Extremes #8: Ambush! -Prologue- Shaw's yachte . . . "I know Drew and Paige aren't trustworthy," says Tessa to herself. "Something's not right about them two. I bet they only came here to trick us so they could save their friend, but I know better . . ." "Tessa," says Sebastion behind her, as she turns around, "tell me, what are you thinking? Your expression concerns me." "Oh, it's nothing really, Sebastion," she says turning away from him. "It's just that I don't trust Drew or Paige." "I see. Well, we could test their loyalty." "How?" "Come later with me to the room keeping Alex. On the way, I'll te ll you." "Allright." Sebastion walks off, lea ving Tess. She looks down and sees her nemesis. -End Prologue- "This is way pass cool!" Drew wails looking out a window from a penthouse, owned by Emma Frost, in New York City. "This is going to be some adventure! I can't wait!" "Don't get over excited, Drew," says Drew's comrade, Paige Guthrie, sitting on a luxurious lounge. "We're here on business remember?" "Of course, Paige," Drew replies. "Now, what's our plan of action against the Inner Circle?" "Simple," Drew answers. "It's so logical." "Cut the melodrama, Drew, and tell me your plan, IF you have one." "Well, for one thing, it's more than Alex at stake here. The Inner Circle is an assembly of the most ruthless mutants on the planet. We really don't need their interference in the future. They're already thinking of using us against the X-Men. I sensed it in all their minds. There's something really wrong about Madelyne, though. She shouldn't even be alive." "Why not? Who is she anyway?" Drew walks over from the window and joins Paige of the titanically made couch, and says, "I thought you, the one who wants to be the future leader of the X-Men, would know about these things. Madelyne Pryor is Jean Grey's clone. Well, actually, Madelyne is a clone of the Phoenix, another clone of Jean Grey." Paige looks dumbfounded. "Nevermind. The point is that Madelyne died after a fight with Jean Grey, which then she was with the team called X-Factor. I don't know how and why Madelyne is alove but I know she shouldn't. During the fight between me and her, and when I went into her mind, I saw memories that were ot her own. I suppose those were the memories of Jean and the Phoenix, but all of those memories were covered by some sort of field, so I doubt that Madelyne remembers any of their memories, but all of her memories were like broken glass. All of her memories were in shards. Madelyne Pryor is just one big mystery." "So what are we going to do about it? How can we defeat them?" "Simple. All of them have a vulnerable spot. We learn what they are and focus it on them. I already know some of thei weaknesses. Sebastion seaks his son desperately so he can kill him . . .' "Kill his own son? Not even someone like Sebastion Shaw could do that." "I imagine he would since his son supposedly killed him to be the Black King. Now his son, Shinobi, is running around in fear from his father. Sebastoin doesn't really care if he kills his son." "How can this help us?" "Well, I don't know yet. I just know that's his main weakness. Maybe you can figure out something. Okay, onward to another person. Selene loves power. She won't stop until she gets everything she wants. This could prove to be her downfall. Even if she's almost invulneravle, she can still be stopped." "I know that is true," says someone coming through the door of the penthouse. "Ms. Frost? Can you help us? You spent a time with the Hellfire Club. Do you know how to use their weaknesses to defeat them?" asks Paige. "Why, of course I can. I just know that Sean wouldn't approve of this. Although, I was over hearing your conversation earlier . . ." "What?" asks Drew extactic. "We all have a telepathic link. What you say is what you think, so I can psionically hear you. Anyway, I agree that we should go ahead a defeat the Inner Cirlce, but they'll only come back again and again. I say we just set them fighting each other: Sebastion against Shinobi, Tessa versus Madelyne, and so on . . . but that might take along time. Another possible solution is that when you find certain information about them, you can expose them. Fighting villains made easy. After that we can rescue Alex. Would