Tightly packed like sardines, they rode the ‘L’ train back and forth to work day after day like clockwork. From time to time some would be late and miss a train but they’d just board the next and it would be just like they had made the last one, save for the actual time. Each train was the same. Packed full of people as all seats were filled and those without seats stood shoulder to shoulder trying not to fall into one another or even touch one another really.
A cacophony of sounds greeted any new comers as the train pulled away from one of the multitude of stations in the downtown area of Chicago. Music blared from various musical devices; most times at least muted some by the use of headphones. A few children were crying or carrying on. One man railed about the government and all the money being wasted on foreign interests. A woman rocked back and forth in one seat with her well-worn and dirt caked clothing sticking to her, muttering to herself about various topics that didn’t string together. Two teenagers laughed and poked at the woman before another woman admonished them and shooed them away from the poor woman.
It was a pretty typical day upon the transit system and for the city in general. Those were the days that something extraordinarily off-beat was going to happen, the current day was no exception.
The entire Earth began to shake near the State/Lake exit as pavement buckled and exploded upwards, sending chunks of asphalt and concrete flying and civilians running in various directions. A large green clawed hand broke through the ground and was used for leverage as an even larger and scalier green body followed after.
The large creature was not only green in color but was almost rocky looking in texture with large curved horns on its head and white colored eyes. Its mouth hung open displaying a row of sharp yellow teeth filling the top and bottom of the mouth, in duplicate. The creature had two sets of teeth one right after the other.
It’s roar brought the city to a halt as a large leathery paw smashed through the supports of the train rails, sending the speeding train right off the rails and into the large hole the creature had created. Stuck staring in shock, the citizens began to run while screaming, their panic setting in at last. With both feet up on the surface, the monster began to lumber forward destroying everything in its path.
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#13
OCT 13 |
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“Nothing like a Rampaging Monster to Start the Day”
Graymalkin Island
Cantina
“I think I saw it move, yep definitely saw it move. Betting it’s some alien shape shifter or mind sucking blob of doom. Those are the only explanations.”
Rahne sighed as she rubbed at her brow. The red head stood in the mess hall wearing a pale green tank top and a pair of black shorts with her bare feet enjoying the cold metal floor beneath them. It was a departure from the more conservative dress of her past as things had been different for her in more recent times.
“Or ye could be ridiculous and it’s just Salisbury steak,” Rahne muttered.
Jamie was adamant though. “No, no, it’s clearly a foreign substance. Nothing looks or smells like that if it wasn’t created in a laboratory somewhere or crawled out of a spaceship or sewer.”
“Spaceship or sewer? Don’t ya think those two are far apart?”
“Not as much as you’d think.”
With a sigh the Scottish woman turned with her tray in hand and moved over towards a table, dropping the tray with a small clatter, as she sent a pleading look at the table’s occupants. “Save me.”
Longshot, pausing with a spoon full of pudding in transit to his mouth, stared at the woman as if contemplating what she just said. “You are in need of rescue? Like the damsels in distress back home in the shows I was part of. This I can do!”
The denizen of Mojoworld leapt from the table dropping his spoon, prepared to battle whatever was hounding Rahne. “What am I fighting?”
A snicker came as Jubilee held a hand over her mouth. “Sit down, you dork. There is like nothing to fight. She’s just being ridiculous as she doesn’t want to deal with old multiple butts over there and his lame jokes.”
“Hey, my jokes are anything but lame!” Jamie could be heard shouting from across the room.
“Whatever. You told me a joke about finger pulling and farting like last night. That’s lame.”
“A classic I say!”
Longshot dropped back into his seat as Rahne just rubbed at her head. “Never a way out when ye need it.”
“Why would you need a way out?” Longshot asked, glancing up at the woman.
“I…” Rahne just shrugged her shoulders and slumped down.
“All X-Men to the hanger deck, the city is under attack! We roll out in ten.” It was as if divine intervention was taking place as Jean’s voice broke over the intercom.
“Duty calls,” Longshot shouted with a grin as he leapt over the table again and raced for the doorway.
