and that he can go. 'She won't be alone' Logan a.k.a. Wolverine declares as he steps out of the shadows.

'Glad you got to see that, Logan' Shadowkat remarks. 'I seen worse' Logan responds, before Shadowkat tells him that she keeps hoping that maybe Charles didn't go this, that maybe somebody infected Cerebro, that maybe Moira put a whammy on him. 'But... but it's just Charles. And I think hearing he broke kinda... broke me'. Wolverine puts a hand on Shadowkat's shoulder and tells her that dreams die, and sometimes they take the dreamer with them. He adds that, most days, he is grateful he doesn't have the full memories of the lives he lived. 'Moira's gift was a curse... and yeah, the weight of all those years broke her and Chuck' Logan declares. Shadowkat looks at her reflection in one of her blades, and tells Logan that Charles has done terrible things. 'And... so have I -' she begins.

Wolverine tells Shadowkat that she did what she was trained to do by the X-Men and then by Ogun. 'And when the chips were down, you let the training take over' Wolverine points out, before telling Kate that she is too young to regret surviving – that is what her next few decades are for. Kate turns her face upwards to let the rain wash over her. 'I thought I could just mask up, become Shadowkat and do what needs to be done without thinking, but... I can't. If we win and I'm  still standing, then... I'm done. I can't do it anymmore. After this...no more X-Men' Kate announces as she hands her blade to Wolverine. Lightning crackles in the dark sky above as Wolverine tells Shadowkat 'Whatever you need. Stand down. I got the only help that Charles needs – right here' he exclaims as he pops his claws and snarls that Xavier has to die – or none of them will be safe.