" Captain's Log, Stardate 41153.7 our destination is the Shi'ar home world Chandilar, we are in pursuit of an unknown bogey who goes by Vulcan, we are currently drifting through space towards, what I've been told is a refueling station which should help us restock on supplies and help us plan out our next course of action. We are still trying to reach Christopher Summers, the father of Scott and Alex Summers, who just happens to be a space pirate. I don't know if I'll make it back home, but if I don't and someone finds this.... Then please. Go to earth and find a man named Logan and sSLAP HIM IN THE FACE FOR SENDING ME ON THIS TRIP! Onslaught, Ian Sinclair, out."
" Did you really just do a whole star trek reference while we're stuck in space?" Alex asked the boy.
" Hey, you try coming up with a way to entertain yourself while floating in space. Besides, I thought it was pretty cool." Ian told the man.
" Can you two be quiet please? I'm trying to focus." Rachel said to the two men as she struggled to find the station the group was looking for.
" Sorry, Rachel." Ian spoke up.
" I think... I think I've got it." Rachel stated. " Yes, there's a station nearby."
" What's it look like? We clear?" Alex asked the woman.
" I think so... Just a skeleton crew. Their thoughts are tame. We should be able to Jedi them into helping us." Rachel explained.
" EYYY!" Ian was impressed with the woman's reference and more than applauded it.
Rachel looked back at him triumphantly and smiled.
" You two are such nerds." Alex stated bluntly.
" Whatever, Summers." Ian replied. " Come on, Rach, let's go. I need to stretch my legs." Ian said to the woman.
" Already on it." Rachel replied.
Rachel steered the ship towards the space station and landed the ship in the ports docking bay.
" Okay, give me one moment to get ready." Xavier spoke up. He stepped out of the room with some kind of space suit in his hands.
" What's that about?" Ian asked.
" Oh, yeah... You remember the evil twin of his that attacked the institute about two years ago?" Kurt asked.
" Nova? Yeah. Why?" Ian asked.
" Well, she kind of attacked the Shi'ar home world and made Charles a wanted man in space." Kurt explained.
" So, we've basically got the largest target in space planted on our backs. Is that about it?" Ian asked.
" Yeah, welcome to the team." Alex told the boy.
" Oh, thanks that really makes me feel better." Ian replied sarcastically.
" Alright, I'm ready." Xavier stated as he walked back into the room.
" You know, I didn't think to ask, because we've been out here for a week. But who's this Vulcan guy we're going after? What's the whole deal with this?" Ian asked.
" It is.... A long story." Xavier said to the boy. His eyes full of regret and sorrow. " One, I believe you deserve to know ahead of time. But not right now. Let us get what we need and get out of here. The sooner we're gone, the better."
And with that being said, Xavier along with Rachel, Warpath, Nightcrawler, Ian, Lorna, Alex, and Darwin all left the ship and boarded the station.
Rachel, being the only telepath on board, took the lead and used her powers to trick the Shi'ar workers on board from noticing things weren't right. The group managed to slip right past the secuirty check without even a slight hitch in their plan.
" I can't believe that worked. Nice going, Red." Ian said to the woman.
" Thanks." Rachel replied.
" All right, everyone. Split up and grab anything we may need for travel. And hurry." Xavier explained.
" Got it." The group spoke at once.
Nightcrawler and Darwin separated from the group, and Alex and Lorna wandered off alone as well, leaving Rachel, Warpath, Ian, and Xavier alone.
" So, this place is pretty big. Are you sure splitting up like this was such a good idea?" Ian asked.
" Don't worry. I've got their minds under surveillance. If anything happens, I'll know in a matter of moments. For now, everything's just fine." Rachel explained.
" If you say so. I still don't like how the workers keep eyeing us. It feels weird." Ian told the woman. " I'm gonna go take a look around. Let me know if something happens." Ian told the woman. He then walked off, out of sight of the workers and his team.
" What's up with him? The kid's just as paranoid as Logan." Warpath stated.
" Is that such a bad thing? I mean it has kept Logan alive, hasn't it?" Rachel replied.
" Eh, who knows. Logan's always been and always will be Logan. Doesn't mean we need a bunch of little wolverines running around." Warpath joked.
Rachel smiled and rolled her eyes at the man's jokes and started to walk away when suddenly a searing pain cracked inside her mind. Rachel began to lose her balance but caught herself on a nearby stand.