Giggling, Jubilee shook her head. “Well you all heard him.”
“But I hadn’t eaten yet…”Jamie muttered.
Glancing up towards the ceiling and sky above, Rahne nodded. “Thank ye.” Rising, she headed for the door while grabbing Jamie’s arm and dragging him along. It was time to get to work.
Screams echoed through the streets of Chicago, the people causing the screams all running as if their lives depended upon it. In reality they very much did. That sort of thing was bound to happen when a sixty story, at least no one was really around to give accurate measurements if they even wanted to, monster was rampaging through the streets of the city.
Popular belief was that it had been an earthquake that had made the city shake so much in the last half hour. It was shocking at first because none ever thought an earthquake would hit them in their part of the country. While faults and plates shifting beneath the Earth could happen really anywhere at any timeb it was only certain areas that tended to have it happen regularly or ever. Lucky for them it was not an earthquake, not that a monster was much better.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Officer Michael Grant muttered, staring up as the monstrosity pushed through traffic and through one building as the entire structure began to collapse around its bulk.
Grant’s longtime partner Officer Daniel Lamar leapt out of their patrol car and joined in staring. “I’m not gonna try and read that one their rights.”
“First the god damn Big Wheel crap, and now this,” Grant said. “I’m too old for this shit.”
“Quoting Lethal Weapon, now of all times?”
“Quoting? Hell no, I’m telling the truth. I’m too damn old for this mutant-hero-villain-monster crap.”
Lamar shook his head. “Next you’ll be talking about being two days from retirement.”
“Screw two days, I’m retiring now.”
As the two officers were left to stare at the massive backside of the creature as it moved away, others tried to run for their lives, but there was only one thing on all of their minds: where were the heroes?
Just like any action movie that one could pick out of a line-up, just when things got tough was when hope returned. Through the clouds soared the sleek black jet with the large X on its belly. Its large VTOL engines hummed as they began to turn to face downwards to allow the craft to descend.
As the engines faded out and the craft settled, the door opened and figures shot out quickly. Red hair could be seen in a blur as two figures with it darted out. An unearthly scream split through the air as Siryn soared into the air and hovered, taking in the sight of their target. Beside her floated the form of Phoenix, clad in her black and gold field uniform.
“Bet you’re wishing you stayed back at base huh boss?” Multiple Man’s voice came clear over the communicators.
“If I’m going to lead this team I can’t do it from the sidelines. Not always, at least,” Phoenix offered. “I love Charles but the man sat on the sidelines too long in the old days. I won’t make that mistake.”
Phoenix’s eyes scanned the streets below to catch sight of the rest of the team. Wolfsbane, Multiple Man, Dazzler, Longshot, Jubilee and Karma were all on the streets, racing right towards the creature and its path of destruction.
“Engage the enemy, but protect all the citizens and keep property damage to a minimum or non-existent if possible. Let’s show the world what we’re made of,” Phoenix said, a large smile growing upon her face.
Frenzied people ran every which way, clogging the streets with cars and running people. No one knew where to go except away from the monster. People were trapped and many were falling and becoming likely to be trampled. There was no order, just chaos.
Suddenly the people stopped. All manner of movement ceased to be and they seemed to become calm. Turning as one they began to walk in an orderly pace away from the area where the creature terrorized their city. Drivers left their cars. Parents held their children. Those on the ground were helped up and all began to move.
It all stemmed from the figure that stood atop a car in the middle of the street. A pink glow surrounded the head of Karma as she concentrated on the large crowd. The same pink glow could be seen in the eyes of all those walking if one looked closely.
“Can you hold them, Xi’an?” came the concerned voice of Dazzler as the newly returned to the spotlight singer stood nearby, watching her teammate. “Have you ever taken on a crowd this big?”
Karma’s eyes didn’t even open as she processed the words of her teammate. “No, this is the first this size but I am maintaining control. I’ve been…working out, you could say.”
“You’re not looking so good though,” Multiple Man threw out.
