Dazzler waited at the back of the ship with her mutant team, staring at the two units of soldiers before her, armed with the CAP-89s and various other weaponry, mainly stun guns. She glanced out the observation windows to see things in this dimension that, so far, looked exactly like the one she’d come from. All she saw was dark skies and the pinpricks of distant stars, before she noticed a floating, glittery white space station looming closer. From afar, it looked to be shaped like a curved disc, a soccer ball squished in half.
Silence filled the compartment holding the soldiers, as they listened to the radio comms between the ship and the dimension’s docking station.
“Hellfire-Prime,” Hask’s voice sounded from the flight deck, “this is the good ship Herald, preparing to dock. Authorization codes have been sent. Hoping there’s some champagne on ice.”
“That’s code,” Rachel said quickly, eyes white. “He’s warning them.”
Dazzler’s body tensed. “Aspen!” she called to where he stood at the front of the compartment. “He’s warning them. Be careful!”
“Then we better be ready,” he said, raising his CAP-89 and aiming it at the door.
“Get behind me,” Dazzler told her team. “I’ll shield us.” She pressed play on her music, pulling one of her earbuds out and tucking it into the neck of her leather X-suit. Though her cells were absolutely brimming with stored energy, she didn’t want to use it just yet. For now, she was going to run on rock ’n’ roll alone.
Sage and Rachel didn’t argue and immediately moved to stand behind her.
“If I can get my hands on some metals in this dimension,” Polaris said, “I can make a shield of my own.”
“Until then, get behind me,” Dazzler ordered. “I admire your fighting spirit, Polaris, but for now we move as a team.”
Polaris fell back with the others. The ship docked and the doors unlocked.
“Wait for my signal, S.W.O.R.D.,” Aspen addressed that unit of soldiers. “You don’t move until A.R.M.O.R. is in place.”
“Understood,” S.W.O.R.D.’s Detson answered, glancing at his soldiers to reaffirm the message.
Dazzler looked at Rachel, whose eyes were still white. “You picking up anything?”
Rachel’s eyes focused hard on the ground. “I’m trying.”
The ship’s doors opened, and the A.R.M.O.R. soldiers pushed through, carrying CAP-89s, with their stun guns at their belts. As they spilled quietly onto the station with efficiency, the S.W.O.R.D. soldiers filled their void in the ship, and Dazzler’s mutant team followed. The closer they moved to the doors, the worse her visibility got, however, as the observation windows ended, and all she saw was the ship’s bulkhead.
Rachel looked up at Dazzler, concerned. “I’m sensing a lot of minds. Way more than our soldiers and way more than Hask said to expect.”
Lieutenant Detson suddenly raised his arm, signaling for his team to move out.
“No! Wait!” Dazzler called.
But she was too late.
The S.W.O.R.D. soldiers rushed through the ship’s doors, and Dazzler pushed forward into their void, desperate to see outside.
Laser fire suddenly struck the ship’s doorway, and she ducked and pushed her fellow mutants backward, as mayhem erupted outside. The battle had already started. There was yelling, screaming, laser fire, and other strange sounds that were followed by soft blue glowing lights, which she guessed had to be the CAP-89s firing their bubbles.
Then another commotion caught her attention, coming from the flight deck.
“Hask!” Rachel said.
Sage surged past Dazzler to the door, but it was locked.
“He’s killed the pilot!” Rachel told them.
“Move!” Polaris said, and they scattered as she reached her hands up and pulled the door off.
Inside, Hask looked up in surprise as Sage surged toward him. He raised a stun gun, stolen from the dead pilot, but Polaris ripped it from his cuffed hands. Sage landed a crunching blow to Hask’s face that sent him toppling back into the flight desk.
“Careful!” Dazzler called. “We’ll need him to get out of here.”
“They’re getting slaughtered!” Rachel said panicked, drawing Dazzler’s attention back to the mayhem outside. “Shaw’s soldiers have gotta be fueled by MGH! They’re fast and strong.”