" What's wrong, Ray?" Warpath asked the woman.
" Don't know... Suddenly I just got this nauseating headache." Rachel told the man as she held onto her head. " I was trying to mind-probe that lead worker... The way he keeps looking at our ship, I thought maybe Ian was right to be concerned.... I thought... Then, just... Ow. Something's wrong Jaes. I feel... Something's wrong." Rachel explained to the man.
*THUD!
Hearing a loud noise, Rachel and Warpath both looked up towards the ceiling to see Darwin was floating outside in space and shouting something down at them.
" Die earthmen." The Shi'ar worker yelled as he began to shift into a skrull, revealing his true form to the X-men. He raised his blade to stab Warpath, but just before he could a pair of hands wrapped around his head and twisted it completely upside down.
" I'm sorry, what was that?" Ian asked as the alien's body dropped to the ground.
" Damn good save, kid." Warpath told the boy. " Professor! It's a trap!" Warpath yelled to the man.
" What?" Xavier asked in confusion. Much to his shock the entire crew began to transform into Skrulls.
" Had their minds probed right, Rachel?" Ian asked sarcastically.
" Oh, be quiet." Rachel replied. She was still feeling too drained to come up with a witty retort. " What do we do?" Rachel asked.
" What do you think we do? It's them or us right now. And I choose us." Ian told the woman.
" Couldn't agree with you more, kid. You might just make it as one of us yet." Warpath stated. He pulled out his two blades and lunged at the Skrulls.
" I needed this." Ian spoke. He joined Warpath in attacking the Skrulls, punching one of the aliens in the head so hard that his fist went through his face.
Though the two men seemed to have things under control at first, they soon found themselves being swarmed by more and more Skrulls by the second.
" Hey, Rachel, I know your telepathy is on the wire right now... But if I remember correctly, you aren't just a telepath. So, a little help?" Ian asked the woman. He grabbed the Skrull on his back and tossed it across the room.
" Listen to Onslaught, Rachel." Charles yelled to the woman as he ran away from one of the Skrulls.
" Earthman... You think your words matter? They do not." The Skrull told Xavier. He jumped on the man's back and tackled him to the ground.
" Professor!" Alex and Lorna came rushing into the room and the man blasted the Skrull in his back, making the alien drop Xavier.
" I was hoping for a fight... Not this simple weakling." The Skrull spoke.
" Then come on, you murderer!" Alex shouted. He tried to blast the alien again, but this time the Skrull absorbed the energy Alex released.
" Thank you for charging my force field." The Skrull told the man.
Things were getting worse for the group; Rachel was still down. Warpath was being swarmed by more Skrulls than he could handle, and Nightcrawler and Darwin were still indisposed of at the moment.
" Okay, enough!" Ian brought his hands up and clapped them together as hard as he could, launching the Skrulls surrounding him away with force. He then ran over to give Warpath a little help. Tearing the Skrulls on top of him off the man.
" Let me go, earther." The Skrull demanded.
Ian grabbed the thing by its neck and broke it with a simple twist of his wrists.
" These things are annoying, you alright, Warpath?" Ian asked the man as he helped him to his feet.
" Yeah, thanks kid." James replied.
While those two continued to try and thin the numbers of the Skrulls, Lorna tended to the injured Xavier.
" Lorna, there's an implant in one of the Skrulls brains... It's hurting Rachel." Xavier told the woman
" You want me to do brain surgery?" Lorna asked the man.
" You have no choice. Reach out, find it... Destroy it." Xavier told the woman.
" Okay." Lorna replied as she raised her hand. " But remember, you asked." She reached out and sent a wave of magnetic energy into each of the Skrulls minds and fried them completely.
The Skrulls all ceremoniously fell to the ground.
" Oh, fuck! I didn't know she could do that." Ian exclaimed. He was impressed and frightened by Lorna's powers. " Damn woman. Do you think you got them all?"
" Well, there seem to be a few left." Lorna told the boy as she looked around at the remaining Skrulls the others were fighting.
" Well, that's fine. What about you Rachel. Are you alright now?" Ian asked.
" I'm fine... Just mad." Rachel told the man.
" Then I say let him have it red." Ian told the girl.
Rachel's eyes began glowing and a tattoo of a phoenix appeared over her left eye.
" You people messed with my head. You don't do that!" Rachel yelled. She blasted the Skrull that Alex was fighting with a wave of yellow telekinetic energy, wasting the creature.
