Storm (5th series) #2

Lagos, Nigeria, 24 hours left:
Nighttime, in the harbor. A freight ship is beset by several smaller pirate vessels who start a fire on the ship.

Storm creates an icesheet on the water. She slides on it, uses it to gain momentum and kicks the pirate leader in the chest. She creates lightning to beat the pirates, but then succumbs to a coughing spell, coughing blood.

One of the saved sailors offers her a bottle of water but the captain shoos him back. He acknowledges they ought to be offering her hospitality out of gratitude for saving them from those sea hoodlums but he makes it clear he wants her to leave at once. They don’t want her to “accidentally” ignite their fuel or other flammable cargo with her mutant abilities. They have seen the Oklahoma news. After surviving this terrible ordeal, the last thing they want is to die at the hands of a mutant.

Storm spends the next day at the Storm Sanctuary, taking care of the animals. However, when she leaves large clumps of hair in the shower, she cannot deny anymore that something is very wrong with her.

Soon, she finds herself outside what seems to be a derelict junkyard in Arkansas. A guard shouts he needs to see an ID or appointment note. She seems to look like an X-Man. Rifling through her purse, Storm mutters that she can’t find her Avengers Card. On second thought, she looks like a friend of his, he decides. She finds her card and he is impressed: she really is an Avenger. He points at the fence and tells her to step through the gate. Confused, she replies it is locked. The man reveals that the fence, like the whole junkyard, is just an illusion. Storm steps through and sees the Night and Daye Hospital for the Extramundane in front of her.

In the modern office, she is soon joined by a middle-aged man who introduces himself as Dr. Daye. When he gets a good look at her and recognizes her, he seems displeased. Does she know him? Storm asks confused. She is an X-Man, he replies sourly. Storm corrects him that she is an Avenger but, yes, she used to be leader of the X-Men. He doesn’t treat X-Men, Daye proclaims. Storm asks if he has no expertise in mutant anatomy. She assures him, the differences are minuscule. He cuts her off that he knows mutant physiognomy fine. It is discrimination then, Storm states as her anger builds. He readily admits it. When she calls him a bigot, Daye shoots back eighty percent of his patients are mutants. It isn’t mutant discrimination, it’s X-Men discrimination. She demands, if the X-Men have wronged him in some way.

Daye replies that, when Night Nurse and he started this hospital, Tony Stark cut them a check on behalf of the Avengers and Force Works. Dr. Strange consults here on behalf of the Defenders. Reed Richards supplies them with medical equipment on behalf of the Fantastic Four. Danny Rand donates on behalf of the Heroes for Hire. Even Moon Knight paid good cash. Everyone chipped in – everyone except for the X-Men!

He takes out a photo, showing Daye and Night Nurse alongside several of the heroes he mentioned and more. He continues complaining about Krakoa.

Storm hands over the large ruby she inherited from her mother and calls it a gift on behalf of the X-Men. Daye stammers a “thank you,” then grudgingly announces the X-Men are welcome here.

Storm notes he is writing down a lot without even having asked about her ailment. Daye replies she has some sort of radiation poisoning. His mutant ability is medical diagnosis. He didn’t stay long on Krakoa, because people who didn’t have a resurrection protocol needed him.

He puts his diagnosis into a black envelope with runes and suddenly it vanishes. Grimly, he informs her that there is no medical cure for her variation of radiation syndrome. So, he sent a referral letter ahead to the doctor who will be attending to her. He was once Sorcerer Supreme and specializes in dark magic. He is currently on sabbatical, so he recommends she try to visit him at his second residential address. Daye warns her she has only six hours left to live, so she must hurry.

Storm literally flies for her life. Over Nigeria, she is inexplicably accosted by a spacewhale and, without knowing why, she utters the phrase “Oblivion Waits.” The whale’s tail swats her and she falls, dropping toward Haiti.

She lands to be greeted by Dr. Voodoo, who tells her he will be attending to her tonight.