Dazzler looked out onto the Hellfire-Prime dock and saw it was already littered with the groaning bodies of wounded and dying A.R.M.O.R. and S.W.O.R.D. soldiers.
“No!” Dazzler hissed through clenched teeth. She looked back to see Polaris twisting pieces of metal from the ship’s storage compartments around Hask, to restrain him in his seat.
“Is he secure?” Dazzler asked.
Polaris nodded, Hask moaned, and Sage punched him again for good luck.
Dazzler raised both hands and surged her energy outward, forming a large, golden protective energy shield. “Let’s go!” she said.
Dazzler stepped onto the dock as rock ’n’ roll filled one ear, laser fire sparked off her shield, and the others fell in behind her. As they moved away from the ship, Dazzler got a good view of the station’s dock laid out before her. It was smaller than Alpha Flight’s, with no other ships docked, a whole lot of cargo stacked, and many more troops than they’d been expecting.
Many more.
She should’ve let Sage punch Hask a few more times.
The soldiers firing at them wore red uniforms just like those at the warehouse in New Jersey, and the wall along the back of the small dock was emblazoned with the words “Welcome to Hellfire-Prime, home of the N.E.A.” She counted four S.W.O.R.D. soldiers and only three A.R.M.O.R. soldiers left standing, who held their ground in pockets here and there, in ones and twos, hiding behind stacks of cargo and their loaders. Aspen lay badly wounded on the ground in the distance, and Dazzler feared the worst for Detson, who lay silent.
Dazzler and her mutants pushed further out onto the dock, protected by her shield. Which was all well and good, but they needed to start reducing the number of the Reds – red uniformed assailants firing at them, because she wasn’t going to be able to produce this shield forever, and they needed to find Shaw.
“Polaris?” she called over the zipping sound of laser fire that sparked off her shield. “Anything you can do to take some of these jerks out?”
“Hold still a second,” she called back, glancing around the dock. “Let me get my bearings.” Dazzler paused her forward movement while Polaris quickly formulated a plan. The green-haired mutant gritted her teeth, then raised her hands. Biceps flexed to full extension, she lifted one of the cargo loaders and threw it across the dock, wiping out a row of Reds like a bunch of bowling pins.
“Sttttrrrriiiiike!” Rachel yelled in admiration.
They pressed forward again, but Dazzler counted at least twenty more soldiers still on their feet firing at them. As they passed a fallen A.R.M.O.R. soldier, Sage swiped his CAP-89, quickly studied it, then stepped out from the shield and fired at three Reds to their right. The projectile shot across the dock, expanding its light blue glow, and swallowed the Reds whole, despite the soldiers firing at it. Whatever that bubble was made of, it was impenetrable. Trapped inside the sphere, the soldiers yelled and banged on the curved walls, slipping over each other inside as the bubble rolled around with their movement. Satisfied they weren’t going to free themselves, the mutants continued to press forward.
They made their way to the nearest group of surviving A.R.M.O.R. and S.W.O.R.D. soldiers, which included the hardened Lenny. Dazzler took a deep breath, then expanded her shield to include them.
“We gotta get Aspen!” Lenny said, falling in behind the shield. “He’s still alive!”
“Yeah, we gotta do a lot of things,” Dazzler said through clenched teeth, as Lenny’s two companions joined them.
“Cover me while I shoot Aspen with the CAP,” Lenny said. “It’ll protect him until we get this under control.”
Dazzler admired her positive thinking. “How does he breathe in that thing?” she asked.
“There’re tiny holes for oxygen. Cover me!”
Dazzler angled her shield, so that Lenny could get into position. She aimed, fired, and hit her target, the bubble quickly encapsulating Aspen. Then she aimed and fired at another two wounded soldiers, enclosing them too.
“I can’t hold this shield all day!” Dazzler yelled at her. “You stay here, try to cover us as we press forward.”
“Roger that!” Lenny said, leaving the shield and ducking behind another cargo loader, before turning and giving orders to the two soldiers with her.