Karma grunted frustration evident on her face. “You just worry about your part and leave me to mine. “
There was a time that using her powers meant nosebleeds and headaches from taking on too much. If things overwhelmed those she was controlling it also led to issues for the young woman. Then she had begun training with her powers. If the world of the X-Men was going to draw her back in then she knew she was going to stand beside her teammates. Not be a liability or looked upon as the weakest link. Not anymore.
“Don’t worry about me. I have them secure. I’ll have them all out of here soon and I’ll start on the next street. Go do what you need to do.”
Dazzler nodded at the words and took off. Wolfsbane, who had been standing by silently, stayed for a moment staring at her friend.
“Ye sure ye got this, Xi’an?”
Eyes opening at last, Karma turned and smiled at her wolf-transformed teammate. They had been teammates and friends for years and it had made the transition to the larger X-Men easier to see a familiar face in the ranks. “I will be fine, my friend. I’ve never felt better.”
If she could have smiled back, Wolfsbane knew she would have. It was good to see her old friend at comfort with her powers and situation at long last. Not that she was one to worry about that as her own issues had taken a long time to get over. “Alright. Ye be careful now. We’ll be a shout away if ye need us.”
Loping off into the distance, Wolfsbane left her teammate alone as Karma turned and focused back upon the civilians that were still in the way of danger. “All right folks, let’s keep it moving. We have a lot to get through.”
Down the street an army of Multiple Men stood firm, facing the direction of the large rampaging creature that had pulled itself from deep beneath the Earth. The others were dealing with creatures of their own and clearing the streets. It was just his luck to turn around a corner and find the largest one tearing through a local bakery eating everything in sight. There wasn’t a lot left in there to keep its attention so it was almost now or never.
“So what are we waiting for?” Jubilee asked, already getting bored as she stood by her teammate.
“Nothing, just…uh…gauging the situation.”
“Is that superhero talk for you’re scared out of your mind?”
“No, no – its leader speak for coming up with a plan.”
“Pretty sure I don’t believe you at all.”
“He’s a coward and he knows it. Let’s kill this thing!” one of the dupes suddenly shouted before running forward screaming out jumbled words and obscenities.
“Well…that was awkward.”
Jubilee blinked and thought for a moment before speaking. “So what part of you was that?”
“Something really suicidal I’m thinking. Pretty sure he’s gonna end up as toe jam paste in a few moments. Why am I planning on taking this thing on anyways?”
“Compensation?”
“Compensating for what...hey!”
“You thought it, I didn’t say it, bub.”
Muttering, Multiple Man turned and watched as his duplicate was flung away through the air. No doubt he landed somewhere deep in the city and was dying at the moment. Sighing, he rubbed the bridge of his nose.
“I was afraid of getting defenestrated today, but that was probably worse there.”
“De…what?”
“Defenestrated. Thrown through a window,” he said while catching Jubilee’s look. “I have a word of the day calendar, all right?”
“Your word of the day happened to be thrown through a window?”
“It’s a specialty word of the day calendar suited for super heroes and the unique situations we find ourselves in.”
“That…” Jubilee said as she paused. “That’s actually pretty cool.”
“Right? Best thing I’ve spent money on lately.”
There was a loud rumble and groan as the creature pulled back from the bakery, donuts and other pastries tumbling from its still open maw. Clearly the buffet of sugary treats had come to an end. Pushing back, its hands dug into the building and sent it crumbling down at last. It stumbled for a moment before regaining its balance, glancing around to see where to go next as its eyes squinted to see in the bright sunshine filled day.
“Well, as they say…now or never, bub!” Jubilee shouted before running forward with her sparkly plasma based powers glowing around her fists. “Eat fireworks toilet breath!”
The creature roared as the plasma struck it right in the middle of the body. Truly the cries were not from pain but at anger at the audacity that something was trying to attack it. Each blast felt like a tickle across the giant and bulky abdomen. Jubilee wasn’t making a dent but that didn’t stop the young firecracker from trying.