do you think?" "I personally like the exposure idea," says Paige bluntly. "Drew?" "Yeah, the exposure idea would do nicely," he says with a melancholy expression. Then suddenly he leaps into the air toward Paige and screams, "Alright we've got ousrselves a plan!" Sebastion Shaw's private yachte, the current headquarters of the infamous Inner Cirlce . . . Tessa peers throughtout her room and sees Madelyne, arms infolded, staring out into the ocean, on the deck of the gigantic boat. "Madelyne . . . I don't no what game you're playing, but I know you're up to something," Tessa think to herself. "She thinks my memories forgotten, the time I spied into her mind, and when she found out she mind-blasted me, hoping for the knowledge I unearthed to be kept a secret. At first I did forget, but my mental powers resurfaced those images I saw a little while later. -laugh- How ironic, your powers failed against mine and your efforts will bring you down to your knees and to your downfall!" Down upon the deck, Madelyne contemplates to herself, "What am I going to do? I can't just leave the Circle, but I want my revenge on Scott and Jean Summers! For what they did, for the fact that Jean stole my life, my husband, and in the end, my son! But . . . they're not all to blame. It's Sinister whose fault is most immense. I'll make you pay, X-Men, and then I'll come after you, Sinister." She shivers as a cold night wind comes over her body and thrashes her spirit. The wind calming, she gasps, looking high into the sky, and the pale crescent moon's light, rising beyond the horizon. "A contagion of darkness is coming. I can feel it, but what could it be?" Out of an inherent trait, she releases a soft psionic cry. Unbecknowest to Madelyne, Tessa turns around from her gaping and laughs. -Interlude- Gareth Williams, a boy of fourteen years old, strolls through the dark alley ways of New York City. His head down, he ponders, "What's wrong with me? I thought I'd feel better, getting away from ‘there.' After my parents died in a plane crash, and no one to take care of me, I was sent from my home in Anchorage, Alaska to an orphanage in New Jersey. I then just yesterday, almost enveloped the orphanage in flames." He lifts his right pointer into the air as a burst of bright blazing fire sits at the peak. "I never wanted this stupid power," he says aloud mentally smothering the flame. "After the ‘explosion,' I just ran and ran and found myself here in the pits of New York City. I just don't underst . . . Ahhhhhh!" Gareth screams ethereally at the psionic wail of Madelyne Pryor. Like Madelyne earlier, he gasps, looking into the dark sky. "What . . . what was that?!" -End Interlude- "Ahhhh!" screams Drew, falling to the floor of the penthouse. "Drew, what's wrong?!" Paige questions. "Are you okay?" Getting back up, Drew answers her, "I'll be okay, but something's wrong in the astral plane. I can feel it!" "I felt it, too," says Emma lurking in the shadows. "It was Madelyne. There's something happening to her. It's up to us to find out what it is. Guys, it's time to rescue Alex before this gets totally out of control. Let's go!" In the unsettleing room which keeps Alex Davidson, the door is opened. Two members of the Inner Cirlce enter, a male and female. "I told you that you would serve your purpose, and now you will," says the man unting Alex's blindfold, only to let him see Sebastion Shaw and Tessa, side by side. "Work your power on this boy, Tess. Make him obedient to my every whim." "Yes, sir," she says giving Alex a cold stare as Sebastion leaves the room. "How would like to kill your own friends?" "What? What are you talking about?" "Your friends have joined the Inner Circle, you know, Drew Ebon and Paige Guthrie. We asked them if they wanted to see you, but they refused. They've abandoned you." "No, it's not true! It can't be! Liar!" "Oh, I'm telling the truth, all right, but will you believe me? I'll let you go, but you have to fight Drew and Paige," she says as Alex yells no. She uses her telepathic power of psi-notics, also known as mental hypnotics. "What are you doing to me?" "If you won't do it on your own free will, I'll just make you do what we want you to do!" Tessa wails, holding her hands together over her head as psionic