Got this off CBR, just another heads up for ya'll. Of course i'll have mine up officially first thing wendesday!
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First we see Rogue all strung up and nearly naked (all she's got on in a skimpy black bra and some shreds of her uniform covering her nether regions) in some kind of restraining rig (it looks sorta like what SHIELD put Northstar in to de-brainwash him) and of course Rogue, being Rogue is shouting out threats that she'll make that lady scientist's mother and father not like each other, or something like that. Pan's assistant isn't very threatened, she wonders what Pandemic wants with Rogue when he's already able to copy powers like her, and tells Rogue that she is no threat since her energies are also being drained out of her. She then goes on to insult her, (ya know, the typical backwoods inbred hick comments ) when Pandemic himself comes in. He tells his assistant to supervise the dissection on the other X-men, and tells her to leave him and Rogue alone. Of course, Mystique is watching from the shadows, she's clinging to some pipes in a shaded part of the ceiling. (How she got there after the teleporting mishap in the last issue, I have no idea, it's neither shown nor mentioned.)
Cut to Cannonball and Cable who are still stuck aboard the Conquistador, which is still hurtling through the atmosphere. If they don't do something soon, they're going to run out of oxygen. Cable says that he doesn't think that Pandemic can keep the ship going like that and still maintain the teleportation shield at the same time, so he tells Sam that he's going to try bodysliding in. Cable then ports out. Sam is then left alone in the ship, and later makes his way out in the usual Cannonball fashion.
Sabretooth has landed, and there's a decent-sized crater that marks his point of impact. It also looks like that he also crashed through the roof of a building. People gather around to look at it, and think that no one could have survived such an impact, but Sabretooth leaps out, as wily as ever, and asks where he is and what's going on. They tell him he's in Calcutta and that they're scientists/geneticists, when the Plague Dogs come in. They introduce themselves, tell him what they are/can do, (something about being a river of flesh?) and say that they can't be defeated, or something to that effect. Anyway, Sabey isn't impressed, and says something to the effect of, "let's see about that." (Bah you guys get the gist of this whole little scene, right?)
Cut to a lab, Lady Mastermind is spread out on a table, and some scientists are about to make incisions in her (I think without removing her outfit first, I guess that's just how revealing it is. :LOL, when Pandemic's charming little assistant comes in. She says that she'll do the procedure, and one of the grunts hands her a scalpel. She asks if it's been sterilized, and he tells her yes, at a temperature of 200 degrees, and then... she sticks the scalpel in his neck and tells him good, because that way he wouldn't get metal poisoning. It turns out to be Mystique, who goes slasher on all the scientists, killing them. She wakes up Lady Mastermind, and tells her as disgusting/distasteful (some word indicating that she finds it loathesome) as it may seem, the X-men need their help. (Which indicates to me that she doesn't consider herself as an X-man).
So, now we find out what Pandemic wants with Rogue. He tells her that she is the inspiration behind what he's doing, and from the moment he first met her, he wanted to be able to do what she could do. It turns out that the super powers were a side effect of what he was trying to do. What he really wanted was immortality, or something like it, to be achieved through being able to experience the lives of others, in a way, to live out and experience many lifetimes, something Rogue does when she absorbs someone else's powers. He's been injecting himself, infecting himself with the strains, all 87 of them, over a period of 7 years (which makes Rogue about 24 now) in hopes of achieving his goal, to no avail. All he got were the powers.
Now I don't remember the exact wording, so I may have misinterpreted something, but I'm going to try to explain anyway. So here goes...
He then goes on to say that strain-88 will theoretically allow him to achieve what he was after, to take in the entirety of a person's existence, their life experiences, what-have-you through a touch. Now this is just deduction from a comment he made, but I get the impression that the original person will be robbed of all of that, he/she will have their sense of being wiped from them; that the victim will be rendered into a tabula rasa. But he doesn't know if it's safe, and wanted a guinea pig to test it out on, and who better to test it out on than the original?