Dazzler pushed forward again, leaving Lenny’s ragtag group taking shelter, as the laser fire continued to spark off her shield. Polaris, close behind her, waved her hand across another group of Reds, ripping the weapons from their hands and sending them flying across the dock. Then she waved her hand in the other direction, targeting another group of Reds, disarming them with a roar of effort. Sage followed up by shooting the CAP and trapping the soldiers, weaponless, in several bubbles.
“Shaw!” Rachel suddenly said, eyes white. “He’s here! He’s close!”
“Where?” Sage asked.
Rachel suddenly gasped.
“What is it?” Dazzler asked.
“They’re here…” Rachel breathed.
“Who?” Dazzler asked.
“Our fathers,” she said. “They’re alive!”
“Where?” Polaris asked quickly.
“Here!” a male voice boomed. They turned to see a tall, broad, bearded man standing on an elevated platform at the end of the dock.
“Shaw,” Sage said, her face hardening.
Dazzler held her shield firm while Shaw reached back through a doorway and pulled Dazzler’s father out, holding him in front as his own shield. Dressed in a business suit, her father appeared disheveled, stubbled, and blindfolded. He’d aged since she’d last seen him, his hair lighter with the gray of time. Dazzler’s own shield began to recede in response to the shock of it all. With everything else going on she’d almost forgotten about her father. She wasn’t sure she’d ever see him again.
“Dazzler!” Rachel warned as laser fire sparked off the edge of the shield. Dazzler quickly thrust her receding shield back out.
“Dad?” she called, eyeing her father. “Are you OK?”
Her father’s blindfolded face showed signs of confusion. “A-Alison?”
The reassurance that he couldn’t see her or her powers, made Dazzler grateful.
“Lower your weapons or I’ll kill them all,” Shaw threatened.
Dazzler stared at the two men, stunned, as Shaw turned his eyes to Sage.
“Sage,” he said, his eyes turning dark. “It’s been a long time.”
“How do we know the others are still alive?” Sage asked him, cutting to the chase.
“Rachel just confirmed that to you,” he said. “They’re here, but you understand it would be a risk for me to release them from their cages, being the mutants that they are. Judge Carter was the only safe one to show you in the flesh.” His eyes narrowed as he looked back at Dazzler. “And I feel the most important one of all.”
The silence hung thickly as Dazzler’s mind raced.
“Concede or your fathers will be killed,” Shaw said. “Now.”
“Is he bluffing?” Sage asked Rachel quietly.
Rachel was silent a moment, before shaking her head. “No. He’ll do it.”
“We can fight!” Polaris whispered.
“If we concede, will you let them go?” Dazzler asked, ignoring her.
“No,” Shaw said. “But I won’t kill you. Or them. You shall live. That is my promise to you.”
“You expect us to trust you?” Rachel spat. “The whole aim of the N.E.A. is to wipe mutants out.”
“Yes,” Shaw said simply. “Eventually. But I can make use of you for now. You have my word that you shall live.”
“We’d prefer to fight!” Polaris said, clenching her fists.
Shaw took hold of Dazzler’s father roughly, pulling his arm right back as though he were about to break it. Judge Carter yelled in pain, and Dazzler flinched. “Surrender or he dies!” Shaw bellowed.
Dazzler stared at her father’s anguished face.
“Don’t listen to him!” Polaris pleaded with her. “We have to fight!”
“We can’t give in!” Rachel agreed.
Dazzler felt her shoulders slump. “We have to.”
“Why?” Polaris asked.
“Your fathers might be mutants, they might stand a chance at defending themselves, but my father’s not. He’s only human.”
“We came all this way to give in?” Rachel asked, brow furrowed angrily.
“We’ll find another way,” Dazzler said. “I’m sorry, but I won’t risk his life like this.”
Sage stared at Dazzler, her super-computer mind analyzing the situation, before she relaxed her stance. “We’ll find another way,” she said in support. Polaris and Rachel stared at Sage in confusion, but then relented when Sage gave them an assured nod. “We’ll find another way,” she said again, firmly.