energy swirls around her hands. She then swings her hands toward Alex and the psionic energy encircles him. Alex Davidson screams an unearthly cry, as the telepathic power that is at the dominance of Tessa alters and remolds Alex's memories and his way of thinking. "I feel so strange," says Alex to himself. "Something's not right here! Where all these strange images coming from? My friend, Drew Ebon, and our new teammate, Paige Guthrie, come to save me, right? NO! It's all a lie. Why would Drew come to save me when he's on top? Everything's a lie! Nothing's true. Why didn't I see it sooner? Ahhhhh!" With his great rage, Alex releases a electromagnetic pulse, destroying the inhibitor collar concealing his powers. He breaks loose from the tight ropes hindering him from movement. "Perfect," says Tesssa speaking to herself. "Now scout the yachte." "Yes," Alex responds in a voice unlike his own, but like an endless void, "and if Drew Ebon and paige Guthrie get in my way, they'll pay!" howls Alex forming a fist of his right hand. "Well, we made it," Drew Ebon ccommunicates to his friend and instructor via telepathy, lowering them all to the deck of the yachte, disengaging the telekinetic field around each of them. "Good work, Andrew," remarks Emma Frost, complimenting one of her newest students on his dominance over his psionic powers. "Thank you, but we don't have time to give each other praises . . ." " . . . so let's find Alex and get out of here," Paige finishes for Drew. "It's so creepy here at night." Creeeek . . . "Eeeee! What was that?!" "Calm down, Paige, everything will be okay. I promise," Drew reassures his teammate. "I you want me to, I'll give the place a mind scan, or you can want Ms. Frost to do it." Behind a leisure divan (a chair), Alex hides, waiting for the perfect time to attack them, the ones once thought as his friends, but now betrayal has engulfed his soul from the psi-notic influence issued by Tessa. His eyes flare up with crimson light, produced by his magnetic aura. "Don't bother," replies Paige as the trio wanders the vast boat. Without Paige's consent, Ebon psi-scans the entire yachte. First he senses Sebastion and Tessa drinking champaign in the room that they had all met for the first time. Then he psionically sees Selene meditating in her temporory room, next seeing Madelyne looking off on the side of the vessel, oblivious to the world. And then he sees Alex staring at him and his comrades. Next, he sees . . . "What? Alex? Listen everybody, I've found Alex. He's over behind that lounge, staring at us. I don't know what he's up to, but I don't have a good feeling about the reason. I sense a dark hold over him." "So you think they got to him? Brain-washed or something?" asks Paige. "That's a possibilty," replies Frost, "but why? They probably had suspicions on you from the very first meeting." "Well, what can we do witout harming Alex?" asks Drew. "There's only one way to find out. We'll have to attack him, even if he's under some kind of mental influence." "Alright, guys. I'll go first. I'll just create an illusion of myself and then I'll go over to Alex and attack." "You'll need your energy, Drew," says Ms. Frost. "I'll make the psi-image." "Alright. See ya!" Drew jumps in the air telekinetically as Emma creates an image of psi-plasma in Drew's shape. Making himself invisible to all persceptions, by the use of psionics, he is able fly over toward Alex, and finally lands behind him. As this is happening, Sebastion Shaw's and Tessa's astral image appear in the air, unbeknowest to all around, looking, spying on the battle. "They won't know what hit him. Hmm . . . they're awfully silent. I wonder if there sharing a psionic conversation. No matter, I'll just . . ." "You won't do nothing, traitor!" Drew yells revealing himself, and firing a bolt of telekintic energy at Alex, is supposed friend. "Ahhhh!" screeches Alex, being thrust over near the others, Paige and Emma, along with the leisure chair. "How dare you?!" As Alex is getting up, a magnetic sphere comes from within him and then encompasses the entire yachte for less than a second, knocking down all that is aboard. "You won't get away from me that easily!" Crimson energies shrouds the grey floor. Alex then slowly lifts up his arms