He tells Rogue that there will be no calvary coming in to save her, and he moves some sort of machine with a lot of scary looking needles on it towards her. All we see of the process is a single panel of a tube of some liquid being drained...
Back outside the lab, Cable has met up with Sabretooth and is tussling with some of the guards when Cannonball comes rocketing in. Cable says something about it being nice that Sam made it out alive, then someone comments that Creed isn't looking so well. Victor answers that he's just been shot out of a torpedo tube, and that his stomach is full. (In case you don't get it, I think it means he ATE the Plague Dogs :scared Cable tells one of the scientists who are fighting back that they are being slaughtered, and asks why they keep fighting. The scientist/guard says because they've been promised immortality.
Now, back to Rogue and Pandemic. A guard comes in, but Pan knows can tell that they are not what they appear to be, since he can sense their heroic intentions. Regan drops the cloak, he comments that he's surprised that Karima was able to repair herself so quickly. Karima attacks him and they have an arguement of sorts over lost humanity. For Pandemic it was a weakness, but for Karima it's an aspiration. He tells her that she should embrace her uniqueness, when Cannonball blasts in, asking if he's trying to be a life counsellor (yes, that's how it was spelled). Pandemic then touches him, and tells him that his power is crude/simplistic, but that it has its uses, and turns it back on Sam. Cable goes to release Rogue from the rig, but she tells him not to touch her, and tells him that Pandemic has her powers. Pandemic once again goes about tossing the other X-men around, and tells them that with 300 powers it's useless. Cable confronts him with a gun and his forcefield, and Pandemic asks what he's going to do with it, when he's copied at least 7 (or 17) different types of invulnerability. Then Cable says, "Creed, you're up". (How do they beat him? all I have to say is, I knew it! It was the first theory I came up with, I but never bothered to write it down. ) Well, anyway... Pandemic grabs Creed around the throat, but then is shocked because Sabey actually managed to cut him. Victor then goes on to say that Cable had him all figured out. While Pandemic copied his agility, animal senses, etc, he also copied his healing factor, which would eradicate the viruses in his system, the very mechanism granting him his powers. So he's reduced to an average (if not somewhat attractive looking ) Joe, with a clean bill of health, at least for the next three minutes. So yea, Creed's about ready to rip him to shreds.
So now Pan is rendered harmless, but Rogue comes in, saying that she's the one who should have vengeance. She's still mostly naked, but manages to look quite menacing because she's put on her cloak, and has the hood up. (She acts so Grim Reaper-ish, it's freaky) Dr. Palence is horrified, and she tells him he's done something to her, changed her, and now asks if he wants to see if what he did to her worked, sugah. She's about to grab his face when Cable pulls her away, and says that he's harmless now, it's not up to them to play judge and jury, Rogue's about to add, how about executioner, when she collapses to the floor. Well, actually on/near Lady M, who just has to add in a snarky comment. She asks why everything has to be up to her now. Lady M then gets up and goes over to Pan with a gun, but instead of shooting him, she casts an illusion which has him in a white suit running in a seemingly endless maze (like a lab rat). Someone (I think Cable) asks if it's permanent, and Lady M says that unfortunately, it isn't, but it my result in some psychosis. Creed, who's close to Lady M's head, tells her that something in her doesn't smell right, and that it smells dead. (I think) She brushes him off as if he doesn't know what he's talking about.
Mystique who is kneeling next to Rogue places a gloved hand on Rogue, saying that her temperature is sky rocketing. Also, it seems that there are blisters starting to form on her body, but nothing too disfiguring. Someone asks if they should take her back to Hank at the Institute, but Cable says he's calling down the Conquistador, there's no time, because Rogue's immune system is failing, and they're losing her. And then the issue ends. But we know that Rogue'll be somewhat okay later, since she's going to have a really, really hard year ahead of her.
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I always thought that Rogue and Gambit should adopt that Leech kid from X3.
"Alright son, you can sleep on dis here futon next to our bed! put on deese earmuffs, an' dis blindfold, and if you hear screamin' ignore it!" |