“Guess that’s our cue then, boys,” Multiple Man said, pointing at the legs of the behemoth. “Take er’ down!”
A thunderous sound came as the army of duplicates began running right at the beast, grabbing at its legs as they reached that point. Climbing up they began to cling on as they sought to weigh down the creature and keep it from moving and hopefully collapse even though that might cause more damage. Better down than up rampaging though.
The added weight of hundreds of men was not really doing a lot to stop the creature, more like annoy it really. Some of the dupes were being thrown off or worse, crushed. The ‘battle’ was not going anywhere near planned.
“So now what, Mr. Word-A-Day!” Jubilee shouted, dodging the thing’s claws as it tried to swipe at her, continuing to pump her fireworks out in its face as the creature roared.
“No clue…call for a miracle?”
“Pretty sure that’s Rahne’s thing.”
Another groan filled the air but this time it wasn’t from the creature. Instead it was from the very Earth as another hole like the one the rampaging monster came from appeared. Another large molted head appeared as sharp teeth gleamed in the sunlight. Jubilee and Multiple Man’s faces fell as they realized they were out of their league now. At least it seemed so.
As the new monster finished crawling out, slightly shaking to get all the dirt off its back, a figure was clear on its head…a small man in green robes clutching a staff, large blue glasses over his eyes. It didn’t take much to recognize the Mole Man atop the monster shaking his staff at the other creature.
“Stand down now! Your King orders you to stop!”
With a groan the creature that had been attacking paused and turned to look. With a grunt it moved to kneel as the dupes still on its leg were now crushed. The Madrox prime grabbed at his head and groaned as he could feel all the connections severing. It was the most painful moment he had felt in a long time.
“Please tell me we were not just saved by Mole Man,” Jubilee murmured.
Within moments the short stout man strode forward, once off the back of his giant steed, and approached the two heroes with a smile upon his face. “Greetings X-Men, I’ve come to reign in these lost and confused members of my kingdom. The sovereign nation of Monster Island apologizes for the destruction caused by these renegades and assures you that they shall be dealt with accordingly.”
The two blinked at one another before turning back to the man. “But you’re Mole Man; you attack New York all the time.” Jubilee said.
A wag of the finger came to her comment. “That was the past, my dear. Now you stand before the duly recognized leader of the newly sovereign nation of Monster Island.”
“Yep, I died and am in hell,” Jamie said as he sighed. Things were never as they seemed.
Cleaning up after a giant rampaging monster was not as simple as it would seem. It required lots of individuals coordinating along with those that would actually be doing the labor and the re-design of everything that had been damaged. Chicago didn’t have all the resources needed for such a thing as super power battles were something new to their streets. Lucky for them Damage Control was beginning to follow the heroes and villains and was expanding out to new locations.
“Quite a mess here,” S.H.I.E.L.D liaison Gabirel Jones said as he surveyed most of the damage alongside Jean.
“Rampaging monsters will do that. The mayor estimates we’re talking about damage possibly getting close to the billion level.”
“I’m guessing he’s not really happy.”
“About as happy as one can be in such a situation, both a mix of joy and anger I suppose. Anger over it happening but joy that there were heroes here to stop it instead of there being none and Chicago being wiped out.”
“It’s the small things in life,” Jones said. Rubbing at his chin, Jones glanced at the scene of the Mayor and Mole Man speaking to one another on the streets. “Still a damn odd sight.”
Jean frowned as she followed his eyes. Finding out that her team had been assisted by the timely intervention of Mole Man was off putting. Not because of the team needing help, that happened to teams, but because of the fact that the timing was so perfect.
“Elder’s story checks out?”
“Clearly you’re not tuned into the news of New York City.”
“Not our playground anymore. I’ve got a full plate.”
Catching the slight tone to her voice, Jones put his hands up in surrender to ward off any lingering anger. “Understood. Recently Elder took over the United Nations to demand Monster Island be made sovereign. It was denied at first but a cadre of members rallied together to change that and now Monster Island is fully a sovereign nation and a member of the U.N*. That group included Crystal Maximoff. I believe you’re acquainted.