as high as he can. "What's he doing?" Paige asks Ms. Frost, not responding. When his hands go not further, the top layer of the floor is magnetically turned into shards rising at great speeds, cutting into their flesh, but young Ebon is protected by his telekinetic field. Alex refocuses his energy into two parts now. He fires magnetic blasts at all of them as they scurry to and fro to dodge them. He then manipulates Paige's magnetic field, alomst crushing her! As the shards are still flying, they are not as powerfully wounding them, for Alex's attention is now focused at Paige. "Paige, no!" Drew yells. "Paige, can you hear me? I'll try to distract him so his magnetic control over you will cease, as well as this bombardment of shards. After that, husk into a non-magnetizable form. Then he won't be able to harm you. Okay?" "Okay, but what about Ms. Frost? I don't see her anywhere." "Don't worry about her. She can take care of herself." Safeguarding himself against the hail, Drew closes his eyes and sees in eyes of astral energy. That way, he can see Alex through all the shards. "I sure hope this works. This might realease the control over him whatever it may be." A psionic dagger appears in his right hand, about eleven inches. He propels the dagger, through telekinetic and telepathic perfection, in front of him. After it reaches outside the barrier of shards, Drew cloaks it with a psi-shield, making it invisible to all of Alex's comprehension. It strikes Alex's forehead, causeing him great pain. The metal shards, formally the floor of the yachte, come down gently, hitting the second layer of the boat without making one sound, as well as the magnetic field around Paige dies down, returning her to floor also. Alex's head is pulsing with the psionic energy, causing immense suffering. Paige then, after getting up, puts her fingers at the top of her forehead and tears down her skin. Her mutant power is to shed an outer skin to reveal a new one. After her "husking," she completely altered, what Drew would say a ‘non-magnetizable form,' for he did not know if his psi-dagger would release the mental control over him. Only time would tell for Alex suddenly collapsed. "Alex!" screams Drew. "Unconscience! Paige, get him out of here." "What about you?" she asks coming toward him and his fallen friend. "I'll be okay. I probably will go and search for Ms. Frost. Okay?" "Alright," she replies with an expression of doubt. She departs with Alex, leaving Drew behind. "Okay, Ms. Frost, where are you?" "That was a splendid battle, Tessa," remarks Sebastion Shaw. "I guess you were wrong, seeing that even though Alex was their former comrade, they still defeated him." "But in a passive way. I still have my suspicions." "Well, you're probably right!" comes a scream behind them, as the front doors are slammed shut. Turning aound, they see Emma Frost, previous White Queen of the Hellfire Club's Inenr Cirlce. "Frost?!" "Hello, Sebastion. Nice to see you again. And Tessa, how are you holding up these days?" she mocks them. "Emma, what are you doing here . . ." " . . . and what do you mean ‘You're probably right?'" Tessa finishes. "Drew and Paige came here on a mission, to rescue Alex." "So, they were here only to help him? No matter, it was still amusing to see them fight against one another." "Sebastion, you power-monger! Aren't you tired of playing this game of power and control?" "No in the least." Emma silently growls. "Well then, in that case, eat plasma projectiles, Shaw!" she, after getting out a compact gun, fires plasma energy at Shaw and Tessa, but is blockd by an unknown force field. A great burst of energy is let loose after the plasms had hit the field. "Where did that come from?" "From me," says Drew Ebon, hovering above his teacher. "Drew?" "Yes, Ms. Frost. Paige is getting Alex back to the penthouse . . ." "Drew, we don't have time for this, Sebastion and Tessa . . ." she looks at their blank appearances. " . . . aren't going anywhere. I psionically paralyzed them, both physically and mentally. It'll where off in a couple of hours at maximum. We need to go now, though, Ms. Frost." "Al . . . right." They leave the room, as Sebastion Shaw and his loyal telepath, Tessa, stare in a void of obscurity. After they get off of the