" Damn, Rachel... What did you do to him?" In asked the woman.
" Telekinesis on a molecular level... It looks more impressive than it actually is. But don't worry. I didn't kill him. Not that he'd have spared us." Rachel explained.
" You didn't kill him?" Xavier asked.
" No, I didn't." Rachel told the man.
Ian sighed and grabbed the Skrull by his head and snaped his neck.
" What have you done?!" Xavier yelled.
" I made sure he didn't get back up to get us later." Ian told the man.
" We're X-men. We don't kill!" Alex told the young man.
" No, you're X-men. You don't kill. I was never made an X-man. And I definitely don't have a problem with killing those who've tried to kill me. Professor, this ain't earth. There are things out here that want you dead and by extension us. If you aren't prepared to make a few morally wrong decisions, then you're not long for this world. Sounds weird when I say it... But it's true." Ian spoke.
" He's out of line, professor.... But he's right." Warpath spoke up. " We have to be ready for anything."
Xavier sighed and rubbed his forehead out of frustration.
" We will talk more about this later. Right now, we have to find Kurt and Darwin." Xavier stated.
" No worries, Professor. We are here." Kurt spoke up. He and Darwin walked into the room along with two Shi'ar men right behind them. " And we found company. They were locked up in the cargo hold." kurt explained.
" Please, don't hurt us. We mean no harm." One of the Shi'ar men spoke up.
" Don't worry, we aren't going to hurt you. We're friends." Xavier told the men. He took his helmet off and the Shi'ar looked at him like they had just seen a ghost. " Now, then... Why don't you tell us how this happened?" Xavier asked the men.
The two men began explaining to Xavier and the others how they were assaulted by a man shooting through space like a star, this man being Vulcan himself, and how they had managed to get to an escape pod before Vulcan had destroyed their ship. They then explained how they had managed to make their way to the space station and how they had picked up another escape pod full of what they thought to be Shi'ar men and women like them, but instead they were Skrulls in disguise. And how they had killed the others on the ship.
" So, why were you two spared?" Rachel asked the two.
" Rachel." Xavier chided the woman for her insensitivity.
" No, professor. She asked a good question. The entire crew was slaughtered, but these two lived. That doesn't add-up." Ian told the man.
" They said their code would not allow them to kill the ones who had saved them. It's the first I've heard of Skrulls having any kind of code." The Shi'ar man spoke.
" The Skrull aren't without honor. No matter how twisted it may be." Xavier explained.
" Careful, not everyone shares that sentiment, professor." Ian stated.
" That is true." Xavier replied. " Very well, you may ride with us until the nearest Shi'ar hub." Xavier said to the two men.
" You have our thanks, earther." The Shi'ar man replied.
" You will find extra bunks below deck." Xavier told the two.
" What are you crazy?" Ian asked. " You can't just let them roam free. At least lock them up or chain them down until we get there." Ian said to the man.
" Charles, i have to agree. This does not seem like such a good idea." Kurt said to the man.
" Should we have just left them?" Xavier asked. " Or chain them up? Suppose the Skrulls break free before our signal reached the authorities?" Xavier asked.
" You could just let me kill them all and be done with it." Ian told the man.
" We do not kill. Mister Sinclair, I do not know what has happened since I have been away from the school. But I do not remember killing be taught at my school." Xavier said to the boy.
" That's the problem, Xavier. You don't know! I've told you already, I'm not that little boy. I've seen what the world has to offer me and I reject it. I will never be someone's victim again. Now, you need to listen, I just found out you're a wanted man in space. Especially by the Shi'ar. Do you know what that means? That means at any moment anyone who isn't a part of this group right here, could turn their backs on us and betray us at the drop of a dime. That means we do not leave any openings in our defenses. And we do not allow unknowns to just wander around the ship. Especially not two men from the exact empire that want you dead." Ian told the man. " I get you're trying to stop this with the least amount of blood shed. And I can respect that. I do. But if you think for a moment that there's not going to be blood spilled at all then you're living in a fantasy world. And this mission is doomed to fail. Because if we can't trust our leader to make the hard choices, then who can we trust?" Ian walked away from the group and began rounding up the Skrulls, making sure their bindings were tight and unbreakable.
" Professor. The kids way out of line... But he's right. You wouldn't or shouldn't have asked me or Logan to come with you if you weren't ready to let us do what we do best." warpath told the man. He wasn't angry or judging Xavier, he was just telling him how it was.