*As seen in Marvel Anthology’s Fantastic Four #1-4
“Yes, we are. I’m surprised that Crystal would help with such a move, but nothing coming out of Genosha is what I would expect as of late.”
“Yeah, well, you put the spawn of Magneto in charge and things are gonna get dicey.”
“Perhaps,” Jean said as she peered over at the clean-up again. “So now Elder will take the monsters back to his nation and Chicago is left to clean up the mess. Something seems off about that.”
“Actually you are a bit off.”
Both turned to see Mayor Wyatt Alexander strolling towards them, the grin on his face larger than a face was probably able to handle. “Mr. Elder has compensated the city of Chicago for the actions of his errant citizens. His gesture was accepted and greatly appreciated.”
There was a bag in the mayor’s hands and through a gap in the top the shiny nature of the diamonds within was clear. It made sense. The Mole Man and his creatures roamed the underbelly of the Earth and that was where many precious gems and stones could be found and clearly that was true as evidenced by the bag.
“Well then, looks like my work here is done then,” Jones offered as he nodded at a few S.H.I.E.L.D agents that wandered by, the order clear to them. “Ms. Grey, a pleasure as always. Mr. Mayor my men will remain here to make sure that there is no issues with the transfer of the Monster Island citizens as well as to help seal up the hole after the delegation from that island leaves.”
“Thank you, Agent Jones, the help of S.H.I.E.L.D is always appreciated,” Alexander said. “As is the help of the X-Men. I’m not sure what we would do without your team in our city, Jean. Chicago truly is lucky that the X-Men have come to call our fair city home.”
Jean put on the face of a politician, a smile coming even though she was not in a smiling mood. “No thanks are ever necessary Mr. Mayor. We’re glad to be of help and we love Chicago and the hospitality of its people. There is nowhere else we’d rather be.
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Next: In Astonishing X-Men #14: X-Men Love Chicago!
Previous Issue | Next Issue
Another issue of Astonishing X-Men comes to a close at long last! And out of an idea of a rampaging monster in Chicago this issue was born, that even ties into another title at the site! Continuity, that’s the name of the game. Anyways, this space is part of an idea I recently had to bring back in my books an end spot where I can put many different things. The same thing has happened with Force Works, and will with any other titles I pick up, recently. In this space that is sort of like the letter columns that I love in comics, which have recently returned in many comics which is awesome, except that its’ not focused on letters.
Now this space will serve many purposes. At times there will be ‘letters’ in the form of reviews of the various issues or the title overall. Other times there will be everything from behind the scenes material to in depth profiles of characters as I see them to be and how I plan to use them. Whatever I feel like throwing out here. Perhaps even a ‘Word from the Writer’ or something. We’ll see what I come up with to share on a regular basis. For this first one below you’ll find a wonderful review from fellow writer Tobias Christopher for issue #11:
First off, I'm sad to see Bobby go, I liked the way Scott was taking him and hopefully that hack writer on his solo title can do him justice. On the actual issue itself, it was another great one.
I enjoyed the fight with Big Wheel, and Multiple Man's quickly become one of my favorite characters with his bad puns and references. The interaction between the characters was great, and hope to see more of that in future issues.
I also love how Jean has become her own character and isn't just some prize that Wolverine and Cyclops are fighting over. Without them around, she's allowed to actually develop and I like seeing her take charge. Can't wait for the next issue to see what Stryker's up to.
Thanks for the review, Tobias. I'll miss old frosty but I know he's in good hands. Jamie is one of my all-time favorites and I hope to do his humor justice over the long haul. Making Jean a character that does not need Logan or Scott or Xavier to prop her up is key to my plans. This is fully Jean's team now. And character work and interaction is my love so no stopping of that any time soon. There will be a slight departure from Stryker in the next issues but he will return very soon. Got Giant plans for him. Emphasis on Giant. *drops a hint*
That’s it for this go around of Astonishment, who knows what will come next time!
Scott Redmond
09/02/13