boat, Emma and Drew start running. "Hmm, that's strange. I think we forgot something. Oh no! Madelyne. I've got to check on her." Drew creates a psionic image of him beside Ms. Frost, and runs back to the yachte. "Alright, Drew, you can have some fun this time, but it'll never happen again, Sean'd kill me," Frost says, revealing her acknowledgment of Drew's absence. On the other side of the yachte, the side that wasn't destroyed by Alex, is Madelyne Pryor, staring still at the stars. "Madelyne!" screams Drew. "Are you okay?" Ebon slowly approaches her, for fear of what she might do. He reaches out with two of his fingers of his right hand,and touches her shoulder, "Madelyne?" Madelyne, suddenly ‘awake,' pushes Drew off of her in defence. "How dare you, insolent welt?!" Drew falls to the ground with a grunt; his eyes closed. He then opens his eyes to see Madelyne in an unfamiliar costume. "Madelyne?" "I no longer go by that name, boy, but by the name of Goblin Queen!" she shrieks as dark energies soar around her. "What? Goblin Queen. Huh! Ms. Frost told me as we were coming here that Madelyne had another ‘persona,' a dark persona, named the Goblin Queen. What have I gotten myself into this time?" "It was fun for a while, but you've out grown your usefullness." "What do you mean?" "Neither of us realized it until it was too late! The first time you came to the Inner Circle, the first time you entered my mind . . ." Drew gasps, "She knows!" " . . . a unique psionic link was established between you and me. All the rawpsionic energy, brimming with potential, that is yours to command is over whelming! You, in a way of thinking, were spoon feeding me, Drew. You are the reason the Goblin Queen is now free from her restraints! Now, I need the necessary energy to stabalize this persona before it's too late. Fill the negative energy of the Abyss!" She hurls a dark energy blast at Drew, him crossing his arms in front of his face and eyes closed, while screaming, but the blast never strikes. It was a decoy for her escape. After the realization of his stupidity, Drew opens his eyes and lets his arms rest, hearing laughter of sinister corruptness filling the atmosphere. "Madelyne!!!" In a mysterious room filled with nothing but darkness, the Black Queen of the Inner Circle, Selene, is awakened from her mediation by the scream of one young boy. "I wonder what that was," Gareth Williams says aloud, still strolling on the sidewalks of New York. "The cry . . . it sounded so familiar, but I can't place where I've heard it before. It's so strange . . ." A vicious growl is audible above the adolescent. Gareth gazes upward to see a woman of great youthfulness in a piquing attire, falling from high. The redheaded woman, formerly identified as Madelyne Pryor, collides with the sidewalk in front of Gareth, with complete perfection. "You are mine!" the woman cries. Falling down, Gareth is momentarily stunned as he listens this wail, the wail he has heard once already this night. "You're the one I heard earlier! Ahhhh!" He tries to scrurry from her An orb of the Goblin Queen's nega-energy is forming in her hand, which then she plunges his chest, filling him with the power that is contaminating her. "Feel the contagion of darkness! You will carry my wrath!" "No!" he screams as the energy consumes him, leaving nothing left of him. "It is done." A portal of dreary light materializes in front of her. A shadowy figure then takes the place of this portal of malevolence. Its spiteful face is of Gareth Williams's. Both body and mind does not belong to him anymore, for she has annihilated him in her bestial hatred against all that deceived her. His mutant talent of blaze is now squandered in the darkness that now fuels his essence. -Time Slip- Within Emma Frost's penthouse, Paige, with her original appearance, attends Alex's cuts and bruises caused by the untimely fight. Laying a cold wash-rag upon his forehead, he opens his eyes. "Paige? What happened?" "Shhh!" she waves her finger. "Don't talk." "Paige, is he all right?" asks Emma, walking into the room. "I think he's going to pull through, but where's Drew. I thought . . ." "Listen up!" an articulation pervades the room. An astral image of Drew's face appears in the room. "Ms. Frost, Madelyne