“All right!” Dazzler yelled at Shaw. “We’ll give in. But if you fail to keep your word, there’ll be no dimension strong enough to stop the pain we’ll inflict on you!”
“I am a gentleman and a man of my word,” Shaw said, giving them a slight bow.
Sage scoffed. “I know you better than that, Sebastian.”
Shaw pulled harder on Judge Carter’s arm, and he screamed in pain.
“All right! All right!” Dazzler slowly pulled her shield back, leaving them vulnerable. All four mutants tensed as they looked around, ready for what may come.
“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Shaw said, then nodded to his guards. Several stunners were raised in their direction.
Dazzler stared up at Shaw with hard eyes, then glanced at her father. Her gaze softened.
“I told you. I don’t wish to harm you,” Shaw said.
“Why is that?” Dazzler asked.
“Because” – he smiled – “you, my dear, produce some of the best MGH we’ve ever seen.”
A cold chill shot down Dazzler’s spine like a sharpened blade.
“I’m going to need all the MGH I can get,” Shaw said, “and the MGH Mystique took from you was incredibly powerful. I’ve tried replicating it, but it’s just not the same. I need the real thing. I’m going to add you to my little menagerie alongside Magneto and Cyclops. Just imagine what I could produce if I combine the MGH of the three of you.” Shaw’s eyes turned to her three mutant companions, and he smiled. “Perhaps all six of you.”
Dazzler saw her father’s blindfolded face look around, confused by their conversation. Her heart started beating rapidly as her panic spiked.
“You’ve kept Magneto and Cyclops alive for their MGH?” Polaris asked, while Dazzler’s body rattled with terror as her past trauma flooded back like a tidal wave, crashing onto the rocks of her long-held mutant secret. The terror of her father knowing the truth. The trauma of being drugged, of being held prisoner, of having her very mutant essence stolen.
And it was about to happen again.
“Yes,” Shaw answered Polaris, “but they also made a good lure to bring the three of you here, didn’t they?” He gave a smug laugh. “Thank you for walking into my trap, Alison. I wasn’t sure if your father would be enough bait given there didn’t seem to have been any contact between you two for years, but having gained the intel about what happened on Madripoor, from a mutual friend…”
“Mystique,” Sage said in a low venomous tone.
“…I did wonder whether you might want to return a favor to Magneto. And I was right.” He laughed again before his face turned dark and he muttered, “And now that I have Magneto, Cyclops, and the three of you, Emma Frost will never defeat me again. Her strongest allies are gone, and once I have this new batch of MGH in my system, nothing will stop me.”
Dazzler tried to manage her panic, breathing like she was gulping for air. So far, her blindfolded father had not witnessed her light shield, and she hoped he would be confused by all that Shaw had said. So long as things stayed that way, the mutant secret she kept from her father would remain. She couldn’t handle it being unleashed right now on top of everything else.
“This was all to get back at Frost?” Sage asked, brow furrowed.
“This is for my own hegemony. If I am the only mutant left alive, nothing will stop me. But, yes, I’ve wanted vengeance for some time, and this is the perfect way to do it.”
“Dazzler?” Rachel said, eyeing her with concern, noticing how her body physically shook.
Dazzler felt Rachel gently enter her mind but didn’t have the strength to stop her. Her brain was numbing with fear, with the memories of what Mystique did to her, the fear of it happening again, the fear of her father finding out the truth.
“We won’t let that happen to you,” Rachel’s voice said firmly in her mind.
Polaris, sensing something was up, touched her shoulder in support.
Sage did the same, squeezing her other shoulder.
“I don’t think we can stop this,” Dazzler said, her voice barely a whisper.
Shaw’s guards fired up their stunners.
Dazzler looked back at her blindfolded father as a tear ran down her cheek. She heard the stunners fire. Her body crackled with light energy, and then everything went black.