just claimed that she was the Goblin Queen. Then she just left. Any idea where she went?" "Unfortunately, I do." -End Time Slip- "What is it you wish, my eminence?" Gareth bows before his Queen. "Revenge, my servant, against the ones who took my precious baby away from me! My dear Nathan Chrsitopher. We will go to Xavier's mansion! Salem Center isn't too far from here." "I really don't care if it is or not," screams Drew Ebon, suddenly in front of them both, "because you're not gonna be able to pursue your profound diabolical ideas this night, Queenie!" "You dare to insult my queen? You'll pay!" Gareth leaps into the air and discharges bursts of fiery darkness upon Ebon. "Ahhhhh! What is this? It burns, but yet it doesn't feel like fire. Enough!" Drew yells, realeasing telekinetic energies all around him, creating a protecion field against Gareth's blasts. "I stand for truth and justice! I am the mighty Ebon. I will right wrongs and triumh over evil, and that means you, Maddy." "Idle threats, both you and I know it!" the Goblin Queen screams. "Wrath, seize him! Collect his energy!" ‘Wrath' casts Drew onto the ground. His hands then are thrust upon Ebon's shoulders. "Dark energy drain!" Drew's entire body glows to a bright shade of blue. A gas-like substance is then emitted from Drew, and is channeled into Gareth. "So . . . weak. Can't hold . . . on for too . . .much longer," Drew says collapsing, falling into unconsciousness. "Hey, sleazoid, lay off of our friend!" a crimson light surrounds Gareth, making him coolapse as well. "Who?" Madelyne gasps. Out from the shadowy alleys, appears Emma Frost, Alex Davidson, and Paige Guthrie, a small fraction of the team known as . . .GENERATION X! "That was some magnetic flare, Alex," comments Paige. "Thanks." With Gareth's sudden comatose state of beinf, the energy stolen from Drew returns to its rightful owner. "Uggn," Drew moans. "Drew, are you okay?" asks Paige. "We thought you could use some help." "I'll be fine, thanks." Emma and Madelyne now stare at each other. Madelyne fires a psionic bolt at her foe, who eaily blocks it with a shield of astral energy. "Can't you do better than that?" Madelyne snarls. "Don't even try to move, or you'll have pay the consequences," a black knife is held at Emma's throat. "Oh, no! He's regained his senses!" yells Drew. "Wrath, come to me!" Wrath disappears from Emma's side and arises from the darkness beside his dark mistress. His right hand and her left hand unite. Their powers united, they fire blast of immence power at Emma. Emma blocks the blast, but she does not have enough power to hold it off for long. "Ms. Frost, no!" cries Paige. "Feel the burn!" they scream together. "Uggnn!" Emma falls down, unprotected. "Got to get to her!" Drew Ebon selflessly runs toward his counselor. "She just needs an energy boost." A psionic dagger is now in Drew's grasp, fixing it toward the side if Frost's forehead. Then plunging it into her, the great power increases her own potency. She realeases a telepathic wail into both their foes. Helplessly, they fall to the ground, weaken beyond anything else. ‘Good . . . work, Andrew," says Ms. Frost. "Thank you," he replies, helping her up on her feet. "That was too quickly done," Alex says in disbelief. "What's gonna happen now?" "Nothing, Alex Davidson!" "Selene!" yells Emma. "What do you want?" "I want only the power concealed in this young woman," Selene says near Madelyne. "Why she's alive, I do not know, but I have no concern on hurting any of you. With the clutch of darkness away from him, this boy, named Gareth Williams, is no longer under her authority. Take him to your school, Emma. He is a mutant, no less. Fare well." she says disappearing with Madelyne. "Gosh, I didn't know she could be nice," says Paige. "Neither did I," Emma says, staring in the coming dawn with cold, harsh eyes, "so what's she up to?" -Epilogue- "It sure is glad to be back," Drew yawns as he settles on a couch in the academy. "Tell me about it," replies Alex. "I can finally relax from and ge rid of this annoying headache! Why'd you have to psi-blast me, huh, Drew? And what took you and Paige so long to rescue me, huh? Tell me that!" "You ungratful, brat!" Drew yells, chasing Alex to their rooms. "Come back here!"